[0:00] Good to know you're getting rid of a gift, probably. Oh, no, that was... I thought my dad was there for a second. It is always good to be saved, guys. Always good to be saved. Oh, let me give you some stuff about the book table.
[0:14] You know, after this, we're going to have that eating stuff. We like that, being Baptist. And then my wife is going to pick up the book table. She collects it. Somebody's going to offer to help her. She doesn't need any help because she runs an inventory as she does it.
[0:27] So that's what she does. But if a few guys just hang around, I will take all the help I get putting those boxes in the truck. All right, this is called A Chartered History of the Bible.
[0:40] And it's called that because that's what it is. It is a good book. I'll tell you what the value of this book is. I had a guy say, I didn't understand the nomenclature.
[0:52] He said, I hear people talk about Erasmus and the Vulgate and Jerome. And he said, I didn't understand it. And he said, I got that. And I read it one night. It's like 40 pages. And he said, I got it.
[1:03] Like the Alexandrian text. This is the chart for the Alexandrian text. Three pages on the Alexandrian text. That's not obviously an in-depth history.
[1:13] But it'll give you an idea. Vaticanus Sinaiticus. Jerome's Latin Vulgate. Wycliffe's Bible. The first Bible in English. And then several other Bibles that have been translated from the Alexandrian text.
[1:32] That was a challenger. And it did sound good. And then this is the Antiochian text. The one that your Bible comes from. There's the autographs. Guys, I hate to tell you this.
[1:43] An autograph is not something you get on a baseball. When the authors, the guys that wrote the originals, they wrote them by hand. So when they got done, that is referred to in textual criticism as an autograph.
[1:56] So now you don't have to read these two paragraphs. But we're not cutting a price. The traditional text. That's the text King James is on. Erasmus Greek New Testament. Tyndale's Bible.
[2:10] And then several of the pre-King James English Bibles. There's a section in there on the Hebrew Old Testament also. So those are back there.
[2:21] This may seem like a subject that doesn't really have to worry about anymore. But I think it is. Abortion, come now let us reason together. That book was actually written by my pastor.
[2:32] And it's got some good sense to it. It looks at abortion from the scriptural angle, the physical angle, the psychological angle. I'm going to tell you, as a former pastor, just about every pastor somewhere along the line would get a call.
[2:49] It would be anonymous. The woman would never give her name. It would be some young woman who just realized she had killed her baby. And these abortion clinics never cared a little bit. They didn't care if she felt bad about it.
[3:03] So this is a good book on that. This one, Rightly Dividing God's Word Through Dispensations. And that's about dispensationalism. I think people take a step back from dispensationalism because they think they're intimidated.
[3:19] They think they're not going to get it. And then there's people that think it is real. Acts chapter 16, the jailer says to the apostle Paul, what must I do to be saved?
[3:31] What was the answer? Believe the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved in the house. That's how you got saved, right? Matthew chapter 19, somebody asked Jesus Christ the same question.
[3:42] How do I get eternal life? And he said, keep the commandments. Now that is a difference, guys. So something changed. And I always say it this way, this book is so simple that you could literally tear the table of contents out and use it to teach.
[3:58] So that is back there. There's three of these. This is the New Testament Companion. There's two of them that are parts of the Old Testament Companion. And some people like Bible study where they fill in the blanks, and that's what this has.
[4:10] This is, I'm trying to think, two discs, two discs, so I don't know how long this is. But this is about that guy that thinks we're going halfway through the tribulation in Phoenix.
[4:26] I don't mean we're going through the tribulation in Phoenix. I mean he's in Phoenix. But let me tell you something, guys. Here's what he tells his people, so you be on the lookout.
[4:37] He tells his people to come into a church and join it and never say anything about him and then start putting stuff out. And I'll be honest with you. I don't care what he teaches his church. I don't care if he teaches of anything.
[4:48] He's a pastor. Let him teach what he wants. I care about somebody that infiltrates churches and takes them over. I met a missionary, brokenhearted. He'd been four years in Hawaii.
[5:00] And I know we joke about, oh, the mission field of Hawaii. But it's a tough field because outside of all the tourist stuff, it's islander country.
[5:11] Okay? And I've been on islands, so it's that culture. This guy went to Hawaii, four years, led people to Christ, started a church, came home on his first furlough.
[5:22] And this guy's disciples took the church over in his absence, changed the name of it, called him up, and said, never come back. So that's got why we're not going halfway through tribulation.
[5:34] And then Jack Chick and I were friends. And we have an exclusive contract with his company to turn his tracks into computer-generated videos.
[5:45] And this is the first one. It's called The Sissy. It's not about my life. Anyway, but it's about a truck driver that gets saved, and then there's a couple others back there.
[6:01] So those are back there. This is not my sermon. I just want you to, you don't have to turn. Something you sang tonight. But I want to point something out. We sang at Calvary.
[6:17] Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not. My Lord was crucified, knowing not it was for me, died on Calvary. Let me ask you a question. Do you believe that there really is a place called Calvary where the Romans would crucify their prisoners, and that is where Jesus Christ was crucified?
[6:38] Do you believe it? Okay, okay. You may not know, because there is, but you may not know why you believe there's a place called Calvary. I'll show you something.
[6:48] Look at Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter 23. And if you believe in a place called Calvary, I'm going to show you why.
[7:09] Look at verse 33. And when they had come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him in the malefactors on the right hand and on the left. That is the one single only reason you believe in a place called Calvary.
[7:25] You say, why? Because that is the one single only time the word appears in the Bible. It's not in there twice. It's in there once. You ever hear anybody of these people that push the new Bibles? And they'll go, well, you King James guys, you make a big deal over nothing.
[7:40] Anybody think Calvary is nothing? Now, you might say this. Well, I heard my pastor preach about Calvary out of John 19, the crucifixion. He could do that. But the word Calvary is not in that chapter.
[7:52] That is the single only place that it is in the Bible. And I told you that because there is no such place as Calvary. And there never has been. If you use a modern version.
[8:05] Because the modern versions take out Calvary and put in the skull. Let's see. Knowing not it was for me, he died on the skull.
[8:19] Just doesn't have the right ring. So when somebody says you guys make a big deal, I would say, I don't know, I think Calvary is a big deal. Okay? And I believe this. Here's what I believe.
[8:30] See, I believe in consistency, don't you? I mean, isn't this one of the things we're complaining about? If you're going to take Calvary out of your Bible, because it's a bad old King James word, why don't you take it out of your songbook?
[8:46] I would like to go through the songbook, and every time it says Calvary, scratch it out and put the skull. I mean, that's a King James word. It doesn't belong in your glossary of terms. I was with a pastor in Ohio.
[8:57] We drove past a church. I don't know how many of these I've preached in. Bunches of them. You know, Calvary Baptist Church. That's a popular name. And the preacher said, that guy that pastors that church, he used to use King James.
[9:12] Now they use NIV. And I started laughing, and he thought, you know, I'd be upset or something. And he said, why are you laughing? And I said, well, because he had to say bad things about the King James Bible to get his people to get rid of it, right?
[9:22] Yeah. And I said, now he can't find the name of his church in the Bible that he's using. He's got to go back to that ugly old 400-year-old King James Bible to get the name of his church. So if somebody says you make a big deal out of nothing, I think Calvary is a little bit more than nothing.
[9:40] I'm going to ask, if you will, to open your Bibles to Job chapter 23. So Job chapter 23. And earlier, when I was talking about being a soldier, I told you that we are quick to raise our hand because we want to be identified.
[10:05] We want to be identified with something. We want to be identified with believing the Bible. We want to be identified as a Christian. You know, that kind of thing. And again, if I ask you, do you love the Lord?
[10:16] There's my hand. I must love the Lord. My hand is up. You love the Bible? Look at that. My hand is up. You believe the Bible? Right there. Look at that. I got it. Look at that hand. That proves it. And we always know the right thing to say.
[10:29] I don't know how many times I've heard it. You probably have heard it. You probably said it. You see somebody, how are you doing? Better not deserve. I hear people saying that like they think they just made it up themselves.
[10:42] But it's good. Okay? It's good. And if you want to say something that really, really has some force about the Bible, look at verse 12. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips.
[10:56] I've esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Father, we thank you now, God, for your goodness, your grace, and your very, very great kindness, God. These folks came back after Sunday afternoon.
