Deuteronomy chapter 6, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is actually the part that we've been memorizing.
And so we're going to begin in verse number 4 this morning.
But the Bible reads in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse number 4.
It says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.
And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart,
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house,
and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt find them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes,
and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates.
Now this verse and many other verses that we just read basically are telling us how important the word of God is
and what prominent place it should have in our life.
I mean, God is explaining to us that when we get up in the morning, that should be what we're talking about.
That should be what characterizes our morning, also throughout the day, also when we sit down to eat, also when we go to bed at night.
He said it should be at our hand at all times. It should be written on the walls of our house.
You see, God's word is something that you could never have too much of.
People will try to say, oh, you're too fanatical about Christianity, or maybe it just has its place on Sunday.
You know, on Sunday morning we go to church, Sunday night, Wednesday night, but the rest of the week we just kind of live our lives and do something different.
But God's explaining in this passage that really God's word should be a part of our life all the time.
Every day we should be reading the Bible, and every day this should be the subject matter of our conversation.
And today we live lives about everything else, and then it seems like we might just go to church on Sunday and kind of put on the new man,
you know, get in spiritual mode, when really God is talking about our house here.
God's talking about when we're at home with our children, and He's telling us that we should be constantly reading and studying His Word.
He said we should teach them diligently to our children and talk of them when we sit at our house and when we walk by the way and when we lie down and when we rise up.
How often do you talk to your children about the Bible?
Many people make the mistake of thinking that bringing your child to church is enough to make sure that they're going to learn the Bible.
But yet, they're only in church for, you know, if you only come on Sunday morning, they're only in church for an hour.
You know, and if you come to all three services, they're in church for three hours, but many of them are in the public school system.
They're getting the world's teaching for 20-some hours, 40 hours a week, you know, depending on how much they go.
And then they're watching TV more than three hours in many cases, they're hearing the radio more than three hours,
and you wonder how can people expect a child to live for God and serve God when they spend 90-some percent of the time just taking in the things that this world has,
that are not of God, that have nothing to do with Jesus Christ, and then maybe just an hour or two of the things of God per week by being in church.
Look, it's not going to be enough. And so that's why it's your job, parent, to not just rely upon Pastor Anderson to teach your children the Bible,
but read the Bible with your children. Open the Bible and have a family time of Bible reading, speak about it, explain it to them, talk to them.
You see, long before I ever pastored Faithful Word Baptist Church, I was the pastor of my family.
That's why the Bible even says that in order to be a pastor, it says,
One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity, for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?
The first church I ever pastored was my family. The first preaching that I did was preaching to my wife, preaching to my children, teaching them the Word of God on a daily basis.
This needs to become the culture that we have today as Christians in our home, a culture of God's Word, a culture of preaching, a culture of talking about the Bible,
not talking about everything else and forgetting about the Bible. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 8. You're in chapter 6. Just go to chapter 8.
Just a few pages to the right in your Bible, it says in verse number 1,
All the commandments which I command thee this day, again we're talking about God's Word,
shall ye observe to do, that ye may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,
to humble thee and approve thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or not.
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 does not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord does man live.
He said, look, you don't just need food to survive each day. You don't just need to get up in the morning and just fill your face with food.
You need to get up in the morning and get the spiritual food of God's Word. That's what the manna represented.
That's what it was when they had to get up every morning and go out while it was yet cool.
You know, we know what that means in Arizona.
While it was yet cool, before it was hot, they would get up in the morning and they would go gather the manna off the ground.
And it was food that God rained out from heaven, but they had to get up every morning and they had to gather it,
and that was to teach them a picture of God's Word.
Because in John chapter 6, Jesus Christ said, I'm the bread of life.
He said, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead.
But he said, if any man eat of this bread, he'll live forever. He'll have eternal life.
And he was speaking of God's Word, because he said here, the reason that he fed them with manna
was to teach them that man does not live by bread alone.
Man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord does man live.
And that's what says Deuteronomy 8. Go to Deuteronomy 11.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 11. While you're turning there, I'll give you this from the book of Job.
Job said, I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food.
More than the food and water I need to live. He said, God's Word is more important to me than that.
The words of God's mouth are more valuable to me than a meal.
He said, how often do you skip a meal? How often do you skip a day of food?
When was the last time you went an entire day? And I don't mean like, well, I haven't hardly eaten anything today.
But a whole day without putting any food in your mouth. I mean, that's pretty rare, isn't it?
I mean, you pretty much eat, if you're like, who eats three meals a day like I do?
Put up your hand if you eat three meals a day. What are you guys doing?
It's like 20% of the auditorium. Who eats two meals a day? Good night. You guys need to learn how to eat.
You know, if anything, I'm spilling over to a fourth meal. You know, two meals a day program.
So, you know, three meals a day, right? But how many of you just go days without eating?
Of course not. You eat every day. And God says that His Word is more important than the food you're taking into your body.
And if we could look at some people today spiritually, if we could put on spiritual glasses, no matter how healthy you are,
if we could look at you spiritually based on the amount of spiritual food that you take in, you might be emaciated.
We might see skeletons of just skin and bone walking in today because they've had so little spiritual food.
Imagine eating three times a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night,
and eating nothing between Wednesday night and Sunday morning every week, and eating nothing between Sunday night and Wednesday night.
You could probably survive like that for a long time, you know, just eating a lot on those three meals, but you're going to be emaciated.
You're going to be famished. You're not going to have any energy, and it's not going to last.
Eventually, you're going to fall out, and that's the way it is spiritually.
People who just eat three times a week or even just Sunday morning only, and that's the only spiritual food they're getting
because they're not reading the Bible on their own, that's how they're going to start to look.
Spiritually. And so we need to be sure that we're feasting on God's word here on a daily basis.
Three times a day would be great, but maybe two meals a day for 80% of the auditorium.
Maybe in the morning and at night, do some Bible reading. Start off your day and finish your day in God's word.
Look at Deuteronomy 11, verse 18. It says, Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart.
Now, who knows what it means to learn something by heart? Memorize it, right?
