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Here we are, I hear you, oh, bless me, oh, my Savior I come to thee, oh, yes, I am, I hear you, here we are Savior of the aircraft, and to you is the Lord And now of our time, I hear you, oh, I hear you Every hour I give you, oh, bless me, oh, my Savior I come to thee, oh, yes, I am, I hear you, here we are I come to thee, oh, yes, I am, I hear you, here we are Lord of the airspace, I hear you, oh, I hear you Every hour I give you, oh, bless me, oh, my Savior I come to thee, oh, yes, I am, I hear you, here we are I come to thee, oh, yes, I am, I hear you, here we are Oh, may you be my King, thou bested child I come to thee, oh, I hear you, here we are Oh, bless me, oh, my Savior, I come to thee All right, good morning, everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Take out your bulletin. We'll go through a couple quick things. First, let's count up any salvations this past week. Did anybody have any salvations to report? One, one, all right. Anybody else? Four, all right. Anybody else? All right, we'll have soul winning at around 2 15 p.m. here today after we have lunch. And a couple other things for today. We do have our choir meeting for the choir that's going to be performing during Easter. And so look, if you're going to serve God, you got to make some sacrifices. No table tennis, no chess, right, no darts after church or whatever. So if you're in the choir, you know, obviously we need you as part of the practice and everything like that, so practice is generally going to be basically right after soul winning. And so anyways, though, if you're planning to be part of the choir, we do need you to be at the meeting here today. We'll go through some basic rules, especially if you're new to the choir. Many of you already know these, but we always have new people at church, and so it's good to kind of go through these things to be as organized as possible. A few other things coming up next week is our prayer meeting. And on April 10th, we will be taking the Lord's Supper, which is one time per year, so it's a pretty special time to be at church. And then of course the next week is Easter, so I believe that's it for announcements while Brother Rafi lead us in another song. As thy faith and strength shall be in measure, this thou canst to be in me. And I'll be there in every tribulation, so do try thy heart in sales for more. And I'll be there in every tribulation, so do try thy heart in sales for more. And I'll be there in every tribulation, so do try thy heart in sales for more. One by one, there is no more misleading, till I meet upon this land. I'll be there in every tribulation, till I meet upon this land. I'll be there in every tribulation, till I meet upon this land. Amen. Amen for scripture reading. Please open your Bibles to the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 3. Daniel chapter 3, and as our custom we will be reading the entire chapter. Daniel chapter 3. Daniel chapter 3. Please say amen if you're there. Amen. Daniel chapter 3 verse 1. The book of desire of the king made an image of gold, whose height was three square cubits and a breadth thereof six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Jura, in the province of Babylon. Then the book of desire of the king sent together to gather the princes, the governors and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image with which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the princes, the governors and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together to the dedication of the image Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up, and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then an arrow cried out loud, to you it is commandment, O people, nations and languages, that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flutes, harp, cypher, psaltery, dulcimer and all kinds of music, you fall down and rush with the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up, and also fall not down and worship it shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fire furnace. Therefore at that time when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flutes, harp, cypher, psaltery and all kinds of music, all the people, the nations and the languages fell down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king live forever, thou O king has made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flutes, harp, cypher, psaltery and dulcimer and all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image, and do so fall not down and worship it that he shall be cast into the midst of a burning fire furnace. There are certain Jews whom thou has set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These men O king have not regarded thee. They serve not thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou has set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar's pagans said unto them, Is it true O Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? Do not ye serve my gods nor worship the golden image which I have set up. Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, cypress, sultry and dulcimer and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made. Well, but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of the burning fire furnace. And who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our god whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fire furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. That if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou has set up. Then the most Nebuchadnezzar, full of fury, and the form of his visions which changed against Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, therefore spake and commanded that they should heed the furnace one seven times more than it was want to be heeded. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and to cast them into the burning fire furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, to their hosen and their hats, and to their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fire furnace. Therefore, because the king's command was urgent and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, fell down down into the midst of the burning fire furnace. Then the Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste and spake and said unto his counselors, Did not we cast three men down into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fold is like the Son of God. Then the Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fire furnace and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came forth to the midst of the fire, and the princes, governors and captains and the king's counselors being gathered together saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed. Neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. The Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who had sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and had changed the king's word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own god. Therefore I make a decree that every man, that every people, nation and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a downhill, because there is no other god that can deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Blessed be God's word, let us pray. Lord God, in having me thank you, Lord, for this day to give it to us, and I pray all those who would give us good weather, and would be blessed, Lord, for our soul-winning, our meetings, and also, Lord, for our lunch fellowship later on. I pray that you would bless the preacher and the preaching of your word, Lord, as they give us wisdom. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're here in Daniel chapter three, and this will be our last week in Daniel three, and some of you are thinking, I thought we finished it last week. Well, we kind of did, but the name of the sermon is Daniel chapter three, the lost levels, and if you grew up playing Mario, you know, they had like secret levels and lost levels. If you jump in a certain green pipe or whatever, it puts you to this other world, and the reason why I call it that is because our Bible has 30 verses here in the book of Daniel chapter three. Everything's there. It makes sense, but the Catholics actually have a very different version of Daniel chapter three. Like, you guys might have thought 30 verses to being read for the scripture reading was a lot. It's a hundred verses in the Catholic Bible, so they have 70 added verses, whereas we have 30 verses, they have 100, okay? And I'm going to quickly go through all the problems in their Daniel chapter three, but I just kind of want to do this to show you an example, because sometimes we get asked this question, well, how do you know that the Gospel of Thomas shouldn't be in the Bible? Or how do you know that your version of Daniel three is correct? I mean, it's just as likely to be correct as theirs is, and they'll basically question the books that are in the Bible, how do we know our version's correct, and things such as that, and I want to just kind of show you it's actually not that complicated, because if you see false versions and false books, it's obvious they do not make sense, okay? Now, I'm going to use a lot of Bible in this sermon, but to start, I'm going to go through a lot of the problems in this Catholic Daniel chapter three first. Reason number one is found in their version of Daniel three, verses 28 through 30. This is what it says in their version, true is the sentence you have given and all that you have brought down on us and on Jerusalem, the holy city of our ancestors, for you have treated us rightly and truly as our sins deserve. Yes, we have sinned and committed a crime by deserting you. Yes, we have greatly sinned, we have not listened to your commandments, we have not observed them, we have not done what you commanded us to do for our own good. And so, according to the Catholic version, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are in the fiery furnace, and they're saying to God, we deserve to be in this furnace. We've sinned, we deserve this, the punishment is fair, it's just because, you know, Jerusalem departed from God, and you know what, our sins, we deserve this. How did they deserve to be in the fiery furnace? They were in the fiery furnace because they did not sin. They were not in the fiery furnace because they did sin, right? I mean, it's the exact opposite of what the Bible says, and there's nothing in Daniel 3 mentioning about Jerusalem, that's not the context. I mean, yes, they went into bondage to Babylon, but God told them to go into bondage, just go into bondage, and look, you could serve God in Babylon and be right with God, and that's what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were doing, but apparently in the Catholic Bible, once they get thrown in, we deserve this. According to what our sins, you know, what we've done, we deserve to be in this fiery furnace. I mean, isn't that the exact opposite of what we've seen in Daniel chapter 3? It just doesn't make any sense, and look, I'm quickly going through these because I want to get to the Word of God, right, so I could spend more time, but that's what it says in their verse in Daniel 3, verses 28 through 30. So number one, the focus on Jerusalem and saying that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego deserve that, doesn't make sense. Another reason this doesn't fit is what's found in verse 32 of Daniel, and some of you are looking down at your Bible, you do not have a verse 32 in the Catholic Bible. I hope you do not have a verse 32. If you do, we have Bibles we can give you after the service, okay? Daniel 3, 32 in the Catholic Bible, you have handed us over to our enemies, to a lawless people, the worst of the godless, to an unjust king, the worst in the whole world. So according to their version of Daniel 3, they say that Nebuchadnezzar is the worst king in the world, yet there's no indication that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ever thought that. Now obviously what he did was wrong, but if you pay attention, they actually had a decent relationship with Nebuchadnezzar before this, because even Nebuchadnezzar gives them another chance. He says, you know, okay, you didn't bow down, at what time you hear it, bow down now. He wouldn't have given a second chance to other people, but he liked Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, which is why people were envious against them and wanted them to be in trouble, right? There's no indication that they thought he was the worst in the world, nothing in our version of Daniel chapter 3. Number 3, verse 38, and here's what it says in the Catholic Bible, we now have no leader, no prophet, no prince, no burnt offering, no sacrifice, no oblation, no incense, no place where we can make offerings to you. We have no leader. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand a... I mean, what are you talking about? No prophet. Daniel literally has already interpreted dreams. He's already prophesied, not just preaching sermons, but literally prophesied predicting the future. We have no prophet. What are you talking about? You're best friends of prophets. We have no leader, and look, even they were leaders also. I mean, they were standing up for God. Why would they say we have no leader, no prophet? That doesn't fit with the book of Daniel at all. It doesn't make any sense. The fourth reason is found in their verses, verses 46 through 48, and here's what it says about the flames in verses 46 through 48. All this time the king's servants who had thrown them into the furnace had been stoking it with crude oil, pitch, toe, and brushwood, until the flames rose 49 cubits above the furnace, which is 73 and a half feet. So apparently this furnace, there's flames flying out like a volcano in the Catholic Bible. 73 and a half feet. And leaping out burnt those Chaldeans to death who were standing around it. Okay, it mentions, because it says all this time, the reason why it says that is in Daniel 3, they get thrown into the fiery furnace and they're having a conversation and walking around and praying to God. Like, hours are going by. A lot of time is going by, right? Which is not the indication in our version of Daniel 3. It's immediate, right? But it says that the men who threw them into the fire all this time were stoking with... they were dead. Isn't that what we saw last week? The men who threw them into the fire are dead, so how are they stoking it with oil when they're already dead? And then stoking with oil and it's flying 73 and a half feet in the air? That's ridiculous. I mean, they're making Nebuchadnezzar out to be some crazy guy. You know, more oil, more oil, just put more in. And then there's volcanoes exploding. Look, they would have stopped listening if people are dying left and right, because they'd be afraid. And somehow they are the ones doing it, but they're not dying, but other people are dying. This doesn't make any sense. I mean, is it really hard to see that this version makes no sense whatsoever? It just contradicts every common sense, errors, it just doesn't make any sense. Fifth reason is what it says in verses 49 and 50 where it says there's actually a cool spot to the flames. It's actually not hot in the furnace. It says in verse 49, "...but the angel of the Lord..." It's like the Baptist, you know, the Abraham's bosom. Daniel 3 verse 49, "...but the angel of the Lord came down into the furnace beside Azariah and his companions. He drove the flames of the fire outwards from the furnace, and in the heart of the furnace Waf did a coolness to them as of the breeze and dew, so the fire did not touch them at all and caused them no pain or distress." So in the Catholic version, the reason why the flames are flying out is because there's no flames inside the furnace. They're stoking with oil and the flames are flying out, but they're inside with that waterfall, you know, just drinking the bucco as I talked about recently, just hanging out, right? But that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says Nebuchadnezzar saw them walking in the fire. It never says anything about the flames flying out, and he saw them walking in the midst of the fire. Here's what it says in the actual Bible, verse 25. You can look down on this one, Daniel 3 verse 25, "...he answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." He's not amazed because he doesn't see a fire. He's amazed because the fire is all around them, and yet they're not hurt. Yet they're not on fire. Nothing's happening to them. He's like, this doesn't make any sense, right? It's the exact opposite of what the Bible says in the Catholic version. I mean, a cool part to the furnace, it doesn't make any sense. It destroys the whole story. It also says this in verse 88, and I don't even understand what this means, but in verse 88 of, obviously not our Bible, but in the Catholic one, "...Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, bless the Lord, praise and glorify him forever, for he has rescued us from the underworld." What does that mean? I mean, do they go to some alternate reality? The underworld? They were inside of a furnace. I mean, I don't even know what that means. Is that supposed to be purgatory? I didn't grow up Catholic. Maybe some of you guys can help me out, right? I really don't know, but it's like, well, that's just weird, right? He has rescued us from the underworld. The last reason I'll show you before we really get into the Bible is found in verses 91 and 92, where it says this, "...King Nebuchadnezzar sprang to his feet in amazement. He said to his advisors, did not we have these three men thrown down in the fire? The answer the king, certainly your majesty. But he went on, I see four men walking free in the heart of the fire and quite unharmed, and the fourth looks like a child of the gods." And so obviously the child of the gods is wrong, we talked about that last week. This contradicts here, it says, "...walk in the heart of the fire," because the other part it says it's cool in the furnace, so it doesn't really make sense. But here's the thing, in their version, this is verses 91 and 92, a lot of time is going by in the Catholic Bible after they get thrown in the furnace. But what does it say in verse 24 of our Bible? Daniel 3 verse 24, King James Bible, Daniel 3 verse 24, "...then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished," so he's shocked, he's surprised, "...and rose up in haste." Now what does that mean in haste? Very quickly. So basically, it's not that they throw them in the fire and then all of a sudden they're just spending a couple hours playing chess and snakes and ladders and stuff and having choir practice, then I'll say, well, let's see what happened to them. Wait a minute, there's flames flying. No, they actually throw them in and as common sense would say, they watch to see what happens. Nebuchadnezzar wants them to die. They get thrown in and then they're looking and immediately he rises up in haste. It's quick, it's immediate. You say, why? Because he sees they're not dying. It doesn't make sense. There's not time going by in this story, it's just immediately he's astonished. Right after they throw them in, he's astonished and then he rises up and then he says, "...did not we cast three men bound in the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, true, O king." So he's shocked because they throw them in. There's not time going by, there's not this secret level or lost level or hidden things in the Catholic Bible of all these extra things and these things just contradict what the Bible says. Okay, now go to John chapter 17. John 17. John 17. See, one thing we can realize about our Bible is there are no errors in the Word of God. There are no errors. It is 100% perfect. And look, that's a very unique thing because all throughout this world there's errors. There's things that are not true. I mean, turn on the news, it might be true, it might not. You read books on history, I mean, even if they're not trying to make errors, it might be true, it might not. History changes. Science changes. The medical industry changes, but you know what? God's Word does not change. It's perfect. It doesn't need updated. It's 100% perfect. It's complete. It says in John 17, verse 17, Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. I mean, why do you come to a church like this? To hear the Word of God preached. You say, why? Because you're tired of being lied to. You want to know the truth, right? The pillar and ground of the truth. The Bible says about the church, the Word of God is preached at church. You want to hear the truth. And we can take it to the bank that what God says is perfect, it's accurate, there are no problems or mistakes. Now, of course, when I preach sermons, I do make mistakes sometimes, because I'm a human, right? But if I read to you a verse, there's no problems with those verses, and you can take it to the bank that the vast majority of what you're hearing is true, because I'm just showing you what the Bible says. God's Word is perfect. Turn to Ephesians, chapter 1. Ephesians 1. Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 13. Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 13. It says in Ephesians 1, verse 13, In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And the Bible says that when a person puts their trust or their belief in Jesus for their salvation, they hear the word of truth. Everybody got saved because somebody preached the gospel to you. I still remember the person who gave me the gospel as an 18-year-old college student. I heard the gospel, I believed something else, I believed on the Lord that day, right? We got saved because we heard the word of truth, because God's Word is truth. This is another reason why we believe you get saved from the actual word of God, and so if there's errors in what you're showing them, they're not going to get saved because it is the word of truth, okay? Turn to James, chapter 1, James 1. Now what's interesting is pretty much everybody in this country would say they believe the Bible, but yet sometimes you show people things in the Bible and they don't believe it. Things that are just very clear, and they just don't believe it, they don't get it, and you explain stuff, and then it's like, you know, you could just read Genesis 1 or Genesis 2 and they say, well, I still believe in evolution. It's like, how? You said you believe the Bible. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. There's no room for evolution, and yet they'll say, well, you know, I believe the Bible and I believe in evolution, or something like that, right? They'll believe something that contradicts what the Bible says, just very, very clear things. It's like, you don't really believe the Bible. You say you do, but you don't really believe the Bible. You believe the parts of the Bible that you like. You love the part, love thy neighbor as thyself, right? From Leviticus. You don't love, if a man also lie with man, kind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination, they shall surely be put to death. It's like, you love that part of Leviticus, love thy neighbor as thyself. I mean, those great rules, love thy neighbor as thyself. What about the other part of Leviticus, right? There's many things, obviously, in Leviticus, but what I'm saying is, people will say they believe the Bible, but what they really mean is, I believe the parts that I like. It says in James 1, verse 18, Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. Speaking about being begotten, receiving our spiritual birth, being born again, you're begotten, or begotten, with the word of truth. You say, why? Because our Bible is correct, it's accurate, it's perfect. Now, I don't want people to be confused, because sometimes you preach on things like this, you talk about King James only stuff, and people misunderstand stuff. For example, someone might say, well, you're saying that you have to be saved through a King James Bible. What about people that, before 1611? Well, look, before 1611, the versions are actually very similar, and many of the salvation verses are basically identical to what it says in the King James, but see, the problem with the modern versions is they just corrupt the Word of God. It's not just, you know, because whosoever believeth is the same thing as whoever believes. It's the exact same word, it's just a modern day versus you know, a makalumong way to say that word, but it's the same thing, right? I've seen the other versions, it doesn't say that. It will change it to obey, it will change it to baptism, it will change the repentance or whatever, they just changed what the message actually is. So yeah, of course you can't get saved from a version that's teaching something false, it's got to be true. And then sometimes you say, well, you know, people get saved through a King James Bible, and they'll say, well, you're saying you can't get saved in another language. No, that's not what we're saying, because the Bible can be in any language. I mean, I preach my sermons in English, so obviously I speak in regards to the English language, but you can translate verses into another language and it's perfectly fine, right? The Word of God can be translated into any language, and especially because the salvation verses are very simple verses, usually. The gift of God, look, people don't have to be, you know, an expert at 20 languages to translate the gift of God into their language and get somebody saved. Or He that believeth on the Son, I mean, you can do that and translate into your language, whatever language you speak around the world, and get somebody saved. And guess what they did in English-speaking countries before they had a Bible? They did the same thing. They basically knew the Word of God, and you know what, they translated it just individually into their own language and said, well, this is what the Bible says, right? So we're not saying that you can only get saved through a King James Bible. We're saying it's got to be the Word of Truth. It's got to be accurate. It's got to be correct what's being said, and the problem is these modern versions, they change the Word of God. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2. And look, there's nothing magical about the English language either, because some people that are King James only, they go too far and they say, well, the English language has some secret, you know, I don't know, golden nuggets or whatever, you know, in chicken nuggets, I don't know, whatever, that you don't have in another language. That's ridiculous. That's not what the Bible teaches. No, because the reality is the Old Testament was not written in English. The New Testament was not written in English. Hebrew primarily, some of Daniel Aramaic, and then Greek for the New Testament. So here's the thing, obviously the Word of God could be translated in those languages, and here's the reality, God exists outside of languages. So the Word of God can be translated in any language, but when you're preaching the gospel to someone, you better be showing them the truth. It could say John 3.16, but if the words coming after are repent and get baptized and live a good life, you're not going to get saved from that. Just because it says John 3.16, it better say, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, right, but have everlasting life. 2 Timothy 2 verse 15, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. The Bible tells us that the Word of God is the word of truth. It's perfect, it's accurate. Now this is also a verse that people take way out of context because rightly divide the word of truth, and they think this is, you think I talk about math, they really make it like a math class. It's like, this is a pizza, this is a pizza, let's cut it into eight slices. Here's, you know, piece number one, dispensation number one, here's dispensation number two, and you got the pepperoni, it's like a pizza of eight different, you got the pepperoni, you got the Hawaiian, you got the, man help me out, I don't eat pizza enough, you got the Supreme, you got, you know, whatever, the cheese, and you cut it into like eight different slices, and then we're living in one of those slices and nothing else matters. That's not what it means by rightly dividing the word of truth. What it means is basically every single verse in the Bible you got to look at the context, you got to cross-reference things. It's not just in sections, I mean every verse you need to rightly divide. Every verse you need to make sure you're not taking it out of context, because you could, you could quote a verse that sounds like it's saying something, but it's really the opposite because you're taking it out of context, right? So you got to rightly divide every single word, but what the Bible says is the Word of God itself, it is the word of truth. So what should we do? We should study the Word of God so we know it, right? When I preach sermons, the vast majority of sermons I preach is because I'm reading or memorizing and I see something and I want to preach on it, and then I preach a sermon about it. When I preach chapter by chapter, I memorize those chapters ahead of time because I'm trying to study the Word of God so I can just preach what the Bible's saying. And look, whether you're preaching sermons or not, whether you're a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, you should be studying the Bible for yourself. The primary way is obviously reading the Bible, but you can memorize the Bible, you can cross-reference, study topics out. The problem is people, instead of studying the Word of God and the Word of truth, they study, you know, Clarence Larkin's dispensational charts. And look, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with having Bible charts can be good if they're accurate, but I'm saying you ought to be studying the Word of God, not just studying these, you know, dispensational books or whatever. I knew somebody who went to Hiles Anderson College and actually turned to Hebrews 4. He's a friend of mine from West Virginia and he graduated from Hiles Anderson and he told me that when he was in Bible college, he said, nobody read the Bible because they were too busy reading all these other books, like literally nobody read the Bible. It's like you're studying the Word of God in Bible college and they've got you so busy studying books that are not the Bible that you don't have time to study the Bible. And look, I'm not saying it's wrong to read a book outside of the Bible. You can study things and learn things and some people have good information to teach you, but if you don't have time to read the Bible, there's a problem there because the Bible says study the Word of God, right? If you're very knowledgeable about this book, even if you're ignorant about other things, you're actually going to have wisdom and knowledge. And to be completely honest, you need this book as basically your foundation, so if you hear other things, you know whether it's true or not. There are certain things that I know for a fact. For example, once saved, always saved. Eternal security. So here's the thing, if there's a religious book written by someone who doesn't believe in eternal security, all right, well it's time to shut that book and not listen to that guy because it's not the Word of Truth. So you need the Bible as your ultimate number one foundation, so if you hear even a sermon or read another book or whatever, you make sure, hey, it's accurate with what the Bible says, right? And look, you should always be doing this, even if you're listening to my preaching or online preaching, make sure it lines up with what the Bible says. Now turn to Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4. Number one, we know our Bible's perfect because there are no errors, but honestly the big reason why I know that this is the Word of God is because when I read the Bible, I can tell it is completely different than any other book. There is just power in the Word of God. And look, an unsaved person would not understand this. And in fact, some unsaved people have their own holy books, and they would say that about their holy books. For example, I read the Bhagavad Gita, which is known as the Bible of the Hindus. It's the worst book I've ever read, and I've read a lot of false scriptures. That is the worst. I mean, Daniel 3 was far better. At least it's entertaining. Flames flying out, you know, it's entertaining, right? But the Bhagavad Gita was the biggest nonsense. It was boring, it made no sense, it contradicted. I mean, it was praising the devil all throughout it, and yet you'll hear certain, you know, especially Hari Krishna, because that's their big book, and they'll say, you know, this book is not like any other book. Well, you're right about that. There is a spirit to that book, I believe, but it's not a godly spirit. And of course, they say that about their books because they have a false religion, but for us that are saved, you can easily tell the difference between Daniel 3 and the Word of God versus Daniel 3 in a false version. It's just obvious, and sometimes you can't put your finger on it necessarily, but you can just tell it's not accurate, right? The same thing is probably true for many of you that have been saved for a long time, and yet you heard certain sermons that you didn't fully understand all the doctrines and stuff, but you're like, this does not make sense. It just doesn't make sense. I remember my wife telling me a long time ago when she was, she heard a sermon on the gap theory, and then my wife was asking me about it before we were married, and she's just like, this doesn't make sense, it's confusing. I was like, yeah, because the Bible doesn't teach, there's a four and a half billion year gap between the first two verses of the Bible. That's nonsense, right? But it's just like, as a saved person, you hear something false and there's the spirit of truth inside of you that says, that's not right, that's not true. Doesn't make sense. As a saved person, you can understand this. When you read the Bible, you can tell it's the Word of God. Now, you might not be able to prove it, you know, empirically and win a debate versus someone, but you yourself know that it's true and it's the Word of God. I mean, I don't think that I could win debates versus people that are these expert scholars that throw out all these vain arguments, and yet if I were to speak to people that are saved, they'd say, amen, I agree with what he's saying. Because there's power to the Word of God, and we can tell when we read it, it is the Word of God. The Bible says in Hebrews 4 verse 12, for the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now, the Bible says the Word of God is quick and powerful, and it's not very complicated what that means. I mean, when it says quick, it's a word for alive, okay? For example, there's an old Western movie, The Quick and the Dead, which is the alive and the dead. It was basically an old-fashioned makalumong word to say quick, okay? It's not saying quick as in, wow, it really moves fast, and wow, it lifts weights, right? Now, that's very obvious. We read that, it's obvious to us, but the biggest book to debunk the King James Bible I have read personally, the King James only controversy, and that was one of his big arguments, well, that's confusing. The Word of God is quick and powerful. My Bible doesn't lift weights. My Bible doesn't run. I was like, I mean, that was the James White, this super expert genius James White, and I was only like either 19 or 20 at the time, because I was at a church that was not King James only, so they gave me that book to read, and I was