Almighty and gracious God, we
would humble ourselves this evening hour as we draw near in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are thankful, O Lord, that
we can come together to hear the Word of God, to hear the
spread of the Word in these times. We pray our hearts may be gladdened
and we may be encouraged and uplifted And above all, we pray
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be honoured and glorified
in this meeting. Lord, do bless, we pray, the
reading of Holy Scripture and the preaching of it, and all
that is said and done in this meeting, we pray, that it may
be done reverently and in order. We pray, Lord, we may be blessed
as we sing together. May we do so with true praise
in our hearts as we ask it for Jesus' sake. Amen. We open by
singing together the hymn 586, the tune is 556. 586. Ye servants of the Lord,
ye messengers of grace, go forth with one accord, proclaim a full
release. Jesus has made an end of sin,
and righteousness divine brought in. 586. Servants of the Lord, ye messengers
of grace, give of me, Father God, proclaim a full release. Jesus has made an end of sin,
and righteousness divine. With tidings great and grand,
Tidings immensely good, Rooting through all the land, ♪ Jesus has made an end of sin
♪ ♪ And righteousness divine brought him ♪ ♪ He's here as
in this place ♪ ♪ The tidings are for you ♪ Jesus has made an end of sin
and righteousness divine. Please turn with me to the book
of Psalms. We turn to Psalm 68. Psalm number
68. I'll read the first 12 verses. The first 12 verses of Psalm
68. To the chief musician, a psalm or song of David. Let God arise. Let his enemies be scattered.
Let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven
away, so drive them away. As wax melteth before the fire,
so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the
righteous be glad. Let them rejoice before God.
Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. Sing unto God, sing praises to
his name. extol him that rideth upon the
heavens by his name Jah, that's an abbreviation for Jehovah,
and rejoice before him. A father of the fatherless and
a judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation. God setteth
the solitary in families. He bringeth out those which are
bound with chains. But the rebellious dwell in a
dry land. O God, when thou wentest forth
before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness,
Selah, the earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence
of God, even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God,
the God of Israel. Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful
rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance when it was
weary. Thy congregation hath dwelt therein. Thou, O God, hast prepared of
thy goodness for the poor. The Lord gave the word. Great
was the company of those that published it. Kings of armies
did flee apace, and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. So reads God's holy word. Let us pray together. Almighty and ever-gracious God,
we are thankful for the public means of grace, for opportunities
to meet with believers in worship and praise and adoration. Lord,
we give thanks that we have the Word of God before us and we
have free access to it. We have the Word of God in our
language and we have the ability, enabling us to read it for ourselves.
Lord, we realise these are great blessings that we so easily take
for granted, and we so soon forget that there are parts of the world
where the Word of God is entirely unknown, and in such countries
where it is available, there are many who cannot read. And
so, Lord, we desire to give thanks and pray that we may take the
opportunity to delight ourselves in the Word of God, not just
when we come together to meet with others for public worship,
but may we in our private devotions rejoice in the truth and be established
in it, that we may have eyes more clearly to see Christ by
faith in the written word, that we may desire to see him more
clearly and distinctly, that our hearts' affections may be
drawn heavenward, that we may wonder and admire afresh the
glorious Person of Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, the
Divine Saviour, and the wonder of His glorious work and His
accomplishments in providing so great salvation that there's
nothing left to do but for the poor sinner who feels his need
to believe, to run to Christ for relief and refuge, to look
to Him alone for a complete salvation. We thank You, O Lord, for the
Holy Spirit that enlightens our understanding and convicts us
of our need and shows to us our helplessness and our ruin, that
we are lost and undone in ourselves, but also showing to us something
of the glory of Christ, His suitability as the Saviour that we stand
in need of. and the perfection of the atoning
work that he performed, and his willingness to save, the freeness
of his grace. We pray our hearts may delight
again and again in these wonderful things. And we pray, Lord, it
may be true for the congregation here week by week as their pastor
ministers the word of God and sets Christ before them. We pray
that their hearts may be gladdened their faith may be strengthened,
their souls established in the truth, the believers will rejoice
in this great salvation. And we pray, O Lord, that sinners
may believe to the saving of the soul, coming under conviction
and realizing that they are lost in themselves and they need one
to look upon them in tender, mercy and compassion. And so
we pray that the ministry here may be used for the furtherance
of the gospel And they may be cause for rejoicing as sinners
testify of saving grace in their hearts and lives. And we pray
that it may be true of each one of us that we may walk worthy
of the vocation wherewith we are called. That we may be kept
from turning aside and swerving from the truth. And we may be
kept from falling and bringing reproach upon the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and giving an opportunity to the ungodly
to blaspheme the truth. Lord, help us to be tender in
these things, may we be kept by the power of God. Help us
then to look away from self and look to Christ alone. Lord, do
help us then, we pray. Look upon us this evening, may
our worship be real and may those things said and done be for thine
honour and glory. We give thanks, O Lord, for the
work of the Trinitarian Bible Society and its long years of
usefulness and the way it has been prospered and blessed over
the years. And we thank her for the particular
enlargement of the work in more recent years. And so we pray
that this may continue. And we pray that the enemy of
the work of the gospel, the devil himself, may be held back and
prevented from disrupting the work, or causing dissension or
division. Nor will we realise that he is
ever busy, trying to infiltrate, sometimes roars as a lion as
it were, other times like an angel of light to deceive. We
pray that we may not be ignorant of his devices. that we may be
on our watchtower, as it were. And so we pray that we continue
to bless the word of God as it goes forth in various locations. We pray for encouragement in
this locality and pray that the opportunities as they exist and
the endeavors made to Reach out to the people of this locality,
we pray that blessing may be with those who engage themselves
in these things. We pray, Lord, for blessing upon
the Word of God being made available outside of places of worship
such as this. We're encouraged to hear from
time to time of the way in which this has been particularly significant
in the lives of some as they've received the Word of God and
have been blessed through it. We pray that we may be encouraged
to go on in these things. Bless the text posters too, as
