God's Way is Perfect

Amen. Great to have everybody looking forward to a great conference this week.

Hopefully you've put that on your schedule and your calendar.

And so we're looking forward to a great kickoff here this morning.

As we're going to have Brother David Sorensen come and from all the way up far north up in Duluth, Minnesota.

You know, they came down here to get the warm weather, right?

And but I know Duluth is a beautiful place.

And and the Lord sent them there many years ago and started a church there in the city of Duluth.

And God is blessed. And and Brother Sorensen has also wrote many books and talked about this issue of the text and and the things of the scripture.

And so we're going to have him come preach here this morning.

And Sunday school hour is really going to be the kickoff for the conference.

But just look forward to get your Bibles out, get ready to go here this morning as we have Brother Sorensen come and preach God's word to us here this morning.

Well, I'm delighted to be with you here at Plains Baptist Church in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The pastor said we're from Duluth, Minnesota.

My sweet Pam, my wife Pam is here.

I've been married 54 years and I'll say more about that in a moment.

But Duluth is not the end of the world.

But you can see it from there.

Up on Lake Superior, not Canada.

But the pastor said there 35, almost 36 years ago to start an independent Baptist church there in Duluth.

And I stepped out of the pastorate about eight years ago and have been traveling the country ever since from Florida to Alaska, from San Diego to...

And so we've seen much of the country.

But delighted to be here today.

As the pastor mentioned, we do have a book table back there.

And I'd like to just talk about a few of the things here this morning.

In each service, we'll mention a few of the books.

On the back of the table there is an independent Baptist commentary.

It's what this church believes.

Most Bible commentaries are written by Presbyterians or Lutherans or Reformed.

Very few have been written by independent Baptists.

But there is an independent Baptist commentary back there.

It's written on a level that will help the pastor.

It's written on a level that will help the people in the pew.

And we have people all over America by them.

And I'd encourage you to look it over.

It's a commentary that teaches a six-day literal creation,

baptism by immersion, pre-tribulation rapture,

the local church, and it's what we believe.

But anyway, they're on sale back there, ladies.

By the way, ladies, everything on the table is on sale.

And that's the truth.

I mean, if you go online or go on Amazon or whatever,

you'll find the prices are considerably higher.

And if you buy something back there today,

you don't have to pay the freight, the shipping,

which sometimes is substantial for the commentary.

But anyway, that's available in hardbound.

It's also on CD-ROM.

These are not cassette tapes.

These are flash drives.

We have a flash drive A and a flash drive C

that you can use on your computer.

About five, six years ago,

I sat down and wrote a book entitled

Winning People to Christ.

I've been privileged over the years

to be part of several great soul-winning churches.

One was the Old Fourth Baptist Church up in Minneapolis,

and the other was my father's church.

He pastored there in central Illinois.

And both those churches reached attendances well over 1,000.

And it was based on just old-fashioned Bible evangelism

and soul-winning.

It's been my experience that God's people have a desire

to witness and tell others about Christ,

but often aren't exactly sure how to do it,

how to break the ice, how to get into the gospel.

Well, this book explains how to do it step by step.

My wife said it's her favorite book

of those which I have written.

And most of what I have written over the years

has been Christian-oriented, theologically oriented,

and this is sort of a little bit,

but a book entitled Empowered by the Devil,

The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler.

I guess if I have one hobby, it's just World War II.

I love to read books on it.

And several years ago, I decided to write a book about Hitler.

And the thesis of the book is that he was demon-possessed.

And there's historical basis for that,

as well as scriptural basis.

And if you have any interest in World War II

and the overview of the war,

you'll find it an easy read and a fascinating read.

So anyway, so much for the commercial.

Let's get on with the program today.

But take your Bible this morning.

By the way, as the pastor said, in the next hour,

we're going to get into the matter of the textual issue

and the Bible translation issue in earnest.

And every night this week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night,

you don't want to miss any of these

because they kind of build.

If you hear just one message,

you're not going to get the whole picture.

But if you hear the whole series,

you'll have a much, much broader understanding

of why we use the King James Bible.

And there are very principled

and doctrinal reasons for that.

But in this hour today,

I'd like, we'll just preach from the Word this morning.

Turn with me to Psalm chapter 18 and verse 30.

Psalms 18 · chapter mention

Psalm chapter 18 and verse 30 this morning.

Psalms 18 · chapter mention

One verse.

