Worship Service | Adult Sunday School

Good morning everyone welcome to adult Sunday school class if you're out in the hallway And you're wanting to join it all

Sunday school class come on in now and find your spot All right, let's let's begin with the word of prayer

The father we want to give our time and attention here today to the subject matter of how you have preserved your word for us

We thank you for what we have learned so far And we thank you for how you have worked in history, and it boggles our mind

It makes us to marvel and to rejoice in your goodness and providing such a rich treasure for us in your word

And we pray that you would help us today to see how that is how that is true And how that was done and as we talk about the

Apocrypha and other things related to your word We pray that you would help us to think through these issues clearly and to learn much today

We give you this time and we pray that you would help us to give you our attention as well For the glory of Christ our

Lord in whose name we pray amen All right, so we have looked at Canonicity and certain criteria or certain marks or qualities of canonical books those books which are included in the canon

And so today we're going to begin to talk about things that are related to canonicity, and we're kind of in the closing

The closing lessons on this series of God wrote a book today. We're in lesson 13 Titled the subdugent

Apocrypha Pseudepigrapha and other big words We're going to learn about those lesson 13

So without asking you to respond to this I just I'm just gonna ask for a show of hands

So I'm not asking anybody to say anything I'm not gonna put anybody on the spot But I do want to just sort of take an informal poll here of those who are with us this morning

How many of you have heard the word septuagint? Okay, how many of you think you would be confident enough in what that means to explain to me what the septuagint is

One two three, maybe four, okay, I appreciate the honesty And I'm not gonna ask those four who raised their hand.

Okay. How many of you have heard the word apocrypha? Apart from when I just prayed it in the prayer

But at the beginning of this or mentioned the title of the thing before this morning how many of you have heard the word?

apocrypha Okay, how many of you could tell me what the word means what the word refers to?

Okay, quite a few more and how many have you heard the word before this morning? Pseudepigrapha Last week last week before okay before you heard me within the last month say the word pseudepigrapha

How many of you have heard that word a? Few how many of you know what that means? Okay, a couple.

All right, very good Those are the three things that we're gonna look at starting today We're gonna

I think cover probably get through the septuagint and the apocrypha today we're gonna describe what those are and the significance of those and and today we're gonna be looking at whether or not the

Apocrypha is canonical and who views it as canonical and why it is viewed by some as canonical So let's begin with the septuagint.

That's number one They're the septuagint and that often goes by the abbreviation LXX, which is the

Roman numeral for 70 right Super Bowl 50 is Super Bowl L or large

Super Bowl LX is large extra and Super Bowl LXX is large extra extra instead of extra extra large

So LXX means 70 and you'll see why that is significant here in a moment Let me talk for a moment about the origins of the septuagint to do that.

We have to go back Almost four centuries BC to talk about the origin of the septuagint almost four centuries

BC Alexander the Great had conquered all of the then known war a world. So we're almost at 400

BC right now we're talking about that Alexander the Great had conquered all of the then known world and he established centers of learning throughout the

Empire and Greek had become the established language and the people had abandoned the use of other languages including

Hebrew and Aramaic Now the Old Testament is written in Hebrew and Aramaic almost all of it is Hebrew there are about 12 chapters of Aramaic in the

Old Testament, and so those were Semitic languages or What you would call?

Semitic is not the word Aramaic is almost like a Semitic language. So that those languages were

Popular in the the area around the land of Israel, of course the Jews spoke

Hebrew, but by 400 BC Greek had become sort of the language of the realm or the common language that everybody spoke it was quickly becoming the commercial language and as Alexander the

Great had conquered all of that region including the Israel and northern Africa and up into parts of Europe and Eastern Europe As his empire had grown the language that the

Greeks had spoken became the language that almost everybody spoke Alexander died in 323

BC and the Empire was divided up into several dynasties by his generals and the Ptolemies had gained control over the

Egypt and The Ptolemies is spelled P -T -O -L -E -M -I -E -S the Ptolemies had had gained control over the northern part of Africa and over the land of Egypt and The Jews had received a certain under the under the rule of the

Ptolemies the Jews had received certain religious and political privileges Orissonoa a

Ptolemaic ruler Started an educational program at Alexandria which included that not only the founding of a museum

But also the translation of great works of art and great works of literature Into Greek in order to store them in the museum.

He wanted Alexandria to become sort of a fountainhead of learning and education there and so part of that was

Establishing these centers of learning around Alexandria as well as establishing a museum there and he wanted

He asked and requested that there be a Greek translation of the Hebrew the Jewish Old Testament So as the

Greek language became more and more the common tongue and with the Jews spread all over the world including all the way throughout the entire

Kingdom or dynasty of Alexander the Great and what was once the Greek Dynasty there was a need to have the

Hebrew scriptures in the common language Which was Greek so during the reign of King Ptolemy Philadelphus, and he reigned from 285 to 246

BC that king asked for the Jewish scriptures to be sent to Alexandria Accompanied by scholars who would translate those scriptures into Greek so that they could be added to the museum

So he wanted a Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures to be added to that museum So everybody would have access to it and they could read the

Hebrew Old Testament in their mother tongue the Greek language So the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem complied with his request and sent a copy of the

Old Testament with 72 learned men To do the translation now as they were supposedly according to tradition or legend six from each of the twelve tribes of Israel Supposedly the copy that they sent was written in gold letters

Now some of this has obviously Been gilded up a little bit to make it to make it sound good the

Jews they like legends ancient people like legends So supposedly there were six from each of the twelve tribes and supposedly the copy they sent was written in gold letters the meaning of Septuagint means the word means according to the 70 and it's just shorthand for a reference to Those 72 men who were sent to Alexandria to translate the

Old Testament Supposedly that this these 72 men translated that Old Testament in 72 days

Now you recognize that that's quite a feat, isn't it? now if anything of what I've just said other than the golden letters if anything that I've just said

Sounds like legend that sounds like legend But according to tradition legend the 72 men did it in 72 days, which would be perfect because it would be six

Six from each of the twelve tribes and 72 would be divisible by 12 by the twelve tribes And so this that's just kind of that number stuff that some people are fascinated with and love

So when was it finished? Well, it was it started as a Greek translation of the set of the

Pentateuch and later It became the rest of the Old Testament but as it was completed the Septuagint came to be used of the entire the word

Septuagint came to be used of the Entire Greek translation of the Old Testament. Okay, so the

Septuagint is a According to the 70 the Greek translation of the entire

Old Testament. That's how it was came to be to be used We know that it was started during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus and again 285 to 246

BC We don't really know for certain when it was completed, but we do know that it was finished by 150

BC 150 years before Jesus We know that it was finished by 150 BC since it was discussed in a letter from Aristeas to Philoctetes in 130 to 100

BC so they had discussed what was at that time they referred to as the Septuagint So the latest that it was finished was 150

BC Started somewhere around 250 BC Supposedly translated in 72 days.

That's what they say All right Any questions on that before we move on a sort of the background the historical nature of how the

Septuagint came to be Eric? So the question is

Alexander as he conquered different regions different nations and cities the people in those cities would have learned

Greek Why wouldn't they've just stuck with their own language? Well, if if all of the people who are responsible for entertainment and culture and politics and the economy if they all speak one language

It's in your best interest to learn that language at least become fluent in it and so that's how if that's the official language of the of the nation then that's what that Empire is going to speak and everybody

Around you would be speaking it the troops the military and everybody else So there would be an incentive for people in those various regions to be able to speak

Greek what happens over the course of when you are in it when you would go to a region where you have to learn another language or Something happens where suddenly you have to learn a second language

It doesn't take but one or two generations for your mother tongue that you spoke to be lost entirely to your descendants

So my wife's parents for instance speak fluent low German high German both

So they're fluent in both Germans. I Didn't know there was more than one German. But no, there's not no

Angelica says nope. That's a fake news. So They speak both high and low German.

They're fluent in both of those which I understand is a dialect. It's a part of German Deidre Can hear and understand a little bit of German because she heard her parents speaking at her grandparents spoke it

But my kids don't understand anything of German So because we just haven't passed that on to them and Deidre's parents really didn't pass that on to her kids very much at all

I'm sorry. Yeah Yeah Did you parents didn't pass that on to her kids? So only took two generations for that language to be lost in that family and would happen the same way with Alexander the

Great and Conquered a city it wouldn't take long before well, everybody's speaking this So why pass this on to our kids our kids are gonna need to speak this and so they learn the new language and then before Long everybody just speaks it.

