EZEKIEL 18 PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PRESENT2010 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ezekiel 18 Personal Responsibility For The Present

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2010. What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. As I live, says the Lord God, you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel.

And so as God is speaking to Ezekiel, he says, here's what I want you to pass on to the children of Israel. Here's what I want you to pass on to my people. He says, what do you guys mean when you use this proverb saying the fathers have eaten sour grapes and

and the children's teeth are set on edge. This is a proverb that Jeremiah also makes reference to. It was something that was common to the people. It's not common to us. We don't really hear this proverb being said today, but we do hear similar things. The meaning of this saying that they were repeating often was that the kids are paying for the parents' mistakes.

The father is eating sour grapes, you know, grapes being sour, kind of make your mouth kind of, you know, it's real tart and so it sets your teeth on edge is the way that it's described. But it's the fathers who's eating those sour grapes and then it's the kids teeth who are set on edge. And what they're saying is they're reaping the consequences for what their fathers or what their parents or what their ancestors have done.

And so they were looking at their situation. They're in captivity. The city of Jerusalem is under attack. Things are difficult. There's a lot of problems and issues. And they're looking around and they're saying,

Well, this isn't our fault. This is from the people before us. This was our parents. They put us in this situation. The kings before us, those are the ones who got us to this point and that's why we are suffering the way that we are. That's why we're experiencing the things that we are experiencing. And so, they're looking around at their situation and they're coming to the conclusion that, well, it's not my fault. It's

It's their fault and we're reaping the consequences for their mistakes. And so you can see this proverb, although it's not a proverb that we quote today, that mentality and that attitude is definitely something that we see today. It's definitely something that we have in our own hearts from time to time or maybe all of the time for some of us.

that that is our understanding, that the problems that I face, the problems that I go through, the things in my life that are going on are a result of not what I have done, but what other people have done in my life or around my life or to me, that it's because of them that I am this way and I'm going through these things. And so this proverb is...

Again, not quoted today, but it's still thought of today. It would be quoted today if this proverb was common to us. And God says in verse 3, As I live, says the Lord God, you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. God is writing to correct this proverb.

thought and this attitude. He's writing to correct this mentality. This is their thought. This is what they think as they're looking around and they see their circumstances. They say, it's not my fault. It must have been our parents. It must have been our ancestors. They sinned against the Lord. They made mistakes. That's why we're here. And God says, no, that's not true. That's not reality. That is not correct. And so He wants them to know

that they are responsible for what is going on in their lives. He's really writing here in chapter 18, speaking through Ezekiel about the subject of personal responsibility. You and I have responsibility for our own personal lives.

And our lives are not the fault of someone else. And our lives are not because of someone else. But we are responsible for what we do with our lives. We are responsible for our own eternal state. No one else is responsible for our eternal state. No one else is responsible for our spiritual state. It's not someone else's fault if you spiritually...

are an infant or carnal or backslidden. It's not because of somebody else. It's your responsibility. It's my responsibility to be strong spiritually. It's your responsibility. It's my responsibility to be set as far as eternity is concerned and to know where we stand in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We have responsibility for our own lives

It's not someone else's fault that you have the character that you have. It's your responsibility to develop godly character. It's your responsibility to let God do that work in your life. You know, there's a lot of things in life that are not up to us. We wish they were up to us sometimes. You can't choose your parents, right? That wasn't up to you. You got, you know, the parents that you got and there's nothing you can do about that. That's not up to you.

The nationality that you were born into, that's not up to you. The location of your birth, that's not up to you. For a lot of us, the supervisors above you in the workplace, that's not up to you. There's a lot of stuff in our lives that are not up to us. You talk about traffic, you talk about situations politically. There's a lot of things that we just do not have direct control over. But when it comes to us,

And our attitudes and our hearts and our actions and our thoughts, those are all things that are up to us. There's a lot of things that are not up to you, but what you do right now, that is up to you. And that's what God is addressing here in Ezekiel chapter 18.

And so he says, look, this proverb that you guys are saying that it's the parents' fault and we, you know, the next generation are just reaping the consequences of their mistakes. He says, I'm going to put an end to this proverb.

