 Amen. So here we are in Acts chapter 28. So this is the last chapter in the book of Acts. We've been in Acts for many, many weeks studying through here. Paul is on his way to Rome and we see a shipwreck. He gets shipwrecked on this island in chapter 28 at the beginning anyway. So let's start out and see what we can learn. We're only going to get a few verses in here and then I'm going to give you a kind of a sermon on one of the ideas that comes out of this story. But let's read the story and then we'll talk about it afterwards. Look at verse number one. The Bible says when they were escaped they knew that the island was called Melita. So this is the island of Malta. If you've ever looked at a map there's a small island that is to the southwest of Crete and that's where they ended up. They got pushed there and of course they went through all this drama being in the storm for 14 days and throwing all the tackle overboard. We talked about how Paul stood up and said, you didn't listen to me, but then they listened to everything that he said and they all lived and they basically beached, they grounded the ship into a river at the mouth of this bay on the island of Malta. And here they're shipwrecked on this island and the Bible says, and the barbarous people showed us no little kindness for they kindled the fire and received us every one because of the present rain and because of the cold. So here we see this term a barbarous people and that's probably not politically correct today, but they're basically what he's trying to tell you today or tell you here is that this was not like the Gentiles, like the Athenians, this was not like the people in Ephesus and the people from Greece or the Romans or anything like that. These were tribal people, these were primitive people on this island, what he calls barbarous people. So that's going to be important when I point out some things that we're going to talk about this evening. This was a barbarous people, an uncivilized tribe, look at it that way. But look, it said they showed them no little kindness, meaning they were nice to them, they were hospitable to them, they helped them out. And when Paul gathered a bunch of sticks, so they're getting a fire going because they're all wet and they're cold, they just got shipwrecked and I'm sure a lot of them had to swim in. Paul gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire. There came a viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand. So Paul grabs a bunch of sticks to help get the fire going and get everybody warmed up and he gets bitten by a snake, a viper meaning some kind of venomous snake here. Obviously the people of the island knew that this was a venomous snake because look what happens in verse number four. It says, when the barbarians saw that the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said amongst themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer, whom thou he hath escaped to see, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. So this is an interesting statement from these people here. It shows you kind of their mindset, all right, shows you their mindset. But basically they see the snake didn't just bite him and leave, the snakes like literally hanging on his hand, they know that okay, he's been seriously bitten by this snake. He shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm. So they're like, all right, this guy got bit by a snake. He just got saved by the shipwreck. But now like this snake comes and bites them, they're like, you know, some higher power wants this guy dead is what they're thinking about Paul. But then he shakes off the beast into the, he shakes the snake off, throws it into the fire and felt no harm. How be it they looked and when he should have swollen and fallen down dead, suddenly, but after they looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a God. So you know, first of all, you know, these people are what Paul would have said in Acts chapter 17 with the Athenians. They're pretty superstitious. You know, he said about the Athenians in Acts chapter 17, who were just, they just wanted to hear some new thing all the time. And they just, they didn't care what was said. They just were listening to all these different philosophies. And he's like, you guys are too superstitious. These people are very superstitious. Number one, they go from, you know, they go from somebody gets bitten by a snake. And they're like, you know, God, you know, this must be a sign from God. Look, sometimes people just get bitten by a snake. You know, that's, that's the brass tacks of it. And then they go from, you know, God wants him dead to the fact that he got bitten by this snake. And then he doesn't die after, you know, Paul's sitting around the fire talking, chatting. I'm sure he's, you know, talking about Jesus around the fire. And they're just sitting there waiting for him to die. And he doesn't die. Right. He doesn't get swollen up. They're like, you know, they're probably not even listening to him. They're just like, this guy's going to die soon. And then he doesn't. And then they go straight to what? He's a God. You know, so he went from being hated by God to a God in just a matter of a few minutes. All right. Look at verse number seven. But there was some profit to the story in the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island whose name was Publius, who received us and lodged us three days courteously. And it came to pass that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux to whom Paul entered in and prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him. So when this was done, others also, which has diseases in the island came and were healed, who also honored us with many honors. And when we departed, they laid it us such things