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We're continuing tonight introduction to hermeneutics and James is not here tonight. He answered this question last week, so I'll ask and see if anybody else is ready to answer. What is hermeneutics? Now let's say the Bible.
Where does the term hermeneutics come from? I'm hearing a lot of answers. Let me go. Yeah Hermes the The mythological Greek God the messenger of the gods, that's right, and the goal of hermeneutics is to get the the message from the author to the audience.
The mess of the the goal of hermeneutics is to get the the message from the author to the audience. We are going to be tonight in the third of our eight sessions. And we're going to be looking at Observation part two our.
Four.
Part outline tonight is we're going to look At six things to look for this is actually really getting into the meat of Observation. And we're going to practice our observation skills. We're actually going to pull up a Bible verse tonight.
We're going to make some observations from it similar to what we did in the first class. But hopefully now that we've been talking about this and you've been reading your book and you've been doing your workbook You'll be a little bit better prepared to do that.
Then we'll have our 5 -10 minute break and then we're going to go over the workbook assignment. Before we do that, let's pray our Father and our God. We thank you for this class. I thank you for all these folks who have a desire to learn your word and learn it better.
I Pray that you would bless this time that we have together and that you would glorify yourself in it Lord most of all that we would seek and All of this not just to grow intellectually But to grow in our love for you Lord as we know you better we will love you more.
So help us to do just that in Christ's name.
Amen.
All right, I have a short introduction to tonight. We're going to continue as I said to talk about the subject of observation. The first thing I want to give you as a quote now, it's long. It may be hard for you to see on The board, but this is what it says.
This is from dr. Al Moller. He is the president of Southern Seminary the host of the Podcast the the briefing. Thank you the host of the briefing a daily Podcast now listen what he says. Quote researchers George Gallup and Jim Castelli put the problem squarely.
Americans revere the Bible. But by and large they don't read it. And because they don't read it that we have become a nation of biblical illiterates. How bad is it? Researchers tell us that it's worse than most could imagine.
Fewer than half of all adults can name the four Gospels. Many Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples and according to data from Barna research group 60 of Americans can't even name five of the Ten Commandments.
No wonder people break the Ten Commandments all the time. They don't know what they are said. George Barna president of the firm the bottom line increasingly America is biblically illiterate now. I added this thought.
I Have found personally that through anecdotal evidence that what Barna said in that Was absolutely true because we have something called the fishing hole which is going on right now. It's ten days of evangelism.
Most of what we do is hand out tracts. But one of the things that I do is I try to engage people in conversation and I engage people in conversation By asking them if they would be willing to take a Bible quiz.
It's a nice way to Begin a conversation with someone and typically people like to engage with Trivia questions. So I form it in the form of like a game and I have three quiz questions. The first question is how many of each animal did Moses take on the ark?
And if you didn't know that's a trick question. It wasn't Moses. It was Noah. That's usually get some laughing. The second question is Moses did go up onto the mountain and received two tablets from God and on those tablets were written a set of Commandments.
How many commandments were there you would be surprised how many people did not know? That there were ten commandments given to Moses.
I'm.
Sure, you would think that one would be fairly easy Because most of us are familiar with ten commandments, but they would. I have 113. You know 27. I mean I and that's not a lie. I'm not exact. This is within the last five days I've been doing this and we started last Thursday.
I've been there the majority of the nights and have had this conversation every time I was there at least once or twice and Then I get to the third question. How many can you name of? The Ten Commandments, how many can you name now?
This is in rule? America, this is Callahan, Florida. This is a city where everybody goes to church. Not everybody, but you know a lot of people do and yet when I asked them how many commandments can you name?
Most of them look like deer in headlights now a few of them got some. But very rarely do they know the Ten Commandments? So as I said going back to the first thing with with Al Mohler. What what he said is is is something I have experienced anecdotally and I want to challenge you about something That I believe will go a long way toward increasing you as a student of the Bible and That is to commit yourself to some of the basics.
Commit yourself to learning some of the basics without looking at the board. How many of you know how many books of the Bible there are? How many of you know how many are New Testament? Okay, how many of you oh by the way, there's a little handy thing Patsy Hoffman taught me and Bobby years ago.
She was our Sunday school teacher when we were little and that is that you have 66 books in the Bible the 39 books of the Old Testament 3 times 9 is 27. That's how many are in the New Testament. So it's just a nice little handy Reminder that 39 books in the Old Testament 3 times 9 is 27.
