Last evening, we talked about why all the fuss is made over the King James Bible and what's going on in some circles, especially by these favorite radio ministers. And I told my people, if they don't have the King James Bible not to listen to them. Brother Jones, I said that in a preacher's meeting once, and I had to leave before the meeting was over. Have you ever just felt the life squeezed out of you? And I said that. I said, I tell my people not to listen to them. They do not have the King James Bible. I don't care how well they can teach, where they've been to school, or what they know, or how large a church they have. But you know, later on, several years after that, some of those same preachers who sat there said, I wish I had listened. You see, what happens is, and if you do much studying in this and you follow these men long enough, you will learn that some of the great thesis they build, they will build on where their text varies. From the King James Bible. And especially if it has to do with loosening up of the strictness where the scripture draws the line tight. and says everything on this side is black and everything on this side is white. And there is no doubt when you read this Bible and then you read another one, and I would not suggest you do that. I would hope you would take my word for it. There is no way that the holiness that one feels that they are near when they're reading this Bible is experienced in these new versions. Of course, they are finding fault with the these and the thys and the thous and the thines and all of these things. All that is is an excuse. That's not their problem. There's not a person in here tonight who embraces this King James Bible would have had any problem if that's all they would have changed. But he didn't change that. Somebody is saying what we need today is a real update. Who could you trust to do it? Let me give you this hurriedly. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. The New Testament was written in Greek. And our Bible was translated out of the original tongue of Hebrew and a portion of Daniel, Chaldeic, and then the New Testament entirely of Greek. The Hebrew that the Old Testament was written in is no longer spoken. It is a dead language. The Greek of which the New Testament was written is no longer spoken. The Greek which is spoken today is classical Greek. The Greek that the New Testament was written in was koine Greek, common Greek, the Greek of the street, what the common people spoke in that day. So even though men today are Greeks, they feel that they have somewhat of a monopoly on the New Testament as far as straightening out and giving us what the pure text is saying. They are speaking and writing in a language different than what our New Testament was written in. Now, when it was translated into English, it was translated into the Elizabethan type English. That English is no longer spoken, so it is dead. And that gives you all the affirmation you need to know that God has given us his Bible, which is unalterable, which is unchangeable. When a language dies, it no longer lives. Our English language is a living language. It is constantly being added to. In a period of five years in the history of our language, better than 30,000 words were added. that can't be said about the Hebrew of the Old Testament, nor can it be said about the Greek of the New Testament, nor can it be said about the English of the King James Bible. So what God said in the Old Testament Hebrew, He's still saying. And if we can find out what God said then, he's still saying now. And if we can find out what God said in the Greek of the New Testament, then we'll know what he's still saying now. I am the Lord, I change not. And if we can learn what he is saying in what he said when our King James Bible was translated, if it truthfully was translated verbally and formally, as we discussed last night, he's still saying the same thing that he said then. How are we gonna find out what he's saying today? Get a good English dictionary. Do you have Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary? If you don't, you need that. You say, well, I want to read a Bible. I want a Bible given us today that's more readable. Well, the NIV or the NASV is not. And that's been proven scholastically. that the easier reading of the three is the English Bible, the King James Version of the Bible. God knew what he was doing. Now listen to this. The problem is not that we cannot understand it, but the problem is we can't stand it. Because our flesh rebels against being told what to do. If there is any problem in our churches today, and that you fellows meet on the street, and in your witnessing, this is exactly it. We don't want to be told what to do. But I'm gonna tell you, God tells us what we ought to do, and he doesn't ask anybody if it'll be all right. He just tells us. He is God, Brother Tim. He is God. He reserves the right to say what he wants to, to demand anything that he wants to. And may I say, he did not ask the Old Testament prophets, nor did he ask the New Testament apostles