We're gonna be reading in the third chapter, Genesis. It says in the fourth verse, and the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened. And ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And if you turn into the third chapter, or continue on down in the third chapter, it says in the 22nd verse, it says, and the Lord said unto, and the Lord God said, behold, the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he be lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. So Satan came to Eve and said, you shall surely not die. I've always thought that he was lying to her and that he was just telling maybe what you could say was a partial truth. But we don't know that Satan knew whether she would die or not. Satan turned from God and he didn't die, did he? So maybe Satan, the lie that Satan was telling was that they'd be as God. Let's think about that for a minute. had no interaction with all of mankind outside of observing Adam and Eve. And he looked upon them and he seen them. And it was not that Satan wanted Adam and Eve to be as God, but Satan wanted Adam and Eve to be as he was. Satan, when he rose up above God, though he was cast from heaven, he didn't die. We know that No doubt, maybe Eve and Adam's understanding is the fate of that, but they would immediately die. But anyhow, we know that because sin come into the world, death came as well, right? But we know here that the Lord God was talking to whom? Was He talking amongst the Godhead and said they will be like us? Was He including the angels? We know that in that conversation that He sent an angel to come and to be over the Garden of Eden and to keep Adam and Eve from eating that tree of life because it said that if they was to eat, though they had sinned and though a death had come into the world, that if they had ate the tree of life that they would live forever. Would that make them as God? No, it wouldn't. It'd make them like the devil. It'd make them like Satan who knew good from evil, but yet chose to do evil. So we were thinking about that because we live in a day and an age where it would seem like the people know that we have the knowledge of good and evil. There are so many that don't know right from wrong. The Bible says if you don't want to turn on over there, We can turn over into Deuteronomy and it says, this is Moses talking about when they spied out the land and there were so many of them said, we don't want to go. There's giants in the land. They'll destroy us and destroy our children. And Moses says, and the Lord was angry in the 37th verse of the first chapter of Deuteronomy and it says, it says also, And the Lord was angry with me for your sake, saying, Thou also shall neither go in thither. But Joshua the son of Nun, that standeth before thee, he shall go in thither. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover, your little ones which ye said should be a prey, and your children which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil. They shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. So we know that though when sin come into the world and death come into the world and a man had knowledge of good and evil we know here that God speaking through Moses was talking about these very little ones that you heard about that you said we don't want to go into the promised land. Because these wicked ones, these giants, these pagans will destroy us and our little ones. The Lord was making a declaration that these very little ones That you, that you're worried about. They're the only one that's gonna see the promised land. So that when knowledge came to man, the Bible teaches us that little children cannot discern between good and evil. We have an understanding. We call it a reach in the age of accountability. We believe this here is proof text of that very thing. All right now, what are you getting at, girl? We spent the last two days, we try to separate ourselves from the world. We don't go to a lot of places. But every year we go to this Homestead Expo and it vexes our soul. There's a lot of people, no doubt, that would consider themselves religious that go there, as well as those that would not even consider, as it were, good and evil. We live in a society today, when I was growing up, I wasn't mean to be immoral. That means to be outside of a code of morals. That means to transgress, as it were, of a conduct in that which I want. on the word of God. But listen, it is an immoral society, is it not? That would choose to kill the children, the unborn. They've made a decision. Even though I know a lot would say, oh no, that's not alive. There is nobody in society that would truly consider that the offspring Of a deer is a deer. And when a deer's inside of a doe, it's a deer. It ain't an antelope. It's not a wolf. It's not a dog. It's not a raccoon. But it's an unborn bear. And so it is with humankind as well. A woman's not pregnant with a human baby sometimes. And a squirrel some other time. Though some of you might act like squirrels. Or a cat one day. Or a dog in there. But we know about what's in a woman's belly from the moment. Humankind is an unborn human being. And it's an immoral society that would kill one of them. But it's an amoral society that would mutilate its own little children that know not good from evil. As the Bible says here in the first chapter of Deuteronomy, It's an immoral society that would say a man and a woman don't have to get married. They can shack up together. But it's an amoral society that says can be with a man and a woman can be with