Man, the title of my sermon this morning is going back to the Greek fraud, going back
to the Greek fraud.
This morning I'm going to tell you about one of the biggest scams, one of the greatest
frauds in the history of Christianity.
That is this idea that if we go back to the Greek, we're going to find all these hidden
meanings and secret teachings or nuances that we can't translate into English.
We can't really get them in any language because Greek is just so much deeper, as if
it's some kind of a special, mystical, magical language.
So one of our church members, Brother Peter here and myself, and a Reformed Baptist pastor
from Gilbert, the three of us actually just got back last night from Cyprus, which is
a Greek-speaking island, and we went there to prove a simple point that Greek is just
like any other normal human language that people speak on this planet.
Not only that, but we wanted to demonstrate that modern-day Greek speakers can read the
Greek New Testament without an issue, without a problem.
Now why is this a big deal?
Well because of the fact that we've been told all our lives by thousands and thousands of
Bible colleges and seminaries all across America that modern Greek is a completely different
language from biblical Greek and that they can't understand each other and so forth.
But we went over there and we talked to teenagers, we even talked to foreigners who had learned
Greek as a second language.
But they were fluent in it because they lived there.
And I mean we talked to a guy who ran a tattoo parlor and he had no problem, even though
he'd never looked at it before in his life, he had no problem reading the Greek New Testament
with us.
Pulled out the original Greek, 2,000 years old, showed it to him, and he read it and
he understood it without an issue.
In fact, we were able to win 25 people to the Lord while we were there, and out of these
25 people to the Lord that we won, 23 of them we did with just a Greek New Testament.
That was the only Bible we used.
The original Greek underlying the King James, the Textus Receptus, that's what we used as
the Bible to give them the Word of God, to give them the salvation verses, and explain
to them the Gospel.
And then two of them we got saved with the King James because they were people that were
foreigners who did not speak Greek.
Now before this trip, my theory was that, and you know I'd studied both modern Greek
and biblical Greek, before this trip my theory was that the difference between modern Greek
and the Bible's Greek is about like the difference between the way we talk today and the King
James Bible.
Now think about this, the King James Bible is not the way that we talk today, is it?
But yet, fluent English speakers understand it without an issue, don't they?
So for example, let's take the word serpent.
Everybody knows what a serpent is, right?
But yet we would never be out hiking or something and say, behold, a serpent is in the path.
You know, 100% of people would call that animal what?
What would they call that?
They'd call that animal a snake.
They would never even think to use the word serpent, but yet they know what it is.
I remember when I was a kid, I used to play this video game on the original Nintendo,
it's called Dragon Warrior.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
The original 8-bit Nintendo Dragon Warrior.
And when you died, it would say, thou hast died.
And it would actually, all of the English in this video game was in King James type
English.
And of course when you're in high school, you read Shakespeare and stuff like that.
And so we're able to understand it, obviously it's not how we talk, but is the King James
written in a completely foreign language?
Absolutely not.
So whenever any crime is committed, whenever any fraud is perpetrated, whenever any sin
is sinned, there's always a motive, right?
I mean if you were to go into the criminal justice system, that's a big deal.
They say, hey, we need a motive or we can't convict this guy, right?
Because everything that people do is for a motive.
So if this giant scam, this giant fraud exists, this great big lie that's being told every
day in thousands of Bible colleges and seminaries that New Testament Greek and Modern Greek
are two totally different languages, they can't understand each other, they're not mutually
intelligible, then we have to ask ourself the big question, why?
Why?
What's the motive for this fraud, this scam, this lie that's being told?
It's clearly a lie.
And you know what?
You'll never convince me it's not a lie because I just got back last night from being there.
And walking up and down the street and literally opening my New Testament to approximately
a hundred people.
You know, between all of us, we probably opened that New Testament to a hundred people and
they did not even bat an eye.
They didn't even raise an eyebrow.
I said, hey, are you having any trouble understanding this?
No.
So what does this mean?
And then they would tell you exactly what it meant.
It's a lie, folks.
It's a fraud.
Thousands of Bible colleges and seminaries are complicit in this.
Why?
Reason number one, I'm going to give you three reasons for this great fraud.
Reason number one is to hide the fact that they don't actually know Greek.
Because now no one can call them on the carpet.
I mean, if I started proclaiming myself an expert in Spanish and started saying, well,
if you go back to the Spanish, here's what the Bible really means and made up all this
goofy stuff that's not true, then wouldn't Spanish speakers all over the world be calling
me out?
Four hundred million Spanish speakers would call me out.
Well, there are 13 million people over in Greece and other Greek-speaking countries
that would be calling them out, but they say, oh, no, that's a totally different language.
So now no one can point out the fact that they actually don't know the language at all
and they're making things up.
Now, let me prove this to you, but first, look at Hebrews chapter 5 where you are there.
Hebrews chapter number 5, verse 11.
It says, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull
of hearing.
For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which
be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk
and not of strong meat.
For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a
babe, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason
of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
So we see here that for when the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one
teach you again.
So there are people in this world who get up and teach something and they don't even
know it themselves, right?
How do we actually get to know things?
Well, the Bible here says that the way that we actually can learn the strong meat of the
word is by using the word.
So who's on the milk?
It's the guy who's not using the word of God.
And then those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil,
they're the ones who can get on the strong meat of the word.
So you've got to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only.
Go to James chapter one, just a few pages to the right in your Bible.
James chapter one, the Bible says there's the milk and there's the meat and the ones
that are on the meat are the ones who are using the word of God.
Now it's like this with any subject, right?
Let's say electric.
Do we have any electricians out there today?
Put up your hand if you're an electrician.
Right.
Now you can learn a lot about electrical in the classroom, right?
But isn't there another aspect of getting out there and doing some electrical work?
I mean what if you went into a classroom and learned all about how to play basketball
and you have a guy in front of a chalkboard and he's explaining to you how to shoot the
ball, how to dribble, what the rules are, how to make a bounce pass, but then there's
actually getting out and playing basketball, isn't there?
Are those the same thing?
No.
I mean you could read all about martial arts and self-defense, but until you get out there
and start throwing some punches and taking some punches, you're not a fighter, are you?
I mean you have to actually use what you've learned.
Well it's the same thing with the word of God.
You can sit and read and study and read and study and read and study, but in order to
grasp the wisdom of God, you have to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only, okay?
Now look down at your Bible there in James chapter 1 verse 22.
It says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his
natural face in a glass, for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway
forgetteth what manner of man he was.
So when it says he beholds his natural face in a glass, it's talking about like looking
at his physical face in the mirror, right?
So it's like he looks at his face in the mirror and straightway or immediately forgets what
manner of man he was.
