Systematic Theology (part 32)

Today, let me give you a little background. We're going to be talking about progressive sanctification. What I say in the next two or three or four weeks will not be exhaustive, and it will be probably a reminder to a well-taught church.

And BBC is a well-taught church. But we need to be reminded about the basis and means of progressive sanctification, that is, our growing in Christ, our realizing what it means that we are predestined to be conformed to His image.

We need to be reminded of that often because we are worksy people, and I'll talk about that in a bit as we come to that. Let me move these. Well, let me give you a little background about why we're going there.

As some of you know, I teach a Bible study to the Hardwick tribe on Sunday nights, to the Hardwickians. And it's kind of a New Tribes project. No, that's not right. If you're from Hardwick, forgive me, all right?

And we have folks in that Bible study from several churches, from several towns. It's not thousands. Okay. And we've even had a lady that has come two or three times from Providence, Rhode Island, and I kid myself that she has come for the scintillating teaching.

But anyway, she has. We have folks that come from Spencer and a variety of churches. Some of them are mature Christians who have been well-taught. Some of them are believers in the Lord, but they have not been well-taught.

In fact, they have in their pursuit of Christlikeness, some of them have fallen into worksiness. And we want to talk about that during these weeks. We even have one dear lady that has come. When she first came, she had no idea what believer was about at all.

And here's what we've been doing. I don't know if you're aware of this. I don't mean to walk away from you guys, but you're sitting on the minority side. And if my saying that causes you to want to scurry to a safe space, why don't you just fasten your seatbelt and get a life, okay?

That'd be right. Anyway, she's a lady in her 80s. She came once, and then the next time she came, her background is Roman Catholic, that's about par for the course in New England, of course. The next time she came, she came with a Bible, a brand new Bible, that she had bought, which was the first Bible that she had ever owned in her life.

Okay. During the last year, actually more than a year, we have been doing what New Tribes missionaries do when they go to tribes. In the case of New Tribes missionaries, they may go to a tribe where the language has never been heard, where it certainly has never been written, where the culture and language have to be learned and all of that.

I was able to do that pretty quickly in Hardwick, okay? But for New Tribers, it takes longer. But the problem there is, the problem there is, they get to places where the people will tell, some of the people will tell them, I think about the Palawanos in the Philippines, when the first New Triber got there, they said, well, we're all Christians.

Well, it was not more than about a day and a half or two, then he realized they thought they were Christians because they came to meetings that were called, they didn't chew as much betel nut, they didn't beat their wives as much.

And so what he concluded was that somebody has come along, given them John 3 .16, said, say the prayer, now you're Christians, and tribal folks will do that, because no matter how poorly you are supported as a missionary, you are fabulously wealthy, compared to folks that have never, in a few cases, ever seen anybody that has come from the outside.

And so anyway, these guys did that. So this guy went, oh man, what am I going to do? And so what he finally concluded was, after trying to start in Romans, after doing the Gospel of Mark, because it's short and fairly easy to translate and all of that, after doing all of that, he concluded, I'm just going to start at the beginning.

And so he went to Genesis and started there and ended up at Christ. What he did that a lot of us don't do is he wrote down what he did. That came to be known in New Tribes Mission as the Chronological Gospel.

If you are familiar with other mission boards, up to 40 of them, you will realize that that has become the standard operating procedure in delivering the Gospel for many mission boards, Africa Inland Mission, SIM, Southern Baptist Convention, all of that.

But that began with a frustrated Australian New Triber in the Philippines back in the early part of the 80s. And if we have time sometime, I'll show you the video etal where you see this being done with tribal people.

Now for the Hardwickian tribe, we just decided, okay, put aside all you know about Bible background, and we're going to start at the beginning, and we're going to go from, in the beginning God, let there be light, and all of that, and we're going to end up over here at Christ.

And it is useful to do that even with people that have some Bible background. And the reason it's useful is there are many people sitting in churches, probably not so many at BBC, but in many churches who cannot figure out if this God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament.

