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

Now, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is the famous verse there in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 where the Bible reads, For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to 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 turn, if you would, to Psalm 138, right in the very middle of the Bible is the book of Psalms. In Psalm 138, what I want to preach about tonight is the word of God and I want to magnify the word of God to you tonight. Now it says in Psalm 138 verse 2, I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Now we know that God's word is sacred. We know that it's hallowed. The Bible says, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And we know that God's word is holy. He says, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for I will not hold him guiltless that taketh my name in vain. So God's word is sacred. God's word is holy. But the Bible says that God has magnified his word above all his name. Now look if you would at verse 2 there again. It says, I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. Now the Bible is clear there about worshiping toward the temple and praising the name of God, but even more than praising his name, we ought to praise his word. Many have accused me and others of worshiping the word of God. And I'll say, guilty as charged, because God's word cannot be magnified too much if it's magnified above his own name. Anyone who begins to downplay the power or the significance or the importance of God's word is someone that you should stay away from. That's a red flag right there when you hear somebody trying to downgrade the word of God. Some examples would be the Roman Catholic Church. They say, oh the Bible's written by man, it's filled with mistakes, it's not inerrant, it's not inspiring. You'll hear people downgrade the word of God. You'll hear people say the word is not God. Well the Bible says the word is God. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. Anyone who tries to downplay or downgrade the word of God is someone to beware of. Now God's word is powerful. And what I want to talk about today is 14 things that God's word is compared to in the Bible. There are a lot of comparisons made in order to help us to understand the power and the effect of God's word. He gave us 14, and I'm sure there are more that I probably missed, but this is what I came up with, 14 likenesses that he gave us to help us understand the awesome power of God's word. First of all, he compared his word to a sword. Go to Ephesians chapter 6. We just read the famous verse that said that the word of quick, quick means alive, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirits and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Listen to the language there. He said God's word is sharp. God's word is piercing. God's word cuts. God's word divides. Look at Ephesians 6 there in verse 17. This is talking about the armor of the believer as he does warfare with the rulers of the darkness of this world and with spiritual wickedness in high places. The Bible says, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. As he gives all this armor, he gives one offensive weapon which is the word of God. All kinds of armor to protect and to defend all the fiery darts of the wicked and to defend against the wiles of the devil. But when we go on the offense, my friend, we are using the Bible to go on the offense, to strike back, as it were. Remember when Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil three times? He was tempted with three different temptations and each time he said, it is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that precedes that of the mouth of God. It is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. It is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. That was his weapon to fight back against lies, to fight back against temptation and deception and that which is wrong. He used the word of God. It's a weapon. God compares it to a sword because a sword is a weapon. That's the comparison that he was using. See there's a fight that's going on today. The Bible says fight the good fight of faith. The Bible says we should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. The Bible says I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Yes, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but we do wrestle against principalities, against the rules of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places and so our weapon today that we are to fight against lies and fight against evil is the word of God. It's a spiritual battle and we have a spiritual weapon which is the word of God. But not only that, the word of God is likened unto a sword for another reason, because it divides. The sharpness of the sword is used to explain the dividing. Now the sharper something is, the finer a division it's able to make. If you have something blunt, you can cut something, but you're not going to be able to cut exactly, are you? But if you have a very sharp sword, a sharp knife, a razor blade, you can make very exact lines. And that's how God's word is. It divides between right and wrong. Not a gray area, not a big blunt, not a hacksaw that very bluntly cuts and divides things, but a sharp sword that's sharper than any sword that can just cut that exact sliver through between right and wrong, between truth and untruth. God's word has always brought division. He said it's a dividing implement. Luke 12.51, you don't have to turn there. Jesus Christ said, suppose ye that I'm come to give peace on earth, I tell you nay. Do you think that I'm come to bring peace on earth? Now if you go back earlier in the book of Luke, the statement peace on earth comes out of the angel's mouth when welcoming in obviously Jesus Christ, the Christmas chapter that we're used to in Luke chapter 2. But when Jesus Christ came on this earth, he came to bring not peace, but division. Peace will come in his millennial reign. Peace will come when he is crowned as the king and the king of kings and the lord of lords upon this earth. But when he came the first time, he was not crowned in that way. He was not accepted. He came unto his own. His own received him not. He was rejected of that generation and so he did not bring peace. He rather brought division. Let me read it again. Suppose ye that I'm come to give peace on earth, I tell you nay, but rather division. John 7 43 says, so there was a division among the people because of him, talking about because of Jesus. Therefore, said some of the Pharisees, John 9 16, this man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, how can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them and then directly to the word of God, John 10 19 says, there was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. For in the Bible means because of these sayings. These sayings cause division in Jesus' day and they will dead sure cause division today. When God's word is preached, any time it's being faithfully preached, it's going to divide people. If you have a preacher and he preaches the word of God and it's bringing everybody together, something's wrong. He's not following in the footsteps of Jesus. Because if you preach and it's just uniting denominations and it's just uniting all people, something's wrong. Because God's word being faithfully preached by a true man of God always brings division because broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at. Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. And so God has already predicted and told us that most people will reject his word. But will everyone reject his word? No, so there's division, isn't there? Division between those who reject it, the majority, and those who accept it, which is the minority. Everybody's not going to accept it. I mean the only way that you could theoretically have God's word not bring division is if nobody accepted it in a certain area. And then you shake the dust off your feet and you go somewhere else where they do accept it. Now there's a division between the town that didn't accept it and the town that did accept it. There's always division when God's word is preached. Why? Because it's like a sword. It divides. By nature. What is the purpose of a sword? To divide, to pierce, to cut, to separate. But number two, go to 2 Peter chapter 1. First of all, it's like a sword. Second of all, God's word is like a light or a lamp. It's likened unto a light or a lamp. In 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 19, the Bible says, we also have a more sure word of prophecy. Speaking about the word of God, speaking about the Bible. Where unto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. God's word, the scripture, the prophecy of his word is likened unto a light that shines in a dark place. What is that dark place? Go to Philippians chapter 2. The dark place is the world that we live in. It says in Philippians 2, 15, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. How did he know we were going to be living in a nation like that? Among whom ye shine as lights in the world. And how are we going to shine as lights in the world? How are we going to let our light shine? By holding forth the word of light. Look at the next words there. Holding forth the word of life. That's how we're going to shine as lights in the world. That I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. So God's word, the word of life, is likened unto a light shining in a dark place and that dark place is a crooked and perverse nation. That dark place is the world that we live in. What does darkness represent in the Bible? Go to 2 Corinthians 4, 6. There are a lot of scriptures on light and darkness and it can represent a few things, but one thing that darkness often represents is ignorance. And light represents knowledge. The reason is that when you're in a dark place, you have no knowledge of your surroundings. You can't see what's in front of you. You can't see what's there with you. And the less light there is, the less you can see, the less you can perceive and understand your situation. When the light is shined in, it brings knowledge of what is around you, knowledge of what's before you. Those who are blind lack knowledge. They don't know what's in front of them. They have to tap with a cane or they have to use sound and they have less knowledge than the person who has all of their senses operating properly. It says in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give, watch this, the light of the knowledge. Do you see that? Light represents knowledge, knowing what's out there. You can see what's out there. He said, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so the Bible, being a light that shines in the darkness, basically it brings knowledge to the ignorant. It makes wise the simple. It explains things that other people can't explain or can't understand and can't see. It illuminates. Have you ever heard this term, enlightenment? It enlightens. It exposes. It brings knowledge. It brings things to light. Darkness, think about the Dark Ages, when the Roman Catholic Church kept the world in what? Ignorance. Not the whole world, but of course the world of medieval Europe was kept in ignorance. By the Roman Catholic Church, they kept the people in darkness. They were not able to read. They were not able to write. They did not have access to the Bible. They were ignorant. They didn't know the Gospel. They didn't know, in many cases, even basic facts about the world that we live in that could have been gained by reading and especially by reading the Bible. And so God's Word is a light. It shines and illuminates. It brings truth and knowledge and dispels ignorance and untruth. But not only that, the Bible says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. So in one aspect of the Word of God being a light, we see that it's something that's shined out into the world, exposing fact, exposing truth, bringing knowledge of what is real knowledge to the ignorant and to the foolish. But not only that, God's Word is a lamp to our feet. It guides and directs us personally. Not just what we shine out there into the light, but it exposes what our next step is that we need to take. Now notice He says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. God doesn't always in our lives illuminate the whole picture before us. We can't always see where we're going to be a year from now or predict where we're going to be five years from now or ten years from now. And in many ways, it's good that God doesn't show us our whole life because if we looked at it, it might make us sick to see, oh man, this is what I'm going to have to go through. Some things in life, it's better that we don't know. Because we might look at it and say, oh man, I don't think I can handle this. It's better to just take it one day at a time. That's why the Bible says, take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for itself. He said, the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. God's saying, you have enough problems to worry about right now. Let my word light your feet and your path right in front of you. Don't worry about the big picture, I've got it under control, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. All things work together for good to them that love God. But we do need a light as far as what the next step is, right? We might not be able to see the whole trail, the whole path in front of us, and God doesn't want us to see the whole path. He wants us to walk by faith and not by sight, but we do need some kind of a light to show us what the next step is. Even if we don't know what to do a year from now, we do need to know what to do today. We do need to know what to do this week, and that's where God's word illuminates our path. It shows us what is right and what is wrong. What do I get from that? If you have a decision to make right now, go to the word of God, He'll have the answer for what you need to do right now. He's not going to tell you necessarily what's going to happen in the future way afar off, but as far as what you need to do right now, God's word should guide and direct that decision at this time. Light represents everything that's good, everything that's wholesome, everything that's righteous, darkness represents everything that's sinful, everything that's evil, everything that's ungodly. Light and darkness cannot coexist in the same place at the same time. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Darkness is the absence of light, and so you can't have darkness and light existing at the same time. So God's word shines a light and it brings knowledge, but some of that knowledge is painful because it exposes sin. It exposes that which maketh manifest as light, the Bible says. It exposes the world for the sinful place that it is, and therefore those who are evil, the Bible says, and this is the condemnation, John 3.19, that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they're wrought in God. You see, there are people in this world that are bad people and they prefer darkness to light. They prefer evil. They want lies. And so when you come to them with the truth of God's word, they reject it, they run from it, they flee from it, they despise it. It's like when you turn a light on and the cockroaches run away and hide because they don't like the light. They love darkness. Why? Because their deeds are evil. And it's the same thing with people that are sinful people. Now a lot of people have a false doctrine, I spent a whole sermon on it last Sunday night, this repent of your sins salvation. Now when you look at that doctrine, obviously it falls apart, obviously salvation is by faith alone, the term repent of your sins is not even found in the Bible, yet this is just something that's just, what do you want to call it, it's just the mantra of these people. They just keep saying it over and over again like it's just some