Insights into the Doctrine of Scripture from the Old Testament - part 2

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Welcome to The Dividing Line. I'm Dan Cofessi, one of the co -pastors at Sovereign Grace Bible Church.

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Rich has grilled me to say a few more things up front here. We're blessed to be located as a church in West Central Phoenix, and we're blessed to have about every demographic—the range of about every demographic is in our congregation—economic, ethnic, and age.

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So we've got a couple newborns all the way up to octarians, and it's a blessing to see how

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God cuts across all the man -made distinctions that we're so prone to make with the gospel, and so it's a blessing to be able to minister here at Sovereign Grace Bible Church in West Phoenix.

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So I don't know what else to say. So last week we were considering insights in the doctrine of Scripture from the

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Old Testament, and my goal in these two sessions is not to present a reasoned defense of a conservative view of Scripture, but my goal is to familiarize you with the

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Old Testament's teaching regarding the doctrine of Scripture. We can't be too familiar with understanding how the

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Word of God refers to itself, and so we've just been marching through quite a few subjects about how the

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Lord can put his Word into the mouths of the prophets, and the

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Lord reasons with Moses who has made man's mouth. And of course, the point there is the

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Lord has created human speech and human expression, and words are the vehicle of communicating our thoughts and our minds.

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And we believe the Scripture teaches that we can know the mind of God through the vehicle of human language.

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We can't know his mind exhaustively, of course, but what he chooses to reveal we can know truthfully and accurately, and there's no doctrine more important for the church than this doctrine.

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And I'd like to review a little bit with Psalm 94, verses 8 -12.

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The figures the Lord uses in this psalm help us understand the doctrine of Scripture, and it's a reproof of Israel about how their unbelief has taken over regarding whether God can talk to them or not.

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Understand you senseless—I'm in Psalm 94, verse 8—understand you senseless among the people—let's get rid of the word tips—understand you senseless among the people, and you fools, when will you be wise?

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And what are they not wise about? He who planted the ear shall he not hear, he who formed the eye shall he not see.

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Well, obviously, if you're half awake, someone who can create the ear with the sense of hearing probably can hear himself, and somebody that can create the human eye and observe and be conscious of what's going on probably can be conscious himself of what's going on.

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The questions continue. He who instructs the nations shall he not correct. And here's a key phrase, he who teaches man knowledge.

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That's a simple expression, but that tells us that God communicates and teaches humanity knowledge.

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This is an epistemological statement. We can know true knowledge because God is humanity's teacher, and so he who teaches knowledge.

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Now, the argument can be extended, he who created the mouth, can he not speak?

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The text doesn't say that, but I believe the text very logically implies that by the fact that the

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God who created the ear and the eye and the God who teaches man knowledge does that through his speech, his words.

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The Lord knows the thoughts of man that they are futile. We have to condition that.

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When man thinks autonomously, his thoughts become futile.

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When he professes himself wise, he becomes a fool.

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But when his mind is informed by God's revelation, that is the only way for his thoughts not to end up in futility.

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Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law.

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And so that statement brings us down to two things. It brings us to words, because when the

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Lord refers to his law, we know he's referring to his written law, and that written law is constructed out of words, out of human speech.

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And that vehicle is more than adequate for God to teach humanity knowledge.

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And this is the issue underlying every other issue—whether the mind of God can be accurately and faithfully understood and communicated to the mind of man via the vehicle of human speech.

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And Scripture asserts that from Genesis to Revelation. So we looked at some of that last week, and let's go on here today.

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And what we're going to do today is discuss the preservation of God's speech and his

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Word. Believers should not be ignorant of the process that the Lord has used to preserve his

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Word. Unbelievers, some of them very skilled, point out there's a big step between God being in the mouth of the prophets then, and us knowing what he said now.

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And this gets into the whole issue of the preservation of this revelation of the mind of God through the words of his prophets.

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Some have agreed with the skeptics and say the way to solve this problem is the

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Lord has sent new prophets. And the church has always been plagued with this idea that, yeah,

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God spoke way back there, and he put his words into their mouths, and he wrote them on a scroll that Ezekiel ate, but we've lost them.

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They haven't been preserved. And the solution now is to send new prophets, and that is not the solution.

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That is to go astray from the doctrine of Scripture, from what the original prophets themselves said.

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So we're going to look at that today, and before we look at the Scripture statements, there is a logically valid answer to this charge.

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If God was able to breathe out his words and have them written down then, in the past, with the intention that all following generations would hear them, then it is reasonable to believe that he preserved his words for the purpose he intended.

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When he gave them. And when we look at the Old Testament, we know he breathed out his words, and we know from the beginning his intention was those words were for every generation which followed.

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And it's not a stretch to believe that he is capable to preserve his words to accomplish what he intended when he first gave them.

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That would be a logical argument, which I believe is solid based on the premises that I've mentioned.

