Common Questions (part 4)

For the last 20 years I've been asked a lot of questions about the Bible. Some questions I don't have any idea how to answer because it is true the secret things belong to the

Lord and how can we understand God. But He has spoken to us in His Word and so if the

Word does address it then we can find out what God wants us to know about Him. I've always thought about heaven lots of different ways.

One way is we won't have to remember our sins anymore, right? No recollection of any kind of sin.

Wouldn't that be a good day? Isn't that going to be a wonderful day? Never ever thinking about it. You couldn't remember it if you wanted to.

I think about seeing Christ Jesus face to face and I also think about learning. You're going to get to heaven and you're still going to learn about who

God is. You'll still be finite in heaven and God will still be infinite and so forever learning about who

God is. I'm going to be glad for that and not just say well now I know everything but learning about who

God is. In the meantime we're just going to have to stick to His Word and what does the Bible say?

There's lots of gimmicks that people go through and for us it's just we need to preach the Bible. So tonight, oh

I know what I was going to say, we can take this part out of the tape. You don't know how many pastors

I met with last week who are getting kicked out of their churches, whose churches hate them, whose churches despise them and I would try to minister to the men and talk to many who were in the middle of getting kicked out and I just thought only by the grace of God and your love to me and the other pastors here,

I thought Lord thank you that I'm not one of those men and so thank you for loving me and my family in spite of our frailties and our sin and we're not perfect people or anything like that but I just thought

I'm so thankful that in ornery New England there's a group of people that still, well most of the people there still love us and I was very thankful for that.

So in all honesty, thank you for loving the Abendroths, Cooleys, T -locks,

Browns, and how do you say that guy's name, Delegenetes. Alright so back to the questions.

I often get asked questions and so we're doing a series on Sunday nights, common questions that I've been asked and so as I said this morning, the questions we'll look at tonight

I hope will be the destiny of the un -evangelized, what about the age of accountability and maybe we'll get into free will a little bit.

So first of all, number one, the destiny of the un -evangelized. There are many people who have never heard the gospel, they've never heard the person and work of Christ Jesus, what he did as an atoning death on Calvary, how

God the Son lived a perfect life that we were required to live, right? The way to heaven is always do this and live and we could never do this and live.

Israel tried to do it, she didn't do it, we can't do it and so Jesus Christ perfectly obeys the

Father, that's why he was born under law as Galatians 4 says. And so what do people, where do people go who've never heard the gospel?

So before I go further, let me ask you the question and I will expect the answer out loud please, you don't even have to raise your hand.

How do we solve this riddle? What is the destiny of the un -evangelized?

Bob? Okay, so Bob's response is you don't hear the gospel, the good news, perdition for you.

Steve? Okay, Steve Nelson, if I ever ask him a question, he just turns around and says

Romans 1, that's the answer. So that's very good, you're a good Bible student, thank you. Jonathan?

You were going to say Romans 1 too? Okay, and see it's a question that we have to deal with because there are lots of people who have never heard the gospel and the rub here is

God's sovereign. Some people have not heard the gospel because God has not brought to them the gospel.

Let's first start our Bible study tonight by turning to Acts chapter 16 please.

Acts chapter 16, and this is a wonderful passage, it makes me think of our trip over to Greece and Lydia is of course in Acts chapter 16.

Acts chapter 16 verse 6 through 10, God is sovereign in salvation, he's sovereign over the gospel proclamation as well.

And so when we ask the question, what do people, how do we react to people who don't know the gospel or hear it, sovereignty of God has to be involved.

There are people for thousands of years in Madagascar, thousands of years in Sri Lanka, thousands of years in other islands that have never heard the gospel and probably some islands we don't know about now, they've never heard of the gospel.

Where do they go? And it's an emotional question too because do you mean to tell me they're going to go to hell just because God hasn't brought them the gospel?

Acts chapter 16 verse 6 it says, and they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been forbidden by the

Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. So can you imagine, you're going to go to Asia to preach the gospel and the spirit of God says, no, don't go to Asia.

And when they had come up to Mycenae, they attempted to go to Bithynia but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

So passing by Mycenae, they went down to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night, a man of Macedonia was standing there urging him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us.

And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on to Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

And of course we know right after that even though the spirit of God says, no, you can't go to Asia to preach, you go to Europe to preach and your first convert happens to be from Asia, Lydia, which is interesting.

