Let's go to Romans chapter 1 again. Let's read verses 22 and 23. Is it the same thing? No, we're moving down a verse. We're not going to read 21, we're going to read 22 and 23. We've been reading 21 and 22, so now 22, 23. It says, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. They professed themselves to be wise. Do you know anybody who did that? Have you ever done that? I'm afraid we'd all have to admit that we have. The Bible said in Ecclesiastes 10 and 3, it says, Yea, also when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool. Now my mom always told me it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Anybody else's mom ever tell a man? So, one thing about a fool, he uttereth all his mind. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 20, where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Now, professing themselves to be wise, who are these people that he's talking about here? Who did that? They're the ones who turned away from God. This is the road away from God. This is how the devil gets people to abandon God and end up in destruction. They turn away from God and they think they know everything. They think they're wiser and they become fools. And God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world. Let me read another verse here in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. All right, now the wise men of the world, they're just pretenders in wisdom and knowledge. You understand that? They're pretending that they have it. They're not really wise. The Bible just said they're fools. I read it to you different times. God has made the wisdom of this world foolishness. It is. And so, they're fools. They're not really wise. They're just pretending to be wise according to what the Bible says here. And just like these men that pretend to be women now. Just like these women who pretend to be men. These people are pretending to be wise. And this is not a small class of people here. This is pretty near everybody. When you turn away from God, you follow the same road. You go down the same path, especially in this right here. You, when you really make up your mind to walk away from God, you become a fool. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. Those who profess themselves to be wise are marked and identified as fools by the scripture. Now, that's what the Bible calls them. The Bible's got a lot to say about fools. And the thing that they have in common is their deal with God. They've turned away from God, they deny God, they don't want to retain God in their knowledge, and they talk a lot. And they think they know a lot. And in fact, they think they know more particularly than anybody who believes in God. So a person who's truly wise will not think of himself so. He'll be humble in his estimation of his own wisdom and knowledge. Now that's a fact. I believe that. Sure as the world. A person that's really wise is not going to be talking about how wise he is. He's not going to even think that he's wise. honestly in his heart. He's not going to just put on a fake humility. Oh, I don't know anything. Well, he really thinks in his heart, I'm smarter than everybody. That's not the way it is. The more you know, you know, the wiser a man is, the more he realizes how much he does not know. Because the closer you get to God, the more wisdom you get, and the bigger God gets, and the bigger the whole universe gets, and the more that you see is the more you see that you don't know and understand. So the wiser, the less you think you're wise. The dumber, the more you think you're wise. Fools think they're smart. Every way of a fool is right in his own eyes. He's right. Can't tell him nothing. He knows. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. Well, now, isn't that the way a child is? Can't tell them nothing. I mean, by the time they start talking, they know. Don't tell me, I know. Proverbs 29, 11, my kids learned this very, very, very well. A fool uttereth, and that's all I've got to say, all his mind, but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. The more foolish a person is, the wiser they think they are. It's just one of the ways that sin and pride make a fool of a person. Now wisdom, where does it come from? It comes from God. True wisdom comes from God. Now there's a wisdom of this world, but the wisdom of this world we just read a while ago is foolishness with God. So it really don't count as wisdom. They ought to call it something else. But they call it wisdom. Wisdom comes from God and therefore those who reject God have no true wisdom. But only the earthly, sensual, devilish kind that doesn't come from above. But it's earthly, sensual, devilish. That kind of wisdom doesn't come from God. That's all they got. People who turn away from God don't have wisdom. Now, we understand that. What are they? According to the scriptures we've read, they're fools. They profess themselves to be wise and they become fools. So, James chapter 1 says in verse 5, James 1, 5, if any of you like wisdom, you all know what the next words are, don't you? Let him ask of God. They giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." If you like wisdom, ask God. He gives it to everybody that asks