Amen. Right, we're in Acts chapter 23 and I'd like to just look at the sort of middle few
verses there for now. Acts 23 and verse 16 says this, Acts 23 16. And when Paul's sister's son
heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle and told Paul. Then Paul called
one of the centurions unto him and said, bring this young man unto the chief captain for he
hath a certain thing to tell him. So he took him and brought him to the chief captain and said,
Paul the prisoner called me unto him and prayed me to bring this young man unto thee,
who hath something to say unto thee. Then the chief captain took him by the hand and went with
him aside privately and asked him, what is that thou hast to tell me? And he said, the Jews have
agreed to desire thee that thou wouldst bring down Paul to Mora into the council, as though they would
inquire somewhat of him more perfectly. But do not thou yield unto them for they're lying in wait
for him of them more than forty men, which have bound themselves with an oath, that they will
neither eat nor drink till they have killed him, and now are they ready, looking for a promise from
thee. And the title of my sermon this morning is The Assassination of King James. The Assassination
of King James. I'd like to pray before we get going. Father, thank you for your word, thank you for
Lord. Well, the fact that we have the King James Bible, Lord, the preserved word of God
in the English language, Lord, is just, you know, an amazing thing to have, to be able to just have
full faith in the completed word in front of us, Lord, that we're able to put our full
faith in. We thank you for that. We thank you that, you know, that attempt that is kind of
thought about in this nation and has been ever since over 400 years ago now was unsuccessful, Lord.
Help me to preach this sermon that I've been thinking about this year in a clear and accurate
way, Lord, and full of your spirit. In Jesus' name, pray. Amen. Okay, so it's the 5th of November on
Tuesday, which means that people this weekend, through till then, so you will have heard it
already, may be going on the Celebrating Bonfire Night under its various names, Fireworks Night,
Guy Fawkes Night, etc. And do you know what that means? Okay, it means that here at Strong Tower Baptist
Church we're celebrating with a Guy Fawkes themed sermon, okay, and that's what we like to do each
year. We like to do a Guy Fawkes themed King James sermon around this weekend, this time
around the 5th of November. Last year it wasn't so King Jamesy, if you remember, where we'd
recently finished our What We Believe series, which included what we believe about the Bible,
so I kind of focused a bit more on Guy Fawkes last year and the fact that he was a clinical psychopath.
And if you missed that, that's on our channel. I found that quite interesting anyway, that sermon,
thinking about it as we led up to this one this year. But in case you're wondering what on earth
has Guy Fawkes bonfires and fireworks got to do with the King James Bible? Well, you're about to
find out. Most people here will know, many here were here last year, but if you weren't and you're
unsure, I'll explain it to you shortly. Here at Strong Tower Baptist Church, okay, we're all about
celebrating the foiling of the gunpowder plot. And if we had our own grounds, okay, if we did have like
grounds with a god and everything else, if we're a bigger church, be sure we'd be burning some stuff,
all right? We'd be setting off some fireworks, we'd be making a big show of it,
I'd get the kids to make a guy, yeah, I'll be all about burning that effigy, I'll be all over that,
okay? We don't have our grounds right now, maybe in several years time that's something we could
pray for, then we could really get stuck in on November the 5th or around that time. Why though?
Why? Because had Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators been successful, we wouldn't have this King James
Bible in our hands, okay? We wouldn't have this King James Bible, this King James Bible would
never have been translated, that work wouldn't have happened, we wouldn't be holding the preserved Word
of God in English in our hands that we do, okay? And had he been successful, it was a massive deal,
and it is kind of rather rather amusing, I still think. Every year, and we made a point last year,
last night, myself and my family, we went along to the local fireworks show, we got involved,
we were celebrating, and I find it, it's like one of them amusing things, where you get people
around this nation celebrating Christmas, even though most of them deny Christ in one way or
another. Well in the same way, people around this nation celebrate the gunpowder plot being foiled,
even though they don't really know what's going on, but it's just one of those strange things
that is still getting celebrated every year, that this assassination attempt, which is what it was,
was foiled, okay? Because instead of saying, Thus saith the Lord, if we didn't have this Bible,
instead of saying, Thus saith the Lord, we'd be preaching, Thus might have said the Lord,
but we can't be sure, so who cares? You know, that's really what would be happening if we
didn't have this translation, okay? The 5th of November was a key moment in the Christian world,
as it was clearly an assassination attempt on the King, first and foremost. Now sure, you know,
they wanted to then basically bring in a new sort of regime, and a Catholic sort of puppet monarch,
etc., but ultimately they wanted to assassinate King James. And they, who had, by the way,
just commissioned the greatest Bible translation work ever undertaken a year before in 1604.
