Social Justice and the Gospel, Part 2

let's come them to the 18th chapter of Ezekiel Ezekiel chapter 18 and even though last week I gave you a rather prolonged introduction I want to do a little bit of that again today before we actually get into the chapter itself we're talking about social justice and the gospel there's an awful lot of discussion about social justice today in our culture and it's found its way into event Jellicle discussions as well and the issue is whether or not this is a necessary part of the gospel no one would argue against justice no one would argue against showing mercy and kindness and compassion and care to people who struggle as believers that would be the central part of our living out righteous life in the world as we will see in this very passage but the question is about whether or not the social justice movement as it is crafted today is the necessary part of the gospel now I want to say that I don't like battles I I don't like battles especially with other Christians but they are necessary for the protection of the truth and having said that I don't like battles I must confess that I can't remember very many periods of time in my entire life when I wasn't in one this seems to be the lot of anyone who preaches the Word of God like the Apostle Paul when he came to the end of his life and said I have fought the good fight it is a fight it is a battle it is a war and sometimes I find myself fighting on a number of fronts all at the same time but there has really never been an era in church history not just my life but in church history never really been an era when the gospel was not under assault and usually the most devastating of those assaults come from inside the church the church has a way of being strengthened by attacks from the outside and we all are familiar with the phrase that the blood of the martyr becomes the seed of the church the more the outside world does to persecute Christianity the stronger it gets but the real danger to the church comes from the inside as the Apostle Paul told the Ephesian elders in acts 20 perverse men from among you will rise up and lead people astray that's always where the battle seems to be the hottest and we're not surprised that that battle rages around the gospel around the gospel because the good news of salvation is the only way that sinners can escape hell and get to heaven the only way that men and women can be rescued from the clutches of Satan from the kingdom of darkness is through the gospel because Satan hates God in Christ and the Holy Spirit and the church and the gospel he fights against the gospel not only overtly by attacking it by but by undermining it and sometimes with things that on the surface seem so very noble and so very right Satan is subtle he's crafty he's the craftiest force in the world he is a supernatural force and he has many minions along with him and they work hard to undermine the gospel and Paul warns as we saw in Galatians 1 but if anybody preaches to you a gospel that is another gospel a false gospel let him be damned those are Paul's words and he repeats them twice it is a damning thing to corrupt the gospel and the writer Jude also says we have to earnestly contend for the faith we have to fight the battle for the gospel proclaiming the gospel means also protecting the gospel it means defending the gospel and that's the duty of every Christian preacher that's the duty of every Christian believer we have already learned in Ezekiel from last week that the Watchmen must warn people about assaults and attacks or their blood will be on his hands that's a severe warning to any preacher to make sure that he warns his people about alterations additions and deletions that change the gospel and that is what we're currently facing in the social justice issue not to say there are not in justices in the world of course there are there never will be a just government perfectly just government in the world because it's a fallen world it's a corrupted world everybody in it is tainted deeply with sin depraved selfish proud and rebelling against God we do better when we get a collective of sinners who somewhat hold each other accountable and we try to work out a measure of justice the best we can in the world but it'll never be everything it should be and so there will be inequities we understand that and not just at national levels but at much smaller levels as well there'll be inequities in in families there'll be inequities in the workplace there will always be challenges and difficulties they'll always be oppressors and oppressed they'll always be those who inflict harm and those who who feel the pain and suffer the harm that's the world we live in the current dangerous attack however that the social justice movement has brought on the gospel needs to be addressed and this dangerous attack must be confronted be in a context that I think may be helpful to you it isn't new it is the new social justice if perhaps a new term but the attack is very old it's a very old attack it's the return of an old enemy an old enemy that has done massive incalculable damage there was a Reformation you just heard of him written by Martin Luther obviously he was the key force in that Reformation and after the Reformation the gospel was resurrected as as it were from its grave in a thousand years of Roman Catholicism and the gospel began to be preached and people were converted and the gospel began to flourish