Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 3.69 → restored 4.64
Use the player's Original switch to compare.How Diffio restores old speech recordings
Thank you for that prayer, and our brother was right on in his prayer. We do need a greater appreciation for the Bible, the word of God. Let's open our Bibles to Luke's Gospel, chapter twenty four, please. And if you have one of the outlines, uh, some of what I will be sharing with you tonight. Well, maybe I should put it this way, what you have on page two will be some of what I am sharing with you tonight, so you can turn to that, uh, page two of your outline as well.
It was Joyce Kilmer from Western North Carolina who wrote that poem that so many learned in school, Trees. By the way, Joyce Kilmer was a man. But Joyce Kilmer wrote that poem, Trees, the last two lines of which go, Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree. That is so true, and only God can make such a book as we have before us, the Bible, the wonderful word of God.
Look at Luke's Gospel, chapter twenty four, verse twenty seven. Maybe we should back up to verse twenty five. Then he said unto them, O fools, or o foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Come over to verse forty four, please.
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. Now here is just one reference that refers back to the Old Testament, that they are the scriptures. All scripture is given by inspiration of God.
When you go to Second Peter chapter three, you will find Peter writing about what Paul had written, s- referring to his writings as the word of God, as scripture, along with the other scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures, and he goes on to say that there are those who rest, W-R-E-S-T, who rest the scriptures to their own destruction. And the thought is there as one would put one taken in battle, the enemy, and put him on a resting rack and pull him out of shape until they get out of him exactly what they want.
That's the way some people treat this book. They twist it, they turn it to make it say exactly what they want it to say. They rest the scriptures, and Peter says that they do it to their own destruction. But my thought being that Peter included what Paul had written as the scriptures. Thank God for the wonderful word. Now let's go back to Luke chapter eleven, and I, I want you to keep these scriptures in mind. Once again, we'll be covering a lot of ground here, but I want you to keep these scriptures in mind.
Back to Luke chapter eleven and come down to verse fifty one. The Lord Jesus Christ is talking to the Pharisees and about the Pharisees, and uh, he is reminding them how that God sent the prophets to uh, the forefathers and how the prophets were put to death. Verse fifty, for example, that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation. But note verse fifty one.
For the blood of Abel. Now, where do we read of Abel? What book? In the book of Genesis. From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple. Verily I say unto you, it shall be required unto, or required of this generation. Now, where do we read of Zacharias being put to death between the altar and the temple? Now that stumps you, doesn't it? That is in two Chronicles. I'm having to look at it too.
Two Chronicles chapter twenty four and verse twenty two. Now I have a reason for you making a note of that, because the Lord Jesus is covering the Old Testament scriptures. From Genesis to Second Chronicles, he's covering the Old Testament scriptures. Just make a note of that. All right, let me see if I can punch in where we were this morning and pick up from there. Now, why would Moses, who was educated in all of the wisdom, the Sophia, or the learning of the Egyptians, write, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth?
Why would he write that? When the Egyptians taught, uh, something altogether different and ridiculous in Moses' day. Why would Moses write what he wrote? Because God told him what to write. Uh, it's been within the last hundred years, listen carefully to me. It's been within the last hundred years that the meteorologists have discovered what is known as the water cycle. Sometime ago, I had, uh, a grandmother to come to me and say to me, Brother Schwartz, she said, my grandson asked me a question, and I didn't know the answer.
I said, she said, maybe you can help me. I said, well, I don't know whether I can or not. What's the question? Said, well, he wanted to know why all of the rivers keep flowing into the ocean and the level of the ocean stays the same. Well, that was an interesting question. I said, well, let's read Ecclesiastes chapter one because the man of wisdom wrote about the water cycle. Now, this was about, um, nine hundred and seventy years before Christ. He wrote about the water cycle. Read of it in Ecclesiastes chapter one.
He tells how the sun draws the water from the ocean, clouds are formed, the winds move the clouds in their circuits. The clouds empty themselves on the land, filling up the creeks and the rivers that run into the ocean, back up into the sky, forming clouds. That is the water cycle. That was discovered by the meteorologists within the last hundred years. How did the writer of Ecclesiastes know about it nine hundred years before Christ. It was in fourteen ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered the Western world.
