Steadfast Baptist Church. You can all find your seats. We're going to go ahead and get started.
Once you've found a seat, go ahead and open up a hymnal. We're going to start up in song number
408, "Loyalty to Christ." Song 408, "Loyalty to Christ." Song number 408, "Loyalty to Christ."
Let's sing it all. Let's start singing, everybody. Go ahead and bow. Heavenly Father, thank you so
much for Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you so much for everyone that's gathered here today.
Please, we ask that you bless Dr. Stringer, help him to preach an edifying sermon, and help us to
all learn and grow and leave better Christians for your honor and glory. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. All right, next up we have song number 441, "Great is thy faithfulness." 441, "Great is thy
faithfulness." Good morning. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a
bulletin, you can lift up your hand nice and high. One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a
bulletin if you don't already have one. On the front, we have a new Bible memory passage that
we're starting. It's Jonah chapter number two and so we'll be doing verse number one. It's a little
bit shorter of a chapter so I encourage you to participate. Also next Sunday, I'll be handing out
prizes for the previous passage as well. You had up until last evening to quote that and so Psalm 59.
So if you did quote that, I'll be handing out prizes next Sunday for that. And also there will
be a prize for the book of Jonah chapter 2. If you can quote the entire passage, word perfect to a
non member. Verse number one there can be quoted at a midweek service for an ice cream treat
at our midweek service. On the inside there we do have our service times and soul winning times.
Also please make sure you're turning in your church stats to your soul winning captains and
lieutenants. If you go to a soul winning time, you can report that to your soul winning leader
and they can report it for you or you can individually report that to your soul winning captain
and just make sure to include who you went soul winning with so we can record that. On the right
we have a list of expecting ladies and then down below a prayer list so if you'd like to prayer for
pray for our church family there's a list of several prayer requests that have been submitted.
If you'd like to submit a prayer request you can just email us steadfastbabdiskjv@gmail.com and we'd
love to add that to our prayer list. If it is a private request please make sure you just
indicate that in the email so just say this is a private prayer request that way otherwise we just
assume you want that to be put in the bulletin. On the back we have the note about upcoming events
we have October 4th through the 6th is our heritage of the Lord conference and so that's
going to be that Friday Saturday and Sunday there is events scheduled for Friday morning as well as
Saturday morning and I'm going to go ahead and try to get maybe in the next week or maybe the next
bulletin cycle some of those details put in the bulletin so that way you guys can plan accordingly.
October 31st is our Texas chili cook-off and that is going to be here at the church. If you
would like to enter into the competition so we have a chili cook-off competition where we judge
them based on several different factors, how good it tastes, smells, looks, everything like that,
then you can enter one. You just have to have your chili here before 6 p.m. because what we're
going to try and do our best is to get the samples taken out and then we can try to start serving
people dinner around 6 or a little after. So if you'd like to celebrate with us and have fun and
fellowship as opposed to worshiping the devil, you got the Texas chili cook-off, all right.
And then some people, you know, make sure you're godly, don't put beans in the chili,
all right. So that's of course the right way to cook chili, all right. Also November 16,
this is a new thing, but we are going to host a soul-wanting marathon in Miami in November.
And so apparently it's lovely over there that time of year, but no. So if you'd like to
participate in that, I might get a sign-up sheet going. I just wanted to put down the date,
so if you'd like to know. I'm going to be traveling out there basically the day before
going out there and probably coming back. I should be still here preaching that Sunday morning,
but I just wanted to let you know about a marathon over there.
And Miami's actually an interesting area. It's about six million people in their metro,
and I believe certain parts of the city are certainly more Hispanic-speaking than
English-speaking. I don't know exactly what we're going to do, but I kind of have a plan
of maybe sending a group to like a Spanish area and then a group to an English area.
Because it's very segregated there, and you could definitely run into sections where it's
going to be very Hispanic speaking. This is probably going to be in lieu of the...typically
we go down into Mexico in the fall, but what I'm trying to do or wanting to do is move that to the
beginning of next year. So we probably won't do our Mexico trip at the end of this year,
we'll probably do it at the beginning of next year. So if you want to do a little bit of Spanish
soloing, you can go with us to Miami, and there's plenty of Spanish speaking soloing that you can do
there. That's just to put that, again, out there for you if you're interested. We have a special
guest preacher today. Dr. Phil Stringer is here with us, and we really appreciate his friendship
and his fellowship and his desire to come out and preach for us. He's going to be preaching this
morning and this afternoon, and so I highly encourage you Sunday morning onlys to come
Sunday afternoon, all right, and hear another message prepared by Dr. Stringer. Additionally,
he gave me a copy of a new book that he has. It's called Christian Citizenship, and it's
about American history, and he actually has lots of great books, and he has given us graciously
a lot of them. I put a copy of many of them out on that table if you just want to browse
and look, but if you are interested in acquiring any of these books, I'll probably put in another
bulk order. In the past, we did a bulk order of anybody that was interested in these kind
of books or something like that. If you are interested in any of these books or you look
at one and you have some interest, just email us and we'll probably put together a list
of some books and we can make a bulk order for you if you'd like to have one. I just
wanted to make mention of that and also make sure to thank our guests for being here and
preaching for us this morning after the service. But with that, we'll go ahead and sing our
third song for the morning and we're actually doing the Holy, Holy, Holy. It's not a psalm,
but it's in our psalm booklets. It's a special song, Holy, Holy, Holy. So if you want to
sing that in our special booklets. It's Holy, Holy, Holy. The offering plates are going
around. Please turn to your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter 23.
