in chapter 6. Gospel of John chapter 6. I'd like to speak to you today about the living word of God, the Bible. I'd like to ask you a question.
Do you read the Bible? Do you read the Bible? Is it your daily habit to sit down and shut everything else off and read the Bible? It's a busy world we live in.
There's crazy and intense distractions and challenges and noise that is all around us. My question to you today is, do you read the Bible? Do you sit down and let the words of Holy Scripture sink into your heart to let the Word of God search you? Here's another question.
How much do you value the Word of God? Do you know that it costs some men their lives for you and I today to hold an English translation of the Bible in our hand? It costs some men their lives. Let's read in John chapter 6 and we're going to read verse 63.
It is the spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. If you're reading an ESV it says, the flesh is no help at all. It is the spirit that gives life and then he says this.
Notice this phrase. The words, the words that I have spoken unto you, they are spirit. They are life. The words that I have spoken unto you, they are spirit.
They are life. John chapter 8 and verse 31. Jesus spoke these words unto the Jews who had believed on him. If you continue in my Word, if you continue in my Word then you are truly my disciples.
Then you are my disciples indeed. And if you continue in the Word of God you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. The truth will set you free. Verse 26.
If the Son therefore shall make you free you will be free indeed. Turn over to 2 Timothy and chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and reading at verse 1. Therefore my Son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses the same commit to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Chapter 3 of 2 Timothy. Verse 13. This is here.
This is now. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 13. Evil men, evil men and seducers will become worse and worse deceiving and being deceived. But continue.
We are going to look at that word. Continue. Remain. Abide.
Dwell. Continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of or most certainly believed knowing of whom you have learned them. From a child you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. Now notice verse 16.
All scripture is God breathed. That's what it means. The very source of the word of God the Bible that you hold in your hand is God breathed. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect or mature or thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 23. Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible seed by the word of God which liveth and abides remains for how long?
Forever. For all flesh is like grass. Verse 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever. He was chapter 4 verse 12.
For the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow. The word of God goes deep, deep. And it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Revelation chapter 20 and verse 11.
And I saw a great white throne and the one who sat upon it from his face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them. Heaven and earth at this point are gone. And the dead, the dead small and great are standing before God. What is there left there and the books are opened?
And another book was opened which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to the works. I'd like to speak to you today about the living word of God. I really like to make three points that I think the scriptures that I have read brought out very clearly.
I'd like to speak to you about the word of God and its power, its authority. If we could just grasp today that the words that are written in this book are God breathed and they are alive. God is not dead and the word of God is not dead. It's alive.
Jesus said in Matthew 24 and verse 35, everything around you that you see will disappear and earth will pass away. But my words will never pass away. In Revelation chapter 20 we see that scene after a thousand years have passed and the dead that knew not God obeyed not the gospel, rejected Christianity in Christ and the words of God are in hell. And after a thousand years they are raised up to stand before God and to be judged by what standard?
By the living word of God. Jesus said these words, the words that I speak unto you, they will judge men in the last day. The Bible is a book that has come from God, it is living, it is powerful, it has authority. I want to speak to you about its preservation.
Do you know that in many generations that have passed? Men have tried to destroy it. Churches and religions have distorted it. People have tried to change it and adulterate it but it stands.
It stands forever. It has been preserved and it will. I want to speak to you today about the permanence of the word of God. It stands forever and it will never pass away.
In John chapter 6 we read those words in verse 63, Jesus said to those who believed on him and those that were in that daughter company, he said the words, the words that I speak unto you are spirit. They are life. Jesus said in John chapter 8 in verse 31, if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed. And you will know the truth.
If there's ever a day when we as believers need to know the truth surely it is today because in the last days evil men and seducers will become worse and worse and we're living in a generation that is just characterized by 2 Timothy chapter 3 the last days. And so I ask you today, do you read this book? Do you let it search your heart? Do you sit down before God and say speak to me through the living eternal vital word of God?
