Now this morning I want to preach on the subject of language and I want to start out in Genesis
chapter 11 because this is where we see the origination of mankind using different languages.
In Genesis chapter 11, let me get there myself here, verse number one, the Bible
reads, and the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
So we have to understand that there have been a lot of years of history up to this
point.
1,656 years from the time of Adam to the time of the flood.
This event at the Tower of Babel is taking place about 100 years after the flood.
We can deduce that from the name of Peleg because in his days the earth was divided
and that's when God divided mankind by dividing and confounding their languages.
So this is about 1,750 some years into the history of mankind and up to that point
The Bible tells us here that everyone had spoken the same language.
The whole earth was of one language up to that point.
It says in verse number two, it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, referring
to the people who got off the ark and their descendants.
It says that they found a plane in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there.
And they said one to another, go to let us make brick and burn them thoroughly.
And they had brick for stone and slime had they for mortar.
And they said go to let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven
and let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men
builded and the Lord said behold the people is one and they have all one language
and this they begin to do and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have
imagined to do.
Go to let us go down and there confound their language.
Confound means to confuse.
He said let's confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth and they
left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel because the Lord did there confound the language
of all the earth and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of
all the earth.
So this is when mankind is divided.
He was very united one name one people one city one language they're all united and they're
doing something ungodly trying to build a tower that will reach to heaven disobeying
God's command to overspread the earth.
And so God in order to divide mankind and to split them up he mixes up their languages
so that they can't understand one another because he knows that if people cannot communicate
and understand one another they're not going to be able to dwell together.
They're not going to be able to live together any longer.
They're going to split up and that's exactly what happened.
God miraculously caused people's languages to change and to shift to where they could
no longer understand each other and this caused them to naturally pair off with people
that they could communicate with and understand and separate themselves from those that they
could not understand.
Now the reason that this story is so interesting is because it shows us that God's desire
is that people on this earth speak different languages.
It's clear from this passage that it is not God's will that everyone speak the same
language is it?
I mean God doesn't want everybody to speak the same language.
God had a purpose and a plan when he created language to use it to divide mankind.
That was the goal of even introducing language was to divide mankind along linguistic lines
and to separate them into different nations and families and so forth.
That's what God was trying to accomplish here in Genesis 11.
So we can learn from this that God does not desire that everyone speaks the same language.
He created us to speak different languages.
Now if you follow this subject throughout the Old Testament, turn to Daniel chapter
4.
While you're turning there, later on in the book of Genesis you read about the story
of Joseph and if you remember Joseph was sold into slavery down in Egypt and when Joseph
is down in Egypt, first he goes to prison but then after interpreting Pharaoh's dream,
he is elevated to become the second in command in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh the king
of Egypt and when he's in that position, his brethren come to Egypt to buy corn
and his brethren do not recognize him because they haven't seen him in so long, he's changed
so much and he is dressed and looking like an Egyptian and so forth.
So when they show up, they don't recognize him and the Bible specifically tells us that
Joseph, in order to continue to make his brethren think that he is an Egyptian and
that he's not one of them, Joseph speaks to them through an interpreter.
Now obviously he knew their language.
He grew up with them until he was 17 years old but he specifically uses an interpreter
in order to continue to make them believe that he's just an Egyptian, that he doesn't
want them to know yet that he's their brother.
Now that tells me that the people in Egypt are speaking a completely different language
than the people in Canaan in order for an interpreter to be needed, right?
Two completely different languages being spoken, one being spoken in Egypt, you know Joseph
probably learned it in prison, you know he's in prison for years in Egypt, he learned
how to speak their language.
His brethren on the other hand did not.
That's why an interpreter was needed if they're going to use the Egyptian language.
You know that should go to teach you also that you don't always know why God does the
things that he does.
You know Joseph probably would have liked to have just gone right to be in the second
in command of Egypt.
You know he got sold into slavery, he probably would have loved to just a week later be
the second in command.
He probably didn't enjoy sitting in prison for years.
He probably didn't enjoy being a slave for years but you know what, God knew that
he wasn't prepared to do that job, he didn't even know the language.
So God was preparing him during that time, teaching him.
You know before he could run the whole nation, he had to learn how to run Potiphar's house.
He had to learn how to run the prison, you know.
And then once he'd run Potiphar's house, run the prison, now he's ready to run the
whole nation.
Now he knows the language, he's been there for years and years.
But the reason that I bring that up is to show you that obviously throughout the Bible, people
are speaking different languages from one another and God doesn't always take the time
to tell us, oh by the way they were using an interpreter.
For example, obviously when we see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob dealing with people in
Egypt and talking to Egyptians and talking to Philistines, talking to all different
people, there are probably a lot of times where there was a language barrier and where
an interpreter is used.
The only reason that the Bible even takes the time to tell us that Joseph was using
an interpreter is just because it was significant to the story, to show hey he's trying
to trick them, he wants them to think he's an Egyptian.
But that just goes to show you that all throughout the Old Testament, obviously different
nations are speaking different languages and when they're sending ambassadors to each
other, when they're talking to each other, they're often going through an interpreter
because they don't speak the same language.
Which means that a lot of times when the Bible tells us what someone said, it's
a translation of what they said.
And if you're reading it in English, it's a translation of a translation.
Because if the Bible is written in Hebrew and it's quoting Egyptians, it's taking it
from Egyptian into Hebrew and then we're taking it from Hebrew into English.
Now look at Daniel chapter 4.
Daniel chapter 4 is a famous story about Nebuchadnezzar.
And Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon and he ruled over a great empire that was
virtually worldwide.
And he wants to send out this proclamation because he has come to know the true God.
And he wants everybody to know that the Lord is the true God of the earth and so he wants
to send this out to his whole kingdom and he rules over 100 provinces that spoke various
different languages.
So he wants to send out this proclamation and in chapter 4 verse 1 the Bible reads,
Nebuchadnezzar the king unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all
the earth.
Peace be multiplied unto you.
I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward
me.
How greater his signs and how mightier his wonders.
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation.
Notice verse 1, this proclamation is being sent out to all languages.
This proclamation wasn't just originally written in one language and when we say this proclamation
we're talking about the entire chapter of Daniel chapter 4.
Because it ends up the chapter with Nebuchadnezzar's closing in verse 37, Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise
and extol unto the king of heaven all whose works are truth and his ways judgment and
those that walk in pride he is able to obey.
Look when God humbled Nebuchadnezzar, when God caused him to be driven to the wilderness,
you know you read the story later, but he's driven to the wilderness living like
an animal.
God wasn't just trying to get through to Nebuchadnezzar, but he was also doing that
so that the entire world would hear the word of God, so that this proclamation would go
out, a great testimony to the power and wisdom of God that they would at least hear
about who the true God was through this Bible story.
And even today we can read this Bible story and learn something about God and learn
the word of God because there are angels in the story that speak unto Nebuchadnezzar.
