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He left his father strong, but not out of love, so great and so free, the land was rich. Empty itself, O God of love, and then the land of selfless grace, did first see all humans and free. The world knew, O my God, if I ever love thee, amazing love hath made me free, let thou, my God, choose thy form. You guys are singing well, let's sing it on the last. Long may it bring us here in vain, as thou didst sin, and nature died. Thine eyes did lose, the gravely grave. I know, the dungeon flamed with blood. Sing it out. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I never lost, therefore, as love will be. Amazing love hath made me free, but now, my God, choose thy form. Good singing. Amen, the soprano verse is Psalm 19. Psalms, chapter 19. Psalms 19. Psalms, chapter 19, beginning at verse number 1. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day and today utter the speech, and night and tonight showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse now me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the message we just heard, Lord. I just ask that you be with us again this morning, God, and I ask that you be pleased to be with Pastor Shelley, God, and just strengthen him and fill in her spirit. Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. I've only got one water bottle this year, okay? So I just want to first say it's great to be here, and I really love Verity Baptist Church and really appreciate Pastor Menes and his wife for hosting this great conference. And, you know, you can't say enough for Red Hot Preaching Conference. I like what Pastor Mejia said. He plans his whole calendar around Red Hot Preaching Conference, and it's that great of a conference and the fellowship and the spirit here. And so it's a great honor to be here. And my wife sends her love. She's three weeks, she's expecting, and so she's due August 7th, and so she couldn't make it, but she wishes she could, and she's watching from home. And so I really appreciate being here. I want to look back at verse number seven where the Bible reads. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. And I'm taking the sermon title this morning from this phrase here where it says, making wise the simple. The Bible teaches that the word of God will help you overcome being simple. Now, simple's not necessarily a word that we use in our modern vernacular to describe what it's meaning here, but simple in the Bible often is just meaning stupid. It's just meaning ignorant, foolish, something similar to that. And so the Bible actually helps you stop being stupid. And really, that's the title of my sermon is Quit Being Stupid. It's really simple, but you know, there's a couple principles that the Bible teaches us to help us stop being stupid. And even if you look up in the dictionary, the word simple, it says lacking in intelligence, stupid. So right there in the dictionary, I mean, it's just plainly saying this is someone who's stupid. Now, if you look up stupid in a dictionary, it says acting in an unintelligent or careless manner. So another word that would be doing stupid things. So if someone gets up and says, hey, I think that Pastor Shelley does a bunch of stupid things. You're calling him stupid. Just like if I said, hey, this person lies a lot. Are you calling me a liar? Yes. Hey, this person dresses really girly and actually girly. Are you calling me effeminate? Yes. That's how words work. And so we have to understand that we should stop being stupid and actually appreciate the dictionary every once in a while, right? Now, the Bible tells us how we can stop being stupid, okay, and how we can stop being simple. And we need to quit being stupid. Look what it says in verse number eight. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. So the Bible tells us what's gonna help us stop being stupid is the fear of God, the fear of the Lord. Go if you would to Proverbs chapter number one for a moment, go to Proverbs chapter number one. And really, it's frustrating today how many people that are so-called Christians today don't fear God. But this is something that should be expected from the world in a sense because they're not saved. They don't have any kind of real fear of God. A lot of them mock God or they ridicule God. But you have to understand, as someone that doesn't have the fear of the Lord, the Bible is unequivocal in its statement that that person is stupid, okay? Look what it says in Proverbs chapter one, verse seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. So someone that has no fear of God has no knowledge. The Bible describes them as being a complete fool. And really, the biggest fools, the people that have the least amount of intelligence in this world are atheists. You know, I tend to think that it's flat earthers, but actually, atheists are dumber than a flat earther. I mean, I could be a flat earther and believe God created a flat earth before I believe that nothing exploded and created everything. I mean, that person has literally gone to a place where they're so blinded, they're so stupid, they're so foolish that they're just making things up. Go up to Hosea chapter number four. You know, the Bible says, the fool has said in his heart there is no God. Now, it's silly, though, that Christians would also fall victim of the same line of thinking where they just don't have a fear of God, though. We that actually believe the Bible and understand that God exists, we should have a healthy fear of God, fear of the Lord, and that's gonna help you from being stupid. If you don't fear God, you're gonna be stupid in your words, you're gonna be stupid in your actions, you're gonna be stupid in every area of your life. We need to increase the fear of God in our lives so as to have knowledge, so as to have wisdom, so as to have understanding. This comes from the fear of God. And when we look at our nation today, the fear of the Lord has been on the decline. And obviously, America as a whole has never been saved. It's not like every single person in America has been saved or anything like that. But if you look at the foundation of our country, if you look at throughout the history, there is definitely a higher regard and a higher respect for the Word of God, for God as a person that's in power and authority, even in our founding documents. Whether you go to the Constitution or something, it talks about our Creator. So obviously, this is not coming from an atheistic perspective. These people have more knowledge, more understanding, and more wisdom. As we have journeyed, though, throughout our history, that's on the decline, and we see our country becoming more stupid, more foolish as a result of a rejection of God. And specifically, I blame Christians. I blame God's people for the stupidity of our nation and for us just diving off into just the most ridiculous nonsense that we have to deal with on a regular basis. And you know what? God does the same thing. Look at Hosea chapter four, and look at verse number one. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel. For the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. So he says, the children of Israel, they have no knowledge of God. But what did Proverbs already tell us? Proverbs already told us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So what does that mean? It means there's no fear of God in the land of Israel. It means that the children of Israel have lost the fear of God. They have no respect for God. They don't respect the word of God. They don't really care what the Bible says. They're not looking at God as the judge, as the ruler, as the king, who he truly is. And because of that, what's the result? Verse two, by swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out and blood toucheth blood. Because of their lack of the fear of the Lord, because they don't have the knowledge of God, we see sin abounds, and we see horrible crimes, adultery, we see murder, we see these crimes that are, according to the Bible, worthy of the death penalty. They're so grievous, yet it's commonplace because of their lack of the fear of God. Says in verse three, therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven. Yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. So what the Bible teaches is when there's no fear of God in an area, when there's no fear of God in a country, everyone is miserable. It's saying the whole land is miserable, the beasts of the field are miserable, the fowls of the air. I mean, just everything is going wrong, it's a problem. And when we look in the world today, I mean, the countries that hate God the most or have no fear of God today would be some of the worst places to live. I mean, who wants to live in North Korea today? I mean, who wants to live in the communist regime of China? I mean, who wants to live in these places that are known for being atheists or, you know, worshiping their dictator as a god, which is a horrible form of blasphemy today, and we see they have no fear of God. How can your leader get up and call himself God? That person has no fear of God. You wanna know why it's horrible to live in North Korea? Because they don't have any fear of God. You wanna know why it's horrible to live in China? Because there's no fear of God. And you wanna know why America has been getting worse and worse? It's because there's a less fear of God in this nation. And because Christians are not preaching the word of God, they're not believing the word of God, and because of this lack of knowledge in our country, we see sin and evil and just misery abounding. And look, our country is abounding in misery. People are taking antidepressants at the highest rates ever in our country now. People are taking drugs and marijuana, and constant states are approving of more marijuana. I know recently in Oklahoma, they'd pass it, and it's legal to basically smoke marijuana. You basically just have to say, it hurts. I don't even know if they care anymore. It's just like, they just don't care. And when you go out soloing, it's frustrating because a large percentage of the people you talk to are just literally high when you're trying to give them the gospel. And you say, why would someone just not want to even realize where they're at? Because where they're at is miserable. Because the reality is miserable, because their existence is miserable. And look, a country that's high on drugs and alcohol, look, if you have to have alcohol to have fun, it's because you're miserable. If you have to have marijuana to enjoy yourself, it's because you're miserable. Look, I don't have to have some kind of a drug to make me