That's how that would happen All right, any other questions about that the historical origins of the

Septuagint so we talked about the Septuagint What we're talking about is the Greek translation of the Old Testament Completed at least a hundred and fifty years before the time of Jesus and the

Apostles as a result of Alexander the Great conquering the then known world now, there's a benefit to that happening by the way

You can see how God had worked in Providence Alexander the Great had conquered the then known world and brought all these people under one language

But what does that do for the knowledge of God under the Old Testament? Do you think more people spoke Greek or more people spoke

Hebrew? More people would speak Greek so the the motivation to translate the

Old Testament into the Greek language of course makes the light of the Old Testament and the and the scriptures then

Available to more people to more easily read and people began to learn that so that that is a huge benefit of what happened there with Alexander the

Great All right, let her see the Septuagint significance There are a number of things here first, it was the

Bible of Jesus and the Apostles It was used in all the synagogues of the first century So Jesus would have spoken

Greek Jesus would have spoken Hebrew and probably Aramaic most people in Palestine would have spoken

Hebrew if they had were able to read the Old Testament scriptures But the language or the Bible that they would have used would have been the

Greek translation of the Old Testament the Septuagint So what Bible did Jesus and the Apostles read? It wasn't the

King James translation, right? We can't say if it was good enough for Jesus and the Apostles good enough for me It wasn't the

King James translation that Jesus and the Apostles read or the Old Testament It was the Septuagint that was the that was the

Bible that was in the that was the scriptures that was in the common language of the day which was the Koine Greek or the common

Greek of the time so they would have been reading from the Septuagint and you see the

Apostles in the New Testament quoting sometimes Quoting from the Septuagint in their writings and speeches and sometimes we notice that the quotation is different So we've seen this in the book of Hebrews.

We're going through Hebrews. We see here is the author of Hebrews He quotes this passage from the Old Testament and yet you go and compare

That passage that he is quoting as we read it in Hebrews with the passage that he is quoting from and you will notice slight wording wording changes differences slight sight slight word order differences

Sometimes the passage moved around a little bit what accounts for that? What accounts for that is that two things sometimes the authors of the

New Testament are quoting loosely from that Old Testament Like when I'd sometimes quote from scripture

I will kind of give the sense of it and it might not be the exact Phrasing that the scriptures would use in any given translation and since I grew up reading the

King James and now I preach out of the end and the King James and then the new King James and now I Preach out the NASB and I really like the

ESB and I'm looking forward to the legacy standard Bible It's like five translations that are all kind of getting ready to roll around in my head

So then I get ready to just to quote a verse and guess what happens Yeah, there's language from the

King James there's language from the new King James and the NASB that works itself in there as Well as if I've checked the translation during the week that sometimes that language works its way in there

Well, the Apostles did the same thing when quoting from the Septuagint sometimes it was a little bit of a loose paraphrase of the

Septuagint or sometimes they quoted it or referenced it and Referred to it in such a way as to emphasize a certain part of what it was that they were quoting

Sometimes they would leave a phrase out of their quotation from the Septuagint so that accounts for the differences Now when we read our

Old Testament, what we're reading is an English translation of the Masoretic text so we're reading an

English translation of the Hebrew Old Testament Not the

Old Testament text that the Septuagint was translated from but the Masoretic text to the Hebrew Old Testament So we have an

English translation of Hebrew Old Testament when we read our New Testament. We have an English translation of a

Greek text That Greek text quotes the Septuagint which is a

Greek translation of the Old Testament So when the New Testament authors are quoting from the

Septuagint or quoting from the Old Testament they're quoting a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament and When we read it, we're reading an

English translation of the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Does that make sense? So sometimes there is a little bit of variation there

So we need to make when we read the New Testament reading a quotation from the Old Testament we just need to keep in mind

Yeah, there are some language differences there There might even be some word order differences or a different word that is used there because we're dealing with really two different Translations of the

Old Testament the meaning does not change. The meaning has not changed. They're not adding things and subtracting things It's not like things are lost in translation.

It just accounts for the word differences the translation differences Okay There's another significance for the

Septuagint and it is this that we can use it to give us a good understanding of certain Hebrew Words or phrases. This is one of the benefits of the

Septuagint We are able to take the we are able to look at the

Septuagint because we can we know Greek Okay, the Greek Hebrews have further removed ancient Hebrews a further removed language from us than is ancient

Greek We're able sometimes to read the Septuagint I shouldn't say we scholars are able to read the

Septuagint and they are able to See how it is that somebody in 150

BC Would have understood the meaning of a Hebrew word in the Old Testament so there are places in the

Old Testament where our understanding of that language that phrasing that meaning is a little bit shrouded for because of history to us the distance and We are able to go back and look at how did somebody who lived 2 ,200 years ago

Translate that passage from the Old Testament and that gives us an understanding of how Hebrew speaking people

Would have viewed the meaning of that passage from the Old Testament 2 ,200 years ago there's a there's a

Scholarly benefit to the Septuagint because it helps us to go back in time and see how did they? Understand that passage back then and their help therefore, how did they translate it into Greek and there's a benefit to that All right, any questions on that the

Septuagint may understand what it is Okay number two the

Apocrypha What is the Apocrypha? the word means hidden or concealed or secretive as Protestants we use that word the word

Apocrypha as the normal designation for those Extra books that are held to be canonical by the

Catholic Church the ether Eastern Orthodox Church And there's another branch of the Orthodox Church that also embraces the

Apocrypha as well So it's not just Roman Catholics that embrace the Apocrypha as canonical Roman Catholics would use two different terms when describing the canon of Scripture They would use the term proto canonical which means first or original canon

And then they would use the term doodle doodle row canonical, which means a secondary canon So they even recognize in their description of the canon of Scripture that you have a primary canon that which came first the

Old Testament The New Testament text then you have a doodle canonical books, which are what they embrace as canonical and in the

Apocrypha The They are made up of 14 or 15 books depending on how we number them and I'm going to explain that here in just a moment

These books were written between the book of Malachi and Matthew between the end of our Old Testament and the beginning of our

New Testament there was about 400 years time period there You had a lot going on the the conquering of the land by Alexander the

Great You had the Maccabean Revolt you had a lot of history happening there during those 400 years But we have no prophets in the

Old Testament. Nobody spoke from God from God We refer to those as the 400 silent years when God was silent. It was giving no new revelation and the book of Malachi Ends our

Old Testament the era that ends the Old Testament during which Malachi would have prophesied is the book of Ezra the book of the book of Ezra the book of Nehemiah and It's the other one

I'm thinking of You Get to the end of 2nd Chronicles and you almost get to the end of your

Old Testament Timespan and then you have prophets all the prophets who spoke during that period time spoke all the way up to the end of the book of 2nd

Chronicles So we can take all of our our major and minor prophets and we can put them back into the historical books there are a few of them that spoke after the time period of the post -exilic prophets spoke after the time period of 2nd

Chronicles But that the Old Testament timeline ends with basically 2nd Chronicles Nehemiah and Ezra Those are the books that sort of polish up that 400 year the beginning of that 400 year time those are the books that stand there is the end of Old Testament revelation and then you have during living during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah are

Malachi and Haggai those are prophets who prophesied during the during not during the lifetime, but right around the lifetime of Ezra and Nehemiah, I think as I think

Nehemiah and Malachi were both contemporaries they both ministered in Jerusalem at the same time and Nehemiah Malachi was probably the the prophet who prophesied during Nehemiah's work there on the wall

So between the end of the book of Malachi that last book of the Old Testament or the end of 2nd

Chronicles the time period The Old Testament and the coming of Jesus the arrival of John the Baptist and the book of Matthew We have about 400 years there.

These are the books of the Apocrypha. Did I have a list of these in your notes? Is there a list of them there?

The book of the two the first book of Esther is also known as third estrus the second book of estrus Okay, Tabitha the additions to the book of Esther the wisdom of Solomon Ecclesiasticus The wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach Baruch the letter of Jeremiah.

This letter is sometimes incorporated as the last chapter of Baruch So that's why when that is done the number of books is 14 instead of 15 because sometimes the letter of Jeremiah and Baruch are

Combined together the prayer of Azariah and the song of the three young men Susanna Don't you cry for me?

No That was something different Bell and the dragon the prayer of Manasseh the first book of Maccabees and the second book of Maccabees Those are the books of the

Apocrypha now to be fair I've read some of these sections from these books, but I've never read all of these books or And certainly not any of these books all the way through Let me give you the history of the

Apocrypha it has always been surrounded by controversy these books They've always been surrounded by controversy some

Christians Acknowledged the benefit early on even some Christians acknowledged the benefit of reading from them

Others used them but didn't consider them as equal with the Old Testament text This could even predates this even goes back into the early early years of Christianity that these books were surrounded by Controversy in 405

AD Pope innocent the first endorsed the Apocrypha though at that time It was still widely rejected by Christians in 600

AD another Pope excluded it So here's the Pope's speaking authoritatively right? This is scripture.

