an Independent Baptist Web Magazine

Twenty first Century Truth and Testimony Sermon Archive

Jack Hyles

LOGIC MUST PROVE THE KING JAMES BIBLE
(sermon preached in 1992 at the First Baptist Church, Hammond, Indiana)

Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not
pass away."

I'm not attacking the Catholic church tonight. I'm not a Catholic. Maybe
you noticed the sign out in front of our church that says, "First Baptist."
I never think I'm being unkind if I have the same thing on the inside that
we have on the outside. I want you to listen carefully. I'm going to state
some facts about the Catholic church. They are facts; they are not railing
accusations. They are facts, and any Catholic who is honest will tell you
that what I'm going to say is true about the Catholic church. It is not a
matter of my making false accusations; it's a matter of record.

I am also going to say some things about the charismatics tonight. I'm more
Catholic than I am charismatic. I've got more respect for the pope than I
do the P.T.L. Club, and I mean that. However, my respect for the pope is
not really soaring! Don't get mad now. I want to help you. I'm simply
saying that I'm going to give you some facts. I'm going to give some facts
about the charismatics, and if a charismatic is honest, he will agree with
the facts I'm going to give. There will be no accusations, no gossip and no
slander; I will just give facts that any charismatic would give.

Also, I'm going to say some things tonight about Protestantism. In fact, I
may not miss anybody tonight. Everything I say will be factual. I will be
the kind of thing with which even the people about whom I speak will agree.
So I want you to listen. With the battle raging as it is about the King
James Bible, I think that any pastor ought to alert his people.

When I was a boy, from the time I remember-- I remember back when I was two
and three years of age-- until I went into the paratroopers in World War II
when I was 18, my mother would read to me for 30 minutes every night from
the Bible. Then she would hold it up and say, "This is the Word of God!"
She did not say, "The manuscripts from which we got this are the Word of
God." My mom didn't even know what a manuscript was. She just knew she had
a Book that was the Word of God. That's all she knew. So, she said, "This
is the Word of God." I would look at it, and I would have to say three
times, "Mama, the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the Word of God.
The Bible is the Word of God."

I have Mama's Bible-- the same one she read-- in my office. I've had it
there for years. I don't know how old it is, but I suspect it is 55 or 60
years old. It is the same Bible she used to hold up. I was thumbing through
it the other day. On the inside, it says on the title page, "King James
Bible." That's what it says. You know it worked. It's amazing how well Mama
did before she found out that it wasn't the Word of God.

I've been going to Baptist churches for 51 years. Every pastor I've ever
had preached from the King James Bible. He always said to the crowd, "Open
your Bibles and let's hear what the Lord says." These pastors were not
unfortunate enough to have sat at the feet of those with lower education--
which calls itself "higher education."

It is amazing how well this nation did when we didn't know how ignorant we
were. (Are you listening?) This is my fifth pastorate. I've seen miracles
in my pastorates. I've preached over 41,000 times, and I've never yet
preached a sermon that wasn't preached from the King James Bible. I really
don't know what I've missed. To be quite frank with you, I've seen fellows
who preach from other Bibles, and I somehow get the idea THEY are missing
something. Dr. Evans, I've never seen a fellow really whoop it up about any
other Bible. I've never heard a fellow say, "Blessed be God, let's look in
the Book. Let's look in the Douay Version."

Did you ever go to mass and have the priest get up and say, "Hallelujah for
the Word of God!" Don't get mad at me! I'm telling the truth. If you don't
believe it, go next Sunday and see. He will usually use that prayer book
and not a Bible.

Follow me. I've taught you about the textus receptus, Wescott and Hort,
those manuscripts from which came the Douay Version that the Catholics use
and the American Standard Version, which is highly overrated. The Wescott
and Hort manuscripts came from the Vatican manuscripts that were hidden in
the Vatican for years-- from whence came the Catholic Bible.

The textus receptus manuscripts are those from which we have gotten the
King James, and they have been the evangelistic manuscripts, if you please.
I won't go into that. I'm a textus receptus man. I haven't got a bit of
patience with Wescott and Hort. Not a bit! In fact, I really have a hard
time not being bitter against my Greek professors in college who taught me
from Wescott and Hort Greek manuscripts. It upsets me greatly.

This is the message. The question at hand is this: Where is the final
authority for church building and for Christian living? There are four
different final authorities in American Christendom. I'm not talking about
Mormonism and those who have other books. I'm talking about Christendom.
There are four basic final authorities.

1. SOME VIEW THE CHURCH AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY. This is fact. Any honest
Catholic priest will tell you that the Catholic position on the final
authority is that the church has final authority. If you want to go a
little farther than that, if the pope speaks ex cathedra, he is the final
authority. Ask any Catholic or read any Catholic doctrine, and both will
tell you that. I'm not trying to be critical. I'm telling you the truth. If
a Catholic priest were standing here, he'd tell you the same thing.

Our Catholic friends believe that the church is the final authority. If the
pope speaks ex cathedra, that's God speaking. I'm not being critical; I'm
being factual. There is a second final authority.

2. SOME VIEW EXPERIENCE AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY. In other words, "It
happened to me, so it's true. I was there when it happened, and I ought to
know. I had an experience. I saw Jesus. I saw a vision. I have a word of
knowledge." This is the charismatic position. Ask them. They will say, "I
have a message from God, so this is God talking. God gave me a message."
(The foolish thing about that is, if that is true, you had better start
writing more Bible.)

When this happens, people believe the final authority comes from
experience. God has supposedly given someone a message. Someone talks in
tongues, and somebody else interprets what God said. However, the truth is,
all that God has ever said to man is right here in this Book. This is it.
This is God's complete revelation to man!

By the way, that is the basis of the whole thing: What is the final
authority? There has to be some place, ladies and gentlemen, where we can
say, "This is it, and what this says is the final word." So, our Catholic
friends say the church is the final authority. Our charismatic friends go
beyond the Bible and say human experience is the final authority.