He says, Lay up these words in thy heart, and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand,
that they may be as frontlets between your eyes, and ye shall teach them your children,
speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way,
when thou liest down, and when thou risest down, and thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thy house,
and upon thy gates, that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children,
and the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God,
to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him, then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you,
and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourself.
So he says here that, again, you need to memorize it so that you can talk about it all the time.
Not just a paraphrase, but that you'll actually know what it says, word for word, exactly what it says.
Well, boy, a long time ago I figured out that talking to people about the Bible without a Bible open in front of you is a real waste of time.
Unless you have it totally memorized.
Because I've gotten in conversations with people before that will last like 25 minutes based on them saying,
well, the Bible says this, and then 25 minutes later I say, well, you know, well, let's open the Bible and see if that's exactly what,
and then you open it up and that's not what it said.
And you just wasted like 20 minutes talking about something that doesn't even exist.
Because what people think the Bible says is often different than what it actually says.
That's why it's important to commit it to memory, you know, even just small verses.
And then you can talk about them intelligently, and you can talk about what it actually says,
and what it actually means, because you know what it says, and you know what it means.
You see, we need to teach our children, talk to them, and get them in the habit and the culture of talking Bible all day long.
But not talking about things we don't understand, but talking about things that we've read,
and things that we do understand because we've put these words in our heart and so forth.
God has explained to us over and over how it needs to be a part of our life in such a way that it's when we get up,
it's when we lie down, it's when we eat, it's when we walk, it's when we sit, it's everything.
But hold on a second, he said here that we should bind them, go to verse number, let's see here, let's look at verse 20.
And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house and upon thy gates.
Another place he said, write it on the wall of your house.
Now, it's a great idea to put up verses in your house, that's what he's talking about here.
Just a printed verse, just putting it up on the wall.
Just to put it in a frame, you could put it in a nice writing or a plaque or something, or whatever.
But we have it all throughout our house.
Children's rooms, we have different verses up on the wall, different places,
and other Christians' homes that I've been to where they had verses all over the wall.
I think it's great, I love it.
It's funny because if you do a lot of soul-willing in South Tempe, which I don't think a lot of us have,
but I've been going there myself a lot and I've been knocking on a lot of doors in South Tempe
and there are a lot of Jewish people who live in South Tempe.
And it always cracks me up because God says to write the word of God,
put it on the doorpost of your house, write it on the walls.
And the idea is that you'll see it throughout the day and meditate upon it and memorize it and think about it.
And when you see that verse, you'll think about that.
And it'll remind you of what God wants and what God expects.
But it's funny because these houses down in South Tempe of the practicers of Judaism, Jewish people,
they'll have this little deal on the front door.
Who's ever seen this little diagonal little roll thing on the front door?
Put up your hand real high if you've seen that on soul-willing.
And they've got this little deal and they're Jewish and stuff.
Well here's what's funny.
That's them being a hypocrite and a Pharisee trying to obey this.
Because they put God's word on these little scrolls.
They're so small you can't even read them.
And it's in a language that they don't even know.
And then they roll it into a little scroll and seal it up in a little thing where they can't even read it.
I mean, is that ridiculous?
So it's in some foreign language, so tiny and so rolled up that they can't see it.
That's not what God was saying.
He's not saying mount a Bible to your wall glued shut.
I mean, that'd be like if I took the Bible and just put glue on every page, glued it shut, and then glued it to the wall.
God's word is on my wall, buddy, let me tell you.
The whole thing.
No, he's not talking about just putting it up as a shrine or as some kind of a little emblem.
He's saying, no, put it up where you can read it.
That you may meditate upon it.
That you'll have it in your heart.
That you'll talk about it when it's on the wall.
And so I just wanted to clarify that.
I don't think anybody else could come up with something like that, but it's kind of weird.
But anyway, look at Deuteronomy chapter 17.
Deuteronomy, chapter number 17, where we've been in Deuteronomy the whole time.
Look at Deuteronomy 17, verse 18.
This is talking about the king.
He explains to them that the form of government that he has set up for them is not a kingdom.
It is not a monarchy.
It was a form of government that was under what was called the Judges.
It was the ultimate form of government.
With the God, we would follow it in our day to day.
We could come up with a form of government that would match up with the books of the Bible here.
Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, how they did it under the book of Judges.
But he said, if you do ever have a king, he said, that's not my plan for you.
And when they made a king in 1 Samuel 8, he kept warning them and telling them, don't do it, don't do it.
But he said, if you do, because obviously he knows man's tendency is for somebody to become the king,
for people to rise up and take power.
He knows human nature, the sin nature.
You know, nobody is going to live in the perfect utopia that he's trying to set up for them.
So basically he says, you know, you're going to end up having a king.
He says, when you do have a king, he said, these are going to be the rules.
He said, it needs to be someone who's born in the land. Obama. No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, he literally said, it has to be born here.
He said, it can't be somebody who's from another country.
It has to be somebody who's born in the land.
And it's funny because God constantly said that we should have the same laws for people who are born here and people who immigrate.
He said, everybody should be treated the same.
But this is the only exception.
He just said that the king should be someone who's of your brother and that's born among you.
That was the only different way that he would treat the immigrant from the person who's born here.
One difference.
And then basically he says, that king, verse 18, let's read it together.
It shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priest, the Levites.
And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them.
That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or the left to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom.
He and his children in the midst of Israel, God is saying here that the king was to write out his own copy of the Bible.
Like literally to take the Bible and to copy it out by hand into his own book.
That would take a long time, wouldn't it? That would be a lot of work.
To take the whole Bible and make your own Bible, like copy it out and write out your own copy of the Bible.
But he said, no, I want him to write out a copy of the whole Bible.
And back then that's how they could copy the Bible because they didn't have printing presses that we know of.
And so he would basically write it all out.
And then it says, it shall be with him.
Okay, look at verse number 19.
And it shall be with him.
And he shall read therein all the days of his life.
Now you say, well that's just talking about the king. I don't need that.
No, we do need that.
God said that every day, just like they got the manna, we need to get God's word every day.
And not only that, doesn't the Bible say repeatedly, including in Revelation chapter 1,
He has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion, both now and forever. Amen.
Hey, God has made us kings and priests. We are kings.
We're going to rule and reign with Christ.
