My daughter, Ellie Sue, she was born July 28th, 5.44 a.m., weighing six pounds and measuring 19 and a half inches long.
And man, I'll tell you what, my wife is such a trooper. She's so good at this, and I'm going to make some of you kind of mad,
but my wife literally delivered her in one push. So, it was like, it's pretty incredible.
And so, you know, I contribute that to prayers, you know, people asking for us to have an easy delivery and everything like that.
And so, thank you for that. And everybody's doing really good, but if you continue to pray for recovery, she's so sweet and she's doing really good.
And we look forward to everyone meeting her.
If you didn't get a piece of cake this morning, you missed out because it was so good.
But I think there's still a little bit left. So, after the service, run over there and get you a piece of cake and try to finish it.
And that's pretty much all I have for announcements. Let's go to our third song.
It's 220, Jesus is All the World to Me.
It's going to be 220. Get there myself. Jesus is All the World to Me, song number 220.
Jesus is all the world to me, my life, my joy, my all.
He is my strength from day to day, without Him I would fall.
When I am sad, to Him I go. No other one can cheer me so.
When I am sad, He makes me glad. He's my friend.
Jesus is all the world to me, my friend in trial sore.
I go to Him for blessings and He gives it more and more.
Peace is the sunshine and the rain. Peace is the harvest, golden grain.
Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain. He is my friend.
Jesus is all the world to me and true to Him I'll be.
Oh, how could I this friend deny when He's so true to me?
Following Him I know I'm right. He watches over me day and night.
Following Him by day and night, He's my friend.
Jesus is all the world to me, I want no better friend.
I trust Him now, I'll trust Him when life's fleeting days shall end.
Beautiful life for such a friend. Beautiful life that has no end.
Eternal life, eternal joy, He's my friend.
Amen. Good singing.
As the offering plates are being passed around, please turn into your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 22.
Proverbs chapter 22.
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.
The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all.
A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.
By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.
Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward, he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity, and the rod of his anger shall fail.
He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he giveth of his bread to the poor.
Cast out a scorn and contention shall go out, yea strife and reproach shall cease.
He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.
The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.
The slothful man saith, There is a line without, I shall be slain in the streets.
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit, he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want.
Bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge.
For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee, they shall withal be fitted in thy lips,
that thy trust may be in the Lord I have made known to thee this day, even to thee.
Have not I written to thee excellent things and counsels and knowledge,
that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth,
that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?
Rob not the poor because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gate,
for the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoil them.
Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go,
lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul.
Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.
If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.
Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings.
He shall not stand before mean men.
Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church.
I pray you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit.
Allow him to preach your word boldly and teach us that we may better glorify you.
Please help us apply it to our lives this week and the coming days.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Let's look back at verse 20, the Bible reads,
Have not I written to thee excellent things and counsels and knowledge,
that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth,
that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that sinned unto thee?
So according to the Bible, the way that God looks at the Bible is he describes it as excellent things.
And he says in counsels and knowledge.
And the reason why the Bible is described this way is because it's the greatest literature ever written.
And that's the title of my sermon this evening, The Greatest Literature Ever Written.
And what's so cool about the Bible is that it literally checks every box as far as every counsel, all knowledge, all wisdom.
If you find anything in this world that's true, if you find anything that's of good wisdom, of good knowledge,
it's based on the word of God.
You can find those principles in the Bible.
And the reason why is because all of this knowledge, all of this counsel comes from God.
Anything that's wise, anything that has true wisdom, anything that is true,
it's going to be coming from the source of truth, which is none other than God.
Notice it's even saying in verse number 21, the words of truth.
And he wants you to know for sure that what we say, what we preach, that the word of God is the word of truth.
And so, you know, the goal of this sermon, it's not going to have all these, you know, cute points or whatever.
All I want to do is just show you how cool the Bible is and just show you the certainty of the words of truth
and just make the appeal that the Bible is literally the greatest literature ever written.
I forgot one thing.
Hey, will you get my dry erase board, Brother Jacob, and whatever and bring it up here?
I'm going to use it in a minute.
But go to Ecclesiastes chapter 1, Ecclesiastes chapter number 1.
And here's the thing you have to understand about the way the Bible is written is it encompasses every area of life, but it's also timeless.
That's what's so unique about the word of God is it's literally timeless.
Even though things change constantly in our world, yet the truths of the Bible, they never change.
Because truth is truth.
You know, things that are true are always going to be true.
And it makes it clear in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, look at verse 9,
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be.
And that which is done is that which shall be done.
And there is no new thing under the sun.
Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new.
It hath been already of old time, which was before us.
So this concept or principle could be applied to everything, okay?
But it can also be applied to literature in the sense that you're not going to come up with some novel idea or new way in order to write literature that has not already been done before.
Meaning what?
People are going to come up with new ways to write books or to write literature that's going to be better than the Bible.
The Bible's already locked in the greatest literature ever written.
And the greatest literature that's outside of the Bible, it's always following the example of the Bible.
It's doing things that the Bible does and following the same patterns and ideals.
That's why it's so interesting to me if you study English literature or if you study literature in school, you study how to write a play, you study how to write a story, you study any of these elements,
that all of the principles they teach you are principles that you could find in the Bible or how the Bible actually fits those principles perfectly.
Because good storytelling, good writing, good literature is the Word of God, okay?
And I'm going to prove a lot of these things to you.
I'm going to teach you a lot of things this evening.
But go to Psalms 119, Psalms 119.
I say this, you know, they even have in literature, they'll say every single story fits into one of these few plots, you know?
Because they already have decided all the ideas that are possible have already been decided.
And that follows the principle we just read in Ecclesiastes chapter 1.
There's no new thing under the sun.
You can't dream up these new plot themes or whatever because the ones that you dream up, someone already did it.
And in fact, let me tell you what, they're all copying the Bible is what they're really doing because it all comes from the Word of God.
Psalms 119, look at 161.
Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart standeth in awe of the Word.
We should stand in awe of the Word of God.
You know, when you look at the Bible, it should be something amazing, something awesome, something incredible because it truly is.
And, you know, that's why I reject, you know, the Quran because it's not something to stand in awe of.
It's awful is what it is.
You know, you look at the Book of Mormon and you can just tell how it's not anywhere on the same level as the Word of God.
Or the Apocrypha, you look at other books, you know, people say, well, how do you know the Bible is the Word of God?
It's like, have you read it? Have you even looked at it?