3. SOME VIEW HUMAN REASONING AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY. That's what liberal
people say. "Every man is searching for the truth, and every man gets a
portion of it; so, nobody is wrong, and nobody is right. We are all
searching, so it doesn't seem to me that God would make a Hell; therefore,
there is no Hell. It doesn't make sense to me that God would let anybody go
to Hell, so God wouldn't let anybody go to Hell. It doesn't make sense to
me that God would regenerate anybody, so there is no such thing as
regeneration." That's what most of our Protestant friends believe, and all
the humanist crowd believes it. That's what the liberal believes. That's
what 95% of all the people in the seminaries in America believe. That's
what 95% of all the faculty and students in religious colleges in America
believe-- the final authority is the human mind or human reasoning.

The average Protestant church in Hammond believes that. "I don't see how
there could be a place with golden streets. If I don't see how there could
be, there isn't one." That is idolatry in its most pagan form. "My mind is
my God. What I can't conceive of, I won't believe. What I can't understand,
I won't accept. So, I'll trim the Bible down to fit what I can believe. I
just can't believe there is a God of wrath, so there is no God of wrath."

All right, we have the first three answers to the question, "What is the
final authority?" The church is, according to our Catholic friends. Human
experience is, according to our charismatic friends. Human reasoning is,
according to our liberal and Protestant friends.

4. SOME VIEW THE BIBLE AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY. Every church in America in
Christendom who had services this morning had a preacher who stood up and
preached what he believed. He either preached that he believed that the
final authority is the church, or that the final authority is human
experience, or that the final authority is human reasoning, or that the
final authority is the Bible.

The only authority that we as independent Baptists believe is the Bible.
There was a day when I could say Baptists, but the truth is, most of the
Southern Baptist colleges and seminaries are staffed by professors who
don't believe that the Bible is the final authority. I may as well say it
all. There's not a single Southern Baptist college or seminary to which I'd
recommend anybody to go any more. None! I went to a Southern Baptist
college and seminary. Thirty-five years ago, I heard a professor in my
seminary say that he didn't believe the resurrection. He said that the
resurrection was a bunch of blindfolded spirits in a vacuum. He said it. I
was there. Think what they are saying now!

Consequently, independent Baptists believe that the only final authority
for practice and doctrine of the Christian and the church is the Bible. I
cannot speak ex cathedra. I cannot speak and say, "This is truth." All I
can say is, "The Bible is truth." You see, I can't say, "I'm going to speak
now, and this is God speaking through me." I don't much like people to
pray, "Dear God, put the words in the mouth of our preacher." I think you
can say, "Lead our preacher"; but if God puts the words in my mouth, we'd
have more Bible.

See, I have no power in this church but the power of influence. Sometimes I
wish I had more. Sometimes I wish I had power to make you ladies dress like
I think you ought to dress. Sometimes I wish I had the power to make you
adults have rules about your teenagers that I think you ought to have, but
all I can do is influence you. I have no power. Officially, I have one vote
in this church; that's all. I have no vote at deacon's meeting and one vote
as a member of this church. The only power I have is my vote and the power
of influence.

It was a good day for me when I decided that I was going to make my final
authority the Word of God. I was taught in Southern Baptist schools to
believe that the Southern Baptist program was it. One day I decided to just
read my Bible and reorganize my church. I did. I decided to get the book of
Acts and read it word for word to see what the New Testament church was all
about. I cast aside all the tradition I had been taught, all the jargon I
had been taught, all the catechisms to which I had been taught to swear
allegiance, and I decided I was going to try to find out what kind of
church the New Testament church really was.

Dr. Curtis Hutson gave the best compliment to First Baptist Church of
Hammond that has ever been given in the SWORD OF THE LORD. He said that he
was here for Pastors' School. He told how many conversions and baptisms we
had the Sunday before. Then he said, "If God were writing the book of Acts
today, He would write about the First Baptist Church of Hammond." That's
the ultimate compliment.

You see, I decided that I was going to get my Bible down and decide what I
thought the New Testament church was scripturally; then, that's what I was
going to have in my church. I believe with all of my soul that the First
Baptist Church of Hammond is as near as is humanly possible to being what
the church in Jerusalem was 2,000 years ago. Where did I get that? I got it
from the Bible. Do you know why we are scattered abroad winning souls all
over this area? It's because the church in Jerusalem was "scattered
abroad," and they "went every where preaching the word." (Acts 8:4) Do you
know why we go house to house, knocking on doors? We do it because it says
in Acts 5:42, "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not
to teach and preach Jesus Christ." We do it because that's what they did in
the Bible.

Somebody says, "Well, we have different kinds of churches. You have a
soul-winning church, and we have a deeper-life church." In the first place,
it's a lie. There's no life as deep as a soul-winning life. However, they
say, "We just have different kinds of churches." No, we don't. WE have a
church, and you don't! Brother, the Bible is our charter to exist. If the
Bible is not your final authority in practice and doctrine, then you are
not a church. You might have the word "church" on the outside, but you are
not a church.

Since the Word of God is our authority,-- hear me carefully-- we simply
must have it. That's a profound statement. We've got to have it! I mean,
shall we have an authority we can't find? Would God tell us His Word is the
final authority and leave us without His Word? We must have a copy or we
may as well join our Catholic friends and let the church be the basis for
truth. If we have no Word of God, and if the Bible is not the Word of God,
then we have only three other alternatives. We've got to say the final
authority will be the church, or human experience, or human reasoning.

I'm saying, if we have no Bible that is the Word of God, then we have no
way to go to the Book for the final authority. If one word in this Bible is
not true, we don't know which one it is; so, once again, the mind of man or
experience or the church is going to have to decide which one is true and
which one is not true. If we are going to believe that the Word of God is
the final authority, we've got to have a copy of it.

Let me ask you a question. Would God call a man to preach His Word and not
give it to him? God calls a man and says, "I'm calling you. Spend you life
preaching the Gospel. Preach the Word!" So, wouldn't He give him a copy of
His Word?

I've said this so often, and I'll say it again and again. I would step down
from behind this pulpit tonight and never walk in it again to preach if I
didn't have the Word of God in my hand. I would not waste your time nor
take your money unless I could say to you, "You have the Word of God. I
have it, and it is preached here." I'm an honest man. This is what I've
said before, and I'll say it again. If I did not believe that the Book I
hold in my hand tonight was God's Word, I'd find out where it was. I'd go
there and get a copy, print some copies for you and give you a copy. I
mean, brother, if we don't have the Word of God in our hands, we have no
place to go except to the human mind, human experience or the collective
human mind which is the church. God would not reach down and give a divine
call to a man and say, "I call you to preach My Word, but there is no copy
of it any more."