He says, you're not going to quote it anymore because that's not the truth. What is the truth? Well, he goes on now to describe in verse 4 through 9 one part of the truth or one part of this equation. He says, Behold, all souls are mine. The soul of the Father as well as the soul of the Son is mine. The soul who sins shall die.

But if a man is just and does what is lawful and right, if he has not eaten on the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife, nor approached a woman during her impurity, if he has not oppressed anyone, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has robbed no one by violence, but has given his bread to the hungry and covered the naked with clothing,

And so here as God goes here in verses 4 through 9 and talks about the person who is just, He says, "...the just man shall live."

And so what he's talking about, what he's dealing with here is he says, look, I'm going to be dealing with the individual. I'm not dealing with you based upon your parents or the generation before you or somebody else. I'm dealing with you based upon you and who you are and what you do and how you live. He says in verse 4, all souls are mine. Every single one of us, we belong to God.

We are not our own. We did not create ourselves. God created us. We are His creation and we belong to Him. And we can fight that and we can rebel against that, but that's what causes us such great problems and troubles and heartache in our lives. And so He says, All souls belong to Me and the soul who sins shall die. Now here is the reality. Here is what God says and again,

It's not up to us. And you can fight against it. You can disagree with it. You can not like it. But it doesn't make it not true. God says, every soul belongs to me and the soul that sins shall die. If you, you know, had some property and you had some fruit trees and you made a decision that whatever fruit tree does not produce fruit, I'm going to cut down.

Well, the fruit tree has no say in the matter, right? And if it doesn't produce fruit, then you cut it down and you have every right to do so because that's your property and it's your tree. In the same way, we belong to God. Our souls are His. He is our creator. And His standard is the soul that sins shall die.

That's what God has said. That's the truth. We can fight against that, but it doesn't do any good. It doesn't change the truth. The reality is, if we rebel against God, if we disobey God, we will die. There's no way around it. Because it is God that we belong to. He owns us. He created us. And so He has the rights over our lives. And so the soul that sins shall die. But He says...

If a man is just, and he goes on to describe what a just man would look like. And he gives all of these indications. You know, he's not been involved in idolatry and he's not, you know, coveted his neighbor's wife. He's not been involved in pornography or adultery. He's not been oppressing people and taking advantage of others. He's not been robbing others. He's, you know, taking care of the poor and those who are in need. He's meeting their needs. He's, you know,

He's making good decisions. He's doing what's right. If this person is a just person, he says, look, if a man does all these things, if he's walking in this way, he's a just man. He's doing what's right. And he concludes there in verse 9, he is just, he shall surely live. And so the soul that sins shall die, but if a person will live right before God, that person will live. That's God's decree. That's the standard that God has set.

And there's no way around that. If you walk in disobedience to God, you will die. If you walk in obedience to God, God says, you will live. And so the just man shall live. He's again dealing with the individual. Now he doesn't say, well if the generation before you was just and did good, then you will live. Or if your parents were good, or if your parents were godly, or if your parents went to church, then...

You'd be okay. But he says, you as an individual, you personally, if you do what's right, and if you walk with God, then you will live. But if you disobey, if you sin, if you rebel against God, then you will die. Because your soul belongs to God. Going on in verse 10 through 13, now he extends this.

He extends the example. He says, "...if he, that is this righteous man, if this righteous man begets a son who is a robber or a shedder of blood, who does any of these things..."

And does none of those duties, but has eaten on the mountains or defiled his neighbor's wife. If he has oppressed the poor and needy, robbed by violence, not restored the pledge, lifted his eyes to the idols or committed abomination. If he has exacted usury or taken increase, shall he then live? He shall not live. If he has done any of these abominations, he shall surely die. His blood shall be upon him.

What is God saying here? He says, okay, so picture this scenario. There's a guy and he's just and he's a good guy. He does what's right. He's walking with God. He's being obedient to God. He has a relationship with God. But now he has a son. And this son is not like his father. This son doesn't want anything to do with God. And this son is filling his life with sin and rebelling against God.

The bottom line of what he's saying here is even though this son had a righteous father, this son will die and his blood will be upon him because of his own rebellion against God. And so God says there in verse 13, he shall surely die. Paul also tells us in Romans chapter 6 verse 23 that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

See, the same is true today. What God is speaking to Ezekiel and to the nation there that was in captivity at that time is still what he says to us today. It's still the truth for us today. We have before us the option, death or life. The wages of sin is death. We can live in sin and die and experience death and destroy our lives.

