Psalm 68, reading from verse one. Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God, yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. Sing unto God, sing praises to his name, extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name, Yah, and rejoice before him. A father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary in families, he bringeth out those which are bound with chains, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness, Selah, the earth shook, The heavens also dropped at the presence of God. Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Thy, O God, did ascend a plentiful rain, whereby thy didst confirm thine inheritance when it was weary. Thy congregation hath dwelt therein, Thy, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. The Lord give the word. Great was the company of those that published it. Amen. May the Lord bless the reading of his own holy and perfect word. In verse 11, David says, the Lord give the word. That is how we know the Bible is not just a special book, but a supernatural book. This is not a book invented by men. This is a book that God himself gave. This is a book that God breathed out. We use the term inspiration. That is, God inspired the word. He breathed out the word. Not just the general thoughts or ideas, but every single word. So we say the Bible is inspired. We also say the Bible is inerrant. That means free from error. There's no mistakes, no contradictions, no faults found in the Bible. It is a perfect Word. It is a pure Word. And if you think about it, if it comes from the lips of a holy God who is perfect and pure, then His Word has to be perfect and pure too. But we can say more. We can say it's inspired, it's inerrant. We can also say it is infallible. That is, it cannot contain any errors. It is not possible that a mistake can be found in the pure, perfect, inspired word of God. It is infallible. But we can say another thing as well. We can say that the book is preserved. Not only did God breathe out the word, He preserved it. He didn't allow men to corrupt it. He didn't allow it to disappear. He didn't allow it to be burnt on the fires. No, God has preserved his word. That is why we can say with confidence today, we have the word of God. Also in this verse, the Psalmist says, the Lord gave the word. Then he says, great was the company of those that published it. Those that published it, that doesn't just mean those who had a printing press, because David wrote this in the days before there was a printing press, but he speaks of those who preach it, those who proclaim it, those who initially would have wrote it out by hand, and now those who do put it through the printing press. Great is the company of those that publish it. Because God's desire for this book, dear friends, is not that it would be hidden away and concealed in a library, not that it would sit at the back of your bookcase and gather dust. God's desire for this book, for his word, is that it would go forth amongst the nations, that it would be published in every land, amongst every people group, amongst every language group. God's desire for this book is that it would find a home in your life, that it would find a resting place in your heart, that you would believe the word of God, that you would believe the message of the gospel, that you would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as he is wonderfully and gloriously presented to us in this book. Well, we have the privilege of gathering here today and reading the Bible publicly in the English language. Tomorrow, By God's grace, we will attend public worship and listen to the word of God being read and preached in our language. We don't have to fear the authorities breaking down the doors, confiscating our Bibles and arresting us. God has blessed us with an English Bible and we have the liberty to read it and to preach it without fear of persecution. But if we go back in time 500 years, this wasn't the case. The Roman Catholic Church had effectively banned the Bible being read privately and banned the Bible from being translated into different languages. In the year 1376, Pope Gregory XI ordered that all literature in the Bible should be placed under ecclesiastical direction. As a result, only a translation known as the Latin Vulgate and a few poor quality translations in some national languages were tolerated. Pope Paul II from the 15th century confirmed the decrees on the prohibition of Bibles in vernacular languages. In the 14th century, a man by the name of John Wycliffe, he made a translation from the Latin Bible, the Vulgate, into the English language. And after his death, Wycliffe was condemned as a heretic. They dug up his bones, they burnt them, and they scattered them in a river. And his followers, those who continued his work, were persecuted. In the year 1408 in England, The Oxford Constitution was published and it said this, the translation of the text of Holy Scripture out of one tongue into another is a dangerous thing. Therefore, we enact and ordain that no one henceforth do by his own authority translate any text of Holy Scripture into the English tongue or any other, nor let any such be read in whole or in part, in public or in private." So 500 years ago, the Church effectively banned