Now in Ephesians chapter 4, the part that I want to focus on is beginning in verse number
3, the Bible says this, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Now this is speaking to the church at Ephesus, this is a local church, and Paul has explained
to them that they need to have unity.
One of the great things about the early church in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 2, the Bible
says that they were all with one accord in one place.
They were all together, they all had the same goal, they all had the same belief, the same
faith, the same Bible, and so they had unity.
We look at Philippians where Paul says to the Philippians, he said that whether I come
and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast, he said,
in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel.
Unity, where we're all going the same way, we're all doing the same thing, it's important
in the church.
And he says here endeavoring, that means trying, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace.
But then he explains how we're going to have that unity.
He says in verse number 4, there is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one
hope of your calling.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through
all and in you all.
Now look down if you would at verse number 11, it says, and he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till
we all come in the unity of the faith, that's singular, and of the knowledge of the Son
of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
You see, unity is not achieved by putting aside doctrine, putting aside our differences,
putting aside beliefs and faith.
No, unity is achieved when we're all worshipping the same Lord.
Unity is achieved when we all have the same faith.
Unity is achieved when we believe in one baptism.
Now look if you would at Philippians, chapter number 3, just go a few pages to the right,
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, look at Philippians chapter 3.
The Bible reads in Philippians chapter 3, verse number 15, it said, let us therefore
as many as be perfect be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God
shall reveal even this unto you, basically what he's saying is, if in anything ye be
otherwise minded, you're wrong.
And God will reveal that to you, that you're wrong, okay, so that you can agree with others.
That's why he says in the next verse, nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk
by the same rule, let us mind the same thing, you see we have unity when we're walking by
the same rule, when we're all minding the same thing, when we all have the same faith,
the same Lord, the same baptism, the same Bible, and he says here, if in anything ye
be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
That's something that you're going to learn in the future, because let me explain something
to you, both can't be right.
You have two different Lords, one of them's the true Lord, and one of them is a false
Lord.
You could have two Gods, then one of them's a false God, because there is but one God.
You have two different methods of baptism, one of them's right, one of them's wrong.
Two different Bibles, one's right, one's wrong.
They can't both be right, and see we don't have unity when we say, well, believe whatever
you want, we're all welcome.
That's not unity if I believe something different than you believe.
It's not unity if I'm using a different Bible than you're using, and we might have a superficial
unity where it seems like we're unified, because we're all smiling and we're all sitting in
the same room, and we're all listening to the same meaningless sermon, nodding our heads,
but if we're going to have true unity, we have to believe the same things, and the only
way we're going to believe the same things is if we have the right Bible and the Holy
Spirit living inside of us as our teacher, because the Bible says, if you be otherwise
minded, or if I be otherwise minded, if I believe something different than you, God's
going to reveal to us which one's right and which one's wrong.
If we read the Bible, if we search the scripture, if the Holy Spirit's living inside of us,
God will reveal to us the truth.
You see, if I have the Holy Bible in my hand, and I have the Holy Spirit living inside of
me, and so do you, eventually we're going to believe the same things.
If we're reading the same Bible and the same God as our teacher, and we both just want
to know the truth, we both don't have an agenda or a preconceived idea, we just want God to
lead us, we'll both believe the same things.
That's why many times in my life I've met people who I'd never talked to before, who
came from totally different circles than I had come from, totally different upbringing,
totally different life, and yet we believed so many of the same things because of the
fact that we have the same Bible and the same Holy Spirit teaching us.
And so this is what true unity is, not the false unity of forgetting our differences,
putting aside differences, no, the true unity of having the same belief, the same Lord,
the same faith, the same baptism.
Now first of all, let me start with the beginning of verse 5, there is one Lord.
Go back to Isaiah chapter 43 if you would, I'm going to show you some scriptures on this.
Isaiah chapter 43, you see there is only one God.
There are not two Gods, there are not three Gods, there are not a multiplicity of Gods,
there is only one God, there has only ever been one God, and there only ever will be
one God.
You see man cannot become God, in fact that was the lie that was told to Adam and Eve,
okay you'll be like Gods knowing good and evil, and man has desired to be God.
Satan himself said I will be like the most high, and that's why he was cast out in Isaiah
chapter 14, because he wanted to be like God.
No one is like God, God is God and he's the only God, and the Bible says in Isaiah 43
verse number 10, ye are my witnesses saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen,
that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he, before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me, I even I am the Lord and beside me there is no Savior.
Flip over to chapter 44 and look at verse number 6, he said in verse 6, thus saith the
Lord, the king of Israel, and his redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first, and I am
the last, and beside me there is no God, did you get that?
Jesus Christ says in Revelation 1, I am the first and the last, and in Isaiah 44 Jesus
Christ said I'm the first and the last, and beside me there is no God.
You see there is no God besides one, and he's the first and the last, and his name is Jesus
Christ because in Revelation 1 he made that exact statement.
There's not two firsts, there's not two lasts, Jesus Christ is not a created being.
In Micah 5 2 the Bible says that Jesus Christ, but thou Bethlehem and the land of Judah are
not the least among the princes of Judah, Judah for out of thee shall, I'm sorry I'm
mixing up the verse, but he says out of thee shall rise a ruler whose goings forth are
from old, and he said from everlasting, from everlasting.
Jesus Christ had no beginning no end, it says in Hebrews 7 3 without father, without mother,
without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto
the son of God, abideth the priest continually, and when Jesus Christ said in Revelation 1,
I'm the first and the last, I am the Alpha and the Omega, I am the beginning and the
end, he's basically alluding to this passage of the Old Testament where the Lord Jehovah
said I am the first, I am the last, and beside me there is no God.
