1 00:00:01,560 --> 00:00:04,040 Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood 2 00:00:04,040 --> 00:00:05,920 Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina. 3 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:08,119 Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast. 4 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:11,320 You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word 5 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:15,080 about important issues facing your life that can guide you 6 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:22,040 according to the Bible. So I just want to welcome all 7 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:24,240 those who are here. I appreciate you being here. 8 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:28,040 We have a lot of folks sick and so just thanks so much for being 9 00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:30,680 here. Just continue to pray for church 10 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:33,400 members. We've had as many as 6 or 7 11 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:37,440 deaths in the congregation, relatives and or church members 12 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:42,160 over the break and even today. And so just continue to lift up 13 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:45,360 one another. Here's what we're going to do in 14 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:47,880 this study for those who are listening online and those of 15 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:51,560 you who are here, we're we're looking at one of our seven 16 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:54,120 essentials, which is engaging the Bible with a humble and 17 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:56,480 teachable spirit. And I want to encourage you to 18 00:00:56,480 --> 00:00:58,320 do a couple things. One, is there going to be some 19 00:00:58,320 --> 00:00:59,920 new podcasts that are coming out? 20 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:03,040 One of them is with Doctor Aiken and Jordan and myself. 21 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:05,480 And then there's another one where I'm just leading you 22 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:08,120 through how to have a personal Bible study. 23 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:10,360 So kind of guiding you look, much like we've done with some 24 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:14,680 prayer times in the past, there's a podcast out there that 25 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:17,320 you could listen to while you're having a quiet time, actually 26 00:01:17,320 --> 00:01:19,800 guide you to ask certain questions as you're looking at 27 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:23,000 scripture and how do I interpret this and how do I apply this in 28 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,240 my life? And so think about that. 29 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:27,400 So what we're going to do is I'm going to do some introductory 30 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:29,760 work tonight, but it's very important work. 31 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:32,840 Maybe there'll be some things you already know and probably a 32 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:35,640 few things you don't. I bet it's kind of how tonight's 33 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:38,040 going to go. And then next week I want to 34 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:40,040 talk about some translation issues. 35 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:42,560 I've had questions about that and we're going to talk a little 36 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:43,720 bit about that. And then we're going to be 37 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:46,280 diving into over the next several weeks. 38 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:49,560 I'm going to use the word hermeneutics. 39 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:51,040 I don't want that to bother anybody. 40 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:53,560 In other words, how do I actually dive into the Bible 41 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:58,960 and, and actually work through it to get the most out of it I 42 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:02,120 possibly can? And so it's going to be a deep 43 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:07,800 study on Bible study and, and how do I observe it as well as 44 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:12,360 to interpret it, apply it. Now for those who are new and 45 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:15,680 haven't been here for sessions, there's an old session that I 46 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:21,000 did a while back where I talked about the doctrine of authority 47 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:24,520 It back in the summer. It's probably about August ish 48 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:27,160 or so. You can find it online where I 49 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:29,800 talk about the issue of the authority of Scripture, 50 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:32,800 inspiration of Scripture, revelation of Scripture, things 51 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:35,960 like that. I'm going to assume tonight that 52 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:37,560 we believe the Bible's the Bible. 53 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:40,080 And so I'm going to move forward with this. 54 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:44,200 What I really want to talk about is how in the world did we end 55 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:46,520 up with what you hold in your hand? 56 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:52,920 Because it's quite a miraculous story and how did it we go from 57 00:02:52,920 --> 00:02:56,440 the earliest writings to something that I can actually 58 00:02:56,440 --> 00:02:59,680 hold in my in my hand. Next week we'll talk even more 59 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:02,760 about language, etcetera. So I want, I want to do that. 60 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:05,720 And so some of this will be a little introductory, but but 61 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:08,960 let's review it and then we're going to walk through a lot of 62 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:12,480 this together. And so in your on your handout, 63 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:14,440 you see a three pager. Don't let that worry you. 64 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:19,760 But you have basically 66 books of the Bible, some debate about 65 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:22,280 how many years it took to write these. 66 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:26,200 Depending upon some date issues, somewhere between 1500 and 1800 67 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:30,080 years is how long it took for these books to come together. 68 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:35,600 It's quite fascinating that you have over 40 authors who range 69 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:39,640 from fig pickers and farmers to kings. 70 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,160 It's, it's quite a, a menagerie of people. 71 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:47,600 They come from several different countries across the Middle 72 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:51,720 Eastern culture. And, and what we recognize is, 73 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:54,760 is that these men from different backgrounds who wrote for these 74 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:59,280 1800 years or so do so without error and without contradicting 75 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:03,360 one another in their, in their words, which is an unprecedented 76 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:05,560 type miracle when you look at ancient writings. 77 00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:09,680 And so it really is a miraculous inspired work when you begin to 78 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:11,800 think of it that way. And we'll talk more about that. 79 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:18,040 But the word Bible itself comes from a Latin word, Biblia, which 80 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:21,440 is which I mean, excuse me, it's a Greek word, not Latin Biblia, 81 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:25,400 which means little books. And so you think of bibliography 82 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:29,120 and, and, and words like that. And, and it was originally 83 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:33,720 written on separate pieces of writing material. 84 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:36,080 And so I just want to walk through this for a second. 85 00:04:36,840 --> 00:04:41,520 And these different pieces of writing material were actually 86 00:04:42,840 --> 00:04:47,200 would be, would be circulated separately in the very beginning 87 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:51,040 independently and eventually collected into a volume. 88 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:53,680 So you see obviously 2 testaments. 89 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:57,080 In Latin, the word testament would be would mean will. 90 00:04:57,840 --> 00:05:02,040 In Greek, it would be covenant or an agreement or a settlement 91 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:05,600 of some kind. And so we recognize that in the 92 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,120 beginning there was a thing called the codex. 93 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:11,800 Now prior to the codex and the codex is important, and I'll 94 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:13,120 help you understand that in a minute. 95 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:17,160 But ancient books were originally written on papyrus or 96 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:21,440 on leather and they would glue the sheets in to end. 97 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:27,200 And so you would have scrolls often as long as 35 feet long 98 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:31,640 and so and they could be 9 to 12 inches thick by the time you're 99 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:34,320 done. And so in the beginning, that's 100 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:37,880 how a lot of the writing took place and that's how these 101 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:40,200 writings began. And they were usually only 102 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:44,240 written on one side. And, and obviously as long as 103 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:47,880 that roll method was used, for example, you would think about 104 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:54,720 the book of Luke and the book of Acts was between 32 to 35 feet 105 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:57,880 long in that original, in that original version. 106 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:00,720 So you can think about carrying that around with you to church 107 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:06,560 on Sunday. And so which is why they were, 108 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:09,880 they were originally written in two volumes and they had to 109 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:12,440 eventually be separated. But as long as that role method 110 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:17,560 was used, each of the Gospels and Acts and perhaps some of the 111 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:20,120 longer letters of the New Testament would have had to 112 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:22,680 circulate by the individually, you know, there's no way you're 113 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,440 going to have this massive role. And so in the beginning, it was 114 00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:29,840 done that way. And so but eventually papyrus 115 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:35,560 gave way to Parchman and the role form that scroll form gave 116 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:39,120 way to what's called the codex. And the codex is actually a 117 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:43,600 Roman writing tablet, which is a book on both sides and then 118 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:46,280 eventually becomes a book with leaves, much like we would think 119 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:49,200 of a book today is what the codex is. 120 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:53,560 And the codex is very important to us because it allowed for 121 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:57,320 them to make one book for the four gospels and one for Paul's 122 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:03,040 letters and and then later A1 big book for the whole Bible. 