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Amen. The title of my sermon tonight is, All Scripture is Equally Inspired. All Scripture is equally inspired. You stay there in 2 Peter, but I'll read for you from 2 Timothy, chapter 3, and that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Now the Bible tells us that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and we believe that all Scripture is equally inspired, meaning that there's no one part of the Bible that is more authoritative than another part of the Bible. So whether we're in Genesis, or whether we're in Psalms, or the Prophets, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the Epistles, Revelation, they're all equally inspired. Now look down at your Bible there at 2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 16, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He's saying, look, we were there, we were with him in the mount of transfiguration, and we heard the voice from heaven that said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Jump down to verse 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, where unto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So when we say that the Scripture is inspired, we are saying that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, meaning that God actually spake through them. So it's actually God's word delivered to us by the apostles and prophets. And so because it is all spoken by God, because it is all divinely inspired, it is all equally authoritative. Now if you would, look at chapter 3, verse 2. The Bible says, you're in 2 Peter there, look at chapter 3, verse 2, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, we talked about that in chapter 1, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. So just as the prophets were divinely inspired, the apostles were also divinely inspired. So these are commandments by the apostles of the Lord and Savior. The Bible says in verse 15 of chapter 3, An account of the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom, given unto him hath written unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, watch this, as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction. So what Paul has written is scripture. And he's saying, look, people struggle with some of the hard things that Paul wrote, and they twist those things, they rest those things, but that's what they do with the other scriptures also. So by saying that they do it to the other scriptures, he's saying that what Paul wrote is scripture. There are some things in the epistles of Paul that are hard to be understood, but it is God's word, it is scripture that Paul wrote. Now there are people out there who will try to pick and choose which parts of the Bible are authoritative, or pick parts to discard, or say that one part is more authoritative than other. For example, when you talk to Roman Catholics, they will often only have the red letters of Jesus as their authority. I've talked to many Roman Catholics where I would open the Bible, and show them something out of the book of Romans, and they say, well that's just what Paul wrote. I don't care what Paul said, I want to know what Jesus said. And they somehow think that what Paul wrote is not divinely inspired, but that they have to go straight to what came out of the mouth of Jesus. But let me tell you something, every word that Paul wrote is out of the mouth of Jesus. Everything that Moses wrote is out of the mouth of Jesus. Everything that David wrote in the book of Psalms is divinely inspired. It's all God's word, and so it doesn't make any sense to say, well if it's not in the red letters, I'm not going to believe it. Now you can easily prove salvation by grace through faith using the red letters only. You can prove a lot of great things using the red letters only, but the book of Romans is every bit as much Scripture as what Jesus said in the Gospels. And so the Bible calls it Scripture, whether it's the prophets, whether it's the apostles, whether it's Jesus, whether it's Paul, it is inspired by God. It is all equally authoritative. Flip over if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, while you're turning there, I'll read for you from Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2, 19. Notice, what is our foundation? What is the basis of our faith? You know, the Bible says other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Look, Jesus Christ is the foundation, amen? But the Bible also says that the prophets and the apostles are the foundation. You know why? Because Jesus is the Word incarnate. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word, if we jump down to verse 14, was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten Father of the Father, full of grace and truth. So we see that Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. So if Jesus Christ is the foundation, the apostles and the prophets are also the foundation. Why? Because they're God's Word, and Jesus Christ is also the Word of God. incarnate, walking, talking, living, breathing, dwelling among us, the personification of God's Word itself, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are some false doctrines out here on this subject of Jesus Christ being the Word. First of all, some people will try to downplay this. And they'll say, well, Jesus is just called the Word of God. That's just a name. Well, that's a funny name, if it doesn't really mean that He's the Word. You know, or sometimes they'll say, well, if you go back into the Greek, it's this word ha-logos, and it's this force, you know, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, the force was with him, or, you know, all this garbage. But, you know, He's called the Word of God because He's the Word of God. Okay, so when we read things in the Bible and the Old Testament and they talk about God's Word, what does that mean, God's Word? It means things that God said, right? The words that God spoke. Stuff God said is the Word of God. Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh. But there's another stupid and foolish doctrine called modalism or oneness, Pentecostalism or Jesus-only doctrine that says, well, Jesus did not exist as the Son of God until Bethlehem's manger, and before that, He only existed as just the stuff God said. Now, the stupid thing about that is that the Word of God is not just a thing, meaning the words that God spoke. The Word of God is a person. God's Word is a person. And I've heard these modalist oneness fools, including our disgraced former fire deacon, say that, oh, well, the Word's not a person. Well, that's funny because it sure gets a personal pronoun. Because if the Word's not a person, then here's how it should read. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by it, and without it was not anything made that was made. In it was light, and the light was the light of men. And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. And we'd go through it and say, you know, it came unto its own, but its own received it not. Because, you know, apparently it doesn't become a person until verse 14. It came unto its own, and its own received not. But as many as received it, to them gave it power to become the sons of God. I mean, it's stupid, folks. It's a personal pronoun. He, him, his. It's a person. Okay? So Jesus Christ is the Word of God. The Word of God is both the Word of God, meaning the words that God spake, the Scriptures themselves, the God-breathed inspired sayings of Scripture, but the Word of God is also a person that is the personification, the incarnation, the embodiment of those very words of God. So you have to understand that the Word of God is both a person, and the Word of God is also what we would commonly refer to as the Word of God, which is the things that God said in Scripture, the things that preceded out of God's mouth. So both of these are false doctrines. If you deny that Jesus Christ has always been a person, that Jesus Christ has always been the Son of God, he has always existed eternally as the Son of God, that's heresy. They deny the Trinity. They believe that it's just one person. There's not three persons, one God, as the Trinity teaches. But then it's also a foolish doctrine to say, well, when it says he's the Word, it doesn't really mean that he's the Word. Of course it really means that he's the Word. That's why it can say, hey, other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus. It can also say that the apostles and the prophets are our foundation, right? Because the Word of God is our foundation. Whether it's the sayings of Christ or the apostles or the prophets, all Scripture is equally inspired. It's all equally authoritative. We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. 1 Corinthians 14, look at verse 37. If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. So these Roman Catholics need to read this verse and see that the things that Paul wrote unto us are not the commandments of Paul. They're not the opinions of Paul. They are the commandments of the Lord. There's no hierarchy of Scripture where certain Scriptures are more authoritative than others. Now, in other false religions, there is a hierarchy among their Scriptures. We talked about how the Roman Catholics put Christ's words up at the top and then below that, they'll put the Epistles. And then, of course, they have all their church fathers and they've got their philosophers, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. And they'll often make the things that those men have said an authority unto them. So they have this hierarchy of Scriptures and things that they believe in and they don't treat all Scripture as inspired by God. But there are other false religions that do the same thing. That's how Islam is. You know, they've got the Quran, but then they've got these other holy writings that they do below that. And if you look at the way the Jews deal with the Bible, they have a hierarchy of Scripture. They don't look at the Old Testament and believe the whole thing as God's word. I mean, when we look at the Old Testament, we look at those 39 books and we believe all of it's God's word. Amen? That's not what the Jews believe. Go back, if you would, to 2 Chronicles chapter 36. 2 Chronicles chapter 36. Now, of course, we know that the Jews don't believe any of the Old Testament. Because in their hierarchy, the thing that they put at the top are the five books of Moses. That's their top Scripture according to what they say. They say that the Torah, or the first five books of Moses, are their top, most important, most authoritative Scripture. But what did Jesus say? Jesus said, well, if you had believed in Moses, you would have believed in me, for he spake of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? So anyone who tells you that the Jews believe in the Torah are basically calling Jesus Christ a liar. They're basically saying, well, I believe the Jews and I think Jesus is lying to me. Because on one side they got Jesus saying, hey, if somebody believes in Moses, they believe in me. If you would have believed in Moses, you would have also believed in me. And if you don't believe his writings, you're not going to believe my words. And then on the other side we've got Rabbi Joe Schmoe that tells us, oh, yes, we believe in the Torah. Who's lying? Who's a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, he's anti-Christ that denieth the Father and the Son. The Son of God. And by the way, these modalist Trinity deniers are a bunch of anti-Christ, too, because they're denying the very Son of God. They think God the Father died on the cross for them because they don't even believe in the concept of God even having a son. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Amen. So we see here that the Jews lie when they say that they believe in the Torah. But according to them, that's their number one book. So they break it into three parts. We have the 39 books of the Old Testament. They break them into three parts. These are the three parts. They've got the first five books of Moses, the law of God. They call it the Torah. That's just Hebrew for law, is all that is. So they're just saying the law. And then the next section they've got is the prophets. And then the third section they've got is the writings. So if you get a Hebrew Bible, it's broken into these three sections. You've got the law, then you've got the prophets, and then you've got the writings. And what they believe is that the law is the most authoritative. Then after that are the prophets, a little less authoritative. And then you've got the writings, which are even less authoritative. So they're not giving the right honor to God's word as saying that it's all inspired by God. Because here's the thing. If a book is inspired by God, that's kind of a yes or no. You can't be like, well, it's kind of inspired. It's pretty inspired. I mean, that's like saying that someone's kind of pregnant. You're either pregnant or you're not. Either God said this stuff or he didn't. If God didn't say it, then holy men of God were not speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They were speaking as they were moved of themselves. And that's not authoritative at all. So it's either God's word or it's not. So they've got these three sections. But here's the funny thing about it. These three sections are not what you think. If I gave you the books of the Old Testament and said, put them in these three categories, you'd probably get it wrong. You know why? Because when you hear the prophets, what are you thinking? Isaiah. What else are you thinking? Daniel. Wrong. Here's the thing. They put Daniel in the writings. That doesn't make any sense, does it? I agree with you, David. Daniel should be in the prophets. Amen? No, no, no. Daniel's in the writings. And then how about these books? Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings. Those are prophets. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. They have Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings in the prophets. They've got Daniel in the writings. They've got 1 and 2 Kings in the prophets, but 1 and 2 Chronicles in the writings. Here's why. Because of the fact that it's not based on whether they're prophets or writings. It's based on when they were written. Everything that's written before the Persian Empire goes in the prophets. Everything that's written after the Persian Empire goes in the writings. So basically, to them, if stuff's old, it's authoritative. So the Torah is the oldest, and then the prophets are older, and then the writings are not as old. So therefore, they get dumped into this section, the writings, and they believe it less and less. Of course, Jesus told us they didn't even believe Tier 1. So how much less do they believe the prophets? And man, they must not believe those writings at all. Okay. But does that make any sense to you, how they have it divided up there? It makes no sense. Now, our Christian Bible makes a lot of sense the way it's divided up. Here's the way our Christian Bible works. We start out with the first five books of Moses. That makes sense because, you know, you've got the creation story, you've got the exodus from Egypt, you've got the law given at Mount Sinai. That all makes sense, right? Then it makes perfect sense to roll into the historical books because the first one is Joshua. And the story of Joshua picks up right where Deuteronomy leaves off. It's perfect. I mean, that's kind of a no-brainer to roll from Deuteronomy into Joshua, right? So then once we roll into Joshua, we just start moving chronologically forward through the historical books. So we have the law and then we get into the historical books. And the historical books go Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings. And we're going in order there. That's all in a nice chronological order. Okay. Then we roll into a couple more historical books, 1 and 2 Chronicles. Okay. Which again, you know, cover the same time period from 2 Samuel through 2 Kings. Just sort of a recap of that same period. And then 2 Chronicles rolls into Ezra, Ezra rolls into Nehemiah, and then we have Esther. And that's the end of the historical books. Okay. Then after the historical books, because the latest historical book is Esther, then we have what we call the poetic books. And the poetic books are in chronological order. So we've got Job, then Psalms, which is predominantly written by whom? David, right? And then we roll into Proverbs because that's predominantly written by Solomon. Chapters 1 through 29 are written by Solomon. A couple other authors in chapters 30 and 31. But then we've got Ecclesiastes, we've got Song of Solomon. Those are called the poetic books. So that forms its own nice little chronological section. Then we roll into the major prophets. And the major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Those are in chronological order, right? Isaiah prophesied before Jeremiah, Jeremiah came before Ezekiel, Ezekiel came before Daniel. Makes perfect sense, right? Then we roll into the minor prophets, which there are 12 of them. And again, they are in chronological order. So we've got Hosea, Joel, Amos. And if you put them side by side with the major prophets, they're parallel. So Hosea is preaching at the same time as Isaiah. Amos is preaching at the same time as Isaiah, and so forth. So it's a nice order and it ends with Malachi, the latest of the prophets. So when you start getting toward the end of the minor prophets, those books line up with the end of the historical books. So things that are going on in Ezra and Nehemiah have to do with things also that you read about in Zechariah and Haggai. And then the final book is Malachi. So it's a very logical order. Everything's chronological, but it's broken into sections. Law, historical books, poetic books, major prophets, minor prophets. Makes great sense. So what's the last book then, right? The last book is Malachi, all right? Why is that a great book to end on? You know, I told you to turn to 2 Chronicles. Keep your finger there in 2 Chronicles 36, but go to Malachi 3. Go to Malachi chapter 3. Let's talk about why Malachi is such a great book to end on. So if you just do things in a logical order, the last book chronologically in the Old Testament would be Malachi. So it makes perfect sense to end there. And when you end on Malachi, here's what you end up with. The last two chapters of Malachi, what are they about? Well, look at chapter 3, verse 1. Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. Now, who's that about? John the Baptist, right? Because this is quoted in Matthew, Mark, as being a prophecy about John the Baptist. And so it says, the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delighted. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. So the Lord himself, right, is going to dwell among us, and the messenger is going to come and prepare his way before him. John the Baptist is going to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. So this is a great way to end the Old Testament. Look at the last two verses of the Old Testament, chapter 4, verses 5 and 6. Behold, I will send you, Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. These are the last words of the Old Testament. I am going to send you, Elijah the prophet. And of course, what did Jesus say? Matthew chapter 11. If you will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come. Why say the scribes that Elias must first come? And he said, Elias has already come. Because John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah, the Bible tells us. And Jesus said, John the Baptist, that's Elijah that was promised to come. So we end the Old Testament with a prophecy about John the Baptist paving the way for Jesus. Now I wonder why the Jews don't want to end the Old Testament with the book of Malachi. They don't want it to end there. This is where it logically ends. Where do they want it to end? It makes no sense. They want it to end in 2 Chronicles. Go to 2 Chronicles chapter 36. Now let me show you how this makes zero sense. Remember how I said earlier that Joshua following Deuteronomy is a total no brainer? Because Deuteronomy ends and then Joshua picks up right where it left off. And I mean it's pretty obvious that judges should follow Joshua because it picks up right where it left off. I mean come on. That just makes sense. Well, it's kind of like that with 2 Chronicles and Ezra too. Ezra literally picks up the story exactly where 2 Chronicles ends. Look at 2 Chronicles 36 verse 22. It says, Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth that the Lord God of heaven given me, and he had charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah, who is there among you of all his people? The Lord is God be with him, and let him go up. Now this is where the Jews want to end their Bible. So the Jews, when they hold up their Bible, that's where it ends. It ends on that note. They want their Bible to end with, alright, let's go back to the promised land and let's go rebuild that temple. That's how they want it to end, right? Because isn't that what it says right there? So this is the ending that they have chosen for themselves to be the end of their Bible. They don't call it the Old Testament. They just call it the Bible because they don't accept Jesus. They don't accept the New Testament. So this is where their Bible ends. You know, it tells you a lot about them. What's important to them? We just want to get back to the land and build that temple. That's what it says, right? But this is why it's so foolish. Let's read the next verse, Ezra 1-1. If we just roll right into the next book, Ezra 1-1, what does it say? Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, compare this to chapter 36, verse 22 of 2 Chronicles. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia. Look, verses 1, 2, and 3 of Ezra chapter 1 are identical virtually to the end of 2 Chronicles 36. So if you ever just had a no-brainer of what order to put the books in, you'd go from 2 Chronicles, you'd roll into Ezra. It's the biggest no-brainer ever since Joshua following Deuteronomy. Does everybody see that? It's so obvious. But the way that they have it in their Bible is, this is their order. Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles. They have Ezra and Nehemiah right before 1 and 2 Chronicles. That makes no sense because the events in Ezra and Nehemiah follow the events in 2 Chronicles. And in fact, God is, it's sort of like, I'm trying to think of a good illustration of this. You know, it's almost like in old books, when you read old books, I don't know if you've ever read really old books, where at the end of the page, it'll give you the first word on the next page. Who knows what I'm talking about? And then on the beginning of a page, it'll give you the last word on the previous page. This is something that you'll find in books like a hundred years old or older. Has anybody seen that before? Okay, so you'll see that in really ancient books, you know, ancient being a hundred years ago. But anyway, where I believe even in the King James replica back there. Don't they do the same thing? And they, you know, because what are they doing? They're trying to kind of show you how to connect the dots, okay? So that you know, okay, you know, you're on the right page here. You didn't accidentally grab two or something like that. Well, it reminds me of that game when you're a kid, when you're on a long drive, and you draw a head, and then you fold the paper, and you hand it to the next kid, and then they draw the body, and then they fold the paper, and then they hand it to the next kid, and they draw the legs, but you don't know what creature you're drawing. And so you end up with this strange hybrid where it's a head of one kind of animal, the body of a different kind of animal, the legs of another kind of animal. Who's ever played that game? Very few people, all right, all right. Very few people. Well, then maybe this won't be the most effective illustration that I've ever used, all right. But we grew up, I've played that game like a hundred times, okay. Well, when you play this game, when you draw the head and you draw a neck, when you fold the paper, you have to leave that little part of the neck visible for the next person. And you don't want them to see the head that you drew because you don't want to taint their imagination. But you want them to see those two little lines so that they'll know where to attach the body, right. And then you've got to leave some stubs for the legs, and then they'll know where to attach what they draw. Well, you know, God's basically providing a little stub here at the end of 2 Chronicles and saying, look, I know you Jews aren't very smart, but I'm going to leave you a little slot A to insert into tab B here. I'm going to make it real easy for you by making the last two verses of 2 Chronicles identical to the first couple of verses of Ezra. You think you guys can figure out how this fits, how this goes? They're like, duh, I think I put Ezra in the environment. It doesn't make any sense. But you know what, I bet if you tried to play that game with a blind person, that game that I described with drawing, it might not work too well with a blind person. I've never tried playing it with a blind person. But it probably would be tough. But here's the thing about that, the Bible says that Jews are blind when they read the Old Testament. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 tells us that. So give them a break, folks. We shouldn't make fun of them because they're handicapped, alright? They're blind. So let's give them a break. I apologize. Now, why don't they want to put it in the order that any reasonable person would put it in? Any reasonable person would say 2 Chronicles, then Ezra, then Nehemiah, Deuteronomy, then Joshua. You know, it's just like, it's obvious, right? Is anybody not seeing this? I'll help you after the service if you're having trouble with this. I'm willing to comfort the feeble-minded. Here's why they don't want to do it. Let's look at the end of Ezra. Because, you know, let's look at the other candidates. Because some, I mean, their Bible has to end somewhere. They certainly don't want it to end in Malachi, right? If they end in Malachi, then they're going to look pretty stupid for not believing in John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, right? So we've got to find another place for them to end their Bible. Can we help these people out? Let's find them another place to end their Bible. So let's say they wanted to just end it on Ezra. Come on, stick Ezra where you know it belongs, right after 2 Chronicles. Here's why they don't want it to end there. Because Ezra chapters 9 and 10 would be how their Bible would end, and you know what it's all about? It's all about how the Jews were marrying heathen wives and bringing in apostasy and then divorcing all their heathen wives. You know, I guess they don't want to end on that note of marrying a bunch of heathens and then divorcing all their heathen wives. And how all their kids are mixed between the house of Israel and the foreigners and how they speak half in the Jews' language and half in the language of the peoples around them. I guess that's just not a cool book to end on. Okay, well let's cut them some slack because, you know, they can end on Nehemiah, right? So let's go to Nehemiah 13. We're trying to find a good stopping place for these people, okay? So maybe they can end on Nehemiah 13. Well, you know why they don't want to end on Nehemiah 13? Because Nehemiah 13 is all about how Nehemiah gets back to Jerusalem and he finds all the Jews doing all the wrong things. They're all united with God's enemies. They're marrying strange wives. It's pretty much almost the same ending as Ezra 9 and 10. Nehemiah 13 is a really similar thing. You know why? Because history repeats itself. And in Nehemiah chapter 13, Nehemiah is so mad. He's ripping people's hair out. He's chasing people. I mean, he loses it. I mean, he's running after people, ripping their hair out, cursing them, and, you know, just cleaning house. He goes and finds how they've put the enemy of the Lord and given him a chamber in God's house. He just empties all his stuff out in the street. You know, you picture him just throwing stuff out the window, throwing stuff out the door. Get this guy's stuff out of here. You know, I mean, he's cracking some heads of some rebellious, disobedient, ungodly Jews. That's, it's like, the end. I mean, that's just not a cool ending for the Jews. So that's why they have to kind of tuck that stuff away, put that before 1 Chronicles, defying all logic and common sense, so that they can end on that high note of, we're going back to the land. We're going to build the temple. No, the real ending is Malachi. Amen? We've got our books in the right order. Our order makes sense, and the Jewish order is a joke. It's ridiculous. It just doesn't make any sense, folks. Now, if you would, turn to Colossians, chapter 1. Colossians, chapter 1. So we've talked about some errors that people make when they don't understand the subject of the sermon tonight, which is that all scripture is equally inspired. Amen? The title of the sermon is that all scripture is equally inspired. God's word is God's word. It doesn't matter whether it's Moses or the apostles or the prophets, the writings, so-called, or the gospels, the prophecy books. Hey, it's all God's word, 66 books of truth. Amen? So we talked about the Catholics exalting the red letters above everything else. We talked about the Jews exalting the book of Moses above everything else. Psych. They don't even believe in it. Okay? We talked about how other false religions will do the same thing with their scriptures. The Muslims will do that. The Hindus will do that. You know, the Hindus have the Vedas and the Upanishads, and they've got the Mahabharata, and they put it in an order of saying, hey, the Vedas are number one. You know, and they have, like, a hierarchy here of descending value, descending authority. Hey, we don't believe that way. We just have one book that's just all God's word, and it's all equally authoritative. Okay. Well, there's a group amongst Baptists who they go actually opposite from the Catholics, and they put the Epistles of Paul above Jesus. This is a very strange doctrine. It's called hyper-dispensationalism. Okay? And hyper-dispensationalism is also sometimes known as Romans to Philemon dispensationalism. Or they'll talk about how, you know, the Pauline Epistles only from Romans to Philemon. You know, of course, don't let it bother you that in your 1611 King James Version it says the Epistle of Paul, the Apostle to the Hebrews. Don't let that bother you. But, you know, they just say it's just Romans to Philemon. Right? One of these guys, even a prophet of their own, Bill Grady, who, you know, a lot of people have probably heard the name. He wrote a famous book about the King James Bible a few decades ago. He's kind of a has-been. But anyway, this guy, Bill Grady, total unsaved false prophet. He literally, this is what he said about