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you you Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh Oh Men All right. Welcome back to stronghold back to Baptist Church this evening For the finale of our fundamentalist conference appreciate y'all being here tonight this time we'll go through our announcement so if you don't have a Bulletin just slip your hand up real high and our ushers will make sure that you get one at the top of the page there you'll see our service times listed is always Sunday morning at 1030 Sunday evening at 5 o'clock Wednesday night 7 will be in Jeremiah chapter number 8 we've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvation's and the baptisms for the month as well as for the year so let's count up the salvation's for today and especially if you know someone that went out that didn't end up coming back for the evening service like I know brother brother Preston and Courtney had a salvation so I'm gonna count that up right now does anyone know of anyone that that hasn't come back that went soul winning and if they had salvation's or no Jeremy had one amen thank you and then so everyone else go ahead let's let's count up the salvation's from today to for amen very good excellent I'm wondering how did the weather bees aren't here I'm wondering how they took out some first-time soul winners so I always like to know how that how that pans out but maybe we'll have to find out another day so cool did I miss anyone for salvation's or any other day for that matter if you didn't already report all right very good appreciate all the hard work that's being put forth out there it looks like there's eight salvation's today praise the Lord for that continuing on here we got the offering totals received through the month sword drills going good going strong Bible memory a lot of kids learning some Bible verses brother brother Lance amen every week I know my kids are excited they're involved in it and I know many many of the others are as well so awesome well I'm glad I'm glad to hear that it's really exciting I know it's a lot of fun for the kids so that they all have a good time with that prayer requests as I mentioned this morning brother Seth Johnson is traveling tomorrow so please pray for him and his travels as he goes to the Ecuadorian rainforests it's gonna be quite a bit of fun really interesting I bet so pray for him and pray for everyone else who's on our list we had a few updates this morning anyone else have any other updates apart from what we've already heard oh yeah I didn't see this sorry I look at the visitor card but it's on the prayer okay Carlos Mejia do we have any other information in this or no okay yeah let us know it's I mean that's the obvious of leukemia is very serious so he said he's out on leave for a major medical issue Carlos Mejia all right yeah the next and whenever you find out more information just just let us know but always like being able to pray more specific yes sir so what's his name Jose yes sir and particular issue Wow so is he still is he recovering from a stroke so okay so I'll put stroke recovery and maybe cancer okay yes sir yes sir do you live out in Texas Colorado sir sir anyone else anything to add or any other updates for for the prayer list all right very good of course please pray for these people definitely in need of your prayers and I always just say this you know as much as you would want to have someone pray for you when in your time of need right when it's not your time of need be in prayer for other people you know God sees that I think if God sees you and hears you praying for other people all the time then he'll probably be a lot more apt to hear people's prayers for you and in your time of need so just something to keep in mind I know I need to do more with my prayer life too but it's good good thing to remember all right on the next page we have the results there from the soul winning yesterday the marathon that we had as part of our conference here great turnout 43 salvations awesome appreciate everyone coming out here we had some people traveling from out of state to be with us and appreciate all the all the fellowship and hard work that has been put in here thank you for that September challenge is a church attendance challenge this is one of the few challenges that I'm not gonna give a prize for it's something that I think is important I do think everyone should be in church three times a week that's just it's just a motto three to thrive and it's something I believe should be the standard but we don't have any other church times then the three times to actually push you to challenge you to do more but I do want to highlight the importance of church attendance this month and for people who may not always be finding themselves going to church to try to do that I know for example you know I grew up as I mentioned this morning in a Presbyterian Church where we only had one service a week I mean it was Sunday morning and that's all you do you go to church on Sunday morning and that's it so when I first started going to the fundamental Baptist Church they I know that these other service times but I was just used to going once a week but I'll tell you what it didn't take long to want to go to like more like oh wait there's more you know you start loving the sermon loving the preaching love you know loving the fellowship loving church oh wait there's another service yeah I want to check that out too oh there's another service during the week I want to go there too I hope I hope you feel that way about coming here right that that's ideal sometimes you don't always feel that way I get it but it is important to be around God's people to be in God's house to learn to dedicate time put time aside and say I'm gonna sing praises to the Lord I'm gonna gather with other believers I'm gonna hear from the Word of God and have that be a special time set aside for doing that so encourage you if you don't normally attend church that much to increase the time you know attendance in going to church I'll tell you know what I didn't think about this until literally this second for those of you here our church if you really want to challenge yourself go up to Greenville on Thursday nights come to all of our church services and then go up to Greenville you have four times a week there's there's your opportunity right now I know it's a long drive and everything else it may not be possible for everyone but just an option throwing that out there first for the month of September you want to try doing that you know what if you do that I'll say this I will give prizes out for anyone who attends church four times a week so if you make it up and support our Greenville plant you make it to Wednesday night here Thursday night up there the four weeks in September you'll get a prize for that and of course be a church on Sunday so there you go there there's there is the prize option and it'll be a good prize too that that'll be a good prize that's that's that's significant so all right men's preaching class September 7 10 a.m. right here would love to have all the men all men invited love to have you here learn a little bit about preaching and see you September 7th Hebrews chapter 12 we're on week 7 of 15 so roughly halfway there if you could quote the whole passage before the 15 week deadline you can earn a prize for that speaking of prizes I know that I owe is anyone here like really up to date on what I owe prizes for like I know I owe for the visitor challenge I know that much I believe I also owe for the June challenge correct yes okay thank you I think I think the visitor was a month prior right May June I believe it was and July was what was July challenge so winning is June yeah that would have been earlier in here I thought baptism challenge that might have been it is that what it was okay we haven't done that one yet Bob numbers coming up I'm thought about what stuff I owe prizes for so whatever whatever people have participated in and I didn't get you a prize for because next week I'm gonna I've got a bunch of stuff that we're going to we're gonna give Divvy out so I know Hebrews 11 I owe July was visitor okay thank you and do I also owe for Hebrews 10 I'll let you think about that one Hebrews 11 we split up into two and I owe for both and the whole chapter but I thought I was caught up through Hebrews 10 I think it's just because because it's two prizes for Hebrews 11 or technically maybe even three if you if you completed all of it right so okay I'm just I'm I'm writing it down so I make sure I'm good on what I owe because Sunday we'll be giving out prizes so try to be here for that next week if not obviously I'll hold on to them and you could get prizes whenever so I know for sure I'm gonna give June Oh No digital t-docs was one right okay my kids will know Sarah you did digital t-tox