It Is Written: The Old Testament of Scripture Alone | Rom. 3:1-2, Acts 7:37-39, Luke 24:25-27, 44-49

Let's turn together in our Bibles to the letter to the

Romans chapter 3 beginning in verse 1. Romans chapter 3 verse 1.

God's Word speaks to us here and says, Then what advantage has the

Jew, or what is the value of circumcision, great in every respect?

First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. Amen. Our next reading is in the book of Acts.

Acts chapter 7 starting in verse 37. Acts 7 verse 37.

And this is the account of Stephen's defense prior to being stoned to death.

Acts 7 37. God speaks,

This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own from your brothers.

This is the one who in the congregation in the wilderness was with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers.

The one who received living oracles to pass on to you, the

Jews, the sons of Israel that is. Our fathers weren't willing to be obedient to him, to Moses, but rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

This is the reading of God's Word. Amen. So you can see from the sermon title for today,

I'm going to continue preaching on this very neglected topic on Scripture and the doctrines of Scripture and in this case specifically the canon of Scripture but the

Old Testament of Scripture alone. The Old Testament or the Old Testament criteria of Scripture alone.

And this is dealing with the question of the canon and we've seen before that there are basically three canons of Scripture.

There is the one divine canon of God that he himself produced by virtue of writing a certain number of books and then there is the church's canon and the church canon has two more canons in it or it is composed rather of two canons.

There is the Old Testament canon and the New Testament canon and so that's what we're dealing with primarily today is with the

Old Testament canon. Now why did I read, why did we read from these two passages?

Why these two passages? Well you can see that the two passages here are dealing specifically with something that the

Jews were entrusted with like it says in Romans chapter 3 it says what advantage then has the

Jew or what value is the circumcision and Paul answers great in every respect and first of all so first of all one of the main advantages of being a

Jew was that they were entrusted with the oracles of God with the oracles of God and that is an idiom that's a phrase that is referring to the

Old Testament the Old Testament writings all the way from Genesis to Malachi and in the book of Acts of the

Apostles in Stephen's defense he quotes Moses this is

Moses who said to the sons of Israel God will raise up for your prophet like me from your brothers this is the one who in the congregation in the wilderness was with the angel speaking to him on Mount Sinai with our fathers so he's talking to the

Jews the sons of Israel the one who received living oracles to pass on to who to pass on to you the

Jews the sons of Israel and yet our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him but rejected him

Moses in their hearts and turned back to Egypt instead that's a lot of the history of the Old Testament the stubbornness and stiff -neckedness of the

Jews turning away from God and God judging them and and punishing them but also giving them grace and saving ultimately the remnant right so this is what the these verses point to the criteria the means and the criteria that God used to give to give each testament to his people right in the case of the

Old Testament he used the Jews to entrust them with the sacred writings the Old Testament scriptures similarly to how in the

New Testament he used the Apostles in the early church to hand down the New Testament writings so that we can have them today both today now the

Old Testament Canon was debated similar to how the New Testament was debated as well at least in some respect throughout the history of the church and some of the history of the

Jews as well for example one of the main arch heretics of the early churches named

Marcion and Marcion was basically agnostic who rejected the entire Old Testament he just threw it all out wanted nothing to do with the

Old Testament or anything Jewish and so and he took out all of the parts that he thought were

Jewish in the New Testament so the the early church responded to Marcion by saying no we do as Christians hold to the

Old Testament the entire Old Testament as well as all of the Jewish writings in the

New Testament like the Gospel of Matthew and so on so so these things were debated but the main books that were debated were especially the apocryphal writings the apocryphal writings in the that are some some including the

Old Testament such as the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches they have a bigger

Old Testament canon than we do as Protestants and you will find many many opponents of Protestants Protestantism today many

Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox I just saw a few debates about this about this subject that they you will hear many of them falsely claim that there is no such evidence at all in the early church for the

Protestant canon of the Old Testament they just say there's none whatsoever in a lot of cases but this actually betrays an understanding of history of church history and of the competing criteria that were used especially in the early church to recognize the books of the

Old Testament okay this is very important that we understand this because this is really the crux of the issue however and even though there are early ancient

Jewish and Christian canon list that either implicitly or explicitly match the

Protestant Old Testament canon or come very close to it they may be off by a book or two in some cases but the real underlying issue the formal principle you might say just as scripture was a principle in the time of the

