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an offer for thy cleansing, most things which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. But he went out and began to publish it much, and ablaze abroad the matter, in so much that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places. And they came to him from every corner. That's all bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us here together during our busy schedules in the middle of our week for to sing praises to you and hear your word be preached. Lord, we ask you to please fill a password with your Holy Spirit as he comes forward to preach the message that you laid on his heart. Forgive us all our ears to hear and hearts to take the message. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. All right. Amen. So Mark chapter one. So last week, if you remember, I preached a sermon called obligatory, and we kind of went over the statements must be throughout the Bible. We didn't cover them all, but we talked about them, talked about the importance of the things that are written, right, and how they must be fulfilled. You know, that's important. It's important for us to know. And you say, why? Well, because most of Christianity today teaches the exact opposite of that, that the final authority or the subject of final authority is not obligatory. It's up in the air. They may not come out and directly say that, but that's what they imply. We, you know, by using multiple Bible versions and always going back to these other languages, you know, that's really what they're saying. They're saying that they don't have any respect for the final authority. So we're going to continue that thought this evening. We're going to take a look at some of the, as it is written statements throughout the Bible in no particular order. If you type in as it is written or it is written, you're going to come up with all sorts of verses, right? Obviously we have, we don't have time to cover them all. So I just pick some just for edification, just so we can study these. So if you would go to real quick, a quick review, go to Luke chapter 24, Luke chapter 24. And so I had to read Mark one because of the second verse here. I'll just read verse one to two. It says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. And then the very next phrase is, as it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. You know, so right off the bat, the book of Mark, what does it say? It starts talking about the beginning of the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ would be born, live that perfect life that you and I could not live, die and defeat death. Why? So that we don't have to suffer an eternity and help. And the very first thing that the Bible does to prove that to emphasize that is make this phrase, this profound phrase as it is written, as it is written, extremely important phrase in the Bible that you need to be familiar with, that you need to be on fire about. Amen. Because this is powerful. I mean, think about it. We wouldn't even have these hymnals today if it wasn't for the things that are written, right? We wouldn't be saved today if it wasn't for the things that are written. We wouldn't really be able to have church day if it wasn't for the things that are written. And there's tons of churches out there that, you know, they have so-called services, right? But they don't emphasize the things that are written because of the things that are written are offensive to the world. You know, you're there in Luke chapter 24, look at verse 44. So he says this, and he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, right? And we talked about that last week, that these things must be fulfilled, all manner of things. Then he says this, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Turn to Acts 15. And so here, just a quick review, we kind of broke this down last week, talking about, you know, where's the source of information that you go to, to prove Jesus Christ's existence to somebody. It's the Bible. It's not logic. It's not reasoning, right? It's not by saying, Hey, look at that building. Obviously it had a builder, you know, look at the tree, obviously had a designer. Now that's true. And that has its place in conversation from time to time. But using this so-called reason or logic is not the end all. That's not, what's going to get somebody saved. That's not, what's going to get people to actually become zealous for the things of God. The only thing that will do that is the book that we call the Bible, right? That is the only thing that's going to do that. And then after he emphasizes that these things must be fulfilled, he says, which were written in the law, right? Of Moses and in the prophets and the Psalms that comprises the entire Bible up until the time that this phrase was said, right? You have the law, you know, the first five books of the Bible, and then you have the prophets, obviously the major and the minor prophets and the Psalms, you know, the Psalms, the proverbs and so on and so forth like that. That's an endorsement of the Bible there. Now you don't have to turn there, but listen to this. Psalm 138 verse two says, I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth for that has magnified thy word above all thy name. So the Bible says very clearly that God has magnified his word above his very own name. Now think about this. You're to take out a magnifying glass and put it on something. What happens? That becomes enlarged. That becomes the focus. That becomes the main thing, right? Now what happens to everything around it? It becomes small. It becomes, it becomes basically not as essential, right? And God says that he has magnified his word above his own name, right? So what we need to do as a church and as Bible believing Christians is have that same mentality. Everything that you believe, you need to be able to get your answers for that from the Bible, right? And by so doing that, what's the result? Everything else becomes insignificant, right? So when we preach the Bible, it puts down the things of the world because anytime you preach anything out of the Bible, it always lifts up God and puts down man right where he belongs, right? And so that is very important to understand. And unfortunately, a byproduct of that is offense. People get offended, right? This community gets offended a lot of times when we go out there and tell them, hey, you're not saved. I know you think you're saved, right? There's tons of people. I'm Christian. I already know. Sure. I'll listen to you. Do you believe the Bible? Nope. Do you believe some of it? Maybe. Okay. This, I mean, that is, that's an extensive thing here. That's something I run into personally all the time. In fact, today I was talking to somebody from Meridian Friends Church. He's got Bibles all over his house. He's like, I'm real ecumenical. My wife goes to the Catholic church. He's like, oh, I talked to you about this last time you were here. I was like, yeah, you know, my wife goes to the Catholic church. My kids go to the YWAM. You know, I go to Meridian Friends. Do you know about Meridian Friends? He's like, no, but I'm thinking in my mind, well, you're no friends of ours. You know, I know that much. And I told him I was a pastor and I don't