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Beloved, go ahead and turn with me, in your Bibles, to 1st
Peter chapter 4. And I actually want to begin from verse 1. I'm sorry, 2nd
Peter chapter 3, excuse me. 2nd Peter chapter 3, that was not some apocryphal writing.
Wow. 2nd Peter chapter 3. I'm going to read from verses 1 through 2 and 14 through 18.
2nd Peter chapter 3, verse 1. This now, beloved, the second letter
I am writing to you, in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the
Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. Now skip to verse 14.
Therefore, beloved, since you are looking for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and consider the patience of our
Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the
Scriptures, to their own destruction. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard, lest you, having been carried away by the error of unprincipled men, fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
Amen. So this is a powerful word from God for us today.
And there's so much here that we can focus on, but there are some things in particular that I wanted to draw our attention to.
And you'll notice that he says several times to remember, to remind us and to remind his audience of these things, and knowing this beforehand, to be on your guard, to be discerning.
So to look out for the things that he is describing to us and to his audience.
The Apostle Peter penned these words which were breathed out by God, authored by God ultimately, and recognizes that all of Paul's letters are
God -breathed Scripture as well, according to the divine wisdom given him by God.
This is divine wisdom because they are divinely written by God in his spirit.
Because Paul's letters are also equated with the rest of the
Scriptures, which at this point in time was primarily the Old Testament. The Old Testament.
Which the unstable, on the other hand, twist, distort, and misinterpret
Paul's letters, like the rest of the
Scriptures. But notice there, the
Apostle Peter is clearly identifying all of Paul's letters as if they were a unit as Scripture, and without any appeal to church councils or any other authorities outside of Christ.
In verse 2, who commissioned apostolic authority to them, right?
He says in verse 2, Remember the words spoken beforehand by the Holy Prophets and the commandment of the
Lord and Savior spoken by your Apostles, right? So there's a parallel here.
Peter calls himself an Apostle in chapter 1 of this letter and ranks the
New Testament Apostles alongside the Holy Prophets of old, who wrote down the
Old Testament Scriptures, which Peter later refers to here, right? And since Peter refers to his own writings and Paul's letters, remember in verse 1 he says, for the second time
I'm writing to you, the second letter, both of whom are
Apostles, Peter and Paul are both Apostles. It is clear from this passage that their writings are considered
Scripture just as the Old Testament writings are as well.
Not only that, beloved, but this is what a lot of people
I think miss, but both Peter's audience and enemies, both apparently understood that Paul's letters were
Scripture beforehand, right? Beforehand. Why else were they twisting and distorting
Paul's letters like they do also the rest of the Scriptures? So these unstable men, these enemies of God, were already seeing that at least the church was recognizing these as Scripture and they were untaught and unstable and distorting them accordingly.
There was already a recognition beforehand. Peter was not just announcing this to them as if it was news to them.
This was already understood even by the enemies of God and the church.
So notice also the words that Peter uses here. He is reminding his readers of things they are already aware of.
Admonishing them to remember what he is telling them here, right? He is admonishing them to remember.
Just as Paul the Apostle likewise is speaking in them of these same things.
Which Peter says in verse 16. Now I want to read from the
ESV expository commentary on this passage. It has some helpful insight for us to consider.
This wisdom, divine wisdom of Paul given to him by God, is shown in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters, right?
Peter not only knows of multiple Pauline letters, all of Paul's letters at that time like Peter says, but also expects that his recipients know of them as well.
They already know, right? By the time of this epistle, the letter of 2nd
Peter, most of Paul's letters had been written, okay? This is amazing context to be aware of.
The church was already aware of these writings. And consequently,
Paul's letters, pretty much all of Paul's letters were recognized as Scripture very early on.
Very early on. And so keep these things in mind, beloved, throughout the rest of the message today.
Very important things to consider. Now, as part of my agenda, you'll note from the sermon title, it is written one canon, two testaments.
So we're going to begin our transition here from primarily discussing the New Testament canon to then switching over to the more controversial, you might say,
Old Testament canon of Scripture. And I think we need to continue dealing with this far too neglected topic in the church.
This is just such a highly neglected subject, but it is of foundational importance for us.
Amen? Because this is our foundation. The Word of God is our first principle, our foundation.
