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Father in heaven, I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson with the fullness and the power of the Holy Ghost. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Ezekiel chapter 18, the Bible reads in verse number one, the word of the Lord came unto me again saying, what mean ye that ye use this proverb... concerning the land of Israel saying, the fathers have eaten the sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. As I live, saith the Lord God, ye should not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Now there's a few things I want to explain about this. This is a really important concept that is taught in this chapter about people being responsible for their own actions and not being punished for the sins of other people. Not being punished for their parents' sins, not being punished for their son's and daughter's sins. Okay? But the first thing I want to point out is that when the Bible says in verse number four, the soul that sinneth, it shall die, soul there simply means person. It just means the person that sins will die. And often throughout the Old Testament, the word soul is simply used to refer to the self or the person. You could think of this in two different ways. You could just think of it as synonymous with the person or you could think of it as a synecdoche where basically the part references the whole. Like if I said, hey man, nice wheels. I'm actually talking about the whole car. Nice threads, man. You know, I'm not just talking about the thread, I'm talking about the whole garment. And so when the Bible says the soul that sinneth, it shall die, he's basically saying that very person that sins will die, not someone else will die for their sins. Okay? Now the Bible says here that they have this proverb, the fathers have eaten the sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. The idea here is that they're being punished for stuff that the previous generation did or that their parents did and it's not fair that we're getting punished for the wickedness that they did. But God's explaining to them that's not what's happening. If you're being punished, it's because of what you did, not because of what they did. Now why is this important? Because throughout the Old Testament, there's a theme of a delayed punishment. You know, if you read through books like First and Second Kings especially, you'll find this idea that God's going to bring judgment on a particular sin, whether it's idolatry or innocent bloodshed, but he'll often say things like, well, I'm not going to do it in your days, but I'm going to do it in the days of your son. You know, for example, King Solomon commits a bunch of sin, but God does not split the kingdom in his days, he says he's going to do it in the days of his son, and so he splits the kingdom in the days of Rehoboam and it splits after Solomon is already dead, even though it's a punishment for what Solomon did. Okay? Also, the same thing with Jehoram, when the kingdom splits, it goes to Rehoboam and Jehoram. You know, Jehoram does this sin where he causes Israel to sin, but yet it's three or four generations before the throne gets taken away from the house of Jehoram. And so you go down the list of these things, or Jehu, you know, he slaughters all the Baal worshipers and the whole nation, so God ends up letting him reign and do some things, but because of his sins, eventually the punishment comes. So you have this idea throughout the Old Testament of a delayed punishment where there's a punishment coming, but sometimes it's delayed, where God is merciful and says, I'm going to hold off on doing that. So the importance of this chapter is so that we don't get the wrong idea about that delayed judgment and think that it somehow means that God is punishing people for things that they didn't even do, because here's the reality. This is an example of a delayed punishment, because remember, what's the context of Ezekiel? The Babylonian captivity. This is being written right around the time that Jerusalem is being repeatedly invaded by Babylon. Many people are in captivity. The city is going to be completely destroyed, and all of these things are going to happen. And it was a delayed punishment, because if you remember, Manasseh committed all these horrible sins and bloodshed that God said he would not forgive. But then, because King Josiah created a great revival in the nation of Judah, God held back the judgment. And so it did not happen in the days of Josiah, because he was a good king, and everybody's worshiping the Lord, and everything's going great. But then after Josiah, in the days of his sons that were not godly, that were wicked kings, then he brings the judgment. So this is one of those delayed judgments. But here's what you have to understand about this, though, is that God, yes, is bringing a delayed punishment from stuff that happened earlier, but he's only bringing it on wicked people that deserve it anyway. Okay, so think about this. You know, if Manasseh committed sin, and there's going to be a punishment, a reckoning that just has to happen, and it's delayed, it's not going to come crashing down when a guy like Josiah is reigning. That wouldn't be fair. I mean, right? Josiah is this godly king doing all the right things, and if God just brought down all this wrath and punishment on Josiah and on the people surrounding Josiah that are all worshiping the Lord and doing the right things, yeah, that would be an issue. But remember, when God finally brings the punishment that started with Manasseh's innocent bloodshed, he brings it upon a generation that's doing the same type of things and that deserves it for themselves as well. So I hope you understand what I'm saying here, that basically it's because Josiah's sons were wicked that that's when the delayed punishment hits, okay? Whereas, let's say Josiah would have had a godly son, then God would have just held it off a little bit longer, okay? A verse that I think about a lot is in Daniel. In Daniel chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar is being warned about the dream he had and he doesn't heed the warning and he ends up going insane and living outside for seven years and all that. But Daniel admonishes him to be humble and get right with God because he says it might be a lengthening of your tranquility. You know, you can sometimes hold off punishments and things. You know, I think of the United States of America, at this point I believe there are certain punishments that have to happen in the United States. When so much innocent blood has been shed and so many abominations have been committed, the punishment is inevitable at this point. It would be impossible to completely spare America after all the things that America has done. But what we could do is push that back. You know, if we're out winning souls and preaching righteousness and doing great works for God, that could cause a lengthening of our tranquility. That could push it back so that that reckoning that has to come will come in the days of more wicked people and it will come down on them like a ton of bricks. And if they say, oh, it's not fair, well, you know, they're guilty of the same things in that generation, that's why they're getting hit with it. And so that's where this is coming from. Because you might wonder when you're reading the first part of chapter 18, you know, why do they think this way? Why do they think, oh, the fathers have eaten the sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge? It's because they're hearing a bunch of preaching