(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Men, the title of my sermon this morning is Principles for Building God's House. Principles for Building God's House. In the book of Ezra, they are rebuilding the temple, God's physical house, in the Old Testament. But of course, in the New Testament, God's house is not a physical building or a temple made with hands, but rather in the New Testament, the Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 3.15, But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So in the New Testament, it is the church that is the house of God. And so we can take these principles from Ezra chapter 6 about building the temple, and the way that we would apply those today would be in regard to building the house of God, building the local church. Christ promised to build his church, and we are his human instruments that are being used to do that very thing. So the first principle I want to pull out of this passage is in verse 3, where the Bible says, In the first year of Cyrus the king, the same Cyrus the king, made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem. Let the house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid, the height thereof three score cubits, and the breadth thereof three score cubits, with three rows of great stones. The first thing I want to point out is that the foundations of God's house must be strongly laid. If we're going to have a church in the New Testament following after God's plan a true house of God, we need to make sure that we lay the foundations strongly. The Bible says in Psalm 11, If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? I mean, if there's no strong foundation, then we're doomed before we even begin. Now obviously the Bible says other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, that is Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is ultimately the rock that is our foundation, but we also need to lay a strong Bible foundation doctrinally from God's word, okay? Now if you would flip over to 1 Kings 5, you see one of the things that we use to identify ourself in 2019 as to what kind of church this is, we say that we are independent, fundamental Baptists. And one of those words is fundamental. Fundamental has to do with the foundation of something. The fundament of something is the foundation, okay? So when we say that we are fundamental, it means that we have certain foundational truths of the word of God that we will not budge on. We're not going to be moved. We're not going to compromise them. We don't believe that the Bible is this evolving book that kind of changes with the times, but we have this foundation of the word of God and we have foundational truths that are not negotiable. They don't change. That's what it means to be a fundamentalist. Let me give you another way of explaining what a fundamentalist is, somebody who actually believes the Bible, somebody who actually cares what the Bible says. Anybody who even halfway cares what the Bible actually says and stands on the word of God at all is a fundamentalist. Some people might not want to call themselves that, but that's really what they are because fundamentalists are people that stand on things like the inspiration of the Bible, the virgin birth of Christ, his bodily resurrection, his second coming. These are things that if you don't believe them, you're not even reading the Bible. You don't even believe the Bible. To not be fundamental is to be ashamed of yourself or at least it ought to be. Look at 1 Kings 5. Let's look at a little bit about the foundation of the temple that Solomon built, the first temple. It says in verse 17, and the king commanded and they brought great stones, costly stones and huge stones. Wood means that they were carved out of the stone, so they were basically giant pieces of stone that were carved into squares, rectangles, cubes, into those kind of shapes. Then it says in verse 18, and Solomon's builders and Hyrum's builders did hew them and the stone squarers, so these guys' job is to make sure that this thing is level and square and that they're not making some kind of a trapezoid or something. Then it says, so they prepared timber and stones to build the house. Flip over to chapter 7, 1 Kings 7 verse 10, and the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones. When it says costly stones, we're not talking about rubies and diamonds and emeralds. When we talk about costly stones here, we're talking about stones that are expensive because of their size. Because they're one giant piece, and obviously it's going to be expensive to carve that out, to remove it from the earth, to transport it, because they're big, they're expensive. Think about how expensive a marble countertop can be or a granite countertop, and think about how much bigger these foundation stones are than those type of things. He says they were these great, costly stones, huge stones. Look if you would at verse 10 there, he said, even great stones, stones of 10 cubits and stones of 8 cubits. To translate this into feet, we're talking about 12 to 15 feet. We have these giant slabs of stone that are like 12 feet long. We probably don't know how wide or how broad they were, but the longest measurement, the length of these stones is 12 feet or even 15 feet long. We have these gigantic stones being used for the foundation. Here's the thing. Today when we build a building, what is the foundation typically made out of? Cement or concrete, right? Think about how different this is than cement. Cement conforms to whatever you pour it into. You pour a certain shape, you make the mold, and then you pour it into that shape and it freezes in that position. The concrete of the cement is formed by its surroundings, whereas with these costly stones that were put under the house of God, you have to form the surroundings around it. You bring in this giant piece of stone and the surroundings are carved out to fit the foundation, not vice versa. That's the way the house of God is supposed to be. The Bible said let the foundations thereof be strongly laid, meaning that we don't need some little cement slab that gets poured in one day and it could crack and it's this thin