Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Let's lift our voices on that verse together now.
a beautiful professional type photo of your family,
free of charge.
Of course, if you're single, if you're a married couple,
if you're a family,
we wanna make sure everybody gets photographed.
You might just, you know, if you're just a single,
you're just gonna get a cool photo of yourself, okay?
And that's pretty cool too.
It's gonna be your glamor shot right here.
So you get a cool photo,
but then you also get to be in the yearbook.
And then we all sort of get to enjoy the yearbook, right?
Because we all get to have this for years to come
and look back and see, you know,
the people that we've known
and see them grow and change and so forth.
And get old and whatever, you know, I'm just kidding.
But the point is that it's also a great way
to just get to know people, learn people's names.
If you forget somebody's names,
it's like a reference that you pull off the shelf
and you can refer to.
So anyway, it's a fun thing
and pretty much everybody participates.
And so we want you to sign up to get your picture taken
anytime between September 15th and November 3rd.
But you know, it's better to do it early,
get the best slots.
And we're trying to have families with young children
get it done before the service
and then everybody else get it done after the service.
Sign up is over here to my right.
And so get signed up for that if you could.
And then below that,
there's an Indian reservation soul winning trip
coming up on September 20th and 21st
for Friday, Saturday.
And it will also include a time of recreation
at Canyon de Chelly.
That is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning
from the past few days going back to Thursday.
Anything to report from Thursday?
Okay.
Anything else from Thursday?
How about Friday?
Got it.
Gotcha.
Okay.
And what about Saturday?
Okay.
Gotcha.
And then today, Sunday, for the Scott.
Okay.
Got it.
Okay.
Got it.
Got it in the back.
Okay, missing anybody.
All right, very good.
Keep up the great work on soul winning with that.
Let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right, you should find the insert
in front of your hymnal with Psalm 126.
If you don't have an insert,
you can raise your hand and you'll receive one.
And we'll sing it on that first verse together.
When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion.
When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion,
we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter
and our tongue was singing.
Then said they among the heathen,
the Lord had done great things for them,
the Lord had done great things for us.
Whereof we are glad,
turned again our captivity.
Oh Lord, as the streams in the south,
they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Then said they among the heathen,
the Lord had done great things for them,
the Lord had done great things for us.
Whereof we are glad,
we that go forth and weep at fair and precious heat,
shall doubtless come again.
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.
Then said they among the heathen,
the Lord had done great things for them,
the Lord had done great things for us.
Whereof we are glad.
Amen, good singing everybody.
Let's go in your Psalm books now to hymn 172, 172.
Love divine, all loves excelling, hymn number 172.
We'll sing it out on that first verse.
Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven to earth come down.
172, sing it out together now.
Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven to earth come down.
Fixing us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Ease us thou art, all compassion,
your unbounded love thou art.
Visit us with thy salvation,
enter every trembling heart.
Breathe, all breathe thy loving spirit
into every troubled rest.
Let us all in thee inherit,
let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to saving,
Alpha and Omega be,
end of fate that sits beginning.
Set our hearts at liberty,
come almighty to deliver.
Let us all thy life receive,
suddenly return and never,
never more light and whole sleep.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above.
Pray and praise, deep without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
Finish then thy new creation,
pure and spotless, let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation,
perfectly restored in me.
Change from glory into glory,
till in them we take our place.
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love and praise.
Amen. Good singing tonight.
All right, at this time
we will pass our offering plates around. As the plate goes around, let's turn our Bibles to Isaiah
chapter 5. Isaiah chapter number 5.
As we always do, we'll read the entire
chapter beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads
Isaiah chapter 5, beginning in verse number 1.
Isaiah chapter 5, the Bible reads, Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song
of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very
fruitful hill, and he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with
a choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein.
And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild
grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge,
I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard
that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes,
brought forth wild grapes. And now, go to, I will tell you what I will
do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up,
and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. And I will lay
at waste. It shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up
briars and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain, no rain
upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment, but behold
oppression. For righteousness, but behold a cry.
Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no
place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth. In mine ears, said the Lord
of hosts, of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without
inhabitant. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and
the seed of an omer shall yield an ephah. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning,
that they may follow strong drink, that continue until night, till wine inflame
them. And the harp, and the veole, and the tabret, and the pipe, and wine are in their
feasts. But they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of
his hands. Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they
have no knowledge, and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried
up with thirst. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and
opened her mouth without measure. And their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp,
and he that rejoiceth shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be
brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall
be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God
that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed
after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a
cart rope. That say, let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it,
and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness
for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.
Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength
to mingle strong drink, which justify the wicked for reward,
and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. Therefore
as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff,
so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust,
because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the
word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the angle of the Lord
kindled against his own people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them,
and hath smitten them, and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were
torn in the midst of the street. For all this his anger is not turned away,
but his hand is stretched out still, and he will lift up an ensign to the
nations from afar, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth, and behold
they shall come with speed swiftly. None shall be wary, nor stumble
among them. None shall slumber, nor sleep. Neither shall the girdle of their loins
be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken, whose arrows are sharp,
and all their bows bent. Their horses hooves shall be counted like flint,
and their wheels like a whirlwind. Their roaring shall be like a lion,
they shall roar like young lions. Yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey,
and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. And in that day
they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea. And if one look unto the land, behold
darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
Father, thank you for Faith Ward Baptist Church and the souls that were won this week.
I pray that you fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and our ears for your Holy Word.
I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.
Isaiah chapter number 5, the part of the chapter that I want to focus on there, is beginning
in verse number 20. We've got some famous verses here, beginning
in verse 20. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.
And the title of the sermon this evening is, A World Where Things Are Backwards.
A world where things are backwards. You know, among
ungodly people, the world is being turned upside
down around us. It feels like the world's going crazy
sometimes, because not only are they calling good
evil, and evil good. I mean, just everything's backward, even things that are
not even moral. Just, I mean, sweet is bitter, and bitter is sweet.
It's just backwards. Let's read a little bit of scripture here, beginning in verse
20. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness
for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet,
and sweet for bitter. It says in verse 21, woe unto
them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.
Look, this is where the backwardness is coming from.
People think that they know more than God. Right? So God
has laid out in his word, this is right, this is wrong.
In Genesis chapter number 1, he divided the light
from the darkness. He called the light day. He called the darkness night.
And all throughout the Bible, he is letting us know how things are.
This is what it is. This is what we do. This is right. This is wrong.
But we've got today a lot of people who believe that they
are the final say of what's right and wrong. And without any reference to scripture,
without any Bible verse, they're ready to condemn this guy.
They're ready to justify this guy over here. They are prudent in their own
sight. They are wise in their own eyes. And they are leaning
upon their own understanding. Right? The Bible says, Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart, and lean not on thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
What does it mean to totally trust in the Lord, and to
not lean on your own understanding? I mean, what is, it's one of those things that you hear a lot.
Trust God. Trust in the Lord. But what does that actually look like
to trust God? Well, first of all, in order to trust someone,
they would have to tell you something or communicate to you
in some way so that you could trust what they're communicating. Right?
That communication is found right here in the Bible. Okay?
So this is God speaking to us. This is the word of God. And so
in order for us to trust God, we have to trust the word of God.
You can't just trust this vague idea of God or, you know,
just kind of a God of your own invention, a higher power, a supreme
being or something. Right? When we say that we're trusting in the Lord,
we're trusting in the God of the Bible, which means that
when God tells us something in the Bible, we trust that.
And sometimes those beliefs might be challenged. You know, we might be
going through our life, and something may happen to challenge
a belief that we have in the word of God where we say, Oh man, you know, the Bible
says this, but everybody else is saying this. Or,
you know, this other way seems right, but ah, that's what
the Bible says. Who are we going to go with at the end of the day? Are we going to go with your opinion?
Are we going to go with your feelings? Or are we going to go with what the
Bible says? Right? You can lean on your own understanding of
the way this world works, your own understanding of life or marriage
or child rearing or the workplace or friendship
or finances or whatever. You can rely on your own understanding
in those things. Or you can trust in the Lord with all your heart and say, well, you know what, here's what God says
and so I'm just going to go with what God says. Maybe I don't fully
understand it. Maybe I don't fully understand some of the situations I'm faced
with. But at the end of the day, the Bible's right. God's right.
And I'm just going to have to just lean on him at this time. But people that
are wise in their own eyes, they're prudent in their own sight, they'll just decide
what's right and wrong based on what they think. And at the end of the day, they become
their own God and they become their own final authority.
You know, if you read up on any kind of philosophy or philosophy
of ethics, you know, I don't recommend. I recommend this,
the Bible. But if you read up on that kind of stuff, you know, they'll talk about different
places where people put their final moral authority for what's right and wrong.
Okay? And, you know, it could be something like, well, there's
the divine command theory, right? And that's where we all stand. Amen?
Divine command. It's right because God said it's right. It's wrong because God said it's wrong.
We're done. That's why we don't need a philosophy class because we're, we've
already settled it in the first few seconds and that doesn't make for a very
fun philosophical journey. So we just go on a fun Christian
journey with the Bible because we've already settled the philosophy of what the final authority is. It's divine
command. That's what, if we were to go down to some philosophy class
or philosophy professor, that's the exact word they would use. They would say divine command
theory of morality or ethics. Okay? That's called
God said so.