from prophets and they're reading in the Bible where there's all this delayed judgment and so they're not getting it. And so God's clarifying this point that if they do right, they'll be fine. And that if they do wickedly, they'll be punished. So that's just, I'm just kind of providing a little bit of background going into the chapter. So now let's jump in and look at this. The concept that's being hammered in this chapter is found in verse 4, the soul that sinneth it shall die. And again, it's just talking about the person in general, okay? Because you know, remember when Abraham left, Herod had talked about him bringing with him the souls that he got in Haran? He's not just some soul collector, he is talking about bringing humans and if we study the whole Old Testament, you'll see that consistently that's the way the word soul is often used. Look at verse number 5, it says, but if a man be just and do that which is lawful and right and have not eaten upon the mountains, neither had lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, you say, what's wrong with eating on the mountains? Well what this is talking about is going to the high places in order to sacrifice the false gods. And when you do a sacrifice to a false god, you then eat the sacrifice. That's part of the process of sacrificing animals is that you then eat what you've sacrificed. And so that's the eating on the mountains, it's worshiping idols in the high places. Verse 6 toward the end, neither have defiled his neighbor's wife, that's talking about committing adultery with her, neither have come near to a minstrous woman, and have not oppressed any, but have restored to the dead her his wife. So that's the sword to the dead her his wife, that's the oil to the dead her his wife, that's the limited bread, and it's not going to get too difficult for our man. What is going on here? Alright, hold on. Alright, there we go. Testing 1, 2, 3. Can you turn on the speakers? Testing 1, 2, 3. Can you hear me? Everything good? Alright. Alright, I should fix it. I turned those off. Okay. And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the dead her his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with the garment. He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken an increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man, hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments to deal truly. He is just. He shall surely live, saith the Lord God. So this guy's doing all the right things, you know, he's not committing adultery, he's not worshiping false gods, he's not doing idolatry, he's fair, he's not cheating in life, he is a just person, he helps people that are in need, he helps out the hungry, and he's just a generally good guy, and it says, hey, this is a good guy, he's going to live, meaning that he's going to be blessed in this life, he's going to live. You know, what does the Bible say in Deuteronomy about the commandments of God? The man that doeth them shall live in them. Meaning that you're going to survive, you're going to be blessed. It's sort of like the commandment to honor your father and mother. It says honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth, right? So if you keep God's commandments, and specifically the commandment about honoring your father and mother, but keeping God's commandments in general leads to you being blessed and living long on the earth, whereas the Bible says the wicked shall not live out half their days, and a lot of wicked people end up dying young. Now obviously there are exceptions to those things, but in general, God will bless you, your days will be long on the earth if you keep the commandments, and the reverse is also true if you don't keep the commandments. So he's saying if you do the right things, you shall surely live. But then it says in verse 10, if he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood, and that doeth the like to any of these things, and that doeth not any of those duties, but even hath eaten upon the mountains, and defileth his neighbor's wife, hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted up his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination, hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase, shall he then live, he shall not live. He hath done all these abominations, he shall surely die, his blood shall be upon him. Now one thing that's interesting here is that it's even possible for such a great guy to end up having such a rotten son, because the Bible's describing the father as being a really good guy. He's not doing any idolatry, he's not doing adultery, but beyond just those basic ideas of just living a clean life, he's also honest in his dealings, he's also helping the needy, he's compassionate, he cares about other people, he's a just man, he's keeping God's commandments, he's keeping God's judgments, but yet his son is this shedder of blood, a robber, he's stealing, he's even worshipping other gods, because it says eating upon the mountains, you know that could be other gods defiling his neighbor's wife, you know, and this is why at the end it says he shall surely die, his blood shall be upon him, because some of the things in this list here are crimes that would receive the death penalty, and what you have to understand is that a lot of people will twist this passage and try to make it about salvation, like make it about going to heaven versus going to hell. That's not what this is about. This is talking about on this earth, in this life, you know, living in the commandments of God, or being put to death because you committed adultery with your neighbor's wife or whatever, right? And so these are horrible crimes being committed by the son even though the father was a righteous person. And obviously we have a lot of examples of this in the Bible where we have godly men who have an ungodly son or ungodly sons and, you know, we can go down the list of all the different people. Now sometimes this is due to a problem on the parent's part, like when we look at a guy like Eli, okay? Eli had his own problems and the Bible talks about how when his sons committed all these sins, he did not restrain them and he actually has them in positions of authority at the house of God and they were doing what? They're stealing from the offerings and they were committing fornication with the women who came to the house of God. I mean these are two huge sins and it says that when they did these things, Eli restrained them not. So he's obviously failing as a parent to restrain them. But then you look at a godly man like Samuel and the Bible just says, you know, his sons grew up and they just took bribes. You know, it doesn't really tell us anything that Samuel was necessarily doing wrong but yet Samuel's sons grew up and took bribes. You know, we think about Noah was a very righteous man and look how Ham turned out to be a weirdo. Shem and Japheth are great and then Ham turns out to be a weirdo. Go down the list of people in the Bible. Like think of Jacob with the 12 patriarchs and he has 12 sons, one daughter. His daughter goes out and commits fornication and then, you know, one of his sons, Reuben, sleeps with the concubine of his own father and then you've got, you know, Judah wants to sell his brother into slavery. I mean the other brothers just wanted to kill Joseph. They just wanted to murder him. You know, Reuben's the guy who's trying to save Joseph and deliver him out of their hand but he slept with the concubine of his own dad which was super wicked and then you've got, of course, just the evil report in general of