March 23rd, 2025

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

In a heartfelt service at Central Church of Christ in Cleveland, TN, the congregation was reminded of the enduring significance and history of the Bible. The service included announcements for community events and prayer requests for those in need. A poignant sermon emphasized the difficulty and historical sacrifices made to preserve the Bible and urged Christians to read it with reverence and understanding. Music and a shared communion added to the reflective atmosphere, ending with a collective prayer for guidance and strength.

Highlights

The service began with a series of important community announcements, reminding members of upcoming events 📣.
Prayers were offered for individuals facing health challenges and other personal hardships, fostering a strong sense of community support 🙏.
The sermon focused on the importance of understanding the Bible's history and the value it holds in Christian life 📜.
Emphasis was placed on the historical context and the reverence the Bible demands due to its sacred content 📚.
Music and singing were integral parts of the service, uplifting the congregation and enhancing the spiritual experience 🎶.
A communal prayer was recited, asking for strength and guidance to live according to the Bible's teachings 🕊️.

Key Takeaways

The Bible's preservation involved tremendous sacrifice; many risked their lives to protect its teachings ✝️.
Early Christians had limited access to the scriptures, often relying on recitations due to limited literacy rates 📖.
The sermon encouraged daily Bible reading, highlighting that many Christians are more informed about modern entertainment than their sacred texts 📱.
Technological advancements mean that everyone can access the Bible digitally, emphasizing the blessing of modern accessibility 💻.
The congregation was reminded to appreciate the Bible's deep historical roots and its central role in guiding their faith 🌳.
Announcements included community events and support opportunities, emphasizing the church's active role in members' lives 🗓️.

Overview

On March 23, 2025, Central Church of Christ in Cleveland, TN gathered for a deeply spiritual service. The day began with a warm welcome and announcements about upcoming community events, including baby showers and other significant dates, highlighting the congregation's active involvement. Health updates and prayer requests were shared, forming a compassionate backdrop for the service.

The sermon was a central piece of the service, focusing on the preservation and significance of the Bible. The pastor passionately conveyed the monumental efforts made throughout history to conserve this sacred text, urging the congregation to read and reflect upon it daily. He underscored the ease of access in modern times, contrasting it with historical obstacles, and encouraged the use of digital means to engage with scripture.

Concluding the service, hymns and songs filled the church, enhancing the reflective atmosphere. The community came together for communion, reinforcing their shared faith and commitment. A closing prayer encapsulated the day's messages, seeking divine guidance and strength to uphold Christian values in everyday life.

Chapters

00:00 - 11:00: Introduction and Announcements The chapter titled 'Introduction and Announcements' serves to set the stage for the content that will follow in the document. It likely includes an overview of what can be expected in the subsequent sections or chapters. This chapter may also contain various announcements relevant to the content of the document or the audience it is addressed to.
11:00 - 13:00: Scripture Reading and Prayer The chapter titled 'Scripture Reading and Prayer' appears to open with applause, suggesting an event or gathering atmosphere. Without further content from the transcript, we can only speculate that it likely involves a session of reading from holy scriptures and engaging in prayer, possibly led by a speaker or group leader, aimed at spiritual reflection or worship.
13:00 - 55:00: Sermon: The Importance of God's Word and Its Preservation The chapter titled 'Sermon: The Importance of God's Word and Its Preservation' discusses the critical role that God's word plays in the lives of believers. It emphasizes how God's teachings are pivotal for spiritual growth, guidance, and maintaining a strong faith foundation. The chapter also delves into the historical and divine efforts to preserve the sacred texts, ensuring their teachings remain intact and accessible for future generations. The importance of adhering to and upholding these teachings in everyday life is highlighted, calling believers to cherish and protect these spiritual insights.
55:00 - 65:00: Communion and Offering The chapter titled 'Communion and Offering' likely focuses on themes related to unity, sharing, and sacrifice, as indicated by the title which suggests religious or ceremonial practices. Given the transcript only contains '[Applause]', it implies that whatever was presented in this chapter was well-received by an audience. This could mean that the presentation or narrative was impactful, resonating with the listeners, possibly due to its emotional, intellectual, or spiritual content. Without additional context from the transcript, this summary is speculative and based primarily on the chapter's title and the positive audience reaction.
65:00 - 70:00: Closing Hymns and Prayer The chapter titled 'Closing Hymns and Prayer' involves an attempt to recite or sing once more in the morning, indicating a recap or repeated practice of hymns and prayers to perhaps close a session or meeting on a reflective note.

March 23rd, 2025 Transcription

00:00 - 00:30
00:30 - 01:00 [Applause]
01:00 - 01:30 Good
01:30 - 02:00 [Applause]
02:00 - 02:30 Morning. Let's try it one more time.
