Preach the Word. Be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. So, verse 2, if somebody ever asked you, is your church a contemporary church? You can go to 2 Timothy 4, verse 2, and you can use this verse to tell. Yes, we are. Why? Preach the Word. Because preaching the Word has always been contemporary. It never goes out of style. It's always fresh. It's always up to date. And you can't go wrong. This is how this letter's closing out. Just preach the Word. And by the way, that's what true churches have always done. And they've not just preached it behind a pulpit. It's been preached out in public. Matter of fact, just about every one of the verses that you can run in the Bible when it comes to preaching has to do with the public proclamation of the gospel. I mean, we do preaching in here, but typically the saints come together, and then we are taught doctrine. Well, we don't teach doctrine out there. We preach the word. We preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then the saved come in to the church and learn. The public preaching is what the world hates. I mean, they're okay with coming in here in the church house, and dare I say, even respectable dead religion hates it too. They want it kept inside the four walls as well. But true Bible churches have always taken it out into the public arena. And let me just say this before we get on to our verses 3 and 4. Pilgrim Baptist Church will always be a church where anyone that comes will be encouraged to go out in public and preach the gospel. And there will be an allowance to do it. And too much in our culture, they don't like it. Especially the lifting of the voice in public. I don't like that. So a lot of people that get a desire to want to do that, and not everybody, the Lord doesn't put that on everybody's heart to do that. But if someone does have the desire to do it, a lot of times it's squashed. Pilgrim Baptist Church is going to stand as a church. It's not going to squash that. It's going to encourage that. It's going to teach that. We want to teach others how to do that. And you know how it goes. There's an ebb and flow in churches, and it's just the way it is. But if anyone comes, and we want more people to come, But if people start dropping hints on, well, we don't really like the public stuff, the public preaching, I'm not going to discourage you from going out because someone new that comes in, it kind of rubs them wrong. So the idea of preaching the Word isn't to keep everyone as baby Christians their whole life. I'm sure there's a point where you want Paisley out of the car seat. You know, you don't want to keep your kids in the car seat forever. You want them to grow up. And so that's what we want to do as we preach the word. If someone were to pressure me or someone were to pressure you or someone were to pressure anyone that would come to our church that wants to go out in public and do evangelism, if someone were to pressure them to not do it, I would put pressure on them to stop telling people they shouldn't do it. And that's the way it should be. That's not ruining your testimony, that's keeping the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ as high as we can. Now, let's say, my pastor, 2025, next year, this year, coming up, it'll be 40 years that he's been preaching the Word. Now, he's not a nationally renowned celebrity pastor. He's not. And the reason that he's not is because for 40 years he's preached the Word. And so, you know, you don't get all of the fame by sticking with the Word. But 40 years of faithfulness is a pretty good thing. That's on the street. That's on the street. and they started in 1985, on the streets, and they've kept it on the streets. So it's not just preaching, pulpit preaching, it's public preaching as well. Now I remember, as I'm on this, I remember one year we were, I think it was the Gator Bowl, We went to the Gator Bowl, the big, big, big football game. And there's some folks lined up here from our church, a couple of fellows and their wives. And then my pastor was kind of like right here, and then there was a few kids like right behind him in this little grassy area. on a tree, and then I was right here on this side holding the sign, and some people were talking to some folks one-on-one and witnessing to them, and I was just holding the sign trying to get tracts out. And now this is a Saturday, my pastor's got to preach three messages on Sunday. Well, he's letting it rip. And he must have preached the gospel for like 30 minutes straight. He's just going after it. Well, you know, I'm giving tracts out, and of course I hear it. But then I hear him, he calls my name, he calls me over. Well, I look over and I see that there's this guy there that's going into the football game that decided to stop and give him a hard time. So he's kind of getting in his face, giving him a hard time, so he calls me over. Now, when I went over there, here's what I didn't do. I didn't put pressure on my pastor and try to pull him inside and say, you know, I don't really think people like what you're doing. Maybe we should stop and go home. Instead, I put pressure on the guy that's putting pressure on him. So I got in front of him and tried to stop the world from stopping the preaching of the gospel. Does that make sense? It doesn't always work like that because people see something like that and what they want to do is they want to stop the preacher from the proclamation of the gospel. It should be the other way around. You're not going to get any kickback from me. You're only going to get encouragement from me to go on, get out there, try to do what you can for the Lord. You only got one life to live here on earth. Might as well live it for the Lord. And might as well have fun doing it. It's a lot more thrilling. It's a lot more spiritually thrilling than people would think. So we have this public proclamation of the gospel, and then let's move on to verse three. Watch what it says. For the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears." And so, I want to key on these next couple of verses for tonight. Sound doctrine, man, we're lacking that, aren't we? In our day. So what do we do? This is what 2 Timothy 4 is about. What do we do if Christians don't want to endure sound doctrine? What do we do? The answer is in the text. We keep teaching sound doctrine. We keep preaching the Word. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. We got the answer in verse number 2. It's just keep preaching the Word. Keep teaching the truth. Let's look at this from a physical perspective first. Physically speaking, Americans, they're more prone to heart attacks. They're more prone to clogged arteries. They're more obese now than they were 50 years ago, physically speaking. What's their problem? Their problem isn't that they're not Americans. They are Americans. Their problem is they just won't endure someone sitting them down and saying, Hey, you got to quit eating like every meal. Like you're going to the electric chair, man, you're going to kill yourself. They want, they just won't sit in it. They won't endure it. They're Americans. They just won't endure the sound physical health advice. that's readily available, especially in today's day of information. So that's physically speaking. They don't have the interest in less junk food and more whole food, and they'll leave a good doctor, they'll leave a good nutritionalist, they'll leave a good personal trainer, because they just don't want to hear what the good advice is. They don't want to hear it. So spiritually speaking, The sound doctrine is this, look, they're saved people. It's not that they're not saved. It's not that they're not part of the church. They are. But in 1 Timothy 1, we learn this is why we have more Christians that are going to make shipwreck of their faith. We already preached on that in the beginning of the series. In 2 Timothy 1, it was a little more fresh. We learned about there's more risk of not holding fast to the form of sound words when people don't endure the sound doctrine. Their problem isn't that they're not saved. The problem is that there's Christians, they just won't stick around and endure the sound spiritual advice that is readily available in God's Word. Let me ask you something. If somebody doesn't have good physical endurance, their heart just can't take it. They can't take the rigorous exercise. And if somebody doesn't have any spiritual endurance, it's kind of like their heart can't take it. There's a lot of parallels there. Look at verse number three, watch what else it says. It says, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. Let's go back to the physical. What does the overweight American do? heaps to himself piles and piles of food, junk food. I'm bored, I eat. I'm stressed, I graze. It's just always heaping to themselves more and more food and it leads eventually to their physical ruin. But to them it doesn't matter as much because They just want to be satisfied. The comfort that they get from eating half of a chocolate cake is better. It's just better for them, the satisfaction of that, than the long-term benefits of trying to eat more whole foods and live a healthy life. You know, I remember being a teenager and seeing all these commercials and they did them in school to try to get, you know, they didn't want kids smoking and they'd show all this stuff about, you know, what your lungs look like and they're, you know, black. And then they did the whole, you know, with the drugs, they did, this is your brain on drugs commercial, this whole thing on that. And they crack an egg, put it in the thing and it fries your egg, you know, drugs fry your brain. All that stuff's good, it's great, but when you're dealing with someone who just is addicted to being self-satisfied, they're gonna need a lot more than a commercial. People know it leads to their ruin, but they still feed their bodies deadly poison. So spiritually speaking, we're in the age of the overweight Christian, spiritually speaking. And whatever's popular, they go after whatever's new they're excited about. And look, there's a lot of unlearning that has to be done. It's, Hey, look, I was just brought up this way. So this is what I'm going to do. I, I, is this, it's just been, it's always been the way it's been. And it's always going to be the way it's always been. It's, it's relearning things to not get stuck in, in a rut. And if we compare this spiritual with this physical, we can see that a lot of times we are our own worst enemy. We heap to ourselves things spiritually that shouldn't be in our lives. And it just makes us overweight spiritually. It satisfies our lusts, our carnal lusts, but it's not after God. It's not after God. Now, you young people, just kind of itch your ear a little bit, scratch your ear. Scratch your ear, because that verse, what's that verse say at the end? Heaps themselves teachers, and then it says, having itching ears, man, itching ears. Man, my ear itches. My ear itches. I'll tell you this. I've been doing it about six years, every two years, this happens about every two years, this has been said to me about three times. Every time somebody says this phrase to me, so don't say this phrase to me. Every time someone has said this phrase to me, and it's only been a couple of times, They visit and they say, they