Through Ezekiel chapter 18, we come to this 18th chapter and our subject today, can a soul die? I'm going to invite you to bow your heads in just a word of silent prayer to each one privately and personally prepare your heart to study together God's word. Except the spirit of God teach us, we cannot really get great value from the word of God. Father in heaven, we're grateful and thankful for your word and we pray that you would bless it and use it in our lives today. We pray in Christ's name, amen. In the 18th chapter, Ezekiel says, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. So this is a message from God again. We want to pay close attention to what he's saying. In verse 4 and verse 20, we have an interesting little phrase. It says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. A few weeks ago, I heard a CBS radio commentator saying, you know, the Bible teaches that when a man dies, that he just simply goes out of existence. His soul goes completely to sleep. And when a man dies, he dies like a dog or a cat or your favorite pet. He just is no more. And he said, I have a proof text for that. He said, it's Ezekiel 18, 4. He said, the Bible says the soul that's in it, it shall die. Very good. He has proved it, hasn't he? And so when you die, there is no heaven, there is no hell. You just simply die. For the Bible says, the soul that's in it, it shall die. There's a real problem with that statement. First of all, he doesn't really understand what the Bible means when it uses the term death. Secondly, he doesn't understand what the Bible means when it uses the term soul. And thirdly, he doesn't understand that in the context of this chapter, Ezekiel is not talking to us about spiritual death or the death of a soul, but he is talking to us about physical death. We are not talking about justification here, but rather we are talking about serving the Lord and living a long life and disobeying the Lord and having your life drastically shortened. He's talking about someone who claims to be a child of God but who lives in direct disobedience to God and to all of his commandments. This is not a doctrine which is obscure and found only in this passage of Scripture. And may I say Ezekiel is not the only one who has misunderstood this passage. Do you know I have found theological textbooks that have said the soul of man is spiritually dead. Ezekiel 18, 4. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. A misuse of this text to prove soul death. Now let's just talk for a moment about what we mean when we use the word soul. We find that we have the word Suké in the New Testament that is translated soul and we find when we study the New Testament that that word Suké is used as a reference to the soul or the invisible immaterial part of man that lives on after physical death. One place where we find reference to this is in the book of Revelation chapter 6. In Revelation chapter 6 John says, I saw Well, let me just turn there. You might like to look, keep your finger in Ezekiel and turn to Revelation chapter 6. In verse 9 we read, And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. Now John said, I saw a group of people, and he calls them souls, suke. They were disembodied spirits. They had been slain, and their souls were with the Lord in heaven. And John said, they were crying with a loud voice, and they were saying, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them. Some would say, well, what are they giving white robes to souls for? I don't know, but that's what souls wear in heaven. When souls are here on earth, they wear bodies. When they go to heaven, they wear white robes. That's all I know. That's what the Bible says. We see this in several places. All right? Now notice what they are saying, what it says. White robes were given unto every one of them, and it was said unto them that they should rest for a little season, until their fellow servants also, and their brethren, that they should be killed, and as they were should be fulfilled. They were waiting for others to be killed, and then the day of resurrection was going to come, and they would be reunited with their glorified resurrected bodies. But they are referred to as souls in heaven. And so the word psuche is used as a reference to our immaterial part of our being, our soul and spirit, which goes to be with the Lord when we die as believers, or which goes into the place of torment, the place called Hades, should we die in unbelief. Now in Matthew chapter 16 we find the Lord using the word souls again, but this time He's not using it with reference to the immaterial part of man, but this time he's using it with reference to the total man, body, soul, and spirit. And he is using it with reference to our human physical life. Jesus said to his disciples, if any man will come after me, verse 24 of Matthew 16, let him deny himself and follow me. For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Now, what is he talking about there? He's talking about your earthly life. He's saying, give me your life. Give me the years of life that belong to you here in this world. And all of the years of your life that you give to me, I will what? I will reward you for those years. And so if you lose your life with me, you'll save