Just keep your finger there open in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and just look at verse number 5.
1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse number 5 the Bible says,
But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
So if you know what this is referring to, this is referring back to obviously the Old Testament
times when the children of Israel came out of Egypt and the Lord had commanded them to enter
into the Promised Land, the land of Canaan. And of course you might know the story that Moses sent
the two spies, you know Caleb and Joshua, into the land. They spied out the land. Yes there were
enemies there. Yes there were powerful people, powerful nations there. But they said, hey you
know with the Lord's hand we can overthrow those nations. We can go in there. We can defeat the
Canaanites. We can take that land for ourselves. And you know what happened, you know the
generation of that time were fearful. They were afraid. They didn't have the faith that God would
see them through to the Promised Land. So God then punishes them, doesn't he? He punishes them
and they wander into the wilderness for 40 years and the generation of the adults would
pass away and the children that were 20 years and under would ultimately enter that Promised Land
through the leading of Joshua. You know so that's what we're referring to here. And so the title
for the sermon tonight is Age of Accountability. The Age of Accountability. And so you know it
wasn't my design or you know desire even to preach this sermon. It's just simply because there's been
you know comments made on social media, some questions that came my way from people within
this church as well about this topic. So I thought maybe it's a good idea to cover it. Number one,
that's one reason. That's not the only reason why I felt the need to cover it. But the other two is
because we're going through the Rightly Dividing series. We recently just covered the Old Testament,
the New Testament, the Old Man and the New Man. And I felt this tied in quite nicely with the
teaching of the Old Man and the New Man. And of course we need that New Man in order to be saved.
We need to be born again in the Spirit. And this ties in quite nicely with the idea of the Age of
Accountability. Now when I say the term, when I use the phrase Age of Accountability, let me just
assure you one thing. It's not a phrase that's ever in the Bible. Okay. And when you have a phrase
that's not in the Bible, it's open to interpretation. Now I believe there is an age of accountability.
And some of you guys might have, might believe there's an age of accountability,
but we might mean different things by that phrase. And the thing is, because we don't have that
phrase in the Bible, you know, we're going to come out to different opinions of what that means.
I do believe there's an age of accountability. And let me just say something before I start preaching
this. You know, if we were to break down every doctrine we believe as brethren, you know, even
if I just sat down with my wife, we broke down doctrines that we believe we're going to find
differences in doctrines, aren't we? I mean, there's no two people that that's going to be
exactly the same on certain things they've come to believe. And just because you believe things
differently to me, I don't think you're an idiot. I just honestly, I don't think anything like that.
You know, what I what I love to see is if someone holds a different position to me,
what I love to see is that someone's able to defend it from the Word of God. You know,
they're able to pull out the scripture and say, hey, look, this is my study. This is what I've
seen. This is what I've come to. Even if I believe it's incorrect, I appreciate the fact that someone
can just open up the Word of God and show me why they believe that. Hey, that's, that's a good
thing. You know, but then there's others that challenge you with the Bible, challenge you on
doctrine. And you say, well, can you show me where that is in the Word of God? Well, I don't know
what that is. That's, that's, that's hopeless. You know, that doesn't help anyone. It doesn't profit
anyone when you don't know what the Bible says. The reason you believe a certain doctrine is
simply because you've heard it preached or you, you know, you saw it on the internet or something
like that. And you've not done your own due diligence to study these things out. So the topic
I want to cover, obviously the age of accountability. And so one thing that I, what I
spoke about is, you know, there comes a time when we're looking at the old man and the new man,
there comes a time when that, when that spirit, you know, when you're born as a child, you're,
you know, you have a soul, you have a body, you have a spirit. There comes a time when that spirit
dies and you need to be born again. Otherwise, when you die, you'll be lost in hell. You'll,
you'll pay for your sins for all eternity into hell. And the idea comes up, well, you know,
what is that age? Is there an age for these things? Now let me start off with where this
kind of begins because, you know, I believe very strongly that little children that pass away,
you know, the little children that are too young to understand the gospel, little children that are,
you know, innocent in a sense, and they might do wrong things, but they just, they do not
understand the commands of God. They do not understand that they've offended the Lord God.
I do believe these little children, you know, miscarriages, things like this, you know,
abortions even, that these children go to heaven. And I'll just read a few passages to you. You
don't need to turn there. I'll just read some. So obviously we have the words of Jesus Christ in the
book of Matthew 19 verse 14. Jesus said, suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto
me for of such, of such, such what? The little children, of such is the kingdom of heaven.
So one thing that's very clear in the Bible is that the kingdom of heaven is made up of the
little children, okay. And when the Bible talks about little children, it's talking about infants,
minor ones, you know. Often the word children can mean, you know, different things, but when Jesus
says little children, he's obviously talking about minors, you know, young little children. He says,
look, heaven is made up of those little children. There's many ways to prove this doctrine. I'll
just read to you this one from 2 Samuel 12 22. You guys know the story of King David where he
committed adultery with Bathsheba. They had a child and as the punishment for that adultery,
God would take away that child that was born unto them. And then as that child is, you know,
is, you know, condemned, I guess, by God in the flesh, you know, we see that David is fasting and
he's depressed and he's sorrowful. But as soon as that child dies, you know, he lifts himself up and
he's encouraged. And he says in 2 Samuel 12 22, and he said, speaking of David, while the child
was yet alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, who can tell whether God will be gracious to me
that the child may live, but now he's dead? Wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back
again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. So we see that King David, a man of the
God's own heart recognises well, you know what, I can't bring that back child, that child back,
that child never come back to me on this earth. But one day I will be that little child that was
born and that died. And so we see there again, you know, children go into heaven. And just another
sort of a passage maybe you guys aren't even that familiar with, but Ecclesiastes chapter six,
verse three, the Bible says, if a man beget 100 children, wow, I've got lots of catch up there.
If a man beget 100 children and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his
soul be not filled with good, but also that he have no burial, I say that an untimely birth is
better than he. So he, you know, the preacher is saying, look, if a man lives a long life,
has a bunch of children, but there's no goodness in his soul, you know, there's no burial for him,
then it's better for this man. You know, I assume this man is someone who basically lived a wicked
life, a man who did not receive the imputed righteousness of Christ, you know, upon his soul,
that this man, it'd be better for you to just have an untimely birth, you know, a miscarriage
than to be this person. And so by understanding the reverse there is obviously the miscarriage
is better to be like that. Why? I mean, the miscarriage dies, isn't it? But it's better
because that little child is with the Lord, is there in heaven. So, you know, we have a few
passages here of little children that go to heaven. So my purpose to go through the whole
list here, but this is where it starts with. We all understand that there comes a time where
little children, you know, who do not understand the laws of God, the commands of God, you know,
if they pass away, they are with the Lord, and this gives us great comfort, great comfort.
