your Bibles to Revelation 22 and find verse 1822 verse 18. This is the inerrant all sufficient sweeter than honey. Word of God Revelation 22 18 for I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to these things God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the book of life from the Holy City and from the things which are written in this book. He who testifies to these things says surely I am coming quickly Amen, even so come Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, you've set before us such a. Such a sober warning and such encouragement at the same time. And we're so thankful. We pray O Lord that you would keep us keep this church in your word. That the shepherd of this church and his staff and his word would be the guide for all that we are and all that we do. Lord that you would cause all the blessings of obedience to your word to fall upon this congregation. Amen. Please be seated some of the most precious words in the Bible had been read already today. According to the scriptures Christ died. According to the scriptures and here we have a passage before us in the exposition through the book of Revelation and the words do not add or subtract and this brings to us the reality that human beings in the world either live under the blessings of God or the curses the plagues that come upon the souls of man men and women are hurt when they depart from the word of God from adding or subtracting to regard it the word of God to be insufficient not adequate. For everything and so these these words that are before us here are at the end of a long season of being in the book of Revelation. These are the last words of Jesus Christ to his church the last prayer of Jesus Christ for his church and he comes to us with a word of warning of a great danger. It's really the gravest danger that a person made in the image of God can face and that is adding or subtracting. From the word of God in other words, it won't go well with you. And so you have this reality of the plagues of the soul. When the word of God is ignored. Or when the word of God is added to and it I think it really brings us to the truth that the word of God really is sweeter than honey then to submit to the word of God is the very best thing you can do in your life. God's word heals the wounds. God's word protects from the plagues of the soul. So let's look at the context here. You can see an outline in front of you the things that I want to cover in this message here and I do want to talk about the context and I want to talk about the message that is here and where we've been where we have been. And over the last few months, we've been immersing ourselves in this church in the testimony of heaven. It's the longest most complete testimony in heaven in Revelation 21 and 22. And now we've advanced to the final section. The conclusion is the epilogue of the book and the this entire section is a call to live by the word of God the entire section. It's a declaration of the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture. Now this doctrine is so pivotal. It really is the doctrine that we have been preaching since the beginning in this church and we hope to build a church upon the doctrine and there have been constant encourages encouragements to build our lives on the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture and it really is tied to the Reformation doctrine of Sola Scriptura scripture alone that scripture is sufficient for all of life to seek the word of God to apply it anywhere to apply it everywhere in your church life in your family life in your work life in in the way that you in what you read and what you listen to and how you dress how you get married how you prepare for marriage how your husband how your wife how you raise children how you are a child all these things are are implied in the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture. We happen to live in a society that people are calling the post truth Society. Where people are telling us that there are no facts you can live any way you want all paths lead to God and you can live any way you want and choose your own path through life. That truth is your own perspective. This is called some people call it person perspectival ism. Some people call it perspectivism where everything that you Encounter is from your own perspective. There's no external fixed objective perspective. It's just your perspective that matters based on your background your needs your desires. But here we find ourselves in the last four verses of the Bible. This is Christ's last message and he is he is speaking really of the integrity of the word of God and he's of course, he's speaking to a small persecuted Church. To build that Church up and he's offering a warning to anyone who would take lightly the word of God and frankly, you know for years here in this church. We've encouraged all of you all of us not to take the word of God lightly. But to take it heavily. And to try to apply apply it in every way we can. And and that can be uncomfortable. We know that. Yeah, I think it was Mark Twain who said that it's it ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me. It's those that I can understand. Because God actually desires to shift the focus of our lives to transform us to renew our minds and to shape all of our practices all of our practices. He even wants to control your time. To work six days and and rest one. And so these these words here. Are directed to those who hear have heard the words of the prophecy look at verse 18 for I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy. Of this book. Well, most most of us who are here this morning have heard the words of the prophecy of this book over a long period of time here. We've read this book actually from cover to cover twice in this church on Sunday afternoons. We're probably will do it again before we finally conclude the book of Revelation will read it out loud