it may be a voice to the conscience of those that walk past or drive
by, that they may look at the words and give them consideration. And may the Holy Spirit prick
their conscience and make them aware that there's a God in heaven
who they should acknowledge and fear. And we pray, Lord, that
this may be, as it were, a starting point for some to bring their
feet from the broad way that leads to destruction to the way
that is narrow but leads to everlasting life. And so, Lord, do hear us,
we pray, in these things, and look upon us in this meeting,
that we may rejoice in the truth, we may be uplifted, and all that
is said and done may be for thine honour and glory. So to receive
us graciously we pray, cleanse us afresh from our latest sins,
as we ask these things for Jesus' sake. Amen. Let us continue in
our worship by singing now from hymns for worship, the hymn 161. 161. Fourth, in thy name, O Lord,
I go, my daily labour to pursue thee, only thee resolve to know,
in all I think, or speak, or do. 161. ♪ In my name, O Lord, I go ♪ ♪
My daily labor to pursue ♪ ♪ If only there is hope to know ♪
♪ In all I think or speak or know ♪ Earth, dost thy wisdom have more
kind? O let me gently hold thee, In
all my works thy graces find, And prove thy good and perfect
will. May I search, search my right
hand, Whose voice my inmost arms don't see. When we bear our deathly command,
And offer all my works to thee, Give me to bear, O easy God,
And every moment more should reign, ♪ With thy glorious name ♪ ♪ For we delight fully in thee
♪ ♪ O'er death thy bounteous grace have given us ♪ I'm very pleased to be here this
evening to represent the work and witness of the Trinitarian
Bible Society. It's always good to come to churches
that are wholeheartedly supportive of the Society's stance regarding
translation work. and we're thankful for your continued
prayerful support and interest. Last year the Society was able
to publish scriptures in 39 languages and they were sent out to 99
countries. The total circulation figures
amounted to 3.6 million scripture items. That was a 10% increase
on the previous year. And one particular area of encouragement
has been the way in which translation projects have increased in number
quite dramatically in more recent years. Going back about seven
years, we had 35 projects under review. In 2022, the number had
increased to 66. The following year, over 70.
In the last annual report, it indicated there were 110 that
are being considered. So we've really been quite amazed
how our editorial department has managed to oversee this increased
workload And we are really quite amazed how the Lord is raising
up translators. People are coming to us and asking
us for support or help in one way or another. It really seems
to be an ongoing interest and concern for faithful translations
of God's word in so many countries around the world. Well, more
of that in a moment. But let me just encourage you
regarding having Bibles outside the chapel here and other chapels
like this, because We had a special encouragement in Bedford regarding
this only quite recently. About 18 months ago there was
a young man about 30 years of age. He was at home one day and
in fact he was lying in bed and he said these thoughts came to
his mind. Why am I here? Who made me? Who made this world? What's the
meaning and purpose of life? These fundamental questions kept
going through his mind. He felt he got to try and find
some answers to those questions. So he tried Islam. He tried Hinduism. He tried all the major belief
systems around the world. And the kind of last resort,
he thought about Christianity and the Bible. And with these
thoughts going through his mind, he walked past Bedford Chapel
and noticed free Bibles being made available. So he took a
copy and took it home and started to read God's Word. And the Holy
Spirit started to enlighten his understanding and convict him
regarding the truth. Let me just read a few sentences
from his testimony. He said, a presence came upon
me and I knew with a certainty that there is a creator. There
is a God. In retrospect, this bears a similarity
to when God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus 3, 14. And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. He said that he sort of thought
he might shrug off Christianity like he had with all the others.
But he came to realize that Christianity is not a religion. It's a faith
and a trust and a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I had found the path to ultimate
truth. like how it is written in John
16, 13. Howbeit when he, the spirit of
truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. And I hurry on to, I don't want
to be too lengthy on this, but he said last Christmas, Christmas
Day in fact, he spent the time at home, he was thinking about
the Lord Jesus Christ, meditating on him. And I believe I was truly
converted and I no longer had any doubt about it. Jesus Christ
is now my Lord and Saviour, and with my conversion came real
conviction, like how it is written in John 16.8, and when He has
come, that's the Holy Spirit, He will reprove the world of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement. I finally fully
realise that I am a sinner who needed Jesus, and through His
grace and His grace alone, my sins can be forgiven. And through
his grace, I've been given the heart that I need to repent and
turn away from sin. Well, he started to attend the
services at Bedford. He said it was an enormous step
to actually step over the threshold into a place of worship. He didn't
know what to expect, but he receives a warm welcome. so he can continue
to come and he was led to make an open profession early this
year and was baptized he's now a member of the church well let
us be encouraged by these things the Lord is working here and
there we hear people being touched by the grace of God let me tell
you another encouraging account to in respect to the platinum
jubilee bibles that we produced in 2022 and the following year
we produced coronation bibles so around about 95 000 bibles
in those two years were presented mainly to children in schools
now i was taking a meeting in Berkshire early this year And
a lady approached me after the meeting and she said, I've got
something to tell you, but it may take some time. So we had
a phone call, got a lengthy phone call the next morning. And she
said that for many years, she and her late husband attended
an Anglo-Catholic church. After that, she attended a charismatic
church for 20 years. And she said one day, When she
was attending this church, she noticed a raft of books by charismatic
authors like Benny Hinn and Rodney Howard Brown and so forth. One
that looked rather different is by J.C. Ryle. She had no idea
how that book got amongst those others, but she took it home
and she read it. She said that was the means of
bringing her out of the charismatic movement. She now attends a place
of worship not dissimilar to yours here, loves the doctrines
of grace, loves the word of God and conservative worship. But
she says her sadness has been the difficulty of connecting
with her daughters. I think she has three daughters
regarding spiritual things and her grandchildren as well. But
during the Platt and Jubilee year, she purchased a number
of these to present to her grandchildren. She wrote, a text in the front
cover and presented it to them. Now two years passed and one
of her grandsons, who's now 15, said to his mother, where's that
Bible that Gran gave me? Well, the Bible was found and
he started to read it. It's been the means of completely
changing his life. He doesn't take God's name in
vain anymore. He doesn't swear and use bad language anymore.
