Theology You Can Use (pt-1) - The Word of God

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Alright, well we're going to start a new series tonight and it's entitled, thanks to Steve Cooley and his idea, it's going to be called
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Theology You Can Use, meaning theology is very practical and theology can help us in our day -to -day life and what we're going to do is we're going to go through, in a systematic fashion,
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Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. There are 57 chapters we'll try to go through the next 57
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Sunday nights maybe I'll combine a couple here or there but we want to go over each one of the chapters so we can understand theology in a systematized way but I want to make sure
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I preach it not at a classroom kind of level but at a level so you'll say I've learned this theology how should that affect the way
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I live? When we learn something about God it requires that we respond in a certain way with certain kind of living holy living and so we're going to work our way through systematic theology.
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If you can get this and read ahead of time that would be great. If you can't do that because of time or money it will be fine because I'll have you up to speed as we go every
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Sunday night. So this is $24. I want to say it's probably $40 in the stores and I think this is our last one that we have but how many people have
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Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology? Okay, quite a few do. Theology you can use.
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I'll probably ask a lot of questions tonight because the typical format will be I will teach through a passage of scripture verse -by -verse that fits within the framework of the chapter.
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Then we'll discuss more what Grudem says and we'll interact. Tonight that's not necessarily the case except maybe at the end.
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So I'm going to ask questions and for those of you who are not regulars on Sunday nights you can just raise your hand and then answer them out loud and this way it'll be a good interaction and good interchange.
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Theology you can use. What does the Bible say about systematic theology? Tonight we'll answer these kind of questions.
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What is systematic theology? Why should you study systematic theology and is systematic theology even practical?
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Well we have to have some terms defined first and there's lots of theology definitions.
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For instance, natural theology. Who knows what natural theology is? If someone said well that's natural theology.
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What is that and why is that important? Natural theology.
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Theology revealed in nature would show us what? Louis. Good, that God is there, that He's very powerful.
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Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and you see all kinds of God's attributes just by looking at nature and the heavens.
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Matter of fact, Psalm 19, I believe in verse 2, it says day to day this kind of great creation of God what?
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Pours forth speech talking to us about who
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God is. Well that's natural theology. There's another kind of theology called special theology or special revelation and what might that be?
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We have kind of general theology which is found in nature and then we have something more specific and that's found where?
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In the Bible. So just to get us caught up on terms what do we find out about God found in Scripture?
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We would call that specific theology or revealed theology. How about hysterical theology?
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What would that be? Excuse me, historical theology. What would historical theology teach us?
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Anyone? It's a great subject to study by the way, church history. What is historical theology?
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Good, to see how God has orchestrated events of the past through different fallen creatures throughout time.
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Do we find historical theology in the Bible or is it outside the Bible? It's outside the
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Bible, right? There is historical theology in a sense in the Bible, history there, but this is something when
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I think of historical theology I think of something kind of past the Bible when the Bible was written and how does
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God work out in history beyond that and I think it could include the Bible but when you hear of historical theology
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I think of God working in times past through people, through the early church, through the
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Reformation, through the modern movement, etc. etc. and then this one's a little trickier. What is biblical theology?
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If you're not thinking along theological lines you may get this one right. What's biblical theology?
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I would answer this. What did I just say? Or you might get this one right because if you're not using your mind you might get it.
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Biblical theology gives special attention to what a particular writer of Scripture says.
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For instance, if you want to study biblical theology and you study John's writings you could look at how many books did
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John write in the New Testament. Gospel of John, 1st John, 2nd
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John, 3rd John, Revelation. So biblical theology would say let's study the writings of Paul and see what his propensities were, see what he focused on.
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Biblical theology would look at John or Peter or someone like that. Well let's now ask the question about systematic theology.
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Who can give me a definition of systematic theology? And then we're going to ask why would we even want to study it?
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Why would we devote 57 weeks to that? By the way I'm holding the caveat that if it bombs, the series bombs in about seven weeks then we'll just go someplace else,
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Zephaniah or someplace. What is systematic theology? If you don't know how to break down systematic theology, well then what's systematic and what's theology?
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Maybe that will help us. I'm going to ask a lot of questions because otherwise tonight we're going to be in trouble.
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I think I'm already in trouble. Yes. Good.
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So we believe in exposition or topical teaching around here. What are you trying to say? So what is systematic theology?
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I thought that was excellent. When you think of the word systematic it means, I actually looked up the word, it means to stand together or to organize.
