Date: July 10, 2008

Bible Text: Jeremiah 23:29 |

Series:

Turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah 23:29.  “Is not my word like as a fire?  saith the LORD:  and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”  The title of my message is that first question—“Is not my word like as a fire?”  If you will now, turn to II Timothy 3:16 and 17.  As you are turning, I would like to point out that there are many similes given to the Word of God.  It’s likened to a sieve that sieves in Psalm 105, and a light that searches in Psalm 119.  A hammer that breaks in the text we just read, a knife that cuts in Acts chapter 5, a seed that is sown in I Peter chapter 1, and a sword to slay in Hebrews chapter 4.  Again, as our text says, our Bible is also referred to as being like fire.  In II Timothy 3:16-17 we read this well-known passage, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…”

 

I just want to stop for you newer Christians and help you to understand this.  Every word is given by the inspiration of God.  And you know what is also exciting?  It’s preserved—we have it.  We can stand here and say, “I’m holding God’s Word.”  Now that’s exciting.  “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; That the man of God may be perfect…”  That’s not talking about preachers, it’s talking about you.  It’s talking about women, too.  We can be perfect in God’s eyes.  Not sinless, but perfect in God’s eyes.  Think about that.  How is it done?  Through God’s Word.  It’s important.  “…That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”  The only way you are going to be able to live the life that God wants you to live, the only way you will be what God wants you to be, is through the Word of God.  “Is not my word like as a fire?”  It ignites the soul.

 

I think one of our problems as independent, fundamental Baptists is that we can be accustomed to it.  I think what happens is that we back off, we’re not what we ought to be, we make excuses for ourselves, and then we just kind of float through life.  And we miss everything that God would have for us.  Yes, we are going to heaven, but we lose the fire.  I so appreciated the testimony from last week.  We shouldn’t get used to changed lives.  We ought not to brag on sin, but I appreciate that Chris was honest about it.  As a young man he was in the drug house with a destroyed life, but now he can get up in front of us with tears in his eyes and say, “Praise God, I have a new life.  I have a good marriage; my kids are being raised for God.  Praise God.  He changed me!”  And how many out here said, “Amen!”  Because it’s the same thing in your lives and in my life.

 

I think of when Ernie Ford got up and gave his testimony about throwing Pastor Whitecar out of his house.  I see people with changed lives.  We have people all over this place who were living in wicked sin, and now they are living for God.  I don’t say it to brag on Ernie, or Chris, or anyone else.  They have nothing to do with it; God did it!  How could we get used to that?  But sometimes we do, don’t we?  Sometimes you hear testimonies like these and see some of the things that are going on in our church, and you get accustomed to souls being saved.  Ho-hum.  You get accustomed to kids being raised and going out to live for God.  Ho-hum.  You accept it as matter of fact.  But listen to me, it is not matter of fact.  These are great works of God, and we should be excited about it.  We should be excited about the preaching of God’s Word, the reading of God’s Word.  We need to say anew and afresh, “Lord, set my soul afire.  Ignite my soul with the Word of God.”

 

Let’s look at some reasons why the Bible is likened to a fire.  This is what preachers call a “shot gun message.”  I’m just going all over the place.  But first of all, fire gives zeal.  I can remember early in my ministry one of the staff members said, “You just burn the candle at both ends.”  And I thought to myself, “I’d rather burn out for God any day than rust out.”  I know that is an old saying, but I’ll tell you, that is the philosophy of my life.  Who wants to sit back, cross his legs, and twiddle his toe a little bit?  We ought to be excited!  And if you want to be excited, get into the Word of God.  Let it pour over your soul.  Let it become a part of your life.  That is what is called fire.  That is what it will give you—fire.  We need enthusiasm.  You say, “Preacher, we need to trust the Lord.”  I guess we do, nobody believes we need to trust the Lord more than I do.  But we need enthusiasm!  If you are a Sunday School teacher, if you are a school teacher, and you are just up there putting them to sleep, you need enthusiasm.  We are talking about the Word of God.

