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

Amen. So keep your place there in Judges chapter 21. We're going to get there in a few minutes. We're not going to be there right away, but just put a bookmark there if you would. So this evening on our anniversary weekend, my anniversary message to you tonight is kind of to try to reference Pastor Jimenez's sermon this morning. I want to try to take Acts 20 verse 27 where Paul said, you know, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. I want to get you to just be able to appreciate coming to a church or being part of a church where the whole counsel of God or all the counsel of God, as the Bible says, is declared unto you. As the Bible says, I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. You know, I think we can take that for granted. Sometimes, you know, we sit in churches for years and good churches under good preaching for years, and I think we can take that for granted. So what I want to do this evening is I want to kind of open up a can of worms, but I want to show you, you know, what we're up against out there. I want to show you what we're up against, you know, with the philosophy of the world. You know, when we think about just the word philosophy, our philosophy is this. Our philosophy is all the counsel of God. That's why it's the pastor's job to declare unto you, you know, every single word that the Bible says. You know, whether or not, you know, it's in season, out of season, as Pastor Jimenez said this morning, whether or not it's at a time when you feel like you wanted to hear that or not. You know, it's the pastor's job, it's the man of God's job to just declare that to you no matter what. So you say, why is that important? You know, why is that important? I remember just reading a, this isn't the Bible, but Sun Tzu wrote a book called, you know, The Art of War. And he said in this book, a very famous quote, he said, you know, know thine enemy. He says, know thine enemy and know thyself, and in a hundred battles, I'm paraphrasing, in a hundred battles, you won't lose any, basically is what he said. But to know, you know, what we're up against is very important in our Christian lives. Okay, so that's what I want to talk about this evening. I want to talk about a competing philosophy with the Bible that we are up against today. Now this philosophy, it's a can of worms, it's a sermon series, it's a dozen sermons, but I want to just give you, you know, four or five points on what this philosophy is about. And when I'm giving you these points, I want you to think about all of the things that you experience out in the world, in your job, with school, wherever you're dealing with people out, you know, in the media, whatever it is that, you know, maybe it'll help you warn you against things you're bringing into your home, you know, through screens, through media, things like this, is this competing philosophy with the Bible. What I want to talk about tonight, and I want you to realize how it's infecting everything around us. What I want to talk about tonight is this philosophy called postmodernism. Postmodernism. You say, what is that? Well, I hope at the end of the sermon tonight you have an idea of what it is. I'm going to give you some specific details in four or five points about what postmodernism is all about and, you know, things that you'll see that are affected by postmodernism, then I'll sum it up for you, and then I'll show you, like, you know, why it's just such an attack on the Bible, and actually how the Bible has the answer to this philosophy as well. So keep your place in Judges chapter 21. We're going to come back to Judges chapter 21. You just remember the story of Judges 21. You're reading that story, and you're like, man, that's messed up. That's a messed up story, right? I was actually going to preach a sermon series called Messed Up Stories in the Bible. You know, I still may, but, you know, most of them are in the book of Judges, all right, these messed up stories, and I'll get to that, why those are in the Bible as well. So we're talking about postmodernism. This philosophy has been around for several hundred years, two, three hundred years, really, but it's really picked up, and it's defining the culture in the United States, especially over the last 50, 60, 70 years. It's defining the culture. It's defining art. It's defining books. It's defining media. It's defining movies. It's defining TVs. It's all part of this philosophy called postmodernism. Some, you know, some famous names that you may have heard of are people like Michael Foucault, Frederick Nietzsche, if you've ever heard that name, was a postmodernist that died in 1900. Karl Marx was into postmodernism. You know, so you can see kind of where this is going. Let's take a look at what this is about. Postmodernists, here's point number one. Let me just define what it is, the philosophy is for you. Postmodernists, and these definitions are not my definitions. I'm using definitions from Britannica Encyclopedia, okay, on what postmodernism is, so I'll give you five points, and then we'll just look at what the Bible has to say. Here's the first point right here on postmodernism. You say, what in the world is this about? Postmodernists dismiss the idea that there is an objective reality. That's point number one. Okay, so first of all, to understand what that means, we need to understand what the word objective versus subjective means. You probably know this, but just to clarify, basically objective means that it's not defined by someone's opinion, it's just something that's real. Like that chair right there is an objective fact. That chair is sitting right there in front of Brother Victor. You know, subjective is like, you know, opinions. You know, like how you may have, you may like certain foods. Like some people might like crickets, and other people might not like crickets, right? That is a subjective opinion, right? Like, no offense, hey, kill and eat, right? Kill and eat. But the point is, like, some people may have different opinions on restaurants, some people may have different opinions on art, you know, some people may have different opinions on, like, a Google review is an opinion, right? That's a subjective opinion. Okay, so there's objective, which is just, it's just real, it's just there, okay? Now, do you hear what I said about postmodernists? They said there is no objective reality. You know what that means? It means there is no reality, is what they're saying. It's like there is no real reality. What they're saying is that reality is not objective, but it's subjective. Meaning, what's real is, what's real to you may not be real to me. Meaning, is that chair really there or not? This is where stupid scientists, like, you know, come up with all these multiverse theories and, like, oh, there's all these different, you know, universes happening at the same time. This is where it, it's in