Alright, let's have a quick break, then we'll see if we can't make sense of a few things here. Our Lord and King, we do thank you and praise you for your love and care. I ask my Lord that as we gather now, you'd have your hand upon us. I know I need your help, Lord. I need your mercy. It's by your mercies that I'm not consumed every morning. It goes for all of us, Lord. And we're a good way through the day, Lord, so no doubt I need your mercy even more. I pray, Heavenly Father, you would help us today, help me, and we just give this time to you. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, so it's my task to try and close out some teaching on the Word of God. Our purpose... to close out, what, to finish it? To finish it for the year. It's like trying to close out the teaching on the church. Jim got up there and he said, well, I'm done. At the end of it, like he was done, and I'm like, man, you just gave me about 10 other things to think about. How can we be done? But you got to pull up somewhere, right? I said to Graham when he was finished, I said, well, I got some things to say now, but I got no time. At the end of the day, we're going to just continue to build on and lay again and teach over and bring into remembrance. I mean, it doesn't matter how long you've been sitting in church. It doesn't matter how long you've been sitting under the teaching of God's Word. I had one fellow, he's a good, faithful man. He meant it in a good way. It's a shocking quote. It sounds like he's got a bad attitude. He doesn't. He's got a very, very good attitude. But he said, he said, I've been in church for, I don't know, how many years, you know, 20, 30 years, something like that. He said, I've been in church for that, how many years, sitting under preaching and teaching of good, solid preachers. He said, you're not going to tell me anything new I haven't heard. And that's probably true. And it was good counsel to me as a young preacher to sit me on my rear end and go, I'm not going to get behind this pulpit and find some Bravo, new thing that no one else has ever seen in the Bible. God put it there for a reason for men to find it and preach it. All I'm gonna do is come along 2,000 years after men have been preaching the same New Testament for however long and just try and pick up some crumbs that have fallen from the king's table and put them out there, right? And so as we come to this, we're by no means going, well, there's everything covered. We're just bookending this topic with a start at the start of the year and a finish at the end of the year so that we can move on to other things next year. And so we come to the Word of God, we come to the teaching on the Word of God. If you want to go back over the previous sessions that have been taught, you'll find that Pastor Neil Smith brought some good sessions here in these training days this year, laying the foundation of what the Word of God is. how God gave it, how specific it is. He dealt with things such as, of course, the inspiration of the Word of God, but showed the specifics of the Word of God. It's not just the ideas. It's not just the general gist of the thing. God's very specific in the words He gave. And He's very specific in the way He gave it. And Neil brought out all the scriptural doctrine for that, to show the very specifics of God's Word, of what it is, what inspiration means. And he worked through those doctrines. And he worked through the doctrine of preservation of the times that God has shown and he gave the scriptural grounds for the preservation of scripture throughout the ages. When Shane took it on and he taught on, what did he title it? Was it revealing? No, it was a finding? I've forgotten the title he gave. for the Word of God. And he took us right back to the Garden of Eden where the Word of God was first given. It was given verbally and then it moved on from the verbal Word of God, audible from the very lips of God in the Garden of Eden. through to the prophets that spoke for God, through into the Word of God being written down, and the seers and the prophets of the Old Testament, through to the law of God being given by Moses, and he walked us through all of that, where we can find the Word of God throughout the scriptures, right into the New Testament. and how we see the Word of God being given by the Apostles, and throughout the Gospels, and of course the ministry of Christ, and we work through all of these things, finding it all the way through. Even it took the time to step in on tongues, and I had this thought, just give me my thought here, but I just want you to think about that. I mean, what is tongues? You find out what tongues are back in Genesis. where God gave the different languages, the different tongues, right? And so you step into the New Testament, we don't want to just whack some new definition on the word. So somebody, somebody would stand up in the middle of church by order and set by course, except for in Corinth, Corinth was a little wild and they just did whatever they would happen to be doing and Paul sort of set that all in order. But someone would go, and God had given them something. and they'd stand up to say it, and as they spoke it, it'd come out in gareng gareng, or it'd come out in Spanish, or it'd come out in Maori, and