So the title of the sermon comes from verse one there. It says,
Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?
And the title is Vain Imaginations, Vain Imaginations.
And what I want to preach to you about this morning is the fact that people imagine.
And what that really means, that word imagine is to suppose or to assume something.
You know, they just suppose something is a certain way or they assume something is a certain way.
They imagine things about who God is.
That's specifically what I want to talk about this morning.
Of course, the context here is a little bit different than that, and we'll get into that in a minute.
But the Bible does say there that there are people who imagine a vain thing.
And, you know, the world today, they imagine a lot of vain things.
And specifically, what I'll be preaching about this morning is about God, about who God is, about how they think God should be.
And people imagine a vain thing regarding God.
And what they're doing when they imagine vain things is that they attempt to make God in their own image.
That's what people do today. They don't like the God of the Bible.
They don't like the God of Christianity.
But man, being religious by his very nature isn't just going to leave a void there.
They're going to reject the God of the Bible, but that doesn't mean they're just going to refuse to believe in God.
Now, there are people called atheists, obviously, who claim to not believe in a God.
But even some of them, you know, secretly, when, you know, in private, have probably even spoken to God, you know, in some way.
And I've known of atheists who have confessed later in life saying, you know, even when I was a confessing atheist, I would, you know, say I would pray to God and say,
Lord, if you help me out here, God, maybe not call him Lord.
But even when a point I'm trying to make is that even people who say there is no God, they are going to make some kind of a God in their own mind.
And what they're doing is they're creating a vain imagination about who God is.
They're going to suppose something about who God is.
They're going to just assume things about who God is, how he works, how he deals with man, how he interacts with man.
They're going to make that up out of their own vain imagination.
And if you would go over to Second Peter, Chapter one, Second Peter, Chapter one, we all know Romans Chapter one.
We've preached through that several times in this church.
But the Bible says in Romans Chapter one in verse twenty one, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God.
Neither were they thankful, but they became what vain in their imagination.
See, people who reject God, they are not just going to leave that void.
They're going to make up a God in their own mind.
They're going to become vain in their own imaginations.
And their foolish heart was darkened.
And what did they do?
It says in verse twenty three, and change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and to four footed beasts and creeping things.
I mean, how else do you explain the fact that there are all these many religions in the world?
You know, the seven, I think it's like the seven, seven or eight major world religions, you know, and that there's really not, you know, you'll hear people say there's all there's so many religions.
Well, there's really not.
There's a handful of religions that they're all very big.
But there are, you know, a multitude of different religions that all believe different things that have different ideas about God.
And some of them, you know, they go to this end.
What do they do?
They make God into a into an image like corruptible man and into birds and the four footed beasts.
You see a lot of the heathen and paganistic practices of what worshiping the creature more than the creator.
And what they're doing is that they're creating a God in their own vain imagination because man is not going to just go through life without forming some kind of idea about who God is.
And unfortunately, today, a lot of people are coming up with a lot of strange ideas about who God is.
You know, a perfect example of this is evolution.
And so I don't I thought evolutions, you know, they didn't they didn't practice religion.
Oh, you better believe evolution is a religion.
It takes just as much faith to believe that you came from a rock as you came from nothing.
You know, or you came from or you came from God.
They'll say, well, we came from nothing.
We'll say, well, we came from God.
Well, I can't prove to you that that God created us.
But you can't prove to me that we all you know, that billions of years ago, you know, rain, it rained on a rock that went into some, you know, chemical soup, whatever, and turned into a fish that crawled out of the sea and, you know, grew a tail and some feet and then started swinging around the trees and bada boom, bada bing, here we are.
You know, that's as much a fairy tale as anything else.
Evolution is a perfect example of that.
It's exactly what you see in Romans chapter one, people who become vain in their imaginations.
And what does it say?
They profess themselves to be wise and become fools.
You know, they come up with some strange ideas about how we got here, where we came from, where we're going, who God is, what happens when you die.
And it's all vain imaginations.
Look, anything that's outside of scripture is a vain imagination.
But people are going to go to these ends.
People are going to make up these things.
They're going to become vain in their imaginations when they reject the God of the Bible.
They're not just going to go through life without coming up with some kind of idea of who God is.
Many, and here's the thing, people have many foolish ideas about God today, don't they?
They have many foolish ideas about who God is.
They say, oh, we don't like the God of the Bible.
So then they start to come up with their own ideas.
And you hear, you know, if you go out and you talk to people, you know, even in your personal life or out soul winning or wherever, you start to talk to people about God.
You'll hear some strange things.
You're going to hear some very odd things.
You know, I heard one person recently.
He, you know, he wanted to tell me about his ideas about God.
And he said, well, you know, God, you know, I believe God has been communicating with man, you know, through holy men.
And when he was referring to were like, you know, you know, like the like the Native American holy men or even the witches, you know, that that Christianity burned at the stake.
You know, those were the people we should have been listening to.
You know, we're going to talk about witches later tonight.
That's another sermon.
But, you know, that's what is then is that not a strange idea about God to think that that and to even say that we're actually responsible, those that believe the Bible, the ones that are actually responsible for cutting off this communication with God.
Look, the Bible says there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
It's not you know, it's not these shamans.
It's not these medicine men.
It's not, you know, some guy in a rainforest with a bone in his nose.
It's none of these people.
It's not the Catholic pope.
OK, it's not there's not a man or a woman or any human instrument that's going to get between me and God.
That man is Christ Jesus.
The Bible says there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved.
The Bible says holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
And that's what it says there in Second Peter Chapter one.
You know, they make these strange claims with absolutely no authority.
Oh, you know, we had all these communications with God.
We all these ways to talk to God.
But then the white man came with his white religion and his white Jesus and killed all the people that were communicating with God.
I've heard things like this.
It's crazy talk.
First of all, Jesus wasn't white.
You know, not that that even matters.
OK, but Second Peter Chapter one, verse 16, you know, will show us that we have an authority,
unlike these people who come up with vain imaginations, who reject the God of the Bible, reject Christianity.
And then just because they're religious by nature, decide to make up who God is.
They come up with a vain imagination.
They have no authority.
They stand on nothing.
They stand on the shifting sands of whatever they're going to come up with, whatever vain imagination, whatever strange or odd idea that's going to pop into their head next.
God is a woman.
I mean, they say all kinds of strange things out there today about who God is.
You know what? And they're welcome to go ahead and say it.
They're welcome to go and express it and look like the fools that they are.
But I'm telling you, I have an authority this morning called the King James Bible.
How do you know who God is?
Because of the Bible, because that book that you despise, because the book that the world hates and wants to disregard.
That's how I know who God is.
This is my authority.
