(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Man, the title of my sermon this morning is refusing to admit you are wrong. Refusing to admit you are wrong. We're living in a time where many people have this problem and this is such a horrible character trait when you just can't admit that you've been wrong about something. In fact, this has become so epidemic that actually there's a whole thing called the Mandela Effect which is basically people just refusing to admit that they were wrong about something. So instead they just decide well the whole universe must have changed. Literally rather than just say I remembered that wrong, I had that fact wrong, I was wrong about that. It's like well no, the entire universe has changed. We must be living in some kind of a simulation and it was a glitch in the matrix but what it really comes down to is someone just refusing to admit hey I got that movie quote wrong or hey you know I never really knew how to spell Bernstein Bears or whatever but it just goes to show a mentality of someone who just can't admit that they made a mistake or that they're wrong. I mean look, one time like a couple years ago, you know those little white out strip things, it's like a little plastic deal and you can apply like strips of white out. I put a red white out strip into my backpack and then the next day I pulled it out and it was blue. You know, wow, you know, case closed, Mandela Effect confirmed. No, you know, it turned out it kind of freaked me out, it was kind of weird but then, you know, a few days went by and I found the blue one was tucked in this other little pocket or whatever. You know, there's always an explanation, okay, and guess what? People just quote Bible verses wrong a lot. People quote movies wrong a lot. People get historical facts wrong a lot and there are a lot of things that a lot of people get wrong but at the end of the day when you're faced with facts, don't deny reality, just admit that you've been wrong. We've all been wrong. We've all made mistakes. We've all remembered things wrong. We've all gotten our facts wrong. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so don't be this person who just refuses to admit that you're wrong. Look down at your Bible there in verse number 10 of chapter 15. The Bible says, correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way. You know, it's grievous to be corrected for this guy. And he that hateth reproof shall die. The person who hates being told they're wrong shall die. Look at verse 12, a scorner loveth not one that reproveth him. And again, reproving someone is to tell them that they're wrong. A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him, neither will he go unto the wise. Flip back to Proverbs chapter number 9, just a few pages back in your Bible. Proverbs chapter 9, I apologize for my voice. I've been having all this phlegm in my throat the last couple of weeks. I've just been coughing up a lung all day. And so we'll see if I can get through this this morning. But look at Proverbs chapter 9, verse 6. It says, forsake the foolish and live and go in the way of understanding. He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame. And he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. He's saying, look, these foolish people who can't take correction, they're never wrong about anything. He's saying, it's not even worth it to even try to correct these people, because you just get shamed to yourself. They just end up hating you. Whereas if you rebuke a wise man, he'll love you. And what's funny is you've got these two words, reprove and rebuke. Rebuke is the stronger word, right? I mean, you know, reprove feels milder to me than rebuke, OK? And so you reprove the scorner, and he hates you. But you can rebuke a wise man, and he loves you. Why? Because he wants to be corrected, because he wants to get things fixed. He's not the fool that hates being corrected. He's not this person that just never admits that he's wrong or never thinks that he could make a mistake or need to be taught something by someone else. Verse number nine, give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. Look at Proverbs chapter 18. Proverbs chapter 18. While you're turning there, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4.13, better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king who will no more be admonished. There could be a tendency as people get older to not want to be corrected any longer, to not want to change. And you've heard the saying, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But we need to make sure that even as we get into our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, that we never stop learning and growing. And here's the thing about learning. In order to be a person who's open to learning, you have to be open to replacing your wrong ideas. So the person who thinks that they're never wrong about anything can't learn. They end up being a dumb person. They end up being foolish for the rest of their life because they can't be corrected. They can't be admonished. Let me give it to you this way. What if I went to a boxing gym and I wanted to learn how to box? But then every time the trainer said, you're doing that wrong, I said, hey, don't tell me how to do this. Do you think I'm going to learn boxing? If I say, no, quit telling me I'm doing it wrong. I'm doing it my way. I'm right. This is the right way. You're going to learn nothing. The only way to go to a boxing gym and learn how to box would be that when the instructor says, you're doing that wrong, do it this way instead, you say, oh, OK, let me fix that. You'd be literally, if you go to that kind of physical training, and maybe it's not boxing, but whatever you're into, you know, Tae Kwon Do or Jiu Jitsu or whatever, you're literally being corrected every day. And you're literally admitting that you're doing it wrong every day. Am I right? That's just the whole point. That's why you're even there. And then meanwhile, people show up to church. And they only want to be told things that they already agree with, that they already believe. They just want to be confirmed in their own opinions and just to hear it. And it's ridiculous. It doesn't make any sense. You know, we should want to learn and grow. And you're never too old to learn and grow and develop as a person. Where did I have you turn? Proverbs 18, verse 1. Through desire, a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. Here's the flip side of that. A fool has no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself. Now, this is kind of an old use of the word discover. And we would say in our monovinacular, uncover. You know, like the Bible will talk about discovering the nakedness of whatever. It's talking about uncovering their nakedness, right? It's not like, Eureka, I've made a discovery or something. It's a different meaning of this word. And so it