That's my burden today. You know that this word continue. I know it's this. There's a very strong connection between the word continue and the word of God.
This word continue in the original Greek of the New Testament, is in your New Testament 120 times. And here's the way it's translated, abide, remain 12, endure, and take as your own. It's a very same word that Jesus said 12 times in John 15, except you abide, remain, continue, dwell in me. You will not be able to bear fruit.
Except you continue. If my words abide in you, you will ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. This word continue is strongly connected to the truth of God in God's word. In 2 Timothy chapter 2 in verse 2 Paul is writing his last letter to his protege and he's saying, Timothy, I'm in prison, I'm going to be executed, my days are numbered and they're short.
And you are the next generation and I'm making a deposit of divine truth to you. And he says to him, he says the things that you have heard and learned, the same commit unto faithful men who will be able to commit to others also. So let me ask this question in church. Are we raising a generation of people that know the word of God?
Or are we raising a generation of people that are distracted and entertained by church? Paul says, take the truth of God and lay it alongside of the next generation. Build that foundation and make sure that when he knows the children, the young men, the young women, the next generation, know the truth of God and they buy it and they sell it not. Have you heard, learned, memorized, and put into practice the word of God?
Have you taught it to your children? Do you read it in your home? Does it hang on the wall in your living room? Do you recite it daily?
The same commit to faithful men who will be able to pass it on to others. When I come to 1 Peter chapter 1, I realize why the word of God is so powerful and so vital because we are changed. We have eternal life. We are born again by the incorruptible word of God.
You see, there's something that actually happens inside person. When they hear the word of God, they receive it and they believe it. There is a spiritual germination that the seed is planted in the hearth and it changes you. You know, if I didn't believe that, I would not have spent the last 15 years of my life on the street giving out tracks and preaching the word of God.
I am absolutely convinced that this book is the God breathed words of the living God that lives and abides forever. We put it on a card. We handed out to hundreds of people and they throw it away. They discard it and someone else picks it up and it lives forever.
It will never return, void, or empty. We will always accomplish what God purposes it to accomplish. I want to speak to you today about its source. It came from God.
You know, the scripture says that holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Spirit to write the words of God. These are not the opinions of men. The gospel is not some type of religious fabricated dogma or theory that some men have made up. These are the words of the living God.
He is the source. The word of God is powerful because it gives light. And you don't live in? We live in a world of darkness.
The word of God gives light. Psalm 119 says, your word is a lamp unto my feet. It shows me where I am. And it's a light unto my path.
It shows me where I'm going. The word of God is powerful because it offers eternal life to everyone who believes it. The source of anything in this world could give you one moment after you die. Nothing.
But the word of God offers you eternal life. Let me quote what it says in Matthew in John chapter 5 and 24. Jesus said these words, whoever hears my word and believes him that sent me has ever lasting life and will not come in to judgment what is passed from death unto life. The word of God is powerful because it offers to you eternal life.
If you read it and you believe it. The word of God is powerful because it convicts the heart. I don't know if you've ever been convicted by the word of God, but I have. I don't know if you've ever done anything in your life and you thought it was hidden.
Or you thought nobody else knew. And then one day you pick up the Bible and you read something and it strikes a chord in your heart. Why is that? Because Hebrews chapter 4 says, the word of God is living.
It is powerful. It is sharp and it convicts the soul. And if you've ever been convicted by the word of God, you thank God for that. Because if you're living a life of positive perpetual sin and you've never been convicted about it, you're in a story state.
It's the word of God that gives you a warning light. Stop pursuing sin and death and how it will end in destruction. The word of God is like a sword that pierces the soul and it pierces the conscience. You know what it says in Romans chapter 2 and probably about verse 15.
It says, even the Gentiles who knew not God have the words of the law of God written on their heart. That's what God has done for humanity. The word of God is a powerful source. You know what else it does for a believer?
It feeds the soul. And you don't have to live very long in this life until you feel empty and wasted from living in the flesh. But when you sit down and you open up the living word of God, it will feed your soul. It will satisfy you like nothing else in this world can satisfy you.
