This is a great chapter, but the part of the chapter that I want to focus on is just at the very end there in verse 17 where the Bible reads,
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
Now the Bible is making it clear in that verse that no enemy can defeat us.
As it says in Romans chapter 8, it says in Romans chapter 837,
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
It says in Romans 831, What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
And so the Bible is clear, no enemy can defeat us from the outside.
No weapon that is formed against us can prosper when we're on the Lord's side.
It says in Matthew 10 28, you don't have to turn there, it says,
Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.
But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body and health.
You see, there's only so much that our enemies could do to us.
There's only so much that we can lose in this life, and none of it really matters.
Because what can they do? They can kill our body, they can take away our money, they can defeat us,
But the Bible teaches that we're on the winning side, nothing can take that away from us.
But look at you at Mark chapter 5, because I want to preach this morning about this subject, self-destruction.
You see, if we're going to be destroyed today, if we're going to fail in our Christian lives,
If our church is going to fail, or if I'm going to fail personally, it's only going to be because I've destroyed myself.
The devil's not going to be able to destroy me, enemies and persecutors aren't going to be able to destroy me.
The only person that can destroy me, the only person that can destroy you is yourself.
Now, I want to show you first of all the self-destructive nature of the devil.
He walked about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
But really God does not allow him to do everything that he could with us, as it talks about in the book of Job.
And really what he'll do is he'll try to get us to destroy ourselves. That's his method.
Look at Mark chapter 5, there's a guy that was possessed with a devil, it says in verse 1,
And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him, out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit,
Who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no knot would change,
Because that he had been bound often, often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him,
And the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him.
And always night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs,
Crying and cutting himself with stones.
But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him, and cried with a loud voice,
And said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high God?
I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not, for he said unto him,
Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. That's a common theme throughout the Bible.
When you see people who are possessed with a devil, or as we would call it in today's vernacular,
Demon possessed, they're always destroying themselves.
They're always hurting themselves in some way.
This guy is cutting himself with stones.
There's another story in Matthew 17 verse 15 that says,
Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and so are vexed.
For oft times he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
And it talks about how he's possessed with a devil, possessed with a ninth-day spirit.
And he keeps throwing himself into the water, and throwing himself in the fire.
That other guy was cutting himself.
The prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18, when they're crying out to their God,
they're basically cutting themselves, and opening themselves up, and hurting themselves.
And this is something that even people today are involved in.
There are people who cut themselves, and mutilate themselves, and destroy themselves.
And it comes from the devil.
And that's his method, is to get you to destroy yourself.
He can't destroy you, but he can get you to destroy yourself.
Look at the book of Job, if you would.
Go to the very center of your Bible, you'll find the book of Psalms.
And then just go back a few pages, you'll find the book of Job.
You see, God has given us promise, after promise, after promise,
that we're on the winning side.
We cannot be defeated from the outside.
It says, for example, in Proverbs 24, 15,
Lay not wait, O wicked man,
you turn to the book of Job,
against the dwelling of the righteous.
Spoil not his resting place,
for a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again,
but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 2, 14,
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ,
and make it manifest the saber of his knowledge by us in every place.
It talks about in Exodus chapter 1,
where the children of Israel were captains in the land of Egypt,
and they were afflicted with slavery and hard bondage.
But the Bible says in verse 12,
But the more they afflicted them,
the more they multiplied and grew.
And they were grieved because the children of Israel.
They couldn't stop them, they couldn't destroy them.
They tried to beat them into submission,
they tried to enslave them,
they tried to hurt them and punish them,
and it said that they made their lives bigger,
with rigorous bondage,
but they could not defeat them,
and the more they afflicted them,
the more they multiplied and grew,
because God was blessing them,
because they were worshipping God.
And so we cannot be destroyed from the outside,
and the devil knows that,
and so he wants us to destroy ourselves.
Look if you would at, where did I return?
Job.
The book of Job, chapter 1, verse 20.
This is after the devil has gone to God and said to him
that Job is only serving him because everything is going Job's way,
and as soon as things start to go against Job,
then he'll curse him to his face and so forth,
and God's telling Satan that he doesn't believe that.
So it says in verse 20, this is after basically
Job has lost all his money, he lost all his business,
he lost all his servants,
and he lost all of his children, they all died.
It says in verse 20,
Then Job arose and rent his mantle,
and shaved his head,
and fell down upon the ground and worshipped,
and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb,
and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave and the Lord have taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
So even though he was just attacked by the devil,
all of his ten children killed,
his business gone, all of his money gone,
all of his wealth gone,
he did not sin.
He's still left standing at the end of it.
He doesn't have any money, he doesn't have anything,
but he said, You know what?
I came into this world with nothing,
and I'm going to leave this world with nothing.
Praise God.
But look at chapter 2, verse 1.
