March 16th, 2025

Summary

The sermon from the Central Church of Christ in Cleveland, TN, focused on understanding the canon of scripture, tackling misconceptions about how the Bible was compiled. It addressed the uniqueness and divine inspiration of the Bible amidst debates over apocryphal books and ancient writings like the Gnostic Gospels. The preacher emphasized that the Bible's composition was not a random selection by councils but a divinely guided process. Highlighting key elements of faith, the sermon encouraged Christians to thoughtfully engage with the Bible, recognize its life-giving power, and understand its role as God's revealed word to humanity.

Highlights

• The sermon addressed misconceptions about how the Bible's canon was formed. 🤔
• Discussion on the unique aspects of the Bible and its divine inspiration. ✨
• Explanation of ancient texts like the Gnostic Gospels and Apocrypha that are not included in the Protestant Bible. 📜
• Emphasis on how the Bible brings life and purpose through God's word. 💡
• Historical context of the Bible, showing consistency and truth preserved over centuries. 📚

Key Takeaways

• The Bible is divinely inspired and not a product of random selection by councils. 📖
• Misconceptions exist about the Apocrypha and other ancient texts like the Gnostic Gospels. 📰
• Understanding the canon involves recognizing the Bible as God's word, preserved through history. 🕰️
• Faith in the Bible should be informed and not blind, understanding its life-giving power. 🌟
• The Bible's accuracy and authority have been historically validated, confirming its divine origin. 🔍

Overview

The sermon from Central Church of Christ dives deep into the canon of scripture, dispelling myths about its compilation. Despite common beliefs, the sermon asserts that the Bible did not originate from arbitrary decisions by ancient councils. Instead, it was a divinely orchestrated process ensuring the preservation of God's word.

Misunderstandings surrounding the Apocrypha and Gnostic Gospels are addressed, with emphasis placed on their exclusion from the Protestant Bible. The preacher clarifies why these texts, despite their historical value, do not hold the same divine inspiration or authority as the recognized scriptures.

Listeners are encouraged to view the Bible not just as a historic document but as a source of life and divine guidance. By understanding the Bible's unique and consistent message, Christians can strengthen their faith and appreciation of this sacred text, knowing it to be the true revelation from God.

Chapters

• 03:30 - 07:00: Introduction and Greetings This chapter titled 'Introduction and Greetings' likely serves as an opening section that sets the tone for the book. Since there is no specific content provided in the transcript, one can assume it highlights the main themes and introduces the reader to the subject matter, possibly establishing the intent of the author and addressing the audience directly.
• 07:00 - 17:30: Announcements "Announcements" - The chapter opens with various announcements pertinent to the ongoing narrative. These include updates on past events, introductions to upcoming segments, and important reminders for the characters involved. Additionally, insights into the broader context of the story are provided, preparing the reader for developments in subsequent chapters. Specific details may include personal achievements, organizational changes, and notices related to overarching themes in the book.
• 17:30 - 23:00: Scripture Reading and Prayer The chapter titled "Scripture Reading and Prayer" discusses the importance of incorporating scripture reading into daily life as a spiritual practice that enhances personal faith and understanding of religious teachings. The chapter emphasizes how regular engagement with scripture can provide guidance, inspiration, and wisdom essential for personal growth.
• 23:00 - 34:00: Song Introduction and Singing The chapter titled 'Song Introduction and Singing' likely introduces the theme or subject of a particular song. The transcript provided is very brief and contains only '[Music]', indicating that the content might include an instrumental or vocal introduction to a song, possibly setting the tone or mood before the lyrics begin. Due to the lack of detailed information, it's unclear what specific elements are covered, but it suggests an auditory experience centered around music.
• 34:00 - 55:00: Sermon: Understanding the Bible Canon This chapter, titled 'Sermon: Understanding the Bible Canon', seems to be focused on a transcript of a sermon that discusses the Bible's canon. Unfortunately, the transcript provided here is incomplete, showing only the word 'for' repeated, which doesn't give enough information to provide a meaningful summary. However, one could infer that the chapter likely covers topics related to how the books of the Bible were selected and possibly the historical context and theological significance of the canonization process in biblical literature.
• 55:00 - 70:00: Closing Prayer and Song The chapter titled 'Closing Prayer and Song' likely encapsulates the final segment of a book where the focus shifts to offering a concluding prayer followed by a song. This chapter may aim to bring a sense of closure, reflection, and spiritual harmony to the readers. The specific content of the prayer and song would provide insight into the themes addressed throughout the book, emphasizing gratitude, reflection, and the hope for blessings going forward. It might encourage readers to internalize the message conveyed and leave them with a lasting impression of the book's core teachings.
• 70:00 - 90:00: Communion and Offering "Communion and Offering" begins with an applause, setting a reverent and anticipated atmosphere for the themes of spiritual offerings and communal gatherings that are likely explored in this chapter.
