and weaves the spider's web, they that eat it for their eggs
die, and in which its current crush
break thou into a viper.
Their web shall not become garments,
neither shall they cover themselves with their works,
their works are works of iniquity,
and the acts of violence in their hands.
Their feet run to evil and make haste to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wasting
and destruction are in their past.
The way of peace they know not, and there's
no judgment in their goings.
They have made them crooked pasts.
Whosoever goeth therein shall not
know peace, therefore is judgment far from us.
Neither doth justice overtake us.
We wait for light, where we hold obscurity, for brightness,
when we walk in darkness.
We grope for the walk, for the wall like the blind,
and we grope as if we had no eyes.
We stumble at noonday, as in the night.
We are in desolate places, as dead men.
We roar, all like bears, and mourn sore like doves.
We look for judgment, but there's none, for salvation,
but it is far off from us.
For our transgressions are multiplied before them,
and our sins testify against us.
For our transgressions are with us,
and as for our iniquities, we know them.
In transgressing, lying against the Lord,
and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering from the heart of words,
from the hard words of falsehood.
And judgment is turned away backward,
and justice stands at the far off,
for truth is fallen in the street,
and equity cannot enter.
Yea, truth faileth, and he that departed from evil
maketh himself a prayer.
And the Lord saw, and it displeased him,
but there was no judgment.
And he saw that there was no man who wondered
if there was no intercessor.
Therefore, his arm brought salvation unto him,
and his righteousness is sustaining him.
His righteousness is sustaining him.
For he put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation upon his head,
and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,
and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay,
fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies,
for the islands he will repay recompense.
So shall he fear the name of the Lord for the West,
and his glory for the rising of the sun,
when the enemy shall come in like a flood,
the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him,
and the redeemer shall come to Zion,
unto them that turn from transgression to Jacob,
saith the Lord.
As for me, this is my covenant with them,
saith the Lord.
The spirit that is upon me,
and my word which I have put in thy mouth,
shall not depart out of my mouth,
for out of the mouth of thy seed,
see, saith the Lord, from henceforth forever.
With Adam, would you pray for us?
Well, Heavenly Father, just thank you for today,
Lord God, and thank you for the goodness and mercy
in our lives, Lord God.
Thank you for providing for us
and acknowledging today, Lord God,
and asking the blessed service that we preach in, Lord,
and ask you to report from your spirit, Lord God,
and just allow free bones, Lord God,
and just give us here to understand
what you have for us today, Lord God.
And just thank you, pray, amen.
Amen.
So the title of the sermon this morning
is Bibles Worth Burning, Bibles Worth Burning.
And I'm preaching this because, you know,
as I mentioned in the announcements,
we're doing a promotion this year
where we're collecting false versions,
and we are, at the end of the year,
tentatively, we plan on burning these false versions, okay?
And they're false versions of the Bible.
Now, I might end up just throwing them in a dumpster
because people think it's so easy
to just light a bunch of books on fire.
It's really not.
There's a lot of them.
Go watch Pastor Shelley do it over at Pure Words.
There's quite a bit you gotta do
to get the air flowing and all that,
then you got all these toxic chemicals.
We'll probably just throw them in the dumpster
and just burn a bunch of carne asada, amen?
So, anyway, we'll do it the Tucson style.
But, you know, these,
I'm gonna talk about some Bibles, you know,
and I'm not gonna, this is gonna be real elaborate,
but I'm gonna talk about some Bibles
that are worth burning.
You know, there are Bibles,
and you know, Bible just means books.
That's all it means.
It just means books, okay?
So, when I say Bibles, I'm just saying,
look, there are some books out there
that would be better off if they were just burnt, okay?
But before I get into that,
let me just make it perfectly clear
what we believe here about the King James Bible, okay?
We believe that the King James Bible
is the preserved word of God for English-speaking people.
Here in Isaiah 59, verse 21, he says,
"'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 thy mouth of thy seed, seed,' saith the Lord,
"'from henceforth and forever.'"
So, God is telling Isaiah here
that he's giving him this promise
that the words that he's putting in his mouth
are going to remain from henceforth forever.
This is a great verse on the preservation of God's word.
And that's what we believe,
that the Bible is inspired and preserved.
Notice again, it says, "'I have put in thy mouth.'"
The words which I have put in thy mouth.
So we believe also in the inspiration of the scriptures.
We believe that the Bible, the King James Bible,
is the inspired word of God.
It is, you know, of course we believe that it's inspired
and preserved in the original languages.
We also believe that it's been preserved
in the English language.
It's been perfectly translated from the Greek and Hebrew
into the English in the form of the King James Bible, okay?
So we believe that.
We believe that the Bible is inspired and preserved.
So, and we're gonna get into why, you know,
why it's such a serious issue
when you have these other versions
that are attacking core doctrines, okay?
But I wanna start out by just clarifying what we believe.
You know, that, look, there are some Bibles
that are worth burning, other Bibles, no.