says here, the fool has no delight in understanding. He doesn't want to actually understand, comprehend things, grasp things, learn the truth. What he wants to do, though, is hear himself talk. He wants his heart to discover itself, meaning that he wants to just tell you what he thinks, but he doesn't necessarily want to actually learn and understand and grasp the truth. That's a foolish man. Whereas the wise man separates himself and seeks and intermeddles with all wisdom. Now, what does that mean? Through desire, a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddles with all wisdom is because a lot of learning ends up happening on your own, right? I mean, if we really are going to know the Bible, getting together with our buddies and talking about the Bible every day isn't really the primary means of learning the Bible. Like, the best way of learning the Bible is probably going to be you, by yourself, sitting down in a chair and reading your Bible. Now, I'm all for getting together with your friends and talking about the Bible. But in order to really get down to the nitty gritty of study, you're usually by yourself, right? You're actually reading the Bible, and it's you and the Holy Spirit without distraction of just getting together and hanging out with people. And of course, there's a wonderful time to get together and hang out with people. And even people who are studying for academic reasons, they'll sometimes get together with the study group and get together and study with friends, right? But if that's the only study they're doing, they're probably not doing very well. Because it ends up you have to do some stuff separated, where it's just you and the material, and you're actually reading and learning, right? And so you've got to actually be interested in learning, not just, hey, let me hear myself talk. Let me just discover what's in my heart. The Bible says in, well, if you would flip over to Philippians, Philippians chapter 1, Philippians chapter 1, the Bible says in Proverbs 13, 10, only by pride cometh contention, but with the well advised is wisdom, only by pride cometh contention, but with the well advised is wisdom. Now, what does this have to do with people refusing to admit that they're wrong? Well, usually if someone refuses to admit that they're wrong, they start arguing with you, right? Because they're too prideful to admit that they're wrong about something, then they begin to argue with you, even in the face of facts that are proving them wrong. Now, the sad thing is that there are people like this in the ministry. There are people that have positions as pastors, evangelists, whatever ministerial positions, unfortunately, who are these kind of ego-driven, narcissistic kind of people who can never admit that they're wrong. And so they just like to hear themselves talk. That's why they want to be a pastor, not because they want to actually help increase people's learning or help people grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not because they actually want to lead the charge of winning people to Christ in their region. No, no. It's because they just want to be in the limelight. And there are people who have this wrong motive for being in the ministry. And Philippians chapter 1 talks a little bit about these kind of people. And it says in verse 15, some indeed preach Christ, even of envy and strife, right? So the Bible is saying, there are people who preach Christ, not for the right reasons, not sincerely, but rather of envy and strife, because they want to be a big shot. And they want to strive with other people to show that they're somehow better or something like that, right? They preach Christ, even of envy and strife, some also of goodwill. So there are different kinds of people preaching Christ for different reasons. The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I'm set for the defense of the gospel. What then, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. And so some good could come of someone who's preaching Christ for the wrong reasons. But at the end of the day, God is not pleased with that person who is preaching Christ of envy and strife, who doesn't actually have love in their heart. They don't actually have charity in their heart. They have selfish motives for being in the ministry or whatever. And that's what the Bible is saying here. And so we don't want to be people who can't admit that we're wrong or that can't be corrected or that don't want to keep learning and growing, and especially want to make sure that we avoid preachers and teachers that have this mentality, where they just refuse to learn anything or be corrected or grow or anything like that. But not only that, when it comes to admitting that we're wrong, we also need to be willing to admit when we are in sin. The Bible says, for example, in Proverbs 28, 13, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. So we've all sinned. We're all going to sin. And if you would flip over your Bible to Jeremiah, chapter 5. We've all sinned. We're all going to sin in the future. But the difference is whether we're willing to acknowledge those sins, recognize those sins, and confess them and forsake them versus just trying to cover them and say, I didn't do anything wrong and just refusing to admit that we've done anything wrong. And I think a great example of this in the Bible is the difference between King Saul and King David. Because King Saul and King David both committed some grievous sins while they were in office. And in many ways, you could even argue that the stuff that David did was worse than what Saul did. I mean, they both did some really bad things. But I would say probably you could argue that what David did was worse than what Saul did. But the difference is that when Saul is confronted with his sins, he argues about it. He doesn't want to take responsibility. First, he just denies doing anything wrong. And then he blames other people. Whereas when David is confronted with his sin, he says, I have sinned. That's his answer. When he's confronted and preached to, he says, I've sinned. And that's the difference. That's why God ends up allowing David to continue reigning and even for his children to continue reigning all the way down through the generations and so forth. And so it's really all about how we end up taking correction. It's not realistic to expect people to never make a mistake or never do anything wrong. But we ought to expect people, and we ought to expect of ourselves, that when we are confronted with wrongdoing, that we would just confess and forsake it instead of refusing to admit that we've done anything wrong. Look at Jeremiah chapter 5, verse 1. It says, run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof if ye can find a man, if there be any that execute a judgment, that seeketh the truth and I will pardon it. And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou has stricken them, but they have not grieved. Now, what does it mean they're you've stricken them, they've not grieved? He's basically saying like you have physically disciplined them. You've chastised them. Think of like a spanking or a flogging or whatever. He says you've stricken them. Stricken is the past participle of struck, right? So he's saying you've stricken them, but they've not grieved. Like they didn't actually feel bad about anything, even after being disciplined by God. Thou has consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They've made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return, right? And so this is what ends up destroying people, the refusal to take correction. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. And yet when people refuse that correction, they ultimately end up getting destroyed. He that being often reproved and hardened if his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. Jeremiah says this in verse 4. Therefore, I said, surely these are poor. They're foolish. For they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgment of their God, right? People who are refusing to be corrected. I will get me unto the great men and will speak unto them. For they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God. But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds. Wherefore, a lion out of the forest shall slay them and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them. A leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone that goeth out then shall be torn in pieces because their transgressions are many and their backslidings are increased. And so again, when we are chastened of the Lord, when we are corrected, when we do wrong, we need to receive that correction. We need to be willing to change and improve and grow both in knowledge and also in our Christian walk and getting sin out of our life and so forth. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 15, 23, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Now, what could be more stubborn than someone who is just faced with facts and then just denies reality and just says, no, I'm right, even when they're just proven wrong beyond any shadow of a doubt. But people do this all the time, right? We talked about it earlier in the sermon. Oh, it must be the Mandela Effect. Oh, the whole universe changed. Oh, you know. It's crazy. It's like a mental illness with people when they will not admit that they're wrong. It's a toxic trait. And we got people not admitting that they're wrong about just basic facts about the world. We have people just not admitting that they're wrong. When they commit a sin, when they do something wrong, they just want to just justify it. I have way more respect for somebody who just says, you know what? Yeah, I shouldn't have done that. It was wrong, but that's what I did. And it's just like, OK, I get it. We're imperfect people. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But what about this thing of just, well, no, it's not a sin. What I'm doing is righteous, even though the Bible clearly condemns it. That's what makes things so much worse. We as Christians are supposed to be lovers of truth. Lovers of truth. And in fact, one of my favorite passages that I quote frequently is 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, speaking about the end times and the Antichrist and so forth. It says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 10, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. So notice, when people get saved, it's because they received the love of the truth. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned to believe not the truth but at pleasure and unrighteousness. And just as we got saved by receiving the love of the truth, by believing the truth of the gospel, we should continue in the Christian life also as lovers of truth. I don't just love the truth about the gospel. I love the truth about everything. And there are some uncomfortable truths in this world. There are some inconvenient truths that are out there. And no, I'm not talking about Al Gore's drowning polar bears or something. But I'm just saying there are some inconvenient truths or uncomfortable truths or some things in this world that we might learn that might challenge our worldview. But you know what's funny about that is that we go out soul winning every week and we pull out our Bible. And what are we expecting unsaved people to do? What are we expecting them to do? We're expecting them to change their mind about what they believe. We're going out there, and what are we doing? We're expecting people to receive a correction because they think salvation is by works. They think it's by going to the Catholic Church and genuflecting and confessing and chanting and doing the sacraments. And they have these wrong beliefs. And what are we doing? We're showing them the truth. And sometimes we're just flabbergasted when they'll just ignore the truth. I mean, I've literally shown somebody a Bible verse who claimed to be a Christian. And then just point at it and say, well, that's stupid. What? What are you talking about? And we're so flabbergasted when we show people something really clearly. And they're just, no, I still believe that it's the Catholic Church. I still believe it's by being a good person. I still think I'm going to go to heaven because I keep the commandments and live a good life. We're so flabbergasted by that. But then do we turn around and do the same thing when someone shows us the truth, point blank, about something else? And we're just going to say, nope, not interested. And all of a sudden, we don't want to hear the truth? Folks, we should be lovers of truth through and through. And by the way, the truth fears no investigation. So I'm not nervous about people in the church reading their Bibles too much and figuring out that what I'm preaching isn't right or something like that. Because I would encourage people to check what I'm saying in the Bible because I believe that my preaching can withstand the scrutiny of you checking it in your Bible. And if I didn't think that, then there must be something wrong with my preaching if it can just be debunked by you reading the Bible too much. Yeah, we have religions out there that don't want you to read the Bible too much. It can be dangerous. Ooh, this is dangerous. It's like the never-ending story or something. This book is not for you. And we literally have Amish people telling their congregations, oh, it's dangerous to read a bunch of Bible without us telling you what it means or whatever. You have the Roman Catholic Church trying to keep people from reading the Bible in their own language so they could figure out what nonsense the priest is teaching them. Look, there's no fear of investigation when you have the truth you want to. Investigate. You want to look things up. You want to check things out