Faithful To The End
In
Ezekiel 18 we find a very interesting passage that gives us new insight into
the nature of God. We serve an amazing God who desires to have a personal
relationship with each of us. In order to understand what this passage has to
offer to us here today, it is important to understand the context of Ezekiel
18.
The
Book of Ezekiel has the most logical arrangement of any of the prophetic books.
It contains three sections, each of which addresses a different subject matter.
Chapters 1–24 concern the fall of Jerusalem. Chapters 25–39 contain a series of
oracles addressed to foreign nations, concluding with a section in which the
future of Israel is contrasted with that of the foreign nations. The third
section, Chapters 40–48, presents a plan for rebuilding the Temple and
reorganizing the restored state of Israel.
In chapter 17 the text is certainly more
prophetic in tone and in chapter 19 we see more of the same. However, right in
between in chapter 18, God begins to talk to Ezekiel directly.
In
verses 1 through 4 of chapter 18 it says, “The word of the Lord came
to me again, saying, 2 “What do you mean when you
use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying:
‘The fathers
have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
3 “As I live,” says the
Lord God, “you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel.
4 “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.
Clearly,
some time has passed between the end of Chapter 17 and when God returns again
to speak to Ezekiel. He begins by refuting a proverb, that Israel used, that
said ‘the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set
on edge’. The moral of this proverb put forth the idea that the saying, “like
father like son”, applied to the degree that a son would be punished or die for
their father’s iniquity. But God immediately responds by listing a number of
things that, if a just man does them, he will live regardless of his father’s
sin. God wants to make it clear to Ezekiel and the people of Israel that He
looks at each person individually, not in the context of their family or a
group. This works two ways; just because one may come from a family that has
rejected God or is mired in sin, doesn’t mean God will hold them responsible
for their family’s actions. Reversely, just because your family may attend
church and profess Christianity, doesn’t mean you yourself are a Christian. God
judges each person individually. He is more interested in our heart, than the
actions or words we may be a part of.
In
the beginning of chapter 18, Ezekiel also relates God’s summary of all the evil
that can be done by a man and the fact that they will be punished despite their
father’s righteousness. No matter how righteous or God fearing we are, we
cannot save our children or families. It is up to each person separately to
serve and seek the Lord. This of course does not mean we shouldn’t be praying
for our family members and be actively encouraging them in their walk with
Jesus. We then get to verse 21 where we will pick up.
21 “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. 23 Do
I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God,
“and not that he should turn from his ways and live?
24 “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.
These four verses
contrast two different people. On one hand, you have a wicked man who turns
from his sin and keeps the laws of the Lord while conversely you have a
righteous man who falls into sin and walks away from the ways of the Lord which
he once followed. This passage in some ways parallels a parable Jesus told in
Matthew 21 about two sons whose father owned a vineyard. In this story, the man
asks both of his sons to go work. One says no but later changes his mind and
goes. The second initially says yes but doesn’t ever go and work. Jesus asks
the church leaders who were listening, which of the sons actually did the will
of their father. They all agree that it was the first. Jesus responds harshly
to them saying it will be the tax collectors and harlots who enter the kingdom
of God before they do. The religious leaders of the day, were trying to stand
on the shoulders of those who had gone before them to be close with God. Their
lives were shrouded in empty tradition and built upon the assumption that God
was more interested in their words and appearance than actual obedience. God is
clearly more interested in the current state of hearts than previous actions
and words. Like with the parable Jesus used, we can say all the right things or
try to give the appearance that we will do the right thing. But, unless actions
follow those words, they mean nothing.
This passage also
contains a few practical reminders including that when we choose to walk in the
ways of the Lord and turn from our sin, the past wrong we have done is no
longer remembered. We are not held in bondage to the sin we once committed
although this doesn’t mean we will necessarily be free from the consequences of
that sin. This freedom from sin is something that God truly wants for each of
us as illustrated by His rhetorical question in verse 23, “Do I have any
pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not
that he should turn from his ways and live?”
