All right, in Psalm 12, the Bible reads in verse number 1,
Help, Lord, for the godly man seesteth,
for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
Now, the word fail, that's an older word for fail.
The word fail there actually means lack, okay?
I speak German and the word failen means to lack,
and this is just an old use that we don't use as much anymore of the word fail.
But he's basically saying that there's a lack of people who are faithful,
there's a lack of people who are serving God.
He said, the godly man seesteth.
Now, this reminds me of when Jesus said in Matthew chapter number 11,
where he said,
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,
that he would send forth labors into his harvest.
This is basically what David's doing.
He's praying, praying out to God saying,
Help, Lord, for the godly man seesteth.
Think of many creatures today that are older,
are starting to pass off the seed.
And a lot of the younger generation of preachers that's coming up,
has totally different doctrine.
They're not preaching the same doctrine,
they're not preaching even out of the same Bible anymore.
And as these older men pass off the seed,
where are the young men that are going to come in and replace them
and be that godly leader, that pastor, that preacher,
somebody that will stand in the gap and make up the hedge in America?
Help is what David is saying.
I think we can say that today.
The godly man seesteth.
We see so many people quitting.
Even in our church's short history,
we've seen godly people who were out-souling,
who loved the Lord, who were growing,
quit church and become backslidden.
And this is what he's talking about when he says that godly man seesteth.
If you're godly, if you're doing what's right, don't quit.
The Bible says to be steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain.
Jesus said,
He that putteth his hand to the plow and looketh back
does not fit for the kingdom of God.
We ought to put our hand to the plow and look straight on ahead,
not to the right hand or the left.
Don't quit.
Be in it for the long haul.
I heard a great saying,
Christianity is not measured in years, it's measured in decades.
It's not a sprint.
It's the long haul that matters.
I mean, so many people, they get in church, they get fired up,
they go out and get people saved, they read the Bible,
but then they're gone in a few months or maybe even a year.
They're not going to accomplish as much as the one
who stays in it for the long haul for 10 years, 20 years,
and spends a lifetime of serving God.
So don't quit.
He said,
Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth,
for the faithful fail from among the seven men.
Why?
Look at verse 2.
They speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor.
Now turn to Deuteronomy 6.
Deuteronomy is the fifth book in the Bible.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
So basically he's saying that the godly man ceases.
He's quitting.
So many godly men have quit.
And then he says the faithful are lacking.
He said the faithful fail from among the children of men.
Then he explains why by saying they speak vanity,
everyone with his neighbor.
Now vanity is worthlessness.
Emptiness is what it actually means.
Just something that has no value.
Look, if you would, at Deuteronomy 6.
I'll show you the opposite.
It says, verse number 4,
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,
and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart
and with all thy soul and with all thy might.
And these words, talking about the Bible here,
and these words which I command thee this day
shall be in thine heart,
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
and shalt talk of them, watch this,
when thou sittest in thine house,
and when thou walkest by the way,
and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
God said, talk about the Bible when you get up,
throughout the day, when you go to bed,
when you're at home.
We talk so much vanity,
and we spend time with our children
talking a bunch of vanity,
when we should be teaching these things to our children,
speaking God's word,
instead of just always just talking about sports,
or, you know, nothing wrong with sports,
but just talking about sports again and again,
and you're talking about this thing and that thing,
and just the weather.
Talk about the Bible.
Talk about something that matters,
especially when it's with your own family, he says.
And so part of the reason why there's a lack of godly people
is because so many people are just speaking vanity,
every man with his neighbors.
Just chit chat, just idle talk,
instead of using our time wisely to speak God's word,
to talk about things that actually matter.
I think of young people that are dating,
and young people will be dating,
and they don't talk about anything that matters.
You know, if you're going to get married to that person someday,
or if you think about marrying that person,
wouldn't it stand to reason
that you should be talking to them about things that matter,
about God's plan for the family,
about what you want to do with your life spiritually,
instead of just a bunch of chit chat.
I talked to people and said,
so does your boyfriend or does your girlfriend,
what do they think about this doctrine?
Or do they go to church?
Oh, I'm not, yeah, I think they go to church.
Yeah, what are you talking about?
You know, talk about things that matter.
Talk about the Bible.
Talk about something that you've read.
Speak these words.
But if you flip back to Psalm 12,
that's in Deuteronomy 6, the positive example.
It says, to speak of it, you say that's a little bit extreme.
You sound like a fanatic when you talk about just,
what, you just wake up in the morning
and you're already talking about your Bible?
Yes, and then when I sit down at the table,
I'm going to talk more about it.
That's what the Bible said.
And when I'm walking by the way,
when I'm sitting with my family,
when I'm doing all these things,
I want to have God be in all my thoughts,
not just a little part of my life on Sunday or Wednesday night,
but rather it's just who I am,
24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But he said in verse 2,
they speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor,
with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak.
The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and tongue
that speak in proud things.
What does it mean to have a double heart?
A double heart means that basically you say one thing,
but what's in your heart is something completely different.
Flattering lips.
Beware, the Bible says in Proverbs, of the flattering lips.
Now I've learned this in my ministry as a pastor.
Sometimes when you're the pastor of the church,
people who want to kind of creep in,
they try to flatter you and butter you up.
And people have tried to butter me up.
You know, they, oh Pastor Anderson,
and you know, people have said,
oh you know, I appreciate you,
or you know, they've said nice things to me.