A Bible translation that is the best-selling book of all time, by the way, it's the best-selling
book ever, it has an estimated 5 billion copies sold, 5 billion copies of the King James Bible
have been sold, okay, let alone have been, you know, read and everything else. 5 billion copies,
we're 54, and by the way, that's, and now we've, people are just looking at it online as well,
by the way, but that's 5 billion copies sold, okay, hard copies. We're 54, okay, and I don't
know how many people know these things, it started with 54, it reduced to 47 men due to illness,
death, etc., but language scholars of a caliber that we just don't see anymore in this world,
okay, you don't get that sort of caliber of language scholars anymore, because people that
maybe have that sort of intellect go into different fields nowadays, okay, but then it was
the language, like, language scholarship and going into the Hebrew, the Aramaic, the Greek,
even Syriac, you know, these languages, there were some great minds collected together at
that point in time, and they were from as well varying theological backgrounds, because, again,
hopefully just some of this stuff, if you've ever heard some of the criticisms and some of the
attempted attacks on the King James, just to make it clear, these guys weren't all King James's
religious stooges who just agreed with what his religious beliefs were, no, they came from
different backgrounds, and they came together to make the perfect translation, without theological
bias, okay, they split into six groups, with the books of the Bible separated between those groups,
okay, so they all translated in these six groups, basically six sections of the Bible, you know,
books combined together to make, to split it into six, and then what happened is, as each group
completed their part, it was then reviewed by the other five groups, so I wasn't like, okay, well
that group's responsible for that, that's it, let's hope they do a good translation, no, they wanted
a perfect translation, this wasn't just a quick kind of, well, let's quickly run something off,
no, they then rechecked and reviewed everyone's work between themselves, so the other five groups
would then review the work that that group had done on those Bible books that they had
been responsible for translating, and basically each part of the Bible came from all these experts
together, and again, this is a translation work which has never been repeated, okay, this is, in case
you're ever sitting there wondering, why are we King James here, I got asked this recently, hopefully
the person might look at this sermon in the future, then what happened is, when they
had all finished, okay, a final committee of six members then carefully reviewed it all too, so it
wasn't just that they all checked each other's work, then it went to another committee that
reviewed it all as well, and there were some set rules, okay, that were followed, that added
to the quality of the work done, okay, now these included, this isn't exhaustive, this isn't all the
rules, I just picked out a few which just help you to understand the enormity, the magnitude
of the work done here, every particular man of each company to take the same chapter or chapters
and having translated or amended them severally by himself where he thinketh good, all to meet
together, confer what they have done and agree for their parts what shall stand, so it wasn't just,
well, well, we've translated this, hopefully this is right, no, every person had done their individual
translation work, then had to bring it to the rest of their group to all agree, everyone had to agree
for it to then move forward with everything, so they had to come to a point where like, okay,
we agree this is the best possible, most accurate translation we could have made, again like I said,
people from different beliefs, different backgrounds, what does the actual, what do the
languages actually say, and then there was another rule which was when any place of special obscurity
is doubted of, letters to be directed by authority to send to any learned man in the land for his
judgment of such a place, so basically if we've got to a point where we're still a bit unsure and
we can't really agree and we're not really, is this really what, how this translation should read,
is this how it should read in English, we're just going to send it to people all over the nation
who are known to know these languages and are experts in these languages to see what their
point of view is as well, because we just want to get it right, we want to get this spot on,
they were, they were, look, they were diligent in making sure this was a perfect translation.
Letters to be sent from every bishop to the rest of his clergy, basically, you know, the, the
people underneath him, and this is obviously in, in the C of E church at this point, admonishing
them of this translation in hand and to move and charge as many skillful in the tongues, so anyone,
anyone across the board that was skillful in the tongues and having taken pains in that kind
to send his particular observations to the company either at Westminster, Cambridge or Oxford,
so basically, on top of that, we want anyone who's learned, anyone who, who understands these
languages to this depth to be able to translate them, we want to hear their points of view as
well, we want to, anyone who understands languages want to hear some points of view, we want to put
it all together. This was not, yeah, have you ever heard these people that, that try and even,
I don't know if you've ever come across these people when you're out, they go, well, I don't
want to read a Bible translated by some king of England, it's like, no, okay, it's the furthest
from that, King James didn't translate it, everyone in the land had to say this if they wanted,
who could translate? This was, this was a work that has never been done, right? Okay, so I've,
for me, and just that alone and the rest of it, God's hand was upon this, okay, God's hand was
upon this, resulting in a Bible that is still the most read Bible version 400 years later,
amongst all the attacks on it, amongst all the, the, the attempts to discredit this, this Bible
that we have in our hands, it's still the most read Bible version to this day. The English language
went on to become the international language of the world, didn't it? Okay, which, which it is
right now. So is it any surprise that God's hand was upon a Bible translation with English going on
to become the international language of the world? According to Statista.com, the English language
is spoken by approximately 1.5 billion people as either a first or second language, and that's not
including third language full time, that's not including people that just have kind of a fair
understanding of it, but they speak another two languages better. First or second language, it's,
it's by far the largest, one and a half billion apparently. So it makes sense that there's a
perfect translation of the word of God in the language of our days, doesn't it? It makes sense,
doesn't it? It was commissioned by one of the few seemingly saved monarchs that this nation
has had, okay? Just, just another point there as well. King James wrote in his book Basilic and
Dorian, which is basically a book to his son, okay, on being a leader, being a king. He said
this, but because no man was able to keep the law, nor any part thereof, it pleased God of his
infinite wisdom and goodness to incarnate his only son in our nature, for satisfaction of his justice
in his suffering for us, that since we could not be saved by doing, we might at least be saved by
believing. Okay, that, that was King James in his own words, writing to his son. So it's no surprise
that the devil also had his hand upon proceedings, but his hand was upon it by targeting the manna
god that was instrumental in it all, right? And, and what's interesting in the attempts to destroy
King James is some of the similarities in the attempts to destroy the Apostle Paul as well.
So I, when I thought about this gunpowder plot, it made me think about this, this particular
attempt on the Apostle Paul. This is one of a few, right? But Apostle Paul, I mean, he had a rough
time, didn't he, okay? And for good reason, okay, when it comes to why they hated him,
who, because he was also instrumental in the word of God going out en masse around the world,
just like the King James Bible eventually did as well, okay? And the Apostle Paul was instrumental
in that, and King James was instrumental being the one that, that basically commissioned this work,
this translation work. Acts 23 said in verse 11, Acts 23, 11 said, and the night following the
Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer Paul, for as thou has testified of me in Jerusalem,
so must thou bear witness also at Rome. Because he was to go on, go to carry on over to Rome,
and to carry on bearing witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The title is the assassination of King
James, and point number one today is the attempted assassination of King James. We're going to look
firstly at the attempted assassination of King James, and that's what the gunpowder, uh, the
gunpowder plot clearly was, okay? An attempt to assassinate the Christian King of England,
replaced with a Catholic puppet, like I said, which would have ended the translation work
before it ever even begun, okay? Because they hadn't actually got translated at this point,
okay? And what would have happened, for me, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't have just
gone back to what the previous Catholic regime's ways of it being illegal to have a Bible, okay,
which it was previously, and only special Latin-speaking priests able to tell you what
their Latin version of God's Word actually apparently says, okay? That's how the Catholics
wanted it, where only they know, and you better come to the priest, he'll tell you what it says.
