“The Canon Expands”

(1 Chronicles 29:29-30)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
1. We’ve come to that part of God’s plan that included the narrowing of Messiah’s
line to that of David.
a. We’ve seen that Messiah was to come through David’s line.
b. But we also saw that the calling and anointing of David began an unbroken
succession of kings in Israel and Judah that culminated in Jesus Christ, the
rightful heir to his throne.
(i) In establishing the throne of David, the Lord was establishing the throne
of His Son.
(ii) He would be the supreme authority to which one day every knee in
heaven and earth would bow.
(iii) This is the authority you must submit to if you are to be saved.
(iv) But it is also the authority that guarantees your temporal and eternal
safety if you do.

2. We also saw there was a very dangerous spirit that didn’t want to submit to that
authority and so did what he could to try and stop it at its inception.
a. The devil poured out a flood of persecution against David by the hand of the
Philistines and especially by the hand of Saul.
(i) Goliath tried to kill him on one occasion, and the Philistines as a whole
did on several; but not only did the Lord allow David to overcome them
all, He moved on the heart of Achish, king of Gath, to receive David as a
friend and that after David had killed tens of thousands of Philistines.
(ii) Satan also tried to use Saul to kill David at least ten times by moving his
heart to jealousy. Not only did he fail miserably, but the Lord turned the
heart of his son Jonathan, Saul’s heir to the throne, to love and support
David.
(iii) The Lord was going to send His Son through the line of David and
nothing could stop Him.

b. When the Lord is for you, it doesn’t matter who is against you.
(i) The One who fights for you is mightier than the one who fights against
you.
(ii) Remember where your safety lies and draw near to Him.

B. Preview.
1. The next thing we see with this grand step forward in God’s plan is a
corresponding step forward in God’s revelation – specifically in His written
Word.
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a. The Lord had already laid a very important foundation in the Pentateuch
through Moses.
(i) The Pentateuch is the five books of Moses, the first Scripture the Lord
gave to His people.
(ii) It contains not only an account of the creation of the world, of man’s
apostasy and God’s worldwide judgment, of the calling of Abraham and
the Abrahamic Covenant, the preservation of God’s people in Egypt and
their redemption from slavery, it also contains the laws, ordinances and
ceremonies by which the Lord would be worshiped and through which He
would reveal His Son, all of which were important to establish and build
up the church in faith at that time.

b. Now, with the call of David, there is another great leap forward in that
revelation as the Lord adds several more books to His canon.

2. This is what we’ll consider this morning: the Lord expands the canon of
Scripture.
a. First, we’ll consider that He gave further revelation.
b. Second, we’ll consider why He did.

II. Sermon.
A. First, let’s consider that it was around this time the Lord gave more Scripture.
1. To this point, the Lord had given only the Pentateuch through Moses, as we’ve
seen. This, by itself, was very important, especially because of the Law.
a. Paul reminds us that the Lord didn’t give the Law so that man might merit his
salvation as a covenant of works: “Is the Law then contrary to the promises
of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to
impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law” (Gal.
3:21).
b. He gave it to draw attention to the promise He had made to Abraham:
(i) It was added to the Abrahamic Covenant: “For if the inheritance is based
on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to
Abraham by means of a promise. Why the Law then? It was added
because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the
agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had
been made” (vv. 18-19).
(ii) It was meant to be a tutor to point His people to Christ before He came:
“But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut
up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has
become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith”
(vv. 23-24).

c. It did this in at least three ways:

(i) The moral standard of the Law – the Ten Commandments – showed
God’s people their sins and so made them look to the Promised Seed to
take away their sins, as it also does for us today.
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(ii) The ceremonial Law, through its sacrifices, showed them what their sins
deserved – death – and pointed to gracious substitution and so to the
Promised Seed.
(iii) And the office of priest showed them the need of mediation to approach
God and so pointed them to the Promised Seed who was the only Mediator
between God and man.
(iv) The prophecies, types and shadows, and the Law it contained were all
meant to drive them to Christ that they might be saved by faith in Him.

2. But God’s revelation didn’t stop there: He gave more light to His church.
a. After the Pentateuch, the Lord gave the book of Joshua.
(i) Many believe Joshua wrote this book, after he finished the book of
Deuteronomy: remember that Deuteronomy gives us the record of Moses’
death, which means Moses didn’t complete it.
(ii) But Joshua didn’t finish the book (Joshua): that book also records his
death, which means someone else completed it.

b. The Lord also gave the books of Judges, Ruth and Samuel (the book of
Samuel was originally one book, which was later split into two).
(i) Some believe that Samuel wrote the end of Joshua, as well as these other
three books.
(ii) But, as was the case in the previous books, he didn’t write all of Samuel.
(a) Since Samuel’s death is recorded in 1 Samuel 25, it’s clear he didn’t
write the whole book; someone else completed it.
(b) We know from our text that he wrote some things as a part of his
ministry, which either made up these books or which were used by later
prophets to write these books.

(iii) Most importantly to our point is that these books became part of the
canon of Scripture:
(a) God gave them for our instruction, and they are a part of our rule of
faith and practice.
(b) Paul tells us, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so
that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work”
(2 Tim. 3:16-17).

B. Second, let’s consider why the Lord these books at this time.
1. It has mainly to do with what we saw over the last two weeks: the importance
David’s calling in God’s plan.
a. The prophets served at least two purposes in God’s economy:
(i) They were God’s spokesman who would bring His message of judgment
when His people broke the covenant: in this sense, they were roughly the
equivalent of lawyers who would prosecute a lawsuit against Israel for
breaking their contract with God.
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(ii) But they were also the heralds of His messages of mercy: they spoke
prophetically of the coming of the Christ.
(iii) And as with the coming of Christ there was a flood of revelation, so
there was with the coming of David, the type of Christ.

b. Samuel was one of these spokesman, through whom the Lord revealed the
coming of His Son, as were the rest of the prophets:
(i) We read in Acts 3:22-24, “Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up
for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed
to everything He says to you. 'And it will be that every soul that does not
heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ And
likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his
successors onward, also announced these days.”
(ii) They did this both through their prophetic office as well as in their
writings.

c. How did Samuel do this?

(i) He did it mainly through his faithful record of David’s call and God’s
subsequent covenant with him.
(ii) It wasn’t just Samuel, of course, since David outlived him. But it was
Samuel and the prophets of that time, as our passage reminds us: “Now
the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the chronicles of
Samuel the seer, in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet and in the
chronicles of Gad the seer, with all his reign, his power, and the
circumstances which came on him, on Israel, and on all the kingdoms of
the lands” (1 Chr. 29:29-30).

2. Each of these books contributes to the Gospel.

a. The book of Joshua chronicled the conquest of the land of Canaan, which is
the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant at least on the typological level.
(i) Canaan was the land God promised to Abraham and his seed – the
promised rest.
(ii) But it’s clear from the NT that the land pointed to the New Heavens and
Earth which the faithful would inherit through the Promised Seed of
Abraham – the Lord Jesus Christ.

b. The book of Judges prepared Israel for the coming of the King.
(i) The people rejected the Lord as their King and each did what was right in
their own eyes.
(ii) Each time the Lord raised up godly leadership, the people followed the
Lord and prospered; but each time their godly leader died, they returned to
the practice of sin.
(iii) This would continue until the Lord raised up David, a man after His own
heart, to lead the people in righteousness. Under his reign, righteousness
did prevail, until he died.
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(iv) Afterwards, a righteous king would mean Israel would be a righteous

nation, but an ungodly king, an unrighteous nation: as was the king, so
were the people.
(v) People will go as far as government will allow, which is why our nation
is in such a sad situation today.
(vi) The lack of a righteous king and therefore a righteous nation pointed to
the need of a righteous king, the One the Lord would provide: the Lord
Jesus Christ.

c. The book of Ruth has to do with David and so with Jesus Christ.
(i) It gives us something of David’s genealogy and history – remembering
that it is through David’s line that Messiah comes.
(ii) But it is also a wonderful picture of redemption through the kinsman
redeemer: As Naomi and Ruth were saved from destitution by a near
relative – Boaz – so the Lord Jesus Christ became a near relative to us by
taking our nature on Himself that He might redeem us from our debt to
God’s justice and bring us to heaven.

d. And of course, there is the book of Samuel.

(i) It chronicles the history of David.
(ii) But it also contains the Davidic Covenant, which is the promise God
made to David that He would raise up his Seed and set Him on his throne
forever: “When your days are complete and you lie down with your
fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth
from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My
name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam.
7:12-13).
(iii) All of these were wonderful additions to the canon of Scripture and were
meant to advance the work of redemption.

C. In closing, let’s consider this final application: the importance of the Scripture.
1. It’s the primary means by which redemption is applied.
a. We’ve just seen how the Lord used it to move His work forward, showing us
more of the Messiah and His plan to bring Him into the world. OT saints
were saved by seeing the Messiah through the prophetic word and believing
in Him.
b. It’s still the primary means of salvation today:
(i) It is the only source God has given to reveal Christ to us.
(ii) It is the only means the Lord uses to convert us and others.
(iii) It is the only source of the Gospel – the power of God to salvation
(Rom. 1:16).
(iv) For this reason alone it’s infinitely precious and worthy of your full
attention, because it alone contains what you need to be saved.

2. But it is also our rule of faith:

a. It tells us what we are to believe concerning God.
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b. It gives us the ability to distinguish between the truth that can save us and the
false Gospels that will end in the damnation of so many.
c. You should study it to make sure you are believing the truth.

3. And it is our rule of life: it shows us how to glorify Him.

a. Remember what we’ve seen in the evenings: the Lord didn’t save us merely
to prevent our going to hell, as though our salvation is an end in itself.
b. He saved us to give him glory by becoming like His Son, serving Him like
His Son, honoring Him like His Son.
c. Salvation is a means to an end – the glory of God – and until we begin to
glorify Him, we haven’t begun to live as Christians.
d. The Scripture is the means to make this happen: it contains the Gospel to
save us, doctrine to build us up, and ethics to live by.

4. And so embrace the Scripture, the whole Bible:

a. The OT saints were blessed to have what they have; but they would have
been so much more blessed to have what the Lord has entrusted to us.
b. This should make us all the more thankful that He has given us this treasure,
and hopefully encourage us to use it more often:
(i) And so read, study, understand, memorize Scripture, but especially do
what it says.
(ii) To have more knowledge only to do nothing makes us more culpable.
(iii) But to do what we know glorifies the Lord ends in blessing.
(iv) And so be hearers, but not hearers only; be doers of the Word. Amen.