and churches developed and associations of churches developed in denominations developed and even state churches developed as the gospel was being preached didn't take long however in Europe after the Reformation before it all began to collapse and it collapsed under the weight of things that seemed on the surface to be good there were there were people who were starving there were people who were troubled there were people who were oppressed there were issues in life that that needed compassion and care and the church became preoccupied with the social structure and the social issues and and those things are things that would capture anybody's heart who had any sensitivity and certainly a believers heart and eventually as time went on the church literally abandoned completely the gospel of Jesus Christ and and gave the world what it was crying for in the end of the nineteenth century beginning of the 20th century the same thing happened in America here in America as you well know we were founded by those who wanted freedom to preach the gospel didn't take long before that gospel was corrupted as the whole denominations grew and flourished in America and then became preoccupied with social issues and what developed is called the social gospel and that is the kind of church focus on social needs temporal physical earthly inequities oppression deprivations and all of that and always was done in the name of Christ and always with the idea that we've got to help people with those issues that are so burdensome in their lives if we if we want to reach for the gospel but it wasn't long before there was no gospel and you can go to Europe today and you'll find tens of thousands of churches all over Europe empty no people no life no gospel they are literally vestiges of the devastation of a social gospel and in America you can go to the East Coast in particular Midwest and you'll find great stone churches that serve no function whatsoever in the kingdom of God only serve a function in the kingdom of Satan because they abandoned the true gospel for social causes you would have thought we learned our lessons the lessons are vivid their vivid their in-your-face drive down the street even out here and see churches that are deader than the proverbial dodo bird no life whatsoever and here we go again with another influx of Satan's ploy of getting involved in social issues this part of the gospel we are being told and if we don't do this we don't have the gospel this is just another round of the same old enemy coming to take our focus off the eternal souls of men and women and get it focused on their physical issues in their temporal life this corruption has taken down entire denominations all their schools all their pastors and all their people and emptied their churches and here it is again showing up and it seems to be embraced with very little critical thinking very little biblical discernment and we're already beginning to live the disaster of the social message all over again this time evangelicals have welcomed it back as if it were a needy friend the enemy Satan has this current generation to follow him down the same exact sinkhole in tubule oblivion this time it's called social justice at like last time and like every time it is predicated on some legitimate issues in society that elicits concern and compassion and justifiably so the advocates of social justice have gone so far as to say there's no gospel without this and as I tried to make clear to you last time last Sunday the problem with tying the social justice movement to the gospel is that it doesn't belong there it does not belong there furthermore it does severe harm to genuine gospel efforts severe harm at a very critical point in the gospel now let's define our terms for a moment social justice is the idea that certain groups of people due to their race or gender or sexual preference or economic status or personal ideology have been and still are abused by others in our society they're treated in justly because of their ethnicity or because of their gender or because of their sexual preference economic status personal ideology or whatever social justice says this is not right and we have to stop this and we have to demonstrate fairness and equity and justice to these victims they are the weak by their definition they are the abused they are the oppressed and they have been abused and oppressed by power structures or people in power they are victims they are victims of societal injustice again I don't deny injustice in the world there's plenty of it and I don't deny that there are people who are victims of injustice in the world but the victim class has never been as defined and exalted and elevated as it is today and victim classes are growing and growing everybody needs to be a victim if you're not a victim of something you have no moral authority if you're not a victim of something or someone you're not a part of the dialog do you you have nothing to say keep your mouth shut if you're not a victim so we have new classes of victims those who have had a microaggression against them because somebody said a word they didn't like or somebody gave them a look they didn't like or somebody did some action that offended them offensive speech is now hate speech and then we have cultural appropriation that's that's a new kind of victim status there has to be a category for everybody even white men are looking for a category of victimization