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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. Let's lift our voices on that verse together now. 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. 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.