He forgets what he looked like.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, verse 25, and continueth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in
his deed.
So there are two types of people who study the word of God.
There are those who are forgetful hearers and there are those who are doers of the work.
You know, the implication there is that if you do the work, you're going to retain what
you've learned.
I mean, what do people always say about things that they learned in high school that they've
forgotten?
They learned algebra and they forgot it.
Why did they forget algebra?
Because they don't use algebra.
So yeah, they learned some algebra in school but are they proficient in algebra today?
No.
Are they proficient in calculus today?
No.
Not unless they use it.
The things that we use are the things that we know how to do, we're advanced, we're skillful
in the things that we do.
The things that we don't do, we don't know.
Well, it's the same thing with a foreign language.
You've heard the saying, if you don't use it, you'll lose it, right?
So you know, there have been languages that I studied and I used to use and speak that
I've almost completely forgotten.
You know, 20 years ago I learned how to speak Romanian and I used to be able to sit and
have conversations, long conversations with Romanians and be able to speak Romanian.
I read the New Testament twice in Romanian but today I know very little.
We had a layover on our way to Cyprus where we stopped in Romania and I was able to order
some food and order a drink and you know, joke around a little bit in Romanian but you
know, when the announcements were going and everything, a lot of it was just going right
over my head because I haven't been using it in like 20 years so I pretty much completely
have forgotten that language.
Well, here's the thing.
You learn a language by speaking a language.
You don't learn a foreign language by sitting in a classroom and learning a bunch of grammar
rules and sentences are being diagrammed and you know, you have to actually speak, you
have to open your mouth and use that language which is why by the way, modern language software
and modern day language classes focus on this so if you were to download say, a Rosetta
Stone or something like that, you have to actually talk into the microphone and go back
and forth or with Pimsleur, you talk back and forth with the recording because they
know that you have to actually talk and use the language in order to learn it.
That's the way our brains were wired.
How did you learn how to speak English?
Did you learn how to speak English?
Your mom just sat you down one day and said, all right, let me explain to you what a verb
is.
Let me explain to you what a noun is.
Let me explain to you a preposition or did you just start talking and first you did it
wrong and you stumbled through it and then you got good at it and now you speak it without
an issue and if you open a book and read it, do you sit there and analyze every word and
break it down and diagram every sentence or do you just read?
You just open the book and read, right?
Well guess what?
It's the same way because it's just a language that people speak and hear and read.
Now what would you tell me if I told you, let's just use Spanish for an example.
What if I said, well, I know Spanish.
In fact, I teach Spanish for a living but I can't speak Spanish.
If I listen to something in Spanish, I can't understand it verbally.
I can read Spanish but I can only read two books in Spanish and when I read those two
books in Spanish, I have to use a dictionary and a lexicon and I have to look things up.
Does it sound like I'm qualified to teach Spanish if that's me?
It's absurd.
You'd say that's ridiculous.
That's insane.
If you're going to be a Spanish teacher, you should be able to pick up any number of Spanish
books and read them and you should be able to speak Spanish and understand Spanish.
So there are three aspects to this, speaking, listening, and reading and you should be able
to do all three if you're going to claim to be a Spanish speaker or claim to be a Spanish
teacher or a Spanish expert.
I know this is common sense, folks, but when we travel over into the land of Bible college
and Bible seminary, you can not know how to speak Greek, not know how to read anything
in Greek except the Bible and even then, you have to look things up and not be able to
listen audibly to the Greek language and understand it but supposedly, you're a Greek expert.
You're a Greek teacher.
You're qualified now to write books on the Greek and most importantly, you're able to
now correct the King James and tell us how the King James is wrong and here's what the
Bible really says.
Folks, the King James Bible was translated by 54 top scholars over the course of six
years who were all fluent, fluent, fluent in Greek.
They could pick up anything from the Iliad and the Odyssey to Sophocles to Plato and
they could read it without an issue and they could walk up to a Greek person living in
their day and talk to that Greek person.
That's the kind of man who translated the King James Bible.
The people who today are telling us that the King James is wrong and we need to go back
to the Greek, we're losing so much in the translation, they don't even know the language,
folks.
Why?
Because they don't use it.
They never speak Greek.
What they do is parse verbs, diagram sentences, chop it up, use a microscope to analyze it
but they don't actually use the language to preach or go soul winning or even for their
daily devotions.
They don't wake up in the morning and read the Bible in Greek because they don't know
the language, okay?
Let me prove this to you, okay, since some people might be skeptical and I don't blame
you because it's so bizarre.
I don't blame you if you find all this hard to believe.
Here is a blog post written by Daniel R. Street, Ph.D.
So if you won't listen to me, listen to him, all right?
So Daniel R. Street, Ph.D., he's an associate professor at Houston Baptist University, wrote
this article, Greek professors, do they know Greek?
In November 2008, here's his blog post, in November 2008, I presented a paper at the
annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society on teaching Greek communicatively.
As an experiment, I began my presentation by passing out a quiz for attendees to take.
I'm guessing it was the first time that that had ever happened.
Attendance was pretty good, about 30 audience members.
Here's the quiz, see how you can do.
So he gives this quiz to the people at this Theological Society meeting.
All they have to do is write the Greek for this English.
I'm going to give you the 10 questions on the quiz.
Number one, yes.
Number two, chair or seat.
Number three, ball.
Number four, cat.
Number five, monkey.
Number nine, the number nine.
Or number six, sorry, did somebody correct me?
Six is nine.
Okay, number seven, red.
Cold is number eight.
Nose is number nine.
And to jump is number 10.
And then for the bonus points, hello, how are you, goodbye.
Does this sound like a pretty hard quiz?
Again, this is yes, chair, ball, cat, monkey, nine, red, cold, nose, jump, hello, how are
you, bye.
Who thinks they could do pretty well on that in Spanish?
Okay, now, okay, you got your, oh, so you're ready to, you're an expert grandmaster wizard
in Spanish, right?
No, because this is something that you would all learn in Spanish one.
Am I right?
Okay, let's see how these guys did.
I'm going to continue with the blog post.
My audience was made up of mostly Greek professors and doctoral level students who had probably
taken on average four to seven years of Greek by now and some of whom had been teaching
Greek for 20 to 30 years by now.
After the audience had finished, I collected their quizzes.
The average grade was 0.4 out of 10.
Most testes could not answer any of the questions correctly, although they tried.
The highest grade was 2 out of 10.
Now this audience included many scholars who had written best selling Greek textbooks and
grammars and of course, I won't name their names.
I would have, but that's what he said.
Folks, did you hear that?
By the way, I took the same test and I'm not bragging here because it's such an easy, ridiculously
easy test.