And then, you know, you might take the next chapter of this. Well, you know, if little
children are going to be with the Lord, what is that age? Then there must be some type of
cut off point. There must be something where, you know, surely, you know, a man who's 40 years old,
surely he's gone past that cut off point. You know, a man that's 30 years old, surely he's gone
past that cut off point. Maybe 20 years old, and I'll have a look at this shortly, you know,
20 years old is one that gets brought up. Maybe that's the cut off point. You know,
there must be something that the Bible says, what is that point? What is that age by which someone
is no longer, you know, under the mercy of God, I suppose, he's died spiritually, and if he dies,
he will go to hell. So what I want to cover very quickly, and look, it's not my goal tonight to
cover every verse that people use to teach that the age of 20 is the age of accountability.
There is that teaching that basically, if you're 20 years old, that is the age when you die
spiritually. So on your 20th birthday, you die spiritually. And now if you are to die,
without the Lord Jesus Christ, you are destined to hell. Okay. And when I say that, that's not
too confused to say that that person cannot be saved prior to being 20. Okay. That's not what
those that believe this teach. Okay. But let's just understand where this teaching comes from.
So please go to Genesis chapter two, Genesis chapter two. I just want to focus on the core
doc or the core verses that are used to prop up this doctrine. I'm not going to cover every
verse that's out there. That's used to prop it up. But Genesis chapter two, verse 16,
Genesis chapter two, verse 16. Genesis two, 16. Going back to Genesis, going back to Adam and
Eve. And of course, we know the story of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God
commanded them not to eat of. Genesis chapter two, verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the man
saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely
die. Okay. So God says, don't eat of that tree. Which tree? The tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. Now go to Genesis chapter three, please. Genesis chapter three, verse four. So we saw the
command of God. And now we're going to see when Adam and Eve break that command of God. In Genesis
chapter three, verse four. And the serpent said unto the woman, the devil, of course,
ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, that your eyes shall
be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Okay. So these are the words of the
devil. And he's actually right with what he's saying here. And you'll soon see why. Look at
Genesis chapter three, verse six. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes
of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together,
and made themselves aprons. So what do we see? They both, Adam and Eve, they both eat of the
fruit that's on this tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They eat of it, they disobey God,
their eyes are opened, and they realize that they're naked. Okay. There's come an awakening,
some knowledge has come upon them. They realize they're naked, and they try to cover themselves
because of their nakedness. Drop down to verse number 22. Verse number 22. Look at this. And the
Lord God said, behold, the man has become as one of us. Remember how the devil said, hey,
you'll be as gods? And so God recognized, yeah, he's become as one of us. In what way has he
become like one of us? A greater understanding of knowledge, right? A greater awakening of knowledge
to know good and evil. That's how he's become as one of us. And now lest he put forth his hand and
take also the tree of life and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth
from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So pretty straightforward
story there, right? So, you know, they've eaten from that tree. They're now, they've been cursed
by God. They've got that sinful nature. And God says, look, we cannot allow them to live forever.
We cannot give them access to that tree of, because if they literally could access that
tree of life, they could live forever. But they'd be living forever in a fallen state.
Okay? We've corrupted sinful bodies. And that's not what God wants for us. He wants us to be
saved. He wants us to have new resurrected glorified bodies which cannot sin. So that's
why God had to prevent them from having access to that tree. Otherwise, you're going to have
an earth full of people that live in long ages in corruptible bodies. I mean, how much sin,
you know, how much destruction could man do if they had access to that tree? So that's the idea
there, right? The tree, knowledge of good and evil. They've sinned against the Lord. They've
been kind of taken out of the garden. So now go to the book of Deuteronomy, please. Deuteronomy
chapter one, verse 34. Deuteronomy chapter one, verse 34. So the question is, we're thinking
about the age. Is there an age where God now holds you accountable for your sins? In other words,
that if you were to die, you would go to hell. And Deuteronomy chapter one, verse 34.
Deuteronomy chapter one, verse 34. And the Lord heard the voice of your words and what, sorry,
the context, the context. We started with the context, right? How Israel, the generation
were too afraid to enter into the land of Canaan, okay? And God is angry at the Israelites. And this
is what the Lord says. And the Lord heard the voice of your words and was wroth and swear,
saying, surely there shall be not one of these men of this evil generation, see that good land,
which I swear to give unto your fathers, save Caleb, the son of Jepunah, he shall see it. And
to him will I give the land that he have trodden upon and to his children, because that they have
wholly followed the Lord. Also the Lord was angry with me for your sake, saying, thou shall also not
go in hither, but Joshua, the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither,
encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover, this is now the key thing,
moreover, your little ones, who are the little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your
children, so the little ones and the children, which in that day, look at this, had no knowledge
between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall
possess it. But as for you, turn you and take your journey into the wilderness by the way
of the Red Sea. Now, did I have the passage there where it mentions the 20 years of age?
I didn't have it there, I think I might have removed it. Sorry, what was it?
Oh, okay, okay. Well, anyway, if you look at numbers, what is it? Sorry again, brother.
14, 29. You know, God makes it clear that the age by which they would not be able to enter
the Promised Land was over the age of 20. Okay, over the age of 20. But those that were under the
age of 20 would be allowed to enter the Promised Land. And what we see here, I wanted to show you
that verse 39, is that the reason God gives us because they did not have the knowledge,
right, verse 39, the knowledge between good and evil. So they did not have the awareness,
they did not have the same awakening that those that were adults would have. And so God, you know,
has a greater mercy on these children, these that are under 20, and they would be allowed to enter
the Promised Land. So by putting these two things together, you can see where this idea of the age
of accountability of being 20 years old comes from. Number one, the knowledge of good and evil
came upon those that were spiritually dead. We saw that in the book of Genesis, okay. And then
number two, we see here in the book of Deuteronomy, those that do not know, that don't have knowledge
of good and evil are seen as those that are under 20 years old. Okay, so you can see how this comes
together and why some, and actually, let me just put it out there, I believe the age of 20 is the
age of accountability, okay, but not in the same way that others do, okay. So we'll go through
this shortly. So why do I not believe then that the age of 20 is, you know, the age where someone
dies spiritually? Why is that? And why is it that actually, you know, something that seems quite
straightforward? You know, you can see how people could put these passages together and come to that
realisation, you know, why is it that, you know, so many people don't hold to that position? Why is
that some people don't believe that? And there are many, many reasons for that, okay. There are many
reasons for that. And so I'm going to try to break this down. It's sort of difficult to
sort of sometimes undo certain doctrines. I'm going to try to break it down as best as I can.