123 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:08,640 And so the initial form of that book would have been in this 124 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:11,520 codex form. In fact, the common use of that 125 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:14,400 would have been driven by Christianity and the desire to 126 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:20,160 have the Bible in a book. So our earliest extant, that 127 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:23,360 word means still in existence. So in other words, part of the 128 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:26,000 issue that we're often talking about, we'll talk more about 129 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:30,560 this maybe next week, is the original manuscripts which were 130 00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:34,680 written are no longer in existence that we know of. 131 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:40,440 So our earliest versions, earliest manuscripts of the 132 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:44,760 Bible are in these codex forms, especially of the New Testament. 133 00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:47,160 You do have some Old Testament scrolls obviously still, which 134 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:50,200 we'll talk more about later. But for the New Testament, 135 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:54,360 they're written in codex. And by the 2nd century, that was 136 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:55,960 just the way they did everything. 137 00:07:56,520 --> 00:08:00,000 And so the codex becomes the early form of the Bible. 138 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:02,240 So enough of that physical stuff. 139 00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:06,560 Let me just remind us of what Second Timothy 49 and 13 say, 140 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:08,480 and it'll kind of give you this image. 141 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:12,840 So this is Paul writing, and he's asking them to bring him 142 00:08:12,840 --> 00:08:16,120 things in prison. And so he says, do your best to 143 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:19,600 come to me soon. Then verse 13, when you come, 144 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:23,160 bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas. 145 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:27,680 Also the books and above all the parchments. 146 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:31,720 So the parchments were probably Old Testament scrolls and the 147 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:34,600 books would have been some of the early letters as well as Old 148 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:37,360 Testament as well. And so you see this mixture in 149 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:41,760 his day and time of both the codex and the scroll probably 150 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:45,040 still taking place. And so these are these earliest 151 00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:51,680 versions that we have. And so eventually what we see is 152 00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:56,120 that the Bible reaches its present state through a very 153 00:08:56,120 --> 00:09:01,600 gradual process. And according to Scripture, at 154 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:05,640 first, God is communicating with man in an oral form. 155 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:08,800 You you see God speaking to Adam. 156 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:13,680 You see God speaking to the early figures in the Bible, not 157 00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:17,360 necessarily writing things down. So he spoke directly to Adam in 158 00:09:17,680 --> 00:09:20,760 Genesis chapter 1, and he would speak directly through the 159 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:23,080 patriarchs and even the prophets. 160 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:28,240 But the time came when it was necessary for his word to be put 161 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:33,040 into more of a permanent form. And one of the reasons for this 162 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:36,600 would be that he wanted his revelation to be made available 163 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:39,560 for the seceding generations. This needed to be preserved. 164 00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:42,840 It needed to be something that not just those people alive who 165 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:44,920 are hearing him speak would know it. 166 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:47,160 But what would bored about their children and their 167 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:50,880 grandchildren? So you begin seeing God's word 168 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:54,680 being written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit 169 00:09:54,680 --> 00:09:58,040 as God's revealing this. And the first person mentioned 170 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:01,000 in the Bible is writing anything, of course is Moses. 171 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:06,120 And so Moses is mentioned often and you see several passages 172 00:10:06,120 --> 00:10:08,960 there where Moses is mentioned as an author. 173 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,680 So then the early books of the Bible, many of these are 174 00:10:11,680 --> 00:10:15,600 attributed to his hand. For example, Exodus 24 four 175 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:20,880 says, and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord, he rose 176 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:23,400 early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the 177 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:27,240 mountain and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of 178 00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:30,280 Israel. And so the first five books of 179 00:10:30,280 --> 00:10:32,920 the Old Testament are called the Pentateuch. 180 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:38,440 And it's fairly commonly believed and attributed by other 181 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:43,800 biblical writers that Moses is the one who wrote these five 182 00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:47,320 books and recorded the law of God. 183 00:10:47,680 --> 00:10:50,600 And others throughout the Old Testament will testify to this. 184 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:55,840 For example, Joshua chapter 8 verse 31 says, just as Moses, 185 00:10:55,840 --> 00:10:58,440 the servant of the Lord had commanded the people of Israel, 186 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:02,120 as it is written in the book of the law of Moses. 187 00:11:02,560 --> 00:11:05,480 And so you'll see various testimonies and then others 188 00:11:05,680 --> 00:11:07,720 eventually begin to write as well. 189 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:11,960 So Joshua was writing, you'll see writings in the book of of 190 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:15,160 in in for example, Samuel and Jeremiah. 191 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:19,760 First Samuel 1025 says then Samuel told the people the 192 00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:23,600 rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a 193 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:26,120 book and laid it up before the Lord. 194 00:11:26,560 --> 00:11:30,520 And then Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his 195 00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:33,560 home. And so you see people beginning 196 00:11:33,560 --> 00:11:36,560 to write as God leads them, writing these things down, 197 00:11:36,560 --> 00:11:40,600 writing prophecies down, writing down parts of the Old Testament, 198 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:45,600 and then later generations to testify of their authenticity, 199 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:49,880 to testify of their divinity and their inspiration would actually 200 00:11:49,880 --> 00:11:53,240 begin to refer to these writings as authoritative. 201 00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:56,520 And so you'll see that in the book of Daniel, you see that in 202 00:11:56,520 --> 00:11:58,360 Nehemiah, we're studying Nehemiah. 203 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:02,560 So Nehemiah 81 says, and all the people gathered as one man into 204 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:06,480 the square before the Watergate. And they told Ezra the scribe to 205 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:09,920 bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had 206 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:13,800 commanded Israel. And so they begin to, to quote 207 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:19,360 these things and to recognize these things as actually the, 208 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:23,560 the word of God and the, the, the, the, the words that he 209 00:12:23,560 --> 00:12:28,400 wanted for generation after generation to be able to, to 210 00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:30,720 reference. And so one of the things that we 211 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:36,560 recognize is by about 400 BC, which is about the time of Ezra, 212 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:41,920 the Old Testament, the collection of these Old 213 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:46,120 Testament scriptures was pretty well established. 214 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:52,360 So the Old Testament has a long standing testimony to the books 215 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:57,120 that belong there. And so and so the Jewish 216 00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:01,240 authority, Josephus even said he was a 1st century Jewish 217 00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:05,960 historian would say that that no book was added to the Hebrew 218 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:07,880 Scriptures after the time of Malachi. 219 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:11,640 And so the the Old Testament is we have it in our English 220 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:16,200 version was pretty well set, even though the Hebrew Bible is 221 00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:17,920 a little bit different. And I'll talk about that in a 222 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:20,760 minute. So, but but we recognize that 223 00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:27,360 God has worked and preserved these this early form for us. 224 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:32,720 Now I want to I want to move and talk about this idea of Canon 225 00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:34,240 for a second. Hang in there with me. 226 00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:38,640 And then and then we're going to look at some really important 227 00:13:38,640 --> 00:13:43,360 details about this. So the word Canon means read 228 00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:51,840 Reed because reeds were used like yardsticks and so are a 229 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:55,480 ruler, and so a Reed was a measuring device. 230 00:13:55,840 --> 00:14:01,240 And so the Canon, the word Canon came to to mean a measure or a 231 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:04,280 rule. And so the canonization of 232 00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:09,440 Scripture is how they decided which books were in the Bible 233 00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:13,720 and which books were not, in which books were inspired by God 234 00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:17,320 and which books were not. And this is quite a process, and 235 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:19,360 a lot of people don't understand this process. 236 00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:22,200 And a lot of people will question the authenticity or 237 00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:24,240 authority of Scripture because they don't understand the 238 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:26,640 process. And so it's helpful for us to 239 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:30,320 have some awareness of how canonicity and authority go 240 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:33,840 together. And so the Canon or the 241 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:38,080 canonicity of a book depends upon its authority. 242 00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:40,760 And so these books are books that have been regarded as 243 00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:44,560 having divine authority, and they comprise what we consider 244 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:50,360 the Canon or the Bible. And so a book first had to have 245 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:53,880 recognition of divine authority based on its inspiration. 