as were necessary. So Paul has an opportunity here to go and heal people. And I'm sure many of these people didn't really, they thought he was a God ended up getting saved. The Bible doesn't give us that exact detail. But you know, this was a great miracle that God performed to get the gospel to this island. But I'm going to stop right there. I'm just going to kind of comment on a very specific topic tonight. And this, this will show you by the way, when you see, you know, what I'm going to preach on tonight, you can understand that, you know, no two men's preaching night sermons will be the same, right? Because, you know, you'd never guess if I just pull the church right now, you'd never guess what I'm going to talk about tonight. But what I want to talk about tonight is the fact that it's interesting that this barbarous people believed in gods, that they believed in deities. And you see that that's not anything new, by the way. You, you see, you know, American Indians, you see, I don't know if that's the right way to say it, I don't really care. You see that with, you know, the Indian tribes, you know, in North America, you see that with the tribes in South America. They all had, you know, just many, many, many gods. Okay, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 12. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 12. That also is nothing new. Okay, so this barbarous people, you say, well, you know, they were a, you know, a primitive people on this island, you know, barbarous, meaning they weren't civilized. But they still had some idea of a higher power. Okay, look, it was false gods, you know, lowercase G, they're not real gods that they were, you know, they were, they were so, it's probably had so many false gods, they were just willing to just add Paul, you know, to the list of their gods. They're very superstitious. But the point is they believed in a higher power or higher powers. Okay, that's what I'm trying to get you to understand. Even the most primitive people throughout history have had, you know, the belief in gods. Okay, just not just themselves. Alright, look at Deuteronomy chapter 12 and verse number 29. Look, that's not a good thing. That's not what I'm saying. It's not a good thing to believe in in all these gods that aren't true, that aren't the true God. Alright, but I'm saying that these primitive people believed in a God or many gods. Alright, it's a commonly known thing. If you go up and you look up like the American Indian tribes, all the different tribes in all the different areas of, you know, the Midwest and Montana, and they all had different, you know, from the Sioux to the Lakota to the Mandan to the Hadatsa and all these, we used to go to all these different historical sites. My family, my dad loved that type of stuff. And you know, I enjoy that type of thing too, just seeing like the early, you know, the Indian villages and all these different things that you could go to around the Dakotas. But they all had different gods. So like every tribe had different gods. And you could see that like a lot of times there was different, there was different names of the gods. A lot of times they had similar functions, you know, like the god of fertility and the god of, you know, harvest and, you know, the sun and all these different things. But the point is even a primitive people believes in something higher than themselves as like a default. You know, and that's true for any primitive people throughout history all across the world. Alright, look at Deuteronomy chapter 12. It's also true in the Bible. It's also true in the Bible. Look at verse number, oh, verse number 29 of Deuteronomy chapter 12. Okay, God is warning the children of Israel. So the God, you know, the real God, because like these gods, lower case G, they're not gods. They're nothing. They don't exist. Okay, they're not real. They're dumb idols, the Bible says, meaning they're just rocks. They're just carved pieces of wood. They're just pieces of silver like Diana in the book of Acts. Look at verse 29. It says, when the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, saying, God's warning them. He's saying, look, you know, when the Lord is going to fight for you and is going to defeat these people for you, he's giving these people warning. He's giving his nation warning. He's saying, whether thou goest to possess them, he's saying, you're going to take this land and thou succeedest them and dwellest in their land. He says, take heed to thyself, that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee, and that thou inquired not after their gods, saying, how did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. God is literally warning the people before they go into it. You think it sounds stupid, right? You think it sounds stupid. These people are literally going to be destroyed in the Promised Land because they have turned against God and, you know, God's wrath is full towards them because of what they've done. And God literally has to warn the people, but look, we see it happen in the Bible. He's warning them, don't go after those gods, lower case G. Don't marry them, don't mingle with them. As a matter of fact, they're supposed to utterly destroy them when they went in there. It says, thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God. For every abomination to the Lord, which he hateeth, there's a definition of abomination for you. An abomination is something that God hates. God hates stuff. So everything that you see that's an abomination in the Bible, God hates that. The Bible says if a man dresses in a woman's clothing, God hates that. If a woman dresses in a man's clothing, God hates that. That's how serious that is, okay? Look, that's what abomination means, just a little side note right