Adam up. That's 66. So that just is a good way to remember how many books are in the Bible. How many of you without looking can name all of the books of the Bible? Okay, only a few. All right. Now how many of you know without having to research it who wrote those books.
Okay, that's a again. These are all helpful Things that it would be good to put into our memory because all of those things are Good in the again in the observation Stage knowing who wrote the book knowing where the book is in the Bible and Again.
You can't know where the books are if you don't know what the books are. So the learning the books of the Bible and you can learn them. I want to throw this up there. You can learn them learn where they are.
By recognizing that they're not put together chronologically, but they're put together categorically. Now when I teach the Old Testament survey Which would be the next course and hopefully you guys who haven't taken it will take it when we do the Old Testament survey I will I'll get into this more deeply but the Old Testament books are put in categories not in chronological order.
But categorical order so we have in the Old Testament the law of Moses followed by the history books of the Old Testament. Then the poetic books of the Old Testament and then the prophets which are broken down into major and minor and if you knew that then you can at least begin to think about where the books are and You know, like if I said everybody turned to nay whom you know, would you know where that was?
These are all just little things that are good for all of us. So a good observation question is where am I in the Bible. Another good observation question is when am I in the Bible? The Bible is written over a 1 ,500 year period and it spans a time much greater than that.
Being able to see where each books each book lands in the timeline of redemptive history is Helpful. This is one of the things I think is most important about our New Testament survey. Because when I teach the New Testament survey, one of the things that I do in that class is Help everyone to understand what order the books came in.
It's important. What do you think is the first book of the New Testament written? Probably the book of James that's right. If not James then it would have been the book of Galatians. Galatians was certainly Paul's first letter that he wrote.
So these are things that are important when we begin to look at their theology and the Timing of their theology and we have an idea of when James would have been written. Somewhere in the late 40s probably 48 or 49.
When did Jesus die? Around 30. Yeah, I heard you say 33. We know he was 33 years old. But it was doubtful that he was born exactly at the beginning of the millennium and as far as timetables go. So we probably say we say somewhere around 30, which means the first New Testament book was written at least two decades.
After the death burial and resurrection of Christ. The Gospels were not written until the 50s and John's Gospel probably into the 60s and all of this is just It's not just trivial knowledge. It's helpful knowledge.
Most of you have study Bibles somewhere in your house. When you open your study Bible up to the book of John or whatever you'll notice it says date and time theme and all those things that's in that study Bible and that there's a reason why they go to the trouble of Putting that information in there.
It's because that's going to help you understand what the book means. Understanding when it was written who was written by who was written to all of those are important.
Okay.
So that was a little introduction. Now let's move to our study for tonight and that is the subject of observation on The subject of observation we are going to look at six things to look for. Remember what we said last time.
It's not just it's not just looking but it's knowing what to look for. Well tonight we're going to try to Examine what it is. We should be looking for. What should we be looking for? Number one. Or I'm sorry, not number one.
Let me say this first when I first asked you to give me ten observations on Romans 12 wanted to. Some were not quite sure what I was asking for and in the textbook. Dr. Hendricks gives the example of a doctor looking into the throat to see When it was sore, why was it soared?
Remember that part of the book. If you read your textbook he talked about that he said he said you could look in somebody's throat all day long and Not know what was making their throat sore but a doctor can look very quickly and say okay it's strep throat or it's this or it's that because he knows exactly what he's looking for and That's part of what observation is not just Looking but knowing what we are looking for.
So with that in mind Here are the six things number one We're going to look at. We're going to look for things that are Emphasized. Consider the amount of space that's given to something or the stated purpose of Something or the order or the movement from lesser to greater or vice versa from greater to lesser.
Give you an example.
On this.
Where is the Sermon on the Mount?
Matthew what?
Matthew chapter 5 when does it end? Matthew chapter 7 which means in a book that is 28 chapters long. Three whole chapters are dedicated to one sermon.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely, absolutely. So we know that that is emphatic not only in chapters 5 6 7, but it's emphatic in the book. Matthew is writing to whom I Say what you're saying because I can't. Matthew is writing primarily to a Jewish audience.
We know this based upon how much he references the Old Testament and how much he points to the fact that Jesus is the king of the Jews. He's writing to a primarily Jewish audience and so when we read Matthew and we get to Matthew chapter 5 we get to this long emphasis on Jesus is great.