Like we saw last Lord's Day as well. So this is an important, vitally important foundational subject for our faith.
It is the foundation for our faith. So by way of reminder,
I previously mentioned that there are three canons of Scripture. There's three canons of Scripture.
Generally speaking, there is a divine canon and a church canon.
At a higher level, there's the divine canon and the church's canon. The church canon has two canons, right?
There are two canons in the church's canon, namely the Old Testament canon and the
New Testament canon. And that is because God used different means and criteria to give each one to His people, ultimately to His church.
So there is a critical distinction that I had also mentioned that we need to always keep in mind regarding the canon of Scripture.
Because the canon of Scripture is not a human or church construct.
It exists first and foremost because God Himself, God Himself is the one who breathed out and wrote down a certain collection of books.
That's what the divine canon is. So the church's role, consequently, is to recognize and receive the books that God wrote down by God's providential means and spirit that He gives to us to do so, including the testimony of the early church during and after the apostles.
Amen? This is what I want to dive a little deeper in on today because there's so many amazing things that I've been learning and uncovering here that I'm looking forward to sharing with you all and I trust that it will bless you.
So we can and do have certainty as to what the divine canon of Scripture is.
The church's canons are without requiring any other infallible authority.
We can. We can know definitively as long as we use the means and criteria and authorities that God gave us to identify and receive the books which
He wrote down for His church, including the early church at the time of the apostles.
Okay? This is very important to understand. And I brought extra copies of the sermon notes.
So if you all want a copy, there's some more copies there which I can take a look at if you want. So much like the
Jews already had a collective understanding of what the
Old Testament was apart from any so -called infallible authority.
This is similar to what Peter shows us, right? That there was already an understanding of what the Scriptures were, even that early on.
Not in a complete sense because there were still Scriptures being written, but there was already an understanding of a
New Testament canon in the early church while the canon was still being written.
And similarly, the Jews already had a collective understanding of what the Old Testament canon was for them.
Again, apart from them having to define any so -called infallible authority to define the
Old Testament canon for them. That never happened. And you can see this because Jesus quoted it in the
Gospels to them repeatedly, demonstrated how He fulfilled it, refuted them with it, appealed to it as the highest authority, like we saw in the
Gospel of Matthew, held them accountable to it without ever debating which books were inspired or breathed out by God.
There was already a mutual understanding there. It was understood mutually. And God similarly entrusted
His apostles and prophets to write down His words, New Testament words, for the church to receive them and uphold them as the
Jews had been entrusted with the Old Testament oracles of God, like Romans 3 .2
reveals to us. But the devil tempts us from ancient times, from our first parents, both to question both to question the final authority of God's word.
Did God really say? And to depend on other false authorities that contradict, undermine, take away from, take away from, or go beyond God's word.
That always is the case. And again, because Scripture is our foundation, we see the assaults every single day from ages, from the ancient times, all the way to this time.
Scripture is one of the most attacked and undermined and assaulted doctrines and body of knowledge that God has given us.
His writings. In many ways, it's not just in, oh, well,
I deny the Bible. It's in people who claim to believe the Bible, but add to it or take away from it and still claim to speak in the name of God in the name of Christ, even.
So even two of the biggest religions, like Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
So during his most hostile encounters with the
Pharisees, with the scribes, with the devil himself, what does
Jesus ultimately appeal to? Every single time, just about. To what is written, to Scripture, rightly, logically, consistently understood, and often correcting the twisting misrepresentations of his enemies, his opponents.
Now, I need to clarify something important here as well.
The major criteria that God gave the early church to recognize and collect the
New Testament was also the Old Testament. Okay? It was also the
Old Testament, and I forgot to mention that before. It's the Old Testament, along with the 12 apostles and their prophetic associates who wrote down the
New Testament. Okay? Their miraculous ministry, and ultimately, their
God -breathed writings. So there was a conjunction of authority here with the
Old Testament, alongside with the 12 apostles and their prophetic associates as they were writing down Scripture.
So, nevertheless, many still claim that this refutes the
Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura, of Scripture alone. How could the early church practice it when they did not even have the
New Testament yet? We dealt with that before. But there's another thing. There was more than one infallible or divinely inspired authority, especially when the
Bible was still being written, which refutes the Protestant doctrine of Scripture alone as the only final infallible authority.