Because there's nothing to compare it to.
It's just very, very clear.
You know, it's something that you can just look at and it's just very obvious to you.
It's not something that you have to worry about.
You know, it'd be the same as walking into the grocery store and seeing a perfectly good piece of produce,
you know, some kind of a red delicious apple and it's got a perfect color and it's crisp and it looks right.
As opposed to one that's rotting on the vine.
And they're like, well, how do you know which one's good?
And it's like, it's just obvious.
You just look at it, you just observe it.
Just like, hey, here's a tree, a real tree and a fake tree.
How can you tell the difference every single time?
Because it's too impossible to replicate that which is real.
Now, I want you to go in your Bible to, and it's going to be a little bit.
Go if you would to Galatians chapter number 5, okay?
And I'm going to take a while to get there.
But I just want to explain a few things for you.
We don't just believe the Bible is the word of God.
And this is one thing that separates us from every other religion.
And another thing that separates the Bible from any other book.
I don't just believe this is the word of God.
I believe it is God.
I believe the King James Bible, the words that are found in this book are not just the word of God, they are God.
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
Meaning that we don't just worship, like you worship a book. No, I worship God.
But here's the thing, it is God.
That's different than any other book.
No other book is claiming like, not only am I God's words, I am God.
But the Bible makes that claim.
The Bible says that claim.
So if the God of the universe is in this book, it's got to be better than any other book.
And it is, okay?
Now, here's another thing.
The Bible says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Now you say, well how am I going to see God, Pastor Shelley?
You open this book and you read it.
You can see it every single day.
You can see God.
And you know what, when you're pure in heart, when you're seeking after the Lord, you can actually see him through the pages of the scripture.
And you can see him in your life today.
But when it comes to literature, you know, it's unequivocally the most popular book.
Now I could go to different lists and I could find people that would rate books higher than the Bible.
But when you look at all the lists, you notice that the Bible is always coming at the top.
You notice that the Bible is the number one bestselling book in the world.
And look, not just the Bible, the King James Bible.
If you added every Bible, of course the Bible would be the most read book ever.
But even just the King James alone, the most read book, the most sold book, the book that's in every single person's hands.
And look, it's not a coincidence.
There's a reason why.
It's because it's the greatest literature ever written.
Now it's possible that a book could be the most popular and not the best literature.
It could happen.
But here's the thing, it didn't.
And the Bible is both the most popular and it's the best.
And you say, well why is it the best?
Or why is it the most popular?
It's because it's the best.
That's why.
Now I looked up on a website.
They rated the greatest books ever.
Now they didn't have the King James Bible number one.
But I'll just give you the two that they had above it because they had number three.
Number one, The Catcher in the Rye.
Now this used to be on a list of books that if you were reading it, the FBI would put you on your watch list as a serial killer.
Number two is 1984.
But you know what's interesting about those two books is they're kind of like books about being aware of how there's a real truth out there that you're not really aware of and how there's evil people trying to distort and hide the real truth.
And then you have number three, the King James Bible.
And you're like, oh those are conspiracy theory books.
Well the Bible is a conspiracy theory book.
But you know what?
That's just one list.
If I looked at all kinds of other lists, obviously the Bible is always coming up at the top.
This guy is obviously just jaded or slanted towards some kind of a conspiracy kick.
But nobody in their right mind would say The Catcher in the Rye is a better book than the Bible.
I've read The Catcher in the Rye.
Weird.
It is not the best literature ever.
And it really can't even compete because the things that the Bible contains, the information it contains, is so much more vast.
It covers every area of your life times a thousand.
Whereas The Catcher in the Rye is just a weird story about a guy that's dealing with all kinds of issues.
Don't even read it. I don't even recommend it.
1984 is really depressing.
I mean it's like one of the most tragic stories ever.
Who would really read 1984 and be like, that was so good, compared to the Bible?
You read 1984 and you're just scared of everything after that.
You think that it's called America is what it really should be called.
No, I'm just kidding.
But I also got another article and it's from a guy called Leland Reichen.
He is an English professor at Wheaton College.
This is what he said about the Bible.
He said, from approximately 1700 to 1950, the King James Bible was the preeminent book in England and American in virtually every sphere of society that we can name.
Family, religion, church, politics, education, literature, art, and music.
He said, for 250 years, in Europe, in England specifically, and in America, every single area of society, all of them, the King James Bible is the most important document for everything.
Art, music, literature, everything.
And you say, what happened? People got really stupid in the 1950s apparently.
Started rejecting still the greatest literature.
It's not like they came out with some better literature in 1950.
It's that people started rejecting the greatest literature.
He says, not only this, the foundation of which everything else rested was influence of the King James version on the English language.
He says, the best of classics the world has ever admired.
According to this guy, he claims it is the greatest ever.
Now, there's a lot of reasons why, and I'm going to explain from a literature perspective why it's so much superior, but I'm going to give you a few more quotes.
John Adams, one of our presidents, this is what he said about the Bible.
Suppose a nation and some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts that are exhibited.
Every member would be obligated in conscience to temperance, frugality, and industry, to justice, kindness, and charity toward his fellow man, and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God.
What a utopia. What a paradise this region would be.
John Quincy Adams, this is what he said.
So great is my veneration for the Bible. Veneration means praise or appreciation.
He says that the earlier my children begin to read it, the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens to their country and respectable members of society.
Sir William Blackstone said, the Bible has always been regarded as part of the common law of England.
He says it's common law. It's whatever it says.
David Josiah Brewer, no nation is better than its sacred book. In that book are expressed its highest ideals of life, and no nation rises above those ideals.
No nation has a sacred book compared with ours. This American nation from its first settlement at Jamestown to the present hour is based upon and permeated by the principles of the Bible.
The more this Bible enters into our national life, the grander and purer and better will that life become.
William Jennings Bryan, the Bible holds up before us ideals that are within sight of the weakest and the lowliest, and yet so high that the best and the noblest are kept with their faces turned ever upward.
It carries the call of the Savior to the remotest corners of the earth. On its pages are written the assurances of the present and our hopes up for the future.
George Washington Carver, the secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Rufus Choate, no lawyer can afford to be ignorant of the Bible. I like that. Charles Coulson, the Bible, banned, burned, beloved, more widely read, more frequently attacked than any other book in history.
Generations of intellectuals have attempted to discredit it. Dictators of every age have outlawed it and executed those who read it.
