(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

to his name. He who pardoned erring Peter never needs thou fear. He that came to faithless Thomas all thy doubt will clear. He who let the love disciple on his bosom rest, bids thee still with love as tender lean upon his breast. Yesterday, today, forever Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus never. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change but Jesus never. Glory to his name. He who made the raging billows mocked upon the sea. Still can hush our wildest tempest as on Galilee. He who wept and prayed in anguish in Gethsemane drinks with us each cup of trembling in our agony. Yesterday, today, forever Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus never. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change but Jesus never. Glory to his name. On the last, as of old he walked to Emmaus with them to abide. So through all life's way he walketh ever near our side. Soon again shall we behold him hasten, Lord, the day. But we'll still be the same Jesus as he went away. Yesterday, today, forever Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus never. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change but Jesus never. Glory to his name. Great singing this evening. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this day and thank you for the souls that were saved this afternoon. I pray that they would just be touched by the Holy Spirit and have the desire to come to church and to read the Bible and to grow as Christians. And thank you for your son Jesus Christ for the great sacrifice he made for us and for our church. Pray that you bless the service. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, for our second song we'll go to 112, Be Still My Soul. 112, Be Still My Soul. Song 112, Be Still My Soul. Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently, the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide. In every change, he faithful will remain. Be still my soul, thy best, thy heavenly friend. Through thorny ways, leads to a joyful end. Be still my soul, thy God doth undertake. To guide the future as he has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still my soul, the waves and wind still know. His voice who ruled them while he dwelled below. Be still my soul, the hour is hastening on. When we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone. Sorrow for God, love's purest joys restored. Be still my soul, when chains and tears are passed. All safe and blessed we shall meet at last. Great singing. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, if you didn't get one this morning or if you need another one, lift up your hand nice and high and one of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin. We're working on Revelation 1 verse 14. On the inside we have our service and soul winning times as well as church stats. Please continue to turn those in to your soul winning captains and lieutenants. Also, we have our list of expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them. We have our prayer list. Please be praying for our church family. Church reminders. Please pay attention to the church reminders. Also, we have a Mother's Day tea. My wife has already emailed out to every one of the ladies that had signed up and so it's just please if you could respond to that email by tonight. That way we make sure we have a confirmed RSVP count so that we can have everything set up for the event and we need those by today. Please do that. If you have questions you can ask my wife about that. Also, we have an upcoming guest preacher May 10th and that's going to be a special honor to have our guest preacher coming out and so I please encourage you even if you don't normally come on a Wednesday, try to make it. It's going to be a special service and you want to be here to hear it in person. Also, on May 20th there's a spring swap and so if you have any items that you just really don't have any use for but they still have value or someone else might like them then you can bring them and if you just need something you can just show up and take stuff that have value and obviously if no one takes your stuff it didn't have value. Okay, no I'm just kidding but we'll have that on May 20th. June, July 1st I'm sorry is the wedding for Brother Suhail and Ms. Lori May if you'd be in prayer for them and if you'd like to attend they want everyone and everyone is invited that comes to our church but if you would like to attend please just email Brother Suhail his emails listed there below and you can RSVP to their ceremony and I think that's all I have as far as announcements are concerned. We are continuing our translators to the reader series this evening so if you have that with you you might pop that out. We'll go ahead and sing our third song, Psalm 148. Psalm 148. Psalm 148 in your white handouts. Psalm 148. Psalm 148. Praise he the Lord praise he the Lord from the heavens praise him in the heights praise him all his angels praise him all his hosts praise him sun and moon praise him all you stars of light praise him heavens any waters that be above the heavens let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created he hath also established them forever and ever he hath made a decree which shall not pass praise the Lord from the earth dragons and all deeps fire inhale snow and vapor stormy wind fulfilling his work mountains and all hills fruitful trees and all cedars beasts and all cattle creeping things and flying fowl kings of the earth and all people princes and all judges of the earth both young men and maidens old men and children let them praise the name of the Lord for his name alone is excellent his glory is above the earth and heaven exalted the horn of his people the praise of all his saints in of the children of Israel all people near unto him praise he the Lord as the offerings are being passed around please turn your Bibles to Psalm chapter number 12 Psalm chapter number 12 mm-hmm Psalm chapter 12 Psalm chapter 12 the Bible reads help Lord for the godly man seeseth for the faithful fail from among the children of men they speak vanity every one with his neighbor with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak the Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things who have said with our tongue will we prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us for the oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy now will I rise say it the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times thou shall keep them oh Lord thou shall preserve them from this generation forever the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted let us pray father we thank you so much for this church we thank you for bringing pastor and his family home safely to us I pray that you'd fill in with your Holy Spirit today and I pray that you would help him to continue to expound the translators writings and help us to grow be edified and take what we learn and and make Apple applicable principal with it and just help us to grow and use it to be better Christians and thank you for all the souls that were one to Christ today and we just thank you for the congregation and I pray that you would put a shield and a hedge around every family and please protect them as they drive home and I pray these things in Jesus name amen amen so we're continuing our series of the translators reader and the last time that we were working on this we kind of stopped in the middle of a section the section was entitled an answer to the imputations of our adversaries an answer to the imputation of our adversaries and we're trying to print a few extra copies if you don't have one you could you could look it up on your phone some Bibles even just have it right there in the front part if you have a view a nicer King James a lot of times they just have it there if they get those printed and you can lift it up or use the one you had if you can share with someone on the side but we read the first section here of an answer of to the imputations of our adversaries and you know what an imputation is is a false attribution so it's basically they're falsely accusing the translators of something and really what they're kind of responding to in the previous passage that we kind of read through what they had said is they're being accused of essentially saying every translation except for theirs is bad or that they're kind of looked at as saying only we're right other translations are bad or wrong and they kind of are trying to answer in a way to say that they believe almost the exact opposite and that's what they had said if you look at the