Scripture referenced 8 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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2 Timothy 3:16 all scripture is God-breathed, profitable for doctrine and reproof
16 Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,
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Keep this verse
1 Corinthians 13:1-8
the necessity and definition of love, read aloud as the core text of the second sermon
1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
5 doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;
6 doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
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Ephesians 5:22
husbands love your wives, cited in the context of a husband's duty to protect his family
22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
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Romans 8:28
all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose
28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
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Romans 8:1
there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
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Jeremiah 29:11
plans not to harm you, plans to prosper you and give you a hope
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
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Luke 9:14-16
the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus takes, gives thanks, breaks and gives the bread
14 For they were about five thousand men. He said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
15 They did so, and made them all sit down.
16 He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to the sky, he blessed them, and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.
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John 13:3-15
Jesus washes the disciples feet to demonstrate the full extent of his love
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came from God, and was going to God,
4 arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments. He took a towel, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
5 Then he poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 Then he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand later.”
8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “Someone who has bathed only needs to have his feet washed, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.”
11 For he knew him who would betray him, therefore he said, “You are not all clean.”
12 So when he had washed their feet, put his outer garment back on, and sat down again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?
13 You call me, ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord.’ You say so correctly, for so I am.
14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This Sunday's service included two messages. Pastor Ray delivered a history of the English Bible, tracing how ordinary people fought and died to put Scripture in the hands of ordinary readers. A guest speaker then preached on 1 Corinthians 13, walking through Paul's case that love is not optional but the very foundation of everything a Christian does.
What was said
Pastor Ray opened by explaining why this message mattered to him personally: he was leaving after the first service for a mission trip with a Bible translation component. That work, he said, starts with understanding how hard it was to get the Bible into any language at all. He framed the whole history around one concern: what happens when people add to Scripture, or keep it from others, versus what happens when they simply let it say what it says.
The story began with Jerome's Latin Vulgate, the Bible the Western church used for roughly a thousand years. When the Council of Toulouse in 1229 formally forbade laypeople from reading Scripture in their own language, it handed total interpretive power to church leadership. Pastor Ray was blunt about what that produces: absolute power corrupts absolutely.
John Wycliffe broke that hold in 1382 by producing the first complete English Bible, working from the Latin. He made powerful enemies, and decades after his death the church had his bones dug up and burned. What slowed Wycliffe's influence, Pastor Ray noted, was that every copy had to be written out by hand. Gutenberg's printing press in 1455 changed that equation entirely.
William Tyndale then went back further, to the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts themselves, and produced a translation of striking beauty. Words and phrases English speakers still use today came directly from Tyndale: "atonement," "twinkling of an eye," "seek and you shall find." He was strangled and burned in 1536. His dying prayer was that God would open the king of England's eyes, and Pastor Ray pointed out that the king's eyes did open, just too late to save Tyndale.
A string of translations followed, each one illustrating the same danger: the moment translators added marginal notes beyond what the text said, things went wrong. The Matthew's Bible picked up a note on 1 Peter 3 telling husbands to beat the fear of God into a disobedient wife. Pastor Ray set that against what the verse actually says, husbands dwelling with their wives in understanding and giving them honor, and asked simply, "How do you get to that other one from this?" Every detour in this history, he argued, came from someone imposing what they wanted the Bible to say rather than letting it say what it says.
The King James Bible of 1611 was the product of 48 scholars working individually and then together, going back to the primary source manuscripts, and deliberately setting partisanship aside. Its rules forbade marginal notes except where a Greek word had no clean English equivalent. It was not immediately popular, but its fidelity to the original text gave it staying power for three and a half centuries. Pastor Ray walked quickly through later translations up to 2004, noting that each revision represents scholarship getting closer to what the manuscripts actually say.
The guest speaker then took 1 Corinthians 13 and pressed on why Paul planted this chapter right in the middle of his letter to a church tearing itself apart. Paul's point, he said, is that spiritual gifts, doctrinal precision, generosity and even martyrdom all count for nothing outside of love, because God is love, and anything done outside of God is nothing. He worked through the qualities Paul lists, lingering on "keeps no record of wrongs" and on the Greek weight behind the word translated "patient," which carries the sense of long suffering and steadfast endurance. He closed with Jesus at the Last Supper, noting that before the cross Jesus got up, wrapped a towel around his waist and washed his disciples' feet. That act, he said, is the picture of what love actually looks like when it is lived out.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Ray spent a good portion of the sermon tracing how people were killed, excommunicated, or had their bodies dug up simply for putting the Bible into the language of ordinary people. What does that history stir up in you about how you treat your own access to Scripture?
- A recurring theme in the history Pastor Ray walked through was the danger of adding to what Scripture actually says, whether through marginal notes, church tradition, or personal bias. Where do you think that temptation shows up most in your own reading of the Bible?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 11,958 words
0:02
Hey, good morning church family. It's really good to see you guys. I love to see you talking and laughing and smiling. That's oh, sorry. You can't hear me.
0:12
Now you can? Okay. Now you can. Anyway, good to see you guys here talking and laughing and smiling because that's what a church should be. It should be a place that's warm.
0:21
And I pray that if you are a first time visitor that you would be welcomed here because you are. You really are. Can we pray together and we're gonna worship in song? God, we do give you thanks for another beautiful Sunday morning. Thank you God for these these wonderful times of worship that we have together.
0:37
I pray that we wouldn't take it for granted. But when we get here, we would truly love one another. And we'd be loving you. We'd be here to worship you. We're here for you.
0:46
Amen. Should we stand up?
2:07
Forever, forever. Rising to the 70 sun is love endures forever. By the grace of God, we would carry you all. Love endures forever. Forever.
3:04
Forever. Forever. God is faithful. Forever. God is on.
3:15
Forever. God is with us forever, forever, forever.
3:39
Amen. You all can have a seat.
3:45
Alright. Welcome to First B this morning. We're glad you guys are here. I'm going to run through a few announcements real quick and practice for the second service. So, I do it right then.
3:53
So, you guys are my guinea pigs for announcements. Let's see here. Just a few different than other on the black and yellow piece of paper that's in your guys' bulletin. That's sort of the week and things coming up but these are the odd obscure things that are happening that aren't our week to week thing. So, first of all, we would like to take your picture.
4:14
We've been running this for a couple weeks now and we'd like your picture so we know who you are and other people know who you are and then we're gonna post them with your names and this guy right here, Doug Wachman Wachman, if you see this handsome man with a camera, just smile. Grab your family and smile. So anything else to add about that? It's a good thing. We're getting to know one another.
4:36
Alright. And middle school dudes and foods breakfast get together is going to take a break till after the New Year. So, middle school boys, done until after the New Year. Okay. And this one, I I feel pretty good about this.
4:52
I made this last night and November 7, ladies first Friday fellowship. Come laugh with us. LFFF. It's not that funny. I thought I'd get better jokes.