• 90:00 - 100:00: Final Song and Closing Prayer The chapter titled 'Final Song and Closing Prayer' possibly concludes the book or a section within it, where there might be a culmination or wrap-up of the themes discussed throughout. Although the transcript only includes the word 'good', it indicates perhaps a positive or fulfilling end through song and prayer. Typically, such chapters involve a final address to the reader or audience, sometimes with reflective elements or calls for unity and peace through the prayer. It also likely sets a tone of conclusion or farewell.

March 16th, 2025 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 e
• 00:30 - 01:00 e
• 01:00 - 01:30 e
• 01:30 - 02:00 [Music]
• 02:00 - 02:30 for for
• 02:30 - 03:00 for
• 03:00 - 03:30 [Applause]
• 03:30 - 04:00 good
• 04:00 - 04:30 morning good to hear all the good
• 04:30 - 05:00 Fellowship going on this morning but
• 05:00 - 05:30 it's time we get started a few
• 05:30 - 06:00 announcements before we do get started uh if you're visiting with us we certainly want you to know that we're glad that you're here and we want you to come back and be with us at every opportunity that you might have there's
• 06:00 - 06:30 a visitors card or should be in the Pew in front of you you can either fill that out or scan the QR code and that way we'll have a record of your attendance it's a girl a baby shower for Cole and Nicole batty Sunday March 23rd and it's a boy baby shower for justice and Abby Blair on Sunday April 13th and a gift card wedding shower for Trevor cart ride and Drew West so those
• 06:30 - 07:00 are activities that are coming up so make plans to be uh a part of that also congratulations to Kayla and Michael Wong glinton on the birth of Gideon Michael on March 13th he weighed 8 lb 12 O was 20 in long congratulations to Big Brother es Ezra and attacus also Classics Market calendars for April the 1st uh there'll be a tricky Tuesday
• 07:00 - 07:30 and uh you'll have to check with Ronnie and Rebecca on what kind of tricky Tuesday we're looking at but it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun but there is a signup sheet uh in the forer so ladies and gentlemen be sure to sign up for that clothing giveaway um March 30th uh Angela AR is home recovering from knee surgery uh let's keep her in our prayers also uh Pam gaham was
• 07:30 - 08:00 requesting prayers for her dad John deck he's recovering from hand surgery and I saw John earlier in the week and uh he was doing doing real well uh Christie McCracken uh fell and broke her tibia and she's waiting on an MRI for that so let's remember Christian she's in a lot of prayer I mean a lot of pain and probably needs a lot of prayer and we Rejoice with uh Dennis and Misty Daniel they came forward last
• 08:00 - 08:30 Sunday uh had been gone for a while and we're glad to see them back just about in their regular spot there in the auditorium so we're glad to have you guys back with us uh there are others on our prayer list uh I won't go through all of those uh you can make notes of them there but uh any other announcements we need to make before Tom comes and leads us in scripture and prayer if not please stand and remain standing after scripture and prayer for our first
• 08:30 - 09:00 Pongal our scripture reading comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and it's verses 37 and 38 so let's uh listen closely here if anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or or spiritual let him
• 09:00 - 09:30 acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the Commandments of the Lord but if anyone is ignorant let him be ignorant uh the prayer uh I think a lot about the importance of prayer and you know what is prayer a little bit but basically
• 09:30 - 10:00 that's our Communications with God and you know scripture tells us that out of the heart comes what we are so when we pray you know we're talking to God and most of us have had the experience of maybe meeting some very important individual maybe a a corporate manager or a political person or something and how we might shiver in our boots a little bit as how important it
• 10:00 - 10:30 is well I think prayer is that important that's each one of us communing to God and of course we know that God looks in our heart and he knows what's there regardless of what we spit out so as we do the prayer let's keep these things in mind please we'll have just a a few seconds of Silence so we can get our mind set in in the proper fashion thank God
• 10:30 - 11:00 dear heavenly father and Heaven All powerful all knowing and provider of Grace to us we're thankful for the church with Christ is head that's going to last forever and we're thankful for the Bible that tells us how to live our
• 11:00 - 11:30 lives and obtain Eternal good life in heaven we're thankful you know for the many physical Comforts and spiritual blessings that are provided to us we're thankful for this Central congregation we're thankful for the elders the ministers the deacons the teachers the staff and the members all uh work hard we're thankful for our freedom to worship in this country that
• 11:30 - 12:00 we have we're thankful for the creation of the world and the beauty of the world especially in this uh spring season and especially this beautiful day today we lord we ask you to help us with things help us to forgive others so we can be forgiven help us to avoid evil and always pursue righteousness help us to walk away from temptation
• 12:00 - 12:30 help us to love one another as you have loved us and help us to grow in knowledge and to always walk in the light these things we pray for we pray for help with all the sick and the struggling in our Brotherhood and with our friends we pray for your blessings on all of our church leadership and staff we play pray for our political leaders both National local and the world that evil can be suppressed and goodness
• 12:30 - 13:00 can grow we pray for all the people that have been affected by the storms and the political turmoil and and other things we pray for all the ones that take the gospel throughout the world we pray that our worship is pleasing to you this we ask you with humble and contrite hearts and these things we do ask in Jesus name
• 13:00 - 13:30 amen [Music] I
• 13:30 - 14:00 [Music] wor please be seated
• 14:00 - 14:30 [Music] [Music] redemer and the of res the soul