Reformation is is this question what criteria was used to identify the

Old Testament this is the main issue that we have to answer what criteria did the early church used used to identify and recognize the

Old Testament not to come up with it like the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches tend to say not to come up with it but to recognize what

God had written in the old days the days of old right so this is what we must wrestle with this is a real question and you will find that there were in fact two primary competing criteria in the early church used to identify the

Old Testament okay there were mainly two the first one is which books were part of the

Hebrew canon right the Hebrew Bible that the Jews used and which

Christ and his apostles affirmed and quoted because the New Testament is full of quotations allusions and so on from the

Old Testament and that is why we read in part

Romans 3 and act 7 because they are showing the very special Commission that God gave to the

Jewish people to entrust them with the oracles of God with the

Old Testament scriptures and we call them the Old Testament again by the way which we just read in our catechism question because the

Old Covenant and Testament is done away with and even though the

Old Testament yes is the Word of God still the Word of God the New Testament is the final written

Word of God and so it is also a continuation a fulfillment of the

Old Testament this is how Jesus the Apostles in the early church also saw these these books these

Testaments and so the that was the first criteria that was used but there was another one there was another competing criteria that was also used by the early church and they were in some sense at odds with each other because they had different lists of the canon of the

Old Testament the second criteria was what books did the early churches read in church and consider edifying what books did they read like in their liturgy for example in church and consider edifying as well but we will find that this specific criteria is less precise it's less precise because there could be many books that are edifying just like in our day there could be many books that we consider edifying that are not scripture like Pilgrim's Progress or Hodges systematic theology or any other number of good books that Christians have written but that are not breathed out by God right so that's a less precise and a actually newer criteria that was used and it had less historic or traditional precedent which led to a larger canon of the

Old Testament okay this second criteria used by the early church led to larger

Old Testament books or canon which included more books that Protestants do not consider apocrypha one of the main figures that represents this view would be

Augustine who opposed Jerome who held to the

Hebrew canon of the first criteria the Hebrew canon exclusively and they they subsequently or consequently had different lists of books in their

Old Testament what they considered the Old Testament now this is what you will find when you look into the early church if you follow the first criteria of which books were considered were part of the

Hebrew canon the Hebrew Bible like many in the early church did and one big example of this is that they counted 22 books which matched the

Hebrew alphabet which has 22 letters that's one of the ways you can tell that they were using this

Hebrew criteria the the Hebrew verity I think it was also referred to as you will if you do that if you use the first criteria criteria you will either match exactly or approximate the

Protestant Old Testament canon depending on the information that was available at the time okay so if you apply this first criteria of which books were considered canonical by the

Jews in the Old Testament primarily then you will match or approximate the

Protestant Old Testament canon the shorter canon that we use today as Protestants depending on the information that was available and again there was some some people thought certain books certain apocryphal books were written by canonical authors which is why they included them but they were misled they were misinformed or they were deceived by that they were not written by the canonical authors those later apocryphal books came later after the

Old Testament canon was closed as we will also find now in all of this beloved just remember this one very important principle the church does not define

God's Word okay the church does not define God's Word God's Word defines the church rather amen

God's Word is what defines the church we simply recognize what God had given receive that what we receive what

God has given us to the Old Testament people and to the New Testament Church and Apostles as well so that is very important that we understand as we seek to understand better this issue of the

Old Testament canon this is what led to the different canon lists were these two criteria that were competing in the early church now the and also remember that the canon of Scripture originates with God alone it comes from God it is not a human or a church construct okay

God himself breathed out and wrote down a certain number of books and that is his divine canon and it is a church's task to receive that divine canon with her two canons of the

Old Testament and the New Testament that is the church's role to recognize and receive the books that God himself wrote down by the prophets and the

Apostles and so on by God's providential means and spirit that he gave to us including the testimony of the

Jews just like Romans and Acts and several other passages say including their testimony the

Jews the testimony of Christ of his Apostles and the New Testament authors and the early church during and after the time of Christ and the

Apostles right these are the things that we need to bear in mind and part of the reason we understand these things in contrast to many of the other denominations or religions is that just as Christ himself said my sheep hear my voice they hear my words amen and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish ever much in the same way that his words will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand amen that's from the

