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

All right, now what we're going to be looking at here, what we're going to be studying, we're starting off in the beginning of the chapter of Mark 5 there. And go ahead and turn, this is the story about this man that's possessed with devils. So, you know, Jesus and his disciples come over in a ship and they came over, it says, the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately they met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. So, as soon as they land, this guy comes out, right? There's this guy, he's possessed of the devil is what it is. He has unclean spirits, he's possessed. And let me tell you, I was going to start off with this, devil possession is real, okay? There's a lot of people today, they like to make a mockery at it, they'll mock the Bible, say, oh yeah, they were so ignorant back then, they thought that people were just possessed with devils and it's really, they just had some psychological disorder. That's a bunch of baloney, that's a bunch of nonsense. People were possessed with devils back then and people are still possessed with devils today. And we're going to see a little bit of this and you're going to see some of the attributes and some of the things that people do that show that they are possessed with devils. So, in verse 3, it says, who had his dwelling among the tombs and no man can bind him, no, not with chains. One thing we can pick up from this story is that, look, this guy's dwelling among the tombs. He loves death. People who are into Satan are into the devil and a lot of times people who are possessed with devils, you're going to find one of the attributes is they love death, they have like this infatuation with skulls and tombs and graveyards and things that have to do with the dead. And it's kind of bizarre and it's kind of creepy, but it's the truth. And we see in this story, this man fits that, you know, this is one of the molds that we can see of someone who's possessed with the devil. He likes to live among the dead. He likes to live in that graveyard. It says, and no man combined him, no, not with chains. Verse 4, because then he had been often bound with fetters and chains and the chains had been plucked asunder by him and the fetters broken in pieces, neither can any man tame him. And always night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. So here's someone, he's out in the tomb, he's out in the graveyard. He's crying. That doesn't mean weeping. When the Bible is talking about crying, no one is talking about people crying out and screaming and yelling with a loud voice. When the Bible is referring to weeping, it more often uses the word weeping. So that's when we see the word crying, it doesn't mean he's going, you know, with tears, he's crying out. So he's out there, he's yelling, he's cutting himself with stones. Okay. And now this is something that is definitely happens a lot today, especially among teenagers is that, and a lot of people will say, Hey, that's a, I remember hearing this growing up, you see someone's cutting themselves. That's a sign that they could be suicidal. And if you remember in the Bible talks about people who are possessed with spirits, there is the, the, the, the child that the man brought to Jesus. And he said, how long has it been of him? He said, as of a child, except for off, you know, he casts them into the water and casts them into the fire. Like he's trying to kill them. And then we saw with a herd of swine running down into the water and dying. I believe very often, I mean, people who are possessed of devils end up committing suicide and killing themselves. And we see here, when you see someone, you see someone cutting themselves, you see someone who, who loves death and just loves, you know, things of the dead and graveyards and stuff like that. It's very possible that that person is, has a devil that that person is possessed. These are attributes that you see over and over again. Now we see here too, this guy is definitely a problem for the people of that area, because it says that nobody can bind them, bind them means like, you know, put chains on them. They tried to shackle them. They tried to bind them and just control them and get them, you know, to be settled and not cause a problem. And they couldn't do it. It says they often, so many times they tried to chain them up. They tried to bind them and he was able to break those chains. He had this, it's a superhuman strength by being possessed by these devils. It's the only way to explain it because it says that the chains have been plucked asunder by them. They were just broken in pieces and no one was able to bind them. So you have this man, no one's able to help him. No one's able to control him. And let me add this, you know, no amount of psychiatry or prescription drugs is going to fix that problem. If you have a devil, if you're possessed by a devil, modern medical science isn't going to help you. No shrink is going to help you. No amount of drugs that you take is going to help you. You need Jesus. And that's what Jesus, you know, helps this guy. It says in verse 13, and forthwith Jesus gave them leave and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. They were about 2000 and were choking the sea. Isn't it amazing? No man can help this guy. No man can control him. No man can tame him. Jesus Christ in a word sends out the devils and this guy is just made whole instantly. He is healed. He is, he's recovered from being possessed of the devil. The devils are all cast out when Jesus came and healed him. And that is, this is the answer to those problems. I mean, this is the answer to all of our problems, of course, but coming to Jesus Christ, you know, there's certain issues, there's certain problems. Nobody's going to be able to help you with, but God is able to help