Let's get started in here, Psalms 145, three and four. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. And back over to Genesis 24 to 27, we'll read a little more this morning. And God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after his kind, and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. Later on it says, and he blessed them and called their name Adam. That thing about one flesh, that has more depth than any of us understand or know. We have no idea what goes on there. God says, let them cleave together and become one flesh. He talks about a man being joined to Harlot. You know what the problem is? He's joined to her and he becomes one flesh. and then again and again and again, and it's all corrupted. So there's something going on there, and we don't understand how that works, but God does. He called their name Adam because they were one flesh, and I mean literally one flesh. You know why? Their DNA was matched even because that rib came out of Adam. DNA is right there. Anyway, we're fearfully and wonderfully made, and one day we're gonna get into talking about that, but that's not where I wanna go this morning. We've been looking at God's genius in his creation. We're looking at it for a purpose, and the purpose is maybe a little abstract to us now. We see these verses up here. We're supposed to talk of his mighty acts, you know, and declare his works and his greatness and the things he's done from one generation to another, and we know that's been dropped. When you stop and think about what was going on in churches, and all of a sudden, God's got us off in another direction, and it's not just what we've known in the past, but it's like we're beginning to see God in all kinds of things. not just as a source for the sufficiency and as a solver of our problems. We're beginning to see God entirely different than we did. You start seeing him now in his creation. You start marveling at the things that he's done. You look at the sunset, you look at those stars up there, even if one of them is a satellite. But you start looking at those things and you're just kind of amazed. You say, man, Lord, you have created some marvelous stuff, haven't you? Why'd you do that, God? I did it because I like it. Nature itself proclaims my glory. And that's not exact scripture, but that's scriptural. When you look out there, it's supposed to remind you of me. Anyway, we started talking about God's creation at the same time millions of people on this earth are being taught evolution. And they're being taught it with our tax dollars. and they take money from me to teach somebody else's kids about evolution that's anti-God. You say, how do you feel about that? Not too good, actually. There's a whole lot of things they do with my tax dollars that I don't like, but that shouldn't be any big surprise. Here's an interesting note over in Daniel. Daniel chapter 11, verse 20, it says, Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom. But within a few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle. And in his state shall stand up a vile person to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, but shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. You say, what's that look like to you? It almost looks like three people. First of all, you got this guy that shows up. He's a raiser of taxes. I don't know if he's a Democrat. But this guy's a raiser of taxes, and I guarantee you the context of this thing is not good. So where do you think taxes are going to go? They're probably going to go the wrong direction. Typically, it's not going to help God or any of his creation to understand God better. It's going to go a different direction. Anyway, you got this thing where this guy shows up and he doesn't last very long, but somebody else comes in and obtains the kingdom peaceably with flatteries, but they don't give this guy the honor. So I don't know if that's actually three different people, somebody that sets this whole thing up, and then you got the guy that precedes the Antichrist. And by the way, if you happen to see somebody get shot in public office and his right eye gets knocked out, and his right arm messed up, you better raise your eyebrows and start looking around, because that's exactly what happens to this character that precedes the actual satanic Antichrist. He actually gets killed, and then Satan enters into him, and he comes back to life. You may not know that he comes back to life. It could be one of those deals where he gets shot and takes off to the hospital, you know. Well, he was dead for a few minutes, but we shocked him, got his heart going. He came back to life. Wouldn't be any big surprise to us. People come back to life all the time, but this one, when he comes back to life, he comes back different. Anyway, that's just something to think about. The government doesn't lead you to God. Almost no governments lead you to God. They may lead you to a form of religion, but they don't lead you to God. They don't lead you to your creator. They don't lead you to his glory. It's just not the way it works. Anyway, these people are teaching stuff in our schools. What are they teaching? Well, some of the stuff they're still teaching them is like Heckel's embryo chart. What's that? I don't know if you remember seeing that chart. I remember seeing it. a big old chart, and here's all these little embryos, all turned the same way, and all of them looking real similar, and