a woman. It's an immoral society that would want to put a fornication above marriage. But it's an immoral society that says that a man can be a woman and a woman can be a man. All you got to do is think so. Think about that for a minute. How foolish that it is. I can think that I'm a woman. Listen, if I'm thinking that I'm a woman, well then my brain's telling me that I'm a woman. And yet my body's telling me that I've got male organs. Listen, even my brain itself, as a human being, as a male, is producing. What is the, at least my brain, But you got a gland in your brain, the pituitary gland, that's even, listen, even those that are so confused that their mind would tell them otherwise, even a part of their mind, But what do we do? We say that the mind is right. Listen, if it's a democracy, and I don't want to be crude, but if it's a democracy and we was voting, the mind would be outvoted by all the other body parts. But we live in a culture that is amoral, that good and evil didn't come into the world, but the knowledge of it. And yet man don't have knowledge at all. Today we live in a culture. We're little children that can't not discern between good and evil, but yet they're having it. I perform to them. Listen now to me. You take a child and you protect that little child. When it comes of age, say it's wrong. You take that same little child and you expose it to that wickedness before he can discern between good and evil. He'll call evil normal. He'll call evil human. He'll call evil acceptable. And we see it in society. The Bible says If you want to turn there, because I'm going to tell you, or at least try to build a case, that we have went so far beyond immorality to a society of amorality. What is that? That's where you don't even consider whether you're in or outside the bounds of morality. It's not even to the point where you would call good evil an evil good. But you have no moral compass at all. You do what you want to do. And yes, you will determine that there are evil things and the evil things in this world are the people that declare that which is good and that which is holy and everything else goes. But those that declare the truth, they're the ones that need to go. But the Bible says in Leviticus in the 19th chapter, And the 28th verse, it says, ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you. I am the Lord. Do not prostitute thy daughters to cause her to be a whore, lest the land fall to whoredoms and the land become full of wickedness. Now we know that this was the law that was given to the Jews. about this law that the Lord God Almighty laid down for the Jews. It's true for us all, right? If you prostitute your daughter and cause her to be a whore, the land will fall into whoredoms and the land will become full of wickedness. That's not just true for the Jew, that's true for the Gentile as well. And Romans, the first chapter proves that out. where God turned mankind over, the Gentiles in particular, to a reprobate mind, and they had to suffer for it. But here we find that the Lord's telling them, don't you make cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you. Well, we confess, We can fast forward many centuries. I meant to look at that. Approximately. We could say about 1,500 years. Well, not necessarily, not that much. A thousand years to where the fall of Jerusalem come about. And they set up, the Babylonians set up rulers over Jerusalem. We know that ruler was as Gadaliah, and Ishmael killed him because they didn't want a man that answered to the Babylonians to rule over them. And so it says, if you want to turn there, the 41st chapter, of Jeremiah. In the third verse it says, Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with him, even with Gadoliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans that were found there in the middle of war. And it came to pass, The second day after he had slain Gadoliah, and no man knew it, that there came, now listen, that there came a certain from Shechem, from Shalom, even four score, 80 men, having their beards shaven and their clothes worn and having cut themselves with offerings and incense in their hand to bring them to the house of the Lord. Here there was 80 men, some from here and some from there. Some from there, some from the city of shallow. We're the tabernacle of the Lord and the presence of God. Once dwelled, we're the physical manifestation of God himself. A pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. That tabernacle that represented that was erected and shallow. And though that pillar of fire and that cloud was no longer seen over that tabernacle, that tabernacle and it's well and shallow, but like so many other places and so many other people, when they do not pass on and tell their children what is good and what is evil, when we allow people to determine it for themselves, then we They turn back to God. They don't even know that the very thing they're doing is the very thing that God hates. These men, these 80 men from three different places in Israel, listen, you could are in Judah. You could isolate yourself and you could develop as it was in the days of the judges. where every man does that which is right in his own eyes. But we see that there, if you look and study it out, that there was three different locations. Surely somebody should have known the word of God, though there had been one that lived in isolation. communicate, though the priest or the Levites in that area had not held faithful to their service, surely there had been someone that said that