5:06
But that is happening. That's November 7. Ladies, come for the first Friday fellowship. Operation Christmas Child is coming upon us as well. We're going to pack boxes on November 17.
5:17
So, please join us for that box packing party, November 17 and there is on the tech booth on the corner, there is a flyer that has all the information about things that you can donate or things that can go in the boxes, what can't go on the box. So if you're interested in helping with this or even helping donate, grab one of those flyers so that you have all of that information.
5:41
And time is limited on that one. We only have a couple weeks to get all those things in, and there's a box back there, a clear bin that has Operation Christmas Child. So if you could grab one of those flyers, you know what to grab, and then put it in the back in the bin, that would be fantastic.
5:57
Let me do the announcements, Carl. Alright. This is my time, buddy. And I think that's it actually. We're glad you're here.
6:09
Why you always gotta steal my thunder?
6:10
You always get the last word. Alright. Let's stand up. Let's greet one another, and they'll bring you back in song. Glad you're here this morning.
7:12
The love is there so much so much much A long water slobbings dance that caused those wonders. Somewhere there's a dread bunkers on my soul. Do you mail them dread bunkers swell my soul?
8:05
When I was sinking down.
8:08
Oh, when I was sinking down. Sinking down. Sinking down. When I was sinking down. Oh, down.
8:19
When I I was was sinking sinking down beneath God's righteous crown. I stood beside his crown for my soul, for my soul. Your cross there beside his crown for my soul. Thank you, Jesus. Got on the way, and we sing.
8:50
Till God and soon don't dare. I won't sing. And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on, I'll sing on. And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on. And when from death I'm free, I'll sing in your phone be.
9:51
And through eternity, I'll sing on, I'll sing on. And through eternity, I'll sing on. And you were not a God created by your hands. You were not a God dependent anymore, old man. And you were not a God in need of.
10:45
Anything we can give by your plan that's your sweetie.
10:53
Let's repeat that again, shall we?
10:57
And you're not a God created by your hands. And you're not a God dependent anymore, man. And you're not a God independent. Anything we can do by your kind that's so sweet. You are God alone from before time began.
11:28
You were on your throne. You were God alone. And right now, in the good times and bad, you were on your throne. You were God alone. And you're the only God who's power, James, you're the only God who's family.
11:59
Praise will never end. And you're the only God Anything you can do, you are God that's us away. And you are God alone from before time began. You were on your throne, and you were gone alone. And right now in the good times and bad, you were on your throne.
12:35
You were God alone. You're gone changeable. You're gone shaper. You're gone stop. Oh, that's what you are.
12:51
You're nonchangeable. You're nonstopable. That's what you are. And you are alone. Before time began, you were on your throat, and you were God alone.
13:16
Right now, in the good times and bad, you were on your throne, and you are God alone.
13:35
God, how true. You are the one and living true God. And I thank you God that you are alive and that and for those who believe you are alive in us. What a gift. And I thank you for the cross, God, that made this possible.
13:50
I thank you for the cross that has given us access to God through Jesus. And here we are. We come boldly before you because you tell us to. Thank you. Amen.
14:00
Amen.
14:19
When I survey, when I survey Where the whole realm?
18:37
God, how true. That love of yours that is so amazing and so divine. It really does demand our life, our soul, our all. And God, we confess that we don't enough give enough of ourselves to you. And we pray that more and more that cross would continue to have an impact.
18:54
We realize just how wonderful it is that you came, that you live, that you died, that you rose, and that you reign, and that you reign in us. You're alive today. And so we thank you for that and that really it changes everything. It changes the way that we live and act and move. And so God continue to place the importance of the cross on our heart.
19:15
Continue to place the importance of how we give, give ourselves to you. And that's not just with our pocketbook. That is with our heart and with our life and with these amazing gifts and skills that you've given to us. Continue God to use those things to bless your name, to give glory to yourself. Amen.
19:34
You can be seated.
22:02
Amen. And the children's church, their children are now dismissed to go down to children's church and if you would like, there are to be lots of poorest spaces and if some of y'all sitting in the back want to come up and sit next to some of these parents, y'all are welcome to. And if parents were doing communion today, we are doing the Lord's supper at the end of the service today. If it's important for you to go get your believing child and bring them back up, feel free to do that. You'll have a you'll see when it's about to end.
22:32
Trust me. And I'll send you out if you want to. So, this is a little different this week. This this week, I'm leaving between services to go on a mission trip and so, I was considering, should I get y'all ahead of the second service and then I have to remember two sermons or should we do something to keep us all in phase and so that's what we're doing. So, this one is something I've been wanting to do for a while and in the service last week, I said, I might do this between first and second Corinthians and then I thought better of it for a couple of reasons.
23:05
Awana at this church is awesome. At at Awana's awesome. Period. It's great because it's pouring scripture into the heads of the kids and I think that's a really really good thing. Renzi, if I stand somewhere else, will it not do that?
23:20
That noise, maybe. So, it's pouring in scripture and y'all know that where I start off on the slides every week, usually, it's okay. This is the passage and then we just go through and we examine what it says. I had a buddy when we were in seminary that we kind of made a pact that if we ever get in the position of preaching, what we're going to do as novel as this sounds is just say what it says. Praise God.
23:45
Just try to say exactly what it says. Now, I will fall short as a man. I'm gonna fall short but the word will not fall short. God says, it will not return void. He, we learned from second Timothy three sixteen.
23:57
I think it's on your bulletin that all scripture is God breathed, you know, and it's something that's gonna accomplish the purpose that he set out for. So, this week, what I'm gonna do because of the mission trip, at least one component of it is about Bible translation and so, I was thinking about that all week and what it's like. I started a long time ago handing out Bibles in Spanish and for somebody who's here and trying to learn English, that's, you know, it's great to have an English Bible and read it in English but for them, their heart language, your heart language is what? It's Spanish, right? We have folks in this church right now that are from Romania and their heart language is Romanian and so to learn it in English is is one step removed from that and it doesn't connect the same way.
24:40
So, if you've ever done any, given any support to Wickliffe Bible Translators, if you've ever thought about Bible translation seriously or considered it or you wonder why I mentioned so often what the Greek is doing in the your grammar and all that stuff. It's really really interesting to me and so I'm going to do a whirlwind black and white chronological analysis of the primary source documents pertaining to the history of the Bible in English. Okay? The holy Bible in English. So this is it's gonna be a a bit of a history lesson.
25:09
One major complaint that we hear, not so much from clerics in Islam but from other people, they will say that the Bible is corrupt. And I wanna tell you that the modern translations of the Bible are not corrupt. You see me often using the New King James because I grew up on the King James. And in 1982, I was given a New King James, and it oh, man. The these and thous are gone, it's you finally.
25:37
Good. And y'all would be even better. But anyway, we we learn in our heart language, and that's the one that sticks with me. It's the one that connects with my mind and my heart, so that's why I use it. So I'm gonna go through very quickly, I hope, just bouncing.
