ლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლლ�
Good evening everyone. Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. It is time to go ahead and kick off service for this evening.
So if you would find a seat, grab a hymnal and turn to hymn number 10
near the cross.
Hymn number 10.
1-0 near the cross.
Hymn number 10 there on the first
word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and for the opportunity to preach the
gospel and for all those that got saved this afternoon. I pray that you would continue to be
with us for the evening service, that you'd incline your ear to us as we sing praises unto you,
and that you'd open our ears and our hearts to the message this evening. These things we pray in
Hymn number 125 125 the solid rock
125 they're on the first
in the morning, Sunday evening at 4.30,
and our Wednesday evening Bible study
through Proverbs at 7 o'clock.
We also have all of our soul winning times
listed there below.
And of course, make note that next Saturday,
while we're in the Bahamas,
the Saturday rally will be suspended temporarily.
And actually, it will be for two weeks
because after that is the Orphan of the Farms.
Keep that in mind.
But we do have our regularly scheduled services
for next week during the Bahamas.
Port Brother Matt, appreciate you preaching and filling in for that Wednesday.
We're looking forward to hearing that.
We do have our year-to-date soul-winning statistics
for the month, and we had seven salvations this afternoon.
So men's job, we're going out soul-winning today.
Upcoming events, tomorrow is the Bahamas mission trip.
So I thought that the sermon should probably be
about two hours long this evening,
just so everyone can know who's coming.
But yeah, we're really looking forward to that.
I'm gonna get to bed nice and early tonight.
Please be praying for everyone traveling
and for the trip to go really well.
And it's supposed to be pretty rainy, so keep that in mind as you prepare for your travels.
We do have October 12th next Sunday for the evening service, our men's preaching night.
Please feel free to sign up if you want to participate in that.
October 18th is our fall family fun day, and that's at the Orr family farm there.
location and time, please just make sure that we sign up back there and sign up
sheet because this is obviously going to cost the church. We want to make sure that we buy the appropriate number of tickets to that.
October 19th, Pastor Aaron Thompson will be preaching both services for us and he's gonna be here for the whole weekend
He'll be joining us at the pumpkin patch farm activities. So we're looking forward to having him
October 31st is the chilly cookoff and then November 22nd is the Oklahoma City soul-winning marathon for a one-year anniversary
Pastor Shelley will be joining us that weekend and he'll be preaching both services for us on the 23rd
So we're looking forward to having him
November 26th is our Pied Fellowship. As far as prayer requests, there's a couple that was added,
one for the Bahamas, one for Brother Theodore. He's saying that he's almost certain that his
grandmother's tumor is cancer, so he prays for the best outcome for her and for the best treatment
for her, for her healing, regardless of what it is, just pray for her health please, and also for
salvation. Please be praying for that. And if you have any requests, of course, please
email the church. Be happy to add that for you. That's going to be it. We'll go ahead and go to our
third song this evening.
For our third hymn, turn if you would to 134. My anchor holds
My anchor holds, one hundred thirty-four there on the verge.
Oh, the angry surges roll, on my tramp is driven soul.
and sure that can ever more endure and it holds my anchor holds though your
wildest and oh gale on my bark so small and frail by his grace I shall
or shade the sky and the tempest rises high still I stand the tempest shock or
my anchor grips the rock and it holds my anchor
So small and frail, by His grace I shall not fail, For my anchor holds, my anchor holds,
I can feel the anchor fast, as I meet each sun.
And the cable, though unseen,
bears the heavy strain between.
Through the storm, I safely ride
till the turning of the tide.
And it holds, my anchor holds.
So small and frail, by his grace I shall not fail.
For my anchor holds, my anchor holds, Troubles almost wham the soul.
Seek to lure astray, Storms obscure the light of day.
But in Christ I can't be bold, I've an anchor that shall hold.
And it holds, my anchor holds.
so small and frail, by His grace I shall not fail, for my anchor holds, my anchor holds."
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth, and his disciples
asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God
should be made manifest in him.
I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day, the night cometh, when no
man can work.
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed
the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
He went his way there for and washed and came seeing the neighbors there for and they which
before has seen him that he was blind said is not this he that sat and begged some said
this is he others said he is like him but he said I am he.
Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?
And he answered and said, A man that is called Jesus
made clay and anointed mine eyes,
and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.
And I went and washed, and I received sight.
Then said they unto him, Where is he?
He said, I know not.
They brought to the Pharisees
Him that a four-time was blind and it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes
Then again the Pharisees asked also asked him how he had received a sight
He said unto them he put clay upon my eyes and I washed and do see
therefore said some of the Pharisees this man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day other said
How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles and there was a division among them
They say unto the man again what sayest thou of him that hath
that he hath opened thine eyes.
He said he is a prophet,
but the Jews did not believe concerning him
that he had been blind and received his sight
until they called the parents of him
that had received his sight.
And they asked him saying,
is this your son who you say was born blind?
How then doth he now see?
His parents answered them and said,
We know that this is our son and that he was born blind
But by what means he now seeeth we know not
Or who hath opened his eyes we know not he is of age ask him he shall speak for himself
These words spake his parents because they feared the Jews for the Jews had agreed already
That if any man did confess that he was Christ he should be put out of the synagogue
Therefore, said his parents, he is of age, ask him.
Then again, called they the man that was blind and said unto him, Give God the praise, we
know that this man is a sinner.
He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not.
One thing I know that whereas I was blind, now I see.
What did he to thee, how opened he thine eyes?
He answered them, I have told you already
and ye did not hear.
Wherefore would ye hear it again?
Will ye also be his disciples?
Then they reviled him and said,
thou art his disciple, but we are Moses' disciples.
We know that God spake unto Moses,
as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.
the man answered and said unto them,
why herein is a marvelous thing
that ye know not from whence he is,
and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
Now we know that God here hath not sinners,
but if any man be a worshipper of God
and doeth his will, him he heareth.
Since the world began, was it not heard
that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind?
If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
They answered and said unto him
Thou was all together born in sins and does thou teach us and they cast him out
Jesus heard that they had cast him out and when he had found him he said unto him
Does thou believe on the Son of God and he answered and said who is he Lord that I might believe on him and
Jesus said unto him thou has both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee
And he said, Lord, I believe and worshiped him.
And Jesus said, for judgment I am come into this world
that they which see not might see
and that they which see might be made blind.
And some of the Pharisees which were with him
heard these words and said unto him, are we blind also?
Jesus said unto them, if you were blind,
you should have no sin.
But now ye say we see
Therefore, your sin remaineth.
That's by our heads for the prayer.
Father in heaven, thank you for this day.
Successful day of soul winning,
and we ask that you please fill our pastor
with the Holy Spirit,
and that you help us all have safe travels on our trip,
but I hope that to be a perfect group,
I shall be safe to love you,
and be safe and pray amen.