Jeremiah chapter 23. The Bible reads, Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter
the sheep of my pastor, saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against
the pastors that feed my people. Ye have scattered my flock and driven them away, have
not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord,
and I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven
them, and will bring them again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful in increase. And
I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor
be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper,
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord
our righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall
no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land
of Egypt; but the Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led the seed of the house of
Israel out of the north country; and from all countries whither I had driven them, and
they shall dwell in their own land. My heart within me is broken because of the prophets;
all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because
of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness. For the land is full of adulterers,
for because of swearing the land mourneth, the pleasant places of the wilderness are
dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. For both prophet and priest
are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. Wherefore
their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness, they shall be driven on,
and fall therein. For I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith
the Lord. And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied in Baal, and caused
my people Israel to err. I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem, in horrible
thing, they commit adultery, and walk in lies. They strengthen also the hands of evildoers,
that none doth return from his wickedness. They are all of them unto me as Sodom, and
the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the
prophets, Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of Gaul. For
from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. Thus saith the
Lord of hosts, Harken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you, they
make you vain. They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the
Lord. They say still unto them that despise me, the Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace.
And they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil
shall come upon you. For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived
and heard his word? Who hath marked his word and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord
is gone forth in fury. Even a grievous whirlwind, it shall fall grievously upon the head of
the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not return until he hath executed, until he hath
performed the thoughts of his heart. In the latter days he shall consider it perfectly.
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
But if they had stood in my counsel and had caused my people to hear my words, then they
should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. Am I a
god at hand, saith the Lord, and not a god afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places
that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the
Lord. I have heard what the prophets said that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have
dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy
lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, which think to cause my
people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor,
as their fathers have forgotten my name for bail. The prophet that hath a dream, let him
tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the
chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and
like a hammer that breaketh a rock in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets,
saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against
the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and he saith, Behold, I am against
them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people
to err by their lies and by their lightness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded them. Therefore,
they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord. And when this people, or the
prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the Lord? Thou shalt
then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord. And ask for
the prophet, and the priest, and the people that shall say, The burden of the Lord, I
will even punish that man in his house. Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbor, and
every one to his brother, What hath the Lord answered, and what hath the Lord spoken? And
the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more. For every man's word shall be his burden,
for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts, our God. Thus shalt
thou say to the prophet, What hath the Lord answered thee, and what hath the Lord spoken?
But since ye say the burden of the Lord, therefore thus saith the Lord, because ye say this word,
the burden of the Lord. And I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say the burden of
the Lord. Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you,
and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence, and I will
bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for this day
and for our church, and I pray that you fill Dr. Bill Stringer with your spirit now and
just enable him to preach the message that you've laid on his heart with clarity of mind
and with boldness, and I pray also that you help us to pay close attention and learn as
much as possible from the message this morning. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Good morning. Greetings from Yankee country. I'm here as a missionary to the South today.
I appreciate you coming and letting me come, and somebody asked me not long ago how I felt
about preaching in the South all the time. I said it's great. They always renew my visa
and let me come into the country, and it's just great. Hey, I appreciate the opportunity
to be here with you all at this time together. My name is Phil Stringer. I have the privilege
of being the vice president at Dayspring Bible College. My primary responsibility there is
dealing with our academic program, and much of that can be done at a distance, and because
of that I have liberty to be out full-time in meetings all over the place and preaching
and teaching, for which I'm grateful. To give you an idea, I have the privilege of
being here with you folks in Dallas today. Tomorrow and Tuesday I'll be preaching at
a conference three times in northern Illinois. Wednesday I'll be in Indianapolis. Thursday
I'll be at the Creation Evidence, no, Thursday I'll be in Kentucky. Friday I'll be at the
Creation Evidence Expo in Indianapolis. They have a number of scientists who give some
very, very informative deep scientific lectures on creation. They always started out with
a sermon, and I get to preach the sermon at their meeting every year. And then Saturday
I'll be in Indianapolis as well. That's kind of how my life works. I am grateful to be
here. My dear wife has often said to me that I get in trouble everywhere I go, and I've
said that's not true, not anywhere near as true. In fact, I even told her, I said, if
you really wanted to meet somebody who knows how to get in trouble, she should come with
me this week, and we could work something like that out. I was in the Philippines some
years ago, and folks I was preaching for had set up for me to stay in this one particular
missionary compound, and it turned out a modernist Bible translation group had rented that compound
for that week and had one room open. So I'm staying for that entire week with a group
of modernist Bible translators. And was it too demanding? They had breakfast, open breakfast
in the morning, and I'm gone the rest of the day. So I would eat breakfast with all those
folks and I'd leave, be gone for the day, come back at night, sleep there and start
again the next day. They had their practice. They would put the breakfast out and they'd
have somebody give devotions and pray and eat. So I'm listening through some interesting
devotions. Every other day, in the name of equity, they have a lady give the devotions.
