Psalm chapter 12 and just there looking at verse number six, Psalm 12 verse six,
the Bible reads, the words of the Lord are pure words. The title of the sermon this morning is
pure words, okay, the pure words. Now what I want you to think about, I've obviously preached
through these verses before, you know, as we're going through the statement of faith for our
church and of course I was focused on the pure words of God and that's important. Hey,
we believe that we have a perfect, preserved, pure word of God in our hands and as English
speakers we believe that's the King James Bible. You know, we stand strong in the King James Bible,
we believe the Bible is without error, you know, it's without corruption, that what it says in
English is exactly what it says in Hebrew and in Greek, so I don't need to go back to the
Greek and the Hebrew because I've got English, right, and I understand English better than those
languages, I understand English better than Spanish, so I'm going to read from the King
James Bible and while that's important and what I'm going to touch on that topic as well,
what I want you to come away when we look at the, you know, look at the things like the words of
the Lord are pure words, yes, it's great to praise in that, it's great to rejoice in that,
but every time we see an attribute of God, every time we see a quality of God as though right now
his words are pure, what you need to be thinking about yourself, you know, is well are my words
pure, you know, are my words without corruption, you know, are my words are perfect, you know,
and preserved, you know, am I speaking the words of God, you know, am I careful with how I use my
tongue, so these are the kinds of things as you see attributes of God, we rejoice in those things,
well you know that God wants us to be more like Christ, you know, that God wants to work in our
lives, that we need to develop ourselves, we need to mature and grow as Christians,
and the best person to compare ourselves with is not another fallen human being,
but compare ourselves to God, you know, do we love the things that God loves,
do we hate the things that God hates, you know, are we walking with the Lord,
are we walking in the spirit, these are the things that you always need to be
keeping in the back of your mind when you see attributes of God,
all right, so let's pick it up from verse number one, Psalm chapter 12 verse one,
you see this Psalm is not just about the words of God, but it's also about the words of the wicked,
all right, and we see the comparison there, but Psalm chapter 12 verse one,
it says, help Lord for the godly man ceaseth for the faithful fail from among the children of man,
so here this is a Psalm of David, and we see that David is asking the Lord for help,
why is he asking for help, is he this time in trouble, you know, is he in warfare at
this point in time, no, he's asking for help this time because he sees godly men,
he sees faithful men cease, he sees godly men fail, all right, and this is a sad reality
that hit home with me, you know, as I was growing in the Lord was seeing pastors, godly men, men
that you look up to cease, godly men that you look up to fail, you know, commit some, you know,
terrible sin, destroy their ministry, and you're wondering, Lord, if they can't be faithful,
if they can't continue being faithful to you, then I need your help, you know, what about me,
you know, I'm just growing, I'm just developing, you know, I haven't reached the heights that
these great men that I look up to have reached, and sometimes you can be discouraged, and I think
of David here, you know, probably seeking to to follow after the Lord, having all these other
people that have gone along with him on the ride, that he's looked up to as mentors, and seeing these
godly men fail, seeing these godly men cease, and sometimes when that happens, you know, yeah, I
mean, you will sorrow, you will be upset when you see godly men fail, and I'll say to you right now,
there's going to be times that I fail you, now I hope I never fail in the sense of, you know,
what David's preaching about, you know, get into some horrible sin, destroy my ministry,
become unqualified, I hope that never happens, you know, but the reality is we're all made of
flesh and blood, you know, we all have that sin nature, and this is why it's important for us to
always, as we see these attributes of God, we say, well, I need to develop these things in myself,
but you see, just as we're saying about our anchor holding, well, what's our anchor to be
strongly stabilised on, it's the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's the rock of the word of God,
and what's going to get you through your Christian life when you see men fail, godly men cease,
is to make sure that you're founded upon the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ, because many times,
I don't know if you've seen this, I mean, I have in my life, you know, pastors that I know,
that have failed, and in their failure, so have other people in the church failed, you know,
in their failure, they're like, well, you know, you know, I can't believe this pastor has failed,
I can't believe these godly men have ceased, and then they're out of church, they're no longer
walking with the Lord, it's like they've gotten to a point where they've gotten so discouraged,
where they just no longer remain faithful to the Lord, and the problem there is, that they've
placed their faith, they've placed their foundation upon man, okay, now it's good to have godly
examples in your life, it's good to look up to your pastors, or other godly men, you know,
just other men in the church, it's good, or young girls to look at some, looking up to godly ladies
in the church, godly mothers, that's a good thing, but the end of the day, you must be founded upon
the Bible, must be founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's what's going to keep you
stabilized, all right, when men fail you, you know, what's going to keep you going and serving
the Lord, is having that strong foundation on the Lord Jesus Christ, and those that have failed
along with their pastors, it's because their foundation was not on the rock, their foundation
was on man, keep your finger there, let's go to Romans chapter 11 please, Romans chapter 11
Romans chapter 11 verse 2
a moment there, Romans chapter 11 verse 2, the Bible says
God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew, what ye not what the scripture
saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying, now look at the words here
of Elias or Elijah, it says here in verse number three, Lord they have cured thy prophets and dig
down thine altars and I am left alone and they seek my life, so we see here the prophet, you know,
asking the Lord for help, you know, he's seeing that wicked Israel have turned their backs against
the Lord, they have raised up other gods, you know, they've taken down the holy things and
serving after other gods and we see Elijah here asking for help, he seems to, he feels alone,
he says I am left alone, I'm the only one here Lord that's seeking you, I'm the only one that
wants to be faithful to you, that wants to serve you and they seek my life, they're not happy with
the destruction they've done, now they're seeking to destroy me as well and so we can see the heart
of the prophet here, you know, asking the Lord for help, but look at verse number four, but what
sayeth the answer of God unto him, I have reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed
the knee to the image of Baal, you see when the prophet thought he was alone, God just reminded
Elijah there's seven other, seven thousand other faithful men here in Israel, you know, I have
another seven thousand men that are zealous for me, that are seeking me, that are serving me,
that are doing the works for me, you know, and we need to remind ourselves, you know, when we're
downcast, when it looks like there's nobody else, you know, and we think we're alone, you know, we
can turn to a passage like this and be reminded that there are at least seven thousand other
people across this world that are faithfully serving the Lord and if you can just bring your
remembrance to that, that's going to encourage you, right, it's going to encourage you to know
there are other people, you know, that have not bowed the knee to Baal, okay, that are still
