Take your Bibles now. Let's go to the book of Ezekiel. And I'm going to set a few of you on edge tonight. I don't know who the few are, but I'm sure I'm going to set a few on edge when we go through some things tonight based on biblical interpretation. There's a particular passage that we're going to get to if I if I speak fast tonight, that quite frankly has been seriously misinterpreted, at least from many of our perspectives, and we'll try and show that to you tonight. But let's get started. Again, we're in the book of Ezekiel, the first 32 chapters or so. Ezekiel is just pounding the fact that Judah is going to be taken into captivity into Babylon. Again, 605 BC, 597 BC, captivities had already taken place. A good portion of the Jewish people were already in Babylon. But now Ezekiel is preaching about, listen, and coming up. And of course he didn't know the date. We know the date because it's history now. But it's coming that God is going to severely judge Judah and all of the people left basically in Judah, the southern part of Israel, will be taken into captivity. So again, this has all happened before the church age. We're way back on the timeline before Christ during the Babylonian deportations. So we're not gonna spend time in a timeline, but I wanna get into this. All right, so here's Ezekiel now preaching more to the people of Judah about judgment to come. The word of the Lord came to me again saying, 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.'" All right, so there's a false teaching going on. There's a false teaching that if daddy sins, you're gonna be held accountable for it. And some of you have used verses to try and prove that, which I'm going to hopefully reverse in your minds tonight. God is going to make it very clear in Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and other passages that the children are not judged for what daddy or mama does. And this parable that the Jewish people were saying is like the children are being judged, are going to be judged because of what dad did. And God makes it very clear here, and he says, as I live, says the Lord God, stop saying that. This proverb, this concept should no longer be used in Israel. Verse four, behold, all souls are mine. The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine. Catch the verbiage now and then he's going to explain it. The soul who, what? Sins shall die. Alright, so again, keep with me tonight or you're going to get lost or get preconceived ideas. The concept that we're going to see is God is going to make it very clear that whether, if daddy sins, daddy gets punished. If the child sins, the child gets punished. If the grandson sins, the grandson gets punished and no one else. Some of you are already gonna catch where we're going here. Individual responsibility and accountability is basically what God's saying. You're gonna get judged, he's speaking to the people of Judah now, for the people that committed the sin, not others. And we're, again, stick with me. Verse four, God deals with individuals and their behavior. In other words, if daddy sins, is the child also going to suffer the repercussions? Well, we're going to explain, yes, they can suffer repercussions, and we'll show you how. Jeremiah, just to fill in some blanks here before we get back to Ezekiel. In those days, they shall say no more. The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for what? His own iniquity, every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. All right, so the Jewish people are having this problem, Jeremiah addresses it, Ezekiel addresses it, that there's this false thing that's been put out there that if daddy does wrong, the children are automatically going to be judged for it and he's going to basically start fighting that, refuting that concept. All right, where did Ezekiel's listeners get the idea that God punished the children for the sins of their fathers? We're going to look at the verses because they're the same ones I've heard people use. This philosophy came from two sources. And by the way, this is from Warren Wiersbe's commentary, former pastor of Moody Church, great theologians. The philosophy came from two sources, a misinterpretation of what the Lord had said in his law that he visited the sins of the fathers upon the children. All right. So we're going to look at these verses as we start to go through this. Exodus 20. Of course, this is part of the Ten Commandments. You shall not make for yourself the carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord God, am a jealous God. Now here's the passage that we're going to be working on tonight. visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. All right, so on the surface, some people said, well, you know, if daddy sends the third up to the third and fourth generations, they're gonna suffer for what daddy did. All right, now, I'm going to give you a very nebulous answer right now, yes and no. Okay, and we'll give you the two sides of the coin theologically. When parents sin, it often impacts the behavior of the children. Yes or no? Yes. Leaders, for example, may take several generations before the cycle of negative sinful behavior ceases. And that's very true. The principle is not that God judges the sinful behavior of the parents on their children than their children's children, even if they are living for the Lord. And we're gonna pull out verses that back up that statement. All right, so again, it's not, some people have taken that, and we're gonna look at three other passages that say the exact same thing. If daddy sins, mama sins, the parental people, if you will, sin, Does that mean that junior and junior ed are going to automatically be judged and suffer for what daddy did? The answer is no, but what God is saying, when leadership goes in a bad direction, mommy and daddy mess up. In all likelihood, there's the probability that the children are also going to follow in those steps. But again, stick with me, don't make a decision yet until we get through all of this. Exodus chapter 34 reiterates this and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord God Merciful and gracious long-suffering and bounty and goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin by no means clearing the guilty Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children than the children's children Children being a literal first generation, children's children being the grandchildren to the third and the fourth generation. Numbers then gets into it. The Lord is long suffering, abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation. Deuteronomy. Therefore, Know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a what? A thousand generations. with those who love him and keep his commandments. Okay, look at it again. Therefore know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. Different scenario. And he repays those who hate him to their face to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. All right, so going back to the concept, the warning in Exodus chapter 20 verse five and 34, six to seven implies that the Lord punishes the children if they commit the sins their fathers committed. Furthermore, God also promised to bless those children who followed godly examples and obeyed the Lord. I mean, we're doing this real quick because I'm short on time, but we went through those verses already and that's exactly what they said. So he gave promises of blessing as well as warnings of chastening. All right, so the philosophy again, number one, came from misinterpreting the verses we just looked at. Secondly, the Jews had the idea of the oneness of the nation. In other words, if one person sins, everybody's guilty. So there was more of a corporate communal type approach to their theology at that time, which of course was not correct. So, according to the law of Moses, innocent animals could suffer and die for guilty sinners, but nowhere was it taught, and this is Weersbe again, that innocent people should be punished for sins committed by guilty people. In fact, Moses taught just the opposite. The father shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for his own sin. That's a quote from Deuteronomy. All right, we got a whole lot more verses that are gonna start to back this up. Deuteronomy 24 verse 16 is one of them. Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for whose sin? Their own. The concept being when we started out is, and again, here's, and I've, I don't know how many commentaries I went through just to make sure where everybody was at, but I mean, I've heard it, and I've heard it preached in multiple different churches that, listen, and they'll get in the parents' faces and in the service. It's like, listen, if you mess up, if you do sin, You're condemning your children and your grandchildren and your grandchildren's grandchildren, basically your great-grandchildren. So if you mess up, you're destroying four generations. It's not what the verse is saying. Think back to culturally what was taking place back in these times. When a Jewish person got married, what did they do? The male Well, first of all, there was a one-year betrothal. What would the male do? The male would then go back to daddy's home and he would build on an addition to daddy's home. That was just part of the culture back then. So you had, technically, you could have one, two, three. three, four different generations that were based on how long grandpa lives, living literally side by side in kind of like townhouses. So the culture of the day was you could have two, three generations literally living next door to each other. And it certainly had a cultural application at that time as well. And if the leadership, in other words, two doors down there's daddy and daddy's messing up and then the The grandchildren are watching it, the children are watching it, and the possibility, even the probability, of them following that inappropriate behavior is significant. So thereby why that verse is strong as it is. The guilt and condemnation for a parent's sin could not be passed on to the children but the consequences of parental sin could bring suffering to the family. All right, now you say, well, that's just Wiersbe's commentary. Give us some Bible. All right, we will. In Old Testament days, the Jewish people lived in extended families and often four generations lived together. This meant that younger generations were influenced by the bad examples of their relatives as well as their good examples. Hereditary tendencies could be passed along as well as social diseases. But at the same time, a godly relative's example, teaching, and prayers could bring blessing to his or her descendants for years to come. Neither Ezekiel nor Jeremiah denied that innocent people were suffering because of the sins of the godless. Lamentations 5 says, our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their iniquities. In other words, when the leadership messes up, people suffer. and there's repercussions for it. The thing they opposed was that the people were using the proverb as an excuse for their own sins, claiming that their generation wasn't guilty of disobedience. All right, now let's get into some specific things here. We're looking at Ezekiel now, and he's going to literally go through what in the world did, I mean, we just gave a quick summary of all these things. Now we're going to look at the Bible. The just person's description is going to be given right now, and there's 18, I think, no, 16 different things attached to this. This is all, this is just Bible, no commentary. 