{"id":18489,"date":"2018-07-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-22T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-030-spiritual-gifts-10\/"},"modified":"2018-07-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-22T05:00:00","slug":"ecclesiology-030-spiritual-gifts-10","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-030-spiritual-gifts-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 030: Spiritual Gifts 10"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[91],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18489","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-1-corinthians","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 030: Spiritual Gifts 10","sermon_date":"20180722","sermon_month":"7","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5922,"sermon_slides":5923,"sermon_mp3":5928,"sermon_id":"722181151567","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":91,"chapter_and_verse":"13:8-13","sermon_transcript":"Dr. Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 30, Spiritual Gifts 9\n\n7-22-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 30\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for this morning, grateful today and grateful for Your grace.\u00a0 We\u2019re thankful Lord that the same grace that saved us is the same grace that sustains us, and I just ask that the Holy Spirit will be active, involved, illuminating our Bible studies this morning.\u00a0 I ask for the Holy Spirit to work and I ask, Father, that we would leave here today changed people and only You can do that.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.\n\nLet\u2019s open our bibles, if we could, to Corinthians, chapter 13:8-13.\u00a0 As you know we\u2019re continuing on with our study on the doctrine of the church, kind of broadening it a little bit because one of the purposes of the church is for people to use their spiritual gifts.\u00a0 That kind of requires a treatment, if you will, of the whole issue of spiritual gifts.\u00a0 And then once you get into the subject of spiritual gifts everybody wants to know are all the spiritual gifts for today?\u00a0 So that\u2019s rabbit trail number two that we\u2019ve been going down. Rabbit trail one is the spiritual gifts rabbit trail. And rabbit trail two is the whole debate between the charismatics and the cessationists.\u00a0 And those are two big rabbit trails, aren\u2019t they?\u00a0 So I\u2019m going to try to pull us out of that rabbit trail today, at least one of those rabbit trails, and wrap up our teaching on the gifts that we believe have ceased, the foundational gifts, the confirmatory gifts and today I\u2019d like to finish the treatment of why we believe the revelatory gifts have ceased.\n\nBut here are the seven gifts that we\u2019re talking about: apostle, prophet, workers of miracles, tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing and knowledge.\u00a0 And as we have explained many, many Christians that love Jesus just as much as we do think that those seven gifts are continuing today in the church; they\u2019re called continuationists.\u00a0 Our belief is in that second category on the screen, selective cessationism meaning we think those seven gifts stopped in the first century.\u00a0 And that\u2019s basically what our teaching position at our church indicates.\n\nAnd more important than understand\u00ading the teaching positions of Sugar Land Bible Church is understanding the biblical case why those seven gifts have ceased.\u00a0 And it really elates to taking the spiritual gifts and putting them into four categories.\u00a0 What we\u2019re trying to argue is that the first three categories are gifts that have ceased.\u00a0 The majority of the gifts, at least sixteen, remain in the fourth category, edificatory, and they continue on.\u00a0 So by foundational gifts we\u2019re talking about apostles and prophets, and as we\u2019ve tried to explain that\u2019s what the Lord built the church on, the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.\u00a0 And since you lay a foundation one time we don\u2019t believe that there are actual apostles and prophets today.\n\nThe second category is the confirmatory gifts and we\u2019ve made a lot of pains to describe that there are certain gifts or miracles that cluster around time periods when God is doing something new.\u00a0 So at the age of the dawning of the church, Acts 2, God was doing something new; He was reversing His normal operation that had happened under the Mosaic Law for at least one thousand five hundred years, and so God testified to it through various signs and wonders.\u00a0 \u00a0And that\u2019s how we understand workers of miracles, tongues and the gift of healing.\u00a0 We look at those as sign gifts that authenticated the age of the church but since we\u2019re not in a new dispensation today and the age of the church has been rolling on for two thousand years, there\u2019s no need for those gifts to be in operation.\u00a0 And I\u2019m sorry to just sort of dump this on you if this is your first time with us on this study, I would encourage you to go back into the archives and read or listen to or watch our explanations on this.\n\nRight now I\u2019m just sort of reviewing which takes to a third category of gifts called revelatory gifts.\u00a0 And revelatory gifts would be prophets, tongues and their interpretation and the gift of knowledge where people are being actually used as a divine conduit of revelation.\u00a0 In other words, when they speak God speaks and when they speak God is actually speaking through that person on an equal level as the Scripture itself.\u00a0 And we\u2019re trying to argue that those gifts, revelatory gifts, just like the foundational gifts and confirmatory gifts have also ceased in the first century. So that\u2019s sort of where we are in our study on this.\n\nAnd we\u2019re talking about prophet, knowledge, tongues and their interpretation, revelatory gifts.\u00a0 And the key passage on this whole thing is 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 which I\u2019m going to hope to finish up this morning.\u00a0 So let\u2019s refamilarize ourselves with 1 Corinthians 13:8-13.\u00a0 Paul says, \u201cLove never fails; but if there are gifts of<\/em> prophecy, they will be done away; if there are<\/em> tongues, they will cease; if there is<\/em> knowledge, it will be done away. [9] For we know in part and we prophesy in part;\u201d and here\u2019s the key line here, [10] \u201cbut when the perfect\u201d the Greek is telion [telion<\/em>] in the original, \u201cwhen the perfect comes, the partial\u201d what\u2019s the partial?\u00a0 Prophecy, tongues and the gift of knowledge, \u201cthe partial will be done away with.\u201d\n\nAnd in that transition Paul uses two illustrations.\u00a0 The first one is in verse 11, the second one is in verse 12.