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But let's see how Scripture teaches this doctrine, and what we're going to do is we're going to march really fast all the way through Scripture and glance at those statements dealing with inscripturation, meaning putting the words spoken into writing.

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And Genesis 5 -1 is the first record of the process of inscripturation.

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This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God, and in chapter 5 gives the genealogy of Adam, and this term book or sephir in Hebrew means not necessarily a book like we would think today, a codex or completed book, but the center concept of this

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Hebrew term is put it in writing. Whatever you write, that's the idea.

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Human language can be transferred to writing, and that's what this word means.

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And so here is our first statement about inscripturation. Exodus 17, verse 14,

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Then the Lord said to Moses, Write this for a memorial in the book, and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

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So here we have a command to write, and the issue here is it's the record of the curse that Yahweh issues against the

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Amalekites for attacking Israel when they left Egypt.

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The pledge is to be kept in writing from generation to generation.

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So here is the intent to preserve for future generations, and the way this is going to be done is

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Yahweh commanding Moses to write certain things down. Exodus 24, 4 -7, begins with Moses wrote all the words of the

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Lord, and what he's referring to there is everything he had received earlier when he was on the mountain.

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He wrote all the words, and notice the all that comes into these discussions, all the words of the

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Lord, and he read from the book in the hearing of the people.

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And so the people, even at this early stage, are receiving the words of God by a person reading what is inscripturated.

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They haven't left Sinai yet, and they are already receiving the mind of God by the written word of God before they depart from Sinai.

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So obviously, there's no oral transmission of the text involved here from this point forward.

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The text is inscripturated, and anybody can read it anytime that has access to it.

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And the second time Moses brings the mind of God, or the first time he brings the mind of God to these people, he's already reading from an inscripturated text of everything that was revealed to him on the mountain.

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And that's going to be the pattern through the rest of the Old Testament with God inscripturating

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His Word. And just think this, too—there's no oral transmission of this text.

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The issue of oral transmission is predominantly a New Testament issue, not an

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Old Testament issue, because the Word is inscripturated immediately or early in the lifetime of the own prophet.

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Well, especially for the law, it's inscripturated almost immediately. So, let's see, let's keep going.

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We're going to have to go faster. Exodus 24, 24 -12, let's take a look at this.

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Then the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain, and be there, and I will give you tablets of stone, the law and the commandments which

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I have written, that you may teach them. Again, the

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Decalogue is inscripturated by God Himself with the finger of God.

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So, let's see, let's go to move forward now to Numbers 21 -14.

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We have this reference therefore it is said in the book

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Sefer—same term, meaning written article, written scroll, written something—it is said in the book of the wars of the

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Lord, Wahab and Suphah, the brooks of Aaron. And there's a quote here at this point in Numbers, and there's reference to a document called the

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Book of the Wars of the Lord. So, they are recording history, they are inscripturating things, and the author to Numbers is using this inscripturated source called the

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Book of the Wars of the Lord. Numbers 33—we don't need to turn to the text, but Numbers 33, 1 -2, records the journeys of the children of Israel who went out of Egypt.

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The record has been preserved because, quote, Moses wrote them down at the command of the

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Lord. And here the point again is, is the Lord is constantly telling

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Moses, write this down, write this down. And what we see the

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Lord is going to do with this is he's preserving it for every generation forward.

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So, the Lord communicated what was to be inscripturated, and again, there's no oral tradition necessary here for this to go forward historically.

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Now, we by no means have all that the Lord has spoken to Israel through the prophets or through Moses, but we can be confident that what has been preserved for us is what the

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Lord intended to preserve. And we're going to see that even played out in the production of the

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Gospels, that idea. Now Israel, or anyone for that matter, will never be able to justly accuse the

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Lord of not having provided a sufficient source of knowledge for the level of accountability to which he holds them.

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And I said this last week, the idea that the Scriptures are clear and God is just in dealing with humanity go together.

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You cannot preserve the idea that God is just in humanity if God has not preserved and communicated to humanity a clear revelation that holds them accountable.

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And this is all happening on a smaller scale with the nation of Israel herself.

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Let's see, Deuteronomy 6.

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Let's look at this text. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 6.

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And here the second generation is being instructed. We've moved forward now.

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We're entering the promised land. This is a whole new generation except for Joshua, Moses, and Caleb.

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And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. And notice the emphasis, these words that I command you today.

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And what Moses is doing is he's reading from the written, the book of the law, or the book of the covenant.

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These words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit down in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

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You shall bind them as a sign on your head. Obviously, that implies writing them.

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And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

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So the intention here is this written Scripture is disseminated among all the people.

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They are to have access to this written Scripture, and they are to memorize it, they are to write it, they are to write it wherever they can write it.

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So all of them in their own households have accessibility to the Word of God written.

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And the pattern for most of the people of God is not to receive the revelation from a prophet.

