This sermon delves into the importance of understanding the different translations of the Bible, addressing the controversy surrounding various versions and the impact of translation choices on interpretation. It emphasizes the need for Christians to be well-versed in the Word of God to discern truth and avoid unnecessary division within the body of Christ.

You remember we left off last week at Matthew 17 verse 14, Matthew 17 verse 14 and this was a very interesting sermon this week. As I prepared my heart was going a lot of different directions and when I got to verse 21, many of you are familiar with the story, there was a demoniac that the disciples could not cast out and Jesus finally cast him out and he said you faithless and perverse generation and then he had something in verse 21 he says however this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. It doesn't go out, this demonic influence, this demonic power does not go out except through prayer and fasting and guess what some of your Bibles don't have that verse in there. You might want to check right now Matthew 17 21 might be absent of some of your in some of your Bibles and as I was praying about this in the sermon I added a little side note I was going to say okay here's why some of the Bibles don't have this verse here's the difference between some translations and that paragraph turned into two paragraphs, two pages, three pages, four pages on how we got our Bible different translations and I said you know Lord I don't want to waste a whole sermon on this if you're not wanting me to go in this direction and I showed my wife it was pretty funny and in one week I had received three different emails on this topic and I usually get an email on this topic once a year on what translations or what you know how can we trust the Bible or what about the King James only because some people believe it is the King James is the only way the only truth the only life nobody comes to the sun except through the King James Bible only and they will push that and push that and push that and and I'm actually not making fun of the King James in this sermon because I was raised on the King James and I love the King James and I actually use the new King James but as I was getting emails and studying I thought it is very significant because we are talking about the Word of God and I think it's important for Christians to give a hope give a reason for the hope that is within you not say somebody says well how did you get your Bible I'm not real sure I just check my brains at the door and do whatever they tell me what about your translation don't you know your translation is an error don't you know you being led astray oh no I didn't know that I wasn't aware and it brings in a lot of questions it also brings in a lot of unnecessary stress a lot of fighting a lot of quarreling within the body of Christ it's a good reminder to check your phones right cell phones before we get going I actually check mine too so I don't feel bad so what I did is I'm gonna spend just a 45 minutes on the different translations I actually was gonna talk about how we got our Bible and then go into the different translations and we do not have enough time for that because that would take a sermon series and if you're interested on how we actually got our Bible I can direct you to a lot of great resources especially if you Google it how do we get the Bible there's a lot of reputable websites it'll walk you through all the different from from conception of Genesis to the end and the translations and different things but I want to just focus on probably because in some Bibles this verse is absent and in other translations it's in there and you're probably people are like why is that I don't understand and don't we have the the Bible and isn't that accurate and what are the what's the deal with different translations so I want to try to answer some of those questions tonight springboarding off of Matthew 1721 but in doing that let me kind of set the stage as the Word of God went out in the New Testament after the New Testament after the Gospels you're talking first century AD you know 60 70 80 90 that the New Testament was written down and passed on and as the church grew probably you know around the 200s 300s or so the church split into two groups and that's why you see this as an illustration and they split into Eastern and Western churches the Eastern was a Greek Orthodox it's still in existence today the Western was what would probably turn into the Roman Catholic Church and different things so you had the the church split and went in two different geographical regions now within each region certain sets of manuscripts would be found in this area and this is what I call the majority text this is the majority of Greek manuscripts and the reason it was Greek is that was the language of the New Testament was Greek so they have all these manuscripts written in Greek and over the years they found a majority of them in different places and that's what they used to translate the Bible I believe it was Erasmus in I don't want to say the right year the correct year but he would he translated the Greek into the modern tongue of the people he had about five or six manuscripts he was working on so something so let me get right to the point before you're too confusing the main Bibles the Geneva Bible have you heard of this Bible no why aren't you reading this one this came before the King James this is actually what the pilgrims and the Puritans brought over on the Mayflower and before that the Reformation this is the Bible of the Reformation Martin Luther John Knox Eurek Swingly John Calvin and actually in the marginal notes it has their commentary and that's what the Bible that was used for many years and the King did not like that very much because they didn't like Kings have you ever heard of the Revolutionary War