02:30 - 03:00 Good
03:00 - 03:30 morning. That's much better. I believe
03:30 - 04:00 people can hear
04:00 - 04:30 that. Time for us to get started. A few
04:30 - 05:00 announcements before we do. Uh there's a
05:00 - 05:30 couple that I'm going to add that are
05:30 - 06:00 not in your bulletin that you might want
06:00 - 06:30 to uh write down or make note
06:30 - 07:00 of. Amy Typton's mom, Linda Ramsey, uh
07:00 - 07:30 had spent some time in Vanderbilt. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Uh she's at home now, but uh has several appointments at Vanderbilt over the next few weeks. So, let's remember her and her prayers not only for the pancreatic cancer, but uh also for her trips back and forth to to Vanderbilt. Uh also in the bulletin, it's got uh Henrietta listed in
07:30 - 08:00 MICU. Uh she is now in room 258. Also at uh at Bradley, uh brother Johnny Triplet was admitted to uh Bradley. uh he's having some test run and they're asking for no visitors at this time. So, let's remember that. Also, uh last night about 3:00 or this morning about 3:00, uh Diana Braramlet, Henrietta's sister, passed away. So,
08:00 - 08:30 let's remember uh that family uh in your prayers. It's a girl. Uh Cole and Nico the cold baby has a shower today from 2 to 4 in the old fellowship hall. So ladies make plans to attend that. Uh also it's a boy baby shower for uh Justice and Abby uh Blair on Sunday, April the 13th from 2 to 4 and then a gift card wedding uh
08:30 - 09:00 shower for Trevor Cartrite and Drew West. So, we have several opportunities for the ladies coming up. So, uh make plans to be a part of that. Uh men's fellowship day on May the 3rd. More information to come about that. And ladies day, October the 17th and 18th. Uh see Sheila Jones if you have any questions or if you can help. classics. Make sure you're uh making
09:00 - 09:30 plans for the Tricky Tuesday coming up uh April the 1st at 6 o'clock. It says bring a ri a wrapped gift, a wrapped gag gift uh so that you can exchange that. And if you're planning to go to the uh Cumberland County Playhouse, the money is due on that by next Sunday. So, if you signed up, remember you owe for the ticket. Uh Ronnie and Rebecca have paid for them, so make sure you get your money uh to them by next
09:30 - 10:00 week. There are several uh new announcements on our sick list. Randy Owen, uh please keep him in your prayers as he had an accident this uh past week. He cut an artery in his leg and he's going to have to have some more procedures done uh this week. Uh Gary Griffith is scheduled for knee surgery tomorrow. So, let's remember uh Gary uh Katherine McCracken is not uh doing very well. She's having some uh health
10:00 - 10:30 issues. Uh they do appreciate cards, but please no visits at this time. Uh Angela's home. Uh well, she's not at home. She's sitting right back there. So, she's recovering good from her uh knee surgery. There's several others uh listed there that I'm not going to go over uh that have been in there for a while, but uh please remember each of these in your prayers and let's reach out to them and
10:30 - 11:00 help in any way that we can. If you would now please stand as uh we have our scripture and prayer by Scott Goldman. Scripture reading this morning comes from Matthew chapter 4 verse4. Matthew chapter 4 verse 4. But he answered, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by
11:00 - 11:30 every word that comes from the mouth of God." Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and all our many blessings. Thank you for the freedom we have to gather here today and worship you in spirit and truth. Heavenly Father, I pray that you will help us to clear our hearts and minds so that we can focus only on you during this time and your word so that we may worship you in spirit and truth and it be acceptable to you. Heavenly Father, be with the sick that's mentioned here today and also the
11:30 - 12:00 ones that have lost loved ones. Strengthen them and be with them. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your grace and mercy that and love that you show us each day. And thank you for your son dying on the cross, save us from our sins, and forgives for our sins. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. There is a
12:00 - 12:30 habitation for all nation. to sing that [Music] grand I to see where shall I dwell in the
12:30 - 13:00 With foundations firsthan [Music] [Music] [Applause]
13:00 - 13:30 I Zion. And shall I dwell in thee with this earthly mortals angelic army sing with glorifying mortals the praises of
13:30 - 14:00 Hosanana I to [Applause] see. Where shall I dwell in? May be seated.
14:00 - 14:30 [Music] Seek first the kingom of God and his all shall be added unto You single
14:30 - 15:00 hallelujah and it shall be [Music] [Music] giall unto you singing hallelu hallelujah. Hallelu shall I live by
15:00 - 15:30 [Music] bread every word that proceeds from the mouth of God singing hallelujah hallelujah [Music] If you would please stand. This time
15:30 - 16:00 we'll dismiss our kids ages three through first grade to kids connect and sing on the promises of God.