Sermon on the Mount. And what is Emphasized in the Sermon on the Mount. Yeah, but what is. How does he how does he teach the law? You have heard it said but I say Unto you. But he said but I say unto you.
Jesus is correcting Misunderstanding about the law. You have heard it said but I say unto you. And. So this again is a major emphasis in.
Matthew.
It's something that is given a lot of space. Sometimes a stated purpose will be clear. Sometimes a book will simply or a passage will simply say This is the stated purpose first John these things have been written that you may know that you have eternal life.
I mean that the word no is in the book of first John all throughout. In fact, some people call it the no book. K &O W no. Why do they call first John the no book. Because it's he says multiple times these things are written that you may know That you have eternal life.
So therein is a is A stated purpose he stated there. You don't have to wonder What his intention was again go to the end of John's gospel. What does he say? Same thing that you may believe on the Son of God.
I've written these things that you may believe on the Son of God. That's the purpose of all that he wrote before he says I wrote. He says if all the things that Jesus had done had been written Wouldn't be enough books in the world to contain it, but these things have been written that you may believe.
Right. So John is clear with his stated purpose and there again. This is something that's being emphasized by the author if the author emphasizes it. Then we need to recognize there's a reason for that.
There's a reason for that emphasis. Order is Important as I said, we'll see this in certain times where the order of a.
Particular.
Subject is put out and we see. I'm trying to think of a good example I don't have one in my mind right now. But just where order of events takes place certain things happen. And again the movement from the lesser to the greater we see that a lot.
We see something it'll begin and it'll say and and this thing is better or this thing is greater and again, all of those are just.
Emphasizes.
Or emphasis is that's a bad you emphases. These are all places where emphasis is put. Yes. You've heard of both ways. Okay good. So things that are emphasized.
Keywords.
All of those things are things to immediately look for. Number two is. Things that are repeated. Terms phrases and clauses that are repeated. Characters whose names are repeated. Incidents and circumstances that are repeated.
What's the one event? That is in all four Gospels. There's only a few events that are in all four Gospels. Can y 'all think of what they are?
Huh?
Crucifixion that's good. Julie. Yep crucifixions in all four Gospels. What else is in all four Gospels goes right along with it the resurrection. I was thinking that when you're right Ed there that was the one I was going to mention.
Most people don't realize Jesus death burial and resurrection is in all four Gospels because that is The heart of the gospel that he died first ends. He was buried. He rose again for our Justification that is in all four Gospels.
But also Ed was right the other event that most people don't realize is in all four Gospels is the feeding of the five thousand.
And.
So we see this Incident that's repeated all four Gospels. Yeah, but those two occasions are in one book. Yeah, and Not all of them record that he did it twice that once he fed five thousand. Once he fed four thousand.
Not all the Gospels record that but they all record the feeding of the five thousand.
A.
Reoccurring patterns, there's a pattern in Scripture that is important and it is a it's it's a Hebrew pattern of writing and it is a. It's based on the letter X which is in the in the Greek is the letter key.
I'm sorry. Excuse me. That's not right the letter key. Which looks like it looks like our X but there's a pattern Where you will see like one two three and then two a and then three a and What it is is there's a there's a focal point here and this will match this and this will match this and it's called a key.
And this pattern is actually found throughout the Old Testament. I've shown it several times in the book of Genesis alone since I've been preaching through Genesis I've stopped at a few places and I've said see this story.
This story is built around the structure of the key asm where the most important part of the story is actually right here because this builds up to it and this builds away from it and There's this center point that the whole story is pointing to and this is a way That Hebrew writers would emphasize a specific thing and it was called a key asm and this is just another Pattern that we see repeated and it shows emphasis.
It's emphasizing one thing. If I can think about it during the break I'll try to find one and pull out and actually show you how it looks but that's that's just an example of another pattern that we see.
Think of. This isn't a key asm but thinking of patterns. When you hear in the in the book of Genesis chapter 1 What is it? What's the repeating thing in chapter 1? And it was good and it was good and it was good and it was good.
It was good, right? It was over and over there's this repetition, right? Why would there be an emphasis on the concept of goodness in chapter 1? Because God is good. Because there's going to be a major Distinction between that which is not good and that's the sin of chapter 3 so we see the goodness of God's creation everything he did was good and it follows that repetitious pattern of his goodness versus our ungoodness or sinfulness badness we also see the New Testament use of Old Testament passages like Psalm 110 1 and Leviticus 1918 are among the most quoted Old Testament passages in the New Testament.