the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah. The Bible doesn't go into detail about what sin they were doing but then you've got Judah also and, you know, Judah goes out and marries a Canaanitish woman and then after she dies he decides to go to a prostitute. So I mean, you know, we could go on and on in the Bible about the fact that basically being a godly or righteous person does not guarantee that your kids are not going to do these sinful things but it's our job as parents to raise our kids right, bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, punish them. You know, the Bible says that thou shall beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell. The Bible says withhold not correction from the child. He that spareth his rod hateth his son but he that loveth him chasteth him at times. You know, it's our job to punish our children when they do wrong. It's our job to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and it's our job also to restrain them if they were to, you know, have it in their mind to do some horrible thing. You see, we can't just give our kids just unfettered freedom and just let them go do whatever. Do not give them unfettered access to the internet because there's so much trouble that can be gotten into on the internet. You know, you can't just let your kids just run wild through the city. You can't just drop them off wherever and just leave them. You've got to supervise your kids. You know, I'm not just going to leave it to chance whether my daughters are a virgin, you know, in my home. I'm not just going to leave that to chance and just say, hey, you know what, they're just out gallivanting and doing whatever. They're pulling a dyna and they're out seeing the daughters of the land and who knows where they are. You know what? It's my job to basically, you know, watch over my children, restrain them, protect them. Now obviously with our sons, we have to give them a little more freedom as they get to an age where they start working a job and stuff like that. You know, they hit 16 and they start working a job. Obviously yeah, now they have a little more freedom. That's because someday they're going to need to be independent and running a household and the man of the house and a breadwinner and so forth. So you know, when my boys get older, they basically, you know, they get to a point where now they have more freedom and they're going to work and they're driving around and doing stuff and whatever. But obviously even then there's still rules. There's still boundaries that we put in place as a parent because we don't want to just let our kids do whatever because as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So people that are living in my house must live up to a certain standard to live in my house. It's not a free for all in my house, okay? And even somebody who came and stayed at my house as a guest, you know, they might not necessarily be held to the same standard as my family, but they'd be held to a certain standard. I'm not going to have just people come over to my house living in fornication and staying at my house or something. There are certain things that I'm not going to bring into my house. I'm not going to allow in my house and I'm not going to allow my children to just do whatever. I'm not going to allow teenagers to do whatever. No. There have to be boundaries. There have to be rules. And obviously, like I said, with sons, they have to be given some freedom because they have to get a job and they have to, you know, ease into that transition of adulthood where they're going to be out on their own, be in their own man, head of household. But let me tell you something. When my daughters turn 16, they're not getting a job. I'm not just going to drop them off at some fast food place where they could be hit on by all the dudes and whatever because, you know, I know what's out there. I've been there. I've been a teenager. I've been a young adult. I've worked at these fast food places. I've worked at Round Table Pizza. Not quite fast food. It's the last honest pizza, okay? But anyway, you know, I've worked at these type of places. I've been around. I went to high school. I went to junior college. I know what that's like. And I know that these dudes with these young beautiful Christian girls showing up, they're going to be like that guy in the yellow suit behind the tree meme. You know what I mean? They're going to be scheming and conniving. And let me tell you something, I don't care what the feminists say, the Bible says women are the weaker vessel, okay? And we need to protect the honor and dignity of our daughters. And you know, even though your daughters might give you attitude because they want to just go out and just do their own thing and just have all this freedom because they're 18 now. Hey, as long as my daughters are living in my house, there are going to be some boundaries in place for their protection, for their safety, for their honor. Hey, I want them to have a good time. I want them to enjoy life. I want them to be successful. But you know what? I'm not just going to just put them out there and just whatever happens happens. Because you know what? I'm sure Dinah wasn't a horrible person. And I know Jacob was a godly man. And so what's going on? You know what I mean? But she's out there and whatever, you know, we want to avoid that type of situation. Because I don't think that Dinah liked the way her life turned out any more than her dad liked it or her brothers liked it. You know, the dude that she was into got murdered. And so did the whole town. That's not exactly what she thought she was getting into when she went out to see the daughters of land. So the point is, there have to be boundaries, there have to be rules. But here's the thing. At some point, your children become adults and at the end of the day, every human being has free will. Every human being has free will. And so think about this. You know, I'm a 40 year old man, okay? So you know, I'm living my own life. I haven't been with my parents for a long time. What if I go out and do something horrible tomorrow? Is that my dad's fault? You know, can people get on the phone and call my dad and say, do you know what your son just did? You need to answer for this. This is your fault. Now here's the thing. My parents raised me right. My parents are godly Christians. They took me to church. They taught me the Bible. They loved me. They disciplined me. They were great parents. But here's the thing. Could I have, when I turned 18, 19, 20, 21, gone out and committed fornication or gotten drunk or done whatever, yes, I could have. And it wouldn't have been their fault. But I'm thankful to God that I didn't do those things. But you know, it's funny. I was just talking to my brother about this. And me and my brother were talking about the fact that like there were so many times and so many situations where we could have done stupid things or where we might have almost done stupid things. And it just seemed like God was always protecting us and shielding us from doing stupid things. Like I, you know, I'm thankful that, you know, I never tasted beer. I never took any drugs. I never committed fornication. You know, I'm really thankful for that because it's due to my Christian upbringing. And not only that, it's not even just necessarily because I just had ultimate willpower or ultimate godliness or something. You know, part of it was that the Lord was also watching out for me. I feel like somebody must have been praying for me big time. And me and my brother both agreed. Somebody was praying for us big time because