It's really interesting because a man, the food's already on the table. Man knows how
to deal with that. They'd read a verse or two, make a comment and within 60 seconds
they're praying and we're going to eat. When the ladies gave devotions, they went on and
on like frustrated preachers with no pulpit and the food got cold. It was just terrible.
Today they mentioned, said we have had a gentleman here, it's not part of our organization and
they asked me to give devotions that morning. Food's on the table, warm. Man, I know how
to handle this. I read a verse, spoke, prayed, we're right to the food. And I've been very
quiet all week because my wife is always telling me I get in trouble everywhere. And so I told
her where I'm going to be and I said look, it'll be fine, it'll be fine. And so I gave
a very quick devotional, prayed, we're eating. And one of the Lady Bible translators said,
"I couldn't help but notice you read out of the King James Bible." I said, "Yes ma'am."
And stuck some food in my mouth so I wouldn't say anything else. And then she went on, said,
"Well, you're not one of those who believe that King James Bible is infallible." "Yes
ma'am I am. I stuck some more food in my mouth so I wouldn't say anything else." And then
she said, "Well, even you would have to admit there's an error in the King James Bible when
it uses the word Easter." At that point I'd had it. And so I went on to explain to this
room full of modernist Bible translators why the word Easter was in the King James Bible
and it was exactly the right word at that moment. Now what was interesting to me was
not that they all disagreed with me, which they did. This is what was interesting to
me. None of them had ever heard that argument before. None of them even knew of the discussion.
That's what was interesting to me. Can I suggest to you that we're in the mess we're in as
a country, as a culture, as a society, in many of our churches, in many of our families
for one simple reason. We do not have an authoritative Bible, and it leaves all the doors wide open.
Not a new problem. It's described in the book of Jeremiah. The first part of the chapter
has got some wonderful teachings in another area, but we pick up in verse 9. Let's look
why Judah is in such trouble. They don't have an authoritative Bible.
By the way, there's a movement today that's very active in independent Baptist circles
that refers to itself as the King James transition movement. These are folks who've been famous
preaching in Baptist churches. Some of us, over the years, many of us sent our young
people to hear them preach. We wouldn't have done it if we'd known where they were going
to end up. But they're saying it's time to transition away from the King James Bible.
And their approach has been that we should replace it with five Bibles. They said we
don't want to have just one Bible. Teach all the people in your congregation to have five
Bibles. Holman Christian Standard Bible and New International Version and New King James
and English Standard Version and something else, I forget. The idea that everybody should
have five Bibles. So I asked one of their leading proponents. I said, "Your five Bibles
contradict each other. When they contradict each other, which one should you listen to?"
And they said, "Oh, if you have a contradiction." And I gave him an example. One verse that
read one way in four of those versions and a different way another. He said, "Oh, you
just call your pastor and you believe whatever your pastor tells you." I said, "Man, I have
the answer to the whole story." They don't have an authoritative Bible. They have authoritative
pastors. That's the whole point. Well, Judah had this problem. We pick up in verse 9, "My
heart within me is broken because of the prophets. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man
and like a man whom wine hath overcome because of the Lord." Now the setting, Jeremiah is
so influenced that looking at him is looking at like a drunken man. We've ever had to deal
with somebody that's drunk and they're not conscious of what's going on around them and
they shake and they move. Jeremiah was like that, but here was why. Because of the Lord
and because of the words of his holiness. Jeremiah is saying, "I am looking at the words that
God gave." They are words of holiness. I'm looking at the pronouncements of God as to
what is sin and how God deals with sin and the judgment of God upon sin. You read over
and over again in the first books of the Old Testament how God says, "I will bless you
if you do this." Blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing. "And I will curse you if you do
this." Cursing, cursing, cursing. And he said, "I'm reading the words of God's
holiness and I'm shaking because of the consequences of those words for us."
