been preaching on Sunday nights about the King James Bible, why we use it and all that. Tonight we want to continue in this same topic. Why do I use the King James Bible? And we're going to start in the book of Proverbs chapter number 30. Proverbs 30. There are several scriptures I want to read at the very beginning of this just to show us what the Bible really is. A lot of people, they look at the Bible as a book. And I know it's a book, I know that. But the Bible is God's word. And sometimes we forget that. What God said he will do, he will do. There's no doubt about that whatsoever, he will do that. Notice what the Bible says. I think that the Bible makes it very clear in this passage. In the book of Proverbs chapter 30 and verse number 5, the Bible said in this place, every word of God is pure. Right? Now if you just stop reading right there, you'll miss the point. Every word of God is pure. That's true. Then the Bible says, he What? What's the next word? It's He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Is that different from the Word of God? Is that different? When you really believe in Christ, You believe in his word. What Christ says, he will back up. He will cause it to happen. That's why the scripture is this way. That's why these, read verse five again. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Pretty plain to me. By the way, read verse 4. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fist? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth. What is his name? And what is his son's name, if thou canst tell? We know his son's name, but in that day when it was written, they didn't know his name. Well, there's some prophecy about that, but very, very, very little bit. But we know his name. Let's go Lord in a word of prayer if you would, before we begin this message. I pray Lord that you might accept our thanks for the day. Help us Lord to be faithful to you and to be like we need to be. I pray Lord that you might bless our church in order the people that come Lord, I miss the ones that come on Sunday morning and don't come back Sunday night. But Lord, I know, Lord, that you can touch them with your own truth, that you can cause them, Lord, to have the same obligations toward you that we do. I pray, Lord, that you might bless tonight as we bring this word that your name be glorified and honored, that your name would be eternally praised. I pray you might save those who are lost, have us be what you want us to be. Just forgive us for our sins and care for us, Lord, today. For it's in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen. So it's very evident to me that when I use the King James Bible, and that's what I use, that I'm, that's when God speaks to me. He speaks to me through his word. And today, there are multitudes, I mean, there is multitudes of other versions of the Bible. I know that that's so. I know that people can be saved when they use another version. I know that. God is very able to do all that. But I want to be as right as I can be. I don't want to be old-fashioned or nothing like that. I want to be right. I want to understand that God's Word is God's Word, and that I don't worship the Bible, but I do worship the God of the Bible. Make that very clear. In Isaiah chapter 40 and verse number 8, we find another scripture that's a lot like this. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse number 8. Isaiah 40, verse number 8. The Bible said here in this place, Isaiah 40 verse number 8, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. So I know this, that God will be forever. Jesus is forever and his word is forever whatever he says is forever and he gave to us this written word that we might understand what he's saying look in the book of Luke chapter 8 Luke chapter 8 along this same line Luke chapter 8 And verse number 11, Luke chapter number 8, here Jesus Christ is giving the disciples the interpretation of the parable that he just gave them about the sower. He says in Luke 8, verse number 4, that the people were gathered together and were come to him out of every city, spake by a parable. He said a store went out to sow seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock, and soon it was sprung up, and it withered away because it lacked moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up with it and choked it. And some fell on good ground and sprung up and bore fruit a hundredfold. And when he said these things, he said, he cried, he shouted, the emphasis is upon his language. He says, he that hath an ear, let him hear. Verse number nine, his disciples came asking him saying, what might this parable be? And here's what Jesus Christ told his disciples. He said, unto you is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables. that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. In verse number 11 it says this, as he gives them the interpretation, notice what he says, but now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Sometimes we get so involved in trying to make divisions here of this parable that we forget what the seed is. The seed is the Word of God. When the Bible is given out, the Word of God is what that is. The seed is the Word of God. Some people don't want to hear it. Some people do. But the important thing to notice here is that the Bible, I think the King James Bible is the word of God today for this time, for English-speaking people, it really is. Another verse is in the book of 1 Peter 1. 1st Peter chapter number 1 and verse number 23. 