In fact, he pulls up his mother sometimes when she uses bad language.
He's got a friend at school and he's got all sorts of problems
and he says to him, you need to seek the Lord as well. And
more recently, he said to his mother, I want to go to a place
of worship. So the grandmother recommended
a place where they could attend, where the ministry would be sound.
So you now have the mother and the son under the preaching of
the gospel and a boy at school being encouraged to seek the
Lord as a direct result of prayerfully presenting a copy of the Bible. So you never know how the Lord
may use you as an instrument of blessing to others as you
prayerfully pass on the scriptures, whether in part or whole, the
Lord may use that for the salvation of others. This year marks a
very special anniversary. The 500th anniversary of the
first publication of the English New Testament, for the first
time translated from the original Greek, by William Tyndale. In
fact, the anniversary spans next year as well, as you'll see.
This was especially significant because previous to that over
a hundred years before John Wycliffe had translated the Bible from
the Latin Vulgate into English But it wasn't the best result
because the Latin Vulgate had its own problems to begin with
but it was the best that he could do he didn't have Hebrew or Greek
abilities and God used his translation where it conveyed the truth God
used it for the salvation of are quite a large number of people
around the country. Then very severe persecution
was raised against God's people. So by the time that Tindale was
born, there were just little groups of followers of John Wycliffe
around the country and very limited in what they could do or say.
So Tindale was raised up as a significant influence for providing something
better by way of accuracy and the beauty of language regarding
translation. Mr. Ransbottom and his little
book. how we got our English Bible. I think there's some copies
on the table in the schoolroom. He says that Tyndale's probably
one of the greatest men that's ever lived, and I think that's
no exaggeration. It's also true, it's been said,
that he was forming a language for England. Don't forget that
in those days, Latin was the ecclesiastical language, the
church language, and the language of the universities. French was
the court language, the language of nobility. So English was kind
of second-rate language, the language of the common people.
But such was the excellence of Tindale's English translation,
and the widespread use of it from that time onwards has been
the means of exalting and popularizing the English language. So English
is now spoken by over a billion people. It's the most widely
spoken language in the world. And the English Bible has had
a very significant part to play in the progress of the English-speaking
language. Now, just to give you a few background
pieces of information regarding his history. He was born in 1494
to 1495. We don't know exactly which of
those two years he was born. 1494, 1495. And he was born into
a Yeoman farmer's family, 20 miles north of Bristol, up the
Severn Valley, round about Stinchcombe Slimbridge area. Now, being born
into a yeoman farmer's family meant the family were relatively
well off, so there was money to send young William to school
and also to university later. Just a few things about the times
in which he lived may be of interest, particularly to the children,
young people. Rough and ready times. Hygiene wasn't on the
top of the list. It was thought unhealthy to take
a bath. And the streets of the towns and cities were lined with
both animal and human waste. And it was thought the body was
made up of four humors. So medical knowledge was still
very primitive. If you were unwell, it was thought
that there was an imbalance of those four humors. So bloodletting
by knives or leeches was the order of the day to supposedly
restore the balance. And if you needed some sort of
surgical operation, you went to the barbers. And no doubt
that people died of infection because those things were very
little understood in those times. Also, there was no tea or coffee,
no bananas, no pineapples, no potatoes. These things hadn't
been imported by that stage. And no Bank of England. So if
you had a quantity of gold, you went to the goldsmith. He would
weigh it for you. If it weighed a pound, he'd issue
you with a pound note or a five pound note, if appropriate. And
after a time, it was realized not everybody want their gold
back at the same time. So they issued additional notes,
and that became the basis of our present currency system,
which was standardized by the Bank of England in the 1690s. But regarding the spiritual landscape,
things really were dark. Let me just quote from that booklet
by Mr. Ransbottom, because this was originally a young people's
address. Give you some idea of the situation. Down in Gloucestershire,
in the southwest of England, you could visit an abbey, and
they would show you what they said was a vial filled with the
blood of Christ. One of the most famous things
people went to see was a crucifix. If you put a lot of money down,
the face on it smiled. If you didn't put much money
down, the face on it frowned. There was a church in Reading,
west of London, that had lots of things people used to visit.
They had the wing of an angel. They had the spearhead that was
used at the crucifixion. They had two pieces of the cross,
they had one of Mary Magdalene's bones, and they had James's hand,
or so these things were supposed to be. And he goes on to mention
a church in Somerset that supposedly had a piece of bread that was
from the Lord's Supper when it was first instituted. Now, people
believed it, and they went miles to go and worship these relics,
believing there was spiritual merit in so doing. and they were
ignorant and dark regarding the way of salvation. They had paintings
on the inside the walls of churches, frescoes which depicted the flames
of hell. The intention was not to instruct
the people so much as hold them as if they were under a kind
of fear that they might obey the teaching and practices of
the church. The idea was that you put your
soul's concerns into the hands of the priest and he did all
things necessary for you. So as long as you did what you
were told, came to the mass and come to the services and you
were taught that when you died you'd have to pass through purgatory
for a period of time but eventually you'll get to heaven. They had
no idea that salvation was a free gift obtained by faith, faith
alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible wasn't available
to the vast majority of people. Most of the Bibles were in Latin,
and the few people who could read Latin weren't particularly
interested in reading the Bible. That was going to change, mainly
through William Tyndale's excellent translation. So to come back
to Tyndale himself, he first went to an ABC school run by
a local clergyman, then to Berkeley Grammar School, which is one
of the oldest grammar schools still in existence. And then
at the tender age of 12, he went up to Oxford University. Now
it wasn't unusual in those days, if you had a precocious child,
if you could afford to do so, you sent them to university at
the early age of 12. Just notice the breadth of learning. Lessons began at 6 a.m. And he
learned divinity, law, medicine, grammar, arithmetic, geometry,
astronomy, rhetoric, logic, and philosophy. After nine years,
he graduated with his MA, and he was then qualified to take
a position in the church or become a teacher at the university.