I took the same test.
I got 9 out of 10 right and I got the bonus.
I just didn't know the word for jump, but I learned it since then.
So listen to this.
Greek professors admit they don't know Greek.
Let me relate to you.
This is the same blog post.
The nearly universal response that I received from Greek professors when I advocate for
communicative method.
Many are very receptive to, even enthusiastic about the possibilities in such a method,
but without exception I hear from them, I simply don't know Greek well enough to teach
it this way.
I could never carry on a whole class in Greek and so on.
Give these professors a little credit.
At least they're being honest and open about the problem.
Not really because should they be teaching Greek for a living if they don't know the
language?
At least they're being honest and open about the problem.
We Greek professors can parse till the cows come home.
We're experts at filling out paradigm charts.
We love to explain the historical role of the digama in irregular verbs.
We can nerd out and on and on about proclitics and enclitics, but what we lack is simple
proficiency in Greek.
This is written by a Greek professor, a PhD at a Baptist university, gave a seminar to
30 guys who are supposedly getting doctorates in Greek and they could not even answer more
than two questions right.
The average score was 0.4 on this quiz.
So folks, this is what we're dealing with.
These guys don't know Greek, but they're ready to tell you how wrong your King James Bible
is.
Folks, they're a bunch of liars and frauds is what they are.
It's a joke.
It's ridiculous.
How do they get away with this?
Because here's what they do.
They use this goofball pronunciation.
In order to convince people that it's a totally different language, they use this made up
goofball Erasmian pronunciation where they guess, here's what we think it sounded like
in 500 BC and they have this totally different pronunciation.
So then that's why they explain why they can't communicate with a Greek speaker.
Well, that's funny because what does the pronunciation have to do with you not being able to fill
out a 10 question quiz?
There's no pronunciation required for that, but this is what they hide behind when you
walk up to them and start speaking Greek to them.
Oh, that's a different pronunciation.
Well, I got a news for you.
The Bible is written in the first century AD.
So why would you use a pronunciation from 500 BC?
And even if the Bible were, even if the New Testament were written in 500 BC, why would
you use some ancient made up pronunciation when there's no tape recording of what it
sounded like back then?
How do you know what it sounded like back then?
No one knows what it sounded like.
But you know what we do know?
How 13.4 million people speak Greek right now.
And if you use that pronunciation, you'd be able to communicate with Greek people.
If you actually were fluent in the Bible's language, you could communicate with Greek
people, no problem, but they're not.
So that's why they lie and hide behind it being a different language.
That's the first reason that they lie about it.
Number two reason that they lie about it is because they want you to think that Greek
is a special language so that they can pull out all these hidden esoteric meanings that
you can't get from reading it in English.
And let me just make this crystal clear from the get-go.
You do not need to learn Greek to understand the Bible.
There's no need for you to learn Greek to understand the Bible.
You can be born and live and die and live a wonderful Christian life and understand
all the doctrine and win souls to Christ and earn rewards in heaven without learning a
single word in Greek because you have an accurate translation into English in the King James
Bible.
And you know what it says when you read it in Greek?
The same thing it says in English.
There's no difference when you go and read it in Greek.
The English Bible has everything that you need to serve God and preach and read your
Bible and be edified.
There's no difference, folks.
It's not like Greek is some magical special language.
You know why God gave us the New Testament in Greek?
It's because that was the biggest language in the world at that time.
That was the main lingua franca of Europe.
What's the biggest language right now?
English.
Two billion speakers, okay, if you count people who are learning it as a second language.
Nowadays when you go to Europe, all the young people speak English.
It's amazing how English is just spreading like wildfire.
God knew that English was going to be the most significant, most important language.
So through his providence, he worked it out where we could get a perfect Bible in English,
where he got all these experts that came together and put six years of effort into it.
And by the way, they already had a great Bible in English before that.
In fact, it was literally called the Great Bible.
That was the name of it.
They already had the Great Bible.
They already had the Bishop's Bible.
And you know what?
Those Bibles were great.
And then they spent six years just dialing it in and getting it perfect.
Folks, what a treasure that we have.
Thank God that we are English speakers and that we have the King James Version because
there are some people in other strange languages and parts of the world where they don't have
the Word of God in their language.
The whole book, they might have only the New Testament or they might have a poor quality
translation done by one person or three people.
We have one done by 54 bonafide experts.
Isn't that a blessing?
Did you read it?
Did you read it this week or are you just, it's just enshrined on a shelf somewhere?
Because let me tell you something, you've got to use it.
Use it or lose it.
Amen.
Read it, study it, love it, share the Gospel from it.
That's how you'll learn the Bible, by using the Word of God.
Be a doer of the work.
By the way, in that same script, are you still there in James 1?
It says, if any man among you seem to be religious, verse 26, and bridleth not his tongue but
deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to lock yourself up in
the library and study the Word of God and parse verbs and diagram sentences and go back
to the Greek.
No, it's to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted
from the world.
Do you see how to God, religion should be a practical thing where we actually get out
and do work, not just hearing, hearing, learning, learning, but actually going out and doing
stuff with the Word of God, right?
Something that actually has practical significance for our lives.
Folks, it was so great on this trip to be able to go out and take a Greek New Testament
and win someone to Christ with it.
And you know what?
That Greek New Testament is being studied in thousands of Bible colleges, thousands
of seminaries, and students are spending hundreds and hundreds of hours in these Greek classes.
Professors are spending hundreds and hundreds of hours.
You know, when was the last time one of them actually went to Greece or went to Crete or
went to Cyprus and actually won somebody to Christ?
Did they ever use it?
Do they even care that there are 13.4 million people, most of whom are on their way to hell
because they're part of the Orthodox Church, which is a false religion?
You know, we won 23 Greeks to the Lord on this trip and every single one of them was
Orthodox and every single one of them did not know they were going to heaven.
Many of them said, well, I'm going to hell.
Folks, the Greek Orthodox Church teaches a works-based salvation.
It's total works-based.
You say, well, I don't know that much about the Orthodox religion.
Do you know about Roman Catholicism?
Well guess what?
It's not that different.
It's not that different because they both are just steeped in tradition.
They both got the priests, you know, wearing the long dresses and telling you that, you
know, you have to go to church and do all the works and you confess to them and do all
these things in order to be saved.
It's not salvation by faith alone.
It's not even close to that.
So who's going to get all these people saved?
You say, well, I don't think Europe's receptive.
Really?
Then how come we just got like 25 people saved in the last week and a half?
Now it's true that many of the older crowd were not receptive.
In fact, every single person that we won to Christ was between the ages of 15 and 25.
