Psalms No.11 God and the Scriptures

Just the first two sections. I love to hear you taking part in worship and in reading the scriptures, so if you've got the AV, will you come in on the even numbered verses. Psalm 119.

Just wait a moment while some of the boys and girls find the psalm. All right. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.

They also do no iniquity, they walk in his ways. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.

I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. That's a tremendous passage of scriptures in Timothy chapter 3, verse 15. Paul is praising God for his young colleague, for his Christian background and the education that his mother and his mother gave him.

And now he has this to say, 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. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished, unto all good works. As I was saying, I want to spend a little longer than is my normal practice this Sunday morning, in directing your attention to this particular aspect of the Christian faith, the authority, the worth, the value of holy scripture.

And I do this for a number of reasons. The first is pretty obvious, or at least it will become so, as I remind you of it. Ever since the beginning of the story of man, the Word of God has been under assault.

When our first parents were placed in the Garden of Paradise, certain instructions were given to them by the Lord. It was the part of his revelation. There was restriction placed upon a certain fruit of a tree in the garden.

And you remember how in the form of a serpent, the devil slid alongside Eve, and he put to her a question which, spiritually speaking, had opium in it. It was a drug, a narcotic. He said, hath God said.

Now think through that question, because it's a question that the devil has been putting to men and women, dangling in front of them, down the whole course of human history. Hath God said? The implication is that you and I, that our first parents had a right to pass judgment upon what the Lord said. That Eve could use her intellectual resources to go over against the revealed dictate of the Lord.

The devil hooks Eve, and ere long he moves a little further in his tactics, in his strategy, and he denies that what God said is correct. He said, thou shalt not surely die. And Eve believed the devil.

That was the first attack that human history has ever known on the revelation of God. And what happened in the Garden of Eden, so many, many centuries ago, has been reenacted in every century, in every decade, in every year, and in the experience of every person. Jeremiah was a prophet, and he was propelled into a ministry, the place where he never wanted to go, not in his wildest dreams did Jeremiah expect to be preaching in Jerusalem.

But there the Lord sent him, and in Jerusalem he had to confront prophets, who were preaching heresy, who again were leading an assault upon the revelation that God had given to the Old Testament people. And in the sixth chapter of Jeremiah's prophecy in particular, he deals with these folks who masquerade as spokesmen of God, but actually are emissaries of the devil. When the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth, time and time again, he took to task the Sadducees and others who had a preaching and influential ministry amongst the people in his day, and he reprimanded them because of their ignorance of Scripture, and because the Sadducees in particular cut against the grain of the Old Testament revelation, and became the humanists and the agnostics of their day, and denied the concept of a resurrection.

The Christian Church had not been in orbit very long after the launching on the day of Pentecost, before a veritable armada of criticism was launched against, was fired against the the Church of Jesus. There were some people called Gnostics, that's a Greek word that in English could be translated as the knowledgeable ones, and these people cut to pieces the Old Testament and the revelation of Jesus Christ, and said that they alone had the ability to say what was true and what was not true. They even went further because they added to the Scriptures from their ranks, or at least amongst their contemporaries was a man by the name of Celsus.

Celsus was a brilliant man, and he used what in effect was a penknife to cut out from the Gospels all the things that he disagreed with, and when he had finished he said that what remained after it had passed through his own brain, his own standard of judgment, that was to believe and nothing else, an attack on Scripture. Now down the centuries we've seen such attacks, and in the 20th century the story continues. The beginning of this century the church was still recoiling from theologians in Oxford and Cambridge who had produced books attacking the infallibility of Scripture and the deity of Christ.

In the early 1960s when I was a student the book which was to command great prominence, Honest to God, was written, sold by thousands and thousands of copies, and you are aware that during the last couple of months or so another book has come off the presses from ordained men within the established church questioning the deity of Christ, the myth of God incarnate. You may wonder when that book came and the news off the press and the news broke in the media, why never made any reference to it? Well you see this doesn't really disturb me, because this I say is a continuation of the saga commenced in the Garden of Eden so long ago. Men and women who are hooked by the same question as the devil dangled in front of our first mother.