like, you just made me more hardcore King James only. I mean, that's one of your best arguments. My Bible is not quick and powerful. It doesn't lift weights. It's like, is that a joke? It's not confusing, especially, I mean, the word quick, I get it, because it's not as common, but powerful, if you say something's powerful, a five-year-old knows what you're talking about. They know that you're not talking about lifting weights, okay? It's very obvious, but what this verse actually means is the Word of God, it's alive and it's powerful, and basically it has a way to get to the inside, to even the thoughts and intents of the heart. You say, what do you mean, Brother Stuckey? I'm saying when the Word of God is preached or when you read the Bible, it is a way to get to the inside, which no living weapon or sword could actually do. Meaning, if you're reading the Bible and you're guilty of a certain sin and you read about it, all of a sudden it pierces you on the inside. Or we've all heard those sermons that stepped on our toes, right? I've heard sermons that stepped on my toes. I was a worldly college student that watched all the wrong movies, listened to all the wrong music, and I heard sermons that just ripped apart rock music and these movies, and so you know what? I felt very guilty, took all my music, threw it away in the trash. How does that happen? Because the Word of God is powerful. It is a way to get to the inside. And here's the thing, I already knew it was wrong to listen to Aerosmith. I'm not an idiot. They're talking about drugs and drinking and sex and drugs and rock and roll and all that stuff. I knew it was wrong, but I enjoyed the sound of it, right? I liked rock music. But then when you hear that sermon, boom, it hits you, you start feeling very guilty, right? I'm sure all of us could make a testimony at various times. We've heard sermons and it just hits you hard where you felt very guilty. Now here's the thing, you have a choice how you react to that. For example, you could decide to quench the spirits and say, you know what? I don't care what the Word of God says. I'm gonna justify my sin. I'm going to lie and deceive myself, which the Bible speaks about. And then, of course, you're gonna leave a church like this because you don't like your toes being stepped on, right? Or when you hear that message, you can decide, you know what? I can't deny what the Bible says. I just need to change. People oftentimes say, well, you know, I'm not like this. I'm not the sort of person that reads. You know, reading the Bible, it's hard for me. I'm not a reader. Change! Change! Isn't that your purpose of being at church, to change? Yeah, you know, we're all different. I mean, I remember saying, hey, I could never preach the gospel to anyone. I told my friend, I was like, hey, I'm too shy. It's not me. I'm not an outgoing person. It's just not the gift that God has given me. What happens? You change! Many people would say the same thing. You would have never been the person to randomly walk up to someone that you don't know and start talking to them. And yet, what happened? You changed. You say, why? Because that's what the Word of God says. And probably for most of us, we probably started soul-winning because we just knew that we were supposed to. And then all of a sudden, it's like, man, it's exciting. It's fun. And you know, the first time you go soul-winning, for those of you maybe that are nervous to step your foot in that water, you actually realize, actually, what was I nervous about? Right? People think like they're gonna knock on the door of, like, the smartest Jehovah's Witness in the world and get destroyed in the debate. Number one, Jehovah's Witnesses don't know much about the Bible. Number two, if somebody wants to debate with you, regardless of whether or not you can win that debate, you just move on. You don't have to wait until you're the most knowledgeable person about the Bible to go out soul-winning. Look, I could run into someone out soul-winning that could bring up something that I don't know how to answer. But if they're trying to debate with me, does it really matter? It's like, all right, well, I'll just move on to the next door. Right? Because there's no purpose of debating anyway. But anyways, go to Luke chapter 4. Luke 4. Luke 4. But see, there's a power to the Word of God that is unlike anything else. And, you know, why is that? Because, yes, this is a book, but it's a spiritual book. It's different than a man-made book. It's completely different. This is like no other book in the entire world. Luke 4, verse 32, it says, "...and they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power." Go to verse 36, "...and they were all amazed and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! For with authority and power he commanded the unclean spirits, and they come out." And look, there are people that don't believe the Bible, but even they, if they're honest, could admit there's just something about the Word of God. Because look, unsaved people, even if they don't believe this, there's something about this book that offends them. Right? You go soul-winning and explain to people the gospel, and they get really mad when you're quoting Bible verses. It's like you quote, "...all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth." And then they're really mad at you. It's like, I'm just showing you what the Bible says. Right? But they get really mad because they don't believe it, and they don't want to think that they deserve hell. That happens. Why is that? Because the Word of God has power. Right? God's Word has power like nothing else. Turn to 1st Corinthians 2. 1st Corinthians 2. I mean, sometimes I read verses in the Bible, and I just kind of stop and I think of the beauty of that verse about how it's worded so perfectly. And I just think to myself, the greatest poet in the entire world wouldn't be able to do this. I mean, it's just fantastic. It's just written 100% perfectly. No matter how eloquent anybody is, it's like, it's nothing like the Bible. The Bible is different than any other book. I mean, there's a reason why it's the greatest selling book ever, and unsaved people read it. I mean, it used to be kind of a common thing that everybody read the Bible. Not so much anymore. But it's just like, there's a difference between this book and any other book. And you know what? There's also a difference between Daniel 3 in the Catholic Bible and Daniel 3 in the real Bible. It's just madness in the Catholic Bible. 1st Corinthians 2, verse 3, Paul the Apostle speaking, "...and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Here's a man, Paul the Apostle, which was very educated. Probably more educated than any of us. Intelligent man, he knew a lot of things, and he said, when I preached, I made sure that I did not give you enticing man's wisdom, right? I basically preached so you could understand the Word of God. For example, when a person gets up to preach a sermon, and this is kind of helpful advice for those of you that might one day preach a sermon, you have to ask yourself, what is your goal when you're preaching a sermon? Is your goal to preach a sermon where people are really confused and think, that guy's the smartest person in the world? I didn't understand any of that, right? Like some of your math professors, right? We've had math teachers, and the first day of class, it's all letters. Is this math class? Like, I thought I was signed up for math, and it's all letters, and you're just completely confused, and all the teacher had to do was give a sample problem and put the number, oh, it's actually pretty easy, right? But it's just so confusing, you don't understand, but then you think, man, that guy's just so smart. Actually, he's just not a good teacher, because your goal is actually to make something complicated simple. My goal is to preach sermons and bring it down to a level where you say, man, I understand that, it's not complicated, now I can apply it, right? My goal should not be to make myself sound really intelligent, but actually bring the Word of God down to a level that you can understand it. I mean, if you're gonna teach your kids, don't you want them to understand what you're saying so they can apply it? I mean, it makes just common sense. Your goal should not be to confuse people. And look, this sounds very basic, but there's many pastors out there that just speak in ways that people don't understand. It's like, we're starting a five-part series on soteriology, and they go on and on, and you're like, soteriology, the study of salvation. Why not just say salvation where people understand it? Right? I mean, it's just like, why not use words that people actually get? But they're trying to make themselves look smart. That was not Paul the Apostle. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. 