the Bible. but God was preparing a man. Not a man to lead an army, not a man to start a political movement, but a man to do a very simple task of translating the Holy Scripture into the English language. In the small town of Little Sodbury in Gloucestershire in England, a young man named William Tyndale was debating with a Roman Catholic priest. Whenever the priest declared, we were better to be without God's law than the Pope's, William Tyndale replied, I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth a plough to know more of the scriptures than thou dost. Well, God did spare the life of William Tyndale, and this man translated the first New Testament into the English language directly from the original inspired Greek New Testament. So I would like to speak to you this afternoon on the subject of William Tyndale and his mission to provide the Bible in English. So the first thing to highlight for you about William Tyndale was his background. It is believed that Tyndale was born near North Nibley in Gloucestershire sometime around 1494. Like much of England at that time, the Roman Catholic Church dominated the political and spiritual landscapes. And Tyndale would have been raised under the Roman Catholic system and its influence. But unlike many young people in our land today who do have access to a Bible and have the ability to read it, William Tyndale was not raised reading the Word of God. The common people were forbidden from owning a Bible unless they had permission from a bishop. Only clergy could possess and read a Bible, and very few of them were able to do that. In the year 1505, William Tyndale began studying at Magdalene Hall, Oxford. This man became skilled in seven different languages, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, English, and French. Such was his linguistic ability, a colleague remarked that, whichever language he spoke, you would suppose it was his native tongue. Sadly, Tyndale found that even at Oxford, there was no immediate access to Scripture. He wrote, they have ordained that no man shall look in the Scripture until he be nozzled in heathen learning eight or nine years and armed with false principles with which he is clean shut out of the understanding of Scripture. But it was during his 10 years at Oxford, the Lord began to work in the heart of William Tyndale. He did manage to gain access to scriptures and a hunger and desire for the Word of God was growing. Tyndale even began to preach and teach the Word of God to fellow students at Oxford. The Word of God made a deep impression upon his soul. and his mind and will was shaped by the Holy Scriptures. The historian John Fox tells us that Tyndale's mind was singularly addicted to the knowledge of God's Word. In 1515, Tyndale left Oxford, he moved to Cambridge University, where he stayed until 1521. During his time at Cambridge, Tyndale came under the great influence of the Protestant Reformation. And one of these influences was the teaching of a Dutch scholar named Erasmus, who taught at Cambridge from 1511 to 1514. Although Tyndale never studied under him, the influence of Erasmus continued at the college after his departure. Now Erasmus was the first man to produce a unified text of the Greek New Testament. And it is from Erasmus' text that Tyndale would later translate the New Testament into English. Upon leaving Cambridge, the Lord led Tyndale to Little Saltbury Manor, the home of a wealthy businessman, Sir John Walsh, where he was the chaplain to Sir John's children. And this gave him ample time for studying, and God used this period to prepare him for his future work. According to the historian John Fox, Sir John Walsh had many guests visit his house. There resorted to him many times abbots, deans, archdeacons, and various other doctors, who there together with Master Tyndale sitting at the same table, did use many times to enter into communication and talk of learned men, such as Luther and Erasmus, also of diverse other controversies and questions about the scriptures. Over the dinner table, Tyndale would often have debates with these guests, and his practice was always to turn them to the scripture and the absolute authority of God's word. Tyndale was persuaded by the truths of this holy book, and he desired that others would come to believe in the Bible as well. Around the year 1522, Tyndale became convinced of the need for the Holy Scriptures in the English language. He saw this as the only remedy to correct the errors which were taught by the Roman Catholic Church. He once said, I have perceived by experience, how, that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth except the Scriptures were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother tongue. Tyndale was a man of the Bible, but like the Lord Jesus Christ, he was also a man of compassion, and he desired that his fellow men would know the truth of the gospel and true redemption through the blood of Christ. Tyndale would often preach in the little church behind the Manor House. He would go to the crowds in the College Green in Bristol and preach there. He was accused of heresy, by the priests. He was called before the Chancellor and Tyndale says of that event, he threatened me grievously and reviled me and raided me though I had been a