the Word of God. Because if you don't get the Word of God right, nothing else will be right. And so I wrote in there that point. I said it is not God that we first look to, but it is the Word of God in our theological understanding and in our statements to the world of what we believe. Well, also asked someone else to write the other side. So there they were. I don't, I can't remember if they were side by side or one week I wrote and one week they wrote. I can't remember. But anyway, the guy wrote one too. And actually he was A member, at least at one point, a member of First Baptist Church, Jackson, Louisiana, I can't remember his name right now, maybe I shouldn't say it, but anyway, even if I, I can't remember it, seriously, but he was, and they left because they didn't see eye to eye with Joe Neeson. Well, anyway, shocking. But, so he wrote, he and his wife, I think, maybe even, wrote, but anyway, they wrote their understanding of the first article of the Baptist Faith Message. And, um, well, uh, he accused me and his and his article, or maybe he wrote a letter. Anyway, it's all being, it's like this microphone. It's not working right yet, you know, but anyway, but this guy made some statement to me. He said that Dr. Kerry Kimbrell has made the Bible an idol. He has put the Bible up higher than God. Well, I mean, somebody accused you of something like that. I mean, what are you going to do? Just going to sit there and take it? So, uh, so I wrote in response to his writing. Now this thing can go on forever. You know that, but I was going to make one response to his writing and then I wouldn't go argue with him anymore about it. So I made one response. I said, if the word of God, if putting the word of God up as the confessions do, If believing the Word of God and saying that we must have the Word of God right first before we can get anything else right, if that makes the Bible an idol, then I have to say, O blessed idol! It's stunning, even as it's stunning you. Because I'm telling you, saving faith is not simply faith in Christ. Saving faith is a package. It's not just one little slither of this thing. Saving faith comes in a giant package, in a rush of wind, in a giving of life. And this saving faith not only causes you to embrace Christ, but to embrace the Word of God. If you believe the Bible, it is not because, and let me just give you my own testimony, I don't believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible because I have investigated every controversy in the text. I don't believe the Bible is infallible and inerrant because I have answered all the objections of all the years of people that try to attack the Word of God and show its inconsistencies. And there are things, I will admit to you, there are things that you must give close attention to and you must study and you must give your full understanding to, you must come to it with full integrity and intellectual prowess. You must give all yourself to it mentally, educationally, in order to understand it. And I understand all of that, and I don't want to diminish any of these things, but that is not the reason I believe that the Bible is inerrant and infallible. The reason I believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible is because of a supernatural work in my heart by the Spirit of God who gave me faith to believe. And if I cannot understand something in the Bible, I must relegate that to my own inadequacies rather than any inadequacy in this, O blessed idol. O blessed Word of God. I don't believe it's an idol, but sometimes you have to expose idiocy with idiocy. Now, saving faith leads you to embrace this. And you see, you cannot believe in Christ if you don't know him. How can they call upon whom? How can they believe in whom, you know, them, of one they've not heard? How can they call upon one they've not believed in? And how can they believe unless a preacher be sent? How can they believe unless this word is given? And you see, when the Spirit of the living God leads you in faith to embrace Christ, He doesn't lead you to embrace Christ in your own understanding. He leads you to embrace Christ as He is revealed in this book. And if you have a faith in Christ any different than the Christ that has been revealed in this book, you are still in your sin. And so we see this. And one of the, one of my favorite passages, and it really wasn't, it wasn't my favorite passage for many, many years. And one day I was listening to the preaching of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Actually, what I did was I wrote a paper on the evangelistic preaching of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in seminary. And I can't find it to save my life. Errol Hulse was asking for it a year or so ago and wanted me to say, and I could not find it. I couldn't, I can't find it. That was before the day when we stored it, you know, and I, it's gone. But anyway, I listened to a lot of his sermons. to do this evangelistic preaching. I listened to his evangelistic preaching so I could write and assess it. And, and he came and with this verse and, and when I heard him speak this verse, it just gripped my heart. And I've referred to it many, many, many, many times, you see, and here it is in a first Thessalonians chapter two. He's speaking to, he is speaking to the Thessalonians and in verse 13 says, for this cause also thank we God without ceasing. We are thanking God without ceasing because when ye receive the word of God which ye heard of us, You received it not as the word of men. You see, that's what the world thinks. They think it's the words of men. And they apply that to all kind of sin, and they're surely applying it now to this thing that has foisted itself upon us, this homosexual marriage. They