And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen, Psalm 50, the Bible reads in verse number 1,
The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun,
unto the going down thereof.
And this, again, emphasizes the same point that we talked about last week in Psalm 49,
that God's message in the book of Psalms is not only directed at the nation of Israel,
but it's directed at the entire world.
Even in the Old Testament, God so loved the world and was interested in reaching everyone with His word.
Israel was a pattern nation.
They were supposed to be a light to the Gentiles.
And over and over again, God is specifically addressing His words to humanity in general,
that anyone may listen.
Now, verse 2 is an especially interesting verse because as I was reading my Bible not too long ago,
I noticed that verse 2 is basically a haiku.
Now, of course, the book of Psalms is a book of poetry, right?
Who knows what a haiku is?
And if you know what a haiku is, it's this form of short Japanese poetry that has three lines.
And, you know, technically it's supposed to be like five syllables, then seven, then five.
But it doesn't have to strictly follow that format.
It's just supposed to have a certain general rhythm along those lines.
And a lot of times with haikus, one of the styles is that it'll start out talking about one thing,
and then the third line is kind of a twist where it's actually talking about something that you didn't expect.
So sometimes it'll start out talking about nature, something about natural beauty or nature.
And then in that third line, it'll switch to some kind of an abstract topic.
Well, what's interesting about this verse is that this verse is in the rhythm of a haiku
and it actually follows that format if you think about it.
Because it says, out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
So it starts out, if you looked at the first two lines there, out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
you might immediately just think to yourself, well, this is a beautiful city.
It's talking about the buildings.
It's talking about the landscapes.
It's talking about the trees and the mountains and the hills, right?
Zion, the perfection of beauty.
But then it turns out the real beauty of Zion is because God is shining from Zion, right?
Zion is the lighthouse of the gospel to the rest of the world.
And that ties in with verse number one about this message being a message that is for the entire world, right?
And so he says, out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
In the Old Testament, obviously Jerusalem was ground zero for the word of God, for the worship of the Lord.
You remember Jesus got into the conversation with the woman at the well.
And she said, well, you know, our fathers worshipped in this mountain,
but you say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
And Jesus explains, well, you don't even know what you're worshipping.
You know, we know what we worship for salvation of the Jews.
And so he vindicated Jerusalem as being the correct location.
God talked about all throughout the Mosaic law that there would be that place where he would choose to put his name there.
Go into the place which the Lord shall choose.
And then we know that he chose Zion.
He chose Jerusalem.
Now, unfortunately, of course, the Old Covenant ended up being a flop,
not because of any fault on God's part,
but because the children of Israel did not continue in his covenant.
And they broke the covenant.
And they ended up losing that status as God's chosen people,
where Jesus told them the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation,
bringing forth the fruits thereof.
But at that time, Jerusalem was the place.
Nowadays, the Bible says in Galatians 4 that Jerusalem's in bondage
and that we look to the heavenly Jerusalem as our capital city.
In verse number three, it says,
Our God shall come and shall not keep silence.
A fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
Tempestuous means stormy.
So, you know, tempest is a storm.
He's coming with fire and storm and wind.
This is the image that's being drawn up here.
And it says in verse four,
He shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge his people.
Gather my saints together unto me.
Saints means those who are holy.
Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice
and the heavens shall declare his righteousness for God is judge himself.
So he's talking here about how he's got a bone to pick with the people of Israel.
Because he's saying, look, gather them together.
I'm going to judge.
And the proof is in verse seven because he says,
Here, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against thee.
Right?
So he's got an issue.
He's got a problem.
He's coming to judge his people.
You know, Zion is the perfection of beauty.
Yes, he has a covenant with them.
Yes, they're his chosen people.
But there are times when he had to come and clean house
and he had to come and rebuke them and straighten things out.
And this is one of those times.
Now, I love what it says in verse six.
And the heavens shall declare his righteousness.
The heavens shall declare his righteousness.
Now that that reminds us of a very famous passage.
Go back to Psalm 19.
Psalm chapter 19.
This is one of the most famous Psalms,
and it's such an important Psalm that the truth that it teaches is so important.
And this really has to do with what I was saying a moment ago
about how God has sent his message to the whole world,
not just to the nation of Israel, but it was always for the whole world.
Well, if you look at verse one of chapter 19,
it says the heavens declare the glory of God.
You see that same statement from Psalm 50.
The heavens shall declare his glory.
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.
Their line is gone out through all of 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 rejoices as a strong man to run a race.
His going forth is from the end of the heaven,
and his circuit unto the ends of it,
and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
And look at the beginning of verse seven.
The law of the Lord is perfect.
Now, what's interesting about Psalm 19
is that he starts out by talking about nature.
He starts out by talking about how the heavens declare the glory of God.
The firmament shows his handiwork.
You can look up at the sky, and you can look at the stars.
You can look at the sun rising and setting,
and you can see all these amazing things that God has created,
and it all glorifies the Creator when we see those things.
And in fact, keep your figure there.
Go to Romans, if you would, because this is quoted in the book of Romans.
Go to Romans chapter 10,
and we'll see where this is quoted in Romans chapter number 10.
The Bible says in verse number 15...
Actually, let's go with verse 17 of Romans 10.
It says,
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, verse 18.
But I say, have they not heard?
Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth,
and their words unto the ends of the world.
So we see that if we compare that to Psalm 19 verse 4, it says,
their line has gone out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
Do you see that in verse 4 of Psalm 19?