because it's the truth. And if you're wrong, you want to know that you're wrong. Folks, we're supposed to be lovers of truth. The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter number 3, verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. Now, what is doctrine? Doctrine is teaching, right? Doctrine means teaching for reproof, for telling you that you're wrong, right? So it's to teach you what's right. It's to teach you what is not right, right? So it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction. Again, now it's telling you how to change it and get it right and for instruction in righteousness. And so what's the word of God good for? It's there to reprove us. It's there to correct us. And you can't correct someone who's never wrong. But the Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Look, over the years in my preaching, I have made mistakes. I have said wrong things from the pulpit because I am a human being. And just like every other human being, of course I am going to make mistakes. Of course I'm going to say things that are wrong. And you know, it's always embarrassing when you get something wrong, right? Saying something wrong is embarrassing. I remember a few years ago I was preaching. And I got a fact wrong. I forget the guy's name. I was preaching against a certain guy. And I had done some reading about the guy. But I had misunderstood. And I had thought this guy was Roman Catholic. And it turned out he was a mainline Protestant. And I had mixed that up somehow. I'd read it. And I went back. When somebody pointed out my error, I went back and relooked at what I read. Because I'm like, I read this. I'm like, it said, you know. And I went back and read it. And I could see like, oh, I misread this. Like, I misunderstood this sentence right here. That's where I got that wrong idea in my head. And I got up the next day. And I made a video and uploaded to YouTube a video the next day saying, hey, I'm sorry. I got this fact wrong in my sermon last night. And you know what? It was really embarrassing for me because I don't want to have to be like, oh, man, here I was saying this last night. And it turned out I was wrong about it and whatever. But it's like, hey, that's life, though. It's going to happen. And so I made a video the next day. And I'm like, hey, I was wrong. This guy's a Protestant. He's not a Roman Catholic. I got that fact wrong. I'm not just going to be like, no, he's Catholic. I don't care what the history book says. It would just be stupid, wouldn't it? I mean, he's Irish, isn't he? Case closed. I'm not just going to sit there and just argue with the facts. If I was wrong, I was wrong. You know, there are things that I've gotten wrong just in my teaching over the years, just doctrines or ideas that I was wrong about. You know, I was thinking about some of this this morning, like my revelation series from 2007 that I did. So think about that. 2007. So we're talking about like, what, 17 years ago when I did a revelation series, there were a couple of things that I got wrong in that series. I was wrong about the 144,000 in that series. And so when I did the series in 2012, I ended up putting a lot more thought and a lot more study into the 2012 series because it was being professionally filmed and everything. So I was like, hey, I really want to make sure I get this right. So I really worked a lot harder. And there were about three or four issues going into that series in the book Revelation that I wasn't quite comfortable with. And I'm like, man, I'm just going to get to the bottom of these. I'm going to spend months. I'm going to study. I'm going to figure it out so that I can get this right. And so I ended up correcting some things from my 2007 series. You know, when I started Faith Ward Baptist Church as a 24-year-old man, I was wrong about some things. I thought that Israel were God's chosen people back then, if you can imagine that. And to me, that seemed like now that seems just so ridiculous and absurd and crazy. And yet, that's what I believed when I started Faith Ward Baptist Church. Now, what's funny, though, is when people expect me to never make a mistake or when they actually will say, well, you need to go back to what you said back here in 2006 or 2007. It's like, sorry, I didn't know everything in my mid-20s, OK? I don't know everything now. But I guarantee you one thing, I know more now than I knew then. And people will be like, well, back 15 years ago you said this, but now you're saying this, which one is it? It's like, hey, moron, it's obviously the one I'm saying right now. I'm not going to be like, no, I'm wrong today. Only trust Steven Anderson from 18 years ago. What is that? But people are just being ridiculous in their expectation of someone never being wrong. You see, the expectation shouldn't be that you're never wrong. The expectation should just be that when you're wrong and you realize you're wrong and you're showing you're wrong that you correct it. Nobody's expecting you to be perfect and right all the time and get every fact right. But what they're expecting you to do is acknowledge reality, OK? And be a lover of truth and to want to know the truth and be willing to fix things. You know, here's an example. Let me give you a couple examples of people who just have this toxic trait of just refusing to admit they're wrong. And I know I've kicked this dog several times this week, but I'm going to kick it again. OK, Ken Hovind. Look, a few years back, Ken Hovind was called out by moi for saying over and over again, marriage licenses didn't exist before the Civil War. Abe Lincoln never had a marriage license. And Breaux is a broken record. And so you know that he has said that Abraham Lincoln didn't have a marriage license like five million times because he just repeats the same talking points over and over again. Abe Lincoln never had a marriage license. Abe Lincoln never had a marriage license. Abe Lincoln never had a marriage license. Abe Lincoln never had a marriage license. You know, so I, a few years back, went online and I actually looked up Abe Lincoln's marriage license. And I printed it out. And I held it in my hand. And I held it up and said, here is Abraham Lincoln's marriage license. This is false. This is not true. Now, at that point, any normal person would just say, oh, sorry. I heard that somewhere. I read that somewhere. Apparently, I was wrong about that fact. Any sane, normal person would do that. Am I right? When you're literally holding a copy of Abe Lincoln's marriage license in your hand. But no, not Kent Hovind. And by the way, you can watch this for yourself. Somebody posted to Facebook yesterday. I just watched the video yesterday. That's why it was even on my mind. I just saw the video yesterday of Kent Hovind, where he literally, at his little compound in Alabama, he says, pull up the image. He says, you know, I was called a liar for saying