then tomorrow it can bother you. And for me, it makes you say, I'm always saying to Paula, I'm ready to fight. Who are you going to fight? They've made it so there's no one to fight. So in the end, we're forced to depend on God's sovereignty. But why should that be in the end? That ought to be the first place we go at all times. So I mean, songs like that. And everything you get in the Psalms, they're meant for every age, because every age goes through things like this. I think of those people that we've buried years ago, if they come back and saw what was going on in our nation now, what was going on in the Christian community now, that's why I think a song like that will resonate with the God-fearing. I don't know about tomorrow. But as long as I'm pastor at Clayville Assembly, we're going to know about God's word. And we're not going to have questions about it. And that's the way it's going to be. Because without that, there's nothing. And that's what we're talking about. And I think many well-intentioned Christians have been taken in by a frame of thought that they didn't realize they were overcome by. And it's because it's what the tsunami of evangelicalism has done to the Christian thought process. I have to go back a couple weeks when I left off, because we did one sermon, then we did another sermon. I don't know if this is the second or third part. We're kind of asking the question, how does God preserve his word? And I'm not really going in even in that really much detail tonight. We're still kind of speaking very broadly. And just to remind you of some of the just broad points we've made, we made the point that God is sovereign over everything. We looked up all sorts of passages that show that the rain doesn't fall unless God says it should fall. And it rains on the just and the unjust. And God is the one who gives men promotion. The hairs of our head are numbered. The sparrow cannot fall without the Lord's decree. You see, that's too much micromanaging. Too much, too much, what? Too much for him to process? Or there's no purpose to it? There's a purpose for everything, God. There's no happenstance in the mind of God. There is to us from our horizontal level, but not that vertical level. And that's the clear teaching of scripture. So if God is sovereign over everything and he appoints all that comes to pass, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and the bad and the ugly are going to pay for what they did because he didn't violate their free volition and yet he ordained it just like the crucifixion of Christ. This is too much for Christians to handle. Well, they just better stop crying about it and get used to it. It's what the Bible says. There's nothing to worry about if you believe in the Bible. Now, if you have questions about the Bible, then these things bother you. They don't bother me. And that's not because I'm anything great. It's not true. I'm just being very simple-like. Yeah, I'm some simple hick preacher. Just gonna believe the Bible. That's exactly right. Can God be that sovereign over all his creation and then fail to preserve his word? That's the question. I think the answer has to be no. And one of the points we made is that God does not change. I think we were kind of left off talking in that genre of thought. God does not change. And we looked up passage after passage about how God doesn't change. One of the things we looked up was James 1.17. and God is called the Father of Lights, in whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning, so that the sun is more changeable than God. The sun casts one shadow here, but a different shadow there, depending on whether the sun is low in the sky, or later on it's high in the sky, and depending on the time of the year and where it is in relation to the equator. The sun varies. And it's brilliance on man, but not God. God is constant. He is the father of light. He exceeds the sun, and there is no variableness in God or a shadow of turning. Then we looked at Numbers chapter 23. You want to look at that quick again, Numbers 23? That's really where we left off. I'm only summarizing the last sermon, not the one that went before it. That'll be asking too much of myself here. Numbers 23 and verse 19. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Well, the dispensationalist, yeah, he does that. He said the kingdom was at hand, it was near or soon. Well, he changed his mind. When he saw the reaction of the Jews, well, he had to go to plan B. Well, I'm sorry, that's just not the God of the Bible, and that's not what the New Testament teaches either. But what I wanted us to see here, that everything God says, he does. He never failed to do that which he says he will do. He's not the son of man that he should repent. I know we have the verses in the Bible that talks about God repented. Well, that's for human consumption, for our comprehension, so we know how to react to God, but God never reacts to anything. As if, oh, so that's happening. Oh, I know just the thing to do. No, there's no oh moment with God. There's no light bulb that goes off. He is the light bulb. He created the light bulb. He told the light bulb what kind of light to shine. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, shall he not make it good? And so my singular point was, well, That's true, and God doesn't change, and everything he says comes to pass, and if he declares it, then it must come to pass, and it must be true, and it's gonna happen. Well, then we gotta know what he said. Otherwise, these declarations don't mean much. And it reminded me of another passage. Go to John chapter 10. In John chapter 10, we've got Jesus saying the same thing about himself, which isn't surprising, seeing he was a God in the flesh. But in John chapter 10 and verse 36, well, back up to verse 34, Jesus answered that, Yeah, John 10, yeah, 34. And Jesus answered them, verse 34, is it not written in your law I said ye are gods? He called them gods unto whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken. Say of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemous because I said I am the Son of God? You accuse me of blasphemy because I said I'm the Son of God? He said if I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. Now we tend to read that the wrong way because of the way it's stated in our English Bibles here in the King James, but if I do not the works of my father, believe me not. In other words, if I don't do the works of my father, in other words, the works my father gave me to do. If I don't do the works that my father gave me to do, because Jesus said the only thing he ever did was that which his father told him to do. So he says, if I do not the works of my father, it doesn't mean he copies it, he has to part the Red Sea, it doesn't mean that. You're reading it wrong. If I do not the works of my father, the works he gave me to do, and those are the only things I will do. And if I do not the works of my father, believe me not. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe that the father is in me and I in him. If I do all that the Father gave for me to do, don't worry about what I say, watch what I do. Do I do it? And if I don't do it, you don't have to listen to what I say. But if I do the works my Father gave me to do, then you know I came forth from Him. So that's pretty much the same thing. How are we gonna know if we can trust Jesus? How are we gonna know what the works of the father are that the father gave to his son other than what was prophesied in the Old Testament and what Jesus declared himself in the gospels was the work the father gave him? Which the only way we know about what the prophet said and the only way we know about what Jesus said is from the scriptures, the word of God. The only way we know that we can trust Jesus is we trust the word first. That's the litmus test that Jesus gave. Seem to me, we must have that word. If the word is not reliable, we're not sure what needs to be added or subtracted or multiplied or divided, then we don't know what to make of his claim for sure. We don't know when we can accurately evaluate that or maybe that's not a good example because it really didn't belong there. And of course, we know that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You know, we did look at, just go to 1 Peter 1, just do that, 1 Peter 1. And Peter is quoting Isaiah 40 8. And when Peter quotes Isaiah 40 8, let's see how he does it here. Starting at verse 22, 1 Peter 1 22. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. Now here in the next verse, he quotes Isaiah 48. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you. We know that the word of God liveth and abideth forever. That's what Peter said in verse 23. And we know he's quoting Isaiah, likewise in verse 25. The word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you. The gospel was rooted in that which was written in the Old Testament. Well, none of this means anything if we're not sure what Moses said, what Moses didn't say, what was added later, what was subtracted later, what Jesus said, what Jesus didn't say, what John said, what John didn't say. Maybe Peter didn't really say that, or Paul didn't really say that, or that was added in by somebody, and on and on the arguments go. But all of these verses are established on a premise, we have God's word. Otherwise, these declarations are kind of hollow to us. Heaven and earth shall pass away. So Jesus said, but my word shall not pass away. But that doesn't mean anything if we're not sure what he said. So if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and God does not change, and he is sovereign over all things, And if the word of our God does indeed stand forever, as the scripture says, then we must have it. Now there's another thought here, I'm speaking in pretty broad terms, I know that. But those terms are enough for me, and we'll kind of develop that thought as I go. But we know from scripture, from John, Jesus is the word of God. Right? Let's go to John 1, in that very well-known portion of scripture by all Christians, because it speaks of the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity. But in John 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the Word. Notice how in our King James Bible, it's capitalized. That's communicating something to us. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word, speaking of Jesus, was with God. And the Word, speaking of Jesus, was God. And non-Trinitarians say, well, you know, well, he was God, then he became Jesus, and then he became the Holy Spirit. And I don't know if he went back to being God or just in Jesus mode now. But the modalism of that kind of thought, they're overthinking it. And they're making an idol out of something the Bible isn't teaching. Just receive it as it is. In the beginning was the Word, and that's Jesus. No one's arguing that point. And Jesus, the Word of God, was with God And at the same time, he was God. We don't have to be able to explain it. We just need to believe it. God is profound. I don't have a problem with that. The same was in the beginning with God. So there's a double emphasis on with, but wait a minute, verse three. All things were made by him, the word. And without him was not anything made that was made. But we go to Genesis and God created, yep. What's this got to do with what we're talking about? Well, because we're talking about the Word of God. Right now we're talking about the living Word of God. Jesus is the means by which God Almighty brought everything into existence. God said, that's the Word, let there be light. And light came into being. And that doesn't mean he created the sun, because he didn't do that then. Where'd this light come from? God created it. Moses, they laugh at the Bible for that. But Moses says he made the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And he made the stars also. So Moses understood the light from the daytime, that's the sun. And the light at night is the moon and the stars. Moses understood that. And yet, he created light before he made the sun. And Schofield says, well, it was just a cloudy day, and the sun was behind it. We should all stop it. That's like those people that say, well, we believe the Bible, and the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea. Did you know they may discover there's one place only about six inches deep, you know? But sometimes it's about, you know, a foot and a half, but certain winds blow. And then the children of Israel walked right across very shallow water. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They didn't get wet at all. Why must you do that to the Bible? If God speaks things into existence from nothing, by the power of his word, there's all the powers right there. But Jesus is the word. And there was nothing created without the word of God, who is Jesus. You go, this is all very strange. Well, it is. We're not used to this. And I like speaking of it. And the strangeness that it is, because that's how it's given. I'm not gonna candy coat it and make it more acceptable for our palate and then explain it some way. No. But Jesus is the word through which God created everything. So God said, let there be light. And light came into being, how? By the word of God, which was Jesus. Because light wasn't created without Jesus doing it, if we believe all three verses here. Jesus is the Word of God. The best I can make of that, and I don't know what to say about it, is this. God is a spirit. God is not in body form. He's everywhere. He's here right now. And he's on the other side of the world, too, the other side of the galaxy. The mind of God chose to create the universe. He was going to start with the raw material and then light. So the earth was dark and without form and void. Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And he said, and he said, it's the word of God. Let there be light. But everything that was created was created by Jesus. Jesus is the word of God. The only way I put that together is probably a caricature and cartoonish thing that maybe doesn't even come close to reality. What am I supposed to say about that? You know, a lot of theologians, they talk in big long words and they make it sound like they just explained it to you. They didn't explain anything to you. It's like doctors. They put labels on symptoms and you think they know something about it. They don't know anything about it. They got labels for symptoms. And they observe, medication sometimes gets rid of this, but they don't really know why. I mean, sometimes they do, but a lot of times they don't. They don't know that as much as you think they do. God said, let there be light, and Jesus brought the light into being because he's the word of God. The mind of God brought to fruition his sovereign will through Jesus. Who is God's word? Oh, this is so profound. I think of it this way. Jesus is God's will coming into being because he's the word of God. If Jesus, the word of God, is eternal, and he is, If he's the same yesterday, today, and forever, and he is. And if being the word of God, Jesus is the alpha or the omega, and the beginning and the ending, and he is. And all things that come to pass were made by him. and controlled by him, and ordained and ordered by him, then we're to believe, that's true of the living word, but we're to believe that the written word of God has fallen apart and we're not quite sure what it is now. Is this the same God we're talking about? Well, I'm a country bumpkin, so be it. The psalmist said, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I'm walking in a dark place, sin-cursed earth. I need light. I just heard Joe Biden speak. The darkness is so dark. I need light. I don't know who holds tomorrow. I know who holds tomorrow, but I don't know about tomorrow. I need to go to the Lord. The word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. Jesus is that lamp and light. But the only thing we know, the only reason we know anything about Jesus is because it's in the scriptures, the word of God, the written word. And that word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Now we don't believe because of modern higher criticism. that that light has grown dim. Well, we had it for about 1,500 years. No, we didn't have it 1,500 years, but some really smart guys came along, and we're a little bit closer to having some light. So this light, it lasted around 300 years or something like that, we're told. And then it began to get corroded and corrupted and slipping through our fingers. And this is what was happening. And so now, God in his infinite sovereignty has let that light grow dim so that his children can grope about in the shadows and stumble. Is this the same God we're talking about? It doesn't feel like it to me. And because I don't think it is. I think we make gods of our own creation based on the presumptions that oftentimes we inherit from whatever source. You know, in Psalm 119, we're told how important God's word is. It's everywhere in Psalm 119. We won't go there for now. We'll go there in a little bit. But go to Deuteronomy chapter 28. In Deuteronomy 28, well this sermon isn't being technical enough. They're exactly right. That's exactly how I'm looking at it. Because God said to Abraham, I want you to take your only son, your beloved son Isaac, and offer him up on the mountain. Abraham had no answers. He said, well. He said, and Isaac shall I see be called. And God doesn't lie. So I guess he'll raise him from the dead. Well, that was the wrong answer. That wasn't going to happen. Because he didn't know. He was just musing. It's going to be something like that. That was his great faith. But he didn't have the information, you see. He didn't need the information. He didn't need the details. God said, therefore, I will do. That's faith. See, I'm keeping this argument about, at this point, I'm keeping this argument about the scriptures and their inspiration and preservation at that basic level. And that's intentional. But in Deuteronomy chapter 28, in verse 58 and 59, Deuteronomy 28, 58, if thou will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God, that's the glorious and fearful name of Jehovah, the Lord thy God, then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful. That doesn't mean good. That means really bad, not wonderful. Wonderful as in, you know, huge. The Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues. and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance," ooh, he emphasized that part, it dragging on. God's name is glorious and fearful. He says, if thou will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, and why? Why must you do this and obey his law? That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name. The name of God is glorious and