And experience death physically here and now and eternal death if we refuse to walk with God, if we refuse to be obedient to Him. Or we can accept the gift of God and have eternal life. And that responsibility falls upon us. It does not fall upon anybody else. There's no one else that can make that decision for us. There's no one else who can cover us with their righteousness.

And there's no one who can condemn us with their wickedness. We have responsibility for our own selves. And so even if a really righteous person has a child who is wicked, that righteous person cannot save the child. The child who is wicked will be dealt with on the basis of their own wickedness. And God says his blood shall be upon him. He's holding that child personally accountable.

He holds us personally accountable for our actions. He even holds you accountable for your inaction. To not do what you're supposed to do is also sin and He holds us accountable for that. And so what we do, we're held accountable for. What we don't do, we're held accountable for. The thoughts that we think, we're held accountable for. What we know, we're held accountable for. And even our ignorance, we're held accountable for.

You know, if you get in trouble legally, it really doesn't work to stand before the judge and say, "Oh, I didn't know murder was against the law." That won't fly. That won't get you off. "Oh, I didn't know I couldn't go over that posted speed limit." That won't work. You can't plead ignorance.

I was talking with Jesse just yesterday and we were talking about some situations that are going on in the economy and stuff and how they're really cracking down on people who are doing real estate and mortgage loans and things like that, those who are involved. And he's saying, he was telling me that those who are kind of newer in the business kind of have to be careful because they're pushing

They're cracking down on all of these areas. And you can't plead ignorance and say, well, I didn't know it was illegal to sell it this and to do it that way and to do these things. And ignorance is not a valid excuse.

It doesn't get you out of the consequences. And the same thing is true with God. You can't stand before God one day and say, well, I didn't know that I was supposed to walk with Jesus. And I didn't know that I was not supposed to live in sin. I didn't know. And you can't blame everybody else for not telling you. You have the Word of God in front of you. And God holds you accountable. If you don't know it, that's your fault. And He holds you and I accountable for our ignorance.

for our laziness of knowing what He says and knowing what He wants. God is explaining to Ezekiel here that we have a great responsibility for our own selves. And our blood is on our own heads if we die because of our wickedness, if we die because we are not walking with God. Verse 14, If, however, He begets a son... So...

First we talked about the righteous man. Then we talked about this righteous man's wicked son. And now we talk about the wicked man's righteous son. So this is the righteous man. His son is wicked. And then the wicked man's son is righteous. He says,

Verse 2.

As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother by violence and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity. And so as we look at this scene now, as God continues to expand it, we understand again the emphasis here is that it's our own personal responsibility where we stand with God and whether we live or die. It's not about someone else, but it's about us.

And what we do and how we respond to God. And so he says, look, if this wicked man has a son, this wicked man's son is not punished for his wickedness. This righteous son, this one who has done what is right and good, God says in verse 17, he shall live. He's not going to be punished because his father was wicked. If he does what's right,

then he'll live. Notice it says in verse 14, he begets a son who sees all the sins which his father has done and considers, but does not do likewise. And so this child of the wicked man looks at his father's life and says, okay, well this is how my dad has lived. This is how my parents have lived. This is the choices that they've made. And considering what they've done and the outcome of it and what God says about it,

I'm not going to walk in that path. I'm not going to follow that pattern. I'm going to go a different direction. And so this is a conscious decision. They've looked at the life that has been lived before them and they say, I don't want to be like that. I'm going to live my own life. I'm going to do the things that are right. I'm not going to follow their example. And so he goes on to list the same things that he described as the actions and the deeds of the just man.

And so this child of a wicked person does what's right, walks with God. God says he will not die for the iniquity of his father. He's not going to be punished for the sins of his father. Remember the proverb that they were saying, the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. They're looking at their situation and they're going, man, our situation stinks. But it's not my fault, it's my parents' fault. And God says, no, that's not the case.

That's not how it works. He says, I deal with the individual. And you'll live or die based upon your own life, not based upon who your parents were or what they did. He shall not die for the iniquity of his father. He shall surely live. But then he goes on, just to make it clear, verse 18, as for his father. So his father was wicked, but he was righteous.