You may know what Leviticus 1918 is. It's a surprise. Somebody open your Bible and turn tip. I say it's a surprise. I don't mean like. It's interesting that this is the most one of the most quoted verses the Old Testament.
That last part. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. When Jesus was asked what are the two great commandments in the law? The first when he quotes is from is. Yeah, he says love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength but then he says and love your neighbor as yourself and That phrase is only found once in the Old Testament.
It's in Leviticus 19 verse 18 an obscure Passage in Leviticus. Jesus says is the most important. Love your neighbors yourself. And it's the one of the most repeated in the New Testament. Alright, so we've we've seen things that are emphasized things that are repeated by the way if you want to dive deeper into any one of these your book does.
That the book gives great examples of these that all I'm doing is reminding you of what's in the book. Allowing you to ask questions. So if you if you're reading the book, then you're you should be ahead of the class.
You should be right where you right where we can have these conversations. Number three things that are related movement from the general to the specific Questions and.
Answers and.
Cause and effect. One of my favorite things in the Bible is cause and effect. And we all remember cause and effect from school. At least I hope. And it based on the concept of if Then and we understand that the cause is the if and the effect is the then.
If you are driving Fast and you pass a police officer then you may get. You may get stopped or you may get a ticket or you you know. You may at least have a moment where you reassess your speed. And I think most of us have done that but we were driving a little faster than we should have and we see the Lights on top of the car and we slow down a little bit more quickly.
What's that?
I.
Still didn't have no idea.
He was he was famous on the north side, right? Oh.
Yeah, it was just you right over my head. Yeah. Okay. Well, it's just you know, it's funny. The Bible says the law brings a knowledge of sin and I always think about that when I'm driving and I see the cop car behind me and it makes me feel like I need to Slow down, even if I'm not driving fast, you know.
It's like it's like the law brings a knowledge of sin. The law on the rearview mirror. Say what I need to check up and my brake lights working. Good, you know is my you know, it's my tagging order. You know, so all these things kind of come to your mind because the law is there you know and.
Huh.
Yeah. Yeah. Amen. Yeah, so These are all you know. We look for things that are related in the passages things, you know moving from the general to the specific moving from you know. If the text asks a question and then answer it that's a that's related and look for those things.
Look for the cause and effects number four. Look for things that are alike. And you guys remember similes and metaphors? Similes use like and as you know if I say To my wife you are like a rose. You know or you smell like a rose, right?
That is a simile. I'm using like but a metaphor is a Comparison that doesn't use like or as so if I tell my wife you are a rock. You know, you're my rock, you know, you're the. You know that that might be a different way of describing her and it is a different way of describing her, but it's also a different way of Communicating what I'm trying to say the Bible uses both.
Jesus was very famous for using Similes we often refer to them as parables the kingdom of heaven is like This or that right and he would make a parable or a reference. He'll reference something that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.
Or the kingdom of heaven is like this or like that. That's something that's being emphasized. It's something that needs to be recognized. People get upset with the concept of metaphor because Sometimes people say we should never use metaphor.
The Bible is always literal. Well, the Bible isn't always Literal and when we get to the interpretation stage I'm going to try to explain what I mean by that some people get offended when I say what people ask me.
Do you do you interpret the Bible? Literally? I say no, I Interpret the Bible literarily means I interpret it according to the literature Form that's being used and if you try to interpret Psalms literally or the Song of Solomon Literally, you're gonna come up with some very strange-looking folks.
I Mean think about how he describes the the Shulamite woman. You know in her body and her face and and you know, it's it's very to him. It was saying she was beautiful. But to us, you know, if you say, you know All the things that he said about her.
It's very awkward, but they were met up you what? Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. The metaphors of the day, you know, if Ron came to you and says you have a neck like a giraffe. You probably wouldn't be overly excited about that that that that Compliment, but in that day it had a positive Way it was a positive message and metaphor in Scripture is is used.
I think one of the most important ones is. And this might offend some of you. But I'm gonna throw it out there and do with it what you want when Jesus said unless you eat my body and drink my blood. Many people have taken that literally and created an entire theology of.
Real.
Presence sacrament sacramental real presence in the in the bread and the cup certainly Rome has Surely gone further than is Proper by creating an entire propitiatory Sacrifice out of that communion table, but.
But it's.
When Jesus held holds up the bread and said this is my body. He didn't say this is like my body he said this is my body and Luther was one who believed that. The body and blood are present in the bread and the cup and when he met with Yorick Zwingli at the Marburg Colloquy they had 15 points of doctrine that they disagree that they discussed and.