not a single person there, not one could speak it. And they'd go, what was that? I wonder if that come from, how do I tell whether old mate is having a stroke and can't talk properly? or God is trying to give us something. And you know how you could tell? Because someone on the other side of the room went, I know what he just said. And he couldn't speak Garenk Garenk or Balinese or South African. I mean, you stand up in our church and say something in South African, half the congregation will know what you're saying, right? I won't. But God said, here's something given and here's something understood and someone who couldn't speak that language spoke it and someone who couldn't understand that language understood it and gave it to the church and the church was able to go, hey, we know this fellow and we know this fellow and they've both testified that what they've done has been because of the Holy Spirit of God. And you know what the Word of God was confirmed by with tongues? It was confirmed by the mouth of two or three witnesses. That they went, that was from God, right? I grew up in a Pentecostal church. Interpretation, what's that? Not in the church I grew up in. I'm not even getting on that. What we're looking at is how do we identify what the Word of God is? And it's always been tough. It's always been a challenge. that we've needed God to reveal that to us. Even back in the Garden of Eden. I mean, the very first time, when it came from the lips of God himself. Even then, Eve was challenged with, yea, hath God said. And she had to go, well, what is it that God said? And you know, someone went and added to it. Did you catch that? You read that carefully. Someone added to the word of God. And she had a testimony in her life, an understanding in her life, that if she was to touch that tree, she would die. And maybe she'd touched it a few times and gone, nothing's changed. But the Word of God never said if you touch it. I've often wondered about that. Maybe it makes good fence posts. Maybe that's what the tree of knowledge of good and evil was for. Maybe it was for chairs or furniture. But it wasn't for eating. But someone added to the Word of God. And that gave room for the devil to step in and go, what is the Word of God? Can you even know it? Is it even discernible to know what God has said? Yea, hath God said? And so Shane took us, and he took us through just identifying the Word of God and how to, and that task that we've seen needed throughout all the ages. And the early church, we're gonna get to it shortly, they had to figure out, well, which one of these letters is inspired and which one isn't? A mate in church the other day just said to me, he just found out that there's a book that Peter wrote, you know, the Apostle Peter, there's a book that Peter wrote back in the day that's similar to Revelation. Peter sat down and we go, oh, we've got other, we don't do that with Charles, why when Charles Spurgeon writes a book, why do we not get all torn up about that? Is that inspired writings? Peter had some things to write down, he had some knowledge, he put it in a book, wrote it down, a few people published it, here's a book that Peter wrote apparently and it's got some things about it that's similar to Revelation, but it's not Bible. It's just some knowledge that Peter had. But you know, the early church, they had to figure that out. Well, what do I do with this letter from Paul and that letter from Paul? How do I navigate this? They had to figure out and have some discernment. What is the Word of God? How do I understand what the Word of God is? We live in a day and time where I praise God that this work's been done and proven true, the canonization of scripture. I don't have to sit here and try and figure out whether I should be reading Thomas's gospel or not. I just trust them old fellas got it right and God preserved his word in the church and he's given it to us today and I'm not gonna lose a lick of sleep about some YouTube video saying they've found some new book and some new gospel. I'll just be faithful with what was given to me and the things that I've been taught by faithful witnesses, I trust them old fellows. I trust those men and women of the early church that they got it right. And God got it right through them. That's something we don't give a lot of stock in. It touches on a lot of things. You'll see at the end of your notes there's an article done by Pastor Buddy Smith. It's a good article and it touches on a few things. And if I bring it back in application to Graham's last point about the finances in the local church, you know what the wonderful thing about being a servant of God is? That my father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Amen? But you know where those hills are? They're in your paddocks. You ever think about that? What is God saying when he owns a cattle on a thousand hills? If he needs to, if he needs to, he'll just send a wind full of quail my way. I mean, if it comes to it, he'll just cause manna to fall from heaven. But you know why he'll do that? Do you know why he'll do that? Because his people are disobedient to give of the money that they have in their pockets that is actually God's. That's what it comes down to. If God's got to provide for His church and