The Pure Words of the King James Bible, Pt. 1--Introduction

[0:00] Find Ezekiel. It'll be a little bit till we get there, but... Find Ezekiel 44. Oh, yeah.

[0:12] That's what I'm talking about. Ezekiel 44. Before Daniel. And let me just start and try to get into an introduction here.

[0:42] Perhaps the highest and most defining attribute of God is His holiness. It's surely what sets Him apart from anything, everyone, just all of it, is His holiness.

[0:57] And it's not His power. Some created beings have power, greater than human power, even. Even maybe His power, He's almighty.

[1:07] And that attribute is very high and surely unattainable from our perspective. But His holiness, I believe, is His most defining attribute.

[1:18] It's not His love or His wrath. I think all those attributes are kind of... Maybe you could say they're governed by His holiness. And you might even say, though, that His holiness is a part of His nature.

[1:30] It might not even be an attribute exactly. It might be more of... Not how He displays His abilities, but rather about what His very makeup is.

[1:42] He's holy. He is, through and through, a holy God. And when we read in this Bible, we read in the Old Testament, especially as we're introduced... This is a revelation of God to the world.

[1:53] And what we're introduced to in the history of this people of Israel is that everything that connects sinful man to a holy God, it must meet God's criteria of holy.

[2:07] Or it's not going to work. The connection is not going to be made. He had them... Actually, He calls the city where His presence dwelt, a holy city.

[2:20] And it's a holy city because in that city was a building called the temple, which the Bible calls the holy temple. And the temple's holy because inside that temple was the holy place.

[2:31] But actually, inside of the holy place was a smaller place called the most holy place where the presence of God dwelt among man. And holiness surrounded Him.

[2:44] The instruments within that temple, the vessels within that temple, the offerings were called holy offerings. It is most holy unto the Lord.

[2:54] The priest had to wear holy garments and put on the holy crown and be anointed with holy oil. All of it has to meet and match God's standards or He can't approach.

[3:05] Forget about it. He's dead. He's a dead man walking. And so if it's connected to God in any way, it has to meet God's standard for holiness. And if it comes forth from God, because He's a holy being, it will be holy.

[3:21] The Spirit of God comes forth. He sends Him into the world. He's called the Holy Ghost. The Lord Jesus Christ comes down to this earth and He's called the Holy One. The Holy One of God.

[3:33] And the Word of God that God sends forth is, it's holy. I wonder if you understand that your Bible is holy. I know it's printed.

[3:44] It's probably there. I mean, yep, it's printed on the back binding of mine. Holy Bible. That's what it says. Holy Bible. But I wonder if you and I even understand that this book is holy.

[3:59] I don't think we do. I don't think I do. I don't think any of us really understand it. When we talk of holiness, and I mentioned what some of that Old Testament practice was, you imagine probably holiness is something that's untouchable, like the ark of God.

[4:14] If they put their hand on it, they died. They just were zapped and died right there on the floor. Why? They had to make rings and put staves through it and carry it by the staves because if anybody put their hand on it or even looked inside, they dropped it.

[4:30] We think of that as a holy, like there's some power in it, right? Because it was holy. We might think of the inner sanctuary with the veil covering it that the priest could only enter into with all of these garments and things and the prescription that God laid out and not without blood.

[4:48] We might think that's off limits. That's a holy place. But do you understand and realize that this Bible is holy, that it's called the Holy Scriptures?

[5:00] It's placed with that same word that all of those other things are in the Old Testament and God himself. This book is called a holy book.

[5:11] It is something that you possess that is actually and literally holy. The Bible is a revelation of a holy God and as expected it is and should be holy, like God.

[5:29] I wonder if you can even understand that this Bible is holy, that you can touch it and it doesn't kill you, that you can read its words and you can behold them and they're there for you and it's pure.

[5:43] I don't know if we realize, I don't think we really place it up there like it truly is. Now, come to Ezekiel, you're in chapter 44. I just want you to see one verse.

