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Sermons PREACHED BY JOHN GAINES |
Ezekiel 18:
The Great Truth of Individual Responsibility
1. Ezekiel 18 is a great chapter dealing with the subject of individual responsibility.
2. The Israelites had a proverb which said, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children's teeth are set on edge'?" This was a colorful way of saying "One generation makes the mistakes and the next generation suffers the consequences" The chapter goes on to describe the people's complaint about the unfairness of this.
a. Observations from life prove that innocent people do suffer consequences from the sinful behavior of others. A godly law-abiding man or woman is killed by a drunken driver. An innocent baby dies of shaken-baby syndrome because a parent lost self-control and inflicted that damage to their child in a fit of rage. The innocent do suffer at the hands of others. Of course, Ezekiel 18 does not deny that obvious truth.
b. However, the people of Ezekiel's day went further. They reasoned that God capriciously inflicted punishment on a child for the father's transgressions. There are four statements in the Old Testament which say that God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation [Exodus 20:5, 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9] Ezekiel 18 corrects any misinterpretations of those passages which his readers might have made.
3. One critical point to understand in this study is that the responsibility (or guilt) for sin belongs to the sinner. While others may suffer consequences from the action, it is the transgressor who is held accountable to God. There are two key verses which teach individual responsibility in this chapter:
a. Ezekiel 18:4 (NKJV) "Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die."
b. Ezekiel 18:20 (NKJV) "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
I. FOUR GREAT TRUTHS OF EZEKIEL 18
A. A just man shall surely live [Ezekiel 18:5-9 (NKJV) But if a man is just And does what is lawful and right; 6 If he has not eaten on the mountains, Nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, Nor defiled his neighbor's wife, Nor approached a woman during her impurity; 7 If he has not oppressed anyone, But has restored to the debtor his pledge; Has robbed no one by violence, But has given his bread to the hungry And covered the naked with clothing; 8 If he has not exacted usury Nor taken any increase, But has withdrawn his hand from iniquity And executed true judgment between man and man; 9 If he has walked in My statutes And kept My judgments faithfully; He is just; He shall surely live!" Says the Lord GOD.]
B. A man who fails to follow God's law will surely die [Ezekiel 18:10-13 (NKJV) "If he begets a son who is a robber Or a shedder of blood, Who does any of these things 11 And does none of those duties, But has eaten on the mountains Or defiled his neighbor's wife; 12 If he has oppressed the poor and needy, Robbed by violence, Not restored the pledge, Lifted his eyes to the idols, Or committed abomination; 13 If he has exacted usury Or taken increase; Shall he then live? He shall not live! If he has done any of these abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be upon him.]
C. A son will not die for the iniquity of his father [Ezekiel 18:14-19 (NKJV) "If, however, he begets a son Who sees all the sins which his father has done, And considers but does not do likewise; 15 Who has not eaten on the mountains, Nor lifted his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, Nor defiled his neighbor's wife; 16 Has not oppressed anyone, Nor withheld a pledge, Nor robbed by violence, But has given his bread to the hungry And covered the naked with clothing; 17 Who has withdrawn his hand from the poor And not received usury or increase, But has executed My judgments And walked in My statutes; He shall not die for the iniquity of his father; He shall surely live! 18 "As for his father, Because he cruelly oppressed, Robbed his brother by violence, And did what is not good among his people, Behold, he shall die for his iniquity. 19 "Yet you say, 'Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?' Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live.
D. Repentance changes things.
1. A wicked man can turn from his sins and live [Ezekiel 18:21-22 (NKJV) "But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22 "None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live.]
2. Conversely, a righteous man can turn aside into wickedness and die [Ezekiel 18:24 (NKJV) "But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.]
