How We Got the Bible - Shawn Zybach

Welcome to the official podcast of the Church

of Christ Wheeler area. We're so glad that you've

tuned in for today's message. Whether you're

on your morning commute or if you're relaxing

at home, we're here to share the strength and

truth of God's Word with our community. If you're

in the neighborhood, we'd love to meet you in

person. Come see us at 1500 South Allen L. Bean

Boulevard right here in Wheeler, Texas. We gather

every Sunday morning at 1030 a .m. and in the

afternoon at 230 p .m. We meet again on Wednesdays

at 7 p .m. Right now let's open our Bibles together

and dive in to today's sermon. Hope you enjoy

the study of the evening. I'm asked a lot how

we got the Bible. We've been studying some of

the things that have to do with history of the

church and I think this maybe will be a good

thing to look at and consider for a little while.

How did we get it? Where did it come from? How

do we have it in the form that we have it in

today? And I wanna begin in the book of John

John 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14. This is J. David Zeebok's favorite

verse of scripture. And I'm sure someday when

we lay him the grave, this will be read. He loves

this verse and it's a wonderful verse. Jesus

said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe

in God believe also in me and my father's house

or many mansions if it were not so I would have

told you I Go to prepare a place for you, and

if I go and prepare a place for you I will come

again and receive you into myself that where

I am there you may be also Do you believe that

that's true? You believe Jesus said that I believe

that but if if Jesus didn't say it or if it's

been changed, then that changes our perception

of everything, doesn't it? If this is really

not the words of Jesus, then our perception of

life and of the reality of life changes in every

way and very profound way. But the Bible, the

beginnings of the New Testament specifically

that I want to talk about tonight, comes from

the apostles. That's the beginning of the New

Testament. Obviously we had the words of Jesus

and the things that he said, but it wasn't Jesus

who wrote down those words. It was the apostles

who came along and wrote down those words. Another

thing you'll notice that Jesus said in John 14

John 14:23

verse 23, he answered and said to them, if a

man loved me, he will keep my words. Now just

think about that for a moment. He says if a man

loves me he will keep my words then it seems

like it was on Jesus To make sure that we have

his words if he expects us to keep them then

he need to make sure that we have them So that

we can follow them and keep them now if you keep

reading it says my father will love him We will

come unto him and make our abode with him He

that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings and

the word which you hear is not mine But the fathers

which sent me and so Jesus says if you love me

Then you should do what I've said and so he had

to make a way for us to know what he said and

he goes on furthermore To say if you don't love

me you won't keep my sayings, but what a dirty

rat Jesus would be if he says, if you love me,

keep my sayings, and then there's no way for

us to know what he said. That'd be just a dirty

rotten trick is what that would be. And Jesus

wasn't that kind of guy at all. He goes on to

say, these things have spoken unto you being

yet present with you, but the comforter, which

the Holy Ghost. whom the Father will send in

my name, he shall teach you all things and bring

all things to your remembrance whatsoever I've

said unto you." And so he begins to build a case

for... the New Testament as we know it. This

is what Jesus is doing. He's describing a job

that he has for those apostles, which was to

document all the things that he said. And he

says, number one, I'm going to send the Comforter,

the Holy Ghost. He said, the Father will send

in my name and he's going to teach you all things.

Well, you know, that'd be great, wouldn't it,

kids, the night before a big test at school.

If the Holy Spirit would just say, just don't

worry about it, I'm going to give... you all

the answers to the test. Well I've tried that

a couple times, didn't work too good for me at

all. But this is what Jesus told them. He's going

to go back to heaven. He said right now I'm here

with you. The Father's going to send the Comforter.

He's going to teach you all things. That's important.

He's going to bring all things to your remembrance.

He's going to help you remember everything that

I've said. And he's saying don't worry about

all these things. I'm going to teach you everything

you don't know after I go back to heaven through

the Holy Spirit. And secondarily, I'm gonna help

you to remember everything that you need to remember.

John 14 verse 27, peace I leave with you. My

John 14:27

peace I give to you, not as the world giveth,

give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled,

neither let it be afraid. And so Jesus is saying

to the apostles, don't worry about all this stuff,

I'm gonna take care of you. I'm gonna help you

through all this so that you can understand.

