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Later on this Sunday morning to sing praises to you and hear your word be preached. Lord we ask you to please fill Pastor Jones with your Holy Spirit as he comes forward to preach the message that you laid on his heart. Lord we ask you to please give us all our ears to hear and hearts to receive the message. Lord we love you and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, amen. So Matthew chapter number 22. So we're gonna start this off with verse number 15. So if you wanna look down at verse 15, it says, then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And so the title of my sermon this morning is The Straw Man. And if you're wondering what a straw man is, here's one that Jessica and the girls made, all right. And so that's a little straw man. What's the first thing you notice about this guy? He's flimsy, right? So you say, well, why are you preaching about this? What's a straw man? Well, the straw man is a tactic that people use in argument or debate or when they wanna attack you. Where basically, let's say this, you make the claim, right? Sodomites can't be saved. They'll say, oh, you're saying that the blood of Christ doesn't cover all sins, right? Because it's easy to knock down in front of the people because there's a lot of verses that say that he did, that his blood does cover all sins. And they do, and we're gonna talk about that in great detail this morning. Or you say, you know, I believe in the Trinity. They'll say you're polytheistic, right? And they'll start to try to manipulate what you're saying. Instead of addressing the real issue, what people will do is build up a straw man because it's easy to be knocked down, right? That's the goal. And so we as Bible-believing Christians, we need to learn how to deal with this. We need to learn how to recognize this and how to properly respond. And as you read Matthew chapter 22, you read the gospels, what do you find? People building straw man arguments to attack Jesus. They did it to Paul, they did it to Stephen, they did it to everybody. And I promise you, everybody in here that's a Bible-believing Christian, it's happened to you. And if it hasn't, it will, right? And so what I wanna do this morning is I just wanna basically give you some points from this chapter, from other chapters on how to defend the faith, on how to contend for the faith. Keep your place here in Matthew, but go to Proverbs chapter 28, Proverbs chapter number 28. And so that's the goal. And you notice here in that verse, it says they took counsel, right? We're real big on counsel and learning wisdom and getting doctrine in this church, right? Well, did you know that the enemy does the same thing? That they go around and they take counsel on how they might sharpen their tongues like an adder. It talks about that in the Psalms and in the Proverbs about how the enemies do that. The people that don't like our doctrine, which comes from the Bible, the people that don't like what we're about, what we stand for, they actually sit around and think of ways to trap you in your speech, to make you look stupid. And the goal of this sermon is to help you recognize that and how to defeat it, okay? Now, what I'm not talking about is debate, right? If somebody, and people have done this, they've called or they've emailed and said, hey, we want you to come on our stupid little show and debate, I'll never do it. Because when you put yourself in that situation, you are no longer in control of the conversation, right? Then you have a moderator and he gives you X amount of time, he gives this guy X amount of time. No, when somebody attacks what I believe, my goal is to take complete control of that conversation and win, right? And that's exactly what you see Jesus Christ do here. And we're gonna learn from that today. And you say, well, that's kind of harsh. It is harsh, but it's true, right? Jesus didn't respond in the way that the world would tell you. Oh, I love you anyways. What do you say, you hypocrites? Right, read the next chapter, read the rest of the book. You know, when it came time for war of speech, Jesus didn't pull any punches. You know, we have a biblical mandate to contend for the faith. You're there in Proverbs chapter 28, look at verse four. They that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law, contend with them. What does that word contend mean? It means to fight. It means to defend what you believe. But what I want you to understand here, it says they that forsake the law praise the wicked. You know, when you read the gospels, what do you find? The Pharisees, the Sadducees taking counsel on how they might entrap Jesus in his words. Why do they do that? Why did they praise each other? Why did they do that? Because they forsake the law. They claim, oh, we have Bible, we have the scrolls, we have the truth. You know, they knew the language, and they were religious, so to speak, right? But they forsook the law. And that's a problem with most of new evangelical Christianities today. You know, you find, who knows who Charles Lawson is? Independent fundamental bastard Baptist over in Tennessee. Right, you guys remember when Grayson Fritz, pastor of All Scripture Baptist Church, got in trouble for being a police officer and preaching against the queers, right? He lost his job over that. Well, this Charles Lawson, you know, King James only, you know, independent Baptist, gets on YouTube and says, well, when the queers come to my church, I'll roll out the red carpet for them. You know what you're dealing with with somebody that has that attitude? Somebody who forsakes the law. He is not a Bible-believing Christian. He's a devil. I mean, do you believe the Bible or not? It's very clear. They that forsake the law praise the wicked. And we need to remember that and understand that because it's gonna help you discern, okay, you know what? I'm dealing with somebody here who's not interested in the truth, somebody who's gonna try to trap me in my words, because let's face it, let's say you're trying to get somebody saved in your family. What usually happens? Somebody else comes around the corner, oh, you know, and they start building a straw man to distract you. I've seen it happen to just about everybody in here out soloing. And if it's gonna happen out in the community, you can bet your last dollar it will happen when you try to get your family member saved, your coworker saved, right? The people in your community, your neighbors, it's a never ending battle. And it's something that we need to learn and protect. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter six. So one book over Ecclesiastes chapter six. The Bible says, but such as keep the law, contend with him, not talking about salvation. You're not talking about keeping the law to be saved. But he's saying, hey, those that are interested in the truth, those who believe the written record, those who believe the Bible, right? And keep these things, contend with them. So people say, why are you always on there making trouble? Why are you always getting trouble? You know, your church is always, you know, saying this stuff and saying that and getting people upset. It's because we keep the law. That's the whole point, right? They that keep the law contend with them. So what does that tell us? We need to make sure that we're keeping the law, that we're getting ourselves built up in the Lord, strengthening the inner man and becoming strong. And I'll show you something else here. Look at verse 10, Ecclesiastes chapter six, verse 10. That which has been is named already. And it is known that it is man. Now don't miss this last part of the verse. Neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he. That's talking physically, but it is also talking spiritually. If you want to be able to contend for the faith in a godly way, the way Jesus did, you have to be mightier than your opponent. You have to know your doctrine. You have to know the Bible. You have to believe the truth. You have to have something to fall back on. I mean, think about it. You know, I love this. We had the Muslim guys that come in, right? Brother Riley brought these guys in here and I'm thankful that he did because we were able to separate them, right? Get one guy over here and I was able to contend with him while he gave the other one the gospel and the kid, it seems like he didn't even believe Islam after you're done with him, right? I mean, he didn't get saved and a lot of times that's what happens, but he planted a whole heap of seeds in this guy. But while I was back there talking with this bozo, he's like, the Bible's just fallacy. It's all fantasy. And so what I did, I said, how'd you come to that conclusion? Right. Can I go to Google? He said, it's full of contradictions. The Bible's full of contradictions. Show me one right now, come on. Show me one. He's like, no, no, no, I don't wanna move forward. I did too much Bible. I don't wanna go. No, no, you just made a claim. And now I'm gonna put you on the spot and you're gonna back that up, right? You heard me talk about that with