Ezekiel 18 and God's Pleasure in Repentance and Judgment

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Turn with me, please, to Prophet Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 18,

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Ezekiel chapter 18. Then the word of the

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Lord came to me, saying, What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying,

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The fathers eat the sour grapes, but the children's teeth are set on edge. As I live, declare this to the

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Lord God, you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. Behold, all souls are mine, the soul of the father, as well as the soul of the son is mine, the soul who sins will die.

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But if a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness, and does not eat at the mountain shrines, or lift up his eyes to the idols, the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor's wife, or approach a woman during her menstrual period, if a man does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, does not commit robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry, and covers the naked with clothing, if he does not lend money on interest, or take interest, if he keeps his hand from iniquity, and executes true justice between man and man, if he walks in my statutes and my ordinances so as to deal faithfully, he is righteous and will surely live, declares the

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Lord God. Then he may have a violent son, who sheds blood, and who does any of these things to a brother, though he himself did not do any of these things.

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That is, he even eats at the mountain shrines, and defiles his neighbor's wife, oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore a pledge, but lifts up his eyes to the idols, and commits abomination.

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He lends money on interest, and takes increase. Will he live? He will not live. He has committed all these abominations.

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He will surely be put to death. His blood will be on his own head. Now behold, he has a son, who has observed all his father's sins, which he committed, and observing does not do likewise.

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He does not eat at the mountain shrines, or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor's wife, or oppress anyone, or retain a pledge, or commit robbery, but he gives his bread to the hungry, and covers the naked with clothing.

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He keeps his hand from the poor, does not take interest or increase, but executes my ordinances and walks in my statutes.

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He will not die for his father's iniquity. He will surely live. As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what was not good among his people, behold, he will die for his iniquity.

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Yet you say, why should the son not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity? When the son has practiced justice and righteousness, and observed all my statutes and done them, he shall surely live.

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The person whose sins will die, the son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity.

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The righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.

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But if the wicked man turns from all his sins, which he has committed, and observes all my statutes and practices, justice and righteousness, he shall surely live.

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He shall not die. All his transgressions, which he has committed, will not be remembered against him.

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Because of his righteousness, which he has practiced, he will live. Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the

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Lord God, rather than that he should turn from his ways and live? But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, will he live?

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All his righteous deeds, which he has done, will not be remembered, for his treachery, which he has committed, and his sin, which he has committed, for them he will die.

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Yet you say, the way of the Lord is not right. Hear now, house of Israel. Is my way not right?

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Is it not your ways that are not right? When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies because of it, for his iniquity, which he has committed, he will die.

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Again, when a wicked man turns away from his wickedness, which he has committed, and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life, because he considered and turned away from all his transgressions, which he had committed.

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He shall surely live. He shall not die. But the house of Israel says, the way of the Lord is not right.

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Are my ways not right, house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not right? Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each according to his conduct, declares the

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Lord God. Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you.

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Cast away from you all your transgressions, which you have committed, and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit.

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For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God.

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Therefore repent and live. This particular chapter presents to us a situation where God is addressing, through his prophet, a proverb that the people of Israel have adopted as a means to avoid the weight of the call of God to repent.

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You'll notice that it is in verse 2. What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, the fathers eat the sour grapes, but the children's teeth are set on edge.

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Now this could be that the fathers eat the sour grapes, the children's teeth are set on edge.

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This could mean that some believe that the children were born as a result of what their fathers had done.

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They're born with bad teeth or something like that, or it could just simply be the idea that there is this direct connection between the two.

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The idea being that what the fathers have done, the fathers have engaged in idolatry.

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They have the shrines upon the hills. You have the entire listing from verse 6 all the way down through verse 9.

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A summary of the law of God provided in the Torah. And you have a summary there of all the things that men should be doing.

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This describes the righteous man, but the people of Israel, this is not what they're doing. Instead, they are acting in an unrighteous fashion.

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And basically what they're saying is, well, you know, the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge.

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There's no reason to repent. The Lord's ways are not right. Three times at the end of the chapter, the

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Lord's ways are not right. There is inequity in the Lord's ways. Our fathers have committed iniquity.

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There's no reason for us to repent. Doom has come upon us and it's all over.

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Because it does say in God's law that God will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of children's children.

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So, why should we bother to repent? Why should we bother to do what's right?

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And through Ezekiel, God says, no, that's not an excuse. Now, we see a number of things here.

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We see, first of all, we do have that Old Testament promise. And certainly the people of Israel were living with the results of their father's iniquity.

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I mean, the presence of idolatry in the land, the presence of improper means of doing business, it impacts everyone.

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Something we are certainly thinking about these days. That when you have unrighteousness in the land, everyone is impacted by that.

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No one lives on an island. And the idea that anyone can just go off and live their own life and it's not going to impact anybody else is absurd.

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When you live in a society and there's sin in that society, it will impact everyone. And so, in the sense that that iniquity of their fathers, their unwillingness to follow the law, their allowance for idolatry, the oppression of the poor, certainly they were experiencing the results of that.