25:53
This is not a full history lesson. It just what I wanna get at is it really matters to pay attention to what it says. We get off track when we start interpreting beyond what it says and adding to it. So we don't wanna add to or take away from what the scripture says. So blank screen.
26:13
No Bible in English. There's no Bible in English. What if you're living in England? Speak in English. This is what you have.
26:20
From 382 to 04/2005, Jerome undertook writing the Latin Vulgate. So this Latin Vulgate was written based upon the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, and it is actually a pretty good translation. It has some faults. Translation, you lose something in translation, right? But that's why I try my best to study up every week to get you kind of where we're where we're going.
26:45
Drums was a pretty good. It had a few problems. So revisions are necessary. Right? This Latin Vulgate was the Bible worldwide up under the Catholic church, and they got together to come up with a a Bible that they could agree upon.
27:06
And the pope asked Jerome to undertake this, and he did. So from 382 to 04/2005, this is what he did. Turned out it was the Bible for, like, a thousand years. They did not revise it for a long, long time. There were a couple of problems with the Latin Vulgate, and then there were a couple of problems with a couple of different groups in France, the Waldensians and the Albigensians.
27:30
Okay? Trust me. You don't well, there's an old joke, but it's a seminary joke. 12/29, the Council of Toulouse was called to fight the Albigensian heresy and the Waldensian heresy because they had come to a place, and this reminded me in the last time that I preached in here too, I said that, have you read the end of this book? It's not even close.
27:57
God wins. Okay? If you're a Christian, you're a believer, it's not even close. There's not a dualist like evil and good or fighting it out, and it's gonna be a nail biter right to the end. No.
28:08
Good wins. God wins. The Albigensians and the Waldensians both believed that it was dualistic, that it was kinda even Steven. Yin yang. Good, bad.
28:18
Not true. The Council of Toulouse was to stamp that out. What they hoped to do was stamp out the heresy. Well, when they did that, what they said was nobody in the laity should be able to have the Bible in their own tongue. We are the ones that know what this says, and you can't be trusted with it.
28:38
Oh my. That's bad. So 12/29, end of the Middle Ages. Right? It had gotten pretty dark.
28:48
The church's excesses had gotten out of hand. And I won't go into full history of it, but in 1382, so that's like a hundred and fifty years later. Right? Nobody in Europe was supposed to be reading the Bible in their own tongue. They're only getting it from the guy standing up front, and he was the one that was interpreting it and telling them what it meant exactly by the church's dogma.
29:14
So that's a recipe for disaster. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. If you've got the truth and you are metering the flow of it out to people, you've got the power. Council of Toulouse 12/29/1382, Wycliffe, John Wycliffe. This is where they get the name, Wycliffe Bible Translator.
29:30
He is an Englishman trained at Oxford, great in Latin, not so great in Greek and Hebrew, but he loved the Bible, and he read the Bible, and he believed the Bible, and he saw that a lot of the excesses of the church were not really in the Bible. And when he saw that and truth is what sets us free, he said everybody should have this. Everybody should have it. And we should not be about wealth. We should be more about being poor preachers that carry the message of the cross.
30:02
I've been telling you what Paul's message was all along. Moving, moving, moving, but the message of the cross is it. Wycliffe believed that, and he translated himself and a couple of other guys, a few other guys, the first whole Bible into English. So Wycliffe's early version is a handwritten manuscript took forever to to translate that one to another to another to another. He had another revision in 1395.
30:27
Purvey, his his student and his friend, finished out that revision. Purvey had Wycliffe's permission, even his request and insistence to revise and to correct as greater scholarship would allow. I put that up there because sometimes we hold on to something like the vulgar. It was a thousand years, you know, that it was in use. Wycliffe made a lot of people mad.
30:52
He made a lot of people mad because he's questioning the power of the church. The bad thing is he was right. It didn't go well for him but he was not, you know, beaten and abused as many people would might tell you but he was ignored and then he was pushed out. He went, he retired, he died of a stroke, angry, angry at the powers that be. There are about a 170 of those Wiclophite manuscripts that are remaining.
31:27
Five, six, they're the later version because after the council of Toulouse, nobody's supposed to read it in your own language. If you were the guy who was writing it in their own language, they're kind of upset about that, right? So, five, six of them are the later version. They stamped out almost all of the other ones. They're only about 20 of em remaining but the handwritten nature of this Bible limited its sphere of influence.
31:48
Now, the Bible will not return void and it will do everything that God has set out for it to do and if we get a Bible in someone's hands and they read it, look into God, it will do what he says it will do, right? They may still reject him but they've had the chance. There are a lot of places that still have a blank screen. They don't have a Bible in their mother tongue, in their language. So Wycliffe died 12/30/1384.
32:13
Fourteen o eight, the third synod of Oxford. This is something where they absolutely reaffirmed the Council of Toulouse that nobody should read the Bible in their own language, and they denounced him as a heretic and all of the things which actually most of us would hold absolutely true. They denounced as heresy in the third senate of Oxford and said nobody should be reading this in their own language. They cannot be trusted with it. No one shall henceforth of his own authority translate any text of scripture into English, and no part of any such book or treaties composed in the time of John Wycliffe or later shall be read in public or private under Paine of excommunication.
32:55
That's power. That's in the council of of the third senator of Oxford. That's a straight quote. 1415. Now he died in 1395.
33:06
The pope orders Wycliffe's body to be dug up so that his bone may be burned as a heretic. That's bad. Right? That's pretty that to me is it's sad. It's funny.
33:17
I mean, that was enough that they made they made him so mad. Even twenty years later, 1455, what happened in 1455? Anybody? Anybody? Time says it's the most important technological advance ever.
33:30
Gutenberg's printing press. Gutenberg makes the printing press. Now, Wickliffe only had handwritten copies that were handwritten over and over and over and over again. 1455, what was the first thing printed on Gutenberg's printing press? The first book printed was the Bible in Latin which was a print copy of the Vulgate.
33:52
In 1516, Erasmus, Desiderius Eragmus, was a Greek scholar, also a Hebrew scholar but he was really a good Greek scholar and he started looking at the Latin vulgate and at Greek. You know, the renaissance, the rebirth. When did that it coincides exactly with this? When people started paying attention to the primary source documents, to the manuscripts themselves. Erasmus had a hold of these manuscripts.
34:21
He could translate them directly from Greek into whatever language but he chose to compile them all in one place, get all of the Greek exactly as it was and have that printed. He did. When he printed the Greek New Testament, Erasmus' Greek New Testament, That's 1516. Martin Luther and William Tyndale would both use this as the basis for their respective translations of the Bible. Now, he was going back to the Greek and just compiling the Greek, Erasmus was.
34:52
He was not changing it into his or any other vulgar tongue. August, October thirty first fifteen seventeen, a German Augustinian monk named Martin Luther protest at Wittenberg, Germany. It was not it was he had 95 theses, 95 things he was upset about and the primary ones had to do with we're not paying attention to what the Bible actually says, okay? So, 1516, we get it in Greek and Erasmus and Luther starts paying attention that and he says, this is what's wrong. This is what's been going on.