And then we compare Psalm 19 4 with Romans chapter 10 verse 18.
And what the Bible's getting at here in Romans chapter 10,
is that the people of this world are without excuse.
You know, the Bible told us in Romans chapter 1, it said,
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.
So no one has an excuse today for not seeking after the Lord,
and trying to understand who God is.
Because you know, the Bible says, if you ask, you shall receive,
if you seek, you shall find, and if you knock, it shall be opened unto you.
So if anyone is seeking the truth, they're gonna find it.
I believe that. I mean, if somebody really wants to know the truth,
if somebody sincerely wants the truth, and they're looking for the truth,
they will find the truth.
God's not gonna hide it from them.
He wants them to find the truth as much as they want to find the truth.
And so He said, if you seek, you'll find everyone that seeketh findeth.
To him that knocketh, it shall be opened.
So look, God has, has testified of Himself.
God has shown His glory in the natural world and creation.
Now, wicked people though, have looked at that, and said, well, there is no God.
They've looked at that, and they've worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.
And they want to talk about Mother Nature, and, you know,
and they just want to completely deny that there even is a Creator.
They don't even want to retain God in their knowledge.
But a person who's sincere is gonna look at that and say, you know what, there's, there's a God.
I want to know who God is.
And if they seek after God, if they want God to be revealed to them, they're gonna find Him.
Okay. Now, when you hear God's Word, you gotta respond to it.
Because there are two ways that God communicates with man.
And that's what Psalm 19 is all about.
That's why there's this dichotomy where in the first part of Psalm 19,
we talk about nature communicating God to us.
And then in the second half, he talks about the written Word by saying the law of the Lord is perfect.
And then he goes through, you know, the testimonies of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord.
So he spends a lot of time talking about nature, and then he spends a lot of time talking about God's written Word.
And that is because these are two ways that God communicates with us,
through the natural world and through scripture itself.
Now, here's the thing.
The natural world is not enough to get you saved.
It's enough to get you seeking.
You know, it's enough to get your attention.
It's enough to where you're without excuse if you just ignore God's marvelous creation and don't seek to know the Creator.
But you cannot just get saved through nature.
You can't just, you know, look up to the sky and just, whoever you are, God saved me.
You know, because the Bible says there's not another name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
At the name of Jesus, right, we must be saved.
Jesus of Nazareth, right?
We've got to be saved by believing in Jesus.
And faith comes by hearing the Word of God and God's Word,
God's written Word, that's going to mention things like Jesus and the cross and the resurrection.
I mean, obviously, that's what you're going to need to get all the way across the finish line and get saved.
You're going to need to hear the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
But does that mean that God does not communicate with us through the natural world?
No, he does, because he tells us to learn from the beasts of the field.
He tells us, go to the ant, thou sluggard.
You know, the heavens declare his glory.
Their voice, their speech has gone into all the world.
And so I'm going to reiterate again what I said on Sunday,
because I think this is so important that we grasp this, that there are two things that are absolute truth, my friend.
It's not just the Bible. It's also reality that's true.
And you get this holier than thou attitude that, well, I just believe the Bible.
That's all I believe. If it's not in the Bible, I don't believe it.
You know, I believe a lot of things that are not in the Bible.
You know what? I believe that my dad is Ray Anderson.
I believe that. You know, I wasn't there.
But I believe that he's really my dad. I believe that.
That's a fact. And you know what else I believe?
OK, I believe that we're all physically here in this building right now.
I believe that. I don't think this is some kind of a weird simulator that we're in right now or something like that.
I don't think it's a dream. Well, let me pinch myself. Just make sure I count all my fingers.
All right. Yeah. OK. Yeah. Still here.
So, you know, I don't just believe only what's in the Bible.
You know what I also believe? I don't just believe only what's in the Bible.
I actually also believe that two plus two is four, even though that's not mentioned in the Bible.
I believe that. And so to get this attitude that just,
well, I just believe the Bible. And you're like, well, what about this evidence?
What about these facts? It's just like, no, but folks, that's going to lead you into some wild and crazy doctrine.
That's where you get now people saying that the Earth's flat and then you try.
It's like, well, what's the evidence? You know, it's like, well, the Bible doesn't say anything about it.
Well, actually, the Bible does say the circle of the Earth and the Bible does say the Earth hangs on nothing.
But here's the thing. I don't need I don't need a Bible verse for every scientific fact that's been established.
Like, I don't need the Bible to tell me about gravity. OK.
I don't need the Bible to teach me about inertia or conservation of energy.
I you know, I just I actually just believe those things because they've been demonstrated and proven and things like.
So don't get this attitude that, well, I only believe I believe the Bible.
And I also believe what exists in the natural world is real, you know,
so I believe that we can also learn from studying trees and animals and this.
And you say, why is this important? Because of the fact that we have people today that they want to just hide behind this thing of,
well, you know what, I just have more faith than you and I just believe.
And then they just deny reality what's right in front of their face.
And, you know, this controversy that's going on right now,
it's the same mentality as people just it's like if they just looked outside and said that tree is not there.
You know, this isn't there. The dictionary didn't say breathe here,
even though you heard it, you know, that's the that's the kind of people that we're dealing with right now.
OK, now let me just let me just show you something in the Bible here.
Go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter eight. OK, take a little rabbit trail.
Yes, I am. You're the pastor, you get to do stuff like this.
