 So you're going to keep your place in John chapter one, even when we move out of John chapter one. Just keep your place there. We're going to be coming back to John chapter one in several parts of the sermon. So what are we talking about in this series? We're talking about salvation roadblocks. This is a series specifically for soul winners to kind of give you some more horsepower when you're out there soul winning. We're talking about things that you are going to run into when you are out spreading the gospel, when you're out preaching the word of God in your city, in your town, in our town. These are things you're going to run into. Last week we talked about by things you're going to run into, you're going to find people are hung up on certain beliefs. Look we know to be saved you just have to believe on or trust on the Lord Jesus Christ completely in order to be saved as the Bible says. People have certain beliefs that will stop them from believing that. We talked last week about probably the biggest one, the major one that we'll run into which is works based salvation. So obviously you cannot trust on Jesus completely if you're trusting in yourself or your own works even partially. So this evening we're going to talk about the next, I think maybe one of the next biggest ones. It's hard to say depending on your experience but I can tell you this. If you soul win for not even that long you are going to run into this, alright? And what I'm talking about tonight is the idea that can you be saved if you don't believe the Bible? And by believe the Bible I mean if you don't believe the Bible is God's word, okay? Now belief in the Bible today is at an all-time low in our country. I mean when I say all-time low I mean from the beginning of the foundation of our country to now, now is the lowest it's ever been. It's on a steady downward trend. If you go and you look up studies on this, polls on this, whatever you want to look at all will show the same thing. They might show different numbers but they will all show the same trend and this trend is going down and it's actually going down fairly quickly at this point. I remember just two, three years ago I looked up this number for a sermon kind of along these lines and it was at I don't know 26, 27% of people in the United States believe the Bible was God's word. Now that number, if you take that poll today, that number by according to Gallup anyway is 20%. 20% of Americans now say the Bible is the literal word of God. That's down from, I guess that's, I'm sorry, it's down from 24% the last time that Gallup asked this question in 2017, alright? So the trend is going down and you are going to understand that as a soul winner this is a problem for you. Now when they word it they say the literal word of God and I'm not going to get into nitpicking this but basically we understand that God did not write the Bible down in English but we believe that the King James Bible is God's perfect translation of what he said. And he used men of course to write as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the words that he gave them to write. But the point is this, the Bible is to be taken literally except when it is expressly instructing you otherwise, alright? That is what we believe, that is what the Bible teaches. Turn to Matthew chapter 20, you are going to keep your place in John chapter 1 and just go to Matthew chapter 20. I can show you many different verses about this, as a matter of fact there was one in John chapter 1. We'll look at that in just a minute, just keep a finger in John chapter 1 but look at Matthew chapter 20. So what am I talking about? So I'm talking about the Bible is God's literal word and it is to be taken literally unless you know he expressly tells us otherwise. What do I mean by that? An example is in Matthew chapter 20 in verse number 1. The Bible says here it says for the kingdom of heaven and look at these three words right here. Like unto a man that is a householder which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. So the Bible here is saying that the kingdom of heaven is like unto, it's like it's a metaphor. He's going to use an example here, it's kind of like this, it's not saying the kingdom of heaven is literally a householder that hires laborers in his vineyard. He's like no. But the Bible specifically tells us that this is a metaphor, alright? In Luke chapter 3 verse 22 and also in John chapter 1 you just go back to John chapter 1. Look at verse 32, we just read this. We just read this, alright? Look at verse 32 of John chapter 1 for another example of this. The Bible says in John, we're talking about John the Baptist here and John Bear record saying I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove. Now I don't know, you know I grew up in Sunday school and this is a perfect example of why we don't have and never will have Sunday school here. We turn the Bible into a cartoon but I can't tell you how many Bible stories that I saw at the baptism of Jesus where the Holy Spirit came down to Jesus where it was literally like it was a picture of a dove like flying down from the clouds. The Holy Spirit did not come down in the body of a dove. The Holy Spirit it says it came down like a dove, alright? That is not something that, oh the Holy Spirit is a bird. Now the Holy Spirit came down like a dove in its movements or how it came from the sky. There, so all that to say this, turn to Psalm chapter 12. All that to say this. The Bible is God's literal word and we believe that it is to be taken literally and look if you exit that belief anything goes. If you exit that belief you will find people that oh you know we just think that you know it's not to be taken literally and it's all symbolic and all this. Like the Bible basically turns into nothing. Like it means nothing. You know there's no heaven, there's no hell, I mean there's