right did you get a prize for that okay then that there's one there that's it I know I know to say I know someone's gonna remember I know she's gonna remember right because I remember her she was proud that she that she did that it was a good job too all right I'm pretty sure that's all of it digital detox June visitor and maybe maybe a baptism one as well I don't recall if I if we I don't remember if we had if we had people who won that challenge we had baptisms that month I don't remember if we had people who okay we did all right I'll worry about it later I I got I got everything written down here we'll try to get this all settled squared up we got plenty of stuff to give away so looking forward to that and then upcoming birthdays anniversaries I got a whole bunch of people that have added birthdays this month an anniversary coming up in September and that is about it for the announcement so yeah I don't think if there's any other housekeeping anything like that nope we're good so I'm gonna turn the service back to brother will and he could lead us our next song Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Deuteronomy chapter 8 all the commandments which I command thee this day shall you observe to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers and thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna which thou knewest not neither did thy father's know that he might make me know that man does not live by bread only but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live thy raiment waxed not old upon thee neither did thy foot swell these 40 years and thou shalt also consider in thine heart that as a man chasteneth his son so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways and to fear him for the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land a land of brooks of water of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates a land of olive oil olive and honey a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarce nous thou shalt not lack anything in it a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass and thou hast eaten an artful then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good language he hath given thee beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God and not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statues which I command thee this day lest when thou hast eaten an artful and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied and all of thou hast is multiplied then thy heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought where there was no water who brought the fourth water out of the rock of Flint who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do the good at thy latter end and now say in thine heart my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers as it is this day and it shall be that if if thou do all at all forget the Lord thy God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish as the nation was the Lord destroys before your face so shall you perish because you would not be obedient under the voice of the Lord your God let's pray dear God thank you for this day and let us be gathered here together in your house I pray you would be with Pastor Burns as he preaches the word fill him with your spirit and help us to have ears to hear the message and apply it to our lives become better Christians because of it in Jesus name amen all right we're gonna wrap up this fundamentalist conference tonight with this last sermon and I know it's been probably it's been a long weekend it's been a long day many of you especially if you went out so in this afternoon so try to try to hang with me try to try to stay focused try to stay awake this this isn't going to be the most dynamic sermon I've ever preached however it is it is an important concept it's an important doctrine that that I want to express here and it's it's it is especially when if you ever end up explaining hey what is an IFB Church what does it mean to be fundamental what you know what are these things we've been preaching on this all week but this one specifically I really want to I really want to make sure because I've come across a lot of misunderstanding regarding what I'm gonna teach tonight among among other IFB people right like I've heard people say things that were just not completely accurate now they may be real close their hearts in the right place and have some good understanding on a lot of things but but we want to make sure that we're accurate in what we say what we express we really I mean hey we care about the truth right we love the truth and and we also want to be very clear in what we teach and what we believe and and try not to be sloppy in any areas we want our doctrine to be sound to be pure to be good to be righteous right and and not even accidentally say things that aren't exactly true so the title of my sermon this this evening is believing the Bible literally it's a little bit of a play on words because obviously we believe the Bible we believe the Bible literally but I'm gonna explain and go a little bit in depth on just well what is it what do you mean when you say literally right and it is a very important distinction and it's something that can't just be broad brush across the board it there's a little bit of nuance to this understanding and this teaching and even a statement of just saying well hey we believe the Bible literally because you know there's most people but but this is a distinction with fundamentalists there's people out there that will say I mean if you ask any Christian hey do you believe the Bible someone who calls themselves a Christian should say yes right I believe the Bible but when we talk about fundamentalism I would say yeah I believe the Bible I believe it I believe it literally like I I believe what it's literally saying to be true and the reason why it's important distinction is because there are so many people that will say they believe the Bible but when you talk about all these different things that are found in the Bible oh yeah I don't really agree with that oh yeah I don't think that you know I don't come on man but but isn't this what the Bible says well you know when the Bible says that like if you understand the culture back at Hebrew culture back in the Old Testament you know thousands of years ago if you did if you understood more about that see what you really need to do is you got to talk to these Jewish people and they'll explain what their culture was like and why you know how to understand the Old Testament and and any time you get someone that wants to give you an explanation about why the Bible says something and their explanation doesn't actually agree with what the Bible literally says you got a big problem and and this is one of the things that separates fundamentalists fundamental Baptist from many other Christian denominations is that we know when we say we believe the Bible we believe it literally okay and it is important to have that understanding this is what forms our doctrine this is what for hey what is it how do we know what's true and what's a lie how are we gonna know what exactly to believe how do we know what we believe about God how do we know what we believe about Jesus how do we know these things we know them because they're in this book because it's right here it's written its scripture we don't believe things because of tradition we don't believe things just because some Pope told us or some God man told us or some other person told we believe them because they're found in Scripture they're found in the Holy Bible they're found in the Word of God so with that understanding of course when we believe the Bible literally believe we leave the King James Bible we're an english-speaking people right and I don't want to go too in-depth on the KJV but it is important enough in this understanding why is there so much primacy given to the Word of God anyways and when you have all these different books that have the same the Holy Bible written on the cover but then you open them up and you find out and you go like well wait a minute huh this says the Holy Bible I don't know if I have any up here right now I do this says the Holy Bible but but if you know what if I open them up and I compare them they're not gonna say the same thing you know this morning I was preaching on holiness right holy set apart it's sanctified it's pure right that's this is what holiness is how is it that how could these both be pure if they're saying just two different things and I don't I don't mean just using slightly different words that carry the exact same meaning that's not what I'm talking I'm saying they actually say different things enough to where the meaning is different and I'm not going to do this is this is an N KJV I have not KJV on here it's the not KJV I preach an entire sermon about the New King