 

Secondly, fire captures more territory.  Have you ever started a brush fire?  I have.  That is scary.  I’m talking about one of those things that just moves.  And isn’t that an illustration of what happened in the New Testament?  When these people were saved—3,000 of them, 5,000 cities—the best illustration I have for Christianity in the New Testament is a brush fire.  It captured territory, and it captured it quickly.  That’s what ought to happen.  I know we live in a wicked world.  I know the world hates God and hates anybody who has to do with God.  They can’t help it; their father is the devil.  But our father is God.  And He is an all-powerful God.  He can break through that, as we gave illustration of just a couple out of hundreds of testimonies that could be given in this church.

 

I have a little cove in my bedroom where I have my study chair.  I have a window that looks out; and when I look out, I see the boys’ dorm, I see the gazebo, I see the girls’ dorm, and I see the auditorium.  And I was thinking this morning, I couldn’t help but think about it, of when we started this church.  You may get tired of it, but until I die, you’re going to hear about Sharon playing that little toy organ, and me with the Duz box.  I couldn’t pound the pulpit very well, or I would crush the cardboard box.  And I was wondering in my heart, would we ever have anybody?  I would knock on doors.  I spent tens and tens of hours every week knocking on doors.  Two or three people would get saved.  Maybe they would come, but they hardly ever would come back again.  Could we ever build a church?  No, we can’t, but God can.

 

You see, what I’m trying to say is, just look what God does.  Now we’ll have a soulwinning night, and we’ll do the whole town of Porter and Chesterton all in an hour-and-a-half’s time.  It’s not bragging, what I’m trying to say is that fire captures territory.  I dare you to go down I-94 one way or the other and watch those buses go by after church, going out capturing territory.  And then God led us to have a college, and even more than that, our own kids surrendering to full-time service and going across the country and around the world.  Fire captures more territory!  “Is not my word like as a fire?  Saith the LORD?”  A fire spreads.  In Proverbs 4:18 it says, “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”  Are you a better Christian than you were yesterday?  I feel sorry for some of you old-timers.  Some of these new people are leaving you in the dust.  You say, “I’m here.  I put my money in the offering plate.”  Where’s your heart, where’s the fire, where is it spreading?  Where’s the excitement?  You’ve lost it.  I remember when you came.  You were excited.  Your spiritual life ought to be growing until you die.  And if it doesn’t, you are dead.  I feel sorry for you; the fire is out.  I’m not saying you are not saved.  The fire is out.  I feel sorry for you.  You do more harm than good.  You hurt your family.  Why?  Because they love you.  They can’t be what they ought to be because of you.

 

Fire burns your conscience also.  People say, “Let your conscience be your guide.”  Turn to I Thessalonians as an example.  Let your conscience be your guide if your conscience is geared to the Bible.  If you’ll read the Word of God and study it, and you are open to the will of God, it will burn your conscience to do what is right.  I Thessalonians 4:7 says, “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.”  Let’s just stop and let me get on one of my hobby horses.  Some of you women will not give in to your husband.  You say that’s not your culture.  This is what your culture ought to be (the Word of God).  I don’t care how you grew up or where you grew up.  I don’t care what your mama does.  This is God’s book, and the Bible says that you are to be in subjection to your husband just as much as the church is to God.  Can you get any stronger than that?  You say, “You don’t know him.”  Probably if I knew him I’d want to punch him!  But I’m not his wife, and you know what the Bible says.  Read Ephesians 5.  A woman is to be in subjection.  Women aren’t supposed to be busybodies.  We had that happen a couple months ago.  A woman was in rebellion.  She got the women together and gossiped.  “I don’t think the Preacher knows everything.”  Well, I know more than you do.  Evidently I know the Bible more than you do.  Evidently I can keep my wife under subjection better than your husband can.  If you get in the Bible, and you believe the Bible, it’s not hard to understand.  People say it’s a new day, a new generation, a new this, a new that.  No, no.  What’s wrong with you is that you are not new.  It’s easy.  The Bible is very clear.