But the first thing I want to deal with is the issue of the wilderness, this issue of the
generation that have gone before that were going to now spend 40 years in the wilderness because
they didn't have the faith to enter the promised land, and those that were under 20 that they were
allowed to enter the promised land. So let's start off with this idea, okay. The ones that
were under 20 did not have knowledge of good and evil. What does this actually mean? Okay,
what does this actually mean? Does this mean they had not died spiritually, and those over the age
of 20 had died spiritually? That's the idea. That's the idea by putting those two passages together,
okay. But let me start off with this. Is God saying that literally, literally everyone over
the age of 20, literally everyone of the Israelites that came out of Egypt, that they were unsaved,
therefore they could not enter the land, besides Moses and Caleb and Joshua, but everyone else that
were of the Israelites, the other, you know, people think there might have been a million Israelites
at this point in time, potentially. You know, could we say that everybody over the age of 20 were
unsaved, besides those three people? That's, you know, highly unlikely, okay, highly unlikely.
So we can't take a literal position on that. We can't say literally they were not allowed
because none of them were saved, except for those three over the age of 20. So that one doesn't fit,
okay. Can we say, what about symbolically? We say symbolically this represents, you know, that's
where the idea comes from. Symbolically this represents someone that is saved and unsaved.
I'll cover that shortly, okay. But the third thing that kind of gets brought up when I've
looked into this is, well, is this a type? You know, is this a representation, a type
of being saved? You know, going into the promised land, going into Canaan, is this representing
salvation as a type? Okay. And this is why we read 1 Corinthians chapter 10. So please go back
to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Is this a type? We'll deal with
symbolism later. But is this a type? It's definitely not literal. It's not literal,
unless you think they were all definitely unsaved over the age of 20. And that's why God did not
allow it. No, you know, but 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse one, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse one.
Now, when it comes to types, I've covered this in the men's leadership class, we've got to be
careful. There's a lot of types in the Bible that the New Testament confirms. And those you can just
stand on, you can just, you know, preach it. There are other types that you'll find that aren't
confirmed for us in the New Testament. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong. Okay. But
when there's types that are clearly laid out in the New Testament, they're the one, they're the
better ones to be preached on. But 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse one, Moreover, brethren, I would
not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed
through the sea, that's been the Red Sea, and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the
sea. So let's take type, typology here. Okay. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, and they
passed through the Red Sea, they had the waters around them, they had the cloud of God protecting
them from above. The Bible tells us here, this was a type of baptism. The reason we get baptized,
you know, the picture of baptism in the Old Testament was this crossing of the Red Sea.
All right. So, obviously, do we get saved by being baptized? No. You know, we're saved prior
to being baptized, of course, okay. And so before they came to the Red Sea, they were in Egypt.
And if you remember the night before they exited out of Egypt, what was the requirement? What did
God ask them to do? They were to keep the very first passover, wasn't it? They had to take the
lamb, shed the blood, put it on the doorposts. And the Bible tells us that lamb, that's a type
of Jesus Christ. That's a type of the shed blood of Christ. That is the type of our salvation.
Okay. So if we're following this journey of typology, of the journey of Israel, you know,
we would start off when they exited Egypt because of the Passover lamb, that's a type or a picture
of salvation. When they got to the Red Sea, and they went through the Red Sea, that's a picture
of baptism. Okay. Now, when we get to the, you know, the initial point where God required them
to enter the Promised Land, can we go back now as a type and say this is about salvation again?
No, we can't. Okay. We can't do that. What it represents, we'll have a look at it again,
look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse five, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse five.
But with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Okay.
The ones that didn't want to go into the land of Canaan. Verse number six,
now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things,
as they also lusted, neither be you idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written,
the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play, neither let us commit fornication,
as some of them committed and fell in one day free in 20,000, neither let us tempt Christ,
as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents, neither murmured ye, as some of them
also murmured and were destroyed of this destroyer. Now all these things happen unto them full and
samples that they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Now, what is the picture of the 40 years in the wilderness then? What is that sort of representing?
Well, this has been written to the Corinthian church, it's been written to believers, right?
And what it's saying here, when it started off there with the baptism, going through the Red Sea,
and then going through the wilderness, what is that a type of? Well, that's our spiritual walk,
right? We're trying, you know, we got saved, we've been baptized, we're trying to walk after
the ways of the Lord, but when you fail, you know, when you're a miserable Christian, when you sin,
when you go against the Lord, this is the picture of the wilderness, you know, the 40 years. And
this is why many, you'll find many preachers, when they preach about the land of Canaan,
they don't preach about it in context of salvation, they preach about it in context of
spiritual victory. You know, they've entered into the land, they now have the faith, you know,
because faith is not just salvation, we live by faith, we walk by faith, they now have that faith
to enter the land and win many spiritual battles. And so if we were to take that as a type for us
today, that would be when we're succeeding as a Christian, when we're having victories as a
Christian, when we're defeating, you know, false doctrines, when we're seeing people come to the
gospel, this would be a picture of us in the promised land in the land of Canaan, because
we're having great spiritual victories in our life. And therefore the wilderness represents when
we're backslidden, you know, when we're failing, when we're sinful, those kinds of things. So
you see how as a type, this doesn't actually fit the picture of Israel's journey from the land of
Egypt to the land of Canaan. All right, now I'm going to get to symbolism a little bit later. But
let's just keep going. Let's keep going. Because the next thing that gets brought up, I guess,
I mean, I'm just trying to think this logically, okay. And if I'm missing a point, and you guys
want to ask me later on, please ask me because, you know, I'm doing the best I can, but just
thinking logically for myself, the next thing is, you know, we would think, you know, just as
parents, you know, as adults, and you know, we've had children, these kinds of things, people say,
well, how can you say that those that are under 20 have no knowledge of good and evil? Right?
You say, well, surely like a 19 year old knows that murder is wrong, you know, surely an 18
year old person knows that theft is wrong. Surely a 12 year old boy or girl knows that lying is
wrong. Surely they know the difference between that which is beneficial and that which is
harmful, that which is good, and that which is evil. And so, yes, you know, you can appeal to
logic there, you can appeal to common sense. But here's the thing, you know, we need to make sure
we built our understanding on the Word of God. We need to make sure we do that rather than just
our feelings. And it's true, from a man's perspective, it makes it's common sense that
children under the age of 20 know the difference between right and wrong, the difference between
good and evil. But the argument is not, well, what does man think? Well, from man's position,
what about God's position? You know, maybe from God's perspective, he believes that those that
are under 20 do not know the difference between good and evil. Okay. And that's where this kind
of, you know, builds on, because we saw that God had that point of 20 years old when they entered
into the land of Canaan. So what I want you to do is please go to Second Kings chapter 22, please,
Second Kings chapter 22. We're dealing now with the topic, does God see those that are under 20,
does from God's perspective, are they people that know the difference between good and evil?