together and on a Sunday afternoon. But he is writing to those who have heard the words of the prophecy that would be us. And and so this is part of the epilogue of this message. And so after this dramatic testimony of heaven in chapter 21 verse 1 all the way to 22 verse 5. We have we have this this epilogue. And. The epilogue focuses really on the value the the Supreme value of the Bible. To the to the believer and I think that it might be that the logical flow of this is after all these things that have been communicated about heaven these beautiful. I mean so encouraging things that we spent weeks on could these could this really be true? Is it really possible that such beauty such joy? Everlastingly could actually be true. Is it true? And John is answering that question. Yes. Yes, it is true. Yes, rest everything on the word of God. And I want to walk you through this here. Look at verse verse 6 and chapter 22. Notice the cry the appeal. The message is just blazing that says yes trust in the word. Verse 6 then he said to me these words are faithful and true. Talks about the truthfulness of the prophecy and then he doesn't just stop there. He talked about the relevance of the prophecy verse 7 verse 6 and 7 and the Lord God of the Holy Prophet sent his angel to show his servants the things which must shortly take place. Behold, I'm coming quickly. This is about things that are really going to take place and then the blessedness of the prophecy. This is one of the Beatitudes one of the seven Beatitudes in Revelation blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book you you will be blessed. It'll make you happy. And then the worship that. Should be the response to the prophecy in verses 8 and 9 John heard and he saw these things and I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. And then the angel says worship God worship God because of this worship God because of the testimony and then the present value of the prophecy verse 10. He said do not seal the words of the prophecy is of this book for the time is at hand. In other words spread it out talk about it read it meditate on it don't seal up the words don't hide them. Let let them run in the world speak of them. This is the present value. Of the prophecy of this the scriptures and then in verse 12 there's a shift in the voice and it's no longer the voice of the angel but it's the angel. These are the very words of Christ now. And. And so in verse 12. We he says wait Jesus is saying I'm a rewarder. I'm here to reward you he says and behold I'm coming quickly and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work. And then in verse 13 he says that he is he is everlasting. I am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end the first and the last he his words are everlasting. Words and then in verse 14 he says that he's a fountain of blessing. He's just piling up reasons why we should esteem the word of God and regard it as sufficient and not to add or subtract a single thing from it in our daily lives. And so he says it's a fountain of blessing blessed are those who do his commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates of the city. And then he even speaks of how much more important it is because he is separating the sheep and the goats on the basis of his word. And those who follow it. But outside our dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie. And then he says that he is the promised Messiah and I might add according to the scriptures. I Jesus have sent my angel to testify you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David. He's quoting the Old Testament. And then he says he is the light. I am the bright and the morning star and he and he's inviting you in verse 17 the spirit and the bride say come and let him who hears say come and let him who thirsts come whoever desires let him take of the water of life really he's just giving one reason after another why you should not add or subtract and that leads up to where we are here in this in this section in verse 18 so in verse in verse in the epilogue from verses 6 all the way to the end of the chapter the reason that you should never set aside the word of God never minimize it never take it lightly never add to it never subtract from it it because it's so blessed. Did you see the arguments that he's piling up? He's trying to lure us into obedience. And revering the word of God above all other words the words of our own hearts the words of the people around us the words of our culture the words of our traditions. But the words of God. So this is this is an exhortation to trust the word of God. Above everything else. Now as I was preparing. To bring this text to our church it occurred to me. That. The doctrine of the of the sufficiency of Scripture has been represented in the way that we preach the word of God here in this church and the way we encourage the church to apply it. But the background details of the doctrine itself. Have not been taught very often. I don't even recall preaching a sermon in the last decade about specifically the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. While it really has undergirded everything that. I've thought about. For the last quarter century of my Christian life. I don't I don't believe I've actually didactically worked through the doctrine itself. You know 14 years ago if some of you were there I put on a large conference called the sufficiency of Scripture. And I did I felt like it was the most important thing. In my life at that moment. And I remember. I was so stricken. By the impulse to do this conference. I would say God please don't let me die before I do this conference after I do this conference then take me but I want the sufficiency of Scripture has been lost in the church the voice of God has gone out of the church and pragmatism is just washed over the church and the things that the church does are not grounded in Scripture. They're grounded in