all kinds of crazy beliefs out there. Oh that was just, you know the beliefs on men and women's role in the family which are not popular today from the Bible. You know people will say oh that's based on the culture of the day. That's not to be taken literally. No the Bible is to be taken literally except when it expressly says not. Many things in prophecy, the book of Revelation are symbolism, they're symbolic, they're meant to be there. It's very obvious when things are symbolic alright and things are examples, analogies, metaphors in the Bible but otherwise the Bible is to be taken literally. You say why is this important? Why is it important that people don't believe the Bible? Look at Psalm chapter 12 and look at verse number six. Here's why it's important. Here's why it's important. It says the words of the Lord, in Psalm 12 it says the words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. So the Bible here is saying that the Bible is literally declaring itself pure meaning without blemish, without problem, without any kind of error in it. As silver tried in a furnace of earth, again what do you say? Is the Bible, are the words of the Lord silver? No, it says as silver. It's a comparison. It's making a comparison. It says they're pure words as silver. How do they purify silver? They heat it up in a furnace and all the impurities float to the top and they take the impurities off and they do it again and again and again and the more times they do it the more pure it is. The Bible is just using this example, this analogy, this metaphor here of silver being purified as an example of how pure God's words are, how without error they are. Then look at verse number seven. So first of all, they're pure words, there's no problem with them meaning there's no contradictions, there's no errors in the King James Bible. But now verse number seven, this is how we know right here that the King James Bible is the word of God. In verse number seven it says, thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. What this is saying is that God will preserve his word. So number one, his word's pure, no errors, no problems, it's perfect. Number two, God promises that he will keep them. He will preserve them. They won't be lost. They won't be lost in a cave somewhere for 400 years. So when somebody asks you, there's 60 different versions of the Bible in English right now. There is. But guess what? For 400 years the King James Bible was the only one. So in order to believe that all these other versions that were suddenly found 50 years ago, 60 years ago, 80 years ago, are God's word, you would have to believe that verse number seven is not true. You would have to believe that God hid his word in a cave for 400 years because the King James Bible was the only Bible in English for literally hundreds of years. And then along comes all these other versions just exploding into the population. And look, you can prove those versions are not pure by just what they say. And I bring that up again and again, you know, when we run across those things. Now look, the Bible is God's literal word. And it successfully translated, accurately translated into English in the King James Bible because God promised to preserve his word. Now turn to Genesis chapter three. Turn to Genesis chapter three. Why in the world is so we have this problem where we have a trend that's going down that less and less people are believing the Bible. All these different Bible versions are popping up. You say, why is this happening? I'm going to explain to you why it's happening. Look at Genesis chapter three. This is always been Satan's plan. It has always been Satan's plan to create doubt in God's word. You say, when did he start this plan? From the beginning. From the beginning. Look what he said in Genesis chapter three in verse number one. Before man disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the garden of the tree that they weren't supposed to eat. Look at verse number one of Genesis chapter three. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. Subtlety is always bad by the way. Whenever you see subtlety in the Bible that means somebody sneaking around. They're trying to get someone to do something through not honest means. And look what the subtle serpent being possessed by Satan said. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. What is he doing here? What is he doing here? The woman already told him, hey, we're not supposed to eat that. We're not supposed to eat of that tree. And he's trying to inject doubt in the woman by saying, yea, hath God said. What he's saying is, is that really what God said? Satan here, and he has always been doing this. This is the modern Bible versions right here. Yea, hath God said, I can't tell you how many times I have run into somebody at the door and they have brought up to me the fact that there are dozens of different Bibles. How could you possibly know which one is the right one? Look, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to open up two different Bibles, turn to the same verse and realize they say completely different words. So which words did God say? Which ones are correct? It has always been Satan's agenda to cast doubt in God's word. And to get people to say, yea, hath God said, this is what the 80% of people in the United States believe right now. They believe, did God really say that? When they look at the Bible, what is the Bible? Well, it's a book of, you know, then you can go and they 20% don't believe that it's literally God's word, but then they cut it up into different stages of different whatever. It doesn't even matter what the other stages are, but it's basically people on different levels of doubt of God's word, of different levels of, did God really say that? That's the 80% right now. Look, this plan by Satan is extremely effective. And this is why there are 60 