[5:54] This is kind of a reference to a future time about some priests. And verse 23 is what I want us to read together. Where God says, And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the profane.

[6:13] And cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the profane.

[6:24] And apparently God's people, even in the future, God's people need to be taught the difference between the holy and the profane.

[6:37] Now, because that our adversary, the devil, is such a great deceiver and such a great liar. He's so subtle. He's so smooth. He knows how to successfully knock a man down and turn him away from God's truth.

[6:52] Because we have an adversary that's real and alive and active, that's my only, the only thing I guess is why we need to be taught the difference between the holy and profane.

[7:04] God puts it out and man is turned away from it and needs to be taught. Now, before we go further with what I want to say about the Bible and introduce to you this evening, I want to give an example and learn a truth by looking at God's people.

[7:24] Come back to Ezra chapter 9. Let's look at the truth about the truth about God's people, or at least that we see in the history of Israel, and understand God's expectation of holiness.

[7:40] We'll see this just from this one example of his people. And then apply it to his very words.

[7:52] God's people need to be taught the difference between the holy and the profane. All right. Israel is to be holy.

[8:05] God, he separated them unto himself. He said you're to be a peculiar people. He sought to display to the Gentile world his person through a people, through a nation.

[8:21] And one of the telltale signs that they are right is because of the blessings he was going to put on that people for their obedience to him.

[8:31] They were not going to have diseases. It wasn't going to exist in their race. I mean, talk about a pure race and a perfect race. That's God's intention for that people.

[8:42] No diseases. He was going to put on them the extreme blessings from heaven for everything their hands touched. Every labor of their hands and feet out in the field was just going to be blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed.

[8:58] God was going to do such. If they would comply and obey his laws and rules and be set apart and peculiar to the rest of the world, God was going to put such blessing on them. The world would not be able to deny this people is beyond special.

[9:12] They're so exalted and elevated. What is it? And they'd find out it's their God. And they'd find out that they obey him and they live holy like their God tells them to.

[9:22] Now, that didn't work out too well, as we know. Ezra chapter 9. And notice something here about when they go out and they're into captivity and then they're coming back into the land.

[9:35] Ezra and Nehemiah describes this time and sorting some things out. Now, here's something that they had to sort out. In chapter 9, verse 1, Now, when these things were done, the princes came to me saying, The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

[10:02] For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, notice this, and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands.

[10:14] Yea, the hand of the princes and rulers have been cheap in this trespass. When Ezra gets word, you can read what he does. He just, he falls out. He mourns. He's in heaviness at the evening sacrifice.

[10:29] In verse 5, he prays to God. He's so ashamed of what's going on. And what happens when God's people mingle themselves with the people of the lands?

[10:40] It's called, notice that, the holy seed. This nation, this race of people is separate. They're isolated. They're off limits to the rest.

[10:52] They're an off-limits community, nation. In Exodus 19, God said that this people, I'm giving you this law because you're going to be an holy nation unto me. A kingdom of priests.

[11:04] Look at verses 11 and 12 and see the results of them mingling the holy seed with the others. In verse 11, he says, The land's unclean.

[11:38] What happens when God's people intermingle their seed with the people of the land? The holy seed becomes unclean. It doesn't make the people of the land clean and holy before God.

[11:49] It doesn't ever go that direction. It's clean and pure, and it's supposed to stay that way and keep impurities out. And that's what God does with his people. Okay, come to Nehemiah next door.

[12:01] Nehemiah chapter 7. And this is a holy seed. And of that, in the priesthood, they had to show their pedigree.

[12:17] And they had to declare their lineage and have it proved. Because now they're coming out of captivity, and they're trying to sort everything out and get before God the right people, the right tribe, Levites, the right ones that were prescribed back in the days of David, of who does what, who does where.

[12:39] And they're trying to sort this out. In verse 63, And of the priests, the children of Habiah, the children of Kos, the children of Barzillai, which took one of the daughters of Barzillai, Gileadai, to wife, was called after their name.

[12:54] These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found. So what happens when they couldn't prove that they were who they say they were in this pure line, so to speak?

[13:09] It says in verse 64, For therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood. I didn't say they were polluted. They just couldn't prove it, so they were treated as if they were polluted and unclean and mixed with the Gentiles.

[13:27] Out. Kicked out. They were put away, put from the priesthood. Now look at chapter 13 of Nehemiah. So they're called polluted because they couldn't prove they were of the pure line of Jewish priests.

[13:43] They weren't accepted. They weren't received and said, oh, it'll be okay. We're all brothers and sisters or we're all fine. No, there was a distinction made and if you couldn't back it up, it was kicked out.

[13:55] Now this is still just an example that we're getting toward the words of God here. Keep that in mind. Alright, so it's a holy seed of God's people and if they can't prove it, they're called polluted.

[14:08] So in Nehemiah 13, this is something going on in Nehemiah's day, a little bit after what we read in Ezra. And come down to verse 23.

[14:20] Nehemiah says here, In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod. That's a god. Of Ammon and of Moab. And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.

[14:41] And Nehemiah gets hot. And I like this guy. I contended with them and cursed them and smote certain of them and plucked off their hair and made them swear by God saying you shall not give your daughters their sons.

[14:54] And then there it is again. Going back through that stuff. What's the results of the mingling, the holy seed with the Gentiles, the unholy seed?

[15:06] They're unclean. They didn't convert the unclean to the holy seed, but rather the opposite effect took place. They couldn't even speak in the Jews' language.

[15:18] You wouldn't have known they were Hebrews or part Hebrew. Instead, they were speaking their Gentile tongue. They were polluted. They were unpure. They were unclean people in God's sight.

[15:30] All right. Now moving to the right and go to Haggai. Haggai. The prophet Haggai, who is a prophet during some of this time as well. All the way back into your minor prophets.

[15:44] After Zephaniah, before Zechariah. You find the Z's, you're there. Haggai chapter 2.

[15:54] And here's a question that the Lord puts forth to the priests. And it has to do with this clean and unclean business.

[16:08] Chapter 2, and look with me at verse 10. In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying.

[16:24] So go to the priests. They're supposed to know the law in and out. That's their duty. That's their life. It's to know it, to teach it. Ask them a question about the law. It's like go and call a lawyer on the phone and ask them something.

[16:36] Here it is, verse 12. If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread or pottage or wine or oil or any meat, shall it be holy?

[16:51] That is, if he's carrying something that is consecrated to God, it is called holy. And he's carrying that in that, lifting it up and carrying that skirt, and he bumps into something else.

[17:03] Does that automatically make that bread or that oil or wine holy? Because it's holy, does it touch anything it touches magically become holy? And the answer in verse 12, the priest answered and said, No.

[17:16] No. Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body, so they're defiled, they have to, according to the law, separate themselves for a certain number of days.

[17:28] And anyway, If one of them that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priest answered and said, It shall be unclean.

[17:38] Absolutely. So the unclean thing can pollute or defile the clean. Do you see how every time it's that way, it's never the holy makes it clean.

[17:52] It's always the unclean pulls it down and makes it unclean. Every situation we show you. Every time. The holy cannot touch an unclean thing and cleanse it.

[18:03] And something that is unclean, if it touches the holy, it makes it polluted. Now, that's the principle. This is just the example with God's people and God's laws.

[18:14] Now, back to the Word of God. Back to the Bible. Because the Word of God is holy. And whether you understand it fully or not, the words, the book on your lap, if you've got a King James Bible, it is holy.

[18:28] It is absolutely holy, like God Himself placed it in your lap. And that's not profaning anything to say that. That is truth.

[18:39] And the Word of God is holy. I don't want a Bible that calls itself holy, but has been polluted by unclean hands. I don't want a book that calls itself holy, but it's been mingled with pagan philosophy and mingled with false doctrines and humanistic ideologies of mankind.