His work through miraculous means, I'll say it to you today, that I'll put it to you, that I suggest that's because of disobedience amongst God's people. Because when He whispers with a still and quiet voice, you know that money I gave you, it's not actually yours, it's mine, and I want you to take care of this need amongst our family. And we go, what was that, pizza night? Yeah, I think that was pizza night. Definitely pizza night. God uses his church. Touch on the church. We say we love the body of Christ. We love Christ. We adore Christ. You know what I've said? I've heard people say, I don't need the church anymore. I love my wife. I adore my wife. And I just want to be around her and I want her to be around me just as long as possible. Right? don't love the thought of my wife although I do I don't just love the spirit of my wife although I do I love her I love her in my presence do you know what it is to say I just don't know time for the church that's to say I love Christ but I can't stand his body build your marriage on that one fellows The wife wakes up in the morning and says, honey, I love you, but you're the ugliest box of hammers I've ever seen. Get away from me. I'll keep the ring, but I just want to avoid this whole relationship thing. We are the body of Christ. Amen. Christ indwells in us. I need to get back to my topic, don't I? We live in a day and time where we still have difficulty identifying the Word of God. You ever had a J-dub come to your door? And they break open their Bible and it reads a whole lot different to your Bible. You're going to have to do something about that. You're going to have to figure out what you're going to call that. What is that thing? What is that book that they're bringing out in front of you? You're going to have to do some discerning on what is the Word of God. And you know the day is coming where Christ will return. But you know who comes before Christ returns? A false Christ. An anti-Christ. And you're going to have, this world is going to have to have some discernment about who is Christ and who is the anti-Christ. And you go back, we touched on this last year, you go back and look over, well, that strong delusion that's been sent. You know what I think that, you know I read that to be? I read that to be, they'll just attach the name of Christ to the Antichrist. That they'll go, there is the Saviour. They'll take their little bit of Bible knowledge that they had growing up in church and they'll go, with all of my wisdom I can identify that that there is the Messiah. And they'll look to the Antichrist instead of the Christ. That's just my personal opinion. just giving you that, just from my personal opinion. But what I'm pointing out is that throughout the ages there's always been this need to discern the Word of God. So my purpose in these lessons is not to stand up here and lay again the foundational work and the doctrinal work that Neil laid or that Shane laid. I want to build off that. If you weren't here for that, just try and catch up. And at some stage, jump online, have a look at the lessons online, do some research yourself, get in the Bible yourself and read up on what the Word of God is. So where do we start on this thing? Here's a good place to start. Take your Bibles and turn with me to Psalms 12. Psalms 12. Verse 6 and verse 7. Psalms 12, verse 6 and verse 7. I want you to have your Bibles open. I want you to follow along as best you can. Psalms chapter 12. Verse 6 and verse 7. And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times. O Lord, you will keep us safe and protect us from such people forever. Is that what your Bible says? Huh. Let's try a different passage of Scripture. Go with me to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. Matthew 7 and find verse 14. Yeah, it's disappointing. Just bear with me, I'm a little bit behind. Matthew 7, where did I tell you? What does Bernie say? Where did I say? I wasn't listening. That's what Bernie says, isn't it? I'll just try and quote a little bit of Bernie since he's not here. Matthew 7 verse 14. Let's, where's my verse? Matthew 7. in verse 14. Why can't I find it? Here we go. I don't actually have the Bible I'm after here. I think you've caught on to what I'm doing here and I thought I had a New King James but I don't in this year. Maybe I left it out there. Does anyone have a new King James this morning? It's alright, we won't stone you. You can own up to it. That'll do. Matthew 7 verse 14. Someone got it yet? You getting it? Can you go quicker please? Narrow is the way and difficult is the gate. What's yours say Dan? because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. Can I ask you something? Is salvation narrow and straight or narrow and difficult? Is it difficult to get saved? Let's have a look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Tell you what, I ain't being saved. I am saved. That work is done. I am growing. I am being conformed into the image of his dear son, but I am not being saved. Kinda driving in some tent pegs about where I stand, but that's not unfamiliar in this room. Everyone knows where I stand on this issue with Bible versions. But what I do wanna do as we step into this is to remove any sort of idea that it doesn't matter that much. Any sort of idea