This is what many will say. And I just listened to a debate with James White and Roman Catholic apologist
Trent Horn, where he makes this argument. He tries to say that, well, no, you had to have, the church at one point had to have multiple authorities.
It wasn't just what was written. There was other things, like the apostles. And so they will try to sneak that in to try to prove that, therefore, we need a magisterium.
Therefore, we need a pope. Therefore, we need church traditions or councils that are also infallible and inspired by God.
But remember, beloved, none of this undermines or contradicts the first principle of Scripture alone.
None of it does. And it contradicts what the Scripture teaches because we also recognize the principle of progressive revelation, which
I've also mentioned before, right? The principle of progressive revelation is very important for us to understand here because whatever
Scriptures that had been revealed to the people of God at that specific time, even during the
Old Testament and during the early church, those written
Scriptures were the final normative authority of the church, even when the full biblical canon was not yet completed.
Even when it wasn't finished yet. This also applies to the special dispensation of the early church when the
New Testament was still being written and compiled. And I may give many examples already of that.
The Bereans submitted the oral preaching and teaching of the apostles to the Old Testament because it was written.
That was the final authority. Amen, right? That's how we can tell that what is written is permanent.
It's final. That is the supreme normative authority for us.
For all truth. That's what we need to always keep in mind.
And another important thing, very important thing that we need to consider here.
Therefore, therefore, the normative authority of the early church was ultimately the
Old Testament in conjunction with the spirit led ministry of the apostles as they were gradually expanding the same divine canon of Scripture until the apostolic writings were completed and collected as a final written permanent ultimate authority.
Right? There isn't two. There's not two authorities there. It's the same authority that's being expanded during that time.
The normative authority of the early church was ultimately the Old Testament in conjunction with the spirit led ministry of the apostles as they were gradually expanding because they were expanding the divine canon of Scripture.
The same one. There's only one canon of God. One divine canon.
We see it as two because of the dispensations of God, the covenantal dispensations of God. But there's only one divine canon until the apostolic writings were finally completed and collected as the final written permanent ultimate authority.
Right? The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Very important that we understand this.
It is the same. Okay? The same authority. But God used means to confirm and validate that the apostles themselves were actually writing
Scripture by using miracles, giving them miracles and signs and wonders so that they can show and demonstrate to the
Jews that look, this is God breathed just like the Old Testament was. If not more so authoritative.
It is just as God breathed. Theopneustos. God breathed. Breathed out by God.
So keep in mind, beloved, in the same way that Scripture and logic are not two different first principles.
Remember, they are one first principle because God, the Son, is the eternal logos of God.
He is the eternal. It doesn't just mean a word. It's much more profound than that.
He is the logic, wisdom, reason of God because the Scriptures themselves are logical.
They are logical. They do not contradict themselves. God is logical. They assume and the
Scriptures assume and teach the laws of logic all throughout. All throughout. The law of contradiction.
The most fundamental law of logic. You cannot be both a and not a at the same time and in the same sense.
That is a contradiction. And the Scriptures do not contradict. God is not the author of confusion.
And there are several passages like that. And Jesus numerous times argues logically using rigorous logical arguments to refute and confound his opponents.
Because God is the God of truth and truth is systematic and logical.
Contrary to what many might say. Pietist and people who are irrational want to undermine the faith in that way.
God is the opposite of that. Even in this letter we just read.
The apostle telling us grow in the what? In the grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. Knowledge. It is the knowledge of God that saves us.
And that sanctifies us. Beloved. So in the same way that Scripture and logic are not two but one first principle so likewise.
The apostles are not a completely separate or different normative authority than the
Old Testament. They are ultimately one in the same first principle.
Because their writings were likewise breathed out by God and authored by God himself.
Just as 2nd Timothy 3 15 through 17 says and so on. Many others. And no other writings were.
None others were. Their New Testament writings are a continuation of the
Old Testament and a completion of the one divine canon of Scripture alone.
Amen. Right. That is what the Scriptures teach us. There are not two first principles but one.
It is the same first principle of Scripture alone. We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation.
Remember the words of Irenaeus? Then from those through whom the gospel has come down to us the apostles he's referring to the apostles which they did at one time proclaim in public and at a later period by the will of God handed down to us to the early church in the
Scriptures to be the ground and pillar of our faith. The very foundation of our faith.