Hath God said? Pass judgment on his word. But the thing that compels me this morning to bring this to your attention is a rather sad situation that is developing in America and has repercussions or is beginning to have, if I read the situation right, repercussions here in this country. There are groups within the Evangelical Church in America who for a long long time have remained faithful to the inspiration, to the belief in the inspiration of Scripture, who are departing from it.

You may have heard and often tuned in to Fuller's broadcast of the old-fashioned Revival Hour and some of you may be aware that that great man and Bible teacher founded a college in the States, Fuller's Seminary. Well it's particularly from there and from other areas in the United States of America amongst the Evangelical camp that a new offspring has been born and the word that is in vogue these days is no longer Evangelical but Neo-Evangelical or the New Evangelical. The New Evangelical is a sort of sophisticated breed.

He's a little more with it, a little more discerning, more wise than his parents and this Neo-Evangelical, though admitting generally to the hand of God upon Scripture, is making a distinction which I myself personally cannot follow between the terms inerrancy of Scripture and the infallibility of Scripture. I think that those two are synonyms, they're saying exactly the same thing but these men tell me otherwise. But perhaps to put it in a crystal-clear fashion to you this morning, what is being said is this, that Scripture is authoritative in all that it teaches but not necessarily authoritative in all that it touches.

So it might teach doctrine and when it teaches doctrine, the doctrine of the atonement, justification by faith, sanctification, glorification, all the vista of doctrine, it's right. But when it touches on history, when it touches on science, well then we reserve our opinion. Scripture is right in all that it teaches but not right in all that it touches.

The Evangelical Alliance in this country had an American lecturer over, actually by British birth, but an American lecturer for all that this last year to declare this position and the lecture was also repeated, at least the sum total of the lecture was repeated at the London Bible College. By no way am I suggesting that these two institutions are following this line of thought, this new line of thought. It is right that men be informed as to what is going on as I'm informing you because you're intelligent people.

But I say that the repercussions of what is happening in the United States of America are beginning to be seen here in this country. And I want to state equivocally, unequivocally from the pulpit here in the tabernacle, that this church has stood, will continue to stand as long as I'm pastor here of the church, for the inerrancy and the total infallibility of Scripture. Indeed, entrenched in the trust deed of our church, and we thank God for the wisdom of the founder, Douglas Crouch, who was a contemporary of Charles Spurgeon, entrenched in the trust deed is this statement, that this church stands for the proclamation of the gospel which is bedded within the Word of God, which is the inerrant, infallible revelation of God to men and women.

And you may know that in this particular church, in the tabernacle, there are a number of men who are trustees. Every elder is automatically a trustee. On top of that, there are another batch of men who are members of the congregation, but not elders, and they too are trustees.

Now, it is interesting to observe this, that when the church was first instituted, the trustees were invested with, and I think this is rather strange, and yet I approve wholeheartedly, strange in as much as it's now practiced in many churches, the trustees were invested with the authority of checking the doctrine that is preached from this pulpit. Let me put this to you bluntly, if the trustees were in the church and they considered that what was being proclaimed from this pulpit was liberalism, was cutting against the grain of God's revelation, then they have the right to call a And for the house to be put in order, even if it means debarring from this pulpit certain preachers. This is why to be a trustee of the tabernacle is a very important duty indeed.

It's rather incongruous if trustees of the tabernacle are not in attendance at the ministry, for how can they judge what is being preached, unless they are there to listen. So I say that the very trustee of this church compels us to say that this new breed of evangelicalism, this new wind that is blowing down the the corridors of the evangelical churches can in no way find its mark in the accent of the gospel that is proclaimed here. And it is not sufficient for us to say that this book is inspired in what it teaches, and not inspired upon what it touches.

We would say from Genesis right through to Revelation that this is 100% without qualification the Word of God. And of course we have to say this for the simple reason that very often the doctrinal passages of Scripture are mixed up with the historical passages of Scripture. You know that the historicity, that word means the actual reality of the existence of Adam and Eve is questioned by a large proportion of the so-called established church.