Amen, we're in dog chapter nine,
start reading in verse four.
understanding about the Sabbath and they're saying like well this guy is a
breaker of the Sabbath so of course this guy can't be of God and they make all
these wrong assumptions of of Jesus Christ that kind of cements their wrong
conclusion saying that oh he broke the Sabbath and they're like I mean we know
this guy is a sinner even though that's not true they just kind of hold on to
this idea like oh yeah I mean we know that this guy is a sinner and in modern
like cognitive error and error in the way that we think as people called confirmation bias.
And so the title of my sermon this evening is combating confirmation bias.
We talked about normalcy bias this morning.
This evening we're going to talk about how to fight against this idea of a confirmation bias.
Let me explain to you what a confirmation bias is.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek, interpret, and remember information
in a way that confirms one's pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses.
while ignoring or downplaying contradictory evidence.
So the Pharisees here, they have plain evidence
that Jesus is deity, why?
Because he literally just healed a man
that was blind from his youth, from his birth, actually.
Jesus kind of just spit with the clay and put it on this man's eyes and healed him
But the Pharisees are downplaying ignoring the information that's right in front of their face because they had this preconceived idea
This preconceived notion that I mean come on. We know this is a sinner
I mean come on that we know this guy has broken the Sabbath so he can't be of God and basically they're interpreting all this evidence in front of them through
the lens of their confirmation bias.
Now what we have to realize is that this again,
just like with a normalcy bias we talked about this morning
is something that all of us could fall prey to.
And so we have to understand that this exists.
It says here, for example, if someone believes
a certain diet is effective,
they might focus on success stories.
and dismiss studies showing no benefits.
This is exactly why I say that the average American eats such a poor diet
that if they choose any fad diet, they will have positive results,
which is why you can find people who follow every fad diet that exists
that just swear by their fad diet, it's because of this idea of confirmation bias.
They're having positive results and they'll only interpret their data
based through their confirmation bias that they have.
thinking, and critical thinking across various domains, from personal opinions to scientific
research.
So look, this affects scientific research, diet, exercise techniques, and it affects
even interpretation of doctrine.
This idea of a confirmation bias is something that we have to be careful of.
We have to be careful that when we're reading the Bible and getting information, that we're
actually just letting the facts speak for themselves.
All these other biases, let's look at some ways we could fight against this.
Look at verse number 16, number one this evening, how we could fight against confirmation bias is to prove all things.
Prove all things.
Look at verse 16.
It says, therefore said some of the Pharisees, notice this claim that they make, this man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day.
Others said how can a man that is a sinner do such miracles and there was a division among them
They say unto the blind man again, what saith thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes.
He said, he is a prophet."
So what do we see so far?
We see the Pharisees, they make a claim.
They're having these preconceived ideas.
But I would like to ask these people, oh yeah, well what's your proof for that?
How did you come to that conclusion, where you're just sitting here saying that, oh Jesus
broke the Sabbath, Jesus isn't following the Sabbath, and we know this man is the sinner.
because you don't want it to be true.
That's what a lot of people do, right?
Verse 18 says,
but the Jews did not believe concerning him
that he had been blind and received his sight
until they called the parents of him
that had received his sight.
So notice, in verse 17, they asked the blind man,
what are you saying about the guy that opened your eyes?
He gives them an answer, he is a prophet.
So here we have another claim,
another point of view being brought to these people,
but do they accept this claim?
No, without even looking into it,
without even thinking about it, they just reject it.
They don't believe.
Then it says in verse number 19.
And they asked him, saying, is this your son?
Who ye say was born blind?
How then doth he now see?
His parents answered them and said,
we know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
But by what means he now seeeth, we know not.
Or who hath opened his eyes, we know not.
He is of age, ask him, he shall speak for himself.
These words spake his parents,
notice because they feared the Jews.
For the Jews had agreed already
that if any man did confess,
that he was Christ. He should be put out of the synagogue.
So the Bible's insinuating here that his parents understood what happened.
His parents knew what was going on but because they were gonna get
put out of the synagogue if they said that Jesus was the Christ
they're kind of afraid to publicly say that and they're like you know he's of
age why don't you just go ask our son
even though they already did.
Then it says in verse number 24, then again called day the man that was blind and said unto him,
Give God the praise. We know that this man is a sinner.
So, again, they're just coming to this conclusion, just saying, well, we know that Jesus is
a sinner, but it's like, hey, prove all things.
Where's the proof for that?
Where's the evidence for that that Jesus has sinned?
Can you show us a Bible verse that Jesus has sinned?
Can you show us an example where Jesus has sinned?
And this is just confirmation bias.
that preaching that we hear today, where people will not sit here and prove something from the Word of God.
They'll not sit here and open the Bible and say,
here's the doctrine from the Bible, they'll just get up and say, I mean, come on, we all know.
And you know what, that's really annoying.
That's really annoying hearing from preachers when they get up and just preach.
I mean, come on, we all know this is just something we all know, right?
No, this is something called a confirmation bias.
And you actually need to prove from the Bible the things that you believe.
And we don't get to just say,
oh, I mean, we know Jesus is a sinner.
We know this guy's a sinner, right?
No, we don't actually.
And that's not what the Bible teaches,
and that's not what's matching in reality.
But just because someone says something
does not make it true.
And just because a lot of people say something
does not make it true.
You actually have to prove your claims today.
Go to and keep your place there. We're gonna come back throughout the sermon, but go to Mark chapter number two
Why you're turning their first Thessalonians 521 says this prove all things
Hold fast, that which is good.
Look, as Christians, we are required to understand
not just what we believe, but why we believe things.
And we are required to prove, to study the Word of God,
to show ourselves to be a good workman,
studying the Word of God, and not just believe what we hear,
not just have this mentality of,
well, my pastor said this.
Right? Don't we go out soul-winning and we constantly meet those people?
Well, my pastor taught us this. Well, my pastor taught us that.
That doesn't matter. What matters is what the Bible says.
We need to prove all things.
So, they don't understand the Sabbath.
Here's, look at this story in Mark 2, verse 23.
And it came to pass that he went through the corn fields, notice on the Sabbath day, and
his disciples began as they went to pluck the ears of corn.
And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not
lawful?
Again, they're making a claim.
But is their claim correct?
No, because Jesus rebukes them here.
And he said unto them, Have you never read?
What David did when he had need and wasn't hungry he and they that were with him
And it's like look Jesus is saying like realize that the Sabbath was made as a blessing for man
And God did not give us the Sabbath so that if you're hungry
You're not going to be able to eat and David is not going to show up to the showbred and and God literally rather have him
Starve than eat this showbred. No, he ate that showbred and was blameless according to the Bible
In verse 26 it says how he went into the house of God in the days of a bythar the high priest and did eat the showbred
Which is not lawful for to eat but for the priests and gave also to them which were with him
And he said unto them the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath
So the Pharisees and the Jews today they've twisted the Sabbath into something. It was never intended to be
You know, there's this section of Portland that's heavily Jewish and I mean they literally have this is according to Pastor Thompson.
He said that there's literally volunteers that push like the crosswalk button for people because the Jews can't push a button because that's electricity and that's kindling a fire on the Sabbath day.
And like the Jews just have this overly literal interpretation of the Sabbath to where they're looking at Jesus' disciples eating some food and saying like, oh, you're breaking the Sabbath.