happy. I don't have to go for some quick fix today. But America is going from quick fix to quick fix, and they're never satisfied. They're never happy. They're just so miserable. You know why? Because they don't have the knowledge of God. And they don't have that knowledge because they don't fear the Lord whatsoever. Now, look what it says in verse number four. The Bible says, yet let no man strive nor approve another, for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. Now, it's interesting here. He's saying, don't let these people judge. Don't let these people go around and correct people. And their problem is, is because they're too stupid to correct anybody. It's like you don't want this guy that's arguing with the priest, who's arguing with the pastor to go around and actually correct people. Yet these are the ones that typically want to correct everybody, don't they? The guy that's never even read the Bible cover to cover one time wants to walk up to a pastor that's read the Bible scores of times, and literally has memorized dozens or hundreds of chapters of the Bible. And he wants to tell them what the Bible actually says. He wants to argue with the priest. He wants to argue with the man of God. And he's saying, these are the worst people to go around and tell everybody what the Bible says. Yet in America today, we're exploding with parachurch ministries. We're exploding with all these different prophets out there who became a prophet five minutes ago. It's like, well, let me tell you what the Bible says. And they're arguing with the priest. They're arguing with the pastor. I read a stupid post from an idiot today. And this guy, he's reading, he's talking about church. And he says, well, I grew up in church and I was in church and I learned how to hate from church. Then when I left the church and went to this parachurch ministry, they taught me how to love. And now I see that God's only love and we should love everyone. And we should do good unto everyone no matter what. What is he doing? He's attacking church. And he's just like these idiots. And Hosea chapter number four, that are striving with the priest. They're striving with God. They're striving with the church. They're trying to tear down God's institution. And they're going around and not giving anybody the fear of God. If I say, hey, God loves you no matter what you do. And he's happy with you no matter what you do. Does that strike any fear in your heart? Hmm. What does he do? They're going around. They're trying to persuade people that there's no judgment. There's no problem. God's not gonna deal with you. God's not mad at you. And they have all these mantras out there that sound cool. But the problem is that God abhors the bloody and deceitful man. And God's angry with the wicked every single day is what the Bible says. And God loves judgment. And God doesn't just love everybody regardless of what they do or how they act. This is a foolish idea. And we shouldn't be ones who are ready to strive with the priest, but rather embrace the men of God that God gives us. Embrace the pastors and the teachers and try to learn from them. Yet when a country is constantly arguing with the priest and arguing with the pastor and just trying to correct him, we're gonna have huge issues. Does this really work in any other profession? I mean, if you're about to have surgery, are you gonna go in there and say, well, I looked something on WebMD. Let me tell you how to do the surgery. Let me tell you how to do brain surgery. I've never studied medicine, but I looked at a medical journal five minutes ago. Let me tell you what to do. That doesn't make any sense. You're not gonna tell lawyers. You're not gonna tell medical professionals. You're not gonna tell someone that has experience in doing their job, how to do their job. Yet when it comes to Christianity, everybody feels like it's their job to correct the pastor. It's their job to go around and tell the man of God what the Bible says. Yet they haven't even looked at the Bible. They couldn't even tell you the books of the Bible. They don't even know how many books are in the Bible. They don't know anything that the word of God says, but they're going around and striving with them. Why? Because they have no fear of God today and they lack the knowledge of God. You know, you're not supposed to argue with the man of God. God gets really angry at that. God gets really mad at that. Why would someone go around and pick apart pastors and the men of God? It's because they have no fear of God, because they don't fear what God actually says about them. Look at number five. Therefore, shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother. That's a harsh statement. Isn't your mother like the most precious person to you kind of in a sense? Obviously your wife and your children, but I'm just saying your mother's kind of a special person to you, and he's like, I'm gonna destroy your mom. Verse six, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou has rejected knowledge. I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me seeing that thou has forgotten the law of thy God. I will also forget thy children. Now again, he's talking about his people here. You know, it's easy to pick on the atheist because he's the dumbest person on the planet. That's why I don't get all jazz when someone's like, did you watch this video of this guy destroying an atheist about God existing? I was like, yeah, a five-year-old could do that. That's taking candy from a baby, man. I mean, everything proves that God exists. A rock just sitting by itself proves that God exists. It already beat the atheist. Why am I gonna be impressed with your knowledge? And it really frustrates me that they try to prove God's existence throughout the Bible. You know, that's a different sermon. That person's being stupid because don't argue with these idiots, okay? But he's saying my people are destroyed. Why? Because they have a lack of knowledge. But why do they have a lack of knowledge? Because they don't fear God. Because of their lack of fear of God, it ends up resulting in the fact they don't have any knowledge of God. They've forgotten the law. Now look what it says in verse seven. As they were increased, so they sinned against me. Therefore will I change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on iniquity, and there shall be like people, like priests, and I will punish them for their ways and reward them for their doings. Now this is an important phrase here. The Bible says like people, like priests. Now the Bible explains this concept. I want you to go to another place. Go to 2 Timothy 4 for a moment. Go to 2 Timothy 4. But what you have to understand is that how you are as a group of people. When there's a group of people, whatever they want is typically gonna be what they get. And God actually rewards people that want a good pastor with a good pastor, and he'll punish people that don't want a good pastor with a bad pastor. This is what the Bible actually teaches. And so sometimes, you know, obviously everything rises and falls on leadership. I'm not trying to be saying that leadership isn't important. Obviously, it's a huge component, but we have to understand is that how the people respond to that leadership is just as important. How people, what people truly want is gonna often also impact the leadership's decisions and how effective they are, because Moses wanted to take the children of Israel into the promised land, and there wasn't a problem with Moses. What was the problem? The problem was with the people. It was the people that caused Moses to not enter into the promised land because they were rebellious, because they were stubborn, because they were stiff-necked. If the people, whenever they're standing on the shore and they send in the spies, they say, let's go in and take the land, they would have taken the land. The problem is they didn't believe in Moses. They didn't believe Joshua. They didn't believe these men of God. They were giving them these commands. And because they were a stubborn and rebellious people, they end up get stuck in the wilderness. They get stuck. And a lot of times when they reject the real man of God, they end up having a wicked false prophet come in, lead them astray, take them off, and destroy them. And there's no new thing under the sun. The same is today where groups of people have decided they don't want a real man of God. They don't want a real pastor. And so what do they do? They bring in a phony because that's what they want. Now look at 2 Timothy 4, look at verse two. Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, where proved rebuke exhorteth all longsuffering and doctrine for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. So the Bible says in the end times, there's gonna be a lot of people that don't wanna hear hard preaching. They don't wanna hear what the Bible has to say. So what they do is they end up heaping up to themselves a different teacher, a different prophet, a different person to basically teach them lies. They want to hear lies today. And because they don't fear God, they're gonna end up getting a punishment by getting like people like priest. Hey, if you're a stupid people, you're gonna get a stupid priest. Hey, if you're a people that don't fear God, you're gonna get a priest that doesn't fear God today. And so that's why it's important that you and your heart also fear God. That's not enough for Pastor Jimenez to carry the church by himself. It's not enough for Pastor Mejia to carry the church by himself. No, the people in the room have to change their hearts too. They have to get right with God. And you know what, a church is not made up of an eyeball, of a tongue, of a brain, it's the whole body of Christ. You know what, the pastor, while he is in a very important role, it takes the whole body to be successful. You can't just win the fight with one body part. You need everybody in the fight and you need everyone to fear God together and equally so that you can be successful. This tells me is that sometimes you're the problem. Sometimes we're the problem. You look at your church and you say, oh man, the church would be better if we had a better pastor. Maybe you're wrong, maybe the church would be better if you were better. Maybe the reason why your pastor sucks is because you suck. Maybe the reason why the pastor's so stupid is because you're stupid. Because if you weren't stupid, maybe you wouldn't want that guy to be your pastor anymore. It's crazy to me how literally you can expose someone as being a damnable heretic, preaching lie after lie after lie, and then people still want him as