chapter 6 and beginning of verse 17 I'm going to read down to the end of the chapter and then we'll remain standing for prayer 1st Timothy chapter 6 beginning of verse 17 Paul says charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in the Living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy that they do good and that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. May God bless his word. Let's bow in prayer. Father, we're so thrilled with the opportunity to gather together again. What a blessing to be with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And Father, we want to lift before you the Kerr family, especially Jimmy and Linda's children and grandchildren and the whole Kerr family. Father, we pray that you would minister to the Kerr family. And I pray, Father, that this would be a time where the gospel message that has clearly been proclaimed to them many times, that it would come to the forefront as they think of their own mortality and as they are grieving, Father, I pray that they would draw near to you during this time and experience that you are indeed the God of all comfort. I also pray, Father, for the Ludovico family, that you administer your comfort to them. And Father, through these dark times, times of pain where we feel the sting of death, I pray that Calvary would come to the forefront, and I thank you, Father, for Jesus Christ dying for our sins and giving to us hope where there was none. And Lord, we ask your blessing, we lift these families to you, and we pray that you would use your word today for your glory, and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. On something called roadblocks, roadblocks to faith, things that keep people, we could also call it stumbling blocks or hindrances from people truly taking time to consider the claims of Christianity, truly being challenged with their need for Jesus Christ. And it is a need that everyone has whether they realize it or not. John wrote, this is the record that God has given to us, eternal life, and this life is in His Son. And then John made this very important statement. He said, He that hath the Son, hath life. He that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. So you fall into, everyone falls into one of those two categories. You either have Jesus Christ and you have eternal life or you do not. You must come through the door and Jesus Christ is the only door to get to the Father. So today we are addressing, these Sunday mornings we've been addressing roadblocks, Things that would hinder people from even really considering their need for Jesus Christ. And we've looked at, we went into Acts chapter 17 in the beginning. And the Bible says that Paul, when he went into Thessalonica, first thing he did was he went into the synagogues. And the Bible tells us he did something which was his manner. He did it frequently. This was just the way Paul operated. He went in unto them, and he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging some things about Jesus Christ. So he was reasoning with them. Paul wasn't just preaching at them, trying to shove information, and, well, I'm going to let them hear it as long as they hear it. He was reasoning with them. He was grasping, he was getting into their minds and finding out where they were at. so that he could counteract, and whatever it was, if there were hindrances that were keeping them from getting saved, he wanted to address them. Now he knew, and the response, if you look at Acts 17, is many believed. Unfortunately, some did not believe. That's happened ever since, hasn't it? It is important for us to realize that there are people that are genuinely Sincerely, I'm going to say this and you could counteract. There are people that are seeking the Lord. I know the Bible says there's none that seeketh after God. Okay, there's people that God is working in their hearts. They are tender-hearted and they are willing to consider the claims of Christianity if they are but challenged that way. And we've already talked about some of the roadblocks. Evolution is one of the big ones. And we want to pick up with that today. I want you to look at 1 Timothy chapter 6. Paul is closing this first epistle to Peter, and he is challenging Timothy to do something. I want you to look again at verse 20. He says, O Timothy, Keep that which is committed to thy trust. What's he talking about? Literally, this comes from one Greek word, and the idea literally is, it's the word deposit. Paul is telling Timothy, listen, you've been given something. It's not something you found out on your own. It's not something that you put together. It's been given to you. It's a trust, a deposit. that you are now responsible for. By the way, we are also. Keep that which is committed to thy trust. What's he talking about? He's talking about the gospel. He's talking about Bible teaching, sound doctrine. In fact, in his next letter, 2 Timothy 2 and verse 2, Paul would tell Timothy, the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men. So he's saying, what I have taught you, Timothy, is a trust. I've given to you sound teaching. And now it's your responsibility. Just as if I gave, you know, just as if I gave you money and put