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Page 24. And let's go ahead and sing it out on the first. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood died He for me who causes pain for me to death pursuit amazing love how can it be that thou my God should die for me amazing love how can it be that thou my God should die for me Page 24. Let's sing it out on the second. He left his father's throne above so free so infinite his grace emptied himself of all but love and bled Adam's helpless praise his mercy all immense and free for oh my God it found out me amazing love how can it be that thou my God should die for me Page 24. Let's go ahead and sing it out on the last long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night thine I diffuse a quickening ray I woke the dungeon flame with light my chains fell off my heart was free I rose and followed thee amazing love how can it be that thou my God just die for me Amen. Great singing. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church in the Wednesday evening Bible study. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Father God, thank you so much for this church, Lord. Thank you for these people who come out here on a Wednesday evening to serve you. I pray that our singing would glorify you, Lord. I pray that you would bless the service and the preaching to come. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right. Turn to your song books, page number 451. We're going to sing Where Could I Go? page 451 Where Could I Go? That's page 451. And page 451, let's go ahead and sing it out on the first. Living below in this old sinful world hardly a comfort can afford striving alone to face temptation sore where could I go but to the Lord where could I go where could I go seeking a refuge for my soul needing a friend to help me in the end where could I go but to the Lord page 451 let's sing it out on the second neighbors are kind I love them everyone we get along in sweet accord but when my soul needs manna from above where could I go but to the Lord where could I go where could I go seeking a refuge for my soul needing a friend to help me in the end where could I go but to the Lord let's sing it out on the last life here is grand with friends I love so dear the comfort I get from God's own word yet when I face the chilling hand of death where could I go but to the Lord where could I go where could I go seeking a refuge for my soul needing a friend to help me in the end where could I go but to the Lord great singing amen and we want to welcome you to Verity Baptist Church this evening we're glad that you're with us let's take our bulletins and we'll look at some announcements real quickly if you do not have a bulletin just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you if you need a bulletin just put your hand up and we'll get one for you 2 Peter 3.18 but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to Him be glory both now and forever amen and that's a good verse there we like that if you open up your bulletin you'll see our service time Sunday morning service 10 30 a.m. and Sunday evening service at 6 p.m. and of course we're glad that you're here for the Wednesday night Bible study at 7 p.m. and if you look at our soul winning times our main soul winning time is on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. and we do want to encourage you to be with us for soul winning on Saturday and then of course we have Thursday soul winning at 2 p.m. tomorrow so if you'd like to go soul winning tomorrow there will be an opportunity for you to do that and then Sunday soul winning as well if you look at the announcements and upcoming events of course we are continuing on Sunday our sermon series on the subject of the spirit world and we've been studying this together we've looked at heaven we've studied heaven from the Bible hell this last Sunday I preached on the subject of angels and then this coming Sunday just in time for Halloween season we're going to study demons and then the devil and then spiritual warfare so we want to encourage you of course to be with us on Sunday for that and then also just want to remind you that this Saturday October 19th at 5 p.m. we are having our second Spanish service so I want you to be aware of that we had 136 show up for our first Spanish service and that was a few weeks ago so this Saturday we're having our second Spanish service so again just remember that this is for people of course if you speak Spanish you're welcome to come if you have friends or family that speak Spanish then invite them to come and if you are learning Spanish then you're welcome to come and if you're learning Spanish I just want to give you a heads up that I'm preaching in Spanish through the series that I preached here at our church in our English services rooted and grounded if you so this first service I preached the very first sermon that I preached in the rooted and grounded series I preached it in Spanish and this coming Saturday I'll be preaching the second sermon from that series now I tell you that to say this if you want to listen to that sermon in advance to kind of refresh your memory that's the same outline that I'll be following so hopefully that'll help you be able to follow along and know what's happening again if you're coming to learn Spanish so just keep that in mind and then of course we have our harvest party on Thursday October 31st at 6pm and want to remind you of that we have an annual chili cook-off and games of course for everyone we'll have a $50 gift card for the first place winner $25 gift card for the second place winner and if you bring chili for the competition you need to have it here by 6pm so that we can get it to the to the judges and make sure that all that is done properly and then of course we'll have chili that night for the meal and if you'd like to sign up to bring corn bread or desserts we have sign up sheets in the foyer also there's going to be games for the kids there'll be ping pong there'll be corn hole there'll be all sorts of different things so and then the annual ladies and the men's basketball games so that's always a lot of fun of course so for the ladies we do have a sign up sheet if you'd like to sign up for the basketball game in the foyer as well then home school group ladies weight loss accountability you can check those announcements there if you look at the back of the bulletin birthdays and anniversaries for the month of October earlier this week was brother Joe Maples III had a birthday on October 13th and then brother Matt and Miss Casey Taylor had an anniversary yesterday on the 15th and today is brother Julian's birthday on the 16th brother Adam has a birthday on the 18th brother Edgar has a birthday on the 19th Miss Nicole also has a birthday and brother Keith Rivas all have a birthday on October 19th so happy birthday to everybody there praise report money matters all those things are there for you to look at and I think that's it for all of the announcements so let's go in and take our song books and we're going to go to page number 164 page number 164 and we're going to sing praise him praise him Jesus our blessed redeemer 164 sing it out on the first praise him praise him Jesus our blessed redeemer sing O Earth his wonderful love proclaim hail him hail him highest archangels in glory strength and honor give to his holy name in his arms he carries them all day long praise him praise him tell of his excellent greatness praise him praise him ever in joyful song praise him praise him praise him praise him Jesus our blessed redeemer for our sins he suffered and bled and died he a rock our hope of eternal salvation hail him hail him Jesus the crucified sound his Jesus who bore our sorrows, love unbounded, wonderful, deep and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals, loud with Hosanna's ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, Prophet and Priest and King. Christ is coming over the world victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever in joyful song. Amen. Good singing. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time. And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. We thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight. Lord, we pray that you'd bless the offering, the gift and the giver. Lord, we pray that you would bless the time set aside for prayer and the time set aside for preaching. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Well, let's take our prayer sheets tonight and we'll go through our prayer list. If you did not receive a prayer sheet on your way in, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a prayer list, just put your hand up and we'll get one for you. And of course, I want to remind you that the way you add a request to the prayer sheet is through your communication card. On the back of the card, there's a place for you to write down a request. Make sure you mark whether it's private or public. If it's private, only I will see it. If it's public, we'll put it on the prayer sheet. If you don't mark it, we'll do our best to figure it out. But we usually don't add those. When we do add them, they are added in the order that they are received and they are removed after a couple of weeks. And I do want to highlight for you, if you look there at the safe and healthy pregnancies, that Miss Antonina Vukulcik's name has been added there. So congratulations to Brother Vladi and Miss Antonina on expecting a baby. And let's go ahead and take these requests to the Lord. I'm going to pray out loud and I'm going to ask that you would pray with me in your mind and in your heart. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. We thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight. Lord, we bring these requests to you and we want to begin with these requests regarding salvation. Brother Ron, praying for his mom and his family's salvation. Miss Ruth, praying for the salvation of her friend Hector. And also Brother Warren, praying for the salvation of his co-workers. Miss Natalie, praying for her husband's salvation. Miss Amy Cortez, praying for her son's salvation. And also for her daughter Crystal's salvation. Miss Minnie, praying for family's salvation. And Miss Maria, praying for Roma and Skylar's salvation. Miss Christine Ortiz, praying for her family's salvation as well. And Lord, we ask for these individuals. We pray, Lord, that you would do what needs to happen in their lives to bring them to the place where they'd be willing to hear the gospel and that they might hear the gospel clearly from a soul winner and that they would be saved. And Lord, we also pray for these that have health requests for the Ron, praying for his foot to heal and for his mobility to improve. Miss Kate, praying for health and healing for herself. Miss Ruth, praying also for the health of her friend Hector. And Brother Luis, praying for the health of his wife Anna and that her back pain would heal. And Brother Warren, praying for the health of his siblings as well. Miss Cricket, praying for her hip to heal completely. And Miss Natalie, also praying for her husband's recovery. Miss Amy, praying for her son's health as well. And Tim, praying for his own health and for the health of the Wallace family. And Brother Joshua Gastelum II, praying for his mom's upcoming surgery and results and also for his back to be healed. Brother John Cervantes, praying for his cousin Alex and his wife that they would be able to get into a clean and sober and rehab program. And Miss Maria, praying for healing for Pete's cirrhosis. Steven Ames, praying for complete healing as he undergoes treatment for colon cancer. And Miss Christine, praying for her health. Brother Salvador, praying for his appointment coming up on October 23rd. Miss Docma, praying for her MRI and also for healing for her sister's broken hip. And then of course, Brother Edgar and Miss Alina, praying for Uretzi and Jonathan to continue to be healthy and strong and recover. And we're praying for our missionary Dave Gavontales' wife, Miss Angel, as she continues to battle breast cancer. And Lord, we just pray for all these individuals. We pray that you would give them health and strength and we pray that you would help them to recover. And Lord, we ask that you would be with the doctors and the nurses dealing with them. We also pray for the ladies in our church that are expecting Miss Angel, Miss Flora Beth, Miss Antonina, asking that you give them all healthy pregnancies with no issues and no complications. And Lord, we pray for these that have requests regarding their families. Miss Nicole Johnson, praying for her family. And also, Brother Salvador, praying for his family. And Lord, we ask that you would help their families and be with them. And we pray for these that have physical and financial requests. Miss Amy, praying for her son's Social Security to get approved. And also for Joshua Castellon II, praying for a healthy work schedule for this upcoming Christmas season. Miss Christine, praying for her finances. Brother Salvador, praying for finances and work as well. And Lord, we pray that you would help these individuals meet their needs. And then we also pray for these that have spiritual requests. Brother John, praying for his cousin Alex and his wife to be able to start attending church. And Miss Christine Ortiz, praying for faith. Brother Salvador, for faith in his walk with you. And Lord, we pray that you would help them and be with them. Also, Miss Dogma, praying for safe travels as she goes to Germany. And then Lord, we pray, of course, for these that have unspoken requests. Miss Kate and my dad, Brother Felix, Brother Nate, Miss Brittany, and Miss Natalie, all having unspoken requests. Brother Salvador also having an unspoken request. And Lord, you know what their petitions are. You know what they're asking for. We pray, Lord, that you would please answer according to your will. And then Lord, we pray for our church, that you would just continue to help us and meet our needs and help us, Lord, to do what you called us to do. We pray for the missions work in the Philippines, that you would bless it. Pastor Stuckey and his family as well. We pray for this upcoming Spanish service, that you would bless it and help it to be a great success. Lord, we just ask that you meet with us tonight as we take some time to open your Word and study the Bible together. We pray that you would continue to help us, strengthen us, draw us closer to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please open your mouth to Psalm 12. Psalm chapter number 12. If you do not have a Bible, please raise your hand and I'm not sure you can bring your Bible. Psalm 12, just keep your hand up unless you will come by. Psalm chapter number 12, beginning of verse number 1. Help, Lord, for the God of the man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with his neighbor, with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Who have said, with our tongue will we prevail, our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. The words of the Lord are pure words, as civil tried in a furnace of fire, purified seven times. Thou shall keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. God, I thank you for our church and for your word. I ask that you please give us all a tender heart to the message tonight. And I ask that you be the pastor. Please strengthen him. And in the name of the spirit, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. Well, we're there in Psalm 12. And of course, on Wednesday nights, we've been making our way through the book of Psalms, studying it together. And we're taking one Psalm a week. And tonight we are here in Psalm 12. Now, Psalm 12 is not a long Psalm. It's only eight verses. But it is a powerful Psalm. And it is a very interesting Psalm. And we're going to look at this. And I just want to up front kind of give you the headings and if you're taking notes. And of course, I always encourage you to take notes. On the back of your course of the week, there's a place for you to write down some notes. This Psalm is divided into two sections. Like I said, it's not very long. But it is divided into two sections. And I'll just give you those two headings up front if you want to take notes on that. The first section, what we see is the words of man. The words of man. And in the second section, we're going to see that in verses 2 through 4, the words of man. In the second section, we see the word of God. And of course, this is a famous Psalm on the subject of the word of God. And we'll see that in verses 6 through 7. So we'll see the words of man and the words of God. I'd like you to notice how the Psalm begins in Psalm 12. You know, often times we look at these scriptures and there are of course ancient writings. And people sometimes act like they are not applicable today. But I would say that of course we know that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable. And I would say that this is highly applicable. In Psalm 12 and verse 1, David begins. Of course we see in the superscription there that it is a Psalm of David. And he begins by lamenting the fact that there is a disappearing of godly and faithful men. Notice there