key doctrine of the faith. Repent of your sins. Something that's not even in the Bible in those words. But people say, well, but the concept is there. Yeah, the concept's there for believers and I don't want to re-preach my sermon last Sunday night of why I do not believe a person has to repent of their sins to be saved and why that's just a thinly veiled form of work salvation. I don't want to re-preach that sermon, but I will say this. Some people will take John 3.19 through 21 and try to use it to prop up that doctrine. And they'll say, see right there, the Bible says that everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. And what they'll say is that, see, you have to get rid of your evil works. You have to turn from your evil way or turn from your sins in order to be saved. That's not what it says. It doesn't say anywhere you must turn, you must get away from your evil ways. No, it just states a fact that the more evil a person is, and again, we're not talking about just being sinful, we're talking about being evil, one who is harmful unto others. He says the evil person doesn't like God's Word because it reproves their sin. Not that they have to quit sinning, but guess what? People don't even like having their sin reproved. Now, there are certain people in this world who like things that are good, who like things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report. These are the type of things that they like. Then there are other people who love things that are bad. They love sin, they love wickedness. I mean, look at the kind of stickers that you see on people's cars. Devil horns. You know what I mean? You'll see a picture of a devil on the back and people wear a shirt that says evil. There are some people who just love everything to be bad. Everything that's sin, everything that's wicked, everything that's dirty. That's just what they like. God is simply stating a fact that that type of person, when they're exposed to the Word of God, is probably going to not want to hear it. Because a person who's a bad person, a person who's an evil person, a person who loves and enjoys harming others, is probably, when they hear about this wholesome, righteous, godly book, it's not going to appeal to them. They'd rather find some wicked, sinful book. Other people, and obviously we're all sinners, there's none righteous, no, not one, but other people who are sincere in their hearts, they're nice people, obviously they're not good, there's none that do with good but one and that's God, but they're sincere, nice people who are trying to do what's right in their life. Those type of people, when they're exposed to the truth, are more likely to accept it because they like the truth. And God's Word is light, it's truth, it's goodness, and so forth. And so all that to say this, God's Word is likened unto a light or a lamp. Not only that, it's likened unto fire. Go to Jeremiah chapter 23, Jeremiah chapter 23, number one it was like a sword, number two it was like a light or a lamp, number three it's like fire. And in fact there are two metaphors for the Word of God. And I'm sorry, these are similes for the Word of God because the word like is used. Would hate for somebody to have to correct my English grammar. Jeremiah 23 verse 29, it says, is not my word like as a fire? So right there God says his word's like fire, not only a sword, light, but it's like fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. So here we have two for one. It's a fire and it's a hammer. Jesus Christ said this in Luke 12 49, I am come to send fire on the earth. This is right before he says, hey I'm coming to bring division. Two verses before that, he said, I am come to send fire on the earth. And what will I if it be already kindled? Now he's not talking about fire and brimstone raining from the sky, is he? Because was that already kindled while Jesus was on this earth? Was there fire falling from the sky while Jesus walked upon this earth? No. Now, someday fire will fall from heaven. Fire and brimstone and a horrible tempest, this shall be the portion of their cup. God will pour out fire and brimstone during the time in the book of Revelation when he pours out his wrath. But he said, I'm come to send fire on the earth and what will I if it be already kindled? He's referring to the fire of God's word, the fire of his word that he preached. Why? Because the gospel spreads like wildfire. That's why. The word of God, yes most rejected, but when soul winning is taking place and when people are knocking doors and knocking doors and preaching the gospel to every creature and when daily in the temple and in every house we cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ, it's going to spread. The kingdom of God is like a little portion of leaven that was put in a portion of meal until the hole was leavened. It spreads and God's word is like a fire in the sense that one little spark can create a wildfire. It can create acres of fire. My son and I were driving down the freeway and we saw a massive wildfire and this is the biggest wildfire I've ever physically seen with my own eyes. We were driving through Fairfield, California and the whole hillside was just ablaze with fire. It was unbelievable the sight of just this massive fire. But it all started with just a little spark. That's how every fire starts. And God's word, one person can be that spark with one Bible, one person can go to a place with their Bible where there's no presence of God's word or no presence of His word and salvation and so forth and can start that fire. I mean your life can be the spark that brings a huge fire to an area. And you say, well fire's bad, fire's destructive, but you know what? Fire in many ways can be a good thing. Fire's not always bad. Fire keeps you warm. Fire can keep you alive. Fire can destroy things that shouldn't be there. Fire is going to be used at the judgment seat of Christ in order to burn up the worthless works of those who've spent their life living for mammon and living for everything besides the kingdom of God. So God's word is like a fire in that it spreads, in that it destroys. What does it destroy? Well if we get the context of the verse here, he's talking about a destructive aspect of God's word because he says, is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Now breaking a rock in pieces, this is a destructive action, is it not? And the Bible says our God is a consuming fire. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and let's look at the destructive power of God's word. You see there are some things that need to be destroyed. We think of destruction as being a bad thing, but there are some times when destruction needs to take place. And fire is a great way to destroy things. If you have trash that you need to get rid of, you can burn the trash, that's a good way to get rid of it. Check your local codes and zoning on that. But anyway, God's word is destructive in that sense. Now it's interesting because what quoted you was from Jeremiah 23, 29. At the very beginning of the book of Jeremiah, God tells Jeremiah what his ministry is going to be. And what he tells Jeremiah is this, and you're turning to 2 Corinthians, but this is in Jeremiah 1 verses 9 and 10. He says, Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See I have set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, watch this, this is Jeremiah's job as a preacher, to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant. See before you can build and plant, you must do some demolishing. And he says, your job Jeremiah as a preacher is to root out, that means to pull things out by their roots, to rip it out, to pull down, to destroy and to throw down. And then here's the positive aspect, to build and to plant. First you must rip out what you don't need. First you must demolish the building that you're not going to use before you build the building that you need. He says in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 3, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare. What was the weapon of our warfare according to Ephesians 6? It was the Word of God, that was our sword, that was the only weapon that was mentioned. He said the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty. Of course God's Word is mighty. Through God to the pulling down, notice the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having inner readiness to revenge all this obedience when your obedience is fulfilled. So God's Word is a fire or a hammer, a rock-breaking hammer or a destructive fire in the sense that it destroys the things that don't belong in our life. I mean it destroys strongholds. What's a stronghold? A fortress. Think about a battle. The enemy is hiding within a stronghold. We're attacking an enemy, they're in a stronghold. They're behind walls and stone and bars and they're dug in, right? And we need a weapon that can knock down those walls. We need a weapon that can break through those defenses. We need fire that can burn through the defenses. And so there are a lot of things in this world that are false, that are lies, that are sinful, that are wicked, but they're strongholds. They're positions that the enemy has dug in. I would describe these as battles that people will say that we've lost as believers or that we've lost as Baptists. For example, you know, you bring up certain doctrines and people will say, nobody believes that anymore. And many times they'll say, we lost that battle. Everybody's doing it now. And I'll just bring up some real super controversial subjects right now, but they're not controversial in my house. But birth control is an example of that. Birth control is something that is so entrenched in our society that if you say I'm against birth control, it's like you're crazy, you're out of your mind, and you know what, let's just face it today, shall we? 99% of independent Baptist churches will not preach what I'm preaching right now. You say, what's wrong with it? Well, it's outside of the scope of the sermon to go into everything that's wrong with it, but I've done plenty of sermons. You can listen to them, you can get the recording, you can download it. I've done plenty of sermons on that subject. That is a subject that is a stronghold, that is a bulwark of the world we live in, where basically the brainwashing is going very well on that subject. You know, and it's going to take a lot of, you know what, the only thing that can break through that is God's Word. Can bust that down and say, you know what, you're wrong. The Word of God proves that it's wrong. There's plenty of scripture, again, I'm not going to go into it for the sake of time. Okay, fine, I'll throw something out there. In the book of Genesis, the only guy who practiced birth control in the whole Bible, God killed him. His name was Onan. Is that a good start for you? What about when the Bible tells us that children are inherited to the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward? Doesn't that tell us that it's a good thing? We could go on and on. God commands us to be fruitful and multiply. There's no evidence that God rescinded that command. God commanded women to marry, bear children, and guide the house. He didn't say if you want to. He said marry, bear children, and guide the house. That's a command from God. We could go on and on, I've got tons of scripture on that, it's a whole sermon in and of itself. That's just one example where society will say, we've lost the battle on that. We've lost that. You know what, and it's starting to look like we've lost the battle on the queers, but not in this church, not in my house. I mean it's getting to where you can almost find anybody, I mean you can almost find nobody that will see eye to eye with you if you have a biblical standpoint on the Sodomites. These strongholds, these false doctrines, how about the pre-Trib rapture? That's a false doctrinal stronghold that's like a fortress. We need to take the battering ram of Matthew 24 and the battering ram of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and the battering ram of Mark 13 and the battering ram and just slam it into that thing and it's going to fall someday. It's already falling right now. Right now, every pre-Tribulation rapture preacher ought to be ashamed and shaking in his boots because the battering ram of God's Word is coming today to knock down that lying heresy and to expose it for the lie that it is and that it's never had any truth in it and that they've never had one scripture to back it up. It's going to fall. It's going to fall in my lifetime. I want to watch it fall. I'm going to keep slamming this battering ram into it until it falls because that's what the Word of God is good for. That's a really entrenched false doctrine. That's a deeply thought of and entrenched false doctrine. It's going to fall and God's Word is going to bring it down. Of course, there will always be people who believe every stupid false doctrine, but it will fall amongst the people that matter and that's all that matters. Where did I have you turn? Anywhere? Let's move on to the next point. Malachi chapter 2, Malachi chapter 2, just a few examples of just deeply entrenched false doctrines. It started out that these doctrines come about and nobody believes in them, but then Satan works and he works and he works and pretty soon he builds up a stronghold, he builds up a bulwark, and pretty soon people believe in this stuff. The pre-Trib rapture came out in the late 1800s and it just slowly infiltrated and it's become a stronghold. It needs to come down. This doctrine, and look, you look around the world, the Muslims are reproducing like crazy. All the derelicts in the ghetto are reproducing like crazy because they're being paid to do so by the government. You look around the world, Catholics are reproducing and then God's people are having 2.5 children. Why? Because they've been lied to and taught a worldly, sinful philosophy of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, which started out being called the Birth Control Federation of America, that has taught God's people not to reproduce and not to have children. That's what it's been taught. It's been taught by Satan, it's been taught by Margaret Sanger and Adolf Hitler, it's been taught by eugenicists and evolutionists and globalists that want to tell you that we need to reduce the population of the world and that you can't have children. Look, if God's people would just physically reproduce, this church would grow and every church would grow. Now our church is growing and it's growing through winning people to Christ and it's growing through just people having children. The Mormons are doing it as their satanic doctrine is spread through them having children and then God's people refuse to be fruitful and multiply while the world multiplies. The world multiplies, God's people refuse to multiply. In Egypt it was the opposite. God's people were the ones who multiplied way faster than the world and they out took the world in numbers because they obeyed God's commandments and they had a biblical world view that said children are a blessing and a reward from God, not a burden. By the way, there's no righteous way to even perform birth control. It's all weird stuff from the drugstore and that's a whole other sermon. I don't know why I'm even getting off on that. But look at the Word of God here in Malachi chapter 2. It says in verse 17, I'm just trying to break down some of these lies and preconceived ideas people have in their mind. I'm just breaking them down tonight. But he says in Malachi 2 verse 17, and I want to show you that the Word of God is like soap. It's like soap. Look at Malachi 2 17, it says, Ye have wearied the Lord with your words, yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them. Boy, that's a sermon in and of itself. Quit praising the wicked. The Bible says, such as forsake the law, praise the wicked, but such as keep the law, contend with them. Don't praise the wicked in my presence. He says, Everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord. No, they're not. They're wicked. And he delighteth in them, or, oh, God delights in everybody, right? Wrong. Listen to this. Or where is the God of judgment? Now, let that last phrase sink down into your ears. Where is the God of judgment? That's what these people are saying, right? They're saying that evil people are good, and then they're saying, where is the God of judgment? Now look at verse 1 of chapter 3. Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. Now who did John the Baptist, because we know this scripture is about John the Baptist according to Mark chapter 1 verse 2. Who did John the Baptist prepare the way for? Jesus Christ. He was the one who prepared the way before him to make his path straight. So it says here, behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple. Now who's the Lord who they seek? That goes back to the end of chapter 2 where they say, where is the God of judgment? He says, okay, well I'm going to send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple. This is a great proof of the deity of Jesus Christ. This passage proves that Jesus is God. This passage proves that Jesus is Jehovah, because it shows Jesus coming into the temple as being a fulfillment of their question, where is the God of judgment, and as being the Lord whom they sought. He said he shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom he died in. Behold he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts, but who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? Now look, that's another reference to Jesus in Revelation 6, when the Bible says that the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand. That's a reference to this, where it says, who shall stand when he appeareth, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. This all ties in with Revelation 6. For he is like a refiner's fire, we saw that God's word was like a fire, and like fuller's soap, and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness, then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. So God's word, and you say, that's not God's word, that's Jesus, well, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as if the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. Jesus is the word made flesh. And the Bible talks about the word being like a fire, but here it's talking about Jesus, when he shows up, he said when Jesus shows up, he's going to be like a refiner's fire that will purify, and he's going to be like fuller's soap. Those two things both do the same thing, they purify, they clean. Soap is something that we use to purify, or to clean clothing, or to clean ourselves, we use soap. And God's word is like a soap in that it will clean you up, it will purify you. And it's like a refiner's fire in that sense. Now, this ties in with God's word being like a fire, because it destroys that which needs to be destroyed, which God wants to destroy, but not only that, it purifies in the sense that it burns off the dross, it burns off everything that is impure. For example, silver. If you have silver or gold, there's a certain purity of what percentage that really is. Now I don't know as much about silver and gold, but I went to a copper mine, because of course we're in Arizona, the copper state, and so I went to a copper mine and they talked about how they would purify the copper and we watched them purifying copper, and when they take it out of the ground, it's mixed with a lot of other metals and minerals and things in the earth. They purify it down to where it's 90% copper. Then they send it somewhere else where they purify it to 99% copper, and then they send it to another place where they take the 99% copper and they make it 99.9% copper. And there's a big difference apparently between those things. And so that's what God's word will do, it will purify, it will get rid of the garbage, the worthless things, the dirt as it were, it will get rid of the dirt and just leave the precious metal behind, the silver, the gold. It'll get the dirt out of our life, it'll clean us up. And I've heard people say this, sin will keep you from this book, or this book will keep you from sin. The Bible will clean up your life. You say, I don't know Pastor Anderson, I just feel like I have so much dirt in my life, so much filth. I come to church and it just seems like my life is a far cry from what it should be. It seems like the standard set forth in God's word is a lot higher than the way I live my life. What do I do to get all this dirt and stuff? Reading the word is applying the soap to your life. Coming to church and listening to the preaching, it's like squirting a little soap on. And sometimes when you first put soap on, it doesn't get all the dirt off, and you've got to do it again, and you've got to keep washing it, keep scrubbing it, more soap, and sometimes it's a little abrasive. Sometimes you have to really scrub. And sometimes you come to church and Pastor Anderson's got like a spiritual steel wool. And you know, some people will say, I don't want that kind of preaching, because they don't like that abrasive, they want that little thing that women have in the shower. What's that thing called? It's like this little ribbon thing that they wash with, who knows what I'm talking about? What's it called? A loofah. I've never even heard that word in my life. Anybody else have any other word for it? A puff? You know, it's like this weird little, you know, sometimes I'll be at somebody else's house and I'll see, there's like this little puff or loofah, I don't know, you know, it's like some little ribbony, cutie little, you know, soft thing, you know. It's like that's what they want church to be like. You know, when you're really dirty, that's not what you need. I mean, when you've been working on the car, you know, you have some lavender loofah, you just, you know, oh, careful, gentle, you know, that's not your work. I mean, I've used the steel wool that my wife used on the dishes before when my hands are just really dirty, or you need that, what is it, that gojo stuff that has like sand in it. Don't you love that stuff? I love it when you can feel sand in the soap. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? All men's hands are raised up. What is it? It's like an orange cleaner. Yeah, orange cleaner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You walk, but you feel it and it's like a big foam, you walk up to the dispenser and you press it and it comes out foam, but there's sand in it, so that when you scrub it, that sand kind of gets in there and it's abrasive and that, you know, kind of, you know, yeah. I mean, that's what you need if you're really dirty. This little soft soap is not going to, you know, this little soft soap that comes in the little container by the sink and the little loofah, it's not going to work. That's just become a part of my vocabulary now. God's word is not always going to be a loofah. Maybe every once in a while it comes out that way, but you know what, most of the time it's a little more like that orange cleaner, that gojo, you know. Sometimes people come to gojo Baptist, you know, and they're like, where's Pastor loofah? And it's like, he ain't here, you know. This is Pastor Steel Wall and he's going to clean you up. You know, I mean, I could go on and on with that illustration. I could take it a lot of places, but you know, God's word's like a soap and let me tell you, it's a soap that works and that gojo stuff with the sand in it works. Now does it always feel good on your little fresh skin? No, not necessarily, but it gets you cleaned up. It gets the job done. God's word is a soap that cleans. It's a refiner's fire that purges and purifies and cleans up. So if you have sin in your life, the more you can listen to God's word and read God's word, it's going to help a cleansing process take place over time. Not always a fun process, but it gets the job done. Not only that, God's word is