Word of Salvation – Vol. 21 No. 28 - April 1975

 

A Taste Of Sour Grapes

 

Sermon by Rev. Henry Pennings Th.Grad. on Ezekiel 18:1-4

(Could be used as Youth Sermon)

Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 18

 

One of the saddest of all the psalms is Psalm 137.

 "We lived by the Babylonian canals:" writes the psalmist.
 We were most sorrowful - when we remembered Zion.
 We hung our harps there on the willow trees,
 For those who carried us captive demanded SONGS
 from us there Our tormentors, required MERRIMENT of us, saying -
 SING US ONE OF THE SONGS OF ZION!’”

The end of the psalm is sadder still utter frustration:
            "He will be blessed who seizes your children, and hurls them to destruction."

It's very, very sad, when a people are taken away from its homeland.  It's very sad, when that nation is so crushed, that it is hardly a nation any more.  So sad, that Israel wishes upon its captors MAY YOUR CHILDREN BE HURLED TO DESTRUCTION.

Yes, these Babylonians were despised by the sons of Israel.  Were the conditions of the captivity so bad, then?  We don't know if they were bad.  Yet we know from history that the people of this region were very cruel.  It's a very sad psalm.  The time it portrays – the time when God's covenant people are crying beside the waters of Babylon is equally sad.

And yet – we doubt sometimes the truth of the scriptures when it tells us – the result of sin is utter misery.  So often we still have that feeling deep down that living a life of sin is very pleasant.  Yes, God hates it – we know that.  But doesn't God hate all things that are pleasing to us?  The grass on the other side of the fence – how pleasant it looks.  Others are enjoying life, it appears, but we – we must live our lives as if we were behind prison walls!

We yearn for freedom, but we misunderstand freedom.

We fail in this yearning for freedom – we all do it sometimes – we fail to see the dark side of the picture.  That is –
            people freely living in the gutter,
            people freely ending marriage in divorce,
            people freely behind prison walls IN REALITY!

We forget about homes where pleasure is the be-all and end-all of everything, but enough pleasure can never be found.  We forget all about those people who are never contented because they have nothing ever to be contented about.  Have you ever investigated – some down to earth investigation – the result of sin, even in this life?  God says that it is death – also death in life!  He says it again in the text we are studying today.  We'll get back to that later on.  People who live in freedom, as they suppose it is, will have to admit, if they are honest, – “I don't want the kind of life I have lived to be the kind of life my children will live."

When they hear about NEW LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST they will scorn it, and prefer to keep on battling by themselves.  And then, twenty or so years later, we see the CHILDREN of these people who wished a better life for them, when they also are parents now, and we hear them admitting, "I want a better life for my children.  I don't want them to grow up like I did.”

AND SO IT CONTINUES, THROUGHOUT THE GENERATIONS OF MANKIND.  WHO WILL DESIRE SUCH FREEDOM?

Yes, people experience the result of sin.  Israel, as God's covenant nation, experienced it also.  In Babylon they weep besides the still water instead of living contentedly by the waters of the Jordan.  It certainly was a frustrating time – most, most unhappy.  But during this exile period God still spoke God still visited His people of the covenant.  We see arising the prophet Daniel.  Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, is not always weeping before Israel.  Nehemiah spoke many words of comfort.  And Ezekiel, he was there too!  The word of the Lord, as we read in our text, came to Ezekiel, and through his prophet God spoke to the people.  God wants to know something from them.  God wants to know why they repeat a certain proverb about themselves.  Yes, for the people of the covenant were repeating: THE FATHERS HAVE EATEN SOUR GRAPES – AND THE CHILDREN'S TEETH ARE SET ON EDGE.

This proverb became a common one during the exile period.
  THE FATHERS HAVE TURNED AWAY FROM GOD
            and the children pay the penalty.
  THE FATHERS WORSHIPPED IDOLS
            and the children are born in captivity in Babylon.

Yes, and this is true of course.  Every word of it.  It is just as true today with a different set of circumstances.  One just shouldn't eat sour grapes.  The teeth shudder – they are set on edge.  And then the stomach starts to complain also – but we won't go into that aspect of things.  Yes, these things are true, also today. We hear so much today about our youth rebelling against the not-so-high standards of the older generation.  This is so because they are idealists, and are quick to pick up others' faults.  If you ever happen to read a newspaper put out by students of a university or other institute of higher education you will soon realise that these newspapers are largely ones OF PROTEST!  Youth blames the older generation for the mess the world is in right now.  AND THE WORLD IS IN A MESS.  They blame their parents for streams which no longer can have life in them.  They blame their parents, or, the whole older generation, for wars which arise from greed and economic hate.  They blame them for the lack of love and toleration in the world, and for the lack of downright honesty – for the double-standards which prevail everywhere.  Youth was disgusted about Watergate.