I don't like a statement of faith that says, "We believe the Bible is the
Word of God in the original manuscripts." In the first place, there are no
original manuscripts anywhere in the world tonight. None! If the Word of
God was only the original manuscripts, there is no Word of God available
for mankind today. If I did not believe the Bible I hold in my hand was the
Word of God, and I believed there were some manuscripts, I'd get on an
airplane, fly to where they were, break in the building if I had to, get
the original manuscripts, make copies of them and give you a copy. I'm not
going to stand here as an imposter preaching a Book that is not the Word of
God and giving you instructions on how to live from a Book that is not the
Word of God! I'm not going to do it! I'm just not going to do it!.

Would God tell His people to live by the Word and not give it to them? Let
me say this. Of all the nations on the face of this earth, America is the
center of world evangelization. America is the only hope for the world to
have the Gospel. Do you think that God would not give His Word to America?
The countries of this world look to America for missionaries. They look to
America for preachers. Every great movement of God in the world today was
founded by a ministry or movement that was propelled by American
evangelization. The mission movement was founded basically, by Hudson
Taylor. Now, wait a minute. Of all the nations on the face of this earth,
it just seems to me that God would give the key nation the Word of God.

Check the history of Christianity in America, and see how well we've done
without all these extra Bibles. Check the history of the church in America
from 1950 back, before every little preacher had the misfortune to sit at
the feet of a college theologian. Do you know what? We won't have people
who are just theologians teaching Bible at Hyles-Anderson College. Every
teacher of Bible at Hyles-Anderson College is a preacher. We won't hire a
theologian. No way! You say, "Are you opposed to theologians?" No, I'm just
leery and wary of them. I am wary of those who dare to sit in judgment on
the Bible. Brother, it seems to me if there is any place in the world where
you ought to have your faith in the Bible stabilized, it's a Christian
college or Christian seminary. However, the truth is, that's where you get
your faith shaken.

That's one reason why some things bother me. It bothers me when people say,
"We believe that the Bible, in the original manuscripts, is the Word of
God." If that's true, we have no Bible. Did you hear what I said? We have
no Bible. One day they did, but WE don't.

Dr. Ed Hindson of Liberty Baptist College said concerning I John 5:7,
"Thus, according to John's account here, 'there are three that bear record
in heaven.' The rest of verse 7 and the first nine words of verse 8 are not
in the original and are not to be considered as part of the Word of God."
I'd like to ask Mr. Hindson a question: "When did you see the original?"
How does he know they are not in the original? Look at me now. How does he
know? The only way an honest man can say they are not in the original
manuscripts is to have seen them, and they are not available. Now, he could
say they are not in some of the manuscripts that are considered the most
ancient. I personally think he was saying that they are not in the Wescott
and Hort. I can't prove that.

Before I get too rough on him, look at your Scofield Bible in I John 5:7,
the verse Dr. Hindson quoted. Folks, I have no axes to grind. I have
nobody's feelings to hurt. I've just got to have the Word of God; that's
all. I've got to have it! The Bible says the Word of God is what we are
supposed to preach. The Bible says, "Preach the Word."

Now, look at your Scofield Bible-- I John 5:7, "For there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these
three are one." Now look at that little "o" there in front of verse 7. Look
in the center reference, and find the "o". Mr. Scofield says, "It is
generally agreed that v. 7 has no real authority, and has been inserted."

I'd like to ask Mr. Scofield when he saw the original. He never saw it.
Somebody who thought he was intellectual told that to somebody who thought
he was intellectual who told somebody who thought he was intellectual.
Listen, we don't want the intellectual community to think of us as being
nincompoops, but I'd rather have a nincompoop with a revelation from God
than to have an intellectual without a revelation from God.

We've got to have a final authority! If this Book is not true, then the
church or human reasoning or human experience is the final authority.
Listen! There are only two-- God and man. If God is not the final
authority, man is the final authority. If we have no final authority in a
book, then man has got to discern what God says; if man discerns what God
says, then man becomes the final authority instead of God. So, Mr. Scofield
had problems the day he came to this verse. How does he know? Pray tell me,
what in the world he could have ever seen that would make him say that? He
didn't see anything. He sat in somebody's Bible class and some Dr.
Mess-'em-Up or Dr. McFuddle or Dr. Broad Stomach stood up and said, "Well,
in the original manuscript..." which sounds scholarly; but nobody in our
generation has seen them. Dr. So-and-So hasn't seen them, the professor in
the seminary hasn't seen them and the college Bible professor hasn't seen
them. Either what I hold in my hand is the Word of God, or we don't have
any Word of God. I don't believe God would leave us without His Word. I
don't believe that. I JUST DON'T BELIEVE IT!

We need a Bible that we can understand and a Bible that is God's Word. It
looks like anybody would agree that if God gives us the command to preach
the Word, He would give us the Word to preach. That's logical. If God wants
to say to a nation, "You are the custodian of world evangelization for a
generation or two or three or four," it looks like God would give that
nation the Word of God.

What is it? I would say it ought to be the one that has worked. Which one
has worked? The one I hold in my hand right now. I has worked! It will
work!

I'd like to say the same to our friends in the charismatic movement. You
say, "Why do you stress it?" I stress it because the charismatic crowd is
trying to teach our crowd every day that they've got something we don't
have. Tonight, before I walked into this pulpit, one of our fine ladies
came and told me of one of our men who has been swept aside. One of our
good faithful men has been swept aside by the charismatic crowd. As pastor
of this church, it is my job to warn you of wolves who are dressed like
sheep.

If we don't have a Bible that's the Word of God, we've got to go to human
reasoning. If God says to a church, "Build your church on My Word," God's
got to give us His Word. Listen, God wouldn't be God is He told us to do
something we couldn't do. Everything that God has ever commanded us to do,
He has given us the wherewithal to obey that commandment. God has never
commanded man to do anything that was unreasonable or impossible for man to
do. When God calls a man to preach and says, "Preach the Word," God would
have to give him a Word to preach. If God says to a church, "Build your
church on My Word," to be God, He's got to give that church the Word of
God.