science, too. You see what I'm saying? So, it's, like, what's real? I mean, what's real, what's real in your universe may not be real to me. It is reality itself is subjective. Now, you've already checked out and you're, like, this is dumb. I get it. But this is defining a lot of things today. How tall is a building? That's subjective. I can measure that. I can put a tape measure or a laser or whatever. I can measure how tall the building is. You know, a guilty or not guilty verdict by a judge, you know, that should be, if it's a good judge, it should be objective. The judge should take in data, should take in evidence and make, it doesn't matter if it's his brother-in-law. He should take in that evidence and make an objective opinion on that. It shouldn't be subjective to, like, ah, it's my brother-in-law and I'm mad at him today and the evidence, like, he was mean to my sister and the evidence kind of says that, like, he probably didn't do it but I'm sending him to jail because I can't stand him. He's my brother-in-law. All right. So, look, objective, some things are supposed to be objective. You know, we can all have different opinions on what our favorite kind of seasoning on a hamburger is but justice itself should be, it better be objective or, you know, it's not justice. All right. Objective looks at data. It looks at actual, you know, evidence, not feelings. And then it makes judgment. Okay. It makes judgment. All right. So, the postmodernist denies that. He says that there is no objective reality. There is no, what's real to you might not be real to me. All right. Right there, it's, look, it's weird. All right. It's weird and, like, a logical person, which we'll get to that in a few minutes, would reject this right away. Okay. But this is what this philosophy is all about. The postmodernist, point number two. Point number two. Turn to John chapter seven. John chapter seven. The postmodernist denies descriptive and explanatory statements of historians, of history and even scientists. Go to John chapter seven. The postmodernist says that you can never really know what happened. That you can never really truly know what happened in the past. You can never really know what history is. Are you starting to see the problem here? Especially when you look at the verse on the front of your bulletin. It says, you know, you can never really know what's true. So, obviously, you could never have an objective judge if you could never really know what's true. Well, I have 18 witnesses, doesn't matter. You can't really know what's true ever, so everything is subjective. You can never really know the truth of what happened in history is also what they deny. Turn to John chapter seven. Look at verse number 24. So, you could never really be that judge that makes a judgment call. You know, you could never be, I mean, isn't that kind of what we're hearing today, by the way? Don't judge. Don't judge. Don't judge. Why don't you tell a judge not to judge? How would that work for the country? It doesn't make any sense. Look at John chapter seven and verse number 24. Jesus himself says, judge not according to the appearance. Well, look at this. Judge righteous judgment. He's saying, hey, you know, you got to, you got to, there is a judgment that's right, is what the Bible is saying. So, I mean, obviously, just the word judgment means discerning good from evil. That's all that word means. It means being able to tell what's bad and what's not. But, you know, they're saying that you can never know what's good and what's bad, so you could never judge anything. Don't judge. See where this comes from? Is this in churches today? Is this in churches today? You bet it's in churches today. This is what it's all about. It's this postmodernist philosophy creeping into everything. And look, you could never even know what happened, not only just five weeks ago at a crime scene or whatever, but you could never really know what happened 50 years ago in history. You ever heard of like revisionist history? I bet you, if I looked at a history book of what kids are learning in school today, it would be completely different than what I learned when I was in school in 1980, whatever. Because it's changing constantly. That's why revisionist history happens. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 13. But guess what? The Bible says something different. The Bible says that you can rely on evidence. The Bible says that you can. The Bible not only tells us that you can judge righteous judgment, it gives us a methodology on how to do so. It's completely opposite of this philosophy. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Look at just the first verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Look, God tells us that you want to find out what happened. You actually, if there's an event that happened, whether it's historical or it's criminal or whatever, the Bible is telling you, you want to find out the truth. It says there is an objective truth and you want to find it out. And then it gives us a method on how to do it. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Look at the first verse. This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Here the Bible is telling you, you know, the philosophy of Deuteronomy 19 verse 15, where it's saying, hey, you want to find out what happened? You should have two or three witnesses. Is that perfect? Well, maybe not it's perfect every time, but it's a methodology to find what? The objective truth. What actually happened. The postmodernist says you could never know. You could never know what actually happened. Look, this is why churches today, I mean, what is a big part of the Bible? History. A big part of the Bible, one of the chapters that we just read in Judges chapter 21, which we'll talk about later, it's what actually happened. It's not a great thing that happened, but it's what actually happened. And there's a point that it's in the Bible, but that happened is what the Bible was saying. It says you could never know. This is why churches today, you look at churches and they don't declare all the counsel of God, they pick and choose certain things. You're not going to hear Judges chapter 21, Judges chapter 20, and Judges chapter 19 read out loud in too many churches today. I guarantee it because they don't declare all the, they pick and choose. Well, how could they do that? When you have a clear verse like Acts 20, verse 27, and it says, declare unto you all the counsel of God. How could they just pick and choose? Because you know what they do? They could say you never could really know what actually happened. You could never really know because it's all subjective. You ever heard churches say turn to, I'll give you an example, turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2. I mean, this used to blow my mind. Before I was even saved, the woman pastor would like make my head explode. I mean, it's just, this is just one example. And just because the Bible is so clear about this. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 2 and look at verse number 12. 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 12. I mean, it's just one of those things where it's like not hard to understand what the Bible is saying. You know, it's just, it's just a role that women are not to have. And so you have a woman pastor standing up preaching supposedly the Bible where the Bible says this, but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to observe authority over the man, but to be in silence. Well, that would be a boring sermon. Open your Bibles. And she says nothing because that's what she would have to do. So, I mean, this is what this isn't to be down on women. This is just not a role that the Bible says that they're supposed to have. It's very simple. It's very clear. It's not complicated. So how does a church get past that? Here's how they get past it. That was just subjective to the culture of the day. That's what they say that that reality was just that was just the culture of that time. I've heard this explained this way. That was just the culture of that time. And our culture is different, so our what? Our reality is different. But the Bible's objective, it's not subjective. The Bible is very clear. See, now you're starting to see how dangerous this is and how it creeps into everything, even churches. You know, the Bible, that turns into, you ever heard this out so many? The Bible was written by men. And those men had a certain culture. And they wrote it into the Bible. Kind of pulls the Holy Spirit out of that whole thing, too. Kind of pulls the eternal God that we serve out of the words of the Bible, does it not? You see the danger here? The Bible is not subjective to whatever culture you are living in. But that's what they're after. Look at reason number three. First of all, they don't even believe in an objective reality. Your reality could be different than my reality. They don't believe in the idea that you could even know what actually happened. They don't believe in a truth that you could know that happened in the past. So they deny much of the Bible just right there. They believe everything is subjective to the culture that you grow up in. And that leads to point number three, where postmodernists reason and logic, reason and logic themselves depend on the culture that you came from. Because of your culture, postmodernism teaches, all ideas and religions are equal. Because, you know, I had somebody tell me this in my family 20-some years ago. They said, you know, I was arguing, I was Lutheran at the time, and I was arguing Lutheranism with a Catholic relative. And the relative said to me, look, they just threw out this postmodern idea, modernism idea where they said, you're a Lutheran because you were born and raised Lutheran. I'm Catholic because I was born and raised Catholic. That's just the way it is. That's postmodernism right there. They're saying, you are who you are because that was your culture that you were raised in, so that's your truth. I'm Catholic because, you know, they're both wrong and they're both the same, which is irony, but don't, you know, we don't have to go there. But the point is, they're saying all ideas, all cultures, and all religions are the same. They're equally valid according to the culture that the person was raised in. Is that what the Bible says? Turn to Galatians chapter 1. Turn to Galatians chapter 1. John 14, 6. One of the most famous verses that you see like pasted all over telephone poles in town, you know, and all this, you know, it's one of those verses where, like, you see half the verse posted on refrigerators and bumper stickers and all this. John 14, 6. You turn to Galatians 1. John 14, 6 is where Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And everyone just loves that part. Everyone's just like, well, first of all, he says the way, the truth, and the life. He doesn't say a way, a truth, and a life. He says the. But then he follows it up, and he says, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. He's saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He's like, nobody else is getting to heaven, only that way. Look, that's the opposite of this. Your culture, hey, however you were raised, that's your truth, bro. That's what's being taught in postmodern philosophy. No, there's one truth, and if you are not saved through Jesus Christ, you're on your way to hell. That's what the Bible says. It's the opposite of what this is. Turn to Galatians chapter 1, verse number 8. Galatians chapter 1 and verse number 8. Galatians chapter 1. Look at verse number 8. Let me get there myself. Galatians chapter 1, verse number 8. The Bible says, but though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. He's not saying, hey, the gospel can be changed if you grew up in India. He's not saying the gospel, your gospel can have works or can have baptism added to it if you grew up in Jerusalem or wherever else. Look, it's saying if anybody preaches anything other than what I tell you, no matter where they're from, no matter how they were raised, it's like, let them be accursed. That means damned. You see how like the language that's used here, the strong language that's used against this type of thing, he says it twice, verse 9, as we said before. What do you mean, Paul? What do you mean before? It's like the verse before, I'm just going to tell you again. I'm going to tell you again. He said, as we said before, so I now say again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than you have received, let him be accursed. Let him be damned. Look, that's serious. That's as serious as it gets right there. It's the exact opposite of what this philosophy is teaching. You see, look, if you're a soul winner, you know this isn't true. You know that you only believe this gospel that you're preaching out there because you were raised Baptist or you were raised by, it's just certain cultures, their truth is different. You know that's not true. You go out and you preach the gospel, I don't care. You go preach the gospel to somebody from India, somebody from Russia, somebody from, you know, wherever, and they're just like, how many times have you heard this from people from all different cultures? It's just like that makes so much sense. It doesn't matter what culture they're from. They could be Hispanic. They could be from the Midwest. They could be from any part of the world, from any culture, anywhere, Philippines, Asia, everywhere, and they're just like that makes so much sense because that's the simplicity in Christ. And it has nothing to do with the culture that you came from. It's just the truth that matches. You know what the culture that it matches is the Romans 2.15 culture of the law God wrote in your heart. That's the culture that it matches, which guess what? Everyone started with that. That's why