the cult sermon, right? That same formula? Well, guess what? It's pretty much the same here with any argument, with any kind of attack that you're gonna get, right? That guy was propping up straw men left and right. I mean, it got to the point where it was sad. It was sad. It was ridiculous. I mean, he must've asked me two or three times, can I go to Google to find the contradictions? I said, just go to 101biblecontradictions.com and I'll answer every single one of them for you. Every one of them. Right, so go back to Matthew chapter 22. And while you're going back, then I'm gonna read for you Jude chapter one verse three, which says this, beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered to the saints. We should have the attitude that Jude's talking about here. We should be willing to earnestly contend for the faith. We should be willing to fight for the faith. But the problem is today is that it goes against mainstream culture because people say that's offensive. You're hurting my feelings. I don't like that. Well, you know what? Too bad because we do have the truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, right? There's no arguing against that. You've got to be a fool to say that's not true or to claim yourself to be a Christian or a Sunday school teacher and profess Christ and profess the Bible and say, well, I don't really believe he's the only way. You know, that's Billy Graham's doctrine if you didn't know that. And that's out of the pits of hell. But he says, you know, you should earnestly contend for the faith, but I'll tell you what, if you're gonna do it, you have got to work on becoming mighty in the scriptures. You have to know what you believe. That bozo, he didn't know anything. He didn't even know his own Quran. He's pulling it up on the phone. You know what I did to him? I was like, well, how do you know that's what the original manuscript said? Because that's what he did to me. He's like, well, because I just do, because my hand, if you go like this, it spells God in Arabic. Do you speak Arabic? No, I don't. I speak Kenyan. Well, how do you know what the Arabic says? How do you know that's true? Right, he's just like, you need to talk to a professor. You need to talk to a doctor of Islam. That's never okay, right? That is never okay. You know, go talk to my pastor. No, as a church, as the body of Christ, we need to each and individually build ourselves up so that we can contend for the faith, right? And if you become mighty in the scriptures, which you come here long enough, you will, you're gonna be able to destroy people and amen and praise God, because there's a lot of people that are running their mouths out there and saying things that are not true. And you know what these people are doing? They're damning people to hell. What do you have to do to be saved? Follow the commandments. Keep asking for continuous forgiveness every single day. Oh, what happens if you die before you get to ask for forgiveness? Oh, I don't know. It's up in God's hands then. Maybe you go to hell, I don't know. Again, what is that called? Probation. That's right, that's called probation. That's not salvation. All right, back to Matthew chapter 22. Let's look at the next verse here. Verse number 16. He says, and they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teach us the way of God in truth. Neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person of man. So you need to be careful when people try to flatter you. When somebody you don't know comes up to you and they're, oh, I like your hair, your shoes, this and that. You know, you just need to be careful. The Bible talks a great detail about people that commit flatteries. They're up to something. And that's exactly what you have going on here. Right, they're thinking in their fleshly minds that this is somehow gonna get Jesus to trip up. Like, oh, I just made me some friends here. These guys like what I teach. No, they don't, they hate it. And you say, well, why did they go grab the Herodians? Remember the leaven of Herod, what that was? The leaven of Herod was elevating the law of man above gods, right? What was Herod concerned with? Politics. Right, and so they go grab the Herodians because they're like, okay, we got the punch here. We're gonna be able to destroy him. Look at verse 17. Tell us therefore, so because you're so great, because you're so awesome, he said, tell us therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? And you need to be careful because there's a lot of people that get caught up into our movement that have this attitude, that you shouldn't pay taxes, you're just, you know, the heck with the government and stuff like that. You know, that's fine if you wanna go to jail like Kent Hovind did. You know, you're better off just giving Caesar what's Caesar's. Is it fair? No, of course not. This world right now in this present time is not ran by the Lord Jesus Christ like it will be in the millennium. Okay, the devil's operating here. So yes, you're gonna lose money. Yes, you're gonna get ripped off. But is that the battle? Is that the focus? No, it's snatching people from hell. It's preaching doctrine that's right. That's the goal. That's the idea. That's what we are about. We're not worried about taxes. So take your tax exempt status. Go do it. Turn to Luke chapter 23. So he says, tell us therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? Now, what I want you to see here in Luke chapter 23 before we move on is that this later goes on to become another straw man argument against Pilate. I just thought this was interesting here. Luke chapter 23, look at verse number one. It says, and the whole multitude of them arose and led him unto Pilate. So you know the story. We talked about it not too long ago. They're leading Jesus to his kangaroo court trials. They're trying to condemn him. They're trying to make him look bad. They want to kill him. They want to deliver him up to death, right? Look at verse two. And they began to accuse him saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a king. Now that is a straw man argument because is that what Jesus says? No, go back to Matthew chapter 22 and we'll see what Jesus says when he's asked this question here. So they say, tell us therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? Well, Jesus is going to answer this in a way that shuts these people up, right? What happens? Later on, they still use the same argument to try to condemn him. And thank God, Pilate's just like, you know what? I don't want to even listen to this right now. So what we're going to do now is I'm going to give you the first point this morning, which is this. Point number one, develop and improve your perception. If you want to contend for the faith, if you want to be mighty in the scriptures and be able to defend what you believe, you have got to work on increasing your perception, your senses. And let me show you that here in verse 18, Matthew 22 verse 18. But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Well, wait a minute, that's not the Jesus that's on TV. That's not the one that's in Hollywood. They just asked him a question. And all of a sudden he's calling hypocrites. Why? Because he can perceive what they're about, right? They are not interested in the truth. They're trying to destroy him to preserve their traditional type religion. That's what they're doing. So he says, but Jesus perceived their wickedness. This is key here. You have got to learn to perceive when somebody is playing you, especially out soul winning, right? I remember soul winning with a kid that used to come here. And I watched this guy play him like a fiddle the entire time. And he's just like, oh, I think he was interested. No, he wasn't. He was messing with you, right? We don't want to be dumb like that. That's not okay. Because what you're doing is you're wasting your time and you're wasting God's time, right? But especially when somebody comes up to you and they challenge something you believe, you've got to be able to perceive what they are saying, what the real issue is here. You need to perceive what they're building up, i.e. a straw man, and you need to be able to perceive how to destroy that, how to knock that thing down, okay? Go to Hebrews chapter five, Hebrews chapter number five. So I said, point number one is this. We need to develop and improve our perception, develop and improve our perception. Now, if you're newly saved or you haven't been coming to church long, you know, that's okay. That's okay. You can grow, you can build, you read the Bible, you study these things, you come to church, you go out and you put your feet to the ground, you do the work, right? You go out soul and guess what? That is going to greatly increase your perception. You say, well, what's perception? It's the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through your senses. So really that's what we're talking about here is sharpening our senses. And let me show you this here in Hebrews chapter five, look at verse 14. It says, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age. So that's