2 Corinthians 6. I can't even remember all the terms. I've heard them from various people, these terms that, you know, are really complicated and nobody understands and everything like that. And eschatology is an example. You know, a lot of people don't know what eschatology means. Right? Now, preachers will mention eschatology, and it's okay to say the word as long as you explain what that means. It's a study of the end times. People understand that, but they'll literally preach a sermon on eschatology, and you don't even know until 30 minutes into the sermon what it's about. Right? Or you hear a sermon, and this is very common with dispensational teachers, where they bounce all around. It's like, all right, we're in Genesis 1. All right, now there's a four and a half billion year gap here. Let's go to the book of Jeremiah to see what this is talking about. And you're like, what? And you get done with the sermon. You're like, man, that guy's so smart. I mean, I better buy these books and study. I don't understand what he's talking about. Right? There's literally pastors. That's the way they preach. This is a bunch of nonsense. You're supposed to preach in a way where people actually understand what you're saying. You say, why? Because the Word of God is actually written in a very plain way. The Bible says, make it plain that he may run who readeth it. The Word of God is written in a plain and very simple way, so you can easily apply it. The Bible's not complicated. God's not trying to confuse you. Now, I get that there's deep things in the Bible, but most of the Bible's just bottom shelf, simple to understand, hard to actually do. Right? Read therein all the days of thy life. Read the Bible every day. Everybody could understand that verse. Easy to understand, hard to do. That's the way the Word of God works. It's very easy to understand, though. Right? 2 Corinthians 6 verse 7, by the Word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness, on the right hand and on the left. And the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6 verse 7, the Word of truth and the power of God, why? God's Word has power. And this is unlike any other book. When you read it, you can tell it's the Word of God. Turn to Acts chapter 6, Acts 6, Acts 6. And look, when you read something that's false, like Daniel 3 in the Catholic Bible, you can tell it's not the Word of God. If you're saved, you can tell. It's not actually that complicated. Acts 6 verse 8, and Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. So Stephen preaches the Word of God, faith, power, the wisdom by which he spake, and they end up stoning him. Why? Because the Word of God has power. Look, one lesson when you preach sermons, make sure you use a lot of Bible. You say, why? I don't care how good of a speaker you are, you're not as good as you think. The Word of God is what has power, not man's words. Even in a sermon like this, I'm still using a lot of Bible. I would not preach a whole sermon against Daniel 3 in the Catholic Bible and never turn to a verse. That's ridiculous. The Word of God has power. You better find a way if you preach a sermon, because sometimes you have a good idea. This would be a great sermon, but I can't think of verses or passages to use. Got to come up with a different sermon. There's some times I have a really good idea and I'm just like, where does it talk about this in the Bible? I know it's in there somewhere, but I don't know. Well, you got to come up with a different sermon. You say, why? I'm never gonna preach a sermon that doesn't have any Bible verses. What would be the purpose of that? Turn to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. Also something to try to encourage you, maybe that, you know, if you're new at preaching or you want to preach sometime. Like, for example, I said we're having a men's preaching night, which is actually going to be on Easter Sunday. That would be the day, April 17. But here's the thing. Maybe you're saying, well, you know, I'm nervous. I don't know how to speak. I don't know what to say. I don't have that gift or whatever. You know, the Word of God is what has power. You could preach a very basic sermon on why we should go soul winning and quote verses like, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that win its souls is wise. And you know what? Just hearing that verse is powerful to someone who's a soul winner. People are gonna say, man, amen. That's what we need to hear. Even the simple truth, if the Bible is used, they're powerful. Even if you're new at speaking, you don't know what to say, you're shy, you don't think you have that gift. Actually, there's power. Why? Not in your words, but in God's words. Think of Moses. I'm not eloquent. How am I gonna speak? Right? I mean, look, I never considered myself a public speaker. I mean, that used to be my biggest fear. I thought I was, when we did college things, you know, I was like the worst in class. But it's something different when you preach about something you're passionate about and you believe in and you know. And so look, if you're gonna preach a sermon, preach on something you know. Preach on something you understand. Right? You know, you don't just get up and just preach on, let me just preach some deep, dark thing that I'm not quite sure about. I mean, you just preach what you know. So look, the first sermon you should preach is probably gonna be something on salvation or soul winning or something very basic. Why we should read the Bible. And look, those sermons are always good. We always need to hear verses like that or sermons like that. The Word of God has power. Sermons have power when you use Bible. And of course, we've probably been to churches, many of us, where there are no verses used. Right? You sit in church and you hear one verse and a bunch of stories. You're in church to hear the pillar and ground of the truth. What's the purpose of that? Now, the worst sermon I ever heard in my life, and this is worse than heretical sermons, okay? I heard a sermon from someone I believe who was saved, but he preached an entire sermon on Abraham Lincoln with zero Bible verses. Abraham Lincoln, a famous president from the U.S. At least quote a verse about Jesus having a beard because Abraham Lincoln had a beard, right? Zero verses! Why are you preaching on it? It's like every pastor in West Virginia is obsessed with the Civil War. It's like that happened 150 years ago. Nobody cares anymore, right? But it's like why would you preach a sermon with no Bible verses? I've heard many sermons where there's like one Bible verse in the whole sermon and it's just like, oh, what's the purpose? And look, you could hear somebody who's a very gifted speaker, but if they don't use Bible, there's no power. And yet, I've heard people preach with a lot of Bible and they're not the best speaker, but I walk away and I like the sermon. I get reminded at the very least of the basic truths. Of course, you want the balance of, you know, the Word of God and being dynamic, but the most important part is just the Word of God by far. With experience, you're gonna get more dynamic. That's just kind of the way it works, okay? Not only with preaching does it lack power if you don't use the Bible, but you know what? If you soul win without using Bible verses, it lacks power. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1 verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. See, the Bible says we get born again by the Word of God, a non-corruptible seed. So here's the thing. When we go soul winning, we should use the Bible. That's very basic, but when people first start going soul winning in a lot of Baptist churches, they don't use Bible, right? When I was at my church in West Virginia, there's always a lot of people that want to be missionaries, and so we would always have them come out soul winning with us, and we'd have them knock the first door to see how they did it. And it's just like most of the missionaries didn't use any Bible. It's clear they'd never done this before. And it's just like they'd half quote Romans 3 23, sometimes falsely quoting from another version or whatever, and then it's... I remember one time, it was really embarrassing. I was with the assistant pastor at the church who's a friend of mine, and you know, we were with this guy who was going to be a missionary, and so we have him knock the first door, and you know, he basically was talking to someone who said they didn't believe the Bible. He half quoted Romans 3 saying, you know, we've all done wrong. All of us have done wrong. Do you believe that? That's not quoting the Bible. Say, for all of sin and come short of the glory of God, then explain, okay? But you don't just say, well, we've all done wrong. Quote the Bible, right? And then explain what it says. And then after a couple minutes, this is a woman who doesn't believe the Bible. It's like, well, would you like to pray and receive Jesus right now? I was embarrassed. I'm just like, this woman said she doesn't believe the Bible. It's