Our Methodists seminaries say, "It's not verbally inspired." There was a
day when John Wesley started that movement. He said the Bible was inspired,
and they had the fire back in those days!

The Presbyterian seminaries say, "The Bible is not the Word of God," but
John Calvin believed it, and they had the fire! John Knox and others
believed it!

I'm saying that we've either go to admit this is the Word of God or we have
to flee to the church, or to human reasoning or human experience as being
the final authority. If there is no Word of God today, we have no other
recourse. If God has not given us His Word, we have to decide what is God's
Word. That's human reasoning.

By the way, basing a doctrine on human experience is idolatry. Basing a
doctrine on the church being the final authority is idolatry. The church is
the idol. Letting the pope speak ex cathedra and saying that it is God Who
is speaking is idolatry. You're making him as God.

Human reasoning says that what we can reason, we'll believe. That's
idolatry. So the truth is, you've got one choice of two. Either this Bible
is the Word of God or we have no other place to turn but to idolatry. Did
you hear me? Either this is the Word of God, or there is no place to turn
but idolatry. Our three choices are human reasoning, human experience or
the church, and they are each a form of idolatry. They are all three the
same because making the church the final authority is done so by human
reasoning. That means Catholicism is humanism, and the charismatic movement
is humanism. It is man saying, "I was there. I felt it. God spoke, and
here's what He said." That's human reasoning. It's humanism. So either this
is the Word of God, or there is nothing left but humanism.

I'll tell you this. To whatever degree this Book is not believed, that
society has the exact proportionate belief in humanism because there are
only two choices available: God and man. If God hasn't told us what to do,
man has got to tell us what to do. When a country does not believe this
Book, it is totally humanistic. When a country leans away from this Book,
it leans toward humanism. When a country is divided about this Book, it is
divided about humanism.

I just don't believe that God would say, "Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature," (Mark 16:15) and not give us His Word
to take with us. I just don't believe that God would say, "Train up a child
in the way he should go," (Proverbs 22:6) and write the words of God "upon
the door posts of thine house," (Deuteronomy 11:20) and "teach them your
children," (Deuteronomy 11:19) unless there were a Word of God.

I don't think God would say, "Start a Bible college. Send out young men to
proclaim the truth," unless God had given us the truth. I just don't
believe that God would send young men to the mission fields without the
Word of God. I don't think God would send Rick Martin halfway around the
world to proclaim His Word without giving him a copy of it. I don't think
God would send young men out from this church to build soul-winning
churches without giving them His Word.

With all of my soul, I believe that the final authority for faith and
practice for a church and for a life is the Word of God. I do not believe
that I'm the final authority; nor the bishops or the cardinals-- nor are
the Cubs or the White Sox!

Not long ago, then there was no pope, a fellow said, "I think Ernie Banks
ought to be the next pope." "Why?" "Well, the Cardinals have had it long
enough. It's time the Cubs got to have a pope!"

I'm not the final authority. "El papa" is not the final authority. He can
wave his magic wand all he wants to. He can rustle his skirts all over the
country. I'm simply saying, the Bible is the final authority, not man. I
don't care what he is called, it is not man!

You say, "You're criticizing the pope." Whatever I've said about pope, I've
said about me. FIRST I said, I'M NOT the final authority. THEN I said,
"HE'S NOT the final authority." So our people have as much right to get mad
as you Catholics do. Mr. Oral Roberts is not the final authority. The Bible
is the final authority. I just don't believe God would leave us down here
without a copy of His Word.

How can we know which is the real Bible? Well, you can scratch off the
Revised Standard Version because the liberals put that one together. You
can scratch off any Bible that came from Wescott and Hort because that
comes from the Vatican manuscripts. I'd suggest you find the one that has
worked.

Find the one that widows have read; find the one over which they've wept
and prayed for their children. Find the one that dear mothers in the
history of our country have read, loved and taught. Find the one for which
faithful evangelists have given their lives and for which missionaries have
circled the globe. Find the one that has caused people to leave home,
family and friends to carry its message. Find it! Find the one Dwight Moody
used. Find out which one Billy Sunday used. Find the one the great
soul-winning churches in America use.

Find the one tested by time. Find the one that Adolph Hitler said he would
destroy, but couldn't! Find the one about which Thomas Paine spoke when he
said, "Within one generation, the Bible will not be printed anymore."
However, as soon as he died, the same printing press on which he printed
that garbage was used to print more Bibles. Find the one they can't
destroy. Find the one that has stood the test of time. Find the one that
liberals have tried to destroy, Hitlers have tried to burn, Mussolinis have
tried to outlaw and Khrushchevs and Stalins have tried to burn! Find it!
The Bible says, "My words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35) Find the
one that has stood the test of time!

Don't find one that has a hippie on the outside of it and bunch of hippie
jargon on the inside of it. Find the one that has stood the test of time!
You say, "I don't understand those 'thees' and 'thous.'" "Thee" means
"you." "Thou" means "you." "I" means "me." "We" means "us." You know it,
and you know you know it! Not only that, but the Holy Spirit of God lives
inside of you, and He's the author of this Book. If you can't understand a
part of it, ask Him to teach you, and He will do it. He wrote it! We've got
to have a Bible! We have got to have a Bible!

You say, "Boy, that's right. I'll tell you what, I believe it from cover to
cover." Try OPENING the covers. "Boy, I believe every word of it." QUOTE a
few of them! If we had Scripture quoting tonight, we've got Sunday school
teachers here who know only, "Jesus wept," and if somebody said that verse
before your turn came, you'd say, "He got mine." Read it! Memorize it!
Study it! Love it! Teach it! Preach it! Live in it! It's the Word of God!
You can depend on it.

Every jot and every tittle shall come to pass. Not one comma and not one
punctuation mark shall pass away. Matthew 5:18, "For verily I say unto you,
Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." I checked those words,
"pass away," a little bit; a synonym for that phrase would be, "My word
will always be alive." There never will be a day when somebody says,
"Beloved, we are gathered here in the presence of 'Gawd' and these
witnesses to remember the word of 'Gawd' that died." We never will! It will
always be there. It always will.

I can't believe that God would give us a great commission and tell us to
teach it, preach it and spread it, and not give us the truth to teach and
preach and spread.

