The sermon by Eric Bechler explores the content and significance of the Holy Scriptures as outlined in the Second London Baptist Confession, focusing specifically on Chapter 1, paragraph 2. It details the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, emphasizing the Protestant consensus of 66 books and discussing the differences with the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons, which include the Apocrypha. The sermon emphasizes that the Scriptures, comprised of 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament, are inspired by God and serve as the infallible rule of faith and life. The process of recognizing these books as inspired involved historical and critical evaluations, including internal and external criteria. The sermon further explores how the Old Testament is referenced in the New Testament, underscoring its authenticity and divine inspiration. It highlights the importance of the Scriptures in guiding believers' lives, urging them to actively engage with the Word of God, which is described as God-breathed, complete, and sufficient for all aspects of faith and obedience. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to integrate Scripture into their daily lives, reflecting on its transformative power and the salvation offered through Jesus Christ.

A reading from the Second London Baptist Confession today comes again from Chapter 1 of the Holy Scriptures. This week we're on paragraph 2. Under the name of the Holy Scripture or the Word of God written are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testament, which are these. Of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Of the New Testament, the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Acts of the Apostles, Paul's Epistles to the Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon, the epistle to the Hebrews, the epistle of James, the 1st and 2nd epistle of Peter, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd epistles of John, the epistle of Jude, and the revelation of John.

All which are given by the inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life. Okay, last week we focused on the Holy Scriptures, a closed system of truth, complete, sufficient, certain, and infallible for all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. It is not to be added to nor diminished. The Bible contains all of the spiritual truth God intended to reveal. This week we focus on the actual list of books contained in the Holy Scriptures.

Our confession along with other Protestant churches agree that there are 66 books in the Canon of Scripture. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches include what are called the Apocrypha, or portions of it, in addition to these 66 books as part of their canon of scripture. The Apocrypha are a collection of books and supplemental writings of existing books in the Bible from the intertestamental time period. Next week we'll focus more on the Apocrypha. It'll be our topic, so I'll defer any discussions about that until next week.

The Word of God in 66 books is broken into two distinct parts. The Old Testament, 39 books, and the New Testament, 27 books. But how was it that these 66 books were received into the canon of Scripture? From the Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin strongly rejects the idea that it was a decision of the Church. He writes, Nothing, therefore, can be more absurd than the fiction that the power of judging scripture is in the church and that on her nod, it's certainty that depends.

When the church receives it and gives it stamp of her authority. She does not make that authentic, which was otherwise doubtful or controverted, but acknowledging it as the truth of God. She, as in duty-bound, shows her reverence by an unhesitating assent. The Church did not select these books, but rather acknowledged the ones God had inspired. So what were the criteria to recognize or acknowledge that God had inspired these books?

What evidences do we examine? A. A. Hodges explains it is the same kind of historical and critical proof to establish the genuineness and authenticity of any ancient writing, whether scripture, Plato, Herodotus, or whatever. We go by internal criteria such as language, style, character of content, and external criteria such as testimony of contemporary writers, universal consent of contemporary readers, and corroborating history drawn from independent credible sources.

Regarding the genuineness of the 39 books of the Old Testament canon, we see Christ himself references the separate books of the Word of God. Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Luke, 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." Luke 24, 44. The only scripture in Jesus' time was the Old Testament. There was no New Testament yet. In Matthew 22, 29, we see Jesus rebuking the Jews for not knowing their scriptures.

Ye do err not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. He was speaking of the Old Testament. Paul tells us that as a child, Timothy was taught the Old Testament, the Holy Scriptures and their importance. In 2nd Timothy 315, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. One commentary found approximately 250 express Old Testament quotes in the writings of the New Testament.

If we include indirect or partial quotes to that list, the number jumps to more than a thousand. In fact, they come from every book of the Old Testament with the exception of Obadiah. And this of course doesn't invalidate Obadiah, since at that time all the minor prophets were collected together in a scroll called the Twelve. I find that quite remarkable and it gives strong support for the genuineness and authenticity of the Old Testament. Overall, there's been much less controversy regarding the books of the Old Testament, with the exception of the Apocrypha, than those of the New Testament.

So what about the genuineness of the 27 books of the New Testament canon? How were they chosen or selected? Here are some examples of the questions that had to be considered if a book was to be to be determined to be truly inspired by the Holy Spirit? Was the author an apostle or have a close connection with an apostle? Is the book being accepted by the body of Christ at large?

