I tongue from evil, and I lips from speaking dial,
depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.
Now go back to Psalm 36.
You see, this fits in exactly with what God is saying here.
He explained in Psalm 34 that the fear of the Lord,
there's another place in the Bible that says the fear of the Lord is to depart from evil.
Here he said in Psalm 34, the fear of the Lord,
if you want to learn what that means,
it's doing right, it's not speaking evil,
it's not doing evil with your hands.
And here he says in verse 1 of chapter 36,
the transgression of the wicked sayeth within my heart
that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
He said, I can look at a wicked person
and know that he has no fear of God based upon the sin in his life.
Because when he sins without fear,
when he flatters himself in his own eyes in verse number 2,
and thinks that he's doing right,
as he continues an abominable sin, it shows that he has no fear of God.
You see, the person who has fear of God gets rid of the sin in their life.
And I preached about that a lot on Psalm 34, I'm not going to go back into that.
But you don't fear God while you just brazenly and openly and presumptuously sin against God.
You'd be afraid to, that's what it means to fear God.
You'd be afraid to just boldly, blatantly live in sin if you had the fear of God.
And we all ought to fear God in our lives and get the sin out of our lives.
He says in verse 2,
For he flattereth himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful.
Now the word hateful means deserving of hate, that's what it means.
It's funny because people often accuse the King James Bible of using archaic words.
And they often say that words have changed in meaning and the language has changed.
But I find it interesting that every time I look up a word in the Bible,
that people say, oh it's changed meaning.
If I look up a word in the dictionary,
and I'm talking about the mainline dictionaries of, you know, the Webster's dictionary,
even the 2008 edition, you know, I mean, I'm talking about modern mainstream dictionaries.
They will always list the Bible definition first.
The so-called obsolete definition.
For example, the word prove.
When the Bible says prove, it basically means to test something out, to try it out, to see if it holds up.
Whereas when we say the word prove,
we usually mean like, you know, you're proving that something is true.
Whereas in the Bible when you're proving something, you're checking to see whether it's true or not.
Two very different definitions.
But if you look it up in the dictionary, the Bible definition is listed first.
You can look up the word conversation.
People say that has changed.
You look up the word conversation in a modern dictionary, it'll tell you it's the way that you live.
The same thing that it means in the Bible in certain contexts.
You can look up the word hateful in the dictionary,
and the first two definitions mean it's something that we should hate,
or something that deserves hate, or something that is repugnant to the senses.
And then the third definition is basically, you know, oh, that person's very hateful.
Now that's the one we think of, isn't it, when we see the word hateful?
We think, oh yeah, he's really hateful, like he hates a lot.
Because of the fact that it has become wrong in the world's eyes to hate anyone or anything today,
they literally think that hate is a bad word.
I mean, I promise you that probably in almost any preschool, kindergarten, or first grade in America,
if a child said, I hate this, or I hate a certain person, they'd be told, now Johnny, don't hate.
You know, hate is not a family value.
You know, or we should never hate.
I've even talked to people and said to them, don't say hate.
You know, they're like, I agree with you, but just don't use that word.
But wait a minute, we've seen a lot of hate in the book of Psalms.
The person whose iniquity is found to be hateful, we ought to hate that iniquity.
That's why it's called hateful, because we should hate it.
Go down a few verses, you'll see the exact same thing.
It says in verse 4, this is about the same type of person.
He deviseth mischief upon his bed.
He seteth himself in a way that is not good.
And watch this, he abhorreth not evil.
Abhor means to hate, to loath.
So hold on here, God is rebuking the wicked man.
It's not enough to just not do evil.
God says it's a sin when you don't abhor evil.
Did you see that?
One of the things that God's rebuking this man for in verse 4 is he says, he abhorreth not evil.
And that is a problem when you don't abhor evil.
Look at Amos 5.15, Amos 5.15.
Amos 5.15, toward the very end of the Old Testament, one of the short books there, the Minor Prophets.
Look at Amos 5.15 and see how clearly God spells this out.
He says, hate the evil.
Now this is the command of God.
This is not if you want, if you're a hateful kind of person,
if you're mean-spirited and prideful and arrogant.
No, this is a command to every believer.
He says, hate the evil and love the good and establish judgment in the gate.
It may be that the Lord of hosts will be gracious under the remnant of Joseph.
Now the Bible couldn't be any clearer.
We're to hate that which is evil, we're to abhor that which is evil.
And the Bible says here in verse number 2, he flattered himself in his own eyes
until his iniquity be found to be hateful.
Because of the fact that he's puffed up and just continues in sin, has no fear of God,
it's a downward spiral.
His iniquity at first was not hateful,
then his iniquity becomes hateful through a constant flattering of himself and lack of fear of God.
You see, sin is always a downward spiral.
You start out just accepting things that are just little sins, minor sins.
You know, you don't hate sin and you start letting it creep in a little bit.
But once you accept a little bit, once you cross the line in God's Word, it's a slippery slope.
I mean, there's a firm line.
It's easy to stand upon the rock of God's Word when you have a firm view of this is right, this is wrong.
Clear distinction.
When you start to gray it out, you just keep moving, you just keep slipping.
Because when you're not founded on the rock of God's Word,
you're going to be on sinking sands, the shifting sands of this world.
And that's why you've got to just decide, you know, I'm going to draw the line where God draws the line.
I'm not going to give an inch on sin.
I'm not going to give an inch to the flesh and worldliness.
And so he says that he flatters himself in his own eyes, telling himself how wonderful he is.
That's what flattering yourself means.