And notice the lessons began with divinity, but not once had
they opened a Bible with him. That's how Dart and Helm how
foolish things were. He stayed on for a few more years
there in Oxford and then moved on to Cambridge for a further
four years of study and while he was at Cambridge he learned
Greek. which was particularly significant because he was then
interested in the Greek New Testament published by Erasmus. So he's
come to the pure source of the word of God in the Greek language.
And the Holy Spirit was enlightening his understanding and he came
to a personal and saving knowledge of the truth. And what a significant
thing that was because he was going to be a great instrument
in God's hand for the blessing of others. Well, after his Cambridge
years, he went back to Gloucestershire to become the tutor to the two
children of Sir John Walsh at Little Sudbury Manor. And Sir
John Walsh was a very sociable man, and he would invite all
sorts of people round his dining table, abbots and deans and archdeans
and other clergymen and so forth. And there'd be some lively debates
sometimes, because Tyndale was there as well, and if these men
propounded some erroneous doctrine, he would correct them. with chapter
and verse from the Word of God, which somewhat irritated them.
There's one famous occasion, you've probably heard this said
before, when there was a learned man at the table and he was somewhat
frustrated with Tinda because Tinda kept quoting the scriptures.
And this man said, we'd be better without God's law than the Pope's
law. And Tyndale responded by saying,
I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life, ere many
years, I'll cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more
of the scriptures than thou dost. And really, that was like a mission
statement, a summary of what Tyndale was going to do for the
rest of his days. Well, in 1523, with hope and
optimism, he went up to London, quite expecting that the Bishop
of London would give him a place in Fulham Palace where he could
translate the Word of God. But he was bitterly disappointed.
The Bishop said, I've no room for you in my household. He wasn't
interested. But he was given an opportunity
to preach at St Dunstan's Church in the West. That's in Fleet
Street today. and his ministry impressed some of the wealthy
cloth merchants who attended that church, among them Sir Humphrey
Monmouth, who became a close friend of Tyndale and a benefactor
and supported him financially for the rest of his days. Now,
Tyndale was given then a place in Sir Humphrey's home where
he continued translating But he came to the realization that
if he completed the New Testament, who would be prepared to print
it because it was illegal to do so, as well as illegal to
read the Bible in English. So he came to the conclusion
he'd have to leave this country. So he first went to Hamburg and
then moved on to Wittenberg in Germany. Now Wittenberg, of course,
was a powerhouse of the Reformation. That's where Martin Luther was
and his friend and scholar. Philip Melanchthon and other
scholars as well. And no doubt Tyndale benefited
by his time spent there in Wittenberg. And of course, at that stage,
Europe was abuzz with excitement because in 1517, Luther had nailed
his 95th thesis to the church door of Wittenberg, challenging
the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church regarding the practice
of penances, people given certain things to do, which supposedly
helped to pay for their sins. And Luther was challenging that
teaching and at the same time promoting the biblical doctrine
of true repentance before God. So some were on the Pope's side,
some were on Luther's side. So there were hot debates taking
place at that time. Now Tindall completed the New
Testament translation by 1525 and then moved on to Cologne,
because Peter Quentel was the famous Reformation printer and
he lived in Cologne. So he made contact with Peter
Quentel, the work was put in hand. Some thousands of English
New Testaments were about to be printed. Some suggest 3,000,
others think it was more likely 6,000. We cannot be sure how
many were intended. But then an enemy intervened. Johan Coclius, a self-appointed
critic of Luther and all things Reformed, got to hear about this. He pretended to be pleased, and
he went to the print shop and he enticed the men to spend some
leisure time with him. And he plied them with plenty
of wine, which soon loosened their tongues, and the truth
came out that these thousands of English New Testaments were
about to be printed. Well, he went behind the scenes
to report to the church authority, but thankfully, Tyndale got to
hear about this just in time. So with his helper, William Roy,
they rushed to the print shop, snatched up the half-printed
Gospels, and fled up the Rhine to the city of Worms, where the
Gospels were printed as a separate publication initially. As far
as we know, there's only one left. It's known as the Cologne
Fragment. But then in 1526, the whole of
the New Testament was completed, published, and of course the
challenge now for Tinder was, how is he going to get all these
illegal English New Testaments into England itself? That was
the great challenge. Well, I'm going to leave you
in suspense, because this anniversary spans next year as well, so there's
more to say another time, perhaps. But if you want to know the answer,
look out for our documentary film, which is coming soon. If
you go to YouTube, you can type in TBS Tindale. It should come
up straight away with a trailer of the film, which gives you
the flavor of things. and in a few weeks' time expecting the
documentary to be completed. So do look out for that. There's
details about the film on this free bookmark. Do help us out
with a Tindale free bookmark. It's got the Beatitudes on the
back, so do take as many of those as you can use. Of course, do
help us out with a quarterly record. It's not many left. I've
had a long series of meetings over the last eight days, so
I don't have many left. But do help yourself. If you
haven't seen a quarterly record, I'm sure you'll be encouraged
by the information that you will find there. So in addition to
these bookmarks, we produced a commemorative Bible. That's
what they look like with a picture of the Tindale statue. This is
on the Thames Embankment statue. And this is an excellent little
Bible because this is based upon what's called the Hampton Text.
