Well, today we're going to take some time away from our study of the Gospel of Mark. We just completed chapter 7. And we're going to focus the rest of the month on the Protestant Reformation. I like to, during this time, take that opportunity to go through various issues, various topics, on the subject of the Protestant Reformation. We're talking about the Protestant Reformation of 1517. It's amazing really how many people don't understand what took place on that very historical day. October 31st, most people just think about October 31st as Halloween. But October 31st, 1517, a monk by the name of Martin Luther, he nailed his 95 thesis to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany in protest of the abuses and corruption within the Roman Catholic Church. And in that document, he addressed the indulgences, which were certificates that were sold by the Roman Catholic Church. And basically, they promised forgiveness and a reduced time in purgatory. He also addressed the authority of scripture over the teachings and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. And he called the church to reform from within. But he was later rejected and excommunicated from the church. Now we have talked about this event so many different times. We've talked about it in full and we've talked about some of the pre-reformers like John Wycliffe and John Huss. We've talked about Martin Luther. We even talked about William Tyndall who was part of the English Reformation. And one of the questions, or really statements that have come out of this, has to do with an issue, a major issue. This is the major underlying issue that started all of this. And it's the authority of scripture. Now later on they developed the teaching of the five solas, and sola is Latin and you can see them right there on the wall. And sola scriptura was one of them that talked about scripture alone. You see, the Roman Catholic Church did not recognize that exclusively. They believed in the dual authority of scripture and tradition. They write in their catechism, paragraph 82, quote, the church to whom the transmission and interpretation of revelation is entrusted does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy scripture alone. Now you can see why the reformers came back with sola scriptura because it says scripture alone. Well they said well it didn't come by scripture alone, it was derived according to their 94 catechism, number 95, it was derived by sacred tradition, sacred scripture and the magisterium. Listen to what they said. They said, it is clear therefore that in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred traditions, sacred scripture in the magisterium of the church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively, get this, to the salvation of souls. Hence the rest of the solas. The reformers responded to that, said no, it's scripture alone, by faith alone, it is by grace alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. Not scripture plus tradition plus the magisterium See, they treated them all with equal importance. They put those things right next to Scripture. Sounds exactly what the Pharisees were doing, right? When we talked about the tradition of the elders, they put that alongside of Scripture and it became actually more binding than Scripture. And that's usually the case here. You stack something against Scripture and you say it has equal authority, really what's gonna lose out is Scripture. Tradition is gonna play over that. Catechism 81 says this, sacred scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit. And holy tradition transmits it in its entirety to the word of God, which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. Well, if you don't understand what they're saying there, because this sounds pretty good. Listen to Catechism 85. The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the word of God, whether it is in written form or in the form of tradition, has been entrusted to the living, teaching office of the church alone. This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome. Now who is the successor of Peter? Who is the Bishop of Rome? I'll give you a hint. Starts with a P, ends with an E. You got it? The Pope. So in our time together, I want to show you that's not true. Scripture does not give its way over to tradition. It does not allow anything else to come up against it and say it's equal or over the authority of Scripture. No, Scripture is binding. And the Bible declares it to be binding. It is the final authority. But before we begin to look at that, let me read to you from the Westminster Confession of Faith. This is chapter one, section four. It says, the authority of the Holy Scripture for which it ought to be believed and obeyed depends not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God, the author thereof, and therefore it is to be received because it is the word of God. Beloved, what you hold in your hands, that's the Word of God. It's not that in the Book of Common Prayers, it's not that in the Book of Traditions, it's not that in other things. It is the Scripture alone. 