know this for sure, but I believe he went in the other room and looked me up because his countenance completely changed when he came back out. It was like a different person. Maybe not. Maybe it's just me, but I doubt it. You know, I went and looked it up after I left this guy's house and I was reading their statement of faith. They claim to believe the Bible. You know, the Bible is our final authority. And they've got all these verses and in big parentheses like NIV after all these different quotes, right? NASB, stuff like that. But there was a phrase on there that they use. I can't remember it exactly. So you have to forgive me, but it said something like, you know, basically our job is to go out and to reason with people the truth of Jesus Christ based off of using logic and just sound words. And the way I took that and the way it sounds is that you can just tell your friends and your community, hey, you must believe on Jesus because, you know, because it's a good thing. He loves everybody. We're all the body of Christ. A lot of weird stuff in there, you know, and they claim to be from the descendants of the apostolics. Now look at Boise Friends Church and, you know, they had a similar thing and then they're like, okay, well, we're Quakers. So I'm still trying to piece that one together because we've ran into a few people that go to these churches, but either way, they're of the same kindred, right? Because none of them believe the Bible. They just pay lip service to it. That's all it is, right? They don't magnify the word of God because if they did, they'd use the King James Bible. If they did, they believe that salvation's a free gift because you don't have to work for it, you know? But these people, you know, Boise Friends, Meridian Friends, just basically, what does that imply? That we're all friends, right? Friends of the world, basically is what they're saying, you know, and that guy obviously had no problem with his wife being a Catholic, his kids going to YWAM, whatever the heck that is, a forgotten youth with a weak mission or something. Just call that youth with a false weak mission, right? You know, they're not, he's not magnifying the word of God. He doesn't want to do that. That's what we're going to do. And keep in mind by so doing that it causes other things to be put down and you know what? That's where they belong. Whether that's myself, whether that's us, whether that's you when you're reading the Bible, hey, deal with it. God is God and we're, we're sinners, right? Yeah. So let's, let's not forget that. Now I had to turn to Acts 15. We're going to take a look at a second statement here and it is this right out, look down at verse number 14. So I'm just going to make a statement before we read verse 14. Now I just want you to think about this. Because it is written, we know what books are in the Bible. Somebody asks you and we talked about this before. Well, how do you know which books are in the Bible? Well, because it tells you, you know, and if somebody wants to scoff and mock at that, okay, go open up some instructions or go, go buy a brand new barbecue, open up the instructions and say, how do you know which pieces are to go together? You know, and then ask them. And if they're like, well, because it says an instruction say, well, that's not good reason. You see what I mean? That, that, but that's what somebody will tell us. Well, how do you know the Christian, which books should be in the Bible? Because the Bible says, right? Luke 24, 44. It says, Jesus mentions the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms that sums up everything, right? And we're going to take a look at another one here in a moment, but the Bible tells us which books belong in the Bible as it is written a very important statement. It claims, and it tells us very clearly which ones belong there. And we shouldn't be ashamed of that. We shouldn't be afraid to tell people that see a lot of people, they think, Oh, well, I just got to play this carefully. No, it's what the Bible says. Oh, you're a Bible thumper. Amen. Praise God. Call me that all day long. You know, show me, go to any auto shop, you know, or any shop that has to follow a procedure for assembly and then say, how do you know those things go there? This bolt has to be torqued to the specification. They're going to tell you by some standard operating procedure, by some instruction, right? And you would be a fool to say, well, that's not good enough reason. That's ridiculous. So why do we have to put up with that same criticism? We don't have to, and we're not going to. So look at verse 14, Acts 15, 14 says Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name and to this agree the words of the prophets as it is written. So very clearly here, what are they doing? They're defending doctrine. They're defending truth. And what's the claim here that all the prophets agree to this. So now we have an endorsement of what's going on in the new Testament, man. You don't have to turn there, but Matthew 23, 35, we went over this a few weeks ago. It says this that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous able until the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barakas whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Now, some people will say, well, there's a contradiction in the Bible there because the, um, the Zacharias that was put to death in second Chronicles, they'll say, well, it says he was the son of Jehoiada, right? Well, in Zechariah and the very first verse, Zechariah chapter one, verse one, again, you don't have to turn there. I'm just mentioning this. It says in the eighth month and the second year of Darius came the word of God. I'm sorry. Came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the son of Barakiah, the son of Edo, the prophet saying the Lord has been sort of pleased with your fathers. So what do you have there? You have Abel all the way up at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis, and you have Zechariah all the way at the end of the Bible during the reign of Darius, right? And it doesn't mention in Zechariah how he died. We learned that by reading what is written in Matthew. Jesus tells us, Hey, the son of Barakiah, you slew between the temple and the altar. So he died the same way as the Zechariah did in second Chronicles. It's not a contradiction. It'd be like somebody 200 years from now saying, okay, well, there's a contradiction between George Bush, uh, and the Iraq war. And then you, you know, come back down from heaven. You say, no, idiot. There was a George Bush senior who went to war with Iraq and a George Bush junior many years later, they went to war with Iraq. Okay. There's a lot of things like that. Even in the Bible, there's Kings that had the same name and they had the same nation and they had the same enemies. Okay. It's not that hard to figure out, but you know how the heathen are, you know how the scribes are, right? What it's just, just pick, pluck things out to why? To magnify themselves, not the word of God. That's all that stuff designed for, you know, and that's what bothers me is that a lot of Christians are no different at all. No different than the world. Go down to the call. Go down to any college and talk to your, your local hero heathen