[11:08] They're back here in church. They want something from you. Please, God, please don't let me be the reason they don't get it. So speak to the hearts of each person, God, and accomplish your purpose in each life represented.
[11:19] In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now let's look at that verse again. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. I get the first revelation I get from that verse.
[11:32] You know what it is? Job wasn't a Baptist. I'll tell you why. I've never seen a Baptist esteem anything more than his necessary food. But wouldn't that sound cool if you love the Bible?
[11:45] I esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Ooh, man, that's good. That ought to be in the Bible. And guys, look, I don't think that the Bible is just a book we're supposed to carry.
[11:56] I don't know if anybody remembers this. If it ever was true in your youth, it was in mine. When I was a kid, doctors used to make house calls.
[12:08] And you'd see this strange car pull into the neighbor's house. And you'd say, wow, I wonder who that is. And a strange man would get out of the car. I wonder who he is. And then before he closed the door, he'd reach in and he pulled out a black leather bag.
[12:23] As soon as you saw that, he said, ah, doctors making a house call. Now let me ask you a question. Couldn't somebody buy one of those bags with all the stuff that's in it?
[12:36] And he's carrying that bag down the street. You go, that guy must be a doctor. Why? Because he's carrying a black leather bag. But he's not. He stole it out of the doctor's car. You know the difference between him.
[12:48] Now look, you look at both of them. Here's the doctor. Here's the fraud. They're both carrying a black leather bag. How do you know which one's the doctor? How do you know which one's the fraud? The fraud is the one that doesn't know what to do with the stuff that's inside that bag.
[13:02] Isn't that true? So now, a strange car pulls into your neighbor's house. Wow, I wonder who that is. Strange man gets out of the car. Oh, I've never seen him before.
[13:13] And before he closes the door, he reaches in and pulls out a black leather book. And we say, oh, he must be a preacher making a house call. Well, these are, they're not a dime a dozen guys, but they're not hard to get.
[13:29] And anybody can carry one. And you go, whoa, he must be a preacher. You know, I'm reading them all the time. I'll be reading my Bible on a plane. And the guy next to me will say, oh, are you a minister? And I hate that question. You know why?
[13:41] I have to say yes. You know what I'd like to be able to say? I know I'm just a Christian. We all do this. But I can't say that.
[13:51] You're going to have to say it. All right? But couldn't somebody just carry around a black leather book and everybody think there's a preacher? You know what the difference is? They don't know what to do with what's inside of it.
[14:03] God, guys, it's what's inside of it is what's important. Now, I'll explain something before I get into this message. Just in case there's a question. I did not write the Bible.
[14:17] I did not read it. Now, I know what you're doing right now. Yeah, if we didn't think you wrote it. Well, I don't know. I don't know. You know why? You'd be shocked how many people come and tell me why they don't read their Bible.
[14:30] Now, I got about, I don't know, 25, 30 books I wrote. And if you were to come and tell me why you have one of my books and don't read it, that's okay. I don't demand an explanation.
[14:40] But, you know, if you think, man, I got your book and I've not been reading it, but I'm going to. That doesn't bother me. But why would you come and tell me you're not reading somebody else's book? Why would you come and tell me why you're not reading God's book?
[14:52] But I think I know the answer. The answer is you're smart enough to know that a perfect God, all-knowing God, would never accept your lame, sorry, limperous excuse on why you're not reading his book.
[15:05] So you figure, since you can't get it past him, foist it on the dirt ball because I'm just a stupid piece of dirt. So think about this.
[15:15] If you can't fool somebody who's stupid, how are you ever going to fool a perfect God on why you don't read his Bible? So I'm a Bible reader. I run into people all the time.
[15:26] You know, I'll go to a new church and some guy, they come up. You ever that comic strip Garfield about the cat? That dog, Odie?
[15:37] He's always like this. And I see these people that come up there and go, oh, I believe they can read the Bible too. That's what I see. Now, look, I'm glad if you're a Bible believer. But I want you to be a Bible reader.
[15:49] Okay? And so what I'm going to talk to you about this evening is it's my sermon, but I didn't write it. Okay? You say, how could it be your sermon and you didn't write it?
[16:03] I let you guys write it. This, what this sermon is, is the excuses that people who esteem the words of his mouth more than their necessary food, people who believe not a modern version, but believe in the good old King James Bible.
[16:19] This message is made up of excuses that King James Bible believers have given me on why they don't read the book that they think came from God. And I'm not saying it for what you think.
[16:31] You think I'm going to, you know, here's this guy, here's what he says, and I'm going to rail on him. I'm not. I'm really not. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to tell you the excuse, and I'm going to tell you how to fix it. In other words, I'm going to hit one of you guys in here on something, and I'm not going to say it and say, oh, it's because you hate God and you're, you know, you're this and that.
[16:50] No, no, no. So I'm going to tell you if this is your, if this is what's keeping you from reading your Bible, here's how you can get around it. Here's how you fix it. Sounds good. All right. All right. They're not in any particular order, but, but, you know, I'm just going to give to you as I got them.
[17:06] The first one, and I get this. Now, I don't know if I said this or not. Guys, I've been preaching for eight days in a row. You've been here for four. I've been, I've been in church for eight. So I can't, I was telling you, pastor, I can't remember if I said this six days ago or two days ago.
[17:22] If I said it two days ago, I already said it to you. If I said it six days ago, I said it to somebody else. I don't have Alzheimer's. Honest. And so I don't know if I said this six days ago or two days ago, but I don't have Alzheimer's.
[17:34] Honest. But I don't know if I said, oh. Now, ladies, ladies, ladies, hang with me, okay? Hang with me. Women say some stupid things.
[17:49] I'm sorry, ladies. They do. Remember the stupidest thing you said? I do. Yeah, well, that's, that's what I meant. Anyway, but men also say stupid things. And I really don't believe that women say things that are more stupid than men.
[18:02] I don't believe that. I don't believe that men say things that are more stupid than women. I think they're kind of equally stupid. But you know what the difference is? When a woman says something that's stupid, it's usually obvious and everybody gets a chuckle.
[18:15] You know, a woman will say something stupid and go, oh, I can't believe I said it. When a man says something stupid, he thinks it's oracle. He thinks it ought to be etched in granite and memorized by children.
[18:28] Only a man can say something stupid and finish it with this. Huh? That's stupid, man. I'm telling you. And I, I've had some of that, but I've never had a woman say that.
[18:39] I've never had a woman say something stupid and finish it with this. Huh? They don't do it. And this one, I have had both men and women say it. And they'll say this. I don't have time to read the Bible.
[18:53] What's the answer? You do have time to read the Bible. No, you do. You really do. Take a look at your day and look what you're using time for that that time could have been used for reading your Bible.
[19:03] Now, I said this. Now, let me explain. If you have a Bible reading program, if there's some, you know, three chapters here, four chapters here, two chapters here, you know, if you have some program that puts you through every word of the Bible and it's good for you, stay with it.
[19:22] If you don't have a Bible reading program, let me just give you a thought. Read a proverb for the date. That's this gold marker. And so I read a proverb for the date.
[19:34] And if you're not reading your Bible, I tell you, there's no reason why every person in this room, except that little poor little girl back there, there's no reason why the adults in this room can't read a maximum or minimum of ten pages.
[19:47] I didn't say ten chapters. I said ten pages. Ten pages of your Bible every day. Start at page one, read to page ten. Next day, read to page twenty. Next day, read to page thirty. Next day, you say, well, wait a minute. That's an awful lot.
[19:58] Really? Awful lot? You think it's an awful lot? I'll find out. How many of you just, I'm not talking about the Bible, how many of you just like to read? You say you just enjoy reading. You like to read?
[20:09] Okay. Okay. You who did not put your hands up that you don't like to read, have you seen our coloring book? I mean, we want to have something for everybody.
[20:21] Anyway, I'll bet you guys just raised your hand that you said you like to read. You sat down with an uninspired book. I don't care if I'm the author of it. Every book on this planet except this one is not inspired of God.
[20:33] Is that not true? So everything you're reading that's not the Bible. I don't care if it's about the Bible. Anything you read about the Bible is still an uninspired book. Is that not true? But you might read something else and you have knocked out, isn't this true, 50 or 60 or 70 pages at a sitting.