And I'm surprised that so many people don't know where he landed. Do you know where he landed? Who can tell me? You teachers. San Salvador, Bahamas. That's the reason it's a big holiday in the Bahamas. We just had a wonderful conference down there for that weekend. Fourteen ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered the Western world. Maybe, maybe, just maybe, we were told in elementary school, after Leif Erikson. We don't know, but we give Columbus credit. But even at that time, people thought the Earth was flat.
The Indians, I'm speaking of those people from India, believed that the Earth was held up on the back of a giant elephant. But people believed the world was flat, that you could sail off of it. How did Isaiah know, as he wrote about it in chapter forty of his prophecy, written seven hundred years before, how did Isaiah know that the earth was round? Because he spoke about God who sits upon the circle of the earth. How did he know that? The same way Moses knew all of the things that he wrote.
God told him. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. God told Moses to write these things, and Moses did so, and we have God's book before us, and we thank God for that. And you know, the Bible is an amazing phenomenon in the earth. Uh, that there ever was a book and is today the book of the modern world, regardless of what some say, is really a literary miracle. This book is a miracle, and God forgive us for treating this blessed book the way we do.
If we only knew how many people have died that we might have a copy of this book. It is a miracle that we have this book before us. No literary phenomenon in the world can compare with the Bible. The Bible is unique. Now keep in mind that there never was any order given to any man to plan the Bible. Uh, not only so, there was never any concerted plan on the part of man to write the Bible.
The way in which the Bible gradually developed over the centuries is one of the mysteries of time. This book was written over a period of sixteen hundred years, from fifteen BC on into one AD. Now I want you to think of the places where the Bible was written, on three continents, in Asia, Africa, and Europe, this book was written in palaces, in the wilderness, in prisons, and in homes.
Not only so, but think of the language or the languages in which the Bible was written. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. We were talking this morning about the gift of language, and what a wonderful thing language is. So many of the ancient, uh, worlds or the kingdoms, uh, some kept records in pictorial form, hieroglyphics, which appeal to the eye. But when God gave language, then we had something that appeals to the inner ear.
It's known as phonics, because we see a word and we don't think so much of the eye, but we think with the inner ear of a sound. But the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, a few Aramaic portions, and the New Testament was written in the Greek language, the international language in the time of Christ. But think too of the writers of the Bible, about forty different writers over this sixteen hundred year span. This book was written by kings, peasants, philosophers, poets, statesmen, scholars, fishermen, shepherds, priests, and religious leaders.
Now, I want you to think of that. Not only so, the Bible was written on different continents by forty different writers from diverse walks of life, separated by hundreds of miles and hundreds of years, in totally different circumstances and different moods. Now, as you think about that, I think of what Josh McDowell said in his book, uh, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. He was telling about the time that he and a friend of his were in the friend's home, and they were talking about the things of the Lord, and uh, there was someone at the door, and it was a man selling encyclopedias and uh, books by uh, uh, famous authors of the twentieth century or something like that.
So they invited the man in and had conversation with him. They eventually led him to Christ. But in the course of the conversation, Josh McDowell asked this man selling, uh, these books. He said, suppose we were to take a controversial subject, a controvers- a- a- a controversial topic, and suppose we were to go to ten different nations and pick out a man in each one of those nations to write about that, uh, controversial subject. And then we gather, uh, in their reports.
He said to the man, what do you think we would have? Would there be any unity? The man said, not at all. You would, you would have ten different views on a controversial subject. But now, dear friends, think of the history of this book and how God gave it to us, using these forty different writers from different backgrounds, different levels of society, different walks of life, separated by hundreds of miles in some instances, and by hundreds of years in totally different circumstances, totally different moods, all of them writing on a number of topics.
Now, when you put them all together, what do you think you have? You have a miracle of unity in design. Because they all fit. Only God can write the Bible. Yet biblical authors spoke on hundreds of controversial subjects with harmony and continuity from Genesis to Revelation, with one unfolding story, God's redemption of man in and through our Lord Jesus. No book can compare with the Bible.