the name of God is fearful. It's written right into the law that thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. God will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain, I'm not gonna wink at it. Serious business. God's name is glorious and fearful. He describes it here, the Lord thy God. If the children of Israel disrespected that name and ran headlong into sin, which is what they're doing, they're disrespecting God and his name and thus God by disobeying his commandments to them, If they dishonor his holy name, God's wrath and judgment will fall on them. It's gonna be a long drawn out thing and it isn't gonna be pretty. All right? That's the magnitude of the fearsomeness of God's name. Now, you should probably guess what I'm gonna look at here, Psalm 138. So in Psalm 138, in verse two, Psalm of David. Well, we can look at verse one. I will praise thee with my whole heart, before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship, verse two, I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Well, that's saying something, because God's name is fearful, and it's wonderful. But above his name, which was part of the... It's one of the Ten Commandments. It's only Ten Commandments. I mean, I know there's other commandments, but that's the foundation, the Ten Commandments. And taking his name in vain, and to do that, is to break one of those commandments. And yet we're told by David under inspiration that God has magnified his word above his holy righteous name. So that tells us a little bit of how important the word of God is to God. It tells us about how important it is to us too, but God looks at it. It's more important than my own holy name. And thou shall not take the name of Lord thy God in vain, and I'll not hold him guiltless that taketh my name in vain. But above that, above that? The Jews got so scared they didn't stop pronouncing the name of God. They started making substitutions. The King James made a mistake when they followed through with what the Jewish practice was. You know, put Elohim, do something, Lord. And now look, if he said I am, then you put I am. But above that, above his name is his word. Are we then to believe that God's word has been corrupted? and partially lost, and we're fighting to know what belongs there and what doesn't, at this stage of the game, at this point in history, we have the questions like that. We don't know if something was maliciously added. Well. I brought with me, and this, I'm only preaching the end of the sermon I preached two weeks ago, this is the end. So I brought this with me then, just like I brought my pocket New Testament, remember my pocket New Testament? I got that with me. I'm just finishing my sermon for two weeks ago. But I wanna read to you from our confession of faith. Interestingly, I was listening to Elder Guy's sermon on the way home from vacation, and he started to quote the confession. I haven't quoted the confession in a long time, but I had already planned on quoting, See, it's chapter number one, for good reason, of the Holy Scriptures. That's where you start. Everything we know comes from that. So let me just read a few excerpts here. And of course, there's footnotes with all these statements. I'm not going to go through the footnotes and things like that, because actually some of them we've referenced already last week and this week. Let's just read. Remember, our confession, this paragraph comes from the 1689 London Baptist Confession, which came from the Westminster Confession. This has been the confession of God's people from the whole Protestant Reformation. But this is what it says. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. That's an interesting statement. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient and infallible rule, but it also says it's certain. It's not certain if we're not certain of what it is. And the higher critics win. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, Romans 1 says that, as to leave men inexcusable, well, yeah, it's Romans 1, yet are they not sufficient? to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary into salvation. In other words, you can't receive Christ as your savior and be born again by thinking about pine trees and mountains. You're not gonna get the gospel by staring at the sunset. I just worship God in nature. That was the Waltons and Papa Walton would never go to church. Well, he just goes out in the trees and that's his church. Well, you're ignorant of God then. You just see his handwriting, but you know nothing about him. You don't know anything about salvation anyway. You do know some things about him from those things, though. I shouldn't say that, but you don't know anything about salvation. It continues, therefore, it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in diverse manners to reveal himself and to declare it. How has he revealed himself? And how has he declared himself to us? Well, we know the answer to that. To reveal himself and to declare that his will unto his assembly. And afterward, of course we put assembly there, originally in 1689 it said church, we substitute the word. And afterward, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the assemblies against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same holy unto writing, which maketh the holy scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of God revealing his will unto his people being now seen. He doesn't, it's not Urim and Thummim anymore. We've got the written word. Now those words, it's certain, it's infallible, it's necessary. God committed him to the care of men to write them down. That's all telling us something. If we go a little bit further here, that's paragraph one. I go to paragraph four, it says, this is still under the first chapter, all about the scriptures. The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God, in parentheses it says, who is truth itself, comma, the author thereof. Therefore, it is to be received because it is the word of God. Well, see, they try and change our minds on that. No, it's, we've got a lot of it. But for you, I'm looking for a little more. Paragraph six just says, the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, Faith and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit or traditions of men. I don't know why they didn't put or taken away either, because, you know, true both ways, but be that as it may. But see, the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, for man's salvation, It's necessary for faith and life if necessarily it's expressed and set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scriptures. And the Lord in his infinite sovereignty allowed them to be compromised so we're unsure and we can argue with each other. Now, something's wrong. In paragraph eight, and obviously I'm skipping lots of things here in this first chapter, And this will be the last one I read here. And even then I'm only reading part of the paragraph. The Old Testament in Hebrew, which was the native language of the people of God 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 in the Hebrew and the Greek, being immediately 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 assemblies are finally to appeal to them. Now there's no after in our confession. That says, unless there's a really bad problem text that has really got under our skin, and we just don't know what to do with it, then we need to find some scholar that can say, just shoot away. That's not what they said at Westminster. That's not what they said amongst the Baptists in England in 1689. That's not what we say at Clayville Assembly. But you know what? Average Tom, Dick, and Harry church, they don't say it. That's what they believe, though. And most people don't know it. That go there, they don't realize that. See, I'm not condemning them all. I'm just saying that's the way that it is. Let's go to Psalm 119. We can't be talking about this without going to Psalm 119. So Psalm 119. And verse 160. Psalm 119, verse 160. Thy word is true from the beginning. And it's really saying all of it. And every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. Well, how can we, well, first of all, what does that mean? And how do we make sense of it? And how do we judge that bold statement? We have to have the righteous judgments of God, and they're contained in scripture. You see? Thy word is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. Well, that's what our confession said. I believe that. I'm not an issue with that. In verse 152, concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them forever. And someone says, well, that doesn't mean that the Bible's always going to be wrong. What that means is if he says a thing is true, it is true. And even if we don't know he said it, it's still true and always be true forever, whether we know he said it or not. Well, that may be true. I think we have to go beyond that. Concerning thy testimonies, I have known, how'd you know? Of old, that thou hast founded them forever. You know because you read that in the Word. You believe in the Word in large measure because of the Word, which means you must have faith in the Word. But that's not surprising because his testimonies have been founded forever. And that declaration means nothing if we're not sure what those testimonies are. You know, just look at it that simply. If you go to Psalm 33, we won't belabor Psalm 119, because that's all over the place, right? But in Psalm 33 and verse 11, the counsel of the Lord standeth forever. the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Well, how are we supposed to know the thoughts of his heart? There's no question that the thoughts of God's heart will be known to every generation. That's divine preservation of his thoughts. But how are we supposed to know what his thoughts are? That's in the Word. It's the Word. It's the Word, the Word that Jesus quoted. Jesus said, if you don't believe Moses, neither will you believe me, even if one came back from the dead. If you won't believe, that means we gotta believe Moses. Or you can believe Moses, but not John. You can believe Moses, but Jesus didn't say that. There's something wrong. We could quote it, but we already did in 1 Peter 1, but we don't need to do that. But in the psalm we all know, in Psalm 100 in verse 5, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. That means all generations will have it. How can that be? Look at the scribal mistakes. Yeah. Yep. It's still true. You're like, this Bible disagrees with that Bible. Yep, and it's still true what he said. Well, how? Forget the how for a moment. Is it true? Well, Jesus said his coming was gonna be before everyone passed away. And we say to those, oh, that's, you gotta be interpreting it wrong because obviously he didn't come then. Well, did he say it? Well, then it must be true. And, wait a minute. Now, if we're gonna argue that way with the futurists, we better do the same thing with the Bible. Otherwise, we don't have a leg to stand on. Every generation. So if God does value his word above his holy name, and he does, and if God has promised to preserve his word and the very thoughts of his heart forever, and he did, to every generation, and that's what he said, then how did he do that? You walk into the Bible bookstore, there's a Bible here, a Bible there, a Bible everywhere. They hang from the rafters. They all say different things. Then Christians are quoting John 3.16. They're all saying different things. And the more time goes by, the more different things there are to say when you quote John 3.16. I don't mean because one's quoting it in French and the other's in Italian. That's not what I mean. You know that. Well, how does God preserve his word then? Well, it seems to me there's only two ways. You gotta go route A or route B? Route A, by the priesthood of the believer and his sovereign grace and power and control over the instruments that are at the disposal of his fingertips, the priesthood of the believer. He commended the Old Testament to the Jewish nation. Think about how, I made this point before, think how bad they were. Think that they were up and down, down, down, up, then down, down, down, then up, down, down. The trajectory was terrible, and idolatry, and greed, and lust. All manner of evil, killing each other to see who can be king, making league with pagans. And all through that, in spite of them, God preserved his word to say, I did it. through them. He said, well, he did it. Okay. Well, so I think a lot