• 14:30 - 15:00 of com we to embrace [Music] you [Music] lessly lost our way you are the one that we
• 15:00 - 15:30 praise you are the one [Music] we hearts always [Music] H our hearts always [Music] Hy INF [Music]
• 15:30 - 16:00 father our weakness you find us falling your falling your you are the one that we pra
• 16:00 - 16:30 [Music] hearts always H oh our [Music] hearts you are PR [Music]
• 16:30 - 17:00 [Music] hearts [Music] hearts is one that we've sung a few times but it's been a minute so we're going to talk about it for a minute so this is a beautiful song called
• 17:00 - 17:30 exalted um it has some back and forth to it and the ladies start uh and so the ladies come in and you can see the guys come in on the word scen but it's on the last word of the ladies the word world so guys you got to be ready to jump in there don't wait for the ladies to sing world and then sing scene you got to jump on it right because I'm I'm singing leads I'm singing with the ladies so you got to jump on it and don't be bashful
• 17:30 - 18:00 if you remember this song sing out it's really beautiful when it comes together no [Music]
• 18:00 - 18:30 all the Earth ex sing with BL [Music]
• 18:30 - 19:00 the [Music] cross of God
• 19:00 - 19:30 to [Music] take Son of God [Music]
• 19:30 - 20:00 anywhere Jesus I anywhere in
• 20:00 - 20:30 [Music] worldwhere anywhere amwh I can Anywhere With Jesus over land and
• 20:30 - 21:00 sea SS in darkness salv [Music] freeus anywhere I can anywhere
• 21:00 - 21:30 [Music] shus will be home sweet anywhere
• 21:30 - 22:00 anywhere I anywhere please stand for our next [Applause] song um if you have children aged three through first grade uh they can now be dismissed to kids connect so if you'll
• 22:00 - 22:30 if you have kids three to first grade they can exit out the back of the auditorium kind of head in a leftward direction and somebody will be there to take them from you for a little while but you have to come get them back wonderful Words of Life sing them over again to wonderful words of [Music]
• 22:30 - 23:00 of and Beauty me [Music] and wonderful of words wonderful words wonderful words of
• 23:00 - 23:30 [Music] andace to all wonderful of Jesus sanif forever beautiful wonderful words wonderful words
• 23:30 - 24:00 of beautiful wonderful wonderful [Music] of good morning good to see I love you thank you so much for being here if
• 24:00 - 24:30 you're visiting with us thank you for choosing Central to worship with us this morning have you ever heard of Muhammad Ali okay the boxer right have you heard of the shepherd Muhammad Ali probably not have you all right well he was the original the original Muhammad Ali it was back in 1945 that him and his brother were out digging and they're out digging near the edge of a cliff and they're probably looking for fertile soil for their for
• 24:30 - 25:00 their crops and for their their planting and and as they were digging they hit something hard something different sounded different than anything they had hit before now we know that if you're digging in the dirt and you hit something there's a sense of Amazement right sense of wonder especially when you hit something vast and you hit something you know that that's different than anything that you've ever heard before and that's what happened to Muhammad and his brother they lived
• 25:00 - 25:30 in a little town in Egypt and again as they were digging one day they came across something they had found in the ground and they began to dig and dig and they found these these boxes if you will or these these clay jars and as Muhammad was getting ready to bash one of them open because he's thinking hey there's gold there's Jewels our life is going to change forever and he's getting ready to to bash it open him and his brother began this argument this dispute CU his brother stopped him
• 25:30 - 26:00 and he says no no no no don't do that because if you break it open there might be a evil genie in there and he's going to come out and he's going to do something bad I mean that was a a legitimate argument that they had in 1945 that there is this evil Genie was going to come out well after the debate and the argument happened for some time they eventually settled on let's get this thing open and let's see what it is because our life could be changed forever so they did and they didn't find Jewels they didn't find gold they didn't find silver
• 26:00 - 26:30 what they found were 13 codices that's the plural for codex which are an ancient books and ancient manuscripts and in those 13 Cotes it contained 52 individual writings now if you dig up a bunch of old books like this you're probably not going to be very interested in that I don't think most of us would right we want Jewels we want gold we want silver and all this other cool thing and so they did probably probably what we would
• 26:30 - 27:00 do and they just sort of got rid of them sold them on the Antiquities Market what they didn't know is that what they had found would be one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in the modern world he didn't realize that they had discovered what later became known as the Gnostic Gospels the Gnostic Gospels are a collection of writings that told some of most of most of them probably told a lot of different stories
• 27:00 - 27:30 about Jesus stories that were not included in our four gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John they also included the Gospel of Thomas the gospel of Phillip the gospel of Peter the Gospel of Mary the gospel of the Egyptians the Gospel of Truth on September 19th 2012 Professor Karen King at the Harvard Divinity School unveiled a papous fragment with a Coptic text that read Jesus said to them
• 27:30 - 28:00 my wife in the novel The D Vinci Code a Harvard Professor uncovers The Dark Secret that Jesus was actually married and Jesus had children and it was of course discovered that none of these were true they were all forgeries the what this lady had discovered and what the D Vinci Code had said then you've got the Apocrypha the Apocrypha is a collection of Jewish writings it's about 13 books in all you