Gospel of John chapter 10 verses 27 through 28 now so this brings us to the

Protestant canon of the Old Testament and in our in our

Baptist confession we find the first chapter which is about the Bible the

Holy Scriptures it says that the Holy Scriptures or the Word of God written consists of all the books of the

Old and New Testament these are and it goes on to list the 39 books of the

Old Testament okay only the 39 books of the Old Testament every everywhere from Genesis all the way to the last book of the minor prophets of Malachi the

New Testament followed by the New Testament listing of the 27 books of which most other

Christian so -called Christian religions like Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy also agree with so we do agree that the 27 books of the

New Testament are only those even though they acquire other traditions that contradict and replace what the

New Testament teaches but it is those two starting from Matthew all the way to Revelation and then it follows by saying all of these are given by the inspiration rather by the expiration by God's breath to be the rule or the canon remember that word that that's what that word means the rule or canon of faith in life or the standard of faith in life and then section 3 of our confession also touches on the

Apocrypha the books commonly called the Apocrypha were not given by divine inspiration or expiration and are not part of the canon or rule of Scripture therefore they have no authority in the

Church of God nor are they to be accepted or made use of in any way different from other human writings okay so there's a very clear distinction there from what's actually breathed out by God the

Old and New Testaments and the Apocryphal books which were not considered breathed out by God amongst the

Protestants and many in the early church who followed the Old Testament Hebrew canon of the

Jews right so the Apocryphal books are not scripture they only carry weight in an authority in so far as they agree with the

God breathed scriptures okay that's why it says they are not to be made use of in any way different from other human writings that may be correct and that may be biblical but they are not breathed out by God himself okay now speaking of Apocryphal writings

I wanted to make a correction from last week's sermon regarding the so I read from the 1970 edition of the

New American Bible commentary on Leviticus 12 8 and the commentary said this 40 days after the birth of Jesus his

Holocaust I'm sorry his virgin mother made this offering of the poor in Luke 2 which we read last time for the

Christmas message since the Holocaust was offered in Thanksgiving for the birth of the child this was most fittingly offered by Mary however because of her miraculous delivery she was not really obliged to make the purification and this is what

I was referring to earlier where even though the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox they affirm the 27 books alone of the

New Testament they hold to other traditions that contradict the New Testament because they believe that Mary had a miraculous delivery of Christ's birth which means that there was not a natural birth it was not an actual parting with birth pains and everything

Jesus just a beam of light shown out and Jesus just beamed out and I bet many of us sisters would wish that were true when having kids but I'm sorry that's just not the way

God designed it to be it's part of the curse of the fall in fact but it does say that women shall be saved through childbearing so it's not all bad but anyway this is what

I was I previously misunderstood this because it's ambiguous her miraculous delivery

I thought pointed to the doctrine that they hold to that Mary was immaculately conceived herself that she herself was born without sin from the stain of original sin and preserved from sinning ever and so that's what also the

Catholic Church teaches and I think the Eastern Orthodox as well but it but that was my mistake they're actually referring to the other false doctrine that they have that Jesus was born miraculously beamed out without any actual labor and this tradition like we saw last week is based on the apocryphal infancy

Gospel of James which has gnostic elements as well and it's a real shame because you know

I was reading through some several books in preparation for the sermon and I came across two

Protestant biblical scholars and professors Gordon fee and Douglas Stewart that enthusiastically recommended this 1970

New America New American Bible Catholic Bible in their very popular book how to read the

Bible for all its worth and they say this the Good News Bible home and Christian standard

Bible a New American Bible are also especially good one would do well to have some or all of these the

New American Bible is a committee translation by the best scholarship in the American Catholic tradition

Wow so yeah that's real good scholarship all right I mean quoting these traditions that contradict the

New Testament it's just kind of astounding that that you find Protestant scholars do this and it's a shame that they do they should not be doing that but in any case that is such as the times that we live in they tend to be some of them tend to be very ecumenical and not in a good way so needless to say

I would not recommend to you the New American Bible for personal study and devotion right unless it's for apologetic purposes but there you have that so now this brings us back to the

Old Testament Apocrypha and you will again find that the overwhelming testimony of the

Jews was that they held to a 22 to 24 book canon an exclusive 22 to 24 book canon of the

Old Testament which matches the Protestant canon now why is that because the

Protestant canon has 39 books they only have 22 or 24 why is that the case the reason is because they grouped several books together which our

