Boy, this story is about a man named King Josiah. Let me just bring you up to speed with the story, in case you're not quite familiar with where we're reading.
But, there's a man named Josiah, and in 2 Kings 22, 1, at the beginning of this chapter, this young man, Josiah, becomes king of Israel. Now, he's only 8 years old when he begins reigning in Israel.
Now, who here is 8 years old? Is there anybody here that's 8? Is Andrew 8?
7.
7? So that's probably the closest that we could get in this room. Right here, Andrew. Can you imagine Andrew becoming the President of the United States?
I mean, I know he's very mature for his age. I know he's dressed to start this morning. I mean, he's dressed like he could be the President.
But, can we imagine him taking the reigns of a great nation at the ripe age of 7? Probably not.
But, this man Josiah, he was 8 years old when he began to reign. His father died. His father was a very wicked man named Ammon.
Ammon died, and boy, this is the next in succession, this 8-year-old boy.
You know, it's amazing. You read through the Bible, and many people who live a very wicked life end up dying young.
Because it's just the self-destructive nature of sin, the self-abuse of living a sinful life.
And so, this man Ammon died at a fairly young age, and Josiah becomes the king.
Now, for one reason or another, Josiah, unlike his wicked father Ammon, decided that he was going to serve the Lord with his life.
He decided that he didn't believe in all the idols and demons that his father worshipped.
You know, his father had filled the temple of God with idols. He had desecrated the house of God, the Bible says.
He brought idols into the temple. He had torn off, you know, he had melted down different gold and silver, just to use for money.
And destroying the great temple of God, which was overlaid with gold and so forth.
He worshipped Satan, literally. The Bible teaches us his father Manasseh and him, they used enchantments, the Bible says, and they were demonic.
And Satan worshippers. But for some reason, one reason or the other, this man Josiah said,
Josiah said, you know what, I'm going to serve God. I'm going to worship the true God, Jehovah God.
And actually, in verse number one, I think maybe it had something to do with his mother, because his mother is mentioned.
It says, and his mother's name was, and so forth. And so, I bet, let me just throw this in.
It's not even part of my sermon, but a lot of people will get a divorce, and they say, well, my husband or my wife is so wicked.
God says in the Bible, in I Corinthians 7, I believe, that if you have an unbeliever and a believer, married together, and they have children, it says that the children can turn out right.
It says the children are holy, because it only takes just one parent who says, I'm going to serve God, I'm going to love the Lord, I'm going to raise my kid right, and to make him turn out right.
One of my heroes, Dr. Jack, the late Dr. Jack Hyles, who passed away five years ago, his father was a drunk, unbeliever, who went to hell.
An abusive man, a wicked man, he beat up his mother, he beat up, you know, brother Jack Hyles when he was a young boy.
But his mother, I mean, literally, he beat her to where her teeth were knocked out of her mouth, at one point.
He knocked teeth out of her mouth. But she said, no, I'm going to raise my son right for the Lord.
And of course, he grew up to become a preacher that influenced millions.
Now, this man Josiah, when he was 26 years old, so he was eight years old when he began to reign, he grew up, and when he was 26 years old, he said, you know what?
We're going to clean up God's house. We're going to go to the house of God, and we're going to kick out all the garbage and all the trash.
We're going to fix it. We're going to repair the breeches. We're going to put this gold and silver back. We're going to make it nice the way it is.
We're going to get rid of the idolatry. We're going to destroy the idols, and we're going to get back to worshipping the Lord.
But in the process of this, a man named Hilkiah, who was the high priest at the time, went into the temple, and as they're cleaning up just the debris and all the garbage,
they're taking down all the filthy posters and trash in this place, and they find a book, the Bible says.
They look at this book, and they didn't even know what it was. And they took out this book, and they said, you know, I found this book.
And Hilkiah takes the book, and he starts to read the book. Now, man, this is the high priest.
But because of two wicked kings in a row, the Word of God is just not regarded any more hardly at all.
Even the preacher doesn't even have a copy of it. The priest doesn't even have a copy of the Bible anymore.
But Josiah is saying, no, we're changing things. We're going to serve the Lord.
