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Men, this morning my sermon is on the subject of what we believe about the Word of God. What is our doctrine of the Word of God? What do we believe about the Bible? Of course, the Bible is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice. Everything that we believe is derived from this book. The way that we live our life, the answer to every important question that is spiritual in nature is found in this book. The way that we live our lives, everything comes from the Bible. We are saved because of the Word of God that gave us the gospel that was able to save our souls. There's really no more important subject than the subject of the Word of God, the Bible itself. I have in my hand here another book. This is called The Baptist Confession of Faith, also known as the 1689 Baptist Confession. Who's ever heard of this thing before? Put it in your hand if you've heard of it. Several people have heard of it. This is a pretty famous book. This is basically a statement of faith from the 1600s. A lot of people even today really latch onto this and they actually subscribe to the whole thing. Let me just start out by saying this. I do not subscribe to this book because of the fact that this book teaches a hardcore Calvinist predestination doctrine that is contrary to scripture. There are many things in this book that can easily be shown to be false from the scripture, but there are also a lot of really good things in this book. Now here's why. Because of the fact that this is basically a mixture of various things. It's written by a bunch of different authors. It's basically people at the end of the 17th century got together and they took a bunch of previous statements of faith and they copied and pasted them together and then they added their own stuff, made their own changes. This comes from a lot of different people, so it's kind of a mixed bag where a lot of it's actually right on the money and then a lot of it is just totally different than what Bible teaches. And so a lot of people will just kind of buy into this whole thing. This is a man-made book. And any time we have a statement of faith, it's man-made. It should never be any kind of an authority. Only the Bible is the authority, and that's what we're going to talk about this morning. Now only the Bible is the authority. No man-made document can even come close to the authority of the Bible. No church is the authority. No religion is the authority, but the Bible is the authority. So I'm going to be doing a series of YouTube videos where I actually go through each chapter of this and show what is right in it and what is wrong in it and break it down line by line because there's a lot of stuff in here that's just downright false and can easily be shown to be wrong and there's a lot of other things that are good. But this morning I'm going to go through chapter one of this book because chapter one, I'm doing this as a sermon because chapter one is actually really good. It actually is correct. And I'm going to show you from the Bible how this is correct, what this is saying about the Word of God. So if you would, turn to Romans chapter one. Are you in Psalm 19? Stay in Psalm 19. Psalm 19 is a great chapter and it talks about basically two different ways that God communicates with man. At the beginning of Psalm 19, it talks about how in verse number one, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. So nature or the heavens and the earth, God's creation, they actually declare the glory of God. They actually speak unto us or witness to us of God's power, God's might. We can even see some of the attributes of God just by observing nature, by looking at what he created, we can see something about the creator, amen? But then he goes on to talk about, starting at verse number seven, the actual written Word of God. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes, and on and on. So he starts out by talking about nature and saying, the heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament showeth his handiwork, day unto day utters speech, night unto night showeth knowledge. So look, the natural world is uttering speech and showing us knowledge. So can we learn something by observing nature? Yeah, can we look up in the sky, can we look at the trees or the ocean or the rivers and learn something? Can we look at the animal kingdom and learn something? Absolutely. There's no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the ends of the world, and it's talking about the natural world. So God speaks to us in two ways. He speaks to us through the natural world, we can learn something, and through the Word of God. Okay, now go if you would to Romans chapter one, Romans chapter one. And while you're turning to Romans chapter one, I'm going to read you the first paragraph from this Baptist Confession of Faith chapter one of the Holy Scriptures, paragraph one. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as to leave men inexcusable, yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary unto salvation. So what are they saying? They're saying, look, even though the natural world can tell us something about God's goodness, his wisdom, and his power, it is not sufficient to give you the knowledge that will lead you to salvation. And this is really important because a lot of people get this wrong. In fact, when I was in Bible college at Howells Anderson College, when things were getting weird there toward the end with Jack Scott, there were students in the college that were literally saying that you could be saved without even knowing the name of Jesus just simply by looking up into the heavens or looking at the natural world and just calling out to a higher power to be saved. That's false. The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Not whoever calls on the supreme being, not whoever calls upon the intelligent designer, it's whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord that shall be saved. The Bible says of the name of Jesus that there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And the name of Jesus comes from this book right here, not from looking into the sky. Now if you would look at Romans chapter one, and this idea is covered there as well. I'm going to start reading in verse number 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has showed it unto them. Look at verse 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. So the Bible is telling us here that the natural world, the creation, that clearly shows us God's eternal power and his Godhead or his Godhood or divinity, it shows us those things to the point where we as human beings are without excuse. I don't care if someone has never heard the name of Jesus or never heard the gospel. The Bible says they are without excuse. They cannot show up on judgment day to the great white throne and say, God, we didn't know. No missionary came to us. We didn't hear the gospel. He's going to say, no, you should have realized that there was a God, that there was a creator when you saw the natural world. And you say, well, that's not enough to get people saved. But here's the thing. The person who sees those things and wants to know more, you know, the Bible says, ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. If you respond to the light that God gives you, God will give you more light. If you reject the light that God gives you, you're not going to get any more light. So people are without excuse no matter what. Now if you believe this crazy doctrine that says, oh, well, if people never hear the gospel, they get a pass, then why would you ever do missions? You'd just be damning people with missions because now everybody's heard it. Now everybody's responsible for it. Most of them don't accept