2 Timothy 3.16 reveals its author. When it says this, all Scripture is inspired by who? By God. Theopneustos, it is breathed out by God. It is God's scripture, it's God's word. And how he gave it to us was by inspiration. The word inspiration there in 2 Timothy 3.16 could probably be better translated expiration, breathing out. In fact, the ESV translates it in such a way. He breathed out His Word. That means He spoke His Word to man and had them write it down. And the Bible has approximately 40 different authors. And all within agreement. That is amazing because it's hard to get two people in the room and agree on much of anything. But yet you have 40 different authors in the Bible, Old and New Testament. And they didn't contradict one another. They wrote from a long period of about 1,500 years, and they agreed with one another. And the reason for that is because God is its author. The Holy Spirit is its author. The Holy Spirit controlled what they wrote. And in that passage, it tells us that because it is God's authoritative word, it is useful or beneficial for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training, righteousness. In other words, it's binding upon the conscience and it is to be taught so that it trains the conscience and then it will reprove and correct and train in righteousness. And how are we trained in these things? Let me just tell you how we're trained in these things. It is through trials. It's through trouble. You really don't learn. until you're in a place to where you're tested. And you have to go back and review what you believe the scripture teaches, what you are clinging to, what you are holding on to. And it is in those moments, as James chapter 1 tells us, that your faith is tested. But you have to let endurance have its perfect work so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Perfect and complete is another way of saying to be mature in the Word of God. You've got to go from the step of a baby into a mature adult, and it's going to have time going along the way. So like 1 John would note, that you become a young man or a young woman, then you become a father or a mother. That's really what we're gleaning after. Now man's words are not what binds us, it's God's. I want you to notice this in several places in Scripture. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. And notice verse 6. Paul says, Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sake. Now I want you to pay attention to the next line. So that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written. So that none of you will become arrogant in behalf of one another, one against the other. Notice that phrase there. Not to exceed what is written. There are limits. There's limits on what I can say up here. And I pray all the time that God would guard my lips because I don't want to say something that's not true. And there's limits for you and what you say when you're talking to others from scripture. They were not to exceed what was written. They didn't have that liberty. They didn't have the liberty to add to God's word. Proverbs 30 and verse six says, do not add to his words or he will reprove you and you will be found a liar. God's word is truth. He is always truthful. And if you exceed what is written, then you're adding to it. And even Revelation 22, 18 and 19 gives a warning against adding and taking away from God's word. And I know specifically, it's speaking of the book of Revelation here, the prophecies that are written in, but can't we apply it to the rest of scripture? I mean, if you're prohibited from one book of the Bible, wouldn't you be prohibited from the rest of them? And what does it say? I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book. This is serious. You want to start adding to God's word or taking things from God's word? This is hugely serious. This is on the scale of whether you're really saved or not because those who are truly saved would not do this. They would protect and preserve the scripture. And the reason for that is because how they viewed it. How do you view scripture? Well, do you view it like the Thessalonians did when they received it? Listen to 1 Thessalonians 2.13. Paul says, for this reason, we also constantly thank God, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. This is not the word of men, it's the word of God. And do you receive it as such? Or do you walk away and say, well, you know, Pastor Steve said this, Pastor Steve, I don't know if I agree with that. And that's okay, you can agree to disagree, but let's do it on the basis of the sound teaching of scripture, right? Jesus saw scripture in this way, and he treated it with such a high view. He referred to it in John 17, 17 as truth. He said, your word is truth. And that's what he said to the disciples as he was praying for them in his high priestly prayer. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Sanctify means to set apart. Set apart them by the truth. You know, really this is what should differentiate us from the world. We're set apart to truth. And what's the world set apart to? Lies, evil, wickedness? heresies, false teaching. Whatever feels good, do it. Whatever feels good, say it. Say what you want. The only time you're gonna be censored, like I was reading this morning, Hillary wants everybody to be censored on social media and all that because if they don't censor you, then the government can't control you. She literally said that. I said, well, we already knew that that's what they wanted. But that's the issue. God doesn't want his word to be censored. So if they're gonna censor you, then speak the word. Speak the gospel, but do it in love. On another occasion, on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 15, or rather, Matthew 5 and verse 17, he said, do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until it is all accomplished. Now that's pretty amazing because in the Hebrew alphabet, the smallest letter in the Hebrew text is the yod. It's a very small letter. letter. And then the stroke of a pen, those are little tiny marks that would be used to distinguish between similar letters. In Greek, you'd have the iota, and it looks like a little I. It's just a little mark. If you're not careful, you can miss it. But he's saying not even the smallest letter will be taken away from the law of God. He came to fulfill, not to abolish. So he's basically saying by all of that that every detail, every word is important. This is why I favor