The King James Bible is a Bible that we should cherish
and we should love and we should read, okay?
But we can also take that too far, all right?
I don't wanna get too far ahead of myself.
People can almost become superstitious
about the actual book itself, okay?
Another sermon we could have entitled this
is King James Idolatry,
where people actually begin to idolatry
the actual King James version.
Look, we believe it's inspired.
We believe it's preserved.
We believe the King James Bible is the word of God.
But you know what?
We don't worship the physical book,
we don't worship the pages that it's printed upon,
we don't worship the ink or the binding on the book.
We worship the God who wrote this book.
Now that's who we worship, okay?
But again, the Bible is inspired.
If you would, go over to 2 Peter chapter one,
2 Peter chapter number one.
Actually, you know what?
Go to 2 Peter one, yeah, go there.
I'll begin reading verse 19.
It says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy
wherein to you do well that you take heed
as unto a light that shineth in a dark place
until the day dawn, and the day star arrives in your hearts.
Verse 20, knowing this first,
that no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation,
being the things that are in the scripture
where just somebody just sat down and made up
what they just said, whatever they wanted to say,
that the authors of the Bible
didn't just make it up on the fly.
You have approximately 40 authors
over the course of over thousands of years
writing the word of God,
and that's one of the most amazing things about it
is how well that all can just kind of comes together,
how it all builds off each other,
how it's all just fits together like hand in glove.
Why is that?
Because these men that wrote the scriptures
that were the human instruments
that the Lord used to give us the Bible
were not making it up.
They were inspired by the Holy Ghost.
It says in verse 21, for the prophecy came not in old time
by the will of man, it wasn't man's will,
but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, the prophets,
these men were moved by the Holy Ghost and they spake.
And then you had men like different scribes,
like Jeremiah's scribe, Barak,
who actually heard these words and wrote them down,
wrote and recorded these words.
And these things are preserved for us.
Holy men of God spake as they are moved by the Holy Ghost.
Say, prove it.
Look, I can't.
That's not what the sermon is about.
I'm not gonna get up here and try to convince you
that the Bible is the word of God.
I believe that by faith.
We must come to God by faith.
We might have to believe these things by faith.
You say, well, that's circular reasoning.
I know, but you know what?
At the end of the day, that's what it is.
Either you believe the Bible is the word of God
or you don't.
It's that simple.
Now, I believe what the Bible says
when it says that they came down in old time
by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
It's not that hard for God to write a book.
I mean, people do it all the time, right?
God could do that.
Go over to 2 Peter chapter three,
2 Peter chapter number three.
The Bible says in Acts chapter four,
who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said,
why did the heathen rage
and the people imagine the main thing?
So you have David, again, prophesying in the Psalm,
he was a holy man of old who spake,
moved by the Holy Ghost.
The Bible says, who by the mouth of thy servant spake, right?
Look at 2 Peter chapter three, verse two,
that you may be mindful of the words
which were spoken before by the holy prophets
and of the commandment of us,
the apostles of the Lord and Savior.
That's how we got the King James Bible.
That's how we got God's word today, folks,
because it's been inspired in the past
and God has preserved it from that day forward,
just like he promised Isaiah in chapter 59.
We believe that these words are inspired and preserved
and that these words are God's words.
These aren't just the words of men.
If you would, go over to 1 Corinthians chapter number two,
1 Corinthians chapter number two.
You know, the Bible isn't just,
it's not a private interpretation.
These aren't just random thoughts of men.
This isn't just some novel some guy sat down
and tried to write.
These are the words of God, we believe that.
It says in 1 Corinthians chapter two, verse 12,
now we have received not the spirit of the world,
but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God,
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 things.
The things that we speak, the words that we have,
the things that are freely given to us
are the things that the Holy Ghost teacheth.
These are the things that are taught by the Holy Ghost.
These are the things that have been inspired
by the Holy Ghost throughout, you know, throughout time.
That's how we have the King James Bible.
Go over to, go over to 2 Timothy chapter number three,
2 Timothy chapter number three.
The Bible says in Jeremiah chapter one,
then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth
and the Lord said unto me, behold,
I have put my words in thy mouth.
How did Jeremiah know to say the things that he said?
Because the Bible tells us that God put his words
in his mouth.
That's what it means in 2 Peter,
where he's saying holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,
that God came upon those men
and they were moved to say the things that they said.
Jesus said, heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away.
That's a promise from the Lord himself.
So you can see again, all these verses,
and look, we're just scratching the surface of the verses
that prove this doctrine from the Bible.
That the Bible is not only inspired,
but it's also preserved for us.
He said, look, my words are not gonna pass away.
They're going to be preserved forever.
We believe that the scripture is the word of God
and not just parts of it.
You know, we believe that all scripture
is given by inspiration of God,
as it says in 2 Timothy chapter three, verse 16.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God.
And is profitable for doctrine, for proof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works.
Look, that's why it's so important to understand
and believe and know that the Bible is inspired
and preserved.