seeking to serve the Lord, all right, so you're never alone, there's never going to come a time
when you're the only one trying to serve the Lord, okay, there's always other faithful men,
hey, and don't you fail because you don't want to bring down other people in your failure,
you know, when you feel to be alone, no, when you're alone, that's a time to take a strong
stand, when you're alone, hey, that's when you can serve the Lord and you can encourage other
people around you, all right, back to Psalm 12 please, Psalm 12 verse 2, the Bible says,
remember, we're looking at the pure words of God but now we're looking at the words of the wicked,
it says here, they speak vanity, you want a vanity that is emptiness, you know, worthless,
worthless gossip if you want, you know, they speak vanity, everyone with his neighbour,
with flattering lips and with a double tongue do they speak and we need to be careful as we look
at this, you know, are you a flatterer, do you have a flattering tongue, now I'm not saying you
can never say nice things to people, all right, you can never encourage, we should do that, right,
we come to church, our goal should be to edify one another, okay, but don't be someone that's
a flatterer, you know, to your face but then it says here, with a double heart do they speak,
meaning what they say to you is not the truth, okay, what they say to you is not how they really
feel about you, behind their back, behind your backs, they have a double tongue, behind your
backs, they're speaking evil of you, okay, they're mocking you or whatever, okay, and this is,
you know, this happens in the world but it happens in church as well, okay, we need to be
careful about this, you know, and it's difficult because the flesh likes flattery, you know,
the flesh likes it when someone comes up to you and says some really nice things about you,
but you need to be aware, you know, in the spirit and know when it's just a nice compliment
and be able to determine when it is flattery, you know, when they're not speaking the truth,
you know, and usually when someone comes with flattery, it's because they want to take advantage
of you, it's because they want to cause some type of damage, maybe they want you to open up and feel
free with them, open up certain bits of information about your life and then use that information
against you, you know, that can happen, you know, I'm really thankful that we have a church where,
you know, as far as I'm concerned, I don't see a lot of flattery, you know, but I do see a lot
of encouragement, you know, I do see people encouraging one another, you know, I get told
many times, you know, I'm encouraged many times by you guys, you know, that, you know, you said,
you know, you tell me that you've taken something out of that sermon or, you know, that encouraged
you, that's awesome, that encourages me to know that when I prepare and I preach that it's helping
you in your spiritual walk, that's not flattery, you know, that's not flattery if you speak kind
things, but be careful of the flatterer, you know, and be careful yourself not to become that
flatterer, okay, where you have that double heart and you speak, and look, one sure way to know,
if someone comes up to you in church, you know, and, you know, starts speaking bad of another
believer in the church, starts criticizing another believer in the church, you know,
start saying nasty things about them and their families and how they live their life, you know,
but to you, they're all nice, to you they use flattery, well, be careful, because I tell you now,
they're saying negative things about you to someone else, you know, they're saying critical
things about you to someone else, be careful of the flatterer, okay, if someone's that comfortable
to come up to you and criticize other people, you know, then most definitely they're going to
be criticizing you to others, all right, the double heart is there, all right, it's not just
a wicked, Christians can have that double heart, and if you have that double heart, that's something
you need to work on, okay, it's something you need to change, that's something you need to go to the
Lord and say, Lord, I want to have pure words like you do, I want to make sure my words are without
corruption, I want to show my words are edifying and not taking down my fellow brethren, you know,
I'm sure we can all relate to that, I can relate to that, okay, I can relate to that, I know that
in my life I can have better words, I can have more pure words, okay, so, you know, yes, always
be aware of others, but beware of your tongue, okay, now let's keep reading verse number three,
look at this, the Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speak of proud
things, now turn to James chapter three please, this is important that we go here, James chapter
three, one of the best passages about our tongue, all right, but you see how God hates the flattering
lips, that he's going to cut it off, okay, if you're a flatterer, expect God to bring down
his chastisement upon your life, let's go to James chapter three and it said there in Psalms
12 three that the tongue of this wicked person speak of proud things, this is another way to know
whether your words are pure, whether your words are edifying, do you speak proud things, you know,
are you a self-promoter, you know, do you lift yourself up at the same time putting down other
people to make you feel better about yourself, I've come across this a lot in church, you know,
where people will put down you or put down your family or put down other families to make them
feel better about themselves, there's no need, look, if you're comfortable and you're serving
the Lord, you're walking the paths that God gives you, the commands that he gives you, you know,
if you're doing everything that you know to serve the Lord, all right, you're going to have
confidence in the Lord, you're going to have confidence in the rock of the Lord, right,
you're going to know the Lord is pleased with me and you're going to be walking that path regardless
but the person that tries to put down other people to make them feel better about themselves,
they haven't got confidence in themselves, in fact, they're very insecure about themselves
but they speak proud things so that others think that they're a righteous person, they speak proud
things putting down other people to make them feel better about themselves, that's not how you
should conduct yourself, you know, if you're happy with the way you're doing things, you know,
you're serving the Lord, your confidence ought to be in the Word of God, I am following the Word
of God, I don't need to put down other people, you know, let's look at James chapter 3 verse 3,
James chapter 3 verse 3, behold, we put bits in the horse's mouths that they may obey us
and we turn about their whole body, now I've tried to ride horses a few times, I'm really bad at it,
you know, I'm horrible at controlling horses but obviously we see that, you know, with the
utilities that we have, you know, you can control a horse that's more powerful than you,
okay, by putting that bit so it says they're in the horse's mouths and we see this becomes
an illustration for our mouths, you know, how we can control ourselves using our mouths, verse
number 4, it says behold also the ships which though they be so great and are driven of fierce
winds yet they are turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth, so big
ships in the oceans, you know, what controls them, what gets them to turn, it's just a little rudder,
it's just a little rudder compared to the size of the ship, it's just a small part of that ship
that controls where it goes, all right, and of course this leads us to our tongue,
it's such a small little muscle in our mouths there, all right, I mean compared to the rest
of our body it's tiny but it's powerful, okay, it's powerful, look at verse number 5,
even so the tongue is a little member and boast of great things, what do we see in Psalm 12,
the boasting of the tongue, right, the tongue boasts of great things, behold how great a matter
a little fire kindleth, you know, when I see conflicts developed between people in church
or between brethren or just out, many times the conflict is a little fire, you know, many times,
but here's the thing about a little fire, you know, you go to a forest where it's dry,