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But it was never God's intention in his statement that he would visit the iniquity upon the children, the children's children, to say, that gives you an excuse to just simply go, ah, it doesn't.

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We will not repent, we will not relent, we will not turn back to the Lord, because, well, once our fathers have sinned, it's all over for them.

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That's obviously not what God's intention was. And so you have a proverb here that shows the danger of taking any statement of scripture and ignoring the context in which it was made and taking it to an extreme.

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That's what the people have done. And so you have this extensive discussion. And you have basically three generations here.

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You have a righteous man, he does what's right. But then he has a son. And unfortunately, we've seen this many times in scripture.

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His son does not do what is right. He does not follow in his father's footsteps. He does what is wrong.

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And God says, the righteous man will live. The son, however, will die for his iniquity.

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And then, and here's the direct refutation. Then, he has a child, verse 14.

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He has a son who has observed all his father's sins which he committed. And observing does not do likewise.

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And so he sees what his father has done. He sees what his father is like. He doesn't follow after his father.

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And notice, he does what is right. And at the end of verse 17, he will not die for his father's iniquity.

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He will surely live. As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did not do what was good among his people.

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Behold, he will die for his iniquity. And so, the people then, in a, there's sort of a debate going on here.

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Recall the Old Testament statement. From the law, why should the son not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity?

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And God's response is, when the son has practiced justice and righteousness, and has observed all my statutes and done them, he shall surely live.

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The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity. Nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity.

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The righteous of the righteous will be upon himself. And the wickedness of the wickedness will be upon himself. Now this is not addressing our relationship to Adam.

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This is not talking about original sin or anything like that. It's talking about a particular perversion of the scripture in the proverb, the fathers have eaten the sour grapes, and now the children's teeth are set on edge.

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There's no reason for us to repent in light of this scriptural concept.

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But it is not taking the scriptural concept correctly. But then we have this statement in verse 23.

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It's sort of, it's also repeated in verse 32. Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the

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Lord God, rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?

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Now very often this text is cited. Only partially cited. It's not put into the context in which it's actually stated.

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That is the idea of God either having pleasure in the death of the wicked, rather than that he should turn and live.

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The idea being presented is that, well, Yahweh has it in for us.

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The Lord God has it in for us. Because of what our fathers have done, there is no hope.

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There's no reason to listen to the prophets. There's no reason to obey. God takes pleasure in our death.

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And we might as well go up and worship in the high places, because he is now our end.

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And God asks the question, do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?

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Same thing in verse 32. For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God, therefore repent and live.

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Now, we know the context in which this is provided to us. We know that it's in the context that actually sort of bookends us.

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That's verse 23 and verse 32. What's in between? The debate. The way of the Lord is not right.

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The way of the Lord is not right. No, it's your ways that are perverse. We have a perverse people here.

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They are still the people of God. He refers to them in that way. They are still under the covenant in the sense that they are supposed to be doing these things.

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They have the law of God. But they have become perverted. It is their ways that are not right.

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It is their words that are not right. And over and over again, like verse 26, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity and dies because of it, for his iniquity which he has committed he will die.

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Not because of the people who have come before him. But as you know, very often, this text is taken out of the argument that it is actually in.

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The argument that people are saying there's no reason to repent. God has it out for us.

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Instead what you have is you take this and you expand it into an entire biblical concept that in essence,

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God does not want, God does not desire in any way the punishment of the wicked.

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Now that creates a problem. Because you have the rest of the Old Testament to read. And there is a theme that keeps coming up in the rest of the

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Old Testament. Let's look at a few texts. Isaiah chapter 46. Let's look at Isaiah first.

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We'll come back to Ezekiel. But Isaiah chapter 46. Verse 11. Back up to verse 10.

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God is talking about how he's going to accomplish his will. Declaring the end to the beginning. From ancient times, things which have not been done.

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Saying my purpose will be established. And I will accomplish all my good pleasure.

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Calling a bird of prey from the east. The man of my purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken.

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Truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it. Surely I will do it. He's going to bring judgment and then restoration.

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Upon the people of Israel. He's going to restore the remnants. But before he can restore the remnants, there has to be tremendous judgment.

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Jerusalem is going to be destroyed. That's his good pleasure. That's his will.

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That's what he has chosen to do. And he calls it his good pleasure.

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I will accomplish all my good pleasure. And that good pleasure includes the judgment of evil men.

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Isaiah chapter 48. Verse 14. Again in the context of God as God.

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Going back to verse 13. Surely my hand found the earth. My right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them they stand together.

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Assemble all of you and listen. Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him.

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He will carry out his good pleasure on Babylon. And his arm will be against the Chaldeans. This is in judgment.

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His judgment against the godless Babylonians.

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Well, I shouldn't say godless. They've got lots of gods. Just the wrong ones. His judgment is described as his good pleasure.

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Are we really to believe that when God brings holy judgment that he is not pleased when holiness and justice is done?

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It's a bit of a hard thing to believe. At the beginning of the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 1.

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We have these words from the prophet as well. Isaiah chapter 1. Verse 11.

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Going back to verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom.

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And give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah. What are your multiplied sacrifices to me?

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Says Yahweh. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.