your goal if you're new, right? Is to develop that appetite where you can digest strong meat. He says, even those who by reason of use. So you develop the appetite, right? You develop yourself into a way where you can digest the strong meat and then you use that strong meat. That means you hear preaching, you read something in the Bible and you apply it to your life, right? You don't just walk out of here and say, well, that was good or whatever. No, you make the change. That's the point of biblical preaching, right? To rebuke, to reprove and to exhort with all long suffering, all three of those. The procedure of preaching, amen. There is a procedure involved here, but he says, hey, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So here's the recipe to develop your perception. You start chewing as much word as you possibly can, right? You're able to digest that. You apply it to your life, you use it, and then you grow from it, right? And the result will be the ability of you to discern between good and evil, right? We don't want to be simple people. The Bible says the simple believeth every word. The simple person says, oh, I believe the Mormons. Oh, I believe the Jehovah's. Oh, I believe the Christians. Oh, I believe Buddha. Oh, I believe all these people. You say all those, you're being a little exaggerated this morning. No, just go knock on some doors with us and I will show you people that believe that stuff. Go back to Matthew chapter number 22, Matthew chapter 22. While you're turning, I'm just gonna read for you one verse out of Jeremiah 23, which says this. For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord and hath perceived and heard his word? Who hath marked his word and heard it? And so in that passage there, you know Jeremiah chapter 23. We talked about it not too long ago. God is rebuking the pastors of the land for not preaching the truth. And God's like, hey, who's out there that actually heard the word, that actually marked it, that actually let that seed sit down and settle down into their hearts and germinate it and grow it and actually use it? That's the idea here. Point number one is that if you want to contend for the faith, you have got to develop your senses. You have got to develop perception. Because you know what? There are people out there that are very smart and they hate our guts. They hate the Bible. They hate what you do. And you know what these people do? They go to church. They become Sunday school teachers. They become scholars. They become pastors. And when you knock on their doors, you know, they'll pour it on. Oh, you know, I'm a Christian, but I don't believe that, you know? And they'll come up with stuff that may stump you. Don't get discouraged. Learn from it, find the answers and grow from it. Nobody in here is perfect in the sense of, you know, righteous of their own accord, right? Nobody in here is without, you know, making mistakes and not knowing things. Look, people ask me questions all the time for the Bible. I'm like, I don't know, I have to go read it. This is a pretty big book, right? But that doesn't mean you can't become greatly familiar with it. That doesn't mean you can't become like Stephen. When Stephen was put on the spot, what did he do? He pretty much quoted most of the Old Testament, right? Accurately, very accurately, with insight, with great insight. So it is possible. And that's why he died. That's why they stoned him was because he had the right answer. He had perception. He had the truth. So this is very important because a lot of times, you know, you get on fire, you learn a doctrine, and then somebody comes at you, they build up a straw man, and you're like, you start falling for that trap. You start arguing against a straw man. Never do that. When you make a claim, right, you say, you know, the Bible is the word of God, and they say, oh, you're saying, I don't know, or you're saying that you, you know, you have to worship the pages and the ink and the words that are in the book. You know, you need to recognize, I don't need to deal with that. I need to deal with the claim that I made. Right, so when you say, hey, I believe in the Trinity, somebody says you're polytheistic, you need to back up what you said. Right, don't fall for the trap because the trap of the straw man is that it basically, people are watching this, right? They build up the straw man argument, they set that thing up, and you fall for it, they knock it down, you look like an idiot. And it's happened to all of us. It's happened to all of us, but it doesn't have to continue to be that way. And that's the goal of the sermon, is to recognize when somebody is playing you, somebody is trying to bait you away from the subject. You see, this is why when somebody makes a claim like that bozo last Sunday night, you know, he said, oh, Jesus never claimed to be God. He said, there's nowhere in the Bible where it says that Jesus was equal to God. Turn to Philippians chapter two. I don't wanna see Philippians chapter two, I don't know what that is. It's Bible. You know what he told me before that? The Quran confirms the Bible. I'm like, wait a minute. So the Quran confirms the Bible, you just said that Jesus never claimed to be equal with God and you're saying the Bible has all these fallacies. What I did is I just made him prove each and every claim that he made until he conceded, right? So I wait, okay, we'll wait on that one. You just said this. And I took him to Philippians 2 six and I don't wanna see that, I don't wanna see that. I don't know who wrote that, who wrote that? I said, Paul wrote that. He's just like, well, I don't know. And I approved, you know, he considered it not robbery to be equal with God. That's what it says. Unless you have a modern Bible version, then it says the opposite, right? This is why people that don't have a final authority, the King James Bible, have such a difficult time defending the faith because they don't know which one to trust. They do say different things, right? And that's the problem that guy had, right? Because you know what? Some versions of the Quran say different things. And he knows that and he couldn't defend that. But what he did is he started trying to build these little straw men. Oh, well, you know, I don't know about that, but you're saying this, you know, and I wouldn't fall for that. See, how'd you get that way? Just from practice. You know, I had a job where I had to go to meetings oftentimes and people would do this. They would build straw men arguments, try to make us look stupid or fall behind schedule. You know, I had people that taught me, you know, you never let somebody do that to you because you're gonna look like an idiot, like you don't know what you're doing, you know? And I realized, wait, these things are in the Bible because Jesus went through this on a daily basis, right? And we can learn a great deal from him regarding that. And that's why I'm saying point number one, we need to develop and improve our perception. And the way you're gonna do that is how? Getting that meat down. If you're on the milk, get that milk down, get to the meat and use it. What does that do? That increases your wisdom, knowledge applied. Most of the time when somebody is attacking you, they just have facts, they just have knowledge. And what does the Bible say? Knowledge puffeth up. Does that mean we shouldn't learn? No, we should learn, but we need to apply what we learn and turn it into wisdom. All right, so point number two is this, ask questions for clarification, ask questions for clarification. And that's what I did to that guy. I said, the Bible's fantasies. Well, how did you come to that conclusion? It's the same thing with the cult argument. You guys are in a cult. What's a cult? Give me the definition right now. And then you audit that. So when somebody makes a claim, they build that straw man, right? Oh, you believe in polytheism. How did you come to that conclusion? What does that mean? And make them explain that. And every time once you challenge them, they're gonna sidestep and they're gonna keep building these straw men up and keep building them up. Why? Because it's easier to knock down a fantasy argument than it is to face the truth. Right, and you know that's true. So point number two is ask questions for clarification. That's exactly what Jesus does here. Look at verse 19. He says, show me the tribute money and they brought unto him a penny and he saith unto them, whose is this image in superscription? Right, what is he doing there? Asking questions. This is why we ask questions out solely. Hey, if you were to die today, are you 100% sure you're on your way to heaven? Or hey, in your own words, tell me what I have to do to go to heaven. Because it reveals what's in our hearts. That's the whole point of asking questions. That's why the Bible says that a man of, that the counsel is like deep water in the heart of man but a man of understanding will draw it out. A man of understanding is somebody who's chewed the meat, used it, increased their wisdom and has developed their senses, their perception. Right, you