different versions of the Bible, because it is working and it is Satan trying to get people to ask the question, did God really say this? That's it. Turn to Romans chapter one. This is why God has warned so harshly against changing his word. This is why God, so number one in Psalm chapter 12, the Bible says, God says, he's like, look, I will keep my word. He's like, it's pure and I will preserve it. And then he gives an express warning several times in the Bible. I'll show you two where he says, don't you change it. Look at Romans chapter one in verse number 25. Romans chapter one in verse number 25, the King James Bible says, who changed the truth. We're talking about people that have turned on God that have rejected the Lord and what did they do? They changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who has blessed forever. Amen. We talked about that creature versus the Creator a couple of weeks ago, but the main thing is these people, they changed God's word. Look at the next verse. Notice verse 26. Notice the first three words here. What does it say? It says, for this cause. You know what that means? Because they changed my word for this cause, for this reason, God gave them up onto vile affections. For even their women, they changed the natural use into that, which is against nature. This is where all the naturalness comes from, all the perversion comes from, not to get into that. But the point is, these people first, they changed God's word. And God, look, because they did that, God literally just gave them up, gave them over. He just gave them up. He rejected them. All right? You say, wow, turn to Revelation chapter 22, we'll see something very similar. We'll see something very similar. So we see this idea that somebody, somebody that, like, first of all, this is an unsaved person, because no saved person would do this, all right? Look, and I'll prove that to you in a few minutes. But look, it's saying that if you change God's word, you're done. That's what it says. Revelation 22 says something very similar, like the last few verses of the Bible. You ask yourself, how do you end a book like this? How does God end a book like this? You know, you have an infinite book. You could read this book 500 times in your life, and every single time you read it, you will gain more from it. You're like, how do you end a book like that? Well, this is how God ends the book. Look at Revelation chapter 22, the last chapter of the book, of the Bible, and look at verse number 18. He says, for I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. So, there's two ways to change something, right? Isn't there two ways to change something? If I have a sentence, I can change it by adding to it, and then I can also change it by removing things from it. Right? And he covers that in verse 19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. The main thing there is that he'll take away your part out of the book of life. All right, I did a study on the book of life a couple of years ago, and let me just tell you how the book of life works in 30 seconds. All right? Everybody starts in the book of life. Nobody's ever added to the book of life. You'll never find one time that a name is added to the book of life ever in the Bible. Everybody starts in the book of life. People are only removed from the book of life. And once you're removed, you're out. That's it. So if you're removed from the book of life, the Bible is saying, look, you're damned. That's what he's saying here. So look, don't add to my word and don't take away from my word. That's how God ends the Bible. It's pretty serious. This is why all these different Bible verses show just a satanic agenda to just cast doubt on people on the Bible. All right? You say, back to the whole point of the sermon, you say, why does it matter? You say, why does it matter what someone's opinion or particular belief on the Bible is? I mean, you get saved by just trusting in Jesus alone, right? We know that. You get saved by believing on Jesus. That's it. It's very simple. You know, do you have to learn about all these Bible versions and you have to know, you know, all this stuff? I mean, can't you just learn all this stuff and believe the Bible later? The answer is no. And I'm going to tell you why. Go back to John, John chapter one. Go back to John chapter one. First of all, the first reason is this. The first reason is very simple is, you know, that you can't just believe the Bible later after you get saved is because, first of all, the gospel is in the Bible. You know, John 3.36 is in the Bible, folks. You know, he believed it all of a sudden, half everlasting life. That is in the Bible, right? Second of all, and the main reason that you cannot get saved. And look, you're not going to have this accidentally happen to you. All right? You're not going to be out there soul-witting and have somebody that doesn't believe the Bible accidentally gets saved. I'm going to explain to you why that is. All right? It's not going to happen. I'll actually explain to you how it's actually going to work from the Bible as well. Turn back to John chapter one. John chapter one, look at verse number one. John chapter one, verse number one. So why can't you get saved? The question is, why can't you get saved if you don't believe the Bible? That's the question. Look at verse number one. The Bible says in the beginning was the Word. Notice how Word is capitalized there. And the Word capitalized was with God and the Word was God. Do you see that? The Word is capital and the beginning was the Word. So it's not just some Word, it's the Word. And this Word, this Word that we're talking about in verse number one is God. The Word was God. Now go to Genesis chapter one and verse number one because it says in the beginning, so let's go back to, let's go to the beginning. Let's go to the beginning. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. So the Word, this Word that we're talking about is literally, look, do you understand why you need to take the Bible literally now? The Word was God. Well, that may be that symbolic. No, the Word was God. That's what the Bible was telling us here. Look at Genesis chapter one and verse number one. It is a literal statement and it literally worked that way. And you and I ought to be very, very thankful that this is literal when I'm teaching you right now. Look at Genesis chapter one and verse number one. In the beginning, so here we are. We're at the beginning that John chapter one is talking about. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. That's great. But you know the beauty of the Bible is it not only tells us that God did this, it tells us how he did it. Imagine, look around you. Look at the universe. Look at the earth. Think about the expanse of everything. The sun, the moon, the stars, the earth. God tells us how he actually did it. And the earth was without form and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the water. So here you have God, assuming God the Father in verse number one, then you have the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit in verse number two, and guess what you have in verse number three. You have the trinity in the first three verses of the Bible. Alright, look at verse number three. Bible says, and God said, let there be light and there was light. Six, seven times, don't quote me on that, but six or seven times in chapter one as God creates the world, as God creates the heaven and the earth, how did he do it? And God said. And God said. And God said. You know how he did it? He literally, he said it. He said it into existence. That's how God created the earth. Turn to Hebrews chapter four. Turn to Hebrews chapter four. You still got your place in John chapter one. You still got your place in John chapter one. Keep your place there, but flip over. Flip over to Hebrews chapter four and look at verse number 12. What does it say the word God is? It says the word of God is quick. That means it makes things alive, being quick. And then what does it say? And powerful. Look, that better, if God literally used his words to create the universe, that means his words have literal power. My words, hopefully you listen to me and what I'm preaching here, but the only reason that I would say anything that seems powerful to you is because I am quoting the words of God. That's the only reason. Because it's not my words that are powerful. That's why as I picked up the bulletin of someone taking notes, that's why there's so much Bible in it. Why? Because it's God's words that are powerful, not some story I can get up here and tell you. I try to be interesting and I try to be entertaining as I preach as much as possible, but here's the thing. I'm really not that interesting. Say, how could you preach 150 sermons a year when you're not that interesting? Because I use God's words, not mine. Because God's interesting, God's infinite, I'll never run out of things to preach. Why? Because God. Because God's words are powerful. That's why. God's words are quick. Now go back to John chapter one. Go back to John chapter one. So the word, the word we see in Genesis chapter one, we saw God the Father. Genesis chapter one verse one, God the Father, Genesis chapter one verse two, we saw the Holy Spirit. Genesis chapter one verse three, who do we see? We saw the word. We saw the word. And look at verse number two of John chapter one by the way. It says the same was in the beginning with God. So it says this word that was God was with God at the beginning. And oh, look at this, all things were made by him. That matches what we just read, right? The word literally created the universe, the word of God, God's words that he spoke. Now look at verse 14. Now look at verse 14 where the Bible says, and the word now, now we're talking about, you know, Jesus coming to the earth and the word, capital W, was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So Genesis chapter one and verse number three is literally talking about Jesus. Because Jesus himself is the word that became flesh. Jesus is the word of God. It's the same thing. So you say, now do you understand why you can't be saved? If you don't believe that the Bible is the word of God? Because you can't trust on Jesus and then not trust on Jesus. It's not a logical statement. You can't say, you know, I trust Jesus but I don't trust the word of God. Why? Because they're the same thing. That's why. They're exactly the same thing. God's word, turn to Colossians chapter one, God's word created the entire universe. God's word created the entire universe. He literally spoke it into existence. Just think about that for a second. You know, who's the only being that can just speak something and it just becomes God. Look at Colossians chapter one, verse number thirteen. The Bible says in verse number thirteen of Colossians chapter one, who had delivered us from the power of darkness, talking about Jesus and had translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, Jesus, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, and look at verse fit sixteen, it says, for by him were all things created. Now we see the Bible just equate Jesus to the word, just as I've been showing you. It doesn't say, like, you know, Jesus was like, you know, a part of it or anything. No, it says, it says literally by him. Like literally he did it. Like Jesus created the universe. Jesus created the world. Jesus created creation. He is, Jesus is the mechanism of creation. Literally. Do you see why we need to take the Bible literally? I mean, are we not living, are we not living in an actual creation? Are we not living in, I mean, it's like, it's like saying you have a real car and then the mechanic that works on your car is just