it. But if you take your life as a Christian and use it for yourself, you will lose it. You will end up with no reward, and you will lose your life. It's the word suke, the same word that is translated soul in the book of Revelation. Notice what he says in the next verse. For what should profit And he's talking now about believers, not unbelievers. What should profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own sukkah? The same word, his own life. What profit is it to you as a Christian if you put yourself first and the Lord second and live your life and gain many riches? He said you will end up in eternity a pauper. For all of your earthly possessions will be left behind, and you will have lost your allotted time, and you will enter eternity with no reward. Many people apply this verse to the lost, and they say, what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul? No, no. He says, what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his life? His life. And there are many Christians who are losing their life. because they are using their life for themselves rather than for God. And so the word soul here is used with reference to our total life lived as a human being. Now back in Ezekiel, God is doing the same thing here. He's saying, As I live, in verse 3, saith the Lord, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. What proverb were they using? Well, we'll come back to that. But verse 4 he said, Behold, all souls are mine. The Bible says our life is in God's hands. Our times are determined by Him. You were born, and you live, and you die according to God's decree. God gives life, Job says, and God takes it away. All life, all souls, are in God's hands. As the soul of the life of the Father, so also the life of the Son is mine. And the life that sinneth, it shall die. What he is teaching us here is this doctrine which we find in other passages of scripture that reveal to us that when a believer, when a child of God deliberately sins, he takes the risk of having his life cut off, of coming to an untimely end. This is not an obscure doctrine. I repeat that to you again. It is a doctrine that is found in other passages of the Old Testament and is also repeated very clearly in the New Testament. In the New Testament we read that God said concerning the lives of the New Testament believers that those believers who were living in deliberate sin, some of them had lost their lives before God's best time for them. He said of the Corinthian believers, some of you have come irreverently to the Lord's table. He said for this cause, many of you are weak and sickly and some have died. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the world. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, chapter 5, he said there is a man in your congregation who is deliberately sinning, living in open immorality. He said, deliver that man to Satan that his body might be destroyed and his spirit might be saved. In 1 John chapter 5 he said, there is a sin unto death. And that when we as believers deliberately turn our back against God and live in open deliberate sin, we are in danger of having God come down in judgment in our lives in the form of illness or even sometimes in the form of an early death. Now that's what the Bible teaches. John says there is a sin unto death, and he said there's a sin not unto death. In the book of James he said, is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders, let them pray over him. But the particular problem there is not just an ordinary illness, but an illness which has come upon someone that by his own admission is there because he has sinned. And James says the elders shall anoint him with oil, and it says then, and the prayer of faith will save the sick, and if he had committed sins, let him confess those sins, and they shall be forgiven them, and he shall be healed, for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. In Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira came to the Lord, and they lied about their possessions. And Peter called them in and said, Ananias and Sapphira, you have lied before man unto man, and you have lied to God. Therefore, God will require your life today. And so it was lost, and so it was taken. Yes, the Bible teaches us that our lives can be shortened if we live in open and deliberate sin as the child of God and as the children of God. And this is what Ezekiel is telling these folk here. Now another mistake that people make is that they not only equate the word soul always with the immaterial part of man, not realizing that it is used numerous places in the Bible with reference to the total life of a man as a human being, but also they make the mistake of believing that death means cessation of being. And as we study the Word of God, we find that not one place in the Bible does death ever mean going into total oblivion. There is a synonym that we can use for death very well, and it fits in every place we find that word death in the Word of God, and it is the word separation. Separation. Death never means cessation of being. The Bible does not teach that when a man enters through the door of physical death, that his soul just passes into nothingness. Oh no, the Bible teaches quite the contrary. The