The ground and pillar of our faith. That beloved is a awesome expression of the
Protestant doctrine of Scripture alone. As the final normative authority. The ultimate infallible authority.
That is it. And even as early as Irenaeus around the 150's and 70's the
Christian church had this understanding. Peter's audience had this understanding.
Paul's audience had this understanding. Because they taught this same thing. This is what Jesus and the apostles taught.
This is what Jesus commissioned the apostles to teach and to write down by his spirit.
The advocate, the paraclete that we read earlier today in our worship. So there is now that being said there is yet another powerful testament to the early church recognizing and proliferating the new testament canon of Scripture.
Without any other top down hierarchy or normative authority.
Apart from any other authority. And we can get to the bottom of this with a simple question.
This blew my mind when I thought about this. Which books did the early
Christians make the most copies of? Which books did the early
Christians make the most copies of? This answer to this question beloved is a mind blowing testimony to what
God did in his providence and means and spirit through the early church. Because early
Christians copied and distributed the new testament books specifically.
The new testament books in local churches far more frequently and extensively than any other ancient text.
Than any other copies by anybody else of any other ancient text.
By far by far bar none including those that were considered canonical or authoritative in other traditions during the same period.
During the same four and five centuries of the first four and five centuries A .D. It is an astounding thing to study and to realize, to recognize.
The spirit was organically leading and guiding the early church in recognizing the new testament as a bottom up process.
Not with top down hierarchies or church councils. It was through the proliferation the abundant copying of churches distributing and sending out and distributing copies and copying the new testament books.
Specifically the new testament books. We have manuscripts manuscript counts up to the first four spanning centuries before going all the way back to the second century.
We have over 5 ,800 Greek manuscripts of the new testament today.
Over 5 ,800 and counting. The number keeps growing. We keep finding more.
Manuscripts, this doesn't mean that they're completed books or new testaments.
Some of them are parchment, some of them are fragments, some of them are individual books, some of them are more than one book, some of them are several books.
Some of them are complete books of the new testament. Some of them are complete new testaments.
But we have over 5 ,800 of them. But already in the early centuries the numbers are astonishing compared to anything else.
Anything else. Even though there were also intense periods of persecution in the early church.
And I'm going to take a quote here from a book by William Mounts. Why I trust the bible.
Bishop Brother Daniel for reminding me of this book because he mentions some very important things here in the history of the early church.
He says, persecution of the church began as early as Acts 4 when Herod executed James, the brother of John in Acts 12.
By the time of Emperor Diocletian which was in 312
AD It was illegal even to own copies of the bible.
So even back then there was already a recognizable Christian bible in existence back then.
It was illegal to own it. And they were burned along with Christians who were persecuted during that time.
Diocletian had one of the worst led one of the worst efforts of persecution against the early church.
And even though in spite of that and even though scholars suggest that potentially thousands of manuscripts were likely destroyed during these persecutions.
So we could have had thousands more that were destroyed even though that may have been the case.
The New Testament books were still copied so persistently and so abundantly so profusely by Christians that it is still the best attested ancient document ever by far.
By far. Second place barely doesn't even come close.
Second place is Homer's Iliad. And not any of the others so supposedly alleged
New Testament writings. That people earlier debated as to whether they were part of the
New Testament or not. Nothing comes close. The one book that did not get copied as much was the book of Revelation.
But even that book nevertheless still had copies and was recognized early on at first by the early church.
There was some doubts later on I think primarily by the eastern church but eventually there was a recognition that it was also scripture.
You have and I'm gonna also include Old Testament manuscripts as well because this is astounding.
These counts are astounding. Old Testament Hebrew manuscripts fragments, parchments, etc. including the
Dead Sea Scrolls and things like that. We have over 10 ,000. Over 10 ,000 of these ancient copies and so on.
New Testament Greek manuscripts like I mentioned over 5 ,800. Ancient versions of the
New Testament so ranging from Latin to Slavic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Syriac, Georgian, Gothic.
All of these other ancient versions total more than 18 ,000
I think more than 20 ,000 even. Just in other ancient versions that are not Greek copies.
It is astounding. Some of which are very old as well. Copies of the
Greek Septuagint, the Old Testament Greek Old Testament. We have 2 ,000 copies of that.