But then there are other theories and ideas and, and here's the thing.
Once you get outside that divine command, you get into some murky
waters. You get into some ideas of, well, there's
an idea of what's best for everyone. You know, you know,
what's best, but then you're like, wait a minute, you can't do what's best for everyone, right? Because what's good for
one person is going to harm somebody. So then it's like, well, what benefits the most
people, right? What benefits the most people? But then you get into these
sticky ethical problems like, well, you know, if we just dissect this guy
alive, we could save all these cancer patients or something. You know what I mean? And it's like, well, wait a minute.
Are we just going to just do that? No. Right? So
you have to stop and think, well, is it okay to just like
kill some people in order to save these people? You get into all these weird
ideas and there's really no answer because the only right answer
is that the Bible tells us what is right and wrong. And without the Bible
there is no morality. Okay? There is no objective
morality without the Bible. At the end of the day, because you can say, well, it's just about not
hurting people. And those all sound good at first until you actually
flesh those things out and it starts falling apart. And that's why these
philosophers will never be out of a job because they can keep arguing about it and
talking about it and theorizing about it and coming back and forth about what is the final
authority. But one of the ideas that you'll hear, because you'll hear these different theories,
right? Like a utilitarian view of ethics, right?
You'll hear these type of views about what benefits the most people and
but then there's another view that is like an intuitive
view of ethics. And the intuition view is basically
like, well, come on, we all kind of know what's right. Amen?
And it's just kind of like this intuition idea of, and this is what
atheists really, at the end of the day, usually end up believing because they're like,
well, I don't need religion to tell me what's right and wrong. I just kind of know. I just kind of
know in my heart what's right and wrong. Just intuitively. I mean, we
all just kind of know that murder is wrong, you know, as we go and murder our
babies at the abortion clinic, you know. But we all just kind of know that murder is wrong.
We all just kind of know that adultery is wrong. Really, that's funny because, you know, when they
do polls in France about who thinks adultery is wrong, huge
sections of the population, tens of millions of people, they're not just saying
that they've done it or that they can understand people doing it. They're saying that there's literally
nothing wrong with it, that it's fine. Okay? And so,
this idea of using intuition to figure out
what's right and wrong is absurd because look how dramatically
right and wrong have changed in America over the last hundred years.
Things that were considered wrong in the 50s and 60s now are fine.
And things that were considered right or preaching that was
considered right in the 50s and 60s is now just this horrible hate speech
or whatever. And so, intuitive
definitions of what's right and wrong, like, well, come on, we just all know that's right.
We all know that's wrong. You know, at the end of the day, that's called leaning on your own understanding,
being prudent in your own sight, being wise in your own eyes,
and ultimately, you are putting yourself in the place of God
when there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.
Who art thou that judges another? Who are you to decide
what's right and wrong? Thus saith the Lord. Okay? And so,
these people that are putting light for darkness, calling evil good, good evil,
sweet for bitter, bitter for sweet, they are people who are prudent
in their own sight and they're wise in their own eyes.
Look at the next verse, verse 22. Woe unto them
that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle
strong drink. Now, here's the irony here
is that this does not make you a tough guy or strong
to drink beer or to drink wine
coolers or to drink wine or to drink liquor
or whatever, right? Like, why would that make you tough? You poured
a drink in your mouth. Right? I mean, stop and think about this.
But you got these guys and they're so tough and they have these like drinking
competitions and they're just slamming back a beer
because they're so manly and they're so tough. Look, it's a world that's backwards
where a lack of character is called strength.
Right? A lack of self-control, a lack of restraint
because let me tell you something about people who have tolerance for alcohol, it means that they're
an alcoholic. That's all that means. Any of
us could become tolerant to alcohol if we became an
alcoholic, right? If we all started drinking alcohol everyday, we'd get really good
at drinking alcohol everyday. Right? If you go running everyday
you're going to get good at running. If you keep eating spicy food, you can
just keep eating spicier food. You know, it's funny, you go to these countries where all the food is
spicy. It's not that everybody's just a real bad dude. It's really
just because they just grew up eating spicy food. And so if a person
tells you, oh I drink a few beers and I don't experience anything,
basically what they're basically saying is I have a tolerance for alcohol because I constantly
drink alcohol. Because I've built up a tolerance because I'm an
alcoholic. Because I'm a drunkard. Okay? And so these guys
are so mighty and so strong to
mingle strong drink. You know, the beer drinkers of this world.
And you know what's funny about that too? Is that beer in the long run
it doesn't make you end up, it doesn't end up making you manly.
It typically ends up making you look like you're pregnant is what it does.
Okay? Because look, I understand that you eat too much
and you get overweight. And here's the thing, men get overweight. Maybe men are underweight.