James where I've literally proved places where they say the exact opposite things between the KJV and I mean literal exact opposites so you could go check that out another time I'm not gonna go through all that today this is a this doesn't say Holy Bible on it thank God but it's still calls itself a Bible so this is a living the living and NIV parallel Bible but they say different things it's not the same but here we find in Deuteronomy 8 which Jesus also quotes in the New Testament if you look at verse number 1 all the commandments which I command thee this day shall you observe to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swear on your fathers sounds very important the commandments of God right hey you need you need to have these so you could live you could multiply you could possess the land that's wearing your father's like this is gonna help you you're gonna be blessed and now shall remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart whether that would keep his commandments or no and he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna which thou knewest not neither did thy fathers know that he might know he might make excuse me might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live so here we see the illustration the importance of every word of God hey we need every word of God we need to live by every word of God well how can we do that if we don't even have every word of God of course we have to have every word God's not gonna command us to do something that's just totally 100% completely impossible like hey you gotta live by every word of God why don't even have every word of God yeah but you gotta live by every word of God what where is every word of God just live by every word of God we do what we do have every word of God and God's promised to preserve his words and he has done that for us today so we do have every word of God Jesus said you say oh but this was written in Hebrew oh you know how many years ago well Jesus said it in Greek many many years after this okay and we have it today and he was saying just as it was important then it's still important man does not live by bread alone we live by every word of God we need to understand that and we look to the Bible which is one of the reasons why when we when we say we believe the Bible we're gonna believe it literally because hey we got to look we got to look to God's commandments we got to look to the Bible to see how we need to live now I want to cover this in my whole sermon there's a there's a few different points and when we just talk about the translation of the King James Bible I've heard a lot of people say well the King James a literal translation and these other ones are not and you want to be careful when you use the terminology that you're accurate and correct with what you say okay I get it sometimes it's easy to be really simplified in explaining some concepts of people there's not necessarily there's nothing wrong with that necessarily right to put things at a really high level and I wouldn't even say that I disagree if it's just a real broad statement of like yeah King James Bible is a literal translation but you know other modern versions would say the same thing and honestly when you look at it specifically there when you're actually considering the terminology and stuff you look at it all Bibles will have multiple ways in which they've translated the text the underlying text so for example you know a true I don't even know if it's true but an actual you know literal translation is something like Young's literal Bible or whatever right and and what the the point of that translation is to just take every word in Hebrew and a Greek and just and just translate the word into English and the problem with doing something like that is you're gonna look you're gonna lose meaning of just taking a word and you would think like wait why does that make sense well if you know more than one language if you actually start to look at it it's a little bit more complicated than just you know an easy example if anyone knows Spanish right real real real simple and some of the most basic Spanish right I was taught hey if I wanted to say my name is David I was taught to say me llamo David right but me llamo comes from Yamar which means to call am i right so yamo is I call it's more like I call myself David right that's literal and then me nombre es David would be more literal my name is David but what I was told hey if you want to say hey my name is David you say me llamo David right because that's what people say that's how people you have it that's gonna be common you're gonna talk to someone and be like yeah I know what you're talking about you're saying what we understand English hey my name is Dave what's your name right and so do you see I'm saying like like the literal the actual literal if you do if you just break it down will you get the same meaning in that particular example sure we could get the same meaning across but it's it become it could become very cumbersome and hard to read especially with languages where you've got different word orders right verbs may be coming later and and the subject coming that you know there's there's all these qualifiers you look at the grammar and the sentence structure that it just kind of becomes almost impossible to just take okay this word means this this word means this this word means this this word means this well in our language we've got subject predicate right and there's gonna be a verb there at the beginning of predicate and then you've got other languages where it could just be totally mixed up so it's gonna sound goofy to us if it's too if it's too literal right let be called overly literal and we want to be careful because a lot of error will come in from people who get so zealous about literal ality right literal that it ends up becoming more of a problem okay and this is part of the reason why I want to preach on this too because it it's important that we understand right and that we could be reasonable with how we understand the Bible in this case it would be the the translation of the Bible and then we don't get so warped on our understanding of it now I copied some some text from Tyndale calm I don't know who runs a website or anything but but this this statement is true from all my understanding of Bible methodology and the translation and stuff so I just copy here I thought was written pretty well and it expresses something that that I believe to be true and here's what they said is a different Bibles are produced with different objectives in mind that's true right even modern translations you can read about it what they what they try to do in bringing forth a new a new Bible for example the new King James will try to here's what they'll say and I'm not saying that what they say is always the real intent because I do think that Satan is behind the modern translations okay but they're gonna tell you like hey well here's what we're trying to do we're trying to get rid of some archaic language but we still want to maintain the same tradition and in everything of the King James that we've gotten rid of some of our cake words well but that's not exactly true but that's what they'll say and they'll say this is this was the purpose of the of this new translation okay and every translation is gonna tell you something about why they have what objective they have in mind generally here I'm gonna keep reading generally speaking for English Bibles there are two dominant translation methodologies formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence true statement okay in formal equivalence treads translations translators attempt to translate each word in the original language into an equivalent English word okay following along these translations are generally considered more literal makes sense in dynamic equivalence translations translators attempt to translate the message or meaning of the original language texts into an equivalent English word or expression these translations are generally less literal on a word-for-word basis but still seek to capture the meaning of the original language texts having said all that in actuality I'm still reading all translations incorporate elements of both methods and this is true and I just want to make sure that we all understand that this does happen now it is true the formal equivalence is superior in the vast majority of the translation that's being done in the attempt to try to make it as literal as possible because you want to maintain the integrity of the like of what the message is without adding your own understanding or interpretation into the text right so you want to rely as little as possible on having to you know change the words in order to try to give the meaning of it you want as much as possible you want the Bible just to say what the Bible says and what