of you know, any version will do. Just a couple of verses here. I'm doing it the wrong way around. If I told you all you guys to turn to 1 John 5, verse 7, actually do that. 1 John 5, verse 7. In all but one book I have up here, I won't be able to find it. I got about 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. I got about 10 different Bible versions up here. And in all of them, except one, I won't find this passage of scripture you're about to read out. 1 John chapter 5 verse 7. What have we got? Anybody? That verse is only found in the King James or a composite Bible that brings number of texts together. But predominantly that passage is not found, it's not in any of the ones I have up here. It raises a lot of questions, that's what I want to raise. I want you, I want, I want to raise questions in your mind. I want you to go, well what do I do with this? Should it be there or shouldn't it be there? How on earth do I know? Last one. Two verses. Let's go the front two rows. The front two rows I'd like you to turn to Titus chapter 3 verse 10. Titus chapter 3 verse 10. And Tanya can you look it up in the New King James please? Titus chapter 3 verse 10 and The back two rows, if you can look up Luke chapter 12 verse 51. And Tanya, I need you to get that one as well. Titus 3.10 and Luke 12.51. Oh, hang on, hang on. That's the spoiler. Don't you, don't you... I need to get it from everyone else first. Alright. All right, so, somebody from the first two rows. And if you're in the back two rows, I just want you to believe them, okay? One person's gonna read it, everyone else is gonna check it, and at the mouth of more than two or three witnesses, we're gonna establish what the Bible says here. So somebody on the front two rows, read out Titus 3, verse 10. A man that is an heretic after the first and second abomination rejects. Okay, that word's admonition. But we'll talk to your homeschooling mom about that, all right? He's good with his physics, alright? He's good with his physics. You're supposed to rebuke a heretic after the first or second admonition. You're supposed to separate at distance. Alright? Tanya, what's it say in the New King James? Okay, divisive man, heretic. I can give, in all honesty, I can, it's not as tight, it's not as clear, it's not as plain, but I can suffer that until I turn to, what are the back two rows? Where are you supposed to be, Luke? Okay, can one of you read that out, please? What did Christ come to bring? So He was a what man? A divisive man. Would not your life testify to that, that Christ has caused you to be divisive? dividing between right and wrong, between fellowship with light and fellowship with darkness. Can I say to you there is a world of difference between being divisive and being a heretic? Right? It's not just about what one passage says here and what one passage says there. It's about how they relate to each other across the whole Scriptures. You know one of the great testimonies about how we can have confidence that what we have in front of us is the Word of God? It's because 66 books written by three continents and twenty odd authors? I lose the numbers. But here, across the ages, across geography, across personalities, God has brought His Word together without contradiction. Right? What all the doctrines that Neil taught on, the testimony that Shane taught through the Scriptures, is that all of that has been given deliberately and is therefore kept deliberately. It's not just by what's this word, how should this word best be translated. It's about how is it that God has given His word so that there is no contradiction, so that they all have a harmony that testifies to the grace of God upon His written word. So that's the application that we're looking to come to. Now, that took about half an hour longer than it should have. But let's go real quick back to the previous church era's issue of canonization. How do you know that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all that there is. I want you to see just a few principles. I'm going to race through this, okay? For the sake of time, I'm going to hit the ground running on this one. We've got 20 minutes. Canon, the canon of scripture. The word canon comes from the Greek word canon. You can read the slide there. Here is probably the best quote that sums it up, is that canonicity, to use that term, is determined by God. God decides what is His Word and what isn't. Canonization is recognizing that this scripture is from God. That it is God's Word. It's going back and saying in Genesis, let there be light was God's Word. But you know what? Let there be light was God's word just as much as in the beginning, God. One came from the lips of God. Let there be light. The other came through the inspiration of God and the pen of Moses. That in the beginning, God. And canonization is simply identifying or the word we use in English to go, this is God's word. It's the process of determining which writings measure up as real. Canonicity is determined by God and discovered by man. It's a bit like gold. God made it, man digs it up and recognizes it. There's a difference, isn't there? That canonization of going, okay, how do I recognize that this is from God? It was the recognition in the writings, it was the recognition of a