Maybe they're overweight, right? That's just kind of a function of the food that you eat. But then
you have guys that are just completely the right size
everywhere. But then, and I'm not the one who made up
this term. What do they have? The beer belly.
The beer gut and the beer belly. Right? And this
is not something that's typically advertised on a Budweiser billboard.
Right? Because you could just have a billboard because the horizontal format is perfect
for this. Right? Where you could just, you could just have
the pregnant man and just kind of focus on that
part of his, you know, this Bud's for you. Right?
And here's the thing, at the end of the day, we all know that beer contains
in it phytoestrogen mimickers that also
if, you know, if maybe looking like you're pregnant as a man
doesn't appeal to you, maybe this might. How about the man
I don't know if I should, should I say it? You know what I mean?
The man, I'll just say the man breasts. How about that? Is that better?
You know what I mean? And again, it's not just
about, it's not just about overeating, my friend. It's about drinking
beer specifically that gives you these type of attributes in addition.
Okay. Now look, I'm sorry, but drinking beer
is not going to make you a better athlete. You know what's funny?
My dad, he always tells me this story about how he was riding his motorcycle
and he found this old abandoned cabin out in the middle of nowhere and it had a stack of old
newspapers and he opened it up and, you know, this is before the internet, so when
you found stuff like this, it was really interesting. He opened up some ancient newspapers
and it was a cigarette ad that said, you know, doctors recommend this cigarette.
They showed a track runner saying, quote, it helps
me with my wind. And he was a professional athlete track star
saying that smoking cigarettes helps him with his cardio. It helps him with his wind.
Nowadays you can literally just go on Google and just type, you know, smoking
ads, it helps me with my wind and it just pops right up. Back then you had to like travel
100 miles on a motorcycle and find it in an abandoned cabin in
Nevada or something. But the point is that this
kind of idea that says beer makes you manly or
drinking makes you real men, you know, drink hard and all this stuff.
It's the same type of mentality that would say cigarettes are going to make you a better
runner. It's literally that absurd, right? But again,
it's just the devil's trick to get you to do these things
to try to like, hey, it's manly to be a whore monger. It's
manly to go out and drink and party and do these things.
Why? It's backwards. It's wickedness. So number
one, we saw in verse 20, you know, things are backwards among the wicked.
They put evil for good, et cetera. Number two, we saw in verse 21
how people think they know better than the Bible. That's why they get it backwards.
They think that they intuitively know what is right and wrong and they don't need God
to tell them what's right and wrong. They just already intuitively know. And they'll use these simple
examples like, well, we all know stealing's bad. We all know killing's
bad. But here's the thing. There are a lot of other things, though, that the Bible
gets really specific about. And maybe if we all lived on a desert
island, we might intuitively know some of these things from having the law of God
written in our heart. But when we're living in a society that's brainwashing us
and telling us what's right and wrong and it's different
than the Bible, there's a good chance that we're being tainted by that and that we
need to renew our mind with the actual word of God. And then we see
in the next verse that sin is glorified, right? Drinking,
being a drunkard is glorified. And that's just one example because
lots of other sins are glorified and lifted up. And if you don't believe
me, just take one look at the rap music industry,
right? I mean, that's just one easy example to point to where you're
praised for all the hoes and being a pimp
and like who would think that being a pimp could ever be a positive moniker?
Like who would think that you're being called a pimp
is a compliment, right?
I mean, wouldn't you think that that's a big time insult if somebody calls you that?
But when I was a teenager and as a young adult, you know, I don't know
if people are still using that term, but that was a term that people would use
like it was a good thing you wanted to be. When I was a teenager, you wanted to be known
as a pimp or a mac daddy,
right? Now is that still a thing? Are people still
using pimp as a positive? Because let me tell you something, pimps are wicked as hell.
Pimps are super evil, wicked human
traffickers, okay? But in a backwards world,
oh, it's wonderful to be a pimp. It's wonderful to be a drunk.
It's wonderful to do these things. No, we should not glorify
sin. And then lastly in this passage,
not only is sin glorified, but actually
righteousness is vilified. Look what the Bible says next.
It says, which justify the wicked for reward
and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.
Right? So not only do they say that the
good, or not only, excuse me, not only do they say that the wicked are good,
but then they'll also take the good and say that they're bad.
They're wicked. They're evil. How about this?
John chapter 16 verse 2, you don't have to turn there. If you would, turn to Leviticus
chapter 19. While you're turning to Leviticus 19, I'm going to read for you
from John chapter 16 verse 2. And then we might just read Bill Clinton's favorite verse
too, just while we're in the neighborhood, right? Because Bill Clinton famously
said, you know, hey, I love John 16 3, you know, John 16 3
is my favorite scripture. So we might as well just stop and hit his favorite
scripture while we're here. But in John 16 2, it says, they shall put
you out of the synagogues, watch this, yea, the time will come,
the time cometh, I should say, that whosoever killeth you
will think that he doeth God's service. Did you hear that?
Whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's
service. And then Bill Clinton's favorite verse is, these things will they do
unto you because they have not known the Father nor me.
That's why they'll do that to you is because they haven't known the Father nor me,
Jesus said. Okay. And so what is the Bible saying here? It's saying
that there are people out there that are so backward in their thinking, they're so deluded in their
mind that they would think that killing Christians is
serving God. And of course, we could point to the Apostle Paul as a
great fulfillment of this. He thought that he was serving God by going around
and trying to get Christians arrested. I mean, talk about a backward guy, right?
He's going around thinking that he's doing God's service by
hunting down Christians and trying to get them arrested and in trouble and even executed,
right? Thankfully, he's gloriously saved and talked
about how wrong he was after the fact. But that's
what's being prophesied here in John chapter 16 verse 2. And you know what's so funny
is, you know, sometimes you'll point out someone's just total blatant
wickedness and people will try to defend it by saying, well, but you know, he thinks
he's doing the right thing. In his heart, though,
he thinks he's doing the right thing. Oh, well, that fixes everything.
Well, then, I guess we can't really say anything
because, I mean, it's not like he's malicious because, I mean, he thinks he's doing the right thing.
Well, you know what? Here's the thing. If he thinks he's doing the right thing, then shame
on him for being wrong doing something wicked and thinking that he's
doing the right thing, especially if he's been in church for any amount of time, especially if he's
heard the word of God. Because here's the thing. You know what happens over in the Middle East?
You know what happens in Israel, for example? What happens? Some Muslim
will literally just get on a bus filled with just men,
women, children, even babies, and blow theyself up.
Right? Or did I just make that up right now?
Suicide bombers. Right? That's what they do. And they
do that in various places throughout the world. And they'll just
say, well, we're martyrs for the cause
of Allah. And because we have blown ourselves up and
killed 20 Jews or 15 Jews or however many Jews, they blow
up with themselves. Right? This is what they say. I'm going
to get an automatic ticket to heaven. I don't remember how many virgins they get.
I lost count at some point. I don't know. It's more than the four that they
can do down here. Does anybody remember how many they get?
I just heard like 20 different numbers.
70? 70 sounds familiar. 72.
Ooh. You know, I wasn't going to blow myself up,
but it's the two that got me. You know what I mean? Like, it's like 70 virgins.
Ehh. 72. All right. Everybody's
got their number. But think about the stupidity
of thinking, I'm going to blow myself up just around just
random people. I'm just going to get on a bus and just blow myself
up. Because it's not like they're going to a military target and blowing themselves up. They always
just go into like a marketplace or get on a bus
and just blow themselves up. Just because they think that by
killing Jews in the process, they get to go. Now look,
does that guy think he's doing the wrong? I read a story about a guy
who was one of these suicide bombers who blew himself up. His mom
literally was like made his favorite meal. She literally knows that he's leaving
the house to go blow himself up on a city bus. She literally
cooks him his favorite K-Bobs and uh, what was
the other thing he liked? I don't remember. But she made him like a special treat.
And it was like some salad that he really liked and K-Bobs.
And she's like hugging him and telling him how proud she is of him. And literally
said to him like, you know, I wish I had 100 more sons just like you. You're so great.
And he literally, she knows that he's leaving the house to go
get on just a city bus and blow up
random people. Okay. And then afterwards she's
real proud of him and talking about how great he was.
Now, did that guy, let me just ask you a question. Did that guy
believe in his heart that what he's doing is right?
Is that an excuse for what he's doing? And you know what?
He is burning in hell right now. He is roasting in hell.
And you want to know why he's roasting in hell? The same reason why every
single Muslim will go to hell if they do not confess that Jesus Christ is the son
of God. And the sad part is the Jews that he blowed up,
they're in hell too because they also do not believe that Jesus Christ
is the son of God. So it's quite a tragedy
for them to just be blowing up Jews over there because they're going to hell.
It's a tragedy when Palestinians get blown up because they're going to hell.
Because Muslims and Jews are going to the same hell that Hindus and Buddhists are going to
because you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved.
You must confess that Jesus Christ is the son of God to be saved.
Super easy to be saved. God's
not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. It's so easy
but you got to do it. You got to believe in Jesus.
You got to trust Christ and it's got to be the son of God, not another different Jesus
that's not the son of God. Okay? And so, yeah, that guy
thinks that he's doing the right thing. But no one in their right
mind would say, well, you know what, I can't really be too hard on mom and him
because they think they're doing the right thing. You'd say, no, you need to actually
figure out what is the right thing and not just think you know. And for
us as Christians, there's only one place to find those answers and it's right here in the Bible.
