(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, Isaiah chapter number one in our Bibles. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter number one. Isaiah chapter number one. Isaiah chapter number one, beginning of verse number one. The Bible reads, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, oh heavens, and give ear, oh earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib. But Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, nor neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Your land, strangers devoured in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth. They are a trouble unto me. I'm weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. How has the faithful city become a harlot? It was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. Thy silver has become dross, thy wine mixed with water. Thy princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loveth gifts and followeth after rewards. They judge not the fatherless, neither did the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies. And I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross and take away all thy tin. And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning. Afterward, thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and are converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together. And they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed, for they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired. And ye shall be confounded for the gardens that you've chosen. For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark. And they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them." Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity to look within your word once again. Lord God, thank you for those that are here, Lord. And the Lord, I pray that you'd bless those that are tuned in at home as well. And please just bless every part of this sermon. Let it honor and glorify you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit as I preach. And in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. The title of my sermon this morning is, Let Us Reason Together. Come, Let Us Reason Together. Verse 18 of Isaiah chapter 1 says, come now and let us reason together, sayeth the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Go if you would to Romans chapter number 12. Romans chapter 12. God is a reasonable God. God is not an unreasonable or illogical God. The things that God says make sense. The things that God does make sense, right? He is a God of logic and reason and rational thinking. The Bible says in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So here we have the apostle Paul beseeching the brethren to make their bodies a living sacrifice unto God. And he's using reason to do that. He's using logic and saying, look, this is a reasonable thing for you to do. So when we have Bible doctrines or when we have preaching or when we have ideas, they should make sense. They shouldn't just be based on feelings or emotions or just our gut or whatever. We should base things on something that actually adds up. It actually makes sense. Look, God is the creator of the universe. And we can learn about God through reading the Bible. But we can also learn about God from the natural world. And we see that God has created an orderly universe. It's governed by all kinds of laws of physics and different things that make it operate the way that it does. And it's all very reasonable and logical. Now, the Bible often makes logical arguments. Like, for example, just go back one page to Romans chapter 11 verse 6 and look at this logical argument in Romans 11 verse 6. It says, and if by grace, then is it no more of works? Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace? Otherwise, work is no more work. Now, look, that's a pretty clear statement arguing from logic the stupidity of believing in a workspace salvation. Just logically, you cannot make this work. You cannot say salvation is by grace, but then there's also work involved. And if salvation is by works, don't try to say that there's grace involved. He's saying, look, this does not compute, basically. If you put this into a computer, it's just going to come back with an error message telling you, this does not compute. See, God is a God of logic and reason. And if you read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, guess what? The Bible makes sense. If you read Romans chapter 1 to Romans 16, everything makes sense. God is a God that makes sense and uses reason. Here's another type of reasonable argument from the Bible. You don't have to turn there. If you would, turn to Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12, but in Hebrews chapter 8, 13, it says, in that he saith a new covenant, he had made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. So we see here, again, the Bible using an argument from logic, saying, look, you can't have something new if something old doesn't exist, right? There has to be something old. If we're saying a new covenant, then that means that the first one has become old, right? So God is constantly using these arguments from logic. In the book of Job, Job says in Job chapter 13, verse 6, hear now my reasoning and hearken to the pleadings of my lips. Now, what does it mean when God says, let us reason together? What does it mean to be reasonable or logical or rational? Here's what it means. If I said, what's the reason? Or if we talked about the reason for the season, what is a reason? A reason is a cause, right? If I said, what is your reason? It's basically saying, what is causing that? What is causing you to feel that way? What is causing you to believe that? So reason has to do with cause and effect, OK? Things don't just happen for no reason. There's a cause of why things happen. Now, look at Mark chapter 12, and I'm going to show you another scripture about Jesus actually reasoning. What's the title of the sermon? Let us reason together. God is a God that reasons with you. The Bible says in Mark chapter 12, verse 18, then cometh unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, if a man's brother die and leave his wife behind him and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife and raise up seed into his brother. Now, there were seven brethren, and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. And the second took her and died, neither left he any seed. And the third likewise, and the seven had her and left no seed. Last of all, the woman died also. In the