there were different, you know, I think back to different girls that I was involved with and it's like God just closed the door. And those relationships just didn't work out. And then you look later and that girl ended up not even being saved and turning out to be a horrible person. And it's like, wow, I really like that girl. On paper that seemed like it should have worked out. But for some reason it just didn't because it was like God just protected me from, from that wrong person or other situations where, you know, certain things happened at a party or something and I really wanted to be at that party and it was like something fell through. I couldn't get a ride or something. And it turned out a lot of sin happened at that party and I wasn't even there. Or certain, I mean, we had a really wicked relative that we didn't know that he was super wicked at the time but he turned out to be super duper wicked in retrospect. And my dad and this relative had a falling out. So we went for like four or five years never seeing this guy because they'd had a fight over something totally unrelated. But looking back I'm like thank God that I wasn't around that guy in my teenage years because that particular relative was someone that we thought was pretty cool. We kind of looked up to him. We kind of idolized him a little bit and it's like, you know, what if that guy would have been in our circle during my teenage years? That guy could have been a horrible influence on me if I was hanging around him and stuff like that. So the point being, you know, that it's by the grace of God that I am where I am, okay, and that there are a lot of pitfalls along the way that I narrowly escaped, okay. But I will say this, my parents did a great job as parents. But at some point didn't I have to decide to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior or did my parents do that for me? I had to do that myself, didn't I? I had to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I had to get saved. I had to choose life and choose to follow the Lord with my life. And here's the thing, you know what? You could teach your kids that the love of money is the root of all evil and you could teach them that and you could even show them that with a godly example. But then, you know, is it possible that they could grow up and become a covetous person who lives for money? I mean at the end of the day, we all have a sin nature. We all have the ability to go down a dark path. And even me at 40 years old, I could still go down a dark path. That's why the Bible says, let him that think of the, let him that think of the standard take heed lest he fall. None of us is just so godly that it would be impossible for us to get backslidden. That's why I have to read my Bible every day, I have to pray every day, I have to take heed unto myself and unto the doctrine to continue in them because I am not immune. You are not immune. Your kids are not immune. I mean, I'm not talking about coronavirus so don't shut down my channel, okay? I'm just saying I probably just did it right there. I just ruined my whole channel. Well, it's okay because this is a new channel anyway. We already, our last channel got deleted a couple days ago. So the point is that, you know, the Bible tells us to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and while they're living in our house, we need to restrain them, we need to discipline them, we need to teach them, but at the end of the day, you kids, I hope you're listening to me, you kids are going to have to decide to follow the Lord for yourself because mom and dad can't do that for you. Now the Bible does say train up a child in the way he should go and when he's old, he will not depart from it, okay? And we do see, even in the examples that I gave where I brought up, for example, the children of Jacob, you know, when they were old, they ended up actually becoming great people, you know, because Judah was, you know, in his younger days, sells his brother into slavery, goes to a prostitute, but in the end, he becomes a very godly righteous man because in the long run, in the end, what does he do? He offers to sacrifice himself for Joseph and he actually pictures the Lord Jesus Christ when he does that. And so we see those patriarchs eventually come around and get right and we see them actually become obviously the progenitors of the nation of Israel, the chosen people that God used throughout the Old Testament. So the Bible says in verse 14, now lo, if he beget a son, so the first thing we talked about, verses 5 through 9, is the guy who's doing all the right things. Then he begets a son who does all the wrong things and the Bible says, it doesn't matter how godly his dad is, he's going to die. So you can't say like, oh well, you know, go easy on him because of who his dad is. Nope, no way. So if you're a wicked person and your dad's godly, don't expect God to go easy on you and don't expect people to go easy on you because the bottom line is, if you commit the crime, you're going to do the time and it doesn't matter who your parents are. I mean that doesn't come into play in a courtroom, does it? Like well, we're going to take into account the fact that your dad is brother so and so down at the local Baptist church and he's a godly man, so we're going to go ahead and give you a light sentence. That wouldn't even be allowed to be brought up in a courtroom. Why? Because the courtroom is going by this that we're reading right here. You see, no court in America is going to condemn the son for the crimes that the parents have committed. No court in America is going to convict the parents for the crimes that the son committed. You know, everybody gets punished for their own crimes in America because that's justice and that's something that our country has gotten right and it's in the Bible. So we've got the good guy in verses 5 through 9, then we've got the bad son in 10 through 13, but now we've got another good. Now the bad guy has a good son. So look what the Bible says in verse 14. Now lo, if he beget his son, this is if the wicked guy begets his son, that seeth all his father's sins, which he hath done and considerth 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 withhold in the pledge, neither hath spoiled by violence, that's like armed robbery, spoiling by violence is what that means, but hath given his bread to the hungry and hath covered the naked with the garment, that hath taken off his hand from the poor, that hath not received usury nor increase, so he's not like a predatory lender, you know, loan shark, check cashing guy, hath executed my judgments, hath walked in my statutes, he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live. As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, spoiled his brother by violence, and did that which is not good among his people, lo, even he shall die in his iniquity. So does everybody see what the Bible is teaching about justice here? Is that you get punished for your own sins, not for someone else's sins, and they get punished for their own sins, you don't get punished for their sins. Now here's another reason why this is so critical. Because there's a false doctrine out there that's taught by the Roman Catholic Church, and a ton of Protestants believe in this, and they'll try to get Baptists to believe in it, it's a stupid doctrine, and when I say the name of it, you might not even know what I'm talking about, because the name sounds like something that you think you believe in, but you don't, if you actually know the Bible. Original sin. See a lot of people hear this term, original