 

It’s cold outside now, but pretty soon it’s going to be swimming season.  No woman could read this Book and go out in a swimming suit; and by the way, no father who called himself a Bible believer would ever allow this because the Bible says to be modest.  And swimsuits are not modest.  In the old days, yes.  I always like to refer to that.  Around 100 years ago the swimming suits were way down.  If you showed your ankle, you were rotten.  That was unsaved people.  That was worldly people.  If you showed your ankle, you were rotten.  Now, if you want to swim like that, that’s okay, just so everybody else is swimming like that.  It’s easy.  The Bible very clearly says that you are to adorn yourself modestly.  It’s simple.  There it is.  Open.  Shut.  Over.  If you know the Bible, if you just read the Bible, you know the Bible says the man is to be the head of the home.  Now, a man who is the head of the home makes sure this happens, and a woman in subjection to her husband is glad.  You may say to my wife, “I bet you are miserable being married to him.”  I’ve heard plenty of visitors come to this church and say, “I’m glad I’m not married to him!”  You know what?  It was just Valentine’s Day.  Let me tell you a secret.  My wife said she’s glad she married me 35 years ago.  And if you live a Bible life, you will be glad, too.  Forget women’s liberation.  I know we’re bucking the world, that’s why I preach like this.  I like to preach like this.  If you go by the Bible, the Bible is clear.  You say, “I can read the Bible, and it doesn’t bother me.”  Then your heart is hardened.

 

Again, if you have your Bibles, turn to Isaiah 6.  Something else that the Word of God does is that it purifies.  Isaiah 6:1 says, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.  Above it stood the seraphims:  each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.  And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts:  the whole earth is full of his glory.  And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.  Then said I, Woe is me!  for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:  for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.  Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.”

 

Isaiah said, “My lips are unclean.”  What did the seraphim do?  He took fire and touched his lips.  Why?  Because fire purifies.  Psalm 119:9 says, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?  by taking heed thereto according to thy word.”  Do you want to be clean?  Follow this Word.  John 15:3 says, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”  How are you clean?  Through the Word.  Some of your lives are just crusted over with sin.  And I’ll guarantee you, if your life is crusted over with sin, it is because you don’t get into this Book and let it pour over your soul.  There’s a breakdown.  Listen.  You know how I harp on pride.  The Bible says, “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination…”  And the first thing he mentions is pride.  Pride.  But for many Christians, that’s an acceptable sin.  “I don’t smoke, I don’t do this, I don’t do that.”  It’s pride.  “I’m as good as anybody else.”  We need to have the rags of our own self-righteousness burned up.  We need to have the leaves of our empty professions, the stubble of our questions and doubts, the thorns of our prickly temper, and the roots of our bitterness burned.  “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”  It is impossible to live a clean life without the Bible.  I’ve never been one who says you should read five or six chapters a day.  All I say is you need to get in the Bible and get something out of it.

 

Fire burns, it ignites the soul, it burns the conscience, it purifies a life.  But it also illuminates the mind.  In Psalm 119:105 it says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light into my path.”  Psalm 119:130 it says, “The entrance of thy words giveth light…”  Earlier it says, “…therefore doth my soul keep them.”  The Bible illuminates your mind.  Sometimes I hear of people who become Mormon, and I wonder, “How can somebody know about the Mormon cult and follow it?”  Joseph Smith was a nut.  You say, “You’re against other religions.”  That’s not a religion, it’s a cult.  And he was a contradictory nut.  The problem with people is they don’t know the Bible.  You say, “I know the Bible.  I believe the Bible.”  Then you’re not going to fall into anything.  You know these new mega-churches, this one here in Chicago, the world’s largest church.  They dance, smoke, drink, and anything else.  As long as they say “God” it makes them feel good.  You are not going to fall into that if you know the Bible.  They are ignorant of the Word of God.  They are “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine...”  God never leads us contrary to His Word.  I had a woman tell me she was going to divorce her husband.  She was a church member.  Of course, we had to vote her out.  I asked her, “Well, was he unfaithful to you?”  “No.”  “Well, why are you going to divorce him?”  “Well, he doesn’t do this, he doesn’t do that, he does this.”  I took my Bible and asked her to show me.  “Well, I don’t know.”  “Then you should not get a divorce.”  You see, we want to call ourselves Christians.  We want to sit in this church and other churches.  We want to call ourselves Bible believers, but we don’t want to follow the Bible.  We don’t want to follow the Bible!  “But you don’t know, Preacher.  You don’t know him.”  I don’t have to.  I know the Bible.

