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

Jude, but I wanted to focus on just the first verse only, and that will lead me into my sermon. I wanted to actually focus on one word in the first verse. The Bible reads, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved, is the word that I want to preach on the night. Preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. Now, the first thing I want to get into, and the title of my sermon tonight, is the doctrine of preservation. The doctrine of preservation. The first thing I want to get into tonight is the preservation of God's word. If you would, turn to Isaiah 59, and I'll read another verse for you, Psalm 119, 160. Thy word is true from the beginning, and watch this, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. Did you hear that? Every one of God's righteous judgments endureth forever. Now, before I get into this multitude of scriptures that I'm going to read for you, let me just logic with you for a moment on the doctrine of preservation. This world has been around for approximately 6,000 years. I know that modernists and liberals will try to twist that and drag that out to 10,000, 15,000, millions of years, but in reality, the Bible's clear, it's very easy to do the math. The world's been around for about 6,000 years. Now, it took God, of that time, over 4,000 years, to completely deliver to us the Bible. I mean, if you think about it, God... Hebrews 1-1, for example, God who had sundried times and in diverse manners, spake in time past unto the follows by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. So we see that in the Old Testament, God was constantly revealing his word through the prophets. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man. It wasn't their words, it was holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. That took a long time, 16 to 1,700 years of God revealing the Word in the written Word. But even before that, God was speaking his Word through the prophets all the way from Adam and Abel and Seth and Enos. These men spake and preached God's Word and God spake to them. Enoch, also the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these things. I mean, we just read it in the book of Jude. And so, all throughout the Old Testament, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Then, for about 16 to 1,700 years, the Bible was penned down in the form of a book. This is your Law of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, penned down by Moses at the mouth of God at Mount Sinai, and elsewhere. And then, before that even, the book of Job, which predates those five books. Then you have 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, all the different books, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all these different books that were meticulously penned down, passed down to the time of Jesus Christ, where Jesus Christ spake God's Word, he was God's Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so, Jesus Christ spake God's Word. Then the Bible said in the book of Jude, where we just read, in Jude 17, But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostles spake God's Word, Peter, James, John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, all these different men that penned down the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, the last apostle, who penned down the New Testament. Think about what process went into giving us God's Word, years and years, all different men. What in the world sense would it make for God to go through all the trouble to give us his Word, to use all these men to pen down his Word, and then a few hundred years later, it's gone. Well, unfortunately, we don't have the originals. Unfortunately, they're all gone, and well, this is just the best we have. It's pretty close. What kind of sense would that make for God to take the trouble to give his Word to mankind, and then to let it fall off the face of the earth? Does that make any sense to you at all? It doesn't make any sense to me at all, that God would give us his Word and not preserve his Word. It makes no sense. What's the point of giving it to us and then taking it away again? You'll notice that God is not a God who gives and takes away and gives and takes away. That's not the way he is. Hell, yes, it's true, the Lord gave and the Lord taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord when it comes to material things. But I'm going to tell you something. God gave his Word, he said, for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Timothy was told from a child, Thou has known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. How do you get saved? Well, you've got to hear God's Word. The holy Scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation. Timothy heard the holy Scriptures, the Word of God. He learned it from a child. It was preserved for hundreds of years from the time it was penned down by Moses and David and these holy men of God. It was preserved all the way to the time of Timothy. I believe it's been preserved till today. You say, well, why do you believe that? Well, let me tell you why I believe that. Because the Bible says, are you in Isaiah 59 and 21? Look down if you would. As for me, this is my covenant with them. You say, what's a covenant? A promise. A covenant is a promise. A covenant is like a contract signed with God's name on it. This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. My Spirit that is upon thee, saith the Holy Spirit, and my words, notice the S on the end there, my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, seed, saith the Lord from henceforth and forever. How long will the book of Isaiah be preserved word for word? Forever. He said, your son will have it, your grandson will have it, your great-great-grandson will have it, all the way forever into eternity. You see, every one of God's righteous judgments endure forever. Psalm 119, 160. And so we see that God's words are preserved. You say, well, wait a minute. I believe that the Bible's been preserved just not word for word. Because, come on, Pastor Anderson, after all those years of people copying it and copying it and copying it, somebody's bound to make it a sin. I mean, after they copied it and copied it. I mean, come on, you've got a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. Somebody's bound to make it a sin. You know the little telephone game, and you tell somebody in somebody's ear, and then they tell it, and it goes around the room, and it comes out completely different. Well, think about this, though. If you have a book that's been written down, and it's been copied into millions of copies, and then those copies have been copied, and those copies have been... If somebody made a mistake one time, well, then you got one messed up copy. But what about the other 999,000 that didn't have that same mistake? So it's pretty easy to go back and see which ones are right. I mean, do you see what I'm saying? There are a few anomalies. Good night. You say, would you believe every Bible is 100% accurate? No, no, sir. What about all these NIV, HIV, New King James? Hey, they're wrong, but does that make this Bible wrong? No. You've got to get the right one. You've got to get the King James Bible. But God has preserved His word, word for word. Because God never, ever, ever, de-emphasizes in the Bible the words. He's always putting emphasis on preserving the words. Listen to this. The words of the Lord are pure words, Psalm 12.6. As silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. God is the one who's preserving. You say, well, come on, people could make copy mistakes, and that mistake will get duplicated and not enough. Not if God is the one preserving it. When God says, this is my covenant, this is my promise, I'm going to make a deal with you that God's word will be preserved forever. If God's the one that's preserving it, I believe that God is able to preserve