Now, in Psalm 19, the subject is basically the two ways that God communicates with man.
And in the first six verses, the Bible talks about how He communicates with us through
the natural world, through His creation.
And in the second half, from verses 7 through 14, basically He describes His word, the Bible.
Now, God truly does speak to man through His creation.
Now, the only two things in this world that are totally made by God and not tampered with
or contaminated by man are, number one, the Bible, God's word, straight from the mouth
of God, holy men of God's faith, because they are ruined by the Legos, and His creation.
You know, we look at the natural world, that's God's handiwork, and therefore we can learn
something about God from His creation.
The Bible says in verse 1, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth
His handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.
So we see that God speaks to man through His creation.
Look at Romans chapter 1.
Romans chapter 1 in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans.
In Romans chapter 1, the Bible alludes to this in verse number 18.
The Bible reads, For the wrath of God, wrath means anger, for the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Now how can God say that they hold the truth in unrighteousness?
Well here's why they hold the truth in unrighteousness, verse 19, because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them.
So if they wanted to know something about God, that knowledge is available to them,
the Bible says, and it explains how in the next verse, verse 20.
For the invisible things of Him 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, because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God.
Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart
was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, there's a professor now at ASU who believes that there
is no God, they became fools.
And so the Bible teaches here very clearly that mankind is without excuse.
He can't say, well I didn't know that there was a God.
I didn't know that God is just and righteous and perfect.
I didn't know that He created this world, because He says all you have to do is look
around and the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.
And the Bible says here that that which may be known of God is manifest in them, but the
problem is that when they knew God, when they're exposed to that little bit of truth through
the natural world, instead of glorifying God, they basically became vain in their own imaginations
and their foolish heart was darkened.
You see, if you don't accept the truth that God gives you, God's not necessarily going
to give you any more truth.
For example, I think of John the Baptist.
John the Baptist came and preached the Kingdom of God, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
His paths straight.
He was sent before Jesus Christ to prepare the way before Him.
And when he preached God's word, Herod threw him into prison.
And eventually Herod had him beheaded, because he was trying to impress his friends, because
he didn't want to go back on his word of the foolish oath that he had made.
And because he silenced John the Baptist, who preached to him God's word on many different
occasions, Herod even went down to the prison cell a few times and communed with John the
Baptist and heard his preaching face to face, one on one.
And then, after he had chopped off John the Baptist's head, one day Jesus Christ stood
before King Herod.
And King Herod really wanted to meet Jesus Christ, the Bible says, and he wanted to see
some of his miracles, he wanted to hear his teaching, and Jesus would not even open his
mouth under him.
He asked Jesus questions, Jesus was silent.
He tried to get Jesus to talk to him, he was just silent.
And then he got angry, commanded his soldiers to beat Jesus, and then they beat him and
then they sent him back to Pontius Pilate, obviously eventually he was crucified.
But you see that God wasn't speaking to Herod anymore.
God didn't have anything to say to Herod, because he already gave him the truth with
John the Baptist, and he basically silenced the voice of God in his life by killing John
the Baptist.
That's the picture there.
And so we see here that people in this world have knowledge, because they can see the creation,
they can see the natural world, and the question is, do they glorify God as the creator?
Then God will probably send them some more truth or try to send them some more light
and try to help them find the truth.
The Bible says, everyone that asketh receive it, and he that seeketh find it, and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened.
But when a person just becomes vain in their imagination, oh there is no God, and I'm God,
God's all of us, and I'm going to worship a graven image, or I'm going to worship an
animal, or I'm going to worship a human being or myself, well then God basically is saying,
there's no excuse for that, he's saying the wrath of God is against those who do not believe
on Jesus Christ.
And so it's very clear here that the natural world speaks volumes about who God is.
It says, even his eternal power and Godhead.
Now what is the Godhead?
The Godhead is a term used in the Bible collectively for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
It's called the Godhead.
We would probably call it the Trinity, that's a term that people use.
It's amazing how many illustrations of the Trinity there are in the natural world.
You can think of the three states of matter, for example.
It's all H2O, and yet it appears in three forms, water, vapor, and ice, but yet it's
all the same.
You think of so many things that have three parts, you think of the time that has three
parts, past, present, and future.
You think of, whether you're dealing with electricity, spectrums of light, I mean almost
everything in nature comes in three in the scientific world.