figurative. It's like, what in the world are you going to fix your car? It's like, this is a literal world and it was literally created by Jesus. That is what the Bible is teaching. Hebrews chapter one verse two says the same thing. It says, by whom also he made the worlds. Jesus literally created the world. You cannot trust on him and not believe the Bible because they're one and the same. Alright, that's why it works that way. Now, what will you see in the field? What will you see out there in the mission field when you're out there soul winning? How will this actually play out? Let me just show you, just give you a couple examples of how this is going to go for you. Many times you won't know that someone doesn't believe the Bible because we don't ask that question. We ask people, if they know for sure if they're going to heaven, we ask people if they don't know, what do you ask them, what they're trusting in? They tell us what they're trusting in and then we say the Bible says something different or we'd be happy to show you what the Bible says about how to get to heaven and if they're interested we'll just start showing them what the Bible says. We do not specifically ask the question, do you believe the Bible? Where do you fall in this gallop pole? We don't go into that. But here's what will happen. Here's what will happen. You will run into some part of the Gospel that they do not believe. Every single time. Every single time. I mean, this is why you need to be asking questions by the way when you're out there soul-winning and you're going through things. You need to make sure that you're not just the only one just talking at people. You need to be asking them. So do you understand that you're a sinner? Do you understand what the Bible is saying here? Do you understand what I'm telling you about what the Bible says you deserve, the wages for your sin is? They need to have people talk back, do you have any questions about these things? And then at the very end, we usually recap, so you believe you're a sinner, you believe the punishment for that sin is in eternal hell? And you know, you need to ask these people, do you believe these things that I'm telling you? And many times at like every single time, if you're talking to somebody who doesn't believe the Bible, they will tell you that they do not believe one of those things. They will tell you, they'll tell you back that no, I don't believe I'm a sinner. Actually, and here's the most popular one. Actually, I don't believe that I deserve to go to hell. And then you'll say to them, well, would you like me to show you some more things from the Bible on that? They're like, that was just written by man. That's how you'll find out. That's how you'll find out. Because look, here's the thing, folks, as you go through the gospel with people, there's some hard truths there. There's some hard truths there. And unless you actually believe the words of God, not some man standing at your door, or not some lady standing at your door, unless you believe the words of God, you're not going to accept those truths. And that's what will happen. If you accidentally get somebody saved that doesn't believe the Bible, it will work that way every single time, guaranteed. Why? Because Jesus is the Bible. Because Jesus is the Word of God. All right? Look, this is why we're in such a great position in Fresno, by the way. Because what is Fresno? Fresno is largely Catholic. I mean, we're dealing with, here, let's be honest. We're dealing with a bunch of Catholics here in Fresno. And let me tell you something. This church, and churches like ours, I mean, let me just say, there's probably no group of people that we have gotten more of them saved than Catholics. I love Catholics. You say, what? You're kind of hard. No, I'm hard on the Catholic Church. I'm hard on the Catholic Church. I love Catholics. Why? Because they believe the Bible. These people, these Catholics, they're so easy to get saved. Our friend, Brother Stuckey in the Philippines, has gotten literally thousands of Catholics saved in the Philippines. Thousands of people. I am not kidding you. It is ridiculous how easy it is to get Filipino Catholics saved. They're the most humble people, and they believe the Bible. You just show them what it says, bam, saved. It's easy. I mean, I have to, like, his soul winning numbers are crazy. It's crazy. It's just so receptive there. They're doing such a great work there. Why? Because we love Catholics. I love Catholics in Fresno. I love it. They believe the Bible. Guess what? They just don't know what it says, because they've been lied to about what it says. Turn to Romans chapter 10. They got a priest who lies to them. They got a pope that lies to them. So look, we should go out, and we should reach them, show them the truth, get them saved. Because look, even in Fresno, it is pretty easy to get Catholics here saved. And I'm so thankful for that, because look, we love these people. We want them to know the truth. Let me show you. Go to Romans chapter 10, and let me show you God's design for the gospel. You say, what do you mean? Let me show you about the design that God has to get the gospel to people. This is God's design concept to get the gospel to the world, right here in Romans chapter 10 and verse number 13. So we see in Romans chapter 10 and verse number 13, we've read this verse, I don't know, millions of times, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So of course, you have that belief in your heart, and you just ask God to save you. I mean, it's not the prayer that saves you, but the belief in your heart, you will call out to the Lord, you will ask for that salvation. But look at verse number 14. Now God kind of walks it back. God kind of walks it back on how a person is to get to that point where they would believe and call upon the name of the Lord. Look at verse 14. It