Old Testament separate so they grouped 1st and 2nd Kings 1st and 2nd Samuel 1st and 2nd

Chronicles they group those books together into one book they also grouped the minor prophets into one book so the 12 minor prophets were considered one book and then the reason there's 22 or 24 books is because in the 22 books they grouped

Ruth with judges and then they also grouped lamentations with Jeremiah because they were both written by Jeremiah and the 24 book canon

Ruth was separate and so was lamentations so that's why you got 24 so they're all the same books it's just that they were grouped differently and they did this the the

Old Testament Jews did this apart from any so -called infallible authority or counsel defining the

Old Testament canon for them and Jesus and the

Apostles quoted it to them repeatedly demonstrated how he fulfilled it refuted them with it and appealed to it as the highest authority held them accountable to them held them accountable to that to it without ever debating which books were inspired you don't find debates about what books were inspired or or the the

Jews saying well why are you quoting that book to us Jesus we don't even hold that book is authoritative no there was a largely mutually understood collective understanding of which books were canonical according to the

Jews and this is what is known as the

Hebrew canon or the Hebrew Bible it's also referred to as the Tanakh or the

Tanakh the Tanakh is basically kind of three words combined because the

Tanakh has three sections it has three main sections the Torah or the law the

Nevi 'im or the prophets and the Ketuvim or the writings the other writings this is what the

Old Testament according to the Jews is composed of the law the prophets the writings and if that phrase sounds familiar is because you will find it in several different places including the

New Testament this comes from the Masoretic tradition another

Jewish tradition which is from the 7 through 10 centuries after Christ but it's based on much older traditions also found in the

New Testament and even prior to the New Testament okay including the

Babylonian Talmud as well now the Torah is the five books of Moses the law

Genesis Genesis numbers Exodus Leviticus and Deuteronomy the

Nevi 'im the prophets have two subcategories the former prophets and the latter prophets the former prophets are the historical books of Joshua judges

Samuel and Kings okay they group them under the prophets the latter prophets are the three major prophets

Isaiah Jeremiah and Ezekiel followed by the twelve minor prophets as one book okay you'll notice that Daniel is not part of these prophets they didn't include

Daniel in that category the third category is the Ketubim the

Ketubim are the writings okay the writings include the

Psalms so there's three subsections in the writings there's the poetic books the

Psalms which is the most prominent book in the writings take note of that by the way take careful note of that even though it is listed first in the

Masoretic Tradition the later one it is listed second in the Babylonian Talmud after Ruth but the order was not always fixed because the scrolls were stored separately so that's why it wasn't always the same order sometimes it was but not always and then so Psalms followed by Proverbs and Job and then there were the five scrolls which is the

Song of Songs Ruth Lamentations Ecclesiastes and Esther and then there were the other writings which were historical and apocalyptic books of Daniel so that's where they put in Daniel Daniel Ezra Nehemiah as one book and Chronicles as one book and as the last book okay so pay careful note of that take pick a pay careful mind to that that they listed

Chronicles last even though Ezra and Nehemiah chronologically follow

Chronicles okay first they listed Chronicles after Nehemiah and Ezra for some reason so take note of that and you will find that is that is the conclusion of the

Hebrew canon the Torah the Nevi 'im the Ketuvim the law the prophets the writings they did not include the

Apocrypha okay they did not include the Apocrypha in this so this 22 or 24 book

Hebrew canon has and this and the threefold subdivision within it of the

Old Testament is found in numerous ancient Jewish and Christian sources as well as the

New Testament itself right so the Jewish sources include not exhaustively but they include the book of Jubilees which was written as far back as the 170s to 150

BC okay before Christ there's also the prologue to Sirach or Ecclesiasticus another

Apocrypha book which was written in 132 BC before Christ okay repeatedly in the prologue to his translation the author of Sirach speaks of his grandfather as a student of the law and the prophets and the other books of our fathers the law itself the prophecies and the rest of the books that's a quote from FF Bruce's book on the

Canon of Scripture an excellent book which I highly recommend recommend to you now there's also

Josephus the early first century the first century

Pharisee who wrote the antiquities of the Jews the wars of the Jews and he wrote another book called against a peon in which he lists the 22 but he lists he mentions 22 books in their

Jewish Canon he doesn't list them by name but he's mentions that there's 22 of them and the categories three different categories that are different but they are still nevertheless some of some overlap there there is also second