that Abe Lincoln had no marriage license. Pull up the image. He puts a giant image behind him of Abe Lincoln's marriage license. And he says, here it is, Abraham Lincoln's marriage license. Then he says, but if you read it carefully, what it actually says is, this gives permission to any minister to perform a wedding ceremony for Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, see, Abe Lincoln didn't have a marriage license. It was licensing the minister to perform his wedding. What is that? And you know what's funny? So then here's what I did. I pulled out an Arizona marriage license. OK? And the Arizona marriage license was worded exactly the same way. The Arizona marriage license said, this is permission for any minister or duly ordained person to perform the wedding of person A and person B. It was worded. That's what a marriage license is. Marriage licenses literally say a preacher or a justice of the peace, or whoever, can wed these two people. And so what we have is a marriage license today in Arizona and in other states across America. And what's funny is I think the marriage licenses, I don't know if it was the marriage licenses in Arizona or another state. They literally had Abraham Lincoln's picture on them. Was it the Arizona license that has the pic? Yeah. The Arizona marriage license has a picture of Abe Lincoln on it. OK? And so he's the poster child for not having a marriage license? Really? But it literally was worded identical. And not only does he gaslight his little cult there by saying, you know, where's the marriage license, but it doesn't exist. Then he literally points to one of his followers, Lady Di, which I guess I thought that was like some woman who died in an underpass in a car wreck or something. But anyway, he literally points to one of his followers and says, go ahead and say it, Lady Di. Say it. You were right, Kent. Watch the video. I just watched it yesterday. Who's seen the video? Who knows what I'm talking about? Yeah. I just watched it yesterday. He literally puts the marriage license on screen, says, this is not a marriage license. You know, it's just a picture of one. And then he says, go ahead and say it, Lady Di. I was right. Say, you were right. And he literally forces his parishioner to tell him, yes, master, you are right. When everybody's looking at the marriage license, is anybody stupid enough to believe right now that Abraham Lincoln didn't have a marriage license? You know, when we're all looking at the same image of his marriage, I guess none of us have a marriage license because they all say the same thing. So let me tell you another story about a different person who will remain unnamed. This other creation scientist guy visited our church. And we were at the church auditorium. It wasn't during a service time. He's at the church auditorium with one of our parishioners. And I was introduced to this guy, right? And so I started chatting with this guy. And for some reason, we started talking about Brazil because it was COVID time. And this guy had just gotten back from visiting Brazil. So we started talking about Brazil. And we were talking about COVID and the different things that were going on because this was around that time, you know, 2021 or 2020 or whatever. And I said to the guy, I said, oh. I said, that's right because I said, Brazil's in the southern hemisphere. So I guess their seasons would be reversed. Like, I guess it would be that winter is in July and summer is in December because that's how things work in the southern hemisphere. And the guy says to me, well, no. Brazil is in the northern hemisphere. And this kind of took me aback. I was like, no. I was like, no. He's like, yeah. He's like, no, no, Brazil is in the northern hemisphere. I'm like, no, I'm like. And then I said to him, I said, oh. I said, are you thinking of like that, like that. I was like, were you, when you went to Brazil, I was like, were you in that part of Brazil that's like in the northern hemisphere? Because I know there's like a tiny bit of Brazil that kind of like is above the equator. I said, is that what you're talking about? And he's just like, no. No, I mean, he said, Brazil is mostly in the northern hemisphere. And I'm like, no, it isn't, though. Because I said, because I said, you know, the way, and I was being totally friendly with you. I was smiling and being friendly. And I said, I said, well, no. Because I said, you know, there's a country. Because I said, this is the way I always think of it. There's a country called Ecuador in South America. So I always, whenever I think of like, well, where is the equator in the western hemisphere, I always just think about the country Ecuador. Because then it kind of gives you an idea. You know, and you kind of, you know, you can kind of picture, I don't know how into geography you guys are, but I like geography. Oh, whoa, oh, ah. There we go. Yeah, so it's like, you know, so the country Ecuador, the country Ecuador is like, you know, I'm not an expert on this. But you know, it's somewhere like in this region of like the northwestern part over here. So that kind of gets you your bearings of like, you know, the equator being somewhere around here, right? And so I knew that like a little bit of Brazil, like this little sliver of Brazil is above the, so I said like, is that what you meant? Like, did you visit that part that was above? He's like, no, most of Brazil is in the northern hemisphere. So I was just kind of like, I was just kind of perplexed. I was just kind of flabbergasted by this. So I said, well, let's go in my office right now and let's take a look at a map. Because I'm just like, you know, somebody's crazy. Maybe it's me. Let's go look at a map. So we go into my office. I pull up a map. And I show him, I said, well, see, look, here's the equator. See, there's this little sliver of Brazil. And then like 90 some percent of Brazil is south of, you know? I mean, like I think Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, which are kind of cities that we would think of in Brazil, are like, you know, they're like 20 degrees south of the equators. Like right now, just to give you perspective, we're like 33 degrees, you know, Freemasonry confirmed or whatever. The city of Phoenix is like 33 degrees north of the equator. And Sao Paulo, and don't quote me on this, but I want to say it's around like 20, 22 degrees south. It's quite a ways away from the equator. But the equator cuts through Brazil, just the very top. Just kind of gives a little haircut at the top. And I show the guy. Like I bring him into my office. And I show the guy. And I said, look, you know, see, here's the equator. Here's Brazil. And this is what he said. He's like, yeah, that's what I said, you know. He said, yeah, that's what I said. I said Brazil is mainly in the tropics and the northern hemisphere. So all of a sudden, now it's the tropics and the northern