246 00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:58,520 First Corinthians 1437 says if anyone thinks that he's a 247 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:02,520 prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am 248 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:04,880 writing to you are a command of the Lord. 249 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:08,080 In other words, these are divinely inspired by the Holy 250 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:13,000 Spirit and not just creation of man. 251 00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:16,400 And there'll be others obviously, who are going to test 252 00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:19,560 that. So, So one of the things that 253 00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:22,440 you'll see is that a book is accepted into the Canon because 254 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:28,200 of its general acceptance of of that authority. 255 00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:33,200 Now by the time Jesus comes along, the Old Testament Canon 256 00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:36,720 had been fixed. So in other words, by the time 257 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:41,080 the New Testament rolls around, 400 years or so after Malachi, 258 00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:45,160 by the time Jesus is there, what they considered the Old 259 00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:48,000 Testament was already fixed. They were not debating that. 260 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,000 They weren't questioning that anymore. 261 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:53,040 It was already done for years before that. 262 00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:56,640 And and Jesus himself will identify Old Testament 263 00:15:56,640 --> 00:15:59,960 scriptures and demonstrate obviously their fulfilment in 264 00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:01,480 him. One of the great passages to 265 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:05,240 read is Luke chapter 24 after the resurrection, when he is 266 00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:09,120 explaining to his disciples how all of the Old Testament is 267 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:13,680 pointing to him. And so he sees this Canon as a 268 00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:15,840 whole. And then throughout the New 269 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:19,600 Testament, authors are recognizing the Old Testament as 270 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,040 Scripture. So in the New Testament, when 271 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:25,760 somebody says the Scriptures or the Holy Scriptures, they're 272 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:29,480 referring to the Old Testament because that's the Bible as they 273 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:32,120 would have had it. And so one of the ways they're 274 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:36,320 sharing the gospel is by using the Old Testament passages. 275 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:40,240 And So what we see here is we see these references to the 276 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:44,880 Scripture, to the Scriptures. I mean, Jesus himself would say 277 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:49,040 in Matthew 2142, Jesus said to them, have you never read this 278 00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:51,520 in the Scriptures? The stone that the builders 279 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:54,000 rejected has become the cornerstone. 280 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:56,920 This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in her eyes. 281 00:16:56,920 --> 00:17:00,120 So Jesus is quoting the Old Testament as authoritative. 282 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:02,720 He's quoting the Old Testament as the word of God. 283 00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:06,000 You see Paul doing the same thing in these other passages. 284 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:11,119 And so again, Josephus, this historian in the 1st century, 285 00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:14,160 wrote about the Scripture of the Jews. 286 00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:18,599 And what he's referring to is what we would now consider the 287 00:17:18,599 --> 00:17:22,560 Old Testament. And so he's, he's recognizing 288 00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:24,760 the Old Testament much like we would today. 289 00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:27,680 You've got to understand that the Old Testament is actually 290 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:29,920 used by three major world religions. 291 00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:35,640 And so Islam uses the Old Testament, Judaism uses the Old 292 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:37,800 Testament as well as Christianity. 293 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:41,440 And so it's a, it's been around a long time in its current 294 00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:45,120 state. So Josephus, this is story in 295 00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:50,160 this 1st century guy he named, he listed, actually listed 22 296 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:53,160 books that were contained in the Hebrew Bible. 297 00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:59,440 And so in the Hebrew Bible, you had the five books of Moses, you 298 00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:03,320 had the 13 books of the prophets, and you had four books 299 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:08,200 of hymns and precepts. And Josephus's number of books 300 00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:11,720 was confirmed later in the 3rd century by early Christian 301 00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:13,960 writers. And so now it's interesting 302 00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:17,800 because he talks about 22 books. How many books does our Old 303 00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:21,040 Testament contain? 39. 304 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:24,000 And so one of the things you have to recognize, don't let 305 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:26,160 that throw you. That's not a mistake. 306 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:28,400 It's not an error, it's not a contradiction. 307 00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:32,080 You've just got to understand the Hebrew Bible is arranged 308 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:34,760 differently than our English versions. 309 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:40,520 And so all 39 books in the English versions are contained 310 00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:43,040 in the 22 books of the Hebrew Bible. 311 00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:46,720 They just have combined many of the books in ways that we have 312 00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:50,360 separated them. And so all the same content is 313 00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:51,960 there. There's no difference, There's 314 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:54,600 no contradiction. It's just a different 315 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:58,480 organization. And so all 39 of our books are 316 00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:01,760 included in the 22 books. This is a Hebrew Bible and this 317 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:05,200 is Greek, sorry, this is a Hebrew Bible right here. 318 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:09,440 And, and it's just arranged differently and it always was. 319 00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:11,360 And there, there's some reasons for that. 320 00:19:11,360 --> 00:19:14,040 I'll talk about that either later tonight or next week. 321 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:18,000 But in the Hebrew, it's just, it's all there all the same. 322 00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:21,920 It's just going to be combined in ways that we would separate. 323 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:28,000 And So what we recognize then is that this Old Testament was 324 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:30,720 complete. Well, what do we do then? 325 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:32,920 It's going to take a minute, which is why I've been trying to 326 00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:35,920 get here. So this is called the Jerusalem 327 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:38,600 Bible. Now, it's not the only one of 328 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:42,520 his kind, but this Bible is a Bible that would be used by the 329 00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:46,720 Catholic Church. And the Catholic Bible has 330 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:51,520 different books in it than what our evangelical or Protestant 331 00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:55,320 Bible has in it. So why what in the world's going 332 00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:57,920 on? Well, it's called the Apocrypha. 333 00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:03,840 And so the Apocrypha came along and the word apocrypha kind of 334 00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:06,560 means concealed is kind of what it means. 335 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:10,040 It actually began eventually to mean non canonical. 336 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:12,600 In other words, these aren't part of the Canon, but they're 337 00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:19,240 included for devotional benefit, ethnic, or ethical reading. 338 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:23,360 And and other and, and history and things like that, but 339 00:20:23,360 --> 00:20:26,880 they're not considered the inspired word of God in the same 340 00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:29,120 way. So what you have in the 341 00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:32,240 Apocrypha are a whole bunch of other books. 342 00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:35,040 And if you've never seen the names, I have them listed there 343 00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:37,480 for you just because some of them are interesting to read. 344 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,880 If you've never seen the Apocrypha or understood the 345 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:46,400 Apocrypha, then then you see these historical books. 346 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:49,000 There's some legendary books, there's some prophetic books, 347 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,920 there's some ethical devotional books in there, but these books 348 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:58,760 were never accepted as a whole into the Hebrew Canon. 349 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:04,880 And I'll tell you why. So, so the, and also there are 350 00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:09,240 some doctrinal issues that are unique to the Roman Catholic 351 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:11,720 Church that come out of the Apocrypha. 352 00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:16,600 For example, purgatory. The idea of purgatory comes from 353 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:21,760 the Apocrypha. And so, but these doctrines and 354 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:27,640 these books were rejected or at least not included in the Canon. 355 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,240 There are some books in the Apocrypha that are just 356 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:32,200 historical. You have the Maccabees that tell 357 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:36,040 the story of a Jewish revolt. It's a historical book, 358 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:40,280 interesting reading, but it's not it's not going to help you 359 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:42,840 lead your life in the same way, but it's just a history book. 360 00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:47,560 And so there are books in there, but they were rejected because a 361 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:51,200 number one, and it's very significantly, they were never 362 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,680 included in the Hebrew Canon of the Old Testament. 363 00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:57,600 So when the when the original Old Testament was formed, these 364 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:00,560 books were not in it. These were added much later by 365 00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:04,520 others. And so in the original Hebrew 366 00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:06,320 Bible, these were just not a part of it. 367 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:09,840 Secondly, they were never accepted by Jesus and the 368 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:12,440 apostles. They were never accepted by 369 00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:15,520 Jewish writers of the 1st century or early Christians. 