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Luke chapter 16 verse 15 is where I'd like to start. It says in Luke 16, 15, and he said unto them, ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. Now, the thing that I want to point out about that verse is really the latter part where he says that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. You see, God has a different standard for what is right and wrong than we do as human beings. God's standard of what is moral and just and righteous is much different than the world's standard or the standard of our society around us. Proverbs 30, 12 says this, you don't have to turn there, there is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness. Did you hear that? They're pure in their own eyes, but according to God, they're not washed from their filthiness. And what I want to preach about tonight, turn to Isaiah five. We'll get back to Genesis 13 with Isaiah five. I want to preach about becoming desensitized to sin. Many today, even God's people are totally desensitized to sin. It no longer shocks them. They no longer consider it abomination or wicked or vile, but they've become used to it over time because it's lifted up around us, because it's so highly esteemed in the world that we live in. Many have become desensitized. I'm going to give you three ways that we become desensitized to sin, but look at Isaiah five, verse 20. The Bible says, woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink, which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their roots shall be as rottenness and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them and hath smitten them, and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Go back to Genesis 13, where we started. You see, God is angry today, the Bible says, and he's angry at his own people because of the fact that there are so many who call good evil and call evil good. There are so many that are wise in their own eyes, they're pure in their own eyes, but yet they're not lost in their filthiness. People today have become desensitized to sin, where they justify it and they don't think it's as bad as God sees it. The first way that we become desensitized to sin is the way that Locke became desensitized to sin, and that is through constantly filling our eyes with sin, constantly looking at sin, is going to desensitize us to sin. That's what happened in Locke's life. Look at verse number nine of Genesis 13. It says, this is Abraham speaking a lot. It's not the whole land before thee. Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Locke lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zohar. Then Locke chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Locke journeyed east, and they separated themselves, the one from the other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Locke dwelled in the cities of the plain, and look at these last words, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. So here we see Locke in the beginning of his downward spiral. That's gonna lead him into horrible things in the next few chapters. But here, just at the beginning, there arises a strike between Abram and Locke. They end up partying their separate ways, and Locke, because of greed for just the place that's gonna benefit him the most financially, the most well-watered place, the place that has the best business opportunity for him to grow his business, he overlooks the fact that the men of Sodom are wicked sinners before the Lord exceedingly, and he decides he's gonna go there anyway, and that's where he wants to raise his family and live his life. And he pitched his tent toward Sodom. Not only did he begin to live in that well-watered plain, but he actually pointed the door of his tent toward Sodom. God's very careful to tell us that. That means every day, when he got up in the morning and walked out the door of the tent, what's the first thing he's gonna see? Sodom. You know, he gets up in the morning, comes out of the tent, there's Sodom. And day after day after day after day, he looked at Sodom. He looked at it. It was constantly in his mind. He kept seeing it, he kept seeing it. And probably at first, the thought of living in Sodom was revolting to him. He said, you know, I don't wanna live in Sodom. Bunch of weirdos, bunch of queers and freaks and that. You know, I don't wanna go there. But just over time, he began to be desensitized to that. Now the next thing you see, you go to chapter 14. So in chapter 13, he just had his tent pitched toward Sodom. And he's living in the general area. He's not living in Sodom, he's just living in the plain. He's raising his cattle and so forth. But he has his tent pitched toward San Francisco. And I'm sorry, Sodom. It's easy to get mixed up. But anyway, it says in Genesis 14, 12, and they took Lot, Abram's brother, who dwelled where? In Sodom. So you see in the next chapter, he's living in Sodom. It says he dwelled in Sodom and his goods had departed. Now go to chapter 19, Genesis 19, verse one. The Bible says, and there came two angels to Sodom even. And Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. And Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. So in chapter 13, he's just kind of near Sodom and he's just got his tent pitched toward Sodom. By chapter 14, he's living in Sodom. And then by chapter 19, he sits in the gate at Sodom, which was a preferred position. It was a position of respect, it's a position of authority. It's somebody who's well known in town that has that position of sitting in the gate. You can see the downward spiral here of a man who became desensitized to the filthy and wicked sin of Sodom. I'll prove it to you. Go to 2 Peter, chapter two. 2 Peter, chapter number two, because in the New Testament, God explains to us a little more about the story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah, sheds a little more light on it. Look at 2 Peter, chapter number two, verse six, from the very end of your New Testament, it's the book of 2 Peter. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example under those that after should live ungodly, and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. So let me ask you this, did it bother him? Oh yeah, it vexed him. He was vexed by the filthy conversation of the wicked. It says in verse eight, for that righteous man, what righteous man? Lot. For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds, but he was just used to it. I mean, he was able to overcome that and still live there. Sure, it bothered him, but over time from constantly looking at it, he became desensitized to it, to the point where he could live around it every day, and sure, it bothered him, the most grotesque aspects of it bothered him, but he was able to fit in at all because of being desensitized to that wicked sin. Look at Psalm 101. Psalm 101, right in the middle of the Bible, just let your Bible fall open to the book of Psalms. Right in the dead center of the Bible, find chapter 101, Psalm 101. While you're turning, I'll read you another scripture. Jude, verse seven. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh. By the way, that's where we derive the word queer. Strange flesh, that's what queer means, strange. And God called homosexuality strange flesh. There's nothing normal about it. It's strange, it's against nature. And so he said, going after strange flesh are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. Look at Psalm 101. We're talking about being desensitized to sin and we're looking at it constantly. Verse one. I will sing of mercy and judgment unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. I dislike. No, he said, I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not plead to me. A thrower heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person who shall privily slander this neighbor. Him will I cut off. Him that at the high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not carry in my sight. I will early destroy all the wicked of the land that I may cut off all the wicked doers from the city of the Lord. Go to Romans 1, Romans chapter 1 in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. You see, David here is warning us about setting wicked things before our eyes. And he said, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not plead to me. What does it mean to plead to you? It means it sticks with you. That's what it means to plead. Like when God said that the man should leave his father and mother and plead unto his wife and they too should be one flesh. Another place he said he joined unto his wife. Cleaving is something that sticks to you, something that's joined to you. And he says here that when you feast your eyes on the wickedness that the world has to offer, he said it will cleave to you. It's gonna stick with you. That image is gonna stick with you. That philosophy is gonna stick with you. You can't pitch your tent toward Sodom. Get up every morning, walk out the door of the tent, and look at it every day and it's not gonna affect you. And especially when you're living in Sodom and you see it again and again and again and again, you're gonna get used to it. And you're gonna become desensitized to it. It's not gonna seem that bad to you. That's why when I do the kind of preaching I'm doing right now, so many people look at me like I have two heads or something. Why? Because they're so desensitized to the sin that I'm preaching about right now and the other sins that I preach about, that to them they think I'm extreme. Those are extreme. If you accept this kind of garbage, it's been crammed down my throat today. And today I'm considered the mad man. Today I should be put in the straight jacket, whereas anyone who believed different than me on this subject would've been put in a straight jacket 50 or 60 years ago. Who would've thought it was normal, the kind of perversity and filth that is promoted today and highly esteemed among men in the day we live in. Why? Because we've been desensitized to it. Why? Because it didn't happen overnight. Because slowly, incrementally, we've been exposed to more sin, more sin, more sin. And we looked at it, and we looked at it, and we looked at it. First we just dwelled in the plain, pitched toward Sodom, then we're in Sodom, then we're in the gate of Sodom, and we get used to it, and we get used to it. I'm not used to it, my friend. And you ought not be either. We ought not be desensitized to sin. You get desensitized to sin when you're constantly looking at it over and over. That's why David said, also I have no one can think before my eyes. He said, I don't want it to cleave to me. I don't want it to become a part of me. And the things that go into our eyes and our ears become a part of who we are. Peter said, we cannot help but speak the things which we've seen and heard. He said, the things that we see and hear will go into the heart, and eventually they will come out of the mouth, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth's speaking. Look at Romans chapter one. The Bible says in Romans 1.24, wherefore, because we're on the subject of Sodom, because we're using live as our example, it says, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever, amen. And by the way, that's the day we're living in, the worship of the creation, the worship of earth, the worship of nature and animals and plants more than the creator, they worship the creation. That's the day we're living in. Anybody can see around. You know, in this whole green movement, this religion of environmentalism, that's really just a worship of mother earth and mother nature, and oh, we gotta have sustainability. Let me tell you something. This earth is not sustainable. It'll never be sustainable, because God did not design this earth to be here forever. He said the earth shall wax old as a garment. It's gonna pass away. It's gonna die. It's not gonna be here forever, but he that doeth the will of the Lord shall abide forever, and this world's not gonna be here forever. So what do we care more about? What do we love more, the man? The man with the never-dying soul, the born-again child of God, or do we love this piece of earth, this soil, this plant life that is temporal, that's all gonna be burned up one day? This earth's not gonna be here forever. Those who preach sustainability are the worshipers of the creature who don't care what the creator says, and they think that this world's gonna be here for millions of years, and it's just not gonna happen. And so no, we don't have to keep it sustainable for the next million years because it's not gonna be here forever. In fact, we're living in the last days. Read your Bible. But he said here that works to conserve the creature, verse 26, for this cause, God gave them a bunch of vile affections. Vile means disgusting. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature, and likewise also the man, leaving the natural use of the woman, leaving what's normal, he's saying, burned in their lust one toward another, man with many, working that which is unseemly and receiving themselves that recompense of their error which was not me, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, there's your gay pride, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do it. Not only do the same, but watch them on TV. Have pleasure in them, have posters of them on a wall, listen to their music, listen to their TV shows, listen to them on the radio, watch them on the movies, watch them on TV, and become desensitized to their filthy, vile, I'm using all Bible words, filthy, vile, strange, abominable actions, and we get desensitized to it. Why, because we just watch it all day long. Romans one seems extreme to the watered down, phony Christians of today who are just totally absorbed in this world, and have become desensitized. I mean, listen to me now. I hate to preach on this subject, because I hate going into even, I hate to even talk about something so disgusting, but it's just crammed down our throat every week anyway. It's not like anybody doesn't know about it. It's not like you can go more than a day or two without being exposed to it. So it's like, you might as well just get up and preach and holler, but I'd rather not even bring it up. I'd rather not even think about it. But let me tell you something. It is disgusting, it is vile, it is sickening, the sodomy that's described in the Bible in Romans chapter one, it is revolting to the normal mind, and yet today, it's told us that it's normal. It's revolting, and if you can't see that, you're just proving my point right now. If you can't