sin, and they just think, oh yeah, that just means that, you know, Adam sinned and now we're all sinners, and hey look, we as Baptists, we believe that Adam brought sin into the world and that we're all sinners, and that we're born with a sinful nature, amen and amen. That is not what original sin means. So do not get sucked into this Catholic garbage of original sin. This is what original sin teaches. Original sin teaches that I'm responsible for the sin that Adam committed, that I'm getting punished for what Adam did, and that is a false doctrine. This chapter completely flies in the face of that false doctrine. Now that's why they claim they have to baptize babies because of original sin. Because we know that a baby hasn't committed sins. I mean think about it. Okay if I, you know, let's bring up a, you know, the baby that was born this week. Baby Chloe, right? Has she stolen anything? Has she committed murder? Has she borne false witness against her neighbor? Has she had other gods, but did she eat on the mountains, you know? No. Did she take the name of the Lord her God in vain? Has she committed adultery or coveted or, it's absurd isn't it? Because it's not even humanly possible for a baby to have done those things. So the Roman Catholics have to have a justification for their pagan practice of infant baptism. So they use this original sin doctrine to say, well we still have to baptize these babies to cleanse them of original sin. You know we have to, because otherwise they'll get punished for Adam's sin. So then they teach, oh if you don't baptize your baby, your baby's going to go to hell, is what they teach. And a lot of Calvinists will teach the same thing. It's crazy, okay? Now who believes in this doctrine? Well Roman Catholics, also Lutherans, they believe this original sin doctrine that they have to baptize their babies to avoid this and so forth. I argued with Lutherans about this even as a child because we had some Lutherans at my Christian school. Now the Presbyterians practice infant baptism, but they actually don't believe it has anything to do with salvation. And again, I'm not justifying Presbyterianism or infant baptism because infant baptism is ridiculous no matter what reason you're doing it. It's super unbiblical and wrong, but I'm just explaining the fact that Presbyterians don't think it has to do with salvation, but guess what? Lutherans and Catholics do think that baptism is connected to salvation. And so that is a damnable heresy right there for sure, okay? So therefore, you know, this doctrine of original sin goes contradictory to this chapter which says the soul that sinneth it shall die and that the parent is not held responsible for the crimes of the child. The child is not held responsible for the crimes of the parent. Now the Bible verse that's the key verse is Romans chapter 5 verse 12 which says, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Don't miss that last phrase. That's what they're missing. The reason that death passed upon all men is because everybody since has sinned. So yes we do inherit the sinful nature from Adam. Yes we have the tendency to sin. Every single person is a sinner. No one is sinless. Jesus Christ, the only human that lived without sinning, but we are not being punished for Adam's sins. Look, anybody who goes to hell, you know why they're going to hell? For their own sins. They will not go to hell for what Adam did. They will go to hell for what they did. Now obviously Adam is the one who started it all and because of Adam death passed upon all men because all people have sinned. But to sit there and say, oh you're being punished for Adam's sin, folks that doctrine was invented to justify infant baptism. Infant baptism came first and this original sin garbage was a justification for infant baptism. It's not a biblical doctrine. Anybody who goes to hell is not burning in hell for anybody's sins except their own. That's who sins they'll be punished for, period. Now thank God those of us that are saved, you know, our sins have been paid for by the blood of Jesus and Jesus has voluntarily taken upon him the sins of us all. You say, well the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children of the third and fourth generation. Here's the thing, that's a little different, you know, the sins are visited upon them. That's not saying you are punished for your parents' sins. You see, here's the thing, if alcoholism tends to run in families, doesn't it? Being a fornicator runs in families, being a derelict runs in families, being an adulterer or a drunk or whatever runs in families. But you know what? Anyone who wants to can be this guy from, starting in verse 14, who does the right things and guess what? God will not punish them because their dads are drunk. If your dad's a drunk and you don't drink, you're not going to get punished for the fact that your dad was a drunk, period. If your dad is a gambling addict and a whoremonger and you grow up and don't do those things, guess what? You're not getting punished for those things. Now sadly, because your dad does those things, you're very likely to go down that same path. But you know what? Even if there's a curse on a group of people, you know, anyone can break free of that whenever they want through the power of Christ. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me and you know what? I think that's why Jesus picked for one of his disciples Simon the Canaanite. Because the Canaanites were people that were cursed by God at one point, but yet Jesus picked a disciple that was a Canaanite. You know, and I believe, and you know what it says in Acts chapter number 10? That God has people in every nation. Every nation people that are saved and that love him and serve him and God respects those people in every nation. You know, certain countries are definitely under the curse of God tonight. Islamic countries are under the curse of God. North Korea is under the curse of God. China and India are under curses from God. But here's the thing, there are still godly saved Christians in every country in the world. That's why we get to Revelation and heaven is filled with saved people. There's people from every language in heaven, every tongue, every nation who've been saved. Because you know, anybody can break this cycle anytime they want. So if you're here tonight and your parents are super wicked, you know, this should encourage you that says, hey, you can be different and God's going to bless you. It doesn't matter what your parents did. You can be the first generation Christian that does right and lives for God. And if you're a young person here, if you're a child or a teenager growing up, just realize the fact that you know, riding on your parents' coattails isn't going to work forever. At some point you need to get saved. You need to follow the Lord. You need to make that choice. And we're not Calvinists, so you know, it's a personal choice, isn't it? You know, you have to choose life. You have to choose salvation and you have to choose to live right. So this is the good guy starting in verse 14. He sees all his father's sins which he hath done and considerth and doeth not such like. And that's what you should do. If you see your parents smoking and they die young from smoking, shouldn't you kind of notice that and think, hmm. I remember I had a buddy that I worked with and he smoked and one time I came up in conversation that his dad died of lung cancer from smoking. And I'm like, and you're smoking? And your dad died of lung cancer from smoking? I'm like, I said, well the reason, I told him, I said, you