says, then shall they call on him and whom they have not believed. So here we see that it's the belief that will drive someone to ask for salvation. And how shall they believe in him? So we go back another step, how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? So obviously someone's not going to believe the Gospel if they've never heard the Gospel. I mean, that's obvious, that's logical, right? But then he goes back even further and he says, how shall they hear without a preacher? This is God's design right here, right? God is saying that it's your job to go out and preach my word. God is not going to go out and send an army of angels out to knock people's doors. This is the design right here. It's like people call upon the name of the Lord and you're saved. It's like, but they have to believe on Jesus, they have to trust on Jesus. How are they going to trust on Jesus if they've never heard the Gospel, they've never heard of Jesus? How are they going to hear about Jesus? You're going to go tell them, that's what God is saying here. You're going to go tell them. Now continue, look at verse number 15, actually go to Acts chapter 8, go to Acts chapter 8. So here's the thing, how shall they hear without a preacher? So God wants people to go out and preach to them. Look at Acts chapter 8. We see this demonstrated in the Bible again and again. In Acts chapter 8, the most famous example that we just went through in our study of Acts. But look what it says in Acts 8.30. It says in Philip ran through there to him and heard him read the prophet, read the prophet Asaius and said, understandest thou without a readest. He goes up to this guy that's reading the Bible, the Ethiopian eunuch. He says, do you understand what you're reading? Look what he says. He says, how can I? Except some man should guide me. You know what he needed? He needed a preacher. He needed someone who's saved to go help him understand. He needed a desire that Philip would come up and sit down with him. So what happened? Philip went up to him and he preached the Gospel to him. And then he ended up getting saved, getting baptized. Not to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. So the question becomes, why couldn't he just read it and just understand it? Like he was reading it, he was having trouble with it. He was reading it, he was not understanding who Jesus was. He said, is this book, is this prophecy, is it talking about somebody who's going to come or somebody that we're still waiting for? And then Philip explained to him, Jesus. The Bible says, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Why is that? Why is there needed a preacher? And this is why in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, if you want to draw an arrow in your Bible from Romans chapter 10, verse number 15, draw it to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. This is why a preacher is necessary. Look at verse 14. It says, the natural man, this is the person that's not saved. The natural man receive it not the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. This is what was happening with the Ethiopian unit. He was the natural man and he was not understanding what the Bible said. And Philip had to come there and spiritually discern those things and explain it to him. Look, the Bible here is saying is that the Bible is a spiritual book and it needs to be spiritually understood. These things, basically what I'm trying to get you to understand is the gospel is designed to be explained by a saved person to an unsaved person. This is God's design for how he wants the gospel to be spread in the world. Now go back to Romans chapter 10. Go back to Romans chapter 10. Go back to Romans chapter 10. So in order to believe on the Lord, in order to call upon the Lord, they need to believe on the Lord. In order to believe on the Lord, they need to hear the actual gospel. In order to hear the actual gospel, they need someone to preach it unto them. This is how God wants it to work. Look at verse number 15 now of Romans chapter 10. Now we see that because the Bible is a spiritual book, it makes perfect sense that a saved person that has the Holy Spirit in them would preach the gospel unto someone that's not saved that does not have the Holy Spirit. I mean how many times have you been out there soul winning and you're preaching the gospel to somebody? Look, the Bible, they have a Bible in their house. You're preaching the gospel to somebody and they just like, this happens like, it should happen every time you get somebody saved. A light bulb goes on and they're just like, that just makes so much sense. Look, that is so simple. Well, yeah, the Bible says that there's simplicity in Christ. The simplest thing in the Bible. There's some complicated things in the Bible. The simplest thing, how to get saved. Very simple. People are just like, man, I just, I've never had anyone explain it to me that way. That's because they're in churches with false prophets, listening to Catholic priests, all this stuff. They just need someone that's saved to spiritually discern this book, the gospel to them, and they'll get saved. Look at Romans chapter 10 verse 15. Now the Bible says like, how preachers are going to get to that door. It says, how shall they preach, except they be sent. So this is saying that preachers, that soul winners, are sent by somebody. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. So here's another thing. It's kind of fun soul winning because you're actually bringing people really good news. Like when you get somebody saved, they're very, very happy. You say why? Because they just like realize what they got, they realize they're going to hell, now they're going to heaven. I mean, talk about making somebody's day is the feet of someone that brings these glad tidings, the feet of somebody that brings the gospel of peace. But the point is, the Bible says that a preacher is going to get to that door because someone's going to send them. You need, look the Bible is saying here, you need a soul winning church to send you. Why? Why? And let me tell you something, it works this way. I mean, I don't know how many people we have met in our lives that they've gotten out of a soul winning church or they never got into a soul winning church. They just don't go soul winning. Why? Because it's tough to do on your own. They may go for a while and they just, they fizzle out and they quit because it's a tough thing to go on your own. You take for granted, you know, the difference between being in a soul winning church and then trying to go soul winning on your own. I mean, today was actually a good example. You know, we just didn't really, there's a lot of houses, we couldn't get into the houses because they had gates and dogs. My goodness, the dogs today. But many, I mean, there are people who just didn't want to listen today. But you know what? It was just like, oh, we're done already? Because why? Because I'm talking to my brother in Christ. We're just, we're just walking down the street, talking to my brother in Christ. It's just a great day. It was like a very encouraging day because I was like, I just got to talk to my, talk to my brother. I mean, I don't get to talk. I don't get to talk to my brother all the time. We're different people in church and things are busy during the week and all this kind of stuff. But look, I mean, on a bad day, you get to fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ when you're sent out by a church. On a bad day, soul winning, when you're trying to do it on your own, it's a terrifying and discouraging event. Let me tell you, I mean, let me just tell you, it just, you'll just stop because that's what people do. Again and again and again, I've heard the thing, oh, we're going to leave this church and we're going to move across the country. We're going to go to church. Oh, I don't know. I just took this job or whatever. They're just going to go, oh, we're going to go soul winning on our own. And all this, it just, it always fizzles out every time. Because the Bible, whenever you get outside, just, this is a general rule of thumb, by the way. The Bible has all these different designs for how you're supposed to do things. Any time you decide you're just going to skirt outside God's plan and do it your own way, it's just not going to work out well. That's just a general rule on basically everything in the Bible. Do it God's way. You're supposed to be sent. You're supposed to be sent. That's why we have a professional as we can soul winning program here. We have set soul winning times. We set you up with professional looking materials. We're going to train you to soul win. We're going to, you know, we're going to whip you and guess what? We're going to send you out and guess what? We're going to go with you. You're never going to be out there on your own. It's never going to be a discouraging situation because we are with each other. We are edifying each other. We are the body of Christ together. All right? So that's the design for the Gospel. But back to the point of the sermon. How can you, what do you do? What do you do? We see that, we see that Jesus is the word. The word is Jesus. You can't trust on Jesus if you don't trust the word because they're one and the same. All right? What do you do though if you run into that? What do you do if you run into someone that just doesn't believe the Bible and they're hung up on some part of the Gospel and they're just like, yeah, but that was written by man. Turn to 2 Timothy 3. I'll give you a couple of verses that you can go to. If you actually have somebody that is willing to listen, usually the conversation will end pretty quickly at this point because people don't want to hear too much else. But if you want to show them some verses, if you want to use the Bible to prove the Bible, and I'll show you how that's valid in just a couple of minutes, but here's a couple of other verses in addition to Psalm chapter 12. Psalm chapter 12 is really your go-to verse there. But 2 Timothy 3.16, 2 Timothy 3.16, the Bible, you know, here's for the guy that says, yeah, but that was written by men. The Bible says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Yes, he used men to pan it down, but it was they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. They were inspired by God. Psalm chapter 19 is another one. This is for the people that just doubt the validity of the Bible. In Psalm chapter 19 in verse number seven, the Bible says, the law of the Lord is perfect. Converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure. Making the wise simple. Here's, and I've given this analogy before, but this is a super important verse. Why? This is an important verse showing how you can prove the Bible with the Bible. The Bible here is saying the law of the Lord is perfect. OK, but yeah, but that's the Bible saying that. Of course, it's like some author writing a book saying, this book is the awesomest book ever, and it was written by the guy that wrote the book. It's like people say, that's circular logic. But here's the thing. The Bible works. We know the Bible is perfect because it works. Converting the soul. Show me another book that can get somebody that's going to hell into heaven. Show me another book that can do that. There is no other book that can do that. There's no book out there that can convert the soul. The Book of Mormon is going to send you to hell. The Apocrypha is going to send you to hell. All these Bible versions out there are going to send you to hell. All these other books are going to send you to hell. The Bible is the only book that can convert the soul and actually get someone saved. I mean, making the wise simple, making wise the simple, sorry, but it's