God’s Prerogative, Our Choice | Ezekiel 18:19-32

• Sermon Transcript

  Good morning. Well, this is exciting weekend I woke up this morning, there was a cool crisp in the air Labor Day weekend. And I was so excited yesterday because college football was on TV. And then I watched the game game. And then having somehow get to sleep prepare to preach after that, when you often come up here and I talk about how difficult parenting is, with the four children, that's often a source of my illustrations. Because either don't know what I'm talking about them or they can't say anything about it. It's kind of mine my prerogative to talk about them in a in a nice way. You know, I talk I talk about how difficult it is to have four children. You've heard the stories many times, you've heard many times Bahama. foreal is a little rascal. And he is. And we almost been trying to manage teenager drama. So I'm trying to, you know, I'm potty training. And I'm also teaching how to drive a car. So that's a big, wide range of parental responsibilities. But you know, what is great about being a parent, you know, what is just wonderful about being a parent, you're the parent, you're in charge, Amen. Now, a lot of parents seem to abdicate this responsibility act like they're not in charge, but you're really the parent. You get to make the rules. And that really is a great thing. I think of parenting. Every now and then one of my children will will whine about something that isn't fair. I suppose that isn't fair. And when they do, I just politely tell them to file a complaint with human resources. Seriously, though, I tell them that when they're 18, hey, they're free to move out. You're free to leave when you're 18. And you're not paying any rent and and you're not helping with electricity bill. And so if you don't like it, hey, once you're 18, I'll give you my blessing. And you can go and and do what you want to do. Right? Like so. So, but when they do and when you do, you're then in charge. And you can eat McDonald's every day of your life if you want. If you have a job and have money and you can do whatever you want. But until then, Mom and Dad, we are in charge it is our prerogative lunch today. Dad's choice or mom's choice is to your choice children if we give it to you, but we may not give it to you. Amen. All right. That's the great thing about parenting is and I think we forget that God has entrusted us to the responsibility to lead our children to parent them. And it is our prerogative when we talk about prerogative. We're talking about a person's rightful choice, person's rightful choice as the creator of the universe. God has many prerogatives. Now, he gave us free will. He allows us to make the choice between choosing what is right what is wrong. And even though he allows us to choose sin, He provides a way for our sins to be forgiven. Through the work of Jesus Christ through His death and burial and His resurrection. He's provided a way for our sins to be forgiven. How God decides to act is his prerogative. It is his rightful choice. Yes, we have choices. We have real choices that lead to real consequences. But God protects us. He gives us grace, but our but our real quick choices lead to real consequences, or they lead to real blessings under the prerogative of God. Today we're looking at Zico aid team, where the Israelites were complaining to God through his eagle. Why is this happening? Why did you allow this? This is not fair. And we see God's prerogative starting in chapter 18. I'm just going to read verses 19 and 20. And then we're gonna pray. Verse 19, yet you say, why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father? When the Son has done what is justice right and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live the soul who sins shall die. The Son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the Father. suffer for the iniquity of the sun, the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself. And the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for this passage, you've given us pray that, that he would speak to us, Lord, that You would speak through me that my words would be yours, that you would fill me with your Spirit and preaching and that the people here would receive it, it would help and change our lives, it would get us back on track, if need be to follow you, to make you as Bill prayed today, to make you first in our lives, we love you. We ask these things in Jesus name for some of you who have been going through our Bible reading. You may have wondered if I was going to preach on today's Bible reading. It's really difficult. That's why I didn't swallow that Friday, you can go and read about it if you want. So difficult passages in there. But this is Friday's reading, if you've been following along, and it is a good passage, a little bit of background context Israelites who were in captivity, they were feeling that it was an unjust captivity under the rule of Babylon, that they were being punished for the previous generation sin. That's what they thought I was hearing a story this week about about a college football team. That self imposed a postseason ban no pole game for them this year, because of problems and because of choices that the former had coaching staff and teams a few years earlier made. And but those players have to bear the penalty. And they think, wow, why is this fair? And this is kind of a similar situation where they're saying that we're where he says they say that we are in this captivity, because of the previous generation. And we're being judged for it. But as we're gonna see, this was God's prerogative. So I want to give you three