Bible teaches us that the moment you go through the door of death, you go to either one of two places. You either go to a lost eternity, to enter into the place of punishment and torment, or you go to the place of the redeemed. But you are consciously aware of where you are in either place. When the Apostle Paul spoke of death for the believer, he said for me to be absent from the body is to be asleep in heaven. No. Asleep in the ground. No. He said for me to be absent from the body through physical death is to be present with the Lord. In physical death, our soul is separated from our body. Our body is lifeless. But our soul is conscious somewhere. If you're a believer, it is conscious in heaven. The Apostle Paul said to the Philippian believers, For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. When Jesus Christ contemplated the experiencing of physical death, he said to the thief, Today we are going to die. But he said, Today we are going to die and go to sleep. Is that what Christ said on the cross? Wonderful, glorious sleep and rest. Oh no! Christ said, today we shall die and you will be with me, where? In paradise, in heaven, in the fellowship and presence of God. So death means separation. Physical death means the separation of the body and the soul of man. If the verses and the passages that I've quoted to you are not ample, let me take you then to Luke 16. And there the Lord Jesus Christ says, I'm giving to you a story. There was a certain poor man, a beggar, by the name of Lazarus, and he died. And the angels carried his soul away to Abraham's bosom. His body was buried in a sepulcher. You know, there are people who try to teach to me and through false cults, there are false cults that take the position that death means annihilation. And that when you die physically, that you just go to sleep. Well, Jesus said no. He said Lazarus died and his soul was over in Abraham's bosom. And he was resting and having a great time. He was relaxing and just enjoying things. Now, he did not go to heaven because he was poor. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all you had to do to go to heaven was to be poor? All of us would qualify, wouldn't we? No, he went to heaven because he had believed and accepted God's established, provided way of salvation. Now, the Bible says a rich man that Lazarus used to beg in front of his gate and eat from the crumbs of his table, the rich man died and his soul went to hell. He didn't go to sleep either. His soul went to hell, the Lord says. Oh, I've read this to a number of people and said, well, now, Pastor Graves, you must understand that that's a parable. I said, no, it isn't a parable. Because the Lord gave many parables, but when He gave parables, He usually said, and now I'm speaking to you in a parable. He doesn't say that here. And never once, when the Lord spoke in a parable, did He ever identify anybody by name. You don't make parables and use direct names of people. When the Lord used a parable, He would say, a certain man, a certain one. But Jesus said, there was a man named Lazarus. Now friends, I believe that when Jesus said there was a man named Lazarus, that's what he meant, don't you? And he said Lazarus died, and Lazarus went to heaven. He said the rich man died, and by the way, he didn't go to hell because he was rich. There's lots of rich people in heaven. Did you know that? And so if you're rich this morning, do not despair. There's a place in heaven for you, too. Some of the richest men that ever lived are in heaven. You know, Solomon was pretty wealthy, and I believe he went to heaven, and David was no slouch. And Job was fabulously wealthy, and he was one of the most righteous men that ever walked on the earth. And Abraham had some pretty good things, too. There's lots of rich men in the Bible that went to heaven. No, the rich man went to hell because he had ignored God's way of salvation. No, the Bible does not teach us that physical death means the cessation of consciousness. Physical death is a door that you walk through, and the moment you walk through that door, your soul is either alive in the presence of God in joy and rest and exaltation and great happiness, or your soul is horribly alive, suffering the pangs and torments of hell. Now that's the Word of God. Oh, someone says, how about that verse in Matthew 10, 28? You remember that one, don't you? Nobody knows it. Good, I'll quote it for you. It says, don't be afraid of the one who is able to destroy the body. But rather, you better be concerned about the one who is able to destroy both your body and soul in hell. And some have said, aha, that says your soul can be destroyed in hell. And you know, a lot of people get mixed up on that verse before they even get started. They think that that verse is teaching that we shouldn't be afraid of men, but we should be afraid of the devil who can destroy our body and soul in hell. Let me clue you in on something. The devil isn't sending anybody to hell. He's not the superintendent. The Bible says in Matthew 25 that hell is a place prepared to punish him. He's not in charge of it. He's not sending anybody there. He's being sent there. The Bible says, don't be afraid of men, but you better fear God, for you're going to have to