But it's real obvious there's a difference
when somebody is just laying it on real thick
and they're flattering you.
You know what I'm talking about.
It's amazing because you know,
my best friends and the people that love me the most,
they're not constantly coming up to me
and telling me how wonderful I am.
They're not constantly picking up the phone
and telling me how great I am.
You know, I mean, I hope they think that I'm a good pastor,
but you know, they're not coming up to me
and constantly telling me how great I am.
Okay, I don't need somebody to come up
and tell me how great I am.
You know, I don't need a bunch of flattery.
I, you know, we need to lift up Jesus Christ.
You know, I've seen it before.
Somebody would come up to me
and start saying all these really flattering things to me
and I'd just mark that person.
And usually, without a doubt,
it turns out that that was the bad guy.
That was the guy who's trying to creep in
because they think that that's your weakness.
You know, they're going to stroke your ego
and then you're going to look past
what they're trying to do
and what they're trying to accomplish.
And I'll tell you something,
everybody who's tried to creep into this church,
they always lavish me with a bunch of praise
and it was weird.
And we ought not worship a man.
You know, and our church has never been like this
and never will be like this.
But I've been in some churches
where the pastor is worshiped
and he's lifted up way too highly on a pedestal
instead of just being treated like another human being.
A brother in Christ.
Not Father so-and-so like the Catholics
but just a brother in Christ.
But the flatterer will come in
and lavish a bunch of praise
and basically it's just to get you off guard,
to butter you up.
And not just as a pastor, in your own personal life.
Beware of people who flatter you.
And it might be good for your ego,
you know, somebody coming up to you
and telling you everything you want to hear
but watch out for that person.
Beware.
There's a difference between somebody
paying you a normal compliment.
And you know, I like to get compliments,
everybody does and I give people compliments.
But there's a difference between that and flattery.
And beware of somebody who unnaturally
lays on too much praise or too much emphasis
on how wonderful you are or whatever.
I'm sure you're a wonderful person.
But when people keep coming up to you
and telling you that,
there's probably something wrong with that person.
So just watch out for that.
And God's warning us here.
He said,
The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips
and the tongue that speaketh proud things,
who have said,
With our tongue will we prevail.
Our lips are our own.
Who is Lord over us?
Now that's a pretty bold statement.
That's a pretty blasphemous statement.
Hey, who's Lord over us?
We can do whatever we want.
Our lips are our own.
I'm going to say what I want.
I'm going to do what I want.
But the Bible says to us as Christians,
What? No ye not.
That you're bought with a...
He said you're not your own.
He said that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you
and that you're not your own,
but you're bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body
and in your spirit which are God's.
And really if you just take your life
and just live it however you want,
you're really stealing from God.
Because God demands of you
your reasonable service
which is to present your body
a living sacrifice unto God,
holy, acceptable unto God.
It's your reasonable service the Bible says.
And so you're not your own.
You've been bought with a price.
Because Jesus Christ died on the cross
for your sins and shed his blood for you
and saved you, the Bible says he redeemed you.
Well now you're not your own.
And so to say,
Well I have no Lord over me.
I don't want to have anybody
telling me what to do.
Well it reminds me of those who told Jesus
in the book of Luke where they said,
We will not have this man to reign over us.
And that's the attitude among many people today.
That's why so many people are so vicious
in their atheism or viciously against Jesus Christ.
Because they just don't want anybody
to lord over them.
They want to be their own God.
Now look, I love freedom as much as an ex-person.
But I will bow my knee to God Almighty.
Now I don't want to bow down to a human being.
But I will bow down to Jesus Christ,
the Lord of the Universe.
I'm not my own God.
I can create myself.
And really some people with their atheism,
really what it is, is like a self-worship.
Lifting themselves up as their own God,
as their own Lord.
They don't want to have anybody lord over them.
They say, Our lips are our own.
Who is Lord over us?
Verse 5.
For the oppression of the poor,
for the sighing of the needy,
now will I arise, saith the Lord.
I will set him in safety
from him that puffeth at him.
Now God does not like the oppression of the poor.
God is the defender of the fatherless,
the Bible says.
He's the defender of the widow.
He listens to those who cry out to him
out of destitution that don't have anything.
And we today sometimes have a tendency
to look down on poor people.
And yet the Bible says,
Had not God chosen the poor of this world,
rich in faith,
and heirs of the kingdom
which he had promised to them that love him,
but ye have despised the poor?
Did not rich men oppress you
and draw you before the judgment seats?
Do not they blaspheme that worthy name
by the which you're called?
If ye will fill the royal law
according to the scripture,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
ye do well.
But if ye have respect of persons,
ye commit sin,
and are convinced of the law as transgressors,
ye are not respect the rich,
and then look down upon the poor,
and think, Oh, they're just poor.
They're just white trash,
or whatever you want to call them.
No.
The poor in this world,
blessed are ye poor.
Jesus said,
For ye shall be rich.
Do you see,
the poor in this world are the ones
who are more receptive to the gospel.
There's going to be a lot more poor people in heaven
than there will be rich people,
I'll tell you right now.
Because I've gone out and knocked doors
and knocked doors,
and it was the poor who were ready
to receive the gospel.
It was the poor who gave us the time of day,
who sat down with us,
and we opened the Bible
and showed them how to be saved.
But it's easier for a camel to go through,
I have a needle,
than for a rich man to be saved.
