Alright, 2 Peter chapter 1, now just reading the scripture there, I love verse 4, it just
popped out of me as I'm listening to brother Nick read where it says,
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.
So the Bible is showing us that through Jesus Christ and through the knowledge of Him there
are great and precious promises that are given unto us.
And one of those great and precious promises is actually listed there in 2 Peter chapter
1 where the Bible reads in verse 19.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as
unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise
in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the
scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
So there's a promise there in the end that's showing us that we have a preserved word of
God that is given to us and that it was given to us as holy men of old were moved by the
Holy Ghost and they spake.
And that's how we believe we've received the Bible.
We've received it through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and God has preserved His
word down through the ages and today we have that perfect and preserved word of God in
the King James Version.
That's what we believe.
If you're a faithful word, we are a King James only church.
And I want to just kind of talk about this this morning, about why we are King James
only.
Why is it?
Not necessarily for all of the normal reasons you might hear in a King James only sermon.
Now here in verses 19-21 we have this very plain statement that the Bible declares itself
to be the word of God.
I mean that is what it says there.
It says that the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost saying, that's how we know we've received
the scriptures.
That's how we know that the Bible is not of any prophecy of any private interpretation.
But it's something that God inspired through holy men of old and that God has preserved
down through the ages.
That's the plain statement that the Bible is making here.
That's what it's telling us is that the Bible is the word of God.
Now the question I want to ask us is that do we take the Bible to mean what it says
when it declares itself to be the word of God?
When the Bible makes such a declaration that it is the word of God, when it gives us some
precious promise that it is the word of God, do we take it at face value that it is the
word of God as it declares itself to be?
Or is it that we need other proofs?
We say, yeah, I believe the Bible is the word of God, but it sure would be helpful if I
could go to some other sources and have them shore me up and then maybe I could put all
my faith in the fact that the King James Bible is the word of God or that the Bible is the
word of God.
Do we need to go to other proofs, do we need to go to outside sources, outside the precious
promises of the word of God that it is the word of God?
Do we need to have some kind of a scholastic understanding of textual criticism?
Do we need to understand what it means to examine the scriptures and the originals and
look at how people interpret the Greek and Hebrew texts and understand all these very
scholastic, very educated methods of interpretation?
Or do we need to have knowledge of the many errors and alterations that are made in the
modern versions?
Which is great, I always appreciate when a preacher stands up and points out, you know,
because there's nothing more damning than just the black and white words in some of
these new versions, where it just takes out, where it replaces Jesus Christ with Lucifer
and Lucifer with Jesus Christ, where key doctrinal verses are just removed from the text or altered
in such a way that they mean something completely different than what they have in the Greek.
Do we need that?
Do we need someone to stand up and show us those things?
Do we need to be able to comprehend and prove the translator's ability to give us the English
version that we have today in the King James?
Do we need to know about all the translators back in King James' time and all about the
seven years they spent laboring and correctly translating the word of God from the original
languages into the Greek, or into the English, excuse me?
Do we have to have knowledge of all the preceding English versions that came before the King
James to just simply trust what the Bible says when it says that it is the word of God,
that it is the preserved word of God?
Or is it that we can just take these declarations like we find here in 2 Peter, by faith?
Is it, can we just take what the Bible, what it says by faith and trust that it is the
word of God?
That God can preserve and inspire and keep His word down to the ages.
Now before I get into that, I would just ask us to maybe consider some of the other declarations
of scripture that we simply take by faith.
Creation is one that comes to mind.
We believe in a six day creation, we believe that God created the heavens and the earth
and all things that are there and within six days God created those things.
We believe that by faith.
We don't need to have somebody show us fossils or do all these seminars and all these other
things, we can believe these things by faith.
Those things are great and can help shore up and they can help maybe win people over
that have been deluded by these lies and things like that, but we as Christians, when it comes
down to it, we have to believe these things by faith.
We can talk about end times prophecy, do we believe the things that the Bible describes
that are yet to come?
