Ezekiel chapter 18, and I want
you to look with me at these three verses, beginning in verse
30. Ezekiel chapter 18 and verse
30, 31 and 32. Therefore I will judge you, O
house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, saith the Lord God,
Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity
shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions
whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart and
a new spirit. For why will ye die, O house
of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the
death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God. Therefore, turn
yourselves and live ye. A question that is often asked
when someone dies is, why? Why did it have to be my husband?
Why did it have to be my wife? Why did it have to be my friend?
That's a good question. But the Lord asks a very, very
much, much, Important question. It's not why did someone have
to die? Why did someone die? But he asked
this question to the living. Why will you die? As you and I think of death,
as the scripture tells us, in regard to dying, and if you and
I want to know about dying, your opinion is as good as mine. What
happens with a man when he dies? Your opinion is just as good
as mine. But if we want to know really about death, we have to
go to the infallible Word of God. And it tells us much about
death. Why will you die physically? I don't know anybody that's over
100 years old. You may, but you probably don't
know anybody that's 150 years old. Everybody is dying physically. Why do men die physically? Someone
said, well, they had an awful accident. They contracted some
horrible disease. They died of old age. That may
be the means, but what's the cause? Why do men die physical
deaths? The scripture tells us that.
It gives the cause of why we're not what we were once, physically. I look at you and you're all
changing. Every year I see you at this
conference and all of you are changing. We're changing. We're
dying. You know why men die? One cause,
and one cause only. We go all the way back to the
Garden of Eden, We found our parents there hiding
in the bushes, and the Lord God came to them and said, Why are
you hiding? I was naked. Who told you that
he was naked? Have you eaten of the fruit whereof
I commanded you not to eat? Because you have disobeyed me. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. In sorrow you are going to eat
of it all the days of your life. In the sweat of your face you
are going to earn your living until you return to the dust. Out of it you were taken from
the dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return. Why? Disobedience to the Lord God
Almighty. That brought death. That brought
death. In Adam, how many die? All die. All die. Why do men die physically? Because
there is a much more dreadful death than physical death. There
is a death to a man's soul. If you believe not that I am
he, you shall die in your sin. What does it mean for a man to
die in his sins? It means his soul dies. In the 4th verse of this 18th
chapter, the Holy Spirit said this, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. You see, the body dies, but the
body is laid to rest in the ground. But the soul is capable of experiencing
death. What is it for the soul to die? It's to be separated from God.
It's to be separated from light and life and comfort and all
good things. For the soul to die means God
has removed His hand and the soul now has nothing to support
it. You see, sin originates in the
soul. The body is just the instrument
through which the soul sins. Therefore, when the body is laid
back in the dust, it's the soul that suffers first and out of
darkness. What an awful death. Why will
you die? Sin. Sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. But you know there's a much more
dreadful death than the death of the soul. What could be more
dreadful than the soul perishing? There is a second death. John saw this awful vision. He
saw an awful vision. He said, I saw a throne that
was so pure, so holy, it was white. And him that sat upon
that throne was so dreadful to look upon that the earth and
the heaven fled from his sight and no place was found for him.
And I saw hell give up the dead that was in it. And I saw all
the earth give up the physical dead that were in them. And body
and soul was reunited together, and they stood before this dreadful
God in heaven, and He judged them according to their works.
And everybody who was not written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. You know what the Bible says
about that? This is the second death. Why is that so true? That's the finality. That means now the body that
at least was resting, now is raised and reunited to the soul,
and both soul and body is whole from God who supported it. The
second death. Why will you die? And there's
but one answer to that, brothers and sisters, and that is sin.
Disobedience to God. You know sin is an infinite thing.