It says, Again there was a day
when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord,
and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou?
And Satan answered the Lord,
and said, From going to and fro in the earth,
and from walking up and down in it.
And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered my servant Job,
that there is none like him in the earth,
a perfect and an upright man,
one that feareth God and is she with evil?
And still he holdeth fast his integrity,
although thou moveth me against him to destroy it without cause.
And Satan answered the Lord, and said,
Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh,
and he will curse thee to thy face.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand,
but save his life.
So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord,
and smote Job with sore boils
from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
I mean we're talking about just a horrible illness
all over his body, boils on his body.
And listen to how bad this was.
And he took him a potsherd,
this is basically like a broken piece of pottery,
he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal,
and he sat down among the ashes,
then said his wife unto him,
Does thou still retain thine integrity?
Curse God and die.
But he said unto her,
Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaking.
What, shall we receive good at the hand of God?
And shall we not receive evil?
And all this did not show sin with his lips.
He said, you can flip over to chapter 13 in the book of Job.
Just a few pages to the right, chapter 13 verse 15.
You see the devil is trying to destroy Job,
but he can't destroy him.
I mean he can take away all his money,
he can take away his business,
he can make all his friends hate him,
he can turn his wife to where she tells him,
Curse God and die.
He can afflict his body with boils and sores all over
to where he has no health,
to where he's sitting in an ash heap,
scraping his wounds.
But the only way that the devil could destroy him
is if he could get Job to destroy himself.
But he did not sin, he held fast his integrity.
Job predicted that if he did all this stuff to him from the outside,
that he would curse God through his face,
and he never did.
Look at chapter 13 verse 15.
This is what Job said.
Though he slay me, yet will I trust him,
but I will maintain my own ways before him.
Go to chapter 23, just a few pages to the right.
Chapter 23 verse 8.
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,
and backward, but I cannot receive him.
On the left hand where he does work, but I cannot behold him.
He heighted himself on the right hand,
that I cannot see him.
But he knoweth the way that I take
when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot hath held his steps.
This way have I kept to not decline,
neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips.
I have esteemed the words of his mouth
more than my necessary food.
I mean, here's a guy who has gone through worse things
than any of us will probably ever go through,
and he's standing there saying,
I will not turn to the right hand of the left,
I will not be moved, though he slay me,
yet will I trust him, and when I am tried,
I will come forth as gold.
And of course, who wins here?
Job wins.
Now he gets to the end of his life,
and of course God gives him back everything that he lost,
and gives him even more than he lost,
but what if he hadn't?
He still won.
Go to Hebrews chapter 11.
You know why he won?
Because he retained his integrity.
You know why he won?
Because he didn't back down.
He didn't go into sin.
He didn't listen to the people around him,
but he stood for what was right under the end,
and yes, God blessed him,
but even if God hadn't blessed him,
he still won the battle.
Look at Hebrews chapter 11.
I'll show you another great example.
This is of course the list of all the great people of faith
of the Old Testament,
and it says in verse 32,
What shall I more say?
For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon
and of Barak, not Barak,
and of Samson, and of Jephthah,
and of David also, and Samuel and the prophets,
who through faith subdued kingdoms,
wrought righteousness, obtained promises,
stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness,
were made strong, waxed valiant,
and bite, turned to flight the armies and the aliens.
Women received their dead, raised to life again.
Now those are all powerful stories of victory,
and God doing all these miracles,
and people who won great victories,
and they won battles,
and they defeated enemies,
and they wrought righteousness,
obtained promises, subdued kingdoms,
stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire.
But then look, he changed his gears in verse 35.
He said others were tortured,
not accepting deliverance,
that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Now that doesn't sound very victorious.
I mean, that's not something exciting
that you want to happen.
He says in verse 36,
And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourges.
Yea, that's a beating.
Scourging is when you're beaten with a whip.
Yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder,
were tempted, were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins,
being destitute, afflicted, tormented,
not in fancy clothing,
not having wealth and power for us great.
And many of these people,
we don't even know their names today,
like we know many of the Bible characters.
But it says in verse 38,
Of whom the world was not worthy.
And that's God talking.
And he says,
They wandered in deserts and in mountains,
and in dens and caves of the earth.
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith,
received not the promise.
God having provided some better thing for us,
that they without us should not be made perfect.
Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with soap.
We also are compassed about with a great clap of witnesses.
Let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which does so easily beset us.
And let us run with patience
the race that is set before us.
Look, all throughout the Old Testament,
we have great stories of victory.
But then we have a lot of stories about people who,
as the world would look at it, failed.
You know, they were in prison.
They were beaten.
They were killed.
They were stoned to death.
They lost everything.
They were poor.
They wandered around in messed up clothing,
not having a place to live.
But you know what?
The Bible is clear here.