the air. And. So I gathered I think 25 preachers to talk about this may have might have been 30. In Cincinnati 14 years ago. Now encountering. This last mention of the doctrine. I felt like I wanted to linger on the doctrine. Probably for a couple of Sundays at least. This is so pivotal and the warning is so grave the consequences are so significant. That it would be good to at least pause on some of the. Some of the reasons for the doctrine. So let's turn to the text. I want to identify first of all a word in these verses is the word book. The word book. By the way, you know Christianity is a word-based religion. We live by the words. It's the words of God that guide us. And so you have this word book five times in in these verses from verses 18 and 19 to verses 5 mentions of the word book. That's actually very significant. The word is Biblion and it's actually a word for the whole Bible. Bibliotarian is another word. It's the diminutive version of the word. It's little book. So you have in the you have the word little book and big book. This is the big book. And I think this refers not only to the book of Revelation, but it also refers to the entire Bible. This is a statement of the canonicity of Scripture. This is a statement of the integrity of the entire collection of the 66 books of the Bible. So John he's referring to the big book from Genesis to Revelation and he's talking about adding or subtracting to the big book. We live in a world where. The first books of the Bible, the Old Testament is diminished in the insignificance. But here John says no, it's the whole book that's significant. It all holds together. There's continuity and you actually can't understand one without the other if you read it carefully. And of course, you know Revelation is written to encourage and to steady a church that's under persecution under siege from a culture and we saw how vividly that was described in chapter two and three and the letters to the churches the letters to the seven churches. Remember Pergamum Pergamum is living where Satan's throne is. This is where the church lives. The church is always existing in the midst of where Satan's throne is our days are not any different than all the days that the church has experienced experienced. And this matter of living by the word of God is so critically living by the book Christians are the people of the book. That's what we are. We're not a people of the culture. We're not here to fit in. We're here to fit in with God. You know, I was thinking this week of many many years ago. In 1976 Francis Schaefer Schaefer made a film called how should we then live and it show it there are 10 episodes and there are some of the young men in our church showed that film to our church in 19 in that at that time and what what Schaefer was diagnosing the problems of culture the drift of culture what's happening particularly to the younger generation in the culture and he was tracing influences on modern culture through the you know from from Rome through the Renaissance to the Enlightenment through Darwin through expressions of art expressions of film expressions of morality expressions of drug use all kinds of things. He was connecting these things to the word of God and then he then he followed it up with another film called whatever happened to the human race and in that film. He was actually making projections that we're experiencing right now in our culture. This was in the mid 70s 1970s. And he was concerned about autonomous man. He was concerned about man who had set aside the word of God who set aside the book the big book from Genesis to Revelation and man living by his own standard, you know, the question the question is framed like this by what standard are you going to live by? The culture will always lay its standards upon you and belittle you if you if you vary from them, but God's standards are the best. They are the life-giving standards. You know, I've also I've been thinking a lot about revival lately, you know with the Asbury revivals and then this new film out called the Jesus Revolution. I you know, I was I was alive during that time of the Jesus Revolution. I was in the all the places that that film shows but here's here's one thing that marks a true revival. Hunger for the word of God hunger for the book. So back back in those days back in the late 60s and 70s, you know, the hunger for the word of God was massive and it filled up the churches in Southern California. It filled up Grace Community Church. It filled up all the Calvary chapels that were planted it filled up all kinds of churches and and there were there were young people and they had one thing on their mind. What does the word of God say and we would sit there for hours and go to Bible studies four nights a week because we were so hungry for the word of God. It was a time of revival. But a sign of awakening is a people who hunger for the word of God a sign of awakening is when fathers actually open the Bibles and mothers open the Bibles in their their families. That's a sign of an awakening. There's hunger for God hunger for the word of God. And so John is talking about the book the big book. And then he speaks of these grave dangers of adding and subtracting from the word of God. If anyone adds to these things God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. So you encounter this word plagues. What is he talking about? If you look up a Greek dictionary on what this word means well what we've mainly think of first of all a sickness isn't it? Well, the word isn't just referring to sickness. I'm just going to quote from some of the explanations in my Greek dictionary. The word refers to hitting flogging beating for punishment. It refers to wounds from a beating or a blow. It can mean a public calamity. It can refer to sickness of the sicknesses of a pandemic, but it has it has to do with getting beat up. Here's the here's the reality if you add or subtract