These numbers are so astounding and pale in comparison to the vast majority of all other ancient writings.
The closest one is Homer's Iliad which has 1 ,757 copies.
It doesn't even come close really to the New Testament, the Old Testament, even in the original writings.
And if you total all of that up, that's almost 30 ,000 copies of the
New Testament in various different languages and translations that are ancient. So this is mind -blowing.
This is God clearly telling us something in history compared to every other ancient document.
There's no comparison. It's astounding. It is a testimony to God's providential means.
There's other and up until recently Homer's Iliad had only 643 copies.
Up until recently more were discovered. So this is where the situation clearly we all have to face today, even those who reject
Scripture as inspired. This is nothing short of a clear testimony, you could even say miraculous, in light of the fact that there was so much heavy persecution, destroying with intentional destruction of Scripture.
All of these other writings that people tried to make Scripture in the New Testament and claims like Da Vinci Code and others who say there was no agreement about what the early church thought was
Scripture. All these other writings like the Gospel of Thomas, there's only four copies.
Only four copies that we have of the Gospel of Thomas. Only 32 of the
Epistle of Barnabas. Only four of the Didache. Only five of the Apocalypse of Peter.
Only six of the Shepherd of Hermas. There's only handfuls of these, sometimes only one of these compared to thousands upon thousands of the
New Testament and even the Old Testament manuscripts. It is astounding. And the time of these manuscripts from the original writings to these copies are as early as 75 years if not more so.
I think this might even be more because I asked a co -pilot to plot a graph for me of all this information and I suspect that it's probably less than that.
Less than 75 years. All these other writings are more than a century.
Over a hundred years between the time that it was originally written and that the copies were written.
It is incredible. Just incredible, astounding information. Truly remarkable how
God has worked in history to show us these things. I really was excited to share that with you all as I was plowing through all this information and realizing how amazing this really is that God is showing us, that God has shown us.
By the 4th century, by the 300s, we have over 20 substantially complete or nearly complete
New Testament codices. Manuscripts. Virtually complete.
That is unheard of. Unheard of, beloved. Such as the
Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus.
All of these and more. Almost complete collections of the
New Testament books. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, 2nd and 3rd centuries, the 1 and 200s, beloved, we have over 130 papyrus fragments or manuscripts of New Testament books.
Over 130 of them. And they're referred to as P1 through P137.
They are fragments, papyri, manuscripts of New Testament books.
No other ancient literary work, including Gnostic and other Christian writings, comes close to this density in the first 300 years after composition.
After they were composed. Doesn't even come close. Paul's letters alone have more early manuscripts than the entire preserved works of most classical authors.
Of most classical authors. Pretty much all classical authors. The only exception to that would be like Homer's Iliad or Aristotle's, one of Aristotle's works.
Which there are a thousand copies that we have of those. But that's just one of them. It's amazing.
Amazing what God has accomplished in history with his people. For all to see.
Even for unbelievers to see. They have this information as well. We can show them this information.
An amazing, miraculous testimony of what God has done. The canon of Scripture is truly one of the greatest, if not the greatest, testament of how
God uses his church in history to be the pillar and buttress of the truth, beloved, like 1st
Timothy 315 says. And sadly, Romanist and Eastern Orthodox try to twist and distort this verse to make it about the church being the truth or infallible.
No. The truth, the church is the pillar and support of the truth.
It's not because it is the truth or because it is infallible, but because God gave them the Scriptures to uphold and to teach, to command all, to disciple and to command them to observe everything that Christ has commanded us.
It's part of the Great Commission for us to teach and believe and apply the
Scriptures themselves. Now, furthermore, the canon of Scripture is a major, major reason why we cannot neglect church history, beloved.
We cannot be negligent of church history. It is indispensable for us to understand the principles that Scripture teaches about Scripture itself and about how
God used the early church to compile the New Testament canon. This is incredible information that it would be foolish of us to ignore.
This helps us to understand how God providentially worked beyond the New Testament onto the early church and onward.
And to answer the objections to and opponents of Scripture alone.
