Now in first Corinthians chapter 2, the verse that I wanted to focus on there is verse 13 where the bible reads "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." He's talking about speaking in the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth, not the words which man's wisdom teacheth, and what I want to preach about this morning is just on the subject in general of using the right words or choosing the right wording in our lives. The first thing I want to point out is that in the bible, it's very clear that words do matter. Now if you would turn to Revelation chapter 22, the last chapter in the bible.
First of all, let me point out to you that the word "Word" or "Words" is found in the bible over 1200 times, so God puts great emphasis on the word or the words that he uses. Over 1200 times, mention is made. There are a lot of scriptures that talk about God preserving his words, plural. For example, the most famous in Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Not just the thought or the idea or just giving you the gist of it, but he said "My words shall not pass away." In Isaiah 59:21, he said " As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever."
In Isaiah 59:21, God is promising to preserve his words unto all generations, that they will always be in the mouth of his servants, all the way to the end, "For ever" he said. Revelation 22 verse 18, the bible reads "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: 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." God is saying here that if someone were to add 2 or take away from his words, then basically, that person is eternally damned.
Now a lot of people say "Well, let's just paraphrase God has said." Now if you're going to paraphrase what God has said, fine, paraphrase it, but don't call it the word of God. Don't say "Hey, this is what God said," and then just paraphrase it. No, if you're going to say what God said, it better be exactly what God said, not just "Kinda similar to what he said" or just "Kinda get the gist of it." People carry around these paraphrases like "The Living Bible", "The Message", "The Voice," these new versions that are not even claiming to be a translation. They even say right on them, "This is a paraphrase," but people carry it around, saying "This is my bible. This is the word of God." No, it isn't. It's a complete distortion of what God said, it's a very loose paraphrase and it's very corrupt at that.
God says "It's the words that matter." It's the words that he's going to preserve. It's the words that he does not want to be tampered with. I've heard some people say this. "Well that curse only applies to the book of Revelation." Right, because God doesn't want us to tamper with the book of Revelation, but go ahead and tamper with the other 65 books and you'll be fine. What kind of nonsense do people believe in? Obviously, if God is putting a curse on those who would tamper with 1 scripture, he's going to put that same curse on anyone who tampers with the other scripture all throughout the bible, for even in Proverbs he says "Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." He said in Deuteronomy, "Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them," so God's word matters.
Now even little things about God's matter. Even just an S on the end of a word, making it plural versus singular, that actually matters. Now there's a key example of this I've preached on so many times, I'm not going to spend time on it, but where in Galatians, God says that when he made the promise to Abraham and to his seed, he said it wasn't "Seeds" plural, it was "Seed" singular, and that seed is Christ. He didn't say "Seeds," he said "Seed." What's funny is that if you get modern bible versions, like the NIV, the ESV, the New Living Translation, these popular modern versions they say in Galatians 3 the same thing that the King James says, but when you go back and look up those old testament scriptures, it's all plural. "Descendants," so they'll take it and say "Hey, when God made the promise to Abraham, he said it's to him and his seed, singular, not plural." Then you go back in the new versions to Genesis, and it's "Descendants," plural.
They're creating contradictions in the bible with these new versions because they think "Well, the words aren't that important" or Christians will think "Well, a little difference in wording isn't really that important so long as we get Christ's message," but when you create a bunch of contradictions in the bible, that's a problem. Somebody, in fact, emailed me. They were struggling with a contradiction in the bible, and they said "How do you reconcile this contradiction in the bible?" You know what I've noticed? Usually when people come to me and say that, it usually turns out they're not reading in King James. That's where these contradictions are coming from, and it was from my sermon on MarK 6.
Go to Mark 6, because remember, I just preached on Mark chapter 6, and in Mark chapter 6 on Wednesday night, we talked about how Jesus sent out the apostles 2 by 2 to go preaching, and if you remember, in this special case, he did not want them to bring anything because he wanted them to rely on God to provide for them, so when they went out 2 by 2 as the apostles, they didn't bring any food, they didn't bring any money, and everywhere they went, people took care of them. God had provided people that would take them into their homes and they would sleep there and they would eat there and be fed, and they just went completely by faith. Now at the end of Jesus's Ministry, he told them "From now on, bring money, bring food, bring these things," but this was a special miracle and a special thing that God did with the apostles where he wanted them to travel very lightly and only bring the bare necessities.
Look what it says in Mark chapter 6 verse 8. It says "He commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only;" so what are they supposed to bring? A staff, right? "Save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: Be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats," et cetera, et cetera. Now if you would, keep your finger there and flip over to Luke chapter 9 verse 3, the parallel passage. While you're turning to Luke 9:3, I'll read for you from Matthew chapter 10 verse 10 where it says "Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat." Luke at 9:3. " And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece."