Mr. Arthur Pink said that sin is
infinite because it's against an infinite God. And being infinite itself, it
requires an infinite punishment. And there's only one thing that
can deliver from death, and that is an infinite sacrifice. The Lamb of God. Why will you
die? Consider this question with me
this morning, three things about it. Why was this question even
asked? Here the Lord God stands, as
it were, on His throne, and He cries out to humanity, and He
says, Why will you die? Consider why He even asks such
a question to us. Is it this? Is He not concerned
with the danger that we find ourselves in? Could we not say that God in
heaven, our Creator, is concerned with the awful plight, the danger
that humanity has gotten itself into? Is God indifferent to humanity? He's not. Humanity is His sheep,
creation. He never made any animal in His
likeness. When He sent His dearly beloved
Son to this world, He never took upon Him the likeness of an animal
or the nature of angels, but He took upon Him our likeness,
our flesh, our humanity. We are indeed God's chief creation
by nature. So He cries out to humanity,
to His humanity, Why will you die? He tells us that here in
this verse, I take no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. Will God judge a man? Will the
dear Lamb of God Himself say to His angels, bind this man
hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness? Of course He
will. And yet He says, I'll take no pleasure in that. I look upon this statement here,
I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. I see two things
in there. First, God does not give joy
in damning sinners. He's not such a God. Is His wrath
upon the wicked? Of course it is. Will He destroy
the workers of iniquity? Sure He will. But brothers and
sisters, He takes no pleasure in it. He takes no joy in it. And the second thing I consider
this to mean this, that God takes no pleasure in their punishment
in the sense that it will never satisfy justice. There will not be a time in eternity
where God will look down upon a soul that's been suffering
and say, that's enough, I'm satisfied. There's but one thing that can
satisfy God, that infinite sacrifice. Your suffering in eternal ruin
will not satisfy. It will not. God looked upon
His blessed Son upon that cross, three hours of suffering for
sin, and He says, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. But eternal suffering
in hell will not do that for the justice of God. One thing
satisfies God. One thing satisfies God for sin. It won't be your suffering, dear
soul, if you perish. I love that old illustration
that sometimes Gil, a former pastor of mine, told me years
ago. He said, group of settlers left
the east coast and was going west and they got out somewhere
on the plains and the grass was higher than their heads and it
was dead and they saw this wildfire coming at them and some of the men burned out
a large area and they pulled all their wagons in there and
got into that area that they had burned out And they got underneath
their wagons and they watched the fire coming and the smoke
coming. And one of the little children tugged on his dad's
breeches and he said, Daddy, are we going to be burned up?
And he said, No, son. The fire is not going to touch
us. He said, But Daddy, I see the smoke and I see the flames
licking up in the air. Are you sure we're not going
to be burned up? And he said, Son, was standing
where the fire has already been. What will consume a sinner for all
eternity has already been consumed itself. The Son of God consumed the wrath
of God for His people. There is no wrath left. If you're
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are indeed standing where the
fire has already been. And that's the only safe place. I take no pleasure. Nothing else
will satisfy God. Nothing but a perfect sacrifice.
That's the first reason. The second reason is this. Why
does God even ask this question? Doesn't the fact that He asked
this question indicate to you and I that humanity will not
ask itself this question? It will not contemplate the answer
to this question. So God stands and he cries to
earth, why will ye die? Is it not to awaken humanity
to its pending ruin? Humanity is sleeping on the grave
of its own death. Let us not sleep as do others. You mean others are sleeping?
Others are sleeping. This world is sleeping. This
world is as it was in Noah's day. They ate, they drank, they
walked, they sold, they married, and that's all they did, and
they knew not until the flood came and took every last one
of them away. Oh, there's a sleep worse than
the physical sleep. We've all tried to wake someone
up that was difficult to wake. And you arouse him, and he wakes
up a little bit. And if you leave him alone, he
goes right back to sleep again. But there's a sleep, brothers
and sisters, more dreadful than that sleep. There is a sleep
that you cannot arouse a man out of. It's this sleep of death. I've seen awakened sinners. They'll
get concerned about themselves. We've all seen them happen. They
seem to be awake in a little bit. They seem to be concerned
just a little bit. But if God leaves them alone,
they go right back to sleep. And except a special miracle
of grace intervenes, it will take the fires of hell itself
to awaken them. To jolt them out of their sleep.
Let us not sleep as do others. Is that not why God cries this?