book's God-given authority. So how did they figure it out? How is it that they worked through the process? My slides got bogged. Have a look in Acts chapter 20. In Acts chapter 20 and verse 26, the Bible tells us here, Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Why do we need canonization? Why is it that they worried about it? Because there is a complete amounts of counsel that God wants to give. Do you understand that? The counsel that God wants to give is not endless. The counsel of God has a measure on it. There's knowledge that He does not want you to have. There's books that He told Daniel to close up, that He said to John, don't reveal it. Even all the things that Christ spoke of when He was on this earth, the Scriptures say books can't contain it. There is a limit to what God wants you to have as far as knowledge of His will and who He is whilst you're on this earth. Eternity? I'd suggest that's a different matter. But whilst you're on this earth, there is a whole council. you can be given the whole counsel of God. You should be in a church where the whole counsel of God is preached. You, as you preach and teach and sit across coffee tables and share the word of God and find yourself in an Apollos and give him a greater understanding of who Christ is, You should know what is the whole council that God expects me to teach. And that's a big task. And I say this in our church, I've said it a number of times. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday, Sunday school. When I have to teach the whole council, when a church has to teach the whole council, that's not enough time. If you're coming to church Sunday mornings, you will not in your lifetime get the whole counsel of God. Your decision to only be in church Sunday morning is a decision to not be taught the whole counsel of God. That's my opinion, and I can back it up with a fair bit of scripture. And I can certainly lay it out in plain illustration that you've got only a limited amount of time. to absorb into your life the whole counsel of God. And if you're like me, you faulted at the starter's gun. Not many of us started when we were six or eight or 10 or 12. You better double down. And so much the more as you see the day approaching. You know? We see life getting hectic and go, I just don't have time for church. The Bible sees life getting hectic and says, you better make double effort for church. You better make sure you do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. I mean, you have double down on this thing. There's a whole council that is to be given. And so therefore it was necessary to identify what the whole council of God. In first Corinthians 13. In first Corinthians 13. Find your place in verse nine. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. That word perfect, I would like to say to you, I know you're going to snicker, I know you're going to laugh, but I am the perfect man. But that's all right. So is Jim. Yeah, you are too, bro. You're the perfect man. Oh, I'm not a perfect person, that's quite right. But you know what that word perfect means? Have a look at it. It means complete. I ain't got any more growing to do. In fact, the growing that I'm doing could probably find a scripture or two to go. It's probably contrary to God's will, you know. I don't want to grow out too much, all right? It's the idea of complete. And the Bible uses that word perfect in that way quite often. But here the argument is that there is a perfect Word of God coming. There is a whole council and there will be the arrival of that whole council, the complete, the full, the finished. I don't need someone to come to me without the Bible and go, I've just got a word of knowledge over your life. If you've got counsel for me, bring it with the Scriptures. That's the counsel I need. I trust that that will throughly furnish me unto all good works. If it's not in the Scriptures, I don't need it. It's extra biblical teaching. Now, you don't want to get too carried away on that, right? Despite all the jokes, there ain't nowhere in the Bible that's going to tell you how to brew a good cup of coffee, all right? And so I've applied some extra biblical knowledge so that I can make myself a decent coffee of a morning, all right? We don't want to get too tight on this thing, but I tell you what, I'd rather be tighter than looser, right? I would rather go without a good cup of coffee for the rest of my days because there's nowhere in the Bible that tells me how to make it, than go without something that God did want me to have from His Word, because I didn't have the whole counsel and I wasn't interested in the whole counsel. There's a world of difference there in those two attitudes. Go back a chapter, no not a chapter, go back, oh no, just over a verse, When I was a child, I spake as a child, sorry, when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. You know what he's saying there? I didn't use the illustration of me being the perfect man because it was a funny illustration. I used it because it's the illustration that Paul uses. He's going, I've matured into manhood, and I put away childish things. Do you know what the church was? We're in 1 Corinthians 13. Here, it's dealing with gifts and tongues and all of these sign gifts. And you know what