16:00 - 16:30 Stay stand my [Music] savior. I standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that cannot fail
16:30 - 17:00 without living word standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of God my savior. I'm standing on the promises of
17:00 - 17:30 God. Standing on the promises I can fall. Listening every moment to the sping in my standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of God, my
17:30 - 18:00 savior [Music] standing on the promises of God. May be seated. Good morning. Good to see all of you. Thank you again so much for being here, especially if you're visiting with
18:00 - 18:30 us. I think I'm right in saying that that many Christians love their Bibles, right? Many Christians cherish their Bibles. Many of you carry your Bible with you to a lot of places. Uh if you're like me, you're more electronically oriented. I I have my Bible with me on the top all the time because I' i've got it on my phone. I've got several translations. I've got uh commentaries, uh a lot of articles and things like that. So, it's sort of always with me or you might be again one of those that you've got your copy of
18:30 - 19:00 God's word in your hand today and it's what you've used for years. It's what you bring with you every time you come to class or every time you come uh to worship. And perhaps it's an important Bible to you, right? Sometimes we have Bibles from our grandparents or from our parents or maybe you you received one when you were baptized or at your wedding. Maybe a lot of our Bibles hold special a special emphasis in our lives. Some of your Bibles may be filled
19:00 - 19:30 with highlighters, a lot of little notes you've made over the years of of taking notes. Some of you may have what's uh a goat skin Bible, right? Some sometimes people go a little crazy with all these different covers on Bibles and they can get very expensive and and that's okay. If that's that's what you want, you know, go for it. Um there are certain Bibles that do command a high price. For example, in 1873, there was a Bible, that's the one
19:30 - 20:00 on the far left up there in the corner. This Bible cost 65 or it's actually for sale right now for $65,000. So you if you want a good Bible, you can buy that one. Um if you want to spend a little bit more, there in the middle there's the Gutenberg Bible. Uh it was it's from 1455. The problem is though, you're not going to get the whole Bible. You're just going to get the Book of Haggi because that's all available. But you can buy that for $425,000,
20:00 - 20:30 right? If you really want to go spend some money, uh there's what's called the Codeex Cissoon. There you see on the right. It was purchased in 1929 and it's a an 800page Hebrew Bible and it was written down by a master scribe, transcribed by a master scribe on parchment. It includes 24 books of the Old Testament. It is the most complete Hebrew Bible, the oldest and most complete that is in existence. It's over,00 years old. In May of 2023, it
20:30 - 21:00 sold for $38 million. So, if you got a little extra money in the bank, you need another Bible, go for it. I encourage it. Here's my point. People have always cherished the word of God. The word of God has always been special to people. It's been special through the centuries. It's been special through the ages, again, for a very just for a very long time. And and this is the case because we believe that in the Bible there is value, not just monetary value. I mean,
21:00 - 21:30 that stuff is neat. It's it's crazy what people will spend, but we believe it has value of of greater than than money. It's got eternal value. It's it's good for the soul. It is the very words of God, the inspired, infallible, inherent words of God. We believe in the Bible there is a a direction. There is a plan that we see from God of love and of grace. And we see that there is there's a there's a purpose given to life. And what's
21:30 - 22:00 amazing is that for centuries, Christians would have almost given absolutely anything to what you hold in your hand right now. And that's the word of God. Think about it. For most of church history, if you wanted to have your copy of scriptures, number one, you had to have a lot of money. I mean, a lot of money. You had to find someone to to copy it down for you, unless you were the one that could copy it yourself. Uh,
22:00 - 22:30 then another problem comes when most people were in that day in the first century were illiterate, which means somebody's going to have to read it to you. If you were to have enough money and you were to get somebody to copy it down, somebody's still got to got to read it to you. And yet today we have the greatest access in history of the word of God. So how often have we thanked God that we live in a day where we have full access to the whole council of God in scripture. In the year
22:30 - 23:00 303 there was a Roman emperor by the name of Dlesian. He issued an order for the persecution of early Christians. In fact during this time it was the greatest amount of persecution that the Romans were giving towards the Christians. So there's a lot of bad things happening to people who were following Jesus. So he comes out and he has this decree and he wants to persecute Christians and Christians find out about this and they just simply went into hiding. Well, two deacons were who
23:00 - 23:30 served under the early church father Ignatius. They were found and they were brought before the emperor and the choice was given. You can either number one turn your copy of the holy scriptures over or you can tell us who has the copy of the scriptures so that we can find them and we can find the scriptures or you can die. Those are your choices. It it's it's one or the other. Well, after two or three trials and two or three imprisonments, the men constantly refuse to be a traitor to
23:30 - 24:00 Christianity. We're not going to tell you. We're not going to tell you who has them. are not going to tell you where they are. And it's really believed that these men were simply readers of the scripture because again, not everybody had a copy. Somebody had to read it. So they are the readers of the holy scripture. So they probably didn't possess their own copy and they wouldn't tell them where they were. So eventually these two men were cast into the sea and later their bodies were found by some Christians and
24:00 - 24:30 they were given their proper burial. How often do we thank God that we have what we have because of the sacrifice of so many who have gone before us to protect and to preserve the word of God. The people who give their lives to protect the Bible. It's easy for us to think because a lot of Christians do that what we have is what people have always had, right? They've always had a Bible. They've always had the complete uh Old Testament
24:30 - 25:00 and New Testament. There's always been a table of contents. I mean, how else are people going to find Zechariah and Nahim, right? There's always been that. There's always been chapters and there's always been verses. There's always been those cute little headings that show you this is what this section is about. There's always been that. But we simply know, especially from last week, that's not the case. The Bible hasn't always been that. In fact, chapters and verses and all these other headings are fairly a new thing when it comes to the word of God. And so, as we've began this process in the last couple of weeks, we we know again that's not the case. We know that