Why?
Because it's given to us for some very,
excuse me, specific reasons, isn't it?
It's given to us for doctrine.
You know, that's the leading item on the list.
It's given to us for doctrine.
You know, God doesn't want us to be ignorant
about who He is or how the world works.
He wants us to know doctrine.
He wants us to know, you know, how He feels about things,
what He believes, how we ought to live our lives.
He wants us to know these things.
That's why He's given us a preserved
and inspired word of God.
So we're not just stumbling around in the dark
trying to figure out how to, you know, who God is.
God wants us to know who He is.
He's not playing hide and seek with us.
He's given us His word.
We have a more sure word of prophecy,
where until we do well that we take heed.
He's given it to us for proof, for correction,
for instruction.
He's given us these things.
But notice it's all scripture
that's given my inspiration of God,
meaning it's all inspired,
meaning that the Bible is without error.
There is no error in the word of God.
Look, if there's error in the word of God,
it's not the word of God.
Meaning if I pull up some Bible, so-called,
and I find an error in it, it's not the word of God.
You know what it's fit for?
It's fit for burning.
It's for being rid of.
It's made for the dumpster,
because it's not the word of God, okay?
Now, if you would, go over to,
well, just go over to Hebrews chapter six,
Hebrews chapter number six.
Actually, you know what, go to Psalms 119.
Go to Psalms 119.
Look, if the scripture is inspired,
then that means that all of it's inspired.
And if it's all inspired,
it means that it is without error.
You know, and that's one of God's attributes,
is that God can't lie, right?
Titus 1, one, two.
In hope of eternal life,
which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began.
You know, God cannot lie.
Bible says in Hebrews that it is impossible for God to lie.
You know, God can't make a mistake.
You know, if God's gonna preserve and inspire a book,
there can't be any mistakes in it.
Otherwise, it's not God's word.
Or God's a liar, or God isn't perfect,
or God makes mistakes.
But look, God doesn't make mistakes.
He's perfect in every way.
Look at Psalms 119.
It says in verse 60, Psalms 119, verse one, excuse me, 160.
Psalms 119, verse 160.
Or remind us of John 17,
while you find Psalms 119, verse 160.
It says, sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
That was Jesus' prayer for his disciples,
that they would be sanctified through his truth.
And he said, thy word is truth.
So either God's word is true, or it isn't.
It means it can't have contradiction,
it can't have error in it.
And not only that, God's word is not going to change.
Look, if it's inspired and if it's preserved,
it means it can't change.
It means we can't just like,
well, let's reinterpret the Bible.
You know, let's make up a new version
and change some things to kind of fit the times.
Look, God's word doesn't change.
Look there in Psalms 119, verse 160.
He said, thy word is true from the beginning,
and every one of thy righteous judgments
endureth forever.
Go to verse 89.
Go back to Psalms 119, verse 89.
He said, his word is true from the beginning,
and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth,
you know, until we come up with a better idea
of what God meant there in the Hebrew.
Until we come up with a better understanding,
until we find, you know, some disposed old manuscripts
that are full of errors that nobody wanted to use,
till we dig those up thousands of years later,
then maybe we can figure out what God meant.
I mean, it says they endure forever.
God's word has endured forever,
and it's not going to change.
He said in Psalm 119, verse 89, forever, oh Lord,
thy word is settled in heaven.
Not just here on earth, it's already settled in heaven.
It's that's how we know it's preserved.
And I wanna, you know, I'm laying the foundation
because we're gonna talk a little bit this morning
about some versions that corrupt the word of God,
that change things in the word of God,
that omit things from the word of God.
You say, well, is it really that big of a deal?
Well, go to Revelation 22, go to Revelation 22.
Let's see how big a deal God thinks it is.
Say, boy, it seems like you're making a big deal
out of, you know, being King James only.
Well, yeah, I make a big deal about God's promises
about preserving and inspiring the word of God.
I make a big deal out of God, you know,
telling us that his word is true,
that it's settled forever in heaven.
God makes a big deal out of it.
God takes a lot of time to tell us,
hey, I'm gonna put my words in your mouth.
They're gonna preserve from this generation forever.
One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law
to all be fulfilled.
You know, God makes a big deal about his word, okay?
We're gonna make a big deal about it.
Look at Revelation 22, verse 18.
He said, for I testify unto every man
that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book,
that if any man shall add unto these things,
God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book.
You know, and maybe it is that there's somebody out there
in the auditorium this morning that's a little put off
by the fact that we might potentially be burning
a bunch of false versions at the end of this year.
Well, let me just remind you, I mean,
are we doing anything as severe as what God does to people
who alter his word?
He's saying, look, if you alter these things,
I'll add unto you the plagues that are written in this book.
There are a lot of plagues in this book, folks.
There's a lot of really heavy things
that God does to people.
He's saying, if you mess with my word,
that's something to do with you.
