And I need to get everything set up down on my computer. And so we'll get started here in just a moment. And then let me get this set up here. I think I need to connect still. Yeah, there we go. Can somebody read off those four numbers for me? 1-3-7-6. 1-3-7-6? Correct. All right, thank you. And then hopefully that will change over. Great. All right. And then make sure I'm on the right slide here. Okay, so we have been working our way through these six words that help us in understanding the revealed word of God as we have been in the series that I've entitled Bible Basics for Discipleship. And we have basically been doing a study of bibliology our way through these specific words related to the revealed word of God. And this week in the news, I had come across this in the news, and then somebody texted me a link to an article, and this is the oldest existing Hebrew Bible. And it is 1,000 years old. It is the oldest and most complete Hebrew Bible. It is set up in the Old Testament, I believe in the three divisions, all the books of the Old Testament, but in different divisions, with the Torah, the Pentateuch, and then the Prophets and the poems, from what I understand. And it is expected to auction for $50 million. It has been a carefully protected and preserved Hebrew Bible that dates all the way back to the late 9th to early 10th century. And it is known as the Codex Sassoon. And that is because of the name of the previous owner, Sassoon. And so that's who they named it after. But incredible. If you want to go out and read about it, I'm sure you can Google it and find a couple of different websites that talk about it, but just another evidence of God's preserved Word. So these are the six words. We've added a seventh that we'll eventually get to, Lord willing, with illumination that I have included in the topic of interpretation. We've been working our way through Revelation and Inspiration, and then we'll see if we get to Preservation today. And then in a few weeks, Dan Clark will take part of the month of March, starting with the second Sunday in March, and he'll be teaching through some different topics related to science, and then we'll resume, Lord willing, in April with the rest of this study. All right, we've been through several of these points already. in regards to proofs of inspiration, and then we spent some time last week on canonicity, kind of a big word which basically means the standard or the measuring line by which we identify the 66 books of the Bible. and we have a completely trustworthy canon of scripture. And you can get into places in the internet, I even refer to a website on biblical archeology, and I look through that because it's fascinating, the discoveries, but you read the, You read the articles on this website and you realize that they do not believe that the Bible is the 100% infallible, authoritative, Word of God. So when I go to that website, I have that in my mind. I realize that even though they are giving me facts about archaeological discoveries, they are not looking at those archaeological digs with the same worldview that I am. So as I'm reading some of the articles, and it's fascinating what they find, they will even throw doubts into a paragraph or two about does this prove, or does this really verify? And this is what some Christians, and they lump all the Christians together, and I was reading an article this week on that website, and they said that it was the Catholic Church that decided on the books of the Bible. And just baloney, just malarkey, stuff that is not even historically accurate. and obviously is contrary to what we know regarding God's word. So, canonicity, the measuring rod, the measuring standard by which we know that the 66 books of the Bible are the 66 books inspired by God that are the literal God-breathed words of God. So, Measuring standard, when we deal with canonicity, we understand that the canon of scripture was determined by God and merely recognized by man. I made the point last week that if God gave us his word, which he did, and he gave us the Holy Spirit to indwell us, which he did, then wouldn't it make sense that God revealed his word, gave us the Holy Spirit, and then doesn't it make sense that he would then verify that? With believers recognizing, with the help of the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth, that these books are the word of God? Yes. We talked about some romantic letters and correspondence. And there was a uniqueness about those, and we keep those, and we put them in a safe place, and maybe once in a while we pull them out. But those obviously are not inspired, but they do, in a way, illustrate how those romantic letters, that correspondence, how it has a way of rising to a level in our hearts and our minds that these are special. Okay, the word of God is the inspired, God-breathed word of God. It's not just romantic letters that have a sentimental value to us, that's not my point, that's not what I'm trying to say. My point is that God gave us his word, he gave us the Holy Spirit, so therefore, believers, true believers, would recognize, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the books that God gave us, the words that God gave us. So man did not determine the canon, God did. Man simply recognized what God had already revealed. We see in the book of Exodus, 50%, 90% in Leviticus are direct quotes from God. Christ himself quoted Psalm 118. 