Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
Well, good evening. It's good to see everyone back. We are now in week two of fundamentals of Bible study and we are going to begin tonight looking at the topic or the subject rather of observation. You should have completed your pre-class reading which was living by the book pages 51 to 65 and The workbook assignment which was pages 15 to 20.
If for some reason you did not complete the workbook assignment. We are going to go over it later so you can work on it a little bit in class. But I do it at the end of this session at the end of the eight weeks.
I'd like to look over your books on the last night since we're not doing a final Part of what is your grade is you're actually doing the workbook now if you're not writing in the workbook. You may be writing in a notebook that either way just write down what pages it is.
It shows me that you did the work shows me that you are Keeping up with what we're supposed to be doing in class. Also, you'll notice I have handouts for you tonight. There is a hole punch going around somewhere.
You're welcome to punch those out put those into a notebook as well. Because they are important in fact, I'm going to be utilizing the handouts a little bit more In-depth than I did during our history course.
Those of you who are part of the history course. The handouts were basically just added information. I didn't really go over the handouts very deeply. But I am going to be using these handouts a little bit more in this course because I created them.
I made them for some lecture Information that I want you to have so the first one we're going to look at tonight. Is the one that says? Translation methodology. That is the one that looks somewhat like a speedometer.
That's this one right here because last time we talked about textual variation and I wanted to tonight begin my introduction by talking about the differences between Translations. I showed you last week how certain translations deal with textual variants differently.
The ESV didn't even have the verse the King James had it and the NIV had the number but not the verse and Some of you had never seen that before so that was sort of an introduction to you. But tonight I want to talk about something.
That's a little bit more important in regard to What you're using in the way of tools? Bible study is all about tools. You want to have the right tools for the job and The first and foremost tool that you should have is a good Bible.
All translations are Translations. I know that sounds like a redundancy, but it's an important redundancy because There is no translation That is perfectly accurate in every way shape or form to the original language.
There are certain words in the original that simply do not translate into our modern language. And so we have to provide Equivalence for those words or something else to help us understand how those words would function today.
If you look at this sheet, you'll notice I have given you a Basically a chart of On the on the right side if you're if you're looking this way be on your left side from the essentially literal categories all the way over to what we would call the Paraphrase category and What is the difference.
Well the Literal is what we call formal equivalency. Formal equivalency is when there is a word in the Greek There is an equal word or a seeking to be an equal word in the English as best as possible.
It means it's formally equivalent. Now that is not Absolutely true because sometimes one Greek word can equate to about five English words. And so if you look at the Greek New Testament It has some I think hundred fifty thousand words and an English New Testament has more like two hundred to two hundred.
Twenty-five thousand if I remember the number incorrectly, I may be off a little on that. But the point is you're gonna have more English words because one Greek word can it can account for several? English words and but there's still a functional equivalent that one Greek word Means those five English words as however, it's expressed.
When you begin to move to the middle of the speedometer, that's what I'm calling it you'll notice something different something called dynamic or functional equivalent. A functional equivalent is when you have a word or a phrase and you provide a modern or contemporary phrase.
That would have a meaning that is equivalent, but the words are not equivalent. The best example that I can give you actually is in the King James Bible and People say all the King James Bible is absolutely literal.
Well, no, it's not. In the sixth chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul asks shall we continue in sin? So that grace will abound in the King James Bible. It says God forbid. That is not what the Greek says.
The Greek says may Genoita the word may is the adversative Genoita is the root of Guinea or the Greek Guinea is the root meaning to be or to exist and so what it actually means is may it never exist or may it never be and.
That's why your modern Translations will say shall we continue in sin so that grace should abound may it never be or certainly not. But the King James translators used an expression which we would call a dynamic equivalent.
God forbid. Neither the word God nor the word forbid or there but it means what it means. And it means the same thing and so we would call that a dynamic equivalent. I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm saying it's a different way to translate a word.
All right. You're equivalent making an equivalent translation. Now the further you get to the right side of the page you'll notice that you fall into the category of the paraphrase. A Paraphrase is much different than a dynamic equivalent.
Because a paraphrase is not seeking to have any real equivalency at all. It's seeking to simply restate something in a different way. So as to make it more contemporary and clear. You'll notice on the right side the one at the bottom is the message Bible.
Eugene. Was it Phillips wrote the met Peterson. Eugene Peterson? Thank you wrote the message Bible. I consider the message Bible much more akin to a commentary than I would a translation. Because it does not really provide an accurate rendering of the original language.
So, why does this matter. Well it matters to me. Because if we're going to practice the art of observation Then we ought to be observing as close to the original as possible. At least that is my opinion.
I'm sharing, you know. You can argue with me later if you want to. I get to state my opinion because I'm teaching but but you can tell me your opinion later. The point is if I'm going to put in the work of observation, I Don't want to spend all my time observing something that wasn't in the original text.
I'll note at the bottom. You'll see I have the New American Standard Bible, which I consider to be one of the most literal one of the most functionally equivalent. I'm sorry formally equivalent. You'll see I have Luke 10 for Carry no money belts.
No bag. No shoes and greet. No one on the way. Simple sentence the message Bible. Notice it is three lines instead of two. I Simply point that out because oftentimes paraphrases beef up the text and include a lot more than is necessary.
And again, if you're practicing the art of observation. Note right away that you're going to be observing more and often superfluous information. But notice what it says. Travel light comb and toothbrush and no extra luggage.
Don't loiter and Make small talk with everyone you meet along the way now. I've always jokingly called the message Bible the toothbrush Bible because I don't know of any other Bible that has the word toothbrush in it.