deal with God in the final analysis. And God is the one who's going to send you to hell or heaven. He said, don't be afraid of men, but you better be afraid of God. You better fear God. The Bible says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of knowledge. He said, don't fear man, but rather fear God, who is able to destroy both your soul and your body in hell. But that word destroy doesn't mean to annihilate. When we look at that word destroy, you know what it means? It means to render it incapable of being used for the purpose for which it was made. It means that that thing is still in existence, but it can't be used in the way that it was created to be used. It means that that soul will suffer an eternal rebellion in the fires and torments of hell. It will not be able to function. for the purpose that God created it. And that is that God created your soul in order that it might glorify Him for all eternity. But if you reject Jesus Christ, then God will destroy your soul. And it will no longer be capable of being used for the glorification of God. But for all eternity, it will stand in rebellion against God. And will therefore suffer the torment and punishment of a lost eternity. That's the scripture. You say, how do you know that verse means that? Well, let me give you an illustration. The same word that's translated destroy in Matthew 10.28 is also translated perish in Luke 5.37. It says nobody takes old new wine and puts it into old leather bottles. Why? Because you know good and well that if you put new wine in old leather bottles that the bottles will burst and they will perish. They will be destroyed. That doesn't mean that they're not bottles. It just means they're bottles with holes. They can no longer be used for the purpose for which they were created. It's the same word, and I could show you illustration after illustration where that word destroy is used. It never means annihilate. It always means to render incapable of being used for the purpose for which it was originally brought into being. Now remember that when these people come around to your house and try to tell you that Matthew 10, 28 represents Jesus Christ as saying that the soul of man, if he rejects God, is just going to go into oblivion and be destroyed. The Lord Jesus Christ couldn't have made it more clear when he said, listen, he said, if you reject me and if you reject God's salvation, he said, you will be cast into the place of torment and eternal punishment. And he said, it's a place where the worm doesn't die and the fire is not quenched. And Revelation 14 says that those who find themselves in this horrible place, the Bible says that the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever and ever. It's a dreadful place to be. And the Lord Jesus Christ said, the rich man who was in hell cried out and said, Oh, send someone to tell the rest of my family. I don't want anybody else in my family to come to where I am. I want them all to go to the place that called heaven, the place of paradise. It was very real to him. So death means separation. And when Ezekiel was talking here, he was talking about the fact that the soul that sins, the man who deliberately turns his back on God's truth, that man will die physically if he persists in it long enough. Now, as I said, this same truth is reiterated for us in the New Testament. You see, there was a proverb that was going around. We find that proverb given to us in verses 2 and 3. Notice the proverb that they were saying. People were running around and saying, oh, what's the use? We are poor put-upon people. Look at all of the problems we're having today. What mean ye the use of this proverb? The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. Did you ever get a hold of sour grapes and chew them up? They just get your teeth gritty and sensitive, don't they? And they were saying, it's not fair. Our fathers ate the sour grapes and we're the ones that are feeling the dental pain. They were saying, we're being punished for the mistakes of our fathers. Say, that's a tune that's familiar today. You know, it's still popular to blame the parents for everything the kids do. Did you know that? Well, God says, Ezekiel, I have news for you. And tell the people That nobody is being punished for anybody else's sin. Hey, wait a minute. What about Exodus 20 verse 5? In Exodus 20 verse 5, it says that if you will worship other gods, then the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children from the third, even to the fourth generation. What does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. It means that if parents are godless and don't obey God, that the probability is that their children won't obey the Lord either. And so their children will be disobedient, and their children's children will be disobedient, and their children's children will be disobedient. And so God will continue to judge them because the sin is contagious from one generation to another. But each generation is considered individually. And each generation is paying for its own sin. You see, the Bible teaches that we are individually responsible here. And God said, Ezekiel, you send out the word. Nobody is going to be punished for what his dad did. He said, God is going to deal with everyone according to his own works. And that works two ways. You see, there's a positive side to this thing. God says, if you disobey me, I will shorten your life. But the Bible is full of promises where God says, but if you obey me, I will lengthen your life. In 1 Corinthians chapter, Ephesians chapter 6, he said, children, obey your parents. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and that you may enjoy length of days or long life. Colossians chapter 4. Children, obey your parents. If you obey your parents, God says, I will honor you with good life and long life. Psalm 91. Let's just look at that Psalm for just a moment. God has made a promise. God says, if you will obey me, God says, I will lengthen and bless your life. He who dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my fortress, and my God, in Him will I trust. He will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noise and pestilence. God will cover you with His feathers, now that's figuratively speaking, of course, and under His wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Don't be afraid of the terror by night, or the arrows that flyeth by day. A thousand will fall at thy right hand, ten thousand at thy right side, but it shall not come nigh thee. Look, we could read the whole psalm, but we don't have time. Look at the last verse of the psalm. Well, let's look at verse 14. Because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him and set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and I will show him my salvation. God has made pledge after pledge and promise after promise that no matter what your father did, no matter what your mother did, no matter what your brother does, God says, if you serve me, I will bless your life. Now that's what he says. And he gives us now in the rest of the 18th chapter, three illustrations. He starts out with a father that follows God and God blesses that father with a long life. But the father has a son who is rebellious. And so the son's life is shortened. But that son has a son who follows the Lord, and God blesses him again with a long life. Who do you suppose he's talking about? I think he's talking about three kings. Hezekiah, that godly king who served God. He was sick almost to die. He called to the Lord, and the Lord said, you know what the Bible says? Of two men, that he was a man after God's heart whom God loved. He says that of two men, David and Hezekiah. Look it up sometime. And Hezekiah prayed, and God said, Hezekiah, because you have followed Me, I will give you length of days. And He gave him 15 more years. But Hezekiah had a son who was rebellious by the name of Manasseh. And Manasseh was wicked. And so Manasseh's life was cut off. But Manasseh had a son by the name of Josiah. And Josiah served the Lord. And he brought about revival. Ezekiel was born during the revival time of Josiah. He was a product himself of Josiah's great ministry. And God says, you see, here's the example. Hezekiah served me. I blessed his life. He said Manasseh defied me. I cut off his life. But he said, Josiah served me. And so he said, I lengthened his life. He said, you see, I didn't visit the sins of Manasseh on Josiah, nor did I visit the sins of Hezekiah's father on him. But he said, each man is judged according to his own words. You know, as you study the New Testament passages with reference to the judgment of believers, you find them discussed for us in Romans 14 and in 1 Corinthians 3 and in 2 Corinthians 5, and we find that when we as believers bring our earthly lives before God to receive our reward, that we are going to be judged according to the works which we have done in our body. Our works will be judged. And we will not lose or receive reward for what we have done as a church collectively, but we will lose and receive reward for what we have done for the Lord individually. And this is what Ezekiel's message to these people is. He said everyone is going to be stand and is going to receive life or death from God according to his own life. Now he said if you live a godly life, God says that he will bless you. Let's look at that for a moment. Verse 5. If a man be just and do that which is lawful and right, and hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, And so the first thing that he says is this. He said, if you live a godly life, then you are one who does not have idols. You are not an idolater. You say, well, pastor, we don't have to be concerned about that this morning, because after all, we're not heathens. We're Christians. We don't have idols. Oh, we don't? Isn't it interesting that in 1 John, as John closed that letter to the church, he didn't say to the unsaved world, now stop your idol worshiping. No. His last word to the believing church was this. Little children or little Christians, little children of God, Keep yourselves from idols. That's his closing word in that letter. Why? Because a Christian can be just as guilty of idolatry as a heathen. An idol is anything that takes precedence in your life before God. You know that. And there are thousands of Christians today that are idolaters, who are putting themselves or other things in the place that belongs to God. They are losing their lives, as Jesus Christ said, because they