In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: Turn if you will to Ezekiel. We've come as far as Chapter 17. We'll get 17 and 18 done tonight. I'm sure of it because they're pretty simple. Well, I'm not sure of it, am I? We're going to do our best. I'll promise to do my best. If you guys wouldn't interrupt me, I could get something done up here, but let's pray and dive right in.

Father, we thank you for your word. And again, Chapter 17 is very interesting in light of all of the psychology that's going on in the world today. There are two points to this chapter we want to bring to the fore, and then there are two points in Chapter 18 that we want to bring to the fore. And so, Lord, speak to our hearts, we pray this evening, and then give permanence to those things that you say, that we be more like you, Father. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, let me read the first verse and then, if you'll get your pad and pen out, it will go quicker if I give you the interpretation to the riddle and to the parable ahead of time. So as we read through this section and as we study it, it will make more sense to you. But in verse one of Chapter 17, the word of the Lord came unto me, this is unto Ezekiel again, saying, "Son of man, put forth a riddle and speak a parable unto Israel."

It's interesting that Jesus spoke in parables. And it tells us in the New Testament that Jesus began to teach in parables because when he taught straightforwardly, they just didn't get it. And the whole idea was those that are spiritually minded will understand, and those who won't, let the ignorant be ignorant still. So as he comes to Chapter 17, there are these riddles wrapped in a parable that he's going to put forth, and he's going to challenge them to think it through and to understand.

Let me give those to you and then let me give you the point to Chapter 17 and then we'll work our way through it. But we're going to see that there's an eagle. The first thing that we see in this symbolism of this parable and riddle is an eagle. And the first eagle, if you'll put this in your notes, represents Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.

Then he's going to talk about Lebanon and the cedars of Lebanon and special places of Lebanon, and that will represent Jerusalem. Then he's going to talk about the high cedars, which represent Judah's king, Jehoiachin, and his princes as this eagle plucks off the top of these cedar trees.

The seeds of the vine represent the king's offspring, Zedekiah. The first eagle made a covenant with Zedekiah to put him under oath. You'll remember that when Nebuchadnezzar came back from the Battle of Carchemish with Pharaoh Necho and he defeated him there, he laid siege to Jerusalem in about 605 BC.

He set up a vassal king, as it were. He rebelled. He came back, as it were, to put the man down, but he'd already committed suicide. So he set up Zedekiah to be the vassal king, and Zedekiah swore an oath of his allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar because God is using, as we're going to see tonight, we're going to see from Jeremiah, God is using Nebuchadnezzar to discipline his people.

And so the seed of this vine represents the offspring, which is Zedekiah, the vassal king. And the first eagle made a covenant with Zedekiah under an oath, and he breaks the oath, as we're going to see in this. The first eagle took away the mighty men of the land. We know that when he went back in 597 to quell, as it were, this uprising, that he takes Ezekiel, all the priests, the instruments of worship, back to Babylon.

In the first siege, he takes Daniel and his friends. And then the king took with him to Babylon this city of merchants. So Babylon is in this parable, in these riddles, called the city of merchants. And just as he stretched out his hand toward the second eagle, we're going to see that the king reaches out to Egypt.

Now here's the point. He reaches out to Egypt. Zedekiah breaks the oath he made with Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is God's servant to discipline his people. And he seeks, as it were, help from Egypt against Nebuchadnezzar. And so the second eagle represents Egypt.

So as we walk through this, the main point is very simple. When God seeks to discipline you, when God seeks to correct you, the best thing you can do, and you need to do it as quickly as possible, is humble yourself and repent. But if you become rebellious and stubborn and you seek help from another direction or another source, and by the way, Egypt is always a type of the world, if you go to worldly means to justify your behavior or you go to worldly pastors who will say, "Well, that's not so bad," or you go to psychologists or you read books on these things and you seek justification and help for your rebellion, listen, God is going to discipline you one way or the other. And what he's saying is you simply need to submit to it. And you need to repent for your behavior in it, and then he will restore.

We're going to see that, but before we get into that, I want to read from Jeremiah chapter 25. I just want to read verses 4 through 13 so we get the context of this. Again, Jeremiah is a contemporary. He's in Jerusalem. He's warning the people of God's correction. Isaiah 100 years earlier had warned them.

God has been sending prophets, major and minor prophets, to warn his people about the idolatry that they're involving themselves in. And what we find interesting when we study the history of Israel, it wasn't like they still weren't going down on Sabbath day and worshiping at the Tabernacle or the Temple. But during Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, they were up at the high places in the groves worshiping other gods.

You remember back in Chapter 16, the Lord said, "When I found you, you were dying and floundering in your own blood, and I said live. And I washed you and I cleansed you, and I gave you all of these wonderful gifts. And now you've taken those gifts and you've offered them, as it were, like a whorish wife to these idols." And so there was this dualism, as it were, this plurality in them. They had one foot in the things of God and one foot in the things of the world. We call it hypocrisy.

Now, it's not that we don't fail from time to time because we do. Anybody get through this week without failing? Just Scott. Scott Cook, what an example. But what God looks for, you're forever immortalized on tape, mortified probably, but what God looks for is a broken and contrite heart.