[19:00] I don't want a Bible that reads like that or talks like that. I don't want a Bible that says it's holy, but it's missing words and missing verses and missing even entire passages of God's revelation to man and of God's record that He gave for us.

[19:17] If it's God's Word, it must be pure. And if it's God's words, it must be free of air, it must be holy. What I seek to do with this church on Wednesday nights is start a series that I don't know that it's going to just go consecutive Wednesdays.

[19:40] It just, it may be hit or miss in between, but I'll try to get the material together as much as I can. And I want to teach a series I'm going to call The Pure Words of the King James Bible.

[19:52] And the purpose for this study is, I'll give you four reasons here tonight just to kind of introduce the whole thing. These aren't necessarily points in an outline or categories of study, but it's what I want you all to receive from these weeks of study.

[20:07] The first one is ammunition. I want you to receive ammunition that will help you stand firm in your belief that the King James Bible is the book that God preserved for us today in the English-speaking world.

[20:22] I want you to know it and believe it. I want you to develop a conviction about this Bible from the Bible. And actually, that's a little tagline and you're going to hear Sunday morning, Lord willing.

[20:34] I want you to be able to defend that position against any attacks. And what we'll do is identify some of the attacks that are common and then we'll even examine those attacks and see if they hold water and see if they're really valid or if we can dismiss them pretty quickly.

[20:50] And so I want to give you some ammunition that you can receive and use over these next, whenever amount of times we do this. Secondly, I want to give you some explanation.

[21:02] Explanation. I want to teach some of the finer points of this book to you. And what I mean by that is not deep doctrines and mysterious things that just nobody's able to figure out.

[21:14] Nothing like that. But rather, there are some real peculiarities about this Bible and its language. And that's one of the attacks against it.

[21:24] But I believe it's pure. And I believe it's right, the way it stands. And I want to show you some of these things. I want to teach you and explain to you why there's these and thous.

[21:36] Why there's E-T-H's on the end of verbs and E-S-T on the end of other verbs. And take your Bible, go to Psalm 23. Everybody knows Psalm 23.

[21:47] And for the most part, it's accepted. People don't have a fuss about this too badly. A real common passage to read at a funeral.

[22:03] Psalm 23. But the new versions change this whole psalm. And let's look through. Let me read it. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

[22:18] He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Why does I have to say maketh? Why does it have to have the E-T-H or the T-H on the end of make? He leadeth me. Why does it have to say leadeth?

[22:29] Beside the still waters. He restoreth. There it is again. My soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

[22:41] For thou art with me. Art? What is that word? Where'd that come from? Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest. What in the world is an E-S-T doing on the end of prepare?

[22:54] Or the S-T ending. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

[23:11] What's up with these endings? And why are they like that? Why do they have to be like that? You've heard that it's just the old way of talking because it's an old book from the 1600s and that's not true.

[23:24] And I'll prove it to you. It's not true. It's a whole lot more than that. And so I want to explain some of the finer things, finer points, little intricate things that some of you have never heard before in your life and if you have, you probably just, or you've maybe just thought, yeah, it is old, but that's okay.

[23:42] I want to keep it the way it is. And maybe you just, maybe there's a stubborn bone in your body, but that's not good enough for the truth of why those things are that way, why it's written that way and expressed that way.

[23:52] There's a reason. I want you to learn it and I want you to be able to defend your Bible and know why. Why does the Bible use words like hither and thither and wither and hence, thence and whence?

[24:06] Do you say those words in your common everyday English? You don't talk like that. Why does the Bible, why can't we change those words? What are those words and why are they in there? Let's, we'll discuss a little bit of that.

[24:18] I'm going to call that the flawless grammar of the King James Bible. Hey, I don't know that too many people like grammar a whole lot, but yes, I like it a lot.

[24:30] I don't like it because it's like a true passion of mine. Some teachers and, you know, experts or literature, they, it's a passion. It's not mine, but I understand it.

