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Follow along silently as I read, 2 Chronicles 34, 1, the Bible reads, Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left. For in the eighth year it has reigned while he was yet young. He began to seek after the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, and they break down the altars that bale him in his presence, and the images that were on high above them he cut down, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he break in pieces and made dust of them, and strode it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naxalite, with their Maddocks round about. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent to Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maasiah, the governor of the city, and Jola, the son of Jola, has for the quarter to repair the house of the Lord is God. And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, they kept the doors, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and they returned to Jerusalem. And they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the Lord, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the Lord, to repair and amend the house, even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone and timber for couplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. And the men did the work faithfully, and the overseers of them were Jehath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Mishulam, of the sons of the Kohathites, the Shetid IV, and others of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of music. Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service. And of the Levites there were scribes and officers and porters, and when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, and Shaphan carried the book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, all that was commanded to thy servants they do it, and they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have delivered it in the hand of the overseers and to the hand of the workmen. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king, and it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah, the haikam, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Aziah, a servant of the king, saying, go inquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that is written in this book. And Hilkiah, that the king had appointed, went to Holba the prophetess, the wife of Shalom, the son of Tikba, the son of Hasra, keeper of the wardrobe, now she dwelled in Jerusalem in the college, and they spake to her to that effect. And she answered them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah, because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. For my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched. And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall you say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, concerning the words which thou hast heard, because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me. I have even heard thee also sayeth the Lord, Behold, I will gather thee thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again, then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small, and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book. And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers, and Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers. So let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, please bless us now as I preach the word of God, please just help those that are here to have ears to hear, and for everyone to listen attentively to what they're going to say to us this morning after the word of God. Please just bless this sermon now, and fill me with your Holy Spirit as I preach this morning, dear God. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, I'm going to get back to this story in 2 Chronicles 34, so put your finger there. Turn if you went to John chapter 8, and John chapter 8 verse number 30, and we'll get right back to 2 Chronicles 34. Keep your finger there, but go to John chapter 8 verse number 30, and the Bible reads in John 8, 30, as he spake these words, many believed on him. Of course that's always, whenever anybody believes on Jesus Christ, it's as a result of hearing God's word. The Bible says faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The Bible says in James chapter 1, to receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. But look down if you would, it says, as he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, so he's speaking to Christians here. People who believed on Jesus Christ, they're saved. He said, if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. What makes you truly a disciple of Jesus Christ? Jesus said it, I mean, he explained what it means to be his disciple. He said, what qualifies you as one of my true disciples is if you continue in my word. And he says, as a result of continuing in my word, in the Bible, he said, because you continue in my word, you will know the truth, because Jesus said thy word is truth of the Bible. And so, he said, you'll know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. He said, you've got to continue in my word, that's how you're going to know the truth, that's how you're going to be free, and if you don't, you're not my disciple. Now turn back if you would, well, turn to Deuteronomy 17. Remove your finger, I know it's complicated, remove your finger from John 8, remove your finger at 2 Chronicles 34, and turn to Deuteronomy 17. Deuteronomy 17, we're going to read the last three verses of the chapter, this is the introduction, but look at verse number 18, this is speaking of the future king of Israel that did not exist at this time or for several hundred years to come, it says in verse 18, and it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests of Levi. So the king was to actually make his own copy of the Bible, copy it by hand into his own book. And the Bible reads here, and it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, he shall write him a copy, look at verse 19, and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life. You say, well does the Bible say anywhere that you're supposed to read the Bible every day? You better know it does. It says right here that the king, and you say, well that's the king, the Bible says in Revelation 1 that he had made us to be kings and priests unto God and his father, amen. And so here we see that the king, that God's people, that Christians should read in the law of God all the days of their life. Yes, I'm going to tell you, it's a sin to go one day without reading the Bible, no matter who you are. You skip a day of Bible reading, you've committed a sin. The Bible says he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn. Now why did Jesus say to read the Bible to continue in his word in John 8? He said, and you shall know. Here it says he's to read all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord is God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them. What's the purpose of reading the Bible? We've lost sight of this completely. We live in a day where people pick up their Bible and they read it for five minutes as a pick me up. They pick it up