God's word is given to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 4 and that was immediately intended
to go out into all languages in Daniel chapter 4.
It was originally written in all languages that were present in Nebuchadnezzar's pretty
much universal kingdom that spanned all those different languages and tongues and
peoples that he sent that to.
Now go to Acts chapter 2 in the New Testament, Acts chapter number 2, because what I'm trying
to get at here is that God is the one who divided the earth into different language
groups and that God's desire is that every man hear God's word in his own language.
Not that everyone learn a foreign language so that we can all speak the same language.
Rather it's God's desire that God's word be translated or interpreted or sent out
into every language that exists today.
That's God's will, that's God's plan.
That's been his plan throughout history.
Look if you would at Acts chapter 2, this is a great story on the subject of language.
It says in verse 1, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with
one accord in one place.
Now the they there are the 120 people that are listed in chapter 1.
They were both men and women and they were the early church, the ones who had stayed
together and were praying and were waiting to be endued with power from on high.
And in Acts chapter 2 verse 1 it says, when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from
heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all, all 120 of them, male and female, that were joined together in that
early church.
They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance.
So when God's Spirit comes upon the early church in Acts chapter 2, they begin to speak
with other tongues and it's the Spirit that is giving them utterance.
Meaning that the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is giving them the ability to speak in another language.
The Spirit is the one who's doing that.
It says in verse number 5, and there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out
of every nation under heaven.
Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because
that every man heard them speak in his own what?
Language.
So here the Bible is clearly teaching you what the word tongue means.
He said they're speaking in other tongues, everybody's hearing it in their own language,
and then a few verses down, they say we do hear them speak, verse 11, in our tongues
the wonderful works of God.
So even in Genesis 10 and 11, tongue and language are being used interchangeably in
Genesis 10 and 11.
And then here in Acts 2, same thing, tongue and language are being used interchangeably
because they are the same word, I mean they mean the same thing, it's just two
different ways of saying the same thing.
Speaking in another tongue, speaking in another language.
Now in this passage, the Bible is clear, there were 120 people doing the speaking,
not one.
A lot of people will mistakenly say, oh you know, Peter preached and 3,000 people
got sick.
In reality, there were 120 people doing the preaching.
And they were speaking in other tongues.
That means that not all of them were speaking the same language.
You know, God miraculously allowed one to speak the language of the Parthians.
You know, God miraculously allowed another disciple to speak the language of the Arabians.
It just depended on who they were talking to.
The Spirit of God came upon them and they were able to speak that language.
Now I've heard some people erroneously say about this passage that, oh they didn't
really speak other language, the miracle was in the hearing.
God miraculously caused people to just understand, no, wrong.
That's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them out of it,
and that every man heard them speak in his own tongue.
Now look, God could have performed this miracle a different way.
Think about this now.
Because this should tell you what the Bible teaches about language.
When we look at all these language passages, try to apply this today.
And understand that God could have done a miracle where all of the Galileans spoke their
normal language, right?
And God just miraculously allowed the foreigners to hear it in their own language.
But is that what the Bible says happened?
No.
Because God is showing us here that his word can be spoken in all these languages.
Whether it's Daniel 4, or whether it's Acts chapter 2.
And look, would you say these people heard a translation of God's word?
You'd just say they heard God's word.
They heard God's word in their own tongue.
Because look, we know that it was the Holy Spirit that was guiding them.
So it wasn't a man-made translation, no.
It was God speaking through them in a foreign language, showing that God can speak his
word in 17 different languages.
And look, I don't think they were hearing 17 different messages.
They were all getting the same message.
Now some people got it better than others.
No, wrong.
God's Spirit was speaking to everybody in their own language and they heard and understood
God's word in the tongue wherein they were born.
Their native language.
This is a great miracle of God's word.
He could have performed it where, you know, they spoke Hebrew, right?
And then everybody just heard it miraculously in their own tongue.
Because look, if God had miraculously allowed people to understand Hebrew, right?
Then they could have got what the Bible really said.
You know, I mean if God would have miraculously just, they all speak it in Hebrew, right?
And then God just miraculously allows these foreigners to just understand Hebrew.
Then they would have known what the Bible really said.
Okay, but wrong.
That's not what the Bible says.
God was just putting his word into other languages for people because that's how they're
going to understand it best, in the tongue wherein they were born.
Now go to Revelation chapter 14.
Revelation chapter 14, the end of the Bible.
The reason I'm going to different passages, I'm starting in Genesis, we're looking at
Daniel, we're looking at Acts, we're just trying to go through the whole Bible showing
you the consistency of the Bible on this subject.
That there is a consistent dealing with language from start to finish.
Okay, look at Revelation 14.
This is where the Bible tells us about the angel in heaven, verse 6, and I saw another
angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that
dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people.
So God has a messenger that is carrying the message of the gospel for every tongue,
for every language.
So this proves again that God's word can be put into all languages.
Acts 2 proved that, Revelation 14 proves that.
Over and over again we see that.
Now go to 1 Corinthians 14 because of all the chapters in the New Testament that
deal with language, 1 Corinthians 14 is the one that goes into the greatest detail
on the subject of language or speaking in another tongue.
And I want to start first of all by just showing you the last two verses, okay?
We'll look at the rest of the chapter in a moment.
But just look at the last two verses and see the significance here.
In verse 39 it says, Wherefore brethren, covet to prophesy, and this is the key, and forbid
not to speak with tongues, let all things be done decently and in order.
Now that is a very significant statement at the end of verse 39, forbid not to speak
with tongues, because that tells me that there was somebody out there who was forbidding
people to speak in other languages, or to speak in other tongues.
Isn't that what it shows?
Because if God is having to take the time here to correct the church at Corinth, to
make sure that they understand what His will is, and says look, forbid not to, well
look, why did God say thou shalt not steal, because people steal.
Why did God say thou shalt not commit adultery, because people commit adultery.
Why did He say thou shalt not kill, because people kill.
So why did He say forbid not to speak with tongues?
Because there are people who forbid you to speak in other languages.
Now of course those who are Pentecostals and Charismatics, I'm not even going to take
a lot of time this morning to deal with that stupidity, because that's what it is
and I think I'm talking to an intelligent group of people.
So I'm not even going to take the time to go into the stupidity of rolling around
on the ground, slobbering on yourself, barking like a dog, I'm not even going to
go into that stupidity.
Because is everybody here saved, anybody here believe?
Okay look, if you're saved, you're smart enough to know that that is nonsense.
It's only unsaved people who are even sucked in by it.
You'll never meet people who are saved who believe in that stuff.
Every time you run into the people that believe in this gibberish and falling on
the ground, ecstatic speaking, laughing revivals, they always believe a false gospel.
They always believe you can lose your salvation.
They always believe all kinds of false doctrine, that it's not by faith alone, that it's not
just trusting in Jesus Christ, but that it's also baptism or that it's also other works
that we have to perform.