35:25
We have skipped something. We've missed something. We've added to it. So, 1526. Now, look at how fast this is all happening.
35:32
Once there's a printing press, There's a printing press where you can disseminate information rapidly. Do we have something we can disseminate information rapidly nowadays? Good grief. Yes. It's been getting bigger and bigger and bigger since then, but 1455, 1516, he has that.
35:46
He's printing it up. People are paying attention. 1526. This is ten years after Erasmus gets all of his in the Greek. Tyndale, William Tyndale, has the audacity still up under the threat of excommunication to translate the entire New Testament and the rest of the Bible too from Hebrew and Greek.
36:05
He studied Greek and the second graders this this week at the classical school started a a they asked me to come in and teach him the alphabet in Greek and I was thinking, this is how Tyndale started. He started with the Greek alphabet and moved on from there. By the time he was 20, he was fluent in like seven languages. Really, really good with it. Gift of tongues in my opinion but anyway, from the Greek this time, Tyndale writes his New Testament.
36:32
Tyndale is amazing. So, I'm going to tell you just a couple of things about him. I already did tell some but listen to this, in his New Testament, the coinage of the word atonement. You know where that comes from? Atonement?
36:46
At one meant. At one meant. The atonement. He came up with the word. In English because we didn't have that concept.
36:53
He coined the word atonement. Some people would argue but hey, it's the internet. Everybody argues about everything. At one minute, it's the first place that we have that written down. He came up with twinkling of an eye.
37:05
A moment in time. Fashion not yourselves unto the world. Seek and you shall find. Eat, drink, and be merry. All of these things had never been translated into English before.
37:16
Does that make sense? Even Wycliffe's were a little clunky. Tyndale's is beautiful. Ask it shall be given unto you. Judge not that you be not judged.
37:26
The word of God which live it and lasted forever. Let there be light. Now, it's God's word but it's the first time it had been heard in English. Now, does that connect with us? It absolutely does.
37:36
If we speak English. Now, this is what Tyndale said about his. I am exhorting instantly and beseeching those who are better seen in tongues than I in the spirit of meekness to amend it. So, it is their duty to do. That was the preface of his edition.
37:52
He's saying that greater scholarship may allow for us to get this right, better. Tyndale dies 10/06/1536 and I will, oh, it says I will forget to share Tyndale's last words. I did. No. Tyndale's last words were open up almighty God, open the king of England's eyes.
38:19
1534, act of supremacy. Now, he died in 1536. The act of supremacy was two years before he died. Two years before he died, the king of England now is the sovereign head of England and they have split with the church at Rome. He has the say so of all matters temporal.
38:38
He also has the say so now by the act of supremacy to say whether what the pope does is to be in England or not. This is the beginning of the Episcopal Church or the Church of England. The act of supremacy when that passes, you would think now that the king would be happy because Tyndale has come up with this version of the Bible. Ugh. Too bad.
38:59
The king does not. Open the king of England's eyes, almighty God, was his dying prayer. Fifteen thirty four is act of supremacy. Didn't do it. Two years later, when he dies, he says that, the Coverdale Bible was written in 1535 because now, it is actually legal.
39:18
You can actually do it because of the act of supremacy. Tyndale's assistant finished the whole Bible because those laws had said, not anybody in the time of Wycliffe and the next one said, not anybody in the time of Tyndale but this guy finishes it, puts it together, puts the apocrypha together at the end of the Old Testament. It's been in every apocrypha Bible sense in that state. If you look in a Catholic Bible today, the apocrypha will be right in the middle between the Old and New Testament. Those are extra books.
39:46
That's another lesson altogether. 1536, Tyndale was strangled first and then burned at the stake as a heretic. Even after the act of supremacy where they could have done something. Open the king of England's eyes, eyes, and then he dies. It's important.
40:03
Are y'all getting that this is important to these people? It's really, really important that we get the Bible straight up in our own language. It makes a difference. Matthew's Bible, this is small print for me. John Rogers version contained controversial notes which inspired the king to call for the next translation in 1537.
40:24
So the king calls it out, calls it Coverdale. There's that heretic Tyndale and so Coverdale worked with him. So, no, we're going have a different translation. He calls for it and this guy steps up. John Rogers and Matthews work together and this Bible, awful, became known as the wife beater's Bible.
40:42
Because of marginal notes. Do you understand the theme here? When we add to scripture, what it does not say, we get into trouble. The marginal notes for this one said, for first Peter three seven, and if she be not obedient, talking about a wife, and helpful unto him, endeavorth to beat the fear of God into her head, that thereby she may be compelled to learn her duty and do it. That's not in the Bible.
41:09
This is what's in the Bible. Husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding. Giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel. And as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered. How do you get to that other one from this?
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You have to have a preconceived notion. Wycliffe's major statement was, in the end, truth will conquer. When you add to it, it's not truth. What did Satan do in the garden? Did the Lord really say that you should not eat that?
41:43
Oh my gosh. Fifteen thirty eight, the great Bible. So, actually, so he dies in 1536, Tyndale does. 1534 is act of supremacy. In between his dying breath in 1536, the kings of England's eyes do open and now, the great Bible is nicknamed for the sheer weight of the volume.
42:01
It is actually bigger than this podium. It's about this size. Weighed an ungodly amount. It was this big and it was called the great Bible and because people wanted the word so bad, they had to have orders for it to be chained into each one of the churches, each parish church had a Bible and it was chained to the pulpit so nobody could steal it. That's a hunger for the word right there.
42:24
If you're going to steal a Bible this big, the great Bible. The Geneva Bible is not long after. That's fifteen thirty eight. The Geneva Bible is way way Calvinistic. It falls off to the side of the sovereignty of God.
42:36
We're always talking about sovereignty God, the responsibility of man. The Geneva Bible, typically, the marginal notes were definitely from a reform stance. They definitely had this this kind of a leaning that said, God's sovereignty trumps all. It's arguable. It does but human responsibility is still there and it kind of ignored that.
42:58
This was the Bible of the Puritans and Mayflower Pilgrims, a preface to the reader portions of the King James Bible. There's a lot of King James only ism. Did you all know that? Lot of people feel like the King James is the only Bible. Well, in the preface of the King James Bible, this is the one they use when they quote the Bible which is funny to me.
43:16
Geneva Bible. The bishop's Bible. The bishop's Bible were was a Bible that they called for all of the bishops in England to come together and find one that they could agree on. So, it was the Church of England's official Bible. The bishops got together and came up with it and they used previous versions but they got rid of a lot of what was in the Geneva Bible because anytime that Ecclesia which means called out ones, in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Episcopal Church, it always said church with a capital C.
43:47
Meaning, we're still in charge. Instead of congregation or called out ones, assembly. This one changed that back to church. It's the church because Presbyterianism was getting out of hand in Scotland. 1568, the bishop's Bible was made to replace the great Bible because of translation deficiency.