Let us pray.

Jack Hyles: "LOGIC MUST PROVE THE KING JAMES BIBLE"
(sermon preached in 1992 at the First Baptist Church, Hammond, Indiana)

Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not
pass away."

I'm not attacking the Catholic church tonight. I'm not a Catholic. Maybe
you noticed the sign out in front of our church that says, "First Baptist."
I never think I'm being unkind if I have the same thing on the inside that
we have on the outside. I want you to listen carefully. I'm going to state
some facts about the Catholic church. They are facts; they are not railing
accusations. They are facts, and any Catholic who is honest will tell you
that what I'm going to say is true about the Catholic church. It is not a
matter of my making false accusations; it's a matter of record.

I am also going to say some things about the charismatics tonight. I'm more
Catholic than I am charismatic. I've got more respect for the pope than I
do the P.T.L. Club, and I mean that. However, my respect for the pope is
not really soaring! Don't get mad now. I want to help you. I'm simply
saying that I'm going to give you some facts. I'm going to give some facts
about the charismatics, and if a charismatic is honest, he will agree with
the facts I'm going to give. There will be no accusations, no gossip and no
slander; I will just give facts that any charismatic would give.

Also, I'm going to say some things tonight about Protestantism. In fact, I
may not miss anybody tonight. Everything I say will be factual. I will be
the kind of thing with which even the people about whom I speak will agree.
So I want you to listen. With the battle raging as it is about the King
James Bible, I think that any pastor ought to alert his people.

When I was a boy, from the time I remember-- I remember back when I was two
and three years of age-- until I went into the paratroopers in World War II
when I was 18, my mother would read to me for 30 minutes every night from
the Bible. Then she would hold it up and say, "This is the Word of God!"
She did not say, "The manuscripts from which we got this are the Word of
God." My mom didn't even know what a manuscript was. She just knew she had
a Book that was the Word of God. That's all she knew. So, she said, "This
is the Word of God." I would look at it, and I would have to say three
times, "Mama, the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the Word of God.
The Bible is the Word of God."

I have Mama's Bible-- the same one she read-- in my office. I've had it
there for years. I don't know how old it is, but I suspect it is 55 or 60
years old. It is the same Bible she used to hold up. I was thumbing through
it the other day. On the inside, it says on the title page, "King James
Bible." That's what it says. You know it worked. It's amazing how well Mama
did before she found out that it wasn't the Word of God.

I've been going to Baptist churches for 51 years. Every pastor I've ever
had preached from the King James Bible. He always said to the crowd, "Open
your Bibles and let's hear what the Lord says." These pastors were not
unfortunate enough to have sat at the feet of those with lower education--
which calls itself "higher education."

It is amazing how well this nation did when we didn't know how ignorant we
were. (Are you listening?) This is my fifth pastorate. I've seen miracles
in my pastorates. I've preached over 41,000 times, and I've never yet
preached a sermon that wasn't preached from the King James Bible. I really
don't know what I've missed. To be quite frank with you, I've seen fellows
who preach from other Bibles, and I somehow get the idea THEY are missing
something. Dr. Evans, I've never seen a fellow really whoop it up about any
other Bible. I've never heard a fellow say, "Blessed be God, let's look in
the Book. Let's look in the Douay Version."

Did you ever go to mass and have the priest get up and say, "Hallelujah for
the Word of God!" Don't get mad at me! I'm telling the truth. If you don't
believe it, go next Sunday and see. He will usually use that prayer book
and not a Bible.

Follow me. I've taught you about the textus receptus, Wescott and Hort,
those manuscripts from which came the Douay Version that the Catholics use
and the American Standard Version, which is highly overrated. The Wescott
and Hort manuscripts came from the Vatican manuscripts that were hidden in
the Vatican for years-- from whence came the Catholic Bible.

The textus receptus manuscripts are those from which we have gotten the
King James, and they have been the evangelistic manuscripts, if you please.
I won't go into that. I'm a textus receptus man. I haven't got a bit of
patience with Wescott and Hort. Not a bit! In fact, I really have a hard
time not being bitter against my Greek professors in college who taught me
from Wescott and Hort Greek manuscripts. It upsets me greatly.

This is the message. The question at hand is this: Where is the final
authority for church building and for Christian living? There are four
different final authorities in American Christendom. I'm not talking about
Mormonism and those who have other books. I'm talking about Christendom.
There are four basic final authorities.

1. SOME VIEW THE CHURCH AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY. This is fact. Any honest
Catholic priest will tell you that the Catholic position on the final
authority is that the church has final authority. If you want to go a
little farther than that, if the pope speaks ex cathedra, he is the final
authority. Ask any Catholic or read any Catholic doctrine, and both will
tell you that. I'm not trying to be critical. I'm telling you the truth. If
a Catholic priest were standing here, he'd tell you the same thing.

Our Catholic friends believe that the church is the final authority. If the
pope speaks ex cathedra, that's God speaking. I'm not being critical; I'm
being factual. There is a second final authority.

2. SOME VIEW EXPERIENCE AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY. In other words, "It
happened to me, so it's true. I was there when it happened, and I ought to
know. I had an experience. I saw Jesus. I saw a vision. I have a word of
knowledge." This is the charismatic position. Ask them. They will say, "I
have a message from God, so this is God talking. God gave me a message."
(The foolish thing about that is, if that is true, you had better start
writing more Bible.)

When this happens, people believe the final authority comes from
experience. God has supposedly given someone a message. Someone talks in
tongues, and somebody else interprets what God said. However, the truth is,
all that God has ever said to man is right here in this Book. This is it.
This is God's complete revelation to man!

By the way, that is the basis of the whole thing: What is the final
authority? There has to be some place, ladies and gentlemen, where we can
say, "This is it, and what this says is the final word." So, our Catholic
friends say the church is the final authority. Our charismatic friends go
beyond the Bible and say human experience is the final authority.

