No Sequel in Sight

We do not sit as editors and redactors and presume to change or rearrange or edit out the scriptures. We do not sit in judgment upon this book. This book sits in judgment upon us. And I would hope that if I ever get up here and say, you know, John was great, but I've got a new word for you.

I hope you get up and walk out. The Bible is God's Word and has the final authority in our life. The 66 books of the Bible are precious. God gave it to us so that we could know Him and respond to Him. How do we know that the 66 books that we hold in our hands are enough? Should we be looking to add more books? In the closing verses of the Bible, God told us how to treat His Word.

These instructions are our theme today here on Wisdom for the Heart. We're in a series entitled The Last Words. Today, Stephen Davey takes us to the very last verses of the Bible with a message that he's calling No Sequel in Sight. Is the Bible that you hold in your hand missing anything?

Or to ask it in another way, is the Bible a finished book? Writing to the church in Ephesus, Paul said, For you are the household of God. In other words, the church is likened to a building.

You are the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, Ephesians 2 19 to 21. In other words, the apostles and prophets built the foundation of the redeemed house. And after them, the foundation was completed with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone, and the church since then has been under construction.

God has spoken, and it is our delight now to have this all-sufficient word leading and guiding us. The little letter from the apostle Jude, which appears just before the book of Revelation points also to the apostles of Jesus Christ as having delivered once for all the content of our faith and gospel. By the way, this is why it was so important for the apostle Paul to defend his apostleship.

Why did he continually do that? Because only the apostles had the right to deliver the final words of Christ. So he's always talking about how he's an apostle, not by the will of man, but by the will of God. John is the last living apostle. He is writing the last book in the timeline of progressive revelation.

He is providing the last inspired God-breathed scriptures. What that meant is that John is about to add with this book of Revelation the last block to the foundation upon which the church would be built with Christ and none other as the cornerstone. Since Revelation describes the entire sweep of history from the close of the apostolic age all the way to the end, the eternal state, heaven, hell, any alteration, any addition would be an alteration of scripture. One New Testament scholar put it this way, since the book of Revelation projects from John's lifetime all the way into eternity, any type of prophetic utterance would intrude into the domain of this coverage and constitute an addition to or subtraction from the Bible's content. So the final book of the Bible is also the concluding product of New Testament prophecy.

It also marks the close of the New Testament, since the prophetic gift was the divinely chosen means for communicating the inspired books of the canon of scripture. So John then, and it is no surprise to come to the end, and we're not quite there yet in case you're wondering, but just about before you get to the end, John adds this warning to would-be prophets, would-be individuals who stand and say, I have a word from God. Turn them off. I have something to add.

Turn them off. See, John is giving us a warning that we're going to find is very serious. How serious is it? How important is it to God that his word is now closed? Let's find out as we rejoin our study in chapter 22 of John's Revelation of Christ and specifically verses 18 and 19.

Look there. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues, which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written about or described in this book.

Now that's pretty serious, isn't it? The last apostle writing the last book in the timeline of inspired scripture says for this book, and effectively then since it's the ending by its placement in history is the last word from the last apostle, this biblical, this Bible, this book is closed. In other words, the Bible, while it is an open book, is not an open-ended book. There's a vast difference in that. And this revelation of God clearly comes to an end with a warning label attached.

Don't tamper with the text. By the way, this warning is not against misunderstanding the text, especially the book of Revelation. Aren't you glad about that?

Aren't you glad you don't have to understand everything? Take a closer look again in verse 18. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues, which are written in this book. In other words, if you think the unbelievers had it bad during the tribulation with plagues and many of them affecting only the unbelieving community, just as the plagues of Egypt affected many of them, only the Egyptians and not the Israelites. If you think the unbelieving world had it bad when the plagues came during the tribulation, you have no idea the horrors that are in store as God adds upon them to those who add to the scriptures.

That's his point. What does John mean? Well, if you think of God's revelation as a straight line, we'll let it begin here and go all the way to the ceiling. The ceiling would be the eternal state and this would be the beginning.