No, it's not back and forth we go finally at the Council of Trent in 1546 the Roman Catholic Church made up his mind and placed a curse upon all who would reject these books as canonical and The action of the

Catholic Church was in some sense polemical It was a reaction to Luther and the Reformation in their book from God to us

Geisler Nix Write this quote in debates with Luther the Roman Catholic Church had quoted the Maccabees in support of prayer for the dead

Luther and the Protestants following him challenged the canonicity of that book citing the

New Testament The early church fathers and the Jewish teachers for support the Council of Trent responded to Luther by canonizing the

Apocrypha close quote So in the discussion of should we be offering prayers for the dead in the debates with Luther?

the Catholics would cite the books of Maccabees and say he's see these teach that we should be praying for the dead and Luther would

Say those are not canonical books. Those should be rejected. Those are not scripture The authority is scripture and so he would point to scripture and the

Roman Catholic Church responded by saying well We will declare them to be canonical. Therefore. They are scripture and therefore we win the debate, right?

That's that's how they would think that that worked. But what do we talk about several weeks ago? The church does not confer canonicity upon books, do they?

We discover which books are canonical We don't determine which books are canonical So the fact that Roman Catholic could say that those books are canonical does that make them canonical does that make them authoritative?

Not at all The early church fathers among the early church fathers. There were some few who accepted the

Apocrypha is canonical Some of them rejected it like origin Athanasius and Melito and some quoted from it

But they never do view it as scripture. And so the question we should ask then is why do we reject these books as canonical?

Why do we not include them in the canon? And I'm going to give you one two, three, four, five six seven

Eight kind of arguments as to why we would do not regard the Apocrypha as canonical

First neither Jesus nor any New Testament writer ever quoted from the Apocrypha. Are these eight lists listed in your thing?

Okay, neither Jesus nor any New Testament writer ever quoted from the Apocrypha though They constantly quoted from the

Old Testament didn't don't they? Yeah, right No, the

Apocrypha would not be part of the Old Testament Yeah, that's right

According to the Catholic they would they would lump that in with the Old Testament books and we consider that as part of that Old Testament All right.

So neither Jesus nor any New Testament writer ever quoted from the Apocrypha though They constantly quoted from the Old Testament and this is significant

Jesus quoted from even obscure passages from the Old Testament they quoted from minor prophets and they read the

New Testament writers referenced almost every book of the Old Testament and They constantly quoted from the

Old Testament proposed and both Jesus and the Apostles had access to the Apocryphal books Jesus and the

Apostles had access they knew they existed So the fact that they did not quote it is significant because it's not as if those books were not known to exist at the time

But it is significant that neither Jesus nor any of his Apostles ever quoted from those books as if they were authoritative and There are a number of expressions in the

New Testament, which are also found in the Apocrypha But just having sharing a similarity of language or having similar expressions

It's not the same thing as quoting from the Apocrypha for instance The phrase I gathered you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings

That is also found in the Apocrypha or language similar to that What the phrase that we find in Hebrews 12 to the innumerable multitude of angels the phrase we find in Revelation 1 15

There was a voice that spoke and the sound was like the sound of many waters There's similar language in Apocryphal books But even though the

Apostles and this is significant use language that was similar to books that they would have been familiar with They'd never use that language as if quoting from the

Old Testament When Jesus and the Apostles quote from the Old Testament, there was a phrase that they would often use Is it not written?

Have you not read? The Word of the Lord said or scripture says or God has spoken that was the language that they would use

But even when using language similar to Apocryphal books Jesus and the Apostles never quoted it in authoritative sense that they might have shared similar language

They never quoted it in authoritative sense and they never referred to it as scripture They never once hinted in those uses of those phrase

Jesus and the Apostles never even once hinted at The Apocrypha being their source for that language they never once attribute to the

Apocrypha any of the thus saith the Lord or it is written kind of statements that they would use when quoting

Old Testament books and They would often name the source when quoting the Old Testament, too They would quote for instance the book of Moses They would say

Moses said or Jeremiah said or Isaiah said or David wrote and they would quote the source of those quotations

But when they used language that the Apocrypha also used they never even referenced it as the source Indicating that what they were doing in their mind was not quoting an

Old Testament text They were not quoting an authoritative text Because their way of even sharing language in those few very rare instances of language that we find in Apocryphal books

Even their way of doing so indicated that they did not view it as scripture So that's the first argument neither

Jesus nor any old. Sorry neither Jesus nor any New Testament writer ever quoted from the Apocrypha second oh

I should point out before I go on in the second one What book of the New Testament relies most heavily upon quotations from the

Old Testament and the idea which one it is? They'd be really disappointed if you don't get this Hebrews, yeah, so I had to give you that hint, right?

It's the book of Hebrews and yet the book of Hebrews does not quote the Apocrypha Indicating to the author of Hebrews did not view it as scripture

So number two Joseph and the Talmud are Josephus Josephus and the Talmud are quite clear that the books of the

Apocrypha form no part of the Old Testament Josephus shows us that the Jews of Jesus day did not consider the

Apocrypha to be scripture They recognized the same 39 books of the Bible that we recognize So you ask the

Jews the ones to whom Old Testament revelation was given which books did they? View as inspired and canonical and they would give you the same list of 39 that that we have today

They did not view the Apocrypha the Jews of Jesus day. They did not view the Apocrypha as scripture Number three the community who copied the

Dead Sea Scrolls never referred to the Apocryphal books with the phrases It is written or God says and therefore even those who lived after the time of Jesus and the

Apostles who were responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls, they clearly did not accept the Apocrypha as part of the Old Testament scriptures

Number four Philo the Jewish philosopher writing from Alexandria in 40 AD He quotes from or refers to all but five of the

Old Testament books and he never once mentions the Apocrypha So what we're seeing is a pattern that those who lived after the time of Jesus and the

Apostles and during the time of Jesus And Apostles they knew that the Apocrypha existed They were familiar with this content, but they never once quoted it or treated it as scripture not viewing it at all as canonical

Number five none of the books of the Apocrypha ever claims divine inspiration or to be of divine origin

The Jews did not recognize them as authoritative first Maccabees 927 says there was not a prophet in Israel at that time

Now if you're writing what you consider to be an inspired book and in that inspired book

You say there was not a prophet in Israel at the time that I'm writing. What are you saying? It's contradictory, isn't it? Right, so even

Maccabees the one author of the book of Maccabees says then his writing that while he was writing No prophet existed in the land of Israel at that time

Meaning that he even the person who wrote that did not view his writing as authoritative or scripture And yet we see the opposite pattern with New Testament books

Don't we claims to divine or the authorship claims of divine origin claims of divine inspiration. We've seen that over and over again

So and also the writers of the Apocrypha Apocrypha seemed to avoid any language that would cause their books to be regarded as scripture

Number six some parts of the Apocrypha contain historical errors and even contradict the teaching of the

Old Testament This is significant some parts of the Apocrypha contradict the Old Testament and they contain historical errors

For instance the prayer of Manasseh includes this statement quote you therefore Oh Lord Who is the

God of the just have not? Appointed repentance to the just to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob which have not sinned against you close quote

Okay, so does that make sense that that would be scripture a book which says Abraham Isaac and Jacob had not sinned against God that They are just and therefore they did not need to repent.

That's a direct contradiction to other Old Testament text the opening verses of Judith states that Nebuchadnezzar was the king in Nineveh instead of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar was not the king of Nineveh Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon second

Maccabees 12 claims the right and value of praying for the dead This is what the Roman Catholics would cite

Where it uses the phrase that they might be delivered from sin They pray for the dead so that they might be delivered from sin That is the thought that is contrary to the

Old Testament text and scripture the Roman Catholic Church needed to justify the practice of praying for the dead, so of course it was just easier to Canonize those book those books than it was to defeat

Luther on the terms of his argument from Scripture and Some of the books have historical value, but they also include stories that are fables with little historical value

Okay, so that's all under number six the some parts of the Apocrypha contain historical errors and even contradict the teaching of the

Old Testament number seven Nothing in the Apocrypha adds anything to our knowledge of Messianic truth

Nothing in the Apocrypha adds anything to our knowledge of Messianic truth. There is no Messianic value to the

Apocryphal books and This is something that is quite different than all of the other Old Testament texts

Isn't it the minor prophets the major prophets the historical section the lineage of David all of that all looks forward to the

Messiah But the Apocrypha it is devoid of any kind of Messianic truth Making it something of an entirely different nature than all the rest of the

Old Testament books. I It makes it something of an entirely different nature from all of the

Old Testament books number eight in 81 70 Melito who is the leader of the church at Sardis traveled to Jerusalem to assure himself of the exact limit of the

Jewish Scriptures so he went to Jerusalem to find out which books do the Jews regard as scripture and this is in 81 70

He came back to Sardis with the exception With all the books with the exception of Esther and most people believe that Esther was omitted by accident not by intention

So in summary the Jews have never regarded the Apocrypha as inspired Jesus never regarded the

Apocrypha as inspired the Apostles did not regard the Apocrypha as inspired It has never called scripture.