25:00 - 25:30 because of the the process of transmission which is how the scriptures were written down, how they were copied uh by different people. The word of God though has been attacked. The word of God has been under scrutiny for for some time. But it's not anything new. As we mentioned in class this morning, it's been going on for thousands of years since the Garden of Eden. Satan comes to Eve and says, "Hey, did God say? Did God really say this?" And so at that very moment, Satan's
25:30 - 26:00 words were focused on two critical elements. He's focused on the accuracy and the authority of God's word because he wants to put doubt in the minds of people. He wants them to secondguess the word of God. And to this day, this is where unbelievers attack Christians when it comes to the word of God. Now, sadly, many Christians do not know how to defend the word of God. They just don't know. Mainly because people have never
26:00 - 26:30 really been taught except a Bible class, you know, here and there of how we got the Bible or you can get online and do some research or watch some videos. Other than that, what we do is we send our young people into the world. We send them into colleges and into the workplace, into the universities, and they're unprepared to defend the attacks that people are going to bring to the word of God. not only the Bible but Christianity. So I believe one thing
26:30 - 27:00 that we ought to be as Christians very familiar with is how we got our Bible. Because listen, if if we have our Bibles and we're telling people that, you know, this is the word of God, this is the inspired, inherent, infallible word of God. If we're saying that I'm going to base my entire life on on this book, on this entire book, then you would think we would know
27:00 - 27:30 significantly more about its history than anything else's history. Yet, the sad reality is that most of us are more informed about a series on Netflix than we are how we got our Bible. Most of us are more informed with a basketball bracket than we are how we got the word of God. Because that is precisely where the enemy attacks you. He's probably not going to attack you through Netflix. He's probably not going to attack you. Well, he will. He's probably not going to attack you though through a basketball bracket, but he
27:30 - 28:00 will attack you through the word of God. It's where people like Bart Urman who is a New Testament scholar but he is also one of the leading New Testament critics. He comes along and he points out that listen there are certain manuscripts your Bible says this but there's a lot of manuscripts where the New Testament it it doesn't line up. Certain manuscripts did have this. They they didn't have this and then people that sit under him or read his works they begin to say when they don't have a background in how they got the Bible they begin to say well how did that
28:00 - 28:30 happen? I didn't know that. Is this really even true? And that's when faith begins to crumble. You need to know you can trust your Bible. You need to know that your Bible does not include errors. You need to know that the ones who copied the scriptures from years ago, centuries ago, they didn't devi deviate from the from the original message. You need to know that the Bible is complete. You need to know the Bible, the Apocrypha is not supposed to be in there as it is in so many others. All the other 2,00
28:30 - 29:00 gospels about Jesus aren't supposed to be in there. You need to know what you have in your hand or on your phone or on your tablet is the accurate, complete, uncorrupted word of God because at some point your faith will be tested. And some of you know that, right? Cuz it has been tested. And if it hasn't been tested, I can promise you 100% guaranteed your faith will be tested. whether it's in a classroom,
29:00 - 29:30 whether it's in some circumstance or situation you find yourself in life. It'll be tested. And so, you need to make sure that you're firmly planted, you're firmly grounded because, as we've already said many times, God has not given us his word. God has not given us faith. He's not given us grace so that we would have this uncertain blind faith. But he has given us so much evidence, so much concrete proof the last two weeks of this is the word of God that it is infallible, it is
29:30 - 30:00 inherent, it is inspired that we can rest on that and we can build off of that foundation. And so last week again we introduced that word canon which is just a standard of measurement uh in in Greek I think it literally means read and so it shows us you know it gives us the importance of how uh to understand how we got our Bible and then we discuss the uniqueness of the Bible how in all the different generations the writing styles the different authors with different professions with different um places
30:00 - 30:30 they live different personalities they all came and they all agreed and they all sort of wrote about the same thing, the redemption of humanity by God through Christ. Now, if we're honest, reading the Bible, reading the whole Bible is a noble task. But a lot of us lose steam when we get to Leviticus. And you get to numbers and you've got all those names and you got all those numbers. And our first thought
30:30 - 31:00 is, what in the world does this have to do with me and my life? And so it's easy, I think, for us to just skip over that stuff, right? Um, and I think a lot of that happens, and it's not just those. It's it's many Old Testament books because that that time is so foreign to us. Uh, it refers to events and prophecies and poetry and teachings at a time in a place that's been so removed from us by millennia. So, it's easy for us to sometimes ignore those things, to skip over those things, and
31:00 - 31:30 to think, I'm just going to get into the New Testament because it's a little bit better. It reads a little bit easier. and I can understand it more. But far back in Israel's history, certain things, certain writings, excuse me, certain writings were recognized as having divine authority and serving as a written rule of faith and practice for God's people. Moses would really be the first um which would happen immediately after the Exodus from Egypt and before the law was given out mount at Mount Si. So God tells Moses to start writing his
31:30 - 32:00 words his words down. And so what we begin to see, we really see it starting in Adam when God verbally speaks to Adam. He has this uh communication and this conversation with Adam. God has always used many different means to speak with man. He's used a burning bush, right? Uh he's used visions. He's used dreams. He has spoken directly to man uh through the New Testament. You know, we've got all the records of how the apostles taught. We have what Jesus taught in what we call the gospel accounts. But when you get to Exodus chapter 17,