The Bible says of King David that he was a man after God's own heart, and yet we know that King David, we all know that, failed miserably, didn't he? Well, why did God say that? Because King David never committed idolatry. He struggled with the flesh, but he never committed idolatry.

And so God has been warning his people, and listen to what Jeremiah says. It's in the context of what God is going to tell us in Chapter 17. In verse 4 of Chapter 25, it says, "And the Lord has sent unto you all his servants, the prophets. How many warnings have come?" Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, all of these minor prophets, major prophets, Ezekiel, Daniel, warning.

"And the Lord has sent unto you the servants, the prophets, rising early and sending them, even before you got into the depths of sin, you were warned early." Isn't that interesting how the Holy Spirit in the New Testament warns us early if you'll listen? I've got a lot of analogies, but I won't get through Chapter 18 if I give those, but he does, you know, he warns us early. "But you have not hearkened."

And that word for hearkened, it's not the same for hear or listen. The word for hearkened in the Old Testament, a very interesting word, it means to lean in with the intent to not only hear what is being said, but to be obedient to it. Your heart is already decided as you're leaning in, as it were, to listen to what God has to say, your heart has already made a decision that whatever God says, you're going to be obedient to it.

He said, "Listen, you did not hearken nor incline your ear to hear. They said, 'Turn ye again now every one of you from his evil way and from the evil that you are doing, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given unto you and to your fathers forever and ever. And go not after other gods to serve them, to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands, and I will do you no harm. I will not hurt you, there won't be any discipline or correction.'"

"Yet you have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, and this is to your own hurt." You see, the interesting struggle in the life of the believer and God's people is that Satan will always come and try to tempt you, and he always makes the temptations look like you can't live without it. You just got to have it. It's just going to be so fulfilling and so pleasant and so enjoyable. You see, because if it wasn't, you can't tempt me with broccoli. You can tempt me with ice cream.

So he always makes it look so sweet and so desirable. But the end of it is your own harm and your own hurt. And this is what the Lord is saying, "You did this to your own hurt, because God is not mocked. Whatsoever we sow, we reap. If we sow to the Spirit, we reap of the Spirit, blessings, joy, peace, protection, provision, all of those things God promises to his people. But if we sow to the flesh, we reap the curse, we reap destruction, and ultimately, if we're his people, we're going to reap correction."

He's going to apply, as it were, the rod of correction to the seat of understanding, and he's going to get your full and undivided attention. So he tells us, "I sent the prophets to you, rising early, speaking long, for decades I have warned you, and you have not listened, you have not hearkened, you haven't turned, you haven't repented." Verse 8 says, "Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, because you have not heard my words, behold I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar."

Now listen carefully to this, because Jeremiah is warning them. The false prophets that were in Jerusalem were saying to Zedekiah, "Oh no, no, no, God is going to destroy Nebuchadnezzar. God is going to bring back Jehoiachin to be the king and all the instruments of worship and their priests are going to come back."

And God said through the prophet Jeremiah, "Because you have not hearkened, because you've not listened to my words, behold I will send and take all of the families of north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar, listen to this, King of Babylon, my servant." Isn't that interesting?

The problem they were having is, "God, why would you use somebody more wicked than us to discipline us?" Well, actually Nebuchadnezzar wasn't more wicked. Nebuchadnezzar was sinning, of course, and he was a corrupt king, obviously, but he was not sinning from a position of light. Israel, God's people, should have known better.

Amen? They should have known better because they were God's special people that God led out of Egypt through signs and wonders, who protected them for 40 years through the wilderness in the book of Numbers and brought them to the promised land, parted the river Jordan and brought them in and destroyed the armies before them and put them in this place. They should have known better. God to them entrusted his word.

They became his special people, a people of covenant. Nebuchadnezzar wasn't. And sometimes God will use the things of this world, believe it or not, to discipline the righteous, to correct them. And Nebuchadnezzar is called my servant, the Lord does, and "I will bring them against the land and against the inhabitants thereof and against all these nations round about, and I will utterly destroy them." God is going to be with Nebuchadnezzar to discipline his people.

"And I'll make them an astonishment and a hissing and a perpetual desolation." What he saying was people pass by, they're going to hiss and they're going to say, "Weren't these God's people? Weren't these the people that through signs and wonders God delivered them out of Egypt? Weren't these the people that passed through the Red Sea as God parted the ocean and destroyed the Egyptian army? Aren't these the people that God fed and provided for and protected and led them through the wilderness as the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night as he led them through the wilderness? Aren't these the same people that destroyed Gog and the Zamzummim and the giants of the land? Aren't these the same people that came in and the walls of Jericho fell before them and no curse could be given against them as Balak hired Balaam, the false prophet? Aren't these the people of God? Why now are they being destroyed, as it were, by their enemy?" It will be a hissing because God is going to say, "Because you didn't listen. You didn't hearken. You didn't turn. When I sent the prophets to you, you stubbornly stiffened your neck and set your face like a flint toward your ways. And you didn't listen and turn."

"And so," he says, "I'm going to send Nebuchadnezzar and the people are going to hiss when they see it." Listen to verse 10, "Moreover I will take from them the voice of celebration, of mirth, and the voice of gladness and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride and the sound of the millstone, which spoke of plenty. You took your grain down to the millstone to have it ground into the flour and the light of the candle. This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years."