David's starving, he comes against the showbreds,
he's like, oh no, it's not lawful.
But here's the thing, Sabbath was made
as a blessing for man.
Six days shout out labor, the Bible says.
God gave us that seventh day to rest.
But it's given us as a blessing,
it's not given us as an extra burden put upon us,
saying like, oh, you can't even eat.
Verse 28 says therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.
You know secondly any criticism of Jesus on the Sabbath falls short because guess what he's God and he's the Lord of the Sabbath.
So you're not going to see here in judgment of Jesus. Jesus is the one who gave us the Sabbath and so no Jesus is not doing something that's inappropriate here.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter number 3.
Second Timothy chapter number three.
But the problem that the Pharisees have here
is that they have this preconceived idea
that they did not prove.
When we wanna prove something,
we wanna make sure that we're not viewing life
through a confirmation bias.
One of the most important things that we could do
is make sure that we go to a reputable source,
that we actually go to a valid source for our information.
What's a great source? Second Timothy 3.16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
The 66 books that we have in our King James Bible today is the preserved words of God
God inspired his words God spoke through holy men of God and God preserved those words to us today
And we have this Bible that is profitable for us for doctrine for correction for reproof for
Instruction in righteousness. So when it comes to proving anything in life, this should be our number one source that we go to
And, of course, the world isn't going to necessarily accept that, but guess what?
They're wrong.
And who cares what they think?
If I'm standing on a Bible verse, I'm right.
And it doesn't matter what the American Council of Psychologists believe, and it doesn't matter
what all the white liberal college professors believe, what matters is what the Bible says.
And today we have this guy out soul winning who got super angry at he was just super mad from the second we started talking to him
Just one of these guys probably just hates white people
All right, and we show up and he's just like uh Baptist, you know, we're not we don't believe in denominations
I'm like well actually our church is an independent church
Baptists is a descriptive name believing the things that we believe as a church, but we're independent. He goes Baptist, you know
Well Christian, you know Jesus wasn't even a Christian. I'm just like all right see a man
I just left you know because someone like that who's a fool you're not gonna really reason with him
But this idea here's the thing. We're not a you know, what's it called a denomination?
Because of the fact that we don't have some sort of counsel that we answer to,
we don't have some sort of statement of faith written by some organization that we have to answer to,
there's no governing authority that tells us what to preach, what events to have,
where to go soul-winning. We are an independent church. And so how do we govern ourselves in this
church? We do it by submitting to the Word of God. And if we're going to hold to a doctrine at this
not by my opinion.
Even though I'm the pastor,
even though I'm the human leader in this church,
I don't get to govern this church
just according to my opinion.
Now, if there's something that the Bible is silent about,
like what time will you have church?
What will you order for food?
These are things I get to just decide.
But doctrine that's not how it works and I as a pastor cannot get up and just bring this. I mean come on ism
I mean, we all know ism. No, I actually have to prove all things
Which by the way, don't get frustrated when you hear a sermon about a topic that you already know
Just be thankful that we're proving all things
Because what's annoying is when you hear a sermon that's not being proven from the word of God
And I tell people this all the time, people who want to be preachers,
there's nothing that you could say that's more interesting than what the Bible already says.
And when people try to get interesting, they get away from the Word of God oftentimes.
You know what's interesting to Spirit-filled Christians that love the Bible is the words of God.
The words of Jesus Christ. That's all we need, folks.
We need to prove all things from the Bible.
Let's keep reading in 2 Timothy.
Let's actually go back a few verses to verse 13.
How it says, But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of.
Notice, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
and that from a child that was known the holy scriptures.
So notice that the source of our information matters.
What's the best source of information we could possibly have?
The scripture.
If we have an argument about doctrine,
there's only one thing that I want to settle that debate,
and that is the scripture.
Not what his pastor so and so say.
You know, when I write my sermons,
or when I just get up and preach,
I'm not thinking, what do other people believe?
What do other pastors believe?
What have my friends said in time past about this specific subject?
I'm just thinking, what does the scripture say?
And you know what Christians should want to hear?
What the scripture says.
And I don't want to come at the Bible
with even a new IFB confirmation bias.
And here's the thing, I love the new IFB.
I'm new IFB.
I love my new IFB friends.
I will stay new IFB.
But when I come to the Word of God, I don't put on a new IFB confirmation bias glasses.
I just say, what does the Bible say?
And I'm willing to preach what the Bible says,
even if my friends disagree with me on something.
I'm willing to do that.
And I would hope that all of my friends go to the Bible
and go to preach what the Scripture says.
And I hope they don't have a confirmation bias
on thinking, well, what does Pastor Oz think?
What does Pastor Oz preach?
What does he said in Time Pass?
I would be disappointed in any of my friends
if that's how they preach.
I would rather my friends scream and rip face and foam at the mouth against something that they thought I taught wrong
as long as they thought that they were sticking with what the Bible says.
That's the friends I want to have.
And here's the thing, if I hear someone ripping face against something that I taught, first
of all I should just think like, well praise God this pastor is willing to stand on what
he believes.
We have enough weak pastors in America today that are afraid of the women in their congregation,
that are afraid of their pastor friends, and afraid of the old IFB not inviting them back
because they're afraid to preach the pre-trib so they don't lose their speaking engagements.
And if that steps on my toes, so be it.
And if I hear a pastor preach something
where I've taught differently
or I've interpreted that verse differently,
here's the thing, if I'm right,
then that's not gonna hurt me
because the truth is powerful.
And if I'm wrong, you know what I should do?
It's change.
That's what I should do, but I do not view people preaching things differently than me as some sort of an attack on me
I don't want people to have this bias that comes to their preaching where they're gonna be a respecter of persons
I just want them to let it rip. That's what I want
And I wish pastors today would just get more bold and if pastors getting more bold means that sometimes
I'll get preached against and my ideas will get scrutinized and challenged then praise God
because he must increase and I must decrease.
And the Word of God needs to go out,
and the truth of the Word of God needs to go out,
and all of our human fleshly ideas that are,
I mean, come on, we all know that needs to be flushed and trashed.
Don't come at the Word of God with this preconceived idea.
We need to consider the source of things that we learn, knowing of whom that has learned them.
And so when we preach something from the Word of God, we can say, that's a good source.
You know what's not a good source?
How about how the Catholics come to any belief that they have.
They say, well, Father so-and-so said this.
Well the council of Nicaea says this well the Pope was speaking ex-cathedra, and he said this hey nuts to all that
What does the Bible say?
I'm sick and tired of the Catholic Church today
Getting up and all they do is they preach their opinions their man-made philosophy their fake Roman pagan religion
That's straight out of hell that denies everything that the Bible says
The Catholic Church does not care what the Bible says.
They elevate tradition and man's opinions over what the Bible says.
And I talked to an Orthodox Christian the other day,
so not Catholic, but very similar.
And he even said, he's like,
oh, so you're like one of those people that just, it's scripture only,
you only base your doctrine on the Word of God?
Yeah!
That we're Baptists.
Baptists believe the Bible.