His father, because he did what he did and he was cruel and he was wicked, he says he shall die for his iniquity. And so a wicked father cannot be redeemed by a righteous son. A righteous son is not punished for a wicked father. We're held individually responsible. God holds us accountable for our own selves. Now as children, we do get a lot of things from our parents.

I think a very clear example in that for us is Zach and Tom Reese, right? I mean, for me, when I hang out with Zach, it takes me back to the early days when I used to hang out with Pastor Tom because he was a lot younger and they were closer to age. And man, it's just like, it's like I'm hanging out with Pastor Tom. The facial expressions, the mannerisms, the jokes, the style of humor, I mean, it's like...

so similar and I'm sure he got tired of it, but all the time I was like, you're so your dad, Zach. I mean, it's just, it's so astounding to me every time. It's just amazing to me. And so, you know, there's these similarities. Right now, my mom and my wife are having a good time because they're comparing notes on my dad and me and laughing and joking because I have this thing that I get really uncomfortable ordering things.

especially like on a drive-thru, when I don't see the thing I'm supposed to order on the menu. You know, I like to look at it, I like to see, I like to be able to read it and to be able to say it, you know, exactly how it is on the menu. And a lot of times when Kim has me order, you know, she doesn't know the exact wording and so she just says, I want this and...

And I'm wondering, does that really exist? Is that for real? And so I have to find it on the menu so that I can order it, right? Well, apparently my dad does the same thing. And so when my mom and my wife were hanging out this last week, they were laughing and joking. And then when it happened again this last week, we went to McDonald's and Kim asked for like some kind of kid ice cream cone. And I didn't see it on the menu. And I'm looking, I'm like, is that a real thing? And

Of course, it was there and I just had to find it. And then I see it uncomfortable. And so there's these things that, you know, we're just similar. You know, we get a lot from our parents. But what God is saying here is just because your parents are one way doesn't mean that you have to be that way. What God is saying is, look, you can stop and consider...

This is who my parents were. This is how they were. This is what they did. This is what the outcome was. And this is what God says about who they were and what they did. And I don't have to go down that same path. I don't have to follow that pattern. I don't have to be like my parents. We have a choice. We have the opportunity to be different than the ones who raised us, to be different than the ones who went before us.

And so God paints this picture to give a visual for us, to teach us that we have responsibility for our own selves, that we can't blame everyone else. Society teaches us really to blame everyone else.

Acting this way, you're having this type of behavior because this happened to you when you were at this age and this is how your parents were and this is what your first job was like or this is what that boss did to you and that's why you're this way. That's why you have these habits. That's why you practice these things. And we like to blame others. I mean, hey, if I can blame everyone else for my problems, that's wonderful. But that doesn't work when you stand before God.

You might be able to convince everybody else around you that it's somebody else's fault. But when you stand before God, God says, you're responsible for your own life. You're responsible for your own attitude. You're responsible for your own actions. You were responsible to know the things that I said in my word. You're responsible to follow me. You and I have a responsibility to keep ourselves in right relationship with God. And nobody else can do that for us.

It's up to us. He holds us responsible for our own selves. Going on to verse 19, he says,

Verse 20. Verse 20.

Verse 21,

Verse 1.

And so as we go on now, as God is speaking through Ezekiel, He says, again, He kind of summarizes or reiterates, He says, look, the son will not bear the guilt of the father and the father won't bear the guilt of the son.

Again, he says in verse 20, the soul who sins shall die. We all belong to God. God set the standard. And when we fail to meet that standard, we are held responsible for that. Nobody else is held responsible for our failures, for our weaknesses. We are held responsible for those things. Not our parents, not our spiritual leaders, not anybody else. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself.

So your righteousness doesn't cover others and their righteousness does not cover you. The wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. Your wickedness does not cause others to be judged and their wickedness does not cause you to be judged. We're judged for our own wickedness. And so we have responsibility for our own selves. That's what God is saying. He is holding us accountable to what we do.

Again, there's a lot of things that we have no control over in our lives. There's a lot of things that we have no say in. But how we respond and the way that we react and the attitudes that we choose, attitudes are a choice by the way, the actions that we take, those are choices as well. Those are all up to us. And we might be in a tough situation and yeah, we might have a difficult life, but we cannot say that we are being judged for somebody else's sins.