That was the demographic.
And you know what that tells me is that there's a new generation that God is raising up today
in Greece where God is raising up a new generation where they're sick of the Orthodox Church.
They're seeing through it.
They're hungry for the Gospel.
They're hungry for the Word of God.
They were genuinely interested when we went to that demographic of 15 to 25.
They wanted to hear it.
They had questions.
We had the answers.
We were able to flip open a Greek New Testament and use it today instead of just, oh, well,
you know, we're studying it in the seminary and, you know, the King James didn't really
render this very accurately.
How do you know?
You don't even know how to say cat and dog.
You don't even know how to say, hi, how are you?
You literally couldn't even order a glass of water at one of these restaurants.
And in fact, the other pastor that was on the trip with us, you know, he posted something
to some of his friends and some of his community saying, look, you know, modern Greek professors
today in Bible colleges and seminaries couldn't even order a glass of water.
And they said, well, why would we ever want to order a glass of water?
Well, you know what?
If you actually understood the Bible, you'd remember the part where Jesus ordered a glass
of water when he walked up to the woman at the well and said, give me the drink.
Or what about the scripture where he said that if you give a cup of cold water onto
one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, you won't lose your reward.
Hey, sounds like if you actually knew the Greek New Testament, you know how to say those
things.
Am I right?
Is that not mentioned in the Bible?
Isn't there food and drink and different things?
Well, I'm not interested in speaking to Greek people.
You know, I'm just interested in just reading the Bible in Greek.
No, you're not.
You're interested in being a charlatan and a fraud and sounding smart and impressing
people.
And number one, basically, you don't want people to find out that you don't actually
know Greek because you're trying to look so smart.
And then number two reason why you're lying about it is because you want people to think
it's some special, mystical, magical language like Klingon or something that only you know.
And you know what, these Bible colleges and seminaries, they might as well be like a Star
Trek convention where they just all geek out and speak Klingon, some fake language that
nobody speaks.
There's no country in the world that speaks it.
And they're just like, you know, talking about going back to the Greek and everything is
stupid.
Guess what?
There's thirteen point four million Klingons that need the gospel, amen.
I'm joking, of course.
Greeks not Klingon, Greeks a real language with real people.
So they want you to think it's all special.
Let me give you an example of this, okay?
So go to John 19, John chapter 19.
I'll give you an example in John chapter 19.
Well, we don't need to order a glass of water.
We don't need to talk to Greek people.
Well, you know what, shame on you because if you're going to invest thousands of hours
studying a foreign language, wouldn't you want to get those people saved, especially
when you find out how receptive they are to the gospel and how the 15 to 25 demographic
is just ready to hear the gospel?
Well, I'm not interested in that.
Okay, well then you just stay here, Dr. Fatbottom, in your high steeple few people church and
stay in your Bible college and your seminary and parse and diagram and study.
And you know what?
You wonder how many rewards at the judgment seat of Christ are going to be given.
And of the guy who studied Greek the most is, do you think you're going to get a reward
for learning Greek?
You think you're going to get a reward even in English just for knowing the most Bible?
You think it's like a sword drill up there, a spelling bee, and you're going to get all
these rewards because you learn stuff?
Folks, you get rewards according to your work.
He said, behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as
his work shall be.
Okay?
At your job, you that are electricians, I relate to that because I was an electrician
formally.
You don't get a paycheck or a pay raise based on your knowledge of Ohm's Law, do you?
Oh, whoa, you know the theory so well.
Here's your pay raise.
No, you get a raise because you wired up the building and when they flipped the switch,
nothing blew up.
Nothing exploded.
You know what?
We've all flipped that switch and had a little explosion happen, right?
Who's flipped the switch and there's a little pop and something blew up?
Okay, hey, you get a raise for getting the job done, for making it look good, your conduit
looks straight, your bands are an art form when you bend that conduit, and when you turn
it on, it doesn't explode.
That's what they want.
Well, that's what God wants too.
You know, he wants you to go out and actually do something for the Lord.
He wants you to love him and love your neighbor, not just loving yourself, okay, and puffing
yourself up with knowledge.
So here's an example, and look, I could go on all morning with examples of this.
I'm just going to give you one example.
I've heard this one many times and I know other people have probably heard this, but
in John chapter 19 verse 30, it says, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar,
he said, it is finished, and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.
Now that phrase, it is finished, I've heard preachers get up and spend like 15 to 20 minutes
on that phrase, telling you if you go back to the Greek, I mean, it just packs so much
more meaning.
Now here's the thing, this word in Greek just means it's finished, it's done.
It's just the most basic way of saying it is done, it's finished.
Now if I wanted to understand what this meant in the Bible, because some people have asked
me this question, what did Jesus mean when he said it is finished?
And there is debate about what he meant by that.
Well, what I would do is I would just look up the other three times that the word finish
is used in the book of John, right?
There are three other times in the book of John where the Bible talks about something
being finished.
Like, for example, John 4.34 says, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and
to finish his work.
And then in John 5.36, Jesus said, but I have greater witness than that of John for the
works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me
that the Father hath sent me.
John 17.4, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest
me to do.
So what do you see about all three of these instances?
They all have to do with Jesus saying, you know what, I finished the work.
My meat is to finish his work.
I'm going to finish God's work.
I finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
He gets up on the cross and right before he dies, he says, it's finished.
Hmm, I wonder what was finished.
Three times he predicted this, he's finishing the work.
Amen?
So I've heard these sermons where they say, well, if you go back to the Greek, the word
is teteleste.
Now I'm actually pronouncing it right.
I've heard all kinds of pronunciations, just all of them.
I've heard everything from tetelestai to just all kinds of crazy stuff.
But the, you know, the actual pronunciation, teteleste, okay?
I've heard these guys go on for 15 to 20 minutes and say, you know, we, you know, when we hear
that in English, we just think it's finished.
But boy, this word, teteleste, you know, let me give you some examples of this word's use.
You know, for example, someone's creating a masterpiece painting.
They put the final brush stroke.
They would stand back and say, teteleste.
You know, there's a huge debt that's being paid for 60 months.
You're sending in that payment month after month after month.
And finally, when the debt is paid and the car is totally paid up, that receipt is stamped,
tetelestai, paid in full.
And I mean, they just went on and on with all these wild examples of just all the different
way, you know, a servant goes and he works his six years.
And when the six years of labor are over, his boss just looks at him and says, teteleste,
you know.
And they just make this huge deal.
So basically, like when a Greek person hears this word, it's finished.
When they hear teteleste, it's just like all of a sudden their brain's just like downloading
all these images.
It's like, like a painting's being finished.
A realtor sells a house.
They sign a contract.