it in your account, a deposit, and now you're responsible for it. So you've been given a body of truth that you are now obligated to pass on to others. And then he says this, and this is what we're going to look at today. And he says, avoid. He says, beware, watch out. Here's some traps. that you have to be very careful of. Two things. First of all, avoid profane and vain babblings. I like that. Profane and vain babblings. What's he saying? He's saying be careful, Timothy, because there's a lot of empty talk out there. A lot of people waste their time arguing about things that are of no value. And Paul knew this too, when it came to the Pharisees and others, where there's countless hours and hours of talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, that is worthless. And he would write about this many times. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men. Paul talked about, watch that you don't waste your time arguing on things that really don't matter. That's the idea here. And then he says this, there's another thing to avoid. Timothy, avoid oppositions of science, falsely so called. Is Paul dissing science? No, in fact, the word science, it's just a translation. The word science comes from Latin. So really, Paul did not use the word science because it came about much later. But he did use a very popular word that he's used many times in the scriptures. It's the word gnosis. And it's simply the word knowledge. That's what science is. By the way, keep that in mind. That's what science is. Knowledge. It's information. And now Paul is talking about that. And by the way, Paul was not against knowledge. He just told Timothy that, you know, I'm giving you a sacred trust here. It was knowledge. It was information. The gospel. Bible truth. So what's he saying? Avoid oppositions of science. And then he says this, falsely so-called. See, things have not changed. There are people that are opposing Christianity, and they're using knowledge or science to try to oppose it. That's interesting that this term is used today, because we hear a whole lot about science being bandied about today. And I want to remind you, because remember, when you talk about science, we're just talking about knowledge. Information. Here's the key. What information are you listening to? There's a lot of information out there. There's a lot of knowledge, a lot of things, a lot of words that are out there. But they're not all reliable. I want to remind you as we talk about today one aspect that is a legitimate concern If people have this issue and they think that this science or knowledge refutes the Bible, it needs to be addressed. Now there will always be people who will throw this issue at us because they just reject Christianity. In fact, Paul would write in Romans chapter 1, there are people that, and I love this phrase, They did not like to retain God in their mind. There's a lot of people like that. God and the reality of God is a very inconvenient truth. In fact, it bugs me that Al Gore took the name for that book when the greatest inconvenient truth, folks, is the fact that there is a God in heaven and we're going to have to answer to him someday. That's the biggest inconvenient truth. And people do not like to retain God in their mind. And that describes a lot of people today. But what we're interested in is people that are genuinely seeking for truth. And here's one of the things that people will use to throw up and to really write off Christianity. And it's a branch of science And it's, there's a lot of knowledge out there, there's a lot of information out there that has the opportunity to support or refute the Bible. And you know what it is? People's junk. Rubbish. Rubbish that has been preserved from days gone by. and it's called archeology. You ever hear of that? It's just digging up people's junk, isn't it? I mean, someday if we pass away, well, we will pass away, generations to come if the Lord tarries, we'll be leaving some stuff. Who knows what will leave and who knows what we won't. But if somebody has a serious, genuine concern, I'm telling you there's so many people that for the last, for decades, young people would get saved and then they go off to seminary or they go off to university or college and it would destroy their faith. Because they're surrounding themselves with all these professors and teachers that come across as knowledgeable and that reject the Bible. And they'll throw some shoddy arguments, oppositions of science. And it will cause many to abandon their faith or to waver. Oh, the Bible can't be trusted? Oh, the Bible's not accurate? And folks, I want to address those things, because I submit to you the Bible is very accurate, and archaeology will bring that out. But I want to quote a study, because in 2000, you've heard me say this already, in 2016 Oxford Dictionaries coined a new, they call it a word, but it's really a hyphenated word, it's like a phrase, but it's a new word. And it's become so significant, again, that in 2016 it now became an official word. But it's not a new concept. The word is post-truth. What do you think about that phrase? If something is post, like if I say post-Christmas or post-Thanksgiving, what are we