So I'm not going to spend a lot of time just explaining the fact that tongue means
language.
I mean we already saw that in Genesis 10 and 11, we saw it in Acts 2, I don't want
to spend a lot, I've done whole sermons on that subject, I'm not going to.
So let's just forget that nonsense and let's just look at what the Bible is actually saying.
If we know that tongue is talking about a foreign language, as it is in Acts 2 and
everywhere else, this is saying that there are people who are forbidding them to speak
in a foreign language.
So why would God say forbid not to speak with tongues?
Well stop and think about it.
Have there been religions and churches who have forbidden people to use their native
languages in worship or in church?
Absolutely.
Of course we know the Roman Catholic Church is the huge one.
I mean for the longest time my friend, now today if you went to a Catholic Church
it will be in English, right?
But sometimes it will be in Latin, but let me say this, throughout history the
Catholic Church has normally only used Latin in their church services.
You know if you went to the Catholic Church 150 years ago, I mean you'll go in there
and sit there and there will be a service that goes on for an hour, hour and a half
and you will not understand a word of it because it's in a foreign language.
And for example, when the Bible was first translated into English, people were being
burned at the stake.
Why?
For translating the Bible into English.
People are being burned at the stake.
Why?
For teaching their children the Lord's Prayer in English.
Why are people being tortured and killed for putting the Bible in English because the
Roman Catholic Church is telling them it must be Latin?
Latin is a holy, special language.
That's what they taught.
And the only Bible that's legitimate is a Latin Bible.
And you must read the Bible in Latin, we must have church in Latin, you must preach
in Latin, and you have all these people who come to church and don't get anything
out of it because they don't understand a word of it because it's in a foreign language.
And it's forbidden to speak God's word in their language.
So you see how this verse applies, okay?
Even today there are also Greek Orthodox churches where people go and listen to the
service in Greek and don't understand a word of it.
You know, I think Brother Dave told me he went to a Greek Orthodox wedding and a lot
of it was in Greek.
And he's sitting there, you know, it was all Greek to him, you know?
He couldn't understand what was being said.
Look, the Bible is showing us here that there were some people saying, hey, you can't
speak that other language.
Why would they say that?
Well, there are people today who teach the same thing because here's what they teach.
They teach, well, you know, it's not Latin, but it's Greek and Hebrew.
And they basically teach that, you know, in order for you to really have the Word
of God, it has to be in Hebrew if you're reading the Old Testament.
And if you're reading the New Testament, it has to be in Greek.
Now, the logic of this makes absolutely no sense because of the fact that the Bible
is written primarily in two languages.
So, you know, if it had to be in one language, if there's this one special language, you
know, and look, this is what the Jews teach, the people who don't accept the New
Testament, that don't believe on Jesus Christ, that are part of the false religion
of Judaism, they say, hey, God's Word is only in the original Hebrew.
You must have it in Hebrew, okay?
And they say, you know, it's not the same in other languages.
It's got to be in Hebrew or else it's not really God's Word.
Okay, well, that makes sense for their false religion of Judaism, but it makes absolutely
no sense for Bible-believing Christianity because we know the New Testament was not
written in Hebrew.
So, if God was just limited to one language or for it to be his true Word, it had to
be in that one language, Hebrew, then why did he give us the New Testament in a completely
different language?
And here's the other thing.
The New Testament quotes the Old Testament.
And he doesn't say, okay, let's quote the Old Testament now and then switch to Hebrew.
No, absolutely not.
The New Testament puts it all in Greek, puts it all translated for you.
And you say, oh, well, then it's not really God's Word, it's just a translation.
No.
And here's what people will accuse us of doing who believe in reading the Bible in
English because that's what we believe here.
We believe that we should read the Bible in English, preach the Bible in English because
we are English speakers who were born to speak English.
So this is the language that we use, okay, English.
And here's what they'll say, well you guys think that the King James Bible is the Word
of God.
You know, you equate the King James Bible with the Word of God and they say it's
not the Word of God.
It's a translation of the Word of God.
Okay, well then is every time Jesus talking in the New Testament or every time Jesus or
the apostles quote something from the Old Testament, is that not God's Word?
Of course it's God's Word.
Because this whole idea of, well it's not really God's Word, it's just a translation
is not a biblical idea because God's Word goes forth in the Old Testament in a few
different languages and the New Testament's going forth into all languages, the New
Testament's not even written in Greek.
And look, this philosophy leads people into bad doctrine.
Part of the reason why, there are even New Testament believers who will try to say
that the whole Greek New Testament's a fraud.
Because of course we know it must have been written in Hebrew, but it's just gone
and so we're going to go find it.
And then people create fraudulent versions of it.
It's out there.
And what we need to understand is that this fixation on going back to the original languages
is not of God.
Let me just prove it to you.
Here's the whole Bible, 1189 chapters, show me one place in this big long book where
he ever says, read it in the original language.
Go back to the original language.
Show me where the apostles ever said, well, you know, this is what it says in Greek but
let me tell you what it really means if we go back to the original Hebrew in the
Old Testament.
You'll never see that.
That is something that people do today that they did not get from the Bible.
It's something that they use as a tool to deceive.
Because when you have the Bible in your own language and you can read it for yourself,
you can't be deceived and you're not dependent on them.
When somebody gives you the Bible in your language that you were born speaking, that
you've spoken every day for your whole life, you can pick it up, you can read it,
you can understand it, it makes sense to you.
And when someone lies to you, you'll know they're lying, you'll say, no, I know what
the Bible says.
You can't lie to me.
I know what it says.
But when you have a church like the Roman Catholic Church that's preaching in Latin, that's
got the Bible only in Latin, that priest can pretty much tell you whatever he wants
and you're going to have no idea whether he's telling you the truth or not.
And you have no way to check, you have no way to call him on the carpet, you have
no way to prove him wrong because you are in complete darkness because you don't
have the Word of God in your own language and so you can be easily deceived.
God's will is that everyone have the Word of God in their own language.
And let me tell you something, the final authority in your life should be the Bible
in your language and here's why.
And a lot of people will try to twist this and I don't say that they misunderstand it
because they don't misunderstand it, they're just liars and they twist it on purpose.
Because I can't believe that anybody could not understand the simple things that I'm
preaching this morning.
It's not that they don't understand it, it's that they purposely twist the truth of what
we believe and preach.
And there's a reason why we believe that the King James Bible is the Word of God and
why the final authority in this church for all matters of faith and practice is an English
King James Bible, not a Greek New Testament and not a Hebrew Old Testament.
A lot of people say, oh you're crazy, no.
There's a reason why, and I'm going to tell you right now why this book that's
on the edge of the pulpit right now, the King James Bible, is the final authority
in this church for all matters of faith and practice.
You say, well Pastor Anderson, you're saying, and here's what they'll say, you're saying
that the King James Bible is superior to the Greek.
Of course not.
And anybody who says that is a fool.
Sam, Gaius, Peter, Rochman, etc.
