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Good evening everyone and welcome to the Faith and Word Baptist Church. Great to see you all here on our 33rd evening service. If you'd all please have a secret, a hymnal, and open up that hymnal to the song number 232. Again, this evening's service is my singing son, 232. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. 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Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. Let's have a little story of Jesus. We sing one more song before we begin the preaching tonight. Okay, Psalm 19. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you. May God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. May God bless you, may God bless you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Okay. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's open up our Bibles to Genesis chapter 11. That's Genesis chapter 11 as always. We'll read the entire chapter. Please follow along silently as Brother Gabriel reads the list from Genesis chapter 11. Genesis chapter 11. Verse 1 the Bible reads, And the whole earth was but one language and but one speech. It came to pass And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower and the children of men built it. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one and they have all one language. And this they began to say, Let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and the slime they promoted. And they said, Go to, let's build us a city and a tower. Let us top and reach into heaven. Let us make us a name, so that we can scatter the broad of the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower and the children of men built it. And the Lord said, They have all one language. And this they began to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them unless they have a badge of duty. Go to, let's go down there and confound their language. They may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from Venice upon the face of all the earth. They left off to build the city. Therefore, the name of it is called Babylon because the Lord was there and found the language of all the earth. And from Venice the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth. She was Shem. Shem was 100 years old. And we got Arphaxad two years after the flood. And Shem lived after me and we got Arphaxad 500 years. And we got sons and daughters. And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years. And we got Salah. And Arphaxad lived after me and we got Salah. Four hundred and three years. And we got sons and daughters. And Salah lived thirty years. And we got Eve. And Salah lived after me and we got Eve. Four hundred and three years. And we got sons and daughters. And Eve lived four and thirty years. And we got Pele. And Eve lived after me and we got Pele. Four hundred and thirty years. And we got sons and daughters. And Pele lived thirty years. And we got Rave. And Pele lived after me and we got Rave. Two hundred and nine years. And we got sons and daughters. And Rave lived two and thirty years. And we got Saru. And Rave lived after me and we got Saru. Two hundred and seven years. And we got sons and daughters. And Saru lived thirty years. And we got Nahal. And Saru lived after me and we got Nahal. Two hundred years. And we got sons and daughters. And Nahal lived nine and twenty years. And we got Terah. And Nahal lived after me and we got Terah. One hundred and nineteen years. And we got sons and daughters. And Terah lived seven years. And we got Abel. And Abel. And Terah. Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah we got Abel. And Abel. And Arad. And Arad we got Lot. And Arad died before his fathers in Terah. And the land of Nativity. And the earth of Calvins. And Arad and Nahal took them wives. The name of Abel's wife was Sarai. And the name of Nahor's wife, Milka, the daughter of Arad. The father of Milka. And the father of Misra. But Sarai was there. She had no child. And Terah took Abel, his son. And Lot, the son of Haran's son. And Sarai, his daughter of Arad, his son, Abel's wife. And they went forth with them to the earth of Calvins to go into the land of Canaan. And they came into Arad and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years. And Terah died in the land. Brother Adam, would you pray for us? We begin with the famous story of the Tower of Babel. And we'll just get right into it here. It says in verse one. And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass and they journeyed from the east. They found a plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there. And if you remember last week we talked about how this is a clue into end times prophecy. Because this is later referred to in Ezekiel, the land of Shinar. So it's giving you that little bit of a clue there. Pay attention to those details. It will help you on later in the book. It says in verse three. And they said one to another. Go to let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime had they for mortar. Sitting in a tower whose top may reach into heaven. And let us make a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. Now one thing I want to point out right away is the reason why they built the Tower of Babel. Because some people I've heard say things like, Well they built the Tower of Babel because they're afraid of the flood coming back. So they're trying to build this, you know, this tower. So if the flood comes back then they'll have some high advantage to get to. So that they won't drown. Well, you know, just build a boat. You know what I mean? Probably a lot easier to build a bunch of boats at that point. That's not why they built the Tower of Babel. I mean it says why they built the Tower of Babel right in the text. Again it says in verse four at the end there, lest we be scattered abroad. So what we see taking place in the story is that they're all trying to come together. And have unity in one place. They don't want to scatter. They don't want to spread abroad on the earth. They don't want to fill the command that God gave them to multiply and to replenish the earth and to fill the earth. They're kind of doing the opposite by coming together. And God takes note of this. It says in verse five, the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold the people is one and they have all one language. So that's, you know, again showing us they have this unity. And I don't want to be disparaging of the idea of unity. Obviously we are to have unity in local church, unity in other relationships in our lives. But there is this idea of having too much unity or really like having a monopoly. When people are all getting together and all having the same ideas and all having ease of communication. When everyone's just kind of in one place, bad things happen. Okay. That's what God observes. That's the comment that he makes here in verse six. He said, Behold the people is one and they have all one language and this they begin to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. So they're thinking about building this tower. They're all together. They're all speaking. There's no difficulty. They're all getting together again. And there's nothing that they're going to be restrained from. If they imagine it, they're going to do it. If they think it, they're going to do it. Which is the exact problem that they had before the flood. Remember that the imagination of man's heart was only evil continually. Right. And there's no reason to think that there was any difference