are trying to save them for their own idols first, rather than for God. And so he says, don't be an idolater. He said, idolatry will shorten your life. It will bring my judgment upon you. And the next thing that he says, moral purity. He said you can't expect to go out and defy God's laws of morality. He said a godly man, one who does right, he doesn't defile his neighbor's wife, and he's even careful in his actions and attitude toward his own wife. His conduct in the area of morals and sexual behavior is beyond reproach. It's an expression of love. is not a controlling force in his life. That's the proper biblical position of sex, you see. And he says, this is the life of the godly man. He's morally pure. And then verse 7, he's not greedy. He's learned the joy and the blessing of giving. He's not oppressed anybody. He's restored to the debtor his pledge. He is spoiled none by violence, not as he hasn't gone out and taken advantage of somebody and feathered his own nest at the expense of some poor person who's made a bad mistake. He's learned the value and the joy of living as Jesus Christ said when he said it's more blessed to give than to receive, you see. In verses 8 to 9, He is a man who is walking according to the word of God. He says in verse 9, he's walked in my statutes, he's kept my ordinances to deal truly, he is just. What does that word just mean? That means he stands before God as a believer. His sins are forgiven. And because he's a just man, and he's living according to my standards, he shall live. He shall live. But what if he has a son, in verse 10, that's a robber and a shedder of blood, that doesn't like to any one of these things? And he doesn't do any of the things that his father does. He oppresses the poor. He goes out and commits moral sin, as we find in verse 11. He oppresses the poor. He doesn't give up his interest, but he charges more interest. And he's greedy and tries to gather to himself all of the things that he can. Verse 13 says, no matter how good his father was, he's going to be responsible for his own life. And God says, he shall die. He shall die. Why? Because he has openly defied the law of God and the word of God. But in verse 14, if he has a son and this son says, well, no, I'm going to not go like my father. I'm going to serve God. And so that son does not give himself to idolatry. He keeps himself from moral impurity. He lives according to the word of God. What does it say shall happen to him in verse 17? It says, he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, but he shall live. He said, every man stands before God on his own life. Oh, aren't you glad about that? Isn't it a joy this morning to realize that as you live, so you will be judged? Young people, you're not going to get into heaven and you're not going to gain rewards at the judgment seat of Christ because you have godly parents. And parents, your children are not going to receive special favors from God because you have walked with God. But each one of us is going to stand before God and all we're going to have with us at that day is what we have produced through our own life. Yet ye say, 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. He says, The soul that sinneth, that's the one that shall die. The Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father, neither shall the Father bear the iniquity of the Son. I'm reading verse 20. And the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wicked of the wickedness shall be upon him. But now God is gracious. You know, God says to them, But, God says, I'm slow to move. God says, I don't like to stop anybody's life. You know, when Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he said, stop acting the way you are. He said, some are sick and some have already died. But he said, stop it now and you'll live. And this is what God is saying here. He's saying, stop turning your back on me and start following me. Start obeying me. Start living according to my word. Repent of your sin, believers. Repent of your wickedness. And God says, I will forgive you if the wicked will turn from his sins that he has committed and keep all of my statutes and do that which is lawful and right, then he will live, he will not die. And all of his transgressions that he has committed, they shall never be mentioned unto him in the righteousness that he hath done, shall he live. Do I have pleasure that the wicked should die? Sayeth the Lord, and not that they should return from his ways and live. Oh no, God wants you to live. You see, God wants every one of us to live in obedience to him, for God wants our death and our entrance into heaven to be precious. God wants our day of entrance into heaven to be this, so that we might enter into his presence and he might be able to say unto us, well done now, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of the Lord. God doesn't want to have to reach down as he did to some of those Corinthian believers and say, all right, if you won't stop, then come on home and bring us up to heaven like that. You know, I've often wondered, how do you think Ananias and Sapphira felt when they suddenly laid down their lives and then woke up in heaven? I don't think it was a happy greeting. I think Stephen's greeting was