O earth, why are you sleeping upon your own graves? Awake, O earth! Awake, O earth! You're facing death. You're facing
me. You're facing eternity. Why will
you die with such indifference? Got it all. This question was asked that
you and I might earnestly consider the remedy that God proposes
to us here in these verses. There's three remedies that He
proposes to us. He tells us here in verse 30,
look what He says, Therefore I will judge the whole house
of Israel, every one according to his ways, Repent and turn
yourself from all your transgressions. If not, iniquity will surely
be your ruin. Turn yourself. Repent. Change
your heart. Change your mind. Change your
thinking of who God is. Who you really are. Change your
thinking concerning Jesus Christ and salvation by Him. Change your affections. Turn
to God. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to God by Him. Turn. Repent and turn. Secondly, in
verse 31, he says this, cast away, put away from you, put
away from your heart, put away from your thoughts, put away
from your conscience, put away from your affections, all your
transgressions. And the third proposal is this,
and make you a new heart and a new spirit, saith the Lord. Don't remodel the one you have.
Make you a new one. If not, you will perish. Now, brothers and sisters, let
me say this this morning. And I doubt there's very many
here who will bail out on me when I say this. A sinner can
do none of these things. A sinner can do not one of these
things. Change your mind. Turn yourselves. Who is he going to turn to? You take a sinner that's awakened
in it all, and he's the most confused person in this world.
He don't know what to turn from, he don't know what to turn to. He's like a man that they came
in and found him on the couch, and his house is burning down
around him, and his room is full of smoke, and suddenly he wakes
up. He can't see the light and he
don't know where the door is. He is as confused as he can be. That's the sinner. Jesus Christ
is so hid in God, he don't know how to turn to Him. He's so in love and so bound
to his sins, he can't turn from that. You often see those men awaken
in the Scriptures, and the first thing they say is, what shall
we do? Here was religious theologians,
brilliant men in the eyes of other men. God smites their conscience,
their awakening to their perishing condition, and what's the first
thing they do? Confess their utter confusion
about it all. What must we do? There's no one as confused as
a man under conviction. A man can turn to the law of
Moses. A man can turn to the church. A man can turn to doctrine. A man can turn to ordinances.
But for a man to turn savingly from himself to God in Jesus
Christ, he is not able. Try it! Get somebody to try it,
if you can find him. Cast away from you all your transgressions. A man may cast away his open
and profane sins. He shouldn't have been doing
those things to begin with. I've quit getting drunk. Why
were you getting drunk to begin with? Shame on you, you wretch! I'll never beat my wife again.
Why were you beating your wife to begin with? Oh, a man can turn from open
and profane sins, but open and profane sins is not our problem. Our problem is the sins of our
heart. From within, out of the heart,
proceed evil thoughts, wickedness, adultery. Evil thoughts, foolishness,
drunkenness, lying, pride, These things come from within. These
defile the man. When the apostle Paul wrote to
those Ephesians, he said in time past, you walked according to
the lust of the flesh and what? Of the mind. That's where our
problem is. You cast away these open and
profane sins. Anybody can do that that's got
his will power. But there's something inside
that you can't cast away. You've got a polluted heart.
That's manufacturing sin faster than you can put it away. Take
it away. And yet if you don't, you shall
perish. You shall perish. What does a sinner need? What's
he required? Make you a new heart and a new
spirit, saith the Lord. I was reading Charles Finney.
I was reading a message that he wrote on this particular text,
and he said, God would never demand of a man what that man
cannot perform. Therefore, if God demands a sinner
to make him a new heart and a new spirit, he must well be able
to do so. God would never require of a
man more than he can perform. You mean God has lowered His
standards that low to accommodate weak, wretched human flesh? Is God like us? Is He not going
to judge the world in righteousness? Is He not even going to judge
the secrets of men? We've lowered our standards today,
haven't we? And we thank God His Lord is.
