You Asked: Answering Common Questions About Christianity - Q12: Biblical Cannon | August 16, 2026

Ishmael LaBiosa: I finished my series. This is it. The questions that you have asked today is the twelfth question. And just to be honest, I almost cut it off at eleven. I almost said, you know what, I'm not going to deal with this one. But I thought I have been I have gotten this question so much in the hallway. And even again, my mother asked me a question about this, and I'm thinking, you raise me on the Bible. Now, why are you asking me questions about this? So I thought she pushed me over the edge ⁓ to do this. Here's a true story. And I'm gonna let this thing go down in just a moment. Pastor, I can't handle this thing. This is too much for me. But ⁓ just notice, no, not yet. Just notice this thing says Holy Bible, Liberty Baptist Church. And I dug this one out of the archives. Okay, this has been here for a minute. I'll tell you why it's important here in just a second. Here's a true story from my seminary days. a professor of mine was somewhat concerned about one of the students in seminary. He was edgy. And ⁓ he wanted not to really toe the orthodox line. He wanted to go his own way every now and then. And he was edgy. And The seminary where I attended was located in North Carolina. And in North Carolina, there are a lot of little rural communities around North Carolina. And in any rural community in North Carolina, there is always a Sunday or two where the pastor is not there. And many churches don't have a pastor at all. So they will call up the local seminary and say, Please send us somebody so that they can preach. We don't have someone to preach this Sunday. And somehow this little church in rural North Carolina didn't do very good on their vetting, and so this edgy student decided to go to one of these little country churches in rural North Carolina and it all went well. ⁓ he got there, he's very pleasant, he's very personable, and it got time for him to preach. And he got behind the pulpit and looked at primarily senior adult crowd. And he said, Would you turn in your Bibles to Tobit? Which isn't let's see, some of you don't even know what I'm talking about already, which is a book that is included in the Roman Catholic Bible. It's a section called the Apocrypha. And he preached a sermon from Tobit. Tobit 4 15, which is not a bad verse. It says, Do to no one What you yourself hate. Almost like a vision of the golden rule. Well you can imagine the deacons who had brought him in, it was an emergency. They're they're eyeballing each other during the sermon, making hand gestures, thinking, Emergency meeting in the lobby after the sermon. So they the deacons circle up the poor seminary student and they say, What are you preaching out of? To which he 'Cause he was edgy. He pointed to the old Bible that had been laying in the church lobby for years, and he says, Well, it's right there in that Bible. And they go, they went over to the lobby bible and they go, Well, there it is, Tobin. They said, Well, I guess it's okay. And the meeting ended. Which made me go look at our Bible. that had been in the lob the lobby for Liberty Baptist Church for a hundred years with our name on it. And guess what happens to me in this Bible? The Apocrypha Ishmael, come get the Bible. So I ⁓ I removed this from the lobby because I'm a Protestant. Yes, and decided to tuck it away in the history room ⁓ for other events. Okay. what's the question today? The question is twofold, how do I know the Bible is the Word of God? Question number one. And then question number two, which is directly related to what we're talking about, how am I sure I have all the right books in my Bible? This becomes a little bit of a gotcha question for me. Some people come up to me and they say, Well, you know, Rusty, the Protestant Bible has sixty six books, and I say it in, Yeah, we got it right. But then they say, well, you know, the Roman Catholic Bible has seventy-three, the Orthodox Bible has seventy-eight, and the Ethiopian Bible, which they clearly probably have not read, has eighty-one. And they go, You see? And I say, No, I don't really see anything. And usually I'm too tired. And usually because of my my non spirit filled temperament, too irritated to respond. But today I respond. And so if anybody asks me this question, I'll just send them the YouTube and say there is Rusty's take on the matter. I'm gonna give you five big ideas today. You say why would I even take this question on? Here's the reason. If you don't have a good view of the authority of the scriptures, your Christian life falls apart. Has God spoken? And if He has, where has He spoken? And the Bible is very clear He's spoken through His Word. And this question just kind of eats around at the edges of that particular question. And I hope today to add some clarity into a conversation that used to not be much of a conversation, but now there's a lot of conspiracy theorists, if you haven't noticed. And so it doesn't really matter about the facts, conspiracy sales, and this has somewhat come to this conversation, to which I hope to bring some soberness. Five big ideas today. The scriptures are there. I'll read them. Keep up in your Bible if you can. Next week we change pace and go back to some more basic expository preaching. The first big idea is this Scripture is formed by divine inspiration given through human authors so that the books possess inherent authority from the moment they were written rather than receiving it later. From the church. Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, a very important verse. There are a lot of good 316 verses in the Bible. This happens to be another good 316 verse. And here it says: all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness. The word inspired there means God breathed. 2 Timothy 3 16 says very clearly that the source of the Scripture is God. Another quick text, 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 20 and 21 says, first of all, you should know this: no prophecy of Scripture comes from one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man. And here's the important phrase for today. Instead. Men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Some people come up to me and they say, Well, you know, Rusty, the Bible is just an ancient book. And I say, Well, correction, it's ancient books, sixty-six of them if you want the total number. But they say, Okay, the Bible is just a collection. Of old ancient books, that's all that it is. And I said, not so fast. If you go to a library, li in the library, the books are classified based upon the type of book that they are. There's a fiction section, there's a historical section, there's political science section, the section I hang out, the religious section. You may find me one day at Little Dickens. In the religious section, you know, just combing through the books to see what titles are there. It's really what it how boring am I? If I have an extra thirty minutes, a cup of coffee, and a perusing through the religious section really gets me going. I know I am not an exciting human, but that's okay. But nevertheless, how did the librarian put the books in the particular section? Well, the librarian thinks Theoretically would examine the contents of the book itself and see well what does the book say about itself and what is the classification of the book? And here is the reality. When you ask the Bible what it is, it does not speak with ambiguity. It says this book, these books. are from God. Now that is so if you say, which you can say whatever you want to say, it is America. The First Amendment. You know, you can do and say whatever you want us to and say, to a point, I would imagine. There's limits to that. But nevertheless, you can say the Bible is just an ancient book from long ago. But the Bible says about itself that it is a word from God. All scripture is God breathed. It's disordered. Men spoke and wrote as they were moved by God. That's what the Bible says. You say, okay, Rusty, I understand that, but there are a lot of religious texts that claim authority, and you are right on that. But there is a very important person. His name is Jesus. And he has something pretty important to say about the Bible, and he Declares that the Bible is the Word of God, and I believe the same Jesus who declared the Bible to be the Word of God also went in a grave and came out the other side. God doesn't raise liars from the dead, and thus the authority of the Bible is squarely put on the person of Jesus. You can believe whatever you want to believe, but the witness of the Bible is it is from God. And the witness of Jesus is it is from God. And so how do I know the Bible is the Word of God? One, it says it is, and number two, Jesus says it is, and that is sufficient evidence for me. Actually, stronger evidence than so-called other religious texts. Now that is one question, but we have the second question, which takes up now the remainder of my time. How do I know I have the right books? Let's talk about the second big idea. We've got to talk about the Old Testament first and the New Testament second. The second point is the Old Testament was already recognized and affirmed by Jesus and the apostles as the authoritative word of God, providing the foundational scripture that the That the New Testament writings fulfill and stand along. Some very important text from Jesus. Matthew, or rather, Luke 24, 44. I would say it's probably one of the most important texts where it is clear here that the gospel of Luke on the mouth of Jesus affirms the Old Testament. It says, in Luke 24, 44, he told them. These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. Everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled. And then you have Matthew chapter five, verse 17, where Jesus says, Don't assume that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. So if you want a shorthand for how the New Testament talks about the Old Testament, He calls it the law and the prophets. Now, here is an interesting bit of history. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew. Good. All right. And the Hebrew Bible looks like this. Put it on the screen. There it is. It is the exact same books that are in your Old Testament, but if you notice, they're in a different order. And I'll explain to you in a moment why the order is different. In your English Bible, but if you picked up a Hebrew Bible, that's what you will find. The law, the prophets, and the writings. Notice when Jesus is teaching on the road to Emmaus, he says, Everything that was about me is found in the law. There it is. The prophets, the second, and then he says the Psalms, which is the first book of the third section of. Of the Hebrew Bible. Here's a good case in point. Both Jews and Protestants agree on the same Old Testament. So there's no debate in this particular point. Both Jews and Protestants say that's it as it is. You say, well, what happened? Why don't we have it like this? Well, just because I am who I am. Some days in my office I read the Old Testament in this ordering. You don't care. ⁓ but I care, okay. I went to the long time for school. Actually, I had a Hebrew professor ⁓ old testament professor who taught me Old Testament survey following the books in this order, which was quite exhilarating to do. I know. I also on my free time go to Little Dickens and peruse the shelves. You know, it is what it is. I don't like that you're laughing at these moments. ⁓ so what happened? The Old Testament is completed, s the Old Testament history is completed by four hundred BC. Okay, there's a there is from four hundred BC to the first century is four hundred years, because you count down towards the first century. And so you got a period of four hundred years, where sometimes we say these are the years of silence. Well, they were a bit noisy if you listen. And guess what happened during those years? Something happened very profound to the Jewish community. Okay, there's a very famous figure arose, and I'm not going to test your historical knowledge here. His name was Alexander the Great. Yes, he was. He is A very important figure of ancient history, and he so conquers a large swath of the world. And Alexander did not just bring military conquest, he brought culture. And what holds a culture together, usually, listen up, America, is a common language that's very important. I love all the languages of the world, but you ought to stay. You need to speak English. Not be and that's a that's I'm getting off the point here. But what happens? Alexander the Great spreads Greek culture to the degree you ready for this? That Jewish people forgot Hebrew. That is staggering. When the Old Testament closes, they're speaking Hebrew. When the New Testament opens, Jesus is speaking Aramaic, which is a derivative of Hebrew, but there were lots of Jews who spoke no Hebrew. So if you're Jewish and now you don't speak Hebrew, you also then don't read Hebrew, which means you can't read your own Bible. That's a problem. So during the intertestamental period, they need to make a translation of the Hebrew Bible into the language that is now being spoken, Greek. And the Greek version of the Hebrew Old Testament is called the Septuagint, which means 70, as the story goes, and it's probably not true. 70 people sat down and translated the Bible, the Hebrew Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek. Now guess what? When the when they looked at that, they said, What's with the ordering? We don't understand why they ordered it. Law, prophets, writing. They said, We're gonna fix it for you. We're gonna order it according to literature. So when the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek, that's the ordering. You see? Pentateuch, the law, history, wisdom and poetry, major prophets, minor prophets. And the Greek ordering of the Hebrew Bible, or rather The Greek ordering of the Greek Old Testament is what shows up in your English Bible. Thank you, Alexander the Great. Okay, which is kind of weird. ⁓ This is what happens. Now notice the earliest Christians quoted freely from the Greek Old Testament. It's very important to note that. Okay. Now we need to put up one more little timeline. I told you I didn't want to do this, but now I'm doing it, so here we go. All right. So the Apocrypha Which everybody wants to talk about the Apocrypha now. Let's talk about the Apocrypha. You see, the Old Testament period ends at 400 BC. There is 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament writings. So during this 400 year period, people still study the Old Testament. And the Old Testament Apocrypha, by and large, is pious Jewish people reflecting on the Old Testament. That's it. It's not a conspiracy. ⁓ let me let me yeah, I don't I can see you don't you don't believe me. Go to my now click over one more. You're doing great with my slides. Go to the next slide. Do I have boom? There it is. Since you're probably not going to read the Apocrypha, I will summarize it for you now in two and a half minutes. Okay. Notice the first one, Tobit. What is this about? It's a pious Israelite living in exile in Nineveh. Blinded and later healed by an angel, and it's a story emphasizing prayer, giving, and God's care for the faithful. Judith, a beautiful and devout Jewish widow, risked her life to save her people from an invading Assyrian army by beheading their general, and it's a tale of courage, faith, and divine deliverance. In the intertestamental period, some Jews were like, we're a bit embarrassed about the book of Esther, because it omits somebody pretty important. God. There's no mention of God in Esther. So they write some commentary around Esther to make sure you know it's still