in the morning, they do a five minute devotional to get a little encouragement, to give them a little pick me up, like a spiritual vitamin, like a Flintstone vitamin that they take in the morning, but we don't have ten million strong and growing, we have ten million who don't know the Bible, they haven't learned the Bible, the Bible's not a vitamin tab, the Bible's not a pick me up, the Bible's not an energy drink, and the Bible's a book to be read so you can learn it all and to know all that's written therein. That's what the Bible says. We've lost sight of the fact that God wants us to read the Bible to learn. God wants us to read the Bible so we'll know what it says. You say, what's the biggest problem about not reading the Bible? You don't know anything? That's the biggest problem. You say, what's so bad about not reading the Bible so much? Is it because you won't be as spiritual? Is it because you won't feel as close to God? The problem is you won't know anything. The problem is you won't learn anything. That's what's wrong with not reading the Bible. You're not going to know and learn every word of God by coming to church, even faithful word baptist church. There's just not enough time for me to preach every word of the Bible. I'm sure if you come here for 20 years or even maybe 10 or 15 years, we'll have preached every word of the Bible in your presence. But I don't want to wait 15 years to know everything that the Bible has to say. You could be reading through the Bible once a year. If you'd read it for 15 minutes a day, grab the chart. It's on the bookshelf in the lobby. A chart that'll tell you how to read through the Bible, how to cover. In one year, it'll take you 15, 20 minutes a day, and then you'll know the truth, and then the truth will make you free. Then you'll be Jesus' disciple indeed. Now look, if you would, at the story. That's the introduction. Now let's get into the story here in 2 Chronicles 34. Look at verse 1. The Bible reads, Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one in 30 years. You say, why was he so young when he started reigning? Because his father, Ammon, was a wicked king, and the Bible says the wicked shall live out half their days. I mean, many times the wicked are cut short at a young age. Think about all the rock stars. Think about all the movie stars that died when they're in their 20s and 30s and 40s. You know, Jimi Hendrix, what was he, 29 or something when he died? Jim Morrison, late 20s when he died. Elvis Presley, how old was he? In his 40s or something? John Candy, the actor died when he was 45 years old. Chris Farley died when he was like 42 years old. Hey, these wicked people, you know, did you know the average life expectancy of a gay man? You say, what's a queer man? You know what the average life expectancy is? 51 years old. All the disease, all the filth, the murder, the wickedness that's associated with it. And so his father was so wicked that God cut him short in his life. And so here he is, thrown into the position of king at age 8. That's pretty young, right? Just about a year and a half older than Solomon? Eight years old. Now obviously he had advisors and people guiding him as king. But look down if you would now, verse number 3. For in the 8th year of his reign, while he was yet young, how old was he? 16, right? Because he started when he was 8, this is the 8th year of his reign. While he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. And in the 12th year, how old is he now, 20, he began to purge Judah and Judas. So here he is, when he's 16, he says, you know what, I'm going to begin to seek after God. I want to know God, I want to learn the truth about the body, 16 years old. My father is wicked, he didn't teach me, but I'm of my own accord, I'm going to learn the truth about the God of Israel. Four years later, he said, you know what, we're ready to clean house. He went on a, I don't know what you want to call it, he went just all throughout Judah and then he even went beyond the borders of his own country into the former northern kingdom that had been already taken captive. He went there, he threw down their altars. He went all the way up to Bethel and threw down, he was the king of Judah down here, he went up to Bethel and destroyed the high places, tore up the idols, did you read all that, broke down the images, he took the bones of the wicked priests and false prophets, he dug up their dead bodies out of their graves and took their bones and burned them on top of the altars to these false gods, just as a form of sacrilege against their false religion. Just to basically spit on their religion. And boy, he was zealous, he was excited, I mean he went throughout the whole nation, cleaning it up, getting rid of all this garbage, that was when he was 20 years old, but look at verse 8. Now in the 18th year of his reign, so how old is he now? 26. So basically he's been following God for about 10 years now, right? He's 26 years old, now he's starting to repair the house of the Lord is God, it says at the end of verse 8. And then we go throughout the story, it talks about them repairing it, they're getting the money together, they're repairing the breaches to the building, but watch this. Look down, if you would, at verse number 14. So how old is he again? 26. When did he start serving God with his life? When is probably the time he probably got saved around this time, but it doesn't really talk about when he got saved, but probably about the time he was 16, okay? Ten years later, 26 years old, and when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. So he didn't have the Bible. He probably had a lot of the psalms, but he didn't have the law, Genesis through Deuteronomy. He had probably a lot of the psalms, I'm sure he knew that psalm, remember that we talked about it on Wednesday night, Deuteronomy chapter 32, the psalm that they taught in the children of Israel, but he didn't have the whole Bible, I mean he was missing a big chunk here. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, well they found it in the rubble. I mean it's pretty bad. You know the house of God is bad. You know church is bad. When you go in there, you can't find the Bible. You gotta dig under a bunch of stuff and you find some back room somewhere, oh wow, here's the Bible, we found it. That's what happened. Look at verse 15. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. And Shaphan carried the book to the king and brought the king word back again saying, all that was committed to thy servants, they do it, and have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the Lord and delivered it in the hand of the overseers and to the hand of the workmen. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, Hilkiah the priest had given me a book. It doesn't really say what book it is, he just said, I found a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And of course immediately, he knew it was God's word, he knew it was the truth. You know there's something about the Bible, you just recognize it when it's right. And it says, and the king commanded, I'm sorry, and it came to pass, verse 19, when the king had heard the words of the law that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and hi come the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and as I, a servant of the king, say, go inquire the Lord for me. And for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that is written in this book. You say, why are we reading this story? What are we doing here? Listen to me, here's a man who's been serving God for ten years. He'd been in church for ten years. He'd been actually very zealous for God. I mean he was fighting the Lord's battles. He was doing what he believed was right, and he was doing many things that were right. But when he was confronted with actually reading the entire Bible, I mean at that time that's what their Bible. He sat down and read the Bible. He tore his clothes and said, we're not even close. I mean do you understand what I'm saying? This is the difference between the Christian who's read the Bible cover to cover and the one who hasn't. There's your difference right there. I mean you can have Christians who go to church, I mean they're faithful to church even. They might even go very often to church, maybe even three times a week to church. But I'm going to tell you something, if they were to sit down and read the whole book cover to cover, man they'd rent their clothes and say, woe is me, I've been leaving out a lot. I've been missing a lot. I wasn't as righteous as I thought I would. I mean Josiah, he thought he was doing very well. And he was doing pretty well for somebody who hadn't read the Bible. But once he got to read the Bible, that's where there's a big change. Huge change in his attitude. Now I'm going to tell you something, Christians who have not read the Bible cover to cover do not have the right view of God. They have a partial view. It would be like if we took a picture of me. Let's say we got a picture of Steven Anderson and you took a picture of me. And let's say you just covered up 70% of my face. I mean you could get a pretty good idea of what I looked like, but you probably couldn't even pick me up in a lineup. You read 70% of the Bible, you only got 70% of the picture. You're missing so much of who God is. You know, you remember Zorro? You know back in the old days, like way back when, they probably remade it like five million times. You know Hollywood is so lame and tired and boring, all they do is just bring out remakes and remake this and remake that. But when I was a kid there was Zorro and this was like an old black and white, it was way before I was a kid. I guess I just watched it when I was a kid. Anyway, it was this old black and white Zorro from a long time ago. And I remember, part of the time Zorro, he just had one little band over his eyes and two little holes cut for his eyes, you remember that? And yet, it was Zorro and nobody knew who he was. How much of his face was he really covering up? Not much. I mean he just had something over his eyes and yet nobody knew who he was, okay? And you remember in the old westerns, where they tie a bandana around their mouth? All it was really covering was their mouth and nose and chin. You know when we were kids, we used to love playing cowboys and Indians, you know? And we had a big Indian headdress and everything and then we had like bandanas and cowboy hats. And we'd play cowboys and Indians and you know what? You'd only put the bandana over your nose and mouth and chin because you were going to rob the bank or rob the state coach or whatever, you don't want people to know who you are. You see, you cover up half of who God is when you read half the Bible. You understand what I'm saying? You're not seeing the full picture. You can't get a full image of who God is when half of his person is being covered. You understand what I'm saying by that? You've got to get the whole counsel of God, the Bible says, and it doesn't matter how zealous you are. It doesn't matter what burning desire you have in your heart to serve God and love God and know God. And I don't think anybody could parallel Josiah for having that zeal to go all over the whole region fighting for the cause of what's right. I mean, he was as crazy as we are. You know, we go down to Gila Bend, we think we're crazy. And he was going to all these other towns, he was going to all these faraway places and he was preaching the truth. He turned the whole nation. Look at the last verse of the chapter. The Bible says that Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God and all his days they departed not from following the Lord the God of their fathers. That's a great man. That's a man who loves God. But you know what? When he read the Bible for the first time, he realized that he needed to make some big changes in his life. And the nation of Israel needed to make some big changes. He didn't realize it until he picked it up and read it for himself. You know, Hilkiah the prophet had been preaching it to him since he was probably a little boy. Hilkiah the priest had preached it to him. He'd been going to the house of God many years earlier and yet not until he picked up and read it for himself and the big change come. Let's continue reading the story. Look at verse 22, they said, man, we've got to inquire of God. We've got to find somebody who knows God. We've got to find somebody who can tell us what to do here. God's wrath is going to be poured out upon us. We just read the Bible. We just read what the truth is. We've got to find some preacher. Look who they find. It says in verse number 22, it says in Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed went to hold other prophets. The only preacher they could find was a woman. Isn't that terrible? I mean, he said, oh, it's terrible about that because the Bible says that men are supposed to be the ones that are the preachers and the leaders. But when you get a nation that gets away from God, you start having women preachers, you know, and we're seeing it. We're seeing it. Oh, who was it? Wasn't somebody just telling? Was it you that was telling me about the deaconess, the female deacons, you know? And that's just one step away from having a female preacher because the Bible. I remember I was knocking doors one time when I lived in Sacramento, California. I knocked on a door, and am I embarrassing you, brother? I knocked on a door, and this lady came to the door, and I said, if you die today, you know for sure you're going to have. She said, oh, yes, I'm a deacon at such-and-such the Presbyterian church. I said, really? I said, wow. I said, that's amazing, and she looked a little puzzled, like why I was so amazed by that. I said, that's amazing. I said, because look, this is what I read in the Bible, and I opened up 1 Timothy 3, and I said, it says here the deacon must be the husband of one wife. I said, it amazes me that you're the husband of one wife. I said, is your wife here? That's what I said. I was a little bit crazy back then. That's why I was 17 years old. I was 17 years old, and I knocked on the door. I said, can I meet your wife? Because you're the husband, right? She said, no. I said, well, then you must not be a deacon. The Bible says here the deacon must be the husband of one wife. I said, you must be the husband of one wife. And I said, are you telling me the Bible's not true? Because it says the deacon must be, so you must be the