And I will tell you, if I was one of the apostles,

I'll be sitting there going, I'm not gonna remember

everything I need to remember. I'm not I'm gonna

leave out details that are really important I

don't understand everything that's happened and

he's telling them don't worry about all these

things I'm gonna help you with all this so he

explains he's gonna leave the disciples I'm gonna

send the comforter to teach you all things the

comforter will help you to remember everything

that you need to remember and then the next chapter

John 15 he continues building on this case. And

this is what he says in verse 26, when the comforter

is come, who I will spend unto you from the Father,

even the spirit of truth. And so this begins

to be one of the themes that we have, is the

comforter is the spirit of truth. Not just any

kind of spirit, a spirit of truth. To give them

truth. so that they would have truth, so they

could write down the words of truth. He says,

which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify

of me, and he also shall bear witness, because

ye have been with me from the beginning. He says,

you're gonna be witness of these truths, because

you've been there from the start. And so the

Comforter is the spirit of truth that was gonna

come, and he was gonna teach them all things,

and he's gonna help them to remember. All thanks.

Now, John chapter 16, where it is going along

John 16 · chapter mention

with the John theme, verse seven, Jesus says,

nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient

for you that I go away for if I go not away,

the comforter will not come unto you. But if

I depart, I will send him unto you. And so certainly

the disciples. didn't want him to leave. They're

probably sitting there going, we don't want you

to leave. We want you to stay here with us. You

teach us and you be here. But that wasn't the

plan. The plan was for Jesus to die and be buried

and be raised to life and then ascend to the

Father. And he wasn't going to leave them helpless.

He's going to send the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.

He's going to send the Spirit of Truth to guide

them. Now, John 16 verse 12, he says, I have

John 16:12

yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot

bear them now. how true that is. There were things

they just couldn't understand. There were things

they just couldn't comprehend until they saw

him alive after he rose from the dead There were

just parts of it and pieces of it They had no

way to understand fully the kind of king he was

the kind of kingdom He had they were gonna have

to have their knowledge fulfilled He says I got

a lot of things I need to say but you're not

ready He says when the spirit of truth is come

he will guide you into all truth For he shall

not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall

he or that shall he speak, and he will show you

things to come." And so we're getting a very

well -rounded picture of what the Holy Spirit

was going to do. Teach them truth. Help them

remember. Help them understand the things they

weren't prepared to understand it was the spirit

of truth that was going to come and Furthermore,

he's going to show them not only the things that

they needed to remember that the things that

were going to come in the future That's what

he was going to do now. I want to go to mark

Mark 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16 We're going to jump away from John

and this obviously is after Jesus death after

his resurrection and so he's back alive and he's

been spending time and I believe on this account,

they've gone up to Galilee. In verse 15, he said,

go into all the world and preach the gospel to

every creature. He that believeth in his baptized

shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall

be damned. And these signs shall follow them

that believe. In my name shall they cast out

devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They

shall take up serpents, and if they drink any

deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall

lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

So then after the Lord has spoken unto them,

he was received up into heaven. That's exactly

what he'd been telling them, isn't it? I'm going

back to the Father. And as soon as I go back

to the Father, that's a good thing because I'm

going to send the Spirit of Truth. So notice

what He says, He was received up in heaven, set

on the right hand of God, and they went forth

and preached everywhere, the Lord working with

them and confirming what? The Word. He confirmed

the Word. This is the beginning of the New Testament

as you and I know it. This was the plan of God,

certainly, to record the words of truth, to make

certain that you and I could have truth. And

so he confirmed the truth, the word with signs.

These are miracles following. Amen. And so this

is the end of the book of Mark, and that's how

Mark puts it. Now, we read about Jesus ascending

back to heaven in the book of Acts, and so...

Some of this is overlapping between John and

Mark and Acts, but you understand Jesus is going

to work with them. Even though he went back to

heaven, he's going to send the Holy Spirit. He

gave them a task to go and preach and that's

certainly what they did. And so Jesus goes back

to heaven, the disciples go and preach, and the

Holy Spirit goes to work. It teaches those men

everything they didn't understand. He taught

them that. The Holy Spirit caused them to remember.

Oh yeah, I remember that thing. I remember that

time, see, where they had the knowledge they

needed. It was a guide for them to all truth,

and not just past truth, but also future truth.