• 28:00 - 28:30 have like the Book of Esther and the you know macbes 1 2 3 4 mccabes you've got Psalm 151 right so I believe there was another Psalm right after the 150 and uh you've got a bunch of different text and all of this was supposedly written between the inner Testament period the 400 years of Silence from Malachi to Matthew all of these apocryphal writings were were written then and whether these books were considered divinely inspired or a or authoritative get that out is still
• 28:30 - 29:00 debated even today because you have a lot like the Roman Catholic church or the Greek Orthodox Church they all believe in others they all believe that these should be a part of the cannon so if you have a Roman Catholic Bible all of these apocryphal books are going to be in there and if you have a Protestant Bible which is what I would say all of us have you're not going to have the Apocrypha it's not going to be included so again there's always been this debate of are they supposed to be a part of the canyon
• 29:00 - 29:30 or are they not supposed to be a part of the canyon and one of the reasons one of many reasons why your Protestant Bibles do not have the Apocrypha in them is because of all the the sort of Roman Catholic perceptions that are included in the Apocrypha and so while we can use the Apocrypha for a lot of historical facts and we do right the the heniz crisis the the maban Revolt we use a lot to study about history it also has many problems number one one Jesus and the New
• 29:30 - 30:00 Testament writers never mentioned them they were never brought up in their writings so they never directly quote it um the books themselves do not claim inspiration they do not claim to be from God and the biggest and most important reason is that uh many of the books contain a vast number of Errors when compared to the Old Testament writings and the New Testament writings now you may or may not have heard of those and it really doesn't matter I really don't suggest reading
• 30:00 - 30:30 them because it's it's a lot of strange language and a lot of strange ideas and uh you're going to notice they they differ radically from Matthew Mark Luke and John I I'll give you one in particular the gospel of Peter now in all four of our accounts we don't have necessarily um anyone seeing the actual resurrection of Jesus no one is actually seeing Jesus come out of the Tomb but in the gospel of Peter we have that right whoever wrote the Gospel of Peter
• 30:30 - 31:00 Peter didn't write it but whoever wrote the Gospel of Peter has someone seen Jesus come from the tomb and get this it's a 60ft tall Jesus it's a giant Jesus okay and and guess what comes behind Jesus a cross just as tall as he is and get this the cross is floating so you've got 60ft giant Jesus you've got a giant cross the cross is floating and this is where it gets really crazy the cross actually talks that's in the gospel of Peter so
• 31:00 - 31:30 again these Apocrypha books contain a lot of error they contain a lot of of misconceptions especially when you're comparing it to the four gospels that we have here's my point for many years there's been a lot of questions concerning oh I'm sorry there's the Apocrypha books but for a lot of years there has been a lot of debate a lot of misconceptions a lot of questions concerning the cannon of scripture the
• 31:30 - 32:00 Canon of the Bible there's been a lot of talk surrounding these other writings uh what Muhammad Ali found and what's been found in placed in the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC and uh there's been a lot of debate about the apocryphal writings and um some suggest that at the time that the uh in the first century there were around 2,000 other gospels so in all the 2,000 other gospels or 2,000 other writings why do we have what we have today how did it come to be the 27 books of the New
• 32:00 - 32:30 Testament how did it come to be that we had four gospel accounts among the 2,000 what how did we get what we call the Old and New Testament scriptures how did we get these 66 books or or or letters how did we get the Bible as we've come to know it and so I think we're going to we're going to talk about that today and we're going to talk about that next week and possibly even debunk some some myths I believe concerning the
• 32:30 - 33:00 compilation of the Bible and how we got the Bible I don't often preach sermons like this this will be a little bit different than what I typically preach but I think it's helpful because I think for many Christians most of us we just simply pick up a Bible and we just read it right we have a lot of faith we have a lot of trust that what we're picking up is is is accurate is trustworthy now whether we believe that ourselves or we've seen Mom and Dad do it or we've seen grandparents do it or we saw our best friend do it or or this is what all the people around me are doing and so we
• 33:00 - 33:30 just sometimes don't mean this in a bad way but we sometimes blindly pick up the Bible and we just start reading it we start studying it and we just take it face value that it says what it says and it is what it is we trust that what we're reading are the words of the prophets they're the words of the Apostles they're the words of Jesus they're the words ultimately of the Holy Spirit now I would dare say that that that all of you I would say all of you believe that the
• 33:30 - 34:00 Bible came from God that is the inspired word of God but as I've said before our trust in God's word that it is the word of God shouldn't be a blind trust we should know why we trust God's word we should know what God's word is able to provide us we should know that God in his Providence through the work of the Holy Spirit has given us what we have to this day and as we will be able to see we have concrete proof that throughout
• 34:00 - 34:30 history these letters have been preserved for us that from the writing all the way until right now the Bible that you have in your hands is a work of the Providence of God it's not an accident it's not an accident there wasn't and we're going to debunk this minut there wasn't some Council that met together and said Hey cuz this is what a lot of people believe they believe a council and there's a lot of councils all these people just sort of sat around a table or or wherever and they said well these