if it would be all right if he put this demand on the people. In fact, he told Jeremiah to go down and preach to the nation of Judah in the temple. And he said, now I'm gonna tell you, Jeremiah, before you go, they are not going to hear what you have to say, but you tell them anyhow. Let me digress just a moment here. A man said to me, Brother Jones, you preach on that, but the people in our church are not doing it. So as if to say, you're just spinning your wheels because they're not doing, and you preach that people shouldn't do this, and then I see them doing it. I said, now there's one thing you got to understand. I'm not preaching what I do because people do or don't do. I am preaching what I am preaching because thus saith the word of God, if nobody does it. Amen. Are we ready? We're at Psalms 12. And a portion of our text has been quoted already. I want to begin by saying this question, asking this question, is there a word of God? Is there? Now the real problem among some scholars today is that they are doubtful as to if there is any pure word of God anywhere. You listening to me? Now I'm talking about these are the minds that run our seminaries today. that if there is actually a true word of God to be found, and if you don't think I'm speaking it right, you can study their translations, you can study their thought life, and the books that they write, and you will learn that they are not positively sure that there is somewhere a word of God. Now, if there is a word of God, it has to be somewhere. If there is. If there is not, we're in trouble. But if there is, it has to be somewhere. Now I am of the persuasion that there is. When Jeremiah was preaching and telling the nation of Babylon what they were to do, They didn't want to do it. And what he said is, you go with the Chaldeans. God wants you to give yourself up and march with the Chaldeans down into Babylon. Now the reason God wants you to do that is the judgment he's pronounced upon you and you deserve and you are to do that. And if you will do that, God will even bless you in Babylon because you yet are obedient to his words. But they all accused Jeremiah of siding with the Chaldeans. And you know the same thing that was going on then is still going on right now. Don't let me leave here, Brother Robert. I want to come back to Jeremiah and the Chaldeans, okay? One of my favorite Old Testament characters, you do not hear him preached on a great deal, is a character by the name of Micaiah. And you remember when Ahab and Jehoshaphat joined affinity to go up to get Ramoth Gilead back from the Syrians, Jehoshaphat said, what does the Lord have to say on the matter? I'm paraphrasing now. And old Ahab said, oh, don't worry. He said, we got 400 prophets here. under his breath, he said, they're Jezebels, and said, they said to go that God would be with us, and we didn't have anything to worry about. And old Jehoshaphat said, is there not a prophet of the Lord? He said many words now, I'm not going until I hear from a prophet of the Lord. And old Ahab said, well, there's one. But I hate him because he never prophesies good concerning me. How in the world are you going to prophesy good concerning a man who did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger more than any of that were before him? So preacher hating is not a new thing. It's been around a long time. So anyway, we're back to Jeremiah and the Chaldeans. So old Zedekiah, after Jeremiah had been put in prison, he called for him to come out. He couldn't trust the prophets of that land, but he knew where God's man was. And he brought him up and he said, now, Jeremiah, I wanna ask you something. He said, is there any word from the Lord? You ever preach that text, brother? You need to. Jeremiah 37. Is there any word from the Lord? Let me give you a little outline. There's a word for the sinner. There's a word for the backslider. And on and on, you can figure the rest of it. There's a word. Is there any word from the Lord? You know what Jeremiah said? There is. That's all it was, there is. Well, what is it? It's the same thing he's been saying. If you'll go with the Chaldeans, everything will be all right. You know Zedekiah didn't do that. He tried to get away out the back gate and the Chaldeans saw him and went after him and caught him and brought him and slayed all of his sons right before him and put his eyes out. What's a terrible, terrible thing not to obey God, isn't it? So I'm just convinced there's a word from the Lord. Well, if there is, then we're going to have to find it. Well, I believe I have. In Psalms, the 12th chapter and the 6th verse, where he says, the words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. And when I talk through this Psalm, One author I studied behind, who is supposed to be an authority on this, said that when that number seven was used within several, in certain grammatical constructions, it meant as many times as necessary. So he purified seven times. Then he says in verse seven, where if you have an NIV or an NASV, it won't read like this book. Of course, I don't blame them. I wouldn't have translated it like this either because it kind of make them look bad. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. Now, there are some fellows who are in authoritative circles who says this them refers to Israel. I think Dr. D.A. Waite is as good as an authority concerning the Bible as any man with breath in him today. And he said it had reference to the words in verse 6, and I don't always believe that, but it sure felt good to hear a good cooperation from a man of that caliber. And so what's in view here is the word of God. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. Now look at that word preserve. That means to guard, that means to watch, that means to watch over, and that means to keep. The psalmist said that God is going to keep his word forever. So that rules out the scholars being called to preserve the Word of God. That rules out the colleges from being called to preserve the Word of God. That rules out the churches. from being called to preserve the Word of God. That rules out the clergy from being called to preserve the Word of God. Rules it all out. God said, I will do it. May I submit unto you. He needs no help. He does every job He does well. I was listening one time, Dr. John McCormick preached for us three or four times. I remember he said on an occasion it perhaps was in another church, but he said, I'm amazed at some religious leaders of our day. He said, they all act as if they are waiting for a vacancy in the Godhead. they are quite certain if it takes place they themselves shall be chosen to fill it. He was talking about some who had this idea that poor old God, if it wasn't for me, God was doing well before they or we got here. And he'll be doing well after we're gone. He doesn't need any help. God said, I will do it. Now look at this little outline, would you? There is no deception in his words. The words of the Lord are pure words. Would you agree with me tonight that when you're looking at something pure, you're looking at something genuine and something that's real? and something that there is no impurity in, so there is no deception in his words. Then, number two, there is no dross in his words. Purified seven times. Amen. Put in the fire and brought out. Put in the fire and brought out. What's he doing? Burning the dross out. Hey, there is no problem with this Bible. There are no mistakes here. There are no errors in this Bible. There is no dross here. It's the very pure word of God. Then there's no dispersion of his words. He said, thou shalt keep them. No dispersion. They're not scattered to the four winds and we've got to look from here to yon to find it. God has always had his word intact. And it's been kept right up until this very hour. And fourthly, there is no decay in his words. Thou shalt preserve them. They have not rotted. And even though the manuscripts, and we'll speak about this later, have passed out of existence, his word hasn't. God's promised you and I to keep his word, surely he has. He said, the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth thereof, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. Boy, I believe that, I mean, I just believe that. Somebody said, boy, I'd like to hear Paul preach, read the epistles. Boy, wouldn't you love to have heard the sweet psalmist of Israel sing? Read the Psalms! Boy, I'd love to hear Jesus preach. Read the Gospels! Well, that's exactly right. This is a living word. Very much alive. Amen. Somebody said if you cut it, it'll bleed. They were talking about the blood being its life. And we read that verse last night, the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. But Jesus Christ said, this heaven and earth shall pass away. But my words, plural, every one of them shall not pass away. And that's recorded three times in the Synoptis. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Amen. Man said to me about, I guess, four years ago now, he said, I'm going out to Dallas. He just finished Bible college. And I tried to get him not to go where he went. Because I knew the influence. This man was, he's a great man. He preached revivals at our church, youth revivals. That man never preached a youth revival at our church if we didn't have people saved. Powerful preacher. And he's told me where he was going to school. I said, I think there's better schools for preachers than that. But see, the ones that I recommended were not accredited. I think there's something wrong, Brother Frazier. I think we're missing it when we're more concerned about accreditation than godliness. I mean, you know, it'll open more doors if you've been to an accredited school. I've been to three of them, whether you believe it or not. And none of them was accredited. And if God opens any more doors, I don't know what I'm going to do. Now, I bless the Lord and I praise Him for every opportunity He's given me to go. But I'm gonna tell you right now, if we're depending upon our accreditation, we're depending on something besides what God wants us to depend upon. May I digress a minute? I wanna