22 and 23, Isaiah 61, one and two, he pre-authenticated the New Testament in John 16 and in John 14. And then there are 2,600 times an Old Testament author claimed to be writing God's word. Of those 2,600 times, 682 times were in the Pentateuch, 1,307 times in the prophetic books, 418 times in the historical books, and 195 times in the poetic books. Did the writers of Scripture understand and realize that they were receiving the very words of God? Sure they did. They understood that. And we don't see the writers, the human authors, taking credit for this inspired, these inspired words of God. They're not taking credit for it. They're giving the credit to God. These are the words of God. So we went through these five questions last week. And I'm gonna go ahead, I went too far, there we go. I'm gonna go back and review these. And again, 2 Peter chapter number one, we'll go back to 2 Peter chapter number one. And I know we have referred to this passage several times lately, but what a great passage along with 2 Timothy three and verse 16, for we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Wherein to you do well 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 scriptures of any private interpretation for the prophecy came not an old time by the will of man But holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost so man recognizing these are the very words of God God breathed and These are not of private interpretation. These are not the words of man that just were made up or that were specially inspired like Handel's Messiah or some other great literary work. No, these are the very words of God, the God-breathed words of God. And we see Peter recognizing that. And so as the New Testament was completed, The early church recognized, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the leading of the Holy Spirit, they recognized the 27 books of the New Testament that were to be included in the canon of Scripture. And there are five questions, just as our faith has substance and evidence, Faith, yes, is believing, trusting. There are aspects of our faith that are hard for us to completely comprehend and understand. The Trinity. God reveals in his word the Trinity. One God, three persons. It's hard for our finite minds to completely understand that. The eternality of God. God never had a beginning, never has an end. Our brain hurts trying to think through that. Have you ever lied there at night or just in a state of meditation and not talking about some sort of transcendental meditation, but just tried to think through what would, we can go back to our birthday, we can go back to all kinds of different things in life that have beginnings and they have ends. But God always has been and always will be. And if we just take a few minutes to try to meditate on that, it's overwhelming. Our brains begin to ache because it's too hard for us to comprehend the fact that God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. He is always going to be God and we are not him. So there's always, even though we are made in the image of God, in the likeness of God, as human beings, and we're distinct from the animals, we're not just a higher state of animal, But God is always gonna be God and we are not him. There's always going to be aspects of God and his character that we are not going to fully understand because he is God. Now there's going to be a greater understanding when we get into glory and we shall be known even as we are known, okay, but he's still going to be God. It's not like what the Mormons teach where eventually all of us will be God just like Jesus got to eventually become God. We will too. No, but that's what the Mormons teach. That's what a lot of false religions teach. No, it's not that we then reach a divine status, not at all. But we do understand that our faith has substance, our faith has evidence. So God revealed his word, and there are some clear ways that man recognized that these books of the Bible are the revealed word of God. First of all, is it authoritative? There were claims of inspiration and authority. Is it prophetic? Were the men who penned these words, did they have the gift of prophecy? Did they make predictions that came true? Were they authenticated with signed gifts and revelatory gifts? And I talked about the four periods of miracles in history. Moses, who was responsible for writing the first five books of the Bible, Elijah and Elisha, that expands much of the calendar, who were also given miracle-working abilities, signed gifts. Jesus and the apostles, another time where large amounts of Revelation, the entire New Testament, is given and authenticated with the signed gifts, and those have ceased. But then there's one other time in Scripture that is mentioned, and that's the two witnesses in the book of