you light a little fire, what's going to happen, it's going to burn the entire thing up, right,
you start a campfire, a little fire to keep yourself warm and if you don't maintain it,
you don't put it out after the camp, it's possible that that fire can cause great damage,
of course I'm sure you've all seen little fires start and become greater things, you know,
and you know while the fire is little it's easy to put out, you know, if you find yourself in
conflict because your tongue's a little bit of a fire, my encouragement to you is sort it out
straight away, sort it out as soon as possible while it's a little fire, it's easier, okay,
before it starts to burn down the entire forest, then it's really hard, it's really hard then to
manage conflicts, all right, but you see the tongue is able to do great damage, verse number
six and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, hey this is your tongue, all right, what does God
say about your tongue, it said the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, iniquity is another
way of saying sin, all right, your tongue has an amazing ability to commit sin, all right, your
tongue, our fallen nature, my tongue, all right, I want you to think about yourself here, I don't
want you thinking about other people, think about yourself please, you know, even so the tongue is
a little member, sorry, a word of iniquity, verse number six, so is the tongue among our members
and it defileth the whole body and set upon fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of
hell, hell fire, God compared, the fire that you can cause through your tongue, God compares that
to hell fire, to the same fire that God uses to punish the wicked in hell, you can cause that same
damage with your own tongue, have you thought about that, if that's the case, don't you think
we need to control our tongues, don't you think we need to make sure that we have pure words,
we control ourselves, you know, it defiles the whole body, your tongue speaks perverse things,
your whole body is defiled, we saw here in that passage, verse number seven, for every kind of
beast and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and have been tamed of mankind,
so that's, you know, if you've got a pet, you know, you've tamed that pet to live in your house
or some animal but the tongue can no man tame, it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison,
can you tame your tongue, Bible says no man can tame his tongue, all right, it's a wild animal,
hey what do wild animals do, why do we avoid wild animals, because they can harm us, they can attack
right, they don't behave the way a domesticated animal behaves, right, your tongue, you cannot
tame your tongue, what does that tell you then, because we ought to tame our tongue, we ought to
do it, so how are we going to do it, there's only one way, that's through the power of God, okay,
we need to go to the Lord and ask him to help us control our tongue, we need to be walking in the
spirit, okay, we need the power of God to be able to tame our tongue, because you yourself
would not be able to do it, okay, verse number nine, there we've blessed with God, so we bless
God with our tongue, even the father and there we've cursed with men, which are made of the
similitude of God, okay, out of the same mouth proceed of blessings and cursing, my brethren,
these things ought not so to be, you know, so hey, your tongue, we come to church, we sing
praises, you know, we thank God for what he's done, we lift up his name, right, that's good,
we bless God, but then do you turn around and criticise your brethren in church, you know,
when you get home, do you say well, you know, family so and so, you know, child so and so,
you know, and curse the brethren, these things ought not to be solved, all right, if your tongue
is able to bless the Lord, then you're that same tongue, guess what, it can edify the brethren,
it can help and instruct the brethren, okay, and if you think there's a problem with someone in the
church, a problem with some in the family, then I want you to use your tongue not to curse them,
use your tongue, go to the Lord and ask the Lord to help them, ask them to bless them,
ask the Lord to guide them and teach them, that's how you can bless your brethren, okay,
you're still raising the concern, okay, but now you're doing something productive with that
concern, you're taking it to the Lord who is able to help them, to guide them, all right,
now please go to Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29,
just very quickly, I won't expand on these verses too much, but just for you to think about,
let's read it, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29, the Bible says, let no corrupt communication proceed
out of your mouth, you see that, we rejoice in the Lord having his pure words, we lift up the
King James Bible, we say this Bible has no corruption, but what does God want for our
tongues, it says let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, you see, God wants
our tongues, our mouths to be as pure as his words, okay, not corrupted, it says, but that
which is good to the use of edifying, edifying one another, we may minister grace unto the hearers
and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby he is sealed unto the day of redemption,
you see, when your mouth has corruption, verse number 30 tells us that it grieves the Holy Ghost,
it grieves God in you, when you use corrupt communication out of your mouth,
and now we get a bit of the corrupt communication here, verse 31,
let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all
malice, okay, so if you can say to me, yeah, I've spoken words of bitterness, I've spoken words
to my brethren and anger and clamour, all these things, it says, look, put these away from you,
okay, and look, he says this because Paul says this because he knows the Ephesians here
have a struggle in this area, okay, you know, I don't want you to get discouraged and say,
well, I know my tongue's wicked, I know I've said some harmful things, you know, well, that's fine
because so did Ephesians, that's why they've been instructed to put it away from them,
okay, so I don't want you to just, I want you to say to yourself, you know what,
if Christians here in the Bible are struggling with this, and I'm struggling with this,
then I, you know, be encouraged, okay, be encouraged that there are others,
that we all struggle with this in our lives, okay, but you need to be better, you can only change
yourself through the power of God, you know, you can't change others, you know, you can change
yourself, you can change your family, you know, fathers, you can change your wives, you can change
your kids, you know, you have that ability, but at the end of the day, you can't change other people
in the church, all right, you can pray for them, verse 32, and be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake, have forgiven you, all right,
so again, the comparison to God, God wants us to be like him, God wants us to be able to forgive
one another as Christ has forgiven us, back to Psalm 12 please, verse 4, Psalm 12, verse 4,
and actually, while you're there, I'll get you to turn to 1 Corinthians as well,
1 Corinthians, just while we get there, but go to Psalm 4,
Psalm 4, it says, Psalm 12, verse 4, sorry, it says, who have said with our tongue we will prevail,
our lips are our own, who is Lord over us, so again, the wicked say these things, right,
the wicked say our lips are our own, the wicked say who is Lord over us, you see, the wicked
person does not think of themselves under the authority of God, all right, so they believe
the words they say, I own them, it's just for me to judge and decide whether I'm going to speak
these words, but that not ought to be, I mean, do you have a Lord over you, you have at least
the Lord God over you, right, you have him at least over you, what does that mean? That means
when you speak, you need to consider that the Lord is over you, you need to consider are these words
that God wants me to speak, you know, and look, one of the good things about preaching is that
we preach the words of God, so I know if I'm quoting the Bible, these are words that God wants
me to speak, you know, even if they're harsh words, even if they're words that you feel that,
you know, you shouldn't preach about, they're too hard, you know, things that God says against the
