Alright, well Merry Christmas everybody, and thank you for coming out.
It's not the nicest weather out here today, there's a lot of rain, but we've got food
after the service, so stick around and fellowship, and we're going to be doing Psalms 19 and
20 here today.
And so the name of the sermon is Creation, Cleansing, and Conversion.
Creation, Cleansing, and Conversion.
And in Psalms 19 verse 1, the first point I want to talk to you about tonight is this,
nature.
Okay?
In Psalms 19 it really talks a lot about nature, God's creation.
It says in verse 1, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his
handiwork.
And what it's saying here in verse number 1 is we can look at what God has made up there
in the sky.
We can look at the heavens, we can look at the firmament, and we can see how amazing
our God is.
Okay?
Now I want you to notice though in Psalms 19 verse 1 it said the heavens, plural, okay?
It doesn't say heaven singular.
Now turn to Genesis 1.
Keep your place in Psalms 19 because obviously we're going to be there for most of the sermon.
We're going to be bouncing around to a lot of scripture, especially here at the beginning.
And if you were to ask me, Brother Stuckey, why does it say heavens?
And I would tell you this, that there is more than one heaven according to the Bible.
Now here's what you need to understand.
When we think of heaven as in where we go after we die as believers, there's one heaven.
Okay?
There's two Mormons who have I think like eight levels of heaven.
Okay?
They have all these stages.
They have like three different heavens and then they have stages to that one.
Now obviously there's more rewards if you do more for God, but there's not these different
heavens like they see it as.
But I want you to see though and I want you to understand the Bible mentions multiple
heavens because notice Genesis 1 verse 1 where it says, in the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth.
Okay?
Heaven is singular.
Now we are King James only.
Every word is significant.
In a lot of other versions it doesn't say heaven.
It says heavens, okay?
Now I'm not suggesting this is a big heresy.
What I'm suggesting though is different versions say different things and they don't teach
the same thing.
But you say, but Brother Stuckey, if the King James Bible says heaven singular, why is it
that later on it says heavens?
Because God makes a division from the heaven and we see the firmament mentioned.
Notice verse 6, Genesis 1 verse 6, and God said, let there be a firmament in the midst
of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from
the waters which were above the firmament and it was so.
And God called the firmament heaven and the evening and the morning were the second day.
And see God actually makes partitions and the Bible mentions three heavens and the first
heaven is just your general atmosphere here.
The second heaven is basically outer space and then the third heaven is where we will
dwell one day, okay?
So there's different ones mentioned.
God's making a division here.
But if you were to say heavens right at the beginning of the Bible then you'd have a problem
because God's making the divisions later on in the chapter, okay?
At the very beginning there was heaven and then he made a difference.
In the firmament it talks about the birds flying there, okay?
Now go back to Psalms 19, Psalms 19.
And what the Bible said though is we can understand the glory of God.
We can understand how amazing he is.
We can see his handiwork from what he's created and truly that's the case.
When you look up at the sky, at the sun and the moon and the stars and the clouds and
if you just take time to relax sometimes and look at what God's created, it's far more
amazing than anything this world has to offer.
I've been to some of the historically great places in this world because everything's
in the United States that they say is historically great, at least a lot of stuff.
I was there at Mount Rushmore, okay?
Who knows of Mount Rushmore?
They have like four US presidents that are probably all in hell right now, four US presidents
whose faces are carved into these, you know, right up here on the top of a mountain.
And I remember being there and I looked at these faces of these sculptures of these men
and I said, you know, the mountains right beside these men that God created are so much
better than the sculptures there that are created of these men.
What God had created was so much better and you're going hiking to see these sculptures,
it's like, man, the hiking in the mountains is what's awesome about this place.
It's not the sculptures of these US presidents.
And what God has created is so much better than what the world has to offer.
Now I want you to notice here, the Bible's going to give us more of an indication, what
is it that we can see?
What glory is there?
What is the handiwork we can see?
Psalms 19 verse 2, it says, day unto day, Psalms 19 verse 2, day unto day uttereth speech
and night unto night showeth knowledge.
When we're talking about speech, we're talking about words, okay?
Now don't misunderstand me, we're not Pentecostals.
I'm not saying the stars are going to sing to you, okay?
And I've heard crazy doctrines like the gospel and the stars, that people in these, you know,
lost places that don't have any Christians to give them the gospel, they just look up
at the sky and says, for all of sins, it comes short of the glory of God, man, okay?
I'm guilty.
You know, the gift of God is eternal, oh, it's eternal.
And then they get saved by just looking up at the stars.
Well, that's ridiculous, okay?
But I do want you to understand that we can look at what God's created and it actually
does speak to us in a certain way.
Not audibly you're going to hear words, but it does show us certain things.
It says, day unto day uttereth speech.
These are not just vain, random words the Bible is using.
Day unto day is talking about when the sun is outside and night unto night showeth knowledge.
So right now would be night.
After 6 p.m. it's generally dark, 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. is night unto night, it shows knowledge.
6 a.m. to 6 p.m. when it's light outside and the sun's out is day unto day and it uttereth
speech.
You say, why does it say that?
Well, notice verse 3, there's no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.
When it says their voice, it's referring to what God has created.
And it says there's no language or speech where their voice is not heard.
What is that saying?
No matter what country of the world you live in, their voice is speaking to everybody.
It means wherever you go, there's the sun.
Whether you're in Europe or Africa or Asia, whatever the country, there's the moon, there's
the stars.
There's what God has created is everywhere.
And see, you're born into this world with an innate belief that God is real, but let
me tell you something.
You can look outside at a young age and say, man, it's true, God's real.
Because man cannot create the clouds and the sun and the moon and the stars.
And it's so much more complex than anything man creates.
Anything man creates is nothing compared to what God creates.
And no matter what language, what speech, whether you're in Germany, whether you're
in France or Spain or Italy or South Africa or Cambodia, Venezuela, the Philippines, the
U.S., name the country.
It doesn't matter what language they speak, whether it's Tagalog or Spanish or whether
it's Portuguese or French, whether it's whatever language in India, wherever you're from, the
sun is still out there to teach them something.
And their voice is heard everywhere in the entire world.
And let me tell you something, at a young age, we would do well to take away those video
games from our kids and just say, look at what God has created.
Because what's going to happen at a young age is the kids that are growing up, they're
going to grow up and be very bobo because they know nothing, and they're going to find
enjoyment just in video games rather than looking at what God's created.
Let me tell you something.
There used to be a day before the television existed where people actually spent time as
a family, and they would go on hiking trips, and they would glory in what God had created
rather than focusing on what man has created.
Look, what Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have created is nothing compared to what God has
created.
And at a young age, kids are not learning that.
They think their whole life is this little cell phone in front of them.
And yet there's a voice up there speaking to them, and they never even know it because
their parents never teach them that.
And let me tell you something.
It shouldn't be a wonder that in today's world there's so many more atheists because they're
just looking at the science of the world.
And it's so amazing when what God has created is so much better.
And let me tell you something.
At a young age, that is what we should be showing our kids.
And what it says here in verse 3, there is no speech nor language.
So it doesn't matter what country or what part of the world you're from, what part of
the Philippines.
It doesn't matter if you're on some remote island away from the entire world where there's
nobody there and you're isolated.
It doesn't matter where you are.
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.
The sun speaks to everyone.
The stars speaks to everyone.
The moon speaks to everyone because you can look up and you can see it.
And let me tell you something.
People used to look at that and be amazed by what God has created.
In today's world, they're not so amazed because of computers and TV and all these fun little
gadgets and movies.