He says that if any man, and not only that,
look at verse 19, and if any man shall take away
from the words of the prophecy of this book,
God shall take away his part out of the book of life
and out of the holy city.
He's saying, look, you mess with my word,
you're damned to hell.
Look, I'm gonna burn some false versions
at the end of the year, after we get those people saved.
I'm not rounding up the authors of these false books
and casting them into an oven.
That's what God's gonna do.
So if you're offended by us, you know,
maybe burning a few false versions at the end of the year,
which honestly, the more I think about it,
it makes more sense to just spend that gas on some food.
There's a dumpster right there, you know,
but whatever we decide to do with it,
you know, if that offends you, well, you know,
I wonder how much the Lord would offend you
when he is actually gonna take the people
that are responsible for these false versions
and punish them far worse than any of us ever could
by casting them into hell,
taking their part out of the book of life
and out from the holy city and from the things
that are written, which are written in this book,
and say, that seems a bit extreme.
Well, you know, God's given us his word for doctrine,
for truth, for correction.
You know, it's a pretty big deal
when people start to mess and tamper with God's word,
because God's word is the only means
by which we can come to know God.
It's the only way a person can get saved.
They have to be saved through the word of God,
through, you know, faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God.
That's what the Bible tells us.
So yeah, God takes it pretty seriously.
You know what, and we should too.
We should take it very seriously,
take God's word seriously.
And I wanna just talk a little bit this morning
about some of these false versions,
which are the products of people
that God himself has cursed, okay?
You say, why is it such a big deal
when people, you know, change things in God's word?
Well, because they're teaching things
that are contrary to the truth.
They teach things that are contrary to the truth.
In fact, I went ahead and pulled out
a couple of those Bibles that we have in there so far
and just found a few examples.
I won't go long this morning.
But you know, we've got a couple,
we've got ourselves a good news translation,
which is an ironic name for a false version, good news.
It's bad news.
I mean, didn't we just read Revelation 22?
It's bad news for the guys that went ahead
and altered God's word.
It's bad news for people that are corrupting
and perverting the word of God.
And you know, you say, well, why would they do that?
The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil.
You know why they do that?
So they can make more money.
You know, the King James doesn't have the copyright on it.
You know, you can go home today and print off a King James
and put it, you know, put a three-volt punch in it
and stick some pins through or whatever
and have yourself a Bible.
You could even go out and give it away
and sell it if you wanted to.
I don't recommend that.
If you need a Bible that desperately,
we have plenty in the back, okay?
I'll hook you up.
You know, we give them away.
But the King James, people can't, you know,
they can profit when they put it in a certain binding
or sell their, you know, not their interpretation of it,
but you know, they'll sell their model,
they'll sell their leather-bound this,
their goatskin that, whatever.
Theirs looks this way, it has these maps.
You know, people still sell the King James Bible,
but you know what, there's no copyright infringement.
That's why on every Bible app you get,
you get the King James for free.
Because it's just given away.
All these other versions, you know what they're made for?
To make money.
That's why every decade or so, you know,
the NIV's gotta release a new version.
Because they've already filled every church,
they've already filled everybody's homes
with their other false version,
and now it's not selling as well.
So they go, well, we gotta change a few things
and we'll put a new version out.
And it'll even say different things.
They'll just rewrite the wording, why?
Because they love money,
because the love of money is the root of all evil.
That's why they're producing all these versions.
That's why versions abound today, okay?
Now, let's just look, and look, I've got a whole chart.
I mean, I just got, I mean, you could just go online
and look this stuff up.
I mean, it's just, I've got charts.
I'm not gonna take the time to go through all this.
Where it just shows you all the differences
between all these versions,
where people are changing things that affect core doctrine.
I wanna show you just one or two places
where the Good News Bible,
which is this Good News translation is one
that is in that trash can back there
and will be destroyed at the end of this year.
And I'm gonna show you why we feel so strongly about it
and why this is not the word of God.
This isn't the Bible here, folks.
It's a Bible, it's a bunch of books,
but this is not the word of God.
This is trash.
This is a Bible word burning.
If you would, go over to,
go in your King James Bible, Acts chapter 20.
Acts chapter 20.
Look, I just turned to a couple places this morning
and found just, we could read through this thing
and find error after error.
And not just, you know, where they have a different wording,
where they actually take the time to word things
in such a way that attacks core doctrines,
like the blood of Christ, like the deity of Christ.
Those, don't you think those are kind of big doctrines?
I mean, if I, as a preacher, got up some Sunday morning
and started to say, well, do we really know Jesus is God?
You know, if I ever said that,
you should get up and walk out in the middle of the service,
say, yes, he is.
And how do you know that?
Because the Bible tells you so.
Jesus didn't come down here and tell you that.
The Bible told you that.
Like I would say, well,
is it really the blood that saves us?
I mean, is the blood that important?
You ever hear that come out of my mouth?
And when I start preaching that, you know what?
It up and leaves.
Say, yes it is.
And how do you know that?
Because the Bible tells you so.