I guess what those Latin-speaking priests still tell you today that God's Word says
is that you have, what do you have to do for eternal life? Keep a load of works,
keep their sacraments, uh, various works, just like the Jews of Paul's day, though,
who believed that you had to do a load of works for eternal life. And nothing makes a work
salvationist angrier than the truth of the Gospel. You notice that when you go out soul-winning. What
makes them really angry? The truth that it's grace through faith alone. Work salvationists hate it.
They hate you telling them that you can be saved by putting your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's the only way someone can be saved, and that their works don't get them to heaven. And that's,
and they hate it, they hate the Gospel, and they hated the Apostle Paul who was preaching the
Gospel for that reason. So, they'd already tried to kill him, okay, they'd, just earlier in this,
in this, um, in this sort of story in the, in the chapters previously, they, they nearly beat,
beat him to death, but then he was saved by the Romans, okay, who are now holding him prisoner
as much as for his own safety. Acts 23 said this in verse 12, and when it was day, certain of the
Jews banded together and bound themselves under a curse, this is verse 12 of Acts 23, saying that
they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul, and they were more than faulty which
had made this conspiracy. So these guys are so desperate to kill Paul that they, they agree to
neither eat nor drink until they kill Paul. I mean, that's, you know, they're going to have a real,
well, a real burning desire to get this job done when you can't eat or drink until you kill him,
okay. So these guys have really put the stakes, well, they've put the stakes up there, okay,
they're out of reach until they kill him, okay. So there's 40 of them, and that's a pretty big
group, isn't it? Okay, 40 is a lot of guys that have all agreed this. Um, now, was it just some
crazy murderous types that maybe needed to go on a diet, do you think? Maybe it was just some,
they were murderous, they thought this is a good excuse, we could like cut down a bit on some of
the, some of the food. Well, verse 14 says, and they came to the chief priests and elders and
said, we have bound ourselves under a great curse that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.
So they're talking about it with the chief priests and elders as well, chief priests and elders,
yeah, these are supposedly religious men, these are the religious leaders of the nation here,
of those Jews in Judah, and they've come to talk to them about it, so what's their response?
I mean, surely you would think these religious men, who, they just believe different, they just,
well, they've got the father, they just don't have the son, isn't that what they claim?
Okay, that's not the truth, no. What did these religious men, men do? Surely they're going to
rebuke them, maybe, maybe force feed them a kosher bagel and tell them to move on.
No, look at verse 15, now therefore, this is what they tell him, now therefore you with the council
signify to the chief captain that he bring him down unto you tomorrow, as though you would
inquire something more perfectly concerning him and we or ever he come near ready to kill him.
Instead of being asked to collaborate with these murderers, okay, to conspire together against
Paul, and according to Paul's nephew, they agreed to do it. Look at verse 16 onwards, it says,
and when Paul's sister's son heard of their lying weight, he went and entered into the castle and
told Paul. Then Paul called one of the centurions unto him and said, bring this young man unto the
chief captain, for he had a certain thing to tell him. So he took him and brought him to the chief
captain and said, Paul the prisoner called me unto him and prayed me to bring this young man
unto thee, who have something to sound to thee. Then the chief captain took him by the hand and
went with him aside privately and asked him, what is that thou has to tell me? And he said,
the Jews have agreed to desire thee that thou wouldst bring down Paul to Mora into the council,
as though they would inquire somewhat of him more perfectly. What did he say? The Jews have agreed,
they've agreed to desire thee that thou wouldst bring, these guys agreed, they agreed to this
murderous plot, these religious leaders agreed to murder Paul. But do not thou yield unto them for
their lying weight of him of their more than 40 men, which have bound themselves with an oath that
they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him, and now are they ready looking for
a promise from thee. Every time I read this, it always goes through my mind, I wonder if they carried
on with this oath. Do you think they, I don't think they all starved or dehydrated to death.
But how long do you reckon they lasted? I reckon a day. You go for a week, right? Can you do a
week without water? I think it's only three days without water, isn't it? Anyone? Have I got that
wrong? Yeah, I think it's, I think it's a threes isn't it? I think it's three days without water,
maybe three weeks without food. I don't know, anyway, someone tell me this afterwards. But
anyway, okay, so I, I don't know, I don't think they lasted long anyway, okay. So,
right, where are we? Okay, no, so the religious men here though, okay, they conspired to kill Paul
for preaching the truth. Turn to Deuteronomy 27, because they knew full well that what they're
doing is completely contrary to the word of God. They knew full well, these are the religious
leaders, okay. These are the chief priests, these are the elders. And in Deuteronomy 27, okay,
Deuteronomy chapter 27, you're turning to, and obviously keep a finger in Acts 23, Deuteronomy
27, Moses commanded the Levites to warn the people this, okay. He said in, in Deuteronomy 27 and verse
24, Deuteronomy 27, 24, cursed be he that smiteth his neighbor secretly, and all the people shall
say amen. Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person, and all the people shall say
amen. Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them, and all the people
shall say amen. And the words of this law said in Exodus 20 verse 13, thou shalt not kill. Thou
shalt not kill, talking clearly about murder. Yet there they were conspiring to kill someone for
what? For preaching the Gospel. Conspiring to kill a man for preaching the Gospel. He said,
cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. All the words of this law,
they're cursed. They knew full well. And it was the same situation with the Gunpowder Plot, okay.