Yet soldiers carry it into battle, believing it more powerful than their weapons. Fragments of it smuggled into solitary prison cells have transformed ruthless killers into gentle saints.
That's a powerful quote, and when you read history, you realize that many American soldiers and many soldiers of the past did in fact carry New Testaments and Bibles with them to all of the battles that they went.
And they tried to share the gospel not only to those that were friends, but even their foes. Taking captive prisoners and teaching them the Bible, teaching them the word of God.
Have you ever noticed the Muslims doing that with the Quran? The Mormons? I mean, people don't do these things except for with the word of God because it's the greatest literature ever written.
And I have quote after quote after quote. I'm going to read a few more. Ulysses S. Grant, hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties.
That's an interesting verse, or quote. Write its precept on your hearts and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book, we are indebted for the progress made to civilization.
And to this, we must look at it, our gut day in the future. He says, hey, if you want to have liberty, you have to hold fast to the Bible. You want to know why America is losing liberty fast? It's because it's not holding on to the Bible.
Now, when it comes to literature, they describe different styles of literature. History. History is a style of literature. And of course, the Bible contains huge portions of history. In fact, that's how it starts.
With all types of history. Poetry. The Bible contains poetry. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon are regarded as the books of poetry.
Fiction. Now, here's the thing. You'd say, fiction? The Bible's true. Yet, the Bible mentions fables. It talks about people that turn their ears into fables. Meaning what? It was aware of fiction, but it doesn't give you any fiction. It tells you to stay away from the fiction.
Not only that, though, non-fiction. Of course, the Bible's full of accounts of non-fiction. So the Bible's aware of every style of literature. Not only that, how about plot? Now, plot's a very interesting thing.
I've taken a few theater classes. I'm not an expert on this. But when it comes to writing a story. And the Bible's, of course, a story. Isn't that what we sing?
I love to tell the story of Jesus and his love. That old, old story. Right? So the Bible's, of course, a story. That doesn't mean it's fictional. Just simply, if you look in a dictionary, a story is an account of events.
And of course, that could be fictional or non-fictional. We know the Bible is not fictional. But if you learn how to write a story, they talk about writing a plot. And they have a plot diagram.
And the plot diagram, it looks pretty simple. It has a pattern that kind of looks like this. Okay? And what they say is, to start, you need to have what's called an exposition. Or you could call it a prologue. Or the setting. These are kind of different things.
To expose something that makes it obvious or reveals something. The exposition, what it does is it places the story with a setting, characters, and some kind of a promise or some kind of a plot. Something that they're going to be doing. Okay?
Now, the Bible, of course, does this in what? Genesis 1 through 3. Actually, it's really more just like Genesis 1 through 2, kind of. But this is where we get the setting. We have the setting of the whole world. The whole universe being created. We have God. We have the characters. We have man. We have Adam and Eve. All created at the very beginning, giving us a clear exposition.
But then the second part of good literature is you have to have here conflict. Okay? Some kind of a conflict, which is introduced in Genesis chapter number 3. Sin is introduced into the world, is it not? A great conflict.
Then they say what happens next in a good story, in a good plot, is you have what's called rising action. Which one's following which? The Bible's not following this. This is just telling you what the Bible did. Okay? But what's the rising action? This is the Old Testament.
And here we are made a promise. Okay? At the conflict and the beginning and the setting. What was that promise? The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Okay? And it was going to bite the heel of one and crush the head of the other. Okay? So all of that's created. We have a setting, the world. We have the characters, God and man. The devil. And then we have a promise that's given of what? That's the world.
That the seed of the woman is going to defeat the seed of the serpent. Okay? So the Old Testament leads to what? The coming seed. The seed of the woman. What is the climax? It's none other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What is the following action? It's the New Testament. And what is the resolution? The return of Christ. Where he's ultimately going to what? Destroy the serpent. And we are reconciled back to God. This is exactly how the Bible is written from an overview and also happy ending.
Now, I could just sit here and list story after story after story after story that follow this exact model. You go watch a movie, here it is. Now you watch a crappy movie and they don't do this very well. You watch a great movie, exactly like this.
And honestly, I need to preach a whole different sermon. Maybe I'll do it pretty soon since I'm talking about this. But what the devil does is he takes all of the good elements of the Bible like this and creates a story and then perverts it.
But if you understand Hollywood, all of the really good stories are the exact same as the Bible. It's very eerie. Okay? And I don't want to like give you too much information, but Superman is one of the creepiest stories when you realize what they're doing in comparison to the word of God.
Now, he is a foreigner, a stranger that descends down into the earth. He's invincible. He can't lie. He's the truth. Okay? He can't kill him. Alright? And he has to sacrifice himself for mankind. He's the savior of all mankind. His father is named Jor-El. You know what the word El means in the Bible? God.
Okay. It's real creepy. And I'll go through more of that. But they always have what? They give you the setting. They have someone who's been prophesied of a coming savior. That coming savior has to go through conflict and often sacrifice. And then as a resolution, have a happy ending. That's why movies end in a happy ending, typically. Because that's what you want to hear.
Now, throughout the Bible, we would have multiple plots. This is the plot of the Bible. Okay? So when you have a story, you always have multiple plots. Subplots and other things that are going on. And when it comes to plots, the world will tell you that there's only a few plots that exist. And all those plots can be found in the Bible.
Here's one plot that they give you. Overcoming the monster. Okay? And they say the definition is the protagonist, which would be your hero, sets out to defeat the antagonized force, which would be the evil or villain, which threatens the protagonist or the protagonist's homeland.
Does that fit with the Bible? You've got good versus evil. You have the truth versus the lie. You have Christ, God, versus the devil. Exact same. Here's what they say are examples of this. James Bond, Jaws, Star Wars, The War of the Worlds, Beowulf, Dracula. Everybody's wicked in that one. Okay?
But look, the Bible has that plot. Okay? And you have that plot constantly throughout the Bible. Constantly you see the protagonist being attacked by an antagonist and then overcoming them. Gideon overcoming evil. You know, you have all kinds of different battle scenes. You have the Davids versus the Goliath, right? Overcoming the monster. That plot was already done.
Here's another plot. Rags to riches. Okay? Well, guess what? We all started off with nothing and we get to inherit with Jesus Christ. Talk about rags to riches. It should be birthday suit to riches. That's what it really is.
What would be stories like this? Aladdin, Cinderella, A Little Princess, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, The Gold Rush, The Jerk. Here's another plot line. The quest. The definition, protagonist and companion set out to acquire an important object or to get a location. They face temptations and other obstacles along the way.