You see, God has showed us a lot of things about nature that we can learn in the Bible.
Look at Job, chapters 37-41, don't turn there, but just read them on your own time.
Job 38-41, God goes through a list of tons of animals, explaining what we can learn about
God and what we can learn about right and wrong by looking at the animals.
So there is a lot to learn from nature, but back to Psalm 19, the Bible reads, the heavens
declare the glory of God, and the permits show it is hangry.
This is one thing that I don't like about living in this city, and I've lived in this
city my whole life, but you can't see the stars.
We can't really see the heavens declaring the glory of God in Phoenix, because we see
like three stars.
It's just not really that amazing.
But if you were to take a short drive, I mean I encourage you to do this, stop and smell
the roses in your life.
You know, it's something I need to do.
Get in the car, just drive 30-40 minutes away from here out in the desert, and you'll see
just the brilliant, spectacular image of the stars in the sky.
Oftentimes I'll be on a long drive, I'll just pull over by the side of the road and just
look at the stars, even if I only have a few minutes, just to take in the glory.
And David said this, you know, he said, when I consider the heavens, he said, what is man?
The dollar of my focus.
I mean it's an amazing thing to look up into the sky and see all the stars that God has
made.
And so the Bible says that heavens declare the glory of God, and the permits show it
is handiwork.
Day after day utter the speech, and night after night show with knowledge.
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.
Their line has 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, which is as a bridegroom, coming out of his
chamber and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race.
His going forth is from the end of heaven, referring to basically the fact that the sun
starts out at one end of the heaven.
From our perspective we see the ends of heaven, which would basically be what we would call
the horizon.
And he says, his going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuit, what are the first
four letters of the word circuit?
You can see circle, okay.
His circuit, the Bible says, unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat
thereof.
Now, that's explaining the natural world, we can look at all the glorious creation of
God.
Sometimes when I'm not stolen, and people don't believe in God, or people that, I don't
necessarily pull out a creation seminar at PowerPoint, I just tell them, I say, you know,
look around at the natural world.
Look at God's marvelous creation.
And you would think that in 2010 we would believe in God more than any other generation,
because the fact that we have the microscope, we have the telescope, to see just how magnificent
this world is, more than any other generation that has ever been before us, and yet the
science student down at ASU, who's probably stuck his face in a microscope more than you
or I, he's probably seen more of the intricacies of the microorganisms and the so-called single
celled organism, how magnificent it is, how complicated it is, how perfect it is, and
yet he does not acknowledge God.
Why?
Because the Bible says that they are willingly ignorant, that God created the world, 2 Peter
chapter 3.
Because scoffers after their own lusts will say, where is the promise of his coming, and
you know, there is no God, and so forth.
It's because they want to live a life that's governed by their own lust.
That's why they don't acknowledge God.
But the evidence of God's power and his presence and his creation is everywhere.
If you look at verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
Now when the Bible says the law of the Lord, it's not just referring to, you know, Genesis
through Deuteronomy, or even just the Ten Commandments.
When it says the law of the Lord, that term is used throughout the Bible just to talk
about God's word in general.
The Old Testament, for example, is referred to as the law and the prophets, many times
in the New Testament, that's how it's referred to.
For example, Matthew chapter 11, where Jesus said, for all the prophets and the law prophesied
until John.
He's referring to the Old Testament as the whole.
And so the law of the Lord is really just another term for the Bible.
And he says here, the law of the Lord is perfect.
God's word is perfect.
The Bible says every word of God is pure.
He's 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 word is perfect.
God's word is without error.
God's word is inspired, infallible, preserved, breathed by the mouth of God, spoken by God,
and there is no error.
It's not, well, the Bible's written by man.
Well, that was back then.
Somebody said you have to understand the culture in which the Bible was written.
You have to go back to the time that it was written.
The time that it was written was before this word was even created because the Bible says
in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
The Bible says in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world
began.
And so that's the culture in which this book was written.
That's the time and the framework that we understand it in before the world was ever
created.
Don't tell me I have to understand the culture of godless Greek philosophers who did not
believe in God.
Don't tell me I have to understand the unbelieving Jew, Josephus, who's in hell because he did
not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as is stated.
Don't tell me I have to know him and read him to understand God's word.
God's word is eternal.