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. He's just giving us five, if you're watching the screen at all, I've numbered them as we go through the scriptures. A just person will be following these specific things. Verse seven, 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, covered the naked with clothing, if he has not exacted usury, in other words, basically charging too much in interest, nor taken any increase, but has withdrawn his hand from iniquity and executed true judgment between man and man, he has walked in my statutes and kept my judgment faithfully. He is just, he shall what? Surely live, says the Lord God. Now again, what was Ezekiel pointing out here? because what the Jewish people were doing is trying to blame mom and dad for their sin, and that's why they're under judgment. And Ezekiel's saying, no, that's not how this works. Because mommy and daddy did wrong, does that mean that it's on mom and dad and not on you and your sin? So he's pointing out, listen, if you're a just person, you do the 16 things that I just pointed out, you're not gonna be judged. You'll live. But he's saying you are guilty of these things. You have been doing them. You have, instead of rejecting what your sinful parents did, you've also embraced it. And that's the point that he's making here. All right, the unjust person's description. So he just said, listen, if you're a just person and you do those 16 things, and basically it's a, I mean, it's just a telltale that they're walking with God. Here's telltales that they're not walking with God. So the unjust person's description. If he begets a son. All right, so again, we're looking back at daddy. If daddy's boy does this. If he 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 he has eaten on the mountains. Okay, meaning you're eating on the mountains as you're going up to sacrifice to idols. or defiled his neighbor's wife, basically adultery or fornication, oppressed the poor and needy, robbed by violence, not restored the pledge, lifted his eyes to the idols, or committed abomination, if he has executed usury or taken increase, shall he then live? Shall daddy's boy who practices these sins, and the question is, shall he live? And God's statement is, and there's even an exclamation point in the scriptures, which of course was not part of the original Hebrew, by the way, but the translators put it there. 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. All right, so Ezekiel is pointing out The children, again, and the grandchildren, they're saying, ah, you know, daddy messed up two generations ago. It's all on him. He messed up and we've done nothing wrong. And God says, well, wait a minute. That's not how this works. All right, Ezekiel 18, verse 14. Now we get down to the explanation of this in a little more detail. If, however, he begets a son who sees all the sins which his father has done, Here's the tell-tale, and here's the one that makes it clear. "...and considers, but does not do likewise." In other words, daddy's a mess-up. He's messed up. He's a sinner. He's done wrong. Junior says, wait a second, guys. I don't want to be like what my dad did. I want to live for God. I want to do what's right. So if he considers, but he does not follow in his father's footsteps, that is the father who did wrong, verse 15, who has not eaten on the mountains, nor lifted his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife, has not oppressed anyone, nor withheld a pledge, nor robbed by violence, but has given his bread to the hungry and covered the naked with clothing, who has withdrawn his hand from the poor and not received usury or increase, but has executed my judgments and walked in my statutes. God's conclusion, he shall what? Not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live. All right, so we look at the, again, we go back to the commandment, Exodus chapter 20, verse five. Daddy sins. And it could be, if you will, from the four different passages we looked at, could indeed the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren, could they indeed follow the steps of their, if you will, the first father? Could they do that? Is it possible that they'll do that? Yes. Is it even probable that that will take place? That's why the Scripture keeps reiterating it. It's like, listen, Dads, get your act together because you're not only affecting what you're doing, but the probability is you're going to affect the next generations to come. So straighten up. Now, if Junior happens to do, like in this scenario, in Ezekiel chapter 18, in the last several verses, and in definitely verse 17, when you all of a sudden have somebody who says, have you ever heard of a first-generation Christian? Somewhere along the pecking order, either you're the first generation Christian or someone before you was a first generation Christian and may go back, well, you know, if you come from a long line of family where folks just, I mean, you just have a lot of folks that got saved and everybody, I've not seen too many of those families, but on occasion it happens. If you're a mom and dad and you're a quote-unquote a first-generation Christian and your children have gotten saved there would be second-generation Christians. So the probability of someone becoming a Christian doesn't increase if mom and dad are also Christians. I would suggest it does because mom and dad who are following the Lord, what are you gonna do? You're going to have a Bible in your home, you're probably going to take them to church, they're going to go to Awana, they're going to go to Sunday school, they're going to go Bible clubs, may have Christian school education, whatever it is. So the probability of a child of a Christian parent becoming a Christian is significantly higher than a child that has a parent that is not one. But the point here is, God is trying to make it very clear, listen, don't try and blame grandpa or don't try, or great grandpa, don't blame everybody before you that it's their fault because you're a mess up. God's saying, the soul that sins, it shall die. So he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, He shall surely live if indeed he stops the pattern and turns to the Lord. So again, if, and this happens all the time, folks will be here, you'll bring folks in, maybe you'll see them at church, at school, wherever, or at school, at work, on the streets, and they have no idea what Christianity is, and they don't have Christian parents. And you start talking to them, And their mom or dad might have been a drug addict, might have been a prostitute, might have been a murderer. And it happens. I mean, we run into people like that on occasion. Does that mean that they're going to be a prostitute or a murderer or a robber or end up in jail? No, absolutely not. Is the propensity higher if you come from a criminal family? Oh, yeah, absolutely it is. So the concept here, though, specific to the passage. OK, so let's just go back to the passage right now. Forget about us. Let's just get myopic. God's point to the people in Judah was, do not blame daddy because you're going to be