They all were winners.
They all were victorious.
You know who the loser is in the Bible?
It's people like Balaam who sold out
because he loved the wages of unrighteousness.
It was a preacher like Balaam
who preached what people wanted to hear
for financial gain.
That's the loser, my friend.
The loser is the one who sells out.
The loser is the one who,
when there's a time of affliction or persecution
or trouble, by and by,
they fall away because they have no root in themselves.
That's what it means to be a loser.
It's not about how much money you have.
It's not about how much earthly success you have.
It's not about how much people love you
and praise you
and lift up your name as being great.
It's not about how successful you are
in the world's eyes.
Your success is determined upon
whether you stood up
and refused to allow the devil
to get you to destroy yourself.
I mean, no one can defeat you.
You can't lose.
When it comes to being a Christian,
when it comes to the crystal mic,
you cannot lose
unless you decide to destroy yourself.
You can't be defeated.
I mean, what can anyone do to you?
The Bible listed here.
They could torture these people,
but they couldn't get them
to change what they believe.
They could persecute them.
They could throw them in prison.
They could beat them.
I mean, when the apostles were beaten
in the book of Acts,
they rejoiced.
And they stayed with what they believed,
and they stood up for it.
You cannot be destroyed.
You cannot be defeated.
Even if you fall,
even if you make mistakes,
the Bible says that just man falls seven times
and rises up again.
But the way that you're going to be defeated
in your life if you are defeated
is by destroying yourself.
It's by destroying yourself.
Go to Hosea toward the end of the Old Testament.
You have the Minor Prophets,
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah,
all those short books
at the end of the Old Testament.
Look at Hosea,
chapter number 13.
You see, most of the time
when you look at someone
who fails in life,
and when I say fail,
I'm not talking about they lost their job.
That doesn't mean you failed.
You fail when you lose your integrity.
You fail when you become dishonest.
You fail when you quit on God.
You fail when you quit church
and quit reading your Bible
and quit solely,
and you're the only one
who can make the decision to do that.
Nobody can take you out of church.
Nobody can stop you from reading the Bible.
Nobody can stop you from serving God.
It's you that'll just quit doing it
and destroy yourself.
When I say fail,
I'm not talking about losing your job.
I'm not talking about losing your house.
I'm not talking about losing your friends.
I'm not talking about losing your popularity.
None of those things make you a failure.
Many of those things are just trials and tribulations
that you're going to go through in your life
that God's going to put you through
or Satan's going to put you through.
None of that stuff means that you failed.
When you failed is when you quit.
When you failed is when you give in.
It's when you sell out.
That's what it means to fail.
And only you can do that.
It says in Hosea 13, 9,
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself,
but in me is thine help.
He's saying, look, you have destroyed yourself.
Don't try to blame someone else.
And when you quit church
and when you quit serving God
and when you quit reading your Bible
and when you quit praying
and when you quit solely,
you can't blame anybody and say,
well, it's his fault.
It's her fault.
No, it's your fault.
You've destroyed yourself.
You say Pastor Anderson destroyed me.
I can't destroy you.
You say my mom and dad, they destroyed me.
They spanked me with the bell.
They should have spanked you more with the bell.
It's like, oh, they destroyed me.
They ruined my whole life.
Oh, my husband destroyed me.
My wife destroyed me.
My children destroyed me.
No one can destroy you.
If God be for us, who can be against us?
No one can defeat you.
No one can destroy you.
You are unstoppable.
You say, well, they can kill you.
It doesn't matter.
They can kill you
and you've still won the battle
if you retain your integrity.
No one can defeat you.
If you are defeated, if you fail,
it's because you destroyed yourself.
That's what the Bible's clear.
You see, the Bible says in Proverbs 19, verse 3,
the foolishness of man perverted his way
and he friended against the Lord.
You know, our own foolishness perverts our way.
Perverted just means crooked.
You know, it basically, our way,
the Bible talks about trust in the Lord with all thine heart
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct thy paths.
Job said he knoweth the way that I take.
When I am tried, I shall come forth this gold.
But sometimes we get off of that way
that God has us on.
You know, God has a path and a way set for us
and we get off that path.
Our way becomes perverted or our way becomes crooked
and we turn to the left or we turn to the right
as Job talked about.
And the Bible tells us that it's our foolishness
that causes us to get off that path.
It's the foolishness of man that perverted his way
and then the next phrase says this,
and his heart fretted against the Lord.
Basically, then we blame God.
You know, we screw up our own life
and then we fret against the Lord and say,
you know, God's not fair.
I can't believe God allowed this to happen.
You know, it's his fault.
It's not God's fault.
You've destroyed yourself.
It's the foolishness of man that perverts his own way.
Look at first...
I'm sorry, let me find my place here.
Look at 2 Kings, chapter 6.