think that we just stand against homosexual marriage because it is our own thinking, because we have come to some prejudice in our own raising, or we've come to some prejudice in our own religious experience, or whatever. They believe it's the words of men, but the apostle Paul says, we thank God that when it came to you. That you receive the word of God, which he heard of us when it came, he received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. So that's a faith position. That's not an educational position. That's not a political position. I asked a man one time, he was a student, ultimately became a professor at the seminary. And so as he was a professor, I talked with him and I said, do you believe that the Bible's inerrant and infallible? I will not, he said, I will not engage in political rhetoric. I'm not gonna answer those political words. But you see, they think it's political. It's not political. It is saving faith. And here's what we came to the conclusion in these battles, and I said it more than once. If you have trouble with the Word of God, you don't really have trouble with the Word of God. You have trouble with the God of the Word. But you received it as it was in truth. the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe. The word believe is faith, saving faith. It could be translated in this way, which effectually worketh in you who have been captured by saving faith. You who have been given the gift of saving faith. It's effectually working. You see, and it is the word of God. The word of God that has been brought to you by this package of faith. And so you believe it to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word for the authority of God himself. And secondly, not only do you believe it's good when you read this King James English up here. I guess this is not King James English. I guess this is, you know, I guess Christian English in the 17th century. So, you know, King James might have used it, but here it is, all right? But what's good about this is you can go to these if, All right? Believe it. But the second thing is apprehend it. Okay? You also apprehend, not only do you believe it, but you apprehend. See, not only does it strike the mind in the sense that it removes from your mind any mental reservations to it, But more than that, it strikes the heart. It strikes your affections. When God saves you, He doesn't just save your mind. He does save your mind, thank God. Because our minds need saving. Because our minds were crushed by the fall. Our minds need saving. Well, thank God. But it saved more than your mind. It gave you an ability to apprehend. That is to see something about this at more than just an intellectual mental level. It strikes our hearts. It causes us to love and to appreciate. and to embrace fully this wonderful gift of faith. We apprehend the word apprehend. Many of us would understand the word apprehend if we understand it in its criminal application. You know, there's some guys that escaped from this place in New York, right? And they, you know, they crawled through some sewer pipe, I think. That's really wanting to get out of the place. So anyway, and then they ran and for weeks couldn't find them, didn't know where they were, but all of a sudden, because they killed one, but they apprehended, do you know what that means? They grabbed him. Apprehend, arrest. So we also are arrested And we arrest, you see it's both directions, right? God grabs you. What is the first act of the regenerated heart? What is the first act of the regenerated or the regenerate mind? What is the first act to embrace Christ? He grabbed me, but I grabbed him. It's like a little child that senses some danger, like the child is going to fall off the cliff or over the rail or something, and the daddy grabs him and the child feels the strain. Then he doesn't just keep flailing. No, but when his father grabs him, What is the instinct of that child who has sensed the danger and now understands the salvation? That he's been delivered from such danger. What is the child's natural instinct? Not only as the father grabs him, to grab the father. And that's what we do with Christ. He grabs us and we grab Him. He gives us faith and we believe. He grants us repentance and we fall on our face before Him being sorry for sin, hating it and forsaking it because it displeases this one who loves it. Now you can leave sin without hating it. Sin will wreck you. It will destroy you. and leave you wounded and bleeding and messed up and crippled and in bondage. And sometimes sin is so hateful to you that you just have to leave it because you just are not capable of staying in it anymore. But that doesn't mean you hate it. I remember an old boy, well, he was a man, he was an old man when I was a young boy. And he would talk about his former life. He was in the church. He loved to stand and brag about what he was and how many years he'd been married. You know, he liked all that. But if it hadn't been for a faithful, loving, sacrificial wife, this man There's no telling how many women he cheated with on his wife. But he got too old for it, you see. So now he's coming to church. And he had talked to us about what he used to be. And you could hear it in his voice, how he still loved it. He had to leave it, but how he still loved it. And then there was a woman who came to me one day and said, we had a man that was attending our church. He wasn't a member, but he's attending our church. And he had divorced his wife or she left him, I think for another man. And so this woman, He had a relationship with this woman. And so this woman, and the man that was attending my church, I'm being very careful not to use any names, so I hope you can follow this. The man who was attending my church got cold feet. You know what that means, cold feet? Y'all know what that means? It means you're about to get married, then you say, ah, maybe not. You get cold feet, ah. I mean, y'all need to get cold feet before you marry somebody. You need to say, wait a minute now. So, you know, get some cold feet. And sometimes cold feet's good. Sometimes cold feet turn into running feet. Running away feet. Hallelujah. But anyway. So she's gonna put the pressure on him. See, she's gonna put the pressure on this man, because she's gonna come to talk to his pastor. And she's gonna put the pressure on him to marry her. So she comes to my office and she said, you know, he and I who man almost said his name. He and I are going to get married. I said, really? Yeah. I said, well, were you married before? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Married. Really? Yeah. And why are you not married to that guy now? Because of adultery. Oh, he committed adultery on you. No, no. I committed adultery on him. Well, what you think about that now? Oh, I hate it. Really? Yeah. And I said, really, you hate it? Yeah, because it was the most horrific decision. It turned out horribly. You see, she hated it. And she forsook it. But she didn't do the third element. Not because it displeased God, but because it didn't turn out. And so I asked her, I said, well, what would have happened if it had been the most wonderful experience of your life? Because she started this conversation by saying, he's beginning to think maybe he shouldn't marry me, but I want you to know we're sleeping together already. And I said, well, I'm not surprised. I mean, I was born in the morning, but not this morning. Not because it displeased God, but because it turned out all wrong for her. But the saving faith, this fateful repentance, the saving repentance, you see, hits not only the mind. but the heart, you see, and here is the truth. In our best moments, and I know we have bad moments, and I know sometimes our faith is assailed, and sometimes we're not what we really want to be, and sometimes, you know, because of jealousy and envy and pride and sin in our heart, and because sometimes we get tired, and sometimes we get sick, and I realize, you know what I mean? Ultimately, it is there. The sin still is finding a place to attack us in our own members. We take it with us. You see, we live it. That's why the flesh, the world of flesh and the devil, the three enemies, but the flesh is the hardest enemy to overcome because you live with it and in it. But in your best moments, And these moments when your mind and worship and in and in devotion and in praise, your mind's brought to the lofty heights. Of knowing and believing and loving God, do you hate your sin? And are you ashamed of it? When I think of former sins in my best moments, what I think about is why did I do it? I'm not thinking about justifying it. Not thinking about saying, well, everybody else does it. No, I tell you, if no person in the world would live in this world to the glory of God, I want to be that person. I don't want to excuse what I am because other people are what I am. And so. Here is this word of God that comes to you and begins to work in you effectually. And you apprehend, you grab hold of this word and you see it, you see its excellency. You see? You apprehend an excellency therein above all other writings. The writings of all the other religious Leaders and all the other religions don't compare. The writings of the great poets and the wonderful playwrights do not compare. I'm telling you, Shakespeare was written about the same time as the King James Version was translated, but the King James Version is more rich and full and wonderful and complete, more gripping, more moving to the heart and the mind of a man than the writings of Shakespeare. or any great writer. And you see, and not only all the writings, but all the things in the world. You see, this Bible is greater. This book is greater. Saving faith brings us to see it and to love it. And it's greater than anything in the world. It's greater than the philosophies of men. It's greater than the temptations of the world. It's greater than the promises of wealth and riches and fortune. It's greater than all of that. We see it. And it's worth more, you see, than anything we could ever have gotten. And so here we say before the living God in our worship, And in our praying, we say to God in our thanksgiving, thank you for this word to me. Because if you had not given it to me, I would be groping in darkness. But oh God, not only, not only did you call me to yourself, but you gave me the path to come. And you inspired it with your very breath. And then you gave me in saving faith the ability to see it, to know it, to love it, to want it, to desire it. That's the sincere milk of the Word of God. See, when an unhealthy child is born, you don't have to teach the child to eat. It's there. And I tell you, as you get older, if you're healthy, if things are going well, I'm telling you, eating is something you look forward to while you have the taste of bacon in your mouth from breakfast. You're wondering what we're going to have for lunch. And right when you go to throw your plate in the garbage after lunch, you're wondering, where's the supper? And between time, is the concession stand open? And can I get something else? Or you walk by and somebody's eating candy, and you say, hey, could I have a bite? Could I get a bite of that Kit Kat bar? That's healthy eating. And I'm telling you, you have to fight. You have to, how many of you had to fight not to read the word? Man, I got to put the word down and read some math. I got to read some history or I'm going to fail that test. You see, that's just love. So not only above the writings, but