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And so you take a topic of the scripture, sin, and you start at Genesis and you work your way through all the way to Revelation to see what the
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Bible teaches in total about that particular subject. What can be known of God on that subject in all the
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Bible? It answers this question according to John Frame. What does the whole
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Bible teach us today about any given topic? The second coming, the Trinity, the deity of Christ.
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Can you think of other topics? Sin, grace, heaven, all kinds of topics from Genesis to Revelation.
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I can think of incarnation, all kinds of things. How about this? If I read
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Mark chapter 15 verse 26 and the inscription over Christ at Calvary says, the
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King of the Jews. Luke 23 38 says, this is the
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King of the Jews. Matthew 27 37 says, this is Jesus, King of the Jews.
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And John 19 19 states, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. What was said on top of the inscription at the cross?
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Put them all together, right? So we systematize, what does the Bible teach us from Genesis to Revelation about a certain topic?
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Well, what might some of those topics be? Oh, let me just back up for a second. If someone were to ask you this question, what does the
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Bible teach about Jesus' soon return? What would you tell them? Well, why don't you just start in Genesis 1 -1 and keep reading until you get there.
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So it helps us to put some systems to this. If I think of some of the divisions of systematic theology,
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I'm going to tell you an ology word and you tell me what it means. These are some of the ologies found in systematic theology.
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Bibliology, the study of the Bible. Good. This one doesn't have an ology.
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It's the only one that doesn't. Theot...well, it has two words, one with an ology. Theology proper. If you were going to study theology proper, what does that mean?
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I don't mean if you're going to study theology properly, but what is theology proper? What the
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Bible says about God, good. Christology, what the Bible says about, good.
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Pneumatology. If you can't remember pneuma, P -N, pneuma, you can think of a drill that has some air coming out of it and that is called a what?
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Pneumatic drill, right? Spirit. Hermardiology.
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What kind of study is that? Sin, good. Anthropology. Lewis Leakey, etc.
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That's not that anthropology. There's anthropology that the archaeologists do and we study anthropology that basically, this morning we had a study of anthropology.
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What is the state of man in Romans chapter 1, 2, and 3a? That would be anthropology, good.
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Soteriology. Salvation, good. Soter means to save or to rescue or to deliver.
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How about, this is a very difficult one, so put your thinking caps on. Angelology. What might that be?
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Both good angels and bad angels, study of Satan. Angelology, it would be the study of the the angel of the
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Lord in the Old Testament. How about ecclesiology? Church, and ecclesia means what?
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To assemble, right? Some people say called out ones, the assembled ones. Eschatology, future things are in times, good.
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So we have a lot of ologies to study and one of the things that I'll probably encourage you to do, especially if you're a new
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Christian or you'd like to get your arms wrapped around all these thoughts, is pick one ology per year and try to study that.
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Pick Bibliology this year and study the scriptures, pick Christology, pick a different ology and say, in nine years
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I'm gonna figure out all these ologies. Alright, let's ask this question. Why study systematic theology?
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Why is it even important? Why would I devote 57 weeks to it on Sunday night? There has to be some reason to study,
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I'm just not looking for topics to preach. Why study systematic theology? Okay, to grow and learn, good.
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What else? Yes, Frank? To better equip the saints, good.
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Did you know that systematic theology used to be called the queen of sciences? Anybody else?
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Why should we study systematic theology? Excellent, it keeps you from going overboard on one particular verse without seeing the rest of the counsel of God, good.
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I keep hearing some kind of funny sound up here and I can't tell what it is. Yes, Dave?
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Good, you know what systematic theology, Grudem says, it's like if you have all the scriptures in a large jigsaw puzzle.
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And what systematic theology does is kind of makes the border around it and then it shows you some of the larger objects and so then you have to just fill in the blanks around that.
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I thought that's exactly right. That's a good point. I have several reasons. One, it helps you to be exposed to the full counsel of God.
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You don't want to miss something about God that's tucked away someplace in lamentations. And you say, well, everything
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I need to know is elsewhere. If you study the topic of every, for instance, sin, I believe six
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Old Testament words for sin and six New Testament words for sin and you put together this whole idea of sin.
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Sin is not only missing the mark, sin is transgressing, sin is not doing something that you should do. You put it all together and you think, wow, sin is bad.
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I also have another reason for systematic theology. It gives you observation into God's progressive revelation.