Daniel understood the 70-year vision when we get to Daniel Chapter 9 because he studied Jeremiah the prophet. And that tells us that Daniel believed that Jeremiah was a prophet. And he understood from the study of Jeremiah that 70 years were determined, and then Gabriel comes and gives him further information on these 70 years. And then he gives him further information on what's going to go on past that until the return of Christ for his church.

So it's interesting as we look at these things that God is saying, "The reason this is happening," and again from chapter 12 all the way through chapter 24, God is justifying what he is doing, and he's giving us reasons for it. And the reasons are simple: my people who are called by my name have not humbled themselves in prayer, they haven't turned from the wicked ways, but they've hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks, and so I have to discipline them. Not punish, discipline, correct.

And so that's the whole idea here. So he's going to give a riddle and a parable, so listen to it as we walk through it, verse 3. And he said, "Thus saith the Lord God, a great eagle, which represents Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, with great wings, long wings, full of feathers, with diverse colors, came from Lebanon, or came unto Lebanon, which represents Jerusalem, on his way back from the Battle of Carchemish 605 BC, it's a point of history. And he took the high branches of the cedars. Those strong cedars, the princes and the kings, as it were, of Jerusalem, he took them. He chopped off the top of his young twigs, and he carried them like traffic to the city of merchants. He carried them back to Babylon. All of this is God's correction for a people that wouldn't turn from their idolatry. God is doing this."

"He took also the seed of the land, the princes, as it were, the priests, and he planted them in a fruitful field." Now God is still going to bless them in their time of correction, but the whole idea is to humble them. I don't know quite how to put this into words, but some of you that have been through it will understand what I'm about to say.

There are times when God will hurt us, and it hurts. But he will never harm us. There are times when he's going to put us in the fire. This is what James is talking about when he says, we should count it all joy when we fall into diverse trials, knowing that the trying of our faith is producing something, and that we need not to bail on that but let it have its perfect work that we might be complete, entire, lacking nothing.

There will be times in your life when you're not listening. There will be times in your life where you are being stubborn and rebellious even as God's people, even in the New Testament filled with the Holy Spirit, where God will have to put you in the fire and then on the anvil, and then he's going to have to take the hammer, as it were, and he's going to have to drive Mike Warren out of Mike Warren and forge something of God in me. And then he's going to dunk me, as it were, into this oil, that every molecule in my body would shiver and that he might put temper in me.

Because the only thing I'm taking out of this life is my character, and that's character building. It's where God breaks me. It's where God shapes me. It's where God molds me. It's where he takes the stubbornness out of me and where he takes out my tendencies to sin. Because anybody that knows anything about forging an instrument, putting temper in it, that after you've gone through this process, you'll take a file, as we've said before, and you rub it across it, and if the file bites in. If sin still bites, then he repeats the process. Rinse and repeat until there's temper in us.

And so God is not trying to destroy, as it were. He's not trying to punish, as it were. He's trying to forge, as it were, something of himself in you and me that can only be accomplished through the fire, the anvil, the hammer, the oil. You may not like the process, and I certainly don't. If you like the process, please talk to me afterwards. You need help. We may not like the process of being broken. We may not like the process of being heated up and forged into something God wants us to be and then dunked in that oil so every molecule shivers in our being. We may not like the process, but we will love the product.

And I have learned in my 46 years of serving the Lord that when I'm in the midst of that time where there's something in my life that God wants to deal with, there's something in my life that I'm not getting it. Maybe not so much stubborn, but just dense. I can be stubborn too, but dense. As God begins to break, as God begins to bring some hurt, some pain, some brokenness to my life, I'm at a place now in my Christian maturity where I understand it's God that's doing this.

So many times we want to blame the devil. Oh, the devil can take advantage of those moments. But we can say in those moments, "All things are working together for good." Even seeing the temple destroyed and the priest led away to Babylon, even seeing the city sacked and 70 years in captivity. Because after that 70 years, when Israel comes out, they will never commit idolatry again. Oh, they fell into other sins just like we do, but that sin of idolatry was never part of their national sense of worship ever again. And sometimes to get the idols out of our lives, God has to break us. It hurts, but he's not harming you. In fact, he's shaping something of himself in you.

And so he's telling them that this is what's going to happen. He's going to come, he's going to lead you into captivity, you're going to be there for 70 years as Jeremiah said. And what verse was I on in 17? Was I on five or six? Six.

"And it grew and became a spreading vine." So as they're rebelling, and this is the point, as they're not willing to submit to God's correction, we're going to see that Zedekiah reaches out to Egypt for their horses and for their cavalry, for their soldiers, for their infantry to come and help in their rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, who, by the way, is God's servant. He's God's instrument to correct them. So they're rebelling against truly God's correction.

"And so the vine spread and grew in stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were toward him, so that the vine brought forth branches and they shot forth sprigs." And it says, "There was also another great eagle, a great winged and many feathers. And behold, this vine bent her roots toward him." Now this is Egypt. This is no doubt the Pharaoh of Egypt, who just lost the battle, Pharaoh Necho, to Nebuchadnezzar.

So they're reaching out to him, which represents the world. "And behold, this vine did bend its roots toward him and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation, that they might seek help and nourishment from the world."