Everybody, my son came home the other day and he said he couldn't
get nobody to work with him. He said he just wanted to come sit
around. He said, everybody today is content with getting a C average. If I can just put in six hours
and get eight hours back. We've dumbed everything down,
haven't we? But God will never do that. He's too holy. He's too just. What He demands, He'll require
at your hands. Now you've gone faced a God like
that. You've never seen any man like that. Don't look around
at us and don't look around at society and say God is like that. He relieved Israel from doing
that. And He'll relieve you from doing that. He'll judge you justly. Every transgression you've ever
committed, every evil thought, will receive a just recompense
of reward. He demands of you, He demands
of me, what we cannot possibly provide. He demands perfection. And if you stand before Him,
you better have it, or He'll damn you to hell. Now that sounds
harsh, and I'm sorry if that is, but that's the truth. That's
the truth. Why then, if we're like the leopard
that can't change his spots, and the Ethiopian that can't
change his skin, why does God require this of us? Why does
He tell us to turn? Why does He tell us to cast away
our affections for sin? Why does He tell us to make us
a new? Is He just mocking us? Is He just going to make us afraid
and scare us? No, it's none of those things. What he's doing in these texts
and others, lacking. He's making us realize that we
are so fallen. We are so fallen. We cannot recover
ourselves. We can't keep the law and what
it requires. We can't even receive grace apart
from grace to receive. We can't repent, we can't believe,
we can't come to Christ except He bring us. Except He give to
us and work in us everything He requires, we'll yet perish. It's not enough to tell men what
to do. It's not enough God command us
to repent and believe the gospel. He must so work in us to secure
our repentance, to secure our faith, or we'll yet perish. It's bad to be lost. It's fearful
to be lost. But what makes it more so, we
cannot recover ourselves. even when we're told what to
do about it. You and I are in a kingdom of
darkness, and that darkness is so dark, we can't see our way
out of it. We're held with strong cords
of iniquity. We're bound with the chains of
our sins. Satan's taken us captive by his own will. He sits upon
the throne of our hearts and refuses to listen to us. The
wrath of God, the curse of the law, guilt, condemnation, death,
these things are our awful enemies, and we can't free ourselves from
it. What are we going to do? Let
me show you four scriptures. Take your Bibles and look at
these four scriptures with me. Look over in Psalms chapter 107. When the Lord takes in hand to
save a man, Contrary to what we're being
told today, He does not make that man feel good about himself. When God takes a hand to save
a man, He brings the man low. He humiliates him. He brings
him down. There is a rule, and I don't
know of one single exception in all the Scriptures, That if
a man can be saved in any other way apart from God's way, he's
willing to do it. This rule is that a man will
never come to the Lord Jesus Christ until he knows he has
no place else to go. That's the rule. He healed those
who had need of being healed. I can give you some examples
of that right here in Psalms 107. Look at this. Look in verse
4. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Psalms 107.4. They wandered in the wilderness
in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried
unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of
their distresses. He led them forth way that they
might go to the city of habitation, O that men would praise the Lord
for His goodness, for His wonderful works to the children of men.
For He satisfies the longing soul, He filleth the hungry soul
with goodness. Such as sat in darkness, in the
shadow of death, being bound with affliction and iron, because
they rebelled against the words of God. They despised the counsel
of the Most High. Therefore He brought them their
heart with labor. They fell down, and there was
none to help them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses."
of darkness and the shadow of death, and break their bands
asunder." And you can read on, and example after example, where
men came to the end of their self, and not until then, when
they saw they had no ability to deliver themselves. Now Jesus
Christ is so hid in God the Father, I can't know Him, except He reveals
Himself to me. There's a rule in the Scripture,
and I don't think you find any exceptions to this. A man is
not saved until the Lord saves him. Now you think about that
for a minute. A man is not saved until the
Lord saves him. And the Lord saves him when He's
brought him beyond all the experiences He was speaking. When He brings
him past all these things where He said, I thought. And He brings
him to the end of himself. And then the Lord saves him.