wicked, things that God says about murderers, things that God says about, you know, the
sodomites, whatever, hey, but if we're reading from the word of God, they're good words,
they're pure words, that's fine, right, because I have the Lord over me, you know, and when you
come to preach, you need to remind yourself the Lord is over me, you guys are in 1 Corinthians
chapter 6 verse 19, did I tell you to go there, I told you to go 1 Corinthians, but 1 Corinthians
chapter 6 verse 19, and we read this not long ago in another sermon, it says, what? Know you not
that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, look at this, which ye have of
God and ye are not your own, oh man, I'm my own man, you know, you know, I only take orders of
one person, me, no, so it says here, you are not of your own, okay, ye are not your own, why? Verse
20, for ye are bought with a price, hey, you've been purchased, not just the new man, it says here,
your body, even that flesh has been purchased by God, all right, you've been purchased with a
bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's, you see,
it's not just the spirit, not just the new man that belongs to God, when you got saved, even this
fleshly fallen body belongs to God, all right, even this fleshly fallen body, everything you do
in this body and we're talking about here, your lips, your tongue, the things you speak, you need
to put into consideration, is God happy with these words that I speak, all right, and again, we all
fail, I fail, you know, I fail at these things, this is why we need to hear these things and work
on these things, please go to chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3,
just to confirm this once again, 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 21,
1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 21, the Bible says, therefore, let no man glory in men, okay,
and say, why is that a problem, why, why should I not glory in other men, because as we saw the
Psalmist, he saw the godly men fail, he saw them see sin, right, and when you glory in men and
they fail you, it's going to have harmful effects upon you, let's keep reading, it says, for all
things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present
or things to come, all are yours, you know, God gives us great freedom to enjoy what he's given
us in this life, but look at verse 23, and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's, all right,
so even Jesus Christ has a Lord over him, even Jesus Christ belongs to someone above him,
this is where we get to teach on the Trinity, where there's a chain of command, where there's
an authority structure, you see, God the Father is over the Lord Jesus Christ, even though they're
equally God, but they are not equal in authority, you know, the Lord God is above Christ, but we
belong to Christ, we are Christ, we are under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, okay,
this is why we should not glory in men, we should glory in all the things that God has given us,
but the boundaries that we keep that within, the control that we put around that is making sure
and understanding that we're under Christ, and to remind ourselves, whatever we do in our lives,
you know, that we recall the fact that we belong to God, back to Psalm 12 please, verse 5,
Psalm 12 verse 5, it says here for the oppression of the poor, so this is where the wicked, the one
that speaks wicked things from their lips, they oppress the poor for the oppression of the poor,
for the sign of the needy, now will I arise saith the Lord, I will set him in safety from him
that puffeth at him, all right, so we already saw that the wicked boasts of proud things,
all right, and once again we see here that the wicked is puffing himself up against the poor
and the needy, now as I was reading this, I don't, I don't, I actually believe the poor and the
needy here is a reference more of a sort of more of a figurative way of talking about believers,
okay, not so much someone that is without, you know, as far as possessions and material wealth,
I don't think that's the reference here, it's kind of like, you know, the Sermon on the Mount,
where God says, you know, blessed are the poor, you know, for they shall,
ah no, that's the pure, that should, anyway, you know what I'm referring to, where God sometimes
refers to the poor and the needy in the spiritual sense, okay, so in the spiritual sense, we are all
kind of poor, you know, we at least to the point where we needed the salvation of the Lord, we
needed to be purchased by the blood of the Lord, but also once you're saved, you still need,
you know, the communion with the Lord, you still need to grow and develop and mature and gain
things and we start poor as a believer and then as we work and we follow after the Lord, we gain
riches, don't we, we become more mature, we start placing our treasures in heaven and we start to
grow and so that's what I believe the reference here in Psalm 12 is, but let's just keep going,
in verse number six, the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times, so I just want you to notice that when the Lord sees the wicked,
you know, persecuting the poor, let's say the poor in spirit or even the poor in general, you know,
those that are needy, those that cannot defend themselves against the wicked, then the Lord does
rise up, it says there, right, in verse number five, now will I arise, saith the Lord, right,
and I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. Hey, so if you're being attacked by
someone, if people are saying wicked things about you or your family, guess who's going to stand up
for you? The Lord. It's such a blessed thing to know as a child of God, when someone's attacking
me, alright, my family, the people that I know, it's like, where do I turn to? You turn to the
Lord, you turn to him, he will stand up for you, alright, he will defend you, and one thing that
I've had to learn in my life as a Christian, in my Christian life, is that I don't always need
to defend myself, I don't, you know, and one thing that I learned is that if I'm constantly defending
myself, I'm satisfying the person that puts me down, alright, because I'm giving them the
reaction they want, you know, they say something bad about you and you're like, no I'm not,
whatever, you start defending yourself, it's like, yeah, I wanted you to get emotional,
okay, I wanted to, you know, piece through your, you know, into you and make you uncomfortable,
make you unsettled. One thing that I learned is that if people say wicked things to you,
and you just blow it off, usually the person that's saying those wicked things gets all upset,
because they're not getting the reaction that they want, that's fine, and then I learned in the
Bible, well, not only does it bother the wicked, or not only does it bother the person that's
trying to put me down when I don't react, but I know that God's going to stand up for me anyway,
and God's going to take care of business, that God's going to cut off those flattering lips,
you know, that double heart or whatever, you know, and as I grew and matured in the Lord,
I just developed thicker skin, you know, things no longer really offend me, you know,
many times the wicked might say something or boast of themselves, I just let them own it,
they can have it, you know, if you speak great things about you, you know,
the great successes in you, you know, how great of a person you are, all right, good on you,
you know, I don't need to take them down necessarily all the time, you know, yeah,
good on you, and when you take that approach, it usually bothers them once again,
because, you know, they're trying to get that reaction out of you, you know, I just let the
Lord be my strength, let the Lord defend me many times, right, now there's a time to defend
yourself, of course, when those times come, I'm sure the Lord will guide you in the past,
but when you walk in the Lord, you come to realise, I don't always need to defend myself,
you know, if people put down your kids, say this and that, I know my kids are pretty good,
I'm happy with my kids, my kids are pretty obedient, you know, we're working on it,
they're not perfect, I know that, who cares, you know, I mean, because I'm confident in what we're
doing, I'm confident that we're applying the principles that God gives us in his word,