he's saying? He's saying in the infancy of the church, you're going to need something that isn't going to be needed in the manhood of the church. In the childhood of the church, there's some things that you're going to need to understand and determine by the mouth of two or three witnesses what the word of God is. But the day is coming where the whole word of God will be there and it'll just be written down and you'll just be able to pick it up. You'll be able to go down and dim it. You won't even have to pull it out of a scroll. You can just grab it out of a bookshelf where the whole counsel of God is. What he's giving here is understanding and expectation. that there is a whole counsel of God, that that complete, perfect, full counsel of God can be given, can be found, and the day is coming, in Paul's day, the day is coming where it will be here. And you can look at, mark them down, Ephesians 4.13, 1 Corinthians 14, It's not 2.0, I'm not sure what happened there. 1 Corinthians 14, it's probably verse 20. Hebrews 5, 14, give yourself some options there. It could be verse two, it could be verse 20. I'm not sure what I did on my notes there. Hebrews 5, 14 and 1 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. There is a reason to look for a complete counsel of God, to look for having the whole book. And if there was a reason to look for the whole book and pursue after the whole book, then I'd say to you there's a reason given for us to keep the whole book, right? Theia's lexicon. I'm not much one for Greek. This word here, teleos, Brought to its end. Finished. Wanting nothing. Necessary to completeness. Do you understand that's why I'm the perfect man? There is nothing biologically that needs to happen for me to finish growing into manhood. I'm there and I have the beard to prove it. Alright? It's done. That which is perfect, what is it? That which is brought to its end is finished. That's what the promise is attached to. That there is something coming. In Paul's day, it's already arrived now, but Paul's day, that's the point he was making, alright? Jesus answered them, I told you and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because you are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Huh, how is it that we are supposed to be able to identify the Word of God? How is it that we're supposed to be able to identify what books should be counted in our Bible? Man, I reckon you would need a university degree for that. I might have to make my way down to Alexandria in Egypt and see if I can't get myself a university degree so that I can, that's not what the Bible says. Jesus said, my sheep will hear my voice and they will know me. There'll be a recognition of the shepherd's voice. Do you believe that? My sheep hear my voice and I know them. And what do they do? They follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. The context here is about accepting Christ in his earthly ministry. That's the immediate context of this passage. But the ongoing truth is still forward that salvation comes because I recognize the voice of my good shepherd. and He knows me and I follow Him because I recognize the voice, that's God, I just trust Christ, I trust Christ and I follow Him and He knows me, I'm His, He is mine and I walk in that relationship. Why is it then if we are so confident in the Word of God for salvation that we mature into a position where we go, but it really can't be known now? Why can't I rest on God's promises in the general for the very specific. And I tell you, we can. What you need for identifying the Word of God is not a university degree. Ultimately, you need the Spirit of God that will guide you into all truth. And here's what we want to do with that. We want to hit the most popular sentence for every time you and I get into rebellion against God. Well, I just feel that God would want me to. I just feel like the Holy Spirit has said... the Holy Spirit told me... I tell you what, if the Holy Spirit has told you something, bring me some Bible for it and not some... not some twisted up out of context verse about how Paul went out into the wilderness so God told him to go on a hunting trip. That's not how we use the Word of God. Take it and go here's the biblical principle where God has spoken personally to my life. Let me bring it back. Bible tells me that he that findeth a wife findeth a good thing. Now I got kind of specific on that. Down to just one. Yeah? I trusted God's Word, the truth of God's Word. Praise God, it was after I was saved. And with the little bit of wisdom I had, I measured her against the Word of God, and she measured me against the Word of God. I know why I said, yeah, you measure up. I don't know what she was reading. She must have been... She must have had a different book. But she went, this is what God would have me do in my specific circumstance, by walking in obedience to His Word, not walking in disobedience to His Word. You know what you won't find? You won't find a Bible passage that tells you you need to marry that lost man you're in a relationship with. You'll find a Bible passage that tells you, you need to break off that relationship. You need to deliberately fall out of love with him that you accidentally fell into love with or her. And go, it doesn't matter