dog. And what had he done? Preached the Bible. That's all he had done. Thankfully he was a man focused on the glory of God and was not deterred by the scowling of men. So that's a little of his background. Let's think secondly of his mission, the work that he was engaged in. With a conviction to translate the Bible into the English tongue, Tyndale realised that Little Sodbury offered him no security or protection. Therefore, in 1523, he left Little Sodbury and travelled to London. hoping to earn support from the Bishop of London for his project. Although the law prohibited Tyndale from producing a private translation, he could make an official translation if he had support from the Roman Catholic Church and the church authorities. But sadly, the Bishop, Bishop Tunstall, refused his request to translate the Bible into English. But in the Lord's providence, Tyndale was welcomed into the home of a godly merchant called Humphrey Monmouth. It was here that Tyndale began in secret to translate the word of God into English. Tyndale benefited greatly from the house library which included the works of the German reformer Martin Luther. Due to the laws condemning those who engaged in Bible translation and with no support from the church, Tyndale became convinced that, in his own words, not only that there was no room in my Lord of London's palace to translate the New Testament, but also that there was no place to do it in all England. So in May 1524, Tyndale left England and sailed to Europe. He arrived at Hamburg, where he worked on translating the New Testament from Erasmus' Greek edition of 1522. Now, we don't have a full timeline of all his years on the continent, but we understand that he spent some time in Wittenberg with Martin Luther. Both men were able Greek scholars and Tyndale was gifted in the German language. But there was nobody in Germany that could help him with his English translation. When he finished his New Testament translation in 1525, he traveled to Cologne and found a printer willing to undertake the work. Sadly, a wicked man named Johan Dobnek, an opponent of the Reformation, heard of the printing project and reported the printer to the authorities. Upon being warned of a raid on the printers, Tyndale was able to grab his manuscripts and fled on a ship to Worms. At Worms, he found another printer and soon 6,000 copies of the English New Testament were printed. The New Testaments were smuggled into England in bales of cloth, in sacks of flour, and in various barrels and cases. As Tyndale's New Testament arrived in England, they were received with great excitement. But sadly, news of their distribution found its way to Cardinal Wolsey, who ordered all copies of Tyndale's New Testament to be surrendered. At St. Paul's Cross on the 1st of February, 1526, large baskets of Tyndale's supposedly heretical New Testament were burned. They burned the word of God outside the church. Such was the bitter opposition to Tyndale and his work that Bishop Tunstall commissioned a London merchant a man by the name of Packington, to buy up all the copies that he could find in the city of Antwerp and return them to England to be burnt at St. Paul's Cross. There's a story that William Tyndale sold Packington copies that were misprinted, and he sold them to him at an inflated price. And with the money that he made in selling him the misprinted copies, he was able to print more copies that had been printed correctly. Tyndale was grieved at the Roman Catholic Church for their persecution of Scripture. He says, this threatening and forbidding the lay people to read the Scripture is not for the love of your souls, which they care for as the fox doth the geese. Inasmuch as they permit and suffer you to read Robin Hood and Beavis of Hampton, Hercules, Hector and Trolius, with a thousand histories and fables, and love and wantonness and of rivalry, as filthy as the heart can think, to corrupt the minds of youth, cling contrary to the doctrine of Christ and of his apostles." So he said, the Roman Catholic Church has no problem with you reading filthy books, but they won't let you read the word of God. Tyndale's mission in translating the scripture was to lead men and women to faith in Christ. He said this, the scriptures spring out of God and flow onto Christ and were given to lead us to Christ. Thou must therefore go along by the scriptures as by a line until thy come at Christ, which is the way's end and resting place. William Tyndale sought to use scripture in English to lead men, women and children to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Roman Catholic Church sought to restrict the Bible to keep men from Christ and keep them under the control of the papacy. The next heading we will look at on William Tyndale is his persecution and his death. Due to the popularity of his New Testament and the hatred for Tyndale from the church authorities, William Tyndale became one of the most wanted men in Europe. What was his great crime? Translating the Bible. After the year 1531, Tyndale moved from place to place along the River Rhine to escape arrest. He would later settle in Antwerp in the house of a close friend and supporter, a man called Thomas Poyntz. Poyntz was an influential citizen and those who lodged at his house were