we need to turn to the Lord, and they would have got out the laws of God, but it was foreign to them, and the way they appealed For the false gods is the way they appeal to the God of Israel. So that when everything's destroyed, Shiloh had fell, Israel had fell, and Judah was the only late nation that was a representation of the true and the living God. And when the enemies of God, when Satan's children Jerusalem surrounded, and they finally succumbed. And those that thought they knew God and His ways perceived that God was finally defeated. God was in control. It was him that destroyed Jerusalem and not the enemies of God. But when they were sorrowful, what did they do? They began to cut themselves for the dead, for the dead that was in Jerusalem, for Jerusalem itself. And they mourned. that once knew God, but in their iniquity, in their immorality, and in their amorality, where one thing was as good as another, where they elevated the most base of wicked and called it good, and they tried to destroy everything that was good. It was as it was, the death groanings of a people. We're talking about 80 people on a journey, on a quest, on a mission to come to Jerusalem. And instead of reaching God, they angered God. Boy, I'm glad we know better. Or do we? I was just amazed. There's one man in particular. He's on YouTube, and he comes from a terrible, oh, a terrible life of drug addiction, from a broken home, and very rough. He was, I guess, a musician and a songwriter before he come to the Lord. I put that in air quotes. And you can see in some of the songs he's wrote, you get on YouTube. He's the only one that I think that can sing that song to old death. He does a good job with it. But anyhow, when I seen that, I thought, well, who on earth is this? And then there's a little video of his testimony. When he gave his testimony about coming to the Lord, he's all tattooed up. You could just see the marks of sin. Then when we listened to his song, singing that song, Old Death, Ralph Stanley sang it. And he has this big old tattoo on his neck now, creeping up into his face. He's got a beard, and it looks like eagles, like eagle wings or bird wings or something. And so since he become a Christian, it has words wrote underneath it, and I can't fully make it out. And so when we first seen that, And we thought that this was him before his coming to Christ. But once we seen his testimony, we seen he didn't even have that tattoo, and a lot of others he didn't have. But he was raised in sin. He don't know no better. But the Bible is the Bible, right? Was it Stephen Curtis Chapman that was raised different? And all to know better. when the tragedy struck their family and his son backed over his daughter. And what did he do? He took, well, he didn't do it. He went to a tattoo parlor, no doubt. And he put the birth date and the day of his daughter's passing and tattooed it on his arm. A good Christian man. The Bible tells us otherwise. You say, Darryl, that's under the law. Listen, why as Christians would we mark our bodies with the markings of the dead? Our bodies are not to be tombstones. Our bodies, listen, somebody tattoos across their chest, forgiven. Does that make them forgiven? Why are we using the pagan? God didn't want the children of Israel to do this because it was paganism. But yet, we're not to mark forgiven on our hearts, but we are to give forgiveness to our brothers and sisters. Not to scar our body with it, but because Jesus' body was scarred that we might have forgiveness. We are to forgive others and give of ourselves. Oh, but what do we do? We put forgiveness on our chest. and we put Jesus saved on our arm and think Jesus will save us. And one more time, after another, after another, we walk in the ways of paganism and we think we can reach God, but we won't reach him no more than these four scorned men did that made their trek to Jerusalem. Did you hear what it said? Do not prostitute thy daughter to cause her to be a whore, lest the land fall to whoredom and the land become full of wickedness. I don't know about you, but there's a lot of women that finds themselves in prostitution because they come from a broken home. They come where there is no structure, but it's a hard business to be in, if it's ever been. Why? Because I can remember when I was a kid, We didn't live in the city, and we didn't go to those places where they advertised. But Darryl knew when he seen a prostitute, because a prostitute dresses like a prostitute. But as we was at that expo these two last days, whoa, to the fathers who had split their daughters out Though they might not sell them in exchange for money and for sex, we live in a culture. I don't know how a woman is to declare to the whole world that it's for sale. Why? Because there's so many giving it away free. And every woman, not every woman, right? But we live in a culture where, look at it, Don't get the notebook out, I'm sorry. But on TikTok, on Facebook, on this and on that, where women has been popularized, where our wives and our daughters are to dress like tramps. And we think somehow that we're gonna be able to not have to live in a land full of wickedness, and in a land that falls at the whoredoms. And this is how pervasive it is. We heard a man this week that declares to be a Christian. And I've been around him for a very long time. I've seen that man angry, but I don't know what was bothering him. But on this day, the circular saw kicked back on him, and he dropped the F-bomb. It really hurt my feelings, to be honest with you. Why? Because