32:00 - 32:30 Moses has commanded Joshua, I want you to lead an army. I want you to fight against Amalecch. And while you do that, I'm going to lift my staff up to God. And as long as I do that, you'll win. You'll be victorious. So after this fight, God speaks to Moses and he commands him to write down God's ultimate judgment over Amalecch. He says, "I want you to do this as a memorial. I want you to write all of this down." And so these written words would become a testimony to the acts of
32:30 - 33:00 God to the fulfillment of his promises. Now, interestingly, after these words are written down, they are to be recited by Joshua. So now you've got a written word, now you've got a word that needs to be recited. It needs to be said to all the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write this as a as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalecch from under heaven." So God is already using his word now to form these future leaders. After all of
33:00 - 33:30 this takes place, we show up at Mount Si where God is speaking directly from the mountain. The people can't bear it. So Moses goes up alone and he receives the two tablets, what we know as the Ten Commandments. Now, scripture teaches that Moses because of the anger that was in him and all that was because of the idolatry of the people, Moses breaks those tablets. So, now Moses has got to go back up again and get a second set of tablets. But this time, it's going to be just a
33:30 - 34:00 little bit different because this time, according to Numbers 33:es 1 and 2, it shows us Moses just didn't write down the laws God gave the people, but I want you to write down the historical account of the journey of Israel. So Moses is taking all that God has revealed to him and he's giving it to the priest in Israel. So in other words, God loved his people enough to know they needed an objective and authoritative standard to guide them in their relationship with him. He gives them the commandments so
34:00 - 34:30 that we would know how to relate to him. So that we would know how to relate, how to treat other people. And not only that, not only has he given that to us, but God says, listen, every seven years, I want you to recite this. I want you to recite this in the entire community. I want you to make sure that you're that parents, you're teaching this to your kids every single day. It's that well-known thing we call the shama, which means to listen, to hear,
34:30 - 35:00 obey. So, you've got this nation developing on the word of God. And God is continuing to communicate with his people by recording all of these important lessons in in Israelite history. He does that through the book of Joshua, through 2 Chronicles and other places. God's going to raise up prophets like prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah who spoke for God to the people, saying, "This is what God wants you to know.
35:00 - 35:30 This is the truth God wants you to know. And all of these words, guess what? They're written down because that's the books we have. And these words are acknowledged and even referenced by other prophets. So by the time you get to the the time of exile, which is most of the prophets and Esther, and the post-exile periods, which is Ezra through Nehemiah, Haggi through Malachi, the writings of these latter prophets, they're all being acknowledged. The point is that because the Israelites
35:30 - 36:00 began with the law that came from God that Moses received, they always believe that there are going to be more revelations to come. And so along the way, they're having to decide, hey, these prophets are real, these prophets are not. This is the real message. This is not the real message. Because like in our day, they had a lot of people walking around saying, "This is the word of the Lord." And so they had to decide which was in and which was out. And so eventually Israel is anticipating this climactic
36:00 - 36:30 revelation from God and how a new prophet is going to show up and he is going to speak the very words of God himself. And so the Old Testament closes with the book of Malachi. And the Old Testament is somewhat stopped. It it's it's ceased the writings at least. Malachi 4:es 4 and 5 declared that the law of Moses must sustain the people until prophecy returns. And so God promise promises
36:30 - 37:00 them to send Elijah the prophet. And when you get to New Testament, you realize that Elijah the prophet is who? John the Baptist. So at this point, God closes the Old Testament scriptures and withdrew his spirit from inspiring covenantal scriptures. And so the Old Covenant was left awaiting a new one. So while the people would change, while the settings would change, the Israelites always had this standard to ensure that they stayed on the right track and they stayed faithful to God.
37:00 - 37:30 It's always been there. This is why the law of God was so important. This is why the law is repeated every seven years. This is why there's an importance of handing down the law. The traditions uh some some verses will say that that were handed down. This is why it's so important that parents teach their children the law of God because it is something again that has to be handed down from one generation to the next. And we know right through the Old Testament what happens when there's a
37:30 - 38:00 generation what happens when someone doesn't teach someone the word of God. Everyone does what? What is right in their own eyes. So there's always been this importance of handing down carrying down the law of God. So, a lot of people would would begin to memorize large portions of the Old Testament beginning at the age of five, right? How many of our 5-year-olds are beginning to memorize the Old Testament? It's just what they did. It was their life. Some
38:00 - 38:30 rabbis, in fact, memorized the entire Old Testament. Can you imagine the dedication, the time, the energy it would take to memorize the entire Old Testament? Josephus would say that Jews had such a high view of scripture that people were willing to die for it. And we've we've seen that. And again, we don't have time to go through everything. Uh I think this is such a big study. It it really requires a 13week class or even more, but I wanted to show you you this is
38:30 - 39:00 where it sort of started that God works out this covenant progressively in history. So during the time we call the 400 years of silence between the closing of the old and the new, between Malachi and Matthew, God did not speak through any prophets with his words, with his dreams, with his visions. And so when you get to the New Testament, when Jesus is born, it speaks of faithful believers who were expecting Israel's salvation, right? We see that in Luke chapter 2. The only story about Jesus's upbringing describes him questioning and
39:00 - 39:30 answering the teachers of the law in the temple. So, and then throughout his ministry, not only does he teach from the scriptures, Luke chapter 4. So, Jesus is using the Old Testament scriptures to teach because they're available in the synagogues, but he's also fulfilling a lot of prophecies through his actions. So, you've got Jesus and his apostles, they're assuming, they're embracing this divine authority of the Hebrew Old Testament. They're affirming it.