And so he finds this book, and Hilkiah just starts reading this book. It turns out the book was the Bible, of course.
And he starts reading this book, and boy, he starts getting scared, and he's reading it, and it just amazed him what he read.
And it worried him, and immediately he knew it was God's Word just from reading it.
So he takes this book, and he takes it to St. Phan the scribe, and he says, you need to read this book.
Look what I found. And they sit down, and they read it. I mean, the whole thing.
And boy, St. Phan is just shocked by what he reads.
And he says, you know what, we need to bring this to the king. We need to get this to the king.
So they bring it to King Josiah, and they stand before Josiah, and they read him all the words of the book.
Now, obviously, they didn't have the 66 books. We're talking more about the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy.
And they read it for King Josiah. And when he hears it, the Bible says he stands up, and he literally just wrens his clothes.
I mean, he just rips his clothes in half. He just tears his clothes and rips them up, because he's just so upset, not angry at what God is saying.
He's just so disgusted with how far they had drifted from what this book was about.
But I remember when I first read this. I think I was 16 when I first read this, when I first read the Bible cover to cover.
And I read this, and the story just gripped me when I read this story, because I saw something.
I saw a book that was so powerful that somebody just found it in a heap of rubble and started reading it.
And it just immediately gripped them. It immediately convicted them.
It immediately was brought all the way to the king, where it changed a nation, this book right here.
And the thing that stood out to me, just as a 16-year-old boy reading this passage, was just the awesome power of the Word of God.
The power of God's Word. And that's what I want to preach to you this morning. The power of God's Word.
I want you to turn to Psalm 29, if you would. Psalm 29.
Now, of course, Psalm 119 is a chapter that's all about the Word of God.
Every single verse is referring to the Word of God, and we've talked about that many times, how it uses these seven other words for the Word of God.
And they're introduced in the first seven verses, and how there's seven times the word meditation is mentioned.
And it's mentioned twice in the section that starts with the letter M, which is a whole eight verses about meditating and memorizing the Bible.
That was something that we preached recently. But this chapter right here is one that I love, Psalm 29.
Because this chapter is all about glorifying the Word of God. It's about describing the awesome power of God's Word.
Look at this, if you would. Psalm 29, verse 1, the Bible says,
Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength.
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.
Boy, I love the book of Psalms. I remember as a child, I didn't really take the book of Psalms very seriously.
I thought, oh, it's just a bunch of songs, you know, a bunch of songs and different things.
I didn't see what a heavy doctrinal book this is, and what a great, probably the greatest book of the Bible.
The book that Jesus quoted from the most, I'm sorry, the book that the New Testament quotes from the most is the book of Psalms.
Constantly throughout the New Testament, quotes from the book of Psalms, quotes from the book of Psalms.
But, you know, the thing that you see over and over in the book of Psalms,
and you might even say, maybe it's a little repetitive, how it's just constantly saying, praise the Lord.
And, you know, that's become just a statement that people use. They say, oh, praise the Lord.
You know, almost like a cliche or just something that they say in slang.
But that is actually a command. And a lot of people don't really realize that praise the Lord is a command where God is saying,
listen, praise the Lord. I want you to praise me.
Did you know that the most common command in the entire Bible is the word praise? It's not thou shalt.
It's praise. More often than any other thing in the Bible, God has commanded you to praise him.
He's saying, I want you to praise me. What does it mean to praise me?
Does that mean that we come to church to say, oh, Jesus, you know, and we have a praise worship service?
No. Praising God. And we're going to look and we're going to see right here, just in one of the 150 Psalms, what God means by praising him.
Now, this is all throughout the Psalms. Many different ways this is explained.
But God says, I want you to tell me how great I am. That's what praise means.
That's exactly what praise means. To tell, if I praise my children for something good, I say, man, you did a great job.
Let me tell you what a great job you did. That's praise.
Now, God is saying, give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, given the Lord glory and strength, give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.
Quit robbing God of the praise that he deserves. Give him credit for what he does.
You know, I remember I preached a sermon. I think this was the first time that the McCoys were here was when I preached a sermon.
I saw the Lord high and lifted up.