It's a new format that we produced of the Bible. So we no longer
beholden to Cambridge to produce the Ruby Text Bible like we used
to. We have formatted it ourselves with our own typeface. And where
there's an unusual word in the main text, there's an explanation
of that word at the bottom of the page. A bit like our Westminster
Reference Bible, same idea, but this is at the bottom of the
page. So if someone's coming to the Bible for the first time,
say a child who's presented with a Bible in school, they come
across the word chastening. They may not be altogether sure
what that means but it's explained for them at the bottom of the
page. So it's ideal for presentation purposes, information about Tindale,
also some coloured maps at the back as well. So just £8 these
are available from TBS. So what about TBS today in relation
to Tindale? Do we stand in the same tradition
as Tindale? Well we certainly do. So not
only have we called our headquarters William Tindale House, but we
operate in the same translation principles. We translate from
the same textual basis the traditional text of scripture, what's known
as the Masoretic Hebrew text of the Old Testament And the
Greek received texts of the New Testament, the providentially
preserved Word of God. So it's the entire scriptures.
And also we operate in the same translation philosophy, where
possible, a word for word translation method, trying to keep as closely
as we can to the very words the Holy Spirit inspired in Hebrew
and Greek, aiming to convey as much of the fullness of the sense
of those words into the target language. And that's what we
aim to do with all of our translation. Let me move on to some of the
translations that we are currently involved in. We are quite encouraged
by how the Lord is bringing to us people with the necessary
skills. So let me tell you about the country of Nepal. So we're
talking about a country that borders with the north of India
and southern Tibet, has a population of around about 31 million. It's dominated by the world's
most impressive mountain range, the Himalayas, with Mount Everest
at the highest point, five and a half miles high. Nepal is a
very superstitious country. Hinduism holds sway. The vast
majority of people practice Hinduism. In addition, there are Buddhists
and also ancestor worshipers. Now, in Hinduism, it seems to
work like this. You sort of invent your own god.
to suit your own purposes, so you have your own house god,
as it were, or as many as you like, it seems. So it is said there
are more gods worshipped in Nepal than there are people, 31 million
people, but more gods worshipped than people, and more temples
and shrines than there are houses. That gives you some idea of the
spiritual darkness that prevails to a large degree in that country. Now, that might seem rather depressing,
but actually there's encouraging news. If you were to go back
to the 1980s, there would have only been 500 Christians in the
whole of Nepal. Today, the figure stands at around
about 1.5 million. Some suggest somewhat more than
that, but just assuming it's 1.5 million, that's a tremendous
increase in more recent decades. So it's not just the towns and
the cities that have a gospel witness. Even remote villages
sometimes have groups of believers meeting together for worship.
But having said that, 90% of Christians in Nepal do not have
a place of worship like you have here. They have to meet in private
homes and often behind the scenes because there are people who
want to set up a Hindu kingdom. They're not best pleased to find
that Christianity is spreading dramatically, so they want to
push back against this growth of Christian witness and testimony. So it's not easy for some Christians
in Nepal. They have to meet behind the
scenes And if they engage in evangelism, they have to do it
quite discreetly. So this calls to give thanks
to God for the way in which the gospel and its witness has spread
remarkably in that country. And we are quite encouraged by
the way in which the Nepali scriptures have been received. and the Pauli
Bible took 27 years to complete and part of the reason why it
took so long was because our translators were involved in
full-time work and they gave their spare time to translate
and you can't help but admire their dedication and perseverance
in seeing the project through to completion. Now there's a
great need for this because Previous to this translation, the only
Nepali Bible available was a translation from a Hindi Bible. Now, a translation
from a translation is not the best way to translate the Bible. Sometimes it's the only way,
if you don't have people with Hebrew and Greek abilities. But
if it's not done very carefully, you can end up with some very
serious distortions. Let me give an example. In Proverbs
27 verse 10 it says, better is a neighbor that is near than
a brother far off. So you could illustrate that
verse by thinking of the man on the road to Jericho. He falls
amongst thieves. If he had any brothers, evidently
they were far off. But a neighbor was near, the
good Samaritan. So better is a neighbor that
is near than a brother far off. In that Nepali Bible it came
out like this, better is a devil in the house than a brother far
off. So you can see how terribly distorted
things can become, how it obscures the truth, can lead people astray
even. So you can see why it's so important
to have people who translate carefully and accurately and
ideally from Hebrew and Greek into the receptor language. So this was a translation from
the biblical tongues into the Nepali language. It's been very
well received. Over 100,000 copies have been
produced and circulated, not only in Nepal, but also in parts
of India where the language is spoken. But it's been so well
received in some parts of Nepal that it's awakened an interest
amongst other lesser-known language groups. People have come to us
and they've said, we like your translation. Can you do something
similar quality in our language? Can you help us in this project?