Now it's possible,
because with men it's impossible,
all things are possible,
but it's a rare thing,
because the poor in this world
are more humble,
and they're more interested in hearing the gospel.
Don't ever get an attitude
where you look down upon someone
because they're poor.
Love the poor,
and don't look up at people
because they're rich.
Most rich people are not interested
in the things of God,
because they're too filled up with themselves.
Of course there were great rich men
in the Bible and so forth,
but I'm just speaking in general terms.
He said,
For the oppression of the poor,
for the sighing of the needy,
now will I arise, saith the Lord.
This basically gets God upset.
He's going to step in.
The Bible says that if you oppress the poor
and take away his cloak,
and he cries out to him,
he says,
I will hear the cry of the poor.
I'll hear the cry of the fatherless.
He said,
Now will I rise, saith the Lord.
I will set him in safety from him
that puppeth in him.
And look at verse 6.
The words of the Lord are pure words,
as silver tried in the furnace of earth,
purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation,
forever and forever.
Let me pull out the non-inspired version here,
the NIV.
This is what your modern Bibles
will change this to.
The NIV is just a little bit easier to understand.
And I can't get past all the Themes and the Thals.
Well, listen to this.
You tell me if this is pretty much the same thing.
This is Psalm 12, verse 6.
You look down at your King James Bible.
I'm going to read for you from the NIV.
It says,
And the words of the Lord are flawless,
like silver refined in a furnace of clay,
purified seven times.
But listen to verse 7.
Listen to the dramatic difference.
Okay, you're looking down at your Bible.
O Lord,
you will keep us safe.
And protect us from such people forever.
Did you get that?
I mean, that's a pretty big difference.
You'll keep us safe and protect us from such people forever.
Let me,
I gotta read for you a couple more here.
Here, turn forth.
Help me out with this here.
Turn, turn for me in this one, would you?
All right.
We'll get those going.
Turn to Psalm 12 in those.
Because I want to just,
I want to show you what,
what kind of an attack is on these verses, basically,
because of what they teach.
Because the great truth that they teach,
they're under attack today,
because people are attacking the preservation of God's Word.
And this is a pretty good verse on the preservation of God's Word.
Let me,
let's see, you got it?
All right, go ahead and read.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Go ahead and read it for me.
Verse 6.
Go ahead and read just verse 7.
Or read them both.
Read them both.
Verse 6 is pretty loud.
Okay, this is the,
this is the living Bible.
Okay, go ahead.
The Lord's promise is sure.
He speaks no careless word.
All he says is purest truth like silver seven times fine.
Verse 7.
Oh Lord, we know that you will forever preserve your own
from the reach of evil men.
See how different that is?
It took out,
it took out even the,
his words being pure.
It just says,
well, his promise is going to take place.
And then again,
it's just talking about keeping us safe from,
from people, evil people.
Go ahead.
This one's not so difficult.
It says,
the words of the Lord of pure words,
the silver trident of furnace on the earth,
refined seven times.
Thou wilt keep them,
thou wilt preserve him,
wilt preserve him from this generation present.
Thou wilt preserve him?
Yeah, it does so, unfortunately.
Not that different.
What's wrong with you?
So again,
it's,
that's saying it's going to preserve him.
Who's the him?
Is he going to preserve the Lord?
Who's the him?
Let me,
let me see that.
This is the,
because this is the new American standard.
This is the most accurate,
right?
Listen to this.
The words of the Lord are pure words.
As silver trident of furnace on the earth,
refined seven times.
Thou, O Lord, will keep them.
That the words,
right?
I guess,
but then it says,
thou wilt preserve him from this generation forever.
The wicked strut about on every side.
All right.
So I just want to show you that
all of these modern versions,
you know,
we,
we just took a little sampling,
the NIV,
the new American standard of the living Father,
are all dramatically changing this verse
and taking away the fact
that God's words plural are pure words
and that he's going to preserve them
from this generation and forever.
Now there are many,
many verses in the Bible
that have to do with the preservation of God's word.
Let's look at a few of them
because this is just one of the many
and this one is majorly under attack
and I've heard people attack this verse
and here's what they said.
They said,
well this is the only verse on preservation.
So if we can disprove this,
then we can disprove preservation
and of course that's ridiculous.
This verse cannot be broken,
number one,
but number two,
it's not even the only verse.
Look if you would at Isaiah 59.
Here's a great verse on preservation.
Isaiah chapter 59.
You see,
it makes absolutely no sense
to not believe in preservation.
Even without all these verses
that I'm going to show you,
even common sense should tell you
that God's word would be preserved.
Why would God wait hundreds of years
and slowly deliver his word to man?
Basically he delivered some of it to Moses
and then hundreds of years go by.
He delivered some of it through David.
He delivered some of it
through all these various prophets
and then the New Testament rolls around
and he gives us more scripture.
Why would he over the course of 1600 years
go through all this work
to give us his word
and then after just a couple hundred years
it's gone.
After a couple hundred years
it's just a copy of a copy,
it's closed,
it's the best we've got and so forth.
Like these scholars will try to tell you,
of course God was going to preserve his word.
He said in Psalm 119,
forever oh Lord thy word is settled in heaven.
But then in Psalm 12 he said
the words of the Lord are pure words
as silver tried to furnace of earth
purified seven times.
It's pure in heaven and it's pure in earth.