And I don't do so to make fun. I just simply say it's an interesting choice by Eugene Peterson to include a modern tool like a toothbrush in his Translation. Certainly that's not what Jesus said. But it's an attempt to contemporize what Jesus said and give us an understanding that might make sense to us.
Again, I am NOT mocking or saying it's bad if you want to read it. But I am saying if you're going to invest in Observation you might best invest in observing something that takes you as close to the original as you can.
You'll notice something to consider in the middle of the thing. All translations involve some interpretation. How much interpretation do you want? Because basically what you're doing with a paraphrase or even a Dynamic equivalent is you are allowing the translator to interpret it for you.
You're letting them do the job of interpretation. I Want to do the interpretation? Just give me what it says. Okay. So that's this and you'll notice that for though it's a new American Standard English Standard version the new English Translation, which is actually a very good free translation.
You can get online. And it's a textual Critical edition, which means it deals with the textual critical Issues that we talked about last week the NET notes are very fantastic. King James Version. New King James Version the the Christian Standard Bible used to be used to be called the Holman Christian Standard Bible now they dropped the Holman now.
It's just the Christian Standard Bible. The NIV is the flagship of the dynamic equivalent movement. And I I like the reading of the NIV at certain points. I think it does a good job. So again, I'm not a hater of the NIV or anything again, but I want closer to literal.
So I would look more to the ESV or the NAS personally. Then you get to the New Living Translation the New International Readers Version, which is more of a paraphrase of the NIV. The Good News Translation the Contemporary English Version the Living Bible, which is very popular in the 70s.
It was one of the first paraphrases to come out and then of course the message you'll notice what's not on here the Passion Translation. If you see the Passion Translation That is a translation that has been put out by the New Apostolic Reformation.
Which has come out of California and there is an attempt in that translation to superimpose and interject Word faith teaching into the text so I wouldn't even consider that a good translation I would say that is an attempt to try to interject False teachings into the text also the New World Translation if you ever see that that is the Jehovah Witnesses Translation which they have changed many of the texts.
I could show you at another time some of the texts that they have changed specifically. But again, I would be careful of the New World Translation and the Passion Translation. Okay. Now moving on I want to show you I Gave you a comparing translations to the original Language note sheet if you'll pull this sheet out.
You'll notice there are and I and I put the Passion Translation here just to give you an example. You'll notice the first we have the Greek New Testament, I Don't expect you to be able to read it. I just put it there to show you something.
Because the English Standard Version is Almost exactly word-for-word the Passion Translation however is not The English Standard Bible says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
All right, let's very quickly. I have it on the board. This is the same thing you have in RK N is your preposition. RK is the beginning it is the the in the beginning. So RK think of like an archbishop or something something that's at the beginning or the top at the beginning.
So this is in the beginning and was ha logos the word ha is your this this is ha this is a Definite article is the word Chi ha logos. So so again thinking of your ESV in the beginning was the word literally exactly as this reads in the ESV.
All right Chi ha logos and the word and cross Tom Theon was with and In Greek, it says the God but we drop the definite article in English because it is an unnecessary Word it's a word that we would say in English is not needed to express the meaning.
So we would say simply was God Was with God? Chi Theos ain't ha logos. This is throws a lot of people off because this actually says and God was the word but we translated and the word was God because the predicate is Actually Theos ain't ha logos.
What is the subject so ain't ha logos in English comes first and the word? Was God so we have the Theos here becomes the predicate because of the way it's constructed. So it's not wrong to say and the word was God, but in Greek the word God comes first.
Either way, the idea is the same and we have here an almost exact if you put the ESV up. There'd be almost exact word-for-word. Now, let's read the passion translation in the very beginning the living expression was already there and The living expression was with God.
Yet fully God. Okay few thoughts. One. I don't see the need of adding the very to the beginning especially when in the beginning is a call back to the first three words of the Old Testament in the beginning God and Then we have in John in the beginning was the word and so adding the word very adds an Unnecessary addition.
It's the beginning the very beginning same thing. You can't get any more very than the first. And then the translation the living expression. I have thought about what they're trying to say and I still don't quite understand it.
I know this. I have studied the word logos for a long time and I have never heard that as a Translation or even an understanding of what John was trying to get across when he called Jesus the logos the living expression of what?
Don't quite know. Was already there. It's not terrible. It's actually okay, and the living expression was with God. Okay, if you're taking living expression for logos, that's okay. Yet fully God yet is an adversative.
I don't understand why it's included that way. Rather than and was fully God. I don't quite understand why yet fully God is put this way. But as I said, I don't trust this translation anyway, so maybe I'm just being a little overly critical.
However, I Want you to consider this? I want to read read this to you. Imagine a person took the time to write a love letter. He painstakingly considered every word. Until he was finished with his masterpiece it included poetic lyrics and exquisite language.
Now imagine that letter had to be translated into another language for the recipient to be able to understand. Would the original author Want the person to get as close to his original words as possible or would he be satisfied with a loosely worded paraphrase?
Consider he wrote how his passion burned for his beloved with the blazing intensity of a thousand suns and Yet it was simply translated. He is hot for you. Such Would not only rob the recipient of experiencing the full-orbed expression of his passion.
But also could easily be misunderstood in a way not intended by the original author. So that's my thought and again. I wanted to share it with you because. If we're going to invest in observation, we ought to be observing the very best that there is to offer.
So find yourself a good translation. Okay, now let's move on to our lecture our outline tonight is this the value of observation and Then we're going to look at ten strategies for reading. Then we're going to take a break.