of language back then before the flood. It was probably the same situation. So God kind of sees history repeating itself here. And decides to disperse them. Okay. But I do want to kind of, you know, you might read this story and say, What's the problem? What's the big deal with people getting together? And obviously, what he's showing us here is the dangers of unity. And unity in a society, people coming together like this. And there is danger there. And it's kind of hard to understand maybe what the danger is. Okay. And obviously, you know, this is prophetic of what's going to take place in the end times. Okay. And we've already seen it take place in Genesis earlier on. When people get together and nothing's restrained from them, bad things happen. Okay. So we know that there's just something inherently bad about everybody getting on the same page. Everybody getting together and just, you know, all having the same mind, the same language, the same speech. Bad things happen. Okay. God knows this. God knows what's in man. And that's why he decides to do what he does. And it's showing us, whether we understand or not, there is a danger of having kind of a one-world government or having too much unity within society. It's good to have borders. It's good to have different nations, different countries, different languages. This is a good thing. Okay. This is what God intended. Now obviously, this is also prophetic. Okay. If you want to go over to Revelation chapter 17, just jump to the opposite end of your Bible. We will go deep in the prophetic part of it tonight. I want to make more of a philosophical application here. But it's showing us that there is a danger in a group of people getting together and all having the same motive, the same goal. Right. The Bible commands us in Exodus 23, thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. The problem is when everybody gets together and starts doing something, and if it's something that's evil, a lot of people will just go along with it because everybody else is doing it. This is a common thing. Even today, peer pressure is real. Right. So when people start to do bad things, even people who might know it's wrong or even in their minds object, they're going to be less likely to go against the grain because they don't want to stand out. This is the problem when you start to get large groups of people together sometimes when they start to go down a bad path. Right. A church gets big enough and the doctrine begins to get corrupted, people are going to just continue on in that path because they don't want to break the thing up. They don't want to be the one that raises the hand and says, you know, it does say King James only on your website. Right. And look, that's a real common example. You know, there's big Baptist churches in this town that claim to be King James only, and yet out in the pew there's every version under the sun. Okay. But you have a multitude of people getting together and doing something that is wicked that's wrong. You know, it's wrong to use any other version if you're an English speaker. This is the preserved word of God for the English speaking people. So when we use, we don't use these corrupted texts, these corrupted Bibles. But how many people are going to be, you know, are going to pipe up and say something about it within that church? You know, probably, you know, obviously nobody or they're just going to go somewhere else. People don't want to be the ones to get up and say this is wrong. What they tend to do, what human nature is, is they end up kind of just going with the flow, going along with the crowd, and that's a real danger in society in large groups of people. Now obviously this story is also prophetic because you have a one world government coming together. You're going to see that in Revelation chapter number 17 verse 12. This is something that's going to happen towards, very near the return of Christ. It says, and the ten horns which thou shalt sawest are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. So we know that this is something that's going to happen in a sense again with Babylon. So it's kind of, you have the Tower of Babel, you have end times Babylon. It's kind of the same thing that's happening again. So what's interesting though when it comes to this is that both Babylon and Babel are short lived. You know, they didn't get very far. God came down and said, nuh-uh, ain't happening, right, and smacked it down. And you know, that's something we can take, you know, encouragement about when it comes to, you know, the future end times Babylon. As we start to see our world become more and more united, as you see people start to, you know, come together under one banner, you know, we could at least not get disheartened to knowing, well, it's not going to last that long. It's going to be come and gone pretty quick. So that's kind of the prophetic aspect, but really as I started out this evening, I really want to just kind of look at this more from a philosophical approach and make an application tonight, okay. Now, maybe you were hoping for more prophecy, but I'm looking around the room and, you know, most of you have been coming here long enough to be used to disappointment. So, you know, why not just continue in that vein. The really, again, so what's the problem with the story? What's going on that we should take note of? Is we have people coming together and having one language and one mind and all kind of going along to get along and not objecting, okay. This is something that can happen today as well, okay. When people start to get together, that's how lies and misinformation start to spread. With groups, okay. That's how people start to, you know, teach things and repeat things without checking things out and that's how misinformation gets spread. You know, that's one danger of people kind of getting together, right. They get group think, right. Then no one ever stops to object or stops to think, is this right? Because they're in a giant echo chamber. They're in a big, you know, they're just hearing what they think be repeated back to them from, you know, a multitude of people, okay. It reminds me of the saying that none of us is as dumb as all of us. None of us is as dumb as all of us, right. You know, people as an individual basis can often be reasoned with. You can talk sense into a person. If you talk to them like a person, you reason with them, challenge their thinking, you know, if they're, you know, someone who can receive correction maybe if it's needed or whatever, there are people who can be reasoned with. But it's hard to get a crowd to do what they need to do. Trust me, I know, okay. It's hard to get a whole group of people to get on board with something, right. You'll just be overrun often, okay. Now if you would go over to Proverbs chapter 1, verse 5, Proverbs chapter 1, verse 5. And this is something we need to be careful of today because there's so many voices in the world, right. There's so many people out there trying to influence us, teach us things, instruct us in things, and influence us out there today. People are very open to being influenced, okay. And we can find somebody who maybe is charismatic or has a following of some kind and we'll just instantly give that person credence because of their background or something. And we'll just blindly believe whatever it is that we're being taught. This is not good. But this is the danger of when people get together. This is why none of us is as dumb as all of us. Because it's just something about