there, okay? So, look, everything's not okay. There is right and there is wrong, all right? Which he hateeth have they done unto their gods? So God hates. Look, God doesn't necessarily hate their gods because their gods are fake. God hates what they have done to these fake entities, okay? For even their, look, and then he gives an example of what they've done. You say, what did they have done? So they worshiped some sun god or whatever. Oh, don't we all call God the different names? Is this all the same God? You know? No, it's not. It is not the same God. And look what these people were doing. It says, for even their sons and their daughters have they burnt in the fire to their gods. It always comes down to this. It always comes down to the innocent being murdered. And I'm going to explain that to you tonight. It says, what thing, so ever I command you, observe, do it, and thou shalt not adhere to, nor diminish from it. God's warning them, don't you go after these things. Don't you do these things, all right? But the point is, even those tribes, those peoples, whether it be the Amicholites, and the Hittites, and the Gurgoshites, and all the different, the Canaanites, and the Philistines, and all these different people, they all had gods. They all had gods, meaning they worshiped some higher power, even though they were false gods. Okay? So what do I want to preach about tonight? And what popped into my head in these first few verses in Acts chapter 28 is just how extreme the idea of atheism is. That's what I want to get across to you this evening. The extreme case of atheism. That's the title of the sermon tonight, if there is a title to the sermon. Okay? Now, first of all, you're going to run into these people out soul-witting, so this is valuable for you to know this sermon. You're going to run into people that say, I'm an atheist. You say, hey, we're from, hold fast back to church. I'm an atheist. No, thank you. Okay? So, first of all, if you have an opportunity to talk to someone that says they're an atheist, it's usually pretty, many times they're just, you know, very, like, stern. But if you have a chance to talk to somebody just for a minute, it's interesting. I'll say that. Because very few people are actually true atheists in the sense of the term. An atheist meaning somebody that just does not believe in God. They do not believe in a higher power. They do not believe in a deity. Most people, if you have a chance to talk to someone that just right off the bat says that they're an atheist, before we get into more Bible, let me just give you these two points. Most people, if you just drill down a little bit more, you will find that most people that say they're atheists are actually agnostic. Now, what do I mean by that? Agnostic is somebody who just doesn't really know. And if you talk to an atheist and they say, I'm an atheist, and you just say that, well, you know that there's no God? And then I've asked this question to people. I'm just like, well, how much of all the information in the university you think that you know? Of all the information that's ever existed, that exists today, that mankind has gained access to, how much of that pie do you think that you personally know? And look, they're going to say a very small amount, 1%. I mean, if they're arrogant, they would say 1%. But the point is, then if you just ask them like, so don't you think that in that 99% of all the information out there that you don't know, there could be the possibility that there's a God or that God is real? And most people will say, if you have a chance to have an honest conversation with somebody, most people will agree with that. And what that means is that they are agnostic. They just don't know. They don't know. They think that there's probably not, you know, a God, but look, it takes an arrogant person to say, I know that there's no God. That's extremely arrogant. And we'll get to that in a minute. But if you drill down and you actually talk to somebody who says that they're an atheist, many times they're actually agnostic. All right? But then there's another part of those people that say that they're atheists, that they're not really atheists. They don't really not believe in God, but they actually despise God. And that's the Romans, chapter one, people where it actually calls them haters of God. Those are the people say, I'm an atheist, but they don't not believe in God. They hate him. And you can almost see that in the way they come across. Because here's the thing, folks, I mean, you got to understand that, you know, how could you be angry at someone that you think doesn't exist? I mean, I don't hate the Easter Bunny. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I don't like, I don't like see Easter Bunny stuff at Walmart during Easter and just be like, I hate you, Easter Bunny. Because Easter Bunny is not real. I think you shouldn't teach your kids about the Easter Bunny. And I think that you shouldn't teach your kids about Santa Claus and all these things for obvious biblical reasons. But I don't hate Santa Claus. Because Santa Claus is not real. So if I was just like Santa Claus, I mean, it would be weird. Because Santa Claus is not real. The Easter Bunny is not real. So for someone to be so angry towards God and then say they're an atheist, that's a despiser of God. That is not somebody who's an actual atheist. So the point I'm trying to make is there's very few I'm trying to the point of the sermon is an actual atheist is a very rare thing. And it's a very extreme thing. And that's what I'm going to show you tonight. Most people that even say I'm an atheist first of all, a lot of times, it's just young, dumb kids that just are trying to they're trying to be, you know, they think that's the new intellectual or