39:30 - 40:00 In fact, the New Testament cites or alludes to just about every single Old Testament book, which is just simply a testament to the widespread acceptance of the Old Testament canonicity, the authority of Jesus, the New Testament authors, the Jews in their time. But again, this isn't true. The Apocrypha, it's why it's not in our Protestant Bibles. In fact, Jude verses 9 and 14, Jude's the only person in scripture to refer to
40:00 - 40:30 the Apocrypha. He refers to a couple different uh works in the Apocrypha. But just because, you know, Jude uses that does not mean he believes that they're divinely inspired. In the same way, Paul quoted a lot of Greek poets. And Paul didn't believe that the Greek poets were inspired. He's just using what he knew through history. So Christ passed on to his followers the holy scriptures as he received them which contains the same books as our Old Testament. And so he is continuing this process in the canon of
40:30 - 41:00 the New Testament. And he continues this with his last words in Matthew 28 18-20, what we call the great commission. And so these teachings were given to the apostles and they began to form now a another or a new excuse me cannon of a standard of truth a new covenant that we call it a new testament that's why you read in acts chapter 2 and verse 42 that the early Christians they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching Michael Krueger who was a a
41:00 - 41:30 genius is a new testament scholar uh especially on its formation its canonicity uh he describes the attitude of the church's leaders following the first century is this. He says early Christians had a high view of the apostolic office viewing the apostles as the very mouthpiece of Christ himself. Thus any document containing apostolic teaching would have been received as an authoritative written text and it would also be seen I would add as the beginning of a canon of
41:30 - 42:00 scripture. So the empire the apostles in the inspired writings teachings the gospel accounts form the new teachings of the new covenant and they were all written by the end of the first century. Your new testament was written by the end of the first century. So the question then becomes well how did we get what we have today then? Now some would say and they would argue and you'll probably hear a lot about this if you start diving into how we got the Bible we have today. They will say that the canon of scripture was recorded in 367 AD in a letter written
42:00 - 42:30 by the bishop of Alexandria and his name was Athanasius. A lot of people will refer to Athanasius and because he he said this in his festal letter which is just another word for Easter. So this is his Easter letter. He says but for the sake of greater accuracy accuracy I must needs as I write add this. There are other books outside these. So there are other writings that are not inspired which are not indeed included in the canon but have been appointed from the time of the fathers to be read
42:30 - 43:00 to those who are recent converts to our company and wish to be instructed in the word of true religion. So history says that Athanasius really defended Christianity against a lot of different heresies a lot against a lot of different false teachers. But again notice what he says there are other books outside these that are not included in the canon. So in other words, there was a difference between inspired writings and other writings. So they're already drawing this distinction.
43:00 - 43:30 But although Athanasius said this in his Easter letter, it doesn't mean that we didn't have a New Testament until the end of the 4th century, which again is what a lot of people believe. What it does mean is that what it could mean is that they had a list of New Testament books, but it doesn't necessarily mean that's when it started because there was a functioning cannon long before the 4th century. By the middle of the 2 century, we had what we would call the core
43:30 - 44:00 cannon. We had four gospels. We had 13 epistles of Paul. We had a handful of of other books. That means there's not disagreement. There's not any confusion. People were recognized. This is what is authority and this is what is not. This is what is inspired. This is what is not. And so you've got this trajectory that is set very early which tells us that the canon of scripture was never a vote. It was never a vote by some council. Despite what so many people have come to believe, despite what
44:00 - 44:30 people still teach, there weren't any councils that got together and said, "You know what? We got a lot of books here, guys, and we've got to figure out which ones we're going to put in what we call the Bible and which ones we're not." And so all in favor of Matthew say I. And just down the list. That is in no way, shape, form or fashion how it went about. Because when you look at the historical evidence, many of the New Testament books, the the canon, Christians unified around them very
44:30 - 45:00 early. The canon was something that the early church just simply recognized. and I would argue as the help of the Holy Spirit. So what that means is this. The authority of the canon does not rest in human decisions but in the canon itself because these books manifest themselves as being from God. One of the earliest manuscripts we have is found by a man named John Reynolds. So it's called the
45:00 - 45:30 John Reynolds papers and it demonstrates how the the writings of the apostle John were admired and they were copied by about AD 125. So that's in 30 20 25 30 years of of John's death. And so evidence shows that all the gospels and the Pauline letters were were known and they were used within that short time frame after John's death. Aranius in 180 AD gave us most of the New Testament. He gives us 23 books. The Murritorian fragment in
45:30 - 46:00 180 AD confirms 22 of the 27 New Testament books. In fact, the writing on that dates back, it's in the original Greek and it dates back to the end of the 2 century. Origin, who lived from 185 to 284, produced a complete list of all 27 New Testament books. In fact, Origin, it's pretty cool what he did. Origin takes the story of Joshua in the Old Testament to describe the New Testament cannon. Look that up, right? If you remember today, it's pretty neat to read. Now, a couple of these you'll
46:00 - 46:30 see they're not recognizing all 27 books. So, what's going on here? Why didn't they recognize all 27 books? Well, a lot of the smaller letters like Jude, James, um, Second Peter, and Second and Third John, there's they're still being questioned as to their apostolic authority, but a lot of that has to do with the size they were. Um, and so they thought that if if somebody from God or somebody inspired is going to write something, they're really going to write something, not these little short quick letters. So that's really
46:30 - 47:00 the only reason. And you'll see obviously with your Bible that they were later recognized as part of the New Testament cannon. The problem though when it comes to all of these other gospels that we talked about last week, right, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, on and on, is that they are not written by the ones they claim to be written by. So what most people believe and I tend to go that way as well is that you had a lot of people because a lot of these were written in the second and third centuries long after Mary's dead long after Peter and Thomas are dead. So you
47:00 - 47:30 got a lot of people writing these gospels and if you want to make some money writing the gospel saying it is the word of God whose name are you going to attach to it? Yours or somebody pretty well known by Jesus? That's usually the way it went. Now last week we talked about the gospel of Peter. If you weren't here, it just simply the gospel of Peter is the only gospel that claims that there Peter saw Jesus come out of the tomb, right? Where giant Jesus, his head was in the clouds and uh the cross just as tall as him was
47:30 - 48:00 sort of floating behind him and then it just really gets out of hand because the cross begins to talk. And none of that lines up with anything else we read in the 66 books of the Bible. um the Gospel of Thomas, which I believe is probably the most favorite gospel other gospel used by modern critics. They'll take the Gospel of Thomas to try to uh go against Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I want you to notice the the statement or the conversation that is
48:00 - 48:30 happening between Peter and and Jesus. Uh they're called sayings. So, this is the Gospel of Thomas saying 114. Simon Peter said to Jesus, "Let Mary Magdalene leave us, for women are not worthy of life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself a male will enter the kingdom of heaven." Now, that's pretty crazy, right?