It's not a certain language.
It's not a certain culture.
It's not a certain time period.
It was written in a certain time when holy men of God's faith because they were moved
by the Holy Ghost, but it has been translated and can be translated into any language.
It applies to every century, every time.
It is as current as today's newspaper.
In fact, it's more current because today's newspaper is just rehashing the same garbage.
I walked by some newspaper stand USA Today and it said, Americans are okay with full
body scans at the airport.
They think it's fine.
That's what it said on the cover of the newspaper.
Americans are okay with it.
They don't mind their privacy invaded as long as they're safe.
Well, thank you for speaking for me at USA Today.
I don't want my nude body image on somebody's computer screen.
Thank you very much.
So I'm a little bit upset about that.
But anyway, back to the Bible.
The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.
Did you get that?
The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.
You see, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Of his own will begat thee us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first
fruits of his creatures.
But be received with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls.
How about 1 Timothy, in that from a child thou must know the holy scriptures which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
How do you have faith in Christ Jesus?
Because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
The sower soweth the word.
He that soweth the good seed is the son of man.
You hear God's word.
He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall
not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life.
God's word is what saves you.
God's word is what you hear and believe.
That's how you get saved.
And yet people today say you don't need God's word to get saved.
They say it's the gospel story that saves.
No, the entrance of thy word giveth life the Bible says.
It's God's word that saves.
How many verses do I have to quote that tell you that it's God's word that brings salvation?
There are many.
God's word being born again, not a corruptible seed, but an incorruptible, by the word of
God which liveth and abideth forever.
And so the Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.
The testimony of the Lord, that's another term he uses for his word, the testimony of
the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The Bible says we have a more sure word of prophecy.
God's word is sure.
That means it's certain.
It means you have to wonder about it.
It's set in stone.
And it says in verse 8, the statutes of the Lord, another term he uses for his word, the
statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
What does this rejoice at God's word?
I mean, how many times do you just open the Bible and just read it and rejoice?
Because it's so magnificent.
Oh, how love I thy law.
It is my meditation night and day.
He said the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
Enlightening.
What does it mean to be enlightened?
The Bible uses that term several times, actually.
Not to turn there, but in Hebrews, chapter 10, the Bible says that after you were enlightened,
you endured a great fight of afflictions.
Enlightenment is basically when a light bulb goes on in your head would be the best way
to explain it.
You know, you've heard of the French enlightenment in the 18th century, and it was basically
just people had some common sense and said, oh, wait a minute, you know, why are we giving
all our money to this king and all these priests that are stealing from us?
You know, it's called the enlightenment.
They stopped and thought, wait a minute, these people aren't really God in the flesh, you
know, why do I vow to worship them?
And the enlightenment was just a time when people woke up to what was going on around
them.
Well, the Bible says right here that God's word enlightens the eyes.
God's word will open your eyes on some things.
And people who don't know God's word, and people who don't believe and read God's word,
in a sense, they're in darkness.
And that's how the Bible describes it.
Because they're walking in darkness, and they know not whether they go, the Bible says in
1 John chapter 2.
You see, when you read the Bible, you're enlightened.
It opens your eyes.
You start to see the world in a different way.
You start to understand things that other people don't understand.
And so a lot of times, you'll be explaining something to somebody, and they just don't
get it.
And you're like, why don't you get it?
It's because you read the Bible, and they don't.
Seriously.
Because the Bible will enlighten your eyes.
The Bible will show you what the truth is.
And a lot of things that seem complicated to this world are very simple, if you know
the Bible.
It's simple once your eyes are open.
And so God's word is what's going to open your eyes and make that light bulb go on in
your head.
The fear of the Lord is clean and enduring forever.
Now, he had just said that his word was pure.
Now he says it's clean.
And we live in a dirty world.
Filthy.
Dirty.
Disgusting.
And I'm not just talking about the physical dirt of this world.
Now, we should be clean physically.
You know, I believe that you should take a shower and clean your fingernails and live
a sanitary life.
Because the Bible actually teaches that very clearly.
But what's more important than that, Jesus said, cleanse first that which is within the
power of the platter.
That the outside of them may be clean also.
You see, the filth of this world would more be the smut, the pornography, the drinking,
the dereliction.
That's what God's talking about when he talks about filth, uncleanness, dirty.
And we need to get to some purity.
