Sour Grapes Part 2 presses deeper into one of Scripture’s most uncomfortable truths: you are not imprisoned by your past—but you are responsible for your response to God. Drawing from Ezekiel 18, this episode calls listeners to sober, hope-filled direction that points not to coping but to renewal, and the possibility of real change.

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Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.

It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.

Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.

And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.

Now, so far we've seen a very righteous father who has a son that's very wicked.

But look at the third generation here in verse 14.

Here is a righteous man who is a son of this wicked man.

Now, lo, if he or the wicked dad beget a son that seeth all his father's sins, which he hath done and considereth, and doeth not such like that hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hath not defiled his neighbor's wife, neither hath oppressed any, hath not withholden the pledge, neither has spoiled by violence, but hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment that hath taken off his hand from the poor, that hath not received usury nor increase, executed my judgments, hath walked in my statures.

He shall not die for the iniquity of his father.

He shall surely what live.

In verse 14 through 17, God states that this wicked father has a son that is as godly as his grandfather was, and he's a very righteous man.

But God adds something, verse 14 that I think is very interesting.

Look at it again.

In verse 14.

It says, now, lo, if he beget a son that what seeth seeth all his father's sins, which he hath done and considereth, and doeth not such light.

Now here's a son who grows up in a home with a very, very wicked father.

This father cheats people.

He beats people up.

He commits adultery.

He steals from the poor.

What is God saying?

No generation is a victim of a previous generation.

No child is a victim of their heritage or upbringing of the parent.

The New Testament equivalent of this, I think, is in Romans 6:16, where Paul says, know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey his servants?

Ye are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.

Freud taught that God is nothing but a product of man's imagination.

He said God did not create man.

Instead, man created God.

Freud hated God and Freud hated Christianity.

It's Very interesting as I read about him, that it says, doing a lot of his writings, and especially his writings on dreams, that he was sniffing cocaine because of nasal swellings.

And I thought that makes sense from a lot of things that he wrote.

Now one of the planks, interesting, one of the planks of psychoanalysis is called determinism, which is a modern day term for what we see in verse two called sour grapes.

Unfortunately, deterministic thinking has been integrated into much Christian counseling, permeated many churches today in America.

It states that I'm determined to be the way that I am by the factors beyond my control.

And I really have little or nothing to really say about it.

So if alcoholism runs in my family, drunkenness runs in my family, then I'm determined to be an alcoholic.

If depression runs in my family, going to be depressed.

If suicide runs in my family, then I'm probably, it's a very good chance I might commit suicide.

Whatever runs in my family, I will be a clone of what my family was.

Now let me stop, folks and ask you this.

Do you believe, a lot of people believe that we live in a society that is inundated with this kind of thinking.

You are what you are and you can't change it.

For centuries in Christian history, it was taught that we were responsible for our sin.

But now, because of a Jewish man that hates Christians and hates Christianity, we bought in the idea that we are a product of our parenting, we are a product of our environment and we can't change as a result.

We have racial determinism.

Listen, we have birth order determinism.

We have personality determinism, we have biological determinism.

These Jews whom God reproves didn't want to repent or surrender to God.

They didn't want to surrender their will to God.

They chose to continue to live in their sin, live in their wickedness and live in their idolatry.

They didn't have to repent.

You say why?

Because they had someone else to what blame?

Sound familiar?

You know, I've been in ministry for over 30 years and I really have never seen a time in the church today where I believe that most Christians sat in the pew and feel no, really no reason to repent in their heart because a lot of Christians don't feel their sin.

It's not my fault, I'm a victim, somebody else's fault.

It's my dad's fault, it's my mom's fault, my grandfather's fault.

It's my environments, that fault.

If you listen to psychology and psychiatry, Today, nobody is responsible anymore.

They say that what we need today is to medicate every emotion away.

We can synthetically produce happiness and synthetically destroy depression.

We have the biological means to determine the mood and behavior of man.

Why?

Because we believe in determinism and we've embraced Freudianism.

We negate the Holy Spirit's conviction when we justify our sins and the sins of others.

Therefore, man looks for answers to his problems everywhere but through repentance.