first sentence there says now the latter we answer that we do not deny nay we affirm and avow that the very meanest translation of the Bible and English set forth by men of our profession and then if you go past the print parenthetical statement says contain it the Word of God nay is the Word of God so they wanted to make it clear that they believe that translation work does not stop words from being the Word of God that just because you translated what God said into another language does not stop it from being the Word of God and in fact they even say very clearly it's not that it just contains the Word of God they say it is the Word of God and what they mean by meanest this is a word even found in your Bible often the word mean is typically just in reference to average so if you study mathematics a lot of times you talk about the mean or the mode mean is the average and so when it's talking about the meanest it's saying just the most basic most average translation of the Bible we still think it's the Bible okay now of course you want to get this in context of everything they said prior to this statement because if you study what they said prior to this and we've been paying attention they're saying well it still has to be coming from the right source you know they they didn't say that when it came from the Septuagint that it was always right in fact many times the Septuagint had problems and they said it's it's wrong it's also not you know without the context of the fact that it's accurate obviously it has to be accurate as to what the original said otherwise it's still not the Word of God but what they're saying is when it comes to translation work sometimes you have a choice between synonyms you have a choice of sentence structure you have a choice of how you're gonna kind of compose that particular phrase or statement and they're saying even when someone doesn't make it sound as eloquent as possible as long as it's accurate hey it's the Word of God in our opinion that's what they're kind of saying and they're also gonna kind of make mention of previous versions previous translation works and say hey those are still the Word of God it's not like we're looking down and saying they couldn't be the Word of God either and you know just as we kind of read this it kind of made me think of Psalms 12 that's why we read there before we kind of get into Psalm 12 I want to read a little bit and then I want to talk about Psalm 12 I think it relates to this but we start with Plutarch writeth it says here in the translators of the reader Plutarch writeth that after that Rome had been burnt by the Gauls they fell soon to build it again but doing it in haste they did not cast the streets nor proportion the houses in such comely fashion as had been most slightly and convenient was Catiline therefore an honest man or a good patriot that sought to bring it to the combustion or Nero a good prince that did indeed set it on fire now again a lot of these things if you have no I if you've never studied history or you don't know about any of these things none of this makes sense to you okay what he's saying is that Rome many times and again Rome is an empire that stretches over a thousand years in time okay so sometimes when you talk about Rome we could be talking about two very different people groups situations territories and everything like that but over the very long period of Rome's history there it had to be rebuilt during different battles wars all kinds of different things that are happening and he's saying hey at one point Rome had to be rebuilt after it was bit you know burnt by the Gauls so they're rebuilding the town rebuilding the areas of Rome but they're saying they're doing it really quick and in their hasty manner they didn't build it as great as it had been prior to like the previous construction had been a little bit better this one wasn't quite as well done wasn't really lined up as well and so they're saying so then was it good that the next Emperor's then just burn it down saying like if someone built a house and let's say it's not the greatest house ever you still want to do let's just burn it because it's not the best house ever he's saying like that doesn't really make any sense and Nero is a Roman Emperor that in fact burned a large section of Rome and then blamed it on the Christians and that kind of helped him justify a lot of martyrs of Christians at one point but he's basically saying wasn't this a great idea that just because it wasn't perfect they just burn it I mean imagine you know someone brings out your food and it's not just perfectly set on the plate or there's there's one little edge like maybe get a steak and the steaks perfectly cooked but there's just like this one little edge that's burnt they just throw it on the ground they're just like what is this trash you know I mean that's kind of an over-the-top viewpoint and they're saying you know this doesn't make any sense that just because something's not absolutely just perfect no flaw that it doesn't serve a purpose or couldn't be used or doesn't have any benefit so he says this so by the story of Ezra and the prophecy of a guy it may be gathered that the temple built by Zerubbabel after the return from Babylon was by no means to be compared to the former built by Solomon for they that remember the former wept when they considered the latter notwithstanding might this ladder either have been abhorred or forsaken by the Jews or profaned by the Greeks now this isn't this isn't a portion of scripture I wanted to talk about for a second let's go in our Bibles to Ezra chapter number six I want to go to a couple different places actually let's go to Ezra chapter number six but I want to first make their point and then I want to explain how I don't know the point that they're making is actually accurate the point that they're making I agree with I just don't know if the example that they're using is true and and so I just want to explain that but I've heard you know when it comes to the rebuilding of the temple when they come back and they're building it that well it wasn't as good as the previous temple now I'll submit to you that number one I don't know the answer to this and then I want to study this more I don't know if you could ever come to a full conclusion on if the second temple was definitely worse than the first temple or not but I certainly don't really subscribe to the idea that in the book of Ezra when they see that temple that they already know that it's not as good okay now look at Ezra chapter 6 and and I want to show you a few things here so so try to pay attention for a second it says in Ezra chapter 6 verse number 3 in the first year of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem let the house be builded the place where they offered sacrifices and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid the height thereof three score qubits and the breadth thereof three score qubits now when Ezra is giving the commandment to rebuild the house of God notice he's not saying let's just build some crappy structure that's not even close to the previous what does he say he says hey let the foundations be strongly laid so he's saying let's let's build something great here not only that when he gives the measurements notice the measurements that he's giving a height of three score qubits that's 60 qubits tall and a breadth of three score qubits that's also 60 qubits wide now of course a qubit approximately is about 18 inches we don't know it could be a little bit more or less but a qubits theoretically from the tip of a man's finger down to his elbow its average estimated to be around 18 inches so that would be a foot and a half so in order to estimate how we would think about this in American terms as a feat you have to multiply things by one and a half so if you have 60 that would actually be 90 feet so it's saying this thing is 90 feet tall and 90 feet wide that's big okay this is a giant structure that that we're talking about not only that let's let's go to a couple other places go to Ezekiel chat keep your finger in as Ezra cuz we're coming back go to Ezekiel chapter 41 go to Ezekiel chapter 41 now if you get the context there's a chapter number six King Nebuchadnezzar is telling them hey all of the gold and silver and all of the province of Babylon is your disposal and then even starts giving them like even hey you want all this silver and all this bullocks and salt without prescribing as much and I mean like there's all kinds of instructions given in the Bible as far as the building and the construction of the temple where kings are giving the full bounty of all manner of resources