like, what are you talking about, right? It's always the worst if you're a soul winning partner, you're the silent partner, and then it's like, man, this is embarrassing, right? But it's just like, there was no power in the presentation because he didn't use Bible. And look, the gospel is not complicated. We're just explaining it's a gift. You don't have to be the most eloquent. I mean, people know what a gift is, and you explain, well, that's the way salvation works. Eternal life, it's a gift. Wow, that makes sense. I've never heard that before. And like I promised you, if you preach the gospel using a lot of verses, the person listening to you is going to think you know more about the Bible than anyone in the entire world, right? I mean, it's like, people will literally say that, you know, to you sometimes, like, man, I've never met someone who knew so much about the Bible, which sadly, there's very few people that know the Bible in 2022. But literally, even if you aren't the most eloquent, the person listening is going to think, man, this is like the greatest Bible lesson I've ever heard in my life. It makes so much sense. So look, for those of you that are shy to go soul winning, all you got to do is start coming as a silent partner, see somebody do it in action, and then you're just showing the Bible verses and explaining them. Of course, you can get better with time, we understand that, but it's actually not as complicated as you think. Now turn to 1 Corinthians 2. We'll look at a few more places. The Bible says, the sower soweth the word. It doesn't say the sower soweth his personal testimony. Look, I'm always happy to hear about how people get saved. It's always interesting, you know, people get saved in a variety of different ways. I'm sure many people at our church would say, online preaching, you got saved. I got saved because somebody in college gave me the gospel, right? Many people in this room, I mean, maybe somebody else in this room gave you the gospel, or a friend, or a brother, or cousin, or whatever, but it's always interesting to hear somebody's testimony of how they got saved. But here's the thing, it's interesting to me because I am saved. But if you're going to talk to someone who's unsaved, you need to just explain the testimony of the Lord, according to John 3. What he did, not how you got saved. But what do you have to believe? And if they believe the testimony of the Lord, that's what saves them, okay? Turn to your Bible, we're in 1 Corinthians 2, and here's what it says in 1 Corinthians 2, in verse 9, Now, verse 9 is often associated with, you know, people saying, when we go to heaven, God's prepared these amazing things. That's not really the context. I'm not, I'm not against saying that, but it's not really the context here, because the context in 1 Corinthians 2 is about knowing the Word of God, and basically saying the deep things of the Word of God, okay? And look, as a saved person, when you read the Bible, there are things God has prepared for you, deep things that you can understand that defy any sort of human reasoning, that will just explain to you the mysteries of life, right? The deep things of God you can learn. It says in verse 11, So look, if you do not have the Spirit of God, if you are not saved, you can't understand a spiritual book. You're not going to get it. Verse 12, So look, as we preach the Word of God, as we read the Bible, we compare spiritual with spiritual to understand a spiritual book, and having the Spirit of Truth inside of you, you can understand. But the natural man, the unsaved man, the person who only has the flesh, they're not born again, they don't have the Spirit of God, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. You see, if an unsaved person picked up this book and read it, it would go straight over their head. They wouldn't get it. It wouldn't make sense to them, right? You have to have the Spirit of God to understand this. This is why you hear a lot of people say that they started reading the Bible and they put it down because it was complicated, they didn't understand what it was talking about. Well, I mean, they might be telling the truth. Maybe they did try to start reading the Bible, but it just went over their head. And look, if you don't understand something, it's gonna be boring. What I learned when I was a math teacher is that there's really three groups in a classroom. There's those that do not understand what you're talking about, those that think it's very easy, and those that are kind of in the middle, where basically they can figure it out, but they got to practice. And what I found is these two groups are troublemakers. Those that don't understand what's going on, they're troublemakers because they're confused in their board. And those that find it very easy, they're troublemakers also. I even think back to myself in school, math was my best subject, and I was like, I was a worse student in math in terms of how I acted, you know, I was goofing off and everything, because, you know, I understood a lot of the stuff, whereas in other classes I did not, right? And here's what I'm saying, unsaved people, when they read the Word of God, they're here. They do not understand what it's talking about. It goes straight over their head, and they're not going to want to read it. But here's the thing, you don't have an excuse not to read the Bible. If you believe on Jesus, you are saved. You've got the Spirit of God inside of you, and, you know, here's the thing about the Word of God, there are things that are very surface level, but there's certainly things that are not, things you got to study the scripture to know. There's never a time to stop reading the Bible, right? Turn to John 10. John 10. Understanding that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, realize that an unsaved person cannot get saved on their own. Because when they pick up this book and read it, it will go straight over their head. This is why throughout the Bible you have the Ethiopian eunuch as like, understandest thou what thou readest? How can I, except some man, guide me? He's like, I don't understand. This is like Mandarin Chinese to me, right? I don't understand what this is about, right? I mean, that's the way unsaved people are with the Word of God. They don't understand. And it's like, even religious people, you'll give them Bible verses, you can tell it goes straight over their head, right? I mean, you could quote John 3.16 to an unsaved religious person that is a Christian, and they would say, Amen, you know, anyone who believes. And you know, if you believe, that means you're gonna walk the walk and live a good life and get baptized. It's like, it says whosoever believe it. And yet by that they think, that means, you know, if you really believe, faith has action, they'll say, right? You got to have a living faith, a walking faith, or something like that. It's like, no, that's not what John 3.16 is saying, right? The one that's my favorite is when unsaved religious people turn to Matthew 7 on you, where the person, right? Some people know what I'm talking about. Because, you know, when someone experiences it for the first time, like a saved person going sowing, and they turn to a great verse to prove our, they're in shock. And I always tell my sowing partner, yeah, they do this sometimes. I mean, it's very obvious, but they don't get it. It's like, many will say to me that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And then I named them many wonderful works? And in the name cast out devils, and then I'll profess it on them, I never knew you. And of course, it's very simple. Someone trusting in their works, God's gonna say, I never knew you because you were trusting in your works. But they turn there and say, well, this proves you got to live a good life, because even a very good person didn't do enough. I'm like, what? It's like, what are you talking about? Or like, sometimes you turn to the publican and the Pharisee, you show the story, which one of these people do you think went to heaven? Well, the Pharisee, right? Because he's a good person. That's literally what people will say. And you know what? We were all the same way before we were saved. I'm not trying to insult these people, because we go out, we try to get them saved, but what I'm saying is that unsaved people, they just don't get the Bible. And you know what? I believe a big reason why God did not allow someone to get saved on their own is to try to keep us humble, because nobody could sit here and say, well, you know what? I just got saved on my own. I just taught myself the Bible. It's like everything I believe, I just taught myself. I taught myself to be a soul winner. No, you didn't. You got saved from somebody else, you learned how to go soul winning from somebody else, you learned great truths from the Bible from somebody else, as did I, as did every preacher you hear. They learn things from other people. And