He thinks he's doing right and then eventually his iniquity is found to be hateful.
Verse 3, the words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit.
He hath left off to be wise and to do good.
He deviseth mischief upon his bed.
He seteth himself in a way that is not good.
He abhorreth not evil.
Again, part of the way that you go into sin is when you stop doing that which is good.
It says he left off to be wise and to do good.
You know, when you leave off Bible reading, which is where you're going to get your wisdom,
when you leave off soul winning, because the Bible says he that win at souls is wise,
when you leave off doing good, there's a void there in your life
and you're going to fill it with the wrong things.
Doing good keeps you from doing evil.
I've had so many people ask me, you know, how do I get over this and that addiction?
They said, I've tried to get over it.
I've tried everything and I can't seem to stop this particular sin in my life
or this particular habit in my life.
And I basically explained to them.
I said, you know, the flesh cannot be brought into subjection of the laws of God.
It's impossible.
You have to put on the new man and I explained to that person how the Bible says that,
you know, if you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you put on the new man,
he says you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
And so therefore by reading the Bible, you're doing something good.
You're putting on the new man by getting out there and going soul winning.
Jesus said that every tree that brings forth fruit.
He'll purge it so that it will bring forth more fruit.
If you go out and bring forth fruit and reproduce yourself spiritually,
by going out soul winning, everything breaks forth after its own kind.
The Christian brings forth Christians.
When you go out and win souls to Jesus Christ,
God will purge you of some of the sins in your life.
He'll help you to kick that impossible habit.
And when you read the Bible and pray, you're putting on the new man,
you're walking in the spirit.
When you're filling your mind with TV, rock and roll, dirty magazines,
you're feeding the flesh and you will be unable to live a righteous life
because the carnal mind is enmity against God
and cannot be brought into subjection of the laws of God.
And so when you leave off to do good, you're heading for sin.
Like you right now, I'm saying, think about yourself right now.
You say, Pastor Anderson, I'm out winning souls.
I come to church faithfully.
You know, I live a pretty clean life.
You know, none of us is perfect, but we're all striving for purity,
holiness and righteousness.
You know, I'm living a pretty clean life.
I'm out winning souls.
God's using me.
I'd say I'm doing well spiritually right now,
but hold on a second.
If you leave off to do good, though,
you'll start to go back to some of those old sins
is what I'm saying to you tonight.
If you say, well, I'm just going to take a big break from soul winning
and I'm just going to cut down my Bible reading a little bit.
I'm just a little bit worn out.
I think I'm just going to take it easy,
relax.
When you stop doing good, that's where you start getting innocent.
I've seen pastors quit soul winning.
Next thing you know, they're out buying a big screen TV.
You know, it's the next step.
When you quit soul winning,
then the music starts changing in the church.
You know, the standards start changing.
The clothing starts changing.
Everything starts to change.
When you leave off to do good,
you start devising mischief.
Again, the idle mind is the devil's workshop.
I just preached on it about a week and a half ago.
The fact that when you're not doing good,
there's a void there that's going to be filled with all the wrong things,
all the sinful things, just like Sodom.
They had abundance of idleness.
They got into fornication
and then even weirder,
they got into homosexuality and other abominable things.
Let's keep reading verse five.
It says, Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens
and thy faithfulness reacheth under the clouds.
Now, look, God's mercy is boundless is what he's saying here.
God has an abundance of mercy.
Mercy is basically a pardon.
You think of grace, mercy,
pardoning the wrong that we do,
okay, is God's mercy.
That does not violate God's justice
because Jesus Christ paid our sins on the cross.
Therefore, he can extend mercy to us
because he's our substitute.
But hold on a second.
God's mercy is boundless.
God's grace is sufficient.
And therefore, the Bible says that where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound.
He said, should we continue?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
But just a few verses before that,
at the end of Romans 5, he says,
Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.
Let me tell you something.
There is no sin that you can commit
that will cause you to lose your salvation.
God's mercy and God's grace in the blood of Jesus Christ
has covered all sin.
He died for every single sin
that you've ever done or ever will do
before you were even born.
And therefore, when you believe on Jesus Christ,
all of your sins are forgiven.
They're all separated as far as the east is from the west.
They're all paid for and washed away
by the blood of Jesus Christ.
And so God's mercy is enough to cover
whatever sin you commit.
That's why you can't lose your salvation
because God's grace is sufficient.
God's mercy and his faithfulness.
Faithfulness is what?
Basically him staying true.
The word faithful is synonymous with the word true.
Not the word true as in true versus false.
But staying true to something
means you're faithful to it.
It means that you're not going to break your word.
You're not going to break your covenant.
If I'm faithful to my wife,
that means I'm going to keep my marriage vows, right?
I'm going to keep me only under her
so long as we both shall live.
That's what faithfulness is.
God's faithfulness,
God's mercies are boundless.
There is nothing you can do
that will cause God to break the promise
that he made of eternal life.
And hope of eternal life,
which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began.
Nothing you do can cause God to break that promise
because God's faithfulness
reacheth under the clouds.
It's just the sky's the limit
is basically what he's saying.
When it comes to God's faithfulness to his word,
he will not alter the thing
that has gone out of his lips, he said.
He has promised us eternal life
and we are saved forever
because of his mercy, because of his faithfulness.
Thy righteousness, verse 6,
is like the great mountains.
Thy judgments are a great deep.
O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.
Again, God's righteousness
is like great mountains.
Thy judgments are a great deep.
His judgments are found in his word.
The Bible is so deep
you could never draw everything out of it.
It's as infinite as God is.
You know, and that's the wonderful thing about the Bible.