If not in the world, at least in God's house, and say we are going to be clean and pure.
I want to keep my mind clean.
I want to keep my thoughts pure.
I want my computer to be pure.
I want my television to be in the trash.
Okay?
I don't want my television to be clean because that's impossible to keep it clean.
That's why I threw it away a long time ago.
But I'm sure that they've improved it since I threw it away.
And they probably have all clean shows now.
And so I'm probably freaking it out.
Yeah, right.
I'm sure it's a lot filthier and worse than it was when I was watching the crazy thing.
And so I want my bookcase to be clean.
I want to keep my house clean.
Go home and clean house.
That's what you ought to do.
You ought to go into your bedroom.
Go into your DVDs.
Go into your CDs.
And clean it up and say I want my mind pure.
My heart pure.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
I'd rather see God than the latest movie that's out at the Hartford Theatre.
I want to see God.
Not see Hollywood.
Not see TV.
Not see American Idol.
I want to see the things of God.
I want to be enlightened by God.
Not enlightened by the devil.
And let me tell you something.
It's not God that's programming cable TV.
It's the devil.
It's not God who's designing all these Hollywood new blockbusters.
It's the devil.
He's trying to brainwash you.
He's got an agenda.
And he's doing a fantastic job of brainwashing America into being godless and wicked and dirty and unclean.
And so we ought to clean it up, at least in online.
Start with your heart.
Clean that up.
Then why don't you clean up your bedroom?
And then you need to clean up your house.
And then we can clean up our church.
And that's going to have to happen long before we can clean up this world, which gets dirtier every day.
And Jesus is going to be the one that's going to have to clean it up.
And that's what he's going to do eventually.
But that's another sermon about the second coming of Jesus Christ.
And the Bible says,
The fear of the Lord is clean and during forever.
Verse 9.
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold.
Yea, the much finer.
Sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb.
What do you desire in life?
Is it money?
Is it a fancy car?
Is it a nice house?
What if I put up here on the pulpit two boxes.
One of them contained one million dollars in gold corners.
And the other contained all the wisdom, all the knowledge that's going to get you through life
and help you walk the right path in life and have success.
Which one would you take?
Knowledge and wisdom like Solomon had this choice given to him.
He said, ask wherever you want.
God told King Solomon.
And instead of asking for riches or long life or the life of his enemies,
Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge from God.
Now what if I put those two boxes up here and said choose.
All the wisdom, all the knowledge or a million dollars.
Which one would you choose?
Stop and think about it.
Don't just say, oh you know the wisdom.
No, stop and think about it.
Would you really?
And yet if I did that I would just put this book in a box.
And this is all the wisdom, all the knowledge right here.
I mean that's what would be in the box.
Now I don't have the other box.
But I do have this one right here.
You can have it after the sermon.
And so it would be God's word.
It would be the Bible.
And yet how many times do we spend more time dreaming of all the golden dreams of all our money and power.
It's all vanity of vanity.
Say it's a preacher.
All is vanity.
What profit hath the man of all his labor which he taketh of the sun?
One generation passeth away and another generation goeth, but the earth abideth forever.
Hey, God's word will exist long after all the toys and all the cars and all the houses have crumbled into dust.
God's word will still be there.
You see if I had to choose between giving up my Bible and a million dollars, no way.
I mean I would rather have my Bible.
If I were on a desert island I could have one thing and it would be my Bible.
That's it.
If I could just take one thing.
If I were in prison and I could just have one thing it would be the King James Bible.
That's it.
I mean this is my most prized possession.
This is the most important thing that I have.
This should be your most important thing that you have.
This should be like on your fingers at all times, with you at all times, before your eyes at all times.
You should live with this book and eat, breathe, and sleep this book every day.
Not just well, you know, where's my Bible? It's Sunday.
Oh, it's on the dash of the car.
That way I always have it at church where I need it.
It should be with you at all times.
When you don't have it with you, you should have it memorized and be quoting it to yourself.
Have it everywhere.
I thank God that I have the Bible on my cell phone.
Praise God.
It seems silly but it's funny because I'm never going to leave the house with my cell phone.
I run a firewall business so I'm constantly getting important business calls, important business emails that I have to respond to.
But am I so vigilant to take the Bible with me?
Well, thank God I have the Bible on here.