He would show them a thing to come, and He confirmed

the Word with miracles. understanding of that

was, as they went out and began teaching and

preaching, the Holy Spirit came upon them. It

overwhelmed them, we might say. And the Holy

Spirit began to speak through those guys. And

what they spoke was confirmed with miracles,

and then they knew, this is from God. And they

knew to write it down. And so they went out and

began preaching, they began teaching, and those

miracles done. Obviously this wasn't everyone

of the apostles. It wasn't all of them this happened

to. There was a select few. Evidently, this was

God's intention for this to happen to. And so

they would go out and they began to preach and

they began to teach. these miracles are done

and it confirms this is truth and so Peter's

writing it down, John writing it down, later

on Paul writing it down and those things are

being confirmed with miracles so we know this

is the truth this is something needs to be written

down and so they begin early on to write those

things down and so at some point along the way

down the road of time because Jesus was dead

in about 33 AD and so at some point Between 33

and about 90 or 95, we might say half of the

New Testament was written down at some point.

It's been confirmed with miracles, it's been

written down, and the apostles start dying off.

Notice 1 Corinthians 13 beginning in verse 80

says, charity never fails, but where there be

prophecies, they shall fail. Where there be tongues,

they shall cease. where there be knowledge, it

shall vanish away." What's he describing? The

end of the miraculous gifts, the end of those

signs that he had promised, those signs that

would confirm the word. He said, in one of these

days, they're gonna come to an end. When's this

gonna happen? He says, it'll vanish away. Notice

what he says in verse nine, for we know in part.

We prophesied part. What did they know? Well,

the first half of the New Testament had been

written. It had been confirmed. We know. It was

written down. They knew that part. It was there

for them to read. And the part that was written

down, they didn't have to worry about. It had

been confirmed with miracles. So we know in part,

that's that first half of the New Testament.

Secondarily, it says we prophesy in part. We're

still relying on the Holy Spirit to show us truth

and that truth to be confirmed by miracles for

the remainder of the New Testament. And so at

some point, and I suppose maybe 1 Corinthians

13 is... that point and and I'm not stuck on

half maybe it was two -thirds or maybe it's three

-quarter I don't know how much of the New Testament

was written at this point but a lot of it was

now notice verse 10 when that which is perfect

is come then that which is in part shall be done

away and so we struggle sometimes with this word

perfect here and and we we think it means without

fault don't we I have a perfect wife she's perfect

She don't have any faults at all. That's not

really the way it's used. Typically in the King

James, the word in the Greek is tillios and it

means complete. It means complete, not without

fault. And if you look at the various uses here,

completeness. And so when we read the word, when

that which is perfect, he's saying when that...

which is complete. And what he's describing is,

is when the New Testament is completed, when

it's completely written. And so if we back up

and just think about that, he says, when that

which is perfect, the complete New Testament

is come, then that which is in part, which is

the miraculous, the tongues, the miracles, those

signs that were done to confirm the Word were

going to come to an end. And so they had a very

distinct purpose, those miracles, to confirm

the Word and eventually the New Testament, the

last sentence is written, the last period is

there, and it's done. And the miraculous, its

work is over. And the work of the Holy Spirit

in that sense is over. It's job was to guide

them into all truth, help them remember all those

things, and it was completed. Notice 2nd Timothy

chapter 3 verse 16. All scripture is given by

inspiration of God. In the Greek it means literally

breathed from God or God breathed. And so I want

you to notice this word scripture right here.

I want you to notice in the Greek it means graphy,

which is a document, not just any document, a

holy writ. In other words, Scripture is different

than just writings. Scripture is different than

history or historical books. Scripture is something

that has been confirmed by miracles. It's different.

Let me ask you a question. What do you think

the best -selling book of all time is? I'll give

you one guess. It's super easy. It's the Bible.

The best -selling book of all time. The Bible.

It is because it is different than all other

books. And so scripture is that which is a holy

writ or a holy writing. Why is it holy? Because

it's been confirmed by miracles. That's why it's

a holy writing. And scripture is given by inspiration

of God. God has breathed it. It is profitable

for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for

instruction in righteousness. Those things have

been given to us by God and it was His will and

intention that they be preserved even till today.

Indeed, as long as the earth stand, it is God's

will that these words be preserved. Why? That

a man of God or a woman of God or anyone can

be perfect, thoroughly furnished to all good

works. What do you think that word means? It

means complete. It's so unique and be the complete

Christians that he wants us to be. That's the

idea. So the apostles wrote the books of the

New Testament. The words were confirmed by God

through miracles or signs. The last books to

be written were the books of John. This would

be first, second, third John and potentially

the book of Revelation. And this was around 96

AD. So we're talking about 63 years after Jesus

was there on the earth, John is still writing.

Now all the other guys are dead and gone. Okay?