You know? And if you think the answers are somewhere else, think again.
Leviticus chapter 19 because I want to point out another
thing that's backward in this world. Look at, let me turn there
myself. Leviticus chapter 19, one of my favorite chapters in
Leviticus. Leviticus is a cool book. Leviticus gets a bad rap
because the first like nine chapters are kind of difficult.
The first nine chapters are a little bit of a slog if you're new to the Bible
because it's just a lot of animal sacrifices. But honestly, the rest of the book actually
really picks up steam starting in chapter 10. It's
really interesting, you know. But out of the entire book of Leviticus,
Leviticus 19 is one of my very favorite chapters. Okay,
it is my favorite chapter. And it also
has the most famous quote from Leviticus, which a lot of people think
is just a Jesus quote, but it's actually Jesus quoting Leviticus
19, which is, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Right? It's a really key quote. I was driving down the street this week and
saw a car that had a sticker that said, you know, thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself, Matthew, whatever. But I'm thinking, you know, you could
just as well have that exact, you know, love thy neighbor as thyself and you could
say Leviticus 19. You know, you really say the same thing.
And so it's a great chapter. And what this chapter deals with, and
you know, at the top of my Bible, it has this to say,
you know, there'll be like a little heading telling you what it's about. My Bible says in the
heading, a repetition of sundry laws.
A repetition of sundry laws. So basically, and that's usually, maybe your Bible
says something slightly different, but usually like study Bibles or Bibles
with notes like this, they'll usually say something along the lines of miscellaneous laws
or just like, you know, uh, more laws or something like that.
And that's, it's kind of what this chapter is. It's kind of just a miscellaneous law
section. But he starts out, uh, let's just start in verse one. It says,
the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak unto all the congregation of the
children of Israel and say unto them, ye shall be holy, for
I, the Lord your God, am holy. All right, verse three,
ye shall fear every man his mother and his father
and keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Now the Bible
says right there, you shall fear every man his mother
and his father. I am the Lord their God. But, but today we have a day where the parents
are afraid, afraid of their children. Instead of the children
fearing their parents, now we have the parents afraid
of the children. And you know what? The Bible prophesied there would come a time when the children
would rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death during the tribulation
period. That's where we're going to be at, okay? Now, here's the thing
about this, uh, you know, parents fearing their children,
it's backwards. Because what does the Bible say? Every man
should fear his mother and fear his father. But it's the exact opposite
in a world that's wise in their own eyes. And I remember
when I was a young person, and this is going back 25 years,
when I first went to Germany 25 years ago, I was 18 years old,
and I went over there and you have born-again Christians,
Baptists, whatever, not spanking their children
because they are afraid to spank their children. And I was an 18-year-old boy
and I'm being exposed to this over there as a, uh,
a visitor doing soul-winning, working with pastors,
doing whatever, learning the language. When I was over there, I was exposed to this, and this is what they would say,
they would say, you know, here's the thing, the kids are all in public school because
guess what? Homeschooling is illegal. So the kids are all in public school and they're
told in the schools, hey, your parents aren't allowed
to spank you. Your parents can't discipline you, and so therefore
report your parents. Tell us if that's going on. And parents are
literally saying, I can't spank my children because if I spank my children,
then they're going to go tell on me to the authorities
and then I'm going to get in all this trouble or, you know, whatever,
the CPS or whatever. I don't know, what is it called in Arizona?
CPS, DSS, DCS, CPS? It's called different things
in different places. I believe it's called CPS here, you know. But here's the thing about that is
that we have now children threatening their parents with this and
constantly using this as some kind of a way to get what they want
out of them. Like, well, I'll just report you. I'll just call
CPS on you. I'll just say that you're abusive or something like
that. You know what? That is garbage because the Bible
says that the children should fear their parents. It doesn't say that the
parents should fear the children. You know, and here's a little catchy
little slogan for you. Don't rear by fear.
I'm not going to let my children intimidate me and tell me how to
parent. I'm not going to do it. If my children
don't like the way that I parent, you know what? Nuts to that.
I don't really care. I didn't ask them. And here's another Bible verse,
honor your father and mother. Here's a verse you're not going to find in the Bible, honor your
son and your daughter. In the backward version,
in the backward Bible, that's what it's going to say, honor your son.
Parents, obey your children in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your
son and daughter, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you
and that you may live long on the earth. My friend, I
will spank my children because the Bible
commands it. End of story.
End of story. It's not optional. It's not something
that I'm going to negotiate with anyone. It's not something I will debate with
anyone. It is the word of God.
And there is no compromising on that issue.
If that part of the Bible is up for grabs, then so is
the entire rest of the Bible. And you may be comfortable with that, but I'm not.