370 00:22:16,120 --> 00:22:19,920 These they show no evidence of any intrinsic, intrinsic 371 00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:26,320 qualities of inspiration and to and I'm trying to be kind, but 372 00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:30,520 objections about these books can't be overruled by some 373 00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:35,000 authority outside of scripture. In other words, papal or papal 374 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:38,960 authority is not enough to declare something a scripture. 375 00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:43,200 And so that's how some of these books came to be included. 376 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:47,080 The church itself put them in to support some of the doctrinal 377 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:49,720 conclusions that they wanted to reach. 378 00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:51,680 So there's a little proof texting going on with the 379 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:58,920 Apocrypha along the way. And so in fact, in fact, there 380 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:04,160 was a church council in, in the year 90 that worked very hard 381 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:10,840 to, to analyze and to discuss and, and to basically overrule 382 00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:14,080 and not include the books of the Apocrypha. 383 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:18,880 And so I don't know that some of the books of the Apocrypha would 384 00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:21,760 do you no harm necessarily to read. 385 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,880 Some of them might confuse you. And so I don't necessarily 386 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:30,280 advise studying the Apocrypha as your as your devotional life, 387 00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:34,960 but if you're just interested in literature, maybe there would be 388 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:37,880 some things that you might find interesting. 389 00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:44,240 So just to kind of finish up the Old Testament, then to recognize 390 00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:47,960 that the Old Testament today in the English version basically 391 00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:55,120 has five books of the law from from Genesis to Deuteronomy, 12 392 00:23:55,120 --> 00:23:59,520 books of history, Joshua to Esther, five books of poetry or 393 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:01,640 wisdom from Job to Song of Solomon. 394 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:05,200 And some debate whether Job should be included in that or 395 00:24:05,200 --> 00:24:08,120 not, depending upon how literal you think Job is it or not, 396 00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:12,160 which scholars debate. And then 17 books of prophets 397 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:15,920 from Isaiah to Malachi, which are often divided into 5 major 398 00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:20,960 prophets and 12 minor prophets. And then the arrangement though. 399 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:25,440 So why is our English Bible different than the Hebrew Bible? 400 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:27,400 I'm glad you asked. Thank you for asking that 401 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,320 question. I know you're on your edge of 402 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:35,760 the seat to know this. So we, our English version came 403 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:41,160 from the Vulgate, which was the Latin version, and the Latin 404 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,240 version came from the Greek version version of the Old 405 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:45,640 Testament. Does anybody know what that was 406 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:47,840 called? The Septuagint. 407 00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:52,000 So the Old Testament was translated into Greek, the 408 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:55,360 Septuagint, and it's called that because there was a whole group 409 00:24:55,360 --> 00:24:57,760 of 70 scholars who worked together on that. 410 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:02,600 Then that was translated into Latin and then our English 411 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:07,600 order, not words, but our our English order followed that 412 00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:11,320 Latin version. And so sometimes people say, why 413 00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:13,200 is the Old Testament arranged the way it is? 414 00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:15,960 For example, why are the prophets in the order that 415 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,280 they're in? Does anybody know why the Old 416 00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:21,240 Testament prophets are in the order that they're in in the Old 417 00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:25,840 Testament in our English Bible? Anybody know? 418 00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:31,160 It's a really deep theological reason. 419 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:39,160 They go from largest to smallest, so it can be quite 420 00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,080 confusing. And my preference would have 421 00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:44,160 been that they would have been put in chronologically. 422 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,040 And so that's why when you're studying, especially Old 423 00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:51,480 Testament prophets, for example, I mentioned Sunday that if 424 00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:54,080 you're going to study Nehemiah, it's great to study Ezra with 425 00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:58,360 Nehemiah, but it's also great to study Haggai and Zechariah with 426 00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:00,280 them too. But if you don't know that 427 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:03,160 Haggai and Zechariah are in the same time frame with Nehemiah 428 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:06,000 and Ezra, you're going to need some study helps or something to 429 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,840 show you that or read carefully to even understand where it fits 430 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,840 in, in the timelines. And so in our personal Bible 431 00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:15,000 study, we're going to talk about, so how do we figure this 432 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,000 out down the road? It's going to get to be a very 433 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:21,040 practical thing after tonight to where, how do I take this Bible 434 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:24,640 and how do I observe this? How do I ask the right 435 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:27,960 questions? How do I analyze the text and 436 00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:32,040 how do I interpret the text and how do I apply the text in my 437 00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:33,920 life? We're going to break that down 438 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,520 in very significant ways over the next few weeks. 439 00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:38,960 I, I don't know if you've ever been through a study like that 440 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:40,440 or not, but it'll be really helpful to you. 441 00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:43,040 And then how do I teach others? So for those of you who are 442 00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:46,320 teachers, there'll be a section at the end on homiletics. 443 00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:50,080 How do I actually teach others? So there's kind of the Old 444 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:55,080 Testament in a nutshell. So let's spend a little more 445 00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:58,640 time on the New Testament. So the New Testament is 446 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:06,560 fascinating because in the New Testament you spent the 1st 30 447 00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:10,960 years or so in what we would call the oral period. 448 00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:15,480 All right. And so the early emphasis of the 449 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:20,680 apostles was not in recording anything. 450 00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:24,640 It was proclaiming everything. And so you walk through this 451 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:28,200 time period to where, you know, Jesus never wrote a book. 452 00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:32,920 And so his apostles would eventually write the Gospels. 453 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,560 But they actually come quite, quite a bit later because in the 454 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:40,040 beginning it was all about proclaiming this message, right? 455 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,000 Because the early emphasis was on that. 456 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:49,320 So they utilized two major sources in the beginning to to 457 00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:52,520 convince the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 458 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:55,880 And the primary source they were using up front were 459 00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:59,120 eyewitnesses. The apostles were still alive 460 00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:04,080 and they were testifying and, and you had eyewitness accounts 461 00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:09,000 of others beyond the disciples, the 12 who had seen Jesus, been 462 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:11,640 healed by Jesus, seen miracles of Jesus. 463 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:14,160 And so you had all these eyewitness accounts. 464 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:16,360 Remember, after the resurrection, he didn't just 465 00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:19,200 appear to the 12. The Bible says that he appeared 466 00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:23,320 to hundreds, and so you had hundreds of people testifying 467 00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:25,960 about this. Think of a Lazarus and think of 468 00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:28,800 other people along the way, Mary and Martha, and all these people 469 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,320 along the way who've been touched by the Messiah. 470 00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:35,760 And so these personal witnesses of Jesus were sharing and then 471 00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:40,320 they were also utilizing the Old Testament Scriptures to show the 472 00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:44,760 fulfilment of prophecy when it came to Jesus, especially the 473 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,600 book of Isaiah. When you, when you start reading 474 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:50,160 in the middle part of Isaiah and you start reading the suffering 475 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:53,320 servant passages, as I've mentioned to you before, one of 476 00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:55,440 the greatest ways to share the gospel with somebody from a 477 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:57,920 Jewish background is take them to Isaiah. 478 00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:02,600 And there's no question that Isaiah is talking about Jesus in 479 00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:05,600 the suffering servant passages. And so they would use these 480 00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:08,120 prophetic passages. Jesus fulfilled over 300 481 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:10,520 prophecies. And so they would use the 482 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:13,600 fulfillment passages and these other passages to point to him 483 00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:15,960 because the Old Testament was their Bible. 484 00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:19,360 And in the beginning, I don't think they're thinking about we 485 00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:21,240 need to write another part of the Bible, right? 