And you will hear unbelievers complain about that regularly. How is all this murder and mayhem, and all the stuff that goes on in the Old Testament, how does that relate to the New Testament? And many of these folks in the Bible study that we began out there did not understand that.

And so for that reason we had been doing that. And by the way, let me say, for those of you that may have that same confusion in your mind, what you find in the Old Testament is one end of the word propitiation.

You know what propitiation is, right? Propitiation is not just that Jesus died on the cross, and He paid the legal price for my sin. It is that He also took away the wrath of God. In the process, the illustration I usually use is about my 17-year-old Dodge Durango.

It is a good old truck. It only has 60 ,000 miles on it. I pull my trailer with it. I like it. But if I am driving my Dodge Durango down the road, and you T-bone me with your dump truck, my Durango is going to be totaled.

And you know what the insurance company is going to say? 17-year-old Dodge Durango? Well, we think that is worth a couple thousand dollars. And so they will give me a check for $2 ,000. Now let me ask you a question.

What can you do with $2 ,000 to get wheels in 2016? Nothing. That is what you can do. And so now I have been paid the legal price. Have I not? Yes, I have. That is not propitiation. That is expiation.

The legal price has been paid. And that happened at the cross concerning my sin. But while I have been expiated by the insurance company, I have not been propitiated. Because I am sitting over here in the corner without wheels, still burning at you for hitting me with your dump truck, and I do not have the means to solve the problem.

However, you could propitiate me. You could say, Bob, let's go up to Salvador Chrysler in Gardner. I will buy you a brand new Dodge Ram 2500 with the diesel engine in it and the whole nine yards. And I would say, okay, let's go do that.

And you know what? Between here and Gardner, my anger would be assuaged. It would go right down. And when I drove out of there in that brand new Dodge Ram 2500 with the diesel engine and all that, I would not be angry at you at all.

Not at all. I would have been propitiated. Now, you say, what does that have to do with the cross? It has this to do with the cross. When you read the Old Testament, and you read about all of the things that went on, particularly in the conquest of Canaan, well, at the flood, you say, how big is the wrath of God about sin?

Killed everybody but eight people in the world once over it. That's pretty wrathful. That's pretty angry. And then we have the conquest of Canaan, and we have orders to go in, kill everything, all the animals, all the kids, all the women, all the children.

And we're going, oh, my head's exploding. How can this be? And so on. What it is is an illustration of the wrath of God. We get to the exile. Guys are going to be tied up in Jerusalem while the siege goes on.

You're going to eat each other. You're going to eat your kids. Oh, no. How can this be? How can God permit all of that to happen? It is an illustration of the wrath of God at sin. At the cross, all of that, that so makes our heads explode in the Old Testament, was poured out on Jesus.

And so when we read the New Testament, we do not find all of that. Same God. In America, we can have no idea about the wrath of God because we have no sin in this country. We don't. We have hang-ups.

We have boo-boos. A few of us are neurotic. A few are psychotic. Okay, and we have troubles, and we need safe spaces and crayons and Play-Doh. And some of those things, if anybody should say anything that would cause us to be fearful.

Okay, we need those things. But we don't have sin. And so we don't understand the wrath of God. But that propitiation was made at the cross. So John writes, doesn't he? I write this so that nobody sins.

But if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sin. He has not only paid the legal price, he has borne the anger. When Paul writes to the Romans, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.

Here's how Americans translate that. We have peace with God. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Waves of peace sweep over me. I think I am in a safe space. Nobody is saying anything that upsets me.

There is nothing to upset me. Waves of ecstasy and peace sweep over me. That isn't what that means. What that means is we have peace with God, meaning God is not out to kill you anymore. We are no longer at war with God.

So, when you deliver the Gospel from Genesis to Jesus, as they do in the tribes, and as we did in Hardwick, when you do that, then we understand all about the wrath of God over here in the Old Testament.

We also understand about the promise of a Messiah. We understand about all the looking forward to the redemption of people, and all of that. And so, when we get to Jesus over here, everybody understands why He came, what the necessity is for His presence, and so on.