You know, and not only that, not only
do the parents fear the children instead of the children fearing their parents, which
and by the way, isn't this what we would always say? Like, oh man, I would have been afraid to talk to my parents
that way. I would have been afraid to act that way. I would have been afraid to say that.
I would have been afraid to do that. Good. You ought to be.
I just don't think. I didn't ask what you think.
All I care about is what Leviticus chapter 19, verse number 3
says. All I care about is what Ephesians chapter 6 says.
And by the way, when we talk about this backward thing of honor your son and
daughter, what's interesting is that if you study the concept of honoring your father
and mother in the Bible, there's actually a financial element of that
that when your parents are elderly and no longer able to take care of themselves,
you are supposed to care for your parents when they become elderly. Isn't that what the Bible
says? The Bible says that if any man or woman that believeth
have widows, let them relieve them and let not the church be charged.
It says they should learn first to show piety at home
and to requite their parents.
The Bible says you owe a debt to your parents. You are to
requite your parents. And that when they are old, you
care for them financially. You owe them that because they cared for you.
You will take care of them when they are old. You requite your parents.
That's what the Bible says. Right? But today it's honor your son and
daughter. So you have to just wine them and
dine them and pay for them to just have everything on a silver
platter, pay for them to go to college without working and
just do whatever and everything. Now look, if you want to pay for your kids to go to college
or do whatever you want. But what I'm saying is, is it really right for your kids to just say
this is my birthright? I demand that you pay for all this?
I demand a car on my 16th birthday? I demand to be sent
over here to this college and to it, you know, you owe me this.
I don't owe you Jack. You don't owe them Jack.
Flip over if you would, do Ephesians chapter 6.
Ephesians chapter 6.
Now the Bible says that there's a debt that
the children have to their parents, not vice versa. The parents don't owe their children something.
Children owe their parents. The parents are not supposed to live in fear of their children.
No, the children are supposed to fear their parents. That's what the Bible actually
says. And at the end of the day, the fear of your parents
leads to the fear of God and people who lack the one lack the other as well.
If you fear your parents, you fear God.
That's why out of the Ten Commandments, the first five have to do with God.
The latter five have to do with your neighbor, with your fellow man. That's why it's all summed up in
love God, love your neighbor. Well guess what? Honor your father and mother is on the love God
tablet. And then the other five commandments
that come after, you know, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet. Those five are on the love your neighbor
tablet. Okay? And the idea here is that
you know, you honoring your father
is a preparation for honoring your father in heaven.
And that is why the Bible says, withhold not correction from the child
for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt
deliver his soul from hell. Why? Because the child who is not disciplined will think
that there's no hell. There's no consequences
with my parents. So there's no consequences with him either.
And the person who doesn't believe in hell ends up
going to hell. Right? Instead of realizing, hey, wait a minute.
There's hell to avoid here. They just go there.
Okay? And that is not what any of us want for our children.
Another thing that's backwards in this world
today amongst the wicked is this idea that
the employer exists for the employee and not vice versa.
Right? Like employers just exist to give you
jobs and wine and dine you and so forth. But in reality, you're
being hired to serve the employer. And you know what?
If you're going to go through life with this attitude that says, my job exists to serve
me. My boss exists to serve me. My supervisor exists to serve
me. I'm just going to go talk to human resources, you know, all the time.
Look, at the end of the day, you are not going to succeed as an employee.
And here's why. Because God's not going to bless you.
Because God has commanded servants to be obedient. Look at verse 5.
Servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh
with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ
not with the high service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ
doing the will of God from the heart with good will doing service
as to the Lord and not to men knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth
the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free.
And here's the thing about that is that if you hate
the company that you work for, if you hate your boss, if you hate your job,
if you can't serve them with gladness and
serve them as you would serve Jesus, it's time to find a new job.
But you don't have the option of showing up
and doing a bad job and having a bad attitude and you know what
always drives me nuts is when I see somebody
work at a company and say, oh I would never shop here.
I would never use this business. You know, you work for a plumbing company, I would never use this
plumber. Like, don't ever call our company. Don't ever drive the car that we manufacture.
Don't ever do this. It's like, you know what, if that's how you feel, you need to leave.
You need to get a different job. But you know what's so funny is that whenever I've said this amongst young people
of this generation, they just lose their minds and act like I'm
you're just supporting these abusive employers and whatever.
No. You should
actually be there to serve the company that you work for. You should believe
in the product. You should believe in the company. And you know what, you say, well
I just don't. Then you need to find a different job because it's not ethical
for you to go around talking bad about and biting the hand
that feeds you, as it were. You know? You say, well
it's the only job I can get. I have to stay here because the money's green and I have to
stay here. Okay. Then just, you need to just shut up about it then.