Which as, if you turn back with me to 1 Peter chapter 3, in the first letter of Peter, chapter 3, verse 15, we will see the apologetic directive that Paul, breathed out by God in his letter, gives to us, verse 15, where he says, but sanctify
Christ as Lord in your hearts, always, always ready, always being ready to make a defense and apologetic to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and fear.
Having a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
We should always be ready, beloved, to answer these opponents and attacks and objections to the doctrine of Scripture alone that we hold to.
Because they are everywhere. They are everywhere. And contrary to what the popular opinion is that nothing is written like that Mission Impossible movie, everything is written in the sense that God has predetermined everything.
And he has also predetermined his church to have the Old and New Testaments preserved.
Not just recognized, but preserved for all this time through the abundance of copies, the amazing abundance of copies.
It is astounding, astounding information to take in, beloved.
So we've seen how the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches claim that Protestants require a supplementary infallible tradition outside of Scripture because, according to them, there is no other way to know what the canon of Scripture is.
Oh, how bad that argument looks even more now. But in reality, in reality, the very opposite is true.
The very opposite is true. In addition to what I already said, what we already saw about the abundance of New Testament manuscripts.
In addition to that, the early church's collection of the
New Testament canon is evidence of the supreme authority of Scripture itself, above all else.
Above all else. Because the church had to make a distinction between the authoritative apostolic tradition and all other church traditions.
And she distinguished and identified the apostolic tradition that was written down to be the exclusive canon of the
New Testament. They had to distinguish it from other writings, including Gnostic Gospels and other
Christian writings, which were not necessarily Gnostic, like the Shepherd of Hermas or the Didache, so on.
They had to distinguish them apart from all those other writings.
There's a good quote here by J .B. Torrance, which I got from Keith Matheson's book,
The Shape of Sola Scriptura. He says this, Torrance says this, the canon means that the ecclesiastical or church tradition, however important and necessary, is nevertheless subordinate to and not coordinate with Holy Scripture.
In other words, the church thought it necessary to gather the divinely inspired books into a single collection.
The very act of doing this testified to the supreme authority of the writings themselves, because it required distinguishing the sacred scriptures from all other
Christian writings and traditions. Because only what was breathed out by God had that apostolic prophetic authority.
What was written by God himself, and that was the criteria they used.
It was the apostolic authorship and authenticity and authority. Did it come from one of the apostles?
Was it written by one of the apostles or one of their prophetic associates? That is it, beloved.
The early church herself clearly distinguished this by identifying the scriptures as special, as distinct, separate from and above ultimately all other writings.
Because no other writings are God -breathed. No others. And further still, recall how the apostle
Peter mentions unstable men, these unstable men who twist Paul's letters like they do the rest of scripture, right?
Back in 2 Peter 3, 15 through 16, where he says,
And consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved brother
Paul, according to the divine wisdom given to him by God, wrote to you as well as also in all his letters, all of them, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the scriptures, the
Old Testament scriptures, to their own destruction. This, beloved, reveals to us that no special event, no other extraordinary circumstance, no church council was necessary for Peter to recognize that all of Paul's letters, all of them, were breathed out by God, just like the rest of the
Old Testament scriptures. God simply commissioned his apostles to write down the
New Testament and hand it down to Irenaeus, and hand it down to Irenaeus.
I mean, I'm sorry, hand it down to the early church, hand it down to his church, starting with the early church and on through the preservation and abundant copying of it, which is exactly what
Irenaeus speaks to, to pass it on to the early church and for us, future generations, even millennia later, we are discovering even more now, even more copies as time goes on.
It is amazing, astounding, to see this, to witness this.
I want to clarify something here about church councils as well. Church councils are not infallible unless they were breathed out by God and were written down under the original apostolic authority.
Okay? And even those councils recorded in Scripture were subordinated to Scripture by the apostles themselves because they discussed, deduced, and applied what was written to the issues at hand.
One of the main councils of the apostles was in Acts chapter 15, the
Jerusalem council. In other words, the New Testament councils were inspired because they had
God -breathed apostolic authority and authorship behind them.
That is why they are inspired, because the apostles themselves were still writing the
New Testament down. And those councils subsequently became part of the
New Testament, right? They became the New Testament writings. That is why.
Because again, you have traditions like Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, who believe that there are these other later church councils that are inspired.
Not so. Not so, because they are not tied to apostolic authorship and authority and authenticity.