And if I say something different than what the Bible says,
the Bible's right.
And if I preach something wrong, my friends preach it right, then they're right.
What matters is the source that we're getting our information from, and that source better
be the Bible.
Go to Acts chapter number 17, Acts, Acts chapter number 17.
I think the Baptist movement would be greater if every single pastor just came to the Word of God
saying, I don't care what any other church teaches, I care what the Bible says.
I think we'd have a better movement if we did that.
Verse 11 says these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and
Search the scriptures daily
Whether those things were so that's what we should be doing as Christians. We should be coming to church
with an open mind and an open heart ready to receive the preaching of God's Word.
When you wake up in the morning and you open your Bible,
you should have an open heart for God's Word.
When you hear preaching, be ready to receive it, but search the Scriptures daily,
whether those things are so. What is the insinuation being made here?
Well, here's the thing. If you hear preaching and you open your Bible
and these things don't match, who does God expect you to go with?
What the Bible says!
Now look, this should not be scary to any sincere preacher.
Because I want to be in line with what this says.
And if I'm wrong about something,
I want to quickly get in line with what this says right here.
So this is not scary for me.
Who this is scary for is cult leaders like the Catholic Church.
Which is why the Catholic Church did everything in their power to restrict people from having the Bible.
Which is why they made it illegal to translate the Bible.
Which is why they burned William Tyndale at the stake for translating the Bible.
It's because they don't want people searching the Scriptures, whether those things or so.
Because they're constantly going to get to the Bible and say,
Wow, Jesus said, call no man father.
Wow, Jesus said, when you're fasting, don't disfigure your faces.
Why are we putting an ash cross on our forehead?
You're going to come to 1 Timothy 3 and say,
oh, wow, the bishop has to be the husband of one wife.
Oh, you know, where's worshipping Mary?
I see Jesus rebuking Mary a lot.
I see Mary saying, do everything Jesus says.
Oh, I see the Bible saying thou shalt not make unto the any graven image.
Where's Catholicism in the Bible?
It doesn't exist.
The reason people are Catholics is because they don't read the Bible.
You don't become a Catholic by reading the Bible
But Catholics they go to the wrong source go to 2nd Corinthians chapter number five now
Let's bring our minds back to this story in John 9 as you're turning to 2nd Corinthians 5
What was the claim made about Jesus? I mean come on. We know he's a sinner, right?
I mean we all know this man's a sinner
So I don't care if he you know healed you what he did to your eyes. I mean we all know this man's a sinner
Okay, well, how about prove all things? What does the Bible say?
2 Corinthians 5-21, for he hath made him to be sin, for us, notice, who knew no sin.
That we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Who's right and who's wrong?
The Pharisees are wrong.
Jesus Christ never sinned, the inspired words of God say so, that Jesus Christ never knew sinned.
So what do they have? They have this confirmation bias. I mean, come on. I mean, we all know.
I'll read for you. Go to 2 Thessalonians 2.
Hebrews 1-8 says, But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
God the Father referred to the Son, Jesus as God.
Examples of this today, where preachers will come at the Bible with preconceived notions,
a confirmation bias, and they refuse to just let the plain words of the Bible correct them
and allow them to show them the truth.
How about the pre-trib rapture?
Folks this is not even close to being something like well, you know, I'm not sure we could debate on this
We're not really certain look the pre-trib rapture is a lie, and it's not even a good lie
It's not even hard to debunk it is ridiculous
It was you know came up by these weird dispensationalists look at what the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2 1
Paul says, now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by
our gathering together unto Him.
What are we talking about?
We're talking about the rapture.
We're talking about the gathering together of God's saints.
We're talking about the coming of Christ.
Or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us is that the day of Christ is at hand
Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come
except there come a falling away first and
That man of sin be revealed the son of perdition
He's saying don't let anybody deceive you whether it's you know from us or don't let anyone deceive you that day
What day?
The day of Christ's return, when we're gathered together with Him, that day will not come
except there's a falling away first, and the man of sin is revealed, referring to the Antichrist.
And notice, it's the man of sin being revealed, where it's known, it's obvious that he's
the Antichrist.
It's not even saying like, oh, the Antichrist has to be born, because we wouldn't necessarily
know just some guy's born who's going to be the Antichrist.
It says in verse four who opposed it and exalted himself above all that is called God or he or that is worshiped
So that he has God sitteth in the temple of God
Showing himself that he is God. So if you read other parts of scripture the antichrist, he's gonna receive a deadly wound
He's gonna come back to life. He's gonna set up the abomination of desolation
He's going to stand in the third temple and he's gonna declare himself God
and he's going to institute a policy that the world has to get the mark of the beast
or the number of his name in the right hand or in their forehead to be able to buy or sell.
This must happen before the rapture.
And so this idea that, oh, the rapture could happen today.
You had that clip.
Maybe some of you saw it on Facebook several months ago,
this old IFB preacher.
He's like, I am extremely, it's extremely, extremely,
extremely, extremely likely that the rapture will be
happening, what do you say, at that same day?
Or a same week or something like that?
Day, that same day.
It was so extremely likely.
No, it wasn't, folks.
No.
Don't let anyone deceive you there's things that must happen first one of those being the antichrist being revealed
Don't be foolish. Don't be deceived
It says in verse number five remember you not that when I was yet with you
I told you these things and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time for the mystery of iniquity death already work
Only he who now let it will let until he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked notice be revealed
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming."
Look, this passage is very clear. I mean, Matthew 24, give me a break.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun and moon is going to be darkened, right?
Then the rapture is going to happen. You have to have this preconceived idea of dispensationalism,
of the Schofield Reference Bible, to reject these clear teachings.
So that's just a clear example of someone coming in with confirmation bias
and then when they perceive any information that goes against what they hold as their position,
they say, oh, Matthew 24, that was to the Jews. So they won't receive this information. Oh, that's
to the Jews. Oh, 2 Thessalonians 2. Oh, that's not talking about the rapture, right? They just ignore
it. That's really what they do. Go to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. How about Zionism?
I mean, come on.
We all know, right?
Don't we all know that the Jews are God's chosen people?
I mean, we all know that the secular, God-hating, murderous government of Israel, don't you
know we have to pray for them and give them our money?
And don't you know that those are God's chosen special people?
And don't you know BB Netanyahu is God's number one man?
I mean, we all know this, right?
Now, notice how the old IV preaches about the Jews.
They're not like talking about verses in the Bible, or when they do, they're twisting them.
But you know, they don't like this verse in Romans chapter 9, verse 6.
Notice, not as though the Word of God have taken none effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel.
Not all true Israel are the physical descendants of Jacob, right?
You have Jacob who is Israel.
Not all of his descendants are going to be that true Israel.
Notice neither
because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children?
So just because you're a physical descendant of Israel
does not mean you're true Israel.
Just because you're a physical descendant of Abraham
does not mean you're automatically God's chosen people.
It says,
That is, now it's going to explain...
They, which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the
children of the promise are counted for the seed.
Go to Galatians chapter 3.
So, very clearly the Bible is saying, the children of the flesh, these are not the children
of God.
