God now, and we're turning to Psalm 12 this afternoon. Psalm 12. And we commence reading from the verse number one. To the chief musician upon Shimoneth, a Psalm of David. Help, Lord, for the godly man seeth. for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with his neighbor, with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Who have said, with our tongue will we prevail, our lips are our own? Who is Lord over us? For the oppression of the poor For the sign of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. The words of the Lord are pure words. A silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. The wicked walk on every side. when the vilest men are exalted. Amen. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy word. My text for this afternoon is found in the verse six. Psalmist David, he says, the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. but with our Bibles open, let us unite together in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that we have not been left in darkness, that we have not been left to find the out with our own inventions, but thou has gloriously revealed thyself to us with a special revelation of Holy Scripture. We thank thee that this is a book that is more valuable than all the gold or all the diamonds in the world. For this is a book that reveals to us our triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But Lord, it's not enough that we simply own a Bible, that we possess it. It's not enough merely that we read it. We need thee to come and make the word effectual in all of our hearts. So come now and give help in preaching Give help in the receiving. May our minds be enlightened by the Word of God today. May we leave here with a greater appreciation of what it is to have the living, inspired, inerrant Word in our own hands. So give help now to each of us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. One of the great issues of the church today and indeed of the gospel today is that the focus has turned from God to men. And it all seems to be about what men can get from God and what God promises and gives to men. And while the gospel is certainly for men, and while of course we have the promises and comforts that come to us as Christians, And all of this, the attention can sometimes be turned away from God and we can forget about who the very person of God is. And there's many attributes of God. We don't have time to look at them all here today. But one of the attributes of God that is greatly neglected to the harm of the church and to the harm of the Christian is the holiness of God. and we can forget that God is a holy God. As we read our Bible it reminds us that God is holy in his very person. He's pure in his very person. He's perfect in his very being. God's perfect in himself but his actions and his ways are holy and perfect and pure as well. You and I might be those who are considered to maybe make half-hearted attempts at something. We maybe do a job of painting a room and we say, well, it's 95% complete. I can't be bothered with the little details in the corner or the edges. It'll do. But we can never accuse God of being half-hearted or lazy or slothful in any of his actions or indeed his communications. In fact, As we read the Bible we learn of a God who gives the greatest attention to detail and he is a perfectionist in every single way and that emanates from him being perfect in his very being. Think of his interaction with Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. He said to Moses, draw not nigh thither. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place whereon thy standest is holy ground. And it wasn't that the actual ground itself was holy. It's because Moses was in the presence of God. That was the holy ground. There was nothing special about the sand. It was being in the presence of God that made it significant. And God was saying to Moses, Moses, To be in my presence is to be in the presence of holiness. It's to be in the presence of purity. It's to be in the presence of perfection. And that is why this command was given to Moses. We can think of the tabernacle whenever the priests were sent to serve there. In Exodus 30 in verse 20, it says, when they go into the tabernacle, they shall wash with water that they die not. Now this was a very serious thing. They were given the bronze laver and they were commanded to wash their hands before they began the service of God. And the explicit warning was if they didn't wash their hands they would die. And it's not that they were bringing germs in. It's because God was commanding purity from them, and the washing of their hands was a symbol of this purity. Because coming into the presence of God demands an examination, a cleansing, because we're approaching one who is high and holy in all his ways. We can think of whenever David ordered the ark to be transported, he made a mistake in ordering a cart to be made. And when the ark was being transported in second Samuel six and verse six, Yusa put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen shook it. And the angel of the Lord, or sorry, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Yusa and God smote him there for his error. And he died by the ark of God. Now, David had made the mistake. They were meant to carry it in a different fashion upon their shoulders, but they weren't allowed to touch it. And Uzzah, whenever he saw the oxen stumble and the ark shake, he maybe thought, well, I'll do a good thing. I'll reach forward and I'll put my hand upon it and I'll stop the ark from falling to the ground. But he is doing something that God had commanded him not to. He broke the command of God and the anger of God was kindled against him for this act of disobedience, because God had commanded him not to. So God was holy in all his interactions with men. Yes, for a season he is patient with the sinner. He's long-suffering, but that does not mean that he ceases to be holy. As Paul said, the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now he commandeth all men everywhere to repent. But God is not just holy in His interactions with man, He is holy in His communications with man as well. Every communication is a holy communication. Romans 1 verse 2. Wherefore he promised to for by his prophets in the holy scriptures. Not just the scriptures but the holy scriptures. And to Timothy Paul said to Timothy 3 15 and that from a child thou has known the holy scriptures. Because dear friend the Bible is no ordinary book. The Bible is a supernatural book. In fact, we do it a disservice. It says on the front cover, Holy Bible. We tend to shorten that, and it is a holy Bible. It's like no other book in the world. No other book is a holy book. The Bible is a holy book because it comes from a holy God, and we should reverence it as such. So it is a holy communication. Now, dear friends, many people in the world, they have a very low view of the Holy Bible. Many despise it. They mock it. They denigrate the Word of God. And sadly, even within the professing Christian church, we can feel to give the reverence that is due to this book as it so rightly deserves. But how does God view His Word? Well, God exalts His Word. He exalts it And so should we. Psalm 138 and the verse two says, for thy has magnified thy word above all thy name. So what the psalmist is saying here, take all the names of God and he has magnified his word above all his names. All of his names show us his attributes and his glory and his perfection. And the psalmist says, thy has magnified thy word above all thy names. Take the works of creation, take the works of providence. We can look out and see the handiwork of God, the perfection of God. and the Bible says he has magnified his word even above his creation. So many people today have such a low view of holy scripture but God doesn't for he has magnified this word above all his names and above all his creations in the world. God has the highest view imaginable of his own word as a holy and pure communication. And dear friends, if God has such a high view of his word, should we not have an equally high view of his word as well? As scripture is God's word, it can only be holy and pure. Therefore, I would like to speak this afternoon upon the subject of the purity of scripture, the purity of scripture. And I have four headings for you today. First of all, scripture has a pure inception. It has a pure inception. And I say that it has a pure inception because it begins with God. It doesn't begin with men. Sometimes it's a bit of a trick question whenever we say, who was the first author of the scripture? We commonly think of Moses, but really it began with God. Isaiah 55 verse 11, the Lord says, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. God takes ownership of this book, all of it. It's his word from his mouth. Psalm 68 verse 11 says, the Lord gives the word. So we don't see that God has delegated this job to angels, those who weren't part of the rebellion, that he hasn't said to them, prepare a communication for the fallen sons of Adam. He didn't do that. What we see is a holy God superintending the giving of this word himself. Sometimes if there's menial tasks in our house, we try to delegate them to another. My wife very kindly allows me to empty the dishwasher. That's one of my jobs. I don't know who's been doing it for the past couple of weeks. It's probably still there waiting to be emptied. But she delegates that job to me. I enjoy doing that. I don't like brushing under the table, so I delegate that to one of the children. We delegate jobs that we don't like. But the important jobs we do ourself. I don't ask my children to put the good glasses away up in the high cabinet. I do that myself. My wife does it. But so important was the communication of this book. that God didn't delegate it to another. He did it himself. It begins with God. And because it begins with God, it is the word of a holy God. Psalm 18 verse 30 said, as for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried. Now that word tried, very simply means tested and proved true. And that's what the word of God is. We use the theological word, it's maybe not a full theological word, but we use the word inerrant. And it means free from error. There are no contradictions. There are no mistakes in the Bible. Now some people, so we use that word inerrant, the Bible's inerrant. Now some people try to claim that the Bible has contradictions and that the Bible has mistakes. I was, but there aren't any. The problem comes whenever we fail to do the proper research. I was asked to speak to a group of young people recently about the subject of errors or contradictions in the Bible. And I gave them this example and analogy. I said, whenever I was at school, I didn't like algebra. And I still don't like algebra. And I told the teacher I didn't need algebra. And I've since proved her right. I've never needed algebra since I've left school. But just because I didn't like algebra, and didn't understand algebra, and couldn't do algebra, didn't mean that algebra was wrong. It didn't mean that the teacher was wrong, or the textbook was wrong. The answer came from me not understanding the subject. And sadly, some people come to the Bible with a novice approach. And they say, just because I don't understand it, just because there appears to be some apparent contradiction in the Bible The Bible must be wrong. And that's the conclusion they came to. Whenever people used to say to me, can you explain this contradiction in the Bible? I used to go away and I used to do all the work for them. And then I used to come back and say, it's not a contradiction. Here's the actual answer. And they would say, okay, thank you. And now I see that there's not a contradiction. And after a while I realized I was doing all the work for people rather than them just going and doing a little bit of simple research themselves. I was doing it all for them. So now whenever somebody says, oh, what about this apparent contradiction? I say, well, go and study it for yourself. And those who do find out that there's not a contradiction. And you know why there's not a contradiction in the Bible? Because God cannot contradict himself. And he cannot make a mistake. A contradiction would be a mistake. It would be a lie. And God is guilty of neither. of those things. Scripture has a pure inception. It's the word of a holy God, but more than that, it's the word of the living God, who liveth forever and ever. You and I might write a book today, and it might be out of date tomorrow, but that can't be said of God's word. It's a living word. It's as much alive today as it was in the day that it was given, and it will always be a living word because it comes from the mouth of a living God. One of the things I enjoy doing is going around second-hand bookshops trying to find some great bargain or some excellent work that somebody's selling for 20p or something like that. But I was in a second-hand bookshop recently and I saw a book and it said, A Dummy's Guide to Windows 2000. And they were selling this in the second-hand bookshop and I thought, why would anybody need to buy a guide to Windows 2000? We're well past Windows 2000. I don't know if anybody still uses Windows 2000 today, but why would you need a guide to it? There is a book that's out of date, a book that's irrelevant, a book that is really of little or no use to anybody today. But the Bible isn't like that because it's a living word and it's as much alive in our hands today as it was in those of a thousand years ago and more. Everything that has been written in this book is profitable to us as Paul said in his letter to Timothy. It's a holy word. In verse 6 the author David says the words of the Lord are pure words. A silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. Now this was the ancient method for refining silver. They would get silver. They would heat up the furnace to an extreme heat. They would put the silver in to melt it and remove the dross and the alloys from it. They would bring it out, let it cool down and then put it back into the fire again, heat it up, melt it, remove dross and impurities. And so this process was repeated seven times to make sure that by the end of the process the silver was as pure as possibly could be. And the Psalmist David here is saying that the word of the Lord is so pure that it's like silver at the end of the refining process. There's no dross, there's no alloys, there's no pollutions, there's no corruptions. It is the purest of all things. And it has that pureness because it comes from God. Now some higher critical scholars, they try to tell us that scripture is not from God. They try to tell us that Scripture is a mixture of men's words and God's words. They tell us that it has been edited and corrupted down through the centuries and we don't know if we have the Word of God today. They claim there are those contradictions in Scripture. But dear friend, if the Bible is not 100% the Word of God, then it is not a holy book and it is not the Word God we can't trust it that means we will be left in a state of uncertainty about the truth of divine revelation so scripture first of all has a pure inception secondly scripture has a pure inspiration and I begin this point by saying that it is divinely inspired 2nd Timothy 316 all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Now that doesn't mean that God just gives the general outline to Moses and said, Moses, here's my main bullet points. You flesh out the text a little. No, not at all. All scripture is breathed out from the mouth of God. And scripture tells us that. Proverbs 30 verse 5, every word of God is pure. Psalm 119 verse 140, thy word is very pure. We could go on with more examples. The word of God is pure because it comes from the mouth of God himself. So how did it come to be written down? You may be wondering, how do we have it written before us today? Well, we believe in an organic inspiration. That is that God used the human authors. Now God did not just take control of that human author and turn them into some mechanical robot or typewriter. It's not that the author was unaware of anything that was happening in the inspiration process. Peter says, the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, 2 Peter 1.21. So the Holy Spirit moved the human writer to record the word. But he used that human writer in an organic fashion. He used that human writer's education, their abilities, their temperaments, their background, their culture, everything about that human writer, the Holy Spirit used organically to record the word. And that is why we can see different types of presentation and so forth in the epistles that have been used. But sadly, the doctrine of inspiration is again under great attack today. And one of the biggest attacks happened in 1881. Two men by the name of Westcott and Hort, they rejected the New Testament Greek, the Textus Receptus, which has been the standard Greek text from the Reformation. It has its origins all the way back to the early church. It is from the traditional Byzantine text type. And they replaced the Textus Receptus in their minds with another Greek Testament text. called the New Testament in original Greek. And it claims to be more accurate. But sadly, it relies heavily not upon thousands of manuscripts, like the Byzantine text, but upon two manuscripts from the Alexandrian text type. Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in 1859 in St. Catherine's Monastery in Mount Sinai. And Codex Vaticanus, which was known about at the Reformation but was rejected was recovered from a bin in the Vatican library in the 1800s. It was due to be burnt. Now the readings of these two Alexandrian manuscripts, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, they disagree with the Byzantine text of the Texas Receptus and over 5,000 instances in the four gospels alone. In fact, these two manuscripts, Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, don't even agree with each other. They disagree over 3,000 times in the Gospels. But sadly these two manuscripts have been dated to be much older and they tell us they must be more reliable because we have found them to be older. So we'll just reject the thousands of extant manuscripts and give the preeminence to these two. We suggest the idea, what if some dirty mongrel of a scribe Some heretic like Marcion produced these two corrupt manuscripts. Everybody rejected them. They were hidden away and that's how they survived. Is that a possibility? Well of course it's a possibility because we know in the early church that there were heretics like Marcion who I quoted who went through the scripture we are told with a knife cutting out the bits that he didn't like. And we suggest that these two manuscripts are corrupt manuscripts. They are not the true word of God, but sadly they have been given preeminence today by the liberal academic scholars. As well as serious differences, these two Alexandrian manuscripts have thousands of omissions. Codex Vaticanus omits 2,877 words in the Gospels alone, and Codex Sinaiticus omits 3,400 and 55 words in the Gospels alone. Now remember what we've just thought about. Every word of God is pure, and yet here we have thousands of omissions. They're also missing large chunks. John 7, 53 to John 8, 11, the story of the woman taken in adultery is missing. The last 12 verses of Mark's Gospel is missing. Many verses are missing. For example, Matthew 17, 21, How be it this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting, is missing from the modern critical text. So it's missing from all the translations that come from that. There's also some parts of verses missing as well. Matthew 5, 44, but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Now, a modern translation that comes from the critical text, the NIV, It reads like this. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. There's an awful lot of teaching missing there. Bless them that curse you is missing. Do good to them that hate you is missing. Pray for them which despitefully use you is missing. The question must be asked and it must be answered. What is the inspired word of God? And do we have it today? If we hold the Texas Receptus Greek New Testament in one hand and the modern critical text in another with 6,000 differences between them, which is the pure word of God? Is God guilty of causing this confusion regarding his word? Well, of course not. God is not the author of confusion, Paul tells us. The question also has to be asked, are we still left after 2,000 years trying to discover the pure word of God. Has God been mischievous in denying his word, his church, the pure word for these 2000 years? Has he left his church on an archeological journey dependent upon archeologists to dig up scrolls? Are we dependent upon some shepherd wandering around the Dead Sea to discover more scrolls so that we can have more light on what is the word of God? Of course not. the Lord gives the word, which actually leads me into my third point. Scripture not only has a pure inception and inspiration, thirdly, it has a pure preservation. Because the Lord gives the word, and dear friends, the Lord has preserved the word. And I say this on the basis of scripture. Because in Psalm 119, verse 89, the psalmist says, forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. And as it is settled in heaven, it is settled in earth here as well. The psalmist speaks about the settled state, the permanence of the word of God. Peter says in 1 Peter 1.25, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you. He didn't say part of scripture endures forever. Most of it endures forever. No, he spoke about scripture in a complete sense. And he says it will endure forever. It will be preserved. Isaiah 40 verse 8. The grass witherth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever. And it doesn't say stand in a partially completed state, waiting for the last pieces of the jigsaw to be gathered together. No, it's speaking there of standing in a state of permanence and continuance. The Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5, 18, For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. So the Lord Jesus Christ again speaking of the presence of Scripture with the church and with the people. And then he said in Matthew 24, 35, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. The comforting words of the savior to his church, his bride for whom he died, is that my word will always be with you. It will never be hidden. It'll not be lost in the Vatican library. It will not be hidden in a cave in St. Catherine's Monastery in Mount Sinai. That my word will forever be with you, my people." And that is the comfort that he gave to the church. So to say that the Lord has denied his church, his word, for 2,000 years. To say that we still don't know if this is the proper Bible or not. To say that the church is still on a discovery mission. Dear friends, it's an offence to a holy God. who told us no such thing in his word. Never are we told in the Bible that we will have to discover or recover the word of God. In fact, the very opposite is there. We are told about the doctrine of the preservation of the word of God. The historic position of the Protestant Reformation and the confession of the Protestant and Reformed churches is the doctrine of preservation. The Baptists and the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians might disagree on some things, but in the second London Baptist confession, the Westminster confession and the Savoy declaration, they all agreed with the, uh, in this one statement, they said the old Testament in Hebrew and the new Testament in Greek being immediately inspired by God and by his singular care and providence kept pure and all ages. therefore authentical and that's in the Westminster Confession chapter 1 section 8 they started the confession with Holy Scripture and that's what they said kept pure in all ages now if we are indeed to be confessional Presbyterians that is what we believe that God has kept his word pure not hidden Not lost, not corrupted, not the Bible in a temporary state of paralysis waiting for more to be discovered. No, kept pure in all ages. And I don't think that among the words that have ever been written by men, uninspired words, that there's been a greater statement than that. Kept pure in all ages. And that's what our Bible is. It's been kept pure by God's providence in every age. The early church fathers, as far back as 100 AD, quote from these missing verses, which apparently were added, the critics claim, in the fourth century. Well, unless they had some sort of time machine, I don't know how the early church fathers could quote from these apparent missing verses. So how has it been preserved? Well, it's been preserved in the church. Acts 7, 38. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, speaking of the Old Testament church. with the angel which speak to him in Mount Sinai, and with our fathers who received the lively articles to give to us." That's the word of God. The Old Testament church was at charge with preserving the word to give to us, to pass down from generation to generation. And in the New Testament, 1 Timothy 3 verse 15, the apostle Paul refers to the church of the living God The pillar and ground of the truth. Well, what is truth? We only know truth from Holy Scripture. Scripture is truth. It's the infallible truth. And the Church of the Living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. It has been committed unto them for preservation. The Baptist preacher, C.H. Spurgeon, says, the Bible has passed through the furnace of persecution, literary criticism, philosophical doubt, and scientific discovery. and has lost nothing, because as the apostle says, God's word will forever endure. Sadly, critics again, they say, we don't have the word of God, we can't be sure we have the word of God. And sadly, this pressure was upon good men like B.B. Warfield, who made one of the greatest compromises on this subject and has done a lot of damage to the doctrine of preservation today. They tell us that the originals were inspired, but we have absolutely no idea what the word of God is today. They say at best, we're piecing it together. The originals were inspired, but we have no idea today. They claim the doctrines are preserved, not the words. They say there's nothing lost if we don't hold that every word of God is pure and inspired. Well, how about we apply the biblical approach? The text, that God has providentially preserved and used in every age in his church to build it and identify it is the word of God. We don't need to be left in doubt today. The Bible assures us what is his word. And this leads me on to my conclusion here today. My fourth and final point. Scripture is a pure communication. It's a pure communication. And it's a pure communication Because it communicates special revelation. We look out at the world and we see that God has created the world. But we look at the Bible and we see that this communicates a special message from God. It is a pure revelation. And we say that because it communicates Christ. Psalm 40 verse 7, lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. The Bible's all about Christ. John 5 39, search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testify of me. One of the most or the most blessed thing about scripture is that it's all about the Savior. From Genesis to Revelation, this is the book all about him. Some people say, well, we only read of Jesus in the New Testament. No, we don't. We see him in the garden coming to Adam and Eve, calling, where art thou? How did Adam and Eve learn the system of sacrifice? Where did they get the coats of skin? It was Christ, I believe, that brought them to them. And scripture communicates to us the gospel message. Paul wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3, 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. That's what scripture does. It makes us wise unto salvation, because by nature, we're not wise unto salvation. By our natural estate, we do that which is right in our own eyes. God gave us this book to make us wise unto salvation. He hasn't given anything else other than the word of God. to make us wise unto salvation. And it communicates to us Christian living and Christian obedience. Psalm 19, verses eight and nine. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. And as Paul said to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3, 16, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. How do you know how to live as a Christian? The Bible teaches us how we are to live as a Christian. How do we know how to glorify God? The Bible teaches us that. You and I will not progress in the Christian life outside of this book. We will only progress in the Christian life in this book. This is the means that God has given for us. The Lord Jesus in his great high priestly prayer in John 17 prayed for us, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. This is the book given for our sanctification. Therefore we should desire the purest communication of scripture. Psalm 119 verse 140, thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it. Those who aren't sure if the Bible is the Word of God can't really love it, because they're in a double-minded position. They're not sure if that verse is the Word of God. They're not sure if they can believe it. They're not sure if they can obey it. It's not precious to them. But for those of us who believe every word is given by inspiration of God, the Bible, we say, like the psalmist David, is very pure. Therefore, we love it. Well, I close with these thoughts, or with this illustration. Imagine, dear friends, that you had prepared a letter communicating vital truths and instructions for your family, and you had it carefully prepared. You ensured there was no error or mistakes. Your communication was there, and you handed it to others to pass on to your family. Now imagine if you later found out that your letter had been abridged with important elements removed and other sentences loosely paraphrased so the original intention became unclear. What would your response be? Well, I imagine you would be mightily angry. How dare they take my letter and change it? How dare they take my letter and leave bits out and abridge important points? How dare they? I'm sure it would be your response. Well, can I say to you today, dear friends, that God cares. He cares greatly. He cares even more than we do about the purity of Scripture. He cares if men are cutting verses out. He cares if men are interfering with Scripture. We are warned in Deuteronomy 4 verse 2 that we're not to add to the word of God and we're not to take away from it. The book of Revelation concludes with a solemn warning that those who take away from the book of life, or from the word of God, that God will take away their part from the book of life and from the heavenly city. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 33. Paul says, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. God has not created this confusion about scripture today. We can be sure of that, the devil has. But God has given us his word, that you and I would believe it, that you and I would trust it, that you and I would submit to it, that you and I would obey it. And we can only do those things if God gives us the complete canon, not bits here and there, not leaving us in doubt. The Lord gives the word. We have the word today. prayers be to God. Let us pray.