talking about? We're talking about something that's after that, right? I think it's interesting that this new phenomena that they think is new, it's just a terminology, that they call it post-truth. It means you've got truth and now we're talking about after-truth. In other words, bye-bye truth. Right? That's what post-truth is. Listen to the definition of it according to one of the Oxford dictionaries. It's relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts, got that? Objective facts, information, knowledge, things in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief." In other words, more and more people are not interested in truth as the Bible describes it, what's right and what's wrong. They're interested in, well, this is my truth. In fact, that's a phrase people use, this is my truth. And in other words, it's like, well, wait a minute, is your truth accurate or not? Well, it doesn't matter anymore because we have post-truth. By the way, this is not new. I heard recently, I might have read or heard, I don't even, it just merges, you know, all the information out there. The term, the phrase, yellow journalism, back when media started influencing people and there was a big competition between Pulitzer and another, you know, newspaper giant, and they had something called yellow journalism, which apparently is really this same phenomenon. In other words, it doesn't matter if you're reporting something that's accurate. What sells papers? And so this is just a new post-truth. It's just a new thing. And so oppositions of science is people that want to reject truth. That's why it's falsely so-called. It's not legitimate knowledge or science. It's not legitimate information. It's not correct. But who cares anymore? Let me give you an example. In fact, in this statistic or this article, they've had the opportunity. In fact, this happened in 2016 where they did a study and they found that there's an, in fact, here's the way the article published it. There is an ancient, people have an ancient instinct to find information that syncs with their perspective. Now get a hold of this. There is an ancient instinct that people have to find information that syncs with their perspective. In other words, I don't care if it's true or not, I believe it. And so if I believe it now, that becomes the ultimate truth. That's the idea. So what they did in 2016 is they took 376 million Facebook users. There's not many studies they do, folks, where they include 376 million people, but they took 376 million Facebook users and they studied those people's interaction with over 900 news sources online. I mean it's a pretty extensive study. And they concluded that people tend to seek information that aligns with their views. In other words, people are going to Google, not I believe this, is this true? No, they're going to be like, I believe this, help me prove it. And that's what's happening today. And so you have a lot of people, young people too, that are going to colleges and universities or talking to people that do not believe the Bible, and these people will speak so authoritatively to dismiss the Bible, and they'll use archaeology. as an example. So let's jump in. Let's talk about that. You know, archaeology is studying people's junk, all right? And Josh McDowell wrote this in one book. He said, at one time there were certain Old Testament events, individual persons, as well as the entire races of people that were spoken of in scripture that were alleged to be mythical. Understand this. Especially when German rationalism crept in in the 1800s and people started rejecting the Bible, There were a lot of things back then, because archaeology was in its infancy, where if you go into the Bible and you don't believe it, if you don't have immediate evidence right in your face, you're going to reject it. That's what doubt does. And so years ago, when archaeology was in its infancy, there were a lot of things in the Bible that there was no other outside source. Cities, that are mentioned many times in scripture that were never found, there was never any other than biblical source that even mentioned that city. People! King David! Did you know that up to 1993, the only source, the only information out there, historically, archaeologically, anything, was what the Bible said about King David. until 1993. That means we started the church in 1992. So a lot of people that would have gone to school around that time, they would have heard their professor say, King David didn't exist. Shows you how inaccurate the Bible is. You know, the only place we get this supposed King David is in the Bible. But you will not find any non-biblical source that mentions David. There's a lot of things like that, so let's just jump in. And let me share with you these three points. They're not mine, they come from a college professor of days gone by. Very important things for you to keep in mind. Number one, truth never fears a challenge. You ever heard that before? I want you to keep that in mind. Truth never fears a challenge. If you embrace truth, You're not going to react or get intimidated if it's challenged, because that's the nature of truth. You know, it's purified, it's tried. So when you're