that they can all pile into so they can at least be part of the conversation it's likely that they're going to be victims of white women but I don't want to get into that that's this essentially dominates the entire culture at the university level everybody has to be a victim if you're not a victim you have nothing to say am I surprised not in the least not in the least because it is the most natural thing that sinners do what is most true of human beings is that they're sinful that is the simplest definition of a human being a human being is a sinner a human being sins in thought in Word and in action and in inaction but the clearest definition of humanity is all have sinned all have sinned so what dominates sinners what is constantly on their minds is the fact that they don't want to be guilty they don't want to feel guilt they don't want to face guilt they want to think better of themselves then they have a right to think and and so they very obviously and very consistently have a default position and the sinners default position for all of them is to blame somebody else to blame somebody else it's the most natural thing that sinners do you go back to the garden and God confronts Eve in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 13 it says Eve why did you do that well I gave you a command why did you violate it she says the serpent made me do it a talking snake now she's not only blaming the serpent she's blaming the creator of the talking snake and then there's Adam and God says to Adam Adam why and Adam says the woman you gave me and he's not just blaming the woman he's blaming God who made the woman there are only two people in existence and they blame somebody else a talking snake and god that's what sinners do that is the default position of every sinful heart they don't face their own sin they naturally will blame others other generations other influences I'm basically a good person but I've been affected by bad people this is what sinners do then they hold tightly by the way to that deception they they grip that delusion with a death grip someone has messed up my life and ultimately it has to be God it has to be God and if you're a Christian and you tell me the Christian God is the creator of everything and the sovereign over everything and the Christian God is the one who is in charge of every life and all of history then the the God that you called the true and living and sovereign God is the God who is behind my life's mess so I'm not only a victim of all the people who have abused me but I'm a victim of the God who was supposed to be in control of everything and let me be abused like this and then you tell that person that they should go to that same God and find salvation you've just created an impossible situation why would anybody go to the God that they believe has put them in the mess they're in to get them back out of it sinners cling very tightly to their delusion that they're basically good and they're suffering in their life because of somebody else's evil and this is a severe problem because ultimately they focus their blame on God you made me this this ethnicity you made me this gender you you you you put me in this economic situation you you made me feel the things I feel and the desires I feel and you you made me live in this environment with this kind of culture and this kind of corruption and these kinds of people and you're the god of history or the god of controls everything you're the sovereign God you've done this to me and now I'm suffering and I'm suffering for something I didn't do you're not fair and the people around me are responsible for the mess of my life now you say well who would say that to sinners well sinners say that to themselves so when the church decides we're going to embrace their victimhood this is a disaster this is a disaster if we agree with the sinners assessment of himself that he's really good and he's the victim of somebody else's being bad you have just cut them off from the very initial reality that brings them to the gospel and that is an overwhelming sense of their own utter sinfulness and full responsibility for their guilt so many times I've had people say to me you talk about the God of the Bible being so loving and so good and he's in control of everything if he's so loving and so good why is there so much suffering pain injustice in the world why is my life such a wreck why am i a part of this part of the culture so when you concede to sinners that they have the right to perceive themselves as victims victims of other people's wrongs and even a victim of God you put a barrier to the necessary full response ability for sin that would drive them to God and you also make God a kind of enemy to whom they would never go for salvation the gospel doesn't even open the door until a sinner takes full responsibility for his sin this is where the gospel begins this is where it begins now as we saw last week in chapter 18 just as we began to look at an Ezekiel's message is critical to our understanding of this issue Ezekiel was a prophet he was a judgment preacher and the foundation of his message was the fact of individual responsibility personal sin personal guilt personal punishment by God that's his message we saw it already in chapter 3 chapter 14 chapter 33 last week but let's go back to the 18th chapter for now this is a gospel presentation this chapter it really is even though the fullness of the gospel in Christ hasn't yet come all the elements apart from that are present in this message it is true we said this last week our lives are affected by other people's sin Adam's sin to the whole human race died generations before us sinned and created the kind of corruption that we have to cope with today this generations collective sins have made a vile culture present and we have to deal with that so yes there are sins on the part of others that affect us they affect us but by creating the kind of world we have to live in but no one will ever be judged by God for the sin of Adam or for the sin of our grandparents or for the sins of the people in our past culture or present culture the point of what Ezekiel is getting at is you die for your own sins and since that is critical to the gospel we need to stop letting people think they are victims of someone else's sins when the fact is they're gonna go to hell forever based purely on their own transgressions that's the point there's none righteous no not one there's none that does good says Scripture as long as sinners are allowed to blame someone else for their life condition they are cut off from the entry point to the Gospels and all sinners do that naturally that's the default position if the church which is called to the condemnation of all sinners for their own sins that's the bad news of total depravity and judgment in hell if the church no longer is a faithful watchman if the church decides to embrace the sinners excuses that they're victims of what others have done then the preacher who preaches that will have their blood on his hands when divine judgment falls we cannot let sinners live with that default position we cannot let sinners make excuses we are here as preachers and as Christian believers to warn sinners that the issue they need to be dealing with is the sin in their own life all sinners deserve death look if we got what we deserve we'd all be what would all be dead you're not dead therefore you're alive by mercy lamentations 3:21 in the King J it is because of his mercies that we are not consumed it is because of his mercies that we are not consumed instead of complaining about all the things that have been done to you because of who you are you need to recognize that you should be dead and in hell for what you have done against God what's far more important than what anybody's done against you is what you have done against God and if you have been delivered and redeemed and saved why would you be preoccupied as a believer with what others have done to you instead of living in the joy and gratitude of what God has done for you I don't understand so-called Christians who want to be victims your life ought to be filled with joy and gratitude Thanksgiving we don't let sinners make excuses and they will make them if we don't warn them to be saved a person must be overwhelmed with the sin of his own heart by the way as a footnote at the time when we're letting sinners have their excuses and pass the blame on to somebody else for their life issues at the same time we're doing that we've taken the repentance aspect out of the gospel we've taken the the deep brokenness over sin out of the gospel and now with the Evangelical Church says is Jesus wants to make you happy make you rich give you purpose that is the false gospel the sinner must be overwhelmed with the sin of his own heart like the publican pounding on his chest God be merciful to me a sinner repent seek mercy from God before it is too late and when you die it is then too late we can't fix society you can't fix it because Satan rules it you understand that Satan rules that he's the god of this world we can't make it everything it should be as Christians we do all we can to relieve people's suffering and to make things as right as possible but we can't fix the world that's not going to happen till Christ returns and sets up his kingdom all right now let's look at chapter 18 [Music] here we see Ezekiel with a message from the Lord confronting proud sinners in exile in Babylon they are claiming that they are innocent and that they are suffering as slaves in a foreign land unjustly because God is punishing them for sins committed by their ancestors they are transferring their guilt to the past generation and indicted God as unfair and unjust and hardening their proud hearts and they're delusional minds against God and the truth they are fighting as sinners always do for a false comfort sinners need comfort sinners need comfort they they want false comfort and the easiest access to false comfort is to blame someone else normally to blame God and even say God made me this way put me in this situation therefore he's exacting vengeance on me and I'm innocent it's because of someone other than me so Ezekiel wants to strip away this delusion that's why this chapters here he wants to strip away this false protection not just a quick context Ezekiel was a prophet to the Jews from the southern kingdom of Judah when they were taken captive into Babylon there were three deportations of Babylonians came they took the first group in 605 BC then 597 BC then 586 was the last deportation and at that point the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the temple Ezekiel went in the middle deportation 597 with his wife and he was deposited over in Babylon with the Jewish captives so that he could preach to them and his whole ministry is preaching to captives in Babylon his compatriot Jeremiah is