see how bad this is. I mean, those in the generation before us would have never even dreamed of such a thing. It was unheard of in their time. And yet today, we take it for granted, and I dread to think what this country's gonna be like. When the children today that are being indoctrinated in the public fool system graduate and become adults and become the ones running our country, I dread to think, because they are brainwashed and taught from cradle on, I mean, we're talking from the cartoons that they watch as a little kid, to the pre-K and the kindergarten and the first grade, they're already being indoctrinated in this filth, and they can't even think a straight thought, and they're gonna think that I'm insane one day. They already do, because they become desensitized to sin. You say, I'm above that. Lot was a saved man, and yet he became desensitized. Was he a sodomite? Of course not. Did he partake in their filth? No, but did you notice how he got used to it to the point where he could just live right there? And that's the danger, my friend, that you have the chance to fall into, of becoming desensitized to it, and Lot was totally ineffective for God. I mean, Abraham was a great creature of righteousness. Abraham had a great influence on all the people around him. Abraham left a great legacy behind to his children and raised his children with the truth, and God's word, and so forth. Look at Lot. He didn't get anybody saved. You know, and we think, oh yeah, we gotta fit in with the world in order to reach them. Well, Lot fit in with them. I mean, he was right there in the gate of Sodom. And yet, did he get any of them saved? He got zero saved. None. You say, well, he just didn't try. There was a point where he did try. I mean, the Bible records him trying to at least warn his daughter's husbands, and trying to warn the people around him, saying God's judgment is coming, and they thought he was a joke. They thought he was, because he was a joke. He was a joke of a Christian, and that's why nobody listened to him, and he didn't get anybody saved. You know, even if his sons-in-law were normal people, and they weren't the weirdos of Sodom, we don't know if they were in that group or not of weirdos at all, but we know that they didn't get saved. They didn't care, they didn't listen to him. Nobody did. Nobody took him seriously. And his wife left her heart in San Francisco, and as she was running out of Sodom in the destruction, she looked back and became a pillar of salt, because she just couldn't let go of it. She just couldn't let it go, okay? And then his two daughters grew up and became wicked, and committed other abominable sin. That's another sermon of itself. His whole life went down the toilet, and you never see any good about him after that. I mean, he ruined his life. And so don't become desensitized to sin. Number two, look at Leviticus chapter 10. Let me show you the second way that people can become desensitized to sin. The first way is by constantly having it before them. You know, and it's not just TV. I mean, TV's probably the biggest example, though, isn't it? TV, movies, because that's where it's just right outside your tent door every morning. You know, you wake up, you turn it on, there it is. You know, you're watching movies and sitcoms and TV, and you say, well, I don't watch these queer shows. I don't watch, you know, Will and Grace, but what's the queer show that's, is there like a queer show that's out right now? Which one's not queer? That'd be a shorter list. But, you know, I don't know. And several years ago, they had, you know, Will and Grace, or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, or whatever. Oh, thank you. People keep telling me, people keep telling me, Preach Against Modern Family, you know, thanks. This show, Modern Family, it's a couple of homos raising kids. It's called Modern Family. It's not Modern Family. It's reprobate family. It's filthy family. It's abomination family. But that's, oh, modern. It's modern. What does that make me? Old-fashioned? Well, then I'm old-fashioned. Amen. What does that make me? Obsolete, not with the times? Amen, that's where I am. I'd rather be that than so-called modern. If that's what the mode or fashion is, if that's what modern is today, then they can have it. You're out of style, Pastor Anderson. You know what? Thank you. Thank you for telling me I'm out of style. I don't want to be in style. Sick of it. But look at Leviticus chapter 10. Here's the second way to be. Oh yeah, I want to finish that point real quick. It's not just TV and movies, although that's the biggest thing. It could be magazines, obviously. But not only that, you know, we shouldn't just, and I'm not saying it's wrong to go to the mall. It's not as if it's a legitimate thing that you need to purchase at the mall or take care of at the mall. I work in a lot of malls when I'm doing fire alarm inspections. But you know, don't go to the mall and just browse their garbage. Browse, because there's a lot of really bad stuff at the mall, my friend. There's a lot of filthy stuff and I wouldn't just go there and browse. I wouldn't just send my kids there just to browse and just, okay, come back. You know, just look around. There's so much weird stuff there. It seems like it's just, I don't know. The mall I just went to was in Southern California. I don't know if that made it worse or not. But I just did some work in a mall in Southern California and it just seemed like every other person that walked by me was a faggot. Whoa, whoa, whoops, I can't believe I let that slip out. You know, it just seemed like everywhere I went, it's just they're everywhere. You know, and you're just constantly seeing them. It just gets you used to it. It just desensitizes, not me. I just, you know, load of things under my breath. But anyways, the point is, you know, you don't want to just constantly just peruse all this garbage that's at the mall. I mean, they have all kinds of, what's it called? Like a, not like an adult store, but basically, you know. Yeah, lingerie. These lingerie stores, they just put just this horrible porno out for everybody to see it. And then they have this other like gothic store. I don't know what it's called. But it's just really dark and black and it's like pulsating and it just looks like Satan's den or something. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Yeah, it's on topic. Hot topic, thank you. It's just like pulsating all this really demented music and it's all like, it's like a self-mutilation superstore or something. You know, it's just all this disgusting stuff. And you know, probably the first time most people saw that, I guarantee you that parents that are in their 40s, parents that are in their 30s, 40s, 50s, they probably walk by and they're like, ugh! You know, like what is this? But then their little teenage girl, you know, oh, come on mom, you know. And today, literally parents have become desensitized to it. And they'll stand there while their warped teenager shops at hot topic. You know, while their warped teenager gets all their gothic gear or whatever. You know, this whole, I mean, there's so much to preach tonight, you know, on this stuff. I mean, I gotta try to focus my sermon a little bit here. But just the society that we've become desensitized to so many things. I mean, just this whole vampire thing that's just the craze. This undead, demented, sick, vampire pedophiles from hell and they're put on a poster as like a hero. And you know, people, I tried to explain this to them. I was trying to preach this to somebody like about the Twilight and the, you know, this modern movement. How bad is it? Here's what they said to me. They said, oh, come on. They said, that's been around forever. They said, you know, vampires, you know, Bela Lugosi and whatever. Yeah, except back then, and I'm not justifying the Hollywood industry of the 1950s, but back then the vampires were the bad guys. Okay, that's the colossal difference. The colossal difference is that back then the vampires were evil villains that you were afraid of. They ended up with an oak stake through the heart and the hero was the human being that was defeating vampires. You know, I guess that was the plot. I don't remember. It's been a while. But it seems like it was some strapping guy that, you know, defeated the vampire and saved everybody. It wasn't glorifying the vampire. You weren't looking at the vampire, oh, he's so cute. You wanted him dead. When he died, you were rejoicing at the end of the film. And you see, but, but, but, but, but, that's what gets you used to it. And it's been a slow progression, and now they've got everything completely perverse, completely backwards, where now we glorify the undead. And it seems normal, and people probably think I'm crazy. I go, oh man, this guy's crazy. He's really out to lunch, you know, just saying that this vampire thing is bad. But yet it is really bad, and you're just the one who's become desensitized to it, to the sorcery, the witchcraft, the wizardry. It's really extremely wicked stuff, but we're just used to it, that's all. But I gotta get on with the second. I mean, I could preach all night on that first point, okay, but I wanna get on the second point. Number two, you can become desensitized to sin through alcohol. Now, the first way you become desensitized to sin is just constantly having it in front of your eyes, all the time. And that's why you don't, you just say, well, what am I supposed to put in front of my eyes? This book, put this book in front of your eyes and give some clarity in your life. But go to Leviticus 10, verse nine, it says this, do not drink wine. Now, you say, Pastor, I don't think that the Bible tells us not to drink. You know, show me a clear passage. Okay, well, I don't really have a clear passage tonight, but I do have this really vague passage, so I'm showing you right now. It's a little bit, I know it's a little vague, but try to read between the lines. Maybe if we go back to the Hebrew, we can figure that, you know, do not drink wine, nor strong drink. Thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die. He said, if you drink wine and go to church, he's like, I'll kill you. This is in the Old Testament when, you know, God was a little bit more swift in his judgment on sin with the children of Israel. He said, do not drink wine, nor strong drink. Thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die, it shall be a statute for that time period. He said, it shall be a statute forever throughout your generation. Here's why. He said that ye may put difference between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean. Look at Proverbs 23. He said the purpose of you not drinking when you go into the congregation of the Lord, he said, purpose number one, so that I don't kill you. Purpose number two, because if you're drinking, you will not be able to discern between the clean and the unclean. You will not be able to discern between what's right and what's wrong. Even today, in a defensive driving course, they'll teach you, you say, how do you know? Don't ask. That's it. But anyway, when you're in defensive driving or traffic survival school, in fact, I can tell you for sure several online courses and courses in person. I can give you a very long list that I know personally teach this, okay? You know, I got it all from a friend. But anyway, the point is, you know, this is what they'll tell you. When you drink, the first thing that goes is your judgment. They say even just one sip of alcohol. That's what they say. They say your judgment and your decision-making is impaired by your new, dumb things. Even when you don't feel drunk, you don't seem drunk, you just have the tiniest bit of alcohol in your system, the thing that begins to go first is your better judgment, your decision-making, to where you'll make stupid decisions. And this is what the Bible's teaching, that if you drink, you're going to not be able to tell the differences readily between clean and unclean, between right and wrong, between wicked and righteous. And so people will commit sin that they would not normally commit. When they're under the influence of alcohol, they will do things that they'll not normally do. People who are under the influence of alcohol will commit unsanitary actions that normally would be considered unsanitary to them and revolting to them, but when they're drinking, I talked to somebody who had drunk and they said this, they said, you know, when you're drinking, you'll drink after everybody. Because have you ever met somebody who just will never drink after somebody else, just they don't want the germs? And that's kind of how we grew up, to be honest. We grew up and we drank out of our own glass, we didn't share cups with anybody. And that's how we grew up, very much just, you know, you've eaten off that, you've drunk it, get it away from me, you know. But basically, people who have that mentality, where they don't want to drink after, when they're drunk, they'll drink after everybody, they'll eat after people, nothing bothers them. They'll go into a restroom and literally get on their hands and knees in the toilet. They would normally revolt, they would normally disgust them but they will put their face right there in order to vomit, as the Bible talks about many, just do a study on the word vomit and it's always alcohol that it's associated with. I mean, there's so many scriptures on that, I don't have time to turn there. But the lines of what is unclean and unsanitary are dulled and basically a person becomes desensitized to that which is disgusting. It would normally be revolting to them. They become so desensitized to it because of the effects of alcohol that it no longer bothers them that it's a filthy commode. It no longer bothers them that it's, I don't know, whatever disgusting action's going on around them. They're desensitized to alcohol. Look at Proverbs 23, 29. Who hath loath? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine, look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth its upright. Now, according to that, there is a beverage that we should not even look at. He says there that there is a type of wine, because other times the Bible uses wine to describe the juice that's in the grape, in Isaiah 65, for example. But he says there's a type of wine that we shouldn't even look at. And he said, at the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an egg. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of the mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, when I was not sick. They have beaten me, and I have felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seek you yet again. Turn to Ezra. Number one, you can desensitize to sin by constantly putting sin in front of your eyes, constantly looking at it, seeing it all day long, pitching your tent toward Sodom. Number two, you can become desensitized to sin through alcohol. It'll get you to commit sins that you would not normally commit. It'll get you to not be disgusted by things that would normally disgust you. But number three, we become desensitized to sin through a lack of hard preaching. And this is the big one right here. A lack of hard preaching will cause us to become desensitized to sin. Coming to church gives you a moment of clarity. When you hear someone get up and scream and yell and foam at the mouth at how bad sin is and read all these Bible verses, read all these chapters, read all these scriptures, it will help you get a little bit more sensitive to the sins around you. So many things that you take for granted and they don't really bother you, but then you hear it preached against in church and then it starts bothering you. Because now you have your conscience pricked and now you're more sensitive to that. And a lack of hard preaching causes people to become desensitized to sin. Look what it says in Ezra chapter nine, verse six. We're just gonna read a few verses here for sake of time. And said, oh my God, this is Ezra praying to God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespasses grown up under the heavens. Now, is this a man that's desensitized to sin? No, he's blushing, he's ashamed. He's bowing down and saying, God, I'm ashamed to even lift up my head to you. So he's not desensitized, he sees the sin for what it really is. Look at verse 10. And now, oh God, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken thy commandments, which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, the land under which ye go to possess it is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to the other with their unclean. What did the prophets preach to them? What did the prophets of God in those days preach unto the people? Here's what they preached. They said, the land that you're going into is an unclean land. It's filthy, it's abomination, it's uncleanness. That is the job of a preacher, my friend, is to point out the filth of our world and to warn you about it. And that's what he said that the prophets had done. And he said, but they didn't hearken to those preachers. They didn't want to listen to them. Look at Jeremiah, you're in Ezra, just go forward in the Bible, Jeremiah chapter six. Jeremiah chapter six says in verse 15, were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed. Neither could they blush. Do you see a difference there between them and Ezra? Neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among them that fall. At the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down, sayeth the Lord. Thus, sayeth the Lord, stand ye in the waves and see and ask for the old paths, wherein is the good way and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. Go to Isaiah 30. You see, the people of our generation have rejected hard preaching. They have. Our nation, our country today is not asking for the old paths. They don't come to church saying, give me the old time religion. Give me that old time, that's not what they're saying today. They want it modern, they want it smooth, they want it watered down. This is what they say they want. Fundamentalism with a sweet spirit. We need fundamentalism with a swift kick in the pants is what we need today. Fundamentalism with a sweet spirit. I'm sick of this. It's just a way of dressing up their compromise. Basically, they compromise the truth, they compromise the preaching, they wanna preach what people want, they wanna trim the message, they wanna preach what makes people happy, they don't wanna tread on any toes, and so they dress that up and just call it a sweet spirit. There's nothing sweet about being a sissy. There's nothing sweet about standing behind the pulpit and calling yourself a man of God and failing to warn people about what's really going on today. It's not sweet, it's cowardice. It's not sweet, it's disobedience to God. I talked to someone lately that had been going to, I have all these anonymous sources, but it's true. I talked to someone lately and this person is going to an independent fundamental Baptist church, and they started going to this church and they really liked it at first until they started realizing after the first couple of sermons, you know, the first couple of sermons sounded great, but this person started to realize that nothing controversial was ever gonna come across the lips of this preacher. And that really what it was was just a fundamentalist Joel Osteen is where she was at. It was basically a fundamental Joel Osteen. I mean, it was basically the doctrine of a fundamental Baptist, I mean, you know, the right doctrines, the right belief system, but the sermon was a feel-good sermon every time. It's time to preach a feel-good sermon. But let me tell you something, preachers of today want to preach feel-good all the time. I got a catalog, I don't know if it's in the pulpit here. I got this catalog shipped to me. I probably threw it away, but I got this catalog shipped to me and I was looking through this catalog. It was from an independent fundamental Baptist church and I'm going through it and they're selling all kinds of Sunday school lessons. Okay, what was it? It was from Lancaster, you know? And I'm going through this Lancaster and it looked exactly like the stuff that comes from the Christian bookstore, this thing from Lancaster. All the, it's got Jesus wearing a dress and every picture and he's just smiling. But they sold just all these Sunday school curriculums, like this 13-week Sunday school series, I mean, tons of them for you to teach in your Sunday school, you know? But it's all, all, all just grace. Grace, it's like how many different ways can you package grace? You know, it's like, oh, this week we'll do grace with pace and living by grace and grow in grace and grace upon grace and would you like some grace on the side with your grace, you know? It's just like grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, faith, faith, faith, faith. Why don't they do a Sunday school series on hell? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why don't they do a Sunday school series on the prophets of the Bible who ripped face and screamed about sin? Why don't they do a Sunday school series on Malachi, saying, I don't like your solemn assembly, I don't like your church service, in fact, it's a piece of dung and I'm gonna take that piece of dung and shove it in your face. That's when it turned there. Turn in your Bible there, Malachi. You see, I'm gonna desensitize you tonight to hard preaching, what it really is. And look, you say, well, how dare you criticize? I'm not against a series on grace. I'm not against 13 Sunday school lessons on Psalm 23. I'm not against a 13-week series on all these things, but why is it all watered down all the time? Why won't anybody preach the parts of the Bible that need to be preached? And when they really go out on a limb, and I'm not talking about them in particular, I'm just saying the fundamentalism of our day, they think they're going out on a limb when they say, homosexuality's still a sin. Oh, wow. Thank you for admitting that the worst sin in the Bible is still a sin. Wow, I'm so impressed. How did you muster up the boldness? You know, homosexuality's still a sin. We go out on a limb here, they won't preach what needs to be preached. They won't preach that the Bible says stone them with stones. They won't preach that God gave them over to a reprobate mind and that they're vile and filthy. That's what the Bible says. Where did that intern, Malachi? What does that do in anything? We get to read it anyway. Let me find my place here. He said this in verse three. Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feast and one shall take you away with it. Turn that into a Sunday school lesson. Preach the word. And I'm serious today that the whole Bible needs to be preached and that there's more negative things in the Bible than there are positive. And these people just want to preach the positive only. And this is what America needs to hear. America needs to hear someone cry out against sin today. Amen. We don't need another series on grace. We don't need another series on God's love. We don't need another series on all the good things. We need a series on the wrath of God. And I guarantee you there is more preaching in the Bible on God's wrath than can fill up years of Sunday school lessons. You know it's true, my friend. How about a Sunday school lesson on the wrath of God? God's wrath. I mean, wouldn't you think that in a catalog that's just page after page after page after page after page one of the serieses would be on the wrath of God? I don't know if series is a word. But wouldn't you think that one of them would be on the wrath of God? Instead of like, oh man, we finally found another way to have another series on grace. Hey, I love grace. By grace are you saved through faith? But you know what? It's not what preachers are saying that's the most wrong in most cases. It's what they're not saying. That's what's wrong. That's what's wrong today. It's not what they say that's wrong. It's what they won't say. Because they are watered down. And their Sunday school lessons are always, always, always positive. Literally. The same person who said that they figured out that their pastor was the fundamentalist Joel Osteen, literally, my friend, went to a Sunday school lesson where the pastor taught on Sodom and Gomorrah because he was going through the book of Genesis in Sunday morning Sunday school. He was going through the book of Genesis and taught the story of Sodom and Gomorrah without mentioning homosexuality. How do you even do that story? How is that, he did a Sunday school lesson on Sodom, never even one time mentioned that it was homeless. And that's in an independent, fundamental, King James only soul winning church. Something's wrong, my friend. And you can get mad at me and say that I have a critical spirit, a bad spirit. Yes, I do. I have a bad spirit, my friend, because I am sick and tired of seeing my nation and my country go to hell because pastors don't have enough hair on their legs to stand up and preach the whole Bible and they want to trim it and water it down and preach the same message again and again and again and again. How about a series on God's wrath? I'm challenging them to do it. Preach on hell. Preach on God's wrath. Preach on fire and damnation. Preach on the wrath of God descending out of the sky and burning up a bunch of homos in Sodom and Gomorrah. Preach on that a while. Tired of this watered down, wishy-washy fundamentalism with a sweet spirit. You can have that stuff. I'm sick of it. To me, the whole Bible is sweet. It makes your belly bitter, but it's in your mouth sweet as honey. I love the Bible. I love every part of it. I love the book of Ezekiel. I love Malachi. And if you really, truly love God as a Christian like you should, you'll love all 66 of the books. And so we need to get back to the old time religion, my friend, or our country's doomed and our Christians are doomed. And we're doomed today because we got these little fundamental popes and denominational heads and Bible colleges putting out Sunday school material, selling that Sunday school material to thousands of churches and it's all the same watered down, wishy-washy thing over and over again. Because it's not just them. You say, well, mind your own business what they do. Okay, they can do what they do, but it's funny how they send me their stupid catalog. I want to send it back and say, quit sending me this stuff until you make a Sunday school lesson on the wrath of God. Then send it back to me. And I'll preach it. I will preach it. I'll preach their stupid lesson if they'll give it to me for free instead of trying to charge me a bunch of money for it. I'll be glad to preach it. But I'm not going to be a watered down little sissified satellite of one of these big pope, you know, fundamental pope, denominational head course. It's funny. You know, people try to say denomination scriptural. I preached about this on the Sunday morning. And because the Bible says Christ, the head of the church, isn't it funny how they call it the denominational headquarters? You know, our denominational headquarters is in heaven where our head is seated at the right hand of the father because we're an independent Baptist church. And the problem is, instead of pastors writing their own sermons, instead of pastors getting in the Bible with the Holy Spirit, reading Malachi chapter two and turning that into a Sunday school lesson, they just want to buy one that's ready made. But you can't buy a Sunday school lesson in America today on Malachi two, three. I don't think it's out there. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, my friend, but that's not what sells. That's not what makes the big revenue. You're not going to sell a series on the wrath of God and God's hatred and God's fierce anger. It's not what they want to focus on because they want to focus on the family. They want to focus on the good things and the positive things. Hey, you know what? We need it all. We need balance. Let's see how far you get in your car tonight. Just ask Matt Adams. You know, he always has battery trouble. But see how far you're going to get tonight with only the positive lead connected on your battery. You know, I'm tired of the negativity. I'm going to disconnect the negative lead, folks. We've got way too much negativity in this world and my car is not going to add to it. So it's going to be positive only batteries from now on. I'm going to start producing batteries that only have a positive terminal only. You see, it's not going to work, is it? Where are we? I know that I'm in church. I mean, where are we in the Bible? Where were we before that? Isaiah chapter 30. Did we read Isaiah 30? Okay, go to Isaiah 30 verse nine. We had a commercial break. This service site is sponsored by Lancaster Striving Together Publications. And so I had to put out a commercial break for their materials so that you go and download these materials and get these. Get the latest, yeah, the latest grace and psychology in the Bible and sanguine. You can learn about being sanguine or melancholic and choleric, I'm choleric. Did