What's their authority?
Vain imaginations, strange thoughts about who God is.
Look here in Second Peter Chapter one, verse 16.
It says, For you have not followed cunningly devised fables.
You know, people want to write off the scriptures as some cunningly devised fable, some vast conspiracy.
But the Bible says that's not what we're following.
It says we're not following cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Look, Jesus Christ did all the things that are written in this book.
In fact, the Bible says that if everything that he did and said were to be written down, the world could not contain the volumes of books that would be written.
And look, people saw him do these things.
They wrote them down.
Look, some celebrity stubs their toe.
It's in a tabloid.
You know, some stupid look, all the things that are reported in the news today.
If somebody came here and claimed to be God and raised people from the dead and healed the blind and caused the deaf to hear and raise people from the dead, and then he himself came back from the dead.
Don't you think somebody would write that down?
Don't you think somebody would say, you know, we should probably pass this knowledge on?
Guess what they did.
It's called the King James Bible.
That's that's the record that God has given us.
And, you know, I believe this record and I don't I don't have a vain imagination today.
I have an authority in the King James Bible that God is the God of the Bible.
It says we have not followed coming to vice fables we made known unto the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice from him from the excellent glory.
This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mount.
Look at verse 19.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy.
Whereunto you do well that you take heed unto a light that shineth in a dark place.
But we have a more sure word than the people out there in the world today.
The unsaved, the lost, the professors that are teaching evolution, the strange religions, the Hindu, the Buddhist.
You know, all these other religions that are out there.
We have a more sure word.
What do they have?
Vain imaginations.
That's what they have.
They have a God that they've made up in their own mind.
But we have a sure word of prophecy.
And it says that we do well to take heed unto this this sure word of prophecy.
As unto a light that shineth in a dark place.
You know, people who reject the Bible, they're rejecting the only light that they have in this world.
People want to reject the gospel, reject Christianity, reject the Bible.
They're rejecting the only source of light that God has given them in this world.
And whenever I read this, you know, hopefully I'm not repeating myself too much.
You've probably heard me use this illustration.
But if I were to take everybody out into the, you know, the deepest dark part of the forest that we could find on a moonless, you know, cloudy night where there's no light.
You can't even see your hand in front of your face.
And I handed you a flashlight.
You would probably think that flashlight is pretty special.
You'd probably hold on to that.
You probably make sure you didn't over, you know, you didn't lose it.
You know, if I said, hey, you got to find your way back to town in the dark and then just threw the flashlight in the woods, you'd be probably trying to find that flashlight.
You try to find your light in the dark place to find your way back.
Right. And that's exactly what this book is spiritually.
This is the light that God has given to us.
God has given us this light to show us how to get back to him, how to get home, right, how to get saved, to go to heaven, to avoid hell, to live a godly life, all of that.
But people reject that today.
People reject the only sure word of prophecy there is.
They reject the only light that God has given them.
And what do they end up doing?
Coming up with vain imaginations.
Crazy things that people say about God.
You say, well, how do you know? How do you know the Bible is the word of God?
Well, look at verse 20.
It says, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they are moved by the Holy Ghost.
There's your holy men.
There's your holy men that are communicating with God and us.
There's the holy men that are writing these things down so that we can know who God is.
And you know, you know, what's my authority for believing the Bible?
The Bible.
That's circular reasoning.
I don't care.
It's faith.
That's what it's called.
You know, the difference between me and the evolutionists is that they put their faith in a textbook.
So how do you know evolution is true?
Because the textbook teaches me so.
Well, how do you know the textbook is true?
Because the textbook says it's true.
It's the same.
It's the same rationale, you know, but it makes a whole lot more sense that God, that there is a creator.
Look, even the person who's going to reject Christ, a lot of people are going to have some belief in God.
They're going to acknowledge that there's at least a creator, that somebody made all this, that this didn't happen on accident.
The problem is, is they don't give God the glory.
They don't, they don't become thankful.
They don't acknowledge the true and living God.
They come up with some vain imagination.
And here's the reason.
You say, well, why would anyone reject that?
Why would anyone reject the scripture?
Why would anyone take the only light that God has given and cast it aside and come up with some other strange idea, some vain imagination?
Well, I'll tell you why.
Here's the thing.
People who claim to have a problem with the authorship of this book, they say, oh, God didn't write that.
You know, men wrote that book.
Well, yeah, holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
If that's what you mean, then I agree with you.
They say, oh, you know, it's changed.
It's different.
No, it's not.
It's preserved.
God has promised to preserve his word.
But here's what I'm getting at.
People who want to criticize and have a problem with the authorship of the Bible, that's not really where the problem is.
The problem is with the content with the Bible.
They're more they're upset with what the Bible actually says, not who wrote it.
I guarantee you, if the Bible said everything that they wanted to hear, they'd say, oh, yeah, that's the word of God.
Then they'd have no problem with who wrote it.
And they take it by faith.
They do it all the time.
I mean, Satanists, they write their books, you know, and they come up with their laws and they say, oh, yeah, we believe that.
That's our faith.
That's what we believe.
And they know it was written by some man.
And then they could go look at the guy who wrote it.
But, you know, we have this book and the people have a problem with the Bible.
It's not it's not the authorship they have a problem with.
It's the content.
It's what it says.
They don't like the fact, you know, and, you know, I got saved a little later in life.
And for a long time, I put off Christianity or even looking into it because I knew that the Bible taught morals.
Now, obviously, I came to a place where I understood that it's not about having to live a certain way in order to go to heaven.
You know, Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Bible very clearly teaches that we don't have to do anything other than believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to go to heaven.
But I also understood, even as an unsaved person, that the Bible taught things like, oh, I don't know, the Ten Commandments, you know, that there are there's a way to live as a Christian.
You know, that's the problem that I had with the Bible.
It wasn't that I didn't believe in God or had a problem with, you know, the the the the, you know, the accuracy of the of the scriptures or the the interpretation or the translation.
I didn't have to pick apart these issues.
My problem was that the the the Bible, you know, rubbed the fur the wrong way.
You know, it chapped my hide, had some, you know, there was a certain things that I wanted to do as an unsaved carnal person.
There's certain, you know, sins that I wanted to indulge in.
There's a way I wanted to live my life.
And I knew it was contrary to the Bible.
That's why I didn't like the Bible, you know.
But after, you know, I got saved, that changed.
And, you know, this is why people go off into vain imaginations is because they they have a problem with what the Bible says, not with who wrote it.
And that's unfortunate because that's a dark path.
If you would go to Jeremiah Chapter 17 and keep something in Jeremiah when you get there, that's unfortunate because that attitude of saying of just writing off the Bible, of just dismissing it out of hand.