say something to you young preachers. God bless you. I'm old enough to be your daddy. And I'm gonna tell you something. Don't open your own door. Amen. If God doesn't open it, keep your seat. Now that's digression, that won't cost you anything. You stay till God opens the door. When God opens a door, you shoot through it. I know where some are, and I can't hang up here, I gotta go, we got a lot to cover, but I know where a lot are who open their own door. You know where they are tonight? They're on the shelf, not even church. Okay, where am I? Boy, aren't you glad I got an outline. So anyway, this fella, he says, I'm going out to Dallas. I just looked at him. He said, you got a problem with that? I said, sure how? He said, I'm just going out there and look around. And then later on, I learned he told me he was going to another seminary. Well, I happen to know something about that seminary. And the preacher told me about it, and I said something to him. I said, I wish he wouldn't go there. He's a young man. God's hands on him. What better can you have than God's hand on you? I'd rather have that than anything. Take all the degrees, junk all of it, give me God. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So anyway, he said, well, I was talking to Dr. So-and-so and said, he said they'd cleaned that school up. I said, really? And I'm not, I wasn't sarcastic. I was interested. I said, really? He said, yeah. I said, ask him what text they use for the Greek class. And I'll tell you whether they've cleaned it up or not. If they're using the Nestle's Allen text, it's not clean. Amen. Dr. D.A. Waite was told by the, and I didn't even know this then, but Dr. D.A. Waite was told by the Dallas Theological Seminary in the years 1945 You wasn't even born then. You hadn't even thought about that. In 1945, Dr. D.A. Waite was told by the faculty, his own testimony of the Dallas Theological Seminary, he attended from 1945 to 1953, to use the ASV, the 1901, the American Standard Version, the 1901, they said it's more accurate. Something happened to it, it's bankrupt. No longer been printed, hadn't been printed for years. You know what? Many scholars will accept divine revelation. There are four great doctrines you need to concern yourself with in regard to the Word of God. Number one is revelation. Number two is inspiration. Number three is illumination. Number four is preservation. that when you are dealing with a subject of revelation, that means simply this, that God is making known His will and mine unto man. That God reveals, He makes known. You see, it is not man that found out God, but it's God that chose to make Himself known, or we would never know Him yet. And God made himself known. The process of revelation, that's given out the mind, that's given the will of God unto man. Now, there's a slight hang up here on this second one, inspiration. inspiration in its truest sense has to do with this, that God holds the vehicle in which He is making known that revelation in control so as the exact revelation which God is wanting to give of Himself is given accurately. In other words, here are the ones to whom God, come here, Ben, would you, sir? Here is a vehicle that God is going to use to reveal his will and mine unto man. But Ben is standing here just like he is now. Can't do anything. The word of prophecy came not in old time but the will of man. But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It is the picture of a ship sitting in the water with its flags unfurled. Nothing going on. But all of a sudden, a puff of wind pushes against those sails and that boat heads out. That's a picture of inspiration. Here he is, he's got his tablet ready. Here he is, he's got his pen ready. But he don't write till God says write. And if you are going to deal in the area of divine inspiration, that means God chooses into this vehicle's vocabulary and even chooses the word that he wants him to write down. That's divine inspiration. He just does not say, now vehicle, I'm talking about a man, now vehicle, here is what I want you to get this thought to the people. He doesn't say that. That's dynamic equivalency that I talked about last time. That's the thought flow. God did not give ideas to men, he gave words to men. He did not say he would preserve his thoughts, his ideas, but his words, the very word of God. They got a problem with that. They do not believe that God held that vehicle in control. I do! In 1974, I went to Camp Zion, Myrtle, Mississippi, and Dr. J. Harold Smith, the first time I'd ever seen him, I'd heard of him. He was there, and he was preaching, and he gave an incident that happened at his church when he pastored at Fort Smith, Arkansas. And he said, one day when church was over, a man grabbed me by the arm and he said, Dr. Smith, my son and I need to talk with you. He said, fine, fine. So they went into the office and he said, Dr. Smith said, my son has gone away to college and he has some problems now with the word of God. And he said, he's got some problems with it just being real and us accepting it as authoritative