still back in the Holy Land he's preaching to the people that are still there while Ezekiel is preaching to the captives in exile and his message to them is judgment they're moaning and saying we shouldn't be here we didn't do anything we shouldn't be here we're being punished because of what our ancestors did that's that's their blame shifting perspective rather than look at their own sins as the reason for their judgment rather than look at their own sins is the reason for everything that's troubling in their lives they blame the generations before them and they blamed God our Father sinned and were the innocent sufferers they were saying and by the way this was their constant complaint we're guiltless children being punished for the sins of others Ezekiel unleashes this powerful divinely inspired warning that God judges every single person individually on the basis of his or her own sin no one will ever be punished for the sins of anyone else and the biggest issue in anyone's life is not the conditions that other people may have brought on them but the condition of their own heart before God so let's look at the chapter point number one I'll give you three points in the next couple of weeks point 1 sinners delusion God's reality the sinners delusion and gods reality versus one too for the word of the Lord came to me saying what do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel saying the father's eat the sour grapes with the children's teeth are set on edge as I live declares the Lord God you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore behold all souls are mine where every soul is mine the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine the souls of sins will die that's the thesis do you have the sinners delusion and you have God's reality now notice verse 1 then the word of the Lord came to me saying Ezekiel as a prophet who speaks for God you remember back in chapter 3 when he was called in chapter 3 and verse 4 the Lord said to him son of man go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them with my words in verse 10 son of man take into your heart all my words which I will speak to you and listen closely go to the Exile to the sons of your people and speak to them and tell them whether they listen or not thus says the Lord God verse 16 at the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me the end of the chapter but when I speak to you God says I will open your mouth and you will say to them thus says the Lord God who hears let him hear he refuses let it refused for there a rebellious house Ezekiel was going to speak the words of God you see this at the beginning of chapter 6 it's the word of the Lord beginning of chapter 7 it's the word of the Lord the beginning of chapter 12 the word of the Lord chapter 13 the word of the Lord 14 the word of the Lord 15 16 17 and here we are in 18 the word of the Lord came to me this is from heaven this is not somebody's opinion and the Lord is deeply disturbed over what's going on and the Lord says in verse 2 what do you mean by yous this proverb concerning the land of Israel what do you mean and it's not the idea of what do you mean by these words is not asking for an interpretation he is simply saying what do you mean toward me by doing this or another way to say it why are you assaulting me do you understand what you're doing do you really mean to be doing what you're doing when you say this proverb God saw this proverb which was reflective of what they believed as an attack on him on his righteousness on his justice now this is a proverb here's the proverb the father's eat the sour grapes but the children's teeth are set on edge that's the proverb we would call it a meme today it's a meme it's repeated so often it just becomes a part of sort of pop culture it was their pop culture it's how they explained their suffering when somebody said well how do you all get in this mess you're in here in Babylon wasn't what we did it was what our fathers did and if you're sitting back in Jerusalem it's the same thing two deportations and you're sitting there and Jeremiah is talking to you and this is what Jeremiah said it's in chapter 31 verse 29 and 30 listen to this jeremiah says this in those days they will not say again the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on the edge how about that there was such a popular meme that was going on back in the land of Judah as well as in exile this was their mantra that defined how they viewed their suffering we didn't do anything and God's punishing us for something our ancestors did verse 30 Jeremiah was saying the exact same thing Ezekiel was saying everyone will die for his own iniquity each man who eats the sour grapes his teeth will be set on edge gives the same answer that Ezekiel gives no you're not suffering for somebody else's sins you're suffering for your own sins the sinner is the one who dies that cryptic proverb had become the foundation explanation for all their suffering this is what sinners do they pass the blame the tone was cynical even sarcastic a kind of fatalistic mantra they were accusing God of not only cruel injustice but of being implacable immovable we're sort of stuck in a world where we suffer for the sins of our ancestors this is just how it is it was a kind of fatalism a kind of determinism cynically mocking God he punishes us for sins we didn't commit and where did they get that that's not that's not in the Old Testament