Wouldn't you hate to have just learned the whole thing?
Church would be boring if you've learned everything.
Now a lot of churches are boring
because you've learned everything that they're teaching.
It's true.
I mean, once you've learned everything,
I mean, you're in a church,
you've learned everything that the pastor knows
and he's not learning anything new,
there's a problem.
Because you're just going through the motions,
coming week after week,
you're not learning anything,
you're not getting fed,
and many people I've known quit churches
and they say, I'm not being fed.
And you know, there is some truth to that
when there's a lot of repetitive preaching going on
of just the same scriptures,
the same concepts, the same doctrine.
God's word is deep
and we as preachers should be able to constantly
be finding new material to preach
because the Bible is so deep.
There is not a lot of supply here.
It's like, well, I've preached it all,
I can't find anything else.
I can't find anything else new to preach.
Then you need to dig a little deeper
because God's word is so deep,
you'll never run out of things to preach.
And that's why you need to keep coming to church
week after week, learning more.
And most of what you learn
should be in your own personal Bible study.
Draw out from the wells of God's word
the deep truths of the Bible.
Don't be satisfied with just the shallow,
the milk of the word.
Dig down deep, not in a commentary,
not in man's word,
but in the wisdom and judgment of God.
Dig down deep in God's word
and draw out new truths.
And that's what I try to do as a pastor.
I mean, I constantly have to be reading the Bible
every week, read the Bible, read the Bible, read the Bible,
in order to have new things to preach
so that I'm not just a broken record.
So I'm not just taking a sermon out from 2006
and dusting it off, you know,
and saying, well, here we go again.
They probably forgot about this one four years later.
You know, and there are obviously many truths
that need to be repeated.
We have to repeat things over and over again,
but there ought to be new things as well
because of the fact that there is so much in the Bible
that if I'm not preaching new things,
I'm shortchanging you because there's so much there.
I mean, it's infinite, it's boundless.
And so God's word knows no bounds.
I love what he says at the end of verse 6,
O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.
You know, in a day where it's all about
the wildlife preserve.
We've got to preserve this animal
and we've got to preserve the saguaro
and we've got to preserve all these endangered species,
but wait a minute.
God preserves man and beast.
Saber pests for animals and animals of God extinct.
You know what, Jesus Christ coming back one day,
he said, I'm going to make all things new.
He'll make another saber-toothed tiger
and woolly mammoth.
He'll make a new one.
He'll make a California condor.
You don't have to worry about it.
It's interesting, and I almost want to preach
a whole sermon on this, and maybe eventually I will,
but I was reading in the Bible
in the book of 2 Kings,
or not 2 Kings, that was a different book.
I was thinking of 2 Kings where the lions
were going around eating people
because they took over the cities.
That's not the part I'm thinking of though.
Let me think for a second.
What was the part I wanted to preach on?
It's the part, I want to say numbers,
but it could be Deuteronomy,
where God is telling the children of Israel.
He said, I'm not going to let you take over
the whole promised land all at once.
He said, I'm going to give it to you little by little
because he said, if I just drove out
all the inhabitants of the land at once,
then he said the beasts would start to take over
if the cities were empty.
If you've ever been to a ghost town,
you know, animals move in.
I heard somebody say recently
that there was a news story that in Detroit, Michigan,
because literally so many houses are vacant.
Everything's boarded up.
Animals are starting to take over Detroit, Michigan,
and then move into these vacant houses.
You're starting to see a lot of just wild animals
walking down the street.
I believe it because I haven't spent
much time in Detroit, but I spent a lot of time
in parts of South Chicago.
And really the real example, though,
that would probably be close to the Detroit model
would be like Gary, Indiana.
I mean, if you go to, who's ever been to Gary, Indiana
sometime recently, last 5, 10 years?
You go to Gary, Indiana, you feel like you're in
like a sci-fi post-apocalyptic
after a nuclear war or something.
I mean, everything's boarded up.
Everything's empty. It's weird.
I mean, there are more things that are boarded up
than that are occupied in Gary when I was there,
when you're walking around downtown.
I mean, just boarded up. Everything's boarded up.
And the animals begin to take over, don't they?
They move into those houses.
I moved into a house before that hadn't been lived in
for, I think, what, 10, 11 months or a complete year.
And it was just all kinds of bugs
and all kinds of little creatures in the basement
because of the fact that it's unoccupied.
God said, you know, the animals are going to take over
if people don't live there.
There's a plan that God has where animals live somewhere.
Then people move in, kick the animals out,
and build a city and live there.
And there's plenty of space for everybody
and everything in this world to get along just fine.
But people say, no, no, it's such a shame
when these animals are losing their habitat.
You know, man needs a habitat too, okay?
Can we have a place to live, please?
And it's funny, people always,
oh, you're upsetting the cause of nature,
and then they teach that we're animals.
Now, hold on a second.
If we're a species of animal,
I told this to this environmentalist recently
that was giving me all this environmental stuff,
and I told this environmentalist, I said,
well, wait a minute.
I said, if we're just evolved animals,
I said, what's the difference between the high-rise
that we build and the beaver dam?
You know, he's building stuff.
He builds a beaver dam.
We build Hoover Dam.
You know what I mean?
What's the difference?
We are nature.
If we're animals, we're nature.
We're part of nature.
We're part of the ecosystem.
Oh, but you guys are just out of control.
Well, I thought evolution fixes all that.
It's funny how for billions and billions of years,
supposedly evolution has been keeping this perfect balance
where it's this automatically self-correcting survival
of the fittest, and then all of a sudden, whoops.