Well, there are 131 languages spoken in Nepal. So we now have
round about a dozen pilot projects in some of these lesser-known
languages. And already we have the Gospel
of John in three of those languages. I think I have a copy here I
can show you. This is the Gospel of John in
Pashimikam. You've probably never heard of
Pashimikam, but this is significant for a large number of people
in Nepal. And what I find particularly
interesting is in some of these languages, the Gospel of John
that we have published is the very first publication of anything
in that language. So that's meant developing an
alphabet for them, modifying the Nepali alphabet to suit their
purposes, and to teach the people how to read. So it really is
groundbreaking work. when it comes to providing the
Gospel of John in some of these lesser known languages. So we're
thankful for the way in which the work is going on and the
people who are involved in this important ministry providing
faithful copies of the Holy Scriptures. Now of course some people in
Nepal would never learn to read at all. So we now have available
the Nepali Bible in an audio format. So one way or the other,
people can gain access to the Word of God. So let us be encouraged
by these things because, yes, it's dark out there, isn't it,
spiritually speaking? And we sometimes can be quite
discouraged by the general apathy and indifference to the things
of God in our own country. But the Lord is at work. He's
building his church as he promised. And the news reports you see
day by day are not like to report on these things, but the Lord
is working behind the scenes, you might say, and bring his
people to himself. Let me also move on to another
part of the world where we're quite encouraged, and that is
the country of Kenya. Now, I realize I'm probably not
the most qualified person here this evening to talk about Kenya,
but let me talk about that country from the TBS perspective. Now,
it's true to say that over the years, we've literally sent tons
of English Bibles to Kenya. We've had various contacts throughout
that country who've been very glad to receive Bibles and other
scripture publications in English. But we also believe it's important,
where possible, to provide scriptures in the first language of the
people. Now, just one or two things about
Kenya itself. It's about two and a half times the size of
the UK, has a population of around about 50 million. Now, the country
varies considerably. You've got snow-capped mountains
in some parts, surrounded by vast forests. In the east, you've
got the swamps and the mangroves. In the west, the more arid, less
fertile areas. Now, Kenya used to be part of
the British Empire. It's known as British East Africa. And a large proportion of the
people in Kenya think they're Christians. They have the idea
that they're a Christian country, but the vast majority have little
idea what it means to be a Christian. And having said that, some revivals
were experienced in the 1920s and the 30s and even in the 1960s
to some degree. I don't know whether you know
a hymn that begins, oh, how the grace of God amazes me. That
hymn was written by a Kenyan pastor, and that came out of
one of those revivals. So round about 20% of the people
of Kenya would align themselves to some degree with evangelical
witness, may have some connection with an evangelical church or
have some idea of evangelical doctrine. That's not to suggest
they're all born again believers necessarily. But there is a growing
demand it seems for the word of God in that country. And we're
working on four projects. for the people of Kenya. So let
me just tell you about these four projects very briefly. First
of all, the scriptures for the Kalenjin-speaking people. Around
about six million people speak Kalenjin. The translation project
began in 2014, and we now have the whole of the New Testament
for the Kalenjin-speaking people. Think of William Tyndale, 500
years ago, publishing the New Testament. Well, this is the
equivalent in quality of translation But in Kalenjin, 7,000 have been
published already. They've arrived in Kenya. They're
being distributed as we speak. And we're hoping by the end of
this year to have the Old Testament completed as well. So things
really have moved on a pace in more recent times. We're very
thankful for the commitment of our translators regarding this
particular project. Then the scriptures for the Kikamba
speaking people. Around about five million people
speak Kikamba. It's the language used by some
of the media outlets. Now many people who speak this
language believe there's one God. Their understanding of one
God is mixed up with black magic, witchcraft, and sacrifice, and
all sorts of other superstitious things. But having said that,
The Gospel is spreading amongst the Kikamba-speaking people.
We have the Gospel of John available already in Kikamba, so that's
quite encouraging. And again, the ambition is to
have, ultimately, the whole of God's Word in all of these projects
we're working on. One of the challenges that our
translators face regarding this particular project is the fact
that there's no standardised form of spelling. amongst the
Kikamba-speaking people. In fact, that was the same problem
that Tindao faced 500 years ago. He spelt the word righteousness
five different ways on the same page. That was acceptable in
1525. As long as people could read
the word, that's all that really mattered. But that means our
translators are trying to devise some sort of standardized form,
trying to be consistent in their spellings, and it may be the
means of helping to standardize the spellings of that language,
as the Bible will be received, we trust, as time goes on. Then
the scriptures for the Pakot-speaking people, that's P-O-K-O-T, spoken
mainly in the north of the country. I think you can see by the picture
in this Gospel of John in Pakot, something of the living conditions
of the Pakot-speaking people. but it's good to know they have
already the Gospel of John available. And of course many people in
Africa are bilingual or trilingual, speak several languages perhaps,
but we believe it's important where possible to have the Word
of God in their first language. So that's our grand ambition. Our translator working on this
Pekot translation, he's got an elderly man, we trust his life
will be spared to see through to the end of the New Testament.
And we trust that other people will come forward to continue
this important translation project. But then there's one more I want
to mention, which is of particular interest. I may have mentioned
this on a previous visit, but let me just bring you up to date
regarding our Swahili translation work. Now, over the years at
meetings like this, people have said to me, do have a Bible in
Swahili and I've had to say I'm sorry we don't and there's no
Bible we know of we can recommend in that language. Well that has
changed because a few years ago in answer to prayer God raised
up About 10 Christians in Kenya and Tanzania who are linguists
and they know the biblical tongues, they were aware already of the
deficiency of the present Swahili Bible that's in print. And they
approached us and they said, we'd like to begin a project
in this language. And so they're working with us. And the Gospel of John, we trust,
won't be published in, we trust, not too long. It'll be published,
will be available. And of course, the ambition is
to produce the whole Bible in due course. But there's a great
need for this for a number of reasons. One reason is because
the Swahili language is very widely spoken. Around about 200
million people speak Swahili. is a lingua franca, in other
words, a commonly spoken language by various tribal groups. They
have their own language in their homes and their communities,
but they learn Swahili at school, they read and write Swahili,
and they use it in a business context, a way of interrelating
with other tribal groups. So there's potential for reaching
large numbers of people in the Swahili language. The other reason
why it's so important is because there are lots of people, mainly
in East Africa, who are very easily deceived by false teachers. People sit in front of their
televisions and they hear the so-called evangelists say, God
doesn't wish you to be poor. If you give to our organization,
he promises to give you twice as much in return. And they believe
it. So the poor make themselves poor
and the rich make themselves richer. And these rich people
live a luxurious lifestyle. private jets and their limousines
and so forth, all at the expense of the poor. These people need
the word of God in an accurate form so they can see God's revealed
will for themselves. They might not be so soon tossed
to and fro by every wind and doctrine, by the slight of men
and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
Those words spoken by the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians is exactly
true regarding what's happening in many parts of Africa. I trust you can see why this
is so important and encouraging. I made contact with Sam Kingham
regarding this a couple of years ago. and when i mentioned it
he said this is a huge priority in fact he's been involved in
some of the discussions regarding this project and perhaps i should
just explain there are already in quite a large number of african
dialects bibles or parts of bibles available but often they're a
poor translation from a poor english translation like the
good news bible which is more of a paraphrase rather than a
direct translation so by the time that's conveyed into an
African dialect often it's a far remove from what God actually
says in his words. So you can see why it's so important
to go to the biblical tongues and translate very carefully
from there into the target language. So lots of reasons to be encouraged
and I trust you'll feel moved to pray regarding the work of
TBS in respect to Nepal and also regarding Kenya in particular. Well, I do appreciate this opportunity
of sharing these things with you. I want to turn to the Word
of God with you now, and we open our Bibles at the passage that
was read to you earlier. Psalm 68. Psalm 68. And I'll read again
verse 11. psalm 68 verse 11 we read these
words the lord gave the word great was the company of those
that published it now this psalm has been described as god's forward
march because of the words of verse 7 oh god when there went
is forth before thy people when thou didst march through the
wilderness. So it picks up this important
theme. It's a familiar theme in the Old Testament, the journeys
of the children of Israel through the wilderness as they are making
their way to the land of promise. So this is a pilgrimage psalm.