and it's conforming to everything around it. Boy, that's what a lot of churches are built on today, aren't they? They're built on a little thin layer of cement or built on sand. They're built on cement where they want to fit in with the world around them and they're going to basically conform to whatever society they're in and it's going to crack. It's not going to last for hundreds of years. It's not going to last forever. God's word is telling us we need to have a different kind of foundation, the rock of God's word that never changes. Let's form society around that rock. Let's form our lives around that rock. Let's form our church and build it on that rock instead of saying, well, let's get a foundation to fit our needs. Here, grab that bag of quick Crete or whatever. Quick Crete Baptist Church might grow fast, but it's not going to last, right? We want to be built on a firm foundation. So what am I talking about? I'm talking about the word of God. I'm talking about doctrines like the inspiration of scripture, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, the bodily resurrection, literal heaven and hell, second coming of Christ, the Trinity, salvation by grace through faith, eternal security of the believer, and baptism by immersion, right? So these are just basic fundamental doctrines that are crystal clear in the Bible. And I don't care if somebody else has some list that leaves out baptism because they want to include the Presbyterians or something, hey, look, that's our list, all right? And we can add to that list as well things that are not negotiable, things that are crystal clear in scripture that we have no doubt about. And to deny these things is to just ignore the clear teaching of scripture, okay? And sometimes when people come to church, they're not interested in doctrine. And they want to come to church and only get a relevant sermon about their life and telling them how to live and getting them through the week or encouraging them. But folks, we better make sure that our lives are built on the rock. You know, you can live your life and succeed in your marriage and succeed with your kids. But hey, if you don't have the doctrinal foundation of salvation by faith and believing in the God of the Bible and understanding scripture, you know, what are you even doing at that point? It's all in vain if you're not even saved. It's all in vain if you don't even have your core doctrines down. So don't ever get weary or tired of hearing me get up and preach basic sermons from time to time. I preach a lot of variety. I preach a lot of practical and relevant things. I preach a lot of deep things. But every once in a while, we need some basic sermons, basic sermons on the resurrection, basic sermons on heaven and hell, basic sermons on the Trinity, basic sermons on things that maybe you might think, oh, I already know that. Yeah, but let's just make sure those foundations are strongly laid. It can't hurt to emphasize those things from time to time. Don't get weary of those doctrinal sermons. I'll tell you why a lot of churches aren't preaching doctrinal sermons because they want to just include everybody. So they feel like if they take a really strong stand on the inspiration of the Bible, second coming of Christ, literal heaven and hell, well, then what about people who don't believe in those things, right? And they basically just want to include everybody so they give a motivational speaker kind of message. They don't get into the nitty gritty of the doctrine because that actually divides people. You know how it divides people? It divides the wheat from the chaff. It divides the sheep from the goats. And that's the kind of division that we need. We don't want a church just filled with unsaved people. And that sort of brings me to my next point. Number two, so we said number one, the foundation of God's house must be strongly laid. We need biblical preaching, just constantly reminding us of that foundation, shoring up our foundations, making sure that we're based on the rock, the word of God, and then our doctrine is sound because if the foundation is sound, then we can build something, okay? Number two, the vessels of God's house must be brought in. Look if you would at verse five of Ezra chapter six. We're going to be in Ezra chapter six the whole morning if you just want to keep a finger there. Ezra chapter six verse five, and also let the golden and silver vessels of the house of God which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem and brought unto Babylon be restored and brought again unto the temple which is at Jerusalem, everyone to his place and place them in the house of God. Now these vessels here that are mentioned are like cups, spoons, bowls, plates, those type of things. And what it represents though is the people, okay? And let me explain to you what I mean by that. The Bible talks about how these vessels were taken out of the house of God and taken to Babylon, okay? And then now they're going to be brought back from Babylon and reinstalled in God's house. So this is symbolic or a picture of the fact that God's people are taken captive into Babylon. And then God's people are being brought back and being reinstituted with the house of God, okay? Now let me give you a New Testament scripture on this. Keep your finger there in Ezra 6 and flip over to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. So we said, number 1, let the foundation of God's house be strongly laid. That was the first thing. And then number 2, we need to bring the vessels into the house of God. Bring the vessels into the house of God. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 19. Let's find out more about those vessels. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure. All right. So we got our foundation laid, all right? And then he says, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. So you can see here why we, as God's people, are represented by the vessels, right? Because the vessels are what God uses, right? They're ready for the master's use. Some Christians are vessels of gold and silver. These are the Christians that have gotten the iniquity out of their lives. Obviously, they're not perfect, but they are living for God. They love the Lord. They're following Christ. Those are the vessels of gold and silver. And then you have the backslidden Christians, the Christians that are not living for God, the Christians that are living in sin. They are the vessels of wood and earth, okay? And this is kind of similar to the illustration that he gives about the judgment seat of Christ where you have the gold, silver, and precious stones, and you have the wood, hay, and stubble. So everybody who's saved isn't living for God and doing great things for God. The ones that are are the vessels of gold and silver. But you've also got some vessels to dishonor. They're still in God's house. They're still part of the family, but they're not doing what they're supposed to be. And God's explained to us that we should want to be a vessel unto honor, right? Because it says in verse 21, if a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work. So he's talking about getting sin out of our life so that we can be an honorable vessel, so that we can be a gold and silver vessel, not a wooden earthen vessel. So what do I mean by saying in Ezra chapter 6 that we need to bring the vessels into God's house? You know, second only to the foundation in importance is bringing people into God's house, right? It's about the people. And we need to get people that are saved and get them here. Does everybody understand? The vessels are those that are saved. Okay? You know, there are some to honor, some to dishonor. Some are gold and silver, some wood and earth. But we need to get the vessels into God's house, all right? We need to be a church that is, yes, getting people saved, but we should also try to get people that are saved to come to church. And I'm not just talking about people that you win to Christ. It's great if you can win somebody to Christ and then get that person baptized and get that person to come to church. Unfortunately, in the real world, those things don't always happen in rapid succession. Sometimes they do. Sometimes somebody gets saved, they get baptized, they get in church, they start growing. But sometimes somebody gets saved, and then a while goes by, and they get baptized, and then a while goes by, and then they get in church, and different people are growing and journeying at different rates, okay? But if you know somebody who's a Christian, who's a child of God, even if they're already saved, try to get that person in church. Because you know that if they get in church, they're much more likely to do something for God. They're much more likely to get right with God. They're much more likely to serve God than if they're just kind of floating around out there in the world. Let's get the vessels out of Babylon, and let's get the vessels into the house of God, right? And let's get them placed in their place, as the Bible said there in verse 5 of Ezra 6. Right? Hey, everyone in his place, right? God's got a place for us here in the local church. He has jobs for us to do. He has works that he has before ordained that we should walk in them. And there are people out there in this world that God could be greatly using. They have talents. They have abilities. God has a plan for their life, but they're not fulfilling that plan. You know, they're a vessel ready for the master's use or that could be made ready for the master's use, but they're still in Babylon, right? We got to get them out of Babylon and into the house of God. You know, when I started this church, the first thing I did was I went out and started getting people saved and trying to get people to come to church. The first thing I didn't do was spend a lot of time worrying about a building and, you know, manufacturing stained glass windows or doing any kind of major preparations for a facility because I thought to myself, you know, the most important thing is that we get some people in here. You know, that's what the church starts with, people. People are the priority. It doesn't matter where we're meeting. It doesn't matter if we're meeting outside under some trees. It doesn't matter whether we're meeting in a house or meeting in a strip mall or meeting in a rented space or a freestanding building. You know, people who measure the success of a church by that are vain people. Okay. What does the Bible say? Hey, the Bible says, let the foundation be strongly laid. What does that mean? That's not talking about your building. That's talking about your doctrine. That's talking about the Lord being the foundation. It's talking about the Bible and the doctrine being strongly laid. It's not about the quality of your building. Okay. And then he says, number two, hey, let's get the vessels into the house of God. Bring the vessels, right? It's about getting the vessels and getting them into the local church. Maybe you know somebody who's out of church and you could be used to admonish them to get in church. And by the way, if you know somebody who's truly saved and they're going to some dead as a doornail church, they're going to some church that's got the wrong Bible version, no soul winning, super watered down. There's nothing wrong with trying to get that person to switch and go to a real church. You know, sometimes I'll go out soul winning with people and when people say where they're going to church, they say, well, we're not trying to steal anyone from their church. I'm thinking to myself, I am. I mean, look, now look, if somebody, now if somebody says that they're going to an independent Baptist church, then truly I'm not trying to steal them out of their church. But when somebody says, oh, I go to First Methodist Church of the Deep Freeze, of course I want to steal them out of that church. Amen? Oh, you want them to keep going to Cornerstone? You want them to keep, and I'm not talking about Cornerstone Baptist, I'm talking about the Cornerstone down in Chandler with the offensive perverted billboards, okay? You want them to keep on, because Cornerstone Baptist I think is fine, I want to mix that up. Do we want them to keep going to the First Presbyterian and this Lutheran and Celebration Church and whatever the, that's not where we want them to go. So yeah, I do want to steal them out