Day 245 - Ezekiel 11-19

ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE
Day 245 - Ezekiel 11-19 (Turn and Live!)
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          ^"'The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the               guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the           wicked shall be upon himself...Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have                           committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of               Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord GOD. "Therefore turn               and live!"'  (Ezekiel 18:20, 31-32)

Satan is a master of propaganda and perhaps his greatest achievement of all is to convince multitude of people today that those who preach damnation for sinners are crazy fanatics who do not deserve the attention of civilized modern man.  I have to admit that there are those who sincerely try to preach the truth of the gospel but do so in an obnoxious way which does more damage than good to the cause of Christ and His kingdom.  I'm sure we all know the type.

Christians are called to preach the truth of the gospel to all people which includes telling them of God's warnings of judgment for sin and disobedience.  I would rather be labelled as a crazy Bible fanatic for preaching the whole truth of Scriptures than please the opponents of the Bible.  This is why I am writing about our text above in which God warns the Israelites to turn from their sins or die spiritually in everlasting punishment in hell.

Our text above highlights God's attribute of justice in that He declares that every person will be held responsible for his own sins and not the sins of another.  In other words, you and I have no person to blame or credit for our eternal desting other than ourselves.  No one can tell God that his parents' religion or tradition kept him from following the truth of the Bible.  Everyone must make a decision regarding one's faith.  God says, "get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit" which means we need to be born again in the Spirit of God (John 3:3).

There is one condition, though, to receive a new heart and a new spirit from God; the sinner must repent or turn from his sins and ask God's mercy and forgiveness through His Son Jesus Christ who died to pay the penalty of our sins.  God says, "Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed." The Bible says "all have sinned" and that includes you and me and every other person on earth.  Therefore, unless you and I turn and repent, we will die in our sins and end up in hell.  Conversely, God says that if we turn, we will live forever with Him in heaven.

As if it was obvious enough to all, God said, "I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies."  God bends backward, so to speak, in trying to reach every sinner to get him to repent and be saved.  If you have never truly repented of your sins and begged for God's mercy to forgive you and to save you, your reading of this message is proof that God loves you so much that He wants you to know the truth and for yo to turn and live.  May God be merciful to you if you have not yet come to Him in complete repentance.