husband of one wife. Where's your wife? And she slammed the door, and I had fun with it. Made a good illustration this morning. I'm glad I did that 10 years ago. But anyway, just to give you an illustration of where things are going, you've got Baptist churches with female deacons. And down in Brazil, they just started ordaining female preachers. Two years ago, the Baptist's nomination out of Brazil, a friend of mine told me that. Let's keep reading. It says, went to Holto the prophetess, the wife of Shalom, the son of Tikvath. What's wrong with Shalom? Shalom needs to be preaching or something. Shalom's wife is the preacher. He's just, oh, I'm just Holto's little husband. Have you ever met anybody whose name was Shalom? You know why? Because nobody names their kid after some hen-pecked, sissy wimp from the Old Testament. They're going to name their kid like John, Paul, right? Peter, Michael, you know, they name their kid these great people, Solomon, Isaac, Jacob, you know, name their kid Shalom, the son of Tikvath. His dad, Tikvath, didn't raise him, right? The son of Hazra, Hazbin, keeper of the wardrobe. And look, here's the real problem. Now, she dwelled in Jerusalem in the college. Now, that's the only time that the word college occurs in the entire Bible. Seriously. One time in the whole Bible, it's found in, you know, 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings. It's the same story, though. It says that Holto, the woman preacher, lived at the college. That's the only time a college is ever mentioned in the whole Bible. Oh, Pastor Anderson, the reason that you don't preach right, the reason you don't know what's right is because you didn't graduate from Bible college. That's your problem. No, I didn't graduate from Bible college. That's why I do preach right. That's why I do preach hard. That's why I do win songs. Hey, that's why I do something for God. Because I didn't get messed up in the college with Hilda, with Hilda. Broom Hilda, the big, burly woman preacher behind the pulpit. Hilda is going to teach me the Bible. No, thanks. That's the story from yesterday. And man, I was like thinking about my sermon this morning, so many illustrations from yesterday. Because man, we were out soul winning. When we got there at what, 9.30? Spent about 10 minutes just figuring out what we were doing. Went out soul winning. We took a nice long lunch break, a nice long dinner break, and finished up at 8.15 at night. That's a lot of soul winning, a lot of illustrations. And you know, everybody who went out yesterday, I guarantee you got stories, right? I mean, you got cool stories of different stuff that happened. You know, whether it was dogs chasing you, people that you could tell us about the people that got saved. You know, every single person that went out yesterday, I guarantee you has a lot of stories. I mean, we were, on the way home, we were kind of talking over each other, like everybody trying to tell their story. And everybody wants to tell what they did, what happened, how it went. It's fun, but let me tell my story. Because I'm by the pulpit now. So let me tell my story. We knocked on the door, and this has to do with the sermon, that's why I'm bringing it up. We knocked on the door, Brother Edwards and I, we knocked on the door of the assistant pastor of the Baptist Church in town, okay? And here's the thing, I thought, when I planned this whole day out, that there was only one Baptist Church in Hue of Inn. And I knew they used the NIV, they had no soul winning, they were dead as a doornail, it should be called First Baptist Church of the Deep Freeze, but they do nothing. But it turned out there was another Baptist Church in town. Because what happened was the pastor of First Baptist, I guess, got fired, and so he started his own church across town. And so his assistant pastor is who I knocked on the door of. So I knocked on the door of this assistant pastor, and he said, oh wow, I'm the assistant pastor of this church. Frontline Baptist Church, I think it was called. And he said, I'm down the street here. And I told him, I said, well this is what we're doing, we're from Faithful Baptist Church, we're from up in Tennessee, he said, yeah, I got an invitation, or he said, actually our lead pastor, kind of like the lead guitarist, the lead singer, he said our lead pastor got one of your invitations on his door and he called me and we were talking about, what are these people doing here? What are they doing on our turf? And he said, no, he didn't say that, but he said, what are they doing? And I said, well, that's what we're doing, we're knocking every door in the town, we're trying to knock every door in the town, and one day we're about three quarters done or whatever, and we're trying to knock every single door and we're preaching the gospel, and I said, in fact, I said, see that house down the street? I said, I just won that guy to the Lord, this young Mexican guy, I just won him to Christ. And he said, rock on! And he said, am I telling the truth? He said, rock on! I was like, okay, cool. And then he said it again about something else and later on, he's like, rock on, rock on. So anyway, we're talking to this guy and in the course of talking to this guy, he told us, he said, yeah, I said, well, how'd you end up out here? He said, yeah, you know, when I went to college, he said, I really wanted to be a scholar. So he said, I went to Bible college here at Multnomah, something in Portland, and he said, but man, I went and got my master's at the Dallas Theological Seminary and through the course of the conversation, he became a parent, he'd been in college for like eight years of Bible college. He said, man, I'm an expert in the Greek and the Hebrew, I'm a scholar, I know the Bible, all this stuff, and it was amazing, this guy's an ignorance. I mean, Brother Edwards can testify, he was there. I said to the guy, I was talking about people dying and going to heaven, and he said, well, I don't know, do Christians, like if a Christian dies right now, do they really go to heaven, though? That's what he said, after he was my witness. If I say anything wrong, stop me, alright? You're my witness. He said, well, actually a lot of people believe, this is what he said, he said a lot of people actually believe that when a Christian dies, they're just kind of laying on the ground. And then they're just kind of like unconscious. They're just like dead. And then on the resurrection, that's when they go up to heaven. And I said to him, I said, that's Jehovah's Witness doctrine. I said, that's not even Baptist doctrine. I said, and I just showed him two verses, because he said that to me, he didn't say he believed it, he said, no, the soul sleep, I think it might be the soul sleep, I'm not really sure if people go to heaven when they die, you know, if they're saved. And I said to him, I said, what about Philippians chapter 1, where Paul said, to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain, but if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, but what I shall choose I want not, for I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. I said, he didn't say I desire to go to sleep more than he did. He said, he said, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. And