Are they people that have that knowledge between good and evil under the age of 20?
Because if they do, then they would have already got into a point where they've got the knowledge
of that. And you know that they are, they now are spiritually dead, in a sense, if you take that
view of it, okay. But Second Kings chapter 22, verse one,
Second Kings chapter 22, verse one, the Bible says, Josiah was eight years old when he began
to reign. And he reigned 30 and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidiah,
the daughter of Adiriah of Boschkath. And he did that which was right in the sight of men.
No, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David,
his father, and turned not aside to the right hand, or to the left. So we see that King Josiah
is a very godly king, even from the age of eight years old, when he began to reign, he was doing
that which was right in the sight of God. And I would just say, he did that which was good.
He did that which was good, he had the knowledge of what was right, he had the knowledge of what
was good at the age of eight years old, which is why he was able to do these things all the
days of his life. And he reigned for a long time, it's a great privilege that God gave him.
Now go to 2 Kings 24, please. 2 Kings 24. 2 Kings 24.
And while you're turning there, I'm going to read to you from 2 Chronicles 36, verse nine.
Just pay attention to what I'm going to read now. 2 Chronicles 36, verse nine. We're going to look
at another king now, this is King Jehoiachin. Okay, King Jehoiachin. It says here, Jehoiachin
was eight years old when he began to reign. He was eight years old when he began to reign,
and he reigned three months and 10 days in Jerusalem. So he didn't reign very long at all,
you know, just over three months. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did
that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. So from God's perspective, were these kings doing
what was good and which was evil? Yeah. You know, from God's perspective, they already,
even at eight years old, both these kings knew what was good, knew what was evil. Okay. Now,
just to make sure that, you know, you guys see this very clearly, you're in 2 Kings chapter 24.
2 Kings chapter 24, verse eight. This is where some, you know, I don't want to be, you know,
told that I'm not being thorough with this. But some people say that Jehoiachin, when I just read
here, that there's a contradiction in the Bible, because I just read to you that he reigned when
he was eight years old, right? But look at 2 Kings chapter 24, verse eight. It says here,
Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he began to reign. So is there a contradiction in the Bible?
Because in 2 Kings, it said he was eight. But here in, sorry, in 2 Chronicles, it said he was eight.
In 2 Kings, it says he's 18. Is there a contradiction? There's never a contradiction
in the Bible, okay? Never a contradiction. Basically, what happened was when he was eight
years old, his father, you know, was training him, basically training him to be a king. And
so they reigned together as father and son since the time that he was eight years old.
But then when we get to 2 Kings, it records exactly the point when his father passed away,
and then at the age of 18, now he was ruling Israel on his own, okay? But again, he's 18,
he's under the age of 20, okay? If this doctrine is true of the age of accountability, it would
mean that at 18, he wouldn't know the difference between good and evil either, okay? So even though
he's 10 years older, he wouldn't have that knowledge. But it says here Jehoiachin was 18
years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. So there's the three
months that he reigned, right? And his mother's name was Nechushta, the daughter of Elnathan of
Jerusalem, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father
had done. So see, at the age of 18, he only, look, we can't say, well, maybe he did evil
later in his life. He only ruled for three months. So by the end of his rule, he was still under the
age of 20, and according to the sight of the Lord, as far as God's perspective came from,
he did that which was evil, okay? He did that which was wrong. He followed after his father's
footsteps, unfortunately, okay? So I don't believe we can remain consistent in the Bible to take the
view, well, from God's perspective, you know, under the age of 20, they don't know the difference
between good and evil when we see these kings were ruling, and from God's perspective, they were
doing that which was good or evil. So I don't believe it's consistent with the rest of the
Bible. Now, you go to 2 Samuel chapter 19, please, 2 Samuel chapter 19, because I want to view this,
look at this from various angles, okay, various angles, 2 Samuel chapter 19, verse 31. And I
apologize if the sermon's a little bit long tonight, but I do want to try to be thorough
with this, 2 Samuel chapter 19, verse 31. And look, the reason I'm thorough is because I love
you guys. That's why, you know, the reason I spend time, like I said, I didn't really want to cover
this. The reason I cover this, the reason I cover some things that I preach is because I love this
church. And I want to make sure that we're as right on doctrine as possible. I know none of
us are going to be 100% correct on everything. I know in the back of my head, there are doctrines
that are probably heresies right now. The back of my head, somebody compartmentalized back there,
things that I'm still trying to work out versus I'm still trying to decipher, you know, maybe I've
got it 60% nailed down, but there's 40% of doubt. We're all like that. You know, we're all like that.
Again, if we just uploaded our brains with doctrines and put it all out there, you know,
I'm sure we'll be ashamed of some of the things that's there because we're always just constantly
learning. You know, I'd be ashamed if you guys thought you're so proud. You had every doctrine
knocked down perfectly, you know. And so we need to break these things down. We need to see what
the scripture says. And look at 2 Samuel chapter 19, verse 31, because again, I want to deal with
this thing we've been 20 years of age and having the knowledge of good and evil. But in 2 Samuel
chapter 19, verse 31, we have the story of this man, Barzillai, and he's a friend to King David.
Now, this man makes an appearance with King David in the story of Absalom. When Absalom tried to
take over, well, he did. He briefly took over the kingdom of David. And this friend, Barzillai,
became a friend to David and provided many needs for him while he was, you know, escaping from the
hands of his son. But in 2 Samuel chapter 19, verse 31, says, and Barzillai, the Gileadites,
came down from Rogalem and went over Jordan with the king to conduct him over Jordan. So now that
King David had victory, his friend brings him over to the Jordan River and just escorts him
basically back into his kingdom back there. And then verse 32, now Barzillai was a very aged man,
even four school years old. How old was he then? His four school. He's 80 years old, right? 80
years old. And he provided the king of substance while he lay at Mahanaim, for he was a very great
man. And the king said unto Barzillai, come thou over with me, and I will feed thee with me in
Jerusalem. He goes, come to Jerusalem with me. I'll take care of you, you know. And this is what
he says to King David, verse 34. And Barzillai said unto the king, how long have I to live
that I should go up with the king unto Jerusalem? I am this day four school years old. And can I
discern between good and evil? He says, look, I'm 80 years old. I can't even discern now between
what's good and evil. You know, he says, look, I've gotten to an age, I've gotten older. I can't
even tell, you know, my senses aren't even that as it used to be when I was younger. You know,
he says, look, I can't even discern now between good and evil. This is what happens when you get
older. As you get older, you know, you start to become a bit senile, you start losing a bit of
knowledge, you know, you don't have the same kind of awareness and knowledge that you once used to
have because, you know, your body started to break down. And he says his mind, you know, he's unable
to discern, let's keep going. Can thy servant taste what I eat, or what I drink? He says, look,
my taste buds aren't like they used to be. And what's the point of eating, you know, the great
food from the king's table? I can't even taste it, you know. Then he says, can I hear any more
the voice of singing men and singing women? He's like, I'm going deaf. I'm getting old,
I'm going deaf. Wherefore, then, should thy servant be yet a burden unto my lord, the king?