Let me ask you this. Is he telling them "Don't bring any coat"? Don't bring what? Don't bring 2 coats, right? He's saying "Don't pack a bunch of stuff, don't pack an extra coat, an extra this, an extra that, money, food, like as if you were going on a long journey. Don't even put on shoes. Just wear sandals." He wanted them to travel very lightly and not bring extra stuff. That's what he's saying. Listen to what the new versions. Now I'm just going to read this just from the ESV, but the same thing could go for the NIV, the HIV, the SUV, the RSV, whatever version. Listen to what the ESV says. In Mark 6:8, it says the same thing pretty much as the King James. "He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff." Don't bring anything except the staff, okay? In the King James, he said "Save a staff only."
Listen to what the ESV says in Luke 9:3. "And he said to them, 'Take nothing for your journey, no staff.'" Now listen to this. In Luke 9:3, he says "No staff," and Matthew 10:10, he says "No bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff," so he tells them in Matthew and Luke, "No staff. Don't bring a staff," right? Whereas in Mark 6:8, he says "Don't bring anything except the staff. A staff's the only thing you're going to bring." Now look, that's a contradiction. Somebody comes to me and says "Hey, there's a contradiction in the bible." You got the wrong bible because there's no ... Because in the King James, he says not to bring staves, which is the plural, staves. Don't bring multiple staffs, don't bring 2 coats, don't bring 2 of this, 2 of that. He said "Bring 1 staff, not 2," but in these new versions, they just change it to "No staff," and then in the other one, it's like "Don't bring anything except a staff."
That would be a contradiction, wouldn't it? That's what I mean. Just that little thing of just putting an S on the end of the word can make all the difference between a contradiction and between something that makes perfect sense. You say "You're just being nit-picky about these new versions." No, it matters. It makes a difference whether the bible is perfect or not, whether the bible is the truth or not. Putting an S on the end of seed changes it from being Jesus who's blessed to being the physical Israelites that are blessed. All the world is not going to be blessed by the physical Jews, but all the world will be blessed in Jesus, and that's a big difference. It's a big difference between telling you not to bring a staff and not to bring staves, plural. Big difference there. Two different things. These differences do matter.
Number 1, I want to say that words matter. The words that God uses matter, but also the words that we use matter. The words that we choose matter. Go if you would to first Corinthians chapter 14. Let me say first of all, that number 1, the words that we use should be appropriate ... I'm sorry, that's my next point. The words that we use should be clear and easy to be understood. You say "What words should we use, pastor Anderson, when we speak?" We should use words that are clear and easy to be understood. Those are the words that we should use.
Look at first Corinthians 14 verse 7. It says "And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For ye shall speak into the air." God says if you're using words that people don't understand, then you are talking into the air. You're wasting your time.
We need to use words that are easy to be understood, and you know, there are some people who just like to drop big fancy words just to impress you, even though they know the listener doesn't understand that word, and the purpose of our speech and our words is to communicate, so we should never use words that are difficult to understand, or especially words that we know that our listeners are not going to understand just to make ourselves sound smarter because of pride and arrogance. Jump down to verse 18. The apostle Paul said "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all." By the way, "Tongues" is languages. Look it up every time it occurs in the bible. A foreign tongue, an unknown tongue is a foreign language, that's it. He's saying "I speak more foreign languages than all of you do" because Paul was a very educated man and he traveled all over the world, so he was very proficient in Language.
He said "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." He said "I'd rather speak 5 words that people can actually understand than 10,000 words in a foreign language and nobody understands what I'm saying." God's saying we need to use words that are easy to be understood, we need to speak English. English today in the United States, in a Baptist, English speaking church, English should be the language that is spoken.
Now other churches speak other languages. I don't think the whole world should speak English. If you're in Mexico, speak Spanish. If you're in Germany, speak German, and if there is a Spanish speaking community in Phoenix, then I think it'd be great if there were a Spanish speaking church that would preach in Spanish and that everybody who came to that church would all speak Spanish and hear the word preached in Spanish, and that's their language, but the preaching needs to take place in a language that people can understand. That's the whole point of communicating, and you say "What are you talking about?" For example, the Catholic church had their services in Latin until what, 100 years ago or something? A lot of them still do have the services in Latin.
Do you think anybody gets anything out of that when they go to church and sit through at church service, and the preaching is in Latin, and they speak English or they speak Spanish or they speak German, and they're hearing a service in Latin? It makes absolutely no sense, does it? It'd be better to say 5 words in their own native language, like "How about these 5 words. You must be born again" or something. A Greek orthodox. You go there and a lot of it's in Greek, and nobody understands it. It doesn't make any sense, does it? Today, these modern bible versions, just to get back on them, they will leave foreign words in the bible that nobody understands, and then they accuse the King James of being hard to understand.