Now the reality is we're being judged or we are judged for what we do in those situations, how we handle those situations, how we respond and if we respond appropriately and correctly. The soul of the sins, I'm sorry, the soul who sins shall die. But now he goes on in verses 21 through 24 and he gives us also some important good news. So,

We're held responsible for our own selves, but we also have the opportunity to change. We have the opportunity to stop going the wrong direction and to go the right direction. He says in verse 21, if the wicked man turns from all his sins and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. And so we're not stuck in the situation anymore.

that we are currently or that we were in the past. We're not stuck in a wicked condition. We're not stuck in the position that we find ourselves in right now. Again, a lot of things are not up to us and we are in the position that we're in right now, largely because of what choices that were made and things that happened and a lot of things that were not up to us, that didn't have anything to do with us. But that's just part of life. We all suffer, we all go through hardship, we all have difficulty.

But the choices that we've made and the wickedness that we've practiced does not mean that our lives have to be lived in that way. We don't have to continue in that condition. We get a choice. We can change our heart. We can change our attitude. We can change our mind. We can change and turn around and walk with God. And this is amazing. This is an opportunity from a gracious and merciful God.

Look at verse 22 again. It says, This is New Testament teaching here, huh? 2 Corinthians 5.17, what does Paul say? If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are gone. Behold, all things have become new. That's what God is saying here. Look, even if you're wicked, if you turn around to walk with me...

If you turn around to do what's right, if you'll connect with Me and have a relationship with Me, none of those former things will be remembered against you. God says, "Look, I'm not going to hold you accountable. I'm not going to judge you. You're not going to be put to death as a result of those things if you turn from those things and begin to walk with Me. Those things will not be remembered against you. Because of the righteousness which He has done, He shall live." And so if you turn around and you start doing what's right,

then you have life. If you turn around and walk with God, then He gives you life. And those things of the past are no more. He says in verse 23, Look, I don't have pleasure that the wicked should die. I don't get excited if wicked people are judged. I don't get excited about judgment. God doesn't get happy about dealing out punishment. He says, Look, I would rather that the wicked would turn from their ways and live. That's my desire, God would say.

That's what he desires. That's what he is pleased by. And when a wicked person will turn to follow the Lord, God is pleased. The things that he has committed, the wickedness that he has done is remembered no more. And he will live because of his righteousness. He gives the opposite side of that in verse 24. But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, so this is the opposite.

This is a righteous person who's doing what's right, but he turns away from doing what's right, and now he commits iniquity. Now he starts doing what's wrong. Now he starts walking away from God and starts practicing the things that are not of God. The principle is the same though. All the righteousness that he's done before, that's not going to be remembered if he turns from his righteousness to commit iniquity. Because of his unfaithfulness, he is guilty. The sin which he has committed...

requires that he now be judged for his sin. God says he will die. And so the righteous person shall live, the wicked person shall die. We're each held responsible for our own selves, but we're not stuck in one condition. If we are in a wicked condition where we're practicing wickedness, we have the opportunity to stop, to change, to turn around and go the right direction. But if we find ourselves in a righteous condition,

There's a warning here because those who turn away and begin to practice wickedness, all of their righteousness is not remembered anymore. And so we rejoice that our past is washed away when we turn from wickedness and walk in righteousness. And that's awesome when we say praise God. But if we turn from our righteousness and walk in wickedness, then the same principle applies. That righteousness is washed away. God holds us responsible for our own selves.

But it's not, you know, you get to the end of your life and you stack up all the righteousness you did and all the wickedness that you did and if the righteousness, you know, is more than the wickedness, then hooray, you did a good job and enter into the kingdom of God. No, He holds you responsible for what you do right now. He holds you responsible for how you're living right now, for the choices that you're making right now.

Past righteousness is not a covering for present wickedness. Just because you did really good for a season or really good for a while or you did a great work for God and you accomplished something awesome for God does not cover over whatever wickedness that you want to practice right now.