486 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:23,800 I don't think God had led him to that yet because in the 487 00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:27,280 beginning it was all about proclamation and spreading the 488 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:30,960 gospel around the Roman Empire, as we saw in the book of Acts. 489 00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:35,400 And, and there was probably even a sense of resistance to writing 490 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:39,800 things down for several reasons. One is they thought Jesus was 491 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:43,600 going to come back. And so they really expected the 492 00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:48,200 eminent return of Jesus Christ. And so at any minute now he's 493 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,600 going to come back. And so in fact, Paul had to kind 494 00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:53,920 of get onto the Thessalonikins for sitting on the hillside 495 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:57,040 staring at the sky. And so, you know, Jesus is going 496 00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,200 to come back at any moment. There's no reason to write this 497 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:00,600 down. We've got to share about him as 498 00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:03,640 much as we can. And then boom, the end of time 499 00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:05,920 is going to come. And so that was one of the 500 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:07,720 things that was what was part of the deal. 501 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:12,640 And then and then I think they they preferred to speak rather 502 00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:16,080 than write. In fact, second John verse 12 503 00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:19,760 says this, though I have much to write to you, I would rather not 504 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:22,600 use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you 505 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:28,440 and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete in their 506 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:32,400 cultural context, relationship and community where everything 507 00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:37,440 and so in this original in these original days, early days, they 508 00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:40,240 would miss rather meet together and talk through this together. 509 00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:42,560 It was a very oral. You got to think about these 510 00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:46,960 guys were were raised in a very non literary segment of of 511 00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:49,240 culture. So it wasn't like these 512 00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:52,920 disciples were great scholars and authors in their in their 513 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:55,560 natural states. And so and it was wasn't that 514 00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:57,280 common to think about writing a book. 515 00:30:57,680 --> 00:30:59,280 And so they were very non literary. 516 00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:01,720 They were oral. This is an oral culture. 517 00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:04,520 And so they're meeting together and having these oral 518 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:07,560 conversations. Now the Pharisees would preserve 519 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,960 their teachings and, and they would preserve them both orally. 520 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:14,960 And then, and then sometimes they would begin to write that 521 00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:16,520 down. But you got to recognize that 522 00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:18,920 Jesus himself was not writing things. 523 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:23,600 Everything was oral. And so you have to see in the 524 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:27,080 beginning and, and just remember that because these Apostolic 525 00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:31,240 witnesses were still alive, they were still available. 526 00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:34,680 They were still there. The thought of we need to hurry 527 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:38,120 up and write this stuff down was just not in their immediate mind 528 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:39,760 yet. The Holy Spirit hadn't pressed 529 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,120 that on them yet. And so then we enter into what 530 00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:48,000 we would call the writing period and three different events I 531 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:52,920 think really come into play to, to, to that I think the Holy 532 00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:55,520 Spirit impressed upon these folks. 533 00:31:55,840 --> 00:32:00,320 You need to write this stuff down in in this inspired way. 534 00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:02,120 And one of them was the death of the apostles. 535 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:06,000 So these apostles are dying. They're dying in persecution. 536 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:08,760 They're dying in martyrdom, many of them except for John. 537 00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:11,960 And so they're dying. And so these eyewitnesses are 538 00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:16,080 beginning to disappear. And so we need to preserve their 539 00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:19,560 eyewitness testimonies for generations to come. 540 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:21,520 And this is the process that God is using. 541 00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:25,880 You also then also see the spread of the gospel to non Jews 542 00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:28,360 who have no Old Testament backdrop. 543 00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:32,160 And so they don't have that concept, they don't have that 544 00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:36,200 bridge of fulfilment of the Old Testament in their heads. 545 00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:41,080 So they need this gospel story preserved for them and written 546 00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,520 especially doctrinal writings with Paul so that they can 547 00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:47,360 actually understand the truth because they have no they have 548 00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:49,960 no foundation in that. And then the third thing would 549 00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:53,560 be the rise of persecution. And so because of persecution 550 00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:57,560 and because of the death of the apostles, we recognize that that 551 00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:01,560 during the century after the death of Jesus, the 27 books of 552 00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:05,520 the New Testament were written and then slowly collected into a 553 00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:10,280 volume together as God preserved this knowledge and inspired 554 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:15,200 people to write it down. So the first book, and this is 555 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:18,240 debatable, but the first book of the New Testament was probably 556 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:22,560 written somewhere around the year 47. 557 00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:28,080 And then the last book somewhere probably between 95 and 100, as 558 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:33,000 as John writes the revelation and as the Holy Spirit leads him 559 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,000 to do that. And So what we recognize is that 560 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,120 this is quite a process that takes a long time. 561 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:47,160 And then eventually what happens is first comes 1st come some of 562 00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,920 the letters that Paul would write and others would write and 563 00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:54,080 remember that these were addressed to to real churches 564 00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:58,280 and real people about real problems, and they were written 565 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,280 to these individuals. But from the beginning, these 566 00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:05,360 writings were looked upon as distinctly authoritative. 567 00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:08,360 They understood that there was something special about these 568 00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:13,239 letters being written and that they were divinely inspired, and 569 00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:18,159 so they were read publicly. First Thessalonians 527 says I 570 00:34:18,159 --> 00:34:21,920 put you underoath before the Lord to have this letter read to 571 00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:25,600 all the brothers. They were also exchanged and 572 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:30,760 shared between churches. And so Colossians 416 says, and 573 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:34,480 when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in 574 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:37,679 the Church of the Laodiceans and see that you also read the 575 00:34:37,679 --> 00:34:41,280 letter from Laodicea. So they're exchanging and and 576 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:46,080 sharing letters and doctrine and truth that are written from 577 00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:48,679 church to church. And so as these things are 578 00:34:48,679 --> 00:34:54,320 exchanged, they're beginning to be combined into volumes and 579 00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:57,040 collected in these sets that would travel. 580 00:34:57,320 --> 00:35:02,120 And then eventually comes the the, the embodiment in writing 581 00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:04,680 of the central events of the life of Jesus. 582 00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:07,440 And so the Gospels begin to take form. 583 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:10,680 And so you might say, well, how, why are the Gospels different 584 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:13,400 from one another? It's because they're written to 585 00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:17,120 different audiences. And so you'll see a Matthew 586 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:20,680 written very much to a Jewish audience, which is why you start 587 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:22,960 off with the genealogy the way you do. 588 00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:25,680 And you'll see Luke being written to him a much more of a 589 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:28,000 gentile audience, a very different audience. 590 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:30,920 And so it has a different and, and John is approaching this 591 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:34,640 from a theological perspective because John is fighting false 592 00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:36,520 teaching all along the way as well. 593 00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:40,480 And he's trying to show, he's fighting Gnosticism and he's 594 00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,320 fighting false teaching both in the Gospel and his first, second 595 00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:46,480 and third John letters to where he's fighting false teaching. 596 00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:49,240 So it's a very, it's much more of a theological, doctrinal type 597 00:35:49,240 --> 00:35:51,440 approach. And so these, these these 598 00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:53,440 gospels are different, not because they're telling 599 00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:56,640 different stories, but they're just different perspectives and 600 00:35:56,640 --> 00:36:00,000 different angles that the Holy Spirit is preserving through 601 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:04,440 these men as he's using them to write these things down. 602 00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:10,600 And so the the Gospels started as eyewitness accounts, and as 603 00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:14,920 these witnesses died, the need for this authoritative written 604 00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:19,160 narrative was inspired by the Holy Spirit to help him. 605 00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:23,400 In fact, John 20 verses 30 through 31 says this. 606 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,760 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples 607 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:29,760 which are not written in this book. 608 00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:32,600 So there's an acknowledgement. Not everything was written down 609 00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:36,000 in John. Now, it may be that some of 610 00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:39,280 those things were in Mark or Luke or Matthew, or some of them 611 00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:41,280 may have not been written down at all because we didn't need 612 00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:43,640 them today. God knew we didn't need them 613 00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:45,840 right now. And so he's given us what we 614 00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:47,800 need. And it says there. 