Ezra's or for Ezra another Apocrypha book from the second century after Christ which was around the same time as Josephus and you have the

Babylonian Talmud for all is as early as 70 AD to 200

AD starting in 70 AD which again repeatedly lists 22 or 24

Canon of their scriptures numerous places in the

Talmud and in several Jewish midrash as well and you will also find phrases like the law the prophets and so on now that's the

Jewish sources just a sample of them you will also find that there are several early church writers well this is just a sample who listed the

Old Testament based on their understanding of the Hebrew Canon okay so they held to the first criteria they believe that the in most cases that the

Old Testament was what the Jews received as or believed to be the scriptures and it was either exactly the same as a

Protestant Canon or came very close okay so some of the first ones are the list that was from 150

AD okay 150 AD Melito of Sardis he had all the books included except for Esther in 170

AD then there was origin who also listed the Hebrew Canon even though he personally thought that the that the apocryphal books were part of the

Old Testament there's Julius Africanus who disagreed with origin and he believed that the

Hebrew Canon alone was scripture okay there was around the same time 220

AD Cyril of Jerusalem also Athanasius of Alexandria the one who refuted

Arius the heretic the Council of Laodicea and Philokias of Iconium Gregory of Nazianzus Epiphanius of Salamis Hillary of Poitiers Jerome Rufinus of Achillea and so on there's many others this is just a small sample of those who believed for the most part that they identified and listed the

Hebrew Canon and this is the first camp the first criteria that they used and even though there were also others who held to a second the second criteria a bigger

Canon so then beloved

I mainly one of the reasons I wanted to list this out for us is because so that so that we would not be deceived by these opponents of the

Protestant faith of our faith like Roman Catholic Eastern Orthodox and so on who claim that there is no evidence for the

Protestant Old Testament Canon which reflects the Hebrew Canon okay and just because some of them were off by one or two books or a few books that's not so much the issue the issue is what was the criteria that's what matters and that's where you we have to be careful to not allow that to be a stumbling block for us and to recognize that the criteria is what mattered and that criteria is what to led to for the most part the

Protestant Old Canon if you went with the Hebrew Canon right so that's what we was is what we need to keep in mind that's what's important to remember so all of these writers that I listed and many others in every century including

Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox writers and authorities there's over 75 listed in John Colson's book another big massive book about the

Canon over 75 that either matched or came very close to the

Protestant Canon and did not believe that the apocryphal writings were scriptured because they generally use the same criteria to identify what the

Hebrew Canon was right now why is this important again we have to remember the this criteria is trying to follow what the scriptures say what the

New Testament says that the that the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God they were entrusted and therefore it makes sense to look to them as to what books they help to be authoritative or scripture and which consequently also

Christ and his Apostles affirmed and again I mentioned

Melito Sardis he went to Jerusalem and asked the Jews to see what they believed to be scripture and that is how he came up with his almost exact Canon of the

Old Testament so this brings us now back to the scriptures themselves turn with me now beloved to the gospel of Luke chapter 24 the gospel of Luke chapter 24 in starting in verse 44 the gospel of Luke chapter 24 verse chapter 24 verse 44 this is a very very important passage in terms of how we understand the

Old Testament according to Christ himself verse 44 our

Lord we find our Lord saying now he Jesus said to them the twelve

Apostles these are my words which I spoke to you while I was with you while I was still with you that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the

Psalms in other words in the entire scriptures of the

Old Testament must be fulfilled then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures so you see the three different sections and then you see him refer to the scriptures as a unit and he said to them thus it is written that the

Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins take note of that would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations note all of this beloved carefully beginning from Jerusalem you are witnesses of these things and behold

I am sending the promise of my father upon you but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high amen so notice here now notice here how

Christ commissions his Apostles with the promise with with the promise of my father upon you and as witnesses of these things which he prophesied and fulfilled okay this is in part why the

Apostles and their prophetic associates also wrote down the New Testament because they were commissioned by Christ himself as apostolic witnesses they were witnesses of these things and as God had also as God had called sanction and ordained the

Apostles themselves with authority miracles signs and wonders to confirm the divine origins of the preaching teaching and New Testament writings of the

Apostles which they entrusted to the early church God similarly had previously called sanction and ordained the prophets the prophets of old with authority divine predictions miracles signs and wonders to confirm that the words were from God himself to foretell the coming