We need to read the word of God every day.
And in order to do that, we need to have it with us.
He said it shall be with them and he shall read therein.
Let me give you some ways to have the Bible with you.
Number one, if you have a purse, or a backpack, or a man purse.
If you have a man purse, get out of here.
If you have a backpack, or if you're a woman that has a purse, or if you have some kind of a duffel bag or a tool box.
Yeah, there we go.
If you've got a tool box, put the Bible in your tool box.
Carry it with you. Keep it with you.
And you've got to have a few Bibles.
And they're all King James version, of course, not a couple different Bibles, but a couple of the same Bibles.
Stick it in the tool box. Stick one in the glove box. Keep one in the trunk of the car.
Keep it in your lunch pail. Because you'll find that if you have the Bible with you, you'll read it more.
If you just have one Bible that's enshrined somewhere in your house, you're not going to read it as often as if it's convenient.
God's saying have it with him so that it's convenient.
So that when he's out in the field, if he's out to battle, hey, he's got to have it with him.
Because he's got to read it all the days of his life.
So it's not going to stay at the palace. It's going to travel with him.
If he goes to some other part of the kingdom to rule, if he goes to the house of God,
he keeps his Bible with him all the time that he may read therein all the days of his life.
Keep the Bible with you. Get a pocket New Testament.
Sometimes we have them out on the shelf. I don't know if we have them.
So just grab one quick before anybody else does and take it and keep it with you all the time.
A pocket New Testament. A small Bible like this. Keep it with you everywhere you go.
You might have the opportunity to give somebody the Gospel.
And you're going to want to have God's Word with you. We'll get to that a little bit later.
But keep the Bible with you everywhere and you'll read it more.
I like to have a Bible in every room in my house.
Just if I happen to be in that room, I can just reach out, grab it, just do some quick reading,
do some Bible memorization, do some study, whatever. Just have it everywhere.
And here's the good thing. We live in a day of technology.
Me and Brother Dave were talking about this. I don't think technology is bad.
Show me one place in the Bible where God warns us to stay away from technology.
Show me beware of technology. There's nothing like that. There's no command like that in the Bible.
I think that technology can be used for good or evil.
A lot of our technology is really detrimental to the way that we live.
But our technology can also be used to help us, to use the glory of God.
Here's an example of using technology for the glory of God.
We can get in our car, drive in a couple of hours and be in a small town in the middle of nowhere
and knock every door and give everybody the gospel in our small town soul winning campaigns.
If we didn't have the technology of a car that drives 75 miles an hour,
we wouldn't be able to do our small town marathons where we just hop in the car on a Saturday,
drive down there, give everybody the gospel, hop in the car, drive back.
I mean, technology can be used for the glory of God.
And here's the thing, if you have one of these phones that's got all the bells and whistles, you know, the iPhone,
go ahead and fold that up for us, you know.
So he's got his iPhone. Hey, get the Bible downloaded on that thing, honestly.
Because I'll be at work and I've got the Bible downloaded on this thing
and I can basically pull it up and read it on an elevator in line somewhere waiting for something.
You can pull it out, do some memorization, do a little reading.
And I'm not saying this should replace the physical book, you know, but this could be a supplement.
Or even the Bible on CD, listening to the Bible on CD.
If you can get, you know, Alexander Skirby, I recommend him reading the Bible. He reads it very well.
You can listen to that on the CD. You can read it on this thing with a little technology.
You can carry the book with you. You can carry the New Testament, carry the whole Bible.
Take it with you everywhere you go. That's what the Bible's telling us.
Have it with you and then you read it.
Honestly, a lot of what we don't do in the Christian life is just because we don't plan on it or it's not convenient.
That's why we try to make soul winning so convenient.
We try to offer all different soul winning times.
We try to do it right before church on Wednesday because that's convenient for people sometimes.
Just show up early for church. Or do it on Sunday afternoon when you're already in your church clothes,
you're already down here in this part of town.
Hey, we try to make it convenient. Make it convenient to read the Bible. You read the Bible more.
Read it every day. Have it with you. Learn it. Study it. Know it.
Turn, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 3.
And while you're turning to Proverbs 3, I'll read you Joshua 1-8.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth.
He's saying it's in your mouth all the time.
But thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein,
for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
He says meditate in it day and night.
And here's the thing. You say, oh man, reading the Bible once a year is way too much.
It's not enough. It's not too much. It's not enough.
But here's the thing. Even just reading it through once in a year,
imagine how easy it would be if you have it with you all the time.
I mean, if you have to read four chapters a day to get it done in a year,
which should be a bare minimum, I believe, you know.
I mean, I would love to see our church be able to read it much more than that, you know.
Two, three, four times a year I think is a lot more beneficial.
And really, there's no ceiling on it. Just read it, you know.
But think about how easily you could do that if you just had it with you all the time.
Because you could pull it out and read a chapter when you got some dead time here, dead time there.
You know, you could get those four chapters done pretty easily.
You know, it's about 15, 20 minutes of reading a day.
You could get that done.
And if you have more time than that, then invest more time.
Read the Bible. You can't read it too much.
But Joshua 1.8 said meditate on it day and night.
Look at verse 1 of Proverbs chapter 3.
It says, my son, forget not my law.
So what's the opposite of forgetting?
Remembering it.
He said, hey, get it in your memory. Learn it. Memorize it. Know it.
And also, don't forget it at home. Don't forget the book.
You can interpret that two different ways.
My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments.
For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee.
Remember, truth, thy word is truth, the Bible says in John 17.
And peace they shall add to thee.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee.
Write them about thine neck.
Write them upon the table of thine heart.
So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.
And all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Verses 5 and 6 are really famous verses.
I always tell people when I'm outsoulening.
Sometimes I'll show people John 3.16 when I'm outsoulening.
I'll say, hey, have you ever heard of John 3.16, the most famous verse in the whole Bible?
And most people can quote it for you, right?
John 3.16, they don't believe it.
It's funny, they'll quote it to you and then they'll tell you, oh, you've got to do works to be saved.
You've got to live a good life, go to church.
Even though the verse says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish better than last time.
But I'll tell people, hey, have you ever been in an outburger?
