Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Isaiah says, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Jesus said, this I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot nor one tittle will pass from the law till all is fulfilled. That promise of the Lord, that his word will endure, no matter how great the persecution, that as Christians, we have been given God’s word. One of the greatest gifts that God has given, and his son Jesus Christ, is recorded in this book that we might know more about him. I’m reminded of a poem that says, last evening I passed a blacksmith’s door and heard the anvil ring, the vesper chime. Then looking in, I saw upon the floor old hammers worn with beating years of time. How many anvils have you had, said I, to wear and batter all these hammers?

So just one, said he and then with twinkling eye, the anvil Wears the hammers out, you know. And so thought I, the anvil of God’s word. For ages, sceptic blows have beat upon. Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard, the anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone. Isaiah said, the word of the Lord stands forever. God’s anvil, I think, is a fitting picture of the word. It is anvil that has been beat upon by many generations and down through the ages. Many a king has taken his hammer in hand, determined that he would smash and destroy the church and demolish God’s word. One of the first occurrences we find of this is found in the Old Testament. One of the most wicked of all of the kings was king Manasseh. He reigned some 55 years. During Manasseh’s reign, the altars to the living God were pulled down and destroyed and replaced by altars to Baal.

We know of Manasseh that he consulted with spiritus and practiced witchcraft. His son Amon reigned for two. He also did evil in the sight of the Lord. The scriptures tell us that the household servant of Ammon hated him so much that while he was at home in the privacy of his Household, they came and they slew him. His son was JOSIAH. Josiah, who reigned until he was 18 years old. With no word of the Lord in the land, Josiah gave the instruction that some men were to go to the temple and to begin to rebuild and to work and clean out the temple. Most scholars believe that probably at least 20 years, no one had even heard the Old Testament scriptures read in the temple.

And JOSIAH, as he sends some men to clean up, they uncover some old paper, some book, the book of Moses. And when they discover that they have found God’s word, they bring it back to Josiah. And as soon as he reads the scripture, he realizes that this is the word of God that had not been heard in the land for decades. And what does he do? He tears his clothing. He calls the people, and they begin to Worship. As he opens those five books of moses and read the law of the Lord, and true worship was restored. I’m reminded of Carrie, who went to.

The far east and spent his life. Writing and translating into the language of the people. And he took those precious manuscripts that had taken him years to decipher, and he hid them while he was in a prison in a pillowcase for fear that someone would take them while they were at home. And every night, he would sleep with this hard package under his head. And finally, one evening, Carrie was taken with great surprise out of that prison and left behind was his hardened pillow. He was certain that This Bible, which would be translated for countless millions who would learn the scripture in their own language, would be destroyed. As a matter of fact, according to a person who was present, a prison guard came and began to kick this pillow across the floor. When he noticed that there were papers, he simply became disturbed and walked away.

A friend of Cary saw the paper, he saved them. And later he brought them to Chary, who took those precious manuscripts, and they were translated to the language of the people. So many times, cynics have come thinking that they would destroy God’s word or consider another king with hammer in hand, who decided that he would have with great power destroy only one verse of God’s word, and that he would take the power of his armies and to break the scripture and to show that not one prophecy would be broken, King Herod the great gathered his wise men, and he asked the question, where will the ruler of Israel be born? And they said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea.

For there it is written by the prophet, thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. And with sword in hand, Herod gathered all of his soldiers that they would go and kill all of the children who were male, born under the age of two. But unknown to him, the lord had declared in time past that his word would endure forever. And in a dream, he spoke to Joseph. He told him to take his family and to go to Egypt. And there Jesus was protected. Prophecy was fulfilled. The grass withers, flower fade but the word of the Lord endures forever. Or consider another king, Diocletian.

Diocletian, who was a roman emperor, who ddetermined that this small sect of Christian would be destroyed with all the power of the Roman Empire he determined to. That he would destroy every household church and confiscate every portion of scripture, that the Bible would be destroyed. And so with all of the power of his office, he went and waged war against this promise of God’s word. He was so convinced that he had destroyed the church and that he had taken all of the scriptures and burned them, that he minted a coin and he had placed upon it this motto.

The Christian religion is destroyed and the worship of the roman gods is restored. And yet, until I mention his name, for most people know nothing of Diocletian.

Why? Because the word of the Lord endures forever. It is anvil upon which many hammers have been destroyed. Or consider in our own time the efforts of Hitler Mussolini. Hitler, who certainly was no friend of the church, who in the early years of his leadership had the Christian schools dismantled. Hitler believed that he would form a government not upon the moral principles of God’s word. Hitler, in the end, winds up in a bunker with a bullet in his head. Mussolini, who believed that the church would be destroyed himself, is hung by the feet in a market. Or take within our own memory Jim Jones, who declared in that small colony of Jonestown that the Bible was not to be studied, there were no Bible studies.