But look at Isaiah 59 21
and tell me if you think this is preservation.
As for me this is my covenant with them.
Now what's a covenant?
A covenant is a promise.
So this is a promise that God is making.
A covenant is like a contract
that you sign your name to.
He said this is my covenant with them
save the Lord,
my spirit that is upon thee
and my words which I have put in thy mouth
shall not depart out of thy mouth
nor out of the mouth of thy seed,
save the Lord from henceforth and forever.
Look tonight when we preach the book of Isaiah
we are preaching the exact words
that Isaiah preached.
Now they're in a different language
but it's the same thing.
It's the same word.
You say you always lose something
in the translation.
I wonder if they lost something
at the day of Pentecost
when they spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost in languages
to every nation under heaven.
Every man heard them speak in his own tongue.
They heard God's word in a multitude of languages
and guess who was doing the translating
in that chapter?
The Holy Spirit.
Because they spake as the Holy Ghost
gave them under it.
That tells me that God speaks
more than one language.
God is able to deliver his word
in multiple languages.
Daniel chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar,
he said, unto all tongues.
They said it out in all different languages.
Daniel chapter 4,
which was God's word spoken
by the mouth of his servant Nebuchadnezzar.
And all throughout the Bible
we see Bible verses being translated
from one language to another.
We see Jesus quoting the Old Testament
in a different language.
And yet he said,
man shall not live by bread alone
but by every word that perceived
out of the mouth of God
as it is ready.
And that was Jesus speaking Aramaic
quoting a Hebrew Bible
and Matthew wrote it down in Greek
and he said every word.
Don't tell me that something
gets lost in the translation.
It's funny because most people
who tell me,
well something always gets lost
in the translation,
I always just ask them,
well how many languages do you speak?
And they usually say one.
And I say, well I speak four.
And I say that it doesn't get lost
in the translation.
I've read the Bible cover to cover
in German.
I've read the New Testament cover to cover
four times in Spanish,
twice in Romanian,
almost done with Norwegian.
And I can tell you right now
that when I read it,
it says the same thing as it does
in the King James Version.
And when I was reading a translation
of one of these languages
that had a mistake in it,
I could see the mistake
and I could tell you how to correct it.
I mean you can say the same thing
in a different language.
Now you don't say it exactly
the same way.
You mix words around
and there's different grammar
and different ways to say it.
But you're still saying it
and you're still using the same words.
You're still saying the same thing
with the same words
in a different language.
And it's possible for God.
And this is what they'll say
at the King James only people.
They'll say,
Well, you guys think that
everybody has to learn English
and you're putting God in this box.
Like, you know, I speak that.
No, wait a minute.
We're saying that God can translate
His word into any language.
They're the ones saying that
we must go back to the Greek
in order to get the true meaning.
Or we must go back to the Hebrew
in order to get the true meaning.
No, they're the ones who are
putting God in a box
that He only speaks two languages.
I say that God can speak to man
in every language under heaven
because if He did it
at the day of Pentecost,
if He translated His word
in every language at that time
at the day of Pentecost,
He could do it again today
because Jesus Christ is saying
yesterday and today and forever.
And when you get to heaven,
God will speak English.
And, you know, if you're Spanish,
He'll speak Spanish.
He's not limited to one human language.
Who's the one who divided
the languages in the first place?
God at the tower of battle.
And so if God is the one
who divided the languages
in the first place,
why would He divide the languages
just so that only some tiny fraction
of the population
could really hear His word?
Let me ask you something today.
How many Christians do you think today,
how many soul-winning,
zealous, Bible-believing Christians today
do you think speak Greek fluently
as their first language?
Because these bunch of pastors
and theologians, they're not fluent.
I always walk up,
whenever somebody says they speak Greek,
I say to them,
oh, they let them speak too much.
Now I say to Greek people,
they always know what I'm saying.
I was out soul-winning not too long ago.
I knocked the door of this lady.
She was from Greece.
I said a couple of sentences to her like that.
And she immediately,
oh yeah, you just said this, this, this, this.
When I was in Norway,
I won a girl to the Lord
because she was from Greece.
I spoke a little Greek,
kind of broke the ice,
but she also spoke English.
She didn't speak Norwegian,
but I opened up the Bible
and showed her how to be saved in English.
But if I say that to these theologians,
they're like, huh?
They don't know Greek.
They just, they lie.
And not only that,
and look, you say,
oh, that's not true.
I know this guy.
He really knows Greek.
I haven't met one yet.
Now I'm not saying they're not out there.
I'm sure that there's some guy out there
who knows his Greek and whatever,
but I haven't met him yet
because all these guys
who are these doctors and PhDs
and self-proclaimed Greek experts
could not speak Greek
and they could not even translate
something for me without a book,
without a dictionary or a lexicon.
They couldn't do it at sight
from the Greek Bible.
And so these guys are just amateurs
and they're pretending to be experts
in the language.
And not only that,
but really this is bringing us back
into the dark ages
like Roman Catholicism.
You don't have the Word of God.
You need me to stand up here
and interpret it for you
and tell you what it really means
because you're reading from this
poor translation.
You're reading from a copy of a copy of a copy
and so I'm going to stand up here
and tell you what it really means.
No.
The Bible says that you need not
that any man teach you,
1 John chapter 2,
but as the same anointing,
talk about the Holy Spirit,
teaches you of all things
in his truth and his no lie
and even as it has taught you
you shall abide in him.