\u00a0\u00a0 Paul says, [11] \u201cWhen I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s illustration number one, the transition from immaturity to maturity, once the perfect comes and partial revelations have been done away with.\u00a0 And then he says in verse 12, illustration two, \u201cFor now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. [13] But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.\u201d\n\nSo you obviously look at a passage like this and it says the partial is done away with when the perfect comes.\u00a0 So the twenty dollar question is what is \u201cthe perfect.\u201d\u00a0 What does that mean, because you can document the petering out of these revelatory gifts at the manifestation of something called \u201cthe perfect\u201d or the telion<\/em>. And as you can imagine this is not an easy question to answer because there\u2019s three views on the subject.\u00a0 The most popular view is the telion <\/em>is the second coming of Christ or some kind of event related to the second coming of Christ, the rapture, the eternal state, something like that.\u00a0 And according to this view you can expect these revelations in part to continue until the second coming of Christ.\u00a0 And what I have done in prior teachings is I\u2019ve given you the six problems with that interpretation.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very popular view but there are six major problems with it.\n\nWhich takes us to view number two; the second view is the telion <\/em>is the maturity of the church, and people define the maturity of the church different ways.\u00a0 But maturity has to do with, some say when the apostles died, or when the canon of Scripture was complete, or when the church made its final break with Judaism in A.D.\u00a0 70.\u00a0 And they kind of throw this collection of data together and they say well, the church reached its maturity back in the first century so that\u2019s when the gifts ceased.\u00a0 And I think that particular view is a lot closer to the truth than view one but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the right view.\u00a0 Which takes us to view number three which I think we talked about last week, didn\u2019t we?\u00a0 According to view number three, which is what our position is, is the telion <\/em>or the perfect is the completion of the New Testament canon.\u00a0 Once the twenty-seventh book of the Bible of the New Testament was written, the Book of Revelation, that\u2019s when the canon was complete (canon just means measuring rod), and therefore the partial gifts passed away at that particular point.\n\nAnd I\u2019ve sort of walked you through how that view works and that\u2019s the position of Sugar Land Bible Church, a lot of people today are saying Lord, please talk to me, and what does the Lord do?\u00a0 He hands them a Bible, because we believe God has communicated already in these sixty-six books.\u00a0 Once that communication process was completed there was no longer a need for the revelatory gifts because now you\u2019re holding in your hand a completed canon, which is complete.\u00a0 And as we have tried to explain it\u2019s completely sufficient for all matters of faith and practice.\n\nAnd I\u2019ve tried to give you the strengths of this canon view and I think that\u2019s where we were last time.\u00a0 The canon view works really well because it pits a partial quantity, gives in part, with a completed quantity, the canon.\u00a0 The canon view works very well because telios<\/em> is used of the Scripture in the earliest book of the New Testament, which would be which book?\u00a0 The Book of James, over in James 1:25.\u00a0\u00a0 [James 1:25, \u201cBut one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.\u201d]\n\nThe canon view works very nicely because Paul talks about a mirror in these verses, verse 12.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll say more about the mirror a little bit later, but James, in the same chapter, in the same paragraph, when he\u2019s talking about the law of God refers to the law of God as a mirror.\u00a0 What does a mirror do?\u00a0 It tells you the truth about yourself.\u00a0 If you\u2019re looking good the mirror will tell you; if maybe there\u2019s a few more gray hairs than you used to have, or maybe less hair than you used to have or maybe if you\u2019ve gained a little weight since your high school days, the thing about a mirror is it won\u2019t lie to you about that.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s why mirrors can be very frustrating, can\u2019t they, because we\u2019re all decaying, aren\u2019t we?\u00a0 \u201cFrom dust you are to\u201d what? \u201cto dust you shall return.\u201d\n\nThe mirror won\u2019t pad its remarks to avoid hurting your feelings.\u00a0 So that\u2019s how the Scripture functions, it\u2019s like a mirror, it gives us an accurate assessment of who we are \u201cin Adam,\u201d and once you understand that you begin to understand our need for redemption. And you\u2019ll see James using the telion<\/em> as a mirror, or describing it as a mirror in James 1.\n\nBeyond that the canon view handles real well the switch in the \u201cnow\u2019s\u201d in 1 Corinthians 13:13.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 13:13, \u201cBut now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.\u201d]\u00a0 There\u2019s a switch in the \u201cnow\u201d at the end of verse 12, the Greek word is arti<\/em>, and it switches to nun<\/em> in verse 13.\u00a0 And I showed you a quote, I think last time, from The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament<\/em>, which indicates that when those two nouns are used simultaneously the arti <\/em>is imminent (it could happen at any moment) and the nun<\/em> is more talking about something that could stretch out between the two advents of Christ.\u00a0\u00a0 So when Paul, in verse 12 says, \u201cFor now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face\u201d he\u2019s talking about a shift that\u2019s going to happen within the next four decades or so of his own life, actually beyond his life span when the canon of Scripture would be shut.\n\nBut in verse 13 when he uses a completely different word for \u201cnow\u201d the nun<\/em> or the nunni<\/em>, he is talking about a great time period between the two comings of Christ where although the revelatory gifts will have ceased, faith, hope and love will continue.\u00a0\u00a0 So even though we believe these revelatory gifts have ceased we still believe faith, hope, love continue today, right?\u00a0\u00a0 But he says the greatest of these is what?\u00a0 Love, because when Jesus comes back I won\u2019t have to have faith any more, I won\u2019t have to have hope any more, but what will always continue?\u00a0 Love itself!