The tribulation, the great tribulation, the second coming of Christ, do we need to have
some kind of infallible proof outside the word of God to believe those things?
Or do we simply just believe those things by faith?
And then last of all but not least by any means is our own salvation.
Do we trust our own salvation by faith in the word of God?
Or do we need some other man to declare us saved?
Or do we need some church to declare us whether or not we're saved?
Do we need some kind of a sacrament or some kind of a baptism or whatever it might be
that someone else from an outside source could declare whether or not we're going to heaven?
Or do we simply just trust what the Bible says by faith?
The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 2 in verse 20, it says,
Knowing this, knowing this, that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost.
That's a plain declaration in scripture that the Bible is something that was given to us
by God through the Holy Ghost, by holy men of old.
And we believe that today by faith.
That's why we're King James only, at least for myself.
I am King James alone by faith alone.
That's the title of the sermon this morning.
King James alone by faith alone.
Now how is it that we know, how is it that Peter could make such a statement, just say,
knowing this?
You know, no doubt.
Not having a pretty good idea, or not feeling pretty sure about this, or not having a pretty
good feeling, or we're pretty convinced that we have the word of God.
No, he said knowing this.
There was no doubt in Peter's mind that he was speaking the word of God, that he had
the word of God.
And if you would, quickly, just turn over to John chapter 10.
John chapter 10.
So how is it that we know?
How can we know like Peter knew?
I mean, how can we just say, well, we're King James alone by faith alone.
And we'll catch a lot of flack for that.
There's a lot of people out there that would say, well, that's just circular reasoning.
You can't just trust the word of the Bible to be the word of God because it says it's
the word of God.
But that really, when it comes down to it, that's the case.
If you like it or love it, yeah, you can call it circular reasoning, you can call it
whatever you want.
I call it faith in the word of God.
I call it the fact that I just believe what the Bible says.
Jesus said in John chapter 10 verse 4,
One of the greatest proofs I've ever had for myself that the King James Bible is the word
of God is that whenever I've tried to read another version, I remember early on in my
Christian life, you know, I had somebody try to tell me that the King James wasn't, you
know, preserved, that you could read these other versions and that they were every bit
as good.
So I tried them, but I noticed such a marked difference between the power and the scripture
of the King James and that which lacked in these other versions.
And what I know now, looking back, is that I didn't hear the voice of the shepherd in
those pages.
When I read the King James, I can hear the voice of the shepherd, it has power.
There's something that speaks to me in the King James and we spend daily Bible reading
in our Bibles.
I mean, there's times when we're just moved by the scripture.
When we read a certain verse, it's something that just speaks to our heart and the Holy
Spirit can bear witness with our spirit.
And we can see that we can hear the voice and we can know that we, through the power
of the King James Bible, that it is the word of God.
That's how we can know that the King James Bible is the word of God, by faith.
Jesus said in John chapter 10 verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they
follow me.
And can we not hear the voice of the shepherd when we read the Bible, when we read the King
James Version, can we not hear the voice of the shepherd?
See we can hear the voice of God in his word, we can read it and know the power of it.
The Bible says in Galatians chapter 4, and because ye are sons, God has sent forth the
spirit of his son into your hearts, crying Abba Father.
We get born again when we become a child of God, God sends forth his spirit into us, into
our hearts.
And then we can have that witness and we can cry, as it says there, Abba Father.
We have this relationship with God, this standing before God that we can hear him and he can
hear us.
And how does God speak to us?
Does he speak to us in an audible voice today?
Do the heavens open and we hear God speak?
No, we hear God through his word.
So when we read the King James Version and we can hear God speaking to us, when we're
meditating on the word of God and we're thinking about something the Holy Spirit can bring
to remembrance those things that we've read or heard from the King James Bible, we can
see that that's how we can know this, that the King James Bible is the word of God because
God is using it and speaking to us through the King James, through the Bible.
The Bible says in Romans 8, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father, the spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
You see, we're King James alone by faith alone because we hear the voice of the shepherd.