and every word in it being right and no mistakes and error. He's got a problem there. And Dr. Smith just looked at him across the desk and he said, son, do you believe Balaam's ass spoke? Now boy, that would be an approach, wouldn't it? Do you believe Balaam's ass spoke? And he said, the father looked at him and said, go on, son, tell him, tell him. He said, oh, dad, said, you know how Dr. Smith is? Said, he believes God wiggled the fingers of the men who wrote the Bible. Dr. Smith said, I never heard it put that way before, son, but that's exactly what I believe. Verbally, every word. Plenarily inspired. That means every part. This Bible is not a book of science, but it does have scientific statements. They have spent billions and billions and billions of dollars trying to disprove the first statement. I feel like running. Moses, who is ineloquent of speech. Moses, who's above 80 years of age, said in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Man's been trying to disprove that for 6,000 years and probably spent $6 trillion and it still stands in the beginning, God. To have our present universe You've got to have four things. You've got to have time. You've got to have energy. You've got to have space. And you've got to have matter. In the beginning, time. God created energy, the heavens space, and the earth matter. Don't you, do you not now see why the liberals tried to discount the first three chapters of the Bible? They can't get around that, pastor. They've got to accept that. They've tried and tried and tried. They cannot disprove that. But their problem is not so much in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Their problem is you must be born again. We can no longer lift ourselves up by our bootstraps. We are no good. We are totally depraved. We deserve hell, and that's where we're going, except we experience the new birth. They cannot consider God being such, but he is. And they cannot disprove Genesis 1, 1, nor can they disprove John 3, 16. But if they could disprove that, they could do away with the rest of the Bible. But I'm telling you, the devil think God is defeated. He will never destroy what God has said or God has done. His word stands tonight. It always stands. Thank the Lord. Thank you, Benjamin. In the beginning, inspiration. And it was referred to last night by the pastor and his comments. Jeremiah wrote at the mouth of the Lord and Jehoiakim, he didn't like what Jeremiah wrote. He took his knife and cut it, and threw it on the hearth, and it was burned in the fire. If you'll study, if you'll look at that 36th chapter, here's you some homework, Brother Tim. In the 36th chapter, there's all four of these doctrines I'm talking about right now. Revelation, inspiration, illumination, preservation, all four of them's right there. And what he did in the 36th chapter of Jeremiah, okay? They're all there. And believe me, they're all there. And so what he did, when the Lord spoke to Jeremiah, and he said, Jeremiah, you go speak the same words and write them in a book. I don't have a new message just because they didn't accept it. Can I digress again? I kind of like these digressions. When the Lord began to feed the 5,000 men, besides women and children, with a lad's lunch of five loaves and two fishes, he told them all to sit down in the grassy places. He did not tell the disciples to pass out menus. Check here, check there. He said, the meal today is bread and fish. He didn't even ask them if they liked it. inspiration. You got it? That's when God holds that vehicle, that man, that instrument of which he's given that divine revelation in control so as he gives the exact revelation God wants him to give. That's inspiration. Amen. Wiggle the fingers, that'll remain. The third one is illumination. That has to do with an ability beyond natural human reasoning to receive. Sounds like salvation to me, to receive that revelation of God. Have you heard somebody say, God turned the light on? That's what they're talking about. Have you heard someone say, I've read that and read it and read it, and boy all of a sudden it jumped out at me. How did it jump out at you? I'll tell you, illumination. The Holy Ghost who authored the Bible, illumined that word. Now a lot of times we talk about you know, illuminating ourselves. But it's not us that are illumined, it's the Word that's illumined so we, as sinful creatures, can receive it. Now here's where the real drag comes. That's the fourth one. Preservation. There is not one man sitting on any of the translation committees who believed in the divine preservation of the word of God. Not a one of them. There is none of them believed that God would preserve the very word he gave to man until now. So this must cause the invention of textual criticism. And textual criticism has to do with a bunch of scholars, and I'm not making light now, sitting around trying to discern the true and proper text. You remember I said last night the Nestles-Allen text has been revised 26 times, and I just saw a video recently where they were at the round table again in