Now mother nature is asleep at the wheel
and let man just get out of control
and take over the whole world.
That's what God's plan was, to have dominion over it.
And he said in Isaiah chapter 40
that he formed it to be inhabited.
God created this world for mankind to inhabit it.
He said, have dominion over the fish.
Have dominion over the birds.
Have dominion over the creatures.
And guess what?
The animals that we use the most
are the ones that will never go extinct.
Do you think chickens are on the endangered species list?
Think about it.
The best way to keep an animal around
is to start killing and eating it.
I mean, cows.
Are cows endangered?
Are pigs endangered?
No.
Oh, but there's this special lizard
that we're never going to see again.
So what?
There's so many millions and billions of species
in this world that man can't even come.
I mean, they go deep down in the ocean.
One drop of water contains millions of microorganisms,
literally, in one drop of water.
There are all kinds of exotic species of fish
that man has never even seen.
There are all kinds of creatures in the jungles and rainforests
that are constantly being discovered.
But people worship it, and they just can't let any of it go.
Look, if an animal dies off, maybe evolution's
just cleaning house on the California condor.
Sorry, spotted owl.
You didn't make the cut.
You're gone.
You know?
I mean, it's all survival of the fittest.
But the, oh no, the spotted owl's dying.
Let it die.
Mother Nature is saying that it needs to go.
It needs to go.
See ya.
And it's true.
We're nature.
But no, the hypocrisy is unbelievable.
Everything's nature except us.
Everybody needs a habitat except us.
You know, we're messing it all up.
Anyway, you know, that's another sermon.
Now I can't preach it, because I just saw my own thunder.
But anyway, oh Lord, thou preservest man of beasts.
I'm just going to leave it to God, to be honest with you.
If the cactus falls over without 2 by 4s holding it up,
I just let it fall.
Amen.
You know what I mean?
And all you have to do is go to some of the parts of Arizona.
I'm sure Leslie's seen plenty of this.
Parts of Arizona where roads don't go.
You know, where you have to take a river,
or somebody has an off-road vehicle,
or ride a horse, or hike.
Those things are everywhere.
There's plenty of them.
You don't have to lose any sleep tonight about what's
going to happen with those saguaros, OK?
2 by 4s or no 2 by 4s, those things
will be preserved by God, OK?
And so let's move on.
I don't want to spend my whole sermon on that.
Verse 7, how excellent is thy loving kindness, oh God.
Therefore, the children of men put their trust
under the shadow of thy wings.
They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house, and thou
shall make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
For with thee is the fountain of life.
In thy light shall we see thy.
Oh, continue thy loving kindness unto them
that know thee, and thy righteousness
to the upright in heart.
Now look, doesn't it seem like God wants to bless you?
I mean, it doesn't seem like God's out to give you a raw deal,
does it?
Look, God is loving kind, has loving kindness
toward his children.
He said he'll abundantly satisfy them.
He'll make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures.
Keep your finger there.
Go back to Psalm 16 quickly, just a few pages back.
Here's a great verse.
Psalm 16 11 says, thou wilt show me the path of life.
In thy presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
Boy, the real pleasure in life, the real joy in life,
comes from serving God, getting close with God,
working for God, being with God's people,
singing praises to God, living a life that honors God.
That's who has joy.
That's where the real pleasure is.
People think they're going to find pleasure in all the sin
that the world has to offer.
It's not what it's cracked up to be, young people.
And there are older people in this room
that have tried all the sin, and they
could tell you that it left them with an empty feeling
because it's not what they expected it to be,
because it's not what the devil makes it look like.
Because the devil's a great advertiser
of the things of the world.
He has his beer ads, and everybody's strong and fit,
and they're happy all the time, and everything's great.
He doesn't show you what it's really
like in the bar restroom.
He doesn't show you what it's like the next morning.
He doesn't show you what it's like with the children that
are born out of wedlock.
He doesn't show you the physical abuse of a husband beating
his wife.
He doesn't show you the wife committing adultery
because she's drunk and doesn't know what she's doing.
He doesn't show you the pain and the sorrow
and the emptiness of gratifying the flesh.
That's why people who live in sin
have to keep going down deeper and deeper into sin,
because the sin doesn't satisfy.
So they just get worse and worse just
chasing after some kind of a thrill, and they never find it.
That's why it's not enough to just smoke pot.
Why not just smoke pot and call it good?
No.
They smoke pot, and then they have
to look for something that's a little bit more
extreme of a drug.
That's why pot is called what?
The gateway drug.
And really, alcohol is a gateway drug.
If you think about it, that's really probably the first step
with most people.
They probably get into drinking, and then
if you're going to drink, why not smoke pot?
And if you're going to smoke pot, hey, why not take LSD
or ecstasy or snore cocaine or heroin or what?
Why would people go to those kind of drugs, methamphetamine?
Why would people take methamphetamine
when it's so destructive?
I mean, they can look at what it does to other people,
how it just destroys their body and destroys their life,
and it's so addictive.
It's because Budweiser just didn't satisfy them anymore.
That's why they had to go to methamphetamine.
You know, why do people look at all this weirdo pornography?
It's because the Swimsuit Edition of Sports Illustrated
just didn't do it for them anymore,
and that's why you ought to say no to the Swimsuit Edition
of Sports Illustrated.
Don't even go down that road, because that road
will take you down, down, down, further and further
and further.
It will never satisfy you.
You see, you have a craving called the lust of the flesh.
You have a craving, an appetite that's
called the lust of the eyes.
And you have this idea, well, if I fulfill that appetite,
I'll be satisfied.
