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Some very searching questions. The first one here, at what age are children responsible before God? Do children go to hell? At what age are children responsible for God? As far as I know, the Bible does not discuss the matter. The Jews, whose book the Old Testament is, to this day regard twelve as the age at which at least a boy assumes responsibility for his own sins, and then they'll have a ceremony called the bar mitzvah at that stage. I think we're not called upon to decide. This is for God to decide, surely. Who knows the hearts. Do children go to hell? Well, again, I prefer to keep to what the Bible says, do you see? The God who gave his son to die on the cross that people might be saved, and would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. When he was here on earth, our blessed Lord said, suffer the little children to come to me, forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven. God will save everybody he can, by definition. It's not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones perish. At what age a child comes to responsibility, such that it might decide, just as it rebels against its parents, to rebel against God. That I'm in no position to say. I must say that the Bible is clear about the issue. He that has the Son of God has life. He that has not the Son of God shall not see life, but the indignation of God rests upon him. It's up to God to decide the individual cases, isn't it? But we are asked, uh, to believe what God says, and if we are Christians, to do our utmost to lead other people to Christ. And parents will want to do that particularly for their children. I think I am a Christian. I'm not really sure. How do I make certain? The answer to that varies according to who you are, so to speak, and what your makeup is. How can we be sure? Well, there are various scriptures that tell us how to be sure. One is, and I'll quote you this because in this question it is important to see exactly what scripture says. I'm quoting you now from one John chapter five. And this is an argument, so bear with me. Not my argument, it's the argument of scripture. It says if we receive the witness of men... Well, we do often, don't we? We ring up the airport and we say, when is the next plane to Toronto? And some charming female voice, uh, uh, tells us a time. You'll see, we've never seen the dear lady in all our lives, and we know that even such people can make mistakes and be careless. But for practical purposes, we, we believe this voice anyway. Multitudinous cases, we know people can sometimes be untruthful, but we do often receive the witness of men. The witness of God is greater. We should believe him the moment he speaks. Moreover, the witness of God is not only greater, but the- it says the witness of God, uh, is this, that he has borne witness concerning his Son. And who should know about God if God doesn't? You prepared to accept God's witness about his Son? Believe what God says about his Son? Good stuff. Now, this is what the scripture says. He that believeth on the Son of God has the witness in himself. Meaning God by his spirit will confirm it in the heart of those that believe on the Son of God. Notice the alternative. He who doesn't believe God has made him a liar. Now, ladies and gentlemen, what are you prepared to do? You say, that sounds very severe. If I don't believe God, I'm making him a liar. Wait a minute. If I came to you after this meeting and said, madam, I've noticed you here several nights, I'm delighted to see you. May I be so, uh, uh, uh, forward as to ask what your name is? And you say, I'm Mrs. Elizabeth O'Rourke. Oh, I said, delighted to see you, ma'am. Just at that moment, a friend comes up to me, and you're still there listening. He says to me, what is that good lady's name? And I say, well, she says it's Mrs. Elizabeth O'Rourke, but you know, I find it a bit difficult to believe. What would you do, madam? Slap me across the face? What a fearful thing for me to say. You just told me your name is Elizabeth O'Rourke, and I don't believe you. And in front of your face, I tell my friend here, well, she says it's Elizabeth O'Rourke, but... I wouldn't dream of doing it to you, madam. If God says something and I don't believe him... I'm making out that he is not to be trusted. He's a liar. You'll not live in heaven with a God whom you regard as a liar. That's why faith is essential. I must believe God. How could I ever live in his heaven if I don't? Well, here was what, what does he say, you ask? He that believeth not God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning his son. Well, what is that witness? What does God say, and what does he demand that I believe? The witness is this, that God, uh, uh, has given us, that God gave unto us, not he will give us. He gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his son. Now notice how carefully scripture is speaking. Doesn't say that God will give us. It says he has given us. As God is concerned, that's that. He's, there's the life. I've given it. Where is it to be found? It's in his son. And therefore it follows that he that has the sun has the life. Yes? I'll change this piece of paper into a ten thousand euro note. I won't show you how I did it. Sir, I have given you ten thousand euros. As far as I'm concerned, it's done. You want it? Well, the euros are in the book. You want it? Do you believe me? I should be watching you. If you believe me and you want it, well, come and grab the book. If you don't come and grab it, I shall say, well, he didn't really believe me. Or else he doesn't need ten thousand euros. Suppose you come and take the book, and before you have time to open it to find out where this ten thousand euro note is, your friend comes up and says to you, um, uh, so you got that book, yes? Is that the book he was talking about? Yes. Have you got the ten thousand euro? I don't know. I should be listening again. You don't know? So you don't believe me after all? I said if you have the book, you have the ten thousand euro. You don't believe it? You're not sure of it? Then you've