Look, look at look at Deuteronomy chapter eight.
OK, look at Deuteronomy chapter and like everybody pay attention.
This isn't hard. All right. Deuteronomy chapter eight.
The Bible says in verse three, and he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna,
which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man
doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.
Did you hear that? Every word, every word. Everybody get that?
OK, now let's go to Matthew chapter four. Keep your finger in Deuteronomy, though.
Stay in Deuteronomy chapter eight. Who thinks every word of God is important?
Who thinks every word of God is pure? Who thinks that every word of the Bible is inspired by God?
Who thinks that every single word of God is preserved?
It's inspired and heaven and earth shall pass away, but God's words shall not pass away.
Who believes that? We all believe that here, right?
We all believe that. Now let's look at Matthew chapter four and let's see
what Jesus said here about this verse in Deuteronomy chapter eight.
It says in verse four, but he answered and said, it is written.
Now is this written or not? Is what he's about to say written or not?
It is written. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Now look, does anybody see a problem here? I don't. I see no problem here.
But these bozos, the reality deniers,
they want you to believe that every word means that you can't use another word with the exact same meaning.
That's what they think every word means. They think that every English word has to be identical.
Okay, well, let's just let's just see what the Bible says.
What does Deuteronomy 8-3 say? Go back to Deuteronomy 8-3.
You got your finger in Matthew 4? It says, man,
that he might make thee know that man does not live by bread only, by bread only.
What did Jesus quote in Matthew 4? Man does not live by bread alone.
Is that the same word? Is alone the same word as only? Is only the same word as alone?
No, but they both mean the exact same thing, don't they?
So go, yeah, yeah, man shall not or man doth not live by bread alone, by bread only.
You know, these people's verse, they can get up and yell that verse over and over again.
They don't understand the verse. See, when we've gotten up over the years and yelled about every word,
it's got to be every word. We all knew what that meant.
We're talking about the English words that represent what God said in the original Greek and Hebrew.
We're saying that all the meaning is there in our language.
We didn't actually think that has to be the identical English word and neither did Jesus,
because right here he quoted it using a synonym.
And you say, well, no, I don't think so.
Hello, is anybody home? But this is what I'm talking about.
People just deny reality. Define irony. The verse that they're using.
It's not the meaning, it's the word. Proves that it's the meaning.
What is a word? The word is the meaning.
What is a word if it's not meaning? The meaning defines the word.
Now look, it's not enough for us to have just the general thought,
the general idea, the gist of what God is saying.
We want to know exactly what God said.
That's why we want an every word Bible, not just a general idea, paraphrase, thought for thought.
That's not what we're saying, folks. Everybody just pay close attention here and understand the difference.
We want to know exactly what God said, but whether you say alone or only, it's still exactly what God said.
So here's what we don't want to do.
We don't want to just take liberties and just say, hey everybody, everything God says matters.
Everything God says matters. Now you've just like totally changed it.
But what's the difference if you say man does not live by bread only or man does not live by bread alone?
Aren't you saying the same thing? So is that an every word Bible or not?
Okay, and then not only that though, keep going.
He says, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord in Deuteronomy, do you see that?
Jesus said it's written that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.
So notice how Jesus said God and Deuteronomy said the Lord.
Is that a problem? No, because God and the Lord are the same person.
So he has swapped out two things that mean the exact same thing.
It's just like if you swapped out Artemis for Diana, it's just like if you swapped out the God for the Lord.
You're talking about the same person. It doesn't matter.
And if you say it does matter, if you say no, you can't swap God for Lord, you can't swap alone for only, you can't swap eternal for everlasting.
Okay, well you better take that up with Jesus Christ then because he said it's written and then he swapped.
I mean what else, hello, what else do you say at that point?
It's case closed and you know what, we could do this all day.
We could, every Old Testament, and folks, I don't know about you, but when I was growing up reading my Bible, I noticed this right away.
I mean I'm sure you noticed, if you've read the Bible at all, you notice that Old Testament and New Testament quotes are not exactly the same.
We've all noticed that.
Okay, and I instantly knew as a kid when I saw that these quotes are a little different.
I thought to myself, oh well that must be because the Old Testament's written in Hebrew and the New Testament's written in Greek, it's going to be a little, it's going to be worded a little different in a different language.
Things are going to be worded a little differently and that's what it is.
That's the case.
That's the truth.
It's not hard to understand.
So, you know, they're trying to say we don't believe every word or we just think it's the general idea.
No, we don't think it's the general idea, we think it's the meaning that matters.
And as long as you have the same meaning, as long as it's saying the same thing, as clearly Deuteronomy 8-3 and Matthew 4-4 are clearly saying the same thing.
There's no question about that.
And then go to Luke 4, flip over to Luke 4, we can see it over there too.
Luke chapter 4.
So we've got a reality denying group out there that doesn't want to face these facts.
But facts are stubborn things.
It says in Luke chapter 4 verse 4, and Jesus answered him saying, it is written that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God.
Every word of God, right?
So to sit there and take this exact verse and try to use this to say that if you use a synonym it's not God's word, define irony the verse you're using used a synonym when it quoted God's word.
Okay, so come on, give me a break, right?
And I think most people probably notice that on your own in your Bible reading.
So let's go back to Psalm 50.
So it's important to realize that not only does God's word speak for God, but also God's creation, the natural world speaks for God.
So we should not only accept God's word as truth, we should also accept facts that we encounter in life and in the natural world.