I said, didn't he say in 2 Corinthians 5, we are confident, I say, and willing, rather, to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. And you know what he said when I started that? He said, yeah, you're probably right. Yeah, that makes sense. I think I said, well, didn't you figure this out? You know, it's amazing, I can just show two verses from the Bible, and all of a sudden, he just understood it and believed it. What were they teaching him in that college? What was Holda teaching him? You see what I'm saying, though? And you expect me, people ask me, are you ever going to go back and get your degree? You know, you can do a correspondence course, and you can mail in ten box tops off your favorite cereal, and send them a thousand dollars, and UPC symbols from Lucky Charms, and they send you a Bible college degree, I don't even want to be associated with that kind of institution. The kind of institution where a man comes out after eight years of Bible college, and says, I don't really know if I die, if I'm going to go to heaven, or if I'm just going to lay in the dirt. Jesus Christ said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this? I'm never going to die. I'm never going to lay in the ground dead, nor shall I breathe my last breath, be carried by the angels in the presence of Jesus Christ my Savior. That moment, in the moment and twinkling of an eye, my soul and spirit are going to be in heaven. And then later, one day, my body will be changed. But you better know, my soul and spirit are going to be alive in heaven. If I spent five minutes dead, the Bible's not true. Because the Bible says, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. What about your body? This is the shell. The nut's going to be gone. The shell will be taken. And so, I'm going to be transported immediately in my soul and spirit into heaven. And only this body's going to remain behind. And there's so much Bible on that. I mean, in Revelation, the Bible talks about the souls of those that are in heaven that are waiting. But they're still conscious, they're still speaking, they're still tied, they know where they are, they know what they're doing. And so, I was just shocked by the ignorance. And then he said, I said, well, what Bible do you guys use? You and First Baptist and both Turks. He said, we both use the NIV. I said, go get the NIV. I said, I'm going to show you what's wrong with it. He's like, well, that's all right, you know. He's like, I batch all versions. This is what he said. That's why I go back to the Greek. I was like, okay. So he brings out the NIV. And I get out the NIV and I show him John 3.13 where the NIV says, anything in it? I said, well, didn't the Bible say that Elijah went up by a whirlwind in heaven, for example? I said, I believe everybody who's ever died who's saved is in heaven right now. Okay, that's what the Bible teaches. But I said, what about Elijah? And then he's like, well, let me go get the Greek. So he gets out the Greek and he starts to look at the Greek and he says, yeah, you're right. He said, even in my Greek it says that this translation is wrong in the NIV. So I showed him a few other things that are wrong in the NIV. You know the story about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. He's like, what chapter is that in? Where is that? I'm like, it's Acts 8. Man, that's a great Bible college education, buddy. And so I had him turn there and I showed him Acts 8.37 was gone. I showed him all these things. And he said, well, I'll agree with you that the NIV has got a lot of problems. It's pretty messed up. But the problem is, he said, the King James, if you can understand it, good luck. I mean, it's so hard to understand. People don't talk that way. I said, what's easier to understand? Hell or Sheol? What's easier to understand? Hell or Hades? Okay, I said, you can pick out places where the King James is harder. I can show you places where the NIVs are. I said, have you ever read the book Dr. Seuss, Hop on Pop? And he said, no, I'm not familiar with it. I said, oh, they didn't teach you that, did they? In Bible college. Hop, pop. Hop on pop. Up, pup. Anybody remember this one? Pup is up. All fall wall. They all fall off the wall. I learned how to read from Hop on Pop when I was a kid. My mom taught me how to read. You know, pup is up. No, don't hop on pop. No, Pat, no, don't sit on that. I said, that's real easy to read, but it's not the Bible. It's not God's word. What are you reading, though? I said, it might be easy to read, but it's not God's word. I said, why would we dumb it down? Why would we dumb down the Bible? And he said, well, I'm not dumbing you down. I don't dumb people down. He said, I explained to them what it means from the Greek. I said, so they need you to understand the Bible. Basically, they can't understand it on their own. They can't be like Josiah and just sit down and read it and just fall on their face before God. I explained it to them all the time. The Bible says, ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things and is truth and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him, and now little children abide in him. You understand that you don't need somebody. Listen, coming to church and having me preach to you is going to help you learn a lot more and a lot faster. But is there anything, watch this now, is there anything that you would learn in church that you could not have gotten from the Bible on your own? No. You have the Holy Spirit living inside you. You have the Bible. If there's something that you could only learn from me that you could never find on your own in the Bible and from the Holy Spirit, it's not true then. I must have made it up. You understand what I'm saying? Because you have the same Bible I have, the same Holy Spirit I have. Now, you come to get preaching and teaching to build you up, to strengthen you, to teach you more, reading through the Bible, cover to cover yourself. You know who your teacher is? The Holy Spirit of God. But these people put themselves up like a Catholic priest or a pope that says, I must tell you what it really means. You must come to church with your piece of junk NIV. By his own admission, he said it's a piece of junk. And I said, okay, but why do you use the NIV then? I said, why are they reading the NIV then? I said, okay, if you think it's in the Greek, I don't agree with you, but then why use the NIV of all translations? And he got a little flustered. He said, well, we just use the NIV because that's what people use right now, okay? So I guess the people decide. Why don't we take a vote right now what Bible we're going to use? In fact, we're going to have a Bible suggestion box. I'm going to put it out there and you can cast a secret ballot, okay? You can write down what Bible you want to use, fold the piece of paper in half, and the suggestion box that's out here, it's a big metal green suggestion box in the back. It's got a big black plastic lid on it. You can't miss it because it's about seven feet by four feet by five feet, okay? It's out here, it gets emptied once a week, and you go out there and you tell me what Bible you want to use. And in fact, just so that I know which one you're talking about, give