If you flip over the cup and it says John 3.16, just trying to show people how famous this verse is.
Because sometimes that will get people's attention, like, oh, wow, I want to see what that says if it's so famous.
And it'll get their attention, so I use that tactic.
But, you know, if you get a milkshake in an outburger, can I get a witness?
If you get a milkshake in an outburger, it doesn't say John 3.16.
What's it say? Proverbs 3.5.
You know, because this is a pretty famous verse, too, so now I'm getting your attention, right?
Milkshake.
But anyway, Proverbs 3.5 and 6 is a really, really famous verse.
Verses.
And these verses are about trusting God, not leaning upon your own understanding.
But wait a minute, let's get to context.
He said you've got to memorize and know and read and study and keep God's Word with you all the time.
That's where you're going to get the understanding of God.
Because he said in verse 4, let's go back to verse 4, he said,
So shalt thou find favor in good understanding in the sight of God and man.
He says you're going to get understanding from God's Word, from reading it, from memorizing it, from knowing it.
And then he says trust that instead of leaning on your own understanding.
Trust what you read in the Bible.
Trust the understanding that you got from God's Word.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Rather the understanding that came in verse 4 from studying and knowing and reading and keeping God's Word with you.
From binding it about your neck and from writing it upon the table of your heart.
And so God's Word should guide us in our decision making, what we think, what we know.
It should dominate every part of our life.
And so we've got to keep it with us, read it, study it, know it.
Look at Proverbs 16, 23.
Proverbs 16, 23, that was Proverbs 17.
And really there's a ton of scripture in the book of Proverbs about God's Word, God's commandments, knowing God's Word and so forth.
But it says in Proverbs 16, 23,
The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.
Okay, you see that?
If we have God's Word in our heart, notice that whenever he talks about meditating upon God's Word he mentions the mouth.
Like he said in Joshua 1.8,
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scorpion.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law that he meditate day and night.
He said it will be in your mouth, meditate on it day and night, Joshua 1.8.
And he says here,
The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.
God's Word flows from the lips of the man or the woman who has memorized and meditated upon God's Word.
Talk of it, speak of it all day long is what he's saying.
Now let's get some applications on this.
Turn to Romans chapter 10.
Why are some of the reasons why we need to have God's Word such a big part of our life?
That we should be reading it so much?
That we should be reading it with our families?
That we should be reading it by ourselves?
That we should be reading it at work on the lunch break?
That we should be reading it whenever we have that time?
Why is it that it should dominate our lives?
What are some of the reasons why?
Well first of all, we already saw it kept being mentioned over and over.
It's going to help you keep God's commandments.
He said the more you read it and you know it, the more you're going to keep the things which are written therein.
The more you're going to obey and observe and hearken unto his commandments.
That is found in Psalm 119 when David said,
Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
He said I memorized God's Word.
That keeps me from sin.
The more we know God's Word, either through reading or memorization, really we should be doing both.
And by the way, memorization isn't something that's just for some people.
I mean God tells all of us that we should keep his Word in our heart.
So we should all be doing reading and we should all be doing memorization.
You can memorize the verses that we're doing as a church would be a place to start.
But I'll give you another place to start in Romans chapter 10 because even before I even did this,
I'll tell you the first thing I would memorize.
Look if you would at Romans chapter number 10.
It says in Romans chapter 10 verse 9,
That if thou shalt confess... actually look at verse 8. Let's start with verse 8.
But what sayeth it? The Word is nigh thee.
Nigh thee means near thee.
Even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
That is the Word of faith which we preach.
So he says look, the Word of faith that we preach,
the doctrines of salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ that we preach,
it's in our heart, it's in our mouth.
And he says, what is that word?
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach, except they be sent?
As it is written, how beautiful are the feet?
And then they preach the gospel of peace, that bring thy tithes of good things.
But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for as I saith,
Lord, who would believe in our report?
So then faith cometh by?
Hearing.
Faith cometh by what?
Hearing.
Faith cometh by what?
Hearing.
And hearing by the Word of God.
So in order for somebody to be saved, what do they have to do?
Hear.
Hear the Word of God.
And in order for them to hear the Word of God, someone has to preach the Word of God.
And that person is preaching God's Word, not their Word.
He said, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
The person who preaches God's Word to them, then they hear God's Word,
then they believe God's Word, then they call upon the name of the Lord to be saved.
But hold on a second.
Aren't we going to be more effective at preaching God's Word unto people if it's in our heart?
So that's why I would say the first, and that's in verse 8,
the first thing I would do if I wanted to start memorizing verses,
I would memorize all the verses that you use to give somebody the gospel.
Now if different people give the gospel differently and use different verses,
I have a set of verses that I use and it's not always exactly the same with every person I talk to.
Obviously I have different verses that I might throw in depending on the person.
But memorize those verses.
Memorize Romans 3.23, memorize Romans 6.23, memorize Romans 5.8, memorize Romans 10.9,
memorize Romans 10.13, memorize Acts 16.30 and 31, memorize 1 John 5.13,
memorize John 3.16 and John 3.18, memorize John 5.24, memorize John 6.47,
memorize John 11.25-26, whatever verses you use, memorize them.
I walked up to a guy, Brother Ryan was with me,
I walked up to a guy and he's this punk, atheist, young person.
We're near ASU and upset.
You know what I mean? So punk, atheist, know-it-all young person.
So we get to this guy and he's this fool that has said it's hard, there is no God.
And I asked him this question, I said, can I show you how you can know for sure
if you died and you go to heaven, can I show you from the Bible?
And he's like, well, can you do it without the Bible?
And I said, what did I say, Ryan?
Well, give me one word, what did I say, Ryan?
No!
I didn't say it like that.
I told him, I said, no.
I said, no, I can't do it without the Bible.
Because I said everything I believe is from the Bible.
That's the only thing I base what I believe
and that's the only thing I want to preach to you is what the Bible says.
And so I can't do that, I can't show you how to be saved without the Bible.
And I said, the only sense in which I can do it without the Bible
is that I can put my Bible down over here,
and I took my Bible and said it, I said I can put my Bible down over here
and I can just quote the scriptures to you.