say, Preacher, you know, I'm just looking for a good church with sound doctrine. And, you know, in the past, and here's the phrase, I've been accused of church hopping. And they say, you know, I'm really looking for a good church. Every time someone has told me that they've been accused of church hopping, they end up leaving after a few services and hopping to another church. I think it's good to visit around if the Lord's leading you to visit around and see if that's where the Lord would have you. That's right. I think that's normal. But I also think on the other side of this thing, there's something about people. who have a spiritual itching ear. No one pastor is good enough. No one local church is good enough. No one group of Christians is good enough. They're always itching for something. Man, they're just always unsettled. Man, what's wrong, kiddo? My ear itches. Man, your ear's been itching every day. What's wrong? Ah, my ear's itching. Man, you get an itchy ear, you just can't settle yourself down, can you? There's something to it. Look, there's both sides to a coin. And there's just something to somebody with the itching ear. They're never pleased. They're never satisfied. They're just going to run from teacher to teacher. Now, parents, you wouldn't allow your child, you wouldn't enroll your child in school In piano lessons and you wouldn't enroll them in any type of learning and just allow them to jump from teacher to teacher to teacher. There might be a time where you need to make some adjustments and changes, but to make a lifestyle of. Well, this month you're going to have this piano teacher in this month. You're going to, they're going to have 12 teachers by the end of the year. They're not going to learn nothing. It's just, it's that never unsettling feeling something wrong with that. Something wrong with that. Look at verse number four. Bible says, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth. Man, if there's ever been a key verse for our day, this is it. They shall turn their ears away from the truth. Man, what's the lifeblood of the church? Truth, right? I mean, that's the lifeblood. but it's taken away like a canker." Look at 2 Timothy 2. Flip back a page, or it might be right across your page. Look at verse 17. Remember we preached on this? It says, verse 17, "...and their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus." So, Hymenaeus and Philetus, they didn't teach right doctrine. Watch what it says. It says, who concerning the truth have erred. Verse number 18. So the truth is the lifeblood of the church. And watch what Hymenaeus and Philetus were teaching. Error. It says, they were saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some. So they were turning some people away from the truth That's what they were doing. They were teaching wrong doctrine. And so the solution was, Paul said, hey, look, the solution isn't just to teach right doctrine. How many of you would agree that we need to really dig in the word and get our doctrine right, right? And so we have to be careful that we don't get into a ditch on one side and say, well, we're just going to teach right doctrine. Because Paul's solution to Timothy wasn't to just teach right doctrine. It was to call out those that were teaching wrong doctrine. And he calls out Hymenaeus and Philetus. Why? Because they are turning people away from the truth. Look, folks, there has to be a biblical balance. The answer, we have to be wise discerners of situations and truth. And one way for wisdom to be prominent in our lives is to not always stamp things with the same stamp. We have to look at situations and determine what's the wisest thing to do. Paul says, if there's people turning others away from the truth, you'd be wise to name them. And so he does. He does. The Hymenaeus and Philetus, they were turning ears from right truth to error. And so look, you got to stop in and say something. In 2nd Timothy 4, we see that there are those that are turning their own ears from truth. That's themselves doing it. Before we get back to our text in chapter 4, look at 2 Timothy 3 and look at verse number 8. Watch who else is called out by name. The Bible says, Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Look, the truth is the lifeblood of the church, right? Guess what Janus and Jambres are likened to? those in our day that resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning faith." He's going back to the Old Testament and picking two names in the Old Testament and say, hey, just like these guys, you've got to be careful of people that would turn your ear from the truth. Now, I'll tell you this story. Some of you know Brother Mike Loftin, pastoring a church now, and preached our family camp. Well, way, way, way, way, way, way back in the day, way back in the day, his pastor at the time, something came to the church, error, false doctrine. So his pastor had to deal with that. And you know how he dealt with it? very wisely and discerning. He preached a sermon not just on the wrong doctrine and the right doctrine, but you know what he did? He named the name. Now I'm not going to tell you the name because I don't want you to, I don't want to turn you on to wrong doctrines just so you can know the wrong doctrine. I don't want to do that. I don't believe that'd be beneficial or edifying, but here's what I think is edifying. That pastor wasn't being negative or critical just for the sake of going after somebody. He was wisely discerning criticism that would be constructive and helpful to the saints at his local church. And look, there's a balance and it has to be looked at situation to situation. It is okay to name names. It is needed. The Bible tells us that in certain situations. Because so many people are being turned away from the truth. He wasn't being Look, that pastor wasn't being negative. He was being positive. He was positively teaching the truth and he was naming those that were teaching wrongly because it was hurting others. It was turning others from the truth of the Word of God. Let's go back to 2 Timothy chapter 4. Check out verse number 4. The Bible says, For the time will come when they will, verse 3, will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And here it is, verse 4. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth. They just turn it right away. I want to hear it. And shall be turned unto fables. Man, what perfect timing right now to talk about fables. Now, everybody knows the verse, worship the Lord how? In spirit and in truth? I don't know. Isn't it obvious that it probably isn't a good thing for Christian parents to choose one month out of the year to just lie to their kids if we know that we should worship the Lord in spirit and in truth? And why would we lie? Why would Christian parents, they're saved, Why would they lie to their children about Santa Claus being real when he's not real? And that he's gonna come down to their chimney that they don't have and he's gonna put gifts under a tree and he's not. Why would that be a thing? Because fables, fables sell folks. Fables make people feel good. Most people aren't happy. And if they got one day out of the year where they can go downstairs and then they can look under their tree and there's a bunch of gifts there and everybody's happy for 45 minutes and then they have a meal together and everybody's getting together and they're happy for two hours, man, that just feels so good. But the whole thing's a fable. Santa didn't buy the gifts. Dad did. Mom did. Shouldn't we love them all year? I mean, they really are the ones that are providing people like the feelings that come along with the fables. How many of you heard of the dogwood tree fable? You know the dogwood tree fable? It's supposedly the cross of Christ Supposedly it was made out of a dogwood tree. Okay, so here's the fable. I thought maybe you know this. You've heard it? Okay. So, well, so God cursed the dogwood tree, and now it used to be a very towering plant tree, but now since it was the wood that was made for the cross where Christ died on. Now that dogwood tree, God cursed it. It doesn't grow as tall, and all the branches are crooked, and they're not straight anymore, and so you can't build with them. You can't make a cross anymore. And, you know, the poem goes, never again shall the dogwood grow to be large enough for a tree, and so slender and twisted it shall always be, with cross-shaped blossoms for all to see. Well, that's not true, but it has a fun rhyme, and it'll sell a lot of dogwoods at Easter. Because the story, look, those blossoms blossom, and there's four leaves, and it looks like a cross, and in the middle is the crown, which represents the crown of thorns, and the tips of it is, you know, the tips of the leaves are kind of jagged, and it reminds us of the nails. And look, that's a sweet story. That's a sweet story. And come Easter time, they'll sell a lot of dogwoods. But it's not true. It's not true, folks. It's not. Well, how do you know it's not true? Because dogwoods don't grow in Israel. They're not native to Israel. Well, I've just always heard that, so I'm just going to go with it. Don't fables make you feel good inside? Isn't that a sweet story? Fables make people feel good. Sometimes the truth hurts. Doesn't it? Doesn't the truth hurt sometimes? And so it's easier, just turn your ear and go buy a dogwood. I just want to feel good. Fables, people like fables. We had a lot of them growing up. Roman Catholic fables, a lot of them. Here's one, the perpetual virginity of Mary. It's a fable. Mark 6 and Matthew 13 make it very, very clear that Mary and Joseph came together as husband and wife, and they had at least six other children. That's what the Bible says, but the fable doesn't agree with the Bible. So we got to either throw out the fable or throw out the Bible. Something's got to give. And then we learned the immaculate conception of Mary, that Mary was she was without sin and that she was saved through her own immaculate conception. Well, that's blasphemy. That's a fable. The Bible doesn't say, for all have sinned except Mary. The Bible says, all have sinned. You can read very easily in your Bible that Mary says, my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior, for all have sinned. Mary was a sinner like we are, greatly used of God, praise the Lord. Highly exalted and favored. I mean, the Lord chose her. But she calls out, the Lord, my Savior. She needed a Savior as much of a Christian woman as Mary was. And ladies, you should emulate your life after Mary. She was sold out for the Lord. My soul doth magnify the Lord. You should live your lives like that. but also knowing that Mary had the same Savior that you have. And that's right, that's right. So the fables, if they don't match the Bible, just be willing to get rid of them. The magical prayer beads or the rosaries, you just, you know, you can't have Mary as your mediator when the Bible says, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, and that is the man, Christ Jesus. There's only one. There's no other intercessor. Fable. Verse Bible, fable verse truth. Man, the truth hurts. Well, don't turn your ear from it. Get in a little bit closer to it and the Lord will do something. It's just easier to turn your ear. We talked about this, I think, earlier. The fable that only the original