of church, because I want to get them in a real church and not in some watered down apostate church. So don't be in the habit of just automatically saying that, oh, you're Roman Catholic? Well, we don't want to take you to another church. What? Are you serious? Of course we do. We got to get the vessels into God's house. How are we going to build God's house? How is Christ going to build his church? Well, we got to get people that are saved and get them into church. Part of that involves winning someone to Christ and then recruiting them to church, but also it could be taking someone who's not in church or in a completely worthless church and get them out of that and get them switched over to a real church, right? An independent Baptist church, a church that's actually preaching the Bible, winning souls, doing God's work. So number two, the vessels must be brought in. There in Ezra 6, verse 6. Point number three, it must be built without worldly influence, okay? So number one, we need a strong foundation. Number two, we need to bring in the vessels. Number three, it needs to be built without worldly influence. Look at verse 6. Now therefore, Tatnai, governor beyond the river, Shethar-bozenai, and your companions, the Epharsakites, which are beyond the river, watch this, be ye far from thence. Be ye far from thence. Let the work of this house of God alone, let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in his place. So whose job is it to build God's house? It's the job of God's people to build God's house. It's not the world's job to tell us how to build God's house, to stand over us with a clipboard supervising us and telling us, well, you know, Jesus would have done this, and you need to do this. Really? Because you're not even saved. You don't have the Holy Spirit inside of you. You don't know Christ. Christ doesn't know you. And so we're not going to listen to you on how to build God's house. Be far from here, governor. Who is our governor in Arizona? Is it Jan or Janet? Ducey. Ducey? Man, I'm living in the past. Is this a man or a woman? A man. Okay. Yeah, you can see how much I care. So Doug Ducey? Is that really his name, or is he trying to be like a superhero in disguise, like Peter Parker or something? You know, he wants to sound like Doug Ducey. These bozos always change their name. I mean, maybe that's his real name, I don't know. I don't care. He means nothing to me. You know why? Because he stays far from here. All I care about Doug Ducey is that he stays far from here. I just want him far away from me. I don't want him coming in here telling me how to preach. I don't want him coming into our church, telling us how to have church. I don't want him coming into my home, telling me how to do my home. Hey, my home is built on the Word of God. He can be far from there, as far as I'm concerned, okay? This house of God is built by God's people under the direction of Jesus Christ, not our politicians and the wicked people who are ruling over us, okay? Our corrupt government should have nothing to do with it. It should be built without worldly influence. We're not going to send around a survey trying to figure out, you know, what do people want? What's the music that they're looking for? What's the preaching that they're looking for? We're not going to ask unsaved people, hey, what's it going to take to get you to come to church? I've seen literal polls of atheists. What would get you to come to church? I don't want atheists to come to church. I want to bring in the vessels of the house of God. I'm not trying to bring in a bunch of Babylonian idols and Babylonian vessels. I want God's vessels in here, in this house of God. And so it should be built without worldly influence. The government, Hollywood, Madison Avenue, the academia, they have no business telling us how to operate in God's house. This is the boss. The Bible's the boss, right? And that's it. So it should be built without worldly influence. We want the Tatanize of this world to be far from hints, all right? We don't want them interfering in our work here. Go to verse 11. Point number four, it must be built on the preserved word of God. And when we're speaking English, we're talking about the King James Bible, not the Bible of the month club, okay? So number one, we need the foundations to be strongly laid. Number two, we need the vessels to be brought in. Number three, it needs to be built without worldly influence, all right? It needs to be built by God's people, according to God's design, without regard for what the world thinks about it. Let the world not like us, all right? They can think whatever they want. What does God think? That's all that matters, okay? And then number four, it must be built on the preserved word of God. I love this verse, Ezra 6-11. Also I've made a decree that whosoever shall alter this word, let timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be hanged thereon, and let his house be made a dung hill for this. Now you say, Pastor Anderson, that's not God talking. You know, this is the king of Persia talking. But here's the thing about that. The king of Persia is saying that he doesn't want his word to be messed with. So here's the earthly king of Persia saying, don't mess with my word. Don't alter this. You know, I've written something, I've written a message, and I don't want it to be changed. I don't want it to be altered whatsoever. And if someone alters it, here's the penalty. We're going to rip wood out of your home and use it to build a gallows, and we're going to hang you from the wood of your own house. And then we're going to turn your house into a dung hill, okay? Now you say, what's a dung hill? If you ever go on a long drive, all of a sudden you'll smell a horrible smell when you're driving down the freeway. Who knows what I'm talking about? You know, you're driving down I-5 in California, for example, and all of a sudden you smell this awful smell. Oh, man, you know, you roll down the windows and you're trying to air things out to get rid of the smell. And eventually you see these gigantic heaps of manure, right? And they're often covered with white plastic and they have tires all over them, right? And so you have