 

The same thing with drink.  It just amazes me the people who call themselves Christians, Bible believers, who say they love God—and drink.  Now Proverbs 23:29 is just one of many, many passages that has to do with drink.  “Who hath woe?  who hath sorrow?  who hath contentions?  who hath babbling?  who hath wounds without a cause?  who hath redness of eyes?”  We know, don’t we?  Drinkers.  “They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.”  Verse 31 is a description of fermented juice.  Again, you have to understand the word “wine” in the Bible is used for grape juice also.  But this is talking about mixed wine.  “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.  At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.  Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.  Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.  They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not:  when shall I awake?  I will seek it yet again.”  It’s just one of dozens and dozens of passages on booze.  But yet Christians drink.  What does that tell you?  You say, “You shouldn’t be judgmental.”  This Book is very judgmental.  What this says is they don’t believe the Book, or they would not drink.  It’s as simple as that.

 

Now again, you newer people may say, “You just pick on the women all the time.”  Well, you are pretty stubborn.  Don’t ever say those people at Fairhaven believe this.  Why don’t you just say the Bible says this?  Women preachers.  You know, I just read that one-half of all people in seminaries in America today are women.  “Well,” you say, “I know, you are just one of those men who hates women.”  I don’t hate women.  “You are just one of those prejudiced preachers.”  No, no, no.  Why don’t you just say the truth?  I believe the Book.  I believe the Bible.  “Well,” you say, “Does the Bible say you shouldn’t have a woman preacher?”  Let’s just look at one passage, I Timothy 2:11-12.  “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.”  Does that sound like a preacher?  Am I in silence?  Am I in subjection?  I guess not.  “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”  You say, “I didn’t know that was in the Bible.”  Read it.  And one-half of the people in seminaries today are a women!  What does that mean?  That one-half, at least, do not believe the Bible or they wouldn’t be there.

 

Let’s go further.  I Timothy 3:4-5.  This is giving the description of a pastor.  “One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)”  What do you think that means?  It means exactly what it says.  That means if my wife ran me or if I can’t run my wife, how can I run you?  And if I can’t raise my kids, then how can I pastor you?  Do you know I run with the most fundamental men that I know of, and the vast majority of them disagree with me when I say that I believe the Bible teaches that a man is disqualified if his kids go to the devil.  Now, I’m very liberal about it.  I don’t think that if a kid breaks a window while playing ball and runs away, that his dad is disqualified.  I’m not talking about that.  I’m talking about if his son or daughter goes out and becomes a whoremonger, he is disqualified.  Isn’t that liberal?  But people don’t believe it.  The problem today, and the reason we are not seeing God bless our homes, and bless our lives, and bless our children, is that we don’t believe the Bible.  It’s not just a book of poetry.  It’s not something to make us feel good; it’s something to live by!

 

II Timothy 4 tells a little more of what I’m supposed to do, starting in verse 2, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”  You say, “What are you reading that for?”  Because some of you are mad at me now.  You say, “All that guy does is harp.”  What does it tell me to do?  “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”  It’s my job.  “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”  The time will come when people will not follow this.  They will call themselves Bible believers, but they won’t follow their husbands.  They will call themselves Bible believers, but they will divorce their mates.  They will call themselves Bible believers, but they won’t lead their wives.  They will call themselves Bible believers, but they will drink.

 

I remember when Billy Graham started going haywire.  He was doing wrong, and he was going against these things.  And I remember a so-called Bible believer, when he was defending Billy Graham for doing the opposite of what the Bible taught, saying “I am sure that Billy Graham can get an answer to prayer.”  In other words, he was saying, “He prayed about it.  I’m sure he can get answer to prayer.  And if his prayer is contrary to the Bible, I’m sure he is right.”  No, if your prayer is contrary to the Bible, let me tell you a secret—it’s wrong!