it fits. Here's the fourth one. Here's the fourth one. So are you seeing the attacks on the Bible here? Are you seeing the attacks on the Bible in everything that you see out there, in everything that you see in all these churches out there? Look, I'm trying to get you to appreciate a church that declares all the counsel of God to you because this is what we're up against today. Here's another one that they attack, language. Language itself, and you know this is true, language itself is just changing. It's just changing. Postmodernist claim that, let me just read you this quote and then I'll explain what it says because it sounds like Jordan Peterson wrote this, okay? Postmodernist claim that language is semantically self-contained or self-referential. The meaning of the word is not static thing, is not a static thing in the world or even an idea in the mind, but rather a range of contrast and difference with the meanings of other words. Jordan Peterson had to be involved with that. What that means is that language itself is subjective, meaning if you say a phrase, it might not mean the same thing as if I say a phrase. Okay, I mean, you can break this down. You can break this down into actual words. You know this is true. Like, people are changing what words mean today. People are changing what words mean today. Turn to Psalm chapter 12. Turn to Psalm chapter 12. I mean, you say, I don't know, is this a problem? Is this a problem? I mean, I don't know. Are other Bible versions a problem? What are they doing? They're changing words. What are they doing? What are they doing? They're rearranging. What are they doing? They're deleting words. They're changing the meaning of things. But what does God say? God says in Psalm 12, 6, 8, the words are pure words. You know what the Bible here is saying? These words don't change. It says these words don't change. They're pure. As silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times. Look at the front of your bulletin. Look at the front of your bulletin. John 17, 17. Sanctify them through thy truth. Well, what's true? Can we really even know? No, thy word is truth. The Bible is truth. This idea that words mean nothing, that phrases that I would say mean nothing, this is how politicians get away with what they do. Here's the most famous one I can remember. Read my lips. You guys are all probably too young to remember this. Read my lips. No new taxes. Two years later, it raises taxes. Oh, you took me out of context. I didn't really. That's not what I meant. It's like, no, but that's what you said. This is how politicians can just like say these things that are just, I mean, they'll just fact check them and they're like, they're completely not like, like the president used to fly airplanes or whatever he said last, you know, whatever the weird thing he said lately. And it's like, it's provably not true. It's like, yeah, just took me out of context because like phrases, words, they just mean nothing. They mean nothing anymore. This is, I mean, it's just like us. We should have no part of this, by the way. We should have no part of this. Like if I say like, you know, brother Israel, I'll come help you fix your car on Saturday. And then I just don't show up. And he's like, man, Pastor Jared, what's going on? Oh, I didn't, I didn't really mean that. You thought I was, yeah, I was just kind of like saying like maybe I could go or, you know, maybe I could come. No, I said I will help you. And then I didn't go. But this is a huge problem. This is a huge problem. And we should have nothing to do with that. Look, a lot of people, they just say things. Turn to Matthew 5. Turn to Matthew 5. We should have no part of these type, being these type of people that just say things. You're in a group of people and you just want to say something like, hey, I can help out with that. Or hey, I'll do that. Or I've done that. And then it's just completely not true. But I just, you know, I just said it. I didn't really mean it. Like it takes like one or two times for you to do that where people lose all trust in you. You know, a good name. A good name is what we should be after. Look at Matthew 5 and verse 37. Does Jesus say that language, that the words coming out of our mouth should be subjective? That they should just like have like weird meanings? Look, the King James Bible has to be our dictionary. Because people are changing words all the time. They're changing phrases. They're saying that you don't have to say things. If you say things, it doesn't matter. If you promise something, it doesn't matter. This is the world we live in today. I mean, haven't you heard the saying like a man is as good as his word? This is why people don't accept checks anymore. I mean, it used to be like you could just write a check for something and just give it to somebody that you sold something at your house to. Nobody would ever take a check anymore. Why? Because people's word isn't worth anything. Because they say things and it's just a lie. It's just not true. We should have no part of this. Look what Jesus says. He says, let your communication be yay yay, nay nay for whatsoever is more of these cometh of you. Jesus is saying, say what you're gonna do and do what you say. You don't have to be like, I swear on my mother's grave or whatever. No, just say I'll be there Saturday and then be there Saturday. Just decide, as a Christian, the Bible is telling you that you just need to be the person that when you say it, you do it. That's it. And then, look, then people, you will have that good name. That's what the Bible says. That's objective, my friends. That is not subjective. Look, in a nutshell, I gave you four points here, but in a nutshell, what this postmodernism is, is relativism. It's just relativism of everything. I'll read you just a nice little snippet from the internet here kind of that sums it up nicely. Postmodernism is a philosophy that focuses on the reality of the individual. It denies statements that claim to be true for all people and is often expressed in a pared-down style in arts, literature, and culture. I'll get to that in a second. But you know what the miracle of the Bible is? The biggest miracle of the Bible. It is the only book ever written. This is how you know God wrote it. It's the only book ever written that applies to every person that has ever lived and will ever live. There's no other book you could say that about. There's no other book that will just declare all the counsel of God that will counsel everything that you need in your life that applies not to just 2022 Americans, but people that lived from Adam to now. They just deny that. It says you can't claim truth for all people. That's exactly what the Bible does is it claims truth for all people. It says it's expressed. Now here's where you're gonna see it in your life. It's expressed in arts, literature, and culture. This is where Hollywood comes in. This is where