you. Jesus Christ is able to help you. Jesus Christ, he didn't even, I mean, he had to do nothing, but just speak a word. It wasn't a big deal to him to be able to do that. Now that's not exactly what I'm preaching about. This is just such an interesting story and there's so much to be learned on this one story alone, but Jesus loved this person, this man, and had compassion on him. And I mean, this guy had multiple devils that he was possessed by. It says legion because we are many. So there was lots of devils that were, that were possessing this man, not even a normal, I guess you could say a normal case of devil possession if there is a normal case, right? I mean, this guy had many devils that were living inside of him. Look at how many pigs, how much of that, how much, how many swine were killed there in verse 13, it says they were about 2000. That's a lot of pigs, 2000. That's a lot. See, you can read these stories again. I mean, over and over again, it's easy to read the Bible, kind of skip over stuff. Let's put that in perspective. I actually did a little bit of research last night to see how much is a pig worth. If I wanted to buy a whole pig, like if I wanted to buy the meat, you know, the livestock is just, I want a pig because I want to eat that meat. Obviously there's a lot of variables. I mean, how much the pig weighs, all these other things are factors. I came up with a very rough number of about $500, $500 for a pig. That's about reasonable. I don't know, for a full grown, you know, you want to get the meat off of the pig about $500. Now I remember what it was. I think I was looking at estimates of like $3 a pound or $2 a pound or something like that. But I mean, whatever, let's say, let's just say $500, 2000 pigs at $500 a pound or $500 a pig, that's a million dollars. That's a million dollars that went running down that cliff and went into the sea. And you say, oh, it's not $500, it's only $250. Okay. Half a million dollars, right? I mean, don't get too caught up with my estimates here. This is a lot of pigs. This is a lot of livestock. This is a lot of property that gets destroyed. And it's important to understand that in this story, because whether it's a half a million dollars, whether it's a million dollars, that's a lot of money, but that's how much value that Christ put on that one person. It was worth it for him to get that one man healed of those devils, for that one man to get saved. And I believe that man got saved. I mean, he wanted to follow Christ. He was obviously very thankful, but that man got saved. That's how much that soul was worth, at least because Jesus, just in a word, I mean, it wasn't even a hesitation. It wasn't even a thought. Okay. Yeah. Go into the swine. And the swine ran down the hill. Now, how much value do you put on a person's soul? It's an interesting point here. You know, we see Jesus Christ, that his soul was worth way more than 2000 swine, didn't even matter. Now we get to see the reaction of the people in that city. Look at verse number 14, it says, and they that fed the swine fled and told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the Legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. They were afraid because look, they saw, they knew who this guy was. This is the guy they tried to chain up. This is the guy they tried to control. This is the guy they tried to tame. And no one could do it. They couldn't do anything about it. They just had to stay away from the guy. The guy was nuts. The guy was possessed. They couldn't do anything to help him. They just had to just let him be. But they see this guy, now he's sitting. He's normal. He's got clothes on. That was the other thing too, I forgot to point out, the guy was naked. The guy is just naked in the tombs and cutting himself and doing all this stuff. Now he's clothed. He's coherent. You can have a conversation with the guy. He's acting normal. And that kind of scares him. And it says in verse 16, it says, and they saw, and they that saw it, told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil. So explain what happened. They saw, you know, people that were, that were, that were in charge of the swine, they saw what Jesus did. They saw him come up to him and they saw the devil's get depart. It says, and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray him to depart on their coast. So they tell him about the guy. Oh yeah, yeah. This guy, you know, this guy came down and, you know, Jesus cast out the devils. Oh, and then the swine all ran out into the, into the sea and died. They didn't like that. You see, I mean, besides the one owner or however many owners there were of the swine, you got to imagine the people of that country, the people in that city, I mean, they were probably relying on that food too. I mean, it's not just the wealth of one person. I mean, other people benefit from, from the swine in that country. I don't know. I mean, the Bible doesn't tell us what their access to food and you know, how many other resources they had and stuff like that. But this is a significant deal. I mean, this is 2000 swine is a lot. That's, that's a lot. That's a, that's a big hit on their local economy. Okay. That's a big deal. But now what, and this kind of brings me to my point with what the whole, all of that is mostly introduction about this story. But what I'm going to preach on today is why is Jesus cast out? Why is Jesus just rejected and kicked out of places? Because we see here in verse 17, and they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. They realized there was a big miracle done here. I mean, he did something that none of them were able to do. He was able to get this man healed and recovered of that devil. And they had more value in that swine than they did of that man. They did not love that man, the way that Jesus loved that man. The