\n\nSo you put these things together and the canon view really has a lot going for it although what you find with people is they just dismiss the view out of hand today without telling people the things that this view actually has going for it.\n\nSo that\u2019s where we were last time, that\u2019s where we ended off and what I want to do today is go over the objections to the canon view and I want to show you that each of these objections can be answered.\u00a0 I have, I think four objections to the canon view specifically, I\u2019ll go through those very fast, and then I have four more objections to selective cessationism in general; these are things you\u2019ll hear from people when you get into this discussion and I\u2019ll try to answer those for you fast, and I\u2019m hoping, God willing, we can open it up for questions towards the end.\u00a0 That\u2019s the game plan anyway.\n\nWhat are some objections to this canon view?\u00a0 The first objection is verse 12 where it talks about \u201cface to face.\u201d It says is verse 12, 1 Corinthians 13, \u201cFor now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.\u201d\u00a0 Now your average Christian reads that and they think it\u2019s talking about face to face with God.\u00a0 In other words, they believe that when the perfect comes is the second coming of Christ and that\u2019s when you\u2019re going to see Jesus \u201cface to face.\u201d\u00a0 So they interpret \u201cface to face\u201d as fellowship with God, seeing Jesus directly face to face.\u00a0 And they\u2019ll go through many, many verses where \u201cface to face\u201d communication is revealed as communication with God.\u00a0 For example, over in Judges 6:22, it says, \u201cWhen Gideon saw that he was the angel of the LORD,\u201d the \u201cangel of the LORD many times in the Old Testament, as you know, is a preincarnate appearance of Jesus, not in every case but in a lot of cases and this may be one of those cases.\u00a0 It says, \u201cWhen Gideon sat that he was the angel of the LORD he said, \u2018Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.\u2019\u201d\n\nSo there are many, many verses that use the concept of \u201cface to face\u201d as some kind of communication with God.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if you want to jot all these down but Genesis 32:20, Exodus 3:11, Deuteronomy 5:4, Deuteronomy 34:10, the Judges verse that I have there on the screen, Ezekiel 20:35.\u00a0 [Genesis 32:20, \u201cand you shall say, \u2018Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.\u2019\u201d For he said, \u2018I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Deuteronomy 5:4, \u201cThe LORD spoke to you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire.\u201d\u00a0 Deuteronomy 34:10, \u201cSince that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Ezekiel 20:35, \u201cand I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.\u201d]\n\nSo \u201cface to face\u201d is used of direct fellowship with God many times in the Old Testament so people say well, that\u2019s what it means here in verse 12.\u00a0 So therefore, the perfect is the second coming of Christ, that\u2019s when we\u2019re going to see Jesus face to face, and therefore that\u2019s when the revelatory gifts will cease.\u00a0 See that?\n\nBut I\u2019m here to tell you that \u201cface to face\u201d does not always mean direct fellowship with God.\u00a0 It can also mean direct revelation from God.\u00a0 In other words, God speaking to man rather than man having fellowship with God.\u00a0 And when you go back to the Book of Numbers, chapter 12 and verses 6-8 this is how God\u2019s communication with Moses is described.\n\nIt says, \u201cHe said, \u2018Hear now My words: if there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision.\u00a0 I shall speak with him in a dream.[7] \u201cNot so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household;\u00a0 [8] With him I speak mouth to mouth,\u201d now there it\u2019s not using the broader category \u201cface to face\u201d but the smaller category, \u201cmouth to mouth,\u201d obviously the face would include the mouth.\u00a0 \u201cWith him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the LORD.\u00a0 Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?\u201d\n\nAnd so here \u201cmouth to mouth\u201d or \u201cface to face\u201d is being used, when you look at this in context not so much to describe Moses\u2019 fellowship with God, although that was part of it, but it\u2019s being used to describe God\u2019s disclosure to Moses.\u00a0 And I think that\u2019s the way to understand \u201cface to face\u201d here, as communication from God to man and of course that understanding of \u201cface to face\u201d fits really well with the canon view because that\u2019s when God\u2019s revelation to man was completed in the first century through the twenty-seventh book of the New Testament.\u00a0 So \u201cface to face,\u201d what I\u2019m trying to argue, can fit with the completed canon understanding of\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1 Corinthians 13:10.\n\nNow take a look at verse 12 very carefully and tell me if you see the word \u201cGod\u201d in verse 12.\u00a0 It says, \u201cFor now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face;\u201d does it say face to face with God?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that at all; the word \u201cGod\u201d has to be completely read into the passage.\u00a0 And for years and years I thought \u201cface to face\u201d meant second coming and I was psychologically or subconsciously, whatever word you want to\u00a0 use reading the word God into the passage but the passage doesn\u2019t say God.\u00a0\u00a0 It simply says \u201cface to face.\u201d\n\nNow let me ask you a basic question: when you look in a mirror whose face do you see?\u00a0\u00a0 Do you see God\u2019s face; if you think you\u2019re looking at God\u2019s face in the mirror you may need some counselling of some kind,\u00a0 you might have a slight self-esteem issue that needs to be corrected.\u00a0 When you look in a mirror you\u2019re not seeing God.\u00a0 Who are\u00a0 you seeing?\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re seeing yourself.\u00a0 And it talks here about a mirror.\u00a0 Now the word \u201cmirror,\u201d verse 12, is esoptro<\/a><\/em>v <\/em>[eseptron<\/em>] in Greek and that word is only used one other place in the whole Bible, in the New Testament.\u00a0 Guess where it\u2019s used?\u00a0 In the James 1 passage.\u00a0 The James 1 passage is the passage that I indicated earlier uses telion<\/em> or telios<\/em> to refer to God\u2019s law or God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 And in that same passage is the only other occurrence of the word \u201cmirror\u201d which is describing a feature of the Scripture.\n\nSo James 1:22-23 says, \u201cBut prove yourselves doers of the\u201d what? \u201cthe word,\u201d the context here is the Scripture, \u201cand not merely hearers who delude themselves.