you'll see because what what happens then and what we end up seeing happen is people with modern translations you'll notice especially there's areas if you go online and you try to find contradictions in the Bible right a bunch of atheists will give you here's all these contradictions in the Bible and oftentimes what they'll show you is these different numbers right well the Bible says 30,000 here it says 3,000 here right see that's a contradiction but it's not a contradiction it's just because they don't understand what you know why there's a difference in the numbers there or whatever but what the modern translators will do and have done in many cases is they'll just well this just must be an error on the scribe they just wrote down the wrong thing so we're just gonna change it so they're using their own understanding or lack thereof to change what the Bible actually said like what the underlying text actually literally says to just be something different because they just say well that can't be correct so we're gonna correct it and put this down instead that's a big problem that's a huge problem and that and that's where you got to go whoa whoa hold on a second you can't just you can't just do that right and because we want to treat the Word of God as sacred as holy as it is and as it should be and the efforts to translate into a different language I mean you want to you want to really scour and pour over the thing to make sure that you're being faithful handling the Word of God to make sure that the right meaning is getting across and that God's Word is is faithfully being translated into another language right so we do care more about this formal equivalence as opposed to a dynamic equivalence methodology so to say hey the Bible is translated the King James Bible is translated literally yeah I mean it's true because if you're talking about a dynamic or a formal equivalence that that is the main methodology used and yes that makes it more literal yes that's true right and and the the emphasis was on trying to maintain a pure pure Bible pure Word of God right literally however understanding the translation you have to understand that there were some dynamic equivalences that were introduced or that were used I should say in the the translation of the King James Bible it's a fact it's indisputable you could go look it up and there's certain idioms and certain phrases that would not make sense in English language if you were to translate them exactly literally because they carried a meaning about them so it got translated as you know like God saved the king instead of may the king have long life or something like that right it's it's it's a those idioms those expressions that people will use need to also carry forward for it to make sense right so I'm just bringing all this up just just so that people understand that that you know when we say literal what does that really mean and and just so no one's going out there saying no this is literal I mean whatever it says here it is you're like this is exactly the same okay but with a little bit of nuance and understanding that yeah word orders change you know all of this stuff so what you don't want to do in your defense of what's true and what's right like King James Bible hates the Word of God amen it's perfectly preserved for us it's the Word of God we don't have to doubt it we don't have to have any any worry about this being preserved for us but in your defense of it make sure that you're you're still saying the right things you have good arguments and that you're presenting it appropriately right because then what soon as soon as we say something that's not true people are jump on that and attack that and then that's when confident levels are really gonna be shaken when oh but this isn't you said this and that's not true and it's you know like so we want to be careful to you know use use the right terms and say the right thing obviously and just for our own sake to our own understanding I mean people grow you learn more you understand a little bit more about how things work you say okay and that will keep you correct on your understanding of Scripture where we don't want to get so hyper literal that you become a ruckmanite that's a danger because the ruckmanites will tell you hey they're kjb only we're kjb only right but the ruckmanite will go as far as to say like well no there's like this new inspiration with the King James Bible translators that if you see any difference between an underlying Greek and an English kjb then the underlying Greek is wrong and the King James is right in English that's crazy like I mean that's just nuts there's that that's just coming up with something and just running with it I believe that that the translation was faithful and you know correct but it comes from a source it comes from sources that were that were given and passed on and the church has kept and then translated into a language so that in this is literally what literally why I want to teach on the subject of literalness and believe in the Bible literally and understanding literal translations of the Bible so we don't say the wrong things and we don't allow ourselves to get to gone the wrong direction with our understanding but that's enough about that I want to cover more about just believing the Bible for what it says and if you tell someone hey I believe the Bible literally again obviously there's going to be a little bit of nuance there turn if you would to Matthew chapter 13 because we have elements in the Bible teaching methods in the Bible that aren't always necessarily intended to be literal right I mean it's so I say yes I believe the Bible literally I believe every word to be the Word of God I believe this literally if something was said I believe that literally was said I believe that Jesus said the things that the Bible says he said I believe that Satan says the things that the Bible says he said I believe that every event that's captured in Scripture actually happened the way it's recorded so literally that's true but when it comes to things like parables oftentimes you're gonna have people who are going to come up and I'll tell you what this is where the vast majority of false doctrines come from come from parables so we do and this doesn't change the fact that with the Bible literally but we we have to make sure we're understanding the difference of what we read and when we're looking at something you know we're careful with coming up with an interpretation or understanding of the Bible especially if it's not stated now in Matthew 13 we're gonna look at an example of a parable where we don't have to wonder what it means at all because the understanding is given the interpretation is is given to us look at Matthew 13 verse number three it's parable the sower the Bible says and he spent he spake many things under them in parable saying behold a sower went forth to sow and when he sowed some seeds fell by the wayside and the fowls came and devoured them up some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth and forthwith they sprung up because they had no deepness of earth and when the Sun was up they were scorched and because they had no root they withered away and some fell among thorns and thorns sprung up and choked them but other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit some 100 fold some 60 fold and some 30 fold who have ears to hear let him hear and this is important okay because this is where a lot like I said a lot of false doctrine comes from verse 10 and his disciples came and said unto him why speakest thou unto them in parables why why are you using this language why are you talking about a sower and seed and plants coming like like why aren't you just a little bit more clear is basically what they're asking why are you using these these illustrations to talk to these people and this is what hey we need to understand why did Jesus like like let's read this why did Jesus use parables he could have just said flat-out what the parable means without even going into the to the parable verse 11 he answered and said unto them because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it is not given really important to understand well wait hold a second so was there some people that Jesus specifically intentionally didn't want to be clear with yeah absolutely there were there's some people that Jesus did not want to be very clear with any and he spoke cryptically more and used parables so it's no surprise when we understand that so much false doctrine comes from people who are using parables to support the false doctrine because they don't understand and they were given so that they people wouldn't be very clear about it verse 12 says for whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath therefore speak I to them in parables because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not