OUTLINE OT NT INTRODUCTION 2. The Holy Scriptures, or the Word of God written, consist of all the books of the Old and New Testaments. These are: THE OLD TESTAMENT: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. THE NEW TESTAMENT: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation. All of these are given by the inspiration of God to be the standard of faith and life. 2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Tim. 5:17-18; 2 Pet. 3:16. 3. The books commonly called the Apocrypha were not given by divine inspiration and so are not part of the canon or standard of the Scriptures. Therefore, they have no authority for the church of God and are not to be recognized or used in any way different from other human writings. Luke 24:27, 44; Romans 3:2. God has recorded the saving knowledge of Himself in a book, we call it the Bible, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the 1689 are concerned with the question, ‘Which books should and shouldn’t be in the Bible?’ Paragraph 2 states positively those books which should be considered the Word of God in both the Old and New Testaments, and paragraph 3 states negatively those books that should not be considered part of the Canon of Scripture. Once again the 1689, although addressing historical issues, namely the Roman Catholic Church and its endorsement of the Apocrypha as the Word...

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The warning to flee the city The reason for the fall of the city INTRODUCTION If you visit Rome today, among the many sites you will is see the Arch of Titus, an honorific arch built by the emperor Domitian in 81 AD in honour of his older brother Titus and his father Vespasian and their victory in conquering Jerusalem in 70 AD. There is a famous carving of the plunders of war including items of furniture from the temple. Most famous is a depiction of the Menorah, the 7 stemmed candle from the Holy Place, the design of which was used for the emblem of the modern state of Israel. The Chief Rabbi of Rome forbade any Jew walking under the arch because of what it portrayed, the plundering of the temple, the fall of Jerusalem and one of the most terrible events to happen to Jews. This ban was only lifted in 1948 with the birth of the modern state of Israel. Today we continue looking at Jesus answering the question about when the temple will fall, we will be looking at the details of Titus’ war against Jerusalem and its fall in Luke 21:20-24. As I come to this particular judgement in the Bible, I am overwhelmed with a seriousness and solemnity because of it. God’s judgement on Israel, with the destruction of the temple is the third most serious judgement in the Bible. The judgement of Christ on the cross and the final judgement because the first and second. This judgement is more serious than the flood, more serious than Sodom and Gomorrah, even more serious than the Babylonian invasion of Israel and the first destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Why is it so serious? Firstly, Israel was always a microcosm of humanity. Just as...

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OUTLINE The insufficiency of general revelation The necessity of special revelation The consequent necessity of inscripturated revelation INTRODUCTION Why do we need a Bible? At the time of the Reformation not everyone believed that we needed a Bible. On the one hand you had the Anabaptists who believed in the ongoing gift of prophecy and saw themselves not needing a Bible. On the other hand was the Roman Catholic Church which was happy to keep the Bible in Latin even killing those who would dare translate it and put it into the hands of the common people. This sentiment is captured well from the familiar story of William Tyndale who had a run in with a Roman Clergyman. ‘Around 1520, Tyndale became a tutor in the family of Sir John Walsh, at Little Sodbury in Gloucestershire. He devoted himself more to the study of the Scriptures and embraced the doctrines of the Reformation. His opinions involved him in controversy with his fellow clergymen, and around 1522 he was summoned before the Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester on a charge of heresy. This led to his removal to London (about October, 1523), where he began to preach. He made many friends among the ordinary people but none among church leaders. A “learned” Roman Catholic clergyman is said to have taunted Tyndale by saying, “We are better to be without God’s laws than the Pope’s”. Tyndale’s famous reply was, “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the Scriptures than you!”1 The opening paragraph of the opening chapter of the 1689 addresses this very issue. It begins with a statement that is not found in the WCF or SDFO. ‘The...

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Sermon 102: Luke 21:5-19: How to Live in the Last Days OUTLINE Prepare for deception Prepare for upheaval Prepare for persecution INTRODUCTION At the website raptureready.com there is something called the rapture index. This is a measuring device to help you know when the rapture is more likely to be near. In explanation it reads, ‘The Rapture Index has two functions: one is to factor together a number of related end time components into a cohesive indicator, and the other is to standardize those components to eliminate the wide variance that currently exists with prophecy reporting. The Rapture Index is by no means meant to predict the rapture, however, the index is designed to measure the type of activity that could act as a precursor to the rapture. You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic speedometer. The higher the number, the faster we’re moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture.’1 The various measurements are: ‘100 and Below: Slow prophetic activity 100 to 130: Moderate prophetic activity 130 to 160: Heavy prophetic activity Above 160: Fasten your seat belts.’ And where are we today? Well according to the rapture index we are at 187 points, well into the fasten your seatbelt side of things. Things like the oil price, inflation, floods, earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars, the potential win by the Democrats in the US, Putin as Gog invading the Ukraine all tally up to raise the number. The end of the world and how can we know it is close is a matter that Christians have thought about throughout the centuries. We come now to that part of Luke’s gospel that talks about the last days and...

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The Answer to a most relevant Question, ‘Wat Should I Fear’. A question we should ask ourselves everyday.