need to be able to perceive what is going on when somebody attacks you verbally. And that's exactly what he's doing here. Tell me whose image and superscriptions on this coin. Look at verse 21. They say unto him, Caesars. Right, he's saying, hey, I just wanna be clear here. What are we talking about? And he gets them to admit this because this is truth. Then sayeth he unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's. Now that's a mic drop and a half right there. That is perfect. And what happened? They're like, oh boy. Now did they let it go? Did they change their hearts and get saved? No, these same people stood before Pilate and said, hey, he's teaching people that they don't have to pay you. And is that true? No, it's not true at all. So let's continue on here. Now you're gonna get to see Jesus go to round number two. They're like, okay, well, hey, that didn't work. Let's go get the Sadducees. And these people are sad. Look at verse 23. It says the same day came to him, the Sadducees would say that there is no resurrection and asked him saying, master Moses said, if a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. See the Sadducees here, they have a mental knowledge of the scriptures. They can quote it. They can take you to where it's written, right? A lot of times your enemies can do that. And that's dangerous for you. Would you say why? That means you have got to become mighty. If you're not mighty, you're not gonna be able to contend with them. If Stephen wasn't mighty, he wouldn't have been able to contend with them later on in Acts chapter seven, right? It's the same thing with us. Now Acts 23, eight says, for the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees confess both. Why you throw that in there? Know your enemy, right? It's okay to know your enemy and know what they believe. And Jesus obviously understands what they believe, which isn't much. They can tell you Bible all day long, but they don't believe the resurrection. They don't believe the spirits. They don't believe probably any of it, to be honest with you. They just like the glory. They like lifting a man, that human achievement type religion. That's what they're all about. Exalting man. Now look at verse 25, it says, now there were with us seven brethren and the first when he had married a wife, deceased and having no issue, left his wife unto his brother. Now this story's ridiculous, to be honest with you, right? But what they're doing here is they're building up a straw man. Okay, we couldn't get you on the money. We can't get you on anything else, but we're gonna try to get you on the law and they're gonna get completely roasted. Look at verse 26, likewise the second also and the third unto the seventh. Verse 27, and last of all, the woman died also. Verse 28, therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven for they all had her. You guys understand how this is a straw man? Because we know from reading the Bible that we don't stay till death do us part, right? You don't think they knew that back then, right? You see, that's why we gotta develop perception because these Sadducees are stupid. They really are. They can quote scripture all day long, but they don't know it. They don't understand it. That's why we gotta know the Bible. That's why we have to know these things. Look at verse 29. I love this right here. We're gonna talk a great deal about this. Jesus answered and said unto them, ye do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. So if you, as a Bible-believing Christian, don't know the scriptures, you're wrong. You're wrong with God. You have got to know these things. That's what he says, right? Jesus answered and said to them, ye do err. So when we say, you know what, I'm just gonna listen to some preaching, listen to some sermons online, and that's it. You do err, not knowing the scriptures. You might know up in your head a lot of truth, and hey, that's a great place to start. I'm not knocking that. Listen to all the sermons you can online. I do it. I listen to whatever I can during the week. But you know what? I don't exchange my Bible reading for it. I wouldn't be able to stand up here before you today if I did that, right? So he says, ye do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. You say, well, wait a minute. He just quoted them scripture. How does they not know it? They don't understand it because they're not saved. You have to be saved in order to understand the Bible. We talked about this last week. Verse 30, he says this, for in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. Now you're gonna see elements of point one and point two as we move on here for the rest of the story, but I wanna give you point number three, which is this. Know and understand your authority. You say, how do I contend for the faith? How do I become mighty in Christ? You know and understand your authority, which is the Bible. That is how you do it, right? These aren't hard. It's simple, right? Develop your senses, develop your perception. Learn to ask questions. When somebody makes a claim, you make them back it up and you gotta be like a dog with a bone, right? You ever give a pit bull a bone or something, right? You're not gonna let go of that thing. He's not gonna let go. You can hold a cheeseburger over here. Uh-uh, my jaw's locked on this bone right now. One thing at a time. That's how it is when you contend for the faith. Don't let somebody overwhelm you with all these different things. You pick one thing, pick the first thing they say, the first straw man, the first claim that's false and you attack that. You make them back it up. Remember that it's easy. They make the claim, they back it up. And if it's not sufficient, then you need to let them know that. No, you're wrong here, right? Okay, well, let's move on here. I don't wanna talk, no, uh-uh, uh-uh. We're not moving anywhere, buddy, until you prove what you just said. You told me that the Quran backs up the Bible and that the Bible's nothing but a bunch of contradictions. We need to talk about this right now. You're answering me this right now. Eventually I just got fed up with the guy. I said, let me just get you some chips and get you out of here, because you got nothing. You know what, you're a cluck. So point number three is this, know and understand your authority. That's what Jesus is doing here. Ye do err not knowing the scriptures. He doesn't use logic to defeat Him. And sometimes logic works, I understand that. But what works for contending for the faith are the words that Jesus said, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. It's the Bible. These are living, breathing words meant to be preserved throughout all the generations. And I'm gonna prove that to you beyond any shadow of a doubt. Look at verse 31. He says, but as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. I want you to let this phrase sink down into your hearts. Have you not read that which was spoken unto you? Turn to Exodus chapter three. It's kind of interesting that Jesus says that. You remember in the King James Bible, ye and you is plural. So it says you because he's talking about a specific group. And that specific group are the Sadducees. See, it's important to understand that. And Jesus is saying, hey, God said something to you Sadducees over 1,000 years ago. That's important. You say, why do you bring that up? I'll show you. Exodus chapter three, look at verse one. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro of his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. So what's going on right here? Moses and this strange sight right now. Are there any Sadducees around? No, there aren't. That's important to remember. Look at verse three. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. Verse four, and when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, here am I. Where's the Sadducees at? They're in Matthew chapter 22, right? They're not here yet. There are no Sadducees yet. Remember what Jesus said. Have you not read what God spoke unto you? But right now we're gonna see God speaking to Moses. That's kind of weird. Look at verse four. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, he said, here am I. Look at verse five. And he said, draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Look at verse six. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Now go back to Matthew chapter 22. Now in those six verses, did you see any Sadducees? No. Are you gonna see them in Exodus chapter four? No, because that's God giving instructions to Moses and Aaron to go unto the Pharaoh of Egypt, right? Chapter five, what happens? They go unto Pharaoh. Pharaoh rejects God, right? Remember, we're gonna talk about that here in a moment. But what I want you to understand is that Jesus is pulling doctrine from verse six. He says, hey, God told Moses, God spoke directly to Moses and said, hey, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. What does that mean? They're not dead. They're still alive. That means obviously they resurrected. But what's interesting here is that when Jesus says to the Sadducees, he says, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you? So when God was speaking to Moses in Exodus chapter three, Jesus said that was for you, Sadducees. So guess what? That's for us today in 2020. That proves that Jesus Christ himself taught biblical preservation, right? Why bring this up? Because you need to have confidence in your authority. Don't let people tell you, well, God's word was buried in the ground, you know? And we don't really know because this manuscript which was dug up said this. Is that the God that you worship? A God that can't preserve his word? You're crazy. You're out of your mind if you think that. That is not correct. You think the one who spoke the world into existence can't preserve his word? You're crazy. It's not what Jesus taught. He said, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God? That means obviously biblical preservation is a doctrine that we can trust today. And that's how you're going to destroy people. And you know what? Like I said before, amen. There are people that need to be brought down because they teach these damnable heresies. That's right. Look at verse 33 and you'll see the result. Here's the result of when you apply all of these things into your life, into your tool bag. Look at verse 33. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. They were astonished at his doctrine. Did you know that you could make the enemy astonished with God's doctrine today? Amen. You can do that. And I've seen a lot of you do that. And thank God for that, right? We need to make sure we remain strong in these things and are able to teach them to other people that come in here. Why? Because it's important. The battle is heaven and hell, right? And that's why we need to contend for the faith earnestly with desire, right? With zeal according to knowledge, right? We're going to learn about Paul this evening, right? Paul started off with the wrong kind of zeal. He had a whole lot of knowledge, right? But when he got saved and started applying that stuff, guess what? He started steamrolling people. And there was nobody that could entangle him in his talk. There was nobody. All right, so what we're going to do now, turn to 1 John chapter one. We're just going to take a look at probably just two examples here. The first one's kind of long. Just a couple examples of a straw man argument. And I'm going to show you how to defeat these if you don't know. Some of you do, maybe some of you don't. But here's the first one. And this one was said recently to me through email or something like that. Or maybe it was a comment on YouTube. But here's the phrase. You say that the blood of Christ does not cover all sins because you say some people can't be saved. Do we teach some people can't be saved? Yeah, we do. Queers, sodomites, pedophiles. They cannot be saved, right? So they can't destroy that doctrine because it's crystal clear in the Bible. Jesus taught it himself. So what they do is they build a straw man and say this. You say that the blood of Christ does not cover all sins because you say some people cannot be saved. Now, how do you divide this? Because we believe that. We believe that the blood of Jesus Christ covers all sins, right? 100% we do. But then they'll point to a verse like this to kind of build up their straw man. Because you see, a good straw man argument is going to have some elements of truth to it. Remember that. It really would have boils down to it's just a lie. They're just building up a lie, okay? And they'll quote this verse here. And we believe this verse. But 1 John 1.7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanseth us from all sin. Well, I believe that. You see, but the problem is today is that people assume, they just assume that we're neglecting this verse here. They assume that we're teaching that the blood of Christ doesn't cover the sins that a homosexual does. They'll say, well, I had somebody say this to me one time, well, you know, what if somebody's drunk and something perverted happens at a party? You're saying they're a reprobate and can't be saved? I never said that. But I'll tell you what, according to Romans chapter one, when a person burns in lust for the same sex, that's a physical sign that they are a reject, they're a reprobate and cannot be saved. Now, it's not the act that made them reprobate. It's rejecting God and God takes away that part of their mind, which says don't do that and then they do all these vile things. We're gonna look at that. Now, regarding pedophiles, go to Matthew chapter 18. I'm sorry, don't go there yet. Go to John chapter 12, John chapter 12. So you see the straw man here, right? They're saying you teach that the blood of Christ doesn't cover all sins. Well, it says it covers all sins, it covers all sins. Right, and so what do we do here? You know, you do need to understand how to answer this question. You gotta have the perception to see what's going on here. Okay, this person's building a straw man because they can't attack the doctrine. So the question is, do you know the doctrine? Can you defend that doctrine? And furthermore, can you rectify the two? Can you explain to the person and you say, why is this important? Like I always say, influence. People build straw man arguments for the sole purpose to discredit you in front of your peers, in front of your family, in front of your coworkers. That's the whole point, is to win people over to the devil's side. Now, I wanna show you this here in John chapter 12 that Jesus said himself, there are people that God has made it a point to where they cannot be saved. Look at verse 36, John 12, look at verse 36. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light, these things spake Jesus and departed and did hide himself from them. Right, from the people that he's talking to here. There's Pharisees, there's Sadducees, there's Jews that don't believe what he's saying here. Look at verse 37, but though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. And we talk about this sometimes. We're like, how can you see these miracles and see the truth, see the wisdom come out of the Lord's mouth and still reject it, right? It's like with Pharaoh, right? We talked about Pharaoh a little bit ago. How is it that Pharaoh can see all these frogs and all this destruction coming upon him from Moses and Aaron and still hate God? Well, if you read Exodus chapter five, it's because he said, I know not the Lord. That doesn't mean he, oh, I've never heard of God before. Look, his nation was filled with Hebrew people. He knew who God was, but he rejected him. And he said, I know not the Lord. And so God said, okay, you're not gonna know me. You don't want anything to do with me. I'm gonna push you over the edge here to where you cannot be saved, where you cannot have any kind of sound reasoning. Now look at verse 38. So actually verse 37 one more time. But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believe not on him, that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who has believed our report and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? So he tells us the reason why. Verse 39, therefore they could not believe because that Esaias said again, he, now who's the he here? This is God. He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart and be converted. And I should heal them. Wait a minute. I heard a Baptist preacher one time said, anybody who believes the reprobate doctrine is not welcome in my church. Well, guess what? Apparently John chapter 12 is not welcome in your church. Apparently Jesus Christ would not be welcome in your church. Apparently God would not be welcome in your church, buddy because it says right here, God, he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart and be converted. That means God made it so these people could not be saved. They could not be converted. You say, well, that was just for the time being. No, that was forever. That was forever. Look at verse 41. These things said Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him. Verse 42, nevertheless, so even so, so we're not Calvinists here, right? See, some people will point this passage that I read to you and say, see, God just hardened some people's hearts and they just can't be saved from birth. That's not what we're saying at all. They had their chance growing up. They had their chance until they rejected God and God said, you know what, I've had enough, right? But look at this, verse 42, nevertheless, among the chief rulers also many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue for the love of the praise of men more than the praise of God. So look, you still had some of them get saved. We're not saying that they all couldn't be saved, but the point here, the reason why I had you go here is to show you that Jesus Christ taught you that there are some people that God has blinded to where they can't be converted. Why? Because of rejection. Does that mean the blood of Christ didn't cover their sins? Not at all, it did cover their sins, but they pushed God too far. They wanted things their way and you know what, God said, I'll give it to you. Now go to Matthew chapter 18 because people will often say, well, show me in the Bible where pedophiles can't be saved. Show me right now. Well, I'll show you right here. Matthew chapter 18, look at verse one. So you know the story. The disciples are arguing about who's gonna be the greatest, right? Who's gonna be the Benaiah? Who's gonna be like Samson? Who's gonna be like Paul or like David or who's gonna be like the mighty man? Verse eight, I'm sorry, Matthew 18, look at verse one. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have to be born again like Jesus taught Nicodemus. You have to be saved. You have to be converted. What did we learn in John 12? Those people could not be converted. Does that mean the blood of Christ doesn't cover them? No, of course it does, but they can't be saved because they pushed God too far. But people say, what about pedophiles? The blood of Christ is so strong it can cure them. Well, you know what's funny? Is even the heathen know that's not true. You know why there's a sex offense registry? Because even the heathen know they cannot be reformed. People that hate God, they know they cannot be reformed. It has never happened, no, not one time. That is not natural, right? It's like this, if I were to stand here and fall on my face, naturally my body would turn the other way, right? There's restraint built within us that prevents us from doing that. Well, you know what? There's restraint built within every single person that when you look at a child, it's natural to love that child or to think they're cute or to see that they're precious. But a monster, somebody who's had their conscience ripped from them, they don't have that same restraint, do they? They look at a child as a meal. They look at that as a soul to steal. And you wanna tell me that that person can be saved? Is that what you're gonna get out of this passage here? Look at verse three, I'm sorry, look at verse four. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I gotta give you the practical application here and then we'll talk about the pedophile portion. But look at verse five. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. So he's not just talking about little kids here because if you look at verse four, he says whosoever therefore shall humble himself. That's anybody. So when a person humbles himself, they get saved, right? Jesus is saying, hey, they've become like a little child, innocent, my people. Verse five, and whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. We're gonna talk about this this evening. Verse six, but whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that he millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Okay, that means when a person gets saved, they get born again, what did Jesus say? They become like a little child, they're converted, right? So when a false prophet takes that person and says, I'm going to teach you a bunch of false doctrine, you have offended that believer. And you know what? Those people are gonna roast in hell. And you say, well, the blood of Christ covers their sins of teaching false doctrine. Well, then why did Jesus say, your best option is to have a millstone hung about your neck and you cast into the depths of the sea. I mean, think about that. What happens when something gets real deep? It implodes, right? It crushes in on itself. Who's ever heard of the thresher, the submarine that fell to the bottom of the sea and it just collapsed because of the pressure. I mean, that's a nasty way to die. And if that is your best option, why would you think that they have a chance to be saved? Right, so that's the basic application here. You offend God's children, no matter their age, you better get ready for some hot hell, buddy. But with that being said, how much more, how much more punishment would some faggot pedophile get for molesting a child? I mean, what's worse? Honestly, let's just think about it here. Somebody teaching false doctrine and this is their best option, or somebody who goes out and rapes little kids. And you wanna say, oh, they're welcome in my church. They're not welcome here. They're welcome to go to the hospital. Amen. Those people need a bullet in between their eyes is what they need. God, you say, well, that's pretty harsh. Well, that's funny. Maybe you've never read the book of Leviticus. People say, well, you know what? Here's a straw man for you. People will say, you know what? Oh, you're teaching that pedophiles can't be saved? Well, you know, you're slamming the blood of Christ. You're saying that that don't cover that. Is that what we're saying? That's ridiculous. What we're saying is that they rejected God and God took away their restraint. But they'll say, okay, well then, here's another straw man. Well, sorry, I lost my train of thought, but they'll say, okay, well, if there is a God, why does he allow bad things to happen? Why does he allow these pedophiles? Right, they'll build that straw man. It's not God's fault. God said to put them to death in Leviticus chapter 20, verse 13. And if our government would do that, we wouldn't have this problem. So it's not God's fault. It's our government's fault. They use our tax money to keep these people alive, to educate them, to give them counseling, to try to rehabilitate them and send them back out into society and put them on some kind of registry, thinking that that's gonna keep your children safe. Not a chance in hell. Not a chance in hell. Remember, it's not God's fault that these people are alive. He told you how to deal with them. He said, don't let them live. But what does our government do? Even knowing they cannot be reformed, they know this. It's in the books, it's in the psychology books. It's in the literature that they read and study. They know this to be true. The Bible confirms it. But because we have people that are hell-bent on destruction, trying to form the new world order and trying to just cause much iniquity to abound so the Antichrist can come up and have a smooth transition, we have to deal with the fallout. Go to Jude. Go to Jude. Jude, verse three. It says, beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. That's the idea here. That's what we're talking about. Look at verse four. There are certain men, so here's why. Here's why it's so important. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. So there are people out there that are ordained to condemnation. I was ordained to be a pastor last year. I wasn't ordained to be condemnation. So think of the opposite of that. Think about Marilyn Manson or these satanic priests that are out there, Church of Satan people. They're ordained to condemnation. Ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. You say, how do they do that? They do that by exalting man over the Bible. Well in the original manuscripts, well in the original languages, which you don't speak, by the way. You deny God because Jesus said the words that I speak unto you that are spirit in your life and to say otherwise is a slam to God. Verse five, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that believe not. Verse six, and the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, he hath reserved an everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Verse seven, look at this. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example. People say, show me in the New Testament where it's wrong to be a Sodomite. How about Jude, chapter number, Jude chapter, Jude verse seven. Hey, that's a question to ask somebody. How many chapters does Jude have? But look at this, here's a statement. Let me just give you a real quick bit of doctrine right here. If Uncle Sam said, you know what, we're gonna round up all the pedophiles and we're gonna put them on an island and nuke it, that would be biblical doctrine. Amen. That is biblical doctrine. You say, how so? Read Genesis 19, what did God do to the Sodomites? They blew them out and put them in hell. What happened in Genesis 18? Abraham said, Lord, will you destroy the righteous with the wicked? You know, paired venture, I find 50, 40, 30, 10, five. God's like, go ahead and try to find them. They aren't there. Why didn't God say Abraham? Go try to get them all saved. Right? You know, adulterers, fornicators, all these other people, they can be saved and restored. No problem. But not the queers. That's the only sin the Bible talks about that makes the earth itself vomit. That's what it says. And God destroyed them. And Jude says, hey, they are set forth for an example. So if the government did that, that would be right in the sight of God. And you say, how do you know that? Remember King Asa? It said he got idolatry out of the land and the queers. Right? He took them out of the land and God said that was right before my eyes. And that means both. And Jude's saying, hey, Sodom and Gomorrah, that was an example. Now, does that mean we go out and hurt people? No, because that's illegal. We don't do that. We keep our distance from them. We don't allow them to come in here. And then that's it, right? We've tried to educate