Back in chapter 43 he said beside me there is no Savior, and how many times in the Bible
is he called our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that's why in order to be saved you have
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, not the man Jesus Christ, not the good teacher Jesus
Christ, but not just the prophet Jesus Christ, although he was a man, although he was a prophet,
although he was a good teacher, but in order to be saved you have to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, the
Bible says in Ephesians 4, back to Ephesians 4 where we were, he said in verse 4 there
is one body and one spirit even as ye are called and one hope of your calling, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, and that is by immersion by the way, and I'm not going to preach about
that because I preached a whole sermon about that just a week ago I believe, and so he
says there is one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and
in you all, it says in verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ, and here is what I want to talk a little bit about right now, there
is one Bible, one Bible, you say well wait a minute Pastor Anderson, it doesn't say in
the passage here one Bible, it says here one Lord, it says here one faith, it says one
baptism, it says you know the unity of the knowledge, but I don't see anything about
the Bible, well sure it says something about the Bible because all you have to do is just
flip over to John 1-1, why don't you just flip over there, just go back a few pages
to John and you will see where this is mentioned and hopefully you read John before you got
to Ephesians because you maybe started at the beginning and read to the end, but in
John 1-1 it says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
was God, so if we have one God then we have one Word of God, ok there can't be one God
but many words of God, no, there is one Word of God just like there is one God, there
is one Word of God just like there is one Lord, it says in verse 2 the same was in the
beginning with God, all things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made
that was made, in verse 14 it says and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and
we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth, you say wait a minute I'm not sure that the Word of God is really God, it's
not that the Word of God is really God, I think it might just be a name of Jesus, but
go to Revelation 21, actually start in Revelation 19 but we'll get to Revelation 21, Revelation
19, you see Jesus Christ said this, the words that I say unto you, they are spirit and they
are life, you see Jesus Christ said this, sanctify them through thy truth, thy Word
is truth, and then he said I'm the truth, I'm the way, the truth and the life, no man
cometh of the Father but by me, basically the Word of God, God's spoken Word, ok, existed
eternally past with God, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was if, the Word
wasn't, that's why he said in Titus 1 to and hope of eternal life, which God that cannot
lie promised before the world began, because God's Word existed before the world began,
in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and in the beginning was the Word,
the Bible says here in Revelation 19, this is when Jesus Christ is coming back on a white
horse, it says in verse number, let's start reading in verse number 11, and I saw heaven
opened and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called, and notice these
next three words, this is going to be important, faithful and true, so what was he that sat
upon the horse called? Faithful and true, then look what it says next, and in righteousness
he that doth judge and make war, his eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were
many crowns, and he had a name written, that no man knew but he himself, and he was clothed
with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God, and the armies
which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean,
and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, and on and on it describes, now go to chapter
21, just maybe on the same page even or a few pages over, and look at verse number 5,
the Bible says, and he that sat upon the throne said, behold I make all things new, and he
said unto me, write, for these words are true and faithful, isn't that what it just said
about Jesus Christ on the horse, he's called the Word of God, he's called faithful and
true, because these words are true and faithful, and just in case you didn't get it, in the
next chapter he says it again, in verse 5, he says, I'm sorry where were we, we were
in 21, did I just read 21 5? Look at verse 6, and he said unto me, it is done, I am Alpha
and Omega at the beginning and the end, I will give unto him that is the thirst of the
fountain of the water of life freely, look at chapter 22 verse 6, it says, and he said
unto me, these sayings are faithful and true, now don't tell me that's a coincidence, God's
Word is faithful and true, these words are faithful and true, these sayings are faithful
and true, the man who rode upon the horse's name was faithful and true, his name is called
the Word of God and he was Jesus Christ, coming back on a white horse, you see, you try to
separate God's Word from Jesus Christ, you're wrong, because Jesus Christ is God's Word
in the flesh, the Word made flesh, now you can try to twist that and change that but
if you just read the Bible and take it for what it says, it says that the Word of God
was made flesh, that's why there are three to bear record in heaven, the Father, the
Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one, you see, God's Word, there's only one
because there's only one God, okay and there's only one Jesus, now look if you would at 2nd
Corinthians chapter number 11, 2nd Corinthians chapter number 11 and I'm going to show you
that just because someone is named Jesus or just because someone is named Jehovah or just
because a book is called Holy Bible, that doesn't make it Jesus and that doesn't make
it God and that doesn't make it the Holy Bible, look at chapter 11 verse number 4, the Bible
reads, I'm sorry, I'm in 1st Corinthians, I'm reading about somebody praying with their
head covered, okay, 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 verse 4, for if he that cometh, preacheth
another Jesus, whom we have not preached or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have
not received or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with them,
he's expressing his fear that these people in court, they're not grounded in the truth
and that somebody could come and preach another Jesus and they could get a little bit sucked
in or another spirit, another word, another Jesus, another gospel because there is but
one gospel, there is only one Jesus, there is only one Lord but there is another Jesus
that people will try to preach, a Jesus that makes you work your way to heaven, a Jesus
that was just a good man but he wasn't God in the flesh, you see there's another Jesus,
there's a counterfeit Jesus, there's a counterfeit gospel, Paul said it this way in Galatians
1, he said that there be some among you, well let's just look at it, just so that I don't
have to quote it here, Galatians chapter 1, I like what he says here in verse 6, I marvel
that ye are so soon removed from him that he called you into the grace of Christ unto