truths about God's prerogative his rightful choices, three truths about those and our choices. Number one, we are judged by our own actions. We are judged by our own actions. We pick up here in this middle of this section, in this discussion about how is a person judged for their sin. Now it was wrongly and widely fought and taught throughout Israel, that a person would be judged for their parents sin, or maybe even their grandparents sent, even the man who was born blind, they assume to Jesus and the New Testament, that who send him his parents, why is he blind, and Jesus said, No one said he was blind. So you may see the glory of God today. But that was the belief system, that someone that that a person will be judged for their parents sin, or the grandparents sin or some ancestor. Now, while there are consequences for what has been called generational sin, that's different than being judged. For one sin. Let me explain generational sin would be being born into a family who had who made poor decisions, poor choices, poor habits, and then that child is born into that in that household. And they grow up thinking that those decisions and those habits are normal. And so they get into them too. They just perpetuates this cycle. And it takes some generation to break that and say, No, we're not living like this anymore. But it takes a person to do that. And it can be hard. And so we have these, these patterns of generational sin that children are born into, that they just live just like their parents and grandparents. But that's different. That's a different thing than being judged for your sin by God. God sets these apart here, verse 19, he says this, yet you say, why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father? God says, yes, there are consequences. If that person's father sins in many ways, they are experiencing suffering because of the sins of their fathers. And that does happen you can suffer because of the sins of your parents or grandparents generation that are being brought up in exile here in Israel because of the sins of their parents and grandparents, but their eternal standing before God is not contingent on the sins of their ancestors and their family. Their eternal standing before God is not contingent on their parents sin, and their grandparents sin, amen. And that is something we need to really. Amen. Now, this actually happened in real life before this right in this time as the king of Babylon was punishing, actually punish the king of Judah Jehoiachin for the sins of His Father, Jehovah Kim, that actually happened right around this time. So this hypothetical situation isn't all that hypothetical, they could point to what had happened. But, but if you're a parent, the decision you make on a daily basis, somehow affects your children. So even though it's wonderful to be a parent, it is a huge responsibility. Because every decision we make affects our children, if you're going out partying at night, exposing your children to bad habits, they grow up thinking that's normal thinking, that's right. They grow up in that aftermath. If you use bad language at the house, they learn and think that it's normal. There's this joke about this little boy that says, God, can I go out and change the tire to the car? And, and Mommy says, Do you know how to do that? And he says, Yeah, I know all the words to say. They think that's normal when you use bad language. How do you talk about other people? How do you describe people? How do you talk about it, that's what you're teaching them. You're either making it harder for them, your children, or even your grandchildren. In some cases, you're making it harder for them to come to Christ, or you're making easier for them to Christ, to come to Christ. Utterly speaking, God explains even more it says here and verse 19, says, when the sun has done what is justice, right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. Doesn't matter what situation a person is born in to. They are still held responsible for their own actions. You can be born to the worst possible situations, you're held responsible. You can be born into the best possible of situations. You're still held responsible. And this is where we get the main verse of the sections. And in verse 20, he says this, The soul who sins shall die. We might have been born into a horrible situation where it was easier for us to sin. But we can't always blame our parents. Because God holds us responsible for our own sin, the soul who sins shall die. He then says in verse 20, that the Son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, amen. Nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the Son, amen. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him self, the soul, who was saved shall live, we are judged by God by our own actions. Secondly, the converse is true that we are saved by our own repentance, our own repentance and faith. We're saved. Yes, we're judged by our own actions, but we're saved also, by our own repentance, not our parents faith, not our grandparents faith. Our own faith, like a verse 21. He says, But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins, that he is committed, and keeps all my statutes, and does what is just in right, that he live, he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him for the righteousness that he has done. He shall live what a wonderful promise of scripture. But if you turn away, follow God. You will not die. None of our transgressions will be remembered against him. Because you have faith in Jesus for the Jews. It was faith in the coming Messiah for us. It's faith that Jesus came the work completed work of Christ. That