The King James sounds old fashioned, but it's not hard to understand. All of these words are modern English words, they're all in a contemporary English dictionary, you can get the newest Webster's dictionary and it's going to have all these words in it, and some people just have a very small vocabulary, and so they don't understand all these words, but they're all English and they're all clear words. Now the new versions will put in foreign words, and then they claim they're easy to understand, and they do it strategically. They take out the word "Hell" and put in a foreign word, "Sheol." Nobody knows what "Sheol" means. "What the Sheol is that supposed to mean?" "Sheol" is the old testament Hebrew word for "Hell." In the Hebrew language, it's "Sheol," so why don't we translate that in English and just call it "Hell" and use a word that everybody understands?
I'll tell you why. Because they're trying to soften up the bible by softening the words, and hell is a powerful, it has a powerful connotation, so they want to soften it with a word that doesn't have as much emotion behind it or as much power behind it, so they soften up by just "Oh, Sheol," and it makes them sound smart and educated, and it's a foreign word that nobody knows. Now just to prove to you that these scholars are wrong to use the word "Sheol" is that the new testament never uses the word "Sheol." The new testament translates that into Greek words that mean hell. They don't leave that in the Hebrew, so if God said "Hey, we just have to leave Sheol in the Hebrew," then why did the new testament translated it into Greek? We ought to translate it in English, that's why, and not leave that word. If Jesus translated it and the apostles translated it, then we ought to translate it.
To sit there and have this foreign word "Sheol," and they have other weird foreign words like "Wadi." I've gone through all those lists and other sermons of weird foreign words that they put in the bible that don't make any sense. We should use words that are easy to be understood. Go to second Corinthians chapter 3, and by the way, if there's a word in the bible, if I'm preaching the bible and there's a word in the bible that is a hard word that people don't understand, then it's my job as a preacher to explain it in simple language so that everybody can understand. The goal of speech is that people understand what you're saying, and so if there's a hard word, you explain it so that people can understand it, and you don't use foreign words and speak in an unknown tongue for no reason, except to soften the word of God and soften up the bible, and to change people's beliefs, but look what it says in second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 12.
It says "Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech." What does "Plainness of speech" mean? Well just to help you understand what "Plainness of speech" means, flip over to John 16. Go to John chapter 16, because the bible says in Habakkuk chapter 2, for example, the verses that we're memorizing, it says "And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." What does it mean to make something plain or to use plainness of speech? It means to make it clear, where people can see it, they can understand it, it makes sense to them. Look what John 16:25 says. "These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father." Jump down to verse 29. "His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb."
Plainness of speech is when you don't beat around the bush. It's when you just make it clear what you're trying to express. Now in Jesus's ministry, he often spoke under the multitudes in parables and dark sayings. Why? That hearing, they would hear not. Seeing, they would see not, that they would understand not. That was a curse upon them because their ears had waxed, dull of hearing, but under the disciples, he spoke plainly, he spoke clearly, he expounded all things. We, the readers of the new testament, get a clear expounding of all things in the new testament, whereas the people in Jesus's days, some of the pharisees and Sadducees and the unbelieving masses, he only spoke to them in dark sayings and parables, so what's the opposite of plainness of speech? Speaking in dark sayings and parables and proverbs, and beating around the bush.
God says we, in the new testament, the apostle Paul said "We use great plainness of speech. Preaching should be plain. It should be clear. The words that we use should be crystal clear as to what we mean, we need to say what we mean." Now that's number 1, but number 2, and this ties in with it. Number 2. We should use words that are appropriate to the situation. Go to Isaiah chapter 30. First of all, we said the words that we choose are important, then we said that number 1, the words that we use should be clear. They should be easy to be understood or we're just speaking into the air. Secondly, the words that we use should be appropriate for the situation. What do I mean by that?
If we're talking about something negative, we need to use a negative word. For talking about something good, we should use a positive word. For talking about something wicked, we should use a word that sums up that wickedness, and use words that are appropriate. For example, when the bible talks about sin, it uses harsh words about sin. Why? Because that's how God feels about sin. God's angry about sin. God hates sin. When he uses words to describe sin, he doesn't use soft, comforting, loving words to describe sin, he uses negative, harsh words to describe sin because that's how he wants us to feel about sin. Now let me show you this scripture in Isaiah 30 verse 8. It says "Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever." Isn't that another great verse on the preservation of God's word?"
"Write it in a book forever: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things," watch this, "Speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." These people that are wicked, rebellious, liars, they want the preachers to preach unto them smooth things. Don't preach right thing, preach smooth things, and he says "Preach deceits," because let me tell you something. Smooth prophecy or smooth preaching is deceit, because God's just not a smooth god, and the bible's not a smooth book, and when you get up and make it smooth, you're lying, you're a deceiver. The bible says make it plain, not make it smooth. Make it clear, and we should use words, number 1, that are easy to be understood, and number 2, words that are appropriate to the situation.