neither do they understand and there are some people we understand later were he doesn't want them to believe because some people are reprobate and they're never gonna believe and he's hard in their heart and there and they just won't have the ability to believe and he doesn't want them to even come close to believing so he just speaks to them in parables and in ways that they're not even gonna understand anyways now this parable we don't have to wonder what he was talking about because like he said hey it's given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven so then if we jump down to oh goodnight let me turn there my notes are screwed up sorry I copied and pasted the passage and then I copied and pasted the exact same passage instead of jumping down to the next verse where he says verse 18 hear ye therefore the parable of the sower now he's explaining it when anyone hear at the word of the kingdom and understand if it not then come at the wicked one and catch at the way that which was sown in his heart this is he which received seed by the wayside but he that received the seed into stony places the same as he that here at the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he no root in himself but do it for a while for when tribulation persecution rises because the word by and by he is offended he also that received seed among thorns is he that here at the word and the care of this world and deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful but he that receive a seed into the good ground is he that here at the word and understandeth it which also bear fruit and bring it forth some and hundredfold some 60 and some 30 he gives you the exact understanding now I do believe that the Bible is a very deep book and there are oftentimes in many places many depths many layers of understanding that you can glean from the Word of God it's not always just single faceted like nope this is the only thing it means it only says this that's all it could possibly mean I don't believe that to be true I believe there's many layers of depth so we could go into but but here's what I do believe 100% every single time whatever it says on the surface is absolutely 100% true so before you start going real deep into meaning on what the Bible means what it says and what we can what kind of great deep truths can we gather out of this you better at least first accept what it says on the surface because that cannot be wrong if something's being used to talk hey if you want to come up with some other great elaborate you know understanding of the parable and the sower of something that's a little bit deeper than what he's explaining here on the surface maybe that could be true maybe there's some extra imagery maybe there's some extra symbolism there I'm not opposed to that but first of all if you're gonna do that it better not contradict any clear statements in the scripture if you're gonna teach something or see something that you see to be in the Bible hold on a second because the literal interpretation has to just be there and and be true 100% of the time what it says on the surface has to be true and then you go deeper and you could say okay I see this or see this and you know sometimes people see things I think aren't necessarily there but there are definitely other passages of Scripture we've been going through our Bible studies come to our Bible study you here we see a lot of great symbolism and a lot of other things that are taught that are that are just fantastic right you go back to the book of Genesis and you read the stories you read the story about you know Isaac and carrying the wood and you can see all these great pictures and images of Jesus Christ carrying the cross and being sacrificed and you know and all these things being played out in the Old Testament that it doesn't literally say that right there but there's so much symbolism it's kind of hard to miss right you got a ram caught in its horns by the thicket and you know crown of thorns all this others you know all this great symbolism there and it's there and it's true but we still have to believe that like when Isaac was going to be offered that he literally was carrying sticks on his back Abraham literally had a knife they you know like like this all these things happened it's not just now I would say even the primary purpose of that being in the Bible is for us to see all that great symbolism and and the prophetic nature of it but you can't deny the literal surface meaning of any of it it did happen it is true turn to 2nd Peter chapter 1 to further prove the point that hey we do we believe the Bible literally and not just do we believe it literally you ought to believe it literally and avoid those that want to always try to tell you well you know what the Bible really means I know it says that but you know what it really means here's why 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse number 15 the Bible says moreover I will endeavor that you may be able after my deceased to have these things always in remembrance 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 for he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased this is the Apostle Peter this is the pistol Peter who was there and present and heard the voice of God saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased and he's recounting this story and telling this story here and he's saying look I endeavor that you may be able after I'm gone after my deceased when I'm gone from here to have these things always in remembrance so he's telling them this story of like what happened here make sure you don't forget this this is really important you know like write this down in fact I'm writing it down for you is this pistol Peter right don't forget this stuff and this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount he's like I was a witness to this I hurt we heard this look at verse 19 we have also a more sure word of prophecy more sure than what more sure than him saying I heard this from heaven and you got how many people saying well I won't believe unless I see it with my own eyes well you know what the puzzle Peter is saying that scripture is a more sure word of prophecy than what he heard with his own ears we have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto ye do well that ye take heed take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and day star arise in your hearts knowing this first that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation well you think it means this and I think it means this and they think it means this who cares we all could have our own belief and so what no no it's not how it works no the Bible says what it means and it means what it says and you can't just go and take scripture and just turn it on its head and try to say that it means something different when that's not what it says it's not your private interpretation that you get to get give in fact any any interpretation of Scripture is gonna come from God God's the one who gives interpretation you know this word interpretation is used elsewhere in the scripture most frequently when people are explaining visions that they've received from God most common usage of interpretation in the Bible so it's not a private interpretation when Daniel gave the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar dream was it was it because of Daniel's wisdom did it come out of Daniel's heart that he knows things no it came from God God explained the dream to him Joseph when he gave the interpretation of the dreams of the Baker or in the Butler right was that because Joseph was so smart no both of them said hey there's a God in heaven he's the one that interprets dreams I'm his servant and here's what God said it's not them it's not the person it's not them reading into this and being so insightful that they just know all of a sudden these things no God's the one that that reveals the interpretation we don't have the luxury of just having a private interpretation of the Word of God 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 now granted there are plenty of places besides the places of the parables we saw one example of a parable with Jesus parable of sower where there is more symbolic language being used and again we ought to be careful with the literal ness that we refer to but I think all of the literal ness is reasonable right and no reasonable person should should think otherwise when you read these things we're gonna read Revelation chapter 13 a few verses out of there if you want to turn you can follow along and we're gonna see a vision that the Apostle John saw now literally he saw this vision but as we know the book of Revelation is revealing things that are to come he sees this vision but the literal things that he sees aren't literal things that are going to be happening like