saying it can take, the Bible can actually take, after salvation it can take the simplest person and make them a very wise person. You're like, wow, that's power. And look, that works. If you listen to the Bible, you read the Bible, you learn the Bible, you will become wise. I don't care how smart you are or whatever. The Bible says that you will literally become wise if you follow what the Bible says. And it works. Show me a situation where it hasn't worked. So look, the Bible, we know the Bible is true because it works. The Bible will save you, it will save your soul, and it will grow you as a person. It will literally make you wise. But even logically, folks, even just logically, think about this. The Bible, it's impossible if the Bible wasn't written by God, here's just a logical argument, there's no way it could exist. The Bible was written by, I mean, if it was written by man, it was written by 40 different men over 1,500 years. Most of these men did not know each other. They did not know each other, and look, these men were not geniuses. Yeah, some were kings, but most of them were laymen. Tax collectors, one was a doctor, one was a Pharisee, fishermen, really? These are regular, everyday people. They must have been geniuses. They must have all been colluding together. They could have never done it. They could have never put this book together that all fits together perfectly. There's no mistakes. There's not one author that wrote something, and then another author that wrote something 900 years later that contradicts what the other author said. They all wrote this book that all points to the same person, Jesus Christ, and has no errors in it. It is impossible that men could do that. It's also the only book that applies and will literally work for every single person on the planet that has ever lived. There's no other book like that. There's no errors. There's no contradictions. The fact, look folks, the fact that it exists, you see, but people don't know what's in it. People don't know, they don't know the miracle of the machine of the Bible. So it's easy for them to just listen to what somebody else says to look at the fact that there's 65 other versions of this book out there and just say, yeah, what a mess. Who knows what God said? Who knows? But the proof that it is God's word is the fact that it exists, folks. Another analogy that I've used before is if you found a machine, you found a machine in the woods. You know, and the laws of thermodynamics say that there is no such thing. There can never be anything that is a perpetual motion machine. There is nothing that, there is no machine that can create energy on its own. Every machine needs gasoline, some fuel source, but say you found a machine that created energy and it worked. And it was validated that it worked, that this machine actually created energy. Look, the machine itself would be proof of the validity of the machine because it works. That's how the Bible can literally prove itself. Because the Bible is a miracle, the power that it does have. The fact that it was written by all these different men and it still is perfect means that all these men were inspired by the same person. All these men were simply penning down what the same person was telling them. And if you read the Bible, you know this. If you've read the Bible cover to cover, you understand that it is the same person. Old Testament to New Testament, chapter by chapter, line by line, this person does not change. This is the same person. You can tell that. You could tell reading a book. If you're reading some book and all of a sudden some different author jumped in to finish out the book, you would be able to tell. You would be able to tell. The same person is talked about from Genesis to Revelation. So the Bible is proof of its own truth. But back to the original point, people must believe the Bible to be saved. You say, well, I know a person that says they've trusted on Jesus, but they don't believe the Bible is God's Word. They're not saved. It's that simple. Because you have a person that is telling you that they've trusted on Jesus, but they don't trust Jesus. That's what they're saying. It makes no sense what they're saying. I'm not saying, look, I'm not saying that everybody that gets saved will all of a sudden know everything about the Bible. That's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is somebody that's saved, they may know nothing about the Bible, but they believe that it's true. I mean, that was true for me. I didn't know what the Bible said, but I never, there's never a time in my life you could have walked up to me and somebody could have said to me, do you believe the Bible is the Word of God? And I wouldn't have been in that 20%. I'll tell you that right now. I always believed the Bible was God's Word. I just didn't know what it said. And I'm thankful that a preacher told me. So look, we're not to go out there and get in debates. We never debate people out soul-winning. But if you have somebody, have somebody that doesn't believe the Bible and is interested in this, hopefully this gives you a little bit of ammunition to shore them up, maybe plant that seed. To kind of, when I find somebody like this, if they're a sincere person, my goal at that point is to just plant a seed in them that will get them thinking about it. Because if they'll be thinking about it, and they will literally want to know the truth, and they will pray and seek the truth, God says that they will find the truth. All right. And maybe throw in some ideas there on why we're King James only for this church too, because it is confusing that there's 60 different versions in English of God's Word. But those versions are not God's Word. All right. So you must believe the Bible to be saved, to trust in Jesus, because they are one and the same. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.