[20:50] What did you say? I just couldn't put it down. Really? You don't think there's anything odd that you can pick up an uninspired book and knock out 50 pages. But somebody tells you, read a mere 10 pages of the book you love and I am unreasonable.
[21:06] I don't think I'm unreasonable. I think you're a bad liar. In fact, in fact, I'll tell you how we can prove it. I've had people say this. I just, you know, when some people say some stupid things, like I said, I think one of two things has happened.
[21:20] They've either been hit in the head too many times or not enough. And I've had people say, I read my Bible every day. Do you really? Yeah, a page. A page?
[21:31] You read a page of the Bible? Like, wow, I'll bet that just dazzles God. Okay, go ahead and read a page of the Bible. I'm serious. Only read one page.
[21:42] And only read one page of everything else you read. And suddenly I got unreasonable again. Guys, guys, read the book. Look, if you guys, if you go south, you got to go south and east or north and east, wherever.
[21:58] And somewhere along the line, you're going to hit Interstate 40. All of the even ones run west to east. All of the odd ones, 15, 5, 75, those all run north to south.
[22:10] You hit Route 40, Interstate 40, and head east. About 200 miles away, you'll see the first billboard for a restaurant called The Big Texan.
[22:21] And The Big Texan has a steak called The Big Texan. And if you eat the whole steak, you don't have to pay for it. It is 72 ounces.
[22:33] It is so big, they got to kill two cows to make it. You'll get that after a while. Anyway, now, could you imagine taking a friend of yours? I'm taking my friend, man. He loves steak.
[22:44] And I'm going to buy The Big Texan for him. And that guy has it cooked how he wants, takes a bite off of it. Okay, we can go. Whoa, whoa, you're not going to eat the whole thing? Oh, yeah, I'm going to take another bite tomorrow.
[22:55] And I think I'll probably take another bite the next day. You know what I'd tell him? I'd say, pal, get out of the way. I am a Baptist preacher. I'll show you what to do with a dead cow. And we say we love the Bible.
[23:08] Let me ask you something. Do you believe this? Do you not believe that in the covers of the book I'm holding in my hand, a King James Bible, is this not what you believe?
[23:19] This is the only place you can find the writings and the mind of God? You know what you believe? Yeah. So, you believe that and you never get around to reading it?
[23:31] So, I was in a church and one Sunday morning or Sunday night, I can't remember, I talked about reading 10 pages of the Bible every day. And it upset this guy. About Tuesday, I came into church.
[23:42] And this guy walks up to me, one of the church members, he goes, well, he said, I bought some of your books. But he said, now you've got me reading 10 pages of the Bible every day. I don't have time to read your books. And I said, what do I care?
[23:55] I said, you're getting what you need and I got your money. I think this is a wonderful combination, okay? Have you seen our table back there with paperweights and doorstops that look a lot like books?
[24:05] If you have my books and you said, I read my Bible so much, I never have time to read your books. I wouldn't stop you at all.
[24:16] I wouldn't say anything bad about that. If you have my books and you say, I read your books so much, I don't have time to read my Bible, I'd say, throw Gipps books in the dumpster. You, listen, don't read, think about it, don't read a book about a book.
[24:32] You're not going to read. And we read books about the Bible. You know what I've often thought? I've often thought we're going to show up at the judgment seat of Christ because we know where the Word of God is. We're not like them NIV, ESV, all them other people.
[24:44] We know where the Word of God is. And the Lord's going to say, I sent you a book. Did you get it? I sure did. King James Bible. Did you believe it? I sure did. King James Bible.
[24:56] Did you read it? Well, I sure did believe it, the old King James Bible. Yeah, did you read it? Did you see all the books I had about it?
[25:07] I had a bunch of books about it. I had a bunch of CDs about it and a bunch of DVDs about it. The Lord says, did you read my book? Well, I read Psalms.
[25:21] I like Psalms. And I read Revelation because I didn't understand any of it. And then I did find a verse that won an argument one time. Guys, you have churches here. You know this.
[25:32] You have churches in this town. They use NIV, ESV, some other foreign Bible, some lazy, sorry Bible. And they don't read it. Right? I don't have any problem with that.
[25:44] You know why they don't read it? Because they don't think it came from God. That is the same reason I don't read The Hobbit. That's the same reason I don't read the Koran.
[25:56] That's the same reason I don't read the Book of Mormon. I think they're all the same. I don't read those because I don't think they came from God. Don't we say we believe this book and every word in it came from God?
[26:07] So how do you explain that you're not even interested in reading it? So, guys, now here's what I do. I don't read 10 pages a day. I read 30 pages a day.
[26:19] This red marker, I read 20 pages of the Old Testament. That's the red ribbon. I read 10 pages of the New. That's the blue one. Of course, I read the Proverb first. And that puts me through my Bible, oh, about every 45 days, about eight times a year.
[26:35] And I'm not telling you to read 30 pages. I'm telling you to read 10. But if you really believed that every word in this book came from God, from God, you know what I wouldn't want to do?
[26:47] I wouldn't want to stand between you and your Bible when you went to go reading. I wouldn't want to be the guy who tried to stop you from reading the Bible. So, guys, now you say, well, I don't know if I have time. Yes, you do.
[26:58] You know when I read my Bible? I read it in the morning. You know why? I keep busy. I do a lot of stuff. I'm writing books and teaching and getting ready to teach and preaching and all that stuff.
[27:10] Man, you know what I don't want to do? I don't want to go through a whole day and about 7 or 8 o'clock at night say, okay, I'm done. I can read my 30 pages now and I'll tell you exactly what happened. I'll get two pages in and I'll be out.
[27:23] So, I read it in the morning. Guys, just, if you say I don't have time to read your Bible, if you pick up anything to read and haven't read your Bible yet, that time right there is your Bible reading time.
[27:37] According to Job, if you sit down to eat and haven't read your Bible, forego the meal and read the book. So, if you say you don't have time, I'm telling you you do have time.
[27:51] Here's one I've had, and I don't think I've ever had a woman tell me this, and it's not a stupid one, but it's what I just said. I've had guys say, when I read my Bible, I fall asleep.
[28:06] Well, I mean, how can you expect somebody to read their Bible if they fall asleep? I don't have time to say, well, what do I do? Now, the answer to that is real easy. It really is. If you fall asleep when you read your Bible, read it standing up. As far as I know, only horses sleep standing up.
[28:23] If you try to read your Bible standing up and fall asleep, you're going to do one of two things. You're either going to stay awake or really entertain your family because they're going to hear, sounds like Pop's trying to read his Bible again.
[28:37] And guys, do something that you don't fall asleep at. I've never seen anybody fall asleep standing up. Now, there is a sickness, a legitimate sickness.
[28:49] It's called narcolepsy. And people that have it, I mean, when they stop moving, they're out. They're out. They can fall asleep at a red light. And I think there's kind of an epidemic of narcolepsy when I'm driving because every time the light turns green, they're still sitting there.
[29:08] I blow them a horn to wake them up. I worked when I was in Bible college. I worked with a painting crew. And we had an old guy there named old Mr. Cobb.
[29:19] Mr. Cobb had narcolepsy. Mr. Cobb, I've seen him do it. We'd be painting a doorframe. One time he'd fall asleep on the downstroke. He'd take his brush and he'd go like this.
[29:34] And he'd be out. You parents, you ever see your little child, they're in their high chair, and they're eating, and they go like this. Mr. Cobb.
[29:48] We'd sit down to eat lunch. He'd take a bite of his sandwich. And he'd be chewing that sandwich. He'd be going. Say, what did you do? We ate his sandwich. Poor Mr. Cobb. He starved to death.
[29:59] But, guys, now think about it. If you really want to read it, and you do fall asleep, I'll bet you you would say, I know there's a way that I can stay awake and read it.
[30:12] So, if you fall asleep, read it standing up. Now, I was talking to some of the guys this morning. There is a phrase that people say, I despise it.
[30:25] I hate it with everything I got. You ever talk to somebody, and you're talking some truth, and they say this, let me be the devil's advocate for a minute.
[30:36] I want to ask a blood-bought Christian who loves Jesus Christ in the Bible, why would you feel some duty to see to it that the devil's side of a story is told? When I hear somebody say this, when somebody says to me, let me be the devil's advocate, you know what I hear?