ourselves, develop perception, harness our senses to recognize good and evil, right? To protect ourselves, to protect our families and our kids. Because you can't trust the government to do it. You gotta trust the cops. You gotta trust Uncle Sam to keep your kids safe or the public school system. No way. What are you gonna do, go trust the librarians that are letting all these queers and these drag queens in? Right. Yeah, sure. They're gonna help you out real good. But Jude says, hey, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, Sodom and Gomorrah, that was set forth for an example. That means if it was at the time Jude wrote this book, it's good for today, 2020. Look at verse number eight. Likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh. Despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. And if you ever hear these people talk, what's that guy that ran for president, that butt plug or butt gig or booty judge, that guy? Yeah, Pete, Pete something, whatever his name is. You know? I mean, just take him for example. Go follow, you know, listen to some of the things he said on the news. Speaking evil. Oh yeah. Going after strange flesh. Right, yeah. All of these things. You cannot placate these people. Right. Verse nine. It says, yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him railing accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke thee. Verse 10. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beasts. In those things, they corrupt themselves. The Bible called, look, we're at the end of the Bible here. You got one more book, Revelation. And it's calling them brute beasts, dumb animals. God called them dogs. Jesus called them dogs. Paul called them dogs. That has never changed. Amen. And to remember, it's not like we're saying they were born that way from birth. No, they rejected God. And we're gonna look at that here, but look at verse 11 real quick. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Corey. Verse 12. These are spots in your feasts of charity. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without water, carried about with winds. Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Twice dead. These people are dead physically right now, even though they can speak, but they're also dead spiritually and they will go to the lake of fire. That's why he says they're twice dead. Look at verse 13. But notice also what it says there. It says that they are spots in your feast. They will come in and mask as other people. Isn't that not what Storm was? They came in here. I mean, you know, I'm not trying to make a railing accusation, but he sure paid a lot of attention to the kids in here, didn't he? Trying to rub their heads and do some weird stuff. Look, that's crazy. It's like, you don't even know these people. And you know what's funny? The whole time we had that battle over here, he never really denied it. I just thought, I can't believe, he would say, I can't believe you think this of me. That was his argument. I can't believe you guys think of this of me. What about, if somebody accused me of that, dude, I would be so angry. I'd be flipping chairs. I'd be like, you're crazy. You know, I don't, you know, but he wasn't like just, oh no, not me. I'm not, I'm not a pedophile guys. You know. Verse 13, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. So the Bible says right here that they have a reservation. Those types of people have a reservation in hell. It's not just talking about the angels here. He's talking about these brute beasts. The people that are like the people that were in Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember, both young and old surrounded the house of Lot. That tells you they go after the children. That is their goal. Real quickly, go to Romans chapter one. So I just wanna show you this to build a case and just to, you know, remember, we're not saying that the blood of Christ doesn't cover all sins. That's a straw man, of course it does. Say something happens to somebody in prison or with an incident of alcohol. That doesn't make them a reprobate. It's only rejecting God and that's what you're gonna see here in Romans chapter one. We'll start off real quick at verse 18. Romans one, verse 18. It says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Verse 19, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even as eternal power in God hits so that they are without excuse. We've talked about this in great detail. There's nobody that's without excuse. You know, the straw man about the lost, you know, what about the guy on the lost island that doesn't hear the gospel? You don't need to hear the gospel to go to hell. You just need to reject creation. You just need to reject God. This is enough, creation is enough to condemn you. It's not enough to save you but it is enough to condemn you. That's why those people in those lost tribes and on the lost island like Sentinel Island, that's why they're going to hell. They don't want the gospel. That's why they killed that missionary that tried to, you know, tell them they had to turn from their sins. But anyways, another, verse 21. Because that when they knew God, now this is key here. So Paul's telling you how these people get this way. Right, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. So when people do hear the truth, they hear a gospel presentation. You know what, the Bible says there are some people that just reject that. And they decide to turn that into a figment of their own imagination. And they create their own God, right? Like that sodomite that was running for president. You know, what did he say? Oh, I believe in God, I'm a Christian. No, he's Romans chapter one, verse 21. And they have their hearts darkened. So God does that, verse 22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and to four-footed beasts and creepy things. When you read through the Old Testament, one thing that you'll always notice here is there's idolatry and then sodomites. There's a connection. I think about the Catholic church. Idolatry, they're steeped in idolatry. What do they have? A bunch of pedophile priests. A bunch of queers running around, right? There's a connection there between allowing idolatry and suffering that in sodomites. And it's because of these verses right here. Look, God's telling you this. Verse 24, wherefore God, this is key, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own heart to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. This isn't natural. You say, how does a queer become a queer? They reject God. God gives them over to a reprobate mind. And that is a physical manifestation that we are to watch out for to say, okay, danger, bad people, people that will cause harm. They cannot be reformed. He goes on to tell you that. Verse 25, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who was blessed forever, amen. You know why these queers are so obsessed with animals and animal rights? It's because they worshiped the creature more than the creator, right? I mean, in our society right now, dogs have got more rights than babies. Think about that. Abortion's fine. Oh, amen, my body, my choice. But you go kick a dog, you know? And guess what? People wanna, they wanna take you to jail. Like that pit bull that bit me when I was with Kayden a couple years ago. You know, sometimes I tell people that story, and oh, he didn't mean that. He didn't, well, I sure felt like he meant it. When he bit through my belt. You know, sometimes I'll tell people this story, like when I'm out working, and I'll tell, well, what'd you do? Well, I finally got my knife out, and I was gonna stab him, and they're like, whoa, you probably wouldn't wanna do that. Absolutely, I wanna do that. I'll take him to the nearest Chinese buffet any day. You know, I value human life over a dog, and look, I like dogs, you know? But when they're trying to bite me, I mean, get out of here. What's more valuable? But what the queer does is they change the truth of God into a lie, and they worship and serve the creature more than the creator. Verse 26, so for this cause, so for that reason, because that's how they are, for this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections. Even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. Look, when a man or a woman lusts after the same sex, that is a vile affection, that is disgusting, and it is not natural. It's not natural. They got that way because they rejected him, and he took that. We're not saying that the blood of Christ doesn't cover that, because there are situations that people find themselves in where they get molested, or they just think, oh, I've been so brainwashed, I'll try this, but it's repulsive to them, and they know that, right? We're not saying that the blood of Christ doesn't cover that. What we're saying is that God took their mind from them and told the government, you're supposed to get rid of these people because they've rejected me, and Uncle Sam says, no, I know better than you. Verse 27, and likewise, so in the same way, and likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust, one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their