And yet, having said all of that, that does not prove in itself that the Bible is God's book. But one seeking truth would be foolish not to consider such a book with all its uniqueness. I was saying to one brother in the hallway this morning, uh, it seems to me from my own experience and from what I have heard from others, in so many institutions of learning, where they have religious classes, where they want to study religions of the world, it seems pretty much overall that the thought is, let's study the various religions of the world to find out what good there is in them.
Except when it comes to Christianity. And invariably, it seems the thought is, now let's take this apart to find out what's wrong with it. And a person would be foolish not to consider this book, and yet so many can criticize this book without ever reading it. Just going by what they've heard, uh, others say and making smart remarks. I remember when I engraved printing plates, uh, some years ago, and I think I, I told you about this young man, I'm not sure, but he was telling us in the shop one day about going with this girl, and they were going to get married, and, and, uh, she went regularly to a certain denominational church, and, and someone said, well, now when you get married, are you going to be going to that?
Well, yes, he said, I guess I'll be going. Well, it was a while after that, we were having lunch in a restaurant, and, uh, the same young man said something about the Bible is full of contradictions. I had my little Bible in my pocket. And so I pulled it out, and I put it toward him across the table. I said, here, here's a Bible. I said, show me some of the contradictions. Well, his face turned. Now, he was the one who said what he did. His face turned red, and he pushed it back to me, and he said, well, he said, uh, uh, I just know it's, it's full of contradictions.
I said, all right, now I'm, I don't think you would be so foolish. I might have used the word S-T-U-P-I-D, but uh, we've got some little ones here in the auditorium, so I want to be careful. I said, I don't think you would be so foolish as to make a statement like that without reading and carefully examining this book to make the statement that you just made. I don't think you would be so foolish as to make a statement like that without examining this book. So I would like for you to just show me one or two that you think is a contradiction. His face got a little redder, and he pushed it back to me, and he said, well, I don't know the Bible like some people.
I said, well, you should keep your mouth shut. People can say, people can say things about this book, and many do, but thank God for his wonderful word. Let's think of it this way. Thinking of these sixteen hundred years, suppose arrangements were made over these years that different artists would be contacted in the different countries, the different areas that are represented in the Bible. Arrangements made, different artists contacted, and they were instructed to paint part of a portrait.
And in many cases, not knowing what other portions of the portrait the other artists were painting. And then you put them all together after sixteen hundred years. What would you have? You're right. You'd have a mess. Or we can put it this way. A musician, and this happened, I- I read one account where this happened, a musician plays twenty different musical instruments and records each one as he plays. And because of technology, and boy, the technology today blows my mind.
Uh, but because of technology, he's able to put all the recordings together and make it sound as if an orchestra is playing. You hear this quite a bit without knowing what went on behind the scenes. Uh, one man playing all of these instruments. Now, uh, I was going to say before going to the next screen, this is what we have in the Bible. Uh, Peter tells us that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit of God. And we were reminded this morning from Paul's writings, all scripture is given by inspiration.
It is the, well, really, inspiration is the inbreathing, but it is the inbreathing or the breathing of God. All scripture is given by the breathing of God. God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. God used forty different writers over sixteen hundred years, and they all wrote what God moved them to write, not taking away from their own personality and individuality.
You know, it's like a, it's like a bullet coming out of a gun. The ballistics experts can look at that bullet, and they can tell you what rifle it came from or what gun it came from, by the markings as it sped out of that barrel. And even so, we, we read these different books, and we can see the markings, the, the personal characteristics, if you please, of the writers. God used them, but he didn't take away from their characteristics. But it was God who was doing the writing. Just like the m- musician using the different instruments.
It's the same musician either playing or blowing through the, the instruments, and then they're all put together to make one beautiful sound. This is what we have in the Word of God. The Bible is a book to be pursued, it is a record to be believed, a revelation to be acclaimed, and a message to be received. And we were reminded this morning, if we receive, or was it tonight, if we receive not the witness or the testimony or the record, same word, that God has given of his son, we make God a liar. All right. The Bible is not a book of geology, it's not a book of chemistry, it's not a book of astronomy, and as we said this morning, it's not even a book of human history.