about God. We already figured that out, but we appreciate their additional insight into that. Or how many of you would like more Proverbs? I would. You know, I've read all 31 chapters, but could we get some more? So they say, well, fine, we'll reflect more on the Proverbs. By the way, this is not written by Solomon. It's because it's written during the intertestamental period and Solomon's dead. It bears his name in honor of him. It praises wisdom of Solomon, praises wisdom as a divine gift. Or what about Syriac? ⁓ it's a collection of ethical sayings similar to Proverbs. Or what about Baruch, which is connected to the letter of Jeremiah? It can contains confessions of sin, prayers of mercy, and encouragement. The book of Daniel, a very thrilling book indeed. One of the things that are included in the editions of Daniel is remember Abednego, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when nevertheless they offer a they say, Well, I wonder what he prayed in the fiery furnace. And they came up with a nice prayer that he might have prayed. Did he pray it? We have no idea. Very likely not. But they were just doing some speculation. Our first Maccabees and 2nd Maccabees. It really just gives us some of the historical events that happened over that period. Now you say, Okay, Rusty. What's the deal? When the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek, They added almost as an appendix. If you want to know what we've been doing and thinking about the Old Testament for the last 400 years, here's some commentary. Do you understand this? So the tradition of the church has almost always been give them a read, but don't read them as scripture. And the way we know this, and I can I I have no I have no ⁓ Antagonism in my heart to Roman Catholics, but Roman Catholics, you know, at this moment, they can lurch at me a little bit. And I would only point, if you have a Roman Catholic friend, here's a good here's a good case in point. The the ch the the Bible that the Roman Catholic Church used for years was the Vulgate, and that's the Latin version of the Bible. Okay? So the Bible's not only translated, the Old Testament's not only translated into Greek, both Old and New Testament are translated into, come on, yeah, you're doing it. You're following. Okay, good. So we know the translator. I've actually been to the translator's office. His name is Jerome. His office is in Bethlehem, okay? Under the Church of the Nativity. And Jerome translates both Old and New Testament into Latin, which was the Bible that was used, is used in the Roman Catholic Church. And Jerome wanted it noted that don't go counting the Apocrypha as the Bible. He says, if you want to put it in there, that's fine. He's getting all kinds of pressure. And he finally capitulated and said, I'm just the translator. You can do what you want to do. But he says, may it be known that these books are not on the level of scripture, but they're helpful to read to fill in some gaps. And this is where, in some ways, this is a sermon that's much ado about nothing. Do you understand this? That's it. I mean, that if you're like, is there a conspiracy? No. No conspiracy. Now, ⁓ I need to talk about the New Testament. You track with what's going on here. So the church has historically said, by the way, one more fun fact, you say, why do we need to fill in the gaps? When you open the New Testament, a lot has changed with the Jewish people. I often tell people, where in the Old Testament do you find the Pharisees and the Sadducees? You know where you find them in the Old Testament? Nowhere. You know why? Because Judaism went through a whole lot of stuff in the 400 years, and when we pop out in the first century where the New Testament's written, a lot of different people had a lot of different opinions on a lot of different things. That's the way it works. Notice my third big idea. The New Testament books were produced under apostolic authority, either by an apostle or those closely associated with them. And began circulating and functioning as scripture within the first century church. It's very important. As seen in the early recognition of Paul's letters and the gospels. So listen to this particular text. So the Old Testament settled. Both Jews and Protestants say those are the books. The books written during the intertestamental period are nice to read, but they're not scripture. They're secondary to the canon or to the Old Testament. Okay. As far as the New Testament, then we have the verse I just read, 2 Timothy 3.16, which says all scripture is inspired by God. Now, Paul writes 2 Timothy 3.16. But a lot of people say, well, when Paul's talking there about Scripture, he might be talking about the Old Testament. I would actually say he probably is primarily talking about the Old Testament. The question is, is there any evidence in the New Testament that the New Testament writers were placed on the same level as Old Testament scriptures? Do you understand what I'm saying? And there is a clear verse for this: Second Peter chapter 3, verse 16. We got all these three sixteen verses. I read it for you. It says, Also regard the patience of our Lord as an opportunity for salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. He speaks about these