Brethren and sisters, we are on holy ground this morning. That Bible of yours has upon it the blood of William Tyndale. He loved not his life unto the death. Are we going to be faithful in our day and generation? It would be easy to compromise. It would be easy. To lower the standard a little, it would be easy to join with the enemies of the gospel the way Billy Graham does in his campaigns. To shake hands with Christ deniers and Bible deniers. But this is not the way that the man of God must walk. He must be faithful to the cause of Christ. He must stand up for Jesus as a good soldier of the cross. He must lift high the royal banner. It must not suffer loss. William Tyndale was a stout-hearted servant of God who believed that the masses should be able to read the Bible in their own language. During his day in the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church hid the gospel from the common man by forbidding the scriptures to be translated. William Tyndale ignored their decree and translated the entire New Testament into English. He was captured by the church, strangled, and burned. Here is his story as preached by Dr. Ian Paisley. William Tyndale, the English reformer. We come to consider William Tyndale the martyr, the one who wears a bright diadem among the saints in glory, the one who won the martyr's crown. And could I direct your attention just to two portions of Scripture, Revelation chapter 2, and we're reading verse 8 to verse 11, done to the angel of the church in Smyrna right. These things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. I know thy ricks and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich. And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. " Another portion from Revelation, the same book, at the chapter six and at the verse nine. And when he had opened this fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true? Dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? White robes were given unto every one of them. And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled. And God will stamp with His own divine approval this reading from the infallible book. Could you imagine the world without a copy of the Bible in the English language. That was the world that Tyndale commenced his ministry in, and it was to the task of translating the Bible into the English language that William Tyndale was summoned by the command of heaven. How dark Rome had made the people of Tyndale's day. I was looking up some references in history to the darkness of Romanism in the day when Tyndale commenced his ministry. Here is what they worshipped and trusted in. The relic of the girdle of Mary Magdalene, the smock of the Virgin Mary, St. James's hand, a bone of Salome, an angel with one wing, the pairings of St. Edmund's toenails. A lot of good they would do for a poor soul seeking life. The milk of the virgin. These were the things that the Church of Rome was offering as a way of salvation. Don't you think that the Church of Rome has changed? In a large building in the city of Belfast, they present to the people what they say is the bleeding bone of some saint whom they have named Gerard. And you can see the Romanists going and kneeling before this supposedly bleeding bone and see them taking their children, their little infants, and holding them up to kiss this holy relic. Rome has not changed. She has no word from heaven to give the people. She has no message from the throne of God to present to the people. Her system is a system of priestcraft, a system of superstition, a system that propagates the devil's lie and puts darkness and to butchery and sin of the vilest Jew into the hearts of man. Thank God for the glorious gospel that presents Christ to this way, the truth and the life. It was in such circumstances that Tyndale was born. In the year 1490, on the borders of Wales, he first saw the light of heaven. Tyndale first found the Saviour when he was studying in the university at Oxford through the teaching of John Collett. And again, we are back to the epistles. And I have emphasized this. This has struck me very forcibly in my study of the Reformers, that every one of them found Christ through the exposition of the writings of the apostle Paul. For surely in the epistles we have all the fullness of Christ. You know, when you read the Bible, you should always look for Christ. For the incarnate Word is revealed in the inspired Word. The first five books of the Bible of Pentateuch, they give us the first glimmerings of Christ. And amidst the types and the historical characters and the first promises of gospel, you can see the first glimmerings of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you come to the historical books, you will find the foreshadowings of Christ, foreshadowings of Christ rejected in the life of King David, foreshadowings of Christ the King in the life of Solomon in all his glory. Then when you come from the historical books to the Psalms, you get the feelings of Christ. Why, if you want to know something of the heart pangs of Jesus, how He felt in the agony of Calvary, how He felt as He swept great drops of blood under the olive groves of Gethsemane. You will find the feelings of Christ in the Psalms. Do you want to look at the face of Jesus? You will see His face in the song of Solomon. My, how lovely how He appeared. The one who is the fairest of ten thousand to the souls of those that love him. So you'll find the first glimmerings of Christ in the Pentateuch. You'll find the foreshadowings of Christ in the historical books. You'll find the feelings of Christ in the Psalms. You'll find the face of Christ in the Psalms. If you want to, look at the fact of Christ. You'll find the fact of Christ in the Gospel. It is the Gospels that set forth the facts of the Lord Jesus. But do you want to see Christ in all His fullness? Then you must turn to the epistles. And it is there Christ is revealed in all the glory of His redemptive purpose and in all the splendor of His stupendous, matchless grace. And then, of course, we have the finality of Christ in the Revelation. the final Christ as we see Him in the glory, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and Office Christ, and He shall reign. Hallelujah! What a Savior! May the Lord help us to see