We should accept those things as truth as well.
We shouldn't just say, well, only the Bible is true.
Well, no, there are a lot of other things that are true too, you know, like if you have a right triangle, you know, the square of two sides of that triangle is going to be equal to the length of the square of the hypotenuse.
That's not in scripture.
There's no Bible verse like that.
But that's true.
That's a fact, right?
But I don't believe that, I mean, it's not in the Bible.
But that's the day we're living in today where we have a lot of Christians that just, they just deny reality, they just deny facts.
And then they think it makes them more spiritual to say, well, all I believe is the Bible.
And by the way, here's a fun historical anecdote for you.
There was a guy who was going to be involved with the King James Bible Translation Committee.
You know, they ended up with 54 guys on the committee.
There was a guy who was slated to be on the committee and you know what he wanted to do?
He wanted to reconcile all the Old Testament and New Testament quotes and make them say the exact same thing in the King James Bible and he was kicked off the committee for being a bozo.
He was.
Seriously, there was a guy and he wanted to bring it all into conformity to where every time the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, it says the exact same thing.
But the thing is, everybody else on the committee is looking at the originals and saying, well, no, the Hebrew and the Greek are worded a little bit differently.
We just need to translate what the Greek says into English and translate what the Hebrew says into English.
It's not our job, you know, to switch God to Lord and make it all match.
You know, so there's a Ruckmanite back then that was trying to make the King James into a Ruckman version where, you know, you can't use synonyms and you can't word things slightly differently.
Even if it's the exact same meaning.
And thankfully, they booted the guy.
Amen?
They made the right decision on that, too.
I forget the guy's name.
I'll have to look up the guy's name.
But anyway, let's get off that.
That was the commercial break.
So the heavens declare God's glory, you know, and here's another thing we can learn from this.
If we learn about the world that we live in, if we look at nature, it's actually going to bring us closer to God if our heart is right.
It's not going to push us away from God.
It's not going to destroy our faith in God.
Don't be afraid.
Look, the truth fears no investigation.
Amen.
That's good.
You know what?
The more that we learn about astronomy, all it's going to do is just magnify God more.
The more you learn about biology, it's going to just magnify God more.
And people are like, what about evolution?
Look, folks, forget the bogus teachings of evolution.
Let me explain some to you.
If you start actually looking at biology and realizing how complicated DNA is, you know what you're going to realize?
You're going to realize there's no way.
There's no way that this evolved from nothing.
There's no way that this came from anything other than a divine creative act.
Because here's the thing, when the theory of evolution came out back in the 1800s, they didn't even know what DNA was back then.
So when they're coming out with the theory of evolution, they're thinking, oh yeah, these really simple single-celled organisms evolved into these complicated organisms like we see.
Because they're looking at a little amoeba.
They're looking at a paramecium and just thinking, it's just a tiny little blob of nothing.
And that's the simple thing that evolved into big things.
But now we know that literally there are species of amoeba that have DNA more complicated or with more base pairs than a human being has.
There's a type of amoeba that has 100 times as many base pairs to its DNA as human DNA.
You know, and don't quote me on this, but I believe human beings, our DNA is like, what, 2.9 billion base pairs?
So the information in our DNA would like, it would just fill libraries of books, of encyclopedias.
It would be like, it would fill this whole room with like encyclopedias of data.
That's like in our DNA.
And we have how many DNA molecules in our body right now, like some incredible amount.
You know, my sister-in-law has explained some of this stuff to me.
I think there's like, you know, trillions of cells in our body and they all have DNA.
And I think she said if you stretched out one strand of DNA and stretched all, it would be like six feet long or something, you know, because it's all coiled up.
It's so complicated.
And then you're like, wow, but that's because we're so complicated, you know.
But then you get a type of amoeba that's basically got, instead of, you know, 2.9 billion base pairs, it's got 290 billion base pairs.
You know, and if you look, just look up all the different animals and plants, how many base pairs they have in their DNA, and the numbers are all over the board.
There's no rhyme or reason.
It's not like, oh, there's these simple animals.
And every animal's DNA, every plant's DNA is complicated, all of them.
Even if you just look at like a virus or something, you know, you look at like the DNA of a virus, it's like 14,000 base pairs or something, you know.
You're supposed to believe, you know, that this all just programmed itself, just programmed.
And by the way, every creature on this planet, every plant, every animal, it's all programmed with the same programming language because it's one creator that programmed it all.
It's all DNA-based, one style of life all over this planet that's all programmed by God.
So here's the thing, if you go into the study of science wanting to reject the Lord, wanting to reject God, then you're going to go into it with that idea and you're going to come out of it saying, well, science proves us there's no God.
But you know what, if you go into it with faith in the Lord, you're just going to walk away saying, wow, now I have such a greater appreciation for God's creation and just how amazing it truly is.
You know, it's really just whatever's in the person's heart going in is what's going to be in their heart on the way out.
But to say that science is against the Bible, that just isn't true, okay.
It's just science is either going to draw you closer to God or it's going to push you away from God depending on what's in your heart.
But there's nothing wrong with studying science.
There's nothing wrong with studying facts in the natural world.
You know, I think that Solomon was one who was pretty into these things.
You know, the Bible talks about him speaking a lot of proverbs and things from God's word, but then the Bible also said that he talked a lot about plants.
He was pretty into biology.
You know, he talked about animals, he talked about plants, and he was able to speak intelligently about all plant life from the hyssop that springs out of the wall to the cedar tree of Lebanon.