But here we have the spirit of God saying, don't go to Asia. So the sovereignty of God not bringing in the gospel to people, where do they go?

Now, if you want to email me this week and say, pastor, send me Kurt Daniel's document.

I think it's 300 pages, I have it on a Word document, I'll be glad to send it to you. I'm going to use a lot of his information tonight because it's so good.

If you want to know about the history of Arminianism, Calvinism, all kinds of things, this is a great document.

You need this document by Kurt Daniel. Email me, I'll send you out the document. You can also get it in the form of a book.

And so I'll use some of his background. And he basically says, rightly so, there are three options for people that don't hear the gospel.

They all go to hell. You don't hear the gospel, you go to hell. Number two, they all go to heaven, or option three, some go to heaven, some go to hell.

We don't know the percentages. Rome says, that is the Roman Catholic Church, the documents of Vatican II, page 126, those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or His church, yet sincerely seek

God and move by grace, strive by their deeds to do His will.

You can just feel the works righteousness in the Roman system, as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.

And so basically, if you're a Roman Catholic, if you find a godly pagan, can those things exist?

If you find a noble savage, if you find a good blasphemer, it's not really their fault, and so they could be allowed to go to heaven.

The Second Helvetic Confession says, at the same time, we recognize that God can illumine whom and when

He will. Would anybody doubt that? Can God do whatever He wants as often as He wants? Yes. Even without the external ministry, preaching of the gospel, that is in His power, but we speak of the usual way of instructing men, delivering unto us from God, both by commandment and example.

And so God can do whatever He wants, but the way He often and normally and regularly and always biblically is through the preaching of the gospel.

And one of the reasons why the Helvetic Confession says that is because there are some people who are either really young, like infants, or some people who are mentally incapable.

So what do we do with them? And if they, in fact, go to heaven, and that'll be another question in a few weeks, then

God can bypass faith and get them in heaven because He can do whatever He'd like.

If you survey most Reformed theologians, this is what you'll find out. Option one, we don't know if they'll be saved.

R .L. Dabney said that. Shedd said at least some, maybe just a few though, of unevangelized heathen will go to heaven.

That's W .G .T. Shedd. But the majority opinion, unevangelized heathen will not be saved.

They won't go to heaven. Now, how do we deal with this issue? The best way to solve the problem is to go with what we know, right?

If you ever have a theological conundrum, you can go with the facts, what do we know, and then infer from there.

So number one, if we want to solve the problem, it's good to remember that no man or woman deserves salvation.

True? Does anybody deserve salvation? Let's go to Romans 1. Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you,

Steve. Romans 1, no one has any excuses. Actually, nature, our natural revelation, doesn't give us any solution to the problem.

It only exacerbates the problem. It causes the problem because nature shows us this is who

God is and yet we still don't worship him. It condemns. And so Romans 1 says, not only is righteousness revealed, verse 17, but verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, things that aren't like God, an unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

And so the text says ungodly people try to push the truth down. And the illustration

I always like to use is when you're a kid, I would never do this to my sister Marcy who's four years younger and pick on her, but you ever hold somebody underwater and you just push them down and hold them under, something like that.

I've heard other people doing things like that. I'm not sure if I would ever do such a thing.

To push it down, to say, I know the truth about God, but I just have to hold it down because I don't want it close to me.

I don't want to think about it because I like to live the way I like to live. Verse 19, for what can be known about God, notice the word here, this is for every pagan on every island in the world or every continent.

It's plain to them. And this is what the Bible says because God has shown it to them.

What do you know about God by looking at nature and the sun and the moon and the stars?

For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power, you just think it takes a power of God to hold the moon up there like that.

And his divine nature, it has to be God, something outside of us. Have been dimly perceived?

No, clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are what?

Without excuse. We know that every pagan who's ever been born has no excuse in saying, do you know what,

I didn't know that there was a God. Verse 21, for although they knew

God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.

They thought they were wise, they became fools and what do you know, you start worshiping things like birds and animals and reptiles and then just God gives them over.

So all mankind are sinful and without excuse. What else do we know as we try to solve the problem?

What's the only solution to the sin problem? What's the only solution to unrighteousness?

What's the only solution to ungodliness? The gospel, Christ Jesus is the only sin solution.

You can try to kill a thousand heifers, it doesn't matter. And if you take a look at Romans chapter three, please,

Romans again tells us that Jesus is the answer to the sin problem.