our church. I'm going to give you the exact quote that he said about Faithful Word Baptist Church. Quote, they absolutely reject Paul's preeminence and they're always wanting to see what Jesus had to say about something. And that's the Faithful Word Baptist Church. That's verbatim what he said. You can go on YouTube and hear him say that Paul is preeminent. And this, I'm going to read it for you again. This is exactly what he said about us, specifically, our church. They absolutely reject Paul's preeminence and they're always wanting to see what Jesus had to say about something. And that's the Faithful Word Baptist Church. You got us. Ouch. You nailed us. Okay. Yeah, we want to see what Jesus said about things. Right. We don't believe Paul is preeminent because we believe all scripture is equally authoritative and equally inspired. But you know what's so funny about that quote, though? And go look it up. It's not out of context. Go watch it in context. Go listen to it. Everything before, everything after. That's what these people believe, folks. And it's so strange. Look, people use certain words for a reason. Have you ever noticed that people in the military will use a lot of military terminology? Or people who like fishing will use fishing terminology? You know, the words that come out of people's mouth tell us about who they are. It tells about their background. You know, criminologists and investigators will use this when they get an anonymous threat or they get a ransom note or something. They'll read that note and say, okay, this guy's in his 30s. This guy's from this part of the country. Here's his background. Here's what he's done for a living. Here's what he studied. Here's what he studied. Why? Because his words betray him. Right? They can tell what he's like. You know, if people analyzed my speech, they would realize my age. They would realize that I'm an exennial. You know, I'm halfway between Generation X and Millennial, born in 1981. So I have the terminology of that generation. And, you know, it's funny. I'll get around people sometimes and I just find myself relating to those people on a lot of things. And then, lo and behold, oh, yeah, they're born in 1981 or 1982 or 1980. Like I've noticed that when I'm around people that are my exact age, it's like everything about our conversation just clicks. Or I'll just really be clicking with someone and then I realize they're from California. I'm from California. Or they had a similar background to me. Oh, you grew up in Christian school. I grew up in Christian school too. And you'll kind of hit it off with people and realize, wow, we have a lot in common. And everything I say, they get it. You know, I make a joke, they get the joke. Other people are kind of like, oh, you know, people in their 20s, people in their 40s, they might not get it. But we talk in a certain way. It reveals what we've read. It reveals what our background is. It reveals the culture that we grew up in. Right? The words that we say matter. Listen to the Bill Grady quote one more time. Sorry to belabor this point. They absolutely reject Paul's preeminence. That's an interesting word to use, preeminence, isn't it? Preeminence? Preeminence. Okay, the word preeminence, how many times is it used in the Bible? Three times. So it's not used much in the Bible. Now, there's this guy, Diatrophes, he always loved to have the preeminence. Right? But look what the Bible says in Colossians 1, 18, and then tell me if it's pretty weird that Bill Grady chose that term. Now, who was it that wrote Colossians again? Oh, yeah, the apostle Paul. Colossians chapter 1, verse 18. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Look, Paul said that Jesus Christ should have the preeminence in all things. So that's why Faithful Word Baptist Church rejects this stupid doctrine of Paul's preeminence. Because it's not in the Bible. Jesus is preeminent. Now, that doesn't mean that the red letters are more authoritative than Paul's epistles, because we believe that they are equally authoritative. But when you read Paul's letters that are equally authoritative with what Christ said, guess what Paul is saying? He's glorifying Jesus. He's playing down himself. He's saying, you know what, I'm the least of the apostles. I'm the cheapest of sinners. I'm not worthy to be called an apostle. He's not saying, I'm preeminent. Shut up and listen to me. Quit asking what Jesus said about stuff. Listen to me. Is that what Paul is saying? No. It's crazy. These ruckmanite, Bill Grady types are literally crazy. They believe that there are aliens on other planets. I'm not even going to go into it. It's so weird. Some of it would even make Joseph Smith blush. I'm sure Brigham Young would be fine with it. But even Joseph Smith might blush at some of what they believe. But let me just touch on one last point, because we're talking about reasons why we need this sermon. Why do we even need to talk about this? Why do we even need a sermon like this? Well, because there are religions out there that have a hierarchy of scripture, want to make sure that we know that we're not one of them. Right? We're not like the Jews. We're not like the Catholics in that sense. But even as Baptists, we're not these hyper-dispensationalists. We're not even a hypodispensationalist. We're not any kind of dispensationalist. We're not even a quasi-dispensationalist. We're not even a pseudo-dispensationalist. Whatever prefix you want to put in front of it, we're not. We don't believe in dispensationalism. But these hyper-dispensationalists, they're saying, oh, put Paul's scripture as more authoritative. Wrong. The book of John, the book of Matthew, it's equally authoritative. Okay? But there's another problem that I've seen over the last decade, and that is even Baptists, even Evangelical Christians, thinking that the book of Psalms is not authoritative. Now, this is also a very strange doctrine, and it can be easily debunked. Go, if you would, to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter number 1. And the Bible says in Acts chapter number 1. And while you're turning there, I'll read for you another verse. You turn to Acts 1. In Acts 28, it says, And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers. Now, let