3. SOME VIEW HUMAN REASONING AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY. That's what liberal
people say. "Every man is searching for the truth, and every man gets a
portion of it; so, nobody is wrong, and nobody is right. We are all
searching, so it doesn't seem to me that God would make a Hell; therefore,
there is no Hell. It doesn't make sense to me that God would let anybody go
to Hell, so God wouldn't let anybody go to Hell. It doesn't make sense to
me that God would regenerate anybody, so there is no such thing as
regeneration." That's what most of our Protestant friends believe, and all
the humanist crowd believes it. That's what the liberal believes. That's
what 95% of all the people in the seminaries in America believe. That's
what 95% of all the faculty and students in religious colleges in America
believe-- the final authority is the human mind or human reasoning.

The average Protestant church in Hammond believes that. "I don't see how
there could be a place with golden streets. If I don't see how there could
be, there isn't one." That is idolatry in its most pagan form. "My mind is
my God. What I can't conceive of, I won't believe. What I can't understand,
I won't accept. So, I'll trim the Bible down to fit what I can believe. I
just can't believe there is a God of wrath, so there is no God of wrath."

All right, we have the first three answers to the question, "What is the
final authority?" The church is, according to our Catholic friends. Human
experience is, according to our charismatic friends. Human reasoning is,
according to our liberal and Protestant friends.

4. SOME VIEW THE BIBLE AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY. Every church in America in
Christendom who had services this morning had a preacher who stood up and
preached what he believed. He either preached that he believed that the
final authority is the church, or that the final authority is human
experience, or that the final authority is human reasoning, or that the
final authority is the Bible.

The only authority that we as independent Baptists believe is the Bible.
There was a day when I could say Baptists, but the truth is, most of the
Southern Baptist colleges and seminaries are staffed by professors who
don't believe that the Bible is the final authority. I may as well say it
all. There's not a single Southern Baptist college or seminary to which I'd
recommend anybody to go any more. None! I went to a Southern Baptist
college and seminary. Thirty-five years ago, I heard a professor in my
seminary say that he didn't believe the resurrection. He said that the
resurrection was a bunch of blindfolded spirits in a vacuum. He said it. I
was there. Think what they are saying now!

Consequently, independent Baptists believe that the only final authority
for practice and doctrine of the Christian and the church is the Bible. I
cannot speak ex cathedra. I cannot speak and say, "This is truth." All I
can say is, "The Bible is truth." You see, I can't say, "I'm going to speak
now, and this is God speaking through me." I don't much like people to
pray, "Dear God, put the words in the mouth of our preacher." I think you
can say, "Lead our preacher"; but if God puts the words in my mouth, we'd
have more Bible.

See, I have no power in this church but the power of influence. Sometimes I
wish I had more. Sometimes I wish I had power to make you ladies dress like
I think you ought to dress. Sometimes I wish I had the power to make you
adults have rules about your teenagers that I think you ought to have, but
all I can do is influence you. I have no power. Officially, I have one vote
in this church; that's all. I have no vote at deacon's meeting and one vote
as a member of this church. The only power I have is my vote and the power
of influence.

It was a good day for me when I decided that I was going to make my final
authority the Word of God. I was taught in Southern Baptist schools to
believe that the Southern Baptist program was it. One day I decided to just
read my Bible and reorganize my church. I did. I decided to get the book of
Acts and read it word for word to see what the New Testament church was all
about. I cast aside all the tradition I had been taught, all the jargon I
had been taught, all the catechisms to which I had been taught to swear
allegiance, and I decided I was going to try to find out what kind of
church the New Testament church really was.

Dr. Curtis Hutson gave the best compliment to First Baptist Church of
Hammond that has ever been given in the SWORD OF THE LORD. He said that he
was here for Pastors' School. He told how many conversions and baptisms we
had the Sunday before. Then he said, "If God were writing the book of Acts
today, He would write about the First Baptist Church of Hammond." That's
the ultimate compliment.

You see, I decided that I was going to get my Bible down and decide what I
thought the New Testament church was scripturally; then, that's what I was
going to have in my church. I believe with all of my soul that the First
Baptist Church of Hammond is as near as is humanly possible to being what
the church in Jerusalem was 2,000 years ago. Where did I get that? I got it
from the Bible. Do you know why we are scattered abroad winning souls all
over this area? It's because the church in Jerusalem was "scattered
abroad," and they "went every where preaching the word." (Acts 8:4) Do you
know why we go house to house, knocking on doors? We do it because it says
in Acts 5:42, "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not
to teach and preach Jesus Christ." We do it because that's what they did in
the Bible.

Somebody says, "Well, we have different kinds of churches. You have a
soul-winning church, and we have a deeper-life church." In the first place,
it's a lie. There's no life as deep as a soul-winning life. However, they
say, "We just have different kinds of churches." No, we don't. WE have a
church, and you don't! Brother, the Bible is our charter to exist. If the
Bible is not your final authority in practice and doctrine, then you are
not a church. You might have the word "church" on the outside, but you are
not a church.

Since the Word of God is our authority,-- hear me carefully-- we simply
must have it. That's a profound statement. We've got to have it! I mean,
shall we have an authority we can't find? Would God tell us His Word is the
final authority and leave us without His Word? We must have a copy or we
may as well join our Catholic friends and let the church be the basis for
truth. If we have no Word of God, and if the Bible is not the Word of God,
then we have only three other alternatives. We've got to say the final
authority will be the church, or human experience, or human reasoning.

I'm saying, if we have no Bible that is the Word of God, then we have no
way to go to the Book for the final authority. If one word in this Bible is
not true, we don't know which one it is; so, once again, the mind of man or
experience or the church is going to have to decide which one is true and
which one is not true. If we are going to believe that the Word of God is
the final authority, we've got to have a copy of it.

Let me ask you a question. Would God call a man to preach His Word and not
give it to him? God calls a man and says, "I'm calling you. Spend you life
preaching the Gospel. Preach the Word!" So, wouldn't He give him a copy of
His Word?

I've said this so often, and I'll say it again and again. I would step down
from behind this pulpit tonight and never walk in it again to preach if I
didn't have the Word of God in my hand. I would not waste your time nor
take your money unless I could say to you, "You have the Word of God. I
have it, and it is preached here." I'm an honest man. This is what I've
said before, and I'll say it again. If I did not believe that the Book I
hold in my hand tonight was God's Word, I'd find out where it was. I'd go
there and get a copy, print some copies for you and give you a copy. I
mean, brother, if we don't have the Word of God in our hands, we have no
place to go except to the human mind, human experience or the collective
human mind which is the church. God would not reach down and give a divine
call to a man and say, "I call you to preach My Word, but there is no copy
of it any more."