• 34:30 - 35:00 are the books we have we need to decide which ones are in and which ones are out that's not how it happened that's not how the Bible came to be and so as I mentioned last week we're beginning the series on Foundation or fundamental truths these core beliefs and I think it's necessary that we start with the Bible because it's in the Bible that contains the truth it contains the meanings of life it contains all the promises it contains the warnings it contains the purposes of God the plan of God and the significance of life and
• 35:00 - 35:30 there is no other book on this planet that claims to be from God um and that's really what we talked about last week that's the word inspired right it's it's the creative Breath of God that the scriptures are God breathed um there there's you know not well I'll say this what else did God do with his creative breath he spoke the world into his existence right what else did God do with his breath he
• 35:30 - 36:00 breathed into life who mankind us and so now we have the god breathed inspired scriptures and the two texts we saw last week 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and second Peter 1 verse 21 where Peter says no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man like man didn't sit down and say I think I'm going to write this and we're going to call it inspired that's not the way it worked Peter says men spoke from God as they they were carried Along by the holy spirit so not only is
• 36:00 - 36:30 the Bible the result of the creative Breath of God but again it's also bringing purpose to life it's bringing meaning to your life and let me give you one quick text that that shows this and it's from the longest chapter in the Bible and that's Psalm 119 Psalm Psalm 119 is a is a love poem dedicated to the word of God to the law of God it's how important the word is how important the law is the the relationship we have with it so verse 25 David says my soul clings to the dust give me life according to
• 36:30 - 37:00 your word so when the psalmist says my soul clings to the dust he's he's talking about a met this is a metaphor for death and so what he is saying he's like my life is as close to death as if my hand were reaching out and trying to cling to life he's dealing with suffering he's dealing with Affliction he's dealing with with enemies but but then he says I want you God to give me life I am so
• 37:00 - 37:30 close to death I am hanging on for dear life but I want you to give me life and I want you to give me life according to your what Your word so David knows God's word he knows God's law has this lifegiving power Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 man should not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the what mouth of God so in other words when you read the word
• 37:30 - 38:00 of God when you take time out of your busy days to sit and to study and to meditate and to read the scriptures even if it's just one scripture which i' recommend you do more than one at one time well you might read a chapter you might read the entire New Testament or the entire Old Testament you might even read numbers right but when you read the word of God we have to understand that we're reading it because it brings life it brings life because it is from the creative Breath of God that gave
• 38:00 - 38:30 life so I've already mentioned it a couple of times but the word Canon is a very very important word when it comes to how we got the Bible and the Canon we're talking about again it's not the Canon where you you know you light the fuse and it goes boom in fact Ephesians 6:17 and Hebrews 4:12 uh the word of God is called a sword so the word Canon is from the Greek word Canan and it just simply means a rule or a standard for measurement so it's the process of
• 38:30 - 39:00 recognizing which books were considered inspired or considered scripture when the Bible was again being written and sort of in a in a in a in a Godlike way being put together to what we have today so when it comes to scripture Canon speaks about those books that meet a standard now again the question is when it comes to the Canon who decided what books were in and out and so again many Scholars would talk about there was there was rabbis or there were these
• 39:00 - 39:30 councils these Church councils they conferred Authority on a given writing they declared it canical they declared it B binding so in other words someone picked the books or what's most often talked about they voted on the books which ones are in and which ones are out with this decisive Authority and so my goal is somewhat today but more so next week is to show you that the councils were not the first to give us a complete list of the Canon of the Sacred Scriptures they just simply recog recognized what was already considered the Canon of scripture they recognized
• 39:30 - 40:00 what were considered already inspired writings so what I want to do just for the next few minutes as we begin to wrap up our time together is I want to talk about the Bible's uniqueness understand the Bible's uniqueness uh so in the last century there's been a lot of extensive study in talking about ancient NE East covenants or we might call them Testaments which Testament is the Latin word for Covenant
• 40:00 - 40:30 um revealed the the Old and New Testaments are inherently covenants in content and in form so the Bible is actually filled with covenants it's filled with promises it's filled with Testaments covenants are just agreements between two parties so you know between one king and another king between one nation and another Nation or one Kingdom in another kingdom so what covenants did is they would include of things you could do you would do and things you could not do and would not do it also
• 40:30 - 41:00 included these were the blessings if you did what the Covenant says you should do and these are the curses these are the warnings of what's going to happen if you don't do what the Covenant says if you break that Covenant and so there was this pattern there was this pattern of covenants in the ancient world that God followed as he gave his Covenant to Israel God took something that was already in place that was already happening that was already recognized uh by by Society at the time and he says
