Psalm 19 that I'd like to focus on is beginning there, in verse number 7, where the Bible reads, "The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether." The part that I really wanted to point out there is in verse number 8 where the Bible reads, "The statutes of the LORD are right." Now, the title of my sermon this morning is God is Always Right.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: God's Word is always right. Now, if you would flip over to Psalm 33, just a few pages to the right in your Bible, and while you're turning there, I'll read for you from Psalm 119, verse 75, "I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me." Psalm 119:128, "Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way." He said, "God, all of your precepts about all subjects are always right." Psalm 33, verse 4, "For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth." Go over to Proverbs chapter number 8. Proverbs chapter 8. Over and over again, the Bible tells us, God is always right, His Word is always right. Every teaching that the Bible has, every commandment He has, every law He has, every statute He has, He's right.
Now look what the Bible says in Proverbs 8, verse 6, "Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it."
Notice what it says about God's Word here. In verse number 8, "All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there's nothing froward or reverse in them," perverse means crooked, there's nothing where you would look at it and say, "Well, God got this a little bit wrong," or, "This teaching of the Bible is just a little off, or just isn't right." No, everything God says and does is right.
Look at chapter 12 of Proverbs, verse number 5, the Bible reads, "The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the councils of the wicked are deceit." Look at verse 15, "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise." See, a fool thinks that he's right all the time ...
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: ... and doesn't realize that, often, he's wrong and God's the one who's right, okay? Look at Proverbs, chapter number 21. It says in Proverbs 21, verse 2, "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts," so flip over to Isaiah, chapter 55, and what we see, then, is that man is often wrong. Oftentimes, foolish people think that they're right about something, but it turns out they're wrong, whereas God is always right. Look at Isaiah, chapter 55, verse 7, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Flip over to Ezekiel, chapter number 18. Ezekiel, chapter 18, toward the end of the Old Testament, and while you're turning there, I'll read for you from Romans, chapter 9, verse 20, "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" It says in Romans 9, "Who do you think you are to reply against God, to argue with God, to stand in judgment of God, when everything that He says, everything that He does concerning all things is always right? How dare you argue with God." Ezekiel 18:25, "Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?" Look at Ezekiel 33, verse 17, and we find something similar, Ezekiel 33, verse 17, "Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal," so when there's a disagreement between us and the Bible, the Bible is right and we're wrong ...
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: ... and when we look at something that God said in His Word and say, "Well, that's not fair," no, you don't understand fairness, and God's the one who got it right. His ways are equal, His ways are righteous, you're the one who's wrong. Now, why wouldn't we be wrong from time to time? We're human beings, and when people say, "Well, we should just listen to our heart and trust our judgment and our 'common sense', quote-unquote," the Bible says, "Whoso trusteth in his own heart is a fool" ...
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: ... and when you think of your heart, your heart does not exist in a vacuum. You actually were raised in a certain society, and you were taught certain things from a very young age, especially if you grew up watching a lot of TV, and if you grew up under a lot of worldly influences, you received a lot of bad judgments and bad statutes, to where your judgment is clouded, where you will often see things wrongly, and then you'll turn to the Bible and you'll say, "Whoa, it looks like there's something wrong in the Bible." No, there's something wrong in you ...
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: ... because God's Word is right. "God's Word is exceeding pure," the Bible says. It is right, it is truth, it never makes a mistake. Now, let me just give you some examples of things where man is often wrong, but yet the Bible turned out to be right. Go, if you would, to Deuteronomy chapter 22. Deuteronomy chapter 22. You see the Bible says, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."
You see, when we believe the Bible and trust in the Word of God, that gives us understanding, but there are people out there who lack faith in God. They lack faith in the Bible, and therefore they lack understanding, as a result; so then they look at things in the Bible and they think that they're foolish, because the Bible says that the wisdom of God is foolishness with men, and the wisdom of men is foolishness with God. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Now, the Bible says here in Deuteronomy 22, verse 9, "Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled."
I don't know about you, but I've had many people bring this verse up to me as a mockery of God's Word. Atheists would bring this up, and other people in our modern world that want to scorn at the Bible, will say things like, "Huh, oh, yeah, you believe the Bible; so ... You believe it's wrong to sow two different kind of seeds in your garden next to each other?" Who's heard that kind of an argument brought up? "Oh, so you're not going to wear fabric mixed of wool and linen together?" They'll make a mockery of this, like it's stupid; but you know what, this verse is actually right.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: Now, what does the Bible say is going to happen here? He says, "Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds:" meaning different kinds of seeds that you're putting together, "lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled." He's saying that if you do that, the seeds and the fruit of that seed could be defiled.
You know, it's interesting because nowadays it seems like you're constantly hearing about people who are allergic to wheat, or having issues with gluten, or wheat. Have you noticed that? Where you have all the gluten intolerant and all the wheat allergies, and it seems like you didn't hear about that as much, in the past, but that it's just epidemic almost. I mean, I know so many people personally who have dealt with issues from eating wheat; and this kind of perplexed me for a while, because I wanted, how could we ... I mean it's wheat, it seems like it's the most wholesome staple of mankind's diet for thousands of years, how could all these people be having a problem with wheat; but then I learned that the wheat that we have today is a hybridized wheat. It's not your grandfather's wheat.