It has never quoted as scripture. It does not read like scripture It adds nothing to the spiritual value of the

Old Testament and there is nothing or little value in it that is found in the Apocrypha that is not exceeded by the

Old Testament text itself and The church as a whole has never embraced the

Apocrypha as canonical now you may say But the entire Catholic Church has so that's however hundred million of people have a hundred millions of people that do embrace it as canonical

But why do they embrace it as canonical? And when did they embrace it as canonical the Catholic Church didn't embrace that as canonical until 15 centuries into the game

Well, that's a little late to change horses at that point in the stream, isn't it? And so the early church

Jesus and the Apostles and the bulk of Christianity has never embraced the Apocrypha as canonical

All right, any questions on any of those arguments or what we're talking about, right? What do we know about the authors of these books?

I can't answer that myself Because I have never studied any of them in any

I've read parts of them But I don't even know who what the claim to authorship is regarding those books Were they originally written in Hebrew Probably written in Hebrew Sorry, yes originally written in Hebrew the the

Septuagint contained later versions of the Septuagint contained Greek translations of the Apocrypha Yes Yep, for those of you didn't hear she was just commenting on the courage that it would have taken for Luther to stand against the

Pope in the spirit of his age Yes, Ken That's a good question does the the writers of the

Dead Sea Scrolls don't comment on it Does that mean there's some elements of it in the Dead Sea Scroll I can't answer that Specifically I would if you remember back from the lesson of Dead Sea Scrolls the

Dead Sea Scrolls contained copies of not just the Old Testament scriptures, but also other books that were popular at the time

So it's very possible that they did I don't know that for certain but what that does show that point does show is that that?

Group out in the Qumran desert of Jewish people did not regard those books as scripture since they did not refer to them as scripture

So it's just further evidence that even Years after the time of Jesus and the Apostles that the

Jews at that time did not regard the Apocrypha as canonical Because that was a

Jewish sect that did regard Isaiah Deuteronomy other books like that the Psalms as Canonical and viewed them and quoted them as such, but never with the

Apocrypha Okay And the question yes No, okay, so the question is

Jesus. We read in the book of John that Jesus celebrated Hanukkah What we read is that at the time of Hanukkah Jesus was in the temple

We don't necessarily know that he celebrated it so that to be to be a bit more clear with that. That's in John 10 it's a passage in John 10

But we do not read of the Apostles ever celebrating Purim and so the question is that since Purim is the holiday that was

Created or instituted to remember the events of the book of Esther does that mean that they viewed Esther as non -canonical is that your question?

No, it would not necessarily mean that they viewed Esther as non -canonical the fact that something is not mentioned in the

New Testament does not mean that the The how would I say it?

The fact that there is no mention of that in the New Testament is not proof itself that Jesus and the Apostles never celebrated it

Because not everything Jesus didn't said or everything the Apostles taught is recorded in the New Testament All we can make from that is that there's no record of the

New Testament Jesus and the Apostles celebrated Purim But we know that the Jews did Being a cultural thing.

I don't know why they would not have celebrated Purim There's no evidence that Jesus and the

Apostles did not view Esther as canonical Since that was the Old Testament view even at the time of Jesus and the

Apostles Yeah, so I would be looking for a statement in the New Testament about a denial of Esther's canonicity

And we don't find that for certain. Of course. I'm arguing from silence. Just as your devil's advocate position would be arguing from silence.

Yep Yes Does Esther have any messianic reference to the

Messiah? Esther does not That I can think of off the top of my head.

I don't believe that it does It does Demonstrate God's preservation of his covenant people through Esther as part of the value of the book of Esther in Showing the sovereignty of God over preserving his people in his redemptive plans so that it might not be wiped out and it of course it

Yeah, so that would in that would be its value its messianic value your Old Testament value and Esther again is one of those books that is some people have questioned because the name of God is not mentioned in the book of Esther It's just it's just a historical account of what happened

So some people say since the name of God's not mentioned in there should we view it as canonical? Yeah Cornell Yeah It's definitely a religious book

Yeah, that does explain the institution of the Feast of Purim and the background behind that It shows

Esther as a woman of faith. Yep All right

Any other questions about the Apocrypha? Okay, so the Septuagint we got three minutes left to go through the pseudepigraphy and we're not gonna do that But since just to review the

Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament Finished about 150 at least 150 years before Jesus and the

Apostles It was the book of the Old Testament of the Jesus and the Apostles widely quoted widely used the people of Jesus day and the

Apostles day would have known of the Apocrypha which is the second one the Apocrypha which means hidden or secret and it is those books written between 400 400

BC and The time of Jesus during that 400 year period of time. That's when it was written Jesus and the

Apostles knew that those books existed They never quote them as canonical and there none of the Jews ever view them as scripture

Jesus and the Apostles did not view them as scripture and we do not view them as scripture that there may be some historical or value in reading the books

There's certainly no messianic or religious or divine value in terms of it being the voice of God or the the written

Word of God Okay, so that's the Apocrypha and the Septuagint and Cornell has a statement.

Yes Okay, okay

To say that again that for those who are listening by Recording the three books mentioned in the

Dead Sea Scrolls you say in the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls were the letter to Jeremiah Tabit Ecclesiasticus those three books so there was reference in there is inclusion or reference to those books

Amongst the Dead Sea Scroll Qumran community, but they did not regard them as scripture. They don't quote them as such Okay All right, let's pray and we'll be done

Father thank you for all that we are learning and again We thank you that you've given us the ability and the grace to look at these things and to think clearly about them

We thank you for your grace and preserving for us again your word and we love you for it And we ask your blessing upon our time of worship and fellowship

That is to follow here May you be glorified through all that we sing and say and our service to one another we ask this in Christ's name.

Amen You the perfect holy one

Your blood has washed away my sin

Jesus the father's wrath completely satisfied

Jesus Kindness Kings and nations

Rises to Oh great

God, how great

Thou art, how great Thou art. Oh great God, how great Thou art, how great

Thou art. Oh great

God, how great Thou art, how great

Thou art. Oh great

God, how great Thou art, how great Thou art. God of highest heaven, occupy my lowly heart.

Own it all and reign supreme, conquer every rebel power.

Let no vice or sin remain that resists

Your holy will. And purchased me, make me

Yours forevermore. I was blinded by my sin, had no ears to hear

Your. Did not know, no taste for heaven's joys.

Then Your Spirit gave me life, opened, gave me endless growth.

Help me now to live a life that's dependent on Your grace.

Keep my heart and guard my soul from the evils that I face.

You are worthy to be fast unmeasured, boundless free.

Rolling ocean in its fall is the current of Your love.

Leading on to Your glorious rest of love.

Oh, the deep love of Jesus spread

His praise from shore to shore. How He came to pay our ransom through the saving cross

He bore. How He watches o 'er

His loved ones, those He died to make

His own. How for them He's interceding, pleading now to throw our surprise test.

Precious friend, You are worthy to love.

All I entrust is the deed of Jesus.

There's the deed.

Now wildish feet. Deed. Deed.

And sprinkled with Your blood. Deed. Eschewed on.

Merits of Your grace, precious blood.

Don't fear Your ban. Since Jesus set

You free. Jesus is in Your presence.

Eschewed on. Through Your grace. Too wonderful for concepts of Your description.

I stand. I stand. I stand in awe.

Holy Jesus do.

I stand in awe of You.

Mercy so free.

Scripture. I stand.

Perfect plea. A great high priest whose name is love.

Whoever lives and pleads for me. My name is graven on His hands.

My name is written on His heart. I know.

And He stands. No tongue can be part.

Me thence depart. When Satan tempts me to despair.

And tells me of my sinful soul.

Good morning. If you're in the hallway, would you come inside and join us? Would you sing? Please stand.

The solid rock. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame. But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness seems to hide

His face. I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale.

My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid rock

I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath is covenant, His blood. Support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way. He then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand. When He shall come with trumpet sound.

Oh may I then in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness alone.

Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock

I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.

Welcome to Kootenai Church this morning. Take this time and greet each other. Well good morning everyone.

Welcome this morning. Just two quick announcements. Next Sunday after the service is a practice slash audition for anybody who is interested in singing in the

Resurrection Sunday choir that we're going to have for special music that Sunday. So plan on staying after the service next

Sunday afternoon to practice for that. And then also we have a conference registration is open for our

Spring Equipping Conference with Phil Johnson on the life and legacy of Charles Spurgeon. That's May 21st to the 23rd.

And you can go out in the foyer after the service today and register for that if you would like to. There's two discounts available to those who are here at Kootenai.