And you know, that's exactly the problem with our society, that we see this low view of God, a small God, as we talked about a few weeks ago.
I want to see the Lord high and lift up. Then I'll praise God and I'll give him the glory that's due to his name.
But then he goes on in the next seven verses to use a phrase, the voice of the Lord.
It starts out by saying, listen, we're going to give God the glory that's due to his name.
It's about time that we praise the Lord for all his righteous acts and so forth.
And so immediately the transition, he says, let's praise the word of God.
That's the best way we can praise God, apparently.
And he goes into this seven verses on the voice of the Lord.
And in these seven verses, he mentions the phrase seven times, the voice of the Lord.
Look at verse number two again. I want to show you this really quickly.
It says, given the Lord the glory due unto his name, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Now, before I get into these seven phrases on the voice of the Lord, I want to say,
and this is not really part of the sermon, but I want to say that God wants us to worship him in the beauty of holiness.
Now, that phrase is used throughout the Bible, the beauty of holiness.
What does it mean? Well, I was thinking about beauty. What does the world consider beauty?
They've got their fashion models. They've got their fashion stars. They've got the movie stars.
They have the beauty queens and the beauty pageants. And what is it?
It's a bunch of filthy trash. It's a bunch of people who are dressed wrong.
They're wearing something that's way too tight. They've got makeup all taped on so they look like a hooker and so forth.
And that's what the world considers beauty.
But God says, you know, I have a little different mentality about what beautiful is because I think it's beautiful
when I see a woman who's dressed with holiness.
He says, you know, I'm not impressed by some sleazy woman.
I don't think that's beautiful. And you know, by the way, a godly man is not impressed by that either.
And girls, the way that you dress, think about who you're trying to attract.
Are you trying to attract some stinking worldly whoremonger with the way that you dress?
Or are you trying to attract someone who loves the things of God, who thinks what God thinks is beautiful?
You know, there's nothing more beautiful than a woman who's dressed in a modest dress.
That's beautiful.
A woman who has decency, who's clean and decent is a beautiful thing God's saying here.
But look at verse number three here.
The Bible says, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters.
The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon many waters.
Listen, just listen to the word of God. This is such a great book.
The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
Now, majesty, what does that mean?
Majesty is talking about something that's just very beautiful, very grandiose.
Boy, isn't the Bible written in such a majestic style?
Isn't the good old King James Bible written in such a beautiful language and majestic style?
You know, I was thinking about this, how the Bible has been kicked out of the public schools for about, I believe, 50 years now.
They've kicked out the Bible out of the public schools and said, this book is not permissible in the public schools.
This one might be, but this one's not.
Anyway, I was thinking about all the books and I went to public schools so I know about this.
I can tell you the books that are there.
They've got all the books on Islam.
They've got all the alternative religions that they're trying to teach.
They taught us about the different, you know, Asian religions.
We learned about the Tao Te Ching and we learned about the Quran.
Do you remember books that promoted homosexuality in the library of the public school?
I've seen it.
It was about my daddy's friend.
My daddy has a friend because he divorced my mom and he's a stinking faggot.
That's what the book was about.
You know, I thought about other books that they wanted us to read like The Grapes of Wrath and Catcher in the Rye,
books which have a lot of profanity and cussing in them.
And by the way, kids, don't let them push you around.
I don't know who goes to public school here,
don't let them push you around in public school, man, because I said I'm not reading this stuff.
I said I refuse to read it and they gave me other books to read
because I took a stand and said I refuse to read books which have profanity
and books that blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ.
I said I refuse to read it.
I don't want to push you around.
And so I was just thinking about all the books.
I was thinking about the National Geographic magazines that were there,
a National Pornographic magazine where it was just lined up.
There's every issue with all the nudity and filth that's always been in that magazine
since it was produced in the late 1800s to show pictures of naked women in Africa and so forth
because somehow they're not quite human, which is just racism and evolution being taught there.
And I was just thinking about all the literature.
I was thinking about all the historical books that the public school teaches
and they say these are the classics, this is what you need to learn about.
But the one book that has shaped human history more than any other book,
even if you don't believe the Bible, you must admit that this book has influenced the world
more than any other book that has ever been around.