resurrection, therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? For the seven had her to wife. Now, these are people that don't believe in any kind of a resurrection. They don't believe in any kind of an afterlife. They think that it's just this life, and that's it. But yet, they're claiming to believe the Bible. They're claiming to worship the Lord. These people are the Sadducees. They don't believe in angels. They don't believe in spirits. They don't believe in the afterlife. But yet, they're claiming to believe the Bible, claiming to be following the Lord. They think they're so smug, because they came up with this weird scenario where they think they're going to stump Jesus, since they don't believe in the resurrection, saying, well, whose wife is this woman going to be, since she was married to seven different dudes in her lifetime? Which one is she going to be married to in the resurrection? It says in verse 24, and Jesus answering said unto them, do you not therefore err? Err means make an error. Do you not therefore err because you know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven. And as touching the dead that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He's not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. Ye therefore do greatly err. But look at the next verse in verse 28. It says, and one of the scribes came, and having heard them doing what? So what does the Bible call this exchange that we see here? Where the Sadducees come at Jesus and say, hey, you're preaching this doctrine about the resurrection. You're talking about the resurrection. We don't believe in the resurrection. Well, here, how do you answer this question? And then Jesus comes back at them and just completely destroys their argument. In fact, the Bible tells us elsewhere that after Jesus defeated them in this exchange, that people were afraid to even ask him a question after this. The Sadducees would not challenge him again because they got so humiliated in this encounter here where they tried to stump Jesus. But it says, and one of the scribes came in verse 28, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all? So when we see Jesus reasoning with the Sadducees, he answered well. He actually had the most reasonable belief and the most reasonable view. It turned out that it was actually the Sadducees who were unreasonable. Why? Because God is always reasonable. God is always right. God always makes sense. It's other people and false doctrines that don't make sense. Look what the Bible says in verse 28. He asked him a question, which is the first commandment of all? Because he heard the reasoning. Verse 29, Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, well, master, thou hast said the truth, for there is one God and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the soul and with all the strength and to love his neighbor as himself is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, thou are not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question. Durst is the past of dared, right? It's just basically saying they dared not ask him any question. Go if you would to the book of Proverbs chapter one. Proverbs chapter number one, God is reasonable. The things that he asked us to do are reasonable. That's why the Bible says this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. His commandments are not grievous. God is not asking us to do unreasonable things, grievous things. He's not trying to ruin our life. He's actually giving us commandments for our own good. And if we actually follow God's commandments and obey the Bible, we're gonna end up better off in life. We're gonna end up blessed. We're gonna end up happy. We're gonna end up in a way better position than going against God's word. Because God said in the Bible that he commanded the commandments for our good, for our benefit. We all had fathers of our flesh who chastened us after their own pleasure, right? We had our mom and dad that spanked us when we were a kid and they chastened us after our own pleasure. But the Bible says that when God chastens us, it's for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. So when God punishes us, it's for our benefit. It's for our profit. Why? Because it's reasonable what he's asking us to do, asking us to present our bodies of living sacrifice is reasonable, asking us to abstain from fornication or rather commanding us to abstain from fornication is reasonable. Commanding us not to drink is reasonable. Nothing good is gonna come from you drinking. Nothing good is gonna come from you committing adultery. Nothing good is gonna come from you committing fornication, stealing, murder, covetousness, you name it. Look, these things are gonna hurt you and they're gonna hurt the people around you. They're gonna hurt society. They're gonna hurt everybody. So God is giving you these reasonable commandments to keep you on the right path and he's doing it for your benefit. And if you wanna be happy in life, if you wanna be the blessed is the man, then you need to obey God's reasonable commandments, the reasonable things. He's not asking us to believe anything unreasonable. It's not like we open the Bible and it says that the earth was created on the back of a turtle or something and the turtle is swimming through space and there's nothing unreasonable like that in the Bible. Everything in the Bible is reasonable. God says, look, let's reason together because the things that he expects us to believe are reasonable, they're logical, they make sense. His commandments, you know, when you read through the books of Moses and read the commandments, even the commandments that atheists scoff at, you know, a wise person when they read those, they go, you know what, that makes sense why God commanded this. Oh, you know what, I bet I know why he commanded this. You're going through even some of the harder chapters with some of the commandments that really fly in the face of our modern culture, like let's say going through Exodus chapter 21, you know, you go through some of those things in Exodus chapter 21 and if you have wisdom, if you have understanding, the more that you learn about life, the more that you learn about people and then you go back to Exodus 21, you're like, you know, oh, that makes sense. Oh, now I get it. You know what, that used to seem weird to me but now I totally see why God did that because the things that God wants us to believe make sense, the things that he wants us to do make sense, he's a God of sense and logic and reason. Now Proverbs chapter one talks a lot about the subject of understanding. You know, there are three big words that come up a lot in Proverbs and these are knowledge, wisdom and understanding. This is kind of the trifecta. And the one that I want to focus on is the word understanding, okay, because understanding has to do with grasping things, seeing, you know, seeing how things fit together, how they work, just getting it, right? That's what it means to understand, to get it. Now in our modern vernacular, a lot of people use the word intelligence, okay? And intelligence simply means the ability to understand, understanding. You know, if you broke that down to its Latin root word, it means understanding, okay? And the Bible doesn't really use the word intelligence. It used it one time in the book of Daniel, but it's more like, you know, in the context of like, you know, military intelligence, right, so it uses that other meaning of intelligence. In the Bible though, what we mainly use the word intelligence for in 2020, the Bible typically used the word understanding, okay? Now look at some things that the Bible says here in Proverbs. It says in chapter one verse five, a wise man will hear, and when it says hear, it means basically to listen, not to just hear something, but to actually hear like you're paying attention and listening to it. A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. So right away at the very beginning of the book of the Proverbs, he's basically saying, this is who you wanna be. You wanna be a man of understanding. The Bible talks about the foolish man, the slothful man, the simple man. It talks about these different archetypes, but the one that you wanna be is you wanna be the man of understanding, right? You wanna be the guy who gets things, who grasps things. It says in verse seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. So basically the person who fears the Lord, that actually sets them on a path of learning. Okay, so if a person really truly fears God, you know what they're gonna wanna do? They're gonna wanna come to church and listen to the preaching of God's word so that they can learn more. They're gonna wanna read their Bible so that they can learn more. The fear of the Lord actually sends us to our Bible to say like, okay, we better figure out what God wants. Because if we actually fear the Lord and we tremble before him and respect him and realize that he's the boss, then we better figure out, okay, what's he telling us to do so that we can get it done? If you don't fear the Lord, you're gonna be like, oh, I don't have time to read the Bible, video games, TV, movies, just go play, whatever. Because you don't care, because you're not afraid of what God's gonna do to you if you don't take heed. You're not afraid of the dumb decisions you're gonna make because you didn't take heed. Whereas the person who fears the Lord begins what? They begin a path that leads them to knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So when you have the fear of the Lord in you, what is that starting in your life? It's starting what? A quest for knowledge, where you're like, hey, let me read my Bible every day so I can learn more about the Lord. Let me go to church and listen to preaching so I can learn more about the things of God. The fear of the Lord, verse seven, is the beginning of knowledge. But what's the opposite of that? Fools despise wisdom and instruction. What does it mean to despise something? It means that you hate it, you don't think it has value. And so think about this, okay? If somebody's an idiot and you actually approach them with words of wisdom, what are they gonna do with those words of wisdom that you're approaching them with according to the Bible? If somebody's stupid, if somebody's a fool, if somebody's an idiot and you come to them and you impart wisdom unto them, you know what they're gonna do? They're gonna hate what you're saying. And this is why so many people hate biblical preaching. Some people just have this visceral reaction, they're, aw, man, you know. They get so mad when they hear biblical preaching because the wisdom of your words when you preach the word of God, not because of any human wisdom, but even just preaching the Bible, that wisdom, folks, they despise what? They despise wisdom. They hate wisdom. And they despise instruction. So basically, they don't wanna hear any kind of teaching, they don't wanna hear any kind of doctrine, they don't wanna hear any kind of instruction, they don't wanna learn anything, because they're an idiot. That's what the Bible's saying here. Foolish people, they don't appreciate wisdom. And this is why the Bible says, don't cast your pearls before swine. Because wisdom is valuable and it's even more valuable than pearls. It's more valuable than rubies. And basically, you're offering someone a pearl of wisdom, you're offering them a ruby, and you know what, they're just like, that's stupid, I don't know. You're wasting your time, right? So you wanna preach to people that actually recognize the wisdom of what you're saying, and those are gonna be the people that fear God and they want to learn what the word of God says. Look at verse number 22 of chapter one. It says, how long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity, and the scorners delight in their scorning, and watch this, and fools hate knowledge. Now look, the Bible is telling us that fools hate wisdom and fools hate knowledge, and fools hate instruction. So if you come at the foolish man and try to teach him, try to instruct him, try to show him facts and knowledge, and teach him what the word of God says, he's not gonna like it. He wants nothing to do with it, all right? Now, if you would, look at chapter two of Proverbs. It says in verse two, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thy heart to understanding. You know, you think about when you were in school or something, and either your parents or the teacher would use this word with you, apply, they'd say like, hey, you need to apply yourself. Isn't that what they would say? Hey, apply yourself. Well, the Bible's saying, look, apply your heart to understanding, okay? You need to put forth effort. You need to put forth work and energy into learning the word of God, into gaining wisdom, gaining understanding and knowledge. Verse three, yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding. Imagine somebody just being like, please give me knowledge, please teach me! That's what he's basically saying. You're yelling out for wisdom and knowledge. If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasure. You know, you think about the people who've wasted their lives seeking after, you know, the lost Dutchman's gold or something in the Superstition Mountains or wherever they went on some vain treasure hunt or treasure quest, and they search and search and search for some buried treasure, and they're following a treasure map or whatever. You know, the Bible's saying we should be that zealous for knowledge. You remember the gold rush of 1849, and in 1849, when everybody came to California because they found gold, and it was just a huge group of people, they called them the 49ers, because of just, in 1849, just everybody went to California to get that gold, is the 49ers. Can you imagine, you know, what if there was some great preacher in California at that time, right? Some great preacher, and he gets up and just starts preaching all these great truths from the word of God, and people are being saved, lives are being changed, and do you think there would have been that same flood of people? Just, hey, we all gotta get to California, because we all need to learn from this guy. No, because most people aren't seeking after knowledge, wisdom, and understanding as the main thing that they're after. They're more interested in money. They're more interested in the gold rush than they are a preaching rush, or a knowledge rush, or a wisdom rush, but the Bible's saying, look, if you're gonna be a man of understanding, if you're gonna be smart, though, you're gonna flip that over. You're not gonna live your life seeking after money. Instead, you're gonna live your life trying to get closer to God and learn about God and gain understanding and wisdom from the word of God. It says, if you search for her as for hid treasure, verse five, then thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. If you seek, you're gonna find. If you knock, it will be opened unto you. The Bible says in verse six, for the Lord giveth wisdom. Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. The Bible says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. So if you cry after wisdom, if you cry after knowledge, as he said, if you seek for it like you would a buried treasure, the Bible says you're gonna find it. He's gonna give it to you. He will not say no to that. Flip over to chapter three, and while you're turning there, I'm gonna read for you some verses from Psalm 119. Here's what Psalm 119 says about understanding. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. Through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Exact opposite of the fool who hates wisdom and instruction, the wise man hates lies, he hates stupidity, he hates every false way, he hates that which is a fraud. Verse 125, I am thy servant, give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies. Verse 130, the entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. Verse 144, the righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting, give me understanding and I shall live. Verse 169, let my cry come near before thee, O Lord, give me understanding according to thy word. These are prayers for understanding. And then in Psalm 147, verse five, it says, great is our Lord and of great power, his understanding is infinite. The Bible says God's understanding is infinite, infinite. Finite means it ends, like our word finish, right, finito. He's saying it's infinite, it's unending, you could never even come to the end of God's understanding, his understanding is infinite. It's infinity amount of understanding, that's what the Bible's saying. Look at Proverbs chapter three, it says in verse five, trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not unto thine own understanding, right? You need to gain understanding from the Lord and not just lean on your own intelligence, your own understanding and knowledge and wisdom and so forth. Look at verse 13, happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding. Verse 19, the Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth by understanding hath he established the heavens. Now if you would flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter one, 1 Corinthians chapter number one. So what's the title of the sermon? Let us reason together, come and let us reason together is what God said. The apostle Paul in his epistles is saying, look, this is your reasonable service. He uses all kinds of reasonable arguments on why salvation is by faith, why it's not by works, why it's by grace, why the New Testament supersedes the Old Testament. Jesus Christ, while he was on this earth, reasoned with the Sadducees. He reasoned with them and the outsiders that saw that said, you know what, he reasoned well. Here's a guy who made, they didn't say, well, you know what he's saying doesn't really make sense, but I got a burning in my bosom. You know, and look, I'm all for the burning in the bosom. I'm all for you having an emotional experience when you read God's word or hear the preaching of God's word because I frequently have an emotional experience when I read God's word or hear the preaching of God's word. As they said on the road to Emmaus, did not our hearts burn within us when Jesus reasoned to them out of the scriptures and preached to them out of the scriptures. But here's the thing, I'm not gonna just say, well, even though it's unreasonable, even though it makes no sense, even though it's nonsense, I have a burning in the bosom. And you know what, that's Mormonism right there because when Jesus reasoned well out of the scriptures, he said, hey, you're not gonna be married in the afterlife. You're wrong, you err. You err greatly. You don't know the scriptures. You don't know the power of God. And then what do the Mormons teach? That you're gonna be married in the afterlife. They teach the exact opposite of what Jesus taught, which is reasonable. Jesus taught a reasonable argument saying, you will not be married in the afterlife. You don't marry, you're not given in marriage. And he said, and he said, by the way, if you don't believe that, you err greatly and you don't know the Bible and you don't know the power of God and you don't know the scriptures. And here's the Mormons. I mean, the Mormons might as well just wear a sign that says, I don't know the power of God. I don't know the scriptures. I err greatly because I think you're gonna be married in the afterlife, even though it's the exact opposite of what Christ taught. But here's the thing, when you try to reason with the Mormons and I've done it, you try to reason with them and you show them from the scripture, you know what they say? I'll tell you what my second cousin, twice removed, told me when I explained to her from the scriptures that Mormonism was false. I reasoned with her for like an hour and a half and she said, you can show me anything in the Bible. Nothing you show me in the Bible is gonna change what I believe because I know what I felt. That was her exact wording. I know what I felt. Well, you know what? I'm all for you having feelings, but you know what? If the God that you believe in is just unreasonable, not making sense, not lining up with scripture, that's not the real God because the real God lines up with scripture and makes sense. But where did I have you turn? First Corinthians? Look at First Corinthians chapter one, verse 18. And I wanna show you, now that we understand some basic things that look, God is a God of logic, rationale, reasoning, and the stuff he says and does make sense, the stuff we believe makes sense, the stuff that we do make sense. And not only do we see that God wants us to be reasonable like him, he wants us to get understanding from him so that we can also make sense, so that we can also get it, so that we can also grasp things and have knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. And if we fear God, we're gonna get on that path. We're gonna get on that program that he wants us on, seeking that learning. But I wanna just stop and point out right now that when we talk about gaining understanding or gaining what we would call intelligence in the modern use of the word, we gotta understand that God's definition of understanding and intelligence is gonna be a little bit different than the world's definition. You know, some of the people that the world lifts up as being very intelligent, having great knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, God disagrees. Look what the Bible says in First Corinthians chapter one, verse 18. We wanna make sure that we're seeking the right knowledge, the right understanding, and the right wisdom. It says in verse 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Had not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews a stumbling block, and under the Greeks foolishness, but under them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. So we gotta be careful on our quest for knowledge, wisdom, and understanding that we don't get sucked in to the wisdom of this world, which is foolishness with God. Now, the world does have a lot of things to teach us that are legitimate. The Bible says in Luke chapter 16, the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. And so obviously there are certain areas and certain things where people of this world could have knowledge about a subject, understanding about a subject, wisdom about a subject. But we have to understand that the unsaved people of this world are also blinded spiritually. So even if they are smart in certain areas mentally, spiritually they're totally blinded, and you know what, that's giving them kind of a blind spot in the way that they see the world. So even if they're a really smart person and they've got a really high IQ, but if they are unsaved, they've got this blind spot, spiritually. And because of that spiritual blind spot, they're gonna end up having some really dumb beliefs about certain things. It's just the way it is. And that's why God is saying that the wisdom of this world's foolishness with God, and what he's basically saying is, the person who truly loves God, follows God, studies the Bible, even if they're not a very intelligent person, in many ways is still smarter than the smartest unsaved person when it comes to areas of the gospel, heaven and hell. And these are the things that matter the most, frankly. Being saved, what happens to us after we die, or how about how to rear our family, or how to be happy. You could point to some of the geniuses of this world if you were to just look historically at people that the world called geniuses, and you could find some geniuses that can't stay married. You could find geniuses and expert scientists and mathematicians and all these people who have all this knowledge or experts in whatever the subject, history, philosophy. Look, you could look at some experts and look at people who are failing in their personal life, even though they're smart in this world, why? Because of the fact that there's a lot of wisdom that we get from God. And these people, because they do not have a relationship with God, and because they do not have the spiritual awakening of being saved where their dead spirit is resurrected in Christ, they've got these blind spots, so they can end up believing a lot of stupid things. So we can't just go out and say, well, you know what? The Bible wants me to gain knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. All right, so let's go to the world's experts and get the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Now look, maybe in certain areas, let's say you're an electrician. Yeah, you're gonna wanna go to the electrical experts to guide you in how to do electrical. You're not necessarily gonna go to the Bible and be like, okay, how do I, let me find Ohm's law real quick. What chapter is that in again? You know, you're gonna get that from those experts. But here's the thing, you're not gonna wanna go to the world to learn about how to have your family. You're not gonna wanna go to the world to tell you how to get to heaven and these different things, because they don't get it. They are unreasonable on these things because of this blind spot that they have. So the Bible says the foolishness of God, look at verse 25, the foolishness of God is wiser than men. And the weakness of God is stronger than men. Basically what that's saying is, you know, if you have a guy, let's say, who's not super smart by the world standards, but he loves God's word, seeks God's word, prays to the Lord, asks for wisdom, cries out for understanding, seeks after it like it's hid treasure, you know what's gonna happen is that guy actually is gonna turn out to have more wisdom in the end. And God has chosen the quote unquote foolish things of this world to confound the wise, meaning that he's actually smarter than the world's super smart guy in the areas that count the most, like how to live our lives, what happens after we die, where did we come from, who are we, where are we going? You know, these are the big questions that matter the most. And the world's answer makes no sense. Now look, when we read the Bible's account, let's just stop and talk about for a minute, you know, creation, talk about science, talk about where did life come from, where did this world come from, where did the universe come from? You know, when we look at the Bible's account of creation, it makes sense actually. Now here's the thing, when we look at the gospel of Jesus Christ, it makes perfect sense. It's the most logical thing in the world when we look at the gospel of Jesus. But what did the Bible say about the preaching of the cross to the unsaved? It's foolishness to them. Well, in the same way, the unsaved people, they look at Genesis chapter one and it's foolishness to them. They think it's just a mythology or something. Whereas we look at Genesis one and nothing could make more sense than Genesis chapter one. You know, you have God who is this transcendent, supreme being that created this world. That actually makes sense. But you know what the world believes out there? The unsaved people of this world who are the so-called expert scientists, they basically say that there's no creator and that the world came just on its own. Now folks, that's not logical. That doesn't make any sense. That's not what you say. Well, don't you believe in science? Here's the thing about that. How could science teach matter coming into existence from nothing or energy coming from? Where did all these laws come from? Where did the force of gravity, where did that law of gravity even come from? Where did any of this come from? And they can't explain that to you. They don't know. They have no idea. But some of them will even go so far as to say that it actually just came from nothing. You know, and in that video that I did a while back, I put together that compilation of those scientists and that guy Lawrence Krauss basically said, you know, I think maybe if you add up all the energy in the universe because there's positive energy and negative energy, I think if we add it all up, it might be zero. Well, let me know when you're done adding that up and then get back with me on whether it actually came out to zero or not. But here's the point about that is like, oh, I think it might be zero. Okay, so there's this, okay, so we just came from nothing and then nothing just exploded into all the brilliant, amazing things that we see right now. And it's all orderly, it's all designed is what it is. So any rational, intelligent, understanding person would look around this world and say, you know what? This is too perfect, it's designed this way. It's amazing, it's beautiful. That's why the heavens declare the glory of God because God's creation glorifies him. Just like, you know, if an artist made a painting, that painting would bring glory to the artist, right? So God has created this work of art known as our universe and it brings glory to him. We ought to worship and serve him, not worship and serve the creature, worship and serve the creator, not the creation. And so we see that the world's explanation for where we came from just saying, hey, the big bang, it just exploded and whatever, you know, it's not reasonable, it makes no sense. The fact that there's a transcendent God, a supreme God that created things, that actually makes logical sense. Now, obviously there's no proof for either one of them. You know, you can't sit there, but it has to be taken on faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please God because he that cometh to God must believe that he is. You have to believe that he is. You know, so people, they wanna see the evidence for God. Well, the evidence for God is God's word right here and it has to be taken on faith. He said, well, I'm only gonna believe the things that I can see, you know? If I can't see DNA, it doesn't exist, you know? If I can't see, you know, the creation, if I can't see God, then it doesn't exist. Folks, that's ridiculous, okay? Because everybody has faith in something because the evolutionist has faith in the people that are telling him all this stuff and he has faith that, you know, these things actually happened millions of years ago, billions of years ago when nobody was even around to even document anything. You know, we're supposed to just have faith that what they're saying happened actually happened. And so everybody, now look, obviously our faith is based on things and their faith is based on things, but at the end of the day, it's faith. But you know what? I say that it's the fool who has said in his heart that there is no God because I think that you have to be foolish to think that all of this came from nothing with no creator, no designer, that is madness. It's madness. And sometimes you ask yourself, how can someone so smart be so stupid, right? How can somebody who's so smart and they got some blackboard behind them with a billion equations on it, but how can they be so, it's because they've got this blind spot because their spirit is dead and the devil is also influencing them and they don't even realize that they're walking according to the prince of the power of the air. They don't even realize that they're walking according to the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. And you know what? They're the children of disobedience and there's a spirit at work there. But see, you talk about the spirit and that just goes right over their head because they don't even believe in it. They look at what we believe and think it's unreasonable and they have objections to what we believe. We look at what they believe and think it's unreasonable. That's exactly what the Bible said would happen in 1 Corinthians 1, isn't it? He said, look, the wisdom of God is foolishness with men. Right? But then he also said the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. So whose side are we gonna take here? Because one side says the other side is being stupid and vice versa. Hey, I'm gonna be on the Lord's side. And it's perfectly reasonable when we read scripture and we compare it with what we see in the actual world, it actually adds up. It actually makes sense. And the biggest objections that people will come up with, maybe it's a little bit of a rabbit trail. I'm almost done with my sermon. One of the biggest objections that people will bring up is they'll try to say like, well, you know, if you look at this, and it doesn't matter what area we're looking at, whether we're looking at the sky or whether we're looking at geology or whatever, they'll basically say like, well, you know, this canyon right here took millions of years to form. So how can the earth only be, you know, 6,400 years old or something if this canyon took millions of years to form or this stalactite or this stalagmite or, you know, this stuff, or they'll say this. They'll say, hey, if the stars are so far away, you know, their light wouldn't even have time to get here yet. You know, how can the light, you know, we would just be, if the earth were only 6,400 years old, we'd look up and it'd just be black up there because the starlight would still be on its way here. But here's what's so dumb about that logic is that when God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, he didn't create a fetus. He didn't create a baby. He didn't create a child. He created a fully grown, mature man. So do they actually think that 6,400 years ago, God just created an earth that was just like a smooth ball? Like it was just totally smooth and it's like, all right, let's start eroding some canyons. All right, let's start doing some plate tectonics. Folks, it was already done. So when you cut down a tree and count how many rings it has and say, oh, this tree's 100 years old because it's got 100 rings. Well, guess what? When God put trees in the Garden of Eden, how many rings did they have? They could have had any number of rings. I guarantee you there were mature adult trees. What if we brought one of these scientists to examine Adam and tell us how old he is? You know what they would have said? Well, Adam's about 30 years old because they would have checked out his physique and said, hey, this guy is, you know, about 30. But how old is he really? He's two days old. Or if they would have cut down the tree and count the rings, they'd say this tree's 300 years old. It was just created yesterday. This is called apparent age. The Earth has an apparent age, appears older than it is. Did Adam appear older than he was? Yeah. You know, he lived to be 930 years old. You say, why didn't he live to be 969 like Methuselah? Well, obviously different people just live to be different ages, but here's the thing. He was already starting out like 30 years in, physiologically, so you know what I mean? You'd have to tag that on. It was as if he had lived to be 960 or something because he started out as an adult. He didn't go through childhood. Adam never knew what it was like to be a teenager or a baby or a kid. He never did that. He started out life as an adult, okay? Think about that. So guess what? This whole universe started out as an adult. So I don't care how far away that star is, guess what? God created it with a beam of light already in place, just already on its way because basically we came into this thing midstream, just like Adam entered life midstream. The earth was already midstream. So here's the thing. Yeah, the earth could look like it's millions of years old or billions of years old. If it would have formed by itself, that's how long it would have taken, but it didn't because God created it already an adult. He created the earth as an adult, just like the trees were. The Bible doesn't say he sowed seeds in the Garden of Eden. It says that he planted a garden. Plant is different than sowing a seed. It's when you take a plant and you put it in the earth. It's already done. The trees were done. The animals were adults. Adam and Eve were adults. The earth is an adult. The stars are adults. So this star is millions of years old. No, it was already created as an adult. Whatever stage it's in, that's where God created it, at that stage midstream. And so the foolishness, it's funny how they're basically straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. So they strain at the gnat of, well, how did the light from the stars get here? And then they swallow the camel up. Everything came from nothing. There's no designer and it all just exploded from zero. Man, that zero can do a lot. It's amazing. But anyway, where is the wise, verse 20? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Had not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? And I wanna close on a verse that I really love. And if you would flip back to it in Proverbs 21, this is a really profound verse that I wanna just kinda let sink in. As we go. But while you're turning there, of course, I'll read the famous verse. 1 Timothy 6.20, O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so-called. So God's warning us that there's, basically there's a true science. Here, let me use logic for you again. You can't have falsely so-called science if you don't have real science. You don't believe in science. No, I do believe in science. And you know what? God believes in science. God wants us to believe in science because he warns us about a fake science. You know what? If you flip that over, he's basically saying there's a good science. There's a true science. There's a right to, God is a God of science. All of these scientific laws were invented and put in place by God. Okay? He's the one who created this orderly new universe. And here's the thing. He's saying avoid oppositions of science falsely so-called. Science at its root means knowledge. So basically, science falsely so-called is people claiming to know things that they really don't know. Claiming to have tested and proven things that they really haven't tested and proven. So basically, you've got science that's true science and science that's falsely so-called. Let me say this. True science lines up with the Bible. Period. 100% of the time. True science and the Bible, there's no issue. There's no conflict. There's only a conflict between the word of God and science falsely so-called. True science and the word of God go together. They work together. Okay? But what God is saying here is to avoid two things. He said avoid profane and vain babblings. That's on one side of the spectrum. So pay attention to this. Avoid profane and vain babblings and avoid oppositions of science that are falsely so-called. So you've got two things, right? So we're to stay on the path of following God's word, true wisdom, true knowledge, true understanding. It all starts with God. You know, start by studying your Bible every day if you want to get smarter, okay? It starts there, but then there are the two things that we avoid. The profane and vain babblings are imbeciles and just people who just run their mouths about things that they know nothing about. Okay, and look, is that out there? Oh yeah. You got your flat earth, Mandela effect crowd. You got people who just love to talk about things that are way over their head and they just, what is it? They're babbling. Just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, they got their podcast or their channel or whatever where they just blather on about stupidity and idiocy and they think they're so smart. Okay. That's on one side. The profane, profane just simply means common. It doesn't mean they're just saying, you know, F this and F that. When it says profane babblings, it's saying basically like, these people are not smart people. They're just kind of like everyday Joes who just run their mouths a lot. That's the profane and vain babblings. Vain means it's just empty, it's stupid, it's nonsense. Just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay? That's on one side. And then on the other side, we've got the oppositions of science, falsely so called. And this comes at us and seems more credible because it's coming from someone who's not an idiot. They're not a babbler. They're not a profane person. They're actually a pretty smart person, a sharp person. And this person appeals to the intellect and comes at you with science falsely so called and wows you with how smart they are. This guy's not even trying to be smart. I mean, he thinks he's real smart, but anybody with any sense can tell like, this guy's a babbler over here. But then over here, you've got other people that are coming at you and they've got a lot of intelligence in certain areas, but then they mix in with the true science, they mix in the science falsely so called. So God's basically saying avoid both. Avoid the profane and vain babblings that are trying to get you away from the truth. They're trying to get you away from God's word and avoid the oppositions of science, falsely so called. They're trying to tell you that the Bible's not right. Because look, there are some people with just some goofball, idiotic things to say about why the Bible isn't true. And then there are some people with some really intelligent sounding reasons why the Bible supposedly isn't true using science falsely so called. And he's saying, look, don't listen to either one of them. God's word is always right, okay? God's word is truth. And this is the verse I love that I wanted to show you. Look at Proverbs 21, I wanna close on this. Proverbs 21, 30, let this sink in. There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. If anything goes against the Lord, it's not wisdom. It's not understanding and it's not counsel. Because there's no such thing. You say, well, a lot of science just proves the Bible. It can't, because there is no wisdom. You could insert here, if he's saying there's no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel, you could insert here, there is no science that's against the Lord. Because if it is against the Lord, then it's a science falsely so called. It can't actually be proven. And anybody who's talking about things that happened in the past, that's not science, okay? You can't talk about things that happened millennia ago and call it science because it can't be observed. It has to be taken on faith. You have to have assumptions that things are continuing the way that they always have and that we weren't put here midstream 6400 years ago on a mature earth and a mature solar system and a mature galaxy and a mature universe. So folks, there is no understanding against the Lord. There is no wisdom that goes against the Lord. There is no counsel against the Lord. Look, anything that is true knowledge, wisdom, understanding is going to drive us to the Lord, not away from the Lord, period. And so what that means is we should not shy away from gaining knowledge, because the truth fears no investigation. The truth fears no investigation. We don't have to try to keep our church members ignorant or try to keep them dumb so that they don't realize that we're telling them something that's a fraud like the Catholic church did, where they want to keep everybody illiterate so that they can keep them believing in lies. And then when people start learning how to read and write and start printing Bibles, they start burning people at the stake. Why? Because they knew that there was definitely some wisdom against the Catholic church. There was some understanding against the Catholic church. There's counsel against the Catholic church, but here's the thing. Those of us that are actually on the Lord's side, we're not worried about any kind of investigation or study or learning, because you know what? We know that there is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord. It doesn't exist. And so anything that is true learning is actually going to drive us closer to God. It's not going to make us lose our faith. You know what? It's going to hold, the Bible and the word of God and the gospel and everything about Christianity is going to hold up to scrutiny. Because it's the real article. You know, look, if my wife had a real diamond ring, I wouldn't be afraid for a jeweler to look at it. I wouldn't be like, oh shit, you know, oh no, that guy's a jeweler. I better not let him get anywhere near my wife, because what if he sees a ring and they get to talking and she finds out it's fake, right? Oh, better keep her away from that expert. But here's the thing. If I know that the thing is the genuine article, you know, I'm not afraid for some jeweler to walk up and shove that little thing in his eye and go like, whoa, you know, get all excited about it. Great, take a look, buddy. Take a picture, it'll last longer. The point is the truth fears no investigation. The truth holds up to scrutiny. There's no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for all of the reasonable things that you've given us in your word, Lord. Help us to be reasonable people, Lord. Help us not to just be illogical dunces who can't even make a coherent argument and just follow with every wind of doctrine, just toss to and fro with every wind of doctrine, just believing everything that we hear or believing everything that we see on the internet, Lord. Help us to actually be reasonable, logical people, but help us to do that in a spiritual context where every single day we give the preeminence to the ultimate wisdom, which is found in your word, Lord, because we need to test everything with your word since there's no real wisdom contrary to your word. And Lord, thank you so much for saving us by grace and thank you for giving us rules to live our life by that are actually for our benefit. And Lord, I pray that you'd bless us as we go our separate ways. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.