Hollywood comes in. Now look, don't go watch movies. All right? But look, how many times can you think of, I can think of movies that I saw in the 80s and the 90s especially where this was a critically acclaimed review and you go to the movie and you come out of the movie going like, what in the world? It was just like some weird, like I'm not even talking about perversion, which that's part of it too, but I'm just talking about something where you're just like it's just all these ideas and you're just like what in the world? I don't even under, I mean how could that even make any sense? It's on purpose because what they're trying to do is throw out all this weirdness out there. Art, look at all these art. We talked about this with Satanism a couple weeks ago. You look at all these painters. They don't paint an objective person. That's a portrait. I can do that with my phone. What they do is they paint some weird distorted weirdness. Why? Because it's all subjective. Some people may like this weirdness. Look at like the Tim Burton weirdness that happened many, many years ago. All these weird distorted freakish creatures. It's trying to just throw all this weirdness at you to try to get you just to accept that there is nothing that's weird. You see? There is nothing that seems abnormal. There is no, like poetry is a bad one too. The only poetry that I trust is Brother Stuckey's conservative Christian poetry. Poetry is, a lot of poetry is twisted stuff. It's perversion and it's more of this just throwing weirdness out there at you because what is there? There's no anchor. There's no truth. There's nothing that's not weird. That's why you see all this weird, perverted, crazy stuff. Look, you have to be so careful because it's just, it's in everything. It's all over TV, cartoons. I mean, just inevitably you'll see cartoons if you're in a dentist office or whatever. They're weird now. It's weird stuff. It's just weirdness everywhere. There is no right. There is no right. There is no wrong. It's just this big floating point. There is no abomination. There's none of that. That's why you see what you see. It's all postmodernism, relativism, thrown into everything. Look, it's directly attacking the Bible. This idea is directly attacking the Bible. Because why? Because the Bible is truth. The Bible is truth. One of the ironic things about the Bible is that Pontius Pilate, you know what, he was a postmodernist. You say, why? What did he ask Jesus? What did he ask Jesus when Jesus was standing next to him? Jesus said, you know, he's like, I'm paraphrasing, but Jesus said, basically, people that love the truth, they will hear me, basically, Jesus said. And Pontius Pilate said what? He said, what is truth? And the total irony of that is that truth itself was standing right next to him. Thy word is truth. Thy word is truth. John 1, 1. The word became flesh. John 1, 14. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. And the word became flesh. The word is truth. Thy word is truth. Jesus is the truth. The literal truth was standing next to this postmodernist. He's like, what is truth? It's right there. Jesus didn't say anything. It's beautiful. But the point is this. The Bible is truth. The Bible is history. The Bible, look, the Bible is data. The Bible is data that we are to use to what? To take in, to judge. To be an objective judge. This is the Bible. So you say, like, what in the world? I mean, who thinks of this stuff? Who thinks of this stuff? I mean, these guys, they thought of this stuff 50 years ago, 60 years ago, 70 years ago, right? Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 1. Here's the beauty of it. Let's solve it right now. Let's solve it right now. Here's the beauty of the Bible. Look, we have this. We can crack the code with the Bible. And here's the advantage that we have. The advantage that we have is that the natural man receiveth not the things of God. So all these brilliant philosophers and all these people that came up with all these twisted ideas, they can't even understand what the Bible says. They're walking around with this wheel, this invention that they have that they thought up, and they're like, yeah, look what we've got here. We invented this, you know, 60 years ago, 150 years ago, or whatever it is. But look what the Bible says. Let's crack it right here. Ecclesiastes 1.9 says, The thing that hath been is that which shall be. And that which is done, that which shall be done. And there's what? There's no new thing under the sun. See, here's the problem. Here's the problem with thinking you can never know what happened in history, is you will never know what did happen in history. When the Bible has history for you. If you think that there is no truth, you never will know the truth. Because the Bible is the truth. Look, if you want to know history, here's just a little tip for you. Because it's really, with all these different weird sources of media now, it's kind of hard to figure out what's actually going on in the world sometimes. The best way to know history, I mean, I don't care if we're talking about the foundation of the country. I don't care if we're talking about the Civil War. I don't care if we're talking about this. You know, the best way to know what actually happened in those times is to read what people that lived in those times actually wrote. Read the journals. Read the diaries. You know, read the Civil War. Everyone's all confused about the Civil War to this day. Read the letters that the states sent on why they seceded from the Union. They told you why. It's written in history. Why? Slavery, that's why. Uh-oh, states' rights. No, it was slavery. It was the states' rights to have slaves, is what it was. Look, read what people actually wrote, then there's no bias. There's no bias. That's the quickest way to get to the truth. You want to know what it was like being a settler, going across the plains and trying to get to California from Missouri or wherever? Read the diaries of the kids that were in the wagons. Read the diaries of their parents. That's the best way to get to how that actually was. Just, you can find out. Read, you know what those are? It's kind of like what the Bible says, like two or three witnesses. Those are eyewitness accounts, is what those are. That's how you can know what actually happened. You know what the Bible is? An eyewitness account. Who's the witness? Holy Spirit. We know it's true. How do we know it's true? Because it's a miracle. Because it's the only book that applies to everyone who's ever lived or ever will live. It's a miracle in itself, just the fact that it exists, we know it's true. So look, these modern philosophers over the last 200 years, they're walking around with this thing, this postmodern philosophy, and they think they got something new. But the Bible says there's nothing new. So let's look down and now go back to Judges chapter 21. Judges is full of messed up stories. And