it. So you're just on this soul damning mission. Wrong. They're condemned already. Missions is shining the light of the gospel to people who are in darkness already condemned without excuse. And let me tell you something. They will go to hell if they do not believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't care how much they've heard about the gospel or haven't heard. So instead of saying, well, God's not fair, why don't we get out there and win people to Christ? Why don't we go on the mission strips? Why don't we bring the gospel to every creature? Because I want to make sure everybody gets a chance to hear a clear presentation of the gospel. You know, but even if they don't, they're still without excuse. God is still just and holy. So yes, the natural world teaches us about God, and yes, people are without excuse because of that testament from the natural world, yet the Bible is clear that it is the word of God that saves us. We must have the word. Why? Because we must have the name of Jesus, which comes from the word. But the Bible also says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How can someone put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ without first hearing the word of God? They can't. The sower soweth the word, all right? Acts 11 14, he shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. James chapter 1, receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. It's the word of God that quickens us. It's the entrance of God's word that gives light, okay? So you cannot be saved without the word of God, without the Bible. You have to hear the word of God to be saved, all right? So I'm going to go back to this statement of faith thing here where it said that, you know, it's not sufficient, the natural world's not sufficient to get somebody saved, amen? And then it says after that, therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in divers manners to reveal himself and to declare that his will unto his church and afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world to commit the same holy unto writing which make it the holy scriptures to be most necessary those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people being now ceased. All right? So at the end of that long paragraph, he said that the former ways of God revealing his will unto his people are now ceased. What it's talking about is Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1. In Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1, the Bible said, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. That's what he did in the past. He spoke unto the fathers by the prophets in time past. He has in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he had appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the world. So here's the thing, there was a time on earth when the written word of God as we have it today did not exist, right? If we go back to the days of Adam and Eve and Abel and Seth and Enos and those guys, you know, the Bible tells us in Genesis chapter 4 that men began to call upon the name of the Lord. But did they have the Bible? Did they have the written word of God? No, but they did have the same word of God that we have. They didn't have as much of it as we have, but they had some of the word of God, otherwise how could they have been saved? They couldn't. They couldn't get saved without the word of God. So in the past, God's word was an oral thing. It was something that was preached by prophets, okay? Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So even in the times of Abel and Seth and Enos and in the days of Noah, the word of God was there. A lot of people get this dumb doctrine that the word of God didn't exist back then. Of course God's word has always been on this earth. God has always spoken to mankind in every generation, otherwise people couldn't be saved because the natural world is not enough to get them saved. They need the word of God, okay? So the word of God has always been around, but it started out being in an oral format where prophets would be filled with the Holy Ghost and they would speak God's word. They would preach God's word. Then later, starting with Moses, it started to be written down, right? And you've got those first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the written word. Then you've got the historical books. You've got the poetic books, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. And then you've got the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all down the line. And those words were written down and those written words are the Old Testament, right? Then we get to the New Testament. You have prophets of God, men of God, apostles, right, that are speaking as they're moved by the Holy Ghost. And they are either writing letters like the Apostle Paul, James, Peter, they're writing a letter inspired by God, okay, speaking as they're moved by the Holy Ghost. Or in the case of the Gospels, they're writing down an account of the life and ministry, death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God's written word, okay? So basically, you start out in the early days, it's an oral word of God where prophets are speaking the word of God, okay? Then you get to where it starts being written down around 1500 BC by Moses and then afterward by other holy men of God, all the way up through the first century AD when the New Testament is written down by the apostles. And now, today, it's done. It's been done for almost 2000 years. We have the finished book right here. We got the Old Testament. We got the New Testament. It's all right here. Now let me ask you, which one's better, relying on oral preaching from prophets or having it written down in black and white on the shelf? Folks, there's no comparison. What a blessing to have the written word of God. This is way better than just relying on the prophets to preach to you. Now, obviously, God got the job done through the prophets, but we are privileged to be able to understand the whole... Look, these are things that they would have loved to understand the Old Testament. People in the Old Testament would have loved to understand the things that we understand because we have the whole book, Genesis to Revelation. It all fits together. It makes sense. We can just reference whatever the book, whenever we want. You can buy this at the Dollar Tree or Walmart or at the gas station, for crying out loud, whereas in the past, it had to be hand-copied and it was not as prevalent. So we ought not take this book for granted. This is amazing that we have this whole book at our fingertips, the word of God. But a lot of people say, no, no, no, God's still speaking by the prophets and God's still giving us these extra biblical revelations. Well, here's the thing about that. It's sort of like the manna in the Promised Land, okay? When they got to the Promised Land, the manna ceased. Why did they have manna in the wilderness? Because there was no way for them to get food by natural means. So they needed that supernatural manna to come from heaven because otherwise they have no food. Whereas as soon as they got into Palestine, now all of a sudden, they have all the fruit of the land. They can plant crops, they can pick things and go gather and hunt and plant crops and do what they need to do and herd cattle. So they no longer needed God's supernatural intervention. And that's how it is today in the New Testament is that we don't need God to raise up prophets to give us extra biblical revelations because we already have the whole book. It's very clearly complete right here. And when you listen to those who are giving extra biblical revelations today in the charismatic movement, you'll notice that they are often teaching things virtually 100% of the time contradictory to the written word of God. So here we got the written word and then you, oh, I got a word of knowledge, I got a word from the Lord, you know, send me your money and I got a word that he's coming back on whatever the date. These extra biblical revelations are unnecessary and false, all right? We have the complete word of God and it's pretty obviously complete when you read it. When you get to the end of Revelation and you see where he basically explains that the next thing we're looking for is the end times, the second coming of Christ, even so come Lord Jesus. There's no prophecy. Hey, I'm going to send another prophet in the 1800s to America to give you another testament of Jesus Christ. There's no prophecy. Look, all throughout the Old Testament, it's constantly telling us about the New Testament's coming. New Testament's coming. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. New Testament. The Messiah is coming. Isn't it funny how the New Testament never tells us about the coming of Joseph Smith? Isn't it interesting how the New Testament never tells us that Mohammed's coming? Hey, I'm going to send a whole another prophet, whole, wrong. We're looking for the second coming of Jesus Christ. That's the note that the New Testament leaves us on. And it's not just Revelation. I mean, in Acts chapter 1, this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven. All throughout the epistles, we're patiently waiting for the coming of Christ, all right? And Revelation continues with that. It's clearly done. Here we are. We've got the Word of God. And you know what's so funny is that most of these people are going looking for some other revelation, have never even read this book cover to cover. You know, you're into the book of Enoch and the book of Jasher and the Apocrypha and all. You haven't even read this book. And you want more? You haven't even finished your dinner. And you're trying to get dessert from a junky fast food place when you're being fed filet mignon at home? But anyway, these other ways have ceased. That's how God did it in the past. Today we have the written Word, okay? So here's the second paragraph from the statement of faith here. Under the name of Holy Scripture or the Word of God written are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testament, which are these, and it basically just catalogs the 66 books that we have, of which are given by the inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life. Paragraph 3. The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon or rule of the Scripture and therefore are of no authority to the Church of God nor to be any otherwise approved or made use of than other human writings. So it's saying, look, the Apocrypha is not any more important than any other book written by man, it's not inspired by God, it has no authority in the Church, and it shouldn't be read any more than any other book that somebody wrote. Now here's the thing. A lot of people will spread this lie that the Apocrypha is supposed to be part of the Bible and that it was originally part of the King James Version and that it was later taken out, but that that's supposed to be part of our King James Bible, or that the King James Bible started with the Apocrypha in it. Now here's the thing about that. We have an exact replica in the back of the auditorium of the 1611 edition of the King James Bible. Not only that, but it's actually the exact size and weight and feeling and material of the original. I have held the original in my hand, the one that's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars because it's actually 400 some years old, and I have held the replica in my hand and they feel exactly the same, the paper feels the same, the book feels the same, it looks the same. It's an authentic replica back there, okay? There's no sense in, you know, risking dropping the other one, amen? So just, you know, stick with the replica because it's the same thing, all right? But anyway, the replica's back there, and we also have a leaf from the original framed on the wall. That's actually an authentic leaf from a damaged original. So you know, you will look, if you look in there, you will see that the apocryphal books are located in that Bible in a separate section between Old and New Testament, okay, and not mixed in with the Old Testament like a Catholic Bible would have, but they're in a separate section between the Testaments, and it says right at the top of the page, apocrypha, okay? Just right there calling it apocrypha, you're basically saying, this is not part of the Old Testament, okay? If someone tells a story and the story never actually happened, you know what that story's called? An apocryphal story, right? Has anybody ever heard that use of the word apocryphal? Like oh yeah, this story supposedly happened in the, like Marie Antoinette saying, let them eat cake. That is apocryphal, okay? That didn't actually happen, all right? It was just something that was from a comic where somebody was making fun of her and saying that she said that. So that's an apocryphal story. Not only that, if you actually read the notes in the side column of the original 1611 edition, you know what it says often? Oh, this part's corrupt. This part's wrong. It has notes saying, this guy's trying to imitate Solomon. They did not believe in it. You say, no Pastor Anderson, I think it's supposed to be part of it. Oh really? Okay? Because the Church of England that published that book had a statement of faith at the time called the 39 Articles of the Church of England and you know what one of those articles is? That the Apocrypha is not the word of God and that these 14 books of Apocrypha are not authoritative and they are not to be used to base any doctrine. Well let me tell you something, all scriptures profitable for doctrine. The Apocrypha is not profitable for doctrine and no, it was never believed by the King James translators or any of the people from that era that oh, this is somehow part of the word of God unless they're Catholic. Okay. Now if you just want to know what's wrong with the Apocrypha, it doesn't take long to figure out that it's junk. I've tried reading it so many times and it's just, it's so boring, it's so lame, it's such junk. Let me just give you an example. You don't have to get very far. How about the book of Judith, chapter 1 verse 1. You don't have to get very far folks. Chapter 1 verse 1 of the book of Judith, it says that Nebuchadnezzar is the king of Assyria ruling from Nineveh. Now let me tell you something, Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon ruling from Babylon. That is such an egregious error. That's like saying that King James is the king of France ruling from Paris, France or he's the king of Spain ruling from Madrid. That's like saying that Donald Trump is the president of Canada ruling from Ottawa, Canada. And yet you get these people, oh, you know, the Protestants took these books out of the Bible. Folks, they're junk. They were never supposed to be part of the Old Testament. They are counterfeits, they're fake scriptures. That's why they make such ridiculous errors as to say that Nebuchadnezzar is the king of Assyria ruling from Nineveh. That contradicts the Bible, contradicts historical record, it makes no sense and that's just one example. I could give you tons of examples of what's wrong with the Apocrypha but for the sake of time, I'm going to leave it at Judith, chapter 1 verse 1. What kind of a book Judith, nonsense. And some people say, well, it's still good historical reading. Nope. How could it be good with historical reading if it makes that kind of an error in the first verse? Are you going to trust that history? I think it's total junk for history. Well, read it for the historical