It's his spirit that bears witness with our spirit when we read the word of God.
Now that's one way that we can know this, that we can know that we have an inerrant,
inspired and preserved word of God in the King James Version.
It's simply because of the fact that those that are born again that have that spirit
bearing witness with God's spirit can be spoken to through it.
And not only that, but we can see that creation is a testimony of God's power to preserve
his word.
And if I could at this point, I just want to talk a little bit about my own testimony.
About not only how I came to a saving knowledge of Christ, but also how I came to be King
James alone.
How I became a King James Onliest.
Now the Bible says, in Psalms 8, if you return to Psalm 8, the Bible says in Psalm 8,
When I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou
has ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest
him?
So we see here that David's saying when he considers the heavens.
And that's really kind of how God brought me around, to understand who he was.
I'm not speaking in some mystical, sage-like sense or anything like that, but I'm just
trying to show you that even in scripture we see great men of God looking to the heavens
and considering the heavens and giving God glory for it.
When I was about 18 years old, my parents divorced when I was very young, and I grew
up in a godless home, I grew up in a very liberal home, I did not grow up, I mean, I
don't have a single family member that would darken the door of a church like this, let
alone any church probably.
And I grew up in a public school system, I was taught evolution, I was taught all those
things that were made to believe in society today.
I grew up well into my teens, and when I was about 18 years old I went to live with
my dad in the United States Virgin Islands, the island of St. Croix.
And out there, I was living a very wicked life, I was working as a cook in a bar, taking
part in everything that goes along with that.
But many times I would walk, and often where I was living with my dad and where I worked
were miles apart, they were about three to five miles apart, and I walked.
Every day I would walk there and I would walk back, and when I walked back I would walk
back at night.
And it was down one of these winding jungle roads up in the mountains of St. Croix, and
I can't remember, I can't tell you how many times I'd be walking up that road and just
gazing up at the stars because there, you know, the light pollution is so low, you can
actually see a lot of the different constellations that you can't see in other parts of the world
because there's just not enough light to really drown it out.
When you get back there in those jungle roads, man, it's just pitch black.
And the stars are just so much more brilliant, so much more bright.
And you can see constellations there you can't see, or like when you can see the Southern
Cross down there, which is neat.
But the point I'm trying to make here is that I would, as I was walking down those roads
and looking at those stars, I began to think about God, you know, not necessarily Jesus
Christ or the Bible, but just about who God was, you know, what, are we, did we just happen
to come, you know, this all just happened by chance, as they would have us to believe
through, you know, an evolution, that there was a big bang and then everything came from
nothing and here we are, bada boom bada bing, you know.
Or it was it, you know, that there was a Creator, that there was a God, that there was some,
you know, something greater than myself, and it doesn't take long of looking up those stars
to realize that there is something greater than yourself.
I mean the heavens give witness that there is a God.
And I was convinced of His existence by those stars as I began to look up at those stars.
And that's not something that's far-fetched and I believe God gives us those stars and
the constellations and the majesty of the heavens to declare His glory to us.
The Bible says in Isaiah 42, Thus saith the Lord God, He that created the heavens and
stretched them out, He that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it, He
that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein.
Isaiah 45 verse 11, Thus saith the Lord the Holy One of Israel and his Maker, Ask of me
things concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands, command he me.
I have made the earth and created man upon it.
I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens and all their hosts have I commanded.
That's powerful scripture.
That's a powerful testimony, the power and might of God.
That God is able to just stretch out the heavens and command all the hosts thereof.
That God gives breath to everything that walks upon the earth.
And growing up in a godless home and living that wicked life and many people in the world
would say, man you had it all.
You know, you're living in the Caribbean as a young man and they'd say you had the world
by the tail.
But I knew through the witness of those stars that there was something more to life than
I was getting out of it.
There was something more meaningful.
And God used those stars to prod me and to at least show me, you know, His power and
His might.
I might not have known who He was at that time.
Now you say, wow, this is getting pretty mystical.