Him. That's not double-minded, and doesn't ask Him. Then in verses 13, wait a minute, I'm in another chapter here. James 3, verses 13 through 15, it says this, Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth." That's what we've been preaching about here. What happens to a person when they turn away from God and truth? They turn to lies and falsehoods. That's how they get vain imaginations. That's what vain imaginations are made of is lies. So they turn away from the truth. Lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. Verse 17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. So we see that wisdom comes from God, true wisdom does. Wise people that are really wise are wise because of God. The earth has no really wise people. They may be worldly wise, but it's always earthly, sensual, and devilish. Their wisdom has to do with pleasing themselves and getting what they want and revenging themselves against other people. Now you think somebody like that's really wise? No. So this turning from God and truth to vain imaginations and lies perverts the reasoning and blinds the mind. I hope you can stay with me here. professing themselves to be wise. We're going to talk about a fool and his idols. So that's where we're trying to get to here. So we've talked and talked and talked about them turning from God and truth to vain imaginations and lies which pervert their reasoning and blind their mind. And all that do this are deceived into thinking that they're wise in what they've done. See, when the devil tempted Eve, the Bible says, when she saw that the fruit was pleasant to look upon and that it was to be desired to make one wise. So the devil's still telling people the same thing. That voice in your mind, that's the devil that's telling you that you'll be smarter to do that. That's what the wise people do. All that do this, they're deceived into thinking they're wise in what they've done. Now, the people you know who've turned away from God, you can call it backsliding, you can call it whatever you want to call it, whoever you know that has done that, this is the route they've went. And you find this in every one of them. You find their proud arguments. and their desire to debate with you. You hear their ridiculous reasoning and imaginations of hypothetical situations where the Word of God just wouldn't work. You know, what you say is truth, that just wouldn't work. You know, they come up with all kinds of reasons and excuses and situations where you ought to lie instead of tell the truth. Where lying would be better than telling the truth. That's how twisted their thinking is from dwelling on lies and all this. And so, you know, I want you to understand this in a practical way. I was thinking about it today. I've just studied and thought and studied and thought about all this right here. And if we would just look at lost people and the ones, the loved ones that we've got out of the way, if we would just look at them and realize where they're at in this process right here, and then start dealing with them there, Instead of from an angle that don't even reach him at all don't even count. You know when somebody's got so far from God Is what we're gonna talk about here tonight? You're not gonna move them with emotions about how much Jesus loves them and how good God is and all of that that ain't gonna touch them They've done change to the glory of God into something corruptible and you got to realize where they're at and So they're convinced that they're wiser than those who continue to believe the truth and submit to God. They're always that way. I know people that I used to go to church with who have moved on up the ladder of success in churches and the pastorate and all of that, and they're big deals now, make lots of money, got lots of prestige. But man, they've lost their understanding of truth. And I know they have because their lifestyle shows it. They have no problem with uncleanness. They have no problem with idolatry. They have no problem with worldliness. That's not getting wiser. You have become a fool by contradicting truth and denying God. You are a fool. You've become a fool. But they profess themselves to be wise, everyone that I know. And it's real easy to detect. This includes people who remain religious. You know, these people, some of them will do this. You know, they're convinced they're wiser than everybody else and on a higher plane, on a higher level of spirituality. And here's the deal. It includes people who remain religious. They get educated, but they go liberal. And it also includes people who just flat walk off from church and God and become great sinners. They're both doing the same thing with God. They both turned away from God. Now one may turn into a great religious leader, but he's turned away from God. Just as much as the one that walked out and went to doping and living in the Emerald. They both think they're wiser than the people that are still in church. They both think they're wiser than the people who still believe in the old ways and that they're best. Their perverted thinking and blinded minds makes fools of both kinds of these people and everybody can see it but them and those who are like them. Everybody