Okay, now, this is not a conclusive thing. I'm just trying to show you where a man who's 80 years
old, you know, he's 80 years old, and he says, look, I can't even discern anymore between that,
which is good and evil. But you know, if the 20 year old point was the point where you would
discern between good and evil, then we would say he had a knowledge at some point, and now he's
losing that knowledge at some point. So is this tied in with losing your soul, do you think? Do
you think this is tied in with being spiritually dead? Or is the knowledge of good and evil more
tied in with a greater awareness, a greater understanding of certain things, of life?
I just want you to think about that, okay? Now go to Hebrews chapter five. Hebrews chapter five,
verse 12. Hebrews chapter five, verse 12. And we're going to the passage here where, you know,
Paul the apostle, I believe it's Paul, writing the book of Hebrews, and he's criticizing the Jews,
he's criticizing the Hebrews. You know, he's saying, hey, you should be teachers by now.
You should have matured in the Lord, you should have grown, okay? And he calls them out for the
babes they are. But in Hebrews chapter five, verse 12, Hebrews chapter five, verse 12, the Bible says,
for when, sorry, for when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you
again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and have become such as have need
of milk, and not of strong meat. So look, you ought to be teachers by now. How do you think
these people are? I would say they're definitely over the age of 20. If they're going to be people
that are teaching in the church, okay? We're dealing with people that are older. He says,
look, you should be teachers by now. Verse number 13, for everyone that use of milk is unskillful
in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. He says, look, you're unskillful because you're
a baby in Christ, you've not grown, you're still that little baby, you're still that little child.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. To discern both good and evil. Who's he
speaking about? He's speaking about believers, right? Believers. And he says, look, you cannot
discern between what's good and evil. I can't even give you, right? You need the strong meat.
If you get the strong meat of the Bible, that's how you're going to be able to discern what is
good and evil. He says, look, you're babes, you're still in the milk. I've got to feed you the milk
again. So what's he saying about them? That they haven't got the knowledge of good and evil. I mean
discerning, basically to discern something is to have the knowledge, right? To have that knowledge
and be able to tell the difference between that which is good and that which is evil. Is this
tied in with salvation? No, these people are already saved. But what is this tied in? Someone
that is saved, but hasn't got a great knowledge. They haven't grown in knowledge of certain truths
in the Bible, especially the strong meats. Okay. I'm trying to show you other points of the Bible
that reference good and evil of knowledge and things like this, and how it does not tie in with
the age of 20. I would say these people are beyond the age of 20. And Paul is still saying you can't
even discern good and evil yet. You know, you can't even eat the strong meat just yet. Okay.
So that deals with that age issue there with the age of 20 years old. Now let's go to Exodus chapter
30, please. Exodus chapter 30. Exodus chapter 30. Exodus chapter 30, verse 11.
Well, actually, let's not start with verse 11. Let's start off with
verse 14. And then we'll go back to verse 11. Verse 14. Exodus 30, verse 14.
Let's read this. It says, everyone that passeth among them, let me give you context. Again, Israel,
Moses, you know, they're here, they've been instructed by God to build the tabernacle,
you know, to build to, you know, the priesthood, how animals ought to be sacrificed, all these
things that God says needs to be done in order for the tabernacle to be put into place. And now
he's asking for people basically to pay a tax, to pay a tax to, you know, to pay for the equipment,
to pay for the workers, all these things. And so we get here in verse number 14. Everyone that
passeth among them that are numbered, look at this, from 20 years old and above,
shall give an offering unto the Lord. Now, what kind of offering? More often than not in the
Bible, the offering is a sacrifice of an animal, okay. But this time, it's not an offering of an
animal, it's an offering of money, okay. It says here, an offering of the Lord, verse 15,
the rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel. So they had to
give half a shekel, each one of them. When they give an offering unto the Lord to make an
atonement for your souls, and thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel,
and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, that it may be
a memorial as the children of Israel before the Lord to make an atonement for your souls, okay.
So this sounds, you know, if you took the position where people were saved in the Old Testament by
sacrificing unto the temple, yeah, or even potentially here, you know, they were saved
because they gave half a shekel for salvation. This is, you know, this sounds quite strong. Hey,
they're given this half shekel to make atonement for their souls. Because in the New Testament,
when we, I think it's only mentioned once, but it speaks of Jesus Christ being our atonement,
okay, where he has satisfied the need for us so we can be saved, you know, satisfied at all by his
death, burial, and resurrection. He's paid for all of our sins. And so when we take that view
of Jesus Christ being our atonement for our souls, let's put it that way, you know, not going to
hellfire, when we go back to the Old Testament here, and it speaks about this half shekel being
atonement for the Israelites, we can see how that ties in. And when we're talking about dealing with
the age of accountability here, it says only those that are 20 years old and over should be given
this shekel, okay. So it sounds pretty strong. It sounds pretty strong that, hey, everyone that's
over the age of 20 needs to give an atonement for their souls. Now, just very quickly, you know,
I've already covered this, but you know, and, you know, I'm not saying that those that believe this
believe what I'm just about to say, but we already made the point that, you know, you could not be
saved under the Old Testament practices, you could not be saved by keeping the Old Testament laws,
you could not be saved by doing the Old Testament ceremonies, you could not be saved by keeping,
you could not be saved by anything based on the 10th of the Old Covenant, because salvation,
again, has always been by grace through faith. These things are always a picture, a type,
a symbolic representation of what Jesus Christ was. So the view is here, well, what is this
symbolic of? Surely this demonstrates here that perhaps this half shekel here is a symbolic
gesture toward atoning our souls and only those that are over 20 truly need the atonement of souls.