[30:50] Let me be the devil. Now, I say that for this reason. I'm about to say something that the devil a lot of times gets blamed for. And to be honest with you guys, like I was telling the guys, I said, some of what some people did, and they said the devil made me do it.
[31:06] He wasn't even in town that weekend, okay? It was all on you. But what this next one definitely has some kind of spirit input to cause interference when you're reading the Bible.
[31:20] Here's what will be happening. I'll be reading my Bible, and then Kathy will call me. And I'll look away and go, yep, yeah, okay, yep, we'll sure do that.
[31:32] And then I look back and I go, where was I reading? I can look away from my Bible for a second and not find my place.
[31:44] You know how I know it's the devil? Because I'll lose my place. So you know what I do? I start here again. And I'll read this, this, this. And I'll get right here. And the devil will say, here's where you are.
[31:55] Like, that's going to make me mad. Oh, yeah, I read too much Bible. Okay. I am not a techie. I know people who are techies. You know, like these are the people that stand in line for three days, get the next iPhone.
[32:08] That's a techie, okay? I'm not a techie. But I'm going to show you the high tech way so that you can't lose your place. And then if you're like me and you're not a techie, I'm going to show you the low tech way.
[32:23] Okay? This is the high tech way. You say, what is that?
[32:37] Well, you guys, listen, if you were in high state, you'd know what this is. It's a sticker. They get excited about stickers. Guys, that's a sticker. See, what do you do? I don't know if you can see it, but it's right there.
[32:51] That's where I finished my reading today. This is where I'll start reading it tomorrow. So what I do is I take that sticker, I put it up here, and I start reading. And Kathy will call me, and I'll take that sticker, and I'll put it right where I stopped reading, and I'll talk to her.
[33:10] I can talk to her for a day. I can talk to her for an hour. It's going to stay there. The batteries won't go dead. I don't have to recharge it. This is very low tech, high tech, okay? They come in five different colors.
[33:27] No batteries included. So if you don't like that yellow one, you get a nice blue one or green one. I'm not too keen about that pink one. There's a nice orange one. Guys, that's the high tech way.
[33:38] You want to see the low tech way? Like, you know, probably stickers under Biden are probably now $85 for one of those little things I just showed you. I'll show you the low tech way. I'm reading my Bible.
[33:50] Kathy says something to me. What? I leave my finger there. It came.
[34:02] Everybody's fully equipped with one of these, aren't you? So, and I just keep it there, and I talk to her. I get done talking to her. I look back. Well, look at that. My finger is still there.
[34:13] You say, preacher, you're making a joke out of this. I am not. I am not. I am telling you that a lot of the stuff that we have a problem with, there is an easy way around it under this condition.
[34:25] If you really want to read your Bible. If you don't want to read it, it doesn't matter. This one. Now, I don't think I've ever had a woman say this.
[34:36] I don't think, now I don't know if women are that dumb, but I know I've had a lot of men say this. And they say it like, this just settles the issue. They go, I read my Bible today, and I didn't get nothing from it.
[34:50] Huh? Now, do you know there's a verse in the Bible that says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit? I mean, knowing that, would you want to come to church and run around saying, I didn't get anything from my Bible.
[35:04] I didn't get anything. I mean, guys, guys, look. Now, I know you say, well, I read it, but I can't tell you the thing I read. What do I do if somebody asks me what I got from my Bible? Oh, there's an easy way to answer that question.
[35:17] You read your Bible, and you can't say, I got something from it. And then you come to church, and somebody says, read your Bible today? Sure did. What did you get from it?
[35:30] Brother, what I got today, I can't even put into words. Now, the problem is, if somebody comes in and says that, I already told you the answer.
[35:43] Let me tell you something. You got something from it. No idea. Yeah, you got something from it. Is this not true, guys? In our American culture, the meal that we had right after the morning service isn't a Sunday afternoon meal.
[35:58] Isn't that a big deal? Is tomorrow, Monday, now, I mean, I'm talking about a regular day. I know tomorrow's going to be special, but on a regular Monday or a regular Tuesday or a regular Thursday, is the noon meal as majestic as the Sunday meal?
[36:14] No. That noon meal may be a bologna sandwich that you ate that you could eat at work. Isn't that true? But what does that bologna sandwich do? Keeps you alive. Say it keeps you alive until next Sunday's big meal.
[36:28] Your pastor, I think I said this, your pastor is a cook, and he takes this book, and he cooks you something. And that is a divine meal. And you might read your Bible on Monday and say, well, I read my Bible.
[36:40] I sure didn't get it from what my pastor gave me yesterday. That's because he cooked you up the big meal. And you come here and get the big meal, and what you read just keeps you going.
[36:50] Now, I'm going to show you how the Bible is working. How many of you ate at least one meal today? Okay. Of you who raised your hands, how many of you grew an inch taller from eating that meal?
[37:08] Guys, I got bad news. It's not working. You should stop. How does these guys say, well, I read my Bible and get nothing from it, so I should just stop. Well, nobody got an inch taller, so it must not be working.
[37:21] No, you're saying, oh, no, but even now it is keeping me alive. You're absolutely right. And when you read that book, you may not say, oh, I saw something that stood out, but it is keeping you alive.
[37:32] And I'll tell you what it's doing. It is changing you more the way God wants you to be. I prayed a stupid prayer one time, and I got an answer from God. And here was the problem.
[37:46] You know, if a man, if you punch a man, I mean, really lay this guy down. Before that guy, especially if you put him on the ground, he's got to think, do I really want to get up and take another one of those?
[38:00] Or should I just, you know, sue for peace or roll under the pool table or whatever? But if you slap a man, man, it's just a reaction. He slaps you back.
[38:12] So I'm reading my Bible, 30 pages, 30 pages, 30 pages, 30 pages. And I said this one day to God. I said, is any of this taking? I said, I'm putting 30 pages in every day.
[38:23] I said, is any of this taking? I don't know. Well, he gave me the answer. I was preaching in a pastor's conference in the state of New York. A bunch of New York pastors were there.
[38:34] And it was a big fan-shaped sanctuary like this. You couldn't look at this side and still see this side. So I'm over here preaching. And there was a pastor there that absolutely hated the King James Bible.
[38:47] He hated anybody that defended it. He hated me. He hated Doc Ruckman. He'd hate you. He's kind of an equal opportunity hater. So I'm saying something over here, and this guy interrupted me.
[39:02] Now, I don't believe you ever interrupt a preacher. I'm sorry. I don't believe it. And so I didn't even look away. I just said, pipe down. And I kept talking. As I turned back, he interrupted me a second time.
[39:15] So I told him the truth. I looked at him, and I said this. God never told you to interrupt this service. Now pipe down.
[39:27] I said, why did you say that? Because I don't believe God ever told anybody to interrupt a service. And so he shut up. So now I'm thinking, oh, man, all these New York pastors, you know, they're probably going to be mad at me because I rebuked one of the children.
[39:41] These guys are shaking my hand when they're leaving. They're saying this. You were too nice to him. And why didn't you rip his head off? And here's what I came to find out. This guy's like the open sore of the New York Pastors Fellowship.
[39:53] He's always in everybody's face about something. And they thought when he interrupted me that I'd rip him up. I didn't rip him up. But, guys, this is a Baptist preacher's meeting.
[40:04] And when we get done preaching, what did we do? Eat. Sure. If you're not eating, I'm not coming. So we went downstairs. We're eating. I'm leaving.
[40:14] As I'm leaving, this guy steps in my path and cuts me off and says, well, it's obvious you've been ignoring me, avoiding me.
[40:27] And I said, but, I said, you interrupted me while I'm preaching. You actually owe me an apology. But I'm not going to get it and I'm not asking for it. But you interrupted the pastor, the preacher that the pastor wanted in the pulpit.
[40:40] You owe him an apology. But I don't think he's going to get his apology either. Why would I want to sit across from you and look at you while I eat fried chicken? Well, did you hear Dr. Ruckman say this?
[40:50] You mess with that book. God will mess with your mind. This guy is the poster child of that statement. And he was determined we were going to have an argument.
[41:01] I mean, honest, guys, you may think I started arguments about the King James Bible. I don't know if I have ever started an argument about the King James Bible. But I have ended a bunch of them.