Did the book contain consistency of doctrine and orthodox teaching? Did the book bear evidence of high moral and spiritual values that would reflect a work of the Holy Spirit? This process began during the first centuries of the apostolic church beginning with the letters and books themselves. Paul in writing to Timothy in 1st Timothy 518 states, for the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain, and the labor is worth his wages. Well, that first quote comes from Deuteronomy 25 verse 4, where it says, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.

The other quote, the second quote, comes from Luke chapter 10 verse 7. Paul refers to both as scripture, basically equating Luke's writings with that of the Old Testament. In 2nd Peter 3, 15, and 16, we find Peter recognizing what Paul had written to be scripture based on how the ignorant and unstable attack them. He states, them. He states, Just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you, according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scripture.

We can also point to how the various churches accepted them as authoritative by the fact that they circulated them to each other. You can see Colossians 4.16 and 1 Thessalonians 5.27. From the GotQuestions.com website, the first canon was the Muratorian canon, which was completed or compiled in AD 170. This canon included all of the New Testament books except Hebrews, James, 1st and 2nd Peter, 3rd John, and in AD 363 the Council of Laodicea stated that only the Old Testament along with one book of the Apocrypha and 26 books of the New Testament, everything but Revelation, were canonical and to be read in the churches. The Council of Hippo in AD 393 and the Council of Carthage in AD 397, both affirm the same 27 books that we have as authoritative.

And although there were uncertainties and controversies associated with the books of James, Jude, 2nd Peter, 2nd and 3rd John, Hebrews, Revelation, Eventually all 27 of these books were accepted and recognized as authentic and received into the canon of Scripture by around 400 AD. And since that time, there have not been significant controversies over which books should be included in the New Testament. Taking a look at the summary of our paragraph this morning, the Word of God is contained within these books and is given by the inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life. The second part of this statement states that these books were written by the inspiration of God and I want to spend a few minutes on that thought by the inspiration of God. That comes from the King James Version of 2 Timothy 3.16.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. About half of the various translations use some form of inspiration or inspired. The other half translates the Greek as God breathed or some form of that. In the ESV, the same verse reads, all scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. In our culture today, we can have the impression that if we have inspiration or we have, we're inspired, we can write things, we can do things.

If we're writers, it can imply that the words we write are ours, even though they are inspired. This is not what's meant here. The scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and these books were written not with man's words but with God's words. They were God-breathed emphasizing whose words they were and the source of them. Many passages in the Old Testament claim to be inspired by the use of a variety of phrases from 2nd Samuel 23 to the Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue.

In 1st Kings 21 19 thus saith the Lord. Jeremiah 9 12 the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. The inspiration of the Old Testament is also directly affirmed in the New Testament in Luke 1 verse 70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets. In Hebrews 1, 1, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets." Acts 28 25. The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah, the prophet, to your fathers.

And finally the New Testament writers also claim to have the Spirit in 2 Peter 1 21, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2 13, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And also from 1st Thessalonians 2 13, For this reason we also thank God without ceasing because when you received the Word of God which you heard from us you welcomed it not as the Word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God. Scripture directly tells us that it is inspired by God. It is the Word of God.

It is God breathed. God leaves no room for confusion here. We know that the Word of God is sufficient. We know that the Word of God is certain. And we know the word of God is the infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.

We confess that these 66 books where God breathed that there are no others, there are none missing, and there are none to be yet added. I praise God that he gave us this precious gift of his word, his holy word, the words that lead to eternal life. I pray that we would not take for granted this amazing gift nor neglect the reading and study of every single book in the Bible. But what is our response? What does this really mean to us in our daily lives, in our families, in our homes, in our work, in our recreation.

Scripture is supposed to be the rule of faith and life, all of life, not just Sunday. If someone followed you around for the next week, what would they observe? Would they find that the Bible is clearly the rule of faith in life in you or your family? Are we hearers only? I pray that we would not only be hearers but also doers of the word.

And do you want to know God? Read his word. Cling to his word. Bury his word deep in your heart. We should be like Jeremiah who declared, your words were found and I ate them and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing in my heart.

For I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts, Jeremiah 15, 16. It is only through his word that we can truly see all that he has done for us, the depth of love which he has shown to us, and the sacrifice He made in sending His one and only Son to suffer and die on the cross for us, for the remission of our sins. For salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. His name is Jesus and you can read all about him in his word. Amen.