another gospel, so again, the same thing he said over in 2nd Corinthians, he talked about
another gospel but I like what he says in verse 7 when he says which is not another
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ, so basically
what he's saying is this other gospel is not a totally different gospel, it's not just
a completely different gospel, it is the same gospel perverted, that's what he said, he
said they're preaching another gospel, it's not really another, it's really just the same
gospel just perverted, just twisted and therefore it became another gospel, it's not totally
separate, it's not totally different, it's the truth twisted, the truth corrupted, the
truth perverted and let me tell you something, there are many the Bible says, there are many
that corrupt the word of God, that's what the Bible teaches because Paul said in 2nd
Corinthians, we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, that's 2nd Corinthians
2.17 but as of sincerity but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ, there
must be a lot of people corrupting God's word or he wouldn't have said that because he said
there are many doing it and we're not like that, there are many who will corrupt the
word of God, who want to pervert, twist, change God's word and God's word is being changed
today in the form of all these different versions, now let me just show you something really
quickly and how many sermons have I done where I've gone through and I've shown differences
and I've shown the NIV, I've shown the New King James and I've exposed the difference
but what I want to talk about tonight is, can two things that say something completely
different, can they both be right? I mean I was talking to a Muslim the other day and
this Muslim said to me well I talked to these Christians and they believed in all these
other doctrines and basically this Muslim was referring to the Mormons and they were
talking about multiple gods and all these different things and I said but that's not
what we believe and then this Muslim started to bring up false doctrines of the Catholics
and I said wait a minute, the Catholics are not true Christians, the Catholics don't believe
the Bible, the Catholics are a false religion and this is what this Muslim said to me, oh
so what you're saying is you're the only one that's right, your church is the only one
that's right, I said no but this book is the only one that's right and so a lot of people
will say what is your religion right, everybody else is wrong, let me just give you a real
simple answer, yes, yes, yes, only Christianity is right and everything else is wrong because
there's only one salvation, there's only one Lord and people will try to say oh come on
you can't expect me to believe that you're the only one that's right and it's not me
because I said well I'm not the only one that's right, Faithful Word Baptist Church is not
the only one that's right but this book is the only one that's right and I told this
person anyone who believes this book, any church that preaches this book and believes
it is a good church, I said we're not the only one, there are churches all over the
world that believe and preach this book but the book is what's right and a lot of people
will say you can't expect me to believe that one religion is right and everything else
is wrong, nothing could be more logical, you see if I gave you a math problem or if I gave
Stuckey a math problem and I put it up on the board here, there's only going to be one
right answer but there could be, how many, let me ask the math guru, ok, 2 plus 2, ok,
now I know you know the answer, I'm going a little deeper than that ok, 2 plus 2, how
many right answers are there, there's only one right answer but let me ask you this,
this is where I'm probing into the depths of your mathematical mind, how many wrong
answers are there, there are an infinite number of wrong answers, I mean there are billions
and billions and trillions and quadrillions of wrong answers, ok, but there's only one
right answer and that's how things are in life, one's right, everything else is right,
there's always more things that are wrong than that are right, there's one right, now
some questions could have multiple answers, ok, like for example let me hit you with one,
alright, I don't know, what's that, second order equation, this is way too deep, all
these mathematical formulas are going through my mind, we'll talk later, but anyway, there
are some equations that you do, like how about this one, I'll give you one, just for grants,
you know, let's say I was like x squared equals 16, now there's two right answers right, what
are the two right answers then, 4 and negative 4, but how many wrong answers are there Stuckey
to that problem, an infinite number of wrong answers, billions of wrong answers, two right
answers, ok, you see, there's only one truth and the rest is a lie, even negative 4 and
positive 4, those are pretty similar, but anyway, they're both 4, ok, so the bottom
line is that there can only be one right bible, ok, and everything else is wrong, there can
only be one true gospel, and everything else is another gospel, there can only be one true
god, everyone else is a false god, because the bible says there are many that are called
gods, and there are many that are called lords, but they are devils, they are not the true
god, they are not the true lord, so for example I open this bible up, the non-inspired version
of NIV, and look if you look at Revelation 22.14, Revelation 22.14 in the non-inspired
version, and while you're in Revelation 22, let me read you some other scriptures in Revelation
22, these are famous verses, but we cannot emphasize this enough, it says in verse 18
for I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if
any man shall add unto these things, what are the things, the words, God shall add unto
him the plagues that are written in this book, and if any man shall take away from the words
of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and
out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book, you see, there's
a part in the book of life for everybody, but you can come to a point, and this is not
talking about people that are saved obviously, it's talking about people that are unsaved,
that would have the desire to corrupt and twist God's word, once they've taken that
step of corrupting God's word, removing from or adding to, they have sealed their eternal
destiny in hell, because God will take away their part out of the book of life, and their
part out of the holy city, do you remember when Jesus said this, in my father's house
there are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place
for you, you see there are many mansions in the father's house, if you look at the dimensions
of the great heavenly Jerusalem that is described in Revelation 21, it's so huge that it can
literally fit easily every human being who has ever lived, easily could fit inside the
new Jerusalem, and that's just the new Jerusalem, let alone the new heaven and the new earth,
you see there's room in heaven for everybody, there's room in the book of life for everybody,
everybody who's born, their name is in the book of life, but I'm going to tell you something,
if a person dies without trusting Jesus Christ, their name is blotted out, because the bible
says him that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, I will not blot