You know, it leads down a dark path in life.
I was thinking on the driveway on the drive down here this morning about a sermon and maybe I'll just kind of preach a little mini version of right now.
The pleasures of being a Christian.
The pleasures, you know, there's pleasures of being a Christian.
Everyone thinks that if you're a Christian, you're just, you know, you're just, you know, you're all stiff and just starched and you just we're all about not having any fun.
Look, I've had some of the most fun I've ever had as a Christian.
I have lots of fun, you know, I mean, I don't make my life all about fun, but I have some high moments.
You know, I'm thinking of that chili cook off.
That's going to be some fun. Right.
And here's the thing. Life isn't all about fun, by the way.
You know, this is kind of, you know, I want to go off here, but, you know, I was thinking about the fact that the Christian there's a lot to enjoy in the Christian life.
You know, there's there's pleasure in it.
You know, obviously there's pleasure in sin, but, you know, the same that there's pleasures and sin for a season.
But you know what, there's there's some there's some pleasure, the pleasures you get in the Christian life, they're guilt free.
They're guilt free. They don't have the consequences that the pleasures of sin bring.
And that's unfortunate for people who want to write off God, who want to just make up God of their own mind, follow some vain imagination, because it's going to lead them down a dark path.
They're going to say, oh, I don't like what the Bible says about not drinking and fornicating and committing adultery and all these other things.
Those are the stuff I want to do. That's a dark path.
That stuff's going to ruin you.
I mean, just think about it from a health perspective.
Just all the things that people, the sin that you can get involved in, that's just going to destroy your physical health and cause you to die young.
But it was fun while it lasted for a minute, right?
Well, what if you just, you know, got saved and did what the Bible said?
You know, the Bible promises you, you know, that you would love life in a long length of days.
Let him askew evil and seek good and pursue good and do it.
You know, if we would pursue a godly life, you know, we would live longer.
And you know what? We'd have some fun along the way.
We'd have some pleasure.
We'd have some fellowship.
You know, there's some there's pleasure in clean living.
You might not always see it, you know, when you're younger, you say, well, man, I don't get to do this and I don't get to do that.
Yeah, but when you're when you're when you're 60, when you're 70 and everybody else who's lived that wicked lifestyle is physically falling apart.
You'll thank God for it then.
And then you'll be the one having fun.
You'll be the one, you know, who could still get around and go out and do things and enjoy life.
People who write off God, who cast, you know, got the Bible aside, who take the only light that God has given and just say, it's not for me.
They end up going down a dark path.
They go a lot of times they go down a dark path.
And even if they manage to live, you know, somewhat of a moral life, somewhat of a clean life, which people do all the time, which is further evidence, the fact that it's not works that gets you to heaven.
Even those people, maybe they don't go down a very dark path, but it still ends in hell.
It still ends in fire and torment and which will never be quenched.
The Bible says in Proverbs 14, there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
You know, a lot of people, they say, well, this just seems right to me.
This they come up with some vain imagination.
Well, this is my take on God.
This is what I believe about God.
You know what ends?
You know where that leads them?
Death.
You know, and along the way, it might lead down to a sin filled life that's just going to wreak havoc on them spiritually and physically.
You look at Jeremiah chapter 17.
Look at verse nine.
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
Let's read that again.
The heart is deceitful above all things.
You let that sink down in your ears because, you know, there's this philosophy out there in the world today.
Just follow your heart.
Whatever your heart tells you is right.
That's what you need.
Just be true to yourself.
The Bible says the complete opposite.
It says your heart is deceitful.
It says it's desperately wicked.
Jesus said all these wicked things come out of a man.
The adulteries, the fornications, the thefts, the murders, the blasphemies.
They come from within a man, from his heart.
Those are the things that defile him.
Look, your heart is deceitful.
You know, we and what the Bible does is it tempers our heart.
It reigns it in, you know, gives it a track to run and it keeps us in check.
When we when we get saved, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
You know, we have that conviction.
We have that desire and the ability to live for God.
And it says it's desperately wicked.
You know, if people are just going to follow their vain imaginations, if they're just going to come up with whatever they want about God, they're just going to think up and dream up whatever crazy thing, they're going to come up with some wicked things.
I mean, you look at I don't know a lot about it, but I know enough to know it's really weird is Hinduism.
You look at some of the gods that they come up with.
You know, I think it's which one's the god of goddess of death, like Shiva, the destroyer or something like that with her six arms and, you know, bloody fangs cutting off heads.
And that's the gods they come up with.
It's demonic, the things that they come up with.
Go over to. Well, just stay where you are in Jeremiah.
Actually, you know what? Go over to Revelation chapter 21, Revelation chapter 21.
I'll read to you from Proverbs 16.
It says in verse 25, there is a way that seemeth right into a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
You say you just read that. No, that's a different verse.
You know, and when God repeats himself, I'm going to go ahead and repeat myself, too.
If God took the time to put that in there twice, we might as well get it through our heads this morning that there's a way that seems right.
People could come up with all these vain imaginations and it might soothe their conscience and it might seem right to them and it might make sense and it sounds just and right and all that.
But you know what? It's the end. The end thereof are the ways of death.
It leads to hell and often it leads to a sin sick life.
Look, people become vain in their imaginations when they reject the God of the Bible and people become vain in their imaginations to do what?
In an attempt to explain reality.
You know, people want an explanation.
I'm sure everybody at some point in their life thinks, why am I here?
How did I get here? I mean, I remember thinking those thoughts as a young child.
Or that real deep, that deep thought, you know, what's outside of space?
You know, I remember having that conversation with my sister and, you know, just a little kid.
What do you think's past space?
Nobody knows.
We're like, maybe it's just more clouds.
I don't know. No one knows.
You know, it's like that that thing you just can't wrap your mind around.
Right. Well, look, people, they're going trying to the people are going to try to explain reality.
Everyone does it. They try to make sense of the world that's around them.
And people, when they reject the Bible, that's when they get into making up vain imaginations.
I mean, go listen to some of these evolutionists talk.
Some of the, you know, the Michio Kaka or whatever his name is, the crazy stuff that they come up with.
It's insane.
And they have absolutely no basis, no authority.
They just whatever they think.
You know, what's the what's the other guy?
I can't remember his name right now.
Not Hawkins, the other guy.
He's another one, too. Right.
But, you know, the one that, you know, that says, well, you know, what's what's another explanation?
He would he would take aliens over God.
It's I'm more likely to believe that aliens planted us here as an experiment than I will believe in God.
Now, why do you think that is?
Because if you acknowledge God, then you have to acknowledge this book eventually.
I mean, if you're going to, you know, you're going to have to acknowledge that there is a moral right and wrong, that there's all of these things.