value. No, it has no historical value. It's fraud. If something's known to be a fraud, skip it. There's no sense in trying to glean some truth out of it, okay? So paragraph 4, the authority of the Holy Scripture for which it ought to be believed dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church but wholly upon God who is truth itself, the author thereof, therefore it is to be received because it is the word of God. So why do we believe that the Bible is God's word? Is it because a church told us it's the word of God? No. Is it because a person told us it's the word of God? No. We're supposed to believe in the Bible because of the Bible. Because of the... You say, what's the proof for the Bible? The Bible is the proof for the Bible because it is the diamond that only God can create. It is this amazing book unlike any other book, hey, never man spake like this man. Our hearts burn within us when we read the word of God like they burned in their hearts when Jesus spoke to them on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, okay? So the word of God is true because the Bible, right? The Bible is true because... Well, you say, I don't think atheists are going to accept that. Well, burn in hell, atheists, because that's the truth. Well, how are we going to prove to the atheists that the Bible is the word of God? We can't. Faith is the evidence. If they don't have the faith, they don't have the evidence. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Why do you believe the Bible, Pastor Anderson? Because the Bible is awesome. Because the Bible is powerful. Because the Bible is unlike any other book. No man could write the Bible, that's why. And many people have tried, believe me. And they fell short, Apocrypha, Mohammed, Book of Mormon, Tao Te Ching, right? Whatever you want to name, it can't even come close to the Bible. So a lot of people will tell us, oh, you know, how dare you not be a part of the Catholic Church? That's who gave you the Bible. Wrong. Oh, the Orthodox Church is who gave you that Bible. No, we threw out all your stupid books. And they're like, oh, well, you know, we're the ones who chose which books are in there. Well, that's funny because we have a different list than you. You got Judith in there and we don't. We reject all that nonsense. Well, but the New Testament. Oh, really? Yeah, we really needed the Catholic Church to tell us that the Book of Thomas is not authentic. Just read Matthew, it's awesome. Read Mark, it's awesome. Read Luke, it's awesome. Read John, it's awesome. Read the Gospel of Thomas and then go throw up because it's junk, it's nonsense. All right, paragraph five. We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church of God to a high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scriptures and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine and the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole which is to give all glory to God, the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation and many other incomparable excellencies and entire perfections thereof are arguments whereby it does abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God. Yet notwithstanding our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts. You say, what in the world? Basically what that's saying is that church should be telling us how awesome the word of God is. Church should be telling us what the Bible is about and explaining to us its power, its majesty, its magnificence, how great it is and inspiring us and motivating us to want to read it but at the end of the day the reason that we know that it's true is because the Holy Spirit tells us it's true. Not because Pastor Anderson told us that it's true, not because the Baptist Church told us it's true or any other church but rather because the Holy Spirit told us it's true. And that's pretty much the same thing I just finished explaining a few moments ago. Paragraph 6. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture under which nothing at any time is to be added whether by new revelation of the Spirit or traditions of men. So don't add to God's word. It's done. It's complete. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word. So yeah, everything we need is in the Bible. It's all written down. It's complete but you can't understand it without the Holy Spirit. You have to be saved to understand the Bible. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So the Holy Spirit tells us that the Bible is true and the Holy Spirit explains and illuminates the Bible to us. So what this is saying basically is that, look, I don't get new revelations from the Holy Spirit where God gives me something that isn't found in the Bible. But what I do receive from the Holy Spirit and what you receive from the Holy Spirit if you're saved and you're reading the Bible is you receive illumination or you receive things being pointed out to you in the Bible where you're learning things from the Bible because God's teaching them to you. Which again, this is superior to living in the Old Testament where you're relying on the prophets to preach to you verbally. We've got the written Word but not only do we have the written Word, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit explaining it to us and teaching us. So yeah, you say, does the Holy Spirit speak to you, Pastor Anderson? Absolutely. I don't open the Bible and read it. The Holy Spirit speaks to me through His Word. No, that's not what I mean. You know, I want to hear about other revelations. Well, how are you doing on reading Genesis through Revelation? Because I find that 99% of the people who want to hear about some other extra biblical revelation haven't read this book. And you know what that tells me? Think about this. That tells me they have less faith in this book than in just what some random dude gets up and tells them the Holy Spirit told them. I mean think about this. You want to go to a church where somebody just pops up and says, oh, I got a word from the Lord. And they're just on the edge of their seat like, what's he going to say? They're all excited. Like, what's God saying right now? Folks, why don't they get excited about this? This is the tried and the true. We know this came from God. We don't know whether that bozo is just popping up and making things up. This we know came from God. Why wouldn't you get excited about this? You know why? Because they don't believe in this. You know why they're going out and seeking for manna? Because they don't like the milk and honey and the grapes of Eshkol. That's why. They got all the fruit. They got all the grapes. You say, well, but when you're in the promised land, you got to actually work for that stuff. The manna is just on the ground. Except there's no more manna on the ground because you're in the promised land now. It's time to get to work, buddy. Six days shalt thou labor. And you know what? If you want to know the word of God, get to work. I'm reading this book. You want to go out and gather manna, and you find something on the ground. You think it's manna, and you put it in your mouth. You know what that is? It's something bad. You found a little white round thing on the ground, and you think you found manna? That's not manna. Okay? And you're going to eat that, and you're going to skip the grapes of Eshkol, skip the milk and honey, skip of the grain and the milk and the cattle and the sheep, and you're going to pick up that little dropping there, that little round white thing, and you can have that for yourself. I'm not having any. So you know, the inward illumination of the Spirit of God is necessary to save you and so you can understand the Bible, right? That's why people don't just get saved by themselves reading the Bible on their own. Someone has to explain it to them. Like the Ethiopian eunuch said, how can I except some man should guide me? He needed someone with the Holy Spirit to preach to him the Word of God. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos but ministers by whom he believed, even as God gave to every man? So God gave us all people who explained to us the Word of God, right? Someone expounded to us the Gospel, someone who had the Holy Spirit, so they had the ability to expound that. So he says, you know, yeah, you need the illumination of the Spirit of God. And then it says, and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the church common to human actions and societies which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence according to the general rules of the Word which are always to be observed. What he's saying here is that the Bible is not specifically going to tell you what to do in every single situation of life. It's not going to break down to you, okay, the church service is going to last for exactly an hour and 15 minutes and, you know, you're going to sing two songs and then you're going to have announcements and then you're going to sing another song and you're going to read a chapter in the Bible, then you're going to pray, right, does the Bible break down to us the exact order of a church service? Is the Bible telling us exactly what we need to eat for lunch today? No. Does the Bible tell us exactly what kind of a building to meet in or where to hold our services or whether to hold them outside or indoors? That's a no-brainer in August in Phoenix, Arizona if we want to survive. But the point is, you know, the Bible doesn't tell us every little thing. So it's saying, look, the Bible is the final authority for all matters of faith and practice. The Bible is everything we need to be saved. The Bible answers all the spiritual questions but there are other things in life and even in serving God where we just have to use common sense, we just kind of go by what nature teaches us to be the case, common sense, use your brain, but it's always viewed through the lens of the Bible. So a lot of times we have to make decisions about things that are not expressly laid out in the Bible. So we use the principles of the Bible and then we make the decision based on just common sense, what nature shows us to be true, right? I mean that just makes it things that are common to human actions and societies, you know, just kind of just obvious things. So some people, though, will just say, no, it's only the Bible. And look, only the Bible sounds great to me, all right? But you don't want to throw out common sense when it comes to that. And I've heard some people, they went so far overboard, they said, like, never read a book that's not the Bible. Don't read any other book that's not the Bible. So they're never going to pick up a math book, they're never going to pick up a science book, they're never going to pick up a history book, they're never going to pick up a book on nutrition or just what. That's silly, okay, to just say, oh, it's the only thing that we, it's the only information that we need. Well, you know, we need some other information, too, all right? You know, this isn't going to walk you through your plumbing job. Now I will say this, though, you know, you should execute your plumbing job in accordance with the Word of God, amen? The Word of God should guide you as a plumber, should guide you as an electrician, should guide you as a carpenter, but that doesn't mean that you're not going to need to make some decisions of your own, right? You got to make some decisions, you're going to have to learn some things outside the Bible, so you don't want to go too crazy with that and throw out common sense, okay? And look, here's some common sense, you know, you say, why do you have a piano and guitars up here for the singing in church? Because common sense tells us that if the longest book in the Bible is a song book, the book of Psalms, and if that book of Psalms continually talks about praising God on strained instruments, and if the New Testament tells us to worship the Lord with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, so we're supposed to sing the Psalms, then wouldn't common sense tell us that, yeah, we should have musical instruments when we praise God in the New Testament? I mean, that's just common sense, folks. To sit there, it's like we're supposed to sing this song. That's the one that mentions all the instruments that Brother Shelley has, somebody help me with the tune. Help me with the tune, though, how does it start? Praise God in his sanctuary, praise him with the sound of the trumpet, right, okay, but oh, oh, oh, God forbid you actually praise God with the sound of a trumpet. Now how dumb is it, how foolish is it to say, well, we're commanded in the New Testament to sing a song about blowing trumpets, playing strained instruments, but God forbid that we do it? It's ridiculous. It's bizarre. Okay. Yeah, but there's no New Testament example of them playing any musical instrument. There's barely any music in the New Testament, did you notice that? The New Testament isn't a musical. It's not like every time Jesus does a miracle or teaches a paracle, they don't just break into song, and then Peter picks up the chorus. It's not a musical, folks. The New Testament barely talks about music, so we get most of our teaching on music from the Old Testament. Folks, does God really just have to repeat everything again in the New Testament? Now the Bible's going to be like twice as long, because you're going to have to, oh, by the way, I still think all this stuff from the Old Testament, too. I still want you to play that trumpet, still want you to play those strings. It's superfluous, it's unnecessary, right? So use a little common sense. And here's the thing, some people say, well, if the Bible doesn't say to do it, we can't do it. Wrong. That's like saying, we can't drive a car, because there's no mention of car in the Bible. We can't ring a doorbell, we must only knock the door, because doorbells didn't exist. That's foolishness. So what they're basically explaining here is, yeah, the Bible's the final authority. Yeah, we get everything from the Bible, but there's a lot of other things where we're just doing what society does, we're doing what common sense dictates, we're doing what nature shows us, but we're just doing it in light of the Bible. We're just following the commandments and principles of the Bible as we live our lives according to the wisdom and common sense that God gave us of what nature shows us. So that makes perfect sense. All right, paragraph seven. I'm almost done, there's only 10 paragraphs, I'm almost done with this thing. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all. Yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of ordinary means, may attain to a sufficient understanding of them. Look, everything in the Bible is not easy. Some things in the Bible are hard to understand, but the things that are important, the things that we have to know, the things that are essential, are going to be crystal clear in some place or other in Scripture. And look, that's why everything we believe should be based on a clear Scripture. That's one of the problems with this book is that they sound great in chapter one. I mean, in chapter one, they sound great, until you get to later chapters when they just have beliefs that are not based on any clear statement of Scripture. But they just throw a statement out there and then put a couple of proof texts under it that don't say what they just said. Here's one thing you're going to notice about false doctrine. It's never based on a clear Scripture. Every correct doctrine is based on a clear Scripture. Anything that's not based on a clear Scripture is either one of two things. Either it's not important or it's not true. If somebody comes at you with a doctrine and they can't show you a clear Scripture stating that doctrine, either the doctrine they're telling you is not true or the doctrine that they're telling you is of very minimal importance. Now look, there are some things we believe that don't have a clear Scripture on them. We just derive them from Scripture. But let me tell you something, we're not going to emphasize those things and they're not important. We're not going to be pragmatic about those things. We can get up here and say, hey, when you study Bible prophecy in Revelation chapter 18, it appears that the United States is being described in Revelation 18 as the end times Babylon that's going to be destroyed. Hey, I believe that. I think that it's pretty hard to ignore. But can I get up here and say, hey, that's an important doctrine and you have to believe that? No. That's not a clear Scripture stating it. Every important doctrine has clear Scripture behind it. That's a secondary doctrine or that's a tertiary doctrine, right? That's like a third string doctrine. So it's either not true or it's not important. And in that case, it's not the most important doctrine. You say, well, why did you make a whole movie about it if it's not important? We made a movie about it because we want people to watch the movie. Everything in the movie is true. Everything in the movie is true and we want people to watch it. It's not that it's the most important doctrine, but it's a doctrine that people are interested in. See, here's a little side note, a little off course here. Here's a newsflash. Did you know that we don't make those documentaries to entertain you? And I know you think that's why we make them, like to entertain you, but that's not why we make them. Here's another newsflash. We don't make those documentaries to educate you. We do not make those documentaries to entertain you or to educate you. Can I explain to you why? Because number one, we're not going to put that much time, money, effort, and energy into you being entertained for an hour and a half. Number one, we could just go throw a ball around or something if we wanted to entertain you for an hour and a half. And number two, they're not needed to educate you because you know what, you're getting more than those documentaries can give you Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night by listening to your preaching. You know what I mean? More from listening to sermons, when you watch these documentaries, those of you who are members of our church, it's like a review for you. It's fun to watch, entertaining, but how much brand new information are you really getting? Those documentaries are to reach other people. Hello, is anybody home? That's why we have them on the shelf back there for you to give them to other people. They're to reach other people, to bring in other people and get them saved or get them right with God, get them serving God. So if everybody's on YouTube searching about Babylon, end times, New World Order, hey, we're going to put out some videos on that stuff, tie it into the Bible, and bring it to the Gospel at the end. Who here is sitting in this auditorium right now and you were reached through watching one of these documentaries, that's how you ended up getting here. You're here because of After the Tribulation, New World Order, Bible Versions, Martians of God. Yeah, look, there's like, what, 40, 50 people with their hands up. And you know what, when I go to events across the country, it's just person after person after person. It's thousands and thousands and thousands of people who that's how they found out about our church. Many of them say, I got saved from listening to the Gospel presentation at the end of After the Tribulation. But mark my words, if a doctrine is not based on a clear scripture, an explicit scripture, it is either not true or it is not important. I'm not saying that it's not true, but I'm saying if it is true, we shouldn't be making it the most important thing. You know, there are certain things that we disagree with other churches on that are unclear in scripture. Should we just demand that they all have to agree with us? No. And a lot of times when I talk to these guys, they say, well, this is what I believe, but I don't think this is clear. So you know, I have an opinion. So we need to be able to separate that which we stand on as fact, as just a core doctrine that's explicitly stated in scripture and our little pet doctrine, our little pet belief that we've derived from scripture, but it isn't explicit or clearly stated. Those are two different things, aren't they? I wish that the authors of this book would do that in later chapters, by the way, but they don't. You know, if you're going to lay down a statement of faith, it should only be things that are clear, only things that are obvious from scripture. So yeah, not everything's alike clear. Some things in the Bible are clear. Some things are difficult and unclear. But you know, the things that are necessary, the things that you need to be saved, those are always going to be obvious. Paragraph eight, the Old Testament in Hebrew, which was the native language of the people of God of old, and the New Testament in Greek, which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations, being immediately inspired by God and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentic. So as in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to them. But because these original tongues are not known to all the people of God who have a right unto and interest in the scriptures and are commanded in the fear of God to read and search them, therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation into which they come, that the word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship him in an acceptable manner and through patience and comfort of the scriptures may have hope. Okay, so what is that saying? He's saying, look, the Old Testament is originally written in Hebrew, the New Testament is originally written in Greek, and that God has preserved the original Hebrew Old Testament and the original Greek New Testament in all ages. Isn't that what it said in this statement of faith? It said that they were immediately inspired by God and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages. So let me ask you this, how can anyone claim to be following this 1689 Baptist confession and not be reading from a King James Bible in English? Can you explain that to me? Can you explain to me how anybody, and by the way, most of the people who believe in this are not King James. They got the ESV, the New American Standard, or whatever the modern perversion of scripture, how can they claim to be a confessional Baptist following the 1689 Baptist confession and not be on a King James makes no sense. Why? Because this right here, they're claiming to believe that the Hebrew Bible has been kept pure in all ages. So then explain to me how they can get away with using an ESV Old Testament which is not translated 100% from the Hebrew but rather takes portions from the Greek Septuagint which is a translation of the Hebrew and it's a corrupt translation of the Hebrew. So the Septuagint is a corrupt translation of the Hebrew Old Testament and the NIV, the ESV, etc., they go with it in places whereas the King James Bible is translated 100% from the traditional Hebrew text. Who's ever heard the term the Masoretic Hebrew text? Masoretic just means traditional. So the traditional Hebrew text, okay, underlies the King James version. All these new versions, you know what they do? Sometimes they'll say something dramatically different than the King James and you're like, what? How