Don't Buy Smoke

I have a question for you today. What do we do when we live in a world society that sells smoke? What do we do when we live in a world society that sells smoke? Now, perhaps you're not familiar with the idiom to sell smoke, but I think you can readily grasp its meaning. To sell smoke generally refers to the empty words, empty promises, and especially false promises some people make in order to manipulate others, in order to get what they want, such as money, control, influence, power, and so on. To sell smoke is closely related to another idiom you may be more familiar with, to blow smoke. To blow smoke, which means to deliberately confuse or deceive, to trick somebody, to conceal the truth. Some would say to blow smoke and to sell smoke mean the same thing, and that seems to be true for both refer to being tricked and deceived through lies. It's my contention in Scripture that we live in a world that sells smoke. Like those charlatans and frauds of the Old West who sold snake oil miracle cures for all sorts of things to a naive and unsuspecting public, or if you have any charlatans calling you at home wanting to sell you a new roof or another warranty on your car and so on, I think you understand what this is like. Those are just examples of how we live in a society that has been sold smoke and made so confused and ill-informed that most people, us included, have a little clue sometimes. It seems as to what is true anymore. What is untrue? Or is it half true now? Or is it all fake? I don't know if you ever heard something called fake news. Or maybe it's false? Maybe it's outright propaganda or a downright lie? This is the world we live in. And if you are like me, you've probably been frustrated and angry and upset about really trying to figure out what is what. It's hard to know. The people of the world have been sold smoke, and they sell smoke, and they buy smoke. Practicing and living according to faults and deceptive principles, living according to empty promises and lies is the way of the world. In a sense, ours is a world marketing in deception and lies, and all people suffer for it. So what do we do? We followers of Jesus Christ when we live in a world, in a society that sells smoke? My purpose today is to answer that question through Scripture and through Scripture to encourage us and motivate us to cut through the smoke, to blow it away, and so to buy instead what is true and lasting. Rather than being bewildered and tricked, we can see our way with the help of God, and so not by the smoky deception of the world in its ways. So I've entitled today's sermon, Don't Buy Smoke. Don't Buy Smoke.

I'll begin with this fact. It's a fact. Humanity has rejected God. Humanity has rejected God. In turn, God is allowing humanity to get what it asks for, and frankly, until it's sick of it. God certainly does love humanity. We know that. He sent his own son, and his own son, Jesus Christ, willingly came and died because they love all humanity. He died for all people. And yet God hates wickedness. He hates the suffering that wickedness causes. And so yet, as a loving parent must sometimes do, God has allowed rebellious humanity to go its own way, for a while at least, in hope of its eventual repentance and reconciliation with him. If you turn with me to Romans chapter 1, verse 26 to 32, we'll read here how Paul aptly describes a world society in which people have rejected God, his laws, and his way of life. It's fascinating to me that, of course, we know how God inspires us with prophetic vision at times. It's amazing to me that Paul wrote this nearly 2,000 years ago, and yet it really is a window into our present times. It's as if we're looking at our TV screens as we read this. Verse 26, Romans 1, Romans 1, 26.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting. Not fitting sometimes is translated as not usual, not normal, not the things that should not be done. He gave them over to do things which are not fitting, and being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, and full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. And they are whispers, and we see this, they are whispers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobeying it to parents, undecerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

I remember reading this section of Scripture many decades ago now, when God was calling me, and I remember it was kind of hard for me to imagine what He was talking about. I guess I grew up rather protected. Men with men, women with women, I didn't know what that meant. Not anymore. It's very sad. Not anymore. Today, most everything mentioned here that Paul wrote about is openly paraded. It's openly paraded in our streets and across our computer screens, our TV screens. It's celebrated. And yes, even as it says, verse 32, it's approved of.

It's upheld as a wonderful thing, a noble thing, to be free of inhibitions. And so at present, we are being sold some rather stunning smoke, false beliefs, things that are not appropriate, not fitting for people to be doing. For example, we have heard now the smoke that one can be of any gender one wants to be. And if you don't like that, you can go back and try something else. And if that doesn't work, I'm sure there's another name for that now, too.

We've been told that God blesses gay marriages, and there are occurring in churches that do claim that they are followers of Christ. We have been told that there's only one group of people that can be racist, only one group of people that can be bigoted and prejudiced against skin color. We're also told that abortion, even up until full term, should be legalized. There's really nothing wrong with that, according to some who are trying to sell their version of smoke. Increasingly, as we read in Isaiah 5, verse 20, it was a scripture for today, Isaiah 5, verse 20, increasingly morality is being turned upside down.