All of that takes a year to do that. In the tribes, they do it this way. They teach three months for five days a week, twice a day, and you get it done in less than a year that way. It doesn't work quite like that in Hardwick.

Anyway, we had a chance to speak to this dear lady after she had just come a few weeks. In the conversation, another man and I were talking with her, the conversation got around like this. Well, look, if you were to die tonight and stand before God, and He was to say, why should I let you into my heaven, what would you say?

Her answer was, pretty typical American folk theology. Well, she was thoughtful. She said, I would say, I would say I've been a good kid. We went, well, that might be what you say. And we didn't say, oh, no, that's wrong, you know, and so on.

But we understand that she did not understand anything about salvation. But several weeks later, really two or three months later, we were walking away, and she has come faithfully. We were walking away after the Bible study, and I was walking beside her, and I asked her, I said, well, are you believing?

And she said, absolutely. Absolutely. And her understanding of what she believes has come from the Scriptures. And of course, that was a great blessing for us to hear. I said, what does all that have to do with progressive sanctification?

Well, it has this to do. We have folks that now have understood the Gospel. Genesis to Jesus. Okay? I have believed. I'm a believer in Christ. I have learned that I am predestined to be conformed to His image.

We talk about Christian maturity. We talk about growing in Christ and all of that. But I am a believer now. I have been justified. Alright? They don't even know what justified is about when you go from Genesis to Jesus.

Alright? My sin has been credited to Christ's account. His righteousness has been credited to my account. I'm to grow in Christ. Now what? How am I to proceed? If I'm given 70 years or so on the planet...

That was a statement for you young guys. Some of us have already used that up. Alright? If I'm given 70 years or so on the planet, and I am a Christian, how am I to proceed? And here's where the danger comes of falling into worksiness.

And so we have begun to talk about how do I proceed to grow in Christ. Well, when Pradeep and I were talking and I said I could give him a break, I thought, well, that's what I'll do. So I'll just talk to you like I talk to the hard Wiccans.

Okay? And we'll go from there. But I want to build that from the Scriptures. Okay? And it will take me more than today to do that. So, let's have a word of prayer before we get going here. Heavenly Father, we pray now as we come to Your Word, as we come to the matter of growing in Christ, we pray that You would inform us, encourage us, and challenge us to do the things that are effective, necessary, in order to grow in Christ, to find ourselves being conformed to His image, to becoming mature.

We pray that You would, by Your Holy Spirit, bear us along as You bore along the prophets of old in the Word that You have inspired and in the Word which You illumine to our hearts. We pray that Jesus might be glorified in our lives Monday through Saturday until we meet together here again around Your Word.

It's in His name we pray this morning. Amen. Now, I have a handout, okay? This handout is four pages. Four pages? I can't even keep these one-pagers more than a week. They end up on the floor of the car and every place else.

We don't want to give out four-pagers every Sunday for a couple of reasons. As you know, computer people that are in the printer business are not actually in the printer business. They're in the ink business.

And so, we don't want to be copying these over and over again. And I have given out four pages because at some point down the road, when you're feeling like you are and sensing that you are not being conformed to the image of Christ this week, you might go back to some of this stuff and look at it again.

So, maybe it's a little... I don't want to call it a how-to manual because it's not exhaustive, but it will take you through what we have talked about. All right? Well, let's talk about... And so, what I'm saying is, bring this back.

Hang on to it. The next, I think, Pauline, the next, if they have to have a second one, those are five bucks a piece, right? Something like that. Okay. So, anyway, hang on to it because we're going to need it over the next two, three, four weeks, however long this takes.

So, let's talk about the whole business of sanctification. All right? Sanctification has two ends. One of them is, and the word sanctify simply means, its equivalent is holy, okay? It means to be set aside.

All of the hardware in the tabernacle, all of the hardware in the temple, even the stuff that was used to shovel up ashes and carry blood and all of that stuff, all of those dishes are said to be sanctified.