His word. In spite of human error, in spite of somebody making a mistake over here, somebody making a mistake over here, a typo here. I've had a Bible before that had a typo in it. But I'm going to tell you something. God has preserved His word down to us in spite of human error. We can see and we can understand that, you know, for example, the King James Bible translators, they looked at all the manuscripts, and they didn't go with some anomaly, you know, one that said something a little different. They said, well, if this one says something a little different than what we've had all these years, than what's been passed down, millions of copies, thousands and thousands of copies, this one must be a mistake. We're going to stick with the mainstream. This is the mainstream Bible. This is the King James Bible. This is the one that God preserved. God doesn't make His Bible some exclusive Bible, like a New World translation that only one cult uses, and that's what the Jehovah's Witnesses are, by the way, they're a cult. You say, what's your definition of a cult? I'll tell you what my definition of a cult is. A cult is a religion that follows a man and puts a man above God. That's what a cult is. That's why the Mormons are a cult, because they believe that Joseph Smith taught things that nobody else knew in the whole world, right? Nobody else knew, just him. And he had all these new revelations that there were more than one God, for example, other universes, other planets, and Ellen G. White started the Seventh-day Adventists. The Seventh-day Adventists are a cult, my friend, because Ellen G. White started the Seventh-day Adventists, and her word was put above God's word. And her words are authoritative to the Seventh-day Adventists as the Holy Scriptures, and they put that against the Holy Scriptures, and they will say that Ellen G. White's word stands, they're a cult. Let me define it for you better. Let's say I, Pastor Steven Anderson, said, everything that I say is right, and if what I say contradicts the Bible, I'm right. That's a cult. That would be a cult that you'd be sitting in if I said that. Or if I said to you, if I said to you, well, there's nobody else in the world that believes this. I mean, we're the only ones who believe this, but this is how we interpret the Bible, we're the only ones. You're in a cult, okay? Because nobody is the only one who understands, you know, who knows the Bible, right? This Bible's all over the world. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer all over the world. And so if I come up with some new radical doctrine that only I know about, and you can only come to my church to hear it, because everybody else in the whole world is wrong, you're sitting in a cult, if that's the case. Now you say, well, Pastor Anderson, you believe a lot of things that nobody else believes. Oh, really? Name one. Name one. I run into people, you say, oh, some of your teachers, you're the only one who believe them. Name one. I talk to people all over the world, all over America, who say that's exactly what I believe, and I read it in my Bible. They didn't learn it from me. I didn't learn it from them. We learned it from the Bible. It's in the Bible, everybody says it. You say, well, you preach against birth control, nobody else does. There are millions and millions of people all over this world preaching against birth control. I mean, there are millions of them. You know, the whole Roman Catholic Church, that's a billion people. The Roman Catholic Church states in their laws that birth control is wrong. So I guess I'm not alone. Now, I'm not condoning them, they're wicked as hell, but I'm just going to tell you something, that I'm not the only person who believes that. You say, well, you're the only person who doesn't believe in the pre-tribulation rapture. More Christians believe in the post-tribulation rapture than in the pre-tribulation rapture. They're just maybe not all independent Baptists. But I'm just saying, there's nothing that we believe here that's unique. Because it's in the Bible. There are people all over the world who read the Bible and come to the same conclusions about the same... Well, you're the only person who believes that life begins at conception. I heard somebody say, I preached this sermon against IVF, and they said, well, you're in a camp all by yourself on that one. I said, yeah, me and every pro-life organization in America. That's millions of people. Think about it. Think through the things that I preached. You'll find millions and millions of people the world over that believe each and every one of them. You may not find them all combined in the same place, you know, except in just certain churches. But everybody, you know, people are right on this, they're wrong on this, right on this, right on this. There's nothing that we believe that's a divine revelation that just came to Steven Anderson only. You see, even the men in the Bible who delivered the Bible to us, like the apostles, they didn't receive some special, unique revelation. You say, what about Paul? Paul received these revelations around. Yes, he did, and you know what? They matched up with everything that's in the Old Testament. People had already known those things for years. People had already known. Now, he clarified it. God's word in the New Testament clarified the Old Testament and brought new light to it, but there was no new doctrine. Salvation by grace through faith is not new. It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, when they were saved by grace through faith, when Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, when Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. God's word has always been preached. The doctrines of the Bible have always been believed by someone, always. And not just by someone, by many hosts of people. And so, a cult is where somebody's teaching that one man or one woman is our authority, and they have a new divine revelation that nobody else has, and a new scripture that nobody else has heard, that's never been mentioned in the Bible that it's coming. That's what a cult is. But the Bible says that God's words, every single word of God, is pure. It's preserved. God's going to preserve it. It's not an anomaly. It's not a unique thing that was just for some group of people, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, or only they have the right Bible. This is the mainstream Bible. This is the Bible that was used by every, every, every Christian in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, and most of the 1900s. This is the only Bible there was. You find an old King James Bible, it doesn't say King James Version on it. It just says Holy Bible. Because that's all that they had. You find an old Bible, it will not say King James Version. You find one that's about 100 years old, it's just the Holy Bible. That's all they had. You know, the mainstream Spanish Bible, the Reina Valera translation, translated in 1602, matches up very well with this one. It's a mainstream Bible. It's from the correct manuscript. The Hungarian Bible matches up with this one. The Martin Luther translation. It has mistakes in it, but it matches up with this one. More often than not. Why? Because this is the mainstream. God has always provided His word on a mass scale to the world, because He wanted everyone to be able to hear the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. God has preserved His word to every generation. There's never been a generation on the face of this earth that did not have God's word. Now, there were times before God's word was revealed in certain phases. You know, He hadn't got to the New Testament yet, but once it was revealed, it was preserved. He said, I'm going to reveal it through John, I'm going to reveal it through Matthew, I'm going to reveal it through Paul, and it's going to be preserved forever. Isaiah is going to preach it, it's going to be preserved, and it's