to the word of God you're going to get beat up. The world will beat you up with its own principles, but God never does he always blesses his children with his ways. The word is sometimes translated wound sometimes blow stripe affliction flogging and you know, the truth is that if you if you break the word of God the word of God will break you. You the world will flog you the principles of darkness will flog you and beat you to death. That's why you know, that's why when we stand up here in this church and preach we're always encouraging people to trust in the sweetness of the honey of the word of God. God is so good. He rescues you from so many things by his word. How many times have you been rescued by the word? How many times have you been rescued by the word your emotions your words your everything he's rescues you so that you don't get flogged by the world. You know this week I was I was reading about the life of Saul the tragic life of Saul and first Samuel 28. Say Saul rejected Scripture as sufficient. He rejected the word of God he and he ended he devolved into so much despair. He sought comfort from the world with such passion that he finally went to a witch the witch at indoor and I was reading Matthew Henry and Matthew Henry says he resolves to knock on the gates of hell. He was knocking on the gates of hell. He was knocking on the gates of Hollywood. He was knocking on the gates of Nashville. He was knocking on the gates of the Instagram influencers. He wasn't going to God. And you see this you see this. Chain of events in Saul's life all of it had to do with adding or subtracting to the word of God. It really began by not by not regulating his worship and sacrifices to God the way that God commanded him. He compromised. He didn't take the worship of God seriously and he did his own thing. That was the beginning of it. And then he lived in the fear of man. What he did was based on fear and And then And then he sought out the witch at indoor. He wasn't relying on God. And then his army was destroyed. His three sons were killed. And the Philistines chopped off his head. And transported his head to the temple of Dagon and mounted his head where it actually always had been. He rejected the word of God. You know, there's another mention of this. Matter of the plagues in Revelation 18 4 through 7 and I heard another voice from heaven saying come out of her my people lest you share in her sins and lest you receive of her plagues. This is this is the call to come out of all worldliness to come to come out of darkness. To remove yourself from everything that's dark everything that's dark. These are so many compromises in people's lives even in Christians in the films and the songs they listen to they don't come out of darkness. And in here the cause come out of her my people come out. Lest you share in her plagues. The warning is just so powerful. Legs the warning is just so sobering now. This is these words are a declaration of the sufficiency of the Canon of Scripture. The Authority. And the integrity of the word of God. And and this has to do with the Authority of the book of Revelation and the Authority of all the books of the Bible. This this refers to the closing of the Canon of Scripture right before your eyes. You have the reason the Canon of Scripture is closed. We're not to add or subtract no adding. Or subtracting from the Canon. What is the Canon of Scripture children? Are you with me? Listen, this is really important. What's a Canon? What's a Canon? Is it is it that? Is it that big gun that blows up buildings and? Shoot ships, you know out of the water. Is that the kind of Canon? No, no, this is a different kind of Canon. The Canon of Scripture. Okay. Are you ready? The Canon of Scripture is a collection of books like from Genesis to Revelation. This is the Canon of Scripture. Now it kind of is like a Canon. It's like a fire. It's like a hammer. It's like water, but the Canon of Scripture is the collection. Got that? It's a collection of books. It's actually the word Canon is actually a word picture. That that describes the lines. That separate the runners from a race so that they run between the lines that the it's there's a fixed standard. There's there's a way to walk. It's it's a rule of faith. It's a guide. It's a it's a it's a standard. It's it's a test of straightness. It's the Canon. It's it's it's what it's it's it's it keeps you in your lane. It keeps you running straight instead of cattywampus. And it speaks of the truth that Christians they they do that. They they walk to the beat of a different drummer. We're hemmed in between by the word of God. We walk between the lines. Our path is directed by the word of God. That's why David said your word is a lamp and to my feet. It shows you where to walk just like the Canon of Scripture gives you the lines within which you should walk Christians are constrained by the word of God. In fact, you know what a Christian is a Christian is this person who said Lord, I want your authority. I want to walk in your ways. That's what a Christian is. If you want that most likely your Christian. In Jude chapter 3, we learned that it's all we need. We don't need anymore. It says it that the Scriptures were once delivered to the Saints. That's what Revelation 22 18 is saying once delivered nothing added or subtracted in Matthew 24 35. It communicates everlasting truth and that no culture will surpass all the other truths of all the other cultures will die before the word of God. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. In John chapter 7 verse 46, we learned that it's like no other book. The people who are around Jesus who heard him speak they said nobody ever spoke like this. It's there's there's nothing like the word of God. There's no book in literature like Scripture. Written over centuries by many many authors in Proverbs 30. It's pure. Every word of God is pure and then and this is he is a shield to those who put their trust in him do not add to his words lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar. In Luke 11 58 we Jesus tells us that you're blessed when you live by it. He said blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it. In John 17 we learned that it's it's the way that God changes our lives. We need so many changes in our lives. And he said sanctify them in your truth the word your word is truth. This is how our lives are purified by walking in the truth of the word of God. Now there are there are two categories by observation of adding and subtracting the legalists and the antinomians. The legalists and the antinomians. These are the two categories of those who add and subtract the legalists add and the antinomians subtract. And the antinomians subtract. There are dangers both ways. The legalists who add I'll just give you give you some illustrations of Muslims have added the Quran. Mormons have added the Book of Mormon the Roman Catholic Church added the Apocrypha. We could go on and on and list various additions to the word of God. Embracing the teaching of the philosophers and and the influencers that's adding to the word of God. Here's an illustration. Remember back in chapter 2 and 3 in the churches there. The problem in some of these churches is that they added. The teachings of the Nicolet Nicoletans. They added the teachings of Jezebel. They actually let Jezebel teach in their church. They added. The teachings of Balaam. That's it. That's adding. The addition of the teachings of the nations, you know, the prophets over again would say do not learn the ways of the Gentiles do not walk in the ways of the nations. This is how you add you you add the ways of the nations to your life. You've encountered people who say God told me. That's adding that's adding to the word of God be very careful. If you find yourself saying God told me. I hope he really did. But I doubt that he did. Because the what God has said is fixed and you cannot add to it. Except to your own peril when you say God told me you're claiming that you're speaking for God. You have an authoritative word from God be very careful with that people throw that around all the time. And then secondly, they're antinomians. They take away from the word of God. They dismiss they take lightly the word of God. Anti-nomian anti. Against. Namas law against the law anti-nomian against the law of God. That's what an antinomian. Is Jesus talked about this in Mark chapter 7. He said you nicely set aside the commandments of God for the sake of your tradition and actually he was talking about the way people were treating their parents. So it was a matter of family life. And Jesus was saying. You're not setting aside anything for your parents. You're giving it all to the temple and the priests are telling you to forget your parents. And give it all to the temple and Jesus says you nicely set aside the word of God for the sake of your tradition. Because you're supposed to honor your father and mother. People set aside the word of God in family life. In every other area of land church life. I we I think we live in an era where setting aside the word of God for family life in church life. Is that a high? People don't look to the word of God to guide their families and they don't look at to it to guide their churches. They look to what works what they like. You remember the Jefferson Bible have you ever heard of the Jefferson Bible Thomas Jefferson? President of the United States second president of the United States third president United States. My wife just said it was he was the third president United States. Thank you very much. Well, he took out his Bible and a pair of scissors. And he cut out all the things he didn't like. And I have a copy of it. It's kind of thin. And that's antinomianism. Removing the things that you don't like from the Bible the thing about the Bible though, even though you might not like it. It does improve you. It teaches you how to think like God. Instead of yourself and your corrupt culture, you know years ago. We were going through the book of Deuteronomy and I mean some of the laws in Deuteronomy are so offensive. And we kept saying look if something offends you in Deuteronomy if a law of God offends you the problem is that you are so corrupt. You can't recognize a beautiful law. Because all of God's laws are laws of love all of them every single one of them. Exceptions exceptions to this what he's not referring to adding and subtracting. He's not referring to copying errors. Errors that are made in copying the scriptures. He's not talking about faithful Bible versions that have different equivalent words where the attempt was to put too accurately represent the words of Scripture. He's not talking about teachers who unwittingly misinterpreted text. He's not talking about that. He's not talking about paraphrasing Scripture. He's not talking about telling the story of the Bible in your own words. It's not he's not talking about a father, you know. Who doesn't know the Bible very well. He tells the story wrong unwittingly, you know, it's not he's not talking about that, you know many years ago. I was at a conference in Washington State and I was talking about really a recovery of biblical fatherhood and this this young man walked up to me. He had just become a Christian. He was so fired up. He was so happy God had saved him, you know forgave his sins and because I was I was exhorting the men to you know, open their Bibles and their families and lead family worship and the guy came up to me said, Mr. Brown. You really think I should do that? My pastor told me not to do it. My pastor told me because I'm a new Christian. I I shouldn't I shouldn't read the Bible or talk about the Bible to my family until I've wet read Wayne Grudem systematic theology. I said, you know, we'll go ahead and read it but the Bible God commanded you to read the Bible to your family. So