Let's go to the Lord again in prayer. Our gracious Father, once again, we thank You for Your holy Word. We thank You that we have an authority that is from You. And we thank You, our God, that we can truly trust Your Word. open our minds and open our hearts. It causes us to love Thy Word. And I pray that we would have a greater appreciation and attraction and affinity for Thy Word each day that we live here upon this earth. We realize that sometimes when we read We may be weary in body, and sometimes we may have to re-read various things, and there are some things we still do not understand. But to know that it has been sent to us by the Creator of the universe, the One who has made us, and that loved us in such a way to change our hearts, open our eyes, cause us to not only love Thy Word, but to be able to understand somewhat of it. I pray, my God, that You would Stop all those who oppose the Holy Scriptures. Be our delight that you might change their hearts and cause them to love it. We ask that you would raise up faithful men who love your Word and are faithful to it. and would stand to proclaim the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, that you might even send revival throughout the land. Be with faithful men today as they stand to preach. And pray, our God, that you would not only bless them, but those that hear, that they might be fed, that your name might be honored and glorified. We ask it in Christ Jesus. Amen. If you have your Bible, you may turn to Revelation 18 and Matthew chapter 4. The title of the message today is The Authority of God. And what prompted me to preach upon this is what I saw in the news this week where Pope Francis set forth the idea that the translation of the Lord's Prayer is not a good translation. And that we should rather say, do not let us fall into temptation instead of lead us not into temptation. Not only the Pope, but others who agree with him say that the change is what Jesus meant since He did not speak English. We should say what Jesus meant. Now that sounds pious on the surface, but the Word of God, and we are going to endeavor to show that this day, the Word of God means what it says. Or I should say, God meant what He said when He inspired it to be written. He meant what He said. Word for word. Revelation 22 verse 18 says, For I testify to every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." Now, some commentators would say that the book here is talking about only the book of Revelation and not the Bible. The thing about it is, the book of Revelation is part of the Bible, and what is true with it is true with every other book of the Bible. Therefore, it will apply to the whole Scriptures. Now, this ought to be a warning to modern translators, so-called. We'll say more about that later. But it is a damnable thing to change or seek to change the Word of God. And this idea that people have today, when they say, well, it might mean one thing to you, but it means something else to me, that is part And what causes that is this plethora of modern so-called translations, because the way that they are translated. We'll say more about that in just a moment. Let's go to Matthew chapter 4. beginning at verse 1. And I'm only mainly wanting three Scriptures out of this passage, but I'll read the whole passage. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Now notice, somebody may not like that, but it said, the Spirit of God led Christ to be tempted. Is that not what it says? Now what is the Pope going to do with that one? The Spirit is God. God led Christ to be tempted. Lead us not into temptation, The Bible says. And that's what it says in the original language. I looked it up. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward unhungered. And when the tempter came to him and said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But Jesus answered and said, It is written." Now that's what I want to center upon. It is written. He didn't say, now God means for us to do something else. It is written. And we'll see a little bit later on from where that was written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written. Now the devil is quoting. And he's quoting out of the book of Psalms. And if you'll make a comparison with what the devil said and what the book of Psalms said, you'll see the devil left the word out. Now, we're not going to go into all of that, but you can check that for yourself. He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time..." I think maybe he added a word instead of left it out. "...lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." Jesus said unto him, it is written again, "...thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." And then the devil left him for a while. But the point that we are wanting to make here is the Lord Jesus Christ used the Word of God for the authority, and He didn't say God meant this or God meant that. He said God wrote this, and this is what we are to do. And he didn't take it out of context. To say that what Jesus said is not what He meant is to imply that the Lord is fallible. In other words, Jesus didn't know what He meant. He's fallible. He didn't understand. I'm going to get ahead of myself here a moment because I was going to say this later on in the message, but I'm going to say it now. This reminds me of a discussion that I had in July 1972 in the city of Ashkelon, Israel. I can still remember the sun setting on the Mediterranean Sea from the city of Ashkelon. I can still see it in my mind's eye. But that night in the hotel, I don't know exactly how it all got started, but I had a discussion with two Catholic priests. I was traveling on what's called a Holy Land tour and there were three groups of people that were put together in all one group with the group that I was traveling in. The group that I was with, we traveled with a group from South Carolina and then a group from California where it was these two young Catholic priests. And by the way, they weren't dressed in their frocks and so on. They had on blue jeans and t-shirts. And they had two young women traveling with them. They haven't changed since the days of the Reformation and prior to that. But anyway, I got to talking to them about the infallibility and the inspiration of the Scriptures. And they brought up about the book of Isaiah being written by two different people. Scholars say that one part of Isaiah, you know, that it has one style of language, and then the second part, they call it deutero, or the second part of Isaiah, it has a different style of writing. Well, the first 39 chapters correspond to the Old Testament, and the last 29 chapters correspond to the last 27 chapters, correspond to the New Testament. But anyway, I pointed out to them that in the Gospel of John, where Christ quoted from both sections. Let's turn there in John chapter 12 for just a second. John chapter 12. I'll read beginning at verse 38. Well, let's read verse 37. But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him, that the saying of Esaias, that's Isaiah, the prophet might be fulfilled which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report, And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? That is from Isaiah 53. Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. That is from Isaiah chapter 6. These things said Isaiah when he saw His glory and spake of Him." Or Esaias or Isaiah. In other words, the Lord said that Isaiah said that from the first part of it and the second part of it. And when I reminded these priests of that, here was their reply. Jesus didn't know everything that we know, because He did not know about the archaeological discoveries that have been since He was here on earth. And so He was ignorant of this fact. He only knew what people knew at that day. Well, I learned a long time ago, never argue with a scoffer. I like the adage, the old, kindly the modern proverb, never argue with a fool, they that are watching cannot tell which is which. But the thing about it, they were calling Jesus Christ fallible, just like the Pope is today. just like a lot of other people are doing. And so you have people today, when you try to talk to them about the Scriptures, I was talking to someone recently that had been raised in a home where they were taught that the authority and that the husband must be the head of the home. and that the wife is to be submissive to the husband. And she didn't like that. She had been taught that, but she thought that was not right, and that husbands and wives are to be equal, and one is not to be above the other, and so on and so forth. And I finally just had to tell the individual, I said, then you are calling God a liar. Because I said the word that is used in the Scriptures in the original language is a word of a soldier submitting himself to his superior officer. And that is what God said. And then they tried to say, to get around that. Well, Jesus disobeyed His parents when He was young and didn't go back with them and stayed at the temple. I said, no, Jesus didn't disobey His parents. His parents ran off and left Him. They assumed He was with the company. But they weren't keeping their eye on Him. But I said, beside that, you're mixing apples with oranges. But what I'm trying to show you is what length people will go to get out from under the Word of God. The second Person of the Trinity was God manifested in the flesh and He was sinless. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15 tells us this. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Another passage, I didn't put that one in, that comes to mind, where it says that he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. That's in Hebrews as well. Now, this idea of saying what the Bible means with regard to translations, instead of what the Bible says, is where all of your modern translations essentially follow. Let me explain this. There are essentially two methods of translating the Scriptures. One is called, and they may be called by different names, but these are the two names that I have for them that people use. Formal Equivalent Method. Formal Equivalent Method. The other one is dynamic equivalent or equivalence method. The formal equivalent, one is formal equivalent, let me get it clear. The other one is dynamic equivalence. But the formal equivalent method, the basic unit of translation is the word. That is, it is a word for word translation. This means that in the formal equivalent method, it seeks to translate each Greek or each Hebrew and Greek word into its closest English equivalent. In the formal equivalent method translations, the translator attempts to parallel as closely as possible the wording and grammatical structure of the original Hebrew and Greek. He seeks to render nouns by nouns, verbs by verbs, etc." That came from a little pamphlet called The Excellence of the Authorized Version by William Eynswiker. I hope I pronounced that correctly, E-I-N-W-E-C-H-T-E-R. Now that's the formal equivalent. The dynamic equivalence method is a philosophy of translation that does not seek to be a literal translation of the original text of the scriptures, its primary concern of the translator regarding the modern reader is to convey the meaning of the original rather than to transfer the words of the original. According to the presupposition of this method, the dynamic is in the meaning of the text Not in the words or the grammatical form of the text. I may say this again, but I'm going to stop and say this now. What that is, the person that is reading the Bible, he puts down, or this group of people, they put down what they think it means, not what it says. And so if a phrase, or I'm talking the best case scenario, so if the phrase that they use is what is considered to be the meaning, say today, That phrase may mean something different ten years from now. Right? Do we not have such things? In other words, when I read Puritan writings, and these Puritan writers talk about people, and using the word gay, they are talking about people enjoying things. That is not what the Word means today. Words change in their meaning and in their usage. And so, what a modern translator may use in his dynamic equivalent today may be something different tomorrow. And so, your standard of Bible as it continues to be translated is changing. Does that make sense? Needless to say, what one man thinks it means here, another may think it means something else there, and another may think it means something else over there. You don't have an absolute standard. You have a standard that is