Revelation. where there is miracle-working abilities given to these two men, and again, it's at a time when the church is gone, and there needs to be a revelation of God to man, and God gives these two witnesses signed gifts. Four times in scripture, only four times in history that we see where God has given man miracle-working power. Now, is God still doing miracles? Yes. Does God not give doctors and smart people the ability to discover medicines and do surgeries? Incredible, the types of medical technologies we have. Many of us would not even be living today if it weren't for the advances in medical technology and some of the surgeries and medicines. Now, man then obviously can go too far with that. And man then thinks that he has the healing powers when actually, when you think about it, all man is doing is taking the healing powers that God has built in to the human body through immune systems and various ways in which the body heals itself. God has allowed the doctors and other medical people to discover some of those methods to help the body heal itself, but it's ultimately God that does the healing, because it's God that is in control. By him, all things consist. But there are obviously, in the scriptures, four times where God gives miraculous signed gifts to men, and those are times where significant portions of the scripture are given. and God authenticated their revelatory gifts with miraculous sign gifts, okay? Any questions on that? All right, and then is it authentic, truthful, no contradictions, no errors? Obviously, if there were errors, if there were contradictions, if there were lies, then it wouldn't be the word of God, because God is not a liar, he is holy. Is it dynamic? Does it have the power to change lives, to work spiritually? Again, we can pick up all kinds of different books, and there's some good books and some good biographies, and we've been blessed by some good books through the years, but none of them measure up to the Word of God. They just don't. And there's a handful of books that have been very instrumental in my life, but none of them would I even put on the same shelf with the Bible. And then number five, received, used, and preserved by the people of God. And then we've been in 2 Peter 1, and then last week we went over to 2 Peter 3, in verse 15, and again making reference to this, an account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, and then he goes on. He's recognizing, Peter is, that Paul has been used of God to receive divine revelation, and is referring to that as scripture. Here we see it already in the New Testament, the recognition by the early church of books of the Bible that were clearly understood by the early church as being the very God-breathed revelation of God. So received, used, and preserved by God's people. And then we have approved by Christ, Luke 24, and verse 44, and there we see Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Again, Jesus stakes his character, his own statements. If Jesus makes claim to the scriptures, being the inspired word of God, being all of him, All about him, and he even gives the three-part canon of the Old Testament, and he speaks of the authority and the inspiration of the Old Testament, and of course, he pre-authenticates the New Testament with his disciples in John 14, John 16, even prior to this time, because this time in Luke 24 is after the resurrection. But Jesus said, the scriptures cannot be broken. Man shall not live by bread alone, but with every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So if the word of God is not God's word, then Jesus Christ is a liar. Jesus Christ is a sinner, and he's not the savior of the world. Do we recognize how serious this doctrine is of the inspiration of the Bible? Jesus stakes his very character on this claim. The Old Testament canon, Luke 11, verse 51, We already saw the three parts in Luke 24, but also in Luke 11, in verse 51, where we also see there, from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple, verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation. Abel is in what book of the Bible? Genesis. Zacharias is in the latter part of the Old Testament, Second Chronicles being the last book written in the Old Testament canon. And Zacharias lived in the time of Second Chronicles, the time that Second Chronicles was written. That's when Zacharias lives. So Jesus is saying from Genesis to Malachi, the entire Old Testament is the very word of God. And now he's speaking in the context of you have persecuted the prophets and you are guilty of the blood of all of the prophets. And I don't want to get into that sermon, because that sermon's coming later, because I'll talk about that a little bit in this morning's message of the guilt, the blood of the prophets being on the hands of those who have rejected the Word of God, and of course, God's Son, Jesus Christ. But here we see the reference even to Genesis through 2 Chronicles, the entire Old Testament canon. And again, backed up by the very words of Jesus Christ. There are also many other Old Testament quotes by Christ. I think it was Earl that mentioned last week, as we were taking some questions from the floor, he mentioned about many times the disciples and Christ would quote from what translation? Anybody remember? The Septuagint. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, completed around 200 B.C., and many times the disciples and Jesus Christ would quote from the Septuagint, not that the Septuagint was the inspired word of God, inspiration only applies to the original manuscripts, but the Septuagint was an accurate translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. And Jesus and the disciples would quote from the Septuagint with the wording of the Septuagint making reference to the fact that the Septuagint was a translation, an accurate translation of the inspired manuscripts, the Masoretic Text of the Old Testament. Yes. Yes. Correct, yes. It's a great bridge. It's a great way in which we see God putting the words of scripture into the language of the common man in the widely accepted language of that day in the Greek language. We could go into some statistics. There are 320 direct quotes of the Old Testament by the New Testament authors. and 1,000 more direct references. So 320 direct quotes and 1,000 more direct references of the Old Testament by the New Testament authors. Did the New Testament authors not recognize the inspiration of the Old Testament? Did the New Testament authors not recognize the inspiration of the Old Testament? They did, they recognized it. They recognized the Old Testament is the inspired word of God. They recognized the canon of the Old Testament. Now, when a preacher gets up and says, we don't need the Old Testament anymore, what does that say? He's even making a statement that goes against what the New Testament authors were saying. The New Testament authors were making reference to the Old Testament being the inspired word of God. The New Testament explains and interprets the Old Testament, and yet we have a big name megachurch preacher who is not only compromising on homosexuality, but he's already compromised on the inspired Word of God and making reference to the Old Testament not being relevant and necessary anymore. And I mentioned it a week or two ago that no wonder he's compromising on homosexuality Because he's already compromised on the authority of the Word of God. And I go back to the same thing I've said over and over. These denominations that are now dealing with splits over homosexuality and sexual identity and moral issues, the reason why they're dealing with these issues now, 50 or 60 years later, is because they compromised on the doctrines of Scripture, on the inspired Word of God, on the authority of the Word of God, 50, 60, 70 years ago. They began to question the virgin birth of Christ, the deity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, on and on and on we could go. All which attack the inspired word of God. So no wonder they're compromising on sin issues. It's clear, we've seen it throughout the decades. And then we see also awareness by the apostles. We could go to so many different passages. There are so many where the apostles were aware, just in one, John 20, verses 30 and 31. The apostles were aware of the canon of scripture. John chapter 20. I went too far in my own page turning here. There it is, John 20, in verses 30 and 31. and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. John recognizes that the words that he is writing in his gospel accounts are the very words of God that God declared for him to write. There are other things. He even talks about the world not being able to contain all the books that could be written regarding Jesus Christ. But John realized he wrote a gospel account that was given to him by God, that these were the very words of God revealed to him. We could go to other passages, but we won't for sake of time. Cairns, who wrote Christianity Through the Centuries, A book I have, I've not read it cover to cover. It's a great reference book on church history. I borrowed this quote. People often err by thinking that the canon was set by church councils. You'll hear that a lot. Such was not the case. For the various church councils that pronounced upon the subject of the canon of the New Testament were merely stating publicly, as we shall see later, and he writes more about it later in the book, what had been widely accepted by the consciousness of the church for some time. One of the reasons the councils got together was because of false teaching. Marcion was a false teacher who was questioning the canon in the early days of the church. I think it was in the second century or third century. Marcion was a false teacher who was casting doubt upon the authority of scripture, the inspired word of God, and the New Testament canon. And so early church fathers, believers, rose up, as God called men should do, to deal with the false teaching, and what did they do? They proclaimed the truth, and they brought forth in these councils the evidence for the New Testament canon. The councils didn't decide what the canon was. The council said, look, these false teachers are saying these