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Even at this period of time, the majority of the covenant people do not receive the revelation from a prophet.

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They receive the revelation from the inscripturated Word of God. That's not new.

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That's all the way from the beginning. So let's continue here.

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Deuteronomy 17 is an interesting text about inscripturating.

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It's the law of the king, which is not applicable yet because the

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Lord is the king. But in Deuteronomy 17, 18, the

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Lord is anticipating the future when Israel will change from judges to kings, and so Deuteronomy 17 has this passage we call the law of the king.

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Also it shall be when he, the king, sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself—now look at this—a copy of this law in a book.

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Now this is instruction being given to Moses. Moses is still on the scene. Moses is completing the book of the law, and part of the instruction is when we get to the theocracy with a human king, that king is responsible to have an entire copy of the book of the law made for him.

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For a copy before—okay, he shall—he himself—just read the text—for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the priests and the

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Levites, and it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life.

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He needs no prophetic revelation to know the law of God. None.

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He has a sufficient law from God for his life and for the life of Israel and to be king.

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No prophetic revelation needed. He needs to go over to the temple, and he needs to talk to the priest, and he needs to order them to produce an entire copy written.

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Obviously, that was God's intent to preserve the Word. The kingship described here in Deuteronomy 17 is 400 years future.

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So the Lord is assuming the priests will have preserved the law delivered to them by Moses, and four centuries later a king can go to those priests and procure for himself a copy of the

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Mosaic law. The Lord obviously intends to providentially preserve his

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Word. From the beginning that's been his intent, and I think we can be confident that he has done so.

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We might argue over the means by which he's done that, but we shouldn't be arguing over the means that that was his intent and that he has done it.

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Deuteronomy 27. They must have been carrying the law with them in order to do what they're supposed to do when they enter the land.

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You shall write on them—they would have set up these large, whitewashed stones before they enter the promised land, and they are to write all the words of this law when you have crossed over the

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Jordan, on the other side of the Jordan, entering into the land, that you may enter the land which the

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Lord your God has given you, a land afloat with milk and honey. So they are to write all of this

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Word on those monuments. And so when they enter—I mean, it's a massive scene.

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I'm going off the track here, but think about it. Boy, they take the law and they whitewash all those stones, and I just hit the starship

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Enterprise. They whitewash all those stones, and they write all that law on there, and all the people walk as they enter the land.

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This law is how Yahweh is going to govern them when he gives them this land.

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You get goosebumps thinking about it. Inscripturation.

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Okay, so let's see. Deuteronomy 25, verse 58, toward the end of the life of Moses, when speaking to the

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Israelites, he is referring to all the words of this law which are written in this book.

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So let's look at that. Deuteronomy 28, 58.

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If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the

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Lord your God. So again, the only way the people can adequately fear and respect this

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God, the true God, is that they must observe and respect the words of this

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God. All of them. And that's a repeated emphasis over and over again.

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You don't pick and choose. You cannot respect this God if you pick and choose out of his written revelation.

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So that needs to sink into our generation. Now, Moses obviously constructed a book during his lifetime which he will hand over to the priest.

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No oral tradition necessary here. Moses is about to leave the scene here in Deuteronomy 28, and what does he hand over to them?

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Not another set of prophets. He hands over the inscripturated law, the book of the law.

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Deuteronomy 31, let's look at that. Verse 9 -26.

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We won't read all of that, but we'll look at something here in verse 9. I've already said this, so Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priest, the sons of Levi, who bore the

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Ark of the Covenant. People often, when they're first reading the Bible, were kind of confused—it was true of me.

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You know, we get the idea that it's the prophets that are always speaking the Word of God to the people.

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That's historically not valid. Day in, day out, year in, year out, the priests were to teach the mind of God and the

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Word of God to the people. The prophets were exceptional occasions, and you see that right here.

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He delivers it to the priest, and they are the ones to be the instructor in the law, and that's what repeatedly failed in Israel's history.

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And after the return from the Babylonian captivity,

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Ezra—we almost see the perfect priest in Ezra. He is a teaching priest, and he gathers the people together as the teaching priest, and he instructs them repeatedly out of the written law.

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And the Lord has established all this through Moses. And so, again, this is all on God preserving

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His Word. So, I said what's on my own notes there.

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For future generations, they will hear His Word through what has been inscripturated.

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Yes. Okay. So, the Lord considers these human words given by Him through Moses, preserved in writing, to be

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His Word to all future generations. So, it was

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His intent not only to give His words but to preserve them.

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And I didn't read the all -generations text, but you read Deuteronomy 31, and you'll see the

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Lord says, for the next generation and for the future generation. So, it's

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His intent from the very beginning to preserve His written Word. So, that's our logical argument up front there.

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Okay, so we've reached the end of the Pentateuch, so we're going to go forward now. We want to now look at the period post -Pentateuch in regard to preservation of the

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Scripture. Following the Pentateuch, we have the former prophets, meaning Joshua through 2

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Kings. The Jews refer to those books as the former prophets. And a case can be made that the lesser -known prophets preserved these records.