Messiah and entrusted their Old Testament writings to the Jews exactly as the

Scriptures revealed to us right there's a clear parallel there with God God's providential means in how he orchestrated these things and the threefold division of the

Scriptures that Jesus refers to is the same as the

Hebrew canon the ancient Hebrew threefold distinction of the the the law the prophets and the writings right this is the same distinction now many will object because well it's no this is the

Psalms not the writings what do you mean here's the thing it's referring to the law as a whole it is referring to the prophets as a whole and it's referring to the

Psalms as a synecdoche okay it's a literary device known as a synecdoche synecdoche which means a part which refers to the whole okay there's a reason for that and it happens numerous times in Scriptures this is not the only time it happens in Scripture now let me ask you a question beloved remember what the first or the most prominent book of the writings or the

Ketuvim is is it any coincidence that the Psalms are listed as part of the writings themselves the

Ketuvim that is why they are a synecdoche because the

Psalms is the most prominent book it was considered the most prominent book of the writings of the third category okay that's very important to keep in mind and it's fascinating because we know that the the

Psalms are referring to the rest of the writings because Jesus said he opened the

Bible here says he opened their minds to the understand the

Scriptures the entire Scriptures as a whole very clear there so that is why we must understand these things carefully beloved and that is why looking to how

God dealt with providentially his people helps us to understand these things and to understand the

Bible itself better that's why these categories are used by Christ and the Apostles numerous times throughout the

New Testament other synecdoches and shorthand phrases are used like the law and the prophets right the law and the prophets a twofold synecdoche there are also used to denote the entire

Old Testament okay a part which refers to the whole so and the third section of the writings the

Ketuvim was often included in the prophets because those who wrote

Scripture were all considered to be prophets and they were referred to as prophets okay and the law or the

Torah of Moses was sometimes also included in the prophets why because Moses himself was a prophet right we just read in Acts chapter 7 in Acts chapter 7 where Moses prophesies about God raising up for you a prophet right and so this is what we must carefully distinguish and understand not only that beloved but also both the prophets and the writings were sometimes included in yet another synecdoche the law the law sometimes also referred to the entire

Old Testament okay so there's numerous places in which either one or two of those three categories were used to refer to the whole to the all of the scriptures okay and and including the law including the law now here's another very helpful quote from FF Bruce in his book the canon of Scripture in John 1034

Jewish disputants are told that part of Psalm 82 is written in your law right so it refers to the

Psalms as the law your law the writings your law in 1st

Corinthians 1421 a quotation from Isaiah the prophet right

Isaiah the prophet in 2811 is similarly said to be written in the law while in Romans 3 10 through 19 a chain of quotations from the

Psalms which are the writings in Isaiah the prophets is included in whatever the law says the law says okay very fascinating and eye -opening stuff that helps us to understand how the canon was recognized by the

Jews by Christ and by the Apostles who wrote Scripture the New Testament themselves turn with me beloved to John chapter 1 verse 45 as we see a sample some more of these instances that are very very eye -opening as we tie these knots together the

Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 45 it says

Philip found Nathanael and said to him we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote

Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph does that sound familiar beloved this is the same thing that Jesus draws out further in Luke 24 44 the same thing the law and the prophets and Jesus draws it out to include the

Psalms or the writings the Scriptures the totality of the Scriptures you know that's you similarly have

Matthew 712 Matthew 2240 on these two commandments Jesus says on these two laws hang the entire law and the prophets on these two commandments hang the entire

Scripture of the Old Testament the law and the prophets apart to refer to the whole and similarly in again in Romans chapter 3

Romans chapter 3 21 through 22 but now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets and the prophets even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe and this also ties into what

Jesus was saying in Luke 24 44 believing in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and receiving the righteousness of God by faith alone another model and of the

Reformation principle of the Reformation now turn with me to Acts chapter 13 verse 15

Acts 13 15 here's another very important passage regarding these matters all of these synecdoches to refer to parts or whole all of the

Old Testament in Acts 13 15

Luke records the practice of synagogues during this time

Jewish synagogues they would read a portion from the Torah and then a portion called the haftara from either the prophets or the writings and then have a drash or a teaching expounding those texts and there were rules of hospitality that dictated if a guest who was qualified to teach was present the opportunity would be extended to him after the reading this is why you would see