books are not the inspired word of God. Here is the evidence. These are the inspired word of God. They didn't make them the inspired word of God. They already recognized them and went in a court of law, so to speak, and gave the evidence of what was already true. that was being attacked by false teachers. Does that make sense? Questions on that? Okay. By 8175, there really wasn't any doubt. But there have been doubters through the years. And they're out there on the internet and in various books. But again, we go back through these. In this case, summarizing it into four. Statements, as these councils would come together, as believers would answer the opposition by these false teachers, they would come back to these principles, written by an apostle or someone closely associated to an apostle, consistent in doctrine with the faith, the apostles' doctrine. We've talked about the faith and the apostles' doctrine, divinely revealed body of truth, recognized by the early church, Verified, again, the Holy Spirit bearing witness, without error, no contradictions, no doctrinal errors, widely received by the church. And then a couple of early church fathers or councils, Athanasius, a well-recognized, and very widely accepted. I mean, he's an authoritative voice as the Bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius, in a letter around the time of Easter, 367 A.D., he writes a letter around the time of Easter. He writes a letter to the churches that's widely published, and in that he lists the same 27 books of the New Testament. Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, Jerome, Augustine are some other church fathers who also recognized in the early centuries of the church, they all gave testimony in their writings to the 27 books of the New Testament. Council of Carthage. I believe this was in response to the false teaching maybe of Marcion or I'm not sure. But nevertheless, the Council of Carthage met in 397 AD. By this time, Jerome is already translating from the original Hebrew into Latin. because Jerome completed the Latin Vulgate by 405 AD, excuse me. So by 397, Jerome is already translating from the original Hebrew and Greek into the Latin. And he establishes in his translation, the 66 books of the Bible, and then separates and acknowledges that the Apocrypha is not part of those 66 books. He separates that even though he included it in the Vulgate. Now we have to understand that there were also other historical church religious writings that were sometimes included in a biblical text. but they were separated from the 66 books. Can anybody think of why that would be the case? We're talking 400 AD here. Did you have a printing press? Did you have a copier machine? Did you have a computer? Did you have the internet? Did you have boxes of paper that you could go down to Staples and buy for about $30 a box? Could you go over to Payless and buy a 500-sheet ream of paper? What's my point? What am I getting to? You're gonna put everything you can into one printed volume, right? You're gonna try to get everything you can. The 66 books of the Bible, the Apocrypha was separated, but it was understood that it could have some historical value. Though it was not on the same level as the Inspired Word of God. Other religious writings, maybe some prayers, some early church. traditions that were included just for reference because they would want to print one volume with all that in there because they didn't have all the printing and the capabilities that we have today. Where we can, I can pull out my phone from anywhere in my house and I can print to my printer upstairs. Unbelievable. Google Print. I could go in my former ministry and I can do it here. I can stand here on the church's Wi-Fi and print to the printer in the other room. We did this at our former ministry. Just about anywhere in the building, as long as you were on a certain Wi-Fi, you could print. They couldn't do that. So some people come along and say, well, Jerome, he included the Apocrypha and the Latin Vulgate, but he separated it and did not consider it canonical. And by the time he's translating, the Council of Carthage comes along to respond to the false teachings about the authority and the inspiration of the Bible, and they merely verified what had been accepted by the early church. They recognized the 66 books of the canon, of the Bible. The Council of Laodicea, 40 years earlier, had also listed the same 66 books that are in our Bible. Philo, Origen, Athanasius, Melito, Jerome, Cyril, and the early church at large all rejected the Apocrypha. The Council of Carthage recognized some of the books of the Apocrypha, but recognized them as non-canonical. All right, so that brings us to the Apocrypha. Oh, people love to bring up the Apocrypha. People love to, and I need to switch to my other page of notes here, excuse me for a second. There we go. So what about the Apocrypha? A lot of people like to bring the Apocrypha up. And even this biblical archaeological website that I sometimes reference just for, again, historical information and archaeological digs that are being done. Even they