Psalm 12 and verse 1. He says, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. And here David is looking around at his society and at his culture. And he's asking the Lord for assistance. He's saying, Lord, we need some help. And he says the reason we need some help is because the godly man ceaseth. The godly man ceaseth. And that word ceaseth there or for something to cease means to come to an end. It means to go extinct. Often times when we use the word cease we'll say that something ceased to exist. And this is what David is saying. He's saying the godly man ceaseth. Then he says this, for the faithful fail. And the word fail means to dwindle, means to die, means to evaporate, to come to a land. He says the godly man ceaseth for the faithful fail from among the children of men. And I would say that this is something that is not only applicable in the day of David, but it's something that is applicable today. I think that today we could look around and say and have the exact same request. The Lord, help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth for the faithful fail from among the children of men. You don't have to turn here. I'll just read this for you. But in Isaiah 57 1, Isaiah 57 1 says this, the righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart. And the idea there is that the righteous perisheth and nobody cares. It goes on to say, and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. And this is what David is talking about. He's talking about and referring to the fact that the godly man ceaseth. And I think that today we could look around and we could say that this applies to the society and the culture that you and I live in today. Because as I look around at our society and our culture today, and specifically, and I'm not trying to beat up on men, but it's what the passage is talking about. When we look at men in our society, I would say the godly man ceaseth. I would say that the faithful fail from among the children of men. And I think that we as men need to look at this verse and really consider and ask ourselves, if we look in the mirror, would we say that the person staring back at you is a godly man? Because what is needed in our culture are godly men. Someone who is a man who is trying to please the Lord. Faithful men. A man who is full of faith. A man who is godly. A man who God would look down and say, there is a godly man. There is a man of God. And this man is going extinct today. And I hope that he's not going extinct at Verity Baptist Church. I hope that every man here would have a desire to say, I want to be a godly man. I want to be a faithful man. Now it's easy to use those words. It's easy to say those words. And what does that even really mean? What does it mean to be a godly man? And I think we could go to a lot of different passages and use a lot of wording to describe it. But I'll tell you how I describe it. And I'll tell you what I think the characteristics of a godly man are. And I think all of us need to ask ourselves, do we meet these requirements? And I think that many of us might find that we fail. The faithful fail. But we should have a goal to meet these requirements. What does a godly man look like? First I would say that a godly man is a man of character and integrity. A man of character and integrity. That's why he says they're the faithful. Character is this idea of having a way about you when the word character has this idea of something that's chiseled into stone. Something that's hard and it's not going to change. And I believe that a godly man, I think we would all agree, if you're going to be a godly man, you need to be a man of character. A man of integrity. A man that doesn't change with the winds. But you just know what you believe, you know what the Bible says, you know what's pleasing to the Lord and you do it. I would say that a godly man is a man of character and integrity. I would also say that a godly man is a man of honesty and trustworthiness. Honesty and trustworthiness. And this is something that we need. We need men that have integrity, that have character, that are honest, that are trustworthy. I would also say that a godly man is a man of love and faith. We learned about Philemon several weeks ago in our Philemon series and we learned about the fact that he was full of love and faith. And these are characteristics of godly men. And this is what we need. This is what we need in America. We don't need strong men, although it's good to be strong. We don't need successful men, although be successful. We don't need any of those things. What we need is godly men. We need men that get a hold of God and that walk with God and that serve God and that are faithful. And here we find David looking around and he's disappointed. In fact he's crying out to the Lord and he's saying, Lord you got to step in. Help for the godly man. Seize us for faithful. Fail from among the children of men. So David begins with this lamentation that the godly man is ceasing. And then he begins to explain in verses 2 through 4 what the not godly man and what the not faithful men are saying. Because in verses 2 through 4 he explains to us what the ungodly men are saying. And he talks to us about the words of man. The things that man say. Now I told you what I think a godly man is. And you may disagree with that. You can study that out on your own. But I would say that a godly man is a man of character and integrity. A man of honest and trustworthiness. And a man of love and faith. Not someone who's perfect. Obviously we're all sinners. But someone who's trying to follow the Lord with their life. Trying to lead their family in the paths of righteousness. Someone who's trying to live for God. But if that doesn't make sense to you or if you don't want to accept that. What David does is then he gives us an explanation as to what an ungodly man is. And he says, well here's what an ungodly man is. So you could look at it in a positive way and ask yourself, am I a godly man? Do I have the characteristics of a godly man? Or maybe what you should do is look at these verses and ask yourself, do I have the characteristics of an ungodly man? Because what David does is he gives us the words of man. And he tells us here's what ungodly men sound like. Notice Psalm 12 in verse 2. He says this. He just got done lamenting, help Lord for the godly man's season. For the faithful failed from among the children of men. He said there aren't very many godly men around. There aren't men that I can look at and say there's a man of God. There's a man after God's own heart. There's a man who's faithful. He's not perfect but he's trying to follow the Lord. There's a man with character. There's a man with integrity. There's a man of honesty. There's a man of trustworthiness. There's a man of faith, full of faith and full of love. David says that man is gone. The godly man sees it. He says but you know what I can find? He says what I can find is this guy, verse 2. He says they speak vanity. Everyone with his neighbor. He says the words of the ungodly man and the words of the worldly man. The words of just the man, the common average not godly man on this earth. He says they are words of vanity. He says they speak vanity. Everyone with his neighbor. They speak vanity. The word vanity means empty. It means without purpose. He says you know what the words of man are? The words of man are words of vanity. And again I can't help but think to myself as I read Psalm 12 and I read verse 1. And I read the words help Lord for the godly man sees it. I think to myself man this applies a lot to the times and culture in which we live today. For the faithful fail from among the children of men. This sounds a lot like America in 2024. But when I read these words, Psalm 12 and verse 2, they speak vanity. Everyone with his neighbor. I think to myself yeah, this sounds like 2024 America. I mean you don't, and I don't recommend this, but you don't have to go very far on social media to find out that the average man and woman in this country is speaking nothing but vanity. Emptiness. And again you got to ask yourself. What do you talk about? What are the things that come out of your mouth? The things you discuss, the things you post, the things you repost, the things you like and don't like. What are those things? Is it anything of value? Anything important? Anything of eternal value? Or is it just a bunch of emptiness? A bunch of vanity. Having to do with nothing. Having to have no purpose. David is looking around and he's saying we could use some godly men. We could use some men that talk about things of value and