It feeds the soul. You know what else it does? It provides comfort and security. They've been with those beautiful words.
We don't know when. Maybe when he was a fugitive living in the caves of the desert of Judea hunted by the king who was bent on killing him. He wrote those beautiful words. The Lord is my shepherd.
I will not want. He restores my soul. He leads me beside still waters. Yay.
They'll walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
You know, when you're passing through the valley, you have nothing. You can have the scriptures. Let me make this point. If you're healthy and well today and you're living your life without God and without the scriptures, do you think that at the moment that you come to death and you're going to pass through that valley, you're going to get some comfort from the scriptures.
It's one thing to live without God. It's another thing to die without God. If you are walking today and living your life enjoying fellowship with God, when you come to the end of life's journey, you will have the comfort of the Word of God, the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and you will pass through the valley in the presence of God. What would you like your deathbed to be like?
What of grief and regret? What of sorrow and remorse or one of comfort and fellowship with God as you pass through that valley? I want to speak to you about the preservation of scripture. And I'd really like to tell you a story today.
I've got 15 minutes. I'd like to tell you the story because I think it's quite remarkable. Over the centuries, the Bible has been banned. It has been burned.
It has been bought so that it could be destroyed and many copies of the Bible have been destroyed. But it's never been stamped out. The truth lives on forever. It's etched on the hearts and consciences of all mankind.
I want to speak to you today about how we got our English Bible. How many people I'd ever heard of the man named William Tyndale. Good. Some people have.
William Tyndale was born in 1494 and he was burned at the stake as a martyr for Christ in 1536. He lived 42 years. William Tyndale was born into a home of means. It was fortunate enough to be educated at Oxford and then Cambridge.
He became fluent in eight different languages. 100% fluent English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Completely fluent in eight languages. He was a scholar.
God touched that young man's heart and he had a passion to give his life for God. In the 1500s, the state controlled the church. The church was controlled by Rome. There was an Echrystica, a group of people that really controlled the church.
The Bible in that day was only written in Latin. What the Roman Catholic Church had done is they had changed certain things in it to sit their doctrine. One thing that that version of the Bible was translated, they changed the word repentance to penance. I think we heard about repentance last week.
The Roman Catholic Church, early on, wanted to remove the word of repentance and they wanted to replace it with penance so that they could teach their doctrine of purgatory and control the people and the funds. In Roman Tyndale had a passion and his life's desire was that he would translate the Bible from its original Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic into English with a good version of the Bible so that the common person could have the word of God in his own language. It was illegal. It was illegal in that day to translate the Bible into English.
And the king had a law and it was severely punishable if someone pursued translating the Latin Bible which was Vulgate and controlled by the priests of Rome to be able to hold the people in bondage. The common person didn't know Latin, couldn't read the scripture in his own language and so all he had to do was go to church and hear what the priests had to tell him. He was in bondage. William Tyndale met with the clergy men and the bishops, those that controlled the church and he asked permission to translate the Bible into English and he was not granted permission.
They told him, William is illegal and no one will translate the Bible into English. And just so I get it right, I'm going to share with you what he said. He said, we need God's law and they said we would be better to have the Pope without God's law. And Tyndale told these men he said, if God spares my life within a few years, I will translate the Bible into English so that every common person has an English Bible at his disposal and a plowboy in a field will be able to know the scripture and read it in his own language.
And they said to him, you will do it on the peril of your own life. From that day forward, William Tyndale became a fugitive and he crossed the English channel and he went over to Belgium and Germany and his life's pursuit was to take the original Greek and the original Hebrew and the Aramaic and translate it into English and he worked undercover for years. He went from house to house. He spent nine months in a rented room of a widow's house translating the scriptures.
And he got to the point where he had the New Testament translated and he took it to the printing for us and it was printed and there were thousands of New Testaments in the English language. And then he figured, how can we get this into England? And they actually put it in bundles of clothes and sacks of grain and they smuggled it into England and it was discovered that the Bible was alive and well in English in England. And those that were in control gathered up all the Bibles and they had a meeting and they said, go to the printing press and buy all the Bibles that you can and bring them here.