615 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:51,280 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is 616 00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:55,760 the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life 617 00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:58,320 in his name. So there's no question that 618 00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:01,160 these authors and readers are considering these as 619 00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:04,840 authoritative and inspired words of God. 620 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:10,360 So after the letters came the Gospels, then the book of Acts, 621 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:13,720 and then finally the last one written would have been the book 622 00:37:13,720 --> 00:37:17,320 of the Revelation. And so you see this progression 623 00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:20,040 as they're gathering often because in our English Bible we 624 00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:22,080 see the Gospels first. We think, well, that's the first 625 00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:23,680 thing that was written down. Well, it wasn't. 626 00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:27,360 Paul's letters would have been earlier in writing than the 627 00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:30,240 Gospels would have been. And so then the Gospels come to 628 00:37:30,240 --> 00:37:31,800 be. And so these things travelled in 629 00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:35,760 sets and in multi volumes and then eventually one volume and 630 00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,680 then eventually you're able to put together the whole thing in 631 00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:41,960 this miraculous book. And some of that is also 632 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:44,200 technologically driven. You've got to think that one of 633 00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:48,200 the greatest tools of the great spiritual awakenings, believe it 634 00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:51,120 or not, one of the greatest miracles of the great spiritual 635 00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:52,600 awakenings is the printing press. 636 00:37:54,720 --> 00:37:57,240 And so you, you got to recognize, and we'll talk more 637 00:37:57,240 --> 00:37:59,760 about this next week, but these things had to be hand copied. 638 00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:05,200 Everything was hand copied and, and until the printing press 639 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,920 came along and then you can start mass producing the word of 640 00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:09,920 God. And so the printing print, the 641 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:12,680 invention of the printing press is actually a key to the great 642 00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:16,640 spiritual awakening as the Bible was able to go out to the masses 643 00:38:16,720 --> 00:38:19,800 in language for the first time in human history. 644 00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:23,640 So it's amazing what God does even with some practical things 645 00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:26,400 like that. And so then along the way there 646 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:28,440 are testimonies. How in the world do we know this 647 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:31,880 is really scripture, etcetera? So along the way there were 648 00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:36,520 early witnesses to the New Testament books and I have a lot 649 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:38,640 of names they're written, which I'm not going to go through all 650 00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:41,120 that with you. But just to recognize that there 651 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:44,680 were testimony after testimony after testimony of these, what 652 00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:46,800 we would call the early church fathers. 653 00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:52,880 These are church leaders. These are, these are Christians, 654 00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:58,560 bishops, leaders that wrote, leaders that met in councils and 655 00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:02,680 they were evaluating and testing the word of God and the, and the 656 00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:07,040 doctrines all along the way and testifying to the authenticity 657 00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:10,560 of, of these books. And then there were a lot of 658 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:15,280 books that were not allowed in. And sometimes they still raise 659 00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:18,080 their interesting heads. So every now and then you'll 660 00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:22,320 hear about some brand new, brand new hidden manuscript that 661 00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:24,640 somebody's found. And there'll be a book at the 662 00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:27,440 airport bookstore about it. Or there'll be a documentary on 663 00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:31,000 The History Channel about this new gospel that nobody ever knew 664 00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:34,040 about, like the Gospel of Thomas or something. 665 00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:36,160 And I promise you, none of those are new. 666 00:39:36,240 --> 00:39:39,400 They've been around since the before the 2nd century and they 667 00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:42,840 were dealt with back then. They were considered heresy in 668 00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:46,400 those days or considered non inspired in those days. 669 00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:49,760 After church council, after church council, after church 670 00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:53,600 council, after church council. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. 671 00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:56,160 There's nothing about those that would show any evidence of being 672 00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:58,400 inspired. So there's nothing new. 673 00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:02,120 So these brand new revelations, brand new hidden discoveries 674 00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:05,080 that people get all excited about on social media, they're 675 00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:07,440 not new. They're quite ancient. 676 00:40:08,240 --> 00:40:10,120 And have been dealt with a long time ago. 677 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:13,080 So, So what are some of the bases? 678 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:15,480 What, what are some of the reasons that they would actually 679 00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:19,360 say, OK, this, this is something that ought to be included and 680 00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:21,680 this is something that doesn't need to be included. 681 00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:24,880 And so let's talk about this for a minute because it's very 682 00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:28,560 important. And so one of the basis for 683 00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:30,920 understanding whether or not a book ought to be in the New 684 00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:34,400 Testament, for example, was whether or not it was used and 685 00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:37,040 accepted by the Orthodox congregations. 686 00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:41,280 So the church, the use by the church and what the church did 687 00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:45,360 for it was one of the one of the ways that carried some some 688 00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:49,040 weight in these decisions. And so these books were used at 689 00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:52,120 a very early date and various parts of the Roman Empire. 690 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:55,800 And so most of the books of the New Testament were acknowledged 691 00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:58,520 as Apostolic. They were authoritative 692 00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:01,600 throughout the Church before even the close of the 2nd 693 00:41:01,600 --> 00:41:03,840 century. And so even though they might 694 00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:07,280 not have been formed into a Bible as we know it, yet they 695 00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:10,600 were being used and they were considered authority from very, 696 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:13,840 very early days. And so that's one of the one of 697 00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:16,520 the basis of it. Another one would be doctrinal 698 00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:19,680 consistency. So the church had to struggle a 699 00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:24,200 lot with heresy early on. They had to struggle again with 700 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,040 Gnosticism or, or, or many others. 701 00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:29,520 There's a long list that I could read to you, but that we won't 702 00:41:29,520 --> 00:41:31,800 bother with that. But, but there are a lot of 703 00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:35,160 these heresies about Jesus and about the Word. 704 00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:38,920 And so any of these books that hinted that those kinds of 705 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:41,760 heresies that they were dealing with were rejected. 706 00:41:42,200 --> 00:41:45,600 So there had to be a doctrinal consistency to where the Word of 707 00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:47,360 God is not going to contradict itself. 708 00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:49,080 The truth is going to be the truth. 709 00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:52,880 A huge issue that was Apostolic origin. 710 00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:57,200 In other words, many of the books that we would consider in 711 00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:01,000 the New Testament today were attributed to an apostle. 712 00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:05,360 So an apostle either wrote it or somebody was writing it for an 713 00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:08,360 apostle. For example, the Gospel of Mark 714 00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:12,520 is often considered the words of Peter that Mark met with Peter 715 00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:15,480 and, and was actually recording what the apostle Peter would 716 00:42:15,480 --> 00:42:19,400 say. And so we recognize that that 717 00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:25,040 this Apostolic origin is, is a huge factor when it came to 718 00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:30,040 these early church fathers and these early church councils to 719 00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:32,880 make these decisions. And then obviously the issue of 720 00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:35,880 inspiration. So the ultimate test where they 721 00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:39,520 gave evidence of being divinely inspired, giving evidence of of 722 00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:42,080 having authority. The Holy Spirit was guiding the 723 00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:46,240 church discerning between genuine and and counterfeit 724 00:42:46,240 --> 00:42:49,560 writings. And a period of time was needed 725 00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:52,880 before the church in the various parts of the empire could 726 00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:56,480 actually come to unanimous decision concerning the 27 727 00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:59,800 books. And so, but from from early on, 728 00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:04,400 they reached this conclusion that these 27 books that we have 729 00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:06,000 in our New Testament were the books. 