In my opinion, Psalm 18 is one of the mountain peak chapters

in the book of Psalms.

Psalm 18 and verse 30.

As for God, His way is perfect.

The Word of the Lord is tried.

He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him.

Father, this morning as we look to Your Word again at this hour,

I would ask that Your name be glorified,

Your Word magnified, and the Savior lifted up.

Father, bless Your people,

and may this be an encouragement and a help to them.

And I ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, Psalm 18, as I mentioned,

I believe is one of the mountain peak Psalms

and the Word of God.

It was penned by David in his latter years.

And in the text before us here today,

David reflects back,

number one, on God's perfect way,

number two, on God's proven Word,

and number three, on God's protective work.

And the principles that were effective 3,000 years ago

are still in force to this day.

And so let's look at here a little bit more closely this morning.

Number one is God's perfect way.

As for God, His way is perfect.

Now, I believe that God's way of salvation is perfect.

It's simple and it's complete.

It's faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ,

trusting in our Lord Jesus Christ.

There's nothing complicated about it.

Turning to and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, there are several very popular myths

that proliferate across the land.

They're certainly true in Duluth.

I suspect they're true here in Nebraska

and really all over the world.

The devil is very effective in promoting his lies.

But one myth that perpetuates

is that baptism has something to do with getting saved.

That's true up in our town.

I think it's true probably for many people here in your town.

There are variations of that, several flavors of that.

Some think that baptism washes away original sin.

Some people think that baptized

enters a person into a covenant with God.

Others think that we're saved by getting baptized.

When we were building our church building

there in Duluth, Minnesota years ago,

the men of the church largely built the building.

They'd come at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon

or thereabouts in the summertime.

And we'd worked till dark.

And the neighbor from across the street

walked over to see what was going on.

And he said,

Boy, you Baptists are a bunch of eager beavers.

But, so I started to talk to him.

His name was Bill.

And I said,

Hey, Bill, let me ask you something.

If you died today,

do you know for sure you'd go to heaven?

He said,

Oh, yes, my pastor told me I took care of that

when I got baptized.

How sad.

How tragic.

And that man has since passed on.

And if all he is trusting then

and now was his baptism, folks,

he's not in heaven, I'll tell you that.

It's a sad thing.

But there are untold millions

that are going to be in hell

who thought they were going to heaven

because they got baptized.

But it's a myth.

It's a fallacy of the devil.

Another myth that proliferates

and the devil promotes it all the time

is that by being a good guy

or being a good gal,

being a good person,

God will accept that

when you get to heaven someday.

Up in Minnesota,

a little slogan about being Minnesota nice.

I guess the idea is to be nice to your neighbor

and nice to everybody else.

And, in fact, there's a store

in the Minneapolis International Airport.

There's a mall right in the middle

of the airport

and one of the stores in the mall

is Minnesota nice.

Well, I'm not against being Minnesota nice.

I think that's a good thing.

The folks being Minnesota nice

will never get you to heaven.

Or Nebraska nice.

Our church is located

about three miles from the state of Wisconsin

and a quantity,

the folks in our church

come from Wisconsin.

And I'll say,

look, us folks here in Minnesota

are Minnesota nice.

I don't know about you guys from Wisconsin.

But being a nice person

will never get you to heaven.

Being a good guy or a good gal

will never get you to heaven.

Having water sprinkled on your head

will never get you to heaven.

Folks, I am Baptist born

and Baptist bred.

When I die,

I'll be Baptist dead.

But all the baptistry water

in all the world

never washed away one sin

and never saved one person.

But these are myths of the devil

that are perpetrated,

falsehoods that people foolishly believe.

Salvation is simple

and it's complete.

It's perfect.

Trusting in Jesus Christ.

For God so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten son

that whosoever believeth in him

should not perish

but have everlasting life.

But as many as received him,

to them give you the power

to become the sons of God

even to them that believe on his name.

For by grace are you saved through faith

and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God,

not of works lest any man should boast.

Praise God.

It's just trusting Jesus Christ.

Turning to him and trusting him.

By the way,

I was telling the pastor

just to digress here for just a moment.

I've had voice problems.

In fact, the meeting I was to have

with you last year

was because I couldn't talk.

That's kind of tough for a preacher.

And I've been to

four ear, nose, throat specialists.

One speech specialist.

One oncologist.