If you purchase the bundle for that registration as well as the women's conference registration which is the week prior to that, then you get a $10 discount.

And then if you are here part of Kootenai Community Church, there's a special code for you as well to register and you get another $10 off of that registration.

So make sure you take advantage of that and at least talk to somebody about what that code is if you plan on going home and registering at home.

We've already had a number of registrations come in and we cap space available for that at about 200 people because we set up tables and we have a meal and everything involved with that.

And so we're going to continue that cap and we want to make it available to our congregation before we let other churches know about that.

So make sure you register quickly for that. Turn in your Bibles, if you will please, to the book of Hebrews, to chapter 6.

Hebrews chapter 6. And we're going to read together verse 9 through the end of the chapter. Verse 20 of Hebrews 6.

Alright, Hebrews chapter 6, beginning at verse 9. But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation, though we're speaking in this way.

For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end so that you will not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

For when God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying,

I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you. And so having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

For men swear by one greater than themselves and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute.

In the same way, God desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose interposed with an oath so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Will you stand with me as we pray? Let's bow our heads.

Our Father, we thank you for the anchor for our souls which is Jesus Christ and his work which he has done on the cross.

It is because you cannot lie that you promised salvation for us. It is because you love us that you have accomplished it.

It is because you cannot lie that we are able to trust in your promises and your promise to save and to sanctify all those who are yours.

And it is because you cannot lie that we can trust in your promise that you will not lose any of those who have committed themselves to Jesus Christ.

We thank you that our salvation and the security of it rests not in any work which we have done or any work which we can do but solely and only in the work of Jesus Christ who has done all that is necessary for our salvation through his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead and his current intercession for us at your right hand.

So we thank you for that. We praise you for that. That is the source of joy and delight in our hearts.

And we ask that we would reflect upon the security of our own salvation and the security of your promises while we live in this world that is going mad and has gone crazy and seems intent upon squashing out any and all who believe and hope in those promises.

We pray for those who lead this nation. This nation and the levers of power and culture and education and entertainment have all been given over to the evil one.

They all belong to him. He controls all of it. And yet we live in this world and we're not of this world.

And we thank you for that. But we pray for those who lead this nation that you would either judge them for their iniquity or bring them to repentant faith in Jesus Christ.

We pray that righteousness would be done and we long for that day when Christ will rule and reign.

And as legislation is introduced and executive orders are passed which threaten the security of your people, the freedom of your people, and our ability to worship, we pray that you would help us to trust in you and rest in you and you alone.

For we know that many of your people around this world have lost those freedoms long ago. Some have never even known what it is like to worship as we do.

And we thank you for this great joy and grace. We pray that it may continue but we pray that in the midst of all things that you would accomplish your purposes, secure your people, sanctify us, purify your church, and promote your glory and your word.

We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. And nothing can keep us apart

So remember your people Remember your children

Remember your promise, O God Your grace is enough

Your grace is enough Your grace is enough for me

Great is your love and justice, God You use the weak to lead the strong You lead us in the song of your salvation

And all your people sing along So remember your people

Remember your children Remember your promise,

O God Your grace is enough

Your grace is enough Your grace is enough for me

Your grace is enough Your grace is enough

Your grace is enough for me

So remember your people Remember your children

Remember your promise, O God Your grace is enough

Your grace is enough Your grace is enough for me

I will sing of my

Redeemer And His wondrous love for me On the cruel cross

He suffered From the curse who set me free Sing, O sing of my

Redeemer With His blood He purchased me

On the cross He sealed my pardon

Paid the debt and made me free I will tell the wondrous story

How my lost estate is saved In His boundless love and mercy

He the ransom freely gave Sing, O sing of my

Redeemer With His blood He purchased me

On the cross He sealed my pardon Paid the debt and made me free

I will sing of my Redeemer And His heavenly love for me

He from death to life has brought me Son of God with Him to be

Sing, O sing of my Redeemer With His blood

He purchased me On the cross He sealed my pardon

Paid the debt and made me free What wisdom once devised the plan

Where all our sin and pride Was placed upon the perfect Lamb Who suffered, bled, and died

The wisdom of a sovereign God Whose greatness will be shown

When those who crucified Your Son Rejoice around Your throne

And oh, the glory of the cross

That You would send Your Son for us

I gladly count my life as loss That I might come to know

The glory of, the glory of the cross

What righteousness was there revealed That sets the guilty free

That justifies ungodly men And calls the filthy clean

Oh, righteousness that proved to all Your justice has been met

And holy wrath is satisfied Through unatoning death

And oh, the glory of the cross

That You would send Your Son for us

I gladly count my life as loss

That I might come to know The glory of, the glory of the cross

What mercy now has been proclaimed

For those who would believe A love incomprehensible

Our minds could not conceive A mercy that forgives our sin

And makes me like Your Son And now

I'm loved forevermore Because of what You've done

And oh, the glory of the cross

That You would send Your Son for us

I gladly count my life as loss

That I might come to know The glory of, the glory of the cross

And oh, the glory of the cross

That You would send Your Son for us

I gladly count my life as loss

That I might come to know The glory of, the glory of the cross

In the Gospel of John, chapter 10, it says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them.

And they follow me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the

Father's hand. I and the Father are one. When I fear my faith will fail,

Christ will hold me fast. When the tempter would prevail,

He will hold me fast. I could never keep my hold

Through life's fearful path, For my love is often cold,

He must hold me fast. He will hold me fast,

He will hold me fast, For my Savior loves me so,

He will hold me fast. Those He saves are

His delight, Christ will hold me fast.

Precious in His holy sight, He will hold me fast.

He'll not let my soul be lost, His promises shall last,

Bought by Him at such a cost, He will hold me fast.

He will hold me fast, He will hold me fast,

For my Savior loves me so, He will hold me fast.

For my life He bled and died, Christ will hold me fast.

Justice has been satisfied, He will hold me fast.

Raised with Him to endless life, He will hold me fast,

Till our faith has turned to sight, When He comes at last.

He will hold me fast, He will hold me fast,

For my Savior loves me so, He will hold me fast.

He will hold me fast, He will hold me fast,

For my Savior loves me so, He will hold me fast.

You may be seated. Now turn, if you will, to the book of Hebrews, to chapter 10.

Hebrews chapter 10. And when you've found your place, we're going to read from verse 19 through verse 25.

And before we do, we'll have a word of prayer to ask the Lord's blessing upon our study. Let's bow our heads. Father, our prayer now is simple, and as we come to Your Word, we just pray that it would have its way in our hearts and our minds, and that You would sanctify us by Your truth.

Give us understanding in Your Word, and we pray that we may see in the pages of Your Word the glory of Christ, and the glory of what

He has done for us. We pray that You would encourage our hearts together today, and that You would be pleased to bring the lost to faith in Christ, and encourage the hearts of those who are

Yours to hold fast to Christ who holds fast to us. We ask this in His name, amen.

Hebrews 10, beginning at verse 19. Read through the end of verse 25. We're going to be looking specifically at verse 23 today.

Verse 19, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which

He inaugurated for us through the veil that is His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Our focus today is on this second exhortation in verse 23, and we've noticed that there are three exhortations in the passage, which this passage immediately precedes the warning passage beginning in verse 26, and there are three of them that all begin with a let us statement.

Verse 23, or 22, sorry, let us draw near. Verse 23, let us hold fast.

And verse 24, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. And those three exhortations really are birthed out of or come out of the theological truth that has preceded this, which is summed up in verses 19 and 20, since we have bold access and confident access to the throne of God, and since we have a great priest over the household of God, then we are to do these three things.

We are to draw near, we are to hold fast, and we are to encourage one another to do the exact same thing. So today we are looking at this second exhortation, the one in verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Now this is, this exhortation to hold fast, this holding fast is the predominant theme through the rest of the epistle.

You remember some weeks ago when I kind of gave you an overview of what is to come, beginning at verse 19 through the end of the book of Hebrews, that we saw this theme come up over and over again.

Continue on, hold fast, be faithful, stand firm in your faith. In the midst of an opposing world and a hostile world, you and I are to cling fast and hold fast to Jesus Christ and to the truth that is given to us in Scripture, the truth of the gospel.

That's the exhortation that is mostly the concern of the author for the rest of the book. That's really what he's going to develop.

Now he states it here in verse 23, almost as if to introduce us that this is going to be the predominant theme through the rest of the epistle.

So keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that this exhortation is necessary in good times and in bad, in every era of Christian history, in every church, in every period of the church age, in all circumstances, all over the globe, this exhortation is necessary.

To hold fast to the confident hope that we have and to do so without wavering.

In times of plenty and prosperity, in times of persecution and suffering, we need to be reminded to hold fast.