Now Scripture, when it deals with the doctrine of sin, refers us back to Adam and Eve. We have all sins, says the Apostle Paul, in the similitude, in the likeness of the transgression of Adam and Eve. And then he goes to set down the doctrine of sin and the depravity of men and women, and all that is bound up around who? Adam and Eve.

But Adam and Eve is history, and the history of the Bible according to the new wind of doctrine, the new wind of thought that is blowing through evangelical churches could be suspect. Well if the Bible is suspect with regard to Adam and Eve, who's to say that it's right on the doctrine of sin? And perhaps more importantly, who is to say that it is right in the antidote that it propounds for the cure of the sinful condition? History and doctrine are so intertwined, particularly in the Old Testament, and in the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament. And to suggest that you can somehow make two departments, one teaching and the other history, and all the associated disciplines with history, is really ridiculous.

Who is to make the distinction? Am I to do it? Are we to call a conference of evangelical leaders and Bible teachers in this country? Are they to do it? Are we to get the most influential Bible preachers in the world and have an international conference? Are they to do it? To tell us what the Bible teaches, as opposed to what the Bible touches on? Well if that was the case, then where would authority be? It wouldn't be in this book. The authority would be with the scholars. The authority would be with those folks who were called to this particular conference.

And in one sense we would be back to the position of the Roman Catholic Church, with infallity invested in a body of man, whereas they have infallity invested in one man. So you see the reason, and all these are just introductory remarks, but don't get worried, you'll be home in time for your lunch. You'll see the reason for me directing our attention to this particular doctrine.

It is so vital. Now come with me to 1 Timothy, chapter 3 and verse 16. For here we have in a nutshell the summary of the teaching of Scripture regarding its own authority.

And we'll work our way through this statement, and maybe it will help to crystallize the situation and make each one of us clear as to what we believe in this church, and indeed what I would say is pivotal in the proclamation of the gospel. 2 Timothy 3 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

Now it's very wonderful that in the new translation, or one of the new translations of the Bible, the RSV, they have gone back to this declaration, to this particular translation, whereas the revised version of the Bible seemed to suggest that the Apostle here was only referring to certain scriptures. They juggled the Greek when they were trying to translate this particular verse in the revised version, and the Greek will just not justify that particular rendering. The AV is absolutely right here, and one thanks God that we have this particular version of Scripture to which I can direct your attention.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And this is the claim that Scripture makes for itself. In the Old Testament, for instance, 3,008 times, or rather you can check my arithmetic, 3,808 times the prophets use that little formula, thus saith the Lord.

You read the Old Testament and you will see that that comes through again and again. We read of the men in the Old Testament era speaking of the burden of the Lord, this particular burden that they have upon their hearts that they want to share with the Old Testament redeemed community, something that they have got from the Lord themselves. Now it's interesting that when the Apostle Paul writes to the church at Rome, in the first three chapters, he makes reference to the sinful condition of mankind in general.

Do you recall how in the opening preamble he is particularly alluding to the Gentiles, and he concludes that all the Gentiles are sinners. And then he goes and he attends to the Jewish nation, and he makes exactly the same observation. They're all sinners, the Jews and the Gentiles, there's no distinction.

But the Apostle Paul then stops. It's as though someone is asking him a question. Paul, have the Jews therefore no advantage at all? Is there no way in which they were blessed by God beyond any other nation? It says the Apostle, there is indeed.

Chapter 3, to them were committed the oracles of God. The oracles of God. And that is an expression that he is using to define the Old Testament Scriptures, the oracles of none other than Almighty God himself.

The Jews were entrusted with them. When the Lord Jesus Christ makes reference to the Old Testament Scriptures, in that marvelous address that he gave on the, that we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount, he puts down this particular observation. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17, and indeed verse 18.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Jesus here refers to the law and the prophets. What does that mean? Well, the Old Testament Scriptures, you see, they didn't refer to the book in those days as the Bible or the first half of the Bible. The Jews in Jesus's time referred to the first part of this volume in terms of the law and the prophets.