                        THE FATHERS EAT SOUR GRAPES
            AND THE CHILDREN'S TEETH ARE SET ON EDGE.

In church life it is the same.  The younger generation blames the older generation for the fact that there are so many denominations.  They blame their parents for the obvious unwillingness they show to love one another after the example of Jesus Christ.  They grow up in a congregation, often enough, where there is so little concern the one for the other that it is almost unbelievable.

            AND RIGHTFULLY SO, TOO!

Yes, generations of the past ARE RESPONSIBLE for the messes of the world of today.  True enough.  Because the parents of the people who were held captive in Babylon thought themselves free to serve other gods, the children are in Babylon with teeth set on edge.  That's exactly where the blame lies.

One of the things we ought to be more aware of today is that this protest movement against the low standards of previous generations is nothing new.  Already thousands of years ago there were songs of protest – clever little sayings.  It has all been heard before.  We don't today live in the midst of a generation which is final.  waking up to the problems of the world.  Nothing like it.

If we go back about as far as we can go we listen to the little speech of a fellow called Cain.  "Am I my brother's keeper?"  You might think it a little strange that Cain is used as an illustration in this sermon.  At first glance there appears to be absolutely no reason for it.  And yet there is.

You see, Ezekiel is commanded by God to ask, "What do they mean by this proverb?"  He is further to tell them, "As I live... this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel."  Cain asked,

            "AM I RESPONSIBLE FOR MY BROTHER, LORD?"

In the same way the younger generation in Babylon ask,

"ARE WE RESPONSIBLE, LORD, FOR THE FACT THAT WE ARE HERE?"

In the same way does the youth of today often ask,

            "ARE WE RESPONSIBLE,

   for the mess that the world is in?  Are we responsible for the lack of unity – lack of love – lack of true Christian response to your word, O Lord?"

            "AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?”

Yes, a good question.  WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?  When the teeth of the children are set on edge, WHO HAS EATEN THE SOUR GRAPES?

Very smart young people they were, these ones in exile in the land of the Babylonians.  Yes, they were the ones who knew about God.  They are the ones who have NOT BOWED DOWN TO IDOLS, and so they are the ones who pay the penalty for crimes they have not committed.  Very clever young people.  They go back once again to the Word of God!  BUT THEY TWIST THAT WORD OF GOD AROUND IN THE MOST AWFUL MANNER.  That's what they've done.  They have taken hold of the truth, and added a little of their own thinking to that truth.  And then immediately truth is gone – and falsehood is way out in front.  The Lord God says, "NO MORE, ISRAEL, must you speak like that.  It is not true, O Israel, that the fathers eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge.  It is not true, because it is only a HALF-TRUTH."  Not such smart young people at all.

You will be able to see that we have reached a climax point here.  On the one hand, the sins of the fathers are handed down to the children, and the children's teeth are set on edge because of those sins.  The children are the ones who inherit all the troubles which accrue from those sins.  That is the true aspect of this clever little saying.  But there is this other, this not-so-true part, also.  For we see an implication in this proverb which would suggest that the children's teeth are set on edge...

            ONLY BECAUSE OF THE SINS OF THE FATHERS
                AND NOT BECAUSE OF THEIR OWN SINS.

In fact, the whole point of the proverb is that God is A GOD OF INJUSTICE.  "It's not my fault, Lord, but their fault.  They are the ones who have been such great sinners, but not me, O Lord."  It's very natural for people to transfer the result for their rotten way of life as far away from themselves as they can push it.  If people accuse God in the meantime, well, that's just too bad, even though they don't really mean to do this.

But our Lord has more to say to these people in exile in Babylon.  For Ezekiel the prophet must also bring to notice what we have in the fourth verse of the passage we are studying.  "Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine; THE SOUL THAT SINS SHALL DIE."