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We don't know the authors of those books. There's no names of the authors of those books. But we know during the time of Elisha and Elijah, there were a significant number of prophets—unnamed, faithful prophets.

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Jezebel killed like 50 % of them, and under periods of religious persecution, these prophets had to run for their lives.

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They had to protect their own lives. And it's possible that this guild of prophets are responsible for the production of the former prophets, and the

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Jews refer to those books those ways. Now, when we get to Joshua 1, verse 8, post -Pentateuch, and we're in the book of Joshua now, this is an extremely important statement and transition point here.

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1. As the Lord commands Joshua, and this is what he tells

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Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it all day and night, that you may observe to do all that is written in it.

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And so here the Lord himself sanctions the written word produced during Moses' era.

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And I hope you see that point. Joshua doesn't need to be a redactor.

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Joshua doesn't need to edit the book. He doesn't need to expand the book. Joshua needs to meditate and lead the people to observe all that is written in this book.

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And so, the Lord sanctions the written production of Moses when he speaks to Joshua.

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So, all right.

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Again, the Lord instructs Joshua that they must not pick and choose as to what to observe that is written in this document, there to do all that's written into it.

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Next point, Joshua and the people need no new revelation regarding the law.

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Now, the Lord will give them providential revelation to guide them by prophets.

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When they go on the land and they have to conquer their enemies and they should inquire of the

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Lord, sure, the Lord is going to providentially protect them by giving them supernatural revelation to conquer the land and so forth.

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But here's the point. They need no new revelation regarding the law.

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The law is complete and sufficient for this period of redemptive history.

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Obeying it, trusting in the promises that are in it, and seeking

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God's will from it will result in them being greatly blessed.

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So, it is sufficient at this point in time for them.

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Joshua 8 is a new generation. Joshua lived across a couple of generations.

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Again, Joshua 8 .31, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no eye…okay, and so forth.

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And they offered it, and they made these offerings. It's commanded in the book of the law.

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It's written in the book of the law. Now, this is to the next generation. Again, Joshua 10, verse 13.

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We know other writings were being produced. This is interesting. Let's take a look at this.

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Joshua 10 .31. Maybe it's 8 .35.

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Let me go back here. 10 .13.

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Joshua 10 .13. All right, I transposed the numbers there.

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Joshua 10 .13.

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So, this is during Joshua's famous battle where the sun stood still, however we understand that, and we can argue about that.

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The sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge upon their enemies.

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Is this not written in the book of Jasher, and so forth? But this reference tells us that there's historical documentation in writing that's been going on, and there's two references to the book of Jasher in the

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Old Testament. And the Old Testament authors use sources, and there's no problem with that.

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The only reason I'm bringing this up is there was more data, there was more history, there was more poetry being written down than what we have in our canonical books of the

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Old Testament. We have extra -biblical historical data, which the authors of the

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Old Testament themselves at times used and referenced and depended upon.

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And we should know that. We should understand those things as well as the critics.

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So, Joshua 23 .6, a new generation here.

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Therefore be very courageous to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses.

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It's the same message, all that is written, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, and lest you go among nations.

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So, the people are the people of the book from the beginning, which the book contains the written words of God, the written speech of God.

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Let's see, let's keep going here. 1 Samuel, there are two statements having to do with written sources in 1

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Samuel. 1 Samuel 10 .25, when we're transitioning to Saul, we're transitioning to kingship, and the reference there is somewhat enigmatic.

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Then Samuel explained to the people the behavior of royalty and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the

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Lord, and Samuel sent all the people away, and so forth. And so, this book explaining the way of royalty is laid up before the

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Lord. We don't know if that is an extra -biblical document or if the contents of what he wrote at this period is preserved in the record in 1 and 2

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Samuel. That we don't know. 2

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Samuel 1 .17 refers to the book of Jasser again.

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Much later now, we're in the time of David, so we're going from Joshua to David.

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And this book of Jasser is something that exists from the time of Joshua and to the time of David, or at least from the time when the book of Joshua was written, if you want to make a chronological gap between when

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Joshua was written and so forth. But so here we have it when

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David is lamenting the death of Saul, then

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David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son, and he told them to teach the children of Judah the song of the bow.

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Indeed, it is written in the book of Jasser. So, it's probably a tune.

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It's probably a melody or a tune, and David himself gives the words to the song here in order to lament

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Saul's death. So, the former prophets of 1 and 2

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Kings use historical sources. The records of the kings of Israel and Judah.

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Let's take a brief look at this, 1 Kings 16 -27, and we'll do this for both the northern and the southern kingdom.