expository preaching over any type of preaching because it deals with every word and it's after the meaning of scripture. When you accurately interpret the scripture, now you've gotten to its meaning. Now you can say that the meaning of scripture is scripture. But you've got to get there. And sometimes it takes a little bit of work to get there. There are some things that are not so easily able to interpret, and it takes some work. There are some other passages, certainly, that are, because God wants us to understand His Word. But it's only going to be revealed to those who truly believe, not to those who don't believe. So I believe that Jesus believed that every word was important. I believe that He taught expositionally. This is really why I focus on teaching through books of the Bible, is so that we can get the understanding of scripture within its context. And out of that context derive its meaning. Of course now it involves other various things too. We talk about grammar when we need to talk about grammar. We talk about tenses, voice, moods, all these different things. We talk about culture, we talk about history, we talk about geography. Only when the text dictates it for us to do that and it helps us to understand what is said there. For example, you go to 1 John chapter 3 and it talks about not sinning. And you read that and you go, wow, who is this talking about? Because I feel like it's not talking about me because I deal with sin all the time. But when you go through the text and you find out the present tense verbs are constantly used all through chapter three, and you find out that this means ongoing action. And even the translators use the word practice. If you practice unrighteousness, you practice sin. That's what it's talking about. It's not saying that you'll never sin, but I will say that there should be a decreasingness of sin in our lives the more that we walk with the Lord. Another scripture that reflects Jesus's view of scripture is found in Matthew 22 and verse 29. And he said this, but Jesus answered and said to them, you are mistaken, not understanding the scriptures nor the power of God. It was always the group standing there that were observing Jesus. Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees. Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection. Paul used that to his advantage when he was appearing before some that were Pharisees and some that were Sadducees and part of the Sanhedrin. He says something about the resurrection and what did happen. It brought both groups into confusion. But the statement here is emphasizing the importance of understanding the scriptures and the source of authority. The source of truth. You know, Jesus regularly quoted from the Old Testament and that was showing how he viewed scripture. He elevated. He explained it. In fact, if you want to understand the Old Testament, you can understand it with the New Testament. If you want to understand the New Testament, you can understand it with the Old Testament. And they work interchangeably back and forth. If you want to understand the book of Revelation, you need to be reading Daniel and Zechariah. Because those are prophetic books. But notice some of the places that he did refer to. Like, for example, Deuteronomy 6.5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. That's Deuteronomy 6, 5. He mentions it from the Old Testament and he quotes it in Mark 12 in verse 30. He mentions Psalm 110 verse 1, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. And then he quoted that very verse in Matthew 22, 41 to 45. He mentioned Isaiah 61, 1 and 2 where it says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. And then he quotes that in Luke 4, 18 and 19. And says that this passage has been fulfilled in your hearing. He mentions Genesis 2.24, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And then he quoted that verse in Matthew 19 and verse 5. So he alluded to the Old Testament many times. He had a high regard of scripture. He came to live and to fulfill it, not take away from it like his enemies had accused him of. Now, there are several confessions in the church. That affirmed the authority of scripture. Now when we talk about confessions, we're talking about formal statements of belief. These are core doctrines, principles, theological positions in the church, whether they come from a church or a parachurch ministry. Let me give you a few of them. In 1646, you had the Presbyterian Reform Westminster Confession of Faith, which says in chapter one, section two, under the name of the Holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and the New Testament, all of which are given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life. Now listen to what he's saying right there. We're talking about the Word of God written, We're talking about all the books of the Old and the New Testament. They always rejected the Apophrica, those extra books. And they say here that it was given by the inspiration of God, so that's acknowledging 2 Timothy 3.16. And notice this, to be the rule of faith and life. That's talking about authority. It is the rule of faith and life. You want to know what to believe? You get it from Scripture. You want to know how to live? You get it from Scripture. How do you live your life? It should be from Scripture, from the Bible. In 1561, there is the Belgic Confession. Article 3 says, We confess that this word of God was not sent, nor delivered by the will of men, but that holy men spoke of God being moved by the Holy Spirit, as Peter says. So they're affirming right here the scripture. They don't need to deviate and say anything about it. They're affirming what Peter said right here. You had the Augsburg Confession. This is the Lutheran Confession of 1530. It says, while not