that saying sink down into your ears. The Holy Ghost spake by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers. So when Isaiah preached, who was it that was actually speaking? The Holy Ghost spake by Isaiah the prophet, it says in Acts chapter 28. Now, look down at your Bible in Acts chapter 1 there. In verse 15, it says, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, Now, again, this is the Holy Ghost speaking by the mouth of David the prophet. So if there's any confusion about what it means when the Bible said, Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. You know what that means? It means the Holy Ghost spake by their mouth. When it says Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, it means the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David, the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of Moses, the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of Ezekiel, the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of Daniel. Why? Because Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And the Bible says that applies to all the scripture. No prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation. But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost in every case. In every case. It doesn't matter whether it's Micah or Joel or Amos. Look, all the scripture is given by inspiration of God. And holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now let's jump down and get the quote because he said David was used by the Holy Ghost to give this scripture in verse 16, right? The Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David. Jump down to verse 20. Let's get the quote from David. For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein and his bishopric let another take. Keep your finger in Acts and go back to Psalm 109. Go back to Psalm 109 with your finger in Acts. Let's find this quote in the book of Psalms. Now you say, Pastor Anderson, why would anyone discount the book of Psalms? That's a great question. Because I find that Psalms is one of the most quoted books in the New Testament. You know the most quoted books in the New Testament are Deuteronomy and Psalms and Isaiah. Those are the books that keep getting quoted over and over again. Of course, scripture quotes most of the Old Testament books in the New Testament, but those are the three that just keep coming up. Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and Psalms just get hammered, and really especially Psalms. I mean, Psalms is a key source of doctrine for the apostle Paul. I mean, he's constantly referring to it and getting doctrine from it. The apostles are constantly getting their doctrine from the book of Psalms because they realize that it's God's word. But now we have Bible teachers telling us, oh, this is just kind of a little glimpse into David's prayer life, and sometimes he screws it up, sometimes he gets it right, sometimes it's right, sometimes it's wrong, and we decide whether it's right or wrong because we're God. I mean, that's basically what a lot of these teachers are saying. That's what Ray Comfort said. Ray Comfort said, oh, these prayers where David is cursing people? That's just David talking. That's just David. You know, David's having a bad day or something, I guess. And he said, oh, that's just David. I've had literally scores of people tell me when I preached out of Psalms, when I preached some of the rough stuff in Psalms, because Psalms is not all the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Psalms has got some rough things in it. And when I've preached the rougher portions of Psalms, I've been told, hey, you know, that's not what God wants us to believe, or that's not what God said. That's not what God does. You know, that's just David. You know, it's the same Catholic mentality of, well, that's just Paul. Or hey, let's put this in section three, the writings. Third tier scripture. B grade or C grade scripture. Baptists are saying this? Evangelical Christians are saying this? No. Oh, that's just David. No, actually, it's the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David. What did it specifically say that about? It said it about Acts 1, verse 20. Look at it again. It is written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and his bishopric let another take. Okay, well, if we read through Psalm 109, we'll find some of these quotes here. Let his days be few. Look at verse eight of Psalm 109. Let his days be few, and let another take his office. Right? Instead of saying his bishopric, his office, because that is what his office was, his bishopric. Let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg. Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath, and let the strangers spoil his labor. Look, this isn't exactly a blessing. Look at verse 14. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Yo mama. I mean, look, he is sitting there and cursing these people up one side and down the other, and the apostles are saying, well, this is what the Holy Ghost said by the mouth of David. And they applied it to Judas. And they said, this applies to Judas. Let his days be few. Let another take his office. You know, there was a bumper sticker that was going around for a while. It said, pray for Obama, Psalm 109, verse 9. Or Psalm 109, verse 8. You know, let his days be few, and let another take his office. And that was a popular bumper sticker during the Obama administration. And you know what? I say amen to that bumper sticker. And you know what? I don't just say amen. I prayed that prayer. And you know what's so funny is that, you know, everybody thought I was crazy when I preached that. And, oh, I can't believe that you would apply Psalm 109 to Obama, or that you would apply Psalm 58 to Obama, or that you would apply Psalm 55 to Obama. You know, how dare you use all this scripture and make it relevant to the day that we live in. But people thought that I was crazy when I preached that stuff. But you know what's funny? My sweet elderly grandma, who just passed away recently, before I even preached that sermon, without ever hearing that sermon, talked to my dad on the phone. And here's what she said about Obama, quote, I'm praying for something to happen to that