That's what the Bible tells us, that he had great understanding of science, you know, King Solomon did.
So the Bible says in verse number 7,
Here, O my people, I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against thee. I am God, even thy God.
I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices.
Now remember, I know we went on a big rabbit trail there, but if you remember, he said that he was going to testify against them.
So he's got a bone to pick with his people.
So he starts out by telling them, here's what I'm not mad about.
I'm not here to reprove you for your sacrifices or burnt offerings.
He's like, look, I'm not here to say, why didn't you put more money in the offering plate?
Why didn't you bring more sacrifices?
Why didn't you give more offerings?
He's like, that's not my issue.
He said, I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings to have been continually before me.
I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds, for every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
He said, look, I don't need anything from you.
I don't need your stuff.
I've got everything.
I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
If I were hungry, verse 12, I would not tell thee.
It's not like God's like, hey, I'm a little short on money.
Can you put a little more on the offering plate?
I'm getting kind of hungry.
It's sort of like the Hindu gods where you have to feed them.
And, you know, it's so funny how Buddhists claim that, oh, in Buddhism, you know, we don't worship any gods or something.
That's funny because there's a certain restaurant I like to go to, and they got Buddha there, and Buddha's constantly being fed.
So what's that about?
Who's ever been to a restaurant or maybe an Asian home, and you'll see an idol, and they got a little plate of food in front of it,
and the food's getting kind of old and dry and crusty because God's not going to eat that food.
And the Hindus, they take their idol, and they pour milk on its head.
And I guess they just expect the thing to just cock its head back, you know, just start taking in some of that milk and honey, you know.
But it never does. It just sits there.
They're just pouring milk.
They just pour honey, pour food on it, or put it in front of it, or wave it around in front of its face, and it's just like.
It's not going to do anything.
God's not that kind of God.
He doesn't want us to just go through some ritual of, hey, here, God, eat this food, man, you know.
That's not the God of the Bible.
He doesn't need us to feed him or care for him.
When we serve God, we're not serving him as though he needed anything, the Bible says.
He doesn't need anything.
We're serving him spiritually, you know.
We're serving him in spirit.
We're having communion with him.
We're walking with him.
It's our walk with God spiritually that matters, and a lot of it's for our benefit, you know.
He's already got what he needs.
He's trying to bring us closer to him, and he's doing this for our profit so that we can be partakers of his holiness and on and on.
So he's saying, look, it's not that I need your money or I don't need your sacrifices.
I don't need to be fed.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
He's saying, look, I want you to love me.
I want you to believe in me.
I want you to pray to me.
I want you to rely on me.
I want your heart, not just you putting money in the plate or giving a gift or going through a ritual or what have you.
So he's saying, look, I want you to love me.
I want you to believe in me.
I want you to pray to me.
So that's what he says to his people.
So verses 7 through 15 is God rebuking them for having a heart that's not right with God and just kind of going through the motions of bringing a lot of animal sacrifices, but their heart's not right.
And of course, this is what we find when Jesus is on the earth, right, because we have the Pharisees and the Sadducees going through a lot of rituals, going through the motions,
but he said their heart is far from me.
In vain they do worship me.
So look, the problem with the Sadducees wasn't that they didn't offer enough beasts on the altar.
The problem with the Sadducees was that they were denying the doctrines of the Bible.
They didn't love God and all the things that Jesus preached against about the Pharisees and Sadducees.
So in verse number 16, he changes gears.
So in verses 7 through 15, he's speaking to his people.
And explaining to them that they need to get their heart right and not just get into ritual, but to actually have a real walk with God.
But unto the wicked God saith, in verse 16, what is thou to do to declare my statutes or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee?
You know what this verse reminds me of?
When atheists want to tell us what the Bible says.
You know, he says to the wicked, like, who do you think you are to even take my word into your mouth?
Who are you to quote the Bible when you hate instruction and cast my words behind you?
And then you're going to quote the Bible.
How many times have we had atheists tell us what it means to be Christ-like?
Right?
Well, that's not very Christian of you.
I mean, that's not what Jesus taught.
It's like, and they'll misquote the Bible.
They'll twist the Bible.
They don't know the Bible.
The last thing I want is for an atheist or an agnostic to tell me what the Bible says.
Okay.
I'm going to get that teaching from a fellow Christian, or I'm going to get it directly from God himself.
I don't need it from an atheist.
Okay.
But it's so funny.
We were out soul winning today, and you know how it is out in Chandler.
You know, the Chandler PD, right?
So we're down in Chandler, and we're soul winning.
And there is a group of ladies that are at this door.
So I'm like several doors down with my soul winning partner.
And a few of our ladies are at this door, and they're giving the gospel to this elderly lady.
She ended up already being saved, and she was really happy that they came by.
And she was going through some things in her life, and they were just basically edifying her
and just having fellowship with her.
As a fellow Christian, they were having a good time.
And this bozo pulls up, this libtard weirdo pulls up, this old guy, pulls up in a truck
and starts telling them, like, you guys can't be here, and you know, you're trespassing.
I mean, this is just like a normal neighborhood, but it had the HOA.
So basically, you know, you guys can't be here, blah, blah, blah.
And then, you know, he's yelling at these ladies.
And then basically, like, so then after our ladies walk away, after they told him off for being a bozo,
they walk away, I kid you not, this old guy starts just screaming at the elderly lady who lives there.