So that constantly, today for example, this job that I was doing, I was in Washington D.C. this morning,
and I was working on an elevator inspection and there was a lot of just down time.
I'm just kind of standing there waiting and I just kept pulling this out and I was just memorizing a chapter of the Bible.
Just one verse at a time. Just kept pulling it out, kept pulling it out.
He thanked God for having the Bible with me at all times.
Now, you know, okay, it's on this cell phone or whatever, but pocket New Testament.
Maybe you're still on the Nokia that comes with the brand, you know what I mean?
The bottom grade one, that's all I had for years.
I just got this one because I have to do my email for my business.
But yeah, get a New Testament. Just live with that thing.
And you kids and teens and young people, bring it to school with you.
Don't bore your brains out in those classes.
Just pull out a Bible and read it. Get something out of it.
And that's what I did, by the way. I learned the material.
But I was constantly, when the class started getting boring, I just pulled out my Bible and just kind of entered my desk.
I was reading it. Because I wanted to get something important out of it.
When I was in church and church got boring, I'm just being honest with you.
Or when the pastor started preaching false doctrine, I just pulled out my Bible and started reading it.
Learn the Bible. Read it. Love it. Learn to love it.
This is your friend. This is your best friend that you'll ever have in your life.
And if you don't understand what I mean by that, it's because you don't read the Bible.
If you read the Bible, you know what that means.
When I say, this is my best friend that comes with me everywhere I go, that talks to me.
And I talk to the Bible and we converse every day.
This is my friend. This is my best friend. I take it with me everywhere I go.
I'm serious. It's my Bible. It ought to be that way to you.
Eat. Breathe. Sleep. Live the Bible. It'll change your life.
You know, people talk so much. I'm bored. Especially young people and children.
I'm bored. I'm never bored.
Because I've always got the Bible with me.
On the worst airplane ride that goes on and on and on.
Today I flew from D.C. to Denver. Denver to Phoenix. Layover.
Hey, I got my Bible with me. Thank God for it.
And I can get something done and enjoy it and rejoice in God's Word.
Sometimes I just get excited. Especially when I'm quoting God's Word.
If I memorize God's Word and I'm quoting it back.
Sometimes I'll be driving down the road quoting God's Word.
Just by the way, I just get excited about it.
I mean, I get this excited. You say, how do you get excited?
Like you get excited about sports. That's how I get excited.
You know, how you get excited on your favorite rock concert.
This is what we ought to be excited about.
God said that we should be rejoicing in it. Excited about it.
And so let's keep going. He says,
More to be desired are they than gold.
Talking about God's Word.
Yea, than much fine gold.
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is thy servant warned.
And in keeping of them is great reward.
Yeah, it's amazing how much the Bible rhymes. Have you ever noticed that?
And the King James Bible is so amazing because it's...
Not only is it, you know, 100% dead on accurate,
but yet it has so many rhymes and so much beautiful language in it.
I mean, there's so many rhymes in this chapter.
Like where he says, more by them is thy servant warned.
And in keeping of them there is great reward.
And then a little bit further up he says,
The fear of the Lord is clean and during forever.
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
But look at verse number 12.
Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Now, that's an important verse.
Who can understand his errors?
Who can really say, I know all the times that I've sinned today.
Or I know all the times that I've sinned yesterday.
Let me expound them to you and explain to you.
You don't even know all of your sins.
That's why it's so silly when you run into people who say that in order to be saved,
you have to keep asking forgiveness for your sins constantly.
You don't even know what all your sins are.
There's no way.
You can even know about some of the sins,
especially if you haven't read the whole Bible.
You don't even know what some of the commandments are.
But yet people think that they actually can go confess their sins to a priest or something
and actually know what to confess.
And he ought to confess them back to you.
And one of these you ought to confess that he's a homosexual in many cases
based on these Catholic priests.
But really there's no way you can know your errors is what he's saying here.
And then he follows it up with,
Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Stuff I don't even know that I did wrong.
And then look what he says next.
He says, Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.
So what is a presumptuous sin?
Well, that's in contrast to the secret fault.
The secret fault is when you unknowingly or accidentally
or you weren't really intending to do something wrong if you did something wrong.
Presumptuous sins are when you say,
I know it's wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway.
That's a presumptuous sin.
And I preached a whole sermon called, Sinning Presumptuously.