But I'm still using the Bible, but it's just going to be from memory.
And he's like, okay, do that.
So I was like, okay.
So I just went through the whole plan of salvation without even using the Bible.
But I was using the Bible, wasn't I?
Because I was quoting all the verses.
So I'm quoting the verses, quoting the verses, quoting the verses,
getting through the whole thing.
And of course he didn't get saved, whatever,
because he was wise in his own eyes.
And hopefully someday he will get saved.
Hopefully he'll realize the foolishness of what he's being taught down at ASU,
that it's all lies.
And then he'll realize that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world
and that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
But he doesn't see that now.
And the word of God is the only thing that's ever going to shine that light
of the glorious gospel to illuminate the darkness of that heart there
that has not glorified the creator and God of the universe for what he is.
So can I do it without the Bible?
No.
But thank God at least I was able to preach unto him the gospel
because I had it memorized.
Sometimes I've been in situations where I didn't have my Bible with me.
Remember how I said like, have it with me.
But you know what?
Nobody's perfect, right?
Sometimes you don't have a Bible with you.
Well guess what?
I can still give somebody the gospel effectively because I've got it memorized.
And if you've got it memorized, but even if you do have the Bible,
sometimes you might be turning and so forth.
Sometimes it's easier to just quote some scriptures without having to turn there.
Maybe somebody doesn't give you that much time
and they just want to hear something fast.
You can just say, well, okay, here's what it says.
And quote it exactly, not your paraphrase, not close.
When I go soloing, I want every verse that comes out of my mouth to be exact,
not a paraphrase, not close.
I want it to be exact.
And so I strive to have it memorized, whatever I want it to speak on,
so that I can preach.
And I've had other people where it's like,
you'll start talking to them and they're listening really well.
And it's like as soon as you start to open this,
they're just like, I don't know if they're afraid of it.
But who's ever had that experience?
Somebody, you'll be talking to them and you'll be quoting all kinds of verses.
But then here, let me show you.
It's like, oh, no thanks.
But then you'll just kind of, okay, and then just keep talking,
keep quoting the same stuff, and they'll keep listening.
It's just something about pulling out the physical book.
It's not that often, but every once in a while you'll get somebody like that.
And so it's just good to have it memorized.
Plus, you're not going to misread it if you haven't memorized.
Sometimes you might just read something and you're nervous.
Well, guess what?
If you're nervous and you haven't memorized, you can still just...
And plus, sometimes you can even hold the Bible like this,
and that way you don't have to read upside down.
You can just kind of say, like, see right there, it says,
and then just quote it to them.
So that's the first place I would start by memorizing,
because let me tell you something.
God's Word, number one, we talked about, hey, it'll help you keep His commandments.
It'll keep you out of sin.
It'll keep you straight.
It'll keep you from temptations and so forth.
But you know what?
God's Word is what gets you saved.
Now, I got saved as a six-year-old boy, and let me tell you something,
it was a result of hearing God's Word and putting my faith in God's Word,
putting my faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ as preached unto me
from the Word of God, the Bible.
Now, many people today will say, you don't need the Bible to be saved.
You don't need God's Word.
You say, why are you preaching on this, Pastor Anderson?
Because I want to make sure that you know,
because I'm pretty much preaching to people that are probably all saved.
I want to make sure that you know, because that's what a church is,
it's a gathering for believers.
There could be unsaved people here, but it's predominantly believers.
And I'm going to say to you that are believers,
if you want to get someone else saved,
whether you're outdoors or soul-willing or just talking to a friend
or you're at work, hey, if you're not using the Bible,
you're wasting your time.
Yes, you are.
You're wasting your time, because if you're not using God's Word,
they cannot be saved.
Now, I'm not saying you have to have the physical book.
You could have it memorized or have the physical book,
but it's God's Word.
Look, didn't I just read it?
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what?
The Word of God.
So where does the faith come from?
It comes from hearing God's Word,
because they're putting their faith in what they heard,
which was God's Word,
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.
There are so many scriptures on this, it's unbelievable.
I mean, just to give you a few.
Okay, how about, I like this one.
I just kind of came across this one.
I think I might have preached this, but I don't remember.
I love Acts 11, 14.
You don't have to turn there.
Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved?
Isn't that a great verse?
Who shall tell thee words?
I'm talking about Peter coming and preaching the Bible.
Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved?
He said the Word of God doesn't save you.
Yes, it does.
It's the Word that saves you.
Amen.
You need the Word to be saved.
He said he shall tell thee words,
not just tell you a story whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved,
or truths or doctrines, no.
Tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
He said in James 1,
And receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls.
He said in the same chapter of his own will begat thee us.
Think about being born again, begotten again.
He said we've been begotten again unto a lively hope of his own will begat thee us with the Word of truth,
that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
He said receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls.
He said,
What did he say?
Let's see here.
And from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith,
which is in Christ Jesus.
But it's got to come from God's Word.
Then you'll have the faith in Christ Jesus after you've heard it in God's Word.
How about this?
Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1.
And while you're turning there, I'll remind you of a famous parable,
the parable of the sower.
Now you remember the famous parable of the sower?
And the sower went out and sowed the seeds,
and as he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside,
and the fowl came and devoured them up,
some fell upon stony places, and so forth.
And then there was the one that fell on the good ground.
Well, in that parable, Jesus explains that
the person that received seed by the wayside
is a person that did not get saved.
Because the seed fell by the wayside, it says,
If any man heareth the word of the kingdom,
this is Matthew 13,
If any man heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not,
then cometh that wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart,
this is he which received seed by the wayside.
Somebody who hears God's Word doesn't really understand it,
doesn't really comprehend it, doesn't get it,
and basically they go away and forget about what they even heard and so forth,
and they don't end up getting saved.
It says in Luke chapter 9, same parable,
it explains the fact that the one that received seed by the wayside,
they didn't believe.
They heard it, they didn't believe it.
And they were therefore, he said, lest they should believe and be saved,
it was snatched away, they didn't believe it.
But guess what?
In the interpretation of that parable, Jesus tells us,
the sower soweth the word.
He said, he that sowed the good seed is the son of man.
And the seed that he sowed was God's Word.