going to last forever. That's the truth. That's what preservation is. Proverbs 35, Every word of God is pure. See, not the thoughts, not just the ideas, not just the general message or truth, but in Proverbs 30 verse 5, the Bible says every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Not in the theologian, not in the dictionary, not in the preacher, not in the pope, not in the man, but in him and in his words. Every word of God is pure. He's a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. I've heard somebody say that at the end of Revelation, when God says that if any man add unto these things, God shall add unto him all the plagues that are in this book, and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of his prophecy, that God shall take away his part out of the book of life. They said, well, let's just talk about the book of Revelation. So he doesn't care if you mess with the rest of it, but didn't it right here say all the way back in Proverbs 30 verse 5 and 6, he said, he said, add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. What about Deuteronomy? At the end of Deuteronomy, he says that thou shalt not add ought to these words or diminish from these words. All the way back in Deuteronomy, he said, don't change the Bible. Don't take away one word. Don't add one word. Heaven and earth shall pass away, Jesus said. You want a verse on preservation? Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. He said it's easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one chop or one tittle to pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Can you imagine a mountain being lifted up from Phoenix, Arizona here and cast into the sea? Can you imagine what kind of a site that would be? Can you imagine the whole earth passing away and being destroyed in a moment like that? Can you imagine what kind of power it would take for the whole world to pass away? What kind of an impact, what kind of a nuclear bomb would it take to just destroy the earth and just blow it apart and just to incinerate and destroy it? God says, you know what? There's something that's harder than taking a mountain and throwing it into the sea. There's something that's more difficult. There's something that would take more power than to destroy the whole world and for the heaven and earth to pass away. He said that's for one little jot or tittle to be passed from the law. He said that would be more. He said if you want to know which one's more likely to happen, he said the one that's for sure never going to happen is that his word is going to be every jot and every tittle. Every little mark, every pin stroke of God's word will be preserved forever. He said it'd be easier just to have the whole world pass away than for one jot or one tittle to pass away until all is fulfilled. Has it all been fulfilled yet? I don't think no. You think it's all been fulfilled? Has Christ's second coming happened? Has the tribulation happened? Has the millennium happened? Has the judgment seat of Christ happened? Has the great white throne judgment happened? Then we must still have it preserved right here, every word, because if those things haven't happened, we must have the Bible. Deuteronomy 32, 46, and he said unto them, you don't have to turn there, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to do all the words of this law. Notice how he emphasized the words. I can't even read all these for the sake of time. Get into accordance and look up the word words, and you'll get the idea after hundreds of verses of God talking about his words, his words, every word, all the words. Curseth be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. There's a curse on those who take away from the Bible or add to the Bible. And all the people shall say amen. Ecclesiastes 3, 14, I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it, and God doeth it, and men should fear before it. Ecclesiastes 3, 14, Matthew 4, 4, but he answered and said, Jesus Christ, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Pretty clear, isn't it? Pretty simple. You say, how is God speaking to us these days? Does the Spirit of the Lord come upon a man, and he speaks a new revelation from God? No, the Bible says, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, had in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. You say, well, is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, going to speak to me? Well, the Bible says that there are three to bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, the Word, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. Did you get that? The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. This is, the Son is right here, the Word. 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. All things were made by him. Who? The Word. Neither was anything, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life. In him was life. Jesus said, the words that I say unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Thy word sanctified them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Jesus said, I am the truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. And so, you're going to have an awful hard time trying to separate Jesus Christ from the Word of God. You say, oh, you worship a book. Look, I don't worship a physical book. I worship these words. You say, oh, you worship the Bible. Yes, I do. Guilty as charged. I worship the Word of God, the second person of the Godhead, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. The Word that became flesh, and was a physical human being, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross physically, was physically buried, and physically resurrected from the dead. That's the Word of God, Jesus Christ. Hey, he's going to come back one day, and he's going to have a name written on his thigh, and the name is called the Word of God. Read Revelation 19. And so, when he became flesh, he didn't seek to be the Word of God. That's still his name. That's what's going to be his name at the second coming as well. And so, we see very clearly in the Bible that the Word of God is Jesus Christ. Now, I don't worship a book, but I do worship the words that are in the book, because the words are spirit, and God's a spirit, and the Word of God is God. And you're going to have a real hard time disproving that in the Bible, because it's just as plain as the nose on your face. And so, very clearly, God speaks to us today in Hebrews 1-2, by his Son, by the Word of God. And so, it's that simple. You say, well, I don't fully understand that. None of us fully understands the mystery of godliness. The Bible says, without controversy. Good night, there's no question about it. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. That's a mystery. Are we ever going to fully understand that? No. But God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up in the glory. That's the truth, whether we understand it fully or not. But look, if you would, at 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1, right near the book of Jude, where you were, right at the end of your Bible. Just a few pages before the book of Jude, you'll find 1 John, and then go back a little further, you'll find 1 Peter. Let me read this verse for you. Jeremiah 23, 36, and the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more. For every man's word shall be his burden. Listen to this next phrase. For ye have perverted the words of the living God. And here, God is accusing someone of perverting or twisting, corrupting. The word perverse is kind of a term. If you study that word etymologically, it's like a deviation. You know, people who are deviants in society, homosexuals, they're called perverts. Because they're, instead of being straight, right, okay, straight, and then there's perverted, perverse, crooked. That's what it means. Remember Jesus said a crooked and perverse nation. That's what it means, crooked and perverse