And kids have the attention span of just like five minutes.
And they can't just look outside and find glory and amazement in that.
Notice what it says in verse number 4.
Verse number 4, their line is gone out through all the earth.
And their words to the end of the world, in them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.
Their line is gone out through all the earth.
So basically, you look at the sun, you look at the moon, you have the stars.
You see these things and they basically have a course and a circuit that they go around.
And every single day, the sun arises and the sun sets.
At nighttime, we see the moon, we see the stars, and they speak to us.
And guess what's happening in the US or in Europe or Africa?
The same thing just at a different time of day.
Same thing, the sun arises and the sun's going to set.
And then what God has created is speaking to them, just like it's speaking to us.
See, the evidence of God is just as real to us as it is to someone in Europe or Africa
or Asia or the US or any country.
It doesn't matter what their background is.
It doesn't matter with what religion they grew up, whether it's Buddhism or Buddhism
or Catholicism or whatever, atheism, there's still God speaking to them through what he
has created, okay?
It's up there, and let me tell you something, it's foolish to say there is no God.
And that's what the Bible teaches, okay?
God speaks to us through that.
There are words to the end of the world, okay?
Now look, understand the Bible uses metaphorical languages.
There's not literally going to be letters and words you're going to see up in the sky,
but it's still speaking to you.
And when it says the end of the world, it doesn't mean, oh, wait a minute, oh, I fell
off the end of the world.
That's not what it's saying, okay?
There's not literally an end of the world.
It's saying everywhere.
Every single country, there's not a country in the world, there's not a place in the world
that doesn't have the sun, the moon, the stars, and those things.
They see everything, and what God has created was meant for everybody, okay?
So their words go to the end of the world, in them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.
It specifically mentions the sun, okay?
Every country in the world, they have the sun.
Now there are some countries in the world, though, that are a lot different than this
country.
In Alaska, which is technically the US, there's times of the year where the sun is out for
like more than 20 hours, and then there's times of the year where the sun is out for
like three hours.
So basically it can be all dark all day long, pretty much, except for like one hour, and
there's other times of the year where it's basically all light all day long.
Now that would be pretty weird, because for us, you know, it gets dark outside, and we
think okay, we have a couple more hours, we eat dinner, we relax, and then we go to sleep.
And for them, it's light like all day long part of the year, so it's really weird.
But no matter where you live, you have the sun, you have the moon, you have the stars,
you have what God has created.
Notice verse five, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber.
You say, what in the world does a bridegroom have to do with the sun, okay?
Well, realize this, that when it says bridegroom, think about a marriage, there's only two people
that matter at a wedding, the bride and the groom, right?
We've had a few weddings, marriages at our church recently, you know, when brother Timothy
and sister Esau got married, nobody cared what I said up on stage.
They're looking at Timothy and Esau, right, two people.
When sister Allen and brother Tito got married, you know, they only care about the two people
getting married.
Nobody was paying attention, what's brother Prince doing while the ceremony's going on?
Nobody cares about that.
They only care about the groom and the bride, right?
When it says, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, what the Bible's saying
here is that during a wedding, all the eyes are on the bride and the groom.
What is it saying?
It's saying everybody can see the sun.
It's evident to everybody.
It's gone out to the end of the world, okay?
There's nobody in the world that's not gonna see that.
At a wedding, everybody pays attention to the bride and the groom, okay?
Then it says in verse five, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
Once again, when it says a strong man, it's indicating basically the man who wins the
race, okay?
When you have a 100 meter sprint in the Olympics, guess what happens?
You pay attention to who's in front.
You pay attention to who's winning the race, don't you?
When there's a 100 meter race and there's eight people, does anybody look at who's in
last place?
Oh, let's see who's in last place right now.
No, you don't care about that.
You pay attention to who's winning the race, okay?
I do want you to notice when it says as a strong man, I think this indicates that not
only is it's running a race, that being strength is not just lifting a lot of weights, it's
also endurance, the Bible defines as strength, because running a race is something that's
more of an endurance thing, but as a strong man that's running a race, you pay attention
to the person who's winning that race.
What I want you to understand is every single person in the world can look up at the sky
and they see what God has created, every single person in the world.
If anybody says, well, I'm an atheist, I don't believe in God, there's no evidence
God is real.
Look up at the sky and look, you know, I've watched all of Ken Hovind's seminar and I've
seen Ken Ham's and all these different creation seminars and stuff like that.
I'm not saying I didn't learn any valuable information, but the reality is I don't need
to do some complicated formula to explain God is real, because you can look outside
and see that God is real.
The only reason why people don't believe in God in this world is because they're brainwashed
at a young age.
That's the reality of the matter, because if you're not brainwashed, you're going to
believe in God.
Now, there are areas of the world, and Europe is a very atheistic area.
In China is a very atheistic area.
Some of these countries are very atheistic because they mock the Bible, they criticize
the Bible, they just preach on teach on abortion and all these things that are wicked, and
they get you to not believe in God at a young age, but that's because they're training and
teaching those kids all these lies and heresies and evolution and all this garbage.
At a young age, though, they believe in God.
Notice what it says in verse 6, his going forth is from the end of the heaven and his
circuit onto the ends of it.
A circuit is basically a path that you go on.
If you're going on a circuit, you go around and around.
Basically, every single day, the sun comes, the sun goes, the sun comes, the sun goes,
the sun comes, the sun goes.
Every single day, we see the sun arise.
Every single day, the sun sets.
If for whatever reason, you don't see the sun arise tomorrow, then there's something
crazy going on because for 6,000 years, just like clockwork, it arises and it sets.
That's just the way the world works and his circuit onto the ends of it and there is nothing
hid from the heat thereof.
It's referring to the sun.
There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
Is there any place in the world where the sun is not heating them?
Any place here on earth where the sun is not heating them?
There's no place.
Whatever country you go, the sun is out there.
Now, I want you to turn to Malachi 4.
Let me turn there myself.
Malachi 4.
We're actually going to be in Malachi next week.
We're going to be starting a new book.
I want you to go to Malachi 4.
This wasn't in my notes, so I'm turning there myself.
I want you to notice a word here in the Bible, a verse here that's very interesting.
I want you to understand that every word in the Bible is very significant.
Every single word matters.
In Malachi 4, too, the last book of the Old Testament, the last book of the Old Testament,
Malachi right before Matthew.
Malachi 4, verse 2, but unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise
with healing in his wings and he shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall.
Notice how it says the son of righteousness, but notice it does not say S-O-N.
It says S-U-N, doesn't it?
S-O-N would be referring to the son of God, Jesus Christ.
This is referring to Jesus Christ.
This is actually referring to Jesus Christ.
You can tell from the context.
This is Jesus Christ.
It's not a typo or an error in your Bible.
When we went back to, you don't have to go there right now, but in Psalms 19, it talks
about over and over again how the sun is everywhere.
You know what this is teaching you because Jesus Christ is a literal S-U-N, the son of
righteousness?
Remember how it said there's no place that's hid from the heat thereof, that the sun is
everywhere?
Everyone in the world, they know who Jesus Christ is, everywhere.
Every single country, everybody has heard of Jesus Christ.
Why?
Because the sun goes everywhere.
There's nothing hid from the heat thereof.
You can also look at this and the son of righteousness, you think of the sun being the center and
things circulating around it.
When it comes to the center of this world, that's Jesus Christ.
He is the center of everything.
Our lives revolve around the Lord Jesus Christ.
It says the sun, S-U-N, because it's trying to tell you.
You cross reference.
God's word has gotten out every single place.