I don't need to satisfy anybody else, except myself, my wife, my family and the Lord,
you know, you start taking that view in life, you're going to find a lot more peace,
you're going to find yourself not getting, you know, upset with every little comment that comes
your way, you know, so let's keep reading verse number, sorry, I was reading verse six, right,
the words of the Lord are pure words, right, we said that, as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times, it's not good enough to be pure once, but again, again, again, again,
again, seven times, the Lord puts his words and purifies it, I mean, that should tell us a little
bit about the way we speak, you know, before we speak, we should think about what we're going to
say, but do you think about it seven times, do you purify the words that you say seven times,
probably not, in fact, many times we speak without thinking, all right, I mean, we see Peter in the
Bible, I like Peter in the Bible, because many times he speaks without thinking and the Bible
acknowledges, he doesn't know what he's saying, right, things like that happen, like that's just
part of life, but you know, we need to be people that ought to, before we speak, you know, we ought
to think about what we're saying, you know, is it profitable, is it helpful, you know, are we edifying
the brethren, are we trying to take them down, you know, now I'm just going to read to you a few
other passages, you guys can turn to Psalm 119 please, Psalm 119 verse 139, Psalm 119 119
and then verse 139, 139,
because I want you to see how the Psalmist, he deals with the wicked or his enemies, it says here,
it says, my zeal have consumed me, do you want to be a zealous person for the Lord, do you want to
be a zealous believer, you know, strong for the Lord, you know, always faithful, always seeking to do his
will, how can you have your zeal consume you, how can you go out in the power of the
zeal that you have, it says here, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words, you know, it's
one thing to read your Bible and get zealous for the Lord, that's good, but I've experienced many
times where I've, maybe my friends or people that I know, you know, speak blasphemous things,
you know, or teach doctrines that are not true, you know, or preach another gospel, you know,
when I hear people blaspheming God, when I hear people teaching another gospel, you know what
happens to me, I'm consumed by zeal and I get even more encouraged to serve the Lord, because I see
the hands of the wicked, I see the words of the wicked and I'm reminded, hey, I better stand up
for the words of the Lord, I better stand up for his truths, I better stand up for the doctrines
that we see in the Bible, I don't know, does that happen to you, happens to me, when I see
the wickedness of this word, I don't always get discouraged, sometimes I'm like, man, Lord, I'm
going to stand for you even more, I think we need to speak your truths even more in this day and age
than maybe preachers have in the past, you know, but let's keep reading there in verse number 140,
it says thy word is very pure and we know how pure it is, purified seven times, right, very pure,
therefore thy servant love efforts, do you love the Bible, you know, do you read your Bible every
day, you know, and again, I just be honest, there's been times that I've forgotten to read my Bible
in the day, all right, that's not something that I should do as a pastor, as a pastor, I should be
striving to do that all the time, you know, and of course, as a pastor, you know, my Bible reading
has more than doubled, because I'm not just reading now, I'm studying and preparing sermons,
all those kinds of things, but hey, can you say the words of the psalmist there in 140,
yeah, we know the words of God are pure, but can you say I love it, the servant love it,
now there might be times you say, I do love it, you know, sometimes you get really excited,
you read through the Bible, but then there are other weeks when you get downcast, other weeks
when, you know, you entertain yourself with other things, maybe worldly things and you forget to
pick up the Bible, at that point in time, guess what, you don't love the word of God, at that point
in time, you love other things above the word of God, all right, you need to come back with
the mindset here and love the pure words that God has given us, I'm going to read to you just,
you don't need to turn, you can go back to Psalm 12, I'm just going to read to you from
Proverbs 30 verse 5, just to affirm this every time, it says every word of God is pure,
every word, every word, okay, is pure, every word here in our King James Bible
is pure, we don't need a new King James Bible, we don't need someone to come and change these
words when they're already pure, every word that we have here is pure, okay, he's a shield unto
them that put their trust in him and then it says, add thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee
and thou be found a liar, you know, and I encourage you, you may not always be a member of New Life
Baptist Church, no, you might end up moving at some point in your life, you know, the Lord might
direct you in other areas and what I would always encourage you, wherever you go, even if it's
holidays, that you go to a place where you know there is a church that loves the word of God,
okay, that, because it says there, right, that, so let me just read it again, it said there,
uh, he's a shield unto them that put their trust in him and then says, add not thou unto his words,
you know, unfortunately there's a lot of independent Baptists, a lot, that when they
preach, they open the word of God, they would read you one verse and the rest of the sermon is their
opinions, is their thoughts, are some stories about some, some guy from the 1700s or the 1800s,
some missionary, I mean some of those stories are nice, okay, I'm not against the story,
pulling out a story, but you know what, I don't even know these people, I don't know if they're
even saved, right, these stories that you hear and you find when you're in a church like that,
where you're getting such minimal Bible reading, you know, you start to, to, uh, you just don't
develop anymore, you don't start to grow, you know, it's like, um, you know, um, when you grow,
you need to have different nutrients, you have to have different food in you, you can't just,
you know, you can't just think you're going to, to, uh, do well in your life physically if
all you're doing is drinking water, now drinking water is good for you, but you need to add
something else to that, right, you need to eat other things, you know, if you limit and say all
I'm going to do is eat this thing, you're not going to get the nutrients you need, it's like
the preaching, you know, they might start with one verse here, that verse is going to benefit you,
but if everything else in that sermon is, is not Bible, it's just a man's opinions, it's just man's
wisdom, it's not going to feed the spirit that you have in you, so let me just encourage you,
wherever you go in life, wherever, wherever the Lord leads you, you know, try to find,
you know, and look, the Lord's not going to lead you to a place where there is no good church,
if you find yourself in a place in life, not that, not that's where you started, because we
all start somewhere, but if you end up starting in a good church or being in a place where,
and then the Lord leads you, but the Lord, or you say the Lord is leading me here,
but there's no good church, okay, then that's not the Lord leading you, that's not the Lord
leading you, that's you, that's you leading yourself, all right, so let me just keep going,
Proverbs 15 verse 26, it says the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord,
but the, the words of the pure are pleasant words, I just want, just want to park it there
for a moment, but the words of the pure are pleasant words, you know what God says about us,
he calls us pure, say why, I'm not pure, yeah, because you're pure because you have the
righteousness of Christ imputed upon you, that's what makes you pure, okay, and the Lord says the
thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to him, but he wants of us that our words are pure,
right, of the pure are pleasant words, do pleasant words come out of your mouth,