• 41:00 - 41:30 I'm going to use this to give my Covenant to Israel and so when God started a covenant with Israel he the first thing he did was he gave the Ten Commandments interesting and this doesn't really change the text it doesn't change the history at all I just think it's interesting uh and maybe you will too but when you think of the Ten Commandments we often think of two tablets right rightfully so and we often think that there are five covenants on one and five covenants on the other right or the Roman Catholic Church says
• 41:30 - 42:00 no there's three on one and seven on the other doesn't really matter but what's interesting if what we know about the protocol of making covenants in the ancient Middle East and what it looks like it could be the case that all Ten Commandments were on both of the tablets in fact what we often miss in Exodus chap 32:1 15 you read that the tablets were actually written on both sides so there was this legal procedure called
• 42:00 - 42:30 cutting the Covenant and what cutting the Covenant required is that the copy of the terms would be on each tablet would be for each side involved so that is how God is giving his Covenant to his people it's like here's one for you and here's one for me because that's the way covenants were in that time it doesn't change the anything really historical or it doesn't change the text I just think sometimes we we read things and we just assume things because what Society has pictured The Ten Commandments as being
• 42:30 - 43:00 anyway Jeremiah 31: 31 through 33 we have the promise that there would be a new covenant and it would be unlike the old Covenant uh one where law would be written on the hearts of people the hearts of the followers the hearts of the ones who would keep the Covenant and when you get to the last supper with Jesus and his disciples Jesus as He blesses the cup he says this cup is the New Covenant in my blood which is poured out for you so the law written on their hearts would come
• 43:00 - 43:30 through the new birth and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and so Jesus at the Last Supper with his disciples he is announcing that the Forgiveness of sins would be available to all people because of his death and because of his resurrection because of the blood blood that he was pouring out for them that we could once again live in communion with God and we'll say more about covenants next week but probably the most unique thing about the Bible the most unique thing about the 6 six books and how they were preserved but
• 43:30 - 44:00 it's also how God put this all together the people that he used before authors wrote the Bible we know that God verbally communicated with man as he did with Adam and Eve in the garden but there came a point there came a time for God to begin using a written record to employ to be revealed so that he could be revealed to
• 44:00 - 44:30 all ages as Creator and as Redeemer and so in this period known as the patriarchal dispensation God you know again he directly speaks to to to Noah and to to to Abraham to Adam to Joseph but then God's like you know my Divine will needs to go beyond verbal it needs to go to written and so the two covenants that what we have that divide our Bible are the old Covenant and the new or the Old Testament and the New Testament uh the old Covenant appears in our English
• 44:30 - 45:00 Bibles in the following Arrangements there's five books of law what are called the penet there are 12 books of history from Joshua to Esther there are five books of poetry from job to Song of Solomon and there are 17 books of Prophecy from Isaiah to Malachi and we often break those up by major and minor prophets not because one's more important than the other but because of their length right some are a lot bigger than the others so they're major and they're minor in the New Covenant the books are grouped into three parts
• 45:00 - 45:30 you've got the four gospels you've got acts which is about early church history the gospels are the story of Jesus the good news of Jesus and you've got the 21 letters of Doctrine to various churches to various individuals right from Rome to Jude and these letters are written mainly by Paul Paul wrote a lot of those letters but also Peter wrote some uh John and Jude and the mystery writer of Hebrews no one really knows who wrote Hebrew Hebrews which was why Hebrews was often debated should it be included in
• 45:30 - 46:00 what we call the scriptures and then you had one book of Prophecy which was the Book of Revelation is the Book of Revelation and it's again it's filled with symbolic language which what sets it apart sets it apart in the New Testament as Daniel does uh the Old Testament now the Bible is written in three languages it's written in Hebrew it's written in Aramaic and it's written in Greek the vast majority of the Old Testament is written in Hebrew although there are a few arama words Aramaic phrases Aramaic Expressions um there's also some Aramaic
• 46:00 - 46:30 in the New Testament so when Jesus tells the little girl to get up in Mark 5:41 Jesus speaks in Aramaic when Jesus is on the cross and he says my God my God why have you forsaken me it is the Aramaic Eli Eli lakoni now there's other instances but you sort of get the point there are some sporadic Aramaic throughout the Old and New Testaments but besides all that the rest of the New Testament is written in
• 46:30 - 47:00 Greek because Greek was the universal language of the day Greek was like English is today sort of a universal language Greek was also a very detailed language which sometimes you'll you know if you hear me teaching class or speak or you hear someone else you'll understand if you do Greek studies yourself which kudos to you but you'll notice a lot of times it's very difficult to take a Greek word and to try to con convey the true meaning an English word because the Greek word is a very detailed precise language you see
• 47:00 - 47:30 the Bible truly is an amazing book you've got 40 different authors you got Shepherds fishermen Scholars Kings prophets you have a a military General you have a priest all had written portions of scripture they wrote with different purposes for some they wanted to record history to others it was to give this spiritual and moral instructions for some they're simply pronouncing judgment on people they're pronouncing judgment