Be careful, Christian. Here's the application. So often when God is trying to work in your life, so often when God is trying to speak things of himself into your life, you run. You hide. You know, one of the most devastating things to me is when I see God working in somebody's life, then you don't see them around anymore, and you find out they're someplace else where they're not hearing the truth. You know what's sad to me? Not that they're not here. The sad thing to me is how many times are you going to lap the mountain?

Because I don't see God's church as an individual place. I see it as global. I see it that we're all the body of Christ, and you can run and you can hide. And there are churches that will tell you your behavior is okay. We're not one of them. We're going to see this evening before we're done that we believe that we're saved by grace through faith, that not of ourselves, it is a gift from God. But we also believe that saving grace is changing grace. We are to grow in grace and in the knowledge and the likeness of Christ.

We didn't receive grace so that we continue in sin, because whom the Son set free is free indeed. He set us free from those things. He set us free from the idols in our life that we might serve the true and living God, that we might come into his presence and be blessed by our Father and by our Savior and by the work of the Spirit in our lives. He's set us free that we would enjoy him as his people, that we would be a covenant people.

But so many people today, and that's why we're warned in the scripture, in the time we're living in, there's going to be a falling away from the biblical faith because people don't love the truth anymore. They don't have a love of it. In you know, sometimes when the Lord is cutting me and it hurts, I have to say to them, "Lord, please don't let me out of this situation, I beg you, until you have completed your work in me. I know it hurts, and I know that I want to run, that's my tendencies, I want to run from what I've come to be, back when I used to just be me."

"But Lord, you have to keep me in that place. You have to keep me in the fire, keep me on the anvil. Lord, allow me to remain in that place while you're hammering something of yourself in me. Dunk me in the oil of the Spirit one more time, Lord. Let every molecule scream to you, Father, because I know that when you are done, I will love the product. I just don't like the process." And I think there'd be something wrong with you if you did like the process. Amen? There would be a masochist.

And so they're not willing to submit to this process, and so they're reaching out, as it were, verse 7, to the world. "And it was planted in a good soil." God said, "Listen, I put you in Babylon, it was a good place for you at that time." All things are working together for good. Listen, sometimes we complain about the places God plants us because we don't like it. But he planted you there so that he could deal with some things in your life.

He said, "Listen, I planted you in good soil by the waters by the Nile, that you might bring forth branches and that you might bear fruit and that you might be a goodly vine. I did this for your benefit. Say thou, thus saith the Lord God, shall it prosper? Shall your rebellion, shall your seeking wisdom from another place, or shall you prosper when you run away from my correction and seek help from another direction? Shall it prosper? Shall I not pull up the roots thereof and cut off the fruit thereof that is withered? It shall wither in all its leaves of her spring, even without great power of many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof. It will not prosper."

When you don't submit to God's correction and you run away from it and you try to hide from it, you will not prosper because God loves you. He only corrects those that are his and only corrects those that he loves. And listen, where are you going to run? David said, "Where can I go that I'm not in your presence? If I went to the uttermost parts of earth, you're there. If I could travel through space, you're there." The best thing for us as human beings and as we need to learn as we look back at Israel is when God corrects, hearken. Listen, repent. Yield.

And so that it can be over quickly, you can learn the lesson completely, but if you try to run from it, shall it prosper? Again, verse 10, "Yea behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither and shall the east wind touch it, which would dry it up? Shall it wither in the furrows where it grew? Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me saying, say now to this rebellious house." Again, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.

Listen, we all make mistakes. We all fail. Listen, when we're saved, we come into this into this Christian experience like babies. Paul tells us that we we drink milk because we're not able to eat solid meat yet. We're growing in grace. We're growing in knowledge. And sometimes we can get hung up in our growth so that God has to correct, so that God has to remove, so God has to do something of discipline in our lives.

What we need to learn to do is to submit to the Father because we know that God is good and he's good all of the time, and that all things are working out together for our good because we love God and we're called according to his purposes. And so instead of fighting it and resisting it, just say, "Lord, what is it you're trying to tell me? What is it you're trying to teach me? What is it in me that is hurting me and harming me that you want to remove? What characteristic of my life needs to be forged into the image of Christ? I want to submit to that."

It's like Isaiah was when he signs off as he's dealing with this, he said, "Listen, you want to get God's attention? To this man, to this woman will he look: to the ones of a broken and contrite spirit and who trembles at my words. That's all I'm looking for," God's saying. "That's why this is going to happen to you because you're not listening. You're not broken. You're not contrite. You don't approach my word with the fear of the Lord and trembling and saying, 'Lord, I want to be obedient.'"

And God is saying through Ezekiel, "This is why. Now you say to this rebellious house, know ye not what these things mean? Do you not understand this riddle wrapped in a parable? Tell them behold the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem and hath taken the king thereof and the princes thereof and led them into Babylon. That's the eagle. That's the cedars and the tops of the cedars. This is the city of the merchants to Babylon."

"And hath taken the king's seed, he's taken Jehoiachin and he set up Zedekiah to be a vassal king and made a covenant with him, that is Zedekiah, and hath taken an oath with him. Zedekiah swore an oath that he would give his allegiance, and yet the false prophets turned this king's head away from his oath, even though Jeremiah was warning, and he sought help from Egypt to his own hurt. Hath taken an oath of the mighty land, the kingdom might be base, that it might be lifted up from itself."