when you compare the criticism that comes out of your mouth versus the pleasant things that come
out of your mouth, how's that balance, in fact all that corruption should be done away with completely,
all right, but we should be people that continue trying to have the pleasant words,
the pure words of God, it's God's expectation upon us, all right, back to our Psalm 12 verse 7,
Psalm 12 verse 7, it says thou shall keep them, oh Lord, thou shall preserve them from this generation
forever, now the question comes, well what will God keep, what will God preserve from this generation
forever, now for us that believe in the King James Bible, you know, we would, we would say
that them are the words, the words of the Lord that we saw in verse number 6, okay, but I just
want to cover one false teaching out there, just in case you might be aware of it, in fact the
modern Bibles change this, okay, and what they say is, well what is God keeping, and what I'll
conclude is, well God is keeping his people, God is keeping them safe from the wicked, now that's
a truth, okay, that's true, all right, but it's, you know, they've changed it, so it's no longer
about the words of God, so I've had the question come to me, verse 7, is that about, is God keeping
the words of God here, or is he preserving the people, his people here, you know, what is he
talking about, and let me just give you some, some, my reasons why I believe this is referring
to the word of God, my first reason is because I believe it's just a natural reading of the psalm,
you know, I put a lot of weight into the natural reading of the word of God, like as I just read
from my Bible, you know, sort of the first thoughts, the first things that come to my mind,
I usually value them higher than going into it and sort of trying to dig in really deep
and coming up with something else, I mean, I'm not saying you can never dig in deep and study
and all that stuff, it's important, okay, but don't dismiss the natural reading, the things
that sort of come to your mind as you're reading, they're usually the first things, like that's
usually the first application that God wants you to apply to that, to that passage, all right,
just as a natural thing, so just as a natural reading, I think, yeah, I mean, the word,
he just mentioned the words in verse 6, if it's not talking about the words in verse 7,
it's such an odd thing to just bring up the words in one verse there, when he's talking about the
words of the wicked, and he's just bringing up his words, it's one verse, and then that's the end
of it, just seems very unusual for me, for it to be just this random verse that pops out,
but, so that's one reason, just the natural reading of the Psalm, but the second reason
is the use of the pronoun, okay, the use of the pronoun them, thou shall keep them, O Lord,
thou shall preserve them from this generation forever, now if you just look at verse number
verse number 5, verse number 5, it says for the oppression of the poor, for the sign of the needy,
now will I rise safe, Lord, I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him, okay,
so we see how when God stands up for the needy, for the poor, he refers to them in verse number
5 as him, all right, not as them, now if God said them in verse number 5, I think maybe you could
is about the poor and needy, okay, I think that would be fair, but you can see I believe every
word of God is pure, all right, so verse number 5 refers to the poor and needy as him, and so what
I believe verse 7 then is talking about is, because God uses the words them, is obviously
the words of God, you know, the words of God, so just to give you some other examples of this,
you don't need to turn there, just very quickly, Exodus 35 verse 1, it says and Moses gathered all
the congregation of the children of Israel together and said unto them, these are the words
which the Lord hath commanded that ye should do them, okay, so when God refers to his words,
he does use the pronoun them, and then John 8 47, he that is of God heareth God's words,
ye therefore he them not because ye are not of God, so when we compare scripture with scripture,
we see that God can commonly refer to his words as them, and so what I see there in Psalm 12,
I mean maybe this is not interesting for you, but I have had that question asked of me before,
you know, what is God speaking about there in verse number 7, I think it should be clearly
about the words of God, okay, and if we conclude that thou shall keep them, then we know that the
Lord will protect his words, it says thou shall preserve them, whose job is it to preserve the
words of God, thou shall preserve them, God will preserve them, okay, now if man was tasked to
preserve the words of God, then I can expect that the words will be corrupted, because man is
corrupted, okay, I could expect copyist errors, I could accept those ideas out there that well,
the Bible has been translated so many times, it no longer really means what it used to mean back
in the days, right, I can sort of understand that if God put man in charge of preserving,
but the Bible tells us it's not man's job to preserve, it's God's job to preserve his words,
and if God is without corruption, if God is preserving his own words,
then it makes sense that it's preserved from this generation, the generation that is written of
here in the Psalms forever, that includes us, that means we can be sure that we have the perfect
preserved pure words of God in our hand, you know, this one right here, I'm not just lifting
this up like the average pastor or preacher and says, you know, we believe we got the perfect
inherent words of God in my hand, but then they'll go back to the Greek and the Hebrew and correct
it, no, I believe every word here is pure, I believe this English translation is perfect,
perfect, you know, this is all you need in life guys, you know, you could do away with every
other book, you can do away with every dictionary if you want, you know, every book that's written
about theology, you know, every other translation, you don't even need to learn Greek and Hebrew,
you take this book, these are the perfect pure words of God, this is the instruction for you
in life, you know, and you can use this as a dictionary as well, often God will define
difficult words for us, even within the King James Bible itself, you know, God often uses repetition,
so when we read something, we're not sure what that's saying, God might say it in a different
way and be like, oh, I get that and then you can understand and God has an amazing way, you know,
and I would say, parents, please, yes, you know, the English is a little different to the way we
speak today, but you know what, you know, you could fall into the trap of thinking, well,
my kids can't understand this, that's not true, you know, I mean, I've got 10 kids and not all
10 can read, who can read? Up to Sebastian so far and Johnny's almost there, Johnny's almost there,
all right, so we've got, I've got five of my kids that are actively, every day, reading this book,
okay, and then I task them every time they read a chapter, they've got to summarise in their own
words in their notebook, just a summary of what they've read, okay, and of course, the younger
ones, they're more likely to copy a little bit of what's in there, but the older ones will use
their own words, why? Because they can understand it, they can understand it, you know, I didn't,
I struggled a little bit, because I was, you know, as a teenager, I was reading from the NIV,
the New King James, all these kinds of things, when I got to the King James Bible, I was struggling
a bit, you know, but after a while, the Lord gave me understanding, God opened up my eyes and helped
me to understand these words, little children can understand it, if you get your child to understand
at an early age, just how knowledgeable are they going to be when they're an adult, I think, I mean
much more than I am, you know, much more, you know, please, you know, don't underestimate your children,
don't underestimate your children, don't you think God loves your children to the point where he
would have written a book where they can understand it, of course, you know, don't get carried away,
I'm not against child books about the Bible, I'm not against that, okay, but don't let that replace
the Bible reading, okay, of the King James Bible. Now, where can I, how can I write this up?