can see it, can't they? The wiser they think themselves to be, the greater the depth of foolishness they fall into. That is the truth right there. The wiser they think they are, the more of a fool they are and that they become. The ignorant barbarians, they always have, they still do, worship the sun and the moon and the stars. while the mighty Egyptians worshipped an ox and an onion. I think I said that to you here a few weeks ago. The Egyptians, mightiest nation in the world during their time, and they worshipped oxen and cows and cats and onions. That's as high as they looked. That's what they thought of when they thought of God. It's pretty foolish, isn't it? The more you think of yourself, the more of a fool you become. The Greeks worshipped diseases and passions, and the Romans adored stormy, turbulent, violent female deities. It's kind of like our society, isn't it? I saw there today where Joyce Meyer's in trouble some way or another. She started her company selling cannabis oil, CBD or whatever you call it. Is that what you call it? Anyway, she's made enemies in the business world now. What would you all think if I'd start a cannabis business and start selling? I can make a lot of money. Glory to God. Yeah. Yeah, the Romans worshipped stormy, turbulent, violent female deities. They called them the Furies. The American Indians worshipped, or they considered thunder and the moon and animals to be gods. And the Chinese worshipped a dragon, which speaks of the devil himself, represents the devil himself. First Corinthians 121, for after that, in the wisdom of God, the world, by wisdom, knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So the world, by wisdom, knew not God. Obviously. the world by their wisdom. You understand that? Not God's wisdom. The world's wisdom. Their wisdom. The wisdom that they professed to have, professing themselves to be wise. They became fools. When you're worshiping a dragon, you're a fool. When you're worshiping an onion or an ox or a cat or a snake or a lizard or a piece of wood, you're a fool. You have become a fool. Men have to have answers for their existence and an explanation of the universe that he sees all around him. You've got to have answers. You can reject God and not like to retain the knowledge of God in your consciousness, but you still look around and you still ask questions. Those questions just keep taunting you. about life, and where did I come from, and how did this happen, and where is it going? You just can't get away from it. Man has to have answers about his existence. You reject God and don't like to retain Him in their knowledge because of their sin, so they try to imagine God as something besides what He really is. Is that what everybody does? Is that what Baptists do? Is that what Pentecostals do? Is that what modern Charismatics and Catholics and every other kind of religion, is that what they do? Yes, it is. They reject God like the Bible describes Him and they imagine a better way to represent Him. Write a new Bible. A new version. Take some of that stuff out. Cut out that stuff that offends. Change God from a he to a she. We read these verses here and I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, but they change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man. So when you change God into a woman, I believe you're doing that. Yeah, same as when you change him into a lizard or an alligator. It's always, and it always, when they reject God and imagine him as something besides what he really is, it always leads them away from true righteousness into confusion and a, listen to me, a tolerance for sin before outright embracing it as a lifestyle. That's the way it goes right there. The next verses are going to tell us just exactly how low they go in their sin. And they started out just not glorifying God as God. They stopped worshiping Him. Then they stopped thanking Him. And then they became vain in their imaginations. And their foolish heart was darkened. And professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And then they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image. What's an image? It's a picture. An image is also an idea. What is an idea? Remember what I told you the Latin word for idea was a couple or three weeks ago? Video. So you imagine God as something different than what He really is. When the priest and the prophets preached out of the imaginations of their own wicked hearts, that was God's charge against them. What were they doing? They were presenting God as different, even if it was a little bit, than what He really was according to His Word. They were misrepresenting God, presenting an image, an imagination, a concept in the people's minds of God that wasn't right. So they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image. And that image was made light unto corruptible man. All right, now to do that is to declare that you will not believe in what you cannot see. See, that's the big deal. I seen that thing yesterday again. It was Kent Hovind at this debate. And the question was, where did God come from? I don't know if you've seen that or not, but I mean, He burned them up with it. He did a fantastic job of answering them. And you