on the side of truth, folks, you're not threatened by somebody disagreeing with you. In fact, you open, you welcome that so that it becomes manifest. By the way, that's not just true about truth. It's also true about teachers. That's why Paul said, there must needs be heresies among you so that they that are approved might be made manifest. So truth never fears a challenge, number two. Truth is consistent with itself. That's the nature of truth. Now we're not talking about post-truth. We're not talking about the garbley gook that has the name science or knowledge or information attached to it. We're talking about information, knowledge that is accurate. It's consistent with itself. And then thirdly, truth correlates with reality. Truth correlates with reality. So let's talk about some things. Again, it's a bunch of examples here this morning. First, and you can write these down. We're not going to study each of these texts in depth. Luke chapter 7, verses 1 through 5, says this. about Jesus. Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people he entered into Capernaum and a certain centurion servant who was dear unto him was sick and ready to die and when he heard of Jesus he sent unto him the elders of the Jews beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant and when they came to Jesus they besought him instantly saying that he was worthy for whom he should do this for he loveth our nation and He hath built a synagogue. Interesting. The Capernaum Synagogue. For years, there has never been any evidence that there were synagogues anywhere near Galilee. In fact, listen to what this supposed scholar said. Robert M. Price. He argued that Jesus of the Bible never even existed. That's what he said. And here's what he says. He says, a major collision between the gospel tradition and archaeology concerns the existence of synagogues and Pharisees in pre-70 C.E. I love when they do that. It's so funny to me. C.E.? He means A.D. Because that's how everybody has rendered time until skeptics came along and said, well, we reject Jesus, so we're not going to call it F, you know, autodominy, year of the Lord, marking Jesus' birth. Can't be having that, so we're going to come up with CE, Common Era. bunch of garbly gook anyway he says again he says major collision between the gospel tradition and archaeology concerns the existence of synagogues and pharisees in pre-seventy galilee historical logic implies that there would not have been any no pharisees no synagogues since pharisees fled to galilee only after the fall of jerusalem so what he's saying He's saying historical logic. He's saying, I've got information, science. There's no evidence that Pharisees or synagogues existed in Galilee. There's just no evidence of that before 78. I mean, there's just no evidence. And there wasn't for a while. And then, then came this. an archaeological dig reported. Remains of the first century Jewish synagogue where Jesus spoke and performed a miracle has been excavated. The synagogue also marks the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. The site was first identified by Sir Charles Warren in the 19th century. Further research has confirmed its identity. So all of a sudden they find this, what was clearly a synagogue, and it's everything, it's the one, they've got it narrowed down. This is the one. In fact, in the fourth century, they built another synagogue upon the remains of this one synagogue. That was called the White Synagogue because the stones were a lot newer than the stones that it was built upon from a previous synagogue, and it's very clearly they've identified it as the synagogue in Capernaum. So, talk about empty and vain babbling. This man, I wonder, how many young people who grew up in Christian's homes or made professions of faith, went and sat under this man, this scholar's classes, and heard him arrogantly condemn the fact that the Bible teaches there's synagogues in Galilee. How ridiculous! And now, Look at this. It looks like the Bible was right. Here's another one. The Pool of Bethesda. And I've got a bunch here so I'll just really go through them quite quickly. John chapter 5 verses 1 through 3. talks about the crippled lame would sit by this pool in Bethesda and it mentions that it has five porches in the Hebrew tongue it's called Bethesda and goes on and explains that. Well here's a scholar from the early 20th century named Alfred Louis C. who says John was symbolically making things up. This pool didn't exist! And so he wrote, the ancients who thought they found in the spring a symbol of Judaism and in the five porticos an allusion to the five books of the law. He says, this is merely allegorical. That's why it was written. There was no pool of Bethesda. This is a joke. And there was no evidence of it until there was. And then archaeologists uncovered, they studied the scriptures, and it's clear the five porches I mean, right where it was by the particular gate, the sheep gate, just like John says, it's like, oh, look at this. That's the one he was talking about. I wonder how many people lost their faith in these arrogant people that spout off information as if it is fact. Because they don't want to believe the Bible. I