of Christians make it. Well, he did kind of do that with the Old Testament, but not with the new. So he was really careful to protect the old covenant, which was not as good as the new one, but the new covenant, which is a better covenant. Well, he has been a little lax on that. Where do we go with this? See, they don't, they tell us, they have some highfalutin words, and they got some archeology, and then they say this, that, and the other, and here's the conclusion. Aren't we smart? I hope you're not. I hope you're smart, too. Oh, yeah, well, I wanna be smart. I'm a learned man, yeah. Oh, but they don't give you the net result of what they're telling you. It's like the guy, get out of here. It's like the guy who taught, Calculus at Bryant. I wanna exterminate him. The guy that taught calculus at Bryant, says the worst teacher in the face of the earth. He was on probation for flunking too many students. I walk into calculus class, there was six people in the class. Six! And I find out after I'm there for two weeks, oh yeah, the teacher is on probation because he keeps flunking too many kids. Like, oh man. Well, I'm two weeks into it, I gotta stick with it. So, you know, I got through my calculus class, but I didn't learn calculus, I learned how to solve for x. I didn't understand it though, because he wasn't able to teach it. He could teach you how to solve for x, but that doesn't prove anything. It's just a process you go through. If you don't conceptualize it, then there's no sense in learning it. God will preserve his word through the priesthood of the believer. He preserved his word. Every jot and tittle, Jesus seems to indicate all the jots and tittles will be there. Every jot and tittle fulfilled. He'll preserve every jot and tittle of that word through the majority text. Yes, men were making mistakes. But guess what? We have over 5,000 manuscripts. Yeah, but they're copies of copies. Well, everybody's got copies of copies. There's no authentic autographs anymore. Yeah, but all those Bibles you're talking about, the oldest manuscripts go back to the 12th century. We've got some discoveries that go to the 4th century. Ooh. Yeah. Okay. Well, Joe Biden's an old man. My dog is only three years old. I trust my dog more than Joe Biden. Older doesn't necessarily mean better. And if older means I have to compromise what I believe the Bible teaches about the preservation of his word, older loses. You've got a little handful of texts, and then this monstrous, over 5,000 manuscripts. Yes, there's a lot of copies of copies. I'll explain more about that later. Well, maybe I won't. But he preserved his word by the copies. Now you take these, look at this guy, but this guy doesn't, this sentence, he doesn't have it there. Oh, but look at these 10 other manuscripts that you have access to. They all have it. Oh, I see what the guy did. It was a hand-eye thing. He skipped a line. Okay, well, let me know what the problem is. And this guy over here, he, you know, transposed some words. And maybe several other guys did, because they copied his copy. But guess what? Then you take a step back, and now you're looking at 500 passages. You say, oh, I see. So he copied him. And this little group over here, they're making the exact same mistake, which is too coincidental. They were copying off the same. And that's the majority text. And that's what we've been using for all these years. Now either God has superintended over that, they call it the Byzantine text, the majority text. King James used the Texas Receptus, but isn't limited to Texas Receptus, but that majority text. The Western text. If you believe God preserved it, and although each and every scribe was frail, and maybe had eye-hand coordination, and he grew tired, or he missed some things, or he misspelled some things, or he didn't put punctuation, so it made it hard to determine what that word was. But most of that can be ironed out by comparing them, and that's what people have been doing forever. Or, if that's not how God preserved his word, there's only one other way. He didn't. About 300 years, the story goes, 300 AD or so, the corruptions began to creep in, and then they were copying the corruptions, and they copied the copies that copied the corruption, they copied the copies that copied the corruption, and on and on and on, the story goes, and we just really have had a mess for 1,500 years. But then, God sent his servants, like Tischendorf and Tregellus and Westcott and Hortford. And they made discoveries. It's what they call the Alexandrian texts. They go back to the fourth century. They're older. So they haven't been copied as much. So they must be more accurate, you know? And they all tell the story. You go in the classroom and Bobby had a ball, he jumped over a fence, and he pet a dog. Now, you whisper it in everybody's ear, but time comes back, it's a different story. So, the closer you are to the original source, the less errors, and so there you go, we're right by our Bible's copyrighted 1995. Well, it's not 1995 anymore. Well, you think that's the way, is that preservation? Fifteen hundred years, we had her in a mess. And then these fellas came along, newly discovered, along with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which have been in Jewish hands for all this time, so, you know, make what you want of that. They're not literally in our camp over here, as Christians. Do we have to depend on these kind of thing? I should hope not. I should hope not. You know, How much can I give of this? Trigellus, Samuel Trigellus, he was a higher critic. And he was in colluding with Tischendorf. These are guys in the 1800s. And then Westcott and Hort came along and took their discoveries as higher critics and expounded upon them the new philosophy of Bible, of what the Bible is. And they would have us believe that the Bible began to get corrupted around 300 AD, and for 1500 years, there's just all these things added in that didn't belong there. And it started in the margin, they crept their way into the text, this kind of thing. And they tell us, these men to the man, they tell us in the worst Bible for that 1500 year period, were the Bibles of the Reformation. Wouldn't you know? Geneva, Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luthers. They're