The Holy Spirit and the Word of God
is all you need.
You don't need a man to teach you anything.
You see there's nothing that I preach
that you couldn't figure out on your own.
I'll say it again.
There's nothing that I preach
that you could not figure out while you say,
well then why come to church?
Because you're commanded to come to church.
Because you come to church
to get fired up,
to get around other believers,
to get stirred up,
to hear the preaching.
Not to get some new revelation
but to come and be inspired
and just to learn faster,
just to be taught things fast.
But if I'm teaching something
that you couldn't get on your own,
then what am I?
Am I making things up?
Because if we both have the same Holy Spirit
and the same Bible,
you shouldn't need me to teach you anything.
It's all in the Bible.
Now it'll help if I teach it to you
but it's not necessary.
Because you should be able to get it on your own.
But if you have to go to the Greek and Hebrew,
then Dr. Fatbottom is necessary
or else we're not ever going to know what it means.
Because he's going to have to stand up
and conjugate it for us
and show us what it means
and the aorist tense
and all these different things.
And by the way,
a lot of it's just made up
because I did study Greek actually for a while
and I took a few semesters of Greek
and I actually studied modern Greek
on my own for a while.
And I'd hear these preachers get up
and I can tell you right now
that what they're saying is plain wasn't true.
But everybody in the audience is saying,
oh, that's really fascinating.
Oh, that's interesting.
How are you going to know?
Have you ever heard the expression
it's Greek to me?
Okay, there's a reason why
they made up that expression.
Because people who speak English
cannot understand any Greek at all
without much study,
without much effort to learn.
And so therefore,
a man getting up behind the pulpit
and going back to the Greek and Hebrew
having some kind of a revelation
that you don't have in your King James Bible,
this is taking you back into the dark ages
where he's kind of like the mediator
between God and you.
He's got to be between you and the Bible
to interpret it and expound it
and show you what it really means.
You see, God can speak His Word in any language.
He is not limited to one or two.
And what blows me away,
why don't people get it?
He gave the Old Testament
in a different language than the New Testament.
Shouldn't that tell you right there
that He's speaking more than one language?
I mean, if it was all in Hebrew,
then maybe I would see their point
if they said, hey, Hebrew is this pure language.
But wait a minute,
part of it's in Hebrew,
part of it's in Greek,
and even some parts of it
are in a Chaldean language, Aramaic.
So how do you not get it
that He speaks more than one?
And let me tell you something,
God's Word is preserved
because in Psalm 12,
He said it would be preserved.
But in Isaiah 59,
He promised that the same words
that Isaiah spoke
would be in the mouth of His children,
His children's children,
His seed, and forever it said
would be speaking the same words
that Isaiah spoke.
And I can preach those same words today.
And so let's look at another verse on preservation.
Look at Matthew 24.
And while you're turning to Matthew 24,
let's have somebody turn to Ecclesiastes 3.14.
Somebody over here turn to Ecclesiastes 3.14.
And we'll turn to Matthew 24.
To me, I think this is the best verse on preservation.
I mean, different people have different verses,
but I don't know.
This one right here
seems to be the most powerful one
that I can find
where he basically just says,
Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away.
I mean, I don't know how you can get
any more clearer than that.
Look at Matthew chapter 5, verse 18.
I'm sorry, I didn't tell you what verse.
Matthew 24.35, if you want to mark that one down.
Matthew 24.35.
Couldn't be any clearer.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, Jehovah's Witness,
that thinks this world's going to be here forever.
Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away.
And yet today there are those who believe
that the exact words have passed away
and that what we're left with
is just kind of a rough facsimile.
No, he said his words would not pass away.
Look at Matthew 5.18.
He said,
For verily I say unto you,
till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law,
till all be fulfilled.
Now, it's clear that it's going to be preserved.
Read Ecclesiastes 3.14.
Who's got it?
Somebody jump up and read it.
I know that whatsoever God doeth
or shall be forever,
nothing can be put to it
nor anything taken from it,
and God doeth it that men should fear before him.
There we go right there.
A great verse on preservation.
Ecclesiastes 3.14.
I know that whatsoever God doeth,
it shall be forever.
Nothing can be put to it
and nothing can be taken from it,
and he doeth it that men should fear before him.
If God doesn't care about the exact words,
look at Revelation 22.
If God doesn't care about the exact words,
if it's just the thoughts or the ideas,
or as long as it's the truth,
you know, people say,
well, I just think there's enough truth
in the NIV,
you know, for somebody to get saved
and grow as a Christian.
Wait a minute.
Jesus said of the devil
that there was no truth in him,
and yet the devil himself quoted the Bible
70% accurately.
He said it is written,
and he quoted it wrong,
but he was 70% accurate.
He was close.
And yet Jesus said there's no truth in him,
because if you take truth plus lie
and mix them together,
Jesus called that no truth at all.
When you have a mixture of good and evil,
it'd be like if I took this clean water
and mixed it with dirty water.
Well, it was half clean.
No, it's all dirty once you mix it together.
Look at Revelation 22 and tell me
if you think that God cares about every single word.
Look at verse 18.
For I testify unto every man
that heareth the what?
The thoughts?
The ideas?
No.
That heareth the words
of the prophecy of this book.
If any man shall add unto these things,
what things?
The words.
God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book,
and if any man shall take away
from the words of the book of this prophecy,
God shall take away his part
out of the book of life
and out of the holy city
and from the things which are written in this book.