me an example of it. Take the Bible that you want me to use, whether it be the NIB, the NAS, the RSV, the HIV, the STD, whatever version you want, you just deposit it in the receptacle there and then I'll decide what one we're going to use and whichever one gets the most votes, it doesn't matter because we're using the King James Bible, the only Bible there is. And so this is not what we need. We don't need more Bible college. We need more church. We need more Bible. We need more Holy Spirit power. We need more soul winning. We need more churches to go out and knock doors and preach the gospel and love people and do something for God. And we need a church filled with people who don't sit in a high chair with a bib on saying, feed me, but they go home, they pull out the knife and the fork, and they eat the T-bone steak of the Bible themselves. That's what we need. We need people in the pew who love God and who know God themselves, not someone who's just relying on a pastor all the time, not somebody who says, well, I'm going to bring my friend to church so they can get saved, but somebody who knows how to get them saved themselves and can bring their sheaves with them after they've already been saved or got them saved. Now, if you bring unsaved people, great. We'll give them the gospel. We'll go to them and preach to them. But you know what? I'd love for you to learn how to do it also and get them saved yourself. That way you have the joy of winning souls. I don't want to be the only one who has the joy of having to have that same joy of getting somebody saved and loving people. I heard about a pastor this week. A good friend of mine goes to his church in Iowa, a pastor this week, and this is a guy that I know. I've talked to him before. And from what I know, I would say that his church is the best church in town in this city in Iowa, in Pleasantville, Iowa, right outside Des Moines. I'd say if I were in that town, I'd go to this church. It seems to be the best church in town. But you know what that pastor's doing? I just found out this week. He's resigning. He's quitting. And you know what? He doesn't even have a replacement picked out. He's just resigning the church, right? His last Sunday is like June 8th, but no replacement picked out. He's just letting the deacons and the people just pick their own guy or whatever. And he's leaving. You know why? Because he's been promoted to being a president of a Bible college. Isn't that wonderful? So now you've got a church outside Des Moines, Iowa. There was a great church. Now they've got no pastor. Why? So he can go be some Bible college. So him and Hilda can teach a bunch of young men how to turn the world upside down. It's a lie. I'm going to tell you something. The next generation, you mark my words, the next generation of great preachers in this country, the next generation of men who are going to preach the truth in this country are going to come out of the local church. They're not going to come out of any Bible college. I was preaching to a preacher friend of mine. I was talking to him. And I said, man, we're going to turn the tide. This independent Baptist movement's dead. Hey, we're going to turn the tide. We're going to send out our own guys. And we're going to start church all over America. And we're going to do something big. And he said, well, what college are they going to go to? I said, they're not going to go to college. That's why they're going to do something big for God. Because they're going to come out of God's institution, the local church. I told my buddy that goes there. I said, hey, didn't we learn in Bible college that Baptists, they gave us a little acronym for Baptists. B is for Born Again Baptized Believers. A is for Autonomy of the Local Church. P is for Priesthood of the Believer. T is for two officers, the Bishop and the Deacon. And then the I was for something. And then the S was for separation. And the T was for two ordinances, the Lord's Supper and Baptist. I said, two officers, pastors and deacons. I don't hear a president of a Bible college in there. And yet he feels like he's getting a promotion to go from being a pastor, which is something the Bible talks about, to going to be the president of a Bible college, worthless. Oh wow, I can be a little more well known now. Nuts to his church. Nuts to the local church that he's been pastoring. And my friend told me, he said, you know, they want an experienced pastor. You know, they don't want a new pastor. So what they're doing, they're calling pastors of other churches to try to get that pastor to come pastor to the church in Pleasantville, Iowa. So, do you see what's happening here? This guy goes off to be the president of a Bible college. Big deal, worthless. Now you've got a church with no pastor. Now they're calling some other church's pastor trying to take him out. And when he comes in, he's a lame duck. You know what lame duck means, right? A lame duck is like a lame duck president. He can't really do everything he wants because the people are the ones who voted him in and the people can vote him out. The people are the ones who invited him and they can just as soon spin them on down the road. So he doesn't have liberty like I have liberty to just preach whatever I want. It's not what I want, it's whatever God wants me to preach out of the Bible. I can preach whatever I want to preach, which is what God wants me to preach, and nobody says a word. But this guy, he's going to come in and he can't really preach like he ought to. So, now we get lame duck, moves into slot A. Now this church over here that he moved out of has no pastor, right? Now they're probably going to call some other church's pastor to come take that over. You know, somewhere at the end of the line, you're going to end up with a church with no pastor, period. Because they're playing musical churches. And somewhere at the end of the line, there's a church, and it's probably in a small town somewhere, right? Probably in the small town, in the small community, that's the guy who's going to leave because he wants to go to the bright lights of the big city and get a bigger paycheck and a bigger car, and he's going to leave, and somewhere in some unknown place across America, a once great church is going to be languishing without a pastor. Isn't that sad? And then the church might even die, and the candlestick is going to be going out. It's a sad thing. We don't need pastors bouncing around. How would you like it if I said, hey, guess what? The church up the road offered me to be their pastor, and they're a little bit bigger, a little bit more money, and it wouldn't be hard to have more money than, like, just about zero money. But anyway, that's not the point. The point is, hey, how would you feel if I said, I'm going to go, that's a better opportunity? You know what that would be saying? I don't love you. I don't care about you. And that's to you. And in fact, I don't even know who's going to replace me. Have fun trying to find somebody. I'm leaving on June 8th. Have a good one. Bye-bye. Come explain to me why that's right. And come explain to me why it was right for that big windbag from Florida, Tom Neal, to come invite him to go be the president of his bible house when