And they couldn't figure out

what was my voice problems.

Well, some of them

we were getting kind of close.

But I'll tell you,

I stumbled onto something

that helps me, folks.

It's medicine.

It's powerful medicine.

I hold it here in my hand

right here today.

And I kid you not,

this is not a joke.

This stuff helps.

And A&W root beer.

I'm not a big fan of A&W.

I don't drink a lot of it.

But you'll see me now

during these services

take a sip of A&W root beer.

And my voice is starting

to crack a little bit already.

It'll loosen me up.

But, so anyway,

get that out of my system.

But God's way of salvation

is perfect.

Praise the Lord for that.

But not only that,

I believe God's way of living

is perfect.

In Titus chapter 2

Titus 2 · chapter mention

and verse 11,

we read,

For the grace of God

that bringeth salvation

teaches us

that denying ungodly lusts

we should live soberly,

righteously,

and godly

in this present world.

That pretty well sums up

the Christian life.

To live soberly,

righteously,

and godly

in this present world.

I'm going to take a sip

of my medicine here.

To lead a godly life.

To lead a righteous life.

To lead a sober,

separated life.

That we should live

soberly,

righteously,

and godly.

Churches today,

Christians today,

are afflicted

with the foolishness

of alcohol.

Oh,

it used to be

preachers preached again.

A hundred years ago,

Billy Sunday

was going up

and down the land

preaching about

the demon in the bottle

of alcohol.

And churches

for a long time

kind of condoned it.

There are churches today,

I'm talking about

evangelical,

and the particularly

reformed churches

in America today,

they're not going to

condone alcohol,

they promote it.

And I could tell you

stories which I won't

get into here today.

That we should live

soberly.

I started my college

career years ago

in a secular university

in central Illinois,

Bradley University,

and I was majoring

in electrical engineering.

That's a long story

how I got from there

to where I'm at today.

But,

sat in a chemistry class,

and there was a professor

from India

by Dr. Singh,

S-I-N-G-H.

And in the course

of that year

of chemistry,

we got into

organic chemistry,

and that leads

to chemically

the type of alcohols,

and there are several

different types

of alcohol

chemically.

and one is

methyl alcohol

and another is

ethyl alcohol.

Methyl alcohol

is what we used

to call wood alcohol.

You buy it in the grocery,

or not the grocery store,

the hardware store

for industrial

cleaning purposes.

But,

methyl alcohol,

you drink that,

the professor said,

you'll be either

dead in the morning

or blind by morning.

Terrible poison.

Ethyl alcohol

is what's found

in beverage alcohol.

Hand goes up

in the back of the room,

a secular university.

Dr. Singh,

why is methyl alcohol

a deadly poison

and ethyl alcohol

is not?

I'll never forget

what he said.

He said,

students,

they are both poison.

One just works

faster than the other.

To live soberly,

righteously,

and godly

in this present world.

And as David

looked back

over 70 years

of his life,

he reflected

that God's

way

is perfect.

But not only that,

God's will

is perfect.

As for God,

his way is perfect.

His way of salvation

is perfect.

His way of

Christian living

is perfect.

His will

for our lives

is perfect.

God's will.

And what's the next

two words?

Perfect will

of God.

The perfect will

of God.

His way

is perfect

for our lives.

Young people

here today,

never be afraid

of God's will.

I've been around

the ministry

my entire life.

My dad was a pastor

for 50 years

and I've been

in the ministry

now for over 50 years.

But I've watched

Christian young people

over the years

and I think

I may have been

in this once

upon a time,

but afraid

of God's will.

And the devil

comes and says,

why,

if you surrender

to God's will,

God may send you

to be a missionary

to outer Mongolia

or Uzbekistan.

Well, maybe,

but probably not.

But whatever

God's will is,

it's perfect.

God doesn't call

everyone to the ministry.

But whatever God

has for you,

it's perfect.

I grew up

as a preacher's kid.

In fact,

my grandfather

was a preacher.

I guess that makes me

not only a PK,

but a grand PK.

And sadly,

when I was a senior

in high school

and an upperclassman

in high school,

the last thing

I wanted to do

was go into the ministry.

I was a rebellious teenager.

In fact,

I wasn't even saved

at that point in life.

And in high school,

they required us,

went to a large

public high school

there in central Illinois.

And they required us

to take a class

called vocations.

Boy, that sounds

like an exciting class.