out his name out of the book of life, but I'll confess his name before my father and
before his angels, see a lot of people have this idea that the moment you get saved, your
name is written in the book of life, but that's not taught anywhere in scripture, the bible
says the names were in the book of life from before the foundation of the world, and that
it only ever talks about people being blotted out when they reject Jesus Christ, blotted
out if they die without Christ, but even before they die they might be blotted out, because
what if they tamper with God's word, they're a reprobate, they cannot be saved, they've
committed an unpardonable sin here, because they will go to hell according to the bible,
so again it's impossible for a person to lose their salvation, this is unbelievers
losing their opportunity to ever get saved in the future, he says he'll blot out their
part out of the book of life, their part out of the holy city, that place in the holy city
that could have been for them, no more, they've lost their chance, they've lost their opportunity,
you see, tampering with God's word is something that he very sternly warns against right at
the end of the bible and says if you do it, you're done, and that's why I believe all
the editors of these false bibles are all in hell, or they're going to hell, but look
if you would at revelation 22 14, the bible says this, blessed are they that do his commandments,
that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the
city, now in the NIV the bible says, or not the bible, but the NIV says this, blessed
are those who wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life and may
go through the gates into the city, now be logical, is it possible that both are right,
now you say wait a minute, and one time I was talking to someone, and they had a bible
in Spanish, and it was the reign of valera 1960 version in Spanish, and this person had
a reign of valera 1960 version and I told them, I said you know that bible is wrong,
I said that is a corruption of God's word, I said it's from Westcott and Hort, I said
it's not the same text as the King James bible, I said it's a totally different source, I
said it's filled with blasphemy and errors like where it calls Joseph Jesus' father,
I said it's filled with all kinds of changes, it's taking out the word hell, turning it
into all these other things, and I told them, I said that bible is not the word of God,
I said let me just prove it to you, real quick, just a simple proof, and I took them to revelation
2214, and I said they're right there, it says in the King James bible, blessed are those
that do his commandments, blessed are they that do his commandments, and I said your
bible says blessed are they that wash their robes, I said that's exactly what the NIV says,
and this guy walked away saying wow, that's interesting, I can't believe that, he was
a little bit surprised, well he went and called a big famous preacher, I forget his name or
else I'd name the name, but he's a big time famous preacher in the Spanish speaking world,
and he's very well known, I just can't remember his name off the top of my head, and he called
this guy up and this guy cleared it up for him, so he came back to me and said hey I
figured out the answer to that revelation 2214, let me show you, I said I don't want
to see it, he said no I want to show you what I spent, I said I don't want to see it, I
said you're not going to sit here and convince me that two completely different things are
both right, I said I'm a more logical person than that, but you didn't give me a chance
to explain to you, I said I don't care, I said you're wasting my time, and he said,
he said no no no, because I'm going to show you another place in the King James where
it says blessed are those that wash their robes, so they're both true, and I said you
don't get it, I said even if it's true that you're blessed if you wash your robe, I said
it doesn't matter, that's not what God said in revelation 2214, you see it doesn't matter
if what is said is true, is that what God told John at that time in that context and
that place and the answer is no, because you see these events really happened, there really
was a man named John who really was in exile on the island of Patmos, he really did be
caught up in the spirit and see heaven and see the end of the world and see all the tribulation
and all the wrath of God poured out, and God really spoke to him and told him blessed
are they that do his commandments, and he did not say blessed are they that wash his
robes, or else at least tell me that he said blessed are they that wash his robes and that
the King James Version is wrong, but one of them has got to be right and one of them has
got to be wrong, because God only wrote one bible, he didn't write 20 different book of
revelations, pick the one you like, you know the bible of the month club, pick the one
that suits you best, he only said it one way, I mean one of them is right and one of them
is wrong, and at least pick one, I mean if you want to stand up and say the NIV is the
word of God, then stand up and say it, but don't tell me that two things that are completely
different are the same, look at Jude 22, Jude 22, you know if you want to stand up
and say that the NIV is the word of God, even though it says that Joseph is Jesus father
in Luke 2 33, then go ahead, maybe you don't believe in the virgin birth, but your bible
doesn't if you are using the NIV, but look if you would at Jude and verse 22 it says
and of some have compassion making a difference, listen to Jude 22 and the NIV, be merciful
to those who doubt, now can you even see any parallel between those two statements, be
merciful to those who doubt and of some have compassion making a difference, I cannot see
any connection between those two things, you see these are two completely different
books and if one of them is true, what does that make the other one, a lie, because if
they are both claiming to be God's word and one of them is actually what God said and
one of them is not what God said, but what a man purposely, do you think it was an accident
that they switched from blessed are they to do his commandments to blessed are they
to wash their robes, that could not be an accident, that's intentional, somebody made
the choice to change what the bible says and I'll tell you who it was, it was the devil,
because all throughout the bible he was always trying to twist and change God's word and
you can look at the changes in the NIV, they are strategic, you know how I found a lot
of the mistakes in the NIV, I just looked up all my favorite verses and they were all
changed, for real, I mean the most doctrinal, hard hitting, powerful scriptures are the
ones that were changed, all the ones that dealt with salvation seemed to be the most
tampered with, the most changed, the most corrupted, you see where they take out a verse
that tells you you have to believe before you are baptized, I can see why they took
that out, because a whole lot of religions out there want to baptize babies and so they'd
love to take out that verse, you see it's been intentionally corrupted, look if you
would at 2 Corinthians chapter 2, the verse that we were in where it said, we are not
as many which corrupt the word of God, look at 2 Corinthians chapter 2, in 2 Corinthians
chapter 2, the bible reads in verse 17, stand up and read it for me someone, quickly pop