Only one.
Did they disagree on. And it was the presence of Christ in the Eucharist or the bread in the cup and. It is said that Luther became enraged.
By.
Zwingli because wing Lee said When Jesus said this is My body he was speaking metaphorically is There is Metaphor like if I say my wife is my rock you know or if I take a picture of my family out and I say this is my family and you say wow you Gave birth to a piece of cardboard with ink.
No, this represents my family. And so the word is in they would mean represents. When Jesus holds up the bread he said this is my body if he's speaking metaphorically He means this represents my body, but Luther beat on the table and he said Hoke asked Corpus ma 'am, which was Latin for this is my body and he would not accept anything other than the literal interpretation of that phrase and therefore he and Zwingli divided and Never were united again over that one point of doctrine and It was a question of whether or not is that passage speaking? literally or metaphorically.
So went a little farther on that than I wanted to but you understand the importance of it now, right? Why that's emphasized that's something that's so rather something that's alike that you need to decide.
How are we going to interpret this?
All right.
Number five we said things that are alike that was number four things that are unlike Number five. I love the word but and when I say that I mean the word adversative.
But.
Because it changes things. But when we say it in the Bible it always changes things. Something be going along and they'll say but and then you know. It's saying you all know this because of how you interact if somebody come to you.
If you know you you guys out there if you met a young lady and she says, you know I really like you and I enjoy spending time with you and I enjoy our date. But you don't want to hear anything after that.
You are you are no longer interested. You want her to stop right there.
Because.
Whatever is coming is going to be different Than what just came. Now many of you guys have shirts. I've seen you wear them that have on the back but God. And that's taken from Ephesians chapter 2 that says we were dead and trespasses and sins in which we once walked.
Right, but God Being rich in mercy has saved us by grace. The word but that's why I say the word but it's one of the most beautiful words because it changes things and that's that if you are ever studying a passage of Scripture and You come across that word.
Circle it highlight it draw a line to let yourself know. Something just changed. Metaphors. Often show contrast. Like for instance the unrighteous judge in Luke 18. What's Luke 18 about? Yes, remember.
Somebody open your Bible. Let's look at it real quick. That's about Jesus. Thank you Ross for that stirring commentary. It's about the widow and What does she do? That's right. She comes to the judge every day.
Seek.
She she's seeking justice from her adversaries. Right when she comes seeking justice from her adversary the king doesn't care. But eventually she comes so much we call it the parable the persistent Widow because she's persistent and finally the king says I'm gonna give her justice not because I care but because she's been so persistent.
And. What does it say about God in that passage. No, the next part the next one because it compares this parable is compared to God, what does it say?
Yeah Okay.
Right there, so here's the story. You got an unrighteous judge Who's willing to give justice to a woman who's persistent and Jesus says and will not.
The Lord.
Give justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night. What's he doing? He's using a Contrasting metaphor if an unrighteous judge is willing to give justice because of a persistent Request how much more would the righteous God of heaven be willing to grant justice to those who call out to him?
You see the comparison there, but it's an unlike comparison. God isn't like the unrighteous judge. But the point is if an unrighteous judge will do it how much more and again the lesser to the greater how much more would the God who is just give justice to his elect.
So it's just again. That's that looking for that contrast. Irony irony is sometimes hard to define. There was a whole song about it never got it once. Rain on your wedding day. Not ironic. Unfortunate not ironic.
Do you know what I'm talking about? There's a song in the 90s came out. It was called ironic. You know rain on your wedding day all this stuff. None of it was ironic. That's not irony. Okay, go ahead Bobby.
I know you want to say That's right. That's right. The song itself is ironic because there's no irony in it and yet it's about irony. That's great. Yeah, yeah, don't you think okay?
So.
Having said that there are some ironic statements in the Bible. There are times when the Bible uses irony and I and I would add to that I think there's a time when the Bible uses sarcasm. Some people might not think of God Willing to use sarcasm but certainly the prophets were when the prophets of Baal were crying out to their false God and Elijah says maybe your God is Relieving himself.
Maybe he's asleep.
Maybe if you yell louder or cut yourselves deeper He will respond. That's that's great. That's dripping with sarcasm. Yes.
We're talking about last night when Jesus healed the blind man and they bring him before the Pharisees and they start drilling. He's like all I know is I was blind and healed me. He said it wasn't I just told you.
