In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of understanding and applying biblical principles in our lives. He starts by referencing Exodus 34, where God proclaims His compassionate and gracious nature, but also His justice in punishing the guilty. The preacher then discusses the relevance of the Bible to every culture and time period, emphasizing the need for the Church to confront the chains that bind them. He lists several curses mentioned in Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and Isaiah, such as worshiping false gods, engaging in occult practices, disrespecting parents, oppressing the weak, participating in illegitimate sexual activity, having illegitimate births, and committing murder. The preacher concludes by highlighting the need for redemption through the precious blood of Jesus, as mentioned in 1 Peter 1:18.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. One of the issues that is seemingly difficult for people to comprehend is the issue of generational sin and its consequences. The Old Testament speaks much of this. The New Testament does not pay so much attention to it, but rather assumes it's true. I know of no person in all the places where I have traveled and all the associations that I have made with others who work in the field of deliverance from the powers of darkness that do not affirm the principle of generational sin and the need for people to bring it to the Lord. Until we do, in many cases we will not be free from the powers of darkness that oppress us. Now, turn with me in your Bibles this evening for a biblical base for what I wish to say. I invite your attention, first of all, to the book of Exodus, chapter 34, verse 6 and 7. Exodus 34, 6 and 7. Then the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. Numbers 14, Numbers 14, verse 18. The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generations. Deuteronomy chapter 5, Deuteronomy 5, verse 7. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a zealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. Let us turn also to the book of Peter, 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 18. Knowing that you were not redeemed with the perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood as a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. The Bible is quite replete with references to generational sin. Alas, us moderns have tended to pass it over and say that it does not apply. Now let's take a look at it again this evening from the standpoint of what the scriptures have to say with an eye to gleaning from those scriptures truth that is applicable to our lives. I am a bit reminded of another comic that I saw in funny paper in a peanut column. Lucy was in her little house where she gives psychiatric advice. And Charlie Brown came along. And Lucy said to him, Charlie, life is like a folding chair on a cruise ship. Some people put the chair on the front, they want to see where they're going. But others put it on the back, they want to see where they have been. Charlie, where in life is your chair? And Charlie looks at Lucy and says, I have never yet been able to get it unfolded. Well, I hope that by the time we get finished this evening that we have our chair unfolded in regard to this subject. Not only unfolded, but that we can make application thereof to our lives. What I have been saying in these days is that the Christian's position is with Christ in the heavenly places. That is where we have been put when we are redeemed by the blood. That is where we belong. We didn't work to get there. We got it as a gift from God because He loves us. He accepts us as we are. None of us can clean up our lives before we come to Christ. And after we have come, He accepts us and He affirms us. Then we can begin to be accountable to His authority. Satan and his host are down here. They are not up there. They cannot be there because they have been cast down. Furthermore, the ministry of Christ on the cross has defeated Satan and all of his host. We are in Him. Christ has ascended and seated. We are there too. Therefore, the powers of darkness are subject to the believer. Now, before I forget it, I want to make another comment about authority. I frequently hear people pray, Lord, look at this situation. It's bad. It's awful what is happening. Just look at it, what's going on. Just like this bill that is before Congress which stands in the way of Christian truth. God, do something about this. Not very likely that much of anything will happen. It's a little like your child. It's three or four years old and it goes out here and gets in a fight with a playmate. So what does a parent do? It goes out here and gets the situation straightened up. If you're still doing that when the child is 25, you've got problems. Now, I don't mean to say that God may not intervene when we are immature Christians. But when we have become mature Christians, we have no business asking God to do for us what is our responsibility. God has given to you and I as believers authority to use Jesus' name against the powers of darkness that operate behind the scenes of evil in this world. Therefore, plug in. In Jesus' name, bind them. Tell them what they can and can't do and where to get off at. For Christ is victory and He is Lord and we are in Him. Let's not forget that. We need to remember that we need to renounce Satan and his works from our lives. I have learned over the years that 60% of the people sitting in the benches of the church house have touched the occult realm either personally or ancestrally and have never dealt with it. And then we wonder why the church has so much dead wood in it. Why should it be alive when we have walked in Satan's territory and gotten our feet contaminated with that filth? I realize that those are rather harsh words, but I don't know how to soften them either. Truth can stand on its own two feet. It doesn't even need crutches. Let's look this evening at some of the problems that are with us that bind us. Jesus would free us from the chains that bind. John 8.32 says, Know the truth and the truth will free me. Ephesians 2.8 and 9 says that we are saved by the grace of God through our faith in what Christ has done on the cross. Ephesians 1.7 says we are redeemed by the blood, the disciples, and the sermons that they preached that are recorded for us in the Bible, the New Testament. In every case, they had heavy emphasis on the resurrection, the new life, which was the affirmation that Calvary's work is definitive, final, and worthwhile. Now, there are many chains which bind us so that we aren't free people. We will look at that a little bit later from the biblical perspective. First of all, there are ancestral sins. Deuteronomy 18.9-15, we have been majoring on that in this weekend. These sins of occult activity, witchcraft, sorcery. And perhaps I ought to emphasize them a bit more again. There's this issue of reflexology. The one end of the body, the fetish is the eye, and at the other end, the foot. There's this business of the black box, the transfer of pain from children to adults. In some cases, sickness is absorbed that way, and the hands are washed, and the fingers are shaken to get rid of it, etc. The putting of children around table legs, number sequences backwards and forwards, different kinds of strokings with formulas. Ezekiel 16.6, used to stop severe bleeding or to treat leukemia. You put the person's name in the verse, and the verse becomes magic. If you take the trouble to look at that verse, you will find that the context has absolutely nothing to do with healing. It has to do with the unfaithfulness of Jerusalem. I have a book here, authored by Emil Kramer, a French Mennonite. My wife and I were in France the other year, and we went to this particular area with the intention of visiting this brother. Then we discovered that he had died the year before. Now, I have been delineating to you the consequences of occult activity, and I haven't been near as thorough as Brother Kramer is in this book. Eyes open to Satan's subtlety. There are some back there on the book table that you may avail yourself of later, along with other books. First of all, he says, there are spiritual consequences. And then he goes on to enumerate it. Tenacious unbelief, rebellion, inward resistance to God's word, and much more. Then he says next, there are psychic consequences. An implacability, marked stubbornness, extreme self-will and obstinacy, weakness of the will, that is, the ability to subject it to that of another, and so on. Physical consequences, chronic diseases of the skin and hair, nervous disorders, heart oppression, hysterical convulsions, cramps, paralysis, and st. Vitus dance, etc. Consequences in regard to eternity. And here he quotes Johann Blumhardt. I have a book titled Blumhardt's Battle. I will not tell you the story this evening, it is too gruesome to tell publicly. I have never faced the kind of things that Blumhardt did, and I hope I never have to. Blumhardt was a German Lutheran pastor about 1840. He was assigned to that particular parish. He went there, to the village of Mötligen, and he began to preach justification by faith, and people began to find salvation. Next on the agenda there was a family in the parish that took the 20-year-old daughter named Gottlieb to a powwow healer. She became severely demonized, and Blumhardt tells the story that took nearly two years to get her to freedom, which is a tremendous document. Blumhardt didn't know very much about those kind of things. He didn't have any training. But to Blumhardt's everlasting credit, he had an unshakable faith in God, which saw him through. Here's what Blumhardt says. Involvements in the sins of abomination have consequences in regards to eternity. It's an obstacle to the redemption and transfiguration of the body of those who, as a consequence of having committed sins of abomination, are still accused by Satan and shall therefore be excluded from the heavenly Jerusalem on the new earth. Death, the last enemy, cannot dissolve or break the curse or break the chains of spiritual bondage to the powers of darkness. Johann Christoph Blumhardt, the well-known minister and pioneer in this dark field of superstition and magic, says, The saddest consequences of not having repented and confessed the sins of idolatry will be experienced after death. In my conflicts I have realized with horror and in many ways that the bonds which tie a person to the powers of darkness have not been dissolved in death. The soul is held captive. Through death, the tragic consequences of the sins of abomination will be fully shown in the light of eternity to all who have not been cleansed from them. God clearly states this in his eternal word of truth. But the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the whoremongers, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. He's quoting there Revelation 21.8 and 22.15. Now there is a man who has far more experience than what I do, but he's saying the same kind of things. I gave you an assignment last evening. Those of you who have read from Deuteronomy 27 and 28 find that these are the discourses of Moses to Israel just before he moves off to sea. What he has to say is this. Now you have God's law. Keep it and be blessed. And he begins delineating the blessings that come to people when they obey God's law. Blessings across the board of human experience. Blessings in everything you do. Everything you turn your hand to. You get down about verse 14 or 15 in Deuteronomy 28 and the tune changes. If you disobey you will be cursed. Cursed across the whole scope of human existence. And all that you turn your hand to. In fact, he says, by the time that you get to verse 64. If you do not obey you will even lose your nation. Israel didn't obey. They didn't repent. They didn't confess the sins of abomination. As a result, they ended in Babylonian captivity just like Moses had predicted. Deuteronomy 23, 2 and 3 point out two conditions that bring curses to ten generations. The first is illegitimate births. The second one is unfriendliness to the Jews. Who was the last man in history that tried to oppress the Jews severely? Who was he? Hitler, wasn't it? Did he come off winning? No. Nowhere in history have you found anybody oppressing the Jews that came off winning. Leviticus 26 is a passage parallel with Deuteronomy 27 and 28. Isaiah 47, 9 to 15 is a passage that is parallel in a large measure to Deuteronomy 18, 9 to 15. Daniel chapter 9 we will come back to a little bit later. Then there are chains that bind us, personal sins. We looked at that the other day. These whole catalogs of offenses. We are offended. We get hurt. We have pain, despair and suffering and we hold it against the person that hurt us. The Bible says forgive. If we do not forgive, the Bible says we will suffer. And if we suffer and do not forgive, that is a chain that binds us and keeps us from freedom. Again, here are some lists of scriptures that point out personal sins. Colossians chapter 3, Ephesians 4 and 5. Galatians chapter 3, 1 to 3. Galatians 5, 19 to 21. And we have just looked at the passage in Deuteronomy 18. Then there are the sins of public opinion. Many a person orders their life not by what God's Word says, but by what the neighbors think. Now what would the neighbors think if I did this? And what would they say if I did that? Or if I didn't do it? Now public opinion is not a safe place to order your life by. Because that is about as stable as the waves of the ocean. But it is a chain that binds people. They don't have freedom. Then there are the collective sins of the church. Sins of longstanding that have never been addressed. They've just been shoved under the rug. And you know what I'm talking about. The sins that we can't talk about. We can't face them. Gossip. Strife. Long-held grudges. Which end up in church splits. You know anything about that kind of thing? How come we don't deal with it? Honestly, before God and among ourselves. These are chains that bind us. They keep us from freedom in Christ. So that we can't sit in heavenly places. We come under the ban of Satan. Then there are the sins of ancestor worship. That's a very common practice in Africa. And alas, a common practice here too. As a particular man told me some time ago. Now you know that the forefathers lived better lives than we do. Therefore they were holier than us and we ought to emulate them. They ought to be venerated and held up high. That's ancestor worship. God does not happen to have grandchildren. God has children. Redeemed by the blood. Nothing more and nothing less. Now am I then against the good things that come down the generational lines? Of course not. I am thankful for some of my heritage. In so far as it measured to God's word and helped me along life's pathway. But there are things in my heritage that were anything but good. And why should I venerate that? They are the chains of culture and tradition. Every people on the face of the earth have a culture. It's the way people live. The way they order their lives. And every culture will produce a tradition which will always show up in the life of the church. Now they had that problem in the New Testament very clearly. They had it in the Old Testament. In the 7th chapter of Mark 1 to 13, Jesus castigated the Pharisees because by their tradition they set aside the word of God. They denied the clear teachings of what God had said. Colossians 2, 16 to 18. I think we ought to hear what that one says. Let's turn to it. Chapter 2 of Colossians. See to it that nobody takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception. According to the tradition of men. According to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And in him you have been made complete. He is the head over all rule and authority. In him you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. In the removal of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism. In which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him having forgiven us all our transgressions. Having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which were hostile to us. He has taken it out of the way. Having nailed it to the cross. When he disarmed the rulers and authorities he made a public display of them. Having triumphed over them through him. There is where the Christians basis of faith needs to rise to lay. Not in culture and tradition of men. Mark it down and mark it well. The church that is married to today will be a widow tomorrow. Time marches on. The Bible is relevant to every culture and will be to the end of time. An application of its principles need to be made to every situation in life. Whether it's a hundred years ago, now or a hundred years in the future. Many a church group has failed to face these chains that bind them. Many a person has failed to face it. Which is part of why I take this particular track this evening. To help us see that we can be free from the chains that bind us. It may be difficult for those of you in the back to see this particular overhead. These are curses that fall on oneself and succeeding generations. Taken from Deuteronomy 5, 18, 23, 27 and 28, Leviticus 26 and Isaiah 47. One, the worship of false gods. Second, all occult practices. Three, disrespect for parents. Four, oppression of the poor, weak, helpless, injustice. Five, illegitimate sexual activity. Six, illegitimate births. Seven, murder. Eight, sex with animals. I have lost track in the last two years alone how many times I have heard that particular sin confessed in my own office. Dislike for Jews. Legalism, carnality, apostasy. Theft, false oaths. Material goods kept from God. Shall we look at that one good and hard? Now I don't know what your giving record is here in this congregation. I can tell you what it is across the scope of the Mennonite Church. Do you want to hear it? Less than five percent. What was the Old Testament requirement? A tenth. Under grace should we do more or less? Which? Who has been stealing? Huh? Self-inflicted curses like wishing you were dead. Oaths and pledges to ungodly societies like the Masonic Lodge, etc. Curses from the servants of Satan. That is those who practice satanic rituals. Sorcerers who put curses on other people. Soulish prayers and talk that seeks to accuse or control others based on these chapters. Now that's a rather dark, dismal picture that I paint. And it would be exceedingly dark were it not for the cross of Calvary. Were it not for the Lord Jesus Christ who has gone to the cross to pay the sin. It's price for you and for me. It is that particular issue that I wish to address tomorrow evening. On your outline, if you have one, you have part of a paper that I prepared a couple of years ago for a conference in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Titled, Ancestral Sin and Resultant Bondage. In this paper, I treat this whole area. Now there are a couple of passages in the scripture that we need to look at in connection with it. And those are Ezekiel 18 and Jeremiah 31. I thought I had that overhead with me, but I guess I left it in the house. In any case, in Ezekiel 18 and Jeremiah 31, the statement is made that the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. And this is not to be spoken of in the new covenant. So how am I to reconcile this scripture with generational sin and its consequences? Because that would appear on the surface to say that when we are under the covenant of grace, it does not apply. The point is this. The prophets were calling Israel to responsibility. Israel knew that they were captives over there in Babylon. They recognized that it was the sins of the forefathers that brought them to that state. The problem was, the prophets had been attempting to call them to responsibility to confess what had taken place. And Israel wouldn't do it. What they were saying is, there are consequences to sin. And people suffer because of it. And as you well know, often it's innocent people. Now, when we suffer and are burdened because of the sin of someone else, in this case the ancestors, that is not a sin to us. But it is a burden on our lives. We are only responsible in regard to guilt from the standpoint of our personal sins. The Bible says, when I confess my sins, plural, then God says, I forgive you. Then the blood of Christ can be applied to my guilt. I cannot help what kind of ancestors I have. Neither can you. But I did find in my own life, the time when I saw that it was burdened because of what my ancestors had done. And I am keenly aware that that is the case with many of you right here. Now, what the prophets were saying, and Daniel in particular, which we'll come to in a moment. They were saying, you could confess the ancestors' sins if you would. The problem is, you don't want to. They were calling the people to responsibility to face the issue. That's what those two chapters are about, personal responsibility. Read them in their context and setting and you will see it. Now I suggest that you turn with me to the ninth chapter of Daniel. We could use the ninth of Ezra or the ninth of Nehemiah. Daniel is the clearest. Let's begin with verse three. And I want you to notice the amount of times that Daniel uses the collective pronouns. We, our. You search the Bible in vain to find any sin in Daniel's life. He's a man of impeccable character. But he identifies himself with his people. So I gave attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplication. With fasting, sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for all those who love and keep his commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled against you, even turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. Moreover, we have not listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princesses, our fathers, and all the people of the land. Righteousness belongs to you, O Lord. But to us open shame as it is this day to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away, and all the countries where you have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against you. Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princesses, and our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belongs compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him. Nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his teachings which he set before us through his servants, the prophets. Indeed, all Israel has transgressed thy law and turned aside, not obeying your voice, so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have sinned against him. Thus he has confirmed his words which he had spoken against us, and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity, for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done to Jerusalem, as it is written in the law of Moses. All this calamity has come on us, for we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us, for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all his deeds which he has done, but we have not obeyed his voice. Now, O Lord our God, who brought his people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, you have made for yourself a name, as it is this day. We have sinned. We have been wicked. O Lord, in accordance with thy righteous acts, let now thine anger and thy wrath be turned away from the city Jerusalem, the holy mountain, for because of our sins and the sins of our fathers, Jerusalem and all thy people have become a reproach to those around us. So now, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his supplications. For thy sake, O Lord, let your face shine on thy desolate sanctuary. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations in the city which is called by your name. We are not presenting our supplications before you in account of any merits of our own, but on account of your great compassion. You see that acceptance and that affirmation when we do our part? O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and take action. For your own sake, O my God, don't delay, because thy people and thy city are called by thy name. We are part of the people of God. The citizens around us are looking to see the gospel written in our lives and our actions. There are things in the lives of many of us that need attention. I would invite the usher to hand out those prayers that have been printed. Here is a sample prayer, a prayer of deliverance. Now remember, this is a model. I remodeled it to fit a specific situation that we were faced with. And I invite you as believers to remodel it to fit the situation that you are in and to lend a hand of help to those with whom you come in contact that are under bondage to Satan and his host. After we have copies of these, I suggest this evening that we stand together. There are those of you that I know have agenda that you need and want to lay before the Lord. We will work through this particular model prayer. I will remodel it a bit as we go along to fit this evening's situation. I will leave gaps in it where you can fill in your own agenda of sin that you need to confess to the Lord, of generational sin that needs to be brought to the Lord's attention. You see, confession really means agreeing with God. Then when we have worked through this particular exercise and have been honest with ourselves before God, we can see those chains that have been binding us fall off. Now the collective sins that have been shoved under the rug, may I suggest that that might become church business that you need to work at over a longer period of time. This evening we are dealing with two agendas, personal sin and generational sin. Let us stand together, those of you that are comfortable, those of you who wish to participate. I will read, remodeling the model, then I will stop, leaving a gap for you to fill in your own agenda. Then we will move on. Lord, by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free. You are the Savior and Deliverer of the whole world. You have broken every stronghold of Satan, every curse. And we refer here to the curses that were on the overhead. Remember that Galatians 3.13 says that Christ has become a curse for us on the cross. Appropriate that to yourself. You have broken every stronghold of Satan, every curse. Deliver us, Lord, from every evil. Fill in your own agenda of the things you want to lay before the Lord. You may do so verbally if you like. God can sort out the jumble. You need not be silent. Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, every demon, strong or weak. Grant us peace and wholeness of life. Lord Jesus, we rejoice that you share your victory on the cross with us. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I bind and rebuke every evil spirit that seeks to control my mind, my brain, my body or nervous system. And now include your name, provided you have laid the agenda of past history and your personal sin before the Lord. Put your name in the second paragraph. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I cut myself free from all oppression of wicked spirits. I reject them all. Let us add at this point, join with me in a renouncing of Satan and all of his works from your life. Satan, I renounce you and your host from my life and my family. Let us join together in recitation of that renunciation. Satan, I renounce you and all of your works from my life and family. Lord, we bless you that you have overcome the world. We worship you. We praise you, Lord, that you have set us free. And that you are now, by your almighty power, setting whoever you are, put in your name, free. Remain standing as we pray the prayer of dismissal. Tomorrow evening, Lord willing, I want to speak to freedom. The standpoint of the biblical data as it applies to life's experience. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have access to your throne of grace and mercy by the blood of Jesus. We thank you that that blood has been carried into the Holy of Holies, your very presence, once for all, forever. We thank you that there is no need of any more sacrifice, for the sacrifice to Jesus is sufficient, and it's once for all, forever. Moreover, you have invited us to come into your presence with boldness because we are your children. We come as children to a Father because you care for us, and you have made provisions for us. We have come this evening, O Father, bringing our personal agendas of sin. The sins of sorcery that we have been involved in. Perhaps unwittingly, but none the same involved. The sins of our ancestors who did the same. And Lord, we reckon that the curses that have fallen upon us because of those practices and others, have now been broken at the cross of Jesus, for he has become a curse for us. We rejoice in the victory of the cross this evening, once again. We give you thanks and praise, and extend our worship. Thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayers, just as you did the prophet Daniel's. In Jesus' name, we do pray. Amen. You are dismissed.