their pastor. Idiots, fools, quit being stupid. But you know what, like people, like priests. You say, who are you talking about, Manly Perry. What an idiot. This guy is a fool. But you know what that tells me? The people in his church are fools. You know, if a ruler harken to lies, all servants are wicked. Sorry to tell you what the Bible says. But you know what? At first you kind of feel bad for people. You think like, man, they invested in this church, they invested in this guy, and you think like they're trying to just do the best that they can, but there's a breaking point. There gets to a point where the people of God have to decide who they really fear. Do they fear God or man? And you know what, if they fear God, God would give them a pastor after his heart, rather than a pastor after your heart. I don't want a pastor after my heart. I want a pastor after God's heart. And you know, I want a pastor that's gonna challenge me and step on my toes every once in a while, and not just constantly flatter me and serve me brisket. Now the brisket sounds good, okay? But it's flatter, they do that on purpose. They're not offering you Brussels sprouts, okay? They're not gonna offer you something you don't wanna eat. And at the end of the day, you need to go to the church, and you need to just appreciate everything that's going into the church. And you know, I see people, they get frustrated with the preacher, they get frustrated with whoever comes up and delivers a sermon, because it's not as exciting as they wanted or something. Or it's not as fancy of a sermon as they want. You know, they have brother so-and-so come and preach a sermon on a Wednesday night, so the pastor doesn't have to preach 5,000 sermons every week. But they didn't like that sermon because it wasn't as fancy. So they wanna go to the church where it's always fancy, and it's a show, and the pastor's dunking a basketball on stage. That really exists, okay? Why? Because they can't just be entertained by the word of God because they're stupid. So they need cheap entertainment, so they get a cheap pastor, they get a cheap show. And you know what? When you leave a good church and you go to one of these fake churches, you're the problem. You're the problem with America, because you know what? These fake pastors and these fake churches wouldn't exist if people believed the Bible. If there wasn't a bunch of bozos to follow them. If there wasn't a bunch of idiots to basically just be their useful idiots and help them build this church and help them build a congregation. And why do they do that? They get offended at the man of God for stepping on their toes. And you know what? When Pastor Jimenez steps on your toes, don't go down to the liberal church because you're the problem, not him. And you know what? You're destroying America when you support these weak, coward, fake preachers today. Quit being stupid and just appreciate the man of God. Quit striving with the priest and just accept the preaching of God's word. You say, well, I don't agree with everything they say or do. Well, is it biblical though? And look, who agrees with anybody on everything perfectly? And most of the time, you're the one that's wrong anyways. Let me just help you out, all right? But you get stupid Sturmans because you're stupid. You know, sometimes I know this about other pastors that they wanna preach something that's like a little bit more advanced or a little bit more deep in the Bible, but they feel like their congregation's too carnal, too shallow or too stupid to even get it. So they have to preach a really shallow, easy sermon. And it's like, hey, I'd like to move on from the basics as Hebrews chapter number five says, but guess what? You guys are too stupid for me to move on from the basics. And you say, well, I want less basic sermons. Okay, well then get smart. Well then learn the word of God, then fear God a little bit and read the Bible on your own. And then when you're reading the Bible on your own and getting that knowledge and you're growing, then you can get better sermons. And look, this basically is a reciprocating relationship in a sense, and it makes sense though. And if you look at a church like ours as compared to other independent Baptist churches, you know, our normal sermons are the red hot preaching conference of them because they lack knowledge. And you say, why do they lack knowledge? Because they don't fear God. Like I think of sermons that I'm preaching and like nobody is like offended at all. Nobody even cares really that much. I'm just saying what? That the Jews aren't God's chosen people. But you preach that in most independent Baptist churches today, and it is fireworks. I mean, you would basically be just setting off a bomb in their church just by preaching that. Just getting up and saying repenting of your sins is not, you know, the gospel would set a new cough in some people's church today. Why? Because they have no knowledge. And you say, why do they have no knowledge? Because they don't fear God. That's why. Now, go if you went to Proverbs 28, go to Proverbs chapter 28. You know, if you want a sermon on the Nephilim every single week, go to Adam Fana's church. You know what? Like people like priests. Why do these people preach these sermons? It's because that's what the people want. That's why. You know, and so that's why it's important when your pastor preaches a really hard sermon, that you encourage him, support him, and tell him thank you for it. So that he'll do it again. And that he'll keep delivering the same messages and start saying, you know what? I fear God. I don't want to just be having God upset with me. I want to be cleansed from my secret faults even. Things that I wasn't even aware of. Sometimes you come to church and you feel like everything's great. And then after the sermon, you're like, I'm not great. You know, you listen to Pastor Jones, you're like, I'm not that great of a friend. You know, you're like, I need to be a better friend. My first work's tattooing my face. Isn't that cool? I thought it was cool. I thought Pastor Rahia was going to be like putting me on the website or something, you know, right there in the front. But now I realize that was dumb. You need to go up and be like, thanks for that sermon. You know, if I had a tattoo, which praise the Lord I don't, I would have walked up to Pastor Rahia and said, thanks for reaching that sermon. Why? Let him know that that was a great sermon. You don't want other people to make that same mistake. Rather than being like, are you preaching against me? It's like, yes, he was. You know, and every time someone comes in, they're like, were you preaching about me? I just say, yes, every time. He goes, look, if the shoe fits, wear it. Why would I be preaching if it wasn't for you? Why are all these preachers preaching for no one? You know, you always ask them like, is that about me? Nope. It's about this hypothetical group that doesn't exist called the New Ivy Lynch Mob. It's always funny how every single person in the New Ivy is like, is that me? Is that me? Is that me? No, no, no, no, no, no. It's like, well, who is it then? It's no one. Oh, okay. Just because you're a liar, because you're a coward. If someone asks me if it's about you, I'm gonna say yes. Proverbs 28, look at verse four. They that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them. And look, I see a lot of fundamental Baptists today. You know what? They're not keeping and contending with them. And they end up praising the wicked. They end up saying good things about wicked people. I just heard from one of the pastors, they said, Paul Chapel was literally supporting and praising John MacArthur during the COVID thing. John MacArthur, he doesn't believe salvation by faith. This guy denies the blood saying that we don't even need the blood of Jesus Christ, that that's just like an extra doctrine. Who wants to attack the blood of Jesus Christ where the church was bought with? I mean, it's ridiculous how these people, what happened? They stopped believing the commandments of God, they're a specter of a person. Maybe they're a wolf, I don't know. But why in the world would you sit here and praise the wicked? Because they're right on COVID. Who cares? That's just a losing battle. Everybody's wrong on COVID, it's a losing battle. It just sucks. All right, I'm right on COVID, but I'm wrong on all the Bible. Good job. Am I gonna start praising everybody for any issue that they're right on? I mean, Joel Osteen likes Brisket. You know, I'm gonna support him now. You know? I mean, this is a stupid philosophy. Just because someone's right on a particular issue doesn't mean I'm gonna support them, agree with them, or be their buddy, or be their pal. You know, we need to actually have real biblical standards in our heart that we're never gonna cross. Like ever supporting a false prophet for any reason. I don't care what he's right on. It does not matter. We should contend with these people. And you know what? It makes me mad when we bring up the Old Testament, when we bring up the law of God, and independent Baptists will literally mock and ridicule you believing the word of God. They'll talk negatively about the commandments of God. Or just other Christians. I've gotten so much information recently from different people claiming to be Christians. And you know what they constantly do? Mock the laws of God. They're like, hey Pastor Shelley, do you eat shellfish? And I'm like, no, I think it's gross. But not because it's a violation. I've read First Timothy chapter number four. Every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. It's just not received with thanksgiving for me, okay? Steak, that's what it's at. Bacon, all right? I can get on this train, all right? Bacon is good and it is meant to be received. But do you think someone's saying, do you eat shellfish? What do they do? They're mocking the Bible though, aren't they? They're mocking the law of God. Go to Psalms 119 for a second. You know, they say, oh, do you cut your hair? It's like, obviously. It's not like this is the same haircut I've had my entire life. I don't know if this is shock to you, you know? It's like, or they'll say, are you wearing mixed fabrics, Pastor Shelley? It's like, first of all, the King James doesn't say mixed fabrics, you idiot. It's talking about linen and woolen. And no, I'm not wearing a garment mixed with linen and woolen, FYI. But you know what? They want to use these catch phrases to what? Mock the Bible, ridicule you for believing the word of God. I mean, what kind of person despises the law of God today or doesn't want to believe in the commandments of God today? I mean, the Bible just hammers how great the laws of God are. And I think the Psalm 119 is probably my favorite Psalm just because it's just, there's so much doctrine in it, but it's elevating one thing, the word of God. Every single verse has a reference to the word of God in some way, whether it's statutes, law, commandment, my word, it's just the truth, just every single verse. And that's so incredible. How can you even do that? The longest chapter in the Bible just constantly praising the word of God. And you know what? The Bible says that he's magnified thy word above all thy name. So more magnified is the word of God than the name of Jesus Christ. Think about that. Let that one sink in. Yet people want to constantly blaspheme the laws of God. They want to constantly ridicule the laws of God, act like there's something wrong with the laws of God or something today. And it really grieves my heart because you know what? I see in them they have no fear of God. The Bible says the transgression of the wicked saith in my heart that there's no fear of God before his eyes. And because they do wickedly, because they blaspheme the Bible, it just shows me you don't fear God at all. You just don't fear the Lord at all. Look what it says in verse 47. And I will delight myself in thy commandments which I have loved. My hands also I lift up unto thy commandments which I have loved. And I will meditate in thy statutes. Notice he's saying I love the commandments. Look what it says in verse 53. Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. You know there's two kinds of people in America today. There's people that are horrified by Leviticus 2013 and then there's people that are horrified by faggots. By disgusting, filthy perverts today. And you know who I'm horrified by is the child molesters in our country. By these sick pedophiles and degenerates and God hating reprobates today. That's what I'm horrified by. You know what? I'm horrified by all the sex trafficking and pedophilia in our nation today. Horror! I mean it didn't used to be like that. The numbers are just staggering at what's going on in our country today. According to the United States Department of Health, 240,000 to 325,000 children are in trafficking in America each year. Not only that, estimated 50,000 children new children are brought into America every year to be put into this trafficking system. So from Mexico, from Canada, from all these other countries, Philippines, they're importing at least a new 50,000 children every single year. That's horrifying! Yet, people wanna act like a Baptist preacher getting up and preaching the Bible's horrifying. A Baptist preacher getting up and saying, when a pedophile accidentally kills himself or a pedophile accidentally kills another pedophile, I'm not gonna be sad about that. I love that, that's great. What are they horrified by? They're horrified by the word of God, not the pedophile. Not the child rapist, not the molesters today and it's sick, it's disgusting. In America, 2,362 abortions are happening every day. Every day. That is horrifying. In our nation, in our country, babies are literally being destroyed by the thousands every day. Horror! I get these verses. Horror had taken hold upon me. Because of the wicked that forsake thy law, they've forsaken the commandments of God today in our country and we have horrible atrocities happening on a regular basis. Millions and millions, not alone all the other sins that we could talk about. Just other murder and adultery and all kinds of drug-induced problems and violence and drunk driving accidents where innocent families are literally murdered and butchered by people's negligence. They're on drugs, they're under the influence. Look what it says in 136. 136, rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law. If you can't cry over that many children being slaughtered every day, there's something wrong with your heart. If you can sit here, I had people say that they've gone through every stage of grief from listening to my sermons. Not because of what I was saying that was from the Bible, because they were so angry at it. They were so angry at hearing what I said about Leviticus that they went through every stage of grief. Yet, they're not going through every stage of grief for what, all the children being murdered. They're not going through every stage of grief for all the child molestation going on in our country. These people are hypocrites, they're sick, they're stupid, they're foolish, and we need to quit being stupid. We need to start fearing God today in our country. Fearing the Lord, look what it says in verse 66. Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments. Hey, guess what? I actually believe the Bible. Sorry, you don't. That's not my problem. You know what, I actually fear God, so I'm gonna believe his commandments. I'm not gonna sit here and blaspheme the word of God, and blaspheme the commandments, and talk negatively about God's word. No, I actually believe them. Look at verse 77. Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live, for thy law is my delight. He said, do you really like all those laws in the Bible? Yes, it's delightsome. 113, I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. I hate stupidity, I hate foolishness, but you know what, I do love the law of God. Go to 142. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth. Sorry, every law of God is true. Quit mocking them and ridiculing them, and acting like there's something wrong with them. And notice he didn't say, thy righteousness is just for the Old Testament. It's just for the time of the Jews. No, it's an everlasting righteousness. Look what it says in 160. Gets even better, thy word is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. Quit telling me it's Old Testament. It's forever. Now yes, some things were fulfilled in Christ, but you know what, murder wasn't fulfilled in Christ. It's not like that's cool now. It's not like the commandments just were thrown out the window, and God's like, yeah, do whatever you want now. Christ died on the cross, don't you remember? Yeah, I do remember. But that doesn't mean that we just throw out the Old Testament, that we just blot it out or something like that. Hey, some aspects were fulfilled. Yeah, we don't offer sacrifices of lambs and goats. Yeah, we don't have all the feasts. We don't have to observe the Sabbath days. These are all a picture of Christ, and I get that, and people wanna throw that in my face all day long. But you know what? Thou shalt not kill is still in effect, my friend. When did lying become okay? Why would that even make sense? How is the church supposed to be the pillar and ground of the truth if lying's now all of a sudden not a problem? I mean, these people just are brain dead because they have no fear of God, that's why. They're foolish and they're stupid. Look at 163. I hate and abhor lying, but thy law do I love. And I just hate all the lies out there, all the nonsense today. Go to Leviticus chapter 20 for a moment. Go to Leviticus chapter number 20. And look, even independent, fundamental Baptists have gone to such an extremity where they're blaspheming the word of God that it's hard to even fathom. It's hard to even believe how they can say this with a straight face. But John Getch, the president of the West Coast Baptist College, who's under the tutelage of Paul Chapel, Lancaster Baptist Church, which is a huge church here in California, huge church. He got up and he preached and he said that no one in their church is allowed to have a vile attitude toward those living in this sin. And when he said, or that sin, when he said that, he's talking about sodomy. He's talking about men with men. He's talking about people that are committing the ungodly sin of being a faggot, of being a dyke, of being a lesbian. He says you can't have a vile attitude towards those living in that sin. Talk about blasphemy of the word of God. I mean, okay, riddle me this then, John Getch. How do you interpret Leviticus 20, 13? If a man also lie with mankind, if he lies with a woman, both of them have committed, notice this word, an abomination. That sounds like a vile attitude if you ask me. You know what you're saying? You're saying that God's attitude towards them is wrong. You can't have God's attitude towards these people. And even goes on further, not only is it just an abomination, they shall surely be put to death, their blood shall be upon them. That's what God said. And you know what? It's an everlasting judgment. It's everlasting righteousness. I'm not gonna stop believing it just because it's unpopular. I'm not gonna stop believing it because I want fags to come to my church or something weird. What kind of a weird queerbait wants these faggots to come into his church? No normal guy wants to be around fags. Look, I've had so many fags that are mad at me right now and protesting me. You know who's protesting me? Fags and women. You know who's not protesting me? Straight men. Because it's really hard to get a bunch of straight dudes to get up and be like, oh man, I just love me some faggots, you know? It was called smear the queer. Going into public school, every single insult was you're a faggot. You know how I know you're a queer? I mean, that's how every joke started. Why? Because it was the worst thing you could be called. And still today, you know, all these people that hate me, what do they say? They say that to me, right? Because that's the only insult they have. It's funny how they never say the opposite. It's funny whenever I retaliate too, I don't play their game. I'm not like, you know what? I bet you faggots are a bunch of secret Christians. I bet you actually really love the Bible, don't you? You probably have Leviticus 2013 memorized, huh? They call you what they know is the only real insult, which is being a disgusting, filthy fag. And it's the worst insult. You know, people say, why do you make that the worst sin? I didn't, everybody did. God said it was vile. It's objectively the worst sin. It's the most disgusting, it's the most filthy. Obviously it could be aggravated by the age of the victim, but look, that sin is like the most disgusting, the most vile, it's the worst. John Chrysosome, you know, who's a Catholic, he said he'd rather die 10,000 times than ever be a fag. He said he'd rather, he would rather go to hell right away than ever be a fag. And I agree. Now, what's crazy is our history in this country. And you know, I have an exact reprint of the laws of Connecticut of 1672 in my office. I wish I'd brought it, but it's incredible because when you look at this document that one of the