Dr. Lincoln, it's good to be here in this fine church tonight. I've been looking forward to it. Great anticipation. I'm from Texas, and that's two strikes against you when you get up this country, but anyway, I'll take a chance on it tonight. I guess I ought to start with a tall Texas tail. Thought somebody would be for that. Some time ago, a number of pilots were sitting around the ready room in one of our airports talking about some of the problems that they had faced in flying and their greatest difficulty. And a number of them gave some interesting experiences and some close calls that they had had and some problems that they had encountered in flying. Finally, one fellow hadn't said too much, and so it got around to his turn, and they asked him what his experience had been that he'd like to tell them about. And he told them that, I guess, the closest experience he ever had, the most difficult, was flying twenty-five Texans up to Chicago from Dallas. And of course they couldn't figure out any problem about that, so they asked him to enlarge upon it. He said the plane that he was supposed to bring them in developed engine trouble, and nothing else was available. And they were searching everywhere for a plane, or these Texans had to be in Chicago. For some reason or other, very urgently, they were urging everything be done on their behalf to get a plane and get them to Chicago. And he said, it's very interesting how it all worked out. They located a piper club, a piper cub, I guess you'd say, and he said, if somebody hadn't have found that piper cub, we'd have never made it. And they said, tell me, how in the world are you going to tell us that you flew 25 Texans to Chicago in a Piper Cub, as big as Texans are?" He said, that's right. He said, I don't see how you ever figured out the logistics of all that. And he said, it's very easy when you let the air out of them. I've had a few people trying to deflate me, so Dr. White, all that pumping you did a while ago is not going to do any good. You're still going to have to pay for that plating. It's good to be here tonight. I want to give you a text tonight from the book of Psalms, the 68th chapter. and the 11th verse, or should I say the 68th Psalm and the 11th verse. I'm afraid that I'm not going to get around to my outline too well tonight, so I may have to give it to you at the beginning so you'll be sure and get the outline in case I don't get through it. Psalm 68, verse 11. The Lord gave the Word, great was the company of those that published it." May we look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the privilege of being here with these brethren that love Thy Word, that are willing to stand for the faith once delivered to the saints, willing to defend Thy precious and holy Word. from the host of attacks that are being made upon him. Pray that thou would bless this church and its pastor for being so kind as to invite us here for this meeting. Bless this service tonight. Get honor and glory to thy name. May everything that's done and said here tonight be for thy honor and thy glory. And we'll praise thee for all the results for every life that's changed for every Christian that's encouraged and edified and energized, Lord, to do thy work in a greater way. And if there be one here tonight that does not know Christ as Lord and Savior, may this be tonight, that they shall know Him, whom to know is life eternal. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. I'm a Baptist, and I'm not ashamed of it. And I'm saved, and I'm a Baptist, and I'd like to see everybody saved, and I'd like to see everybody become a Baptist, as far as that's concerned. We probably won't succeed on the first or the second, I'm sure, but tonight I'm not going to speak to you so much from the perspective that I might, under different circumstances, not that the circumstances here tonight would be adverse to this, but I believe that tonight this passage of Scripture is a passage of Scripture that can bless our hearts. The Lord gave the Word. We believe that tonight. This Bible is God's infallible, inerrant Word. And tonight, we do not make any apology whatsoever for believing that God has not only given His Word, but that He has preserved His Word. And tonight we make no apology in saying that we believe that it is the business of God's people and particularly the Lord's churches to publish this word so that all the world may know the truth of God's word. Now tonight I'm not going to try to give a long dissertation on the inspiration of the scriptures. I really doubt very seriously if there's anyone here tonight that has the slightest doubt, but what God gave the Word, verbally inspired, not thought inspiration, not dynamic inspiration, whatever that is, and I've heard several descriptions of it. But that he gave his word by a supernatural means that we do not always necessarily understand, but we believe it because the Word of God declares it. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Not part of it, but all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. We have seen in our generation and time one of the greatest attacks in the history of Christianity against the Word of God. We face problems and we face opposition to an extent that thirty years ago we did not have to face. We did not have all of this multiplicity of perversions. I know there were a number of different versions, but nobody very much, at least, really took the revised version of 1885 too seriously. It didn't sell. And the one of 1901, they couldn't sell it either. That was before they thought of giving them away like good news for modern man. And of course, Moffat and some of the rest, and Goodspeed, we all heard about them. But who bought them? Who was interested in them? We knew what they were. They were the attempts of modernists and liberals to water down, to pervert, and to change the Word of God. But since 1952, with the Revised Standard Version put out by the National Council of Churches, We have seen a steadily mounting attack against the Word of God, and so many seeds of doubt have been sown in the minds of people by the news media, by the bookstores and publishers and advertisements, that it is no wonder that there are multitudes today who are confused about as to what the Word of God really is. As long as we only had to battle the modernists on this issue, it was pretty easy. We didn't have much trouble convincing people in fundamental Bible-believing churches that the Revised Standard Version was a Bible that was produced by modernists for modernists and to help the modernists cause and not to publish the Word of God. People really could understand that. But we have seen in the last two decades the sixties and the seventies, the other versions that have come on the scene. And these, in many instances, have been endorsed by evangelicals, by fundamentalists, at least they say they're fundamentalists. And here is an area where that we must stand Not that God is unable to preserve His Word without me. God would preserve His Word if every one of us here tonight dropped dead. It is not the business of E. L. Bynum or D. A. Waite or Dr. Fuller or the Dean-Burgon Society to preserve the Word of God, God has promised to do that Himself. It is our purpose to set the record straight as to where the Word of God can be found, and to meet the issues of the day which are coming from the, I hate to say it, but from those who should be on our side. It breaks my heart to know that there are people who are saved, who believe the Bible, at least to a large extent and would agree with us, but who have been swept away by the theories of Westcott and Hort, and have been swept away by the new American Standard Version, and the new International Version, and perhaps others. That's sad. I believe that God expects you, He expects me to stand for the Word of God, so that people may know the truth. We have nothing to fear by the truth being made known. Though the other side may have many great scholars, so-called, we do not have to measure the brains of men, nor the scholarship of men, We only have to stand upon the Word of God. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the Word of our God shall stand forever. That is as true tonight as it was those many hundreds and hundreds of years ago when it was written by Isaiah the prophet in the 40th chapter and the 8th verse. Now I know that if we stand on this issue, that we'll be called fanatics. That's already happened to some. I've never considered myself to be a fanatic about anything, but if I was going to be a fanatic about something, I can't think of a better thing to be a fanatic on than to stand on the Word of God. It's been said that we're not taking the position that was taken. by the fundamentalists and the Bible believers of the past. My friend, the fundamentalists and the Bible believers of the past, in many instances, never faced the issues that we are facing today. They didn't have people streaming into their church carrying this version and that version and some other version that disagree one with another. tell me that people can sit in a Sunday school class with one carrying good news for modern man, the other the Living Bible, another one the New International Version, another the New American Standard Version, and as they do in some Sunday school classes that I have, have witnesses to the fact that it is done, they call upon each one to read the differences before the class. Now listen, they didn't have to face that 50 years ago. That wasn't around 40 years ago. It really wasn't an issue 30 years ago, but it is an issue tonight. I believe that in our confessions of faith, And some of you may have read, I'm sure some of you have at least, some of the things that we have published concerning the confessions of faith. And tonight, I want to read just a little bit of this to you. We're not taking a new position when we say that we believe that God has preserved His Word. That's what our confessions of faith have said. Time after time after time, going all the way back to the 1600s. I'm not saying that everyone that wrote these confessions of faith were sound in every doctrine. I'm not saying that we would agree with every word in all of these confessions of faith. But I am saying tonight, that these people believed that God had given His word, and they believed that God had preserved His word according to His promise. The scripture cannot be broken. The words of the Lord are pure. And there are, of course, many other scriptures along that line. I'm quoting tonight or reading tonight from the Westminster Confession of 1646, and of course that wasn't a Baptist confession, but it has