a big discussion, and they're not quite sure whether that is exactly correct. And there is already talk of a 27th revision of a text. That's textual criticism. That is themselves, and the question was asked. Well, how are we going to arrive at the true rendering of that text? And one of those professors said this. He may have been a president of the college, I can't rightly remember, but he said this. He said, well, what we've got to do is look at this text We have got to get the proper context in which it was given. Are you listening? We've got to weigh this out and we, we, we, we have got to see so we can arrive at the true rendering. No, we don't have to do anything. God said, I will do it and he has. And the real problem is when they are trying to go away and reject what God has given them in His holy, holy Bible. Amen. Preservation. You rest assured tonight that God did not only divinely reveal this Word and divinely inspire this Word and divinely illumines this Word, but He has divinely preserved this Word. Don't get hung up there. God doesn't need us. God is doing well in His own Word. Now let me draw you for instance here. What if God is not able to superintend a correct translation? What if God cannot do that? Now, yes, sir, we're in trouble. You know why? Because one of these days I expect a translation. You read the book of Hebrews, the 11th chapter, three times in one verse talking about Enoch was translated, translated, translated. I'm expecting a translation. Oh, not that I'm gonna try to translate the Bible. I'm translating from here to yonder. Now, if I cannot trust God to superintend a correct translation of this, which is, I know it's alive, and I know it's the word of God, but actually what we're looking at here is paper and ink and leather and a few notes, four-leaf clover and a hairpin. What? I mean, How in the world can we trust him to superintend our translation to heaven? I don't have any problem. Do you? I believe God is able to do that. And let me say something else. If God cannot, when he has promised he will, preserve this word of God, how can I expect him and trust him to preserve me? The very assurance I have of my eternal home in heaven falls right back on this. Is God able to preserve this word? If He is, through all what it's been through, we'll maybe talk about that. Through all this Bible has been through, if God is able to preserve that, I got no problem knowing He's able to preserve me. Goodness, now listen. I want us to go to Matthew 5 just a minute, would you? Matthew 5 and verse number 17 and 18. Matthew 5, 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, he's talking about the Word of God, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For from the law till all be fulfilled. Jesus said, one jot nor one tittle can possibly fall from this law, this Word of God, till everything that the Word of God says is going to happen will happen. That is a bold statement. I mean, if we do not have a God, and if Christ was not God, we surely are in trouble. Now go to Psalms 119. Psalm 119. I know some of you are aware of this already, but maybe everyone isn't. In Psalm 119, look at the 73rd verse. And while you're turning there, let me point out something to you. In the Hebrew alphabet, there are 22 letters. In the Greek alphabet, there are 24. And in the English, there are 26. This book, the Book of Psalms, is referred to as a poetic book. The reason it is is because the way it's written. Hebrew poetry did not mean a rhyme. But Hebrew poetry meant a repetition of the same thing, either in affirmation or negative. Saying one thing positive, saying one thing negative. But anyway, instilling the same truth. repetition of the same theme that was Hebrew poetry. And if you'll notice here, there are little divisions in the 119th Psalm. Each division consists of eight verses. And eight times 22 is 176. How many verses there are in the 119th Psalm? Every one of these eight sectioned verses begins with a particular letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Now in the 73rd verse, look above that, you see the English word J-O-D. And if I could pronounce that correctly, that is Yoth. This is the smallest letter in the Hebrew language. This is the same as a jot. Do you see that little thing looks like our apostrophe? Jesus said that can't even pass away. Boy, if we've got problems believing that God can preserve a whole Bible, if we've got problems believing that, we've really got problems when it comes to this. That Jesus said the smallest of the Hebrew letter cannot pass away to everything that the law said will come into effect will be accomplished. What a God we serve! Now, I want you to look at verse number 9, if you would. And right above that is the second of the Hebrew letters, the word Beth. You see it? The letter Beth. You see it? Take a good look at that. You've got two horizontal lines connected with a vertical line at the right-hand side. You see that? All right, also I want you to look at Psalm, keep your finger there, Psalm 119 verse 81. And you look at this Hebrew