these giant piles of excrement, okay, because of all the cows that are there at that feedlot. And the purpose of that is that it could make a great fertilizer. So they're preserving that dung and they're going to use that for various uses. And so nothing new under the sun. Back in the olden times, they had the same thing. They said, okay, well, we're going to take your house and make that the dung hill, all right? So your whole legacy is just going to be dung. Now you say, well, that's not God talking. It's so weird when people resist this teaching that anyone who messes with God's word is under a severe curse, far worse than what this is saying, because you know what happens if you mess with God's word? The Bible said in Revelation 22, or go there if you would, keep your finger on Ezra 6. Let's look at it in Revelation 22. What's going to happen if you mess with God's word is not just being hanged by the neck until dead from support beams taken from your own home, which I don't know why that would really make it worse. I mean, you're getting hung anyway. But I guess just the fact that your house is getting ripped down and turned into a dung hill so that your family, your kids can inherit it, nobody else can enjoy it. But look at Revelation 22, verse number 18, for I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And folks, I can't even count how many times I've had liberal Christians tell me, well, that's just talking about Revelation. Really? I mean, come on. That's like a special kind of dumb. Ghostless revelation. OK, so it's open season on changing Matthew. Go ahead and change Mark. Change Luke. Change John. No problem. Does anyone actually believe that? Does anyone actually think, yeah, I think he's fine with us changing the other 65 books. He just really doesn't want us to change Revelation. Folks, if he doesn't want us to change Revelation, he doesn't want us to change any of it. Think about it. And not only that, it's no coincidence that Revelation is the last book in the Bible. And so God's putting that on the end of the Bible. It applies to the whole Bible. And even if you want to be just all pedantic, saying, well, that's hard about Revelation. Well, OK, extrapolate it to the rest of the Bible, because obviously God doesn't want us to change his word at all. And this curse is going to apply the same way. And that curse that the king of Persia did, that's symbolic of what God would do if you mess with his word. That's an earthly symbol, because in that passage, in many ways, the king of Persia represents the Lord. Like where he talks about how the king of Persia is going to pay for everything for God's house. You know, that's a symbol of the fact that God's going to provide all our needs. And that God's going to meet our needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. So the king there pictures the Lord. And just like that king said, don't change my word. Don't alter it. If you do, let me just think of some graphic, horrible thing I'm going to do to you. Well, what's God going to do? It says here in verse 18, God shall add on him the plagues that are written in this book. So all of the horrible things in Revelation are going to be added to you. Remember all the things where people are just gnawing their tongues in pain? People are burning and itching and have sores and they're drinking poison and drinking blood. I mean, all these horrible things in the book of Revelation. All these things shall be added unto you if you add to God's word. Isn't that what the Bible says? And then he says in verse 19, if any man shall take away from the words of the book of his prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. Now look, everybody's name starts out in the book of life. The Bible never talks about anybody's name being added except before the foundation of the world. That's the only time any names were written in this book is before the foundation of the world. The Bible only talks about people being subtracted. That's why it says to him that overcometh, it says, I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. So being saved is to not have your name blotted out. When you, you say, well, when are people's names removed? People's names are removed when they cross a line with God where they can no longer be saved or if they die without Christ, then they've crossed the line where they can no longer be saved. If somebody dies and they're not saved, that's it, right? I mean, if we have this life to get saved, you have this life to, to receive Christ as savior. And if you don't receive Christ as savior in this life and you breathe your last, your name is removed, your name's blotted out. It's gone. Okay. But what we see here is that you can actually have your name blotted out before you die by doing what? Removing from God's word. People who blaspheme the Holy Ghost or removed from God's word, people who cross a line with God, they can become reprobate even before their last breath. And then at that point, the place where their name would have been is gone because look what the Bible says in verse 19, God shall take away his part out of the book of life. I mean, the place where your name would have been, there's no, there's no place for you anymore. It's not like you get blotted out and then, all right, let me write that back in. All right. Wipe that out. All right. Let's put that back in. I'm saved, now I'm not. It's once saved, always saved. Once you believe on Christ, you have eternal life, nothing can pluck you out of sin. Some people will try to use this to say you can lose your salvation. Wrong. These are people that are already unsaved. They were never saved in the first place. They tamper with God's word. What are they losing? Their opportunity to ever get saved. So it's not that somebody's losing their salvation, that's impossible. It's somebody losing their opportunity to get saved. Same thing with the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. A lot of people say, well, if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost, you'll lose your salvation. Wrong. Who blasphemed the Holy Ghost in the Bible? The Pharisees, right? And the Pharisees, did they believe in Christ at all? Ever? No. These are unbelievers and once they blasphemed the Holy Ghost, he said, you'll never have forgiveness in this world or in the world to come. You're done. At that point, they had sealed their faith. That's why in John chapter 12 of the same group of people, he says, they could not believe. It's too late for them at that point. Okay. Now, look, this is worse than your house becoming a literal dunghill. All the plagues of revelation being added, your part being taken out of the Book of Life. And so we must make sure that God's house is built using the preserved word of God, okay? The Bible that's been passed down to us, not the Bible of the month club. And you say, well, you know, forget the Bible of the month club. I've used the NIV my whole life. Really? How old are you? Three years old? Five years old? Seven years old? Because the NIV has only been out since 2011. So how old could you possibly be if you've been using the NIV? Oh, the NIV was out before that. Yeah, a totally different NIV was out before that. The 1984 edition of the NIV, which is totally different, dramatically different. You're on the gender neutral NIV, which came out in 2011. The 1984 NIV still preserved a lot of the gender of the he and the she and didn't get as gender neutral as the 2011 edition. So if you're over the age of, what, eight years old, you know, I don't think you'd be using the NIV your whole life. You've been using a NIV, okay? And I wonder what NIV you're going to be using 10 years from now. What'll they think of next? What'll they change next? Because, you know, I was just looking at a verse this week in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 8 that just started to be changed in the modern versions just in the last few decades it started. It used to always say sons of Israel. Now they're changing it to sons of God in Deuteronomy 32 eight because of new archeological discoveries of Baal worshipers and what they think about God. That's a whole nother story. But here's the thing about that, okay? The NIV still says sons of Israel but they've got this NIV reader's version. That's for a very small percentage of NIV owners. The reader's edition. The ones who actually read the thing. No, no. Do you have the NIV or do you have the NIV reader's edition? I don't think they sell many of them. The reader's edition has now changed it to sons of God with the new discovery, the new findings. This is amazing. Hey, guess what? Jesus said that not one jot or one tittle would pass from the law. So Deuteronomy 32 eight better stay the same from year to year in your Bible or you got a problem because that's called the law of God. Okay. So the point is even if you stuck with the ESV, the ESV has changed repeatedly and they're already working on the next ESV right now. They're working on changes to the NIV. All the Bibles are changing. God's word doesn't change. This is the foundation. We need to have the preserved word of God and these people that are altering God's word, you know what? Let them be anathema. They're under the curse of God. They're cursed because are you there in Ezra chapter six? Look at the next verse because we saw the verse that said, look, hang you and let your house be a dung hill. But look what else he says in the next verse. Verse number 12 he says, and the God that has caused his name to dwell there, destroy all kings and people that shall put their hand to alter and destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem, I Darius have made a decree, let it be done with speed. So here we see that there's a curse that the king of Persia is putting on people who would change God's house and he says, hey, let the God who's building that, let him destroy these people. Isn't that what cursing means when we wish ill on someone? And what's he saying? He's saying, let the God that has caused his name to dwell there destroy all kings and people who shall put their hand to alter and to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree, let it be done with speed. And this is not the Darius of Daniel chapter six. This is Darius king of Persia, not Darius the Mede, two totally different people, different time periods in history. So basically we see here that the king of Persia, Darius, is cursing anyone who will alter God's word because he says, anybody who tries to alter God's house. And look, what is it that controls God's house? God's word is the basis for God. So how do you alter God's house? By altering God's word or by deviating from God's word. And notice, what is Darius afraid that the enemies are gonna do? Darius is afraid that the enemies are gonna try to alter or destroy God's house. And he says, hey, if you do that, I'm praying down a special curse from God on you. You see, the devil's not just out to destroy us, the devil also wants to alter us. If he can't destroy us, he'd love to creep in and alter us. You know what alter means to change, right? He wants to come in and alter us. He wants to come in and change us. So if he can't get you to stop being a Christian, he'll just change what Christianity means to you. If he can't get you to stop reading the Bible, he'll get you the NIV Reader's Edition and get you reading a wrong Bible. If he can't get you to stop going to church, he'll get you to go to a bogus church. If he can't get you to go to a bogus church, he'll try to take your good church and ruin it by corrupting leadership, corrupting membership, finding some way to ruin it, okay? And there's a curse on anyone who would try to ruin it. I gotta hurry. But number one, the foundations need to be strongly laid. Why? Because the devil's trying to creep in and alter and change and corrupt us. We better have a strong foundation so that when the winds come and the rains come and the storm beats upon this house, it stands firm because it's built on the rock. When the barrage of false doctrine comes, when the barrage of heresy comes, when the governor comes in and whoever else and tries to change us, hey, we're gonna stand if we're founded on the rock. And make no mistake, the storm will come. There's no question that the attacks are gonna come. The assault is gonna come. Look, if somebody comes in here preaching false