2 Kings, chapter number 6.
2 Kings, chapter 6.
And while you're turning there,
I'll read you another verse.
In 2 Peter 3.16, the Bible...
Actually, let me turn there
because I want to get the context to this.
You know, some people...
Let me just step in and go up
in a different direction for one second here.
Some people question the Bible.
Like, they question whether all of the Bible
is really written by God, is really inspired by God.
And I remember I even run into people before
that tried to say, well, you know,
the Old Testament is totally inspired by God,
but the New Testament is written by man.
Or certain books, you know, the Epistles of Paul,
that's just kind of his opinion or whatever,
but these books are from God,
or they'll try to maybe pick and choose.
Like, I know those who practice so-called Judaism,
they say, well, only the first five books
are really inspired by God.
You know, and they don't even believe those books anyway
because the Bible, Jesus said,
if you believe Moses, you believe me.
You know?
So there's no such thing as those who believe Moses
but not Jesus Christ.
But anyway, people try to attack
certain books in the Bible.
And I like what Paul said.
What was that verse he showed me, brother David?
I think it was I Corinthians 14, where he said,
if any man among you think himself to be spiritual,
let him acknowledge that the things that I write under you
are the commandments of the Lord.
But he says in II Peter chapter 3,
I'll read this for you.
This is Peter talking about the Apostle Paul, okay?
And he's talking about the fact that
some people are, it seems, questioning
or struggling with a lot of things
that Paul wrote in his epistles.
And it says in verse 15,
an account that the longsuffering of our Lord
is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul,
also according to the wisdom given unto him
that's written unto you,
as also in all his epistles,
speaking in them of these things,
and which are some things hard to be understood,
which they that are unlearned and unstable rest.
Now, what does it mean to rest?
Rest means basically to twist something, okay?
He says they twist it,
as they do also the other scriptures
under their own destruction.
Ye, therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before,
beware lest ye also be led away
with the error of the wicked
fall from your own steadfastness,
but grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
and be glory both now and forever. Amen.
So what's he saying?
He's saying that basically a lot of people
were choking on a lot of the stuff that Paul
had written in his epistles,
because some of it was hard to be understood.
And it said those that were unlearned and unstable
were twisting them.
But notice what he said,
as they do also the other scriptures.
So he's calling Paul's epistles the scriptures here.
And the Bible says all scriptures
might be my inspiration of God.
So this isn't just a letter that somebody wrote.
No, these are the scriptures.
These are God's words that Paul was pinning down.
And here's evidence here from the Mount
of the Apostle Peter explaining that.
But he says here that they rest
and twist these scriptures unto their own destruction.
Unto their own destruction.
You know, when people twist the word out,
and a lot of times people will not like something.
Why is my child wandering out the back door?
Somebody take care of that?
You know, a lot of times when people twist
what the Bible says, because they don't like what it says,
maybe there's a commandment in there
that they just don't want to follow.
So they find a way to twist it.
They find a way to rest it.
You know, you think of wrestling, right?
You know, you're twisting around.
You know, trying to force something
to say something that it doesn't really say.
But you know who really is the one who loses there?
It's them.
They destroy themselves.
He says when people twist the Bible,
they're destroying themselves.
When some church down the street twists the Bible,
they're not really hurting me,
because I still believe the Bible.
I'm still standing up for what's right.
I'm still teaching my family what's right.
I'm still preaching under this church what is right.
They're destroying themselves.
They can't destroy me.
They can't destroy you.
And sometimes we get so wrapped up,
and you know, I'm all for pointing out
the errors of others.
I'm all for exposing.
I mean, the Bible's filled with that,
where they list, I mean, Paul listed off,
you know, Alexander, Hermogenes, Philetus,
Phygelus, Diotropy.
They list off all these false preachers
and explain the false doctrine and exposed it.
But you know what?
I'm not going to spend my life fretting
and worrying about what some phony preacher
is preaching and spend my whole life on that,
because you know what?
All he's doing is destroying himself.
You know, and when people come to me and say,
well, I don't think the Bible really says,
you know, the Bible actually says,
and they try to twist Scripture,
and they just won't face clearly what the Bible says,
it's really no skin off my back,
because they're just doing it under their own destruction.
It's not going to destroy me.
You know, I preached this sermon on Sunday night,
and, you know, some people didn't like what I was preaching
and came up to me afterward and told me so.
And you know what?
It really doesn't matter to me.
I really don't care,
because this book said the same thing
before I started preaching,
and it said the same thing when I got done preaching,
and everything I had preached was straight out of this book,
and if people don't like it, they don't like it,
but it's not going to defeat me.
It's not going to destroy me.