INTRODUCTION You have likely heard the statements, ‘No Creed but Christ’ or ‘No Creed but the Bible.’ Firstly, let us consider the good in these statements. I as a younger Christian would have been heard to say such things, and there would have been a good intention in saying them. For many being Protestant and not being Roman Catholic, this means that Sola Scriptura, the Bible alone is our authority. The Roman Catholic Church admits tradition as binding in a way that only scripture should bind us. So many in a Protestant sense, denying the authoritative role of tradition have intended something good by saying, ‘No Creed but Christ.’ Secondly, every century has seen a number of attacks on the Bible, these have often come from the prevalent philosophies and trends in thought at the time. For example some have suggested that we need the help of evolutionary science to help us understand the Bible, or we need the help of the new schools of psychology to help us have a more informed anthropology. The Bible plus science, psychology, economic theory, political theory, critical race theory, etc. are perennial battles that we face. And I can imagine someone recognizing these attacks defending the sufficiency of scripture by saying ‘No Creed but the Bible.’ However, there is also a naïve endorsement of these sorts of sentiments because there have been many enemies of the truth who by using these very sentiments have sought to undermine the truth of the Bible we seek to defend. For example, the early twentieth century saw the rise of the Ecumenical Movement, this was an attempt to unite all Christian Churches in one Christian organization as a show of unity before a watching world. It was believed that a single united church would be so much...

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OUTLINE False religion condemned True piety commended INTRODUCTION There is the religion that God loves and there is religion God hates, and Jesus puts these side by side in a contrast so we could see what they look like. This is what we are seeing as we come to Luke 20:45-21:4. You will remember that Jesus is having a major conflict with the religious leaders. He has answered their attempts to try and discredit Him to get Him killed by the authorities; He has questioned them and exposed their ignorance; and now He will openly criticize their hypocritical religion, while commending the sort of religion God loves. The gloves are off as Jesus is less than 48 hours away from His death. We are about to enter a long section about how God is going to judge Israel, and so Jesus as a prophet now condemns the type of religion that gets Israel into such a judgement. We will look at these verses under two headings: false religion condemned v45-47; and true                                      piety commended, 21:1-4.

OUTLINE The end of all things Living in light of the end The prelude to the end INTRODUCTION If you were writing the Bible, how would you end the OT? What would you want to say right here? The OT ends the same way the NT does looking ahead to the great and awesome day of the Lord. Last week we looked at the faithless accusations of those who expected blessings upon their heartless religion, and who accused God of injustice because the evil prospered while the heartless religious languished. Chapter 3 ended with a promise, v18, ‘Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.’ The closing chapter of the OT goes on to describe in detail the lot of those who are godly and the lot of those who are not. So as we look at these verses we will look at them under three headings: The end of all things; Living in light of the end; The prelude to the end.

OUTLINE The cynic’s question The Savior’s answer INTRODUCTION Is there life after death? Many Post-Christian Western secular people say, No! But the majority of the world’s population, throughout history have said, Yes! The Vikings had a belief in Valhalla. The Egyptians practiced mummification because of their belief in the afterlife. You have probably all heard people tell stories about NDEs, near death experiences. Despite the best attempts by the new atheists there is a recalcitrant view of life going on after death. In the new religionless West we still hear this basic hope for life to mean something to and for our existence to go on after death. Naturalist attempts at meaning and significance talk about living on in the hearts of our loved ones, but I always think, ‘What if they die, or just forget?’ Others will talk about the atoms that make up our bodies once having been star dust and when this earth disintegrates returning to star dust once again. That is not what we mean when we say at a funeral ‘from dust to dust.’ These naturalistic explanations do not satisfy, the human heart longs for something more. I love the way Woody Allen puts it, ‘“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don’t want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.”1 As Christians we know why people have this desire, Ecc. 3:11 tells us that God has put this hunger for eternity in our hearts. Now many stand confused today, they may agree that life must go on, but they don’t know who to believe. Do they go with Islam, Hinduism, New Age, or some other belief about the afterlife? Imagine if God came...

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OUTLINE Words of faithlessness Words of fear INTRODUCTION What is the difference between a mercenary and a soldier? A soldier fights for his country; a mercenary fights for himself; the soldier for honor, love of country, to protect loved ones; the mercenary for money. This has given rise to the phrase mercenary spirituality, when your spiritual pursuits are all about you and your interests. The new self-help spirituality of West that is a fusion of New Age concepts and psychology would be a classic example of this. A biblical example of this spirituality is found in the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. There we see a son, typifying the Pharisees, whose obedience to God’s law came with the expectation that if he is good he will get stuff, and by implication those who have been bad should get nothing. Malachi is dealing with mercenary spirituality. We come to the 6th dispute in 3:13-18. These verses are divided into two types of people who speak two types of words. In v13-15 we see God rebuking the Israelites for their faithless words that betray a mercenary spirit. The issue is the traditional problem of why do bad things happen to good people, and why do good things happen to bad people, or alternatively, why don’t religious people get the good they deserve and why do irreligious people not get the bad they deserve. This conundrum is ancient and has led many to doubt God’s goodness or existence. In v16-18 we see the speech of those who fear God, and instead of Malachi recording their words, we have God say things on their behalf. So as we look at these verses we will look at them under two headings, words of faithlessness and words of fear.