That's right. That's a good example. Well, you do. You want to follow him and then they get all enraged. Yeah, absolutely. I mentioned here Luke 8 45 under irony when Jesus says who touched me now. You might not think of that as an ironic statement.
I've always thought it was some semi ironic simply because Jesus knows everything. But why is he saying that? Hold on. I want to hear what Frank. Frank's trying to talk. What were you saying? I can't hear you.
Being healed yeah.
You know and it was like it was almost like it was in it it was like it was. It's like it was a side issue. You know what I mean? What it wasn't like all right in front of me like most of the time. You would come in and get healed and they would you know, they would they would come to.
Yeah, and bow down before them, you know and try to but in this case. Just really.
Yeah, what were you saying Juliet. I'm gonna catch off. I just won't be able to hear both.
I can just touch.
Well, like I said the the the irony of just Jesus asking that question Who touched me. As if one as if he didn't know and two if you read the story It says they were all pressing in upon him. Everybody's touching you.
That's the irony. Everybody's touching you. What are you talking about? I know somebody touched me though. Somebody received healing and He knew who it was, but you go ahead.
Well that well, I don't have. I don't I I don't want to spend too much time on it. They're in that particular situation. There's two events going on. Jairus Has a daughter. Jairus comes to Jesus come and heal my daughter.
Right, how old's his daughter. Twelve-year-old daughter. Woman comes with an issue of blood. We don't know her name. So we'll just say the woman. How long has she had the issue of blood? Twelve years before this event.
God Sovereignly brought about the birth of a child and an issue of blood with a woman that we don't even know her name. So that in this moment the power of God could be shown twice in one day. One in healing the woman's of her issue of blood and one with raising a child from the dead.
We see God working. Post. Or rather pre this moment. He's working in the past to bring about this event right now and Both of them twelve-year-old.
Issues.
That's right shows us the sovereignty of God. Even before healing and love and mercy and all that. God is the one who's bringing us about to glorify His son and demonstrate his power before the people.
So that's the part a lot of people miss because you don't even think about the connection between the two.
Things that are unlike let's go now number six things that are true to life. The whole Bible is true to life, but what I mean what the book means is What does this passage tell us about reality. Like for instance with Noah and the flood.
Noah and the deluge. What is it that we learn about? The world in that huh. Well There's some truth to that that We see a world filled with sinful people and the world is still filled with sinful people who are doing simple things.
Also tells us something about why the world looks the way it does. Think about the Grand Canyon and all those different things that are probably the results of the great deluge. Why do people do not huh?
John Pitts, yeah. But why do people deny? That the earth is young because they say well look at all these rock formations. They couldn't have been formed in a very short amount of time unless of course there was a giant Deluge that happened six to ten thousand years ago.
But they don't believe that. What aspects of the text resonate with your experience? I've been preaching Genesis 22 and it's hard to not read Genesis 22 as a father a father who is commanded take your son your only son Isaac whom you love and Sacrifice him on the mountain that becomes Something that resonates with our experience.
One of the other ones it's not on here. But one of the ones that really resonates with me is the death of Nadab and Abihu. I mentioned that passage a lot because it strikes my heart so much. These two men were priests before God they were the sons of Aaron.
They offered up a strange fire before the Lord. We have no idea what that fire was like or what it was that they did that was so offensive to God other than that they offered up something that he did not command and In offering up something that God did not command the fire came out from the temple.
Or the tabernacle and consumed them. In front of their father and it says and Aaron held his peace. Didn't tell him not to weep he said. For though nope didn't say that either. He says for those who draw near to me.
I must be considered holy and Aaron held his peace. God was demonstrating that if you are going to draw near to me if you're going to come and offer Sacrifices in my temple you better take it seriously.
Yeah, but I think in regard to the holiness when God says those who draw near to me must consider me holy. I think it's regarding because they came to him in a way that was flippant. They came. I think that's I think that's the context of that statement.
But certainly what you said is also true. I just think for that particular one isn't is regarding that. What life principles is it relying upon or proposing think of the incident with David and Bathsheba.
What are some of the life principles that we learned from David and Bathsheba? Don't watch women take baths that might not be the the right one, but that's certainly there.
Don't cheat. Don't peep. Tom wasn't called peeping Tom. I said what. So, you know all these things. Don't be a voyeur. Whatever. That's the more that's the more appropriate term.