idiot. Now, she was in her late 80s at the time, okay, and she didn't hear my sermon. Because after I preached my sermon, my dad heard the sermon. He said, oh, that reminds me of something that my mom said to me on the phone a few months ago. You know, we were talking about Obama, and she said, well, I'm praying for something to happen to that idiot. Well, you know what? David's praying in Psalm 109 for something to happen to that idiot. And that something isn't good. It could even be brain cancer or something like that. But anyway, I got to hurry. I want to show you something else. Look at Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11 in the New Testament. Romans chapter number 11 in the New Testament. And then we're going to look up this scripture back in Psalm 69. So if you want to get a finger in Psalm 69 and Romans 11, this will be the last thing tonight. Romans 11. What's the sermon about? All scripture is equally authoritative. All scripture is equally inspired by God. It doesn't matter whether we're reading Psalms. And you know, I love the fact, I absolutely love the fact that New Testaments often come with Psalms in there. Right? I mean, that's just a great, you know, why not, if you're going to pick one book from the Old Testament to sort of tag on, boy, Psalms is a winner. Because it covers such a breadth of subject matter. It has such a variety. And plus, the Bible even commands us in the New Testament to sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So it's great the way they put in the book of Psalms at the back of New Testaments. But look in Romans chapter number 11. In Romans chapter number 11, the Bible is talking about how Israel is blinded and doesn't understand the scripture. Israel has not obtained that which he seeketh for. Verse 7. What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for. But the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded. According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. And David saith, now look, is he saying, well, you know, this is what David says. I don't approve of it. No, he's quoting this as authority. He's saying, look, here's what David says, buddy. Why? Because it's the Holy Ghost speaking by the mouth of David. And he says, David saith, let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back all way. Let's find that quote in Psalm 69. Flip back to Psalm 69. What I'm demonstrating to you is that some of the imprecatory psalms is the fancy theological word for these psalms that are cursing someone because to imprecate means to curse. Imprecation means curse. So these cursing psalms or imprecatory psalms or let his days be few and another take his office kind of psalms, these psalms are often the most quoted in the New Testament. They're actually being quoted quite a bit. There are 19 of these psalms and out of 150, 19 of them are these curses that David is praying on the wicked. They're quoted in the New Testament, but yet people say, oh, well, those are obsolete now because we're in the New Testament. That's funny. They don't seem obsolete when Paul's using them in Romans. Even if you're a hyper dispensationalist, you believe in Romans, who are you to decide that they're obsolete? That doesn't even make sense. Why are we supposed to be seeing them if they're obsolete, even in the New Testament? And who are you to say that the Holy Ghost didn't speak these words when the Bible says that he did? Okay. But look at this quote. If we look up the quote in Psalm 69, verse 21 says, they gave me also gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Who's that? Jesus, right? He was given vinegar to drink. Let their table become a snare. That's what it said in Romans. So why was that curse in Romans 11 given? Because the Jews rejected Jesus. They gave him vinegar to drink. They hated him. They said, his blood be on us and on our children. So because of that, let their table be made a snare. That's what the Bible is saying here, right? As a result, he says, let their table become a snare before them and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loins continually to shake. That's where the Romans 11 quote ends. But let's continue. Pour out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate. Remember, that's the part that was quoted in Acts 1 as being out of the mouth of David by the Holy Ghost because the quote in Acts 1 was a hybrid of Psalm 69, what we're looking at right now, and Psalm 109, what we looked at earlier. This is where we get the first half of the quote, let his habitation be desolate, and then another take his office is from Psalm 109. Let their habitation be desolate and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous. But I am poor and sorrowful. Let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. The humble shall see this and be glad and your heart shall live that seek God. And so we go on here and we read these things and we see that even parts of scripture that make people uncomfortable because they're too negative or they are cursing wicked people and they want to only hear sweetness and light, guess what? Those parts of scripture are just as authoritative. The New Testament Epistles of Paul quotes them with authority. Jesus quotes them with authority because all scripture is given by inspiration of God. All scripture is profitable for doctrine and it's all equal. So if something comes from Genesis, it's just as true as if it came from Revelation and vice versa. There's not one of these 66 books that is on the B list. Everything's on the A list. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Thank you for giving us so much of it, 1189 chapters of pure greatness, 1189 chapters of absolute truth, 31,000 plus verses. Every single one of them we can hang our hat on and we thank you so much, Lord, for giving us the word of God in our own tongue wherein we were born. We can read it in our English language and understand the wonderful words that you've given us, Lord. Please help us never to despise or disdain any part of the Bible and help us never to fall into these lies that downplay Psalms or downplay the epistles or even the weirdos that would even downplay the words of Jesus himself. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.