They even contradict some of the New Testament and Old Testament writings.
Now, here is another thing that just continues to blow my mind as I have been studying this.
Even if it were true that the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Church supposedly gave us the
Bible, quote unquote, as they both claim. They both claim that you had to get the
Bible from us. We gave you the Bible. And therefore, you need to rely on them as your authority, as your ultimate authority.
Nevertheless, nevertheless, even if they were true, the principle of Scripture alone would still refute them in the end.
Because it teaches us what Scripture itself teaches us to interpret. Scripture in a more logical, harmonious, consistent manner.
That does not contradict or violate or nullify the
Word of God for the sake of their extra -biblical, unbiblical traditions.
Just like Jesus rebuked the Pharisees in the same way that he rebuked the
Pharisees who had the Word of God. Who were part of the Jewish church, not church so to speak, but part of the
Jewish nation of Israel who had the divine commission of preserving the
Old Testament. In the same way, he rebukes them for nullifying
God's Word with their unbiblical, extra -biblical going beyond what is written traditions.
So even if that were true, you still compare it with Scripture, and the contradictions are glaringly there.
Glaringly obvious. Here's just one example of many that ties all of this together for us.
Both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches teach that Mary remained a perpetual virgin.
Not just before the virgin birth, but even during and after Christ's birth.
Even though the Bible teaches that Christ's birth was fully natural and that Mary had other children with Joseph after Christ.
That's the clear teaching of Scripture. The plain meaning of Scripture. So, and this is important to understand because a lot of times, many of us in Christian churches, they don't really dive into this and recognize what's going on here.
When a child is born, in Spanish, the word for midwife is partera.
There's the word part, like a parting, a parturition. And that means that there is an opening, obviously, because the child is coming out.
So, it's impossible to remain a virgin after a birth. That is why
Mary was not a perpetual virgin. Not just because of that, but because she also had children with Joseph afterwards.
The half -brothers of Jesus and sisters of Jesus. The Bible clearly teaches this.
Clearly teaches it in the Gospels and in other New Testament writings. Now, although some early church leaders believed this, some of them did believe this unfortunately.
Many of them outright rejected it as a Gnostic denial of the full human incarnation of Christ.
Because, in essence, that's what it is. If you deny that the birth of Christ was a fully human natural birth, that is denying the incarnation of Christ.
This hinges on the doctrine of the incarnation. This is a primary doctrine, beloved, a doctrine of primary importance.
And yet, this view is shared by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox.
And it also stems from an early infancy gospel known as the Proto -Evangelium of James.
The Proto -Gospel of James. Which has Gnostic influence and no one ever considered to be canonical.
No one. There is not one person in the history of the church that ever considered this to be canonical.
To be part of the New Testament. And yet, it finds its way creeping into church traditions who claim to be
Christian. I'm going to read to you from that gospel, from that Proto -Gospel, the Infancy Gospel of James.
It says this, And they, Joseph and the midwife, stood in the place of the cave.
And behold, a luminous cloud overshadowed the cave. And the midwife, her name is
Salome, said, My soul has been magnified this day, because my eyes have seen strange things.
Extraordinary things. Unnatural things, in other words. Because salvation has been brought forth to Israel.
And immediately, the cloud disappeared out of the cave. And a great light shone in the cave, so that the eyes could not bear it.
And a little, and a little, that light gradually decreased until the infant appeared.
And went and took the breast from his mother Mary. They're talking about the birth of Jesus.
This is saying that there was no delivery. There was no labor. There was no delivery of Christ's birth.
It just beamed into the outside world. By this light.
This Infancy Gospel of James is the earliest known source. I think it comes from, like, the 170s, the early second, the late second century.
The earliest known source of the perpetual virginity of Mary. And despite being condemned by Pope Innocent I in the year 405
A .D., and classified as apocryphal by the Gelasian Decree, which was another pope, around 500
A .D., it became a widely influential source for Mariology and Mariolatry, idolatrous worship of Mary.
It's astounding. This is why, this is what happens when you don't, when you abandon the first and only true principle of Scripture alone, beloved.
This is what happens. Other starts, other traditions creep in and replace the plain teaching of Scripture.
I want to quote from my good friend Tim Kaufman, who has written excellent books and articles on Roman Catholicism and church history and eschatology.