in the sense of what we're gonna see here a beast rising up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns that's literally literally a beast coming up out of the sea that has all these heads and horns is not going to happen okay but John literally saw this in the vision but as we want to be careful with our understanding and the literal ness of the Bible yes it's absolutely literal he literally saw this that's literally what he saw but the Bible will give us the understanding of what that means so anytime something is not explained in Scripture you always like that that's symbolic that that clearly looks like what we're gonna read here then you want to be careful with how you understand it right but the vast majority of what's in the by the vast majority what's in the Bible that's that looks cryptic like this comes with an explanation like almost all of it's gonna come it's gonna it's gonna state the cryptic and then give us the understanding like 90 some percent of the time so we're not left just wondering what does this mean revelation 13 look at number one verse number one by reason I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy and the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard and his feet were as the feet of a bear and his mouth as the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority and I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast and they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast and they worshipped the beast saying who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him I'm not going to keep going on and on but you can see here clearly there's very descriptive language but it's not stuff that is that we're looking for to happen in the literal sense of an actual dragon an actual beast actual seven heads actual ten horns they all represent something okay now if we don't see the interpretation of this in the Bible itself or at least in the direct context I do believe we could still figure out what it means by sourcing it against other parts of the Bible where we do have a clear context and in this example I would turn to Daniel chapter 8 which is very similar and I'm not saying Daniel 8 and Revelation 13 are exactly the same but what what we're gonna see is very similar symbolism being used very similar images or visions that were seen and once you see how they're interpreted in one place it kind of should follow that it would be interpreted the same way that God's using the same imagery to explain another event that's going to happen especially in the broader context of well Daniel is prophetic about end times events also you have revelation and Daniel and both books are set up strikingly similar on the first half of the book versus the second half of the book and when you look at just the very very easy to understand surface level first half of the book of Revelation talking to churches talk you know like like everything follows it's not that difficult to see what's going on and then the second half it's like you got these dragons you got all this other stuff going on like what is happening here right it's a lot of people kind of get confused Daniel the first however many stories right you've got you've got Shadrach Meshach Abednego in the furnace of fire you got Daniel in the lion's den you've got all these real famous stories that are real simple understand on the surface level but then the second half it's like oh now we're getting in the armies the north and armies the south and you got all this stuff going on and you got a bear and you got a lion and you've got things and you're going you got in here we're gonna look about Rams huh well that's kind of interesting and look this sermon isn't about understanding prophecy necessarily it's about believing the Bible literally but I at least bring it up to say hey the Bible is a real deep book right and to continue to gain understanding there really is a lot of depth to it and and to to come to the to the knowledge of the truth about like all these things that are given in the scripture is going to require a lot of study okay but through all of that study through everything that you do you always have to understand we're gonna take the Bible literally on the surface nothing should be a contradiction now Daniel chapter 8 actually you know we don't even have to read through this I'm running a little bit shorter on time oh and look at that the same thing happened in my notes a copy and paste wasn't working right apparently Daniel 8 you could look at this later he gets his vision of the goats and a he goat and there's two horns and this one has one harm and they hit each other but then in that same passage we get the understanding he says okay this is Greece and Persia and this is you know like like he's giving this is what all of this means so when you're going back and understanding the scripture and especially with people that want to tell you about all the stuff that's gonna happen in the future because there's a lot of people out there because prophetic preaching is very popular everyone wants to know what's going on with with the Bible and what's happening in the end times right we're all interested in that watch out for the people that though will turn to these places and try to say oh see this is this and this is that and it's like but wait no the Bible already said what this is don't turn to the ram and he goat and you know and try to tell me it means something else today when he already said the countries and and and everything that's involved in this like that's what it means it's right there so anyways let's go go to Deuteronomy 22 I want to get into my final point to the sermon started with some of the more complex maybe the more difficult or yeah just more complicated thoughts on believing the Bible literally from the translation to looking at things that are clearly symbolic but when we talk about believing the Bible literally this is what we mean okay and we're just gonna look at some examples of what do we mean when we say we believe the Bible literally that makes us different than any other Christian it's gonna say well of course I believe the Bible Deuteronomy 22 before without even adding my commentary let's just read this and then you in your heart say I believe that or I don't believe that okay I'm not gonna give you any explanation I'm just gonna read it Deuteronomy 22 verse number one thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray and hide thyself from them thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother and if thy brother be not nigh unto thee or if thou know him not then thou shalt bring it unto thine house and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it and thou shalt restore it to him again in like manner shalt thou do with his ass and so shalt thou do with his Raymond and with all lost thing of thy brothers which he hath lost and thou has found shalt thou do likewise thou mayest not hide thyself thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox fall down by the way and hide thyself from them thou shalt surely help him to lift them up now I don't have a problem with that what's he saying if you find something it's not finders keepers right you return it or if you see you know you got your neighbors got some some animal that fell into a ditch go help him don't hide yourself and pretend like you didn't see it because you don't really want to get dirty you go help him right now this isn't controversial okay I stopped a verse shy of where we're gonna keep reading to illustrate oh yeah yeah I mean yeah of course this is what it says right this is what it says does anyone think this means anything different than what we're just seeing just just literally spoken here about about the ox and the ass and ever you know no and does anyone have a problem with that no is the world gonna have a problem with that today no probably not let's keep reading verse 5 the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God well hold on a second what are you talking about there now it just got real but what do you mean pastor what do I mean what does the Bible mean what does the Word of God mean is it literally an abomination for a man to put on a woman's garment for a woman by man's you better believe it is I don't care what perverted society we live in that wants to talk about trans people and all this other nonsense and garbage it's abomination any reasonable person knows what a man's clothing is and what a woman's clothing is I'm not even gonna stand up here and define it for you the Bible says what it says do you believe it or not because I do just as much as I believe hey don't do finders keepers right my neighbor lost something I'm not gonna go take it and hide it for myself well in the same token men shouldn't be wearing women's clothes and women should be wearing men's clothes