something. And somebody has told you know, some science teacher has told them or you know, whatever, you know, they just they don't even know what they're saying. But most people are agnostic, or they're just angry with God, they're haters of God, they're despisers of God. Look, you're not an atheist if you hate God. The people in Romans chapter one reprobates, they're not atheists. They know God exists, they turned on him, they hate him. God rejected them. Look, they know what they know. And if you meet them and you try to give the gospel to people who have rejected the Lord, you know that they know. You've seen that personally. So let's talk about true atheism, true atheism. True atheism is what I want to talk about tonight. Just talk about how extreme it actually is and how rare it actually is. It's probably getting less rare. I'll give you that. But it's a rare actual thing. True atheism, meaning the belief, the belief that there is no God. It's not talking about the Bible or one true God, just no God at all. You know, is a spirit of rebellion against authority. That's what it is. And I'm going to show you that tonight. This is the, this is the secular humanists. These are the people that are just like, no, we're going to be humanists. And it's just us. And this, you know, the rejecting, it's really a rejection of authority is what it is. And look, people that reject all authority, the inevitable logical conclusion of atheism is anarchy. That is if you follow it through logically, that we're just going to reject moral authority put forth by God, by our God, it just, it leads to chaos is what it does. It leads to anarchy. The Bible is completely against this. The Bible is the opposite of this. We talked about order a couple of weeks ago. If you look at just God's order, you look at God's order and how he managed his people throughout the Bible. First of all, God started out ruling his people himself. He ruled his people himself through Moses. And he just, he just ruled the people. He just ruled them. Then he went to the judges, and he ruled through the judges. And then he went and he ruled through the kings when the people demanded a king. The Bible is completely against just no authority and anarchy. And that is where atheism inevitably leads. Okay, now you say, well, it's just, you know, I mean, because the problem is, the problem is, in every society that would reject all authority, what you're going to end up, the end result is exactly what God is trying to protect in the Bible. If you look at the Bible, the Bible is constantly talking about violence. The Bible is constantly talking about in the minor prophets and the reason he judged the northern kingdom of Israel and Nineveh is just the streets were filled with blood. It's like the innocent people were being killed. God destroyed the earth in Genesis because of what? Because it was filled with violence. And this is the result of anarchy. This is the result of no authority. That's the result is just violence. Basically, the strong dominating the weak is what you end up with every single time. There's people that have tried, I mean, we've seen examples, small little examples in even modern recent history of anarchist societies. I mean, you look at the chop zone up in Portland, was it Portland? Where they're just like, hey, we're going to take over downtown, and we're going to make our own little society here. And what happens? It's just violence ensues. Just violence. And guess who's getting violated? It's always the weak. It's always the women. It's the same thing with all these, there was all these demonstrations before, I don't know, several years ago, about a pipeline in North Dakota and they made these camps out in the middle of, you know, the country and all these people just camped out and they made this big camp where nobody, no police went, and it's just people are getting murdered. People are getting, you know, sexually assaulted. I mean, it's just people being abused left and right. I mean, just there's just sewage everywhere. There's an anarchist, like sort of, it's not really anarchists, there's still police that go there, but there's one in Southern California, out in some, you know, desert somewhere, there's this little society and it's just drug abuse and trash and sewage everywhere, and it's just, you know, basically the strong abuse the weak when there's no authority. All right, so look, even, there must be a moral authority, is on trying to get you to understand, even libertarianism, folks, goes wrong here. Even libertarianism goes wrong. I mean, if you would ask, you know, me, what, you know, what describes you as a, you know, I mean, I guess I could be described as sort of a Christian libertarian of sorts, but that doesn't even really describe, you know, my beliefs. I guess I'm just a Bible-believing Christian, is probably what I should stick with. But even libertarianism goes wrong when it comes to, you know, this idea, because libertarianism, you know, this idea that, hey, just let everybody do what they want, and as long as they're not hurting anybody, just let them do what they want. You know, we'll just legalize drugs and we'll just, whatever, and everyone can just be whatever they want to be as long as they're not hurting anybody else. But that only works if people are moral. You know, people are like, well, libertarianism, you know, libertarianism is kind of what the United States, you know, used to be, you know, 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 150 years ago. Yeah, I sort of agree. And it worked only though because people had their own personal Christian morals. People had their own personal Bible-believing morals. So really, it wasn't the libertarianism. It wasn't the enlightened thinking. It was people's personal