His righteousness, his righteous life, his righteous death can solve our unrighteous problem.

And if you look at Romans chapter three, verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

Although the law and the prophets, the Old Testament bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus for all who believe.

Verse 24 says are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in the

Messiah Jesus whom God the Father put forward as a wrath assuager, as propitiation by his vicious death or his blood to be received by faith.

Christ Jesus is the only solution to the problem, you've got to know about him. And thirdly, no man can be saved without faith.

Let's go to Romans chapter 10, please, Romans chapter 10. What about the heathen? Well, we know the heathen are sinful.

We know the heathen need Jesus. And we know the way that you have Jesus' merit credited to your account is through the instrument of faith.

Romans 10, 16, and 17, talking about Israel's failure but certainly applicable to anyone.

It says in Romans 10, 16, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says,

Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

Hearing through the word of Christ. You don't get faith through your hereditary descent, through your good works, but through Christ.

Hearing means literally out of a report. You need to hear a report about Jesus because when you look at the sun and the moon and the stars,

I was looking at the stars last night. Could you use the stars to show someone propitiation and sin?

The only thing I looked up and saw last night, I saw three stars in a row and I thought, well,

I've been taught that's Orion's belt. But it didn't tell me about my own sin and my own conscience.

I looked over there and there was something. It wasn't just a dipper, it was the big dipper. But those things don't tell me about sin and how to have forgiveness.

I need a message, something literally in Romans 10, addressed to the ear. How do you get that from the moon and the stars?

A word about Christ or concerning Christ? You know, there are people, people that you would respect, who say gospels, the gospel is in the stars.

Bollinger said that. D. James Kennedy said that. Why? Because what do you do with everybody on Sri Lanka or the proverbial pygmy in Africa or somebody in Madagascar?

They've never heard the gospel. You mean to tell me that they're not going to go to heaven? So maybe they can see something about sin and substitution up in the stars.

God has chosen his means for saving people, and that is through faith that has content about Christ Jesus.

Robert Haldane said, men are not only saved through Christ, but they are saved through the knowledge of Christ communicated through the gospel.

So the answer to the question is, if people have not heard about Jesus Christ, do they go to heaven?

And the answer is, from the Bible, no. But there's all kinds of objections that Daniels gives.

Let me give you a few. What about the good Muslim or the good Hindu? Kurt Daniels isn't a guy who says many funny things, but I just took this as humorous in one sense.

He said, you might as well speak about the good idolater or the good devil worshiper. Jesus is the only way to heaven, and there's no one good, not even one.

That's what Romans 3 says. Let me give you another question. The heathen, another objection, the heathen that never hear are like Old Testament believers before Jesus.

People back in the Old Testament didn't hear about Jesus, and so people now, they don't hear about Jesus. Certainly, the

Old Testament people were saved. What about the heathen today? How would you respond? The heathen that never hear today are like the

Old Testament believers before Christ. Linton, are they like the

Old Testament believers? No. Larry, what would you say? Okay, excellent.

Why don't you turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 4. The gospel was preached back in Genesis 3 .15,

the proto -gospel, the first gospel. We see flickers of the gospel throughout all the

Bible, and the way people were saved in the Old Testament is the way people are saved now, through circumcision, through baptism.

No, through what? Faith in what God has disclosed, Romans chapter 4.

If you ever want to know how people in the Old Testament were saved, you can either read Hebrews 11. It's called the

Hall of what? Works? Okay, Hall of Faith. Thank you. Or you read

Romans chapter 4. What shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh?

For Abraham was justified by works. He has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does the Scripture say? What a great question to ask. Abraham believed

God, and it was counted to him, credited to him, reckoned to him as righteousness.

Now, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as gift, but what is due. And to the one who does not work, but trust him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

How are people saved in the Old Testament? By faith in the Messiah. Do they know every little detail? No, but as progressive revelation goes on, they know more and more and more.

So, this is like apples and oranges. People that are heathen that never hear about the gospel in Old Testament believers, that's a false objection.

What about this? Couldn't God bring the gospel to people on an island through a dream or an angel?

Maybe that's the way he does it. It's not a gospel that's being preached by a person. It's an angel, our special dream.

What would you say to that? When an angel showed up to Cornelius, did he preach the gospel to him?

Did the angel who has the gospel in Revelation chapter 14 ever preach that gospel?