So it's God's Word that did not take root.
It's God's Word that did not germinate into salvation.
He didn't believe because God's Word was catched away and taken out of his heart,
because it's God's Word that's necessary for you to be saved.
Look at 1 Peter 1.23.
It's not by, look, God created this whole world with his Word.
Remember that?
But look at 1 Peter 1.23,
and here's a great verse on the fact that God's Word is what saves you.
And 1 Peter 1, let me turn there myself,
I'm sorry, I got carried away there, didn't turn there.
1 Peter 1.23, it says,
being born again, not of corruptible seed,
remember we just talked about the parable of the sower,
but of incorruptible by the Word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever.
Now, how does birth take place?
How is a life conceived in the womb?
Guess what?
The Bible calls the male counterpart of what takes place in conception,
he calls it what? The seed.
He calls it the seed from the man, you know,
that basically fertilizes the egg from the woman.
And so this isn't a science lesson, but you know what?
That's called the seed.
That's where life is made.
But guess what?
When you're born again, when God creates the new creature,
when God regenerates the Spirit when you get saved,
guess what?
It's God's Word that's the seed.
The seed is God's Word.
And here he says, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
and what is that incorruptible seed by which we're born again?
The Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
Now look at John chapter 8.
John chapter number 8.
You see, this is a heresy that creeps in and it's all over the place.
Right.
This fact that you don't need God's Word to be saved.
Now you'll find it amongst people who maybe just would say
that they believe you need God's Word,
but you'll just notice that when they go soul-winding,
they just don't use it.
Right.
I mean, they're guilty of this.
Yeah.
You know, even if they believe it right on paper,
like the doctrine is right in their heart,
yeah, you need God's Word,
but then you just might see them just sloppily quoting stuff,
but none of it's really God's Word
because it's all kind of paraphrased into their own words.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Amen.
And they're not really using God's Word in their soul-winding.
This was the mistake I made,
and I always believed that you had to have God's Word.
I mean, I didn't have a false teaching on this.
It's just that when I was a teenager,
I was just too shy or embarrassed because I've never been soul-winding,
like to pull out my Bible and start showing.
So I would just try to explain them the Gospel a little bit,
but you know what?
I never got anybody saved until I got out my Bible and started showing them.
You know, that's when I got people saved.
But this heresy is out there,
and I'll just name off one of the big proponents of this,
which is Dr. Jack Scott,
you know, the pastor of the biggest independent Baptist church in America,
and this guy has just been on a crusade about this
to try to get people to think, and he influences a lot of people.
We have some of his followers here in Phoenix.
You know, there are pastors that basically follow him,
and he's their fundamental pope that they take orders from and so forth.
There are a couple pastors right now in the Phoenix area.
You know, there's one that way, one that way.
I don't think there's one that way, but there's one that way.
And so we got these guys that follow this guy,
and he's a real influential guy,
and he's on a crusade to teach people that you don't need God's Word to be saved.
And I've heard it out of his mouth many times, you know,
and this is what's being taught at Howells Anderson College,
and I know that because I went to Howells Anderson College,
and I heard this taught at Howells Anderson College,
that you don't need God's Word in order to be saved.
And this is what they'll go to.
This is their proof text that you don't need God's Word to be saved.
But they won't turn there.
And this is why I said it's so important to have God's Word with you.
Remember we talked about that?
They won't turn there.
They'll just quote it to you.
But they'll quote it out of context.
They won't quote the whole verse.
And a lot of heresies are based on these half verses that get quoted.
Quote the whole verse.
I try to quote, every time I quote a verse, I try to quote the whole verse.
Not just some little thought taken out of context.
I like to quote the whole thing.
Look at John chapter 8 because I've heard this preaching.
God's Word doesn't save you.
You don't need God's Word.
You don't need the Bible.
This is what they said.
It's just the truth that saves you.
It's just the Gospel that saves you.
It's just the truth.
And then they said you should know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
Amen, amen, amen.
You know, all the amens.
The chorus of amens.
From all the idiots who don't know what the Bible says.
And you are an idiot if you say amen to something that you know nothing about.
And I will not apologize for using that term.
The word idiot, you know, I heard a preacher preach one time on being an idiot.
Now, I don't believe in going back to the Greek.
But he went back to the Greek because I guess the word idiot is used like...
He showed every time the word idiot was used in the Greek, you know.
But look, I'm not going back to the Greek.
I'm just speaking English this morning and saying you're an idiot
if you say amen to something that you know nothing about.
Now, I'm all for people coming to church and saying amen.
You know, people have said amen at different times throughout this sermon.
But you know what?
Say amen to something that you understand.
Right?
Say amen because you know the verse that I'm talking about
and you know that I'm applying it correctly
and you know that what I'm preaching is true.
Amen.
That's a good place to say amen.
But not just...
You know...
Amen, amen, amen, amen.
You know, just whatever the pastor says is just an automatic amen.
No.
Know what you're talking about because all those people who said amen
when he said you don't need God's word,
you just need to know the truth and the truth shall make you free,
all the hundreds of amens were from idiots.
And here's why they were idiots.
Because look down at John chapter 8
because let's look up the verse that he was quoting, the half verse,
about you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
It says in verse number...
Oh, let me find my place here. I'm sorry.
It says here in verse number 30...
Let's get to context.
Verse 30.
As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Do you notice anything about that verse?
So wait a minute.
When did they believe on him?
Oh, when they heard God's word.
That sounds like all the other 20 verses that we've just quoted.
When they heard as they heard these words, many believed on him.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him.
If ye continue in my what?
Word.
If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.
What's the first word of verse 32?
And.
This isn't even a new sentence.
The Bible does not say, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
It says, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
But the problem is, when you quote the and,
doesn't that kind of beg a question like, hmm, what's the other half of that and?
So it's easier just to say, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
No, it says, and ye shall know the truth.
But what's the first part of the and?
If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.
And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
Now, does anyone still feel upset that I call people idiots who would say amen to something that they don't even understand?
Because I sat there and heard that and my first thought was like, instead of just,
amen, amen, you know, my thought was like,
you know, John chapter 8, content, okay, God's word, praise, people believe it.