For example, words that the bible uses about sin are words like "Adultery," but what's the world's word for that? An affair. Now look, an affair is this euphemistic, soft word, that sounds like you're having a tea party if you're having an affair. "I'm having a little affair over at my house. We're going to have tea and crumpets." No. It's called "Adultery," and what the bible calls a "Whore", basically today, they'll call that a "Promiscuous," and that's what the new versions will change it to. The whorish woman becomes "Promiscuous" woman. First of all, "Whorish" is easier to understand than "Promiscuous." I think "Whore" is just an easier word. It's one syllable, and it has the negative connotation that should be there when we talk about wickedness, so the bible use the word "Whore," and of a man, it'll use the word "Whore monger," but you know what the world will use? A "Player" or a "Playboy". Doesn't that sound nice?
No, the bible calls them a "Whore monger," and that has a negative connotation to it. They'll say "Oh, she's a little loose, she's a promiscuous." No, the bible says "She's a whore. She's whorish, and what she does are whoredoms." The NIV, instead of whoredoms, in Ezekiel 16 said "Illicit favors." The King James is using words that are clear and they're words that are appropriate, and what does appropriate means? It means it matches. Is adultery nice? Is it pretty? Is it nice? Is it fun? No, it needs a negative word to describe it, not a nice word. Is it nice when a girl goes around and sleeps around?
No. It's disgusting. It's unclean, and so we need to use the word "Whorish", "Whoredom", and when a man goes out and goes from one woman to the next to the next, is that cool and hip and macho? No. He's a whore monger, and it's wickedness, and we need to keep the right wording so that we'll have the right emotion when we hear these words, and then here's another good bible word that we never hear anymore. "Concubine." Concubine is a bible word. What's a "Concubine"? A concubine is a woman that you sleep with, and that's a it. A woman that you sleep with, not your wife, not one that has the status of being your wife, but it's just one that you just sleep, she's just there to sleep with you. You know what? If that word were to describe some people's live in girlfriend, maybe then they would feel like "Wait a minute. I'm not being treated with proper respect here if I'm just this guy's concubine," and that's what a lot of women are today, are concubines.
They're just being used for their body. That's it. If a man really loves you, he'd be willing to marry you and provide for you and commit to you for the rest of your life, not just use you as a temporary concubine, but see, the word "Concubine" goes over most people's head anymore because it's just not politically correct. Another word that's completely gone out of fashion is the word "Bastard." Now people will use this today as an expletive, but the bible frequently uses the word "Bastard," but you know why we don't use the word "Bastard" anymore? Because half of children now are bastards, so that's like "Oh man. Can't use that word anymore." I'm not being negative toward those children, it's not their fault, but let me tell you this though. If we use the word "Bastard," if that's the only word we use, I bet people would think differently about that. Children being conceived out of wedlock, that's what the bible calls it. "Bastards."
Words like "Concubine", "Bastard", "Whore monger", you say "You're cursing a blitzkrieg behind the poet." No, no, no. These are actually that are appropriate to describe sin. These are really bad sins, and if we realize how bad they were, we'd realize that these are the right words. Otherwise, God was wrong because those are types of words that he use in the bible. Other words that the bible uses, for example, someone who drinks alcohol is known as a drunk or a drunkard in the bible. That's what the bible calls it, a drunk, but what's our softened up word that we use today? "He's an alcoholic. He has a drinking problem." No, he's a drunk, and that's the word that we should use, a drunkard. He's a drunk. All right? Then we've got other words like, for example, the bible use the word "Sodomite," and when it describes what sodomites do, then it says that they are going after strange flesh.
What's a good synonym for "Strange"? Queer, right? They go after strange flesh. They are a sodomite, and the bible says that what they do is filthy in second Peter chapter 2. If you want to know what I think about the homo lifestyle, I say it's filthy. If you want to know what I think about homosexuals, they are filthy. What they do is vile. These are bible words. It's vile, it's filthy, it's strange, it's queer, it's an abomination, they are sodomites, and what word do they use to describe it? "Gay," and "Gay" is a positive word, because if you read any old books or saying ... "Don we now our gay apparel" didn't used to be a trip to Urban Outfitters or Abercrombie and Fitch. "Don we now our gay apparel" just means we're putting on clothing that we wear to something fun because someone who's very gay, it means they're happy, they're lively, they're friendly, and even the bible uses the term "Gay apparel," and it's in James chapter 2.
Here we are taking a bible word that's a positive word and then we're going to let them bully us into using some positive word about their filth, filth. Now if we use the word "Filth", if we use the word "Vile" which "Vile" means what? Gross. Vile means disgusting or gross, so if we use words like "Gross", "Disgusting", "Filthy", "Abominable", then we'd have a viewpoint that is a biblical viewpoint, but when we use words like "Gay" and "Homesexual", "An alternative lifestyle", then what happens? It changes the way that we think, and let me tell you something. Using different words will change the way that you think and the devil has a plan to change the way that you think.