Declaration of Independence from a king so the King James Commission many scholars in 1611 to go off of the majority text it means the majority it's actually called the textus receptus which means the received text of the people so they have these Greek manuscripts and they printed the Geneva they permit actually before that the White Cliff Luther Bible there's many other Bibles that were printed up until 1611 and then the King James version of the Bible came out in 1611 and that was the majority text they would look at that make sense there's tons of Greek manuscripts so they look at the majority now newer translations and IV English Standard Version of the Bible of course the NLT the message and I'm going to talk even more about those but the majority of the majority text gave away to something called the minority but they're older so this group of manuscripts comes from the older Greek text from like 2nd 3rd century church and it's called there's to their day they mainly springboard off of Kodak's Vaticanus Vaticanus and it's a Kodak's means that the manuscript and it was found in the in the library of the Vatican in the 1800s and they see this this this Greek text it's older than all these and then also something called Kodak's Sinaiticus that was found by Mount Sinai in a in a monastery there and they looked in this Greek text is very old so that's what these manuscripts go off they go off the older minority these go off the majority which are newer but they're in the majority so you might say well what's the difference well there's a few variances in the manuscripts I think out of about 95% of the manuscripts there's only a 5% difference I'll explain some of those differences in a little bit and they have nothing to do with truth you'll be glad to know that it's not like these say oh Jesus wasn't really Lord and these say he was and this one says you don't have to repent this one say I mean there's nothing nothing to do with truth it's actually a lot to do with prepositions and the placing of certain words and and the Greek and how they interpret those things and copyright little mistakes a little this a little here might say well Shane you know I thought the Bible was perfect well the truth is perfect given through imperfect men and actually I totally agree with why we don't have a perfect Bible because it would be enshrined and worshipped it would be the Bible be worshipped and also it gets out into different languages doesn't it the Bible's been translated so many different languages around the globe and there's there's there's a disagreeing on okay do you use this word or to use that word or to use this word or use that word so other words convey different meanings and that's the whole point of translating so that's the two that's where they come from King James New King James Geneva Bible all the older Bibles and this is the newer Bible all the newer Bibles but even on this side there's something known as and I've talked about it before the King James only camp if you only read you have to only read the King James and there's churches in our Valley I've actually had a pastor of a church in our Valley who resigned resigned recently or retired I shouldn't say resigned recently and said I would come to your church if you use the King James version of the Bible and the reason is and I'm trying to be as delicate as I can but also as truthful as I can a lot of the people have just not done their homework they've been raised in a denomination that promotes a certain Bible and if you look at the King James text you look at the King James Bible it is a good version it was it came from the textus receptus the received text but even in that the King James Bible had to go through many different translations in 1611 1616 I mean many different times it was actually called the wicked Bible at one point because it said thou shalt commit adultery not good better change that also in Matthew the old version said in there cometh Judas now the new one says in there in here cometh Jesus that's pretty significant right so is there as even the translator said this is not a perfect translation this is the best that we can do to translate the king the king put pressure on these people to get it translated and from 1611 to the King James you read now there's been about 420 or so a little bit more word changes changes where they corrected things so even now it wasn't perfect it had different different things in it but the reason people say it's a King James only those are perverted those are leading people stray the NIV will lead you to hell it's part of the New World Order the NIV doesn't mention the deity of Christ it doesn't talk about the blood it doesn't talk about hell it doesn't talk about any of those things that's what they say so what do we do we want to uncover it right we want to look at exactly but you the good thing is we have good scholars John Piper use the ESV John MacArthur uses the New King James I've got many Greek and New Testament scholars who will use both and I'm explain why and explain how you can look at this whole situation with maybe a bigger broad of lenses here couple of websites disturbing websites one said the King James changed thousands of words the New King James Bible I use ruined valuable verses and when not agreeing with the King James Bible it has instead copied things from the perverted NIV and other translations those who translate the New King James did not believe that God perfectly preserved his word we will now give some special attention to the one deadliest transition translation on the market the New King James is the deadliest transition translation on the market they say and why is that because it changed some of the words to the modern vernacular to what we could understand so that's why people say and these calls these websites have skulls and crossbones like they're just mad you can see anguish