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How does God give information out? Back in Genesis, He gave just a little bit and then more and more and more.
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How does God reveal Himself? Thirdly, it increases your knowledge of God.
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Colossians chapter 1 says that we are to be increasing in the knowledge of God if we're to follow Paul's pattern.
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And I think if we do the opposite of systematic theology, we will be what Grudem calls unsystematic theologians.
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How many people think unsystematic, disorganized theology would be good? We don't think so.
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Grudem says, you don't want to be a proponent of disorderly and random theology. I think one of the things that's helpful in systematic theology, it helps us to define
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Christianity. What are the essentials? What are the fundamentals? What is Christianity? It can help us defend
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Christianity. What about a doctrinal controversy? And I think lastly, if you'll turn your
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Bibles to the pastoral epistles, let me show you the tie -in between doctrine and godliness.
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The tie -in between teaching and godliness. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6. We'll look up three verses and I want you to see the tie -in between teaching and godliness, doctrine and duty, credenda and agenda, position and practice, indicative and imperative, orthodoxy and orthopraxy.
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Did you get those? 1
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Timothy chapter 6 verse 3. If you notice there, tucked in, the Bible connects sound doctrine with maturity in Christian living.
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Paul talks about the teaching which accords with what? Godliness.
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1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 3. If you'd looked at 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 10, it by contrast talks about disobedience and immorality that are contrary to what?
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Sound doctrine. Doctrine and duty go together. So if you say to yourself,
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I'm struggling with this particular sin. I keep falling in this particular pattern to this particular pattern of sin and I need to be rescued from that.
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One of the things that you should do is study what the Bible says about the topic and what God expects and how
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God can empower you to obey and you want to see what the
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Bible says about that very topic. It's important. Let me ask you this question. I'd like feedback.
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What would happen to a church that gives up learning systematic theology for at least a generation?
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What would our children be like? Grace Church has something called Generations of Grace. What would we have at this church if we give up theology and studying theology for just a generation?
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Generation of disgrace. Very good for the pom -pom lady in the front left. Generations of disgrace.
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Steve, excellent.
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You can just imagine the chaos. Sadly, many churches today have no theological mooring so that's why they'll buy into anything that comes down the pike.
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They don't care what it is. If it works, they'll buy into it and I don't want us to do that. I want us to have a good theological system and structure and that's why our statement of faith at the church is long or short.
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Well, compared to the Bible, it's short but compared to other statements of faith, it's very long because we don't want to have to have corrections every time something weird comes on the pike.
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We want to know where we stand. Now, here's another question.
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Can we go the other way? What would be the consequences of us as a church going overboard in the simple intellectual study of doctrine?
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Could we go too far on the other way? What would be our propensity here at the church to be? To underdo doctrine and teaching and exposition or to kind of say, well, it's all intellectual and we don't care about anything else really.
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We just want to learn more. Wow, I learned today. Forget loving my wife like Christ loved the church.
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I'm just you know, I just want to learn a new doctrine. Wow, did you hear that great verse on the atonement today?
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That was preached with such passion. Wow! Comments about what could happen if we overdid doctrine?
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You become the church at Ephesus. Excellent, where they have left their first love, Gladman. So we wouldn't be doers of the word, we'd just be hearers only because we heard something really good.
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That, by the way, is my problem when I hear preaching. I'm too easily captivated by hearing a new doctrine, something taught a new way, some new truth versus me saying that old truth that I heard.
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I need to be sitting underneath that word. I need to be remembering again. So, for instance, this morning, how many people learned anything new this morning?
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Some did. My goal was not to teach you something new. If I did teach you something new, great, but my goal was to remind you of the old.
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Other ones, Bruce? Lack of evangelism because we just get these huge heads.
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I don't know the technical term, maybe someone does. But my mother, years ago, I think I was probably about nine or ten years old, she took us to a small town in Nebraska where they had waterhead babies.
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I don't know the technical term. I don't remember anything about them except walking into this place to see these.
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And, of course, my memory now probably is tended towards exaggeration. I would go to my mom's house and think it's a huge house, and now
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I go back and visit, it's a small little thing. Do you know the name? Hydrocephalic.
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I just remember seeing the baby's heads were so huge they couldn't lift their heads off the pillow.
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It was just one of those just so sad. I think Ricketts does similar things where the head becomes huge, and we don't want to do that.
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I know I'm in a bad spot at the church because as I teach you doctrine, I know what our response will be, and that response will be, if we're not thinking right, to accumulate data and not be more holy.