He wants you to think adultery's not that bad. He wants you to think that drunkenness is not that bad. He wants you to think that sodomy is not that bad. He wants you to think that being a whore and a whore monger isn't that bad, but I'm telling you something the bible says that we as preachers need to make sin exceeding sinful, it's wicked, and not soften it up and try to make it sound like it's not that bad because we're desensitized to sin. Often, 2 words can have the identical meaning to them, but they have a different emotion behind their different feeling even though they have the same meaning. For example, the word "Damn" has the same meaning as the word "Darn" but it's just different degrees of strength behind it, or for example, the word "Damnation" versus "Condemnation". They both mean the same thing. Damnation, condemnation. One of them is just softer than the other, "Condemnation."
That's why the new versions completely remove damnation because God forbid, they'd be one of those hell fire and damnation types, so now they're like a "Sheol fire darning type" of a preacher. Darn you to heck, all right? What's going on is that sometimes words can have the same meaning but they have a different feeling, and a good translator knows that when you translate something, you don't just translate to a word that has the same meaning. You translate to the word that also has the same feel to it. You want to deliver the same spirit. Not just the meaning, but also the spirit of what's being said, and you can use words, like for example, you could say "Whoredom" and "Promiscuity", one of them will grab you a lot more than the other, and sounds a lot worse. It sounds a lot worse to whorish than to be promiscuous.
For example, even if we just use words like ... Let's say we wanted to describe someone who's very strong willed. If we said that person was "Stubborn", that's negative, right? "Oh you're very stubborn and obstinate," right? But what if we use the words like "Resolute", "Determined", "Strong willed". Now "Strong willed" sounds positive because it has the word "Strong" in it, and that's a positive word. "Strong willed" and "Stubborn are both the same thing. One of them is positive, one of them is negative, so you don't want to just get the right meaning, you want to get the right feeling behind it too. If it's positive, it should be positive. If it's negative, it should be negative. For example, if we talked about someone's body type, we could say "Hey, that person is very thin. Very lean. Very slim." Those all sound good, right? Lean, slim, thin, but what if we said that person was "Skinny"? Now all of a sudden, it sounds bad. "Boney."
It doesn't sound good, does it? What if we said that they're a bean pole? That doesn't sound good, but even though you could be talking about the same person, somebody who's skinny. You could say "Oh man, that's really slim," but one of them is saying "Hey, it's too slim." One of them is saying "It's just right," so it's both words that mean the same thing but they have a different connotation. You could say that someone was "Full figured." That sounds good, right? "Full." The glass is half full. That's good, that's a positive word. "Full figured" or you could say "Fat", and they both mean something completely different. You could say that someone was "Plump", then it sounds nice. It sounds like a really good turkey dinner or something, you know what I mean? Plump, full figured, or you could use words that are less flattering, right?
The point is that the words that we use matter. Number 1, we should use that are clear and it clearly express what we're trying to say, and number 2, we should use words that are appropriate to the situation. If we're talking about a really bad sin, we need to use a bad sounding word, and people always get on me for the words that I use about faggots. Now see the word that I just used? It was clear, it was appropriate, but people get on me about "Oh using words like queer and faggot," but you know why? Because they are soft on that sin. That's the real reason, and here's another one. "Murderer." That's a good word. "Murder," but here's what the world wants us to use. "Terminate a pregnancy." "Fetal reduction." No, it's called "Murder". "Oh, you murdered your child." That's a biblical word, but we were made to believe it's just a termination or an abortion.
Abortion's a computer term. You abort a process. You don't abort a human being, you kill a human being because it's alive. It's not aborted, it's killed. "Well, its development was arrested. It was terminated." No, wrong. Today, people get on me and say "Hey, you should call them "Gay". I won't do it. Call them "Homosexual". I won't do it. I don't like keep using the word "Sexual". I know that word just rolls off everybody's tongue these days, but you know what? It doesn't roll off my tongue. I don't like using that word. That's why I just shorten it to "Homo". "They are homo", and people got mad at me and said "How dare you call them a 'Homo'." That is the nicest thing that I called them, and I've had people email at me and I wrote back and be like "Excuse me. Did you just get mad at me for using my softest term that I would use, 'Homo'?" "Oh how dare you shorten it to 'Homo'."
If you're a Christian and you're offended by me calling them a "Homo", you are so brainwashed by the world, it's not even funny anymore if that word offends you. "Homo." Like I'm just supposed to bow down and just give these people the uttermost respect, and then they're probably going to keep changing what they want to be called. Now they want to be called "LGBT", and by the way, you know what LGBT stands for to me? "Let God Burn Them". To me, that's what it stands for. Whenever I see LGBT, that's what it means to me. "Let God Burn Them". Why? Because the bible says in Jude, in verse 7, "Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner," Sodom and Gomorrha, folks. He says "Giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."