Look back, if you would,
at verse number 6 of the same chapter,
and he said unto me,
These sayings are faithful and true,
and the Lord God of the holy prophets
sent his angel to show unto his servants
the things which must shortly be done.
Look at chapter 21 and verse number 5.
The Bible reads,
And he that sat upon the throne said,
Behold, I made all things new,
and he said unto me, Write,
for these words are true and faithful.
It's all about the words.
It's God's words that matter.
Every word of God is pure.
Proverbs 30 verse 5 and 6.
And notice the present tense.
This is being spoken
hundreds and hundreds of years
after Moses was on the mount
and got God's word.
He said, Every word of God is pure.
He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words,
lest he reprove thee,
and thou be found a liar.
God's exact words matter.
Look, if you would, back at Psalm 12 where we were.
Psalm chapter 12.
And look, if you would, at verse 6.
The Bible reads,
The words of the Lord are pure words,
as silver tried in a furnace of urge,
purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
So who is going to preserve God's word?
Man or God?
God is going to preserve it.
He's saying, Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation and forever.
You see, a lot of people put all this emphasis on
maybe the man, King James,
or maybe upon the translators of the King James Version.
That's not where the emphasis ought to be.
I mean, the translators of the King James Version
were excellent scholars and very knowledgeable men,
and King James himself was very much a language expert.
And he spoke several languages from the time he was a little boy.
But that's not the point.
It doesn't even matter.
Because the point is that God's word was preserved.
People say, well, was King James inspired by God,
or were the translators inspired by God?
No.
God's word is what's inspired, not people.
The words are inspired.
Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Then someone else wrote them down.
But what matters is that they're God's word,
and God's words are inspired.
Whether I'm writing it down...
I mean, I could take out my pen right now
and write down some of God's words.
And it's God's word.
Does God have to somehow breathe upon me while I'm doing it?
No.
I mean, right now.
And let me just express this to you.
The Bible says,
Well spake the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David the prophet saying...
He said that many times.
That God spoke through David.
Now, wait a minute.
Let's say I stand up here right now,
and I quote to you God's exact words.
I just get up here and I say,
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
That's God speaking.
That's not me speaking.
That's God speaking through me.
Now, when I'm preaching and I'm using my own words,
like I am right now, I'm using my own words.
That's not God speaking.
That's Steven Anderson speaking.
But when I'm quoting God's word,
and when you're quoting God's word,
that is God using you as His best soul to speak His word.
God doesn't speak to man in audible voice.
But He speaks through His word.
And so God's word being written down in the 17th century
by the translator of the King James Bible,
or whether it's spoken today by a preacher,
or whether it's spoken by Moses himself,
what matters is, are we talking about the exact same words?
That's all that matters.
And God's words are inspired.
And you say, was the King James Bible inspired?
If it's not inspired, then we need to get something that is.
Because if it wasn't spoken by God,
if this isn't really what God said,
then let me find a book that is what God said.
Because I don't want to preach out of something
that's not inspired.
I don't want to preach out of something that's man's word.
Say, well, man translated it.
So what?
How many of you have ever read a book
that was translated from another language?
You know, put up your hand.
Like in school, have you ever read these books
that they had to read the classics from other languages?
Like you might read like Les Miserables, right?
Who's ever read that one?
Or, you know, you might have read,
what's another good example?
Sun Tzu's R.O.R.
I've never even heard of that.
Don Quixote, yeah, very good.
That's Spanish, Cervantes.
A lot of things, you know,
you might have read the Iliad and the Odyssey
and all these different things
just that they make you read in school.
Okay.
Who is the author?
They never even usually make any big deal
about who the translator was.
Maybe it's some fine print somewhere
of who the translator was,
but that's not the point.
You know, the author is whoever in that way.
The author is Cervantes or the author is Victor Hugo
or whoever the author of the book was.
It's not the point who translated it
because if they were doing a good translation,
then they didn't change it anyway.
They faithfully expressed the original intents and ideas
and words of the author from one language into another.
And we get so hung up on it.
Whenever people tell me,
well, man wrote the Bible.
And I say, no, God wrote the Bible.
And they say, well, you know, man's the one who wrote it down.
I say, wait a minute, who wrote this down?
I always say, whose handwriting is this?
I mean, who wrote this physical book?
It was printed on a machine.
So a machine wrote the Bible?
But see, it's just as silly
to say, well, because Paul wrote it down,
you know, he's the author.
Wait a minute, Paul's not even the one
who wrote down the book of Romans.
It was Tertius, according to Romans chapter 16.
It says, I Tertius, who wrote this epistle,
salute you in the Lord.
Paul spoke the words and Tertius wrote them down.
Paul just signed his name at the end.
Like at the end of 2 Thessalonians,
where he says in every epistle,
he signs the salutation in his own hand.
But other men wrote it down.
Who cares?
Who wrote the book of Jeremiah?
God, but who actually physically wrote it down?
Barak the scribe, as Jeremiah dictated it to him,
and Barak wrote it down.
But see, it's not called the book of Barak though, is it?
It's called the book of Jeremiah,
but it's actually words from the mouth of God.
You see, we get so hung up on it.
It's funny, there are 14 books
that the Apostle Paul wrote in the New Testament,
and they all start with the same word.
You know what that word is?
The first 13, that is.
What word do they start with?