made me a liar then. So one answer to whoever it is who wrote this, and I'm only going to give one answer tonight. If you care for it, I give other answers either in private or, or, or, or, or publicly tomorrow if you raise it again. For there, in my, my ex- in my experience, there are all sorts of reasons why people feel uncertain. But let's deal with tonight this one thing and get that clear. You want eternal life? You say, yes, of course I do. God says, I've given it. But the life is in my son. If you have my son, you have the life. The question, therefore, comes, have you got God's son, whoever you are that wrote this question. Have you received him? I don't know whether I have or not. Okay. Suppose there came a knock on the door, and when you went to the door and opened it, it was Jesus Christ standing there. What would you say? Would I say, come in? Marvelous. And of course he would. Because he's given it as his promise, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with her, dine with her, and she with me, or dine with him and he with me. Guarantee, if you say, come in, Lord Jesus. I need you. I have no other savior but you. Come in, please. He says, I will come in. And you have the son. If you have my son, says God, you have the life. If you say to God, but how shall I know? God will say, because I said so. And if you don't believe, you've made me a liar. You wouldn't want to do that, I presume. The question comes round, therefore. Have you, as best you know how, received God's Son into your heart. I did as a child. I think I told you the other night, but Josie. I said the words of a little chorus they used to teach children. Into my heart. Into my heart. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come in today. Come in to stay. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. He did so, of course. And I've lived for over seventy years since then to prove the reality of it. In spite of all sorts of doubts and fears and psychological affairs and personalities and all this kind of thing, and the ups and downs of life, I found him true. God's word is true. And I f- when I, the Lord doesn't come before I die and I go home to glory, I go home on this word, not on my merit, not on my works, not on my attainment, not on my preaching. I go home to glory on the word of Cry- God. He who has the Son has life. I say, well, I've no other option. I've no other savior. Lord, you are my savior. Come in. I have God's word. I have eternal life. So may all who will come in true repentance and faith. One other question. Um, early in the text, it is talking about Ephesians. It mentions that we lived in the passions of our flesh and of... and carried out the desires of the body and the mind as it was our nature as children of wrath. But at the point of conversion, are such passions, actions, and desires expect- expected s- simply to cease? Well, let me explain what the verse means by the children of wrath. That's a Hebrew, uh, way of talking. It means people that deserve God's anger against them for their sins. We lived simply according to our own desires, whether they were our own mental desires or psychological desires or physical desires. What Paul is saying is that we lived according to our desires, apart from Christ. Our desires might have been quite religious, like Saul of Tarsus. He was very religious before he got converted and became a Christian. Thought he was earning salvation by his good religious attainments, you'll see. So zeal, zealous was he for the law that he persecuted the Christians and tried to eliminate the name of Jesus from the earth, but very religious, and he kept the law as best he knew how. But regardless of Christ, and in fact against God, he he would have murdered God's son. He got converted, that's he is writing this. Did he lose forthwith all those wrong desires, passions, and whatnot? The biblical answer is no, of course not. Do you see, um, what he will tell us, and we shall have to consider it tomorrow, God willing, at the end of Ephesians. Of course, Christ does make an immediate difference. But then Christ begins to take us in hand, and he will ask us to deal with those passions and to put off the old man with his style of living, and us to put on the new man. And we have strength to do it, of course, because the living Christ comes to live within us. We should not be constantly defeated by sin, for as we continue with Christ and we know the truth and get to know the truth more, he says, the truth shall make you free from the constant practice of sin. On the other hand, John tells us that if as believers we sin, we have an advca- advocate with the Father, and if we confess our sin, God is righteous and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Bible never claims that believers in Christ are sinlessly perfect this side of heaven. But of course, Christ does make an enormous difference. And if you'll allow a crude, uh, illustration, you see, but then I'm a such a simple mind, you'll have to put up with that. You could think of a more sophisticated answer. The Bible says that, uh, in one sense, as far as God is concerned, in our unconverted days, we were dead in trespasses and sins, do you see? Suppose you came across a, a corpse in a churchyard, and you opened the grave, and the corpse was rather filthy. You say, dear corpse, you oughtn't be as dirty as that. You see, I tried to clean you up. Well, that would be a bizarre thing to do, wouldn't it? Imagine cleaning up a corpse. You wouldn't get very far. No. I tell you what you could do. Plant an acorn, acorn in the middle of the corpse. And in a year or two, they come out with green shoot, and if you left it long enough, they'd come out an oak tree. What you've done is not just clean up the corpse, so to speak, you've planted a new life in the corpse. We shall learn tomorrow, God willing, as we study Ephesians or be reminded of it, that that's what God has done and does for a believer. We were dead in trespasses and in sins, and God, to use the old-fashioned word, quickens us. He gives us a new life. It is the development of that new life that pushes out the old.