how about Leviticus 20 let's read Leviticus 20 here's where the rubber meets the road this is what I mean fundamentalists when we say we believe the Bible we believe it literally I literally believe that's an abomination for men and women to cross-dress and people who want to tell you why that doesn't actually mean what it says are bad people they have no regard for the Word of God they care about the world they care about their own thoughts or feelings or whatever they don't care about what God thinks there's no integrity there it's hypocrisy or or just trying to set up an idol trying to create some God that doesn't exist in place of the God of the Bible look God exists the God of the Bible is real there's only one God it is the God of the Bible whether you like it or not this is the truth these are his words if you don't believe that the Bible is the Word of God what do you do in a Christian Church well my faith is in Jesus why what because you believe what the Bible says about Jesus I mean that's why I believe it oh so you just cherry-pick then what you want to believe what you don't want to believe I see it's funny because the haters of our church want to say oh you cherry-pick verses no we believe all of it you're the one that wants to cherry-pick and not believe all of it and we're not gonna read the whole chapter of Leviticus 20 you can do I believe all of it by the way but we're just gonna focus on some of it tonight for the purpose of illustrating believing the Bible literally now I will say this it is important to understand that the laws that are given were given to God's people to be instituted as the law of the land okay yes that context always matters so is the contents of Leviticus chapter 20 our current law the land today United States America no it's not but if God were to Institute a nation and laws he already did that and these are the laws that they would have and if we wanted to have a nation that was a nation that promoted the Lord the God of the Bible as being God and we wanted to be as people and follow God guess what these are the laws that we would have because God's the one that came up with these laws not man let's read through some of them verse number eight Leviticus 20 and you shall keep my statutes and do them I am the Lord which sanctify you for everyone that curseth his father or his mother look at this shall be surely put to death you surely don't mean that do you pastor do you believe that hey I believe that I believe this is the law of God and I don't think I have to add oh wait wait wait hold on a second though or make excuses for is why I should say what the Bible says now of course it's important to understand what he's talking about here but it but it still is not need an excuse you don't make excuse for the Word of God and if that offends you I'm sorry but it's the Word of God for everyone that curseth his father his mother shall be surely put to death he hath cursed his father or his mother his blood shall be upon him door understand that passage you got to understand what a curse is curse is the opposite of a blessing okay it's not complicated I'm not gonna try sit up here and tell you but really in the Hebrew curse means you know something completely different than what it actually means no we have the word in English curse we know what curse means now some people will misconstrue what a curse is in English today when they say there's curse words and they're talking about four-letter words that are kind of vulgar but not curses okay if you think about curse word it's it's a curse so what is a curse if you put a curse on someone what are you doing you're wishing evil on them the most common curse that we could probably say is a legitimate curse is if you were to tell someone hey you go to hell that's a curse because you are wishing evil on that person you want them to burn forever and ever and ever in hell and stay there forever like that's it's a significant curse but that's a curse as opposed to a blessing which is you're wishing good things upon people right I hope you get well I hope you you God blesses you with money or with this or with that or what you know whatever those are those are blessings that curse is the exact opposite so what some people will try to say is oh but that means in every child will be put to death but no it doesn't no it doesn't because not every child curses their parents they may get angry with them have fights with them say things they don't mean whatever but like a curse God's saying you know that's not acceptable and we're gonna make sure that's not acceptable and if I'm gonna have a people and they're gonna be my people this is the way it's gonna be you don't curse out your parents now most commonly we're gonna find that it's not gonna be with little children it's gonna be with adults I mean this this is what we're gonna find in the way that the law applies anyway it's gonna be towards adults not not five year old or six year old or something like that but that's that's what the people who hate the Bible want to to come up and say but that's not what this is talking about clearly it's a curse by mother but it is a serious punishment and it's totally different than what we would think of today in our justice system there's nothing even close to this on the books but this is the Word of God do you believe it do you believe this is what God would have he did for Israel I believe it verse 10 and the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor's wife the adulterer and the adulterer is shall surely be put to death what does the Bible say in there oh it's real complicated hold on let me this is gonna take a while this might take about 30 minutes no it's not complicated you commit adultery you cheat on your spouse the two people who are committing adultery they ought to be put to death no this isn't saying that every individual if you ever find someone who commits adultery that you put them to death these should these are the laws of the land that God's establishing that ought to be in place and clearly this is showing how God feels about them and what he thinks the proper judgment should be I think the proper judgment should be if someone commits adultery that they should be put to death I agree with that I think that's true let's keep reading and the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness both of them shall surely be put to death their blood shall be upon them amen does it really require explanation I don't think so and if a man lie with his daughter-in-law disgusting right perverted both of them shall surely be put to death they have wrought confusion their blood shall be upon them amen okay I agree with that too these things ought not to be and when we read the whole list and get to the bottom but God's essentially explaining like look the people who were in the land the land of Canaan before I brought you into this promised land before I gave this land to you the same people that God commanded to have destroyed I mean annihilated wiped out completely just like why would God do that because they were so wicked that all of these things that he's commanding in the Bible that are capital crimes like they did all these things they were just guilty of all this stuff all this perversion so they've gotten so far out of bounds so far depraved that God's solution was okay judgments coming and they're just gonna be wiped out let's keep reading and again another verse I don't think it's gonna require any explanation for me let's just read what the Bible says Leviticus 20 13 if a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman both of them have committed an abomination they shall surely be put to death their blood shall be upon them now I ask you do you believe the Word of God to be God you know the Bible be worth God's Word you believe Leviticus 20 13 is the Word of God I do I do I don't care what this culture says I don't care what the United States says I don't care what anyone says this is true everything else is a lie it's true lying with a man as you lie with a woman is it should be a capital crime it's worthy of death penalty that's how bad it is Matthew 19 please turn to Matthew 19 it's the last place we're gonna look at tonight Matthew 19 I gave a couple Old Testament examples I want to give you a New Testament example believing the Bible believe it literally says what it says I believe you know I'm gonna stand on the Bible I'm saying all the Bible not just the pleasant things that are really nice to hear about because I love those I love those things but also the things that are not so pleasant that are you know gonna cause strife in this world that are gonna gonna maybe cause people to be offended but look I'm not the one that wrote the Bible you can get mad at me all you want but the book is still gonna say what it says because it doesn't change God doesn't