things that matter. But he says as I look around all I see is they speak vanity. And unfortunately as I look around I think the same thing. What's interesting to me is that half of these podcasts out there that are all for men are just a bunch of vanity. A bunch of garbage. A bunch of emptiness. A bunch of stupidity. And look, do what you want and I understand that saying these things is not something people like but spending your days talking about sports is vanity. Spending your days talking about these things that don't matter. He says the vain man, the worldly man, the words of man. He says the words of vanity. Then I want you to notice the second thing. He says not only do they speak in vanity but he says they also speak in flattery. Look at verse 2. They speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor. And then he says this, with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. What does it mean to flatter someone? It's telling people something they want to hear. And again, I can't, and look, I realize I've been picking a lot on social media lately but I can't help but think to myself this is what people do. I mean it's like David is looking into the future and saying one day there's going to be a platform with millions of people on it and they're all going to be spending hours and hours and hours discussing a whole lot of nothing and a whole lot of flattery. Just what people want to hear. And isn't this why most people are on social media? I mean let's just be honest. Why do you post the picture? The rooms has to be dark and it has to be in this weird angle and you've got to soak in. Why? So you can get 200 likes from 200 people you've never met in real life? I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, I'm just telling you it's vanity and it's flattery The godly man is not interested in those things. The godly man is not interested in vanity. The godly man is not interested in flattery. I don't know why you post what you eat, I don't know why anybody would do that. But we put this facade, and when I say we I'm talking about you because I don't do it. There's this facade out there and it's vanity. It's flattery. He says they speak vanity. Everyone with his neighbor with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. Verse 3, the Lord shall cut off all flattering lips. So David is telling us, David says look the godly man is ceasing. And you might say well I don't care about that. I don't care if I'm a godly man. Then he goes on to describe well here's what an ungodly man looks like. He looks like vanity. Here's what an ungodly man looks like. He looks like flattery. And I want you to notice the third thing that David says the ungodly man talks about. He says vanity, he says flattery and then it all inevitably leads to blasphemy. Look at verse 3. The Lord shall cut off all the flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. And again isn't this what we find in our society today? Where's the humble man in America today? Where's the man who walks humbly with his god as the Bible says? I can find a whole lot of men who speak with proud things who have said with our tongues we will prevail. Our lips are our own. And they ask the question who is the Lord? And it's this blasphemous attitude that says I don't need God. I'm enough. We'll win. We'll prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is the Lord? What David is telling us here is that this is what the worldly man looks like. So if you don't know what a godly man looks like, then at least you can identify what an ungodly man looks like. Because an ungodly man looks like this. Someone who speaks about a bunch of vanity. Someone who's into a lot of flattery. And it all inevitably leads to blasphemy. To this idea that I'm so great and I'm so good and look at everything I do and we will prevail. And it leaves us wondering where's God in this? We've got to ask the question, whatever happened to God? Sometimes I look at Christians and I look at Christianity and I just can't help but ask the question, whatever happened to God? What happened to God? What happened to God in our lives? What happened to God in the home? What happened to God in our... Because today you look at most Christians and they just don't look much different than the world. They talk like the world. They act like the world. They're proud like the world. They're blasphemous like the world. And then you wonder, whatever happened to God? Who is Lord over us? And I think it helps us to understand why David would cry out to the Lord and say, Help Lord, for the godly man ceaseth. The faithful fail. The man that walks with God. The man that humbly walks with the Lord. The man that's trying to accomplish things for God. The man that's trying to lead his family in the ways of righteousness. The man that stands up and says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He says, where's that man today? So we see the words of man. And as I look around, I think to myself, man, David, you must have really known. Because he says it's vanity and it's flattery and it's blasphemy. And I want you to notice that there's a little bit of a shift there in verse 6. It's almost like David gets tired of talking about the words of man. Because he's been telling us what men talk about. And this is what men talk about. Vanity, flattery, blasphemy. And then he says, let's talk about something better than the words of man. He says, let's talk about the word of God. In verse 6, we find a very famous verse dealing with the word of God. Psalm 12 and verse 6, he says, the words of the Lord. By the way, let me say this, godly men speak about the words of the Lord. The words of the Lord, he says, are pure words. As silver tried in the furnace of earth purified seven times. If you don't mind writing your Bible, if you like writing your Bible or marking things in your Bible, you might want to maybe in the margin of your Bible there, next to verse 6, write these words. The inspiration of scripture. The inspiration of scripture. This is Psalm 12 and verse 6, a very famous verse dealing with the inspiration of scripture. The words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in the furnace of earth purified seven times. The inspiration of scripture is the idea that the scripture, the word of God, comes from the mouth of God. And therefore, the words are pure. They're without defilement, without corruption. Let's just run some verses real quickly. Keep your place there in Psalm 12. That's obviously our text for tonight. But go, if you would, to Proverbs chapter number 30. Proverbs chapter 30. You're there in Psalms and then Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 30. Well, I can look down at verse number 5. Proverbs chapter 30 and verse 5. The Bible says this. Remember Psalm 12, 6, the words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in the furnace of earth purified seven times. That has something to do, he's using an analogy of how precious metals, they are purified and the dirt and the things that are not of value are removed. In Proverbs 30 and verse 5, he says this. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. And these are all verses that have to do with the inspiration of scripture. And I think every Christian gives lip service to the idea of inspiration of scripture. But if you really dig into it, you find out that they don't really believe in the inspiration of scripture. They'll say, we believe in the inspiration of scripture. And what they mean by that is we believe in the inspiration of scripture in the originals. No longer do we have them. But the Bible says that every word of God is pure. The Bible says that the words of the Lord are pure words. Go to 2 Peter in the New Testament, if you would, 2 Peter chapter 1. If you go backwards from Revelation, you have Jude, 3rd, 2nd and 1st John and then the book of 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1 and look down at verse number 21. Now do me a favor, when you get to 2 Peter, put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there. Because we're going to leave it and we're going to come back to it. I'd like for you to get to it quickly. 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 21, the Bible says this, 2 Peter 1, 21. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man. The Bible was not written because man wanted it. Man would not have written this book. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, here's how it came. But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. This is dealing with the inspiration of scripture. Keep your place there in 2 Peter and go to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3, if you go backwards, you have 2 Peter, 1 Peter, James, Hebrews, Philemon, Titus, then 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and look down at verse number 16. 2 Timothy 3, 16, again another famous passage on the subject of scripture. 2 Timothy 3, 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. The word inspiration means God breathed, God spoke it. God spoke these words. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. In Acts 1, 16, you don't have to turn there, but in Acts 1, 16, the Bible says about David, it says which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake. So this is the inspiration of scripture, the belief that every word of God is pure, that the words of the Lord are pure words. And that they were spoken by holy men as God spake through them, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. That all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Now, keep your place there in 2 Peter, we're going to come back to it and then go back to Psalm 12 if you would. Because in Psalm 12 you have these two famous verses that have to do with the word of God. And verse 6 has to do with the inspiration of scripture. And like I stated, I think virtually, I don't know of any, maybe there is somebody out there, but I think virtually every Christian, every denomination, no matter how conservative or liberal or whatever, crazy they are. If you were to ask them or if you were to go on their website and look at a doctrinal statement, I think almost everyone is going to make some sort of statement as to the belief in the inspiration of scripture. And they all, and again, they'll say in the originals. But everybody believes that God gave his word and when God gave his word, at least originally, that it was inspired of God, that it was pure, that it was without defilement, that it was perfect. What's interesting to me is that Psalm 12 6 speaks of the inspiration of scripture. Virtually everyone believes that. But the next verse, Psalm 12 7, in fact you could write in the margin of your Bible the word preservation of scripture. In Psalm 12 7, the Bible says this, Thou shall keep them, O Lord. Thou shall preserve them from this generation forever. Everybody virtually believes in the inspiration of scripture, but I would say that almost no one believes in the preservation of scripture. Because here's what everybody says. They'll say, well yeah, God gave his word, he inspired it in the originals, but it's been lost. It's been lost in translation. It's been lost because people copied it down or whatever mistakes were made. But here's what the Bible says. The Bible says that the job of preserving the word of God is not in the hands of man, but in the hands of God. Here David speaking to God says, Thou shall keep them, O Lord. Who's going to keep the word of God? God is. Thou shall preserve them from this generation. They'll say, no, no, no. In the original, when they were first written, yes, but they've been lost throughout the generations. That's what people will literally say. But the Bible says, Thou shall preserve them from this generation forever. So we not only believe in the inspiration of scripture, but we believe in the preservation of scripture. Go to Psalm 119 real quickly. Look down at verse 89. Psalm 119 and verse 89. While you turn there, let me just read this well-known verse to you. Isaiah 40 and verse 8. The Bible says, The grass withereth, the flower fadeth. That speaks to the fact that the things of this earth pass away. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Psalm 119 verse 89 says this, Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. So we believe in the inspiration of scripture. Absolutely. I think everybody does. But we also believe in the preservation of scripture. And here at Verity Baptist Church, we actually take a stand, which is unique to other types of churches, denominations, even other Baptists. But we believe that the King James Bible is the inspired and preserved word of God. Now, maybe you've never heard that before, and I think it's good every once in a while. I think we take it for granted. You know, we're a King James only church, and many of our church people understand our position and why we believe that. But we're also a growing church, and we often have new people that are coming into our church. And I don't think we should take it for granted that everybody just knows these things. I think it's good every once in a while to remind people about these things and to be reminded about these things. Go to 2 Corinthians, if you would, in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians chapter 2. See, we believe in the inspiration of scripture, the fact that the word of God is pure. And we believe in the preservation of scripture. The words of the Lord are pure words, the silver tried on the furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. But what you need to understand, and it's good for you to be reminded, if you already believe this, you say, I believe the King James Bible is the inspired, preserved word of God. Great. It's good for you to be reminded. But maybe you're here tonight, you've never heard this before. I've never heard that there could be potentially problems or differences between Bible versions. Well, I'd like you to notice 2 Corinthians chapter 2 in verse number 17. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 2, 17. This is the apostle Paul writing. Of course, he's writing to the church at Corinth. And for context, he's writing in the first century, right? I mean, he's writing to the Corinthian church in the first century. Just decades after, you know, no more than decades after the life of Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Because he's writing in his own lifetime, Paul is. And here's what Paul said, and keep in mind that Paul was used of the Lord to write most of the New Testament. And in fact, when he's writing 2 Corinthians, he's probably not even done with the New Testament. I mean, the New Testament isn't done because we know that John in the isle of Patmos writes the book of Revelation. But even Paul's part of the New Testament is probably not complete at this point. And here's what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2, 17. He says, for we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. In the first century, when the Bible was still, the New Testament was still being written, Paul says that even then there were people who were already corrupting the word of God. For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. He says, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. And this should not surprise us because even in the beginning, in the book of Genesis, all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when the serpent shows up and begins to talk to Eve, what is the first thing he does? He questions the word of God, then he changes the word of God. He says, hath God said? And then he says, ye shall not surely die. When God said, don't eat the tree or you'll die, he says, ye shall not surely die. He questions the word of God. He changes the word of God. And here, Paul, in the first century, before the New Testament is even completed, he says, there are many which corrupt the word of God. Now he's saying, we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. But what he's telling us is this, in the first century, there were many already who were corrupting the word of God. And today, there are many so-called versions of the Bible out there that are corrupted. Now, Psalms tells us, David speaking through the Holy Ghost, the word of God and the Lord speaking through him, told us that the words of the Lord are pure words. And he told us that God would preserve them. And if that's true, which of course it is, then there must be a preserved word of God today. The question is, what is it? We believe it is the King James Bible. We believe the King James Bible in the English language is the inspired and preserved word of God. We believe that it is the inspired word of God because it is the preservation of the inspired words. You know, we're not rutmanites who believe in double inspiration or something like that. We believe, you said, do you think the words of the King James Bible are inspired? I believe they are inspired because they are the preserved inspired words. It's the inspiration and the preservation of the word of God. But oftentimes I think the best way for people to maybe understand this is to realize that there are many who corrupt the word of God. There are, Paul