On the opposite side
of this contrast is the reminder that no matter what we have done for the
kingdom of God, only our faithfulness to His Word and ways are what will count.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of faithfulness is
“steadfast in affection or allegiance or firm in adherence to promises or in
observance of duty.” That definition is important to keep in mind, especially
the idea of “firm in observance of duty.”
This idea of past
righteousness being forgotten when we turn from the Lord can be illustrated in
the life of Charles Templeton. You may be familiar with the story of Templeton
but if not, his life illustrates a great example of this reality.
Charles Templeton was
a hell-raising young newspaper reporter in the 1930’s when after a night of
drinking and carousing he converted to Christianity and became an evangelist. In 1941, Templeton founded the Avenue Road Church of the Nazarene, in Toronto.
In 1945 Templeton
and Torrey Johnson of Chicago, Illinois met with a number of youth
leaders from around the United States at Winona Lake, Indiana. Their agenda was to form a working
group that would become an organization known as Youth for Christ which was founded in 1946. Torrey
Johnson was elected as its first president and Billy Graham was hired as the first full-time
evangelist. Shortly afterward, Graham and Templeton made an evangelistic tour
of western Europe, frequently rooming together, and holding crusades in
England, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden and other countries. During the 1950s and
’60s, Templeton preached to crowds of 10,000 to 30,000 nightly. He packed
stadiums and thrilled audiences with his proclamation of “the gospel of Christ”.
Along the way,
however, gnawing doubts began to work on his mind. He started questioning the
reliability of the Bible. Unquestionably, he labored for years under the burden
of a progressively hardening heart. He was hypocrisy personified.
Finally, he could bear
it no longer. He cut loose from it all. To use his own words, he bade “farewell
to God” and wrote his 1996 book, Farewell to God — My Reasons for
Rejecting the Christian Faith. In the halls of Christian history, Billy
Graham stands as a role model for Christian ministry while few remember the
name of Charles Templeton.
Like with Templeton,
the decision to walk away from the Lord is often never is a big decision we
just come out and make; it generally is a slow fade. The Christian life of
course has to start with salvation but it’s much more than that fact. It’s
about a life of surrender every day and every moment. We don’t get breaks or
timeouts. Every second matters and counts. The story of Templeton is
unfortunately just one of many. In some ways you’d think it would be opposite
because as we get closer to the goal line, an eternity with Jesus, we should be
living with more anticipation and a great zeal for crossing into Glory, to be
with the One we’ve been serving. Yet, all too frequently we relax and try to
coast out. We become comfortable and satisfied with life in the status quo. I
certainly think pride is a factor here. We can find many examples of
unfaithfulness in the Bible but 2 Chronicles 26 tells one of the saddest. King
Uzziah took the throne at age 16 and reigned for about 52 years. His reign
was "the most prosperous excepting that of Jehoshaphat since the time of Solomon." In the earlier part of his
reign, under the influence of a prophet named Zechariah, he was faithful to God and "did
that which was right in the eyes of the Lord" which is found in verses 4
and 5. But in verse 16 it says “but when he was strong, he grew
proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God.”
We may be able to
point to a time when we prayed a prayer or went forward to accept the Lord. But
what about now? Does our life reflect someone who is passionate about living
for Jesus?
Verses 25 through 29
of Ezekiel 18 cover God’s response to the accusation that His ways are unfair.
Why should God forget the good things that someone has done simply because they
stray away? The answer is simply justice. God is a God of order and
impartiality. His standards must be upheld and adhered to. God is not unfair
for judging the hearts of man rather than their works. It is our souls that
will enter eternity, not our actions.
Matthew Henry was an
English Bible commentator from the later 17th century into the early
18th century. His notes on this passage include a few key thoughts.
He says “The first step towards conversion is consideration. As it says in
verse 28 in reference to the wicked man, because he considers and turns. The
reason why sinners go on in their evil ways is because they do not consider
what will be in the end thereof. This consideration must produce an aversion to
sin. When he considers he must turn away from his wickedness, which denotes a
change in the disposition of the heart; he must turn from his sins and his
transgression, which denotes a change in the life.” Henry adds that we do not
rightly turn from sin unless we truly hate it, and we do not truly hate sin, as
sin, if we do not hate all sin.