And John was the longest lived one. He lived

to be a hundred years old. And eventually the

Bible's complete and the work of the Holy Spirit,

the Comforter, this guide of truth is no longer

needed because now we have the New Testament

and it's complete for them to have. And guess

what? The apostles all died and they're gone.

Right? And now we rely on just the book. That's

what we have is the book. And those books were

left to Christians. A lot of those letters are

written to churches. Some are written to individuals.

And those Christians, they kept those books.

They read them and they study them. And you know

what they did? They shared them with one another.

They hand wrote those copies so they were precious

and they handed them off to other churches and

other people and slowly they began to compile

those documents. They began to copy those books

and letters. They were gathered by Christians.

They were gathered in churches. The English word

Bible is derived from biblios meaning the papyrus

book. This papyrus was the early day paper and

It means pages of a book is the idea. It's been

said that you could take and recreate the entire

New Testament today. just by the writings of

the early church fathers and so early day Christians

were writing letters back and forth to each other

and they were discussing scripture and it's been

said that you could recreate the entire New Testament

just from what they wrote and so there was a

lot of writing going on there was a lot of thinking

and studying and so the apostles are gone we

have the New Testament and now we get to the

next segment, which is manuscripts. And people

like to know, well, how many manuscripts are

there? And from what I know, there are 5 ,686

Greek manuscripts. That number might be a little

higher because there's all the time finding manuscripts.

And when I talk about a manuscript, I mean an

ancient copy in Greek. Of the entire Bible, there's

about 24 ,000. but of the New Testament in Greek.

Every few years they're discovered. A lot of

times nowadays we're finding manuscripts in libraries

and museums. They were found in the 1800s and

early 1900s and they were put in boxes and on

shelves and they pull them out and somebody goes

to study them. They realize that they're a new

manuscript. In 2008 there were 47 new manuscripts

discovered in Albania. Most of the time manuscripts

are not the whole New Testament. Generally they're

just a fragment or maybe a few verses and that

would still count as a manuscript. The average

size of New Testament manuscripts is about 450

pages and so typically when we talk about manuscripts

they're not just tiny fragments. Some of them

are, a lot of them are really intact you might

say. Someone says, well, what's the oldest manuscript

we have? It was named P52 or Papris 52. It's

John 18, 31 to 33 on one side. On the back side,

it's John 8, 37, 38. And like some of the ones

I just described, it had been sitting in an unprocessed

ancient documents at the John Rylands Library

of Manchester, England. And so there was boxes

upon boxes of manuscripts that are sitting there.

And so just as a side note, what we had happened

was the Crusades and there were a lot of Europeans

that went down to the Holy Land and looked for

religious artifacts. They were people who desperately

wanted to find fragments of the cross, they wanted

to find the nails that was in Jesus, they wanted

to find the thorns, and they were kings and people

of enormous wealth that sought all those kind

of things. In fact, in the Habsburg Empire, there

were kings who spent their whole lives collecting

Bodies of saints and there was one particular

king who gathered up about 50 bodies of saints.

I'm talking about whole bodies and he carried

them from Jerusalem back to Europe so he could

have them. The same guy had thousands upon thousands

of fingers and toes and legs and they were collecting

all this kind of stuff from the Holy Land and

at the same time there are a lot of these manuscripts

that migrated from the Holy Land up into Europe

and all over the world, okay? So there's just

been a dispersal of all that kind of stuff throughout

the world. This P -52 fragment, was photographed

and it was sent to papirologists which are people

who study such things in Europe and they believe

that this fragment of a manuscript was about

150 AD to 100 AD. Another one said it was from

the 90s and so what I'm trying to tell you is

they are pieces of manuscripts that are very,

very, very old, almost back to the time where

they were written, very close. Because someone

might say, well, where's the actual one that

Peter wrote? And the truth is, as happens in

time, they get destroyed, they get wet, they

get burned, all those kind of things. Malt and

rust corrupts. Here's a picture of this John

18. You probably can't see it too well. You probably

can't read it either, I can't. But nevertheless,

people ask, are the manuscripts reliable? And

the answer is yes, the manuscripts are reliable.

The complete book of Isaiah was found in the

caves of Qumran in 19 - 47. It is 11 inches wide

and it is 24 feet long. It is one long piece

of paper made out of papyrus and they rolled

it up. The only differences in it from today's

Isaiah are spelling. Now something that's interesting

about this particular manuscript is it's older

than Jesus. In other words, it was before Jesus

was around. If my understanding is right, it's

about 400 years before Christ. And it is the

same as Isaiah today. And somebody says, well,

there's differences, though, because there's

differences in spelling. Well, that is true.