wonder how many young people lost their faith and then died before it was even uncovered. See, the key, folks, isn't, okay, you prove to me the Bible's right. Because archaeology, again, it's just uncovering, it's very limited. You know, in a hundred years, some of us here might have left, we might have something left over that people will find. But the nature of stuff, is that probably some of you there will be no footprint. You didn't exist. Of course you existed. But just because you don't leave any stuff behind doesn't mean you didn't exist. And by the way, God has not communicated through the primary tool of archaeology. He has communicated through his word. A couple more examples. There's so much, by the way. King Herod. Do you know that King Herod was, nobody, there was no record of King Herod ever, except the Bible. And so for years, liberal scholars reject it. There's no document, there's nothing found that tells us about a King Herod. And yet, years later, They found coins that were imprinted by Herod. You know, it's very clear. So what, did Herod all of a sudden come into existence? Why don't you just believe the Bible? Because that's how God has given us his revelation. Sodom and Gomorrah. Do you know that for years there was no evidence there was a place called Sodom and Gomorrah? No? No reference of it in any other non-biblical historic literature. So a lot of people came along and said, it's just myth. It's just a story. A nice little story that people say to put the fear of some god in your mind. And then they had excavations at Tel Mardik, now known as the ancient site of Ebla. They uncovered 15,000 tablets and some of them have been translated. And guess what cities these ancient tablets reference? Sodom and Gomorrah. How about that? So many others. Belshazzar. You ever hear of Belshazzar? He's one of the kings during David's time. He was a king. The book, excuse me, Daniel. He's mentioned in the book of Daniel. this ruler named Belshazzar, who was ruling, according to the Bible, he was ruling in the city of Babylon when it fell to the Medes and the Persians. And do you know that there's never been any other source than the Bible for years that even mentioned Belshazzar. Here we go. It's another fantasy. It's another thing made up. And by the way, so now these liberals are going to come across and say, you know, there wasn't even, Daniel didn't exist. The book of Daniel was written many, many years after the claim. By the way, you know why they do that? Because there's a lot of prophetic things in Daniel that were written years before they happened. So it's very inconvenient to believe that there is a supernatural book, somebody named Daniel, who got revelation from God. So the new twist, the scholarly approach. Daniel didn't write the book. There was no Daniel. It's just a fictional thing made up by some people way after the time. And I wonder how many young people sat under that kind of garbage which was presented as science and knowledge and rejected the Bible because of that. Then, all of a sudden, after a dig in Babylon, It showed indeed. According to what we had had up to that time, history, it showed us that the very last, according to history, the very last ruler of Babylon at that time was Nabonidus. And so all of a sudden the Bible is saying, no, the last king was actually Belshazzar. There was no evidence for it. So is the Bible lying? until they discovered in Babylon that a tablet was found that named Nabonidus on the top as the king along with his son Belshazzar. First time a non-biblical source mention that name. In fact, this tablet that was found said that Nabonidus went and left Babylon for about ten years and during his absence he appointed his son Belshazzar to rule in his place. Look at that. The Bible was right after all. There's so many other things we could talk about. I mentioned King David. Up until 1993, there was no evidence outside the Bible that there was a King David. And then in a dig in Tel Dan, northern Israel, they found words in a chunk of basalt. that was translated, House of David, King of Israel. And then in 2005, they found more evidence clearly that David was indeed a historical figure. I wonder how many people sat under these unbelievers who arrogantly rejected the Bible. And they said, oh, this man knows a lot. The Bible must not be true. It is tragic. So I want to close with this story Again, Romans 1.28 is where Paul said, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. God says, OK, you don't want to believe in me? Fine. And that, I think, describes a lot of people. So let me introduce you to and share the testimony of a man who's no longer with us. He passed away in the early 1900s. His name was William Mitchell Ramsey. He was a brilliant man who was an archaeologist. who studied science, he was born in Scotland, he studied, he was a student at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and then he went to Oxford University in England, and he sat under the feet of many modernist theologians and skeptics who did not believe the Bible. It was assumed at that time that the Bible was not historically accurate and that it contained large portions of mythology. One of those