hemisphere. And at that point, I was done arguing with this guy. Because if you reprove the fool, like what's the point? At that point, I'm just like, OK, I don't deal with mentally ill people. That's not part of our ministry here. But I didn't say anything. I just said, oh, OK. I just said, OK. Because I'm just done at that point. I'm like, I'm not going to sit here and argue with this guy. What's the point? You can't argue with someone like that. He's insane. He's an idiot. He's mentally ill. He's narcissistic. He's crazy. I'm not going to just sit here and argue with the guy. So I just said, oh, OK, all right. And then our church member who was with the guy said, hey, we want you to go to lunch with us. And they said, you don't want to go to lunch with us? And I'm just like, no, I'm kind of busy. Because I have no time for people like that. There is nothing more frustrating. There's nothing more annoying than someone who will just literally deny reality right in front of you instead of just saying, oh, whoops, I made a mistake. I could have sworn it was in the northern hemisphere. Wow, that's interesting. Thanks for pulling up the map. Now we got it settled. We got it resolved. Like, how hard is that? It's crazy. But you know, the Bible says, and if you would turn to Proverbs chapter, actually turn to Genesis chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4. I got to hurry up. But the Bible says, a scorner loveth not one that reproveth him, neither will he go unto the wise. He won't go to wise people to actually learn real facts. Because he thinks he already knows everything. Proverbs chapter 1, verse 5. A wise man will hear and will increase learning. And a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels to understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. You know, the wise man will go to the wise and learn from them. But these narcissists who will never admit that they're wrong, you know what they want to do? They want to surround themselves with dumb people. Instead of going to the wise and learning something, they want to surround themselves with dumb people that they can just manipulate and spoon feed information to and just tell them, hey, go ahead and say it. I'm right, even though we're all looking at it. That's what they're looking for to surround themselves with those kind of people. This explains, by the way, why people like Ken Hovind and James White have fake PhDs from diploma mills. Let me say that again. Ken Hovind and James White both have fake PhDs from known, recognized, notorious diploma mills. You know what a diploma mill is? It's a place where basically you get a diploma by paying a bunch of money. And it is not academically up to snuff at all. Like, it's literally like you look at a picture of the seminary where Ken Hovind got his PhD from. It's literally like a single wide mobile home or something. I don't even think it was a double wide. Now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it was double wide. But I'm telling you, it's like a literal temporary building in the middle of nowhere. No campuses, no professors, there's no rigorous academics. It's just literally you just send in this many box tops and dollars and whatever. It's called diploma mill because they're just handing out diplomas for money with no actual real academic rigor. And this is why these places are totally unaccredited. They're not certified in any way. It's just anybody. Like, it'd be like if I just opened up a storefront and just called it like Pastor Anderson University, and I just start just giving PhDs and master's degrees to whoever, to whomever, since we're in academic mode. Same thing with James White. It's some like some weird office, like tiny little office suite that's like the university he got his fake PhD from and whatever. And here's what's funny about that. Like, does anybody here think that you have to have a PhD in order to be a great preacher, to be a great servant of God, or to be a great pastor or evangelist, or even to be an expert on things? I don't. I don't think you need a PhD. I don't think you need a master's degree. I don't think you need any degree in order to serve God. I don't think you need any of these accolades, because you know what? A lot of people have done a lot of great learning and study and things on their own. You know, we could point to great people throughout history and so forth. And obviously, the Bible never tells us that we need to go to Bible college or go to seminary or get these degrees or whatever. That's not in the qualifications, my friend. Nobody's saying that you need a PhD. Nobody's saying that at all. But what I am saying is, you shouldn't get a fake one so you can lie about it and pretend to be something that you're not. You know, it's already prideful and arrogant to go around bragging about, you know, whatever. And it's not even there, though? I'm doctor, doctor. You know, if you're a doctor, I don't see a stethoscope. You know what I mean? But it's just like, oh, doctor. I mean, that's not really a biblical title. The people in the Bible who went around calling themselves doctors, there are always people getting kind of rebuked by Jesus. You know what I'm saying? But it's like, you go to one of these IFB conferences, and it's like, everybody's a doctor. And then you always feel bad for like that one guy who's not. Because like, here's a list of 15 speakers. Doctor so-and-so, doctor so-and-so, doctor. And then it's just like, brother or something. You're just like, oh, man, I'm sorry, bro. You know, you got that bro with a period after it. Instead of the DR. Look, nobody's saying that you need to even have these things. You know, but why lie about it? Why get a fake one? I mean, if your whole life is like, oh, man, you know, I'm going to put all these scientists in their place. Like, why wouldn't you just actually get the real credential? Like, if that's your whole thing, especially when you're in prison for a decade, wouldn't that be a perfect opportunity to get some real credentials? But in order to do that, you'd have to go to the wise. You'd have to actually go to someone who knows more and ask them to teach you. Instead, just your heart just discovering itself all day long. You'd have to actually go and submit and be humble and learn something. You know, I mean, if you're like James White, you're the resident scholar over at Apostasia Church. You know, I mean, if that's your whole life, why wouldn't you just get the real academic credentials? Why? Because you're too prideful. That's why. And you know what's funny is that, and I'm going off on a little rabbit trail, but I don't care. I'm sick, OK? My throat hurts. Cut me some slack. But here's the thing. You know, now I lost my train of thought. Just give me a second. Oh yeah, you know, a lot of people will quote, a lot of people will quote Brother Hiles on this subject. You know, Jack Hiles, you