try to say that the Apocrypha is the hidden books of the Bible. At least in one article that I read, this one author was saying the Apocrypha was really just as canonical as the other 66 books, but there was such a division among the Christians that there were these different camps of Christians who some accepted it and some didn't. I mean, just this conspiracy stuff that is not true to historical facts. The Apocrypha, was written long after the Old Testament was complete, first, second century, around the first, second century A.D. Malachi was complete by 426 B.C. We understand 2 Chronicles was the last written book, but 426 B.C., specifically Malachi, and If we were in chronological order, we understand 2 Chronicles was the last book of the Old Testament written. But again, the idea, the point is that around 400 BC, the Old Testament was complete. Then the Apocrypha came over 400 years later. So not even in the same time frame, okay? It was clearly understood that the apocryphal books did not have prophetic quality. The early church would read them and recognize these are not authoritative. They didn't fall into those four or five principles of being written by an apostle or someone close to an apostle, having the effect of change lives, et cetera. So they didn't match up with those. The early church did not recognize those. They didn't have the same authority. The epistles, again, were often written. They came from the hand of Paul, in some cases like Epaphroditus, handed to Epaphroditus or to Titus or to Timothy, and taken to the church. And then they were taken in front of the church and they were read. The church would come and would gather as they were read. This is the apostle Paul writing. These are the words of God. The early church, the apocryphal books didn't have that. They didn't have that same kind of geographic spread or read with that kind of authority that had that kind of authority on the church. The early church recognized that. Again, the Holy Spirit indwelling believers, the Holy Spirit bearing witness, and the Apocrypha did not have that same witness. No Apocryphal author even claims inspiration. Some even deny it. Is that not different from what we just talked about with the Old Testament and the New Testament and the authors and their claims, understanding they were even writing by the inspiration of God? The Apocryphal authors did not make that claim. Think about the errors and the contradictions in the Apocrypha. Why does the Catholic Church want the Apocrypha included? They don't like the authority of God's word, and it also includes something very, very important to the Roman Catholic Church, and what is that? Purgatory. Do we realize that's nowhere in the Bible? But the Apocrypha, I forget which book, makes reference to Purgatory, And so the Catholic Church wants the Apocrypha included because they want purgatory, which is very, very important in the Roman Catholic teaching regarding salvation and how you can have a limbo land where some of your sins get burned off before you end up in heaven, right? So there's a second chance in purgatory. And you can even have the prayers of the saints to help burn off your sins in purgatory. You can give to the church indulgences. You think the church has made some money off of indulgences through the years? Do you think that the Catholic church has made some money off of prayers for the saints in purgatory? Yeah, it's a great manipulative tactic, isn't it? Catholic church has gotten rich off of it. and kept people in guilt, and kept people in bondage, and blinded them, and kept them in this insecurity, always questioning, has not oral given testimony, and some of you with Catholic backgrounds, you know very well, firsthand, the doubts, the agony of always questioning, have I done enough? Well, at least I have purgatory, so if I, If I don't really live a good life, at least I can go to the priest and I can do my confessions, I can do my sacraments, I can do my Hail Marys, I can throw my salt over my shoulder or whatever, I don't know, rosaries, rub the rosaries, put my statue of Mary in my front yard, and then hopefully all those things will add up and then while I'm in purgatory, there'll be prayers for the saints, incense burned in my name, maybe they'll find a miracle that I have done and I'll become a saint hundreds of years after I'm dead. Meantime, the church is making big money and keeping people in control and manipulating, and they've blinded and they've captivated and sadly caused many people to go to their deaths condemned for eternity. The Apocrypha talks about purgatory. The Apocryphal books are not a part of the canon. Look at the other things, doctrinal errors, factual errors, teachings on sinless perfection, the worship of angels, almsgiving for salvation, indulgences, other ethical problems. There's even a apocryphal book that teaches suicide, it's okay to assassinate a government leader, excuses lying in some cases, endorses black magic, and praying for the dead. Think there's problems with the apocryphal books? Yes, and then number five, not sanctioned by early church