explicitly stating authoritative word of God, it consistently refers to scripture as the basis for doctrine and repeatedly uses phrases like scripture teaches or according to scripture. Now I wish the Lutherans believed that today. Lutheran's a primary liberal. I'm sure that there's some in there that do affirm it. But then you have the Anglican Church, have the 39 articles of religion. Article six says, holy scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man. Only what should be required of us should be what God says, right? Not what man says. Now, the Baptist faith and message of 2000, you know, that's the Southern Baptist. Article 1 says this, the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error for its matter. Then you have the Second Helvetic Confession, that's 1566, chapter one says, we believe and confess the canonical scriptures of the holy prophets and apostles of both testaments to be the true word of God and to have sufficient authority of themselves, not of men. The Savoy Declaration of 1658, this is the Congregationalist movement. It says, this declaration largely adopts the Westminster Confession's language on scripture, affirming its divine inspiration and authority. And then there's the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, we affirm that here. Chapter one, paragraph four says, the authority of the holy scriptures for which it ought to be believed and obeyed depends not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God who is truth itself, the author thereof, and therefore it is to be received because it is the word of God. That sounds really like the Westminster Confession. And then we have the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. We affirm that also. It's not a historical confession, but it was a very influential document in 1978 where they say this. We affirm that the holy scriptures are to be received as the authoritative word of God. And you have the Louisiana Covenant, 1974. The Evangelical Church's Article 2 states, we affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness, and authority of both Old and New Testament scriptures in its entirety as the only written word of God without error in all that it affirms and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. Two more. There's the Jerusalem Declaration of 2008. Article two affirms, the Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught, and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church's historic and consensual reading. And then last, the New Hampshire Confession of Faith of 1833. This is a Baptist confession, article one says, we believe that the Holy Bible was written by men, divinely inspired, and is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction. Now all these confessions are pointing out how these different groups and churches looked at scripture, and from what we read, they pretty much all affirmed the authority of scripture. Now how that fleshes out in their church or in their denomination or in their parachurch ministry is to be seen. They really recognize that the Bible is binding. Now as we kind of hone in on this this morning, I want to have you turn to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. And we're going to spend the rest of our time here in Hebrews 4 looking at verses 12 and 13. In this chapter, the author talks about rest. Some of you are taking rest right now. Shall I bang the pulpit to wake you up? There we go. 10 times it talks about rest. Verse one, verse three, verse four, verse five, verse eight, verse nine, verse 10, verse 11. Two times in two of those verses. In chapter 3 it's mentioned once, that is in verse 11. That rest is predicated on this. The rest that he's talking about there is salvation. It's predicated on faith and obedience. And both of those terms refer to the gospel. To enter into God's rest is to believe in and obey the gospel. Chapters 3 and 4 of Hebrews tells us the reason why so many of the Israelites never entered his rest is because of what? Unbelief. Look at verse 12 of chapter 3. Take care, brethren, that there not be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. An evil, unbelieving heart. Look at verse 19, we see that they were not able to enter because of what? Unbelief. Look at chapter four and verse 11. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of, your version may say unbelief, mine says disobedience. Unbelief and disobedience are used synonymously here. because to not believe is to disobey the gospel. You know, in 2 Thessalonians 1, the vengeance that Jesus is bringing when he comes back is on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. See, when you're presenting the gospel to people, you shouldn't present it with this kind of attitude to where they could take it or leave it. You should be presenting it with urgency. Because the failure to obey the gospel has devastating eternal consequences. And what are those eternal consequences? Hell. This is how devastating it is. So for those who say they have believed and they have entered God's rest, they're subject to its proof by scripture. The scriptures will determine whether you truly believe or not. That's the whole point of verses 12 and 13 right here. Because everything that he said up to this point has talked about this rest. It's talking about obedience and faith and unbelief and all these different things. You either believe or you don't. You either affirm the gospel by faith or you don't and you disobey in unbelief. So the Word of God itself is going to be what determines whether you really have true belief. Because it's Word is binding. It's Word is authoritative. Notice what it says, verse 12. For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do." See, it's the scripture that cuts, it's the scripture that penetrates, it's the scripture that searches the heart to see whether it is truly, truly a faith and truly has that faith And our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, look at verse 14. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our what? Our confession. But we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And if I would. Look at verse 16 and hopefully interpret it correctly. I would have to say that the grace and the mercy has to do with the rest, has to do with the gospel, has to do with salvation. We need grace every day, don't we? Absolutely. But we need grace to come to faith in Jesus. John MacArthur writes this, While the word of God is comforting and nourishing to those who believe, it is a tool of judgment and execution for those who have not committed themselves to Jesus Christ. Some of the Hebrews were merely going through the motions of belonging to Christ. Intellectually, they were at least partly persuaded, but inside they were not committed to him. God's word would expose their shallow beliefs and even their false intentions. Now that is so true. It's the word of God that reveals. I want you to notice how this happens now. We're probably going to be able to look at the first one and then we'll come back and look at the next two. I have three truths that I want us to look at. But unfortunately, we fight the beast that's hanging on the wall back there. It's called the clock. I hate the clock. But notice the first thing it says. This is pretty basic. God's word is living and active. It's living because its author is living. Because God is living. And as he lives forever, so does his word. It's eternal. You can't separate God from his word. Psalm 119 verse 89 says, forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Forever. It's established. It's not gonna go away. Everything will pass away, but God's word will endure forever. And if you're having trouble getting into the word, I would encourage you to think of it on this line. This is God's voice. I hear so many times in Christendom, people use this phrase, God said to me, and I listen for a minute to hear what God said, and it's not Scripture. Most of the time it doesn't even agree with Scripture. So what are you saying by saying that? You're saying that God is still giving Scripture. He's still giving divine revelation. That's what is being said in the gift of tongues that the groups that want to say that there are some gifts that are still operative, the sign gifts, the gift of tongues, the gift of miracles, the gift of this or that. And, you know, I'm a cessationist. I believe that those sign gifts ended. We do have gifts today for sure. And I believe that those gifts are found in Romans 12. I believe the gifts that are found in 1 Corinthians 12, you've got a mixture of both. And when their purposes were met, they ceased. Now that's not what my sermon's about, so I'll get off of that now. But there are many who make those statements And they're not even thinking lightly about what they're saying. They're not understanding that they're treading on dangerous ground when you say it. Listen, if you wanna know what God says, pick up your Bible, open it and read it. If you wanna hear God's voice, though it's gonna come in your voice, read it out loud. Now you have God's word read out loud by you or somebody else. It's not God said to me, and he's got a private revelation for you. He's got some little cute thing he's gonna tell you to do. I believe God leads us through his word. He leads us through desires. He leads us through other people. Sometimes people can say things. That's why in the multitude of counselors, there's wisdom. But sometimes you could be talking to someone, and you wanna share something that's on your heart, or you're not ready to share it on your heart, and they say a few things. You go, wow, they're saying what I'm dealing with right now. Maybe God is leading through what they're saying. But it takes discernment to figure that out. And it takes what they're saying, does it align up with scripture? Is this really what scripture teaches? This is why you should be in it all the time, so that it's nurturing you and grooming you. But God's word is eternal, because God is eternal. Matthew 24, 35, Jesus said, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Peter said, 1 Peter 1.25, the word of the Lord endures forever. This is the eternal book. You don't have any other book like this. Yeah, we have books that teach about the Bible, but they're not the Bible. And don't get me wrong, I love those kind of books because we need them. We need gifted men explaining the scriptures. The reason why it lives forever is because it's connected to himself. Linsky said it this way, the word of God is as living as the living God himself. God and his word cannot be separated, which explains the pronouns that are used in verse 13 that denote God. Well, look at verse 13. And there is no creature hidden from his sight. There's your pronoun, his. But all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him, another pronoun, with whom we have to do. You can't separate it. Sometimes it'll say, God said this, or scripture said this, or he said this. It doesn't separate it from him. Would you want your words to be separated from you? Your words are attached to you. What you say is attached to you as a person. It's attached to your whole understanding. Schlattler, who lived in 1852 to 1938, He said, God does not separate himself from his word. He does not disown it as if it were a foreign thing to him. His it remains also when it comes into our ears, into our hearts, into our mouth, into our book. He knows it well as his own word, as the expression of his own life. Therefore, it is never dead matter. and sensible to what is done with it, for