Like, it's her house.
She had the soul winners from our church talking to her.
She was enjoying the conversation, and he's rebuking the soul winners.
Then when the soul winners walk away, he starts laying into the lady, and the lady starts yelling at him,
like, well, how dare you.
I mean, it's like an elderly lady.
She was probably like, what, 75 or something, 80.
I mean, she was old.
And she starts telling him, well, why are you yelling at those people?
They're my friends.
I appreciate them.
You know, I wanted to talk to them.
And he's just like, they have no right to be here.
He's like yelling, you shouldn't be talking to them.
He's just screaming at some elderly lady.
So then the guy pulls up in his truck up to me, and he started to open his mouth, and I just said, shut up, you slob.
I'm not going to listen to a word you have to say.
I just saw you yell at that old lady.
I said, you're not going to talk to me like you talked to that old lady.
And I told him off and ripped him, and he's just like, well, you're not very Christian, blah, blah, blah.
He's like, F you, you blankety blank.
After he dropped a few F bombs on me and told me I was a blankety blank blank, then he's like, and by the way, you're not acting very Christian.
I mean, well, I don't know, maybe you can come teach a Bible study at our church on how to be more Christian as you terrorize old ladies.
So then, of course, and then he's like, well, if you won't listen to me, I'm going to call the police.
I said, go ahead, you know?
And so then, you know, Chandler PD, I mean, they had to send backup.
Three vehicles responded, and this was, this is, I mean, this is a major crime in progress, folks.
Well, what's funny is first this, the cop shows up, but the cop just wouldn't approach us.
So we just kept soul winning.
We just keep on soul winning, and the cop's not even approaching us.
He's just like sitting in his car.
And then as we're leaving, we drive right by the guy, and he just still doesn't say anything to us.
But then we, we kind of got a little lost in the labyrinth of the neighborhood.
So then we, then the guy stops us as we're leaving, and he's like, hey, I didn't approach you guys earlier because I had to wait for my supervisor to get here.
I had to wait for, you know, I said, oh, you need backup, you know, because you're, I mean, I mean, look, he's dealing with some rough criminals here.
And so basically, you know, he comes up to us, and, and he said, he's like, you know, well, that guy that you were talking to, he's actually the president of the HOA.
And that's exactly what I said.
I said, oh, man, whoa, man.
I said, oh, I get it.
I said, so he's like the feudal lord, and these are all his serfs.
He's like the lord of the manor, and this is his serfdom here.
And the guy's just like, well, you know, you guys are leaving, so it's, and I told him, I said, well, we're leaving because we're done.
But I said, we're going to come back and knock the rest of the doors another day.
And he's like, well, I wouldn't recommend that.
I said, well, we're going to do it anyway.
Because I said, we have every right to be here.
We're, we're, we're exercising the First Amendment.
And here's the thing.
Look, if I knew that everybody in that neighborhood didn't want to talk to us, you know what I'd say?
Let's not go there.
If I had a crystal ball that told me everyone in this neighborhood has no interest in the gospel, do you think I'd waste my time going there?
No way.
But I can't even count how many times I've had some apartment manager or HOA rent a cop come up to me.
And tell me, like, you guys can't be here.
And then I got somebody saved ten minutes later.
Got somebody, just two weeks, what was it, was it two weeks ago?
Man, I'm on a roll lately.
Two weeks ago, you know, I had somebody cussing me out and telling me we can't be there.
And I literally, by the time the cops showed up, I was able to get two more people saved.
Because when, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
So basically, like, so I was able to get two more people saved in the meantime.
And, and, and so, you know, what, what are we going to do, folks?
Like, are we just not going to go soul winning in half the doors?
Because, because half of America, well, not half of America, but half of Phoenix and Tempe for sure.
Half of the people in our county either live in an apartment complex or an HOA.
I mean, HOAs are everywhere and apartments are everywhere.
So if we're going to skip all those doors, well, we're going to run out of doors.
And maybe the church that barely knocks any doors is not going to have a problem complying.
But I mean, the problem is that we knock a lot of doors and we want to do everything.
You know, we want to preach the gospel to every creature.
And here's the thing, I'm not there for the guy with the gray ponytail wearing the Bernie Sanders hat.
I'm not there to talk to him if he doesn't want to talk.
Now look, if, if, if Mr. Bernie supporter wants to talk, I'd love to give him the gospel.
You know, I'd love to cast those demons out of him and get him to say, you know what I mean?
But the, but the point is, you know, I'm only there to talk to people who want to listen.
And you know, when I knock on a door out soul winning and people don't want to talk to me, I can't get out of there fast enough.
I mean, when people are like, get out, I'm like already leaving because I'm so anxious to get to the door of the guy who wants to listen.
You know what my, you know what, I would much rather knock on a door and just have them just take one look at, hey, we're from a Baptist and just be like, no, and slam the door.
I'd rather have that than the one who wastes like several minutes of my time and then tells me they don't want to listen to anything about the gospel.
I mean, at least if you just come right out and tell me I have zero interest.
All right, good.
Thanks for saving me my breath and I'm ready to go to the next door.
And here's the thing, that lady, you know, was being ministered to.
She was already saved, but you know what, she needed a little encouragement or, you know, she was blessed by that visit.
And you know, by the way, a lot of elderly people, sometimes they don't get a lot of visitors.