\u00a0\u00a0 [23] For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a\u201d what does it say, \u201cin a mirror.\u201d So what am I trying to get at?\u00a0 When you go to the earliest book of the New Testament, and that\u2019s important to understand because it was an established verbal meaning of words before the Apostle Paul even hit the scene, perhaps even before Paul was saved or right around that time period.\u00a0 What you\u2019ll see in the oldest book of the Bible is telion<\/em>, James 1:21-25, is used to describe God\u2019s Word and God\u2019s word in that James 1 passage is analogized to a mirror.\n\nAnd what is Paul doing here in 1 Corinthians 13:8-13? He\u2019s using the exact same words, telion<\/em>, which I think means Scripture, completed Scripture, and he\u2019s describing that feature of the Scripture as a mirror which gives you an honest self-assessment.\n\n[1 Corinthians 13:8-13, \u201cLove never fails; but if there are gifts of<\/em> prophecy, they will be done away; if there are<\/em> tongues, they will cease; if there is<\/em> knowledge, it will be done away. [9] For we know in part and we prophesy in part; [10] but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. [11] When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. [12] For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. [13] But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.\u201d]\n\nAnd so my point is you have a pretty strong case, do you not, that the telion<\/em> here in 1 Corinthians 13 is not talking about the second coming, it\u2019s talking about the completed canon, because number one, \u201cface to face\u201d can refer to not fellowship with God but God\u2019s disclosure to man, Numbers 12.\u00a0 Number two, it fits with James\u2019 use of the word telion<\/em>.\u00a0 And number three, it fits with James\u2019 use of the word mirror, which is only used one other time in the whole New Testament, in the Book of James.\n\nSo the completed canon view of the telion<\/em> in 1 Corinthians 13 fits beautifully with Paul\u2019s description of face to face.\u00a0 In other words, you don\u2019t have to read into this passage the second coming of Christ, it doesn\u2019t even say see God face to face.\u00a0 Paul is using terminology that his audience would be well aware of in reference to the completed canon of Scripture.\n\nThe second objection to the completed canon view is verse 12 when it says, \u201conce the perfect comes we will know just as we are known.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 And people say well, that\u2019s got be the second coming of Christ, right, because when Jesus Christ comes back all of our questions are going to be answered and that\u2019s when we\u2019re going to know fully \u201cjust as we are known.\u201d\u00a0 And so a lot of people will reject the completed canon view on that basis.\u00a0 They don\u2019t see how it\u2019s possible that a completed canon could so add to our understanding that we would know \u201cjust as we are known.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ve quoted in the past the great Martin Lloyd Jones who completely dismisses the completed canon view and he writes this: \u201cIt\u201d that\u2019s the completed canon view, \u201cmeans that you and I have the Scriptures opened before us and know much more than the Apostle Paul of God\u2019s truth... It means that we are altogether superior...even to the apostles themselves, including the apostle Paul! It means that we are now in a position which . . . \u2018we know, even as we are known\u2019\u00a0 by God . . .\u201d now look at how fast he dismisses this idea, he says, \u201cindeed, there is only one word to describe such a view, it is nonsense.\u201d\u00a0 [D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Prove All Things<\/em>, ed. Christopher Catherwood (Eastbourne, England: Kingsway, 1985), 32\u201333.]\n\nSo with the stroke of a pen he just dismisses it as ridiculous.\u00a0 And what I\u2019m here to tell you is it\u2019s not ridiculous when you understand that what the completed canon gives us in terms of under\u00adstanding.\u00a0 The completed canon of Scripture is an all sufficient revelation and accompanying it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit which allows you to fathom its meaning and its depths when you use proper laws of language in your study.\u00a0 And if it astounding how much you can learn through that process.\u00a0 Think what we couldn\u2019t know about a completed canon and now that we have it and also the enablement of the Holy Spirit think what we can know now.\u00a0 That transition, to my mind, fits with a transition from limited sight to full sight.\n\nAre we omniscient today because we have a completed canon and the Holy Spirit?\u00a0 No, I\u2019m not saying that but what I\u2019m saying is the level of understanding that is attainable today that was not attainable to Christians in the first century, even to Paul himself, through those partial revelatory gifts is unfathomable what we can know.\u00a0 And didn\u2019t Jesu tell us that that day would arrive.\n\nHe said to His disciples in the Upper Room, John 16:12-15, \u201cI have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them<\/em> now.\u201d\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 He wanted to talk about things to his disciples that the disciples didn\u2019t have the ability to understand.\u00a0 Why couldn\u2019t they understand it?\u00a0 There was no New Testament yet, and the Holy Spirit had not been poured out with its illuminating ministry as would happen in Acts 2.\u00a0 [13] But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into\u201d what\u2019s the next word there?\u00a0 80% of the truth\u2026 is that what it says?\u00a0 It says \u201call the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. [15] He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it<\/em> to you.\u201d\u00a0 Look at verse 15, what things, it doesn\u2019t say 75% of things does it, it says \u201call things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it<\/em> to you.\u201d\n\nYou have to understand because of a completed canon and because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit that wants you to understand this book you\u2019re sitting on top of a virtual goldmine that Isaiah and Jeremiah and the prophets of the Old Testament couldn\u2019t even dream of.\u00a0 In fact, the apostles themselves, even Paul himself couldn\u2019t even picture what we would have once that canon of Scripture was complete.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a partial revelation; it is a complete revelation.\u00a0 So therefore, when Paul says, when the telion<\/em> comes and the perfect comes you will know, just as you are known,\u201d people say well that can\u2019t be today.