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I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts?

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Bring your worthless offerings no longer. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies.

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I cannot endure iniquity in the solemn assembly. Notice what's being said here. I take no pleasure in these things.

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But did he not command that these things be done? Yes, but they were to be done with a proper heart.

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And so you have the very same term, this pleasure. But you always have to look at the context in which it is being said.

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Here it says, I take no pleasure in the very sacrifices I commanded. Why? Because you're not bringing them to me properly.

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You're not bringing them to me properly. This term, pleasure, is being used. But I said we'd go back to Ezekiel.

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Let's look at Ezekiel chapter 39. Ezekiel chapter 39.

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I'm going to turn this fan down because it wants to keep moving my text a little bit farther down the road.

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I've seen Pastor Frye fight with that a few times too. It's almost like the Spirit wants you to read over here, brother.

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No, it's just the fan. Ezekiel chapter 39.

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Verse 21. And I will set my glory among the nations and all the nations will see my judgment which

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I have executed in my hand which I have laid on them. And the house of Israel will know that I am the

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Lord their God from that day onward. I will set my glory among the nations. How does he do this? Through judgment.

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Is God pleased? In the demonstration of his glory?

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Notice how often on Sunday nights as I've been reading, we read from that day on the house of Israel will know that I am the

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Lord their God. What does Romans 9 tell us? Why did God do what he did to Egypt?

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That his name might be proclaimed. Is that pleasing to God? But does it not result in the judgment of the wicked?

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It certainly did in Pharaoh's situation. Ask the firstborn of Egypt. Was God displeased that he had to do these things?

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Certainly not. Now, way back in the law in the book of Deuteronomy we had read these words.

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Deuteronomy chapter 2. Verse 30. Deuteronomy 2 .30.

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But Sion, king of Heshbon, was not willing for us to pass through his land, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate in order to deliver him into your hand as he is today.

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God hardening men's hearts to bring about judgment.

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We have to allow these texts to stand right next to Ezekiel 18.

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If we take Ezekiel 18 and say, see? There's no way

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God could have an eternal decree that includes the sinfulness of man. There's no way that God could have an eternal decree which includes raising up the people of Israel, but he doesn't send prophets to this people over here.

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He doesn't send prophets to this. He doesn't send prophets to the Amorites. In fact, he leaves them in their sin for 400 years.

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And then when he brings the people of Israel into the land, he wipes them out. Man, woman and child. How can this be?

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I mean, if Ezekiel 18 is giving some type of pan -canonical all across the

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Bible concept, we end up with an absolute contradiction in the text of Scripture. I've run out of time, but let me just mention what we saw

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Sunday morning in Bible study in John chapter 12. We didn't look very closely at it.

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I just mentioned the passing, but notice in talking about the unbelief of the people even in Jesus' day.

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But though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, which he spoke.

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Lord, who has believed are reported. To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For this reason they could not believe.

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For Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and be converted and not healed them.

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There are these very troubling judgment passages. Are we to believe that in these judgment passages when

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God's judgment falls upon the wicked that this displeases

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God? That when his justice is done I think there's a real obvious problem with that.

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If you think that God is displeased when his justice is done then was

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God displeased at the cross? Have you thought about that?

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Was the father pleased with the son's sacrifice?

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What was going on there? The son bears the sins of his people.

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Justice is done. God's wrath is poured out. And is there any time when

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God has done anything that was more self -glorifying than that? I would submit to you there isn't.

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And so when we look at these words in Ezekiel chapter 18 we have to allow them to speak in the context they were given.

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In the context of Ezekiel 18 -23 it's the same thing with Ezekiel 33. Do I have pleasure in the death of the wicked declares the

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Lord God rather than that he should turn from his ways and live? That is a rebuttal of a proverb that the people were using to avoid the weight of the prophetic call to repent.

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That's what God's doing. That makes perfect sense in the context.

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It's consistent with God's prophetic calls to his people. Never are they allowed to use an excuse that says my dad is a bad man.

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He's one of the high priests in the high places so why should I listen to what

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Ezekiel has to say? Look what God's already done to us. No reason to repent.

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God says no. There is never a time when that can't be the case.

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Now one last thing. I know I've gone a little bit long. Notice verse 31 of chapter 18.

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Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and what? Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.

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Sound familiar? It should. That's the new covenant. But you see they can't do that for themselves.

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Ezekiel's going to tell us later on how that happens. God has to take out that heart of stone and give a heart of flesh.

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God by his spirit has to blow across the valley of the dry bones and they come together. Unless the spirit of God brings a new heart and a new spirit why will you die

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O house of Israel? Well that's the whole point. Israel will after all of the prophets constantly saying repent and repent and repent unless it was the

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Lord that had kept his remnants there would have been none of it.

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What do we see in the history of Israel? That man with all the advantages of God's revelation with God's truth laid out before him with all the miracles that their fathers had seen the fire by night, the cloud by day the

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Red Sea and how many of those people who saw those things entered into the promised land? It's not the miracles.

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It's not the external things. The only people who truly have a relationship with this

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God are the people whose hearts have been changed. And we get illustration of it over and over and over.