we live in a world of paganism. And that, my friend, is their God. They take what God created to be holy between a man and his wife, and they turn it into an idol. Instead of taking God's name in vain, for they retain not the knowledge of God, And if you legitimately retain not the knowledge of God, you will not take a name in vain that does not exist. But they'll take their idol, the very thing that they would worship their God with, and they'll use it in vain. And we see it today where the average movie today, back in the 70s, and whatnot, what was the curse word they were using? They were taking the Lord God's name in vain. But where we live in a society today, where they'll use that F word, more than one a minute in a movie on average. Why is that? Because we live in an amoral society. I'm going to point out to you, that the death rose as a culture, just like Jerusalem was in the day of Jeremiah. God said, don't you do it. And we do it with gusto. And we don't even consider whether it's right or wrong. And we prostitute our daughters. And we teach them that if you want something in life, show off your nakedness and you'll get it. And I mourn, oh, I mourn for the children and no known good and evil. Because before they can even discern, they are learning that evil is normal. And I understand, we're all born into sin, right? But God gave us a moral code. God gave us a way in which we might reconcile ourselves to Him, and that's the blood of Jesus Christ. But if you think somehow you can oblige the blood of Jesus Christ, with the blood of pigs, with the blood of whores, with the blood of harlots and whoremongers, and sodomites, and somehow make it to heaven. You're wrong, you're dead wrong, and you'll burn in hell for all eternity. Why? Because when Satan come to eat, I told her you'd be as God. He was dressed as a serpent. And what he was offering her... would not have been appealing to her. Why? Because, Daddy, she was dressed in the glory of God. They didn't know they were naked until they seen that the glory of God left them. That serpent came, even if he'd have said, eat of this fruit. You can be like me. It would not have been desirable in the least. But he hungered to have the relationship with Adam and Eve that God had in the garden. And he thought that when they transgressed God, they would become as he was. But they didn't, for death entered into this world. cause death there into this world. Every one of us that must die. But God has made a way. And that tree of life, my friend, is Jesus Christ. And it's only through and by him that we'll ever be able to once again dwell in the presence of God. But you can do what you will, and you can believe what you want But the way to God is not through the ways of men. It's not through the paganism of mankind. We was saying this, and we'll say it again. If you'd have told me 10 years ago that a country western singer, and I realize he's not, I think he retired or whatever, and I don't follow any of that. But if you'd have told me 10 years ago that a once very popular country singer would be singing about the Book of Revelation and it not mocking it. I'd have said, there's no way. Yesterday we was walking to our truck. To get some stuff and we were going by one of those because we work a booth, right? And we was It was there at the tail end of the day and they were having a question and answer session with the speakers they were all up on the We didn't listen to any of those, I don't know what you call them, seminars or whatever. But Joel Salatin, as well as other very popular YouTubers that have to do with homesteading and all, was up on the stage. And they were taking questions from the audience. And then they were, everyone, given an opportunity, if you wanted to answer that question, as one of those that had been part of the seminars that you could answer the question. And one right after another, we heard this one, we just caught the tail end of it. I don't know if it was Joel Salatin or this other gentleman from AVA, because what I was hearing, I couldn't believe that I was hearing it. But we had people come to our booth, and they're from everywhere in the United States. coming to Missouri or Arkansas or basically into the Ozarks. And they've turned their back on their culture as they would know it. They lived in the city and there was no community there. They've seen through COVID and other things and through the present political situation that we're experiencing that there has to be more to life than this. I had one right after another. They sold everything they had. And they bought a little piece of ground, five acres here, ten acres there, and they're living in a camper. One woman said that they was in a ten by twelve portable building. Look, it's in our DNA. And if I could sum up more than five questions, they more or less was all set. And I know there was people there that was very content. But what I heard over and over again is I've changed my life. I've changed my friends. This one man, I don't know if it's Joe Salatin or what, he said, but what you're asking and what you are seeking was one time found at your local church. And I heard that. And so, but you know what? We live in an amoral society, daddy. My local church is not proclaiming it on earth. I can't even say it now. Authoritative God that has a command that you must repent. You must believe on my son that I sinned. And they don't go to church to find forgiveness. But now they're on their quest to go to church. to find community, a brand of Christianity