where did they come up with that well sinners default position again they have to find someone else to blame but remember now they were taken into captivity because of their idolatry let me give you a sample from ancient middle-eastern pagan idolatry in 14th century way back in ancient times BC there was a hittite king and archaeologists have found documents from the hittite king and he is complaining to the god of storms his idol called the god of storms this is a quote my father sinned and transgressed against the word of the storm god my lord but I have not sinned and my father sin has fallen on me hmm even the ancient Hittites were saying they were suffering punishment for sins committed by someone else this is pernicious this is heretical this is delusional this is deceptive if preachers wanted to do what they should do with people instead of commiserating with them in their bitterness and anger toward others and toward God they ought to be warning them about the consequences of their own sins sinners even among the Jews had a highly developed sense of victimization lamentations if you think you suffer read lamentations read what jeremiah suffered lamentations 5/7 our fathers sinned and are no more it is we who have borne their iniquities and guilt this just got into the fabric of their thinking fatalistic deterministic victimization john calvin wrote this we desire to throw off the blame as far from ourselves as we possibly can and this ends up as an attack on God so God says what do you mean by attacking me and my justice and integrity and righteousness this way you say well maybe they didn't intend it as an attack on God oh yes they did go to verse 25 yet you say the way of the Lord is not right verse 29 the house of Israel says the way of the Lord is not right amazing mazie proverbs 19 3 market down proverbs 19 3 the foolishness of man ruins his way and his heart rages against God that's the sinner he ruins his own life and rages against God in a dramatic scene Exodus 32 Moses comes down the mountain with the law of God that's been written in tablets of stone he's been up there receiving the law of God and aaron has been in charge of the people Moses comes near the camp Exodus 32 19 and he sees golden calf and dancing and Moses anger burned and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountains holy indignation he took the calf which they had made and they were worshiping and burned it with fire ground it to powder scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it Wow mr. Maddock then Moses said to Aaron what did this people do to you that you have brought such great sin upon them how do you let this happen Aaron said do not let the anger of my Lord burn you know the people yourself that they're prone to evil huh hot was not me oh wow there was that there just prone to evil for they said to me make a god for us who will go before us for this Moses the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt we do not know what has become of him I said to them whoever has any gold let him tear it off tear it off whatever it covers get the gold off they gave it to me I threw it into the fire out came this calf really nobody wants to take blame I said this for the years how many times have I confronted somebody about sin and what miniscule percentage of times has somebody said you are exactly correct a tenth of one percent nobody does that everybody does a dance and says huh I don't know the people I just kind of threw this in and out came the golden calf that is not the path to salvation folks that is not the path to salvation it was the path to judgment because there was a slaughter wasn't there at the foot of the mountain that's the sinners delusion and you don't eat in Tibet that you if they're non-believers you get them off that idea of victimization and you get them on to their own sin and culpability in the fact that they are who they are where they are when they are in the circumstance they are in the purposes of God so that they can be confronted with the gospel of salvation that starts with an indictment of their sinfulness instead of complaining these people in our culture should be crying out about their own sin and saying well well some preachers please come and tell us what to do about our own sin go into the groups whoever they are wherever they are whatever kinds of people and tell them that they are haters of God rebels against God and will be held accountable eternally for their own sin so God says in verse three here's his truth as I live well when God takes an oath on himself it's really serious as I live declares the Lord God you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore hmm that's true because a few years later the Babylonians went for the third time 586 BC massacred Jews hauled the rest of them into captivity and no more was that being heard in the land of Israel God says you're to be judged for that and know this here's the truth every soul is mine nephesh person every person belongs to me the person who is a father the person who is a son each is mine and I'm telling you the soul who sins will die nobody dies for the sins of somebody else you are not a victim of an unjust God as if he has tampered with history and tampered with genetics to make you into some kind of victim or as if he has remained indifferent to you and doesn't care about you and doesn't even know you exist no every person is mine created by me sustained in life