• 47:30 - 48:00 on Nations they wrote from all kinds of different places from prisons the Wilderness places of Exile and often in their writings what we see which I think is beautiful is we see the the emotional side of our writers we see the anger we see what frustrated them we see what aggravated them what got on their nerves we see what brought them peace and what brought them comfort and what brought them the the greatest joy and all of this happened on three different continents and they wrote in different languages over a period of 1,500 plus
• 48:00 - 48:30 years yet in all of these differences the Bible portrays Flawless internal consistency that could only be from God that can only be from a God who does Miracles you see the Bible is infallible which means it is trustworthy it is reliable it's inerrant because it contains no internal inconsistencies it never contradicts itself it never deviates from the most common theme of
• 48:30 - 49:00 how God has always had an eternal plan that when Adam and Eve sin in the garden God just didn't say a didn't didn't expect that one God says I've got a plan I knew it was going to happen and I've got a plan and and so he never deviates from especially in the Old Testament that it's all about Jesus it's all about the coming Messiah and it never deviates from hey this is who Jesus is and this is what Jesus has done and this is what Jesus is fulfilling and this is what Jesus is to you it doesn't deviate from the plan about God's church
• 49:00 - 49:30 about God's kingdom about God's people and how they are to live and how they are to present themselves to a lost and Dying World it never deviates from the fact that listen all this is coming to an end and God's going to put it the way it was before sin ever even enter the world God's going to create this perfect place and the writers call it the new heavens and the new Earth the Bible primarily tells the story of how the Bible came into being and perhaps there are things in the Bible that we would like for it to go
• 49:30 - 50:00 into more detail line perhaps there are things in the Bible that we would like to know but they just haven't been revealed and I think you know again our L our knowledge is is limited but despite our limitations we can know that the Bible is God's revelation telling us in great detail about the whole salvation history about what is this life about why was I born what's going to Happ happen after I die it is an immeasurable wonder that
• 50:00 - 50:30 God has given us an inspired book containing the truth about himself and his ways and what he Wills for our life I just don't know how often we sit and think about when we just grab a Bible or we open the Bible app and we begin reading how important and how it came to be that we are reading the words of God that we are seeing the heart of God I want to close with this verse Hebrews 4:12 one of the most important verses I
• 50:30 - 51:00 think in the New Testament concerning God's word for the word of God is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to division of the Soul and Spirit of joints and of marrow marrow we've got some Aros and Discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart so I think the word of God is just simply the writer referring back to verse two when he talks about the good news being preached to them so the writer says that the good news the word of God it is living and it is active in other words it's not you're
• 51:00 - 51:30 not reading a dead word you're not reading an ineffective word this word that you read it has life in it and because it has life it's able to produce effect in your life I means if you read the word and you study the word and you meditate on the word it's going to change the way you live it's going to affect your life it sounds a lot like Psalm 119:25 right there is something about the truth as God has revealed it that connects it to God as the source of all
• 51:30 - 52:00 life and of all power it's like we are reaching up clinging to life in all the turmoil in all the the persecution in all the suffering and we say God give me life through your word give me life and the writer says it's it has the power and it is sharp enough to cut through the soul and of the spirit it concerns the thoughts and the intentions of the heart in other words the writer
• 52:00 - 52:30 is saying the word of God always always always always will reveal who you who you really are James calls in a mirror right that you look at it and you see who you really are and James says what fools do is they just turn around and they go the other way and they forget what they saw but the writer of Hebrews sort of goes along with what James says and that
• 52:30 - 53:00 the word of God will reveal who you really are on the day of Pentecost there were about 2,000 people they had heard Peter preach the gospel to them they had heard the good news acts chap 2 and: 37 when they had heard the good news when they had heard the gospel when they had heard about the one uh the Messiah the one and only son of God the text says it pierced their hearts that's what the word of God does it'll pierce your heart and if that's
• 53:00 - 53:30 you if you haven't been born again I hope that you'll allow the word of God to pierce your heart as they did in Acts 2 and I hope that you'll respond in the same way you repent you'll be baptized and God's going to give you the greatest gift the gift of His Holy Spirit and it's going to as we talked about in class this morning it's going to give you power it's going to give you energy it's going to give you everything that you need to live a life faithful to Christ let's make sure that we are giving ourselves to the word of God it is the most unique book in the
• 53:30 - 54:00 entire world and I hope that you use it maybe even beginning today that you'll use it not only to to know God at a at a deeper level and to grow closer to him but you'll also use it to know yourself to confirm your spiritual life to let the word reveal who you really are let's close in prayer father we love you we thank you so much for the day you've blessed us with has
• 54:00 - 54:30 already been mentioned the beautiful weather and father we thank you for keeping us safe during the storms yesterday and father we always pray for those who were affected by the storms father thank you so much for your word thank you so much for uh preserving it for us we know that your hand has been in this the whole time from writing it to holding it in our hands in in 2025 so father thank you for your power thank you for your will and thank you