\u00a0 Yes it can if you understand what we have, not omniscience but an all sufficient revelation in linguistic form and the means of the Holy Spirit to understand it.\n\nAnd we don\u2019t even understand the riches that we have today because we\u2019re too busy to do Bible study, we\u2019re busy with other things when in reality Bible study is the greatest thing you could ever give yourself as a Christian.\u00a0 You\u2019re able to understand things that even the apostles, the prophets of old could not understand.\n\nPaul continues on and he talks about not heaven but the illumination of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Jesus in John 16 is not talking about heaven; He\u2019s talking about the coming illumination of the Holy Spirit through a completed canon.\u00a0 Paul would write in 1 Corinthians 2:9-12, \u201cbut just as it is written, \u201cThings which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which<\/em> have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 I read that for years and thought that was talking about heaven.\u00a0 But watch the context of this.\u00a0 It says, [10] \u201cFor to us God revealed them<\/em> through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches\u201d what?\u00a0 80% of things\u2026 it doesn\u2019t say that does it, \u201cthe Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. [11] \u00a0<\/sup>For who among men knows the thoughts<\/em> of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts<\/em> of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. [12] \u00a0<\/sup>Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things\u201d what? \u201cfreely given to us by God.\u201d\n\nThe context here is not heaven, the context here is Bible study available to a Christian in the post-canon age is what it\u2019s talking about.\n\nPaul goes on and he says, [13] \u201cwhich things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.\u00a0 [14] But the natural man\u201d that\u2019s the person without the Spirit, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.\u00a0 [15] But he who is spiritual appraises\u201d what? 80% of things, it doesn\u2019t say that does it; it says, \u201call things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.\u00a0 [16] For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.\u201d\n\nAll this stuff about \u201ceye has not seen, ear has not heard,\u201d in context that\u2019s not talking about heaven; it\u2019s talking about the illumination of the Holy Spirit with a completed canon.\u00a0 And so once the canon is complete, to my mind that handles the transition well, for now we know in part, then we will know in full. When Paull made this statement, about A.D. 56, the canon of Scripture hadn\u2019t been completed yet and the church was dependent on these revelatory gifts, like knowledge, tongues, interpretation of tongues and prophecy.\u00a0 But Paul here is saying that\u2019s just partial, once this canon is complete the Christian will have all knowledge, making the partial revelations unnecessary because of a completed canon.\n\nAnd this doesn\u2019t sell well today, what I\u2019m saying, in a postmodern culture because what we\u2019re being inundated with is post modernity which basically relates to what is called your epistemology. Epistemology is how we know what we know; that\u2019s what epistemology is.\u00a0 And postmodernism is an attack on the type of epistemology that I\u2019m talking about here because postmodernism says you can\u2019t know.\u00a0 In fact, the only thing you can really know is you don\u2019t know!\u00a0 And the only thing you can really be certain of is your own uncertainty.\u00a0 And the only thing that you\u2019re not allowed to be agnostic on is your own agnosticism.\u00a0 That\u2019s post-modernity.\n\nSo someone like myself that stands up and says you know what, you can know all things; you\u2019re immediately attacked with the word arrogant, prideful, and what I\u2019m trying to say is that is man\u2019s philosophy being pushed against us.\u00a0 When you actually look at the words of Christ and you actually look at the words of Jesus Christ, the knowledge that you can have of God\u2019s truth, there\u2019s really no limit to it because number one, you\u2019ve got a completed disclosure in sixty-six books.\u00a0 And number two, you\u2019ve got the Holy Spirit to enable you to understand it.\u00a0 And beyond that, if that weren\u2019t enough, you\u2019ve got spiritual gifts in operation in the church, like the gift of teaching, to enable you to grasp divine details.\n\nThe only impediment to your knowledge is getting out of fellowship with God.\u00a0 That\u2019s why there\u2019s such a push by the world system to get you to go back into the flesh because if you go back into the flesh that doesn\u2019t cancel your eternal destiny but it disrupts your moment by moment fellowship with God which will short-circuit the learning process.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 But if you\u2019re in fellowship, if you\u2019re reading the Bible through proper laws of language, if\u00a0 you\u2019re depending upon the Holy Spirit for understanding, you can know more than the Apostle Paul himself, is what I\u2019m saying.\u00a0 And so when Martin Lloyd Jones just writes off this view as absurd I don\u2019t think it\u2019s absurd at all when you actually understand what is being said here.\n\nSo \u201cknowing as known,\u201d to my mind fits the canon understanding.\u00a0 The third objection that\u2019s raised against the canon view if the competed canon was not in the mind of the Apostle Paul.\u00a0 The canon hadn\u2019t been completed yet, it wouldn\u2019t be completed for another forty years, roughly, and so what people say is you\u2019re reading into the context something that\u2019s not there.\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s my answer:\u00a0 Paul, what was his occupation prior to him becoming a missionary and a Christian theologian, and an apostle?\u00a0 He was a Pharisee, wasn\u2019t he.\u00a0 In fact, Philippians 3:5 he describes his former life in Pharisaism.\u00a0 [Philippians 3:5, \u201ccircumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee;\u201d]\n\nAnd as a Pharisee he knew all about a closed canon.\u00a0 Now he knew about it, not in the sense so much of the New Testament canon that was being completed, I\u2019ll show you in a minute that I think he did understand that, but he certainly had the concept in his mind from the Old Testament, any Pharisee would.\u00a0 So to say that you\u2019re forcing Paul to talk about something that he is not understanding I don\u2019t think works because Paul had a conceptual understanding of a closed canon by virtue of his occupation as a Pharisee. \u00a0Do you see that?