Christ as we read the Bible. And as Tyndale heard the epistles expounded by John Collett, the light of the glorious gospel shone into his heart. And he came out of darkness into light. He was translated from the kingdom of the devil into the kingdom of God's dear Son. He was gloriously and wonderfully transformed. And see, if you ever want to do a work for God, young people, you need to have the work of grace wrought within your heart. You can only lift your people to the height that you attain to. You can only lead your congregation in paths that you have already walked in the experience of Christ by the Spirit of God. You could have all the oratory and eloquence and ability and intelligence, but if you haven't walked this way, if you haven't in the fullness of experience tread the path, you can never lead your people into the fullness of gospel blessing. But Tyndale found Christ. The work of grace was done. The great transaction was wrought within his soul. And he stepped from the priesthood into glorious allegiance to Christ, who is the only priest and who alone can offer a one, all-sufficient, never-to-be-repeated sacrifice for sin. Of course, when he was saved, he must needs leave the university because of persecution. For some time he studied in Cambridge. It was there that he studied the Greek Testament that Erasmus had published, and because of opposition he withdrew to the home of Sir John Walsh, a little Sudbury. There, as tutor to Walsh's family, he prepared himself for the great task of translating the Scriptures. He saw that the Reformation could never prosper. He saw that the spread of the gospel could only be pushed forward with power as if people had in their own mother tongue the word of the living God. Here was the dynamite that would pull down and tutter over the great battlements of the enemy. Here was the power that would turn England from darkness into light. It was found in the precious, infallible, unerring, imperishable Word of the living God. And so he set himself to the task of preparation. Of course, he was opposed by the priests of the district. And one day, as he was disputing with a Roman priest, the dark, venited, ignorant papist priest, here is what he said. If God spare my life, ere many years pass, I will cause a boy that drive up a plow to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost. Truly, God had shown His servant a way to spread the gospel to the utmost bounds of England and into the hands of all who need it the saving tort. Tim Deal at first thought that this scholarly bishop of London would help him with this work. He made his way to London, but he soon discovered that Bishop Tunstall was an enemy of the gospel, and as he said, he had neither room for him nor for his translation work. So he had to choose between staying in comfort at home forgetting about the call of God, or going into exile on the continent of Europe in order to fulfill his life's calling. So he turned his back upon his home and upon his friends. Like Abraham of old, he went out, not knowing whether he went, but with the same faith that staggers not at the promises of God through unbelief. but his strong in faith, giving glory to God, he went forward in this tremendous task of translating the Scriptures. First he stayed at Hamburg, then he traveled to Luther's city of Wittenberg, and then he traveled to Cologne in Germany. It was there that he started to print the first sheets of his New Testament. The enemies of the Bible discovered it. The printer who was printing the sheets got word that the whole copy was to be confiscated. Tyndale went to the printer's shop, secured what copies he could, bundled them up and fled to Worms. It was there that the New Testament in the English language was first published. And you know, Tyndale is in reality the father of the Bible that you are using this morning. Sir Frederick Kenyon, the archaeologist, said the true father of the English Bible is William Tyndale, whose genius shows itself in the fact that he was able to couch his translations in a language perfectly understood of the people and yet full of beauty and dignity. Could I say as a translator, Tyndale, was committed to the infallibility and inerrancy of the scriptures of truth. Beware, young people, beware of any translation of the Bible whose translators are not committed to the infallibility of the Word of God. We have spurious translations going abroad today. In our country we have a New World Council Bible. They call it the New English Bible. It is a New English Bible indeed. It is not the old Bible that brought the Reformation, but it is a perversion of the Scriptures of truth. Could I mention for a moment Tyndale as an author? Three of his greatest works, the first one, The Parable of the Wicked Mammon, This is a great writing on a cardinal doctrine of the Reformation, justification by faith alone. You know, the Reformers laid great emphasis upon that word alone. We need to get back to that in our preaching. The Bible alone, the sole rule of faith and practice, not the Bible plus tradition. It is the Bible alone, the grace of God alone, the foundation of the gospel. It is not the grace of God plus the will of man. It is not the grace of God plus the works of man. It is the grace of God alone, saved by grace alone. This is all my plea. And then they spoke about redemption by the blood of Christ alone. Not redeemed by the sacraments of the church or by the ritual or ceremonies of the church. We are redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus alone. Nothing is to be added to it. Nothing dare be taken from it. This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Justification by faith alone. Get that book of Tyndale's and read it. It will inspire your heart. Then, of course, he wrote a book. on the obedience of a Christian man. The Reformers were slandered by their enemies as anarchists, as rebels, those who did not believe in lawful government, as disturbers of the peace. We are called the same names today, aren't we? Those of us who stand for Christ. And Tyndale's great apology for the stand of the Reformers is found in this book. the obedience of a Christian man. And then he wrote a tremendous work on the practice of preliance, which is an exposure of the darkness of the priesthood. And