up and read it, somebody, we are not as many which corrupt the word of God but as of sincerity
but as of God and the sight of God speak we in Christ, ok listen to this, this is the
NIV unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit, now that's totally
different, instead of corrupting it now he's saying we don't sell it, that's what peddle
means, peddle it for profit, we don't sell it for a profit and yet the NIV is sold for
a profit, that's why when you buy an NIV it's always 1 dollar more than the King James version,
go down to a Christian book store and you'll see 2 books that are exactly the same leather,
same finish, same paper, same quality, the NIV is 1 dollar more, that's the royalties
to the publisher, to the copyright because they're making a profit not on the book, they're
not making a profit on the paper and the ink, they're making a profit on the words, 1 dollar,
that's why on my cell phone I can download for free an app to my G1 acro bible King James
but if I wanted to download the NIV it's 15 dollars and you're not paying for paper or
a book you're paying for the words, that's why the King James is free in the NIV cost
because you're paying for the words, how can you sell God's word, buy the truth and sell
it not and yet they've taken out a verse that says not to corrupt it and said we don't sell
it, yes you do sell it, look at Romans 13, flip back just a few pages to Romans 13 and
we see a listing of the 10 commandments here, only 5 of them though because the latter 5
have to do with our relationship with man, the first 5 have to do with our relationship
with God and so the first 5 of the 10 commandments are summed up in this statement, thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, the
second half of the 10 commandments is all summed up in this statement, thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself, on these two hang all the law and the prophets Jesus said, so
he begins to list the latter 5 commandments in Romans 13 where he, let me turn there myself,
I'm there in the not inspired version, I need to get there in the King James here, in Romans
13 he says this, what verse am I looking for here, verse number 9, for this, thou shalt
not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear
false witness, thou shalt not covet, that's the 5 latter commandments and if there be
any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, he's saying you can all sum
it up in one statement quickly, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, list the NIV
while you're looking down in your King James Bible and see if you can see what's missing,
verse 9, I'm going to read to you exactly how the NIV, the commandments, do not commit
adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet and whatever other commandment there
may be are summed up in this one rule, now wait a minute, what's missing there, hmm wait
a minute, so isn't it interesting that the NIV purposely leaves out the commandment about
lying because it's a book of lies, it's all lies, so they take out the one about lying,
they take out the one about corrupting the word of God, they take out the one about changing
God's word, you see it's not an accident, it's intentional, they could have left out
any commandment, now if you were trying to write this down and you accidentally left
one of the commandments out, do you think you'd accidentally leave out the longest one,
I mean look at it, the longest one, thou shalt not bear false witness is the longest commandment
there, so if you were going to accidentally leave one, do you think you'd notice that
the verse is like half as long when you're done, you know after you cut it out, and I
mean we could go on all night, I don't want to spend all night on that, but I mean I could
show you differences, but you know what I've noticed, usually if you show somebody just
two or three differences, they either get it or they don't, whether you show them two
or two hundred blasphemies against God, whether you show them two or two hundred places that
call Jesus, you know that he had a beginning in Micah 5 2, that his origin was from ancient
times, now what is an origin, a beginning, and the NIV says that Jesus had an origin
in Micah 5 2, the NIV says that no one has ever gone to heaven, John 3 13, all these
different falsehoods, if you just show somebody a couple of them and they don't get it, they're
probably not going to get it if you show them three hundred, you know I mean how many do
you have to see to understand that things that are different aren't the same and that
two books that say the same thing cannot both be God's word, because God didn't write two
totally different Bibles, and people have actually told me, and this is another thing
I want to get into tonight, that Bibles in another language were specifically written
to suit the needs of that culture, and that's how they explained away the differences in
the 1960 reign of Valera Spanish Bible, because they said well in that culture they needed
this kind of terminology that was more geared to some of the things that they were going
to deal with, like a personalized Bible, the Bible will not be personalized to you, the
Bible is the same, it existed before you were even born, before God even said let there
be light, this book was done, forever oh Lord my word is settled in heaven, don't tell me
that he knew that the Spanish speakers needed a little something about washing their robe,
what are you trying to say my friend? You see there's not a different Bible for different
kinds of people, and let me tell you something, if you have a Bible, because there are many
people in here, who in here speaks another language besides English? Put up your hand.
You know there are a lot of people in here that speak languages, we've got Navajo, Spanish
obviously represented, Chinese, different languages that people speak besides English,
and you have to understand that if the Bible is in another language, it should say the
same thing as it says in English, I mean I know that's complicated, but why would it
say something completely different in another language than it says in English? Was the
Bible originally written in English? No, it was originally written down by man in Hebrew
in the Old Testament, parts of it in Aramaic, the New Testament written in Greek, and so
it was not written originally in English, it was originally spoken in Greek and Hebrew
and Aramaic and other languages, and in fact God's word has been spoken in every language
because of the fact that in Acts chapter 2, all these different people were assembled
from every nation under heaven, and the Bible says that they all spoke with other tongues
as the spirit gave them utterance, and all the men were amazed because they heard the
word of God in their own language, and so the men that were gathered together from all
these different countries heard male and female Christians that were preaching the Gospel
to them on the day of Pentecost in various languages, and the Holy Spirit was the one
doing the translating, so that tells me that God is able to speak his word in any language,
because he was the one that was leading men that were all from Galilee to speak a language
that they'd never heard, and it was the Holy Spirit giving them utterance, therefore God
can speak in any language and God's word has been spoken in every language. In Acts chapter
2 it was so, and today God's word is preached throughout the world in various languages.