What's the result of not obeying God's words, not having authoritative scripture?
"For the land is full of adultery, full of adulterers. For because of swearing the land
mourneth. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, their
force is not right. For both prophet and priest are profane." To be profane means to live
without God. "Yea, in mine house have I found their wickedness," saith the Lord. Israel's
been created to be a testimony nation for God. They have been sent to the land where
the Canaanites and the pagans. The Bible says the land vomited them out. God has ordered
them out. God's ordered Israel to deal with them. And yet Israel keeps adopting the very
paganism that had caused the previous inhabitants to be judged. And they're at this time. And
now he's saying even in his house, even in the place set aside for the worship of a holy
Creator God. You could find the wickedness of the pagans. You get in the book of Ezekiel.
And Ezekiel is a captive. And he's brought back to the land by the Lord. And the Lord
lets him see into the temple. And into the inner recesses of the temple, the most vile
wickednesses of paganism are being practiced. This is where it inevitably goes when you
do not have an authoritative Bible. Verse 12. "Wherefore, their way shall be unto them
as slippery ways in the darkness. They shall be driven on and fall therein. For I will
bring the evil upon them even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. For I have
seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied in Baal and caused my people Israel
to err." The prophets? Supposed to be prophets of the Lord? And they're preaching the religion
of Baal. Now, one of the most popular books right out of the moment, I just got it, was
recommended to me. I was astonished at how clear it was. It's called Shepherds for Sale
by Megan Basham. And she's talking about preachers in the National Association of Evangelicals
in the Southern Baptist Convention, but evangelical preachers. And that's who she's familiar with.
She could have made the same point tragically about some independent Baptist, but she was
dealing with who she's familiar with. And how even in evangelical ranks, supposed to
be born-again people, supposed to be preachers of God, how for money and public acceptance,
people have sold out this message, and you find abortion-defended places you never thought
it would be. You find homosexuality-defended places you never thought it would be. You
find promiscuity-defended places you never thought it would be.
How could this happen? Well, for one thing, even though these groups have long claimed
to be evangelical, for a long time, they've had no authoritative Bible. I've pastored
in the inner city of Chicago for 11 years. That's an experience. It is a blessed time,
but I'm just telling you, that's experience. Every day was different. Every day met meeting
interesting people. We had a young lady. She was from the state of Michigan. She'd gone
to college in Louisiana. She'd gotten a degree, gotten a job with a business in Chicago. She
moved to Chicago and immediately looked to get in a church. That's commendable. Wonderful
young lady. Came to church faithful. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. She
witnessed for the Lord. I was able to lead a young man to Christ in my office. She brought
to church. Got saved, baptized. Just many, many commendable things about her. But she
grew up in a church that used the New International Version of the Bible. That's what she was
told to use. She would later tell me as a teenager, or almost a teenager, age 12, she
committed she'd have devotions every day. She began to read her New International Version
of the Bible every day. One night after church, she says, "Pastor, can I talk to you? Is
there something I'm troubled by?" "Sure." She said, "I've heard you preach on more
than one occasion that homosexuality is a sin." She said, "I've been in church all
these years. I read my Bible every day." She said, "I've never seen that." That's because
she was reading the New International Version, which messes up all those passages.
She said, "I was not angry at that young lady. She was a good young lady who wanted to do
what was right. Her pastor I would get angry at for putting the wrong thing in her hands
and telling her it's the Bible." Y'all get to point, I'm not picking on her. What I'm
saying was, and this is exactly what scripture is warning about, prophet and priest became
profane. They began to live as if there was no God. They began to live as if God had not
said anything distinctively and authoritatively, and you'll see where it goes. You can look
around the United States and see where it goes. Once people lose an authoritative Bible,
there are literally no limits to how far they can go, even those that name the Lord. Verse
13, "I've seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing. They commit adultery and
walk in lies. They strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his
wickedness. There all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah."
I don't think Sodom and Gomorrah are used as the picture of these just to be a figure.
I think they're like Sodom and Gomorrah because they've become like Sodom and Gomorrah. You
have in leading evangelical circles today the demand that we start accepting homosexuals
as members and perform homosexual marriages. And they'll say all this in name that we've
got to reach homosexuals for Christ, that you've got to accept people to reach them.