The bible says that when God burned Sodom and Gomorrha, that was an example unto us today in the new testament, in Jude. You'll say "Well, you're all the way back in the old testament." No, I'm in Jude. It's the second to the last book in the bible. How close to the end of this book do you want to get? It's right here in Jude that they are to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. "Let God Burn Them," and you say "Well no, no, no, Pastor Anderson, because now, it's LGBTQ." "Let God Burn Them Queers." You add as many letters to that thing as you want. I'll come up with something, because now, it's not enough to just accept homos now. Now we have to accept homos getting married and adopting children. They were taking away from people because they smoked pot, and then they take their kids and give it to a homo, and then not only that, but now we have to accept the transgender and all this weird, freakish, bizarre stuff.
In Facebook gives like a hundred different options now under gender. Did you know that? It's over a hundred now. If you click on gender, it's like male, female, it gives you 4 or 5, and then it says other, and if you click on other, it gives you over a hundred options, just for gender, and this is the world we're living in today. It's confusion, and God is not the author of confusion, and you know where a lot of the confusion is coming from? The words that we use. We need to get back to using biblical words, and even these new bibles are part of the confusion. They're making the bible gender neutral now. The NIV that everyone grew up with in these liberal churches is the 1984 NIV. In 2011, they completely overhauled the NIV to make it gender neutral, so the new NIV at the store now has removed gender.
That's the biggest difference between the 1984 NIV, and thank God for the King James, it doesn't change. That's the same, despite what all the liars will tell you, it's the same as it was in 1611, and if you don't believe me, there's a replica back there that weighs 20-some pounds of a 1611 King James. Go look at it, it'll say the same thing as this one says, but these new bibles are changing to become more gender neutral, and people are confused now. They don't even know that there's a difference between male and female, man and woman, and every time I go down to the community college and preach about homosexuality, you know what the students come to me and tell me? "Well what about people that are born with both? What about people that are both male and female? What about them?" This is the kind of stupidity today that our young people are being taught in these institutions of higher learning.
"That some people are just born both male and female." That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life, and I kept hearing it over and over again, "Oh, they're born with both, they're born with both." It's so stupid. I actually went out and got a book and read a book about it. It wasn't even a Christian book, just a science book. Just what are all these idiots talking about? I look it up, it doesn't even exists to be born with both. That's so stupid. "But Pastor Anderson ..." No. It doesn't exist.
Anybody who knows science knows it doesn't exist, because anybody who knows anything about science knows that, and I don't want to get graphic here, obviously, in front of children and everything, but anybody who knows anything about science about a baby who develops in its mother's womb, and I've had 8 kids so I've had a lot of time to think about these things and have gone through 8 pregnancies with my wife, knows that the same part that becomes the male anatomy is the same part that becomes the female anatomy, and for the first so and so weeks, 8, 9, 10 weeks in utero development, there's difference between male and female in the womb. When it first starts out, it's the same.
Then when it gets to a certain point of development ... I don't have the weeks memorized, but I want to say it's around 8 or 10 weeks is where it starts to diverge, where it will either turn into the male organ or it will turn into the female organ, but it's the same exact organ in the beginning, and it goes one way or the other, so how can you have 2? That'd be like saying that there's a man with 2 or that there's a woman with 2. It's stupid. It's not real. It doesn't exist, but they'll lie to you and tell you "Oh, these hermaphrodites, blah, blah, blah." No, there are men that are deformed, that are underdeveloped, and then there are women that are deformed that are overdeveloped, but they are either male or female. Chromosomally, they're either male or female, because you're either chromosomally male or chromosomally female. It's that simple.
Now you could be a feminine man or a manly woman, you could be the bearded lady, but that doesn't make you hermaphrodite. It's not real, and I have read up on this from secular sources. This isn't even a Christian book, okay? It's a lie, but they just want to confuse you with some weird exception, some bizarre deformity somewhere that they can point at out of all the 7 billion people in the world, find somebody that's deformed, and then lie about their deformity to people who don't understand gestation of a child in its mother's womb, and then they'll just get "Oh well, in that case, let's just throw out everything the bible says about sodomites. In that case, let's have men marrying other men and women marrying other women."
It's madness today, and we need to anchor our soul in a book that doesn't change, that uses clear, distinct language that we can understand and that is appropriate for what we're talking about, which the words that matter, and when you start change in the words, you change the way people think about things. Even if it still gives the same gist of what's being said, if you make it gender neutral, you've changed it. If you make it softer, euphemistic, then you've changed it, and we need some solid footing today in our world. Just this week, the supreme court made some ruling that now, sodomites are getting married in Arizona, and they were all down there on, I think it was Friday?
They're all down there at the courthouse, all getting married, all the homos, and this TV lady called me up and said "Hey, pastor Anderson. I want to interview you for the evening news to get your reaction on this ruling. I want to see what you think about the fact that homos are getting married now." "Sure, come on down." She came on down with the camera and everything. I talked to her and I said "Have you interviewed me before? What made you pick me?" She said "Well it's very hard to get anyone that will say anything negative about this on camera," and she said she called over a dozen pastors, she called over 12 pastors who were against homosexuality, she called over 12 of them and wanted them to comment, and none of them would comment on it, and here's what she said. "They just said that they're too busy loving people to point out their sin, and to basically condemn what they're doing." Those were the exact words.