Now says the Son of God, nothing that was written in the centuries that have gone by shall pass away. Not one jot, not one tittle, not the smallest part of the Hebrew alphabet that was used in the compiling of this word shall pass away. Jesus is doing what? He is underlining the concept of the inerrancy, the infallibility of Scripture.

The Lord Jesus Christ, he claims that infallibility himself. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that's his formula, that's equivalent to the Old Testament prophets leading up, thus saith the Lord. And the disciples, when they are moved by the Spirit to record their teaching, they also appeal to the fact that what they have to say is not by private revelation, it is something that they have received from the Lord.

Oh, so many examples could be given to you, but time will not allow it. You remember the apostle, however, when he's setting down his teaching concerning the Lord's Supper, I would not have you ignorant, brethren, for I have delivered unto you that which also I received of the Lord. Now what does all this amount to? Well, Scripture itself, Old Testament and New Testament, claiming to be inspired.

How about you say that's a circular argument? You need some external verification to demonstrate the truth of Scripture, but why? Is this always necessary? Can not a man speak for himself? If, for instance, I was involved in a car accident and I have to give an account of what I see, let's say that I'm not a participant, I'm a spectator. So I go across to the magistrate's court over the road there, and I give to the magistrate what I have seen, the best clear account that I have. Now, someone could say, oh yes, but he's the only one who could make any comment.

There's no one to verify his word. So what does the magistrate do? Well, he has taken certain precautions. He's offered me a book, the Bible, and I have declared by oath that what I say is true.

He's also, or he can check up on my references. He has some idea, or may have some idea, that I'm a pastor here. He may know some of you very influential folks in the congregation, and say, well, they swear for him.

They say that what he says is true, that he's a man of integrity. And because of the word that I declare in the court under oath, I'm accepted. The evidence that I bring forward is acknowledged by the magistrate.

Similarly, for the Word of God, it is given under oath. Listen to one of the writers who was used by the Spirit to compile this record, Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 17, wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise, that is redeemed people, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. God puts his signature upon this book.

And what's more, this book can be tested by what it says, by what it says about the majesty of God. The Puritans very often would refer to the internal testimony of Scripture. One thinks of the concepts that are set forth in the Old Testament and in the New Testament that describe this great and sovereign Lord who created the heavens and the earth.

And the Puritans say, where else can one go to in the annals of human literature and find anything that is comparable with this? There's a dignity and a bearing of Scripture that is perhaps comparable with the dignity and the bearing of a man who gives evidence in a court of law, and because of his bearing what he says is accepted. What about the the teaching of Scripture, the ethical teaching? Contrast the situation, the lifestyle of men and women when some of these great precepts of Scripture were revealed. They lived in a state of degradation, but here the prophets come along, here comes the Savior, and he spells out an ethical code which is phenomenal, which is unique.

Where else do you find anything like this? And when you consider it, what does it drive you to? To the conclusion that behind this book there is something divine, there is something extra human, there is something supernatural. And then one thinks of the power of this book. Can you honestly find any other book in this world that has so controlled, improved, changed the lives and the lifestyles of men and women than this book has done? All Scripture from Genesis right through to Revelation has the signature of God upon it, and it has an internal guarantee as to its authority and as to its power.

When the Apostle Paul was preaching to the redeemed community or writing to the redeemed community at Thessalonica, he reminds them in his first epistle, the second chapter and the thirteenth verse of his initial conversations with them. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, listen, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. The power of Scripture, the inspiration of Scripture, not just Paul's words did these men hear, they heard the very word of God, God's own will, God's own declaration, flashed through Paul, conveyed through Paul, as a lightning conductor picks up the lightning from the heavens and conducts the dangerous flow down into the earth.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. This book is inspired in what it touches upon and in what it teaches. Look at that second comment then, is given by inspiration of God.