But God has given to us this book so that we might know the mind and the purpose of God, and know what we need to know to be right with God and live a life to his honor and glory. All right, look at page two of your outline. We have thought something of this blessed book, this wonderful word of God, its origination. Let us think something now of its canonization. That is a big word. What does it mean? Well, let us think about that tonight. You know that the Old Testament contains thirty nine books.
That's in the English Bible. Uh, that is not the case in the Hebrew Bible. Now, when you look on page two, you will see the arrangement down at the bottom of the page to the left, you will see the arrangement of the Jewish Bible. The, the Jewish, and I have here twenty four books, but in many instances, and I don't want to confuse you, in many instances you will read of twenty two books in the Jewish Old Testament. Now, please make a note of this. Whether you read of twenty two books or twenty four books in the Jewish Bible.
It is the same material that we have in the thirty nine books of our English Bible. Are you with me? It's the same material. It's just counted differently in the Jewish Bible. Now, I put down twenty four books, but I would presume in most Jewish Bibles, you would find Ruth with the book of Judges, and you would find Lamentations with Jeremiah, making twenty two books rather than the twenty four. But you look at the bottom of the page, and what are the two books, actually one in the Hebrew Bible, but what are the last two books in their arrangement?
What? First and Second Chronicles. That's the way it was when Jesus used the Old Testament scriptures. That's the reason in Luke chapter eleven he referred to Abel in the book of Genesis and Zacharias in the book of Second Chronicles. The end of the Old Testament as the Jews arranged them. But it's the same material. And our Lord Jesus Christ, along with his apostles during his earthly life, quoted from the Old Testament scriptures frequently.
He clearly authenticated such controversial subjects as creation, the murder of Abel, the flood, the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, the provision of the manna, the swallowing of Jonah by the great fish. He identified as true historical characters and not allegorical concepts, Adam and Eve, Lot's wife, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, David, Solomon, Jonah, Daniel, and others. And we read in Luke chapter twenty four where he opened unto them the scriptures, and he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself, beginning with Moses and the prophets and the Psalms.
He covered the Old Testament scriptures. So, uh, we have in our Bibles today thirty nine books in our arrangement. All right, in the New Testament, you know there are twenty seven books, and the contents of the Bible have been summarized in many helpful ways, but here is a basic overview, and we might have this, I'm not sure, uh, on the outline, but you can, uh, look up on the screen and make a note of it. I'm sorry that this is running over to the edge. I need to improve my skills on all this sophistication. But here is an overview of the Bible.
From Genesis chapter one to chapter eleven, you can put universal. Universal, dealing with the human race. In fact, it's just an overview of the human race. Not a whole lot said about any particular nation, but just an overview of the human race. From Genesis chapter twelve to Acts chapter two, you can write national. God dealing with the nation of Israel. Don't give up on Israel. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and stand with the Jewish people in Israel.
From Acts chapter two to Revelation chapter three, you can write ecclesiastical. God dealing with the church. God has set aside his dealings with the Jews as a nation. He's going to take up those dealings when the church is raptured. But from Acts chapter two to Revelation chapter three, ecclesiastical, God dealing with the church, and then Revelation chapter two to verse, uh, chapter twenty two, final, the consummation of God's divine purpose. Now, we're thinking about the canon of scripture.
Now, what is meant by the canon of scripture? Well, the word has two ends, not three, so don't think of artillery. We're not thinking of some big gun here. The canon of scripture. You read about the canon of scripture or the canonical books. What is that supposed to mean? Well, as I said, don't think of artillery. This word canon comes from the English root for reed or cane. Something that was used to measure. Something that was used to determine the straightness of something.
Today we would use a plumb line, and uh, we might draw the line and uh, we might say, is this straight? Like the carpenter said to his helper, is it plumb? He said it's more than plumb. Well, in thinking of a cannon, we're thinking of reed or cane, a straight rod that was used to determine the straightness of something. It comes from the Hebrew gene or the Greek canon, a measuring rod. That's what the word canon means, a measuring rod. It was used, uh, or that which was used to determine whether or not a letter or a book should be included with other scriptures that were spoken of and thought of and referred to as sacred scriptures.