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Now, the rest of the acts of Amorite, which he did, and the might that he showed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

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And this is not our biblical chronicles. So, if you're reading the

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Bible for the first time, newer translations translate this annals in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel, and it's a reference to the fact that in an ancient court, and both

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Israel and Judah did this, is they recorded, they chronicled all the events of the kings—when their reign began, when their reign ended, what wars they won, what wars they lost.

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And Israel and Judah, the northern and southern kingdom, were no exception to this ancient

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Near Eastern process. And so, the author who constructed the book of 1

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Kings had access, and he could even write to his audience, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

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Those historic documents, though not part of Scripture, were being preserved among the people of Israel.

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And not Israel here means northern kingdom, and the reference to the southern kingdom is in 2

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Chronicles. Now, the rest of the Acts of Jotham and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

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So, we have both kingdoms preserving the chronology and the history and the events of the reigns of their kings.

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And the author of the biblical kings is using those written sources.

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Okay, so now we can go to the latter prophets, and we can find a statement in Isaiah 30 about inscripturation in Isaiah 30.

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We'll get there, Isaiah 30.

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And here's the Lord speaking to Isaiah. It's hard just to do these without the context, but that's what we'll do.

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Now, go write it before them on a tablet and note it on a scroll that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.

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And in the context, the Lord is documenting a legal case against his covenant people.

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But notice the intention here. Write it down that it may be, what, forever and ever.

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So, we see God is inscripturating in order to preserve his

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Word out into the future. Isaiah 34 verse 16.

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This is an obscure reference to the book of the Lord, but again, it is the written

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Word of God. And the Lord's calling the people, search from the book of the

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Lord and read. Not one of these shall fail, not one shall lack her mate, for my mouth has commanded it, and his

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Spirit has gathered them. And this is kind of an obscure reference, but nevertheless, book, sephir, always means written.

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And you can look that up in the hallet, the lexicon. There's seven definitions in there of how this term sephir is used, and every one of them includes the concept of writing of human speech.

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So, let's go further. Isaiah 34.

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Hosea. Hosea is a somewhat contemporary with Isaiah, writing in parallel at the same time, a same time period as Isaiah.

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That's why we're not going to Jeremiah. We're going in historical order here. So, Hosea 8 .12.

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Let's look at that. Oh yeah, this text.

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Okay, let's read the text as it's translated here in New King James and New American Standard, which

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I believe is the correct text. And the Lord is reproving Israel.

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Have I written for him the great things of my law, but they were—I'm sorry, it's not a question.

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I have written for him the great things of my law, but they were considered a strange thing.

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And that's the point. At this point in redemptive history, we're way down the road now from where we began in Deuteronomy, the

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Lord is reproving Ephraim, and part of that proof is he has written for Ephraim the great things of his law, but they were considered a strange thing to them.

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And some of the other translations here are perhaps a little clearer.

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Some of them, I think the ESV translation is unfortunate here. They put it in the term of a question, were

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I to write for him my laws by the 10 ,000th, they would be regarded as a strange thing.

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But I go with the other translations, New American Standard, though I wrote for him 10 ,000 precepts of my law, they are regarded as a strange thing.

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In other words, it's this idea how we handle the great things in the translation here.

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I'm highlighting that on… Oh, maybe you can see it. I don't know whether you can see it or not.

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The great things is actually a numerical reference. It's great things or it's 10 ,000.

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I wrote for him 10 ,000 of my law. They regarded them as a strange thing.

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And I think the point here, we've seen the history, God did that very thing. God wrote them and gave them a written law.

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In other words, this is an argument based on the doctrine we call the clarity of Scripture.

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And so they are without excuse. It's a very significant statement about Scripture in the

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Old Testament here in Hosea 8, verse 12. Jeremiah 32, this is kind of famous.

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If people don't know any other text about inscripturation in the Old Testament, many of them know this text.

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Thus speaks the Lord God of Israel saying, write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you.

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So in Jeremiah's own lifetime, the Lord commands him to write down all of the prophecies he has received.

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For behold, days are coming, says the Lord, that I will bring back from captivity my people

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Israel and Judah, says the Lord. And so when he brings back those people, he wants them to know all of this history and all of these prophecies that relate to him actually bringing them back.

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So the Lord makes sure that Jeremiah inscripturates all of this prophecy,

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Jeremiah 36. Now it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that his word came to Jeremiah from the

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Lord saying, take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations.

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From the day I spoke to you from the days of Josiah, even to this day.

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And the days of Josiah is when Jeremiah was called. So this goes all the way back to the beginning of the time that Jeremiah was called.

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It's now time to inscripturate all of this. So Nahum chapter 1, it's obvious from the introductory statement that someone put the oracle or the burden of Nahum into writing.

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And Nahum chapter 1, the burden against Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum.

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So this is Sefer again. So the vision of Nahum is inscripturated and it's preserved in the words, and that is the pattern in Scripture.

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We talked last week about revelation coming through dreams and visions, but the way

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God preserves those dreams and visions is to inscripturate them. And we see that here with Nahum's burden.

