Title: Is Not God’s Way Equal and Your Ways Unequal?
Text: Ezekiel 18: 1-32
Date: June 21, 2020
Place: SGBC, NJ
In Ezekiel 18, God asks sinners this question: Ezekiel
18: 1: The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying, 2: What mean ye, that
ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have
eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?
The children of Israel accused God of unrighteousness saying
he punished them for their father’s sins—God says, Ezekiel 18: 25: Yet ye
say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my
way equal? are not your ways unequal?....
Notice God’s way is singular, man’s ways
are plural.
Proverb 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Question: Is
Not God’s Way Equal and Your Ways Unequal?
Proposition:
God’s Way is Equal, Righteous—God saves sinners by making our sins to be
non-existent and robing us in Christ’s righteousness; it is our ways that are unrighteous, unequal.
Divisions: 1)
The offense 2) God’s sovereign justice 3) God’s just mercy 4) God’s application
THE OFFENSE
Ezekiel 18: 2:…The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and
the children’s teeth are set on edge?
What am I guilty of if I say that God is making me suffer
for the sins of others? By this they
were doing three very wicked things. If we judge someone else or if we blame someone
else for the suffering God has sent in our lives then we do these three very
wicked things.
One, they were accusing
their fathers of sin. If we blame others
judging another as guilty of sin, we are absolute total hypocrites because we are
guilty of the same things.
Two, by accusing
their fathers they justified themselves.
They shifted blame to justify themselves. They were saying we have not sinned, it is
not our fault these things are happening in our lives. Self-righteous pride is the
core problem when we accuse others of sin to justify ourselves
Three, worst of all, they
accused God of injustice. By blaming others
when we suffer in a trial, which God has sent directly to us personally, then
we are accusing God of unrighteousness.
It is accusing God of being unequal, unfair, unrighteous.
The apostle Paul gives
this list of horribly evil sins:
Romans 1: 29: Being
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30: Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31: Without
understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy
of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Be sure to get what
God says next through Paul.
Romans 2: 1: Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou
condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
Whenever you and I judge another, whosoever you are, you
and I are condemning ourselves because we are guilty of every single sin we
judge others for. That is true of you
and me and all sinners.
It is a sure indication that a believer has been
temporarily overcome by our sin-nature when we judge others. It means we have ceased seeing what wicked,
base, vile sinners we each are in ourselves.
We are being self-righteous, proud, to self-justify ourselves as
righteous and others as sinners.
This condemning spirit comes from our dead sin-nature. It is the spirit of the devil. After Adam fell into sin, he did exactly what
the devil does. Speaking to God, Adam
said,
Genesis 3: 12:…The
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did
eat.
We who believe hate
to hear unregenerate sinners reject the gospel and call God unrighteous. They reject God’s glory in choosing whom he
will and passing by whom he will by saying “God is not fair.”
Romans 9: 13: As it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 14: What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15: For he saith to
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion.
Yet we do the same thing when we judge others or blame
others for the suffering God sent us. We
call God unrighteous.
When unregenerate sinners hear that God is sovereign to do
with his own what he will; when they hear we are not saved by our will but by
God’s will. They say, “Then God is unrighteous
to charge anyone with sin.”
Romans 9: 19: Thou
wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his
will? 20: Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the
thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Brethren, we saw from Ezekiel 17 that if God sends me a trial
personally, it is not because of someone else’s sins, it is to correct me
personally. But if I shift the blame to another
then not only am I not benefiting from the correction, I am unrighteous because
I am judging another as the cause, while I self-righteously justify myself. Worst of all, I am blasphemously accusing God
of unrighteousness. Let us judge our own
selves. Let us humbly confess our own sins
to God. Let us glorify God for making us
benefit from his faithful correction.
GOD IS SOVEREIGN AND JUST
Ezekiel 18: 3: As
I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion any more to use
this proverb in Israel. 4: Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the
father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall
die.
God declares through the prophet Ezekiel that he is sovereign
and just in his dealings with his people.
God created all souls—all souls are God’s—he can do with us what he
will. We all fell into sin and death in
Adam—God was not obligated to save anyone.
But thankfully from eternity God chose a multitude no man can number. Will we call God unrighteous for being good
to a multitude he chose?