you notice? So maybe Plato was right, you know what I mean? Or whoever came up with that stuff. Aristotle or whatever. You know, I couldn't give you a dime for all of them anyway. So I don't really care. But anyway, Isaiah 30 verse nine says this. This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord, saying they don't want to hear it. He's saying people today don't want to hear God's word. They don't want to hear God's law. They want it all to be grace. They don't want to hear law. But you know what? You can't have grace without all. You got to have both. But they just want to hear it. Grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. You say are you against grace? No, I'm not against grace, but the whole Bible's not grace. God's not just love, he's also wrath. Now look, there are people out there who only preach his wrath and don't preach his love. I'm against that too. You got to have both. And you've got to have the law and grace. Jesus said if you love me, keep my grace. No, he said if you love me, keep my commandments. He said the world hated me, they're going to hate you. You're not of the world. He said you need to stay away from the filth of the world. And so we need to let the hated ammunition, he said. This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to the seers, see not. And to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceit, get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore, thus saith the Holy One of Israel, because he despised this word, and touched an oppression and perversed it, and stayed thereon. Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a freak ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall whose breaking cometh suddenly an instant. He says, you hate God's word, you don't want to hear it, you pervert. He says, you're going to fall, you're going to be broken down, you're going to be destroyed without remedy. And we'll count that as a baptism. He says here, Isaiah chapter 30, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, but you know what, the prophets of America ought to say, drop dead, I'm going to preach what the Bible says, get away from me. But instead, they come to the prophets and say, oh don't prophesy what's right, prophesy smooth things, and the prophets of America say, yes sir. The government tells them, tone it down, yes sir. Somebody doesn't like what they're preaching, somebody thinks they need to get a little sweeter, you know, yes sir, whatever you want, you know, we just want to serve you and minister unto you. Let me tell you something, we are ministers unto God first and foremost. See, I want to serve you too, I serve him first, I serve you second. Him first, you second. And you're not going to come to me, you're not going to come to Pastor Anderson and tell me, oh, prophesy smooth things, Pastor Anderson. I'll say, get out of my face, who do you think you are? Telling me what to preach, telling me to tone down my message, telling me to preach something a little more smooth. You can find that anywhere you want, my friend, it's everywhere. But this is a rare thing, to find a church that has the backbone to preach to you what needs to be preached. Hey, it's a rarity, my friend. Be glad you're here, be glad that you don't have to become desensitized to sin, because you're getting the kind of preaching that will keep you alert to the sin of this world. And it's what we need today in America. But yet the preachers today have become the servant of the people, and they say preach smooth, they'll preach smooth. Preach a 55, 100 week series on grace, they'll do it. My friend, we need the whole counsel of God. And we need preachers who don't take requests. We don't need the jukebox preacher. We don't need the coin-operated preacher. You know, I mean, what are we gonna do next? Put a little machine at your chair where you can put in a quarter and browse through it like a jukebox and choose what you wanna hear? Hmm, what do I want this time? Do I want grace for the paste, growing grace, or grace unto grace this week? You need to come and let Pastor Anderson just serve it up to you, because I'm gonna make sure you get a balanced diet. You see, if my children, and you're not my children, obviously, but you know what, if my children, if they chose their own meals all the time, you know, they wouldn't get a balanced diet. You know, and it's probably the same way with all of us. You know, if we came to church, and that's part of why I preach through the Bible on Wednesday nights. I go through a book of the Bible chapter by chapter, because it causes me to preach on stuff that I normally wouldn't choose. Wouldn't normally come into my mind, but by going through every chapter of the Bible, it forces me to preach on things that I normally wouldn't think of, because we need a balanced diet today. Now, my wife, she gives our children a very balanced diet. I mean, she's got a little fruit cut up, you know, next to the plate, and she gives them a very balanced, nutritious diet from all the food groups. But today, Christians spiritually just want to come, and it's just ice cream and popcorn every morning, when they, you know, that's what they want. For breakfast, they want ice cream and popcorn. For lunch, they want candy and lollipops and sour straws, and then hubba bubba chewing gum. And then for dinner, oh, for dinner, we'll have ice cream and brownies, and we'll have this. And the only meat we're gonna have is hot dogs. All my children just, all of a sudden, now they're really into this stuff, and they're like, huh, what is this thing all about? They were a little zoned out there, and all of a sudden, they perked up, you know? I mean, the only vegetable in their life would be the ketchup on their hot dog. Serious. If they had their way, that would be the vegetable in their life. Their meat group would be hot dogs, period. And everything else would be that little tip of the pyramid, fats and oils and sweets, you know, that would be their diet. And today, we've got baby Christians, and that's what you are, a baby. See, babies are used to, because you know, mother's milk is very sweet to the taste. That's what babies are used to, okay? So babies are used to drinking something that's very sweet all the time. They don't like bitter foods. They don't want some of this. You grow up and become a man, and you know, you don't always just want that super sweet frosting of the cake, right? You know, you want something that's a little bit more robust as a grown man, as an adult, okay? And these baby Christians today are just, I want ice cream again on Sunday morning. I want cake again. I want brownies again. You know, they don't come to church and say, give me kale. Give me celery. Give me broccoli. Give me spinach, you know? Give me liver. Give me, you know, I don't think liver, I don't know why I said that. They don't come begging for the vegetables. And you know, I don't like kale. Who knows what kale is? You like kale? You love kale? No, it's okay if it's in a good soup. You know, if it's mixed into a soup or something, you know. But good night, just kale? It's pretty, it's pretty bitter, right? Isn't it? I got him on my side. It's very, it's very bitter, you know? And you know, if you just had a choice and you're just at a restaurant, you're looking