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But what are my options? Not to teach you sound doctrine? So we should know ahead of time.
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We're going to hear doctrine all the time, Bible all the time, and if we're not careful, we're going to have knowledge that will, what?
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Puff us up, and we have to be careful. That's why service is so good because there's one thing about ministering in a local church.
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You can walk around with a big head for a while, but when you serve in a local church, there's all kinds of porcupines on other
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Christians that poke you like hot air balloons, and you become deflated. The other thing that's very helpful, especially for you single men, if you struggle with pride,
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I have a good resolution for you, and that is called marriage, where you realize that you're not all what you...
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you're not cracked up to what you... somebody's clapping in the back. You're not everything that you're cracked up to be.
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And I can't believe actually Kim expects me to... Can you believe this in a woman? She actually believes...
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She thinks that I should live out everything that I teach from this pulpit. I'm appalled by that.
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I'm just kidding. When we come to systematic theology, we do have to recognize that we should come in humility, that we want to learn so that we can do.
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We have to come saying to ourselves, I have a finite mind trying to wrap myself, my arms around things that are infinite, and I can't get it all.
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Combine that with the fact that I have sin, and I can't see scriptures right if there's sin, and so we have a
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Herculean task. It's very, very difficult. Should we use any other book than the
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Bible for systematic theology? That's my last question before we get into a text. Any other book?
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If you didn't know what a Bible word was, a biblical dictionary would be excellent. Well, that is chapter 1 of systematic theology in Grudem.
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That was pretty fast, wasn't it? It was very fast. Chapter 2 talks about how God speaks.
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When I say the Word of God, what do you think about? The different forms of the
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Word of God. I can think of two forms of the Word of God. Which ones do you think of? Christ and the written word.
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I think what we're going to do is we're just going to bypass that chapter, and we're going to go straight into Psalm 1 because I can tell, again, when
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I'm losing a crowd, and we've got the big glazed -over eyes right now, and so let's just go to Psalm chapter 1 and see this great book that I want our systematic theology to cause us to revel in and meditate in and look at.
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So let's just go to Psalm chapter 1 and just do some exposition of this great chapter. Steve loves to preach
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Psalm 1, and I'm not going to do a thorough job, Steve, so when you get one of those,
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I'm sick in the middle of the night and you have to preach, you preach Psalm 1. There's plenty left for everyone. By the way, as you're turning there, it gives a good opportunity to tell the story.
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When I was in preaching class at seminary for my master's degree, I picked the topic in passage
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Habakkuk 3, 17 to 19, and we have a small group of about six guys, and you just get up and you pour your heart out, and there's no messing around.
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Professor Montoya was our professor, and he expects excellence and action, and he will accept no excuse.
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I remember my eye, the ophthalmology guy, the ophthalmologist cut my eye by accident, and I had this, you know, one little cut in your eye.
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What does that do? I mean, it seems like it's just this huge, throbbing thing. You know, I felt like I was some kind of, you know, cyclops or something.
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I could barely close my eye, and it was so bad. And you're supposed to make copies of your message to bring them into your preaching class.
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And so I got up, and I realized that preaching class was at 7 .30. There was a copy mat open at 7 .00.
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I drive down to the copy mat like this, trying to get there to preach, and of course, with a name like Eben Droth, guess which order
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I end up usually? I try to make copies, and it says, new hours, 7 .30.
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So I thought, there's a copy machine at the seminary. So I get down there, there's actually two down in the old library, and I got down there, it said open up at 7 .20.
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I'm waiting, I'm waiting, pacing back and forth. I can't believe I have to preach. I've spent $25 ,000 on seminary, and now
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I'm going to stand up there, preach in such a horrible way, and the guy's going to tell me, you just need to quit, and we're going to put you out of your ministry, and it was worth $25 ,000 less, and you're fired.
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I thought, oh, what am I going to do? 7 .20, the thing opens up, I quick get in there and buffalo my way in.
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Both copiers were broken. I walk into Professor Montoya's preaching class, where all the other students analyze you, and so does the professor, and he's just hardcore.
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Steve had to do it, too. And I walked in, I said, Professor Montoya, the eye thing, copy mat, 7 .30,
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library, 7 .20, two of them all broken. I don't have copies of my stuff, and I'm really even not prepared.
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I can't even see. Professor Montoya has the gift of mercy, and he just looked at me, and he said, you're up.