48:30 - 49:00 The early church fathers, Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, they used in a very interesting way the bulk of the New Testament in a casual manner throughout the writings. In other words, authenticated scriptures were being accepted as authoritative without argument. A general introduction to the Bible, which is a great book, says, "The church no more gave us the New Testament cannon than Sir Isaac Newton gave us the force of gravity. God gave us gravity by his work of creation. And in the same way,
49:00 - 49:30 he gave us the New Testament cannon by inspiring the individual books that make it up. So in other words, you've got the cannon of scripture. What you have, the New Testament, those 27 books, the canon of scripture emerges gradually and organically. They're being written. They're being passed around. They're being recognized. Michael Krueger again would go on to say, "The shape of our New Testament cannon was not determined by a vote, by a council, but a broad and ancient
49:30 - 50:00 consensus." This historical reality is a good reminder that the cannon is not just a man-made construct. It is not the result of a power play brokered by rich cultural elites in some smoke-filled room. It was the result of many years of God's people reading, using, and responding to these books. So now we have over 5800 copies of parts of the New Testament in its original language. If you start counting all the other languages, we end up with 20 over
50:00 - 50:30 24,000 copies of manuscripts of the New Testament. With all of those manuscripts, scholars have reconstructed 99% of the original text. That 1% means that there is simply sometimes two or more ways about reading a passage of scripture because the intent, the purpose really isn't seen very clearly. But none of that changes the the message, the original message of the New
50:30 - 51:00 Testament. We'll close with this. One of the greatest discoveries when it came to the the transmission of the word of God, one of the greatest discoveries happened in a cave on the northwest corner of the Dead Sea in 1947. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of manuscripts dating from the 2n century BC to around 70 AD. In those scrolls were found every book from our Old Testament except for
51:00 - 51:30 one, Esther. In the caves, there were over 900 manuscripts written in the same three languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. They contained also all of these non-chanical, all you know what we call the apocryphal works, all of these different texts from the second second temple period, right? The the years of silence. And a lot of work in translating these scrolls is yet to be
51:30 - 52:00 done. In other words, it's not finished yet. In fact, they are continuing to find dozens of more scrolls within this cave and in the area. Uh, in fact, what they're beginning to find now are just simply inscriptions and fragments that bear the lines of Greek texts from the Old Testament books of Zechariah and Nahome. Now, a lot of us have heard about the Dead Sea Scrolls, right? But you may not have heard about this. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found, and
52:00 - 52:30 this is probably the to me it's the most amazing part. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found by a shepherd who was looking for his lost sheep. Make what you want of that, but that seems to be a theme throughout the Bible, does it not? Make what you want of it. But the point I want to make is that God has always, always, always ensured that his people had his word, that they knew it, that they had direction, that they had purpose. And
52:30 - 53:00 so, while the canonicity of the Bible may be questioned and attacked, while it may be constantly attacked with critics, repeated evidence throughout the ages confirms that God did speak to his people, that God did give wisdom. He gave prophecy and he gave authority for his people to write down his words. And that is why we hold the Bible. We hold these words to the to the highest degree of truth. But there's nothing higher
53:00 - 53:30 when it comes to truth than the Bible. We place these words, these teachings as a standard not only for the church but for our everyday lives. We have the Bible to continually measure oursel by it. We have the Bible to continually examine our hearts by it because again at some point your faith will be tested because people will always question the validity of God's word. So we need to be able to stand firm on what
53:30 - 54:00 we believe. We need to be able to stand firm on our faith, on the truth, and the reality that the Bible is God's inspired, inherent, infallible word. So, I want to encourage you if you're not doing it already, you ought to be picking up the Bible and reading it every single day. So, if you're not already doing that, I encourage you to do that. If you don't have the app, if you have a smartphone, you don't have the Bible app, listen, we probably need to meet and pray for you
54:00 - 54:30 after services because it's a pretty quick, easy, free download. My encouragement for you is when you pick up your Bible, when you open that app, I hope that you'll remember always what people have done to make sure that you had a copy of God's word, how they've died for it, how they've helped preserve it, and even how they're translating it and finding that. I hope that you'll read it with respect. I hope you'll read it with reverence.