You do not reach people by accepting their sin at any level. It's like saying, "Let's
encourage alcoholism to reach drunkards for Christ." It doesn't work. It's wrong and
it doesn't work. But they said this is what was happening in Judah. The prophets and priests
had become profane. They had become preaching as if there was no authoritative Bible. They
began to be trying culturally relevant and it had gone so far that was leading even into
that what was supposed to be the worship of the Lord. It was leading to folks being like
Sodom and Gomorrah and they were going to be received by God the same way that he received
Sodom and Gomorrah. It's what happens without an authoritative Bible. Now you understand
for that to happen in evangelical circles they had to do something first. They had to
get rid of Bibles that condemned homosexuality. You could not put the message that homosexuality
is sin in front of your people service after service after service and say it's okay at
the same time. You had to begin with corruption of the Bible. And I'm aware most of these
Bibles that change 90% of the passages on homosexuality, you'll still find a place here
or there. What happens is you've missed completely the emphasis of it. And Jeremiah said, "I'm
looking at the words of God's holiness. I'm looking at what he has said. I'm looking at
what he said about morality. And I'm looking at our people. And I'm looking at the prophets
and the priests have become like Sodom and Gomorrah." And he said, "The thought of it
makes him shake because he knows the price tag of judgment and what it means. And what
it means is coming." So how do we get in the mess we are as a country? I'm all for voting
for the right politicians. I believe Christians should vote. I'm for when Christians run
for office. I'm for doing all those things. But you'll have to understand, as ever good
as those things may be, our problem is we don't have an authoritative Bible. That's
what brings us to the place we're at. The whole omnigender revolution, the idea that
we can have as many genders as we want, gender is defined by our will, not by God. The whole
omnigender revolution that you now see as the number one purpose of our government,
imposing, forcing that on everybody. Did you know that began in evangelical, left-wing
evangelical circles? Check out the book Omnigender Revolution sometime, and you'll find it's
written by a woman who went to a Christian school to a fundamentalist college, taught
at a fundamentalist college, has been speaking in evangelical workshops for years, left-wing
evangelical workshops for years. She's in eternity now. She was a consultant on the
New International Version. The whole omnigender revolution began in left-wing evangelical
circles. Now, the rest of the world was happy to adopt it, but they aren't the ones who
originated it. Verse 15, "Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets.
Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, will make them drink the water of gall. For from
the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone throughout the land." You can count on the
judgment of God for this. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts. Harken not unto the words
of the prophets that prophesy unto you. They make you vain. They speak of vision out of
their own hearts, and not out of the mouth of the Lord." Where does their source of
information come from? Where does their authority come from? Their own hearts. That's the cry
of the day. That we must be culturally relevant. We must give people that which they want to
hear. That in order to have a successful church, we must reach out to people by affirming them
and by agreeing with them and by making them feel comfortable no matter what their situation
is. It is the cry of our day. Whole church movements are built on being silent, and other
church movements are built upon confirming approval of the very things that God condemns.
How do you do that? Well, when you don't have an authoritative Bible, it's amazing what
you can do and what you can believe. When the pastors and preachers and church leaders
and most vocal ladies in the church become the authorities, and they're not held accountable
to the Word of God because you don't have an authoritative Bible. Please, I'm not speaking
against the importance of politics, elections. The elections coming up, I think, are very
important and all that, but I'm telling you, they will never be the solution to the challenge
we face. The solution to the challenge we face is return to an authoritative Bible.
Verse 17, "They still say to them that despise me, 'The Lord has said, 'You shall have peace.'
And they say to everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, 'No evil
shall come upon you.'" What's their problem? Their source of authority is the imagination
of their own heart. You read about it in great detail in Romans chapter 1. People begin to
imagine the truth of God. And the issue is not the awareness of reality that God has
put in everybody's heart. The issues are imagination. God's given imagination to man as a great
gift. Every invention comes from the imagination of man. Every entertaining tale comes from
the imagination of man. But imagination is never to be the source of doctrine or morals.
The authoritative word of God. What if it says something we don't like? I come from
the hillbilly culture, one that folks have become much more aware of because of J.D.
Vance's book, Hillbilly Elegy and the movie and all that. And 1930s from the Appalachians
where there were no jobs, people moved all over the Midwest and they took hillbilly culture
with them. My parents came from the hills of Eastern Kentucky. They went to Indianapolis.
They used to say about people living in Indiana, Hoosiers were Kentuckians whose car broke
down before they could get to Detroit. There was a measure of truth to that. It was a whole
section of Indianapolis when I was a child that was known as Little Kentucky. And hillbilly
culture has its own cultural distinctives. One of them, I was taught this as a child.
We never call the police for anything. If somebody does something to you, you do something
worse to them. Somebody steals from you, you take twice from them what they took from you.
Somebody hits you, you hit them twice as hard. We're raised that way. I was taught that way.
My father was explaining to me the first day of kindergarten this truth. He said, "Ninety
percent of all fights are won by the person that throws the first punch." So you always
want to be the person that throws the first punch.