pilgrimage theme and of course relevant to us because if we
are the laws we are pilgrim pilgrims on a way to the heavenly Canaan
the land of promise now notice how the psalm begins and as you
look at some 68 verse 1 let me read to you these words from
numbers 10 the words of Moses. And it came to pass when the
ark set forward that Moses said, rise up, Lord, and let thine
enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before
thee. You will immediately recognize
the similarity. This was the formula in prayer
that Moses used when the ark of the covenant went on before
the people, when they journeyed. When the cloud moved on, then
they moved on. And Moses prayed the Lord would
scatter their enemies and that he would go before them. And
you have the same thought here in this psalm. So it's a journeyman's
psalm, you might say, a pilgrimage psalm, and it picks up then this
important theme of the wilderness journey that we face if we are
one of the lords. Now, two things I want to notice
with you from verse 11. The first is this, the Lord gave
the word. Scripture is God-given, it's
God-breathed. God spoke out his word by his
spirit into the minds and hearts of certain men who became the
penmen of holy scripture. And God was using them as an
instrument in his hand to convey in a perfect and permanent way
the word of God. and what great grace was in the
heart of God in doing so that we now have the Word of God in
our possession and God has providentially preserved what was inspired initially
we have it in its correct form even today God gave the Word
remember the verse in 2nd Peter where he says that holy men of
God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost That verb moved
is particularly important because the original word there is a
seafaring expression. So the picture you need to have
in your mind is of a sailing vessel where the sails spread
wide, the breeze is blowing, acting upon the sails and moving
the ship along the ocean. That same word is used regarding
the motion of the Holy Spirit acting upon these men of God
in olden times. holy men of old spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost the Holy Spirit was directly
controlling their thoughts and their pens as they wrote the
individual words of Scripture so Solomon could say In Proverbs
30 verse 5, every word of God is pure, not just some of them,
or not just the ideas, or the truths, or the doctrines are
pure, but every word of God is pure. Now with that in our understanding,
that means we need to be very, very careful how we convey God's
word into the various languages, lest we diminish it, lest we
distort it in some way. You can see why it's such an
important work, translating God's word. And also we need to be
very careful how we use God's word, lest we misapply it, or
lest we corrupt it in some way. We need to have the tender fear
of the Lord in our hearts as we come to God's word, realizing
it is true from cover to cover. As the psalmist said, thy word
is true from the beginning. Because the Lord gave the word. And we need to be very thankful
that God in his mercy and grace did so. Now three things I want
to mention regarding the word at this point. First of all is
the commanding word. God has given us directions as
to how we should live before him. You could say it's summarized
by the Ten Commandments. It's a commanding word. The children
of Israel were fully aware of the divine authority of the Ten
Commandments, where they stood at the bottom of the mountain
in a state of alarm at the thundering of the Lord on the mount, the
shaking of the mountain, the darkness. and the lightning and
the audible voice that they heard, it was a fearful occasion, as
mentioned here in this psalm, verse eight, that the earth shook,
the heavens also dropped at the presence of God, even Sinai itself
was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. They were fully aware that God's
word was a commanding word. And we need to remember that,
that God's Word is not something we can take or leave. Not something
that we can play fast and loose with. God means what He says. And what God says is binding.
The Ten Commandments summarise His holy requirements of us,
His creatures. And it makes known to us the
fact that we come short and we fail. So the important thing
is this, to remember that God's word is a commanding word. Surely
that's a great incentive for us to distribute the scriptures
and make God's word available in many languages that other
people may realize God's heard requirements for them, that it's
a commanding word. But secondly, it's a convicting
word. When the Holy Spirit applies
the word to our hearts, we feel a sense of conviction. We can't
dismiss it anymore. We can't live indifferently to
it anymore. Perhaps you can remember the
days when you came to chapel And you came and you went and
you came and you went. You didn't perhaps disbelieve
what you heard. You didn't perhaps disagree or
reject openly what you heard, but it meant nothing to you.