Matthew 20:15: Is it
not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I
am good?
God did not have to
choose to save anybody but he did. It is
his sovereign right to choose whom he will and pass by whom he will. That is God’s glory (Ex 33: 18-19).
Truth is God is holy
and just. In all his dealings with us
God only does right. His judgement is right
and just . God says, "THE
soul that sinneth, IT shall die!” If
you perish, it will be for your own sin, no one else’s. You will not be condemned because of your
father’s sins, only your own—"THE soul that sinneth, IT shall die.”
Brethren do not be confused. God is not negating federal headship here. This has nothing to do with Adam being our
Head of with Christ being the Head of God’s elect. God is simply showing that he is sovereign
and just. He is declaring that he judges
the individual for his own doing, not for another’s.
The children of
Israel were under the covenant of works so God uses the law to give them a hypothetical
illustration. God is not even
suggesting that any sinner can keep the law.
None can—“There is none righteous, no not one” (Rom 3:10). It is not keeping the law simply to give
it your best shot. In order to fulfill
the law it takes full obedience in heart as well as deed without sin.
James 2:10: For
whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty
of all.
By this illustration,
God is declaring that if a man could keep the law then he is just and God will
deal with him justly. But for the man
who breaks God’s law, God will deal with him justly—THE soul that sinneth, IT
shall die; THE soul that is just, IT shall live.
So God gives a hypothetical
illustration using a father, his son and his son’s son.
The father kept the whole law—v9: Hath walked in my
statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he
shall surely live, saith the Lord GOD.
The father has a son who broke the law—13…shall he
then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall
surely die; his blood shall be upon him.
The son’s son keeps
the law—v17…he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely
live. 18: As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, spoiled his
brother by violence, and did that which is not good among his people,
lo, even he shall die in his iniquity. 19: Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear
the iniquity of the father? [God says no] When the son hath done that
which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done
them, he shall surely live. 20: The soul
that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father,
neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be
upon him.
Be sure to get this.
The only way any sinner can be just with God is through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ alone fulfilled
the law. He did it for his elect people. Christ said, “I lay down my life for the
sheep” (Jn 10:15).
In verse 7, it is Christ who restored his people who
were debtors—by giving the law perfect obedience unto the death of the
cross which his people could not pay.
In verse 7, it is Christ who hath dealt his bread to
his hungry people—he is the Bread—the Life—by whom the Spirit of God
regenerates each one he redeemed and gives eternal life (Jn 6: 33-35, 51).
In verse 7, Christ covered
his naked people with the garment of his righteousness through faith in him.
In verses 7 & 8, Christ
is the only Just Man who “withdrew his hand from iniquity, hath executed
true judgment between man and man, Hath walked in God’s statutes, and hath kept
God’s judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord
GOD.
Every elect child was
in Christ and did what Christ did so that we are just in Christ and shall
surely live. Through God-given faith in Christ,
God declares Christ’s righteousness is the believer’s righteousness.
Isaiah 54: 17: No
weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that
shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me,
saith the LORD.
“The righteousness of the righteous” for which God
declares an individual sinner just is the Lord our Righteousness through faith
in him. “The wickedness of the wicked”
for which God condemns the individual sinner is that sinner rejecting Christ. Christ
declared his plainly,
John 3: 18: He that believeth
on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19: And this
is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20: For every one that doeth
evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be
reproved. 21: But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may
be made manifest, that they are wrought in God [wrought by Christ].
Christ promised that
when the Holy Spirit is come he will convince his people of sin, righteousness
and judgement. He said,
John 16:9: Of sin, because
they believe not on me; 10: Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye
see me no more; 11: Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
So in God’s
illustration he is not saying that a sinner can be saved by keeping the law. It is by the “faith of Jesus Christ”—that is,
the faithfulness of Christ in fulfilling God’s law for his people, that we are
given his righteousness through believing on him. God says through the apostle Paul,
Galatians 3: 21…if
there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. 22 But the
scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe.
GOD IS JUSTLY MERCIFUL
Ezekiel 18: 21: But if the wicked will turn from all his
sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is
lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 22: All his
transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in
his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. 23: Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should
die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways,
and live? 24: But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and
committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that
the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath
done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in
his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.