Hopefully that person will get right with God
and realize that the Bible is more important
than their opinion in what they think,
and their doctrine is not on par with God's doctrine,
and if they don't like it,
then it's going to be to their own destruction,
it's going to destroy their life,
that attitude of just not going by what the Bible says,
resisting what the Bible says.
It's not going to destroy me.
It's not going to hurt me.
It's not going to destroy you.
You can only destroy yourself when you twist the Scripture.
You're destroying yourself.
When you go out and pervert your way and quit on God,
you will destroy yourself
when you bring an accusation against God and blame Him
for the things that are going wrong in your own life.
But see, that's the devil's method.
He'll try to get you to destroy yourself,
and we live in a self-destructive society.
Go to Proverbs chapter 1.
Have you ever noticed how people,
when they begin to turn against God,
begin to live a self-destructive life?
You know, you look at a lot of people who live a wicked life.
Have you noticed how young they die?
You know, you look at people
who are wicked and rebellious against God,
and you notice how young they die.
You know, they're constantly drug-overdosing or drinking.
You know, you think of Jimi Hendrix,
who died choking on his own vomit.
You know what I mean?
I mean, that's not a very glorious way to die.
Nobody destroyed him.
He destroyed himself.
He's breaking himself into a stupor
and choking and dying on his own vomit.
That's how he died.
You know, you look at the world,
and you look at the way that they live,
the self-destructive lifestyle of just binge drinking
and drugs and just mutilating their flesh
and just unhealthy food that they cram down their throat
and just the way that they live
is a self-destructive way that they live.
And the devil loves that.
I mean, he wants you to destroy yourself.
Whenever he possesses people
and they have these people that are demon-possessed,
what do they do?
They're throwing themselves in the water.
They're throwing themselves in the fire.
They're cutting themselves with stones
and wounding themselves and hurting themselves.
And you know as well as I do
that those things are still out there today,
and they still exist today.
Why?
It's of the devil.
It's not of God.
The Bible never teaches this doctrine.
In fact, it even commands us.
Because somebody pointed out,
well, there's people in the Bible who cut themselves
that were, you know, and they were supposed to do that.
No, that's not a biblical doctrine.
He says this.
Because there were people in the book of Jeremiah,
people had died, and they cut themselves
to mourn for the dead.
Okay?
In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 16,
it talked about that,
and it talked about that in Jeremiah, chapter 41.
But guess what?
Just because somebody did something in the Bible
doesn't make it right.
Because there's a commandment in the book of Leviticus
that says,
you shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead.
And that's what they did in Jeremiah.
They cut themselves because they were depressed or something.
And he says,
thou shalt not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead,
nor print any marks upon you.
I am the Lord.
He says, don't print marks on your body.
That's a tattoo, by the way.
And don't cut your flesh.
Do not destroy yourself.
Do not harm yourself.
The Bible never teaches to destroy us.
And by the way,
that's why it's important that you have a King James Bible.
Now, we live in the day of the Bible of the Month Club,
you know, and the Bible's constantly changing,
and new Bibles are constantly coming out,
these new Bible verses,
and people say, well, they're just a little easier to understand.
Oh, no.
It's much more insidious than that, my friend.
They are out there to pervert and change
and corrupt and rest the Scriptures.
If you look at these versions and look at the changes,
they are strategic changes.
I'm going to show you one change before we do Proverbs 1.
Go to 1 Corinthians 9,
because this has to do with my topic this morning on self-destruction.
Let me see if I've got the NIV in my book here,
the non-inspired version.
And let me tell you something.
All of these new Bibles,
okay, I've got the NIV in my hand,
but really I could have pulled out,
I could pull out the New American Standard,
I could pull out the Living Bible,
I could pull out Good News for Modern Man,
and it's all going to be,
it's funny, they'll all agree,
and then the King James is the one that's always different.
You'll find 25 of these words,
they all say the identical thing,
and it's wrong,
and then the King James will have it right.
But I'm just using the NIV as an example.
We could do any of these versions, pretty much.
But look at 1 Corinthians 9, verse 27.
And this is also a great scripture
just on not destroying yourself,
not messing up your life,
because look what he says here.
He says in verse 25,
he's using an illustration of sports.
And he says in verse 24,
Know ye not that they which run in a race...
So he's talking about running track.
He says, they which run in a race run all,
but one receiveth the prize.
So run that ye may obtain.
And every man that striveth for the mastery
is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,
but we are incorruptible.
So he's talking about people competing in athletics,
and they're temperate in all things.
That temperance is self-control.
They basically control what they eat.
They're on a very strict regimen
of when they get up in the morning,
when they go to bed at night,
their exercise routine is set in stone,
and they're temperate in all things,
and they do it to obtain a corruptible crown.
They do it for the crown, the trophy,
the gold medal, the silver medal, whatever it is.
And he says, but we are incorruptible.