It has been for some time, and it just seems like it's really become much more obvious in a quicker pace now. Isaiah again wrote, And so increasingly, as I've noted here, behaviors the Bible clearly defines as sinful are glorified. They're glorified as good and wonderful, liberating. Well, those who uphold God's standards of scripture, from scripture, what God says, they are called, well, people like you and me who have a biblical worldview, we're called evil now.

We are called intolerant. We are called the oppressors and oppressive. Many people, whether knowingly or unknowingly, have bought the smoke of Satan's society, of this world. And as Revelation 12, verse 19 tells us, you can turn there with me if you'd like, but Revelation 12, verse 9 tells us the origin of this deception, ultimately the origin where it started. So the great dragon was cast out, the serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

Elsewhere we remember he's called the father of lies. He's the origin of this deception we have in the world. And we're in the neighborhood. Let's look at 1 John 5.19. 1 John 5.19. We're also told this, that we know it reads, We know, John speaking to Christ's followers, we know that we are of God. And the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. The wicked one being Satan. Of course, we understand that Satan's influence upon humanity is really nothing new. It's as old as the world itself. And that takes us back all the way to the Garden of Eden.

Let's turn back to the Garden of Eden scene, Genesis chapter 3. It may have been a while since we've read this. Back in Genesis 3, verse 1 through 13. I'd like to read with you that first great deception that Satan accomplished upon the unsuspecting Eve. Genesis 3, verse 1 through 13.

In verse 1 we read, Now the serpent, we know who that is, the devil, Satan, Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden. In verse 2, And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, But of the fruit of the trees which is in the midst of the garden, God is said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.

And it's interesting, Satan immediately starts his conversation with her, at least what we see here, with a question. Of course, we probably have heard this before, and we need to remember it, because this sort of thing that's happening with us now in society, and happening to our children in schools, we begin to be questioned about our beliefs. Why do you believe that? Why do you believe that old idea? It's like what Satan did back with Eve.

The questioning you see is a subtle way, it was, and it is, it was a subtle way to cause Eve to have doubts about God's instruction, to make sure pause to say, Well, now, yes, that is what God said, now why would he say that? It makes that human reasoning kick in. He also asks the question, it seems, to help work to weaken her resolve, to weaken her confidence in what God said. The same ploy is used by others today. So Eve said, yes, we were told, don't eat it, don't touch it, lest you die.

Verse 4, Then the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die. He told her, Smoke, for God knows that in the day you eat it, that your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. I'm sure he made it sound very attractive, very alluring. But, yes, Satan told a lie. He purposely deceived Eve. He sold her smoke. Now, next, notice how Eve used her reasoning. She began to reason about what he had said, it seems. She began to justify her next action, verse 6. So when the woman saw that the tree, it was good for food, she could see that, and that it was pleasant to the eyes.

It's very attractive. And it was the tree desirable to make one wise. Yes, he said it would make me wise. Well, then she took of its fruit and ate. She bought smoke. Eve listened to the deception and bought smoke. And then she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. And he ate. Now, 1 Timothy 2.14, you can jot this down.

I don't remember where it's at. 1 Timothy 2.14, we were told that Adam was not deceived. He was not deceived. But he bought smoke anyway. He bought smoke, too. He took it and ate. And then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew something happened to their mindset. They now knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden to cool the day.

And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Isn't that a typical response to sin? When we sin, we try to hide it. We try to hide ourselves. Remember when you were little kids? You do something wrong, you try to hide. Verse 9, Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you? Couldn't God see them? And so then Adam said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

Well, of course, God knew where they were hiding. He knew that what they had done. God is fully aware of what was going on. He had allowed this to occur.

It seems that God wanted to know what they would say. It's what we do as parents sometimes, right? We see our kids with the chocolate cake around their lips, on their lips, and we know what they did. It's obvious. We still ask them, did you eat that chocolate cake I told you not to eat? And if they go, no, that's disappointing, isn't it? Because our child has just lied to us. But if they said yes, well, we're still disappointed that our child disobeyed us.