\n\nAnd even as that canon was coming together in the New Testament, coming together in Paul\u2019s lifetime I think there are things that Paul says that demonstrate an understanding of a completed set of writings that was coming together.\u00a0 For example, what does he say to Timothy when he\u2019s in prison, 2 Timothy 4:13, bring my nightlight and my pillow?\u00a0 No, he says, \u201cWhen you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the\u201d what? \u201cthe books, especially the parchments.\u201d\u00a0 What books would he be talking about?\u00a0 He\u2019s talking about that finite set of writings that was in the process of being compiled.\u00a0 Paul will write to Timothy, I think it\u2019s in \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01 Timothy 6:20 and other places, he\u2019ll say guard the deposit.\u00a0 [1 Timothy 6:20, \u201cO Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called \u201cknowledge.\u201d]\u00a0 \u00a0What deposit is he talking about?\u00a0 He\u2019s talking about that finite collection of writings that was part of the canon.\n\nPeter would speak of Paul\u2019s writings in 2 Peter 3:15. [2 Peter 3:15, \u201cand regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,\u201d] And I appreciate what Peter says here.\u00a0 He says you know, some of the things that Paul says are hard to understand.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t that make you feel a little better.\u00a0 But he talks about how Paul wrote these things, this would be very late, A.D. 67, right before Peter\u2019s death, A.D. 68, right in there, but Paul wrote with divine wisdom.\u00a0 So Peter is acknowledging the concept of a closed canon, as is Paul, Paul would already under the concept of a closed canon just by virtue of an Old Testament canon, because of his background as a Pharisee.\n\nSo this argument, the closed canon view, is completely out of context in terms of interpreting the perfect in 1 Corinthians 13:10, people say you\u2019re reading into the context something that Paul is not talking about.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 13:10, \u201cbut when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.\u201d]\u00a0 I think it fits the context very well actually, which would take us to a fourth objection to the closed canon view and this objection to me is probably the one that is the most troubling because to me it\u2019s sort of self-serving.\u00a0 And even online I\u2019ve gotten people who have viewed this course online and they\u2019ll say \u201care you saying that there are two or at least one whole chapter in 1 Corinthians 14 that\u2019s not for us,\u201d because if my interpretation on this is correct and tongues, prophecy, interpretation of tongues and knowledge ceased what does Paul do in the first century with the completed canon?\u00a0 What is Paul doing in 1 Corinthians 14?\u00a0 He\u2019s giving rules for the operations of those gifts.\n\nSo if those gifts had ceased then people say well, what you\u2019re saying is the whole chapter of the Bible is not for us in the age of the church, because everything is about us, right?\u00a0 [Laugher]\u00a0 I call that not exegesis but narcissi-Jesus, where people want to see themselves in everything. \u00a0And I guess my answer to that is the old maxim, all Scripture is for us, right?\u00a0 I mean, \u201cAll Scripture is God breathed and profitable\u2026.\u201d [2 Timothy 3:16]\u00a0 but not all Scripture is directly about us.\u00a0 Romans 15:4 says, \u201cWhatever is written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.\u201d So all Scripture is for us, all sixty-six books; there are things you can learn in all sixty-six books that will apply to your life.\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t mean that all Scripture is directly about us.\n\nI mean, I hope when God told Joshua to slay the Canaanites, I hope you don\u2019t sharpen your sword and head off to the Middle East.\u00a0 I hope when God tells Noah to build a giant ark, I hope I don\u2019t drive by your house and see a giant construction in your driveway.\u00a0 I mean\u2026 don\u2019t we all understand this!\u00a0 I hope also when the Book of Leviticus tells you to bring an unblemished sacrifice to the temple, and by the way, you shouldn\u2019t even show up on Sunday, you ought to show up on Saturday and you shouldn\u2019t be here in Houston, you should be in the Middle East doing it because that\u2019s what the Book of Leviticus tells you to do.\u00a0 I hope when you read those passages you basically say well, all that is from God, we can learn truths from all those things and although all Scripture is for us not all Scripture is directly about us.\n\nYou do the same thing here in 1 Corinthians 14.\u00a0 Yeah, Paul was writing at a time before \u201cthe perfect\u201d came when the revelations in part were fully functioning and he gives rules for tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, and those kinds of things but he\u2019s talking about a forty-year period of time before the canon was shut, meaning you read 1 Corinthians 14 with that subject in mind.\u00a0 Now you read 1 Corinthians 14 I guarantee you\u2019re going to learn a lot of great stuff.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to learn about discernment because it says let two to three prophets prophesy at a time and let the others pass judgment on what it said.\u00a0 There\u2019s a great principle from there that you don\u2019t just absorb everything anybody says but you filter it through the lens of God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 There\u2019s a concept of discernment there that you can apply today.\u00a0 It\u2019ll say twice God is not a God of confusion and God is a God of order so you\u2019ll read 1 Corinthians 14 and you\u2019ll discover that God wants things done in an orderly systematic way in His church.\n\nSo there are great principles that you can derive from 1 Corinthians 14 with the understanding that a lot of the things Paul is talking about there related to rules concerning the revelatory gifts have ceased.\u00a0 I don\u2019t just do that in 1 Corinthians 14, I do that anywhere in the Bible.\u00a0 I do that in Genesis, I do that in the Book of Leviticus, and one of the things that\u2026 I taught in a Bible college for seven years with a lot of millennials, one of the reasons that they are rejecting the interpretation that I am giving here, which is basically what you call dispensationalism, is they get upset when you tell them that certain parts of the Bible are not directly about them; it\u2019s for them but not about them.\u00a0 And you can stand up in front of a class full of millennials and you can argue your point until the cows come home but what they want to do is take any verse of the Bible and make it about them<\/u>, I would say because of narcissism and selfishness.