Your congregation, I would draw your attention to the Forms and Prayers book. Turning to Belgic Confession, Article 5. It's on page 156 of the Forms and Prayers book. We'll also be looking at Articles 4 and 6, but our attention will be focused on Article 5, looking at the authority of Scripture. Article 5, the authority of Scripture, it is there that we read these words. We receive all these books and these only as holy and canonical for the regulating, founding, and establishing of our faith. And we believe, without a doubt, all things contained in them, not so much because the Church receives and approves them as such, but above all, because the Holy Spirit testifies in our hearts that they are from God, and also because they prove themselves to be from God. or even the blind themselves are able to see that the things predicted in them do happen. And we'll follow that up by reading from Matthew chapter 19, verses 3 through 6. Matthew 19, 3 through 6, that's found on page 979 of the Pew Bible. Matthew 19, verses 3-6, we read, some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him, and asking, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? And he answered and said, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. Let us pray and ask God's help as we consider this text together. Our God and our Heavenly Father, we come before you again this evening hour and we thank you so much for your Word. We thank you also so much for the confessional statements that your Church has written throughout the ages that faithfully explain the meaning of the Scriptures. We pray that as we consider the nature of the authority of the Scriptures, that you would make us humble and ready to receive these things. We pray that You would shape and form within us the image of Christ. Do that and grant us Your Holy Spirit once again. For we confess that we can neither understand Your Word, nor apply it, nor preach it apart from Him. It's in the name of Christ we pray. Amen. The Church Father, Augustine, once said, If you believe what you want and disbelieve the rest of the Gospel, it is not the Gospel that you believe. but yourself." Think about those words. If you believe what you want and disbelieve the rest of the gospel, it's not the gospel you believe, but yourself. And that really touches on the question of authority, which is what we're dealing with and wrestling with this evening. What do you believe? What is your authority? First, we'll take up a few matters of housekeeping, and then we'll dive into the matter of authority. And those are the two points this evening. A matter of housekeeping, talking about Articles 4 and 6, and then focusing more on the matter of authority in Article 5, looking at Matthew chapter 19. First, a few matters of housekeeping as we've kind of zoomed through three articles here in one evening. Articles four and six are also being dealt with this evening. We won't be looking at them next week. And so, beloved of Christ, this evening we continue this survey of the Belgic Confession of Faith. You'll remember last week we learned that scripture is indispensable in order to know God. You'll remember there were two volumes, two books by which we know God, where we learn about God, and one of them was creation, and then sacred scripture is that special revelation that is clearer, more direct than creation. And so naturally, Guido de Bray, the one who wrote this confession, he describes now the nature of scripture. He describes its nature. And in Articles 4 and 6, he essentially lays down for us those books which are canonical and those books which are apocryphal. And so, you know, Articles 4 and 6, they're important for us, but there's less to be said in this day and age. And so, Article 5 will be our focus. It will receive more attention this evening. And so, if you're still following along in the Forms and Prayers book, Article 4 deals with the canonical books. That's the first sub-point. Canonical books. That is part of the canon. Now, canon, that's canon with two Ns, not three. That's canon with two Ns, not three. It's not a pirate ship canon that booms and bursts out a cannonball. No, it is the Greek word for canon, which simply means standard or rule. And that word canon is used in so many different ways throughout history. Now, one important meaning, the meaning that we're considering this evening, is what books really fit the standard. What books are those books that have authority? What books are those books that should be read in churches? And Article 4 gives us a list of those books. Article 4 gives us that list of those canonical books that sort of meet the standard that we as Reformed believers believe they are to be inspired. authoritative. That these are the books that are to be read. There's really nothing controversial here. At least I hope there's nothing controversial here. I mean we have here the list of 66 books. If there's a book on that list that you don't think should be there, well then you and I should have a talk afterwards. This is a big deal. This is basic fundamental stuff. We can't quarrel with this. In fact, the article specifically says that there can be no quarrel with this. It says that they are the canonical books with which there can be no quarrel at all. Now, there's three changes that I'd want to highlight in this version of the Forms and Prayers book. Three changes that you'd find that are kind of unique to this version as compared to previous versions. First of all, you look at the book of Chronicles. It says that there are two books of Chronicles. It used to say in parentheses, commonly called the Paralipomenon, which aren't so common anymore. That's not a very common name. It simply used to mean that what is left over, because they believe that Kings was the primary history and