And here's why, in the good times, the good times we need to be encouraged to hold fast because good times lure us away from our convictions and our commitments.

Good times, times of ease, times of plenty, times of prosperity, that creates indifference.

And we are lured away after the promise of other good things. When we have it too easy, we're not fighting a fight for the faith, we're not fighting the fight for our lives, we're not suffering or we're not dealing with affliction.

And even if we're not talking about persecution, but just the suffering of a disease or the suffering of a financial suffering or the suffering of just bad times, when we're not dealing with those things during the good times, when everything is as we might want it to be, and we think that the blessing of God rests upon us, we have everything that we need, these are good times, these are enjoyable times, these are comfortable times, we are lured away from our convictions during those times because we have nothing to fight for.

And so we're really not sure even if we have anything that's worth fighting for. And the promise of more good times kind of lures us away.

We become apathetic, we become indifferent, and we start to hold our convictions really loosely.

And then the moment that there is the threat or the possibility that some of those good times might be taken away from us, what do we do?

We're tempted to compromise in order to keep the good times good. In order to keep the good things that we enjoy in the good times, we're tempted to compromise with the spirit of the age or whatever pressure there is from outside, whatever is moving and changing in some direction other than it being good and pleasant for us, we're tempted to compromise.

With no battles to fight, we're just really not even sure what we're holding on to. So in the good times, we need to be encouraged, hold fast to the confident hope that you have in Jesus Christ.

During bad times, we're lured away from our convictions by the promise of good times.

Good times lure us away with the promise of keeping those good times. Bad times lure us away with the promise that if we could just make the affliction stop, if we could just make the persecution stop, if we could just make the bad things stop happening, then we would have good times again.

And so then you're tempted to compromise for a whole other reason. And that's to get out from underneath of the bad times. So in bad times and in good times, we are tempted to turn in our convictions and to compromise with the spirit of the age.

So in bad times, while we're fighting the battle, then we need to be reminded that what we're fighting for is actually worth holding on to.

In the good times, we need to be reminded that we have something to fight for, even if at the moment we're not necessarily called to fight it.

So good times create an internal allurement to compromise, and bad times create an external pressure to compromise.

So whether it is good times or bad times, we need to be reminded that we are to, in the words of verse 23, hold fast the confession of our hope.

In every age, at all times, in times of prosperity and in times of persecution, in times of ease and times of difficulty, every

Christian needs to be reminded there is something worth fighting for, there is something worth holding on to, and we are encouraged and commanded to hold fast to it and to not give it up.

Notice that verse 23 has for us an exhortation, an explanation, and a motivation.

The exhortation is in that phrase, hold fast the confession of our hope. That is what we are exhorted to do. That is the command to us.

Hold fast the confession of your hope. The explanation is how it is that we are to do that. We are to do that without wavering, and the motivation behind all of that is that he who promised is faithful.

The exhortation, we're to hold fast our conviction, our confidence, our confession of our hope. We're to hold that fast.

That's the command. The motivation for that is because he who called us is faithful, and the explanation of how it is that we are to do that, we are to do this without wavering.

So let's look at those three things. First, the exhortation. This is the third time that the idea of holding fast is mentioned in Hebrews.

This is something that is not just the main theme of the book of Hebrews from this point forward all the way to the end of this epistle.

This is something that the author has been alluding to as he has worked his way through this epistle. Remember the previous warning passages that warned us of the danger of apostasy and falling away?

Those passages were usually sandwiched between these exhortations to hold fast to something. Hebrews 3, verse 6, but Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.

Notice the reference there to holding fast and hope in chapters 3, verse 6. Hebrews 3, verse 14, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.

Hebrews 4, verse 14, therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the

Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. The author has been building up to this. He knows that he is writing to a group of people who because of external pressures, bad times on the horizon, some of them had even suffered the seizure of their own property and were even begin to experience soft persecution with the promise of hard persecution to follow.

The author knew that that was the condition of his readers. And so he is in light of that. He begins the epistle with these exhortations to hold fast.

Hold fast to your confidence. Hold fast the beginning of your assurance. Hold fast your confession. Don't let go.

Don't let go of it. And of course all the way through the epistle he has been reminding them that someone holds fast to you, right?

It's not that your salvation depends on your ability to hold fast. If it did, how many of you would be saved?

Probably all of you in good times because then holding fast is easy. But how many of us would remain saved during bad times if our salvation depended upon our ability to hold fast to him?

So the author has been doing these two things. Encouraging his readers to hold fast their confession of hope and encouraging them by reminding them that somebody else is really holding fast to them.

He who promised is faithful. God cannot lie. We have an anchor for the soul. One that has gone beyond the veil.

He is a forerunner for us. He will not lose us. He will not let us go. He is confident of that. We saw that in chapter six.

So these two things go together. We hold fast to him and he holds fast to us. These two things go together.

We are preserved by him and protected by him and we must persevere all the way to the end.

Both of those things are true. So as I'm talking today about holding fast I do not want you to think that I am compromising with my doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

Because I am describing here the human side today of this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

We are going to look at the divine side also in verse 23 that he who promised is faithful because both of these things go together.

You hold fast and don't worry he is faithful and he will not lose you. Both of those things are true. So let's talk about what it means to hold fast.

The definition first. To hold fast means to hold on to. It means to possess or to control or to retain. The word that is translated here into our

English version hold fast the confession of your hope that word means to continue in something and here it is continuing in belief or hope or faith.

It is used in scripture it is actually used also of restraining something holding something back that might want to unleash itself.

Like it's used of that of the restrainer who restrains in 2 Thessalonians. It's used in that way. It's the same word.

It's used in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 2 of holding fast to the word that is preached. It's used in 1

Thessalonians 5 verse 21 of holding fast to that which is good. It's used in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 2 to hold fast to the apostolic traditions not traditions outside of scripture that were handed down but there it means the traditional teaching and practices of the apostles that are communicated through divine revelation to hold fast to those traditions.

And what are we to hold fast to? Verse 23 let us hold fast the confession and that word is the Greek word homologia homologia homo meaning same logia from the word lego which means to speak

I don't know what that has to do with the toy. I don't even know if the people who designed the toys had any idea what the Greek word for lego meant but the word lego means to speak or to say something to tell it or to say it.

That word lego comes from a family of Greek words like logos which means word and logia which means to speak those things.

It's kind of a group of words that has the idea of communicating something or referring to that which is or has been communicated.

So a confession the word confession does a very good job of translating exactly the sense of what is described here.

Con in our English word means with Fess means to speak or to fess up.

Right? You're going to fess up so you're going to confess you're going to agree or speak up to exactly what it is that they're asking you to confess or agree with them about.

So when we talk about a confession here we're talking about not something that we profess but something that is a common saying or a common affirmation.

The word confession literally means to say the same as others or to agree with to be in assent to something or to give admission to something.

Now there's a translation issue here in this phrase with the King James version of the Bible which I need to kind of correct here a little bit.

There's two actually transmission issues if you have a King James translation. One of them is the word the King James uses the word profess instead of confess and it also translates the word as faith instead of hope.

And so the King James translates the phrase let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. You say is that really an important issue?

It is because the word profession deals with a public declaration or a claim to believe something and though it might be a somewhat adequate translation it is not an accurate translation because what is emphasized here in the passage is not our act of confessing something it is what it is that we confess.

In other words it is the body of truth that is in view. It is that which is confessed which we say together.

So we might talk about our common confession and by that we mean not that we're saying something together at the same time but it is that which we all agree to.

It is the objective body of doctrine which we are describing here not the act of professing belief in that objective body of doctrine.

So what is being described here is the body of truth that we confess together. What we hold to be true together is what we are to hold fast to.

Not just what we profess. So the word here refers to that which is believed and not to the act of simply professing belief in that.

The objective content what is believed not just yeah, I believe that. It's not a profession of faith that we are to hold fast to.

We are not to hold fast to our mere profession of faith. How many people have made professions of faith that have never been saved?

I baptized them and they've come into this church and been baptized and then left this church.

In the course of human history in the course of church history there have been tens of thousands millions of people who have made professions of faith in Jesus Christ who were not actually saved.

We are not commanded to hold fast to a mere profession of belief in something. Or a profession of faith in those things.

That is not what we are to hold fast to. A profession is something that can change with the wind. A profession is something subjective.

Instead we are to hold fast to something which we all confess together. Something that we all agree together to be true.

It is something objective. It is something outside of us. So that's the first translation issue. The second is with the word hope.

We are to in the words of verse 23 hold fast the confession of our hope. The King James translates it hold fast your profession of faith.

And it translates the word faith instead of hope. Now it is a mystery to me and most commentaries that I've read why the translators decided to translate the word faith instead of hope.

Because the word that is used is not the word for faith it is the word for hope. So one of two things happened.