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So Ezekiel 24, verse 2, let's look at one from Ezekiel.

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Son of man, write down the name of the day, this very day, the king of Babylon started his siege against Jerusalem, this very day.

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And utter a parable to the rebellious house and say to them, thus says the Lord God, put on a pot, and so forth.

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Ezekiel is commanded to write these things down. And Ezekiel 43, we won't turn there, but that is where Ezekiel is commanded to write down all the details of the new temple.

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It's kind of like Moses on the mountain. Moses goes up on the mountain and receives detailed instructions for the construction of the temple, and the way those are preserved is in writing.

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And Ezekiel is doing the same thing regarding the new temple. We have this inscripturated description of it.

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Okay. All right.

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We're getting close as far as the period of the prophets.

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Daniel 9, verse 2, is a significant text about the preservation of Scripture.

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And Daniel is in Babylon. He's in captivity now. And he makes this statement, in the first year of his reign,

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I, Daniel—and notice this—I, Daniel, understood by the books, plural, the number of years specified by the word of the

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Lord through Jeremiah the prophet. So, one of the books is

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Jeremiah, but there's plural books. And Daniel has access to this developing

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Jewish canon, we would call it. And Daniel familiarizes himself with these books, and he's understanding from the prophet

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Jeremiah. So, we don't understand all the details of this, but obviously, the

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Jews were very good at preserving the written Scripture. Now, it makes sense because of all the emphasis beginning from Moses 4, the emphasis to write these things down for future generations.

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So, what we've seen from the time of Exodus into the period of the captivity, the

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Lord has had His Word inscripturated, and He expected His covenant people to know, trust, and obey

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Him on the basis of His written Word. That's what

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He expected, with a special emphasis on the law of Moses. Now, Romans 3, 1 -2,

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Paul sums it up. What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the prophet of circumcision?

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Much in every way, chiefly because to them were entrusted the oracles of God.

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And I understand that statement, to them were entrusted the oracles of God, is that was a responsibility to the

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Jewish people and the Jewish nation. The Lord uses Abraham and his descendants not only to bring us the

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Word of God incarnate, the Messiah, Israel brings us the

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Word of God written, and Israel is the instrument of God's revelation to humanity through the

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Messiah and through the oracles of God to which God entrusted them to Israel.

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Okay, so let's very briefly talk about this process of inscripturation and the production of the

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Gospels. We're not doing very much New Testament, but I see a connection as to this whole process of inscripturation in the

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Old Testament and the production of the canonical Gospels. And last week

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I mentioned that the highest forms of inspiration were the most normal.

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That is, the person's faculties were not suspended. God spoke to Moses face to face, and Moses witnessed the works of the

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Lord. He was not in some trance or a dream or receiving a vision.

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And so Moses had two things. He had the clear words of the

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Lord, obviously spoken in the Hebrew language so he could understand them, and the second thing that Moses had is he was a human eyewitness to the works of the

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Lord. He had those two things, the words and he was the witness.

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Keep that in mind. So all of his human faculties are brought into this.

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He hears the words of God, and as a witness with his own eyes, he sees the works of God.

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Now, the Son of God spoke to his apostles face to face, and what else did they do?

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They witnessed his works, and they wrote what they had seen and heard.

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Acts chapter 4 verse 9, we cannot cease to testify to what?

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What we have seen, just as Moses saw it, and what we have heard, not from Yahweh, we've heard it from the mouth of the

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Son of God. Those apostles are in the very position, even greater than Moses, to be the recipients of the

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Word of God. They're the witnesses, and they're receiving revelation in its highest form where all their faculties are preserved.

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I've paused because that's very significant. It's the highest form of revelation, and all their faculties are preserved.

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John 20, and let's look at these two statements from John.

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John 20 verse 30, and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe and so forth.

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So John, living with Jesus, is like Moses on the mountain.

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John beholds the glory of the Lord, verse 14.

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We have what? Beheld his glory. Moses beholds the glory of the

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Lord on the mountain, John beholds the glory of the Lord for three years, and of course the transfiguration.

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He is a witness with his faculties, and he writes a book.

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Okay, John 21 of 24.

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This is the disciple who testifies, so here's our second term.

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He is a witness. This is a disciple who testifies, and he can't be asleep to be a witness.

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He can't be in some kind of crazy trance with all his faculties somehow turned off or overtaken.

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No, he's like Moses. He has all of his faculties, and he's a real witness.

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So this is the disciple who testifies of these things and who wrote these things.

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So there we have those two things, and of course the writing is the written testimony.

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Those things come together in inscripturation—the witnessing and the writing.

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Okay, so I said it right here in our emotes. The two elements have always combined in the production of Scripture.

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We have the human element. That's where I'm trying to go. We have the human element.