This were a load of so-called religious folk. That's what they were. They were so-called
religious Roman Catholics claiming to believe in the God of the Bible. They're claiming to believe
the God of the Bible. Conspiring to murder a load of people, including their own king,
even though Deuteronomy 27 had said, cursed be he that smiteth his neighbor secretly,
and all the people shall say amen. Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person,
all the people shall say amen. Because apparently they recruited Guy Fawkes. He was paid for his
part in it as some sort of gunpowder expert from his soldiering days. The leader being Robert
Catesby, not Guy Fawkes, the leader was Robert Catesby. Howbeit Fawkes was also a big believer
in their Catholic cause though. So they're claiming to be religious guys. He claimed to be
this staunch Roman Catholic and even gone out to fight on, you know, against like the Dutch
Protestants. You know, previously, that's why he was in the army with the Catholic Spanish forces.
Well, after interrogation, Fawkes was taken to the king's bedchamber, King James's sister,
to explain why he wanted to kill him, and he answered that he regarded the king as a disease.
Okay, this was his justification, this religious freedom fighter. He also explained that he needed
such a large quantity of gunpowder so he could blow you Scotch beggars back to your own native
mountains. That was what Guy Fawkes, that was his apparent reason for 36 barrels, okay. Well,
verse 26 said, cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them,
and all the people shall say amen. So really, they were just a cursed bunch of murderers.
That's what they were. No, they weren't the freedom fighters, because when you read this stuff,
I've been reading quite a bit, every year I read quite a bit on Guy Fawkes stuff, and I noticed
that every year they become even more these cool freedom fighters, and just trying to uphold,
you know, standards for the poor Catholics and everything else, and like it was a war,
a religious war. No, they were just murderous scum, pure scum, trying to assassinate a man,
trying to assassinate a saved man, and regardless, they were murderous scum. Well, how on earth did
they justify attempting to kill King James, to kill this saved man of God for me? Well,
they justified the hatred for him, okay. They did what all wicked people do, they blamed the believer
for their own wickedness, and you will have, most people here, if you're serving God, if you're
trying to live for God, you're going to get this in your own lives, okay. People that will, that
are enemies of God really, that they won't admit to that, instead know it's you're the problem,
it's you, that's why everything they do is completely contrary to what the word of God
tells them to do, and that's what they do, that's your persecutors in life will justify it with this
sort of stuff. He was a disease, a scotch beggar, so of course it's fine to murder him, right,
and seemingly continuing in Guy Fawkes here, in his false religion as a devout Catholic, okay,
he was still claiming that, you know, it was all King James's fault, and just like those Jews in
Acts 23 somehow justifying their murderous plot, and just like those Jews, okay, there were plenty
involved in the conspiracy as well, including so-called religious leaders, because apparently
with the gunpowder plot, Jesuits Oswald Tezemond, also known by the alias Father Greenway,
and Father Henry Garnet were later arrested for being a part of it as well.
Oh, it's just the poor persecution of the Catholics, that's like the kind of false
narrative now. However, just like with the Apostle Paul, okay, someone gave a tip-off about what was
about to happen, okay, that's how it got foiled. Lord Monteagle, a brother-in-law of Tresham,
and Tresham, by the way, was Robert Catesby's cousin and part of their gang, had ties to some
of the other conspirators and had engaged in previous Roman Catholic plots against the
government, so he had, however, given his support to the new king, and then on October 26th he
received an anonymous letter, this is Lord Monteagle, delivered by an unknown messenger,
and it read this, my lord, out of the love I bear to some of your friends, I have a care for your
preservation, therefore I would advise you as you tender your life to devise some excuse to shift
your attendance at this parliament. And again, just going along with their justification,
it then said, for God and man have concurred to punish the wickedness of this time. So they think,
they've convinced themselves they're doing the work of God. They convinced themselves that by
by blowing up thousands of people, thousands of innocent people, they're somehow punishing the
wickedness of this time. I mean, this is just a little picture into the minds of these types
of people, and think not slightly of this advertisement, but retire yourself into your
country where you may expect the event in safety, for though there be no appearance of any stir,
yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this parliament, yet they shall not see who hurts them.
This counsel is not to be condemned, but it may do you good and can do you no harm for the dangerous
past as soon as you have burnt the letter, and I hope God will give you the grace to make good use
of it, to whose holy protection I commend you. So again, they're claiming to be religious,
claiming to be holy, but Lord Monteagle, he gave the letter to Robert Cecil, searches were made,
and eventually the second time around on November the 4th, and some say it was as late as midnight.
Now, I don't know if that's just to dramatize it or not. Maybe it was, right? As late as midnight
on November the 4th, with parliament due for November the 5th, Guy Fawkes is found with what
some say was 36 barrels of gunpowder, which is around one and a half tons of gunpowder
underneath the house of parliament. He was arrested and eventually the rest of the group
were rounded up or killed resisting arrest. There's a bit of a gunfight up north where they
try to escape, and on November the 5th, okay, like I said, King James, along with his wife,
no it wasn't just, oh well it's just some politicians, because that's like the other angle,
oh just some politicians, kill some of those, you know, horrible politicians. No, King James,
his wife, eldest son and many ministers and other just workers, servants, family members, etc,
of others were due to be in parliament and would have been killed, and in fact with that amount
of gunpowder it would have killed people within quite a far distance from parliament at this
point as well, okay. So it's pretty close to wire, midnight on November the 4th apparently,
and you do feel as though God protect the king, don't you? You do feel like right at the last
minute it got sussed. They even had done one search and didn't find them, and then the king
basically said I want you to search again when it was brought to his attention,
and it seemed to be the same with Paul in Acts 23 here with his nephew hearing of it. It said
in verse 19 of Acts 23, then the chief captain took him by the hand and went with him aside
privately and asked him, what is that thou hast to tell me? And he said, the Jews have agreed
to desire thee that thou wouldst bring down Paul tomorrow to the council as though they would
inquire somewhat of him more perfectly. But do not thou yield unto them, for they lie and wait
for him of them more than forty men which have bound themselves with an oath, that they will
neither eat nor drink till they have killed him, and now are they ready looking for a promise from
thee. So the chief captain then let the younger man depart and charged him, see thou tell no man
that thou hast showed these things unto me. Yet he called unto him two centurions, saying, mate ready
two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen three score and ten, and spearmen two
hundred at the third hour of the night, and provide them beasts that they may set Paul on,
and bring him safe under Philip's governor. And then jump forward to verse 31, it said,
in verse 31, then the soldiers as it was commanded them took Paul and brought him by night and to
Antipatris, sorry to Antipatris. So the title is the assassination of King James, and point number
one here is the attempted assassination of King James. That's what we just looked at, and thank
God that like he did with the apostle Paul here, resulting in the gospel going even further afield,
he also scuppered the attempts on King James. So did it end there for these men then? Is that
where it ended? No, of course not, okay, because the attempted assassinations failed. They moved on
to the next assassinations, okay, the attempted assassinations between these two men failed. So
what was the next attempt of assassinations? Well, point number two today of our of our
sermon, the assassination of King James, is the character assassination of King James. The
character assassination of King James. So the enemies couldn't kill him, they tried, they failed,
they tried to kill him, it didn't work out, okay, they didn't, they didn't manage to prevent it.