This is getting pretty far-fetched.
But when you think about it, if you turn back to Genesis chapter 15, it's really not that
far-fetched.
I mean, we've looked at Isaiah here, we've read of David, all declaring, you know, great
admiration for the heavens and God speaking about the heavens, about His power, how it's
declared through it.
The Bible says in Genesis chapter 15, we'll look at another great man that was convinced
of God by the stars.
Genesis chapter 15 verse 1, after these things the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in
a vision saying, fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.
And Abraham said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward
of this house of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus.
And Abraham said, behold, to me, thou is given no seed, and lo, one born of mine house is
mine heir.
And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, no, notice there, it's the word
of the Lord coming unto him, it's not God himself, it's the word, it's God speaking
to Abraham.
And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, this shall not be thine heir, but he that
shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
He's making a promise, just through His word.
And he brought him forth abroad, and said, look now toward the heaven, and tell the stars
that thou be able to number them.
And he said, so shall thy seed be.
So he tells him, just look at the stars, Abraham, and believe the word I'm speaking to you.
He didn't sit down and try to make some kind of a contract with them, there was no legally
binding agreement, that he could take God to court if he didn't get that heir.
No, you said, you know what, Abraham, I'm saying it to you, look at the stars and believe
me.
God says in verse 6, and he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness.
I believe that's a great passage showing us the salvation of Abraham.
The great passage is showing us that salvation has been the same down through the ages, even
in the time of Abraham, that it's been by faith, by believing the word of the Lord that
he's spoken to you, by believing the promise of God, and he looked at those stars.
So we see that looking at the stars, and the point I'm trying to make here is that when
we consider the power of God's creation, you know, is it really that far-fetched to
believe that God could write and preserve a book?
You see, I was saved by grace through faith, after I lived there in the Virgin Islands
for a few years, I came back to the United States, my life was just a mess, living in
northern Michigan, and I was, couldn't hold down a job, just, you know, and all of a sudden
I don't want to go into any details, but the long and short of it is this, is that somebody
got me in a church, and when I was in that church, I'd never even gone to a church.
I'd gone to a few masses with my aunt around the holidays here and there, but I'd never
actually gone to a church, you know, just to buy my own will, you know, I was kind of
drug to the other ones, so I said I'm going to go check it out, and long story short,
so a preacher got up, you know, gave an invitation for anyone who wanted to accept Christ, and
he gave a clear presentation of the gospel, and it was the first time at that service
I understood that Jesus Christ died for my sins.
Not that he was taken against his will, not that he was murdered, but he was murdered,
don't get me wrong, but not that he couldn't have done anything about it.
And that was the first time that I understood that all I had to do was simply believe on
him, that all I had to do was put my faith and trust in what Christ has already done
for me, and that he died and was buried and rose again.
I came forward to that service, a young man came out of the congregation and sat down
with the Bible and showed me clearly from the scripture that I was a sinner, that I
deserved hell, that Jesus Christ died for all my sins, and that if I just put my faith
and trust in him I could be saved, and I did that that day.
And that was a great day in my life, but the point I'm trying to make here is that that
wasn't the end of it, that was really just the beginning, and as I wanted to learn more
about God at that point, and unfortunately at that point in my life I hadn't been grounded
in a good church.
The church that I was in was, they had the gospel right, and that's really all I can
say for them.
They at least had the gospel right.
And he wasn't against the King James Version, and I'm sure the young man that came forward,
I couldn't tell you what version it was, but it must have been a King James because
I got born again.
And at that time I kind of started to let these corrupt sources start to influence me
in my thinking.
Because here's the thing, if the devil can't keep you lost, he wants to keep you confused.
If the devil can't keep you from getting saved, once you get saved, he wants you as confused
as he can get you so that you can not be used of God.
So he can just keep you from, like the Bible says, being like just tossed to and fro by
every wind of doctrine.
Never stable, never moving forward, just tossed to and fro, and just being not profitable
to God in this life.
The devil can't keep you lost, he will try and keep you confused.