William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition

is kind of like me. He spelled mosquito 20 different

ways, all wrong. But I'll tell you, if you want

to read about Lewis and Clark, you can still

understand he's talking about a mosquito. even

if it's misspelled. And so there are people who

are critical of the Bible and critical of the

New Testament because of a few differences in

spelling, but it really doesn't change the meaning

at all. Here's a document that there's a word

called historicity, which means is it historically

accurate? And the fact is there is no other document

in the world that is in the class. that the New

Testament is in as far as historically accurate.

And you might, some of these writers over here,

maybe you read Plato or one of these, Aristotle,

probably a lot of you read Homer, you know, and

people always ask about the New Testament and

they say, well, how do you know it wasn't changed?

How do you know people just didn't come in there

and change it? Well, one of the reasons we know

that is because there's thousands upon thousands

of documents. There are so many that people have

entire careers studying these things. I want

you to notice something. Homer's Iliad was written

in 900 BC. Okay, 900 years before Jesus is when

it was written. The earliest copy that exists

is 400 BC. That's a time gap of 500 years. And

so I want to ask you a question. I wonder how

many changes they made to Homer's Iliad. Reckon

how many? Nobody asks that question, do they?

Nobody cares if they changed the Iliad from 900

BC to 400 BC. So there's 500 years, we just don't

know what happened. Guess how many copies there

are? There are 643 copies. 643, well that's quite

a few actually. You can take those 643 and you

can read them and you can look for differences

and changes and all those kind of things. I want

you to think about the New Testament. The first,

the date it was written is in the first century

from 50 to 100 AD. The earliest copy is around

100, 130, maybe even as early as 90. You know

how much time that is? 50 years. 60 years, 70

years, maybe 100 years, very little time. That's

nothing like 500 years. There's over 5 ,000 ancient

copies. And the accuracy from what I've been

told is 99 .5, and the .5 is spelling, is what

the .5 is. And so the question are... Is it accurate?

Yes. The New Testament is the most historically

accurate book that has ever existed. And secondarily,

it is the most highly criticized book. It is

the most studied book that has ever existed.

And if there were things that were serious problems

from the ancient copies to today's copies, you

would know about it because it would be headline

news. The reality is the New Testament that you're

reading today is exactly the same as it was written.

Maybe a couple of differences in spelling. It's

exactly the same. It's just been preserved. And

if you think about it, it's a very miraculous

thing, which I'm sure was God's intention. Are

they reliable? They can be cross referenced.

And let me tell you, they have. The enemies of

the Bible have checked it and rechecked it and

looked for problems. So here's a list of some

of these manuscripts and I thought you might

find this interesting. And I'm talking about

ancient copies, early in time copies. The book

of Matthew, there are 14 that are earlier than

200. Okay, 200 A .D. Mark, there are large fragments

from 250. Luke, there are three from 200. John,

as we said, there are some very early fragments.

Some of these, you'll notice, and most of them,

I'm talking about the oldest copies, are just

fragments. Axe, a little bit older. And so you

can just take and look through here. Here, 2

Thessalonians, a little older before we have

as many. But as you go through, all these things

seem to be the standard. They're very, very ancient

copies of the New Testament that exist. The book

of 3 John, which it's a small book, isn't it?

It's just one chapter. It's complete. And so

that brings us to the Bibles. Now we've been

talking about the history of the church and how

it began to be translated into various languages,

Latin, very early on. By the late 300s, Greek.

ceased to be the language of most people and

Latin become the language that was spoken commonly

in the Roman Empire. In 382, Pope Damascus commissioned

Jerome. James talked about this the other day

to translate the Bible into Latin. This was called

the Vulgata or the common translation. It became

the standard Roman Catholic Church Bible. James

talked a little bit about, so this is kind of

good timing in the sense that The Roman Catholic

Church merged with the Roman Empire and and became

something that dominated a lot of those things

by the 600s the Bible was only available to Roman

Catholic priests and and that in Latin and so

it became a situation where in time most people

didn't read Latin and The only people that did

read Latin many time were Roman Catholic priests

The first handwritten English language Bible

manuscripts were produced in the 1380s by John

Wycliffe. He was an Oxford professor, scholar,

theologian. He was persecuted for doing that,

translating the scriptures, the leadership. and

the powers that be did not want the Bible in

the hands of the common man. Johann Gutenberg

invented the printing press. The reality is there

are probably people in China that had printing

presses before him, but in Europe, Gutenberg

invented the printing press in the 1450s. The

first book ever to be printed was the Latin Bible.