They tried and failed, so instead they just slandered him, so they did instead. So it's like,
right, we can't physically kill him, now we'll just, instead we'll just, we'll just slander him.
During his life, okay, there were numerous attempts to assassinate his character, during his life as
well, they tried that, but this was a rare king who lived a pretty morally upright life, and that's
one of the reasons why God commands his children, who in all areas of our lives we're going to get
slandered, if you're living for God, you're serving God, people will try to slander you at times of
your life, and that's why we need to try to take the breastplate of righteousness, don't we? We
need to try to have those things which, which defend against that, and it seemed like King James had
that. He was, he was a great man, okay, and King James, it was very hard for them because he was
actually a very morally upright, morally decent guy, even those that didn't like him in his
policies, admitted that he was an upright guy, okay, and that's quite rare for a king, for a king
with all that money, all that wealth, all that power at his disposal, to be described as a pretty morally
upright guy. So what did they do? Did they, did they just give up? No, they, they waited until he was
dead to make false claims about him, which, which those that hate an authoritative bible still
repeat to this day, and that's what, sadly, if you look, if you stop reading up on King James, it won't
be long until you come across the big slander, and what's the big slander? What's probably the biggest
slander you could come up against, you could, you could accuse King James of, was that he was a sodomite.
That's, that's, you read it everywhere, I mean, you go on like history, whatever, and you start reading
about King James, it's, it's just coming out with just full lies and slander about him just being a
sodomite, coming out with people that they claim he had relationships with, but the thing is, it's
such a laughable claim when you look at where it came from. So it came from this enemy of King James
that he kicked out of his court, this is where it originated from, a guy called Anthony Weldon,
who swore vengeance, so he's kicked out and he swore vengeance on him, and do you know what he
thought? He thought that 25 years after his death, 25 years later, and in case you think, oh well, he
wouldn't have been able to, it's like, look, people are slandering kings, this isn't like, right, you get
your head chopped off stuff, okay, people are slandering kings long before this, while they're
alive, but he waited 25 years after his death to make this accusation and damage his name.
However, many were still alive when he made this who knew King James, so when he made this accusation
25 years after the death of King James, there were still people that knew King James, or knew people
that knew King James, who were staunchly anti-sodomite. King James was completely anti-sodomites.
It being one of the few crimes that he said was unpardonable. He said, look, you can pardon people
for other things, you ain't pardoning them for being a sod, because he was a man of God who believed
the word of God. He was staunchly anti it, and he was also a loving and faithful husband to his wife,
Queen Anne of Denmark. He was, this was a good guy, this is a guy that, that they had eight children,
although they didn't all survive, I think three children survived, and the accusation was laughed
off because of that, and mostly ignored for centuries until our age of easy online rewriting
of history. So that's kind of what changed. It is, that's been laughed off, you know, proper historians,
not kind of why, right, we just repeat some slander and some lies and, and put it on a website that
anyone can make nowadays. Proper historians of old just, this was just laughable. This wasn't, it never
gained any traction until more recently, okay, and why recently as well? Because of the
desperation to find a way of putting people off the King James Bible. That's really what it comes
down to. People just want to find some way to put people off the King James Bible, put people off
even reaching for the King James Bible, put people off having their faith in the King James Bible,
and they know that saying that the guy that commissioned it with some flaming sodomite
is going to put off people that believe, you know, believe in the word of God, believe God's word to
some degree, and believe, you know, and could just see the nonsense in our world today and be like,
do I want to read a Bible that was commissioned by some sodomite? Of course not. That's the idea, right?
And I, look, I don't know about you guys, okay, but I've had people shouting this at me while I'm
preaching. I remember years ago we preached a gospel down in Roehampton, and I'm preaching to
someone, and there's this Jamaican guy just shouting, while I'm preaching the gospel,
trying to get the son saved, he's going, King James, what a batty man, you know. And he's shouting all
this stuff while I'm trying to preach, and I'm just like, okay, sorry about this, carried on.
I think I got the person saved, but I can't be sure about that. I think I did, but it was
pretty rough, yeah, and he was shouting all this stuff, he's a this, he's a that, you know, he's just
King James, that King James Bible was written by a queer and all, like, the way he was saying
all this stuff, and I was just like, man, like, this is, like, what on earth? And it was to discredit it
for the person hearing it to think, well, I don't want to hear this, and, but what's he doing?
He's just repeating slander, and he's repeating lies, and think about how wicked it is to just repeat
that false accusation, having no idea where it came from, what the evidence is for it.
Got no idea, just like, well, I've heard that somewhere, I read that somewhere, I might as well
just repeat it. I mean, that's pretty bad, isn't it? And there's no, like, there's no, there's nothing
behind it. It's not like, well, he did do this, he did say that, and he did, it's like, there's nothing there at all.