professor. What's he going to say? The Bible is written by man. Go to any Bible college practically. What are they going to say? They're not going to quite put it like that, but they're going to say, well, we don't have the original manuscripts. How is that any different? It's the same thing. You come to the same agreement. You go down the same path and that is humanity is magnified, not the words of God. So let's keep reading here. Acts 15, 16 says this, after this, I will return and build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down. And I will build up again the ruins thereof and I will set it up. Verse 17, that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called saith Lord who do with all these things. So what is going on here? A defense of the doctrine, right? People are criticizing the apostles and saying, well, what's up with these Gentiles? You know, and he's saying, Hey, these things were written in the law that you claim to believe. For example, you don't have to turn there, but you can make a note in your Bible, or if you turn there fast enough, you can listen to these verses here. Isaiah 11, 10 says this. And in that day, there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people to which shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious. These things were written. Paul says, you know what? The apostles are constantly when they're defending doctrine saying, you know what? All the prophets agree. The old Testament agrees that this would happen. Why is it so hard for you to believe? Oh, that's right. Because you don't believe the things that are written. As it is written means nothing to you. It's what you can see in this present time that matters to you, right? That's the difference here. That's what's going on. And I'm just gonna read for you the last few verses of Isaiah 11. It says, and it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again. The second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathos and from Cush and from Elam, Shinar and from Hemath and from the islands of the sea. Verse 12 and he shall set up an instant for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. So look, when it came time for battle here, the apostles didn't say, you know what? I'm going to try to just win you by miracles, by my testimony, by experience. Now, obviously they did miracles. They did all these things and that wasn't even good enough, right? But when it came down to it, the way to try to prove what they were teaching was by quoting the Bible, quoting what is written, right? Not just using the wisdom of man's words. Okay. So look at verse 18, it says, known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God. And so he makes a statement here in verse 18 known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Well, how do we know those from what is written? It is so important, but you know, as the years go by in our culture, the less important it seems that the word of God is to the new evangelical. I mean, I can remember just 10 years ago, just talking to even the liberals and they would even defend their modern versions, but today they won't even do that. A lot of times they just say, well, you know, to each his own, right? How's that for a sermon title? To each his own is whatever, right? Whatever. That's pretty much what you had in Jeremiah chapter 23. You remember Jeremiah 23, where God's rebuking the pastors at the time in about verse 36, what does God say? He says, when your prophets say, Oh, the burden of the Lord, right? Cause a lot of times he'd open up with a preaching service by basically saying, Hey, the burden of the Lord, right? So they would say that. And he says, when you go to say that you need to remember ye have perverted the words of living God. So do we serve a living God? Amen. We do. And does he have words? Yes. And God said in Jeremiah 23, Hey, you've perverted the words of the living God. That is not okay. That is wrong. That is blasphemous. That is disgusting. But you know what? We will probably fight no stronger battle than the battle of final authority in our lives. I mean, repenting your sins is definitely right up there. You know, I understand the, the, the sodomites, but what exceeds that is going to be the final authority because if you can break the foundation, then all of those things will just slide right into place every time, right? That's it. This is always going to be under attack. And so I think it's important that we constantly magnify the word of God. Obviously I can't preach these sermons every single week, though. I'd love to, right. You have to be spaced out, but they need to be regular. They need to be constant. So turn to turn to Luke. I'm sorry, no, turn to Romans chapter two, Romans chapter two and why turn to them or if you Roman 16, 25, which says this now to him, that is the power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now has made manifest. And by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known unto all nations for the obedience of the faith. So again, the message to the world, the SIG, the, the thing that God wants us to understand is, Hey, when my word goes out there, you need to realize that it's written and that's powerful. That's what you get. That's your tool. That's your weapon. That's what you're going to use to proclaim the faith, not logic and not wisdom of man's words. So we're going to move on here. Here's a second statement that I want to make because it is written. We know what blasphemy is because it is written. We know what blasphemy is. Now think about this, go to your local Christian bookstore or clothing store, right? What do you find? We find clothing that looks like hot topic that right. Or any of these other wicked stores, but you've all been to the mall. You've all walked past that hot topic store. You know what I'm talking about, right? There's, I can remember going into a store in San Diego many years back and I remember kind of thinking like, this is kind of like hot topic. I got all the clothing, you know, just the, the, the font of the, the letters. And even though some of them were seemingly Bible verses or things that, uh, you know, Christian statements or whatever they were, the clothing was made to look like affliction or just like your, your worldly style. Right. Or that some of these stores are where you can buy the, the hoodies that say, yo, Jesus is my homie. Um, me and G are cool. You know, things like that. Well, that's blasphemy, but think about it. If you're an organization or you're a so-called Christian and you don't believe the things as they are written, do you really understand what blasphemy is? The answer is no. Look at verse 24 says for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written. Now turn to second Samuel chapter 12, second Samuel chapter 12. So yeah, I just plucked this one out because I wanted to talk about this. So he says for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written. Obviously we need to understand this because we don't want to be like that. We don't want to be named as a people that blaspheme God among the Gentiles because God takes that very, very serious. Now, if you're in second Samuel chapter 12, look at verse 13. You know, the story about David and Bathsheba. Well, in the beginning of chapter 12 here, Nathan the prophet gives David a parable and it's about him, but he doesn't think it's about him. And he gets extremely angry and he's like, well, I'm going to take action and bring this guy before me. And we're going to pick it up here in verse 13, because Nathan says, Hey, this, this, this proverb is about you. And he was like, I have greatly sinned. Now look at verse 13. This is what David says. This is what David says. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shall not die. Now did David turn from that sin or did God put it away? Now, obviously he didn't keep repeating those things necessarily, but what does it say? It says the Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shall not die. I just wanted to bring that up and just kind of a little commercial break because a lot of people, when you're talking to them, they'll say, well, David repented of his sins, and that's why he didn't go to hell. Okay. Obviously David did have a repenting heart because he said he took the rebuke. He's like, yeah, I did that. I messed up. He was a man. He owned up. He took responsibility. Right. But he did the act, you know, and what does God say? That God put the sins away because it's God that removes our sins. It's not us. Okay. So just keep that in mind, you know, just one more thing for your tool bag. When you're out there sowing, you're trying to convince somebody that it's a free gift and they're like, maybe you bring up David or something and they say, well, but he turned from his sins. I've heard that repeatedly in my life. Well, don't forget David repented of his sins. That's why he didn't lose the salvation because that's what people say. Let's move on here back. We'll get back on track here. Verse 14. It says this, remember we're talking about blasphemy. How be it? Because by this deed given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. Now you guys turned to Deuteronomy chapter 17. And so we can see here, just because you're saved, doesn't mean your sins are forgiven. Doesn't mean there isn't some kind of a consequence for our actions, right? Obviously the consequence of hell has been paid for. You will not go there because you're saved, right? David, it's very clear here that his sin was put away by God, but what's the result? He lost that child. And God also said, because you did this, the sword will not depart from your house. Why does God bring this chastisement on him even though he put away his sin? Because his name was blasphemed among the Gentiles. Because think about it, he was a king. You don't think that got out, right? Anybody in leadership that makes a mistake, guess what? The people are going to talk. People are going to talk and other people are going to hear about it. And so these Gentile nations at this time are like, hey, he's no different than us. In fact, he's worse. They're like, we don't kill our own people, we just do whatever we want. And I'm sure they did things like that too. I'm just kind of just being a little extreme there. But you can see that God cares very much about his name, about his words, about him not being blasphemed, especially by his own people, right? But guess what? If these things weren't written, we wouldn't even know what that is. We wouldn't have a clue. I mean, think about it. Go to Ten Mile Christian and then just walk around the big old church and just start asking people, hey, what's blasphemy? Oh, when you say, you know, F word or, you know, maybe if you say GD, but he'll just forgive you for that. But it's really, you know, you get all kinds of stuff like that. Oh, it's the four letter words. That's what it is. It's the four letter words. That's the blasphemy. You know, they don't understand that, no, that's making the things that are holy, the things that should be sanctified, the things that are set apart by God and making them profane. And there's different extremes to this, right? You know, wearing the shirt that says Jesus is my homie, obviously that's not as bad as taking the Lord's name in vain, although it's kind of similar, but you get the point, right? You know, there's different degrees of blasphemy, but you don't want to be on any end of this. So for another, a better example, how about this? You know, the sweatshirt that says Jesus is my homie is not as bad as what David did, but it's still blasphemy. It's still blasphemous name. And how do we know that? Because of the things that are written, because the emphasis that the Bible puts on a holy, just God. That's why. All right, let's move on here. So it's a statement of two is this, because it is written, we know what blasphemy is. And by that, we know how to avoid it. We know how to conduct ourselves in a day-to-day manner to avoid that and to avoid the chastisement that'll go along with it, because that's what we don't want. I mean, think about this. David lived the rest of his life, you know, and like, like God said, Hey, the sword will not depart from you. What happened later on when his kids grew up? I mean, just turmoil. I mean, Absalom tried to take the kingdom from him. Um, you know, the story about Amnon and Tamar. I mean, the list goes on. So we, we definitely need these stories to protect ourselves from danger, protect ourselves from us. Right. All right, let's move on here. Number three, because it was written, we know the power of the word of God and not just in the original manuscripts. Let's take a look at this here. Deuteronomy 17, look at verse 14. When thou art come unto the land, which the Lord, thy God giveth thee and shall possess it and shall dwell therein and shall say, I will set a King over me. Like as all the nations that are about me, you know, the story, you know, they're, they're, they're just, you know, there's no King in Israel in this time, right? They've got Moses, they've got Aaron, they've got the priesthood. They actually, you know, are about to, to conquer the Canaanites. You know, you're going to read about that in Joshua. And then there, they, the land that they have, they own real ownership. How's that? No, no, a Rothschild tax during this time, no president, no Congress, no, none of that stuff. Right. I mean, these people really own the land. I mean, they, they were that, this would be a great time period of living while they were following God. But God says, you know what? I know you guys are going to grow weary. You're going to get complacent. You're going to want to be like the heathen nations. Right. And he says, he says, I'm going to give you something for that man. When you guys decide to do that. Now look at verse 15, thou shalt say in any wise, set him a King over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose. One from among thy brethren, shout thou set King over thee. Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. Verse 16, but he shall not multiply horses to himself nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses for as much as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Verse 17, neither shall he multiply wives to himself that his heart turned not away. Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself, silver and gold. Now God is supposed to multiply the silver and the gold and the things like that. And God's saying, Hey, I'm not just telling you guys this. I'm writing this down so that when the time comes in the future, you can read about it. What does that mean? Well, it means that God obviously intended for these things to be copied and copied and copied and passed down. Right. But he puts it in written form, written form. These weren't just stories that were repeated by hearsay, right? Written down verse 18. And it shall be when he said 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 and the Levi's. So is it okay to copy the word of God? Yes, it is. What are we taught today by mainstream Christianity? It's okay to copy it. As long as you put your copyright on there and you get your dough, right? As long as you can get a little bit of bread, then it's okay. But they say, you know, we've lost a lot of stuff in translation. Obviously, God's not concerned about that at all. He's saying, Hey, copy it. And I mean, think about how much the language changed from this time period, even to judges. You remember Jephthah and the Ephraimites, right? Say Shibboleth and they would say Sibboleth. I mean, think about that. The language was even changing then, but they were still expected to copy down the law. Verse 19, in it, the law, the Bible, it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life. That he may learn to fear the Lord, his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them. You see how important it is to keep the written word of God in your heart, to keep it, to read it, to preach about it, to use it on a daily basis. Why? So that you can learn to fear God, which is proof in and of itself that the modern Bible versions are false. Verse 20, this is very important too, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turned not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. So he's saying, hey, look, I don't want you to do this, but when you make your king, he better copy the law. He better take it seriously. He better understand that that copy, which is written, is magnified above my very own name. Are we not kings and priests today? So what does that mean? That means we need to be the same way. But notice here in verse 20, he says that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren. When I see somebody getting offended at the word of God, you know what I know? There's somebody who does not read the Bible. You don't read the Bible. You think you know better and your heart's lifted up above mine because you don't read. There is something about a Christian or even a so-called Christian, right? Not reading God's word that elevates their pride because your head's going to get filled with knowledge of some sort, right? And knowledge puffeth up. And when you fill your head with the knowledge of this world and the knowledge of the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the people that are of today that are like them, guess what happens? You can't apply that the same way you can the word of God. So you never get wisdom. You just keep getting all these so-called facts. Well, in the Greek and the Hebrew. Well, in the Aramaic. Well, Schofield said, well, this guy said, well, that guy said. And before you know it, you're literally floating through life. You can no longer walk. You're no longer grounded. You're no longer rooted. Jesus said, hey, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. That's what he said. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 36. And I'm going to read for you real quickly out of Joshua chapter eight, verse 32 says this, it says, and he wrote there upon the stones, a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel and all Israel and their elders and officers and their judges stood on this side, the arc and on that side before the priests, the Levites, which bear the arc of the covenant of the Lord, as well as the stranger as he that was born among them, half of them over against the Mount Gerizim and half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord had commanded before that they should bless the people of Israel. And they all said something got lost in translation. They didn't say that, did they? No, when Joshua copied the law, they said, amen. They said that, that copy is the word of God. That copy is a word of God. The Bible says about itself that these words are engrafted. And you've heard me mention this before. What does that mean? Well, what does it mean to graft something? What does that mean? To transplant, right? These things are engrafted. So when you copy these things legitimately, you know, or when the printing press does, it doesn't lose power. It doesn't lose power. You say, how do you know that? Because that's what the Bible says about itself. Because it's written. That's how I know that. And you know what? You have to believe it by faith too. You know that? And you have to believe it by faith. There's no, you know, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Right? That's what the Bible says about faith. You just have to believe it. If you don't want to believe the things that are written, there's no hope for you. There's no miracle. There's no sign. There's no wonder that will change your mind. Is that not what we've learned in Acts, chapter four, three, two, one and beyond? Did not most of Israel reject the signs and the wonders? You think they're going to believe the written record? There's not a chance. If they, but I'll tell you what, they rejected the word before they ever rejected the sign or wonder. Think about that. So people that reject the word, you can, you can have the smoothest speech of any man alive and you're not going to convince them. Not going to happen. Jeremiah chapter 36 here. So let's take a look at this. This is, this is a very, I think this, this is a great, obviously every chapter in the Bible is great, but there's some humor built in here about the written record. Okay. And so, let's see, let's, I don't have this in my notes, but I just want to bring this up here. Verse 30, I'm sorry, chapter 36. Let's, let's take up here. Verse number one. It says this, and it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, King of Judah, that this word came into Jeremiah from the Lord saying, take the role of a book and write there in all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations from the day I spake unto thee from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. So think about that even just right off the bat. God wants to communicate with the nation of Israel and the world. What is he doing it by? Written words by the written record. Think about that. Verse three. He says, it may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil, which I propose to do unto them, that they may return every man from his evil way that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. Right? So what's the main avenue that God uses when he wants to reach people, when he wants a turning, he wants real repentance. What is it? It's the written word as it is written, the power of God's written words. Think about this. Verse four, then Jeremiah called Baruch, the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken unto him upon a roll of a book. Now he goes and takes this book, right? And he gives it to Jehoiakim and he cuts it with a pen knife. We're going to take a look at that here. Let's skip for sake of time. Let's see, look down. Verse 14, real quick. Verse 14. Therefore, all the princes sent, Jehudah the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelamiah, the son of Cushai unto Baruch, saying, Take in thy hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand and came unto them, and they said unto him, Sit down now and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears. Now check this out. Verse 16. Now it came to pass when they had heard all the words, they were afraid, both one and the other, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words. See, the written word has power. It has power. That is the power, okay? That's what causes fear and trembling. Did we not learn about that on Sunday when Paul preached to Felix in Jerusalem, right? It says they trembled. They trembled at the Word of God. Now this is funny here. Look at verse 17. And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, how didst thou write all these words at his mouth? Now look at verse 18. Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book. How's that for getting straight to the point, right? How's that for a sermon title? Just get to the point, right? Baruch doesn't give this long, elaborate, you know, story. Oh, you know, I had a vision. Oh, you know, Jeremiah said this. He's just like, look, he spoke. I wrote him down with ink in a book. That's it, right? Let your yay be yay and let your nay be yay, right? He understood that doctrine, okay? Let's see here again for sake of time. So you read the rest of the chapter. You'll see that it gets cut with a pen knife, right? So the king gets a hold of it, and he's like, I don't want to hear that. Cuts it with a pen knife, chucks it in the fire. Now we have a problem. Now we've got a problem. Let's see here. Look at verse 27. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. After that, the king had burned the roll and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah saying, take thee again another roll and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll which Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, hath burnt. And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim, king of Judah, thus saith the Lord, thou has burned this roll saying, why hast thou written therein saying, the king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land and shall cause to cease from thence men and beasts. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, he shall have none to sit upon the throne of David and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him as his seed and his servants for their iniquity. And I will bring upon them and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they hearkened not. Right? So does God say, well, the original manuscripts lost, I guess I'm done. See you later, Baruch. So nice try guys. You know, let the scholars a few hundred years from now figure it out and just leave. No, God's like, nah, no. God's like, no, my word cannot be destroyed by man. Think about that. The words that, and we're going to talk about this with Moses, but the words that God gave Jeremiah, that wasn't the original manuscript because the word settled in heaven. So real quick, we'll just finish off the last verse here. Then took Jeremiah another role and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the book, which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And there were added besides unto them, many like words. So God said, I'm going to tell you the same thing and I'm going to tell you it in different ways. And I'm going to add the fact that you burned the first role and guess what that was meant to be taken as authority. The written word as it is written. Very important. Very, very important. All right. Now you can leave your place there. Go to Ephesians chapter five, Ephesians chapter five, Psalm 119 89 says forever. Oh Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Right? I was going to have you turn there, but we're getting late on time here. You know the deal. Let me ask you a quick question though. Moses, he receives the 10 commandments on the tablets, right? Walks down the Mount. What happens? Breaks them. Again, did God say original manuscripts are lost? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? No. What happens? He goes up and God's like, all right, you know, I'm going to write on, you know, break some other tablets. And he's like, I'm going to write the commandments on them again. I like how he says it though. He says, you know, to replace the ones that thou breakest. But so let me ask you this. Moses comes down from the Mount and the second time, do you think the people were like, well, that's not the original script because you broke the first one. No, it was still expected to be just as authoritative as the very first one that was pinned. Right. Right. It's ridiculous. Why is that? Because the very first one there was, the God wrote on that was a copy of the settled word in heaven. God copied it. It was already, his words already settled there. See what I'm saying? So because people want you to believe, so we're about to read Ephesians five. There are people, many people, several people that want you to believe the first book, the very first, the very first book. So the very first letter to the Ephesians, wherever that was, that was the only one you could trust. Now you got to kind of just guess. You got to kind of rely on what's dug up. I heard James White and I've even heard a pastor of mine in the past Baptist pastor say this, that we don't have the Bible today. We have a copy of the Bible or we have a translation of the Bible. Do you see the difference? Somebody who teaches that is a very dangerous person. Somebody you need to run from because what? Okay. So at that point, who's the authority he is. That's right. So how is he any different? How is James White any different than the Pope or Russell Nelson or the watchtower society or the seventh day headquarters down here on whatever street that is a drove by today or the Quakers office, which is called the, the new year friends meeting or something like that. Anyways, rabbit trail. All right, look at verse 22 Ephesians five 22 wives, submit yourself into your own husbands as into the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. And he is the savior of the body. Verse 24, therefore. So for this reason, for this reason, he says, therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything, right? So we're supposed to be subject to God in everything that would include everything that's written in this book. Not just some of it, not just what you like to hear, but all of it. Verse 25 husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for verse 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with a washing of water by the word. How is the body of Christ supposed to be cleansed by the washing of the water of the word by his written record? And guess what? This written record has been copied and it's an accurate copy. It's in grafted. You could burn your Bible and please don't, but if you did, it's not going to affect God one single bit because he's going to cause his word to go forth because he said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Verse 