Reformers followed Wycliffe and began to promote

an English language Bible for the common man.

A lot of those people were persecuted for that.

In 1604, Protestants asked the newly crowned

King James for a new English translation Bible.

And the King James Bible was the result of the

efforts of about 50 scholars. From 1605 to 1606,

the scholars did research. From 07 to 09, the

work was assembled. In 1610, it went to press.

In 1611, the King James Version was completed.

And we most all of us grew up... on the King

James Version. Now let me tell you a story about

the King James Version. The one they're holding

in your hand is not the same one as 1611. It

has been revised seven times. Seven times it's

been revised. Some people today would call the

new King James the eighth revision, and maybe

that's true or maybe that's not true, but it

became a very much standard Bible. It has been

revised, as I said, seven times. and it is updating

spellings and words that change in meaning. Many

versions today are translated thought for thought.

I'm not a big fan of the thought for thought.

Here's a list of some of those. Problem with

a thought for thought Bible is somebody's thinking

gets into the translating. And I find that challenging.

Here are some versions that are translated word

for word. Of course here we use King James and

New King James. The American Standard is one

other that's translated word for word. And so

that brings us through a whole lot of time as

to how we got the Bible. It is one of those things

that I believe it's the will of God that it be

preserved. I don't know if you're aware, they

print 30 million Bibles every year in China,

and the book's illegal in China. It's the all

-time best -selling book, hands down. It is the

most quoted book that has ever existed by the

most quoted individual, which is Jesus. People

quote and read and have more interest in Bible

than any other book and it's not even close and

I believe it's been preserved on down through

time for you and I. In the book of John 14 as

we read Jesus answered and said if a man loved

me he will keep my words. The reality is Jesus

has made certain that his word has been preserved.

The reality is that men and women have died to

make sure it's been preserved. There were a lot

of people who persecuted intensely because they

translated the Word of God and Jesus knew it

would be so and he gave this encouragement to

you and I if a man loved me he will keep my words

and so the question is do you love him? Do you

love him? Because if you love him, you should

keep his words Well, you know if you're gonna

keep the words of Jesus, then you got to know

the words of Jesus You're gonna have to study

the word of Jesus. You're gonna have to read

the words of Jesus You're gonna have to meditate

and think on the words of Jesus If you love Jesus,

you should love his word and you should be interested

in his words He says if you love him, then my

father will love him and we will come to him

the person who loves his words and keeps his

words, God's gonna draw near to that individual.

And I want you to notice what he says right here.

And we will make our abode with him. Now here's

the reality. Isn't that what it's all about?

Isn't that why we're here? Because we wanna dwell

with God. We're all seeking a relationship with

God. We all want to be pleasing God Why is that

so we can be with him so we can be there with

him? Because we all know there's something more

to this life than this short while here in the

flesh There's something more than the struggles

of flesh and live this life and and that's it.

I'm gonna tell you something It's gonna be awful

disappointing if it's not true that there are

many mansions Awful disappointing If Jesus didn't

go to prepare a place for you. Awful disappointing.

And if the Bible hasn't been preserved, the truth

that it was then, the truth that it is now, if

it hasn't been preserved, then I will tell you

I don't think Jesus is the son of God. because

he said all scripture is given by inspiration

of God. John chapter 6 verse 63, he said, it

John 6:63

is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth

nothing. The words that I speak to you, they

are spirit and they are life. So I hope you love

Jesus tonight. Maybe you're here tonight and

you think, well, I hadn't been loving him enough.

I hadn't been keeping his word enough. You got

a great opportunity tonight to change. You got

an opportunity tonight to reset and restart and

focus and love him and love his word and be obedient

to him. And if you'll do that, he will abide

with you and he will be there for you and he

will bless you. If we can help you tonight to

make a change in your life, we'd love to do that.

If you have a need in your life that has nothing

to do with the things that we've studied, we'd

be glad to help you with that too. Thank you

for listening to today's sermon from the Church

of Christ Wheeler area. We hope this message

encouraged you and strengthened you in your faith

this week. Don't forget the doors always open

at 1500 South Allen L. Bean Boulevard at 1030

a .m. on Sundays, 230 p .m. on Sunday afternoons

and recharge with us midweek on Wednesdays at

7 p .m. For more information or to hear past

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you have a blessed week and we'll see you next

time.