how you feel, it matters what God's word says. And you know what we do with that? We go, well, what about this example? And what about that example? And what about this example where it all worked out? Well, God's gracious. But we mistake God's graciousness for our wisdom. And we mistake God's long suffering for His permission. And that same truth applies with Bible versions as well as it did with the canonization of the very books that you hold in front of you. At some stage, You've got to go, this lines up with God's word. This lines up with the truth of God's word. These principles are the principles that God has given us. Here's the thing, what I'm trying to, and I'm trying to back you into a corner for two reasons. One, let me just, let me just call him by name. I doubt Matty Jackson's ever read anything but a King James Bible, right? But I wonder if he knows why. Not knows the answers. It's easy to learn the answers. But really knows why. How old are you, Matty? 16. See, next year, the year after, maybe last year, I don't know, some pretty little thing's gonna come soaring past. And Matty, in all of his spirituality, is gonna go, I see that she is good. But then he's gonna have to decide whether he wants to follow his heart and his flesh, which will give him every reasoning to pursue a relationship with just whoever. Or he's gonna have to go, hmm, that got my attention. I better go to God's word. to find out what he wants, what he would have me do. For some reason, we expect that out of our teenagers with their relationships. I expect it out of my children. If I asked Matty, he would give me all the right answers as to what sort of a person he should marry, who he should enter into a relationship with and all of that. But you know what's going to have to happen one day? He's going to have to not just know the right answers, and like I say, maybe he did it last year, I don't know. He's going to have to go, I've lived the right answers. I've put this into practice in my life. Not just, not just know it, but stand on it. There's things that my kids don't bring into my home. Because they know if they do, I have sledgehammers and shotguns and different ways of dealing with things I don't want in my home. But you know what I've really appreciated? Is when they've matured to the point where they've gone, I don't bring it into Dad's home because it's not in my life. And they don't just know the right answers that Dad wants them to give, they know the answer. When the Lord spoke about knowing his voice, he said, my sheep will know it. He said it on the first year, and I need to say it every year. Bible block training like this will give you a lot of things. But does anyone remember what I said last year and the year before? I think I said it through the two years, not the year before, last year and this year. That knowledge will give you. Anyone recall? It'll give you a fat head. The Bible's much more polite than me. Knowledge puffeth up. And all your knowledge will just feed your flesh. You don't need head knowledge about what the Word of God is. You need biblical knowledge about what the Word of God is. You don't need an answer. You need God's answer on all these things. You don't even need the right answer. You need the answer that God has given you. Because if I go back and pick on Matty, maybe three or four girls will walk past where he'll just go, the Bible says no, the Bible says no, the Bible says no. Ooh, the Bible says yes to her. Hmm. Ha ha. But you know what, there's a lot of good women in this world. There's a lot of good godly women in this world. I understand they're hard to find. Good godly men are hard to find, but God's still got them. They're still out there, right? And you shouldn't marry the first godly woman that comes into your life. Just because she's the first one to come into your life doesn't mean she's supposed to be your wife. Right? It's not just finding somebody, anybody, that the Bible says, yeah, they're okay. You're then gonna have to go, Lord, I need some specifics from you for the rest of my days. And if you approach anything in the Bible without that, if you get it right, it'll only be because a broken watch is right twice a day as well. It'll only be out of fluke. You need to find the specific leading of God in line with his word that he goes, this, this is what's right on every doctrine. And you know why he backs us into that corner? Because without faith, it's impossible to please God. You're not going to remove every doubt before you take a step of faith. In fact, if you do remove every doubt before you take a step of faith, it's not faith, it's a step of knowledge. You're just going to have to trust. For the sake of time, I'm gonna race just, where are we at, where are we at, time-wise? Someone that was watching the clock, when do I need to pull up? 12.40, so I got like, we're five minutes behind, right? So where am I supposed to be? 12.35, 12.45, we're supposed to be done. All right, I got five minutes. I don't know if I did my maths right, but that's the maths we're standing on, all right? My sheep hear my voice and I know them. In applying that scripture, the Bible says here, we have also a more sure word of prophecy in 2 Peter 1.19. Where unto do you dwell that you