Special revelation ceases with the death of the apostles, right? Hebrews chapter 1. Oh, God can do whatever he wants, but I'm not going to be able to build a case from the scriptures for that very thing.

Don Richardson, how many people have read any Don Richardson's books? Peace Child, I think he wrote.

He also wrote another book called Eternity in Their Hearts. And he said there were lots of heathen that he met that were saved before they heard the gospel through missionaries, and he tries to put a book together.

I have a question for you. If you can get saved without any people coming to talk to you, why are we sending people to missionary training schools?

This undercuts missions. Here's an objection, it would not be fair of God to condemn the heathen if they haven't heard the gospel.

God owes every man a chance to be saved. What does

God owe sinful man? See, that's why I like preaching to you guys.

John Gershner, assuming that God does damn such persons, why is it unjust of him to do so simply because they have no opportunity to be saved?

If these persons are damned, they're damned because they're sinners. They're not damned because they have had an opportunity to be saved and not utilized it.

Their opportunity or lack of it has nothing to do with their being damned. They're damned because they're sinners.

What is unfair in God's damning sinners? Some will say, granted that God could damn men for sins that they have committed, even though they did not hear the gospel, there would be no injustice in that as such.

But does not God have an obligation to offer a way of salvation to everyone? But we ask why?

Why does God have an obligation to offer salvation to any sinner? Grace by definition is undeserved.

What do you think of this? I hear this all the time. This would be a good no compromise radio show. Well, now you've heard the gospel, now you're accountable.

What's right with that or what's wrong with that? I've just preached the gospel to you and you've said no, I don't want that, you've stiff armed me and now you're held accountable before God.

What's wrong with that? You're already accountable, now you're what?

Now you're more accountable. You know there's a God by looking outside and now you're even held more accountable because you've learned about the

Son and what he's done. Well, you know what?

I think here's what we should do, beloved. Since God's going to save the people he wants to save, he's going to do it in his own good time with your help or without your help.

So let's just let God go save the people and we can be back to the work of Awana and nursery and Sunday school.

How about that? Of course,

Robert, absolutely. And so we want to make sure we don't become hyper -Calvinist and just say, well, they're going to make it in.

We want to be preachers of the gospel. And I think lastly, what

I'd like to say about this before we go to the next question, all this talk about Madagascar and Sri Lanka and Africa, what about Worcester?

What about the people in Worcester? What about the people in West Boylston who have not heard? If you ask anybody that you meet in the next five days and say, could you tell me what the gospel is?

How many people really understand what substitutionary atonement is? All right, next question.

Age of accountability. Oh, this is a fun one. What is the age of accountability? Who knows? When you're accountable before God, is it, you know, they've got little children, they're two, they're three, they're four, they're five.

What's the age of accountability? Do you have a number? Any numbers here? Well, God knows, that's for sure.

Yes, Steve? There is none. Okay. Pardon me?

A minute off in the womb? Well, I did some research and the

Mormon Church says, little children need no repentance, neither baptism. That's Moroni 8 .11.

Doctrine and Covenants, it says, all must repent and be baptized who have arrived at the years of accountability.

Mormon Doctrine says, Doctrine and Covenants 29 .47, until they become accountable before me.

And now we have the number for the Mormon Church. Children shall be baptized when eight years old.

Well, what does the Bible say? That's the real issue. Is the age of accountability in the

Bible? Well, no, but Trinity isn't in the Bible. Actually, did you know this?

The word Bible isn't even in the Bible. But we believe the Bible, we believe the Trinity. So what about the age of accountability?

Turn your Bibles to Romans 14 .12, since we're in Romans. And I want you to get an idea for where this concept comes from, that there is an account that we have to give to God.

There'll be a day of reckoning for people. And so this is where the concept of accountability comes from as a term regarding its nomenclature, if you will.

Romans 14 .12, only thing is it's in the context of Christian liberty, so then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

There'll be some bookkeeping before God, some ledger, cost accounting spiritually before God.

He's the master. Although the context there is live before God and you'll be accountable to God for your liberty and so will the other person.

Some people think that you're accountable before God when you're, you're gonna be surprised on this one, 20 years old because that's when you are accountable to serve in the

Israeli, Israel army back in the day of the Bible. You think that's too late, 20 years old? If it's 20 years old, then that would be the

Israel version of the Amish rumspring where you just go crazy until you're 20.