And He does that to let him know that if I don't save you, you
can't save yourself. You know why men reject the doctrines
of grace that you and I preach? They have no need of it. They
see nothing beautiful about the doctrines of grace. Why should
God elect a people? Why is election necessary? Everybody can come if they want
to. If they can decide. Decide for Jesus. Just decide
for Christ. Sit down and decide. Think in
your mind, well I'm thinking about where I want to go to Christ
or not. I'm thinking about deciding for Christ. You know the only
thing that matters is that men don't decide for Christ. Men flee to Christ. Men come
down to Christ. A drowning man don't debate and
decide if he wants to reach out and get the tube. He takes it with violence and
you can't take it from Him with violence. This is my life. Christ is my life. Give me Christ
or I'll die. When you want Christ more than
you want your next breath, you can have Him. That's when you'll
cry unto Him. You're going to spend the rest
of your life crying to the Lord. You know where that begins? In
conversion. You're going to spend the rest
of your life saying, Lord, do for me what I can't do for myself.
Lord, turn me and I'll be turned. Wash me, then I'll be clean.
Give me a new heart, then I'll have one. That's where He brings
us. He don't bring us to tell us
to do these things because we're able to do them. He tells us
these things and then shows us you can't even do that. Now let
me show you three scriptures and I'll close. I'll just read
them to you. Look in Jeremiah chapter 31. Look in Jeremiah chapter 31.
Look in verse 18. Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse
18. Turn yourselves. Turn yourselves. Look in verse 18. I have surely
heard Ephraim be mourning himself thus, Thou hast chastised me,
Lord, I was chastised. As a bullock unaccustomed to
the yoke, turn thou me. Ye require this of me, it's only
right, but turn me." I keep turning myself. I have
this affection for sin. That's going to damn me. Turn
me. Make me hate it. Turn me to yourself. Turn me from myself. Oh, turn
me. Then what happens when He turns
you? I shall indeed be turned. How many times some of you spend
years promising the Lord, Lord, I'm going to come to you someday.
I'm going to turn to you someday. And you never have, have you?
There's some of you that never have turned to the Lord. You
just made vows to Him just to break them. And you're still
in your sin, still haven't turned to Him. You know what you need
to do? Go cast yourself upon Him and say, Lord, turn me. Turn me. And if He turns you
to Himself, you'll be turned. Let me show you a verse of scripture.
Look over at Hosea, another scripture. Hosea chapter 14. Take away all
iniquity. Take it from your conscience.
Take it from your heart. Take it from before God. Look at Hosea. Look at chapter
14. Look what he says in verse 1. O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God. That's what I require of you.
Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn
unto the Lord, and say unto Him, Take away all iniquity. You can't do it. Can you ask
Him to do it for you? He appeared once in the end of
the world to take sin away. He took it away from before God.
You want it taken off of your conscience? You want the condemnation
and the guilt of it removed? Then go to Him and say, Lord,
take my sin away. Take it away in your blood. Cast
it behind your back. Put it in the depths of the sea. Look in one more scripture. Look
in Ezekiel chapter 36. Look in verse 26. Ezekiel chapter
36 and look in verse 26. In verse 26, a new heart will
I give you. I say only He can give what He
demands, ain't He? You can't do it, but He can give
you one. A new spirit will I put within
you, I'll take the stony heart out of your flesh, I'll give
you a heart of flesh. Look in verse 37. Thus saith
the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house
of Israel to do it for them. You can turn yourself, but you
can ask Him to turn you. Go ask Him. You know what I found
out with lost men, and what little bit I've experienced in talking
with lost sinners who seem to be somewhat concerned. I was
talking to one the other day, and I said, I said, Garret, he
was concerned with being saved. I said, Garret, are you seeking
the Lord? And you know what he said, No.
No. Still trying to figure out another
way. Go to Him. Go to the Lord Jesus Christ. And say, Lord, turn me. Lord,
wash me. Lord, give me a spirit to know
You. A heart to love You. A heart
to enjoy You. I'm sick of religion. I'm sick
of this in and out business. I'm sick of emotionalism. I'm
sick of looking out into eternity with dread to face an angry God. Save me. Lord, I'm yours. Save me. Save me. There's never been a man who
truly sought the Son of God and was ever turned away. God bless you.