And it was to try

and expose us

to career paths

and professions

and job opportunities

and so forth.

And we took a test

one day,

a proficiency test,

to try and figure out

what kind of job

or profession

or work

we might be interested in.

Well, folks,

on my test

or on my list,

I mean,

it was below zero

going into the ministry.

Last thing

I ever wanted to do.

You say,

well, wow,

you've been in the ministry

now for over 50 years.

Man, it must be really tough

doing something

you didn't want to do.

Wrong.

Because you see,

folks,

when I got saved

and God showed me

his perfect will,

I've never been happier.

Now, I'm not saying

that God's going to put you

in the ministry.

That's not the point.

The point is,

whatever God's will

is for your life,

it'll be good

and acceptable

and perfect.

God's will

is perfect.

And so,

number one this morning

is God's

perfect way.

Number two this morning

is God's proven word.

Notice again in the text,

as for God,

his way is perfect.

The word of the Lord

is tried.

The word of the Lord

is tried.

That means it's been tested.

It's been proven

over the years.

It's been attacked

endlessly.

But the Bible

just stands.

Old Swedish

immigrant to America

over 100 years ago

penned the song

The Bible Stands,

by the way,

Heldor Lillin,

this was his name,

The Bible Stands

Like a Rock Undaunted

Through the Raging

Storms of Time.

Its pages burn

with a truth eternal

and they glow

with a light sublime.

Folks,

the Bible stands

to this day.

It's been attacked

endlessly.

The Romans burned it.

The Popes banned it.

William Tyndale

committed the crime

of putting the Bible

into print

in the English language

and he was burned

at the stake

for the crime

of printing the Bible

in English.

There's a book back there,

I'll tell you about it

later on.

A picture of William Tyndale

being burned at the stake.

The devil has attacked

the word of God

across the ages.

The communists

outlawed it.

Back in the era

of the Soviet Union,

there was

what they called

the underground church.

Of course,

the Soviet Union

was a completely

communistic state,

an atheistic state.

Christianity

was outlawed.

The Bible

was outlawed.

Outlawed.

And of course,

producing the Bible

was above all things

outlawed

in the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless,

in the underground church,

there would be folks

sitting way up

in an attic

or in a basement

and pecking away

on a typewriter.

You couldn't say,

what's a typewriter?

But pecking away

on a typewriter

to make

mimeograph stencils,

to run off pages

of the Bible.

Now,

you old-timers

here know

about mimeograph machines.

Fifty years ago,

probably even

not that long ago,

but fifty years ago,

all church literature

was done

on mimeograph machines.

And you'd put

this filmy stencil

in a typewriter

and you'd type

whatever you wanted

to type.

We used to employ

a church secretary

which you'd spend

all day Thursday morning

typing up

the church bulletin.

And it was

tedious work.

It was crude printing

in the mimeograph machine.

There was paste ink.

It was literally

like axle grease.

And you put

this coarse paper

in the machine

and you turn the crank.

Ka-chunk,

ka-chunk,

ka-chunk.

And if you really

had a high-tech church,

you had an electric machine

and it goes

ka-chunk,

ka-chunk,

ka-chunk.

But here were brethren

sitting up in an attic

or in a basement,

whatever,

typing away

on an ancient

old typewriter

to mimeograph off

several pages

of the Word of God.

And in due season,

the KGB caught up

with them

and they were sent

to gulags

in Siberia

for the rest

of their life

for the crime

of printing the Bible

a page or two

in the Soviet Union.

And yet the Bible

stands.

It just continues.

Down through the ages.

It just continues.

The liberals

have questioned

and denied it.

The Supreme Court

kicked it out

of the public schools.

I am old enough

to remember

when that happened,

by the way.

Charles Darwin

denied it.

The French philosopher

Voltaire

said that the day

was coming

when the only place

you'll find a Bible

is in a museum.

Well, today,

Voltaire's house

is in the Bible Society

and the Prince

of Bibles there.

The Bible stands.

Lenin laughed at it.

But they're all gone.

The Bible stands.

I'm going to say

that means tested.

Tested.

And found true.

Every archaeological find

in the Middle East

has verified

the history

and the details

of the Bible.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

have verified

the Old Testament text.

And incidentally,

there are more copies

of the Bible.

I'll take that

a step further.

There are more copies

of the King James Bible

that have been printed

than any other book

in history.