things in all his letters, in which there are some matters that are hard to understand. Did you know that Simon Peter said he read read Paul's letters? And you know what Simon Peter says? They're not easy to read. And all God's people said. Amen. You agree with Simon Peter? But then Simon Peter says this, talking about people reading Paul's letters. He says the untaught and unstable twist them to their own destruction, Paul's letters, as they do with the rest of the scriptures. So clearly here Simon Peter sees Paul's letters on the same level as the Old Testament letters. Scriptures. So anybody tells you they didn't recognize the scriptures when they produced as divinely inspired scriptures. Second Peter 3:16 says exactly otherwise. There's some other data here that I want you to note. My fourth big point: the early church did not randomly choose the New Testament books, they recognized them using clear standards. And there was one primary standard. And that was, did it come from an apostle or an associate of an apostle? That they came from an apostle or someone closely connected to them, that their teaching matched the apostle's core message, that they were widely used across the churches, and that they came from the earliest period. This was not arbitrary. It reflected their commitment to guard the faith once for all delivered to the saints. One of the earliest books, I think, written is the book of Jude. It's a very early book. I'll give you my reason for that another day. But he is even saying then that we must contend for the faith that is once for all delivered to the saints. Now some people say, Rusty, I need stones and bones before I believe things from ancient history. Well, I don't have any stones and bones today for you, but I do have something else. Because we're not talking about stones and bones, we're talking about documents. Something very interesting happened. You may not find this as inter interesting. Can you tell me what I am pointing to? This is called a yes, and this is called a book. Yeah, good. Okay. Well, there's something very important happened, and this gives clear some clear historical data. Jewish people use scrolls. I mean, they love a scroll. The scroll in a roll. The earliest Christians who were Jewish, okay, at least the earliest band of them, they ditched the scroll. And they said, We don't want the scroll anymore. We want a book. And there was one. Main reason they wanted a book. You ready for it? Because you couldn't put four gospels on a scroll. You couldn't put the letters of Paul on a scroll. And in the second century, they were already saying, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, put them in a book and send them that way. The letters of Paul, put them in a book and send them that way. Because they were already trying to say, these books and no more. They ditched the scroll for the book. To say we are already recognizing what scriptures are from God. Now listen, here's the other thing. A lot of people say, ⁓ come on, Rusty. what was this the the early church was not as ⁓ the early church worshiped Jesus and they said to get into the Bible for you for this to be from God It must be connected to somebody who was right on Jesus' hip. That's their that's their criterion. That was a pr that's a good historical criterion. You're ready for me to walk through the Bible, do it real quick for you. They say, Matthew, why is it in? He's a tax collector in Capernaum. Walk with Jesus. He meet he meets the test. The Gospel of Mark. Gospel of Mark's a very interesting. By the way, the early church didn't tidy this up. If I was tidying it up, I'd have called the Gospel of Mark. The gospel of Simon Peter, because it's very clear that John Mark writes down the gospel, but Simon Peter tells him what to write. They said it makes it. It's in. Luke. Luke's not an apostle. Again, they're not trying to clean this up. You know, they're not. But Luke is connected to somebody very important. Paul, he makes it in. You have John, John, son of Zebedee, and a disciple of Jesus, makes it in. The book of Acts, Luke. But who's he connected to? Paul makes it in. The letters of Paul, including Hebrews, by the way, they all say from Paul, it makes it in. They're like James, suspect. They did early on. He says, I'm the half-brother of Jesus. They said, you'll make it in. They said, Jude, suspect. He's like another half-brother of Jesus. You'll make it in. Simon Peter, they're like, ⁓ boy, you're in. You know, because you, first, second Peter, and Mark. And in the book of Revelation, John son of Zebedee. That was the criterion. And and they these were the people who walked and knew Jesus, and those are the ones who wrote. Anybody who says otherwise, that that was profoundly, profoundly clear. And I I'm almost done. My fifth point. When the church formally listed the twenty seven New Testament books in the three hundreds, which this happens in several places. Athena Athanasius's letter of three sixty-seven, the Council of Hippo, three hundred ninety three, the Council of Carthage, three hundred ninety seven. They weren't creating a new list. It was simply publicly confirming the books that the church had already been widely receiving and using as scripture for a long time. Now