And that's easy to do to a young man who did not grow up with any kind of a godly foundation
in his life, and got saved later in life, and then when you're living in Northern Michigan
as a young man in the middle of winter, there's really not a whole lot to do.
Especially if you're going to try and live for God and get some sin out of your life.
So sure enough, I find myself at that time, down at the public library, at that great
well of wisdom and that oracle of truth known as the internet.
That's where we glean so much solid, great doctrine is online.
And there I was, and sure enough, it didn't take long before the devil started to use
that to confuse me.
And I got caught up a little bit with the sacred name movement, you know, and I really
don't want to go into a lot about why I believe that's false this morning, why I believe that
Jesus Christ is the name above all names, why that's the name, you know, there's no
other name given under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved, that the name
of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that he is Lord
of the glory of God.
I kind of butchered that one.
And what they're trying to make is, I got caught up in that a little bit, they're trying
to tell me his name is something else.
And I'm trying to read my Bible and say, well, when it says Jesus, doesn't it mean Jesus?
No, no, they're telling me there's another name.
The Bibles you're reading, they're all wrong when they use Jesus.
You got to start calling them by this other name and granted, this was, you know, 15 plus
years ago.
And this thing has only taken, this whole movement's only gotten crazier, it's only
taken off more, there's the sacred name movement and the Hebrew roots movement and the Yeshua
thing, it's all just skyrocketed since then.
And after salvation, after I got saved and put my faith and trust in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, I allowed these people through my own idleness to start to cast doubt
on that name.
And what they're doing really is they're casting doubt on God's word.
That's really the attack that they were putting on it.
They're trying to cause me to doubt the validity of God's word, that it was true, that every
word was perfect.
They cast doubt on God's word and that's the attack that they were making.
And that's a terrible thing, when you have, that's basically just like having your legs
just wiped out right off from under you, it's having the carpet pulled right off from under
you.
The Bible says if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
You know, if we don't have a solid word of God, if we do not have an inerrant, preserved
word of God, then everything's up for grabs.
Every doctrine can be questioned.
Everything that we believe can be called into question, well is that really what the Bible
says?
Are you sure that's not an error?
Are you sure that should be interpreted this way?
Everything is up for grabs at that point.
And I determined at that point, I remember this clear as day, I'm driving down in Traverse
City, Michigan, US 31 along Bayshore Drive, my wife knows what I'm talking about, you
know, right around where the old factory was by the open space, and I remember I had my
Bible up in my dash like that, and I'm just confused, I've been, you know, is it Jesus,
is it this day, and is it, you know, they get into the horoscopes and the astrology
and all that stuff, and it was just so much confusion racing through my mind, but I remembered,
I knew one thing, that I was a sinner, that Jesus Christ was God, that He died for my
sins and I put my trust in Him and I had gotten saved that day.
And no one could shake me from that.
But I saw what was going on, I said, I remember I had the Bible in my dash and I just looked
at it and I said, you know what, if the God that made the stars and the heavens and everything
that is, if He can do all that, surely He can preserve a book.
Surely God can write a book.
I mean, we're talking about a book just, you know, a few, just shy of a few, of 2,000 pages.
Is it really that far-fetched to think that God could write a book and preserve it?
I mean, we believe everything else by faith, we believe in the creation story by faith.
We put our own salvation in God's Word by faith.
Why then would we doubt the preservation and the inspiration of God's Word?
It's something that should be accepted by faith.
You see, David praised God's name when he considered the heavens and it says in verse
9, I don't know if you're still there, it doesn't matter, he said, oh Lord, how excellent
is thy name in all the earth.
When he considered the heavens, when he saw the stars and the skies and everything, he
said, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.
He didn't question God's power to preserve His creation.
He didn't say, God, when I consider the heavens and the stars, I wonder if you're really able
to keep them up there.
I really wonder if you're able to do what you say you can do.
God's creation testifies of His ability to write a book.