got to be a thinker to understand even what he said. But the basic thing is people live in this realm of time and space and matter. And they can't think of God except that he came from here somewhere. Where did God come from? Had to come from the same place we did. How could he come from anywhere else when there is nothing else? Well, see, that's man's problem, Sam. And that's what he told them. He said, that's your problem. That's why you're missing God and can't believe in God because you think that he had to come from the same place we did. That he's in this box with us of time and space. He created it and he put us in it. He's outside of time. He's outside of space. He's outside of this universe. You can't know him. You know, these things were not created from things that are seen. God didn't come from all of this. So men declare when they do this that they won't believe in anything they can't see. They make images so they can have something to look at which they believe represents God better than the scriptures do. People won't read the Bible and read the Gospels and read the Old Testament and see the very clear picture of Christ and what He was like, His character. They will not do that, but they'll have a statue of the Virgin Mary and they'll crawl on their knees like the missionaries said a couple of weeks ago for hundreds of miles to kiss its feet. Have you ever seen anybody worshiping idols? When we were in Mexico, I remember seeing in a store window, it said, Christos, 30 pesos. Little statues of Jesus you could buy for 30 pesos. How does that sound? What did you just sell Jesus for? What did you betray him for? 30 pieces of silver? There in the store window. Christ, 30 pesos, you can buy one. And at Christmas time, they drag it on and on into January and February, and they have this thing where it's called, you know, Levantando el Nino. It's the baby Jesus. They've got a little doll of him. And they just, I mean, we watch these old ladies in the nursing home who've lost their minds or got dementia, and we, you know, it's kind of, Esther was telling me the other day. And you can't help but laugh about it. You know they're not in their right mind. But yet these people, I watch them all the time. When we were there, I see them still doing it. And they just act like that's the real Jesus. They're carrying around a little stone doll of Jesus. They worship it. They really, really do worship it because they think it's God. They call it God. because they can see it, and they can touch it. And it ain't going to say nothing to them. And it's not going to tell them about their adultery, and their drinking, and their whoredoms. It's not going to say anything about that. So they can just adore it, and love on it, and carry on about it. And they can see it, and that's the thing. Do you all understand that? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But they must see with their eyes what they can't comprehend with their blinded mind. So they've got to see it. They can't believe, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4, 4, maybe 1 Corinthians, I can't remember, but he said, lest, you know, whom the devil hath, the God of this world hath blinded their minds lest they should believe. And believe, you know. They can't believe because they're blind. And they've got to see to believe. But we walk by faith. The just walks by faith, not by sight. And salvation is by faith, right? You have to believe in something that you cannot see and handle and touch. Men make images of God to make God more like themselves in their character. Listen, since they refuse to allow themselves to become more like God in His character, they change God instead of God changing them. They don't want God changing them. So they just change God. What is it they change about Him? His character. All idolatry does that. All imagery in your mind, all imaginations in your mind, where you conjure up this image of God, this idea of God in your mind, it always changes his character from what it really is. Either he's all just love and warmness and fuzzy feelings and just goodness and he just like... Victoria Osteen, Joel Osteen's wife, she says that God wants you to be happy. That's what he wants. And so anything that makes you happy is good with God, because that's his goal for your life, is for you to be happy. Well, you've changed God into something that he's not. If that's what you really think. It's the same thing, you see. It's an enormously big step down when you substitute the glory of God with an image of a man. We don't have pictures of Jesus around and we won't either because I don't know how the Spirit of God could be in somebody and they understand anything of the Word of God and not see that there's something wrong about that. You know, most people around this area, everywhere in the world, when you say Jesus, do you know what image comes to their mind? That long-haired, feminine-looking painting that we see all the time in all the churches. God said you're not supposed... He said that's one of the commandments. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image of any things in heaven How despicable it is in the sight of God. Well, wait a minute. I missed one again here. I've jumped down here. These images are always contrary to the very character of God, which is His glory and His holiness and His justice. Any picture you see, I've never been pleased with pictures that I see, like in Sunday school literature or in movies that they try to make, when they try to portray Jesus in a movie. They just can't do it. The older I get, the less I like any of it. It's just, it's not right. The image is always contrary to the very character of God. None of them are holy. I mean, this picture of Jesus I was just talking about. Now, how many people can, that know anything about God and the Bible, how can you look at that picture and believe that's what Jesus looks like or looked like then? Long hair, when the Bible says, does not nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it's a shame unto him. Feminine looking, when the Bible says the effeminate are not going to go to heaven, they're in the list more than once. A halo around his head. I read somewhere the other day, just remember, a halo is just six inches away from being a noose around your neck. None of them are holy, but are simply imaginations of superhumans who have the power and the liberty to be more immoral and evil than a mortal man or woman can be in a body of flesh. That's what all the pagan gods were, in a nutshell. That's it, right there. They were just superhuman sinners. that they could look up to and envy and admire and aspire to. That's the thing about God, isn't it? A God is supposed to be something that you can aspire to, look to, be inspired by, motivated by. Well, that was their gods. That's what they made God into. Instead of an inspiration to be holy and righteous and just, it was to be immoral and ungodly. All of their gods and goddesses, and the stories about them revolved around their sexual escapades and their conflicts with other gods. You remember? I mean, did y'all ever learn this in school? I did. There's always a fight in the gods' world, and that's how this one came to be, and then this one, you know, mated with that one, and this is where that god came from. I mean, that's all, their whole thing was all about that. with no moral boundaries or limits. So how despicable in the sight of God to trade the glory of a holy, incorruptible, just, loving, benevolent God to trade it for religion that sanctions whoredom and drunkenness and murder and lust. That's what they did. They traded that for the glory of God. And we're not talking about something that happened in the past. We're talking about something that happens all the time, right now, still does it. What is this deal? You know, I mean, I've been in this long enough to know Baptists who used to have standards. They preached against sin. They didn't believe in drinking. They didn't believe in cross-dressing. They didn't believe in worldliness and all of the worldly clothes that they wear. Now they do. Now what happened? They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image right up here in their little noggin. And they made that image likened to corruptible man, their own ideas. And they're wiser. If you ask them, they're wiser now than they were. They understood. They'll look down their nose at you and say, well, you just don't understand, Jerry. Maybe someday you will. You're just stuck in that old stuff, and you haven't been to school or nothing, and so you don't know. You just don't know. Poor thing. And they just pity you and smile at you and pat you on the head. What do you call that? Patronize you. Because they're so wise. They're wiser. They profess themselves to be wise. But all I've got to say is you just wait until they stand before God. and they give account for their compromising and their lying and their accepting lies and corruption and what they've done to corrupt other people. How different is all that from modern religion that makes sin acceptable and unavoidable and natural and expected of everyone? How different is all those pagan gods and that kind of thinking? What's the difference in that and what these people are doing now? The end result is the same because what has been done with God is the same as the pagan idolaters did. His glory is turned into corruption in their minds. That's why they can speak of him in such irreverent terms. That's why they can be so irreverent in the house of God, the sanctuary. Just come dress any old way, say any old thing. Talk to him like he's their daddy, they say. Call him daddy. Or the cool dude. Jesus is a cool dude. The old man upstairs. These wise men never stop with changing the perception of God into a corruptible man. They go a lot lower than that. You read the rest of the verse there. And two birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. They look lower than themselves. I mean, they look at their own corrupt heart and their own lust and they bring God down to there, but that ain't good enough. They want to bring God down even lower than themselves. You know, men want to put God lower than themselves and make themselves higher than God. Instead of God having commandments, they give the commandments. That's what that's all about. They worship and consider greater than themselves birds, four-footed