Many years later, I was listening to my wife get my son ready for kindergarten. I was thinking
about how dramatically different the instructions were. My culture was raised that way. I'm
in Bible college. A gentleman said something outrageous and ungodly to a young lady. Completely
wrong. Next thing you know, I have him down on the floor, bouncing his head off the floor,
trying to teach him good manners. Next thing I know, I'm in the Dean of Students office.
They had a certain measure of sympathy because the guy had been outrageous, but he's explaining
something to me. He said, "It doesn't matter what your culture calls for. It matters what
the Word of God says." So you want to be a preacher? 16 qualifications in a scripture
for being a preacher. One of them is no striker. He said, "Your entire ministry, you'll be
meeting people and talking to people who deserve to be punched." He said, "But if you want
to be the man of God, you can't punch them. It doesn't matter what your culture calls
for." And that is the point. We have an authoritative Bible. When you hear political candidates
today saying, "We won't go back." Go back to what? What are they saying we won't go
back to? Saying we won't go back to the time when abortion was frowned upon. We won't go
back to the time when homosexual behavior was considered sinful. We won't go back to
the time when promiscuity was thought not only to offend God, but to be harmful to you
and your future development. What they're saying is we won't go back to a Christian
culture. We won't go back to the Bible. Verse 18. "For I stood in the counsel of the Lord,
and hath perceived and heard his word, hath marked his word and heard it. Behold, a whirlwind
of the Lord has gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind. It shall fall grievously
upon the head of the wicked. There will be judgment for being disobedient to God. The
anger of the Lord shall not return until we have executed, until we have performed the
thoughts of his heart. In the latter days you shall consider it perfectly. Judgment's
coming." I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet
they prophesied. We only have a right as preachers, teachers, and testimonies to the
truth of God. We only have a right to a message that is based on the authority of the Word
of God. Any other message we have no right to. Any other message disqualifies us as a
representative of God, if the words of His holiness. But if they had stood in my council
and caused my people to hear my words, and they should have turned from their evil way
and from the evil of their doings, he said, "Oh man," he said, "if my preachers had
just gone out and preached my word." Can you imagine what would happen in this country
if for the next six months, every time people gathered in a church, they heard the word
of God? We need a political solution. Politics is important. The book, Christian Citizenship,
addresses some of that, but politics is important. But you know what this country desperately
needs? A returned to an authoritative Bible. They say, "Well, you're preaching it to us.
We're a good King James Church. I know that. I mean, I know that firsthand." Who are people
going to learn this from? You think they're going to go to a public school and they're
going to teach them? They did once upon a time, but that was a long time ago. I have
an old high school textbook from the 1800s, 1880s, in the state of Indiana, and it was
a public school textbook, and they taught them the doctrine of scripture and the importance
of the word of God. It was a class in the public high school. You're not finding anything
similar to that today. You're not even finding it in many Christian schools today. Are they
going to get it from television? Are they going to get it from the modern entertainment
of the day? You would even find in some of the old westerns people talking about the
characters, talking about the book and teaching the lessons of the book. Do you think you're
going to hear anything produced recently that says that? Who has this message today? My
God at hand saith the Lord and not a god far off. You think he's some local god that has
to be relevant to this group of people? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall
not see him saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord? I have heard
what the prophets said that prophesy lies in my name saying I have dreamed I have dreamed.
How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yet they are
prophets of the deceit of their own hearts. People lie to themselves about what the truth
is and then they preach it in the pulpits which think to cause my people to forget my
name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor as their fathers have
forgotten my name for Baal. The prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream. He that
hath my word let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat saith the
Lord. Is not my word like as a fire saith the Lord like a hammer that breaketh a rock
in pieces. Therefore behold I am against the prophet saith the Lord that steal my words
everyone from his neighbor. Wait a minute. What does it say? These preachers did? They
stole the word of God from people. Illustration I used. Dear young lady in the church I'm
pastoring who went to church three times a week, read her Bible, her corrupt Bible every
day because the preacher told her to but did not have the truth of God in front of her.
Why was that? It was not rebellion in her heart. The people that produced that corrupt
Bible and that preacher that led her literally stole the words of God from her and it was
a Bible in front of her that had 64,000 fewer words than the King James Bible has. It's
not figurative speech. They had literally stolen the words of God. So people thought
they were reading the Bible and thought they had the truth of God and didn't. And that's
a challenge of our day. Having an authoritative Bible that binds us, guides us, controls us,
even when we don't always want to be obedient to it. My Bible tells me to forgive everybody
that wrongs me. My hillbilly culture did not tell me that. I'm 71. Do you know I still
struggle with this? By the grace of God, I never drank a drop of alcohol in my life.
