Sermon Title:

The Words God Preserved

Key Passage:

Psalm 12:6–7

“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” (Psalm 12:6–7)

Series:

The Book God Gave

Topic:

The Inspiration, Purity, Preservation, and Authority of the Words of God

Book:

Psalms

Speaker:

Paul Tackett

Suggested Sermon Text:

Psalm 12:1–8; Psalm 119:89, 140, 152, 160; Proverbs 30:5–6; Isaiah 40:8; Matthew 5:17–18; Matthew 24:35; John 10:35; 2 Timothy 3:15–17; 1 Peter 1:23–25; Genesis 3:1–5; Jeremiah 36:20–32

Short Sermon Description:

Psalm 12:6–7 declares both the purity and preservation of “the words of the LORD.” This sermon examines the biblical doctrine that God did not merely inspire His words and then allow them to disappear, but promised to keep and preserve them “from this generation for ever.” It traces Scripture’s own testimony concerning pure words, permanent words, the repeated satanic attack upon what God has said, Christ’s declaration that heaven and earth will pass away before His words do, and the believer’s responsibility to receive, trust, study, preach, and obey the preserved Scriptures. The message rejects the notion that biblical authority rests in unreachable originals while present believers are left with uncertainty, and instead calls Christians back to confidence in a God who is fully capable of preserving the words He inspired. The VerseQuest standard requires a KJV-only, rightly divided, detailed, sermon-ready treatment useful for preaching and teaching. Sermon Outline Prompt – VerseQu…

THE WORDS GOD PRESERVED

Introduction

The question is not merely whether God once spoke. The question is whether the God who spoke was capable of keeping what He said. Nearly every conservative Christian will say that the original Scriptures were inspired. That statement costs very little if the inspired words vanished thousands of years ago and nobody can identify them anymore. Inspiration without preservation leaves the modern believer admiring a Bible he cannot possess, appealing to an authority he cannot inspect, and trusting words that supposedly existed somewhere in history but are no longer available with certainty. Psalm 12 refuses to leave the matter there. David says, “The words of the LORD are pure words,” and then immediately says, “Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”

The Bible presents God as a communicator who cares about words. God did not merely communicate moods, religious impressions, broad concepts, or spiritual themes. He gave words. Moses wrote words. The prophets spoke words. Christ spoke words. The apostles wrote words. Paul said the Holy Ghost taught “words” (1 Corinthians 2:13). Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Satan’s first recorded attack upon mankind began with an assault upon those words: “Yea, hath God said?” (Genesis 3:1). The battle from Genesis onward has therefore never been merely over whether God exists. It has been over whether God actually said what the Book says He said.

Psalm 12:6–7 gives the Bible believer solid ground. The words are pure. God keeps them. God preserves them. The promise reaches beyond one generation. The text says “for ever.” The same God who inspired Scripture is neither forgetful nor powerless. He does not need sinful man to rescue His words from extinction. He uses men, manuscripts, copies, translations, printers, preachers, and providence, but preservation ultimately rests upon the character and promise of God. If the words belong to the LORD, then the preservation of those words is the LORD’s business.

I. THE LORD GAVE WORDS, NOT MERELY IDEAS

Key Text: Psalm 12:6

Supporting Texts: Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16

Psalm 12:6 does not say, “The ideas of the LORD are pure ideas.” It says, “The words of the LORD are pure words.” That distinction matters. Doctrine resides in words. A promise depends upon words. A command depends upon words. The gospel depends upon words. Change the words sufficiently and eventually you change the doctrine conveyed by those words. God chose language because words can communicate definite truth.

Jesus Himself emphasized this principle when He quoted Deuteronomy: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). “Every word” is far more exact than “the general message.” Man is commanded to live by something specific. If every word matters to God, then every word ought to matter to the believer.

Paul likewise said that the things of God were spoken “not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth” (1 Corinthians 2:13). God did not hand inspired thoughts to men and then remain indifferent concerning how those thoughts were expressed. Biblical inspiration reaches the words through which God revealed His truth.

Main Truth: God revealed His truth in words, so biblical authority cannot be separated from the actual words God gave.

II. THE WORDS OF THE LORD ARE PURE

Key Text: Psalm 12:6

Supporting Texts: Proverbs 30:5–6; Psalm 119:140; John 17:17; Titus 1:2

David says, “The words of the LORD are pure words.” The statement is absolute. He does not say mostly pure, generally reliable, spiritually helpful, or accurate in matters of faith while occasionally defective elsewhere. The words of the LORD are pure because their Author is pure.