much better, don't you? I think it would be a very sad thing to be called into the presence of the Lord in rebuke. I think it would be a very joyful thing to live a life like the Apostle Paul, so that when he came to the end of his life, he said, I finished my course. I've kept the faith. I fought a good fight. There's a crown awaiting me. I'm anxious to go now to my reward. And he was going to hear from the Lord. Welcome home, Paul, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. God says, that's what I like. That's the way I want it. That's what it's all about. Amen. Verse 24, here's how I know he's not talking about justification and salvation here. Because you know, once you're a child of God, you can't ever lose your salvation. In verse 24 he says, but, he said, if the righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits sin and does according to all the abominations of the wicked that the wicked man does, shall he live? God says, absolutely not. In other words, you can't insulate yourself and say, well, I've been righteous for most of my life, I guess I have a license now to do a few sins. No, God says if you live for the Lord and then you begin to backslide God says that God will eventually reach in and spank you and Deal with your life. He says no. He said if the righteous man does righteous, but then he turns away from his righteousness And he's trespassed in the sin that he has sinned in him. God says he shall die There aren't any of us, you know, it isn't like a ledger sheet we can say well Lord now I've got 25 years that I really put on the good side and So now I think I'll just ease off and indulge myself a little. God says, don't you do it. God says, I'll spank. I'll move. I'll deal with this. When a righteous man turns away from righteousness and committeth iniquity, verse 26, and dieth in them for the iniquity which he has done, he shall die. It's not talking about spiritual death. It's talking about physical death. And again, when the wicked man turned away from his wickedness and had committed and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his life alive. That's not talking about a spiritual soul. That's talking about his physical life. He'll keep it alive. He'll be spared from the judgment that was going to fall. Oh, it's so good to know. That if we're here today, supposing someone was here this morning saying, oh Pastor Graves, I've been sitting, I've really been turning my back on God. I've been deliberately doing things that I know God doesn't want me to do. Oh my, it's all over? No, the Bible says if you repent and turn away, He said to Ezekiel, the people in Ezekiel's day, He said God will forgive you and He won't even mention those things anymore. You know, I like the way God forgives, don't you? He forgives and forgets. He never mentions it again. I sure like that. Don't you wish your wife would do that? I mean, and your husband? Wouldn't that be great? The Bible tells us to do just that. The Bible says, when you forgive one another, in Ephesians 4, He says, you forgive each other the same way I forgave you. He said, you be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another the same way I forgave you. I admonish every new couple when they get married. I say, learn to forgive each other the way God forgives. When you forgive, you never mention it again. Isn't that great? Oh my, that really works. I just threw that in extra here this morning. But listen, what does God really want? What is this all about? He said, Ezekiel, would you call out to the people? Ezekiel, would you tell these people that they can't go around and blame their condition and their troubles on their parents? Would you let them know, Ezekiel, that what's taking place is their fault? That your responsibility is yours? That you can't blame your wife? You can't blame your folks? You can't blame your kids? Folks, it's you. If God is spanking you, if God is dealing with you, it's your fault. It's your responsibility. It's not dad's. It's not mom's. You say, well, I had a bad dad. My dad beat me. My dad did this. I don't care what your dad was. You're a responsible individual before God right now. You have access to the truth and it's your responsibility before God. He said, would you tell him that? Oh, how many people I've dealt with in life that are running around blaming somebody else for what they're not doing. Have you ever met that? Ever run across that? I see a number of people with recognition on their faces when I ask a question like that. Notice what God says. Therefore will I judge the house of Israel, he said, and God cries out in verse 30. Repent! Turn yourselves from all transgression, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from all your sins by which you have transgressed. Make yourself a new heart and a new spirit, for why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God. Wherefore, turn yourselves and live. This message has been brought to you by the Santa Rosa Bible Church. Our mission is to see the lost reached and believers transformed by Jesus. You can find out more information about us at our website at srbible.org. Or you can visit us in person at 4575 Badger Road in Santa Rosa, California. You can also reach us by phone at 707-538-2385.