But at least we have a little more encouragement that he is honest or she was honest about it. It seems God was wanting to know. He's wanting to know their heart. He wanted to know which direction their character was going. He wanted to give them a chance, I'm sure, to fess up, maybe to repent. He wanted to know, would they tell the truth? Would they deny it? Would they blame others? Would they be repentant? In verse 11, God said, Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you that you should not eat? And then the man said, Well, the woman whom you gave to me with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate. This is sad because Adam, who hadn't been deceived, he comes across as trying to blame God, in essence. It's this woman's fault. If you hadn't given me the woman, she wouldn't have taken the fruit, and then I wouldn't have eaten it. So he's kind of going round about. He's not really being direct. And the Lord God then said to the woman, What is this you have done?

And the woman said, and I like how she says very few words, direct and to the point, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Eve seems to be a little more honest about things, doesn't she? Quite maybe a bit more, a lot more honest. At least it doesn't seem she's trying to evade the truth here. So what we see here, if you think about it, look at it this way. Adam and Eve had the best situation two human beings have ever had. They lived in this beautiful, pristine environment. They both had a job to do, dressing and keeping the garden. They had each other, a wonderful relationship, and they had a wonderful relationship with God, the creator of all the universe, their own creator.

Everything they had was just as God knew it needed to be for them. And yet Satan led them away from God with the deception. He gave them an illusion of something much better, something much better, a promise of something much better, which Satan himself did not have and Satan himself could not give. He said they'd get everlasting life.

They wouldn't die. They'd have knowledge like God's. And so they bought the lie, and they paid the price. They disobeyed. They sinned. They were cast out of the garden. And their lives are suddenly much harsher. They were living in a much harsher reality. They bought the smoke of Satan's deception. And so, as humanity ever since then, in all humanity has remained victim to Satan's deception.

If it weren't for God and his love, we would have no hope. If it weren't for God and his love and this plan he's fulfilling through Jesus Christ to bring about the birth of many sons and daughters to his family. If it weren't for his compassion and mercy and all this forethought, we would have no hope. None of us would have any hope. And that's a good thing to think about when we're in our own troubles, to realize that there's something much bigger and better out there.

Now, those who accept the Father's calling and choose life through living faith in Jesus Christ believe and obey God. They believe what he said. They obey him. They choose to submit themselves to God. Of course, that means they still have to keep, you and I, we still have to keep repenting of sin. Sin doesn't go away just because we're called, just because we're baptized, or because we receive God's Holy Spirit in us. We still have to keep refusing to live by the smoke of Satan's deception.

If you turn with me back to 1 John 2, 15-17, 1 John 2, 15-17, John reminds us, Yes, we must not love the ways of the world. This world is under the sway of Satan. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It's pretty clear. For all that is in the world, lust of the flesh. Now, listen to these three things. They might remind you of something Eve said.

It parallels what Eve said, why she took that fruit. John writes, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but it is of the world. And the world is passing away. It's temporary. In a sense, this whole world is, compared to God's reality, this whole world is like an illusion. It's not going to last. It's going away. The world is passing away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. There's our hope. There's that positive.

And so the world is an illusion compared to God's greater eternal reality. And it's that reality that we must remain focused on. The reality which is of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Now, there is one human being, only one human being, Jesus Christ, who saw through all of Satan's deceptions. And aren't we glad he refused to buy smoke? Let's look back in Matthew 4. I'd like for us to review back the scene of the temptations Satan was trying to tempt Jesus Christ into disobedience against his Father. In Matthew 4, verse 1-11, we read how it was that Jesus overcame Satan's temptations. I want for us to look at this because this is part of the example of Jesus Christ that we are told to follow. We're to put on the mind of Christ. We're to become like Christ. Here's how we can see a way to get through the deceptive practices, the smoke of this world. He gives us an example here. Verse 1, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward he was hungry. He knew to get a closer and stronger relationship with God, as we've learned through fasting, you have to be humble. You have to get control and get closer to God. Fasting is one of those ways. Verse 3-4, Now when the tempter came to him, he said, and also he starts with the question again, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. He's asking a question. He's trying the same technique, the same tactic, just as he'd done with Eve. Ask a question, hoping to cause doubt, hoping to weaken Jesus's resolve about whether or not he really was the Son of God or whether he needed to prove it somehow.