doctrine and teaching heresy, I don't even really get that nervous because I know how strong our foundation is here. And that's why sometimes I'll be a little bit patient with heretics who come in here. And some people are just like, oh man, you're really patient with these people. You know, how can you let this guy come or whatever? Because I'm thinking to myself, this guy's not a threat because everybody in our church knows the Bible so well, they're not gonna be fooled by this guy. So let's give that guy a chance to hopefully learn a little bit and grow and maybe he's just misguided. So it gives us the luxury to give people the benefit of the doubt because we know that our people are strong in the faith. And that's what we wanna seek to do. We wanna make sure everybody in the church knows the Bible really well and is really grounded on the fundamentals. So if somebody comes in here and starts denying key doctrines, you're gonna be ready to just shut them down. You can do it yourself. You know, you can do it with one arm tied behind your back, all right? So we wanna have the foundation strongly laid. Number two, we want the vessels to be brought in, right? We gotta get people in. We should be about growth. This is not an us-for-no-more church. This church started 14 years ago in my living room with just my family and a couple of people and those people had just had their doors knocked a couple of days ago. I mean, it was just my family and whoever's doors we knocked in those early days. And here we are now running several hundred, okay, why? Because we're about growth. You know, we believe that it's God's will that we win people to Christ, baptize people, and teach people to observe all things that Christ commanded. And we wanna bring them in, right? Bring in the vessels into the house of God, we're about growth. Number three, the house of God must be built without worldly influence. We don't care what the world says, we don't need their methods, we're gonna stick with the Bible's methods. Number four, it must be built on the preserved, unchanged Word of God, that's the foundation. And number five, it must be built on preaching, okay? Go if you would to verse 14, and the elders of the Jews builded, so they're building the house of God, they're building the temple, and the elders of the Jews builded and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Edo, and they builded and finished it according to the commandment of the God of Israel and according to the commandment of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes, king of Persia. So they prospered through the prophesying. They prospered through the prophesying. The prophesying is the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah. So if you wanna put some context to those two books, Haggai and Zechariah, if you look in your table of contents, if you're not that familiar with the Bible, you'll see these two books, Haggai and Zechariah, toward the end of the Old Testament. And if you wanna get the context of those books, they go with Ezra. This is the preaching that Haggai and Zechariah are doing in the days of Ezra, the priest here, Ezra the scribe. So we see here that the house of God and the building of the house of God prosper through preaching. Now what do I mean by that? I'm saying that no great soul-winning movement, no great preaching movement, no great church movement, no great missionary movement, no great back to the Bible movement was ever built on music. It was, you know, you think, oh, it's the third great awakening, Kanye West. Jesus' King album, you know, is climbing the charts. It's revival. This is the revival we've been waiting for. Folks, never did David just come out with some hot new psalm and all of a sudden the whole nation turns to God. Now look, I'm all for singing God's word and singing hymns and songs and hymns and spiritual songs. And music is important and the Bible talks about music and it's definitely something that matters. But folks, the basis of our church is not the music program and it never will be. Let's see if we can think of a church that's known for its music more than its preaching. Hillsong. Hillsong. All right. Case closed. Is that? Yeah. Yeah. Hillsong. Yeah. Yeah. So basically, you know, that's a church. Nobody knows. I don't know. Who could even say who the preacher is? Does anybody even know the preacher's name? Put up your hand if you know the name of the preacher at Hillsong. Does anyone know? One person. One person knows the name. Why? Because it's not about the preaching. Nobody even knows. It's all about the music. Is that a godly movement out of Hillsong? Well, look, let's study the doctrine of Hillsong. Let's look at the fruit of that ministry. And tell me, is that a godly movement? No. And so no great church was built on the music program. No great missionary movement, soul winning movement, back to the Bible type movement was ever built on music. It's built on preaching. We need, they didn't, hey, they prospered through the music of Zechariah. You know, that's why they built the, no, they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah because God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And God uses preaching to build his house. All right. So the music is important, but don't ever let the music become the main thing. And the preaching take a backseat. You go to some churches, the music is three times as long as the preaching. Tell me when you read the book of the Acts of the Apostles, how much of that book is devoted to the music? How much music can you really find in the Acts of the Apostles? How much music can you find in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? How much music do you find in the book of Romans? How much music do you really find in the New Testament? Now, look, I'm for music. And yes, music is found there, singing to ourselves, but hold on. Is it the focus? Is it the main thing? Is it what it's all about? No, it isn't, right? We need to make sure that our focus is on teaching the Bible, right? People hearing the gospel, getting saved, getting baptized, and learning the Bible, preaching. These are the things we need to be emphasizing. Preaching out there, door