[41:13] And this guy is just intent on him and me having an argument. And I've got now, we've probably got 30 preachers standing around a circle. And when I realized he's not going to let me out of here until we argue, I engaged him in honesty in 60 seconds.
[41:28] It didn't take any more than that. I mean, a nine-year-old kid. My nine-year-old, I had a son that was a nine-year-old at that time. He could have argued this guy into a corner. And in 60 seconds in front of all these preachers, I undressed him.
[41:42] I totally embarrassed him. But he had that coming. He was insistent that I do that. He was so embarrassed that when I embarrassed him, he smacked me across the mouth.
[41:56] Isn't that funny? You guys get called Ruckmanites. How many non-King James users have you smacked in the mouth? Isn't that funny? It's kind of like that tolerant crowd.
[42:08] You be tolerant with me. I don't have to be tolerant with you. But not only that. Now, I told you guys. When a guy punches you, you think about whether you want to go and fight him. But if a guy slaps you, you just slap back.
[42:20] This guy know he slapped me. Then he went like this. Oh. You say, what did you do? You're probably not interested.
[42:34] My next point. In one second. That's all it took. In one second. I forgave him.
[42:48] It wasn't a man thing. You understand? He wasn't seeing if one of us could fight and win. If it was a man thing to see who could win the fight, you know what I'd say?
[42:59] Preacher, you got a room with a whole bunch of stuff that's not breakable. Put us in there and one of us would come walking out. It wasn't a man thing. It was a non-Bible believer against Bible believer thing.
[43:10] And I knew if I hit him, and if I whipped him, it'd be all over how the King James Bible guy beat up a local pastor. So for you, because they'd bring that charge against you, I forgave him.
[43:25] I didn't do a thing. And then I left. But guys, you're surrounded by a bunch of men, and a man smacks you in the mouth, and you don't hit him back?
[43:36] You don't feel real good about yourself. And I am mad. I'll be honest, I was so mad. When I was driving home, I was putting new finger grips in my steering wheel. And I said this to God through gritted teeth.
[43:49] I don't feel very good about myself right now. And he said, well, you got your prayer answered. I said, what stupid prayer was that? You asked if 30 pages a day was making a difference.
[44:04] And suddenly it came to me. Sam Gipp's reaction to a smack in the mouth, smacked back. Sam Gipp with 30 pages, 30 pages, 30 pages, 30 pages, year in and year out, was do the right thing, and don't hit the guy back.
[44:23] Here's what you think, and a lot of people think this. You got some kind of a problem. It's a temper problem, or greed, or covetousness, or lust. I don't know what your problem is. But you know what all Bible believers think? I'm going to be reading my Bible, I'm going to read a verse, and I'll never have that problem again.
[44:37] I've never heard of that happening, and I don't believe it's going to. But if you read that book, and read that book, and read that book, and read that book, and read that book, ever so slowly, one day, this will never happen.
[44:50] You will not wake up one morning, and say, you know, I feel like that problem's been taken care of. What will happen is, you'll get in a situation, like I did, and you know how you normally react, and instead you'll react the right way.
[45:05] And suddenly you'll go, I have been getting some. Guys, if this book is divine, how dare you say you read it, and got nothing from it. Guys, I'm not one of these people, I don't go to those tanning salons, okay?
[45:19] But I know how they work. All you got to do, is expose yourself to the light. Other than that, you don't have to do anything. Isn't that true? Guys, when you read this book, I think you expose yourself to the mind of God.
[45:33] When you expose yourself to this book, it's making a difference. You may not see the difference when you just got done reading, especially when you just finished 10 pages of Names and Chronicles.
[45:46] But, aren't those words inspired? Then you better read them. So, if you say you didn't get anything, actually you did. This is one where I get mad a little bit on God's part.
[46:02] You know, we all look at God through the eyes of what we are. If you are musical, I'm not musical, but if you're musical, you probably think about the fact, isn't this amazing, God only gave us seven notes and we still haven't run out of combinations?
[46:16] Now, I don't even appreciate all those combinations. But, that's an amazing thing. I don't know if you ever did this, but maybe you'll do this the next time. You hear a bird singing. You ever hear a bird singing?
[46:27] There's a lot of birds, aren't there? Our God wrote the song. So, if you're musical, maybe you look at things musically and you think about God who made music.
[46:39] If you're artistic, you're a painter, you see things through the eye of an artist, man, you've got to appreciate color. color. You young people, you may not know this, but years ago, there was no color in the world.
[46:59] When I was a kid, the entire world was black and white. I know, I saw it on my TV. But now, it has color. But let me ask you a question.
[47:09] What would you do if you came in here next week and everything in this room, every single thing was just some different shade of gray? This was white, that is black, and this is white, this is kind of medium gray, this is dark gray, and everything, it was just black and white.
[47:28] Man, didn't God do something good when he made color? So, if you're an artist, maybe that gets you. God the artist. I'm an author. I write books.
[47:39] I think about writing books. I think about how I want to say something. I think about how somebody's going to read something and respond to it. You understand? I like God the author. I think God the author is so cool.
[47:49] He says some nice stuff, man. He says, in the book of Acts, it talks about Aquila and Priscilla, and Paul says, or no, they're in Acts chapter 18, and Apollos was preaching baptismal regeneration.
[48:03] He was Church of Christ preacher. And it said, Aquila and Priscilla expounded on him the way of God more perfectly. Is that not cool? Say, what's that mean? He led him to Christ.
[48:15] What is that? Is that God the author? And because I care about God the author, when somebody says this, I take offense for him. The Bible's boring.
[48:28] The Bible's not boring. Guys, it's not boring. In fact, you know what I say? Our God has a flair for the dramatic. What do you mean? I'll tell you what I mean.
[48:39] God spoke the universe into existence. Don't you think that was something? You'd like to have seen that. And I bet if you saw this entire universe come into existence after God spoke it, I bet you wouldn't say, well, that was boring.
[48:53] You'd say, that was fantastic. And then, he gets in seven chapters into Genesis. And he looks down at man. And you know how he describes everybody in the world in Genesis?
[49:06] He said, their imagination is only evil continually. I've always thought, you know, out here, that big Hollywood sign on the hill? I've always thought they ought to put under it their imagination is only evil continuous.
[49:21] Is that not the best description? God looked down at this earth and he said, I am going to kill them all. Now, if you study your Bible, there are only two angels in heaven whose names we are given.
[49:37] Michael and Gabriel. There is no angel Raphael, okay? It's Gabriel or it's Michael. If you study those two, you know what you find out? Gabriel's a talker. If God wants to deliver a message, an audible message to somebody, he sends Gabriel.
[49:53] When he wanted to tell Daniel something, he sent Gabriel. When he wanted to tell Mary about having a child, he sent Gabriel. When you see it says an angel showed up and spoke, that's Gabriel.
[50:03] But you already believed that. I'm sure you believed it. I mean, two people are talking and you say, what were you guys doing? And you say, just Gavin. Why do we, why do we quit talking to Gavin?
[50:17] That's, that's abbreviation for Gabriel. So Gabriel's a talker. Michael is the archangel. I, I describe it this way. Michael is the George S. Patton of heaven.
[50:28] If God wants something broken and somebody killed, he sends Michael. So I can just see God looking down the earth going, oh man, I am going to kill him. I am going to kill him all. Now, every one of these angels, Gabriel's got a third of heaven and Michael's got a third of heaven.
[50:42] And I can just see when he says, I'm going to kill them all. Michael pull that double-edged sword and he looks back at a third of heaven and says, okay guys, let's go down and kill him. And God says, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? Well, you said you want them dead and we do dead.
[50:59] Yeah, but I'm going to try something different. Oh man, what's better than a sword? Hang on, hang on, hang on. Have you ever seen rain, Gabriel?
[51:12] What's rain? That's where water falls from the sky. Lord, water doesn't fall from the sky. It comes up from the ground. That's how you made it. Yeah, but I'm going to have it fall from the sky. I'm going to have it fall for 30 days and 30, 40.
[51:26] I'm going to have it fall for 40 days and 40 nights and I'm going to drown them all but eight of them. When I was in Bible college, we did, we figured the math. Now, this is contingent on one truth and that one truth that we cannot answer is that was the tallest mountain 29,000 feet at Noah's time?
