How to Interpret Scripture

Well, good evening everyone We are back for round five of this course on the fundamentals of Bible study the art and science of hermeneutics and We have broken down this course The way that our textbook breaks down this particular course into three main headings The first is the heading of observation Seeking to know what the text says the second part is interpretation Seeking to know what the text means and then finally application which is How does the text work? and so we have Further broken that down.

We had our first week was an introduction Then we had two weeks where we studied the art of observation How to look at a text how to look into the text how do we use the word? excavate the text dive in and root around and look and find all the constituent parts and pull them out and look at them together and We did that for a couple of weeks and then last week we began looking at the subject of Interpretation and you may remember that I said And again, I was quoting dr.

Hendricks from our textbook that Interpretation often is where people start and where people end They failed to do a good job at observing the text before they try to realize what it means And then they fail to do a good job of applying the text once they think they've come to a conclusion About what it means so oftentimes people just focus on Interpretation which is not good.

We need to spend time as we said the more we spend time observing the Better will be our interpretation and Then more accurate will be our application so if you are Looking at your syllabus, or if you have looked at your syllabus this week, you'll note that you were supposed to have read over Exercises 49 to 57 in your workbook later on tonight after we take our first break I'm going to go around and Ask you if you did your workbook assignment and ask you what part of the workbook you chose you were able to choose any Lesson from lesson 49 to 57 and you were supposed to do the whole thing It should have been about a 30 to 30 minutes to an hour's worth of work on your part doing that So hopefully you all did that And we'll be doing that after we take our break right around the 8 or 7 30 mark Does anyone have any questions from previous classes before we move into tonight's lesson? Fantastic.

I am a wonderful teacher.

I will mark myself down as being great since there are no No questions either that or you're so confused.

You don't know what to ask either way We're going to have to move on Well again, we are moving to our second phase of interpretation last week We talked about the grammatical historical method of interpretation and we defined what that meant And today we're going to break down How we can actually arrive at that interpretation.

How do we get to a proper grammatical? historical interpretation of the text In dr.

Hendricks book, he gives five C's There are five C words that are The outline for how to arrive at a proper interpretation we are going to look at all five C's and Then I'm going to show you how I personally Break that down to three C's And and then I'm going to show you you'll notice on your desk or on your table when you came in There was some handwritten notes that are photocopied.

Those are my handwritten notes that I used to preach this morning And I'm going to show you how I arrived at what I preached this morning at set free church, which I do every Thursday morning and So that'll be part of what we do today And I like I said rather than five C's I break it down to three and I'll show you why I have done it That way but let's go into the five C's if you have your books This is in your textbook So you don't necessarily have to write notes of everything.

I say there are good notes in your textbook You may just want to go in to this particular chapter on interpretation find this section on the five C's and were I a smart man I would have looked up the page number, but I didn't so you'll have to find the page number Do you know what it is? 230 what is it? Chapter 30 and Page 230.

Okay, so it's page 230 if you want to go into your book make yourself a just maybe dog ear it or put you a piece of paper in as a as a Bookmark that way you don't have to sit here and note everything I say I'm basically going to be simply reiterating what you've already read if you've read out of the textbook this portion And I'm going to be adding my own commentary to some of what dr.

Hendricks has given us five C's The first C is content now This one you should already possess Because content is what you arrive at with good observation So content is based on the first of the three main headings observation interpretation application Content is done by your excavation of the text you have searched for certain things You have searched for terms You have searched for literary structure and type you have looked at the genre You have asked the major questions of who when what? Where why and wherefore? You have noticed what things are emphasized what things are repeated what things are related? what things are alike and unlike and which things are true to life and Again the more time you spend an observation The more your content will grow you will simply have more and more content to deal with The more you simply seek to observe the text so that one was pretty simple content We've already spent time with but then we move on to context over the years you may have heard Pastors say this and I've maybe have said it myself a time or two if somebody says how do you interpret the Bible a? You say there is three rules to interpretation context context and Context and that is a little bit of a joke, but it is really the foundation because context refers to Not what does this mean? But what does this mean in light of everything else around it? What has come before this and what comes after this both? Immediately before and immediately after as well as within the book what has come before and what will come after and What is in the whole Bible both before and after so you have the what we might say the microscopic? Context where it is then you have the broader context, and then you have the telescopic context what does this mean within the whole of scripture and There are several types of context that dr.

Hendricks mentions one is literary context What type of literature are we looking at historical context when does this take place in the history of redemption? cultural Context how did this ancient group of people use this language, or how did they engage in this activity? How did they behave at this time when regard to this thing these are all parts of cultural context? Geographical context where is this happening is this happening next to a body of water is this happening on top of a mountain is this? happening in a valley interestingly enough if you read Chapter 5 of the gospel of Matthew through chapter 7 you have something called the sermon on the mount If you go over to Luke's gospel you will read almost the same sermon but there are certain things that are unique to Luke that do not show up in Matthew's gospel and That has led some people to believe that perhaps This is a different telling of the same event Luke giving different information however I am Moved that it is not a different telling of the same event, but that it is a different event Because in the gospel of Luke it says Jesus was in a plane Not on a mountain and so I believe it's two different sermons because of the geographical context where he was Identified what he was doing and people say well.

Why would the sermon be so similar? I say is it not right that a man preached the same thing twice if they're both true and I've certainly said many things that were repeated in sermons and certainly I believe Jesus would have said many things over and over because people are so hard-headed You have to drill it in to get it in and make it stick so So finding the same sermon but different preached at a different location By Jesus is really not that difficult to believe at all in fact You know Jesus fed 5,000 but he also fed 4,000 at a different time at a different location and so did Jesus have a habit of doing certain things over and over Yes, he did and so there is no problem, but again the geographical context would lead us to an understanding of that particular Text looking at where it happened There is also the theological Context what did the author know about God that is a very important question And you said what do you mean when you ask that question well? did Abraham Know as much about God as Did Moses? You say well I hate to ask that question or even seek to answer it because I don't want to think that anybody Knew anything more than Abraham.