Oh, you're saying that the English is better than the Greek.
I didn't say the English is better than the Greek, I'm saying that the English is
equivalent to the Greek.
Oh, you're saying that the English is more important than the Hebrew.
No, I'm saying that the English is equivalent to the Hebrew.
There's nothing magical and mystical about the Hebrew language.
Now if you just go on YouTube and type in mystical Hebrew, I'm sure you're going to
find five million videos about all the mystical, magical things about Hebrew.
Okay, and look, I'm sure that you'll find plenty of people that will tell you about
the mystical, magical Greek language.
These are normal languages.
They're no different than English or Spanish or German or anything else.
They are just languages.
And when God divided up the languages, when God divided up the people at the Tower of
Babel, He gave them all different languages and they all spoke different languages, and
He didn't give one a better language than the other.
He just gave everybody different languages to divide them, to split them up.
Now just to prove that, God used the Hebrew language in the Old Testament, why?
Because He had chosen Abraham to create of him a great nation and that that nation
would be a light to the Gentiles and so He committed unto them the oracles of God.
He gave Abraham and his descendants the Word of God.
It was written down in Hebrew because they were the ones who were supposed to use
that book to preach unto the rest of the world.
And they translated it into other languages and gave it to other people, as we see.
But in the New Testament, the New Testament was not given unto us in Hebrew, it
was given unto us in Greek for an obvious reason.
If we look at the New Testament, the children of Israel rejected the Lord Jesus Christ,
didn't they?
In John chapter 1 it says, He came unto His own and His own received Him not.
But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name.
So the Bible is real clear that the Jews of Jesus' day rejected Him mostly.
And so therefore it was said unto them by Jesus, the kingdom of God shall be taken from
you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
He said, you've judged yourselves unworthy of the kingdom of God, we're going to go
to the Gentiles.
So basically in the New Testament, because the Jewish people by and large rejected
the Lord Jesus Christ, rejected the Apostles, rejected the Gospel, it wouldn't have made
much sense to write the New Testament in their language.
Let's write it in their language so that they can reject it and not do anything with
it and not use it and not preach it.
That wouldn't make any sense, would it?
But yet we see that Peter and the Apostle Paul are having all this success with winning
the Gentiles to the Lord.
And these people are predominantly Greek speaking people.
So therefore if that's who's getting saved, if that's where the churches are, I mean
if you're sent in the book of Revelation to the seven churches in Asia and they're
all Greek speaking churches, obviously you're not going to tell them, well let's put it
in the magical, mystical Hebrew language for you.
They're not going to be able to understand it.
So he said we're going to basically just put it in Greek because that's who we're
writing to.
That's the audience.
The audience is a Greek speaking audience.
Put it in Greek.
There are parts of the Old Testament that aren't even written in Hebrew, that are written
in Aramaic.
You know why?
Aramaic speaking audience.
I mean look, this isn't that complicated.
Hebrew speaking audience, it's written in Hebrew.
Aramaic speaking audience, it's written in Aramaic.
Greek speaking audience, it's written in Greek.
Look, this is an English speaking audience.
That means we need God's Word in English.
And it's not going to do us any good if God's Word is in a foreign language that
we don't understand.
And if I got up here and said a Greek New Testament here and said this is our final
authority, then you know what that means?
Nobody, almost nobody in here even knows what it says, right?
It's the final authority even though, you know, virtually no one here knows what it
says.
I know what it says and I'm going to tell you what it says.
You know what that means?
Now I'm the mediator between God and men.
Think about that.
I know what it means and the final authority is written in a language that only I understand
and so I will tell you what it means.
Now I'm the boss.
Now I'm the head of the church.
No, Christ is the head of the church and you know what?
There's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus and look, Jesus Christ
will speak to you through this book.
Why?
Because it is an English translation of the Greek and it says the exact same thing as
the Greek does.
Look, read, you know what?
Read a Bible in the Greek New Testament, it's going to say the exact same thing that this
book says.
It's just in another language.
You could read the Bible in Spanish, in German, in English, in Greek, it's going to say the
same thing in all of them unless there's a translation error, right?
But if it's translated properly, if it's translated accurately, it's going to say
the exact same thing in all languages.
So why would I sit there and tell you, learn a foreign language and read the Bible in that
foreign language and you'll learn more.
Now look, I speak a few languages, but let me tell you something.
There's no language that I speak as well as I speak English, right?
I mean everybody has their best language.
That's their main language that they were born with.
People in this church, you know, Brother Segura, you speak English and Spanish fluently, right?
But what do you understand better, English or Spanish?
English way better.
He could read the Bible in Spanish and he would understand it, but he would get more
out of it when he's reading it in English because it's his original, you know, primary
language.
You know Evelyn speaks great English, but Spanish is her better language.
You know, I mean that's her primary language and so she's always going to understand
more in Spanish, okay?
Because that's the language she grew up with, was born with, that's her primary language.
So even if you speak other languages, so look, even if I got to the point where I'm fluent
in a foreign language, right?
Like I speak German fluently, I speak German with my wife all the time and don't
have any trouble communicating with her in German, but you know what though?
I'm never going to understand German as well as I understand English, okay?
And you know, if I were having a really serious conversation with my wife about something,
I'd probably want to do it in English, you know, just to put myself on the upper
footing, you know, no I'm just kidding.
You know, and honestly, you know, that's how it is.
I mean, so sitting there, so even somebody who knows how to read Greek fluently and
knows how to read Hebrew fluently is still probably 9 times out of 10 or 99 times out
of 100 going to understand the Bible better reading it in their original language.
Not its original language, their original language, okay?
Now we believe, and I'm not going to go into this a lot this morning, but we believe
that the King James Bible is a perfect translation into English.
Now that's not a crazy thing to believe at all.
And people are like, oh man, it's so crazy to believe that the King James has no errors
in it.
Why would it have errors in it?
I mean think about it.
First of all, you know, they spent, basically this book took about 100 years to translate,
okay, if you think about it.
I mean if you look at when it was first, you know, the Greek text started being worked
on and collated, and when they started translating it into English in the early 1500s
and it was refined and it was refined and it was refined, so you have all these great
scholars spending virtually almost 100 years on this book, okay?
And just the King James Bible itself, they spent 7 years, but they were already building
upon all the work that had gone before.
They weren't starting from scratch, I mean they had other English translations and they
had it all out, and they had 54 guys, they had 7 years, and they were already building
on the last 100 years, okay?
You say, oh, you know, the text, look, it had 100 years for people to decide what
was right, for people to decide what was the true word of God, for people to decide
what the Greek said and what the English should say.
They spent 100 years, and after this book came out, this is what everybody used.
I mean, once people got used to it and found out about it, realized it, this displaced
all other versions.
I mean, people quit using the Geneva Bible.
People quit using the Bishop's Bible.