And these books, and that's what they are at best,
you know, are tapped, those very doctrines.
You're there in Acts chapter 20.
In Acts chapter number 20.
Let me just, you know,
I was gonna have somebody else read it out loud, but.
You know what, Brother Gabriel, are you there?
You're a Bible reader.
Acts chapter 20 and verse 28.
Nice and loud so everybody can hear you.
Acts chapter 20, verse 28.
Take heed therefore unto yourselves,
and to all the flock which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God,
which he hath purchased with his own blood.
So you notice there that it's the blood there at the end,
Acts chapter 20 and verse 28.
He said, take heed unto yourselves,
to feed the church of God, which he,
now who's the he referring to?
Yeah, right, but it's referring to God, right?
Jesus is God, we understand it.
Right, take heed that you what?
To feed the church of God, which he, God,
hath purchased with his own blood.
So whose blood was shed?
God's blood.
Jesus' blood, right?
I'll read to you from the good news Bible here.
He said, so keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock
which the Holy Spirit has placed in your care.
Be shepherds of the church of God,
which he hath made through his own blood of his son.
Now, listen to the wording there,
because that doesn't say that it's not the blood of God,
it's just the blood of his son.
Do you see how subtle that is?
Yeah.
Say, well, you're straying out of that here.
Oh, no, I'm not.
This is how the devil works.
Yea, hath God said?
Ye shall surely die?
That's how the devil works, he's a very subtle creature.
Because again, what do we have here in Acts chapter 20,
verse 28?
He's again, he's saying it's God's blood that was shed.
But here the good news is making a very clear distinction
that it was take heed to the church of God,
which he had made his own through the blood of his son.
Meaning, so you see how it's putting a difference
between God and his son?
The Bible doesn't say his son there,
it just says through his own blood.
God, his own blood.
This is, he's saying here in the good news,
hey, it's, he had made it through the blood of his son.
They're making a difference between the son and God.
And look, that might not be the most,
the clearest one there,
but that's the kind of,
that's why, exactly why it's so dangerous, folks.
And hopefully you're understanding
what I'm getting at this morning.
That's exactly why it's so dangerous,
because it's so subtle.
Where it says,
because don't we run into people all the time
and say, oh yeah, I believe in Jesus.
Will you believe that Jesus is God?
No.
There's lots of people that believe that Jesus is out there,
that he was even God's son.
But they don't believe he's God.
Okay?
Now that's, you know, that's a very subtle one,
but let's go over to,
let's go over to one that's a little less subtle for you.
Go to Second Timothy, or excuse me,
First Timothy chapter number three.
Look, I'm glad we're getting another false version
off the street this morning.
I'm glad this book's not gonna be floating around
out there somewhere for somebody to pick up
and start reading.
You get led astray into thinking that
there's a difference between God and his own son.
Look, we understand that there's the trinity.
There's God the Father, God the Holy Spirit,
and God the Son.
But, you know, Acts chapter 20 in the King James
is making it pretty clear
that the blood that was shed was the blood of God,
not just the blood of his son.
It's a very subtle attack,
which is exactly why it's so dangerous.
Because a lot of people, that would just, whoop,
go right over their head.
Where do I head?
First Timothy chapter three?
We probably all know it.
I mean, I use this all the time about soul winning.
And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit,
seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on the world, received up into glory.
But notice it says there that it was God
was manifest in the flesh near King James.
Now, who's that talking about?
Jesus, right?
That's a great proof text to prove that Jesus is God.
That's why I use it about soul winning.
You know, very briefly, I just say,
oh, you know the story of Jesus.
You know that he was born of a virgin.
You say, yeah, see how the Bible says
God was manifest in the flesh.
The Bible teaches that Jesus is God.
I go, oh, yeah.
It's a great verse for that.
I mean, you can sum that up real quick.
But notice here, it's not always the things
that they just blatantly say.
It's the things they don't say to these false virgins.
It's the things they omit, okay?
I'll read to you from second Timothy chapter three verse 16
in the good news.
It says here, no one can deny how great
is the secret of our religion.
Now, I could just stop there.
I mean, you read these verses,
it's like, how can any, no wonder did they go unread.
No wonder this was just found sitting in some box
along the side of somebody's house somewhere, right?
No wonder it's all tattered
and just been left out in the rain already.
You know, no wonder it's just been so mis-careful.
It's terrible reading.
If you read these other verses, it's like,
what, I mean, it lacks the eloquence, the poetry.
Look, even the world knows, even the unsaved world,
just the scholastic world out there,
the scholars of this world will hold up the King James Bible
as the pinnacle of English literature.
Let's say this is the greatest work of prose ever written
in the English language, that there's no other book like it.
No wonder it's the best-selling book of all time.
No wonder it exceeds every other book
in terms of circulation and in every other department,
by the way.
There's no other book like it.
You read one of these other versions,
no one can deny how great is the secret of our religion.
You know, what is that even saying?
What does that even mean?