when people get together or someone sees somebody that has a large group of people, they're just something about that they just drop their guard and they're more open to just believing whatever they're being taught, okay. We talked about last week, you know, that they that were in Thessalonica were more noble, excuse me, those that were in Berea were more noble than they in Thessalonica because they searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things were such. We need to learn to be wise and discerning people and not believe everything that we're told, okay. And it's interesting because we can often, if we're just talking to a person, an individual, we can kind of sniff out people when they're, you know, lying to us or trying to tell us something isn't true. But if you take that same person and put a crowd behind them, all of a sudden it lends validity to them. And, you know, just something about human nature, we just kind of start to drop our guard and just believe whatever it is we're being told. I mean, think about examples of this throughout history, okay. How do you have a fascist regime like, you know, the Socialist Party come to power in Germany, right, when you have Adolf Hitler and all the atrocities that he committed and all the, you know, the war, you know, trying to take on the world, you know, all of that. How does that happen, right? Well, you have a charismatic leader, then you have people get behind him, and then the general, you know, the Populist just says, well, I mean, look, he's got, he's in political power, he's got all these people. And obviously, you know, there was things that he was saying, he was appealing to them, yada, yada, yada. But the point is, is that people can be swayed, a multitude can go and do evil, and we, as God's people, have to be careful not to fall down that rabbit hole, to not be taken in by charlatans, to not be taken in by con men, to not be taken in by those that are teaching lies, okay. Look at Proverbs chapter 1, verse 5. A wise man will hear and will increase learning. A wise man will hear and increase learning. You know, wise people hear and they learn, right. And this is kind of, you know, an ubiquitous statement. Is it really, you know, what exactly does that mean? Well, it can be taken in different ways, right. A wise man will hear something and he'll maybe increase in learning in the sense that he's assimilating information that is factual, right. He's adding that to his knowledge, his base of knowledge. You know, he's increasing his intellect, right, through the things that he's taking in and learning. Or another way in which a person can learn is that a wise man hears and has discernment and learns that there's some people out there that are full of it, that are out there to just try and pull the wool over your eyes. That is a form of learning, isn't it? You know, because some people don't understand this. Some people miss this. This is something that has to be learned, that not everybody is telling the truth out there, that there's people out there that are trying to take advantage of you. People are very naive when it comes to this sometimes. And a lot of times people have to go through that. They have to be taken in by somebody before they learn this truth, okay. But a wise man will hear that, they'll understand that, and they'll increase in learning. Notice how the verse ends, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. We have to be careful about the counsel that we keep. We have to be careful about the information that we take in, the individuals that are teaching us things. We shouldn't just have an open mind and just believe everything that we hear. Because you're going to end up believing lies, right, because people are out there to lie and take advantage of other people. It's out there. Go to Proverbs chapter number 14, Proverbs chapter number 14. You know, the Bible is warning us here in Genesis of the dangers of when groups of people get together. You know, there's just something that's inherently evil about that. You know, it leads to more wickedness. It leads to sin. I mean, God's like, no, we're not doing this again. We've got to get rid of it. You know, we need to apply this to our lives tonight. What can we learn about that? What is it about when people get together? Well, it causes people to drop their guard sometimes and just believe things. Look at Proverbs 14, verse 15, the simple believeth every word. Now, is being simple necessarily a bad thing, right? It's kind of, you know, bring it into the modern vernacular. I don't know that would necessarily translate into something like stupid, right? That might be more like if you were brute, right? If you were a brute, you're, you know, a brute beast is a stupid animal. Okay? I think simple is just people who are lacking understanding, people who have yet to learn, right? They're just simple in their understanding. They're not being discerning. And simple people who are not discerning, they believe every word, everything they hear. Oh, someone just says something and they just believe it. They just go along with it. Well, that sounds right. That sounds good. Here's the problem with that. People can be incredibly convincing. Look, people are falling for stuff today left and right. With the advent of social media being as popular as it is, people are believing things that are utter nonsense, okay? And, you know, I'm going to focus in on one particular area, and this is in the area of health and wellness. This is one area in which a lot of people are being taken in by frauds and charlatans, okay? They just hear them say something on TikTok or YouTube or on the internet somewhere and they say, well, that sounds good. And they speak with such confidence. They speak so boldly, this must be true. And they just believe it. That's a very simple way to go through life. You know, just being convinced that something's factual because somebody is charismatic. Or is just, you know, presenting anecdotal evidence for some claim that they're making. Good night. There's people out there today, like literally I saw the video today, that are making statements like, you have to have this special type of wand and you stir it in water to make the water more cohesive. Or, no, I'm sorry, that would actually make sense, cohesive. At least that would kind of maybe apply. His word was coherent. I don't know how you make water coherent, okay? And look, this is a popular person. Thousands and thousands of subscribers. Millions of views. It's the same guy that went, probably is, but the same guy that Dana White went to. Apparently Dana White went somewhere and lost a bunch of weight and he's singing this guy's praises. It's the same guy who says, you've got to get one of these wands and stir it in this water. As I travel with this wand, everywhere I go, it's got the mother water in it and when I put it in there, it makes the water, you know, it helps it bond differently. Because we all know that if you speak or pray over water, on a molecular level, it takes a different form. Right? You say, who would believe that? Lots of people. I guarantee you there's people buying that wand out there. And this isn't, I'm not talking about like centuries ago. This is like right now. This is the kind of stuff that's going on. And, you know, we as God's people and people in general need to be discerning about the people that we listen to. And not believe all words that are spoken, okay? Because you'll get taken in. If you're simple and just believe every