1st Peter chapter number 1 verse number 23. This tells us what the Word of God does to us. 1st Peter 1 verse 23, being born again not a corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." Look at that. There it is. The Word of God saves our soul. Whatever version a person wants to use, they can be saved. But when you want to grow, you ought to be what God wants you to be. I believe you ought to stand by the King James Bible. being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God and the Word of God lives and abides forever and we that are born again live and abide forever that's it I mean that's the whole truth of the whole thing look again in the book of Revelation chapter number 19 Revelation 19 and verse number 13, the Bible here tells us once again that the Word of God is Christ. This is what the Word of God really is. Revelation 19 verse number 13, And he that was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. This puts a grave responsibility upon us to hold to the Word of God, to know that the Bible that we hold in our hands is the Word of God, and that people can get in contact with God through His written Word. That's what it's given for us today. We don't have prophets anymore. or a bunch of signs and wonders. We don't have that. Not like they had in days gone by. But now we have the Word of God. It's complete. And we don't need any of that stuff. I tell you what the devil has done though today. The devil knows that people are still going to be saved. But the devil wants to destroy them in their life. He wants to cause them to hang on to anything else. Not the Word of God. So he perverts the Word of God and makes many different translations of the Bible to fill this world. All he wants to do is to destroy Christianity. That's really what he wants to do, to melt it down into nothingness. But why do I use the King James Bible then? Sometimes people say the King James Bible is too difficult. The words are just, they're just difficult to understand. That's one argument that I hear all the time. I want something easy to read. I want something to fit into modern society really easy. That's what they want. But years ago, I discovered the Flesch-Kincaid grade level indicator. This indicator was developed to rate the difficulty of understanding a document. I have it on my computer. It's out to the side, and I had to punch on a little button to make it show up. But it will tell me the difficulty that I've written, how difficult it is. Sometimes it's way up there, sometimes it's not. Sometimes a large number is there. It's probably the same you probably got on your computer too. I use Word, so it's probably on yours as well. It's calculated using the average words per sentence, the average syllables per word, the average length of each sentence, and the length of paragraphs. And anything you write, it shows up. And so I checked to see how difficult the Bible is. I just did this last week. Maybe this week. No, this is Sunday, so last week. I found that the King James Bible is a 5.8. That means it's a grade five in the eighth month. All right. I printed a thing out so I could look at it. The NIV has a grade level average of 8.4. It's higher. The NASB has a grade level of 6.1. The T.E.V. has a grade level of 7.2. The new King James Version has a grade level of 6.9. So look, King James is easy to read of all of them. So if you want something really easy to read and understand, Read the King James Version. It's easier. I'll tell you what I've done. I was the principal of our school when we had a school. And I would take the little children, some of them in the first or second grade, And I remember sitting with them and asking them a question about a Bible about a Bible. What's that? What's that mean? What's that verse mean? I would watch these kids is the funniest thing in the world. You can tell that was thinking, because they're scrunching up their face like that, doing all that kind of number. They were really thinking hard. But then they come out with a truth. They come out with exactly what the Bible says. But they were using the King James Version. I didn't try anything else. I just used the King James. I thought that was interesting to understand that a child much younger than the fifth grade, almost in the sixth grade, could understand what the Bible said. It's good. But the devil has got people to believe in that you've got to be some kind of expert to understand the Bible. But you don't have to be. All you got to do is read it. And God is the one that gives you understanding anyway. It's trusting in the Lord to help you understand all that thing. But really, I really doubt that the most of society has problems understanding what the Bible says. I really doubt that. I really think that most of society has trouble wanting to believe what it says. I think that's where the rub is. The Bible clearly speaks about sin, doesn't it? I mean it tells you right off what sin is. The Bible is very clear to understand. Talking about how that Jesus Christ died on the cross. He suffered for our sins. That's really, really clear. That's really plain. I think sometimes that the Bible, the King James Bible, speaks too clearly about sin and the total dedication that God requires. People are not spiritually inclined. They're sinners. And they want a Bible that will agree with their philosophy of life. But we need what the Bible says and what the Bible says only. God will always bless. Point number two is this. There's many, many different versions of the Bible, right? I mean, there's a ton of them. I ran across