care how enlightened the human race is in 2024 he made us he made people he knows he's got a little bit more wisdom than we do Matthew 19 and this is what I was referring to in this morning sermon about the Pharisees how they didn't really like they wanted everyone to think they're real holy and righteous and stuff but they really weren't they're full of extortion and excess and people will try to oh you want to follow God's law and you want to follow it so closely you're like a Pharisee no I'm not because the Pharisees didn't want to follow God's law closely they were trying to skirt God's law at every turn because they were wicked they don't want to be held accountable for their sins they wanted people to think how great they were but they were not great at all and Matthew 19 is going to illustrate this look at verse number three the Pharisees also came unto him tempting him and saying unto him is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause they're asking Jesus can a man and putting away it means divorce can a man divorce his wife for every cause like any cause you want can I just can I just choose a divorce my wife for any reason that's the question and he answered and said unto them have ye not read I love that answer Jesus gives that answer multiple times in the Bible you know why because the Bible gives us the answer and if you would just read it and believe it literally for what it says you know the answer that question if you read the law your Pharisee if you believe what the law said you don't have to ask me if it's okay for a man to put away his wife for every cause you would already know have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female oh yeah here's there's another shocker for today male and female male and female right he made them male and female and said for this cause shall a manly father a mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh marriage marriage it just popped in there there's another one never mind I'm gonna stop on my head male and female to become one flesh wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh and he says what therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder so what is his answer can a man divorce his wife for any reason when he says hey God brings two people together and now they are no longer two but they're one and what God has joined together don't let man divide it and what is divorce a division of the marriage so what is his answer no no no you can't divorce your wife for any reason but now so now they're gonna respond and they understand what he's saying because they say unto him verse 7 well why did Moses then command to give a writing a divorce man to put her away and even the way they phrase the question now did Moses command to get to get divorced the people know now is there a portion of the law that applies to someone that wants to put away their wife yes the law covers divorce and there is a section in God's law that deals with a situation in which a person was allowed to get divorced by the law but in anywhere in the law does it say hey if this happens you better get divorced never never so but notice how they're saying that why did Moses command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away Jesus answered or say he saith unto them Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you know suffered means allowed so he didn't say Moses commanded you because of the hardness of your heart no he said he allowed you so he's correcting them he didn't command it he allowed it but he allowed you to put away your wives but from the beginning it was not so he said that wasn't allowed in the law of Moses it then became allowed but he says this in verse 9 reiterates and I say unto you whosoever shall put away his wife except to be for fornication that was the one the one instance in which it was allowable for a divorce to take place and I'm not going to teach through all of that we have to go back and look at the law and everything else but Jesus is saying this and it's true right except to be for fornication shall marry another committeth adultery and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery so he's going even further in talking about marrying people who've been divorced isn't he he says if you marry her which is put away meaning divorced you're committing adultery I know it's not popular but it's what the Bible says it's what the Bible says and you know what I'm not gonna give you many promises here but I'll promise you this much I'm gonna do my best to preach the whole counsel of God okay and I will not avoid a part of the Bible because I think it might offend somebody and I won't intentionally try to offend you either but I am gonna make the point that the Bible is true and the Word of God is true and if you say you believe the Bible then believe all of it because how God feels about the lukewarm Christian you could go ahead and read Revelation about that or you could just walk out here to our coffee station that has the verse right here so then because they are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth we have iced coffee and we have hot coffee we don't serve lukewarm coffee because you want to spew it out of your mouth I'm kidding about the coffee at what kind of kidding but that reference though is about a lukewarm church and how God feels like you know what God feels get in or get out you want to believe the Word of God believe all the Word of God you want to start picking choosing cutting it up you know what then just forget it and just go ahead and live like the devil and live like the world and just get out of here then how about you just accept it and accept all of it you know you want to accept Jesus into your heart amen you want to accept Jesus and get saved well you know who Jesus is Jesus is the Word in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God you're gonna believe Jesus then you're gonna believe the Word you're gonna believe the Word believe all of it take it literally for what it says don't apologize for it don't back down and I don't care how unpopular it is I don't care if it gets you fired from your job because I've already been fired from a job because I believe this book because I preach this book whatever I'm still here God's still blessing me God's blessing our church and you know what we're getting a lot of people saved and leading them to Christ amen and he's gonna keep using us as long as we stay faithful to him and that's what it's all about faithfulness don't you love if you have someone in your life that's faithful to you don't you love that isn't that a great feeling to have someone who's faithful to you I love my wife you know I love about my wife the most she's faithful to me she's not perfect I know I'm not perfect far from it okay but we're faithful to each other that means a lot that means a lot in our hard times and our struggles and our fights and our differences hey we're gonna say faithful to each other God gave us his word we live in a wicked society a wicked world with sinners everywhere we're sinners right we're not perfect but he's given us a perfect word he's given us a light to shine in darkness he's given us truth he's given us wisdom he's given us knowledge he's given us understanding he's given us the right way and are you gonna then just back down and be like yeah I'm not faithful to you are you gonna say I'll be faithful to you Lord I love you thank you for saving me thank you for showing me the right way thank you for showing me my errors I'm gonna I'm gonna exalt the Word of God this is what I love don't ever be ashamed of the Word of God God's not trying to trick you it says what it says it it means what it says we could take it literally let's embrace it and if people trying to tell you different or people hate you for it they hate you or they hate what's written in God's Word I love the Word of God let's pray your Heavenly Father thank you so much for your word thank you for preserving your word for us dear God thank you for showing us the right way we need guidance we need to know the right from the wrong where there's so many influences out in the world today that are trying to steer us the wrong way thank you for giving us the truth thank you for helping us to know and God continue to help us to understand and make sure we're not wrong in our understanding and that we're not coming up with our own private interpretations of what your word says dear Lord but that we could truly just accept it at its face value and and believe it dear Lord and defend it and be faithful to you because you have been faithful to us when we don't deserve it Lord we love you we thank you for that it's in Jesus name we pray amen all right we're gonna sing one last song before dismissed brother will can you please lead us Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh