Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
Of the semester, and we are going tonight to be looking at the passages that you all gave me. Now, I want to warn you, I don't know that we're going to get to all of them, but I will say this, the last time I did this class, a couple years ago, Mark Sauter was in this class, and we ended up only getting to one, because we ended up getting bogged down in the very first one and didn't get to any of the rest of them, and that wasn't fair to the class, so I will try to be a little better than I did last time.
But in my defense, he hit me with Genesis 6 and the Nephilim, and that was just, it ended up being an hour-long conversation. So I'm not going to take full blame, I'll blame Pastor Mark a little bit for his contribution to that, but in that same vein though, we are going tonight to be doing what you guys have presented to me.
With that in mind, I want to make this note. A lot of the passages that you all presented have an obvious question attached to them, and there's a reason why you gave me the passages. Not everybody's, but most of them came with what I consider to be the huge question mark moment.
So we're going to do our best to try to reason through those texts, but I'm not going to promise you that you're not going to leave with still a question mark, because there are some passages that are difficult to interpret, and there may be a couple of different ways that one can understand it.
Doesn't mean they're all right. There's only one right way, and we can use all of our tools to try to arrive at that right way, but at the same time, that doesn't mean we're always going to have a perfect understanding.
So as long as we're clear about that, and we're not going to get upset if somebody disagrees with us, I think that's the only way to go into this. Because if you've come with a dogmatic approach to something, and we disagree, at a certain point, I'm just going to say, okay, let's move on.
Got it? Because at a certain point, as long as it's not something heretical, then we got to move on. We can't sit here. That's what happened with the Nephilim. We can't just sit here and keep digging, keep digging, keep digging, because we'll never go anywhere.
Okay? Yeah, you disagree. Okay, well, we're going to move on. Okay, so before we get started, I do want to congratulate one student, one final student from the last semester, who did get his certificate.
Sean Lobenthal got his certificate, and I always like to hand these out. I have your paper here, graded, and a certificate suitable for credit. All right, let's begin with prayer, shall we? Father, as we look at your Word tonight, we want to be faithful to the text.
We want to use the tools that we have learned in this class to try to arrive at proper understandings of what your text has to say. Most of all, Lord, we want to know what it is that you meant when you inspired these texts.
So, Lord, give us your spirit tonight to understand these things. Help us to be clear in our attempt at exegesis, and I pray, Lord, that you would be glorified in what we're going to do. In Christ's name, amen.
All right, as you can tell, also, we have a little different look in the classroom. Used to, we had the one board, and it was on wheels. Now, we have boards on the walls, and I spent the afternoon framing them out, so they look nice and pretty.
I still got to caulk and paint the holes, you know, or caulk the holes and paint the board, so they look nice, but I didn't have time to do that today. But this is also our new projector. Hopefully, you can see it.
I don't know, Matt, if you're going to have a hard time seeing past Megadesk, but if you need to move it at a certain point, you can. But this is the outline of tonight. We're going to be going over. We're putting it all together.
That's class A. We're putting everything together. We're going to be looking at the class chosen text. We have eight texts that were handed in, which means a couple of you didn't hand in a text, which is okay, but eight is enough.
Then we're going to, at the end of the first hour, we're going to talk about the value of study groups. Then we're going to take a quick break, and then after that, we are going to go over the assignment for the paper.
So a reminder of our method. What is our method? Observation. What does it say? Interpretation. What does it mean? And application. How does it work? That is our method, and that is the method that we have learned from our book.
That is the method that we're going to apply, and this is the whole reason I did this so I could write in the answers. That's kind of cool. Yeah, it is. It's nice. Little things. Little things. So let's begin with our, without further, I hate the phrase without further ado, without further delay.
I don't speak French. Without further delay, let's move on to our chosen text. These are in random order. I did not choose based on any specific order of, I just literally went through the papers that you gave me and stuck them in the screen.
So the first one we're going to look at is Matthew chapter 19 verse 8. If you want to take out your Bibles, you can. We are going to obviously be talking about the context of this passage, but I'm going to put it up on the board, and we're going to do a little bit of observation right away because that is our goal.
Observation is paramount. We don't have time to do the observation I would like to do, but we're going to do as best as we can. Matthew chapter 19. So let's read the text. It says, He said to them, who's the he?
Jesus. Jesus said to them. Who is he talking to? We go back up to the beginning. It says, now when Jesus had finished these things, he went away from Galilee, entered in the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.
Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. The Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? So the Pharisees are the them, right? Right?
So we can write that here. That's again, that is a part of what? Part of our process. Observation. We're just trying to determine who's talking to whom and what they're talking about. So he said to them, that is the Pharisees, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning, it was not so.
All right. Now obviously this sentence is part of a larger context. This is part of a larger conversation. And I know who gave this question. I'm not going to ask what prompted this question, but I can only imagine that this has to do with the question of divorce, because that's what this whole subject is about.
And what does it mean when it says that from the beginning it was not so? And so we're going to discuss that. But right away, let's discuss the context of this passage, going back to verse two, it says, or rather verse three, it says, and the Pharisees came up to him and said, or excuse me, and tested him asking, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?
He, that being Jesus, answered, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? So what do we see in verse four that ties to verse eight? What's that? I can't hear.
What do we see in verse four that ties in verse eight? The word beginning. The word beginning is here in verse eight. It's also in verse four. What does he say about the beginning of verse four? Have you not read that he who created them, that is God, from the beginning made them what?
Male and female. So obviously who is he talking about? Adam and Eve. And you might say, Pastor, we, Keith, we know this stuff. I know you know. I'm trying to show you the significance of what you know.
Because all this is going to play into how we understand the text. So we have Adam and Eve being referenced. So what is Jesus using as the foundation of his argument for marriage? Scripture. All right.
So we have a scriptural argument and a creationary mandate. Is that what you're going to say, Frank? Well, what were you going to say? God's will. I would just say this is God's creationary mandate. He did this in the beginning.
So this is something we see from the beginning. God created one man and one woman, and his intention was what? That they be together for life. God didn't create Adam and Eve and a bunch of spares in case Eve didn't work out.
He created Adam and Eve to be together forever. And the idea of marriage that Jesus is appealing to is not cultural. It's not practical. It's biblical. So the question is, are we allowed a divorce for any cause?
Now, here, understand the heart of that part of the question. They said for any cause. Is there any cause for which we can divorce? No, but we're not there yet. I'm just saying, let's not answer the question.
Let's understand the question there. Again, we're not answering the question. We're just saying, what are they asking Jesus? Is it right to divorce? Now, I want to ask you a question. Again, we're getting a little bit into the interpretation phase, but really this is more still observation.
Was there something that prompted this question? What do you think it was, Frank?
There were several things. One of the things was the motive of the Pharisees.
Oh, I know that, but what's their motive? What do we know about the Pharisees?
Well, they don't like Jesus, and they're trying to throw him off.
They're trying to trap him. They're always trying to trap him. In fact, one second. Every time we read about the Pharisees asking Jesus a question, there's always an ulterior motive. There's always a reason to ask the question.
What were you going to say, Matt?
I was going to say that it's because they were trying to get him to speak against the law.
Could be, but it could also be that at this particular time in history, there were two different rabbis who had two different followings. Both of them taught something different about marriage. One was called Rabbi Hillel, and there was another one, Rabbi Shammai, and one taught that marriage and divorce could be over anything.
You could divorce your wife over she baked cookies and burned the cookies, and you could leave your wife because she can't bake. Now, I know that sounds silly, but it was basically like today. I mean, can't people divorce?
They have no-fault divorce, right? There's a thing today where you can divorce. If you went to the judge today and said, I want to divorce my wife because she can't bake cookies, you know what he would say?
I don't care. We don't have a reason. I don't need a reason. All you've got to do is want a divorce. So there was the liberal side, which says you can divorce for anything, and then there was the, if you want to call it the conservative side or the other side, that said there was no reason for divorce ever.
And so when we read the question, it can we divorce for any cause? I think that behind that question is this motivation of trying to put Jesus into a category. You're either going to be on this guy's side or you're going to be on this guy's side.
You're either going to be on the side of this, and when you do that, what do you do to Jesus?
One of the reasons, the reason for it is if they could get him to side on one side or the other side, then they could kind of split his following. That's exactly what I was going to say. They can.
Create a divided following because now Jesus is taking a stand. And what happens when you take a stand? I know this. Every time I say something controversial, half the people get upset. I get emails. I get calls.
Not as many from our church because our church really knows me by now, but for early on in my ministry, every week I'd get one or two calls because I said something that was offensive or I said something that was, I remember getting a call one time because I said something about over-medicating children.
Now this was probably, I was 26 years old, and all I said was that it's dangerous to over-medicate our children for their behavior. And that was all I said. But I had multiple calls that week because you're talking to me.
My kid's on this medicine. I have no idea your kid's on this medicine. I have no idea what your kid takes. I was certainly not talking to you directly. But you understand when you say something, even the least bit controversial, you divide the people.
And that's what the Pharisees are wanting Jesus to do. I said I wasn't going to do this. But again, this is all observation, right? Because this all leads us down. Jesus says, verse six, they're no longer two, but one flesh.
What God has joined together, let not man separate. They said to him, then why did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and send her away? And he said, this brings us to verse eight. He said, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives.
But from the beginning, it was not. So here's the point. Moses in the law and through, we could say God did allow for divorce in the law, but that wasn't the way it was supposed to be. God did not make marriage to be broken.
He made marriage to be lived out until you die. So that's the answer to what he means when he says, but from the beginning, it was not. So now it goes on further to talk about the question of, is there ever a reason that Jesus does address the issue of adultery?
And I don't have time tonight to do this, but there is a conversation that can be had about what we would call the exception clauses. There are two passages that can be addressed in regard to divorce that we might call the exception clauses.
One is Matthew chapter 19, verse nine, which is the next verse. It says, I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery. So he's saying there is an exception.
The one exception is the covenant breaking sin of adultery. If she if she commits adultery, then you are able to have a divorce legally. And this is Christ saying this. And in Matthew, excuse me, First Corinthians, Paul also addresses the issue of an unbelieving spouse who abandons the believing spouse.
And he says at that point, he says, you are no longer bound. For the sake of time, I'm simply going to say that's more difficult because the Bible doesn't address it as much. But a lot of people, including myself, would have some thoughts regarding abandonment on that, because I think physical abuse is a form of abandonment.
But that's a longer, more nuanced conversation. But I just say it's the three A's. Abuse, abandonment, adultery. That would be the things that if somebody came to me and says, I want to divorce my wife, she's baking her cookies wrong.
The Bible does not give you the right to do that. And if I had a man come to me, I think I've told you guys this story. I had a pastor come to me. I'm not happy with my wife. Me and my wife are going to get divorced.
And I called him to repentance right there. I said, you have no biblical grounds to leave your wife. And if you do so, you will be in sin. And it was right over there, right at the end of the hallway, because he was here when he was talking to me.
I ended up doing counseling with him and his wife for a long time. And by God's grace, they're still together. And again, I didn't do anything. God did it. But the point is, a lot of people have they don't have any exceptions.
They're like that one side, which says divorce for any cause. Jesus doesn't say that. Jesus says the the marriage that comes together is supposed to be together forever. Are there ever exceptions? We could discuss those exceptions.
But the when I do counseling for marriages, by the way, if you ever come to me and you want to get married, understand this, you're going to go through heavy counseling. And the one thing I'm going to stress to you is this is not a trial run.
This is a forever decision. This is a forever decision. All right. That helpful? All right, good. So let's now move to the next one. I can say we can't spend all night on each one, but I think that was fair to the question.
Let's move to number two, Deuteronomy 29, 29. Let's open my Bible to that passage so I can actually see the context. By the way, I didn't do a whole lot of study on these passages before we came tonight.
The reason why I didn't is because I wanted to do it with you rather than for you. Right now on the issue of Matthew 19, the one that we just looked at, I have the benefit of having studied that one before because the issue of marriage and divorce is so central.
So the thing about Hillel and Shammai, those are things that I didn't just have that went on the tip of my brain. It's just something that I've studied. So this one's a little harder because I haven't spent a lot of time in this particular passage.
I do want to talk about what we see just right away. And then I want to ask the question, whoever gave this passage, is there something you're trying to discern? But before we do that, let's actually just read the passage.
It says, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. That's Deuteronomy 29, 29 in the ESV.
And right away, if I were doing my process of recognizing or observation, I would notice a contrast. You notice the contrast? What is it? Secret things versus what? The things that are revealed, right?
So obviously, this passage is juxtaposing two ideas. One is the things that we don't know, and two is the things that we do know, right? The things that are secret and the things that are revealed. And when it talks about, I always love to talk about the pronouns, who is the us here?
Who is the us in our children? Who is it? In this sense, I would say it's referring specifically to Israel. Now, we could go further out and talk about the fact that through Christ, we are made sons and daughters of Abraham.
Therefore, we are grafted into the root of the tree, which is Israel. So we could say us too, but in an immediate context, and that's always the most important dealing with the immediate context. This is Moses, because who wrote Deuteronomy?
Moses. So Moses is speaking. And who is he speaking to? He's speaking to Israel. And where is he speaking to them? He's speaking to them, yeah, right before they go into the promised land. Remember, what happens at the end of Deuteronomy?
He dies. He goes up onto the mountain. He sees, what's that? It's spoiled. Yes, spoiled. No, that's funny though. Hey, I haven't gotten there yet. All right. So end of Deuteronomy, he dies. And then Joshua, Joshua leads people in the promised land, right?
So we know who's speaking. We know who he's speaking to. We know who the us and the are. And our children, of course, the descendants, a big motif in especially the Pentateuch is the children of Israel, the children of Israel.
That's always what it says, our children. It's always referring to the Israelites. All right. So we know who it is. We know who he's talking to. And we also see what's something over here. This is important.
What is this? All capitals, which means what? It means it's the covenant name of God, right? It's that name, which we would say is Yahweh. Okay. All right. So the secret things belong to the Lord, our God.
The things that we don't know are his. But the things that are revealed, the things that we do know belong to us and to our children. How long? Forever. That we may do all the words of this law, because the reason God reveals things to us is that we might know him and be obedient to him.
Right. So there is our that's our observation. Now, whoever gave this, if you don't want to reveal yourself, who gave? Sorry, if you don't want to reveal yourself, you got to because I got to ask the question.
Was there a specific question you had about this text? Not really. You just wanted us to look at. Okay, good. Well, let's let's very quickly, though, try to jump now that we've sort of interpreted it in a simple way.
It's not a hard passage. What's an application we could draw? Because that's the third part, right? We always say we don't want to just learn. We want to apply. What's the application? So so this passage is sometimes incorrectly used as an excuse for people being ignorant.
No, absolutely not. Well. But the key is there are things that are revealed and the scriptures revealed. We are supposed to know the scriptures. But how did Jesus when he got onto the Pharisees, you know, neither the scriptures nor the power of God.
Right. That was how he approached. That's how he chastised them. You know, not the scriptures. Right. So that's what's revealed.
Go ahead, Bobby. It's also good. It's a good verse to hold on. There are ideas in the scripture of things that are not clearly.
Yeah, there are things we don't know. Yeah, of course, everything's not for us to know. That's right. And I think that's a very serious thing for us to consider like this. I will tell you this. I'm a Calvinist.
I believe in the complete sovereignty of God, but I'm not a hyper-Calvinist. That means I do believe in the absolute responsibility of man, that you're absolutely responsible for everything that you do, even though God is sovereign, you're responsible and you are going to have to give an account for your own life.
You're not going to be able to blame God like Adam tried to blame God when when when he sinned. The woman whom thou has given me, remember, that was trying to blame God. That ain't how it works. You are responsible for your sin.
And how those two things operate together is somewhat of a mystery, how God is completely sovereign. And yet I'm completely responsible. Yeah, I believe both of those things, as the Bible clearly teaches both those things.
So I can say that is a mystery to me. But I believe that God is able to work that out. And so I can trust that that secret thing belongs to him.
Can you say he knows what you're going to do as the sovereign person he wills and allows it?
Well, I don't like to use the word allow. I mentioned this last night, I like the word ordain. Or no, I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to somebody else. God doesn't simply allow, because when we think of allow, that's a passive thing.
When we see God working in history, it's always an active, not a passive thing. God doesn't simply allow things as if he couldn't.
Control it. But he has a purpose for what he ordains. So him ordaining you to make that mistake.
Could be part of his... Ultimate purpose for, yes. The other thing I'm saying is,.
Couldn't this also talk about things like sorcery and things like evil?
You mean like the secret things? Yeah. I mean, we could begin to begin looking at an application like that and say there are things that we ought not be fooling around with. Is that kind of what you're...
Yeah, for sure. And those things, you know, God tells us not to be necromancers, not to be sorcerers, not to be those things. Yeah, not to try to look into the future. That's a good thought, because that's secret, right?
God knows the future, but I don't, and I'm not supposed to be sitting around trying to conjure up through some kind of crystal ball or something else the.
Future. Yes, Franklin, we're going to move on after you. Go ahead. He also tells us that his ways are not our ways. And, you know, so, I mean, it's pretty, pretty plain that... Absolutely. There are things about God that we're not going to know, and even the distinction between the things that we know and.
The things that we don't. Yeah, and on that same note, if trying to contain all of that which is God in our finite brains, as I've said before, it's like trying to put the Atlantic Ocean in a fumble. You just can't do it.
All right, moving on. We're doing good, actually. We may get done. Souders... Yeah, y 'all gonna have to tell him we were joking at his expense. All right, Romans 2 29. Now, I dealt with some of this this morning.
It's set free. Romans 2 is an important... Well, the whole Bible is important, but Romans 2 is an important passage in dealing with the subject of sin, because Romans 1 through 3 deals with the sin nature that is within man.
Romans 1 talks about the sin of those who are outside the covenant. Romans 2 talks about those who are sinners within the covenant or under the law. And then Romans 3 says all are sinners, whether they do do or great all are under sin.
So we have the context of Romans 3. Paul is writing, and the first three chapters deal with the subject of sin. Now, the verse we're going to look at is verse 29, which says, For a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter.
His praise is not from man, but from God. Very quickly, what do I like to do first? Pronouns, right? I love pronouns, because pronouns, you know, a lot of people do verbs first, and I get that, too, because verbs show action.
Verbs are very important, and some people go right to the verbs. But I always like to think of who's the actors here. So we talk about the Jew. Paul is talking in chapter 2 about those who are actually physically Jewish, but here he makes a distinction.
He says a Jew is one inwardly, okay, and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise, and this is why I was distinguishing the Jew, because this here connects to this.
The true Jew, and I'm going to put true, a true Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise, that means the true Jew's praise, is not from man, but from God.
Now, let's quickly distinguish another important subject. What is circumcision? I mean, you don't have to explain the procedure. What is it? It's a sign of the covenant. Okay, all right, the covenant sign given to who?
Given to Abraham. It was first given to Abraham, and then it was given to the Jewish people through Abraham, because all of this, all of the physical descendants of Abraham had to be circumcised, right?
It was a sign of the promise of God given to Abraham. But this passage in Paul, Paul says circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter. So what's the contrasting word? Not, the word not, right?
Not by the letter. What does that mean? The letter of the law. Okay, so we can say the letter here refers to law, okay? Not by the letter of the law. What does the letter of the law say? On the eighth day, take the child, and circumcise, I always do this, on the eighth day, take the child, circumcise the child, right?
That's the letter of the law. What is Paul saying in this passage? He's saying a true Jew is one whose circumcision is not physical, but spiritual. A true Jew is one who has been circumcised, not in the flesh, but in the heart.
In fact, what's interesting about this passage moving into, now that we've done some observation, moving into the interpretation passage, if you read through the Old Testament and look up the term circumcision of the heart, you will see that that's actually an Old Testament concept.
That is not just a New Testament concept. Throughout the Old Testament, in several passages, you will read the prophets and even Moses referring to the circumcision of the heart. I don't have the passages in front of me, but look it up.
It is there. Several, huh? Okay, right there. And the idea is you could be circumcised in the flesh, but not be right with God, because circumcision in the flesh, it's just like today. Couldn't we say today that there are people who are baptized, but they're not right with God?
What is baptism? It's a sign of the covenant. It's not exactly like circumcision, but it has a similar purpose in the sense that it marks out God's people. What are we saying, Bob? Well, it is less painful.
Anyway, so baptism, but there are people who get baptized and are not truly right with God. They're not truly saved. And a person could be a Jewish person, physically circumcised on the outside, and not be right with God.
So Paul is saying a true Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter, is praise. And again, the last portion, is praise. People who do things on the outside are often trying to get praise from those on the outside.
But if a man is circumcised in the heart, he's only concerned with pleasing God, not others. All right, so who wants to be the one who says this was their passage? You don't know if this was yours? I just want to know what the question is, because we've gone through the interpretation, hopefully, and I have an application we could discuss, but is there any question I didn't answer?
Was this yours? No. Okay, but go ahead. What was you going to ask?
My question is, would this be then a good scripture to go to, to define what is a Jew?
I would say, I would, I wouldn't use this alone, but it certainly would be a part of it. And if you go to the verse right above it, no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor circumcision outward and physical.
So it's the same ideas following through. So yeah, I mean, it would be one of the ones, but I would spend some time also in Galatians too, and a few other passages, if I were going to be making that argument.
Yeah, Bob. So circumcision of the heart,.
Would you say that refers to a person coming to faith? Yes. All right. So in both, and it shows, I guess, how God stays the same, is that once a person is saved, they show a sign of the covenant.
That's right. And I would, I would actually equate it in a sense to being born again, because, yeah, because in John 3, when Jesus says to Nicodemus, you're a teacher of Israel and you don't know this, what's the subject?
Being born again. But he assumes Nicodemus should know that, but the Old Testament doesn't use the term being born again, but it does use the term circumcision of the heart, which would have the same connotation, the change of heart, being born again.
Yeah. All right. So weird. We're cooking with gas. I like it. And do y 'all like this? I love this. Yeah. This makes me, this pleases me. I get happy over little things and this does not. Well, I mean, just the idea of being able to do this is kind of neat.
Yep. And I would, I would vehemently disagree, but we can talk about that later. But yeah, they, they oftentimes people try to use a Romans two to prove work salvation. Well, what it is saying ultimately in Romans chapter two is those who live by the law must keep the law perfectly.
If you want to be saved by the law, you have to keep the law perfectly. The only person ever did that was Jesus. So because you can't do that, there's, there's no salvation in the law. And we read that.
We compare that to Galatians, which tells us clearly that anyone who tries to say that they're saved by the law, but didn't keep the whole law is, is, is lost. And so there's, there's, there's more to it than that, but, but, but that the addressing of what Paul is dealing with here, he's dealing with a Jew who would say, I have the law, therefore I'm saved.
And Paul says, no, you have the law and you're condemned. All right. Matthew 18, 19 and 20, Matthew 18, 19 and 20. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my father in heaven.
So where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. Please turn to this passage. If you have not already, Matthew 18, let's just do what we've done with all the rest of them. Who's speaking?
Who's the eye? Jesus is speaking. So I, Jesus say to who, who's the you? Yeah. If you go back up you have to go up a little further, but you'll see that this was Jesus speaking to the apostles or to the disciples.
So we could just put here. All right. So again, this is what I would do if I had it on paper. Just so remember, we talked about this early on. I, if I were studying this text for a sermon or just for my own personal benefit, I would print it on a sheet of paper.
I would pull out my red pen and I would, I would start connecting the dots right away. So again, I say to you, if two of you, right? Who's the second you? All right. Who's still talking to the disciple.
If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them. This again is a pronoun connecting back to you by my father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.
All right. We could, who's the them? The two or three. That's right. So we, we connect the them here to there. So a lot of people use chapter 20 independent of its context, but also a lot of people use 19 and 20 independent of its context.
The context actually begins back up at verse 15, and we can even go further than that, but specifically the context begins in verse 15. So let's read verse 15 together. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, by the way, what is one or two plus one, two or three. Okay. All right. So we have the connection there to the two or three, right?
Take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. So we come down here. We have a connection to verse, sorry, I lost my place to verse 16.
Thank you. The connection is the witnesses in verse 16, all right. Verse 17. If he refuses to listen to them, that is the witnesses, tell it to the church. By the way, this is one of the only times Jesus uses the word church in the gospels.
The word church is used all throughout Paul's writings and the rest of the new Testament. But in the gospels, the word church, I think is only used twice. And both of them are in the gospel of Matthew.
Gates of hell, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. That's the other one. And then this one, and that's the only two times the word church is used by Jesus. The word Ecclesia.
Yeah. So verse 18, verse 17, if you refuse to listen, tell it to the church. If you refuse to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Okay. Verse 18. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
Whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven very quickly. That passage is often used by the prosperity theology teachers to. To teach, name it and claim it theology. I'm binding this on earth or I'm loosing this on earth and whatever I bind on earth is bound in heaven.
Whatever I lose on earth is loosed in heaven. And they use that passage independent of its context. What is the context of chapter eight or verse 18? It's verses 15 through 17. What is the subject? The subject is, is what is it?
Would you, somebody said, he said discipline, but what'd you say? The subject is believers, but it's also the subject is a sinning believer. Someone who is in the church who's sinning and has now been called to account by first by one person, then by two or three witnesses, and then by the church.
And now the church has to decide what do we do with this erring brother? We either bind him or loosen. We have to make a decision.
Is this part of reference to the discipline before the church?
Well, I mean, we could go into the old Testament and look at some of the times where discipline was, in fact, we can look at God enacting discipline, such as in Achan. And I, when I preach on church discipline, I usually start in the old Testament and tell the story of Achan, because that was a sense in which the whole nation suffered for the sin of one man.
Remember? And that's what happens when a church refuses to exercise discipline. The church itself comes under God's judgment and the church itself. Think about all those churches in Revelation. What were some of the things that they were accused of?
You're allowing these things to happen. You're not addressing these things. You're letting that woman, Jezebel, you know, do these. That's right. And so we have this. We have these examples throughout.
But yeah, I would say this is the first time and certainly in Matthew and in the Gospels. So the binding and the loosing here, however we define it, however we interpret it, has to be interpreted in relation to this exercise of discipline.
Now we get to verse 19. Again, I say to you, what is why does he say again? Because he's repeating. Well, he's repeating verse 18, verse 18. He says, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven.
Whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Verse 19. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything, it will be done for them by my father in heaven. That's the part that's so difficult because they are not simply agreeing on a new Porsche.
They're not agreeing on health and wealth. They're agreeing on a person who is in sin. They're dealing with a specific instance of binding and loosing someone who is in the church. And they're going to God on behalf of this issue.
Yes. You say too much. So I said, so does that mean that like if they're bound, then they stay in the church, get fixed, if they're loosed. Exactly. Well, I think that when we refer to binding and loosing, I do think excommunication and the process of discipline is a part of that.
And the church is the church has been commanded by Christ to do what they've been commanded to treat the person. Verse 17, as a Gentile and a tax collector. What do we know about Gentiles and tax collectors?
They were despised, but they were also not allowed in the temple. Tax collectors had been excommunicated and Gentiles were not allowed. They had the court of the Gentiles, but they were not allowed in.
So there is a the context is that the context of huh? Well, anathema is anathema is a little different, but that's what Paul proclaims on those who teach a false gospel in Galatians chapter one. Let them be anathema.
Let them be cursed. He proclaims a curse on them. This is more of a separation, the idea of separate yourself. And I look at first Corinthians five as my if I were going to be looking at a counter passage, because first Corinthians five clearly he says, put the person out.
And what does he say? Turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord. So there's this reason for turning the person over. There's the reason for excommunication.
And so the idea of binding and loosing is, I think, in the context of the excommunication of the person, it's not easy to to to remove a person. You know, it's not easy to say to a person you are under the excommunication of the church.
But it is biblical. So we have the last verse for where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am. What's that? It's a promise. When you go through this difficult thing, you won't go through it alone.
When you go through this time of having to make this decision. You will not be without my spirit. So that's how I would understand. That's how I would apply it. And I think I've told the story we've had to apply this not many times, but in our church, there have been times where we've had to call people to repentance and publicly.
And again, it's only been 15 years of being here, it's only happened a couple of times, but it's enough to be able to say the times it's happened is hard. And we have to rest on this passage that there's a right way and a wrong way to do it.
And if you do it the right way, God will be with you. He will not forsake you. You know, a lot of churches, I couldn't do that because that's unloving. This is from Jesus himself, who's saying this. All right.
So is there another question about this passage before we move on?
Just the one thing about, just a little comment, a question that it seems that the word anything is what leads most often to misinterpretation of the scripture.
I would agree. I would agree. And in this sense, if they agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them. And I have, like I said, I remember people, Paula White is a good example. Paula White is a heretist, as we call her, a lady heretic.
But she was Donald Trump's pastor. He said, she's my pastor, which should never be uttered by anyone, by the way. The phrase she's my pastor is a, that's anathema. That's anathema. But what did she say?
She said, I'm agreeing, two or three of us are agreeing on the reelection of Donald Trump. How to work out for you. So you get what I'm saying? I don't think the anything here, it's like this, like the word all is sometimes used in a universal sense.
I think the anything here is in the context of what's going on in the church, just like the word all when it's used can have a context, like it says all of Judea went out and was baptized by John. Well, I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean every single person.
And discipline can happen for a variety of reasons, for sure. All right. The next one is Titus chapter two. If you want to turn to your Bibles, we're going to read Titus two, three through five, a little longer.
So we'll go a little quicker with our observation. But again, if I were studying this, I would spend a lot more time in observation, but we're doing the best we can with our time. Older women, that is something no lady likes to be called, but older women.
So that's a context, right? That's addressing who this is speaking to. Older women, likewise, what is the word likewise? Tell us something. Something he said before is also connected to this. So we'll read.
Yeah, that's right. He just talked about older men. Now he's going to talk about older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They who's the day the older women are to teach.
And we're going to get back to that. Teach what is good. And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
All right. So there's a lot. I mean, I could do several sermons on just a few phrases, but the thing I want us to focus on in this is the distinction between the older women and the younger women, because even though we could say there is an age that is being addressed here, it's also a maturity level that's being addressed here.
So the older women is not just addressing the elderly, but it's addressing the mature. Right. And the younger women, we would say less mature or you could say immature, but that might sound like you're being offensive, but certainly would not be as mature.
All right. So it says that the older women are to do something to the younger women. What is it? Fair to teach. Now, what is another passage that may come to mind in regard to women teaching? 1 Timothy 2, 12.
I suffer not women to teach or exercise authority over men. Paul says that in 1 Timothy 2, verse 12, one of the most offensive passages in the Bible to modern ears. If I went to an Episcopal church downtown and stood up and asked everybody to turn to 1 Timothy 12, I'd be surprised if the page wasn't written down to their bodies, because that is so offensive to say that women are not to teach men in the church.
Now, here's the thing about 1 Timothy 12, though. It says women are not to teach or exercise authority over men. So what does the, what does 1 Timothy, and I know that's not the passage we're looking at, but there is a connection here.
What is the focus of 1 Timothy? The exercising of authority. The position of teaching is an authoritative position. When a man stands up and proclaims he is, he is exercising authority. If I were to sit down and Daisy were to walk up here and begin talking, she would be taking that position of authority and she would be laying down her teaching and she would be, I believe would be wrong for doing so, but but you understand that we have a limitation on what women are to do in the church.
First and foremost, I would say it certainly bars them from the position of elder, because the position of elder is the highest position of authority and teaching. What does elder do? Teaches and has authority.
So a woman can't serve as an elder, not in a biblical stance. Yes, sir. Yeah. And he, and he, yeah, he doesn't cite culture. He cites creation. He, he cites, this is the same way with marriage. When, when Jesus was asked about marriage, he cited creation.
When Paul was discussing the issue of men and women and their roles, he cites creation. God created Adam first, Eve second, Eve was deceived and Adam was not, which makes Adam worse in one because he did what he did knowing that it was wrong.
But he was the position, he was in the position of federal headship, which we don't have, huh? Yeah. He was in a position of authority. And that's why we don't say we send an Eve. We say we send an Adam because Adam was in that position of authority.
All right. So having said all of that, older women are to teach something though. They are not simply to sit idly within the body, but within the body, they have a responsibility to teach other women.
Specifically, the mature women are to teach the less mature women, but not just anything. You know, it wouldn't be wrong for a woman to hold a sewing class like Ms. Sharon is a wonderful, uh, is it seamstress?
Is that the right word? You know, she's wonderful at sewing and, and, uh, you know, if Daisy wanted to have a class on some subject that you're passionate about, there wouldn't be anything wrong with that.
But the, the, the thing that Paul is telling us here, is there something specific that mature believing women are to teach immature believing women? And that is how to be godly wives and mothers, godly wives and mothers is, is what is to be passed on because that is the most important thing you say, well, wait a minute.
Now, does that limit women to being wives and mothers? That is their primary calling is to be wives and mothers. This passage is not alone, but this passage is one of the primary passages that tells, I will say this.
When my daughter tells me she wants to be a mother, I don't ask her what else? I don't say, well, what else do you want to be? Because being a mother is not enough, but see, that's what the world tells her.
The world tells her being a wife and a mother is not enough. The world tells her unless she has a career, unless she has some form of, of extra income, unless she has some outside employment, she's not worth anything.
But the Bible says the opposite. The Bible says that the most valuable thing she can aspire to is to be a godly wife and.
A godly mother. Yes. So using your example of seamstress, if, what if a guy wanted to learn.
Sewing, so would it be unbiblical if he took her class? I don't think so. We, because again, we're dealing with, if it were hosted in the church, it would, it wouldn't be under the idea of like Bible teaching.
Like we had a lady, we had a lady who taught painting classes here one time. Yeah. I think, I think there's something like that because we're, yeah, that, that wouldn't fall into the same category. Sure.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that that's the context. The context again is teaching, having authority, particularly Bible teaching. Like we, I mean, we, you know, we could go into a longer conversation about that, but no, I wouldn't see.
Yeah. You can come to the sewing class. Okay. So was that good? I know. Did you have a question? Yeah. Okay. I don't believe that there, that, that women are, but that's not this passage. If I were going to deal with that passage, I would do first Timothy chapter two, beginning at verse 13.
I think it is where Paul talks about the wives of deacons, which some people believe is talking about women deacons there. And that could be a discussion as to how we interpret that. The word there is gunakos.
Gunakos is, there is no word for wife in Greek. The word gunakos means women. And when it's attached to a man, it's his woman or his wife. So the idea of gunakos, gunakai there being the idea of a woman.
So, but this, I wouldn't say that this addresses the issue of deacon or deaconess. I would say first Timothy three. Yeah. I wouldn't say this would attach to women deacons. If, if, if I were going to like John MacArthur believes in women deacons, I know the argument for it.
And I, and I I'm sympathetic toward what he's saying. I think he believes in deaconesses, which is, which would be like a third office. Like you have elders, deacons, deaconesses. And he bases that on first Timothy three.
But and like I said, I'm sympathetic toward that. I don't agree a hundred percent, but I understand the argument. But this one here, I would if somebody tried to use this to argue for female deacons, I would say this to me is dealing more with the instruction from older women to younger women within the body, but not from a particular office, because in the same way where it says, likewise, it goes up talking about older men.
That's not particularly talking about an office. So I wouldn't see this speaking of an office in the church. Good question though. Very good question. All right. We have, before we take our break, I want to, I want to do, we're going to have a lightning round.
We have two more let's do, or three more. We have a quick lightning round and then you'll take your break. We don't have much after the break, so it's fine. Uh, first John five, 16. I know why you asked this.
Whoever, whoever asked it, I know why you asked. And I'm going to tell you, I don't know. No, because here's here it is. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin leading to death or something, not leading to death, he shall ask and God will give him life to those who commit sins that do not lead to death.
There is a sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that. The question that always comes up, it may not be the question. Was this yours, James? It may not be the question you have, but the question that always, almost always comes up is what is the sin unto death?
And the answer, I don't know for certain. I don't know exactly the, I know what John, I think I know what he's saying, but I'm not dogmatic on my, on my.
Understanding of this passage. Okay. Now it was one of the verses that you said, you know, all sins are not equally hanging in some.
Or worse than others. So, well, if that's what you were, if that's how you would discuss them, I would agree that this would agree with that. Yeah. Go ahead, man. Well, there was more than one sin in Sodom and that's, that's Genesis 18.
There is Sodom was a city filled with sin. There was one particular sin that is attached to the city and that's or homosexual sex, but it's not the only sin they did. In fact, later passages would address them as also being ruthless, uncharitable, all kinds of other things that were attached to them as well.
So that, that was the one thing that they did that was visible. Yeah. Visible. Cause they, the angels came into town and they tried to rape them. Yeah. Read Genesis 18. It's, it's a,.
It's a wild, wild tale. Wouldn't somebody say the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Again, though, that has a context as well, because that's dealing with something that happened in the life of Christ. That is the issue of someone saying, um, that what Jesus was doing was a work of the devil.
And he says, speak what you want against me, but don't speak against the spirit. Cause if you speak against the spirit, you won't be forgiven. I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what he said. Well, no, that wouldn't even be a blasphemy against the spirit.
But there was, um, there was a while back. There was a thing that happened where people tried to apply. Um, like there was this video series where these young people went on, I blaspheme the Holy spirit.
Therefore I'm going to hell. Ha ha ha. And like a bunch of kids did it like hundreds of kids on video and they were being encouraged to do so, but they didn't even know what they were saying. They were so ignorant that I think it's stupid.
Yeah. I think God forgives idiots, you know, for being idiots. And yeah. Yes, Chuck. So I believe it was John.
McCarthy was mentioning something about the sin that leads to death. And he was saying, believe that God will move you to get his plan accomplished. So again, that's one of the ways.
To understand it. And it's, that's why I was, and I wasn't saying, I don't know anything about this passage. The problem is, uh, there's so many different ways that I've heard people understand it. I I'm, I'm somewhat, uh, I'm somewhat in myself, not certain.
And I'm, and when I preach, I'm willing to say any of those, any of you who heard me preach, there are times I'll come to passage and I'll say, here's a couple of ways you can understand this, but I don't know for certain.
And I'm willing to say, I have not arrived at a conclusion yet, but I will tell you what I think and do with that. What you will. Some people think, no, no, you should have an absolute conclusion. Um, I'm not God and I don't know everything.
So, but let's very quickly do what we do with the others. If anyone, anyone here, I think is, I think this is dealing with, with Christians because it says if anyone sees his brother, well, non-believers aren't brothers.
So this is referring to believers, right? So if anybody sees his brother committing a sin, not leading to death, okay. We can kind of figure at least what he's saying is there are sins that we do that don't lead to death.
Well, let's just for a second, just say there are sins we do that don't lead to death. The question is what kind of death? Because there's two different types of death that the Bible discusses, right?
Spiritual, physical, right? So we, again, this is how we begin to arrive at an answer. Okay. There are sins that don't lead to death. Um, is this talking about spiritual or physical? I'm gonna put a question mark on it.
Cause that's, that's really where the question mark lies. He shall ask and God will give him, who's the him? No, it's his brother. Cause he's asking on behalf of his brother. Again, this is why those pronouns are so important.
Who is it talking about him? He would give him life. Then there's this hard break to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. End of sentence. The break here, this is just, it's in English. It's just a hyphen, but it's showing a break in thought.
So we'll give him life. So he didn't, he didn't do a sin that led to death. He was prayed for somebody interceded for him. And he was ultimately what's giving him life. I would say, I would say, depending on how you translate or how you define this, because if this is spiritual, if this is spiritual death or physical, okay.
If God gives him life, this would seem to be indicating spiritual life. Therefore, if we compare the two, it would mean this is spiritual death, right? So there are some sins that don't lead to spiritual death.
But again, comparing it to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. Okay. Then we start a new sentence. There is a sin that leads to death, but I do not say that one should pray for that. Okay.
So if I see someone that's, that's committing sin that does lead to death, I don't pray for them. That's the hard part for me because it's hard to understand exactly what is being said here, but here are a couple thoughts.
Okay. If I see someone who is professing to be a believer, but they are in habitual, repetitive, unrepentant sin, the Bible says that sin does lead to death, right? And they have denied by their actions, their profession.
Then I think that that could be the spiritual death that's in view here. And there's a certain point where my intercession will end. Now that's one way to apply it. No, I don't think they ever had it, but that again, goes back to the, it goes back to the issue of the Bible.
The Bible deals with false professors in a very interesting way because the they don't, but think about like Hebrew six, it talks about tasting the spiritual gift and all these different things. It's as if they have life, but they actually don't.
And so their sin is leading to this expression of their own death, which they are, they're dead in their sins anyway. So, as I said, I'm just walking through the text. Time doesn't allow us to do all of it, but for the sake of time, to get back to your question, James, you asked this question, does this indicate that there are some sins that are different than others?