Well, there's nothing new under the sun again. This is what happened to the Apostle Paul, both
during his life and after too. Look at Acts 24, okay, Acts chapter 24, where Paul is with Felix the
governor. He said in verse 1, Acts 24 and verse 1, and after five days, Ananias, a high priest, descended
with the elders, with a certain narrator named Tertulus, who informed the governor against Paul,
and when he was called forth, Tertulus began to accuse him, saying, seeing that by thee we enjoy
great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence, we accept
it always, and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness, notwithstanding that I be not
further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few words.
So Tertulus is a gifted narrator, and he starts by buttering up the guy that he's about to slander
Paul to, okay, so he starts off, let's do a bit of buttering up, a bit of flattery, and now I'm going
to hit him with it, okay. Then he said in verse 5, for we have found this man a pestilent fellow and
a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the
Nazarenes, basically translation, he's a cult leader, it's like cult leader, right, right,
in my feet, he's a cult leader, isn't he, the Nazarene sect, that's what he's saying, it's a cult
a sect, yeah, is that true? Cool stuff. Who also has gone about to profane the temple, whom we took
and would have judged according to our law, he hasn't profaned a temple, that's another lie,
but the chief captain Lysias came upon us and with great violence took him away out of our hands.
Now it's another lie really, at least it's cleverly worded, because they were beating him
to death at the time, okay, untried by the way as well, keep going, verse 8, commanding his accusers
to come unto thee by examining of whom now thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things whereof
we accuse him, and the Jews also assented saying that these things were so, so the others there
were are agreeing with these lies, which does make the lies seem more believable, doesn't it,
so you hear one person lie, it's like well that's a lie, when other people are just going here, here,
yeah, yeah, we agree, yeah, that's what happened, well it makes it more believable to him, right,
that's the goal. Well now when you look, when you just look into King James, okay, you'll find
various so-called historical websites, like I said, calling him a sodomite, okay, so there are loads of
people now agreeing who have no idea, okay, just repeating the claims, and at first glance, okay,
here you could have glossed over the accusations as maybe fairly truthful, just a biased point of
view, at these that we've just seen, these accusations of Paul, but, but that's the way things
work, okay, that's the way these things work. Character assassination works best when they sound
believable, okay, so if ever you're a victim of this in the future, ever you've seen this go on,
it's a lot more effective when it sounds believable, when it's, and I think for the mind what I've heard
is it's hard to just make out complete outright lies based on no kernel of truth, that's very hard
for the mind to do, so instead it's you take some element of truth and then the lie comes from that,
and this is what they were doing here with Paul. Paul preaching the gospel, because we just read here,
we, we read that he's a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout
the world and the ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, well Paul preaching the gospel did cause
a stir, yeah, he definitely caused a stir, he was an apostle, so he was planting churches, he was a
leader of sorts, wasn't he, and it's like, you know, nowadays you get it, King James Bible, he must be a
cult, cult sounds a bit cult-like, they believe that God actually preserved his word, well Paul's being
called a cult leader here, but ultimately he was an apostle though, and he was a leader of some sorts,
he was preaching a new testament, which is that the temple is now our body, so they said here he's
gone about to profane the temple, well the physical building was redundant, wasn't it, now the curtain
was rent in twain, that was over, and now we are the temple of the Holy Ghost, so he was preaching that,
and then they said in verse, they said in verse seven, they said, but the chief captain
Lycius came upon us and with great violence, and there was great violence, only it was by them,
there was some great violence, so they were just speaking lies in hypocrisy, right, it just wasn't,
they made it sound like it was by them, but by the chief captain, it was actually by them,
well with King James, okay, that's how they've tried to work with King James, there are some
truths that help facilitate this big lie about him, so he didn't have a load of mistresses,
so this was unheard of, so a king of England, he doesn't, the wife's not in another castle,
well he's got, you know, all these different, they apparently even had an allowance for the kings of
England, and a mistress allowance, and he didn't use any of it, he didn't have any mistresses,
because he was an upright guy, because he actually tried to love his wife like the Bible tells him to,
because he didn't want to have a load of mistress, because he wanted to follow God,
but it made it sound a bit more believable, because well, everyone else is womanizing,
why is King James not? He, like many other monarchs by the way, like past and future monarchs,
kings of England in fact, and even queens as well, would have bodyguard sleep on the ends of his huge
bed, but you could quickly change that to, oh King James used to have his bodyguard sleep with him,
yeah so did other kings, so did King Henry VIII, and no one called him a queer, but when people
are trying to blow you up, when you've already been kidnapped when you're a child in Scotland,
you could understand you thinking, and that's what they used to do, and it was a big bed,
okay, it was a big bed, he wasn't like cuddled up to his bodyguards, but you can make that sound
worse can't you, right, he greeted people with what was the custom of the time, a kiss on the cheek,
now we might be a bit put off by that, okay, but many in the world still do that,
don't they, many nations around Europe still do that, people give a kiss on the cheek,
now that was a cultural thing in England at the time, apparently this is very well known,
and there are writings of people that said you go to England and you come away with a sore cheek,
you know, just because of all the rough beards kissing you on the cheek and stuff, but that was
just a cultural thing of the time, and that's something that King James and many other people
did as well, but you could slant that can't you, make it sound like he's some sort of poofter.