Either the King James translators were translating some variant in the text that we are unaware of that existed and we don't know it's been lost to history.

Or the King James translators as we talked about last week believed that the phrase at the end of verse 22 which described the washing of water your bodies with the water pure water was a reference to baptism.

In which case they would view verse 23 as a command to hold fast your profession of faith which was evidenced in your baptism.

So it is possible that that affected the translation of verse 22 and their understanding of that being baptism would have affected their translation of verse 23.

However it is or why ever it is that they translated that it is not the best translation. Just be aware of that and I'm not up here to bash the

King James. It's a good translation as far as it goes. I don't have an extra grind. That's not the point of this.

It's just to point out a difference of translation. We are called to confess that is sorry hold fast to that objective body of doctrine that we together adhere to and believe.

And it is that confession of our hope not our faith that we are to hold fast to.

In other words the author is trying to get us to look outside of us. It's something that is objectively true not something that is subjectively done or subjectively felt.

I hope you understand the difference between what is objectively true and what is subjectively felt or done. Here's the difference between what is objectively true and subjectively felt.

What is objectively true is something that would be true whether or not you ever existed. Gravity is an objective reality.

If you had never been born and had never felt gravity gravity would still exist it would still be a thing it would still be a law of the universe.

That which is true is true regardless of if I have ever lived or believed it or not. Even if nobody believed the

Christian message and the Christian gospel it would still be true. If only one person believed the Christian message and the

Christian gospel it would still be true because it is objectively true and its truth does not depend upon how subjects us we respond to it or whether or not we embrace it.

So it is objectively something that is objectively true. And we are to hold fast the confession of our hope.

Let's define hope for a moment because this is something that is often misunderstood the word hope. Let me tell you what hope does not mean.

Hope is not a reference to a feeling. At least hope in this context is not a reference to a feeling.

This is not something that we feel. You understand what it means to feel hope? I don't know if it's an emotion or a sentiment or a sentimentality but that's not what's being described here.

What's being described here is not a sentiment. It is not something we think about something. It's not how we feel about something.

It's not a feeling at all. Sometimes you would even say I feel hopeful about this. When you say you feel hopeful about something what are you describing?

You're saying that inside of you you feel a hope about something and if you're full of that hope you're hopeful.

When you say I'm hopeful it means that I'm full of this feeling of hope. We're not talking about a feeling of hope in the context.

Second, we're not talking about an activity that we do like we hope for something. Like you might say

I hope this sermon is shorter than most or I hope that Jim's going to get all the way through this verse before we're done here because I don't know if I can endure another

Sunday on this verse. That is something that you're doing. It's an activity that you're engaged in.

You're having a feeling or you're hoping that this is the case. That's not what's being described here. It's also not something that is uncertain.

Something you think will happen or something that you want to happen but you're not sure if it will. Like when you were on your way to church today and your spouse said to you do you think

Jim will get all the way through the verse today? And you said well, that's my hope anyway.

Right? Something you're uncertain of but you're kind of hoping is going to happen. So it's not a feeling. It's not something we do.

And it's not something that we are uncertain of and we're just going to wait and see how it all cashes out. When Scripture uses the word hope we could translate it your expectation because that's what it is describing.

I love the translation of the phrase our confident expectation because that is what the word hope describes.

Something that is yet future. Something that is our hope. Something in which there is not a hint of uncertainty whatsoever.

So when Scripture describes the hope that we have which is sure and steadfast. That hope which is an anchor for our soul that has entered within the veil.

When Scripture describes the hope of the resurrection or the hope of eternal life or the hope of the age to come it is not describing something that is in any way uncertain.

There is not a hint of uncertainty about it whatsoever. It is describing something that is yet future an objective thing that is true and listen it's absolutely true.

It is unchanging and it is something that you can fix your hope or expectation on because it is absolutely certain.

That is what Scripture describes by the word hope. So when it says that we are to hold fast the confession of our hope

He is talking about an objective body of truth that is outside of us something upon which we have set our gaze with absolute confident expectation that these things will happen and that these things are certain and that our heart clings to that and the author says do not let go of that confident hope.

This confession that you hold to be true all of you together this confident confession in the gospel and the truths thereof fix your hope on that fix your eyes on that and do not let go of it because that is what is certain.

So when he says hold fast to your hope he is not saying hey keep that keep that warm feeling alive inside of you.

Just that you know that hopeful feeling I just got it's just feelings and that thing which you kind of think your hope is going to happen it might happen it might not just kind of keep the hope alive.

That is not what he is describing. He is describing something that would be true even if you never existed it's objective it's outside of you it is certain it will happen it is that body of content and that which we confess that is certain that is true that we are to hold fast to.

This is how the word hope is used in Hebrews. I'm going to give you a few references of what we've already covered actually in previous passages

I'll just read the verses to you Hebrews 3 .6 Christ was faithful as a son over his house whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and boast of our hope firm until the end.

Hebrews 6 .11 We desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the end.

Does that word assurance of hope does that phrase sound like anything uncertain to you? Hold fast the firm assurance of hope all the way to the end.

Hebrews 6 .18 So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope that is set before us.

Hebrews 7 .19 For the law made nothing perfect. And on the other hand there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

Notice the reference in Hebrews 7 of the better hope and drawing near to God. These two things are connected in Hebrews 7 just like they're connected here in Hebrews 10 .22

-23 We are to draw near to God and we are to hold fast to that hope. Back in chapter 7 the author says we have a better hope and it's through that hope that we draw near to God.

This idea of having something objective that is true that we cling to and by which and because of which we draw nigh unto

God that is something that is woven all the way through this epistle. So hope as it's used in Hebrews and hope as it's used in the rest of Scripture is something that is certain it is sure it is steadfast it is immovable it will happen it must happen it is something objectively true outside of us it's not a feeling it's not an uncertainty and it is something that rests it is a future certainty that rests upon certain historical realities.

For instance when we talk about the future hope and the word hope is used in terms of the resurrection of the just which is to come that was called the hope of Israel by Paul in the book of Acts there is a resurrection of the just that is to come a resurrection of the unjust there are certain future events that will and must unfold and we can refer to those things as our hope.

So our future hope is the fact that our sins are forgiven and we will receive because of that eternal glory that we are adopted into God's family and we are seated with Christ in heavenly places that what belongs to the son belongs to us by virtue of the fact that we are in him so we share glory and we share our inheritance with the saints in Christ that we are co -heirs with Jesus Christ so the kingdom belongs to us that is our hope it is our hope that there will be a judgment of this world a resurrection of the unjust and a resurrection of the just and that then there will be a recreation of this heavens and this earth and we who are in Jesus Christ by virtue of repentance and faith in him we will dwell with him we will dwell in union with him in a new heavens and a new earth in resurrected bodies for all of eternity basking in and enjoying the pleasures and the glories of the age to come and of our triune

God everlastingly that is the hope none of that is uncertain none of it is uncertain the kingdom is ours the inheritance is ours it all belongs to us we don't possess it all now literally physically in reality but it all belongs to us and we will possess it all and there will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust and the unrighteous will perish and the righteous will go into everlasting glory that Christian is your hope and you know why that is your hope because certain historical things happen things that are objectively true outside of you even if you had never been born those historically objective things are the fact that God sent his son into this world and he lived a perfect life and he died in the place of sinners so that any and all who repent of their sins and trust in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ can have eternal life be adopted into his family have their sins forgiven be imputed the righteousness of Jesus Christ and welcomed into heaven with God's open arms at the end of their lives those historical things happen those are objective truths those historical realities make your future hope absolutely certain so we have a future hope because we look back upon something that we commonly confess together and this is all tied together all of that which we confess gives us the hope that we have and we are to hold fast to that without letting go there are two audiences in view in the book of Hebrews two audiences talked about this back with the reference to drawing near there is in the mind of the author of Hebrews both the unbeliever who is sitting in the audience reading his words he has them in view as he has encouraged them time and again to lay hold of the hope that they have in Jesus Christ to lay fast to him he has encouraged them to turn away from sin to not apostatize he knows he has unbelievers who are listening to him people in that camp who are wavering back and forth and considering the claims of Christ and he also knows that he has believers in his audience that are listening to him believers who were looking at the horrible times to come who had been suffering persecution saw persecution as well as some hard persecution that he refers to later on in the book and some of those believers were wavering they were shaken by the adversity they needed a little bit of encouragement to not waver and to not doubt or to be shaken which is why he says in verse 23 that we are to hold this confession of hope without wavering there were some there who were wavering in their belief and they needed to get spines of steel and be encouraged to hold fast and to hold true to the truth the subjective body of truth he's been describing so he has in mind both unbelievers and believers so I want to apply this text and what we're talking about here both to the unbeliever and to the believer now