That word inspiration, again it's not very well rendered in the English language, it's very hard to find a Greek substitute, at least to translate it into English. It has the idea of all Scripture being breathed in, that's the way that you would understand inspiration if you were defining it, say by looking up the definition in the Oxford Dictionary. But it's not just the idea of God breathing in, but perhaps more accurately, God breathing out his word and ensuring that that word is contained within the ministry of a variety of men who were used by him to bring his revelation to the world.

God out-breathed what he had to say into human vessels and they in turn declared the revelation that they had received to the Lord, to men and women. Now the idea of God breathing out and doing something is seen in Scripture in other connections. For instance, in the book of Psalms, the 33rd Psalm and the 6th verse, we read this, By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth.

And then in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7, you hardly need for me to remind you of this Scripture referring to the creation of our first parents. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. So here is the whole realm of creation, not only the natural world but also the physical world, the animal world, the world of human beings brought about, says Scripture, by the breathing in or the, more accurately, the breathing out of God.

God in his creative ability causes this to happen and we find a comment in Genesis chapter 1 as to the nature of the Lord's work. God saw everything that he had made, verse 31, and behold it was very good. Now what God did in the world of creation as he breathed out and caused the world to come into existence, he has also done in the granting of his revelation to men and women.

He has breathed out and when God breathes out, when God engages in an act of revelation or creation, it is good. It is good. There was nothing wrong with the world when it left its creator's hands in its pristine moments of glory and freshness.

It was absolutely perfect. Now Jesus, when he's passing comment on the Old Testament Scriptures in the verse to which I referred a little while ago, he says this word shall not pass away. Well, when shall it not pass away? Well, you see, it's good.

It's left the hands of God. God has breathed it out. He's used human vehicles in so doing, but that does not necessarily mean that because he's used human vehicles, the word is tainted.

After all, did not God bring into this world his own son through a human vehicle? I refer to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary. Mary was a sinful woman. The Roman Catholic Church has got it all wrong here.

The theology is bizarre along this line. Mary was a sinner. She needed a Savior.

But God used this woman, this great woman from the Hebrew community, as the means whereby he brings into this world his son. Was his son a sinner? Of course not. Perish the thought.

The whole of the New Testament rises up against such a nonsensical assertion. Jesus is God's son, pure, righteous, just. And when Gabriel comes to Mary, or rather when when comment is made on the actual conception within Mary of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is described in terms of that holy thing.

Now the God who can bring out of the womb of a woman his perfect son, can bring through the minds of men that he has chosen his perfect word. And he will use that word for the benefit of humankind. And preachers will come to this word.

And they will proclaim the gospel of God. And they will appeal to this word. And the congregation that is initiated in spiritual things will know when a preacher is speaking accurately.

And when he is speaking his own thoughts. When he moves from theology into philosophy. They will know because they will check what he has to say by this word.

Now that's fair isn't it? You see if you had to check what I had to say by your own intellect, then some of us would be at a disadvantage. Not everyone is an intellectual person. I would have great difficulties in understanding some of the theologians, some of the great preachers that I have heard.

I could not assess all that they have to tell me on terms of my own human intellect because mine is far far inferior to theirs. So what is the court of appeal? Do I have to go to these men? No. God is not unfair in the way that he reveals himself.

He puts his revelation down in a book. You can you can read. You can hear.

You can come along. You can see what is in this book. And you can judge the word that is spoken from this book and this alone.

I made reference a little while ago to certain trends in America that disturb me and have repercussions in this country. And I'm thinking particularly in theological circles. Now hear me because I've got another cause of concern.

And this is not in the academic center so much. But hear me right or else you'll misunderstand what I'm saying. I am alarmed at certain aspects, certain emphases that there are within the charismatic movement today.

Now I've made my position clear with regarding to with regard to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. I accept that the gifts within the sovereignty of God are for the use of the church today. And I praise God for any freedom in worship, for any attempts to come back to a New Testament pattern, and to get rid of some of the traditional structures of evangelicalism which have got no warrant in the Word of God.