But you won't.
You'll just create more of an appetite.
The appetite will just get worse and worse and worse and worse.
It's easier to just draw the line in the sand
and not even get close to it.
For example, today, there were times today
where I began to crave food.
I began to be hungry for food.
I hadn't eaten in a long time.
I kind of skipped a meal today, and I started getting hungry.
But at no point today did I crave heroin.
Now, there are people today that are craving heroin today,
and they don't want to take it, but they have to.
At no point did I desire a marijuana cigarette.
At no point did the thought even come into my mind
to smoke a cigarette or, man, I would
love to drink a beer right now.
Now, man, I would love to snort a few lines of cocaine
before I get on this airplane because of the fact
that I've never snorted cocaine, right?
So there's no craving.
But let me tell you something.
Once you start doing these things,
that you just have taken on a new craving pretty much
for the rest of your life.
And thank God you can get over certain cravings.
Obviously, there are people who've smoked,
and they quit smoking, and then eventually they stopped craving.
But I've talked to other people who are craving it decades
later.
Decades after quitting smoking, they're still craving cigarettes.
But if you've never been a smoker,
you don't crave cigarettes, right?
I mean, it doesn't even come into your mind.
But once you've been a smoker, you're going to crave that.
You know what it's like, and you want more, and so forth.
And by the way, people who smoke a lot, they get to the point
where they don't really enjoy smoking either.
It's just a fix.
That's why they move on sometimes
to smoking other things.
But the bottom line is that if you
want pleasure, and joy, and fulfillment in your life,
it's through the Lord.
It's not through the world's entertainment,
the lust of the flesh.
That stuff will never bring joy.
It gives you the pleasures of sin for a season,
Hebrews chapter 11.
Psalm 16 says that at God's right hand,
there's pleasure forevermore.
And really, if you're doing what's right,
even in the midst of suffering, you
can be happy, and have joy, and pleasure, and enjoy life.
And I find that the people who are living for God
enjoy life more than the people who
are out gratifying the flesh.
That's why they're constantly committing suicide.
Even the people who have it all, the stars, the Hollywood stars,
they're constantly having eating disorders.
They're constantly committing suicide.
They're shoplifting when they're like a multi-millionaire.
Why?
Because they're miserable.
They don't know what to do with themselves.
They need the pleasure and the joy that comes from doing right,
from having a walk with Jesus Christ,
from reading the Bible, from winning souls to Christ,
doing something with their life that matters for eternity,
instead of just wasting their life doing nothing.
And so pleasure, joy, these are the words
that describe the Christian life, according to the Bible.
There are other words, suffering, affliction.
But you know what?
Even through the trials, it says in 1 Peter chapter 1,
that we can rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,
even when we're in happiness through manifold temptations.
And so he explains that here.
How excellent is thy loving kindness, verse 7, O God.
Therefore, the children of men put their trust
under the shadow of thy wings.
They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house.
And thou shalt make them drink of the river of pleasures.
For with thee is the fountain of life.
In thy light shall we see light.
O continue thy loving kindness under them
that know thee, and thy righteousness
to the upright in heart.
Verse 9 says, in thy light shall we see light.
He said in 1 John 1, if we walk in the light
as he is in the light, and he said,
these things write unto you that your joy may be full.
You're going to have joy when you're walking in the light
with Jesus, not when you're participating
in the works of darkness.
That'll steal your joy.
He says in verse 10, O continue thy loving kindness
unto them that know thee, and thy righteousness
to the upright in heart.
Let not the foot of pride come against me,
and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.
There are the workers of iniquity fallen.
They are cast down and shall not be able to rise.
Whenever I see that phrase, workers of iniquity,
I always think of what Jesus said.
Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.
He said, I never knew you.
Not I used to know you, and then you lost your salvation.
I never knew you.
There are the workers of iniquity fallen.
They are cast down and shall not be able to rise.
Let me tell you something.
There is no hope for those who die without Jesus Christ
as their Savior.
It's over.
They're done.
There's no hope.
There's no second chance.
I think I was on someone with brother Dave on Sunday.
You were given the gospel of that young man.
He basically said, well, you go to hell and you do your time.
I think he had a Catholic background.
You go to hell, you do your time,
and then you're good to go.
Then you go to heaven.
You know, that'd be great.
But that's not the way it is, unfortunately.
Hell is something that we don't like to think about.
It's something that we can't even really wrap
our mind around eternity.
We've lived for a few years on this earth, a few decades.
We can't wrap our mind around eternity.
But you know what?
I believe God that heaven is real and that hell is real
and that they will both last forever.
That's what I believe.
And the Bible is clear.
They're not going to rise again.
They will go to hell.
They will burn forever.
The only resurrection they're going to have
is what the Bible calls the resurrection of damnation,
where basically their body comes out of hell
and stands before God to be judged for every work they've
done before they're cast back into hell
in the lake of fire for all eternity.
You see, there's no hope for those who go to hell.
And let me explain something to you.
Who's going to hell?
And I'm going to close with this.
I'm not preaching long tonight.
Who is going to hell?
And it's amazing how people can just
think everybody's going to heaven sometimes, even
independent fundamental Baptists.
Now hold on a second here.
Didn't Jesus say that broad is the way that
leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at?
Because straight is the gate and narrow
is the way that leadeth unto life
and few there be that find it.
Well, let me explain something to you.
Did you know that in the southern United States,
you know what the number one religion is?
More than 50% of people belong to?
Get this.
More than 50%.
What is it?
Baptists.