Now when you translate something from one language to another, there are differences
in language. For example, in Spanish I don't say my name is Steven, I would more commonly
say I call myself Steven, okay, and many languages are like that. There are all kinds of differences
like that, and so when you translate from one language to another, you don't say things
in the exact same way, but you say the same things. You know, the nouns are going to be
the same, the verbs are going to be the same, you're going to arrange them differently,
you're going to have different prepositions, different conjugations according to the rules
of grammar in that language, but you're not going to go from robe to commandment. You
know, you've got the same thing being said in two different languages. This is why, when
you're reading the King James Bible, you'll notice things in the New Testament quoted
from the Old Testament that are worded slightly differently. Who's noticed that before? You're
reading the Bible and you say, wait a minute, this is a little bit different in the New
Testament than it is in the Old Testament, it's the same statement. Well, I'll tell you
why. It's because in the Old Testament it was written in Hebrew, and when you bring
that into English, and then you bring the Greek into English, it comes out slightly
differently, but it's the same exact statement. Like, for example, when it says, you know,
a virgin shall conceive, a virgin shall be with child, that's the same thing. That's
the same thing Pro-lifer, that's the same thing Barbara Boxer, that's the same thing
Janet Napolitano, okay? And so it says the same thing in a word that fits that language,
but it's not going to say two different things. Now, when you see Jesus saying something in
Mark versus Luke, a little different. You say, why is that? It's because he said two
different things, because he spoke to man, God's word, for three and a half years, and
if everything that Jesus ever said or did were written down, the Bible says all of the
books in the world would not contain it. I mean, stop and think about it. Do you really,
Brother Garrett was just telling me that he preached a sermon before where he just recited
the Sermon on the Mount. He just memorized Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Is that where you did
it from, Matthew 5, 6, and 7? He did Matthew 5, 6, and 7, he recited it, and how long did
it take you to recite? Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes. Do you really believe that people
traveled days of journey to go hear Jesus preach for fifteen minutes, and then they
all packed up and went home? You think they wouldn't have needed the five loaves and two
fishes if it was a fifteen minute sermon. You see, the reason why they needed it was
because they had been there so long they needed food, because he didn't preach for fifteen
minutes. God gives us that fifteen minutes of his preaching, and in Luke he gives us
a different fifteen minutes, and over here he gives us another fifteen minutes. All different
miracles, all different preaching. Jesus preached so many times. Think about it. If his ministry
was three and a half years, how many days is that? Do the math. What is it? It's well
over a thousand days, and I'm sure he's preaching at least once per day. Thousands of sermons
is what I'm talking about out of the mouth of Jesus Christ that probably lasted for hours
in many cases, and so when you read a difference between Mark and Luke, you're just reading
two different statements. He said both. The answer is he said both, but when it's an exact
quote from the Old Testament to the New, you see changes. That's a difference in language.
Just like you'll see it in some books of the Old Testament, Nebuchadnezzar. Later you'll
see Nebuchadrezzar. It's just a difference in the language that changed over the centuries.
Words change, names change, languages change, but it's possible to put God's word into any
language. You put God's word into Chinese, it's not going to come out in the exact same
word order. It's going to come out to that language. I speak several languages, and so
I know about it, and I've read the Bible in several languages. I've read the whole Bible
cover to cover in German all the way through. I've read the whole New Testament in Romanian,
in Spanish many times, in Romanian a couple times. I've read almost done with it in Norwegian,
and I've gone through it, and I've seen how it works when the Bible goes from language
to language, and I've seen that it's possible to accurately and exactly translate God's
word from one language into another. It's possible. It can be done. That's why we have
an English Bible, God's word in English. Not a cheap facsimile, not a copy of a copy, not
well it's close, it's the best we've got, we must go back to the Greek. Now, we have
God's word in English. It's just as pure in English as it is in Greek, and it could be
just as pure in Spanish or whatever language you want to put it in. If God's doing the
translating it can't be unpure, because he did it in Acts chapter 2. Now did God translate
the King James Bible? No, man translated the King James Bible, but I believe through
the direction and leadership of God leading. You say, I don't believe God leads anybody.
In all our ways acknowledge him and he'll direct thy paths. God led an unsaved king
to issue a decree to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, because the heart of the king is
in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of waters he turneth it whithersoever he will. God can
use even unsaved people to perform his will. God could lead people who translated the King
James Bible and begged God for 3 hours a day for 3 years before they even started translating
that they would translate it properly, translate it correctly. Okay, and I mean if you study
the history of the King James Bible it's amazing, but that's not even the point. The point is
that we have God's word today preserved. It can be in any language, it can be in English,
it can be in another language, but guess what? If the King James Bible is right, which I
believe from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, then if another language Bible
says something different, it's wrong. And I'm not talking about differences in language
and differences in grammar and differences in auxiliary words and pronouns, I'm talking
about a difference in what it says, that it actually says something different. Now it's
interesting because I was in Romania and when I was in Romania, I want to use this just
to illustrate the point of what I'm talking about. When I was in Romania, I had never
been to Romania, I didn't know I was going to Romania, I just ended up staying with somebody
and they said, we're going to Romania for a week. I said, oh, okay, cool, that'd be
neat because I was staying in Germany at the time. So we went to Romania, I didn't speak
any Romanian, but Romania is a lot like Spanish and I spoke Spanish. And so I started picking
it up right away, it was making a lot of sense to me right away because it's so similar to
Spanish. And I went to church and I sang the hymns and didn't understand the sermon,
but I asked the missionary, I said, I want to buy a Bible. I said, because I want to
learn how to speak Romanian and so I want to have the Bible and I can memorize some
Bible and it'll help me learn the language and read the Bible. And I said, is the Bible
in Romanian, is it like the King James Version? Is it the right Bible or is it, which Bible
is right, which version is right in Romanian? Because I knew in English there's a bunch
of versions, so I said, well, which version is right in Romanian? He said, well, there's
two versions in Romanian. He said, one of them is the Romanian Orthodox version by the
Orthodox Church in Romania. And he said, the other one is called the Cornalescu Bible.
And there was a man named Cornalescu who translated it. And he said, this is what all the Baptists
and Pentecostals use in Romania, all Baptists, Pentecostals, those types of religions. He
said, they use this one, he said, the Orthodox Church uses this Orthodox version. And I said,
well, so this is the right one then, the Cornalescu one. And he said, well, he said, it's right
about 80% of the time. Now, that's not a very high percentage at all, okay? That means every
five verses I'm reading something wrong. Now, I'm not saying that's what the percentage
is. I'm saying that's what he told me. So you can see what my reaction to that was,
80%. He said, 80% of the time it's right. He said, the other 20%, it's like the NIV.