"But he rebelled against him and sending ambassadors to Egypt that they might give him horses and much people. Shall prosper, shall he prosper? He's rebelling against my correction. Shall he prosper in it?"

I'm telling you, I just am at a place in my life, 46 years in the Lord, 46 years serving the Lord, "Lord, when you need to correct me, I just want to submit to it. I just don't it just becomes so much worse when I don't listen, when I don't hearken, you know, when I try to rebel because there's nothing that can help you when God is correcting you but repentance." We're going to see that in the next chapter.

"But he rebelled against him and sending ambassadors to Egypt that he might give him horses. As though horses and people, shall it prosper? Shall he escape that doeth such things, or shall he break the covenant and be delivered?" In fact, when Zedekiah fled when Nebuchadnezzar came in 597 BC, they found him and they executed him. Because you didn't turn at my direction, you died.

Watch what he says in verse 16 as we end off this chapter and read through it. He says, "As I live, saith the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, Zedekiah's despising the oath that he gave to Nebuchadnezzar and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylon shall he die." They captured him, they took him to Babylon, and in front of all the people, they slew him.

"Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in war by casting up mounts and building forts to cut off the persons. They didn't succeed either. So he despised the oath by breaking the covenant when, lo, he had given his hand and had done all these things, he shall not escape."

How many of you have ever prayed, "Lord, have your will in my life? Lord, do whatever it takes to conform me into the image of Christ? Lord, I want to be more like you. Father, I want to be a real Christian, I want to be a solid Christian. Lord, I promise you that no matter what, I'm going to serve you." It's better to never make that oath than to break it. And sometimes God will have to discipline us to get us to that place.

Can I get an amen? How many have ever been there? Do you like it? No, that's good. Was it good at the end of it? Say that louder. Yes. Okay. This is what we're talking about here. This is a single point, and I'm going to drive it home all the way to the end of this chapter.

"Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant when, lo, he had given his hand and had done all of these things, he shall not escape. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, as I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised and my covenant that he hath broken even will I recompense upon his own head. And I shall spread my net upon him and he shall be taken in a snare, and I will bring him to Babylon and I will plead with him there for his trespasses that he hath trespassed against me."

Notice how far God goes. Even when he rebelled, even when he was captured, even when he's taken to Babylon and he realized that he wasn't going to succeed by seeking help from the world, even at that time, God is still dealing with Zedekiah. "Will you not repent? Will you not soften your heart? Will you not bow your knee to me? Will you not understand this is my doing?"

And because he didn't, we know what happens. "And all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward all the winds, and they shall know that I am the Lord and I have spoken it. Thus saith the Lord God, I will take of the high branches of the cedar and I will set it. I will crop off from the top of the young twigs and the tender ones, and will plant them upon the high mountains and eminent places. In the mountains of the height of Israel will I plant it, and it shall bring forth boughs and bear fruit, goodly fruit, godly cedars and goodly cedars, and under it shall dwell the fowls of the wings, and the shadows of the branches shall dwell. All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord, have brought down this high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree and made the dry tree to flourish, and I the Lord have spoken it and I have done it."

Notice how he ends this chapter by giving them a promise. "When I cut down the rebellion and the pride in your life and that high tree falls, there will be another tree that springs up: a low tree. And that tree will I bless. That tree will I water. That tree will be green and bear fruit." So many times in our lives as Christians, God has to cut down the pride, the self-will, the rebellion, the self-seeking, but he does that so that what will grow up in its place is something that is contrite and broken, something that is sincere and real that he can bless. It's the whole thing we read in John Chapter 15 of the pruning of the vine. Not the destroying of the vine, but the pruning of it. And our God loves us so much, and our Father cares so deeply for us and for our spiritual well-being. He's more concerned about our eternal well-being than he is about our temporal well-being, so he will allow in our life temporal discomfort that we might enjoy one day eternal blessings.

He loves us enough to take us, as it were, through the valley of the shadow of death that we might learn the lessons that we can trust him. He's our shepherd, his rod and his staff, they comfort us, and one day we will sit on the other side of that at a banqueting table in the midst of our enemies. So not everything that comes our way that is hard is from the devil. Oh, the devil will try to take advantage of it, but many times it's our Master trying to make us servants. It's our Lord trying to conform us into his image. It's our God trying to remove the pride and stubbornness and rebellion out of our lives because he hates those things and put something of brokenness and contriteness and the trembling of his word. And I want to tell you Solomon had it right when he told us it's better to go to a funeral than to a wedding because times of sorrow have a more refining effect upon our lives.

I look back over my life and I've learned more in my failures, I've learned more in those times of being broken before the Lord, I've learned more in the times that I faceplanted than I ever learned in my successes. I've learned more in the valley than I ever learned on the mountaintop. And I actually, and I don't want you to think that I'm weird, but I actually thank him for the valleys. Because I know when I enter that valley, the Lord enters it with me. And though it may seem like death, he's with me. His rod, his staff, they comfort me. And I know he's trying to teach me something. Oh, I may not understand it, and the world around me may not understand it. The world may scoff and mock you. But God is putting something of himself in you that can only come through failure and brokenness.