Do you know what rumspring is? Type it in sometime to your Google search. That's where the

Amish people say, you know what? You're 16 years old now, go out and live like the world, sex, drugs, rock and roll.

And if you come back to us and you wanna be Amish, we'll know it's a real conversion. So just go out and sin and kind of get it out of your system.

Turn to Jonah chapter four. This is probably the most important passage in the Bible for understanding the idea of age of accountability.

Jonah chapter four, verse 10. I'm going to use Jonathan Swift's poem to tell you what

Jonah thought about people. Here's Jonathan Swift's poem as you're looking for Jonah.

We are God's chosen few, all others will be damned. There's no place in heaven for you.

We can't have heaven crammed. Jonathan Swift, we are

God's chosen few, all others will be damned. There's no place in heaven for you. We can't have heaven crammed.

Jonah 4 .10, then the Lord said, you had compassion on the plant for which you did not work.

And which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.

You had compassion for that. Actually that word compassion there in the Hebrew is you're so moved you're gonna get your eyes kind of moist and watery and maybe a tear will come out.

For the plant you had compassion. You're upset about the plant that just kind of popped up and you're not upset about these people in Nineveh to show love for them.

Jonah, you care about a plant but you don't care for heathen people. You pity a plant. I mean, this is really dumb.

Verse 11, and should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120 ,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand as well as many animals.

Now how old is it before a kid figures out his right hand and his left hand? Luke, raise your right hand.

Now, but when they're little, you know, you have to do this whole thing.

Like you make these and then this L means left. And so you know how to raise your left hand.

Is that how you learned? Yeah, because it'd be izquierda, derecha.

You know, it's like, how do you figure it out? Doesn't look like an L izquierda now, does it? God was going to spare

Sodom for 10 righteous people. That's the mercy of God. That's the goodness of God.

And Jonah's mind's wrapped around this plant. Now, when the text says they can't discern between their right and their left hand, you have two options.

Option one, that's children, or option two, it's people who are spiritually and morally as undiscerning as children.

So it's really children, 120 ,000 children. That means maybe the population of Nineveh would be 500, 600, 700 ,000 people.

Or it's 120 ,000 adults who couldn't figure out their left and their right hand in God's eyes.

And don't you find it interesting at the very end of verse 11, as well as many animals or many cattle.

You've got cattle's more important than your shrub, Jonah, and you're angry over the vine.

You don't have any right to be angry over this temporal thing of little value.

By the way, isn't this a weird way to end a book? Isn't it a great way to end a book?

I want to know what Jonah finally did, what he said. How did he resolve the tension? I think probably this weird way to end the book is by design.

Of course, I know it's true. Some Jewish writings that wanted to try to help us end the book, it said, in that hour,

Jonah fell on his face and said, govern your world according to the measure of mercy, as it is said to the

Lord our God belongs mercy and forgiveness. Two books in the

Old Testament deal with Nineveh, Nahum and Jonah, and they both end with a question. Certainly, there's some kind of accountability here.

You've got these little kids, they don't know their left hand from their right hand. Let me show you two other verses that deal with this.

Deuteronomy 1, please. Deuteronomy 1, verse 39.

So we've got Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the second law, Deuteronomas.

Deuteronomy 1 .13, talking about infants, and they don't have any knowledge of good or evil.

And because of that, they could enter into the promised land. They had not rejected what

God had said, like their parents did. They couldn't accept nor reject the word of God.

Verse 39, as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there, and to them

I will give it, and they shall possess it. They don't really understand right versus wrong, and so they can go in.

And then last passage, Isaiah 7, verses 15 and 16. These are just verses that people use as they're trying to figure out, is there an age of accountability?

There's certainly an age when children don't understand if they're sinning or not. Isaiah 7, verse 15 and 16.

So I'm waiting for you to get there. Lots of people think the age of accountability is at puberty, 12, 13.

They're just guessing. I'm more tempted to think it varies from child to child in terms of when they understand right and wrong.

But what about the age of accountability? Last two verses, he shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

There's a time he doesn't know how. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.

So those are the verses, Deuteronomy, Jonah, and Isaiah.

Strictly speaking, there's no such thing as the age of accountability in the scripture because of what particular verse?

What verse says that everyone is credited with Adam's sin?

What verse helps us understand that even babies who haven't done anything right or wrong if they die, it's because of Adam's sin credited to their account?