He said, it goes with the Westcott and Hort, you know, critical Greek text. It's like one
of the modern perversions. He said, so I just preach out of the good parts of it. And when
I get to the parts that are wrong, I just correct it. And I'm thinking to myself, you
know, that doesn't sound good. If you're correct in every five verses, that's terrible. So
I said, well, what about, what about this Orthodox version? I said, is that one even
worse? And he said, no. He said, actually, he said, actually, you know, from when I read
the Orthodox version, he said, it seems to line up completely with the King James Bible.
And I'm thinking, okay, you know, well, then why are you using this other one? And by the
way, since then I've studied and I've read both the New Testament in both versions. Okay.
I've discovered that the Orthodox Bible is dead on with the King James Bible. And I mean,
I think I found a few discrepancies, but I mean, we're talking about, it was 99.99%.
I mean, it was right there with the King James and everything I was looking up was right.
And everything I looked up in this Cornelescu one was wrong. It was all, it was saying Joseph
was Jesus' father, you know, that kind of stuff over here is saying Joseph and his mother
marveled in the Romanian Orthodox version and the Cornelescu saying his father and mother.
And I'm going through it. I'm looking at it later on, but let's go back to the conversation
I was having with the missionary. I said, well, wait a minute. If you're saying this
one lines up more with the King James, then this other one that all the Baptists are using,
I said, why don't you use this one? That's the right one. Why don't you use the right
one? Why are you using this other one? And he said, well, we don't use it for a couple
of reasons. He said, number one, you have to go to the Romanian Orthodox bookstore to
buy it. That was reason number one. He said number two, number two, he said it has this
introduction at the beginning that like praises the Orthodox church. I'm like, okay. I'm hoping
that the next reason is better, you know? And then he says, and then number three, he
said it has a lot of archaic words in it. And I'm like, boy, that sounds kind of like
the King James Bible. And in reality, since I've studied, it's not archaic. It uses like
the same wording as the newer Romanian one, the Cornelescu. I mean, the word order is
a little different, but it's, I'll put it this way. It's less archaic than the King
James. And we read that just fine. And so does my three-year-old read it just fine.
But anyway, and he said, and the fourth reason why is because it has the apocryphal books.
He said, they're not mixed in. He said, they're not mixed in with it though. They're in a
separate section in between the Testaments, in between Old and New Testament labeled apocrypha
in the middle. They're not interspersed like in a Catholic Bible. They're just in the center
in a special section between the Testaments. And he said, it's just too confusing to people
to tell them, you know, don't read that introduction and don't read the apocrypha, you know, so,
so basically he said, we just use this one. Cause this, he said, plus, you know, this
is what all the Baptists use, you know, is this Cornelescu one, which is like a totally
modern, you know, NIV type corruption worse than the New King James. I'll put it that
way. I don't even think that the New King James doesn't even call Joseph Jesus' father.
I mean, it has, it has a lot of other wicked things in it, but this one was even more so.
And I'm listening to him and I'm thinking, you know, this isn't right. This doesn't make
sense at all. So then that's, like I said, I went back, I studied it, I learned, I started
to study Romanian. I started attending a Romanian Baptist church in Sacramento for several months.
I would go in the evening. The services were four hours long. How's that? You know, I'm
preaching four hours a night by the way. But anyway, no, I'm just kidding. But anyway,
four hour services and I used to go, I think it was on Thursday night, I would go and sit
there for four hours and listen and I was learning and meeting people so that I could
learn how to speak Romanian. And as I studied and looked at it and studied and I figured
it out, I realized that they were using the totally wrong Bible. And these are independent
fundamental Baptist missionaries that are King James only that are totally using the
wrong Bible just because everybody else is. And I just, in fact, I just got an email from
a guy today, okay, about this very issue because he had contacted me because he was a missionary
in Romania. And I wrote to him and said, I don't understand why people are using this
other, instead of using the Orthodox version. Because you see, when the Orthodox versions,
the reason that they line up with the King James is because they're from the East and
they spoke Greek so they have the received Greek texts that they've used all along. So
the Eastern Orthodoxy has used Bibles throughout history that were basically lining up with
the King James. Whereas the Catholic in the West was using the Vulgate and the Catholic
manuscripts were the NIV and so forth come back. And this man wrote to me and he said
this, because I said, why don't they use the Orthodox? I said, if somebody is so worried
about all these, and I, you know, I didn't like the big introduction in the front or
the apocryphal books in the middle or having to buy it from a guy with a beard that's a
foot long. Because when I bought my, not that I'm against anybody having a beard that's
a foot long, that's okay, you know. But I walked into the Romanian Orthodox bookstore
and you know, the guy had a beard down to here and he was wearing these long black flowing
robes. You know what an Orthodox guy looks like. And, what was my point? And basically
I said, you know, if they're so worried about that, why don't they just get a printing press,
you know, and just print, print paperbacks of it or something that are basically just
the text, just the Bible. You know, just Genesis to Revelation, just the 66th book. Or print
it, make New Testaments and make Bibles and just print them out, you know. Why not? And
he said to me this, he wrote back to me and he said, well, he's like, you know, he said,
yeah, you know, there are places that are better in the Orthodox version. But he said,
here's the problem. He said, the problem is that it's just kind of become the tradition
that this is what all the Baptists and all the Pentecostals and anybody who's a non-Orthodox,
people who come out of the Orthodox, they don't use the Orthodox Bible. And he said,
I'm afraid that if I tell somebody who used to be Orthodox, hey, your Bible was actually
right. He's like, that could do so much damage to their faith. And I'm just thinking, I'm
sorry, but that's ridiculous. He said, he said, it's going to, basically it's going
to confuse them or something for him to say, what I'm actually preaching out of for the
last eight years, actually your Orthodox Bible was right and this stupid one that I've been
preaching out of is actually totally wrong. That's going to shake their faith. Okay, we'll
just keep preaching the wrong one then because you'd hate to confuse them. You know, maybe
there wouldn't be any confusion if people would just stand up and just say what they
believe and say right's right and wrong's wrong. There's nothing confusing about saying
that the Bible that they used in Romania for centuries, for hundreds of years, yes, the
Orthodox religion teaches work salvation, but they did have the right Bible. And so
that's what we're going to preach. We're not going to preach from some idiot Cornelescu's
burning in hell for twisting God's word because Cornelescu's in hell if he took out verses
and Cornelescu's in hell if he said that Joseph is Jesus' father, because that's what people
in hell believe, not what people in heaven. And so I'm not going to use a Bible that was
translated by somebody who went to hell for twisting the Bible. That's why his part was
blotted out. Oh, but the Orthodox version, you know, it's oh, you know, you can't use
it because you're going to confuse people because you're going to tell them you're a
Baptist, but you use an Orthodox Bible. So what? This Bible was made by the Church of
England. I'm not Church of England. I'm a Baptist, but it's still God's word. So what?