You know, it's pretty clear that King James is saying,
you know, great is the mystery of godliness.
What it's saying there is, you know,
great is the mystery of godlyhood.
You know, the mystery of God.
God, it's saying, look, we can't fully understand
everything there is about God, right?
God is incomprehensible.
It's not about the secret of our religion.
You know, our religion isn't a secret.
What secret are we keeping?
You know, we're making it known abroad.
It's not like we're not the Mormons here
where when you get to a certain level,
we'll show you the handshake or something.
That's the whole thing, but I want you to know this.
This is the part we're focusing on, verse 16.
God was manifest in the flesh.
No clear, no, King James just cleared.
He can't deny it.
He's talking about Jesus is God, right?
Now it says here, no one can deny
how great is the secret of our religion
in the Good News Bible.
He appeared in human form.
No, who?
He did.
Who did?
He.
Not God, he did.
Well, who's he there?
Probably Jesus, right?
That's what they'd be talking about.
But they don't want to say God did.
They don't want to say God appeared in a human form,
you know, which is a whole nother thing
that we have to talk about if you haven't said that, right?
God didn't just appear in a human form.
You know, God was manifest in the flesh,
but you know, he's always had a human form.
But it's saying he did.
So you see how subtle that is?
That it's not, you don't see the difference there?
Where it's attacking the blood of Christ.
And look, I just went to two passages in this book.
That's it.
Just two verses, just looked up two verses.
It said, oh, I wonder what it says about these.
Error.
I mean, I wonder how many more
we can just turn to this morning
and just find error after error after error,
where things are just omitted
or things are just suddenly put in such a way
to attack some of the most important court of doctrines
that we believe as Baptists,
as people who believe the King James Bible.
I mean, that's a pretty big deal
when you're attacking the deity of Christ.
You know, and it does the same thing in the NIV.
I won't go there for sake of time.
It does the exact same thing in 1 Timothy 3.16.
It denies the deity of Christ.
You know, and that's why these books here
are just fit for burning.
You know, we may get to it.
You know what, in fact, I'm gonna just light it up right now.
I'm kidding.
I had you all going.
I wanted to get the fake gas can with water
and then just really good, you know?
Don't play with matches, kids.
Trust me, all right?
Well, look, that's what they're worth.
You know, they're worth burning, and that's about it.
You know, another, I'll just point out
some other things real quick about these false versions.
You know, when I first kind of got into this issue,
one of the ones that just blew my mind,
this is one that I've shown other people,
that just when they see this, it's kind of mind-blowing,
right, if you're still in Revelation,
go to Revelation chapter 22.
Revelation chapter 22.
In verse 16, it says,
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify
into the things in the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David
and the bright and morning star.
So there's this title that Christ is claiming,
first of all, he says, I, Jesus, right, and he begins.
And he says, I am the root and the offspring of David.
He says, I am the bright and morning star.
That's something that he takes to himself, right?
But you know in the NIV,
they attributed that same title to Lucifer, Satan?
That's what they do in Isaiah chapter 14.
Go back to Isaiah chapter 14, Isaiah chapter 14.
Again, in Revelation 22, Jesus is saying,
I am the bright and morning star.
In verse 12 of Isaiah chapter 14, verse 12,
how art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning?
How art thou cut down the ground
which did weaken the nations?
Right, so he says that he's the son of the morning.
Does he call him the bright and morning star
there in the King James Bible?
Nope, but if you get yourself an NIV,
that's the title they give to Lucifer in this passage.
Isaiah 14, 12, how have you fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn?
So they're trying to give this title
of the morning star to Satan.
That's what I'm saying, folks.
It's just these subtle little things.
He said, why would they do that?
Because ultimately, whether these authors,
you know, these interpreters or,
you can't even hardly call them translators.
You know, whether they know it or not,
they're instruments of Satan.
Satan is the one that's behind it all,
attacking God's word.
That's what he's been doing since the beginning.
The very first thing he did in the garden
was cast doubt on God's word and attack,
and he would love nothing more to attack God
through the Bible, so-called.
So hopefully, just through those few verses,
just looking at you, at least you'd agree with me
this morning that at least these two books right here
are worth burning.
You know, there's a lot of other ones out there,
and we're gonna find them, we're gonna collect them.
Maybe we'll do a year-end review of all the error
of all the books that we collect.
To put everyone's tender little heart at ease
about what we're gonna do to these false versions.
Now, I wanna end by saying this,
is that, look, King James only is a good doctrine.
It's a good doctrine.
This is where I think people get mixed up a little bit,
is they go too far with it.
They become borderline superstitious about the book itself.
Okay?
And look, you know, let me just say this.
What do I mean by that?
People get some ideas about what you can and can't do
with the book itself, right?
And I get people have preferences,
and people have things that they don't like,
and just because I'm gonna point some of these things out
doesn't mean I do them, okay?
I know some people in the past, they say they can't stand it
when someone does something like that.
They see King James Bible.