You have the words of Moses in Genesis, opening the Old Testament with the account of creation, going up and through the prophets and the poets and then the apostolic community, which then takes you by virtue of their revelation all the way to the eternal state. So you have in this line a continuum of completed revelation that takes you from the very beginning in the first book to the ending, as it were, in the last book. God then has this completed story, so to speak. What that means is that if anybody tries to hop into the line, if anyone wants to say, I'm going to come at the end of the line, I'm going to get at the end of the line, I've got something new.

That's the point here. There's nothing missing in the revelation of God. There's no coming sequel to the Bible.

We have the completed revelation that takes us from the beginning of creation to the new creation. The church needs to be especially warned of this in any generation, certainly ours. Probably noticed we're surrounded by a proliferation of isms and the winds of doctrine which are sweeping across the face of the earth, most of them based on someone who claims to speak for God, someone who claims to have divine illumination and divine authority. And every one of them that I have ever heard about, every one that I have studied, some at length and some only briefly, they never ever really deny the Bible.

They never ever really deny the existence of Jesus Christ. They just redefine the Bible. In our generation, there's been an explosion of interest in other gospels, they're called, known as the Gnostic gospels. People want to know why these books were left out of the Bible. It's a fair question.

It's a good question. Why were the gospels of Judas, the gospel of Mary, the gospel of Philip, the gospel of Bartholomew, the gospel of truth, and about 45 additional writings, why were they left out of the Bible we claim as God's word? Well, the Gnostic gospels were written sometime after the gospels that we hold in our hands, some as late as the eighth century.

And you don't have to know much to know if you read any of them, and I have, that they are obvious counterattacks against the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word Gnostic comes from the Greek word gnosis, which is the word for knowledge. These individuals used that word saying that they had special knowledge.

It was available to them because of special mystical experiences with God's Spirit, with visions and revelations. These Gnostic gospels clearly preached another gospel. For starters, you'll find in these Gnostic gospels that Jesus was not God incarnate.

He wasn't even born of a virgin. He was an interesting man who started a following. So he was one church leader by the name of Irenaeus defending the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote in AD 180 that the Gnostic gospel of Judas, one of the earliest, that he knew of it and he called it fictitious history.

Now, even the casual reader would immediately have questions, should you read the gospel of Judas because you'd be struck by the fact that the hero turns out to be not Jesus but Judas. He was the counselor of Christ. He directed the developing tenants of Christianity.

He was the hero. The Gnostics further believed that since flesh was evil, God could not become incarnate because he would then become evil. Thus, Christ could not be God, very God. The Gnostic writings or gospels almost all deny the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Much like Islam to this day, the Gnostics didn't believe that it was Jesus who died on the cross but a substitute. In fact, these secret gospels, they're called and they weren't a secret, okay?

They weren't. The church knew of them. They were rejected by the church. These Gnostic gospels supposedly taught, even though when you study them it's only implied, but skeptics in modern days have taken those implications and built a doctrine around it, implied that because Jesus was fairly close to one of his female disciples named Mary Magdalene, that what he actually had done was marry her. They had a child after Jesus died.

The widow moved to the south of France where she raised their child. Now, they get that out of the Gospel of Philip who comes the closest to it, saying that Jesus taught her more carefully and loved her more than any other disciple. Of course, this is all the world of skeptics need to let their imaginations go wild and reach all sorts of conclusions that even the Gnostic gospels do not teach. I like the way one evangelical scholar defined these skeptics and the conclusions they draw without any evidence when he wrote this, and I quote, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a camel in disguise.

So then, he goes on, since there is no biblical evidence that Jesus was married, multiple biblical indications that he was not married, no extra biblical or historical or even Gnostic texts confirming he was married, he must have been married incognito. Let me encourage you, you don't have to be an expert in Gnostic writings. Just compare whatever it is in your world that you read, see, or hear to the Scriptures. Listen, dear flock, be careful if what you're reading is contrary to or in addition to the truth of that which was once delivered, Jude 1 verse 3. Don't be gullible.