had great influence in the Christian world, and no one could say that it was an insignificant confession of faith. And it says, quote, the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek being immediately inspired by God and by His singular care and providence, kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical. So as in all controversies of religion, the Church is finally to appeal unto them. Now they said, And I quote it again, inspired by God and by His singular care and providence kept pure in all ages. We have those who say that you can find the Word of God in all the manuscripts and in all the versions. Well, if you're going to say that, I guess you could say you can find it in Strong's or Young's concordance, for they have all the words too. All you've got to do is just figure out how to arrange them and you have it. Or you could say that it's all in the letters of the alphabet. All you've got to do is arrange them right and you have it. If you want the original, take the Hebrew alphabet and the Greek alphabet. A good friend of mine, or has been a good friend of mine, he wrote not long ago an article trying to refute the position taken by the Dean Burgon Society, and those of us who believe in the inspired Word of God. And he's a Bible believer, saved man, and he quoted from a book. And I'm just going to read a little bit from this book that he quoted from, and I was very interested. I think part of it has been reprinted, but it's been out of print for some time, the whole book. But it was very interesting to me that he quit at a very significant place in his quotation. I wish he'd have gone on and quoted the rest of it. And of course, he's not here tonight, but I'm going to quote it for him. I'm going to help him out a little bit. And I'm going to send him a copy of this so he can say that he's been helped out. I think I have that quotation marked here, if you'll bear with me just a moment. I didn't have a copy of this to bring along with me. They arrived, I guess, today through the mail. But the question is, have historic Christian leaders of the past believed in the preservation of the Scripture. And this good man quoted from George Sayles Bishop, who was a contemporary of West Compton Hort, and who wrote a book that I believe is published by Baker Book House. But this dear brother, he just emphasized that that George Sales Bishop mentioned that the original manuscripts were inspired. And of course, the implication was that he didn't believe that God had preserved His Word, or that seemed to be the implication to me. But I quote word for word from George Sales Bishop, On the original parchment, men may destroy the parchment, time may destroy it. To say that the membranes have suffered in the hands of man is but to say that everything divine must suffer as the patterned tabernacle suffered when committed to our hands. To say, however, that the writing has suffered, the words and letters, it is to say that Jehovah has failed. The writings remain like that of a polyp set, and that's not a word in my vocabulary, but I looked it up. It will survive and reappear no matter what circumstances, what changes come in to scatter, obscure, disfigure, or blot it away, not even one lonely theos. written large by the Spirit of God on the great Uniso sea, as with mine own eyes I have seen it plain, vivid, glittering, outstarting from behind the pale and overlying ink of Ephraim the Syrian, Assyrian can be buried like Banquo's ghost. It will rise and God Himself replace it and with a hammer stroke beat down deleting hands. The parchments, the membranes decay, the writings, the words are eternal as God. Strip off the plaster from Belshazzar's palace, yet many, many tickle you for sin. Remain, they remain." Now, that lonely theos, he's talking about God manifest in the flesh. There is not one of the modern versions, with the possible exception of the new King James, that leaves it like that. The NASV, doesn't it? The ASV, the NIV. He who was manifest in the flesh. Have you ever noticed how much the modern versions detract from the glory of God, from the names of Jesus Christ, and how much they try, at least in my opinion, to leave out as much scripture as they can that declare that Jesus Christ is God. I will never accept a version, I don't care where it comes from, that changes that passage of Scripture. And if I'm a nut, I'll just stand as a nut on that. He is, he was, and he shall ever be God. The brethren of the past, 1646, West Cotton Hort weren't around then. Their text wasn't around then. It wasn't. And if Westcott and Horton are right, and the brethren who are pushing these new versions are right, these brethren here who wrote the Westminster Confession, and who wrote many of these other confessions that I'm going to quote from a few tonight. These brothers were all wrong. They didn't have the Word of God. They didn't have B. They didn't have the Vatican manuscript in their possession, and whatever they knew about it, their silence concerning it. We know which Bible they were using in 1646. The Baptists. Since I'm a Baptist, that's the territory I like to talk about. Those of you who may not be Baptists, we'll forgive you anyhow. The Midland Confession of 1655 was adopted unanimously by the messengers of the churches meeting at Warwick, England. That was in 1655. And