[51:47] If it was, in order to cover the top of the highest mountain in 40 days, it had to rain two and a half feet a minute. That is like a fire hose.
[52:00] You say, where's all the houses from the people of Genesis 7? They probably got washed away. Guys, you don't think that would be dramatic? And then you got Noah and his family take off and they replenish the earth and he gets to Genesis chapter 18 and he looks down at those five wicked cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, Zeboiom, and San Francisco.
[52:24] And he says, I will kill them all. And I can just see Michael going, okay guys, get ready to open the water valves.
[52:38] And God says, what are you doing? Well, you know, you want them dead. You like water. I kind of like the sword. Yeah, but I already did water. You want the sword? No.
[52:49] No, I'm going to try something new again. Michael, you've seen fire and brimstone from heaven. This is kind of like fireworks in reverse.
[53:01] Tomorrow night, I don't care where you are, you are going to see fireworks if you look outside. Is that not true? When you see those fireworks going up and exploding, imagine how it would look if they came down and exploded.
[53:14] And tell me, that's boring. This book is not boring. I'm going to tell you what the problem is. You've seen so many computer generated special effects that your TV has messed up your brain.
[53:27] But this book is not boring. You people read and say, read some book that's not inspired, and you say, well, I just couldn't put it down. Yeah, that's how this one is.
[53:38] Sometimes I just can't put it down. I've had people say this. I had a guy say this, couldn't believe it. It's so big. You know what the answer to that is?
[53:53] If you think the Bible's too big, aren't you glad God knit right an encyclopedia? 30 volumes. Watch what I can do.
[54:04] We were doing this when we were singing Hold the Fort. You know what I'm doing right now? With one hand, not even two, with one hand, I am holding every word that God wants me to have.
[54:15] Is that not true? I say again, aren't you glad God didn't write an encyclopedia? Could you imagine trying to hold up 30 volumes at one time? Man, if God wrote an encyclopedia that's going to be about this wide, you'd get about three people per pew if they brought the whole Bible.
[54:34] You know what your pastor would have to do? When he got done Sunday night preaching, he'd say, now next Sunday morning, I'm going to bring volume 12 and volume 20. I'm going to be preaching out of those two because you couldn't bring the whole book.
[54:46] And then, you know what would happen. A Ruckmanite would have it interleaved. Did you hear what happened to Bill?
[54:57] No, what happened? His Bible fell on him and broke his leg. That is not, that is not too big of a book. Guys, that book is, mine, mine is 1,353 pages.
[55:12] I've read it about three times, 1,000 pages on Greek manuscripts written by a Brit from the 19th century in the 1800s.
[55:23] Now, that's boring. That's boring. This is not boring. And this is not too big. Let me tell you an excuse. I've only ever gotten this one once. Now, this is what I believe.
[55:37] I believe there's only two valid excuses for not reading your Bible. Death and the rapture. Now, look around. Death hasn't happened to you yet.
[55:49] You walked in here under your own power. The rapture hasn't happened yet. You know what that means? Keep reading the book. So that's what I believe. Then I had a guy in my church when I pastor up in upstate New York.
[56:01] I had a guy come in my office and of all the excuses I've ever heard, I only heard this one once. Now, when somebody says they're having a problem, when I counsel somebody and they're having some kind of a problem, I tell them, my first question is, have you been reading your Bible?
[56:19] And that's not to catch them not reading. But if they've been reading their Bible, I know that they've been a trickle of something supernatural has been gone inside of them. You understand?
[56:31] So I asked him, this guy, now when you pastor, I hate to say this, but you find out that there's only two kinds of problems in the world.
[56:41] I did not say there's only two problems, I said there's two kinds. Every problem people come up with goes in one of two lists. There are problems that are real and there are problems that are imagined.
[56:55] Okay? I'll give you an example, I was teaching in a Bible college in Ohio and I stepped into my class to start teaching and one of my students came up and he had that anguished look like, you know, something happened to my parents back home or something like that and he honestly came up to me and said, pray for me.
[57:14] I said, yeah. I said, what's wrong? He said, nothing. I said, what am I praying about? Well, you know when things are going good, something bad is going to happen.
[57:28] So I slapped him. Me and John Calvin took care of it. That's past. Guys, you know, like somebody goes, pastor, what should I do if, say, a UFO lands in my backyard?
[57:42] It's easy. Get back on. And you will be amazed. Look, I haven't talked to your pastor, but he was over in Pennsylvania for all those years.
[57:57] If you could hear some of the problems that people think are problems, problems. It's like cotton candy. I mean, put them in water and they melt. And then there's problems.
[58:08] Real. You know what real problems are? That's when you start your prayer, oh my God. That's when you get down to pray and you say something in your prayer like, I have no tomorrow.
[58:19] That's a crisis. This guy came into my office. He's a good man. And he said, he gave me, he told me what his problem was. It was a crusher.
[58:31] It was not an unimportant or not real one. It was a crusher. And I asked him, I said, have you been reading your Bible? And what he told me no one else has ever told me in my life.
[58:44] He said, preacher, I can write my name. I can read road signs. I'm a high school graduate and I cannot read. I'll bet you that testimony is a testimony of a whole bunch of high school graduates now.
[59:01] Well, how can you expect somebody to read the Bible when they can't read? But unfortunately this guy had demean his pastor in the country.
[59:14] I asked him three questions I knew they would make him angry. And they were simple questions. I said this, where do you live? He said, Auburn.
[59:26] I said, where? He said, New York. I said, where? He said, in the United States of America. That was the exact response I wanted. I said, you're right.
[59:38] There's not a high school in this country that does not offer night classes in remedial English so you can learn to read English. Why don't you go find out when Auburn High School has night classes in English and learn how to read your Bible so you can read English?
[59:50] Now you think, man, you're really mean. Mean? Guys, if these words came from God and he can't read them, he's in trouble. If I say something where he learns to read and he can get these, I've done the best thing anybody could ever do for him.
[60:04] Isn't that true? And he said, I'm going to do that. No, I have as a preacher. I have a gift. It is the gift of interpretation. And after you've passed long enough, when somebody says, you tell them what to do and they go, I am going to do that.
[60:17] They're never going to do that. They are never. I had a guy in my church one time and he said, we talked, no problem at all. And he said, when I got done, he said, pastor, I back you a thousand percent.
[60:33] I am behind you. And that is the last day on this earth I ever saw. He never showed up in church again. So he's behind me, but it's about a thousand miles. He's never been within sight.
[60:46] So about seven months went by and I had an evangelist in. It was a Sunday through Friday meeting. And after the Friday night message, the evangelist asked a question.
[60:57] He said, folks, I kind of like what your pastor did today before the service. He said, but here was his question. He said, I would like testimonies of what the meeting did for you. This meeting had a, was, was a help to you.
[61:09] And so somebody stood up here, you know, and somebody over here, here's what it did for me. This guy's sitting weighing back and he puts up his hand. And the evangelist says, yeah. And he says, the guy says, I don't have a testimony of what this meeting did for me.
[61:24] But if you'd let me, I'd like to read my favorite portion of scripture to my church. Now, this neck does not turn fast.
[61:37] It does not turn far, but it did both that night. I look back. I think I can't read. And he wants to read. And the evangelist didn't understand it, but he said, well, yeah, go ahead.
[61:52] And the guy stood up with a big family Bible. You know, big family Bibles? That's what he had. Stands up with a big family Bible. I can't even remember what passage of scripture it was, but he started reading that passage of scripture to my church.
[62:08] He stumbled. But he didn't stumble like somebody who's not familiar with the book. He stumbled like, like a second grader who's not familiar with the language. And he said, oh, I'll bet your church was excited.
[62:20] My church didn't understand any of it. I don't know. I don't know, guys, if you ever, if you think this, if you ever think, well, just what does our pastor do all day? Actually, I was wondering that myself.
[62:31] Oh, no. Do you ever stop and think about this? If your pastor is doing his job, you are not allowed to know. Would you want to come to him, go into his office and say, preacher, I got to tell you something that's in my life.
[62:43] And tell this horrible thing that's in your life that you're battling with. And then have him come to the Pope and say, now, just this week, I was talking to Brother So-and-so about this horrible thing in his life. And told everybody, if he's doing his job, he's not allowed to know.