you say, Well, why in the world did it take them to the three hundredths to write a list? Well, wait a minute. We have a fragment of a list from the second century called the Muratorian fragment, so that isn't the only list. But yes, by the three hundreds, they started saying these are the twenty seven books of the New Testament, and they did it in a very pontifical way. And by the way, it wasn't primarily that people say, Well, it's Rome. Rome didn't primarily do it. Africa did. Sorry about that. Hippo is in Africa. So, nevertheless, you say, Well, why did it take ⁓ that long to write a list? Can we do a bit of a historical imagination? And I'm almost finished. So John, son of Zebedee, appears to be one of those guys who won't kick the bucket. You know? You know, some of you have lived here. There are some people you think, you're still alive? You know, I mean, because you've been around, you know. It's almost like you remember another era. ⁓ it's like my grandmother, for example, she's not alive anymore. but mean just to show you, I mean she was alive just a few years ago. My grandmother remembers turning on the T V and Appomattox and seeing Hitler. ⁓ I was it there was a l there's a lady who attends the 930 service. She celebrated her sixth birthday. She still attends. Her sixth birthday in a bomb shelter in Britain as the Germans bombed. Now all you think, ⁓ so long ago. Well, no, well, not really. You know, because I mean they still walk among us. Okay, so why am I saying that? John, son of Zebedee. He's like the old guy. He's like, I mean, just think, you're at the end of the first century. Jesus dies, 33 A.D., okay? 96, John's still kicking. He's like, yeah, they're going to kill me yet. I'm the youngest disciple, and I'm going to be the oldest disciple, you know? All right. So here's the deal. If you were trained by Jesus, you Jesus says, Jesus had disciples. So if you were one of Jesus' disciples, guess what you had? Disciples. Okay? And so we know some of the disciples John had. John had a disciple by the name of Polycarp. Polycarp lived in modern day Turkey in in ancient Ephesus and was martyred. Now listen, if if I'm if I'm hobbling around and it's outside the New Testament, and I've gone to John's funeral, John son of Zebedee, who wrote the Gospel of John, first, second, third John, and the book of Revelation. And I wanted to know what John thought. Would I ask a church counsel or would I ask Polycarp? Do you understand? And so for into the second century, the people who had been trained by the apostles were still very much alive. So if you got a question, go ask somebody who was a student of one of the disciples. And then it didn't take too much longer. That the students of the disciples, like Polycar, he had disciples. Well, by the time you get to 300, what's starting to happen? You know, now it's so they said we ought to write a list. The way this is portrayed in popular culture is just so historically inaccurate that nobody knew what the New Testament was, and in a smoke-filled room in Rome. Constantine says, and these are the Couldn't be further from the truth. It's conspiracy. Because you they ditched the scroll for the book to hold ⁓ together. And and and these were circulating. We already got lists, and by three hundred they're like, okay, Christianity's got big enough now, and we can't just ask we can't phone a friend anymore, so let's write a list. The 27 books of the New Testament have never been in debate. Now I know I'm over time. This is the last one of the series. If you don't like the series, it's over. Okay? I gotta do one more thing, and I'm gonna I I know I'm taking your time and I'm sorry, and I'm conscious of your time. I will stay on my time limit in the next series, I promise you. Okay? Here's one more thing I gotta tell you. Cause because and the reason is after 930 service, this was the question I got almost immediately, so I will cover it. Track with me. There's the 400 years between Old and New Testament. There were books written then. That's called the Old Testament Apocrypha. All right. After the New Testament is written. Okay? The New Testament is the bestseller now. Okay? And the genres of gospel, history, epistle, and apocalypse, which are the genres of the Bible. They're they're like, they're the hot genres now, you know? And so outside the New Testament period not pious Jews, although they might be Jewish, pious Christians for the most part. Right book the New Testament. Do you understand? The same thing is happening again. Now I have something, so put these up. Go ahead, Scott. Show this next beautiful. Okay, here's one up. Notice the dates 140, 150. Do you see these? Listen carefully. The Gospel of Peter is not written by Peter. The Gospel of Mary is not written by Mary. You say, How do you know? Well, because it's written in 400 100 140. Mary doesn't live in 140, she's dead in the first century. Do you do you understand this? So, what happens, and this has been all the conspiracy. Some people outside the New Testament period were just happy Christians. I every every pastor I know does this a little bit at Christmas. Okay? You know what I'd like at Christmas? A little more material. Okay? I gotta preach four Sundays, and only two of the