This hatred towards
sin that a person needs to have, is kindled by a desire for the Lord and what
is right. Pastor Peter Marshall, a Presbyterian minister who also served as the
chaplain to the US Senate during WWII once said, “It is
better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to succeed in a
cause that will ultimately fail.” We will most certainly sin while pursing a
life of holiness but it is a mission we will eventually succeed in when we
reach eternity. However, we will never achieve perfection or reach eternity
based on the righteous deeds we do. No matter how many good things we
accomplish, toeing the line with sin and staying unstained by its filth is a
cause we will never succeed in.
Matthew Henry goes on,
“This aversion to sin and the previous ways of wrongdoing must be accompanied
with a conversion to God and duty to His ways.” This duty could also be
described as faithfulness based on the definition from earlier. Henry continues,
“he must keep all God's statutes and must do that which is lawful and right,
that which agrees with the word and will of God, which he must take for his
rule, and not the will of the flesh and the way of the world.”
It is important to
note that this duty towards the things of God comes out of our love for Him, we
are in no way forced to live this way. Rather, we are given the choice of
whether we will be faithful. In 2 Timothy 2 is talks about how God will be
faithful to His promises, regardless of our faithfulness to Him. It’s amazing
to think that true freedom and life, as Henry points to, comes only within the
boundaries of God’s laws. Peter Marshall also said, “May we think of freedom,
not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is
right.”
For a few years, I ran
my own woodworking business. I primarily made wall art and small pieces. A
couple years into my woodworking I began to delve into the lathe and making
baseball bats. Shortly after beginning this new endeavor, I decided to make a
wooden bowl. The most tedious part of this is hollowing out the center of the
bowl which is more time consuming than anything else. Part way into this
process, I began to get annoyed with the tool rest which my cutting tool was
resting on thinking it was hindering my progress. I moved my tool blade away
from the bar and tried cutting free hand. In a matter of seconds, the wood
caught my blade, pulling it from my hands and nearly cost me a finger in the
process. I still have the scar on my finger today, reminding me of the safety
that boundaries provide.
Going back to what Matthew
Henry said, salvation isn’t just repentance and a turning from evil. It’s
replacing those sinful patterns with a life that is patterned after God’s laws
and ways. When we do this, we live within the life that God wants each of us to
have and enjoy a freedom the world cannot deliver.
In the final three
verses of Ezekiel 18 it says,
30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of
Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord God. “Repent,
and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your
ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions
which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
For why should you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I
have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God.
“Therefore, turn and live!”
This final verse
answers the rhetorical question that God asks back in verse 23. Of course, God
does not want to see anyone perish for eternity. The opportunity to live is one
that is extended to everyone but the cost is our faithfulness. God promises to
be faithful to us and His Word but we must do the same.
So, where do we stand
today? Are we living faithful to God’s will and ways as individuals? These past
couple of weeks we have been focused on prayer and have been reminded of its
importance. Ezekiel 18 paints one of the most endearing pictures of God’s love
for each and every person. The relationship that God desperately wants to have
with each of us is one filled with constant communication and communion with
Him.
There is so much that
we can take from this passage but in summary, I close with two key thoughts.
First, no one is past forgiveness and the wrongdoing we may have committed in
the past will be forgiven and forgotten if we choose to forsake it and instead
embrace the statues of the Lord. Second, just because we come to church or have
done a lot of good in our life, only our faithfulness and allegiance to God’s
ways will result in the eternal life God wants for us.
Just like how He will
judge us as an individual, He also wants to have a relationship with each of us
as an individual. The Creator of all things knows us by name. May we press into
the Lord more each day, drawing deeper into His ways and love. In the words of
a former pastor of mine, “good starts are great but good finishes are better.” None
of us know how long we have to live but regardless of whether our lives end
today or when Jesus comes again, but will we have been faithful to the end?
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