what did they say? We profess and believe the Holy Scriptures, the Old and New Testament, to be the word and revealed mind of God, which are able to make men wise unto salvation through faith and love which is in Christ Jesus, and that they are given by inspiration of God, serving to furnish the men of God for every good work, and by them we are in the strength of Christ to try all things whatsoever are brought to us under the pretense of truth, 2 Timothy 3, 15-17, and Isaiah 8 and verse 20." Now we have those who say, now, the word of The Lord is forever settled in heaven. Now, I didn't quote that right, but it was quoted here tonight from this pulpit correctly earlier. Forever, O Lord, thy Word is settled in heaven. And they indicate that that's the only place where God's Word is settled. As far as God's concerned, it's settled down here too, brother. He hasn't changed, and He's not going to change His Word. And I can't, these brethren couldn't appeal to the Word of God in heaven, because none of them's been there and come back to tell us about it. If anybody's been there and come back to tell about it, don't tell me, because I know you're a hair-tick in the first place. These brethren in 1655 says, quote, Try all things whatsoever are brought to us under the pretense of truth, unquote. I'm going to pass over some of these confessions, but I want to quote tonight from one that's not generally known, and all might not agree with this, but nevertheless, I'm going to quote from it to show you that there were Baptists back in those days, back in 1678. Now, we're talking about the Orthodox Creed published by the General Baptist of England in 1678. And I quote from it, and by the Holy Scriptures we understand the canonical books of the Old and New Testament as they are now translated into our English mother tongue, of which there have never been any doubt of their verity and authority in the Protestant churches of Christ to this day, unquote. And then these Baptists of 1678 list all of the books of the Old and New Testament and then say, after they've listed them, just as we have them in our Bible today, all, and quote, all which are given by the inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life, unquote. Now, that is not one of the better known confessions of faith. But the Second London Confession of Faith of 1677 was patterned to some extent in some areas on the Westminster Confession, and particularly on the Scriptures. And they said the Baptist of 1677—by the way, this same confession is republished in Spurgeon's day, and he wrote the foreword for it and endorse the confession, whether that's good or bad as far as you're concerned, it's the truth anyway. Quote, The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Now, I'm not quoting the whole statement, but I'm not leaving out anything that's relevant. Unquote. Then the Second London Confession says, quote, The Old Testament in Hebrew, which was the native language of the people of old, and the New Testament in Greek, which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations, being immediately inspired by God, and by his singular care and providence, kept pure in all ages. are therefore authentical, so as in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal unto them." Now my point is, and I quote, my point is that these brethren, if the theories of Westcott and Hort, and of that school, and those who have modified Westcott and Hort, if their theories are correct, these brethren didn't really have what they needed to appeal to to settle all these questions. Because they only had the received text and maybe some manuscripts that might not have agreed with the received text. But what I'm saying tonight is that these people believed that questions could be settled by the Word of God that had been preserved by Almighty God. Now, the Baptists of 16 and 77, they weren't using the NASV, the ASV, the RSV, Good News for Modern Man, or any of the rest. And they were not using the West Cotton Horde text. It hadn't even been fabricated then. It was fabricated in secret, and was kept secret from the general public until the revised version of 1881 and then of the total Bible 1885 was published. I believe I'm correct on that. And they didn't even let, if I understand correctly, and some of the brethren here could correct me on this, but if I understand it, the brethren who did the translation and did the approval did not have the total text as they worked on each part. If I understand it, they handed it out bit by bit. If they'd had the whole thing at one time and had time to study it, there might have been some of them that would have resigned. I don't know, I'm just speculating. The Philadelphia Confession of 1742 is almost identical with the Second London Confession, and these were the Baptists who met in Philadelphia in 1742. Something happened there in Philadelphia in 1978, too. But anyway, it reads the same. And then they go ahead and they list the books of the Bible as they are found in our English Bible. Now, I don't know why that they would have done that if they were talking about something that doesn't have them listed that way. Maybe you can straighten me out on that. But they said, that the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament were, quote, inspired by God and by His singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentic, so as in all controversies of religion, the Church is finally to appeal unto them, unquote. They didn't say we can appeal to it when we get to heaven. Or we can appeal to it if we ever have the true text, and they didn't have it in 1742. They were still over a hundred years away from getting it, according to the hundred-year theory that we're feeling the brunt of the West Coast, and the English revised version. is the fact that though they never were able to convince the people, the Christians of England or the Christians of America to accept these two versions, they were able to get the Westcott-Hort text in the theological schools of our theological world. And that is why we are facing what we are tonight. They did not succeed in the Revised Version of 1885 or the American Standard Version of 1901. They did not succeed in getting the people on the pews or the pastors in the pulpits of the churches of America and England to accept it. It never was accepted by a large percentage of the people, but they were able. to put it into the colleges and the universities and particularly the seminaries of England and America. And now, after all of these years, we are reaping the fruit of that awful tragedy. Beloved, unless we stand on this, unless we come back to the point where we can preach the Word of God with confidence, where we can stand on the Word of God and declare God's Word rather than criticize the Word of God, rather than to stand and talk about errors in the Word of God, unless we get to the point where we can preach it and say, thus saith the Lord, we are shook. I'll tell you why. We're catching the flack now from several different sources on the matter of the preservation of God's Word over the Greek received text and the King James Version. That's because of the mass of material that's been going out for the last few years. I'm talking about these books edited by Dr. Fuller, these books written by Dr. Waite, and other materials that others have been publishing, not because some large publishing company necessarily wanted to publish it, but because somebody believed the truth enough to sacrifice, to write, to edit, to print, and to get it out. And because people are beginning to listen. Ten years ago, I could not name you, now I'm not saying that because I couldn't name it, it didn't exist, but I personally could not name one Bible institute, Bible college, or seminary that was using the Textus Receptus in a department. Ten years ago, I couldn't name one. Now, if there were four of them, and I'm not saying that I know for certain that is, I think I could not have named one. But tonight, there are several growing, vigorous, and standing, and are using the received text in their classrooms. Beloved, this is stirring up opposition. I believe what I believe, and I'm not mad about it. I'm rejoicing in the fact that by the grace and providence of God and by His marvelous mercy, I was not led astray. Maybe I wasn't smart enough to be led astray. If that be the case, praise the Lord for ignorance. Listen to me tonight. The devil's mad about this. And we must be determined by the grace of God that this Word that was given by the Lord, this Word that has been preserved by the Lord, we must be faithful to declare it, to defend it, and if necessary, give our lives. God's magnified His Word above His name. What do I know about Christ? What I know about salvation, what I know about the church, what I know about baptism, what I know about any of the doctrines, I have to get it from the Word of God. And I'll tell you this, some of you may not realize it, but there's an awful lot of people across this country, just Christians on the pews, that have had their faith shaken by what's been going on. They go to a bookstore to buy a Bible, And in many instances, in some of the major bookstores, the last version they will show them, and only if they ask for it, is the King James Version. They'll push anything. Now, if there are bookstores, and there are some that don't. But I want to tell you, if pastors and Christians don't stand on this thing and say, why be divisive? Why not let's just love one another? Let me tell you something. I believe in love. I really do. You might not believe it by reading some things I've written, but I do. But many times love is used to cover compromise. And if we're using God's love, the L-O-V-E of the Bible, to cover compromise, we are perverting the Word of God. If we love God, if we love His truth, we'll not compromise just to get along with people. And tonight, I'm not wanting to make enemies, and I don't believe any of us here tonight do. I don't believe that we want to turn people against the Word of God, but we must speak up if we're going to convince people of the truth of what we're standing for. What has been stated here tonight by Dr. Waite, and what I'm sure will be stated over and over again in this meeting, there has to be some people who will stick their neck out, even if somebody tries to put a noose around it, and say, we are not going to be silent. The Lord has given His word. Now then, here's the outline. If you can call it that. And it's time to go home. Publishing the Word. I'm not going to say tonight that the Lord had here in the Hebrew that he's talking about Goss P50 Press or something like