know what? The reason that you smoke is because your dad smoked. No, no, no, that has nothing to do with it. I said, yeah. I said, your dad smoked and that's why you smoke because you're like your dad in that sense. But shouldn't you notice what happened to your dad and think, hmm, maybe I shouldn't be smoking. Thankfully this guy was not a huge smoker. He only smoked a few cigarettes a day. But I'm serious, why is that funny? I mean some people smoke a lot of cigarettes a day, right? Some people smoke a whole pack or two packs. This guy, this is funny, this guy hid the fact that he smoked from his wife for years and she didn't know. I'm like, how do you do that? So he would only smoke at work. So that's why I saw him smoking because I worked with him. So he would smoke at work and he said, my wife doesn't know I smoke. I'm like, how do you hide something like that from your wife? He said, well, you know, this is what I do. I just, you know, right after work I brush my teeth, I mouthwash, I clean it all out and then if she says that my clothes smell like smoke, I just blame somebody at work and say, it's just guys at work smoking around. Guys at work are smoking around me. Okay. But anyway, that's obviously stupid, isn't it? Your dad died of lung cancer? But you see, children often repeat the mistakes of their parents, don't you? Folks, if your parents do something stupid, consider and say, you know what, that's something I'm not going to do, all right? And I see my kids are like, yeah, okay, I see, you know, I'm not talking to you guys, all right? No, I'm just kidding. Seriously, hey, if there's something stupid that I do, be different. For real. Glad you guys are enjoying the sermon back there. So it's, you know, consider and don't do the like. I got to hurry up. It's such a great chapter. I got to get through this here. Dad had not eaten on the mountains and it goes through that whole litany again that we already read. And as for the father, verse 18, he gets punished because he did the wrong. Verse 19, yet say ye, why doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes and hath done them, he shall surely live. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The soul, the son, shall not bear the iniquity of the father. Neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. Now look, I've had people literally try to throw something in my face that my parents did as an attack on me before. Which is stupid. My parents are great people. But I'm saying I've literally, as a pastor, had people throw, well your parents, blah, blah, blah. And I'm just like, what in the world? Like first of all, my parents are great people. But second of all, what does that even have to do with me? Like I'm responsible for what my parents do? But I'm telling you, I've had people try to hold me accountable for what my parents have done before. As stupid as that sounds, it's out there. And look, if it weren't out there, the Bible wouldn't be addressing it, would it? It's addressing it because it's out there. You know, and the same thing goes, obviously he says that the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father. Neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. You know, at the end of the day, if my son goes out and does something wicked or something, you know, if he's an adult living on his own, you know, I don't have any control over that. Now if someone's living in my home, you know, I have to take care of that. You know, and here's the thing. By the way, you know, as a pastor of a church, you know, obviously I'm not Father Anderson up here. But as a pastor of a church, you know, I do take a certain responsibility for the church in the sense that as the shepherd of the flock here, there's a certain standard that I have to uphold at the church too. Now obviously it's not the same as in a home where obviously I have absolute authority over my family. Obviously it's totally different in church because I'm not a lord over the flock. I'm just a shepherd of the flock. But here's the thing though, you know, if I just allowed fornication to run rampant, drug use, drunkenness, these big sins to just run rampant in the church, God would hold me responsible for that. You know what I mean? Like I would get in trouble with the Lord if I'm pastoring a church and I'm just allowing people to live in fornication, I'm just allowing drunkenness and drugs and everything else. But here's the thing. Am I responsible for what goes on out there in the world? Am I responsible for what's going on in Tempe or something? No. You know, as a pastor I'm responsible for this church. Am I responsible for what goes on in some other Baptist church that I'm not the pastor of? No. That's not my responsibility. You know, but the people that live in my house, that's my responsibility. That's your responsibility, the people that live in your house. The people who attend my church, they are my responsibility. Okay? You know, we all have our spheres of influence where we are in charge and we need to make sure that we have those things right, but we really can't control what goes on outside of our influence that's beyond our influence. So the Bible says, but if the, uh, uh, the, the, the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. Say, look, if you're wicked, it's on you. It's not on your parents. It's not on your kids. It's on you. If you're wicked, it's because you're wicked and quit blaming other people. And isn't that what everybody wants to do now? Blame their parents for their problems. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die. All his transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him in his righteousness that he had done. Folks, do not miss verse 22. This is a great verse. I want to just emphasize this one term here. They shall not be mentioned unto him. Folks, underline that, memorize that, think about that. Should we throw sins in people's face that they've repented of? No way. If someone has repented of sin and it's in the past, hey, it's over. Now obviously, some things will have to be dealt with or brought up at the time that they're happening. Punishments have to be doled out. But I'm telling you something, when it's over and that person has repented and is not doing those things anymore, it should not be mentioned to them. It's not enough to just say, oh, I forgive you, oh, you know, you're welcome back, everything's fine now. No, no, no. You must not mention it to them. I mean, isn't that what the Bible says? You know what, there have been people who've been kicked out of Faithful Word Baptist Church that have been reinstated because of, you know, they got right with God, they got things right, they fixed whatever the problem, they repented or whatever. You know what? They should not bring that up again. Now you might sit there and think, well, I don't agree with Pastor Anderson's decision to forgive that person. I don't think that, you know, that the church made the right decision when they allowed so and so to come back or whatever. Here's the thing, you don't have to agree with the decisions that the leadership here makes or that the church makes, but you know what, you do have to abide by them though. If you decide, hey, I don't think so and so should have been brought back, well, you know what, that's your prerogative, but you keep that to yourself. And if you start bringing that to other people and talking about that to other people, you know what, you're basically, you know, you hear about like contempt of court. You know, like when you basically disrespect whatever the judge rules and tell off the judge