constantly changing. That's the reason people are so mixed up today. One reason. The method that the King James translators used was a word-for-word translation of the original languages from the Hebrew Masoretic text of the Old Testament and the Texas Receptus text of the New Testament. The other method is that method of a word-for-word translation. The translators gave the meaning, in other words, the meaning as they understood it to mean." That's the others. And so when I said the problem with this is that what something means to you today may not mean the same thing to me. Right? Something that means something to you may not mean the same thing to me. I come from a section of the country that when we are about to do something, we say, fixing. I'm fixing to do it. I've had a lot of people to question me sometimes about some of my colloquialism, and I came from the west end of the state. several years ago I was going through Cades Cove and stopped at the little store there at the back side of the drive and they had a little Appalachian Dictionary. And a lot of the words of the Appalachian Dictionary were Scotch-Irish. And a lot of my fixing and other words I found in that dictionary. So, that's the reason sometimes people will, in their pronunciation, you know, a man from up in the New England states, maybe down in the southern states, he might talk about finding a bagel. Well, he might be looking for a piece of bread and other people think he's talking about a dog. In the colloquialisms. What I'm saying is, that's the problem. Unless you have a direct word-for-word authority. When the Lord inspired men to write the Holy Scriptures by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, He meant what He said. Now, I don't have time to go into all of this. In fact, it looks like this sermon is going to be longer than just today, but I'm not sure about that either yet. The King James Bible is not exactly the colloquialism in the day in which it was written. You can read Shakespeare and other writers of that time. I think a man by the name of Spencer was one, and others, and while there are phrases that may seem to match the writings of the King James Bible, the King James Bible has a literary style all its own. And some people say that it was a The King James Bible is the literary style of God's Word. Now, I've got books at home written by others that I've read that in their study of literature and history and things of that nature, make these statements. I'm not just drawing off the top of my head and making up stuff. And if I were going into a detailed study of this, then I would bring some of this to the forefront. Even people like Hemingway, and he wasn't a godly man, kept the Bible next to his bed and read it continually for the style. That's just one example of many that could be given. What I'm trying to say is this, the King James translators in taking the Scriptures and giving a word-for-word translation was giving God's Word as best as they knew how under the authority of the rules that were given by King James. The King James translation is not infallible, but I still think it is the best translation today. It is a style of writing that is based on the inspired Scriptures. It was not a style of writing that was based on the common expression and the common way of talk of that day. Now, they used the common language, that is, the common words. The translators borrowed heavily from Tyndale, the Cloverdale Bible, and the Geneva Bible. But the Geneva and the Cloverdale and all the others leaned heavily off of the Tyndall version, or Tyndall's translation. But what I'm trying to say is, It's almost like saying that the King James Bible is a Holy Ghost language. In other words, it is the language of God's Word. They took words, they took common, everyday language words that meant what the Scriptures meant, as closely as possible, they were not trying to give an Elizabethan style of writing, or a Shakespearean style of writing, or the style of writing of the north part of England, or the southern part of England, or of Great Britain, or anything like that. They were giving a style of writing of God's Word. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm stumbling all over myself to try to say what it is. And so, that's the reason the King James Bible is so beautiful. It has such charm that even scholars and writers and poets study it so much. The Bible is a very important book. According to Wikipedia, they said, according to the Guinness World Record, the Bible is the best-selling book of all time with over five billion copies sold and distributed. That is a billion with a B. You know what the next best-selling, the next one on the list is? I think it's Mao Tse-tung's book of communism, the Little Red Book or something. From the website kingjamesbibleonline.org, and a page on it regarding the celebration of the 400th year of the King James Bible. What year would that have been? When did the King James Bible come out? 1611. Four hundred years, 2011. They said with more than six billion copies published, and that is different writers and so on. The Bible is the most popular book in the world and the King James Bible is the most published Bible translation. So I think we are not talking about some obscure book, right? We are talking about a very important book. Whether you are a Christian or not, whatever you might believe, just the very statistics of the sale of the book, and coming down to the sale of the Bible, and then of the Bibles that are sold, the King James Bible is published more than any other version. So I think we are talking about something that is important. The Holy Scriptures. Now notice our title is The Authority of God. The Holy Scriptures are the only authority that we have that tells us about God, the origin of the universe and the origin of man, and what God expects of man, and what is the end of man. That is important. That is important. The most popular book, the most sold book tells man about God, the origin of the universe and man, what is expected of man, and what is the end of man. That book doesn't just mean something to one person and mean something else to another. That book is God's Word. To deny this and not give attention to the Scriptures is to place someone under the judgment of God. And furthermore, to endeavor to change the Word of God is to bring judgment upon the individual that seeks to change the Word of God. We've already read Revelation 22, verses 18 and 19. Let's look at some others. Let's go back to Deuteronomy chapter 4. Now this is only a smidgen of verses that could be brought forth. Deuteronomy chapter 4. I'll begin at verse 1. Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statues and unto the judgments which I teach you. For to do them, that ye may live, and go in, and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you, Notice this, "...Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish out from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." In other words, he says, I had this written down in the book And this is what I've said, you shall not add a word to it, you're not to add to a word, nor are you to change it. I meant what I said. That's what God said right there. I meant what I said. Alright? Deuteronomy 12. Deuteronomy 12, verse 32. What thing soever I command you observe to do it, thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. What I have said, do it. What I've commanded you, what I've said, do it. Don't add to it, don't take away from it. Proverbs 30. Beginning at verse 5, Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. If you add to the Word of God or if you take away from the Word of God, you're a liar. Well, that's Old Testament stuff. Matthew 15. Matthew 15. Beginning at verse 6. Well, let's go back to verse 3. And he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, Saying, Honour thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. The word of God says, If you don't respect your parents, you are to be killed. But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, but whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." They have violated the Word of God by their traditions. Ye hypocrites! Well, did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and on earth to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Word only is not good enough to worship God. It must be from the heart. And if you don't do what God says, you're worshipping Him in vain, and you're teaching doctrines of men, or commandments of men. While we're in Matthew, let's look at Matthew 23. Verse 13, "...Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." I think this is a parallel passage, but I want to read it. Luke 11. Yes, Luke 11, 52. This is pretty apropos to lawyers today, by the way. For ye have taken away the key of knowledge, ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. Old Testament and New Testament makes it a serious offense to change the Word of God. And from these last two texts, it is a dangerous thing to do things to keep others out. It's a dangerous thing to do things that would hinder someone in believing the truth. And people that are wanting to change the Word of God and trying to teach others differently from what the Word of God says, they are in danger of hellfire. That's my introduction. We're going to look, we'll take it up this afternoon, but I'll give you where we're headed. Look at Christ and God's authority. And then we'll look at the authority of the New Testament writers. Without question, Well, let me say this. The only infallible writings are that which God inspired in the Greek and the Hebrew. But I can say without reservation, the book that I am holding in my hand is God's Word. Now we do have to give meaning to some of the words and some of the expressions from time to time. But we do not change what it says. The King James translators, because King James made it made some rules, primarily rules three and four, maybe five, I've forgotten. And if I remember correctly, there were 27 rules, maybe more, maybe less. I've read them years and years ago. But if it had not been for the rules that King James imposed upon the translators, Baptizo would have been translated immersed. And Ecclesia would have been translated congregation. Every place in the New Testament, Kindle translated Ecclesia, congregation. And I think he did, well I'll have to go back I'd have to do some more checking on the word baptizo. But we have the Word of God. And when Jesus said, after this manner pray ye, lead us not into temptation, that's what he meant. The Holy Spirit led Christ into the wilderness to be tempted. He didn't sin. Jesus couldn't sin. And the Holy Spirit leading Christ into the wilderness was not a sin. The sin was in the devil tempting. I want to make this plain, because it is brought up that to say, lead us not into temptation, is implying that God is tempting man to sin. That's what they say. The problem is they're ignorant of God. The Spirit led Christ into the wilderness. There was no sin in the Spirit leading Christ into the wilderness. There was sin in the devil tempting. God didn't tempt. God led Him to be tempted. Now we usually, and so, I want to make that plain and I want to clarify that. When people start thinking like modern people, instead of getting their head in God's Word and thinking after God's thoughts, they go astray. But when they get their head in the book and see what the book says, and think God's thoughts after God, then they realize that there is no problem with God being the author of sin, because He is not. But when puny man, in his ignorance, tries to force God into his own mind, he has no understanding of God. And he comes up with all these different ideas and opinions that are far-fetched from the Word of God simply because he doesn't know the Bible. But I think from the introduction we've seen the importance of the issue. It's not just some Antichrist, and the Pope is Antichrist. It's not just some Antichrist coming up with something. It's an attack on God. It's an attack on God. And that whole religion is an attack on God. Oh, another subject. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, hallowed be thy name. Hallowed be thy book. Thank you for giving it to us. Bless us to And it sounds so trite the way I'm going to put it, my God. Seems like there ought to be more sublime words. Bless us to really appreciate and reverence your word for what it is as much as we can in our sinful minds. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.