• 54:30 - 55:00 for allowing us and giving us the ability to be able to read it to understand it and often the challenging part and that's applying it to our lives doing what it says so father I pray today as maybe for the first time that we would begin truly reading your word taking time out of our busy days to sit down to read to study and to understand the purpose of life and we see all of that your truth your plan we see all of that through
• 55:00 - 55:30 scripture so father give us the heart to want to know more and to read more and to study more and father again we always pray for those who are struggling with sin they're struggling with maybe discouragement in their life and they would want to know tell the church in a public way that you would give them the courage to do that this morning but again father thank you so much for your word and most of all thank you for Jesus thank you for his life his sacrifice and what that means for the hope that we live with in Christ's name I pray amen let's stand and sing a song
• 55:30 - 56:00 for our [Music] encouragement [Music] overing where
• 56:00 - 56:30 [Music] is [Music] shelter Victory constantly watching over
• 56:30 - 57:00 con over we are his children Our [Music] Father over for his son and his daugh [Music]
• 57:00 - 57:30 wind is [Music] shelter he is my victory [Music]
• 57:30 - 58:00 uh in preparation for the Lord's supper we're going to sing oh sacred head which is probably one of the oldest songs song uh in Our Song Book certainly one of the oldest ones that we sing It's A
• 58:00 - 58:30 Beautiful song with uh very contemplative uh words um so think about those words uh as we prepare for the Lord's Supper [Music] and Sh
• 58:30 - 59:00 [Music] down [Music] with with with [Music]
• 59:00 - 59:30 [Music] [Music] shall to to than the
• 59:30 - 60:00 [Music] dearest make be forever ever
• 60:00 - 60:30 [Music] anding to [Music]
• 60:30 - 61:00 we read as we have many times in 1 Corinthians 11: 23- 26 for I receed from the Lord what I also deliver to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he
• 61:00 - 61:30 broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Covenant of my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me and from here in this chapter it goes on and talks about the manner in which you should do it you should take it partake of the Lord's supper and your frame of mind just as this song had just
• 61:30 - 62:00 said uh so vividly put it in so a lot better than I can put it uh we need to keep our frame of mind in thinking of Christ who died on the cross for our sins in the first part of this chapter excuse me in I'm sorry I lost my place in today's terms we might say it this way put the cell phones down think about Christ think about him dying on the cross for our sins for all of
• 62:00 - 62:30 us and that what we are what we are doing is probably the most important thing that we do when we come here to gather together let's bow our heads and pray for the bread dear heavenly father we come before you on this beautiful day this beautiful Lord's day that we have every first day of the week dear Lord we ask a blessing on this bread as it commemorates your son's body it was hung on the cross for our sins in Jesus Christ's name amen
• 62:30 - 63:00 let's offer a prayer for the
• 63:00 - 63:30 cup dear heavly father we continue our prayer and ask a blessing on this cup as it commemorate your son's blood as it was shed on the cross for our sins and we thank you for him for doing that for all of us in Jesus Christ's name amen e
• 63:30 - 64:00 this concludes the Lord's supper and as
• 64:00 - 64:30 a matter of convenience the elders have set this time aside in the worship service to ask a blessing for the the offering that is given during this time this bow our heads and and thank God for the things that we've been blessed for dear heavenly father we come before you once again and ask you for a blessing from the on the the contributions and the the blessings that you've given us and so many they are in
• 64:30 - 65:00 our lives and the jobs that we have and there are sources of income that we may have dear Lord we ask a blessing on that which we are returning back to you for the work here at this church in Jesus Christ's name amen all right a couple things about this song number one the words on our
• 65:00 - 65:30 slide uh at the end of the first verse uh say it's what the Lord has done for me it's right there I one the words that I learned and they're not that's actually in the book uh the word instead of for is supposed to be in which really changes the meaning of this of the line if you think about it it's not what the Lord has done for me it's What the Lord Has Done in me so I'd like for us to try to remember to
• 65:30 - 66:00 sing in me instead of for me because I'm going to sing in me I think it's happened before everybody else sings for me but I sing in me because that's what I've already sang uh secondly um a word about a note about the word hosana which is in the chor uh Hosanna the most of this song is u a little softer more a little more contemplative kind of like oh sacred head but hosan is an exclamation of of Praise it's not to be sung hosan it's hosana it's what they said
• 66:00 - 66:30 when Jesus was walking into Jerusalem right hosana it's praise and exclamation so let's sing it that way please stand am I am [Music]
• 66:30 - 67:00 [Music] Riv my are [Music] wased the heav mer of [Music]
• 67:00 - 67:30 the to [Music] the Jesus died and rose again I [Music]
• 67:30 - 68:00 will Heart Of God I will sing Jesus Christ has set me free to [Music]
• 68:00 - 68:30 the [Music] Jesus I am let the poor I
• 68:30 - 69:00 [Music] am what [Music] the let us pray dear Lord we're thankful for this time that we've had to gather together as a family of yours we've had the
• 69:00 - 69:30 opportunity to open your word we've heard a powerful message about your word we're we we're thankful for the perfectness of the scriptures for the perfectness that we read about in your son and most importantly the the perfect love that you had for us in giving your son and help us as we go throughout this week to open up your word more and to
• 69:30 - 70:00 apply it to our lives and it's in your son's name we pray amen for