letter, which is the letter Kath. You see it? Now look at that letter Kath. You see that? And also look back at verse number 9. And you see the letter Beth. Do you see any difference? You have to look close. But if you look real close, you'll notice the bottom of the letter Kath is rounded, but the other one has a little protrusion there about the breadth of a hair sticking over. That is a tittle. And that is a tittle. And Jesus said, not all that little apostrophe looking thing, but that little bitty thing about the size of a portion of the end of your fingernail shall not pass away. Do you think God has something to say about His Word? You see the same thing at verse 25. At verse 25, the word daleth, you see it? The letter, excuse me. You see that? Then you look on over at 153, verse 153, and you see the letter resh. You see that? Now, if you notice, you've got the same thing. The difference is that little bitty protrusion of that line. That's a tittle. Now, I'm gonna tell you something. Man better be sure of himself before he makes a statement like that. And here, the modern day scholars are looking at what they say is for the Word. And Jesus said the smallest portion of a letter. Not a word, the smallest portion of a letter and the smallest letter in the whole alphabet that make up the words can't pass away. Boy, isn't faith a whole lot more simple? just to take what God says and try to figure out all of these things. I'm telling you, I get excited about this. Now, if, say a scholar says, now I can take inspiration, I can handle that, I can believe that God inspired the Bible, but I just can't accept this preservation. Well, if God isn't going to preserve it, why did He inspire it to begin with? Why? Why would God do that? I mean, if He's not going to keep it, what would it matter? But He is going to keep it. Let me give you my testimony. Boy, I'm not getting far, preacher. how I'm not prolonging anything. I can't help it. This crowd's preaching me to death. I was attending the Florida Bible Institute and the required reading which we were given had statements in it. I can't figure out why they do this to young preachers. Could I make a statement and not upset anybody in here tonight? I told you last night I'm for education. I taught seven years in the Bible Institute. I'm for it. I believe you ought to get all you can and can all you get. And if it's necessary, set on the can. I think education is wonderful, but I believe every young preacher ought to sit under a godly pastor for a little while and learn something not only about the Bible, but about the techniques and about faith in God and believe in God before he heads off to some college where perhaps a liberal is going to get a hold of him and start filling his mind with doubt. Now that's not popular and I'd get in trouble in some places, but I've said it. But I'd been pastoring almost four years. The opportunity availed itself for me to attend Bible school. So I thought, I'm going to do it. I had to go at night and had one day class and some night classes. I was taking a full, what they call a full load. And this required reading. These authors would say, the King James Bible reads this way, but here is what it means. And here really is what God is saying. And not only that, but this the, there's no definite article there, and that needs to be omitted, and an indefinite a goes there, and vice versa. And then we get on over there, and then this word really does not belong here. It's not, the love of money is the root of all evil. That's not what it says. It says something else. The love of money is the root of all evils, what the King James Bible said. They said that the doesn't belong there, it is a root. That's what these books are saying, so I'm reading that. And Pastor, when God called me to preach, there was one thing that troubled me more than anything in the world. I wanted to give the people what God said. That meant more to me than anything in the world. Brother Jones, you know what I'm talking about? I was so afraid that I would be wrong, that I'd make a mistake, that I would tell something that God didn't say. And if I ever had a desire for anything as a preacher, I wanted to be sure I could give them the exact thing God said. So I'm reading this. So I'm teaching the adult Bible class also. So as I'm teaching through the epistles, I said, now, you know, this D here that doesn't belong there. And that A is supposed to be there. I mean, I'm going to school. These men are supposed to know. And these authors that are so recommended, they're supposed to know I'm saying these things. I hope I never did say there's a mistake here. Now John MacArthur makes no bones about it. He's teaching and he comes to a passage and he says, man, let me see if I can straighten this mess out the King James translators made. And I want to cover this when I get to the manuscripts and the men who are responsible for our Bible. All of a sudden, some man sits in a Greek class for six or eight hours. I'm talking about six or eight hours of Greek, not six or eight hour period. I'm