is coming out for that website now I can appreciate their stand for the truth but where what they've just simply haven't done is just look at the homework they have done their homework and look at the look at the manuscripts look at the Greek and look at what it says and look at the Greek and what it says and actually read the verses and what I'm doing what I've been doing for the last year is I've been reading the NIV I'm halfway through a finish in about two and a half years so I want to see for myself well as I'm reading the New King James I want to read the NIV and to date so far it's only enriched my study along with the New King James because of the commentary notes and it's not it's not leading people astray now with that said wow there's just so much done back there's something known as dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence I'm trying to put on my teacher hat tonight take off the preacher hat so people stay around more right he's not yelling tonight yeah he's good he's not upset anything I'm never upset passionate but formal like for I prefer formal equivalence which means they're gonna take word for word for word and translate it word for word formal equivalent and then there's something called dynamic equivalence where they'll do thought for thought and it's not as accurate so the NIV leans more towards dynamic equivalence in other words the translators will add a little bit more of their thoughts into it now the message Bible a lot more of the thoughts actually Eugene Peterson says it's a commentary on the Bible so I would just encourage you if you use a message that you would actually bring in a more word for word translation as well as reading it like you would a commentary there are some places in the message where I read it and I'd say I sure didn't get that Eugene you're not I mean that's not what I get from that scripture and that's why because it's his commentary on the Bible the new living translation is a commentary on the Bible the amplified version of the Bible the pros of that do you know what the amplified is it'll add a whole paragraph on amplifying the word the pro is that it's showing you what those words can really mean the strong that weakness about the amplified Bible is it's using too many different words to describe what the author was trying to say in a certain word and they seem to add to that so that's the difference between many translations is one is a thought-for-thought like a commentary so if you want to a good study Bible on this side would be the English Standard Version the ESV version endorsed by John Piper and many other people but if you use this group some people say you're being led astray and even if you use a new King James you're being led astray because the King James was the only accurate Bible ever produced and we went astray from that so let's talk about that for a minute let me give a few examples that would probably help right Matthew 9 13 and the King James for I am come for I am come to call the righteous I'm sorry let me back up it's hard to read the language of the King James for I am NOT come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance the NIV would say for I have not come to call the righteous but sinners now people Oh took out the word repentance well actually if you look at the Greek manuscript that it came from that the word is not in there they added the word repentance for emphasis number one number two is it's crystal clear throughout the whole Gospels that repentance is important so the NIV doesn't remove repentance everywhere it just in this translation he's saying in the context Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners what did he call that come to call them to well just keep if you just read before that and read after that you'll see he came to call sinners to repentance but they say because they took that out of there that book is part of the occult and satanic when really it's just more true to the the net that the Greek language it's very interesting as well there's a good book James White wrote it's real small the King James only controversy the King James only debate actually I believe it is and he has a chart on there in his book which a lot of King James only proponents use that where the the King James does talk about the deity of Christ or the blood of Christ more and more and more and a more significant accurate way and that's the chart a lot of these groups use but Jane in his book a couple pages later a couple chapters later I think there's another chart we're actually the NIV interprets in areas and talks about the blood of Christ even more powerfully than the King James and you'll compare the scriptures like yeah the King James is even talking about the blood in the NIV is crystal clear so if you look at the whole picture of manuscripts you look at at where you do a study on where they're coming from they're both coming from good positions because 95% of all the manuscripts agree I believe out of 500 pages about a half a page would disagree and it's on these small points of interpretation and translation and the in the active tense of the verb and what they chose to to use so I said all that to say this you cannot be led astray by a solid translation of the Bible it's impossible now work it's scary is when you start to hear things like the gender-neutral version or the TNIV or things that that's where you find the trash can really because they want to take out the masculinity of God they want God to be a mother father type view and you'll see translations going in a weird direction and you want to be careful those the New World translation by Jehovah's Witness that belongs in the trash can you don't need there's no debate those so that's not time but I'm talking about solid mainline translations I would choose the ESV actually the one of the most literal is the New American Standard Bible it's