Jesus preaching in the synagogues and he opened the scroll of Isaiah and said this is fulfilled in your very hearing that's the same practice that was done here in Acts chapter 13 15 which says and after the reading of the law and the prophets the synagogue officials sent to them saying brothers referring to Paul and Barnabas if you have any word of exhortation for the people say it say it preach it right so there you have it once again and yet even further in addition to that we find yet another instance where the prophets also refers to the entirety of the

Bible the prophets or all the prophets okay turn with me to Acts chapter 10 verse 43 as we start to close out here this final synecdoche the prophets and all the prophets

Acts chapter 10 verse 43 God's Word here speaks to us and says of him of Christ all the prophets bear witness that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins there you see it amen all the prophets bear witness that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins and this is a again a synecdoche to refer in general to all of Scripture because all of Scripture was written by prophets as was understood by Christ and the

Apostles themselves so just as it is written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the

Psalms that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations so likewise here that's that was what

I we read earlier from Luke chapter 24 44 when he was speaking to the to the

Apostles so likewise here of him all the prophets bear witness through his name everyone right all the nations everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations so there's a parallel passage there it's paralleling what is being referred to there all the scriptures in general bear witness to Christ all of them and the prophets are referred to as the entire books the entire scriptures as one as a whole now if our last passage today beloved turn with me now to the road to the the episode in the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter 24 back in Luke chapter 24 verse 25 here we will find yet again another parallel and synecdoche

Luke chapter 24 verse 25 and he

Jesus said to them the two disciples that were walking on the road to Emmaus Oh foolish ones and slow to believe in all that the prophets have spoken was it not necessary for the

Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory then beginning with Moses with Moses the

Torah right the Torah and with all the prophets he interpreted to them the things concerning himself in what beloved in all the scriptures in all the scriptures there you see a clear example one of the clearest examples of how these parts are used to refer to the whole of the

Old Testament scriptures and some you know again this is so irritating because some often claim opponents of this claim that people who claim to who believe in a larger

Old Testament these verses basically undermine a larger canon because it's clearly referring to the threefold

Hebrew canon and distinction so they will claim that Jesus was only pointing to the prophecies that he fulfilled and therefore we cannot say that he was referring to the entire

Old Testament but again this contradicts flatly contradicts

Jesus himself what he stated numerous times categorically all all all all the scriptures the scriptures referring to the law the prophets the

Psalms or the writings all the scriptures he's talking about all of them in general not just a subset or not just it's the whole thing the whole thing note that carefully all means categorically all the writings all of them summed up in the law prophets and the writings or the

Psalms as well or the law or the prophets or all the prophets or the law and the prophets beloved you find all of these things all scripture and that is amazing to see and find just further confirmation of how

God has given us means to identify and point us to the canon of the

Old Testament that the Jews used that the Jews themselves used and beloved

I hope that encourages us encourages us and does not helps us to protect ourselves and defend ourselves from these other opponents who try to undermine the words of Christ and the

Apostles themselves because they relied on the Jewish Canon amen beloved let's go ahead and bow our heads now with a closing word of prayer our precious

Lord and Heavenly Father we thank you for these things Lord for showing us these things in your word your precious truth from your word father help us to make proper sense of these things

Lord to make to rightly divide your word as much as the the

Old Testament Jews your people of old divided it by law prophets and writings father help us to make proper sense and to divide the word accordingly and to make proper sense of it systematically as a whole

Lord and to make good sense of what exactly was breathed out by you father

God and which you wrote down for us to receive as your words and nothing else

Lord help us to be diligent and our continued study of these things as we continue to study these things

Lord and to bless these studies help us father to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior and help us

Lord give us give us also hope and increase our faith father in this amazing faith that all of these prophets and writings that you foretold from the

Old Testament Lord how they come magnificently gloriously true in your one unique son

Jesus Christ the righteous who is a propitiation for our sins all of our sins

Lord we thank you father we ask these things in Jesus mighty name amen thank you for listening to the sermons of thorn crown covenant

Baptist Church where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life we strive to be biblical reformed historic confessional loving discerning

Christians who evangelize stand firm in and earnestly contend for the Christian faith if you're looking for a church in the

El Paso Texas area or for more information about our church sermons and ministries such as simple referendum radio and thorn crown network podcast please contact us at thorn crown ministries calm and may the mercy peace and love of our triune