Loving people instead of condemning what they're doing, and she said none of them, she said she did men on the street with a microphone and went around and asked people. No one was negative. Not one. Everybody, she said, was either positive "Oh this is great, it's wonderful" or they just said "Well I don't care." She couldn't get a single person on the men on the street to say that it was wrong, not even one. She called down the list of all the pastors until she got to the absolute bottom of the barrel, Faithful Word Baptist Church, and I said "Come on down!" Of course I said all of this awesome stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor, but you know what? At least she did.
I liked the way it was edited, because in the end, the first thing I say on the TV thing is "Well I think homosexuality is disgusting," and I was on the evening news this week in Phoenix, and me saying that homosexuality is disgusting, but you know what's disgusting? Pastors that don't have the guts to talk about it, and you know what? I guarantee you, I promise you, go to John 7:7. You say "Well I think these pastors, they just don't like going on TV is what it is ..." Because you know what? I promise you, if the news reporter said "Hi. We're profiling churches in Scottsdale that are helping the community. Can we come down just profile your church, just talk a little bit about your ministry?" They'd love that. They'd love to do all the positive thing, but they don't want to go on TV and cry aloud and spare not.
There was no TV in bible days, but there were some prophets who preach a little more publicly than others, while others were hiding in a cave, and it's ridiculous, my friend. These pastors don't use plainness of speech, that's the problem in America today. Something's wrong in America when you can call 12 pastors who are on the right side, and none of them will stand up and just say "It's wrong." Not even to say what I said, but to just say "It's wrong. It's a sin. I'm against it." They won't even go on TV and say that. Look what John 7:7 says. This is Jesus speaking, and this is my message to all these liberal pastors of Phoenix. "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." Now to look like Jesus, was just so busy loving people, that he didn't testify that the works of the world were evil?
In fact, you can do both. You can actually love people and preach against wicked sin, so it's not like "Oh we don't do any soul winning, we don't love anybody, we don't teach the bible, we're just on a mission to just hate people. It's all we do." That's ridiculous. We should do both. Do all of what the bible tells us to do. We don't have to choose, but honestly, today, it's getting ridiculous when you can't even find pastors that will say no to this stuff, even when it's just so blatant and so brazen. "As it was in the days of lot," the bible says, "So shall be also in the days of the coming of the son of men." Who's Lot? Lot was the guy that got out of Sodom and Gomorrah, and what did they do? They ate, they drank, and they did what? They married. They married and are given in marriage. That could even be prophetic of the fact that in the last days, sodomites will be getting married, and that's what we see happening.
It's a fulfillment of prophecy, but honestly, the preaching today is light years away from where it should be on that subject, and then people come to me, the one person who's wiling to get on TV and say "It's disgusting," and then they come to me and write to me and tell me "You need to soften up on it and use words like 'Gay'." No, because somebody has to call a spade a spade, and honestly, you know what, it was 1:30 when I did that interview. 1:30 in the afternoon, and she had to be done with the whole story, edited and done by 4. It had to be turned in because it's going to 6 o'clock news, it had to be turned in by 4, and I was the last that last-ditch effort, and listen to me, if I would have said no, there would have been no one expressing a biblical viewpoint. No one.
It would have just been nothing but "It's great, it's wonderful, thank God, it's about time," and you know what the sad thing is? When a secret ballot initiative about this, about homos getting married, the people who are against it were in the majority. When they put on the ballot of whether homos should get married or not, the majority said they should not, the majority, but isn't it funny, when you go out on the street, you can't even find one. Call all the pastors, won't even find one. Why? Because they all are scared. They are afraid or they're getting up and preaching about it, and they're using the wrong words. I'm not going to use the wrong words, my friend. I'm going to use words that are appropriate, that are negative, and that are clear to understand.
Somebody will say "Well just sodomite then." Here's the problem with sodomite. Most people don't know what sodomite means, so I got to fall back on that plainness of speech principle. I remember one time, my dad brought a visitor to church in Sacramento, California, and the whole sermon was a against sodomites. This is about 10 years ago. My dad and this guy got in the car after the sermon, and my dad's like "What do you think of that sermon?" The guy said "What's a sodomite?" The whole sermon was about sodomites. The whole sermon went over his head. He's just like "Oh, these sodomites, these sodomites, these sodomites," and this guy had no clue what a sodomite was so he missed the whole sermon. That's why you have to break it down into language that people understand.