And that Jones would have throughout the day nothing but propaganda about a different philosophy, but not the philosophy of Jesus Christ. And the day came when Jones and a thousand of his father followers would drink poison and die. The scriptures make it very clear. The grass withers, flower fades, but the word of God endures forever. It seems a thousand times over, sceptics have come seeking to destroy God’s word. They have declared that the scriptures have been dismantled, that the church has been destroyed. They have called for a funeral. They have engraved a tombstone. They’ve given their eulogy. The only problem, the corpse never arrived. That the church continues from generation to generation, that the word of God continues from person to person, affecting lives here and there, until even we assemble for the purpose of knowing more about God, knowing more of his word.

Not only have kings attempted to destroy God’s word, but philosophers have stood in line with their hammers, trying to beat and to destroy and to show that God’s word will not endure. Voltaire, a French infidel, believed that through the efforts of his movement in France that the Bible would simply be destroyed. He believed that within one generation of his death that the only place that you would find a Bible would be in a museum. Well, as irony would strike, within one generation of the death of Voltaire, his house in Geneva was purchased by the swiss Bible society. The printing press that he used to spew forth his philosophy were taken and seized by that organization for the printing of Bible. And as within one generation of his death, you were to walk into the house of Voltaire.

There you would find shelf after shelf, room after room, fill to the rafters Bible. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. But there’s also been a group of people who have attempted to destroy God’s word and, in the process, have been strangely changed because they began to look precisely at the scripture. At the turn of this, a man by the name of Colonel Robert Ingersoll was the Madeleine Murray O’Hara of his day. He traveled the country far and wide to give talks against the Bible with the purpose of showing that it was simply a book of myth. One day, Ingersoll, traveling in the Midwest by chance, met a man who was a retired general. He told him that the scriptures should not be followed, that they were simply foolishness.

And he encouraged this General Wallace to pursue a study to show that Jesus Christ was simply a man, that he wasn’t the son of God, but simply a man. And so General Lew Wallace took up his hammer with an attempt to show that Jesus, in fact, was not the son of God. And as he began to read the scriptures, he traveled to Jerusalem. He looked at the places where Jesus walked. He studied the documents. And over a period of time, as he continued to write the novel, which he had as an assignment to discredit Jesus Christ, Lew Wallace was strangely changed by the man of Galilee. And in Ben Hur, Lew Wallace chronicles his own search for meaning. As in that book, the hero looks face to face at Jesus while he carries a cross. And he believes.

And Lew Wallace became a Christian and for the rest of his days did all that he could to show the truthfulness of God’s word. In the 19th century, a man by the name of William Ramsay was sent by those who believed that the Bible certainly was not God’s word. They took their golden haired scholar Ramsay, and they sent him to discredit the book of acts and the trip of the apostle as it was recorded. And Ramsay for years was quiet as he investigated God’s word and all of Europe. Waited with great anticipation to see the discrediting of God’s word. And as Ramsay wrote his book and it was published, St. Paul the Traveler and roman citizen, it electrified those liberals who waited in vain for what they found was that Ramsay declared that Luke, the writer of acts, was a historian par excellence, that in the book of acts is to be found an accurate recording of the real trip of the apostle Paul.

He spent the rest of his life showing through archaeology the truthfulness of God’s word. Same is true of Adolf Dysman in the 20th century, who went thinking that he would uncover that which would destroy the scripture. And instead, as his spade unturned more and more evidence, he came forward as a believer in Jesus Christ. The word of the Lord endures forever. God has protected his word.

He has brought it from generation to generation that you and I might learn more of his word, that we might not simply take a few moments at the beginning of the morning and glance at his word, but that we might take his word and study his word, and live by his word, and go and make a change in this world because of the great truths that we find in scripture. Century follows century, and yet there it stands. Empires come and go. There it stands. Dynasty succeeds dynasty, and there it stands. Kings are crowned, and then they die. There it stands, despised and torn to pieces. God’s word stands. Storms of hate swirl around it. There it stands. Agnostics smile cynically, and yet there it stands. Unbelief abandons it. There it stands. Thunderbolts of wrath smite it. There it stands.

Flames are kindled about it, yet there it stands. The tooth of time gnaws at it, but it is not destroyed. There it stands. The anvil, we are told, wears out the hammers, the grass will fade, but the word of our Lord will endure forever. Let us pray. Our God and our father, we thank you for this promise that your word will endure forever and that many have tried to destroy your word. And Father, as we come this day, it is even possible that some of us, in the quiet of our heart, through unbelief, have tried to destroy your word. That we have not believed that Jesus is the Christ. We have not believed that he is risen from the dead, that we have not believed that he is coming again. Father, these promises from your word will occur.

And Father, I ask that anyone who has not trusted in the promises of Jesus Christ would even now, in this hour, trust in the great promise of the forgiveness of their sin, that Jesus would declare that he is able to forgive us our sin. And Father, that we might believe that by faith we have a place with you in heaven. And Father, that you will use us for your noble purposes. Help us, we pray, to believe your promises, to act upon your word, and to go into this world to show that the promises of the Lord will endure forever. We give you thanks in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. That’s Princeton Ministries post Office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. The Lord bless you, and Doctor Smith looks forward to hearing from you.