by me created to be who they are where they are when they are in the circumstance they are and every person is accountable to me and the soul that sins died not just physically but eternally don't to use that proverb you're not going to be using it any more in Israel faithful preachers faithful Christians must warn people of the real issue you understand that the real issue God will not tolerate the default delusion the disavows personal responsibility and personal guilt God's reality every soul is mine I know them I know everything about them no one is a victim of fate no one is a victim of some inexorable cosmic law set in motion no one is treated unfairly no one is treated unjustly by me no one is a random victim of a capricious or indifferent God no one is a random victim of historical sins no one is a random victim of his own sins you bear the weight of your own sin and guilt in the context it has created for you stop blaming God stop blaming someone else you just know this if you keep sinning you're going to die eternally you can't coddle the sinner as a victim and preach that whatever your racial gender economic social challenges be thankful you're not dead and be terrified of the consequence of your own sin and inevitable just punishment you're not a victim you're a perpetrator you're a criminal you're a culprit and for it you will die [Music] the sinners delusion and gods reality now let me just introduce point two God's reality Illustrated and the sinners delusion defended this goes all the way down to the end of what I read in verse 20 we'll just I'll just introduce it to you sinners are not easily convinced pretty strong point right God says don't say that anymore stop saying that every soul is accountable to me individually that's how judgment works but God gives Ezekiel some illustrations so here is God's reality Illustrated and then the sinners delusion defended we'll we'll just take the first of the illustrations starting in verse five a three-part illustration to make the point he introduces a grandfather a father and the son to illustrate the point of individual responsibility personal guilt and these these three this grandfather father and son sort of could be in the mind of God or in the mind of Ezekiel three kings of Judah Hezekiah Manasseh and Josiah fit this picture so very well let's just look at the first of the illustrations verse fine but if a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness doesn't eat at the mountain shrines or lifts up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel or defile his neighbor's wife or approach a woman during her menstrual period if a man doesn't oppress anyone but restores to the debtor his pledge doesn't commit robbery but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing if he doesn't lend money on interest or take increase 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 Lord God so here's the first thing I want you to get you know listen carefully every person will be judged by their works are we saved by works no are we judged by works yes because that's what scripture says Romans 2 5 to 11 will be judged by our works because our works will manifest our nature right we have been saved by grace through faith Jesus to unto good works which God has before ordained that you should walk in them and by those works or those fruits you should know them so we will always be judged by our works the Lord keeps a record of the works of the unbelievers they'll be sent to hell for that God keeps a record of the works of believers which manifest their true righteous character God keeps a record of that so here we meet a righteous grandfather this is a righteous man says if a man is righteous how did he become righteous by faith abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness way back in Genesis he believed God he was granted righteousness he didn't have his own God imputed his righteousness to him he was able to do that because of what Christ would do in the future even though Ezekiel didn't know about that nor did any other Old Testament person the new prophecies about the Messiah but not the reality yet but man is righteous means that God had to grant him his righteousness and he did that based upon the provision of Christ yet to come so here's a righteous man how does a righteous man behave he practices justice and righteousness those two words are together 9 times in this passage they go together justice and righteousness so listen to me should there be social justice for a believer of course of course but it's a fruit of the gospel it's not part of the gospel it's the result of the gospel so we know he's righteous because he practices justice and he practices righteousness now that's just categorically broadly describing the character of his life now this righteous grandfather will call him manifest his righteousness in eleven ways here the first couple in verse six he doesn't eat at the mountain shrines or lift up his eyes to the aisles of the house of Israel he doesn't worship false gods eating at the mountain shrines because they had set up altars to false gods all over the Land of Israel they were worshipping false gods making sacrifices to false gods eating part of the sacrifice a righteous man doesn't do that it doesn't follow false religion he doesn't go to any mountain to worship God and let the mount that God has ordained in Jerusalem he doesn't go to any altar but the altar in the temple