Well the false accusations against Paul continued in Acts 25, okay, so the same thing happened with
him, they didn't just slant some things in their favour there, it continued, this time it's to
Pausius Festus who I think seemed to succeed Felix, okay, so now they're talking to him,
verse 7 of Acts 25 said, and when he was come the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood
round about and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul which they could not prove, so many
and grievous, I mean who knows, maybe they were coming out with the same stuff because Paul wasn't
married, maybe they're calling him a sod as well, but many and grievous complaints against Paul
which they could not prove, while he answered for himself, neither against the law of the Jews,
neither against temple, nor yet against Caesar have I offended anything at all, and it continued long
after his death as well, okay, by the way, so it wasn't just King James who was slandered after he
was dead and he couldn't defend himself and others then were dead who couldn't defend himself from
the day either, this continued with Paul with his teachings being described by the Jews, they call
it Paulinism, have you ever heard of this before, so they act like he like came up with his old new
teachings and it was Paulinism that the Jewish Encyclopedia calls him an Hellenist, which is
basically like a Greek influenced idolatry, it was like he was influenced by the Greek teachings
the Greek gods and everything else, that's not the Apostle Paul of the Bible, that's just slander,
it's lies, along with a load of other character assassinations that the Jews come out with to
this day about Paul because they hate him really, and because really they hate what, it's more than
that, because as with King James the ultimate goal is to discredit everything about him, which leads
on to the final point, so the title is the assassination of King James, number one the
attempted assassination of King James, number two is the character assassination of King James,
and number three is the product assassination of King James, the product assassination of King
James, go back to Acts 21, Acts 21, so by far the biggest legacy of King James I of England
is the King James Bible, okay, and that's really what all this is about, okay, you won't hear the
amount of slander you hear on any other pretty good king than you will on King James, okay,
they tried to assassinate him whilst it was in the planning stage, they've since tried to
assassinate his character to discredit him and the King James Bible, and alongside that they've
been assassinating the product of probably our most godly king ever, ever since, they've just
been assassinating the product, and for many years, okay, this just didn't get anywhere,
because the King James Bible was so clearly such an amazing translation work, what could you even
say, what could you say about it, you could just read the foreword by the translators and just
like there's nothing like this, that how like just, you know, they were so set on not getting
one thing wrong, they were in fear of miss, of mishandling the word of God, no one's ever,
I mean you showed me the NIV, the RSV, all these Bible pervertors now, and the attitude is
completely different, okay, they're trying to put their own biases into it etc, let alone not even
use anything worthwhile translated from in the first place, because since that's what's happened
is it's since those two what are really contradicting rubbish dump manuscripts, which is what
they are, that were dug up, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, it's since that really that
this has gained a bit more traction now, okay, alongside obviously at the same time lowering
standards of so-called scholarship, basically most of them are just self-labeled scholars now,
they just call themselves scholars, the product assassination of King James has now gained more
traction, which you will have, you will notice if you've ever looked at this stuff, not just online,
but when you talk to people on the door, if you're out and you talk to people and you're preaching,
or you're having people, you talk to people who come into churches and things like that,
you'll just notice more and more the attack on the King James Bible. From claims that old buried
manuscripts must be more accurate than the ones preserved through God's way of meticulous copying,
oh no, because we've got some more accurate ones that were buried in the rubbish,
you know, and were dug up years later that contradict each other in, I think some claim
that there's probably more, there's more that doesn't agree than agrees between those two
manuscripts. They're so, they're just such a load of rubbish. And the same, and the manuscripts that
were used for the King James Bible, and ultimately that, you know, that received text, that majority
text of the Greek New Testament, when we're talking about the New Testament, and the Hebrew
Masoretic, these texts have been used, had been used for any decent Bible, for all Bibles, in all
languages, they've been using these texts up until that time period, but oh no, now we found one, we
found a couple of manuscripts that don't agree with each other, that must be better because
they're older, because they never got used, because they were binned somewhere. I mean, what a load of
nonsense, right? People buy this stuff, in fact they don't even know any better, because they just
go with the status quo, don't they? To claims as well that King James enforced his own translation
ideas, you might have heard that one before, oh well, King James, he told them to do this, and he told
them to translate like that, to now it's just so hard to read, that's what, that's kind of the biggest
one, isn't it? How, it's so hard to read, you want it? The language is completely different now, really?
Really? Because I understand my King James Bible, yeah? Anyone here don't understand the King James
Bible? Because if you don't, we're happy to preach you the Gospel, because that's really what it comes
down to, doesn't it? If you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit, you should be able to understand the
Word of God. Try putting your trust in salvation, being all of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection,
and not in your own continued works for salvation, and you might start to understand the King James
Bible, and not trying to make salvation a process like half of these false Bibles do, in fact most of them.
And what that indwelling Holy Spirit will do, he will help you to understand God's preserved words.
You don't have to turn to John 16 13 says, howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide
you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall
he speak, and he will show you things to come. You know the Holy Spirit guides you into all truth,
and the Holy Spirit will help you understand his Word if you keep reading, if you keep studying to
show thyself approved. A workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly divine the Word of truth, right?
Divide it, read it, keep reading it, learn it, study it, and you'll keep learning it.
You'll keep understanding it, you'll understand it more and more if you have the Holy Spirit in you.
And what's funny is that there are some seriously bad translations out there, aren't there? I don't know
if you've ever tried to compare, ever looked at some of these things. Sometimes I do just want to
laugh when I'm like thinking, I wonder how they said it in this, when you're writing a sermon,
and you go, let's look at these different Bible perversions, and firstly you know they've corrupted,
and see the corruption in it, and they've got some software now where you can like click on different
ones, you can click on like the message, you can click on like all these just content, this just
absolute nonsense, yeah? And it says like complete opposite stuff, complete adding in, taking away,
like it's ridiculous, right? Yet what is it that all of these Bible of the month proponents want
to attack, want to criticize, want to find fault in? Forget the message, forget all these other weird
so-called Bible perversions, forget all of that, it's the King James Bible. Why? What's their
bugbear with the King James? I mean there are some appalling translations out there, horrendous
translations out there, pretty much every single one apart of the King James Bible. There are levels of
that as well, right? And some are really bad, but no one seems to care about them, there's no
campaign against them, there's no essays and you know onward essays all over the internet and
and books written about them, but there is on the King James Bible, isn't there? On the King James
Bible, why? The same reason that they attacked the Apostle Paul so much, it's God's word that they
really hate. That's what it comes down to, it's God's word. Okay Acts 21, okay, where Paul is saying
his goodbyes to the leaders from the Ephesian church, Acts 21 or maybe it's Acts 20,
sorry, Acts, Acts 20, Acts chapter 20.