manuscripts is where we can really find the Word of God. Well, the original manuscripts don't exist, but we have a principle through the Bible that says the scriptures are always available as written manuscripts that were available to hold and read. Fables sell Bible set, but selling Bibles is big business folks, big business. You only have to change 10, 11% of something and you get outside the copyright laws and you can publish whatever you want. Be careful, be careful of the fables. Look, feel good fables sell. This is why people turn their ear. from the truth how many of you look i got hit with some cold hard truth i got saved i had no idea no idea i'd be here i don't feel worthy at all there's a lot of inadequacy If I kept turning my ear away from the truth, the Lord would have never brought me this far. You don't get down the road on something by turning your ear away from it. You've been in business a long time, brother. You've got to dive into some hard things and work through some hard things. You can't turn your ear from it because something's easier. You've got to knuckle down. You've got to get through it. The business is hard. Medical school is hard. Every day, your ear is hearing things, and it's just like, too much information. It's easier to just... We've been parenting for a while. We know some things. It's hard. It's hard. You can't turn away from it and just go the easy route. Hard stuff. Don't turn your ear from truth just because it's hard to hear. We talked about the good words and the fair speeches. Ladies, don't try this at home with your husbands, but he walks in the door and the cold, hard truth of what just went on over the last four hours, in your mind, he just has to hear it. He has to. In his mind, he's just looking for flattery. Because his day's been hard and he's worn out. So all he wants to do is feel good. He just wants to come home, hey honey, and you know, the hug and the kiss and the meal and it's hot and it's warm and the iced tea is oh so cold and it's just, it's just lovely. It makes him feel good. Flattery makes a man feel good. Flip the table, it's the same thing. You know what our wives want to hear? Flattery. You look beautiful, honey. Working all day out on the farm. She don't want to hear the cold, hard truth. She wants flattery. Don't we all want flattery? We do, because it makes us feel good. And look, there's an element to that where properly placed, look, that's a good thing. but not at the expense of getting ourselves into a life of, it's just false feel-good fables. It has to be based on truth. So you flatter, and then you hit them with the truth, and fatten them up for the kill, you know that. You know, truth does. I mean, it just strips people of their excuses. And we're all used to holding on to our vices or our little secret sins we've got hidden away in our heart, our little idols. And so what happens is that truth dart comes right at you. and it hits the sin that so easily besets you, and then a truth dart comes at you, and a truth dart comes, man, we're just getting hit with these truth darts, and it's hitting those little sins that so easily beset us. But look, that truth dart's coming at you, it's not meant to hurt and constrain you. We're already constrained. The sin that so easily besets us is why we can't run our race. We can't finish our course because, man, these sins that so easily beset us are slowing us down. So those truth darts aren't supposed to hurt and constrain. Instead, when they come at you, they're supposed to hurt and conform. Conform us to Christ. That's the purpose. Truth requires a further conformity to Christ. Parents, we're raising our children to further conform each year, each grade, each lesson, each time they come to church, each time we take them out on an outreach. The idea is we're getting truth into them, and yeah, at times it may hurt, but the idea is to keep conforming them, getting them better. Well, just stay as a weak Christian your whole life. Just stay as a baby Christian your whole life. Just, no. We want them to conform and get better. The Lord expects the same from us. But they shall turn their ears from the truth. 2 Timothy 4, verse 4. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. I want to look at one more Old Testament passage and then we're done. I have one more thought. Go back to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 2 and I'll close with this chapter and verse. I really like the prophet Jeremiah. But get your spot in Jeremiah 2. Let me say this. It is okay for you, and it is okay for anybody that you would invite to Pilgrim, it's okay for them to not be right with God. Right now, me, you, all of us. It is okay for us to have something in our life where we're just not right with God with. But here's what's not okay. I don't want it to be okay for us to not be willing to get it right. Does that make sense? There's gonna be things in your children's lives, the same way in my children's lives, in your granddaughter's life, and there's gonna be things where in their life it's just not right yet. We don't want them to settle down in being not right. We want them to have this feeling of, you know what? I desire, I am willing to have the Lord change me and conform me. And if somebody is not willing, then all they will do is despise truth. and they're going to turn their ear from you. It's not that they don't love you, it's just the truth that's coming out of your mouth, I'm just turning my ear from it. And they associate you with the truth. Don't ever get to the point where you're just not willing to hear from God and change. it's not okay for any of us on the flip side of it to withhold speaking