You say, sanctified? I thought that was some superannuated spirituality that Christians are supposed to have. No, no. It means they have been set aside for a particular purpose. And you'll recall that even up to the exile, when those utensils were carried off into Babylon, that they came back finally to Jerusalem and the Babylonians were destroyed.

Because the Babylonians had taken those utensils which were set aside for God's purpose, which were sanctified, which were said to be holy. Okay? And some of them were probably just pot metal and they were used for very mean things in the sacrificial worship of the tabernacle and the temple.

But they were sanctified. So I would call that positional sanctification. When you and I came to Christ and we trusted Him as Savior, we were sanctified. We were set apart from the rest of the world. And that cannot change.

No matter what your behavior is tomorrow and the next day and the next day until we meet back here together, you remain all week, no matter how bad the week goes, you remain sanctified. You are set aside.

You are God's own possession. And that cannot change. But then there is the matter that we're going to discuss over the next few weeks, the matter of progressive sanctification. We talk about that. Progressive sanctification means I am being more sanctified.

I am being more holy. My behavior is changing in some way or other. And if you're saying, that sounds oxymoronic, you're correct. How can I be no more sanctified at any time this week than I already am, and yet at the same time have a whole discussion about being more sanctified?

The nexus of those two things, the intersection of those two things comes together in one of my favorite verses. I assume that Pastor Mike is going to get to it, but I'll give it to you this morning because it's clear over in Hebrews chapter 10.

And perhaps we'll even have the funeral before he gets there. And I will not be able to give you this. All right? Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14. This amazing verse. He has made perfect forever. Got that?

He has made perfect forever. If I were to ask you this morning... And by the way, if you have questions or comments, stick your hand up. I'm not as good as some of these other teachers at asking the probing question.

Okay? I tend to just run on. And so if you need to stick your hand up and go, whoa! Then by all means do it. Okay? He has made perfect forever. That's a perfect tense verb in a passive voice for you Greek scholars.

And that means somebody else has done this. Something happened here. The results of it continue on infinitely toward eternity. Okay? And that is the perfection that I have been made when I came to Christ.

All right? And so there we have in the beginning of that verse positional sanctification. He has made perfect forever. Now watch this. In a striking verb tense change which is missed by some... I don't know what the ESV says.

So I'm going to give you the 1984 NIV. Okay? Which I think is the best translation. He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. It's a present participle. That's why they translate being made holy.

Okay? So there's the intersection of the two things. Positional sanctification and experiential sanctification. Now here's a working definition which is not in the handout. You may have to scribble on the handout but that's all right.

Progressive sanctification is a lifetime of learning and adjusting to what God says I am. Okay? Now we read things like this. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things become new. If I were to ask you this question, you'd have to raise your hand about this. If I were to ask you this question, can the new life in Christ that I have obtained by grace alone, through faith alone, okay, can that new life in Christ, is it capable of sin?

My experience says absolutely. If you know what I say sometimes, if you know what I think sometimes, if you know what I do sometimes, if you know what I don't do sometimes, or what I should, it's quite plain to look at me that apparently, even though I'm a Christian, this new life in Christ still is plagued by sin.

The answer to that, which we're not going to get into here, is in Romans chapter 7. But the answer to it basically is no. He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. When you talk about your experience, that's the being made holy part.

And it goes on day by day. But it goes on from a position of perfection. That new creation in Christ is not capable of sin. It does not sin. I'm not teaching sinless perfection here, okay. I'm just saying that what we have in Christ, what we are in Christ, that new life that has been given to us is perfect forever.

Perfect, perfect. You get it? Even though, during the week, my experience does not look like that. Now, in order to consider progressive sanctification, we have to locate ourselves correctly. The reason we have to locate ourselves correctly is that we are worksy people.

And by that I mean we will always revert left to ourselves, cut loose from the Word. We will always revert to works. And that's why there are only two religions in the world. One of them goes by a thousand names.

But it essentially is salvation by works. It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter whether it's some of the standard religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, whatever. There is a certain kind of muggish that you have to do.