very literal very good if you go the NIV from what I'm reading I'm halfway through I'm in Romans and it's bringing it home and it's it's I mean I'm in Leviticus I'm also in in the judges with the NIV and I not being led astray yet I'll let you know if I'm starting oh let me start to not let me bow down to Satan now because I mean the NIV I mean it just doesn't work because it's still about Christ it's about and I'm not trying to poke fun because I know King James only proponents I'm gonna get some nasty emails on this and I love the King James I was raised in the King James not by might not by power but by my spirit say if the Lord I love I learned a lot of those things blessed is a man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stand in the path of sinners but he delights in the way of the Lord and all I love it but if you look at the different manuscripts their only differences are on nuances on translations of certain words not on truth so you're not going to read the NIV and be led astray it's it's not it's not possible actually many people are saying it's because of the new Bible translations that the church is going sideways I would say no it's not it's because they're not reading it they're not reading it they're not applying it that's why won't be to the teenager who reads the NIV and applies it he's gonna go in the wrong direction of course not of course not he's gonna believe in and understand the gospel again out of about 500 pages in the Greek New Testament the manuscript variations represent only about a half a page and they are very minimal and this was an interesting study I read some work by dr. Robert Wilson now I don't know how this much time but he using the laws of legal evidence involving investigation on every consonant in the Old Testament 1.2 1.2 million consonants look you know if there's a word Yahweh the Y the a the H the either that every single constant he looked at everything in the Old Testament comparing things and he said this I can affirm that there is not a page of the Old Testament concerning which we need to have any doubt and apart from any minor copyist mistakes we can absolutely be certain that we have the text of the Old Testament the Christ and the Apostles had and it's also interesting for those of you know who know this you know just be a repeat of it but for those who don't be very interesting but in 1947 something monumental was discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls the scrolls were buried in caves for almost 15 16 17 18 1900 years a little boy with a little shepherd boy through a little stone down the cave you heard this pottery hit the pottery sounded different so he went investigated they found a name for the impacted for a few years the Dead Sea Scrolls and when they opened up for example the book of Isaiah 1900 years old written on parchment written in it was the Septuagint it was probably interpreted in the Greek if it was if it was in the original Hebrew there I'm not sure but they read it they open up and it's the same exact book of Isaiah that we read today talk about confirmation these scribes were in the Dead Sea area were in charge of writing down the scrolls and they put them in these canisters that were found 1900 years later same book of Isaiah that's called divine consistency where God is divine preservation where God is preserving his word and he used imperfect people to deliver a perfect message there is nothing on planet Earth that is perfect I know some of you think that's not true because you're God's gift to human humankind right but there's nothing on Earth that walk the planet except Jesus Christ himself that was perfect so when you take the Bible I have no problem saying this is perfect truth but some manuscripts have some variations where they disagree with each other on very minute it makes sense to me God's using an imperfect vessel to communicate a perfect truth so the authors were divinely inspired if I time we could take you there divinely inspired by God to write down his truth it was the Bible is written over 1,500 years on three different continents with 40 different authors all saying the same thing he's God I'm not we need redemption through the blood everything is consistent and God preserve that in his word now here's I think what happens in the King James only side is there's a zeal for the truth that the King James was was was preserved it's been the Bible for 400 years and I love that in the Codex Vaticanus finding a manuscript in the Vatican probably not a good idea for those who understand Roman Catholicism but the but what they found was a contemporary manuscript it went back to the early church to 2nd 3rd century in the in the the Codex Sinaiticus that they found at Mount Sinai in the monastery these are all relevant manuscripts they don't disagree except on very minute points but because you're raised in a certain camp we don't want to broaden our mind and look at let's just look at the evidence and look at just look everything I'm saying everything I'm saying is substantiated and I one person from a church you know here in town the police King James only many years ago 10 years ago they said I'm being led astray by the new King James and I said well here here's my Bible I use can you show me what verse led me astray oh no it's throughout well where throughout because I'm reading about the blood of Christ I'm reading about repentance I'm reading about all the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith where and nobody seems to know they don't they don't know exactly they just know it's been corrupted now interesting thing in the 1800s I don't know remember the exact years two people interpreted and interpreted and translated into the Greek into the from the Greek and where these translations come from two guys named Westcott and Hort and what I've been reading on some of their quotes is a little