word, you're going to end up getting taken in by a charlatan. Okay? And look, just so, you know, to spare anybody embarrassment, because I'm sure people maybe or maybe not, I'm not going to be so bold to say everyone's experienced this in their life, because I'm convinced there's some people that have never, who have been smart enough to just never been taken in, you know, other than maybe when they were a child, you know, and their uncle went, ooh, see, my thumb comes off, you know. And that's when they learned, you know, that people are trying to trick you, okay? There's probably some people, that's when they learned, okay? But just to put everyone kind of at ease, you know, this is, I've been taken in by things. And, you know, one particular instance was, you know, I have, I don't know how you're supposed to pronounce it, tinnitus, tinnitus, I don't know, tinnitus, that's how I say it, you know. I've heard it pronounced both ways, who cares? It sucks, either way, right? And this is something that I have constantly ringing in the air, it's just constantly, okay? And when you have an ailment like that, not that that's, you know, that could still function, but, you know, when you have something that's a nuisance like that, an annoyance like that, you want to get rid of it. And you'll do, well, I won't say you're going to do anything, because I won't do anything, right? But then you'll start, where's the first place you go? YouTube. How to get rid of tinnitus. Oh, you just flick the back of your head like this for three minutes, you know, and if you do that long enough, in this particular spot in the back of your head, it'll go away. And people will say that so confidently, and you say, did you do that? Yep. Because they were so convincing, and I was like, maybe this works, maybe it's something about the nerves back there, and the resonating, and then after, as soon as I got done doing it, I said, I'm an idiot. Why did I believe this guy? And that, you know, that's, I just accepted it at that point, there is no cure, I don't know. You know, then there's other people like, oh, you take spoons and you click them together under your ear, right? I didn't do that, right? But, you know, here's the thing, you know, people get taken in out of desperation, right? People are so desperate for relief from something, or they're afraid of something, that they'll just take anything in. They're grasping, right? Because this is one of the major rules in marketing. You do not sell the solution, you sell the problem. You sell fear. You want people to come to you for, and buy what you're selling, get them scared. Make them, you know, you have to sell the need. Everyone follow? Right, you don't go, oh, here's a wand that, you know, makes water more coherent. Oh, I didn't know that was a problem. Oh, yeah, that's a big problem, right? You know, you start out with the problem. Water's not coherent enough, you need wands, right? That's a very silly example, but this is, it illustrates my point, okay? That people, out of desperation, will start to believe anything that they hear. I know a guy who, in fact it was my dad, when my uncle first started going bald, and he was trying to get rid of his baldness. He said, hey, my dad told him, my dad was, my dad would have made a great snake oil salesman, because he could pitch things so straight faced and so convincing, and that's where I get it. I have inherited that, and I have to keep in check, right? Because I realize, like, I can say things so convincing that people will believe me. And even if I'm joking, like, they won't get the joke, they'll walk away thinking that windmills make wind, right? I can convince people, you know, that's another thing to convince people of, right? Or that, you know, the sun sets in Arizona, that's why everything's so dry, right? That's probably an easier one on kids. But he told my uncle, hey, if you want to fix your baldness, just go into the bathroom and turn the comb over, and just lightly tap your head for about, you know, five, ten minutes at a time every day, that'll stimulate the hair follicles and cause it to grow. And then, and the story goes, my uncle after hearing that disappeared for about five or ten minutes, came back, and his scalp was red, and he was, you know, no more hair grown. He's bald to this day, right? Now, you say, now, here's the real conundrum, here's the real catch. Is that, was that story my dad telling, selling me a bill of goods, or did that actually happen? I don't know, okay? But there's, my point is, there's people out there that'll say things and lie to your face and tell you things that take advantage of you and your desperation just for cheap kicks. Just to have a funny story to tell, just to get a laugh, right? Which I can appreciate, okay? But you know what, there's a lot of other people out there that'll do the exact same thing because they want your money. And that's how they, you know, finance all their exotic trips to all their speaking engagements around the world. And that's how they finance their, you know, their lifestyle, basically. It's by fleecing you, by convincing you of something that's not true, because you're so desperate, you've become simple in your understanding. This is, and you say, why do people fall for it? Because they have a following. Because they'll get a big crowd together and they sound very convincing and, you know, people get together and they say it's true and they repeat things and it's like it's own, it's like they're, that's the validation. There's so many people are saying what they're saying. You know, the health and wellness area in particular that I'm focusing on tonight is full of quacks and it always has been. Medicine, health and wellness, that industry has always been full of quacks and charlatans and frauds because, again, how do you get, how do you hook people? By taking advantage of what they're afraid of. And look, every person, you know, like Satan told Job, all that a man hath he will give for his life, right? People can go without a lot of things. You start to affect their health, they'll do anything. They'll become desperate, right? And people know this. And that's why the health and wellness industry has always been full of frauds and charlatans and quacks and always will be. And that's why it is incumbent upon us to be discerning and to not be simple and not to believe every word but to, you know, attain unto wise counsels and use our heads when we're navigating these waters. Go to Proverbs chapter 20. This is one of my favorite verses in Proverbs in verse 5. This is such a great verse. There's so much meaning in it. I know I've brought it up several times in several different sermons. The Bible says in Proverbs 20 verse 5, counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out, right? So he's likening counsel in a man's heart like unto a well. It's like deep water that's way down there. That's because you draw water out of a well, right? But a man of understanding will draw it out of him. You know, people who really have knowledge, people who are truly experts aren't the ones out there just espousing everything that they believe, okay? And this is, you know, really this is to their detriment sometimes, okay? Because you say, how do people get taken in by these frauds, these charlatans, and these quacks? It's because often those same people can speak with such authority. They speak just so knowingly. They just state things as if it's fact. Whereas a real expert, especially in the area of medicine and human biology, is