gospels give me the birth story of Jesus. It'd be nice to have a little extra. So some of the people, happy Christians outside the New Testament period, said, I wonder what it was like when Jesus was a boy. And they would think about that. Or they would say, I'll write a prayer to God. Do you that's it? Other people outside the New Testament period had an axe to grind. And some of the axes that they wanted to grind were already seen in the New Testament. Like John says, John son of Zebedee, he says, you ought to be careful. There are gonna be some people that are already here, and they'll probably be around once I die, that will say that all that matters is the spirit, not the body. They'll even deny Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Watch out for them. John says that. Guess what? In the second century, that's what they're saying. Do you understand this? In other documents. Or Paul will say in 1st and 2nd. Timothy, some people will come to you and say they've got secret knowledge. That's no knowledge at all. All they need is to study the scriptures. Do you understand this? Those people show up in the second century and they try to write their own documents in their own way, and the church says, We already condemned you in the books that are written in the New Testament, and those won't stand. But the vast majority of these are just Christians thinking out loud. Just do you understand this? So go to my last slide now. Click all through this. Click, click. Beautiful. You say, Rusty, I'm lost. Be found. This is where it's must or do about nothing. The Old and New Testament scriptures, the sixty-six books, have been said from time immemorial, divinely inspired, not only in the Bible itself, but declared to be so by Jesus or his apostles. Do you track? The Old and New Testament apocryphal works, they're good to read for the most part, but not at the authoritative level of the scriptures. And by the way, they contain no conspiracies. They're just pious Jews reflecting on the Old Testament, or for the most part, pious Christians reflecting on the New Testament with a few heretics sprinkled about. Okay? And then the third group, especially in the Books outside the New Testament. It was several church leaders outside the New Testament said that these books should not be read. They have an agenda and they don't stand with the apostles. That's it. And so if anybody comes to you, you say, Rusty, why did you preach this sermon? Here's the reason. I start where I I finish where I started. What you think about the Bible matters so much. Either the Bible is the authoritative word of God or it's not. And any time a Christian or a Christian denomination begins to question the authority of the scriptures, it's over. And and so what this all this chatter, which in my humble opinion, is interesting, but at the end of the day, much ado about nothing, because the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament have been roundly regarded as such throughout their history, that this is an attempt to just take down the credibility of the scriptures. So that you can make Christianity whatever you want it to be. And may I now quote Jesus' half, brother, that you ought to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Christianity's teachings are not up for debate. The Bible is not up for revision. The 66 books are there. They are the authoritative word of God. And when Christians or anybody else begins to question them, question is one thing, but denying the authority of the Scripture becomes the slippery slope into something profoundly non Christian. And so I commend to you today. People are got a lot to say on this topic. There's much ado about nothing. The witness of the Bible and the witness of the church collectively has been pretty strong. That you ought to give a good read to all sixty six books and anything extra needs to be filtered through those. If you're here and you're not a Christian, The altar is open. Had a lady come to me, and I'm sorry for taking extra time, but I'm about to pray. She said, The Lord woke me up this morning and brought me to the nine thirty service. She said, I have all kinds of questions about the Bible. I've been listening to this podcast and this, that, or the other. And she said, today's message clarified some things that I need to take the Bible much more seriously. Well maybe today that's you. It's not just taking the Bible more seriously, it's taking Jesus more seriously to turn from sin and self and say, Not only do I fall under the authority of the Word of God, I fall under the authority of Jesus Himself. And I turn from my sin and self and I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. He's going to be the authority of my life, the Lord of my life, not me. This altar is open. If you need it, use it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask you. That in the noise of our culture. That we would still see you. God, we're thankful that all Scripture is given an inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that we can be complete in every good work. And God, today may we humble ourselves before you. And say from our hearts, Word of God, speak. In Jesus' name. Amen.

2 Timothy 3:16 2 Peter 1:20 2 Peter 3:16 2 Peter 3:16