to rebuild this temple so there's no reason why they would had a limitation on the resources used also in the New Testament it talks about the building and the construction of the temple I mean according to Jews 40 and 6 years was this temple and building so it certainly wasn't done haste it certainly wasn't done just really quickly now notice again measurements look what it says in Ezekiel 41 verse number two and the breath of the door was ten cubits and the sides of the door were five cubits on the one side and five cubits on the other side and then and he measured the length thereof 40 cubits and the breath 20 cubits now when he's measuring this particular temple and Ezekiel it's actually 40 cubits in length okay 40 cubits and link go back to first Kings chapter number six go back to first Kings chapter number six now I'm jumping around for a moment but I just want to I just want to kind of get you thinking about a few things the foundation laid in Ezra is 60 cubits and breath when it's talking about the temple itself in Ezekiel it's only 40 by 20 now if you look at in first Kings chapter number six look what it says in verse number 17 first Kings chapter number six and look what it says in verse number 17 and the nets I'm sorry I'm not reading the right one verse 17 in chapter 6 and the house that is the temple before it was 40 cubits long so the temple according to this is 40 cubits long this is Solomon's when you look at Ezekiel it told them or Ezekiel's vision of a temple was 40 cubits long when we look at the foundation itself laid in the book of Ezra it's 60 which the foundation sometimes the foundation goes beyond the actual structure laid on top of something so it stands the reason that the temple could have been built the exact same dimensions of Solomon's temple but certainly from the foundation alone you wouldn't necessarily know now go back to Ezra for a moment go back to Ezra I just want to remind you of a few things in the New Testament when it talks about the temple itself it'll call it Solomon's porch you ever notice that as a Solomon's work it wasn't Solomon's temple though but why is it called Solomon's port because to me it's probably because it was mostly a reconstruction of the previous temple that I'm not saying it was exactly done and the Bible doesn't give us you know the Bible doesn't necessarily even give us all the dimensions just build all these things perfectly especially when you read all the different ones it never gives you all the dimensions for us to ascertain every single thing there must have been obviously these guys are getting actual visions and so they're seeing things that we didn't necessarily have all the information for and they're building them okay we're just getting a description of some of the elements some of the measurements and so we have a general idea but I don't see anything that necessarily dictates for sure that from a measurement perspective that there's anything that's not grand about it when the disciples are there with Jesus they're commending the temple they're wanting to show the temple off unto Jesus Christ and then they're talking positively about the temple they don't seem to be like well this temples kind of sucks you know like have you seen the temple Jesus no they're acting like it's amazing that it's wonderful and and they're they speak very highly of it and in Ezra go to I think it's chapter number three is where I want you to go now look at verse 10 Ezra chapter 3 verse 10 and when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord they set the priests and their apparel with trumpets and the Levites the sons of Asaph with symbols to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David king of Israel and they sang together by course and praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good for his mercy endureth forever toward Israel and all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid so notice the attitude here is the very positive isn't it everyone's very excited they're performing a ceremony now it says in verse 12 but many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers who were ancient men that had seen the first house when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes wept with a loud voice and many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people for the people shouted with a loud shout and the noise was heard afar off so you see a conflict here you see like some people are actually pretty emotional and they're crying they're weeping some people are very joyous but it's not even universal because let's read verse 12 again little careful more carefully notice what it says it says there's ancient men that had seen the first house when the foundation of the house was laid before their eyes wept with a loud voice and many shouted aloud for joy it sounds like even of the ancients you know in my reading of this it sounds like even of the ancients some were kind of happy some were kind of sad but let's think about what they're actually looking at okay they're comparing in their mind a completely furnished built out and in full service temple versus only a foundation okay so there's no way for them to accurately think in their mind this is worse than the other because it hasn't even been built yet they're not they're not comparing a fully furnished built temple to an to a not to like a bad-looking for an assemble they're just looking simply at the foundation which again anybody that's actually built a house or seen a house built the foundations of foundation folks it you know you don't really even have a great idea of what the house looks like when you're just looking only at the concrete on the ground obviously the concrete on the ground would give you an idea of how big it is the measurements and everything like that but what did the decree come the decree came let's lay a really good foundation here now why would they be crying well there's a lot of reasons number one the number one reason is just gonna be simply from the fact that when you have to rebuild something that you already had there's gonna be an emotional toil with that and I've you know I appeal to movies sorry for you carnal people you can relate to me but if you've ever seen the movie Patriot who's seen Patriot or I just want to get idea all right you worldly people you I love Patriot I've seen that movie a million times but in the movie like it starts out with the guy with the main character's house being burnt and just destroyed okay and then at the end of the movie it ends with them rebuilding his house first and you could see how someone be emotional at the idea of rebuilding your house and having to go through that process once again here's another movie I thought of who's seen father of the bride part two okay anybody no one all right oh okay there's a verse I see that and you're safe all right so father of the bride is kind of a weird movie but essentially the second one the guy like sells his house and it's because his baby has finally moved out he's his kids have moved out he wants to sell the house he's gonna buy a condo so he sells the house and he's paid off the debt he has no debt and he's just all excited well ends up his daughter gets pregnant and he's excited about having a grandchild well then he finds out his wife's pregnant too so now he's gonna have a child and a grandchild all at the same time and his wife now is upset because they bought this little tiny condo and like we can't raise the next kid in this condo out in the city where we need our house that we had back home we need all the memories and the nostalgia so so he goes back and he wants to buy his house back well the guy wants to charge him double what he just sold it to him for it he's like yeah you can have your house back for double but he's looking at he's like if I buy my house for double again then I'm going to start that 30-year mortgage over again and so it's like that's the whole premise of the movie well finally by the end he just decides to just write the check that's like the end of the movies is writes the check and he gives it to the guy and now he basically has a start all over again you know like 20 or 30 years and he's just very emotional about it because it's like man I already paid my house off I've already done this and now I have to start all over again but it was worth it to him and and see to me that's kind of the essence I'm getting here as they said hey you know it's sad that we lost the temple it's sad that the temple is destroyed it's sad that we're gonna have to rebuild it and so that's why they have that emotional toil that's the carnal interpretation what's the spiritual