very hesitant to just make blanket statements. And as a result, it makes them sound less confident, right? So a lot of times people, especially people who are desperate for some kind of a solution or afraid of something, they'll hear an actual expert and they'll only hear a fraud. And they'll go with the fraud because just because of the fact the fraud is more charismatic. The fraud is more convincing because they just say things with such certainty. Whereas the true expert who has real understanding, it's just it's down there like deep water. It doesn't come out easily. You know, they're more hesitant to just make, you know, absolute statements, to just say things with complete certainty, okay? Because they understand that things, especially human biology, is very nuanced and very incredibly complicated, okay? You want to spot a fraud? You know, listen to how often they say things with just complete confidence as if it's just a fact and offer no evidence. That should be your first clue this person is full of crap, okay? Because they make outrageous claims. And here's a good rule of thumb is that outrageous claims must be backed up with outrageous evidence. If you have some great, bold, huge claim, there better be a mountain of evidence behind you. And claims that are made without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. So why don't you believe it? Because you have no evidence, okay? If I made an outrageous statement, an outrageous claim, then there must be a very convincing body of evidence to back up an outrageous claim, right? Otherwise, what are you basing it on? Nothing. There's nothing to back it up. Well, then I don't have to believe it, right? True experts are hesitant and they're taken as unconfident, right? Because a lot of times, and here's the thing, and I know I'm kind of ranting tonight, but here's the thing. Like, I think people today, especially in the society that we're living in, they're kind of, they take for granted, you know, the age that they're living in and how complicated and how, really how, you know, blessed we are to have the, you know, medical advantages that we do, right? Like, you get a cut, it's not a death sentence anymore, right? You get a deep cut, you can go get that stitched up and you can take antibiotics. That's a good thing. Like, that's a really, the people did not have that for a very long time. Like, that was a death, people died all the time. And we have all of these comforts and all of these advantages when it comes to medical treatment that we take it for granted. We really do. And what's really, you know, always boggles my mind is when people turn on the medical industry and just demonize the whole thing. It's all big pharma. It's all one giant conspiracy to hide all the, you know, it's like, no, it's not. There's a lot of great things that have come out of medicine, right? But that, and I just like, I try to like, I was thinking, how can I get people to understand, like, how truly complicated, like, and how medicine is? And like, I mean, I don't understand it all. I'm not an expert in that field. That's why I don't try to make any assertions or make any claims about this stuff. But just think about for a second, if we just lost everything we knew about medicine, like, it was just gone. Tomorrow, we woke up, we knew nothing. Everything about human biology, you know, anatomy, just all of it, it's just gone. Books were burned. We had to start from scratch. There was no experts. Nobody knew anything. Now we have to start all over. Think about that. Do you know how many lifetimes, how many centuries it would take to get back to where we are? It would take centuries of people discovering things. We'd have to be like, well, let's get a cadaver and figure out, you know, what's inside again. Because that's where it started. When you think about it, somebody had to go, well, let's cut open this body and start naming these organs. What are organs? Well, let's find out. You know, let's go, let's look and see. What's this thing that squeezes? Well, I don't know. What should we call that? Well, it's in the middle of the body, you know, the core. Let's call it the heart. I wonder what it does. Right? I mean, just think about it. Like, and it's just centuries of people, like, becoming experts and learning things and are just, you know, they're learning and they're standing on the backs of the generations that came before them. And we finally arrive to where we are today, where people are just doing the most profound things in human biology. And we have so much understanding. Like, to be able to, you know, be like on a molecular level, to be able to bond, you know, some way to track an atom or a molecule through the mechanisms of human biology. Like, it's, like, how do you even begin to do that? Collect that data and then present that data, interpret that data, and then apply it. It's, look, the medical field is so complex because the human body is so complex, it's just unfathomable to even begin to understand it and how deep it goes. And when people just write it off, they say, oh, it's just this big for-profit, you know, just evil consortium of people. Doctors are just a bunch of mustache-twisting, you know, greedy people that are just trying to take advantage. It's, like, you have no idea how complex and how difficult it is to understand all that stuff. You know why doctors and experts get paid so much money? Because they dedicate their lives to those sciences. You have to dedicate your life to understand that stuff. And talented and intelligent people who work hard at that stuff, they're not going to do it for free. They're not going to do it cheaply. They're going to take their abilities elsewhere where they can make money. That's why people make high salaries is because they're worth it. You know, that's why people who run large institutions get the corner office because they understand how to work in an organization and how to make a large, you know, organism like an organization operate the way it ought to and to be profitable or successful in whatever it's endeavoring to do. Those people that have that ability, that have educated themselves and taken the time to learn those things are worth every penny, okay? You know, just because somebody's making a lot of money at something doesn't necessarily make an evil person. But this is what a lot of people do in the health and wellness crowd today. They just write off doctors. They just write off institutions. They just write off entire sciences like human biology and all these other areas and just and so they can promote whatever their shtick is because they're charlatans, because they're frauds, because they're quacks. And people fall for it because they've got a crowd, because they've got a lot of people. And this is what the problem, this is the problem with groups of people getting together. People just drop their guard and they just go along with whatever they're being told. You know, here's the thing. You know, it's one thing to be taken in by these things. It's another thing to start repeating it. You know, we've got to be careful about the things that we repeat. We've got to be careful about what it is that we're going to share with other people. You know, if we're not experts, if we're not confident in that area, if we don't know what we're talking about, you know, let's just not talk about it. You know, there's a lot of things I'm never going to talk about from behind this pulpit because I'm not an expert. You know, I'm not going to get up and expound things that I have no, you know, knowledge or understanding in, okay? Because people who really know that are going to, you know, see it for what it is. You know, there's this thing out there. It's called the Nobel Prize disease or Nobel Prize symptom or syndrome, Nobel Prize syndrome. And it's an interesting thing because it shows you how even incredibly intelligent people can be taken in by just utter nonsense. You know, if you go look this up, it'll blow your mind. There are Nobel Prize winning people, which the Nobel Prize is handed out to very usually intelligent people for having accomplished something great. But some of those same people who are experts in one field are complete buffoons in another. They're complete idiots. They believe nonsense. There's, you know, Nobel Prize winners that believe it, you know, have believed in like crystals. You know, there's probably, you know, they'd probably buy the wand, right? Because they're an expert in this area. But here's the thing, you know, you can learn anything but you can't learn everything. You can learn anything but you can't learn everything. That's why there's people who specialize in things, right? And they'll be, you know, they'll understand how to split the atom over here or whatever but then it's like, but they're also, you know, eugenicists, you know? They're also racist or something like that. They also, you know, just believe bizarre things. I'm trying to think of some of the examples I read but it's escaping me. But, you know, this is something that's been fraught in medicine since, throughout its entire existence. Do you know, did you know at one time people thought the cure for cancer was to sacrifice a cat or a dog or a rabbit on the tumor? And that's like within the last few hundred years. That's the solution that they had. There's all kinds of bizarre, you know, they used to think, here's one you'll like. The cure for hemorrhoids is to burn it out with a hot iron. Right? No thanks. Pass. But people believed just bizarre things when it comes to this stuff. Oh, you know how to get rid of warts? Is you trace your hand and then you draw where the warts are on your hand on the piece of paper and then you go bury it under a full moon and your warts will go away. People believe this stuff and people do it. Right? Because if you have warts you're desperate to get rid of it. You'll do anything. And there's one particular area, and this, this is, you know, kind of gets to me. Okay? Is when people start to tout cures for cancer. Okay? Because if there's one thing that people are desperate to get rid of, it's cancer. Okay? And, you know, as somebody who has lost one parent at a very young age to cancer and has another one that's dying of cancer right now as we speak. My dad's in hospice with brain cancer. It's like I get a little fired up when I hear people start to make claims about the cure, that they have the cure for cancer. Okay? You know, as somebody who's married someone who lost their dad to colon cancer at a young age, tragically, you know, it just, it really gets under my skin when I start to hear charlatans and frauds get up and claim that they have a cure for cancer. Okay? You want to know what the cure for cancer is? There isn't one. Deal with it. Okay? There is no cure for cancer. The best you can hope for is to put it into remission. Okay? Now look, if people, and this is one of the ways I don't understand, is like why people get so obsessed about the cure for cancer when they don't have cancer. Like why are you so worried about the cure for cancer? Do you have cancer? No. Then why do you care? It doesn't matter. You don't have it. Go live your life. Worry about when you get it. You know, and if you live long enough and you get it in your 80s, you'll probably just be like, well, it was a good run anyway. You know, I'm not going to start chewing tin foil under a full moon to get rid of cancer. And look, if people have such, and look, if people who get cancer want to go down these holistic plasts, that's fine. Like I'm not saying that that's wrong. If people who have cancer, however they choose to treat cancer, it's fine with me. Whatever approach they take, if they want to go and get chemotherapy and radiation and have it cut out and go through all that, great. If they want to go and just go on an all vegetarian diet, look, if they want to lay on their back and squirt coffee up their butt and think they're going to get rid of cancer, which is a solution that's out there, that they say, they tell, this will kill cancer, just give yourself a coffee enema. You know, if you have cancer, fine, go do that. You know, God bless you. I hope it works, honestly. Because dying of cancer, it can be a long, protracted, painful, debilitating, humiliating way to die. Okay? So if that's what you want to do, go ahead. But what really pisses me off is when I hear some charlatan get up and just make some bold claim that they've cured cancer and nobody else has figured it out and it just screams fraud and they're just playing on people's, their fears and their apprehensions. It just, quite frankly, just pisses me off beyond measure. Because it really pisses me off. It doesn't really piss me off, but it concerns me when I see God's people get taken in by this kind of stuff and fall for this crap. You know, we are supposed to speak truth with every man. Speak every man truth with his neighbor. We don't want to go around perpetuating lies. Look, if you, if somebody in this church or other churches has cancer, do not go to that person and tell them your take on the cure for cancer. Please, don't go tell them, you know, if you just get rid of all of, you know, everything that emits a microwave in your house and get rid of all the Wi-Fi routers and no cell phones and you eat, you know, just drink blended kale for the next 30 days. You know, don't go give them your cure for cancer. Let them figure that out. It's such a huge personal decision. You say, why is that? Because people do it. People walk right up to somebody who has cancer and say, well, you know how to get rid of that, right? Look, if there was a cure for cancer, there would be a billionaire out there right now. There would be a trillionaire. If you came up with a cure for cancer, you could charge whatever you want. Because that's kind of the take on cancer, isn't it? They'll say, oh, you know, they're just hiding the cure for cancer. Really? You really think that? The people that have, and do you have any idea how complicated it is to even understand cancer at all? On a molecular level? To even begin to comprehend how cancer works? You know how many different types of cancer there are? I don't. I can't begin to explain it. But you know what? I've listened to actual experts. I've listened to people talk who have dedicated their life to the study of cancer. Okay? And they use big words. And not because they're trying to show off, it's just how they talk. They have their whole, a whole other vocabulary. And they understand it on a very, very deep level. Okay? And they'll tell you. There's no cure. You know? Prevention is your best bet. And if you get it, you know, there's a lot of different routes you can go, but there's nothing's guaranteed. Okay? I know I'm kind of ranting, but it's just, you know, this stuff drives me nuts when I see quacks. When I see charlatans. When I see people taking advantage of other people's fears. It drives me nuts. If there was a cure for cancer, we would know it. Because there'd be somebody, if you had the cure for cancer, you