Paul.
Because you've got 14 books.
You've got Galatians.
And think about this.
They all start with...
Romans starts with the word what?
Paul.
1 Corinthians starts with the word Paul.
2 Corinthians starts with the word Paul.
Galatians starts with the word Paul.
Ephesians starts with the word Paul.
Philippians starts with the word Paul.
Colossians starts with the word Paul.
1 and 2 Thessalonians starts with the word Paul.
1 and 2 Timothy starts with the word Paul.
Titus and Philemon start with the word Paul.
And the 14th book that Paul wrote,
the book of Hebrews starts with what word?
God.
Isn't that interesting?
They all start with Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul.
God.
See, God is the author, my friend.
Not Peter, not James, not John, not Paul.
It came not of old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
It wasn't their words.
It was God's word.
And God's words existed before this world even existed.
The Bible says in hope of eternal life,
which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.
The Bible says in the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, and the word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
And so back to Psalm 12 where we are.
God's words are pure today.
Now you say, well, how do you know that the King James Bible is God's word?
I always just say this to people.
I just say, well, how do you know that Christianity is the right religion?
You know, how do you know it's not Islam?
How do you know it's not Hinduism?
I always just say to them, how do you know that Christianity is the right religion?
Because that's the same way that I know that the King James Bible is the right Bible.
That it's God's word.
And I say this to people.
When I drive down 48th Street,
and I see palm tree, palm tree, palm tree, palm tree,
cell phone tower that looks like a palm tree,
palm tree, palm tree.
Now let's say I were to go to that cell phone tower
that's at 48th and Vineyard in the parking lot of the Southern Baptist Church.
It's a cell phone tower and it looks like a palm tree.
It's got the leaves coming out of it.
It's even got these little coconut looking things added to it.
Not that many of the palm trees in Phoenix have coconuts on them.
But it's this total replica of a palm tree.
Now, how do I know which one's the cell phone tower and which one's the palm tree?
Now I'm no arborist.
But I can tell the difference, believe it or not.
I mean I haven't had any formal training in this.
And you know some of those classes looked kind of cool when I was looking at junior college.
Some of those classes about trees and you know that forestry major.
It sounded kind of interesting.
But you know I've never had any formal training
that I can tell the difference between the palm tree
and the cell phone tower that looks like a palm tree.
Because there's a big difference between what God made and what man made.
And that's all there is to it.
I mean I can look at these bushes out here.
I can go soloing and I can tell the difference
when people have fake plants versus real plants.
I can tell the difference.
Because there's a big difference between what God made and what man made.
If I took the diamond in the cubic zirconium to the jeweler,
he can tell me which one is made by God and which one's made by man
without even asking me where did these come from?
Where's the source?
Wait a minute.
How long has that tower been there?
You know are we sure it's not a real tree?
He doesn't need to know that because there's a clear distinct difference
between what God does which is perfect,
God's word which is powerful, which is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword,
and the butter knife of the NIV.
Hey you can tell the difference.
You don't have to wonder about it.
You don't have to sit there and say,
oh well you know what about these manuscripts and what about this history
and oh the Codex A and B and Alexandria and Antioch and all this you know Alexandria
and Arlington and Washington D.C. and all these different other suburbs of D.C.
What are they?
It doesn't matter.
You can look at them and see which one is God's word and which one is man-made.
Because man can never duplicate what God did.
That's why if you ever pick up the apocryphal books and look at them, they're a joke.
Because they're man's cheap imitation.
You pick up the Quran, it's a joke.
It's man's cheap imitation of the Bible.
You pick up the Book of Mormon, it's a joke.
It's man's cheap imitation.
And how do I know Christianity is the right religion?
Because I can tell the difference between what comes from God and what comes from man.
Because what God does is perfect and what man does is imperfect and sinful and wrong.
And what God does is perfect in every way.
And that's how you can tell the difference.
It doesn't take a genius.
It just takes somebody who has the Holy Spirit of God living inside of them as a Christian
to hear the voice of the shepherd.
Jesus said my sheep hear my voice.
He said they know my voice and they're known of me.
He said a stranger will they not follow for they know not the voice of strangers.
And when I hear the NIV, it's a stranger talking.
I spent five years, I got saved as a six-year-old boy.
And I spent five years sitting in a church that preached the NIV.
I recognized, hey wait a minute, that's a stranger.
And I held on to that King James Version and I didn't know why.
No one had ever taught me anything about being King James only.
And I was being taught that the NIV was better.
And yet I still clung to the King James because I recognized the voice of the shepherd.
You can tell the difference between God's Word and the cheap imitation
and the fraud of these modern versions.
You can tell the difference between true religion of Christianity
versus these cheap imitations that put themselves out there,
whether it be Buddhism or Hinduism or Taoism or whatever it is.
It all comes from man.
And it's just as man-made as that cell phone tower.
And it's just as easy to tell that it's fake as that tower.
And so it says here in verse 6, the words of the Lord are pure words.
Now if you get the context of the chapter here, what did we finish?
Let's go through and look at all the times that the tongue and the mouth and the lips
and the words are mentioned in the chapter.
Look at verse number 2 of chapter 12.
It says they speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor.
You see that?
He says with flattering lips and with the double larger, they speak.
You see how that's all about words coming out of someone's mouth?
Look at verse 3.
The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips.
There it is again.
And the tongue that speaketh proud things, who have said with our tongue will we prevail.