leaders. They're also not significantly, I'm not sure I put this on here, there it is, they're also not significantly representing the Dead Sea Scrolls, and they were not allowed to be published or printed in a Bible until 404 AD, and that was the Latin Vulgate, when it was included as a historical reference, separate from the 66 books, again, as I mentioned earlier, because of printing needs, You put as much as you could into one volume, because they didn't have all the printing conveniences that we have today. Questions on the Apocrypha. I make reference to the Da Vinci Code. It's an old book, and it's an old movie now. But I make references to Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code quite a bit, because Dan Brown revived, in popular culture, Apocryphal teachings. and Gnosticism, and people were buying the book, and they were going to the movie, and they were being caught up in the lies. The shack is another one that's dangerous, very dangerous. I don't know. There's other ones out there. But be very, very, very, very careful. We've got to be very discerning today. All right. I like, and I like to make reference to this once in a while. I love R.A. Torrey's 10 Reasons for Trusting the Preserved Word of God. On the ground of the testimony of Jesus Christ, the ground of its fulfilled prophecies, the ground of the unity of the book, 66 books written by some 40 authors over 1,500 years in different countries provide a book without a single contradiction. United on the great doctrines and principles taught, it has to be supernatural. on the ground of the immeasurable superiority of the teachings of the Bible to those of any other and all other books, on the ground of the history of the book, its victory over attack. And I'm just doing this for summary on this topic. The ground of the character of those who reject the book, the ground of the influence of the book. To this day, the Bible is still the most, the best or the most sold book in all history. the ground of the inexhaustible depth of the book, the ground of the fact that as we grow in knowledge and holiness, we grow toward the Bible, on the ground of the direct testimony of the Holy Spirit. All right, so that brings us to where I want to pick up next week, and we're gonna look at the preservation of the Word of God. Fascinating how God in his providence and his divine sovereignty has preserved the word of God accurately for us today. It's incredible. We won't have time, I'm not a church historian, but it's a summary of how God preserved his word for us today. And it doesn't need to be controversial. It gets controversial, but it doesn't need to be. And I don't want it to be controversial when we talk about the preservation of the word. But we'll spend a week or two on this topic before Dan Clark does a series related to science. But any questions or comments before we close today? Yes, Derek. Right, you're exactly right. Right, if the kind of criticism that is applied to the Bible is applied to any other religious literature, those don't have a chance. Only the Bible has been able to stand up through time to all the criticism. Great point. Yeah, yeah. Yep, yeah. Right. Right. Yep. Right. It's a great point. And I even heard Craig Hartman one time say, Israel, Israel alone is a testimony of the authority of the word of God, because Israel, by human calculations, Israel should not exist. And they alone as a nation are representative of the authority, the inspiration of the word of God and the ability of God to preserve his people and his word. And I think it was Dr. Hartman that even talked about that one time in one of his workshops. Thank you for that. Anything else? All right, thank you again for your faithfulness, for getting up early on a Sunday morning and being here. And I hope I haven't thrown this over anybody's head. I've tried to keep the hay in the trough where we could eat it. But I know it gets a little bit informational. I don't want to overwhelm us with too much. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's inexhaustible. At the same time, I don't want to throw you from the end of a dock into 12 feet of water. I'd rather kind of wade in at least, you know, ankle deep, knee deep, and then waist deep, right? All right. Thank you. I appreciate that, though. All right. Let's close in prayer, and then we'll get ready for the service. Lord, we thank you for your word. Thank you for the substance and the evidence of our faith. and the divine providence in, Lord, delivering your word to us and preserving your word for us, and that we, without a doubt, know for a fact that we have the revealed word of God in our hands today, and we're not lacking anything, we're not missing anything, and that, Lord, we can trust your word And we know that Jesus Christ is the living word of God, and the word of God is all about Jesus Christ. And Lord, may we once again go deep in our faith and our trust and live obedient lives for your glory. Bless now the service to follow, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, we'll get ready for the service to start in about 15, 16 minutes.