II. IMPORTANT LESSONS FOR TODAY FROM EZEKIEL 18
A. We are accountable [Romans 14:12 (NKJV) So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.]
1. Most of us like to play the "blame game." If there is a way to blame someone else for your problems, you're tempted to take that easy way out. It's much easier to point the finger of blame at someone else instead of oneself. The Family Circus comic strip used to have a little ghost-like character named "Not Me." Whenever the children made a mess or broke something and the parents asked who did it, they would all say "Not Me." How nice it is to have a convenient scapegoat.
2. Do you remember the original scapegoat? In Leviticus chapter 18, we read about the Day of Atonement when a goat was sent into the wilderness bearing the sins of the people [Leviticus 16:21-22 (NKJV) "Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. 22 "The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.] We still like the idea of transferring our guilt to someone or something else.
3. God does allow us ways to obtain forgiveness (cleansing from the guilt of our sins), but He never permits us to simply shift the blame for our sins onto someone else. We are responsible for what we do and we will have to answer for our actions.
B. Ezekiel 18 conflicts with some people's theology. Instead of taking what the Bible says, they try to press it into the mould of their doctrinal beliefs.
1. One writer insists that the "death" spoken of in this chapter is physical death at the hand of the Babylonian invaders. A hard-line Calvinist believes that the eternal destiny of everyone's soul is predestined by God.
a. Ezekiel 18 causes all sorts of difficulties for that view. The only out is to claim this isn't talking about a person's eternal soul but just his physical body.
b. The Calvinist still has a problem, though. His interpretation isn't true to life. Innocent, godly people do lose their lives due to the sins of others. Godly people are killed by terrorists, lunatics, violent criminals, and drunk drivers. On the other hand, some mean, wicked people live to be 90 and die of old age. It is not always so in this physical world that we reap what we sow.
c. It is in the spiritual realm where this principle is always true. We are responsible for our own actions and not the actions of others. Galatians 6:7-8 (NKJV) says, Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
2. Those who believe in "once saved, always saved" also have a problem with Ezekiel 18.
a. We are RESPONSIBLE for our sins . . . whether they are committed before or after we become Christians. Without forgiveness, the soul that sins will die!
b. Ezekiel stressed that a righteous man can turn away from his righteousness. When that happens he will die. Read again Ezekiel 18:24 (NKJV) "But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.
c. The Calvinistic Bible Knowledge Commentary struggles with this one. They offer this comment: "God was not saying that a saved Israelite would lose his salvation if he fell into sin. Both the blessing and the judgment in view here are temporal, not eternal. The judgment was physical death (cf. vv. 4, 20, 26), not eternal damnation." Where do you suppose they got that idea? Not from the text. The wicked aren't always killed and the righteous don't always live. Only a commentator struggling to protect a pet doctrine would have come up with such wording. Interestingly enough, with that interjection required by Calvinist doctrine, the commentator goes on to give a balanced exposition of the rest of the text.
C. It is vital that we learn to accept responsibility for our conduct.
1. When the prophet Nathan confronted King David for his sinful behavior with Bathsheba and having her husband killed, David acknowledged his guilt. 2 Samuel 12:13 (NKJV) So David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. David received forgiveness, but there were still consequences. The baby conceived by Bathsheba did not live [2 Samuel 12:14 (NKJV) "However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die."]
b. Resist the tendency to find someone else to blame.
3. Teach your children to acknowledge their wrongdoing.
a. Lying is wrong. "Not me!" is a lie if "I did!" is the truthful answer.
b. The mature, grown-up response is to admit our wrong and decide not to do the bad behavior any more. That is the essence of repentance.
CONCLUSION
1. We can learn some great lessons from the Old Testament [Romans 15:4 (NKJV) For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.]
2. Ezekiel 18 speaks to our hearts and lives as clearly as it did to Ezekiel's original readers in Babylonian captivity. Let's be sure we're listening to what he says.
3. Invitation
Copyright ©2002 by John Gaines. May be reproduced for non-commercial purposes provided this notice accompanies any use.
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LEONARD STREET CHURCH OF CHRIST |
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