And folks, I. I know I talk to my wife about this all the time.

We have so many couples that want to come in and get help, individuals that want to come in for counseling and get help.

But you know what they want?

They want a band aid.

They want a band aid to put on their problem.

They want to hear that I just need to learn the love language of my mate, and then it will solve all my problems.

They want some band aid to put on their problems.

You know what they don't want to do?

They don't want to look at themselves and say, I have sinned.

I have been selfish.

I have been all about me.

I have treated my wife harshly.

I've not been submissive to my husband.

They want to look at everything else but me.

And the last thing they want to do anymore is to repent.

No wonder folks listen.

No wonder we don't see revival in our churches.

Our churches are filled with people who don't feel they need it.

And this has crept into our churches.

This mindset has crept into our churches.

I've been reading this passage for several years, thinking, I need to preach this.

I need to preach this.

As I came this week, I thought, I am going to preach this.

It's kind of like I heard Adrian Rogers say one time.

He said, you know, I've got a message I'm getting ready to deliver.

And he said, I don't know what it feels like for tonight.

Pregnant.

Said, I don't want to know what it feels like to be pregnant.

But he said, I feel pregnant and I feel like I got to get this sermon out and I need to get it out quick.

You know, I like that.

Now, James put it this way in James, he said this in chapter one.

Let no one say, when he is tempted, I am tempted.

By who?

God.

For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt what anyone.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

See, you have a choice to yield to sin, or you have a choice to yield to God.

How do we get People convicted of sin if it's not their fault.

We bought into the world's view instead of the Word's view.

And because of that, we're having all kind of problems.

We're told anymore that all we can do is cope with sin.

We cannot conquer sin.

But folks, I want to tell you here tonight, if God can make you a new creation in Jesus Christ and save your soul, then he can give you victory over any sin in your life.

He can give you victory over any addiction that you may be addicted to.

Do you believe that if God can save you from hell, he can save you and empower you to have victory over pornography.

He can empower you to have victory over drunkenness.

He can empower you to have victory over drugs.

He can empower you to have victory over any sin in your life.

Now listen, I'm not saying that our past doesn't influence us, but we as a child of God do not have to be a victim of our past.

As I said yesterday, I'll say again tonight and use it as an excuse in the present.

Now, let me, let me stop and say this.

There's a difference between the cause of a person's behavior and the influence of their behavior.

Does a parent's.

Does a parent influence his child?

Absolutely.

Praise God.

We can.

Every child.

Listen.

Obviously, if a child is brought up in a Christian home and he has an advantage over a child who's brought up in a broken home that's non Christian, would you agree with that?

I know you believe this because your pastor preaches this all the time.

He teaches on marriage, he teaches on family, and he teaches the men.

It makes a big difference to grow up in a Christian home.

But your home may be Christian, but it's still dysfunctional because it's filled with sinners still.

So it may not be to the degree of other homes that are dysfunctional, but still it has some dysfunction in it.

We as a parent can influence the child toward God, but we cannot make the child make the right choices.

That requires that the child have a new heart.

Listen, folks, the greatest need of your child is a new heart.

The greatest need of your.

In parenting conferences, I tell parents, listen, I can share everything from the word of God with you, but I just want to remind you over and over again, the greatest need, the reason you your child is rebellious, the greatest need in that child's heart is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

He needs to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And unfortunately, there's a lot of members, parents and a lot of churches whose children grew up in children's church and youth groups.

And they delegate that responsibility to the children's minister and the youth minister.

And they feel like it's their responsibility to make sure that their child is right with God.

And they're so naive.

They believe even when this child is not walking with God, has no hunger for God, has no thirst for God and the word of God, that their child is a born again believer.

A lot of these parents I've counseled and I say, listen, from everything you described to me, the need of your child is, he needs to get saved.

He needs a relationship with Jesus Christ.

So determinism, a modern day term for sour grapes, that God said, I don't want to hear any more about it.

I'm sick of hearing about these sour grapes.

Determinism leads to doctrinal distortion.

And God corrects this wrong worldview in verse 4 when he says the soul who sins shall die.

Now let me add one other thing here tonight.