\n\nAnd so, you\u2019ll notice that a lot of young people will reject the interpretation I\u2019m giving because they don\u2019t like the idea that the whole Scripture is not directly about them and they want to go into any passage of the Bible, rip it out of context and claim it for their spiritual quiver of the day.\u00a0 That\u2019s what they want to do!\u00a0 And when you start to rightfully, as 2 Timothy 2:15 says, divide the Word of God, and you start to teach the subject of dispensations you can watch the walls go up in the minds of young people, not all but many who (to my mind) are very narcissistic, very, very self-centered.\u00a0 [2 Timothy 2:15, \u201cStudy to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.\u201d KJV]\n\nAnd this is one of the reasons I believe this view that I\u2019m giving here, dispensationalism, is dying in the minds of younger people.\u00a0 They don\u2019t like it, they don\u2019t like it going into 1 Corinthians 14 and having somebody tell them that not everything happening in 1 Corinthians 14 is happening in the church today.\u00a0 For whatever reason that bothers them and it\u2019s because of this subject of narci-Jesus that I call it that many of them reject this kind of interpretation.\n\nSo what is the bottom line, BLT, bottom line time?\u00a0 Ready? \u00a0What is the perfect?\u00a0 The perfect is the completed canon which finished in the first century, which means the revelations in part, prophecy, tongues, and the gift of knowledge, ceased when the canon was completed in the first century; that\u2019s the bottom line.\u00a0 And when you go through all the different views on the subject, the eschaton view, the maturity of the church view, the completed canon view, I believe that the completed canon view, although it\u2019s completely ridiculed today and dismissed, is actually the view that makes the most sense when you begin to look at ALL of the biblical data.\u00a0 The Sugar Land Bible Church, therefore, takes the position that the revelatory gifts ceased when the canon of Scripture was completed.\u00a0 That\u2019s when \u201cthe perfect\u201d came. \u00a0That\u2019s our understanding of 1 Corinthians 13:10.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 13:10, \u201cbut when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.\u201d]\n\nNow having said all that let me very quickly give you, not just the specific objections to the canon view, which I just did, let me give you the broader objections, at least four of them, to the doctrine of selective cessation.\n\nObjection number one is people say well, wait a minute, you say there is no prophets today, doesn\u2019t the Bible predict prophets in the future.\u00a0 I mean, doesn\u2019t Joel 2 say your sons and daughters will what?\u00a0 prophecy.\u00a0 [Joel 2:2, \u201cIt will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions.\u201d]\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t Revelation 11, we\u2019re studying Revelation during the main service, eventually we\u2019ll get to Revelation 11, hopefully before the rapture itself, but doesn\u2019t Revelation 11 talk about two prophets?\u00a0 So how can you say the gift of prophecy has ceased when the Bible clearly predicts in the future there\u2019s going to be prophets.\u00a0 Well, the answer to that is you have to distinguish between Israel and the church.\u00a0 Joel 2, Revelation 11 is God\u2019s end time program for Israel. Where is the church when that happens?\u00a0 It\u2019s in heaven.\u00a0 When Paul talks about prophecy ceasing he\u2019s not talking about prophecy ceasing forever, for all time, he\u2019s talking about how that\u2019s going to work in the church once the canon of Scripture is complete.\n\nSo the way to handle objection number one is to go back to the Israel\/church distinction.\u00a0 You have to figure out what parts of the Scripture pertain to the church and what ones pertain to Israel.\n\nObjection number two is if you take prophecy and knowledge out of the church, as the interpretation that I\u2019m giving you does, then the objection is you\u2019re leaving the church without the benefit of understanding or proclaiming Scripture.\u00a0 And what I would say is this, and this comes from my mentor, J. Dwight Pentecost.\u00a0 He said, \u201cOnce the canon of Scripture was completed the gift of prophecy gave way to the gift of preaching.\u201d\n\nIn other words, a preacher today is not receiving direct revelation from God.\u00a0 If you\u2019re in a church where the preacher is claiming to have direct revelation from God you might want to think about finding another church because that\u2019s a scary situation to be in.\u00a0 What a preacher does today is he seeks to understand, through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and he seeks to proclaim what God has already said. \u00a0So in that sense the gift of knowledge and the gift of what we would call prophecy, sort of shifted once the canon of Scripture was shut.\u00a0 No longer was it a direct word from God but it was the capacity to understand what God has already said in these sixty-six books.\u00a0 No longer was it being a direct channel of God in terms of being a direct vehicle of communication from God but now it was the spiritual gift of proclaiming what God has already said.\u00a0 See the difference there?\n\nWhen you understand knowledge and prophecy the right way then God has given to the church, even in the twenty-first century both the means or the means I should say of understanding and proclaiming Scripture.\n\nThe third objection you run into on the subject of cessationism is you get called, I\u2019ll say this really fast, they say well, you\u2019re an anti-super naturalist.\u00a0 In other words, you don\u2019t believe in miracles, you don\u2019t believe God can heal, you don\u2019t believe that God works providentially in the affairs of men.\u00a0 And you have to be very careful handling this objection because we have never said in this study that God doesn\u2019t heal.\u00a0 Have we ever said God doesn\u2019t heal?\u00a0 We believe God heals.\u00a0 What we say has ceased is the gift of healing.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 And now it\u2019s very, very different when God heals, and He does heal people, does He heal everybody?\u00a0 Not necessarily, we\u2019ve gone through teachings on that.\u00a0 But He can and does heal.\u00a0 When God heals He does it directly rather than indirectly through someone claiming the gift of healing.\u00a0 See the difference there.\n\nSo we have this chart that we\u2019ve used before, it\u2019s the distinction between how God does miracles today versus how He did miracles when all of these sign gifts were in operation.\u00a0 So I completely and totally reject the label that people want to throw on us constantly, that you don\u2019t believe in miracles and you\u2019re an anti-super naturalist.