Think critically. Be immediately alerted to anyone who says that they believe this book is the word of God, but it is not the last word from God. And I'm going to say that again. Be immediately alerted to anyone who says they believe this book is the word of God, but it is not the last word from God. There is a second warning.

We're not only warned against addition, we're given a severe warning against omission. Look at verse 19. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written, which are described in this book. He isn't suggesting someone can lose their salvation. All he's doing is describing someone who will see his opportunity to experience the glory of heaven omitted because he omitted the truth of God.

In fact, you can pick up on the play here of the words, the one who adds has plagues added. The one who omits has his opportunity omitted from going to heaven. The tragedy of unbelief then throughout history can be summarized by these two warnings. All the cults and all the isms of our world add to the scriptures. The liberal world of unbelievers take away from the scriptures, and that's speaking categorically, generally. But according to this text, both are regarded as actions that determine a destiny apart from the glory of God and the beauty of heaven.

Listen to the warning. We do not sit as editors and redactors and presume to change or rearrange or edit out the scriptures. We do not sit in judgment upon this book. This book sits in judgment upon us. We are not the authority over this.

This is the authority over us. And I would hope that if I ever get up here and say, you know, John was great, but I've got a new word for you. Last night, God came to me and I have new revelation. I hope you get up and walk out. I have claimed authority that belongs to God and the ending in and through the apostolic community alone. Turn off the television, too. The next time you hear somebody say, God spoke to me.

God's Spirit does speak to us using the words of what God has already spoken. But anybody who says I've got something new, something to be added, well, here's why that can be taken out. Run. Run.

Run. Prophets and apostles deliver the Word of God. And John, the last of these, writing the last record of these, closes the book as he adds the last block to the foundation of our faith. Nothing more is to be added.

Nothing can be removed. In fact, to remove part of the foundation of scripture would eventually lead to the collapse of the whole. You need to understand the integrity of scripture is destroyed in either direction. Either God has left out something man needs to add or God has put in something man needs to take out. That makes us equal with God. Either way, the integrity of God's character and the sufficiency of scripture, they're destroyed. That's why the warning of future judgment is given for either adding or omitting the sacred words of God. Both judgments are the same condemnation.

They're expressed with differing effects. You suffer the torments and plagues of hell. You are barred from the city of God, the golden city of eternal glory. You remember with the river and the orchards of trees and the glory of God and Christ, all that is forever out of your reach, which means it is a greater condemnation than Adam and Eve, who are exiled from the garden and the tree of life. Their disobedience, they added to the words, they subtracted, they denied the words of God, but Adam and Eve were redeemed.

The first animal sacrifices took place by the hand of God himself and he clothed Adam and Eve in that act of atonement. But here in Revelation, it's a different ending. At the end of human history as we know it, no one who dies in their unbelief can have their eternal destiny somehow reversed. John informs us in chapter 20, as we've already learned they're going to be judged and condemned.

So it's really clear. Are you getting the picture? Do you want to miss heaven? Do you want to go to hell? Here's how. Go to the last verse of this book. Go to the last word. And after that last word, go to the last period and you change that period to a comma.

And you say, I've got something more to add. Or you take a pair of scissors and you go through the Bible. I don't like that. I don't like that. God didn't say that. God didn't mean that. God didn't do that. Jesus didn't do that. Those miracles aren't there.

That just made up. Like the Jesus seminar who convened several years ago, their stated purpose was to change the way people think about Jesus. What they really meant was we don't want people to think about Jesus. So they went into the Bible as scholars into the New Testament. They studied the Gospels in particular to decide what Jesus really said.

And they ended up, not to anybody's shock or surprise, to come to the end of their studies. They concluded that only 18% of the words ascribed to Christ were actually spoken by him. 82% of the words we think Jesus said he didn't say. They met on a later occasion and dissected the Lord's Prayer, deciding which words in the Lord's Prayer Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray, which of those words he actually said. And they came to the end of their erudite study and they said the only words Jesus really said were our father. I'm surprised they agreed on the word father.

Now you could just as well insert mother. John delivers the warning so clearly, don't tamper with the truth of God's Word. Don't be guilty of addition or omission. And by the way, we as believers, let's make sure we don't live that way. Let's not practically live. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to believe that. I'm not going to let that govern my life.

Don't live that way. One author put it this way with great clarity when he said, it is all or nothing. We're not to add to God's Word as though it is insufficient. We're not to take away one word as though it is irrelevant or unreliable or unimportant. There is nothing new.

There is nothing less. There is nothing else but the Word of God as it is. The last word has been written.

The full stop has been added. God has drawn a line at the bottom of the page and that is it. There will be no further disclosure from heaven and there will be no appendix which lets you know that the book of maps is not inspired, okay? It ends at the end of Revelation.

There is no sequel in sight. Now one more thing quickly. There are many liberals today and unbelieving skeptics who would say that the Bible is a collection of books also decided upon by church leaders hundreds of years after they were written. It's another lie. The truth is, by the time of Athanasius, who did live in the fourth century, when he wrote a letter to his congregation on Easter or around the Easter season, he listed all 27 books of the New Testament. And he did that in his letter to them, but 100 years before he wrote the letter, these same 27 letters had been circulating from the apostles and they had already been called the New Testament for over 100 years.

In fact, 200 years earlier from Athanasius' letter, just 80 years after the death of John the apostle, this church leader named Irenaeus wrote of the apostolic letters that had been circulating. We know them as the New Testament. They were affirmed by the local churches. And I quote, the church, Irenaeus wrote in AD 180, the church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, carefully preserves it. For the churches that have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything differently, nor do those of Spain, nor those in Gaul or France, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which have been established in the central regions of the world, nor will any one of the rulers in local churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these.

It's going all the way back to 80 years after the time of John's death. The church did not create the Bible. It recognized the Bible.

It's like saying a jeweler who finds a diamond, he doesn't make it a diamond. He simply affirms what it already is. That's all that the church did as it developed.

It affirmed what it already believed and knew to be the truth of God's word, the divine author, and we today stand shoulder to shoulder with these believers down through history. And frankly, I get to this ending here and I don't know about you, but I'm not frightened by it. I'm not adding.

I'm not subtracting. In fact, this is a reminder for us all right here of when you should leave the Scriptures alone. And for you as a believer, you delight in this book, right?

You're not looking for things to carve out and things to add. You defer to its divine authority. You defend its author, don't you? You want to discover its truths and promises. You want to deliver to others its gospel.

You want to depend upon it for strength. You want to live so as indeed to call this book a lamp to your feet and a light to your pathway. And so we thank God for this book. A veteran pastor who used to come to our little Bible college where I attended and preach in chapel every so often was known for beginning or ending his sermons with a poem on the Bible. It made a lasting impact on my spirit.

I want to close our study with the same. Here's one of his poems. We've traveled together, my Bible and I, through all kinds of weather with smile or with sigh, in sorrow or sunshine, in tempest or calm, thy friendship unchanging, my lamp and my song. We've traveled together, my Bible and I, when life has grown weary and death even nigh. But all through the darkness of mist or of wrong, I found here a solace, a prayer, and a song. So now who shall part us, my Bible and I?

Shall isms or schisms or new lights who try? Ah no, my dear Bible, exponent of light, thou sword of the Spirit puts error to flight. And still through life's journey until my last sigh, we'll travel together, my Bible and I. That poem should reflect how all of us view our Bible and I hope it's true of you. I also hope you were encouraged to cherish God's word even more today. You're listening to Stephen Davey, our teacher here on Wisdom for the Heart. We're in a series on the last words of scripture and we have one more message left to go. In the meantime, we'd enjoy hearing from you. You can write to us at Wisdom International, P.O. Box 37297, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27627. Thanks for listening. Join us next time for more Wisdom for the Heart.