interpretation well what's the foundation that was laid Jesus Christ and how is that foundation laid by him dying on the cross so of course the spiritual picture would be that the scene and the essence of Jesus dying on the cross brings both what the greatest sorrow and the greatest joy because in the heart of a saved believer we look to the cross and we feel the remorse and the guilt for our sin that put Christ on the cross and the evil and the horrible scene and and the the toil that he had to go for us I mean many people become very emotional thinking about their Lord and Savior being spat upon and a crown of thorns being shoved on his head and being nailed to the cross and having been whipped and just beaten and mocked and just put up there and ridiculed I mean that can bring a lot of sorrow to you but isn't at the same time when you think of the cross sometimes it brings you the greatest joy too and don't we sing some of the greatest joy about the cross and so that's that's the picture that's being represented in the book of Ezra now I say all that to say this I just don't technically agree with the translators and using this for the analogy that they're making but let's just say for sake of example let's just say that they're right that this second temple was worse than the previous one right this reconstruction project is not as great as Solomon's temple the point that they're trying to make is just simply even if the second time around or the second go is it as great as the first that's not justification to just destroy it or knock it down or get rid of it and of course for their context what they're trying to suggest is that even though the original is the best right we have the original Solomon's temple in theory they're saying that's the best you can't get better than that the second time around is just simply gonna be a little inferior they're kind of relating that to the original Bible in the sense of the original Greek and Hebrew is the best and a translation isn't always necessarily gonna be as great as the original but does that mean that it's just trash isn't worth anything that it can't be used and they're saying this doesn't make any sense look what they say they say the like we are to think of translations the translation of the 70 dissented from the original many places neither does it come near it for purpose queety gravity majesty yet which of the Apostles did condemn it condemn it nay they used it as it is apparent and a Saint Jerome and most learned men do confess which they would not have done nor by their example of using of it so grace and commend it to the church if it had been an unworthy the appellation and name of the Word of God so they're saying look we have examples of and of course I don't know what examples they have but they believe and they have sources to suggest that the Apostles themselves were quoting and using the Septuagint in places where it lined up with the original Greek arms our original Hebrew and they made reference of this in the previous section of the translators a reader and they're saying look where it lined up the Apostles used it and where it didn't they went back to the Hebrew but they weren't so much of the opinion that you can't just use Greek at any rate that of course the Greek could be an accurate translation of the Bible and where it's right they used it and even though this is what they're claiming even though the Septuagint itself isn't always perfect they didn't just throw it in the trash and just say like you can't even use this like this is just worthless don't even use it in any way you know it has to be just absolutely perfect without any imperfection or it could not be used this is an important thing to understand even with our viewpoint of the King James Bible and you say why pastor Shelley well I'll give you the reason why because the King James Bible is not always existed folks okay so if we had this opinion that something had to be absolutely perfect with no error no issue nothing could even be off a little bit or it could be used then what would someone use in 1600 they can't even use the bishops they can't even use the Geneva they can't even use another version I mean that would be very absurd and think about go to Psalms chapter 12 where we actually started reading think about this verse in light of what we're talking about Psalm chapter number 12 and look what it says in verse number six the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in the furnace of earth purified seven times think about what that's saying why would it be purified seven times if the first time was perfect isn't it kind of talking about or giving the idea or the suggestion of something going through a purification process getting a little bit better a little bit better over time and in fact you know many will say this and I don't think it's you know wrong but they'll say there's kind of like seven major English translations and it was like the English Bible kind of went through a process of about seven purification processes until we got to the King James Bible and the King James translators are saying look the sixth edition is still great the fifth edition was still great the fourth edition was still great why would I sit here and say just because the fourth edition had a few little issues here and there to be like look it's not even the Word of God I mean am I really gonna get a bishop's Bible and just start burning it because I think it's a corruption of God's Word am I gonna just take the Tyndale New Testament and throw it in the trash and say this is a corruption of God's Word or say it can't even be God's Word no you would still say it's God's Word generally speaking yeah but sure it had some issues okay even the 1611 King James look your Bible that you hold in your hand is not 100% exactly the same as a 1611 King James reprint there was printing errors there was there was things that were a little bit different and of course they looked at you know what was printed they said hey this there's an issue here a word got missed out or you know something got was messed up in the the manufacturing process so let's fix it is there is that really a problem is that really an issue could you then look at the 1611 said that's not the Word of God it's missing of that and one of those verses you know it's missing a witch over here you know this is kind of this over-the-top ruck when I type view that gets to a point where no Bible on the planet is really the Word of God and that's a bad view when you get to a point where just literally nothing can meet your criterion nothing can meet your ideology as the Word of God then at that point you've basically just ruined the whole point of translation you know translation either translation can work or it can't but to have this over-the-top view that a translation has to be absolutely perfect the first time ever or it's just thrown in the trash would just basically negate everything that we believe about you know the Bible being put in other languages and it would make it to where we couldn't even have a Bible I mean you'd have to have you'd have to have a Hebrew you know or a Greek but but here's another thing you don't even realize the extant manuscripts of the Greek none of them line up with the King James a hundred percent either I mean all of every single transcript you know every single manuscript that we have in Greek has little variations from each other and basically the King James Bible that we have is the family of those Greek translations all put together because you looked at them and you notice hey this one they missed the word over here so that one's not it and when you looked at all of them they all have a little bit of blemish they all have a little imperfection but you know what that's just the process of the purification process isn't it and that's what they're alluding to that's what they're bringing up and they they want to make it clear that just because something is maybe not as great as the original it doesn't mean that it can't be used obviously what happened what happened if they never built the temple then Jesus would have never gone to the temple Jesus would have never been condemned before Pilate Jesus I mean look and in fact according to the Bible itself the glory of that temple was gonna be even more go to Haggai chapter 2 for a second go to Haggai chapter number 2 and I want to show you another thing here in the Bible about the temple now again my personal opinion now I'm gonna preach old sermon on this later but my opinion is that Ezekiel's temple part of the fulfillment of that is them rebuilding here Zerubal's temple and it makes sense you know