that. But publishing the Word of God, back in those days, didn't mean a printing press. It meant The copying of it, it meant those who were going forth to tell it from mouth to mouth. From mouth to ear, I should say. And tonight, we have greater opportunities to publish and spread the Word of God through printing presses than ever before. I wish I had time to go into it tonight, but I believe with all of my heart that the greatest invention of the last 500 years, I'm saying the greatest mechanical invention, as far as the cause of Christ is concerned, is a printing press. Let me tell you something. Whoever said that the pen is mightier than the sword was certainly right. But you know, when we're declaring God's Word and publishing God's Word, we've got both the pen and the sword. For the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Tonight, the Bible says, great was the company of those that published it. I believe the greatest work in the world is publishing God's Word. I'm not talking about necessarily printing it. I'm just saying that's a part of it. But I'm talking about the publishing of the Word of God. Anything that comes within the meaning of this text of Scripture, the greatest thing in the world, And if that's what God's called you for, you would step down if you took the presidency of the United States. And by the way, we need one, don't we? It's a great work. Let me tell you tonight, I wish I knew how to get people challenged to the idea That truth can be spread not only by word of mouth, not only from the pulpit, but truth spread from the printed page. I'll tell you, the cults know the value of the printed page. Gutenberg, or Gooseflesh I believe, was his true name, the father of modern printing, said over 500 years ago, and this I copied and I believe it to be authentic, this is what he said. God suffers. Now this is Gutenberg, the man who invented the modern printing press or who ushered in that era. God suffers because of the great multitudes whom his sacred word cannot reach. Religious truth is captive in a small number of manuscripts, books which guard the treasures, lest Let us break the seal which holds the holy things, give wings to the truth that by a means no longer written by the hand that wearies itself, but multiplied by an unwearied machine, it may fly to every soul born into the world." I believe we need to take what he said Truthfully, John Armand, whom we might and surely wouldn't agree with on some things, said that the alphabet was the most powerful invention that God ever committed to man. But the Communists, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Seventh-day Adventists, and the cults are using the printing press and printing material to spread their cult They're diabolical doctrines, and I don't hesitate to call them that, to the ends of the earth. Why, the seventh day Adventists in one year spent 21 million dollars, it's my understanding, in 218 languages, just publishing their materials. 21 million dollars. Suppose we can get that much this year, Dr. Waite? Tonight, we've got a job to do. It's the greatest work in the world. Great was the company. They've got a great work. Great was the company in number. Let's pray for laborers in the harvest field, not only to preach, not only for missionaries. Let's pray that those who know the truth and those who love the truth will pray and keep on praying that God will raise up people who will publish, who will print books and print material to spread the truth that we know to be truth in this generation. Most of the large publishers are not going to touch it. Unless they can figure out some way to make a million on it, they are not going to do it. But beloved, we don't have to wait for them. We can go on by God's grace. Not just one or two, but those who have the burden, those who have the challenge, those who have the desire, those who have the calling, those who have the backbone, those who are not too lazy to get up and do something, we can do something in these last days to spread the truth concerning the Word of God. Let's pray that God will make a great number, and then there's great results from it. When we publish the Word of God, whether by mouth, whether from the pulpit, whether on the printed page, beloved, this glorifies God. It glorifies Him. He has magnified His Word above His name. It glorifies God. Furthermore, it will resolve in souls saved. It will result in God's work going forward. And I'll tell you this, there's a reward coming. Grave will be the reward of this company. We're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We're going to give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad. And we better think about that tonight and every day of our lives. I close with this poem. If we can call it that. I'm sorry I don't have the name of the writer. Higher ground of scripture, no shaky platform this. No weak supports, no creaky steps. It stands the greatest stress. Higher ground of scripture, ground solid, rock-like firm. Wind cannot erode or storms corrode, neither fire burn. Higher ground, O plummets depths, On it our confidence can rest, With it our conscience stands the test, In it our spirit truly blessed, Our consecration it demands, For then our course is as God plans, Our souls are blessed, our hearts are stirred, As we stand firmly on His Word.