Then just put your head down and work and make the money and laugh all the way to the bank.
But don't you dare be disloyal and
unethical and talking bad about the company that you work for.
The business that you work for, you think they want to pay you to tell people
don't shop here? Don't eat here?
You know, this is a crooked company. Whatever. But that's
the generation that we're living in, right? Of course, what else is backwards? You know,
of course today we have wives ruling over their husbands, right? Instead of what the
Bible said in, yeah it did say it in Genesis, but in
Ephesians chapter number 5, you know, saying that wives are supposed to submit to their husbands.
We have everything of just, you know, this kind of happy wife, happy life
mentality and she's the boss, ask the boss
type of mentality. It's embarrassing. You know, you're, yeah, I'm not, never mind.
And then what about this? How about this? Here's another
back, I'm just about done with my sermon, but what about this other backward thing?
How about where Jews are more holy than Christians?
Like where Jews are considered the chosen people and Christians aren't.
That's pretty backwards. Like people who reject Jesus
are considered more holy or more sacred or more special to God.
And here's what's funny. You know, God will bless those, according to a lot of
misguided people today, God will bless those who bless the Jews.
When in reality, what we should be saying is that God
will bless those who bless Christians and God will curse those who curse
Christians, but instead we're literally putting Jews
above Christians in the hierarchy
here, like literally that they are somehow more special
or more of God's people or something like that. I mean, it's, it's, it's madness.
It's mind-blowing, right? Because they don't believe in Jesus.
So how are they God's people again? Well, it's through their
ethnicity and their blood. That's a joke. Avoid genealogies.
I mean, that whole concept is debunked in two words, avoid genealogies.
Done. Next. But it's not just that they're
saying, well, it's Jews and Christians. It's that they're literally
putting Jews above Christians to the point where, you know,
the Jews have all these special blessings that Christians never, it never gets
talked about for Christians, you know. Like, we gotta support Israel, we gotta support
the Jews. But then you don't see them supporting Christians. You don't see them supporting God's people.
Because they're so into supporting Israel. It's backwards.
The true story is that Jews have rejected the Lord
and they've been rejected by the Lord. But in a backward
world, they are lifted up as being the chosen
and we are chopped liver as Bible-believing
saved children of God. Hey, we're the kings and priests over here.
We're the holy nation. We're the royal priesthood.
Don't get that backwards. And so, look, the bottom line is this for the
sermon. We're living in a world where a lot of wicked people
have turned things totally backwards. The world's been turned upside down.
It's been turned on its head. How do we avoid getting
sucked into this? Because I guarantee you, every single one of us, myself included, has been
influenced by the world's philosophies. Because we've all been
exposed to the mass media. We've all
lived and grown up in this society. And look, we should. We should live in our society.
We shouldn't go be excluded somewhere, secluded somewhere.
Because the Bible says, you know, we're to be in the world but not of the world.
Okay, but so how do we counteract this idea
where the world gets something backwards and then Christians just go right along with it?
Here's how we fix it. We get in the word of God and we decide
that the word of God is our final authority. What the Bible says
is end of story. It doesn't matter what we think, what you think,
what I think, what he thinks. At the end of the day, we just make Scripture the test.
Scripture's the test. Doesn't matter
how intuitive it is. You know, some things are counterintuitive.
And that's just the way they are. Right?
Here's something counterintuitive. If you exalt yourself, you'll be abased.
If you humble yourself, you'll be exalted. According to Christ, the way up is down.
And the way down is up. Sounds a little counterintuitive, but it's what the Bible says and the Bible's right.
Do not lean on your own understanding.
Do not be so pure in your own eyes
that you think you know better than the word of God. And let me tell you something.
We're not just talking about only the New Testament. The entire Bible is perfect, not just the New Testament.
The law of the Lord is perfect, the Bible says.
Now obviously there are some changes between Old and New Testament,
but the word itself is perfect. And the concepts of right
and wrong, the ethics, the morality of the Old Testament
is perfect. Okay. And so
do not read the book of Exodus or Leviticus
saying, I don't know if that's right.
I mean, that's absurd. It's, it's
the God of the universe just told you it's right. Like, what are we talking about here?
Ah, just eh. The way
to escape a backward mentality is to get your mind renewed
with the word of God and to say that the word of God
is your final authority. That's what it means to trust in the Lord and to not lean on
your own understanding. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for
your word. We thank you so much for giving us over 31,000
verses telling us what is right and what is wrong.
Lord, help us not add rules to the Bible that are not in the Bible.
Let us not subtract things that are in the Bible, Lord. Help us to realize
that what you've given us in these 31,000 plus verses is what
we need to live our lives. Help us to conform to its standards. Help us
to look in its pages every day to figure out how to live
our lives. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.