or something, you know, hey, one more outburst to you and I'll have you in contempt. You know, you've kind of heard that a lot, contempt of court. You know what, when you, when the church makes a judgment and says, hey, we're forgiving this person and we're reinstating this person, you know, you're in contempt of church. If you then go around and say, well, I don't think that, you know, hey, you know what, it is what it is. If you don't want to be friends with that person, then don't be friends with that person. Because let me tell you something, there's no rule that says you have to be friends with everybody at Faith Forward Baptist Church. You know, if there's someone in the church that you don't want to be friends with, then don't be friends with that person. Don't have that person over. I've heard this idiotic preaching that says, well, you know, how can you knock it along with someone in the church? Are you even human? Like everybody has people that they just don't click with. But you're both children of God. It's like, shut up, okay. The reality is that there are certain people that are just, they're not compatible. Get over it, okay. I don't want to be forced to be friends with people that I don't like. Do you want to be forced to be friends with people that you don't like? No. And I think it's perfectly fine to decide, you know what, this person's not my cup of tea. And I think it's perfectly fine that, you know, let's say you have kids and your kids are playing with somebody else's kids and you find their kids to be a bad influence or something, for you to decide, you know what, I don't really want my kids playing with that family's kids. You know, I'm just going to, I'm not, I'm going to just not do that. Folks, I do not believe in forcing people to be friends with people that they don't want to be friends with, okay. But at the end of the day, but you know, you want to know where you cross the line though is when you start telling people, well, I don't let my kids play with that family. Well, I don't, I don't like so-and-so. I'm a little leery of so-and-so. Did you know that they got kicked out of the church in the past? I mean, we've got to warn people after all. Folks, is that what the Bible says, what we're reading tonight? Hey, the Bible says if somebody has done something wrong in the past, but they've gotten it right now, they've fixed it now, should we even mention it to them? And the answer is no. You know, what's funny is that I've been pastoring for 16 years and I've made mistakes in my preaching. Not everything I've said over the last 16 years has all been perfectly accurate. You know, I mean, imagine that. Imagine that when I get up and speak for three hours a week off the cuff that I've said things that were incorrect in my preaching over the last 16 years. And what's funny is that I'll set the record straight on something and say, you know, I used to be wrong about this, but actually, you know, this is how it is. And then people will try to pull out something that I said back then and try to pit that against me. It's like, well, hold on a second. Why are you bringing up my mistakes that I already fixed? If I have a mistake right now, tell me about it. But if I had a mistake 10 years ago that I fixed, it's water under the bridge now, isn't it? And so people that have been kicked out of the church and reinstated, hey, I don't want it to be brought up. You know, and I've been in conversations with people even here at Faithful Word where somebody will bring up some past scandal or some past crimes of someone where they were kicked out of the church, and I'll stop and say, because they'll just want to use it as like an example. Oh, it was sort of like that situation with brothers and sisters and I just say, stop. That person is right with the Lord now and serving God in another church or whatever. Do not ever use that example again because that person is repented of that years ago and is now serving God in such and such the church or even in our church. Don't ever bring that up again. Whenever somebody says that to me, I just nip it in the bud. Well, this is sort of like that situation. It's like, no, stop. Do not bring up some sin someone committed five years ago, eight years ago, three years ago. That is wrong. And you know what? It blows my mind sometimes, certain things that the Bible is so clear about, and yet people, man, they just will not accept it. Now look, if somebody, I get it, if someone's currently, like somebody said, why are you bringing up the fact that John MacArthur denied the blood back in the 80s? It's 2022, it's 2021 on the eve of 2022 and you're talking about John MacArthur denying the blood back in the 80s. I'll tell you why. Because he never repented of that. He dug in on that. He never changed his doctrine on denying the blood. And he puts out all these Bible versions that remove the blood, right? He puts out Bible versions that change verses and that remove the blood or change us from, oh, you know, he delivered us from our sins with his own blood instead of he washed us from our sins in his own blood. The Textus Receptus says he washed us from our sins in his own blood. And you know, removing the blood in Colossians 1.14? You know, he's still believing the same garbage. He never repented. He persisted in that. You know, why doesn't somebody say, hey idiot, it's been 40 years, why are you still denying the blood? Why don't they say that? Instead of getting mad at the guy who points out the fact that John MacArthur denied the blood in the 80s and did not repent but yet dug in on it. And I've done whole sermons on that. I did just go on our church website on the sermons, just search the word blood. I think I did, it was about a year or two ago, I did a sermon called Saved by the Blood. I read all the stuff from MacArthur. I totally debunked it. You know, even if it is 35 years later. You know, I don't care, I don't care how, you know, until he's dead, it's relevant. Until he stops preaching lies, it's relevant. He just put out his bogus version of the Bible that says Yahweh 7,000 times in it. He just came out with that this year. The legacy standard Bible. What standard? That version has never been the standard and that version never will be the standard. Maybe you need to get a dictionary and look up what the word standard means. The KJV is the standard by the way, whether people like it or not. You know, the standard is that by which other things are compared. Nobody's like, how do you think that this version measures up to the legacy standard? I mean, that's the standard. Nobody feels that way. It's some new version that contains a word that none of our Bibles contained 20 years ago. Yahweh over 7,000 times, none of our Bibles had that word in there. What is this word? You know, it's legacy, legacy. What does that mean? Legacy? It's brand new. He legacy, the legacy standard by Yahweh is the legacy. That's not the legacy, my friend. Oh, I get it. He's he, before he dies and goes to hell, he's leaving it as his legacy. This messed up Bible version that says Yahweh 7,000 times and takes out the blood of Christ and you're no longer washed in the blood and makes all these other changes and calls Joseph Jesus' father and all the other junk that's in that legacy standard Bible. So look, I get it. If people are, you know, if somebody's still living with their girlfriend in sin, in fornication, if somebody's still on drugs, if they're still a drunk, then you know what? Yeah, sometimes we might need to say something about it and deal with it. But you know what? If somebody's been clean, if