But Jesus was dauntless. I love that word. He was dauntless. He was undaunted, unshakable. Verse 4, He answered, said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Satan was tempting Jesus to prove, in essence, to prove who he was by turning stones into bread. But Jesus knew he didn't have to prove anything to anybody, per se, at least of all, to Satan. He knew who he was. He knew what the Father had said. He knew his relationship with God. Instead, he quoted Scriptures. He quoted a Scripture here, and so chose to trust the Father. In trying to make bread for himself, he chose to submit to the Father in his care and let the Father take care of his needs, as the Father determined. Verse 5-7, in 2nd Temptation, the devil took him up, this time to the holy city Jerusalem. And he said to him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. Just cast yourself off this high point. For it is written, Satan is quoting Scripture. Are we surprised, then, when we hear others in the world claiming to be ministers, preachers of God quoting Scripture, and marrying people of the same gender? No, we know they're anti-Christ. They're false prophets. It's a great false prophet to come for the end of the age. The deception is there. They will quote Scripture. Even Satan quotes Scripture. Satan said, Well, cast yourself down, for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. But Jesus said to him, a little scriptural swordplay here, It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. The second attempt, Satan himself, again, tries to tempt Jesus by quoting Scripture, saying, hey, it's okay, Scripture says this. But Jesus again refused to comply. He quoted Scripture and trusted the Father completely to be faithful to protect Him. He had no need to proof test the Father. He knew and trusted totally His Father and the faithfulness of His Father to take care of Him. And finally, in verse 8 through 11, Now again the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain. That's given him special vision of sorts to be able to see, because He showed him all the kingdoms of the world, all their glory. Of course, their glory would be the glory of the world, of the human realm. And he said to him, Satan said to him, all these things I will give to you. I know I'm being dramatic for a fact, but Satan strikes me as being a sort of being that is braggadocious, flaunting, dramatical, but very deadly and dangerous. And he said to him, all these things I will give to you, if you will fall down and worship me. And then Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan, get out of here. For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, in him only you shall serve. And then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. He knew his father would take care of him, right? And here they come. The angels come down to take care of him. In this final attempt, Satan tempted Jesus with the authority over the world. But Satan didn't have that authority to give, did he? He didn't have that authority. He pretended he did. He thinks he does. You see, the father had already given that authority to Jesus Christ, but all in due time, all in due order, then Christ will come to establish his kingdom on earth. Satan, in essence, was suggesting that Jesus take a shortcut. Take a shortcut. Let me give you this world and let you reign over it, and you can avoid all your suffering. You can avoid even the crucifixion. But Jesus absolutely refused. What an abhorrent idea there must have been to Christ.

Jesus absolutely refused, again quoting Scripture. He knew that he would rule on earth one day, but it would absolutely not be by worshipping Satan. Absolutely not. Romans 5, verse 18 through 19, Paul rightly describes Christ's victory over Satan. Unlike Adam, Jesus Christ successfully rejected Satan's temptations. He rejected the smoke and remained completely submissive to his father. He fulfilled his will for which we must always praise him and thank him. Romans 5, verse 18, You can also jot down 1 Corinthians 1522.

Paul writes, And so yes, Jesus Christ did not buy smoke. He rejected Satan's temptations, the empty promises, and remained faithful. Ultimately, then, through his death, he carried through the plan he and his father had made for salvation of humanity. He carried through the plan, taking our place in death, our penalty for sin, making possible our deliverance from sin and death.

He paid the price for Adam and Eve's disobedience, for all human disobedience, even ours. The point I have is to be sure we have here. When we're tempted or assailed by the ways of the world, when we're feeling overwhelmed by the deception and deceitfulness, we must follow Christ's example.

We must find strength, true strength, and true direction in God's holy scripture. We must turn to God's Word. We must hold true to obey God, His law and His Word. We must be faithful to God. Don't doubt that He will do what He says. No matter how hard it may be, we must do the best we can.

We must do the best we can with God's help. Rather than buying into the ways of the world, its lawlessness and deceit, God urges us to buy from Him. Don't buy from the world. Buy from Him. God wants us to buy from Him what is real and what truly lasts. That's related to His character, to having His mindset, to living by His truth.

We go back to Revelation 3, verse 18. Revelation 3, 18 may sound strange to say, well, God wants us to buy something? Yes. Revelation 3, 18 to the Church of Laodiceans, Christ urged those who hear, and we want to hear, don't we? Christ urged those who hear to buy what truly matters, to buy what truly matters. Verse 18, I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesaf that you may see. So we're to buy these things.

Now, we understand that we cannot earn salvation, and neither can we literally buy our way into the kingdom. To buy here, again, is an idiom. It's a metaphor. In this case, it's a metaphor meaning that we must expend. We must put out effort. We must expend our will, our desire. We must expend ourselves, as it were, in order to submit to living in faith and obedience to God.