beasts and creeping things, like eagles and hawks. I hope you all get a little bit of this. But I mean, I see it in the philosophy of this world right now. They think more of animals than they do of people. They think that wild animals have some kind of wisdom and that they can talk and that they're spirits and that they, you know, like eagles and hawks, they think they're more than we are. And they look up to them as if they're, they deify them. The Indians did it. Foreign countries, foreign peoples do it. People in jungles do it. Every depraved, degenerate kind of people in the world always worships animals. And they look to animals for their wisdom. That's what we got going on now. And you know it's creeped into the churches and everywhere else. People think they can learn from animals, everything. You learned what to eat from watching the animals. Okay, go out and watch the buzzards and then copy them. See how you like that. See how healthy that is for you. It won't work. You're looking down on lower species, low life. The answers that man is seeking are not going to be found in watching an eagle or a hawk or Any of these other things. Cows. Worship cows. You know, in India, they think killing a cow is worse than killing a person. To kill and eat a cow, they think you've killed and ate one of their dead ancestors because they're living in that cow. Well, now, you are a fool if you think. I mean, what in the world? How kind of crazy is that? That you think you're my grandpa. That cow is my grandpa. You can't eat that cow. It's my grandpa. The cows run amok over there. They have freedom to do whatever they want because they're privileged creatures. They're given right of way. They're given preference over people. So that changes the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Cats. were a big thing in Egypt. They painted their pictures all over everything. They were cat lovers. I don't mean just cat lovers like little old pet cat. They thought the cats were spirits and gods. When they could have worshipped the one who created all of this vast universe with the word of his mouth. The one who's good and holy and kind and merciful and long-suffering and benevolent. The giver of life. They could have worshipped him. Instead, they choose this. And you wonder why there's a hell. You wonder why there's a lake of fire. And most people think it's unjust. People that sit in churches think that it's a thought they can't tolerate, they can't accept that there's a hell, that there's a lake of fire, that there's eternal punishment for people who do these things. Can't imagine, we can't even begin to imagine what God feels like, what he sees when he looks upon all this. Wolves, and monkeys, and snakes, and fish, and lizards, and alligators, and crocodiles. They throw their babies to the alligators as a sacrifice. Fools. And you know what they would tell you if you ask them? They are wise and they're doing the right thing. They look lower than themselves at the animals and imagine that they're divine. Now modern man, I'm just about done, and modern man in all his wisdom and knowledge now almost universally claims to be nothing more than an animal. Well, we've come a long way, haven't we? I mean, we're really evolving. Yes, sir. Boy, we're going to conquer the stars. We're going to the stars. We're going to the heavens. Man's destiny. At one time, he knew he was the son of God. The sons of God. Now, we're animals. And in fact, we're the worst animal on earth. I've heard it, I've read it from these worldly people who are full of this earthly, sensual, devilish wisdom, say that the earth would be better off without man on it. Because he just destroys everything. These animals would just get along so much better if it wasn't for man. So modern man, all his wisdom and knowledge now almost universally claims to be nothing more than an animal who evolved from lower species. They came from nothing but the millions of years of marvelous coincidences and chances that brought them all into existence. You just got to be an absolute fool to believe in evolution. Now you do. I don't care who it is. I mean, any kind of a mind that is still functioning half throttle can look at that idea just a little bit and say, what in the world kind of craziness is that? I mean, it's like going out here to the junkyard and setting a bomb off and when the smoke clears, there sits a brand new Cadillac, all shiny and clean, smelling new. That's just what evolution. They're professing much more fantastic stuff than that. But yeah. That's how it happened. And you don't believe it? You crazy thing. What's the matter with you? All the wise men believe this. Who thinks they're smarter? The evolutionists or the people who believe in God? Which one professes themselves to be wise? The evolutionists. Yeah, it's a fact, man. It's a fact now. You know that, don't you? Less than 100 years ago, the Scopes Monkey Trial, it was about teaching that nonsense in school. People didn't want it taught in school because it was a theory that there was no evidence for and it's still no evidence for. They just make it up. They've been caught lying and deceiving so many times. and yet they think they're wise. They think