And then we'll come back and go over our workbook assignment so let's look first at the value of Observation. You should have read in your book some of this that I'm going to be mentioning but this will be a reminder and a re-encouragement to you the value of observation.
The first step to Bible study is Observation which we began to discuss last time. We are seeking to ask the question. What do I? See. Too often people go directly into the what does it mean or? How does it work?
Those are questions of interpretation and application and They miss the vital step of observation if you jump right to those. As we said and I keep I'm going to keep saying this nice Sherlock Holmes quote that I love people see but they do not observe in Our textbook.
Dr. Hendricks recounts the following. The ability to observe is a developed process. Luis Agas is the renowned 19th century naturalist who I probably just pronounced his name wrong of Harvard. Was asked on one occasion.
What was your greatest contribution scientifically his answer? I have taught men and women how to observe. It was my greatest contribution to science. I taught men and women how to observe. Often I'll listen to pastors.
Who are just starting out in expository preaching? Expository preaching being verse by verse through a book of the Bible and early on they will rush through a book of the Bible. Sometimes able to preach two or three whole books in a single year.
Not necessarily bad, but it's because they have not honed the skill of observation. They're new and so you'll notice as a man begins to become better at observing the text. His sermons will become less text filled in the sense of rather than preaching 20 verses.
He may preach 10 or 5 or like this Sunday when I will preach one verse. Because you will see in that verse. More than you ever would have seen 10 years ago or five years ago because you are starting to see more in the Word of God and That is happening as the skills of observation are increasing.
The only way to get the most out of the text is To mind the text for all it is worth and that is what observation is all about. I want to read again from our textbook. Dr. Hendricks tells the story of a young man and a fish.
How many of you remember the story of the young man with the fish? Okay, the professor mentioned earlier the one that we mentioned from Harvard. He put a fish on a tray. Put it before his student and asked him to write down everything that he saw.
The student returned a day later and he said I found 37 things. The teacher said good go look some more and He did this to the student for a period of two weeks go and look some more. Well, that is going to be the motto of this class and hopefully the motto of your study as you continue to grow as a Bible Student look and look and look and then go and look some more.
Dr. Hendricks mentioned about a man who's who said something that he thought was amazing. He said the man said, you know on the hundredth time I read this passage. Something really jumped out to me and he said the guy read a hundred times.
What do you mean a hundred times? And he said yes, but it was on the hundredth time that it really jumped out. We too often think to ourselves. I got that and we move especially with passages that we're familiar with.
You read John 3 you get to verse 16 jump right to verse 17. Because you've heard John 3 16 ever since you were small. And so is there still nothing more that you can glean? Is there nothing more that you can see in a passage that has changed so many lives.
And yet we take those for granted every time Christmas comes around those passages from Matthew and Luke come out and we read them and we read over them, but we do not read into them. We do not invest an investigation.
We simply remind ourselves that yeah, there were some angels and yeah, there were some shepherds and yeah, there were some wise men. And yeah, a baby was born. But is there not more that we could learn if we were willing to really invest an observation.
When dr. R. C. Sproul Was teaching he told a story that When he had new students in his class the first day He would send them home with an assignment. He would give them a passage of Scripture and say bring me back 50 Observations now last week I asked you for 10.
He said bring me back 50 observations. So that week he tells the story as such he said they would go into their dorms or homes or wherever and they would dig and they would find and they'd pull and they Would look and they'd call each other and they were able they were allowed to.
You know to talk to each other and so they they all really invested in finding those 50 observations. They'd come in the very next week. They'd turn in their papers and the doctor would say now go find 50 more.
He understood That the better your observation is the better your interpretation and application will be. Now we're gonna have some fun. Some of you may think this is a little trite and if you do it's okay.
I Think it's fun. I have before you a Table on this table are Several objects. I'm gonna take the purple cloth off. I need you to have a piece of paper. You can write on the back of one of your handouts.
If you don't have a piece of paper you have 60 seconds to observe. And write as many observations as you can. Great you need to stand up. It's okay that helps you can even walk closer if you need to. Daisy.
I know you're a little further back about 30 seconds in about 15 seconds left. Five four three two and one. Okay pencils down. Now when you're doing Bible study. You don't have to rush. Like we're gonna later talk about patience in reading.
But for this was just a game and we only have a limited time in class. How many observations did you come up with? Somebody holler out in matter nine. That's good. Ten nine twelve good. Good Gary. Give me one of your observations.
What did you notice? Okay, there's four legs, that's a great observation. That's the that's actually really thoughtful that yeah, he went off the table, okay anyone else JP would you come up with? That's right, and that's actually not how I set it up that happened when I lifted up.
Yeah, it wasn't supposed to be leaning is supposed to be sitting over there. Anyone else have anything? Interesting that they observed. There's this. Okay, yeah, they're the table still has the label we purchased it.
That's see yes it is and they wouldn't know that because they're over here but the let the label is over there what else. That's right, I'll give you a dollar if you tell me what it is, I mean, I know it's a little piano but.
It's a communion holder. It's it's meant to hold communion for somebody with the piano player. They put a they put a piece of bread and a cup in here for the lady playing the piano. All right, so anyone else have any interesting observations that you made.
Did anybody write down how many objects are on the table. Can't see everything but you wrote down all the ones you could see. All right, what else? Did anybody notice any categories on the table. That's right, there's several of these things duct tape a circle square.
Wd -40 all these things are tools because I went into that room and got most of them when I was. But I got colorful ones get everybody's attention. But you see the purpose just to show you that. Everybody's seeing something different.
