This sermon emphasizes the importance of standing firm in faith and resisting the perversion of God's ways, as seen in the encounter between Paul and the sorcerer Elemas in Acts 13. It challenges listeners to align their values with eternity, not the temporary world, and to reject perverted thinking and actions. The message highlights the need to prioritize doing what is right in the eyes of God, rather than seeking worldly approval or power.

In the book of Acts, the 13th chapter, we see that when the word of God was being declared in Cyprus, what did the gospel encounter? It was taken right into the court. So, here is Saul, he's addressing the deputy, the Roman head of this island. But there was a sorcerer by the name of Elemas who withstood them. The eighth verse, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Ninth verse, then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said, O fool of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou cease, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? Now, look at this kind of straight speaking. Now, when God's word comes to us, what is it that makes us huff and puff and show a perverted spirit? Here, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? They were bringing the right ways of God into that island. It was a missionary conquest. They were steamrolling the place, right in the court. Won't you cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? When politics is all about resisting and perverting the right ways of the Lord today in the world, my dear friends, it means that we must stand fast. Here a little, there a little, we give way and compromise. You know, it becomes a real fashion. It becomes so trendy to just to be a compromiser. Here, right in the court, these two men would not compromise the truth. Oh, my dear friends, if all the people who are at church this morning in the big, prestigious places of the land or of North America were such people, just imagine what an impact it is going to have upon all fields of human activity. But what is it that keeps us from being such people? Is it a perverted heart? Is it perverted thinking? Is it, are they perverted values? You know, when eternity is at issue, and here we are just in the porch, entering. I wonder how long you spend on a rainy day or on a snowy day out in the porch. You say, let me be through with this and get into the shelter and the warmth of the sanctuary or the building. We don't like the porch very long. But after all, where are we today? We are just in the vestibule. We're in the porch. Well, where are we headed into eternity? What should our values then be, the values of the porch? What are the values of the porch? Let's get out of here quickly. This is no place for me. I'll catch a cold here. If eternity is there and the porch is here, you don't just settle down and squat in the porch and think, this is all I need to adjust myself to the porch because here I stay. It's a case of pure ignorance. We don't stay in the porch. We enter into eternity. Then what should our values be? My values should synchronize with the values of eternity, not that of the porch. If my values are those of eternity, I would live a completely different kind of life. I would not bother myself with the present lifestyle such as it is, evanescent life trends which are passing. I wouldn't bother myself with those things. I would say I'm an eternal person. I'm headed for eternity. I'm not a dweller or a squatter on this porch. And this is not the kind of place where I'll be happy anyway with all this kind of exposure to wind and weather or whatever. My dear friends, when we forget where we are headed and what we are made for, created for, then everything about us gets to be topsy-turvy, out of balance. We just don't live. We exist, trying to fend away wasps and bees or other unpleasant intruders buzzing around us. We can't spend all our lives squatting or swatting flies that buzz around us. No, there is a warfare here. Now, you know, the sequel of this was that this astrologer, this conjurer, this magician, was blinded and was led out of the court. So there, it was very clear that this fellow was putting on a big show. We live in a world which has elevated magic and porterism to such a high degree that we are going to fill our psych wards in the future. We are going to see an overflow in our psych wards. We are trying to make the whole country into a psych ward. What a sad thing. But the gospel resists such a thing. The gospel overcomes such a thing and says you have no quarter here. This is the truth. This is the enduring truth of God, and no man can hinder it. If you turn to Matthew 17 and verse 17, Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. Now, did the Lord Jesus Christ call his very disciples a perverse generation? When he saw perversity, he called it by its name. Today, I find myself in great danger. You know what that danger is? To talk nice politically correct words. To please, you know, even in the face of perversion, just to be silent and go along. But God will call me a perverse person. A person who chose to be in league with perversity. That is an individual choice. And you think putting a man in the pulpit who has got a perverse spirit is an ordinary matter? It is a matter of grave danger to everybody there. My dear friends, hear the Lord Jesus said to his disciples. How disappointed he was in these words. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil and he departed out of him. And the child was cured from that very hour. We have a little sequel to this in the ninth chapter of Mark. You know, in the ninth chapter of Mark, we see how after this boy was, after this epileptic boy was healed and the demon was cast out from him, what was the sequel? Twenty-seventh verse. Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. And as they went along, you know, the big question arose and a disputation among them. Thirty-third verse. And he came to Capernaum and being in the house, he asked them, what is it that you disputed among yourselves? By the way, you know, they were ashamed to tell him, I presume, because they held their peace for by the way, they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. You see, my dear friends, we are being bullied, as it were, by society today. That is, you know, when society becomes tyrannical and you're just obliged to do this and do that because everybody does it and you're out of the mainstream or out of step, what are you? You're just being bullied. That's all it is. Is it right? You know, when somebody says, we must do the right thing and choose the right course and I will do the right thing for this nation. Those words seem to have no weight at all. I am amazed. If I can do the right thing for my family, if I can do the right thing for all of you, if I can do the right thing for the nation, my dear friends, what could be greater than that? Nothing could be greater than that. But they fall flat on American ears. Such words do not seem to have any relevance. They are not the done things. We would rather that you do the done things. We would rather that you are skewed or screwed into doing what we dictate, not the right thing. Just ask yourself, am I doing the right thing by my neighbor? Am I doing the right thing by my God? Am I doing the right thing by my family? Am I doing the right thing? That's all the question. If I can do the right thing, I am happy. I should not look around my shoulder and say, hey, somebody is smirking or somebody is laughing or somebody is howling. That should not bother me. Am I doing the right thing? That's all that matters. Now, what were they worried about? Am I who is the greatest? See, look at the perversion of the human heart. Just look at that. They didn't say, hey, when the Lord came down from the mountain and here was a great crowd awaiting him and here was this miserable situation in which the father was, a child who was in such a need and the devils tearing him and frothing and the boy lying in that case. We couldn't help him. A whole lot of us couldn't help him. What is our fate? What have we been learning all this while? Whose disciples are we really? Did we follow our master and what he taught us? Those were not their questions. Their questions are, hey, guys, who is the greatest amongst us? Who is the biggest? Who is going to be boss? Look at the perversion of the human heart. No basic honesty. How much trouble that creates in any situation. You know, some people just rough ride a wife's counsel or views. What are they but abject bullies? Now the question is not, am I a male? Am I the one who is boss? Or is this the right thing? Which is right? That's the question. Which is pleasing to God? That's the question. It's not the question of you woman, you keep silent. My dear people, who is the greatest? Who has the money power? Who is the earning member here anyway? Who calls the shots? What were you disputing along the way? Oh, my dear people, how beautiful our lives would be if you would be truly delivered from perverted thinking. And the Bible has a lot to say. You better study it. I've got it all here. But, you know, perverted lips the Bible speaks of. Perverted ways the Bible speaks of. And it is so sad. Let me just show you this and then we will conclude shortly. If you turn to Proverbs 4 and verse 23 and 24. My father used to often mention chapter 4 and verse 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. I did not know that this next verse just followed this great scripture. Keep thy heart with all diligence. What's the next? You see, the next verse is put away from you a froward mouth. You know, smart talking. I think we become an arrogant people when we just begin to use our tongues to be smart. And that's exactly what we are teaching people today. Even the little ones, all they can mouth is try to be smart. Keep thy heart with all diligence, put away from you a froward mouth and perverse lips. Put far from you perverse lips. What damage they do, do you know? What hurt they cause. You had better wield a sword in your house, not a perverse lips. You would do less harm in your house with a sword in your hand and a demented head than with perverse lips. Perverse lips. Put far from you. Is that the case? Is that what if you had a recorder in your house recording your speech throughout the day, what kind of lips would they record? Lips full of love? Words full of healing? Positive words? Or what kind of words? Perverse lips. Put far from you. Let us pray. Let us tell God. Oh God, we can't squat in the porch. Actually, we ought not to love to squat in the porch. We have to enter the warmth of the building. Oh Lord, our God, forgive our perverse ways. Our perverse lips. Perverse thoughts. Do we still grieve you like those disciples grieved you? When you said, how long shall I suffer you? How long, how long? Is this all the return and reward I received for all the endless blessings I have bestowed upon you? How long? Oh generation, perverse generation. Oh Lord, our God, forgive everything that is perverse in our ways, in our mind, in our thinking, in our subservience to the world and its ways. Everything that is wrong and perverse, obstinately disobedient to your word. Perverseness. Take it away, Lord. Cleanse us, Lord. In Jesus' holy name. Amen.