air, which was me. That is disease, that is AIDS, that is H1, that's all these diseases. These people are filled with unrighteousness. They're filled with vile affections. You know, looking at a little kid in lust in that room, that's a vile affection. Verse 29, look at this. This is the verse here you go to to prove that all homosexuals are capable of pedophilia. The only ones that probably don't commit it are probably the ones that just die too early before they become a full-grown beast. Verse 29, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, but it says they're filled with all unrighteousness. So if you're full of unrighteousness, is there any room for righteousness? No, we're commanded to be filled with the Spirit, right? They are filled with all unrighteousness, all of these things. Verse 30, backbiters, haters of God. Hated, these people hate God. Despiteful, proud. That's why they have their pride parades. That's why, oh, I'm proud who I am. Wow, you know, that's what that one girl told David. I'm a lesbian, I'm proud of it. Bam, shuts the door. They're proud of it, right? It says, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents. Look, these people will not cease to invent laws that are trying to take away our speech against them. Go to Canada, and that bozo up there, what's his name, Justin Trudeau? That's a Christ rejecter right there. He loves the queer. He first took the law a long time ago. Right, yeah. Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Implacable means impossible to placate. You cannot give a queer an inch because he'll take a mile. Yeah, that's right. They are impossible to placate. You can't be like, okay, I'll give up my free speech if you don't take away my church bill. No, they'll take your soul. They'll take you physically if they can. They can never be placated. And so you know what, knowing that, you might as well just go 100% against them. Right, amen. Never back down from a queer, ever. Verse 32, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. We should never have pleasure in these types of people. And you know what, I'll take it a step further. We shouldn't watch movies that have them in there. You shouldn't be listening to their music. You shouldn't be listening to their counsel. No pleasure in them which do these things. It's wrong, it's unbiblical. And so there you have it. That's the argument. We can back up what we say. There are some people that are rejected by God. There are some people that cannot be saved. Are we saying that the blood of Christ doesn't cover all sins? No. You see, that's an example there of how you would destroy that argument. You have to have perception. You have to ask the questions. You have to know your authority. And with that being said, you will be like Jesus was and be able to destroy this. Now, real quick, I'm just gonna mention this one here. Somebody left a comment on our YouTube channel. He's not a bad guy. I think he's just learning, you know. And a lot of people that are bad people, they'll say something similar to this, but he says this. What's wrong with turning away from your sins? Is it better that converts continue their past ways? I really cannot understand why the new IFB always says to go and continue in your past evil ways. And he says, the rest of the doctrine sounds right, but there must be something I'm missing. I don't think he's trying to attack us here. I think he's got a legitimate question. But some people will say that. They'll say, oh, you're saying that going to heaven is a free gift and I don't have to work for it and I don't have to follow the commandments and I don't have to do this? All I gotta do is just believe and trust on Christ? Well, you're saying that, you know, I could continue in my evil ways and be saved, yes. Be without chastisement, no. Who repents more in the Bible? God. God repents in the Bible more than man. We've talked about this in great detail. Look, we're not saying that. We're saying the exact opposite. You know why we started with 40 people and now we have 30? Is because we preach against sin and we wanted to get that out of people's lives. But what we don't do is sit here and tell you that you have to continuously do these things to stay saved because that's not the gospel. That's not good news. So when we do go to the door, we do tell people, hey, you don't have to repent or turn from your sins. That phrase is not found anywhere in the Bible but you have to have repentance unto salvation. You have to actually turn from what you were trusting in before to trusting on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all we're trying to say. And it's like, look, the Bible says, who could say that I have made my heart clean and I am pure from my sin? Nobody can. That's a rhetorical question found in the Proverbs. Who can say I have made my heart clean? You know Ray Comfort tries to say that. The Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin. The Bible says whatsoever is not a faith is sin. If you use your GPS to come here this morning, guess what, you're in sin. You didn't get here by faith. You're trying to see how long it's gonna take you. So we need to understand that. We don't go around telling people that you should just go back to your evil ways. No, that's not what we say at all. We're saying, hey, if you wanna be born again, you need to quit trusting in your ability to turn from your sins, get saved, and then come to church, get baptized, and get right with God. You know, it's funny, we live the most strict out of any Christian organization I can think of. And we're the only ones out there, not this church, but people that have the right gospel. What do we do? We go out there and tell people, hey, it's a free gift. You can rest today knowing that you're saved just by trusting and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. He didn't say believe and continue in the ways. Believe and do this. No, that's human achievement. You see, that goes against the pride of humanity. See, man likes to sit here and say, look at all the stuff I did. Look at all the sins I turned from. I gave up all the stuff. Hey, that's great, but what are you trusting to take you to heaven? You're trusting in yourself. And according to Romans chapter four, if you're trusting in your works plus faith, your faith is made void. And Romans four also says that once you're saved, you're saved from your past, your present and your future sins, because there's a new person created inside of you. Right, and so I'm not gonna go into too much more detail about that because you guys know that like the back of your hand. I've seen everybody in here roast people on that one. But just keep in mind, some people say stuff like this and they don't really mean any harm. I believe this guy's a sincere person, probably just trying to learn the truth. That's it, he's just trying to learn. You know, and so again, that's another reason why we need to have perception. Sometimes people say things like this and inside they're just excited and you know, they just, I don't know, they just wanna know and so they'll throw their best jab at you to see how strong you are. And when you can perceive that and you can perceive, you know, I'm not dealing with somebody who's a reprobate. You know, not everybody's a reprobate. The only way we can tell is when they lust after the same sex, okay? That's it. I told you last week, if I would have met the apostle Paul back in the day, I would have been like, you're a reprobate, you're killing Stephen and stuff. And I would have been in sin, right? But the idea here is you get the perception and you learn when people are just calling and crying for help and you have the right doctrine and you can help them and you can get them saved. Because I've seen that before where people come at you guys hostile at the door. You give them a verse and they're like, oh wait, okay, I'll listen to you. You know, I've seen people go from, you know, just angry to getting saved because you had the patience to deal with them, right? We wanna speak kindly to people so they can, you know, get saved. And this guy here, you know, he's just confused. But the person that wants to build that straw man, you know, well, you're saying this, no, don't worry about that. You go defend the doctrine that you said, once saved, always saved, free gift, right? You back that up and then you go knock down his straw man, okay? And so that's the whole point of the sermon is to just get you in a better state of mind to contend for the faith because it's a command. It is a command to earnestly contend for the faith. It's something that we need to do, all right? So hopefully this was a help. Let's pray and have another song. Thank you so much, Lord, for all that came out here this morning. Thank you for the truth and your word. Just pray you continue to bless our church, Lord, and thank you for the salvations and letting us take part in all of that. And please bless the fellowship after the service. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.