Uh, that is the word of God. A measuring rod was used. Now, please understand, there never was any, uh, formal council meeting to determine which books, which letters would be included in scripture. In the Old Testament, there were many letters that were written that never made it into the canon of scripture, many letters, and you've heard of some of these lately. In fact, the Old Testament scriptures, uh, refer to, I don't know, something like a half a dozen books that are not included in the Old Testament scripture.
And in New Testament days, something like, uh, 50 they've discovered above the twenty seven that we have. Well, why weren't they included? Well, we might ask, why thirty nine books of the Old Testament as we know them? Thirty nine or twenty two in the Hebrew Bible, same material. Why thirty nine books and twenty seven books of the New Testament and no more? A- and how was it determined that thirty nine books would make up the Old Testament and twenty seven books would make up the New Testament? Well, let's think of the Old Testament, because they did use some guidelines, and this was developed gradually.
Some books were recognized, uh, long before others were recognized, because they wanted to see evidence that this book was indeed from God. So we're thinking of certain guidelines. Here is one. Did it speak with authority? Did it declare, thus saith the Lord? six hundred and eighty times in the Pentateuch. This is the first five books of the Bible, the, the Torah, as it's called by the Hebrew people. Uh, the Pentateuch, the books, the writings of Moses.
six hundred and eighty times, thus saith the Lord, Four hundred eighteen times in the historical books, or its equivalent, the Lord said, or thus saith the Lord, A hundred and ninety six times in the poetical books, Three hundred and seven times in the prophetic books, a total of one thousand six hundred and one times in the Old Testament, thus saith the Lord. So this was one of the questions that went through the minds of holy men of old as it was determined slowly, gradually, whether or not a book should be included.
Did it speak with authority? Is this truth or lies? Another question was, was its authorship acceptable? Was it written by holy men of God? Peter said holy men of God spake or wrote as they were moved or borne along by the Holy Spirit. Was its authorship acceptable? Was it authentic? Was it genuine? There were a lot of, uh, uh, false letters or, uh, counterfeit letters, uh, in the Old Testament days as well as in the New Testament days.
Uh, so what has changed? We're seeing things like that today. Another question, was it inherently effective? The word of God is quick, is living, and powerful. Has this book demonstrated the power of God? Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. It is the dunamis, the word from which we get our word dynamite. It is the dunamis of God. Was it inherently effective? When we have the word of God in our being and allowing the Holy Spirit of God to have his way, it will be manifest in our life.
Did it demonstrate the transforming power of God? And was it accepted? Another question. Did they receive and acknowledge this book as being the true word of God? As I said, if you open the Jew- Jewish Old Testament Bible, you would find only twenty two books, maybe twenty four in some. It starts with Genesis and ends with Second Chronicles, as we have noted. Now, very quickly, the Jewish arrangement of the Old Testament, you have this on page two. uh, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, five books of Moses. Uh, the prophets, the former prophets, Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel are one in the Hebrew Bible.
First and Second Kings are one in the Hebrew Bible, making four books. And then the latter prophets, Isaiah, the prophet of the sun, Jeremiah, the prophet of the Father, Ezekiel, the prophet of the Holy Spirit, and the twelve minor prophets, all making only four books in the Hebrew Bible, but the same material, I repeat, in our thirty nine books. And then we have the Psalms or the writings. Um, a total of twenty four books or twenty two books. Now, let's think of the New Testament.
The same criteria. I'm going over time. Will you give me a few more minutes, please? Okay. Same criteria, some basic questions. I have further to drive than you, by the way. Same criteria, same basic questions. Did they give sufficient evidence of being inspired? Divine inspiration and canonicity are inseparable. Were they of apostolic origin? Jot down first Corinthians fourteen thirty seven. Were they of apostolic origin? Uh, were they accepted and read in the churches as being inspired?
Put down these verses of scripture that you see on the screen, just, and they might be on the outline. I'm not sure whether I put them on there for you or not. Jot them down. Did the teachings in the churches correspond with the oral teachings of Christ and the apostles? All right, Alexander the Great. We referred to him earlier. He was a mighty conqueror. He died at the age of what, right at thirty three in a drunken stupor, and his epitaph was, uh, being interpreted, uh, that he was sad because there were no more worlds to conquer.