[24:42] And because I understand it and I, I get it, then it causes me to like, no, it causes me to love the King James Bible. When I understand a reason for it, it causes me to say, thank God, this one's right.

[24:59] And this one kept it clean and kept it accurate and perfect and flawless where the other ones just, just fling paint on the page and there's no rhyme or reason or explanation for it.

[25:12] This book has a reason and I want you to learn that. And so, it'll be enlightening some of that stuff, I promise you. I think also it'll be boring for some of you. If you're not into it, you'll be like, but it can be helpful.

[25:27] I want to give you ammunition. I want to give you explanation. I also want to give you perspective. What do I mean by that? I mean there are statements from sources, from learned men that have real credentials.

[25:45] And my goal is not for you to tie your faith to the men. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Let's look at this verse here and I'll read it the way Paul wrote it.

[25:58] 1 Corinthians chapter 2. My goal is not that your faith should stand in the wisdom of men. Look at chapter 2 verses 4 and 5.

[26:13] 1 Corinthians 2 verses 4 and 5. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

[26:34] Look, Paul didn't even want their faith to stand in him as he had revelations from God. But he wanted their faith to be in God and the word of God.

[26:45] And when he leaves, they still have their authority with them. And it's my goal here to give you some perspective. What I mean is, is there are men with credentials that believe this book.

[26:59] And while one supposed credible man will attack and will undermine the scriptures, professor so-and-so, theologians and teachers and Bible professors and college instructors and all these men, they'll attack the words of God in this book.

[27:17] There are just as qualified men and credible men and learned men who do believe this text and defend it. And they have something to say about it as well.

[27:27] I think you ought to be aware of it. I think you ought to get a perspective and not just hear all the noise of the dogs that bark against the book and understand. Here's an example. John Livingston Lowe's is an American scholar of English literature.

[27:43] He devoted his entire life to this thing. He loved it. As a matter of fact, he taught in Harvard for 20 years. He taught English. His credentials are through the roof when it comes to American literature.

[27:58] And he had this to say about the King James Bible. It is the noblest monument of the English prose. That's what that man had to say.

[28:12] After studying, he didn't even bother the new versions that are around in his lifetime. He didn't have the time of day for them. Because when he knew literature and he read literature and he studied literature, he's like, well, that, hey, this got something to it.

[28:27] It's, I've read where, where they've, somebody proclaimed, and maybe I'll give you the quote. It says the King James Bible is where simplicity merges with majesty.

[28:39] It cannot be improved upon. When you put those two elements together, they don't even almost belong together. But they are found in this book. I want to give you some perspective where you've heard all the lies and all the attacks from others, perhaps.

[28:53] I want to show you that God has some smart men, too, that believe his book. And they have a thing or two to say about it. So ammunition, explanation, I want to give you perspective on this book.

[29:05] And then the last thing I want to do is the easiest probably that you're familiar with is comparison. And take a closer look at the alternatives that have been offered to you, or maybe not offered, maybe, maybe, you know, crammed down your throat, promoted.

[29:21] And I want you to learn a thing or two that no publisher is going to admit to when they make their claim that their Bible's easier to read or that it's closer to the original text or that it's an improvement upon this one.

[29:34] So I'm going to dig up some stuff and put it out there and show you by comparison that these guys are a bunch of liars. They're all liars. And some of them don't even know it.

[29:45] They're just deceived. They change words that you're familiar with. You're familiar with some words in this King James Bible and they put out a new version and said it's easier to read but they took words that you were familiar with and changed them to something you don't even know.

[30:00] And you don't know that. You think they're telling you the truth. Some ignorant Christian with his NIV or whatever he has walks around and says, well, it's easier to read. And then you open it up and say, what does that mean?

[30:12] He'd have to say, huh, doesn't read it, I guess. Here's one. This is just one example. This is just too stupid to me.