generation. And what he means by that, in the midst of a, I'm sorry, I was quoting that wrong, it's in Philippians chapter, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. I don't know, my mind's slipping me right now, but the point is, perverted means you're twisting the truth, corrupting it, changing the truth of God into a lie, as it says in Romans 1. But he says in Jeremiah 23, 36, he has perverted the words of the living God. In 2 Corinthians 2, 17, Paul said, For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. Many people out there want to corrupt, twist, and change what God says. We're not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. Now, Paul said there are people out there who are corrupting God's word, changing it, perverting it, we're not one of them. There's many of them, we don't do it. We don't twist and change what God has written in the Bible. Look down at your Bible, if you look at 1 verse 23, the Bible reads, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and bindeth forever. Now let's talk about that adjective, incorruptible. What does it mean, incorruptible? It means it's not able to be corrupted. Do you see that word at the end, able? It's actually able, you know, I-B-L-E, but it comes from the word able. The word incorruptible means it's not able to be corrupted. It's not able to be twisted. It's not able to be changed. You say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, you just finished telling me that there were all kinds of people corrupting the word of God. Yes, but as soon as they corrupt it, it ceases to be the word of God. You can't change the Bible. You can't change God's word. Forever, oh Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. You can't change it. You say, oh, people have changed it over the years. It's incorruptible. Oh, it's been translated and twisted and changed. It can't be changed. It can't be corrupted, or else it's not God's word. Are you following that? Does that make sense? I mean, you can't change it. You say, it's been changed. You can't change it. It's incorruptible. If you could change it, it wouldn't be God's word. If you could add something to it, it wouldn't be God's word. If you could take something away from it, it wouldn't be God's word. He said, nothing can be taken from it, and nothing can be put to it in Ecclesiastes 3.14. It says, nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. Nothing can. Can is the same word as able. Can means able to. He says, nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. If somebody wanted to say, I'm going to change the whole, I'm going to change the Bible to where the Bible will no longer be preserved. I'm going to change every copy of it. I'm going to destroy the Bible from off the base of the earth. It'd be impossible. It can't do it. You say, well, everybody will still have the Bible. I'm just going to change it a little bit. You can't do it. You cannot remove God's word from the face of this earth, because it'd be easier for heaven and earth to pass it. This is the... Are you understanding the doctrine of preservation? God didn't give us a Bible with an expiration date. Good through... Good through 350 A.D. Best used by... Yeah, you know, it... I mean, it's not bad, but it's just best by, you know... 1256 A.D. You know, it's best by then. I mean, you can still eat it after that, but you might want to take a sniff of it. You know, like when the milk is a little bit expired. Brother Dave, I tell you what. I told Brother Dave, I said, look, when we cook food and it has meat in it, after three days, it goes in the trash. That's our rule of thumb. You know, three days, we throw it out. Brother Dave said, I have no expiration date on food. He said, you know, he's a single guy with my... He said, I don't have any expiration date. He said, I just give it the sniff test. And it's never failed me yet. Well, it says best by the original manuscripts. It's best if you were living back in the first century A.D. But let me give it a little sniff. I guess it's all right. No, there's no expiration date on the Bible. It's preserved. Have you ever heard of a preservative? Like sodium benzoate nitrate or something? Hey, a preservative, that makes that... It pushes that expiration date out, right? Think about Twinkies. Twinkies expire like 30 years from now. Why, preservatives? Hey, God's Word has been so preserved, it's been... I mean, the expiration date is just a little infinity symbol. That's what they should put on Twinkies, too. But anyway, hey, if the Bible had an expiration date, it would just say, forever. Best if used by doomsday, whenever. Okay, there's no expiration date on the Bible. That's what... Do you understand preservation? But not only that. Number two. Well, you know what? Turn to Proverbs 8. Here's a great chapter in the Bible. Here's a powerful chapter. Proverbs chapter number 8. Look at Proverbs chapter number 8. I want to go through this chapter with you. What a great chapter about the Word of God. You say, well, Pastor Anderson, I just had a hard time understanding that old King James Bible. Well, this chapter is going to deal with that a little bit. Look down, if you would, at verse number 1. Did not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of the high places, by the way, in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. O ye simple, understand wisdom, and ye fools be of an understanding heart. Here, for I will speak of excellent things, and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my lips shall speak truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. Watch verse 8. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness. There is nothing forward or perverse. There's that word again. There's nothing forward or perverse in them. Watch verse 9. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. You see, there are some people in this world who comprehend the Word of God. And actually, it's very plain to them. I mean, it's very simple to them. They have what's called understanding that comes from God. You see, when an unsaved person picks up the Bible, they have trouble understanding it, because the Bible says the natural man received not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually disarmed. You've got to have the Holy Spirit inside you to understand the Bible. The Bible says that when the heart of a man turns to Christ and believes on Jesus Christ, the veil is lifted, and he's able to understand the Bible. But that the unsaved man still has the veil over his eyes as he reads the Old Testament. He can't comprehend it. The unconverted Jew can't comprehend the Old Testament because he has the veil over his eyes. But the veil is removed when he trusts Christ his Savior. And so we see that part of the reason why people have a hard time understanding the King James Bible, and I realize that it has a big vocabulary. Learn English. Learn these words. There's nothing weird about these words. Look at the words that we just read. Wisdom, understanding, voice, stand, top, high, places, paths. Are these foreign words to you? Is this gibberish to you? G-I-B-B-E-R-I-S-H. We were playing that game of scatter boards the other night. People kept saying it started with a J. They thought I was nuts. I said it started with a G. Sure enough, it started with a G. But are these words gibberish to you? Look at verse four. You, men, call, voice, sons, man, simple, understand, wisdom, fools, understanding, heart, hear, speak, excellent. Excellent! Hey, is any word in the Bible too bizarre for you to understand that we just read? No, the Bible is very plain to him that I understand it. Like this, for all have sinned, I don't have any trouble understanding that, and come short of the glory of God. We all have shortcomings. Wow, that's pretty hard to understand. That's a modern word. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Pretty simple. Everlasting life, it lasts forever. The Bible is not hard to understand. It's plain to him to understand it. But some people would rather read a book written by a man, not God. They don't want to hear the voice of God. They're like the children of Israel who said, Let not God speak any more with us, but speak thou to us, Moses. And so the NIV is written by a man. The New American Standard is written by a man. The Living Bible is written by a man, as in Kenneth Taylor. The New Living Translation is written by a man. The King James Bible is the Word of God preserved into our language. You say, well prove it to me. Well, turn to 1 John chapter 5. That's what we were just memorizing. If you remember, we were just memorizing the Bible, and we did 1 John chapter 5, and most people in our church learned 13 verses there, and we did. Now, part of the reason why it's so important to memorize the Bible is because I'm going to tell you something. When you start memorizing the Bible, these other versions will really, really burn you. I'm serious. I mean, you'll get so irritated when you hear somebody quote one of these versions that twists and changes the meaning. If you don't know the Bible, it's not going to bother you. You know, you may not know the difference as much, and you don't see what the big deal is. But boy, when you've got it memorized, and you've got God's Word in your heart the right way, and you hear somebody quoting it in one of these versions, good night, it'll really eat you up. And I know that from experience. But look down at your Bible in 1 John chapter 5. Look what the NIV does. I'm going to read out of the perverted NIV. You've got the King James Bible in your hand. Look down if you would. Let's begin reading verse number 6. See if you notice anything different, would you? Because they're all basically the same, right, all these versions? I mean, come on, they're all basically the same, right? Hello, is anybody out there? Okay, well, let's see if they're the same. Verse number 6. This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood, as the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. Now, there's many changes there, needless to say. Verse 7, for there are three that testify. Verse 8, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three are in agreement. Now, did you notice a big difference? Is something missing? Let's go back and look at it again. Let's start at verse 7, shall we? For there are three that testify. Verse 8, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three are in agreement. Does it seem like something missing? It's probably not important, right? It's probably nothing doctrinal. Because they say, well, there's little changes, but it's nothing doctrinal. This isn't a doctrinal change, is it? I mean, this doesn't affect doctrine, does it? Well, let's see. When you leave out, for there are three... They basically left out the complete verse 7, if you didn't pick up on that. They put part of verse 8 into verse 7. They basically cut verse 8 in half and split it up. So verse 7 says, for there are three that testify. Verse 8 just starts out not even a complete sentence, just the direct object. The Spirit, the water, and the blood. And these three are in agreement. So they left out kind of an important verse. For there are three that bear record in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. Would you say that's important doctrinally? It's all gone. It's all left out. Oh, the changes don't affect doctrine. Well, what about Matthew 1.25, when the Bible says, And knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. But, the Catholic Church teaches that the Virgin Mary is still a virgin. Even though the Bible says, knew her not until she brought forth her firstborn son. I mean, basically saying, then he knew her. Okay. And not only that, her firstborn son. Now, in order to have a firstborn son, you've got to have a second. You can't say, well, this is my firstborn son, and it's the only one you've got. You know, and little kids, I remember when I was a little kid, little kids will say this about movies. And there's only one of the movie. And they'll say, like, you know, session session movie part one. It's like, look, there's only one. Okay. And so you can't have a part one without a part two. And so you can't have a firstborn unless you have subsequent children, which are listed in Matthew chapter 13. James, Joseph, Judas, Simon, Jesus' four brothers, half-brothers, that is, because they came from Joseph and Mary, and his sisters, are they not all with us? The word all in the Bible means three or more, because you can't say all two. All one of them. All two sisters. No, all denotes three or more. Otherwise it'd be, there's this really neat word, both. Okay. B-O-T-H. That's if there's two, it's called both. And then when you get beyond both, you get into all. Okay. And then if you have four or more, you get into many. You didn't know that, did you, that many starts at four? Several starts at three, both is two. All right. And so don't say you don't learn anything at this church. Don't say you're not being fed. You're learning. And so we see all these different changes. They all affect doctrine. Acts 8 37 is gone in the NIV, where Philip in the Ethiopian eunuch, he asks him, what's up to hinder me to be baptized? What's stopping me? In the King James Bible, Philip answered and said, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is not God. That phrase, believe with all thine heart, is only found. Acts 8 37, gone. The prerequisite for baptism, believe, gone. You see, you say, why is that so important, believe with all thine heart? What does that mean that you, you squeeze really hard and say, I believe, I believe. I believe in fairies. You know, I clip my heels three times and there's no place I call home. There's no place I call home. Is that what it means to believe with all your heart? No, believe with all your heart means that's the one thing you believe in. It means I don't believe part in Jesus, but I'm also Buddhist and I'm also Islamic. And I believe there's some good in all religions. That's not believing with all your heart. Believe with all your heart is where you say, Jesus Christ is my only hope for heaven. Him alone, I see all I need to cleanse and make me whole. Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. That's what it means to believe with all your heart. It means all of your faith is on Jesus to get you to heaven. That's salvation, gone in the NIV. And I could show you all night differences and changes and removing and adding to and taking out and chopping up and changing the Bible. And we've done it before and I'm not going to go on and on. Because look, how many do I have to show you? You know, I mean, I could show you like a hundred. Or I could show you a thousand. Or I could show you like five. How many do you need to see? I mean, if it's being changed and twisted, I mean, I don't want to be part of it. I don't want to mess with it. And so it's that simple. But I don't want to spend the whole night on that. Where are we reading in Proverbs 8? Verse number nine. They're playing to him that understandeth and write to them that find knowledge. Receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choice gold. Verse 11, for wisdom is better than rubies and all the things that may be desired and not to be compared to it. He said, why are you preaching on the preservation of God's Word? Because I want you to understand the treasure that you have in your hand. That's what it said right here. He said, it's better than silver. It's more valuable than gold or precious toad. If I had a million dollars cash and stacked up on the table right here and right next door I had the King James Bible and you have to choose between the two. Would you be so foolish as to take the million dollars and not say, I'll take the Bible. I'd rather have the Bible. If I had to be deprived of God's Word, deprived of the Bible, never could I