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I had to walk up to go ahead and preach, and I had to preach Genesis chapter 6. Later on,
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I had to preach Habakkuk chapter 3, and I got up to get ready to preach, but a guy went ahead of me, and he preached
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Habakkuk chapter 3, 17 through 19, right before I did. I thought, what am
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I going to do? What am I going to do? I think he did a better job than I could, and so now
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I have to do it as well, but you know, the Word of God through personality, that's what preaching is. Truth through personality.
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He focused on some things that I didn't, and vice versa, and everything else, and then the story gets even worse, because I fly to India this year, and I was given preaching time, several off -site, and then one main one to all the sessions, a plenary session in front of everyone, and so I was going to teach 2
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Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 and following. That's the passage you teach to pastors. Preach the
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Word, in season, out of season, and so I had it all ready, and we get there the first night, and they have the special video feed all the way from Southern California at 6 o 'clock in the morning there.
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It's 9 at night here in India, and John MacArthur gets up there to preach, and he said, I'm going to preach to you men tonight, and my passage is 2
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Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 and following. I can't believe John didn't call me.
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Everybody else had to send in their emails early with their passages. No, but John doesn't have to. So everybody, all my friends were looking over and saying, are you still going to preach that passage?
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And so I got up and introduced the sermon by saying, even though John MacArthur, arguably the best expositor in the last 50 years, has preached this passage, the
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Word of God is so rich, and so deep, and so full of God's truths, that he could even take a guy like me and preach you 2
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Timothy chapter 4, verse 1 again. And so, don't let Steve walk up to the pulpit saying,
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Mike just got done doing Psalm 1, and that's the one I've kind of gotten my my chamber now, and I'm ready to shoot it.
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Don't let him do that. Psalm chapter 1, to encourage you in kind of a jet tour fashion, as we're used to this morning, for you to meditate in the
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Word of God. If you want blessings, you will stick your nose in the Bible. You can try every other way, and you're not going to get the blessings that are found in the
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Word of God, and this is like what John Donne said, is like manna, which tasted to every man like that he loved best.
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It just tastes good. It's just so good to see these two different kinds of people in the world.
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Alexander White, the famous Scottish professor, said to his students, oh, I envy you young men with your ministry before you, and especially that you have a lifetime of explaining the
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Psalms to your people. The Psalms, you get to preach the Psalms to someone, and here we have, amazingly, the first book of all the
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Psalms, and it almost acts like an usher to all the other Psalms, as an introduction, a blessing to the
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Psalms, of the Psalms here, right from the very beginning. Two ways open for mankind, the way of the righteous, and the way of the wicked.
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Let's look at Psalm 1, verse 1. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.
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There is blessing to that kind of man. There's blessings for you as you want to study, what does the
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Bible say about this topic from Genesis to Revelation? That's one thing systematic theology will do.
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It will force you to study the text, because your theology has to come, actually, from the text, and here he says, how blessed.
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This is from God's perspective, not, oh, he's a pretty good guy, one man to another, but from God's perspective, this kind of person is blessed.
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One way to translate the word blessed is, he's envied. Jansen said, as an expression of envious desire, and renders it to be envied, is the man.
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And so you have this ashar word, where you say, this person is so envied. Look at how God approves him, and blesses him, and sets his favor upon him, and as the
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Aaronic blessing says, to make God's face shine upon him. To what kind of person does that blessing come?
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The person who's going to be in the word that we'll see in just a minute, because look, it's a conditional blessing. There are conditions to this blessing.
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This is not a universal blessing. How blessed is the man who does do this, and doesn't do that? What else does this word tell me?
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How blessed? Is that a singular word, or a plural word? Does it even matter? It's plural.
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Oh, the blessedness. Oh, how great in plural. The multiplicity of blessings, as one man says.
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Oh, the blessings of this man. The blessednesses. And it's even there with an exclamation point.
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I just write a little explanation point, right there on your Bible, next to how blessed.
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How blessed! Interjection. Oh, it's intense. It's plural. The multiplicity of blessednesses.
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What kind of man gets this blessednesses? Well, if you look at a football stadium, I kind of just don't even pay attention much to football, a little bit, but I don't really watch the games, and pro games, college games.
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Those gods let me down too often, so I don't like to worship gods with clay feet anymore.
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I like it when my teams lose early in the season, because then it just helps me in that. But just imagine a football stadium.