to door, preaching in here behind the pulpit. We need to be about speaking God's word, not just a music-based movement, okay? And I just saw something where Kanye West said he's going to start calling himself Christian Genius Billionaire, Kanye West. That's what he wants to start going by, Christian Genius, yeah, that's real godly. Such a godly example, right? And look, folks, you say, well, what does that do to you? He's building a church. Remember when he was in the mental institution, demon-possessed? And while he was demon-possessed in the hospital, he wrote down, build a church in Calabasas, California? Folks, it's the church of worshiping him. And it's all based on music, right? And you say, oh, well, every once in a while they bring in a guy to give a little 10-minute sermon. Preaching's not the emphasis. The emphasis is playing ring around the rosies, giant group of people playing ring around the rosies so that a drone can video them going in circles and going in circles and woo, partying and singing. That's not church, friend. Go to church to have the Word of God preached, sound doctrine preached, not some bozo, arrogant, puffed up, windbag fool who doesn't know jack, who doesn't know anything, who doesn't know anything about the Bible, doesn't know anything about being Christian, getting up and just tuning in, oh, I'm a billionaire, I'm a genius, I'm the greatest. I just wish that God, I'm going to pray, you know what I'm going to pray for? You know what? Everybody keeps commenting on my sermon last week. Was that last week or whenever that was? You know, everybody keeps commenting on there, did you pray for Kanye West? You know, you preached against him, but did you pray for him? I'm going to pray for him right now. Let's all pray for Kanye West right now as a church, okay? Dear Lord, I just pray that you would give Kanye West the heart of a beast like you did to Nebuchadnezzar, Lord, and that he would go out in the field and eat grass like an ox and that his fingernails would grow like bird claws and that his hair would grow like bird feathers until he knows that the Most High rules in the kingdom of the children of men and gives it to the basest of men and gives it to whosoever he chooses. And I just pray that you would punish him for his arrogance and wickedness and cause him to lose his mind completely so that he can be humble and maybe there could be some hope for him. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen. That was the nicest thing I could pray for him because I actually like left a sliver of hope for him that he's not a reprobate even though I don't even believe that because I believe he is a reprobate. But I still love to see him go insane anyway. I want to see him out like Nebuchadnezzar eating grass like an ox because you know what? He makes Nebuchadnezzar seem humble. He makes Donald Trump look humble. Okay. Maybe not. All right. I'm a little too far. All right. So number one, the foundations of God's, you know, we're going to build the church that God wants to be built if we're going to be his instruments. Number one, we need the foundations to be strongly laid. Don't get tired of hearing solid doctrine being preached and hammering on the fundamentals. Okay. Even if they're basic things, we need the base. Don't be that guy who goes to basketball practice and he's mad that he has to practice the bounce pass because all he wants to do is just spin the ball on his finger and do a slam dunk. You know, sometimes you got to practice dribbling and bounce pass, right? I mean, every good coach hammers the fundamentals. Well guess what? When you come to church, we're not always here learning some kind of a butterfly cake or spinning back fist. You know, sometimes we just need to learn a jab and a cross here, right? We need the fundamentals. We need the basics. We don't want to just get all cute all the time and fancy with our preaching to where we're not hammering basic doctrines and basic teachings. Number two, we need the vessels to be brought in. Number three, we need our church to be built without worldly influence. Okay. It shouldn't be patterned after the world. We're going to conform our world around our big fat foundation stone and build everything around the foundation, not pour in the quick create of the world's foundation. Number four, it must be built on the preserved word of God, the King James Bible, not the constantly changing shifting sands of textual criticism out of Munster, Germany. And number five, it must be built on preaching, the preaching of God's word, the Bible, not built on singing and dancing and partying. Okay. I'm all for music, but it should not be the basis. Preaching should be the base. Have you ever noticed in some of these liberal churches, the pulpits like not in the center, they have it like in the corner and then the choir is like center the organ, the choir center. And then they have the lectern like off to the side where the rector gets up and it doesn't even preach, but I don't know what he does. He gives his little homily or whatever. It's got to be built on preaching. Look at verse 15 and what do we get? You know, when, when we follow the plan, when we follow the formula, when we do these five things that the King of Persia lays out representing God here and the blessing of God, what do we get? We get success. Look at verse 15. And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the King. So that's where we get to the finish line. Amen. If we do it God's way, we're going to succeed. If this book of the law doesn't depart out of our mouth, if we meditate there in day and night, if we're strong and have a good courage, God's going to make our way prosperous and we're going to have good success. We are going to see God do great works, build a great church and see many, many people saved and baptized and lives change. If we follow the program, let's borrow words and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you for this great chapter. Help us to apply it, Lord, as we think about our church growing and as we serve you as a church, Lord, help us to follow these principles that we might be successful. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.