And I went into it every time this is mentioned throughout the Bible.
It's the concept that's throughout the Bible.
Sinning through ignorance versus sinning presumptuously.
And let me tell you something.
God punishes presumptuous sins more harshly than your secret faults.
Your unintentional, your sinning through ignorance.
You see, the Bible says in verse 13,
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.
Let the night of dominion open.
Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
You see, a lot of people teach all sins equal.
All sin is equal.
This is one of those great Baptist fundamentals of the faith.
Like, you know, what is it?
Hate the sin, love the sinner.
All sins equal.
You know, somebody else helped me out.
What are these other clichés that everybody just believes,
even though they're nowhere in the...
Repent of your sins, you know.
It's just all these things that are just not in the Bible,
and yet people just believe them like they're just bad.
They just repeat them over and over.
And there are certain kinds of people,
and, you know, me and my older sister, we have a term for them.
We call them IFB parrots.
Because every time we run into them,
you'll run into these certain people,
and basically they're just always just regurgitating
these little things that they heard in church
that are nowhere to be found in the Bible,
like some of the ones that I mentioned.
I'm failing to think of them all.
But they just constantly just...
All sins equal.
It's just, you know, read the Bible and think for yourself.
Don't let Pastor Anderson's spoon feed you.
Take the spoon out of my hand and feed yourself.
Don't just sit there and blindly accept whatever you're taught,
and every church in America will get up,
oh, all sins equal, all sins equal, all sins equal.
You know, there are no big sins in the world.
In God's eyes, it's all equal.
It's just all the same stuff. It's not true.
It's not true.
The Bible says that if you're not sinning presumptuously,
then you're not guilty of the great transgression as what?
A lesser transgression as opposed to...
That's why Jesus said to Pilate,
he said, therefore, he that delivered me unto thee
hath the greater sin.
So if all sin's equal, then why did Jesus tell Pilate
that the Jews had a greater sin than Pilate?
By delivering him unto Pilate.
Because not all sin's equal.
That's why Jesus said, woe unto you Pharisees, hypocrites.
He said for you to bow a widow's house
and for a pretense make long prayer.
Therefore shall ye receive the greater damnation.
So there's a great transgression,
there's a greater sin, there's a greater damnation,
and then there's just common sense.
Going out and murdering somebody
is not the same as taking a pen from work
that doesn't belong to you.
Now, if you think that they are, then, you know,
go get a straitjacket and wear it.
Because if you actually think
that every sin is equal, it's all a sin.
If I die to commit adultery tonight,
it's the same thing as if I, you know,
tell my wife that, you know, I got home at 15 after
and I really got home at 30 after.
It's the same thing. It's just as bad.
Because all sin's equal in God's eyes.
Is God looking from that far away?
You know what I mean?
I think God could probably see closer
if anything, and I think that he knows
that some sins are worse than others.
And let me tell you something.
When you just intentionally, presumptuously, brazenly just say,
I don't care, it's wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway,
that is worse than just you accidentally, you know, did something.
Now, look, I'm not condoning, you know, your ignorance.
I'm not condoning your so-called falling into sin.
But I will say this, when you know something's wrong,
don't just intentionally go into it and just say,
well, it's wrong, but I'm doing it anyway.
That is worse.
Now, we all have our secret faults.
You know, there are things that we do.
We don't even know what we did wrong.
And we're constantly learning and we're constantly growing
and finding out things in our life that we need to change.
But let us not be guilty of the great transgression
of just a presumptuous, brazen, intentional sin.
And then the Bible says in verse 14,
kind of continuing on that same thought,
let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
You see, it's not just important what we say,
although what we say is important.
But the Bible says that the meditation of our heart is important as well.
Our thought life is something that's important.
It's not right for you to think wicked thoughts.
The thought of foolishness is sin.
So it is a sin to think a dirty thought,
to think a wicked thought, to think an evil thought.
To hate your brother in your heart is a sin, the Bible says.
Even if it's just in your heart, if you don't express it verbally,
to hate your brother, I didn't say to hate Obama,
I said to hate your brother in your heart is a sin.
To hate your brother and sister in Christ, that's sinful.
It's wrong.
The Bible says, whosoever hated his brother is a murderer.
And so we ought not hate our brother in our heart.
We ought not think a lustful thought in our heart.