things, some of them was the book of Daniel I mentioned, that Daniel wasn't written when the claim is, because then it would have been supernatural. They said the same thing about Acts, the book of Acts. Acts was written way long, first of all it wasn't written by Luke, and you know, Paul's adventures, that's all fantasy, that didn't happen. So he grew up under that, he was an archaeologist, trained in the field of digging up people's stuff, And he planned for years. He planned to do a dig in the areas where Paul supposedly traveled. And he didn't believe the Bible. And so he set out to disprove. And he's going to use the main argument was, I am going to prove that the Apostle Paul never existed in history. It's just made up by some religious book that talks about it. And there's no evidence. And you see, at that time, archaeology was new. And nobody had ever investigated to confirm whether these places that Paul supposedly went to were legitimate. So he announced way ahead of time. He said, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go and travel where this Apostle Paul supposedly went, and I'm going to prove that this is all bunk. I am going to do science, and I am going to show that the Apostle Paul is a figment, he is a myth, he never even happened. And he spent, and he announced it so much, that all the skeptics and unbelievers were so looking forward to finding out his findings. And he spent 15 years studying, and over and over again, he was confounded. His preconceived, his prejudice was destroyed. He was not happy at first. It's not fun being proven you're wrong. It's very humbling. And he got over that. And then he published his long-awaited book. And people were furious. They're all expecting, you know, give us some ammo to destroy the Bible, yeah! And it did just the opposite. He came out and he said, you know what? There is so much evidence. that Paul was real. In fact, he concluded just the opposite. The book of Acts is the most historically reliable document ever written. That's like what he came out with. And then he would publish things for like the next so many years. He kept publishing things that just kept confirming all the stuff that he did not believe. He became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and the reality of the Scriptures. I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 16. I want to read to you a statement. This is from an author named Rusty Osborne about archaeological discoveries. I think he concisely gives us the perspective of where we should be. He says, so how should we discuss biblical archaeological discoveries? They can confirm and support the Bible's historical portrait, but they cannot inductively prove the Bible's truthfulness. Sometimes, due to limited understanding or misinterpretation, certain finds do appear to confirm the Bible, and sometimes discoveries believed to support the Bible are later found lacking. The archaeological picture is constantly changing as each new dig, season, and published analysis reveals a few answers and as many questions. So here's the summary from another source. Archaeology has never proved the Bible account wrong. That's the key. Keep that in mind. But because archaeology is not, like you'll never see this Everything to be discovered has been discovered. We're now done with archaeology. Nothing more to investigate. We found everything and everything's been categorized, cataloged. We're good now. Everything's been discovered. No. They're constantly discovering new things. So what's your take on the Bible going to be? Are you going to be like those from a hundred years ago who rejected the pool in Bethesda, that there was a Herod, that there was a David, that there was a Sodom and Gomorrah? Are you gonna deny all that because there was no evidence at the time? And now there is? Look at that, the Bible was right. Or are you gonna take the revelation of God as he has communicated through his word at face value? See, the Bible says God has revealed himself in the scriptures. Now let's close by turning to Luke chapter 16. And it is a conversation by a man, actually regarding two people, but this man died and he did not believe in the afterlife. He was convinced, like so many are today, that once you die, that's it, you stop existing, But remember how Hebrews chapter 9, chapter 9, 27 says, it's appointed unto men once to die and that's all there is. Oh, wait a minute, no, it doesn't say that. It's appointed unto men once to die and after this, the judgment, there is an after. So the rich man, Luke 16, and Lazarus, the rich man lived for this life because that's all they had. That's all he thought he had. And then the Bible says he died. And in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment. That shock is going to happen to a lot of people. Where they are convinced so arrogantly that there is no afterlife. So here's what happened. I imagine the same conversation has probably happened maybe millions of times, where people die and then they realize, whoa, this stuff is real. And they think of all the people that haven't died that they loved. So the rich man's like, I have five brothers. Please send Lazarus back. The first request was, please have