original colonies had, it literally is just all the capital punishments found in the Old Testament and then just all the Bible verses next to it. It's just Leviticus 20, 13, Leviticus, you know, Exodus, Deuteronomy, it's just quoting all of them. And you know, even the first one was like, if you blaspheme God, you're put to death. That's a big difference than today. In 1719, let me read for you from Rhode Island. This is what Rhode Island said in their state law, 1719. Whosoever shall perpetrate and commit the detestable and abominable crimes of sodomy or buggery and be thereof legally convicted shall suffer the pains of death. In the 1700s, I mean, everyone's agreeing that this is what should be the death penalty. In 1776, the founding of our nation, all 13 colonies had the death penalty for this sin. All of them. In fact, I looked at another article that said until 1961, okay, so some of you were even alive at that point in time. In 1961, all states and the US military had crimes against being a fag and they described it as a crime against nature. The first state to fall was not California, all right? It was Illinois. Illinois was the first. Now, the Supreme Court, one of the justices made a comment after this and this is what he said after they basically in Illinois had kind of repealed some of their anti-sodomy laws. He said to consider the right to engage in homosexual sodomy a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching. So the Supreme Court judge said, if you're gonna tell us that being a faggot is somehow a fundamental right, you're literally saying that we've been wrong for a thousand years. He's saying everybody's been wrong for a thousand years if you're gonna say that. So it's not like, oh man, what, you're so crazy. Look, this is a brand new thing that's happening in our nation and it's escalating at a rate that's insane. He was saying, wow, this is thousands of years we've all believed this and now all of a sudden it's completely different. In 1973, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders said that being a fag was a mental illness. And until 2003, that's not that long, a lot of you in here, even Dylan was born before that. I mean, 2003, there was still 13 states in America that had anti-sodomy laws that were enforced. I'm not even saying on the books, I'm saying enforced. And unfortunately, the state to crumble it all was Texas, Houston, Texas. There was a case called Lawrence versus Texas. Two fags were arrested for being fags in 2001. It didn't happen in 2003 that the court case finally by the Supreme Court ruled it as unconstitutional that states had anti-sodomy laws for a technicality. They didn't even say it was wrong. They said what was wrong is that according to the 14th Amendment, which is basically equal protection under the law, that sodomy laws were not equally enforced against married normal couples and fags. So because of that technicality, they basically said all anti-sodomy laws are null and void all of a sudden. But you know what, they're still on the books. Did you realize that? Even in California, sodomy is illegal. It's illegal in Texas. It's illegal, it's just not enforced. And they deem it as sometimes unconstitutional. But in California, if it's with a minor, it's still enforced actually. That's in America right now. Now, here's the problem with our country though. We're just so stupid we don't even realize what the history is. We have no fear of God in this nation. We have no knowledge of God. We don't know what's going on in the history. And because of that, you have preachers getting up and saying the dumbest things about the word of God. Go to Romans chapter number seven. Go to Romans chapter number seven. In fact, I heard an independent fundamental Baptist preacher. He got up and he said, you know what? We shouldn't preach Leviticus 20. I know I've preached it in the past, but I don't think we should preach it anymore. We shouldn't make a big deal about it anymore because America's never gonna implement those laws again. Well, that's stupid. That's a foolish reason to not preach that. You know, I guess this pastor would have also criticized John the Baptist. He would have said, you know what? Herod's never gonna implement Judea law. Why did you say that it was not lawful for him to marry his brother's wife and get his head beheaded? That's not profitable, John. He probably would have criticized him too, huh? But you know, in Texas, if you're a child molester, you can be put to death after your second offense. So we still have death penalty in Texas for that crime. And you know, obviously what I believe is way different than that. It's a lot earlier that we catch the criminal than that. But you know what? If I take a real hard stance, maybe we could get people to go back to the first offense or something. And you could save another child. You know, by taking a biblical stand, even if nobody comes all the way to my side, it can still balance the equation a little bit more. It can still hold on to some righteousness. It can still get a little bit better today. And look, laws are changing in our country all the time. Why would I not want a whole bunch of Baptists to get up and preach the Bible and change the minds of people? And change our country and change our state and change our area. Look, the knowledge of God will impact the area around you. And when people are hiding it under a bushel, it gets really dark. And our nation's getting so dark because people don't want to open up the lighthouse of the word of God and to preach the truths of God's word today because they fear man rather than God. And we have Baptist preachers getting up and blaspheming the word of God today. And it's sick, it's gross. He also said this. We're too carnal to implement God's laws. What? Well, okay, were they not carnal in the Old Testament when God gave them the law or something? Like, they were more spiritual back then to be able to implement those laws, but we're too carnal. That's stupid. And it makes me think, there is a place in the Bible that says we're carnal. Okay, well, let's see what the Bible says. Romans chapter seven, verse 14. Let's look at the latter part. But I am carnal. Hey, Paul said I'm carnal. Do you know what he said right before that, which this pastor had in his mind? What does it say? For we know the law is spiritual. Me believing any part of the Bible is spiritual today. Why would I wanna get up and blaspheme the word of God, act like it doesn't have importance, act like it's bad to believe it, act like it's bad to teach it? You know what you're basically doing? You're putting shade on the word of God. You're putting shade on God's righteousness, and you're basically perverting and corrupting our nation. Look, we need to get up and thunder forth the word of God today. Go to Matthew chapter 19, Matthew chapter 19. You wanna quit being stupid? Point one, fear God. Fear God. If you don't fear God, you will always be stupid. You will die stupid. You will die a fool. In order to get saved, you have to fear God. I mean, if you have no fear of God, when someone's warning you about hell, they're just gonna laugh in your face. It takes at least a little bit of fear of God to even get saved. You have to humble yourself and fear the Lord and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. That's what saves you. And people that have no fear of God, they're never gonna get saved. And even Christians, though, after they get saved, they can still decide that they're not gonna fear the Lord, and they can ruin their nation. They can ruin their life. They can just be stupid for the rest of their life like Lot was. Lot was stupid. Lot made a lot of stupid decisions because he didn't fear God. He didn't wanna open his mouth and preach Leviticus 20 in his neighborhood. So what happened? It became infested with facts. That's what happened, filled with these sodomites, with these reprobates. And you know what? I'd rather me being filled with a church of a whole bunch of people when they're slamming at the door, saying, bring us Bruce, than just by myself. And you know what? The men of God would realize, you know you start preaching this truth, people hear it, and they start getting added to the fold. And they start growing, and you start getting good people to believe with you. And you know what? You start realizing you're a bigger majority than they are. Look, I had millions of people sharing sermons against me, and all these fags are riled up. On Sunday morning, I have 150 people in church, and there's like 40 of them. Who's the minority? I mean, I've never had a sermon that was like, what, I really wanted to get out there? Reach millions. I wish. That would be great. You know, the gospel, or something about the King James Bible, or something like that. That'd be cool if we could just hit a button and get millions of views. They get the most vitriolic thing they can millions of times, and they get 40 people to show up. They're the real minority, my friend. People don't like them. Why do you think they have to pass all these laws to tell people to tolerate them? Do you think it's because they just love them naturally, or something? You're not being forced to like somebody you like. You're being forced to like someone you hate, and being told, oh, you gotta love them. And you say, well, why do you hate them? Because I've read the Bible. You know why people are stupid? Because they don't read the Bible. Number one, they don't fear God, and number two, they don't read the Bible. And Jesus, if you know anything about the gospels, you know what he's constantly ridiculing people for? Not having read the Bible. Just over and over and over. Look at Matthew chapter 19, look at verse four. And he answered and said to them, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? That would solve a lot of problems in our nation if everybody read that verse. You have one of two options, male or female, that's it. It's that simple. And you say, well, how do you know that? Because I read it. Why is our nation so stupid today? Because they're not reading the Bible. It's like Jesus has to educate them. Do you not realize there's two genders here? Male and female? Let me tell you about it. It starts at the beginning. All the way from the beginning, it was so. Look at chapter 21, verse 16. Chapter 21, look at verse 16. And he said unto them, hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, yea, have ye never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou is perfect in praise? So again, what is he doing? He's rebuking them for not having read the Bible. Look at verse 42. Jesus saith unto them, did ye never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected, the same as become the head of the corner? This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Go to Matthew 24. You wanna know why people are stupid today? Because they don't read. You say, I hate reading. You're stupid. He probably can't spell. You probably have poor grammar. You probably don't have any original ideas. I mean, that's just the reality. People that are smart read, and they read a lot. And you say, what should I read? Well, this would be your primary course. And you'll get a lot of wisdom real quick. And look, I think it's sufficient, but I think it's good to read other stuff too. We should read, and we should not be stupid. You know what would be a good reading? All the laws from the 16, 17, 18, and 1900s in America. Because you know what, it's a lot of the Bible. And then you start realizing, wow, something really changed with the baby boomer generation, didn't it? They're like blowing up like first works or something. Look at Matthew 24, look at verse 15. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by death unto the prophet standing in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand. Now, I just love this verse right here. Because it's like, I've been in so many independent fundamental Baptist churches, where we literally started in this chapter, and then they preached pre-trib. I went to a church and they literally did a pre-trib series for month after month after month. And I would say 80% of the time we started Matthew 24. And you know how many times we read verse 29? Zero. What if we just read it? What if it says, immediately after the tribulation of this day shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven, and then shall the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the son of man, notice this word coming. Hey, when is Jesus Christ gonna come? Immediately after the tribulation. This is so easy. And you say, well, why do people not believe it? Because they don't read the Bible. Because they have not read. He's saying, look, hey, if you've read this, you would understand this, but because you haven't read, you just let people lie to you all day long. And look, if you believe in the preacher rapture, let me make it clear, you're stupid. Now, I'll take ownership. There was a point in my life where I believed in preacher rapture, and I was stupid, okay? Fortunately for me, my dad, since I've been alive, has never believed in the preacher rapture, and he'd always tell me that it was wrong. He'd always tell me that it was stupid. And it took me a while to realize. But once I realized, you know what, I just ate that crow, and I just said, you're right, I was stupid, and I started believing the Bible. You know what, there's no real shame in getting right. You know what's shameful is knowing that you're wrong and staying wrong. That's what's shameful. What's shameful is never preaching this verse. It's funny how all these people wanna tell us how we're wrong in the preacher rapture. I've never heard alternate explanations for 29. They pretty much just avoid it. I mean, maybe in a blue moon someone might, but virtually they never touch these verses. They don't talk about them, or they just kind of say like, this is all about the Jews, let's move on. It's like, well, according to Romans chapter two, I'm a Jew, so is that for me? But they don't like that verse either. Oh, and then they don't like 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and then they don't like Revelation, and then they don't, what are they preaching? Oh yeah, they don't preach much, do they? And then you wonder why they don't preach much, because there's not much to preach when you believe in the preacher rapture. There's not much to preach when you believe Jews are God's chosen people. There's not much to preach when you don't believe the Old Testament applies anymore. And now we're starting to realize why no doctrine's being preached, because they don't read the Bible. Hey, in our churches, we read the whole chapter before we start preaching. That'll really squash your pre-trip sermon when you have to read the whole chapter before you start, because it's like, which chapters are they gonna go to when they have to read the whole chapter? And it's like, oops, that's gonna kind of run and sour that. And sometimes they'll accidentally read the verse, and then they'll just contradict it right away. I saw a pastor, he's basically reading about how the man of sin shall be revealed before the coming, and he's like, I still think the rapture's before this. She's like, what? He was like, did you forget that you shouldn't read that verse or something? Go if you would to Revelation chapter one, go to Revelation chapter number one. Look, we need to quit being stupid today, and you know how you quit being stupid? Read the Bible. And if you wanna have a great church, you need to have everyone read the Bible, not the pastor only. Not just the staff, not just the ushers, not the guys that wanna be pastors, everyone. You know, the qualifications of a bishop is really just being a good Christian. Everyone should strive for that. Everyone should wanna be that. You know, it's like, hey, I wanna be a pastor someday, what do I do? Be a good Christian. That's it. Just be the best Christian you can be. And then if God chooses you to have that profession or that opportunity, then walk through the door. But guess what, don't try to make being godly or being a Christian or doing things right really hard. Are the things I'm showing you hard? Fear God, read the Bible. I mean, is this really rocket science here? But it's a fundamental Baptist church. We know there's a lot of people who are forsaking the fundamentals, aren't they? Because they're not what? They don't fear God and they're not reading the Bible and there's a group of people that are in that room that don't wanna do something. They don't wanna fear God and they don't wanna read the Bible. That's why their churches are the way that they are. Look at Revelation chapter one, look at verse three. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the times at hand. Not only do you read the Bible, you need to do it. But in order to do it, you gotta read it. You know, that's step one for a lot of people today. They really need to start reading. Go over to 1 Timothy chapter four. Go to 1 Timothy chapter four. You know, the Bible says with all they get wisdom. You know, with all they understand. You're supposed to just basically strive for wisdom and you're supposed to constantly seek for it as hid treasure. It's the most precious thing. You know, it frustrates me when preachers get up and glorify ignorance, glorify stupidity. They say, I don't even understand half the words on the page but I just believe in my faith, brother. It's like, why don't you go ahead and believe the whole page? What's wrong with that? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Maybe the reason, you know, you lack in faith is because you haven't read it. We should not glorify stupidity though. There's nothing good about being stupid. The Bible isn't saying like, oh, you simple ones, you're great. Oh, you foolish ones, way to go. No problem there. No, it's always a condemnation. It's always something you need to correct. We're supposed to strive to know God better every single day. We're supposed to get more wisdom and more knowledge and more understanding and you know, it comes from reading the word of God on a regular basis. That's why the commandments that are given to a pastor is that he's supposed to encourage the congregation to read the Bible. First Timothy chapter number four, look at verse number 13. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation to doctrine. You know, a lot of churches may preach but do they read the Bible? You know, I love the fact that we read whole chapters before we get up and preach them. And I love seeing, you know, things on the wall, encouraging their parishioners to read the Bible and there's contests and there's prizes and all these different things to try and encourage people to read the word of God. I love the fact that before the guy gets up to preach, one of the staff members or one of the ushers is saying, hey, if you need a Bible, lift your hand. Why? Because you're blessed when you read. You're blessed when you look at it and you study it and you memorize it. And you know what? The reason why you're stupid is because you don't read. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 17, Deuteronomy chapter number 17 and people say, oh, the King James is too hard to understand. And this is what's funny to me. You know what they say why it's so hard? The thes and the thous. And the thy. And I'm like, thy is a three letter word. You really want to come up to me and say, you can't understand the Bible because of the word thy? I mean, the thy. It's not that hard. The thou. I mean, that takes like five seconds to explain to a five year old. You're basically saying I'm an idiot. I'm a moron. If you want to get up and say, I can't understand the Bible because of the thes and the thous. I mean, you're basically saying, I don't even want to try. What do you want a coloring book? And only, I mean, what if your vocabulary was only words that are less than three letters? I can't understand thy. So, okay, can you, I, do you know that word? Me, no. This is how toddlers speak, no. No is their only word. And then they elevate to like mom, you know? It's like, you're gonna really get up and tell me that you can't understand the Bible because of the word thy. They're just lazy, is what they're really saying. They're lazy, and a lot of times they're not saved. That's why they can't understand the Bible. But even people that are saved, they look at the word of God and they say they don't understand it. Well, here's the thing. When you don't understand a word, look it up in a dictionary. And then after you learn that word, you don't have to look it up again. And then you just keep reading. I mean, how do you learn anything? By looking it up, asking people about the definition of words. And look, I guarantee people that have read the Bible cover to cover multiple times, if you ask them what's easier to understand, the King James Bible or the NIV, they'll say the King James all day long. I don't care if they're biased or not. It's not harder to be understood. You're just being lazy. You're just being foolish. Look what it says in Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 19. And it shall be with him, and he shall read there in all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord as God. Now, this