You went away completely untouched as if you were hearing just idle
tales. But you were hearing God's word, this commanding word. But
it didn't have an effect upon you because at that point it
hadn't come with conviction. That's why the Holy Spirit must
perform this work in our hearts, convicting us of its awesome
reality and the holiness of God and the importance of God's revelation
for us. And when we are convicted, Then
we realize we cannot save ourselves. We're not right with God. We
cannot make ourselves right with God. We can offer nothing to
God that will be acceptable before him. Even the very best things
we've done is no better than filthy rags. And then we realize
our helplessness and our spiritual ruin. Then we are thankful to
realize that God's word is not only a commanding word and a
convicting word, but thirdly, it's a comforting word. And that's
where the gospel makes its application to our understanding. We come
to realize that God has intervened in human history in the person
of his beloved son. He has come and been made manifest
in the flesh. He has come to fulfill the law
that we've broken. He has come willingly to obey
on behalf of guilty sinners, to make full restitution for
the injured honor of God. and to pay the penalty in full
in his sufferings and death on Calvary's cross. You see, the
Holy Spirit reveals these things to us. He comes to glorify Christ
in our estimation. That's what's happened to you
if you are a believer. You will understand what I'm saying to
you this evening because you will have experienced these things
in some measure. And the gospel plan will start
to mean something to you. You may have heard about the
gospel for year after year after year, for decades perhaps, but
it just means little or nothing to us. Just a pretty song perhaps,
you might say. But not until we realize our
sinfulness does it start to mean something to us. And by faith
we enter into the blessing of it. We feel these things apply
to our hearts. We find spiritual relief. We
find our guilt has gone. The load and burden has been
removed because Christ has been made known to our hearts by faith. So the Lord gave the word, a
commanding word, a convicting word, and a comforting word. But we notice secondly that God
also gave the publishers. Yes, he gave the word. He's also
given the publishers. Great was the company of those
that published it. Now you can think first of all
of Moses, the author of the first five books of the Bible, and
possibly the book of Job as well, some scholars believe. He was
publishing God's truth thereby, wasn't he? For the children of
Israel initially, but for all the nations ultimately, as the
word of God has been made available to so many nations. So generation
after generation, they were receiving this publication of God's truth. God put it into the hearts of
the people of Israel to take special care of the Hebrew scriptures. In spite of the fact so many
in Israel were yet in a state of unregeneracy, yet they had
a very high view of the text of scripture. The last thing
they would dream of doing was to alter or tamper with the written
word of God. Remember the Lord Jesus reproved
the people of his generation for all sorts of things. But
he never charged them with having corrupted their scriptures because
they hadn't. They had developed very complex
systems for ensuring that every page that was copied was an exact
replica So there was no mistakes. The slightest mistake then, that
page had to be destroyed and another had to be written to
form an exact copy of the original. And God, by this means, providentially
preserved the Old Testament scriptures. So God gave the publishers in
that sense. copyists and those who promoted
the scriptures in Old Testament times. But in New Testament times,
God gave the publishers. Written copies were made by the
apostles, but the churches circulated the scriptures from one church
to another. you find that there's this interrelationship between
the churches and they were reading one another's epistles and learning
from them. But there was the need for copies
and they were very careful in the copying process as Greek
copies were being made. And so the early church had the
wisdom and the sense of conviction and reverence regarding God's
word to ensure copies were accurate. It's of course true to say there
were spurious copies But the early churches were discerning
regarding these things and only retained and used those that
were accurate and genuine. But coming up to the Reformation
era, we've thought about John Wycliffe, a publisher of the
Word of God. In the English time, we thought
about Tyndale in more detail. And interestingly, at Tyndale's
point in history, the printing press came into its own. So mass
production of the scriptures could be taken advantage of. Whereas in Wycliffe's day, every
copy had to be handwritten. It took 10 months to produce
a copy of the English Bible by hand in Wycliffe's time. and
so you come to modern times with modern methods of printing in
large quantities the lord has seen to it in his good providence
great was the company of those that publish the word of god
surely we have to say this is the lord's doing and it's marvelous
in our eyes but there's another sense in which this is also true
god has given the publishers, not just in a written form of
the scriptures, but publishing the sense of making known or
proclaiming the truth. God raises up missionaries. He
raises up pastors and teachers and evangelists and itinerant
preachers, Sunday school teachers, parents who Our believers are
to teach their children. In all these various ways, it's
another way of publishing or making known the Word of God. And Christians, in personal conversation,
are able to speak about the things of God and thereby publishing
God's truth in that sense. This is the task the Lord has
given to us, and he raises up his people for this purpose,
to be lights in the darkness, to shine forth the truth in our
day and generation. Now, let us not forget that this
psalm is also a messianic psalm. Christ is here in this psalm,
notice verse 18. It's quoted by the Apostle Paul
in Ephesians chapter four, regarding the ascension of the Savior.
Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might
dwell among them. And the Apostle Paul enlarges
on that particular doctrine, the very important truth, the
ascension of Christ. to heaven and the sending forth
of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and he's received
gifts for men and the Apostle Paul tells us those gifts are
given to the church pastors teachers and evangelists and so forth
and in the apostolic age apostles and prophets And the Lord is
still doing that, isn't he? He's sending forth preachers
of the word and pastors for his people and evangelists. All to the honour and glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us not forget that Christ
will have the victory. Already he's led captivity captive. And he's going to overcome at
last all his enemies. He's waiting, we're told, that
all enemies might be put under his feet. And they will be eventually. Some who are yet enemies in their
hearts and minds are going to be brought to the feet of Christ
in conversion. That's what's happened to us
if we're converted. But on Judgment Day, those who
remain enemies to the Lord They'll be brought to bow before him
and acknowledge him as Lord of all. It's going to be a solemn
day for them to be judged forever for their continual rebellion
against the Lord. But Christ will have the victory.
We are on the victory side if we are the laws. Let us be encouraged
by that thought this evening. So let us go on in this important
task of making known God's word in these times. And let me just
remind you of the book table in the Sunday School room to
come through and have a look at the items that are available.
Some free items to help yourself also purchase if you wish. We're
going to conclude by singing a closing hymn from Hymns for
Worship, number 162. The tune is 409. 162. Go labour on, spend, and be spent,
your joy to do the father's will. It is the way the master went,
should not the servant tread it still. 162. Spend and be spent, No joy to
do the Father's will. It is the way the Master went,
Should the vassal front tread it still. ♪ Om tis not for naught ♪ ♪ Your
earthly loss is heavenly gain ♪ ♪ Men did you love, you praised
you not ♪ ♪ The master praises what the man has done ♪ while it is day. The world's dark night is facing
on. Speak, speak, O bird, cast both
away. It is not thus that souls are
bound. Keep watch, protect, and pray. Be wise, the erring soul, to
win. Go forth into the world's highway. God help the wanderers to come
in. O come, let us adore Him, O come,
let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us
adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, And now may the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, the communion
and fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and for
evermore. Amen.