belief in moral structure of the Bible. That is what kept things together in this country. It wasn't libertarianism. It wasn't freedom. It was people's personal belief in the Bible. In the end, the only thing that was working was real biblical authority there. And it was just on a personal level and people's personal adherence to that biblical authority in their life. Yeah, the government didn't have to do it because the people individually did it. Because they individually believed the Bible. What's at an all-time low that I've told you in this country right now? People that believe the Bible. It's a graph that's going like this. People that believe the Bible. So we're losing that. And that's why, you know, things are coming apart. You know, but this libertarian idea, there's just the straight libertarian idea that, you know what, my right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins. You're like, that sounds pretty good. As long as I'm not, I'm going to tell you why that doesn't work without biblical authority. Because again, if there's no moral authority, the strong will end up abusing the weak. Well, libertarianism says that the strong can't abuse the weak. Let me give you some examples. Let's say we're a libertarian. And there's no moral authority. There's no absolute truth. Well, you have a car and I have a car. Who's to say that your car shouldn't be my car? You're like, what? You can't just take somebody's car. Says who? Well, it sounds pretty extreme when I just put it like that. But what if I say this? Well, you know what? Brother Trevor, you know what? He's got two cars. I got one. You know, he's got two cars and I got one car. And I think that I should have two cars and he should have one car. Or I think that he's got three cars and I got one car. I think we should both have two cars. That seems fair. According to who? See, if there's no truth, if there's no grounding, if there's no absolute truth, even libertarianism goes wrong. How about this one? Who's to say turn to Galatians chapter one? Turn to Galatians chapter one. Let's really just dig into it here. Turn to Galatians chapter one and look at verse number six. Galatians chapter one and verse number six. The Bible says, I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Somebody was over there preaching another gospel, all right, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. So he's saying that the problem that this church is having is that somebody has come in when he left and is preaching a different gospel. They're preaching workspace salvation and, you know, that's another gospel. He's saying that's not the gospel though. And he's saying what they're doing is they're perverting the gospel. To pervert means to twist the truth. Let me give you the, it's an alteration of something from its original course. Now let me say, let's say this, we're in our libertarian society. Who's to say that someone can't teach perversion of whatever kind to your kids? Who's to say? You say, well, it's perversion. By whose definition? You see where we're going here? Welcome to Clown World. This is exactly what we're seeing today. All they're doing, all they have to do is say, because guess what? In Galatians chapter one and verse number six and seven, he's saying they're perverting the gospel. You know what he's a, you know what, you know what that means? He's implying that there is a true gospel. There's no true gospel. They're not perverting anything. They're just preaching a different one. What if there was no true gospel? What if there was no truth? And there was five other people preaching five different gospels. Who are you to say which one's right, buddy? You see? It's exactly what's happening today. You can't teach that stuff to our kids. That's sick. And 99% of people know that that's sick because why? Because God gave us a conscience. Thank God, even though people aren't saved, they still have a conscience. Maybe there's a chance. But what does the other side come out and say? Well, who's to say? It's perversion. And you know what they do? They just redefine words. That's what they do. Welcome to clown world. Up is down. Down is up. Man is woman. Woman is man. Who are you to say what a woman is? We have literally leaders of our country, wicked congressmen, women and congressmen that will not answer the question of what is a man and what is a woman? Because who are you to say? Why? Because there's no, is the absolute truth important? If the absolute truth is not important, there is no such thing as perversion. There is no such thing as abomination. There is no such thing as child abuse. Because what one person would call child abuse, another person will redefine. You wait. It's coming. It's already here. Another person will define his love. You're like, that's sick. That is sick. God hates it. And everyone involved in it. But that's why we need an absolute truth. That's why atheism is wicked as hell. And the people that are into atheism, true atheism, they're extreme people. And I'm going to tell you more what they're connected to in just a minute. But look, there's no truth. Your truth is just the opposite of my truth. That's why you see all these words being redefined. They just redefine stuff. The English language is just being just twisted around like a bunch of pipe cleaners. No more anchor. What happens? Kids are targeted. The innocent get abused. That's what happens. There's a lawsuit now in Texas because this Bud Light reprobate that they attach themself to his main focus. It's kind of a brilliant lawsuit actually. But they're actually suing, I think, the company actually because beer companies and tobacco companies, it's not legal for them to target minors. But guess what? Guess who the main audience of this reprobate is that they put up as their spokesperson? Children. I mean, the targeting kids. Why? Because they're targeting the innocent. Why can they target the innocent? Because there's no moral compass. Because there's no absolute truth. But guess what folks? There is absolute truth. There must be a source of moral authority. Without it, the innocent suffer. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 15. Let me show you the real root of atheism. The real root of atheism. I already said it, but the real root of atheism is the rejection of all authority. That's what it is. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 15. This is the story in 1 Samuel chapter 15 where Saul lost the kingdom. Saul had a direct order from God to destroy the amicalites. He was to go out and he was to utterly destroy them. Man woman child beast everything. And he didn't do it. He didn't do it. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 15 and verse number okay. I'll just go up to verse 20. All right. Saul said to Samuel, so Samuel wonders why didn't you do it? He's like they kept some spoil. They kept some of the livestock. You're like what's the big deal? You're like what's the big deal? I'm going to show you the big deal. All right. The big deal is this. Look at verse 19. Because like a lot of times I remember the first couple of times I read the Bible. I read this story and I'm just like man that seemed pretty harsh. That seemed pretty harsh. God just like dropped the hammer on this guy. Like he pretty much destroyed him. I mean he pretty much destroyed him. He kept some sheep and the king. Okay. And you're like God really like just came down like a ton of bricks on this guy. But I'm going to tell you why. Look at verse number 19. It says wherefore then does thou not obey? This is Samuel speaking the voice of the Lord but just fly upon the spoil and it's evil in the sight of the Lord. And Saul said to Samuel, yay I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me and have brought ag ag the king of Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amicholites. So he's like I just kept the king but the people and then he blames the people for taking the spoil. So he doesn't take responsibility. All right. But the people took of the spoil and the sheep and the oxen and the chief of the things without which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice some of the Lord they got in Gilgoth. So he says so he says like hey the people did it but they really did it for the Lord. You know so he's blaming them and then he's just like he's just excuse, excuse, excuse. There's so many sermons here. But look at verse 22 and Samuel says have the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord. You know what God wants from you? He wants you to listen. That's what he wants. God wants people to adhere to what? His what? His authority. He wants people to respect his authority. He wants you to, I mean you think God wants you to do what's in the Bible? You know and you know what it is? Like I'll apply it to you in just a minute but look. Look at what he says next and you look now you tell me if atheism, this complete rejection of authority. I mean it's like when we see the Bible as Christians and we see one part in the Bible we're just like you know what I just want to do that part my life. You know that's look that's not complete rejection of authority. Okay look that's that's bad and and we are willfully sinning and God's going to handle us in that case but we are not, the Christian is not completely rejecting the Bible. To completely reject the word of the Lord. Look at what he says in verse number 23. He says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. He compares rebelling against the Lord. He compares not respecting God's authority to witchcraft. And I'm going to show you that atheism, look rejecting authority is a life killer. I'm telling you. You can struggle with things in your life. You can struggle, I've met many people that struggle with alcohol. I had a I had a neighbor in Texas who really struggled with alcohol. He was he was just he was drinking all the time but the guy had a job. He was married. He was some somewhat functional in his life. Obviously he was in not doing the right things and you know all that look you can struggle with sluggishness in your life. You can kind of struggle with you know being lazy and not working hard and and maybe you know that's going to cause you to you know suffer in your life and you can be chastised for that but you know you still probably you're not probably going to die from it. Well let me tell you something. This one rejecting authority in your life it's a it's a life killer especially people they're just like they just can't handle any authority in their life. It's a life killer. The atheist rejects all authority. Look at the homeless. You know what it is? It's a rejection of authority. It's a rejection of order and what happens? The innocent suffer. Because maybe you have 90% of them that are just rejecting authority and choosing to be drug addicts and all these different things but you know what there's some percentage in there that's really having a hard time that really needs help. They're covering look it's wicked as hell for a man with two arms and two legs to be standing there refusing to work just being a willing drug addict. That is evil because it is rejecting authority. It's rejecting God's authority. It's rejecting the authority of society and who suffers the innocent? The innocent. Look here's what I'm trying to get you to understand rebellion is as the sin rebellion is as witchcraft the bible says. You say why witchcraft here's why because atheism is really Satanism. That's what it is. It's exactly the same thing. That's why he calls it witchcraft. You know