[62:56] When that guy told me he couldn't read, the only two people in church that knew he couldn't read was him and me. I didn't go around telling anybody the guy couldn't read. So when I closed the service, I beat feet back there.
[63:07] I said, what did you do? Now, mind you, this guy's going through a crusher of a problem. And he said, Pastor, I just finished six months every Tuesday and Thursday at Auburn High School, seven o'clock at night, learning how to read English so I could read my Bible.
[63:28] 2017, I've been gone for decades now. 2017 was the 40th anniversary of that church and they asked me to come and speak.
[63:39] And when I looked out at the crowd, he is still there, still reading that book. Man, I'd like to meet him.
[63:50] No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't. You might meet him at the judgment seat of Christ. When the Lord says, did you read my book? And you give him your lame, sorry, limperous excuse on why you couldn't read your Bible, God may say, come over here, bud.
[64:07] Tell him what you were going through when you made yourself go to English class, learn how to read my book. Man, you don't want to meet this guy. But people say they can't read.
[64:18] Learn. Here's one. And if you want to know the truth, this was mine. When I started reading, when I first got saved, this was my problem with reading the Bible. Have you ever, I bet everybody has this one.
[64:31] Guys say this. I started reading my Bible and I read about two months and then something happened and I quit reading. And then I started and I read about three weeks and something happened.
[64:43] I quit reading. And every time I start, something makes me stop. Okay. You know what the answer is? When you stop, start. Don't make stop the last word.
[64:56] Don't say start and stop. Say stop. Then start. Yeah, I did. But then I stopped. Then start. Yeah, I did. I did. And then something else stopped me. Then start.
[65:08] Doesn't the Bible say a righteous man falls seven times and stays there? No, he gets back up. He arises again. Guys, stumbling, falling, stopping is not the big deal.
[65:21] You know what the big deal is? Getting back up. I'll show you something. I didn't mark down how many times I read my Bible until my 11th time through.
[65:38] I got saved in 1970. And I finished my 11th time. This is my Bible reading page. And I finished my 11th time on December 28, 1977.
[65:53] In 1978, I read my Bible twice. You know what that means? I wasn't even reading 10 pages. You read 10 pages, you'll read it at least three times a year, maybe three and a half.
[66:05] I wasn't even reading 10 pages. You say, what happened? In 1978, I started, stopped, started, stopped, started, stopped, started. I read it twice in 1978.
[66:17] In 1979, I read it twice. In 1980, I read it four times. In 1981, I read it four times. In 1982, twice. 1983, twice.
[66:28] 1984, twice. In 1985, I read my Bible one time for the whole year. 1986, I read it twice.
[66:41] And at the end of 1920 and 1986, I left my church to go back into evangelism. And I called the name of my ministry, a friend of churches.
[66:53] And when I told God I want to be a friend of churches, you know what verse came to my mind? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
[67:06] Who can know it? Guys, you are not wicked. Aren't you glad to know that? You are not wicked. You are desperately wicked. Say, what's the difference between wicked and desperately wicked?
[67:18] Do you know what, do you know what just casual, benign wickedness is? That's a serial killer asleep on a couch. Bad dude, but as long as you sleep, nothing to worry about. You know what desperate is?
[67:31] Here's what desperate is. I'm standing here talking to you and all of a sudden we see flames coming out that hallway and we are cut off. You cannot get out of this sanctuary. Ah, but there's the exit.
[67:43] So here's the smoke and the flame and the heat rolling in and you open up that door, people start running out and you got your foot up and you're right in the door, right in the opening and when your foot hits, you're going to be out of a burning building and safe.
[67:57] And before you can land that foot, somebody behind you grabs you, throws you back into a burning building and runs out ahead of you. preacher, who would do such a thing?
[68:16] You said, oh, you wouldn't. Not only would I, so would you. You know why? Because you're desperate. That's how we are to sin. Get out of my way.
[68:28] I want to sin. Now stop and think about it. I am desperately wicked and I want to be a friend to this church. I'm like, there's a contradiction. And you know what I told the Lord?
[68:39] Like the best thing I could do to be a friend to a church is not show up. Now I know what you guys are thinking. So then why are you here? Because at this very moment, at this very moment, right now, I am being a friend to a multitude of churches around this country.
[68:57] Because I'm not there. I'm with you guys. Now here's my other problem. That wickedness is not going to go until I die or the Lord comes back and takes me home.
[69:09] So what do you do? What do you do? How do you do it? I am a believer in suppression. I did not start reading. That was when I started reading 30 pages a day.
[69:19] I did not start reading 30 pages a day to find something nobody else found. I didn't read 30 pages a day to find new sermons. I read 30 pages a day to suppress the wickedness of the most wicked individual that I have to deal with every day.
[69:35] I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this without apology. I'm going to say this with great confidence. I am not as wicked as Joe Biden. I'm going to say that as a joke.
[69:47] I am not as wicked as Bill Clinton. That is not a joke. I'd say that if he's sitting right there in that front pew. Now, I wouldn't say that if Hillary was sitting on the front pew.
[70:04] You say you're better. I'm probably not a better man than Hillary. But you say you're a better man than Hillary. They'll find you in some national park with four bullet holes in your head, five guns laying on the ground, and six notes said Hillary didn't know anything about this.
[70:18] Guys, I'm a better man than Bill Clinton. I'm a better man than Joe Biden. But if you ever hear that I'm out of the ministry, you know what you won't hear next? And Joe Biden put him out.
[70:31] You know what's going to put me out? That wicked heart. So I'm trying to suppress that wickedness. So, this is on May 1st of this year.
[70:50] I finished my third time through it for this year. I should finish it, Lord willing, I should finish it five more times. And, oh no, I'm sorry. It's up here.
[71:00] June 14th. June 14th was my spiritual birthday. And on June 14th, that was the fourth time this year. And it was my 52nd birthday, and I finished my 330th time through the Bible.
[71:13] Now, somebody just said this. He's counting. He just reads his Bible to count. You know what my response is?
[71:25] What are you counting? Come on, everybody count something. What are you counting? Golf strokes? Golfs? Grandchildren? Zeroes on your paycheck?
[71:37] How many square feet you have in your house? Guys, everybody counts something. So if you don't mind, I'll just count how many times I've been through my Bible. And you count how many brownies you can eat at one time.
[71:49] I don't care what you count. But everybody counts something. And you would think if you're going to count something, you'd count something that is important. And then there's this last one.
[71:59] And I know you're glad that I'm at the last one. This guy came up to me. I never saw him before. He's a member of the church. I don't know anything about the guy except one thing.
[72:12] His mother is really ugly. So how do you know? Because he thought I looked like her. Because he came up to me.
[72:24] And man, if there's anything I can't stand, it is a whining man. When I hear a man whining, I want to just rip his skirt off. And this guy came up and he said this.
[72:41] I tried reading 10 pages of my Bible. And it gave me a headache. Now you see, what would his mother say? Well then honey, then if it gives you, you just don't read it this.
[72:55] That's what a mother, I'm not his mother. So I told him the truth. I said, read it with a headache. He looked at me like I cussed at him.
[73:09] Oh, you have a headache? It gives me a headache. Read it with a headache. I mean, if you thought it was more important than your necessary food, you'd read it with a headache, wouldn't you?
[73:21] Tell you something, guys. I broke my neck. It's a train wreck. This, from here to here, is the greatest problem I have physically in my life. I've had three surgeries. I've only got three of them that move.
[73:32] Last MRI says they're deteriorating. The doc says there's bone spurs all through all seven. And I've got permanent spinal cord damage. And I have some nasty times.
[73:43] And it's every day. It's every day. And I have a headache right now. And I had a headache yesterday. I had a headache the day before that and the day before that and the day before that and the day before that.
[73:56] I have had a headache every single day since October of 2015. Every day. And I read 30 pages every day.
[74:09] With a headache? With a headache. You say, why? I esteem the words of his mouth more than my headache. Guys, I'm sorry.
[74:20] I just don't feel good. If you're going to wait until you feel good, you're never going to do anything. So read the book. When you get done, read the book. When you finish, read the book.
[74:32] When you complete it, read the book. And read the book. And read the book. And read the book. And read the book. Until one of two things happens. You die. Or you hear a really loud trumpet.