And really, if you were to just look at the whole United
States of America, if you were to count
all the non-denominational, the Baptists, the Pentecostals,
the ones that are supposedly somewhat close to the Bible,
you'd find that it's the majority of America.
And yet, I don't believe for one second
that the majority is going to heaven, my friend.
Because you know what?
I knock these doors week after week,
and I talk to people from the mega community church.
I talk to people that are from the Methodist church.
I talk to people from the Southern Baptist church.
I talk to people even from some independent Baptist churches.
I talk to people from all these different denominations.
And let me tell you something.
You'll find out pretty fast that it's a narrow way that
says Jesus paid it all.
And that the majority, keep your finger here
and turn over to 1 John chapter 5.
You'll find that it's the minority.
Now, I'm not any happier about it than you are,
but that's why we need to get out there and shine
the glorious light of the gospel and preach the truth.
Because how many times have I said to somebody
in an independent fundamental Baptist church,
do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
They didn't even know.
Or they said, oh yeah, I've turned from all my sins.
I go to church every week.
I got baptized.
Whatever.
And so where did I turn from 1 John?
Look at 1 John 5.
The Bible's clear.
It says in 1 John 5 10, he that believeth on the Son of God.
Now, I don't need to take the time
to show you that that's what it is to be saved.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned.
He that believeth on me hath everlasting life,
Jesus said in John 6 47.
There are two kinds of people in this world, my friend.
There's he that believeth on the Son of God.
He has the witness in himself.
Who is the witness?
Go up a few verses.
It says, for it is the spirit that beareth witness.
Verse 6b, and it is the spirit that beareth witness,
because the spirit is truth.
Then he turns around and says in verse 10,
he that believeth on the Son of God
hath the witness in himself.
So who does the believer have inside of him
if he believes on Christ?
The spirit, the Holy Spirit, right?
The witness.
That's why he said, if any man have not the spirit of Christ,
he's none of his.
So according to the Bible, he that believeth on the Son of God
has the witness in himself, has the Holy Spirit
living inside of him.
He that believeth not God.
Now, is there any room between these two different categories?
No, there's two people.
There's he that believeth on the Son of God.
He's got the witness in himself.
Then there's he that believeth not God had made him a liar
because he believeth not the record
that God gave of his son.
Now, hold on.
What does it mean to believe on Christ?
Part of that is believing the record
that God gave of his son because, look, you can't say,
well, I believe on Jesus Christ, but I
don't believe this record.
No, you don't have the witness in yourself.
You're making God a liar because God spake all these words.
And if you don't believe this record,
you're making God a liar.
You don't have the witness in yourself.
You don't believe on the Son of God.
And I'm breaking this down to you because it's
such an important doctrine.
He that believeth on the Son of God
hath the witness in himself.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar.
Why is he making God a liar?
Because he doesn't believe the record
that God gave of his son.
So there's two kinds of people in this world.
There's those who believe on Christ
and are saved and have the Holy Spirit living in them.
And there are those who deny the record
that God gave of his son.
Now, what does that mean?
Well, he's going to tell us in the next verse.
And this is the record.
So what is it that a person has to believe to be saved?
According to the Bible, they have
to believe this record in verse 11.
Or they're not saved.
And anybody who doesn't believe what's contained in 1 John 5
11 is not saved according to the Bible.
And verse 11 says this.
And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life.
And this life is in his son.
Three major elements there.
Number one, God hath given.
It's a gift.
The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith
and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God,
not of works lest any man should boast.
You've got to believe that God's given us eternal life.
Not that God has sold us eternal life.
Not that God has bargained with us.
And no, it's a free gift.
If it's of works, then it's no more grace.
Otherwise, work is no more work.
But if it be of works, I can't say that tongue twister.
But it's in Romans 11, 6.
The point is that you've got to believe that God has given us,
given us, and it's past tense.
We don't have to wait to heaven to find out.
No, God already gave us eternal life.
The Bible says, he that believeth on me has everlasting life.
That's present tense.
And so they've got to believe that God has given us eternal life.
The second thing you've got to believe is that it's eternal life.
And if it's eternal, it's never going to end.
He said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
That's what eternal life means as defined by Jesus.
Oh, I went to the Greek and it just meant eons.
We're going to live for eons.
Then we're going to die.
Because the Greek word was Inon-Inon, you know, or whatever they,
you know, Inon-Inon-Inon, ha ha ha ha ha ha.
You know, and they want to tell you,
oh, go back to the Greek to find out what eternal is.
You know where I get my definition of eternal?
It's not a dictionary.
It's not the Greek.
It's not the Hebrew.
It's from Jesus.
He said, I give unto them eternal life.
They shall never, and they shall never perish.
That's what it means.
I mean, you'd think it'd be a no brainer,
but Jesus broke it down for us, didn't he, in John 10, 28.
He said, listen, it's eternal life, which means you're never going to die.
I know that's redundant,
but just in case some idiot goes back to the Greek and the Hebrew
and tries to say eternal doesn't really mean eternal
and all doesn't really mean all and hell isn't really hell.
I'll spell it out for you.
It's like when God said about,
I forget which of the ladies in the Bible,
maybe Hannah, I think in 1 Samuel 1,
she was barren and she bare not.
You know what I mean?
It's like God has to spell everything out sometimes
so that people don't deny his word.
Thou shalt live and not die.
He said in another place.
I mean, it's like, and you see the Bible's hard to understand.
He said in John 10, 28, I give unto them eternal life.
Let me translate that for you.
They shall never perish.
Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish,
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
How can you get a long understanding of that?
And he'll say eternal life isn't really eternal.