And I was like, this is garbage.
Because don't you think anyone who would have actually turned there would have thought that it was garbage?
Could any saved person look at John chapter 8 verses 30 through 32 and not understand that God's word was what saved here?
No, no saved person is going to look at that and not understand that.
But when you're just up here deceiving and rah, rah,
yeah, it's not God's word, you just know the truth and the truth will make you free.
That's stupid.
It's God's word that makes you free.
And guess what, it's even dumb on another level because he said,
sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.
So according to the Bible, truth equals God's word.
Because he said in John 17, 17, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.
Now let me quickly just give you the downward spiral of heresy.
And I'm going to put my notes away and just break this down for you.
Here's the downward spiral of heresy.
You say, what's the big deal on that?
Here's the downward spiral of heresy.
Step one, step one is to say that any version of the Bible, any version of the Bible is God's word.
Amen.
That's the first downward spiral.
Any version is God's word and can therefore save you.
Now it's funny because there are all kinds of people who if I said, is any version God's word?
They'll be like, no.
Can you get saved with any version?
Of course you can.
Of course.
Is the NIV God's word? No.
And you'll ask them this.
Is the New American standard God's word? No.
But you can get saved from it.
Oh yeah, I mean, brother Anderson, you can get saved from it, okay.
But if it's not God's word, it can't save you.
Amen.
Now look, the only way it can save you is if there's a verse in there that says the same thing as the King James.
Well, yeah, okay.
Because if that verse is right, that verse can save you.
But guess what? The NIV changes every verse.
Look up the Romans road and you will not find one verse that's the same in the NIV.
And if you were to take a verse from the New King James that's exactly the same or grammatically the same,
I mean, it might change doth to does, but it says the exact same thing.
It might change to believeth to believes, but it says the identical thing.
Then yeah, you can get saved. But guess what? Most verses in the New King James are totally changed.
And every verse in the NIV that has to do with salvation that I've ever seen has totally changed.
And John 3.16 from the NIV can't save you because it's a lie.
And you don't get saved by believing a lie. You get saved by believing the truth.
The NIV says in John 3.16 that God gave his one and only son.
That's not true. Therefore, it's a lie.
Therefore, it doesn't produce saving faith in you by believing on God's word.
You know, it's not that hard to understand. And people will call you crazy for saying that,
but then explain to me how else you got these mega churches filled with unsaved people.
Who if you look at their statement of faith, look, don't tune me out right now.
Because a lot of people will just tune me out. I can't believe what this guy is saying right now.
Just calm down for a second. Okay? Just relax. Take a deep breath and just listen to me.
Hear me out and just let God's word guide you on this.
Okay. You got mega churches all over Phoenix. And there's nothing wrong with being a mega church.
It's just that the mega churches around Phoenix seem to all be preaching a different Bible.
Like the NIV or one of these newer versions.
Hey, if there is a great big mega church preaching the King James Version and going soul winning,
hey, that's great and I wish there were more. But let me explain this to you.
You got all these big giant community church, big old mega church, whatever they are.
And if you go to their website or if you go to their statement of faith, it has the right plan of salvation.
It says on their statement of faith that salvation is totally by faith.
It's totally believing on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Because most of these community churches and non-denominant churches, they came out from independent Baptists of the past.
And a lot of them used to be Baptists and they took Baptists off the sign and now they're so-and-so Bible church or whatever.
If you look at them on paper, they will have the right salvation on the statement of faith.
And yet why is it that when we go soul winning, we run into people from those churches all day long that say,
I'm going to heaven because I live a good life or I don't know if I'm going to heaven at all or oh, you could lose your salvation.
I guarantee you, if you go to the statement of faith of most of these mega churches that are the ones that I'm talking about,
a lot of them, tons of them will say, you can't lose your salvation, it's eternal security.
But why is it when you talk to the people, they're not saved?
And you're like, do you know for sure you're going to heaven? They're like, no.
How do you explain that? If the church is right doctrinally on the basics, obviously they're not right on everything.
But if they're right on the basics of salvation, yet like 90% of the people we run into from those churches will come right out and tell you,
I don't know if I'm saved or I think I am because I go to church or I live a good life or you have to be baptized or you can lose your salvation.
Because it's not God's word that's being preached at that church.
It's the NIV or the Living Bible or one of these warped, watered down twistings of what God has said.
And therefore people sit in those churches week after week after week and never get saved.
People don't sit in this church week after week and not get saved.
If people come here unsaved, usually we try to get people saved in that brain.
But you know, we have unsaved people come and guess what, within a few weeks they've either quit coming here or they've gotten saved.
Pretty much, I mean because God's word is preached so much.
You know, King James Bible, salvation made clear, made crystal clear, made simple.
That's why these megachurches are filled with unsaved people because they're not hearing God's word.
Now look, you can disagree with that all you want, but don't tell me that a lie saves.
I don't believe it. I don't believe it for one second.
And so it has to be God's word that saves. It has to be the real thing.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
You know, be justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Hey, that's God's word. That's what brings the faith.
That's where the power is, the power that created this whole world.
The power that saves your soul.
And look, I quoted plenty of scripture to prove it.
But let me just quickly, I'm out of time, let me just blow through the downward spiral.
Step one, any version saves. Any version is God's word.
Okay, that's the first step.
And I've seen this downward spiral carried out in many churches and among many groups of people.
I could give you example after example of this exact spiral.
Any version. Then the next step is, you don't need God's word at all to be saved.
It's just the truth. That's what I articulated a little bit earlier, you know?
Yeah, you know the truth, the truth makes you free. It's not God's word that saves, it's just the gospel.
You can just tell people the gospel in your own words with no Bible and they can be saved.
Just from your explanation of it, in your words.
Nothing to do with God's word, it's just the gospel message that saves.
That's step two of the downward spiral, right?
So step one is, any version is good enough to do it.
Step two is, well you don't even need God's word at all.
It's just the truth of it.
And then step three right here is that, you know what?
You don't even need the name of Jesus.
Literally.
You don't need the name of Jesus, it's just calling upon God.
If you just look at nature and whatever, and just call out to a higher power,
you know, you're saved even if it's not called Jesus to you.