To the ends of the earth, you say, what about that deep, dark place in the jungle nobody's
ever heard of?
Well, turn back in your Bible.
Turn actually to Ecclesiastes 1, Ecclesiastes 1.
You're turning to Ecclesiastes chapter 1, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes.
I'll tell you a story.
I told it right before church.
Some of you, you can pretend to laugh for the second time, pretend like it's funny.
You already know it.
But Pastor Jimenez, he was born in Venezuela.
He was not born in the United States.
His first language is Spanish.
He was born in Venezuela, a country in South America.
Actually Venezuela recently, these last few years, it has the highest murder rate in the
world because they've been going through a lot of turmoil.
He was born in Venezuela and his family moved when he was a young child.
He's talked about this in a few sermons before.
His family moved when he was a young child to the United States.
He was raised an independent fundamental Baptist, which most of us weren't raised that way,
but he was a soul winner at a young age.
His family took him out at a soul wedding.
He's going out soul winning at a young age.
I think he was with his older cousin.
I might be misremembering some of this, but I think he was with his older cousin.
They knock a door and somebody says, I can't believe that, that you have to believe in
Jesus.
What about all these countries in the world that don't know the name of Jesus?
What about if he grew up in some deep dark jungle someplace in Venezuela?
He literally said Venezuela at the door, and Pastor Mena's family had just moved from there
recently.
He's like, what about people in Venezuela?
They're like, he was just living in Venezuela two weeks ago.
People have this idea that there's some place in the world.
What about those people that have never heard the name?
What about God's word gets out to the end of the world?
The name of Jesus is known all throughout the entire world.
Now, don't misunderstand me.
I'm not saying that every single person has heard a clear presentation of the gospel.
I'm not saying that.
Here's what I am saying, though.
In the Bible, you have two different people that you can see fear God, Cornelius and the
Ethiopian eunuch, and neither one of those really has access to get saved, and God sends
a soul winner to get him saved.
Cornelius, before he was saved, it says he feared God.
It is possible to fear God before you're saved.
Cornelius feared God, and God made it a point to send Peter to preach the gospel?
Look, I promise you the same thing could happen today.
If there's somebody living where there's no good church, where nobody could preach the
gospel, there's no soul winner, God can make sure somehow the timing is right where that
person hears the gospel and gets saved.
There's examples in the Bible, but even in my own personal life, I've seen things that
I think that's what was happening.
When I worked at my job in Maryland, oftentimes on my lunch break, I would just go out for
a walk for an hour, and I would just pray God would send me somebody to preach the gospel
to.
It was an area where they had a train there, so there's a lot of people that drift in and
out of town.
There's people there that don't live in the area.
They're just kind of there for the day.
I remember I ran into someone, and my friends and I were supposed to do a soul winning marathon
in Chicago, Illinois, and we ended up canceling it.
We didn't have it.
A couple weeks later, I ran into this guy in Maryland, and he was only in town for that
one day.
He had a court appointment because he got in trouble with something, and he had to be
in Cumberland, Maryland.
He's like, oh, man, I'm from Chicago, and I'm just thinking, man, this is quite a coincidence,
and he ended up getting saved.
I preached the gospel to him.
Look, I don't think that's a coincidence, and I want you to understand that I was mentioned
before the service, too.
My wife and I watched a documentary one time, and I don't remember what part of the Phillip
was talking about, but there's this group of people that have been living in the Philippines
for a while, but they're not technically citizens of the Philippines.
It's been like 40 years, and they kind of live up on a mountain, and they're kind of
away, but they've been there, but they're not legally allowed to be there, but every
generation of their families are there.
Some reporter went up to interview them and talk to them about what happened and everything,
and they're showing them just these videos of all these famous events in world history
and U.S. history, and supposedly, they had been completely 100% isolated from the world,
and yet they were going through various different things, like the space shuttle, and a few
people said, yeah, I've seen that before.
I know about the space shuttle.
Nobody's completely isolated.
I don't care what time, and then they showed Michael Jackson, and everyone's like, I know
Michael Jackson, and look, if Michael Jackson was known throughout the world at one time,
I promise you Jesus Christ is known throughout the entire world, and I don't care what time period.
You can look back to our country before Magellan got here.
I promise you people, there were saved people living here in the Philippines.
You say, why?
Because there's people that fear God all throughout the world.
There's people that live in North Korea that fear God.
There's people that live in Iraq that fear God in Afghanistan.
Now, they might not be openly Christians because they might get their heads chopped off if
they admit it, but I promise you God has a way to get them the gospel.
You say, why?
Because I'm not just using what seems right to me or my personal opinion.
I'm using Cornelius and the Ethiopian eunuch.
It's not just my personal opinion.
Now, obviously, in a country like the Philippines where there's more soul winners, there's a
higher percentage of saved people here than in North Korea.
There are saved people in North Korea, though, I promise you that.
Why?
Well, Rahab was saved, wasn't she?
Somehow she heard the gospel.
Now, part of it is because God's word has gone out throughout the entire world just
through nature itself, but the name of Jesus has as well.
Now, I want you to see here in Ecclesiastes 1, Ecclesiastes 1, verse 5, Ecclesiastes chapter
1, verse 5.
Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 5, the sun also ariseth and the sun goeth down and hasteth
to his place where he arose.
So every day the sun rises and the sun sets.
Verse 6, the wind goeth toward the south and turneth about onto the north.
It whirleth about continually and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
Every country in the world the wind exists, okay?
It's not just in certain countries.
All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full.
Onto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
Now, look, we understand that various countries the temperature is hotter or it's colder.
There's some country, there's this thing called, in the United States it's called snow.
It's this white thing that falls from the sky.
If you guys are confused, just ask me after the service.
I'll try to explain what snow is, okay?
And so different countries are a little bit different depending on where you live, but
by and large everyone's got the same things and God's nature speaks to everyone throughout
the entire world.
Now turn to Romans 1, Romans 1, Romans chapter 1.
Now one thing that people ask or they'll say is that, well, what if you live in places
where you never hear the gospel, you never hear about God or you never hear the gospel?
Do they just get a free pass into heaven?
Well, let me just say a few things about that.
If people got a free pass into heaven for never hearing the gospel, guess what we should
do?
Never go soul winning to anybody.
Why?
Because then everybody goes to heaven.
Let's just never talk about Jesus and when nobody in the world knows who Jesus is we
all go to heaven.
Now does that sound biblical to you?
No, because the Bible said go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Say why do we preach the gospel to every creature?
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
But doesn't say just in countries like the Philippines and the US and Europe, no, no,
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Old Testament, New Testament.
There's not a just man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
Old Testament, New Testament, you see those verses that show that, look, we're all gone
after unrighteousness, we're as filthy rags, all of our righteousness.
I know I'm misquoting that.
What I'm saying is throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, we're all sinners that
need a savior.
Say what about in the Old Testament?
They got saved by believing in the coming Messiah.
They put their faith in the coming Messiah.
You say why?
Because your works can never save you.
Go to Galatians 3.
Keep your place in Romans 1.
Go to Galatians 3.
Let me just prove this to you from the Bible.
Galatians chapter 3.
Because I want you to understand in the Old Testament, they didn't get saved by their
works.
And the Bible's very clear that if they got saved by their works in the Old Testament,
then we would be saved by our works today.
You say how do you know that?
Because in Galatians 3, verse 21, is the law then against the promises of God?
God forbid.
For if there had been a law which could have given life...
So basically if somehow your works could be so you could receive eternal life, you could
receive spiritual life, verily, righteousness should have been by the law.