You say, oh, but you know, you can't use a Bible that says Orthodox on the cover. You
know what? I don't care what you put on the cover of this book. It's God's word. You could
draw a stick figure on the front of it and, you know, and call it the, you know, whatever
you could do. You could call it whatever you want. You could call it the King James version,
or you could call it the Stephen Anderson version, or you could call it, you know, whatever
you want to call it. The words between the cover are God's word. But you see, people
are confused. People are mixed up. They care more about what man thinks than what God thinks.
That's the bottom line. They care that some phony Baptist who believes you could lose
your salvation like almost every Baptist church in Romania preaches and teaches. Because I've
been to Romania and basically that's why I quit going to that Romanian Baptist church
in Sacramento. The pastor was saved, but about three quarters of the people in his church
thought you could lose your salvation in that Romanian Baptist church in Sacramento.
And as I talk to people, I start realizing these people aren't saved. Some of them were
saved, but the majority of them were not saved and said you can lose your salvation. And
they said I was saved and then I lost it and then I got saved again. And this is what these
Romanians are preaching over there, these bunch of Baptists who are using a false Bible
preaching that you can lose your salvation, preaching repent of your sins, salvation.
And then an American missionary goes over there and wants to fit in with them. And in
order to fit in, uses their phony Bible. If you want to fit in in America, you use the
NIV. And if you want to fit in in Mexico, you'll use the 1960 version. And if you want
to fit in in Phoenix, you'll use the NIV or the Living Bible or Good News for Modern Man.
But you know what? I don't want to fit in. I want to do right. And if I'm in America,
I'm going to preach out of the King James Bible. If I'm in Mexico, I'm preaching out
of the old reign of Valera Antigua. I'm not preaching out of some modern book from the
sixties that takes out hell and takes out all these things. And if I'm in Romania, you
know, I'm going to use that Romanian Orthodox Bible because I'm not using a Bible that's
not from the received Greek text. I'm not using a critical text Bible. I'm using a King
James Bible or a received text Bible. And you know what? We just need to stop and say
wait a minute. Are we trying to please man or God? Are we trying to have unity with people
that aren't even saved with Baptists that are preaching out of the Gospel? What we ought
to have unity is when we're all right. That's when we'll have unity. And by the way, I believe
that Faith Forward Baptist Church is one of the most unified churches in America. I mean,
I don't think I've ever been in a church with so much unity as you're sitting in right now.
And it's not because people are brainwashed. Because in our church, we're taught to search
the scriptures for ourselves, read it for ourselves. People express disagreements to
me all the time. We don't have some kind of thing where Pastor Anderson's way is the
highway. That's not the way our church works. But you know why we have unity is because
we all believe the Bible. Because we all have the same Holy Spirit and the same word. You're
never going to have unity using a false Bible or multiple Bibles. You're never going to
have unity. Get the first two letters. You know. Who know? Unity means one God. That's
how we're going to have unity. One Spirit. That's how we're going to have unity. When
you and I have the same Spirit, we'll have unity. When you and I have the same Bible,
we'll have unity. I can't be unified with somebody even if they're in another country
if they're using a phony Bible in their country. Well, it's different. You don't know the culture.
I don't even have to say anything to that. The bottom line is unity comes from one God,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one word, one Bible, one Spirit, one rule. Let's bow
our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God.
I thank you that I live in America where I've heard the King James Bible preached from a
child I've known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make me wise unto salvation through
faith which is in Jesus Christ. Thank you, God, for letting me be born in America and
have the King James Bible preached. And God, thank you for preaching your word in so many
different other languages. Thank you that people in Mexico are hearing your word preached
tonight in their own tongue wherein they were born. Thank you that there are people
all over the world that are hearing your word in their tongue. But Father, I pray that you
would help everyone to realize that you only said one thing, God. When you said, For God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life, you meant that for all nations, kindreds, tongues,
races, people in this world. And Father, I pray that you would just help every single
person to realize the need for one truth, one unified stand for your word, dear God.
Help us not to be confused and mixed up and have all these multiplicity of beliefs and
things, dear God. Help us to stay unified around the simplicity which is in Christ and
your word. And we love you and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, let's go ahead and sing song 363, Wonderful Words of Life. Wonderful Words of
Life, 363, great song. Let's sing it out in the first verse. 363, we pray. Amen.