You know you can't blame, and I've referenced this, but you can't blame your environment that you grew up in for your sin either.

Not just your parents.

You say, I grew up in this environment.

The environment someone grows up in certainly can be negative or positive influence on that person.

But again, it can't be used as an excuse for sin.

I love what Martyn Lloyd Jones says about this.

He says a tragic fallacy of the last hundred years has been to think that all man's troubles are due to his environment.

And that to change the man you have nothing to do but change his environment.

He says that's a tragic fallacy.

It overlooks the fact that it was in paradise that man fell.

It was in a perfect environment that he first went wrong.

So to put man in a perfect environment cannot solve man's problems.

No, no, Lord.

Jones says it is out of the heart that all these things arise.

Unless a heart is right, man's best schemes, man's best devised plans will never ever solve his problems.

They'll never solve them.

The heart of man's problems is his sinful heart.

His sinful heart.

Look with me if you would tonight as we close at verse 21.

And I want to just read down and make some comments through the end of this chapter.

But God goes on to say, if the wicked will turn, I love this.

From all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statues and do that which is lawful and right.

He shall surely live.

He shall not die.

All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him.

In his righteousness that he hath done, he shall live.

Have.

Now look.

Look at this question.

Church.

Have.

This is God.

Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God.

And not that he should return or repent from his ways and live?

God says, I don't.

I don't take pleasure in the death of the wicked.

I want them to repent from their ways and live.

And then look at verse 24.

Here's another.

But.

But I love these buts.

But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live.

All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

He said, here's a righteous man who looks righteous, he seems righteous.

But as you look at his life overall, if you look at the pattern of his life, it's sinful.

He really doesn't have a new heart.

He's not a creation.

New creation in Jesus Christ.

It's what John is saying in First John about a Christian who does not practice sin.

Verse 25.

Yet you say, the way of the Lord is not equal.

They're saying, God, you're not fair.

You're saying, God's not fair.

Their fathers sinned, they ate the sour grapes, and we're getting the bitterness on our teeth from those sour grapes.

But God says, here now, O house of Israel, is not my way equal, or is not my way fair?

Are not your ways unequal?

When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them for his iniquity that he hath done, shall he die again?

When a wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.

Because he considereth and turneth away from, from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live.

He shall not die yet, saith the house of Israel.

God's repeating what he said a few verses before.

The way of the Lord is not equal.

It's not fair.

God.

O house of Israel, are not my ways equal or fair?

Are not your ways unequal?

Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one, every person.

He's talking about individuals, right?

I'M going to judge every person according to his ways, saith the Lord God.

Now look at what God says here.

Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

Wow.

Cast away from all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you look at this and make you a new heart and a new spirit.

For why will you die, O house of Israel?

For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God.

Wherefore?

Here's God's last admonition to them and us tonight.

Wherefore turn or repent.

Turn yourselves away from your sin, back to me.

Live ye and live ye.

Turn and live.

The soul that sins shall surely die.

I don't know what your situation is tonight.

I don't.

I don't know what you may have been through in your past.

I don't know what your upbringing was like.

But you don't have to be a victim of your past.

You're a new creation in Jesus Christ.

Please, tonight, don't rationalize your sin.

Don't make excuses for your sin.

That's exactly what the devil wants you to do.

Don't make excuses for your addictions.

Don't make excuses for what's happening in your life and blame it on mom and dad.

Blame it on grandmother and grandfather.

Blame it on somebody else.

Rationalize away your sin.

God says, confess it, repent of it and live.

Wow.

God says, listen, I'm going to.

I'm going to pass the iniquity, the idolatry of the fathers, the children for the third or fourth generation, they're going to suffer some because of that.

But he said, I'm going to show love.

I'm going to show my hased love to those that love me for thousands of generations to come.

I want to repeat to you as I close this statement on rationalization one more time by Denny Burke.

He said, to rationalize is to commit the sin of suppressing the truth that God has revealed in order to justify the conscience.

Every time you rationalize your sin or make an excuse for it, blame somebody else for it, you harden your heart, you put a callus on your conscience, and you put your soul in mortal danger.

Wow.

That's a powerful statement.

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