Love the Word of God

By Apostle Aje Pelser, MBC Graduation, Protea Hotel in Stellenbosch, 6^th December 2012

Congratulations to all the students who graduated this year worldwide! Let's keep studying the Word in order to teach others the mysteries of God in our generation, fulfilling the great commission to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them all the Jesus taught us!

I Love God’s Word for the following reasons that will encourage others to study it more:

The Word was in the beginning

God used His Word to fashion and shaped the created Universe.

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Joh 1:2  He was in the beginning with God.

Joh 1:3  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

His Word is a light unto my path and lamp unto my feet.

Psa 119:105  Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

The Word is a Person – Jesus Christ

Don’t just study it like just another intellectual piece of writing, the Word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword…

Hebrews 4:12

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Get to know the Spirit of prophecy behind the Word

that inspired holy men over several centuries to write it;

that carried nations through history,

that foretold God’s plan for His Messiah to save mankind,

that gave us a blueprint of His Eternal Church,

that gave us access to His throne of grace

that showed us the Way, the Truth and the Life of His eternal kingdom of heaven.

The Word is profitable for many things including instruction in righteousness

2Ti 3:16  All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

2Ti 3:17  that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

People died to translate the Word into our spoken language

William Tyndale was educated at Oxford and Cambridge, and “soon after he began his life work of translating the Bible into English.’

A key to unlock Tyndale’s value was his spiritual nobility to search the scriptures and to “find out if those things were so” as the Berean believers in the Book of Acts:

Act 17:11  These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Tyndale studied to show himself approved of God and often ended disputes with a plain and simple explanation from the Scriptures.

Tyndale increasingly felt led by the Spirit to translate the New Testament from Latin into a plainer language. God provided for Tyndale through Mummuth and others so that he could leave England for Germany. Martin Luther had just translated the New testament into German in 1521. William saw the effect of the German translation on the lives of the common people of the land. It inspired him to do the same for his English speaking people. Priests of the day would often confuse the common people with intricate and misleading arguments to support the traditions of man and the Roman Church. This caused many abominable demonic teachings taught from the pit of hell.

His opponents at high level: Cuthbeth Tonstal the Bishop of London and Sir Thomas More of the House of Commons, would buy his books to burn them. A textiles merchant Augustine Packington was at Antwerp in Belgium on business where bishop Tonstal met him. But Packington secretly supported Tyndale and told the Bishop he would buy every book in print that was not yet sold. When he received the money Packington went to Tyndale and exposed the plan and gave the money to the reformer and scribe to print even more books, now updated and revised from the first edition – the wealth of the wicked is truly laid up for the just! The amount of books now sent to England trebled! So the word grew mightily and prevailed!

John Foxe mentions: “Tyndale’s books, especially the New Testament translation, were of great benefit to the godly lay people, but of great harm to the ungodly clergy, who afraid that by the shining beams of truth their deeds of darkness would be clearly seen.” The clergy planned to stop Tyndale.

On October 6, 1536 William Tyndale was martyred for his faith by being tied to a stake, strangled to the point of death and burned in the fire at a town called Vilvorde in the Netherlands. As he died he cried out: “Lord! Open the king of England’s eyes!’

His dying request that the King of England's eyes would be opened seemed to find its fulfillment just two years later with Henry's authorization of The Great Bible for the Church of England—which was largely Tyndale's own work. Hence, The Tyndale Bible, as it was known, continued to play a key role in spreading Reformation ideas across the English-speaking world and eventually, on the global British Empire. His version also worked prominently into the Geneva Bible which was taken to the New World to Jamestown in 1607, and on the Mayflower in 1620. Notably, in 1611, the 54 independent scholars who created the King James Version, drew significantly from Tyndale, as well as translations that descended from his. One estimate suggests the New Testament in the King James Version is 83% Tyndale's, and the Old Testament 76%.[7]

We live by every Word that proceeds from God

Mat 4:4  But He answered and said, 'It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.' '