at the menu, you're not gonna say, you know, you have two sides with that. You know, french fries, mashed potatoes, okay? A biscuit, you know, chili, rice and beans, or kale. You're not gonna say, yeah, give me some kale. Give me a steaming hot palate kale on the side. You know, you're not necessarily gonna choose that, but it's very good for you. It's good for you. And sometimes you come to church and it's that kale sermon, you know? And I try to, every time I preach a kale sermon, I try to throw in some, you know, potatoes and Italian sausage and turn it into kind of like a potato and kale soup, you know, just to make it a little bit more palatable. But you know what? Sometimes you just need a little kale, my friend, and it's gonna make you a lot healthier in the long run. You can't just drink Kool-Aid with every meal. You need a glass of whole milk every once in a while. You need some herbal tea. You need some fruit juice. You need something that has a little bit more nutrient to it than Kool-Aid. And we've got a bunch of Kool-Aid Christianity. We've got Kool-Aid Baptists. And they just want it always sweet. And they don't have a balanced diet today. And that's what I'm talking about. I gotta hurry up. But my last point was that I've got a whole bunch of other scriptures. I'm not gonna turn to you because I feel like I've made my point. Point number one, you get desensitized to sin when you just look at it all day long. Just all day long, and you're gonna get used to it. The first time you hear about stuff, it shocks you. But then you see it, and you see it, and you see it, and you see it, and you get used to it, and you get used to it, and you get used to it. And we're so desensitized today to just the most boring things, the most violent things, the most perverted things. We've just gotten used to it today because we just keep seeing it on the television all day long. Number two, we get desensitized to sin through alcohol. And we live in a drunken society, and if it's not alcohol, it's drugs. And everybody's on drugs, everybody's on alcohol, and it causes them to accept things that would normally be considered unclean. Women that would be a little strange to them, all of a sudden start looking a little bit better when they're drunk. They're gonna be a little strange. They're gonna say perverted things that normally would never come out of their mouth. That's what the Bible says, Proverbs 23. And number three, and this is the most important point of all, my friend, the reason why people get desensitized to sin is a lack of hard preaching on sin. If you're not, and you know what, we could also say a lack of Bible reading, because really just reading the Bible, you're gonna get a lot of the same things if you're reading it cover to cover. You're gonna get the teaching, and let me just leave you with a couple more verses. He said in Philippians 2, 15, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. And you say, well, I think America's a pretty godly nation. Then you're just proving my point right now. You're so desensitized, you don't even see that it's crooked and perverse in America today. You just proved my point. You know, the Bible says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. And yet we look at it today and say, you know what? These Hollywood actors aren't so bad, but yet the Bible says that it's a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. We don't even wanna know about it because we know it's vile. We know it's abomination. You must have hard preaching, and let me just make a prediction right now. Let me make a little prophecy about your life, my friend. You get out from under this kind of preaching. Listen to me now, and you may not believe me, but I've seen it again and again and again in the end. I've seen it in my own life, in my younger days. I can tell you, this is a fact. This is a fact. You get out from under this kind of preaching, you will start accepting sin. You give in the little watered down, pansy little church, fundamentalism with the sweet spirit. You know, doctrinally right, but the pastor will not call out sin. The pastor will not breathe fire. He's no Malachi. He's more like a Mallory, or Melanie, is what we should call him. You know, he's no Malachi, my friend. He's no Jeremiah. He's no Ezekiel. He's no John the Baptist. You get out from under this kind of fire-breathing preaching that rips face and snarls and yells about sin. You will become desensitized to sin. Fact. It's a fact. You'll get used to it. You'll begin to accept it. I know I grew up as a small child in fundamental Baptist churches, but when I was a teenager, we got in these really watered down churches for about five years. And I'll tell you something. You know, you begin to accept a lot of things and just slow, and it doesn't happen overnight. It's an incremental, slow change where you keep accepting it and get desensitized to it and get desensitized to it and get desensitized to it, where it doesn't bother you that the musicians you're listening to are homos. That doesn't even bother you. It doesn't bother you that all the actors and TV stars that you're into are homos. It doesn't bother you that your favorite book is filled with witchcraft and vampires and undead and pedophilia. You know, that doesn't bother you. You just are used to it. You know what? You need this kind of preaching, and any parent today who takes their kid to a watered down church is insane today. With all the forces that are at work today to pervert your child? I mean, with all the bad influences, with all the temptation and all the sin that is readily available today, I wouldn't care if it offended me every time. I would sit down and shut up and say, I want my kids to hear this preaching. Yes, listen to this. Listen to a preacher who calls fornication filthy, like the Bible says in Revelation 17, verse four, the abominations and filthiness of her fornication. I want my children to hear a preacher use those kind of words about sin and not call it having an affair, but call it adultery, call it filth, call it smut, call it queer and strange flesh and violent abomination. If you don't get under this kind of preaching, and I'm not saying I'm the only preacher that'll breathe fire, but you need to be under this kind of preaching, my friend, or else you will become desensitized to sin. Let's prioritize and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for our church, dear God, and that we do have a place to come and be with people who love the preaching, not just a pastor who preaches hard on sin, but a whole group of people who desire the old past, who say to the prophets that they want hard preaching. They want a rough message. They're not looking for it smooth all the time. Thank you for this wonderful group of people that love people, and God, you know we have love. That's why we win souls every week. That's why we preach the gospel from door to door every week almost every day with a tear in the eye, dear God, but help us to have the balance in our life of loving those who are lost, loving those who need to be saved, but also a hatred for that which is wicked and abomination. Father, we love you, and help us all, dear God. Help me not to get desensitized to sin. Help me to stay sensitive to it, and in Jesus' name we pray.