I wrestled with it as a teenager. I never drank. I am not tempted to drink now. At age
71, I don't think I'm going to take up alcohol. I still wrestle with forgiving people that
wrong me. That was built in my culture. I suspect I'll wrestle with it the rest of my
life. But one thing's for sure, what the Word of God tells me. I'm preaching in a preacher's
meeting. There's three preachers preaching. I don't know why. The pastor had all of us
sitting on the platform during the whole meeting. It means everybody's looking at you. I'm the
third preacher. We're on the platform. Service has started. And a guy walks in the back that
I genuinely believe has wronged me. And I've never forgiven him. He's sitting in the back.
I'm thinking, "Lord, this is not fair. I have to sit up here and look spiritual. I'm the
preacher on the platform. Everything's got to look like it's right." And the first preacher
preached and one of the points in his message was forgiveness. And he's saying, "Lord, this
is not fair. You stuck me up in front of everybody and made me listen to this and I have to sit
there and smile and look like everything is all right." And the second preacher preached
an entire sermon. Every point, every illustration, every reference on forgiveness. He's saying,
"Lord, I'm kind of getting the idea that maybe you'd like me to forgive this fellow before
I get up in the pulpit." I say, "But I didn't want to. But what I want is not the authority.
What I want is not the issue. The authority is what did God say."
I'm preaching in Windsor, Ontario. Some folks in the church came and said, "There's an American
talk show host, radio host, here in our town that tears preachers up. He dares any preacher
to go on the radio with him." I said, "We've got you scheduled for tomorrow at 2 o'clock
if you'd be willing to go." "No problem." Ben yelled that before. "I sleep peacefully
at night." I go in. Turns out, he's not only from the United States, he grew up in the
same town I grew up in, Indianapolis, in the same neighborhood I grew up in. He's one year
older than me. We went to the same elementary school. We're just sitting around talking
about the old days and the neighborhood and all that. And we're in a good mood. And a
two-hour show, show starts. He's being nice. He's throwing me softballs. I'm hitting him
out of the park. Nobody's calling in. We go for an hour, have a five-minute break. I see
the station manager call him in, and I'm not stupid, I know. He controversies what sells
on talk radio. He's conflict, and he's telling him to turn it up a notch. I'm expecting that.
If he comes out, here's the first question in the second hour. Do you believe that when
Hitler massacred the Jews, they died and went to hell where God was crueler to them than
Hitler had been? That's a fun question to answer on live radio. I said, "Let me tell
you." He said, "If a Baptist dies without ever having trusted Christ, that Baptist,
being a Baptist, won't do anything for them in eternity, they die and go to hell. And
sadly, many Baptists do die like that. If a Jew dies without trusting Christ, they die
and go to hell. And sadly, many Jews die like that." Well, phones lit up. Man, everybody's
calling in. They're going crazy. They're angry. They're attacking me. One guy calls in. He
says, "You know who deserves to go to hell?" He says, "You deserve to go to hell." I said,
"Sir, you have no idea how right you are. That's the most profound thing that's been
said on the program today. It's 100% true, but by the grace of God, I'm not going."
So it just went on and on for a full hour. We got done, and the guy said, "Why'd you
do it?" He said, "You knew I set you up." He said, "Why did you do it?" I said, "Let
me let you in on a secret." He said, "I don't even like to doctor in hell. If it was up
to me, there wouldn't be one. I mean, I'm offended by sin, but I'm not that offended."
I said, "I can tell you. First church I pastored was in a small town. I was the only pastor
that lived in town, but they had a funeral home. I got asked to preach all kinds of funerals
of unsaved people. I remember one time preaching a funeral, and a boy died from a drug overdose.
His mother had been saved as a child. She'd been out of church her whole married life.
Her son had never been in a gospel preaching church. She asked for a preacher. I preached.
She came up to me afterwards. She's weeping. She literally grabbed me, her head's on my
shoulder. She's crying my shoulder as wet as she's weeping, and she's saying, "Please
tell me he's not in hell. Please tell me he's not in hell." You know what I wanted to tell
her? I wanted to say something that would make her feel good. I really did, but I couldn't.
As I said to the radio host, "Here's the problem. I may not like the doctrine of hell, but
I am not in charge of the universe. It doesn't matter what I think. It matters what the Bible
says." Authoritative Bible. "I have no right to steal the words of God from my neighbor."
If you drop down with me about verse 36, "And the burden of the Lord shall you mention no
more, for every man's word shall be his burden." If you've perverted the words of the living
God of the Lord of hosts are God. Not only do folks steal the word of God, they pervert
them. They change them. They make them say something different than what they say. I'll
address that this afternoon. I hope you'll be here. I have no right to pervert the words
of God and make them say what I want them to say. It interests me, the whole King James
transition crowd, all five of their Bibles. Again, 2 Corinthians, scripture warns us in
our King James Bible not to corrupt the word of God. All five of their recommended Bibles
change the word "corrupt" to "pedal" or "sell." Now this ain't supposed to sell the word of
God. Here's the part that fascinates me. You know how you get a Bible that teaches you
you're not supposed to sell the word of God? You buy it. Because all the people that said
that are selling the Bibles in which it says that. We're not supposed to pervert the words
of living God. We have to start out with this concept. God gave us His word. To be disobedient
to His word should make us fear like Jeremiah felt and feared. That's our doctrinal truth.