alarming what Westcott said about spiritualism and different things but then I read a different author like say James White in his book and they people been misquoting the wrong Westcott they were quoting somebody else it wasn't the right Westcott and he said here are some quotes from Westcott's son adding to the validity of the relationship with Christ so I don't know what to believe on that Westcott and Hort were either extremely evil or they were misquoted regardless we look to the original Greek text of the manuscript we don't look to their words you can their scholars who Greek scholars who have looked at the original where these came from and they're very similar to these not much off you're not you're not going out there by following this type of of of pattern now here's a biggie this was a biggie a lesbian set on the NIV translation board oh got problems there don't we here's the interesting thing this is from the edit the NIV top editor he said that she set on the literary stylistic committee the style because she was an expert in style but only for a few months and after that she did not she had nothing to do with the translation and once her sexual views were known she was asked to resign so they would say that they minimize homosexuality the NIV you know kind of makes it not that big a deal they had a lesbian sympathizer on the board that that skewed a lot of the truth and the truth was she was only over and you can look all this up she was only over the style that was written not the translation not the translation so I'm like that's interesting I wonder she did have any influence let me grab my NIV Bible and turn to Romans 1 let's see if it's pretty soft on homosexuality NIV verse 118 Romans 118 the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven not sound good so far is it verse 24 I'm gonna skip down therefore God gave them over to their sinful desires because they worship creator creation rather than the creator God gave them over to sinful desires of their heart so that's really if you want to know what causes sexual morality homosexuality God just gives them over to their own desires God says you're worshiping the creation and not the creator your hearts are getting perverted I'm just giving you over to your own desire so you can say somebody was born a homosexual somebody was born alcoholic somebody's born to cheat on their wife somebody's born to lie somebody's born to cheat God gives them over to their own perverted desires so the NIV says this you might as well enjoy it now because the way society's going they're gonna take out Romans 1 pretty quick no you can't read that in church that's not true well yes it is it's been in the Bible for thousands 1900 years from when when Paul wrote this in Rome they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator because of this God gave them over to shameful lusts even their women exchanged natural relationships for unnatural ones in the same way the men also abandoned natural relationships with the woman and were inflamed with lust for one another men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion well she sure didn't have much influence because that didn't sound very nice but that's very clear that's very clear God gave them over to a debase and corrupt their mind so as I'm reading and studying I have to throw their argument out the window that this lesbian sympathizer actually perverted the NIV and brought in soft doctrines on homosexuality when every scripture I read on it when Paul talks about those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God the NIV says that the NIV says you're so I'm so they start to lose credibility you know I mean because there's no credibility there and then here's the shocker and I still haven't quite got over this and I I'm well well let me just read it on many of their websites on the King James only now if you can prove scientifically that this is the best Bible that out some credit to it right if you can prove that scientifically it'll add even more credit so here's what many of them say the King James Bible has been scientifically proven to be easier to read the modern versions so that's a misprint these guys they didn't say that did they so I go to another website and go to another website and they have charts of at a fifth grade level there people can read the King James I mean don't quote me on this was like a third grade level where the NIV is a seventh grade level and they show that the King James Bible has been scientifically proven to be to be easier to read than these other versions and I what is wrong with me I mean I'm not that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed but no that's not true that's just see that to me that's that's a that's a blatant lie that's a blatant lie not only did the lesbian sympathizer not doctor and alter the NIV to be homosexual to be more appeasing to homosexuals this is a lie that's the new to the new the King James Bible is not easier to read it's very difficult very challenging let's just look at some words from the King James all mug nesting chode habergong pertinence blames what trowel churl ambus clops of fat wimples holes mouth ouches of gold naughty figs those naughty figs and go fetch a compass and fetch a compass doesn't mean fetch a compass it means turn around how in the world would I know that I want to see if you know what a naughty fig is let me know because I don't know what a naughty fig is but all these words see what I'm really not doing I'm not poking fun I'm showing you that four hundred years ago this made a lot of sense you knew what a naughty fig was when you say hey boy go fetch me a compass that mean turn around and come back like britches you know britches are underwear I thought they were pants see but so that's a whole point of translation the translators of a lot of these Bibles took took years and my new details and