Hey, isn't that found constantly throughout the Bible? Isn't Abraham seeking constantly that quest? Now, here's the thing. What's that location that he's searching for? A heavenly Jerusalem.
What are examples of this? The Lord of the Rings, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That's what it says. Okay. Pilgrim's Progress. Here's another example of a lot. Voyage in return.
Voyage in return. The protagonist goes to a strange land and after overcoming the threats it poses or learning important lessons unique to that location, they return with experience. Doesn't that sound like what Christ did? Didn't he come down here, defeat, and then he returns with experience?
He suffered so that he could know what it was like to suffer like we do. So he could be a propitiation, so he could be someone to, you know, basically empathize with our situation.
Examples of this, Gone with the Wind, The Lion King, Back to the Future, Gulliver's Travels, Peter Pan. They also have comedy.
Now, this one's a little interesting, but I will say there is, I believe there is comedy in the Bible, okay? And sometimes it's not always immediately available readily, like on the surface, but as you read through the Bible, I find myself cracking up all the time.
You know, one of the greatest is when there's a servant that's going on to the new future king of Israel, Jehu, okay? And he's coming to anoint him king, and his companions, whenever this messenger comes in, he says, oh, this guy's false.
And they're like, he's not going to give you any kind of good message, and I'm paraphrasing. And then he comes and he talks to Jehu, and then Jehu comes back and is like, hey, what did he say?
And it's just funny, they're like, oh, this guy's a liar and false, and who cares? And they're like, please tell us, though. You know, they're so interested in what he has to say, and it's just kind of funny.
But you know, God gets a lot of laughs in the Bible. He's constantly laughing at how stupid the wicked are, and he's constantly laughing at people that think they're going to overthrow him.
And reality is, comedy is laughing at someone's expense, typically, okay? But you know what? We're going to laugh with God. God's going to laugh at other people's expense. It's found in the Bible, and he's the one that taught us what that looks like.
Tragedy. There's plenty of tragedy in the Bible. And how about Job? That was a pretty rough series in some of those things. And you say, well, it ended good. Okay. Yeah, well, how about Lot? Isn't that just tragedy? I mean, Lot, you keep waiting for it to get good, and you're just like, oh, it's over.
It's like, that didn't end well, right? I mean, for some people in the Bible, it's just tragedy. For some people, it just ends horribly.
Rebirth. Well, that sounds like a familiar plot line. An event forces the main character to change their ways and often become a better individual. Isn't that constant? I mean, talk about a plot constantly in the Bible. Here's stories that they have of this.
Romeo and Juliet. Oh, sorry, that was tragedy. I was just like, how's that rebirth?
Pride and Prejudice, A Christmas Carol, Secret Garden, Groundhog Day. Groundhog Dog is a weird movie, okay? But it's interesting how they say this. You can't write a story that doesn't fit in one of these plots.
And I'll say this. You can't find, you can find every single one of these plots in the Bible. Why? Because it's already the greatest literature ever written. Everybody's just copying the Bible.
Every good story, every good idea, everything that has value, it's already been done by God, and they're just copying what God has done. That's why the most successful, and I make this clear, the most successful literature, movies, all these things,
they are copying the Bible's elements. They are copying the Bible's elements. That's why. I mean, what do you think is more popular to see? A movie that ends with a great ending or a horrible ending? Horrible ending movies never do very well.
I mean, they're few and far between. I mean, Romeo and Juliet's a pretty famous tragedy, but there's very few tragedies that are very popular. Typically, everybody wants that happy ending.
You know, they want to know how everything works out good at the end. Now, what makes a good story also is that the promise ends up being delivered.
Well, what was that promise made? Oh, yeah, that seed of the woman conquering the seed of the serpent, and that's exactly what we have in the Bible. It starts with a beginning and it ends with an ending.
Have you ever noticed the Bible starts with a beginning and ends with an ending? And the beginning, God. That's pretty interesting to a book. And then it ends with the end. Amen. It's just done.
And then Jesus says, oh, wait, I'm the beginning and the end. I'm the first and the last. It's like he's telling you this is a story. He's the first storyteller. He's telling you everything about what a story looks like.
A beginning, a middle, an end. He is the climax. He's everything about the story. In order to have a good story, you have a promise. Then you make progress towards that promise. Then you eventually pay off on that promise.
Now, another thing that's interesting about plays or these things is they try to have three acts. That's a typical structure for a play, and it's a successful structure.
And I would submit to you that I believe the Bible is written in three acts. Because you have the first act, which is the promise of a coming Messiah. Okay? So it's the entire Old Testament.
The second act is the coming of the Messiah. The third act is the return of the Messiah. It's a three-act play.
And it's just incredible how, you know, all of the elements that the world looks at and says this is a really good idea is because you can find in the Bible.
Not only that, just some of the most quoted phrases in the world. In fact, the Bible is the most quoted book ever. But the most quoted phrases come from the Bible. Here's some quoted phrases.
The love of money is the root of all evil. People say that all day long that don't even care about the Bible.
Can a leopard change his spots? Eye for eye. How about this one? Good Samaritan. I mean, everybody.
And again, that's not necessarily a direct quote. Some of these are not direct quotes, but they're just the concepts that are taught in the Bible.
Skate goat concept taught in the Bible. Sign of the times. That's not only a good quote, that's a great sermon. You should look it up.
Wolf in sheep's clothing. Again, not a direct quote, but the concept taught in the Bible.
Bridings on the wall. Kiss of death. Gird up thy loins like a man.
The sweat of your brow. A man after my own heart. The skin of my teeth. Pride goes before a fall.
The blind leading the blind. Out of the mouths of babes. A house divided against itself shall not stand.
Give not that which is holy under the dogs. Neither cast ye your pearls before swine.
To everything a season. The ends of the earth. And it's not a flat earth, okay?
But what I was thinking about the Bible, and this is kind of an interesting thought, is when it comes to other religions.
You know, other religious texts don't have the same historical reference that the Bible does, okay?
And I'm going to explain it from two points. Number one, the Bible explains all of history.
It starts with the beginning and goes to the end and explains everything that happened in between, okay?
So it provides a perfect history, a perfect chronology.
Other books, some, will try to attempt to give you an origin.
You know, like, I believe some of the Hindu scriptures will talk about origin type events.