You know, you're reading your Bible,
you set it down in your office, your house, whatever,
you're going through your, you put it on your coffee table.
Then later in the day, you're doing something else,
and you just set it down.
They say that's so disrespectful.
I can't believe you would put something on top of the Bible.
Well, first of all, that's why it has a nice, tough,
leather-bound, you know, binding, right?
That's why it's bound in leather.
It can take some abuse, right?
They can handle that.
But if I came over to your house and saw that,
and I was like, and I got after you,
wouldn't you be kind of like, what's the deal here?
What's wrong with that guy, right?
Now, that doesn't mean I go home
and I use this as a coffee coaster,
because I don't, all right?
Now, that's not to say there isn't a coffee station
in the Bible, because there are, right?
Because that's part of my, you know,
my little morning routine, I have my coffee.
And every now and then, you know,
that little dribble comes out and kind of just,
ooh, kind of just went out of base, right?
It happens, you got the pen in your hand,
oh, you make a mark, right?
You defaced God's word, you heathen.
No, that's, you know, that's what I'm saying.
If you're King James only, all the way in here.
But people go too far, and they get into this,
this idea where you can't do anything to the Bible, right?
Not putting things on it.
How about they start to venerate it
like it's the American flag, right?
And I'm not, and look, I'm not for venerating
the American flag either, okay?
That's why we don't have an American flag up here.
It's like we don't have the Israeli flag up here,
like a lot of Baptist churches.
We don't have the Baptist or the Christian flag up here,
because we're not into flagatry, okay?
Right?
We're not, this is the banner that we wave here,
the truth of God's word, okay?
But people, they wanna venerate
the King James Bible like that.
They'll say, well, you know,
if you have an old, worn-out King James Bible,
you can't throw it away.
Look, let me just put everybody,
you can throw away your worn-out King James Bible.
It's not a sin.
It's not a sin to throw away
your worn-out, old King James Bible, okay?
You can do that.
I've never done it, just because it's nostalgic.
I have the first one I have, it's tattered.
I take that back, I have thrown out a King James Bible.
Woo-hoo!
Yeah, because it was completely falling apart.
Pages were falling out of it.
The binding come out,
because I had spent so much time with that thing,
taking it everywhere, leaving it out in the,
it's been in the hot sun, you know?
You wanna make your Bibles last, folks,
just a practical tip.
Don't leave your Bibles in the car in Arizona heat,
because the glue melts.
And that's why your binding comes apart, okay?
Keep it inside, keep it in cool temperatures
if you wanna preserve it, right?
That's why I don't take my nicer Bibles out of the house,
I keep them at home, right?
But I've had one fall apart on me.
Should I have dug a six-foot hole for it,
and lowered it down, and committed it to the earth?
You laugh, but people think that.
I said, what do I do with my old Bibles?
Will we bury them there?
Why?
What's the difference?
It's not gonna be resurrected.
It's not gonna come back to life.
Jesus is gonna call all the old Bibles back to life.
Look, God gave us His word in abundance.
I mean, we have them by the case.
We wear them out.
I've thrown out, and I've thrown out
multiple New Testaments in this church.
All those paperbacks that just get dog-eared and dirty.
You know, the ones that,
you take the same paperback version
that you guys take out,
and it gets that brown thumbprint
from you thumbing through it all the time?
It has that big, brown streak right there.
Then you bring it back here, and you put it on the shelf.
Or you have that hand lotion on there,
and it gets that nice, white, chalky thing all over it.
You bring it back here, and you put it on the shelf,
and I look at it, yeah,
I really wanna hand that out to somebody.
Getting after you a little bit this morning.
That's fine, look, that's a good problem to have.
I'm glad people are taking Bibles out,
and getting them dirty, and getting used,
and bringing them back, and taking them out again.
But you know what, every once in a while,
if I see one that just gets into bad enough shape,
I'm probably gonna take that thing
and just throw it right in the trash.
Not because I hate God's word,
because it's worn out,
because that's what you do with old things.
Because we're not hoarders here.
Now I'm not interested in just collecting a bunch of things.
I mean, what else are we supposed to do
with these worn out Bibles,
if I can't get rid of them somehow?
Should we just block out a shelf back here
in the storage area, and just say,
that's where all the old Bibles are?
Everybody, you got old Bibles at home,
and you can't bring yourself to get rid of them.
Just bring them on down here, and we'll just store them.
And then when we're dead and gone, the next generation,
and eventually we'll just have a whole,
just what are all those books?
It's all the same book,
that we just couldn't bring ourselves to get rid of.
Even though they're old, and worn out,
and falling apart, and dirty,
and no one wants to handle them anymore.
But people get really weird about this,
and what they're doing, you say,
I just don't think you should do that.
You know what, then you're venerating the book itself.
You're borderline idolatrous,
if you think that the physical book is what we worship.
We're gonna hold this up, and everyone just come down,
and bow before this book, the King James,
and say your prayers to the pages that are in here.
No, that's not what we do here.