I love this in the book. I don't know how many of you noticed in the book. I mean change this back or make sure you can see me. You remember this? Where he talked about he said, uh, can you can you use four lines to connect all the dots and Most people would have trouble with that.
He said because they're trying to stay in he said but if you go outside The box you can make four lines connect at all, but you have to go outside the dots. So the idea behind that is simply when we're looking at the text.
Are we really are we really thinking about? You know that all of the ins and outs of what's going on. I guess that's kind of fun. Hopefully you enjoyed that. I want to do another practical exercise if we can.
I want to do yes. Is it cutting my head off? Thank you. Yes, you guys are my temporary cameraman. I appreciate you and Back it up a little bit. I want you to open your Bibles. We're gonna actually look at a verse.
Make some observations. Galatians chapter 1. Verse 1. Galatians chapter 1 verse 1. Now I'll read from the ESV it may read slightly different than yours it says Paul an Apostle not from men nor through man but through Jesus Christ.
And God the Father who raised him from the dead. Immediately what are some observations that you see in this text? Paul is the Paul is an apostle. Okay. What else? Paul is the writer the the. The form of writing a letter in the first century is different than ours because in a modern letter we would say dear Jennifer or whoever in the the first century the form of the letter was to begin with the writer.
Paul is always Identifying himself at the beginning of his writing. Okay, what else? Oh. Okay, right there. I would want to know why the translators chose to put that into a parentheses I would say because it is a parenthetical statement.
It's not necessarily Connected to everything else. It's an argument in a statement. But again, I'd want to know why I'd want to look up why those translators made that choice. Okay, very good. Good observation.
What else? Yes. Yes, not from men nor through man. Okay that yes, sir. Yeah, it's through Christ not through man or man, okay anything else. Yeah, he mentions Christ and God the Father which is typical of Paul.
He often puts Christ and God the Father together showing a form of equality. Again, that's somewhat of an interpretive thing, but I'm just adding an observation. This is something that's very typical in Paul's writing.
What else? He mentions the resurrection of Christ. He's basing his Work and word on a historic event the resurrection. What else? Yep, that's verse two. That's right. He mentions the brothers who are with him.
What else? That's right. He's put and that's what I sort of what I was going to dig into is the idea of what we call the polemic or the Argument he's Positioning himself for an argument. Galatians is a book which is highly argumentative.
It is all about Paul's Position as an apostle and those who would challenge him see there were those who came to Galatia. To teach that Paul's gospel was incomplete. That he did not teach that you should be circumcised or that you should keep the Jewish ritual laws and Paul is Making an argument and he is producing his own pedigree.
I am an apostle not from men nor of man. But from Jesus Christ and God who raised Christ from the dead you got a problem with it. That's not what he says, but that's the that's the basis of his polemic.
It's an argument and so we can see that in the very first words of the writing but It might take reading the whole book before you really see that. So it might take reading through the book one time to go back and say oh, that's why he said that I Didn't understand before why he was so aggressive.
Do you know Galatians is one of the only epistles of Paul that doesn't have a Thanksgiving? He doesn't say I thank my God for you. He says I thank my God for the Corinthians as dastardly as they were.
As bad as the Corinthians where he says I thank my God for you. He doesn't say that to the Galatians. Instead he says I am astonished that you have so quickly Abandoned him who saved you. That's the problem, right?
So Paul is arguing for his own apostleship. Okay, so those are just some things to observe from the text and it might take reading the whole book to begin to really observe Those things but everyone did a great job.
Just looking and picking out. What do we see? What do we see not interpreting? Just what do we see? What do we see? All right. Well, we're going to move on now to ten strategies for reading because the first step to good Observation is to become a better reader.
To become a better reader. According to and I mentioned this last week New Testament scholar Douglas Mu 30 of American adults read at or below a fifth grade level. So I wanted to do a little test tonight not for anyone's sake.
I'm not doing this test for me. But this is something fun for you, and I'm gonna do it with you. I have not looked at this before. We are going to take out this hit at a sheet. And We're gonna have 90 seconds.
I need somebody with a phone. Because mine is recording. Can someone pull up 90 seconds? I'll read out what you're supposed to do. Test your reading skills. How sharp are your reading skills? Here's an exercise to test them in 90 seconds or less.
Read the following material and Circle true or false for each statement without looking back at the article. Set a timer. Have someone call time exactly in 90 seconds. So JP if you'll set it to where it'll go off in 90 seconds.
We're gonna read this and answer the questions and see how far we get. In our minute and a half. So JP you tell us when to go. All right, 90 seconds has passed and for whoever was listening to this on audio.
I bet that was the best. They just sat there for 90 seconds going what in the world are they doing? Okay well Let's go over the answers. Number one dry ice is made from water, but because it is specially treated it does not melt.
It's false. It's not made from water. It's made from carbon dioxide. Remember that's what it said in the thing. The first dry ice was manufactured in the 1950s. False, that's right. It's made in 1925.
Dry ice has more uses than ordinary ice. Yeah, I missed that one. I put a question mark because I couldn't remember if it said it did or not. So I just put a question mark next to it. Dry ice is not as cold as ordinary ice.
False. It's 142 degrees colder. Artificial fog can be made by passing steam over dry ice. True. Yes, so there is. Just a little fun exercise and again. Whatever we can do to make ourselves a better reader.
That's good. Again it's not about reading fast, but I will tell you this in Mortimer Adler's book how to read a book. He mentions the point about learning to read faster. For comprehension sake and he talks about the fact that whenever we are reading.
And actually what he says is that we should read at different paces depending on the book. But oftentimes we we we mouth our words or we have an internal dialogue. That's happening as we read and we either do it with you don't know you're doing it but you're doing it with your mouth or even with your mind and that's actually slowing you down and it's slowing your Comprehension and so being able to stop that is and again, I still battle with it myself.