he's the pastor of a local church. What business do you have to get on an airplane and find a Pleasantville, Iowa, and find the pastor of a local church, God's institution, and to invite him to be in your parachurch ministry, your sideline show over in Florida? Leave the guy alone. He's serving God. He's preaching the gospel to a town that needs it. You're taking him away. You're leaving a church without a pastor. Who do you think you are? That's unethical. That's wrong. You think it would be right for me to walk into the door of some other fire alarm company and just say, I need to talk to the vice president of the fire alarm company and sit across the table from him and say hi. I'm going to offer you more money than you're getting paid right now if you come over to my company. That's unethical. That's wrong. When you're advertising for a job, that's what you do. You advertise. You don't go to other companies and try to steal their employees, do you? No. It's wrong. Is anybody in the business world out there? Put up your hand. If you're in the business world, you kind of know what I'm talking about. You don't solicit other people's employees. You don't go up to somebody and say, hey, well, I could give you a better deal over here. You're supposed to let employees come to you. You put out an advertisement. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? You put out an advertisement in the paper or on the internet and people come to you and apply for the job. You don't go to them and try to steal them away from the company. You think I want other fire alarm companies soliciting my employees in the fire alarm business, trying to pull them away from me? That's not right. That's not an ethical business practice. But this big bag of hot air from Florida flies into town in his little jet and he comes in and he's got an offer that brother McSpadden just can't refuse. It's wrong. It's wrong. The local church is what we need. We need the house of God and the word of God. We don't need the college of whoever it's of. But anyway, let's go on now that I got that off my chest. Turn to Psalm 119 right in the middle of your Bible. Psalm 119. You say, oh man, somebody's going to be offended. Somebody's going to give him the tape. I hope they give him the tape. I hope he hears somebody telling the truth about it. Probably nobody else can tell him the truth. Well, he didn't ask for your advice. Well, I'm not giving him advice. I'm giving advice to my church about what the truth is. And I want you to know that this is the most important place, the place that you're sitting in. And if you want to know if your pastor has a Bible college degree, he doesn't. Are you going to get one? No. Do you recommend anybody else to get one? No. Any questions, see me after the service. I'll meet you at the dumpster. Psalm 119 verse 9. The Bible reads, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. How are you going to clean up your life as a young person? And you know, we live in a day where the young people live a filthy life. I mean, just on average. Not everybody's the same, obviously. But the people of my generation and around that age, maybe a little younger, a little older, they live a dirty life. How are they going to clean it up? They're going to have to take heed themselves according to God's word. I mean, how did I clean up my life when I was a young person? When I was 16, 17 years old, I got the Bible. And before I got rid of the sin in my life, when I was still worldly as all get out, when I was still dressed and looked worldly and acted worldly and did all the worldly things, the worldly friends, you know what I did though? Something told me, hey, I better just read through the Bible cover to cover. I want to know what God says. And as I read it through the first time and the second time and the third time and the fourth time and the fifth time and the sixth time, it seems like layers of worldliness just started falling off. You know, it was like peeling an onion. Just every dirty outer layer just started to fall off. And there was just one thing, I would shed one thing after another. How did I cleanse my way as a young man by taking heed thereto according to God's word? Same thing in verse 11. Thy word have I hidden in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. Hey, God's word is what's going to help you get the sin out of your life. Hiding it in your heart, memorizing the Bible, reading it through cover to cover. I'm trying to emphasize to you this morning the importance of God's word in your life. Read it, memorize it, love it, know it. And whoever you are under the sound of my voice, if you haven't read it cover to cover, you better start today. I'm telling you, if you ever want to be used by God, you ever want to be a great soul winner, you ever want to be a great Christian, you want to be a great mother or father or husband or wife, you better read that book cover to cover. That's what's going to change you. Look, if you would, at Psalm 119 verse 97. Just same chapter, just go to verse 97. Verse number 97 of Psalm 119. Oh how love I thy law, it is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers. Do you see the importance of personally? You know, there are things that if you say about personally, you'll know more than me. Am I some kind of a God man? No. Get in the Bible yourself, learn it yourself. He says, I more understand than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients. He said, I'm a young man, and I know more than the grey-headed old preacher. He said, I know more, say, than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. I have refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy word. I have not departed from thy judgments, for thou hast taught me. Who was David's teacher? The Holy Spirit, God. For thou hast taught me. How sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. The Bible, God's word. Turn to one more place and then we'll be done. 1 Peter 2, 2. 1 Peter 2, verse 2. You see, the problem that we're having in America is a lack of learning and a lack of knowledge. He said, read the Bible that you may know. Read the Bible that you may learn. Remember at the beginning of the sermon we saw those two things? Why read it, God? To know. Why read it? To learn. People are unlearned and unknowing. That's why they think when they're called to preach to go to a Bible college, they didn't get that from the Bible. How did they get it from the Bible when it's not even you? Oh, but it talks about school. No, it doesn't. The word school is used one time. People are arguing and disputing against the word of God in the book of Acts. Oh, what about the school of the prophets? Never existed. Didn't exist. The word's not found. Show me the word school or college in the Bible. I'll show you. A woman preacher and people arguing against God's word. Oh, that's a coincidence. Oh, the Bible's all a coincidence, right? It just fell out of the sky or something. No, God wrote it a certain way for a reason. He didn't get that from the Bible. You didn't get a woman deacon from the Bible. You didn't get women preachers from the Bible. You didn't get worldliness and ungodliness from the Bible. You didn't get door hangers on the door from the Bible. You