You're like "Sodomite" and people are like ... What do you say? "Well, gay people. Those that are gay." That's gay to say that. I would say "You know, the faggots. Queers. Homos. Perverts. Pedophiles. Deviants. Reprobates." This is what the bible teaches, but thirdly, this. Number 1, we should use words that are clear, easy to understand. Make our point across. Number 2, words that are appropriate. Negative words for something negative, positive words for something positive, and then thirdly, we should use biblical terms whenever we can. Biblical terms are to be preferred over extra-biblical terms. Now that doesn't mean we could only use biblical terms when we talk. Some people go too far with this. Obviously, we have to say things like car and computer, and sometimes it makes sense to use a word that's not in the bible, as long as it's a clear word that has the right meaning behind it to explain the bible, okay?
There are a lot of words that are not in the bible and they're not clear, and they have no benefit, and these man made theological terms should be avoided, and we should try to use the bible's terms. For example, the words "Christophany", "Theophany", "Soteriology", "Homiletics", "Hermeneutics", those are not biblical words, are they? Not only that, they're not easy to understand, and they're used by people who are trying to sound smart, and a lot people will just get up and just use words like "Exegesis", and God forbid that we would ever participate in "Eisegesis". Like that's just how you show how smart you are and how educated you are and try to talk down to people by using these big, highfalutin type words that are not biblical terms, just to elevate yourself and just use big words that nobody knows.
Also, people have used the word "Sovereign". I don't like the word "Sovereign" because it's a word that's not in the bible at all. It's not in the King James one time, and people twist it to mean whatever they want it to mean, and so it's a word that brings confusion. It doesn't bring clarity to any discussion. It's a words that's deceptive, and so I don't use it. It's better to prefer the words that God uses. The bible said, I started the sermon with this, first Corinthians 2:13, it said "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth;" so the words that we should use are not the words of men's wisdom. "Hermeneutics", "Homiletics", "Soteriology", "Hamartiology", "Christophany", "Theophany", "Protevangelium". It's stupid to use big words just to impress people. I'm not impressed.
Jesus spoke and the common man heard him gladly. He wasn't trying to just impress by using big, crazy words that no one understood. Now there are some words that are not used in the bible that are actually very helpful words, like for example, the word "Trinity" is a good word. "That's not in the bible," but the bible does say these 3 are one, so we could just call it "The 3 in 1". If we wanted to, we could just say "Hey, we believe in the 3 in 1. Do you believe in the 3 in 1? The father, son, the holy ghost. 3 in 1," but "Trinity" is just an easier way of saying that. It means identical thing. That's legit, or for example the term "Rapture" is not in the bible, but it does say that we're going to be caught up together in the clouds, and "Rapture" means "Catching up, being caught up"m, so basically, it's just easier than calling it "The catching up", "The catch up".
It just doesn't sound the same when you talk about it. "The catch up comes after the tribulation." It just doesn't sound the same, so some words are good that we use, but that's because they're clear. When we say "Rapture", people know what we're talking about. When we say "Trinity", people know what we're talking about. These other unclear theological terms are a waste. The bible says "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings," so according to the bible, God's words are wholesome words. Wholesome means healthy.
If we talked about a wholesome breakfast, it's healthy for you, it's good for you, so these are good words to use. These are healthy, good, sound words to use, and if you're offended by these words, you need to check your heart, because it might just be that you're soft on sin, and God's not, so who needs to change, you or God? Maybe you need to just get used to some preaching that's not as smooth, and get used to some wording that's not as smooth as what you're used to, and it's not that there's anything with the words that God uses in the bible. They're good words, and we need to think about the words that we use.
There's so much more I could say, I'll close the sermon on that, but we need to think about ... Words are important, God's word is important, that's why it's important to have a King James bible. Otherwise, you get all these contradictions, you get a soft, soaped sermon on sin when you get it from these new versions, and it's important to use words that are appropriate. Don't get sucked in to all these really nice euphemisms about really bad things, and then also, we should always try to prefer biblical terms, using God's word. Biblical terms like "Belief". That's a really biblical term when talking about salvation, talking about believing, faith. Not like "Well I made a commitment to Christ. I ask Jesus to come into my heart." Those aren't as biblical as just saying "I believe on the lord Jesus Christ" or "I called upon the name of the lord".
Biblical terms are always to be preferred over non-biblical terms. We need to think about the words that we say. There's so many other areas we could talk about, just in your marriage, just think about the words that you us with your wife, think about the words that you use with your husband, think about the words that you use with your children, because words are important, aren't day? We need to think about what type of wording we use and choose our words carefully according to these biblical principles. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, lord, and for the bible and for all the wonderful things that you've given us in the bible, and that it doesn't change, that it's clear, lord. I thank you that we can understand the bible and that it tells us very clearly what is right and what is wrong, lord. This world is confused. Very confused, lord. The supreme court is very confused because of the fact that we've allowed people to change our vocabulary and change our words to where everything's been gender neutral and we don't know the difference between man and woman, we don't know the difference between right and wrong, lord. Help us to be anchored firmly to the rock of the King James bible and help biblical words and biblical concepts roll off our tongue more than the world's philosophies roll off our tongue. In Jesus's name we pray, amen.