afforded immunity from arrest. So as long as Tyndale remained within the confines of his house, he could continue his work of translation and revising scripture without the fear of being arrested. However, in the month of May, 1535, evil men plotted to lure Tyndale away from the safe refuge of Ponce's house. A man by the name of Henry Phillips had gained the confidence of Tyndale by pretending to be his friend and pretending to be a Protestant convert. He invited Tyndale to dinner and as Tyndale left the safety of Ponce's house, he was arrested. and taken to Vilvoorde Castle in Belgium, where he spent his final year. He did not enjoy the comfortable prison that many enjoy today. His cell had no windows, no fire, no heating. He suffered in the awful cold. He wrote to the Marquise of Bergen asking for a few items of comfort, but he said this, Most of all, I beg and beseech your clemency to be urgent with the commissionary that he will kindly permit me to have a Hebrew Bible, Hebrew grammar, and Hebrew dictionary, that I may pass the time in that study. In that cell, Tyndale worked on translating the Old Testament from the Hebrew language into English. He worked by candlelight in the cold, damp air, using his last days to continue the work that God called him to. The historian John Fox relates how Tyndale converted his keeper, the keeper's daughter, and others of his household. Also, the rest that were with Tyndale conversant in the castle reported of him that if he were not a good Christian man, They could not tell whom to trust. On the 6th of October, 1536, William Tyndale, having spent a year imprisoned in Vilvoorde Castle near Antwerp in Belgium, was escorted to his death. They tied him to a stake. They put a noose around his neck. They set fire to the hay at his feet and they strangled him and they burnt him to death. What was his crime? Translating this book into the English language for people like you and me. As William Tyndale was breathing his final breaths, he made one last prayer to God And it wasn't a prayer for himself. It was a prayer for the people that were heavy in his heart. And he prayed, Lord, open the King of England's eyes. A few moments later, William Tyndale entered the presence of his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, whom he loved and whom he served and ultimately who he died serving. Well, let's think next of all here of his legacy. In the same year that Tyndale was martyred, the Lord answered that dying prayer. King Henry VIII gave a royal warrant for a Bible to be placed in every parish church. Although we often only attribute the New Testament to Tyndale, he also translated a sizable portion of the Old Testament. By 1530, he had translated Genesis to Deuteronomy, and during his time in prison, he translated Joshua to 1 Chronicles. A man by the name of John Rogers was able to recover Tyndale's Old Testament work, and he incorporated it into the Matthews Bible of 1537. William Tyndale had an extraordinary gift. He was able to translate the scriptures from Greek to English, not just with great faithfulness and accuracy, but also with the form of prose, which made the language come alive. His translation was full of rich, beautiful imagery, which captured the attention of its readers. In his translation, William Tyndale coined many phrases that we still use today. Phrases like, let there be light, Fight the good fight. Give us this day our daily bread. These were all originals from Tyndale. But the English language was still developing. And there were some words in the Greek and Hebrew that we didn't have in the English. So William Tyndale had to invent words. And you and I use words today that were invented by William Tyndale and put into his Bible. If you ever use words like beautiful, peacemaker, fisherman, long-suffering, taskmaster, seashore, intercession, scapegoat, mercy seat, atonement. These are but a few of the words that William Tyndale invented and added to the English language. But this man didn't engage in Bible translation to become rich or famous. He did it to glorify God. by giving to needy, perishing souls the words of eternal life, whereby we can know God and be reconciled to him. After Tyndale's death, there was a great demand for the printed word. A man by the name of Miles Coverdale produced the first complete translation of the whole Bible. This was followed by other translations, such as the Matthew's Bible, the Great Bible, the Bishop's Bible, and the Geneva Bible. but all of these translations built on the work of William Tyndale. However, the multitude of different English translations was, quite rightly, viewed negatively by the 16th century church. A petition was made to King James I of England King James VI of Scotland, for one translation in the English language, the most faithful and accurate translation possible. This led to a team of 54 learned men working for seven years on a new translation. The result was the authorized King James Version, first printed in the year 1611. It is estimated that 90% of the New Testament in the authorized version comes from the pen of William Tyndale. So his work and his legacy endures today in the Bible that we have just read from. Now this leads us to another question. Do modern translations continue his