In fact,

there are more copies

of the King James Bible

that have been printed

over the last 400

and some years

than all the other

Bible translations

put together.

We'll get into that

particularly on Wednesday night.

God's hand of blessing

on the King James Bible.

In Psalm 12, 6,

we read,

the words of the Lord

are pure words

as silver tried

in a furnace of earth

seven times.

Now,

I am told

that the ancients

would,

in smelting silver,

would take the silver ore,

put it into a crucible,

apply intense heat

underneath it,

which would melt the ore

into a liquid state,

and then the refiner

would take a tool

and draw off the slag,

the impurities.

And then it would be

allowed to cool down

to a solid state.

And then it would be

reheated once again

to a molten state,

to a liquid state,

and more impurities

would float to the surface.

And the refiner

would draw them off,

draw the slag off,

allow it to cool down again,

and it'd go through

that process seven times.

And after seven times,

it was considered

pure silver

or pure gold.

And you read in the Bible

about fine silver

or fine gold.

It means refined,

highly refined.

It was a symbol

of purity.

And the words of the Lord

are pure words,

as silver tried

in a furnace of earth,

purified seven times.

God's word is truth

to this day.

And it changes lives

to this day.

Let me tell you

a little story.

Ten years ago,

or thereabout,

a young woman

wandered into

the evening service

there at North Star

Baptist Church in Duluth.

My wife was in the nursery

that night.

And she had two little kids

tagging along with her

that she was going

to put in the nursery.

And she was rough.

She had tattoos.

And my wife said to her,

what brought you here

to North Star Baptist Church?

She said,

I'm just looking for a church

that would accept me.

Well, this young lady,

her name was Samantha,

had grown up

in a Christian home,

but utterly

and went off

about as deep into sin

as a young woman can go.

Her boyfriend

was in prison.

He was,

his name was Tyrone.

He was the number two

gang leader

in the street gangs

of the city of Minneapolis

and St. Paul.

A bad dude.

And he went to prison,

so she went to Chicago

and was walking

the streets of Chicago.

Wandered into a homeless mission,

fell on her knees,

and cried out to God

to save her.

And when Samantha got saved,

folks,

she got saved.

She went back to Minnesota.

Her boyfriend in prison

had telephone privileges.

She got on the telephone

and led Tyrone to Christ.

And then for the next ensuing,

however many days,

months,

I don't know the exact time,

they did Bible study together

by telephone

every day.

And Tyrone got out of prison

one day

and she had moved to Duluth

to get out of the gang world

in the Twin Cities

and brought him to church

that Wednesday night.

That first Wednesday

he was out of prison.

He walked in

and he later looked around

and said to me,

what am I doing

in this church

of all these white people?

He's a black man.

She's an American Indian,

by the way.

But I want to tell you

something, folks.

And by the way,

they got married in prison

of all places.

But I want to tell you something.

When Tyrone and Samantha Walker

got saved,

they got saved.

And today,

he's a preacher of the gospel.

A powerful preacher

of the gospel.

He's starting a church

as I speak

in Trenton, New Jersey

out on the East Coast today.

And he's a good preacher.

He's probably one

of the most aggressive

soul winners I've ever met.

The word of God

changes lives.

The gospel

is the power of God

unto salvation.

The word of the Lord

is tried.

The word of the Lord

is proven.

It changes lives.

And I could tell you

numerous stories

along those lines.

I'll tell you one more

in just a second here.

Here.

Back last spring,

the Walkers just went

to New Jersey

in the 1st of July.

And they already,

I think they had 37

people in church

here this week

in their new church

that started.

But before they left Duluth,

back in April,

Tyrone was witnessing

to people

and he came across

a fellow

who was an American Indian

of the Ojibwe tribe

there in northeastern Minnesota.

The guy's name

is Vince Merrill.

And I know this story

because he got up

later in church

and gave his testimony.

He said,

I was a confirmed Satanist.

He has,

to this day,

666 tattooed

on his face.

But Tyrone led Vince

to Christ.

And today,

he never misses

a service.

I mean,

Sunday morning,

Sunday night,

Wednesday night,

he's there

every time the door

is open,

wearing a suit and tie.

American Indian,

Satanist,

the folks,

when he got saved,

he got saved

by the power

of the Word of God.

The Word of the Lord

is tried.

It remains to this day.

Hitler's Mein Kampf

has come and gone.