\u00a0 Listen, if I was an anti-super naturalist why would I pray.\u00a0 I mean, the whole basis of me praying is for God to move His hand.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 I pray for government, I pray for people to get well, I don\u2019t boss God around because He\u2019s the creator and I\u2019m the what?\u00a0 [someone says creature] Well, worse than the creature, I\u2019m the lump of clay, I mean, how can a lump of clay say to the potter \u201cwhy did you make me this way?\u00a0 Romans 9.\u00a0 I don\u2019t order God around, I ask in His grace for His hand to move. I do that all the time.\u00a0 Why would I do that if I believed God didn\u2019t do miracles.\n\nSo people are very clumsy with their language, they\u2019ll throw anti super naturalist at you, it\u2019s just not true.\u00a0 What we\u2019re saying is there was a transition from how God did it prior to the closing of the canon versus how God does it today.\u00a0 \u00a0But recognizing that distinction does not make you an anti-super naturalist.\u00a0 In fact, our own doctrinal statement on this subject says: \u201cHowever we affirm that God is sovereign and may in His discretion heal\u201d when? \u201ctoday. \u201cSo we believe in divine healing, we just don\u2019t believe in the sign gift of healing.\n\nAnd the last objection I\u2019ve already handled in this class at other times, but you\u2019ve heard this one, my personal favorite, you\u2019re putting God in a box.\u00a0 Whenever you get into this subject someone will say you just put God in a box, as if I had the ability to put God in a box!\u00a0 When you say God doesn\u2019t work in such and such a way today they\u2019re say you\u2019re limiting God, you\u2019re putting God in a box.\u00a0 No, it\u2019s not putting God in a box, it\u2019s defining God by the parameter that He Himself has established.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 If God Himself has set up certain parameters, that\u2019s what we\u2019re arguing, then we would expect God to work within those parameters, right?\n\nFor example, can God tell a lie?\u00a0 He cannot.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because it contradicts His character, Hebrews 6:18. [Hebrews 6:18, \u201cso that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.\u201d]\u00a0 Well did I just put God in a box?\u00a0 I just said God couldn\u2019t do something.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t they say you\u2019re putting God in a box when you say God can\u2019t lie?\u00a0 No, you\u2019re defining God by how He has revealed Himself.\u00a0 See that?\n\nLet me ask you a question, can a person be saved by good works?\u00a0 I mean don\u2019t we see it all the time, God will not save a person if they\u2019re trying to be saved by their good works.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t we say well you just put God in a box?\u00a0 No, I didn\u2019t put God in a box, I\u2019m defining how God works based on parameters that He has already established.\u00a0 So, I\u2019m just sort of trying to help us understand some of these arguments against selective cessationism.\n\nWhat\u2019s the bottom line?\u00a0 Revelatory gifts have ceased as have the confirmatory and foundational gifts.\u00a0 And nest time we convene, next week, I\u2019ll show you excerpts from church history where key theologians will testify that those three categories of gifts have ceased so we\u2019ll get into that subject.\u00a0 In other words, what I\u2019m teaching is consistent with the testimony of church history and then there are some other categories that we will cover as well.\n\nSo we\u2019re finished talking about the gifts that have ceased except for a few more comments.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve got a couple of minutes left for questions.\u00a0 So, does anybody have a comment or a question, questions are preferred but comments are acceptable.\n\n[Someone asks a question, can\u2019t hear.] Great question; how do you know what Scripture is speaking towards the church and Israel?\u00a0 I would go to Acts 2 when the church started, and hang a right, and I would keep taking Scripture as church age truth right up to Revelation, end of Revelation 3, because Revelation 4 is the church in heaven.\u00a0 And if I can be so bold I would throw into the mix some transitionary statements Jesus made, particularly in the Upper Room Discourse.\u00a0 John 13-`7 when He is revealing a shift of rules that is about to happen and we know that shift of rules happened I Acts 2.\u00a0 So if it\u2019s Upper Room Discourse or Act 2 through Revelation 3 you\u2019ve a pretty good be thinking the Scripture is directly about the church.\u00a0 Does that help at all.\u00a0 Does that mean we throw out everything else?\u00a0 No, all Scripture is for us but not all Scripture is about us.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re finding something in the Old Testament that you want to claim as your life verse, and a lot of people do that, they\u2019ll claim Jeremiah 29:11 or whatever.\n\nI would encourage you to find that same principle, not just in the Old Testament but if you find the same principle, like God provides, those kinds of things, if you can anchor it in the epistles you\u2019re in pretty good shape claiming that promise.\u00a0 If it\u2019s some promise that you can\u2019t find anywhere in the epistolary literature you might want to rethink how you\u2019re using that particular Old Testament verse.\u00a0 Now again, this is not popular teaching because you\u2019ve got on your refrigerator all kinds of verses, and it\u2019s sort of disappointing to learn that, oh my gosh, maybe that\u2019s not directly about me.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what I would call narci-Jesus<\/em>, right.\u00a0 Any other questions.\n\n[Someone asks a question, can\u2019t hear.]\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s true, the revelatory gifts were still functioning but remember what he says when a prophet prophesies the others are to listen carefully and weigh what\u2019s said.\u00a0 So if some prophet is saying something contradictory to something that has already been revealed through the apostles then it\u2019s not valid.\u00a0 So even in that time period, remember the Bereans, they were considered more noble than the Thessalonians because they searched the Scriptures daily to see what Paul said was true.\u00a0 So they were open to those revelatory gifts but they understood that those revelations could never contradict what God had already said.\u00a0 That\u2019s how I understand it, not exceed what\u2019s written.\u00a0 Does that help at all?\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for this truth and I ask that You\u2019ll help us grow in our understanding and appreciation for what we have today.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t