get daughter of soul hanging from the Bible. You get preach the gospel to every preacher from the Bible. You don't get putting a door hanger. You don't get mail outs and handing out tracts from the Bible. You get preaching. You get the word of God. Look, I'm sorry if I'm being nitpicky, but we don't have knowledge and learning because we don't read the Bible personally. And so preachers talk about door hangers. Preachers talk about Bible colleges. Preachers talk about passing out tracts. Preachers talk about all this stuff. I talk about the Bible. And if I talk about something that's not in the Bible, just turn me off. Would you do that for me? When you're sitting in the pew there, when I say something that has nothing to do with what's in the Bible, just go ahead and just shut your ears because you don't need it. If I say, well, I think you shouldn't do this, and I don't have any Bible to back it up, just blow me off. Are you listening to me? Blow me off. If I say, well, you ought to be doing this, and there's no Bible to back it up, blow me off. I'm saying nuts to you, Pastor Anderson, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I'm not God. I'm not Jesus. This is Jesus. This is God. It's the Word of God. But look at this first. We'll close with this. We'll close with this illustration. 1 Peter 2, 2. As newborn babies, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow their body. Now think about a newborn baby. They only want one thing. Think about it. One thing. They're not into the carrots or the squash or the plums or any of that weird baby food stuff. They don't want turkey dinner in a jar yet. Squash and plum combined. Oh, man, where do they come up with these combinations? Okay. That's not what they want. They want one thing. And it's not made by man. It's made by God. Are you listening to this? They don't want a man-made substitute. They want something that's made by God. The sincere milk of their mother. It comes from God's creation. They don't want hydrogenated and high fructose. They want the one that God made, and they only want one thing in life. They're not thinking about their career. They're not thinking about money. They're not thinking about who they're going to marry. They just want one thing. Feed me! And God says, that's how you ought to be about the Bible. He says, you ought to crave the Bible like a newborn baby craves milk from his mother. He said, that's how you ought to feel about the Bible. Just a longing and intense desire. I've got to have the word of God. Is that how you feel about the Bible? Look at this. Psalm 119, verse 131. You don't have to turn there. I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for thy commandments. I mean, like a dog panting for what? He said, give me, feed me. The baby said, Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Shrieking, screaming. You know how they are. Feed me, feed me. There's my dog. I got her attention. She's like, you go? You ready? You're speaking my language. Feed me. Hey, you ought to wake up tomorrow morning and say, feed me, dog. Ah! Grab the Bible. Ah! And read it. Feed me. And you know, when our kids cry for food, we give it to them. No, it's not time to eat yet. We don't do that. We feed, quote, on demand, is what we call it. My wife nurses the children when their baby's on demand. And you know, here it is, on demand. No, it's not Comcast on demand. It's not Cox on demand. It's not satellite on demand. It's the Bible on demand. And it's here for you, but you've got to desire it. How should I desire it? Like a newborn baby desires milk. You desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. Grow, learn, know. It's going to come from the Bible. Church is great. Soul is great. Prayer, great. Reading the Bible, essential. Essential. Man, we had a great day yesterday. 27 people saved in one day. Never had that many people saved in one day with our church, ever. But you know, we worked harder than we've ever worked. Everybody was about to fall over. We were beat. 104 degrees outside. We were tired. It was hot. But you know what? Oh, that's all we're ever going to do. We better spend some time learning and knowing, or else we wouldn't have even known to do that. We wouldn't have known how to do it. We wouldn't have known how to do it so effectively if we hadn't have been desiring the sincere milk of the Word and knowing how to win souls, knowing how to preach the gospel, knowing God's plan and following it according to knowledge. It's all about knowledge. Wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore, get wisdom. With all thy wisdom, get understanding. Young people, learn the Bible. Older, learn the Bible. Children, learn the Bible. If you don't have the chart, get a chart. If you got your own chart, use your own chart. If you got your own method, use your own method. Put away the vitamin tab, put away the five-minute reading, put away our daily bread, put away have a little talk with Jesus, and get out the Bible, sit down, get comfortable, and read it for an hour. Read it for two hours. Do some serious reading. You want to be wiser than all your teachers? You want to be wiser than all your friends? You want to stand out above the crowd? You want to do something great for God? You want to be mightily used by God? You want God to change your life? You want to do what's right? You want to be blessed? Read the Bible. Read the Bible. See, that's too simple. Read the Bible. Preach on something deep. Read the Bible. Wait, I want something cute. You don't need something cute. You need the basics. Church, Bible. This is not complicated. Holy Spirit, God the Father, Jesus Christ, salvation, Bible, pray, amen. Go home. All right, let's go. Father, we thank you so much for the simplicity of your word, the simplicity of the truth. We don't need Bible colleges. We don't need a bunch of three-ring circuses. We don't need a bunch of devotional booklets. We don't need a spiritual squash mixed with plum off some theologian's shelf. We need the sincere milk of the word to grow thereby. God, I pray that every single person in this room, maybe they didn't take the whole sermon, but God, please just help everybody to take one thing from the sermon, and that's this. I'm gonna go home and read my Bible. I'm gonna know the Bible so that nobody can ever put one over on me. I'm gonna know what it says for myself. I'm gonna love Jesus myself along with the Bible. Thank you so much for this church, dear God. Thank you for the great day that we had yesterday, the 16 people who went down to Gila Bend and the many hours some spent up to, you know, we were down there for, what, 12 hours and all this crazy time and people that spent two hours out in the sun and three, four, five, whatever the time. It was hot. Everybody worked hard, and man, what a great spirit we had. Everybody was happy. Nobody complained. Everybody was just rejoicing, dear God, and we love you, and God, help us to return the favor for all the wonderful things you've done for us by sitting down and reading your word daily as you commanded us. We love you and thank you for everything. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's sing one song before we go, 363, a song of the 363 wonderful words of life.