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What's the largest football stadium in the country? Michigan's is the largest. Maybe the Rose Bowl? Not quite as big.
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Something like 101 ,000 at Michigan Stadium. Pardon me? 106 ,000. Thank you,
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Steve. I'm trying to think of a little retort back for that kind of knowledge. 106 ,000 people.
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And let's just say they all were wearing Wolverine colors, which would be what? I think Josh has
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Wolverine colors on, don't you? Blue and maize, are those the correct colors?
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Close enough. Blue and yellow. But one person had crimson on.
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So you have all this yellow, and one person with red. The way the psalmist is writing this is, well, blessed is that particular man.
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Not all these other men, not all the 105 ,999, but this particular man, that one right there.
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And this word zeroes in to say there's only one kind of blessing for this person. It comes from God, and it's this particular man.
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The particular man that doesn't do this in verse 1, and that does do this in verse 2. This kind of person, and no other kind of person.
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No escape clauses, no short circuits, no side roads, no shortcut. This man, and only this kind of man, receives the blessing from blessings from God.
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As my dad used to say, this kind of blessing is not by osmosis. He would come into my room, and he'd say, son, clean up your room.
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I'd just be kind of laying there on the bed, you know. And he'd say, son, your room doesn't get cleaned by osmosis.
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I learned what osmosis was at an early age. You don't get this blessing by having a dad who's godly.
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You don't get this blessing by having it rub off because of your wife. You don't get this blessing by sacraments. You don't get this blessing by the church.
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How do you get this blessing? I want to know. God, bless me a multitude of blessings, intense blessings, singular blessings.
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Just for me, I want these blessings. Is it wrong, by the way, to be motivated by wanting to receive blessings from God?
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Is that narcissistic? Is that ungodly? I don't think it's bad at all.
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So let me show you three responsibilities here in the text for you to receive these great blessings from God.
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The first responsibility is shunning whirliness. Shunning whirliness.
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You must shun whirliness. You see the text? The blessed man is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.
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He doesn't do that. By the way, what kind of genre is this? Is this narrative?
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Is this apocalyptic? Is this wisdom literature? What kind of literature is this? Poetry. And when you write poetry, you try to say things like this.
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Blessed is the man who... What's the best way I could describe it?
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Let's go from the negative. How many times have you heard this passage preached this way? If you start walking by the counsel of the wicked, you might end up standing in the path of sinners, and finally you'll sit in the seat of scoffers.
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That's how it's preached all the time. What he's trying to do is say three different things. Don't stand, don't sit, don't even go close to.
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All one point is what he's got. Stay away from these kind of people. It's a parallelism for those in the hermeneutics class.
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Three groups to avoid. Just avoid these kind of people. And by the way, do you think he's trying to say, just avoid those really rotten, wicked people.
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Do we have a place here in Worcester that lots of really bad people hang out? Do we?
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Huh? The jail. Over there in West Boylston.
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How did West Boylston allow that jail to be ever built? I don't know, but that's another sermon. Is it those kind of people you should stay away from?
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He's talking about those kind of people, yes, but he's also talking about philosophical systems to run from.
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All the isms. Materialism, activism, individualism, religionism, all kinds of other things that people are pushing those agendas all the time.
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What you hear on talk radio and everything else, you just better be careful and filter through the Bible. Be careful of these wicked people.
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He's not just talking about murderers and dope pushers. He's talking about ungodly people who say, you know,
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God, I kind of believe you, but I have no place in my life for you. And here's my theological construct for living.
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Be careful of those kind of people. Well, what else does he say? Not just to avoid worldly people, but here's what
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I'm after tonight with systematic theology. The second responsibility that we have, if you want a life of blessings from God, shunning worldliness, and number two, saturate your mind with Scripture.
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You must super saturate your mind with Scripture. But his delight, verse two, is in the law of the
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Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. Kidner said, whatever really shapes a man's thinking, shapes his life.
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What you think about you will become. Notice the contrast there? But, really it's a strong one, but rather do this.
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But rather think about not just the Ten Commandments, that's not what he's thinking about, the law. He's thinking about God's instruction.
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Of course, he's thinking of the Old Testament back then. He said, but the man who delights in the law of the
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Lord, and here's one of my problems, if truth be known. I've got this duty now to have my devotions required of God.
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I know I shouldn't have this attitude, but you know, it's been, it's hard, and you know, this book will keep you from sin, but sin will keep you from this book, and I just don't have a good attitude, and I've got to study the
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Bible, and I've got to preach it, and actually, you know, I even have a good attitude now, but my attitude is a little bit different.