This is just the best selling book is the King James Bible.
There's no book in the world that has sold more copies than the King James Bible.
This is the book that even the worst atheists must admit that it's a historical book.
It is a piece of history. It's a beautiful piece of literature.
Even people who hate God must admit that the beautiful majestic style
of the King James Bible is worthy to be studied.
Even the most liberal historian knows that this is a source for very sound historical information
at the very least. And yet why in the world can you not find this book in the library of a public school?
You can find anything else, but you can't find this book. Why?
I'll tell you why. Because they're afraid, because they're scared.
Because they know about the awesome power of the word of God
and they're afraid that if this got in the hands of someone who says,
I believe this book, it would spread like wildfire.
It would destroy all their garbage about evolution and humanism and the queers and everything.
It would destroy what they're trying to teach.
You know, the public school just has an agenda of wanting to control people.
Hey, look, if you don't want to control people, then why don't you just put it all out on the table, sir?
If you're going to put all this alternative out, you talk about diversity, isn't this diversity?
This is sure different than what you're teaching.
Sounds like it's pretty diverse, the King James Bible.
Why don't you put it out there so that you can give people a choice and say,
you can choose whether you believe this book or you believe what we're teaching you, but you have a choice.
But they're not about choice. They're not about freedom.
They're about censoring out the King James Bible.
That's insane. It's ridiculous.
It's all about controlling people.
It's all about saying you're going to think the way we want you to think.
And this just doesn't fit in all the world's books.
Well, yeah, all the world's books fit in because they're all written by the world
because they're all written by man.
Somehow this book just doesn't quite fit in with their library.
It just doesn't really fit into their Dewey Decimal system.
And so they say, you know what?
We just don't have a place in the alphabetical by author section under G.
We just don't want to put one under God, the Holy Bible, because this is a powerful book.
Look around the world today and look where this book is not allowed.
Would you want to live there?
Look where this book has never influenced people.
Is that where you'd like to live?
Look where Christianity has never been a major religion.
Would you like to live there right now?
Would you like to live in Communist China today?
I have an idea.
Why don't we go move to the deep, dark jungles of Africa somewhere
where they don't have this book?
Would you like to go there?
Would you like to be in North Korea right now?
Do you want to go live in Japan, which has a suicide rate higher than anywhere else in the world?
Would you like to go there?
Do you want to go there where they work 16 hours a day
and then they blow their brains out because they're not successful enough?
Look around.
Look at the place where you want to live, the United States of America, which said in God we trust,
which quoted the Bible and the founding fathers and their documents.
This is where you want to live.
Where's the next place you'd probably want to live?
Which you used to believe this book?
You don't want to live in these places that say we hate the Bible, we hate God.
You don't want to live in Russia today.
You want to live where this book is because God blesses this book, and it's a powerful book.
But back to our text here in Psalm 29, if you're still there,
I want you to see this in Psalm 29, verse number 5, the Bible says,
The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars.
We're talking about the greatest, mightiest tree in the world, the cedar tree.
These trees live to be thousands of years old.
Giant, robust, kind of a mean looking tree.
And boy, God says, I'm just speaking, I can just snap one in half,
and in the next verse he says,
He maketh them also to skip like a calf,
Lebanon and Syrian, like a young unicorn.
The voice of the Lord divided the flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness.
The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve,
and discovereth the forest,
and in his temple doth everyone speak of his glory.
You know, the public schools, I'll tell you why they don't want this book in there,
because they want to keep people in darkness.
They don't want the glorious life of the gospel to shine in,
and illuminate people, and give them the truth,
because they know that Jesus said,
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
And they don't want people to be free.
But the next thing I want to point out is this verse right here,
where it says in verse number nine,
The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.
What is that talking about?
That's talking about, it's talking about animals giving birth.
It's talking about, hind is a deer, I believe.
The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.
What does that mean?
It means that this book produces new life.
This book brings forth a new creature, brings forth new life.
God's word is what saves the lost sinner who's on his way to hell,
and gives him eternal life,
and begets him into God's family as a child of God.
You know, I heard a preacher say not that long ago,
It's not a book that saves you, it's Jesus that saves you.