I'll just skip what I've got, I've had some other things here, I'll skip them for now,
I just wanted to, no, you know what, I want, I want to skip one part here, because all I want to say
is literally that there are over a hundred Bible translations in English, maybe, maybe over 200
now, when I was like in my early 20s, people would say there's over a hundred English Bible
translations, right, probably, I'm almost 40 now, I'm 37, right, but maybe now there's probably 200
English translations, I mean, I feel like every time I look at this stuff, there's always some new
Bible out there, it's just always, it's like every year, there's like some type of new English Bible,
okay, but I just wanted to quickly bring to attention the, the, the, the other four best
selling Bibles that we have in English today, and what they say about the King James Bible, okay,
and this is, this is one reason why I believe the King James Bible is the perfect preserved
Word of God, it's not because the independent Baptists set it as their standard, but the entire
world sets this as their standard, the entire English-speaking world sets the King James Bible
as their standard, and look, I don't believe these people that translate modern Bibles, the NIV,
the ESV, I don't believe these are believers, I don't believe they're godly men, I think they're
very wicked men, I believe they're doing the work of the devil, all right, now I believe that,
but you know what, even those that are doing the work of the devil, they still set this as their
standard, they still know this is the standard, and that's what I wanted to read to you just very
quickly here, if you have it, you know, you don't have an NIV, I was going to, if you have an NIV,
please just chuck it in the bin, all right, but what the NIV says in its introduction before you
get to the words, the so-called Words of God, I'll just read some things here, it says the initial
vision of the project was provided by a single individual, an engineer working with General
Electric in Seattle by the name of Howard Long, Long was a lifelong devotee to the King James
Version, so see that Long, the guy that came up with the initial thoughts for the NIV, Howard Long
was a lifelong devotee to the King James Version, it's like they always have to bring up the King
James Bible, okay, he was, he loves the King James Bible, right, but we're going to give you
something better than that, anyway it says, but he had shared it with his friends, that's the King
James Bible, sorry, but when he shared it with his friends, he was distressed to find that it just
didn't connect, oh man, Long saw the need for a translation that captured the truths he loved
in the language that his contemporaries, contemporaries spoke, so what are they saying,
look, my kids, you know, under, you know, well some of them under 10, they can read the King
James Bible, they can connect to the King James Bible, you want to know why they can connect to
it, because they're saved, because they have the spirit of God living in them, it's the spirit of God
that will instruct you the words of God, the reason Howard Long's friends could not connect to the
Bible is because they're not saved, okay, and he probably wasn't saved, I would say he wasn't saved
doing the work of the devil, you know, but do you notice that they always go, we love the King
James Bible, but we need something that's more understandable, you know, we want to reach our
friends, don't we, how many of you turn to John 3 16, when you go soul winning, I mean, I think
most of us do, you read it out to them, are they like, what are you saying, I don't understand a
word you're saying, look, when you're preaching the gospel at the door, I mean, I've never had
anyone say to, unless they're not English speakers, because then it's like, I don't, I don't speak
English, that's something different, right, but I've never had an English speaker say to me,
I have no idea what you just read there, okay, they understand it, okay, why, because someone
with the Spirit of God is expounded to them the Word of God, right, you need to have the Spirit
of God to understand the Word of God, let's keep going, the ESV, what does the ESV, it says here,
the words and phrases themselves grow out of the Tyndale, King James legacy, all right, so, oh man,
you know, the ESV, oh wow, it has a history apparently in the Tyndale, King James legacy,
and most recently out of the RSV, with the 1971 RSV text providing the starting points for our work,
I mean, what in the world, you're telling me that the ESV has the legacy of the King James Bible,
but then in the next breath, you say that the starting point of the ESV was the RSV,
okay, the revised standard version, that makes no sense, I thought you're following the legacy of
the King James Bible, but do you notice that they always need to call back to the King James,
because they know what the standard is, they know, the new King James version, the new King James
version, it says he commissioned in 1975 by Thomas Nelson publishers, 130 respected Bible scholars,
I mean, I don't respect them, I don't know who respects them, but apparently they're
respected Bible scholars, church leaders and lay Christians worked for seven years to create
a completely new modern translation of scripture, yet one that would retain the purity,
look at this purity and stylistic beauty of the original King James, so they're saying the new
King James, they're trying to retain the purity of it, the beauty of it, look, if it's pure and
beautiful, why do we need some other Bible, you see they call back to it, they will call the new
King James, it's got nothing to do with King James, King James died, you know, hundreds of
years before the new King James came into existence, you know, King James, you know,
he didn't translate this Bible, it's not called the King James Bible because he wrote it or he
translated, he commissioned others to translate the Bible, in fact, it wasn't called the King
James Bible, it was just called the Holy Bible, it's called the authorized version of the Holy
Bible, that's all, you know, we call it the King James today because we need to differentiate it
from all the other hundreds of other translations that are out there, I just want to show you these
modern popular Bibles always calling back to the King James and I'll just read to you from the new
living translation, I found this on their website, it says in the past 150 years, scholars such as
Tischendorf, Trigelles, Westcott and Hort, Nestle and Allen have produced editions of the Greek New
Testament based on the evidence of the earlier and superior manuscripts, I want to stop there
for a moment, if you guys know a bit of history of the manuscripts, the Greek manuscripts,
they're saying that Tischendorf, Trigelles, Westcott and Hort, hey these are those that
put together a corrupted Greek translation, alright, a corrupted Greek manuscripts and