 

Turn to I Corinthians 6:15-20.  “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?  shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot?  God forbid.  What?  know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body?  for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.  But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.  Flee fornication.  Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.  What?  know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you…”  What is that preaching against?  It’s pretty clear, isn’t it?  Fornication.  Adultery.  Sexual sins.  For decades and decades and eons the lowest hurdle that a preacher had to get over and still be a preacher was to be clean and not be an adulterer.  But not anymore.  Our generation of preachers changed that.  Today people say, “Well, we let murderers be preachers.”  They were murderers before they were saved.  “But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding:  he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.  A wound and dishonor shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.”  (Proverbs 6:32-33)  Today in so-called Bible-believing churches, the pastor is guilty of it, and he steps over here.  And we wonder why God cannot bless our churches.  You say, “What are you getting at this morning?”  Believe the Bible!  The Word of God illuminates the mind.  You say, “I can’t understand the Bible.”  Read it!  It’s easy.  John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  It’s easy.  Read the Bible.  It will illuminate your mind.

 

Turn to Acts 2:41.  The Word of God fuses fellowship.  By that I’m not talking about the type of Christian who has a stick of dynamite in his pocket.  “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized…”  Now is that difficult to interpret?  They received the word; they were baptized.  Do you read anything about them coming before a committee?  Do you read anything about them waiting?  Both sides of this are wrong.  If you get saved this morning, you should be baptized tonight.  Now we do have a meeting at 5:00 and we’ll talk to you to make sure you are saved and that you understand salvation.  We want you to have the assurance of your salvation.  But notice that when 3,000 were saved, 3,000 were baptized on that same day.  Now, that was a job.  They had to want to do that.  And then the Bible says in verses 42-44, “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.  And fear came upon every soul:  and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.  And all that believed were together…”

 

Some people say, “Well I like to go out and worship God and watch the dahlias break through the ground.”  No, you don’t want to hear the Word of God preached like you are hearing it now.  That’s what people don’t want.  The Bible says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…”  That’s the Bible.  If you want to feel good, get into the Word of God, and as the testimony was given this morning, say, “God, I’m going to do what you want me to do.”  And do it.  You’ll feel good.

 

Verse 45, “And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.”  Now, that is not communism.  Communism says “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”  The Bible says if you don’t work, you ought not to eat.  But there are times when Christians are in trouble, and we need to help them.  I get tired of people living in adultery, having kids every other year, not married, calling up the church and thinking the church should take care of them.  No, that’s not the job of the church.  If you don’t work, you ought not to eat.  That’s Bible.  But verse 46 says, “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people.  And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

 

Acts chapter 4 verse 32, “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul…”  The result of preaching and learning the Bible is people being unified.  You see, that’s it.  So many churches are split, and torn, and wrecked apart, and we’ve had that in the past.  Our church is healthier now than it has ever been by far; and the reason is that the majority of people are taking the Book and saying, “This is what it says.  This is what I’ll do.”  You see, if you have whole bunch of people—it doesn’t matter if it’s 50 people or if it’s 500 or 5,000 people—if they are all saying, “This is what it says, and this is what we’ll do,” we will all get along.  But if we are wanting to do it “our” way, that is when we fight.

 

Last of all, what should we do with the Bible?  It’s a fire.  It ignites the soul, it burns the conscience, it purifies the life, it illuminates the mind, it fuses fellowship.  But what should we do?  Believe it.  Most of you have heard my testimony.  I was saved as a child.  I didn’t do much.  I didn’t live in sin, and I was in church all the time.  But I wasn’t very serious.  I went off to Iowa State University to be an architect.  My mother grew up in burned-out houses in Chicago.  My father grew up in the woods in the north.  Nobody in our family ever went to college.  Here I was at Iowa State University, scared to death, and the first class I had was geology.  I didn’t even know what it was.  But I remember standing there wondering why I needed geology.  In fact, I needed five courses in geology for architecture.  I can remember standing outside of an old, stately building waiting for my first class.  You know how they have these marble benches?  It rained the day before, and the benches puddled up with water.  I was nervous and sat down on one of them.  I just soaked my pants.