He was called the friend of God Yes, he was but we also believe in something called progressive revelation and that means that as history progressed there was more light given to the people of God and The greatest of light was given through the person of Jesus Christ, and so I would say I know more about God and his Trinity and his fullness and his Purpose in this world than did Abraham because I'm on this side of the progression of revelation I don't say that for pride.

I simply say that because of where I am historically And so would Moses have known more about God I think in regard to his his nature of holiness, and how he wanted his worship accomplished All of these things come out in Leviticus, and how he established his temple and so you ask the question what did Abraham know? Versus what do we know the Bible says God preached the gospel to Abraham Galatians says that God preached the gospel to Abraham Okay, but what did Abraham know about the gospel? This is what we know he knew he knew that in his seed all the nations of the world would be blessed And that was the gospel that Abraham understood now does that mean he understood Jesus Christ was going to come I think he did have some understanding of that But I don't think that that means that he had a fully orbed understanding of the cross or of Redemption and how it was going to take place I believe he trusted in the promise of God That God was going to save him by grace through faith and the Bible says he believed God And it was accounted unto him as righteousness Genesis 15 and verse 6 and so Did certain people in history know more than others yes? and so when we read what is written about them, and what is written by them we see a process and a progress of revelation This shouldn't I see a lot of confused face.

I shouldn't bother us.

I'll give you an example.

There was a man I I was I used to work at a high school.

I would say Well, I did a couple of jobs.

I was a security.

I was a security person and I also worked with children who were Slow learners, and I worked with them and and I was in a classroom.

I was a pet called a paraprofessional and And I would work with those students well the teacher that I had interestingly enough his name was Mr..

Moses and At that time I was working on my Degree my master's and so I would take all the time that I could in between classes and all that to use the school's Computer to type or to research.

I didn't have internet.

You know very good at home So I had internet at the school I could use it to research, and I would oftentimes spend all of my downtime at work researching for my master's degree and so this led to conversations between me and Mr..

Moses and Mr..

Moses one day got to asking me about Moses from the Bible of course his namesake would cause him to have some interest and He began to ask me about Moses, and he said you know Mr..

Foskey I Wonder if Moses ever met Jesus, and he did not mean that in the spiritual sense He meant that in the physical sense, and I said well, Mr..

Moses There was about a thousand year gap between Moses and Jesus well was about 1,500 year gap after I'm just explaining to him that there is a there's a much this there's a wide time period between Moses and Jesus and He said oh, I didn't know that Okay, you know I mean he he was not a Bible student.

I don't think he was a Christian But the point of the matter is that is something that some people just don't really understand going into the Bible that there are several hundreds of years between these important people and the events that happened in their lives and So understanding where you are historically geographically culturally and Theologically will help you interpret.

What is being said? All right, so that is the context now.

Let's move on to the third C.

Which is the C of comparison comparison is Where we apply the principle known as analogia scriptura analogia scriptura is Latin for the analogy of scripture or more simply put the Belief that scripture interprets scripture The Westminster confession of faith States this in chapter 1 part 9 Quote the infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself and Therefore when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, which is not manifold But one it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly unquote So the Westminster Confession, which is a Protestant reformed confession most widely used in the Anglican and Presbyterian Faiths it states very clearly that the one infallible source for interpretation is The scripture if you want to interpret the scripture use the scripture as your interpretive grid And again, if you just simply write out scripture interpret scripture, that's a good thing to remember Charles Hodge Said this he said if the scripture be what it claims to be the Word of God They are the work of one mind and that mind is divine from this it follows that scripture cannot contradict scripture God cannot teach in one place anything which is inconsistent with what he teaches in another Hence scripture must explain scripture if a passage admits of different interpretations that only can be true One which agrees with what the Bible teaches everywhere on that same subject Essentially, he's simply saying that if the Bible says something in one place clearly and you are at another place where it seems to say Something that contradicts what it says elsewhere clearly then what it is saying in the place where it seems not so clear must be being Misunderstood if it's clear here and it's not clear over there and the not clear is Contradicting the clear then you have to use the clear to clear up the unclear Clear as a clear as mud.

Yes How many of you are familiar with What we would call the laws of logic Have you studied the laws of logic? Well, the laws of logic are how we identify truth and how we Recognize what is and what is not true and there are certain laws of logic, which must be The first one is called the law of identity I'll use this board.

I don't know if everyone can see it.

I this might be trouble but if I say a equals a Is that true yes, we call that the law of identity a Equals a you say well, that's simple enough.

Okay.

Well, here is the second which we call the law of non contradiction and that is that a Equals not a and we would take I'm going to just change colors for the sake of this we would say a Cannot equal not a and that would be the law of non contradiction and then the final one for this particular is what we would say is the law of the excluded middle which is that a and not a Cannot both Exist one must exist at the exclusion of the other So, what are you talking about? Well, let's let's break this down if I say If I say Rosanna your son is man Okay, so a equals a you are man.

And then if I say you are not man You can't be not man if you are man, that would be a contradiction And you can't be both at the same time, even though the world might say now you can be both at the same time If I say something is and Then I say something is not At the same time and in the same relationship That is a contradiction If I say I am here and I say I am NOT here That is a contradiction All right I'm not trying to make this harder than it needs to be the reason why I'm pointing this out is because when it comes to the scripture we have to deal with the accusation of contradiction People will say the Bible contradicts itself.

I will say show me where Show me where in the 66 books of God's Holy Word that there is a contradiction And I will tell you that I have yet to be convinced that there is anywhere in the 66 books That there is truly a place where the laws of logic are broken There are times when there are paradoxes Meaning there are times where it appears as if there could be a contradiction but upon a further examination We find that that contradiction Actually is not a contradiction probably the best example is between the writings of the Apostle Paul and the letter of James James tells us that we are justified by works and not by faith alone Paul tells us we are justified by faith and not by works Lest anyone should boast If there are any two places in scripture where man has had his His his bell rung when it comes to trying to find a justifiable Reason why these two men are not at odds.

It is that place In fact, it was martin luther who took great issue with the writings of james Even coming to the point where he identified the epistle of james as the epistle of straw Meaning that he was saying that it was not Uh a an epistle that was worthy to be included within the canon Thankfully he abandoned that and he did not maintain his position that it was unworthy to be called among god's word he came to a right understanding That james is speaking of one particular Aspect of justification and paul is speaking of a different aspect of justification Moreover, james is speaking primarily of our justification in this world before others And paul is speaking of our justification before god.

There's more to it than that But that's a simple understanding of the distinction between the two because james is concerned with seeing faith He says if faith cannot be seen by works.

How can we identify it? He says in faith without works is dead If you can't see it, how do we know it's real? And that's james's argument paul's point though Is that no work that we do can add to our justification because our justification is not in our works But in the work of the final work of jesus christ and so is there an apparent contradiction? Yes, but it is not a true contradiction When we come to an understanding that both writers are dealing with two different aspects of the doctrine of justification so this is why Comparing scripture with scripture is necessary.

If all you had was james chapter two You might walk away thinking that your works somehow are going to get you into heaven Because you would not be able to compare james with the rest of the new testament and therefore even the old testament So you understand now why i'm pointing to the issue of contradiction and understanding what constitutes a contradiction? A contradiction is something that cannot be and not be at the same time and in the same relationship Give you another example.

I don't want to waste all our time on this, but I do like talking about this There is a narrative in the gospels where jesus goes to the country of the gadarenes And while he is there, he sees a man who is chained And he has a demon actually he has many demons it says he he he says identify and he says a legion For we are many Well, there is another narrative same Scenario where it is told in a different gospel that there were two men And so there has been leveled against that particular narrative that there is a contradiction Because one gospel says there was one man And another gospel says there were two men And so maybe for fun i'll send you home and ask you to figure out why there's not a contradiction Or would you rather I just tell you? Okay That's easy enough this particular situation kind of deals with the with the issue of the law of non-contradiction So Today as I was leaving set free One of the men stopped me and told me about his life And what had led to him being where he is now and he asked me to continue to pray for him That he would continue to do well that he was struggling with some things and he asked me to encourage him in prayer I was thankful that he felt like he could ask for that.

And so I Shook his hand and we parted and I left Is that story true? Yes, yeah, I mean you don't know because you weren't there Does it make a difference that there was another man there Why? Because I was focused on the one in the story And I had the choice To tell you there were two Or to tell you that there was one and by telling you that there was one I did not negate That there was another And so when we're reading the narrative we have to understand that one of the authors is focusing on one of the men Particularly and the other one is broadening to help us to understand a bigger picture It does not contradict One or the other it simply gives a broader picture of what happened This happens all the time.

You come home from work.

How was your day? Well, I did this that and the other you don't tell them everything that happened You tell what you feel is necessary and what you think is important And so when we read comparing stories in the text of scripture, we should not ever be surprised when there are Conflicting accounts.

I've told you the story of how I taught on the resurrection narratives There are four different resurrection narratives and each of them tell a little different story But as I said if I put four people on a corner and they all watch the same car accident And you ask them to sit down and tell the truth of what they saw Each one may focus on a different aspect and yet still all be telling you the truth So the question is not whether or not it's true.

The question is whether or not it contradicts and if it contradicts it's not true So we find harmony In the text that is what is called the harmony of scripture seeking to find how it lines up Rather than how it doesn't and I always tell people this is a little little narrative I always and this may my wife is here.

This may be a little awkward, but uh, i'll tell it anyway Uh, if I were to come home And uh, and there would be a man leaving my house that i've never seen before And he's walking out uh, and I don't know who this guy is uh my relationship with my wife Will probably determine how I feel about a strange man leaving my home If I have a trusting relationship with my wife where there is no Doubt of her fidelity to me and mine to her Then I will immediately Wonder why this man is there, but I will not have an immediate sense of dread that my wife has done evil against me however, if there were in my marriage doubt and Suspicion, then I might immediately feel like I want to take and lay hands upon this man And so I say this my word of god my word the word of god has always been faithful To me it has stood the test of time.

Therefore when I see something that is to me A question mark.

I don't automatically look for where it is unfaithful But I find how it is being faithful in the telling of the truth And so I think that's a good way to look at it again, and I trust my wife So if a guy was leaving my house, I'd have no doubt that you know Something happened that required him being there and there was no Badness happening therefore when I open the text of scripture if I see two parts that are difficult.

I don't automatically run to the Contradiction I I say god's word has been faithful.

It has stood the test of time.

Let me dig deeper and thereby find What the real answer is and I can be assuring to you tonight.

There is an answer There are whole books written that have given answers to the supposed Contradictions of scripture.

They're worth your time if you feel like this is something you want to get into All right, I spent more time on that than I wanted to but I would encourage you just know that the scripture Interprets the scripture and even there are times where it may seem difficult.

That is what we Want to do is compare scripture with scripture We're going to talk a little later about how to do that But just let's move on now to the fourth C and this is the sea of culture All of us live in a culture Even if we don't know it But it becomes obvious when we're removed from our culture and we're put into another culture anybody ever I've spent my whole life down south You go up north you feel like you're in a different culture.

You go out west.

You feel like you're in a different culture that is cultural change I want you to think about this and How different must it have been to live in America a hundred and fifty years ago? Before the advent of motorized travel before the advent of flight You know It is said that many people in the ancient world Never left their house more than 20 miles away from their the place where they were born Simply because they travel was not available as it is today So most people grew up and lived and died close to where they were born The idea of people just traveling all over was was very unique it was it was held with soldiers and men of war and things like that, but not the average person and so 150 years ago if you lived in America, you'd live in a much different culture think of 2,000 years ago in Israel 2,000 years ago in Asia Minor 2,000 years ago in Greece where people literally went to the temples of Epaphrodite and and and Diana and and and Zeus and they worshipped in these temples these Mythological gods and they worshipped through the process of things like cult prostitution where they believed that by having sex with a cult prostitute They were drawing themselves closer to the gods That's a much different culture Okay, having said that now I want you to open your Bibles with me very quickly and I just want to read something to you Because when you read your culture into a text, you're no longer interpreting you're imposing You're not exegeting you're isogeting you're reading into the text All right, go to 1st Corinthians chapter 8 Excuse me 1st Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1 now concerning food offered to idols We know that all of us possess knowledge This knowledge puffs up but love builds up if anyone imagines that he knows something.

He does not know yet As he ought to know But if anyone loves God, he is known by God Therefore as to the eating of food offered to idols.

We know that an idol has no real existence and there is no God but one For although there are many so-called gods in heaven and on earth as indeed There are many gods and many lords yet for us there is one God the father from whom are all things and for whom we exist and one Lord Jesus Christ through Whom are all things and through whom we exist? however Not all possess this knowledge But some through former association with idols eat food as really offered to an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled Food will not commend us to God.

We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idols temple Will he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed the brother for whom Christ died Thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak you sin against Christ Therefore if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother Stumble, let me stop there verse 13 Not understanding the cultural background of this text Would make it almost impossible To truly be able to come to a right interpretation of this text Most of us have never lived in a situation or been in a situation where the eating of meat offered to idols is even something that we have ever had to deal with in Fact most of us don't even know what that means at least not practically we have never seen the guy down at Houston's taking a piece of meat and Offering it up to one of the pagan gods And if we did we might feel a little awkward about purchasing that meat from that man But again, this is not something that we have to live with It's not something that we culturally are able to really grasp in our modern day now If you lived in India You might be in a situation where there is in the market things that have been sacrificed to Idols in India there are many gods and so there may be Sacrifices made that you would have to address this in a more close Context to the context that Paul is writing to the Corinthians in So, how would I know well, this is one of the times where I think a Bible handbook or a commentary could be helpful especially again if you don't know if you've never studied this before you're just reading this text as it's written and you know a Few things by observation, you know, Paul is dealing with something that apparently is happening There's something to do with eating meat offered idols, but you don't know why they're eating meat offered idols You don't know why this is an issue.

You don't know why this is a cultural problem So what I did is I printed one paragraph From a commentary.

I'd like to read it to you simply to show you how a commentary can add cultural Understanding to a passage now, this is not an in-depth exegetical commentary.

This is a basic Commentary on this text called the Bible knowledge Commentary this is I believe it's put out by Dallas Theological Seminary.

It is it is not an in-depth Commentary, but it's certainly helpful tool and this is what it says.

I'll quote Ordinarily the Greeks and Romans Burned the less desirable portions of an animal in the course of their sacrifices and retained the choice or parts for personal consumption At banquets celebrating the sacrifices if a sacrifice were made in connection with a state function The meat which remained was frequently sold in the marketplace the Corinthians questioned Apparently concerned the acceptability of buying and eating the meat from one of these sacrificed animals the Acceptability of eating this meat as an invited guest in the friends home and the acceptability of attending one of these pagan sacrifices and enjoying the meal of Celebration which followed in the temple precincts Paul speaks to each of these issues Does that help? I think so.

It tells us now what's happening The meat was being sacrificed to the idol and then it's being sold in The marketplace should a Christian buy that meat? That's the question Paul is seeking to answer But again, we wouldn't know how that even functions if we didn't have this little insight into the historical situation So having this little tool and again Carpenters as good as his tools, right? You know, we use the tools of the commentaries We don't we don't let the commentary guide us in the sense that it doesn't become our interpretive grid It's a helpful tool it it's it's it's secondary to scripture and it gives us something that a little insight Historically that maybe we don't have from the scripture because Paul doesn't explain this situation because Paul is speaking to people who know the situation Paul is speaking to people who are living it.

It'd be like me today if I started talking to you about an iPhone I don't have to explain what an iPhone is.

I don't have to explain how it works I simply say take your Bible app out and blah blah blah.

Well if there was a culture that didn't have iPhones Somebody might have to explain what an app is and how the app works and what the device is known as the iPhone You understand that's what the commentary is doing here.

It's providing a cultural picture Okay, and now we can better interpret what's happening in this situation so again understanding the culture often takes the use of tools because we don't live there and We have not done the individual research on our own most of us Have not done historic Archaeological or other type of research So we go to the tools that allow us to learn those things and one of them is Commentary helping us understand culture.

All right, the last C Follows that up because the last C is the C of consultation Consultation Consultation is looking at secondary sources.

What is a commentary? It's a secondary source So is a Bible handbook I Talked about that last week.

I think those are Those are underused tools Bible handbooks people people who are who are studying the Bible you have these tools men have have have spent a lot of time putting together these these Useful tools giving you context giving you background giving you historical data all that helps you interpret And they're they're in these things called handbooks.

We have the Erdman's which I misspelled last week.

I said it was e ARD It's actually e rd man s Erdman's there's Halley's there's several others that are very good useful tools I think brother Dan picked one up for less than four dollars off of the off of an online Source so get with him if you're interested in finding a good Bible handbook inexpensively You can only go so far with your own knowledge Because again, I and like I said last week some people say well, I never use commentaries I tell you what, I'm willing to stand on the shoulders of Giants I'm willing to crawl up there if I have to Because I know if I only go with what I know Not only am I going to run out real fast but I'm also I am I'm confining myself to the ignorance of my own research and And it's just not helpful to do that again, we don't start with secondary sources though That's that that's the part that I've been trying to help you with this you start with the scripture And then you seek to find out as much as you can through observation You seek to interpret as best you can and then as you realize I don't know what the culture is you go find out what? The culture is I don't know what the geographical context is you go find that out you get those Informations and you begin to build remember In observation is excavation Interpretation is construction.

You're building your understanding now, and you use the tools to to build that framework of understanding So now we've come to the meaning of the text we consult the secondary sources and I want to tell you something about commentaries When I'm studying for a sermon Commentaries are helpful, but I do try to arrive at my meaning before I Spend a lot of time in the commentaries Because of a couple of things one If you read the commentary immediately It will often cloud Your understanding and if you have two commentaries that just happen to disagree You may immediately have a conflict in your soul that wouldn't have been there if you would have just went to the text and done the work otherwise Second also is study Bibles In the in the in the textbook dr.

Hendricks He talks about a study Bible In the way he uses the term is not the way this term is normally used today because he talks about a study Bible as Basically being a Bible without any notes, but it got big margins as you can write in That's what he calls a study Bible.

That is not what a That is not what the Bible bookstore calls a study Bible the Bible bookstore study Bible is is a book that has the Bible at the top usually three-quarter of the page is the biblical text and the Bottom of the page is notes on the text and I tell people when I read that I cover the notes with a piece of piece of paper So that I don't instinctively look down and try to let RC Sproul interpret it for me if I'm reading my Reformation Bible or John MacArthur if I'm reading my MacArthur Bible or or the SV Study Bible which is itself big enough that you could kill an antelope with it It's huge and it's got wonderful notes But I I don't want those notes to make the decision for me I want to have had the opportunity to investigate the text and Then look at the notes.

You said well, why look at the notes if you've come to a conclusion? because if I come to a conclusion and the notes disagree with me I Now want to know why? or if all the commentaries disagree with me I Might think that I have made a wrong turn in Albuquerque as Bugs Bunny always said Here's here's a good rule.

If you're the only person who's ever come to that interpretation.

You're probably wrong and As the old theological rule is this if it's new it ain't true and if it's true, it's not new So if you come to a conclusion that no one's ever heard before and I always get nervous when I get people people call me Sometimes church members pastor.

I've been reading, you know, the book of Thessalonians and there and and in chapter, you know 11 teen it's got this crazy thing and They start telling me this crazy stuff and I'm inside.

I'm I'm I'm nervous Because at some point They're gonna say what do you think? I Gotta be gracious, huh? Yeah, you gotta be gracious, right? You know that's if no one's ever heard your interpretation that that should make you a little Suspect of where you've gone and how you've gotten there.

And so again Remember this rule theology is not a place for novelty Theology is not a place for novelty If you're the only one who thinks it means that you're probably wrong Now somebody might argue me.

Well, Martin Luther was it? He was not the only one Martin Luther was standing on the shoulders of Augustine He was standing on the shoulders of Wycliffe He was standing on the shoulders of hus and many other myriads of men who had come before him who had taught Justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone Even if they didn't have the language to describe it in those terms the gospel that Luther taught was the gospel that Paul taught was the gospel that Jesus taught and It agreed with the scripture.

So to say that Luther was a man on his own is Quite ignorant of the historical reality of the situation In fact, I would say Luther was a strong Augustinian as was Calvin Calvin's teacher was Augustine And and he he applies Augustine's principles of justification in his own writings.

So to don't think that these men were on an island by themselves Alone, the church had deviated and these men by God's grace had had come back to the scripture All right.

I Want to do a little exercise with you Want to talk about How I apply some of this And I've given you a handout that is Three pages.

Oh also just give you this we probably won't get to this but I want to send it home with you this exegesis versus eisegesis handout This is an X a good example of someone who does he does it both ways He gives an eisegesis interpretation and an exegesis interpretation take this home and look at it really You know if you have any questions come back next week, we'll talk about but this is a helpful tool So I printed it for you to take home.

It's from got questions and I gotta tell you got questions I actually have talked to the guy who runs that site.

It's a very good site it's a helpful tool for quick answers to some of some of the Bible's more difficult questions and Got questions org and just about any question you've ever had There's somebody has written an article there and they're usually really really good Is there yeah.

Yeah, that's right.

I have the app you're right There's an app for your phone.

So but that's where this article is taken from now pull out your your notes The three pages now, I want to tell you your pages are black and white minor in color.

So that's one place It's a little gonna be a little difficult I just I couldn't I couldn't print all of 30 of you Pages in color, so I'll try to give you the best that I can of an understanding First things first, you'll notice the top three headings on the rock top right side of the notes.

The first says content The second says context the third says consult everybody see that Now you'll notice I have three I like to work in threes, maybe it's my fidelity to the Trinity Maybe it's some other reason but for whatever reason God just puts it in my heart to work in threes Most of my sermons come out to three points and I don't do it that way purposefully It just happens to be maybe that's the Baptist in me, you know three points in a poem That's how you're supposed to write a sermon but But I I broke the five categories that dr Hendricks gives us down to three and I'll show you how I work that out practically.

The first one, of course is still content The second one is context and the third one is consult Now I want to bring this over here so they can see I want to show you what I'm doing All right So we have content context and console content is pretty much the same But under context I am going to look at two parts.

I'm going to look at grammar And I'm going to look at history remember what we talked about the grammatical historical, right? sorry, if you can't see grammar and history and That provides me history would provide me with the cultural so if there the C is still there But it's going to fall under this section Okay, so I'm going to spend time first examining content Then I'm going to spend time examining context which would include grammar and history grammatical context historical context which would include cultural context Now I am going to consult Two sources the first consultation I'm going to make is with the Bible Interpret scripture with scripture My second consultation is going to be with secondary Sources That would be primarily Commentaries or other sources.

So now you can see how I'm breaking that down in three parts Content first Context which includes grammar and history consult the Bible and then consult the secondary sources Does that make sense? Knowing that now I want to show you how I did that with our notes You'll see under content your first page The first thing I do is I write out the text in my own writing and I give myself headings if you notice the first thing I did was I put a box around the word for Because that is a transitional word.

That is Following a word of condemnation the word right before that is anathema or damned So that's what's right before it and so this is tying that back and then I just drew a line am I now and I put a little box around now because that is Referring to what is gone going on currently.

I'm noticing again Observing that Paul is addressing now as opposed to then or previously So I make that note there for myself And then I draw another little line down to seeking the approval and then you'll notice I have a little line that says all one word Well when I'm studying this I'm looking at the Greek at the same time as the English and I wanted to make a note for myself That seeking the approval is all one word in the Greek even though it's three words in English and so that would remind me to go back later and look into that further how that word is used in other places and Then I put a little one and I said of man and then I put a little or next to that and then I put of God because that is the question am I now seeking the approval of man or of God and I've made myself little notes now.

You'll also notice I make circles around the the letter I because that's Paul referring to himself and the focus of this verse is on an Accusation against himself someone is accusing Paul of being a man pleaser And so he's asking the question am I a man pleaser or am I a God pleaser? And so I look at the eye there and I'm connecting those together so that I can see how his argument comes out and You'll notice the little dotted line in between and you'll notice on the right side.

It says Q a That means the first half of the verse is a question and the second half of the verse is the answer to the question Again, this is all observation.

I'm not interpreting.

I'm just observing What is the question? Am I seeking to please men or God the answer if I were still seeking Trying to please man.

I would not be a servant of Christ.

That is what we would call a conditional Statement Meaning if this is so then this other would or wouldn't be so and so this is what we call an if then statement We call that a conditional statement also known sometimes as a hypothesis if this is so then that Must also be or than that must not be even though the word then is not in the text.

I Have inferred it Because it is an inference that I can observe Should be there in logical language If then is the argument Paul is making if I were pleasing man Then I would not be a servant of Christ.

His answer is a conditional statement Okay, that's that's not everything there, but that's basically how I have observed that's I've written down my observations now Turn to the next page and you'll see the context By Context I want to tell you because this is my fifth sermon in Galatians I have already established for the people.

I'm preaching to the cultural and Geographical context and even the context of who Paul is speaking to and what the issue is So I don't have that here because I've already done that previously So or if this were me doing a study of just this version, I hadn't done anything else There'd be a lot more regarding who the Galatians were why Paul is answering this question Why Paul is addressing this that is all part of what I have done in the past So I did so you're not have it on the sheet, right? I'm not going to bring that to the pulpit with me I don't need it.

We've already done it But if you if you know if you if you were just looking at my Bible study, you'd see all that on top of this But just for this verse I noted and I put in numbers certain things that I wanted to bring up Regarding the context number one Paul is defending his integrity Because someone has apparently challenged him what challenge was made Paul is preaching as a man-pleaser Why would this challenge be made because Paul is preaching? grace not law if You know Galatians, you know this Paul has Adversaries in Galatia who have said that Paul has not taught the full gospel because the full gospel includes justification by circumcision that you must be circumcised before you can be justified and So Paul is addressing those people who we identify as the Judaizers those who would argue that you must become a Jew Before you can become a Christian and so we know that they have made accusations Against Paul based upon what he is saying here.

He's responding.

Am I pleasing men? Well, why would he ask that question because someone has come along and said Paul has not given you the whole story Paul has not told you the whole Story of the gospel because he didn't want to offend you But we're here to tell you the whole truth and the rest of the story as it were Paul wanted to please you but we're telling you the truth and Paul says how and how dare someone say I'm a man-pleaser And he's asking the question.

Am I trying to please men or please God? and So that is the first thing that I noticed and made a note of Contextually who is his adversary? The second thing is that he recognizes his previous condition You'll notice the word now and the word still he says am I now seeking the approval of God and Then in the second part, he says if I were still trying to please men He uses now and still to identify that he is no longer what he used to be Paul used to be a person who sought to please men as a Pharisee he wanted the accolades of men if that is not or is that not how Jesus identified the Pharisees as those who did what they did to win the praises of men and Wasn't Paul one who identified himself as a Pharisee of Pharisees? He did what he did to win the praises of men.

So at this point he's saying am I still that? No But I was once So that is a context of use of language The third oh, by the way, you'll see 1a over to the right under the word man I said Paul does seek to please men sometimes You say what? Well just for the sake of time very quickly turn to the last page and I'll show you When you compare scripture with scripture Look down to where it says questions is Paul contradicting himself.

Well in 1st Corinthians 1033 He says I try to please everyone and everything in 1st Corinthians 919 He said he became all things to all men so that in all ways he might win some and in Acts 16 He actually had Timothy circumcised after going through all the trouble of going to the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 and Arguing that circumcision wasn't necessary.

So did Paul seek to please men? Well at times he did but he gives an explanation as to why He would never allow anything to put up a barrier between him and an audience for the gospel So if he if that meant when he was with Jews He had to not eat what the Jews didn't eat He wouldn't eat what the Jews didn't eat if that meant that when he was with Gentiles He would not behave according to the scruples of typical Jewish behavior because they didn't treat the Gentiles very well And so he would not behave in that way when he was around the Gentiles He said what does that mean Paul's a man pleaser? No, that means Paul is concerned with winning men You say well, how do you combine this with what he says in Galatians in Galatians? He's talking about the central message of the gospel and Paul's point is this I will not comport or can conform the gospel message to any change simply for the sake of man's opinion So in the context of Galatians 1 he says I am NOT a man pleaser But in the context of first Corinthians 9 and 10 in the context of Acts 16 There are times when he does things to seek to win men.

And so is that a contradiction? No, it's two different Circumstances and you have to see both in light of the reason for what Paul is doing.

Does that make sense? So again, this is our that's the question though is Paul contradicting himself I would say no, we have to understand the circumstances in which he speaks in both situations If you want to go back to page two real quick to the context You'll notice I put down Paul answers the question with a conditional statement I talked about the then and if Implication and I even put a box around the word then and I added it to the sentence When I wrote it with my own hand I wanted to see that word even though it's not in the text because it is implied by the text and Then the fourth contextual note that I made is That Paul is contrasting pleasing men with serving Christ and he is saying they are incompatible you cannot please man and serve Christ why well the Question you'll see I say implication a choice must be made Question why is pleasing man and serving Christ antithetical and I give three reasons Again, part of this is a sermon.

So I'm using this as teaching as well One men are motivated by sinful desires to Christ commands are in opposition to men's natural Tendencies and three if a person is motivated by pleasing men He will be forced to compromise his service to Christ And so that is the context of understanding this particular text now Last page and we'll take our break on the last page I give scripture in support of what we've said no man can serve two masters Matthew 6 1st Thessalonians 2 Paul says we speak as those approved by God Not seeking to please men.

I give myself a little reminder of what this text says But I when I'm preaching I go there so I but I want to I want to know where I'm going so I just write a few words to remind myself what the text says and then Acts 5 29, of course is the story of Peter and John in the before the the Jewish leaders And they were told that they can't preach Jesus and they said hey, who are we supposed to do obey men or obey God? Great example, right if somebody tells us to obey them and not God we say no we have to obey God That whether it's the government whether it's the church No matter if somebody's telling you disobey God and obey me You have to obey God rather than men and so that gives a nice Little reminder of the truth of what Paul is talking about now down at the bottom.

I wrote secondary sources.

I Quoted from Matthew Henry who is just a standard commentary when I say standard He's still brilliant, but he's really wordy, but he really I mean he really is wordy, but he's brilliant But he says this Paul would not attempt to alter the doctrine of Christ either to gain their favor or avoid their fury I love that and I just thought that was a great quote.

So I wrote it out.

So I'd have it We must not fear the frowns of men boy What a what I'd that'd be great for just a sign for your office or some do not fear the frowns of men You know, and so I just thought those were two good reminders.

And again, it shows me I'm agreeing with what? These other men have understood from this text.

We're in agreement.

That's what I want to see My understanding is in line with their understanding John MacArthur same He makes a point about how this connects to the anathema which was right before it Paul is saying if I'm gonna if I have preached an anathema, how can you say I'm a man pleaser man? Pleasers don't preach anathemas and Then finally the quote he says by nature people pleasers are not martyrs They desire to escape ridicule and trouble is one of their the desire to escape ridicule and trouble is one of their hallmarks pleasing men Does not bring severe persecution and that's what Paul is faced if he was truly a man pleaser He would not be who he is as a servant of Christ.

So Again, this is what I took in the pulpit Now, I know this is not a sermon writing class and this is certainly not anything Anything special as far as sermon writing But it shows you still though that the process that I use for preaching is the same process I'm trying to teach you for studying for yourself Because it's not like there's a special magic tool that comes with preaching.

I read the text.

I explain the text.

I apply the text That's my only job as a pastor and preacher.

I'm not I'm not a magician doing tricks So you read the text that's your content you understand the text that's your context and you apply the text you Consult with the rest of the scripture and with other sources and there now you have it.

This is one verse You know At the end of this course, this is what I'm going to expect from you But in a little bit broader you're gonna have more verses to deal with and you're going to be giving me Hopefully something that's a little easier to discern But if you give me this and it looked like this and I knew you'd done the work probably I'd be satisfied with that too But this is this is what we're trying to do.

And again, I did this in preparation You know, I do this four or five times a week to prepare for lessons It's just part of what you know, you have to do as a preacher This is the goal of being able to consult Being able to look for the content Look for the context and then consult the scripture and sort of secondary sources and ensure that what you've come to your conclusion is accurate All right.

We're going to take a let's try and do seven eight minute break and come back and we'll finish our lesson Well again, we don't have a lot of time and I apologize for that I spent more time on the on the handout than I had originally intended to But if you did do your workbook tonight, I'm basically just sort of doing a workbook check To see if you did the work and if you have something that you would like to share with the class We have 10 12 minutes to to go over that How many of you have your your work you did? Okay, great good on the workbook you were supposed to do exercise 49 to 57 choosing one of those and Having the ability to complete it and discuss it I'll start over here.

Miss Nancy.

Did you have your hand up? You did number 57.

What was the text that was the subject? Oh You had revelations.

I had a little eschatology snuck in there.

What was the did you glean anything? That was? Insightful or what was the what was the book asking you to do? Okay, you find that helpful Good good All right, well moving on down miss Amber, did you have a chance to do one which one did you do? Which one did you find most helpful or insightful? Good Excellent.

Zack.

Did you have a chance to? Okay did the same as yeah.

All right.

Did you find the same thing or yeah Just like how the great Just get digging into it and just see Great okay Alan.

Did you get to do one? I Excellent awesome Now I know you've been sickness Daisy, did you have a chance to oh you did great wonderful Habakkuk, however people some people say have a kook depends, you know Mm-hmm Oh great I like wonderful.

Wonderful.

All right moving down Yes Awesome and that's a great use of secondary tools Yeah, and and sometimes we don't have all the tools, you know and use what you got.

That's great.

Wonderful.

I'm a second Okay Yeah, excellent Absolutely, miss Cindy.

Did you get a chance to do? All right.

What did Okay Yeah He That passion and the past 16 and How that did set the tone of this? I'm gonna trust God no matter what happened Even though God showed him and told him what he was going to do Because of the things that they had done the sins they had done His overall thing was even though all of this will occur even though we will be disciplined, even though this cruel people are going to come and get us, and even though we might be deported to the battle line, even though all these things might occur, I am going to rejoice in my salvation.

I am going to trust God.

It's just like all this was happening, but here is God, just like he was wearing but God over his face.

All this is going to occur, but God, right? And just seeing God's sovereignty in everything, God's hand just moving over everything, and him bringing his perfect purpose out through all of this.

So I love the book about that.

It's really good.

Awesome.

Next time you call me before you call her.

That's all right.

Did you do the same one? But I felt the same way as how good God is.

Even when he disciplines us, he gives us a way back because he must discipline because he's holy, he's righteous, but he will give us a way back, and that's what I got out of this book.

Okay.

Miss Kelly? All right.

Miss Jennifer? Okay.

You have my hand.

You have my notebook, so I don't know what 56 is.

It's figurative language, and it's talking about different, or at least maybe, excuse me, I read that and I was like, I didn't know how to get, but the point of the passage was to go back and read Judges chapter 8, 28 through 9, 21, and then the story is a wider perspective.

Context gives you understanding.

Absolutely.

Great.

All right.

Michelle? Okay.

I think for me, it was all about preparing the cross, and if you have nothing, if you have nothing, what are you going to do? I'm sure you're just going to doubt it.

For me, in doing the study, something came out that was just phenomenal for me.

Even when we don't think that God is working, he's working in the background already.

We can't see it yet, but it's coming.

Well, since we're doing the same one, I won't say the same thing she did, but they asked us to rewrite verses 17 and 18 in the view of our job or our culture and what that might look like.

That was very interesting to try and physically write down scripture that would pertain to our culture now and to my job specifically.

I tried to rewrite it.

You want to read it? You sure? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, please.

It says, I haul cars for a living.

I've got a big truck.

Okay, so God wrote, though the economy should fail, nor the assembly line should run, though the luxuries of this life should cease, and all around me fail, and as God, and as Joe did suffer, more so than the majority, that all that I possess should be taken away.

Yet I will praise you, and I will sing a song of praise to your name.

Your name is above all else.

That's great.

That's very, very good.

All right, Miss Kara.

Okay.

It helps me slow down and really see what was happening at that time.

I like to do flowers and plants.

So the first question now, but in order for his produce to be at the state of growth, what things would a farmer have already done to prepare his crops? You know, there's the pruning, there's the planting, the fertilizing, the, you know, pest control.

There's so much that goes on in that, and to be in that situation, if you were waiting on that garden for your, you know, for yourself, for your food, but then there isn't.

Then you go down to the herd person, you know, how much they relied on their sheeps and cattle, but then there isn't, you know, and being struck down like that, and going back to verse 16, when he's talking about his body trembling and he's quivering, but he turns around, and it's all about his joy, you know, the joy of the Lord, his salvation.

And I agree with, I didn't have the big fancy words he said, but I was like, though the food market has gone under, the economy has crashed, and there is no employment, my trust and my hope is in you, for you are my deliverer, you are my redeemer.

It just, you know, and it takes me clear back thinking about Elijah, when there was no rain, but there was still God's people in that area.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

Awesome.

Sounds like you guys really like Habakkuk.

That's great.

Okay.

Didn't get a chance.

All right.

How about Brother Mark? So, I did 50.

Okay.

Habakkuk complains, and one of my favorite passages is Jeremiah 12, where Jeremiah's complaining.

Yeah.

And then as I looked at the comparison, they're complaining about the same people, because they're contemporaries.

They're in the same, they're in the same town, they're prophesying the same things.

And, you know, in Habakkuk 316, it's talking about being, you know, the nation is coming to invade.

And, you know, one of the most misinterpreted, most twisted scriptures, Jeremiah 29.

And when, but when you actually look at Jeremiah 29, it was a promise of restoration for the people that were in captivity, and for them to just live out where they were, and that I kind of saw a parallel between Jeremiah and Habakkuk in that, in that Habakkuk said he was going to stand firm, and Jeremiah was encouraging the people in captivity to stay, stand firm, because God's going to restore you.

Awesome.

Brother? I did 49.

Yeah.

What was the, you know, he was just trusting God's sovereignty, you know, and like, he had faith that, you know, God says no big trees should not blossom, no fruit, vines, all that, you know, he's saying he'll still take joy in the Lord, you know, so he just has a lot of, no, that's great.

I was trying to say, when was he writing it? So that had me, gave me an idea of how to go back, and I started searching up that, was it about the rise, was it about 1600, or 600 BC, stuff, you know, somewhere in that area, you know, so just this one little bit made me actually bounce back and forth, and didn't have all the answers, which I was trying to figure out where, I couldn't figure that out, you know, at the beginning it was just something about Watchtower, but I couldn't figure it out, but it's just from verse 16, where people come to bathe, awesome, JP, okay, John, okay, brother, all right, it looks like you got something written down there, I tore the book apart, I love it, you like it, okay, but so I have a new favorite verse, yeah, that's, and essentially he was using the wicked for his purposes, and very solemn key, and discipline, and things that have already been touched on, so that was one thing I learned a lot about the Babylonian invasion, and dug into some of that, awesome, what that looked like, Syria, and different, different things, about fig trees, I kind of cross-referenced where they speak about fig trees, and other places in the Bible, Jeremiah and Matthew, and kind of played around with some fig trees for a little while, and then, cool, it was great, I love it, awesome, Mr.

Roseanne, you have something you'd like to share, I just like the last, next to last verse, that God is faithful, he's going to accomplish his purposes, even though they weren't faithful, yeah, and he's kind of faithful, he's going to make it happen what he needs to happen, isn't it amazing that the sovereignty of God is not something that's just found in Romans 9, you know, a lot of people accuse the reformed understanding of the sovereignty of God as being bound to only three or four passages, and it's not, it's the underlying truth of the whole scripture from beginning to end, that this is God's world, and he is the creator, and we are the creature, well, thank you all for sharing, I appreciate the work that was put into that, let me give you just one last word, and then I know we're a few minutes over, so we'll quickly end with prayer, we have decided, I talked to the elders last night, we are going to do Christian Ethics next term, which will begin in September, so this term ends August 1st, and then we'll take a month off and come back in September for Christian Ethics, on top of that, I want to kind of give you a real quick rundown of the next three weeks, there are three weeks to go, two weeks on application, and the last week, we're literally just going to take verses and take them apart, that's the last night, and kind of give you an idea of what I want you to do for your final, which is your final paper, I'm going to give you several passages, we're going to walk through them on the board, I may even bring the board out in the middle and get to where you all can see better, and talk about how I want your paper to look when you're finished, like I said, I kind of jokingly said you could hand in what I handed you tonight, but I'd rather have it be a little bit more structured when you hand it in, so I can understand it a little better, but that's what we're moving toward, I am going to come up with a set of verses that you'll have to choose from, and then some of you may be doing the same passages, I'm really interested to have some of you do the same passages, just to see if I get hit with any different interpretations, if someone hands in something and they have this interpretation, another has another, I'd like to see how you arrived at the conclusion, so we'll probably have a series, maybe five or six passages that we give you a chance to choose from, that sound good? All right, well, let's end with prayer, Father, thank you for this time of study, I pray that it has been fruitful, and will continue to be fruitful in the lives of your children, may it be, O God, that we seek evermore to be better Bible students, in Christ's name, Amen.