swine, they wanted Jesus gone. They did. They saw what happened. They took everything in. They said, okay, well we lost all these swine, but here's this man sitting here and healed and recovered. They asked Jesus to leave. Jesus, we want to go here. And unfortunately, this is one reason why people don't want Jesus in their lives. They don't want to follow Jesus. It's because of financial reasons. It reminds me, this story reminds me of another story in the book of Mark. You're in Mark chapter five. Flip over to Mark chapter 10. Jesus getting kicked out for financial reasons. People not wanting to follow Jesus for for financial gain. The treasures of this world are just too much for people to want Jesus in their life. And the cost was just too much for them. Look at verse number 17 of Mark chapter 10. It says that when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? This guy wants eternal life. And Jesus said unto him, why cause thou me good? There is none good but one. That is God. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Defraud not. Honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, master all these I have observed from my youth. Liar. But anyways, verse 21, then Jesus beholding him loved him and said unto him, one thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me. And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked round about and said unto his disciples, how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God? And the disciples were astonished at his words, but Jesus answered again and said unto them, children, how hard is it for them that trusted riches to enter into the kingdom of God? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out of measure saying among themselves, who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them said, with men it is impossible, but not with God for with God, all things are impossible. This story, this story is amazing because that man, apparently he cares more about his physical possessions. He cared more about the stuff that he owned than eternal life. I mean, his question to Jesus was, what do I need to do to get eternal life? What a small value he put on eternal life. I mean, it blows me away to think about the, I mean, living forever with God in heaven, going to heaven and having your soul just live forever and I mean, eternal forever. Oh, but I have these riches in this lifetime. I'll be around for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, if you're lucky. I don't know. I mean, I don't know how old this guy was. I mean, if he was a young man, I don't remember. I don't, there's other accounts of the story, but regardless, it doesn't matter how old he was. Our life is but a vapor. We're here for like no time. And he's asking a good question. He's asking about eternal life, but he went away grieved because Jesus is like, okay, Hey, if you're going to be perfect, because he already, Jesus already told him all these commandments and the guy didn't, the guy didn't believe he was a sinner. It was the, was the big problem. And Jesus tried to say, okay, Hey, here's the commandments. You know, the proper response would have been like, Oh, I've screwed up. What, you know, because his question was, what may I do that I shall inherit? This guy's thinking, what kind of works do I need to do? Jesus is like, okay, well, if you're going, if you're perfect, if you're going to be perfect, then sell everything you have, because Jesus knew what this guy's problem was. Sell everything you have, you know, take up the cross and follow me. And, and he didn't want to do it. He had many possessions. He had great things. So one of the reasons why Jesus has cast out when people have reasons, why people don't want to have anything to do with Jesus is because of finances. It's because of the riches of this world. They're, they're deceived. They're caught up into these things. This, this, this stuff, that's all going to be burned away. Anyways, when, when God comes and brings forth his judgment on the earth, this stuff isn't going to stand even the gold, the silver, whatever it is, this stuff is just going to be gone. God's going to do away with all of it. It's not going to, it's not going to it's not going to, it's going to mean nothing. And that's where he said, how hard is it for them that trust and riches enter in the kingdom of God? If you're trusting in your riches, that's not going to get you in heaven. And what kind of value do you have on eternal life that you're not willing to give up a physical possession on this earth? And we saw that with the swine and we see that here in this story. And you don't have to turn there, but in Mark 8, 36, it says, for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Your soul has a lot of value. Everybody's soul has a lot of value, more value than any money in this world can, can value. And we see that demonstrated with Jesus Christ and that story with casting out the devils and the swine. And we see that here. I mean, if that's all this guy had to do, think about how easy that would be just, Hey, give up your riches. You can have eternal life. Wasn't willing to do that. Jesus gets kicked out in many places because people are also, they're more interested in making money than they are in the things of God. That's, that's more important to them. And you see that happens too. I mean, a lot of people don't come to church. A lot of people don't do the things that God would have them to do because they're just out trying to make a book. And I'll tell you what the Bible says, seek ye first the kingdom of God, you know, and his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you. He's saying, don't worry about your food. Don't worry about your clothing. Don't worry about the physical things in this world. I know you need them. God's not dumb. He knows we need stuff to survive, but he says, I'm going to take care of you. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Do that first. God wants us to obey him first. So that's why in my life, I put church first. I'll put serving God first. I know I need to go to work and earn and earn money to support my family. And I do that, but what I'm going to put first are the things of God. That's what comes first. And that gets the priority. If something has to give, well, it's not going to be the Bible. It's not going to be church. It's not going to be winning souls. That does not get put to the side. Other things are way less important. And we need to have that proper priority. I mean, the priority on your soul, right? Reading the Bible, obeying God's commandments, going to church helps your soul. Going out and making a book doesn't do anything for your soul. I mean, that just, that keeps you clothed and fed and, you know, whatever, but God already promised to take care of you. So that shouldn't even be a concern anyways. God will take care of his people. God will take care of you. So yes, I'm not saying don't go out and work either. I'm not saying that. Just don't, don't make that consume you and become your life so that you don't have time for God. You don't have time for the things that are, that are really and truly important. Put the value on the things that are truly more valuable. And this is, you know, about the money thing. This is even obvious. Go ahead and turn. We're in Mark chapter 10. Look at Mark chapter 11. There's one, one page over there. Because this is even more obvious with the chief priests and the scribes. They were definitely more interested in money than they were in the truth, than they were about Jesus. Mark chapter 11, look at verse number 15. It says, and they come to Jerusalem and Jesus went into the temple and began to cast them, to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves and would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught saying unto them, is it not written, my house shall be called of all nations, the house of prayer, but ye have many a den of thieves. Now what's interesting here to point out verse number 15, it says he began to cast them that sold and bought out of the temple. He didn't just cast out the people that were selling stuff. He cast out both. He didn't want any of that business going on in God's house. He didn't like the people in there buying stuff and he didn't like the people in there selling stuff. He said, this does not belong in the house of God. Get this out of here. This does not belong here. Now, how did that affect the scribes and the chief priests? I mean, they were, they were operating a business in the temple. Look at what it says in verse 18, it says, and the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy him for they feared him because all the people was astonished at his doctor. So he does this because of this event, because he casts that out, he casts out that money out of the money changing the business out of the, out of the house of God. That makes them mad. They seek how to destroy him. Now they want to destroy Jesus again, more interested, more concerned about the money, more concerned about the financial gain than the truth. I mean, Jesus Christ telling them, look, my house should be called all nations, the house of prayer. You made it a den of thieves. That didn't matter to them. They didn't care that it was a den of thieves. It didn't matter to them at all. They didn't care that God's house was the house of prayer. They were just concerned about the money. And that's the case with all false prophets. They're, they're, they're more concerned about the money and the financial gain than they are about the truth. And I'll tell you what, this is why we don't sell anything in this church. In the church, the stuff that we have, it's free. You see the songbook sitting next to you, it's free. You see the Bibles in the back, everything, all the materials that we have here, it's free. We don't charge you for anything. The Bible says to buy the truth and sell it not. We have stuff to offer. It's free. We don't, we don't believe in charging for things here. We're not going to, we're not going to make the house of God, the house of merchandise. That's not what it's about. Whatever we can, whatever the church can support, we're going to have materials. We're going to give it all the activities that we do. You don't have to be, you're not going to be charged for anything. We're going to do it. Now, whatever money we have is going to be what we can, what we can offer, but we're not going to offer anymore. We're dead sure not going to charge people money for stuff in this church. Jesus Christ didn't like it. This is a house of prayer. Okay. This is not a house of merchandise. We're not going to make it a den of thieves, but we see there Jesus being cast out. They want him out of the temple. They want him out of the, you know, people want him thrown out. They didn't like the fact that he was screwing up their finances. They didn't like the fact of this money being lost. Let's look at another reason. Why is Jesus cast out? Well, people have this adherence to false religion and traditions of men. Turn to John chapter number five, if you would, please. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, John chapter number five. As people get stoked in these religions and, you know, they just get, they just get undocumented and brainwashed and just sucked into where they cling to a religion more than they do the truth and more than they do the word of God. And see, this is why, again, I mean, in this church, what we try, what we strive to do, we're going to a lot of scripture today because it's God's word that matters. This is where the truth is found. It's found in the Bible. Now, look, if you come to me and say, pastor, I think you're wrong about this. If you can show me from the Bible why I'm wrong. Hey, thank you. I'll thank you for showing me that. And I'll change what I believe. If it's what's found in the Bible, that's the truth. That's what we're interested in. We're interested in learning the truth and knowing God's word and exalting this. I'm not going to exalt, even if it's something, if this church is around for 10 years and we do things maybe a certain way, and then 10 years down the road, if something that we were doing was wrong and is not scriptural, not biblical or in the Bible, look, if it gets pointed out to me and I see it, I will change it. I'm not going to be worried about tradition. I'm not going to be worried about some religion. I'm not going to be worried about what other Baptists do. I'm not going to be worried about that stuff. I'm worried and more concerned about the truth. But see, a lot of people today, they care more about their religion and just say, well, this is what I was taught growing up. And this is what we've been doing. And this is just the way it is. And they're stuck in that religion is stuck in that mindset. And they don't want to change anything when even when confronted with just this is look, it says right in the Bible, right here. And I have this problem all the time. I go out. So when I talk to, you know, Jehovah's Witnesses, especially like in these lies, other cults and these false religions where they're just like, I try to show them, look, the Bible says that God was manifest in the flesh. I mean, it says it right there. You just you're being stubborn. You don't want to just look at what it says and just accept it. God was manifest in the flesh. I mean, what more do you need to see? And I'll show lots of other scripture verses to say, look and try to plead with these people. But no, no, no, no, no. That's that's not what I was taught. That's that's not, you know, and people can't have this this strict adherence to some false religion or traditions of men. Look at John 5, verse 16, verse number 16 of Chapter five of John says, And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My father worketh hitherto and I work. Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father, making himself equal with God. So here we see people look, they're trying to kill the Jews at that time. Yes, they were involved in a false religion. OK, the ones that didn't accept Christ, that didn't believe on Christ, that claimed to believe in Moses and the law. See, they were infuriated because they were so focused in on certain aspects of the law and it was only certain aspects of the law because they didn't follow all the law. They were hypocrites, but they were they were so focused on these certain aspects and they didn't even fully understand the law. Right. So they're talking about and one of their big things was the Sabbath day, the Sabbath day, the Sabbath day. You can't do any work, you can't do all the stuff. And over and over again, you'll find in Scripture, Jesus Christ said, Look, which one of you having an ox or an ass stall, you know, like it falls into a ditch on the Sabbath is not going to get that, get him out. You know, it's like he's pointing out, look, it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath, like when he was healing people and the people just got infuriated. And it's funny, they is like, what work did he even really do? I mean, Jesus healed someone, but like, I mean, he wasn't actually like, like, I don't know, performing work. I mean, he would just like say, like, be thou healed and the person's healed and they're like just getting infuriated. Oh, you're doing work on the Sabbath day, all this stuff. But this is this is these people that had this this strict. And, you know, let me say this, there's nothing wrong with being strict. OK, well, I'm strict. I would be strict in God's word and in the truth. OK, I'm going to hold that strictly. I'm going to try to adhere to that strictly. But these people were were stoked in this false religion and they were giving more credence to a lot of times the traditions of men than to the truth and what Jesus Christ had. And these people here in John Chapter five, they definitely were not saved. I mean, they were they did not receive Christ. They were going about to kill him. And it's even evidence. And later down in the in the chapter, look at verse number 38. They wanted to cast them out, they wanted to kill him. And Jesus explains that, look, they're not saved. Look at verse number 38 says, And ye have not his word abiding in you, for whom he hath sent him ye believed not. So he said, look, God's word is not in you, because God sent me is basically what he's saying, and you haven't received me. Verse number 39, search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. So he's saying, look, check the Bible, compare it to the Bible, search the scriptures, which is what what we all should be doing. Search the scriptures. When something's being taught, search the scriptures, see if that's true or not. And a lot of times people are just too focused in on their on their religion that they grew up with. And they don't search the scriptures. They're not looking at this stuff. Jesus tell look, search the scriptures. And these are people who are claiming to believe in the scriptures, because he says, and they are they which testify of me, and ye will not come to me that ye might have life. I received not honor from men. But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. So he's admitting here, he's saying, look, they believe in Moses, they're claiming to believe in Moses. They say they trust in Moses and in Moses' law. And Jesus is saying, look, I'm not going to accuse you to the Father. You already have an accuser. It's Moses. Moses is going to accuse you. It says in verse 46, for had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? Jesus