Someone's getting married.
Somebody's being born.
Folks, it just means that it's finished.
But they want you to think, oh, man, there's just so much more meaning packed into that
Greek word.
There's no evidence for any of this, of course.
Basically, they just make a list of things that could be finished.
You know, someone gets a haircut and the last hair is sniffed, teteleste.
Someone eats a cheeseburger and they put the last bite in their mouth, teteleste.
You know, it's just like, they're basically just making a list of things that you could
theoretically finish and say, oh, it's all packed into that word.
Well, by that standard, that's all packed in the English word then.
Anything that you could ever finish in your whole life.
You know, you graduate from college and walk across with your cap and gown, teteleste.
Folks, it just means that it's finished.
You know, whatever word, horse, cow, run, walk, eat, drink, it means, folks, it's just
a language.
But they want you to think it's some weird mystical kind of esoteric meaning there.
Go to 1 Corinthians 14.
It's totally unnecessary to go back to the Greek when you have an excellent English translation
in the King James Bible.
It's finished, teteleste, right?
It's done.
Oh, we got to translate the Bible into English.
It already happened in 1611.
It's done.
It's finished.
Read.
Now we need to be rereading instead of rewriting the Bible.
Let's reread the Bible, amen?
It's totally unnecessary to go back to the Greek.
They're going back to the Greek in order to make themselves look smart.
That's the true story, okay?
Look at 1 Corinthians 14, 3.
But he that prophesieth, prophesieth is another word for preaching, prophesying, preaching.
But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, edification means to build
you up, exhortation and comfort.
He's either trying to edify you, exhort you, comfort you.
He's trying to build you up, teach you something, rebuke something, right?
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifyeth himself.
But he that prophesieth edifyeth the church.
So what's my job when I get up here behind the pulpit?
Am I trying to edify you or am I trying to edify myself?
I should be trying to edify you and saying, here, let me take things in the Bible and
make them understandable for you, let me explain them to you, let me make them relevant to
today and expound God's word to you, not just so it's a theory so that you can actually
use it.
You know, if I preach a marriage sermon, it's so that you can have a good marriage.
If I preach a child-rearing sermon, it's so that you can rear your children.
If I preach a soul-winning sermon, it's so you can get out and go soul-winning.
If I preach a sermon to get sin, it's so that you can do the practical action of getting
the sin out of your life.
This isn't just some academic exercise up here of, look how smart I am.
If you go back to the Greek, here's what it said, oh, wow, it's garbage, folks.
I would that you all speak with tongues, speaking with tongues, speaking in a foreign language.
Tongues, languages, those words are synonymous, but rather that you prophesy, for greater
is he that prophesyeth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret that the
church may receive edifying.
He said, look, a guy could know a whole bunch of foreign languages, but I'd rather have
the guy just preach to me in my own language so I could actually learn something.
I'd rather have an English speaker get up and preach to me in English because I speak
English than to have somebody speak 10,000 words in an unknown tone.
Oh, he knows Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic.
Well, so what if he's not preaching anything worth listening to?
Then who cares?
He said, I would that you all speak, hey, look, if I could push a button and everybody
in this room would just instantly be fluent in New Testament Greek, I would push that
button.
You know, I would that you all speak, but you know what?
It's not going to happen, folks.
Most people aren't cut out for learning a foreign language.
Most people don't have the time and energy to learn a foreign language.
And if they did have the time and energy to learn a foreign language, they'd probably
choose Spanish because it's going to be more useful to them in Phoenix, Arizona.
What do you think is going to win more souls to Christ, learning Greek or Spanish, realistically?
Where you live.
But if I thought that we had to know Greek to understand the Bible, I'd be saying, hey,
we all need to learn Greek, folks, right?
Because we've got to know this, you know, we've got to figure out what the Bible really
says.
Folks, it's all right there in English.
Learn Spanish so you can get people to say it.
And I'm not against you learning Greek.
And look, if there's anybody in here that wants to actually learn Greek, I think that's
great, but you have to actually learn it and don't be a liar and a fraud and a charlatan
pretending that you know it when you don't even know Jack, okay?
And if you learn it, don't learn it so that you can edify yourself and show off and be
puffed up.
Learn it so that you can actually be edified in your closet reading your Bible alone, not
grandstanding.
Or learn it so that you can actually go out and preach to lost Greek people, because that's
a great way to use it as well.
Hey, I would that you all speak with tongues, but rather that you prophesy.
I'd rather that you were preaching.
I'd rather that you were soul winning.
I'd rather that you're just using the word of God in your language than to learn foreign
languages.
It's more important the work that you're doing than what language you're doing it in, amen?
But what shall I profit you, in verse 6, except I shall speak to you by revelation or by knowledge
or by prophesying or by doctrine and even things without life giving sound, whether
pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds.
How shall it be known what is piped or harped?
For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
So likewise ye, watch this, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood,
how shall it be known what is spoken?
For you shall speak into the air.
Folks, if I got up and just used a bunch of big fancy theological jargon and you don't
understand what that means, then what does it profit?
I'm speaking into the air at that point.
Now I'd make myself look smart and that's what a lot of these guys are doing.
They get up and use a lot of big fancy theological terms, they go back to the Greek a little
bit, go back to the Hebrew a little bit, neither language do they actually speak.
Folks, if the Greek professors don't even speak it, how much less do you think the pastors
who went to their class speak it?
The disciples not above his master nor the servant above his Lord.
If the professors don't even know Greek, how much less do these pastors who get up and
go back to the Greek?
No, they don't know it.
They cannot speak Greek.
In fact, I've confronted these guys repeatedly.
I just walk up to them and say the most basic phrases to them in Greek and this is what
they told me.
They said, well, nobody's fluent in it because I said, well, you're not fluent or you can't
even read it fluently.
You can't just pick up a Greek New Testament and just start reading it and understand it
and here's what they said, well, no one can do that.
No one's fluent.
This is really a peculiar language because every other language in the world has all
these people that are fluent.
It's just that it's impossible to learn language, yet it's impossible to learn it the way you're
doing it because just like it's impossible to become a basketball player by learning
in a classroom.
We could use so many illustrations.
Let's think about basketball.
What if I'm a basketball professor and I take you in the classroom and I teach you everything
about basketball, how to shoot, how to pass, but it's all theory and somebody walks up
to me and says, I don't even think you can play basketball and I said, well, nobody plays
basketball.
Basketball hasn't been played in 2,000 years, but I can teach basketball and you can learn
basketball and tell other people out and you can go teach other people how to play basketball,
but we're never going to play it.
We're never going to go out and actually dribble the ball, shoot the ball, have a game, play
it, and then somebody points out, well, what's the NBA doing then?