You see where I'm going here, okay. Now, there's a few things that I want to deal with here. When
we're dealing with the word soul in the Bible, yes, many times it is about the internal soul
of man, which is, you know, needs to be saved, which is cast into hell, if it is lost. More
often than not, I mean, just do a word study for the, you know, I mean, the vast majority of
verses, if you just did a word study for the word soul, it is not about that part of man, it's just
about life. It's just a human being. Many times, the Bible says that eight souls were saved by
water when it comes to the reference of the ark of, you know, Noah's ark. And so many times,
just a living person just walking the earth, they're often referred to as a soul, okay. So
I'm not saying that's necessarily what it's about. I'm just saying that many times that's what the
Bible refers to. So we need to be very careful about how we apply certain things, especially
with that word soul. The next thing that I want you to understand is this isn't saying, well,
this is kind of hard to prove, but I'll try my best to prove it. This isn't saying that everybody
over the age of 20 had to give half a shekel. It sounds that way. It sounds that way. Let's back
up to verse number 11, Exodus chapter 30, verse 11. Exodus chapter 30, verse 11. And the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number,
then shall they give, look at the next words, every man are ransom for his soul unto the Lord,
when thou number'st them, that there be no plague among them, when thou number'st them.
This they shall give every one that passeth among them that are numbered half a shekel after the
shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel is 20 Jerusalem, a half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord.
And one thing I want to point your attention to, and this is what I believe very strongly,
and it's a bit hard to prove, but if we look at the pattern that we see in the book of Exodus,
you'll soon see why I believe this. But when it says that every man will give this ransom,
this half shekel, I believe this was literally every man, every man that was over the age of 20.
So it wasn't just those that were under the age of 20 that did not give half shekel, but no women
gave the half shekel either. It was just the men, okay? And this is often, you see this pattern in
the Bible where the patriarch, the head of his family would do these things on behalf of his
whole family, on behalf of his whole family. And I want to show you this pattern because here's
the thing, when you do a study for the word every man, the Bible uses sometimes every man for every
single person that ever lives, man, woman and child. When God brought the floods upon the earth
and destroyed, the Bible says that every man perished. But of course that's referring to women,
children as well of every man. But many times the Bible when it just talks about every man,
it literally just means the men, the men that are over here at the age of 20. And so what I'm trying
to say to you is the ones that were given half a shekel was the head of his house. The half shekel
that he gave covered his wife, covered his daughters and covered his sons that were under
the age of 20. But any of his sons that were over the age of 20, I suppose God expects them to be
working to have the half shekel. Now they're accountable for themselves. I do believe in
an age of accountability at the age of 20, where they then had to then give of their own half
shekel as well. Now let's look at this pattern in the book of Exodus. Let's start off with Exodus
chapter one. Exodus chapter one verse one. And I've covered this again in the men's leadership
class. When we're trying to build context of a verse, I strongly encourage stay within the
chapter if you can. If you can find the answer within the chapter. If you can't, stay within the
book, the book that it's written. If you can't, stay within the same writer of the books. And if
you can't, of course go through the whole Bible. Nothing wrong with using the whole Bible for
context. But it's best to try to keep it as narrow as you can. So I want to try to keep it here
with the book of Exodus. Let's have a look at this. Exodus chapter one verse one.
And this is talking about when Jacob, Israel, went into Egypt with his sons at the end of the
book of Genesis. But Exodus chapter one verse one. Now these are the names of the children of Israel
which came into Egypt. Look at this. Every man and his household came with Jacob. So every man
and his household came. And then here, I won't read them all, but we go verse number two, three,
four, all different names of the men of the tribes of Israel. And then verse number 50,
it says, look at this, and uses the word souls here. And all the souls that came out of the
loins of Jacob were 70 souls, for Joseph was in Egypt already. Okay. So I was basically saying,
look, there were 70 of Jacob's descendants that went into the land of Egypt, but only 12,
or every man being his sons, and then his son's household under that. So you can see how every
man here is not just referring the man, but then also his family that is under him. Okay.
Look at Exodus chapter 11 now. Exodus chapter 11 verse two. Exodus chapter 11 verse two. Just
trying to keep it within the context of the same book. Exodus chapter 11 verse two. The Bible says
here, I just want you to, I want to show you how the Bible sometimes uses the differences here.
Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbor, and every
woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold. The reason I just wanted to
show you that one is just to show you how, yes, the Bible does sometimes use every man when it's
just speaking about men, because here we see the difference of every woman. Okay. Now go to Exodus
12 verse three. Exodus chapter 12 verse three. And now we're going to the Passover lamb. Okay.
The Passover lamb. Exodus chapter 12 verse three. The Bible says, speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel saying in the 10th day of this month, they shall take to them, look at this, every man
a lamb. Now, do you think every person, every Israelite took a lamb for the Passover? What do
you think when it says every man took a lamb? It's basically the head of the house. It's a patriarch
of the family. You'll soon see this. Every man a lamb, look at this, according to the house of
their fathers, a lamb foreign house. Okay. So every man was responsible for doing this on behalf of
his family. Verse number four. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his
neighbor next unto his house, take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according
to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. So just a few things there. Just seeing the every
man and every, when men were called to do this, they would do it on behalf of their families.
And also just the use of the word soul. You know, the word so many times just referring to just
someone that's alive, that's living, just a person, a soul under the house of that man.
Let's go to Exodus 16 now. Exodus 16 verse 15. Exodus 16 verse 15. We're fast forwarding now
to when Israel are going through the wilderness and they ask God for food and God sends them
manna. Remember the manna from heaven, the bread from heaven. And then Exodus 16 verse 15. It says
here, and when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna for they
wish not what it was. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord have given you
to eat. This is the thing which the Lord have commanded. Look at this. Gather of it every man
according to his eating. Now look at this. Did everyone go out and collect manna?
Let's think about it. Every man according to his eating and oma for every man according to the
number of your persons, take ye every man for them which are in his tents. So when he came to
the manna, every man was commanded to go and collect the manna. Makes sense. We should be
providers for our families, men. And they were to sort of look at their persons, look at the
people that are within their tents, their families, their servants, and go and gather that on behalf
of his family basically. So I'm trying to show you the pattern that takes place here. Every time
the Lord is commanding every man to do these things, it's the patriarch of the family that's
doing it. And then obviously, so we see that pattern there. And I hope that kind of shows you
then when we get to the pattern where every man had to give that half shekel that yes,
every man did it for his whole family. The same practices that we see through the pattern there
in the book of Exodus. So if this was symbolic, if this was symbolic of salvation, then if I'm
right in this, I believe I'm right on this, this would mean that only men over the age of 20 need
to be saved. We can't say everybody under the age of 20, it would be then every woman wouldn't need
to be saved either because they didn't have to give that half shekel for the atonement of the
souls. It was just that man that was over the age of 20 or the man that was the head of his family.