could charge whatever you want and people would pay it. What price would you pay to get rid of cancer? I'd, you'd sell everything. You would sell everything you have to get rid of a fatal disease. You would go, if you said, hey, if you ended up on the street, penniless, begging, you'd say, well, at least I don't have cancer. You know, I know I'm sleeping under the underpass, but I'm alive. Because all that a man has is a chili gift for his skin. Right? That means this, that if they had the cure for cancer, they'd just be, they'd just be counting the dollars. Right? Like AIDS medicine. Right? Not cheap. Right? Say no, they want to sell the therapy. They want to sell the chemo. It's like, no, you could make a lot more. You could charge whatever you want if you had the cure for cancer. And the health insurance companies would say, we'll back that up. And it would just go through the roof. And people would pay it. How do you know people would pay it? Because people are desperate to hear what the cure for cancer is, and they'll do all kinds of wacky things. It's out there. That's why they have a bunch, there's so many people out there today, that are just saying whatever they want, and people are believing it. They're just making bold claims with no evidence. And if people come to you and want to, and look, this goes for anything. Anything in life. If people want to come to you and say, this is fact. You know, you could just say citation, please. Citation desperately needed. Back it up. Where's the evidence? And what we don't want to be is people who, in the face of evidence, denied reality. This is incredibly frustrating. When you can show people point blank the truth. You can show them facts. You can show them evidence. You can show them studies. You can show them hard data. And they'll go, I just don't believe that. And they'll have an excuse to just dismiss everything that you show them. You know, that's called being hard-hearted, stiff-necked, and ignorant. Okay? There's nothing wrong with being simple. Everyone's simple from time to time. Look, there's plenty of areas that we're all simple in. You know, I'm, you know, there's probably a lot of things out there that you guys know that are probably near experts in that I'm very simple. Put me on the piano tonight for the last song. Watch what happens. It's going to sound just like that because I'm not going to touch a key. Right? But you've got other guys in here that know a piano, that know chords, that know scales. It's okay to be simple. But if you're simple in something, understand that. And understand there's people out there that are willing to take advantage of you being simple. They'll be glad to do it. And they'll be glad to take your money. So this, I don't know how this, I got this out of Genesis 11, but I did. Okay? Obviously I've got an ax to grind tonight. But, you know, it's kind of there when you think about it. God looks at a bunch of people getting together and says, this isn't good. Everything they imagine they'll do. They'll just start doing wicked things. They'll start teaching wicked things. When people get together, when there's large crowds, it lends validity to people. Right? And people will just unquestioningly believe other people because of the fact that they have a crowd. Because they have a following. I mean, if all these other people believe this, it must be true. That's a simple way to go through life. That's not discerning. Follow not a multitude to do sin. Follow not a multitude to do wickedness. Let's move on though. Okay? I do want to wrap up the chapter. I'm not going to read the litany of names. But look at verse 7. The Bible says, Go to, let us go down. Right? So another great verse on the Trinity. Let us go down. Right? You can't even get past, you know, Genesis 11. But having read, God referred himself in the plural form twice. Right? Because he said, let us make man in our image. Right? Now you have let us go down. And therefore can count their language. Which it means this. This is why I believe that even in Jesus' day, the Trinity was understood. Okay? This was not a mystery. I don't believe this was a mystery to the apostles or the Jews. I don't believe it was a mystery for many thousands of years leading up to the time of Christ. Because the verse is like this. Like what other conclusion would you come to about that? Well God must not know how to talk about himself. He's just using his preferred pronoun or something. No. He's referring himself. He's saying let us because God is a triune being. Which is why when you get into the Gospels, when Jesus asked Peter, who say men that I, you know, whom say men? And they said, you know, one of the prophets, yada, yada, yada. He said, but whom say ye that I am? Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Who told you God had a son? Right? They knew that. They understood that when Jesus showed up. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. That's why the Jews sought to kill him because he said also that God was his father making himself equal. Right? They didn't say he said that God was his father and this is a totally new concept and that's heresy. They understood that there was an equal to God. It was his son and that there was more than one person in the Trinity. Okay? Verse 8. I love verse 8 because it's kind of funny. It just always, I don't know, it just struck me funny because if you go back and you look at verse 4, again the reason why they built Babylon, right? The Tower of Babel. Lest we be scattered abroad. You know, man just makes his plans. You know, we're going to build this tower. We're all going to stay right here and we're all just going to do whatever we want and it's going to be great. You know, I know God told Noah that we need to cover the earth and replenish the yada, yada, yada and multiply, but we're all just going to stay right here and we're going to do just like we were before the flood. And we're not, and lest, and they say, and we're not going to be scattered abroad. Lest we be scattered abroad. Then he gets to verse 8. So the Lord scattered them abroad. It's just like, good luck. You know, your stupid tower didn't work out very well. And it's just, you know, the well-played plans of mice and men often come to naught, right? You can sit there and plot against God and God's just going to go. You know, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. And God's just like, no, you're not. I just, I don't know. It just struck me as funny. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of the earth and they left off to build the city. There is the name, therefore it is the name of it, it's called Babel because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth. And from thence to the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth. I mean, it's kind of, and we really start, look, if you want to get, you know, if you want to make your Bible reading more alive, you have to put your imagination to it. You have to stop and think, what must that have been like? And when you start to do that, sometimes it gets kind of humorous, right? Imagine being on a job on a crew with guys and then just from one moment to the next, everyone's speaking a different language, right? You know, you're working with a crowd, you know, you're with some guy and then he just starts speaking Japanese, this guy starts speaking Hindi, you know, I'd say Spanish, but probably most people already do, right? You know, you'd just be like, pass me that thing, they'd be like, right, they're all moving the plans up inside, what language are these plans written in? Man, I can't make sense of this. So you can see how that, just that one thing, it was so easy for God. God's just like, none of you understand each other anymore, right? And then everybody that spoke this language had to get together and then, you know, everyone spoke this language had to get there and go over here and kind of all go do their own thing. God just had to change one little thing to just ruin all their plans and send everybody in a totally different direction and do the one thing that they said they weren't going to do, right? We're not going to be scattered abroad. Well, yes you are. Let me show you how easy it is. You know, and that, it's the same thing in the end times, you know, when those kings deliver up their power to the beast and he reigns for his short time, and they think, we got him, we're going to win. God's just going to be like, nope. Let me show you how easy it's going to be. God does whatever he pleases. God does whatever he wants. There's no stopping him. Let's jump to the end here. Go to verse 27. It says, Now these are the generations of Tyra. Tyra begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father. Tyra in the land of his nativity in the era of Chaldees. And Abram took Nahor, excuse me, and Abram and Nahor took them wives. The names of Abram's wife was Sarai. And the name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, the son of Iscah. But Sarai was barren. She had no child. Now notice verse 31. It says, And Tyra took Abram, so Tyra, Abram's father, took Abram his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his son's son, his nephew, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. And they went forth with them from the era of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. Now, why is this significant? Because when you get to chapter 12, it says, The Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country. So you kind of get more of the back story in the next chapter, right? You see what's going on here. We learn in chapter 12 that God told Abram specifically to go and to leave his family behind. But Abram, you know, he must have expressed this to Tyra. And Tyra said, Oh, well, I'm your dad. I'll take you. We'll all go together as a big family. And notice, here's the problem with this, is that they went forth from the land of Ur, the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. So that's telling us that it was their motive, right? Tyra was like, Oh, you're going to need to go into the land of Canaan? Sure, we'll go. So they started out with, Oh, okay, we're all going to go to the Canaan. And they came unto Haran and dwelt there. So they didn't even make it, okay? So Abram is given a very explicit charge in chapter 12, verse 1, which becomes before, you know, in the story, what we're reading right now, okay? This is telling us the events. Chapter 12, verse 1 is telling us why those events took place, okay? Abram gets a specific charge from God to go to the land of Canaan to leave his father, to leave his kindred and to go. But he ends up taking his nephew, or his cousin, he ends up going with his dad, right? And they all go together. And they don't go to where they're supposed to be, although they set out with that intent. And what we learn from this is that you must take responsibility for yourself in all areas of life. You know, spiritually you must take responsibility for yourself. You cannot rely on somebody else's spirituality to get you through. You can't rely on your pastors. You can't rely on your parents. I mean, their spirituality should guide you and help you and be an example to you. But we all must learn to stand on our own two feet spiritually. If all others forsake us, if we go without these other people, we should be able to stand on our own two feet spiritually and not rely on somebody else, okay? And I'm not saying this is always the case, but it is in Abrams. If we rely too much on other people, we leave ourselves open to being led elsewhere. You know, somewhere where we should not be, right? Not following through in what it is we're supposed to be doing, okay? We have to learn to stand on our own two feet in spirituality in all areas. You know, like I was saying earlier, especially when it comes to your own health and well-being. That's your responsibility. And if we just are relying too much on other people to give us, you know, to just give us information, we might end up somewhere we don't want to be. You know, we might end up dead, you know, going back to the example of cancer. There's been plenty of people who got cancer, went down the holistic path and died, okay? And look, I get it. There's been plenty of people that went the other route, went with traditional medicine and died too, okay? So who's right? Who's wrong? You know, I don't know. Probably the people who got facts, actual data and studies behind backing up what they're saying. But if we just, you know, if we just rely on other people to tell us everything we believe and not discern things, spiritually, with our health, our finances, whatever it is, if we have to take responsibility for ourselves, you know, it's upon us to hold fast to that which is good, to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good. That's something we have to do. We have to see whether these things be so. We can't just swallow things hook, line and sinker without testing them first, without trying spirits, so on and so forth, okay? Because that's kind of what Abram did in the story. Hey, Dad, I need to go to Canaan. God told me to go to Canaan. Well, let's all go together. Oh, okay. And he ends up in Haran and it's not until his dad dies that he actually moves on, okay? Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, again, thank you for the Bible. Thank you for those that have come out tonight, the preaching of it. Lord, I pray that something I said tonight was of value and is profitable and, Lord, I pray that you help us to be discerning people and to not be simple in our understanding and to understand that there's people in this world that want to take advantage of us and, Lord, that there's people in this world that have our best interests in mind and, Lord, certainly can be guides to us. But even then, Lord, we have to learn to not rely on them, that the only people we can count on in this world truly are ourselves and you above all things. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the Bible, Lord, that it is something that is true and pure and right, Lord, and it's a rock that we can build our lives upon, Lord. Help us to do that. We ask in Christ's name, Amen. Alright, I'd like to sing one more song before we go. Let's open up our hymnals to a song of 308. A song of 308, I swear to God. I swear to God, I surrender All to Him I freely give I will ever love and trust Him In His presence within me I surrender all to Him I surrender all All to Thee my blessed Savior I surrender all All to Jesus I surrender All the earth is clean I bow Worldly pleasures Lord forsaken Holy Jesus take me now I surrender all I surrender all All to Thee my blessed Savior I surrender all All to Jesus I surrender Make me sing your holy hymn Let me feel the Holy Spirit Do we know that Thou art mine I surrender all I surrender all All to Thee my blessed Savior I surrender all All to Jesus I surrender all I surrender all Give my soul to Thee Give me with my love Thou art my blessed Savior I surrender all All to Thee my blessed Savior I surrender all . . . . .