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We've heard it. We've witnessed it. But there's also a divine element, and we're not trying to construct an argument here that there's no supernatural intervention in the production of Scripture.

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Absolutely not. There's a human element, which is the witnessing and the hearing the words with all my faculties, and then there's a supernatural element,

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John 14, verse 26, but the

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Helper and the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. This is the teaching of the

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Lord Jesus about apostolic inspiration. And now, however,

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Jesus is in the position of Yahweh—Yahweh with Moses, Jesus with his apostles.

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Jesus is now in the position of Yahweh, and Jesus is going to ensure that what those apostles have seen and witnessed is going to be inscripturated.

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But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, what he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

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So Jesus is overseeing this process, and so there is this human element that is not muted in the highest forms of revelation, and there is this supernatural element which, of course, preserves the human authors from error.

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This is a doctrine consistent Old and New Testament alike. One other statement,

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Luke 5, the highest form of revelation delivered in the most ordinary manner, and if you've read the

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Gospel of Luke carefully, he has a special emphasis on this. And look at this statement.

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So it was as the multitudes pressed about him, the Lord Jesus, to what?

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To hear the Word of God. And you will find that statement a number of places in the

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Gospel of Luke. Luke realized that as Jesus spoke, whatever he said, people were hearing the

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Word of God—direct revelation. They didn't all fall down and go into a frenzy.

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When Jesus spoke in human language and their faculties were functioning, those people heard the

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Word of God. And you know what? So do we.

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So do we. All right. I've lost all track of time.

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This is the one place where that's not important, which is a blessing. And on Sunday evening at Sovereign Grace Bible Church, you have this license as well.

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But this is a robust audience. I want to now switch subjects a little bit and then go somewhere else also.

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I want to talk a little bit about the unalterable nature of God's Word. As a nation of Israel progressed through history, the faithful remnant recognized

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God's faithfulness. That faithfulness was seen preeminently in Yahweh's keeping

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His Word. The former and the latter prophets repeatedly point this out.

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The idea of God's faithfulness is bound up with the intelligibility that the

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Word of God is intelligible and the faithfulness of God's Word.

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The intelligibility—I can't say it—that God's Word is intelligible is tied into the doctrine of God's faithfulness.

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If you deny the clarity of God's Word, there's no path to really know

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He's faithful. People have not thought this through.

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If you want to deny the clarity of God's revelation, then how do you know

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He's faithful? The argument in Scripture is developed over and over.

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The Lord does it this way. The Lord speaks His Word clear. Everybody can understand it.

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And as history marches forward, that Word is fulfilled.

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Therefore, God demonstrates His faithfulness to His people. You can't have one without the other.

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You can't have a mucked -up, confused, unclear Scripture and still boast about how you know

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God is faithful. You can't have it. 1

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Kings 8 .56 makes a point of this, and the people recognize this.

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It's not there. 1 Kings 8 .56. 1

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Kings is the building of the temple. I have this problem often.

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My mind always jumps over the step of loading it. I can barely read that.

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All right. It's the dedication of the temple, and they're realizing the unalterable nature of God's Word.

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And as Solomon dedicates the temple, blessed be the

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Lord God who has given rest to His people Israel according to all that He promised, there has not failed one word of all

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His good promise which He promised to His servant Moses. That's the point.

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The unalterable nature of God's Word was recognized by the people of Israel as they went forward historically, and that is going to be the experience of every faithful believer.

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When this whole story is completed, every one of us is going to make this confession that not one word of God has failed to which

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He has commanded and promised. We are going to experience this, and we do experience this in our lives already based on the unalterable nature of God's Word.

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Now think of this. The Lord Himself is willing to be judged by men on the basis of human speech,

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His words. He has given His words through Moses. He's had them written down and through His prophets.

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And what does that tell you about the adequacy of divine revelation delivered through the medium of human words?

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The Lord is willing to be judged as to whether He's faithful or not based on the word that He's inscripturated through Moses and the prophets.

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Think about that. That tells you the Lord believes those words are what

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Scriptures claim to be. They are inerrant. They are unalterable.

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And I put He's willing to be judged in quotes. Maybe you have to think about that argument.

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And then in the book of Kings, the phrase according to the word of the Lord is repeated numerous times.

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It's a theme in 1 and 2 Kings that the

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Lord always keeps His word. And you ought to read the books again and look for that phrase.

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It's multiple times in those books that God's Word is unalterable when it comes through His faithful prophets.

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And let's look just at two examples of that, 1

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Kings 13, 26. And this is the disobedient prophet who gets eaten by the lion.

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I'm glad that I'm not a prophet. Now, when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, it is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the

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Lord. Therefore, the Lord has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him according to the word of the

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Lord, which he spoke to him. That phrase, unalterable, it's according to the word of the

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Lord. And one other example from Kings spanning centuries later.

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Yeah, this is from Kings, 1 Kings, spanning all the way back to the period of the prophecy in Joshua.