So, the direct descendants of Abraham, the direct descendants of Jacob, this does not
automatically make you special.
This does not automatically make you the chosen of God.
Galatians 3, look at verse 26, here's what the Bible actually says, for year all the
Christ Jesus. You know who the children of God are? Christians! And if you live in
Iran and you believe in Jesus Christ, you're God's chosen people. And if you
live in Israel and if you're a physical descendant of Abraham or of Jacob and
you've trusted in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, then you're God's chosen people.
If you live in Russia, or Mexico, or the US, wherever you live, or whatever your lineage,
whatever your blood, if you trust in Christ, you are the saved, you are the saints.
But even if you are straight from Abraham's loins, you're just straight from Jacob's
loins, you live in this state of Israel, if you reject Jesus as the Messiah, you're
going to burn in hell for all of eternity.
And God's not going to love you.
So, again, it's just this, I mean, come on, go to 1 Corinthians 11.
That's just another clear example, where people go to the Bible with a preconceived idea.
They don't allow the facts to actually speak for themselves.
How about just like these meaningless tropes that we hear all the time people repeat?
How about, oh, God doesn't care about your appearance.
I mean, we all know God does not care about your appearance, right?
I mean, come on, don't we all know that?
Look at what the Bible says.
Judge in yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God, uncovered, doth not even nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering.
People just throw these things out they just make these wild statements. Oh God doesn't care about your appearance
The Bible says even nature itself teaches you that when a man has long hair. It's a shame
It's an embarrassment
By the way, this is a good verse to prove that Jesus did not have long hair
Because if he did then that would have been a shame for him to have that
And of course, God wants women to have long hair.
So if a woman, you know, help me with the logic here.
If a woman has short hair, that's a shame.
That's gross.
That's something that God does not approve of,
the butch haircut that women like to do today.
Now look, obviously, that doesn't mean we don't love them.
We don't want to get them saved and minister to them.
But it means they're wrong.
It means it's gross, and by the way, short hair on women is gross.
No one likes it, and honestly a lot of women do this just because they hate men.
You know, they just want to like, I don't even want men to like me.
It's like, well, mission accomplished, mission accomplished because no one likes women with
short hair.
It's gross.
Obviously, there's ladies that have cancer or whatever.
We're not mad at ladies that do that.
They have to go through chemo or whatever.
But look, if you're a man, cut your hair.
If you're a lady, let your hair be long.
God does care about these things.
I know I've picked on the Catholics a lot,
but let's just do it again.
How about, you know, praying to Mary?
I mean, yeah, we just pray to Mary.
I mean, what's wrong with that?
I mean, come on, we know we could just pray to Mary.
And it's funny, I saw this post by a Catholic on X
who has like 175,000 followers,
and she's like, you know, Protestants attack us
and claim that we worship Mary,
but you know, we don't worship Mary, we just pray to her.
I was just laughing so hard.
It's just like, oh, you don't worship Mary,
but you just pray to her.
And the Catholics will say, this is the same thing
as just asking a friend to pray for you.
Really, that's weird, because I actually
could look at my friends in the eyes
and say, hey, person who's real, who exists right now,
can you please pray for me?
But you know, if I want one of you to pray for me,
you know what I don't do?
I don't go in my closet and on my knees and say,
brother Cameron.
Please hear my prayer. Please, Cameron, please ask God to help me with this.
That's bizarre!
You would say this person is a schizo. Get this guy locked up!
What's wrong with this person?
Well, this is every Catholic for you. They're praying to Mary.
Notice what the Bible says in Romans 8 verse 26.
It says likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And people say, oh, don't worry, we're not worshiping Mary, we're just using her as an intercessor to get to God.
That's blasphemous.
that's wicked. When we go to prayer, the intercessor for us is the Holy Spirit.
We don't know how to pray as we ought and sometimes God takes the words that we're saying
and the Holy Spirit will kind of translate that and give it to God.
This is what he really needs. This is what she really needs.
This is what the spirit of their prayer is, what they're actually trying to get after.
And of course, we have a great verse about how, you know, there's one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ, Jesus.
And the Catholics don't like people using that verse because in context, of course, that verse is not talking about prayer.
But how are they going to answer this?
Romans 8, this is in context of prayer.
I mean, this destroys that stupid idea.
Go back to John chapter number nine.
John chapter number nine.
But I just show you all those many examples
to get you to understand this.
When we want to prove something,
we should be asking ourselves one question.
What does the Bible say?
And do not just live your life by this.
I mean, come on, ism.
I mean, we all know.
No, prove all things with the Bible.
Number two, do not be a reality denier.
Do not be a reality denier.
Do not allow your confirmation bias to cause you to deny facts.
This is called flat earth retards who they have a preconceived idea they've just decided
the earth is flat and it does not matter what evidence you show them nothing can change
their mind.
It doesn't matter how many, you know, telescope pictures, how many satellite video,
it does not matter they have that bias, they won't change.
Don't be a reality denier. Look at verse number 25 in John 9.
It says, he answered and said,
whether he be a sinner or no, I know not.
One thing I know, that whereas I was blind,
Now I see I mean we cannot deny this reality or you go ahead and argue about whether or not you think this is a messiah
Whether or not you think this is deity here, but let's just not ignore the reality that there's one thing
I'm very sure of is that before I was blind and now I see let's not be people that deny reality
I mean how you get around reality verse 26 then said they to him again. What did he to thee?
How opened he thine eyes? And my question is why does it matter?
Why does it matter?
What matters is that truth is standing in front of you. What matters is that Jesus healed this man and made him able to see
Why do you care about the how you should be more concerned with is this the Son of God?
Because he just turned someone who was blind into someone that could see. I mean that'd be a pretty amazing thing to see right?
Verse 27 he answered them. I have told you already
And you did not hear.
Wherefore would you hear it again?
Will ye also be his disciples?
And it's like, that's just how I feel
with reality denying people.
It's just like, look, I've already told you,
will you hear it again?
If you're not gonna accept reality,
then there's nothing you could do for that person.
You know, a heretic after the first
and second admonition rejects.
You know what's reality, the word of God?
When you go out soul-winning and you show someone the word of God and they deny it, you admonish them,
you admonish them again, and you leave.
After the first and second admonition, leave. I am not interested in wasting my time
debating people about reality.
If you just don't want to accept reality, then I'm just gonna think you're an idiot and I'm gonna move on with my day.
Right? This guy's frustrated and I would be too.
Verse 28, then they reviled him.
By the way, this is what stupid people like to do.
When they're the ones denying reality,
they're gonna revile you for actually being smart,
for actually being intelligent.
Then they reviled him and said,
thou art his disciple, but we are Moses' disciple.
We know that God spake unto Moses.
As for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.
Yet you're right, you don't know.
And your problem is, is that you don't understand the situation.
You don't realize the facts here.
You're not accepting reality, and that's your problem.
Verse 30, the man answered and said unto them,
Why herein is a marvelous thing that you know not from whence he is.
and yet he has opened my eyes.
Why are you concerned about where this guy's from
or how he opened my eyes?