The Bible says, whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her
hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
We ought not think a lustful thought.
We ought not despise our brother in Christ in our heart.
We ought not covet our neighbor's house.
We ought not covet, and what does it mean to covet?
To desire what belongs to someone else.
What does not belong to us.
And this is a sin that a lot of people don't even think about.
It's kind of the lost 10th commandment.
Because a lot of people don't even think about it.
And a lot of people, I've explained to them what covet says,
that really, that's wrong?
I do that every day.
And they didn't even know that it's wrong.
I mean, I went through a lot in my life
not knowing what the word covet meant.
I mean, it's something you kind of heard in church.
And don't covet your neighbor's house, his wife, his ox, his ass,
and you're just thinking to yourself, you know, what does that mean?
It can't mean that I don't want his stuff.
How come that can't be wrong?
You know what I mean?
It can't be wrong for me to want to drive his car or have his house.
But you know what? That is wrong.
It is wrong, because the Bible says,
I learned that whatsoever state I am, there would be content.
And we should be happy with what God has given us,
and content with it, and not just,
oh man, I wish I had Chris Broad's car.
You know?
I kind of missed it.
Let's see. I wish I had Brother Dave's car.
The GTP. Is that what it is?
The P. What's that P stand for? Power.
That's right. He's got that extra P on the end.
Leather seats. Yeah.
And I like your car, little Chris.
But, you know, oh, I wish I had so-and-so's car.
Worse than that, you know, I wish I had so-and-so's wife.
That's what it says in the commandments too.
That's why I come up with that name is wife.
Or, ladies, I wish I had so-and-so's husband,
you know, instead of mine.
Or I wish I had so-and-so's wife instead of my wife.
I wish I had his money.
Oh, it must be nice.
You know, like people get on the plane,
and they see the people sitting in first class.
Now, sometimes I sit in first class,
and it's not because I bought a first class ticket.
Because I never buy, I don't have the money to buy a first class ticket.
Give me a break.
I don't even know who buys first class.
It's so expensive.
But because I'm a frequent flyer,
because I fly so much,
okay, that basically I get free upgrades.
So if there's an empty seat in first class,
boom, I move up to first class.
Just because I've flown so many times.
But, see, I slept in my car, like, literally,
you know, about 50 to 100 times a year, okay,
and I slept on the airport in a bean bag last week, okay?
And that was like, I was calling my wife, saying how great it was.
I was like, this is great.
I was like, I thought I was going to have to sleep on the floor in the airport.
And I said, I found these two bean bags.
I pushed them together, kind of made a little bed out of it.
And so when I was sitting in first class,
people walked by me like, oh, it must be nice.
You don't know what I went through to get here.
I'm only here because I fly every week.
And I hate it.
I'm just kidding.
But obviously, you know, you want to just covet,
oh, man, I wish I had seen you first.
And, you know, first class isn't even that nice.
One reason people like first class is so they can drink.
And I don't drink.
And so when you're on these short flights, you know,
the seat's a little bigger, just get the exit row and get down with it.
But anyway, you don't want to covet other people's seat.
You don't want to look at other people.
And sometimes you look at other people and say, oh, it must be nice.
You don't really want their life.
You look at the rich and famous, the Hollywood crowd,
the rock and roll crowd, they're all suicidal.
They're all in their fifth wife.
They're all in drug rehab.
They're getting arrested for shoplifting drunk driving.
And that's who you want to trade places with, right?
I don't want to trade places with them.
You look at the successful, glamorous, cool people,
and oh, they've got it all.
Their life is a miserable wreck.
And yet you covet their house, you covet their car,
you covet their lives.
I don't covet.
You know what?
Learn to be happy with what you have.
Because let me explain something to you.
The Bible says, he that loveth silver should not be satisfied with silver.
The more you want, you're just going to get what you want and you're just going to want more.
If you're the type of person that's not happy with what you have,
you'll never be happy with what you have, no matter how much you have.
I mean, if today you have $100 and you say, oh, it's not enough, I need $200.
When you have $200, it'll be $300.
You will never be satisfied, you'll never be happy until you learn
in whatsoever state you are therewith to be content.
Paul said this, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.
Then he explains how he learned it.
He said, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound.
You see, Paul learned to be content because he'd been thrown in jail and beaten several times.
So he got to the point where he said, boy, it's just great to be outside.