That's what we spend. We buy by giving our will all that we have within us to follow God. And so the gold refined in fire here refers to the genuineness of faith we build through life's fiery trials. And the white garments are the righteous acts of our obedience. The ISAF refers to our diligence to develop God's spiritual insight, his wisdom, understanding. All these things we must expend ourselves. We can't buy these things with coins or currency.

We buy it by giving up other things, giving up ourselves to learn of God, to apply it, to let him live in us and help us through spirit. In Isaiah 55, verse 1 through 3, God inspired Isaiah with a similar message. Isaiah 55, verse 1 through 3, God encourages those to hear, to buy from him what is true and lasting and abundant. Again, it can't be purchased with money. Isaiah 55, verse 1, Ho! He says, Pay attention, take note, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money. Come, buy, and eat.

Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me. Here's what you do. Listen carefully to me and eat what is good. And let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, pay attention, heed, come to me. Hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. When we choose to heed God's words, we turn to His instruction and spend sincere effort, spend sincere effort in seeking Him, and then God will establish with us an everlasting and loving relationship as He promised through David.

He had one with David. We can have that through the Son of David, through Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And then in verses 6 through 9, continuing on, we learn that those who seek God, indeed, must turn from sin. Repentance is a price we pay. Repentance is a price we pay, as it were, to have a relationship with God. Verse 6, Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So we must give up our ways of thinking. We must give up the deceitfulness of this world. The deceitfulness sometimes gets entrenched in our hearts and minds. We've got to repent of all that. Repent of our sins. Seek forgiveness through Christ's shed blood, faith in His blood, and God will forgive us.

And so to buy true food and true drink without money, without price requires our repentance from sin. And that we give our all to God, all in faithful submission to Him. We see a similar idea in Proverbs 23.23.

Proverbs 23.23, buy the truth and do not sell it, and also wisdom and instruction and understanding. And again, truth like wisdom is not a product, it's not a service you can buy or sell. To buy truth requires that we spend time and effort, self-sacrifice, and yes, sometimes even personal pain and discomfort, and learning about God and practicing His way of life and being faithful and enduring through those fiery trials. We do all that because we love God, because we want to be like Him.

So instead of giving into the ways of the world and of our flesh, again all of which is perishing, like smoke, is soon gone, we must willingly give ourselves in total submission to God, and so be found worthy of receiving God's gift of salvation, eternal life, in His kingdom. Yes, Satan and the world, they're doing all they can to have us buy smoke. The world and Satan's doing all they can to have us reject God, to question God, to destabilize our relationship with God. They're trying to pull us away with empty promises, trying to make the way of life apart from God attractive and alluring. But what we read in Romans 1 is not very attractive. It's not very alluring. If you believe God, Satan is our adversary. He hates us. He especially hates us, not just all humanity, but us in particular, because we have heeded God's call. We have committed ourselves to Him. Now, if you turn with me to 2 Timothy 3, verse 12-13, 2 Timothy 3, 12-13, in essence, we'll learn here there's another price we pay, another thing we should expect to pay up, and gladly so. We have another price to pay for our loyalty to God. 2 Timothy 3, 12 tells us that we will suffer persecution. We will suffer persecution. Verse 12, Yes, in all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. It certainly sounds like the world we live in, and it's going to get worse and worse. I think we all know that. Then we will suffer persecution. That is part of the price we are willing to pay in our allegiance, our loyalty, and our commitment to God. I think it's a price we willingly pay. So what are we going to do? My question, what do we do when we live in a world society that sells smoke? What do we do when what we read about Romans 1, what we read about or watch TV, what happens when we see it in our hometowns? What happens when we see it in our schools, some of the lies being foisted off?

What do we do when we see it coming in our media and entertainment, into our very homes? How do we not buy smoke? How do we not buy smoke? One thing we need to do so we do not buy smoke, God's holy scripture must remain our guide. God's holy scripture must remain our guide. That's the example we found, Satan's temptation of Jesus. We must be knowledgeable and skilled in understanding and using God's word. We can also take a lesson from what Paul told Timothy. Let's look at 2 Timothy 3.14. I think you're still there. 2 Timothy 3.14. Paul is speaking to Timothy, but I think his advice to Timothy certainly is applicable to us. Paul tells Timothy, and I think we could say he tells us, But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures. Indeed, many of us here have been following God's word since we were little kids.

And that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. We have what we need. We have what we need to defend ourselves from these exceptions out there. We have to use it. We have to hold fast to God's word. We have to believe it. We have to do it. We have to love it. We have to spend quality time. We have to spend quality time learning his scripture, studying it, applying it. We must use it as our source of truth to build our moral foundation, in which we build our lives, from which we view the world.