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My attitude is, I've got to preach on Sunday, and I've got to come up with a message. There's all kinds of wrong ways
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I can think about it. Look at this particular guy, even for a man or a woman, but his delight is in the law of the
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Lord. He's delighted. It's not burdensome Bible study. It's not some irksome kind of downer thing, oh,
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I have to study the Bible. By the way, if you are men, and you want to teach your children the Bible, do yourself a favor, and be excited about it, even if you're not fake it.
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Sometimes I've done that. You know, alright kids, it's time to study the Bible. Sit down and shut up.
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Daddy's in charge. It's the Bible. It's Bible time. We're having our devotions, because Abendroth's going to ask me, did you give some devotions to your kids, and I'm going to tell him, yes, now just answer biblically.
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I'm telling you, people laugh when there's truth. What you do is, you have your wife get the other kids, and the wife's job is to keep the kids seated and quiet, and when you go overboard with your, you know, fervor, your wife kind of goes, lower the volume kind of thing.
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That's her job. Not that Kim would ever do that or anything. No. And so, the kids are a little bit bigger now, but I try to say, we get to study the
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Bible. It's a privilege. A long time ago, and I've told you the story, this isn't the Bible, I'll use this one. I take the systematic theology, and I, I take the
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Bible and I say, and how do kids, how do you teach kids abstract things?
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So I would just go, I kind of hand it around. What do you think the kids would do?
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They'd kiss the Bible. John MacArthur owns a
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Bible that's got blood that's been carbon dated to the time from when the men would be slit open, and then the executors would take the
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Bible and jam it into their blood, and the men would fall down and die. They're called martyr's Bibles. And you think what
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God has done to preserve this for us, and what men like Hus, and Tyndale, and all the others who have tried to translate this into our own language.
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Can you imagine if you had to only hear the Bible by what I would tell you every Sunday, and now you have it in your own hands?
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And so, if you've got kids, you want to be excited. For us even, we say, you know, Lord, I'm not excited to study your
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Word today because it's convicting, and because I just have no discipline. So Lord, give me those things now.
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I want your help. I think God would honor that. Look at the text again in Psalm 1.
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His delight. Everything, God, that makes you happy, I want to just do. It's my chief desire.
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The theological workbook of the Old Testament says it means to feel great favor towards something. It's used of Shechem having delight in Jacob's daughter,
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Dinah, as a man would just have a great feeling for a woman we want to have for the text.
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Desire for a subject because of the good qualities found in the subject. And it's emphatic.
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Delight. It's used elsewhere. Psalm 119 .35. Make me walk in the path of thy commandments for I delight in them.
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When you delight in something, you want to spend time with it. Look at the text in Psalm 1 .2. And in his law, he meditates day and night.
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Now, you've heard me teach this before, haven't you, in Psalm 1. Remember the word meditate, and if you don't remember it, you will in just a moment.
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It's haggah, is the word to meditate, and it's very onomatopoetic. It is very like murmur.
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Murmur, the word, sounds like what murmuring is. True? Listen to some of these translations of the word meditate elsewhere in the
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Old Testament. Isaiah 31 .4. As the lion, or the young lion, growls over his prey.
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Meditates. Growls. Like a swallow, Isaiah 38. Like a crane, so I twitter,
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I moan. Meditate. Like a dove. How does a dove moan, by the way?
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They told me I was going to be a preacher. I never thought I'd have to make animal sounds. It just sounds so...
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How would a young lion growl over his prey? Somebody else. I'm not the only weird one here.
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Isaiah 38 .14. I moan like a dove. Isaiah 16 .7. You shall moan for the raisin cakes.
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And here is this very onomatopoetic word that is more than just meditate, it's almost murmuring over something.
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It's just kind of, as one man says, quote, it means to complain, to mutter, then to speak, then to utter in a low complaining voice, as is often done by a person in deep meditation.
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Hence, in the usual sense, to meditate on anything, to think of it. And so you have the text, and as a lion just growls over, and just thinks about, and meditates on, and just ruminates over, it's the same thing.
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And so you're just thinking about it over, and over, and over. Not just intellectual, but for the purpose of obedience.
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By the way, the tense here, if you look at your text, it's imperfect. It's habitual action. Over, and over, and over, and over.
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Day and night. That's just an idiom that means what? All the time. Constantly. Regularly.