above everything in the world. That's why I love the song. Give me Jesus. And you could substitute the word in the morning when I rise. I'll take Jesus. I'll take him. And when I'm alone, I'll take him. And when I come to die, give me Jesus. All things, this world cannot compare. The Apostle Paul says, I counted everything but dung. And that is a nice, polite King James word that translate that Greek word that's not so nice and polite. The Apostle Paul says, it's all like something that you would step on in the yard or, you know, step in in the yard that you have to wipe your foot off before you can come in the house. I'm telling you, stepping in something like that will make a man do crazy things. You'll pull your shoe off and hop on one foot to the hose, or what we say in Baton Rouge, hose pipe, and watch that thing. Oh, I ain't taking this. In fact, I've decided, you know, I've thought of time, too, just to throw the shoe away. I say, Apostle Paul says, that's what I think everything else is compared to this. Apprehending. And here's the reason, because it bears forth the glory of God in his attributes. We don't call characteristics, because, you know, that language is just too mundane. We call them attributes because it's what the Bible attributes to God, the glory. What is glory? You know, I've done a study on the word glory, and I guess I ought to be happy, because the Old Testament word means heavy. So obviously I must be tending toward glorious. Brightness. You know what? All we have are words and I can't describe glory to you. I can't. I don't care what I say. I don't care what definition I give you of glory. It won't be enough. It really will not be enough. But I can tell you this. It's like the word love. I can't describe love. What means you really like somebody? Well, it really means more than that. Well, love really means that you can't live without them, but it really is more than that. Love really means that you feel all giddy inside. You get that feeling when you see that person you love. But it's really more than that. See, but I can't describe love to you, but I can tell you what I can. If you've ever experienced love, all I have to do is reference it. and you know what I'm talking about. If you've ever loved someone, and I talk about love, then you know what I'm talking about. Same way with glory. Have any of you ever seen the glory of God? Do you think when the apostle Paul was called up into the third heaven, that anybody from that point on ever had to say anything to him to describe what the glory of God is? reference the word and he remembers. What about that day? That day when you saw Christ and his glory. You ever seen that? That makes a man write something like this. There is a name. I love to hear. I love to sing its worth. This name sounds like music in my ear, the sweetest name on earth. And then we consider the wonder of... We're just scratching the surface of this, because in heaven, we will have ever increased capacity to investigate this glory. And as soon as we get the increased capacity, then it will be filled with this glory, and we will get more increased capacity, and it will be filled with this glory, and we'll get more increased capacity, and it'll be filled with this glory, and we'll do that for all eternity, and we will not exhaust the glory of God. the glory of His love, the glory of His mercy, the threefold glory of His holiness, the glory of His wrath, the glory of His eternity. the glory of His infinity. You see, eternity Talks about duration, infinity, talks about magnitude. You see, the eternity of God means he had no beginning, he had no ending. The infinites of God, God being infinite means that God can fully come to you and give his undivided attention to your prayers and to your needs, and he can pour out upon you His love and all of his love and yet his love and attention is undiminished so he can do it for you too and you too and you too. How much of how much of God's in this room? I mean, the song we sang, you know, you're welcomed here, and I sure hope that's true that you're welcoming me here. But you know what? He doesn't need our he doesn't need our permission. Thank God he doesn't need our permission. because I'd have never invited him in, but how much of him's here? Riding down the road in your car, how much of him's in your car? How much is, see, he's all there, and he's all everywhere else. That's infinite. How glorious a thing is that? Does it, man, that brings your mind to its end in a minute. In a second, in a nanosecond, boom! And yet, just the Shekinah, the passing. Moses, what a blank check God gave Moses. Moses, tell me what you want and I'll give it. Wow. What's the meaning? If God gave you that check, what would you want? But here's what Moses said, I just want to see all your goodness. He said, oh my goodness, you can't do that. I'll tell you what I will do, though. I'll put you in the cleft of the rock, and I'll pass, and I'll drop my hand, and you'll get to see just a little bit. Now, I don't understand all that mystery and anthropomorphic whatever. All I know is when Moses came down from that crack in the rock, his face glowed with the glory of God so much that the people couldn't take it. That's that much of it, and we're going to be dwelling in it for all eternity. You see, this glory, we've seen it. Oh, the wonder of Christ, the beauty of Him. Sing them over again to me, these wonderful words of life. You stand here. And you whisper to me as I weep concerning this Christ, this word that has And that's why we love the Word of God, because it reveals not only does the excellency of Christ and His nature and offices, what sermons could pour from these verses or these words, and the power and the fullness of the Holy Spirit