But they don't really give you a timeline, and it's not chronological all the way to the present. You can't really follow it.
Yet most religious texts don't even attempt this. They realize they can't, and so they piggyback off the Bible.
This would be your Qur'an. This would be your Book of Mormon. Why?
Because they realize that there's something that they cannot achieve.
And this is why they piggyback off the Bible, is the fact that they weren't there.
But the Bible was. And what I mean by that is if we study recorded history, okay, the Bible goes all the way back through recorded history.
It was there. If we study the Qur'an, it stops at Muhammad through recorded history.
We do the Book of Mormon, it stops at Joseph Smith through recorded history.
And any religion, if I start a new religion today, it would start today.
I can't create a new religion that then we can look through the glass, or we can look back through history and see that same religion being taught and going through.
That's a unique thing to the Bible, to the Word of God. Not only does the Bible give you the entire history, it was there through the entire history.
That's a really interesting proof, and no other book does that or will ever be able to do that. It's the only book.
So anybody that comes up with a new religion would have to say, well, God didn't give us His Word for thousands and thousands of years and now gave it to us.
Whereas the Bible is like, we've always had it. It's right here. Mankind has always had the Word of God. It's always existed, it's always been with us.
There's only one book that can do that. Why? Because the Bible is there.
That's also why all the historical events in the Bible are accurate, because the Bible is there.
Here's another reason why it's the greatest literature ever. Not only does it have all the perfect history, not only is it through all of history, but it also, it explains reality in a way that no other book does.
It explains all phenomena that we see in the world. Every phenomena. And you say, what's phenomena? I don't know, lightning.
I mean, isn't lightning one of the most incredible things ever? I mean, it just comes out of nowhere, it's so powerful.
It'll take the most brave, arrogant, prideful person and turn them into a coward real quick.
Lightning. Fire. You know, lightning, fire, storms, the whirlwind, a baby being born.
I mean, all the things that we see in the world, tempests, that are just incredible.
Stars, the sun, the moon, the planets, the universe, hail, all the things that we observe is just the most incredible phenomena.
The Bible talked about it. There's not this really unique phenomena that the Bible is just silent on.
No, the Bible can describe all the phenomena that we see in the world today. Where is that in all the other texts? It doesn't exist.
Not only that, the Bible explains every range of human emotion. I had you in Galatians 5, I was going to get there, okay?
Look at verse 19, and look how incredible the Bible is.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variants, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such alike.
Of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in the time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law, and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Now again, this is not a comprehensive list, but this just has so much to it.
But I'll submit to you this, every emotion that you can experience can be found in the Bible, good or bad.
What other text can explain every emotion that we could possibly have?
Can explain every event, every circumstance, every situation, that can explain all the phenomena that we see in the world today.
It's clearly the greatest literature ever written.
You know, it's not just a tragedy, it's also a happy ending.
It's not just a happy ending, it's also a tragedy. It has it all!
Every emotion, every experience, not only that, every sin.
Now that's a little bit of a circular logic, but I'm okay with it, okay?
Because for it to be a sin, it has to be written, right?
Because sin is a transgression of the law.
But, I'll submit to you this, there's not sin that people are committing that you can't find in the Bible.
People are doing all these, it's not like you left out murder.
People are murdering and you're just like, oh man, I wish God had talked about murder.
Or, I wish he had talked about adultery.
I mean, is there really something that people are doing that's evil today?
Something that you really hate, that you can't find the Bible talking about?
It describes all the evil that happens in the world today.
It describes how it's bad, how it should be punished, how it should be dealt with.
It tells you all the things that are going on.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 4, go to Deuteronomy chapter 4.
That's because the Bible's morality is unmatched.
You cannot create a moral system superior to the Word of God.
It's impossible.
The Bible tells us this.
Deuteronomy chapter 4, look at verse 7.
For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them,
as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
And what nation is there so great, that has statutes and judgments so righteous
as all this law which I set before you this day?
So look at the Bible.
The Bible's saying, look, when you look at the Bible,
the only logical reaction is there's no way to create a better moral system.
There's nothing more righteous than this.
This perfectly encompasses all righteousness, all morality.
You know, the atheists today can never explain morality.
You can't explain morality without the Bible.
And you can't explain a better morality without the Bible.
Show me the text that has a better morality than the Word of God.
Is it the Georgia Guidestones?
That's not a better morality.
Ninety-five percent of our planet would have to be genocide
to be in accordance to one of their statutes,
which says that human population shall not be above 500 million.
Which of those are we going to choose that get to live?
Which 500 million?
Who came up with that number?
What a stupid number.
Who wants to live according to that rule?
You know, when you look at the Bible, you say, I love all of these rules.
I love all these statutes.
They're all good. They're all right.
Anybody that presents a different text, I mean, oh, the Quran.
The Quran's morality is so much better.
Yeah, it tells us that women are dirt.
What a great morality.
It says, do with your dirt as you please.
What a superior morality that is, right?
Kill yourself and a whole bunch of other infidels to receive 72 virgins.
That's not morality. That's selfishness.
And it's a lie, okay?
But, you know, not only does the Bible provide all of our morality,
think about it this, it also has songs.
It gives you all wisdom.
It has a political system.
It has an economic system.
It has a family structure and the church structure.
All in this book.
It has all of your laws.
All of your family structure.
I mean, when you look at the laws of America, they probably wouldn't all fit in this room
if they were written on pages.
Yet God has it all encapsulated in one book.
Just everything.
Everything you need in your entire life.
All the songs that you would need.
It's got all the wisdom that you would need.
It's got all the laws that you need.
It's got all the economic policies that you need.
It's got everything.
All of morality.
All the ways to worship God.
Everything you could possibly need crammed in one book.
What other books like that?
This is why it's silly to then look at something like The Catcher in the Rye
and say it's better.
It's like The Catcher in the Rye doesn't tell me how to have an economic policy
or to have a capital punishment system.
Or it has no songs, okay?
It doesn't have a songbook attached.
I mean, to say that it's better than the Bible
is really categorically false.
Every single situation you could ever put yourself in,
I could find that situation found in the Bible.
You know, and I haven't been pastoring a long time.
But every time someone's coming to me with a marriage problem,
I could show you that marriage problem in the Bible.
Or this person did this to me.
I could find that in the Bible.
Hey, I have this issue you could find in the Bible.
I mean, nobody's coming to me and just saying,
I have this weird situation.
Wow, I just have no idea what to do.
You know?