And so James would say in the New Testament, "Count it all joy when you fall into various, sometimes they can be various and they can be multitudes of trials that have come to test and to try your faith. Count it all joy and let it have its perfect work because it's producing something in you. Oh, and by the way, if you lack wisdom, ask of the Father, he'll tell you if it's Satan buffeting you or if it's Christ teaching you and training you." That's why Peter says, "Don't think it a strange thing that you fall into fiery trials that come to test your faith as though some strange thing has happened to you. Listen, God's going to put you in the fire, he's going to put you on the anvil, he's going to take the hammer and shape and mold himself in you, and then he's going to dunk you in oil. It's part of the process." Amen? And so you're either going into it or coming out of it. Or maybe tonight we hear the sound of the file going across your life and if it bites, guess what? Rinse and repeat.

And so that's the singular lesson in Chapter 17. I think I get 10, 12 minutes. Yep, we can do it. Or at least we'll get started on it. Chapter 18. Now, Chapter 18 is an interesting chapter. Two things: make note of this if you've got your pad and pen out. Two things. The things that we need to learn in Chapter 17 is that we need to humble ourselves, we need to cleanse our hands and repent, and then God will lift us up. Submit to his correction, don't resist it. That's Chapter 17. But Chapter 18, now two things here: Personal Responsibility.

Listen, each one of us are personally responsible for our own conduct. Let me say this in the fore because the psychologist and the psychiatrists of the day and all of these self-help books will want to say, "Well, you've got daddy issues, or you've got mom issues, or you've got parent issues, or it's because of the way you were raised, or it's because of your home, or it's because of your environment you are the way you are." None of that is correct.

The Bible will clearly teach us it's not correct. You can't blame your mom or your dad. My parents weren't believers when I became a believer. I got the lead my parents to Christ, both of them are in heaven waiting for me. You are not a product of your environment, and you're not a product of other people's influences on you. You are a product of your choices. Choose you this day whom you're going to serve. And that's what he's going to say because there's a proverb going on in the land that the father ate sour grapes and the kids' teeth are etched because of it. And he's going to tell us, "Listen, you don't blame your dad. You made the decisions and each person stands before me personally and individually."

You know, you can be raised in the most godly home and turn out to be wicked. He's going to tell us that and God will judge you for that. Or you can be raised in a wicked home and turn out to be godly and God will bless you for that. But don't blame your situation on your environment. You better blame it on your heart because every man is given a measure of faith and the Holy Spirit has dealt with every man that comes into this life. And you either choose to serve Jesus or you don't choose, but everyone will get a chance. Amen?

So, you know, I counsel with parents all the time who are just broken because their kids are prodigals. And they begin to blame themselves, and I say, "Oh no, no, not at all. They're adults. They're not a product of their environment any longer. They're a product of their choices. And they're making bad choices, but God knows how to deal with that too." Amen? So that's the premise.

And then the second thing is, and I want you to get this when we get to verse 21, I think we can get at least that far. I hope we can get all the way through it because I don't want to come back to it. This is a kind of a hard chapter. But I want the second point is the power of repentance. You know, Chuck Smith wrote a book, and I was just sharing this with somebody. I don't know how many have read it, *Why Grace Changes Everything*. How many read the book? What? Just a couple of you? I'm buying cases of them because when you repent, at that moment it changes everything.

So let's read quickly through this so we can at least get to verse 21. A lot to say about that. Verse 1, Chapter 18. The word of the Lord came unto me saying again, "What mean ye that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel saying, 'The father has eaten sour grapes and the child's teeth is set on edge'?"

"As I live." That's God's way of saying, "I'm very serious about this. As I live, saith the Lord God, you shall not have occasion anymore to use this proverb in Israel." You don't blame your parents for your behavior. You blame yourself. Each one of us will stand before him as individuals on may I say this, there'll be no grandchildren in the kingdom of heaven. You're either a child or you're not. I can only tell you of my faith, but at some point in your life, if you're one of my children or grandchildren, you have to come to your own faith.

I came to faith in Jesus Christ in a home that had no faith. And I got the wonderful privilege as I said before, of leading my father and then my mother to Christ. Pastoring my dad. That was a weird deal. For six years before he went to be with the Lord, I got the pastor him. That was odd. I'm telling my dad how he ought to live. Something just not right about that. But my dad humbled himself and he would he would actually call me pastor. "Pastor, what does this mean?" Because my dad understood authority, he understood submission, he got it. He grew like you can't I couldn't give him enough to read, he was like Paul. I'd bring him stacks of books that he'd had several heart attacks, he wasn't able to do a lot, and he would just burn through those books. And we'd have deep discussions. A lot of me forming and regurgitating and forming doctrine was in my training with my dad. The doctrines class that we wrote or the things that him and I discussed.

So you don't get to blame. He says, "What is this proverb?" Watch what he says in verse 4, "Behold all souls are mine. Every soul, listen, has to deal with me individually with their creator. Every soul is mine and every soul is accountable to me. Every soul is mine, as the soul of the father so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sinneth will reap his own benefits: he shall die. He's making those decisions. He can't blame them on his father, he can't blame them on his environment. He has to blame it on his relationship with me or lack thereof, but he's making decisions."