Shouldn't it be a little more pertinent
to our conversation here,
the fact that he opened my eyes?
You know, people want to argue about who Jesus Christ was and the Jews today blaspheme him.
Obviously, they'll say he's not the Christ.
But I got a question for you.
Explain to me how he walked on water.
Explain to me how he fed the 5,000.
Explain to me how he rose people from the dead.
Explain to me how he died, was buried, and rose again from the dead.
But we don't like him.
Well, that's stupid.
That doesn't matter.
Shut up.
Why what do you what do you care about where he was from? Why don't you actually ask yourself how he's doing all this stuff?
That's actually what matters
Verse number 31 says now we know that God here is not there. I just love these idiots keep saying oh, we know we know
I mean we know now we know that God here is not sinners
But if any man be a whisper of God and do it his will him he heareth go to John chapter number 10 John chapter number 10
These people are complete fools
where they are just denying reality.
They are denying the evidence before them.
And you know what, there's all these people today
that say, all believe in God if he shows me a sign.
I'll believe in God if he comes down and shows me a vision in my bedroom.
I'll believe in God if he, you know, harkens to my every beck and call and does my demands
of him.
And I used to think, you know, when I was just really naive that man, maybe if God did
that, maybe that would change some people's minds.
And then I grow up and I mature and I realize that we live in a society full of complete
that will reject reality, that will reject just anything before their eyes,
and I realize, oh yeah, no this wouldn't help people.
Because even if Jesus literally heals a blind man in front of you,
you're still going to have idiots that don't believe him.
And you know what, those people get everything they deserve.
I feel not a single ounce bad for someone that just denies truth.
And you're going to burn in hell for all of eternity and I don't feel bad for you.
Imagine having the Lord Jesus Christ in front of your eyes, heal a blind man, and you still reject it.
What kind of a terrible person do you have to be?
And this is what you have to realize about people that deny truth is that they're wicked, evil people.
And, you know, years ago, Pastor Shelley preached that really iconic sermon that flat earthers are stupid or wicked or both.
But you know what? It's just for sure both.
It's for sure both.
You see that with Flat Earthers? You see it with these people here.
John chapter 10 verse 38 says this,
But if I do, though ye believe not me, notice what he says.
Believe the works.
that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him.
Go to Luke chapter number seven.
Luke chapter number seven.
He's saying, hey, even if you're not believing me,
here's what you should believe, the works.
Explain how Jesus is doing all these miracles.
Some people who hate the truth and hate God, you know what they did?
They blaspheme the Holy Spirit by saying,
oh, I'll tell you how he's doing these miracles.
He's doing it by the power of Satan.
You know that's super wicked, but look at Luke 7 verse 20
When the men were come unto him they said John Baptist have sent us unto thee saying
Art thou he that should come or look we for another
And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits and unto many that were blind
He gave sight
Then Jesus answering said unto them. I love Jesus's answer here notice what he says go your way and tell John
What is that?
That's objective reality.
Go tell them the things that you've actually seen, the objective reality that you've seen
and heard, specifically how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached, and blessed is
he whosoever should not be offended in me.
Oh, okay.
You know, if you're having a time of doubt, John, and of course John's a great man, the
greatest man born among women.
I'm not down on John, but even John is having a moment of a lapse of faith,
meaning we also could have a lapse of faith.
But I love how Jesus, you know, wants to cure this issue.
Hey, why don't you just look at the objective facts of my ministry, John?
You got the blind seeing, the lame walking, lepers being cleansed, the deaf hearing,
dead or raised, the poor to the poor, the gospel is preached.
I don't know, John, you tell me, what do you think?
What does this sound like? Does it sound legit to you?
You want to know why people believe Jesus is a Christ?
Because He's doing all this stuff.
And when they see Him, when they see Him fulfilling scripture,
they're like, oh man, we found the messiahs.
Man, we found the guy that Moses and all the prophets were writing about
because he's just fulfilling everything.
The proof is in the pudding.
Do not, you know, reject objective reality.
And it's like, how do we know...
that Jesus is good. How do we know that Christianity is true? How do we know that Jesus is God?
Well, I don't know. Maybe because every single word of this Bible has extreme power. Maybe because
every single sermon that Jesus preached, we read it in awe of its majesty and beauty and power.
And we say, never man spake like this man. Maybe because Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves and
Prove for you maybe because Jesus rose again from the dead, but how do we know what the
real religion is?
Maybe because Jesus healed the blind, maybe because he healed the sick, maybe because
the Lord walked on water, maybe because his friend Lazarus died and he rose him from the
dead.
I mean, how much evidence do you have to reject?
To reject Christianity.
This is why hell is a just place, because God's given us plenty of reasons to believe
Plenty of reasons to put our faith in him.
And you know, we could apply this also to ministers of God today and of works of God today.
And you know, many people will hate Anchor Baptist Church
and people will attack us and reprobates will attack us.
And even backslidden Christians will attack us.
It's like, how do we know that Anchor Baptist Church is a good church?
I don't know. Maybe because we've gotten 2,108 people saved this year?
Maybe because there's objective reality that actually exists and before you want to hate on a church and attack a work
That's being done, you know, maybe ought to just consider the objective reality that there's a good work for God being done here
Oh, I don't know if... I don't know, you know, I don't know if Pastor Shelley is a man of low character.
I don't know, is he the guy that took over a failing church with a pastor that had just committed adultery
and gambling and was blowing church money and Pastor Shelley took that on and was pastoring four churches?
Four churches and he's driving down every Thursday, you know 400 miles away to Houston and sacrificing of his time
Money effort and energy. I don't know the pastor Shelley that ordained and trained
Evangelist Duncan or Bannock who's going out and getting tens of thousands of people saved
I don't know the pastor Shelley who's leading the church that's getting 2,000 plus salvations every single year for the last five plus years
I don't know the pastor Jonathan Shelly who's spending tens of thousands of dollars of God's money
to send soul winners across this world to preach the gospel to people.
Oh, I don't know if he's a man of high character or low character.
What kind of an idiot would say something so wrong about him?
It's wrong. It's evil. It needs to be repented of. It's a false accusation.
Pastor Shelly is not a man of low character.
If Pastor Shelly is a man of low character, then I would love to be counted a bunch of people that are low character people.
It's ridiculous.
Well, how do we know that Pastor Shelly is a good person?
I don't know. Why don't you look at the fruit of his ministry?
And look.
Not every single person who is ex new life be would I say that they're all bad low character people
I think there's great people you know involved in that still and I would look at them and say hey
You're getting people saved to praise God
I wouldn't call you a person of low character
But why why go after Pastor Shelley when the man clearly is a man of high character?
It's people just denying reality because of their confirmation bias
You want to dislike us. You've been told to dislike us. You've been manipulated by lying women to dislike us.
And so now you're just going to view things through confirmation bias, and it's wrong. Luke chapter number,
or I'm sorry, let's go to
Proverbs 15, Proverbs chapter number 15.