I mean this is, go to the store and find Geneva, I mean they're starting to publish
it again now, just because we live in an age where everything is coming available,
but honestly, you know, try 10 years ago to walk in the store, give me the Tyndale
Bible, give me a Bishop's Bible, you know, what?
It's the King James and all the modern perversions of it and corruptions, but what I'm trying
to say is that, you know, we believe that we have a perfect English Bible.
We believe that because it was translated over so many years and by so many experts
and so many people, and we believe that because God obviously wanted us to have it
in our language.
He knew that the English speaking world would preach the gospel more than anyone
else.
I mean, who has sent out the most missionaries over the last few hundred years?
Who has the most Bible believing churches?
Is it Greece?
I mean is Greece just some powerhouse for evangelism and the gospel and Bible preaching?
No.
So obviously if God wants us to have the Word of God, he made sure and allowed
that process to take place through his providence, through his divine hand, that we would get
the Bible today in English.
Now look, there are a lot of people out there who believe that this King James
Bible is a perfect English translation, but a lot of those same people, when they get
up to preach, will say, let's go back to the Greek and show you what it really
says.
Let's go back to the Hebrew.
Even people who claim that they believe that this is a right translation will then
say, yeah, but we still need to go to the Greek.
We still need to go to the Hebrew.
Now let me say this.
The purpose for going back to the Greek in a sermon as a pastor is this.
Number one, to make yourself look smart.
Now let me just show you that.
Are you in 1 Corinthians 14?
Look at 1 Corinthians 14.
It says in verse 3, but he that prophesieth, prophesieth is another word for preaching.
It says in 1 Corinthians 14, 3, but he that prophesieth speaketh unto man to edification.
That means to build them up.
To edification and exhortation and comfort.
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth
the church.
Now look, right there we see that the purpose of preaching is to build you up.
Isn't that what the Bible is telling us?
He gave pastors, he gave teachers for the edification of the saints, the edification
of the body of Christ.
He speaks unto them, the Bible says, to comfort them, to exhort them, and to edify them,
to build them up, not to build himself up.
Is the purpose of preaching to build myself up?
No, it's to build you up.
It's to help you.
Well look, if I'm going to edify you, if I'm going to build you up, I have to speak
in a language that you understand.
If I'm speaking in a language you don't understand, my only purpose, according to this passage,
can be self-edification, self-edification, lifting myself up.
Now if you go to the Latin mass and the priest is speaking the service in Latin, is he trying
to edify the congregation?
No, he's edifying himself.
Hey everybody, look at me, I am the mediator between God and man, I know the truth, I
speak the magical, mystical, holy Latin language.
Isn't it funny how it's always a different language?
Hebrew is magical and mystical, Greek is magical and mystical, Aramaic is magical, Latin!
I mean, the Bible wasn't even written in Latin!
But Latin is a magical, mystical, special language.
But English is just lame.
English is just junk.
You know, Greek and Latin, no, English is no different.
I mean if you want to get all magical and mystical, you know, I mean what's the
difference between English and Greek and Hebrew and Latin?
It's just different languages folks, it's the same thing.
People will go back to the Greek in a sermon to elevate themselves above the audience
and to say, look what I know.
Look at my knowledge.
Look how I can read things in the Bible that you can't read on your own, that's why
you need me.
And that is not of God, that's not biblical.
Go down to verse 9, it says, So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words
easy to be understood, how shall it be known what it is spoken?
Ye shall speak into the air.
There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world and none of them is
without signification.
Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh
a barbarian and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.
Even so ye, for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel
to the edifying of the church.
He's saying, look, if you're speaking in a foreign language, it makes no sense to
the people who are listening.
Now look, I'm sure Hebrew makes a lot of sense to people who speak Hebrew, but
to someone who only speaks English, it doesn't make any sense to them.
You know, I could say something to you in Hebrew, it's not going to make any sense to you.
You can say something in Greek.
He's saying, look, speak in words that people can easily understand, okay, in order to edify
the church.
Okay, look at verse 16, else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that
occupieth the room of the unlearned say amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing
ye understandeth not what thou sayest.
So if I say something in a foreign language, you can't say amen to that.
You can't say amen.
And in the Latin mass, they do say amen to that.
People say a bunch of stuff, they have no idea what to say, amen, you know.
And they're just putting their stamp of approval on something that they don't even
know what was said.
It says in verse 17, for thou verily give us thanks well, but the other is not edified.
I thank my God I speak with tongues more than y'all, yet in the church I had rather
speak five words with my understanding that by my voice I might teach others also
than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue.
He's saying look, use an unknown tongue elsewhere where people understand that tongue, but in
the church you need to speak in the language that people understand.
I'd rather speak five words in English than 10,000 in Greek or Hebrew, okay.
Now look at verse 29.
Here's the key.
This is a discussion about preaching and preaching in other languages.
It says in verse 29, let the prophet speak two or three and let the other judge.
Now that is telling us that while the preaching is going on, those who are sitting in the
congregation not doing the preaching are supposed to be judging, okay.
So when I'm preaching, you're supposed to be judging.
You know, when someone else is preaching, we're all supposed to be judging.
I mean that's what God's telling us in this verse.
Now let me ask you this.
If something is done in a foreign language, are you able to judge?
No.
And the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5, prove all things, hold fast that which is
good.
Prove all things means test all things.
Prove them.
See if they're legit.
And if you don't know the language, you can't do that.
That's why no one should ever speak a foreign language in the church unless there's an interpreter
putting it into the correct language and then basically we can judge what's being preached.
Now let me just give you a few examples of this, okay.
Because I hope that you understood the foundation that I just laid down.
I showed you in Genesis 11 how God divided languages because he wanted people to speak
different languages.
He did not want us all speaking Esperanto or something, you know, where we just, let's
make a language where we can all speak the same language and be united.
No, his goal was to divide.
His goal was that we speak different languages, okay.
So it wouldn't make any sense to say, well every Christian needs to learn Greek.
Well then we'd all be united in a way that he did not want us to be united.
He wanted us to speak foreign languages from one another.
He wanted us to be different, okay.
We saw all throughout the Old Testament that we saw that, you know, people are speaking
foreign languages, interpreters are being used, God's word is being translated into
different languages, sent out into different parts of the world.
Acts chapter 2, 17 different languages minimum and people are speaking those languages and
it's God's word when they, what they spoke because it was through the Holy Ghost.
We also see that nowhere in the Bible from cover to cover is there a command that
tells us to learn a foreign language.
Show me a verse in this whole book that says, learn a foreign language.
You must learn a foreign language.
Show me.
On the contrary, the Bible tells us that there are some people that specifically have
the gift of tongues.
The Apostle Paul said, I speak with tongues more than you all.
Why?
He's a missionary.
He grew up at the feet of Gamaliel.
He grew up super educated, learning a bunch of foreign languages.
He went around the world preaching in all different parts of the globe.
So it was a great asset to him that he spoke a lot of foreign languages.
But you know, there are some people who cannot learn a foreign language to save their
life.