likened unto a rock. So if you would to Matthew chapter 7, God's word is like a rock. While you're turning to Matthew 7, I'll read for you from 1 Peter 2 verse 7. "'Unto you therefore which believe He is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense unto them which stumble at the word.'" Did you hear that? God's word, he said Jesus is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense unto them which stumble at the word. So basically he's saying stumbling on Jesus and stumbling on the word is the same thing. And when you stumble on the word, it's because God's word is a rock that doesn't move, and he says they're being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed. You see, God's word's not something you just move out of the way. If you keep going in the path that you're going in, God's word is there. You're going to trip on it. It's not moving. It's a rock. It never moves. It never changes. It says in Matthew chapter 7, the famous passage, verse 24, "'Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings,' that's talking about God's word, "'of mine, and doeth them, I will liken them unto a man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock." God's word is a rock because it doesn't change. The storm can beat on it, the wind and the rain and the waves can bash against it. People who are disobedient to it can try to move it and try to change it, but they're going to stumble on it. It doesn't change. It never changes. It's a rock. He said in verse 26, "'Everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand.'" Basically, what's that sand? Anything else? Anything else that you're building your life on besides the word of God is the sand? Anything else? Because if you're obeying the sayings of Jesus, you're built on a rock. If you're not, you're building it on something else. And that's all sand. Why? Because sand moves. It changes, it shifts, it's different all the time. The rock doesn't move. The sands, they shift all the time, and if you build your life on any philosophy besides the word of God, you're going to constantly be changing and shifting. God's word never changes. But number seven, God's word is like water. The Bible says, and for the sake of time I'll just read it quickly, it says that he might, husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. So God's word is, again, doesn't this go back to the soap and the fire, purifying, cleansing? After you've gojoed up with God's word and thrown the loofah out, then you need the water to come in as a rinsing, and God's word will do more cleansing, more purifying, more cleaning. God's word is a cleaning agent. Number eight, God's word is like milk. Go to Hebrews chapter 5. God's word is like milk. First Peter 2 says, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby. So milk here is referring to mother's milk, and it's referring to the food that a baby needs in order to grow thereby. Now spiritually speaking, this is referring to a brand new believer, somebody who's been recently saved. They need the word of God. They need God's word in order to grow thereby. They're not going to grow unless they are, let me ask you, is a baby going to grow if it's not eating? No, a lot of times when you have a baby, they'll weigh the baby when it's born, and then they'll keep weighing the baby after that, and this is why they're weighing it, to make sure it's getting enough to eat, because if it's growing, that shows it's getting enough to eat. If it's not growing, it's not getting enough to eat, because there's a direct relationship between the baby's growth and the amount of food that's coming in. Well, if you have a believer that gets saved, and they don't read the Bible, and they don't go to church and hear the word of God, they will not grow, they cannot grow. It's just as impossible as a baby growing without any food. Well, we keep weighing it, it keeps getting bigger, but it's not eating anything. That's just not possible. God's word is what new believers need. They need the word. They need the preaching of the word, and they need to read the word. That's why we have all those Bibles lined up in the lobby there. You see just all the scores of Bibles out there? Those are so that you can take those out soul winning. A lot of times I just use that to do my soul winning and then just hand it to them, or even better is when you can do a New Testament, because then you can just stick it in your pocket a little easier to carry out soul winning, to give unto people when they get saved. The best thing you can do for somebody to get saved is put a Bible in their hand. I always check with them. I say, do you have a Bible? And if they say that they have a Bible, I say, can I see it please? Can you bring it to me? Because if they bring me the New King James or the NIV or the RSV or the HIV or the Living Bible or whatever, then what I do is I offer to exchange it for them. Or if they don't want to do that, I just give them the King James and say, this is the one that you need. I show them one or two places where the other ones are wrong and I show them, hey, this is the word that you need. Or if they already have a King James, great, read it. I encourage them to read it. But I like to give them the Bible so that they can grow thereby. And even better is I invite them to church because I want them to show up and hear the word preached. That way we can keep getting on them to read it and keep preaching it to them and teaching it to them because that's what they need to grow. But not only that, look at Hebrews 5.13, the Bible says, for everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the what? The word. This is another reference to the fact that the word is milk for the new believer. Everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So the ninth thing that God's word is likened unto is strong meat. It's likened unto milk for the new believer and it's likened unto strong meat for those that are of full age. Therefore, the same word that you read when you first got saved, that's the same word you're going to keep reading, it'll keep nourishing you all the way through. No matter how long you've been saved, the Bible has something for you to learn and for you to sink your teeth into. It's not just a baby food, it's not a baby book. It's a baby book and it's also a man's book. It's the same book and so it has everything we need. Not only that, God's word is like bread. Go to Psalm 12 and we're going to see something else, but in Matthew 4.4, I already quoted it earlier where Jesus said, but he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceed out of the mouth of God. So it's likened unto our daily food, our bread that we need to live and get our nutrition from. You know, bread is a very nutritious food. Bread should be the staple of our diet. When I was a child, this is what we were taught with the food pyramid and I know that Michelle Obama has replaced it with, you know, myplate.gov or whatever, but you know, they got rid of the pyramid and now it's the circle, the plate. But I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, man, the food pyramid was what we were taught and it's biblical. Now I'm not saying the whole pyramid is biblical, but I am saying that the fact that the base of the pyramid was 6 to 11 servings of grains and breads per day. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Isn't that the biggest thing on the food pyramid was bread? I don't know what's on that plate, but I know this. When I was a kid, I mean, this was taught to us that the staple of our diet, the main thing that we eat is bread. The bottom of the pyramid, you know, gets smaller as you get into the other things that you need, the meats and the fruits and vegetables. You know, bread, now, I think the reason why today when I say that, people probably look at that, huh? If I say like, bread is the most important part of your diet. Bread is the staple. Bread is the bottom of the pyramid, the foundation, the base of the pyramid. Because a lot of our bread today is so devoid of nutrition, people think, oh, bread? You know, that's not going to give you vitamins and, you know, you're not going to get what you need from bread. But that's because you're thinking of Wonder Bread. You're thinking of that pure white bleached, you know, it's like this is what they do, they strip it of all nutrition. They bleach it white. Then they fortify it with vitamins, after they've taken out every vitamin, taken out every nutrition, then they put it back in, but it's not the same, you know, as what it naturally had. But man, if you can get a real good loaf of bread, a fresh loaf of bread that's actually ground from actual wheat and it's actually ground up wheat into flour, the whole grain, and it's bacon by some housewife somewhere, some mother somewhere, in the oven, that is extremely nutritious and it's a staple of your diet. That's why the Bible talks more about bread over and over again. He says give us this day our daily bread and he considers bread the staple of your diet. Not a Wonder Bread, not white bread, not bleached, enriched, fortified, GMO or whatever. But real bread is good for you. And so God's Word is like and unto bread, meaning that it's the mainstay of your spiritual diet. But not only that, God's Word is like silver. Look at Psalm 12 verse 6 and 7, the Bible reads, the words of the Lord are pure words as silver. See how the Word is like and unto silver? As silver, tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Now if you purified silver seven times, I talked a little bit about how copper goes through these different stages of purification. It goes from 90 to 99 to 99.9. God said His Word is so pure, it's like silver that's tried in a furnace of earth and purified seven times. That's how pure God's Word is. And He says, Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, them referring to the words. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. And so God's Word is like silver in that it's exceeding pure. Go to chapter 19, just a few pages to the right, from Psalm 12 to Psalm 19. In verse 7 the Bible reads, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. This is all about the Word of God, the law, the testimony. Watch for these words. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoice in the Lord. The commandment, this is all God's Word, you see that? Word, law, testimony, statutes, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Verse 9, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. It's a great rhyme in that verse as well. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. And so God's Word is like silver in chapter 12 and that denotes its purity, but it also denotes the value because silver is a precious metal. And God says here that his Word is even more precious than gold. And so God's Word has great value and do you appreciate it? The word appreciate, if you look at the root of the word appreciate, it has inside of it the word price. Appreciate, do you see that? Precious metals, appreciate, price, precious, price. It's talking about the value of God's Word. God's Word is more valuable than silver than gold, and by the way, silver and gold have a lot of value. Now like the pieces of paper of monopoly money in your wallet, they actually have real intrinsic value and they have for thousands of years on this earth, but God's Word has much more value and always has and always will. But notice in that verse that you just looked at, God's Word is not only likened unto gold, but he also likens it unto honey and he says it's sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Go if you would to Psalm 119, Psalm 119. In Psalm 119 verse 103, the Bible says, how sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea sweeter than honey to my mouth. That's 119 verse 103. But not only that, in Proverbs 16, 24, the Bible says pleasant words are as in honeycomb. Sweet to the soul and health to the bones. And of course, God's words are the most pleasant words, God's Word are the purest and best words, and so the Bible says that God's Word is like honeycomb. It says honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones. Honey is another thing that's very good for you. Not the one that you buy in the store and the little plastic bear. I saw a news article recently that said that that is actually 0% honey, depending on how you define honey. They said that the most honey that's being sold in stores has no honey in it, according to them. Because they said that what they've done is they've changed the state of the honey so much that it no longer even resembles honey. Now it's just sugary syrup. Because they've boiled it and killed it and strained it, and I don't know what they did to it. But whatever they did to it, on the other end it was no longer honey. And this is how they define honey. Does it have any traces of pollen in it? Because, you know, pollen is what makes honey. So they bought honey at the store from all these different brands, and it was like the only thing they had left in them was just sugar. That's all it was. It was just a sugary syrup. But real honey is actually very healthy for you. The Bible says that honey is sweet to the soul and health to the bones. Now the Bible does say if you eat too much of it you're going to vomit it up, but that goes for a lot of things. But honey is very good for you. And so God's word is likened to honey. Aren't there parts of the Bible that are very sweet? Meaning this, don't you enjoy reading the Bible? It tastes good to you. You love it. You delight in the word. He says his delight is in the law of the Lord. So God's word is likened to honey in the sense that it's pleasurable to eat it. Honey is a pleasure. Now I used to not like honey. I think that bear kind of poisoned the well for me. Once I started trying real honey I started to actually like it. And a lot of times I'll just take a tablespoon, shove it into the honey bucket, and just put it in my mouth and just eat a tablespoon of honey. And it's very healthy for you. I just kind of just let it just come down my throat and it tastes good and it gives you energy. It's filled with B vitamins. It's just really good for you. The Bible says it'll do something for your bones. And that's important because your bones are what produce your blood. The bone marrow produces the blood and the blood's the life of all flesh. And so health to the bones, honey. I like to eat honey. I like to try to tell my wife as much as possible, and I think she did a whole month one time where we used no sugar. We substituted honey in everything. Didn't we do that for a month, Zuzia? Okay we're doing it for life, but we do use sugar sometimes. But for a month, I mean, we never use sugar. But I always tell her, sometimes we'll be reaching for the sugar and it's like, wait a minute, let's do this with honey. Let's see if we can make these cookies or this muffin. Let's do honey because honey's really good for you. I want to get those health benefits. I make lemonade with just honey and lemon and water. Stir it up, tastes great. You got to get used to it. But it tastes great. I like it. It's good for you. God's Word is good for you. It's healthy and it's a joy to get the medicine. You know, I mean, some medicine is hard to swallow. My wife makes this thing, I call it the mean medicine, and it's this one where she mixes like garlic, ginger, and what is it, Zuzia? Oh, honey, okay, well, yeah, I guess a spoonful of sugar makes the mess of it. But it's garlic, ginger, and honey. But I think it's really light on honey and it's really heavy on garlic and ginger. And I like ginger, but man, that garlic, and it just burns. I mean, it's like, oh, you're putting in some cayenne pepper. This is really good for you. But it burns. It's pain. But I'll tell you this, so God's Word is a medicine that tastes good on the way down. Delight in it. Love it. Enjoy it. Savor it like that tablespoon of honey. You know, that's what I want to hear from my wife when I tell my wife, honey, I'm sick, you know, my throat. Here's what I wanted to say. Go get a tablespoon of honey. Drink this honey lemonade. That's what I want to hear. That's what I want to hear. Oh, you need to eat cloves of raw garlic. You need to grind up garlic and ginger with a tiny bit of honey in it and drink that. You know, that's not what I want to hear. I want to just take that table. You know, God's Word is a medicine that tastes good on the way down. I like it. And so God's Word is like honey. That's number 12. Number 13, God's Word is like a seed. It's likened unto a seed. It brings new life. It produces a new creature is what it does. That's why you have to have God's Word to be saved because the sower sows the Word in the parable of the sower because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God of his own will begat he us with the Word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creature. So it likens it unto the seed from a man that produces pregnancy in a woman, but it also likens it unto a seed that goes into the earth that's sown of the sower into the ground. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1.23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible comma, he tells us what the incorruptible seed is by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. God's Word is the life-giving seed that brings about the new creature, that brings salvation to the lost soul, that brings that which is not alive to life. That seed is the Word of God. It grows into a great tree and the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that win its souls is wise and on and on the illustration goes. It's likened unto a seed in number 14 and lastly, and maybe you can come up to me after the service and tell me the ones that I missed that you thought of, but God's Word is like a mirror. I talked about it this morning, James chapter 1. The Bible says, if any be a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he's likened to a man beholding his natural face in a glass, and when the Bible talks about beholding your face in a glass, he's talking about looking at your reflection in a glass or in a mirror. And so God's Word is like a mirror and basically, what is the purpose of a mirror? To look at ourselves and take inventory of ourselves, isn't it? I mean, why do we look in the mirror? Some of us look in the mirror less than others, but when we do look in the mirror, what is the purpose? To stare at ourselves, just because we just like to look at ourselves? No, you go to a mirror to check, okay, you know, do I look okay? Do I need to shave or do I need a haircut, right? Am I starting to look like the fifth beetle here, I need a haircut, or I need to trim my beard, or I've got some food on my face, or you know, okay, are my clothes, do they match, right? I look in the mirror, you know, is everything okay? Do I have any stains? That's a self-examination tool, is it not? It's to look in the mirror and examine yourself, and the Bible will help us examine ourselves. The Bible says that if we compare ourselves amongst ourselves, we're not wise. If I walk up to Brother Garrett and use him as my mirror, I'm not wise. If I compare, well how am I doing in my Christian life? Let's compare it to Brother Garrett and see how I'm doing. That's not who I'm supposed to live up to. I'm trying to live up to Jesus Christ. Other people might try to use me as their mirror or use somebody else in the church as their mirror and compare themself. You know what? That will get you somewhere, but you know what's really the comparison the Bible says is we're to compare ourselves using the Word. We're to examine ourselves with the Word, and I'll tell you something, if you start comparing yourself to other people, sometimes you might start looking pretty good, depending on who you're hanging around with. You know, if you're hanging around with really righteous, godly people, you know, it's going to expose flaws even when you compare yourself to them. And that's why it's good to go to a good church where you get around good role models and good people that you can use as a pattern of good works. The Bible says that a preacher should be a pattern of good works and other men in the church and ladies in the church can be looked up to by the younger and learned from and so forth. Everyone should be a pattern, but honestly, the most humbling look in the mirror you're ever going to look at is when you look in the Bible. Because when you start comparing yourself to Jesus, even if you look good compared to the people around you, you're going to come way short. When you start looking at the book of Acts and looking at the apostles, all of a sudden you're not as great as you thought you were. Now when you compare it to the people around you, you might look okay, but when you look in the mirror of God's Word, you really see what manner of man you are. And God wants us to do that. He wants us to face the realities of who we are so that we can grow and improve and realize hey, we need to do better, we need to grow, we need to move forward, and we need to look at ourselves in the mirror of God's Word to help us do that. And so these are 14 things that God's Word is compared to. Why look at these 14 things? To stand back and say, you know what, it's all about God's Word. Don't downplay it. Don't make it less than what it is. It's magnified above His name. Tell that to the Jehovah's false witnesses who are obsessed with the name. They're obsessed with it. Their whole religion is wrapped around that name as they discard God's Word, as they discard doctrine after doctrine after doctrine. But they've got the name right. But you know what, you can call them Jesus or Jehovah, but if it's not the Word, it ain't Jesus because Jesus is the Word and Jesus is Jehovah. You got the wrong Word, you got the wrong Jehovah. And if you ignore the Word, you're ignoring Jehovah. And if you don't have the Son, you don't have the Father. And the Son is the Word made flesh. And so we need to realize that God's Word is supreme. It's the answer to cleaning up our lives. It's the answer to lighting and guiding our paths. It's the answer to purifying and refining us. It is the answer to a crooked and perverse nation. That's what needs to be shined. That's what needs to make the difference. It's the rock upon which we're founded. It is the rock to which our ship is anchored in life. Our bodies, our church, our families ought to be anchored to the rock. It's our milk. It's our bread. It's our food. It's our money. It's our silver. It's our gold. It's our honey. It's our enjoyment. It's the seed that gives new life. It's everything. I mean, it's powerful. It's intrinsic to our lives. Do you read it every day? If not, you're starving. You're going to get dirty. Wash your hands daily to prevent the spread of disease. Wash your hands daily. Wash your hands before meals. What about the Word, though? What's more important, cleaning your hands? What's going to defile you more, eating with unwashed hands as the disciples of Jesus were accused of doing, or going through life unwashed and by the Word on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday? What's going to bring in more germs and disease in your life? You need the Word. Exalt it, magnify it, worship it, praise it, read it, study it, love it, delight in it, eat it, consume it, live it, do it. It's everything. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for your Word. It's everything. What else can we say about it? It's fire. It's a rock. It's a hammer. It's a sword. It's our weapon. It's our sustenance. God, help us never to take it for granted. Help us never to downplay it or to listen to anybody else try to downplay it. Help us to realize that it is supreme. It is the boss. It is the head of our church. It is the sole and supreme authority in all matters of faith and practice. Help us to give it its due place in our daily lives and in this church. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.