Proverbs 17 for says this a wicked doer giveth heed to false lips and a liar
giveth ear to a naughty tongue. This is why I get so angry about reality denial
whether it's about something that's spiritual or carnal is because it's a
wicked person that gives heed to false lips. It is revealing something about
your heart when you're the type of person where you just keep believing lies
and people who always believe lies
Whenever there's a controversy and they're just always on the wrong side,
they always have bad takes, they always have bad discernments.
Let me just tell you something about that person.
They're wicked.
They have a bad heart.
I'm not saying they're unsafe, but I'm saying there's a character issue within them.
There's a morality issue within them because why do you like lies?
Don't know about you. I don't like lies. I want to stand with the truth
And of course I'm a human being and I could have flawed judgment
I could fail in my judgment, but you know when someone is just always believing lies. There's a big problem there
There's a big problem there
Proverbs 14 15 the Bible says the simple believe it every word
But the prudent man looketh well to his going so we don't want to be the type of person
Of course, we want to be people that believe objective reality,
but we also don't want to be the type of people that believe stuff without evidence.
We want to base stuff off of objective reality.
When a claim is made, we want to base that off of evidence.
Go to Deuteronomy 19.
What's an example?
How about when it comes to controversy, drama, accusations?
The simple person hears something and immediately believes it.
The simple person wants the situation to be a certain way
and they will interpret or select information
to fit that narrative within their confirmation bias.
And you know what they'll do?
They'll also ignore important information
that would go against the way they want things to turn out.
You're turning to Deuteronomy 19.
First, Timothy 5, 19 says,
against an elder, receive not an accusation.
but before two or three witnesses.
So let's talk about, you know,
when a pastor has some accusations against him,
we are not supposed to even receive an accusation
against an elder unless there's all,
unless there is two or three witnesses.
So one person comes up to you and says,
hey, you know, I saw a pastor so-and-so doing this.
Are you the only witness?
You immediately just let it go.
completely forget about it. Now look, if there are multiple witnesses, that does
not necessarily mean that that is all of a sudden fact and established, but it
does mean that there should be some diligent inquisition done, that you
should look into the facts. And Deuteronomy 19 verse 15 describes this.
It says one witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sinneth
at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses
Shall the matter be established if a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him
That which is wrong then both the men between whom the controversy is
Shall stand before the Lord before the priests and the judges which shall be in those days
and the judges shall make diligent inquisition.
And behold, if the witness be a false witness
and hath testified falsely against his brother,
then shall ye do unto him,
as he hath thought to have done unto his brother,
so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
And those which remain shall hear and fear
and shall henceforth commit no more
any such evil among you."
So when someone is shown to be a false witness,
Whatever they were falsely accusing the other person of when we find out that they were lying
You know the criminal punishment system here would be that they receive that same punishment that the other person would have gotten
So that other people hear and fear and don't go around being liars themselves
And you know what this means is that when people are found out to be liars they need to be punished
Otherwise you're gonna end up living in a hellhole where everyone's just railing and gossiping and bringing false accusations against each other
So in the New Testament church first Corinthians 5 we've got railing which I believe railing means bringing a false
accusation against someone and if someone is doing this and they're trying to like get other people in trouble
That person needs to get in trouble if they were found to be lying
What's the punishment first Corinthians 5? They need to be kicked out of church
And if they're not kicked out of church a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump and it's going to harm you
And you know you had a year ago
Like, this crazy drama in the new IFB, you know, I come here and immediately it's just
like the biggest fight ever that's happened in the new IFB.
And basically, there's these multiple witnesses coming against Pastor Anderson and accusing
him of all these heinous things.
And you know, you've already seen the videos, you already know what it is, you know, accusing
him of hitting his wife, accusing him of abusing his children.
But here's the thing, just because there's multiple witnesses does not mean that's necessarily true,
you have to do some diligent inquisition.
You know, when situations like this happen,
people in the Pew don't often realize that leadership sometimes has more information about things
that they can't right away share.
So here's something I knew at the time that I could not share because at this time there was only one witness that came to be
corroborated this since then it's been corroborated by both and I could share that now
But what's what's crazy is that when the youth conference happened at Verity Baptist Church in
2024 miss Sherry Thompson, who's pastor Aaron Thompson's wife and miss Joanne Jimenez
Pastor men is his wife both heard John Anderson one of the kids bringing accusations against Pastor Anderson
told those ladies to their face that Pastor Anderson did not hit his wife and that his brother Isaac was lying in
these interviews
So here's the thing. What does that mean? It means first of all that Isaac's testimony would be thrown out
Now John later went made videos
Changing what he said to those two ladies. So now he's either lying here or he's lying there. His testimony is also thrown out
Pastor Anderson's haters are talking about,
oh, you know, Solomon is posting this inappropriate picture.
I'm not gonna talk about what it is,
but guess what?
Solomon's testimony is already thrown out too
by his behavior.
So what are you left with?
You're left with Miriam,
who all of Pastor Anderson's kids are saying are liars.
You know what?
A wicked doer give a heed to false lips.
and that you want to know why people just were ready to turn on Pastor Anderson
and why people were quitting churches and ending friendships and sowing strife
is because of a confirmation bias.
They wanted to dislike Pastor Anderson.
They wanted the accusations to be true, and it doesn't matter what reality was.
They didn't care. They weren't interested in the diligent Inquisition.
They just went with their confirmation bias.
And you know, I have to say this because I've been attacked recently.
Pastor Jimenez is saying like, oh, I never called him, I never texted him.
I texted him in September of 2024 saying, hey, Mrs. Sherry Thompson told me that Isaac
said to you and Ms. Joanne Jimenez, or I'm sorry, to Ms. Thompson and Joanne Jimenez,
those things, can you confirm this?
And he just never responded.
Now, why did he not respond?
Why would he not want to give a fellow preacher who were all in the midst of this gigantic
battle a really key pertinent piece of evidence that would have helped Pastor Anderson?
I don't know.
I'm not going to guess as to why, but all I know is that it didn't happen.
And he's saying like, how could I possibly have defended Pastor Anderson?
I can't rack my brain of how I could have defended Pastor Anderson.
Well, that would have been some good information to have defended Pastor Anderson.
And you know, there's all these people,
there's all these people mouthing off
and attacking me and attacking Pastor Shelley,
you're Kool-Aid drinkers, you're standing with abusers.
When you didn't know what the heck was going on, and I did.
And so maybe sometimes you just need to be patient
and wait for that diligent inquisition
because Pastor Jimenez confirmed in a video he recently made
saying that John said all those things to his wife.
So how do we know that it was finally corroborated?
It wasn't because he answered my texts,
it was because he finally said that in a video.
So look sorry to say all this stuff, but all I'm saying is that confirmation bias in
Controversy can stop people from learning the truth and it's willing people are willingly stopping themselves from hearing the truth
You know what it's wrong go to
John chapter number nine John chapter number nine. What's another way that we could?
Fight this confirmation bias number three avoid
intellectual
isolationism
Avoid intellectual isolationism.
Avoid just putting yourself on an island where your ideas can't be challenged,
where people can't bounce things off you, where your ideas are not going to be challenged, if you will.