Steve. Well, okay, that would be a good one. I like that.

It's not the one I was thinking about though. Romans 5 .12, let's go there. Romans chapter five, verse 12.

Now, what we want to do as we're thinking through this, turn to Romans 5 .12, is we wanna preach the gospel to our children at an early age, right?

As soon as you have children, you begin to preach the gospel. I mean, I remember back in the days when

Kim was pregnant with Haley, I think I would rub Kim's stomach and probably go through Bible verses, certainly sing songs.

I think Haley liked it. They're all saying to me these days, Dad, you're not really the best singer.

And I say, that's why I sit in the front row. So I just sing to the glory of God. You know, for years,

I wanted to have kind of an elders, like special music. But then our best singers left,

Dave Jeffries and Lewis Brown, and now it's just like Cooley, Abendron. I think

Pradeep probably is a good singer though. Romans chapter five, verse 12.

In all honesty, maybe this section here in verses 12 through 21, and I know preachers are prone to hyperbole, but this probably is the most important section in all your

Bibles. Romans 5, 12 to 21.

How can Jesus be a representative savior? Verses one to 11.

Answer, we all know there's a representative elsewhere in the Bible, Adam.

It shouldn't surprise us that Jesus is a representative because Adam was a representative.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sin.

For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there's no law.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses. Why did people die between Adam and Moses?

Mosaic law isn't even given yet. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, Adam to Moses even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam.

That is, Adam was told, don't you eat of that fruit of the tree? And there's nothing between then and Mosaic law to say don't do that, people still die.

How can they still die when they haven't been told by God, don't do this and you shouldn't be doing that.

Even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who is to come.

Remember, there are three great imputations. Three great imputations.

Imputation number one, Adam sinned, not Eve's, but Adam was the federal representative.

And when Adam sinned, his sin, only his first sin, not future sins, his first sin was credited to everyone else as a federal representative.

By imputation, Adam disobeys and we get credit for it.

And before you start freaking out saying, that doesn't seem fair, let me say this to you. You love federal imputation, you love it, why?

Because there's a last Adam, Jesus, and what he did, you also get credit for through faith.

And I like that, don't you? By the way, if you were in the garden, would you sin faster than Adam or slower than Adam?

Or maybe you wouldn't have sinned at all. Erickson, would you have sinned earlier or later or just the same?

If you had to pick anybody in the entire, what'd you say? Yeah, we still would have said, if you could have picked anybody, we all would have voted, one man, one vote, one woman, one vote.

Let's vote for somebody to represent us in the garden. Who would we've all picked? We would have picked, we would have picked

Larry. No, I'm... Adam, right? Because at one second old, he's got the mind of an adult.

And can you imagine when you're a baby, now you have to live before the law of God. And so every little baby, you know, the

Canars just had a baby last night. Reagan, what's her middle name? What?

Elizabeth, Reagan Elizabeth. And she's just this little tiny, cute thing. And now she's on trial.

Hope she makes it. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Let's see how you do. Here, Adam, mind is right. He's smart. Maybe the most brilliant man who's ever lived.

I pick Adam. And you know what? That's exactly who God picked to represent us. But Adam sinned and his sin was credited to everyone else.

That's why babies, that's why people who didn't have the law, nothing to transgress, still died in the wages of sin is death.

They got credit for Adam's sin. Second grade imputation is Jesus got credit for all of our sins, the bride of Christ sins.

And the third grade imputation is we got credit for all Christ's perfect obedience. Three grade imputations.

And so everyone has Adam's sin imputed to them.

So how do we work this out? When are children accountable? Well, some people say it's when children reject

Jesus and they use, I'll read John 16 for you, verse eight and nine. He will come, the spirit of God, convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me.

In other words, children are okay until they say, no, you know what? I don't wanna believe in Jesus.

I reject Jesus. Similar language of John chapter three, whoever believes in the son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the son shall not see life.

That doesn't help us because all men, all women, all babies are guilty before God because of Adam's imputation.

One trespass leads to the condemnation of all men. So for me,

I don't believe in an age of accountability. I know Adam's sin has been credited to their account.

I know God is by nature a savior. I know God saves people through the proclamation of the gospel and I know kids get saved at all kinds of different ages.

I don't know if these are true or not, but it was said that Jonathan Edwards was saved at eight years old. It was said that Isaac Watts was saved at nine years old.