If you go back thousands of years ago, the wheat was totally different, but even in the 1950s there were major changes made to the wheat, and these guys have done all this mixing and hybridizing this wheat, to where now, it actually causes people a lot of problems. To where your average person has issues eating wheat now, and then a whole lot of people have major wheat allergies, wheat problems, gluten intolerance. Why? Because of the fact that man scoffs at God's Word, and wants to hybridize all the seeds, and now, when we want to get the real stuff and go get the heirloom produce, we have to pay through the nose ...
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: ... to get the good stuff, because what's at the store is all the hybridized junk; but you know what, it turns out God's right.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: They think they're so smart, making all this GMO food and making all these hybrids and doing all these things that God said not to tamper with, and what you end up with are a bunch of health problems from the people that are on the receiving end of this bad food; so it turns out God was right in this chapter. This chapter is mocked and ridiculed, but it's actually been proven to be right. Look at verse number 5, by the way, just while we're in the neighborhood, might as well kick this dog every time we walk by ... "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God." Now, that's right too.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: You say, "prove it." Well, you know what? If you're so foolish to think that that's not right, I have nothing to say to you this morning. Okay? I believe that verse to be right ...
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: ... and by the way, it doesn't say that if you wear the clothing of the other gender, it doesn't say that wearing that clothing is an abomination, it says that if you wear that clothing, you're an abomination.
Congregation: [Yeah 00:11:29].
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: It says "all that do so are an abomination unto the LORD thy God," but not only that, flip over, if you would, to Proverbs, chapter 22. There's some examples of where God is right and man is wrong. Well, first of all, the Bible is scientifically accurate, and don't let anybody tell you that the Bible is in opposition to science, because it's a lie. The Bible warned us that there would be science falsely so called, that would oppose the Word of God, and that's the day that we're living in. Where we have all these teachings of the Big Bang and evolution, and all these bizarre teachings that are contrary to the Word of God; but let me tell you something, those scientific teachings and theories, they are the ones who are flawed and God is right.
In fact, over the course of history, the Bible has been proven to be right over and over again, even when man's ideas were wrong. For example, the Bible teaches in Leviticus 15 that if anyone has any kind of an infection, or any kind of a wound, that you have to basically wash their clothes, and if they sat on a bed, the bed is unclean, you have to clean the bed, and you have to clean the chair that they sat on and it talks about them washing in running water. That's the word it uses, running water; so, for example, even in the days of Elijah, it talks about Elisha pouring water on the hands of Elijah, and they would wash their hands under running water.
I know they didn't have central plumbing, but they would pour the water on their hands, and pour it on the wound and they would wash in running water; but yet doctors in Europe, even just a couple of hundred years ago, would wash their hands in standing water, where they would literally just have a basin of water and they'd walk up, wash their hands, next guy walks up, washes his hands ... They're just spreading the germs, so making it worse. It'd be better not to wash your hands, then to share a basin with a whole bunch of other people who were wash hands. See, they didn't understand germ theory until just a few hundred years ago, but yet the Bible had it right all along ...
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: ... or even, you can tell that that God is teaching the truth about these things. For example, in the Book of Exodus, when it talks about the different plagues, and He creates lice, and He creates frogs and flies to plague them; but then He also creates ... Basically He takes the dust or the ashes and turns it into a boil that would appear in man and beast, obviously creating germs that would infect them; but all throughout the Bible, we find all kinds of teachings that are scientifically accurate, but yet science didn't discover them until much later; where the Bible understood sanitation thousands of years before the Europeans understood sanitation. The Book of Job taught thousands of years ago that God is hanging the earth upon nothing.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: Of course, when we see it in the universe, it's hanging up on nothing. The Bible called it the circle of the earth. The Bible talked about Hell being in the heart of the earth, and what do we know now, through science, about the earth? That it's filled with fire and brimstone, that it's filled with magma, and the mantle, and the core, and all those things, exactly as God said it would be; and as you read the Bible, the thing that surprises you over and over again, is how accurate it is. Not about science, not how inaccurate, because it's not inaccurate about anything. In fact, where science has pointed to the Bible and said the Bible is wrong, give it 50 years, give it 100 years, and they'll be saying, "Oh, it turns out the Bible was right about that, and we were wrong." The Bible is right about food, the Bible is right about science ... All the fad diets come and go, but the Bible's teaching on eating is the right teaching.
Congregation: Correct.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: What does the Bible say in Proverbs 22, verse 15? The Bible says, "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." That is right ...
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: ... and the world today is wrong about child rearing. They'll tell you that if you spank the child you're going to hurt his psyche, and you need to actually use positive-only reinforcement and everything like that; and it's creating a generation of freaks and weirdos. It's creating a generation of criminals, and the Bible is right. Now, when I read this, this is a prediction here. This is God telling us, "If we do this, this is going to happen." If we flip the switch, the light bulb's going to come on; and He says here that, "the rod of correction shall drive it far from him," and you know what?
It actually works, spanking actually works, and that's why people who raise their kids according to God's Word, and disciplining is a part of that, those children turn out right. They turn out respectful, they give their parents rest. Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 23, verse 13, "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." Look at Proverbs 29, verse 15; the Bible predicts "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." We see this over and over again in our lives. We see Christian families who discipline their children, and we see those children respectful and loving to their parents, and then we see the other kid who doesn't get a spanking, and he's literally smiting his parents, he's cursing his parents. He grows up and hates his parents and does everything that's wrong.