legacy? Well, the short answer is no. Sadly, many Bible translators today do not share the high view of scripture like Tyndale. Tyndale held to the inspiration, the inerrancy, the infallibility of scripture, but these doctrines are denied by many engaged in Bible translation today. Many modern translations also reject the Greek New Testament texts used by Tyndale and the Protestant reformers. This text is known as the Texas Receptus, or receive text. Instead, many modern translations are using a Greek text which was first published in 1881 and is not finished, it is still evolving, and it is still changing. This text is known as the modern critical text. And sadly, no modern translation reads with the majesty, the reverence, and awe of the Tyndale-inspired Bibles of the Reformation. This leads me to my last heading in this talk. Another question we can ask, has the Roman Catholic Church changed its position on Scripture? We've thought of how the Roman Catholic Church persecuted William Tyndale. Do they still hold to those positions today? Well, the answer is that the Roman Catholic Church has not changed its position on Scripture. And here are four short reasons why. Number one, the Roman Catholic Church still reject the authority of Scripture. It places Scripture on the same level as the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. In their catechism, Number 82, it says, both scripture and tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence. The second reason, Rome banned the reading of the Bible. And Rome has never changed its official position on scripture. They've never published a new decree saying, well, actually, now it's OK to read the Bible. The Council of Valencia in the year 1229 forbid men who were not priests to read the Bible, the Oxford Constitution of 1408, we read earlier, has never been rescinded either. At the Council of Trent in 1545, they issued a decree damning anybody who rejected Rome's teaching on the Bible and effectively followed the Protestant teaching on the Bible. They pronounced an anathema upon those people, of which we would fall into that category today. And they've never rescinded. that in fact they affirmed the Council of Trent in Vatican I and Vatican II. Thirdly, Rome still opposes the continued work of Tyndale and his successors. In 1816, Pope Pius VII sent two brevs concerning Bible societies. one to the Primate of Poland, the other to the Archbishop of Molive. Both Braves are very strongly against translation of the Bible in the language of the people which are not approved by the Roman Catholic Church. And they oppose letting lay people read the Bible. The same thing happened in 1824. Pope Leo XII, he rallied against Protestant Bible societies. He said this, You will have noticed a society, commonly called the Bible Society, boldly spreading throughout the whole world, rejecting the traditions of the Holy Fathers and infringing the well-known decrees of the Council of Trent. It works by every means to have the Holy Bible translated, or rather mistranslated, into the ordinary language of every nation. There are good reasons to fear that they will produce a gospel of men, or what is worse, a gospel of the devil. In 1829, Pope Pius VIII, he wrote, the vernacular versions of the secret texts must not be allowed unless approved by the Holy See. In 1844, Gregory XVI spoke out against the unauthorized vernacular Bibles of the Bible societies. And again, in 1846, Pope Pius IX, he wrote against the most impudent Bible societies which renewed the ancient artefacts of the heretics and translated the books of divine scriptures contrary to the most sacrosanct rules of the church into national languages." Those are only four or five popes that I quoted there. We could go on all afternoon. The popes have issued many statements against Bible societies, against organisations that translate the Bible into different languages. But Rome realised they weren't getting anywhere with these denunciations of Bible societies. So they switched their tactic. Rome now has a new tactic. They have now got involved in Bible translation. And they've done this in three ways. First of all, they have, sadly, united with some Protestant organisations. The joint work of Bible translation and distribution between Protestants and Roman Catholics was encouraged by the Dryburgen Conference of Bible Societies in 1964, also attended by the Roman Catholic Church. Secondly, they have now managed to get Roman Catholic translators involved in translation work with Protestant Bible Societies. In 1969, there was the formation of the World Catholic Federation for the Biblical Apostolate, And the object of this organization was to coordinate Bible translation of the Roman Catholic scholars with the United Bible Societies. The third thing they have done is they have persuaded Protestants to alter the biblical texts. The chief recommendation of the 1964 Dryburgan Conference was to prepare a common text of the Bible in the original languages, acceptable to all churches, including Roman Catholics. In the preface to a Greek edition of the text, the modern critical text called the Nestle-Land 28th edition, the Greek text, which is favoured by most modern Bible translations, This lists five editors responsible for revising