Hold on a second.
How much plainer can this be?
Jesus saith unto her,
I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live, and get this,
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
What's that say in the Greek?
He might die after a while.
You know what I mean?
It's like, look, he has eternal life
and then he gives another word, everlasting life.
Just in case you don't know what eternal means.
And then he says again, you'll never die.
And yet there are people today who say,
oh, the believer will die if he does wrong.
If he's not faithful to Christ, the believer will die.
According to 1 John 5-11, are they saved?
Nope.
They're not saved.
Anybody who believes that the believer,
the Christian, will die and go to hell for any reason
is not saved because they don't believe the record
that God gave of his son,
that God hath given to us eternal life.
And then the third element's right there.
This life is in his son.
It's a gift, it's eternal, and it's through Jesus.
You say, what do you have to believe to be saved?
That's what you have to believe, that it's eternal,
that it's a gift that's through Jesus.
Now look, does a person have to be a Baptist to be saved?
No.
I've met people from Scottsdale Bible Church,
which is a non-denom church.
Who's met people from Scottsdale Bible Church
that were saved,
that gave you a clear explanation of being saved?
A couple of people, yeah, Al Solwening and Scottsdale.
Now, am I endorsing the church?
Am I condoning the church?
You know, I don't really know anything about the church,
to be honest with you.
It used to be Baptist.
Yeah, that explains it.
Anyway, but the point is, don't mess up my point here.
But no, I've literally, I've met people,
I've met some people who are non-denominational people, okay?
They're non-denominational type people,
but they used the King James Bible
and believed that salvation was by grace of God.
Now, I'm not condoning of some of their other doctrines
or the fact that they have a rock band on stage
and that they're worldly and won't preach on sin
and won't take a stand.
But hold on a second.
Being saved doesn't have to do with being a Baptist,
because there are lots of Baptists who don't believe.
1 John 5-11.
It's true.
You run into them.
And so what I'm saying is that just because
somebody calls themselves a Christian
or says, I believe in Jesus,
that doesn't mean that they're saved
if they don't believe the record, okay?
I mean, the Catholics will say,
I believe in Jesus, but I'm working my way to heaven.
I have to confess my sins to the priest.
I've been baptized, sprinkled as a baby.
I have to go through all these different rituals
and pray the rosary and chants.
I might go to purgatory.
They're not saved.
And this is why they're not saved,
because they don't believe the record.
They may believe in Jesus,
as in, I believe Jesus existed on this planet,
that He was a real person who died and was buried.
But they're not trusting in Him for salvation.
They're not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're not relying on Him to get them to heaven.
They're relying on Himself.
Or many people believe in a figment of their imagination
that they give a name, Jesus.
You know, that's a totally,
you know, well, my God is this.
And I just don't believe in a God
that would do this, this, and this.
And they're listing stuff that He did in the Bible.
I don't believe in a God that would send people to hell.
Well, you know what?
One day, God's going to remind you of that statement.
He's going to say,
well, I'm sending people to hell right now.
And you said you don't believe in a God
that would send people to hell.
So I guess you didn't believe in me.
So depart from me.
I never knew you.
I'm going to tell you something.
You better memorize.
If you don't have this memorized, memorize it.
1 John 5, 10 through 13.
This is one of the clearest places that just spells out.
And you know what?
It's not the only place.
I mean, John 3, 16, John 3, 18,
John 5, 24, John 6, 47, John 10, 28,
John 11, 25, 26.
And we could go on and on and on and on and on.
Acts 16, 31.
We could go on Romans 6, 23, Romans 5, 18.
I mean, the Bible's consistent.
But man, it's a great passage.
And you know what?
This passage is a warning
to a lot of people who are denying the Bible.
They're denying God's word.
They're denying the true plan of salvation.
They're not saved.
Now, but the only thing is though,
preachers from the past who believed
that you could lose your salvation.
They're saved though,
because they're really cool.
And there are heroes like John Wesley
and Charles T. Finney, you know.
That was different back then.
No, they're in hell.
You know, I'm sick of it.
I'm sick of people saying, you know,
oh, you know, I don't agree with all their doctrine,
but they were great men.
They're in hell.
They damn people to hell with their false teaching.
Look, my friend, the gospel doesn't change.
And you say, well, oh, so people have to believe
exactly like you to be saved.
What I'm saying is not complicated.
It's not unique to me.
All I'm saying, everybody buckle your seat belt
for my radical salvation doctrine.
You have to believe that it's all what Jesus did
or you're not going to heaven.
And if you believe that your life
has to be a certain way
or you're going to lose it,
you're trusting in yourself.
If you think, well, I have to go to church.
I can't do any really bad sins.
I have to do this.
I have to keep these commandments
or I'm not going to make it.
You are relying on self and it's not complicated.
The gospel is so simple.
Man makes it complicated.
So-called theology makes it complicated.
It's so simple.
It's all Jesus, all Jesus.
Nothing that we do.
Nothing that we can cannot quit doing
or start doing or join or...
No, it's all Jesus.
He did it all.
What must I do to be saved?
Believe.
He says, I believe.
You know what I mean?
It's like, that's it.
Why in the world do people not get this?
And they think, well, you know, but
you know, if you're living with your girlfriend, you know,
you don't have to give that up.
Okay, well, Jesus didn't.
Then Jesus didn't pay for that sin.
Is that what you're saying?
Well, but if you really, really, really get saved,
you'll just automatically just
just do all the right things.
No, he said you should walk in newness of life.
He didn't say you're automatically going to...
I mean, that'd be nice, wouldn't it?