that will fit their lifestyle. And we heard that, and I thought, I got to hear some more of this. So we went in there, we walked, we looked amongst all of them. And these are people my age, people that are middle-aged, basically 30s, 40s, 50s, and then on up. They're all sitting there. And they were saying, why don't I have peace? Now, I'm sure that if I would express what I just expressed to you to them, they'd deny it all. You know why? Because a child that is kept from the knowledge of good and evil, if turned over to a reprobate mind, cannot discern that which is good and righteous and holy, and that which is evil, wicked, and destructive. So, as we was cleaning up and gathering everything, we seen a man. Now, you know, I live in a farming community. I've been around farmers all my life, but people at a homestead convention, these are usually not farmers that have been farmers all their life around, you know, less ones maybe that they have speaking at them, but you got so many people from the city, right? And there was a man there with his family, and they had a, And they had a RV we seen on the first day. And he was there with his three children. And they were selling microgreens. And those are very healthy for you. And you know, if you eat them, you'll become healthier. Oh, but it won't remove sin. And it won't cover the sin you've already done, right? But he wasn't your typical farmer. He was all covered up. I would assume that he might have been on his second marriage, but I don't know that for certain. But he was a man that if he wasn't pushing 40, he'd had a very hard life. But he was covered all in tattoos and dressed very vulgar, and so was his wife. And they were covered all in tattoos. And there's nothing wrong with that if you were living in sin. Now you'd want to cover them up and I'll be running around naked showing them all off. But I am always amazed at what people choose to put on their body. And it's not just by their own choosing. If you know anything, there's demonic symbols that have been throughout the ages. And cultures that are long gone and dead, whether it's the Druids, whether it's the Incas and all of that, there is, I truly believe, demonic symbols that for whatever reason, whether somebody thunk it up, draw it up, or it was given to them by an angel, right? That has ran through cultures that are unconnected to each other. You see that with the Armed Cross, right? The swastika. These were not things that Hitler, that were original under Hitler. The swastika goes long back, way back before him. But I'm always fascinated. And if I get to know somebody and begin to be comfortable with them in order to ask them, I've asked more than one of them, oh, why did you choose that tattoo? And they say, well, I thought it was neat. It appealed to me. And they don't even realize that it is the markings of the dead. A dead culture, a dead religion, but it's very much alive, for they wear it. And it possesses them as much as they possess it. We've seen this man and his wife. I think it's wonderful. Anybody that's raised in sin, anybody raised in the city, anybody that's raised in the suburbs, want to be connected back more closely to the food chain and being able to grow your own food. That's wonderful. And then we've seen his daughter come out of the RV. She's younger than Charlene, 13, 14, I think. And she was dressed identical to her mother. She had a tube top on with one strap over it. It was like a tube top with one strap and her belly hanging out. And at, I'm guessing, 13 or 14, she had tattoos on her legs. And I just, when I seen that, I thought, you know, it don't matter. Ladies, it don't matter how well you age, tattoos don't age well, right? And you can be 30 years old and look 20, but that 15-year-old tattoo looks 15 years old. no matter how well you've taken care of yourself. It's a marker of time, and you can redo it, and that's what a lot of them do, and that's why they got sleeves, and that's why they're dark. I knew one fella, unfortunately, I don't wanna tell you how I knew him, but he had a heart tattooed on his arm, and there was a woman's name wrote on it. And normally when you break up with that woman or you have a divorce, You eloquently turn that into something else, and tattoo over a name. But all he'd done was, and he's a tattoo artist, and maybe this was just a thumb in her eye. All he'd done was draw a line to her name, and put a name below it. And they called him Mouse. He was probably 350 pounds. His name was Mouse. So that's kind of funny, but it ain't, because it's a lie. But that's why, you know, when I seen that, and he drew a line through his, I'm assuming his girlfriend, somebody he's all thought very much of, drew a line through it and wrote another one underneath it. My markings of the dead, a dead relationship. Of times gone on, times gone by. But us, we find God, do we find God in the things of men and in the paganisms of dead cultures and cultures that are much more alive today than they've ever been. We're seeing a resurgence of it all. And it's not when I was a kid. You had to be ex-military or you was a member of a biker gang to have tattoos now. The preacher's getting them. Preacher's wife's getting them. I don't do it. I don't get on Facebook. But there's good, good God-fearing, and I'm saying this tongue-in-cheek, there's good God-fearing Christians that are, got a tattoo collection and they post it for everybody to see. And it's all tied to spiritual things. But none of them are tied to God. Let's get some song to sing.