they translated in the modern vernacular the modern speech of the people so they could understand God's word actually that's what got William Tyndale killed John has burned at the stake because they were translating the Bible so people could understand it so that's what the King James it is a wonderful wonderful translation in 1611 translating the Bible but using all these terms and here's another one the King James Mark 625 and she came in straightway with haste unto the king and asked saying I will thou give me by and by in chart in a charger the head of John the Baptist I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist I mean reading that we would think somebody's in a Dodge Charger with a hemi motor with John the Baptist head I mean that's how we would read it it's not funny I'm trying to be serious here but like the new King James which apparently I'm going to hell for reading says this immediately she came in with haste to the king and asked saying I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter that makes sense so how is that leading me astray but but that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist now I could probably figure out what she's saying because I know the story but if I didn't know the story I would have no clue what this lady is talking about why because modern translations bring in the modern language and as long as they're adhering to the Greek text that was found in the second third century the minority text known as the Alexandrian text this is the Byzantine text as long as you're hearing to that and they're not gravitating away from truth it's solid it can be trusted when the best things you can do is actually it's called a parallel Bible you wanna have fun you've got the King James you've got the NIV you've got the NLT and you got the new King James or the New American Standard you got five translations as you're reading the Bible as you're reading the Bible the NLT new living translation it's a commentary it's a commentary on the Bible and I'll even get articles you know I write in the paper here and in Victorville and different articles I'll get people say I can't even read your article because you're not using the King James Bible so all that truth is vanishing because it didn't use the King James version of by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist I mean I just I just I just want people to just realize that this what's happening is brother shooting brother you've got Christians who are putting down others in the body of Christ and other churches over this and they are off base you can't say that the homosexual person on the committee made any changes and you can't say that it's easier to read who in the world would make that statement that it's easier to read another example here's where they'll say that the New American Standard change things and that's why it's corrupt of the devil the King James John 336 says this and this is very important he that believeth not the Son shall not see life that's important right well the NAS the New American Standard made the mistake of translating the word apotheo is what it is the right way so they said this he who does not obey the Son shall not see life so is this an area of obedience or belief well don't we know that both are true if you're not obeying the Sun you're not on the right road if you're not believing in to the Sun said he was you're not on the right road so it's interesting is this word apotheo in the Greek just look it up I did it means in the active present tense to disobey it means to disobey so the New American Standard said he does not obey the Sun does not have life that's the correct rendering and it's interesting the King James interprets it believe but in three other spots and interpret to interprets it as not obeying as in 1st Peter a couple different times the consistency isn't there so all translators are doing is saying what is the what is the right word here in another word that you've heard me say often strive to enter the narrow gate remember that verse strive to enter well in the Greek language the word is agonies oh it's where we get our word agonize so wouldn't agonize to get into the doesn't make sense so striving fighting against the flesh to get into the kingdom of God so that's what translators do they put the Word of God into a language we can understand on both sides that's what the New King James that changed all these words and I only only mentioned half of the words ouches of gold naughty figs wimples holes mouth I mean what's a holes mouth I mean you just you don't you don't know what these terms are so that was what they did that was it so it's not that these translations are evil their preference many times so here's a biggie charges against the modern translation even my good old New King James these websites these people say these manuscripts they deny salvation by grace through faith they deny the resurrection and they deny the existence of hell that's not good that NIV is going in the trash if it does that I better look up some scriptures so NIV Romans 10 9 if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved I better read that again I must I'm not seeing what they're talking about if you see what the just craziness here these Bibles deny the resurrection will that you can't be more clear if you believe if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved well they deny hell well let's look at Matthew 25 46 NIV then they will go away to eternal punishment and the righteous to eternal life so I'm thinking what am I missing what am I missing here what about denying salvation through grace by grace through faith well Romans 11 6 a popular verse NIV and if by grace then it is talking about salvation kind of context and if by grace then it is no longer by works if it were of works then grace would no longer be grace so when so that's why they lose a lot of