[30:23] But in Job, it makes a reference to this, the quote, the white of an egg. The white of an egg. And all of you can picture it. You know what it is. I think it's the RV.

[30:34] Years back, came out with an easier to read rendition and they called it the slime of the purslane. P-U-R-S-L-A-N-E.

[30:46] You don't know what that is. You can't even picture that. That's just one example, just one example of a new version improving upon the King James Bible.

[30:58] So I wanted to show you and we'll end or we'll, within the study, there'll be some comparisons to show the truth. Because the publishers lie through their teeth.

[31:10] All they want to do is sell Bibles. It's a market. It's a game. And they want their piece of the pie. Not one of them has actually had, publishing companies that is, actually has it as their goal to put the words of God into the hands of man to revive the planet so that Jesus Christ can be exalted.

[31:31] No, they just want to lie to you and sell you something, a product. And they do it by marketing. And if you're familiar with marketing at all, I'm kind of programmed to catch some of it sometimes and comment on it.

[31:46] And my kids know by now that if I see a stupid commercial, I just say, who in the world? How did they get that past the boss, past the board?

[31:58] How did they pitch the idea and get it all the way through? But marketing is so big in our age and day. We're so visually driven. And the Bible game is big.

[32:09] It's huge. It's the best-selling book ever. So if you don't think they're not going to try to get in on that, and that's not even where it started, but it's where it's gone. So that's my goal here in the next whatever time frame.

[32:22] I'm not putting an end on it. I'm not saying how long it's going to go. I'm not even saying when we're going to continue it. But perhaps here and there we'll deviate from it. And I intend on as the summer approaches or throughout the summer having some of the men of the church preach on Wednesdays as well.

[32:37] But the pure words of the King James Bible. I want Bible Baptist Church, those of you that are interested, I want you to get this book and know it. I don't want you just to say, well, that's the Bible that I think is the right one or I was always taught this.

[32:53] I want you to know it. I want that to be a conviction in your heart. When I was a young man, I grew up with this Bible in my lap. I grew up with it and never knew it. It was just the Bible. Eventually, it became the King James Bible to me.

[33:04] Eventually. And eventually, I began to understand there's other versions. And then eventually, I began to say, well, why do I believe this one's the right one? And why?

[33:15] I've been taught that, but I don't know why. I don't know why at all. I've just been taught it. It's just up here. That phrase is up here. It's the right one. The other ones are wrong. I had no idea why.

[33:27] And that was one of the first things I had to get settled in my heart when I started seeking the Lord on my own was why is this Bible, if I'm going to put my faith in this to be the accurate, pure words of God, I need to know why.

[33:40] And so I started reading and I started studying on my own and it didn't take long. I mean, the evidence was out there and the books were there and the truth was there and the Holy Spirit was there to bear witness to it the whole way.

[33:54] And if that's your case where you just say, well, we preach the King James Bible or we're different than the other churches, I want you to know why. I want to give you that ammunition. I want to give you those explanations of some things that make you curious.

[34:08] And if you have a question, give it to me. Maybe I can look into it and bring it out if it's something that might help you or help the church even about some of these things. So we'll be dismissed in prayer. We're going at past 730 and that's my intention here for the next couple weeks and I hope it helps you.

[34:23] I hope it edifies the church. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your words. Thank you that we have them. Thank you, God, so much for what you've done in getting them to us.

[34:35] Lord, we're spoiled brats to have it and to know it and to go home with it, to come back and forth, to have copies of it all over the place. And Lord, it's books holy.

[34:45] I believe it with all my heart. I pray that it would do a work in our hearts as we believe it and as we read and study it, as we seek to meditate upon it and understand and observe its truths.

[34:56] God, sanctify your people through your word. And Lord, I pray that we'd be a clean people acceptable unto you in love with the holy words of God.

[35:08] And Lord, arm us and prepare us for battle. Help us to stand and not be ashamed of the truth of your words in these last days. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[35:19] Amen. You are dismissed tonight. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.