is talking about the king, but notice what happens when you read the Bible. You learn to fear God. And look, all these things are intertwined. Why do you not have the fear of God? Because you're not reading the Bible. Why are you not reading the Bible? Because you don't fear God. Look, you gotta get both together, and they work on each other, and they increase your faith. Hey, you wanna increase your faith? Read the word of God. That's gonna help you fear God when you actually see commandments that are in the Bible, and you say, oh, wow, I shouldn't do that. Oh, wow, I'm screwed up in this area. And you know, the pastor gets up, and he's showing you verses in the Bible, and you're saying, like, I'm not doing good on that one. I need to fix that. And it helps you increase your faith, increase your fear, and the reason why people don't fear God is because they don't read the Bible. We need to just go ahead and fear the Lord the best that we can, start reading the Bible, and then we'll start fearing even more. Look, the people that know the Bible the best are often the ones who fear God the most. If I look at people and I say, this guy really fears God, it's usually the guy that knows a lot of Bible. Why, because he realizes who God really is. He realizes God's judgments a lot more, and he understands it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. He's actually afraid, and he realizes that God is not just up in heaven like Santa Claus, and he's gonna give you presents whether you're naughty or nice. You know, they say, oh, you'll get a lump of coal, but nobody gets the lump of coal. Everybody's idea is, I mean, who got lumps of coal from Santa? I mean, maybe like as a joke, but I'm just saying, like, you got presents, and that's how people view God. They just view him as you just get presents no matter what, and everybody's good. I mean, nobody's on the naughty list. That's not the God of the Bible. Go to Deuteronomy chapter four, go backwards. Here's my last quick point that I wanna make. Point one, fear God. Point two, read the Bible. This is really novel, isn't it? Point three, teach the Bible. Teach the Bible. Hey, if we want to stop being stupid, we wanna quit being stupid as a church, as a group of people, as Christians, as a nation. We need to do these three things. We need to fear God, we need to read the Bible, we need to teach the Bible. Look at Deuteronomy chapter four, verse eight. Deuteronomy chapter four, look at verse number eight. And what nation is there so great that has statutes and judgment so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day? Notice how God feels about the laws he just gave you. It's like the best thing ever. He says in verse nine, only take heed of thyself and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life. But teach them thy sons and thy sons' sons. He didn't say, oh, you guys are too carnal. Don't tell anybody about it now. No, he said, teach it. Teach the word of God. Teach it to your sons. Teach it to your grandsons. Teach it to every single person you possibly can. I thought the Great Commission, how did it start again? Oh yeah, teach all nations, didn't it? And was it just the gospel or was it all things, what sort have I commanded you? Oh yeah, it was all things, wasn't it? All scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable or doctrine. Hey, I'm not afraid of what the Bible says. Why would God then say that to Timothy to pass on the New Testament and be like, but wink, wink, nod, nod, the Old Testament's off limits. Don't preach Leviticus, though. It's not really that profitable. I mean, look, at the time of Timothy, they weren't under Judeo law. Timothy's half Greek. He's going around to Gentile places. Of course, they're not implementing the laws of God. But you wanna know how a bunch of Gentile nations went to the point where America was founded and they believed all the Bible? It was from people teaching the Bible to them, teaching the laws of God. And look, I still believe in 2021, nations today could change their mind and believe the laws of God if they wanted to. You know what it's gonna take? It's gonna take real men of God standing up and teaching them the Bible. Hey, there's countries in this world, they still believe lots of parts of the Bible that America doesn't. I mean, you go to Africa and they put homos to death or they criminalize it. The Caribbean still has crimes and laws against these filthy, disgusting acts. They're still somewhat Christian nations. What's wrong with them getting right with God? And you underestimate the influence of God's word, the impact of God's word. We need to teach it to everybody and we need to read to our family. If you don't read the Bible to your kids, you're not right with God and your family's gonna be stupid. You need to sit your kids down and read the Bible to them. Church is not the only place you learn the Bible. You're supposed to learn from your parents and your grandparents. Hey, you grandparents, why don't you sit your grandchildren down and read them the Bible? Say, I wish they would obey more. Okay, we'll start showing them some commandments. You know, whenever my son disobeys me, a lot of times what I do is I talk to him about what the Bible says, about how God's not gonna give him as long a life and how God's gonna punish him if he disobeys me because I want him to fear God. And we need parents to instill this into their children and to teach them how to fear God. But when a generation doesn't instill this to their children, is not reading the Bible to their children, what happens? You're just missing whole generation gaps in churches today because they didn't teach them anything. And I know lots of people, myself included, I wish I'd been taught things from my parents from the word of God and I just wasn't. And praise the Lord for parents that actually did teach their children the Bible, that did sit down and read them. You know, kudos to you. But parents today, they won't read anything to their children, they won't teach their children anything, they just send them to the public fool system to raise their children. And they're letting them become liberals, brats, atheists, heathen, and frankly, just stupid, since the school's teaching them that math is racist. Do you think that China is over there quivering in their boots, thinking like, oh man, we can do algebra in our head and these people think it's racist? They love math, right? Aren't Asians good at math? America, they're gonna be like, they don't like math, it's racist. They're gonna say white people are just evil, inherently evil. That's what schools are literally trying to teach in America that white people are racist and hate everybody else and they don't even know it. They're trying to teach people that men are just evil. Just all men are just out to get you, we should put men in their place, these men just wanna hold women down and they wanna tell women what to do, but we need to roar, we need to make our voices loud and proud, and then they'll teach you that men are women. You take your kid to the public fool system, don't expect this to not come out. You should expect that to come out. The Bible says a child left himself, bringing his mother to shame. Why are God's people so stupid today? Because they're letting the devil teach them. They're letting the devil train them. They're letting the devil indoctrinate them on a regular basis. You know, it's not a surprise that the next generations have just gone to the devil because they weren't taught anything from their parents. You know, I'm a huge proponent of homeschooling. And in the history of our world, there wasn't all these public schools, that's a new thing too. It's a novel thing that exists. And we're seeing the fruits of it. What's the fruit of public school? Sin, rebellion to God, people that are stupid. And you say, well, my kid went to public school and he's still smart. That's despite the public school though. Just because a smart kid can still be smart through public school doesn't mean he wouldn't have been smarter if his parents had taught him. Wouldn't have been smarter if his parents had given him a better opportunity. Go to second Timothy chapter two, I'm almost finished. You know, other countries emphasize learning, education, and what is our country emphasizing right now? Rebellion to God. Emphasizing just evil, nonsense, and it's gonna destroy our nation. These other countries are laughing at us because they should. We as a nation are so stupid. People have no respect for Americans anymore. They look at us as the most selfish, arrogant, prideful imbeciles. We're literally the emperor with no clothes and they're laughing at us because we're pretending like the garment on Joe Biden is so great. Everyone's pretending like he can even put a sentence together. And it's like all the other nations are looking at us like, how stupid are Americans today? How foolish are Americans today? Russia's not looking at us and saying like, oh wow, I think there is 72 genders. They're like, look at these morons. Look at these idiots. You know, when the heathen looked at the children of Israel when they were right with God, they looked at like, how righteous are those laws? You know, they're saying, oh man, putting child molesters to death actually makes sense. Putting murderers to death actually makes sense. He's like, why? Why would you wanna put a homelet to death so that a child doesn't get molested? You know, why did you put the murderer to death so he wouldn't murder again? Why do you put these evil wicked people to death so they don't keep committing that crime? Why is it that we have to wait to the second, third, fourth, fifth offense? It's ridiculous today and we need to teach our children the word of God so that they don't turn out like the world. And that we don't have a church where we basically all get old and then the church closes when the last person dies. Last person dies and locks the door or whatever. And look, we're gonna see that in epidemic proportions in the next few decades. You're gonna see church after church just close, get destroyed and gobbled up by all these fun centers. And you know why? Because they didn't teach their children. They didn't train them. Second Timothy chapter number two, look at what it says in verse one. I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, the giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life. I'm sorry, I'm reading first Timothy. No, I'm reading second Timothy. I was reading chapter one. Second Timothy chapter two, look at verse number one. Thou therefore my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses the same, commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. We need to think about how we're teaching and training people and how effective they're gonna be at also teaching others and encouraging them and trying to get them to be a great teacher of the word of God. We need better teachers in the pulpit today to raise up generations and to raise up godly Christians so that we can serve the Lord with fear. So we can serve the Lord with rejoicing and trembling and all the necessary emotions today. And you know, wouldn't it God that we'd have churches today that want to teach men how to be faithful, teach men how to teach the word of God? But they don't. They send them to Bible college, don't they? They let some woman teach them the Bible, hold of the prophetess or something. And we need men of God to get up and train the next generation. Go back to chapter four, chapter number four. And let me say this, the word of God will make a huge impact. And we can see the obvious and the evident fruit of that. You say, how do you know that? Well, look at where we're here. Look at, we're here. Two men, Pastor Anderson and Pastor Jimenez, who went out and started churches from scratch. Nobody knew who they were. And all they did, and their church service, it was basically nothing but preaching. There was nothing really to write home about. It wasn't the music program. They were meeting in the house, okay? You know, it wasn't the building. It wasn't the snacks. It wasn't the programs. You know what they did? They taught the Bible. And look what happened. Look at the fruit of two guys that say, you know what? I'm gonna teach the Bible. I'm gonna teach the word of God. I'm gonna get this old 1611 King James Bible, and I'm just gonna preach what the Bible has to say. And look how many people's lives have been affected by two guys that say, you know what? I believe the word of God still works today. I believe Leviticus still works today. I believe soul winning still works today. I believe the King James Bible still works today. They actually believe what the Bible says in verse two. Preach the word. And we need men to have enough courage today to stand up and to say, you know what? I'm gonna preach the Bible. You know what works in 2021 today? The King James Bible. It still works. And we need men to have courage to preach what the Bible says, because it's not gonna get easier. The road's only gonna get harder. This world's only gonna get darker. We're approaching the man of sin. He's the first one coming. And we need to teach all the Bible today, not just the parts that are popular. And you say, well, what happens when you preach all the Bible? Well, you have a red hot preaching conference filled with hundreds of people that love God. That's what happens. You reach millions of people with the word of God. Millions of people have been changed dramatically. Not only that, just think about how many babies exist in this room because of their preaching. Against birth control. Yeah, against birth control. Quit being stupid and destroying your family and destroying your children and destroying your world. We have to realize that the word of God is what works today. And we need to quit being stupid by fearing God, reading the Bible, and teaching it to others. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you for giving us all that we need and the timeless truths of the Bible. I pray that you would just stir men's hearts to have more fear for you. That we'd be encouraged and motivated to read the Bible even more. And that we'd realize the importance of teaching the Bible and not our own opinion. That you could just stir up men's hearts in this world today and that your light could just shine so bright and that we could get as many people saved as possible. We could turn as many to righteousness as possible. That we could help raise the next generation to carry that torch and that we would be pleasing in your sight and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Turn to song 356. Song number 356. I must tell Jesus 356, sing it out on the first. I must tell Jesus all of my trials. I cannot bear these prayers alone. If I distress he, then he will have me. He never loves and cares for his own. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus. I cannot bear my burdens alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus. I must tell Jesus, Jesus can't help me. Jesus alone. 356 on the second. I must tell Jesus all of my troubles. He is my coming master and friend. If I might ask him, he will be there. He will be there. Make up my troubles, make me at him. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus. I cannot bear my burdens alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus. Jesus can't help me. Jesus alone. Tempted and tried, I need every single one who can help my grace to bear. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus. He of my grace can start all to cheer. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus. I cannot bear my burdens alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus. Jesus can't help me. Jesus alone. Sing it, Miles, sing it on the last. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus. I hope that my heart is too thin to see. I must tell Jesus, that he will help me. Over the world, God made grace through me. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus. I must tell Jesus, that he will bear my burdens alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus. Jesus can't help me. Jesus alone. Turn to song 363. 363. 363, sing it all in the first. Sing them over again to me. Wonderful words of life. Let me more of their beauty see. Wonderful words of life. Words of life of beauty. Teach me faith and beauty. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. Christ the blessed one gives to all. Wonderful words of life. Sinners through the love they call. Wonderful words of life. All so freely given, moving us to heaven. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. On the last. Sweetly echo the gospel call. Wonderful words of life. Happy Father, peace through all. Wonderful words of life. Jesus, only sacred. Sacred, but forever. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. Wonderful words of life. Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. Go to song 121. 121. One, two, one, sing it on the first. Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace. Overfall victorious in its private place. Perfect, let it flow in, cooler every day. Perfect, let it flow in, deeper all the way. Perfect, let it flow in, deeper all the way. Stay up, watch above, hearts are fully blessed. Lighting as it profits, perfect peace and rest. The Lord is the most beautiful. The Lord is the most beautiful. You go ahead and have a seat, have a seat. You want to take your glasses off? Yeah, let's do that. You want to look right there and get a picture? Are you taking a picture or video? Oh okay, you want to take a picture right there? Look at Miss Victoria. Good. All right, this morning. Am I on? Can you hear me? We have Lionel coming for baptism. Lionel, have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior? Yes. All right Lionel, by your profession of faith, I baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of his death, raised to walk in you, Mr. God. God bless you Lionel. See you. All right, let me just give some real quick announcements. Thank you very much, Pastor Shelley. I'm not sure which one I'm on. Sorry, switching it up on you. I don't know about, I mean the sermon is great, but especially for you young men. If I wasn't in the ministry, I'd get in the ministry after hearing that. You can waste your life trying to make a dollar, or you can serve God. Amen. Amen. And, you know, some of you young men need to just decide you're going to stop being such a punk and read the Bible, and help us go win a world for Christ. Amen. And I just, you know, we need more Pastor Shelleys, we need more Pastor Thompsons, we need more Pastor Jones, we need more Pastor Mejias, we just need more. So praise the Lord for that, I appreciate the sermon. Just some quick announcements for the afternoon. We've got soul winning at 2 p.m. If you'd like to join us for that, meet right here at 2 p.m. and our staff guys will get you situated for that. There's a teen activity at 3 p.m. in the fellowship hall. If you're not sure where the fellowship hall is, you just go down that hall and kind of around, and we've got a big open room over there. We have a layout in the back of the bulletin that you can check out if you're not sure where those things are. And then we have a singles activity at the back of the hall. And then we have a singles activity at the park. The address is in your bulletin, that starts at 3 p.m., teen activity at 3 p.m. And then we have a pastor's luncheon at 1230 in the fellowship hall. The food is on its way, so it'll start at 1230, but you guys can just fellowship and just kind of make your way towards the fellowship hall after you've fellowshiped for a little bit. But that will be in the fellowship hall. A pastor's luncheon for the pastors, pastor's wives, kids, and then we have a pastor's luncheon for the pastors, pastor's wives, kids, all of that. And then don't forget tonight at 6 p.m. is the evening service. Pastor Anderson will be preaching tonight, so you're not going to want to miss that. If you can help us, we want to get the kids up front. I think we have like 422 in church this morning, and I think we're going to have a bigger crowd than that tonight. So if we can get the kids to sit up front, that would be great. And then try to make as much room. Help us just kind of fit in, sit up and make room and get as many people in the auditorium as possible. We appreciate you being here. If there's anything we can do for you, if you have any questions, please let us know. Let's go ahead and begin, end the service with a word of prayer, and I'll go ahead and pray. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for the great sermons we heard today. And Lord, I do thank you for these men and what they represent, who they are. And Lord, I pray that you would bless these people, and I pray that you would help us all, Lord, to fear you, to read the Bible. And Lord, we pray that there be moms and dads and daughters and daughters and daughters. And Lord, I pray for men that would step up to teach and preach the word of God to help us reach a nation with the gospel and not only with the gospel, but teaching them to observe all the things that we've learned from the word of God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. God bless you. You're dismissed.