Oh, that's a totally different game.
Right?
Folks, this is what they're doing.
It's absurd.
We could use any illustration or let's say boxing.
You know, we're in the classroom or let's say mixed martial arts, right?
That's the thing these days, right?
MMA.
Let's say we're talking MMA and I'm an MMA professor.
You know, I'm going to teach you all about Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu and kickboxing and
we're going to learn about Greco-Roman wrestling and karate and, you know, we're learning all
these different things and we're learning all this stuff, but then somebody says, well,
have you ever even been in a fight?
No, nobody does that.
That's not my goal.
My goal is just to dance around on stage and do katas, you know, and just to demonstrate
the moves.
Yeah, but have you ever actually used these things on the street?
Do they even work?
Well, no, but, you know, you're missing the whole point.
I'm just learning about fighting and I'm just learning so I can teach other people how to
fight, but neither I nor them are actually going to ever get in a fight.
Wouldn't that be absurd?
Wouldn't that be ridiculous?
If you never actually got the hands on, you never actually did it, you never actually
used it.
And here's the way it is with the Greek.
Basically what they do, they go to Bible college and they're learning like jump kicks, spinning
back fist, okay, right?
They're learning, you know, some of the most difficult moves.
What would be some of the really difficult moves in MMA?
Somebody help me out.
Tornado kick.
I've never even heard of that.
They're learning the 540s and the roundhouse, you know, they're learning all these wild
flying kicks, right?
They're learning, you know, they're learning the Bruce Lee's one inch punch and everything.
You know, they're learning all these things, okay?
But then basically you get them in front of a punching bag and say, all right, show me
a jab and a cross and they're just like, what?
You know, and then they just start throwing like haymakers at the, they start throwing
haymakers at the punching bag.
They came and demonstrated a jab and a cross.
Show me a left hook.
Show me the old one, two.
That folks, that's what this test is that this guy gave, these 10 questions, right?
He's basically telling them, show me a jab, show me a right cross, right?
Can you just, can you basically just show me a boxing stance?
Can you just assume the boxing stance?
And they're just like, oh, well, this is totally different.
We're learning something different.
It would be ridiculous in any area of life, any language, any sport, any job.
It's ridiculous how these guys can get away with getting up and lying and not knowing
anything about the subject that they're supposed to be experts in.
And they do a bunch of vain jangling.
One of these preachers said, well, he said, right now I'm in Greek four.
He's studying for his doctor.
He's in Greek four.
You have a Greek one, Greek two, Greek three, Greek four.
He's in Greek four.
He said, right now we're learning about verbal aspect outside of the indicative mood.
And we're understanding, you know, why the author chose to use a certain aspect when
there's no time indication.
And this isn't in my notes, but he particularly brought up Matthew chapter 19, if you want
to turn there.
He particularly brought this example up as an example of, well, here's what we're learning.
Here's why we don't need to know how to order a glass of water or read the Bible or go soloing
or anything like that.
I mean, if you're over there, you're going to need a glass of water if you were actually
out in the field using the language.
So let me find it myself.
It's in Luke chapter 19.
He said, for example, he said, last time I was in class, this is what we talked about.
This is the guy who's in Bible college right now, learning Greek, Greek level four, okay?
Verse 16, behold, one came and said unto him, good master, what good thing shall I do that
I may have eternal life?
And they were learning about that word have there.
Turns out some manuscripts have the word have there present and some of them have it
as heiress.
So you know, what are the implications of that?
I mean, is he saying, you know, what good thing should I do that I may have eternal
life or is he saying like that I may have eternal life or is it more like have eternal
life?
Folks, is this a complicated sentence?
Is this, I mean, how much meaning is packed into that word have?
You know, it depends on what you mean by the word is.
Bill Clinton, right?
Think about this, folks.
Folks, it's not even God talking.
It's some bozo who's not saved coming up to Jesus thinking that he has to do works to
be saved.
It's a work salvation believing bozo, hey, good master, what good thing shall I do that
I may have eternal life?
Well, what did he mean by have though?
All right, let's spend the next hour talking about it and when we walk out, none of us
can read our Bibles in Greek, none of us can speak Greek, none of us can order at a Greek
restaurant, none of us can win a soul to Christ in Greek, but we really got to the bottom
of that word have.
That's Bible college in a nutshell and you know what, you got to be thankful how much
money I'm saving you so you don't flush it down the toilet on one of these distance learning
online Bible colleges or seminaries.
This is the kind of junk you'd be wasting your time on.
You know what that's called?
Foolish questions.
You know what that's called?
Vain jangling.
You know what that's called?
Strife of words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers, it's junk.
Now many, many professions, they have their own little specialized jargon, don't they?
Have you ever heard of legalese or how doctors will use a lot of jargon and what it does,
it kind of locks you out, doesn't it?
You're not part of the club.
They can kind of talk in their own little jargon.
The doctors can talk in their jargon and oh, you poor little ignorant fool, you don't know
what's going on.
You're not initiated.
That's how these theologians are.
That's how these Bible college seminary guys are.
They want to talk about the inceptive heiress all day.
They don't even know the language.
It's nonsense.
If you would flip over to John chapter seven, John chapter seven, I got to hurry up and
finish here.
Did you ever have a guy at your work who knows how to do a certain job but he won't teach
anyone else because he wants to be the only one who can do it so that he has job security
or so that he can have that desirable job and make you do the grunt work so he won't
train you on the hard stuff because he wants to be the guy who's getting paid?
That's how these guys are.
Look, folks, they're not trying to help you learn the Bible.
They're trying to show you how smart they are and make you feel dumb and lock you out
because you don't know their fancy words like homoteluaton and hapexlegomenon and all
this stuff that they come at you with.
You don't know your nomena sacra from your own sacrum.
They're just trying to mess with you with all these fancy words.
But at the end of the day, what does it profit?
By the way, that's a question that I ask almost every day of my life.
What does it profit?
What can we do in life?
Shouldn't there be a profit?
Shouldn't it have value and not be vain, vain jangling, vain foolish questions?
He says in Luke 11, you're turning to John 7, but in Luke 11, he said, woe unto you lawyers,
for you have taken away the key of knowledge.
You entered not in yourselves and them that were entering in you hindered.
You took away the key of knowledge.
And folks, if anyone actually wants to learn Greek, if anybody suggested, hey, maybe we
should actually learn modern Greek and learn how to talk to Greek people, then we can actually
read the Bible.
You know what they'll say?
Oh, that's not going to work.
Oh, that won't work.
That'll never work.
Totally different language.
But yet, every teenager that we walked up to in a Greek speaking country last week and
the week before, 15, 16, 17 year olds were reading them passages out of the New Testament
and they're understanding them no problem.
The owner of a tattoo shop, he's not exactly a seminary graduate, right?
I mean, guys out there pierced up, he's putting tattoos on people for a living, smoking a
cigarette as we preach to him, and he's reading the Greek New Testament no problem.
Meanwhile, over here at the Baptist Seminary here in Phoenix, the Baptist Bible College
here in Phoenix and all over America, they can't do what this guy's doing.
So if the goal is to actually understand the Greek New Testament, maybe we should do it
the way that tattoo guy did it by actually learning the language, the modern language.
What about the, and let me just break this down to you.
What if somebody wanted to read the King James Bible?
Would they have to learn King James English or could they just learn English?
I mean, think about this.
Would they have to only be able to use a book, oh, you need a special textbook that's going
to teach you how to speak in these and thou's.
Would you have to do that to learn how to read a King James?
Here's what you'd tell people.
You'd say, well, first learn contemporary English, and then you'll be able to read the
King James, and after like a week of reading it, you'll make the adjustments in your brain.
You'll figure out the these, the thou's, talkest and goeth and all that.
Is it really that big of a shift from the way we talk to a King James kind of lingo?
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
I wonder what that means.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Hmm, I wonder what that means.
That's a foreign language.
No, it isn't.
So here, if somebody wanted to learn English, you know what the best way to do it would
be?
To talk to people in English.
Folks, I was in Germany talking to my wife's relatives, I'm talking to these teenagers,
they're fluent in English, and I said, how did you guys get so good in English?
How did you do it?
You know what they told me?
They said we put on a headset and we're playing video games with Americans and we're chatting
while we play a video game.
That's why we're fluent in English.
So what the classroom failed to do, chatting, accomplished.
Because that's how you learn a language.
Think about what I'm saying, folks.
You have to speak and listen and talk, right?
And look, things like Duolingo are great, Rosetta Stone's great, Pinsler's great.
I mean, those kind of programs work great.
Way better than Bible college.
A hundred times better than Bible college.
But at the end of the day, you have to get out there and actually do the talking.
And the great thing is, with today's technology, one of the things that I did to prepare for
going over there and doing soul winning and speaking Greek over there and practicing,
one of the things I did was I spent an hour a day for a week and a half video Skyping
with people in Greece.
So I went on this website where you could spend like literally seven or eight dollars
an hour and just video Skype with native people in Greece.
And I just told them, hey, let's just only talk Greek for the whole hour.
And I stumbled and stammered through it.
And I did that for like a week and a half.
And boom, you know, I'm communicating, I'm talking.
And obviously I'd already done a lot of the study.
But eventually you got to get out on the court and start dribbling the ball, don't you?
Eventually you got to put on the gloves and get in the ring and do the fighting.
It can't all just be theory, right?
Eventually you got to jump in the water and start swimming.
You can't just, you know, everybody, okay, everybody go like this, you know, we're gonna
learn how to swim.
All right.
You got to actually get in the water.
So John chapter seven, verse 14, it says, now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went
up into the temple and taught and the Jews marveled saying, how knoweth this man letters
having never learned?
How does this guy know the Bible?
He didn't go to our Bible college.
He didn't go to our seminary.
What do they mean having never learned?
You think Jesus never learned?
They're talking about Jesus.
Jesus getting up and preaching and he's preaching such a powerful sermon that a little later
they say, never man spake like this man.
They were astonished at Jesus' doctrine.
They were astonished at his preaching.
They were blown away by the power of the message.
Well, yeah, but where's his degree?
How does this man know letters?
I mean, we didn't teach him the alphabet.
Folks, you don't have to go to the Pharisees and the Sadducees to learn the alphabet.
You can learn on your own.
Jesus knew the Bible.
Of course he learned.
Jesus answered them and said, my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether
I speak of myself.
He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that
sent him, the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him.
So look, who are we trying to glorify?
The Lord, not ourselves, okay?
Tell that to these guys in Bible college that just want to brag about something that they
don't even know, that they can't even use.
Now let me just give you the third reason and then we'll move on to the final conclusion.
Go if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 8.
So three reasons for this fraud.
What's the motive?
Number one, it's to hide the fact that they don't actually know Greek.
Number two, it's to make you think that Greek is a special language so they can pull out
hidden esoteric meanings and then you feel like, well, I got to listen to this guy to
figure out what the Bible really says.
And then number three reason why this fraud exists is so that they can teach false doctrine
that directly contradicts what the Bible says in English and they'll say, yeah, but in Greek
it says something different.
Who has ever heard somebody directly contradict what the Bible says in plain English and say,
well, no, if you go to the Greek it says something totally different?
Folks, I've heard it my whole life.
This has bothered me for a long time.
I'm glad that I was finally able to put this thing to rest and I'm putting together a documentary
about the trip that we took because we filmed a lot of our conversations with young people
and soul winning and things that we did over there and just put this thing to bed and show
everybody, hey, listen, the emperor has no clothes and it's shocking that someone hasn't
already pointed this out.
It's pretty mind blowing.
I mean, there are some people that are doing it, but most people haven't heard these things.
Even after you, Greek professors, seminary guys, preachers going back to the Greek, we're
going to shut you down.
And you know what?
You guys could probably spend a couple of weeks on Duolingo and shut these bozos down
with just a few weeks on Duolingo because it's not that hard.
Here's the conclusion though.
So the third reason, which I don't really have time to go into, is just to teach doctrine
that just directly contradicts what the Bible says, yeah, but in Greek it's different.
All three of these are wicked reasons.
Okay.
Here's the conclusion of the matter.
There's no point in reading the word of God if you're not going to use it.
There is no point in studying, reading, learning the word of God if you're not going to use
it.
If this is all going into a black hole in your brain and never being used, then what
is the point?
There is no point, and there's no point in learning Greek unless you're actually going
to use it to serve God, unless you're actually going to use it to produce some kind of work
for the Lord or some kind of profitability in the real world, not just look at me, everybody.
And you know what these guys, they love to debate, don't they?
These Greek guys and these scholars, you know, one of these bozos is in town here.
I'm not going to name his name, but it starts with a J, and it ends in Ames White, okay?
And you know, pardon my French, but you know what these debates are?
A pissing match.
And that's a biblical word, by the way, so you can't get mad at me for saying that.
Hey, everybody, look at me.
You know what it reminds me of?
A bodybuilding competition.
They're just out there just...
You know, they're putting on display, it's like an intellectual bodybuilding competition.
You know, I'm sorry, no offense to anybody who's into it, bodybuilding is a dumb sport.
There I said it.