44:07
I should have mentioned that. The great Bible was also translated from the Latin and not from the Greek, so it had its errors and to avoid the marginal notes of the Geneva. The New Testament. It's a Catholic New Testament, also based on the Latin Vulgate. It came out at the same time, and it was in English because now in England, it was legal to do this.
44:29
That's the beginning of the Catholic reformation. Okay? The the counter reformation if you want to call it because we had the reformation and there were all these things we're so angry about and mad about and then the Catholic church said, well, you're right about that and that and that and they started to reform within. So anyway, Catholic New Testament based on Latin Vulgate, Old Testament Apography came to and it was just before the masterpiece of them all. Now, this is the in sixteen o three, there was the millinery petition.
44:59
There was one tenth of all of the path, the preachers, priests in England with the Church of England. A thousand of them, about a tenth of them got together and made a petition and called for reform in the church of England to James the first. As he acceded to the throne. So when he came into office and he's there, they made the petition immediately. You gotta do something about this.
45:21
There are too many Bibles. We gotta get one that we can agree on. So James didn't even let the Puritans in. James' mother was married, queen of Scots, and she was killed for being Catholic by Presbyterians fighting over the Bible because they both added to it. James didn't even let the Puritan representatives into the conference until the second day and then it said that he played the Puritan at times but he also played the other side.
45:50
He would not be nailed down to any one position and he wanted a Bible that we could agree on. By resolution, the ordered rules were to be drawn up for a new translation of the Bible and James himself and archbishop Richard Bancroft set to set the 15 rules and distribute them. Now, I will attempt not to bore you with the rules. If you're already there, you know, I can't do anything about that but only the funny ones are the really important ones would be mentioned. This will be a scholarly undertaking.
46:21
It is serious students of Greek and Hebrew will write this Bible. It's going be something where go back to the primary source, documents, and bring it from there, not tradition. We're shooting for a Bible that we can agree on, that says what it says, okay? It says exactly what it says. Partisanship will take a back seat to scholarship.
46:39
The rules were a bit slanted because that Presbyterian nonsense, the Presbyterian nonsense killed his mom. The called out ones called out his mom and killed over the Bible, which he knew was wrong. He had had to put up with while he was the king of Scotland. He was that too after that. Suggestions were made for earlier revisions to be considered primarily the bishop's Bible because that was already agreed upon but there were others about, I don't know the exact figures but a lot of it's Tyndale.
47:12
As it turns out, most of the King James is Tyndale's New Testament. He's a serious guy before God praying that he would not cause any error. So, from sixteen o four to sixteen eleven, they labored. There was supposed to be six companies of scholars, nine men per company, 48 of em actually worked on it. They were not 54.
47:31
They're 48 guys and they worked individually at first and then together. So they were supposed to do like Tyndale, get to their study, they split the Bible up into pieces and parts, and individually they translate it, and then they came back together, and then they fussed in their rooms about what it said, and they did all the doctrinal stuff long before it was ever out. We want to get at what it says. The reason that this one lasted so long was because of fidelity to the original manuscripts. King James Bible is a great Bible.
48:01
It's fantastic. It's a really good one but nobody ever really spoke like the King James Bible. They they gave Greek word order precedence in some places. So, that's why all the sentences start with conjunctions because Greek always starts with conjunctions at the front. So, there are some things we didn't ever speak like that but it's beautiful.
48:19
It's poetic. It's easy to remember. Consensus was important and fidelity to the manuscripts. Now, when it was released, I think this is funny too, it got mixed reviews. Nobody speaks like this.
48:30
What in the world? And he brought and this is a fairly famous quote, a Hebrew scholar, I would rather be rent to pieces by wild horses than have had a part in the urging of such a wretched version of the Bible on the poor people. They didn't ask him to translate. The Puritans, including many of the translators, continued the Geneva version for years even from the pulpits of the Church of England. So it was something that wasn't met with immediate acceptance, but it was the authorized version and it was that for three hundred and fifty years, it was the major Bible because of fidelity to what it says.
49:01
No marginal notes. The only marginal notes were when there was a Greek word that there was not an equivalent word that you couldn't get around in the sentence without magnificent circumlocution is what it says. So translators note to the reader explains position of the Church of England as opposed to the Church of Rome as it pertains to scriptural availability. It said that we can do this because we're in England, and we're going to. And it it's full of information why they had done what they did, and it leaves room for future revisions of the work.
49:32
It in no way claimed to be the end of translating but a noble effort at an accurate translation. Okay. Are you all with me still? Is this interesting to you all as it is to me? The mission trip that I'm going on is about, at least one component of it, is about Bible translation.
49:46
It matters. It makes a difference. It starts wars. It gets people killed when you don't pay attention to what it says, when you pay attention to what you think it says or what you want it to say. Either we bend it or it bends us if we take it seriously.
50:04
1885 was the first time that this English revised version is a King James updated to 1885. 19 o one was the American Standard Version for American vernacular. Sounds more like American spoke in 19 o one. Nineteen seventy one, the new American Standard Bible. If I'm looking for the if I'm translating from the Greek myself, I was born in 1971, by the way.
50:27
If I'm translating from Greek myself, really paying attention to it, it comes up sounding like this because I'm a new American, and this is kind of the standard. Translating it from Greek, it usually hits this. This to me is the closest one to the original Greek. I think I'm seeing a lot of heads bobbing. It's really, really good.
50:46
1973, the nearly inspired version no, the new international version is not bad either. It's very much, very, very much bland, though. It says what it says, it does not go beyond, but they make a few editorial decisions. It's just fine, you have to do that in translation. The new international version was '73, and they have updated it.
51:09
How many times? Carl uses the '84. It's like every year basically, as scholarship allows, they do a little revision. 1982, I told you New King James Bible. That's the one that I typically use in sermons.
51:21
Nineteen ninety six was a New Living Translation. When we went through Acts, we used this translation. We used this one because I know the guy who was the guy who wrote that one for the Bible, and I trust him. And I know that it says what it says. I also went through a lot of it with him.
51:37
We can be confident that through these years, what they're going back to now is to the original manuscripts. Now, there are some flops, there are some things. 2,000 one's English Standard Version, Fantastic Bible. If you're looking for one, this is a great one. 2,004, Holman Christian Standard.
51:55
This one is a Southern Baptist creation. It is something that has a lot of marginal notes about salvation. That is very very important to me, but it's very important to Southern Baptist. But it does have exactly what it says but then it goes beyond to say, salvation is important. Salvation is important.
52:13
Salvation is important. It is important but I just wanted to throw that in there. So, that was a whirlwind black and white chronological analysis, the primary source documents of the history of Bible in English. The whole reason why I do that is it's really, really, really important. I can't emphasize it enough that we get what it says.
52:30
God will use it. If we get it right, and Satan will use it if we get it wrong. It's important. I think that's it. If you would like to, that's probably the weirdest lead in into communion y'all have ever heard.