they're calling this the superior manuscripts, that's their problem number one, they're not
going with the received texts, they're not going with the majority texts that were used by
Christians for centuries, they've gone with other texts which were dug out of a monastery or found
in the Vatican or whatever it was, it says in these editions, the editions of these superior
manuscripts, so-called, most of the scribal explanations that appear in the text of Receptus,
the text of Receptus being one of the bedrocks of the King James Bible have been eliminated,
thus modern translations based on these Greek editions also differ from the King James version
and the New King James version, I'm glad they acknowledge that it differs from it,
especially in the gospels, especially in the gospels, where do you learn the most about the
Lord Jesus Christ, where, hey what gospel was written that we would be saved, the Gospel of
John, right, for the unbeliever, they would be saved and they're saying, they're admitting that
the New Living Translation differs the most in the gospels, okay, hey there is another gospel,
the New Living Translation is one that will help usher those other gospels in, it says here,
seen in this light, the reader must realize that modern translators have not removed anything from
the scriptures, they're different but nothing's been removed, doesn't make any sense, right,
rather, rather they have simply translated a Greek text that is closer to the original
Greek New Testament, if the translators, look at this, if the translators of the King James
versions were alive today, they would have done the same, in their day they used the best Greek
text available to them, what are they saying, we're no different from the King James translators, hey
if they were alive with us, if they were our contemporaries, they also would have used these
corrupted manuscripts, they also would have made these changes in the Bible, why are they saying
that, why are they just confident in themselves translating what they think is a superior text,
you realize they're trying to trick you, they're trying to manipulate you into thinking whether
King James translators would have done the same thing, how do they know this, they died hundreds
of years ago those translators, all right, but you see they always call back to the King James Bible
because they know what the standard is, and what I wanted to leave you there with is that
they don't say, you know the New Living Translation does not say, you know, well the NIV, you know,
proved itself for several centuries, now we need a better translation, you know, if the, if the
New King James translators were with us today, they also would have agreed with our translation
of the New Living Translation, they never compare themselves with one another, they never set
themselves as their own, the other translations as their standard, they always hearken back to
the King James Bible, always, all right, and even if you see any modern translation today in English
and you go and just look at what they say about it, guarantee they're always going to go back to
the King James Bible and say well we're trying to do a better version, you know, that was good,
but we're trying to do something better, they never go back to the other corrupted translations
that they have in the Bible, so what my point is, even the world, even the ministers of Satan
know what the standard is, okay, and I've never, I've never heard any other English speaker say
about any other translation, this is the perfect word of God, the only people that ever claim,
the only Bible that's ever claimed in English to be perfect and pure is this one right here,
the ones you have in your hands, please love, learn to love the pure words that God has given
you, love it, okay, it's going to help you manage your tongue, it's going to help you speak pure
words and we're almost done now guys, let's go back to Psalm 12 verse 8, Psalm 12 verse 8,
the Bible says the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted, so it's interesting
that it ends here, you know, we've compared the words of the wicked, how to be a wicked speaker
and then we compared it to the pure preserved words of God that he has given us,
now God wants us to follow after his steps, God wants to make sure that our words are pure and
preserved, edifying, you know, that you're long suffering with brethren, that you encourage the
brethren and just again, if you see a problem with someone in church, you don't need to run
off to someone and tell them about all those problems, you can run off to the Lord, go to the
Lord and ask him to help them, that wouldn't be double-hearted, you know, that wouldn't be
someone that's a hypocrite but verse number 8, the wicked walk on every side,
you see as the godly men cease, as it appears that the world is moving away from the Lord,
you're going to start seeing an increase in wicked people, you're going to see an increase of
wicked people walking on every side, everywhere around you, I mean I thank God sometimes that I
don't need to work a full-time job anymore, like a secular job because I was surrounded by wicked
people, I mean you guys know that, right, those that work full-time, you know you're surrounded
by wicked people, you know, you're hearing the wicked thoughts, the wicked words of these people
and it can easily defile you, you know, you need to make sure you protect yourself from that,
say why wicked people walking on every side, the Psalmist explains it, verse number 8,
when the vilest men are exalted, okay, we see what our nation today is exalting, do they exalt the
believer, do they exalt the Christian, okay, I mean it's like every time there's a problem in the
world they want to blame Christianity, they want to blame the Bible, they want to blame Bible
preachers, you know, but what do they do, what does our world exalt, they exalt the vilest men,
you know, to be vile is to be disgusting, to be impure, you know, versus the pure words that we
saw in God and you know what, our government is made up of vile men, the churches, many churches
that once preach the truth, the preachers, false prophets, vile men, you know, vile men have been
exalted in this world, there's a lot of vile wicked men in authority today, there's a lot of
wickedness in the schools today, the teachers that teach, you know, our public school children, you
know, they're wicked men, they're vile, we're going to continue seeing this wickedness come
in this life but I don't want you to be discouraged, you know, you can avoid the wickedness,
you can, just come back to this word, okay, the pure words that God has given us, preserved from
this generation forever, God's preserved it for you, for you to read it, please, you know, to escape,
you need to escape the wickedness in this world, you need to refresh yourself for the Holy Spirit
of God, you need to do it through this book, right, the King James Bible, I'll leave it there, let's pray.