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Kind of like pray without ceasing. And then lastly, how do you have the blessings from God? Shun worldliness.
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Saturate your mind with scripture. And then thirdly, remember that God's ways are worth it. Remember that God's ways are always worth it.
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Is that true even before I teach it? God's ways are worth it? Absolutely. You might not feel like they are.
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You might not see the results right away, but they are worth it. How do we get the state of blessedness?
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Well, it's a result of this kind of life. Psalm 1, 3. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does, he prospers.
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What a vibrant, healthy, stable tree. And of course, we're not talking about something just physically or temporally.
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We're talking about our spiritual state. And I know Steve knows this, but does anybody else know what the word for planted really is?
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It's words not planted there. It's something else. Like a tree planted. Put the words, put the letters
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T -R -A -N -S in front of planted, and you'll get the Hebrew word. Transplanted.
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That's it. Boy, you could preach that. One man said, trees don't plant themselves, neither do sinful people.
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Transport themselves into God's kingdom. To transplant, to take the plant out of one environment, place it into another, another man said.
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Transplanted. Do you think that would be passive or active? Do you think you plant yourself, or do you think you have been planted by someone else?
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It's passive. That's exactly right. Godly man does these things and meditates on God's word, yet God is also working in and through that to transplant you.
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It's all God's action. And then what else happens here in the passage? Verse 4, look at the options.
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It's worth it. By contrast, take a look at the other side of the street, the other side of the railroad tracks.
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Verse 4, the wicked are not so, but they are like chaff, which the wind blows away.
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Sad. It's a whole sermon as well. Chaff. Verse 5, what's the moral of the story?
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What's the conclusion? Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of righteous.
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They won't stand. They don't have a hope. Then he says again in verse 6, it's going to be worth it up to and including eternity, for the
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Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
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Each is presented as the natural outcome of the way of life which has been chosen, Craigie says. He knows our way, but the way of the wicked will perish.
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This is a great psalm to say, study God's word, and I commend you. I don't know what happened. I guess the
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Patriots aren't playing today because we have a full house tonight for Sunday night. Way to go to meditate and to look and to see and to chew over and over.
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You just imagine, here's the blessing of God for a man or a woman that just gets the word of God and just pacing back and forth.
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I've got to understand this truth. I fall short of it, but I just want to understand it. I want to do it.
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I want God, I want this text to emulate in my life and to do it in my life to be an offering for you.
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I'm just going back and forth and I'm not going to let this go. I'm not going to study another ology until I figure this one out and try to live it.
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And that particular man has blessings upon blessings upon blessings. Why is it important to study systematic theology?
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Because it will force you to study the word of God and you will think properly about God and God blesses those who meditate on his word.
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Are there any questions about systematic theology or Psalm 1? It's just something's going on.
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It's not Denise's fault, but it is our challenge and goal and mandate as leadership here at the church to give you the
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Bible in every way shape and form. Bible Institute, women's
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Bible study, common themes of children's Bible study for Sunday school,
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Sunday school in the morning, Sunday morning service, Sunday night service, the website, theological emails that are sent out, the library, the bookstore, the cassette ministry, the mp3 ministry.
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We want to try to pour in so much Bible that as Spurgeon says, when you get cut you bleed
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Bible. And that's what we want. And our danger is we'll become so theologically full of knowledge that we can't live it out, but I don't think there's any other way to do it.
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And so find service, have somebody hold you accountable, and you won't be as prideful as you could be if you're just left to your own and your own devices to study.
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How the blessednesses of the man or woman whose delight is in the law of the
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Lord and in his law he meditates day and night. Let's just pray.
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Lord, thank you for our day. Thank you for this text. Lord, it's good to laugh and it's good to see your word again.
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And we want to be blessed, Lord, at this church. And we think you have blessed us. You have not blessed us because what we have done, but you've given us a desire, a thirst, and a hunger for righteousness.
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And you have given us people here at the church who want the Word of God. And Lord, I am thankful that it is now apparent that if I give the congregation less than the
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Word of God, that I am fired, that I will not have a place of ministry because the congregation longs for the pure milk of the
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Word. I pray, Lord, now that we would be doers of that Word that we know. And Lord, would you give us a great week of study?
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Would you turn duty into pleasure? Would you turn a regiment of breakfast devotionals into just pure delight?
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Lord, would you make the scriptures sweet to our taste buds? And we might see not only our own sin, but our great