That's the point I'm trying to make here, is that when we consider the heavens and we
consider the majesty of the heavens and God's great might and power, it's a testimony to
His ability and His power to write something as simple as a book in our language.
Now at this point in my life I had already kind of met some King James only people and
I read their material and I said, you know what, that it's King James.
I said, either it is or it isn't.
I kind of understood the issue a little bit and I got myself in a good church and I've
never had to go back on it, I've never had to go back and let me re-examine the Texas
Receptus and compare it to the Sina Atticus and all these other sources.
I found a King James church, I got in it and I stayed with it and I came to understand
the issue of the King James only after I accepted it by faith.
It wasn't that I proved it by faith, well, proved it and then came to accept it, I said
either the King James is or it isn't, either God can preserve His word or He can't.
And that's how I came to become King James only.
The same way I came to God by faith.
That's how I became King James only, by faith.
The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 26, look up your eyes on high and behold who
hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number.
He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power,
not one faileth.
That's a great verse.
He's saying here that God calls all those stars by name.
When you look at all those stars and you go, wow, we couldn't even begin to count them.
You know, and science tells us that there's just billions, it's just endless, it goes
on and on and on.
But the Bible tells us that He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of His might,
and not one fails.
It reminds me also of that verse where Jesus said, you know, that one sparrow falleth the
earth without your heavenly Father knowing it.
God knows every single little bird, God knows every star.
So if God can sit back and God can number and name the host of heaven, if God knows
every name of every star in heaven, can He not name His books, can He not name 66 books
in the Bible?
If He can name the stars of heaven, can He not number every chapter, can He not number
every verse, can He not know every word and syllable and letter of His own word?
I mean, He can name all the stars in heaven.
We believe that, we read that, we're moved by that verse, wow, He calleth them all by
name, by the greatness of His might, and we believe it by faith.
Why then would we call Him a question of the fact that that very word that inspires us,
why would we call that any question, a verse like that?
Well maybe He meant something else in the inversion.
Maybe that's just, you know, allegorical, maybe that's just, you know, a very poetic
verse.
And I believe it means that, what it says, He calleth them all by names.
God knows the stars by names, and can He not then preserve His word?
Now it's good to understand the issue, and I don't want to cast doubt on, you know, or
say that none of that's relevant.
It's good to understand the issue of the King James only, why we're King James only.
It's good to understand the errors in the other versions.
It's good to be able to correct the other versions and show them why they're wrong.
And it's good to understand how we've received the King James version and be able to defend
it.
We should be able to, you know, it's good to know that.
It's good to know how it was received through the text of Septus, how, you know, we received
the other English versions that led up to it, how God, we could see even in human history
how God refined His word in the English version and gave it to us.
That's all great.
But my faith in the King James Bible will never rest in a man.
It will never rest in the works of a man.
It will never rest, you know, Pastor Anderson put out that great documentary, and I love
it, it's probably one of my favorites.
You know, New World Order of Bible Versions.
I highly recommend that one, especially if that's something you're kind of, you're questioning
about, is the King James really inspired or not.
I think that's great.
I think they're useful tools.
But those things will never be the ultimate authority.
Those things, at the end of the day, you have to come to it by faith.
You have to accept that the King James Bible is what it says it is, that it is to preserve
an inherent word of God.
And it will never rest in the defense of a man.
My faith will never rest in some man being able to defend the King James.
It will always rest in it by faith.
I'll never need a documentary.
I'll never need somebody to write some book about the King James, to show me something
wonderful about the King James.
Those things can be edifying, those things can be great, but it's not where my faith lies.
It will always come down to faith.
We are King James only because we believe the promises of God.
We're King James only because we understand the power of God's ability in creation.
And we believe that if He can do all that, surely He can write this book.
But not only that, but we believe it because we can hear His voice when we speak.
Because this version, it has power when we hear it read, when we read it for ourselves.
We know that there's power in those words.
As Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice.
You're King James only because we believe the promises of God.
We believe God's promises, do we not?
Do we not believe the promises of God in the scripture?