Verse 26,
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly,
so fight I, not as one that beateth the air,
but I keep under my body,
and bring it into subjection,
lest that by any means,
when I have preached to others,
I myself should be a castaway.
So basically he's saying that
just as an athlete has to basically control their body
and control their mind and control their spirit
in order to win,
they have to be temperate in all things.
They have to train and work harder.
I mean, I think people that compete in the Olympics,
I think it's just pretty much a full-time job for them
leading up to it.
I mean, that's just all they do.
I mean, they just train and work on that,
and their whole life is revolved around that.
And what do they get for it?
You know, a piece of metal that basically
the streets are going to be paved with one day with gold,
and they think it's so precious and so valuable.
Is it really even totally made of solid gold?
You've got to be kidding.
So after all that work and some gold-plated thing,
that should be real.
I mean, isn't that a real hunk of gold?
You know, given hard times,
you can sell that thing on a board or nothing else.
Hey, it's what, 1,600 bucks an ounce or whatever.
So they do it for that corruptible crown,
and Paul said, you know, I'm working for a greater gold.
I'm going for a greater crown up in heaven.
I'm doing it for an incorruptible crown.
And so he said, like they are temperate in all things,
like they have their life and their body under control,
he says, I keep under my body.
And bring it into subjection.
What does subjection mean?
Well, think about kings have subjects, right?
Subjection means basically that you're under control.
You're not the one in charge.
He's saying, my body is not the one who's in charge.
I keep under my body.
Under what? Under my authority.
Under my control.
And I bring it into subjection,
lest that by any means, when I preach to others,
I myself should be cast away.
He's saying, I don't want to get up and preach to everybody
how they're supposed to be living for God,
and then I end up quitting.
I end up being cast away, as in, you know, God's through with me.
I'm not being used by God anymore.
I'm not talking about losing his salvation.
I'm not talking about being thrown on a desert island somewhere.
He's just talking about the fact that he's just no longer being used by God anymore.
After he's preached unto others, he ends up being a failure.
He ends up, why?
Because he didn't keep his body under control.
Because look, who's the enemy today?
Is it some outside enemy that can defeat me?
We already talked about it. He can't.
Is it the devil who's going to defeat me? He can't.
Who is going to defeat me?
It's going to be me that defeats me.
I am my own greatest enemy.
And Paul said, the flesh, the body, the lust of the flesh,
it's the appetites of my body that's going to get me to the point where I'd be a castaway.
It's me that's the enemy.
It's not an outside enemy.
I can only destroy myself if I'm going to be destroyed.
But watch how the NIV and all modern versions corrupt this passage beyond belief.
It says in the NIV here, let me turn there quickly.
I'm on the wrong page here.
In 1 Corinthians 9, it says in verse 27,
you look down at your real Bible there, the Kings 8 Bible, it says,
No, I beat my body.
Okay, did you hear that?
The NIV says, I beat my body and make it my slave
so that after I've preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Now wait a minute.
Why is the NIV telling you to beat yourself?
Now look, God never told you to cut yourself.
God never told you to beat yourself.
God never told you to destroy yourself.
It's always the devil who is getting people to destroy themselves.
Throw yourself in the water.
Throw yourself in the fire.
Cut your own flesh.
Lance yourself like the prophets of Baal at the Mount of Carmel with Elijah.
Destroy yourself.
Beat yourself.
And you say, why does it say that?
Well, they changed the NIV last year.
They changed this verse.
Here's the thing.
They change it all the time because it's all about making money.
So they have to keep updating the copyright.
So they have to keep changing it all the time.
So the NIV that you buy at the store today
is not even the same as the one you bought a couple of years ago.
It's just constantly changing.
And the new NIV, they've changed it now.
You say, did they fix this?
Did they stop telling you to beat yourself?
Oh no.
Here's the 2010 NIV.
No.
I strike a blow to my body.
So I mean, now they're really spelling it out.
At first they're just like, beat yourself.
Now they're like, strike a blow to yourself.
Strike yourself.
He says, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave.
So that after I preach to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Now I've preached on that before and somebody, they sent me an email,
you know, ha ha ha ha, Pastor Anderson.
You're so ignorant.
You know, I get these kind of messages a lot.
You're so ignorant, Pastor Anderson.
Did you know that, I went back to the Greek,
and the Greek word is hypopiezo.
And they said, that's talking about beating like a boxer,
punching like a boxer.
That's what that's talking about, beating yourself.
Now, here's what's so ridiculous about that.
And first of all, this person who emailed me this, they don't speak Greek.
They couldn't even order a gyro sandwich in Athens
if somebody put a gun to their head to do it.
You know what I mean?
They couldn't even count to 20 in Greek.
And all these preachers get up and they go back to the Greek
and they rest the scriptures.
They twist the scriptures by going back to the Greek
and they're going to tell you what it really means.
Because they looked it up in Strong's Concordance.
Wrong's Concordance, you know.
They looked it up in Wrong's Concordance.
This is what it says, I looked it up.
And it says, to hit under the eye,
buffet or disable as a pugilist.
To hit under the eye.
To tease or annoy into compliance, to subdue or keep under.
So it lists like four definitions.
One of them is keep under, like the King James says.
One of them is subdue, and one of them is to punch someone in the eye.
So I guess, as part of these people,
we're supposed to punch ourselves in the eye.
What kind of garbage is this?
But they say, no, if you go back to the Greek.
They don't speak Greek.
They're basically just trusting what that book says.
Now look, I'm not going to stand up here
and claim to be fluent in the Greek language.
But even if you don't speak any Greek,
it's pretty easy to figure out what this word means.
Hypopiezo.
Now look, the word hypo,
does anybody know what hypo means?
H-Y-P-O, that prefix.
Who's a scientist?
Who likes, what kind of people really like science?
Those who love science, what does hypo mean?
Let me give you a hint.
It's like a reduction or a lesson.
Exactly, a reduction or a lesson.
Because let me give you an example.
Hypothermia means your what?
Under-eated, like thermal, like thermal underwear,
like a thermos, okay?
So hypothermia means you're under-eated.
What is hypotension?
Hypotension is low blood pressure,
as opposed to hypertension, which is high blood pressure.
So we can go on and on.
Hypo means under.
It's pretty clear.
Now I know the word piezo
because I work in electronics.
I own a fire alarm business.
And I deal with piezos all the time.
In fire alarm.
Now piezo means pressure.
It's a prefix also.
Like a piezo meter is a meter that measures pressure.
Okay?
So basically, hypo piezo is just press under
or keep under pressure.
That's what it means.
I mean, piezo is when something is compressed
or under pressure.
So they're just saying,
oh, Pastor Anderson, if you go back to the green...
And they put these Greek words
that they don't even know what they are,
just to make it seem like they did some kind of research.
Translation, they know how to look things up in a dictionary.
They know how to find the age section in their day, you know?
And see, this is the thing about the Internet, too.
It's like it makes people think
that they're a lot smarter than they really are.
Like they haven't really read or done the research
or learned anything or traveled anywhere,
but they just found it on the Internet
that that's what it means, you know?
So hypo piezo means to punch under the eye.
So Paul here is talking about beating himself up.
But no, if it's hypo piezo,
it obviously means press keep...
How about this? Keep under.
Hey, that's what the Bible originally said.
Hey, we just wasted the last five minutes
talking about it in a foreign language
because the Bible had it right the first time,
to keep under my body.
It's not telling you to beat yourself up.
And I've heard preachers say,
you know, it's like a boxer will buffet himself.
When was the last time you saw a boxer beating himself?
Who here hasn't done any boxing before?
Weren't you usually beating the other guy?
You know what I mean.
What are you doing?
I'm training for a big fight.
I'm trying to cover myself up.
What a bunch of nonsense.
It's garbage.
You say, why would it say that, Pastor Anderson?
Why would it say I beat myself?
Because, look, it's not by accident.
It's an agenda.
I can show you about 25 things right now
at the top of my head in this book
that supports Roman Catholic doctrine.
That's why.
That's where it comes from.
Because all you got to do,
I can show you where it changes it.
It takes out the word firstborn in front of Jesus
in Matthew 1,
where it says that Jesus was her firstborn son.
Because guess what?
Mary had at least seven other children,
but they tried to say
that she's still a virgin for all eternity.
That's false doctrine.
Jesus was her firstborn son.
It's taken out.
This book, this NIV takes out the verse
where it says you have to believe
before you're baptized.
In Acts 8, 37.
That's not going to work for baptizing a baby.
It says you got to believe on Christ,
then get baptized.
Acts 8, 37.
You read this book, it goes 35, 36, 38.
Can't even count.
I mean, you go through this,
and you'll see just thing after thing after thing
that just supports and prompts up
Roman Catholic false doctrine.
There are Roman Catholics today
that literally in Mexico and in the Philippines
are two places where they beat themselves today.
They crawl on broken glass.
They crawl on their knees.
You were telling me about your relative,
that it actually crawled on her knees for miles
in the Philippines.
I mean, people have beaten themselves.
They beat themselves with a whip,
and they do all this.
It's a Catholic teaching,
because Catholic is a religion of the devil.
It is about self-destruction,
and it's a lie, and it's false,
and I'm not afraid to get up and say it this morning.
And this Bible is promoting that.
I mean, did you know that in England,
in England, when Henry VIII or whatever it was,
whenever he cast out the Roman Catholics
and made Catholicism illegal,
in the same year, he made beating yourself illegal.
You say, well, why would they have to make a law against that?
You know, that's a dumb law.
I don't think I need that law,
because I wasn't planning on beating myself.
But he said, number one, Catholicism's illegal,
and number two, beating yourself is illegal.
Get all these gay bunch of Catholics out of here.
That's what he did.
You say, are you just against Catholics?
Yes, I am against Catholicism.
Amen.
Any other questions for me?
I mean, I'm not against Catholics.
My wife was raised Catholic until she got saved
and believed in Jesus Christ,
but it's a false religion,
and why are you sitting in a Baptist church,
and you've got a Catholic Bible?
The NIV, or the New American State of Versa,
which come from the Vaticanus manuscripts.
I wonder what kind of manuscript that is.
Vaticanus.
And so we see here that there's an agenda
in these false versions,
and it's to promote Catholic doctrine
and other false doctrines,
and one of them is to promote beating yourself.
Well, the Bible never tells you to beat yourself.
The Bible never tells you to cut yourself.
The Bible never teaches you to destroy yourself.
The Bible teaches you this,
that everyone can be out there to destroy you all day long.
People can lie about you at work,
and, you know, people are going to lie about you at work sometime.
If I asked for a raise of hand,
everybody would probably say at some point
they've been lied about at work.
Somebody's trying to cover their own backside,
and so they lie about you.
I mean, that happens at every job.
It happens all the time.
I could ask them,
people are going to lie about you at work.
People are going to lie about you to other people.
People are going to spread lies about you.
People are going to attack you.
People are going to rip you off financially.
They're going to steal from you.
I could ask for a raise of hands and be like,
oh, that's happened to me.
People are going to physically assault you
by asking who's been physically assaulted.
I mean, a lot of hands would go up.
I've been physically attacked and assaulted.
People are going to beat you.
They're going to spit on you.
They're going to talk bad about you.
They're going to curse you out.
They're going to say all manner of evil against you falsely
for the name of Christ.
They are going to set out to destroy your business,
your life, your family.
The Bible says,
And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
But let me tell you something.
No one can destroy you.
No one.
Oh, they can kill the body.
But according to Jesus, that's not being destroyed.
You have eternal life.
Amen.
We sort of live it and believe it.
The beast shall never die, he said.
They can kill the body.
They can lie about you, but the Bible says,
fear them not, therefore.
He said, they're going to speak evil of you.
But he said, don't be afraid because he said,
there's nothing covered that shall not be revealed
and hid that shall not be known.
He said, eventually the truth will come out.
Eventually, the truth will be exposed.
No one can defeat you.
No one can destroy you.
No one can make you quit church.
No one can make you commit adultery.
No one can make you quit on God and quit on soul.
The only person that can destroy you is yourself.
And if you decide today, you know what?
I will not be destroyed.
As Paul said, he said, I shall not be moved.
As Paul said, none of these things move me.
He listed all the things.
He said, none of them move me.
He said, be steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord
for as much as you know that your labor
is not in the way of the Lord.
Nothing, nothing can make you a failure in life.
You can cross that finish line at the end of your life
with the crown, with first place.
You can win the race.
You can finish all the way to the end,
just like Job did, just like Paul said,
I finished my course, I fought a good fight,
I kept the faith.
You can decide right now,
yeah, I'm gonna make mistakes,
I'm gonna trip and fall along the way,
but I'm gonna cross the finish line.
I will not be defeated, I will not be destroyed.
And if you make that decision, you will win.
You will succeed.
You cannot fail.
But if you do fail, it'll be because of one reason.
Because the devil got you to destroy yourself.
And when you get to the end of it all,
you can say, I destroyed myself.
And you can't blame me,
and you know, people will try to maybe blame me for stuff,
you know, and you know,
I'm sure I've blamed other people for stuff in my life.
You know, that's just human nature sometimes,
to just point the finger at people, you know.
And people like to blame their parents for stuff.
My parents raised me wrong or whatever.
Well, you know what, at the end of the day,
though, you're either gonna be a success,
and I'm talking about by God's definition,
which means you keep your integrity all the way to the end,
or you're gonna destroy yourself.
So this is really an encouraging sermon,
because it tells you that you have the ability to win.
You have the ability to succeed.
You don't have to fail.
You don't have to twist the scriptures
and rest the scriptures
or get some twisted-up Bible and read it and say,
well, I like this one better.
You can stay with it.
You can be here decades from now,
still standing.
Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much
for the encouragement of your word,
all the promises that no weapon
that's formed against us will prosper,
that no one can defeat us,
no one can destroy it,
have God before us,
no one can be against us.
God, please help us to realize
that we are our own greatest, worst enemy.
Help us to keep our body and our flesh under subjection.
Bring it into subjection and keep it under control.
God, help us to endure under the end
and to run with patience the race that is set before us.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, let's sing one song.