have a copy of the complete Bible again. Even if somebody said, well, you just have the New Testament. But you can never have the Old Testament again. I'll give you a million dollars. Keep going. Ten million, a hundred million. There's nothing that could be valued anywhere near the treasure of God's Word. Did you read it today? Did you read it yesterday? Have you read it every day this new year? Have you been reading it every morning? Do you understand what you have? Can you imagine if you had some coin that was passed on to you, maybe from a grandmother or grandfather, great-grandma, great-grandma, and you have this coin and let's say it was just inestimable value. It was worth just hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. It was a rare coin, hundreds of years old. Can you imagine if you just had it sitting in a drawer? I mean, you could sell this thing for millions of dollars. Instead of sitting in a drawer and it's just in a junk drawer. He said, oh, yeah, it's kind of a neat coin. You want to look at it? Then throw it away. You know, get it out every once in a while and look at it. But if you didn't put that to use, you could have sold that, put it in a museum somewhere so other people could enjoy it and then have millions of dollars of cash. Can you imagine this? My dad, he always told me this. He grew up in the 50s and he used to buy a pack of baseball cards every Saturday. He got his allowance was a dollar, I think, and he explained to me. He still knows to this day how he broke down that dollar. He said, I spent this much on a bag of Laura Scudder's barbecue potato chips. I spent this much on a bottle of RC Cola. I spent this much on this. He breaks it down to this day. And he said, and he would buy a pack of baseball cards every Saturday morning, take out the gum, pop the gum in his mouth, chew the gum, look through the cards, oh, I don't need, read them, throw them in the trash. Can you imagine how much those cards would be worth today? I mean, he was throwing away Mickey Mantle, you know, Ty Cobb. He's throwing away all these Hank Aaron rookie card. He's just throwing them away. Didn't know the value. He said, oh, man, what a waste. What a waste. Good night. Who cares about these baseball players? What a waste that you have the word of God preserved, spoken, breathed by God, and preserved through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years so that you can have a copy of it in your hand. And it just sits in a drawer. It sits on the bookshelf. It gathers dust somewhere. You get it off every Sunday. All right, let's go to church. Get all the dust off it, you know, try to dig it out, find it. You find it, you know, it's in the same place you put it after church because you haven't read it. What a shame. What a tragedy that you're not using God's word, that you're not reading and feasting on the word of God. Look at verse number, let's see here, where did we leave off? Verse number 12. I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. So do you fear the Lord? Do you hate evil? Same thing. It says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance she in the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength. By me kings reign and princes decree justice. By me princes rule and nobles even all the judges of the earth. The Bible says God lifts up one and puts down another. I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches in honor are with me. Yea durable riches and riches. My fruit is better than gold. Yea them find gold. And my revenue is in choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness in the midst of the path of judgment. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance. I will fill their treasures. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way. In the beginning was the word. You remember that? The Lord possessed me. Oh man, I lost my spot here. What verse are we in? Twenty-somebody. Twenty? The verse, I think we're not at twenty. This will be okay. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works at hold. I was set up from everlasting. Now I love those two words right there. From everlasting. Isn't that an amazing concept? From everlasting. Let me flip open this messed up NIV again, the new international version. I'm going to say something right now, God's picking you if you're sitting in this sermon right now and you ever go to a church that preaches the NIV. If you get mad and leave this church, go to a church that preaches the King James Bible. I'll tell you where they're at. I'll send you down there. I'll send you with my blessing. I'll gas you up, I'll gas up the tank and send you down there. I'll give you directions. Okay, but don't go to some church that preaches the NIV. Okay, but don't go to some church that preaches the NIV because you know why? Because you're making me feel like a failure. You know why? Because you're making me feel like I'm not communicating the truth with you. You make me feel like I'm not a good preacher. When I can preach and people can leave this church and go to some church that preaches the NIV, I feel like I'm wasting my time. But I know I'm not because of those that are here. They're absorbing this and getting this and growing from this. But I'm going to tell you something. Please just do me the dignity of not going to an NIV church. Please, for the love of God. But let me open this thing for you, just to show you this real quick. Proverbs chapter 8, verse number 22. The Bible says in verse 22 in the NIV, the Lord brought me forth as the first of his works. Oh, so that was the first thing God did. He created the Bible. He made the Bible and he made Jesus. Oh, there's somebody who teaches that. Oh, it's the Jehovah's Witnesses that Jesus was the first creation of God. Now, what the Bible says, the Bible says in the beginning was the Word. He was already there. He's from everlasting. Here in the NIV, it says the Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old. Now, wait a minute. That sounds like a doctrinal change. That sounds like a major doctrinal change. Look at Micah 5, 2. Turn in the Old Testament to Micah 5, 2. This is right toward the book of Matthew, just before the book of Matthew. At the end of the Old Testament, you have 12 little short books known as the Minor Prophets. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah. All those are listed there. Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk. So, right in the middle of those books, look around until you can find the book of Micah. Look at Micah 5, 2. And, well, at least the NIV is consistent with itself in some places. But in the King James Bible, I guess I'll turn there in the King James just to make sure that we get our bearings here and we don't just pervert our minds with the wrong version. We turn there here in Micah 5, 2. The Bible reads in the King James Bible, But thou, Bethlehem, Ephratah. Where's Bethlehem? Oh, that's where Jesus was born. Bethlehem, Ephratah. Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be a ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting. Same concept we saw in Proverbs 8. Listen to the NIV. But you, Bethlehem, Ephratah, though you are small among the clans of Judah. Boy, isn't the NIV so much easier to understand. Like, the word thousand was really hard to understand, so they replaced it with the word clan. Because everybody knows what a clan is, but nobody knows what the word thousand means, right? So the NIV says, Clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins, origins are from of old from ancient times. Do you know what an origin is? Let me break it down for you. It's a beginning. Now, first of all, how can something have multiple origins? How many times did Jesus begin? He just kept starting over and over again. What is this? Good night. Get it out of my sight. Origins. Jesus had no origin. Jesus said, I am the beginning. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, saith the Lord Jesus Christ, which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty. Isn't that simple? Isn't that the truth? That's a lie. Get it out of my sight. And so let's move on to the second point, though. I've spent way too much time on that, and for good reason. But number two, not only do we believe in the preservation of God's word. Boy, isn't that important? God's word has been preserved. If it hasn't been preserved, why am I preaching out of it if it's wrong? So you believe the King's Day Bible is inspired? If I didn't believe it was breathed out of the mouth of God, if I didn't believe that God's fake all these words, as it says in Exodus 21, if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be preaching out of it. I'd be preaching out of the words that God did speak. If God didn't say, wait a minute, are you saying you don't believe that God said that who so ever believed in this, not perish, but have everlasting life. You don't believe God said that? That's what inspiration means. God breathed. Spoken by God. So if you don't believe John 3 16 is inspired in the King's Day Bible, I don't know what you think God said. That's what he said. And he said, why didn't you say it in English? Well, what language did he say it in? Some of it he said in Greek, some of it he said in Hebrew, some of it he said in both. He quotes the Old Testament, translates it into Greek, and it's still inspired, my friend. It's all inspired. If it's God's word, it's unshamed. God's the one who created language at the Tower of Babel. He understands the differences between languages. He can bring his word from one language to another. He's the one who created language. Before God messed with the languages, everyone in the world spoke the same language, until God confounded their languages in Genesis chapter 11. But how about the preservation? The preservation of the saints is number two. Not only the preservation of God's word, Jude 1. This is where we started. This is where we got our text for the word preservation. The Bible says in Jude 1-1, Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Not only is the word of God preserved, I'm preserved. Isn't that a blessing to know that you're preserved? Not only in some doctrinal statement somewhere does it say, we believe in the preservation of the word of God. Hey, I believe in your preservation. I believe in the preservation of you and the preservation of me. God's righteous judgments will endure forever. God's word endureth forever. The truth of the Lord endureth forever. The shortest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 117. Oh, praise the Lord all you nations. Praise Him all your people. For His merciful kindness is great toward us. And the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. It's the shortest chapter in the Bible. Psalm 117, it's only two verses. But not only does the truth of the Lord endure forever, the Bible says in 1 John 2.17, He says, the world passeth away and the lusts thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. The Bible says that we are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. You say, well, how do you get preserved? How do you get sanctified? Well, you get saved. And when you get saved, you're sanctified. And when you're sanctified, you're preserved. You say, well, prove that to me. Okay, turn back in your Bible to Hebrews. Flip back in the Bible to Hebrews chapter number 10. Just a few books back, just a very short distance back in your Bible to Hebrews chapter number 10. God's word is preserved, but I'm preserved. I will live eternally. Jesus said, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. That's preservation. I also have no expiration date. I will live on for eternity with God, with Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. That's what eternal life means. But look at Hebrews 10, 10. How do you get sanctified? You know, sometimes these Pentecostal Church, I remember in South Chicago, they say, have you been sanctified? You know, these charismatic preachers. I've been saved. I've been sanctified. I've been washed in the blood. I've spoken in tongues. I've received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Man, I'm good with that. No, just kidding. Just kidding. I'm not good with that because I'm not like that. But what does it mean to be sanctified? Is it when you get some second anointing? Is it when you've been saved, but now all of a sudden you're to the next level? Boom, you've been sanctified. You never are going to sin again. Now, that's not what sanctification means. Sanctification means made holy. That's what it means, sanctified, made holy. That's easily proved from the Bible. I always let the Bible define itself. I compare scripture with scripture, and that's how I define things in the Bible. Let's define it. Did you know that in the Old Testament, there's a part of the tabernacle known as the holy place? The holy place. Do you remember reading that in the Bible? Put up your hand. The holy place. And then do you remember another place? The most holy place? Remember? Those are two segments of the inside of the tabernacle. The holy place, the most holy place. Look, you're in Hebrews 10. Just look at Hebrews 9 while we're there anyway. And we'll do a little bit of a quick Bible study here on this. Look at Hebrews chapter 9. It says right here in verse number 2, at the end it says, the first wherein was the candlestick and the table and the shewbread. That's talking about the holy place. If you study your Old Testament, that's where the candlestick and the table and the shewbread, which is called the sanctuary. So what does God call the holy place in the New Testament? He calls it the sanctuary. There are words that are translated differently because of the Greek and Hebrew. And so in the Old Testament, for example, it uses the word congregation. In the New Testament, it uses the word church. And in the Old Testament, it uses the word holy place. In the New Testament, it uses the Greek word sanctuary. So the sanctuary is the holy place. Sanctify means made holy. Set apart. And so here it says the holy place, the sanctuary. And then it says in verse 3, and after the second battle, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all. So what's the most holy place in the Old Testament called? The holiest of all in the New Testament. And so the Bible defines itself for us. So in verse 10 of chapter 10, just one page over, Hebrews 10, 10, the Bible says, by the which will we are sanctified. How do I get sanctified like in Jude 1, 1, where I'm sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called? How am I going to get sanctified? How am I going to get preserved? By the which will we are sanctified? Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We're sanctified through the offering of Jesus. We're sanctified through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Sanctified through the blood of Jesus Christ. How many times? How many times? Once for all. How many times do you have to get sanctified? Once and for all. You say, Pastor Anderson, why do you only have to get sanctified one time? Because after that, you're preserved. Sanctified today, preserved tomorrow, and throughout all eternity. Inspired yesterday, preserved today. And still inspired, by the way, because it's still the same words that God spake. And God still is speaking through the Bible. Every time I read it, God speaks for me. That's inspiration, my friend. That's inspired words that God spake, and God is still speaking through the Holy Spirit to me. Every time I read it, every single time, God speaks to me. Well, isn't it a blessing to know that you're preserved? Isn't it great to know that not only is the Bible preserved, but you're preserved? You will last just as long as the Bible does. You will live just as long as Jesus does. You are just as eternal in your future as Jesus. I mean, you're going to go as far as He... Isn't