credibility when you say that these Bibles deny the inerrant deny hell they deny the resurrection they deny the faith faith in Christ through grace alone where you where because that's just one scripture I could find dozens of others that talk about eternal punishment here's the problem they want so bad to this to be the only way the only truth the only life nobody comes to Christ except the King James only because I was raised this way I can't be wrong after 30 years that they want to shoot everybody down they want to make up straw man arguments you know what a straw man is you build up a little straw man he's a little nice and cute then you slap him down he blew over how'd he blow over because he's a straw man so it's a fake argument and I and I truly believe that just some of these people are sincere absolutely sincere but you can be sincerely wrong because all you have to do is check the facts I have a book that will say the Greek in Greek and then the interpretation of that Greek above it and the way you read Greek is not how you read English the verse doesn't even make sense unless they add prepositions unless they add a noun unless they put a comma and say the Lord Jesus Christ that's what translators do is they add certain things to make it more crystal clear and I thought of this when when he talked about men commit indecent acts with other men and receiving them that themselves do penalty for their perversion if you're a Christian you truly believe in the scriptures you might want to remove that fake that rainbow from your Facebook page because the rainbow is a sign of God's judgment and grace not a perversion and sin we don't put the rainbow on to glorify perversion and sin it's a reminder of God's grace the rainbow came after destruction just wiped out an entire nation the entire world why because every man's heart was wicked every intent of his heart was wicked God says I'm sorry even made man so but I will give you this rainbow as a sign that I will not destroy the earth again by a flood so we have the audacity to put that on Facebook and to put that I mean you know that military picture with all the Marines and they're putting up the flag now they've got it where the guys are wearing their shirts are off and they're putting up the gay pride parade flag the audacity Obama has the audacity to put the White House in the color of a rainbow I have a problem with that and so should you that's ridiculous that's blasphemy that's perversion and if people leave after that I don't care that's that's wrong we don't we don't mock God like that and people need to start saying that that is mocking God as if he will be mocked and let's not forget the verse don't be deceived for God will not be mocked for whatever a man so that will he also reap we live in a culture they're all worried about the line being killed but nobody wants to expose the Planned Parenthood videos there we go right I mean look at look at the culture look at where we live in and I had so much more on this point I know we're short on time but I want to say all that to say this so the problem in my opinion is not the translation the problem is most people are not reading it and very few are even obeying it that's the problem because they'll come out and they'll say no it's a new translations that's why the church is falling apart and I want to scream at the top no that's not why even they don't they're not even reading that won't be the God of somebody read the NIV and applied it that's a bad thing that's why the church is being led astray no it's not they're not reading and applying it no matter what it is within the context of these types of I want to be careful the the new world translation trash can Jehovah Witness new world translation you can just throw in the trash can be I have just be honest would you just read this oh no I'm not going to read will please just go okay because they remove the deity of Christ they did it's not even it's not even on the scale I've talked about that before so I won't go into that right now but let me just say this because I don't want to just talk about this and not also encourage you that you got to get into the Word of God this is the only way you're going to know the heart of God I said all that to say this in the next five minutes this is the only way you're going to know the heart of God do you want to know how why so many people are divided about on abortion and gay marriage because they don't know the heart of God they're not in the word that's why that you're like how can they be a Christian and believe that how can they post everything about a lion that was killed but say nothing about Planned Parenthood's videos hmm how how how how because they're not reading it they're not when you have Christians reading the Word of God and applying it they are like-minded many areas so don't get discouraged and how can certain people vote for such-and-such right well a lot of people aren't reading the Bible so they don't know the heart of God and this is why many believers support things that God opposes because they have a concept of God and not who he really is so I would encourage you if this is the inerrant inspired Word of God given to us to guide and correct this why are we why are we spending more time in that than Facebook that's why I think about that if we truly believe I'm saying to think of most people in this room believe that this is the Word of God yet we have no time for it do you know you can get an app on your phone that will read you the Bible 20 minutes a day and you're through the whole thing in a year and you can sit and read it 20 minutes a day you're through the whole thing and that's the best commitment I ever made to your 2000 once a year I've got through the Old Testament 12 times in the New Testament 25 times just reading it and reading it and reading it in that discipline that discipline of a niche