So they would rather believe these crazy, vain imaginations that they come up with and acknowledge the God of the Bible.
But here's the problem with that, is that when you're left to your own vain imagination to explain the world around you, you're going to come up with wicked ideas.
You're going to come up with blasphemous ideas.
The Bible says in Job 14, who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Not one.
Look, your heart is desperately wicked.
You can't sit there and through your own intellect and your own imagination, your own understanding, come up with God and write a right idea about who God is or how you think God should be.
And look, even Christians struggle with this, even in watered down, lukewarm, you know, worldly Christians, they hear something out of the Bible, they just say, well, I don't know about that.
They hear some, you know, radical text out of the Bible that goes against, you know, the way our world thinks, that goes against the culture today, you know, like sodomy, right, which is just being, you know, force fed to everybody right now.
And it's just in our face all the time, except the homos, except the homos.
The Bible says they should be put to death.
And, you know, you go preach that in some church where they claim to believe the Bible and you watch how many feathers you ruffle.
I don't know about that.
Well, that's the Bible, friend.
You know, welcome to the Baptist Church this morning where we actually believe the Bible.
We're not just going to come up with our own vain imaginations.
Look, if God said it, that's it.
That settles it for me.
You know, people, they don't mind it when you get saved and you clean up your life, you know, and start living right.
But, boy, if you could just tone down some of these other beliefs that you have.
Look, then I would be, you know, I'd be fake.
I'd be a fake Christian and I don't want to be fake.
I want to be real, which means I have to take the Bible as its whole.
Every word, every line is for me and for you.
But, look, when people are left with their own vain imaginations, they're going to start to come up with things
because their hearts are desperately, they're going to come up with things that are, that aren't real.
Their hearts are desperately, they're going to come up with things that are, that are wicked themselves.
You know, a perfect example of this is politics.
You know, people come up with, how are we going to, how are we going to change the world?
They get involved in politics.
You know what you're doing when you get involved in politics?
You're getting involved with people who are, you know, just coming up with vain imaginations,
who are just doing things out of their own heart.
The Bible says, every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the hearts.
People just want to get, you know, we're going to change the world.
We're going to, we're going to, you know, make America a godly nation again through politics.
No, you're not.
You know, I heard about this, this Awake America thing.
It is really big in California.
And someone was telling me about how they would send people from their church, would go there from a Baptist church,
you know, Baptist College, I think.
I'm not sure which one it was, but they would have people as a ministry.
They would go to these, these state representatives and they'd get to know them and pray for them
and try to influence public policy.
And not right away, you know, first they had to schmooze them and, you know, establish a relationship with them.
You know, here's my question.
How's that working out in California today?
How did that go?
All the schmoozing and the praying for the family and getting to know them and stabling the relationship.
Did that work out very well?
Doesn't seem like it did to me.
You know, I'm not trying to rag on California.
There's a lot more, you know, believe it or not, there's more liberal places than California and the United States
that are harder on vaccinations and harder on homeschooling and everything else that we stand for.
But I'm just making the point that, look, trying to come up with your own ideas and how you're going to affect the world or,
you know, or change the world or whatever, it's all coming, it's a vain imagination.
You're going to do more for God, more for the kingdom of God by just going out and opening your Bible and getting somebody saved.
You know, we did, we've done more for the city of Tucson than any council or mayor or governor will ever do by just going out and getting people saved.
You want to, you want to stem the tide against the iniquity that's just washing over this land?
You know, why don't you go get the Holy Spirit in some people's hearts instead of trying to get them to go to vote?
You know, they want to get people in a ballot, you know, in a ballot booth, cast a ballot.
You should be more concerned about getting the Holy Spirit in their heart.
Getting them saved, the Holy Spirit can dwell in them and they can be led into all truth.
That's what's going to make a difference.
You know, getting involved in politics, I'm sorry, it's a vain imagination.
And I've tried it, I've gone down that road and that's what I found out, that it's just, it's corrupt.
It's two wings of the same bird.
I don't want to get all political, though, even though I just did.
The Bible says in Psalm 9, verse 17,
the wicked shall be turned into hell, but the Lord pondereth the hearts.
I'm sorry, I read the wrong one.
Psalm 9, verse 17, it says the wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God.
Look, I don't care what you get them to vote.
Democrat, Republican, Green Party, Libertarian, it doesn't matter.
If that party or those people have forgotten who God is, they'll be turned into hell.
All nations, even the blessed US of A, is going to be turned into hell.
And let me just, you know, this is something I kind of want to talk about anyways,
because I've heard this more than once recently, is that there's, you know, people are saying,
well, you know, that's talking about how there's going to be hell on earth.
Look, there is no such thing as hell on earth.
I get what people are trying to say when they say that, when they say the judgment of God
and the fires and the droughts and the hurricanes, and that's God pouring out,
as you know, chasing this country, and I believe that it is.
And we know in time to come with the great tribulation and when God pours out his wrath,
that, you know, that is a thing, but that's not hell on earth.
You know, when you say that, I think maybe you might be selling hell short a little bit.
You know, the smoke-filled, you know, city of Vancouver I was, is not hell.
The brush, you know, the fires that are burning down, you know, hundreds of thousands,
millions of acres in the country, not hell, because guess what?
Those fires go out.
That smoke goes away.
The reality of hell is way worse.
And what he's saying is here is, look, the wicked shall be turned into hell
and all nations that forget God.
I think what he's referring to is the fact that entire people groups are being turned into hell.
Entire nations can become so godless that everyone in that nation goes to hell.
Look at, you're in Revelation, I'll read you some Psalm from Matthew 25.
Matthew 25.
It says in Matthew 25, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory,
and all the holy angels with him, then he shall he sit upon the throne of his glory,
and before him shall be gathered all nations.
So he's talking about when Christ come back,
he is going to gather all nations before him at the resurrection, okay?
And he shall separate them one from another.
He's going to separate these nations.
As a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats,
and he shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.
Then shall the king say unto them on his right,
come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
The nations that have not forgotten God, the people that have believed on God,
that have made the Christ their God, the Lord God their God,
they're going to go in, they're saved.
They're going to go be with the Father, right?
But verse 41, it says, then shall he say unto them in the left hand,
depart from ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
That's what he's referring to when he says,
the wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God.
Not that you're just going to suffer the chastening here on this earth,
which they do and which we are, by the way.
And I know how anybody can, you know, look around in this world today
and not see that America is just being chastened by God.
And it is.
And you know what?
On top of that, whole nations are turned into hell.
People become so godless, become so vain in their imaginations,
get so turned over to these stupid and foolish thoughts and reject God and reject God,
where they just end up going straight to hell.