It's superstitious, folks.
It's okay to throw out worn out Bibles.
And here's the thing, people, you know,
whether they mean to do this or not,
to me it's just a sign of immaturity, spiritually,
and maybe even kind of a holier than thou attitude.
Let's say, well, I just can't bring myself
to throw out any King James Bible.
Okay, well, I'm glad I found you,
because now I know who to give mine to.
Now I know who to give all the ones
that the church wears out to, okay?
I'll give them to you.
But you know what, that doesn't tell me anything
about your spirituality.
It just tells me that you're a little spiritual.
You know how I know if somebody really loves God's word?
It's as if they obey it.
I don't look at someone's Bible and say,
well, that's in really good shape.
You must love God.
I noticed how you keep it on the top shelf
and you're careful to not bring any liquids around it.
You know, and you make sure you sanitize your hands.
I noticed you take rabbit fur-lined gloves out
before you handle it.
You have these white gloves.
These are my Bible reading gloves,
lest I get oils from my skin on the Bible.
Well, you must just love God so much.
No, how I know if you love God is,
you know, if I see a worn out Bible,
I say that person loves God.
When I see when it's all dog-eared and bent over
and it's been read, it's got marks all over it,
that's the person that's been reading it.
They must love it.
Now I know somebody loves God
is that they actually obey the commandments.
That's what Jesus said.
If you love me, keep my commandments.
If you love me, make sure you venerate
the physical book that is produced later.
You know, if you love me, keep my commandments.
Go to Luke chapter six.
We'll close there, Luke chapter six.
That's how I know somebody loves God.
That's what blows my mind sometimes
is that people get, they get all bent out of shape
about these little things,
and they just throw out the baby with the bathwater.
They get bent out of shape about, you know,
that we don't venerate, you know,
these false versions or something.
Because there might be some verse in here
that vaguely sounds like the King James Bible somehow.
Or maybe it says something similar.
Look, I'm gonna throw these away,
but did you not hear what I said?
At some point when this Bible gets worn out
and it's just falling apart,
I'm gonna throw this one away too.
And you can go ahead and write,
you can contact Pastor Anderson and tell him I sent one.
Because that guy wears out Bibles
just as much as anybody else, in fact, quite a bit more.
And it wouldn't surprise me in the least
if, you know what, he's found a few
that have, of his own, have found their way
into the dumpster.
Woo!
You know how I love, you know somebody who loves God?
It's not how they treat their Bible,
or how much they venerate, you know,
or careful not to even deface some old,
you know, I am doing it, I'm talking about it.
You know, some other false version, right?
It's whether or not they love God,
whether or not they keep,
I know they love God if they keep his commandments.
Look at Luke 6, 46.
Why do you call me Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say?
I can't go to that church,
because they throw Bibles away.
Oh, the church that goes soul-winning,
that preaches every word that's in this book.
You know, the one that stands,
the church that stands for the King James Bible,
strong, you know, more than any other Baptist church
in this area, probably.
Look, I hope they're out there.
I hope there is one out there
that takes just as strong a sin.
There probably is.
In fact, I'm pretty sure there's probably corn out, right?
They probably stand just as strong, right?
Well, praise God.
You know, but I'm not going to quit that church,
because, well, they burn a book.
That's not even the King James Bible.
You're throwing out the baby
with the bathwater at that point.
Whosoever cometh to me,
and heareth my sayings, and doeth it,
I will show you to whom he is like.
He's like a man which built, and housed,
and digged deep, and laid the foundation upon a rock.
Well, I want to build my life on God's word.
I want to live a good Christian life.
That you need to dig deep,
and build your life upon these things,
and do the things that are written in here.
Not just read them.
Not just treat them with kids' gloves,
and just like, oh, I'm just so careful
with the things that are written in here.
God just sees you down there,
just making sure you don't get a single crease,
that I don't get anything dog-eared,
that there's no tears.
Look, it bothers me when I get that.
You know when you turn fast,
and you get a little tear at the bottom?
Trust me, nuts.
But God isn't going home.
You know, when God looks down,
and he sees me obeying the things that are written in here,
doing the things that he's commanding,
that's what he's pleased with.
Not how careful I am with the physical book.
You know, so your love of God's word
is not shown by your outward superstition, okay?
Your love of God's word isn't shown by that.
It's shown by what?
By obeying his commandments.
That's how you show your love for God's word.
Let's go for it.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for the King James Bible.
Thank you that we have this great,
invaluable treasure at our very fingertips
that we can read every single day.
And Lord, I help us to not be hearers of the word only,
but doers also, Lord.
That we would love your word, Lord,
and that we would demonstrate that love by obeying it,
and not just by reading it or hearing it.
Lord, but that we would do the things
that are written there,
and we ask these things in Christ's name, amen.
All right, we'll sing one more song before we go.
Amen.
Let's turn to song number 230 in our hymnal song.
Song number 230, Heavenly Son, Life.
["Heavenly Son, Life"]