Now, I preach a different sermon called No Good Option.
Sometimes you don't have any good options,
but the Bible does explain every situation.
Now, not only, this is another thing that's so incredible about the Bible,
okay, and it just keeps getting better and better, okay?
Not only is the Bible all the things that we've already said so far,
but think about this.
The King James Bible that we hold in our hand
is not even the original language given by God.
Yet, yet, it is literally the most popular book ever.
Think about that.
The Bible was originally given in Hebrew and in Greek, generically speaking.
We have it translated in English,
so the translated version of the Word of God
is still the most popular book in human history.
That's how powerful God's Word is.
That it can even literally be translated and it's still that good.
And when you read the Bible,
I've never read the Bible and even for a second thought it was a translation.
I mean, when you read the King James Bible,
it seems like what God really said.
And it is what God really said.
I'm not trying to take away from it,
but we all realize, especially, it'll even tell you sometimes like,
well, this is what he said in this language at that time, right?
Eli, Eli, land myself back tonight.
That's what he literally said, right?
But we know that what that means is,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Okay?
And it's still powerful in English.
It's still the greatest book.
And it's funny because other religions,
they don't even have that much respect for their holy book translated in another language.
Like if you talk to a Muslim,
they don't really have that much respect for an English version of the Quran.
They're always like, well, you got to go the original.
Yeah, but think about it.
We literally worship the translation as God.
We believe this is God because God's word transcends language itself.
I mean, we're talking about literature here.
The word of God transcends language itself.
That's how powerful it is.
That's how amazing it is.
And I mean, the word of God has been translated in all kinds of languages today.
Why? Because it's the greatest literature ever.
How many translations exist? I don't even know. Hundreds.
Here's another aspect of its literature, foreshadowing.
Now, if you want to have a great literature or a great story,
foreshadowing is one of the most important points.
Go to Daniel chapter 8.
And the foreshadowing aspect of the Bible just proves its greatness over and over again.
I mean, the fact that you can find Jesus in every story,
on every page, every prophecy,
everything relates back to him.
But the foreshadowing is mind-boggling how anything could ever do this.
And you know, Hollywood and some of them,
they can have some foreshadowing in their stories,
but it's never to the degree,
it's never to the extremity of the word of God.
But some of the greatest films or books,
you know, what makes them great is they have so much foreshadowing.
Like, you can point back and you can watch it and you can say,
like, oh wow, the second time when I watched that or I read this,
I see how the author was pointing to that the whole time
or I saw all those cool things that he added into the text.
That's what makes something truly great.
And that's what makes the Bible so great
is you can read it two times, three times, four times, five times, ten times, a hundred times
and find new foreshadowings each time,
new ways to find Christ on every single page.
But not only just about Christ, everything,
the Bible is foreshadowing all kinds of events
that are recorded in history.
This is really, you know, mind-blowing
when you think about how Daniel was giving certain prophecies
that have been fulfilled to such accuracy that it's impossible to deny.
Daniel chapter 8 is going to elaborate on other visions,
but he had a vision of four great beasts, okay?
And they're interpreted as four kingdoms.
And those kingdoms started out with Nebuchadnezzar being the first,
the Babylonian or the Chaldean empire, okay?
And then it goes on to other kingdoms.
It has the Medo-Persians, then the Grecians and the Romans.
Daniel chapter 8 explains that in detail.
Look what it says in Daniel chapter 8 verse 20.
The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.
Verse 21, and the rough goat is the king of Grecia.
And the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
Now that being broken, whereas four stood upon for it,
four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.
Now in Daniel chapter 8, he gives you explicitly who he's talking about.
It's not just a parable here.
He's saying, no, literally the kings of Media and Persia are going to take over.
And that's exactly what happened in recorded history.
After the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians come in, take them out,
and they have alternating kings and Medo-Pers going through.
Then beyond that we have the Grecian, Alexander the Great,
who literally goes through and conquers the whole world again.
And when it comes to world kingdoms, we have the Babylonian kingdom.
We have the Medo-Persian empire.
We have the Grecian empire, the Greek empire.
And then we have the Roman empire.
But do you realize we don't have another one?
How did God know that?
How did the Bible know that?
How did Daniel know that?
Because it's the word of God, that's how.
Because Jesus Christ is the beginning and the ending.
He knows everything.
I mean, it would have just taken one kingdom to change,
or one kingdom to not have happened, for the Bible to be invalidated.
And it talks about another coming kingdom.
It sounds like we're getting pretty close to.
But think about this.
Alexander the Great was in 356 B.C.
That's when he was born, approximately.
Daniel would have been written around 604 B.C.,
all the way up to about 586 B.C.,
which is basically when they're returning back,
and it's when you have the great proclamation by Cyrus.
Some people differ on that date a little bit,
but approximately in those ranges.
So we're talking 200 years in the future,
Daniel is able to tell people that there's going to be a Greek empire.
Think about how difficult that would be.
Think about someone saying, hey, in 2020, or 2221,
there's going to be the kings of Morocco,
and they're going to take over the world.
I mean, that's a pretty far out there state, isn't it?
200 years from now.
And he's not saying 200 necessarily,
but he's saying it's going to happen, and it's that far removed.
Daniel chapter 11, I'm not going to go through all the detail yet,
but Daniel chapter 11 is such an accurate reflection of history
about Antiochus' epiphanies that secular historians say
that Daniel had to have been written at 164 B.C. or later
because of how accurate it is.
But here's the thing, even if it was,
which is, I don't believe that,
but I'm just saying, even if it was,
it's still recounting the fact that Daniel had said this in his lifetime.
So it doesn't change the fact that he said it,
unless you just believe it was all made up or something,
but we realize it's the word of God.
They have to try and date these things to those dates
because otherwise you'd have to say the Bible is the word of God
because he can't have that much clear history and prophecy
fulfilled in the Bible and not accept that it's true.
Go to Matthew 26, Matthew 26,
let's look at other prophecies that are fulfilled
and the Bible telling us about them.
And I just have two more points that I want to make this evening.
The Bible is literally the greatest literature ever written.
It's unparalleled and anything that you see in the world
that's good, right, true,
it's following principles found in the Bible,
even literature itself.
But Matthew 26, look at verse 55,
In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes,
Are you come out as against a thief with swords and stays for to take me?
I sat daily with you teaching in the temple,
and said, Oh, hold on me.
But all this was done,
that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.
Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.
Now it's just without question that we have the Old Testament
before Christ was born.