Yeah, these people are saying amen because they're like, that's me, you know, honestly,
there are people, I've known people who went and lived in a foreign country for years
and they could never learn the language and they just, they just did not click.
I remember being in Germany with Americans that had been there for decades and I was
trying to explain them, you know, how easy it was to learn German.
I was like, look, let me just explain it to you.
And I'm just, and they're just like, I have no clue what you're talking about.
I'm trying to say, look, don't you see the connection between this and that?
No.
There are people out there who cannot learn a foreign language to save their life.
And even if they did learn it, they're going to stumble with it and struggle with it
for the rest of their life.
They just are not gifted in that way.
Other people are gifted with language, they can pick it up.
I mean, there was a guy in our church named Victor a few years ago, Victor Tay.
He was gifted in language, you know, he was Chinese and he spoke English.
But it's funny, we went out soul winning, he'd never hardly been exposed to Spanish
at all.
We went out soul winning and he's listening to me give the gospel to people in Spanish
and he's like, oh, I bet this word means this.
Oh, I bet this means this.
Oh, that sounds like this means this.
What?
How do you know that?
He could just tell.
What?
Just by the way I'm saying it and everything.
And I mean, he just picked it up, picked it up, picked it up and it was good because
he ended up living in Mexico for a while, so it's a good thing that he was that good
at picking it up.
He picked it up, he was talented in that area.
Other people are not.
So God doesn't expect everybody to learn a foreign language.
Now look, should some people learn foreign languages?
Sure, because there are missionaries, you know, that obviously need to learn a foreign
language.
But you know what, if you have zero ability to learn a foreign language, God's not calling
you to be a missionary to a foreign country.
I mean, isn't that common sense?
That God is going to give different people different talents.
I mean, look, you're not, if you can't sing and hold, if you can't carry a tune
in a bucket, God's not calling you to be the next song leader of our church, okay?
Because obviously different people have different talents.
Some people are good at music, some people are good at language.
So to sit there and say every Christian needs to learn a foreign language and they
need to become so expert in it that they can understand it better than the English
Bible is ridiculous.
It's nonsense.
But let me show you the danger of this.
I'm going to give you one example from Greek and one example of Hebrew.
These are two that I've heard over and over and over again where people go back
to the Greek and go back to Hebrew.
And I think this will provide a really good illustration of what I'm talking about.
Go to 1 John chapter 3 and I'm going to close with these two illustrations because
look, I don't believe, I don't believe that any pastor who's preaching to an English
speaking congregation should go back to the Greek and say, well, here's what it
really says because you have no idea to verify whether what he's saying is true.
You have no, I mean, if I told you, well, the Greek word is this and it means this,
you have no idea whether that's true.
You just have to trust me.
I don't want you to trust me.
I want you to trust God and I want you to trust your Bible.
You'd be much better off trusting your English King James Bible than trusting me
or any other preacher.
But here's a perfect example and this is the number one example I've heard of people
going back to the Greek and saying that it says something different in the original
than the English.
And this is one of the number one things where they say the English Bible is wrong
and if I had a nickel for every time I heard this I'd be a wealthy man.
In fact, I have never shown 1 John 3 to someone who disagreed with me without them saying,
yeah, but in the Greek, people who don't even know any Greek, people who can't even
count to ten in Greek are going to tell you, no, if you go back to the Greek, etc.
This is the number one example.
Go to 1 John 3, verse number 9.
This is the number one example.
This is the one that has been thrown in my face the most times throughout my life
of going back to the Greek.
And I've heard preachers do this many times and they get a bad false doctrine from it.
Look at 1 John 3, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth
in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God.
Now does everybody see that verse?
Now that verse right away, when you look at it, it should strike you as odd because
it seems like something very confusing.
Because go back to 1 John chapter 1.
1 John chapter 1, verse 8 says this, if we say that we have no sin, is everybody looking at that?
We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
So in verse 8, he says if we say that right now we have no sin, we're wrong, we're lying,
we're deceptive, and if we say that we've not sinned in the past, we're lying.
So chapter 1 makes it real clear that we still commit sin, don't we?
Isn't that crystal clear in 1 John 1, 8 and 10?
That if we say we don't have sin, we're lying.
If we say that we haven't sinned, we're lying.
But then we get to chapter 3 verse 9, it appears to contradict, doesn't it, on the
surface because it says whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed
remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God.
You're like, wait a minute, in chapter 1 it said that we all sin.
And then in chapter 3 it's saying if you're born of God, you don't sin.
This is confusing.
So here's what people will do.
Let's go back to the Greek.
Some men right here.
This must be something wrong with my English Bible, right?
Because there's this contradiction.
Let's go back to the Greek.
So the first thing I'm going to do when I go back to the Greek, I'm going to get out
my Strong's Concordance, right?
Let's look this up in the Strong's Concordance.
Let's look up the word sin.
They look up the word sin and you know, it's just sin.
Okay, well that's not going to work.
So then they focus on that word commit.
You looking down at 1 John 3?
Whosoever born of God does not commit sin.
So they'll look that up in their Strong's, okay?
And when they look that up in their Strong's, they're going to find that that is G4160, alright?
So they've got this Greek word G4160, alright?
And here's what Strong's says next to that word.
Alright, you ready?
So they're like, something ain't right here.
Let's go back to the Greek.
Okay, here's what it says.
Get ready for this.
These are all the different meanings.
Abide, agree, appoint, avenge, band together, be, bear, be ray, bring forth, cast out,
cause, commit, content, continue, deal, do without any delay, would do, is doing, execute,
exercise, fulfill, gain, give, have, hold, journeyings, keep, lay weight, lighten the
ship, make, mean, move, observe, ordain, perform, provide, have purged, purpose, put,
raising up, secure, show, shoot out, spend, take, tarry, transgress, work, yield.
Now I get it.
But hold on.
Think about this now.
So here's what they do.
This is, look, next time a preacher goes back to the Greek, just understand.
This is what he's doing, okay?
So you go to Strong's, you look up your Greek word, and that list is what you get.
Well now you can pretty much make that verse say whatever you want because you have
all these words to choose from and you can say, if you look it up in the Strong's
Greek Incordance, it actually means, and you can pick from any of those words you
want.
That's what they're doing.
So here's what they do.
So I look at this big long list of stuff that was from the Strong's, right?
And that's just Strong's.
If Strong's doesn't have what you like, you can get the Thayer Greek Lexicon and
you'll find a similar long list, just a different list.
I mean look, if you have enough books on your shelf, you can make this verse say whatever
you want it to say.
So they get their big list and they say, okay, abide, agree, appoint, avenge, band
together, bear, berate, bring forth, cast out, cause, commit, continue.
Aha, now we're on to something, continue.
This verse is saying, whosoever is born of God does not continue sinning.
Now we're getting somewhere, aren't we?
So now you have a false doctrine where somebody can get up and preach, if you're saved you're
not going to keep on sinning.
I mean you might sin, but you're not going to continue sinning.
Or what about this one, do without any delay.
See you're not just going to sin at the drop of a hat, if you're born of God.
You're not going to do it without delay.
You're going to delay a little bit first, then sin.
Or you can go down, hold, oh, then what this is saying is you want to hold on
to sin.
Or how about keep?
You're not going to keep sinning.
Do you see how dangerous this is, where you can just make the Bible say whatever you
want?
And I'm going to prove that this is wrong in a moment.
I'm going to show you what the verse really means using an English Bible, and I'm going
to prove to you why this makes no sense.
Now you can then look this verse up in Vine's expository dictionary of New Testament
words.
And if you look up commit, it will tell you that commit means to commit sin, okay?
And it gives you examples of John 8.34, he that committeth sin is the servant of sin,
and it gives you James 5.15, if you have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
But then it has a note about 1 John 3.9.
So it tells you, well the word means commit, but the KJV wrongly translates this as commit
in 1 John 3.9, it says.
Even though they just finished telling you that the word means commit sin, you know.
In 1 John 3.9, the King James wrongly has commit, which is an impossible meaning, according
to you.
It's an impossible meaning.
See what they're doing?
What they're doing is they're looking at what the Bible actually says and saying
well that's impossible.
Comparing chapter 1 to chapter 3, that's impossible.
So let's change it to something else.
That's what they're saying.
But it's really just that they don't understand, and I'm going to prove that to you.
Look what he says, the revised version rightly has doeth instead of commit, parenthesis of
a continuous habit.
Now first of all, doeth does not mean of a continuous habit.
And here's what it says, committing of an act is not in view in that passage.
Now look, all these Greek sources are all telling you it doesn't mean commit, it doesn't
really mean, that's not what it says.
Why?
Because that would be impossible, because we don't think it makes sense.
So we'll give you a list of like 40 other words to choose from, and look, everybody
that you talk to about 1 John 3 and 9 will be like, yeah but if you go back to the
Greek that means you're continually sinning.
You're living in sin, you're sinning as a way of life, you're sinning by habit, they're
just adding to God's work.
Okay but now let me just prove it all to be a lie.
Go to 1 John 5, 1 John 5, and look at verse number 18.
It says in 1 John 5, 18, we know that whosoever is born of God, sinneth not.
Now what's missing?
Commit.
So the whole word, look, all this about the word commit, all this stuff that I got
from these Greek lexicons and strong concordance and Vines dictionary, all explaining to you
why there's no way commit can really mean commit, that doesn't make any sense, there's no way
it can mean that, it can't be, then we find the exact same statement in 1 John 5 where
that word's gone.
And it just says, whosoever is born of God, sinneth not.
Now what are you going to do with that Vine?
What are you going to do with that Thayer?
What are you going to do with that Strong?
There's no word for you to play around with in that verse, is there?
I mean, does anybody understand what I'm showing you here?
And in 1 John 3, look, everybody let's speak English for a minute.
In 1 John 3, it says in verse 9, whosoever is born of God does not commit sin.
In 1 John 5, it says, whatsoever is born of God, sinneth not.
Is there any difference between sinning and committing sin?
Is there any difference?
What is the difference between commit sin and sin?
None.
That's why in our English Bible we have the identical statement in 1 John 3 and in
1 John 5, one of them just words it differently, but it's saying the exact same thing.
Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, whosoever is born of God, sinneth not.
But if you believe these people, okay, that are saying, oh, well, that word commit,
that changes everything, because the Greek word for commit, p-a-o, it means that,
you know, it's continuous, it's a habit, it means to hold onto, it means you're
doing it without delay, it means you're continuing, look, it's all a fraud.
You can prove it to be a fraud just by comparing chapter 3 and chapter 5, but to the unlearned,
who are just sitting in the pew, just, oh, okay, that's what that means.
Well if that's what Strong's Concordance says, then shut my stupid mouth.
I mean that's what's going on today in pulpits all across America.
They go back to the Greek, and look, if the Greek, if going back to Strong's is
wrong on this, and wrong in Vines and Thayer and all these other people, you know,
what else are they wrong about?
Why are you trusting them?
Why are you giving your pastor a smorgasbord of 50 different words to choose from where
he can make the Bible say whatever he wants it to say?
It's dangerous.
Now just to quickly, I gotta hurry, but let me just quickly explain to you what
the verse is actually saying.
I don't have time, I wanted to go through and read it all for you, but in Romans 7,
the Bible makes it real clear that basically when we sin, it's not the new man sinning,
it's the old man that's sinning, it's the unregenerate flesh because when you got saved,
your spirit got you saved, but your flesh is not born of God, your flesh will be born
of God at the rapture when the body is resurrected, when the body is regenerated,
and Paul even says in Romans 7 that when he does the things he doesn't want to do,
when he basically commits sin, he says it's no longer I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me.
He says that the flesh is what causes us to sin, but that the new man, the spiritual
man that's born of God doesn't commit sin.
The Bible says if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, behold old things are passed
away and behold all things are become new.
So when a person gets saved, according to the Bible, and you can read this in Romans
7, 14 through 25, Romans 8 verses 10, 21 through 23, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, make it very
clear that the new creature, the new man, the inward man, the spiritual, born again
child of God, does not and cannot sin.
Which is why when you get to heaven, you'll never sin again.
And the only reason that we're sinning right now is because we are in our flesh.
And that there's a war going on between the old man and the new man.
And the Bible tells us put on the new man.
So when John is saying in 1 John 3 that whosoever is born of God, sinneth not, he's
talking about the new man.
The new man does not sin.
The old man is not born of God.
So when you walk in the flesh, you're going to commit sin because your old man is unregenerate.
I mean, you know, that's a whole sermon in and of itself, but that should just suffice
to show you that 1 John 3 and 5 are saying the identical thing without the word commit.
That shows you that their big much ado about the word commit is a fraud.
Okay, there you go.
Here's another example.
Go back to Genesis chapter 1.
Here's an example from the Hebrew.
So that's an example of a real common thing where they'll take you back to the Greek.
And look, I'd say about 50% of the time when I hear preachers go back to the Greek,
it's to say that something's ongoing instead of just saying it happened like the Bible
said it happened.
And that's the kind of stuff that they'll pull out.
And they create a false doctrine by doing that because here's what they say.
If you keep on sinning, you're not saved.
If you continue to sin, you're not saved.
Now look, is it possible to be saved and continue sinning?
Of course it is.
Why?
Because you're in the flesh.
And if a person gets saved and they don't go to church, they don't read their Bible,
they don't pray, and they don't get discipled, and they don't get taught anything, guess
what?
They're going to continue sinning.
And it doesn't mean they're not saved, it means that they're walking in the flesh.
And when you feed the flesh TV and rock and roll and magazines and everything that
is gratifying the flesh, and you're starving the spirit of any Bible or prayer or hymns,
you're going to be in the flesh, you're going to commit a lot of sins.