52:46
I know that. If you'd like to go get your kids that are believers and you want to bring them up for communion, feel free to do that. I'm going to invite the elders to come forward and we're going to work in. Carl sang a lot of songs about the cross at the beginning. Y'all know that I have a high respect for the Bible but I'm not worshiping the Bible.
53:04
I'm worshiping the God of the Bible. The Bible contains the gospel and the gospel is the power unto salvation for all who believe. It is a very, very real invitation from a book that really does get it right, okay? It is about belief. It is about putting your faith in Christ.
53:27
There are a lot of questions that are answered by the Bible but the primary one is this one. I told you about Iwana at the very beginning. So, Pascal had to call three people and ask him what the Bible was to them for Awana this week. She called my mom. She called one of her uncles and she called one of my aunts and mom, my her uncle said, it's to teach us how to live.
53:54
My mom said, it's God's love letter to us and my other aunt quoted scripture and she said, that it's God breathed and it's profitable for reproof and for doctrine, all this. The three of those are exactly right. It is God's love letter to us and he tells us the way that he has made for us to be saved. Jesus lived a perfect life according to the scriptures. He was persecuted, crucified, dead, and buried, and then rose to life again.
54:26
He forecasted ahead of time and then afterwards, he told us to tell this story and if you believe that, you may take. This is an open table. You may partake of the bread and the cup. Lord, would you please bless us this morning as we remember you and your broken body and what you've done for us. Lord, help us to get it right individually and collectively.
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In Jesus name, amen. Night that Jesus was betrayed. After living a perfect life, after three years with his disciples. That same night when he was betrayed, Jesus took bread after supper. He said, this is my body broken for you.
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Do this in remembrance of me. God almighty, we thank you for sending Jesus. Jesus, we thank you for coming. Holy Spirit, we thank you for indwelling. By the blood of Jesus.
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Nothing can wash away sin but the blood of Jesus. God, would you bless this cup as we distribute it? May we remember you and your shed blood for our sins. Amen. The same way that he took the bread, he took the cup after supper and said, this is the new covenant in my blood.
1:02:20
Take this in remembrance of me. And Paul tells us that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim his death until he comes. Imma ask Carl and the band to come back up. We're going to sing one final song and thank you for indulging me today. What do we believe?
1:02:48
Will you all stand with us and sing this? Just a second. My wife reminded me. If you happen to be Presbyterian, I don't think it's nonsense. That was King James, the quote.
1:03:04
But actually, we went to First Pres in Columbia, South Carolina while we were there and we, you know, I think you all know that we have a very wide background of people here in this church right now. All the background involved. What do we believe? This song gets to the.
1:03:27
So, sing we believe in God the father
1:03:31
We believe in God the father. We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in the Holy Spirit that he's given us new life. We believe in the crucifixion. We believe that he conquered death.
1:03:51
We believe in the resurrection. That he's coming back again. We Christ. We believe in the Holy Spirit. Yeah.
1:04:15
He's given us to lie. We believe in the crucifixion. We believe that he conquered death. We believe in the resurrection that he's coming back in. We believe.
1:04:47
Lord God, my prayer today is that those places on the earth where it is still illegal to read the Bible in your own language would be exposed to your truth. Lord God, have your way. I agree with Wycliffe that in the end, truth will conquer. Jesus, you are the way, the truth, and the life. Would you go with us this week allowing us to live that message out and have the opportunity to say it?
1:05:17
Amen.
1:05:18
Well, good morning. I want to ask you a couple of questions this morning. How would you like to have a bulletproof marriage? How would you like to have business relationships that were absolutely immutable and withstood the test of time? How would you like to be able to mend all of the broken relationships with your children, with your parents, with your loved ones, aunts, uncles, friends, all of those people for some reason or another, you have have found yourself broken apart from?
1:06:01
How would you accomplish that? Let me ask you a couple of more questions. If you were the president of The United States, how would you demonstrate love to the people of America? If you were head of a major corporation, how would you demonstrate love to the people in your corporation? If you were ahead of your family how would you demonstrate your love to your family?
1:06:45
That's what I want to talk about this morning. Let's go to the Lord. Father, your great apostle and understanding the depth of the brokenness of the church at Corinth understood that he needed to pause and say, take your mind off of what divides and put it on what focuses. Father, I will never be able to reach the depth of your apostle Paul but I ask this morning that with your spirit, and the word that your spirit so carefully penciled. That you connect with the spirits of people's heart and let them see and understand the most excellent way.
1:07:41
In Christ's holy name, amen. Pastor Ray has been speaking to us the last several weeks about the church at Corinth and and how broken it was and and he was addressing many many issues in the church. And then all of a sudden, just like a bolt of lightning, he stopped. He stopped about trying to answer specific questions about should I do this or should I do that? He just stopped and he said, wait a minute.
1:08:15
Wait a minute. I now will show you the most excellent way If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am only a resounding gong and a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and have all knowledge and if I have faith that can move mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, if I surrender my body to the flames but have not love, I gain nothing. Oh, love is patient.
1:09:03
Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude.
1:09:09
It is not self seeking. Love is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but it rejoices with the truth. It always protects.
1:09:22
It always trust. It always hopes. It always perseveres. Love never fails. Folks at Corinth, you need to understand that there are some people that speak in tongues and there's some people that don't.
1:09:46
There's some that say they worship the apostle Apollos and some say the apostle Peter. Some say that they worship the apostle Paul and some say, I'm just a follower of Christ. There's some people who are suing each other right in the body of Christ. And there's some people that are trampling all over the sanctity of marriage. They're arguing about communion.
1:10:16
They're arguing about each and every little thing and Paul is trying to answer those questions but all of a sudden, he just says, woah, wait a minute. We're going down the wrong road here. I just need to show you the most excellent way. I need to to show you you broken church. What it is that God intends for your church?
1:10:44
What is this most excellent way? See, the most excellent way is love. John says, that God is love and so obviously, the most excellent way has to be One of the things that that I always teach is A equals B equals C. If God equals love, then love equals God. Pretty simple, ain't it?
1:11:24
And that's what Paul was trying to tell the church at Corinth but you see, before he could really enter into a conversation about the power and the beauty and the majesty of love, he had to say, you need love. There is a necessity of love. You can speak in the tongues of men and of angels but if you don't have lung or love, you're only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. There were some people in the church and and kind of think about this as the modern American church too because it parallels so close. There were some people in the church that said that tongues went out with the apostolic era and if you speak in tongues, you're divisive and there were some in the church that said, well, you know, that's not totally true.
1:12:22
There is some legitimacy to tongues but it shouldn't be disruptive in a church service and there are some that say that if you don't speak in tongues, you can't be saved. All of that was going on in the church in Corinth and all of that is going on in the Church of America today. And Paul said, it doesn't matter. If you stand up in church and I'm sure over the next couple of weeks, pastor Ray is going to be telling us what we need to know about the the gift of tongues and I'm not going to go there today. But what Paul says that if you stand up and you start preaching on tongues and saying, this is the only way, then you are nothing but a loud noise in front of your congregation.