So I'm not giving you something that doesn't apply to me. But that's one of the first things that they teach you in speed reading courses is to stop the internal dialogue. Because that's slowing you down as a reader and ultimately is slowing your comprehension.
You don't read words. You read groups of words and you do that. By training yourself to do that. And so that's part of just the process. Imagine this if it took 30 minutes for you to read the book of Ephesians, which is six chapters long.
But you could train yourself to read it in 15 minutes. You could read it twice in the time that it took you to read it once if you were if it took you 30 minutes and thus you'd have an opportunity to read it a second time and.
So there is value and learning to read a little faster. But you have to train yourself to do so there are there are techniques out there that can help you. Any questions. Is that was your hand up Michelle?
Okay. I didn't ask any questions. All right. So again, these are all exercises from the book. There are others in the textbook. I encourage you to go through find ones that you think will help you and Take a chance with those now.
Dr. Hendricks mentions ten strategies to make us better readers. Because of time I cannot fully express all ten. But hopefully you have taken the opportunity to read through the book and you've seen it.
I want to simply make a few comments about each one very briefly. Ten strategies for becoming a better reader number one. He says we ought to read. Thoughtfully that is do not put your brain in neutral when you read.
How many of you have read and then stopped? And realized you don't realize anything you just read. You allowed your mind to wander or you allowed yourself to go and think about something else. Your eyes were following the words.
But your mind was elsewhere. And so the point of the first thing is engage your mind when you read. Few few years ago. I read a book called don't check your brains at the door. I have a sermon with that same title and it's an important thought that we engage our minds in this.
You remember when you were a kid your teacher would tell you to put your thinking cap on. I Used to go through this real elaborate thing of how my thinking kept fit. I was very imaginative young goofy child but.
But I still think I sit down to read. I want to think about what I'm reading and I want to engage my mind. The second thing is to read repeatedly. Mentioned earlier somebody who'd read the text a hundred times and finally had An illumination about the text.
An idea came to me after the hundredth time. Well, how many of us have invested reading that repetitively. Probably not very many. A few years ago I found myself doing a project that dr John MacArthur proposed and it was a way to learn the New Testament.
Better and what he did was he encouraged the reading of the same seven chapters every day for 30 days and Then read another seven chapters every day for 30 days and I forget I think it's three years. That it would take for you to get all the way through the New Testament.
And by the end of those three years you will have read the whole New Testament seven times and you will probably know where most of the Information in the New Testament is because you've invested so much time in repetition.
I only made it to about 12 or 13 months and I and I and I moved on to a different program. So I did not follow dr. MacArthur's program to a tee, but I will tell you this. I I went through Romans that way and now I really do have a working knowledge of Romans where I know.
Basically the entire outline of the book I can follow through even teaching it without having to have an outline. I know where just about everything in the book is and so if you're interested in a repetitious Exercise read the same seven chapters and you can't do seven chapters a day read the same three chapters a day or the same chapter.
One man tells a story of how he was told to read 2nd Peter every day for a month. The guy he said I just don't understand how the Word of God can change my life. He said read 2nd Peter every day for a month.
He said at the end of the month the man was talking about nothing except 2nd Peter. It was just all he could talk about and it was so much a part of his mind. That this small epistle in the back of your Bible would have so much information.
And how did he know it because he'd read it 30 times? So there is great value in repetitious reading. All right, the next is patiently. Now I just talked about the value of reading fast. So I'm not I am not trying to contradict.
I'm simply talking about if you're reading an overview of a book like you want to read all of Matthew all of Matthew. You know probably 45 minutes to an hour for an average reader. Maybe a little less if you're a faster reader.
There's 28 chapters and depending on how fast you read and what you're trying to get out of it. You're looking at a pretty pretty good sit, you know to read the book of Matthew so. You think about that.
You want to be patient in the sense that if you're really wanting to learn What's in Matthew you read through that quick time? But then go back and pace yourself as you look through the book and really make Observations your first read is your overview and then you go back.
Pace yourself. I love this quote from the book. You can't hurry holiness. I just like that phrase. You can't hurry holiness. So pace yourself. Especially on the second reading. Now you're looking for the particulars the fourth of these Strategies for reading better is to read selectively.
You said now wait a minute pastor. The whole Bible is the Word of God. I know the whole Bible is the Word of God but when you are reading you are reading looking for things and In the book in your textbook.
It's gives you those those those Journalistic questions the who the what the where the why the when and the wherefore those six questions help you to identify what parts are Moving and what parts matter in the narrative for your information?
So you're reading selectively in the sense that you're selecting the portions that stand out. The who's the what's the where's the wise the wins and the wherefores? So you're reading but you're selecting what parts are really standing out.
I like to talk about we're talking about later keywords and terms. Looking for those things as you read. Number five reading prayerfully. Reading prayerfully and there's really not a lot that I can say on this except read before read after.
Read while. I'm sorry. I said that wrong pray before pray after pray while reading. Because this is God's Word it's God's book and so if you want to connect with the author you can by prayer and. Often I think of people often think of prayer and Bible study as as two different disciplines.
You'll have people say I'm going to prayer meeting. Or I'm going to Bible study right on our Wednesday night. It literally is split in half we have our prayer time which takes about 30 minutes and then we have our Teaching or a Bible study which takes depending on how long I go another 30 to 45 minutes.
But it really is a time of prayer and study. When we pray we talk to God. When we study he speaks to us. So It's a dual exercise. We speak to God and ask that he speak to us through his word not through our.