You can't count on those things. Those things do not cover you. In the same way, past wickedness and maybe you were really bad and maybe you went, man, you did some really wicked and vile and evil stuff. Those things aren't counted against you right now if you walk in righteousness. We want it both ways, right? We want our righteousness to always count for us. We don't want to be held responsible for our wickedness.

We want to be able to practice wickedness, but reap the rewards of righteousness. That's what we want, if we're honest with ourselves. We want to do whatever we want to do, but be rewarded as if we were righteous. Now, he goes on, in verse 25, he says, And so God says, look, when the righteous turns away from his righteousness and practices wickedness, none of his righteousness will be remembered. And the people say, hey, that's not fair.

Now we see that same mentality today in the workplace. People begin to rip off their employer or they cut corners or they're cutting their time or they're not being honest on their time sheet or they're stealing from their employer. And the excuse is always, you know, I've earned it, I've deserved it because I worked so hard. You don't understand how hard I worked.

There's this mentality that, look how good I've been and that covers over the mistakes I'm making or the things that I'm doing that aren't quite right right now. But God says, look, when you turn away from me and you practice wickedness, none of your righteousness is remembered. We say, hey, that's not fair, that's not right. But we get excited when he says, hey, if you turn from wickedness and follow righteousness, then none of your wicked things will be remembered. We say, woo! And so God says, well, the people say, hey,

The way of the Lord is not fair. But God says, Hear now, O house of Israel, it's not my way which is fair, and your ways which are not. I'm sorry. O house of Israel, is it not my way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair? See, it would not be fair for God to do what we want to do and

Allow our righteousness to always continue and be rewarded for righteousness even though we practice wickedness. That's not fair. But the way that God deals with us is fair. That when we're righteous, He rewards us accordingly. And when we're wicked, He judges us accordingly. And that's the bottom line. That's how it works. We're not judged for anybody else. We don't reap the consequences of their sins and we're not rewarded for their righteousness. And our past life and what we've done in the past...

Well, that is not a covering. If we were righteous in the past, that's not a covering for being wicked in the present and walking away from God. That doesn't fix us. That doesn't cover us. But then also the past wickedness that we've practiced doesn't keep us from being righteous. And so we're personally responsible and our responsibility really is for the present, for right now.

We can't look at the past and say, well, I was already good enough, I've accomplished enough, and so now I can live however I want. Oh, we would love that. That's what we would want. We would love to be able to just give, you know, one big, you know, giant gesture of faith and faithfulness to God. You know, I'm going to be faithful to God for one week, and then I'm going to live for the rest of the year, you know, however I want. We would like that. And that's really what religion is about.

But we're talking about a relationship with God which means that we need to be right with God right now. And God holds us accountable for where we are right now, in the present, for how we walk with Him, for how we handle these situations, for how we respond, for the attitudes of our hearts, for the actions that we take, for the inaction that we don't take, for the knowledge that we have, for the ignorance that we have. God holds us accountable right now for those things. We can't look at the past as an excuse or a covering.

We're held accountable for what we're doing right now.

in response to God's word. Verse 26, he says,

Our ways are not fair. We want someone else to be responsible for our wickedness. Or we want our past righteousness to cover our wickedness. And that's not fair. And that's not right. God's way is fair. Which is that we are responsible for our own selves.

And if we are wicked and we turn and practice righteousness and walk with God, well, then we live. But if we turn from God and practice wickedness, then we die. That is fair. That is right. And we may not like it, but we don't make the rules. It's God who owns our souls.

He sets the standard and He says, the soul that sins shall die. And that's true whether you had godly parents or wicked parents. And that's true whether you've been good in the past or bad in the past. Right now, that's what God holds you accountable for. What are you doing right now? Are you walking with God? Are you practicing righteousness? Or are you walking in wickedness? Verse 32.

He says,

So here God concludes with an invitation to turn and to get right. He says, look, therefore I will judge you. And here's the truth, guys. We will stand before God and God will judge us. Everyone according to his own ways. He will not judge us for what people around us were doing. You know, we can't stand before God and say, yeah, I know,

fornication is wrong, but all my friends at school or my co-workers, they were doing it and you didn't seem to be judging them or nothing bad seemed to be happening. It worked out good in their situation. Whatever reasoning that we think that we have. Yeah, I know, pornography is wrong, but it's just so easy and prevalent. It's not like before where it's real difficult, but it's accessible. And so that's why. That's how we excuse ourselves.