the Greek New Testament text, and I give a short biography of each one. One of them is Cardinal Carlo Martini, and this is how they introduce him. Carlo Martini was an Italian Jesuit, Archbishop of Milan, and Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was the only Catholic member of the Ecumenical Committee that published the Novum Testamentum Gracii. So one of the five men responsible for producing the Greek critical text was a Roman Catholic Jesuit archbishop. Now, if we go back to the previous edition, the Nestle Land 27th edition, this is what it says in their introduction. It says the text shared was adopted internationally by Bible societies and following an agreement between the Vatican and the United Bible Societies, it has served as the basis for new translations and for revisions made under their supervision. So whenever the modern critical text is used, it's under the supervision of the United Bible Societies and the Roman Catholic Church. So who has the supervision of the Greek text? Ultimately, the Vatican. So the ESV, the NIV, and other translations are based on a Greek New Testament text under the supervision of Rome. But there's also a very alarming statement that is also made. It says this, it should naturally be understood that this text is a working text. It is not to be considered as definitive, but a stimulus to further efforts towards defining and verifying the text of the New Testament. What are they saying? They're saying that the Greek text they are recommending is not to be considered as definitive. You're not to accept it as the complete, full, final, finished Word of God. It might be changed in the future. Well, verses such as Acts 8.37 and John 5.4, among many other verses, have already been removed from their Greek text and they've been taken out of many English Bibles. and further changes might come. So who are we waiting for to update the Greek text? Well, ultimately, the authority lies with United Bible Societies and the Vatican. So dear friends, we have to grasp the seriousness of this. They are telling Protestants that we will have to wait on Rome, telling us what is and isn't scripture. The Roman Catholic Church has infiltrated many Bible societies. It is providing translators. It is insisting on the Apocrypha, those uninspired books being printed. It controls the Hebrew and Greek texts being used for Bible translations by many Protestant organizations. They could not defeat the Protestant adherents to the Word of God. So they are now altering the Bible, which they want us to read. They are causing Protestants to doubt if we really have the settled word of God or not. And sadly, many have fallen into this trap. But what should our response be? Well, can I suggest to you today that we take the same stand as William Tyndale and we echo his words, for he said, And dear friends, we should defy the Pope too, and we should defy his adherence to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, and we should very simply get back to the Bible, the pure Bible, the true text of the Bible, as God gave it in the original Hebrew and Greek, away with these modern versions, away with these modern Greek critical texts, and back to the pure Word of God as rediscovered at the Protestant Reformation. We also reject the modern, uncertain, unreliable, and unfinished texts. But we defy the Pope whenever we do what the Bible tells us to do. The Bible tells us to read the Holy Scriptures. The Bible tells us to believe the Holy Scriptures. The Bible tells us to live by the commands of this book, to have faith in the Son of God, and to live by faith in him. I finish this part of the message by asking one final question. Why does having the Bible in our language matter? Why does it matter that you have a Bible in English or in your mother tongue? Well, when Paul wrote to Timothy, He said in 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Paul said a couple of things here. First of all, he said this book is a holy book. And it is a holy book because it comes from a holy God. So dear friend, God has given you a holy communication from himself. God has a holy word for you. The second thing Paul says is this book is to make you wise. Because the problem we have is that we're not wise. We're ignorant of God. We don't know God. We don't know how to be right with God. We don't know how to have eternal salvation and assurance of heaven. But this book makes us wise. The next thing Paul says, it will make us wise onto salvation. Because the problem we have is we don't have salvation. We are born in sin, we live in sin, and except by the grace of God, we would die in sin. But God gave this book to make us wise onto salvation. Through what? Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why God has given us this book, to direct you and I to faith in the Saviour. William Tyndale said, the scripture may well be called the kingdom of heaven, which is eternal life. And nothing saves the knowledge of God the Father and of his Son. Jesus Christ. Dear friends, I'll finish with the wise guidance of Tyndale himself. He said, seek the word of God in all things and without the word of God do nothing whatsoever is done without the word of God that count idolatry. Well may the Lord bless his word to us here today.