especially since he's giving them certain instructions that are similar to the previous temple because frankly speaking after the projects been demolished they're not there might not be a lot of people around to be able to rebuild it so it makes sense to have the new prophecy of Ezekiel coming in to help them get closer and figure out how to rebuild that temple because that temples very very important why is that temple very important because the Lord Jesus Christ is coming down the pike folks and we need that temple there so that the Lord Jesus Christ can come through the East Gate and look there's so much prophecy and there's so many things about how the temples are even designed we said why coming through the East Gate well you know where the Garden of Gethsemane is and you know where they took Jesus and they brought him in through the East Gate just like the Bible talks about how the king would enter in through the East Gate I mean all the prophecies that are about the Lord Jesus Christ there's a lot dealing with the temple itself and how Jesus will be brought in and Jesus is being condemned and Jesus being slain I mean why do you think that they have to slay you know the the animals so in a specific way and they have all the different elements there without that temple we wouldn't have the prophecies fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ we wouldn't have the condemnation of Jesus Christ and we wouldn't have the crucifixion of Jesus Christ so we need that and in Haggai chapter number two I want to read just a little bit look at verse six it says for thus saith the Lord of hosts yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of hosts the silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of hosts the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of hosts and in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of hosts so he actually says that the temple is gonna be greater or have greater glory than the former temple I also you know and then I'm getting a little bit away from this we'll still keep reading this but here's another thing I think is interesting and and when we kind of connect this to translation from from a perfection perspective you know you can't get any better than the actual words that God said in Greek and Hebrew okay there's no way to improve upon that there's no way I mean when you got the actual tables of stone from God where he wrote with his own finger the Ten Commandments that's perfection folks I mean no one's gonna be able to write better than God no one's gonna be able to have it more accurate I mean that is the greatest right but in some ways you could argue that the King James Bible we have in our hand has more glory than the Greek and Hebrew in the context of how it's been used because think about how many King James Bibles exist on the planet today I mean we're talking about billions and billions of copies of the King James Bible it is the single greatest book that's ever been published is the King James Bible in English and so you could almost argue that the latter temple the latter translation actually almost exceeds in glory in some ways the original Greek and Hebrew based on how it's being used today and I've heard some people say hey the King James Bible is better than the originals if that's what you mean by it I can see where you're coming from and I can agree to some to some extent but we're not talking about the quality of the words themselves you can't make the translation any better it's just in how it's been used and how God is performing this miracle just like this temple the second temple even though it's that maybe maybe it's not as as pretty as Solomon's temple I mean Solomon you know covered the whole thing in gold I don't know if they did that was the rules temple or not maybe they didn't but Solomon's was obviously epic okay and you know there was no reason to ever get rid of it but it got destroyed okay so therefore they came with the second temple and obviously when it comes to Hebrew and Greek they didn't get destroyed but no one speaks that so it doesn't necessarily have as much practical use therefore English becomes what is being used in getting the more honor and the more glory so I just think that that's kind of an interesting point let's keep reading here in our translators to the reader it says in the next sentence and whereas they urge for their second defense of their vilifying and abuse of the English Bibles or some pieces thereof which they meet with for that heretics forsooth were the authors of the translations heretics they call us by the same right that they call themselves Catholics both being wrong we marvel what divinity taught them so that's a really hard sentence because I think when you study this what they're what they're trying to do is they're giving the accusation of Catholics against them when they say hey the heretics forsooth were the authors basically they're saying the kingdom translators are heretics producing that's kind of where the forsooth is coming producing and authoring and pouring out this this translation and it's some wickedness and they're saying what divinity taught them you know that that's true they say this we are sure Tertullian was of another mind X personas probemus freedom and X feed a personas do we try men's faith by their persons we should try their persons by their faith so he's saying when we look at someone do we judge them in the Bible in the context of do we measure David's faith by the mistakes he made in his life or do we measure David's person by the faith that he had in the sense that do we do we look at David and say I like David because of his faith or do we say here's what David's faith is like because of what kind of person he was and you know the obvious answer is we measure David by his faith because if we were gonna just look up the stat sheet it's like okay murderer adulterer he had nepotism he allowed rapists to live I mean he's got some some bad marks and if you were gonna judge his faith on that you would say like this guy doesn't have a lot of faith but wait a minute we look at David for all the great acts he did when he had great faith when he stood against Goliath when he fought the lion and the bear when David you know fought all the enemies of the Philistines when David brought the Ark of the Covenant back into the house of God and and we measure it based on how God measures it and how does God talk about David he's the man after God's own heart and so we look at David say David's a pretty great guy even though he had some serious issues didn't he and isn't that everyone in the Bible I mean you look at Moses murderer but we often look at him as a great person don't we we let about Noah this morning he's got some issues but we look at Noah's being great because of his faith and when we look at Hebrews chapter 11 let's just go there for a moment are we looking at a list of people who were perfect and had no sin or are we just looking at people that had great faith and frankly speaking when you study the Bible the only thing that really God wanted from people was great faith because he kind of used all kinds of people didn't he I mean in fact some shady people I mean some really shady people I mean the woman of the well was not a great woman she was arguably one of the worst of society yet she was used as one of the greatest soul winners of her time for one reason her faith her faith you know Rahab the harlot not a great person I mean Matthew according the Bible's a tax collector not even someone that their society would look to as being a great person okay I mean you have a lot of people in the Bible that are just kind of like not great I mean even Peter himself says Lord depart for me from a sinful man the Apostle Paul says I'm chief of sinners but God used him why is God using all these kind of people well he's using them because of their faith he's using them because of the fact that they actually trust in the Lord which is a lot harder to find apparently than people who maybe are just have a little bit cleaner of a slate or have a little bit cleaner of a lifestyle like what says in Hebrews chapter numbers one now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen for by it the elders obtained a good report what is the Bible say why is it that we look to the men in the Bible and say hey they were good or they have a good record a good name a good report was it because of their works no it's because of their faith it was their faith that we look to and say wow that was a great guy wow that was an amazing guy Wow who was I mean look at the book of Judges look at the people that God's using in the book of