And if you put on the new man, if you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll not fulfill
the lust of the flesh.
That's a biblical doctrine.
That's the truth.
But see, this has created a whole lying doctrine where people will say, hey, if you're
living in sin, you're not saved.
If you're still drinking, you're not saved.
If you're fornicating, you're not saved.
That's a lie.
There are saved people who commit those sins because salvation is by faith, not of works.
It's based off what we believe, not off what we do.
And that's why this is such a dangerous doctrine where you go back to the Greek and
make stuff up that isn't there.
And it can be disproven using English alone.
Notice I didn't use Greek and Hebrew to disprove it, did I?
I disproved it right here in the English between chapter 3 and chapter 5.
Why?
Because that's a language that we all understand.
And everyone in this room can see that what I said was true because they all saw
it with their own eyes in the language that they were born.
Okay.
One last example, Genesis 1-2.
The Bible says in Genesis 1-1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the
earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Now there are people out there who teach what's called the gap theory.
And they teach that there's a gap between Genesis 1-1 and Genesis 1-2.
Now when you read that there, did you see a gap just now?
It just goes right into it.
The earth was without form and void.
It's a continuation of the same thought.
The word and there is very strongly tying what we just read with what we're about to
read.
He created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void, right?
One continuous thought, one continuous idea.
So this doesn't work for people who believe in the gap theory and the reason they believe
in the gap theory is not because of any biblical reason but it's because they trust
science falsely so called that the world's billions of years old so they have to try
to make that fit the Bible.
That doesn't fit the Bible.
The world is less than 7,000 years old according to the Bible.
You believe that by faith or you can believe these fools in the university who have said
in their heart that there is no God.
This verse doesn't work for the gap theory.
So pretty much every person I've ever heard teach the gap theory will tell you this.
I've heard this from multiple preachers, Chuck Missler was one, you know, that preached
the gap theory and taught this, Jesussavior.com, another famous website that taught this.
This is what they say, the word and there if you go back to the original Hebrew is
actually the word but is what they'll say.
The word and is actually but in the original Hebrew so what it should say is in the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth but the earth was without form and void.
Now look, if I got up here and told you that right now, let's pretend I'm one of these
deceivers, I'm one of these liars who twists what the Bible says by lying to you
and telling you that the English Bible is not right, you know, in a foreign language
it says something different.
Would you really have any way of checking that out to see whether what I was saying
was true or not?
If I told you this actually says but, so all of the people listening to Chuck Missler
say that, I mean, how can they even verify it, right?
You're just like, okay, in the original it says but.
Now look, if I showed you a Hebrew Bible right now, you know what it would look like
to you?
Chicken scratch is what it would look like.
It would look to you like a bunch of squiggles and dots and squares and lines and you would
look at it and it would be completely meaningless to you because it doesn't even look
anything like even the letters that we use in English.
I mean, it looks like little hieroglyphics, okay?
So do you see how you would just be totally have to rely on me, then I'm telling you the
truth, okay?
Now of course this English Bible's been around for 400 years, if it were lying, you know,
we could have figured that out by now.
But you know, I could just get up and just say whatever I want, just, you know,
in the Hebrew it says but, okay.
But here's what's funny.
If you actually read Genesis 1 in Hebrew, that word and, look at it in English, look
at, what's the first word of verse 3?
What's the first word of verse 4?
What's the first word of verse 5?
What's the first word of verse 6?
7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
Are you seeing a pattern?
Do you notice that almost every verse in this chapter starts with the word and?
Does everybody see that?
Okay.
Do you notice that the word and is in verse 1 when it says in the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth?
Okay, now let me give you a revelation.
The Hebrew word at the beginning of verse 2 is identical to the one at the beginning
of verse 3, is identical to the one at the beginning of verse 4.
It's identical to the one that says the heaven and the earth.
So basically, if you're going to believe this liar who just wants to change one of
those to but, oh that should be but because I said so, okay, then this is how it would
read.
In the beginning God created the heaven but the earth, but the earth was without form
but void.
But darkness was upon the face of the deep, but the Spirit of God moved upon the face
of the waters.
But God said let there be light, but there was light.
Does anybody think that's what it should say?
But go ahead and keep listening to these people that tell you your English Bible is
wrong and you've got to go back to the Greek.
Go ahead and keep listening to these people that will tell you what it really says in
the Greek because it's so much more interesting.
You say, why do people listen to these people?
Because they don't like to just read the Bible, it's like they just want some magical,
mystical, hidden thing.
Look, forget what's hidden, read what's right in front of you.
You want to learn about some magical, mystical language, you've got the truth right here.
You've got the most powerful book, you've got God's Word, you've got the truth, you've
got the answer to every question in the universe, in your life, in your family,
in your church, everything that you need is right here in your hand and you want
to go a whoring after false prophets who are going to tell you what the Bible really
says and change it.
They're changing God's Word.
Look, anybody who would get up and repeat that lie will pretty much, I mean just
sit there and say, oh and the Hebrew actually says but?
When it's the same Word all the way down every verse in that chapter except two.
Do you think he doesn't know that?
You think that anybody who reads Hebrew hasn't noticed that it's the same Word?
They are lying.
It's just a willful, purposeful, oh they're just making a mistake.
No, they're just getting up and lying to you.
They're just lying.
They're just saying, it says but, no, you're lying.
They don't know what they're doing, okay?
They don't want you to be edified.
They don't want you to know the truth.
They have an agenda to change God's Word.
Listen to me, if you're smart, you'll pick up your English Bible and realize, you know
what, I'm blessed.
I'm blessed to be living in 2013 America where I have the whole Bible translated to
me into English by over the course of a hundred years of refining, over the course
of seven years full time by 54 great scholars.
I've got the Word of God right here in my language.
Thank God I don't have to try to read it in some chicken scratch that, you know, and
then look, to them it's not chicken scratch, to them the way we write is probably chicken
scratch.
Why don't you just thank God for giving you His Word in your own language just like
He did in Acts chapter 2, just like He did in Daniel chapter 4, and quit looking for
some unicorn, some four leaf clover, you know, some mystical, magical other language.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your Word, Lord, help us to study it.
Help us to understand the deep truths that are found therein, and thank you so much, Lord,
for giving it to us in our own language.
You know, if we had to learn foreign languages, we'd never understand it as well as our
native tongue.
I mean, we'd have to move to Greece in order to really learn it, but thank you so
much, Lord, that we have it in English, we can just read it in English and understand
it.
And Lord, I know there are nations out there that don't have the Word of God in their
language, or maybe they only have part of the Word of God.
I pray that you would raise up men that would translate it into those languages and
missionaries that would preach the Gospel to the people in the language they were born.
They shouldn't have to learn English, they shouldn't have to learn Greek or Hebrew
or Latin or anything else.
Help us to get the Word of God into all languages, to all people, and in Jesus' name
we pray.