St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 19 -- September 26^th and September 29^th, 2002

Ezekiel 18:25-32

The soul who sins is the one who will die. "Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' Hear, O house of Israel: Is my way unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust? If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin, he will die for it; because of the sin he has committed he will die. But if a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life. Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die. Yet the house of Israel says, " The way of the LORD is not just.' Are my ways unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?

"Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, 0 house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!"

Dear followers of the God who know God’s justice and live in God’s forgiveness. Amen

Life is not Fair!!! How many times have we heard people say this? Children say it about their parents and their teachers. Workers say it about their bosses and places of employment. Adults say it about the economy and their problems in life. But what is fair? The problem isn’t that life isn’t fair. The problem most likely is that many times we don’t want to take responsibility for what happens in our life and accept the consequences of our actions. The other day I heard and example illustrating this. A father has a teenage son who is considerably overweight. Rather than accepting this fact or accepting any responsibility for the situation, the father was suing McDonald’s for enticing his son with those seductive TV ads to eat too much at McDonald’s, which caused him to be overweight. It was McDonald’s fault! Where’s the responsibility in that thinking. The father and the son both have responsibility. The father for allowing his son to eat at McDonald’s whenever he wanted, and the son for not stopping even when he realized he was gaining weight Life is not fair!

This is exactly what the people of Israel were doing as Ezekiel spoke these words, and this is what we must admit we do all too often. In fact we many times call our God unfair for the things that he let’s into our life or for the sinful consequences that come from our sinful actions. But as we look at the words from Ezekiel we will soon be led to see by the power of the Holy Spirit that God ‘s ways are always perfect and just, and that it is our ways that are not perfect. That is why we will want to use the theme for this morning:

Sermon Text: Ezekiel 18:25-32
Theme: The Way of the Lord is Just

1. He warns us about sin’s consequences
2. He frees us from sin’s consequences

The title of this whole chapter from Ezekiel reads, "The Soul who Sins Will Die." That is a pretty simple title because it is plain and to the point. If we just spoke that phrase we would say that there isn’t much arguing about this statement from God. The people of Israel back in the time of the prophet Ezekiel were however having some difficulty in comprehending what that statement meant. Their sinful human nature was acting up. They thought that God wasn’t being fair to them. He was expecting too much from them. There was no way that they could do what God wanted. Ezekiel writes, "The house of Israel says, the way of the Lord is not just." Why would they say such a thing? How in the world could the nation of Israel speak such unfair words about the God who had done so much for them?

As we stand before God we also need to realize that God means what he says. He will be just and punish every single person for the wrongs he has committed. When we look into our hearts we realize exactly what God means. He expects us to remain firm in our faith and to show our thanks in the lives we live. When we fail to do this, God says that we deserve to be punished. How many of you have been punished by your parents? Maybe you were grounded. Maybe you were put in a time out. Maybe you lost some privileges. At the time that you were punished did you think that your parents were fair? Did you think that you deserved what you got, or did you think to yourselves that your parents were completely unfair in what they did? In most cases your parents were completely fair and as God’s representatives to watch over you they were doing the right things, because you had broken the rules of the house. Why in the world would you call your parents unfair, when it was you who had broken the rules and brought their punishment on you. But we sometimes treat God like this

The example that Ezekiel talks about is the righteous person or believer who thinks that he can never fall away from God. Ezekiel was pointing out that just because you area Christian you do not have the right to live in sin and to disregard God’s ways. As Christians we do not have the right to say that sin is OK, because God is going to forgive it anyway. As Christians we do not have the right to think God is unfair when he punishes us for the sins we willfully commit. The people of Israel are an example for all of us. The people of Israel were God’s specially chosen people. God was with them and blessed them tremendously, but look at how they treated their God. They constantly were complaining. They constantly were falling prey to the false gods of the world. They constantly thought that there was something better than God.

Ezekiel said this cannot continue like this. God will punish you and cut you off. Ezekiel writes, "If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin, he will die for it; because of the sin he has committed he will die…. Yet the house of Israel says, " The way of the LORD is not just.' Are my ways unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust? "Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD." God wants us to realize that the problem is not with God. The problem is with those who willfully live in sin. God will judge each one of us according to our ways. Each individual person will stand before God. Each person will let his faith stand out there for God to see. Each person will have no excuse, but himself. God has never pulled any punches. Eternal death is what will come to those who live in their sin and do not repent or turn to the Lord for the forgiveness God offers.

That is what Ezekiel was trying to point out to the people of Israel. All the people of Israel could worry about is how unfair God is. Its kind of like the basketball player that was complaining so much to the referee about a foul called on him that he forgot to guard his man and his man scored the winning basket. He got sidetracked by the wrong things and it cost him. Ezekiel was trying to point the people of Israel to see how wonderful God’s love is when he writes, "For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!" God’s will is not to look to punish all people. God’s wish and will is that all people would not reject him, but instead would be led by the Holy Spirit to trust the Lord and his love.

God’s love is so great that he is willing to take into his family anyone who has been led to turn from his sin. He will take the most wicked person and call him his own, no strings attached. Look at Paul the avid Jew killer, who became a proclaimer of the gospel.. Look at the criminal who hung on the cross next to Jesus that was assured heaven was his. Look at the tax collector in the temple that was declared right in God’s eyes instead of the self-righteous Pharisee. Look at the Samaritan lady who had many husbands, but was still forgiven by Jesus because of her faith. Look at ourselves who are terrible sinners, but whom God has called to faith. This is exactly what Ezekiel wanted the wicked Israelites to know and this is what he wants us as sinners to know, "But if a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life. Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die." God is fair and is full of free and complete forgiveness, which he gave to us as a gift, the gift of his one and only Son.

God is very clear in what he wants us to do. Have you ever seen those shows where they perform a complete makeover on some lucky audience member. They always take this terrible first picture of the person and they then change the person completely. They put on new clothes, they cut their hair, they put on makeup and jewelry and then present the new person who looks about a 1000 times better than the before picture. That person has changed 180 degrees by changing his outward appearance.

God is telling us to change ourselves also. He wants us to have a complete spiritual makeover. Our before picture is very ugly. We are covered head to toe in all of our sins and guilt. Through the help of the Holy Spirit working in God’s Law and Gospel, God is giving our hearts and lives a makeover. God wants us to change our lives -- what we do and say. He wants to lead us to Repent from our sinful ways and turn 180 degrees from our sinful selves back to the Lord. Our sins will lead us only into destruction. God’s saving message of Jesus will lead us to our eternal life in heaven. Ezekiel puts it so clear, "Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit." Through God’s perfect love, our hearts are changed to a new life and a new spirit, which is full of love for the Lord.

Are God’s ways unjust? Certainly not! God has told us that he will in perfect love judge those who have fallen astray, and in perfect love he will forgive all those who do not reject him. Thanks be to a God that is always just and always full of perfect love, even when we are not always so perfect and do not appreciate all of God’s love. Amen