He said this in Acts 20 and verse 24, but none of these things move me, neither count on my life
dear unto myself, so I might finish my course with joy and a ministry which I've received with the
Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. So many of these people really just hate the
gospel, that's what a lot of it is. Okay, well they want a Bible where salvation is ambiguous at the
least, they want a Bible where salvation they can kind of pick and choose and some what should be
clear salvation verses are a little bit ambiguous or even suggest purposely some sort of works
required for salvation, ongoing works, salvation being processed, repenting of your sins, all that
other type stuff, lordship, salvation, some it's just outright just clear as day as well in
some of these false perversions, but there are also those that are saved that still want to
attack God's word. Verse 25 says, and now behold I know that you all among whom I have gone preach
the kingdom of God shall see my face no more, wherefore I take you to record this day that I
am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Why do they want to attack God's word? Because they don't want to be to be declared all the
counsel of God. That's what a lot of it is as well. So yeah, there are those that just,
they're unsaved, they know that the King James Bible is clear on salvation, they like to cling
to their false versions and their work salvation, but there are those that are saved, there are
saved people out there that carry around, you know, a false version that will push away the
King James Bible and reach for the Bible of the month and or maybe have a few Bibles, you know,
so they can kind of decide what they want with the, you know, as they go through it,
because do you know what they don't want to hear? They don't want to hear a preacher saying
thus saith the Lord. They don't want to hear it. They want to hear thus saith the Lord.
People don't want to hear this is what God's telling you to do now you're deciding to reject
God. They don't want a Bible that they can't close and keep opening other ones until finally
they find the one which says what they want it to say, because that's what so much of it is.
It's like, well, yeah, I mean the NIV does say that, but the RSV, okay, the ESV,
okay, we got it, okay, the NASB says it, that's what I need to do, that confirms what I want to
do, that confirms my preconceived ideas, that confirms a decision I've already made. That's
what it comes down to and you can take it or leave it with the Bible of the month. You could take it
or leave it when you're saying, well, it's really just the thoughts and ideas, is there really a
perfect translation? You become the final authority. And you know why pastors love it?
Because they become the final authority. Because how many, I've been in a church like this,
it was a Bible of the month church and the pastor, he would, this was a regular occurrence as well,
where he would get to a passage in a so-called Bible study and go, well, the NIV says it like
this, yeah, I know I've told you this before, but it always amused me, and he'd go through a few
different Bible versions and kind of read out what they say, and all different. He would sometimes add
in the King James with a little smirk. It'd be like, he did, honestly, it'd be like, King James,
you know, there you go. But you know what the Greek really says? When you go back to the Greek,
it actually means this, and everyone in there just, wow, he's told us what God really meant,
he's the final authority, because how on earth could we rival his knowledge in his Greek
knowledge? The guy can't speak Greek, he doesn't have a clue, he's got a lexicon, and apparently he's
now the expert, and that's what you see in churches all over the world, sadly, and these guys like that
stuff, the preacher likes that sort of stuff. They don't want to be declared, though, for people in
general, they don't want to be declared all the counts of God. Now turn to Psalm 12, and of course
that, what's that preacher also doing tickling their ears? So they're usually happy with his
final authority, because it's not quite as strict as, thus saith the Lord. Turn to Psalm 12. Why did
people and do people want to assassinate King James? Because they don't really want the Word of
God in English. That's really the reality. They don't want the Word of God. They don't want it,
they want to hide from it, they don't want to accept that it's there, they want it, they want
to have their own, they want to either be the final authority themselves, or at least not accept
God's final authority. They're happy with inspiration, as long as it doesn't involve
preservation. They'll take the inspiration, just not with the preservation, but without preservation.
What's the point in inspiration? Why inspire, why did God inspire his words
if he wasn't going to preserve them? What was the point? But he did preserve them.
Psalm 12 and verse 6, he said this through the Psalmist,
the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the furnace of earth purified seven times,
thou shalt keep them, O Lord. No, not not we will keep them, thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. They weren't buried somewhere,
unread for over a century and a half, it was from this generation forever.
They're still here and in English they're in the King James Bible. No doubt about it,
that's why they're still trying to assassinate King James to this day.
And they'll continue to do so, they'll either assassinate, they try to assassinate him and
they failed. They've continued to character assassinate him and they continue to product
assassinate him. But you know what, hopefully at the end of this sermon you can see that,
you can see the truth of that and hopefully you'll have more faith in your King James Bible.
And don't let them win, right? Keep trusting the word because God preserved his word in English
and that is in your King James Bible. The assassination of King James number one,
the attempted assassination of King James number two, the character assassination of King James
number three, the product assassination of King James. Well, we have the King James Bible though,
they haven't succeeded. We're still reading it, we're still learning from it, we're still
preaching it, we're still getting people saved from it. Let's keep doing so, right? On that,
we'll finish in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your for your word,
Lord. Thank you for the King James Bible, thank you for, Lord. Well, we can even go back to
stories with the Apostle Paul and, you know, things that happened in his life and see
similarities, see how men of God, you know, doing work for you, Lord, will be, you know, sadly even
physically threatened. They will have their characters assassinated, Lord, and they'll
have the product, they'll have what they're saying assassinated, Lord. And that means that everyone
here, Lord, everyone here that's trying to serve you, that's trying to live for you, will
experience this from time to time in their lives. We pray that you just help us to be like the
Apostle Paul was, to be, to just keep going, Lord, to finish the course, to keep the faith,
Lord, to the end, to just keep serving you. We pray that you help us to do that with full faith
in our King James Bibles, Lord, and the word of God which has got us saved and continues to
go and get other people saved. Help us do that this afternoon. With the sole winning, Lord, help us to
preach the Gospel, get people saved and then return for this evening's service. To hear more truths
out of your King James Bible. In Jesus' name we pray all of this. Amen.