If there was a way to get to heaven by your works, our righteousness would be gotten through
the law.
If people got saved through their works in the Old Testament, guess how we would get
saved today?
Through our works.
They didn't get saved by their works in the Old Testament.
See, the Bible says that Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in
Revelation 13.
The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
You say why?
Because from the days of Adam and Eve, people sinned.
At the very beginning, they sinned.
They ate the forbidden fruit.
Sin passed upon death, passed upon all men for all of sinned.
Including Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Seth, Enoch, how far do you want me to go down the list?
Everybody sinned who's ever existed.
There's nobody who has not sinned.
As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one.
Nobody is sinless.
Every single person needs a Savior.
Now go to Romans 1.
What about those people that never hear the Gospel?
Let me ask you a question, because in some countries, in some countries in today's world,
homosexuality is punishable by the death penalty.
Now it's not many countries now, but there are still some where it's punishable by the
death penalty.
So what if two people here in the Philippines, where it's obviously not punishable by anything,
allowed to do whatever, what if two people that were homosexuals took a vacation to that
country in Africa and they committed homosexuality together in that country?
They'd be put to death.
What if they said, well wait a minute.
We didn't know that was the law.
Are they innocent?
They're still guilty.
Why?
That's the law of the land.
It doesn't matter whether you know it or not.
And let me tell you something.
It doesn't matter if Muslims say, I don't believe this is God's word.
This is God's word.
It doesn't matter if Hindus in India don't believe this is God's word.
It's still God's word whether they believe it or not.
And see God's law says for all of sin to come short of the glory of God, there's none righteous,
no not one.
It doesn't matter if people in Europe think they can work their way to heaven.
They can't.
They're guilty whether they believe it or not.
It doesn't matter if you're in these Asian countries that have all these weird philosophical
religions and in China they have all these messed up religions.
They still have to believe on Jesus Christ.
And so no matter what country you live, we've all sinned.
We come short of the glory of God.
What must I do to be saved?
What country are you from?
It depends on the country.
Does your country know a lot about Jesus?
Well, no, not really.
Oh, you're good to go.
You're good to go if they don't know.
No.
What must I do to be saved?
And they said believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
It doesn't matter where people are from, they still have to believe on Jesus Christ.
It doesn't matter what country you're from, it doesn't matter who your parents are.
Now obviously a young child that would pass away would go to heaven.
The Bible teaches that.
That's a whole other subject.
But look, most of us in this room are adults and you reach the age where you're old enough
to understand you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.
Now realize that when it comes to the Old and New Testament or the Old and New Covenant,
it really starts after the death of Jesus Christ once he rose again.
They're still keeping the Passover before Jesus died, right?
It switches to the Lord's Supper.
Before Jesus died, they're still keeping the Passover.
So what was the plan of salvation while Jesus was alive?
What did he preach?
John 3.16, whosoever believeth in him, referring to himself, should not perish but have everlasting
life.
So during the days of Jesus, what did you have to do to get to heaven?
He had to believe in Jesus Christ, which is under the Old Testament law because they were
still doing the Passover.
What did John the Baptist say in John 3.36?
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
He doesn't say, well, wait a minute, in a few years once Jesus dies, you've got to believe
on the Son.
No, right now you must believe on the Son.
You say, why?
Because it's always been by grace through faith.
Now we understand who the living God is very clearly today because Jesus came and he died.
He was crucified.
He was buried and rose again.
In the Old Testament, Rahab did not know the name Jesus Christ.
At the end of the sermon, I'll prove this in Psalms 20.
We'll go down that.
I can't hit too many rabbit trails, but I want you to realize this, that she still got
saved by grace through faith, even though she didn't know the name Jesus.
It was always by belief.
It was never by works, and I'll save that for later on in the sermon.
But notice Romans 1, verse 19 and 20.
Romans 1, verse 19 and 20.
It says, Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath shewed
it unto them.
For the invisible things of him, referring to God from the creation of the world, are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and
Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
The Bible says that based on the things God has made, we can understand attributes about
God just through nature, including his eternal power and Godhead.
Many things in nature are three in one.
Even our bodies are body, soul, and spirit.
By the things God has made, we can understand the Godhead.
Now, I'm not saying we have a perfect understanding of the Trinity, because the word Trinity is
not in the Bible.
The word Godhead is in the Bible.
Three in one, the Bible says.
There's plenty of places that teach the Trinity, but the Godhead's referring to the Trinity.
Because looking at the things God has made, we can kind of understand the Trinity.
We can look at ourselves, and we are one.
I am one, but I have a body, I have a soul, and I have a spirit.
The body's not the soul, the body's not the spirit, the soul's not the spirit.
There are three, but I'm one.
That doesn't give us a perfect understanding of God, of who God is, but it gives us a bit
of an idea.
Other things God has created in nature are three in one.
Maybe not in a perfect understanding.
We look at things, people give examples like solid liquid gas.
I understand there's these people that teach weird things like oneness, but it's not meant
to be a perfect example, but we can see what God's created and get a bit of an understanding
of who God is.
Also, His eternal power.
Why?
Because the sun comes up, the sun comes down, there's the moon every night, the stars.
We can get an understanding of these things, but notice the end of verse 20, so that they
are without excuse.
Who's they referring to?
Anybody who lives in a country where there's a sun, anybody who lives in a country where
there's stars, there's nothing hid from the heat they're up.
Anybody in the entire world, they are without excuse.
You say, what does it mean by without excuse?
Think about if you committed murder and you're on trial, and the judge says, well, what's
your excuse?
We caught you with a weapon, we got you on video, you admitted to doing it.
I didn't think that I'd get thrown in jail for this.
It's not a very good excuse, is it?
When the people that live today, when the Bible says all liars shall have their part
in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death, and realize one
murder makes you a murderer, it only takes one lie to make you a liar.
When the Bible says all liars shall have their part in hell, and every single one of us have
sinned so many times every single day, the thought of foolishness is sin.
When we try to come up with an excuse to God, when these atheists, these Richard Dawkins,
people that mock God try to come up with an excuse, these Muslims that are trusting in
their works to get to heaven, these Buddhists are trusting in their works to get to heaven,
they come before God, what are they going to make as their excuse?
I've done many wonderful works.
I mean, what are they going to say?
They're not going to be able to say anything.
They're without excuse.
Look, it doesn't matter where you live, you cannot get saved by your works or anything
like that.
You must believe on Jesus Christ because everybody's guilty.
Now turn back to Psalms 19, Psalms 19, Psalms chapter 19.
Now don't misunderstand me here today because somebody who lives in Iraq, some kid who's
ten years old, he cannot get saved by just walking outside and finding the sun beautiful
each day.
He's not going to get saved that way.
Now he could certainly believe in God that way, but I do want you to understand that
when people decide that they want to live for God or they decide to fear God, I believe
God's going to find a way to get them the gospel.
You can look at what God's created and see that God is real, but you also need the words
of God to get saved.
The Bible's very clear on that.
In Psalms 19 verse 7 is a verse that I've heard misquoted so many times before.
What the Bible says in Psalms 19 verse 7, it says, the law of the Lord is perfect converting
the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise and simple.
So the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.
Now I want you to understand the law of the Lord is not referring to the Ten Commandments.
See there's people that practice like Ray Comfort's soul winning technique, and what
Ray Comfort says is, well the Ten Commandments are perfect to convert the soul.
Now wait a minute, what is salvation?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
So how is thou shalt not commit adultery perfect to convert someone to salvation?
That's stupid.
I don't remember hearing the word believe.
Thou shalt not covet.
How could that be perfect converting the soul?
If that's referring to the Ten Commandments, there's something missing called believe.
The Ten Commandments don't mention anything about believing.
How is that perfect?
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
That's not whosoever believeth in them.
How could that be perfect converting the soul?
Now the law of the Lord, if you read the entire Bible, is referring to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1, 2 Samuel, the whole Bible.
That's the law of the Lord.
And look in Psalms 119, it refers to God's word in so many different ways.
The law of the Lord, the testimonies, like so many different ways he refers to it.
It's referring to everything.
Yes, God's word is perfect in converting the soul.
A perfect means complete.
This is how you get somebody saved, God's word.
It's not referring to the Ten Commandments, though.
And first off, there's more than 600 commandments in the Bible.
People have tried to add it up before.
I don't know the exact number.
I haven't done it.
There's a lot more than Ten Commandments.
But how would that be perfect converting the soul?
Because it doesn't mention anything about believing or the salvation being a gift.
That doesn't make any sense.
It's referring to the whole Bible.
And see, somebody cannot get saved without the word of God.
Isn't it kind of interesting we're in the Old Testament and it's teaching the exact
same thing as the New Testament?
The exact same thing.
See, people in the New Testament, we need the word of God to get saved.
We're going to see that in a second.
But in the Old Testament, what's perfect to convert the soul?
The law of the Lord.
That's why in the book of 2 Chronicles, they went out with the book of the law with them.
You say, why?
Because people need to see the Bible verses and hear them to get saved because the word
of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.
My words are not quick and powerful.
God's words are.
Now, truly, we must explain the gospel.
It's not just somebody reading God's word.
Because remember the Ethiopian eunuch.
He's reading and he's like, do you understand, is that what thou readest?
How can I, except some man, should guide me?
They cannot get saved by reading God's word alone.
They need a soul winner.
But you cannot win someone to the Lord without the word of God.
Now you say, wait a minute.
But this is the Old Testament.
They didn't have the word of God.
The word of God existed from the time of Adam and Eve.
It didn't start existing in 1611.
English didn't exist for all of human history.
I don't know the exact year English came into being.
It didn't come into being in the time of Adam and Eve.
They weren't speaking English before the flood.
They weren't speaking English.
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew.
The New Testament was written in Greek.
But I want you to understand the word of God can be translated in any language in the world.
Now turn to John chapter 15.
You see, before 1611, because we do believe, and let me explain this statement after I
say it because people can misunderstand what this means.
I do believe that in terms of the English language, which has a perfect Bible, the King
James Bible, you cannot get saved without the King James Bible.
It's the words of God because you get saved through the word of God.
But let me explain something to you.
Before 1611, there were versions of the Bible whose verses were the exact same as the King
James.
The whole Bible was not perfect, but there was a lot of the Bible that was perfect.
The Bible speaks about the words of the Lord, and I don't have time to prove this.
The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried to furnish the earth, purified seven
times.
And see, the King James was the seventh.
It was the one that was the final, it was the completion.
There's a lot of versions before that that were very good, the Matthew Bible, a lot of
versions that came before.
And those versions, you could use the word of God to get somebody saved.
But here's what I want you to understand.
Before a single Bible was there in the English language, you could still get people saved
in the English language.
You say, why?
Because if people spoke multiple languages, they could translate from one language to
the next.
And they could explain it.
Okay?
Look, when I first visited the Philippines in 2014, my wife and I were visiting, I don't
remember, it was somewhere in Pampanga, but I started talking to someone, and they did
not speak very good English.
So my wife came over, and I saw that person get saved, and she got them saved in Tagalog.
At least I assume, it was a long time ago, maybe it was Pampanga, I think it was Tagalog.
But she got them saved, and look, that wasn't the English language, but it was the same
words of God that she was explaining.
So you can translate the gift of God as eternal life into another language.
Look, the gift of God's not that hard to translate.
Ang regalo nang dios.
Okay?
It's not that hard.
Eternal life, walang hangang buhai, or buhai na walang hangang.
It's not that hard to translate.
And look, when people speak multiple languages, you can translate from one thing to the next.
Now, I'm not saying that, because obviously translating is going to be a difficult thing,
I'm not saying you can easily just translate an entire Bible by yourself, because the King
James had 54 translators for more than six years.
But I am saying that when it comes to the Gospel, there have been soul owners that have
always existed, and I promise you, those soul owners had a burden and said, you know what?
There's people in this area, I must figure out how am I going to translate Romans 6.23
and preach the Gospel.
You say, but what about people in the Old Testament?
The Word of God was a spoken word before it was written.
And so I want you to understand, a lot of verses that are written in the New Testament
were probably preached by prophets in the Old Testament.
It was fully written down later on.
But before the Word of God was being preached a lot, and those words were already there.
Why?
Because God's words are eternal.
Before we were ever here, before man was born, those words existed.
Okay?
Realize, God is outside the English language.
God doesn't just speak the English language.
And people can get saved in German today, in Polish, they don't need to learn the English
language to get saved.
God doesn't get saved in any language if somebody accurately translates those verses
and then explains them.
You need the Word of God, but that Word of God can be translated in any language.
How do you know that?
Because in the Book of Esther, King Ahasuerus said this decree goes out to all nations and
provinces in their language, meaning his words were in every language he put it out there.
Every language.
That's in the days of Nebuchadnezzar as well.
His kingdom, I want this into every language.
That means his words were accurate into every language.
Okay?
John 15, verse 3.
But make no mistake about it, people need the Word of God to get saved.
They need the Word of God.
And so when you're using the Bible and understanding we don't have a great Tagalog translation
that you're using, you need to quote in the King James and explain it.
That's the best way to do it.
John 15, verse 3, Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
The Word of God.
Okay?
James 1.
Turn to James 1.
James 1.
And I'm only showing you a few verses, but this is throughout the Bible that you need
the Word of God to get saved.
You need the Word of God to get saved, okay?
And there's really two parts to salvation.
One part is the Word of God and the second part is the soul winner preaching the Word
of God.
You need both.
Nobody will ever get saved on this planet unless there's a soul winner preaching the
Gospel.
Because God's not going to come down from heaven and preach the Gospel to anybody.
God cannot get anybody saved without us because His plan for reconciliation is man.
That's what He said.
He's not going to change His plan.
That's what He said.
So He needs man to do it.
It's not going to be the angels.
It's going to be us, okay?
But it said that ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
James 1.
Verse 21.
James 1.
Verse 21.
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the
engrafted Word which is able to save your souls.
What is able to save your souls?
The Word of God.
Turn to 1 Peter 1.
1 Peter 1.
1 Peter chapter 1.
And to realize that you cannot get somebody saved with an NIV.
Say why?
It's not God's words.
They change God's words.
They corrupt the plan of salvation.
It said in John 3.16, God gave His one and only Son.
Wait a minute.
I thought I was the Son of God.
And so if God gave His one and only Son, that means I could never become a son.
That's not what only God means.
God gave His one and only Son.
That's heresy.
And so the NIV, they change the verses of salvation.
They're not the same.
They add works to salvation.
They make it confusing.
And here's the big thing.
There's no power in them.
If you read the NIV, what you would see is it lacks power.
Why?
Because it's not God's word.
And let me tell you something.
Saved people can tell a difference.
Unsaved people?
Hand Catholics a Bible.
Hand a Catholic the King James Bible and they're going to say, I don't understand any of this.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto them.
But when you're saved with the Spirit of God inside of you, the Spirit of truth, you can
see the power in God's words.
I mean if you read the NIV, and I'm not suggesting you do it, but if you look at a few verses,
you're just like, man, there's no power in this.
And you can't exactly explain it, but there just literally is no power because they're
not God's word and the word of God is quick and powerful.
First Peter one verse 23.
Being born again.
Isn't that salvation?
Being born again.
Your second birth, you receive spiritual, spiritual life, eternal life.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth forever.
And let me tell you something.
I was probably 20 years old when I heard this, maybe 19, 19 or 20, and I first became King
James only, although I didn't really have a full understanding of what that meant.
So honestly, my present day understanding of King James only, I'd say I wasn't quite
there yet.
But at the time I said, okay, yeah, these other versions are bad.
Then I remember hearing a preacher say, well, you can't get saved from another version.
I was like, what?
I was like, there's all these godly Christians that read the NIV.
I didn't know much at the time.
But I thought that was ridiculous.
This was the verse.
First Peter one 23.
He preached this verse, and I didn't agree.
It's kind of like in the Bible where Mary hears Jesus' words, and she kept that saying
in her heart.
She doesn't fully get it.
And I heard that, and just in my flesh, in my stubbornness, I rejected it.
I didn't want to believe it.
But I said, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of
God.
If I say the King James Bible is the word of God, then yeah, you've got to be born again
with the King James Bible.
Now obviously, if you live in Mexico, then you hear the word of God in Spanish.
If you live in Spain, you hear it in Spanish.
You live in France, you hear it in French.
Obviously the word of God can go out in any languages, because the word of God has gone
out in Hebrew, Greek, parts of it Aramaic, English.
And look, I don't speak all the languages of the world.
There might be perfect Bibles in other languages.
I don't know.
That is possible.
It is possible that there's perfect Bibles in other languages, and none of us speak all
languages, so we don't know.
And I can tell you that in the languages that are very prevalent, we were talking about
before the service, Spanish, French, and other ones, I promise you, even if it's not perfect,
you could look at those salvation verses and they'd be pretty out of the money.
Because look, I used to preach the gospel in Spanish, and I've gotten a lot of people
saved in Spanish.
And let me tell you something, whether you look at the 1602, the 1865, or the 1909, most
of those salvation verses are word for word the exact same thing.
It kind of reminds me of something called the King James Bible and the versions that
came before the King James Bible.
But look at the versions that came after the King James.
They're not similar at all.
It's a joke.
So when I make the statement, you must have the King James Bible to be saved, I'm not
saying you can't get saved before 1611.
And look, if somebody uses the Matthew Bible today, or the Geneva Bible, which nobody does,
maybe some Calvinists are digging up the Geneva Bible, you know, they've got fond memories
of John Calvin, I don't know.
But I want you to understand, you can get somebody saved in the Matthew Bible, of course.
But nobody used that today.
You say, why?
Well, the Bible speaks by the word of God being the sword of the Spirit.
I want you to understand, a sword doesn't really go dull.
You just kind of sharpen it from time to time and it lasts.
The versions that have come out, they're here and then gone 10 years later.
The average Bible translation lasts like 15 years on the market and it goes out of
print.
Why?
Nobody buys it.
Now look, there are versions around that are just as popular as the King James today, but
the NIV has gone through like 50 editions.
The King James has been around since 1611.
Show me the other Bible that's been around for a long time.
You won't find one.
You say, why?
Because they're a joke.
This is the words of God.
And let me tell you something, people always want, well, you know, with young kids, we
need to have them read an NIV because they can't understand the King James Bible.
Well, if you're saved, you can understand the King James Bible.
And I'm sorry, but in the beginning is not that complicated.
God created is not that complicated.
The heaven, that's not that complicated.
And the earth, how is that complicated?
Are there parts of the King James Bible that are confusing because they're the deep things
of God?
Absolutely.
But don't tell me this is confusing.
Okay?
Look, the only thing people always bring up, the these and the those.
The is singular for you, thou is singular for you, ye is plural for you, and you is
always plural in the Bible.
Okay, what's complicated about that?
If you read the Bible, you can tell that when you're paying attention.
Okay?
It's not complicated.
Turn back to Psalms 19.
Psalms 19.
Let me tell you something, as long as I'm at this church, we will never go to a gray
area on the King James Bible.
We are King James only to the core.
We believe the King James Bible is perfect.
And I'll tell you what, when I became King James only, kind of excited me because I was
in Baptist churches and I was in college, so I was at Campus Crusade and Baptist Campus
Ministries and I can't remember, something Christian fellowship thing or whatever, all
these like Christian organizations, and I always felt I didn't really fit in.
We'd have conversations and it's just like, it's like we had a different spirit inside.
I had a different spirit inside of me than they had of themselves, as we're talking about
the Bible.
And then when I understood about the King James Bible, I realized because I knew I was
a Baptist because I believed once saved always saved.
I knew that right when I got saved, I knew once saved always saved is essential for salvation.
But then I became King James only and I realized I'm an independent fundamental Baptist.
I realized this is the group of people, and I've never shied away from that, and I'm excited
to be an independent fundamental Baptist.
I'm excited to say that we're an independent fundamental Baptist church.
We are IFB to the core.
We're fundamental, we're old fashioned, and a large part of that is being King James only.
Now I want you to see, we saw the creation, we saw salvation through God's word.
Let's talk about the conversion and cleansing of God's word, and I'll be hurry with these
last couple points.
I've hit a lot of rabbit trails.
But I want you to see in Psalms 19 verse 7, it says, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting
the soul, converting the soul.
Now I want you to realize every word in the Bible is very significant, and we naturally
would look at this verse and assume converting is referencing getting somebody saved, and
it is, but it's a dual meaning.
Because the word convert is not always referring to somebody getting saved in the Bible.
Sometimes it's referring to someone who already is saved getting right with God.
Turn to James 5, I'll prove that to you, James chapter 5, James chapter 5, James chapter
5.
And this is where people go down a road of misunderstanding verses, because they see
the word convert, and they assume convert means somebody getting saved.
It doesn't always mean that though.
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
And I want you to see in James 5, James 5 verses 19 and 20, James 5.
Now the book of James, it was written to believers, right?
It would help people understand James 2 if they realized this is written to believers.
But James 5, we're talking about believers, and it says, brethren, if any of you do err
from the truth.
Brethren is referring to saved people.
Brethren if any of you that are saved, it would be like if I'm talking to a church.
Brethren and cistern, brethren, if any of you do err from the truth.
This is a saved person that goes into false doctrine or to sin.
Somebody's erring away from the ways of God.
This is a saved person though.
Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him, okay, this is a saved
person who's getting converted.
They're getting back on the path of living for God.
Let him know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul
from death and shall hide a multitude of sins.
You say, but wait, Brother Stuckey, it says shall save a soul from death.
Well, I want you to understand that when it's referring to a soul dying, oftentimes that's
just referring to an individual dying.
The soul that sinneth it shall die.
Sometimes it's just referring to the body.
It shall save a soul from death.
You say, why?
Because of the fact when you're saved and living in gross sin, you can reach to a point
where God says, you know what, I'm taking you out of this world.
Now King Saul literally killed himself, but basically he's being told by God, you're done.
You're out of here.
You've committed a sin on to death.
I'm taking you home, okay?
You're done.
And so somebody can go down that road where basically they're destroying their lives and
they sin against God where God says, you know, basically I'm done with you.
Now look, most of the time if somebody from our church kind of wanders away from the things
of God and you get that person back on the path, most of the time you're not saving them
from death literally, but if somebody starts going down the road of sin, it can lead to
getting into more and more sin.
And one thing I've seen is that people when they live for God and they're soul winners
and they end up leaving a church for whatever reason and they get like bitterness, and look,
and I'm not into just paying attention to Facebook, but you can see it when you go on
Facebook or YouTube with things like this.
People get bitter and they turn away from church and they want to just get stubborn
and then they end up getting into crazy rebellion and getting really sinful and wicked.
And let me tell you something, they could go down that road where they're going to basically,
they're going to at least destroy their lives if not be taken out by God eventually for
doing something like that.
Now go back to Psalms 19, Psalms 19.
And so what I want you to understand, the reason why I'm showing you this is because
the Word of God not only is necessary for salvation, it is also what's going to help
convert you from the air of your way and cleanse you and help you live for God.
It's not just getting saved, it's also the preaching of God's Word, your individual Bible
reading that is essential to your life.
It's going to help your life and help clean you and cleanse you.
It says in Psalms 19 verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
Now simple is a way to basically say Bobo, somebody who's ignorant, someone who doesn't
know much, someone who's kind of a little bit stupid.
And what I want you to realize is the Bible is saying somebody who is unknowledgeable
and ignorant, the Word of God can make them smarter.
That's what it's saying.
Now you can't help the fact what sort of knowledge God gives you as a natural thing.
Everybody has things they're good at and bad at.
My skill is math, but I'm terrible at working with my hands.
There's various different things that people have skills at, which is fine, but I want
you to understand God's Word can help make you more intelligent.
Not just help you make the right decisions in life, although that's true, but people
that read the Word of God, they're intelligent people.
People that study the Word of God, they're educated, they're smart.
And look, when it comes to understanding things, they get things, they understand them.
Look, when people know the Word of God and topics like vaccinations come up, it makes
sense to them and they're logical, they're smart, they understand things.
People that don't know the Word of God, and it doesn't matter what they get on some calculus
exam, oftentimes those people, it's just like they have no common sense.
Say why?
Because God's Word is what makes you wise, and the wisdom of this world is foolishness
to God.
And there's a lot of wise people by the world's standards that, man, they got a great score
on their calculus exam, but if you were to talk to them about any subject, they don't
have any comprehension of how things work, it's just they don't get things.
But it's encouraging to us because no matter who you are in this room, if you read the
Bible, it's going to make you more intelligent.
Now starting in January, you have a great time as our church is going to be doing this,
we're going to read through the entire New Testament as a church starting in the month
of January.
We've got the charts back there on the table in case you need one, and it's going to help
you on your daily path, like today this is what I must read, and then tomorrow this is
what I must read.
And what you're going to find is even though it takes you time to do this, you're going
to find you're learning so much as you're reading every single day.
Now look, the reality is that even in a room like this of people that love the Lord and
go soul winning, look, I'm not as bobo as I look, okay?
The reality is most Christians don't read their Bibles.
That's the reality of the matter.
And look, I'm not trying to have a show of hands or anything, but I'm sure in this room
there's people that don't really read their Bibles much.
And look, I've been in churches for a long time, I've been soul winning since I was 19
years old, and so I'm 35 now, okay?
I've been reading the Bible since I was 19 years old.
Let me tell you something, I've been in a lot of churches and a lot of people just don't
really read their Bibles.
And they want to read their Bibles, and part of it is because they just don't really have
a plan.
It's kind of like you say, man, I'm going to get in shape this year.
It's like, all right, what's your plan?
What's your diet going to be like?
Whatever I feel like eating, I'm just going to eat.
It's like, you're not going to do very well.
It's like, man, you're going to go to the gym and do what?
I don't know, I'm going to hop on a treadmill, I guess.
It's like, you've got to have a plan.
That's why it's great about the Bible reading down there, because it's like read these chapters.
And look, if you're someone who's read the Bible a lot in your life, because I come up
with my own charts sometimes, and I like to change things up, and people have different
reading strategies, but especially when someone's just starting.
Jesus' disciples said, teach us to pray.
But honestly, people need to be taught to do a lot of things, because you're new at
this.
When I first started living for God and first got saved and everything, I wanted to read
the Bible, but I didn't really know, what do I do?
Do I start in Genesis?
Do I start in...
You don't really know.
And quite honestly, starting in Genesis probably isn't the best thing for someone first reading
the Bible.
People that are new to reading, they don't really know.
And so we got those charts back there, but it makes wise and simple.
But not only does it do that, verse eight, the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing
the heart.
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
You know what it says here?
The statutes of the Lord, that's another way of saying God's testimonies or the law of
the Lord.
It says it rejoices the heart.
Did you know reading God's word makes you happy?
Reading God's word makes you happy.
And let me tell you something, you could ask my wife, I promise you, she could tell you
times when I'm really doing a lot of Bible reading and times I'm not.
Say why?
Because when I'm not doing as much Bible reading, I have a pretty bad attitude.
Because when you're reading God's word, you're in a better mood.
And any one of us in this room, we can testify that's true.
When you're reading the Bible, your whole life can be folding around your eyes.
Man, I lost everything.
I lost my money.
I lost my job.
I lost everything.
But man, it's like I feel pretty good.
Man, you've read the stories of the Bible.
You're in a good mood though.
And let me tell you something, God's word, as believers, this is what's going to make
you happy in your life.
You say, I'm miserable.
I'm depressed right now.
I don't feel like going on.
I'm not happy this Christmas.
Read the word of God.
It will rejoice the heart.
That's what it says.
Verse nine, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
Fearing God actually cleanses your life, okay?
Spiritually and physically, reading the word of God, fearing God, that will cleanse your
life when you read the word of God, okay?
More to be desired are they than gold, yea then much find gold.
Now look, is there anything in this world that has more monetary value than gold?
Nothing.
Gold has more monetary value than basically anything.
I mean, if you found just like, I don't know how valuable gold is, but you have just like
this thing of gold, you're going to be rich.
Gold is something people, I mean, there's the California gold rush where basically everybody
just bought everything, they said, man, there's a lot of gold, we're going all in.
Gold is something that's considered very valuable.
But you know, God's word is more valuable than gold.
But not only that, it says sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb.
And when you think of honey and you think of the honeycomb, there's nothing that's sweeter
tasting than honey, okay?
That's why honey, if you just have like one spoonful, it costs you 5,000 pesos.
It's very expensive because it's a precious commodity, okay?
But see, God's word is actually sweeter, it says, sweeter than honeycomb.
Verse 11, moreover by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great
reward.
Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
So who can understand their errors and the areas they're messing up from their life?
When you read the word of God as a believer, it teaches you, man, I'm messing up this and
this and this and this and this.
This is how we know if what we're doing is right and wrong.
God's word teaches us.
And let me tell you something, it doesn't really matter how old you are, how long you've
been saved, how long you've been soul winning, or even how many times you've read the Bible.
We naturally go into error in wrong ways and sin, and we need that daily cleansing that
gets us back on the right path.
Every single one of us.
I don't care if it's a pastor or whether you've been saved for a couple days.
Every single one of us, we need the word of God to keep us on the right path.
We must always be reading the word of God.
Every single year, every single day, we need to read the word of God.
And it helps us from even our secret faults, things we don't even know are wrong in verse
12.
See, there's a lot of things in my life when I first got saved, and you know, we only got
a few more verses.
We won't go to chapter 29.
I've gone too long already as it is anyway.
The Bible says, who can understand his errors?
Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
There's a lot of things in my life when I first got saved that I did not realize were
wrong and things I didn't think were wrong.
And then I saw a verse in the Bible and it's like, oh, whoops, I better change that.