So you see how I wanted to cover the symbolism. So the symbolism breaks down as well with that
teaching. So I hope you can see that pattern as you read through the book of Exodus. These things
require you to read through your Bible multiple times, to see the patterns and see how things
develop. And so I don't expect sort of the, if you've only read your Bible through once or you
haven't even read it from cover to cover, I don't expect you necessarily to see these patterns. It's
not till you read them over and over again that you start seeing these things. Now, here's my
other issue that I have with symbolism here. The other issue referring to the age of 20 being the
age where someone needs to be saved after that age because they're lost, is this isn't the only
thing that might represent salvation. One thing that is a sure thing that represents salvation
is circumcision. And I'm not even going to read the passage that I have this, but you guys know
that when the Lord commanded Abraham to be, to circumcise his household, they were to be,
to circumcise at what age? Eight days old. Eight days old. And the circumcision was only for men.
Women cannot be circumcised. And they were eight days old. And that was definitely a type or a
picture of salvation, of the circumcision of the heart. So if we take symbolism too far,
we could say, well, the age of accountability is eight days old. If we were to keep a consistent
view of how we take these symbolism and the ages that we see in the Bible, and you see how
symbolism falls short. And this is why we need to be careful when we read our Bibles, when we
come to doctrine, we build our doctrine on things that are clearly spelt out, clearly spelt out.
Just be mindful. There's a lot of things that are true in the Bible. There are a lot of things that
I want to preach, but I hold back from preaching because I just don't know. I can't say for certain
this is 100% sure. So I'd rather not preach on that, you know, and in case it's wrong,
and then, you know, influence others to believe incorrectly as me. Now, the question is,
when do we die spiritually? Let's go to Romans chapter seven, Romans chapter seven, verse seven,
Romans chapter seven, verse seven, where we're nearing the end now. Romans seven, seven,
because this is the main chapter. And of course, you guys already probably know it very well.
This is the main chapter that deals with spiritual death, okay. And I believe this
ties in perfectly with the book of Genesis. And we'll go back to Genesis, we'll go back to Adam
and Eve, and the knowledge of good and evil. Don't worry about that. We'll look at that soon.
But Romans chapter seven, verse seven says this, What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God
forbid, nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said,
Thou shalt not covet. Okay, but sin, taken occasion by the commandment, wrought in me
or manner of concupiscence, this is concupiscence in a way of saying lust,
for without the law, sin was dead. So what I gather here from the Apostle Paul,
when he realized he was a sinner, it's when he realized that he was lusting, he had a problem
with covetousness, he had a problem with lust, okay, whatever that was, that lust was in regards
to, that's when he realized that he was dead. Okay, look at verse number nine. For I was alive
without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment,
which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death, for sin, taken occasion by the commandment,
deceived me, and by it slew me. Okay, so a few things here, a few things here. We see that the
Apostle Paul with lust, and I don't believe this was lust for the opposite sex, because this was a
man that was basically, what do you call him? Unique, all right. So he was probably lusting
other things, maybe power, maybe a position, he was training to be a Pharisee of high status,
maybe that was lusting, those kinds of things. That was the sin that caused him to realize,
man, I'm a sinner on the side of God. Something happened to him at some point when he realized
that he died, he died spiritually, okay. Now, I'm not saying this is for all of us, I'm not
saying that all of us get to the point where we lust about whatever it is, and that's when we
die spiritually. And I think the Apostle Paul uses this vague language, look at verse number eight,
but sin taken occasion by the commandments. What commandment? The commandment. Okay,
now we know the commandment he's talking about for him is the commandment, thou shalt not cover.
Okay, but you see, it's kind of used in a general sense. Look at verse number nine, for I was alive
without the Lord once, but when the commandment came, what commandment? There's so many
commandments in the Bible. I think it's kept vague for us. Because when we get to a point,
when we understand we've broken one of God's commandment, whatever commandment that is in
your life that you get to, that's when you die spiritually. That's when you die spiritually.
And that's when you need to be saved and born again 100%, because you've gone past that age
of accountability. I wouldn't say it's an age, right? It's something that is knowledgeable,
something that you gain at some period of time in your life. It's not an age, it's not a birthday,
and now I am now dead spiritually. It's some type of awakening, some type of awareness,
when you realize I've broken the commandment, whatever commandment that is, I've broken the
commandment of God. I'm a sinner in the sight of God. Okay, now, what I want to do is go back
to Genesis chapter three, verse 17. Genesis chapter three, verse 17. Let's go back to the
Garden of Eden here. And I really want to break this down, because I think this is going to help
clarify any confusion here. I wanted to leave this last. And you see, one thing you'll learn,
and you need to have patience with this, all right? When brethren have different views,
all right, what happens is, I've got all my verses for my view, my brethren has his verses
for his view, and my brother's chatting all the verses, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like,
yeah, I believe all that. And then I'm like, blah, blah, blah. And my brother's like, yeah,
I believe all that. All right? What requires effort, what requires patience and love
is doing the studying, going back. Where did this originally come from? We've got these different
views. Can we trace it back? Can we go all the way back as to where that issue was, that first
little crack? Let's say the Son of God, Isaiah 9-6, and he shall be called the everlasting
Father. Oh, he's the God the Father, just that little crack. And now when you start taking other
positions and other things, and you start looking, man, it becomes this massive chasm in doctrine,
doesn't it? And so you often need to trace it back. Where was that issue? Where was that one
thing that caused that divide? And I believe we can find the answer here in Genesis chapter 3.
And again, they remember they had eaten from the Book of Life. And let's look at this,
Genesis chapter 3 verse 17. Why, think about this, why did Adam and Eve die spiritually?
Was it because they had the knowledge of good and evil? Is that why they died? Let's have a look.
Genesis chapter 3 verse 17. When Adam's defending himself, he says this,
And unto Adam he said, God said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife,
and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee. What was the commandment that slew Adam
of eating of the tree? Okay, this is really important when it comes to this, because
let's understand this. Did Adam knowingly break God's law prior to having the knowledge of good
and evil? Let's say this area here is knowledge of good and evil. Okay, he's got this awakening,
he's got this awareness of knowledge, greater knowledge than he had before. But did he sin when
he had the knowledge of good and evil? Is this when he became a sinner? Or did he sin, did he
break God's commandment prior to having the knowledge of good and evil? It's prior to having
knowledge of good and evil, that he broke the commandment of God, he went and ate from that tree
knowing, he already knew, even though he did not have the knowledge of good and evil that we see
here, he knew that he was wrong. Okay, even Eve knew that he was wrong. You know, she goes back
and forth with Satan and acknowledges that. What I'm trying to say is, the commandment that God
gave, they broke that commandment. That's why God is about to curse Adam, because he's eaten from
the tree. He says, I'm not cursing you because you have the knowledge of good and evil. He says,
look, I'm cursing you because you've broken the commandment that I gave you. Okay, so let's keep
going, saying, thou shall not ever be cursed, cursed is the ground for thy sake and sorrow,
shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. So he's cursed because he's eaten from the tree,
which was commanded not to eat of, right? Now go to Genesis 3, 22. Genesis 3, 22. And this really
just nails it down. It's not the knowledge of good and evil that damned someone, okay.