It was said Richard Baxter was saved at six years old. I don't know if those are true. Numbers are not.

And as long as you're believing right now, I don't really care what age you say you're saved. When a young child says to you, you know,

I want to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, mommy. What do you say? Grow up, wait till later.

You don't understand the depth of your utter depravity yet. I had one friend, he's changed his mind, but his little children that you sit around on the meal table and stuff and you know, okay, it's your turn to pray,

Johnny. He would never do that, why? Because children are blasphemers before their worshipers and so God doesn't hear the prayer of an unbelieving child.

I have comments to make, but I won't make them right now. I say, preach the gospel to your kids when they're one, two, three, four, five, one day old.

You just preach away. And when a child says, daddy, I think I believe, what do you say?

Great, you encourage their faith. Way to go. It's better than them saying, I hate Jesus.

I've only heard that one time in my house and you know the story. I might as well tell it because some of you look kind of sleepy.

Had a kid, we were doing Bible study, Bible time. And so sometimes we just go through books of the

Bible. By the way, the way I think you should do home Bible study with your family is the way you hear the

Bible taught on Sunday mornings. Verse by verse by verse. Pick Exodus, read Exodus one, talk about it.

Next day, read Exodus two, talk about it next day, Exodus chapter three. The next day you forget or you're too busy or whatever.

Just go on to the next day. No legalism, no fundamentalism, no anything like that. Just go, okay, we're gonna teach the kids today.

And so I said to the kids, well, who should we talk about tonight, kids? I think we were in Exodus. And so Haley said,

I'm not supposed to say the name, sorry. One kid said, Jesus. And then the other kid said,

Moses. After all, Moses is called the mediator.

Only Jesus and Moses are the only two people in the Bible ever called a mediator. And then it became kind of a fighting match.

Jesus, Moses, Jesus, Moses. And then the one kid goes, I hate Jesus. That's the only time

I ever heard that. But that was in a different context. When a child says,

I love Jesus. I wanna believe in Jesus. I'm concerned about my salvation.

Little tiny kids, I've seen my own little tiny kids waddle up to the TV and kiss the

TV screen when they're crucifying Jesus. Because they were sad Jesus was getting crucified and he was innocent.

And what did I say? That's not the real Jesus. That's a TV Jesus. That's like hippie

Jesus from the 60s. He didn't look like that. That's no Jesus. Don't be kissing somebody who's not a

Jesus. Pictures of Jesus are unbiblical. I just said, you know what, sweetheart?

I'm glad you love Jesus. And so I'm trying to encourage faith. I'm trying to encourage their response.

God knows when every soul is accountable enough to say that's right and that's wrong.

But back even further is, God has credited Adam's sin to everyone.

And so when some child says, I believe, I just say, I'm glad you believe.

All right, I don't think we have time for the next. All right, any follow -up questions to age of accountability?

I think it's interesting concept, but it's not found in the Bible. Everyone's accountable.

Everyone is accountable to God. And when people die when they're really young, the only thing that can explain it is sin.

And there's only one sin bearer, Christ Jesus. And you say, well, what about children that don't understand? What about babies?

That's gonna be probably next week. Anybody see son of God yet?

Anybody willing to admit it? Noah, you can if you want.

Just don't tell me. You know, we all have our ways to do things.

I wouldn't go pay $10 to go see son of God and some of the things that I know it talks about.

I'd rent it for 99 cents. Just the wicked ways we do things.

All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you today that even though in our own sin, it was a consequence of Adam's sin, we had our minds set on the flesh.

We were hostile towards you, but your grace is greater than our hostility.

And we're thankful that we're no longer in the flesh. We still have these bodies, but spiritually now we are spiritual people.

And if those in the flesh cannot please God, we're thankful that we are in Christ Jesus and we have union with him.

We're in the beloved. And when you see him, you don't see any of our sins. You just see Christ Jesus.

It's amazing to me, Father, that you can't love us any less than you love your own son.

You can't love us any more than you love your own son because we're in Christ Jesus. And when you see us, you see him and you love us like you loved him.

Father, I pray for the young kids here at the church, the young children. Pray that you'd give the parents diligence.

I know there's some babies still in the womb. Some have just come out and I pray for the salvation of all these, including

Reagan who was born last night. I know she needs a savior. I know you're a good God who loves.

And I pray that you'd grant her eternal life when she's able to understand. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.