I highly commend his work to you all. His blog to you all and everything. I want to quote one of his articles.
In Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy by extension as well, Mary is not only considered a virgin at Christ's conception, as the
Scriptures plainly teach, such as Matthew 1 .23, Luke 1 .26 -34, etc.
But her physical virginity is also preserved in childbirth such that she had no pain or tearing or parting, according to them.
And her virginity is preserved thereafter in marriage, having neither marital relations with nor other children by Joseph.
And that tradition is also in the Infancy Gospel of James.
No surprise there. And instead the
Scriptures, however, Kaufman continues, the Scriptures, however, make no mention of Mary's supposedly painless birth.
It wasn't painless. It was natural. Human birth. And instead describes it in a way that is wholly incompatible with the
Roman Catholic Eastern Orthodox proto -gnostic gnostic novelties.
That Joseph knew her not intimately until she had brought forth
Jesus, like Matthew 1 .25 says, is not the language of perpetual virginity.
The Bible clearly says that they had marital intimacy after Jesus was born and other children.
And the multiple references to Jesus' brothers and sisters in Matthew 12 .47,
Mark 3 .32, Mark 6 .3, Galatians 1 .19 and on indicate plainly that Mary and Joseph enjoyed sustained and fruitful marital relations after Christ was born.
This is nonsense. And again, you find a lot of these traditions in these apocryphal
Gnostic writings that found their way back into the sacred tradition capital
T of these other traditions, churches. In other words, because Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy hold to concepts of sacred infallible so -called tradition with a capital
T that are equal to Scripture, and remember, beloved, that's not the case.
Their tradition is now above Scripture. And this proves it. One of the many proofs of that.
Their tradition has now replaced Scripture above it because they end up formulating doctrines that contradict the plain teaching and go beyond the plain teaching of Scripture with their unbiblical traditions.
So then, beloved, we as believers living long after the early church and the completion of the
New Testament, and obviously the Old Testament way before then, our sole first principle of knowing and of living, our infallible foundation for all truth, our ultimate normative authority is what is written by God himself and by none other.
Only what is written. Scripture alone. We must not go beyond what is written like the
New Testament itself clearly commands us. 1 Corinthians 4, 6, and many other places.
Like Jesus said as well, in the same way, remember, beloved, in the same way that Scripture and logic are not two different first principles but one, so likewise the apostles are not a completely separate or different normative authority than the
Old Testament. They are ultimately one in the same first principle because their writings were also breathed out and authored by God himself.
Their New Testament writings are a continuation of, a completion of, the divine canon of Scripture alone.
God has clearly demonstrated to us the church's recognition and preservation, divine preservation of the
Old and New Testaments in real history by his
Spirit working through his people for all to bear witness and see God's providence in action fulfilling what he said about the church being the pillar and support of the truth.
It is an amazing thing. Let's close out today's message, beloved, with the Gospel of John chapter 10 verse 27.
We close out with this beautiful promise and passage from the words of our Lord, Savior Christ himself.
The Gospel of John chapter 10 verses 27 -28. I love these words from our
Lord and Master, which ironically he is speaking to against his opponents and he says, you are not my sheep.
You do not hear my voice because you are not my sheep.
That itself speaks volumes as to predestination, beloved, and the written predestined, written destination of every person.
You are not my sheep. You do not hear my voice because you are not my sheep.
And he continues in verse 27. My sheep hear my voice.
They hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish ever just as his words will never perish.
Right? And no one will snatch them out of my hand. And God's people said,
Amen, beloved. Amen. Let's bow our heads with a closing word of prayer.
Our precious, gracious Lord, we thank you so much, Father, for this time of worship and of preaching of the word and of receiving your sacraments,
Lord, of your supper, your precious son's supper. We ask, Father, that you would help us to wonder and behold these things,
Lord, and to truly internalize them and digest them and be able to use them to understand just how you have providentially worked through your church by your spirit and means in preserving your precious word far above any other ancient text and document,
Lord. We thank you so much for working in history beyond the
New Testament and showing us these things, Lord, and helping us to understand by your word how to make sense of these things such that Scripture alone is our final, permanent written authority.
We thank you, Lord. We ask these things in his mighty name. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the
Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning
Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.
If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area, or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcast, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com.