God gives authority to tell you the word of God. I understand it's a different discussion
where you find it. I believe you can demonstrate that you find it in the King James Bible.
I know your church believes that. But not only does that have to be our doctrinal position,
that has to be our example that we live that way. So the people that know us, and I've
seen it, people ask me, I've had people ask me about folks I've pastored, say what is
it that motivates them to live the way they do? Because they have an authority. It doesn't
mean doing what comes natural. It doesn't mean doing what you like. It doesn't even
mean you're spiritual enough to agree with it all the time. You folks may be, sometimes
I'm not, but it means you obey it because it's the Word of God. I mean, seriously, do
you want me to believe that every Christian lady is always very thankful for the fact
that today she gets to follow the leadership of her husband? Could this be realistic? Men
are idiots. We do stupid things without saying and thinking all the time. I sat down at church
one time and a guy in the back said, "I'm not an idiot." His wife nudged him and said,
"Would you be quiet? Quit acting like an idiot." And God praises Sarah because she called Abraham
Lord when he was acting like an idiot. Okay, let's switch topics. Do you think every man
wants to love his wife at every moment when she says the most ridiculous things? Well,
let's face it, if you walk by a human being and that human being is crying and you say
to that human being what's wrong, they say nothing. That's a woman every time. Piece
of advice for all you gentlemen, when your wife is crying and you just ask her what's
wrong and she says nothing, the conversation's not supposed to stop there. It's, "Oh, I'm
glad nothing's wrong," and go on. Never do that. Just maybe following the spiritual
leadership of husbands isn't always that which comes natural. Or loving your wife through
every one of her, shall we say, interesting moments isn't what comes natural, but it
is the Word of God. How about children obey your parents? Is that always what comes natural?
Talking to my daughter-in-law last night, my six-year-old grandson was just complaining
to her that my son had ruined his life by sending him to bed when he was still ready
to play. Yeah? Of course, my response was, "You just tell him to call Papa whenever he
has a complaint and I'll take care of it." I am horrendous about spoiling my grandchildren
even though I know better. I've just told the kids it's something you're going to have
to live with. Everybody's got an imperfection. I choose that one. Glory to God. But we have
an authoritative Bible. You understand? I can disagree with it any time I want to. It's
just that every time I do, I'm wrong. We need to have this as our doctrinal conviction.
We have an authoritative Bible. We need to have this as the pattern of our life so that
people can see it. And then thirdly, who's going to take this message to the world? Who's
going to share with people? We have an authoritative Bible. Nowhere left in this culture outside
of a handful of churches is there any influence that would teach them they have a Bible to
guide their life. I wonder whose job it is in the day and age in which we live. Mine
and yours. I'm not talking about being mean. I'm not talking about being nasty. I'm not
talking about tearing people up or tearing up people who don't understand. Do you realize
the average Christian needs this message and doesn't even know it? And I'm not for looking
them in the eye and say, "Don't you know you're following satanic modernistic Bibles?" Even
though they are. They couldn't handle that if you walked up and said it to them. But
bit by bit, lovingly and encouragingly from people who believe it and people who live
it. Sharing with them, encouraging them, helping them find out. Because we ought to be shaking
over the words of God's holiness. Jeremiah said, "If we don't get a handle on this idea
of authoritative words of God, the country is going to be judged dramatically." Do you
think we're in any better position today than he was? Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you
for this dear church, these folks, their good attitude. I just pray, Father, you'd work
in our hearts. Anybody here who never trusted Christ, I pray they'd touch you today. Father,
I pray you'd stir us about living for you, loving you, and being obedient to you. Let
us be living messengers of the glory of this truth. We'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Very good sermon. I just want to make a quick announcement. This afternoon, we'll
still be meeting regularly for our soul winning at 2 p.m., but we normally provide the sanctuary
area as just an area that you can use for quiet time, but we're going to be filming
an interview in here after we break for our soul winning. So just today only, we're just
not allowing anybody to use the auditorium. So if you were planning on using it, I'm sorry,
you can still use the fellowship area if you'd like, but the auditorium will be not accessible.
So we're just going to be filming an interview this afternoon. So thank you so much for that.
Brother Rich is going to lead our last song and we'll be dismissed.
All right, for our last song, we're going to do song number 169, "Come Thou Fount," song 169, song number 169.