730 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:10,000 And you'll see a list of some of the council's that came along 731 00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:15,760 later to affirm that. And by at least 367, all books 732 00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:19,000 were accepted. Those 27 books, some of the 733 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:21,000 books were disputed a little longer than others. 734 00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:22,480 The Book of James was one of them. 735 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,120 Some people felt like the Book of James was too practical. 736 00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:28,520 Even some people in the Reformation didn't necessarily 737 00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:30,800 like the book of James because they felt like it was a little 738 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:33,880 too practical. But the church fathers and the 739 00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:37,480 church councils accepted James and and included it. 740 00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:42,040 And Hebrews itself is sometimes controversial because of the 741 00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:44,880 authorship. But by the time you get to these 742 00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:47,960 these councils in the two hundreds and three hundreds, 743 00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:52,760 you'll see that everything is ratified and everything is 744 00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:56,160 finally in place in its final form. 745 00:43:56,600 --> 00:44:01,160 And so what's interesting then is, is that when you, when you 746 00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:05,880 move to the New Testament today and you think about the modern 747 00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:11,840 book is as we know it, We see these five books of history, as 748 00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:16,760 we might call them, 21 books of doctrine, one book of prophecy 749 00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:23,520 as well. And, and in our version today. 750 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:26,760 Now it's interesting because when we talk about, and we'll 751 00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:29,240 talk more about this next week, but when we start talking about 752 00:44:29,240 --> 00:44:33,960 the languages and translation, we recognize that you have at 753 00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:37,320 least three languages that the book the Bible was written in 754 00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:40,040 and its original manuscript form. 755 00:44:40,720 --> 00:44:43,440 You have Hebrew and then you have Aramaic. 756 00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:49,080 Aramaic came into fashion. The exile had something to do 757 00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:51,680 with that. But but there are many parts of 758 00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:53,560 Daniel, for example, are written in Aramaic. 759 00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:56,520 It's very likely that Jesus actually spoke Aramaic. 760 00:44:57,200 --> 00:44:59,880 He would have probably he would have been able to speak Greek 761 00:44:59,920 --> 00:45:03,200 too in his world. But most of the New Testament 762 00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:06,480 written in Greek other than quotes of Jesus in Aramaic and 763 00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:09,000 parts of the Old Testament are in Hebrew and Aramaic. 764 00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:14,040 And so you have translation issues that come into play along 765 00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:16,680 the way. And but one of the things that 766 00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:19,680 we've mentioned before and I, I want to spend a few moments 767 00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:23,120 before we close this out today. And I appreciate your patience 768 00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:25,040 with this. I just want to lay a foundation 769 00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:31,200 because when we start talking about what does it mean to begin 770 00:45:31,200 --> 00:45:36,480 to observe and then interpret the word of God, we need to have 771 00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:39,520 an understanding of how the word of God came together for us. 772 00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:46,120 And so even though God used men to write this, this, this 773 00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:50,080 document for us, this, this word that we have today, the the 774 00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:54,400 primary issue is that this is inspired in a miraculous way by 775 00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:58,200 the Holy Spirit. So we acknowledge what Second 776 00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:02,200 Timothy 3 says, where it says all Scripture is breathed out by 777 00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:07,600 God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and 778 00:46:07,600 --> 00:46:10,520 for training and righteousness, and the fact that the 779 00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:12,960 inspiration of Scripture makes all the difference. 780 00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:16,920 And so even though when you look at original language and you 781 00:46:16,920 --> 00:46:19,960 look at these authors, you recognize there's a background, 782 00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:23,840 there's personality involved, there's vocabulary and grammar 783 00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:27,760 choices that we're still, they're still visible. 784 00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:32,680 Paul wrote differently than John wrote, for example. 785 00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:37,000 John wrote differently than Mark and their use of vocabulary and 786 00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:39,400 grammatical structure and things like that. 787 00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:44,120 So you see, you see, the reality of a human being being used by 788 00:46:44,120 --> 00:46:49,800 God, but the content itself is being divinely inspired so that 789 00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:53,240 it's trustworthy and that we don't have to question whether 790 00:46:53,240 --> 00:46:56,400 or not the Bible is truly the word of God or not. 791 00:46:57,120 --> 00:47:01,800 And so the way that we then deal with it as we trust not only 792 00:47:02,440 --> 00:47:05,880 what we believe the Holy Spirit is showing us today, but we also 793 00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:10,480 trust this history of, of, of Christians throughout the ages 794 00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:17,280 who, who were used by God to heavily evaluate and to deal not 795 00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:20,440 only with whether or not a book of the Bible should be included 796 00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:26,240 or not, but whether or not heresy is being addressed. 797 00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:31,960 And the fact that they scrutinized this over and over 798 00:47:32,280 --> 00:47:38,560 and, and over again. And so even though we may, we 799 00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:44,400 may wonder at times about how certain things came together. 800 00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:48,920 One of the great miracles of Scripture is, is that I don't 801 00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:53,560 know of another ancient document that is put together in a way. 802 00:47:53,560 --> 00:47:56,400 And I'm not talking about the inspirational side of it, but 803 00:47:56,400 --> 00:48:00,760 even the practical side of it, to where you have such a 804 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:04,120 consistent story from beginning to end. 805 00:48:04,120 --> 00:48:06,040 It's all pointing to the same place. 806 00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:13,640 And so even throughout the centuries you had, by the Middle 807 00:48:13,640 --> 00:48:18,200 Ages, the Roman Catholic Church comes into power and in a sense 808 00:48:18,200 --> 00:48:23,360 has supreme authority over a lot of ecclesiastical issues, which 809 00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:27,240 is where some of the Apocrypha and some of these other writings 810 00:48:27,240 --> 00:48:30,280 come into play. But then with the Reformation, 811 00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:36,720 we see them going back to to the original versions of Scripture. 812 00:48:37,160 --> 00:48:42,120 And Luther once said this, He said the Scripture only, without 813 00:48:42,120 --> 00:48:46,560 tradition, was the single and complete source of doctrine. 814 00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:52,320 And he also said that the Hebrew Canon of the Old Testament and 815 00:48:52,320 --> 00:48:55,160 acknowledged books in the New Testament ought to be admitted 816 00:48:55,160 --> 00:48:57,800 as authoritative. And so even though he was part 817 00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:01,840 of the Catholic Church, he recognized the problems and 818 00:49:01,840 --> 00:49:04,840 fought that. And he and Calvin actually would 819 00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:07,560 go back and forth a little bit during the Reformation debating 820 00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:11,400 on whether a book should be considered Scripture or not. 821 00:49:12,360 --> 00:49:20,280 Well, beyond all that, I also rest in a truth that we depend 822 00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:25,280 upon, and that is the fact that the the word of God is living 823 00:49:25,360 --> 00:49:26,800 and active. Amen. 824 00:49:27,760 --> 00:49:32,080 And because it's living and active, it's sharper than any 2 825 00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:35,480 edged sword and it's able to Pierce and see. 826 00:49:35,480 --> 00:49:38,600 This is what makes it different. This is not just a collection of 827 00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:43,480 writings. In my undergrad program, I was 828 00:49:43,840 --> 00:49:48,240 AI had a minor in literature for a while, had multiple minors for 829 00:49:48,240 --> 00:49:54,360 a while and and would study the great anthologies of literature, 830 00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:57,600 both British literature and American literature, and would 831 00:49:57,600 --> 00:50:01,120 had to read all the great works of writing that were collected 832 00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:03,040 over the years. And there would be a book about 833 00:50:03,040 --> 00:50:06,680 this thick, these anthologies of literature that you would read 834 00:50:08,240 --> 00:50:11,680 and and those are interesting writings, but there was nothing 835 00:50:11,720 --> 00:50:15,120 alive about that, nothing living, nothing, nothing 836 00:50:15,120 --> 00:50:18,280 convicting, nothing piercing about that. 837 00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:23,040 And the word of God is is is not a dead book. 838 00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:26,840 It's a it's a book that able able to Pierce to the very 839 00:50:26,840 --> 00:50:31,560 depths of your being and is also coming to convict you, but it's 840 00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:34,800 also going to correct you and it's also going to guide you. 841 00:50:35,440 --> 00:50:39,440 And so over these next few weeks, what I want us to do is 842 00:50:39,720 --> 00:50:42,240 next week, I'm going to spend a few minutes talking about the 843 00:50:42,240 --> 00:50:45,560 different translations. Some of you have expressed your 844 00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:49,120 great disdain for the ESV and we'll talk about that. 845 00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:54,200 And I'm going to talk about the King James Version all the way 846 00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:57,120 through some of the modern versions and why there are 847 00:50:57,120 --> 00:51:00,720 different versions, why the different English translations, 848 00:51:00,720 --> 00:51:02,560 What do they mean? How do you pick one? 849 00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:05,160 Why do I use what I use, etcetera. 850 00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:09,760 And then we're going to dive into how do I actually approach 851 00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:13,720 the Bible. And so I, I know tonight was 852 00:51:13,720 --> 00:51:16,040 very introductory. So don't just come tonight. 