And if you do the muggish right, and enough of it, and all of that, then you will be accepted by whatever the conception of God in that religion is. Even if it's American folk religion. Well, I gaze at crystals and I feel so spiritual.

That's the muggish you have to do in order to find acceptance with God. Alright? The other religion, of course, is salvation by grace. Grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, the Scriptures alone. Your part in it is to receive what God has done.

You can contribute nothing by your effort. Nevertheless, once we come to Christ, then we have this impulse. Okay. Now I'm going to be a good Christian. You may have read the end of Galatians. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness.

All of those things. Alright? And you go, okay, I get it. Tomorrow, tomorrow I'm going to be loving. And anybody that says I'm not loving tomorrow will find out how wrong they are because I'm going to be loving tomorrow.

You will absolutely not be loving tomorrow. Okay? If you attempt to be loving by that. So we've got to get ourselves located properly. And that first sheet on this handout gives some slides. Some of you may be sitting there thinking, oh my goodness, this looks like trichotomy.

Or this looks like tripartiteness. And so on. So I don't know whether you're a bipartiter or a tripartiter. It doesn't matter. You say, what? That's how you look at the nature of man. Okay? And there's a considerable discussion about that in seminaries.

It's whether man is a body and a soul. Or whether man is a body, a soul, and a spirit. All of that. The actual fact of the matter is the Bible speaks of both things. Sometimes, it's plain that we can distinguish between our body and the immaterial part of us.

Okay? That's not too tough for anybody. But when the Bible speaks of the immaterial part of us, the invisible part of us, the part of us that is not material, sometimes it distinguishes between the soul, the spirit, the heart, and all of those things.

But sometimes it distinguishes those things quite plainly as separate things. I do not like the term, by the way, for you that have discussed this in seminary, and I have not, so I have not used this term.

All right? I do not like trichotomy and bichotomy. Okay? Chotomy, the root of that word is to cut. You cannot you cannot take a human being and say, okay, here's a body, here's a soul, here's a spirit.

You can't do that. Man is a unity. Now, those that see a distinction between the soul, the spirit, and the body, which the Bible sometimes does, they say, well, there's good reasons for that. For one thing, God is a unity that exists in three persons.

And so, if man is looked at that way, as the Bible sometimes looks at man, if man is looked at that way, it's reflective of the Trinity. I don't have a complaint about that. But the Bible doesn't always, the Bible doesn't always talk in those terms.

Now, why is this significant? This business about man and his spirit. And let me go to some places in Scripture. This is not exhaustive, okay? Some places in Scripture where the Bible seems to distinguish between the spirit and the soul.

And almost every commentator from the church fathers on says something like this. The spirit of man seems to be the higher level of the immaterial than the soul. In fact, the Bible sometimes uses the term soulishness to indicate the sinfulness of man.

Alright? The soul seems to be something else where the Bible distinguishes between those things. And what I'm going to do as we position ourselves here to begin the discussion of progressive sanctification, I'm going to talk to you as if we are always distinguishing between the soul and the spirit.

Okay? And I distinguish those things where the Bible does. Here are some places. I think this is the Bob theory. Okay? Dr. Ryrie, for example, absolutely doesn't believe this. Says it flat out. Okay? But Dr. Ryrie is not here.

Okay? I am. And so that's what you're going to hear. Alright? The other thing, I think Dr. Ryrie maybe is really not here, right? I think he might be dead. So anyway, Genesis 2, verse 7, these familiar words, And the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

And what I'm going to tell you is there is a thread that connects the words for spirit and breath and wind and air moving and all of that. You say, why are all those things hooked together? Because the words in the Old Testament and the New that are translated by those terms, the wind, the spirit, the breath, and so on, it's all the same word.

In the New Testament, it's pneuma. Okay? So God forms the man of dust to the ground, breathes into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living creature. Dr. Ryrie would say that just means man got animated.

It means he jumped up and ran around. The thing I would point out to Dr. Ryrie and others, I guess, is that such a thing is never intimated about any of the animals who are already running around. Okay?