And boy, I've heard this spreading across America like wildfire, this garbage.
It's not a book that saves you.
You know what I'd like to say to that preacher and any other preacher who says that?
Hey sir, are you stupid in any other area?
Is that the only area that you're stupid in?
And let me tell you why.
Number one, that is blasphemy to call this book a book.
Just think about the flipping attitude of that statement.
It's not a book that saves you, it's Jesus that saves you.
There is no Jesus outside this book, because this book is Jesus.
But let's just examine his statement.
It's not a book that saves you.
Look, this isn't a book!
This is THE book!
This is the Holy Bible!
This is God's word!
We're not talking about a book.
You know, number two, Jesus is the book.
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
Without him, I'm sorry, all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
And then we read down that great passage in John chapter one, we get to John 1 14 where God says,
And the word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
We looked at him as of the only begotten of the Father.
Who did we look at? The word of God.
Who created the world?
Jesus Christ, the word of God.
Well, I don't remember Jesus being mentioned in Genesis 1.
Well, yes, he was mentioned, because the Bible says,
And God said, that's the word of God right there, and God said,
Let there be light, and there was light, and so forth.
That's the word of God, because everything God ever has done,
everything God is doing right now, and everything that God ever will do,
he does through the word of God.
Let me read you some verses about how Jesus Christ is the word of God,
and I want to show you this. This will amaze you.
Look at Revelation chapter 19.
I think you'll be amazed by this.
This is a discovery that I made when I was 16 years old again,
the first time I read through the Bible.
And I saw this, and it just blew me away when I saw this.
And maybe you've already seen it, but this is something that I discovered
reading through the word of God.
Revelation 19, verse number 11, I want to show you this.
Give you a second to turn there.
Revelation 19, 11, the Bible says,
And I saw heaven opened.
Boy, what a great passage this is.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse,
and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True.
Now, I want you to notice those two words.
Maybe even underline them in your Bible, if you don't mind doing that,
but it says,
He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True.
That's what this man who's riding on a white horse.
His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and in righteousness he did judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.
And he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself.
And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.
And his name is called the word of God.
The word of God is riding on a white horse here,
the second coming of Jesus Christ.
He's the word of God.
But what was he called? Faithful and True, right?
That was the name that he was called.
His name's called the word of God.
He's also called Faithful and True.
Verse number 14 says,
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses,
clothed and fine and white and clean.
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword,
again a reference to the word of God,
that with it he should smite the nations and shall rule them with a rod of iron.
And he treadeth the winepress of the fiercest and wrath of Almighty God.
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Now, turn to Revelation 21, two chapters forward.
Revelation 21 5, and I want you to see this.
Here's Jesus Christ, the second coming.
You've got to get this in your mind.
He's riding on a white horse.
He's coming back.
He's got the saints with him.
He's got us with him.
He's clothed in white linen, the Bible says.
He's got a sword coming out of his mouth.
That's talking about the word of God coming out of his mouth,
because the Bible says the word of God is quick and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
But look at this.
Faithful and true, he's called.
Look at Revelation 21 5.
And tell me you don't see this correlation here.
And he that sat upon the throne, that's God talking, said,
Behold, I make all things new, and he said unto me, Right,
for these words are true and faithful.
These words are true and faithful.
So not only is Jesus Christ the written word of God who became the living word of God,
he said he's faithful and true, and these words are faithful and true.
You see the correlation there?
These words are true and faithful.
Now look at the next chapter, Revelation 22 6.
You're going to see it again.
So first he said these words are true and faithful.
Now look at Revelation 22 5.
I'm sorry, 22 6.
And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true.
And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to his servants,
the things which must shortly be done.
He said there's a man riding on a horse, Jesus Christ, in the flesh,
the bodily second coming, the return of Jesus Christ.
It says his name is called the word of God, and he's faithful and true.
And then he says these words are true and faithful.
And then the next chapter he says these sayings are faithful and true.
Don't tell me that Jesus and the word of God are divorced from one another,
that they're dissociated.
Jesus is the word, friend.
Jesus is the word.