Marx das Kapital

has come and gone.

Mao's little red book

has come and gone.

Back in 1964,

Chairman Mao Tse-Tung

of the Communist

Chinese Party

printed up a little book

called The Sayings

of Chairman Mao.

It wasn't a big book,

just a little red book.

It had a red cover on it.

The Chinese communists

printed one billion copies.

And they proclaimed

it was the most published

book in history,

which is not true

because the King James Bible is.

But the point I'm making

is how many here today

have ever heard

of Mao's little red book?

One, two, all right?

Maybe three.

Not many people

have even heard of it.

A billion copies

were printed.

And that was only

60 years ago.

But folks,

the Word of God

just remains to this day.

It just continues.

It's tried.

It's proven.

And in the English language,

the English manifestation

of the Word of God

of the King James Bible.

We're going to be getting

into this in the next

several sessions,

and so make sure

you don't miss that.

But the Bible

is absolute truth.

Jesus said,

Thy Word is truth.

Folks,

you hold in your hand

absolute truth.

You're not going to get truth

on the evening news

tomorrow night,

I'll tell you that.

You're not going to find

much truth out on the internet.

But folks,

in your hand today

is God's Word.

It's true.

It's absolute truth.

Thy Word is truth.

And so,

number one this morning,

God's perfect way.

Number two this morning,

God's proven Word.

But number three this morning,

God's protective work.

Notice in the text here again,

let's read the verse again.

Psalm 1830.

As for God,

His way is perfect.

The Word of the Lord

is tried.

He is a buckler

to all those

that trust in Him.

You say,

Preacher,

what in the world

is a buckler?

Well,

I will confess,

it's older technology.

In fact,

it's really old technology.

But frankly,

it was just a type of shield.

A buckler

was a smaller type of shield

that literally buckled

on the forearm.

It was round.

Sometimes they called it

a target.

And wherever the forearm

of the soldier went,

that shield went.

And so a soldier in battle

might out of the corner

of his eye,

seeing an arrow incoming

up with his arm,

and the shield deflected it.

Or might see the enemy

bringing the blow

of his sword down

up with his arm,

and the shield protected him.

But notice it says,

He is a buckler.

He is a shield

to all those

that trust in Him.

You recall that God

said to Abraham

back there in Genesis 15,

I am thy shield

and thy exceeding

great reward.

Folks,

He's our shield

to this day.

Particularly

as we are in the center

of His will.

You recall there

in Ephesians 6

and verse 16

where the apostle said,

take the shield

of faith.

Well,

faith is trust.

Trust is faith.

He is a buckler

to all those

that trust in Him.

Now that begins

first with our salvation.

When we turn to Christ

and trust in Him,

He becomes

our salvation.

Protecting us

from the judgment

of God

and the wrath of God.

But folks,

as we begin

to go down

the pathway

of the Christian life,

there are problems,

as you know.

Somebody penned

the song years ago,

It's not an easy road.

We're traveling to heaven.

That's true.

And if you've been saved

for any length of time,

you know there are troubles.

And the devil

will see to that

and sin sees to that.

But we can trust Him

for His protective work,

for His protective care.

Trust Him for guidance.

Making decisions in life.

Go to Him

and seek His face.

In all thy ways,

acknowledge Him

and He shall direct thy paths.

The idea there

in acknowledges

seeking His face,

look to Him.

In all thy ways,

acknowledge Him

and He shall direct thy paths.

Trust Him for strength.

The Lord is the strength

of my life.

They that wait upon the Lord

shall renew their strength.

Trust Him for crises

that come in life.

And crises do come.

It may be medical crises.

It may be financial crises.

It may be family problems,

employment troubles.

There are problems in life.

But folks,

we can go to Him

and seek His help

for His protective care

all through the Christian life.

Four and a half,

I guess,

it's getting closer

to five years ago now.

I went to the doctor.

He had a lump

on my neck.

And he says,

I'm sending you

to an oncologist.

I went to the oncologist

and they ran a series of tests

and PET scans

and he said,

you have cancer.

In fact,

after the PET scan,

he said,

you have stage four cancer.

And my wife saw

the scans.

We saw them.

I mean,

I was full of cancer.

And without going

into a long story here today,

I believe in James chapter five,

verses 14, 15, and 16.

Is any sick,

let them call

for the elders of the church

and let them anoint them

with oil.