Not through a voice from heaven, but through a voice from the word number six now. The text says to read. Imaginatively, this is one of the areas where I love dr. Hendricks, but he and I would probably divide a little.
Not much and not probably doesn't even really worth saying but I'm gonna say it. Anyway, I am NOT into Into creative arts types that I am. I am a creative person and I like to do drawing and I like to do skits and things and Acting but when it comes to he talked about a pastor who dressed up like Bible characters when he was preaching I'm not there with him.
I feel like when I'm preaching I want to be preached. You know, I don't. I don't I I'm a little divided on that personally. You may have read that part of the book and felt a little different. That's fine.
We can be we can have a little difference there, but I do want to tell you That there is great value in reading. He you he says the word. Imaginatively, I use the word Existentially. Existentially now when I say existentially, I am NOT talking about existentialism.
Existentialism is a is a philosophical belief system. About existence and how we exist and why we exist and and really that's not what I'm referring to when I say to read the Bible existentially what I mean is To remember that the people that you are reading about truly existed at a point in time and Thus try as best you can to see this from their perspective.
For instance Genesis 22 verse 1 God spoke to Abraham and said take your son only son. Whom you love To the Mount of Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering. Now, can I read that as if I were Abraham?
That is a powerful way to examine the text. I mentioned dr R. C. Sproul earlier one of the absolute best sermons I've ever heard in my life Was when dr. R. C. Sproul preaching at a pastor's conference that I went to preach Genesis 22 and he spoke as if you were there and his whole Narrative was reading as if you were standing next to Abraham.
Watching the knife come up. Ready to plunge it into the chest of his son and I was just literally heard the story a thousand times but had never really lived it until that sermon and so when you read Remember the reality of the existence of who you were reading about.
Jesus is not just a character on a page. He is the God-man who was and is and is to come and so that is very important for reading. The next one is read meditatively. I'll simply point you to a verse of Scripture Psalm 1 2.
His delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law. He meditates day and night. Read the text and think on the text. I love Alistair Begg. Alistair Begg said whenever he is studying for his sermon. He says I think myself empty.
Meaning I read the text and I think about the text until I have nothing more to think. He said then I read myself full means he goes to the commentaries and he thinks himself empty. He reads himself full.
He writes himself clear. He preaches himself passionately. That's the that's the pat. That's the pattern of his preaching and he is a wonderful preacher. But I just like that phrase think myself empty just think as much as I can meditate as much as I can on that word.
Purposefully is number eight. Meaning that when we read we read looking for things. It kind of goes along with what we talked about earlier selectively. Which is to be investigative. We want to be looking purposefully for things like structure.
Consider this the book of Romans. The book of Romans has a structure probably the most well structured of Paul's letters. It is Paul's magnum opus. It is his great work. When it comes to Christian theology it can be broken into two parts.
Chapters 1 through 11 is Paul's theology and Chapters 12 to 16 is the application Paul's theology. Chapters 1 2 3 deal with the sin of mankind. Chapters 4 5 deal with how man is justified before God.
Chapter 6 7 deal with man's sanctification and chapter 8 deals with his being certainly conform. Without condemnation, that's what says it begins chapter 8. There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Chapters 9 10 11 deal with God's elective purpose and his role in Relationship with Israel and the church and then again chapters 12 through 16 is his application of all of his theology. There is the book of Romans and that is a way of looking at it purposefully.
Paul had a purpose in writing Romans 1 before he wrote Romans 2 now. He didn't write it with ones and twos, but he had a purpose in the structure. And so looking for that. Purposefully looking for that will help you understand it.
Number nine read acquisitively. Acquisitively not inquisitively but acquisitively meaning to acquire read to remember. Read to stake a claim. Read to make the text yours take ownership of it. Don't just read to forget read to remember and finally telescopically.
And this is give you an example of how this is going to work for us as a church. I've been preaching for 18 months through the book of 1st Corinthians. I have two more sermons in chapter 16 this Sunday I'm going to preach verse 22 and then the Sunday after I'm going to preach verses 14 to 24 and then I am going to do a sermon on the whole book.
And say what have we learned? From a telescopic look. What is the theme? What is the main? Purpose and that's reading telescopically step back and say what was Paul's point from beginning to the end? There was a there was a theme that ran through this book or several themes and how did those themes?
Connect to one another that's reading telescopically. Now we're through our time for our break. So I just want to say one quick thing and we will break and that is this. If you haven't looked at Mortimer Adler's book how to read a book I want to just mention one thing to you a phrase that he uses you've heard the phrase coming to terms.
Coming to terms. You know, you you know, we need to come to terms or whatever. You've heard that expression that phrase. Means that you understand one another and a term is Not the same as a word. Because a term is either a word or words That are being employed by an author to communicate an idea.
It's more than just a word. If you were a carpenter there would be certain terms that would be employed in your particular Skills and those terms would be known to you and those who you work with but not might not make sense to anyone else.
Finding out what terms the author is using Will help you as you observe. Look for the terms and my son Cody he worked for about six months for a carpenter who installed windows. Every day, he came home talking about wet flash.
Now I know what wet is. It ain't dry. And I know what flash is. It's what lightning does and you know. But what flash is a thing apparently and it is a thing that if it gets on a good t-shirt. It's no longer a good t-shirt.
What flash is a tool used in installing doors and windows that keeps moisture out? I didn't know that but Cody knew that because that was a term that was used in the job that he had a Bible term that you might want to consider the word saved.
Different times different authors use the word saved differently. Paul says for by grace are you saved through faith? But then he also says Women are saved through childbearing. Is it the same term being used in the same way?
No much different. But it is a word. And if you this is where word studies can be dangerous. Well, this word means this over here. It must mean that over there. How is the author using the terms? He's setting his own terms.
How is he using them? That is key in Observing the text. What terms are being used and how? Okay, that's we'll take a five seven minute break. All right. We will start up our. Everyone should have your your notebooks and Tonight's notebook assignment or today's notebook assignment was to look at page 15.
Did everyone get a chance to do that? All right good. Notice at the bottom. I like what this says. It says you might want to make a copy of this page to place in each of the Bibles that you use. I think that's smart.
It asks those probing questions. Who is the author? Who is the author addressing? What is the most important term notice the word term not word but term or concept in the passage? What are the main verbs?
What are verbs? Yeah things that show action. In fact next week we're gonna watch no, we're not. I was gonna say we're gonna watch conjunction Junction, but we 're not. I am going to give you. Yeah, I'm gonna give you a handout next week.
That is just a simple reminder of grammar. What is a noun? What is a pronoun? What is a verb? These are things that most of you know, I'm sure but just never hurts to be reminded and also It doesn't hurt to understand that in the language that this came from there are added Ideas that we don't carry over into English such as the tense.
We have in English the past the present the future tense and in the Greek they have other tenses like the aorist tense which we no longer use and so understanding the Minor differences can help you understand why certain words would be translated the way that they are.
So we're going to talk about that some next week. And then going on it says are there terms you need to define so that you can better understand the passage or there people or Places you need to identify and you say well, how would I do that later on?
We're going to talk about tools. Remember I said a good tool is is useful in Bible study. Your first tool is your Bible. Later in this study later in the course, we're going to talk about other tools.
One of the tools that is good and brother. We were just talking about this is a Bible handbook. A Bible handbook is designed to give you an overview of each of the books of the Bible including an outline.
Sort of what I did with Romans earlier. Give you some of the historical Context of the book. I'm going to tell you if you're reading Obadiah. And you don't understand when Obadiah spoke and who he was speaking to.
Then you will probably have a little bit of difficulty Finding meaning in what he's saying and so a Bible handbook can be a good tool for that. Commentaries are the last thing you want. I don't mean that meaning like it's the last thing you want.
Like you don't want them what I mean, literally, it's the last step a Lot of people go immediately from the text to the commentary. They're cheating themselves one out of the eight out of the out of the blessing of doing the study for yourself but also What they're doing is they're letting someone else be the interpreter.
You're letting so I'm not saying commentaries are bad. But even if you have a study Bible and at the bottom of the study Bible, there's those notes. I always read it like this if I have a study Bible and I'm using I don't use study Bibles to study with but if I were I would take and I would cover up the notes.
So that I wasn't tempted to look down and have it interpreted for me. I Want to read the Word of God first and seek to understand it as best I can. Think myself empty. Read myself full right think myself empty.
I want to think about it myself first. And the commentaries again, the other the other thing you'll note is different commentaries have different opinions. And sometimes you'll think well, hey this commentary is right.
Then you read another one and now they disagree and you read a third one and he disagrees with both of them or he has a totally different idea. What you will find and the dr. Jerry Powers told me this when I was in seminary.
He said what you will find is that most of the places you have difficulty with in the text. The commentator has difficulty with in the commentary most of the places you have difficulty with in the text the commentator will have difficulty with in the commentator the commentator will have difficulty with the commentary because.
It's a difficult part the whole reason why you're having problem with it is because it's a it's a hard part of the text and it takes. Some thought and take some decision-making. Take some digging. So again, nothing wrong with a good commentary.
But I would say before you go to the commentary a good Bible handbook is good because it's less than a commentary it doesn't tell you what the text means. It tells you the general background of the text and the structure of it and The who what where and why of the text which is what you need to know when you're trying to understand it.
If you have a study Bible that has in the beginning of each book a little outline of the book and a little overview like the John MacArthur study Bible has that the English Standard Version study Bible has that.
You have basically a Bible handbook built into your study Bible. That's what that is. Now something like Hallie's Bible handbook or another tool is much more robust. But you have that information already if you have a good study Bible.
So so use it. If you especially if you think you need it. Again like I said, I wouldn't go read on Amos. I might read it first. Just to just to try to read it. But I wouldn't think that I was understanding it.
Well, if I didn't have the who and the what and the where that he was talking to and that you're not gonna know. This is why I read something this week guy. You know People who are not born again can't understand the Bible and people who are born again Understand it immediately basically was what he said and I said, well, both of those are kind of incorrect.
I said unbelievers can understand it. They can't they can't accept it. They can't receive it. They can't apply it. They reject it. It's not the same as understanding it they can understand it, but they reject it and.
And in somebody says, oh they don't understand it. Well, they they don't understand it fully. But they understand what a verb and a noun is so let's Keep that in mind. They can put it together. They know Jesus died on the cross.
They just don't believe it. But the other half of that's untrue too people say well once you're born again you just it's. You just automatically know. Because you're now a spiritual person you have the Holy Spirit inside you you're gonna know everything.
Just because you have the Holy Spirit inside of you does not mean, you know who Amos was talking to. I'm just saying he doesn't come in and say I Started chapter 1 verse 1. This is who you know, whatever.
You do have to dig. And you have to find these things out. I did a series a few years ago called 66 weeks through the Bible. Where each week I took every book of the Bible and simply gave an overview of that book one book.
It took a little over a year 66 weeks. And I think it was one of the most helpful things we've ever done as a church. Because a lot of the books people understood, you know Genesis they understood Exodus.
They understated it, but when we got to Amos Obadiah those books of the minor prophets. Do you know what it means to be a pre-exilic prophet or a post-exilic prophet? It means whether they were preaching before the exile to Babylon or after.
And that matters as to what they would say. So these are part of understanding who they are. Next week, I'm going to give you an outline that shows you where they fall in the timeline. That's one step right away.
If you know that the person is preaching before the exile. Then it gives you some idea about what he's saying. Okay. All right. So that's that now. Let's look at page 17. Page 17, how many of you wrote out your answers?
Got a few good. Okay. It says here we're going to observe Psalm 93 1 the Lord reigns if clothed he is clothed with majesty. The Lord has clothed and girded himself with strength. Indeed. The world is firmly established.
It will not be moved. Begin by going through the questions on the observing a passage of scripture sheet page 15. Not all of them will apply of course. But note the present tense verbs if the psalmist wrote in present tense.
Does that mean the verse is now in present tense? It's a good question. Look at it the Lord reigns that is the verb Reigns and it is in the present tense. Is it still true? Is he still reigning? Yes, so that's one of the things that you could Observe there is a verb here.
That is in the present tense. That is still in the present tense. The Lord is still reigning. Did anyone else note anything of note from that section. Yes, sir. He is clothed. All right, the Lord has clothed and girded himself with strength.
And is oh, I'm sorry. I went ahead of you. He is clothed with majesty. That's right. Yes, and the is is present tense. That's right. All right, well to move on what would you say is the main theme of this verse?
You look like you're gonna say something. I didn't. God is in control. Okay, okay. Anyone else have anything different? All this is good. I mean, it's all right. Again, this is what you're observing. Okay.
Forget about religious language for a moment. What then comes to mind when you think about a Lord? Authority. A ruler. Yeah, all of those are good answers. Going over to the next page in addition to the questions already provided here a few additional things to observe.
What words are repeated? What is emphasized? They may note anything there. What do you have miss Cindy four times? Yeah, okay. All right, the next ones. Oh, did you have something? Clothed okay. So again repetition here.
What does it mean to be clothed in Scripture? Covered. Yeah. Okay. All right. So going on God is described by the terms majesty and strength. What connection if any do these terms have does one necessarily suggest the other?
They're both statements of greatness. If we say that's a strong man that says something to his his his strength and his greatness. Yeah, you can be strong and not majestic. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Why did the author suddenly move from describing the Lord to writing about the world?
Absolutely. Absolutely. The world is the evidence. Very good. Yep. We all know that the earth is turning on its axis, so what does it mean the world will not be moved? That's a interesting question and flat earthers here.
Sure, I'm have that conversation another time. Yes, and that's yes, that's good. Yes, absolutely. Okay, it's moving but not we don't know it's moving. Yeah. Yeah, what I mean is it's it's from our perspective the earth is fixed.
Yeah. Yeah, anyone else a simple thought also the Bible uses Don't write this. I Only said don't write it because it's a long word. The Bible uses what is known as phenomenological language. Phenomenological means the language of appearance.
And when you look at a mountain It don't move. When you look at the ground beneath you it don't move. The Bible does not use what we would call scientific language in every instance. Talks about the Sun making a circuit across the sky.
Well scientifically we would say the earth is making a circuit around the Sun. All right. But what do we see we see the Sun rise? We see the Sun going across the sky. We see the Sun fall. All right, and so from our perspective it looks as if it's making a circuit in the sky.
That's called phenomenological language. We still use it today. Because when you got up and watch the news this morning the newscaster said this morning The earth will tilt toward the Sun at 7 a .m. No, he didn't he said the Sun will rise at 7 a .m.
See we still use phenomenological language. And so recognizing that helps us answer the question of why we know the earth is moving. But the Bible can still say it is firmly Established and will not be moved because from the perspective of man it is firm.
Okay. Next is does this first evoke any positive feelings from you? I hope so. Yeah. It's a the Lord, you know reigns. That's that's just amazing. I heard one time a pat a group of pastors was polled and I don't remember if it was in a class at a seminary or if it was a group of pastors at a convention.
But they were asked what is the attribute of God that gives you the most peace? Almost all of them Said the sovereignty of God. Wasn't the love of God or the mercy or the grace of God, but that they knew God was in control.
That gave them peace and so Our Lord reigns that is that is joy. All right, might this verse cause less positive emotions for some people. Oh, yeah. For one who doesn't believe in the Lord the reigning sovereign God is to them a fearful entity.
One who is to them someone to be hated if you've ever listened to Richard Dawkins one of the premier atheists of our day talk about God. He talks about God as a moral monster. He talks about God as a Celestial child abuser and all kinds of other things that you can't even imagine Describing God as but that is how the unbeliever sees the Lord not as he who is to be loved, but he who is to be hated and.
So yes, this passage could certainly bring out negative emotions and ones who do not know the Lord. So That that brings us to the end. We're pretty much out of time. I'm sorry. We probably won't have did anybody have anything of note.
They wanted to mention from page 19. Anybody want to just add any thoughts? Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I take so much time. I just get so Excited to teach and I know I take up a little extra time sometimes.
But I am so thankful for you all for being here tonight. If any of you do have time and would like to help with the tables and chairs afterwards, I would appreciate it. But could we end with a word of prayer?
Our Father and our God we are so very grateful for this class to get to be together. I love these people and I and I thank you Lord that they love your word enough to want to be here and study it. Father, we pray that you would by your mercy lead us safely from this place to our homes and that you would continue to give us A fire in our belly to study the Word of God in Christ's name.
Amen.