I mean, look at the Canaanites in the Old Testament.
Well, you know, Sodom and Gomorrah, perfect example
of a whole group of people that had just one day sent to hell.
Why?
Because they became vain in their imaginations.
Look at Revelation chapter 21, where you are, verse 22.
It says, and I saw no temple there.
And for the Lord God Almighty, the Lamb or the temple of it.
And the city had no need of sun, neither of moon to shine in it.
For the glory of God did lighten it.
And the Lamb is the light thereof.
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.
You know, there are going to be some nations that make it through.
You know what's going to be?
The people that have not forgotten God,
the nations that have not become vain in their imaginations.
People become vain in their imaginations
and attempt to explain reality without using the Bible.
You know what ends up happening?
Is they perpetuate their beliefs and they put it out there.
They get it in the public schools.
They get it in the textbooks.
They teach it and teach it and teach it.
They put it in the movies and the televisions and music.
Their worldly philosophy, their anti-Christ agenda is promoted.
And what happens is they end up sending an entire nation into hell.
And that's what's happening in this country today.
That's where a lot of people are going.
You know, people become vain in their imaginations
in order to make God into what they want Him to be.
A lot of people say, oh, I believe in God.
It's just not this God.
Because I don't like who this God is.
And I want this God to be what I want Him to be.
And they make up God in their own vain imagination.
You know, if you're Jeremiah, still go over to Jeremiah chapter 23.
Jeremiah chapter 23.
I'll read you from Jeremiah 9.
It says, and the Lord saith, because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them.
People who are forsaking the law saying, we don't want this.
This is no good.
No, you could keep that Bible.
You can keep your beliefs about Christianity.
I don't want to hear it.
I'm good.
They have forsaken my law, which I have set before them.
Look, God's not a far off.
It's not like God's playing hide and seek with humanity.
He's right here.
He's already given us a sure word of prophecy.
He's given us a light that shines in a dark place.
And as foolish as it sounds, men just take that flashlight in that dark place,
and they just put it away.
And they just grope through life like this.
And they trip, and they stumble, and they fall, and they break,
and then they end up in hell on top of it.
They have forsaken my law, which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice.
We don't want to do what God wants us to do.
We don't like that.
Tough.
You know, great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.
I love it.
I love that God tells you to live clean.
I love that God says, stay married to your spouse.
I love that God says, don't commit fornication.
Don't be a drunk.
Don't do drugs.
I love that God says that.
I love it.
It doesn't offend me.
Does it offend the world?
Oh yeah, big time.
People want their rock and roll lifestyle, and sow their wild oats,
and then they just want to have a nice peaceful ending to life.
Not going to happen.
Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap.
It says in verse, and it goes on, it says,
but have walked after their imagination of their own heart, and after Balaam.
Because the heart's deceitfully wicked.
When people become they in their imaginations, they come up with the most wicked things.
Enter abortion.
Wicked.
Murder.
That's what the Bible calls it.
It's murder.
When you're killing somebody in the womb, before they even have a chance
to draw a breath, people are snuffing them out by the thousands every day.
Which their fathers have taught them.
It says they walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Balaam,
which their fathers taught them.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.
Behold, I will feed them, even this people,
with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
But God's not just going to feel sorry for himself when people reject him.
He's going to say, oh, you don't like me?
You don't like who I am?
You want to follow the imagination of your own heart?
How about some wormwood?
How about some gall?
How about a bitter life that's going to end poorly?
That's what happens with a lot of people who reject God.
The Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 18, verse 11,
Now therefore, go to speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
saying, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I frame evil against you,
and devise a device against you.
God's talking about literally becoming their enemy.
Look, there's a lot of people I'd rather have as my enemy before God.
I mean, I'd rather get in the ring with Mike Tyson in his prime than have God as my enemy.
I mean, I don't get the biggest, baddest dude there is.
You know, I'd rather fight him and have him as my enemy than God.
He's saying, look, I'm going to frame evil against you and devise a device against you.
Return ye now everyone from his evil way,
and make your way and your doings good.
And they said, There is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices.
You see, people come with these vain imaginations.
They think they want to conjure up who God is in their own mind,
and they forget that God is loving and merciful and kind.
They forget that part about God.
You know, when you dismiss the God of the Bible, you also dismiss that.
You also miss out on all the love and mercy and compassion.
He's saying, look, I'm going to frame evil against you,
but if you'll make your ways right and your doings good,
you know what, then I won't.
I'll forgive you, and you can be my people.
And, you know, salvation is open to everybody.
Everybody has the opportunity to get saved.
Everybody can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every Christian has the opportunity to read the Bible and obey it
and live a good, godly life and have God's blessing on their life.
It's there for them.
But when we become vain in our own imaginations and follow our own deceitful heart,
which is desperately wicked, you know, we're going to write all that off.
You don't get to have both.
God's the whole package.
And that's what these people are doing in Jeremiah.
It says in verse 12, and they said, there is no hope.
God just said there's hope.
Well, no, there's no hope.
That's not who God is.
There's no hope here.
But we will walk after our own devices, the things we come up with,
and we will, everyone, do the imagination of his evil heart.
They're like, we're just going to do whatever our heart wants.
And that's the philosophy that's out there today.
It's such a dumb philosophy, too, just on a practical sense.
These people who have some dream job, some exotic job.
I remember with some guy, he's like a professional jiu-jitsu player.
The guy gets paid to go around and grapple.
They have these motivational clips where he's like,
if you're doing something you don't want to do, just don't do it.
Follow your dreams.
Do you know how much trash would pile up in the streets if everybody did that?
Do you know how many AC units would break and you'd be sitting there sweltering?
Right?
You know how many toilets would back up and sewers would be overflowing?
You know everybody had that guy's philosophy of just do whatever you want, whatever you feel good?
There'd be a lot of things that would not get done in society.
You think the garbage man just pops out of bed like a pop tart in the morning?
Just warm and ready to go, all sweet and crispy.
Can't wait to pick up the trash.
No way.
He dragged a lot of, you know, maybe that guy is out there.
I don't know, maybe people just really love picking up garbage.
I don't know.
But people have to do what they have to do to get the job done.
I don't know where I'm going with that.
Right.
People would say, we're going to do the imagination of our own evil heart.
We're just going to do whatever feels good.
It's a stupid philosophy.
It's vain imagination.
It's easy to say when you're the, you know, professional, you know, you're some grandmaster,
you're some chess master and your job is to go play chess around the world.
You know, you're some professional athlete.
You know, I wish, you know, if people want to just learn how to
dribble a ball back and forth, up and down a court, you know, they should do it.
It's not, that's not practical.
Okay, I'm going to move on though.
You're in Jeremiah chapter 23, look at verse 16.
It says,
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you.
They make you vain.
They speak a vision of their own heart and not of the mouth of the Lord.
And boy, isn't that true today.
There's churches out there this morning that are packed, filled to the brim with people.
That are being told vain things.
That are being made vain by the prophet.
The preacher's getting up and just scratching the back and rubbing the ear
and just telling everyone exactly what I hear.
Just making everyone feel good.
You know, you know, hell's cold.
God is never angry.
God's not mad at you.
Your sin's fine.
You know, there's no condemnation to those which are in Christ Jesus.
Walked out after the flesh, went after the spirit.
Forget about that part.
You actually have to walk after the spirit to not be judged of God even in this life.
But there's churches full of that today.
Preachers just getting up, just vain imaginations.
Just whatever you want to hear.
And the people are made vain.
They go, oh, that must be who God is.
Never crack the Bible open and read it for themselves.
Never take the time like the Bereans to see whether these things be so
by searching the scriptures daily.
Never, you know, holding the spirit of the prophets accountable.
He says, look, they speak a vision of their own heart and not of the mouth of the Lord.
They say still unto them that despise me, the Lord hath said, ye shall have peace.
They say unto everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart,
no evil shall come upon you.
There's lots of people out there that just say, just do whatever you want.
Lots of people getting up.
Lots of prophets prophesying to say, you know, just do whatever you want.
God's not angry.
They write books that are literally called God's not mad at you.
Joyce Meyer, you know, someone who needs to go read the qualifications for the bishop.
You know, I wonder if you want to ask these female pastors,
is your wife in subjection?
Because that's qualification for being a pastor.
You have to have your wife in subjection.
That's another sermon.
But that's what's going on out there today.
They're writing these stupid books.
God's not mad and they're making what?
They're making people vain in their own imaginations.
Look at verse 18.
He says, for who has stood in the counsel of the Lord,
hath perceived and heard his word,
who hath marked his word and heard it.
That's what they're saying to them.
Nobody know.
Hey, you know, God is, you know, hey, if that's God for you, if that's your truth, I understand.
You know, that's great.
All paths lead to the same Lord.
You know, all paths lead to the same God.
That's a bunch of garbage.
You know, if that were true, that would make God the ultimate hypocrite.
You ever think about that?
What a dumb statement that is to say that all paths lead to God.
That means all these wars over religion are caused by who?
God and not man, if you think it through.
I've got to move on, though.
He says in verse 18, for who has stood in the counsel of the Lord.
How about the biblical preacher?
That's who stood in the counsel of the Lord.
The guy is willing to get up and just say whatever it says.
That's who stood in the counsel of the Lord.
That's the answer to their question here.
You know, there are people that are actually standing in the counsel of the Lord.
People actually love God and read his word and obey it.
Those are people that are actually standing in the counsel of the Lord.
They do exist.
Who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word?
Who hath marked his word?
I've literally got marks in his word.
I've marked this Bible up in spots.
There's your answer.
Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury, and a grievous whirlwind.
It shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked,
and the anger of the Lord shall not return until you have executed,
until you have performed the thoughts of his heart.
You know, you want to be vain in your own imagination?
You want to follow your own heart?
Well, you know what?
I'm going to go ahead and follow the thoughts and intents of my heart.
That's what God says.
You know what the thoughts and intents of his heart are?
Chastening, punishment, the whirlwind upon the wicked.
You know, God's not just going to let people go through life
in the vain imagination of their own heart.
God will chasten them.
Because God knows where that path leads.
Because it ends in death, and it ends in hell.
And God, you know, God is not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
And sometimes, you know, the best thing to straighten somebody out is a swift kick in the pants.
And that God's, you know, you know, God's not more than willing to do that.
That's what he's saying here.
Look, they're saying, oh, you know, who stood in the council, Lord?
You know, well, let's make everybody vain.
Just, you know, nobody really knows who God is.
Everyone can have their own ideas.
God just says, you know what, I'm mad now.
And there's going to be a fury, a grievous whirlwind
that's going to fall upon the head of the wicked.
You know, people become vain in their own imaginations, you know,
because they don't like the God of the Bible.
And they try to, you know, they try to make God who they want him to be.
And here's the thing.
Go back to Psalm chapter two.
Here's where it comes down with me and you.
How does that affect us?
As Bible believing Christians, as people who love this book and accept this book as,
you know, the prophecy that God has given to us.
This is this is the very word of God.
We believe that here.
We believe in the God of this book, the Bible.
How does that affect us when people become vain in their own imaginations
and try to turn God into somebody he isn't?
Well, the way it affects us is that they get angry at God's anointed.
You know, they can't do anything against God.
You know, they're not going to just climb a ladder up to heaven
and put their finger in God's face and tell him off.
But they're going to find anybody who represents the God that they despise,
and they're going to tell them off.
And that happens all the time.
They go after God's anointed.
They go after God's people.
Now, I know in Psalms chapter two, the gods, you know,
you could apply the anointed unto Jesus Christ himself.
You know what?
We also are God's anointed.
If you're saved, you have the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
You are God's chosen people through faith in Christ Jesus.
Okay, so it says here in Psalms chapter two, verse two,
the kings of the earth set themselves together,
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord,
which is a losing battle, which they cannot win,
and against his anointed.
They say, well, you know what?
We can't, maybe we can't get to God, but we can get to his anointed.
Can they get to me and you today?
Yeah, they can't.
In fact, they're trying to.
All the time, they're working against God and against his people.
They say, let us break their bands of sutter and cast away their cords from us.
You know, a perfect example of this is all the protesters that were standing outside
Shure Foundation Baptist Church up in Vancouver when I was there.
You know, I was joking up there.
I said, I've brought this, you know, the spirit of FWBC has gone before me
to prepare the way because it was the first protest they ever had.
I brought the spirit of faithful word there.
I'd like to lay claim to that, but that's not the case.
It was, you know, what happened was somebody put an invite to church,
like the ones we hand out on a sodomite store, and they got triggered
because it talked about how if you reject Christ, you're going to go to hell.
You're tired, man, I'm going to hell.
Look, so then they get all their friends and get on Facebook and they come down
and hold their signs and so on and so forth and make a big ruckus
because someone put a church invite and you're targeting us.
You know, you sound like you're under some conviction there.
You know, most the average unsafe person would just be like, I'm going to hell.
All right. And they'd move on with their life if they didn't believe that.
They just move on. They'd say they just go on with their life.
That's what always boggles my mind about these atheists who just
they have one life to live and they're going to spend it fighting God's anointed.
Just commenting on YouTube channels, having debates.
That's that's what you're going to dedicate your life to.
You've only got that's it. This you die and that's it.
You know, these these reprobates who are just going to come protest churches
over a God that they don't. That's what you're going to dedicate your life to.
Just just move on. What it tells you is that they know they're going to hell.
In the back of their minds, they know we're right and it bugs them.
They can't sleep at night. They have to come down and try to.
They're you know, they're trying to convince themselves.
They're not. You can't convince. They know they're not going to change us or convince us about what
we believe. They're trying to convince themselves that we're wrong and they're right because they're
afraid of the truth, that they are reprobate and on their way to hell.
You know, they come against God's anointed.
They come down to the church and what do they do?
They start telling Christians how to be more Christian.
They start quoting Bible verses. These filthy sodomites.
I'm going to talk more about that tonight, but that's what they do.
They go after God's anointed. They can't get to the Lord.
They make God. They have become vain imaginations.
They don't like who God is and since they can't get to Him,
they go after the anointed. They go after God's people.
They start to attack. You know, and people, you know, in churches,
God's people need to just understand this fact and not become weary and well-doing.
You know, I went up there to that protest and it was like a trip down memory lane.
I mean, I came around the corner and sounded like, this is great.
I wanted to go thank them for the warm, you know, the welcome.
You got anybody in Tucson? I could use some free advertising.
You know, it was, and literally, it was on like smoke-filled day.
You know, I landed and that day was the smoke-filled day.
I wanted to just tell them, get used to the smoke.
Anyway, I'll think about that later.
I didn't say anything though. I kept my mouth shut and just went inside and smiled.
But you know, some people, this was their first go-around.
You know, this is their first, you know, experience with these types of people.
You know, people who want to show up in, you know,
bright colored spandex and twerk in front of your children.
I mean, they're from here to their way on the sidewalk.
Just shaking everything at your kids.
Saying vulgarities, blasphemies, holding up wicked signs.
One guy came down and literally printed pornography.
I mean, it wasn't like the hardcore explicit stuff, but that's what it was.
Dudes in thongs doing who knows what.
That's what he wants to show your kids.
You know, Pastor Thompson said, you show that to any kid here.
You don't put that away right now. You're calling the cops.
That's a crime to show filth like that to children.
But to them, that just seems right as rain to just come down to a church
and yell obscenities in front of children and families
and show them filth and act vile and disgusting and show themselves.
You know, here's what I told those people up there.
I said, you know, I said, not the protesters, the people in church.
I said, you know, this is good that they're doing this because this shows your kids
that they're everything you've been telling them that they are.
I remember when they protested up at Faithful Word in Tempe.
I brought my little Karen out there and I said, see, honey,
these are the people we're talking about.
See that wicked sign? See that wicked?
I mean, there wasn't any blatant, you know, pornographic filth.
I didn't show them that, but, you know, I showed her some of that stuff
and she heard what they had to say.
And I went up to the protesters and said, thank you.
Thank you for coming down here and proving us right.
That's what I told them.
They just went.
It kind of dawned on them.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe I shouldn't have written that on that sign.
So, so wicked, I can't repeat it.
You know, the people, they can let that, look, God,
these people who get vain imaginations, they're going to go after God's anointed.
That's what's going to happen.
They can't get to God.
They can't defeat him.
That's losing battle.
But they can wear down on me and you.
And people, you know, we can become weary in well-doing.
But here's the encouragement is that God doesn't put up with vain imaginations.
You know, they're going to scream and yell.
They're going to have their moment in the sun.
They're going to have their parades.
They're going to have their policies written.
You know what?
That's all going to burn up and go away one day.
And I don't even think there'll be a memory in our minds.
What does it say in Psalm chapter two, verse four?
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.
The Lord shall have them in derision.
They want to attack God.
They want to cast off God.
They want to make God in their own imagination.
They want to attack and go after God's anointed, God's people.
You know what the encouragement is?
Is that we might have to endure that for a little while for just, you know,
the sufferings of this world cannot be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us.
I mean, if they ever came down here and did what they did up there, you know, it could wear us down.
You know, we hear guys say it all the time.
Where are our protesters?
Be careful what you wish for, because it's not always as pleasant as it's not.
Now, I mean, I've kind of I've gone through it a little bit and I've kind of gotten used to it.
But you know what?
It does wear down on some people and it is vexing.
I'm not going to say I enjoyed walking out there and seeing what I saw.
It was disgusting.
You know, I had to go and pour bleach in my eyes afterwards.
You know, I felt like doing that because it was so wicked.
But look, here's the encouragement is that God's not going to put up with it forever.
He's going to laugh.
He says he's going to have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure.
I mean, God one day is just going to have them in derision
and he is going to be the one mocking them and quoting Bible to them.
He's not going to tolerate it.
You know what?
And we shouldn't tolerate vain imaginations either.
We shouldn't tolerate it.
And, you know, here's what I'm saying when I say that.
I'm not saying we should go out and pick fights with all these people.
And try to, you know, mix it up with them.
We shouldn't tolerate vain imaginations in the unsaved.
You know, people who just don't know God.
We should be go over to Titus chapter three.
We'll start wrapping up here.
We should be ambassadors for Christ.
Look, God's the one who gets to laugh.
OK, God's the one who gets to have these these these vain people in derision.
He's the one that's going to mock and scoff them.
He gets to have vengeance.
He said vengeance is mine.
Say it the Lord.
Not vengeance is fine, which is what we like to read sometimes.
Vengeance is mine.
Say the Lord.
I will repay.
You know, our job, you know, but that doesn't mean we should tolerate vain imaginations either.
We shouldn't tolerate vain imaginations of people either.
We should preach them the gospel and be willing to tell them, look, you're wrong.
What you believe is wrong and will take you to hell.
What you believe is a vain imagination.
You've come up with a God in your own mind.
It's going to take you to hell.
It's going to cause you to lead a terrible life in all likelihood along the way.
That's how we don't tolerate it in the unsaved.
The Bible says in second chapter five, one of my favorite verses.
Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us.
We pray you in Christ's dead, be ye reconciled to God.
You know, that's that's how we don't tolerate it.
We go to them, we say, look, be reconciled to God.
You're going to go to hell.
Why don't you believe on the God of the Bible?
Be reconciled.
Because once you're once they die and they go to hell, that's it.
It's over and eternity is a long time to spend in hell.
Titus chapter three, where you are, it says in verse nine, look at this.
But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law.
You know, we should avoid contentions.
We shouldn't go out there and, you know, I'm saying we should contend for the faith.
You know, if they want to bring the fight to us, we're going to stand our ground.
But, you know, that's not what we're here for.
It's just to go out there and see how many people we can trigger.
That's not what they did up at your foundation.
All they did was make the mistake of putting the track in the wrong door.
That's it.
They put an invite in their door.
That's literally all they did.
And it's just overnight.
Had all these people show up.
Look, we go out there and they were trying to do 2 Corinthians.
They're trying to go out and be ambassadors and reconcile people to Christ.
They couldn't know that there was some, you know, pervert behind the door who's beyond salvation.
Look at verse 10.
It says, a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition, reject.
You know, this is a good practical soul-winning tip that we all know, but bears repeating.
You know, when people are just not interested, when they're just, they're just stuck in their
ways, don't waste your time.
You know, reject them.
They're going to reject you.
They're going to reject the God of Bible.
Knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself.
And I think it's real important that people understand this, this part of being condemned
of themselves.
Look, they are condemning themselves.
Look, if I want to get somebody saved, I want to preach them the gospel, but they don't
want to hear it, I don't have to feel any guilt about that.
They've condemned themselves.
They are the ones that have said, I'm not interested.
I know, and I could feel sad about it and I do, you know, and it grieves me and I hope
that they get another chance, but I'm not going to sit here and feel guilty about it
when they're the ones that are rejecting it.
We shouldn't tolerate vain imaginations in unsaved people.
We should be willing to tell them that they're wrong.
Bible says a faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness will utter lies.
You know, it's the false witness that's going to say, oh yeah, whatever you think about
God is just fine.
There's no right or wrong answer.
No, actually there is a right or wrong answer.
Here's the right answer.
Everything else is wrong.
Well, how can you say that?
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life.
No man cometh in the father, but by me.
Sounds pretty exclusive to me.
He said, I am the door to the sheep.
Everybody else that came up some other way is a thief and a robber.
He said, I'm the only way in.
It's not a multitude of ways.
That's what he said.
That's the words of Christ himself.
And if you reject that, you reject this.
You're rejecting the God of the Bible.
You're coming up with your own vain imaginations.
Go over to Ephesians chapter four, we'll wrap up.
We should not tolerate vain imaginations and the unsaved.
We should be willing to preach them the gospel.
Tell them when they're wrong.
Stand our ground when necessary.
We should also not tolerate vain imagination in ourselves.
And look, we all have a tendency to do this.
In fact, before we were saved, that's exactly what we did.
Ephesians chapter four, look at verse 17.
It says, This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that
ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind.
I mean, that's how the lost world walks.
It's just their nature.
You know, we can't, you know, to a certain degree,
we don't want to fault everybody.
You know, we should have compassion upon them
because they're just doing what comes naturally.
They're just walking, you know, it says in verse 17,
have the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them
because of the blindness of their heart.
Look at verse 23, he says, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
and that you have put on the new man,
which is after God created in righteousness and true holiness.
Look, we were all as sheep going astray.
We were all walking in the vanity of our mind at one point,
which tells me this, that just because you got saved and you have the Holy Spirit
doesn't mean you can't still do that.
Otherwise, what's Paul talking about here?
Why is he saying, you know, you have to put off the former conversation,
the old man, which is corrupt according to the seat of the lost in verse 22.
He's saying, look, put off the old, the former conversation.
He's saying, put on, be renewed in your spirit, put on the new man.
That's a commandment.
Why does he have to tell us to do that if it's just automatic?
Because it's not automatic.
That even we as saved Christians today,
we can walk after our own vain imaginations.
We can be saved and we can understand the things of God,
and we can, but then we can just stop reading,
kind of come up with our own ideas about how God is,
or get an attitude and say, well, the ways of the Lord are not equal.
Well, it doesn't make any sense, God.
I don't know why you wrote that.
You better be careful.
You know, you're walking your own vain imagination at that point.
You need to be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
You know, we should read the Bible, hear the preaching, the word of God,
and let renew us, let it change our minds and adapt and put on the old man
or put on the new man rather, put off the old man
and not be vain in our own imaginations.
And a lot of people do this with their opinions and their feelings.
People's feelings get hurt.
People's opinions get, you know, hurt, whatever.
And what they do is they get out of sorts with God
and they become vain in their own imagination.
But here's what all I'm saying right now is that we know,
we don't want to tolerate vain imaginations in ourselves.
Your opinions, your feelings, they take a back seat to the scripture.
I remember hearing that very early on in my Christian life.
My pastor told me, he said, look, feelings follow.
You obey and then your feelings follow.
That's not how we like it.
We like to feel like obeying, right?
You like to feel like, I feel good about obeying.
You know, that's not how it always works.
We read something from the Bible.
We hear something preach and say, oh man, I don't like that.
But you know what?
If you just obey and did it, eventually your feelings would catch up.
You'd say, oh, I see now.
That makes sense.
The alternative is to become vain in your own imagination
and to just say, well, I'm not going to believe that.
People do this all the time in practical areas of the Christian life.
They do it with their finances.
They do it with their marriages.
They do it with their child rearing.
They read something in the Bible regarding those issues or some other issue,
and they say, well, I just don't like that.
I disagree.
That's a vain imagination that you've just come up with.
You know, and God's not just going to let you get away with that.
You're going to suffer the consequences.
A lot of times that's built right in with your disobedience.
So I disagree with that, you know, what the Bible says about child rearing.
Spare, you know, chasing thy son while there is hope.
What are you talking about?
Beat my kids.
Spank them.
Come on.
That's so old school.
There's much better ways to do that.
You know what?
You're going to reap what you sow.
That vain imagination, you're going to raise a brat.
You know, I understand there's grace and mercy and all that,
but don't be surprised if you end up raising the kid
who's just going to run roughshod all over you.
I hear it all the time.
You know, whenever I travel, I get all these illustrations.
You know, you see it on the plane with these parents flying on a plane.
Would you please put that away?
Oh, Sonny, would you please sit down?
Asking your kid.
I'm like going, what's wrong with you?
I want to just like lean.
Can I show you how it's done?
Like put that away.
You know, sometimes I really think if a stranger would just shock these kids a little bit,
you know, of course, you know, we don't live in that world anymore.
But all I'm saying is this.
Look, when people dismiss God, you know, they come up with their own ideas.
They don't just leave a vacuum there.
They come up with their own vain imaginations,
whether it's the unsaved or whether it's even the saved.
You know, everyone falls prey to that.
And we should be careful as God's people not to do that,
that we should go along with what the Bible says and obey it
and not become vain in our imaginations and help the unsaved,
you know, who are vain in their imaginations,
help them to see the truth of the gospel of Christ,
that they could be saved and, you know, put off the vanity of their disbelief,
of a life that's going to lead them to hell.
Let's go ahead and pray.