said, look, you don't believe what Moses wrote. Moses wrote about me. The law was a shadow of things that come. A lot of the things that Moses wrote about, about the lamb, about the sacrifices, was all about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ coming to pay the sins of the world. They didn't believe Moses. They claimed to. I mean, they looked at certain of these things. They looked at the Sabbath day. They looked at these other rituals, and they claimed that that's what they believed. But Jesus said, look, if you believed that, you'd believe me. Because they don't believe Jesus, they didn't believe Moses. They don't believe what's written there. So that's the second reason we see why people will cast out Jesus. They don't have anything to do with them. It's because they're too focused in on their religion, what they've been taught in their traditions of men and things that just, you know, they're not as important to them as just seeing the scriptures and searching the scriptures and say, look, is this right? Is this true? And we all know people that just, they want to believe something for who knows what reason. A lot of times I don't even know why people want to believe what they believe. It doesn't even make any sense. And you try to show them like, look, it says in black and white that that's false. It's right here in the scripture. They just don't want to believe it. And I mean, there's not much you can do with a person like that when their neck is stiff. I mean, you could try to continue to show them the truth, but I mean, unless God works in the heart, unless they have some kind of change, you know, they want nothing to do with Jesus. They don't believe Jesus. Another reason why people want to cast out Jesus. Go back to Luke, if you would look at Luke chapter number 19, people don't want to recognize an authority. And this is a big problem today. This may not have been that big of a problem in the past and in our more recent history, but today this is a big problem. People do not want to recognize that there is an authority, that there is a God, that there are rules, that there are morals, that there are things that we need to follow in this lifetime. Someone that is a creator that made you and said, look, these are the rules that you have to follow. If you don't follow them, there's a judgment. People don't like that. Especially today. People have this resistance to just, to this authority that ought to be in their life from God. And I'm not just talking about, and see, here's the thing, God established multiple authorities. God ordained a family structure. He ordained a church structure and he ordained a government structure. And these days we're seeing people rebelling against all of them, against all of everything that God ordained. There's people that, I mean, the kids are just getting more and more belligerent against their parents. They don't want to have that authority over them. And a lot of that is a problem with the parents not exercising their authority, their God-giving authority. We see people getting away from church. They don't like the authority structure that God has laid out with the Bishop, with the pastor of the church and how the church is supposed to be run. They just want to stay at home and say, oh, well I have my church here at home. That's not what God ordained. That's not what God set up. And they're doing the same thing with the government. Now this government is wicked. But there's a lot of people that have varying ideas on what the government should be. God laid out how the government ought to be set up for us. And we ought to want that type of a government that he laid out for us. But that's a whole other sermon of itself. But look at Luke chapter 19. We're going to start reading in verse number 12 because this is a reason why people have nothing to do with Jesus. They're going to try to cast him out. Luke 19, look at verse number 12. Bob reads, he said, therefore, and this is now Jesus giving a parable here, that a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And he called his 10 servants and delivered them 10 pounds and said unto them, occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained 10 pounds. And he said unto him, well, thou good servant, because thou has been faithful of very little, have thou authority over 10 cities. And the second came saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said, likewise to him, be thou also over five cities. And another came saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin. For I feared thee because thou art an austere man. Thou takest of that thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. He said unto him, out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury. And he said unto them that stood by, take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath 10 pounds. And he said unto him, Lord, he hath 10 pounds. For I say unto you, that unto every one which hath shall be given, and from him that hath not, even that he hath, shall be taken away from him. But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me. So I wanted to read the whole parable. There's a lot to learn here. We're not going to go over everything. It's not all necessarily relevant to what we're teaching. But verse 14, it says, but his citizens hated him and sent the message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. And that's the attitude a lot of people have with God today. I don't want to have God in my life. God's not going to tell me what to do. I like my sin. And that's what it is. People just love their sin. They don't want to be told that what they're doing is wrong. They want to keep doing what they're doing. And they don't want to think that there's any type of consequences. So they just don't want to have God involved at all. They