it is a bond of union with the living God. And as I said, His Word is eternal because God is eternal. Psalm 90 verse 2, Before the mountains were born, or you have given birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. And so beloved, if anything you get this morning, I want you to understand the binding nature of Scripture. I want you to understand really what was at stake in 1516 and the Protestant Reformation. Again, the pre-reformers John Wycliffe, John Hus, two notable names, but there were many others that contributed to laying the groundwork. Hus said within a century, You would have a swan come. Hus was the goose, and they cooked the goose. They burned him. They said what he was saying was heresy. In other words, they said what we have said already this morning is heresy. This heresy, I want to close it, and I want to invite us all to leave and never come back. This isn't heresy, this is truth. God's truth. And he said, within a century, a swan would come. And you know who that swan was? Many believe it was Martin Luther, as it was a century later when he nailed to the door there in Wittenberg, Germany, his 95 Theses. And by the way, when he nailed it to the door, the door there of the castle church was like a bulletin board. His ideas, his desire to debate would have went nowhere if it wasn't for the invention of the printing press. By the time he stood before the bishops and cardinals told to recant what he had written, what he had said, all of it was all over Germany. They took his 95 theses, and they took it to the printing press, and they mass produced it. And we ought to be thankful for that. Because in doing that, it lit a fire, and a fire that's been burning ever since. We should be thankful for these men who gave their lives so that you and I could sit right here in a Protestant church and study the scripture in our own language, that the words of scripture are not tied up in a language you don't speak. We all in here speak English. It's been translated into English. In fact, we can thank so many for that. Luther translated his in German. You have Tyndale. He's really the father of the English Reformation. If you have a King James Bible, about 70% of what you have in that King James Bible is Tyndale's work, not the work of a translation committee, Tyndale's. And again, you ought to be thankful for what you have. These men gave their lives. They shed their blood so that you and I could have our Bibles today. And again, we should be thankful for that. We should praise the Lord for that. His desire was that even the plow boy could read the scripture. And our desire today is that all of us would read the scripture and understand it, and then do what it says. So as we bring this to a close, we're going to close with the Lord's Supper. I'm gonna ask Larry if he'll make his way up here. And as we prepare for the Lord's Supper, would you prepare your heart as we partake of it together. This is an act of worship as we remember the death, burial, and the resurrection of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, what he did and why he did it. He did it for you. He did it for me. The Bible declared us all sinners. And basically, all of us and every person ever to be born would be on death row, headed for hell. That was our destination. And the only way it's going to be interrupted is for God to interrupt it. And by sending His Son, Lord Jesus Christ, in His own body, He took the punishment for our sin on Himself. And when you believe in Him, when you trust Him for salvation, You don't rely on anybody else or anything else to save you, to make you right with God, to make you ready for heaven, only in Christ. And it's only in Christ that you believe. The Bible says in Romans 10, 9, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. And as we come to the table, that's really what we're remembering, what God did in our life, where we were at when he did it. We all come in the same way, but we all had different circumstances. And so as we come to the table, the scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 that we are to examine ourselves. And we do that so that he who eats or drinks doesn't eat and drink judgment to himself. You know, there in the time of the Corinthians, when they were doing this, they had a love feast also, it was connected to it. And the problem was, is that the rich were coming to the love feast, they were eating all the food, they were getting drunk, and then they'd come to the communion, they weren't treating it seriously, they were treating it in a, really an unworthy manner. And God was judging them for that, he says in verse 30, for this reason, many among you who are weak and sick, and a number sleep. And I don't mean take a nap. That's a euphemism for death. So he says that we have to examine ourselves first. So as we pray, you examine yourself and then take of that cup. Father, we thank you for this time in your word. We pray now, Lord God, as we contemplate these truths that we've heard today, as your spirit make some plain to our understanding. That we would understand that the book that we hold is an eternal book, it's unlike any other book. And that you're the author of it and it's eternal. And it has truth, it is truth. And you give us in your word, Lord, how that we can get right with you. You tell us that there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Acts 4 12 and the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus himself said I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me. So Lord I pray that you would help us as we examine our hearts in light of your word and that we don't come to the table in an unworthy manner. The Lord that we remember, as you said, do this in remembrance of me. And we pray all these things in Jesus name.