And the Lord God said, behold, the man is become as one of us. Okay, the Trinity right there, us,
to know good and evil. All right, so who else knows good and evil? The Lord God, okay. And
here's where it falls, because if you take the position, the knowledge of good and evil,
when you have the knowledge, that's when you die spiritually. Well, guess who else has knowledge
of good and evil? The Lord God. Did he die spiritually? Of course not. This is kind of
like the repentance fight. You know, the Bible says, repent ye and believe the gospel. And we
believe that. We believe that 100%, right? And so they say, see, you've got to repent of your sins
in order to be saved. But hold on, how do we defeat that? Well, there's many ways. But one
way is, well, look, God repented more than any person in the Bible. So is the repentance,
is someone that repents, does that mean they're a sinner and they need to turn from sin? No,
because then we're saying God is the one that had to turn from sins himself. The same idea.
Is it the knowledge of good and evil that causes someone to be lost? No, otherwise God is lost.
Well, God has the knowledge of good and evil. So it's not the knowledge of good and evil
that caused them to sin. They had sinned, they had broken the commandment prior to having knowledge
of good and evil. They ate from the tree, they got the knowledge of good and evil. Now they,
well, I'm naked. Wow, I'm naked. And they clothed themselves. So, you know, that's where the issue
is. If you take the position you're lost because knowledge of good and evil, that's where you go
down the road of taking the knowledge of good and evil, 20 years old, these kinds of things.
So let's wrap it up. I hope that kind of answers a lot of questions. Let's wrap this up very
quickly. What is the age of accountability according to Pastor Kevin Tepulveda? Twenty
years old. All right. I think, you know, those that take the position of 20 years old, as far
as like for salvation, have put together a pretty good argument. And I agree with a lot of those
things. Again, I hear them. Yeah, I agree with all that. But it's not about salvation. Okay,
the age of accountability, 20 years old is the age of adulthood. And God holds you greater
accountable for the things you do wrong when you turn 20 years old, especially if you're a man,
especially you're a man, now you need to give your half shekel. Hey, you ought to be out there
working. And please go to Numbers chapter one, verse two, please. Numbers chapter one, verse two,
just the last verse I'll get to turn to. Numbers chapter one, verse two. While you're turning there,
I'm going to read to you from Ezra chapter three, verse eight. Now the book of Ezra is when they go
back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Ezra chapter three, verse eight. Now in the second
year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month began Zerubbabel,
the son of Shealtal and Joshua, the son of Josadak, and the remnant of their brethren,
look at this, the priests and the Levites, and all that would come out of captivity unto Jerusalem,
and appointed the Levites from 20 years old and upward to set forward the work of the house
of the Lord. Boys, young boys, you know what God expects from you by the time you're 20 years old,
that you're working a job. Okay, that's that because you're an adult. God says, look,
you're old enough now to be doing something. You're old enough to be working there in the
house of the Lord. If you were the Levites in this time, you need to be out there working,
building that second temple. Hey, you're old enough to give. You're half shekel. You should
have been saving up by now. You should be out there, you know, being productive and not being
lazy. Look, if you're 20 years old and you don't have a job, you're against the Lord God. You're
against His standard. Over the age of 20, as men, you ought to be out there working. You know, God's
holding you accountable, fully accountable for your life. You can't hide behind mum and dad
anymore. Okay, and you guys are in Numbers chapter one, verse two. Numbers chapter one, verse two.
Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, half of their families,
by the house of their fathers, with the number of the names, every male by their poles,
from 20 years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel,
thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. What else do we see with the age of 20?
That you have to be, as a man, you have to be over the age of 20 in order for you to be enlisted in
the army and go fight a war. Okay, you're fully responsible, you're fully accountable, even for
your own life, you know, to get out there and fight for the nation of Israel. So it's something
very clear for us. We see that God sets the age of 20 as adulthood. And when you become an adult,
God says, look, you've got the knowledge of good and evil. You've got this greater knowledge than
you had before. And this is why even in our in our Western countries, or nations across the world,
set a certain age, right? They say, look, if a child does a crime, it's not that we let them go.
It's just that we can't punish them as much. We got to be a little bit more merciful with a child
than an adult that does the same crime. I don't know if that's right or wrong. I don't think
that's, you know, I think if you do the same crime as an adult, you probably deserve to be punished
just like an adult. But you know, our society does this, you know, for Australia, we set the
age of 18. We say the age of 18 is the age of adulthood, you know. And in some countries,
America used to be 21. It's still 21 in some states, but some states have changed that to 18.
In Chile, I believe it might still be 21. But I think they're looking at changing that to the
age of 18. When they say, hey, this is the age when you become an adult, we can now, you know,
try, we can persecute you, prosecute you as an adult rather than as a child. And there are still
some countries that have the age of 20. That's Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Thailand, where
they said, hey, the age of 20 is the age of adulthood. So even our nations, our society
recognised there's a period there, there's an age within that 20, you know, group where, you know,
we recognise this is when someone now becomes an adult, and they should be fully responsible for
what they do. And I'll just end on this, you know, kids, God has a greater mercy upon you
until you become an adult. You know, the things you do wrong, your dad should be correcting you,
you know, your parents should be correcting you. You know, if your parents aren't pulling out the
rod when you do wrong, you should go to your parents, mom and dad, can I be disciplined?
Like the Bible says, can you get that rod and discipline me? Hey, why not? If you want to be
in obedience with God, if your parents aren't doing it, go and ask them to do it for you. I
mean, that's why not if you're a godly child, you want to have that here, you know, and man,
if you're over the age of 20, you're not working, come on, you know, you know, you're not serving
your purpose that God has created for your life, you need to be out there, you know, earning that
half shekel, you know, you need to be given it to the house of God, we see that example there,
you know, given it so for the purpose of worship God in the house of God there in the tabernacle.
And I just say this, if you're over the age of 20, and you're still messing around, you're over
the age of 20, you're still committing sin, you can't hide behind mom and dad forever. Okay,
there comes a time when God says, you know what, no, I'm not going to be completely merciful. And
you know, I'm going to hold you completely accountable for what you've done. And you
might be punished on this earth much harsher, you know, over the age of 20, you know, the chastisement
will come upon upon you much harsher at the age of 20 than when it was when you were under 20.
All right, so I do believe the age of accountability was 20 years old,
but I don't believe it has anything to do with salvation. Let's pray.