Judges Jephthah Jephthah is not you know the greatest guy but he had good faith then he had great faith and so God constantly used men in the Bible that yeah maybe they were rough around the edges they had some serious sin issues I mean which King didn't have lots of wives I mean what guy in the Bible are you gonna really look to that's just super amazing I mean it's kind of like Job and Daniel these are like kind and even when God talks about destroying the children of Israel he's kind of like well if Job and Daniel were here only they would survive he's like it was funny to me he didn't say like their wives or children he's just like he's just saying only these guys would be saved you know and he didn't you know he didn't mention Moses he didn't mention David you know he's saying like only these a handful of guys the guy that's a eunuch okay that guy right maybe there was a reason why he was a little bit better but at the end of the day we should kind of apply the same principle that's what he's trying to do here is that we should apply the principle of you know are we looking at translation works from this the small little blemishes and the things that they had off or kind of the faith and and again I look to it as the faith you know what kind of Bible are you trying to translate from are you coming from the Septuagint or are you coming from the original Greek and Hebrew you know are you coming from these other sources you know what's your faith what's the what's the reason why you're using that Bible and that's what we have a text disreceptus Bible in our hands because we're basing it on the faith of those that are handing it down and giving it to us and that's how we're evaluating our Bible not from you know was Erasmus saved you know some people want to want to see like well do you really trust Erasmus Erasmus was a humanist you know and that's true he was a humanist you know what people don't realize is that a humanist back then is different than a humanist today okay those are completely two different types of people was he a humanist yes was Erasmus Catholic sure everyone is Catholic back then so does that really is that really a mark I mean if you weren't Catholic you were killed so everyone is Catholic quote-unquote to some degree or they were on the run for their life but virtually everyone was quote-unquote Catholic back then are we gonna then say oh you can't you can't use the Bible William Tyndale Catholic at one point oh it's Catholic the Bible is Catholic that's that's a misnomer okay that's not necessarily how we judge the Bible we're judging the Bible based on the faith that these people had where they believe that the Bible came from look what it says in the next sentence also st. Augustine was of another mind for he lighting upon certain rules made by Ticonius a Donatist for the better understanding of the word was not ashamed to make use of them yea to insert them into his own book with giving commendation to them so far forth as they were worthy to be commended as is to be seen in st. Augustine's third book data Trina Christiana now now here's the thing notice what this is important phrase so far forth as they were worthy to be commended is this saying hey we just accept everything period no but they're saying as long as there's not an obvious glaring issue here we're accepting it to be short origin and the whole Church of God for a certain hundred years were of another mind for they were so far from treading underfoot much more from burning the translation of a killer proselyte that is one that had turned Jew of Samakas and theodotion both ebonites that is most vile heretics that they joined them together with the Hebrew original and the translation of the 70 as I've been before signified out of Epiphanius and set them forth openly to be considered of and perused of all but we weary the unlearned who need not know so much and trouble to learn who know already basically the point they're just making is that no one's really had this stupid idea in fact many people went to the extreme opposite of basically suggesting that this weird Septuagint version should be used they're not burning it they're basically saying that somehow that 70 was also perfect and it's like no these guys are heretics but obviously we're not of the opinion that we should burn anything that has a blemish next paragraph they say yet before we end we must answer a third caval an objection of theirs against us caval just basically an accusation says for altering and amending our translation so oft wherein truly they deal harsh hardly and strangely with us for to whom ever was it imputed for a fault by such as were wise to go over that which he had done and to amend it where he saw cause again this points me to Psalms 12 he's saying why in the world would you accuse us of being bad for constantly updating our work they're saying hey we would like translate it and then think about it and then revise it and then translate it again not only are they talking about their work they're talking about the fact of the English translation process Tyndale the Matthew the great the Geneva the bishops are saying oh you guys keep updating it why did you go from the Tyndale to the great to the bishops of the Geneva oh you just guys keep updating it's like yeah why is that a bad thing why is it a bad thing that we're constantly fine-tuning this thing and trying to get it dialed in just like Psalm 12 how it's purified what seven times so if you want pure gold if you want pure silver why would you be accused of doing something wrong when you're putting it through the refiners fire one more time just to get that last little bit of dross or that last little bit of impurity out of that particular gold or silver bar you'd be commended for doing so because you're trying to get it perfect you're trying to get it dialed in where there is no imperfection and of course I mentioned this I think previously but anytime I write something it always has tons of imperfections in it whether it be a text message an email a letter I always make lots of mistakes and in fact I often have to reread it many times just to correct even really basic mistakes whether that be just missing a word not even making sense putting or of course autocorrect usually does the opposite for me I don't know who in here hates autocorrect okay I hate it too it's like I feel like half the time it's not helping me most of the time it's actually changing what I actually are spoiled or road or or whatever and so you know there's a lot of times where there could be error and he's basically saying why would we be accused of doing something wrong here when we just want something constantly go over and over and again and make sure it's right so st. Augustine was not afraid to exhort Jerome to a pilonodia or recantation the same st. Augustine was not ashamed to retract we might say revoke many things that had passed him and death even glory that he seeth his infirmities if we will be sons of the truth we must consider what it speaketh and trample upon our own credit and upon other men's too if either be any way and hindrance to it wow I love that sentence he says look if we are sons of the truth then it should not matter whose reputation we trample to get to the truth whether it be our own or other men's we should not hold men above the truth we should only care about the truth and even if I have to look like a fool even if I have to make a retraction or even if my idol even if some great men of the past that I love or look up to some mentor if they made a mistake we ought to just go with the truth every single time instead of constantly saying well they're perfect you know whatever Peter Ruckman taught is perfect you know that's the cult and then you end up seeing the fruit of that kind of a cult don't you or even people might have this for Jack Hiles you know Jack Hiles is a great preacher great pastor great mentor someone to look up to was he perfect no myself included I've had to make retractions I've had to fix things I said things and preach things that I ended up having to change on or make a correction on and I never ever want to get to a point where it's just whatever pastor silly says is always right no it can always be reviewed to make sure it's consistent with the Bible in fact the Bereans were commended for doing such a thing where they would go home and search themselves daily whether those things were so and so you don't trust anybody but the Bible and we should always always be willing to be corrected by the Bible that's why I always suggest to people that are against me I always say this show me anything that I'm wrong on in this right now