hey, maybe you don't know everything. Okay, God knows that you have a Bible to set you straight. Don't worry about it. Don't do it. Your pastor said except do read the systematic theology, but He's not adding and subtracting. He's not talking about unwitting doctoral errors that we might have throughout our lives, which we will all probably all of our lives, you know, I'll give you an example. Of what why this is this is not having to do particular with faithful translations and Matthew 118. I you don't need to turn there here. I'll read it. The birth of Jesus Christ was as follows after his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph before they came together. She was found with child of the Holy Spirit. She was found with child. You know what some of you have been found with child right here in the church. It's great. So amazing, but the original Greek doesn't actually read. Found with child the the original Greek says in stomach having in stomach having Well, every little kid and understands that you know, who's in your tummy mom, but the translators understood that. In stomach having would be misunderstood. So they actually rendered it according to what the intent. Of the author was that was this is not a case of adding or subtracting to the Bible. This is the case of trying to actually say what the Bible means. George Ladd says he's not concerned about possible mechanical errors and transmission or mistakes of judgment interpreting his message, but deliberate distortions and perversions of it. That's what he's talking about deliberate taking lightly deliberate ignoring the Word of God. And not pondering it carefully and trying the best you can to apply it in your life. And what are the consequences? God shall take away his part from the book of life from the Holy City and from the things which are written in this book. So these are very grave consequences take away his part from the book of life. Now, by the way, it's very interesting with this verse. We've we encounter what's called a textual variant. God shall take away his part of the book of life from the Holy City. Yeah, if you have a new American Standard Bible or an ESV. It will read not book of life, but tree of life. Tree of life. Well, which is it? Book of life. Or tree of life. It's it's a textual variant because you have you have manuscripts that have both. So here's here's why. In 1516. Erasmus. Wrote a copy of the Greek New Testament. When Erasmus got down to the last six verses in Revelation, he couldn't find a Greek manuscript. And so he took the Latin Vulgate. The Latin Vulgate he translated from the Latin Vulgate. Not the Greek text. And so that's why your King James Bible and that's why your your new King James Bible, which we preach from here. Reads. Reads book of life. And you know his his New Testament and the different revisions are known as the textus receptus. The basis of the new the translations of the Geneva Bible, the King's James Bible and the New King James Bible. So he missed he did not have a Greek manuscript for these last six verses. The Vulgate read book of life. And so that's why you have it in in your New King James Bible. But the truth is the the variant doesn't. Change the meaning. You're having your name in the book of life or having the tree of life. It's the same thing. It's salvation. There's the variant doesn't change the meaning at all. Their metaphors for eternal life and. It's interesting, you know, if you've been around over the last 20 years, you know that critics always jump critics of the Bible always jump on the textual variance. One of the most famous. Is Bart Ehrman, you know who? I forget the name of the film that he made but but he but he is here to tell us that the New Testament and the Bible is just a work of man. It's just a fraudulent work of mishmash and things like that and he dismisses the Bible because of the textual variance and he says that there are there's like 400,000 textual variance in the Bible. Therefore, you can't trust him. But what he didn't say is none of them change any of the doctrine and 99.9% of them don't matter because because they are. Our scribal errors their hash marks their writing defects their things like what I just mentioned, but the doctrines are not in play. The Bible is sufficient. The Bible is authoritative. The Bible is accurate. There's no other book in history that has experienced such care and transmission. and so the Bible does have textual variance, but they don't but they don't change the doctrine in any of the variance, maybe some slight nuances, but that's very very little. So when it comes to tree of life or book of life, they both mean the same thing eating of the tree of life is code for salvation your name in the book of life is code for salvation. They talks about entering the Holy City entry into the Holy City is code for salvation. That's what he's talking about. It's so clear. Now this doctrine is summarized. In the confession that our church holes, it's the Baptist confession of 1689. I want to read to you a short section from the first chapter. Of the Holy Scriptures in the Baptist confession. The Westminster confession contains the exact same words on the Holy Scriptures. And and the the confession starts out making it clear that the Bible is the only rule of life. I'll read. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient certain and infallible rule of all saving knowledge faith and obedience. Although the light of nature and the works of creation and Providence do so far manifest the goodness wisdom and power of God as to leave men inexcusable yet. They are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of his will which is necessary for salvation. It's the Word of God where you find the words of salvation. Jesus Christ died for sinners according to the Scriptures. And then it speaks of the books. It's the 66 books under the name of Holy Scripture or the Word of God written are now contained in all the books of the Old and New Testaments. This is the end of the Canon. That's what that statement means. And what about the Apocrypha will be confession addresses that the books commonly called Apocrypha not being of divine inspiration are no part of the Canon or rule of the Scripture and therefore are of no authority to the Church of God. So. This has to do with adding and subtracting in this case the adding of the Apocrypha. It's very interesting the Council of Trent not Trent Moody the Council of Trent pronounced anathema to people who reject the Apocrypha if you're a Roman Catholic you reject the Apocrypha you've committed a mortal sin you're going to hell if you reject the part of the Apocrypha. The Baptist Confession says the contrary. The word Apocrypha actually means to conceal. The end the Apocrypha doesn't claim authority and the Apostles never quote from them and they actually say some of the craziest things. One of them is they they promote the doctrine of penance that you need to have to do penance for your sin. So that's why we reject the Apocrypha. And then talks about Church tradition the authority of the Holy Scripture for which it ought to be believed depends not on the testimony of any man or church but holy upon God who is truth itself not tradition not extra books, you know, if you have discussions with Roman Catholics, they always end up mind you and always end up as whether whether Scripture is sufficient or whether tradition is sufficient. That's the issue. It's whether you are adding or subtracting from the Word of God. You know, Paul told the Colossian Church in Colossians 2 8 beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Peter in first Peter 2 Peter 1 3 says that he has given us all things in his word that pertain to life and godliness. We have all that we need. And we don't we ought not to add. Or subtract. This keeps us from being children of the world. This keeps us from doing our own thing and getting our heads bloodied by doing foolish things and living in ways that don't really work even though everybody else around us is trying to make them work. Martin Luther said it like this Lord don't send me visions or dreams or even angels. I'm content with one gift the scriptures they supply all that is necessary for life. It's a sign of revival when people are hungry for the word of God. I pray that God would make that such a prominent feature of our society and the healing the protection from the plagues. The beatings ended because the word of God has come to soothe the people of God has come to soothe. The plagues of the soul. Next week, I want to continue to unfold this doctrine. I want to talk about where it came from. I want to talk about the battles over the sufficiency of scripture. In biblical history and and beyond. I want to continue to talk about the matter of adding and subtracting from the word of God and why we think scripture is sufficient. Does the New Testament tell us that the Old Testament is sufficient? Does the Old Testament bear witness to its sufficiency? Why in the world do we even believe the letters of Paul and the other apostles are sufficient? Why do we believe that? I want to talk about that in the coming next Sunday particularly. But I want to leave you with one final reason. The sufficiency of scripture matters. Why it is the most important thing. It really is the most important matter in your life. Open your Bible to 1 Corinthians 15. The resurrection happened. According to the scriptures. It was the scriptures that bore witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You know every week we come together and we celebrate the power of the resurrection. It's so delightful to come in here and give thanks for a resurrected Savior. We do it every Sunday. And I'm so thankful that we do. But the Lord informed the world through the prophets and through the writings that a Savior would be born and that he would die and that he would be resurrected. It was the Word of God. Many places in the Old Testament bear witness to this. You know, even though some of the people in the tomb didn't understand it, the Bible had already told them. They knew from the Word of God. Maybe it didn't occur to them. As it does with us. Verse 3 1 Corinthians 15 for I delivered to you first of all. That which I also received. That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Don't dismiss the sufficiency of scripture. When you dismiss when you take lightly when you add when you subtract you may find yourself dismissing. The resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because it is the scriptures that bear witness to the resurrection. Of Jesus Christ. It came through a revelation. Of Jesus Christ. He was buried. He rose again on the third day. According to the scriptures. And then in verse 17 we find what are such clear consequences of the resurrection not happening. Verse 17 and if Christ is not risen your faith is futile. You're still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ. We are of all men the most pitiable. Well, I'm here to say that if you have faith in Jesus Christ. Your faith is not futile. Because Jesus Christ rose from the grave. According to the scriptures. Wow. Isn't God kind to give us such a rich testimony across thousands of years. Dozens of writers. To rescue us from the plagues of our souls. What a kind God and he does it every day. Do not add. Nor subtract. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy. And keep those things which are written in it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Let's pray. Oh Lord. Thank you for. Showing us the ways of life. Thank you for helping us to navigate between the lines. Where the blessing is where the happiness is to walk in your ways. Not to wander and meander in our own ways. But to be hemmed in by this great and beautiful canon of scripture. That we might have life. According to the scriptures. Amen.