And they went and they purchased all the Bibles that they could and they gave the money to the printer and then they destroyed all the Bibles. But there was three times the amount of money given to the printer so that they could print thousands more Bibles. And when Tyndall worked 12 hours a day for nine months in his room translating the Old Testament scriptures and he had the Pentateuch completely translated and then one day they came to wait his house and he gathered up all that he could with all his work for nine months and ran and got on a ship and started to cross the English channel and the ship was shipwrecked and he lost all the translation of the first five books of the Old Testament that he had worked 12 hours a day for nine months. He sat on the shore and he wept.
He went back and he started over and he spent another year translating the Old Testament scriptures back into English. The end of the story is very interesting because they're on the hunt for William Tyndall and they found how can we trap him? How can we find this man and put him in prison? And William Tyndall had somewhere of a friend called Henry Phillips and betrayed him.
They went to Henry and they said just not unlike the good with Judas. We would pay you whatever it takes, go trap William Tyndall. And William Tyndall was lured out of his place of residence by Henry Phillips and they captured him and they brought him to a prison castle just outside of Brussels. He never visited England again.
He never saw the outside of that prison. But he got someone to bring him all of his material and he finished the translation of the Old Testament and the New Testament in that prison cell and he witnessed to the prison guard who evidently got saved and his family. And on October 6th 1536 they brought William Tyndall out. They taught him to the stake and they said will you recant?
All you have done in your faithfulness to God and descriptors and he said I will not recant. And they strangled him and they burnt him at the stake and his final words were oh God open the eyes of the king that he may see. William Tyndall died so that you and I can have the translation of the English Bible in our hand today. And you know what happens?
It sits on the shelf Monday to Saturday and you come to church on a Sunday and you open it. There's a lot of lessons to take away from this. If this is the living word of God and if it offers eternal life by believing it and if Jesus Christ God's only son died on the cross so that you and I and an entire world of sinners could be forgiven. And if some 8 billion people on this planet today have souls that will live for eternity and the most of them are perishing then I ask myself today why do I spend 80% of my life in things that are frivolous?
Things that are for time and sense. Can I inspire you today? Read your Bible. It's God breathed.
It's living. It's powerful. It will direct your life. It will comfort you.
It will guide you. It will lead you. Read your Bible. Lesson number two committed to memory.
There may come a time when Bibles will be confiscated. We are living in a country that is passing laws to make this book hate speech. That's the country we live in. And so when it says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 that in the last days evil men and seducers were waxed worse and worse it's here.
It's now we're living it. Commit the Bible to memory read it. obey it. Follow it.
Stand upon it in principle. Can I tell you this mom's the dad's? Read it to your children. Teach your children the scriptures.
From a child you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation. Put it on your walls. Put it on your dashboard. Put it in your office.
Share it. Spread it. Distribute it. It will never come back void.
So as you go away today and the next time you pick up the Word of God think about this. There were men that gave their lives died at the stake so that we can have an English Bible in our hands. That was all in the sovereign control of God. This book is God Breathe.
It's living. It's vital truth. It will feed your soul. It will comfort your hearts and it will judge men in the last day.
The living Word of God. Let's pray. Father we thank you today for the scriptures. We thank you Lord that you have put the plan of God together in such a way that holy men of God were moved to be able to write the God breathe inspired Word of God so that we can have it in our hand today.
Father we just pray that you would help us. We live in a dark day and evil day with so much destruction. I just pray O God that you would help us to be encouraged and built up and to walk with you and stand for principle the Word of God. Bless our families.
Bless this church. Watch over us today and help us Lord to live close to you and follow you. We love you and we thank you for the gospel and pray that you would help us to distribute it and to be witnesses for Christ until our last step is taken. We love you and we commit our days to you and ask you to bless us and our families as we part in Jesus name.
Amen.