[74:45] Because that's the only valid excuse for not reading the Bible, guys. And if I ask you, you love the Bible? Well, yeah, look. Right there is my hand. I love the Bible. Do you read the Bible?
[74:55] I esteem the words of his mouth not quite as important as my favorite TV program. I esteem the words of his mouth not as important as me reading Stephen King.
[75:13] You see what I'm saying? We could never say what Job said. Read that book. Read that book. Read that book. Read that book. Read that book.
[75:24] Now here's what I'm about to do. I'm about to give an invitation. I know what you think the invitation is going to be. And it is not going to be that.
[75:35] I am not going to tell you people you need to promise God that you're going to read your Bible every day. You know why? Because some of you will do that and then not read it.
[75:46] I don't want anyone here to give God a promise that you're not going to keep. I don't be responsible for you making that kind of a promise. I'm going to tell you what the invitation is about. But first I'm going to tell something.
[75:56] These ladies, you ladies, you ladies will understand this far more than men. My wife is really a good cook. In fact, I tell people she is a cook and a half.
[76:08] The house we bought has two ovens. I said she's got a half an oven more than she needs. My wife is a good cook. I'm not a cook. We have a partnership. You cook it, I eat it. This has been wonderful for 50 years.
[76:18] But watching her, you know what I come to find out? The Thanksgiving Thursday meal, she doesn't start cooking it on Thursday.
[76:30] She starts on Monday. She works on that meal Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. Finishes it up Thursday. Is that not true? All right. Imagine this.
[76:41] You're going to have a special guest over. Somebody you know that you just kind of think is really important. Say some dashing dynamic evangelist from Idaho or something like that.
[76:54] And lady, you cook, you put out the spread. I mean your famous fried chicken, you make a roast, you make a ham, you got your cinnamon rolls on the table, and that did not get done in a day.
[77:10] Is that not true? So the guy comes and he looks at all of that and he says, wow, wow, you really worked. How long did it take you? Well, I've been working on, you know, for a couple of days.
[77:23] And she says, so what do you have first? And you say, actually, I don't want any of it. I'd kind of like a peanut butter sandwich. Ooh. Lady.
[77:36] I mean, the smallest word I could say is you'd be offended, right? I mean, would you not like to want to grab a steak knife and leave an impression on him?
[77:48] Would you not be tempted to say something like this? You understand how much work I put into this? Do you understand what this cost me? And they did this for you and you don't want to partake of it?
[78:00] You don't have to partake of it. I would tell you, you have the right not to eat that food. But don't you think with some little bit of etiquette you would say to her, I'm sorry for all the efforts you went to because I'm not going to eat your food.
[78:21] Wouldn't you give her a little apology? You know what the invitation is today? Before you leave here, somebody needs to say to the author of this book, I'm sorry for not reading your book.
[78:35] Do you have any idea about the effort that he went to to give you that book? Do you understand? I don't care if you say, oh man, I paid $150 for my Bible. That was really expensive.
[78:46] It's cheap. It's cheap. It's cheap. Some of the people that penned his holy words died horrible deaths. Then he brought it to us.
[78:57] I was, I'm writing a book on Greek manuscripts. I'm looking at, I'm in a collection of them. And there is a Wycliffe Bible from 1380. The pages are yellowed.
[79:11] And then there's brown spots. It's open like this. There's brown spots over those open pages. You know what that is? The owner of that book in England was reading that Bible because he loved it.
[79:23] And the Catholics busted down the door and they slew him reading his own Bible and splattered his own blood across the pages. Do you understand? This book was bought for you by God with better people than you and me.
[79:36] And then you say, I can't understand the these and the those. I can't handle the archaic words. It gives me a headache.
[79:49] So, I'm not going to tell you I ought to read the Bible. I'm not going to tell you to read the Bible. I'm going to tell you ought to. I'm not going to tell you to read the Bible because if you're going to read it, you're going to read it. And if you're not going to read it, you're not going to read it.
[80:02] But don't you think one time in your life you could humble yourself before this God and say, I am so sorry that I'm not reading your book.
[80:15] You will. We ought to have an invitation where you can come down and say, I esteem dancing with the stars more important than your words. Say, why would I say that? Because you'll watch that stuff and you won't read this.
[80:27] Come on, guys. If you're not reading it, something is more important than your Bible reading. You know, the book that you love that you think every word came from God. Right? Why don't you tell him that?
[80:38] Why don't you say, actually, I believe it, but I don't love it. Well, I'd never say that. You already have. Well, I tell people I believe it, but I don't think it's important to read it.
[80:52] Well, I'd never tell them that. You already have. So why don't you just once say to him, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for neglecting your book.
[81:06] Don't you think he deserves an apology after all he went through? Get this to put it in your hand and give you a second pastor that believes every word.
[81:20] Your previous pastor did not get up here and say, there's mistakes in the Bible, and your pastor right now does not get up here and say, there's mistakes in the Bible. God has done all that for you.
[81:31] Don't you think one time you could just say you're sorry? I'd like you to stand with your heads bowed. Your head's bowed, your eyes closed. I'm going to ask the pianist to come to the piano. I have two questions.
[81:49] Now, in just a moment, I'm going to have a word of prayer after I pray. Then the piano play, the invitation will be open. Here's my two questions. Guys, I hope you know.
[82:01] I hope you know enough now about me that I'm not going to try to say something to embarrass you or intimidate you or guilt trip you.
[82:12] But how many would say this? Honesty. Preacher, I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm saved, but since I have been saved, I've never read my Bible cover to cover every single word one time.
[82:27] Could you put your hand up? Just be honest. It's okay. God bless you. Thank you very much. Anybody else? I am saved. I know I'm going to heaven, but I've never read your Bible one time, cover to cover, every word.
[82:39] My second question. Preacher, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm saved, but I am not presently reading my Bible on a daily basis to get through it cover to cover.
[82:53] Here is my hand to acknowledge that. Would you put it up? Come on. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. God bless you. Listen, you people raised your hands. I hope God blesses you.
[83:07] But there are people standing here, and some of you know you should have put your hand up and you didn't, and that's okay. But in a moment, I'm going to have a word of prayer. Brother John's going to play the piano, and a humble person needs to step out and get on your knees right in front of the whole church and say to God, I am so sorry for neglecting that book.
[83:31] Can you do it? Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for this Bible. There are churches tonight around this city, across this country, and around this world where preachers get behind the pulpit and they will say there's a mistake in the Bible.
[83:52] They'll say the Bible can't be relied on or trusted. This church has never had a pastor like that. They don't have one now. They've had men who always stood behind this pulpit and said, the book is perfect and it's the King James Bible.
[84:09] Now I believe these people here believe every word in this book came from you. But that's, that's greater indictment against them because if they believe that every word came from you and then they lay it down and don't read it, how can they complain when they're, when they're shortchanged by it?
[84:31] You know, I hope God, I hope some honest soul tonight, just one, would be willing to get on their knees to you and say, Lord, I am so sorry for neglecting your book.
[84:46] I am sorry for all that you paid, all it cost you so I could have it. And I said, I'm not reading it. We most certainly couldn't say that we count it more than our, no more necessary food.
[85:02] We won't even sit down in the peace of our country in air conditioning with bellies that are full. We won't sit down and read the book we say we love. I hope you get the apology, God.
[85:16] And then I hope for every single person in this room, I really do, I hope every one of them reads this book every day the rest of their lives until they die or until you come home and come back here and take us home.
[85:31] In Jesus Christ's name I pray. Amen. With your heads bowed and your eyes closed, as the piano plays, if you need to talk to the Lord, will you come?
[85:42] Lord, I am sorry for neglecting your book. You know I tell people, you ought to read your Bible.
[86:02] You know why? Because I like to kiss my wife. This August, my wife and I will celebrate 50 years married and I got to confess, I don't know how many times I've kissed her except not enough.
[86:18] I like to kiss her because I love her. And then we say we love the Bible. How can you walk away from it? How can you leave it lay?
[86:28] How can you ignore it? How can you just neglect it? Pick it up next time you got to go to church so everybody knows you're a Bible believer. And then lay it down and watch TV all week.
[86:40] Or do something that you esteem more important than the words of his mouth. Lord, I am sorry for not reading your Bible.
[86:51] through the right Son of the Bible. ... and I have a cold and a reality that we do that that's the and all and over 20 I and you