Verse 15 ... I'm sorry, Verse 17, "Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul." That's true too, and you can see that over and over again. Now, there are people in the world who come out with statistics saying, "Well, here's a scientific study," or, "Here are statistics that show that spanking's actually harmful," but here's the thing about that: It's a lie.
Congregation: Yes.
Pastor: Because why is it that we've never seen that in our personal lives? Why is it that in our personal lives, whenever we see people who don't spank their kids, their kid is a monster and a brat.
Congregation: Yes.
Pastor: Every single time ... Every single time, and then when we see kids that are being lovingly disciplined, we see them better, respectful; and obviously, look, the exception proves the rule. Of course, you could find a kid who was spanked who is a monster, and you could find some little kid who's acting like an angel, because they're just so good-natured, or whatever; but the bottom line is, you know and I know, we've seen plenty of kids in our lives, this church is filled with little kids, and we have friends and relatives and coworkers, and we know that this rings true.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: This were ... Look, I know what I'm talking about. I have 8 kids, and guess what, every single time I take my kids anywhere, people come up to me and say, "Wow, your children are so well-behaved. They're such good kids, they're such happy kids." Anybody who knows my kids knows they're happy, they're obedient. Now, they're not perfect. Obviously, they do wrong and make mistakes, and we have to apply the rod of correction to the seat of learning, but the bottom line is that it works, folks.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: Raising your kids according to the Bible works. My brothers and sisters, and I, we were raised in a Christian home, and we were spanked, and we were spanked a lot, and all four of us are all Independent Fundamental Baptists, we all love the Lord, we're all in church. Okay, why? Because our parents raised us with this, so this thing of, "Oh, well, studies show ... " Yeah, but these studies are measuring success different than we, as Bible-believing Christians ...
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: ... would measure success. See, if their child grew up and went to college, and got a four-year degree in lesbian poetry, they would call that a success ...
Congregation: Yeah.
Congregation: That's right.
Pastor: ... and then if their child grew up and did all the right things, but got arrested one time, and yeah, I've been arrested a couple times, but they would say, like, "Oh, that's in the bad ... " They'll put you in the "bad" column. Well, you know who else got arrested? You're like, "Oh, he got arrested ... " Well, how about Jesus?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: He got arrested. How about Paul?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: How about Peter? How about John? How about ... Okay, name me a Bible character who didn't get arrested. I mean, we were out soul-winning yesterday, and we had the tribal police saying, "You guys are trespassing on our sacred land," and everything.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: No, this, this is the sacred book right here, that we're bringing to the heathen ...
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: ... because we were on an Indian reservation, but you know what? I'm sorry, but God's Word needs to go to the Indians. It's not just the God of the white man, it's the God of the whole earth ...
Congregation: [Yeah 00:20:12].
Pastor: ... and so, we're bringing the good news of the Gospel to them, and they try to threaten us and say, "Hey, you're trespassing," and this ... This whole stupid trespassing thing, I'm so sick of it. Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. If we were to actually, because you say, "Well, you need to obey the law," if we were to obey the City of Tempe's trespassing laws, we would literally be allowed to knock less than half of the doors in Tempe. Less than half, and did God say, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to less than half of the creatures"?
Is that what it says? No, it says, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," but they say, "Oh, apartment complexes, can't do them. Oh, neighborhoods that have a homeowners' association? Can't do them. No soliciting allowed." Well, you know what? Someday, they're going to knock on the door of Heaven and say, "Lord, Lord, open to us," and God's going to say, "Hey, didn't you read the sign? It says no soliciting. Hey, didn't you see? We have an HOA, the Heavenly Ownership Association. In my father's house are many mansions, and guess what? This is a gated community. The gates of Heaven. It's gated," and they'll be like, "Whoa," you know?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: You're going to be locked out, buddy ...
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: ... but look, common sense tells us that walking up to someone's door and knocking on it, inviting them to church, is not trespassing.
Congregation: [No bearing 00:21:34].
Pastor: Okay? Because here's what happens. When I walk up to somebody's door, and I knock on their door and ask them if I can invite them to church or present the gospel to them, if they say, "No," then I say, "Bye," and I walk away. I'm not shoving my foot in the door and, "Wait a minute!" You shouldn't either, because guess what? The Bible says that, not to ... If they don't want to hear your words, shake off the dust of your feet and move on.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: This is what's stupid, though. They'll say, "Yeah, but those people don't want you there," but here's the thing. An apartment complex that has a thousand people living in it, how can you speak for all of them?
Congregation: [Yeah 00:22:12].
Congregation: [You're right 00:22:12].