Everyone will be judged according to his own ways. You won't be judged based upon what the rest of society was doing. You won't be judged based upon what your parents did or did not do. You won't be judged based upon what your brothers and sisters did. You won't be judged based upon what Calvary Chapel Living Water did. You won't be judged based upon what someone else did. You'll be judged according to your own ways. What are you doing? And where are you in your relationship with God?

And so he's calling the people because they are not in a right standing with God. And so he's writing to those, he's speaking to those who are in rebellion against God, who are practicing wickedness, but they're blaming everybody else. It's not their fault. We're just reaping the consequences of what our fathers have done. But God says, look, I'm going to hold you accountable. And so he says, repent and turn so that iniquity will not be your ruin.

Repent and turn so that iniquity will not be your ruin. God is pleading with the people. He's saying, look, I don't want to judge you. I don't want to bring these consequences upon you. I don't want to put you to death for your rebellion. So turn. You're not stuck in that condition. You don't have to be that way. You don't have to continue in that path. You have the opportunity and you have the responsibility to change, to repent, to repent.

To cast away your sin. To cast away those attitudes. To cast away the things that are not of God. He says, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. You have the opportunity to receive a new heart and a new spirit. Not only does God give you the opportunity to repent, but He says, look, I'll give you a new heart. I'll give you a new spirit. You have an opportunity to change, to be transformed.

You don't have to live the rest of your life, that miserable person that you are. You don't have to continue on in that same condition. You have an opportunity for a new life, for a transformation. Not only do you have the opportunity, but you have the responsibility to get a new heart and a new spirit. You will be held accountable. I will be held accountable for where I stand with God. God says, look, I have no pleasure in the death of the one who dies. Therefore, turn and live.

Turn and live. He gives us the opportunity to get right with Him. He is just and merciful. He is fair. It would be just and right for God if He decided, look, I don't want to give you an opportunity. You messed up. And that's enough. I'm done with you. And write us off and give us no chance. But He doesn't do that. And you know, we're here this evening because He hasn't done that.

And whatever your parents have done and whatever other people have done in your life and whatever your bosses have done, it's no excuse for you to rebel against God and to practice things that are not right. It doesn't excuse you from sin. Whether they were righteous and good or whether they were really bad to you, it doesn't excuse you from sin. God will hold us responsible regardless of how other people were or what they did to us and whether it was good or bad. He holds us responsible for how we respond to Him and His Word.

And how we respond to what He has called us to do. And so the worship team is going to come up and lead us in a song. And as they do, I want to encourage you to take this time to check your heart with God. Don't check your parents' heart. Don't check your friends' heart. Don't check your neighbor's heart. Check your heart. Because it's your heart that you're responsible for. It's your heart that you will give an account to God for. Maybe you didn't have...

Good situation growing up. But you can't blame your parents for your mistakes. You can't blame your parents for your sins. You can't blame your nationality. You can't say, well, you know, I'm this race. I'm this gender and that's why I'm this way. That's why I have this anger. That's why I have this lust. That's why I have this greed. That's why I have this mentality and this attitude and do these things and do those things. No, we have the opportunity to change.

Again, a lot of things in life are not up to you, but what you do right now, how you respond to the situation that you're in, how you choose to live and the actions that you choose to take, those are your responsibility. And those are the things that God will hold you accountable for. We need to stop shifting the blame. No one else is to blame for your life. If your life stinks, that's no one else's fault. No one else is to blame.

We have the responsibility for our own lives. If your heart is wrong, if your heart is hard, if you're living in sin, that's no one else's fault. We have responsibility for our own hearts. God will hold us accountable. And so let's take this opportunity to repent, to cast away those things, to get a new heart. Ask God to transform you. Let God do a work in your heart. Turn from those things that are not of Him. Because He promises, look, if you're

practicing wickedness, but you turn and follow Him and practice righteousness. All that wickedness is not remembered against you. He says, look, I want to wash you clean. I want to set you free. I want to cut loose all those things of the past and give you a new life. So let's take this time to check our hearts, to see where we stand, to let God work in us that we might follow Him with all of our heart. Let's worship the Lord together.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.