Isaiah 8.20 offers us a very good basic principle. One that we should... we probably have already been teaching our children. Isaiah 8.20 is a very profitable principle for us who want to buy what God offers us. A profitable principle, Isaiah 8.20, to the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. So many of the beliefs that are now being endorsed in the world can be refuted through scripture. And I know quoting scripture likely won't convince anyone who celebrates their worldliness, their beliefs. But scripture will convince us of what God says. And scripture will direct us as to where and how we must stand with God. Another thing we must do... we must have the love for God's truth. We must have the love for God's truth. We must know God's holy scripture. Understand it thoroughly. Obey it. Do it. And that means we have to keep stirring ourselves up. We have to keep asking God to help us. We need to ask God's help through His Holy Spirit. We have to eat daily of that bread of life. Do what God says. And if our appetite for God's word is lessened, if you feel your zeal for godly behavior as somewhat cooled, then we had better repent without delay. That's a dangerous position for us to be in.

God will help us. We have to have that love. He will help us with the Spirit and His word to repent of apathy. We just have to humbly go to Him and admit it. He already knows it. Admit to Him we need help. And He will help. He will help us to reinvigorate us with a greater zeal for studying. He will help us to understand things that have been vague. He will help us to live His way of life. He will love His truth. And He will do everything He can to help you and to help me, to help our kids, to learn His truth and to live it. The third thing we must do is teach our children. We have to teach our children to love God and His word. And this is critical. We must be diligent to instruct our children in God's word. We parents, and you know it. We parents have but a short time, in their very early years, especially, to instill within our children a respect and love for God. We must teach them to revere and trust God, to do what God says. We have to help them learn how to use the Bible as their foundation and anchor in life. We have to teach them to love God, help them learn how to love their neighbor, God's way.

Despite society's celebration of illicit sex, homosexuality, transgenderism, hatred, lawlessness, and more, despite all that, we parents must be unabashed. In teaching what God tells us in His scripture, what He declares to be sinful behavior. That will make us uncomfortable, perhaps, at times. At times, that will mean having conversations with our children about topics we wish so badly that they did not need to know. But we have to have those conversations. We have to have those conversations with them in a loving and age-appropriate way, frankly much sooner than we really want to. And I know it. I had to have those conversations with my kids, and they were very young. I never wanted them to have to hear about some of these things that's going on. But you see, if I didn't teach my kids and my wife, and if you don't teach your kids at a young age, who will? You know who will.

The world's waiting. They're already starting, if you're being carefully watching what they're watching. We must fortify our children with God's truth before they are beset with the values and the morality of this world. The world we live in will not hesitate to sell smoke to our children. And we must help them very early on to learn not to buy it, show them where to go for the answers of what's true. We are our children's parents, not the teachers, not the school administrators, not the librarians. We have great librarians in our community, but we hear what goes on in the rest of the world. God has blessed us with the responsibility to ground our children in His truth, in His way and life. No one is perfect, I know, not even parents, especially, I think, sometimes parents. That's my feeling. But God expects us as parents to ground our truth, our ground His truth in our children. Now, what they do with that truth, when they get older, that's on them, and then they become accountable. But while they're still ours, we have to do our part. It's critical. It's very critical right now. No one else is as well placed to teach our children as we can. And even as we ourselves are humbly seeking God's guidance and instruction from His Word, we're learning God's Word together, in a sense. I think it's important to note this. Perhaps one of the most powerful deterrents to Satan in the deceptions of the world is a family united in loving God and keeping His Word. I think that's very important. A most powerful deterrent to Satan in the deceptions of the world is a family united in loving God and His law.

So, brethren, we must be studying and applying God's Word, learning His law, practicing it. There's always more to learn and do. We must not faint during these times of confusion and upheaval in our society.

We must not faint at the challenges, rejecting the deceit, rejecting the lies of this world. And as we continue in sincere repentance and faith, God is faithful. He is faithful to help us. He'll help us face things. We may not have a clue what to begin with, but He will help us through it. We go to His Word. We find wise counselors. We find help. He will help us. As individuals, as a congregation, as a body of Christ, we can reject falsehood. God will help us. We can live His truth, even though persecuted. And we can love God's way and God's people so that we will endure and be able to reject whatever deception may come our way. And so it is. We must love God's truth. We must buy it and never sell it. But don't buy smoke. Don't buy smoke. Not now. Not ever.