Because I've been at, sometimes I've been out soul winning and I'll knock on an elderly person's door and sometimes they'll just invite me in and just kind of sit me down.
And you know what I'll usually do?
You know, I pretty much just sit down and listen to them for like 15 or 20 minutes.
Because I'm just, you know what I mean?
Because I just want to be nice to old people.
Even if I know, sometimes you know like this person's not going to listen to the gospel.
This person just is looking for company.
You know, sometimes I'll just give that person a little company.
Because you know what, it's called the golden rule.
You know, I mean, if I'm old, I would want, but this guy, no, no, no.
Grandma can't have any visitors today.
Grandma's in my world now.
You know, grandma's in the HOA.
And in the HOA, I make the rules.
It's like, dude, this guy put the homo back in homeowners association.
It's like, what is this guy's problem?
Reprobate.
It's like, why do you hate the gospel?
And why do you hate Granny?
But you know what though, it's not just keeping grandma company or, you know, blessing a fellow Christian.
Because you know what, if we've done it unto the least of these, our brother, we've done it unto Christ.
So if some saved grandma's out there and she needs a little encouragement, she needs a little prayer,
she needs a verse from the Bible, she needs a shoulder to cry on or to tell us a story or something,
you know what, hey, let's do that as unto Christ.
But you know what, that's not really even the biggest issue.
The biggest issue is that there are souls that need to be saved that are going to go to hell and they need to hear the gospel.
And I guarantee you that if we could put on some kind of x-ray vision that would show us, you know,
what's in the hearts of everyone in the apartment complex, you know, I guarantee you if we put on those glasses
and let's say everybody who doesn't want to hear the gospel glows red.
And everybody who wants to hear the gospel glows green, right?
If I sit outside of the apartment complex and put on my magic glasses,
I guarantee there'd be a bunch of reds that are going to say no, but I'd see like three or four greens,
it's like we need to knock all these doors and find them.
Because when I go soul winning, I'm only looking for one person.
That's all I'm doing.
And every door I knock that tells me no, I'm just one door closer to that one person I'm looking for.
And you know what? When you go soul winning, when you get to that one door, it's all worth it.
It's all worth it.
All the F bombs, all the rejections, all the golf carts chasing you and you're dodging the police and everything,
it's all worth it when you get to that one door and get that soul saved.
That's what it's about.
So, you know, what does that have to do with the sermon though?
I don't know.
Oh yeah, I remember.
The wicked trying to take God's covenant in their mouth.
And God's like, who do you think you are to quote the Bible?
Who do you think you are to tell us what a Christian is?
Who are you to tell us about Christian love when you hate the Lord?
When you don't even want the Bible?
And how many atheists love to take scripture and try to throw it at us and they're always twisting it
because they don't understand it because they've been blinded by their hatred for God.
So let me hurry up and finish. I'm about out of time here.
It says, look, under the wicked God saith, verse 16, what is thou to do to declare my statutes
or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee?
When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentest with him and hast been partaker with adulterers.
Thou givest thy mouth to evil and thy tongue frame it deceit.
Thou citizen speakest against thy brother, thou slanderous, thine own mother's son.
He's saying, look, you're stealing, you're committing adultery, you're lying, you're doing all these wicked things.
And then you're going to tell us what it means to be a good Christian.
You're a hypocrite is what he's saying.
And then he says, these things hast thou done and I kept silence.
Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself.
And isn't that what atheists believe?
They think God is like them.
Well, the God I believe in accepts queers.
Isn't that what they believe?
Well, the God I believe in, you know, he just thinks blah, blah, blah.
It's like, you know, what they've done is they basically they look in the mirror and that's where they went to find God in a mirror.
They're like Narcissus staring at their own reflection, falling in love with their own reflection and claiming that that's who God is.
Because I guarantee you these atheists have some deity that they're praying to and it's basically someone that they've fashioned in their own image that has all the same libtard ideas that they have.
And that's what basically they project what they believe onto God and say, you know.
And so basically God is silent under the wicked.
See, having God speak to you is a privilege, you know, because here's the thing.
Now, God will speak to everybody who wants to hear it.
Everybody wants, like I said, seek and you'll find.
But people who don't accept the word of God, eventually they can get to a point where God's no longer speaking to them anymore.
And a great example of this is King Herod.
You know, King Herod, when he met Jesus, he really wanted to talk to Jesus.
And so he starts asking Jesus a lot of questions and Jesus just didn't say a word to him.
Jesus would not say a word to him.
Herod had already had his chance.
You know, he already listened to a ton of preaching from John the Baptist and he chopped off John the Baptist's head.
Well, you know what, that was when he silenced the voice of God in his life.
When he killed John the Baptist, it's like, you know what, I'm not talking to you anymore.
You killed my mouthpiece.
And so then he's like, OK, Jesus, let me hear from you now.
Nope, not talking to you.
So basically the Bible says in verse 21, these things has thou done and I kept silence.
So because the wicked is not hearing from God, he just assumes, oh, well, I must be right because I'm out committing adultery and stealing and lying and and nothing's happening.
Nothing bad. God's not telling me to stop.
Nothing. Well, God's telling you to stop. You're just not listening.
It's all right here.
But, you know, well, I kept silence and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as I said.
You thought that God was like you.
And that's what atheists and agnostics and people who do eventually say, well, there's some kind of a deity or God or well, I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual.
I'm not a Christian, but I'm spiritual.
What they end up doing is fashioning God in their own image.