That'd be great if we just automatically did the right...
I didn't wake up this morning and roll out of bed
and just automatically just wear the Bible.
I'm going to read 25 chapters right now.
You know, I didn't just automatically,
when I saw the dirty billboard,
just, I was sitting awake and thinking before my eyes.
I just automatically...
No, I had to make the effort to put on the new man.
I had to deny self every day
and take up the cross and follow Jesus daily.
It's not automatic.
And people just have this doctrine
of you're automatically going to do right
because they're trying to make excuses
for people who believe in work salvation.
Quit making excuses for Charles G. Finney
and John Wesley and Charles Spurgeon
and all these phonies from the past.
The world loved those guys.
They were popular preachers in the main street.
And who's popular today?
Name the popular preachers today.
Name, what?
Billy Graham, who else?
Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Bill Hyfels,
Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, T.G. Jakes.
Now, which of those people is preaching the truth?
Benny Hinn.
If Benny Hinn came to town, don't laugh at that
because if he came to town, he'd have 20,000 people to hear him.
Like that.
Probably way more than that.
Depending on how much he's charging for the tickets.
We're really determined it.
You know what I mean?
If the Pope came to Phoenix, Arizona,
he would probably have a million...
Listen to me.
One million people would come to hear him
if he came to Phoenix, Arizona.
People would fly in from everywhere.
And when the world loves you,
you know that you're the enemy of God.
It's true!
The Bible says,
woe unto you when all men speak well of you,
for so they did unto the false prophets.
So it's funny how all the famous preachers from the past
we lift up and say, oh, they're great.
You know, don't bother reading their sermons
that you can lose your salvation and it all works
and you don't need to be baptized by immersion.
You know, you can be baptized by sprinkling
and that's fine.
You know, don't worry about what they believe.
But then today we condemn all the preachers that are phonies.
Hey, let's be consistent here.
Let's have heroes.
Remember my sermon, Men Wonder Death?
This is part two.
Let's have heroes.
Let's wonder at people who were actually Baptist.
Wouldn't that be great?
Like they actually believed in salvation by faith
and they weren't Roman Catholics in sheep's clothing?
Calling themselves a Protestant.
Get real folks and get real out soul winning.
Don't knock on that door and they say, oh, yeah,
I go to, I go to the United Methodist Church in Tempe
and you, oh, are you saved?
Yep.
I believe in Jesus.
Oh, great.
Glad to hear you're saved.
See you later.
You know, dig a little deeper.
I, you know what I say to that person?
I just say, well, let me ask you something.
I said, do you think there's anything you'd ever do to lose
that? You know, like, or I just say, well, what if you stop,
what if you stop going to church and living right?
Will you still be saved?
Oh, no, no, then I'd go to hell.
Yeah.
I got to keep doing the work.
I got to stay with, you know, dig a little deeper.
Get these people saved because they're not saved if they
don't believe what it says right here in First John five.
I don't care if their name is Billy Graham.
I don't care if their name is John Wesley.
I don't care what their name is.
God's not a respecter of persons and there's one way to
heaven and it's through Jesus and it's through faith in Jesus
alone.
And am I saying that independent Baptist are the only ones
who are trusting Jesus alone?
No, because I've run into people of other denominations that
were trusting Jesus alone.
Now, I'm not saying they were Catholics or Mormons or Jehovah's
Witnesses, but I'm saying I've run into some of the people
that are in like the non-denom movement.
But you know what?
If we were to go to the average non-denom church and take
a poll and do a survey, we don't have to say if because we've
done it.
It's called going door to door to every door.
To 700,000 people's houses that we've knocked.
We haven't knocked 700,000 but we've knocked the house of
about 700,000 people approximately as a church.
We've knocked those doors and guess what?
We talked to people from these different churches.
We talked to scores of them who told us that they don't know
that they're if they're going to heaven or not.
Because they're not sure about how they're doing.
Okay, or we've talked to them who said yep, you can lose
your salvation if you don't live right.
You've got to be willing to turn away from your sins.
We've done the polling.
There are people out there that are saved.
It's not about being a Baptist.
There's some people who just never even been to any church
so they wouldn't classify themselves as anything that are
saved because they believe on Christ.
But get it straight here.
This is who believes on Christ and you know what?
This is what I'm going to preach until I die.
It's not it's you won't hear it very many other places this
teaching.
I just gave you the first job five.
Honestly, you won't hear it most places.
But it's the truth and so let it sink down into your ears
and as long as I'm preaching that's what I'm going to preach
that people who don't believe in eternal security the believer
aren't saved and people who are trusting works for salvation
aren't saved and I will never quit preaching that or I rather
just quit preaching at all than to preach something different
than that because that's what I believe from the top of my
head to the bottom of my feet.
That's what I believe as a child and that's what my dad
taught me from First John chapter 5 and I memorized it
and learned it and I'm preaching it right now.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for your goodness, your loving
kindness, the fountain of life, the pleasures, the joy that
you give us in our life.
Thank you for loving us and caring for us dear God and and
you want what's best for us.
Sometimes we don't realize what's best for us, but you truly
want what's best for us and we thank you for for taking care
of us and giving us the things that we need.
Thank you for saving us and giving us everlasting life,
eternal life where we'll never die either.
God, thank you so much for spelling it out so that we don't
have to wonder about it God and please help us to bring that
message to the lost.
Help us never to pretend that the lost are saved to make
ourselves feel better, but rather to preach in the truth
so that they might truly be saved by putting their faith
on you alone for salvation and call upon your name
as their only Savior dear God and we love you in Jesus name
we pray, Amen.