I believe God sets it up that way to keep us humble, because nobody can just say, I've just done this all myself. You haven't. You got saved because somebody gave you the gospel. Turn to John chapter 10. We'll look at two more places. John 10. John 10. Now there's another thing taught in the Bible, and what that is is that if somebody is saved, they're going to understand the voice of the shepherd. They're going to understand the Word of God. They're going to understand Jesus Christ, and they're not going to be deceived into something that's false. Okay, now let me show you the verses and explain that. John 10 verse 27. I actually started John 10 verse 27, and it says here, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Now some people see this verse, because this is a great eternal security section, but they'll look at this verse and say, we'll see if you're one of the children of God, you're going to follow God. You're going to walk the walk and do the works. That's not what it means by follow me, because earlier in the chapter in verse 4, John 10 verse 4, and when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. So basically as a saved person, you're not going to be deceived by Muhammad. You're not going to be deceived by Buddha. And so wait a minute, we got an appointed son of God in 2022. Maybe that's the son of God. You're not going to be deceived as a saved person. Now many people will hear that voice and follow it. Not you if you're saved, though, because you've got the Spirit of God inside of you. So when he's saying, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, he's not saying, you're going to read the Bible, you're going to go to church. No, what he's saying is, you're not going to follow the Antichrist. You're not taking the mark of the beast. You're not going to switch to Islam and say you're a Muslim and just reject Christianity. You're not going to become a Buddhist or become an atheist. No, because you're going to follow the voice of the shepherd. Now that does not mean that you're necessarily going to come to church and read the Bible, but what it does mean is you're not going to follow a false religion, though. You say, why? Because you can tell it's not the truth, because you have the Spirit of truth inside of you. Go to 1 John 4. 1 John 4. 1 John 4. And look, a lot of people disagree with this, but this is just the truth. A saved person is never going to just not believe in Jesus Christ. That will not happen. And I gave you John 10 as a reference, but you can look at a lot of references, and I don't have time to do it, but just another example, you've got to cross-reference these things, but in John chapter 3, it talks about when you receive the testimony of the Lord, receiving Jesus Christ, you've set to your seal that God is true. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise when you cross reference. You're sealed with the Spirit of truth. You've set to your seal God is true, meaning you're never going to call God a liar. Kind of lines up with 1 John 5. If you don't believe this, you're calling God a liar. As a saved person, you never will. A saved person is going to know those three things, that it's a free gift, it's only in Jesus, and you cannot lose your salvation. If someone thinks they can lose their salvation, they are not saved, because they're calling God a liar. And here's the thing, you say, well, maybe they believed and changed their mind. No, no, no, because when you receive the testimony of the Lord, you've set to your seal God is true, according to John chapter 3. You've got the Spirit of truth inside of you. I'm not saying you can never be confused about anything, but there's definitely a limit to that, and the Bible is very clear in 1 John, you will not get confused on whether or not Jesus is the way to heaven. If somebody says, well, you know what, I think there's multiple ways to heaven. Not saved. Someone says, well, you know what, it's not really a gift, we got to also do the works, they're not saved. Someone says, you can lose your salvation, not saved. Which, by the way, that's why when we go soul-winning, those are the three things we're explaining. And of course, the one people really struggle with is, once saved, always saved. Because every unsaved person knows one thing about the Bible, and that is, if you commit suicide, you're going to hell, right? And that's not even true. The one thing they know for sure, it's not even true. And that's the one thing I knew for sure before I was saved, too, right? I knew that if you commit suicide, and yet it's not even true, because you have spiritual eternal life, so even if you end in your own life, you're not going to lose your salvation. 1 John 4, we'll close up here, 1 John 4, verse 4. Year of God little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. He that is in you is in reference to the Holy Spirit of God. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. Isn't it true that Joel Osteen has a lot more people listening to him than any good preacher does? We're never going to have a mega church, and we've grown quite a bit as a church, but make no mistake about it, we're not going to be running a thousand people out of church. It's not going to happen. You say, why is that? Because the truth is, more people are following the advice from the world than the advice from God. And it says, we are of God, he that knoweth God heareth us, he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error. And this is a pretty deep passage, but in terms of basically being deceived by, and really this is it largely in reference to the nature of God and oneness in the Trinity and stuff like that. I preached on 1 John before, you can listen online if you weren't here for that. But it says, we are of God, he that knoweth God heareth us. And what John is saying is, hey, people that are saved, when we preach to them, they're like, that's what the Bible says. Now they might get mad at what it says, but they know it's what the Bible says. You say, why? Because they have the Spirit of God inside of them to tell them those things. But the unsaved person, they don't get these things. So here's what I'm saying, as a saved person, it is obvious to us the power in the Word of God. When you read this book, you know it's the Word of God. I don't have any doubts. I mean, when I got saved and I started reading the Bible, I immediately knew, wow, this is the Word of God. And I didn't have any reason to believe. I mean, I didn't have any explanation. I didn't have any proofs. I couldn't prove that the Bible was the Word of God, but if somebody asked me, it's like, well, I don't care what you say. I know that this is the Word of God. I mean, I read it. It just is. It's just obvious, right? And honestly, you know what? You don't have to be able to prove the Word of God is true, because if someone's going to get saved, how do they get saved? For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believe it. I think it's good to study those things and learn certain things, but the truth is, when we go soul winning, if somebody is forcing you to prove the Word of God is true for them to get saved, well, what sign did Jesus say he was going to give them? The sign of the Prophet Jonas as he was three days and three nights in the whale's belly? So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth? I mean, it says, I think it's in 1 Corinthians where it's like, you know, the Jews seek after wisdom, or the Greeks seek after wisdom, and it's just like, but you don't give them wisdom. You don't give them an evolution seminar. You just give them the Word of God. Why? The gospel is what has power. So look, when we go soul winning, when we read the Bible, when we preach sermons, you need to use a lot of Bible, and as a saved person, if you, I'm not suggesting you do this, I do this for the sake of preaching against these things, and this is not something I did when I didn't preach sermons, I'm not suggesting you read Daniel 3 in the Catholic Bible, but if you do, it's not going to be hard for you to figure out. There's something wrong here. I mean, a volcano exploding, and yet the people that are creating this volcano aren't dying? Something just doesn't make sense here, right? Let's close in word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your Word on this topic, and help us just to be wise and have knowledge about all these different things, God, but help us to not just realize the Word of God is perfect, but to actually use it, to actually read it, to use it as we go soul winning, to study it, God. Help us not just be people that are just so excited for the Word of God, but we do nothing with it, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. First stanza, ready? Sing. Sing. Come on, let's do this again. Come on, let's do this again. Come on, let's do this again. Come on, let's do this again. Come on, let's do this again. Come on, let's do this again.