Our lips are our own who is Lord over us.
For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy,
now will I arise, saith the Lord.
I will set him in safety from him to puff at the dim.
The words of the Lord are pure words, as opposed to what?
All of man's flattering, proud, boastful, hot air that comes out of his mouth.
And that's when he spent the first part of the chapter talking about it.
People blowing off their mouth, saying a bunch of vain things,
and then he says, no, but God's words are pure.
Man's words are full of boasting and pride and flattery and a bunch of hot air,
but God's words are pure by contrast.
And so there's a marked difference between God's word and man's word.
And by the way, when you go out soul, use God's word.
Because the word of God is what's quick and powerful.
Not your words, not your smooth, sleek presentation.
Now, your words are going to be used by God to help explain his word.
We're to preach his word and expound it to people.
But wait a minute, don't expound your own words, though.
Use God's word and then build upon that, expound upon that.
Because God's word is what's going to cut to the heart.
Do you remember when the Jews heard Stephen speak,
and the Bible says they were cut to the heart when he preached them?
God's word?
They were cut to the heart.
That's the kind of power that God's word has.
It's like a two-edged sword.
So many times, when I've been in sin, somebody rebuked me from God's word,
and it was like, oh!
I mean, it just cuts to the heart.
And how many times I've seen someone else rebuked by someone with God's word,
and I just saw it just cut through to them,
like nothing that man could say could ever do.
God's word's powerful.
But the last verse says this,
the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted.
Now, what does the word vile mean?
Vile is disgusting.
That's basically what it means.
And God is saying here that when we exalt those who are disgusting,
when we lift up people who should not be lifted up at all,
he said the wicked walk on every side.
And this is the day we're living.
The vilest men are being exalted.
I mean, if you look at the people who are the most famous,
what if we were to do like a Google search,
like the top 10 most searched for names?
Who do you think would probably be the number one search in the last few months?
Probably like Michael Jackson.
I mean, you want to talk about the vilest person you can think of.
I mean, he's disgusting.
Or was disgusting.
He is.
I don't know.
Whatever.
I mean, his body probably looks better now
than it's been in the grave for a month.
I mean, the guy looked like a monster.
I mean, it couldn't look any weirder
if we're to dig it up right now.
I mean, the guy has so many mutilating surgeries
and he's not sure whether he's white or black.
You know, he's not sure if he's a man or a woman.
I mean, he's just mutilated and twisted as a parent so much.
And I mean, he's a known pedophile.
You say, oh, well, he was acquitted of that.
Because he had $100 worth.
He was caught having the videos in his possession.
But that's not against the law, though, or whatever.
He got off with that.
No, the guy is a known pedophile.
And yet he's exalted and lifted up as a hero.
As a great person.
Who is the Time Magazine Man of the Year this year?
Barack Obama.
The Time Magazine Man of the Year.
You know who the Man of the Year was in 1933?
Adolf Hitler.
You know who the Man of the Year was in 1932?
Joseph Stalin.
OK.
So yeah, great.
Great guys that they lift up, huh?
The vilest men that they've exalted.
And you know, Barack Obama is a vile person.
And Michael Jackson, good night.
I shouldn't even have to say that.
But I guarantee you that if we went down the list
of maybe the top 10 most exalted people in the United States,
the heroes that we look up to, the stars, the Brad Pitts,
you know, the Angelina Jolies, all these great actors
and actresses and politicians.
Barney Frank, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
A known sodomite.
An avowed, arrogant sodomite.
And we go down the list and we see that the vilest people
in this country are exalted.
Would to God that in your living room,
they wouldn't be exalted.
Don't lift these people up for your children as heroes.
These actors and actresses, they are on the wrong team,
my friend.
My cousin was into modeling for a little while.
He kind of got into the whole Hollywood modeling
kind of world.
He said it was the most sickest, disgusting thing.
He finally got out of it because he said as a Christian,
he just couldn't handle being around these kind of people.
And he said it bothered him the whole time.
But it got to the point where his younger sister
was starting to be asked to be a model
because she was a very nice looking girl
and they both had the modeling look and everything like that.
He said, no way do I want my younger sister
going into this filthy world.
He said it's more disgusting than you can imagine.
And it's true.
And yet we just suck it up as Christians
and just we go down and buy whatever they want to feed us.
We go home, we turn it on and let the devil spoon feed us.
All his worldliness and just lifting up and exalting
the vilest people imaginable.
And wouldn't God, it would not be so in our house.
Hey, let's stick with God's word.
The word of God is pure.
Don't you know, I love that word.
Pure, purity, clean, cleanliness.
Not this bunch of dirty schmuck.
The opposite of pure is vile.
I think that's why.
Because you never want to just think that these verses
are kind of just juxtaposed.
Obviously the Psalm is one Psalm.
You want to take it as a unit.
You want to take it as a complete thought.
And he goes through this and he explains
the purity of God's word.
So pure, it's like silver that's been tried
in a furnace of earth purified seven times.
That's pretty pure.
And then he says, but wait a minute.
Look at the world's alternative.
These vile people, you want to listen to their words.
You'd rather listen to their words on the radio.
Their song lyrics.
Or you'd rather watch their programs on TV
or in Hollywood theaters.
Stick with the pure word.
Get in the Bible.
Shut off all this stuff and just get in God's word
and read it and let it purify you.
Let's borrow this network prayer.