judged. You're being judged because you're a mess up. Now, if you would have changed, if you would have repented, if you would have gotten right with me, just like it says here, you will not die for the iniquity of your father. If you're doing right and you're living for God, you're gonna live. So that's God's statement here. Does this make sense? Hopefully it does. Verse 18, as for his father, now wait a minute, this son has already been given a clean bill of health because he turned to righteousness. As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother by violence and did what is not good among his people, behold, daddy is going to die for his iniquity. And again, we're talking now about Old Testament law, we're talking about Judah. We're not talking about in the current church age. Well, God's gonna kill you because you messed up that This was a issue with the Jewish people not following God So we got to separate the Old Testament concept from the New Testament age of grace. All right That's why understanding how God dealt with people before the cross and how he dealt with people after the cross is also crucial Is this a lot of stuff? And it really is it's heavy in it and you've got to understand that Dispensationalism, and that's a word some people cringe at, but dispensation, how God works with certain people at certain times in a certain way to accomplish his will. And God works differently with the church age than he did back in Old Testament times. Verse 19, yet you say, why should the son not bear the guilt of the father? In other words, why shouldn't Junior be punished for what Daddy did? Because the Son has done what is lawful and right and has kept all my statutes and observed them, he shall surely live. All right, so again, what is my point here? Is the Bible contradictory? It can't be. There's got to be a reasonable explanation. When God's talking about sin that will be imparted, if you will, down to the third and the fourth generations, how does that synchronize, if you will, with what we're reading in Ezekiel and what we read in Jeremiah? Well, if you understand that God is basically saying the propensity for one who does wrong is that his descendants are in all likelihood going to do wrong, Don't you go blaming daddy for your sin. Now if you decide to turn and follow the Lord, you're gonna live. You will not be judged for what, if you will, the same sins that your daddy did. If you don't do them, you're not gonna be judged for them. Don't do them and live. It's that simple. All right, verse 20. We'll end with this. The soul who sins shall what? God's not playing games here now. He's making it very clear to the people in Judah, you guys sinned. You messed up. You forsook Me. You've not followed My commandments. You've gone into idolatry. You've followed in the ways of daddy and your daddy's daddy and your daddy's daddy's daddy. And because of that, and because you are guilty, then, because the soul who sins will die, the son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself." All right, so let's try and pull all this together now. So, we've got to be very careful making a blanket statement, and especially preachers and Bible teachers need to be very careful about what I've heard many of them say. And it's a wonder, it doesn't sound, I mean, the hellfire and damnation old-fashioned preacher who's like, ah, you sinned and you're going to send the next four generations to hell. Nonsense. Did you hear me? Nonsense. The son, the daughter is responsible for what they do. Not what daddy did, not what mama did. So again, the propensity and the challenge to me and you is, If we're doing right, if we're a good example, and we're living for the Lord, the opposite will be true. In all likelihood, our children and our grandchildren and so forth will see a godly mom and dad or grandpa and grandma or great-grandpa and great-grandma that are living for the Lord, and in all likelihood, they may follow suit. But listen, you stinkers in Judah, don't you dare blame daddy because you're a dirty, rotten sinner. You did that on your own and you're gonna be judged on your own. Make sense? All right, I hope it does. If it doesn't, let me see, what should you do? I don't know, I guess re-derival, that's it. All right, Father, thank you for your love for us. Oh, it's always easy to blame someone else when we do wrong. It's always easy to point fingers when it's really on us. And Father, I'm so thankful for the folks that are part of this church, this assembly. I'm thankful that they are good examples and that they set the tone for their children and for those that they have influence over. So Father, I pray that in the antithesis to what we saw in the Ten Commandments, that indeed we would be those that are walking with you, that we're setting good examples for those that follow, if you will, what we're doing. Help us to be good examples to our children, to our grandchildren, maybe someday to great-grandchildren. And Father, just please help us to be the best possible individuals we can, those that exemplify and honor Christ. And Father, we know it all starts at that point in time when we say yes to Jesus. It all started or will start when we realize that we're sinners. And because we've sinned, we don't deserve to go to heaven. but You made it so clear that every single person who puts their faith in Jesus, realizing that they can't get to heaven on their own, but that Jesus paid the entire cost through His death, burial, and resurrection for our sins. And Father, we're so thankful for that. If there's anyone listening tonight, Lord, that's never put their faith in Jesus and Jesus alone. They are traveling down a path that will lead to destruction and eternal damnation to be point blank. You know that, Lord. Maybe even tonight, would they stop the path of even previous generations and say yes to Jesus tonight and commit their life to him. So Father, we ask that you bless us, that you watch over us this week, help us to live for you. And Lord, we look forward to being back on the Lord's day, your day, the first day of the week, this coming Sunday. And we'll give you the praise for it. And all God's people said, amen. Thanks for being here, folks. Have a great night.