know, pastor from the 20th century, huge church, really influential man of God. And a lot of people will quote him saying, well, you know, the reason that we don't need accreditation is because why would that which is superior seek accreditation from that which is inferior? And that's actually a biblical concept. You know, the Bible actually says, you know, without contradiction, the less is blessed of the better. And so the idea that he has there of saying, well, why would superiority seek accreditation or approval from inferiority, that's actually a valid argument if it was actually superior. In order for that argument to work, you would have to actually be as academically rigorous as the one that the world's offering. I mean, is everybody following the logic here? Then that argument actually makes sense. Well, we're superior. The proof's in the pudding. But that doesn't work when your academics at a college or a university are like on par with the public high school system. You know what I'm saying? And then you can't say, well, you know, why would we seek accreditation from that which is inferior? When in reality, Kent Hovind's doctoral thesis would not be accepted by any of these accredited universities anywhere. His thesis literally starts out like, hi, how are you? I'm fine. That's not academic writing. OK, I exaggerated a little bit. It starts out, hi, my name's Kent Hovind. That's not academic writing. That's not a thesis. He literally just took some pop book that he already wrote and just, oh, here's my thesis. James White, same thing. Popular level book, non-academic writing. Here you go, here's my thesis. Oh, well, did you send the money, though? Because that's the main thing. All right, here's your PhD. All right, I digress. Genesis chapter 4, here's a great story about a guy who didn't want to admit that he's wrong. This is the story of Cain and Abel. It says in verse number 1, and Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I've gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering. But it had Cain unto his offering, yet not respect. All right, I'm taking another rabbit trail. Let me give you another confession of something that I used to be wrong about, OK? I used to wrongfully believe that people were vegetarians before the flood. That's what I've been taught my whole life, and that's what I thought. Because in the Garden of Eden, you have God saying, oh, you're going to eat of the green herb, you're going to eat the fruits, and so forth. And then it's not until they get off of Noah's ark that he explicitly says, hey, you're going to eat the meat, but just don't eat the blood. And if any animals kill any humans, then you should kill the animal. And if a man sheds a man's blood and all, you have that whole talk. So basically, that led me to think, like a lot of people think, erroneously, that for the 1,650-some years between creation and the flood, that man is vegetarian, that man's not eating meat. But guess what? That's not right. That's wrong. That's not true. Because if you actually look at what the Bible says, we've got two guys here. And what does one of them do for a living? One of them is a tiller of the ground, and the other one is a keeper of sheep. Now, pray tell me this. Why would Abel be a keeper of sheep if he's a vegetarian? Now, you could make the argument and say, well, it's just he's a lacto-vegetarian. He's into dairy. He's just not killing and eating it. But here's why that's false and demonstrably false. Because number one, OK, in the Garden of Eden, God already kills an animal in the Garden of Eden because he makes them coats of skins. And that killing of an animal represents Jesus dying for our sins, the Lamb of God. And so that coat of skins is us putting on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, OK? So they've already killed an animal back in the Garden of Eden. But not only that, if you actually read this passage carefully and you look at the two offerings, Cain is bringing the fruits and vegetables that he has produced. But the Bible says in verse four, Abel brought the firstlings of his flock, and this is the key phrase, and of the fat thereof. The fat thereof. Now, let me explain this briefly. There are two kinds of sacrifices that we see in the Bible, and I'm oversimplifying. But in general, you have what's called the whole burnt offering. Now, here's what the whole burnt offering is. Just like the name implies, you take the whole animal and you just burn it to a crisp. You just torch, cremate an entire animal. That's called the whole burnt offering, right? Everybody got that? OK, but that's not the standard animal sacrifice. If you read through the Book of Leviticus, the standard sacrifice is not to burn the entire offering. Rather, you burn the fat unto the Lord, right? So basically, they open up the animal, they butcher it, and they burn the fat unto the Lord. And then they'll also burn unedible things unto the Lord. But guess what they do with the meat? They eat it, OK? This is not a whole burnt offering. This is offering the fat unto the Lord because you're eating the meat. Because that is part of the sacrifice. And in fact, I believe God even says that if you don't eat the meat, then it's not even accepted. Because you have a place where Moses gets mad at Aaron, like, why didn't you eat this? You're supposed to eat this thing. And then Aaron's like, well, I couldn't eat it because of these extenuating circumstances. And then Moses says, OK, yeah, you're right. You did the right thing. And so we have these kind of discussions about sacrifice and so forth. But here's what's truly silly about this idea that literally everyone, because it'd be one thing if they said, well, people were supposed to be a vegetarian before the flood. You expect me to believe that for 1,600 years, when the world is so full of violence and people are killing each other super violently, super wicked, and God ends up destroying the whole world because of the level of violence, you expect me to believe that they're just meanwhile just munching on their veggie sandwich. And God forbid that they would kill and eat an animal. They're just killing people over it. It's kind of silly when you think about it. But I believed that my whole life. And sometimes we just don't really think things through. But then at some point, I realized, OK, I'm wrong about this. Abel is literally a keeper of sheep for a living. That's really only going to make sense if you're using the whole sheep. It's difficult enough to make it as a shepherd in this world. It's going to be a lot harder if you're not even going to touch any of the meat. And you're just only doing dairy. What do you do with all the male sheep? It's just not a very good business model for Abel. And look, what does the text say? The text says he's offering the fat. That's the type of offering where you eat the meat. So I'm not saying that's a big deal