We believe the promises about eternal security, at least I hope we do, where Jesus said in
John 11, I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me, though you are dead,
yet shall he live.
And whosoever liveth and believeth me shall never die.
That's a great promise from Jesus Christ that we have in the King James Version.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall never die.
Then He asked, believeth thou this?
And we would say, yes, we believe that, we believe in eternal security.
We believe in the promises of God that once we're saved, we're always saved.
Jesus said in John chapter 10, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me
and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand.
My Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of
my hand, out of my Father's hand.
So we believe these great promises under the word of God, the promise of eternal life.
Jesus said in John chapter 5, verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation
but is passed from death unto life.
We put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we're passed from death unto life.
We shall not come into condemnation.
Our sins are under the blood, we have eternal security in Christ.
We believe that because it says there, he that heareth my word.
It's his word that we're putting our trust in.
If we believe we have eternal life based on the word of God, why would we then not expect
the word of God to be perfect?
If we could put our faith in the promises of the word of God, why would we not then
believe that the word of God is perfect?
Every promise of God is true or none of them are.
Like I said earlier, they're all up for grabs.
Someone can say, well I know he said you shall not come into condemnation or that you have
everlasting life and all you have to do is believe.
I know it says all that, but you have to remember the context of the times and you have to understand
that the Bible is written by men, and I can't tell you how many times I've been out soul
winning and I'm thinking about one guy in particular a couple of weeks ago, this young
man, normally I don't spend a lot of time with people if they don't want to hear it,
but he was willing to listen, and he believed everything I was saying and it made sense
to him, but the one thing it kept coming back to was, you know, I just can't believe that
the Bible is perfect.
I just can't believe that at the end of the day it's just a book written by men, but he
doesn't understand or believe that promise that we read in 2 Peter that holy men of old
were moved and spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
That's how he received it.
And I quoted that verse, I showed it to him, but you know what?
He didn't have the faith to believe that.
He wanted someone to prove it to him.
He wanted me to, you know, I told him flat out, I said look, I can never prove to you
that the Bible is the word of God.
I can't prove it to you.
I can't take you to a museum, I can't take you to some display, I can't give you a DVD
and convince you of it, at the end of the day you have to believe it by faith, just
like we believe anything about the word of God.
You have to believe that the Bible is the word of God by faith.
And there's so many promises about the word of God that it is the preserved and inerrant
word of God.
The Bible says in Psalm chapter 12 verse 6, the words of the Lord are pure words.
They're pure words.
Every word in here is pure.
There's not a word in here that shouldn't be in here.
It says, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, thou shalt keep them
oh Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
So even in David's day he understood that the words that he had, the word of God, those
would be preserved from this generation forever.
He understood that the words that he had were pure words, that they were not corrupt.
The Bible says in Proverbs 30 verse 5, every word of God is pure.
He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
He's saying not only is the word of God pure, it's a shield, and that we need to put our
trust in it, and we should not add unto his words, lest he reprove thee and thou be found
a liar.
Isaiah 59, as for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord.
My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart
out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed,
seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth forever.
That's a great promise on the preservation of the word of God.
Do we not have the words that God put in Isaiah's mouth at our hands today?
Has he not done exactly what he promised with Isaiah when he told them that the words that
he put in his mouth would not depart, that they would be in the mouth of his seed and
of his seed seeds forever?
That's exactly what we have here.
We have every word of Isaiah, all those words that God put in his mouth, we have preserved
for us, just as he promised.
Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said, Think not, I am come to destroy the law of the prophets,
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the law to all be fulfilled.
That's a great promise from Jesus Christ, that God would preserve and keep his word.
That not even one jot or tittle would pass from the law.
He said in Matthew 24, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
That's a powerful statement from Jesus Christ.
He said the words that I speak, they shall not pass away.
We have those words, do we not, in the gospels, the book of Acts, the book of Revelation,
all the things that our Lord said that he saw fit for us to receive through the preservation
of his scripture.
Hebrews chapter 4, For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than to an
edge and sword.