there's one God one temple where he is to be worshipped in Israel so a righteous man has nothing to do with pagan religion he doesn't lift up his eyes titles that means he doesn't set his hope on idols we lift up our eyes to the hills from whence comes our help our help comes from God the true and living God we look up to God I don't worshipers look up to idols that are dead things non-existent and simply demonic a righteous man then doesn't engage in any idolatry from the standpoint of his sexual behavior it says in verse 6 he doesn't defile his neighbor's wife it doesn't commit adultery a righteous man does not commit adultery he's faithful to his own wife and also it says he doesn't approach a woman during her menstrual period that would certainly be any woman but particularly his wife is in view there as well in Leviticus 15 Leviticus 18 Leviticus 20 God laid down the law that men and women not cohabitate during her menstrual period and if you read some of the Jewish sources some of the Jewish doctors going back in the past there's plenty of literature about the possibility during that period of time of increased susceptibility to infection this was dire by the way in the ancient world when there were no antibiotics and that's one of the reasons for circumcision as well because that protected historically women from cervical cancer other Jewish doctors say that this also protected against infections that could be labeled in in the characteristics of cancer so in the ancient world you were caring for your wife in a way that assured her that you weren't going to make her more susceptible to a dire or even deadly disease a righteous person in verses 7 and 8 doesn't oppress anyone it does not oppress anyone anyone we love everyone restores to the debtor his pledge if you wanted to borrow money from somebody who gave him some kind of a pledge to hold until you paid the bill it would be tools livestock jewelry sometimes clothing costly clothing and you'd give it to the person to borrow the money from him when you'd paid it all back he'd give you back your security a righteous man doesn't hold on to the security he gives it back he restores to the debtor his pledge he doesn't commit robbery these are all social areas he gives his bread to the hungry he covers the naked with clothing this is what a righteous man does this is the fruit of let's say the gospel this is the fruit of a righteous life and you know job defends himself back in job 31 when his foolish friends were accusing him of all kinds of things job 31 he gives this defense and I think it's such a practical defense he says if I have kept the poor from their desire a job 31 16 or caused the eyes of the widow to fail or have eaten my morsel alone and the orphan had not shared it if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing or the needy had no covering if his loins have not thanked me if he had not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep if I have lifted up my hand against the orphan because they saw I had support in the gate but my shoulder fall from the socket and my arm be broken off at the elbow for calamity from God is the terror to me because of His Majesty I can do nothing let God crush me if I have withheld any of these righteous deeds from my behavior so that's how you saw a righteous life it manifested itself and it also manifested itself without money was handled verse eight doesn't lend money on interest it was forbidden for Jews to loan money to other Jews with interest if they had a need you didn't charge interest what was also forbidden to anyone was increase or usury exorbitantly high interest rates if a person does that if he does that will he live will he live if he keeps his hands verse eight from iniquity and execute true justice between man and men yes we are to treat people justly yes but that's the behavior of righteous people if he verse nine walks and here's the sum of it he walks in my statutes and my ordinances so as to deal faithfully he is righteous and will surely live declares the Lord God he's not righteous because he did those things he did those things because he's righteous he will live this is a righteous father he was righteous he will live what his father did irrelevant what his son did irrelevant what his ancestors did irrelevant what his neighbor's did irrelevant what Adam did irrelevant what is relevant is what he did that's how God judges that's illustration number one we'll look at the next next week now look this is a process to get to the end and when we come to the end you're gonna see how magnificently this all comes together so I know you have questions I'm glad you have questions because I want you to come back for the answer father we thank you again as always for your word its clarity precision power it is light it is life it is joy in his piece it is nourishment to our souls thank you Lord for crushing us out of the weight of our own guilt that we might run to Christ in social justice there's no cross there's no open tomb there's no heaven there's no salvation that's all in Christ that's all in the gospel and the gospel starts with true repentance continue to lead us as we go through this chapter and show us the truth we pray Christ's name Amen

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Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ

Id: jOLdwfvJVEs

Length: 62min 32sec (3752 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 12 2018