or something. I'm just saying that's something that I was wrong about. And I read the scripture and realized, OK, yeah, this doesn't make any sense. They're obviously eating meat. And what's this? By the way, for those who heard that conversation that I had the other day on the Baptist Bias podcast, what was up with that weird teaching that things were so perfect before the flood? What was that? I mean, Hovind literally said that, oh, the soil is worse after the flood because of salt water. When the Bible literally says the opposite, the Bible literally says when they get off the ark, I'm no longer going to curse the ground for man's sake. So it was literally cursed before the flood. And then he lifts the curse in Genesis chapter 8 and says, I'm not going to curse the ground. He's just teaching the literal opposite. Oh, things are so perfect before the flood that you don't even need a house. You just live outside. Hey, I don't know about you, but one of the main reasons for my house is to keep bad guys out. Because I live in Arizona, and I can sleep outside pretty much every day, especially for like half the year. I mean, you can sleep outside every day. You want to know why I don't just sleep outside every day? Is it the weather? Is it because I don't have a snow globe canopy around me? Because I don't live in a giant snow globe? Is that what? No, the reason why I don't is because I'm just afraid of weirdos accosting me in my sleep. I just feel a lot more comfortable in a room with the door shut, nice and safe and cozy. I mean, does everybody see what I'm saying? Oh, they don't even need houses. That's why they didn't build anything. They didn't need anything. The guy is just making stuff up. It's not biblical. It doesn't make any sense. Other than that, he's a wonderful person. And he's not saved, other than that. All right, let's get back on track here. I got a couple of minutes to land the plane here. You know, God didn't respect Cain's offering. He didn't expect this salad that he's presented with. Because God expected an animal sacrifice, because it's to picture the blood of Jesus, right? It's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, you know, that takes away the sin of the world. So God says to Cain, why art thou wroth? Like, why are you so filled with wrath? Why are you mad? And why is thy countenance fallen? Verse 7, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And so this is the wrong reaction to getting corrected. The Bible says over and over again that we should receive correction. The Bible says, for example, in Psalm 32.8, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Be not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. You know, don't be this stubborn animal, where we have to put a bit and bridle in your mouth to force you to do anything, as opposed to just being able to just tell you, look, this is the truth. This is what it is. Stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry, the Bible says, right? Don't be stubborn. Look, don't be a reality denier. There's nothing more frustrated when someone just denies reality and tells you that the apple is an orange and the sky is not blue. It's so frustrating. And you know what, it just tells me everything I need to know about that person. That is a toxic trait. And it's many times people who are filled with pride, they're full of themselves, and this is why they can't ever think that they would ever make a mistake, because they're just perfect. And they just never get things wrong. Folks, we all get things wrong, OK? I'm not perfect, you're not perfect. We're all going to get facts wrong. We're all going to get interpretations wrong, myself included. We're all going to commit sin. We're all going to break God's commandments. The difference is whether or not we're going to admit it or not. And you know what, there are people out there who are literally going to die and go to hell, because they won't admit that they're a sinner. They have no need for a savior, because they haven't sinned. And of course, that's absurd, because we know that we've all sinned. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Why, because we're not deceiving anyone else. Nobody else is dumb enough to believe that I haven't sinned. If I said, hey, I've never sinned, no one here is dumb enough to believe that. If I actually thought that, I'd be deceiving one person, myself. We've all made mistakes in the past. We're all going to make mistakes in the future. The difference is whether we acknowledge them and move on. And by the way, once someone has acknowledged something and said, you know what, yeah, OK, I was wrong about that, it should not be continually thrown in their face. If somebody actually said, for example, yeah, you're right. Actually, Abraham Lincoln did have a marriage license, then I would never bring it up again. Because it isn't right to throw things in people's faces where they've already acknowledged it, they've already repented, they've already gotten it right. We should forgive and forget and move on. But folks, that's why we just need to be willing to accept reality when it stares us in the face. Don't fall into this generation of Mandela effect mentality types. You know what, we can make fun of that and talk about how silly it is. But then you've got Bible-believing Christians turning around and doing the exact same thing and just saying, no, I'm right. And you're like, yeah, but look, here's all this evidence and here it's all right here. And they're just like, no, no. Why are you right? Well, you're mean. It's like, well, no, I mean, facts are facts. So don't be a reality denier. Admit when you get a fact wrong. Admit when you believe wrong. That's what we expect people to do when we're out soul winning. And when you've sinned, the first step is to just realize, OK, I'm not perfect. I've sinned. I'm sorry. How can I fix this in my life? How can I do better going forward instead of just digging in and trying to say, well, yeah, I know I wasn't supposed to do it, but here's why it was OK for me to do it and make excuses. No, my friend, just acknowledge it that you've sinned. You sinned. You screwed up. You did wrong. You weren't perfect. We should all know that anyway. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Thank you for your correction, Lord, because when you correct us, we know that you love us and you're chastening us and correcting us so that we can be a partaker of your holiness. Lord, help us all to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Help us never to get so puffed up that we think we can't learn anything. Lord, help us always to be willing to submit to people that are smarter than us to teach us or submit to people who have more information in a certain area so that they can teach us and not just be that old, wise king who can no longer be admonished. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.