is the wonderful thing about the gospel that we just sometimes can't fathom. It doesn't matter what you've done. Doesn't matter how bad you've been, doesn't matter what sin you've done. If you turn from it, you repent, you believe in Jesus. God doesn't hold any of that against you, amen. Any of it It's hard, I think for us to fully comprehend that because you know, for some people in our life, if we're honest with ourselves, we hope that God holds it against them, don't we? Sometimes we sometimes we wish they God holds it against people. And then we can't fathom not holding it against us. But he doesn't. That's what repentance is, it is a turning away, going in one direction, and coming back a different direction. He says that if anyone turns away from their sin, they'll be saved, if anyone knows, doesn't matter if you're born in a palace, and doesn't matter if you're born in poverty, you're saved the same way. Amen. You turn from your sin, you follow Christ, you are saved. He says in verse 23, have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD and not rather that he should turn away, turn from his way and live to God, God is not a masochist, he, he doesn't enjoy people being judged for their sin. He desires that all people will be saved. And so he's provided the way to be saved, but it is still our heart decision. Look at verse 24. It says, born a righteous person turns away from his righteousness, and then does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does shall he live, none of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered for the treachery of which he is guilty in the sin he's committed for them, he shall die. Here's what he's saying. That if someone is a believer is righteous and he's still sins, he still suffers the consequences of his sin. Just because you're forgiven of sin doesn't mean if you sin in the future, God forgives you. But there are still consequences to that. You don't get out of the consequences. We are spiritually and eternally saved by our repentance, that when we sin in this life, we still face the consequences. One of the big teaching points so the Jewish theology that is true was that sin shortens a person's life. And it does. Sin shortens the person's life has all kinds of effects on the body. Some are directly physical effects. Some are more mental effects. Spiritual, but a shortens life. One of the first few weeks that I was pastor here moncks, corner, First Baptist, and the first few weeks, I made a hospital visit to a man who was dying. And I remember this visit, things have changed so much in 10 years. Once I got out of town, the first gas station that I can get to believe it or not, was the old house stations now Speedway in Goose Creek. From here to there, that's the that was the first gas station I could get to once I left town. Now there's a whole lot more, you got Fox making all that kind of thing, right. So I remember thinking, Man, when when's the next gas station about run out of gas, and I finally got to Goose Creek and there was, but I was visiting the hospital man who was dying. He had been recently saved. He had been recently baptized right before I came here. But he had many health issues that were due to his previous sinful lifestyle that he had for for most of his life. And I spoke to him as he was basically on his deathbed. He was few days a week or so from dying. And he was so thankful for the visit, but he was so thankful for Jesus, he was dying, and he had a peace and calm about them, knowing that he was going to be in heaven, but he also was at peace with something else. He was at peace knowing that he had his declining health because of the consequences of his life choices that he made. He told me, he said, I'm here because of the way I lived. And I'm okay with that. I know that that. That's why, but I'm thankful for Jesus, Amen. We can't escape that reality. But it's never too late to do something about an amen. It's never too late to change. So doesn't happen in the future. When we turn from sin in this life. We not only give ourselves a longer life physically, but we also receive eternal life and Jesus Christ Jesus saves. We have to turn we have to repent. No one can repent For us, I can't save my children. I can't force them to have faith. You can't repent for your children and grandchildren. Our parents can't repent for us. We're saved through Jesus Christ individually. But we're also judged individually, but we're saved individually and number three. Another truth about God's prerogative is he is vindicated by his own ways. He is vindicated by his own ways. First 25 Zeke Eagle says yet you say, the way the Lord is not just here in our house of Israel is my way not just is it not your ways that are not just one of the more popular ways that people rationalize their sin. Or the consequences of sin, or rationalize not having faith in God is by saying that God is not fair. Well, God's just not fair. How could he do this? How could he do that? blaming God is just the way that we redirect the responsibility off of ourselves. That's all it is. God's ways are are not our ways. And we are not in the right to critique the ways of God. Look at verse 26, when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness, and does injustice, he shall die for it. For the injustice he has done, he shall die is ego again mentions that even the righteous person who sins still incurs judgment for that sin. But the inverse is true. Verse 27. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he's committed, and does what is just and right, he shall live. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live he shall not die. So you have the contrasting reality of being judged for your sin, but also being blessed. When you ask God for forgiveness. How can we say that God is not fair? Amen. First 29 Yeah, the house of Israel says the word of the Lord is not just sounds like my kids talking to me. That's not fair. Oh, how's it Israel? Armand ways, not just it's not your ways that are not just I mean, is it not your ways that are not just God is more then fair, actually, fairness would be not even sending Jesus in the first place, the Bible makes very clear that we earned our judgment. Grace is what God gives us. Instead of realizing just how good and forgiving God is, the human heart wants to blame him for all their problems, when in reality, all the problems are our own problems. God is the Savior, He is rescuing us out of those issues. God is vindicated in all his ways, and number four, God is pleased with our own salvation. own salvation, not sing own as if we give ourselves our salvation sing own is individual. He says, verse 30, therefore I will judge you or house of Israel, every one according to his ways. repent, and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. God gives one final exhortation he, he says, you're judged according to your ways clearly as he sees these, as you said throughout the passage, he says, Therefore, repent, and turn from your sins, less your sins, be your ruin, verse 31, cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart, in a new spirit. Now, what's interesting here, Ezekiel here straddles the line between an Old Testament understanding of keeping the law versus a yet to be fully developed. New Testament understanding of how repentance actually brings a new spirit what we call being born again, a new heart, a new spirit in the zekiel. Being the Prophet in exile, kind of bridging these two gaps makes this understanding here. It's almost sound like something Jesus would say We see this later in the book is he called 36 says this. God says, and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit, I will be put with in you. And I will remove that heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. When the Holy Spirit is working in our life. And we're living right and making good decisions. It's not us, it's the Spirit doing that. Working through our lives, how else can we have a church full of people who love each other, and forgive each other? And pray for each other. It's not all that you're just some great person is that you have the Holy Spirit in your heart causing you, pushing you forward. That's what he's saying. The good John three, Jesus answer truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God that which is born, the flesh is flesh that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, you have to be born again. You have to have this new heart, this new spirit to be in the kingdom of God. That's how we know who the Christians are. will know them by our love will know them by the fruit of the spirit of love, peace, patience, self control, goodness, kindness. You see that truly modeled in someone, we can feel confident that they have a new heart. They have God's Spirit in good Second Corinthians 517. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away Behold, the newest calm, I love seeing people change, getting to know people seeing what they used to be like, before Christ, seeing how Christ has changed their lives. You know, being pastor here for 10 years. Some of you I've seen grow in the faith. I've seen children literally grow up in the church. Not be the same little rascals I used to be. And even some of our adult members, some of you are not the same rascals used to be either. And neither am I. we are new creations in Christ. Salvation only occurs through repentance and faith. And God is pleased. And this reality liquid he says, Why will you die Oh, House of Israel, verse 32. For I have no pleasure, no pleasure, and the death of anyone declares the Lord GOD, so turn and live, turn in live. God doesn't have the pleasure of anyone dying. He doesn't have the pleasure of anyone in hell. That's why He gave us the promise of Jesus. To the Jews as equals time, they were holding on to that promise of that Messiah who would come for us we're holding on to that promise to the Messiah who came who died, was buried was resurrected, who ascended into heaven is now ruling at the right hand of God, but the charge is the same turn and live. God's prerogative is for us to do so. But we have to make that choice. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much. For today. This passage you gave us Ezekiel speaking to people who are in exile is still we're missing the point. still blaming God and your prophet Ezekiel. had to endure so many things. Lord, you used the death of his wife as a preaching illustration for him so that your people would hear from you. Or do you go to great lengths to get our attention? We need you to do continually give us a new heart, a new spirit to break our heart of stone or if there's one in here today it's never placed their faith in you they would turn and live they would believe in you today. By the way, there's someone here that just need to come down front and pray hit the steps today that they would they would do so that you know what's on their heart that they need to publicly give that to you. Maybe there's one here that stinks prayer, Lord, send them down and Lord, allow me to pray for them. Whatever you're moving in our hearts today, Father that we would understand that you love us. And it's your prerogative for us to turn and live little we love you. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.