somebody's been sober, if somebody has repented, shut up and quit bringing it up. Let it go. It's dealt with. Forgive. And look, I'm a strong believer in this, forgive and forget. And you know where I got that from? Forgive and forget? I got it from the Bible. Because you know what? God says there's sins and iniquities. Well, I remember no more. And you say, well, I just can't forget. Well, you know what? If God Almighty who's omniscient can forget, I think you can too. I mean, we should be better at forgetting. We forget stuff all the time. This should be easy for us. And let me explain to you how to, let me teach you how to forget. And it's a great chapter, there's too much to say in too little time. Part two, yeah, we need a sequel. But here's the thing, okay? Let me teach you, and I've said this before, but you know what? Things like this need to be repeated for the exact reason of what I'm about to say. How to forget. I'm going to teach you how to forget. Now listen to me, forgetting is a blessing. Forgetting is a wonderful skill that you must acquire. You're like, huh? Like I thought I'm trying to remember stuff. You know, here I am eating walnuts and bananas and avocados trying to eat some brain food so I can improve my memory. Let me tell you something. If anybody here has a photographic memory, I feel sorry for you because having too good of a memory is a curse, not a blessing. God created us to forget for a reason. You know, if Elon Musk put some brain implant where I'll never forget anything, I'll be like, get that thing away from me. Because let me tell you something, forgetting is important. Let me teach you how to forget. Who has some things they'd like to forget? Okay, unless you're a small child, you probably have some stuff you'd like to forget, don't you? Here's how you forget stuff. Stop thinking about it and talking about it and bringing it up. It's that simple. Folks, let me tell you something. Our memories just don't go back that far, my friend. Look, my dad, he can tell you every detail of his childhood in the 1950s. Every detail. He'll tell you, here's what I bought with my allowance, he'll give you a cent by cent breakdown of what he bought with his one dollar allowance in the 1950s and he'll go through every detail, he'll go through every year of his life and tell all the stories and the anecdotes and everything like that. And he gets frustrated with his friends because they don't remember anything. He talks to his friends, hey, remember this? My brother's like, no. He's like, you don't remember anything! And then he thinks maybe they must have done drugs in the 60s or something, fried their brains because he's like, why don't they remember? But here's the thing, I'll tell you why my dad remembers all that stuff, because my dad's always thinking about it and talking about it. He's a very nostalgic person so he thinks about the good old days, he talks about the good old days. When I talk to my dad, it's like, this is how conversations with my dad go, hey, remember this? Hey, remember that? You know, we just, that's how our family is, we just, we talk about the past. And that's why I could also go year by year, I could tell you about first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, I could talk about my friends, I could talk about what I did, I could, I could tell you about my childhood because I think about my childhood and I talk about my childhood. Let me tell you something, there's a, it's not possible to remember things from 20, 30 years ago that you've never revisited. You'll forget. The way that you remember things is by constantly bringing them up. So when you just say, well I just can't forget what so and so did, you know, it's because you keep thinking about it. You keep thinking about it. You keep meditating on that. You keep talking about it. That's why you can't forget. But you know what? The Bible says whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. And you know what? I've been married for 21 years. I don't sit and think about every, you know, bad day I have with my wife. Every fight that we've ever, you know, I just sit back and just, let's run through all the big fights. Just kind of just run through the big fights, all the knock down drag outs over the years. Yeah, let's just think about it, dwell on it, ponder it, think about how right I was and how wrong she was. You know, look, if I sit around and do that, then I'm never going to forget those things. I'd rather just forget all that stuff and just remember all the good times and just remember the nice times and the good days and the loving times and forget all the bad times. Why would I want to meditate on something that was friction between me and someone that I love? Think about that. So you know what? I've litera-, I kid you not, I've had people come up to me and apologize for stuff that they did years ago and I'm just like, I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about because I just didn't, I just didn't think about it. I just, I, it was like, it happened and it was just like, I'm just going to move on. You know, we need to, we need to get our minds under control and you know, when something, when something sinful about someone else that they already repented of, that, that's already been dealt with, that's already been punished or whatever, when that comes into our mind, you know what we should do? Just push it out of our mind and think about something else. You know, it's, it's like, I heard a preacher say, you know, you can't stop a bird from coming and landing on your head, but you can stop it from building a nest there, okay? And so, you know, sometimes we can't help it if a thought pops into our mind, an ungodly thought or maybe an unforgiving thought or something bad about someone from their past pops into our mind. But you know what we can do though? We can not just sit there and chew on that and think about that or even worse yet start talking about that to other people because when you talk about it, it's, then you're really going to remember it. That's why my dad remembers it because he told me all this stuff so that he remembers it because he told it to us. Forget. Forgive and forget. How could I forget? I mean, I'll forgive, but how can I forget? Quit talking about it. Quit thinking about it. When it comes into your mind, think about something else and eventually it will be gone. It will be gone. Anyway, there's so much more to say about this chapter, but let's call it a night. Lord, we thank you so much for your word and for the wisdom that's found in this chapter, Lord, please just help us to heed these things and to get on your view of justice, Lord, and not to think that our ways are better or that we know what's right or we know what's fair, Lord. Let us conform to what you say is fair in Ezekiel chapter 18 and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Holy night, all is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin mother and child, holy infant so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace, Silent night, holy night, shepherds quake at the sight, Glories stream from heaven afar, heavenly hosts sing Alleluia, Christ the Savior is born, Silent night, holy night, Son of God, roster line, Radiant kings from thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace, Jesus, Lord, at thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at thy birth, Silent night, holy night, wondrous Lord, blend thy light, With the angels let us sing Alleluia to our King, Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born. Amen. Great singing tonight. Amen. Amen. Amen.