Verse 5, "But if a man be just, listen carefully. Now get granted this is Old Testament because you were justified by your works and if you failed, then you went down and offered a sacrifice. In a few moments I'll bring this into the New Testament and into the New Covenant that we have. So don't think you're justified by works in the New Covenant, you're not. We are not justified by our performance, we're justified by Christ's performance. Amen? Old Testament, you were justified by your performance and if you failed, you took a sheep or a goat or a bull ox down to the Tabernacle and Temple, you sacrificed it and that's how you got atoned. The word there for atonement is *kopher*, which means your sins were covered, they were never removed. New Covenant, as John pointed to Jesus, said, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.' Our sins are gone and it's not based on our performance, it's based on his." Let me say that before we go into this so you don't get the wrong idea.

"But if any man be just and do that which is lawful and right, and hath not eaten upon the mountains," that he means that you've not gone up there to serve the idols, "neither have lifted up his eyes to idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbor's wife, neither hath come near unto a menstruous woman, hath not oppressed any but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry and has covered the nakedness with a garment, modest, and he hath not given forth usury, he's not taking advantage of people, neither hath he taken increase that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, he's tried to do what's right, hath executed true judgment or justice between man and man, hath walked in my statues and have kept my judgments to deal truly, he is just. He shall surely live, saith the Lord. If this man does what's right, he says to Micah, 'I have shown thee, oh man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you. Do what is right, love mercy, walk humbly.' And so he just saying if he does, then he shall live."

"If he begets a son and he's a robber, a shedder of blood and does not like to do any of these things, and does not in any of his duties, but even hath eaten upon the mountains and defiled his neighbor's wife, hath oppressed the poor and needy and spoiled with violence and has not restored his pledge and he's lifted up his eyes unto idols and hath committed abominations, hath given forth upon usury and hath taken increase, shall he then live? He shall not live. He have done all of these abominations. He shall surely die and listen carefully, his blood shall be upon his own head."

And so he's saying from generations, if somebody does what is right, even though he's had no influence, he will live. If that one who's done what is righteous and he bears a son or a daughter and they don't do what what is right, is it the father or the parent's fault? No. He's making poor decisions and listen, he shall surely die and his blood shall be upon his own head.

"Now lo," verse 14, "if he begets a son and he sees all his father's sin which he hath done and considers it and does not such like." So now this wicked man has buried a son. Now we got a grandson. We got a righteous father, an unrighteous son, and now we got a grandson that watches as unrighteous father and he doesn't do the same. That he had not eaten upon the mountains, neither lifted up his eyes to idols of the house of Israel, hath not defiled his neighbor's wife, neither he oppressed any, not to withhold the pledge, neither has he spoiled by violence or given his bread to the hungry or has covered nakedness with a garment, that hath taken off his hand of the poor and received usury or increase, hath executed judgment, hath walked in my statutes, he shall not die for the iniquity of his father. He shall surely live. And as for his father, because he cruelly oppressed and spoiled his brother by violence and did that which is not good among the people, lo, even he shall die in his iniquity. Yet say you, 'Why?'"

Because they had this proverb that it was the father's responsibility if the son didn't live righteous. And God said, "I'm going to break you of that because each person has an intimate, individual relationship with me." What he's trying to say is it's not religious and we're not a herd kind of a thing. We're individuals. Each one of us is responsible for our own personal walk.

Parents, you should raise your children in the way they should go, you should discipline them, you should train them. But once they get out of the house and they're adults, then they have to make the true and living God their God. They have to make Jesus Christ their Lord and their Savior, and if they don't, that's not on you because our walk, our relationship, is personal, it's individual, it's intimate.

And so the cry of Israel is that "Yet they say why? Doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son had done that which is lawful and right and hath kept all my statues and hath done them, shall he not surely live? The soul that sinneth." It's an individual thing. This is what he's saying. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquities of the father, neither the father bear the iniquities of the son. The righteous for the the righteous of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him."

Now verse 21, very important. Very important. Let let me ask you this before before we get there and and I'm just going to I got a few verses I want to read with that. Well, actually I'll read those verses next week because I just I don't want to hurry through this section, but I wanted to get to verse 21. How many struggle with your past failures? How many of you struggle with condemnation and shame and guilt? How many struggle to forgive yourself? How many struggle to forgive others?

You know, I was just talking with somebody this week about the story of the prodigal son. I don't think it should be named. When you look at your Bible, you know, at the top of it says the prodigal son, you know, as you're going through, you got one of those kind of Bibles that kind of gives you as you're moving through the Gospels what the story is. It should never have been named the prodigal son. It should have been the Condemning Brother. Because every one of us is a prodigal.

And that story has been taught by so many pastors from so many pulpits as "Oh, that bad son that took and wasted and then finally repented when he was slopping the hogs and humbled himself and made his way home." And there you got the righteous brother that never left. No, no, no, that's not the story. That's not what Jesus was trying to communicate because every one of us is a prodigal. We were conceived in sin and born in transgression. All like sheep have gone astray. Every one of us has been a prodigal. Can I get an amen?

But when we got tired of slopping with the pigs, and that would have been one of the most defiling things as a Jewish boy, slopping with pigs, and we came to our senses and we looked up and we said, "Our Father, the servants in our Father's house live better than this. I'm going to stop this nonsense and I'm going to go home."