I mean, when I first got saved, I kind of assumed God probably didn't really want me
to listen to rock music.
But then when I see verses in the Bible, I'm like, oh, wow, that's how bad it is, huh?
And just like lots of changes in my life, things that you don't even realize that you
need to do.
When I first got saved, I didn't even know until almost like a year after I got saved
that I should get baptized because nobody ever told me.
And it's like you see in the Word of God, but it's like you don't know these things
when you first get saved.
When people first get saved, they don't know anything.
And there's a lot of secret faults that we have that we're not even aware of.
And that's why we need to read God's Word.
And when we read God's Word, it can help teach us, okay?
We get closer to God's Word, God will show us our errors in our secret faults.
But look, if you're someone who has this open sin in your life and you refuse to get it
right, God's not going to help you figure out your secret faults.
Your secret faults are for the person that really wants to live for God and says, you
know what, I'm not trying to compare myself to other people at church.
I'm not trying to compare myself of whether I go so any more, read the Bible more.
God just helped me get all of the sin out of my life, okay?
And that's the sort of person God's going to show their secret faults.
They read the Word of God and God says, well, here's something else you can make a change
in your life.
And I promise you that if we're all honest with ourselves, in January as we read through
the New Testament, we will all find areas of our life where we say, yes, I need to change
that.
Yes, I need to get this worldliness out of life.
Every single one of us, including myself, every single one of us, we have things we
need to fix in our lives, okay?
Verse 13, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.
Let them not have dominion over me.
Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
So notice what it says in verse 13 and why it's so important to get your secret faults
out of your life.
Because it talks about the great transgression, a big sin in verse number 13, and realize
that you don't start off at a big sin, okay?
Look, if a husband and wife are married, because it says, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous
sins.
Let them not have dominion over me.
Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
Look, husband and wife that are married, that love each other, they get married, they're
happy every day.
They don't just wake up one day and say, I'm going to cheat on my wife.
I'm going to cheat on my husband.
That happens slowly over time, where you start to allow yourself to look at things you shouldn't.
You start lusting.
You always lust in your heart before you actually commit the act.
You start lusting in your heart.
You start allowing yourself to not think as much about them or whatever.
And then over time, what happens?
Because, you know, lusting in your heart, well, I guess that's a small transgression.
But what about adultery?
That's a great transgression.
And see, the great transgression comes when you allow yourself to have small sins and
you don't try to get it right.
Don't misunderstand me.
We all sin every single day.
We're not perfect.
But there's a difference between someone who says, yeah, you know, I got these sins in
my life and I don't care, versus someone who says, you know, I do care.
And they feel guilty when they go to bed at night every time, every day they mess up.
There's a difference between those two people.
And let me tell you something, I'd rather feel guilty and mess up and be a just man
that stumbles seven times and has to rise back again and not commit a great transgression
like David than to basically just destroy my life.
And see, the Bible says that you have the secret faults and we must get these out of
our lives or one day you might wake up and say, man, what in the world have I done with
my life?
And let me tell you something.
You know, all of us, we know people.
We know people, even pastors that we've respected, a pastor who was my friend of mine that committed
great transgressions and it's like, what in the world?
And it's sad.
How does that happen when you allow the small transgressions and you don't try to fix that?
It starts small and it could happen to anybody.
That would never happen to me and yet it happened to great people in the Bible.
It could happen to anybody.
That's why we must all be daily cleansing ourself through the word of God.
Yes, you got saved six years ago.
That's great, but you still have the sinful flesh.
You can still commit the sins that the world would commit.
You got to get rid of your secret faults.
You must be cleansed through the word of God.
Otherwise one day you might commit a great transgression like it mentions in verse 13.
Verse 14, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy
sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
And see, the Bible says the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart, so your entire
lifestyle.
And you know, we would do well to think of this verse because people often say things
and do things and you got to wonder, it's like, does God really want you to say that?
You say certain things to people, whether it's text message, Facebook or YouTube.
It's like, does God really want you to talk like that?
Is that really acceptable in the sight of God?
Do you really see Jesus Christ doing something like that?
And see, all of us ought to have the attitude, hey God, help me to allow my words to be acceptable
in my sight.
Help me not to do something stupid.
Help me not to do something that's really wrong and sinful.
And one big problem we have that just pops into my mind is we have an illiterate sermon
of seas.
You know, we had creation, cleansing, conversion.
I think of comparing with all of this because I think what happens a lot of times is we
compare ourselves to other people and as soul winners we can easily stop and say, you know
what, I go soul winning and 1% of saved people go soul winning.
So it doesn't even matter what I do with the rest of my life.
I can do whatever I want because I'm still a better Christian than 99% of people.
That's a terrible attitude to have.
And when you start comparing yourself to the world, that's not really a high comparison.
If you're going to compare yourself to someone, why don't you compare yourself to Jesus Christ?
And if you want to compare yourself to a man, why don't you use Paul the Apostle or John
the Baptist, the words of God that we see from these great men of God?
I mean, learn lessons from David.
Learn lessons from people that made these big sins.
But compare yourself to someone like Paul the Apostle if you have to compare yourself
to a man.
I want you to realize that when you're comparing yourself to other people, it's going to cause
you not really to be that devoted because you can easily step back and any one of us
can be like this.
We've got a new year coming up and we could easily have the attitude, hey, I've read through
the Bible 10 times or whatever.
That's more than people will their entire life.
So I can kind of just relax.
I already know the word of God.
Well, I'll tell you one reason why that's foolish and I'll talk about it on Sunday.
But your life is just a series of stages.
Look, I read the Bible a lot before I was married.
I never really kept track of my reading.
But our standard of duty to be ordained to the ministry, you had to read through the
Bible 10 times.
And we had that list.
I said, I don't even know how many times I've read it.
But I started reading when I was 19 and just read at least one time cover to cover and
a lot of times many times during the year.
But here's the thing about this.
There's a lot of verses that, quite honestly, I'm not going to fully comprehend when I'm
not married.
And when you are married, it's like you're looking for different things in the Bible.
Some of these young people that are married, some of these young couples that are married,
even myself, I haven't been married that long.
Now that I'm a father, you see certain verses about being a parent and you start saying,
oh, man, Deuteronomy 6 means a lot more to my life.
And here's the thing about this.
It's like, yeah, you might have read through the Bible 1,000 times before you were married.
But God has certain things you need to read while you are married to help you be a good
husband and father.
And all of your life is a series of stages.
That's why no matter what stage of life, no matter how many times you've read through
the Bible, we must all be faithfully reading it.
You say, why?
Because yeah, conversion comes through the Word of God and you get saved that way.
But your daily cleansing and conversion comes when you're still reading the Word of God
and walking with God.
And He's showing you your secret faults.
And let me tell you something.
We all have secret faults.
We all need to be constantly improving, especially as we come to a new year.
Let's close with a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to hear
your word.
And you know, Psalms 19 is a great chapter.
We didn't even make it to chapter 20, God.
There's so much information.
And help us to apply this to our lives, including myself, God.
Our life is a series of stages and ups and downs.
We have emotional highs.
We have emotional lows.
We get depressed.
We're happy.
We're all over the place, God.
But help us no matter what our life's like, whether we have lots of money or no money,
we're happy or depressed.
Help us to always be reading your Bible faithfully every day and to pray every day, to faithfully
come to church each week and to go soul winning, God, to help keep us on the right path because
we don't want to one day just fall out of favor with you and commit sins and commit
some great transgression one day.
God, help us to continue to live for you and help us have a great time of fellowship here
this evening and ask you to bless this food to our bodies we're about to partake in, God.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.