Lazarus dip his finger in water and just give me some relief. Couldn't happen. Then he said this, he said, would you please send Lazarus back to my brothers? Because if someone came forth from the dead, surely my brothers will believe and they'll find out about this place that I didn't believe in and they don't believe it either. And Abram said this, very, very important statement. In fact, he denied it at first. Verse 29, Abraham said to him, they have Moses and the prophets. You know what that is? The Tanakh. The Old Testament is what we would call the Old Testament. They have the scriptures is what he's saying. Let them hear them. By the way, that's how God has spoken. That is the more sure word. You need to respond to God's word. Now listen to what human reasoning says. This guy's in hell, realizing he had been wrong all his life, and there is an eternity, and he says, No! Verse 30, Nay, Father Abraham. No, no, no, you don't understand. If someone went to them from the dead, they'll repent, because he's there. He now realizes it's real. Look what Abraham says. This is profound. In verse 31, And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets." If they don't listen to their Tanakh, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. It doesn't seem reasonable, because here's this guy, he now believes, he's in hell, he realizes there is an eternity, and he's like, please just send someone back! And Abraham says, no, no, no, you don't see your brothers, they have the same thing that you had, the Scriptures. Revelation, God has communicated. You rejected it. And even if someone came back from the dead, they wouldn't believe it. Let's fast forward now to today. See, when this teaching was, when this happened, nobody had come back from the dead. But now someone has. Jesus Christ came forth from the grave. And I submit to you folks, this is true. If they don't hear the scriptures, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. So I think of this archaeologist, again, his name, William Mitchell Ramsey, who was born in 1851, died in 1939. He set out because of his schooling. He did not believe the Bible. The scholars, the people he esteemed, all rejected it. And they seemed, you know, he took their word for it, because he gave them intelligence that they didn't have. See, apparently they were teaching post-truth before that name became popular. They were presenting facts that were wrong. They were providing information That was not accurate. Folks, the ramifications are huge. How many people reject the Bible, reject Christianity because it's not scientific? You've got to be so careful, folks. When somebody says it's science, and here's the thing, I close with this because it's, again, we are prone to want to believe certain things. Many years ago, There came a study or there came an article out that said, we have discovered a gay gene. You remember this? There is a gene. Because the argument was, hey, I can't help how I was born. Don't blame me, this is not a choice. I was born this way. And then they discovered a gay gene which proved to the whole world that these Christians that claim that you're responsible for your behavior are baloney and it's purely a physiological, biological thing. And it was splashed on the forefront of all the news sources. And then months later, it was debunked. And it was mentioned once or twice on the back page. But to this day, there are so many people that still believe there's a gay gene because they want to. Folks, you've got to be careful. People today, I'm convinced people are being brainwashed in the name of science. For example, I'll close with this just to stir the pot. You go up to someone and talk about herd immunity, and you are going to be looked at like a lunatic. And you might even hear, that's not science! Excuse me? Actually, it is. But science has been stolen, and now people are using it to communicate things that are just not true. Folks, you and I have gotta be so careful about who we believe. I go back to the message, and I close with this, I promise you, I close with this. Be a Berean. Remember what they did? Search the scriptures. Little bit of holy skepticism towards these people that are so quick to dismiss the Bible. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. I pray that you would help us in a day where so many people are being deceived and yet they have no clue because their eyes have never been illuminated by the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. They may think they're already okay with you because they're good people. They might not believe there is a heaven or a hell. They might not believe in an eternity. They've rejected the revelation that you've given of yourself in your word. Father, I pray for those that really do want to know the truth, that are willing to engage in honest discussion and argumentation so that they can have their theories challenged. Help us, Father, to realize that truth never fears a challenge. that truth is consistent with reality and I pray father that you would help us to embrace truth and to be able to present truth and to be earnest contenders of the faith and we'll thank you for it we pray in Jesus name amen let's all