I don't like a statement of faith that says, "We believe the Bible is the
Word of God in the original manuscripts." In the first place, there are no
original manuscripts anywhere in the world tonight. None! If the Word of
God was only the original manuscripts, there is no Word of God available
for mankind today. If I did not believe the Bible I hold in my hand was the
Word of God, and I believed there were some manuscripts, I'd get on an
airplane, fly to where they were, break in the building if I had to, get
the original manuscripts, make copies of them and give you a copy. I'm not
going to stand here as an imposter preaching a Book that is not the Word of
God and giving you instructions on how to live from a Book that is not the
Word of God! I'm not going to do it! I'm just not going to do it!.

Would God tell His people to live by the Word and not give it to them? Let
me say this. Of all the nations on the face of this earth, America is the
center of world evangelization. America is the only hope for the world to
have the Gospel. Do you think that God would not give His Word to America?
The countries of this world look to America for missionaries. They look to
America for preachers. Every great movement of God in the world today was
founded by a ministry or movement that was propelled by American
evangelization. The mission movement was founded basically, by Hudson
Taylor. Now, wait a minute. Of all the nations on the face of this earth,
it just seems to me that God would give the key nation the Word of God.

Check the history of Christianity in America, and see how well we've done
without all these extra Bibles. Check the history of the church in America
from 1950 back, before every little preacher had the misfortune to sit at
the feet of a college theologian. Do you know what? We won't have people
who are just theologians teaching Bible at Hyles-Anderson College. Every
teacher of Bible at Hyles-Anderson College is a preacher. We won't hire a
theologian. No way! You say, "Are you opposed to theologians?" No, I'm just
leery and wary of them. I am wary of those who dare to sit in judgment on
the Bible. Brother, it seems to me if there is any place in the world where
you ought to have your faith in the Bible stabilized, it's a Christian
college or Christian seminary. However, the truth is, that's where you get
your faith shaken.

That's one reason why some things bother me. It bothers me when people say,
"We believe that the Bible, in the original manuscripts, is the Word of
God." If that's true, we have no Bible. Did you hear what I said? We have
no Bible. One day they did, but WE don't.

Dr. Ed Hindson of Liberty Baptist College said concerning I John 5:7,
"Thus, according to John's account here, 'there are three that bear record
in heaven.' The rest of verse 7 and the first nine words of verse 8 are not
in the original and are not to be considered as part of the Word of God."
I'd like to ask Mr. Hindson a question: "When did you see the original?"
How does he know they are not in the original? Look at me now. How does he
know? The only way an honest man can say they are not in the original
manuscripts is to have seen them, and they are not available. Now, he could
say they are not in some of the manuscripts that are considered the most
ancient. I personally think he was saying that they are not in the Wescott
and Hort. I can't prove that.

Before I get too rough on him, look at your Scofield Bible in I John 5:7,
the verse Dr. Hindson quoted. Folks, I have no axes to grind. I have
nobody's feelings to hurt. I've just got to have the Word of God; that's
all. I've got to have it! The Bible says the Word of God is what we are
supposed to preach. The Bible says, "Preach the Word."

Now, look at your Scofield Bible-- I John 5:7, "For there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these
three are one." Now look at that little "o" there in front of verse 7. Look
in the center reference, and find the "o". Mr. Scofield says, "It is
generally agreed that v. 7 has no real authority, and has been inserted."

I'd like to ask Mr. Scofield when he saw the original. He never saw it.
Somebody who thought he was intellectual told that to somebody who thought
he was intellectual who told somebody who thought he was intellectual.
Listen, we don't want the intellectual community to think of us as being
nincompoops, but I'd rather have a nincompoop with a revelation from God
than to have an intellectual without a revelation from God.

We've got to have a final authority! If this Book is not true, then the
church or human reasoning or human experience is the final authority.
Listen! There are only two-- God and man. If God is not the final
authority, man is the final authority. If we have no final authority in a
book, then man has got to discern what God says; if man discerns what God
says, then man becomes the final authority instead of God. So, Mr. Scofield
had problems the day he came to this verse. How does he know? Pray tell me,
what in the world he could have ever seen that would make him say that? He
didn't see anything. He sat in somebody's Bible class and some Dr.
Mess-'em-Up or Dr. McFuddle or Dr. Broad Stomach stood up and said, "Well,
in the original manuscript..." which sounds scholarly; but nobody in our
generation has seen them. Dr. So-and-So hasn't seen them, the professor in
the seminary hasn't seen them and the college Bible professor hasn't seen
them. Either what I hold in my hand is the Word of God, or we don't have
any Word of God. I don't believe God would leave us without His Word. I
don't believe that. I JUST DON'T BELIEVE IT!

We need a Bible that we can understand and a Bible that is God's Word. It
looks like anybody would agree that if God gives us the command to preach
the Word, He would give us the Word to preach. That's logical. If God wants
to say to a nation, "You are the custodian of world evangelization for a
generation or two or three or four," it looks like God would give that
nation the Word of God.

What is it? I would say it ought to be the one that has worked. Which one
has worked? The one I hold in my hand right now. I has worked! It will
work!

I'd like to say the same to our friends in the charismatic movement. You
say, "Why do you stress it?" I stress it because the charismatic crowd is
trying to teach our crowd every day that they've got something we don't
have. Tonight, before I walked into this pulpit, one of our fine ladies
came and told me of one of our men who has been swept aside. One of our
good faithful men has been swept aside by the charismatic crowd. As pastor
of this church, it is my job to warn you of wolves who are dressed like
sheep.

If we don't have a Bible that's the Word of God, we've got to go to human
reasoning. If God says to a church, "Build your church on My Word," God's
got to give us His Word. Listen, God wouldn't be God is He told us to do
something we couldn't do. Everything that God has ever commanded us to do,
He has given us the wherewithal to obey that commandment. God has never
commanded man to do anything that was unreasonable or impossible for man to
do. When God calls a man to preach and says, "Preach the Word," God would
have to give him a Word to preach. If God says to a church, "Build your
church on My Word," to be God, He's got to give that church the Word of
God.