Go to work. All the other Kings are out of battle and you're staying home. Yeah. Oh Yeah, so many principles lying. But have y 'all seen that meme of the guy standing next to the basketball Game, and he's just standing like this and he's got this really like like really disappointed look on his face.
It's just a meme and it's out there and there's a lot of people have done things with it. And he's just got this kind of like he look I don't know what game he was at. It was he was out of he was at a basketball game he's standing on the bleachers by himself and he's got his hands on his hips and he's just Looking really upset.
And and the funniest one I've ever seen is like Uriah when he sees David get to heaven. I mean cuz you know Uriah is the victim here and He was so he loved David so much I won't even go to my house. David's like go.
It's.
Shouldn't laugh, but it's funny. Dr. Hendricks mentions using sanctified imagination now. I Would caution you to not use sanctified Isagesis. Which is reading things that aren't there, but it is important to have imagination now.
Did I mention last week about the Abraham and Isaac Video that my wife and I watched. You know, I'm preaching. I think I mentioned it in my sermon maybe that's where you heard it. But Abraham and Isaac go to the mountain for the sacrifice.
That you can really imagine. But there's a movie where the where where Sarah's running and screaming don't kill him don't kill him and it's like That's not in the Bible that's not even like there's nothing in the Bible to indicate that she even knew.
So it just it's that's Isagesis that's reading into the text something that's not there. Hey, she was a spry hundred, okay, she was you know. But the point is what I put here feeling emotions and experience.
These are things that we can do when we read the text. I think about some of those times where the disciples were with Jesus and they thought they were going to die. And they're on the boat on the Sea of Galilee which was a place that was known for storms coming upon Sailors or fishermen with no warning and the storms would come with sheer intensity at the drop of a hat and they see this coming and they see what's about to happen and they think they're Gonna die.
And Jesus is.
Asleep.
And what do they say?
Lord we're perishing.
And we laugh because we're like the the one who invented the storm is.
In the boat with you.
If we can for a moment put ourselves there. You know, have we not been just as afraid in a moment? I remember one time I was coming down 295 and I was getting on to 95 so it's right over here and There's a spot where it curves back really hard and this is before they started the construction this had to been 20 years ago and I was in my old Dodge pickup, so there's a long bed Dodge pickup and As I hit the curve my back tires broke loose and the car began to spin.
By God's grace it caught back again and I was able to correct it and it didn't continue to Because it could have spun into a roll and could have easily have killed me, but I remember in that moment Being more frightened than I'd ever been just having the car Essentially go out of my control and even though it was only for a few seconds It was a very clarifying few seconds as I was scared to death.
So when I think about these guys on the Sea of Galilee with the water Beginning to overtake the boat and the rain and the wind coming in It's easy to use a little sanctified imagination and to hear the guttural sound of their Lord we are perishing.
It's real. It was real and that is a That's something that's helpful when you're reading the text.
Few extra things on this we've looked at the six things But I want to I'm going to give you a few things that aren't necessarily in the book, but these are just additional thoughts. Grammatical construction is Very important and I've already talked about this once but we're going to do this in a little while when we actually look at a text.
Oh, we're almost out of time. So we have much time grammatical construction identifying nouns verbs, etc. Discuss sentence you guys you guys know how to diagram sentences some people Know what it is. Some people don't even know what it is.
It was something that was done in schools for a long time. It wasn't done in my era and so most of you who are around my age didn't do it, but Sentence diagramming is Very helpful. I watched my wife teach my son Cody and I would like stand over shoulder Like because I was learning While she was teaching him, yeah, I mean I was watching her dude, I was amazed it was very neat.
And this again is the reason why we need a solid Bible translation because if you're diagramming sentences out of the message You might have some trouble and One of the things that dr. Hendricks his book does it talks about reading different Bible translations?
And he did mention the message and a few other translations. But when you're doing your study It's one thing to read but when you're doing your actual study and you're seeking to determine the meaning I recommend a good solid Literal translation rather than a paraphrase or even a dynamic equivalent.
Dynamic equivalent would be like the NIV or the New Living Translation. Those are not literal translations those use a dynamic approach to translation, which is not bad, but it's just You're not you're not getting as close to the original as you can.
My recommendation is to try, you know, New American Standard Bible is probably one of the best. It's a little bit more wooden when you read it. It's not as it's not as Eloquent as Some others but it's very good.
The ESV is Like the NASB. It's a little bit. I think it's a little smoother. The King James Bible is Very good. Obviously, it's been around for 400 years.