and I'll change my mind right now I say if I'm wrong on anything show me right here and I'll change you know they don't do show me you know it's like usually people don't actually point to the scripture though and show you where you're wrong and of course those who love the truth the most typically are going to be the closest right those who shy away from you testing them challenging them often have a lot of secrets that they don't want to be brought to the light now it says in the next sentence to this cause then to the persons we say that of all men they ought to be most silent in this case for what varieties have they and what alterations have they made not only of their service books portices and brevaries but also of their Latin translation the service books opposed to be made by st. Ambrose officium and brosy ambrosium was a great while in special use and request but Pope Adrian calling a council with the aid of Charles the Emperor abolished it yay burnt it and command of the service book of st. Gregory universally to be used well officium Gregorianum gets by this means to be in credit but doesn't continue without change or altering no the very Roman service was of two fashions the new fashion and the old the one used in one church and the other and another as it is to be seen and pollen Paul polemious a Romanist his preface before micrologus the same pomelius reported out of Rodolphus de Rivo that about the year of our Lord 1277 Pope Nicholas the third removed out of the churches of Rome the more ancient books of service and brought into use the missiles of the Friars minorities and commanded them to be observed there in so much that about a hundred years after when the above-named Rodolphus happened to be at Rome he found all the books to be new of the new stamp neither was there this chopping and changing in the more ancient times only but also of late pious Quintus himself confessed that every bishopric almost had a peculiar kind of service most unlike to that which others had which moved him to abolish all other Bereveries though never so ancient and privileged and published by bishops in their diocese and to establish and ratify that only which was of his own setting forth in the year 1568 now when the father of their church who gladly would heal the sore of the daughter of his people softly and slightly and make the best of it find us so great fault with them for their odds and jarring we hope the children have no great cause to vaunt of their uniformity but the difference that appearance between our translations and are often correcting of them is the thing that we are specially charged with let us see therefore whether they themselves be without fault this way if it be to be counted a fault to correct and whether they be fit men to throw stones at us Oh tandem major parkis insane men or II they that are less sound themselves ought to ought not to object infirmities to others if we should tell them that Valla Stapulinus Erasmus and Vives found fault with their vulgar translation and consequently wish the same to be mended or a new one to be made they would answer peradventure that we produce their enemies for witness against them I'll be it they were in nose other sort enemies than a st. Paul was to the Galatians for telling them the truth and it were to be wished that they had dared to tell them plainly er and oftener but what will they say to this the Pope Leo the tenth allowed Erasmus translation the New Testament so much different from the vulgar by his apostolic letter and bull now just pause for a second what we read just just to give you the high view they're saying why are you getting so mad at us for constantly changing the English Bible when you guys are changing you Bible all the time in fact hey some people were checking out every single parish and noticing all the Bibles are different from each other and he's saying even your own guys even the guys that are your superstars we're changing your Bible over and over so why in the world are you getting mad at us for doing the exact same thing you guys are doing he's just basically showing the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church which is I probably a shock to many says this that the same Leo exhorted pack 9 to translate the whole Bible and bear whatsoever charges was necessary for the work surely as the apostle reason into the Hebrews that if the former law and testament had been sufficient there had been no need of the latter so we may say that if the old vulgar had been all at all points allowable to small purpose had labor and charges been undergone about framing a new now of course that's a reference to context of the New Testament where the Bible talks about how if if the per if the law had been perfect there would have not been or the Old Testament had been perfect there would not have been sought a New Testament but of course there was nothing long wrong with the law it says for finding fault with them they had to end up seeking the New Testament but the Old Testament could not did not and has not provided salvation for any single person no one was ever saved by the Old Testament no one could be saved by the Old Testament the Old Testament doesn't save it condemns anyways it's the law the law doesn't say the law condemns therefore was sought for was a New Testament a better testament one that had the hope of salvation through Jesus Christ and of course everyone had to believe in that coming Messiah in the Old Testament to be saved and all of us that are founded in the New Testament have to believe in the Christ that came the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved that in context of the fact that hey if your translation was perfect why did you seek for a later one because it wasn't perfect there was some room for improvement just like the old covenant had room for improvement to add salvation in to add Jesus Christ in and to give people hope says if they say it was one Pope's private opinion that he consulted old himself then we're then we are able to go further with them and to ever that more of their chief men of all sorts even of their own Trent champions Pavia and Vega and their own Inquisitor here on nyas or nymas ab o less throw and their own bishop a citrus clarius and their own Cardinal Thomas and veal cahaithen do either make new translations themselves or follow new ones of other men's making or note the vulgar interpreter for halting none of them fear to dissent from him nor yet to accept against him and call they this and a uniform tenor of text and judgment about the text so many of their worthies disclaiming the now-received conceit nay we will yet come nearer the quick doth not their Paris edition differ from the Louvain and the Hetinius from them both and yet all of them allowed by authority nay doth not Sixtus Quintus confess that certain Catholics he mean is certain of his own side were in such an humor of translating the scriptures into Latin that Satan taking occasion by them though they thought of no such matter did strive what he could out of so uncertain and manifold a variety of translations so to mingle all things that noting or that nothing might seem to be left certain and firm in them Wow that's a crazy statement he's saying even one of their own guys said hey hasn't Satan used the Catholic Church to produce too many translations too many varieties of translations so that notice this that nothing might seem to be left certain and firm in them isn't that like Christianity today where there's so many translations that modern Christians today just nothing certain anymore this is why you have churches called non-denominational which really they should call them this this is should be their name non doctrinal they have no doctrine they have nothing that they stand on they have nothing they believe basically just here's our core values and you know I look at these sites all the time and often now the core values they don't even mention anything in the Bible it's just core values family love integrity fellowship relationship and it's like what what what are these words what are you even talking about and of course what you know why they don't have a doctrinal statement because number one they have to defend it and then number two people would not come to their church based on their doctrinal statement but what's their goal their goal is to bring as many people into the house to give as much money to the pastor as possible it's all about money it's not about actually believing the Bible I wonder what the Catholic Church motives was oh yeah it was money again wasn't it isn't it the love of money is the root of all evil folks and of course