1:13:19
He said, it simply doesn't matter. If you don't have love, when you're trying to teach a biblical truth, then, I'm sorry, it's just going to fall on deaf ears. And then he says that, If I have the gift of prophecy, I can fathom all mysteries. I have all knowledge. I have the faith that can move the mountains but I have no love.
1:13:46
I am nothing. Now, prophecy simply is proclaiming what God has said. It's speaking to the people for God. And if you say I have that gift and that's what your pastor does every week, he stands up and preaches God's word to God's people and you say that you have that gift and you don't have love Paul says, you're nothing. If you have all knowledge, if you can memorize this book from one end to the other and you do it outside of the concept of love, then Paul says, you are nothing.
1:14:35
If you can tell the Grand Teton to move across Jackson Hole to Target Togany Pass and it does it and you don't have love. Paul says, you are nothing. It doesn't matter what you preach. It doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't matter how strong of a power you have.
1:14:59
If all of that takes place outside of love and God is love, then you are absolutely nothing in the eyes of God If I give all I possess to the poor if I surrender my body to the flames, and I have nothing and I I have not love. I have gained nothing. Folks, we live in an era of the most terrible kind of religion. It's a religion that is based upon trying to please God. It's a religion in which people cut people's heads off.
1:15:56
They walk into shopping centers and and blow themselves up trying to please God. We live in an era where our nightly news is is saturated with people who are doing the most hideous things in order to please God. And Paul says, folks, you can give everything that you have to the poor. You can leave your will to the church. You can go on mission trips every year.
1:16:39
Mark this up. I went on mission this year and this year. I taught it Absarca Bible School this year and this year. I've done this and I've done that and Paul says, if you do all of that, if you throw your body in the flames for the cause of Christ, if you do anything, you gain nothing. You cannot gain entrance in the kingdom of God by anything that you do.
1:17:07
It is only out of love that you come into the presence of God. So, if love is this important If Paul lays out a case to the church at Corinth that that love is an absolute necessity for you to stand before the throne of God and praise his name. Then he said, I need to tell you what it is. What is the reality of love? Well, most of you, I think probably all of you have heard anywhere between one and five thousand sermons on Agape Love.
1:17:48
Agape is a Christian word. It is not an Islamic word. It is it is not a Buddhistic word. It is not a word that is found anywhere outside of the Christian faith. It is a concept that was introduced into the world by Jesus himself and carried forward by the apostles.
1:18:12
So, when a Christian says, I love you, what they are saying is that I will give myself absolutely, totally to you without ever expecting anything in return. There's a whole bunch of people in the world running around scared to death of God They are afraid that that if they don't blow somebody up, if they're afraid, if they don't give all they have to the poor, they're afraid if if they don't somehow take out a few infidels. That God is going to torch them. Folks, God is love. They don't know God if they believe that about God.
1:19:03
They are not talking to God if they believe that about God. God is love. He is that total expression of giving, giving, giving, giving to us without ever expecting anything in return. Isn't that wonderful? We serve a god that who uses this word three twenty times in our New Testament and if you look at all of the Greek literature for the one hundred years in the time of Christ and the apostles, you only find Agape written three times and all of the literature, Jesus ushered that word and that concept in and he says, that's who we are.
1:19:48
We are a people of love. Love is patient. Patience is a weak, weak English word to describe what Paul is talking about here. He says, love is long suffering. It's enduring.
1:20:08
It's steadfast. Can you imagine what our marriages, what our businesses, what our churches would look like? If we were long suffering, enduring, and steadfast? Can you imagine the freedom that that would give us? If we have that kind of long suffering in our relationship with our spouses, we are free in our marriage.
1:20:43
If we have that long suffering in our business relationships, it doesn't matter if my partner and I don't agree on how to make money in the business. I'm going to take what I know about what God has given me and I'm going to stay strong and steadfast in that and my partner, I'm assuming will do the same thing and we will come out with a strong relationship in the end. We can remain steadfast when our children do things we don't want them to do. We can stay steadfast when our parents say things to us that we wish they hadn't have said. We can be long suffering with all of the other people in the church, with those people who don't like the color of carpet, and with those people that do.
1:21:33
We can be enduring with those people who want to speak in tongues and those who do not. Folks, we we can stand. We have the freedom to hug the neck of the little girl who's just had an abortion. We have the freedom to love others because it doesn't matter about them. It matters about what we give, what emanates out from us.
1:22:04
And so Paul says, love is kind. You know, there's a book that gained a great deal of popularity a few years ago. It's called Random Acts of Kindness. Don't you believe for one minute? That that is anything that's taught in this word.
1:22:22
We are people of love and kindness emanates out from our bodies. It's nothing that's random at all. It is a full time omission of the love that is God. It is knowing that all of the time that that there's a kindness, there's a goodness that flows from another person. Love is extraordinary.
1:22:52
It's something that that is total in the character of people who follow Jesus Christ. Paul says, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, and it is not self seeking. You see, all of those adjectives describe selfishness. And if the Christian faith is about anything else in the world It is about unselfishness. It is Paul even tells the church at Philippi consider others better than yourself.
1:23:39
Can you imagine what it would be like if every person that call themselves Christian looked at the whole universe of people out there above themselves? Can you imagine the love that would flow out of the church of Jesus Christ? You see, that's what Paul is saying here. Love does that. It puts our self in second place to every other human being in the world.
1:24:09
Now, that's not taught in our schools. That's not taught in most of our churches. There's a a guy that has a great national ministry right now. And in his national ministry, he tells you every week that it's all about you. But what the the word of God preaches, it's not about you at all.
1:24:32
It's about everyone else. It's about God. There's nothing selfish about the love of God in Christ Jesus. Then, Paul says, it's not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.
1:24:50
Best way I can describe this back when I was a full time pastor. I did a lot of marriage counseling. I think I performed somewhere in the neighborhood of a 160 weddings. I got to do one for my niece just a couple of weeks ago. But I always required three pre marriage counseling sessions.
1:25:13
Now, a 180 or a 160 times three means I did about four eighty counseling sessions. Now, I had a couch in my study. It was a three cushion couch. And in that pre marriage counseling, that center cushion got all the wear and tear. I mean, they would sit in that center cushion and they were inseparable.
1:25:37
I doubt very seriously if they heard a word I said. But they were absolutely inseparable. But then, comes the post marriage counseling. And I didn't have to worry about my center cushion wearing out before my exterior cushions wore out. Because in post marriage counseling, you can bet that one is in one and one is in the other.
1:26:06
Okay, guys. What's going on? Well, you can't imagine what she did to me. Well, I did that because you did this. Well, I did that because you did this and on and on, we work our way back until we've discovered finally who it is that drew first blood which means that they didn't listen to a word I said in pre marriage counseling.
1:26:32
Because love keeps no record of wrongs. You know why I know that? Besides Paul saying it? Because the one who is love said it too. He said, I will forgive your sins and I will remember them no more.