don't you think, friend, that the priests of Rome are any different today, that they are any more holy than they were in the days of Tyndale. In 1963, I am reading from a Protestant paper, an extract from the Bulwark, a paper that is published by the Scottish Reformation Society. This gives you some inkling of what the priests of Rome really are. In the province of Westphalia in Germany, out of probably about 400 to 500 Franciscan monks, 276 were arrested on a charge of sodomy. In a few cases, the charge was that of seducing feeble-minded girls, and 50 to escape being arrested fled from Germany. Possibly some of them found shelter in some of the Roman Catholic monasteries in this country. The trials were reported in the German press. The judicial proceedings were unimpeachable. Most of the friars admitted their guilt. and gave evidence against each other. Here you see the same debauchery, the same practice of preliance that was so prevalent in the days of Tyndale. As an expositor, the work of Tyndale is well known. His introduction to each of the books of the New Testament, also his great exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, And if you want something to really stir your soul and expound the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, I would recommend the work of Tyndale on this subject. Of course, a man that battles for God, a man that is wholly and absolutely dedicated to the cause of Christ must suffer for his allegiance to Christ. Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sealed through bloody seas. And through Henry Phillips, a fellow countryman of Tyndale, Tyndale was betrayed into the hands of his enemies. For eighteen months he languished in prison. The only letter of Tyndale extant is a letter that he sent from the prison. I want to read it to you. It brings before you something of the sufferings of this great man. He says, I believe, right worshipful, that you are not ignorant of what has been determined concerning me. Therefore, I entreat your Lordship, and that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here, that is, in the present, during the winter, you will request that they will be kind enough to send me from my goods, which they have in their possession a warmer cap, for I suffer extremely from cold in the hand. being afflicted with a perpetual catarrh, which is considerably increased in the cell. A warmer coat also for that which I have is very thin. Also a piece of cloth to patch my leggings. My overcoat is worn out. My shirts are also worn out." Then he goes on to make other requests, and then at the end he says, "'I entreat and beseech your clemency. that he may kindly permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew grammar and Hebrew dictionary, that I may spend my time with that study, a voice from the darkened cell of a faithful man of God. But, of course, Tyndale was to be faithful unto death. And the day came when the stake was set up And at the top of the stake there was fastened an iron ring, and through that ring there was placed a rope. And Tyndale was led out to die. I want to try and paint that scene. Here is the stake which is going to become the ladder to heaven for this man of God. See the rope hanging from the iron ring at the top of the stake. And see this man, almost naked, the clothing worn away, the marks of time and sorrow and trouble having told upon his frame. But he is walking out with firm step to witness a good confession to the Lord Jesus Christ. And they bring him to the stake, and they fasten him to it, and they pile the faggots around it until only his head is seen. Then they put the rope around his neck and they say, you can offer one prayer. And the old reformer, old with labor, but not in years, for he was still in his early forties, he looks up to heaven and he offers this prayer, Lord, open the King of England's eyes. because he depended that the King of England might open his country to the Bible, which is the Word of God. Then the command is given, the rope is tightened, the body is strangled, life is gone, and what is left is given to the destroying fire. And another martyr joined the white-robed hosts of the glorified in heaven. They say, How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt thou not avenge our blood upon the earth? Brethren and sisters, we are on holy ground this morning. That Bible of yours has upon it the blood of William Tyndale. He loved not his life unto the death. Are we going to be faithful in our day and generation? It would be easy to compromise. It would be easy To lower the standard a little, it would be easy to join with the enemies of the gospel the way Billy Graham does in his campaigns. To shake hands with Christ deniers and Bible deniers. But this is not the way that the man of God must walk. He must be faithful to the cause of Christ. He must stand up for Jesus as a good soldier of the cross. He must lift high the royal banner. It must not suffer loss. He must be faithful to his Lord. It will mean the dark valley. It will mean misrepresentation. The fires of slander will burn against you. The forces of darkness will assault you. The powers of hell will do their uttermost to wear you down in your battle for the Lord. But listen, young people, God's strength is made perfect in weakness, and God's grace is all-sufficient. Oh, that we might be faithful to Jesus Christ. I am not looking for success in my ministry. I am looking that the Lord will give me grace to be faithful to my Savior, the one who hung on Calvary's tree, the one who wore the crown of thorns for me, the one who endured all the agony and all the curse and allowed all the billows of God's wrath to pour over a sinless soul that I might be seen. Faithful to the one who died, to the one who rose again, to the one who sits at God's right hand, the one who some day will break the clouds and call his ransom people home. Let us be faithful unto him. Whither the storms rage and the foul fiends of hell scream out their diabolical propaganda upon us, let us stand faithful to Jesus Christ. And having done all, may we remain standing May we have scars to show in glory that we have fought a good fight, that we have finished the cause, that we have kept the faith. you. We're marching on, marching on, marching on