one just two days ago, I think it was. I'd never even heard of it before. Never even heard of it. I wonder, where are all these coming from? I tell you where they're coming from, they're coming from the Bible, from the devil, that's it. He wants to inundate us with all this flood of information. That's wrong information that will often lead us into believing something that we shouldn't believe. But of all these versions and the proliferation of God's Word that goes out, has things got any better? I just ask you the question, has things got better? People are reading their Bibles all the time, right? If they have one, if they are reading their Bible, are things getting better and better? Are people seeking the Lord more and more than they used to? It's less and less, not more and more. It seems to me that most people see a line in the sand. It's like here's a line right through here. And on this side is sin and wickedness, and on this side is holiness and righteousness. And what people want to do is to stand just as close to that line as they can possibly stand. Sometimes they might step over just a little bit. But it's not long before they begin to feel uncomfortable and so they slip back into old ways, right? That's what happens. God is not, He's not like us. God is spiritual. And He's full of holiness and righteousness. And that's the same thing that He wants for us. He wants us to be more like Him and less like us. You think about all the proliferation of all these different versions that are filling this world today. Our society has not improved. Our society has not gotten any better. The crime rates have not gone down. They're rather going up. I remember years ago, An incident that happened in our home is in 1955, I was still at home, but we went on a trip to Arizona. Our whole family went on a trip. Mother, daddy, all of us went. All the four kids, we all took off, we all went. My younger brother was just a little bitty guy. Did you know that Daddy and Mother looked all over the house for a key to the house and couldn't find one? Because the house was never locked. It was never locked. Daddy said on the way, he said, well, we're going. We're going to Arizona. If we come back and it's all gone, it's all gone. You have a driver's license? It's in your pocket, right? Do you know where my mother used to carry her driver's license? Let me tell you. On the steering wheel, there was a steering shaft that went back, and daddy bought her a device where she could put her license in that, and all the insurance papers, sneak it right in there, and that was held in place by two springs. And that's where it was. She said, if I'm in the car, I need it. If I'm not in the car, I don't need it. Would you consider doing that today? And leaving your car unlocked? Used to, our keys in the car were always in the car, in the ignition. You remember that? I remember that. That was a long time ago. I think now, but as I think about it, it wasn't very long at all. Until now, everything has got to be locked up tight. Used to, a church building was never locked. Sutherland Baptist Church, the first church I ever pastored, it was never locked. The door was never locked. It was on a, I think that was a numbered highway, I forget now what it was, but it was never locked. I went over there one time at night. I turned on the light. I need to get something. And there's a woman in there scared me to death. I think she was wrong. She said she felt a lot of comfort being in a church building at night with the lights off. I thought that's craziness. Turn them lights on. But wickedness in days gone by was still there. I'm not saying that that in days gone by that it was a literal paradise everywhere you went because it wasn't. There was way you know, back when I was a boy, there was jails. They were and there were people in jails. Some of them deserve to be there. There was alcohol when I was a boy. People would get drunk when I was a boy. I remember seeing some of those that was drunk. So I'm not talking about living in a time when there's no sin at all. I'm talking about a time when we need to do what God wants us to do and God will protect us. I still believe that God will protect us. Although now I lock the door. Although now I have my car keys in my pocket. I have my driver's license in my pocket as well. They're not looped around the steering column at all. Look in the book of Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse number 16. Jeremiah Chapter number 6 and verse 16. Jeremiah 6 and verse number 16. The Bible said, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths. where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they say, we will not walk therein. And that's the way it is. I'm not saying that we ought to always look back. I'm not saying that. But I am saying that we ought to ask the Lord to show us How He wants us to live and do what God wants us to do. And God will protect us. God will watch over us. He will bless us. I believe that. Look also in the book of Proverbs 22. Proverbs 22 and verse number 28 which states this. Proverbs 22 and verse number 28 states this. Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. So understand that there's some things that we don't need to change at all. These passages that I've read in the book of Jeremiah and in Proverbs 22 is not talking about doing away with electricity or running water. I like both of those. These passages are not talking about walking everywhere instead of going in an automobile. These passages are not talking about doing away with a telephone, a radio, or a computer. It's not talking about that, I don't think at all. These passages are talking about continuing in the principles of holiness as described in the Word of God, and that's what we need. We need to be holy people because we serve a holy God. He has saved our unworthy souls and given us holiness. That's what we need, is Him and Him alone. Point number three is this. Most people will say that there is little difference between the King James Bible and the modern translations. I've heard that many, many times. But they are terribly wrong. There is so many differences, it will be impossible to bring those out. And I won't even start that tonight, but I want to give you six. These are general things altogether. Number one, God's eternal plan of redemption is simply left out of some of the newer versions or this great plan is so weakened as to be a shadow of his true self. It's just change. The devil knows this, that he cannot ever get rid of God's redemption. God will save people regardless of which version of the Bible they want to read. He will save them. While I'm thinking about that, Sometimes people would think that Catholicism is one of those religions that's on the far, far side. But they don't understand that that's not true. The version of the scriptures that Catholicism uses is the Douay version, which is very close to the King James. Very close indeed. But as I understand it, if you're a Catholic, and a good Catholic, you don't need to read the Bible. The priest will read it for you. You know what I believe? I believe you need to read it. I believe you need to. You need to, and the way we preach, is that when I read a passage, I call out where I'm going to read it, right? I call out the book, the chapter, and the verse. I want you to read. I want you to see in your own Bibles. That's why I tell you, you need to bring your own Bible. You need to understand. It'll mean so much more to you when you understand what the Word of God really is. It's like one time I went to a funeral service. I was not the speaker, but I carried my Bible instead. Nobody had a Bible but me. Nobody. I was alone with my Bible. Whoever was doing the speaking gave a scripture, so I turned to it. What I read in my Bible wasn't what he read. It was two different things. He gave the second scripture. I turned to it. But he was finished reading it before I got there. So I don't know if that was right or not. I doubt it. I soon disclosed the Bible. I think it was making him nervous. Maybe some other people were nervous too, I don't know. It wasn't my intentions at all. But that was point number one. God's eternal plan of redemption is simply left out of some of the newer version or his plan is so weakened that it is just a shadow of his true strength. Number two. The eternal existence of Christ and his deity or either completely wiped out of the newer versions or left with just a fragment remaining. And we need that. We need to know who Christ is. He is the only begotten Son of the only God there is. He literally is God. He is one with his Father. Many of the newer, point number three, many of the newer versions refuse to admit that Christ is the creator of heaven and earth. I mean, can you believe that some preachers Don't believe in creation in the book of Genesis? Can you believe that? Can you comprehend that? But that is so. You don't have to go very far to find preachers that do not believe in the Genesis account of creation. They'll believe the Bible. They just don't believe it. Number four. In many of these newer versions, often Christ is referred to as a servant of God rather than his son. You need to check that out. Let me say that again. Point number four. Often Christ is referred to as the servant of God rather than his son. Number five, the newer versions often cloud the description of Christ as the final judge of heaven and earth. They make that real milky. It's hard to discern. Some of the newer versions do exactly that. Number six, the issue of the version birth of Christ becomes difficult to find in some of the newer modern versions. They're trying to do away with the Godhead. It's just bad. It's bad all over. Point number four is this. The foundation of modern translations is wrong. This point involves a little bit of history, which I hope you will consider to be interesting. So I want to go back, there's a few men to mention here. The first one is a man who lived. He was born at 185 and died in 254 ad. His name is origin. He was one of the greatest apostate preachers or teachers that you would ever find. This is the this is where it all started. He was a great influencer of many but his preference for narcissism, mysticism, and the early heresies made him anything but a safe guide or teacher. His doctrines were repulsive. He was considered, though, the greatest theologian of that time. He taught that stars have souls, that devils would be saved, that Jesus was created and did not eternally exist with God. That sounded like pure heresy to me. But that thing that's heresy started a long time ago, but now it is coming back on the scene. This man wrote this, this one sentence. He said, the scriptures are of little use to those who understand them as they are written. What? He said this, the scriptures are of little use to those who understand them as they are written. Do you know, when God gave us his book, he intended for us to understand it. I think so. He changed the scriptures to suit his own confused philosophy and in the process made many of the deletions that we now find in modern versions. That's where it started. It was origin who mightily influenced Jerome, and Jerome lived in 340, he died in 420 AD. He was another historical apostate. How that all came about was through Constantine. Constantine lived in 280 AD. That's when he was born, and then he died in 337 A.D. He became the emperor of Rome. He endeavored to unite his kingdom closer together by forming a union between Christianity and paganism. Sound like anybody else you know? It really does. Since Origen had successfully blended Christianity with pagan philosophy, Constantine commissioned another man whose name is Eusebius, a great admirer of Origen, to prepare 50 Bibles based on Origen's corrupted scriptures for use in the churches. 