Satan used the Catholic Church to produce a variety of manuscripts to where no one could know what the Bible says I've been to many Bible studies you know and when you go to the non the non church they love these like Bible studies where everybody gets to be a teacher and you go off in these little cult groups and you have these little cell groups and and you go and you show up everybody has a translation that's different everybody gets to talk about whatever they want and people just say the most outlandish radical weird junk I've ever heard in fact I remember I was shocked because one time this guy I mean he was just saying the weirdest stuff and I feel like my jaw was open I was just like what in the world that guy just say and the the leader was like well actually it's wrong and I was just like for him to say that I was just like whoa he actually said something was wrong for the first time ever but it was just so funny because it's just like these people just have no boundaries and you know when you don't have a Bible when you don't know what it says how can you have any by how can you have any certainty if the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do when you have no boundary when you have nothing that is certain says this nay further did not the same sixes ordained by an invaluable decree and that with the council and consent of his Cardinals that the Latin edition of the Old and New Testament which the Council of Trent would have to be authentic is the same without controversy which he then set forth being diligently corrected and printed in the printing house of Vatican the sixtus in his preface before his Bible and yet Clement the eighth his immediate successor published another edition of the Bible containing in it infinite differences from that of sixtus hey when you guys printed a new version it had infinite differences Wow and many of them weighty and material and yet this must be authentic by all means what is to have the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with yay and nay if this be not they're saying hey if you guys are changing all over the board changing doctrine changing things that are important how in the world could this be the true kingdom of God how could be this the true faith of our Lord Jesus Christ when it's constantly yay nay when it's constantly back and forth when it's constantly changing it's like this doesn't make any sense again what is sweet harmony and consent if this be therefore as demartus of Corinth advised the great king before he talked of the dissensions among the Grecians to compose his domestic broils for at that time his Queen and his son and heir were at deadly feud with him so all the while that our adversaries do make so many and so various additions themselves and do jar so much about the worth and authority of them they can with no show of equity challenge us for changing and correcting so just you know they basically just finished by saying look there's no way you could ever criticize us for changing our Bible considering what you guys are doing you know that's a stupid accusation because you guys are hypocrites and I like the fact that way when you're a hypocrite I don't have to care what you think and that's really you know how they feel the next sections is too long for me to really get into I was hoping to do this in seven series but it might be eight all right so I think that's pretty much you know we're gonna we're gonna pause and and hopefully god willing we'll finish the last one or two very soon but I feel like it's beneficial to get their opinion on these things not necessarily because it's perfect not because I agree wholeheartedly but I generally agree with the sentiments that they're making and I think that they make a lot of great logical arguments logical arguments that don't exist in our society anymore you know our society doesn't isn't really logical anymore and doesn't really appeal to knowledge or wisdom or understanding not only that these men often appeal to the Bible itself and appeal to the logic and the consistency of Scripture and when it comes to the Bible you know I still believe you know I haven't changed I still believe this is the Word of God without error and as you read our doctrinal statement it says word perfect because I believe they finally dialed it in and and don't get lost in the sea of what they read or we read tonight when they're talking about things being improved and nothing being perfect they're mostly talking about the process from which we first start translating the Bible into English to where we get to the final point where it's finally kind of perfected and dialed in okay and you know we believe that they dialed it in that they got it right and there's really there's nothing left for us to do we have the English Bible if you want to work on translations work on other languages work on places where they don't have a King James Bible and they don't have the Word of God and of course the first run-through probably won't be perfect that's okay we can't expect that everything is just going to be dialed in and perfect like the King James Bible every single time but you know we can trust this as our source and and we believe this is the Word of God but James White and liars will take sections out of this out of context to try and throw you oh see they think every translation is the Word of God they said even the most the meanest translations are the Bible therefore the NIV in the message is the Bible no liar because they already told us prior to that they rejected the Septuagint they already told us prior to that when these places are going away from the original Greek and the regional Hebrew they shouldn't be used so you can't just cherry-pick statements that you want to fit to your context and then proclaim oh yeah I'm right James White and liars would love to do this to you that's why we're reading the whole thing in context I mean we haven't left the line out yet and nor do I plan on doing so so that when we're done no one could ever say to you hey I'm not King James only because I read the translators to the reader you know and you fall for such a foolish tactic you'll know look I actually agree with what they wrote and I'm more King James after it you know I'm not less your translations garbage okay and and so I hope that this strengthens your faith and if you have any questions you could always ask me about it let's close in prayer thank you Heavenly Father for giving us the Bible something that we can actually trust and in a sea of confusion and lies and deception and the culture that we live in it's very dark and it's hard to know what to believe where to go how to raise our family the decisions that we need to make and I thank you so much that you gave us that bright and shining light the King James Bible that we can trust that we can rely upon I pray that we'd all be willing to humble ourselves and that if we ever need to be corrected whether that be our opinion or the opinion of those who were respect that we would allow the truth to shine forth that we'd humble ourselves and we would not elevate man above the Bible but rather we'd have we'd elevate the Bible above all things and that we would give you all the honor and glory for it in Jesus name we pray Amen all right for our final song we're gonna 134 my anchor holds 134 my anchor holds song one three four my anchor holds though the angry surges roll on my tempest driven soul I am peaceful for I know wildly though the winds may blow I've an anchor safe and sure that can evermore endure and it holds my anchor holds blow your wildest little gale on my bark so small and frail by his grace I shall not fail for my anchor holds my anchor holds mighty tides about me sweep perils lurking in the deep angry clouds or shade the sky and the tempest rises high still I stand the tempest shock anchor grips the rock and it holds my anchor holds though your wildest on my bark so small and frail by his grace I shall not fail for my anchor holds my anchor holds I can feel the anchor fast as I meet sudden blast and the cable though unseen bears the heavy strain between through the storm I safely ride till the turning of the tide and it holds my anchor holds though your wildest on my barks are small and frail by his grace I shall not fail for my my anchor holds troubles almost well the soul griefs like billows or me roll tempters seek to lure astray storms obscure the light of day but in Christ I can be I've been anchor that shall hold and blow your wildest on my barks are small and frail by his grace I shall not fail for my anchor holds my anchor holds but god bless you thank you for coming you are dismissed