Now, uh, we said that the Old Testament scriptures were translated or were written in Hebrew, and it was, uh, about two fifty BC, because of what Alexander the Great had done in conquering so many worlds and the Greek language spreading, that there was a need for the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures to be translated into the Greek. There were so many Greek-speaking Jews. And so the translation was made. It's called, uh, that Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament is known as the Septuagint.
That word means seventy. You will see it in, uh, some study books, simply LXX. When you see a reference to LXX, you know that's a reference to the Septuagint, to the Greek version of the Hebrew Old Testament. All right. Many letters were written in the Old Testament days, only thirty nine, or twenty two by Hebrew count were worthy to be con- included in the canon of scripture. Fourteen of these other letters wound up along with this Greek. They are known as the Apocrypha. Now, you will see on the bottom of page two, uh, the apocryphal writings.
I meant to bring a Bible with the Apocrypha. It might surprise you to know how many preachers of yesteryear used the Bible with the Apocrypha. When that Greek translation, the Septuagint, was made, translating the Hebrew text into the Greek language, these fourteen books, the Apocrypha, some s- some count them as twelve, It depends on whether you put, uh, uh, First Edr- Edras and Second Esdras together, and uh, Maccabees, the two Maccabees together, uh, it's either fourteen or twelve.
some say fifteen. they want to include another letter of Jeremiah. But when that Greek translation was made around two fifty BC, the apocryphal letters were included. They were included. That word apocrypha means hidden or secret, and was, uh, adopted because the date, origin, and authorship of most of them is, to say the least, very doubtful. Well, I'm gonna have to just skip along because you do have this on the screen. Uh, so the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, plus the fourteen hidden books, the Apocrypha, made a total of eighty books in the Bibles of yesteryear and in the Roman Catholic Bible of today, the Greek Orthodox Bible of today, and, uh, other segments of the so-called Christian church today use a Bible with eighty books.
We use the- our English Bibles without the Apocrypha. I think maybe I had better stop right there. When we go to the New Testament, the Gospels, and read how the Lord Jesus quoted from the Old Testament scriptures, we never read of any reference by the Lord Jesus or the apostles, someone challenged me on this. I'm still waiting for proof, but we never read where they quote it from these hidden books, the Apocrypha. Later, we'll see that when Jerome, uh, Eusebius Hieronymus, known as Jerome, was commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church after Constantine declared the Roman Empire to be Christian in three twelve uh, AD, three twelve, three thirteen AD.
It was after that that the Roman Catholic Church commissioned Jerome to make, uh, a new up-to-date Latin version of the Bible. It's known as the Vulgate. It's the one the Roman Catholic Church uses today. Jerome was commissioned to make that translation into Latin, and he did not want to include the Apocrypha. At the council meeting of Carthage in three ninety seven, that was not to determine the canonicity of the New Testament scriptures, but simply to recognize what had already been recognized for a hundred years, that they were, these books that we have are included in the canon of scripture.
But the Roman Catholic Church wanted the Apocrypha to be included. Jerome did not want to include them because he questioned their authority, but so much pressure was put on him to do so that he did. He put an asterisk beside it to indicate that he did not think it should be included. And we'll see tomorrow night that, uh, Flavius Josephus, who was a contemporary of the apostles, said in his book, in his writings, that we have these twenty two books.
And I'll read it to you tomorrow night, how that Josephus said that God will judge anyone who adds to them, who takes away from them, or changes anything in them. That was quite a statement. Well, we'll stop right there, and we'll close in prayer. Be nice to have a song, but we'll close in prayer. Father, we do thank thee for the study of this wonderful book. May it bring about a greater appreciation on our part for the wonderful word of God. But we realize too that it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God to take this word and to make it real in us.
Father, I pray that we will allow him to do so, that we will hide the word in our hearts, that it might permeate our being, and that we will obey the word of God. Dismiss us with thy blessings, we pray, in the Savior's name, amen. Good night, and God bless you. Now, I went over, but don't, don't let that keep you away tomorrow night. You come back.