That's a great verse.
The word of God is quick and powerful.
Going back to that first point I made, how do we know that the Bible is the word of God?
Because it's quick and it's powerful, and it says that it's piercing even of the binding
asunder of soul and spirit.
When you go out soul-witting and you knock on a door and someone gives you the time of
day to open your Bible and begin to show them the things of the word of God.
I just love how the word of God does all the work for us.
All we have to do is go out and begin to show it to people.
And people are so quick to agree with so much of it.
The Bible says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
That's true.
They'll nod their heads and say, yep.
You know, we'll show them all these great verses and say, well what does hell sound
like to you?
Describe hell.
Maybe just as the Bible describes it, a place of fire, a place of torment.
Unless you get one of these goofballs, you know, that say some kind of weird answer.
But a lot of times, but the point I'm trying to make here is that the Bible is quick, it's
powerful, and when we go out and we share it with others, it does all the plowing for
us.
You know, all we've got to do is just kind of steer the ox and it just cuts right through
that.
It breaks up that fallow ground in their heart and allows us to plant that seed in there.
It does all the work for us, because it's quick, because it's powerful, because it is
the Word of God.
It's sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing, even dividing the center of soul and spirit
and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Okay, I'm telling you, many times I've been thinking about something or wanting to do
something or had some kind of idea or a plan, and something from the Word of God would just
come to my mind and God would show me, you know why you really want to do that?
He would reveal our own motivations in our heart for why we want to do or say something.
It discerns the thoughts and intents of our heart.
God could just bring scripture to our mind to show us these things.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11, 1,
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things
which are seen were not made of the things which do appear.
It says that through faith we understand by the Word of God, of the things which are seen
were not made of those things which do appear.
It's by faith through His Word.
How can we have such great faith in the creation story, just simply through His Word, and then
people will just turn around and call into question whether or not the King James Bible
is the preserved Word of God.
1 Peter chapter 1 verse 23,
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever.
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the Word of the Lord shall
endureth.
The Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached
unto you.
Peter knew that when he was preaching the Gospel through the God's Word that he was
preaching a Word that would endure forever, that would never pass away.
He understood that we are saved by a faith in a perfect and inspired and preserved Word
of God.
That's how we're saved.
That's how we know we have the promises that we have, because we understand that the Bible
is preserved, that it's perfect, and that it's inerrant.
And if we allow others to cast doubt on that, then they can start to take away from us all
those great and precious promises which we have in Christ.
At the end of the day, maybe it's an issue that we need to study out, maybe it's something
that we need to take the time to look at this, and we can gather all the evidence, we can
look at all the angles, and we can look at all the debates, and we can look at all the
discussion, and we can examine all the different modes of interpretation, and we can understand
all these things about textual criticism and try to get to the bottom of the issue.
But at the end of the day, it's going to come down to this, do you have faith that God is
able to preserve his Word or not?
That God is able to give us a perfect and inherent Word of God in the King James Version.
If you're going to be King James alone, you're going to do it by faith alone.
That's how we're King James, it's through faith at the end of the day.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, again, thank you for a Bible that is preserved, thank you for a Bible that
is inerrant and perfect, thank you that we have a Bible in our language, Lord, in abundance.
Many of us, I'm sure, have just stacks of Bibles at home.
We can collect them, Lord, we can go down to a store and buy a paperback version of
your Word for a dollar, where you've caused your Word to abound.
And Lord, it's powerful, and we thank you for that.
We thank you that we have these great, precious promises given to us in the Word of God, the
promise of salvation, the promise of eternal security.
Thank you for a Word that speaks to our heart, Lord, that moves us, that discerns our thoughts
and our intents.
Father, we just praise you for the Word of God, and Lord, we thank you for salvation
by grace.
Lord, we just pray now that you would bless us as we go our own ways, and that you would
help us to just trust in your Word, that it is what it says it is, Lord, that it is the
very Word of God that we have in our hands.
We thank you for it, in Jesus' name, Amen.