when you look, especially when you're reading the Old Testament, just understand that the Bible is history. The Bible has a lot of history in it. Just because you're reading these messed up stories, don't think like that's what God wanted them to do. You're reading Judges 19, you're like, man, this is jacked big time. What's going on here? This is crazy what's going on here. You just think of the stories in Judges themselves. You got Abimelech, son of Gideon. It's just like betrayal, revenge, lying, murder, more betrayal, everyone dies. It's like, who won? Nobody. It's like, who was good? Who was bad? Nobody was good. There's situations where everybody's bad. Even today, especially today. Think of Jephthah, Judges 11. Seems like a godly guy. This is why Jesus said, just say nay nay and don't take oaths anymore. Please, please stop taking oaths. Please, please, please. The guy's like, swears basically to sacrifice his own daughter to God. Yeah, that's what God wants. God's like, don't murder people. Especially don't pass your children through the fire. Promises God that he's going to murder his own children, his own child. And he does it. That's messed up. You're like, what is going on here? Then you get to Judges 19. You got this guy, he comes into this town with his concubine. And it's just this town's filled with sodomites and perverts. And they try to break down. Don't forget, they were after the guys first. And these guys in this house, this one guy's got his daughters. And this other guy's got his concubine. And these guys are trying to beat down the door. And they're like, bring the man out. Because they want to like, you know. And the guys are like, no, take my daughter. And you're like, ha ha ha. You're like, it's messed up. What's going on here? And then finally they throw the concubine out to save themselves. It's like, who's right? It's like, yeah, these are wicked sons of Belial, the Bible says. Everybody's wrong. You're like, what is going on here? And they kill this poor woman. And then it gets even worse. Then they go to the whole nation. Then he like, cuts her to pieces and sends her out to everybody, all the tribes. You're like, what in the world? Is that in the Bible somewhere that you're supposed to do that? And then all of the tribes of Israel come against Benjamin and against this city. And they're like, send the men that did this. I mean, that's at least like, okay, send out the men. And then the entire tribe of Benjamin is like, no, we're going to protect them. And so they go to war and they wipe out the entire tribe of Benjamin. And they wipe out everybody that was protecting these wicked sons of the devil that did this. Right? They wipe them out. And then in Judges 21 that we just read, they're like, there's 600 of these. Because they wiped out the men, the women, and the children of Benjamin. And there's 600 men hiding in a cave. And now they're all upset. Maybe some time has gone by. And they're like, who are these poor Benjamites going to marry, these 600? And so the first idea they come up with is like, well, who didn't come to war with us? They're like, well, there's a city over there. Let's go kill everybody over there and steal all their women. God's like, men stealing against the Bible, death penalty. So they go and they steal 400 women from this city. And then they're like, oh, we're still 200 short. What do they do? They're like, oh, there's this big party in this other city. And all the women come out and dance, just go steal 200 more. It's crazy. You're reading this and you're just like, what in the world is going on? How could this possibly be happening? You're just like, nobody's right. They're all doing all this wicked stuff. I mean, how would you like to live here, by the way? How would you like to live there in that situation? Now look at Judges 21 and verse number 25. I mean, they're just like, you're just like, you read this and you're just like, what in the world? I mean, you're almost ready to be done with the book of Judges at that point. I mean, you're like, all right, can we get out of this? But look what it says in verse 25. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Okay, I get that. But look at the last part. It said every man did that which was right in his own eyes. You know what that means? Every man was a postmodernist. Every man thought truth was subjective. Every man thought what was right was what he thought was right. I want a wife. I'm going to steal your daughter. That may be good for the guy that wants a wife and thinks that there's no right and no wrong, but it's bad for the daughter, bad for the father, bad for the family, bad for everybody else. But that's what this leads to. When there's no truth. This is why this atheist argument, all these philosophers are atheists, by the way. And I'll show you they're much worse than that. All these philosophers, that's why this atheist idea, I hope I'm putting to bed this atheist idea that you could have a moral society without the Bible. Because if everything is subjective, you know what you get? You get Judges 19, 20, and 21. That's what you get. Why are those crazy stories in the Bible? Why would God put stories in the Bible like that that literally no church today would read except this one? Why would he do that? Because this is exactly what we're dealing with today. That's why. You see why it's in the Bible? It's in the Bible because it doesn't matter what's right in your own eyes. What matters is thy word, God's word. That's what matters. Postmodernism is, I mean, judges, that society in Judges 19, 20, and 21 is what postmodernism produces. So when Hollywood celebrities get up and start telling me their opinions on stuff, like, that's dangerous to me. That's dangerous to my family. They're trying to make a society like that is what they're doing. No one would want to live there, but here's my point. That was 3,500 years ago. We cracked it with just the Bible. With just a few verses in the Bible. It's not new. There's nothing new. There's nothing new. Imagine no truth, folks. Look, you don't have to believe the Bible. This is coming, too. You're starting to see all kinds of articles about this, too. But you don't have to believe the Bible to reject that there is no truth. You don't have to believe the Bible to believe that two plus two equals five is wrong. You don't have to believe the Bible to believe that. You don't have to be saved to believe that. You just have to have logic and reason to believe that. You know, they're teaching this now. There's people pushing this. It's traumatizing to be teaching math and just telling them that they're wrong if they come up with the wrong answer. Two plus two equals five. Let me tell you something. That's going to alienate people. That's going to make people feel bad. Let me tell you something, folks. You don't want to fly in that airplane that's built by the two plus two equals five guy. I've met the two plus two equals five guy. Look, you don't want a postmodernist mechanic working on your car. You know what I'm saying? You take your car to the mechanic and, you know, he brings it out and he's not like the carburetor like bolted to the roof of the car. And you're like, man, it doesn't run, man. And he's like, bro, look at how great that looks. I just feel like it belongs there. And you're like, but how am I supposed to get anywhere? It won't even, it won't move. He's like, but bro, you look like you're doing 100 miles an hour. Look at that carburetor up there. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous to even think. I mean, you wouldn't want to drive across that bridge. Built by the postmodernist structural engineer. You know, why? Why is that? Because gravity is real. That's why. Because gravity is objective. Physics is real. Economics is real. Thermodynamics is real. Heaven and hell are real. This is the real problem right here. It's not, heaven isn't some made up thing. We go up to some guy and ask him if, hey, do you, do you know if you're going to heaven when you die? And he's just like, well, it's not even real. Well, that doesn't make it not real. We know it's real. Whether he thinks it's real or not. All these philosophers that are dead, by the way, and all the ones that I've named are dead. They all believe in heaven and hell. Every single one of them. The minute they died and they open their eyes in hell, they're like, oh, I get it. We were wrong. Heaven and hell is real whether you feel it or not. Because it's objective reality. The Bible is objective. Objective. So I can't even imagine where there's no truth. Can you imagine how confused people are today when they're seeing all this art, literature, Hollywood movies? People are so confused. Look, you know the beauty of this church and the beauty of your church when you go back to your church? You know the truth and you know why it's happening. There's no confusion with you. You're at peace. And you know what? You take how you see all this subjectiveness and you just let that motivate you. To be like, yeah, you know what? We've got to show other people. We've got to show other people that all this garbage is wrong. Imagine a world where words mean nothing. I mean, turn to James chapter 3. You know, language is changing. It's relative. I get it. People are taking this philosophy. The meaning of words is changing. Hollywood's changing the meaning of words. You know what they've done? They've changed the meaning of the word love into just lust. That's what they've done. They've taken the meaning of the word love and turned it into perversion. Love is sacrifice. Love is what Jesus did for us. The King James Bible is my dictionary. It must always stay that way. Hate and judgment are always bad. But you know what? Whenever somebody tells you, don't judge, hate and judgment are always bad, that's an evil person. Because they don't want you... What does the word judge mean? It just means recognizing evil versus good. It's an evil person that says, I don't want you to recognize evil. It's a wicked person. Churches are wicked today that are saying that. Don't judge anything. Are you kidding me? The word God is not... It's not a being. It's an idea to many people. It's a... It's some kind of entity floating in the ether or just some philosophy or whatever. Look, I was at the grocery store yesterday. Like, words are being invented. I asked the guy, because I knew I was preaching this sermon. There's a nice guy, two clerks. One was checking me out and the other was checking somebody else out. And they're kind of back to back and they were talking to each other. They were talking about football or something like that. And the clerk that was checking me out, he kept saying, Furl, furl, furl. And I'm just like, the guy's saying, yeah, and then the defense and this and that. And he's like, furl, furl. And I'm just like, what? What's he saying? I asked him. I was like, man, what are you saying? Like, what's that word? He's like, for real, for real, for real. It was like, you know what he was saying? Right away I connected. I was like, oh, he's saying, amen. Don't start saying, furl. But he's basically just, he's like invented like some weird conglomeration of words. He's like, you know, the guy's like, yeah, the Patriots this and they can't even find Tom Brady and furl, furl, furl. And I'm just like, what's happening here? The guy's like, you're so old. That's what he was probably thinking. But look, it's not just individual words. It's the idea that we can just say anything. Did you turn to James chapter 3? Remember the late 90s? I'm an outdoors guy. I'm an outdoorsman. In the late 90s, I looked up the show. It's still going. 33 seasons. The show Survivor started. Remember this show? Look, this show has changed our culture. I'm telling you. You say, why? Because I thought this was going to be like a show where like people are like camping out trying to like survive against like they're going to like put this guy on an island and let some tigers go. I'm like, this is worth watching. But it wasn't. What it was was just a bunch of, it's just a wicked show. But it's a bunch of people who just like get together and just lie about each other and they form alliances against each other. You know what they do? You're like, whatever they can say that's good for them, they say it. Whatever they can trick the other people into thinking, they say it. Their words don't mean anything. It's defined a culture of just this lying, this gossip, this backbiting that it's like, as long as it's good for you and your team or whatever, then it's okay. I mean, people use that, I hear that term all the time like in the workplace, yeah, you know, form an alliance or whatever. It came from that show. This is the power of this wicked philosophy in Hollywood and media. Why we have to be so careful. These things are not harmless. They're changing people. They're changing generations. Look at James 3.6. What does thy truth say? What does the counsel of God say? It says, the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So the tongue among our members is that defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course of nature, as it is set on fire of hell. That's pretty strong words. You know what that means? This is why the words that you say to people can define what people think of you. This is why the words that you say behind somebody's back can actually do real damage to people. They can do damage to ministries. They can do damage to, you know, God's kingdom on earth. I mean, it's not just words that mean nothing. That is not what the Bible says. Language is objective. You are to say what you're going to do and do what you're going to say. And it matters. And look, it doesn't take a man, it takes a man like one time telling me something and then like he doesn't do it. For me just to be like, make a note, just