you're foolish to object to it. It's got to the point where now that is forcibly taught to everybody while Christianity is banned from being taught. Man, modern man, including most of those who profess to be Christians, do y'all know that? Most people who claim to be Christians are theistic evolutionists. They believe in evolution, but God just directed it. Ask them. Roy wrote a letter to James Dobson. James Dobson, on the radio, you know, folks on the family, been around for years. He's a theistic evolutionist. He believes in evolution. He believes that's how this all happened, but God was behind it all, directing it all. He's got a letter. I don't know what happened to it. I'm sure we got it somewhere. He had a letter from. The greatest honor that God did to man was when he made him in his own image and likeness. And the greatest dishonor that man has done to God is when he changed God into the image of a man or some lower creature. Man believes he came from the mud and the rocks instead of being created in the image and likeness of God. So he looks down to his Father instead of up to his Father. That changes all the direction you're going. When you're looking down, you're going down. If you're looking up, it's going to raise you up higher. The basic truth of all this information is that men turn away from God, who created all things, because they cannot see Him. And they don't like what they hear about His character when they consider their own. It's condemning. This is the condemnation. That light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. So when God, when people consider what they hear about God from the Bible, or read about Him from the Bible, they don't like it when they think of their own character. and they can't see Him with their eyes. So, if God is what the Bible says He is, and what nature shows Him to be, then a guilty sinner has a whole lot to fear from Him. And the natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God without a spiritual birth, so he lives in only what he sees and comprehends with his physical senses. Understand that. Therefore, he runs from God and indulges himself and his mind in the carnal and temporal things of earth." Do you ever wonder how somebody can live 70, 80, I saw somebody the other day, 100 and something years old, still just as lost as they could be. Do you ever wonder how somebody can live that long on this earth and not come to a knowledge of God? They give up a long time ago. They just look at the carnal, physical, temporal things. That's all they think exists, because they can't see it. If people could see one glimpse of hell, it'd scare them to death, wouldn't it? But they don't see it, so they don't believe it. Simple as that. Therefore, he runs from God. He comes to believe that there cannot possibly be anything that exists unless he can see it, understand it, and verify it with physical means. So there's where your superstition comes in, and that's why that superstition is a true measure of how far a person is from the knowledge of God. The more superstitious a person is, the farther they are from God in their mind and heart. You remember we were talking about superstition and that it is basically what it is. It's people trying to prove the existence of something supernatural through physical means. Something they can see, watch, listen to, hear. Superstition. It's the lost, darkened heart trying to comprehend the supernatural without God. It's the devil's substitute for faith. Superstition and idolatry go together like socks and shoes. Idolatry is superstition and superstition is idolatry. Both are based on fear and ignorance and imagination. So that's bad, ain't it? But that's not the bottom yet. Man falls much further than just having a false idea of God. When we go on here and see the rest of this, that's what you see. Man don't stop there. He don't just make him an idol, worship the idol, and that's the end of the story. That's not where it all goes. It goes farther. When you get away from God and you get dark in your soul, There's just no end to where you can go. It's like the bottomless pit is where the final thing is. Well, I hope you got a little bit out of that. There's a lot said there. It's a simple, it's not complicated, the process, but you just need to understand the process here. It ought to alarm you if you see yourself anywhere in any of this. It ought to alarm you when you see other people somewhere in this process. It ought to help you to understand how to deal with people who are in this process somewhere. To realize where they're at and deal with them accordingly. All right, Father, thank you for the Word of God. I pray you bless our hearts and minds. Help us, Lord, to understand these things and keep them and put them and apply them in our understanding as we look around us, as we look at our own heart and life and mind. And Lord, as we look around at lost people around us and we deal with our family and our children and everybody, Lord, help us. to get this so that we'd be more equipped and better able to help rescue some soul from this darkness. And Lord, that we would never fall into it ourselves. Help us, I pray, to get home now safely in Jesus' name. Amen.