And when he arrives at the driveway, this is the picture in my mind when I read this story, it's a long driveway. And he comes up and, you know, there's the name of the father on the mailbox, and he realizes he's home, and he looks up the driveway and he sees this figure way up there standing at the driveway looking back at him, and he's looking at it. And he starts to walk up this long driveway filled with shame, filled with guilt, filled with brokenness, probably still smelling like pigs. And the closer he gets, he realizes the image was his father, watching for him, waiting for him.

And finally when the two figures recognize and realize, they run into an embrace. Two things happened when the father embraces the prodigal son. Number one, he's showing his love. Number two, he's protecting him from the consequences because it would have been the right of the neighbors to take that rebellious son to the gates of the city and stone him to death. And the father's saying, "I love you, I accept you, I protect you." And then he says, "You go kill the fatted calf. You put a ring on his finger. You put a robe on his back. You put shoes on his feet. We're partying tonight because that which was lost has been found." That's the Father's concept. That's all the Father was ever waiting for is for you and I when we've been rebellious, when we've been sinful, when we've gone off into the world, is to come home. That's what he wants for Israel. That's why Chapter 17 is so important. He's correcting. He's bringing them back with a promise of restoration after the 70 years. We have the beauty of hindsight to look back and say God kept his promise.

But we don't end the story there because it would have been a beautiful picture if we would have because it would have represented us coming back to the Father. But the other brother, out in the field, hears this sound of party going on and so one of the servants comes out to meet him and says, "Man, listen, you need to come, we're having a party." And the guy says, "What are we having a party about?" He said, "Your brother. He's home."

"My brother? That dirty rat? You mean the one who took his inheritance and went and squandered? You mean the one that left me and I've been faithful all of this time with the father and he goes off and we're throwing him a party? They never threw me a party."

Don't ever be that person. Because when you're that person, you diminish the grace of God. You diminish the character of the Father. You bring shame to your own self because you were a prodigal. That self-righteous, religious brother thought he had never failed the father just because he stood close to the father. But I'm going to tell you there's a love that that son who walked away who came back will have for the father that that brother will never have. Because much forgiven, much loved.

Now, I want to read verse 21. "But," I like the butts in the Bible. I'm going to write a book one of these time about the butts in the Bible: But God. But us being stupid, but God. "But if the wicked will turn from all of his sin that he had committed and keep all of my statutes and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die."

Watch verse 22 and we'll end there, I promise. "All his transgressions, all of them that he had committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him." Oh, I got a bunch of New Testament verses to go with that one. They shall not be mentioned unto him. In his righteousness that he hath done, he shall live. When we stand before the Father, not one failure. True story: when I got saved, man, I was burning through the Bible. Man, I was reading it like you couldn't believe.

And I'd get there early because I knew the pastor got there early so I have a bunch of questions, I have my notepad out. He got so tired of me meeting him there that he bought me a set of commentaries. First set of commentaries, Barnes' Notes on the New Testament, Old Testament, he bought them for me. He said, "Here, go study for yourself." And I said, "I got a question, got a really good. Listen, there must I need to know the names of the Bible because in the Old Testament I read about this Abraham character that was a mess. Got his wife in trouble a couple times. And I read about these other people, but then when I get to the New Testament in Hebrews Chapter 11, I read about these guys with the same names that man, were just successful."

"So how do I know who's who?" And the pastor looked at me, "Same." I said, "Not the same. Can't be the same. You got these failures in the Old Testament and you got these guys in the New Testament that are just, you know, they're men of faith. Same." Not same. Can't be the same. You know, your Old Testament their failures, New Testament they're successes. The same. I said, "How can that be?" He said, "You go figure it out."

I went away there scratching my head, prayed for a long time and the Lord showed me: In this life, we'll be associated with our failures. We just are. And there will be a lot of brothers that think that their stuff doesn't stink, that think that they can point a finger at you and accuse you. The Father never will. The Father's just glad you're home.

And so you're going to have those failures and reminders of your failures here. But when you get there, not one of them will be mentioned. Not one of them. Old Testament, New Testament. But all of your successes will be recorded and you will be rewarded for your faithfulness. "Your sins and your iniquities," Hebrews 10:17 saith the Lord, "I will remember no more."

So if you're filled with guilt and shame, stop it! Amen? You know, that's why you get a new name in heaven because you don't want to be associated with the old one, do you? But know that every one of those failures, the Bible says that God has numbered your failures, he took every one of those failures and he forged something in you that could not be forged any other way. And that's why we can say tonight all things work together for good. Amen to those who love God and are called according to his purposes. Even the valley of the shadow of death. You know, you don't always get to be on a mountaintop, sometimes you got to go through a valley. Amen?

I don't like the process. I love the mountaintop, I just don't like the valleys. But let me clue you in on something because I do a lot of prayer walking in the mountains. For you to get to the mountaintop, you got to go through a valley. Amen? And it's downhill and uphill. So listen, God is working in you and he will continue, we'll get this next week, continue to work in you until Christ is forged. Paul used the word "formed," I use the word "forged" in you. Amen?

Now, I burned up the worship team's time, so let's stand, we'll pray and I'll close you in a last song. I hope I have permission to do that from time to time. I just I get going and I don't know where to stop and I lied to you and so I apologize, I repent. I didn't get through Chapter 18, but I got to most of it.