853 00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:20,360 You, you got to come for the rest because tonight the idea 854 00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:23,040 was as I wanted you to see how this came together in this 855 00:51:23,040 --> 00:51:27,320 miraculous way. Then I want us to recognize when 856 00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:31,000 I open my Bible in my living room or my bedroom or my prayer 857 00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:34,960 closet or wherever I am, how do I actually approach this book? 858 00:51:35,960 --> 00:51:39,160 How do I treat this book? How do I read this? 859 00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:42,080 How do I observe the text? What are the questions I ought 860 00:51:42,080 --> 00:51:45,920 to be asking? How do I actually decipher what 861 00:51:45,920 --> 00:51:49,160 this means? And to have an understanding of 862 00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:51,640 how it came together I think will prove more helpful to you 863 00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:54,480 than you might know tonight. But one of the things that I 864 00:51:54,480 --> 00:52:02,240 hope you always appreciate is the fact that you can hold one 865 00:52:02,240 --> 00:52:06,640 of these things in your hand in a language that's your heart 866 00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:08,960 language. And I've shared this with you 867 00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:13,320 before that out of the 11 to 12,000 languages on the planet, 868 00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:18,200 this exists as a whole and very few, just a few 100. 869 00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:23,800 And all around the world, there are people who have no ability 870 00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:25,880 to hold an entire Bible in their hands. 871 00:52:26,960 --> 00:52:30,400 And so one of the things that I hope that you'll cherish is just 872 00:52:30,400 --> 00:52:35,640 the very fact that this exists. And it really is quite amazing 873 00:52:36,600 --> 00:52:39,880 that you can take a good English translation. 874 00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:47,280 I can hold it up to the Greek and the Hebrew and, and 875 00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:51,440 recognize how absolutely accurate these these good 876 00:52:51,440 --> 00:52:55,000 translations are. I can read Greek. 877 00:52:55,800 --> 00:52:59,040 My Hebrew is not as good. I can still translate Greek. 878 00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:04,040 But to recognize that the English translations, the 879 00:53:04,040 --> 00:53:08,920 accuracy and the fact that this is centuries old, thousands of 880 00:53:08,920 --> 00:53:12,960 years old, and the fact that it's been preserved for us in 881 00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:17,280 the way that it has with such accuracy, that alone the Bible 882 00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:22,760 is a miracle and the existence of it is a miracle. 883 00:53:22,800 --> 00:53:26,640 And its power is miraculous. It changes lives. 884 00:53:26,640 --> 00:53:30,640 It does not return void. It can actually change who we 885 00:53:30,640 --> 00:53:33,640 are. And so I hope that you won't 886 00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:38,680 take for granted the privilege you have of personally being 887 00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:42,360 able to study the Word of God, but that also you'll understand 888 00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:45,360 the privilege of corporately coming together in a connect 889 00:53:45,360 --> 00:53:46,840 group. You didn't think you're going to 890 00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:51,040 get away with that, did you? Or a worship service. 891 00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:55,120 And to systemically study the Word of God and to feed on it. 892 00:53:56,000 --> 00:53:59,120 And my friends, just to understand the people I know 893 00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:03,880 around the world. Teresa and I had the privilege a 894 00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:09,200 few years ago of being in Istanbul, Turkey, and I should 895 00:54:09,200 --> 00:54:12,760 have brought it in here. I have it in my office and and 896 00:54:12,760 --> 00:54:20,440 being there when the Iranian Bible Society, which operates in 897 00:54:20,480 --> 00:54:25,480 diaspora, in other words, they are not allowed to exist inside 898 00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:31,120 the nation of Iran right now. Now, I was talking to Combes 899 00:54:31,120 --> 00:54:35,920 today, who has internal insights into the protests happening in 900 00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:40,920 Iran, and there's a hope and a belief that this protest is 901 00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:43,240 going to actually come to some fruition. 902 00:54:44,600 --> 00:54:48,800 His plan is to move back to Iran as soon as possible and start a 903 00:54:48,800 --> 00:54:53,520 seminary there. But the Iranian or Persian Bible 904 00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:57,440 Society operates in diaspora. Dear friends of mine, Monsieur 905 00:54:57,440 --> 00:55:00,120 and his wife are the leaders of this Bible Society. 906 00:55:01,160 --> 00:55:05,480 And Teresa and I were actually there in Istanbul with people 907 00:55:05,480 --> 00:55:09,760 from Iran and other Iranians from around the world in 908 00:55:09,760 --> 00:55:13,720 diaspora who came to Istanbul for a graduation, but also for a 909 00:55:13,720 --> 00:55:20,080 dedication of an entire Bible with a up to date brand new 910 00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:24,920 translation in Farsi of the entire Word of God that was 911 00:55:24,920 --> 00:55:30,080 being sent back into Iran in large numbers, both on hardcover 912 00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:32,560 and digital, to spread in the Iranian church. 913 00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:38,120 And to watch these people. There was a pile of them, and 914 00:55:38,120 --> 00:55:42,640 they came and laid hands on that pile of Bibles, just weeping and 915 00:55:42,640 --> 00:55:47,080 and singing and rejoicing over the fact that they could have 916 00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:50,600 one of those. And so part of what I wanted 917 00:55:50,600 --> 00:55:55,160 tonight to be was just a night of appreciation, a night of 918 00:55:55,160 --> 00:56:00,360 recognition of what a privilege we have of being able to gather 919 00:56:00,360 --> 00:56:03,360 in a place like this and study this word. 920 00:56:03,880 --> 00:56:06,440 And many of you have multiple copies of this at home. 921 00:56:07,360 --> 00:56:08,800 Many of you would have more than one. 922 00:56:09,960 --> 00:56:13,200 And that I pray a day didn't go by that you don't take it. 923 00:56:13,720 --> 00:56:16,200 Go listen to those podcasts. How do I study this? 924 00:56:16,200 --> 00:56:17,760 How do I get the most out of this? 925 00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:20,760 How do I, how do I have the richest, deepest personal Bible 926 00:56:20,760 --> 00:56:23,160 study in my life? How do I, how do I make this 927 00:56:23,160 --> 00:56:26,640 book written over thousands of years by all these different 928 00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:29,400 people from all these different places with all these different 929 00:56:29,400 --> 00:56:32,720 languages? How God was the binding, the 930 00:56:32,720 --> 00:56:37,320 unifier, the inspirer, the one that brings all that together so 931 00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:41,640 they can still change somebody today and change somebody's life 932 00:56:41,640 --> 00:56:45,080 tomorrow. I hope that you appreciate the 933 00:56:45,080 --> 00:56:47,920 fact that when I stand up in that place on Sunday mornings 934 00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:52,360 that my prayer is real simple. Teresa hears me pray this 935 00:56:52,360 --> 00:56:55,520 sometimes, that you all hear what you're supposed to hear 936 00:56:55,520 --> 00:57:00,080 from Him, not necessarily anything from me, because it's 937 00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:05,840 His word that will change you. It's His Word that will grow you 938 00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:07,920 and his word that'll convict you. 939 00:57:08,600 --> 00:57:10,440 So I hope we have a deep appreciation of it. 940 00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:13,240 And I, I look forward to these days ahead. 941 00:57:13,240 --> 00:57:15,800 It's going to be a great study. It's going to be some different 942 00:57:15,800 --> 00:57:17,320 things than you've probably ever seen before. 943 00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:20,920 We're going to dive deeply into some hermeneutical study and I'm 944 00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:22,960 going to help you with that. Don't let that word scare you. 945 00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:24,760 It's just how do I best study the Bible? 946 00:57:25,080 --> 00:57:26,280 OK, That's what we're going to do. 947 00:57:26,280 --> 00:57:28,600 How do I engage in it? So I just want to pray. 948 00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:31,120 I want to thank the Lord for his word. 949 00:57:31,120 --> 00:57:36,320 I want to spend a few minutes in prayer about that and then we'll 950 00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:39,880 close out. Father, I'm so thankful. 951 00:57:41,720 --> 00:57:43,720 Father, thank you for the folks who've come tonight. 952 00:57:44,640 --> 00:57:48,160 Thank you, Father, for the Bible. 953 00:57:49,960 --> 00:57:53,960 Father, it's an amazing thing how you wanted to preserve your 954 00:57:53,960 --> 00:58:00,280 revelation to us. Father, you reveal to us that 955 00:58:00,840 --> 00:58:03,080 about which you that we need to know. 956 00:58:05,800 --> 00:58:08,720 And Father, you want us to be able to remember what you reveal 957 00:58:08,720 --> 00:58:13,360 to us. And so thank you for inspiring 958 00:58:15,120 --> 00:58:21,200 these these writers over the years to record your inspired, 959 00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:24,040 perfect, infallible, and errant word. 960 00:58:25,600 --> 00:58:28,720 And that, Father, because of your miracle and the way you 961 00:58:28,720 --> 00:58:31,560 guided that process, I don't have to worry about whether it's 962 00:58:31,560 --> 00:58:32,840 accurate. I don't have to worry about 963 00:58:32,840 --> 00:58:37,160 whether they're errors or not because Father, you guided the 964 00:58:37,160 --> 00:58:39,960 process. So the Father, I believe in that 965 00:58:39,960 --> 00:58:42,760 and I believe in you and I believe in your word. 966 00:58:44,640 --> 00:58:48,720 And so, Father, help me to cherish your word. 967 00:58:48,720 --> 00:58:52,040 Help me to cherish the privilege of reading the Bible in an 968 00:58:52,040 --> 00:58:57,720 easily understood language. Use that word to convict me and 969 00:58:57,720 --> 00:59:02,960 change me, to teach me, to convict me. 970 00:59:04,240 --> 00:59:08,560 Help me, Father, to expose others to that word because it 971 00:59:08,560 --> 00:59:12,960 has the power to change lives. And Father, forgive me, Father, 972 00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:15,880 when I take it for granted or I take it lightly, or I take it 973 00:59:15,880 --> 00:59:19,040 flippantly. And Father, I pray that this 974 00:59:19,040 --> 00:59:21,000 will be the authority in my life. 975 00:59:21,760 --> 00:59:24,080 Father, I thank you for the conversations, even in the 976 00:59:24,080 --> 00:59:29,360 doctoral seminars this week about the authority that we have 977 00:59:29,360 --> 00:59:33,760 to have in our lives and that the only trustworthy authority 978 00:59:33,760 --> 00:59:37,520 is this one. The world's going to throw so 979 00:59:37,520 --> 00:59:43,320 many others at us, Father, And by faith, by your grace, Father, 980 00:59:43,320 --> 00:59:46,840 we have to recognize that this is the only source of authority 981 00:59:46,840 --> 00:59:51,200 upon which I can depend. And so, Father, I just want to 982 00:59:51,200 --> 00:59:54,360 say thank you. Thank you for your word. 983 00:59:54,360 --> 00:59:58,160 Thank you for entrusting it to us to share with others. 984 00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:01,360 So I pray that we'll be faithful studiers. 985 01:00:01,880 --> 01:00:04,360 I pray that we'll be faithful sharers and teachers. 986 01:00:05,480 --> 01:00:08,640 Thank you, Father, for the way that you've used your Word to 987 01:00:08,640 --> 01:00:10,640 change my life and the life of others. 988 01:00:11,440 --> 01:00:16,960 And Father, we just pray, Lord, that as a church, that Father, 989 01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:20,720 we will be a people of the Word and we'll depend upon it to 990 01:00:20,720 --> 01:00:23,640 guide us. So, Father, thank you for the 991 01:00:23,640 --> 01:00:25,240 opportunity of being here tonight. 992 01:00:25,240 --> 01:00:28,040 I do, Father, continue to lift up those who are not feeling 993 01:00:28,040 --> 01:00:30,480 well and those who've suffered loss who could not be here 994 01:00:30,480 --> 01:00:33,080 tonight. Father, I look forward to the 995 01:00:33,080 --> 01:00:36,840 gathering on Sunday that we might honor you and worship you. 996 01:00:37,520 --> 01:00:40,520 And Father, in the meantime, we do lift up our friends overseas. 997 01:00:41,480 --> 01:00:43,560 The Father, you would work in a miraculous way. 998 01:00:45,120 --> 01:00:48,400 And Lord, we look forward to giving you the glory for that. 999 01:00:49,080 --> 01:00:51,960 So, Father, guide us, protect us, be with us the rest of the 1000 01:00:51,960 --> 01:00:56,480 night in Christ's name, Amen. Thank you all. 1001 01:00:56,480 --> 01:01:02,120 God bless you all. Thank you so much for listening 1002 01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:03,840 today, and I also hope that you'll go to 1003 01:01:03,840 --> 01:01:07,640 ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com as well as our app and find many 1004 01:01:07,640 --> 01:01:10,000 other resources that will bless you and your families. 1005 01:01:10,160 --> 01:01:11,200 Thank you once again.