the worst of the worst, wouldn't you know? Yeah, okay. But then they made a discovery. That discovery was in the Pope's library, Mount Sinai. And Tregellas went there and says, hey, what's that in that basket? And it was literally a basket. You can read about this on Wikipedia. The basket. Well, these are old manuscripts. We're going to burn. Now, Tregellas was a scholar of ancient documents. And he realized this monetary value. Wait a minute. This is a Bible. This goes back, and he knew from the language, that goes back to the fourth century. I want that. And they said, oh, well, let's have some value here. We'll give you, I can't remember, we'll give you 20 pages, 40 pages, some small amount, and we're keeping the rest. And then Tichendorf went back years later and got some more out of them. I don't know how he wrangled that, I forget. They were about to be burned. Now, when you go into the details, and see, we could spend a whole sermon on the details. That discovery, which is the foundation of all these modern Bibles, that discovery, they say it was on the most expensive vellum paper in existence in the fourth century. Extremely expensive. So when you hire someone to do scribal work on that paper, he's gonna be top-notch scribe, because you're paying through the nose for that. It wasn't like going down to the CVS and buying some computer paper. It wasn't like that. This was high vellum quality paper. And so this was only for very, very expensive, usually legal documents that governments might use, that kind of thing. It was written, so that had to be an important document. That's right, the paper does tell you that. And Westcott and Hort and Tregellis and Tittendorf, they all boast about it. But stop and think. The oldest manuscript for the Geneva Bible, the King James Bible, the Wycliffe Bible, the Tyndale Bible, all these Bibles, goes back only to the 12th century. But this goes back to the 4th century. Yeah. Two things. It's on extremely expensive paper. That shows you the quality that they thought that manuscript must have been, so they said. Yeah, but here's the thing. A guy wrote a whole book about it. I got it at home. There was almost no markings on it. It was in perfect condition from the fourth century. And the scholars tell us that we will go into this. That doesn't happen. You know why you got copies of copies? Because when you had one that was trusted, everybody wanted to copy it. You couldn't take a photo and then put it on your iPhone. They would have to handle it, and turn the pages, and write, and go back, and double-check, and it's whooping one. Well, obviously this guy thought, I have something good here. But when their scholars began to look at it, they say, no, wait a minute. This document you have here, it goes back to the day you're saying, but this is horrible. It was the work of a hack job scribe. And there were all sorts of problems with it. So that even though it was fourth century, all the 12th century documents, I mean, we can only go back to the 12th century for all our Bibles we ever knew when we were young. But now this document goes back so many far and guess what? They've still got it. And it's in perfect form. And the Roman Catholic church is about to burn it and throw it away. Because it was no good, brethren. You don't have like this super spectacular old text. I mean, even in the eighth century. Hey, this goes back to the fourth. Hey, let's make some copies from this. They must have started to do it. They had their guys look at it and say, oh, wait a minute. Yeah, it's too bad. This is in really good shape. This is horrible. So we're gonna start cutting out of the Bible for that? Well, something's wrong. Westcott and Hort, they're Bible deniers. They would say they're not. Don't believe in the resurrection of Christ. They're apostates. They give us our Bibles. It's hard to believe when you get into the details of it. And the Byzantine text, the Alexandrian text, although it was discovered in the 1800s, it didn't really come into the fore until the 60s and 70s. And if anybody's old enough, you remember all the new Bibles started to come out in the 60s and 70s. And all of a sudden, we've got these new Bibles, and there's always a newer one, and there's one that's better, and there's one that's better, and there's one that's better. And you never know, now all of a sudden the minister's up there quoting from five different versions. You don't know what version is going to be used in that day. Depending on the point you want to make, I guess. You see, I told you. I've got my hexapolo. So, this is a Bible side by side. So I've got the Bible open to Acts chapter 8. They give you the Greek up top and they give you the They give you the Wycliffe Bible, the Tyndale Bible, the Cranmer Bible, the Geneva Bible, the Reims Bible, the authorized 1611 Bible. And I'm looking at Acts. Well, you know what? Let me do this. Got my ESV Bible. I think this is a gift from you. Peter comes up to me. He didn't quite do it this way. I'm embellishing it a little. He goes, oh, I've got this. You want it? I said, oh, yeah. It's kind of like a Schofield Bible. Yeah, I could use that to make some points on. So this is the ESV. And so I'm happily reading along in Acts chapter 8. In verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with the scripture, he told the good news about Jesus. And as they were going down along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. Hey, wait a minute, there's something missing there. And then you look closely. Verse 36. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, he asked a question, see, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? That's verse 36. The next verse is verse 38. There's no verse 37. I don't mean it's 37, they got an asterisk. There is no verse 37. You have 36, the next number is 38. Now, at the end of verse 36, there's a little footnote. Oh, let me read what the footnote says. Some manuscripts, as if there are some few obscure ones, some manuscripts, this is the ESV, Old Bible of the Way, this is the Reformation Study Bible. Reformed, down. Here's the footnote. Some manuscripts add all or most of verse 37. And then they quote it. This is what they left out. And Philip said, because he asked a question, right? The eunuch asked a question and said, see, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? In the ESV, he doesn't answer the question. He just goes down and baptize him without answering the question. He asked a question. But in our Bible, there's an answer given to him. And they record it in the footnote. And Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he replied, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. All of that isn't in the text. And it isn't even like some Bibles that put verse 37, they put it after it saying, well, the oldest and best manuscripts don't have this. It doesn't even exist. There is no number 37. That's shocking to me. But notice the deception. Some manuscripts add verse 37. No, it seems like you took away verse 37. Some manuscripts, and they add. So I'm looking at Wycliffe. Well, you know, verse 37. And Philip said, if thou belust of ale, the hurt, it is lethal. And he answered and said, I belu that it belustis. Chris is the son of God. Because it's really ancient English. That's probably not very accurate. And then you go to Tyndale. Well, guess what? Wycliffe has verse 37. In their English, you know, the way they spoke it then. Tyndale, well guess what? Verse 37's there. Cranmer, verse 37's there. Geneva, oh, verse 37's there. And the authorized 1611, verse 37's there. And the Reims Bible. By the way, the Dewey Reims, that's the Dewey Reims, the Roman Catholic Bible has it. All the Protestants have it, all the Roman Catholics have it, but now we've got Titchendorf, we've got Westcott and Hort, the Bible deniers. Say, I know, that doesn't belong there. The worst Bibles were the Reformation Bibles. Edited by R.C. Sproul. You know, The gable end of the building, it says Calvinist, KJV, separatist. We're not followers of John Calvin, we're just believers in the sovereignty of God. Separatist because the Bible teaches, come up from among them and be a separatist. The KJV isn't fundamentalism, the English translation that King James perfected, the errant texts. No, no. We take the same basic position as the Trinitarian Bible Society, that the majority text, that's where God preserved his word, through the priesthood of the believer. God worked through his people, not through unbelievers like Westcott and Hawthorne. He worked through his people. They say, well, you don't understand. Say you go back to what kind of started this. The first part of Revelation 20, the first part of verse five. First part of verse five doesn't belong there. That was added in. Well, guess what? I have no way of establishing that as being a fact. I have to take your word for it. The guy that's saying it. I didn't add it in. If it was added in, As you suggest, it was added in like 1,500 years ago. And it's been there up until, well, just recently, until we got our new Bible from the 60s and 70s. So all this time, we were mistaken. That's according to you. But I didn't add that in there. I'm not guilty. If that is added in, I didn't add it in. But if I take it out, that's on me. If I say I can't handle that, so therefore I'm believing the guy who says it doesn't belong, it's not even on him, it's on me because I decided to go with him. I decided to walk his road because it's going to make my life easier. No. No. Can't do that. We just can't. We can't do that. Don't want to do it. In the end, I guess I got to stop. I got to stop. I really do. I think I'll say it this way. God does not preserve his word to all generations by recent archaeological discoveries or the science of higher critics like Westcott and Hart. as if the true text of scripture had been lost for 1,500 years. But then apostates who don't even really believe in Christ, because of their scholarship, they've helped the Lord. Because the Lord sort of blew it and let it slip through our fingers, even though that was his word, which was more important than his name. But the Lord let it slip so their children would stumble in the darkness and would cut and devour each other. And so Westcott and Haught came along and helped the Lord, began to restore the Bible, but even they'll admit, but there's still more to restore, but we can get a little closer. Thank God for Westcott and Haught, helping God to make up for the flubs of not preserving his word like he said he would. So in the end, I just want to say it this way, because I think this is as simple as I could state it. Bible preservation, The concept of Bible preservation is a matter of faith. It's not a matter of the science of higher critics. It's a matter of faith in the nature of God and the declarations of God and the realization of the importance of his word as declared by God and the preservation of it for his children to every generation because God said so. Do I have to give every little detailed answer to everything that some guy can nitpick on and say, well, what about this? What about this? No, I don't have to. That's my principle. The operating principle is I believe God. As Pastor Cugini said, when they say to you, blah, blah, blah, King James, you just don't argue with them. Tell them, as far as we're concerned, the word of God. Just leave it. And he wasn't really talking about other Christians. He was talking about news reporters. News reporters come and they start, you know, trying to mess you up with a scripture, just, you know, basically tell them to take a hike. We believe God preserved his word. End of story. Move on. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank thee for your preserved word. Without it, we'd be lost. We'd be wandering in a morass of confusion, argumentation, divisions, and splits. The faith would be on the rocks. But we believe, we don't have to explain, but we believe, just like the Trinity, just like the fact that Jesus is the word of God, and that word cannot be lost then. And we thank thee for it. For it revealed to us the living word, Jesus Christ, and the salvation we have in him. And we thank thee, Father, for that. And we know it because of your written word. the manifestation of Jesus Christ in print, inspired of him, for he is God. And we confess all these things and thank thee for the knowledge of them and the comfort we receive from them. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.