that great? Isn't that a blessing? Why? Are we worthy of that? No. But through God's love and infinite mercy, He chose to preserve us the Bible. God, we have it. Thank God I have the Bible. Thank God I was born in 2007. I was born in 2007. You thought I was born yesterday, but thank God I was born in 1981, okay, and that I can be reading the Bible preserved to me. I'm so glad I wasn't born in the Old Testament, have bits and pieces, and see through a glass darkly. I thank God that I have the whole revelation of God in my hand, the Bible. What a blessing. Read it. Understand the treasure that it is, and esteem it more highly than financial gain and success and popularity in the world's accolades. Study it, memorize it, learn it, know it, love it. But not only that, we're preserved. What are you talking about? Eternal security. Eternal security. I've heard people talk about the perseverance of the saints. It's a theological term to supposedly describe eternal security, although I think it's a scam, and I don't want to go into that right now. I'll preach another sermon against Calvinism where I'll explain that, but I will call it the perseverance of the saints. That's what I call the preservation of the saints, because God's the one doing the preserving. It's not the saints who are persevering. We're going to persevere all the way so we can be saved. I already done been saved, and I've been preserved not by man, not by myself, but by God is doing the preserving. You say, who's going to preserve the Bible? God. Who's going to preserve me? God. Unto him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. He's the only God, wise God, our savior. Be glory and dominion, majesty and power. I'm messing that up. But what I'm saying is God's the one who preserves the book, and God's the one who's going to preserve me and preserve you. You say, can you lose your salvation? No way, no how, because Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. You see, the opposite of a preserved is a perishable, right? I mean, is milk preserved? No. A couple weeks, it's gone. Because it's a perishable. Always make sure with your perishables, you know, first in, first out, you don't want to leave perishables in the fridge for the day, you know, for months on end and give them a little sniff, okay? They're perishable. I'm not perishable. I'm, you know, I'm not something that's going to be, you know, rotten in a few days or in a few years and a few months. Hey, I'm preserved in my constant state of blessedness and from here on, forevermore, preservation of the Bible, preservation of the saints. Boy, did I just coin it? I don't know. I'm sure somebody's used that term, but hey, I just coined a new phrase, the preservation of the saints. I'm sure it's been thought of because I'm not a cult leader, right? And people all over the world believe in it. Because it's in the Bible, we just read it. Sanctified. It means you're a saint. Sanctified saint. Do you see those two words are the same word? Sanctified. Preserved. Called. That's me. That's you. We're saved. We believe on Jesus Christ. Paul said it this way, and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Why is it that man is always trying to take credit for salvation instead of to God be the glory great things to get done? Have you ever heard this phrase? This is a phrase that different phrases come into popularity at different times. And different heresies. Have you ever heard this phrase? Instead of talking about getting saved, like the Bible says, or believing on Jesus Christ, like the Bible says, or becoming a believer, like Bob used the word believer and unbeliever. Believe on Jesus Christ. Saved and unsaved. Regenerated. These are the kind of scriptural terms. This is one of the new terms. Give your life to Jesus. Who's heard that? Give your life to Christ. Instead of saying like, I got saved! They'll say like, I gave my life to Christ on January the such and such, such and such. I gave my life to Christ. Or the preacher will be saying, Give your life to Jesus today. Now when I hear that, I'm thinking like, I had somebody say to me not long ago, they said, Oh, so and so hasn't given his life to Christ yet. We're talking and I said, Well, I said, is so and so saved? And he said, Well, no, I said he hadn't given his life to Christ. I said, That doesn't mean saved. I said, There are a lot of people who are saved who haven't given their life to Christ. Now, let me explain to you why that's so twisted to say, Give your life to Christ. Because that's the exact opposite of the truth. He's the one who gave his life for us. Okay. And the gift of God is eternal life. Not the gift of Steve is my life to Jesus. What kind of a twisted backwards gospel do you have? I guess you're the gospel. You're giving something about I don't have anything to give to God. All my righteousness are as filthy rags to him before I got saved. Now, my righteous acts are being recorded and I'm going to receive a reward for every single one of them. But before I got saved, I didn't have anything to give to God. Give my life to Jesus. That's not salvation. Salvation is he gave his life for us. We receive the gift. See, salvation is truly receiving. But the world and the charismatics have turned it into you. You're the one giving. I'm not the giver. I'm the receiver of salvation. Okay. And I didn't give God anything when I got saved. I just believed him and I received the gift of eternal life. See how backwards that is, though? Now, there's a time for giving your life to Christ. It's called Romans 12 one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, already saved. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, which you present your body as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is a reasonable service. Give your life to Jesus great after you get saved. Salvation is he gave his life for us and we believe that. But man is always trying to take credit for it. God preserves. God saves. God sanctifies. It's all Jesus. It's all of God. Man has nothing to do with it. But number three, and I got to hurry. I'm out of time. But the preservation of the local church. I'll just read one verse on this. I won't go into it. But the Bible says, and I say also unto thee, this is Matthew 16 18, that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. What three things did we learn about tonight that are preserved? The doctrine of preservation. Number one, God's Word is preserved. Hallelujah. Number two, if you're a believer on Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives inside you right now and you are preserved. You are saved, sealed, sanctified, and preserved, and called, and chosen, and all those dignitatives you want to light up, they all are in the past tense because they're all done, preserved, saved, sanctified, chosen, called, all these different things, regenerated. And number three, God has preserved and will preserve the local church. There's always been in the history of Christianity the local body of true baptized believers assembled together for preaching of God's Word and winning the loss. It's always been there. It's always been around. And it'll always be around. And number four, Jesus promised that it would last forever the institution of the local church. It's never gone out of fashion. It's never died out. It never has and it never will. He said the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church. The local church has endured to this day and will continue to endure. That's why we don't need to move on from the local church. Many people today are moving on to other things. Radio stations, TV shows, Bible study groups. No, the local church has been preserved. And so those are our three things that we learned about. Other things I'm sure God has preserved. But number one, the Word of God. Number two, the saints of God. And number three, the church of God. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much.