talking about six or eight hours of Greek. I'm talking about courses. And all of a sudden, he's smart enough to correct what men who could read and write Hebrew when they were five and six years old. So anyhow, I wanted to be right. God helped me to be right. So one day we had a service, and I'm telling you, it died. Now, you never had that service. I'm talking about die. Boy, the people singing, the choirs are singing, and the power of God's moving, you think, hot dog. Parties can't wait till I get up there. And after you're up there about five minutes, you wish you'd never got up. I mean, hey man, I probably killed it, but I've been in a few that just, I mean, died, buddy. But anyway, I'm going home, walking home. My wife, we live in a parcel behind the church and my wife and children are already there, our child at that time. And so I'm walking and I'm praying. And I said, Lord, you know, I love you. And you know, I prayed and I prayed. And you know, I know that you gave me that message. I know you did. You spoke to my heart. You gave me that. I studied for it and I just enjoyed it. It blessed my heart. I could hardly wait to get a church to preach it and I did. Lord, what's wrong? Why did that thing die? Lord, you know, I want more than anything in the world to tell the people exactly what you said. He said, then quit treating my word the way you're treating it. Quit it. And I got to thinking about this impression that comes to my heart. How am I treating it? And I got, of course, the Lord will tell you. I mean, if he impresses you on something, you say, what do you mean by that? Boy, you don't have to call a deacon's meeting or a pastor's fellowship. Yeah, what'd you mean by that, Lord? Boy, I mean, he immediately let you know it. So that provoked me to go home. That provoked me to go home and began a study on what the Word of God really is. And I set up late hours of the night, and going to school, and trying to pastor, and working, and studying, and writing. And so in the hermeneutics class that year, I wrote a term paper on the inspiration of the scriptures. And the president of the college called me in. No, now wait a minute, this is good. And he said, he said, Brother Jones, I've read your term paper. And he said, it's very good. He said, now there's some typos that you made. I said, yes, sir. And he said, what I'd like to do with your permission is have our typist retype this and file it in our library as a permanent reference material that other preachers can use. I mean, how would you have found? Man, I knew this is it, you know. I mean, this is it. I'm gonna get it rough. But I wrote it. And God convinced me in the wee hours of the morning, night after night, where his Word was. I've never since that day ever said this doesn't belong. This should be something else. And by God's grace, I never am. Then when I moved to Harriman, they had Bible school one year. First year, first, second year I was there. And so the theme was going to be Our Infallible Bible. I thought, boy, that's wonderful. So I said, we're gonna have an adult class. And you come and I'm gonna teach you on Our Infallible Bible. So I sent away for this book, Our Infallible Bible. And I get it. And I get, I don't know, 20, 25 people signed up to come and I ordered that many books and I start reading that thing, Brother Hale. I said, goodness, I cannot teach this. Here is a man who has written a book on our infallible Bible and doesn't even believe we have one. So there were 10 chapters in that. The first five nights, I refuted the first five chapters. And then the following five Wednesday nights, I refuted the five remainder chapters. So I said to you last night, and I want to say it again this evening, that what I'm giving you is a reflection of hundreds of hours of research, study, prayer, scratching my head. That's probably why. I'm serious. Begging God God, I just want to be right. I'm not asking you to climb up to any place. Just let me be right. Souls are hanging in the balances. I've got to be right. I've got to be right. Thousands of pages I have read. One hour. In three minutes, I gotta quit. I'm sorry, preacher, I haven't gotten any farther. But we're called a lot of things. We're called pulpit pounders. We're called Bible thumpers. I don't care. I'll plead guilty. to anything that I am. But of all things, I detest being called. Above all, it's a Rookmanite. I am not a Rookmanite. I have nothing to say against Dr. Peter Rookman. I have nothing to say against him. But I am not a Rookmanite. Isn't it sad that we live in this day when if you take a strong stand on the King James Bible, they automatically label you a Ruckmanite. They are saying, in other words, if it was not for Peter Ruckman, you wouldn't take this stand. I believed what I believed about this Bible before I ever knew that man lived. He's got too many wives, too. But I don't believe what I believe about this Bible because any man has taught me. I'm going to tell you one thing, fellas, and I've got to quit. Come on, preacher. I've got to quit. I'll tell you one thing.