And so there seems to be something special about the idea that God breathed into Adam what is called the breath of life. And I understand at the flood everything with the breath of life was killed and so on.

I got that. Okay? But He breathed into Adam the breath of life, and the man became, now watch this, a living, can I add this, spiritual creature. Okay? Human beings are the only beings on the earth that have a spiritual side to them, that have a side to them that looks to God, that seeks God, that finds a big empty place when they are estranged from God.

Alright? You say, well, that's not necessarily definitive. Let me give you some other things. Job chapter 27. Job is the oldest book in the Bible. Job predates the writing of the five books of Moses which describe creation.

And here's what Job says in chapter 27, verse 3. As long as my breath is in me, he's saying, I'm not going to curse God, in essence. I'm going to maintain my righteousness. As long as my breath is in me and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils, you see, there seems to be a distinction there.

And there seems to be a connection there between God breathed into Adam, the breath of life. Job talks about that at 32 .8. He says, but it is the Spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.

At Isaiah, Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth. This is 42 .5. And what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and Spirit to those who walk in it.

Got it? He gives breath to the people on it and Spirit to those who walk in it. Alright? Isaiah 57. I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry, for the Spirit in man would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made.

There seems to be a connection between the breath of God and the Spirit of man, which is the essential connection to God. What does John 4, verse 24 say? John 4, verse 24 says, God is Spirit. They that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

Alright? And so there is a Spirit-to-Spirit connection between human beings and God. Let me skip some of this for time's sake. We'll never get out of here by 1230 if I don't. Alright. The famous interview with Nicodemus in John chapter 3.

Jesus says to Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said, you must be born again. The wind blows where... Got that? The wind.

The pneuma. Same word again. Blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the pneuma of the Spirit. The words are the same.

The words are the same. Okay? And then at John chapter 20, this significant... And may I say, as I think back to the creation, God takes Adam, makes him of the dust of the ground, lifts him up, breathes into him the breath of life, and Adam became a living, and I say spiritual creature as opposed, say, to our fox terrier.

Okay? She hasn't had a thought about God that I could discern ever. Alright? Because she's different than a human being. Cute, but different. Alright? So now we go all the way from creation, Genesis to Jesus.

Okay? And at John chapter 20, after Jesus is resurrected, I read this. Jesus said to them... He's with the apostles, the disciples. At this point, He is the resurrected Christ. In about 10 days from this point, in about 10 days, we will see the beginning of the church at Pentecost.

Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me. Even so, I am sending you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, pneuma, okay? And said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit, pneuma.

You get it? The creation is ruined by sin, but when Jesus comes and He redeems mankind, the restoration is seen. There's a little foretaste of the Holy Spirit coming to the church right there. So He breathes on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Paul writes to the Romans, If Christ is in you, this is 8 .10, although the body is dead because of sin, those of us that have exceeded the 3 score and 10 understand about bodies being dead because of sin.

Better than those of you who are still indestructible. Alright? The body is dead because of sin. The Spirit is alive because of righteousness. Even those of you that are holding a translation that has capital S Spirit, which makes no sense.

We'll have a footnote that says or Spirit is alive, probably, at the bottom of that translation. At Romans 8 .16, The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Not with my mind, certainly not with my emotions.

Okay? And not with my decisions, my will, my mind or my will or my emotions. But the Spirit bears witness with my spirit, says the Scriptures, that I am a child of God. Paul, ending his letter to the Thessalonians, says, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely.

Sanctify you completely. Okay? That you'll realize what being set apart, being made perfect forever is all about. And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Seems like there's a distinction between the spirit and the soul there. Hebrews 4 .12, a familiar passage. Mike will come to that soon, no doubt. Okay? The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intention of the heart.

There seems to be a distinction between soul and spirit. 2 Peter 1 .20 -21. Knowing this, first of all, no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man.

But men spoke from God as they were carried along, born along, is a better translation, by the Holy Spirit. You say, why is that a better translation? When it says these prophets were born along by the Holy Spirit, the word that is there translated carried or born along is a word that's used over in Acts chapter 27.