that's when you see the heart of God that's why I love you do you think this preaching just comes from my own imagination it comes from the heart of God absorbing the heart of God and just wanting that to flow out same thing in your own life you cannot you cannot keep going through life day in and day in a week out a week a week in a week out and not get into the Word of God you will fade away very interesting thing you can Google it was from John Bunyan nine stages of backsliding Google nine stages of backsliding from John Bunyan and top of that list is getting away from the Word of God and so many people I know yeah I remember reading the book last year and it was so good you're there you're drifting in the wrong direction if you're not anchored in that in that heart and passion of God you will be going in the wrong direction the Word of God brings us back like I said often we are leaky vessels quoting Dio Moody we are leaky vessels we leak and we have to be filled again with the Spirit of God and filled again with the Spirit of God that's how important this issue is so I want to just encourage you that's the really the point I want to get to on this on this whole topic was make a commitment tonight make a commitment it'll be the hardest commitment you've ever made have you ever thought about that why is it so hard even this morning it was hard for me to read the book so hard to read the Bible and pray it's isn't that the most challenging thing and why is that in the country so blessed we've got tons of extra hours in a day no we don't change oh yeah you write down the course of a week how much time you spend on Facebook the media YouTube and television and you tell me we don't have enough time we have plenty of time plenty of time but make that commitment say Lord I'm gonna get in your word and you be prepared for a fight you're gonna fall on Leviticus it's gonna be boring you're gonna say I just I can't do this I've got so much to do today your minds gonna go wandering the first thing most people do in the morning is what Facebook check my phone want to see how many people like my post oh that was a mean comment and that gets you going then you're off and never never land the very first thing you should do is get up thank God get into his word and pray and spend some time there she ain't got to hurry up and get to work right it's because you go to bed too late if we truly want to meet God we would make time just how many people make time to go on vacation they make time to go to their doctor they make time to go spend two hours with a friend they make time to go to Starbucks and sit and have a cappuccino and do whatever and read Shades of Grey I mean they have we have time we just don't apply it so that's my whole challenge this is the Word of God been preserved been passed down and it says listen people the Word of God is living and powerful sharper than any double-edged sword it pierces your heart it discerns your thoughts you can actually see the heart of God so if you're parenting you want to know what's the heart of God for my children my spouse get into the Word of God you want to know what's the heart of God for my job should I move should I take a different career get in the Word of God you should I what Lord what's your will for this relationship we're dating right now we're courting whatever you want to call it what does the Word of God say what's the heart of God that if you get into the Word of God in the heart of God your decisions are a lot easier because this is the heart of God I just read this a proverb says I better be slow to speak so while my wife's popping off not my wife just example while she's popping off slow to speak well somebody upsets me and that happens regularly now they upset me so to speak quick to listen be a peacemaker and then I read Paul's return to Romans Paul says as much as it's up to you be at peace with all men see if we would just read and apply and get the heart of God life would be so much more easier because here's what you're going with the flow of God as a believer you're designed to go with the flow of God not away so when you go away what if I talked about before that's when you're miserable that's when you're mad that's I I would I would just throw out there I bet half of the arguments half of the arguments in marriage are because one of the spouses is going the wrong way and when they're going the wrong way misery loves company doesn't it and they just want to be mean they want because they're not right relationship with God hard is the way of the transgressor hard is the way of the transgressor so I would encourage you this is the biggest thing for pastors it's almost like having kids eat their vegetables is the reading the Word of God guys if you could just get into the Word of God if you could just apply it if you and make time for prayer make your whole day would change your whole life would change the problem is many of us don't want it bad enough I've seen it many times they go the doctor says sir you that tumors growing I don't know I had a tumor yeah it's there and it's growing you don't think you'll start fasting and praying and reading you get that letter says you're probably going to be fired from your job and we don't know if your benefits and retirement will be available that all that'll get you in the prayer closet that will you end up in the hospital car accident they say we don't know if you'll be able to do such-and-such again or you get the call your daughter's been missing she's gone we can't you don't think you see why does it take all those things why does it take those kind of things for God to get us our to get our attention if this is the Word of God he says let me write you a story about how I want to be with you spend time with you and you to live your life we should devour it getting through that in a year should not be a challenge it should not be