Look at John chapter 9 verse 32 and says,
Since the world began, was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind?
If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
And they answered him and said unto him,
thou wasst altogether born in sins,
and dost thou teach us?
Notice, and they cast him out."
See, when they're getting the answer,
they didn't want to hear.
They didn't stop to consider, is this true?
Have we been wrong about this?
Maybe we should reevaluate our ideas
based on the information that we have.
You know what they just do?
Oh, we'll just cast him out.
Get away from me.
We're not friends anymore.
We don't want to hear what you have to say.
And look, this could be applied in so many different ways.
This could be applied in business when someone's really stubborn.
They don't want to change.
Someone brings a new idea.
Ah, fire that guy. Get him out of here, right?
We show up soul-winning.
You know, they're like, oh, no, we already know.
We're good. We already know. Get this guy out of here.
And it could happen amongst friends, too.
It could happen amongst Christians.
We need to make sure that we don't have a culture
where our ideas cannot be challenged with the word of God.
where our ideas cannot be challenged with evidence and objective reality.
And don't be the type of person where someone pushes back
or someone offers some new evidence or something that the Bible says
and you just cast them out of your life.
And you're just, oh, get away from me, I'm not going to be friends with you.
No, you want to be friends with people like that.
You need to test your ideas.
Go back, stay there in John 9, I'll read for you.
Titus 1-9, the Bible says, holding fast the faithful word
as he have been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine
both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, whose subvert whole houses, teaching things, which they ought not for filthy luker's sake."
So we need to hold fast the faithful word so that we can convince the gainsayers.
So when we're thinking about a doctrine or a sermon, we should be thinking about,
hey, how could people, you know, tear this apart?
We want to steal man or arguments, making sure we're not just putting ourselves in this
intellectual isolation where we can't consider other ideas.
Go to, or you're already there in John 9, number 4, seek Godly counsel.
This will help you with confirmation bias.
Seek Godly counsel.
Verse 35 says, Jesus heard that they had cast Him out and when He had found Him, He said
unto Him, Does Thou believe on the Son of God?
He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?
And Jesus said unto Him, Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.
and he worshiped him.
You know, the Pharisees cast this guy out,
but he ended up getting himself around some good counsel.
I mean, you're gonna,
you have a good counselor in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's like, man, you know,
have you believed in the Son of God?
He's like, man, who is he, Lord?
That I might believe on him.
He's like, that has both seen him
and it is he that talketh with thee.
You know, that's some good counsel.
And how can we apply that to ourselves?
What's the best counsel we could get in our lives?
Again, the Word of God.
Hey, this is a Baptist church.
We like to exalt the Word of God
because this is the best counselor that you could get.
And what's the best way to test your ideas?
What's the best way to make sure you're not going off the deep end?
Is to go to Jesus for counsel.
And of course, beyond that,
there's many other counsels we could have as well.
Stay in John 9, I'm going to read some Proverbs for you.
Proverbs 1-5 says a wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise councils.
So you have an idea about something, you have some sort of belief, you go to the word of God,
it's also good to go to other wise counsels, other men or even women in your life that can counsel you.
Proverbs 24-6 says, For by wise counsel shalt thou make thy war, and in multitude of counselors there is safety.
Proverbs 13-20, He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.
but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
So important to combat confirmation bias is to get good counsel.
Lastly this evening, number five, stay humble.
Stay humble. This is a absolute key if you're going to avoid confirmation bias
is you have to have the humility to realize that you could be wrong about things.
You have to have the humility to realize that you could interpret data wrong,
that you could interpret Bible verses wrong.
You could even have a verse sometimes, but you could be interpreting it wrong.
You need to have the humility to be corrected, to be challenged.
Stay humble. Verse 39, the Bible says in Jesus said,
that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind.
Spiritually, the person who doesn't see
It says let me read that one time that they which sorry that they which see not
Might see someone who's humble. They're willing to admit. Hey, I don't know all the answers
I don't have all of the answers for the Bible. Hey, are you 100% sure if you were to die today that you go to heaven?
The person that says no is a humble person
Or the person who maybe they think, yes, but you correct them and they're saying, okay, I want to know.
They don't see, but Jesus came so that those type of people could have sight.
That they could actually see the Word of God and truly see.
And notice, and that they which see might be made blind.
Right the Jews are super prideful, and they think they already see they're like I mean come on. We know he's a sinner
We know he's wrong about the Sabbath. We know this man's not from God
Romans talks about how the Jew he trusts that he himself is a teacher of the Gentiles and he you know is an instructor of the
Foolish and of babes right they have this pride that they already see but the truth is is that they're blind
They're already blind verse 40 and some of the Pharisees
which were with him heard these words
and said unto him,
Are we blind also?
They're kind of picking up what Jesus is saying here.
Verse 41, Jesus said unto them,
If ye were blind,
ye should have no sin.
But now ye say,
We see.
Therefore, your sin remaineth.
So look if someone is humble and they realize I don't know about salvation. I don't know the doctrine of God
I don't know all these biblical teachings
Well, that person can be made to see very easily by just showing them the light of God's word
And when we go out and go soul-winning and we talk to someone who thinks that salvation is by being a good person,
that it's by going to church, and we show that person from the Bible that it's only by faith in Jesus Christ,
that once you're saved, you're always saved, and we bring them to that decision to trust in Christ,
you know what we've done? We've just given sight to the blind.
Just like Jesus performed this literal miracle where he actually someone was physically blind and he made them see
We're doing that spiritually every time we go out soul-winning
But though here's the thing but now you say we see therefore your sin remaineth if people want to act like they've already got it
All figured out. Oh, I know. Oh, yeah, I know it's by works. Oh, I know it's by repenting of your sins
Oh, of course, I know you could lose your salvation. I mean come on. We all know right that person sin remaineth
And so, what's the lesson of all this?
Realize that confirmation bias can be deadly.
It could be deadly, especially for the unsaved.
Well, if they stay in that state of being unsaved,
they don't allow the evidence of God's word
being presented to them to actually change their mind,
then they will go to hell.
But just like the unsafe can have confirmation bias realize that every single person in this room including myself can as well
And so we need to employ these tactics in order to get through life believing the right things
We have to desire truth. We have to go to the right sources. We have to go to counsel
We have to be humble and allow ourselves to be challenged and not be these foolish
Simple people that just want to hang on to your own ideas. You know man today is prideful
and they just want to hold on to their ideas, their philosophies,
they're going to hang their doctrinal hats on psychology books that they read,
things they heard in Bible college. We need a base that we believe off of the Bible.
When we do that, that's how you actually know that we're standing on truth. Let's pray. Lord. Thank you so much for your word
And I just pray that no one in here would fall trap to this confirmation bias that we all could fall trap to
I pray that we would just search the scriptures daily whether those things are so that we'd be around people that could challenge our
Ideas that we would be lovers of truth and Jesus name you pray. Amen
As we close out the service this evening, if you would grab your hymnal, turn to hymn number 154.
154, 154.
Blessed be the tie that binds.
154 there on the 1st.
Let's meet the time.