Our Methodists seminaries say, "It's not verbally inspired." There was a
day when John Wesley started that movement. He said the Bible was inspired,
and they had the fire back in those days!

The Presbyterian seminaries say, "The Bible is not the Word of God," but
John Calvin believed it, and they had the fire! John Knox and others
believed it!

I'm saying that we've either go to admit this is the Word of God or we have
to flee to the church, or to human reasoning or human experience as being
the final authority. If there is no Word of God today, we have no other
recourse. If God has not given us His Word, we have to decide what is God's
Word. That's human reasoning.

By the way, basing a doctrine on human experience is idolatry. Basing a
doctrine on the church being the final authority is idolatry. The church is
the idol. Letting the pope speak ex cathedra and saying that it is God Who
is speaking is idolatry. You're making him as God.

Human reasoning says that what we can reason, we'll believe. That's
idolatry. So the truth is, you've got one choice of two. Either this Bible
is the Word of God or we have no other place to turn but to idolatry. Did
you hear me? Either this is the Word of God, or there is no place to turn
but idolatry. Our three choices are human reasoning, human experience or
the church, and they are each a form of idolatry. They are all three the
same because making the church the final authority is done so by human
reasoning. That means Catholicism is humanism, and the charismatic movement
is humanism. It is man saying, "I was there. I felt it. God spoke, and
here's what He said." That's human reasoning. It's humanism. So either this
is the Word of God, or there is nothing left but humanism.

I'll tell you this. To whatever degree this Book is not believed, that
society has the exact proportionate belief in humanism because there are
only two choices available: God and man. If God hasn't told us what to do,
man has got to tell us what to do. When a country does not believe this
Book, it is totally humanistic. When a country leans away from this Book,
it leans toward humanism. When a country is divided about this Book, it is
divided about humanism.

I just don't believe that God would say, "Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature," (Mark 16:15) and not give us His Word
to take with us. I just don't believe that God would say, "Train up a child
in the way he should go," (Proverbs 22:6) and write the words of God "upon
the door posts of thine house," (Deuteronomy 11:20) and "teach them your
children," (Deuteronomy 11:19) unless there were a Word of God.

I don't think God would say, "Start a Bible college. Send out young men to
proclaim the truth," unless God had given us the truth. I just don't
believe that God would send young men to the mission fields without the
Word of God. I don't think God would send Rick Martin halfway around the
world to proclaim His Word without giving him a copy of it. I don't think
God would send young men out from this church to build soul-winning
churches without giving them His Word.

With all of my soul, I believe that the final authority for faith and
practice for a church and for a life is the Word of God. I do not believe
that I'm the final authority; nor the bishops or the cardinals-- nor are
the Cubs or the White Sox!

Not long ago, then there was no pope, a fellow said, "I think Ernie Banks
ought to be the next pope." "Why?" "Well, the Cardinals have had it long
enough. It's time the Cubs got to have a pope!"

I'm not the final authority. "El papa" is not the final authority. He can
wave his magic wand all he wants to. He can rustle his skirts all over the
country. I'm simply saying, the Bible is the final authority, not man. I
don't care what he is called, it is not man!

You say, "You're criticizing the pope." Whatever I've said about pope, I've
said about me. FIRST I said, I'M NOT the final authority. THEN I said,
"HE'S NOT the final authority." So our people have as much right to get mad
as you Catholics do. Mr. Oral Roberts is not the final authority. The Bible
is the final authority. I just don't believe God would leave us down here
without a copy of His Word.

How can we know which is the real Bible? Well, you can scratch off the
Revised Standard Version because the liberals put that one together. You
can scratch off any Bible that came from Wescott and Hort because that
comes from the Vatican manuscripts. I'd suggest you find the one that has
worked.

Find the one that widows have read; find the one over which they've wept
and prayed for their children. Find the one that dear mothers in the
history of our country have read, loved and taught. Find the one for which
faithful evangelists have given their lives and for which missionaries have
circled the globe. Find the one that has caused people to leave home,
family and friends to carry its message. Find it! Find the one Dwight Moody
used. Find out which one Billy Sunday used. Find the one the great
soul-winning churches in America use.

Find the one tested by time. Find the one that Adolph Hitler said he would
destroy, but couldn't! Find the one about which Thomas Paine spoke when he
said, "Within one generation, the Bible will not be printed anymore."
However, as soon as he died, the same printing press on which he printed
that garbage was used to print more Bibles. Find the one they can't
destroy. Find the one that has stood the test of time. Find the one that
liberals have tried to destroy, Hitlers have tried to burn, Mussolinis have
tried to outlaw and Khrushchevs and Stalins have tried to burn! Find it!
The Bible says, "My words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35) Find the
one that has stood the test of time!

Don't find one that has a hippie on the outside of it and bunch of hippie
jargon on the inside of it. Find the one that has stood the test of time!
You say, "I don't understand those 'thees' and 'thous.'" "Thee" means
"you." "Thou" means "you." "I" means "me." "We" means "us." You know it,
and you know you know it! Not only that, but the Holy Spirit of God lives
inside of you, and He's the author of this Book. If you can't understand a
part of it, ask Him to teach you, and He will do it. He wrote it! We've got
to have a Bible! We have got to have a Bible!

You say, "Boy, that's right. I'll tell you what, I believe it from cover to
cover." Try OPENING the covers. "Boy, I believe every word of it." QUOTE a
few of them! If we had Scripture quoting tonight, we've got Sunday school
teachers here who know only, "Jesus wept," and if somebody said that verse
before your turn came, you'd say, "He got mine." Read it! Memorize it!
Study it! Love it! Teach it! Preach it! Live in it! It's the Word of God!
You can depend on it.

Every jot and every tittle shall come to pass. Not one comma and not one
punctuation mark shall pass away. Matthew 5:18, "For verily I say unto you,
Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." I checked those words,
"pass away," a little bit; a synonym for that phrase would be, "My word
will always be alive." There never will be a day when somebody says,
"Beloved, we are gathered here in the presence of 'Gawd' and these
witnesses to remember the word of 'Gawd' that died." We never will! It will
always be there. It always will.

I can't believe that God would give us a great commission and tell us to
teach it, preach it and spread it, and not give us the truth to teach and
preach and spread.

Let us pray.

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