Now we could go many other places with this,
but I don't understand this doctrine that's going across America
and all these people are changing, all these churches are changing,
where they don't believe that Jesus is the word of God.
They believe that the word of God is like a book about God.
We're talking about independent fundamental Baptists
who don't believe that Jesus is the word.
I remember the first time I heard of this.
I was 17, the first time I ever heard anyone did not believe,
because I've been reading this Bible since I was a little kid.
I got saved when I was six years old.
I read the Bible my whole way up,
and I just read the Bible and said that the word and Jesus are the same thing.
It says there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one as your Trinity right there.
Then you go to Matthew 28, he says,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
So I said, okay, we've got the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
We've got the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
That's the Trinity.
The word is Jesus.
I remember when I was 17, the first time I heard of this,
somebody didn't believe this.
I said to my dad,
I said, Dad,
this guy doesn't even believe
that Jesus is the word of God.
My dad's like, is he even saved?
How could he not understand this basic doctrine of the word of God?
I'm just saying that was my dad's reaction,
because he was so surprised that somebody didn't believe this.
But now it's like you're almost nuts if you believe that.
Isn't that amazing, how things change?
Well, I'm glad the Bible doesn't change.
That's why I'm not going to change either.
I could go on and on,
and I could show you in John chapter 6,
I've preached a whole message on this before.
I could go into John chapter 6 and prove to you that the words
that Jesus speaks out of his mouth was the word of God.
So first of all, it's a stupid statement
because it's blasphemous to call this book a book.
Number two,
Jesus is the word of God, sir.
And number three,
there are so many verses in the Bible
that say that the word of God is what saves you.
There's so numerous.
I wrote down a few just for the sermon.
There are so many.
There are more verses in the Bible
that flat out say the word of God
saves you
and Jesus saves you.
And we know that Jesus saves you, of course.
But all through the Bible,
I mean from the Old Testament through the New Testament,
God is saying that the word of God saves you.
Try on a few of these for size.
How about this?
Being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible,
by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever.
We're born again by the word of God.
Look at Romans 10-17.
So then faith cometh by hearing,
John 5-24, the verse that was shown to me
when I got saved as a six-year-old boy.
This is the verse that was used to win me to Christ.
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word,
that's step one,
and believeth on him that sent me
has everlasting life
and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life.
Step one, hear the word of God.
Step two, believe on Jesus Christ.
Step three, you're saved.
James 1-18,
of his own will begat thee us
with the word of truth.
That's how Jesus begat us.
He begat us with the word of God.
The sower sows the word.
The word is God's word.
The Bible, that's what it says.
The parable of the sower, the word of God.
John 8-30,
as he spake these words,
this is the whole verse,
just kind of a short verse in the Bible,
as he spake these words, many believed on him.
Wow, it's a powerful verse.
I can see why the Holy Ghost said,
end that verse right there,
because that's enough.
That's enough of a statement right there.
As he said these words, many believed on him.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it,
liberal Baptist theologian.
So, of course, everything God has always done
with his word,
salvation comes through the word of God.
The voice of the Lord
maketh the hinds to calf,
brings forth a new life,
and discovereth the forest,
back in Psalm 29,
and in his temple doth everyone speak of his glory.
The Lord sitteth upon the flood,
yea, the Lord sitteth king forever.
The Lord will give strength unto his people.
The Lord
will bless his people with peace.
Let's look at that last verse for a second.
Psalm 29-11, the Bible says,
the Lord will give strength
unto his people,
and the Lord will bless his people with peace.
Where are you going to get strength in the Christian life?
You're going to get it from the word of God.
You know, you hear the word comfort a lot.
You know, people finding comfort in the word of God.
The Holy Spirit is called the comforter.
He's the one that comforts you.
But it's interesting, and I just learned this recently,
but the word comfort,
did you know that the word comfort
actually has an immediate of strength?
That's why it has the word forth in it,
like a fortress.
It's interesting, I never thought of it that way.
You know, you think of comfort as like,
there, I've struggled up to it.
But comfort has the word forth in it.
Comfort is when you have the strength
to make it through
the tough times, through sorrow,
through heartache, through grief.
You get the comfort from God's word
that gives you the strength to keep on going.
You know, what about peace?
What about peace in your life?
Not necessarily the
external peace that everyone wants to have
where you always get along with everybody all the time.
But where God says
the peace that's in your heart,
the peace that passes all understanding,
it comes from God's word.
That's where you get the peace, not this inner turmoil
of an inner struggle,
of you don't know what to do,
you're confused.
No, you can find some peace
from the word of God.
But what's this sermon all about?
Here's what the sermon about.
You know, we took a little time and just saw the glory of God's word.
We just examined
the power of God's word.
We saw a nation transformed
where we first started reading.
Just because somebody found the Bible
and got it out and said,
we're going to do this.
We could have gone on and seen how the whole nation was transformed.
But how do we apply this to our lives?
It's great to know that the word of God is great.
It's great to just praise the Lord as He commanded us to do
and to praise God's word on a Sunday morning
and preach a sermon like this.
But you know, one day
you've got to come to the place where you realize
that this isn't a book.
This isn't a book about God.
This isn't a book about the things of God.
This book is
the word of God.
This is the powerful,
sharper than a two-edged sword
word of God.
And I remember when I finally realized one day,
I said, you know what?
There's no word in this book that's misplaced.
There's not one word that's been
mixed up this way or that way.
There's not one word missing or added to.
That's literally what God is saying.
And I realized,
and I don't know how to explain this to you,
but I just want to get this point
across to everybody. I want everybody to see this.
How these words
have power.
It's not just the concepts.
It's not just the stories.
It's not just the ideas.
It's not just the truths that are presented here.
It's not just the story of the Gospel.
It's not just the idea of God
and Jesus Christ and everything.
These actual words
have power.
Boy, when you go soul winning,
use God's Word.
This is where the power is.
Your fancy explanations
and your illustrations,
as good and helpful as they may be,
that's not where the power is.
This is where the power is.
This is the power of God.
Boy, you can't get over the sin in your life?
Memorize the Bible.
Learn the Word of God. That's where the power is.
You have to understand
that this book is so powerful.
You cannot fill your mind with this book
and not have your life
be radically changed.
You can't read through this book cover to cover
and not be never the same once again
because this book is the most powerful
book in the world.
It's THE book. It's God's Word.
Let me ask you, have you read it?
Have you read it in the last 24 hours?
God's Word?
I'm not asking for an actual answer, Solomon.
It's called a rhetorical question.
Have you read it in the last 24 hours?
Have you read it in the last 7 days?
Have you read it to your children?
You say, how do I make my children turn out right?
Why don't you get some of this power hooked up?
Hook up some of this power
and I think we'll have the power
to turn out some kids for God.
This is where the power is.
You say, well, I'll bring them to church.
Well, that's great, but you know what?
This is where the power is, is in this book right here.
That's what I preach.
I've heard preachers that bore you to tears.
They're just so boring.
You want to just...
I don't know. I'm not going to say it, but
it's just so boring
that you're just ready to die because you can't handle it.
But even just the most boring preacher
I found if they used a lot of Bible
I enjoyed the sermon
just because I just enjoyed hearing God's Word.
Because it's a powerful sermon sometimes.
Even from the most
dead preacher
it's just the Word of God is the power.
And I've heard other guys
get up and wax eloquent
and they yelled
and they stopped and they spit
but there wasn't the power
because it wasn't
the Word of God that they were preaching.
It was a lot of
dressed up, a whole lot of nothing.
The Word of God is where the power is.
This is where the substance is. Read it.
Live by it.
Memorize it.
Put it up, the Bible says, all over the walls of your house.
Write it down and put it up.
I've got it right here.
I've got the Word of God right here. I've got my verses right here.
Live by it.
Meditate on it day and night.
This is the power of the Christian life
right here in this book. Let's bow our heads and pray.
Father, we love you
and thank you so much that we live in America
and that we have this copy of the book
so readily available. We don't have to dig it out
somewhere like
Hilkiah and Shaphan had to dig it out
and revive it.
But Father, we can get it at 7-11
just about anywhere.
And we've got the King James Bible in our hand,
the very words of God.
Father, help us to realize the power
of the book that we hold in our hands.