54:30 - 55:00 I hope that you will not take verses out of context because I believe that is one of the greatest forms of disrespect when it comes to the word of God is to take verses out of its original meaning. And most of all, I hope that you'll remember who is speaking to you through his word and that is the almighty God. Let's pray. Father, again, thank you so much for the the occasion that we're here today together to to not only gather around your table, but Father, to just encourage one another, to to worship
55:00 - 55:30 you, to remind each other who we are, and uh to to help each other through this thing we called life. Because, Father, we know life is is often difficult. We often uh get lured in with sin and we often do things we're not supposed to do. We think in ways we're not supposed to think. We say things we're not supposed to think. thinking, Father, we know that when we look at your inspired word that it calls us to a higher way of living. And Father, we also know that through your word, you've given us so many different
55:30 - 56:00 promises. You've given us promises and you've given us power. I don't understand. And so, Father, we pray that as we continue to read your word, as we continue to study your word, that you'll continue to open our hearts to it. So, Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for preserving it for us. And I pray that if we're not taking it serious that we begin today, Father, we always pray for those who have sin in their life and if there is a need to to respond publicly this
56:00 - 56:30 morning, I pray that you'll give them the courage to do so. But Father, we also pray for those who haven't yet been born again. And I pray that they would have the the courage to make that decision. It's an important decision to be born again, but it's the most important one. And again, we know because of your word that when that happens, you'll forgive us of our sins. You'll give us the gift of the Holy Spirit. And you'll give us power to live every single day according to your word. Again, Father, thank you so much
56:30 - 57:00 for your love. Thank you for Jesus. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. Let's stand. Sing a song for our encouragement. [Music] I'll bewhere I'll bewhere I'll bewareing for my name. I'll bewhere I'll
57:00 - 57:30 bewhere I'll [Music] bewhere. In my robe is white, I will. In my robe is I will be listening for my name. I'll
57:30 - 58:00 bewhere I'll be listening. I'll [Music] bewhere I'll be listening. I'll be listening. I'll be listening for my name. If my robe is white when he calls me. If my robe is wide, I will. If my robe is wide, when he calls
58:00 - 58:30 me, I'll [Music] bewhere I'll be listening. I'll be listening. I'll be listening for my name. I'll be listening. I'll bewhere I'll
58:30 - 59:00 bewhere Our song in preparation for the Lord's supper will be ancient [Music]
59:00 - 59:30 words in this world. sound with God. Oh, let the ancient words in words of words of hope. Give us strength. Help us
59:30 - 60:00 go in this world where we roll. Anient words will guide us home. Anient words changing me and changing you. We have come with open hearts.
60:00 - 60:30 Oh, let the ancient words impart. Holy words of our faith handed down to this age and to us through the faithful words of
60:30 - 61:00 Christy words preserved. Earth for our [Music] inound with God. Oh, let the anient [Music] words
61:00 - 61:30 [Music] anient [Music] true changing me and changing you. We have come with open hearts. Oh, let the anient words come with
61:30 - 62:00 heart. Oh, let the anient words [Music] This morning I'm going to read from 1 Corinthians 11 23- 26. For I pass on to you what I received
62:00 - 62:30 from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do
62:30 - 63:00 this in remembrance of me as often as you drink of it. For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let us pray. Dear father, we thank you for this time an opportunity we have to remember Jesus and the great sacrifice he died on the cross for our sins. And we pray as we partake this bread that we'll do so
63:00 - 63:30 in a manner well pleasing to you in Jesus name. Amen.
63:30 - 64:00 Let's continue. And Father, we thank for this cup, the fruit of the vine, which also represents his blood shed on the cross. uh may we drink and partake of it in a manner pleasing to you in Jesus name. Amen.
64:00 - 64:30 Now we want to take a opportunity to
64:30 - 65:00 thank Jesus and God for our abilities and give back as we purposed. All right. Heavenly Father, we thank you for all the means and blessings you give each one of us, the the abilities we have to earn a living. And we pray that now we
65:00 - 65:30 take this time that we give back to you as we have purposed in our heart with a cheerful heart in Jesus name. Amen. If you would please stand. After this song, we'll be dismissed with our closing
65:30 - 66:00 prayer. Then at at the end, we'll repeat the chorus and then as the ladies echo the guys, um we'll hold that note for just a brief moment before we go into the rest of the chorus. There. Let's sing out. [Music] [Music] [Applause]
66:00 - 66:30 [Music] Mondrive and we survive. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
66:30 - 67:00 There was a long time ago. He is the God that we should know who is inspire. There is a God. There is a God. He is a God. [Music] Heat.
67:00 - 67:30 [Applause] Heat. Our [Applause] [Music] God was to give that
67:30 - 68:00 free and ever more with him. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat.
68:00 - 68:30 Praise the God. [Music] We
68:30 - 69:00 surive from the star. [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
69:00 - 69:30 Pray with me please. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege and opportunity to be able to come out and worship you today in spirit and truth. And Father, we pray that everything we said and did here today was well pleasing in our sight. Father, as we leave here today, bless us, watch over
69:30 - 70:00 us, and keep us safe. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. [Music] [Applause]