And that's where Billy Graham is at, by the way.
That's right.
Billy Graham says that you can, he said Muslims are saved, you know, they're following the light.
He said Hindus are saved, Joel Osteen said the same thing.
He said he thinks Hindus are saved because they really love God.
Even though it's not Jesus, you know, they're looking up and it's God and the creator and whatever.
And that's the process.
First you don't need the King James or at least a version that is true to the King James
or like it says the same words.
Because obviously there's only one Bible.
Whether it's in another language, obviously it just says the same thing in that language.
Okay, first you don't need the right Bible.
Then you don't need any word of God.
Then you don't need the living word, Jesus Christ.
And look, I've seen that downward spiral and I saw that downward spiral at Heil's Anderson.
Because I'll tell you what, and I'll close with a story.
I sat in a class of summer school at Heil's Anderson College
and we had a guest preacher come in and preach and his name was Al Lacy.
And this guest preacher came in, Al Lacy, and he taught us for one week on the Bible.
And he taught us all the doctrines of the word of God and everything.
And he came in for one week.
And on Friday he was basically teaching this doctrine that I'm teaching right now.
He was preaching.
And I'd already believed this for, you know, over a decade.
But, you know, I was enjoying the class because he's preaching this.
I've got to have God's word to save you.
Keep in mind, these students are hearing something different taught in their other Bible classes.
They're being taught you don't need God's word to be saved.
So basically, he's teaching them, you know, you've got to have God's word.
He's showing them the verse, you know, of being born again.
Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.
And he's teaching this and people are arguing with him.
People are raising their hands saying, no, any version.
You could use a Jehovah's Witness Bible, a Catholic Bible, NIV.
You know, they're just parroting everything that they idiotically said amen to, you know, in previous services.
Well, they just keep saying this over and over.
They're arguing with them and he's arguing back.
He's saying, no, and he's giving them scripture and he's explaining to them why.
And they're just not getting it.
Well, look, I'm just sitting there, I wasn't surprised at all.
I'm thinking, yeah, this is a controversial issue.
A lot of people choke on this, whatever.
So I'm just kind of sitting there, just minding my own business while they choke on it, you know.
Well then, all of a sudden, people start raising their hand in a Bible college, in an independent Baptist Bible college.
Raising their hand and saying that there are people on an island somewhere or in Africa who've never heard the name of Jesus,
but they're saved because they just called out to the Lord or just looked up at the stars and nature.
And some of these were famous, the sons and grandkids of teachers at the college, deacons at the church,
and famous independent Baptist missionaries, well known.
And their children and grandchildren of these compromisers were sitting there saying that you don't even need the name of Jesus to be saved.
They said you could be saved without knowing the name of Jesus.
And, you know, I'm just in horrified disbelief. I'm like, I can't even believe what I'm...
And literally, almost half the class began to take that position.
Almost half the class. And the class was videotaped.
I tried to get a copy, they wouldn't give it to me.
But the class is videotaped.
And almost half the class agreed that you could get saved without even knowing the name of Jesus.
I just sat there just getting madder and madder. I was just infuriated.
You know, finally I just exploded.
You know, because I'm just sitting in the class, I'm not saying anything, I'm just sitting there listening.
All of a sudden I just stood up, the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, and I just stood up and started yelling.
I said, I cannot even believe what I'm even listening to here.
And I said, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
And I said, it's not call upon the Lord, it's whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And he said, if thou shalt confess by mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God is raised from the dead,
you're saying the people who didn't even believe, if they were even heard to be rose from the dead, are saved.
And I said, you know what, I said, I'm going to go home right now, I said I'm not going to listen to this,
I said, why would we even go soul winning, why send out missionaries, why would we go to Africa,
why would we even go to these places if they're already saved?
They need to hear the Gospel.
And I quoted Romans 10.
And I sat down, and it was this quiet, and the teacher said, let's take a ten minute break.
And I had people threatening to fight me.
I had people trying to meet me in the parking lot and get in a fist fight with me.
Literally.
Because they were so mad that I had shut them down and shut them up and made them look a fool.
And I said, you're not even saved.
I said, anybody who's saying this right now that you don't need the name of Jesus is not saved.
Because I said, this is the same kind of stuff I hear when I'm out soul winning from unsaved people.
Oh, what about this guy who didn't hear about Jesus, he's saved too.
You hear that from unsaved people, you hear it from unbelievers.
And I said, anybody who's taking that position right now is not saved.
And they're trying to fight me in the parking lot.
None of them, of course, had the guts to come up and get a piece of me, but that's another story.
It's true though, none of them did.
They were saying they were going to meet me in the parking lot, and they did, but nobody started swinging, thank God.
You know, for them.
Anyway, the point is, plus I've got to be a non-striker in order to be a pastor, so that's important.
Not a brawler.
Got to bind that as a front between my eyes.
But anyway, the point is here, that's the downward spiral, my friend.
This church, listen to me now, like it or lump it, what I just preached.
You know what, this church is not taking step one on that process.
You know what I mean, whether you like that or agree with that, and you think anything goes,
and we can, you know, well, if they're here in the NIV, they're still going to get saved from hearing the NIV preached.
Go ahead and think that, but you know what, this church does not stand there, and this church will never stand there.
This church is King James only, and if you don't understand why yet, I give up,
because I've shown you almost every service I showed.
I didn't show this time, really, but you know, let's get this doctrine straight, and let's get the Word of God.
Keep the Word of God with you everywhere you go. Learn it, memorize it, study it, commit to memory,
and when you go out soul winning from crying out loud, this is what you ought to be preaching right here.
Let's bow our heads in that Word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your Word, and we thank you that we have it with us.
We thank you for the technology that allows us to take it everywhere sometimes,
and we thank you for the printing press, God, that allowed us to have so many copies of it in every room in the house.
Thank you for the pocket-sized New Testaments, dear God.
Thank you for the Bible on the phone, dear God.
Thank you for the Bible on CD, but God, help us to make the Word of God a big part of our lives.
Memorize it, put it on 3x5 cards, keep it with us in the car, in the lunch box, in the toolbox, in the purse, in the backpack.
God, help us to install your Word, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.