is telling us, there are corrupt versions of the word of God out there. But David tells us that there is a pure word that has been preserved. So the question is, when there's so many Bible versions out there, the King James Bible, the New International Version, the English Standard Version, the New American Standard Bible, the New King James Version, and I just named these because the ESP, the English Standard Version, I named these because these are the most popular versions around in America today. How do you know which one is corrupt and which one is preserved? I think there's lots of ways we could do that and we could do a deep dive into the Greek. These Bible versions are translated from different Greek sources and we could get into all of that and we've gotten into all of that in the past. And I'm not going to do that on a Wednesday night here. But I think the easiest way to just realize that some of these Bibles are corrupt is just by comparing them. Because if you were to compare a diamond to a cubic zirconium, it would become real clear what the real thing is and what the fake is. Now if you compare a bunch of fake diamonds like the ones your wife has, you know, they all look the same. But make sure you never throw in a real thing in there because it's going to be, and for a jeweler, for a jeweler it will be very obvious, right, what's real and what's not real. So just real quickly tonight, just to make the point, and I've preached on this in the past and we've done a lot of studies on this in the past, but I don't think we've done it in a while and I think it's good to just maybe do this every once in a while. Let me just give you three examples, just three simple examples. As we compare the different Bible versions, which one is the pure and inspired Word of God? Now remember, here's what David said in Psalm 12. The words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times, thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So we need to have every word, we need to have the pure words, and we need to have the preserved words. Now you say, well I'm not an expert in this, I don't think you need to be an expert in this, especially if you're saved, I think the Holy Spirit will help you with this. The Bible says that we can hear the words of the shepherd and we know him, we know his voice. But let's just, and I understand that you don't have, I'm going to read to you some passages, the same passage from different Bible versions, and just let's see if you can tell, as we compare the cubic zirconiums to the diamond, which one is the real thing and which one is not. In Acts 8, 36 through 38, in fact if you'd like to turn there in your King James Version, if you have a King James Bible, if you don't have a King James Bible, we can get you one. We'll do like Kamala Harris, the trade for guns, we'll trade you for a sword. I'm going to read to you from Acts 8, 36, 37, and 38. Now you follow along in your King James Bible. The Bible says, Acts 8, 36, as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, see here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? So, of course the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, Philip is preaching the gospel to him, he's already preached the gospel to him, as they went on their way, verse 36, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, see here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? That's verse 36, verse 37, and Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest, and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, verse 38, and he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. So it makes sense, verse 36, the question is asked, what is hindering me from getting baptized? Verse 37, the answer is given, what does hinder someone from getting baptized? What stops someone from getting baptized? Well, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest, and then verse 38, he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. Now I'm going to read to you the same passage from the New International Version, which the NIV is one of the most popular versions in English today, and I'd like you to follow along in your King James Bible as I read out of the NIV, and I want you to notice the difference. I'll begin reading at verse 36, and as they traveled along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, look, here is water, what can stand in the way of me being baptized? And he gave orders to stop the chariot, then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. Now if you're reading a King James Bible, especially if you're reading along as I read from the NIV, you'll notice that there's something missing. What's missing? An entire verse. Verse 37 is missing. In fact, if you have an NIV, and if you don't, please don't raise your hand. But if you have an NIV, maybe if you have one at home, whatever, I challenge you to go to Acts chapter 8, and look at the chapter, and just look at the verse markings, because here's what you'll literally find. You'll go from verse 1, 2, 3, all the way down, 34, 35, 36, 38. They don't even take the time to change the number of the verses. They just remove an entire verse out of the Bible. What verse did they remove? Verse 37, and Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest. Now if we believe, and we know it's true, that the devil is the one behind the corruption of the word of God. Why? Because all the way in the Garden of Eden, the serpent began to question the word of God, and to corrupt the word of God. And if the devil is going to corrupt manuscripts of the Bible today, it would make sense that he would remove the verse that says, if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest, and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Because you know the devil doesn't care if you get baptized? The devil just cares that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, there's a whole lot of Catholics that get baptized not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And look, if you're reading an NIV, as they traveled along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, look, here's water. What can stand in the way of me being baptized? Question is asked, what can stand in the way of me being baptized? And apparently, the answer is nothing, because the very next verse says, and he gave orders to stop the chariot, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized them. And that would work for a Catholic, it would work for a baby baptizer, it would work for all sorts of religions that aren't trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, but the Bible says, the inspired and preserved Word of God says, that when the question was asked, what does hinder me to be baptized? The answer was, and Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest, and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And look, it wasn't a printing error, like somebody just accidentally deleted verse 37, they removed it on purpose. So if you compare the King James Version to the New International Version, the English Standard Version, and one has verses 36, 37, 38, and the other ones have verse 36, and it's a Bible that can't even count properly, it just goes from verse 36 to verse 38. I asked you the question, which one's corrupt? Which one do you think is the preserved Word of God? You say, oh, that's just one example. Okay, let me give you, I mean, we could do this all night, I'm not going to do that, but let me just give you another example. 1 Corinthians 1.18, if you'd like, you can turn there, if you're there in Acts, you can go past Romans, into 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1.18. 1 Corinthians 1.18 in the King James Bible says this, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us, right, the preaching of the cross is unto them that perish foolishness, people that are not saved, there's foolishness to them, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Amen and Amen. Unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Are you reading that in your King James Bible? Let me read to you the same verse from the New International Version. Here's what the NIV says. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Now listen to me, things that are different are not the same. The King James Bible says, for unto us which are saved. The New International Version says, to us which are being saved. Those are not the same things. One is saying that you are saved. The other one is saying that someone can be being saved. Like salvation is some sort of a process that you're working on. You're in the process of being saved. Now which one's true? Well the Bible says that salvation happens in a moment. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're saved. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Potents say it's a seven step process. First you believe, then you repent of your sins, then you get baptized, then you speak in tongues. That's what the Pentecostals say. They say it's a seven step process and you have to go through all these steps to be saved. Potents say it's a process. First you go to catechism, then you go to the confessional, then you take communion, then you have these sacraments. That's what the Catholics say. They teach that you have to do all these sacraments and all these steps for salvation. What does the Bible say? The Bible says that we're passed from death unto life. The Bible says that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we're born again. Look, when you were born that happened in a moment. And salvation happens in a moment. The Bible says, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. The New International Version says, but to us who are being saved. You say, well that's just the New International Version. Okay, let me read to you from the English Standard Version. The English Standard Version may be, when I was growing up the NIV was the most popular version being used, aside from the King James Bible. Today the ESV might be the most popular, the English Standard Version. Here's what it says. For the words of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Here's what the New American Standard Bible says. For the words of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Now you might ask, well what about the New King James? You're saying the King James. What about the New King James? Can I use the New King James? Because I just want to get rid of the thou, you know, the these and the thou's. It's too complicated. Look, if high school students can read Shakespeare, you can read the King James Bible. It's not that complicated. It's just you, okay? You, that's it. Thou is singular. The is plural. It's not that complicated. It literally takes two minutes to figure that out. But people say, well what about the New King James? Well here's what the King James says. But unto us which are saved it is the power of God. Here's what the New King James says. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. So look, as we compare the modern Bible versions, because these are modern versions, to the King James Bible that was translated in 1611 over 400 years ago in the English language. And we compare them. One says unto us which are saved. The other one says to us which are being saved. Which one's true? They can't both be true. And the Bible is clear that salvation is not a process. It's something that happens in a moment. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're saved. Now I could go, literally I could go on and on for a long time. There are many problems. Let me just give you one more example because I'm not necessarily preaching on the King James issue right now. I'm just preaching out of Psalm 12, but I don't think that we could study these words. The words of the Lord are pure words. Thou shall preserve them from this generation forever. I don't think we can talk about that without talking about the King James Bible. Let me just give you one more example. And this might be a silly example, but I think it's so silly that it should really be eye-opening. The King James Version in 2 Samuel 21 and verse 19. You can turn there if you'd like in the Old Testament. You've got the 1 and 2 books. 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles. In 2 Samuel 21, 19 the Bible says this, And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan, the son of Jeriorhaim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. So here we are told that this man Elhanan slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite. Now I think you don't have to know much about the Bible to know who Goliath is. I'm not going to ask for a raise of hand, but I'm sure everybody here knows who Goliath is. David and Goliath is one of the most famous stories of the entire Bible. Even you guys who like to waste your time talking about sports, they often use David and Goliath as sports analogies for the underdog. So even you should know who David and Goliath are. And David, so this is not some cryptic like something hidden in Ezekiel that you've never, or Zephaniah, there's just this passage of Zephaniah and nobody else. It's David and Goliath! And here the King James Bible is telling us, obviously the King James Bible earlier in 1 Samuel told us that David killed Goliath. Now you know the story. And here it's telling us that Elhanan slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite. Because if you remember, Goliath had four brothers, five brothers. There was a total of five of them. And the Bible is recording for us that Elhanan slew one of the brothers. Here's what the English Standard Version says. And there was again war with the Philistines and God. And Elhanan, the son of J.R. Origem, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath the Gittite. The shaft of the Spirit was like the weaver's beam. I don't know if you caught that. But here's what it said. Elhanan struck down, not the brother of Goliath, like the King James Bible says. But it says that Elhanan struck down Goliath the Gittite. Now supposedly these modern Bible versions are translated by these experts of the Word of God. They're such experts they don't even know that David killed Goliath. The ESV in 2 Samuel 21 19 is literally telling you that Elhanan killed Goliath the Gittite. Here's what I think is interesting about that, is that that same ESV, if you were to turn back into 1 Samuel and look at the famous story of David and Goliath, it would also tell you that David killed Goliath. This is why when people often say, oh there's contradictions in the Bible, people will say that to me. They'll say, oh I don't believe there's contradictions in the Bible. You know, what I'll say to them or what I'll think is, well which Bible? Because if you're talking about these modern corrupt versions, yeah there's contradictions in those Bibles. I mean I could show you contradictions in the Bible. Here David kills Goliath and here Elhanan kills Goliath. But you know what the King James Bible says? The King James Bible says David killed Goliath, like everyone knows, and Elhanan slew the brother of Goliath. But the English Standard Version says Elhanan struck down Goliath the Gittite. Here's what the New Standard Bible says. There was war with the Philistines again at Gog and Elhanan, the son of Jair, the Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite. The shaft of whose spirit was like a weaver's beam. And again, I just want to ask you, when you're looking at these different versions and you're thinking, well I wonder which one's the good one? Which one's the pure, inspired, preserved Word of God? And which one's the fake and the corrupt? Maybe, just maybe, it's not the one that's telling you that Elhanan killed Goliath. Because let me let you in on a little secret, that's wrong. That's incorrect. That's a corruption. And that's kind of a silly one, but I mean I think it's a big deal. I think it shows you the stupidity of these modern Bible versions. So we believe in the King James Bible. We believe the King James Bible is the inspired and preserved Word of God. We believe it is the more sure word of prophecy. Go to 2 Peter, if you kept your place in 2 Peter, let's just look at that verse real quickly. And I would just look, if you're here tonight, you say I've never heard this before. I gave you three examples, there's many examples. But what I would encourage you to do is to study this out. Get with somebody here in our church, we've got lots of people that know about this issue. You can talk to me, you can talk to the staff. I've got sermons where I've explained this and documentaries and whatever. And this is important. The Word of God is important. And it's important for us to know that we have, here's what Peter said, 2 Peter 1.19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Over unto you do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. And that more sure word of prophecy is the King James Bible. Go back to Psalm 12 and just look at these verses again, verses 6 and 7, Psalm 12. The words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in the furnace of earth purified seven times. That's the inspiration of scripture. No one denies that. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. That is a promise that God made. So if God promised that His Word would be preserved forever, I ask you the question, then where is it? Do you know what's interesting? The people who wrote the NIV, they don't claim it's inspired and preserved. The people who translated the ESV, they don't claim it's inspired and preserved. They'll tell you themselves that they've got problems in their own Bible versions. The King James Bible is the inspired and preserved Word of God, of course in the English language. It can be inspired and preserved in other languages as well. But for us who speak English, it is the King James Bible. There's one more verse left in this Psalm, Psalm 12 and verse 8. He says, the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. But I want you to notice, and I just want to connect this real quickly. Because in this Psalm, there's a verse we didn't deal with in verse 5. But I just want to show this to you because I wanted to deal with the things that you talked about. The words of man, vanity, flattery, blasphemy, the Word of God, inspiration, preservation. But in this Psalm, there's this dialogue between David and God. If you remember, the Psalm began with a request. Look at Psalm 12 and verse 1 again. Help Lord, that's a request, for the godly man sees it, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. David is praying and he's making this request, help Lord. And as we've been studying the book of Psalms and as we've been studying the Psalms, we've learned this. That the Psalms are music, they're put to music. David sometimes tells us what instrument to use with this certain song. They are worship and the Psalms was the hymn book of the congregation of Israel. It was more than just the hymn book. We know that it's inspired scripture. But they are Psalms that they would sing. But we've also learned this, that the Psalms are not only songs, they're also prayers. As we've been looking at these Psalms, we've noticed that they are prayers that the Psalmist is making up to God. And we've seen him pray in the morning and pray at night and pray about the enemies and pray about all sorts of things. Psalm 12 in verse 5 is unique in the sense that it's one of the only Psalms. I should have looked this up, but I don't think it's the only Psalm. But it's one of a few Psalms where you have a prayer, help Lord for the godly man seeseth, and then God actually responds in the Psalm. Look at verse 5. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now, notice these words, will I arise? This is God speaking. It's not David speaking. Obviously God is speaking through the mouth of David. But here in verse 1 we have the request, help Lord for the godly man seeseth, for the faithful man, for among the children of men. And then in verse 5, we actually in the Psalm have a response to the prayer for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy. Now, this is God speaking, will I arise, saith the Lord, I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. And I'm glad that God does this because the Psalms are Psalms of prayer and they teach us to pray, but I think it's nice that God highlights that he will answer our prayers. It's not just this religious ritual we go through. When we cry out to the Lord, he will respond. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord, I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. So in verse 1 we see the request, in verse 5 we see the response, and then I just want you to quickly notice verse 8 we see the reason. Here's the reason. The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. And what we see here is this coming back to where we started. Remember he began with this, help Lord for the godly man seeseth. The faithful fail for among the children of men. Why? Why is that? I mean can we just be honest? Why is it that even in churches there's no godly men? There's few godly men. And by the way, I'm picking on the men right now, but there's few godly women too. Why is it? Well God tells us the reason, verse 8, he says the wicked walk on every side. The wicked are promoted, they expand, there's more of them. Why? When the vilest men are exalted. Look, you need to be careful about the heroes that you make out of vile men. Just because they can throw a football doesn't mean they should be your role model. Just because they're rich and they're going to be the president of the United States doesn't mean that you should idolize them or try to be like them. You all know why the godly man seeseth? You all know why the wicked walk on every side? Because vile men are exalted. And this is the country you and I live in today. The vilest men are exalted. Godly men, few and far between. Vile men, popular. They are followed, they're listened to. People idolize them. David says the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. And this is why he prays the prayer of help, Lord, for the godly man seeseth. And I would hope that you and I would pray that prayer and then allow God to answer that prayer, verse 5, through us. Help, allow God to make us the godly men that we need to be in this country today. Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. And Lord, we thank you. And there really is a famine for godly men today. And I just pray, Lord, that you would help us. I pray that you would give all of us a desire to be godly men. Men of character, men of integrity, men of honesty and trustworthiness, men of love and faith. Lord, help us to be like David, a man after God's own heart. And Lord, I pray that you, if we can't have a nation full of godly men, will you help us to have a church full of godly men? Would you make it? Would you help us, Lord? Would you help every man in this room to decide that maybe not every home in this country can have a godly man, but their home can have a godly man. Maybe not every wife can be married to a godly man, but their wife can be married to a godly man. Maybe not every child in this country can be raised by a godly man, but their children can be raised by a godly man. man. Lord, I pray you'd help us with this. In the matchless name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. We're gonna have Brother Moses come up and lead us in the final song. Just want to remind you, of course, that if you'd like to bring something for the Harvest Party, you can sign up for corn bread and dessert in the back. And of course, we'd appreciate your help with that. And of course, the ladies, if you want to sign up for the basketball game, there's a sign up sheet for you as well. And then don't forget, of course, we have Soul Winning Thursday at 2pm. If you'd like to go, our big Soul Winning Rally Saturday morning. We'll probably have 120 Soul Winners here on Saturday. Make sure you're one of them. And then also, don't forget that the Spanish service is on Saturday at 5pm. So we'll have Spanish singing in Spanish, preaching in Spanish, and food in Spanish. All right. And it's always, we had a great time with the public last time, and we want to encourage you to be a part of that. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. We'll have Moses lead us in a final song. Turn into your songbook, page number 327. Page 327, we're going to sing Higher Ground. That's page 327, Higher Ground. And let's go ahead and sing it out on the first verse. I'm pressing on the upward way New heights I'm gaining every day Still praying as I'm onward bound Lord, plant my feet on higher ground Lord, lift me up and let me stand Thy faith on heaven's stable land A higher plane that I have found Lord, plant my feet on higher ground Page 327 on the second My heart has no desire to say Where doubts arise in fiercest may Though some may dwell where these abound My prayer, my aim is higher ground Lord, lift me up and let me stand Thy faith on heaven's stable land A higher plane that I have found Lord, plant my feet on higher ground I want to live above the world Though Satan starts at me are hurled For faith has got the joyful sound The song of saints on higher ground Lord, lift me up and let me stand My faith on heaven's stable land A higher plane that I have found Lord, plant my feet on higher ground Page 327, let's sing it out on the last I want to scale the utmost height And catch a gleam of glory pride But still I'll pray till heaven I've found Lord, lead me on to higher ground Lord, lift me up and let me stand Thy faith on heaven's stable land A higher plane that I have found Lord, plant my feet on higher ground Lord, lift me up and let me stand My faith on higher ground Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.