just want to push God out. But look what happens to those people. Verse 27 where we just finished up. Cause these are the people that said, look, we don't want to have this man to reign over us. Verse 27 says, but those my enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me. God says, look, you don't have anything to do with me. You're going to be cast into hell. And I'm not preaching that you have to obey God's commandments in order to be saved to go to heaven. That's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is there's this reason why people don't want to have anything to do with God. And they don't want to have anything to do with Jesus Christ because they don't want to acknowledge that there's even that authority of someone telling them. And you see this in the atheists, you see this in the reprobates, you see these people will just reject God. People that hate God, they cast them out because they don't want to acknowledge that there's someone who makes the rules. They want to think that that's why they profess themselves to be wise and they become fools and they make up fairy tales saying that, yeah, we all evolved from nothing and all of a sudden nothing exploded and made everything. And there's these microorganisms that turn into other creatures and we're just apes. We're monkeys. We just evolved a little bit beyond monkeys and we're just animals. And if that's the way to think, if you think that we're just animals, then nothing is right. There is no morality. You can go and do whatever you want because what makes one person's opinion better than yours? If you want to go out and kill somebody, what does that matter? You're just an animal. You can do whatever you want. There's no consequences for that. Why? You have no way, no. And if someone says, oh no, that's not right. You can't. Why? Why? Who makes the rules? You can't just say if you're all just beasts, if you're all just animals, you have no authority. I mean, in my family, I make the rules because I'm the father and they're my children. They were created from their mother and I. They have to adhere to our rules while they're growing up in our house. That's an authority structure that they have to abide by. But if we're all just beasts and we're all just animals, there's nobody over us. If there's no God, there's nobody over us to make a rule. If you say I shouldn't kill someone, well, that's what you think. You can't impose that on me. You're no better than me. That's where that thinking gets you. And that's where this foolishness comes up from. God created us. And see, people don't want to acknowledge that because God's got some rules and some of these rules people don't like. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to listen to it. But God made them and He made them for a reason. And it's for our own good. That's the fool, the ultimate foolishness that these people don't realize. God's rules are not to hinder you and to keep you from having fun. They're for your benefit. He knows what's best for you. The same way that my rules for my kids, it's not because I don't want them having fun. It's not because I don't want them having a good time. I love it to see them joyful and happy and playing and doing stuff. They have rules for their benefit because I know what's better for them than they know. And so much more does God know what's better for us and our little human comprehension. The God that makes everything by speaking into existence knows a little bit more than we do. He knows what's best for us. He gave us these rules. But see, people don't want to hear that. And that's why we have today, we have Jesus Christ being kicked out of the schools. He's being kicked out of the government. He's getting kicked out of people's personal lives. Everywhere, Jesus is getting thrown out. Why? People like their sins. They don't want to be told that what they're doing is wrong. They don't want to acknowledge that there is a creator, there is a person, there is a God, there's an almighty being that is telling us this is right and this is wrong. And that's the way it is. People don't want to recognize that and have the Bible be their authority. And then in closing here, we're going to go ahead and turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3. It's going to be the last scripture we turn to. 2 Timothy chapter number 3. Because these are the times that we're in and it's only going to be getting worse. This last point of people not wanting to have God, people rejecting God. And again, real soon I'm going to do a sermon on this about reprobates, about people who just reject God, people who are rejected by God, people that hate God. Because this has a big impact in our life just on their agenda and on what they're doing. And 2 Timothy chapter 3 kind of shows us these types of people. And look at verse number 1 of 2 Timothy chapter 3. The Bible reads, this know also that in the last days, we're in the last days my friend, that in the last days perilous times shall come. Perilous means dangerous. It says, why is it going to be perilous? Verse 2, for men shall be lovers of their own selves. They love themselves. They're not worried about other people. They're worried about themselves. They're lovers of their own selves. Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents. Look at that. They're disobedient. They don't want to have authority. They're disobedient to their parents. Unthankful, unholy. Verse 3, without natural affection. That's the sodomites, the homos. Truth breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. They hate people that are good. Traders, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. And that's it. They like their sin. They like their pleasure. They don't love God. That's what they want to do. They don't want to have Jesus Christ in their life. They don't want to have them. It says in verse 5, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away have nothing to do with those people. These people that are described here in 2 Timothy chapter 3, lovers of their own selves, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. All these attributes. And it says they have a form of godliness. They might go to church somewhere. They might look like they have some form of godliness. But they deny the power thereof. They're not actually acknowledging the Bible and God's word and the scripture. It says from such turn away. And in 2 Peter chapter 2, 2 Peter 2 says, But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. These are, again, it's talking about the same type of people here. People that walk after the flesh. People that just, if it feels good, do it. That's what I want to do. I don't want to have God telling me what to do. They're going to kick out Jesus. And it says here they despise government. Now it's interesting. I did a word search on the word government. And it's only found, I think, four times in the Bible. Three times in the book of Isaiah. And all three references are talking about Jesus Christ and his government. It's not even talking about, like, when we think of government, I mean, we think of the state of Arizona, the federal government, and all these things. When the Bible uses the word government, that actual word, government, is found four times here in 2 Peter chapter 2. And it's talking about people that despise government. Every other time that it's talking about government, it's talking about Jesus Christ. It's talking about his government and him ruling and reigning over us. So when this is talking about in 2 Peter 2, this is all about people that despise Jesus. They don't want God ruling over them. They don't want that in their life. So lastly, why is Jesus being cast out? Because not enough people are standing up to keep him in. He is being cast out of all these places because you have these, the previous point, these God haters, these people who love pleasure. They're the ones that are on this agenda to kick Jesus out of everything. They want him silenced everywhere because they hate it. They can't stand. They want to stop their ears and run on them and kill them. That's what they did in the Bible. That's what they did to Stephen. If you remember, when he was preaching about Jesus Christ, they stopped their ears and they ran on them and they killed him. That's what they want to do. People that hate God, they have nothing to do with them. They're on this agenda. I'll tell you what, their numbers are growing. It's disgusting that people are even buying into this. But when Christians, when people of God don't stand up and they don't make their voices heard, it's a lot easier for these people to get done whatever it is they wanted to, even if they're the minority, even if they're just the vocal minority, like the stinking sodomites and their queer praise. Look at how much progress they've made over just the past two decades because nobody has a backbone to stand up and say, that's wicked. That's wrong. Get that garbage out of here. We're not going to stand for that. You're coming in here trying to get rid of Jesus. You get out of here. Nobody's standing up. Get these stinking reprobates out of here, these haters of God. We need to stand up and fill the gap and say, look, Jesus isn't getting cast out of here. You're getting cast out. When nobody stands up and says anything, there's no voices, there's no people doing anything and making their voices heard, they're going to have just free domain and do what they want to do. Jesus is cast out for a lot of reasons. This is not an exhaustive list by any means. These are some of the big ones that I saw. People are worried about their finances. They're doing well financially. They're stuck in their traditions and in their old religions. They don't want to have anything to do with Jesus. They're not interested in the truth. People who don't want to have authority over them, people don't want to have God in their life, they're casting out Jesus. It's going to continue to happen unless people can stand up and say no. I just heard that story. I mentioned it before. I don't know all the details of it, but one of the schools in Prescott, they weren't allowed to sing Christmas carols about Jesus Christ on a Christmas occasion. They were doing some, I don't remember what the details were, but it's ridiculous to me that it's gotten to the point now where they can't even sing a Christmas carol because some God-hating group said that they don't want that and that that's infringing on their rights person or whatever it is, whatever stupid reason they came up with, that now that school, they can't sing those hymns and that's a shame. It's a shame. Nobody's standing up for what's right with a lot of people standing up for what's wrong. Let's stand up for what's right. Let's let our voices be heard and not be ashamed of the gospel, not be ashamed of the Bible, but proclaim it boldly and say, look, this is right. You're not going to tell me that this isn't right. You go ahead and hate God all you want, but don't be kicking Jesus out of our area where we live. Let's bow our head and have a word of prayer. Dear God, thank you so much for your word. God, I pray to you, please just give us all the boldness that we need to preach your word boldly. Dear God, to stand on the rock, to stand on your word and be founded and grounded in the truth. Lord, there's a lot of people that are trying to kick you out of their lives and just out of everywhere, but we're not going to have you kicked out. Dear God, we want you here. We're not going to send you away, dear Lord. I pray to you, please continue to teach us. We love you and we thank you for all that you do. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.