Since Christ bore away the sin of his people, God is just
to send the Holy Spirit and regenerate us and grant us repentance. God is just to show us mercy.
Every sinner is wicked himself. That means we are guilty of the whole law of
God. But if the sinner turns from all
his sins, including his so-called righteousenesses, and casts all his care on
Christ then through faith God declares that in Christ he has kept all God’s law. He has done that which is lawful and right
because Christ did it for his people.
God is just to show him mercy because Christ answered to the law,
satisfying justice, for all who God draws to Christ in saving faith.
Not only does God declare him righteous in Christ, God
remembers his sins no more—"his transgressions that he hath committed,
they shall not be mentioned unto him.” God
is just. Those sins had to be paid for. So God sent his own Son for his people and
Christ satisfied God’s justice for his people.
Christ is our Scapegoat. He bore the
sins of his people away unto a land not inhabited when he died. Therefore, before God we have no sins for God
to impute.
Psalms
103:12: As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our
transgressions from us.
Isaiah
43:25: I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake,
and will not remember thy sins.
Jeremiah
50:20: In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.
Christ’s people were so one with Christ that when Christ
fulfilled the law, God says of the believer—"in his righteousness that
he hath done he shall live.”
Sinner, you are the only one keeping yourself from
Christ; no one else is to blame; God takes no delight in seeing you perish in
your sins; God says come to Christ and live.
God says, “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?
saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?”
But God is also just.
The sinner who falsely professed to believe Christ, who proves it was
false, who proves he was never born-again by turning from Christ, he shall die
in his sins because he rejected Christ—"But when the righteous turneth
away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to
all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his
righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned”—the righteousness
of Christ that he claimed to be his through faith shall not be his—"in
his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in
them shall he die.”
No one born of God ever turns from Christ so as to perish. This is one who proves he never was called of
God. But the reprobate who forsakes
Christ shall die. Christ’s righteousness
that he once claimed to rejoice in shall not be mentioned by God. He will stand before God only in his
trespasses that he himself has trespassed.
It will be his sin that he has sinned for which he shall die.
GOD’S APPLICATION
Ezekiel 18: 25: Yet
ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not
my way equal? are not your ways unequal? 26: When a righteous man turneth away from [Christ] his righteousness, and committeth iniquity,
and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. 27: Again,
when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed,
and doeth that which is lawful and right [by believing on Christ], he
shall save his soul alive. 28: Because he considereth, and turneth away from
all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall
not die. 29: Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O
house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal? 30: Therefore
I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the
Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so
iniquity shall not be your ruin. 31: 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? 32: For I have no pleasure
in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves,
and live ye.
Here is Gods’ way: as badly as we have offended God, if a
sinner comes to Christ for mercy, he receives us in mercy and forgives us all
our trespasses for Christ’s sake.
Here is our way: we accuse others to justify ourselves. We blame others for the trial God laid on us. We accuse God of unrighteously sending the trial. You and I who believe, even after being shown
such great mercy, when another offends us (not nearly as badly as we have
offended God), when they comes begging mercy and forgiveness, apart from Christ’s
constraining love, we will not show him mercy and forgiveness. Whose way is equal and whose is unequal?
God will judge us justly
personally—"Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one
according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD.”
Sinner hear God’s
word, “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: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.”
We know that God
alone creates in his child a new heart and new spirit. But Peter and John said we purify our hearts by
believing on Christ. Through faith we
plunge into that fountain for sin and uncleanness. That is what God is calling for sinners to do—believe
on Christ.
This general call is
going forth as I preach the gospel. I am
calling you to do what you cannot do apart from God’s grace. It is like the valley of dry bones when God
told Ezekiel to tell the dry bones, “Live.”
If you can believe on Christ, God’s gets the glory. But God is simply saying turn from your sins
and believe on Christ for why will ye die?
God takes no pleasure in sinners perishing in their sins. Eternity in hell will not pay what you owe.
But none of us can blame
God for personal unbelief. It is not God’s fault. Your father’s faith will not save you nor
will your father’s sins condemn you. If
you perish it will be your fault. So why will you die when there is a fountain open? Why will you not believe on Christ? God says to you, personally, sinner, “Turn
and live ye.”
May God send power with that command and make you cast
all your care on Christ!
AMEN!