50 Bibles. Skipping past many centuries, filled with attacks upon the true word of God, and persecution of his followers, we come to the year 1481 AD. In this year, 1481, a very old manuscript, Codex Vaticanus, was found lying dormant on a shelf in the Vatican library. That's 1481. Then 378 years later. Part and that's in the year 1844. Part of the codex Sinaiticus was discovered in a wastebasket at St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. The codex Sinaiticus was discovered in entirety in 1859. Both of these manuscripts Vaticanus and Sinaiticus date back to the time that Eusebius produced these 50 Bibles for Constantine and are believed by many to be survivors of that lot. They found those. When you talk about the Dead Sea Scrolls, that's what you're talking about. Besides that, when you think about the Holy Scriptures of God, they were used. People read those Bibles, they marked them up, and the pages Sometimes, if you take my Bible, for example, it's marked up in many different places because I want to remember that. And I mark it up. Now, you don't have to mark yours up. You do whatever you want to yours. But I mark all mine up. After a while, the pages began to come apart. And so I tape them back together. I've got the back now taped on this one. I do that because I wear it out. And sometimes Bibles wear out. And so they had to be discarded and get another one. That's what I do. I'm thankful for the new printing presses, I can just kick them out. I can have a brand new one then. In those days though, Bibles were hard to come by before the printing press was invented. It's hard to come by. But think about this. Now, the Vaticanus and the Sacanus were both together in the year 1859. But just six years previous, in the year 1853, two Cambridge professors, one was called Westcott, and the other was called Hort. You remember them? Westcott and Hort? They began to prepare a Greek text based primarily on the Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus. These two polluted manuscripts. It was through these two men that our long link to the apostolic past or the apostate past was connected today. Westcott and Hort who might well be called the intellectual descendants of the ancient heretics, that's exactly what they are, with skill and great subtlety, like Satan approached the woman in the Garden of Eden, has delivered to this present time the pagan religion of their fathers. You think about it. You check up on the history. And you'll find that although I've just spoken very, very briefly about this, it is absolutely the truth. This is what's happened. That's why in this latter days in which we live, that the King James Bible, the word of God, has been thrown away. And people say, oh, if you believe in the King James, you're believing the wrong one. I don't think so. I don't think so at all. I think it's the right one. I think there's one more lesson that I want to give on the verses of the King James Bible. I've got that pretty well worked out, I think, in my mind, how I want to do that. We'll see as time goes on how that works out. Lord willing, we'll do that next Sunday night. But things have not gotten better. Since the Word of God has been thrown away and watered down, it's not got better at all. I remember a TV commercial a long time ago that I saw. And this actress was sitting with her, what a version she had. And she was grinning as she was reading. And she said, I can really understand this version. It's so much better than the old version. But when I saw her on a TV show, I don't think it's getting any better. I don't think her life reflected what she was reading if she was reading the word of God. I think a lot of people are just lost and they need to be found. They need to have their sins washed away in the blood that Jesus Christ makes available to them. They need to admit before God they're a lost sinner. They need to repent, they need to believe in Christ. He is the way of salvation, no other way at all. Let's go, Lord, in a word of prayer, if you would. Our heavenly Father, I pray, Lord, that you might help us, Lord, that we might live in this world being true to you and being what you want us to be. I pray, Father, that you'd just forgive us for our sins, watch over us, and keep us, Father, close to you. I trust, Lord, that you'd cause this word that it might be true to you. that we might always declare your truth your way that you be glorified and you might be honored forgive us for our sins watch over us and bless those lord that are lost tonight that you might touch them with their eternal salvation i pray lord that you might just save them tonight help them to come to you that they might be eternally redeemed forgive us for our sins watch over us for it's in jesus name that i pray amen okay