Chronicles just kind of picked up on whatever was left over. But we don't really call it that anymore, so we've dropped that title. Another thing that's worth noting is that Lamentations is specifically noted in the list of canonical books here after Jeremiah, whereas in the older versions, it wouldn't be listed. You wouldn't find Lamentations because, well, back in Guido de Brès' day, Lamentations was an appendix to Jeremiah. It wasn't separate. It wasn't a standalone book. It was part of Jeremiah. And so for the longest time, it wasn't in the article specifically singled out or mentioned. And that's caused a lot of people to wonder, why is that? Why didn't you have lamentations in the book or in the list? Well, it's because it was just an appendix. Now it's its own book, and so now it receives its own attention in Article 4. And the final thing that I want to highlight is that Hebrews is no longer called Paul's epistle, but it's simply called an epistle. Because Hebrews doesn't specifically say it's by Paul. We believe it's inspired, but we are not convinced that it's by Paul. And so because of that, we have it in the list, but we don't have it as Paul's epistle. And that's really about it when it comes to that article. There's not really much more to say. There's nothing complicated. There's nothing difficult here. But we do have one other housekeeping issue. One other housekeeping issue. And it's a little more sticky. It's something that requires a little more thought, a little more attention. And that is the apocryphal books. The apocryphal books. And you find that being dealt with in Article 6. You see, in Article 6, we have this list of apocryphal or non-canonical books, the books that didn't meet the standard. And if you are looking at that article, you find that there's this list of various books and it begins with 3rd and 4th Esdras. And you might be asking to yourself, why is 3rd and 4th Esdras mentioned but not 1 and 2 Esdras? What's the deal there? Is 1 and 2 Esdras canonical but 3 and 4 not? Well, this gets very complicated very quickly, but to simplify it for you, by the 16th century in Western Europe, 1 and 2 Esdras was just another name for Ezra and Nehemiah. So if you hear someone talking about 1 and 2 Esdras in Western Europe, post 16th century, they're talking about Ezra in Nehemiah. But if you were to go to, say, the Medieval Church or if you were to go to the Eastern Church or the Ancient Church, they have different names for the Esdras. It's not very consistent, but by Guido's time, by the writing of the Confession, it's referring to Esdra in Nehemiah, one and two Esdras is. But third and fourth Esdras are understood by the Reformed faith as being apocryphal. Third Esdras is essentially a Greek retelling of Ezra. It has a few different changes, but it's a little different. And fourth Esdras is this kind of revelation given to Ezra. It's kind of like revelation, but for the Old Testament, and it's apocryphal. It's very symbolic. It's very, very apocalyptic in its outlook. And so these are books that the Belgic Confession of Faith says that we don't count these as canonical. We don't count these as having the same authority as Scripture. We don't count these as being inspired by God. And then after you look at 3rd and 4th Esdras, you have a list of a few other books that are given there. Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, sometimes called the Wisdom of Solomon, Jesus Sirach, sometimes called the Wisdom of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, Baruch. Those are some standalone books that were in the Catholic Bibles that didn't make it to the Protestant Bibles. And then you have a few additional things. You have the Song of the Three Children in the Furnace. You have the story of Susanna. You have the story of Belle and the Dragon. These are not standalone books. These were additions to the book of Daniel. If you go to a Roman Catholic book and you turn to Daniel, you'll find that there's a prologue. It's the story of Susanna. If you go to the story of the three children, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you'll find that there's this song afterwards. And then at the end, there's this postscript to Daniel. It's called Belle and the Dragon. But we've taken those out. We don't have those in our scriptures. We don't count them as canonical. We don't count them as meeting the standard, as being divinely inspired. They aren't standalone books though. And then you have the Prayer of Manasseh. Again, not a standalone book. That was in addition to 2 Chronicles. And then, of course, the well-known two books of the Maccabees. There's more books than just the two, but the Roman Catholics only counted the first two as being inspired. They only accepted the first two, but there were four in total. But it's these that the Reformed faith says that they're apocryphal. They're non-canonical. This word apocrypha means essentially secret. The word apocrypha has really shifted in its meaning over the years. It means something different when the church fathers were talking about apocrypha than when the medieval scholastics were talking about it or when the Reformed faith was talking about apocrypha. But by the time of Guido de Brès' time, we say that it's apocrypha because the background of these books is mysterious. It's hidden. It's a secret. We don't know who wrote a lot of these books. We don't know when they were written. We don't know why they were written. There's a lot of historical problems with them. And so because of that, they're labeled by the Reformed faith as apocryphal, since we don't know much about them. But there's something important that I want you to know here, beloved. This is important. Just because these books are non-canonical, Just because these books don't meet the measure, just because these books are counted as apocryphal, that doesn't mean that these books are useless. The Belgic Confession of Faith is clear on this. It says that you may certainly read these books and learn from them as far as they agree with the canonical books. You see, these books are not entirely useless. True enough, they're not to be read in churches, they're not to be read in the sanctuaries. If I were to be up here and I were to read a passage from Ecclesiasticus and say that's going to be our text here this morning or this evening, well then we would have a problem with that. but to read it privately in your own homes or to learn from it, there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, in some ways that can be very helpful, it can be very edifying. Until recent days, a lot of Protestant Bibles had the Apocrypha as an appendix in the back. There's a reason for that. Because while they don't have the authority of sacred scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles lived in a time when these books were known and read. And so often times these books are alluded to perhaps. They're in the background of some of the minds of the Apostles, or the writers, or whoever is speaking to the Apostles. Pharisees, Sadducees. It's sometimes alluded to. There's some helpful text in here that shed light on the text of Scripture. There's some helpful history here. The Maccabee histories, they fill in some blanks between Malachi and John the Baptist. While the history that's there is not inerrant, there's problems, there's errors, there's problems with it. Even so, there's a lot of helpful information in those books. books. It helps you to have some context for when the New Testament is written. And to be frank with you, some of the stories in the Apocrypha, they're kind of entertaining. They're kind of interesting. You know, the book of Tobit is actually an interesting read. It's an interesting story. And so these are books, as the Confession of Faith says, you may read. You may learn from them. You may take them in. You may be helped by these. You know, we're not Roman Catholics. We don't have a list of bad books that you can't read. We don't burn books. We don't have book burning parties. That's not what we do. But we make a key distinction. We make this key distinction that says that while they may be helpful, They don't have the authority of sacred scripture. You can't establish a point of faith, a point of doctrine on the basis of these books. And you certainly can't go against something on the basis of these books that is clearly taught in sacred scripture. The Apocrypha simply does not have that authority. And that really brings us to the main thing that we're discussing here this evening. The issue of authority. The matter of authority. The authority of sacred scripture and what that means for us. Jesus highlights the absolute authority of scripture here in this text in Matthew chapter 19. In the article 5 and in Matthew 19, the authority of Scripture is here touched upon. Now, for many of us, authority is an ugly word. You know, when we hear the word authority, sometimes a negative feeling is evoked within us. We're not comfortable with authority. We don't like authority. We definitely don't like having authority over us. This is something that we're born with. That's our natural inclination. You know, we say we're okay with authority. At least, until it doesn't agree with us anymore. Children have no problem listening to their moms and dads as long as their moms and dads say that which agrees with them. As soon as mom and dad says something they don't like, all of a sudden I don't like this authority. And we don't typically grow out of that attitude very easily. But the fact is, there must, must, must be this authority that we as a group, as a community, submit to. An authority that is beyond us. Otherwise, we'll be living in the days of the judges where everyone does what is right in his own eyes. Authority gives order. Authority gives stability. Authority gives this ability to reason through problems and disagreements because it gives us a point of contact. And so, you see, the issue of authority is not theoretical. It's immensely practical. It's important to notice here, dear brothers and sisters, as you look at Matthew 19, what is not appealed to. What is not appealed to. Oftentimes what is appealed to in our own day and age is feelings. I feel this way. I feel that way. I feel that this should be what we do. I feel that this is right. And on the basis of feelings, we say that, therefore, it is right. It is what we should do. And we leave it at that. And if we dare to question anyone's feelings, say, I get that you have that feeling, but I disagree with it, I think it's wrong, well, that's almost accused of hate speech. But the problem is, is that our feelings are often wrong. Don't get me wrong, God gave us feelings on purpose. God gave us feelings and they can oftentimes be good indicators of what might be right or what might be wrong, but they don't determine what is right or what is wrong. And so, neither Christ nor the confession appeal to feelings, and neither can we. And another thing that's not appealed to here is experience. Oftentimes, we look back upon experience, and sometimes experience is helpful. Sometimes experience sheds light upon the current problem, the current predicament. Experience says to us, you know, I did X, Y, Z last time, and I got A, B, and C as a result, and that was pretty good. So, you know, based on experience, this might be the right way to go. And sometimes, like I said, experience is not a bad thing. But there are some problems with assuming that experience is always right and experience is that which we can always depend upon. First of all, what might have been right in one certain situation, it might not be right in a second situation. And furthermore, just because something quote-unquote works, doesn't mean it's right. You know, a lot of unbelievers are unbelievers because it works for them. It doesn't make it right. So we cannot appeal neither to feelings nor experience. And in young people, this is something that I really want you to grasp. Young adults, teenagers, children, listen to this. Feelings, feelings are not, they cannot be what you base your decisions upon. They cannot be what determines what is right or wrong. You're going to be tempted, very tempted, to make a decision on the basis of something feeling right. Resist that temptation. Resist it. Just because something feels right doesn't make it right. And just because something feels bad doesn't make it bad. In fact, oftentimes it's the opposite. If something feels right, sometimes it's actually quite bad. And if something is feeling bad, oftentimes it is quite right and it helps us out because it helps us to be further sanctified. And so we cannot determine things based on our feelings. Now, adults, elderly people, I would caution you against depending too much on experience. It's true that the older we get, the more experiences we gain, and the easier it becomes to depend upon our experience as a crutch. And say to ourselves, well, they're not doing it my way, the way that I've done it, the way that worked for me, therefore they're doing it wrong. These cannot be what we appeal to. These cannot be our authorities. We need to be very careful, analyze very carefully what we count as our authority, what we determine to be right or wrong, on the basis of what? It can't be on feelings. It can't be on experiences. And so what is appeal to? What is the authority? As I'm sure you expected, the answer to that is sacred scripture. Article 5 makes it very clear. We receive all these books, the books listed in Article 4, and these only as holy and canonical for the regulating, founding, and establishing of our faith. And we find that in the text as well. Christ, in Matthew chapter 19, does not appeal to feelings. He does not appeal to experiences. He doesn't appeal to reason. He doesn't even directly appeal to himself, though in a sense he does, since Sacred Scripture is his. He appeals to Scripture. He appeals to Genesis 1.27 and 2.24. That, that is what he determines, or how he determines how to answer the Pharisees. It is on the basis of those verses that he is able to explain to the Pharisees the design of marriage, the true design of marriage. You see, there's a few things that the Pharisees would like Jesus to say. There's a few things that the Pharisees would be happy with. You see, in Jesus' day, there's two main schools of thought in Judaism. There's the school of Shammai, which is a bit older, which was typically more conservative, which was originally very popular, but by the time of Christ had become very unpopular. And then the other school was the school of Hillel, which was a bit more liberal. Now, Hillel, when it looked at divorce, it said that a man may divorce his wife for any reason whatsoever. She burns his meal, you can divorce her. You find a prettier girl, you can divorce her. Shammai was more strict than that, more conservative. There had to be something indecent in her. She would have to be immodestly dressed. She would have to be flirting with another man, something like that. That was the opinion of Shammai. Those are the two main schools of thought in Jesus's day. And what the Pharisees want Jesus to do is quote-unquote play the game. They want Jesus to play the law game. They want Jesus to pick a school of thought. They want to hear Jesus explain his reasoning piece by piece by piece. And they want to pick it apart. And they want to trap Jesus in his words so that the people become angry with him. So they can find something that's, you know, worthy of heresy. They're hoping that Jesus will trip over his words. They don't want genuine conversation over the matter of divorce. They want Christ gone. And they're looking for any and every error in order to accomplish that. But Christ does this very unexpected and jarring thing. He shows the Pharisees what they have forgotten. That scripture, not them, is the authority over faith. And that's the first sub-point under the second Roman numeral, authority over faith. You see, here are the Pharisees. They think that they're something. They think that they are special and they determine the faith. That they're able to have these very, very intellectual debates and that they're able to establish on their own what is right and what is wrong. They think that because they've been made the Pharisees, or the Sadducees, or the Priests, or whoever they are, they feel that they can establish dogma, truth, and falsehood. And as a result, they just make Scripture a wax nose, twisting it in whatever direction they would like. They're just playing games with Scripture. So Scripture in their minds, not them, is the authority over faith. But Christ turns that idea on its head. He doesn't appeal to some rabbi. He doesn't appeal to some rational, logical argument. He simply quotes for them two verses from Scripture, from Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, showing to them that it's Scripture, Scripture alone that founds and regulates and establishes faith, not rabbinical school. And so Christ does not appeal to any sort of school. He's even stricter technically than the school of Shammai. He simply quotes scripture and shows the original design of marriage. And he asks them the question, have you not read these verses? And undoubtedly they had read it many, many times, but they missed the significance of these words. You see, if God has made them male and female, And if it is for this reason that a man shall leave his parents and cleave to his wife, and that if it is God who makes them one flesh, then man, not even the smartest Pharisee, should separate the two. The design of marriage is that a husband and wife be specially joined, glued together. The wife is to be, as it were, that man's rib. You can't just take it out and remove it. It doesn't work like that. He's stuck with that rib. He's united to it. One flesh. And so they're to be loyal to one another. This is the design. And that's the design that we see very plainly in Scripture. That the Pharisees, by their discussion of divorce, they're encouraging a separation of that union. And so here we have Jesus simply calling upon them to look at scripture, to look at the original design of marriage and leave it at that. This is so contrary to the feelings and the experiences of that day. What Jesus said was not popular. But these two verses have more weight than thousands of pages of rabbinical scholars. And just like that, Jesus has cut through all their technical junk and all their mumbo-jumbo. very plainly showing that sacred scripture and sacred scripture alone has authority over faith. And now, here's where the rubber meets the road. This means that sacred scripture has authority over us. That's the final sub point. It has authority over us. Take the matter of marriage, for example. In the days of Christ, and especially today, marriage is looked at as a temporary contract between two people. the duration of that contract, the reasons for the dissolution of that contract, who may be a part of that contract, a man, a woman, man, man, woman, woman, more than two people, that's left to the individual. Because feelings and experiences have begun to determine what is true and authoritative. Now that may be acceptable to the natural man, but sacred scripture is our authority. Sacred scripture is our authority, and we must submit to it even if we don't want to, even if we struggle with it, even if it is uncomfortable. Again, for example, if someone is in a marriage and they're unhappy, what is it that the world says? Well, get a divorce. Get a no-fault divorce and leave it at that. Whereas sacred scripture says that what God has joined together, let no man separate. Which is easier? Which is easier to submit to, to agree with, to believe? Obviously, it's easier to go with what the world is saying. But just because it's easier doesn't mean we submit to it. In the case of the Gospel, Sacred Scripture says in John 14, 6, that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through Him. But what is it that the world says? All religions are the same. All religions are valid. All roads lead to the same destination. Now, which is easier to say? Which is easier to believe? Which is easier to submit to? Which will offend fewer people? Obviously, the idea that all religions are the same. But again, we don't submit to feelings. We don't submit to what is easy. We don't submit to experience, but we submit to scripture. And sacred scripture says also to fear and respect those who are in government, to pray for them, even if that person is as wicked as Nero himself. But the world says, what? Oh, at the first indication that that person in government does something I don't like, I'm going to complain and bellyache and I'm going to call their office and I'm going to write them and I'm going to harass them. It's not just about explaining your viewpoint and reasoning. It's about harassing them at that point. Complaining. Now, which is easier? To respect and to pray for the government or to complain against the government? Obviously, the latter. Scripture says that the Lord's Day is the Lord's Day. But the world says, it's your day. Do whatever you want. Which is easier to submit to? Which is easier to believe? Obviously, the latter. But again, what do we submit to? Not our feelings, not our experiences, but Scripture. And I could go on and on and on here, but here is the key. Scripture regulates, founds, and establishes our faith. And since faith touches on every matter of life, Scripture has supreme authority therefore over our lives. Even when it's difficult, yeah, even when it's difficult, we submit even then. Even when we're mocked, even when we're the only ones submitting to Scripture, even when we stick out like a sore thumb, even when it requires us to take up our cross and follow Christ, Yes, even in all those times we submit to sacred scripture. If we just submit, and here's the key thought at the end here, if we just submit when it's convenient for us, then we're no different from the world. In that case, in the words of Augustine, it's not the word that we believe, but ourselves. Therefore, again, I ask, what do you believe? What is your authority? Is it yourself, or is it sacred scripture? I pray that it is the latter. I pray that it is sacred scripture. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let us pray. Our God and our Father, we come before you again this evening hour and we thank you so much for scripture. And we pray that what we confess would be what also we live out. That we would look at this word as inspired. That it is from you and therefore it is all authority over faith and life. We pray that you would take these lessons that we have learned this day that you would press them firmly upon our heart, that you would shape within us the image of Christ as a potter that shapes and molds the clay. To the end that you, O God, would be glorified and that we would be able to share the good news of Christ, the news of life, with the world that is dying and in darkness. We thank you for the great gift of life. May we joyfully share it with others. It's in the name of Christ we pray all these things along with the pardon of every sin. Amen.