Proverbs 30:5 repeats the testimony: “Every word of God is pure.” That verse then immediately warns, “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Proverbs 30:6). God takes His wording seriously enough to warn men against adding to it. Revelation closes with a similar warning concerning adding to or taking away from the words of prophecy.

Purity also means Scripture does not require sinful man to sit above it as final judge. The scholar may study the Bible, but he does not become its master. The preacher may explain the Bible, but he does not correct God. The translator handles sacred words and therefore bears tremendous responsibility. Human beings are fallible; God’s words are not made pure by human approval. They are pure because God spoke them.

Main Truth: The purity of Scripture rests upon the perfection of the God who gave it, not upon the approval of human scholarship.

III. GOD TESTED HIS WORDS LIKE SILVER PURIFIED SEVEN TIMES

Key Text: Psalm 12:6

Supporting Texts: Psalm 18:30; Psalm 119:160; Proverbs 30:5; Jeremiah 23:29

David compares God’s words to “silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” The picture is of complete refinement. Heat exposes impurities. Repeated purification removes corruption. David chooses one of the strongest material images available to communicate reliability: what God says contains no dross.

Men’s words require correction constantly. Dictionaries change. textbooks are revised. Experts reverse themselves. Predictions fail. Governments retract statements. Scientists refine theories. Historians discover errors. Preachers correct sermons. Human knowledge is provisional because men are limited. God does not issue corrected editions because He discovered something He did not know when He spoke the first time.

Psalm 18:30 says, “The word of the LORD is tried.” God’s words have passed through centuries of hatred, criticism, persecution, manuscript destruction, state suppression, theological attack, philosophical ridicule, and modern skepticism. Empires have risen and vanished while the words remain. The furnace did not consume the Book because the fire cannot burn truth out of what God said.

Main Truth: God’s words possess a tested purity and reliability that no human authority can equal.

IV. GOD HIMSELF PROMISED TO KEEP AND PRESERVE HIS WORDS

Key Text: Psalm 12:7

Supporting Texts: Psalm 119:89, 152, 160; Isaiah 40:8; Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:23–25

The preservation promise is stated directly: “Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” The Keeper is God. Preservation does not ultimately rest upon the perfection of scribes, printers, scholars, publishers, denominations, governments, or institutions. God certainly uses human means, but the promise rests on divine faithfulness.

Isaiah says, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever” (Isaiah 40:8). Peter quotes that passage and adds, “And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Peter 1:25). Preservation in Scripture is not treated as an abstract theological theory concerning words that once existed. The enduring word was available to be preached.

Jesus makes the same claim: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Creation itself is less permanent than Christ’s words. A Christian who believes God can preserve heaven until its appointed end should not stumble over whether He can preserve sentences.

Main Truth: The preservation of Scripture depends upon God’s explicit promise and His power to keep what He inspired.

V. SATAN HAS ATTACKED GOD’S WORDS FROM THE BEGINNING

Key Text: Genesis 3:1

Supporting Texts: Genesis 3:1–5; Jeremiah 36:20–32; Matthew 4:5–7; 2 Corinthians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 4:2

The first recorded words of the serpent begin, “Yea, hath God said?” Satan’s method is revealing. He did not begin by saying there is no God. He began by creating uncertainty concerning God’s words. Once Eve entertained doubt about what God had said, Satan contradicted God directly: “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4).

Jeremiah 36 gives another dramatic picture. King Jehoiakim heard the written word of God and cut the scroll with a penknife before throwing it into the fire. That looked like the destruction of Scripture. Yet God simply told Jeremiah to take another roll and write the words again. The king could burn paper. He could not burn God’s words out of existence.

Satan even quoted Scripture to Jesus in Matthew 4, proving that deception can involve Bible words handled corruptly. The devil has attacked Scripture by questioning it, contradicting it, burning it, twisting it, adding to it, subtracting from it, and persuading men that certainty concerning it is impossible. The variety of methods changes; the target remains the same.

Main Truth: Satan’s repeated strategy is to undermine confidence in what God said, because doubt concerning God’s words opens the door to disobedience.