Pastor: Because when you go to that apartment complex, there are going to be some people who don't want you there, but then there are going to be a lot of people who are actually glad to see you and want to talk to you. Okay? Then they try to make it out, like, "You're on their private property," but hold on a second, you're on people's private property no matter what door you knock.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: I mean, think about it. If they live in a neighborhood with no HOA, if they're just in a neighborhood, that's private property, too. Everything's private property, if you think about it. Every house, every apartment, every condo is private property, so if we just can't go on anyone's private property, then we could just never knock any door, and never preach the gospel to anybody. That's where this thing is going, because first, it's like, "Oh, well, just not the apartments. Oh, just not the ones with the HOA," but have you noticed that there's a trend toward people living in apartments? It's called Agenda 21, it's called cramming everybody into the cities, and putting them in apartments, in high-rises. There are way more apartments in this country now than there were 50 years ago, okay, so the trend is toward apartments. Okay, the trend is toward these little neighborhood communities, town homes, whatever you want to call it, so it's getting to where you can knock less and less doors, but see, this isn't a problem for me, because I just do it anyway.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: I just knock all the doors, because the Bible said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," and the police sometimes will try to intimidate us, but they ... It's all fluff. Why? Because if you resist the devil, he'll flee from you.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: Okay, but the problem is that so many churches in America now have backed down on this thing, and said, "Oh, well, we're not going to knock doors in any apartment complexes, then. Oh, well, we're not going to knock doors in any of the HOA. Oh, if anybody has a sign that says, 'No soliciting,' we're not going to knock that door." You know what? I've won a lot of people to Christ behind a door that said, "No soliciting."
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: Sometimes, that sign came with the house ...
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: ... or sometimes, they just don't want Amway and the Avon lady, but they actually want the gospel.
Congregation: Right.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: ... so it's like, "Oh, we're going to stay away from these ... Because we're so respectful," but what happens is, if you don't stand up for your rights, you lose them. If everybody just said, "Oh, well, the big bad policeman told me I can't go soul-winning in two-thirds of the house in Tempe, we'd better just respect the law of the land," but then what's going to happen is, then they're just going to say, "We can't knock any doors."
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: That'll be the next thing, they'll just do an ordinance where you can't knock any of the doors. Hello, you don't think the devil wants to make it illegal to knock any doors? There are places in this world where it's illegal for you to knock any doors with soul-winning, so if they're going to make half of them illegal, or two-thirds, it's time to say, "No!"
Congregation: [Yeah 00:25:03].
Pastor: This is our freedom of religion, and the founding fathers put that in there for a reason, that we have the right to freely exercise our religion, and a huge part of our religion at Faithful Word Baptist Church is soul-winning.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: It may not be for the dead-as-a-doornail church down the street, but you know what? For our church, soul-winning is essential ...
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: ... and we're not knocking half the doors. Look at that map back there. We're knocking all the doors ...
Congregation: Yeah.
Congregation: Right.
Pastor: ... and we have to take a stand, and if everybody took a stand, if all the churches would take a stand and say, "No, we have the right to at least try to evangelize, at least try to give the gospel," and look, if people don't want to hear it, we don't want to talk to them anyway.
Congregation: That's right.
Pastor: Because the Bible says not to give, "that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine," and if people don't want to hear it, [we 00:25:50] wouldn't just waste our time beating our head against the wall with people who aren't interested. I mean, when people aren't interested, I'm more than ready to walk to the next door.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: Because my goal, when I go out soul-winning, is to find the person who is interested.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: The person who does want to hear it, but the Tempe ... Here's the thing, some pastors might think this isn't a big deal, because maybe they're pastoring in a town where there aren't a lot of apartments, because there are places in this country where there aren't a lot of apartments, but when you're in a college town like Tempe, with ASU, this town has more apartments than almost any town. I mean, drive through parts of Tempe, and it's just apartment after apartment, just, "Oh, can't do any of that soul-winning." Not me, buddy. I won't back down on this, and the last, the police called me a couple weeks ago about this, and I said, "You know what? Come arrest me right now. I'm turning myself in. I'm going to keep doing it." "Well, but I'm just telling you the rules so you can follow them." I said, "No, no, I'm not going to follow the rules, I'm going to keep doing it ... "
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: " ... and you're welcome to come arrest me right now." I said, "Come arrest me for preaching the gospel, and we'll see what the jury says."
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: I said, "Come on down," and he cornered me, so, I mean, "Arizona statute 13-1802." Then I Googled it, and it was something that had to do with theft, and it didn't even mention trespassing. I quoted him chapter and verse, and he quotes the chapter and verse of his penal code, or whatever. Nuts to you; but honestly, we have to take a stand, because people have religious freedom because they stood up for it, not because they just said, "Oh, we're not allowed to speak in the name of Jesus?" I mean, look at the Book of Acts. "Oh, we can't speak in the name of Jesus? Oh, okay, well, just tell us what we are allowed to say." That's not, it wasn't the attitude; and we should try as much as lieth in us to live peaceably with all men. We should try to get along, but there are times where you have to draw the line.
If it's just something stupid, if they're just saying, "Hey, you can't put up that church sign," or whatever, "Okay, fine, we won't put up a sign, then. We'll put a big sticker on the window." I can live with that. I'm not just going to get in some big fight with the government over our signage for our building; but when they're saying you can't go soul-winning, see, that's over the line. Yes, we can go soul-winning; so the Bible is right. I don't know what that had to do with the sermon, but it's ... All I know is that going soul-winning's right. Right? Does anybody have any idea how I got off on that? It's just on my chest. I just had to get that off my chest, huh? Help me out. Where did it come from?
Man: [Hunting souls 00:28:35].
Pastor: What?
Man: Sales.
Pastor: Sales? What about it?
Man: Trespassing.
Pastor: Yeah, I know that. I know the trespassing.
Man: The soul-winning.
Pastor: Was I talking about the soul-winning marathon?
Man: Yes. Yeah. You were talking [crosstalk 00:28:46]
Pastor: What's my name again? No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Well, how did I get off of that?
Man: I have no idea.
Man: [Maybe they want 00:28:54] us thrown out.
Pastor: Yeah, I know, but how did I talk about them wanting to throw us out?
Man: [crosstalk 00:29:01]
Pastor: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's ... Okay, I know where I was going with this. Yeah. These studies that show, "Oh, spanking doesn't work, because look, the kids who got spanked, they got arrested, and this lesbian freak, with a nose-ring, never got arrested," so she's the success story, even though she's a dirty, filthy, vile person, according to God's ... Those are all Bible words, by the way. I didn't ... "Oh, how dare you use those words about a person." Well, do we need to turn to the Scripture? Ezekiel 16, we don't have time, but it's there. Those are Bible words. She can be the most ungodly, God-hating, dirty whore, but they'll say, "Oh, it's a success. She's never been arrested," so you have to look at what are they measuring in these studies as success. See, my idea of success is that my sons grow up and they're manly, and they support their families, and they work hard, and they go to church and love the Lord Jesus Christ. See, that's my measure of success. Are they a godly Christian?
The world's measure of success is something else. They don't care if you tell your mom you hate her and become a lesbian. That's okay. Just as long as you don't get arrested, or as long as you make a certain amount of money, you're successful, in their sight. You know what? I don't care if my children grow up and are poor their whole lives. "Blessed are the poor," the Bible says. As long as they love the Lord. As long as they serve Him. They have a different measure of success. You can't trust the worldly studies. This is what you can trust: The Word of God. I saw a study that said, "Oh, the happiest place to live in the world is Denmark." They said, "Denmark is the happy ... " They have the happiness index, where they took all the different measurements of happiness, and they determined that Denmark is the happiest country in the world, and they said that the other Scandinavian countries are right behind it; so then the God-hating liberals would take that and say, "Oh, see, they have a socialist country over there, and look at how happy they are."
Then I ran into another study. They are the number 1 consumer, in Denmark, of antidepressants; so there's something rotten in Denmark. Okay? Something's not adding up, because how can you sit there and say, "Oh, this is the happiest place on earth," and it's literally the number 1 place for taking pill ... They had all these other problems over there. They're not having children, they're popping a bunch of pills. "No, Disneyland's the happiest place on earth." That's what I was told my whole ... No, I'm just kidding; but you know what? Disneyland's probably ... Has less pills being popped than Denmark, if I had to guess; but I don't know; but the point is ... That's beside the point, but the point is, though, you can't trust some worldly study. "Oh, yeah, these socialists, they're so happy. Look at Denmark." They're all on drugs. Okay? There are other issues.
You can't trust that. This is what you can trust: The Word of God. I would trust, number 1, the Word of God. Number 2, I'd trust what I see with my own eyes. First the Word of God, then what I see with my own eyes. Then studies that I read. Okay? Here's the thing. What's the Word of God telling me? To spank your children. What is my own eyes showing me, showing me? That it works, and that the other doesn't work. Okay; but what else does the Bible write about? Well, everything. The Bible is right about marriage, by the way, because feminism has been a failure. Look, if you would, at Ephesians chapter 5. The Bible, it turns out, is right, and even a lot of feminists now are starting to turn away from feminism, even unsaved people.
I've been reading about even unsaved, non-Christian, non-Bible-believing people saying, "You know what? I've been a feminist for years, and it's made me miserable. I'm actually now going to submit unto my husband," and even unsaved people are starting to figure this out, and realize that the generation before us, or actually a couple generations before us, actually had it right, where the husband was the head of the home. The Bible says, in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 22, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing."
Look at Titus, chapter number 2. Titus, chapter number 2, a few pages to the right in your Bible. You see, the Bible's really clear on this subject, and God is right and the world is wrong. The world will tell you that this is misogynistic or abusive towards women, but in fact, it makes women happier. Forget the men. Forget the men for a second. Nobody cares about us men, fine. Even just from a woman's perspective, women are happier when they're in a marriage where the husband is leading. They're happier. It's what they want. News flash, guys, women don't tell you what they want! Just because they say, "Oh, that's not what I want," that's not what that means. You thinkest as a man thinketh. That's not how they think.
Women are very indirect in the way that they communicate. They don't just come right out and tell you how they feel. They communicate in an indirect way. It's just how women are. Whereas men are more direct, usually. Okay? A man, if you ask a man what he wants, he's going to tell you what he wants, usually; but if you ask a woman what she wants, she won't always tell you, because women are usually really sensitive to what other people want, or they don't want to have to ask for things, they want ... They want you to know, and just give it to them; and if I have to ask, then that ruins it. You have all these ideas that, to us, sound kind of crazy, but it's just because we're men, and they're women, and we think differently.
Men who go home and ask their wife like, "Do you want me to be in charge?" You've already failed, because by getting permission to be in charge, you're not really in charge anymore, because you got permission first. They want you to just take charge, and you go home, and you take charge, and you start running things, and your wife might stomp her foot and get angry, but inside she's like, "My hero. Oh, you're so manly; so powerful," and then, when you sit there and just bend over backwards to just give her everything she wants and just, you're at her beck and call and you just, whatever she dishes out, you just take it, she's just thinking like, "Oh, you pathetic loser." Even though she's like, "Good," inside, she's like, "Oh, you're pathetic. You weakling!"
That's why there's no romance novel on this planet, and I've never read any romance novels, but I can tell by the cover, there's no romance novel on this planet about a woman who basically slaps her husband around and tells him what to do, and runs the home. I doubt that there's any book about that. That's not the fantasy, my friend. Because it's not appealing to women. Look, just as much as men hate being henpecked, women hate bossing around their husband just as much, because either one, it's uncomfortable. It's not in their proper role, and even if women maybe think that they want that because they've been programmed by society, inside they're unhappy, and these marriages do not go well.
A happy marriage is one that's according to God's Word, where the husband is the head, and where the wife is in submission, and where the wife, as the Bible says here, is "good and obedient to her husband, that the word of God be not blasphemed." That's what the Bible actually teaches, okay? Feminism has been a failure, and it's not that it has just failed men, but it's failed women, too. Women have a lower standard of living than they had before feminism. Isn't it terrible that they used to have to stay home and cook and clean and take care of their children? "Oh, yeah, but how demeaning to have your husband tell you what to do! I mean, that just isn't right," but then what do they do? They go out and get a job, and guess what happens when they get to their job. A man tells them what to do.
I mean, to find irony, "I'm not going to sit here and just be my husband's servant and do whatever he says! I don't want him to be ... No man's going to be the boss of me! I'm going to go out and make my own money, so I can make my own decisions! Oh, yes, sir, I'll do that right away, sir. Can I refill your coffee for you, sir?" Clock in, and clock out, a hair net. Yeah, I'm sure you have more freedom at your job than your husband would give you. Look, my wife has been a stay-at-home wife ever since we've been married over 15 years. I guarantee she has more freedom than the average woman has at her job.
Why? Because there's no time clock. No hair net. I just pull the blonde hair out of my food and just keep on eating. No, I'm just kidding. Anyway, yeah. There's no hair net. There's no name tag. There's no CC television ... I don't have cameras all over my house, where I'm checking from my smart phone when I'm out and about, like, "Honey, what are you doing? Why are you still in your nightgown? What's going on? What are you doing right now? Because ... " I don't check in with her and watch her and make sure that she's doing it right and everything. Why? Because she has lots of freedom, more than a job would ... Because on a job, you will have CCTV watching you. You will clock in, you will clock out. Plus, I guarantee you that I'm a lot kinder to my wife than bosses are to their workers. I mean, at least every job I ever had, the boss speaks roughly to you.
The point is that this thing of feminism has been a failure, both to men and to women. It's made everybody's life miserable. Okay, let's get back to the men. No man likes being bossed by his wife. I mean, it's so demeaning and humiliating to our nature. We don't like it, and so it makes our lives miserable. It makes ladies' lives miserable. It makes everybody's life miserable. The Bible is right. God is right about everything; but here's the thing. We have to trust God, though.
We have to trust Him, because it takes a leap of faith to basically, for a wife to submit to her husband, because she thinks, "If I submit to him, he's going to take advantage! He's going to treat me poorly. Then I'm going to get the short end of the stick all the time," but it takes the faith to do it God's way and let God bless; and then to see, "Wow, my life is better when I obey God, and when I obey my husband. Wow, my life is better when I discipline my kids the way God said. My life is better when I obey the Lord and His commandments about everything." God's right about everything, my friend. Go, if you would, to Romans chapter number 1, Romans chapter 1.
Man: [You've finished 00:40:24] Titus?
Pastor: Yeah, we're done in Titus. Romans, chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, you see, God is right, God's right about the sodomites. He's right about the homos. Now, think about how ... What does man think about these bunch of homos that our country's infected with now? "Oh, they're nice. They love each other. They're sweet people," but is that what the Bible portrays about homos? No, the Bible paints a really different picture, because every time we have a story in the Bible about homos, they're pretty much, all they want to do is be with strangers. That's all they want to do. Isn't that what the Bible, it shows in Genesis 19? They just want to be with strangers. Judges 19, they want to be with strangers. That's all they want to do.
Well, you know what? That's what the statistics show to be the truth now, where they have all of the statistics showing that the average homo has been with hundreds of partners already. I think there's 43% of homos that have been with over 500 partners already. Why? Because they do that with strangers. It's a disgusting lifestyle; but what does the Bible say about homos? Look at verse 26. "For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with" ...
Now, stop and get this, he's saying that God gave them over to a reprobate to do those things which are not convenient. Those things are the men with men and the women ... Women. That is which is unseemly, okay? Now, being filled is not starting a new sentence, is it?
Congregation: No.
Pastor: Being filled is not a complete thought. Being filled is saying that they do those things, and here's what they're also filled with. The same people. We haven't changed subjects here. We're on the same sentence, okay? Notice at the end of verse 28 is a semicolon, and then we start out this new phrase, part of the same sentence, "Being filled with all unrighteousness," so according to the Bible, these that are men with men and women with women, they are filled will all unrighteousness, according to the Bible. They are also filled with fornication, which goes without saying.
They are filled with wickedness. They are filled with covetousness. They are filled with maliciousness. They are full of envy. They are full of murder. They are full of debate, full of deceit, malignity; "whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." Now, the Bible here is not painting a very pretty picture of that little pretty boy at work. Right? The Bible says this guy's filled with every kind of filth imaginable. He's violent, he's wicked, he's perverse, he's evil, he hates God, he's going to bite you in the back, he's a proud boaster, he's all these horrible things.
That's what the Bible teaches; so who's right? Is the world right when they say, "Oh, these two sodomites are just faithful with each other. They're just faithful with each other and they just love each other. Is that so bad," or are they a violent predator who is not faithful to anybody, because they're filled with all this deceit, they're a total covenantbreaker. Oh, they want to have the covenant of marriage? Why? Just so they can break it. The studies have shown ... Again, and you can, and I'm not talking about Christian studies. I'm saying you can go to aids.gov, go to cdc.gov, and they'll give you the statistics that homos are 50% more likely to get AIDS than the average person. That's on the government's own website, okay?
The same government that has an LGBT ambassador all over the world trying to promote queer rights all over the world; so their own statistics show that these people are filled with disease, and when they study their lifestyle, that they're with hundreds of partners, and that monogamy simply doesn't exist amongst these people. Okay; but TV has a different story to show you, but it turns out the Bible's right and TV's wrong. The Bible's right, society's wrong. Just in the closing moments, let me just make this real clear. The Bible's right about everything, no matter what the subject.
Now, a lot of times people, they approach the Bible all wrong. They approach the Bible to read up on it and make sure it fits everything that they think it should say, and make sure that they agree with everything in it, and then say, "Okay, well, then the Bible must be right, then. Now that I've figured out how it agrees with me, now I know it's right." What we ought to do, though, is approach the Bible already believing that it's right. Okay? Then if it says something in conflict with what we believe, we need to change what we believe and get on the Bible's program.
Now, you say, "Well, that's just blind faith," but here's the thing. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him; and if you say, "Well, that's just faith," then why are you even a Christian? Then why do you even believe in the first place? See, I thought that I'm talking to Christians, right? Okay, raise your hand if you're a Christian today. Raise your hand. All right, look around, everybody; so we're talking to people ... Okay, keep your hand up if you believe the Bible's the Word of God. Okay. See all the hands? Who are we talking to? We're talking to people who believe that the Bible's the Word of God. Now, if the Bible's the Word of God, then wouldn't the Bible always be right about everything?
Okay, so if the Bible's always right about everything, then if the Bible says something, for people like us, that are Christians, that believe the Bible, it's a case closed. Now, if the world out there says, "Well, I don't believe the Bible." Fine. You don't have to believe the Bible. That's your prerogative; but to those of us who do believe the Bible, we know that the Bible is always right about every subject, and that's all the people that I'm trying to talk to right now. What we need to understand is that there are people out there who want to basically judge the Bible, or stand in judgment of the Bible.
Now, isn't that ridiculous? I mean, how can the thing formed say to Him that formed it, "Why hast thou made me thus," or "Who art thou that repliest against God?" Okay, so isn't it kind of silly for us to stand in judgment of God? Yet Christians do it all the time. People do it all the time. Here's a great example where people will try to come at us, usually atheists or people like that, they'll come at us and say, "Well, the Bible is wrong, because the Bible condones of slavery." We've all heard that before, right; but here's the thing about that, is that if the Bible condones slavery, then I condone slavery, because the Bible's always right about every subject. See, that's my starting point; so I don't have to be like, "Oh, man, I better figure out whether the Bible really condones slavery."
See, if I want to learn what's right about ... What is the right opinion to have of slavery, then here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to say, "Well, let me figure out what the Bible says about slavery, and that's what I believe." Whatever the Bible says about slavery is what I believe. Not like, "Let me make sure that what the Bible says about slavery is politically correct, and if it is, then I'll agree with it." You got it all wrong. You better go to the Bible and figure out what you should be believing about slavery based on what the Bible says, because the Bible is right about everything. Period.
Now, again, it's a whole sermon in and of itself, the Bible's teachings on slavery. First of all, just note that God's law in the Old Testament never uses the word "slave" one time. Okay? "Oh, the Bible's just teaching slavery." The Bible doesn't use that word. It does use it in Revelation in an unrelated context, but it never uses it in regard to God's law, and there are all kinds of reasons why God did have quote-unquote "slavery" allowed in the Old Testament, because of the fact that it actually is right; but here's what the Bible actually teaches, okay? There are a bunch of people today who have disregarded the Bible's teachings and have actually done worse things to people in the process.
See, what the Bible actually teaches is, number 1, that if a person can't pay a debt, then that person has to work it off. That's one type of slavery that the Bible does condone. Which makes perfect sense. This is just like in the movies where somebody, and I've never had anybody say that this happened in real life, but I think it's just a TV thing, where they can't pay their bill at a restaurant, so they end up washing dishes. Has anyone ever actually done that?
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: Anyone ever had to wash the dishes? All right, so it might just be mythical; but everybody knows what I'm talking about. That's sort of like the slavery concept, in the sense of, you racked up a bill, you can't pay the bill, therefore, you have to go work it off. "Go to the kitchen, wash the dishes for a few hours. Okay, you can go now." That is right. That makes sense, so nowadays, but "We're so much smarter than God now. God's wrong, we're right. We're so much smarter," so here's what we do now. Somebody racks up some huge bill that they can't pay, and then you just end up getting stiffed. You don't get paid. I mean, I know when I was in business, I had people not pay me all the time, and there's just nothing you can do about it.
I mean, is that right? No; or people just go bankrupt. That isn't right, that's not biblical. You're supposed to pay what you borrowed, and if you rack up a bill and you take the goods, you take the goods and then the invoice shows up, you never pay that invoice, and then you use up the goods, so there are people who had ... Now, here's another thing, okay? Let's say somebody commits a crime, like theft, where they have to pay back four-fold and they don't have anything to pay. They can't pay the fine, then what would they have to do? They'd have to go work for that person, and be that person's bond servant, and pay off their debt. What do we do to those people now? We lock them in prison. Listen, locking someone in prison is more inhumane than slavery.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: Prison destroys people's lives. 85% of people who go to prison, their spouse divorces them. It destroys their life, and it's cruel and unusual punishment to lock somebody in a cage. Human beings are not designed, especially to put someone in solitary confinement. I mean, it makes people go insane, but yet, we do that all the time and don't even think anything of it; and we in the United States, we're so humane and so loving, that's why we have the largest prison population in the world, and the vast majority of them in there for nonviolent crimes, and they're locked up, and they're in a horrible condition, it's destroying their life, but that's okay, but "Oh, the Bible condones slavery, though."
It's just this basically emotionally charged word where people don't stop and think, and study what the Bible actually teaches. They just get emotional, like, "Oh, well, the Bible, if it promotes slavery, it can't be true," but it's not that God is promoting slavery, it's that God is making allowance for slavery in certain situations, like for example, people can't pay a bill. Also, prisoners of war and things like that, criminals and people that would have to go work off a debt, and so on and so forth.
There were certain people, there were certain groups of people that got punished where they did something evil, and God said, as a result, if they're going to stay in the land, they have to have a tribute of bond service, where they had to do, be a hewer of wood, or a drawer of water for the children of Israel, or whatever. Look, I'm not going to sit here and preach the whole sermon on slavery, because I don't have time. I've taught it in many other sermons. I'll preach it some other time in the future, but all I can say is this: Whatever the Bible says about slavery, I agree with it.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: I'm for it, and again, God isn't giving some carte blanche to slavery. The Bible specifically ... Listen to this, tell me if this is promoting slavery, the Bible says in Exodus chapter 21, verse 16, "he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death" ...
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: ... so what a lot of people are thinking of as slavery is punished by the death penalty in the Bible, because the Bible says, if you steal a man and sell him, you'll be put to death, or if you're just one of the people that participates, like if one person steals a man and sells him, and then he's found in your hand, meaning you're transporting him, you're going to be put to death for having anything to do with that type of slavery; so is the Bible just pro-slavery? No. It's not, is it; but are there certain situations where God did indicate slavery, or for people to beat their servants? Absolutely. Absolutely, of course, but you know what? It's all right, and I agree with all of it.
Congregation: Amen.
Pastor: Why? Because the Bible's God's Word, that's why. Instead of being on the defense all the time, of like, "Oh, well, I don't know, maybe that's not what ... " Why don't we just say, "Well, first of all, I believe the Bible, whatever it teaches about ... I believe the Bible's teachings on slavery, so no, I do not believe that slavery is always unequivocally wrong in every situation. I don't believe it." That'd be a better answer than to kowtow to the world. Because these people, they're never going to get it, okay? Because you say, "Well, what do we tell the atheists?" Well, go to Revelation 22, let's close with this. Let's close with this verse, Revelation 22, verse 11. "I don't know. What am I doing to tell the atheists when they confront me about slavery? I don't know what to tell them." Look at Revelation chapter 22, verse 11, and the Bible says, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still:" I mean, what does that say? It's saying, look, some people are just wrong and they're going to be wrong, and okay, that's their loss.
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Whether or not we can convince the people around us that God's right, He's right anyway. The Bible's ... anyway. There are people that are unjust, there are people who don't know what's right, there are people who have an unjust, or unfair, or unrighteous view of the world. You know what? Let them have that view. That's their prerogative, but as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord, and as for me, this is my final authority, and I know that there are plenty of people in this room that agree with me, that God's Word is right about every subject all the time, and we need to always keep that before us, to remember that God is right. When we disagree with the Bible, it's the Bible that's right and it's us that's wrong.
Congregation: Yeah.
Pastor: That's what we need to remember all the time, and not get too big for our britches, where we think we're smarter than God, or smarter than the Bible, or stand in judgment of, "Well, I don't think it's right when God did this." Well, then you're wrong, because everything that He says and does is always right, period. "Well, you sound like a fanatic." It doesn't matter what I sound like, that's what the Bible says. Either believe it or you don't.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank You so much, Lord, for the Word of God. It's the most priceless possession that we have, Lord, because it's just such a privilege to have a book in our hand that's always right about every subject. What a blessing, what an anchor of our soul. What a firm foundation that we can build our lives on, and Lord, I thank You that even just in my 34 years on this earth, Lord, You've saved me a lot of trouble, and Lord, You've kept me out of a lot of bad situations by giving me Your Word to guide me, and Lord, I think about the mistakes that I've made, and the dumb things that I've done, and it was because I wasn't listening to what You said in the Bible, but thank You, Lord, for giving us this perfect guidebook. Help us all to be smart enough to realize that You're right about everything, and not to lean onto our own understanding, and in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