Yet Christ fulfills all those scriptures.
All the scriptures about him, he fulfills them perfectly.
Go to Mark chapter 15, Mark chapter 15.
And look, I'm not a fan of the Septuagint
or some of these other Greek texts,
but the Septuagint is dated before Christ.
And a lot of historians would say,
If it's before Christ, then that proves a lot of these things.
How do they know that Christ would fulfill all these scriptures?
How do they know this person would come and do all these things?
Mark 15 verse 28,
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith,
And he was numbered with the transgressors.
Luke chapter 4, go to Luke chapter number 4.
The Bible constantly tells you something,
the scripture was fulfilled, the scripture was fulfilled,
the scripture was fulfilled.
Over and over, Christ is fulfilling scripture and scripture and scripture,
which makes the Bible different than any other book.
Where in the Quran is it saying,
Oh yeah, and here's this scripture fulfilled by Muhammad.
An illiterate pedophile is going to come along and marry multiple women.
That would have been a weird prophecy anyways.
Where does it say, Oh yeah, and Muhammad fulfilled the prophecy spoken of in Joel,
spoken of in Daniel, spoken of by Zayas, spoken of by David, spoken of by Moses.
It never happened, did it?
Whereas Jesus is constantly saying,
Oh yeah, here's another place where I fulfilled scripture,
here's another place where I fulfilled scripture.
And even himself, sometimes he just point blank says,
What I'm doing right this second is fulfilling scripture.
Luke chapter 4, look at verse 17,
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah,
and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel of the poor.
He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister,
and sat down, and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue
were fastened on him.
And it began to say unto them,
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
What a powerful moment in time.
He literally reads the Bible and says,
You know, they handed a Bible to Muhammad,
you know what he said? I can't read this.
They handed it to him.
They handed it to Jesus,
and he reads it to him and says,
I'm literally fulfilling it right now.
That's the difference.
John chapter 17, I'll show you another one.
John chapter 17, the greatest literature ever written.
It's because it wasn't written by an illiterate pedophile, okay?
That's why it's so confusing, the Quran.
John chapter 17, John chapter 17, look at verse 12.
While I was with them in the world,
I kept them in thy name.
Those that thou gavest me I have kept,
and none of them is lost.
But the son of perdition,
that the scripture might be fulfilled,
he even knew everything he was doing was fulfilling scripture.
Everything was about fulfilling the scripture.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 2.
This is the last point I'm going to make.
I want to recap real quick.
Why is the Bible the greatest literature ever written?
Because it has every style of literature you could ever imagine.
It has every plot that you could ever imagine
with the greatest plot at its core.
It's the most quoted book.
It's the most sold book.
It's the most read book.
It has a complete history of everything that's ever happened
in all of the universe,
from the beginning all the way to the end.
And the Bible is there.
Not only does it tell you all about it,
it was there through all of it.
The Bible provides all answers to all reality.
Everything we see in reality is recorded in the Bible to some degree.
Why is the Bible the greatest literature ever written?
The foreshadowing.
Why is it the greatest literature ever written?
The prophecy.
And to me this one really takes the cake,
but here's the last point I'll make.
Why is the Bible the greatest literature ever written?
The spiritual depth.
No book, no book has the spiritual depth of the Bible
because this is the only spiritual book.
All the other books are carnal.
So there is no additional depth.
So there is no additional layer.
And when you're saved,
now this point will never make sense to the unsaved.
It will only make sense to the saved.
But when you're saved,
and you see how the Bible can be understood
through a person who saves eyes
and the unsaved can never see it,
it just reveals to you how it's the Word of God
on a continual, continual basis.
1 Corinthians 2, look at verse 13.
Which things also we speak not of the words
which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him,
neither can he know them
because they are spiritually discerned.
There are truths in the Bible
that an unsaved person can never,
ever, ever understand that every unsaved,
that every saved person understands.
You say, what's that?
The Gospel.
I mean, when you and I read the Bible,
when we go and preach the Gospel,
are we preaching something on a really high level IQ?
John 3.16, is that really, really high IQ?
I mean, is it really hard to read
where it just says, you know,
serves what must I do to be saved?
And they said, believe of the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
Was that really difficult?
I mean, you that work in a world
where you have to actually do all kinds
of things that are going to be harder than that one.
Most things that you learn in school
when it comes to physics, chemistry, algebra,
I mean, we're talking about things
a lot harder than just believing them, aren't we?
Yet, isn't it incredible how
the smartest person on the planet
that's unsafe still can't understand that?
Still can't realize that all you have to do is believe?
Why? The spiritual depth of the Bible.
No other book's like that.
No other book can you just
have a whole group of people that, you know,
understand it completely different than the rest
based only on a spiritual understanding.
Go to John chapter 8.
Yet, I could go all over the world
and if I find a saved person,
they can tell me what John 3.16 means
and if I find unsaved, they won't.
Your only exception to that rule is
atheists and God-hating, you know, reprobates
but they don't believe it.
And because of the rejection
of the gospel, they can't understand other things
and the unsaved will constantly
come up with weird, goofy ideas about the Bible.
The Catholics, I mean, it's just so clear
what the Bible teaches about his commandments
and then the Catholics just don't do it
and you're just like, how is that possible?
The spiritual blindness.
John chapter 8, look at verse 43.
Why do you not understand my speech
even because you cannot hear my word?
Hear of your father the devil
and the lust of your father you will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning
and abode not in the truth
because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own
for he is a liar and the father of it
and because I tell you the truth,
ye believe me not.
Which of you convinces me of sin
and if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
He that is of God heareth God's words,
ye therefore hear them not because you're not of God.
Only those that are of God can hear God's words.
What would be some of those words?
Well, how about not to make any graven image?
I mean isn't that one of our memory chapters?
Thou shalt not make thyself any graven image.
Yet what do Catholics do every day?
They look at their stupid graven images.
How?
Because of the spiritual blindness
when it comes to the Bible.
I mean isn't that incredible?
I mean these people are devoted to the Bible
yet they can't even understand it
when it literally says just in plain black and white
thou shalt not make thyself any graven image.
And in Deuteronomy it doubles down
and it says any figure of any person male or female.
Guess what? Mary is a female.
Your Mary statue is a graven image.
It's crazy.
Go to Matthew 23.
Matthew 23.
How about when the Bible says
whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood
hath eternal life and then Catholics
literally think that they're eating Jesus
with their cracker and juice.