like, okay, that guy just says stuff. That's damaging to you. I mean, that's damaging to, you know, a person's reputation. It's against the Bible. Turn to Proverbs chapter 10. Here's another one. Here's another one. I mean, just this power of language. Think about, just like, language is not just a harmless thing. Like the things that we say, I mean, there's a reason that Matthew 18 is in the Bible where you're just like, man, if you've got a problem and you want to, you know, you've got a problem or a conflict or something, it's like, you have to do it this specific way. Because why? Because you could hurt people. And the Bible is like giving you a methodology to not do that. Look at Proverbs 10 18. The Bible says, He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth slander is a fool. So the Bible here is saying, hiding hatred with lying lips. So it's like, you know what this is? This is flattery. This is like, you know, I, you know, Brother Israel, nice tie, but I can't stand his tie. No, I mean, seriously, if you don't mean something, you shouldn't say it. You shouldn't just tell people, you know, how great they are. You just tell, I mean, the Bible is just, flattery is wicked as hell. You know, the Bible says that people that flatter you, you know what they're doing? They're hiding things from you. The Bible says they're laying a snare for your feet. Because why? Because what we say matters. Because, I mean, look, I mean, I like your tie, but that's, I just said the same thing, but I mean it. I think it's nice. I think it's nice that you wore a suit yesterday. We were out snowing, because that makes our church look good. I mean, this isn't flattery, because I mean it. You know, it's, if I'm just constantly just laying on all these, and you know what? That would hurt me, because people would be like, the guy's fake. The guy's fake, he doesn't mean anything. You know, people would start to suspect that person, because look, the Bible says that somebody that's hiding hatred, they're after you. They're after you. And utter, it's slander. Look, it's all, look, it's all post-modernism. Pull out your bulletin. Just pull out your bulletin. Do I have one here? I mean, just look at what the Bible says in John 17, 17. It says, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Notice the word that it says twice in this verse. This whole idea, there's no truth, is what I'm trying to get you to understand with this philosophy. The bulletin says thy word is truth, your word is truth, and look, a man is as good as his word, and God's the best, because his word is truth itself. Twice it says, truth, truth. It says, God's word is so true, it's truth. It'll, his word will literally sanctify you. I mean, nobody can say that about their words. I mean, God's word will sanctify you. The only way we could sanctify somebody is by using God's words. You know, by rebuking, exhorting, all these things that Pastor Jimenez talked about this morning. I mean, sanctify means like, purify, make holy. You're like, what in the world? There's nothing, there's no phrase I could ever make up that would make you holy. I can sit up here, and what do I do? I don't make up these great ideas and all this stuff, I just sit here and I just like read, I read what God's words say, and that's what sanctifies you. And I expound on that, and that's what sanctifies you, has nothing to do with things that I make up in my head. It's only reading God's word and giving it to you. That's how you're sanctified. That's how powerful God's word is. That's how true God's word is. That's how opposite of post-modernism God's word is. That's why Satan is doing what? He's always attacking God's word. Through false Bible versions, through, you know, all these different things that, you know, half God said from the very first run in with Satan. Trying to, this is just another satanic attack on the truth of God. That's all it is. But it's in everything. You go see some painting on the wall downtown on some building that some weird guy's face like, or whatever, it's against the Bible. Because it's post-modernism weirdism. You should look at that and be like, that's not what a person looks like. What in the world? Was that guy like on drugs or something when he did that? Is that an accident? That's what people should be saying. But instead it's just like people just embracing weirdism. Because it's just like there's no anchor point. That's what they're trying to get you to understand with all these different things. It's just cutting away at you a piece at a time. But we know. But we know what it is. Here's another thing. You know, all these people, these modern philosophers like Michael Fawcett and Jacques Derrida, these guys died. One died in 1984. The other died in like 2000, 2000 something, early 2000s. They were also, they were also trying to, they were lobbying to get, look there's no truth, remember? There's no truth. There's no right. There's no wrong. They were lobbying to reduce the age of consent for children. They're pedophiles. Does that surprise you? They're reprobates. Does that surprise you with the things that I told you? It's just like I was telling you that the person that says don't judge, that's these people. What's their whole life, think about this for a second, you must recognize these things. You see, you're going overboard with this. No I'm not. Listen. These people that are telling you that there is no right and there is no wrong, they're the most wicked people. Because they're evil. Don't judge, they're evil. They don't want you to recognize the fact that they're evil. I mean, you don't even have to look too far to find this about these people. They're reprobates. Thank God we have the Bible is all I can say. Go home and appreciate your church. Go home and appreciate the man of God that's standing up and that is preaching all the counsel of God for you because this is crazy. And like I said, this is a Thurman series. I just like, just touched on it. But it's in everything. Art, literature. Think about all the news articles you see about parents that have been arguing. The argument of parents in public school trying to get these books out of the library has been going on since I've been alive. Oh, you can't put these books that teach all this weird stuff in school and that, you know, these good parents are trying to get this, this perversion out of school. It's been going on forever. It's post-modernism. They're trying to just expose, expose, expose, expose. But no, the Bible is truth and that is our truth. And whether or not these people believe it, it's everyone's truth. So it's wicked. It's against the Bible and we need to be aware of it. Watch for it. Watch for it in everything, in everything that you see and then you'll be able to protect your families from it. Appreciate, the word of God. Read it. Learn it. Listen to it preached. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.