Let's get the doctrine straight now, and then continue further.  Scripture teaches us that man is born in sin that he inherits the sinfulness of Adam his forefather.  Man is totally depraved.  That means not a thing which he does naturally is pleasing to God – his every will and wish, naturally, is to rebel against the authority of God – desiring evil, but never good.  This doesn't mean that we are as bad as we possibly can be.  Yet even this would be true WERE IT NOT FOR GOD'S GRACE.  Scripture teaches us also that the sin of Adam is transferred to ourselves – we are guilty because Adam is guilty.  In Adam we all die, says Paul in Romans.  Yet Paul doesn't finish there.  He continues to make clear that we don't just die BECAUSE THE SIN OF ADAM IS IMPUTED TO US, but that we all die BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS ALSO.  The Scriptural doctrine of sin therefore gives a dual responsibility for the fact that we all die.  We sin IN ADAM, and we sin IN OURSELVES.  There will never be any person who, when standing at the judgement seat before Jesus Christ will be able to say to God,
            "Lord, I know that I have inherited the sin of Adam
             I know therefore that I am guilty and worthy of death.
             But that is the only thing you have against me!
             THEREFORE, LORD, YOU ARE UNJUST."

No one will ever be able to say that, because not only are we brought forth into the world as sinners, BUT WE ARE SINNERS IN OUR OWN RIGHT.

Nor, thank God, does Paul finish there.  He says in Romans 5:18, “Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to ACQUITTAL AND LIFE FOR ALL MEN... SO BY ONE MAN'S OBEDIENCE MANY WILL BE MADE RIGHTEOUS".  Yes, in Jesus Christ the whole world has hope of new life the whole world has hope of forgiveness of sins.  Ezekiel says as much also.  "Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine."  We are each responsible before God for our actions.  We are responsible for our sins, and we are also responsible, every one of us, for our own salvation.  It would have been equally wrong for these Israelites to repeat THIS half-true proverb,
            THE FATHERS HAVE EATEN GOOD GRAPES
AND THE CHILDREN'S TEETH TASTE A BEAUTIFUL FRUIT

For you see, if the fathers eat sour grapes or good grapes, they are responsible for it.  Our fathers are responsible before God for what they say about Jesus Christ But we are responsible for it also.  Though the sins of the fathers affect our lives – there is absolutely no doubt about it – so do the FAITHFUL ACTIONS - they perform affect our lives.  But, no matter what, we are each responsible before God for every action which we make and for every word which we speak.

              OUR TEETH ARE SET ON EDGE
            BECAUSE WE EAT SOUR GRAPES.

That's what God wants to hear from us.  For once we see that, and acknowledge it, we can turn to Jesus Christ and reap the benefits of belonging to the
                         NEW VINE WHICH IS JESUS CHRIST
            HE IS THE VINE - WE ARE THE BRANCHES OF THE VINE.

The souls of the fathers as well as the souls of the sons belong to God.  "THE SOUL THAT SINS SHALL DIE".  Not because my father sinned, or even Adam way before him, do I die if I don't have faith in Jesus Christ, but because I have sinned and because I don't have faith in Him.  God cannot be and will not be accused of injustice as these Israelites were doing it whilst in Babylon.  God's punishment for sin is personal.  We cannot blame Adam, or anyone between him and ourselves – ONLY ourselves.

It is the most easy thing in the world to twist around the truth of God's Word as these people are doing in Babylon.  They were twisting around God's moral law.

You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything... for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

The sins of the fathers, yes, what a terrible effect they have.  God puts them to the account of their children.  The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children receive a sore stomach: even the children to the fourth generation.  But God only does this WHEN THEIR CHILDREN TO THE FOURTH GENERATION ALSO HATE GOD!  When they walk in the unbelieving footsteps of their forefathers THEY EAT SOUR GRAPES INDEED AND THEIR TEETH ARE SET ON EDGE INDEED.  They too reject the vine which is Christ.

Yet – God shows steadfast love to thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments.  Even to the thousandth generation does God love those who will turn away from their sins to Jesus Christ.  It's a personal choice!  I'm not a Christian because my father is a Christian, but because I believe that Jesus died FOR ME.  I'm not a heathen because my father is a heathen but because I have no understanding of Jesus Christ.

Congregation, come to Jesus Christ, each one for himself.  Receive forgiveness of sins, each one for himself.  Receive the promises of God, each one for himself.  We are each held responsible for our actions.  God will show mercy to the thousandth generation of those who love Him through Jesus Christ, even though we don't deserve it.  Yes, that's what the justice of God is really like!  False justice?  In a manner of speaking – yes, it is..  But if it is false justice, it is false, not against us, BUT FOR US!  Because, not you and I, but Jesus Christ is the one, who dies for our sins.  That's God's justice.

As long as the Lord lives, and that is forever, we may, not one of us, repeat the proverb, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge."  For, "the soul that sins shall die."  And then the soul that turns to Jesus Christ, that soul, shall live.

Your soul?  Yes!
Your father's soul?  Yes!
And the soul of your son?  Indeed!
My sin.... my death.
My faith... my life.

Amen.