I ask you unbeliever if you are here and you think that you are in Jesus Christ or you're not certain if you're in Jesus Christ and you have never repented of your sin and trusted

Christ for salvation I ask you this what would keep you from doing that and possessing and enjoying so beautiful and so glorious a hope as what we have in Jesus Christ what would keep you from that here's the evangelistic appeal

I beg of you not to give intellectual assent to the things that I've been saying and not to simply say yeah I agree

I think Jesus did come into this world I think he claimed to be the son of God I think he even died and I think it's probably true that he rose from the dead and not to give intellectual assent to what you have been raised to believe in your

Christian home or what your grandparents have taught you but to honestly ask yourself have you been born again have you repented of your sin and trusted

Christ for salvation do you know that if you were to die today that you would have eternal life and that you would go into the presence of God or are you still living in rebellion to him here is the evangelistic appeal this is your only hope

Jesus Christ and him crucified and his resurrection if you are outside of Jesus Christ you have no hope for eternal life there remains no more sacrifice for sin there is no place to which you can turn there is no other sacrifice and no other payment for sin which can atone for your sin and give you eternal life you must have

Christ or you will perish and you must trust Christ as if trusting him as if not trusting him you will perish because without him you will and so you must have

Christ and you must trust him and you must trust him alone for eternal life or you will perish and you will perish everlastingly there is held for you in scripture a hope an objective truth an objective future certainty that is based upon historical facts and if you reject that you reject it at the peril of your own soul now to the

Christian this is the other part of his audience to the Christian there is encouragement here that what you have confessed you have confessed with millions of others see when

I talk about the confession that we have which is the common thing that we all say with the body of doctrine that we all adhere to I can look around this congregation there are people here in this congregation that we would disagree on a lot of tertiary secondary issues right whether we should baptize infants or not you might have a different opinion on that whether the millennium is going to actually happen or not you might have a different opinion on that whether you are a non -millennialist or post -millennialist or pre -millennialist you might be post -trib or mid -trib or pre -trib you might be any of those things you might be a little more covenant

I'm a little bit more dispensational there are all kinds of things that we disagree with but there is something that if you are in Jesus Christ all of us affirm together all of us give assent to the authority of scripture and to the doctrine of the trinity that our

God exists three persons in one God and to the deity of Christ and in his sacrificial death on the cross and his virgin birth and his death for sinners and his bodily physical resurrection from the dead on the third day and his ascension to the right hand of the

Father and his soon and coming return all of those things we hold together and we hold those things together in spite of tertiary differences and disagreements we hold those things together with Christians millions of them from all of the church age from all over the planet and every tongue and tribe and kindred on the face of the planet for the last 2000 years we commonly confess these truths if you don't confess these truths then you are outside of Christ and you have no part and no share in that eternal hope but for those of us who are in Christ we gladly confess these things with millions of others and be encouraged

Christian that there are millions of other Christians who have lived around this world all over this world in every era of church history and they have all held to this common confession in the face of hostility and suffering that you cannot imagine and that hopefully most of us in this room will never face or experience whatever comes our way we're only one of countless millions of our brothers and sisters who have held fast to Him in the face of that hostility we share when we hold fast that confession we share the very same confession that the original readers of the book of Hebrews would have shared that's amazing to me and when we hold fast we're holding fast to the same thing that they held fast to and we receive the same reward that they receive we receive the same glory that they receive and we'll share it together we hold fast to a confession that has been confessed by millions of others who have also trusted in Christ this is common confession is the hope for our soul

I want to read to you again Hebrews chapter 6 read this earlier in the same way God is desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose listen to the certainty of these words the unchangeableness of His purpose interposed with an oath so that by two unchangeable things

God's nature and God's oath in which it is impossible for God to lie we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us this hope we have as an anchor for the soul a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us having become a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek did you hear that language?

a hope sure and steadfast an anchor for the soul these truths that God sent

His Son to die for sinners to justify the ungodly and to bring them to heaven to worship and glorify

Him forever to enjoy His presence forever so that He could lavish on us on them on all who are

His His delights His pleasures His glory forever and ever that is what we are confessing that is what we are holding to that is the hope that is set before us so Christian don't be shaken by this if you have not yet you must resolve in your heart to never compromise the truth never compromise with the lies of the world the spirit of the age we are not holding fast to that which is fashionable we are not holding fast to that which is popular we are not holding fast to whichever fad is rushing through the church currently we are not holding fast to whatever the world says is good or safe or glorious or true we live in an age in which there is no such thing as truth in the minds of everybody nearly everybody outside of those walls who does not hold to our confession they have denied absolute truth this is why they think there are 57 genders this is why they are so confused in what they even think is true what they think is true one day or what they affirm is true one day they will deny the next and then they will affirm it again the next day there is no such thing as objective truth out there don't compromise with that don't even think that for the sake of a pot of porridge that you would be willing to sell your birthright for that nonsense we are not to hold fast to what is fashionable we are not to hold fast to what the world says we are to hold fast to our confession of our hope and the strength to do so comes from Christ the strength to do so comes from Christ and we are going to talk more about this next week the resolve the strength and our holding on to him is really him holding on to us so yes we are encouraged to hold fast but verse 23 he who promised is faithful perseverance in the things of the faith perseverance in the truth is the mark perseverance in the truth of a believer 1

John 2 .19 says some go out from us because they were never of us if they were of us they would remain with us but the fact that they leave us the fact that they depart is evidence that they were never of us to begin with as much as they put on airs as much as they give verbal profession to those things which we confess and hold to as much as they might do that the fact that they leave is evidence that they were never of us to begin with you are able to hold fast to him because he holds fast to you and your holding fast to him does not save you it is not the cause of your salvation it is the fruit of your salvation so we hold fast in the face of chaos we are increasingly hated the world is increasingly going crazy things are getting stupider and stupider with every sunrise if you have not noticed that you are not alert or awake or breathing or have two brain cells to rub together it is obvious to all of us that the entire world has lost its mind and they're getting more and more hostile to those of us who believe that there is an absolute truth and his name is

Jesus Christ and his word reveals that truth in the face of that hostile world you and I are commanded to hold fast because he who promised is faithful hold fast to your confession of your hope in the midst of a world that is awash in lies everywhere hold fast to your faith that's the exhortation not to what is fashionable not to what the world says is reasonable and not to the spirit of the age we do not bow to any of that you either hold fast to your confession of hope firm into the end or you will abandon it and demonstrate once and for all to all who are watching that you do not belong to Jesus Christ and you never did this is the good thing about persecution because it reveals who the goats are it reveals who the sheep are it sorts out very quickly the difference between the wheat and the tares and those who are willing to compromise with the spirit of the age and embrace every lie belched up from the pit of hell demonstrate that they belong to the one who will spend his eternity in the pit of hell not you and I not by holding fast our confession of hope firm into the end by that we demonstrate that we belong to him and he belongs to us and we hold fast to him because he holds fast to us now that's the exhortation to hold fast to the confession of our hope next we'd have to move on to the explanation where to do so without wavering and then the motivation that he who promised is faithful and we will do that next week so those of you who were hoping that we would get through this whole verse today your hope was ill founded it was anything but certain but Lord willing with most certainty we'll be back here next week

I'll close with something that Spurgeon said on this passage I think it's encouraging Spurgeon said hope in Christ and in his coming and in the victory of the truth if the storms lower believe that there is fair weather yet ahead and if the night darkens into a sevenfold blackness believe that the morning comes despite the darkening glooms do you have faith and trust in him who lives and was dead and is alive forevermore let your hope begin to hear the hallelujahs which proclaim the reign of the

Lord God the omnipotent for reign he must and the victory shall be unto him and to his truth hold fast your faith hold fast your hope let's bow our heads

Father give us strength to do this very thing to hold fast our faith and to hold fast our hope and by being obedient to that command and to that exhortation may we show to a dying and watching world that we belong to you and that our hope is not in this world at all but in the world that is to come may we hasten the day when we see

Jesus Christ rule and reign in this world and may we hasten to see may you hasten that we may see the day when righteousness is done and your truth and your word and your people and your glory are all vindicated everlastingly for the glory of Christ and his kingdom we ask this in his name

Amen Please stand Great is thy faithfulness

O God my Father There is no shadow of turning with thee

Thou changest not Thy compassions

They fail not As thou hast been

Thou forever will be Great is thy faithfulness

Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning

New mercies I see All I have needed

Thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness

Lord unto me Pardon for sin

And a peace that endureth Thine own dear presence

To cheer and to guide Strength for today

And bright hope for tomorrow Blessings all mine

With 10 ,000 beside Great is thy faithfulness

Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning

New mercies I see All I have needed

Thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness

Lord unto me Your spirit hath awakened

Our lifeless hearts to see The King in brilliant glory

Revealed a majesty We were ruined in your presence