some of them are cats and dogs and horses and frogs and pigs and people and everything else, and they all look real similar. And if you'd have backed the thing up to the point where it was just two cells, they'd have really looked similar. But you know what? Back in 1884, they proved that chart was a fraud. Well, how come I got taught it? How come I got taught it in the 20th century? How come they're still teaching that stuff? Well, they're teaching that stuff because something's gone wrong, something's broke. What else? They're teaching stuff about like the peppered moth. So what's that? Well, they're teaching that this peppered moth, there's black variety and there's speckled varieties, and the trees that they live in, they got this peppered looking bark on it. And they say, well, by natural selection, the black ones have been eliminated because the ones that are speckled land on this bark and the birds can't see them. And so they killed off all the dark colored species. Those are now gone. And by natural selection, these here have evolved only because they were the ones that accidentally had this speckled wing look and so the birds couldn't see them. Well, they proved that was a fraud in 1999. So how come they taught it for so long? They don't want the truth. Somebody else comes along and shows them the truth and proves it's a fraud. But guess what? They're still teaching it. Well, how come they're teaching it as truth if it's a fraud? Well, how do you know it's a fraud? Well, they proved that those moths don't live on the barks. They don't even land on the bark on the tree. They live up in the leaves of those trees. It had nothing to do with birds picking out one over the other. So they're teaching a lie. And they're knowingly teaching a lie to some of them. Not all of them. Some of them don't know. The ones that don't know, they believe a lie, just like Eve did. And what happened to Eve? Well, she was taught the wrong thing. Here comes Satan, and he starts telling her a bunch of stuff. She goes, oh, OK. You realize what a mess you're in when you believe a lie. You know what happens in the very last days? God says, I'll send them strong delusion that they'll believe a lie. Now, that's not about just evolution. That's specifically referenced to the Antichrist and accepting him. The reason the world's gonna go after this guy is not because all of us are stupid, it's because when God sends somebody strong delusion, they'll believe whatever he wants them to believe. So they don't have a chance. It's almost like Pharaoh. God says, okay, I'll harden your heart. And he says to the people in the last days, I'm gonna send you strong delusion, you're gonna believe a lie. And when they believe it, they're gonna believe it with absolute authority. They're gonna think, oh man, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Now Carl Sagan and some of these other guys, they know it's a lie. And they still say evolution is a proven fact. So you got people that are being paid by your tax dollars to teach your children not only just a lie, but they're teaching them stuff that draws their attention away from God so that they will believe something that is untrue. And like I said in the past a long time ago, people believe what they believe because the first time they're presented with something in an authoritative manner, they accept it as absolute truth and they will cleave to that and believe it and act upon it until something comes along that's so strong that the face value of the opposing evidence is overwhelming. And then they'll stop and start questioning what they believe, but not until then. Until then, they'll argue with anybody that is not an authority figure. And when you got somebody that's paying $80,000 to go to college, and you got a professor standing up there in a white coat, teaching them that this stuff is absolute fact, and he's paying them that kind of money to teach them, it's hard to turn those people around. And that's what's going on in the world. Why? Because Satan is a liar from the beginning, and he bowed not in the truth. And he's the god of this world. And God gives him freedom to do that so that every man in his own heart will have to make a choice. Now, here's a question. What happened from the time of Adam and Eve up until right now that changed everything from what God did to man believing this thing just accidentally happened? Something had to happen. Something had to change. You think they believed in evolution back in 1600? Who's the guy you attribute evolution to? Darwin. That guy knew it wasn't all true. He was just proposing it as a theory. He said, well, this might be like this. And then people got a hold of that thing and said, that's great. How come? Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. And they didn't like to retain God in their knowledge. That's why. But there's more of a cause to it than just that. Let's take a look at some of the things that happened. Look back over here at Genesis 3, 1-6. Genesis 3, 1-6. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God has said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die, for God knoweth that in a day ye eat thereof. Then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Now listen. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat. You know what the problem was? The problem was she wanted to know more than she knew. You know what that is? The basic character flaw in human nature. Her original problem was not just living by faith. You know what we want? We want God to show us more. We want to know more about the situation. And he says, no, I don't want you to know more. I want you to live by faith. And you go, no, I want to know more. I want you to show me this stuff. Why? There's something inside of us that just doesn't want to trust God. He says, unless you're like a little child, you're going to have a problem. And Eve, although she was childlike, she wasn't like a little child, just trusting. She wanted to know. So the problem she had was wanting to be like a God, and she desired to be more wise. And so where does that lead? Go over in 1 Corinthians 8, 1 to 2. Now, as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing, yet as he ought to know. That's kind of an interesting verse. We talked about that in the past. What do you think you know? All I know is what's in this book is true, and if I disagree with it, I'm wrong. If I think I understand it, I still need to be careful because I've got a deceitful heart that's desperately wicked above all things, and I don't even know how bad it is. So you just walk careful. How's that? Circumspectly. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I mean, is any of you ever worried about going to hell since you got saved? Think about it. You know how many people are trusting they're going right to heaven when they die and they're not? Because they're deceived and they're believing a lie and their heart's helping them do it. And they don't even know it. Man, that's scary when I think about that kind of stuff. I was worried about that for a while. But it says, you don't know anything yet as you ought to know. What does that mean? We know some stuff, but we don't know it in the right way. We don't know the way God wants us to know it. What we do is we rest these scriptures to our own destruction. Anything we like, we accept. And His ways are not our ways. So basically, everything that we like and we accept is going to be contrary to the one that created us. I mean, we're living in this paradox. We just are. So what do you do? Be careful. Pray about it. When you begin to think you've got the answers, that's when you're on dangerous ground. Anyway, he says, knowledge puffeth up. Now, what's all of this about knowledge being puffed up? 1 Corinthians 4, 6 and 7. And these things, brother, have I in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes, that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who maketh thee different one from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? You know what that's saying? That's saying the problem you're going to have is you're going to start feeling good about yourself. And it's going to revolve primarily around things that you know. So that's going to lead you off into this realm of feeling better about yourself than you ought to feel. And then what that's going to do is that's going to put you in a situation with other people to where you begin to contend with them. And you're going to think you're better than they are. And you're going to start running Christians down and make yourself feel better and better. This is a basic human character flaw in us. And we're going to be led into this real easily. And he says, the problem is that you guys don't know what you ought to know the way you ought to know it. And not only that, the things that you know are going to lead to problems with you, one against another. They begin to take credit for the glory of God. Have you guys felt good about anything you've got? Anything you've learned? Anything you've accomplished? Without me, you can do nothing. Man in his best state's altogether vanity. You see how much the Word of God is true and just exposes the human nature and the human character? It's right in our face, but we don't know it as we ought to know it. And I'll show you that when we get to the end of this thing. What he's saying there is, be careful. You start taking credit for the things that I've done. Everything you got, I gave you. I don't care if it's because you're taller and bigger and weigh 440 pounds, you know, and can run through a line of 20 people, you know, and play football, or you can swing a golf club and make $10 million. You don't have anything I didn't give you. What are they doing? They're taking credit for it. And God said, I will not give my glory to another. And when he's done with them, They're going to get down on one knee, and that tongue is going to say, Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And he's saying, I'm done with you. Get out of here. That's tough. But like I said, his ways are not our ways. His ways are unsearchable. When you get feeling good about yourself, you're on bad ground. I resist the proud and give grace to the humble. What do you want? You want God's resistance or his grace? You're not gonna get it when you're feeling good about yourself and you're puffed up. Not gonna happen. Satan, puffed up, he had nothing of his own, did he? God created him. That was perfect in the day in which I created it. He had nothing of his own, but all of a sudden it's, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that. He got puffed up, basic sin. You get puffed up, you get full of pride, one against another. What's that have to do with anything? Oh, Proverbs 3.10, only by pride cometh contention. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not from your lusts that war, you fight, you desire to have and you have not? Crazy people on this planet. And everything is because of the fall of men, because of sin. Proverbs 16.18, pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before fall. You want to be destroyed? You start out by feeling good about yourself, that you've got nothing of your own, and you don't acknowledge who gave it to you and where it all came from, and then you begin to start fighting and contending with your other brethren and the other people around you because they're not as good as you are, and they're wrong, and you're right. Finally, at the end of it, it leads to pure destruction. Now, why is there no acceptance of evolution before Darwin? Not any real acceptance. There was other people that thought these kind of things, you know. They're probably some of them that taught that nonsense, Man was the ultimate thing on this planet, the ultimate pinnacle of everything, and second only to another man that's smarter. That's about it. But why wasn't there any basic acceptance? Well, you start out in Daniel 4, and it says, the time of the end, knowledge shall be increased. You know, we get to thinking that knowledge is a really great thing, don't we? It all depends on what kind of knowledge it is. Because there's the knowledge of the holy, and then there's the knowledge of everything else. But do you realize that the knowledge of holy, he didn't make that an acceptance? He didn't say, just because you have the knowledge of God, you don't get puffed up. What did he say? Knowledge puffeth up. And then he shows you how all that stuff works. What do I have that I have not received? Nothing. Not one of us can take credit for any single thing in our lives. And I was taught as a Christian for years and years, the more I do, the more I get credit for it, the judgment seat of Christ. And based on what I know right now, when I get there, I will know that he gets the credit for everything because he accomplished it. He did it. And if he says, here, you get this, unworthy, unworthy. He said, well, I just want to give it to you anyway. Thanks, Lord. Can I give it back to you because you really deserve it? Makes me feel bad to have it. Well, okay, if you really want to. What do you think they're casting those crowns for? There's something going on there. They're not even worried about what happens to them if they hit the floor. I think that's that sense of unworthiness and realizing who you are. Anyway, in the last days, knowledge should be increased, and that's in the last days. Look at 2 Timothy 3, one and then seven. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, and then seven, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now you think about what's gone on in the last couple of hundred years. You think about what's gone on in the last hundred years. You think about what's gone on since governments began teaching children. That stuff didn't happen 200 and 300 and 400 years ago. That stuff was being taught in the churches. They were being taught at home. They were trying to become an apprentice. Somebody sent off to get near somebody that was really smart and stuff like that. That's what was going on. But now you've got this organized system of what? Imparting knowledge as fast as you can. And when they start teaching you all these things about scientific things that they've learned and discovered, you know, that God's allowed them because knowledge in the last days are increased. And then the professor becomes the intelligent one and the kids go after the professor thinking, man, this guy's really smart. He knows more than my mom and my dad and my preacher. Why? Because look at all this fascinating stuff he knows. And they're still talking about that spiritual stuff. Praise you, Jesus, you know. And the professor's making fun of them left and right, and everybody else running God out on a rail, fast as they can. That's what's going on today in this world that you live in. Anyway, what else? Romans 1, 22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. That's interesting. Professing themselves. Hey, professor, up there with a coat and a whole bit, what's going on? Well, you start reading down through there, verses 17 through 23, and you'll see there's just a whole lot more stuff going on than that. You see this, they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like an uncorruptible man and to birds and to four-footed beasts and creeping things. Eccles chart. See, they all just came from each other. They're all like each other. Wrong. It ain't like that at all. So what's happening? Well, they're teaching the kids lies. and they are teaching them lies. They're none of that stuff true. All it is is just a plain old theory, and somebody's teaching a theory, be like perpetual motion, where you hook the motor up to the generator, and you hook the generator up to the motor, and then you give the thing a spin, and it just takes off, and the generator makes electricity. You got perpetual motion. But that's a theory. You know what happens in real life? It don't work. You know what happens in real life? Evolution don't work. How'd they gotten away with it for so long? Real simple, the church dropped the ball. They began specializing in salvation, expansion and growth, and the focus went way down from God down to just the things that they could get a handle on and nobody would bother them about it. What church? The one we're in. Look real quick over at James if you feel like turning over there, James 1, 22 to 25. Here's the problem. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto man, beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. Sunday morning in church, you walk out. By the time you get back Sunday night, you don't remember anything that happened. You know why? Because you're not doing anything about what you're hearing. That's why. If you're not changing, it's because you're not doing anything that the Bible tells you to do. If you get actually down to it and you want to start changing things in your life, you're going to have to start doing some of the stuff that you're hearing. And then you'll begin to change. Things will be different. And the Laodicean church can't get those people to remember anything from Sunday morning to Sunday night, let alone from Easter to Christmas. You think this thing's in a mess? You haven't seen anything yet. It's just getting going. Anyway, 24, for he beholdeth himself, goeth his way a straight way, forgetteth what manner of man he was, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deeds. What's blessed, Happy? Just like I told Brother Mark a long time ago, he says, why do you come to church? I said, because it's the right thing to do. Are you gonna enjoy it once in a while? How come I didn't live in joy? Right there. Because I didn't know everything like I was supposed to know it. Why? Because I didn't do anything about some of the stuff that I read. When did it start changing? It started changing for me when I read that verse, and it said, call upon me in a day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. And I said, God, I want to do something about that one right there. Show me how. He said, OK, you really want to know? OK. And things from then on have been different. and I've been blessed and I've been happy and I've seen God in all kinds of stuff. One last thing and I'll close here. Revelation chapter three. How much of the word of God are you actually doing? 1%? 5? 10? 13%? 18%? 20? Well, you can tell because if you're not happy, you're not doing enough. Well, what am I supposed to be doing? Well, here's what he tells you to start doing. Revelation 3, 13 to 19. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. And unto the angel of the church of the lay to see and write, these things saith the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. "'because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods "'and have need of nothing, and knowest not "'that thou art wretched and miserable and poor "'and blind and naked. "'I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, "'that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, "'that thou mayest be clothed, "'that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. "'And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, "'that thou mayest see. "'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. "'Be zealous, therefore, and repent. You know where this thing starts? It starts with repentance. It starts with saying, God, I don't know anything as I ought to know. He goes back in there, I have need of nothing, and know us not. It goes right back to that knowledge thing. What happens? The church fed people with a bunch of stuff to where they get to the point where they believe they've got all the answers. And all they need to know about God is salvation and the cross. All they need to know about is how to take care of missionaries and how to witness to somebody and preach to somebody and go out and visit the sick and the rest of those things that are all church-oriented. And it didn't stop there. And that stuff has led this entire church to a point where people are serving without any passion whatsoever. Now let me ask you, are you here just out of selfishness? Are you here out of duty? Are you here out of habit? Or are you here out of passion? Because if you're not here out of passion, what I just read applies to you in either cold nor hot. If you were cold, you wouldn't even be here. If you were hot, you'd have some passion. How come you get so emotional about that? Because I got a little passion about it. I'm beginning to grasp what I'm reading and to see the reality of the words here and how they change things, how they change me and how they'll change us. You say, man, you're pretty tough on us today. No, if you've got passion here, I'm not being tough on you at all. I'm giving you a sense of confidence that, man, things are getting better in my life. I am going down the right road. You know, let he that thinketh he stand take heed lest he fall. And these are one of the ways that you can take heed to the Word of God. How's that? Try me. Prove me herewith, saith the Lord. And that's not just about giving. Check it out. Start doing something about what you hear. What's that? Glorify Him. Magnify Him. Talk about His mighty works. Why? Because when you do You cease to be a hearer only and you start to become a doer and you don't forget what it was like. And you begin to remember him when you're outside. One of the ways you know you're different, if you started looking around and you see these trees and you see the sky and you see those birds and the stuff that we've talked about and you begin to marvel at his stuff, you've gone from a hearer to a doer because you haven't forgotten everything that was said in church. And those things are beginning to change. Let's close in prayer.