And the prayer of faith

shall save the sick.

And I asked the pastor

and the deacons

of the church

to pray over me publicly

and ask God's healing.

I went back

to the oncologist here

a couple weeks later

and they did another PET scan

and the doctor said,

it's gone.

I said,

well,

I know what happened,

doc.

I said,

the church has prayed for me

according to James chapter five.

He said,

whatever you're doing,

keep on doing it.

Now,

I understand

that it may not be

God's will to heal

every single person

who has cancer.

I understand that.

And I know some very wonderful

godly people

have died of cancer.

But my point simply is

that we can go to him

for help in trouble

and seek his protective care

when the crises of life come.

In

Psalm chapter 91

Psalms 91 · chapter mention

and verse one,

there we read,

he that dwelleth

in the secret place

of the Most High

shall abide

under the shadow

of the Almighty.

I have a whole sermon

on those several verses.

But the essence of it is

that when we are

in the center of God's will,

we're under the shadow

of his protective care.

The story there

is of the tabernacle

and the Holy of Holies

and the pillar of smoke

came up by day,

it cast a shadow.

And the only time

you were near that shadow

is when you were

near the tabernacle.

near the presence of God.

And the point simply is

that the closer we are

to God

and our lives

and our walk

and his will, folks,

he is there to protect us.

In

Psalm 84 and verse 13,

O Lord of hosts,

blessed is the man that,

what's the next word?

Trusteth

in thee.

God protects

and blesses

those who trust him.

Psalm 91, 11,

For he shall give

his angels charge

over thee

to keep thee

in all thy ways,

lest thou cast

thy foot against a stone.

We have a guardian angel.

And I'm looking forward

someday to meeting

my guardian angel

when I get to heaven.

I think I've given him

a run for the money

over the years.

But

God takes care

of his people.

He is a buckler,

a shield

to all those

that trust

in him.

And so here today,

David looked back

over his life,

70 years.

His life was long

and rich

with battles

and victories,

with adventures

and

conquests.

But he came

to the conclusion

that

God's

way is perfect,

God's word

is proven,

and God

takes care

that is

protects his people.

And folks,

that was true

3,000 years ago.

It's still true today.

God's way

is perfect.

His way of salvation

is perfect.

His way of living

is perfect.

His will is perfect.

And his word

has been proven,

it's been tried

and tested

down through

the course of time

and it still stands.

And he protects

his people.

Well,

praise God

for that.

His way

is perfect.

Let's stand,

please.

Our heads are bowed,

our eyes are closed,

no one is looking about.

Now,

I'm a guest preacher

here today.

I've only met

a few of you.

Maybe you're

a visitor

here today.

Maybe you're

listening online

today.

and you're

not sure

where you stand

before God.

I was a preacher's

kid.

I went to church

for 20 years

of my life

in a fundamental

Baptist church

and I wasn't saved.

And that's a long

story I won't get

into here.

But one day

I turned to Christ

and trusted him

and made sure

of it.

And maybe you're

here today,

you're not sure

if you're saved.

You're not sure

if you're on your

way to heaven.

You can pray

right now

something like

this,

silently,

but sincerely

pray something

like this.

Dear Lord Jesus,

I know

that I'm a

sinner.

Please

save me.

Now,

the Bible

says,

for whosoever

shall call upon

the name of

the Lord

shall be saved.

the Bible

says,

him that

cometh to me

I will in

no wise

cast out.

Just repeating

words after the

preacher doesn't

mean anything.

But folks,

if it comes

from your

heart and

you sincerely

cry out to

God,

the Bible

says thou

shall be

saved.

And so let

me repeat

that little

prayer one

more time.

If that's

what's in

your heart,

you pray it

sincerely,

though silently

in this

room.

Dear Lord

Jesus,

I know

that I'm

a sinner.

please save

me.

I now

trust you.

With heads

bowed,

eyes closed,

no one

looking about,

is there

someone in

this room

who just a

moment ago

to the best

of your

ability,

silently,

but very

sincerely

prayed and

asked Christ

to save

you?

Would you

slip your

hand up high

enough that

I can see

it?

I will not

point you

out.

I will not

embarrass you.

I'll pray

for you.

But then

Christian here

today,

are you

living God's

perfect way

of living

soberly,

righteously,

and godly

in this

present world?

Are you

in his

word on

a regular

basis?

Are you

trusting him

for his

help?