There are you're going to have some difficulties with the King James Bible when it comes to the use of Language that we might call our Yeah, you can you get a new New King James is. Yeah, so yeah. And I don't want to get into this right now again for the sake of time, but there is.
There there's two different well there are two primary manuscript families that the texts the modern texts are drawn from the King James and the New King James draw from the Byzantine text Tradition and the ESV and New American Standard draw from the Alexandrian text tradition and those are.
You're going to have some differences in those that's something most people aren't even familiar with. So that's another thing that is helpful to realize. But again for the sake of time I don't have time to get into that but just know that if you're reading from the King James or the New King James and You're reading from the ESV in the New American Standard Bible There are going to be some some differences that aren't just differences of translation because they're coming from two different manuscript families so for instance There are certain verses that aren't in the ESV that are in the King James like whole verses.
And people don't realize that people get it people freak out about that because they don't know anything about it. But it is something that to keep in mind. It'll be it's typically in the notes or at the the superscripts or something.
A lot of time I don't remember where it is.
There's there's a passage where the whole book the whole verse is missing. When I do my textual critic I do a textual criticism class and I usually start by saying okay everybody take out your Bible and turn to this passage and half.
The people don't have it and it's kind of fun to get see everybody go. Wait a minute. Mine goes from verse 3 to verse 5. There's no verse 4.
Yeah Let's.
Go continue on because we're out of time. Translation differences and choices. Look at the passage another translation or several. Note where different translators make choices in the language and examine the original language if possible now.
When it comes to examining the original language, I'm a big proponent of learning as much as you can about the Greek in the Hebrew. But understand this most of the time. It's not going to change the meaning.
I love it when I hear it, I love it that was sarcasm. When I hear a pastor Spend 10 minutes going to the Greek and all he did was tell you what the English said in the first place. They say well, this is the word agape and agape means love and this data data data.
Then he spends 10 minutes going through it and that's it means love.
That's what it said.
It's I can speak English. I don't if the translation doesn't change anything. Then why spend all this time? Pointing out what the original language says if it doesn't change anything or if it doesn't make anything any clearer.
Go ahead.
Like there's one word. But that word used. Some place is different. Yes. So that knowing that are Greek now, I go to my Greek. Yeah, I didn't say it was. I didn't say it was useless.
I was saying there are times When people make a big deal about the Greek and they spend time in sermon I think sometimes it's almost just a fill time to talk about what the Greek says and it's the same as the English.
It doesn't really have a different meaning. Well again when we say differently, you know, it's just like again for time I'll try to make this quick, but when you have the word Agape right and you have the word Phyllis right.
Those are two Greek words. Both of them mean love right. So agape means love phyllis means love and there have been entire books written about the difference between agape love and Phyllis love. The problem is there are times when they're used interchangeably.
So the idea that there's this great that this is self-sacrificing love and this is just the love between friends. This is the love God has and this is the love that we have and and there's all these distinctions and I'm like.
Yeah, it doesn't hurt to know things like this but it's When Jesus was sitting next to Peter and he was saying do you love me. Remember after he came out of the boat? Jesus or Peter swam to the shore and sat next to Jesus and they're talking and Jesus says, you know, do you love me?
Peter says yes. He says feed my lambs. Remember this. They asked him three times. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me in English? It's do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? But in Greek?
It's agape agape.
Phyllis.
Which is interesting because people would have thought it would be the other way people would have thought because phyllis is supposed to be. The lesser that it would have gone lesser lesser greater, but it doesn't it goes Agape agape phyllis and it goes backwards.
So there are little things like that. You can note if You know more about the original language, but what I'm saying is don't let that be a barrier to study. Well, I don't know the original language. I can't really know what it says.
No, you really can't. Even without that you can the English we have so we have a wealth of knowledge in our English translations. Last thing consider parallel passages. Has this story been told elsewhere.
Does this subject come up in other passages? Is there a need to harmonize an account? I talk a lot about this in my New Testament class because there are passages in the Gospels that tell the story differently.
Understanding how to harmonize those stories is very important, especially the Resurrection. There's four different resurrection stories when I say different what I mean is they all emphasize something different and you have to be able to read all four of them as one and.
Will another passage shed light on this passage? I Like what JC Ryle says he says we must read our Bibles like men digging for hidden treasure. That's the goal and that's observation. All right, we're going to take our break and we'll come back.
We'll go we're gonna we're gonna look at a passage and we'll go over our work.