a lot of Satanists don't even really believe in Satan. They're just rejecting all authority. They're just like extreme humanists. Look this idea of rejecting all authority it exactly matches Satan because you know what it does? It frees him to do what he pleases. It is an evil people. It is an evil people that want no authority. It is an evil people that will push for no authority. Why? So they can do evil. That's why. So they can do evil without repercussions at all. They can do evil at will. That's why people want it. So atheism by itself it's not some neutral thing. It's the complete rejection of the authority of God and it leads to chaos, anarchy which allows turn to Romans 13 which allows evil to run rampant and every single time that happens it's why we're seeing what we're seeing today children and women and the weakest among us in a society will be the ones that get hurt every single time. Look at Romans 13 verse 3. This is why they don't want any authority. It's not just the Bible it's any authority. Look at verse number three. It says for rulers are not a terror to good works. This is what God is saying he ordains government for. Not to be a terror to good works. He's like no no no a godly government is supposed to be open and friendly to good works. Somebody that goes out and works hard and just supports his family and is a good member of society and helps his community and all these things. Let's tax him to death. No that's not what a godly government would do. A godly government is not a terror to good works but to the evil. A godly government is supposed to be a terror to the evil. They're supposed to crush evil. That's why people are pushing for no authority and they're pushing for what? No absolute truth because nobody's going to buy hey let's have no authority. So what do they do? Well let's get away from let's get the absolute truth out of there first. We'll get the absolute truth out of there and guess what people will accept anything. It works. It works. Even Saul Alinsky who was this this wicked counterculture force in the latin from 1930 to 1970 and just pushing this we must change the culture. We must you know get the bible and these moral authorities and all these things out of society so we can affect all this change. He even gave credit to Lucifer. He gave credit to Satan. Why? Because Satan is the ultimate rebel. That's how the satanist looks at these things. That's how the secular humanist would look at just a study of the idea of Satan. Satan's the ultimate rebel bro. He's the first one that rebelled. He threw off the man. You know this is where all this idea of you know the man and and all this control and all this kind of stuff comes from. Look these people they celebrate Satan because Satan is the picture. He is the he is the poster child of throwing off the authority of God. Not just government, not just like the authority. But I am thankful and this story reminded me of this. I am thankful that God hardwires in our conscience a belief in God in our heart. And look many people go off like these primitive people. They go off in different directions and they find false gods and all these different things. But you know it's it's better that for a society than just know God at all. You know but that what God gave that hardwired you know belief in God in a man's heart so then a man would seek who God was in his life. And then that's why God gives that promise in Matthew chapter 7 that if you do seek you will find. So God gives us that that desire that knowledge that hard look it's got to be broken. It's got to be scarred and shut off. Eight like true atheism is rebellion against the Lord. It's rebellion against the Lord and it's really and that's what Samuel was pointing out in first Samuel chapter 15 saying rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft that's exactly what he meant. He's basically saying rebellion rejecting authority is Satanism. That's what he's saying. So you know when you're driving you know around and you see like atheists for this or these clubs or whatever oh it's a wicked thing. It's an evil thing. I'm glad they're an extreme minority because if those people would take over a society it would be chaos and there would be violence and and it would all be redefined as okay. But guess what? Guess what? Just because I mean and to the atheist like it's absurd to think that someone could literally think that there's no God. I mean maybe it's hard for me to wrap my head around that but just like we talked about as there's laws to the universe you know somebody that doesn't believe in gravity. Let's say somebody doesn't believe in gravity and they decide they're just going to walk off a building. They're going to be just as dead as somebody that did believe in gravity. And the same thing look that's how absurd it is to think there's not an absolute moral law. An absolute moral truth is the same person that sees gravity doesn't believe it and walks off a building. I mean those people that reject that moral truth they're going to have a much worse fate than falling off a building. And so look that that's what I thought about when I saw these primitive people that just even they weren't atheists. They weren't right and hopefully after Paul got to them they were right. But guess what? They just they had this this desire this they had this knowledge that there was a God and Paul just like hey here's who he really is. Here's who God really is. So look atheism is really Satanism is what I wanted to get across and make the connection for you tonight. And look we've seen it whenever it's tried whenever it's tried and anarchy is pushed it's just violence and and and just terrible things for innocent people every single time. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.