and His workings and operations. You see there, the Charismatics and the Pentecostals say to we who are Baptists, well, y'all don't understand the Spirit like we do. We preach the Spirit. I had a man that comes to my church every Sunday night and says to me, if you preach the baptism of the Spirit, I'd join your church. I said, well, that's another reason not to do it. But anyway, so, and he keeps coming. But he said, I said, well, you know, almost called his name. I said, look, sir, Dr. Sir, anyway. We don't even believe you can believe without the Holy Spirit. I mean, you're an Arminian, you believe that you have to give God permission to let, you know, to let Him come in. We don't believe, we believe the Spirit shows up and we bow down. And He didn't ask permission to save us, He just saved us. And we were happy. I'm happy He didn't ask my permission. I'm glad He came to me and saved me. Hallelujah. Well, see, that's the excellency of the Spirit of God in this Word of God. And it does something else. It enables us to cast our soul upon him. Now, just notice, I hadn't given you one point yet. Anyway, this is introduction. So, listen to this. I'll be RF Gates for a minute. This is good. Listen to this. R.F.' 's the only guy I ever knew that prepared his sermon while he was preaching. Let me see, I got a note here somewhere. I mean, he'd bring up people, wads of people. I mean, he'd love an iPad now. Wait a minute, wait a minute, I got a quote here. Wait, listen to this. Well, listen to this. For our gospel. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 5. For our gospel came not unto you in word only. It came in word. It must come in word. That's why we're preaching these words to you. That's why these preachers over and over and over again. One time there was this little boy that was bad at our church and my wife Paula was teaching him and said to him, said, Donovan, if you don't behave, I'm going to take you to the preacher. I don't know why the preachers use the beads. You know, discipline. Oh, that's a preacher. But anyway, or one little boy calls me the creature, not the creature. Anyway, so said, I'm taking you to the preacher. And he said, Oh, don't take me to the preacher. He never shuts up. Well, we don't. This word came to us. This gospel came to us, not in word only, but in power and power. Dunamis. Now, that word power there comes from the Greek word dunamis, and it means two things. It can mean power, explosive power like dynamite. Boom! Or it can mean continuous power like dynamo. And both of them true with the power of God, you see. One day, boom, glory blew all over us and blew us out of hell into heaven. and then gave us this power that continues to dynamo in us to keep us on the road to heaven. It came in power and it came in the Holy Ghost. And it came in much assurance. It had its own confidence. when you knew what manner of men we were among you. These preachers say, you're not qualified to preach the word. Oh God, can you use such preaching? You're not qualified to preach the word until you've been captured by it. Well, time to eat. If I don't say any more, would y'all promise to read the rest of it? Preach it to yourself? Oh, yeah, who said yes? Well, hallelujah, what a savior. And you see, the principal acts of this faith lead you to Christ. Know the name given among men under heaven, whereby you must be saved. You must be saved. And you accept him, you see. Cornelius was a devout man in the 10th chapter of Acts, but when he heard the gospel preached, he believed. That means he believed more that day than he had ever believed in his life. And it saved him. And received. Jesus came to his own. Well, he made the world, and the world didn't know him. He came to his own, his own didn't receive him. But, hmm? Well, he said, the Bible's contradictory, Don. It said none received him, none knew him, but as many as received him. None received him, but as many as received him. Oh, this is hopelessly contradictory. It is hopelessly contradictory if you have the mind of the flesh. And you don't want it to be true, because if it's true, you're going to hell. But here's the wonder of such a thing. No one believes, and yet you believe. No one received, and yet you received it. Why? Who were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but God, but born of God. So he came to his own, his own received him not, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Who are they? The ones born of God. Here comes this saving faith. through this word, through this preaching. We don't give you 10 steps to Jesus. We preach the word. And he calls you. That's the hope of the preacher. That's our only hope. I could never develop a sermon and never preach it with enough zeal and gusto to get you from your sin to Jesus. But we keep doing it over and over and over and over again because this is what He uses. And so maybe here today, maybe just, you know, what do you want out of the sermon? Well, I tell you what I want out of the sermon is out of the sermon. But some of you today, maybe the Spirit spoke to your heart and you believed what you didn't believe. before you walked in here. Might have known it, but you didn't believe it. Maybe the spirit would do that for us. Well, I learned some good points here, Don, by carrying on. I'll just preach them in Africa. Let's pray. Open our hearts, oh God, that we might love you. Our minds that we might understand you. Lead our feet down your paths. Take our hands to do your work. Save our soul, oh God. And give it. Onto Christ. As a reward. of His sacrifice and death. For the joy that was laid before Him, you tell us, for that joy He endured the cross, despising the shame. Would you include us in that joy to Christ? And we pray it in his name. Amen.