It's a beauty pageant for dudes.
And everybody's juiced.
Everybody's on roids or human growth hormone or hormone replacement therapy or whatever.
Everybody's using...
And these guys, they get so much muscle, it starts looking stupid after a while.
You know, they're like the opposite of an anorexic person.
You know, like an anorexic person, they're super skinny, but they look in the mirror
and they're like, oh, I'm still kind of fat, right?
They think they need to lose weight.
These guys are just...
And they're like, I need to gain more weight.
I need to get more muscle.
His bicep's tiny, he's just like a coconut.
And eventually, it starts looking stupid eventually, like their head is too small for their body.
But to them, it looks cool.
It's a stupid sport, friend.
Now, look, if you actually wanted to be into weightlifting, you know what?
The goal should be with weightlifting, like actually lifting something.
You know, that's why I think powerlifting is a better sport than bodybuilding because
at least then, you're actually competing in like how much weight can you lift, not
just look at me, everybody.
But even if you're just powerlifting so you can lift a barbell in a gym, does that really
have any internal value?
Now, if I were to lift weights, it would be so I could get in shape so I could serve God
better or so that I could go to my job.
Let's say I have a job where I'm loading stuff and if I hit the gym and get strong, then
I could do better at my job, right?
Those are legitimate reasons.
Be healthy.
I mean, look, when we went soloing, I had this step counter on me the whole time I was
out in Cyprus the last couple of weeks.
We were going like 18,000 steps a day over there on average, okay?
So it's like you got to be able to do that.
So it's good to have some basic level and I'm not, I'm totally out of shape, but it's
good to have some level of fitness where at least you can do the walking required for
soloing.
And by the way, if you go soloing and your feet hurt, you're doing it right.
The Bible associates your feet with soloing.
And so, you know, whatever we do should have profit, not just, hey, let's have a debate
so we can look smart for everybody.
You know what?
I'm not interested in debate.
I'm interested in getting people saved, raising my family, edifying the church, teaching doctrine.
So there's no point in reading the word of God unless you're going to use it, not just
to show how smart you are.
There's no point in learning Greek unless you're going to actually use it to serve God.
Look down at your Bible.
I'm almost done.
First Corinthians 8, 1.
It says, now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge.
Watch this.
Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
So if you don't love people and want to use your knowledge to help other people, you are
wasting your time.
Go to chapter 13.
Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edified.
If you just gain a bunch of knowledge, study, and you get the bachelor degree, the master's
degree, the PhD, folks, that's just puffing yourself up with that stuff, and then you
get up and debate people and show, you know, you're showing off your intellectual muscles.
Look what the Bible says in verse 1 of chapter 13.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become
a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, which, by the way, is exactly what he said in 1 Corinthians
14.
If you use words that people don't understand and if you speak in an unknown language, you're
like a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
He explained that same concept.
Look at verse 2.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, watch this, and understand all mysteries and all
knowledge.
I mean, you know the Bible like the back of your hand.
And though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am
nothing.
You're a great big nothing.
I don't care how much knowledge you have.
I don't care how much wisdom you have.
I don't care how much education you have, how many degrees you have, how many languages
you speak.
If you don't love people, if you don't love God and love the lost and actually have a
religion that goes out and visits the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, that keeps
yourself unspotted from the world, that preaches the gospel to every creature, that fulfills
the Great Commission, you are nothing.
Nobody.
Oh, this guy's a great scholar.
He's nothing.
How many people did he win to Christ in the last 12 months?
If the number is zero, then he's not following Christ because he's not a fisher of men.
Oh, I got all this knowledge.
Well, you know what?
I'd rather have somebody who has a little less knowledge, but they're actually using
the knowledge that they have.
And by the way, these guys that have all the knowledge, they don't know as much as you
think, as I demonstrated earlier in the sermon.
So why have I learned Greek?
I learned Greek, number one, so that I could do my personal devotions in Greek, so that
I can read my Bible every day in Greek.
Number two, so I could go out soul winning to Greek people and win them to Christ.
Number three, so I could defend the King James Bible, which is the tool that God is using
in 2019.
It is the soul winning tool.
And obviously, other languages, you know, they've got their Spanish Bible.
I'm talking about in the English speaking world, which is a huge world, by the way.
Folks, this is what actually makes sense, okay?
And so the purpose of this sermon is to explain to you that knowledge puffeth up, charity
edify.
Folks, it's all about using the Word of God.
You know, I hope you read your Bible every single day, but I hope even more that you
use the Bible, that you'd be a soul winner.
And listen, don't you ever doubt, and part of the reason why I'm preaching this as well
is because I don't want you to doubt your King James Bible.
I don't want you to think like, oh, well, maybe there's something to this Greek and
Hebrew stuff, and maybe what we have isn't enough.
It is, folks.
How can you listen to these people when they don't even know cat, dog, hello, bye, the
number nine, they can't even count to ten.
Would you trust a Greek professor that can't count to ten?
Because the vast majority of those 30 men in that conference that were all Greek teachers
and doctorate students could not count to ten in Greek.
Is that who you're going to trust to tell you that the King James has problems?
Oh, well, scholars agree that the King James is inaccurate.
That's who you're listening to, folks.
Is that who you're going to trust?
Are you going to trust the English Bible that's been used by God more than any other book
in the history of mankind?
This is the greatest translation in the history of mankind in any language, the King James
Bible.
This thing is like a rock, and you know what?
All the atheists, agnostics, and scholarship, and bozos have been hammering at this thing,
and all their hammers just break, and here we are 408 years later, and this thing is
like a rock.
It's still the number one Bible that people actually read.
This is what you need.
You need to read this and use this and hang all this ridiculous scholarship and academia,
the Bible colleges and the seminaries, hang all that.
Save your money on the distance learning, getting your seminary degree over the Internet.
You don't need to send in your box tops and get your master of theology degree.
You know what?
Why don't you get a master's degree in soul winning?
Right?
Why don't you get a bachelor of actually doing stuff?
It's ridiculous.
Let's probably have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord God.
Help us to use it and not let it just be a theory unto us, Lord.
And when we hear preaching, help us to put it into practice.
If we hear a child rearing sermon, Lord, help us to put that into practice and use that.
If we hear a sermon on marriage, help us to use that.
If we hear a sermon rebuking sin, help us to get the sin out of our life, Lord.
If we hear a sermon about the gospel and the plan of salvation, help us to go and use
that to give someone the gospel and get someone saved, Lord.
Help us to redeem the time and be busy out in the harvest doing your work instead of
grandstanding and showing off and debating and trying to be some kind of a self-proclaimed
expert, Lord.
Help us to get out there and do the work.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.