can this be so different? It'll say in the footnote, oh well the Hebrew says X, Y, and Z and it'll be what the King James says. It's like, um, aren't we translating from the Hebrew? Maybe the King James translates 100% from the Hebrew whereas the new versions, not only are they tainted by the Septuagint, quote unquote, so-called Septuagint, they're also tainted by junk found in the Dead Sea Scrolls which wasn't discovered until 1947. So how is it kept pure in all ages if we have to get some new finding in 1947 to bring it back into purity? It was already pure. We don't need somebody to dig up something in 1947 to show us what the Old Testament really said. We don't need the Greek Septuagint to tell us what it said. Hey, the Hebrew Bible has been kept pure in all ages. Jesus said one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law until all be fulfilled. Every jot and every tittle of that Hebrew Bible has been preserved. Oh, by the way, if you go to the store and buy the Septuagint, you want to know what three manuscripts they're basing that Septuagint on that you're buying? They're basing on three manuscripts. Tell me if these sound familiar, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus. Three unclean spirits like frogs out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the false prophet, right? Hey, Alexandrinus, which parts of it are like they were written by someone who's drunk or didn't speak Greek. Literally, even people who believe in this stuff will admit that, okay? Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, which contradict each other in more places than you can count, okay? And look, if these are all three manuscripts that are super corrupt in the New Testament, why would we trust them in the Old Testament? No, let's trust the preservation of the Hebrew Old Testament, amen, that underlines the King James Bible. Okay, underlies, I should say, excuse me. But also, it's hypocritical for someone to claim to believe this statement of faith and then not have a King James Bible in regard to the New Testament because the modern versions are based upon, again, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, these other bad manuscripts that they say, oh, well, you know, the King James translators just didn't have these available to them. Tischendorf had to dig it up from some monastery trash can, the Sinaiticus, and Vaticanus had to be taken from some dark cellar of evil witchcraft of the Roman Catholic, Vatican, whatever they have down there. It had to be dug out of there, right? So you know, folks, I thought it kept pure in all ages. So wouldn't that mean that the Greek text of the 1600s, 1700s, wouldn't that have been kept pure like the Textus Receptus, like the Greek text underlying the King James Bible? So you can't sit there and have an ESV, a New American standard in your hand and claim to believe this. Now, look, I'm not claiming to subscribe to this whole thing because like I said, it teaches false doctrine in later chapters, but I do agree with this first chapter on the Word of God. I mean, it's all true. Everything we've heard so far is checked out with Scripture. But how can you sit there and say, oh, yeah, I believe that the Greek and Hebrew has been kept pure in all ages and then have anything other than a King James in front of you? You're a hypocrite because the ESV and the NASB are not based on scholarship that says that it was kept pure in all ages. They thought, they think it had to be fixed. It was broken and we had to fix it with Sinaiticus. We had to fix it with Vaticanus, wrong. And if you don't understand what I'm talking about and you need 90 minutes of entertainment provided by yours truly, then, yeah, there's a video back there called New World Art of Bible Versions that you can watch and get your entertainment. That's not why we made it, but hey, that's a bonus, amen? I want you to be entertained by it. And then let's go throw a ball around afterward, all right? But anyway, what was I going to say? Are you in a hurry to get this sermon over with? No. Yeah, you know, you say, oh, what about the New King James? You know, the New King James is from the original Greek and Hebrew. What's wrong with it? Folks, I don't even think the New King James is even really a translation. I think it's a fraud because you know what it is? The New King James is basically they just took a King James and then they just changed it to be like the modern versions. And if you notice, every time, folks, I'm not making this up, look it up yourself. Every single time the New King James has a meaningful difference from the King James, it always reads identical to one of the popular modern versions, even when it's weird, NIV, New American Standard, RSV. It just basically is like a hybrid of the King James and the modern versions. Okay, so they can say, oh, well, it's translated from, you know, the same text or, yeah, but it's a bad translation. And again, that's covered in our DVD on New World Order Bible versions. And not only that, but, you know, I can give you a couple of concrete examples right now where the New King James says we're being saved. The King James says we are saved in 1 Corinthians 1.18. Or where it says the difficult is the way of salvation in Matthew 7. When the King James is saying it's narrow, meaning few there be to find it. Not that it's hard to get saved, but that it's few people that are getting saved. Or what about where the New King James says that the men of Athens who are worshiping devils are very religious when the King James says they're too superstitious. You know, there's on and on the bad translations with that. But you certainly can't use an ESV or a New American Standard and claim to believe that God kept it pure in all ages. That makes no sense. All right, let me hurry up and get done here. I'm almost to the end here. But because the original tongues are not known to all the people, you know, he's saying you got to translate it into people's language, right? Now here's the thing. I'm going to add to this here, all right? This is saying, hey, the Greek and Hebrew has been kept pure in all ages. Let me tell you something right now. The English, also this translation, this King James Version is without error. It is pure. Now God's providence kept the Greek and Hebrew pure, but you know what? God's providence also delivered us an accurate Bible in the English language. God has preserved his word down to us today. Now why did he give the Old Testament in Hebrew? Because that was the nation of the Israelites, right? Under them were committed the oracles of God. Why did God give the New Testament in Greek? That was the biggest, most important, most popular language. I mean, that was the big one. The Greek language was the number one most significant language, it was more significant than Latin. If Latin would have been the big significant language, he would have given it in Latin. You know, but Greek was the big language. So he gave it to us in Greek. Well what's the big language now? The big language is English, right? There are about 13.4 million people who speak Greek now, and about 2 billion people who speak English. It's getting to the point now where many countries in Europe, 33% of the people in that country speak English, 50% of the people in that country speak English, 60% in certain countries in Europe speak English. Folks, it's getting, and you know which 50% is? Young people. That means 20, 30 years from now, those numbers are going up. English is becoming a worldwide second language for everyone. Now people still have their own language, but it is the number one language. You don't think God knew that? When God allowed this amazing convocation of 54 of the greatest scholars to come together and produce the masterpiece