27, here is the goal, right? The goal of the word, verse 27, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Holy and without blemish. The only way you get that way is by washing yourself with the water of the word. So God uses that terminology to tell us, right, that the Bible, the written record is what cleanses us after we're saved. Obviously it cleanses you before, because you accept it, you receive it, you call upon him the Lord and you're saved, but how do you sanctify yourself? How do you ensure, how do we ensure that we're without spot, without blemish? It's by the written record and by magnifying his word. Okay. You don't have to turn there. We're just, I'm just going to read these for you. Actually, you guys go to Acts 4. Daniel 9, 12 says this, and he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us and against our judges that judged us by bringing upon us a great evil for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. So you know the story, you know that Daniel's like, hey, you know, these things were foretold in the prophets that we were going to go into captivity if we didn't do what he said. If we didn't follow that written record that he told us to copy, remember he told our Kings to copy that they didn't do it. And so now we're in captivity. Now we're in perils. Now we're in trouble. Now everything's changing. Verse 13, as it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord or God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth. So many, many, many years after Moses writes Deuteronomy, Daniel reads a copy of that and says, you know what? We're messed up. This is why we are in the trouble that we're in. He says, because we didn't understand thy truth. Thy word is truth. The Bible says, here's the next statement. Very basic because it is written. We know that we need to be saved. Because it's written. We know that we need to be saved. Not because of experience. Not because I can look on somebody's life and say, you know what? That person's really ate up. I'll bet we just need to go to God. No, that doesn't do it. If it was up to us to write the Bible, it would be a whole lot different. You know it would be, right? A lot of things are sin. Wouldn't be sin. Like knocking some people out. Right? All the guys are like, amen. Ladies are like, that's weak. Think about it. As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. You're there in Acts chapter four, look at verse 12. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Why do you think the Philippian jailer asked Paul, what must I do to be saved? Because something that night led him to the conclusion, uh oh, I'm not saved. And I need to be saved. Could it be the hymns that they were singing? Could it be the conversation that they had with each other? And what was that conversation about the word of God? The things that were written, the things that they knew. That's why. Go to Psalm chapter 40. Number five is another quick one. I was going to spend more time on that, but we go through that a lot. You understand that. I mean, a very basic concept like that though, you know, some people say, how do you know you have to be saved or born again? Because it's written in the Bible. Right. You know, I feel like an idiot sometimes for you to bring that up, but it's a real battle out there, isn't it? I mean, this is a real doctrine that I've seen you guys have to teach other people. So obviously it needs to be preached and it needs to be preached often. Number five is this, because it is written, we can have motivation for eternity. Now I had you turn to Psalm 40, but just listen to this number five again, one more time because it is written, we can have motivation for eternity. First Corinthians two nine says this, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. You say, I feel down. I don't feel right. I'm not motivated. Something is wrong in the, you know, the inward man delights after the law, but my flesh just seems to be taking over. You know what? It would do you good to just ponder and just meditate on first Corinthians chapter two verse nine. I'll read it one more time. But as it is written, you know, our hope, our motivation, where does it come from? It doesn't, it shouldn't come from the world. It shouldn't come from a YouTube video. It shouldn't come from a pep talk. It comes from the things that are written and understanding this concept he's teaching us. But as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. If you meditate and you think about that, there's not a soul alive who, or who has ever lived that really has an understanding of the great joy and the blessings that's going to be in eternity, right? The pain, the perils, the tribulations, the sorrows, all the stuff that we go through in life will be nothing, nothing compared to that. You do your best job right now to think about what heaven looks like or what it's going to be like in eternity. And it won't be anything like you're thinking, nothing. It will far exceed your thoughts because the reality is it hasn't come into your mind. We're not told a lot of details about it. But one thing we are told, and that's this first right here, 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9, that it's going to be far beyond what you could ever imagine. And that should be our motivation to get those rewards because we don't even really fully understand that. Right? Shifting like Jesus did to the disciples. No more temporal. We're focused on the eternal. All right, real quickly, number six, because it's written, we know that Jesus is predicted, I'm sorry, because it's written, we know that Jesus is the predicted and perfect sacrifice for man's sins. I've been told that there's a group out there called the Quakers, and I haven't looked it up completely, but I'm told that they believe in Jesus Christ but they don't believe in the Bible at all and they even confess it. I don't know if that's 100% true because I didn't read that on their website. In fact, I went to the Boise Friends Church. They claim to be of the Quakers. And even on their site, they did say that they believe in the Scriptures. Obviously, it's NIV and we know they don't. But it doesn't matter because most of the people you talk to, we already know they don't really believe in the Bible. They're just paying lip service to it. But I mean, think about this, because it is written, we know that Jesus is the predicted and perfect sacrifice for man's sins. You know, a lot of the Methodists around here and the Episcopalians, they don't get that, right? That's why when we talk to them, they tremble, right? Oh, when I see King James Holy, it just makes me, I don't know, I just get uneasy because I think that divides people. Yeah, it does divide people because the Word of God magnifies itself against everything. It's like, think about it. Not everybody's right. If you say two plus two equals five, you're wrong. What does that mean? Two plus two equals four. What does that mean? It means truth exists. There's no arguing that. How simple is that? Two plus two, ask, ask your He the money. Hey, does two plus two equal four? Yeah. Well, guess what, pilot? That's truth. Have a good night. If you don't accept that, I don't ever want to talk to you about anything. Nothing. Not work, nothing. I don't even want to look at you. I'm not going to figure out what I'm talking about here. Psalm 40, look at verse six. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin, offering hast thou not required. Verse seven. Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me. This is important. Verse eight. I delight to do thy will. Oh my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. Verse nine. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips. Oh Lord, thou knowest. Verse 10. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. In Hebrews chapter 10, we're going to see the writer use this passage to defend the New Testament. Okay. So what does he say here though? You go to Hebrews chapter 10. Verse seven says, then said I lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me. Again, emphasizing the importance of the book, emphasizing the importance, the sanctification, the holiness of the written words of God. Hebrews chapter 10. Real quick. Look at verse four. We're getting close to being done here. It says, for it is not possible, right? He's trying to reason with the Hebrews. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith sacrifice and offering thou what is not, but a body has thou prepared me. So when he's trying to justify, when he's teaching right doctrine, he's justifying what Jesus did. He's saying, hey, the New Testament makes sense. What does he use as a backup? What does he use to propagate his doctrine? It's Psalm chapter 40. It's the written record that it's always been that way. If Jesus did it, if the apostles did it, then we have to do it as well. There's no other way. You know, again, I keep saying this, but it's so true. You can take the smartest guy alive and use all the logic in the world that you can think of. But that's not how it does. That's not what's going to do it. It may sound good. Oh, an eloquent speaker. Oh, you know, I heard him and it all made sense. No, you know, there's eloquent speakers out there that can hypnotize you of the stupidest things imaginable. I mean, think about it. How do people sign away their life savings? You know, I don't want to win because people are good talkers, right? That's why we are to trust our compass, which is the written record. More so like, I get up here and say a lot of things, right? I can be wrong. You need to know that by, but you're only going to know that by your own reading, right? Your own reading of the written record. Let's see here again. Verse six, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou has had no pleasure. Then said I lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me to do thy will. Oh God. Verse eight, above when he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou would is not neither has pleasure there in which are offered by the law. Verse nine, then said he lo, I come to do thy will. Oh God, he taketh away the first that he may establish the second by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. So again, just emphasizing this point here, the only way to defend our faith and to contend for the faith, which was once delivered to the saints is by using the written record and believing it, not waiting for the resurrection of a new document that was dug up in the middle East, but what's written, what we have access to. It doesn't take a rocket science, a rocket scientist to go out and preach this word to somebody and see its power. How many people do you know are out there using the NIV or the ESV or the NASB to win souls? None. Yeah. The street preachers have quoted all day long and yell at people. I mean, think about that though. We're actually going up to people having a one-on-one conversation with them using the written record. What are they doing? Yelling at cars, yelling at buses, yelling at trains. You see one makes you do the one thing the right way and the other makes you do a bunch of stupid stuff. Who's going to get saved by it? Okay. You're driving down the street here. You know, you guys all seen that street preacher out there with a sign. How many people do you think he's getting saved? Zero. How many people do you think he's influencing? Zero. People don't get saved by hearing a guy with a bullhorn or holding a sign. It's like, what are you doing? You're trying to get all the Toyotas saved? You're trying to get the public transportation saved? What are you doing? It's not effective. How did you come to this conclusion? Because you're blind. You don't believe the record. That's why. All right. We're almost done here. Turn to John chapter one. Real familiar verses here. John chapter one. So again, last week's sermon, this week's sermon, all to say this, you can not separate Jesus Christ from the written record. Say prove it. Prove it. Sure. John one, one. 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. Why does it call him the word? Because he's the word. Made flesh. Verse three. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. Does that not sound like the King James Bible? It does. Right? I mean, don't we use this Bible every week out soul winning to shine a light onto people? Right. And by asking them questions and by reading this, by asking them, hey, do you believe this? And they say, well, I still think you have to turn from your sins. You know what? You just shine the flashlight of the Bible on their heart and observe. Okay. You know, I've got, I've got down to it. Now I know what you really believe. You couldn't do that without the written record. Right. You know that Jesus of the NIV is different than the Jesus of the King James Bible. You know what? The King James Bible is mocked. The King James Bible spit upon. It's torn. It's stabbed. It's put on the cross daily. Right. But the whole world seems like they'd love the modern versions. They don't go through that. Nobody is out there on a quest to be NIV only or ESV only. Right. I mean, think about it. When you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, you read about the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Out of this King James Bible, this book by itself suffers the same persecutions. But if you were to read the NIV, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, right? The Jesus in that book, because I've read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in several of the modern translations, those books don't go through the same scrutiny. They don't go through the same persecutions. It's a different Jesus. It is. One last verse and we're done. 1 Timothy 3 16. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. All right. We're going to stop there for tonight because I've gone long enough. And I think you get the point. Like I said, I just wanted to edify you this evening. Just study out, uh, just several different spots where the Bible says, as it is written, you really just nail that down, hit that home because it's important. You know, we didn't stay on top of these things because it's by this book that we live and we die. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this Bible. Lord, I thank you so much for all these people that came here tonight. Lord, pray you bless the fellowship, the soul winning this week, and bring us back to church safe on Sunday. In Jesus' name I pray.