VI. JESUS CHRIST TAUGHT THE PERMANENCE OF THE VERY WORDS OF SCRIPTURE

Key Text: Matthew 5:18

Supporting Texts: Matthew 24:35; John 10:35; Luke 16:17; John 12:48

Jesus said, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law” (Matthew 5:18). A jot and a tittle concern exceedingly small written details. Christ’s statement therefore goes far beyond vague preservation of general meaning. He spoke with complete confidence concerning the durability of Scripture.

In John 10:35 He says plainly, “the scripture cannot be broken.” Modern religious uncertainty often speaks as though the Bible has become a gigantic archaeological puzzle whose authority depends upon specialists continuously reconstructing what God probably said. Jesus did not speak of Scripture that way. He treated written Scripture as authoritative, dependable, and incapable of being broken.

Christ also said men would be judged by His words: “the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). God does not judge men by inaccessible information. Divine judgment assumes accountable revelation. The God who holds men responsible for His words is capable of making those words available.

Main Truth: Jesus Christ affirmed the permanence, precision, and unbreakable authority of Scripture.

VII. PRESERVED WORDS MUST BE BELIEVED, STUDIED, PREACHED, AND OBEYED

Key Text: 2 Timothy 3:15–17

Supporting Texts: 2 Timothy 2:15; Psalm 119:105; Acts 17:11; 2 Timothy 4:2; James 1:22

Preservation is not merely an argument to win. It creates responsibility. If God preserved His words, then the believer cannot excuse biblical ignorance by pretending certainty is impossible. Paul told Timothy that from childhood he had known “the holy scriptures.” Timothy did not possess Moses’ original tablets, David’s original parchment, or Isaiah’s original scroll. Yet Paul still called what Timothy possessed “the holy scriptures.”

Paul then says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” The doctrine of inspiration was applied to Scripture available to Timothy, not merely to vanished original documents he had never seen. The Book was intended to function in the believer’s hands: doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, and complete furnishing unto good works.

For the English-speaking Bible believer, this doctrine should produce confidence rather than perpetual textual insecurity. Receive the King James Bible as the authoritative word of God. Read it without treating every difficult verse as though the Book must be corrected. Study it. Compare it with itself. Rightly divide it. Memorize it. Preach it. Believe it when it rebukes your tradition, your feelings, your favorite teacher, or your own opinion. A preserved Bible sitting unopened on a shelf profits no man.

Main Truth: God preserved His words so His people could possess them, study them, preach them, believe them, and obey them.

Conclusion

Psalm 12:6–7 presents two doctrines standing side by side: purity and preservation. “The words of the LORD are pure words,” and the LORD promises, “Thou shalt keep them…thou shalt preserve them…for ever.” Inspiration tells us where the words came from. Preservation tells us why those words did not disappear. Authority tells us what those words demand from us. Remove preservation and inspiration becomes largely historical. Keep preservation, and the Bible becomes the living authority God intended His people to possess.

The biblical record is consistent. Isaiah said the word stands forever. David said God preserves it. Christ said His words will not pass away. Peter said the word lives and abides forever. Paul could call copies available in Timothy’s lifetime “holy scriptures.” Satan attacks the words because words matter. God preserves the words because words matter. The believer ought therefore to stop apologizing for possessing certainty where God never apologized for giving it.

The issue finally becomes personal. What are you doing with the words God preserved? It is possible to defend the Bible fiercely and read it lazily. It is possible to argue about preservation while ignoring the preserved commandments sitting on the desk. The highest honor we can give the Book is not merely to defend it but to believe it. Open the King James Bible. Read it as God’s Book. Study it as God’s Book. Preach it as God’s Book. Correct your life by it. Judge doctrine by it. Feed your family with it. Build your ministry upon it. Heaven and earth will pass away before the words in which God has placed His authority.

Final Call

If you are lost, the preserved word of God tells you plainly how you can be saved. You do not need a new revelation, a private vision, a church ceremony, or a religious system. Christ “died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is by grace through faith, not through your works, religion, baptism, morality, or merit.

If you are saved, treat the Bible like you actually believe God preserved it. Stop allowing every passing scholar, preacher, critic, video, commentary, or religious tradition to sit in judgment over the Book. Study faithfully. Rightly divide carefully. Preach boldly. Obey humbly. The God who inspired His words knew exactly what He wanted to say, and the God who promised to preserve them did not lose control of the process before they reached your generation.

Closing Verse:

“For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” (Psalm 119:89)

Closing Statement:

If God was powerful enough to inspire His words, He was powerful enough to preserve them—and faithful enough to put them where His people could read them.