about truth or avoid talking to someone about their sin because it's just easier to not do it or because they've turned their ear away from it. Talking to a preacher today and just talking about just how how to protect the church. We were talking about how to protect the church members from the pastor. And how we have in writing, I don't even like thinking about it, because I have no intention of going down this road. But how we have in writing, if I were to go south, and I were to do something that would disqualify me, I need to be removed. I don't like saying it or thinking about it, But the people need to be protected, and the pastor needs to be protected, and the church needs to be protected. And look, if I do something horrible, and I live to tell about it, meaning my wife doesn't come after me, I would hope that you brothers wouldn't not confront me and talk to me about my sin because you're afraid I'm just going to turn my ear from the truth and not want to hear it. You would be responsible to come to me and say, Brother Pastor, love you. Come on. Let's get back on track. Let's get this right. I don't have it right. You might not have it right, but don't be okay with settling with, well, he's just not willing to get it right. Let's just go out for ice cream. No, we're not going to go out for ice cream. There's an issue here. Well, he's not right. He's not willing to get right. You know what? Let's go out and have a, let's go out and bowl. You know, let's go out and go to the park and have a good time. And no, we're not going to go to the park and have a good time. Ladies, how would you feel? Your husband comes home. And after you fed him well, and he's happy and satisfied, you let him know, here's what your children did. Because at that point, they're not our children, they're your children. Here's what they did today. Here's how much they fought. Here's what they broke. Here's how they talk back to me. Here's how they wore me out for three hours while you were on lunch break." And your husband looks at you and he says, you know, thanks for telling me that, honey. Hey kids, pack up. We're going to go to the beach. How would that go over? How would it go over? You would be livid. And then your husband says to you, I don't know why I have to make such a big deal about it. I mean, they're not willing to change or get it right. Let's just go hiking. No, we're not going to go hiking. There's a problem. That make sense? When people aren't willing to listen to truth, and they're your brother or sister in Christ, especially if they're at your local church, We are required to love them enough to say, sister, brother, let's talk. I'm going to be there to listen. Right now, I desire to be there to listen. We all should have that desire. Jeremiah 2. Jeremiah 2. Look at verse number 19. The Bible says, man, Israel was wicked. That's the context. It says, thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backsliding shall reprove thee. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God. and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts." Man, if you hear that from God, there's a problem when people demand comfort from the pulpit instead of conviction. I want to be convicted by the teaching of the truth. I don't want to turn my ear from it. And when we always demand comfort, when we always demand the feel-good feeling of the fable, we are evidencing to our God and we are evidencing to our brothers and sisters in Christ that we're just not willing to hear it. And so we turn our ear from it. Israel heard from the prophet, man. There is a difference between ignorance and willful disobedience. Your children, my children, your grandchildren, they are ignorant of some things. We kind of all are, aren't we? That isn't the problem. The problem isn't ignorance, the problem is willful disobedience and turning. You couldn't not know what God wanted in the Old Testament, unless you just weren't willing to and you wanted to turn your ear. And I love the prophet Jeremiah, because he just let them have it, and he let them have it, and let them have it, just like God told them, because they were proud people, proud people. I want to feel good just like anybody else. We must remember this. God's truth makes good people feel good and bad people feel bad. But Satan's lies makes bad people feel good and good people feel bad. He flips it. So in Jeremiah 2, all these wicked, the wickedness, the backsliding, the forsaking of the truth, the heart that doesn't fear God, in our new, to make an application for us, and in the New Testament church, you can't have that type of heart or spirit ruling. And there's plenty of teachers out there that people can heap to. Finish up this thought, I'll say. Praise the Lord when He sends new visitors and new families that want to settle into our local assembly. We're praying for it. We all desire it. But I will say this, if somebody leaves a good church to come to our church, because they're upset at what their pastor told them, I would feel better about saying, why don't you get that thing right with your pastor? And not gain another family, but help restore what probably should have been restored. Now, if there's false doctrine, there's all this kind of stuff, different. Put that side dish over here. I'm talking about if a preacher brought something down the line, and someone got upset of it, and they think the grass is going to be greener here, it's probably not going to be greener. Let's help them get that right. Remember, it says, they turn away their ears from the truth. Wasn't God doing it, wasn't the preacher doing it. They did it. And the end result is you end up in fable land.