They think God is such a one as their self, but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes.
Now consider this ye that forget God, lest I just love you and snuggle you to pieces.
He said, no, lest I tear you in pieces.
Folks, the God of the Bible is not playing.
He does not play.
And a lot of people think that because what?
Because they've made a God in their own image.
They're OK with sin.
They consented with stealing.
They consented with adultery.
They consented with lying.
They consented with all that stuff.
So you know what they think?
They think God's such a one as themselves.
They think God consents to stealing.
They think God consents to adultery.
They think God consents to these things.
But yet he says, no, actually, sorry, I'm not the God of the hallmark minister or the pastor on Little House on the Prairie or something taught you.
I'm the God that tears you in pieces.
The God of the Bible is a God that will tear you up.
Now look, is God a God of love?
Absolutely.
And you know where people get wrong doctrine is when they don't balance what the scripture says.
And here's the thing.
People always say the Bible contradicts itself.
You know why they think that?
Is because the Bible is balanced.
So the Bible talks about love over here.
It talks about hate over here.
And then they're like, oh, the Bible's contradicting itself.
No, the Bible's giving you a balanced view.
The Bible talks about the love and mercy and compassion of God over here.
And then God's like, I'm going to tear you in pieces.
And then they're just like, well, this is a contradiction.
No, no, no.
It's just we're getting the full spectrum of who God is.
And by the way, every preacher who preaches the truth gets accused of contradicting himself.
Because the only way to not get accused of contradicting yourself is to just be all the way overboard on some extreme.
Like here's the thing.
Joel Osteen doesn't contradict himself.
Because it's just all positive all the time.
Everything's good.
God loves everything.
Everybody.
Everything's great.
Good God.
Good sin.
Cold hell.
He's consistent.
The man, you must admire his consistency.
You can be consistent.
Or you could just be some foaming at the mouth.
God hates everybody.
Westboro Baptist.
God hates you all equally.
So if you go to these bizarre, radical extremes, then it's like, you know, simplistic, simple-minded people like that.
But you know, actually, things are more complicated than that.
And so the Bible's a complicated book sometimes.
No, certain things in the Bible are simple and easy.
The most important things are easy.
But there are things in the Bible that are deep.
And what God's doing is he's giving us a balance.
He's giving us balance.
So there are a lot of scriptures on the love of God.
And there are a lot of scriptures on the wrath of God.
And the wise man will accept both.
Embrace both.
Preach both. Love both.
And not just want to go to one extreme or the other.
But rather balance everything the Bible teaches.
Synthesize everything the Bible's teaching.
And believe and practice all of it.
Yes, God loves us.
Yes, God is of great mercy and tender compassion.
And he's very pitiful.
And he loves us.
And the very hairs of our head are numbered.
And we're more precious than many sparrows.
And he captures all our tears in a bottle.
But you know what?
If you mess with him, if you reject him, he's going to tear you in pieces.
Same God, folks.
It's not a contradiction.
It's just which side of him are you on?
You better get on the Lord's side.
Or you're going to get toe up.
All right?
So the Bible says in verse 22,
Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.
And to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God.
A couple ways to interpret that last verse.
One of them is that if you order your conversation aright,
then basically God's going to save you as in, like, in your life.
Not talking about necessarily spiritual salvation.
But he'll save you out of all your distresses.
He'll save you out of tribulations and trials that you're in.
Like, for example, when Peter's sinking and he says, Lord, save me.
He's not talking about going to heaven.
It's just get me out of this jam that I'm in.
But then also you could apply this to spiritual salvation as well
when it says, him that ordered this conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God.
You know, when you see people that are sincere and doing a lot of good things,
God will actually reveal salvation to that person.
Because, like, look in the New Testament. Look at Cornelius.
Cornelius is a good guy. He's sincere. He's given money to the poor.
His heart's in the right place. So what did God do?
God sent somebody to give him the gospel.
And we see that in scripture.
And then the Bible says in John chapter 3 that people who do truth come to the light.
So people that are nice people, sincere people, are more likely to get saved
than people who are just kind of rotten people.
Now, both can get saved.
But, you know, God is going to reach out to those people that are sincere
and at least show them the salvation of God.
And hopefully they'll accept it. You know, hopefully they'll see that.
So, you know, there are a few different truths that you could get out of that. Verse 23.
But this is another great psalm that just shows us, you know, God's power, his might.
It's for the whole world. And, you know, to his people, he's got some rebukes for them.
And then for the wicked, he just says, don't even start because you're not even worthy of even quoting scripture unless I tear you apart.
So he's got strong words for both. Okay. So God's a consuming fire. Amen.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
And we thank you so much for all the things that you've revealed to us.
We're really living in an exciting time, Lord. Living in 2020.
It's such a blessing to be alive right now because we've got your word.
We've got every word. We've got the King James Bible translated into our language.
We can read Genesis to Revelation. And we know a lot about the physical world.
We've got nature testifying of your glory. We've got the written word testifying of your glory.
And we have a great door that's just open where we can just freely in America give the gospel and preach to the lost.
Lord, help us to take advantage of these opportunities because we know that unto whom much is given of him shall much be required.
And, Lord, you've given us so many blessings.
Help us not to just sit around doing nothing, but help us to get out and do great works for you and accomplish things for you.
And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Okay, everybody, let's sing one last song before we go this evening. Go ahead and pick up your song book.
And we'll sing song number 116, He Leadeth Me. Song number 116.