of the King James Bible, it has stood the test of time for 400 years. It accurately represents what's in the original Greek and Hebrew. Now we don't believe in the stupid Ruckmanite doctrine that says, oh, the English is better than the Greek. The English is better than the Hebrew. That's ridiculous. It is equivalent because it translates it into English. So it says the same thing. So I can read it in Greek. I can read it in English. It says the same thing. Now it's better for us because we speak English. That's our native tongue. So obviously, and so let me say this. The final authority of our church, the final authority of Faithful Word Baptist Church is the English King James Bible. Now you say, whoa, shouldn't it be the original Greek? Look, obviously we believe that the Greek and the Hebrew are the final authority. Of course we believe that. We'd be ridiculous and silly not to believe that the original Hebrew and the original Greek are the final authority. But de facto in our church, how many people here are fluent in Hebrew? Put up your hand if you're a fluent Hebrew speaker. Zero. So how can our final authority be a Hebrew Old Testament that no one can read fluently? Is that ever practical? That's not practical at all. And don't pull out what some scholar said about the Hebrew, or God forbid, what some rabbi tells us about the Hebrew. Folks, if you can't read it yourself, you have some middleman, some concordance or lexicon interpreting. That's not going straight to the Word of God. We got to go straight to the Word of God. So de facto in the English language, we've got to go to our English King James Bible. It stood the test of time. We know it's accurate. We know it's true. We know it's inspired, preserved, that it's, you know, without error. So therefore, this ends up being our final authority. In English. Amen? Now, and look, we have a couple people in our church who speak Greek, but the vast majority don't. 99% don't. And so therefore, in the New Testament, our final authority is the English King James Bible. I'm talking about de facto. I'm not saying that the Greek is not the authority. I'm saying that since we don't have that as a common language amongst us, we have to use the English, I mean, we can't just be like, okay, well, how are we going to solve this dispute? All right, pull out a Greek New Testament that 99% of people don't understand. And then you just have to rely on someone to tell you what it means. And how do you know they're telling you the truth? People lie. People deceive. Many of these scholars are liars. Many of these so-called Greek scholars, by the way, don't even believe Jesus rose from the dead. Many of these so-called Greek scholars, they don't even believe in the virgin birth of Christ. Many of them believe in evolution and the Big Bang. Many of them just do it as a hobby. They go study theology at some Ivy League university where no one in the class believes the Bible and the teacher doesn't even believe the Bible. Is that what you want to rely on? No. Therefore, in an English-speaking country, in an English-speaking church, our final authority ends up de facto being the King James Bible. This is going to be the end of every dispute right here in Faith Ward Baptist Church. Not because we're denying the authority of the Greek and Hebrew. Obviously it has authority. But because of the fact that that authority is not accessible to 99% of people, therefore we end up using the translation. And that's what they're saying here. It has to be translated into the vulgar tongues so that people can actually read the thing. Vulgar just means common. It doesn't mean like obscene or something. All right. I got to hurry up. I'm out of time. Paragraph nine. The infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself. And therefore, when there is a question about the true or full sense of any scripture, which is not manifold but one, it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly. What he's saying there is, look, if you don't understand what a scripture means, compare scripture with scripture. Use the Bible to define the Bible. Use the Bible to interpret the Bible. A commentary is not the final authority. A scholar is not the final authority. The Bible interprets the Bible. So find a place that's more clear and use the clear to interpret the unclear. Paragraph 10. The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined and all decrees of counsels, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of man, and private spirits are to be examined and whose sentence we are to rest, we can be no other but the holy scripture delivered by the Spirit into which the scripture so delivered, our faith is finally resolved. He's saying, look, I don't care what some ancient author said, what some counsel said, what some statement of faith says, I don't care what the 1689 Baptist Confession said. Prove it with the Bible. Isn't that what they said? So this thing is telling you right here, don't trust me. Isn't that what it just told us? Don't trust me. Don't blindly think that everything I say is right because everything must be proven with the Bible. Now, I'm not going to subject you to the other, you know, 31 chapters of that thing, all right? I just wanted to subject you to chapter one because of the fact that I think chapter one taught a lot of great truths that we could look at in the Word of God that we could back up with scripture and, you know, basically we'll subject the geeked out YouTube world to the rest of the other 31 chapters of that. But the bottom line is, look, God's Word is the final authority. We need to know what we believe about it. And I think this morning is an important doctrinal foundation that everyone needs to have. Because otherwise, somebody will come along and they'll deceive you and lead you astray. They'll start telling you, oh, we got to use the Greek Old Testament. No, the Old Testament is Hebrew. Oh, we got to get into the Hebrew New Testament. No, the New Testament is written in Greek, all right? Or, oh, you know, oh, we got this new revelation. No, that's over, all right? We need to understand what we believe about the Bible, how did we get the Bible, why do we believe the Bible? You know, I remember somebody asking me as a teenager, why do we believe the Bible? And I said, I don't know, but I believe it. I believe it. I don't know. And this guy told me, he said, well, you know, it's because there's all this great historical information in the Bible. And since all the historical information in the Bible checks out, and there's so many accurate historical things and scientific things, then we just by faith believe that the rest of it's true. That's not why I believe the Bible. I just believe the Bible because I believe the Bible. The Holy Spirit told me that the Bible is true. You know why I believe the Bible? Because the Bible is the most powerful, amazing book ever. How many times did you read it this week? Did you read it every day? Did you crave it? Was it as sweet in your mouth as honey? Or do you just neglect it, get so busy, and choose some TV show or some magazine or something? Hey, make the Bible a priority in your life. It's good to know what we believe about the Bible. Now go read the thing. Amen? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you that everything that we believe is based on your word, Lord. Help us not to just ever blindly believe some theologian or blindly believe a certain church or a certain religion or a certain preacher or a certain confession or statement of faith, but Lord, help us make sure that everything we believe is actually based on clear statements of scripture, Lord. And help us to prove all things and hold fast to that which is good, and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.