It's like what in the world?
You say who would do that?
Someone that's not of God.
How we can read the exact same verses
and come to two completely different understandings.
And it's funny because you'll read
something in the Bible and it's so clear to you,
it's so easy, yet to the unsaved
it's so difficult, it's so hard.
And you say why?
Because it's a spiritual book.
That's why it's the greatest literature ever written.
How Jesus can literally give all of us
all the information he wants and hide it
from all the unsaved at the same time.
And when he came he spake in what?
Parables.
And he that hath an ear let him hear.
Plenty of people that were saved
they understood what Jesus was saying
but the unsaved they could never
understand what he was saying.
They could never figure it out.
Why? Because they can't understand truth.
They're blind.
And I'll use this analogy.
The Bible used blindness and sight.
I want to tweak that to help you understand that.
I think that a way to look at this
is like color blindness.
Okay?
Now someone who's color blind
cannot distinguish between two colors
that normal people can.
Or people that don't have this problem.
And an example of this would be
green and red.
Now they're like exact opposites.
Okay?
All of us green and red don't look anything
like unless you're color blind.
But a color blind person will literally
see the exact same color.
And it's not like it's hard.
I mean a little baby could tell you
the difference between green and red.
One of my kids favorite colors green
and the other one's red. Okay?
And they're little.
It's not a hard difficult thing.
But isn't it a phenomena when someone
can't see it?
That's how the Bible is.
To the saved we see green and red all day long.
To the unsaved they just see red or whatever.
They can't make the distinction.
They can't understand it.
It just goes over their head.
That's what the Bible is like.
No other book is like that.
No other text is like this.
You know and obviously you know some
people can read things and get
different things out of it.
But at the end of the day there's nothing
like spiritual differences and
understanding of the Bible from the
saved to the unsaved.
How about this one Matthew 23 verse 8.
But be ye not called Rabbi for one is
your master even Christ and all are
your brethren.
For one is your father upon the earth.
For one is your father which is in heaven.
How can Catholics have this in their
Bible and then call every single one
of the religious leaders father so and so?
I mean is this not just green and red?
I mean that wasn't hard.
Hey don't call anybody father.
Was that hard to understand?
Yet then what do the Catholics do all
day long? Call them father.
And they even mock this verse.
I've seen Catholics they go there
oh are you saying when you go home
you don't call your dad father?
And it's like you idiot this is a
spiritual book.
It's talking about calling someone
father in a spiritual way.
And it's saying we only have one
spiritual father God the father.
Of course I call my dad father.
You know what he's not my spiritual
father because my spiritual father's
in heaven. Just like when Jesus Christ
said I must be about my father's
business he wasn't talking about
Joseph he was talking about God the
father. And it's blasphemy.
It's infamous to go to a church so
called the Catholic Church and to
look at the guy wearing a dress
mind you and call him father.
He's confused about what a father
is anyways. Because the father's
not wearing a dress.
You sick freaks.
Go to Psalms 119 last place of
your turn.
The Bible is the greatest literature
ever written it's not even close.
And I try to.
What's the point of this sermon.
I just want you to stand in awe of
God's word.
So that when you realize there's
nothing there's nothing better.
You know I like cool stories and I
like movies and stuff but you know
what this is still the cool story.
This is the best literature.
You're not going to do better.
You need to read it.
You need to study it.
You need to live by it.
You need to realize if God went
around and not bury it.
Under under the you know put it
under a bushel buried in the
ground hide it in a napkin.
No you need to get that thing
dusted off read it study it and
not just the portions you like all
of it.
The Bible says for the word of God
is quick and powerful and sharper
than any two edged sword piercing
even to the dividing the center
soul and spirit and of the joints
and marrow and is a discerner of
nothing will hit you in the gut
like the word of God.
Nothing will convict you like the
Bible.
The strongest conviction you've
ever felt in your life is from a
verse in the Bible.
I could get up and say things to
you and you might feel bad about
it but when God says it it stings.
It hurts it can dice you up it can
tell you everything about you.
It can take you read it and you're
like wow I'm lazy and you're like
wow selfish.
I'm not as strong as I should be
I'm not as faithful as I should be
I'm not as godly as I should be
I'm not as holy as I should be I'm
not as loving as I should be I
don't have as much charity as I
should have I'm not doing the
things that I should be doing I
mean it's constantly going to
approve you and rebuke you and
it's going to chew you up and spit
you out.
Oh wretched man that I am.
But you know what I love it at the
same time because it makes me a
little better.
This is what I think about it.
103.
How sweet are thy words into my
taste.
Yea sweeter than honey to my mouth.
Isn't that a great way to describe
a lot of sweet.
160.
Thy word is true from the beginning
and every one of thy righteous
judgments endure forever.
162.
I rejoice at thy word as one that
I do.
Why is it great spoil?
Because the Bible is the greatest
literature ever written.
Let's close in prayer thank you
Father so much for giving us the
word of God.
Thank you that we have a King
James Bible today that we can read
and we can study.
I pray that we wouldn't take it for
granted.
There's people on this planet that
don't have a full Bible or they
don't speak English or they don't
speak God himself and that we
would realize we could see God
every single day if we would
choose to just open it up and read
it.
And I pray that as we read it you
would just enlighten our eyes that
you would reveal yourself to us in
ways that we've never seen you
before and that we could just stand
in awe of thy word in Jesus name we
pray.
Amen.
Men with that let's close it out
with one more song tonight before
number two hundred and forty seven
saved saved.
It's nothing better than being
saved. Amen.
Song number two hundred and forty
seven saved saved.
I found a friend who is all to me.
His love is ever true.
I hope to see him again.
I hope to tell how he lived in me.
And what his grace can do for you.
Saved by his power divine.
Saved to new lives sublime.
Life now is sweet and my joy is
come plain warm.
Saved, saved, saved.
He saves me from all my sins.
Every sin and harm secures my soul each day.
I'm leading strong on his mighty arm.
I know he'll guide me all the way.
Saved by his power divine.
Saved to new lives sublime.
Life now is sweet and my joy is
come plain warm.
Saved, saved, saved.
He bore and needed all alone.
In love he said to me.
Come unto me.
And I'll lead you home.
To live with me eternally.
Saved by his power divine.
Saved to new lives sublime.
Life now is sweet and my joy is
come plain warm.
Saved, saved, saved.
Amen. God bless.
Thank you all for coming.
Thank you.