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And what it is, is about the city of Jericho. And yeah, it's 1

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Kings 1634. And in his day, Hiel, Bethel, built

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Jericho. He laid its foundation with Abraham, his firstborn, and with his youngest son,

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Segub, he set up its gates. What he means is, is his sons died, one means or another, in the process of him trying to rebuild the city.

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And the author here makes this point, according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken through Joshua, the son of Nun.

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So, I'm just pointing out to you that phrase, according to the word of the Lord, multiple times in Kings, is making the point of the unalterable nature of the word of the

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Lord. And when these books were written, the authors made a point of teaching us about the unalterable nature of the word of the

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Lord. So, Daniel chapter 9, verses 11 through 13,

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Israel's history confirms the written law. I'm not going to go there in the interest of time, but when you read

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Daniel's prayer of confession, that prayer of confession is an acknowledgment that the written law was correct and that everything that was written has come upon us and has been fulfilled, the unalterable nature of the written word of the

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Lord. And so, this concept that God's word is unalterable is expressed broadly in Jesus' statements.

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You make that statement in the Olivet Discourse, and that his word will abide forever.

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Not one jot and tittle, of course, by no means will pass away from the law until all is fulfilled.

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Matthew 5, verse 18, the Scripture cannot be broken. So, we're not into the

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New Testament very much, but Jesus taught the same doctrine of Scripture that we've already seen is in the

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Old Testament. He did not deviate from that. Now, because of the faithfulness of God's word, the phrase, according to your word, becomes an expression of faith in prayer when pleading the

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Lord's promises. It's a beautiful thing that unfolds throughout the history of Israel. And so, the unalterable nature of God's word becomes a foundation of our praying and of our hope.

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And you see this now in Psalm 119 in just a few places, but you see this phrase now, my soul clings to the dust, revive me according to your word.

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And David is thinking back of the promises of God inscripturated to his people.

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That's what he's referring to. He's not referring to some wisdom or a revelation that he's received from God.

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He has the word of the Lord. He has the covenant promises. He has all of this, and he knows that God's word is unalterable, and so now this has become integral to his praying, and it ought to be integral to your praying.

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My soul melts from heaviness, strengthen me according to your word.

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It's a wonderful thing. Your mercies come also to me, Lord. What?

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Your salvation, what? According to your word. You know, if you want to be saved, there's only one way you can be saved, and that's according to the word of God.

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You can't pick and choose the method of how to be saved, but you can surely be saved according to Yahweh's word.

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So, this very phrase about the unalterable nature of God's word becomes a foundation for our faith and the exercise of our faith.

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Okay. The unalterable nature of God's word is especially seen in regard to the things spoken of and promised concerning the

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Messiah Jesus Christ. Luke 23, 37, for I tell you that Scripture must be fulfilled in me.

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That's the unalterable nature of the word, and the Lord is referring to an example here, quote, and he was numbered with the transgressors.

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So, when we look at this Old Testament, that word is unalterable about Jesus Christ, and Jesus understood that.

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The Scripture must, what was written, what was inscripturated, must be fulfilled in me.

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That's the divine intent. And when God breathes out a piece of Scripture about his

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Son, Jesus Christ, that is unalterable, and that's what

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Jesus is saying. As much as they don't want him crucified, it's going to happen.

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And he was numbered with the transgressors, quote, unquote, for what is written about me has its fulfillment, unalterable.

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And in Luke 24, 4, then he said to them, these are the words which

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I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the

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Psalms concerning me. What he did there is he used the

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Jewish division of the Old Testament canon into three portions, and he says what is written there concerning him is unalterable, and it must be fulfilled.

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I'm almost done. I'll put this up on the screen. Okay. Sow the right seed to produce a divine harvest.

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Not my idea. What is the kingdom of God like? The seed is the

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Word of God. What a travesty we are experiencing by those who are ashamed of the

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Word of God, those who are ashamed of the Old Testament, those who don't use the

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Old Testament, those who think they can preach Christ without the

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Old Testament. It is a travesty of immense proportions.

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Sow the right seed to produce a divine harvest. Jesus says the seed is the

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Word of God. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the

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Word with a noble and a good heart, keep it.

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They keep the Word and bear fruit with patience.

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Hearing the Word with a noble and a good heart begins with believing the

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Word is what from Genesis to Revelation it claims to be, an accurate revelation of the mind of God to humankind.

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God knows how to talk to us. Are we listening?

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To hear the Word of God, to hear the

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Word with a noble and a good heart begins with believing the

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Word is what from Genesis to Revelation it claims to be, an accurate revelation of the mind of God to humankind.

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God knows how to talk to us. Are we listening?

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I hope you are. And if you haven't been, I hope you begin. All right,

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I'm supposed to close by talking about myself again. You already know who

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I am. It's a blessing to be able to have this opportunity to speak about our glorious God and Savior, the