take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. You didn't get to pick and choose whether it was God's Word or not. If it was determined and proven to be God's Word, we just had to stand on it. Can I suggest to you, knowing you for the brief time I've known some of you and others that I've known for a great deal of time, you've picked up this Bible with a great deal of confidence that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And you were content that the 66 books within these cover was the whole counsel of God. Do you need to add to it? Didn't need to take any books out of it. You believed that passage and you stood on it. Men and brethren, this scripture in Acts 1.16, must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. The scriptures must needs have been fulfilled. What'd they do? New Testament acts, New Testament occurrences, And they went, that is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. See, we take that and we go, wow, they did great on that. They got that right. We got the whole counsel of God to see they got that right. Do you understand that Simeon sat in the temple with a promise of God that he will not die until he's seen the Lord's Christ. And boy after boy after boy came in to be circumcised, and he was looking through the biblical requirements. Male? Bethlehem? Hmm. Hmm. I wonder. I wonder. I wonder. But you know what? When Christ come in, you don't get any of that. It's just like he went over and went, this is fulfillment of God's promise. How did he know? Was there a neon sign? Was there a chorus of angels? Was there a witness of the Holy Ghost in his life where he knew he's God's voice and God said, that's the one. That's the one. Can I say to you, when it comes to the word of God, there is nothing wrong with standing on something that you go, I just trust God. That's what we do with the canon of scripture. That's what the apostles did and the early church did. And that's what the fulfillment of the Old Testament was in these prophecies. They went, hey, that there, that's the fulfillment. I see it now. No questions asked. 1 Samuel 3.1, the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision. There was a time back in Samuel's day where there was a preciousness to the Word of God because there was a scarcity to it and there was no open vision. And so you know what they stood on? They stood on the Word of God that they had and it was precious to them. Something to be defended, something to be cherished, something to be held on to. I want you to see in this canonization in sorting things out the attitude, the heart with which you need to come at this topic. Does that make sense? In the days of Christ, there was in the literature of the Jewish, and there's this, I don't have the time to go through it because we're trying to bookend some things here, but they called the Old Testament the scriptures, and it was commonly regarded as having come from God, and they called it the word of God. You understand why we take the Old Testament as the Word of God? Because a bunch of old Christians before us recognized it as the Word of God. You say, I don't know if I want to stand on that. I'll close with this illustration. In a court of law in biblical times, what did you need to prove a man's guilt in biblical times? Sorry? Two or three witnesses. In modern day, what has trumped two or three witnesses? What has become better evidence than two or three witnesses? There's something stronger in a court of law than circumstantial evidence in modern day. Sorry? DNA testing? Physical evidence? Cameras? Catch it on video? I mean, if you got them on video, that's pretty much it, isn't it? Yeah? Until five years ago. And now with deep fakes and, you know, you can't, just because you see a video of it doesn't mean, you know what's about to happen in the next 50 years, 100 years, however long, with Christarian? What's going to happen is video evidence is going to go out the window and we're going to fall back to the mouth of two or three witnesses. If it was actually visually seen by a group of people, that's going to be better evidence than some video that you can't prove whether it was doctored or not. That's the advice of someone that left school at grade 10 and went chasing cows, so you take that as far as you want. But that's where I think we're heading, alright? The early church, I know we're Old Testament saints, but God's people, they recognized and said, this is the word of God. You know what I'm willing to do? I'm willing to stand on that. I'm willing to stand on that in the Old Testament, and we're just gonna jump through all the rest of this, and I'm willing to stand on that in the New Testament. And as we close it out, the New Testament, I'm just talking about canon, right? We stand on it, and the confidence that the books that we have are the whole counsel of God. And I could take the time to go through this slowly, but I would really be just laying again the doctrines that Neil taught. But I want to force you into a corner of going, how is it that you deal with this book in every other topic other than Bible versions? And why is it when we come to Bible versions, that we then switch over to some other form of qualifying and understanding and determining what is the Word of God and what isn't.