Hey, it's just great to be eating a good meal.
Hey, it's just great to have some clean cold water to drink.
Everything's relative.
Everything is relative.
I mean, for some people, your life that you think is so terrible,
if some people lived your life, they'd think they died and went to heaven.
It's true.
There are people in this world that are just starving or living in a trash dump.
They, if they live your life, would think that they died and went to heaven.
And yet you complain and you're not happy about it and you fuss about it.
But God is going to have to teach some people how to be content.
If you're not content, God will bring you down someday.
And then you'll learn how to be content.
And then you'll learn how.
It's all relative.
I remember I went to Germany for three months and I was thirsty the whole time
because there were no free refills anywhere you went.
Free refills do not exist.
This is so typical German.
Let me just be nice to you.
Germans are like the nerdiest people in the world.
Sorry to offend anybody, but it's true.
Tell me if this isn't nerdy.
You go to a restaurant and you order your drink,
there's a measuring line on the cup and they fill it to that exact line.
Now tell me if that's nerdy.
You know, just fill the cup up.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, don't give me an extra ounce.
They literally have a little measuring line that says 0.4 liter.
And then further down the glass, 0.2 liter.
And they fill it up for you.
And by the way, 0.4 liter is like one good solid gulp.
I remember the first time I went out to eat in Germany I took a gulp
and I was like, I don't have anything for my food now because I drank it all.
And then you start learning to conserve.
And then I'd go to people's houses and I'd go drink the tap water.
It's bad.
And they had bottles of water but it seems like they were kind of rationing them.
And I felt bad because they had to pay for them and it was expensive
and they were kind of rationing it seemed like.
And so I was like, okay.
I remember the first thing I did when I got home.
I got home to the United States.
The first thing I did, I got in my car, drove to the grocery store
and bought like a big jug of juice, cranberry juice, apple juice, water,
and I just basically just drank just for days.
Oh, this is so great.
Oh, I can drink as much as I want.
But it was such pleasure just to drink because of it.
I'm not talking about drinking now.
I'm talking about drinking juice, water.
It was just such a pleasure to drink it because I hadn't been drinking.
I appreciated it.
You see what I mean?
And I got just as much enjoyment out of drinking that as you'd get
going on a roller coaster or something.
It's true.
I mean, sometimes if I've been traveling and busy and sleeping in the car,
sometimes just laying in my bed, it's like, oh, sleeping in a bed.
But when you're addicted to heroin, you know, a glass of apple juice
isn't going to get you that excited.
You know what I mean?
It's because you overstimulate your senses by just gratifying the question
and you can't enjoy anything.
That's what happens when you're into drugs, when you're drunk.
You need to learn to enjoy the simple things in life is what I'm trying to say
and not covet what everybody else has.
Just enjoy what you have.
Enjoy breakfast.
Enjoy lunch.
Enjoy that.
Enjoy your job.
Enjoy your bed that you sleep in.
And don't go through life just wishing you lived somebody else's life
and wishing that you had their stuff.
Let your thoughts be right in the sense of your content.
You're giving God praise for what he's given you, not just always more and more
and more greed, lust, desire, more and more and more.
Be content with what you have.
What else could we say about our thought life?
Obviously, not to look at things and let things come into our mind
like the magazine covers that stay, the billboards, and especially the men.
Madison Avenue has targeted the men with scantily clad women everywhere you look.
You have to keep your mind pure.
Job said this, I made a covenant with my eyes.
How then should I think upon a mate?
He made a covenant with his eyes.
I said, listen, eyes, you're not going to look at this stuff.
And so we need to keep our minds pure of covetousness,
pure of the lust of the flesh,
and we need to keep them pure of malicious thoughts
toward our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God,
and we thank you for the natural world.
I thank you that I can live in Arizona
and just see all the beauty of the plants, dear God,
that you've created, the cactuses, the palm trees, the animals,
just the magnificence of a trip to the zoo or the botanical garden, dear God,
and to know that you are the creator, you're the desire,
it's your handiwork.
Thank you for your word, dear God.
Thank you for the Bible.
Thank you for speaking to me every day,
both through the natural world and through your word.
Help me to listen, dear God, and let it sink in,
and help me to grow in grace
and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Help our church, dear God, to continue to grow and be blessed in 2010.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.