I say all that by way of introduction. But you see at the fringe, and notice what I'm saying at the fringe of this movement, you've got people who are getting so intoxicated by the thought of prophecy, tongues, interpretation, revelation, that they're beginning to ease the Bible out. You don't need the Bible anymore.

We've got a hotline you see. The Bible is a circuitous route. It's just for immature people.

But when you move on, this is a new Gnosticism, you see, a new knowledge. You move on from the Bible, you've got a hotline to glory. And so you don't need this.

And one or two of the comments of some of the charismatic teachers, some of the prominent charismatic teachers, need a great deal of qualification when they're dealing with the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. Now notice what I'm saying. I repeat it just in case you didn't pick me up loud and clearly a few months ago.

I'm not knocking the movement as such. Certain of its emphases I feel need to be restated, need to be remade. But when there is any movement, when there is any group within Christendom that rises up and threatens this book, then men must come to the front and say no, so far but no further, sola scriptura, Scripture alone, the cry of a Calvin.

Once we lose that in this country, in the Evangelical Church, then the whole superstructure of our faith collapses. We've nothing to build on at all. Scripture alone, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

So much more I wanted to say, so little time left in which to say it. And it's profitable. It's profitable for what? Well, it's profitable, says the Apostle Paul, for everything.

On which it touches, and on which it teaches, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works. Now you see how this statement gives the lie to this distinction between the Bible touching on history, and what it teaches. How do I know how to control myself as a human being? Well the Bible says that this book is replete with instances of men who were great in the service of God, and others who made shipwreck of their lives.

Why are these stories recorded? Well, says the New Testament, these stories are recorded so that you shall have an example, so that you shall be able to deduce in certain situations the way that you ought to react. I know that David was wrong in the business of Bathsheba. I know Joseph was very much right in the affair regarding Potiphar and his wife.

Both these two are historical incidents, and enwrapped, intertwined around them is great doctrine and ethics. Those of you who were with me on Thursday will recall how we were touching upon the teaching of Scripture concerning the family, concerning sexual behavior. Now are these things that we should not make reference to from the pulpit? Not at all.

The Bible says here that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable. Some of these areas, these twilight areas where there's so much confusion today in the 20th century, they need to be cleared up, and light needs to be thrown upon them. How does this light come? Well it comes through the Scriptures, and it's about time that we realize that our whole lifestyle is to be conditioned and controlled by the precepts of this book.

And so we could go on, but I can't. Here is a book, not a book, the book. The Word of God for this generation, as it's the Word of God for every generation, to be taken and to be acknowledged as such.

Outside of this book there is no salvation. This book shall make you wise, Timothy says, Paul has another point, wise unto salvation. You can't be saved without the knowledge, some knowledge of what this book contains.

But neither, neither can you be saved merely by academically coming to this book. This book springs to life as the Spirit of God works upon my mental processes, and tutors me regarding the things of God. So what do we need today? To study this book more and more, to know the fullness of the Spirit sanctifying our lifestyle, cleansing our personality, making us pure and wholesome before God.

And with a combination of this Word and the Spirit of God, we have a message which can revolutionize this society. When anyone starts to impugn the authority of this book, I get hot under the collar, even though some of the men who are doing it today, or men who taught me years ago, my first lessons in theology, that my court of appeal, however much I may love these men, is not to them. My court of appeal must be to this book.

Thy Word, and Thy Word alone is truth. May this meditation have been of help to you. Father we thank you again for opportunity to come together as part of the Church of Jesus Christ this Sunday morning.

We praise you for every experience that you have granted us of your grace in the days, the years gone by. And we bless you again for this inspired book, and for its teachings, and for its relevance. Help us Lord to show how much we cherish it, not only by giving some assent to what has been said this morning, but by reading this book from Monday through till Saturday, extracting a spiritual meal each time that we attend to its pages.

Help us to realize that this is God's letter addressed to us, as relevant today as it was to the Hebrews in days gone by, as it was to the people who were with our Savior during his earthly ministry.