 

So here I am, dumb freshman.  It was a third-year course, too, so I think I was the only freshman in there.  My pants are soaked.  I walked in there the first day, and as I recall this was the first question the young Ph.D. said, “How many here believe the Bible?”  He was ready for war.  I put my hand up.  I wasn’t ready for war.  One other person put his hand up.  I found out later he was a graduate of Wheaton College.  The war started.  He started ridiculing the Bible and preaching evolution.  I praise God my Sunday School teacher at the church I went to was the chairman of the chemistry department.  I would go to him to get “ammo.”  You say, “What are you talking about?”  I’m saying I took on that professor.  I had no brains or knowledge, but I took him on with the Book.  I didn’t know it the way I should have, but I did it.  I’m not trying to say that I was some great scholar or anything.  I’m saying I believed!  You know what that did?  I remember shaking my head when I was through thinking, “That Ph.D. is pretty dumb.”  It strengthened my faith.

 

When we went to jail and stood against everybody and everything because of our belief in the rearing of children, it didn’t hurt us, did it?  It cost us a few hundred thousand dollars, and our bus ministry, a couple hundred out of our school, and on and on.  But did it hurt this church?  No, it did not.  It strengthened us.  One time I had to take a stand against a popular man.  I didn’t want to do it.  But when God tells you to do it, you do it.  What I’m trying to say is that it strengthens you.  It doesn’t matter how the people smirk or how they laugh.  You stand up for Jesus, and you won’t disgrace yourself.  You young people who go to the public schools, you get in and study this idea of evolution.  They are the idiots, not us.  Honestly.  I’ve heard it said over and over again.  It takes a lot more faith to believe evolution than to believe this Book.

 

Believe it.  Secondly, read it.  You are not going to get the Bible into your system by osmosis.  You must read it and say, “Dear God, help me.  Show me.”  I like to underline things in my Bible.  Then, review it.  For instance, in the Old Testament there’s not as much to underline, but in Proverbs or Psalms, there is a lot to underline.  I find that when I really want something, when I just want to meditate, I’ll go through and just read the underlined portions.  I’ll review it and, oh, it’s a blessing to me.  Because all these things are special to me.  Believe it, read it, underline it, review it, meditate.  Pray it in.  “God, help me to do what the Bible says to do.”  Then, respond.

 

If I didn’t look in the mirror today, my hair would be all over.  A mirror shows you if you need to shave.  You see these things and take care of it.  That’s why I preach the way I do.  You say, “You hate women the way you preach.”  No, I don’t.  But I do believe the Bible.  And I know if you are a Bible wife and he is a Bible husband and you raise Bible kids, then you will be happy.  And I know something else.  If you are a Christian and you don’t take your place as a woman or as a man, and you don’t care of the kids, you will be sad.  You lose.  My job is to preach.  You heard it, “Preach the word.”  I did it.  Now it’s up to you to obey it.  Go soulwinning.  The best program we ever had was when we said, “Let’s all win one and keep one.”  Win souls, keep after them, get them baptized, get them in the church.  Ask God to show you what you need to take care of in your life.

 

If you are here and you are not saved, obey it.  That means the difference between heaven and hell.  These liberals will say, “I love people.  I’m not going to preach on hell.”  No, they don’t love people.  They love their pocketbooks, or they love their popularity.  I love people, and I’m going to tell you about hell because I don’t want you to go there.  The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death…”  We’re all sinners.  “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”  The wages of that sin is death, and the Bible teaches a fiery hell.  “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  He died for your sin.  How could it be that somebody dislikes someone when he’s telling him of the greatest gift on the face of this earth?  If you are a sinner, you are on your way to hell.  Christ died for you.  All you have to do is repent of your sin and turn to Him, and you will go to heaven for an eternity instead of hell.  Have you ever heard of anything better than that?  I haven’t.  If you have never accepted Christ as your Savior, believe and obey this morning.  When we give the invitation, come.

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