1:26:55
Can you imagine that? Every time you go before the king of the universe, and you say, God, forgive me for what I've done. His answer is going to be, what's that? And then you come back a week later and say, oh God, I messed up three weeks ago so bad. I don't know what you're talking about.
1:27:21
You see, that's the kind of love that sustains a marriage. The love that keeps no record of wrongs. The moment that you say, I forgive you, love writes it off the books. And folks, if your marriage is in the record keeping, let me tell you, that you need to quit. Love keeps no record of wrongs.
1:27:55
So, Paul gives us a great exhortation of what the necessity of love is and and what the the definition of love is, what it is, and what it isn't. But then he wants to tell us what the great benefits of Christian love really are. He says, love always protects It always trusts. It always hopes. It always perseveres.
1:28:31
Love never fails. It always protects. You know, one of my pet peeves is to be in a conversation with a bunch of guys and they start cutting down their wives. I know immediately that that marriage is on the rocks and not because of her but because of him because if he loved her, he would be protecting her. What I hate even worse than that is when they they cut their spouse down in front of other people.
1:29:09
You see, love is a is a protective action. Love always protects. My number one job. I've I've said this many times and I've said it in pre marriage counseling and I've said it everywhere. God is pretty clear.
1:29:24
Ephesians five twenty two, husbands, love your wives. And I think when I stand before the throne of God about the only question he's going to ask me, did you protect your wife? Did you protect your family? What is the spiritual health of your family? Did you protect them by presenting them weekly, hourly, daily, into the presence of God?
1:30:00
That's the questions I think God's going to ask me because you see, love always protects. Always trust There's a word that we read kind of flippantly throughout the New Testament. It's called faith. And most Christians equate faith with belief But let me tell you, in the Greek, there is no connection between love and faith. Or or between belief and faith.
1:30:36
Faith in the Greek is trust plus commitment. If I trust that all things work together for the good who of those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose, I can commit myself to God. If I believe there is no condemnation in in Christ Jesus, then, oh, how I can commit myself to the cross Margaret and I were talking about this this morning and she brought up, how about I have plans for you. Plans not to harm you. Plans to do you good.
1:31:24
Plans to prosper you. And if I haven't said these things were true, it would not be so. Christ told us at the Lord's supper. If we trust in those words of God himself, how much more wonderful our commitment to him? Love always trust.
1:31:50
Now, you carry this one step further. If it trust, it always hopes. Now, the Christian hope you've heard I know pastors preached on it one or two times since last three years that I've been here. Christian hope is not hoping you'll win the lottery or hoping your kids are going to make it home safe or or hoping that the election's going to turn out like I want it to turn out next week. That has nothing to do with Christian hope.
1:32:22
Christian hope is knowing for sure what God has promised and all I gotta do is wait for it. That it's going to happen in my life. Life is so short It's a mist. It's a blink of an eye And don't you see the advantage of love? Because if you love, you live in this protection.
1:32:59
You live in this perseverance. You live in this hope that all of the things that God promised are going to happen to me. Now, God didn't promise me I was going to be wealthy on this Earth God didn't promise me anything but I kind of remember when he sent Ananias to see Paul with scales all over his eyes. His mission was to go tell Paul all of the things he must suffer for the gospel. Not to get to heaven but to live this very short window of eternity living for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
1:33:45
We can always hope and love always perseveres what God has promised, God will deliver Love never fails. Never. Never. Never. I ask you earlier If you were the president, how would you show your love?
1:34:20
If you were head of a corporation or head of your own family, how would you demonstrate love? There's an easy answer as a guidebook for each one of us. John said, on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he understood that all authority in heaven and earth was given to him. Now, if you don't understand those words, it means that everything, all everything, the rocks, the rivers, the streams, the winds, the waves, the stars, the moons, the the satellites, the galaxies, all things, all people, all animals, all creatures are under the authority of Jesus Christ. He is the king of kings and he is the Lord of lords.
1:35:24
And he upon that understanding said he he was going to demonstrate to his disciples the full extent of his love. That's love to the nth degree. That's the word tell us that the pastor has preached about a couple of times. Tell us, love to the maximum degree, the nth degree, the ultimate kind of love. How would the king of the universe demonstrate his love for you and I?
1:35:58
If you think about the answer being the cross that's a good guess but it's not right. He stood up from the table. He took off his outer garments. He wrapped a towel around his waist and he bowed down and he washed his disciples' feet. The disciples were in shock.
1:36:30
The king of kings and the Lord of lords was washing their feet. He said, do you know what just happened? You call me lord and you call me teacher because that's who I am. And now that our lord that that your lord and your teacher has done these things for you, you are to do for one another. For there is no servant above his master.
1:37:10
Folks, our life is to be lived at the feet of those we love. Giving, serving, considering everyone else better than us. That's Christianity, folks. Christianity is not making a million dollars. Christianity is is not about the color of carpet and Christianity is not about speaking in tongues or not speaking in tongues or taking communion once a month or five times a week.
1:37:46
Christianity is about you and me living at the feet of the world around us. Let's go to the Lord. Heavenly father, my prayer today is that I have not been a clanging symbol or a resounding God. That where I do not have love that your love has poured out of these words. And I pray lord that out of this little group that's here today, we carry the message of love into the world around us.
1:38:37
We pray these things in Christ's holy name. Amen. Well, before I leave you, one of the great privileges of the Christian faith is the partaking of holy communion. I grew up in a tradition where we did it every week. If you didn't, you're okay.
1:38:57
I'm okay. You're okay. But one thing is done for me, it makes me love it all the more. I want to read you a passage that you've all know so well but before I do, I want to talk to you about the rhythm of scripture. There is a rhythm that takes place scripture and if we watch for it, we can find it and find it deliciously.
1:39:29
For example, When you read about Mary in in the gospels, Mary, the sister of Martha. All four times in two different gospels, whenever Mary shows up, she's at the feet of Jesus. There's a rhythm of our relationship with the Lord. But here's one that you may not know. Scripture shows us four, five, six times where Jesus fed the people.
1:40:03
And every time he does it the same way He had just fed the 5,000 The disciples answered, we only have five loaves of bread and two fish unless we go and buy food for the crowd. All 5,000 men were there, probably ten, zero people. But he said to his disciples, have them sit down in groups of about 50 each and the disciples did so. Taking the loaves He looked to heaven and he gave thanks and he broke them and then he gave them to the disciples. Every time in scripture where Jesus is feeding the people.
1:41:00
When he fed the 5,000, when he fed the 4,000, when he was at the large supper, when he was with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, it's always the same thing. He takes the bread and he gives thanks to God he breaks it and he gives it to his disciples to the people You see, when Christ takes us, he gives thanks to the holy God for us. He loves us so. But then folks, he has to break us He has to get rid of all of that stuff that's not love. And after he breaks us, then he gives us out to the people of the world to demonstrate his great love.
1:42:07
Thank you, Carl.
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