Yes, absolutely. Okay. All right. Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you this. And this is, I want to be genteel and how I, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. Do you have the ability as a human being to differentiate between the theft of a candy bar and the rape of a child?
Does God not also have the ability to make that distinction? Yes, but I thought. Just stop with yes, because you're agreeing with me and I like it. No, no, no, no. Here's where people get their error.
James says, he who has broken the law in one place has broken the whole law. And they say, based on that, all sin is the same. That's not what that says. It says that if you break the law in one place, you've broken the whole law, demonstrating that we're sinners.
But there are many places in the Bible where it uses the phrase greater sin. Jesus said that he said, he who delivered me to you has a greater sin than you. When he talked to pilot, remember he said, those who delivered me to you have a greater sin.
There are many places in the Bible where it talks about sin and some greater, some lesser. Now that does not mean that any sin is right. All sin is evil, but not all sin is equal. That makes sense. All sin is evil, but not all sin is equal.
Okay. Good question, James. Sorry, I couldn't give you all the answers. This one, I don't even really, uh, I would love to spend the time who asked this one, Sean, what's your question about this? Huh?
Did you have a specific question to just because of time? Okay. Cause I read over it earlier and I was trying to figure out maybe if you had something specific, it's an interesting story. It's a great story.
And I do wish we had time. Time won't allow us to go through the whole thing, but let's read it at least. Uh, I'll read it to you. This is first King 17. It says after this, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house became ill and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.
And she said to Elijah, what have you against me? Oh man of God, you have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son. And he said to her, give me your son. And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged and laid him on his own bed.
He cried to the Lord. Oh Lord, notice that. Oh Yahweh, my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourned by killing her son? Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord.
Oh Lord, my God, let this child's life come into him again. And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah and the life of the child came into him again and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother.
And Elijah said, see, your son lives. And the woman said to Elijah, now I know that you are a man of.
God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true. This is what I got out of the story before this. He said, your God, your God. And then this was a Gentile woman. And by the end of it, she said, I know you are a man of God and the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.
Is this a shadow of a representative of Gentiles or do you believe she was saved? I don't know. I'm always hesitant.
To answer. Do I believe someone's saved based on a text like this? Because I I would say this, the faith that she is demonstrating here is very similar to the faith Rahab demonstrated when she hid the spies.
It's very similar to what we see in other places. So I would I wouldn't say she's not saved, but I don't know. I don't know the depth or breadth of her faith, but she certainly recognizes through this that that this is a man of the true God.
And I would even go further as to say this parallels several events in the life of Christ. So this is a type or a picture of what Christ would do. Christ raised up the widow's son at Nain. Remember, as he was being brought across by the pallbearers, he raises him up from death.
And this is a picture of a very similar event, being God being gracious to widows, God being gracious to a mother who lost a child. This is a picture of what Jesus would later do. And certainly Jesus brings the gospel to to the Gentiles.
So absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Well, what we're going to do now, we're going to power through, but because there's no use in taking a 10 minute break, we'll be done. All right, guys. Well, let's let's finish up with this.
How many of you plan to do the paper for this? OK, well, here's what you have to do if you want to get the if you want to get the paper. Each student will be provided a portion of scripture. I'm going to put some scriptures up in a moment.
You can choose the one you want. Each student will be provided a section of scripture. The student is required to perform a hermeneutical analysis, which is what we've been doing tonight. Right. You give me your observation.
It's three pages. So here's how you do it. Three pages, a page on observation, a page on interpretation and a page on application. And you can go up to five pages. Don't go any further because I'll be reading a lot of papers.
I don't you know, the longer your paper, the more time it's going to take to read. I'm not looking for a ton. I'm just looking to show that you understand the process. Observation, interpretation, application.
The student is going to perform that. The research project will be submitted in this format title page with your course title, course number, student name and professor name. The body of the project should be well organized, no less than three pages, no more than five pages and you can double space.
Properly cited bibliography page. If you quote someone, cite your quotation. If you quote from a book or a commentary, cite your quotation. If you're quoting from a website, there is a proper way to cite the website and it depends on whether you're using APA or MLA format.
Please cite it as best you can. There are websites that teach you how to do this, and I'm happy to help you if you have a question. Here are the scriptures that you are allowed to choose from. Romans chapter one, verses 18 to 32.
You can't get three pages out of that. You need to take this class again. Ephesians chapter one, verses three to 14. Philippians chapter two, verses five to 11. Now all of those were Pauline epistles.
I didn't put any narratives from the New Testament up there. If you have a specific passage that you really want to do, I'll allow it, but I would like for you to consider one of those. And if you want Old Testament, Psalm 139, that's the whole Psalm.
Because again, Psalms are not meant to be taken in piecemeal. They're meant to be read as one thing. It's like a song. It has a beginning and middle and ending. So Psalm 139 would be a wonderful one if you want to spend some time with it.
And Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9, that's the prayer of Israel, the Shema, hear O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one. That's a good, if you want to look at that passage. So there's five that you can choose from.
And last but not least, I have next class's syllabus. The next class begins January 13th, goes through March the 3rd. So you got a month and a few weeks off. During this time of being off, you can do this paper and get it turned in.
The next class is Survey of the Old Testament. VIP 102. All you need for that class is a copy of the Believer's Bible Commentary. But I also recommend you giving a copy of Charts of the Old Testament by, Charts of the Old and New Testament by John Walton.
And, I'm sorry, Charts of the Old Testament by John Walton and Rose Books, Bible Charts and Acts, 10th Anniversary Edition. That was available at Walmart.
It used to be for $20. It's a really good book. Wow. That's not John Walton. No, no, not that Walton.
All right, guys, let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for this night. I thank you for this time together. Pray, oh God, that you would use this lesson to help drive home the importance of hermeneutics, help drive home the importance of what we are to do when we come to the scripture, to observe, to interpret and to apply.
Help us not to leave any out, but Lord, always be willing to do the work as your spirit leads. We thank you for your Holy Spirit. We pray, oh God, that we would be safely brought home tonight. Through Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen.