Helpful Tips In Interpreting The Bible

for you to open up the Bible without me, so you can understand.

You don't need a mediator, you don't need someone to go between you and God. That person is Jesus Christ and He's given us this book and I want you to know it.

When I'm dead and gone, I want you to be able to open up the Bible and say, this is what the Bible says and what it means.

Yes, there are hard things in the Bible, but there are so many things in the Bible that are not hard about who

God is and salvation, that I want you to be better interpreters. So, what I've done tonight, and for those of you who are visiting,

I don't have apoplexy or anything, I have a quiz. And so, Steve, maybe would you go in the office and grab some pens?

You don't have to hand this in. My goal is not to find out what you don't know. My goal is at the end of tonight and then next week for you to be able to know better.

Now, I've picked Genesis chapter 8. Here's the good news, it's open Bible. If you don't have a

Bible, you can kind of covertly find one in the back of the pews there. They're black pew

Bibles. You want to get yourself a Bible and you don't have to fill it in. This is for your own good and then we'll go through Genesis chapter 8.

Yeah, thanks Jack. And you can just start filling those in. What does Genesis chapter 8 teach and what doesn't it teach?

And then I'll explain to you why I picked this chapter. And our goal tonight is to look at Genesis 8, figure out what it says and means, and then as we do that, to give you some principles for Bible interpretation.

Not just this chapter, but all kinds of chapters. So Genesis chapter 8, there's your quiz. It's mainly true and false.

Remember, for those of you who haven't been in school for a long time, if anything in the sentence is false, that makes the whole sentence false, right?

Just like with grace and works, you add one part of works to 99 billion parts grace, you get works.

So there are the quizzes. And for those visitors again, they're probably thinking, I've never been to a church that has quizzes.

And so go ahead and fill those out. If you want to work with your spouse or your friend or something like that, you can. And I'll give you about 5 minutes or so.

There is a fill in at the end. And you can open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 8. And there's a reason why

I ask some of these questions and I'll tell you the reason in a minute. God has given us a book and He wants us to know what's in the book.

This is not some kind of magical, mysterious thing that's just for the insightful or the intellectual.

He wants the plowman, the policeman, the pulpiteer, everyone to know

His Word. Can you imagine getting a love letter from your spouse and never reading it?

Sometimes I actually pull out the old love letters file and re -read them. Okay, I won't talk anymore.

You guys get busy. Alright, how are you doing?

Need a couple more minutes? Alright, let's just give you two more minutes. And if you don't get them, that's alright because we'll cover each one.

Okay, one more minute. There will be no bell curve grading.

Alright, before I forget, next Sunday night there will be no Sunday night services. On three -day weekends we're going to try to cut back on Sunday nights to give you some opportunities for fellowship.

And maybe you can invite some folks over to spend time with other Christians. But no Sunday night service next

Sunday night. I guess if you'd like to have a get -together you can always get a key and come in here.

But there will be no formal service next Sunday night. Same thing with Thanksgiving, same thing with Christmastime as well.

But it might be a good opportunity for you to have some people over in the afternoon and have some warm fellowship. I was surprised this morning we had tons of visitors.

And I hope you show them Christian love by saying hello. We try to give them cookies and videos and all that stuff.

But I hope you're reaching out to them. And it's one thing to get a letter from the pastor, thanks for attending.

It's another thing to say, why don't you come over for lunch? Just throw a few extra things in the crock pot or however you cook.

And invite some people over for lunch. And I'll tell you, if you ever go to a church and people invite you over to lunch, you'll never forget it.

You'll just think that is the nicest place around. So make sure when you see people on Sunday that you greet them and reach out to them if you would.

Alright. You may be asking yourself this question. Why did you do this? Why did you pick these questions?

These true and false statements rather. And this fell in the blank. Because three Sundays ago on this very day

I heard a sermon preached. And these were some of the points. This was the sermon that I heard preached.

I didn't make these up. I was gone for three Sundays. And two of those Sundays I preached. The third

Sunday we said, well, let's go to a church. And this church is known for up -tempo music and chapter -by -chapter preaching.

And very popular. You would know the name of the church group if I told you. And Kim and I thought that would be good. We grew up in that environment.

And there are some excellent churches with this name. And some others that I just was shocked at. So I heard this sermon and I didn't know what to do.

When we left the service, it was communion right after the sermon. So I said to Kim and the kids, we can't stay.

We need to go. So we left. And I just had to go home and take a nap. Because I was so depressed after hearing this.

And so then I wrote this letter. Pastor Larry. Regrettably, I attended your worship service on August 3rd.

I was looking forward to hearing you preach. But you were out of town. And one of your elders filled in for you. I did not get his name.

But he said he was recently retired. The Lord graciously saved me in 1989. And the first church

I regularly attended was the type of church that their church was. As you know, the Bible teaches all believers to be

Bereans. And to diligently see if the Bible teachers match up to the Word. I did not attend the service two

Sundays ago to critique the message. But after several minutes, it became clear that the man behind the pulpit was not qualified to preach in any way, shape, or form.

He was not prepared. And his lack of being diligent to rightly divide the Word was patently obvious. As pastor, you need to know and correct this situation because it was a travesty to your pulpit.

More importantly, to the Lord's people and the Lord Himself. Actually, I felt sick to my stomach and so did my wife.

But feelings are often inaccurate litmus tests. But the objective Word and what people say when they represent

God can be examined. 1 Thessalonians 5. I have no agenda or bone to pick. But elders must preach

God's Word with precision, clarity, and accuracy. Or they are sinning. Thank you for your time.

I didn't know what to do after I heard that. I mean, I bet you if I handed these in, and you handed these in, and I will not correct them, and we don't have to do that.

That I think probably 90 % of you would get an A. I thought we need to take a look at this passage.

And as we do, go over some steps of how to interpret the Bible. If there are people in pulpits teaching this way,

I want you sitting in the pews to say, I'm going to examine everything that man says. And if it lines up with God's Word, amen, so be it,

I believe it. And if it doesn't, I'm going to maybe give him the benefit of the doubt. Even this morning, remember I said something about Jesus sinful, and I meant sinless or something, and then corrected myself.

But certainly with all this data, it begs the point, somebody didn't study. So if you have notes, maybe you can even use the back of your quiz.

Let me give you some hermeneutical principles as we go through this. And then we'll answer each one of these, and I think it'll be helpful, not just for Genesis 8, but any time you read the

Bible, we'll look at 8 or 9 hermeneutical principles, or rules, so you can understand the

Bible better for yourself. And by the way, since some of you are new to the church, if I ever say something that you think is not biblical, please come up afterwards and say,

Pastor, you said this, and the Bible says that, how does that work together? And I'll be glad to talk about it, and or repent.

If you think I'm right in everything, then you need to ask Mrs. Avendroth about that. And she will remind you that I fall short.

I want to study, I want to preach the right things, but I just don't know where I'm wrong. R .C. Sproul said, people are only 80 % right, 20 % wrong.

I've got one big problem though, I don't know my 20 % wrong. And I don't say that because I think

I'm a hot shot, I just have studied and have been to school, and I'm still in school, and I want to rightly divide the word.

Rightly divide comes from that terminology where Paul was a tent maker. And so you'd have to cut the animal skins just perfectly, so when you sewed them back together, there would be a tent, and there wouldn't be leaking water, etc.

We want to know what the Bible says. So please come and talk with me, come and talk to any elders. Rule number one for Bible interpretation, it's also called hermeneutics, the

Greek word hermeneuo. We could get the goddess Hermes or the god Hermes from the same root word.

Rule number one, read the text in context repeatedly. Bible interpretation rule one, read the text in context repeatedly.

What do I mean by the text? In this case, Genesis 8. In context, what's before and what's after, and then re -read it and re -read it.

If you have a question about, oh pastor, what does this verse mean? The first thing I'll tell you is re -read the passage, read what's before it, read what's after it, and then take a look at it.

Let's go to Genesis 8 and just work through the passage to find out what the text really says, put everything in context, and then we'll look at some of these questions.

Rule number one, read the text in context and read it repeatedly. Now this passage is all about God's faithfulness.

In a society with marital infidelity and all kinds of financial infidelity and infidelity in countries, here's a passage that talks about God who never forgets, never fails, and never falters.

Good thing, because look at Genesis chapter 7 verse 19. If we want to know chapter 8, let's just back up into 7 a little bit.

Genesis 7 .19, And the water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.

The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts, and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind.

Of all that was on the dry land, all on whose nostrils was in the breath of the Spirit of life died. Thus He, God, blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things to birds of the sky, they were blotted out from the earth, and only

Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark. And the water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.

And now we come to one of those pivotal passages that start with the word B -U -T. But, we're in sin,

Ephesians 2, Ephesians 2 .4, but God. Romans chapter 3 verse 20, we can't be right in God's eyes by the law.

Verse 21, but now. And here, but God remembered Noah.

And you can just see God up in heaven. I've got a lot of things to do, I'm running the universe. And, oh yeah,

Noah, yeah. I should have had a V8 kind of moment. Is that what that means? Obviously not.

God remembered Noah, and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark, and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.

Seventy -three times, with God the object, the word remember shows up in the Old Testament. And it doesn't have to do with kind of a,

I remember that day on Valentine's Day when we got engaged. Kind of that sweet, warm, fuzzy kind of thing.

That's nice that that happens, but that's not what God is doing. God is not intellectually pulling up His Rolodex saying, oh yeah,

N, Noah. That's right, I've got a covenant with Noah. In the Hebrew, when God remembers something,

God does something about it. Hence, God says, I've got a covenant with Noah. I promised him

I'm going to be faithful to that promise. And here comes the waters that need to be subsided, and God does something.

What does He do? He sends the winds. Scholar Child said, this is more as an action directed towards someone rather than a psychological experience of the subject.

This is not God's mercy, this is God's activity. Well, it could be both in a sense, but God is going to do something.

I'm remembering Noah. God remembers Noah. Listen to these other examples of the word remember being used in the

Bible. Judges 16, 28. Samson called to the Lord and said,

O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may once be avenged of the

Philistines from my two eyes. God, remember me. Was he asking God to just say, yeah, I remember you.

Samson, capital S -A -M. No, remember me, God. Give me strength. Do something. Hannah, 1

Samuel 1, 11. She made a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou will indeed look on the affliction of my maidservant and remember me,

God, remember me. Open my womb. The thief on the cross, Luke 23, 42.

And he was saying, Jesus, what? Remember me when you come in your kingdom.

God remembered Noah by having the wind pass over the earth so the waters would subside. And notice, it doesn't say

God remembered Noah's righteousness. God remembered Noah's obedience. Here it means God remembered

Noah so he did something about it. If you read in Exodus 2,

God remembered Israel down in Egypt. Verse 2 of Genesis 8,

And also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed. Remember, the water came from top and the water came from the bottom, and the rain of the sky was restrained.

The water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of 150 days the water decreased. I mean, the author,

I don't want to get into too much preaching mode on Genesis 8 because we have other places to go, but the author is drawing this out, and he's just prolonging the agony as it were, what is happening with Noah?

You may ask, where did all those floodwaters go? And I'll ask you the question, where did all those floodwaters go? The water came from the top, the water came from the ground, where did it all go?

John Whitcomb thinks it was supernaturally taken care of, and that's a good explanation. Verse 4,

In the seventh month, on the seventh day of the month, the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. The water decreased steadily until the tenth month, and the tenth month of the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

Can you imagine what's going through Noah's mind? Then it came about at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window of an ark, uh -oh, which he made, and he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth.

He sent out a dove from him to see if the water was abated from the face of the land. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him and to the ark, for the water was on the surface of all the earth.

Then he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark to himself. I like J.

Bernard McGee, he said, at that time in his life, Noah became a bird watcher. So he waited yet another seven days and again sent out the dove from the ark.

The dove came back to him towards evening and behold, behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf, so no one knew that the water was abated from the earth.

Then he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again. Now it came about in the 600th and first year, in the first month, in the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth.

Then Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up.

In the second month, in the 22nd day of the month, the earth was dry. When was the last time

God had said anything to Noah? Did God talk to Noah in the ark up to this point?

No communication. Before the ark, he got in the ark and now he says to interrupt all that.

Between 365, some scholars say, and 378 days in the ark, no talking from God.

And now he says, verse 16, go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you and all those hundreds of kids.

We'll get to that. We'll get to that. Bring out with you every living animal, the flesh, etc.

Verse 18, Noah went out, his sons and wife's sons and his wives with him. And then in a very awesome way, using that word on purpose, verse 19, every beast, every creeping thing, every bird, everything that moves on the earth went out by their families from the ark.

Now, there's that old movie called The Ark, and I think John Houston was the director, and they had to retake that scene as they were trying to film it where the animals went into the ark two by two.

And I don't remember the story, but it was something like a hundred different times they had to shoot that scene to get the animals to go up two by two.

But remember, how did the animals go up? God supernaturally having them go up two by two, perfect line, perfect order, and now the exact same thing is happening as the animals come out.

It's not some fire drill. There's the door. I know what my dog would do, or your dog, if you put a dog in the car even for about a day or two, you open up the doors, you know, the survival of the fittest.

And here, they went out by their families from the ark. Exactly the way

God wanted it. Verse 20, then Noah, this is the first thing he did, first reference to the altar, he built an altar to Yahweh and took every clean animal, every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Remember there were some extra animals with that. Verse 21, the

Lord smelled the soothing aroma. The Lord said to himself, I will never again curse the ground on account of man for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth.

And I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done. God smelled that literally a soothing satisfaction smell and he was pleased with what

Noah has done. And then there's going to be the perpetual cycle, verse 22, while earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

So that's just an overview of the chapter. Rule number one, read the text in context and read it repeatedly and can't you get some of the answers already from this quiz?

You can just get it by reading through. For instance, there were no windows in the ark. What verse says that there was a window in the ark?

8 .6 There's a window in the ark. The word actually comes from a word that means to pierce, to punch through and you get light.

You've got to have air vents in the ark, don't you? I hope so. What did one man say?

If it wasn't for the storm outside, you couldn't stand the stench on the inside. At least you had some air vents.

If you go back also to chapter 6, verse 16, make a window for an ark.

Make a window. There's two different words in the Hebrew, both for window. We need to read the text in context and read it repeatedly.

Let me give you another illustration. Why don't you turn to Revelation 3, verse 20 and so many people do not do that simple step, probably the most important step, they don't read this verse and read it in context and take care of it that way.

They just hear a little jingle and they've been taught that Jesus is a gentleman and he's standing there knocking at the door of your heart and you've got to just let

Jesus in so he can come and dwell with you. Read the text in context, what's before and after and read it repeatedly.

Verse 20 says of Revelation 3, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me. What's that passage talking about? I can just hear that kid's song, can't you?

Behold, behold, I stand at the door and knock, knock, knock. You know that one? You're like, behold, behold, pastor, don't sing it anymore.

I know. But that's just the kid's song where if anyone lets me in, then I'll come in to him and dine with him and I'll be a

Christian. God, I'm not going to let you into my life and I'll finally let you in and when you are let in,

Jesus, now you can be Lord. What is the passage talking about, by the way? What's the context?

Yes, Bruce? Okay, the whole issue is talking about, number one, churches.

It's not an evangelistic thrust. We don't see Paul saying to the Philippian jailer, quoting this verse like he does in Acts 16 .31.

Here is this church and I think this is such a dead church, such a horrible church that Jesus is saying, listen, if anyone gets saved in your church,

I'm going to be there to dwell with you. But the context is not evangelistic. I could give you another example.

What if you just pull the verse out of the Sermon on the Mount? I know Lewis was preaching through that a while ago on Sunday mornings.

You just pull the verse out of the Sermon on the Mount and blessed are the peacemakers. That's fine.

Blessed are the peacemakers. But what's the context? How does that all fit in? My old friend

Harley Howard used to say, if you don't know what a verse means in the Bible, keep reading.

That's exactly right. Read it in context. Okay, we've got a lot. Rule two.

Rule one has been, read the text in context repeatedly. Rule two, very important, do not let what you want the text to say drive your interpretation.

In other words, seek what the author wants to say, not what you want it to say.

Do not let what you want the text to say drive your interpretation. Seek to find what the author intended.

Now the author will be both human and the Holy Spirit. But what does the author say? You may get a love letter from someone you're courting or dating and you might want it to say more than what it says.

You're looking for the words, I love you, because the person's never said, I love you. And you might read into it, but that person might never intend to say,

I love you. And we want to find out what does God say? Here's what Humpty Dumpty said.

Lewis Carroll writing, When I use a word, he was scornful when he said this, it means just what

I choose it to mean. Nothing more and nothing less. It's the same thing with God.

When He chooses a word through His inspired men, it means exactly what He wants it to mean. Nothing more, nothing less.

And it's our job to figure out what it means, right? Now when I went to Santa Cruz and listened to that sermon, here's what this man wanted the text to be.

He wanted the text to be this. We all have trials. Certainly that's true.

We all have horrible trials and there just seems to be no way out. There's not even a window of escape and it seems like everywhere you turn, you're in a financial situation or a health issue and you turn there, blocked.

You turn there, blocked. You turn there, a blockade in the road. A road blockade.

You just can't get out. Is that what the text is talking about? You may say as a pastor, well,

Noah was in a trial and he had to rely on the Lord and God wasn't even talking to him, etc. You might say that, but this passage has nothing to do with being in a trial and knowing how to respond.

What is the main verse, the most important verse of Genesis chapter 8? Does anyone know?

8 -1. 8 -1, that's right. That's at the very center. God remembered Noah. We're not looking for what the passage means to me.

What does the passage mean to God? As Zerudiah said in Northern California, what would this passage mean?

What would Genesis 8 mean if you were dead? What would it mean? Not what it means to me.

That's why it is horrible. If you have a bunch of friends and you all get in a circle and you sing Kumbaya and then say, let's study

Genesis chapter 9. What does this first mean to you? And then the next one says, well, to me it means this, to me it means that.

That's only good one time. You know it's bad when the associate pastor is laughing, right?

Sorry. What does it mean to me?

It doesn't matter. What does it mean to God? Like I said,

I usually don't do this on Sunday mornings. If you have a home

Bible study and you go around and say, what does this verse mean to me? I do that at our home Bible study, but I've already studied the verse and I know what it means.

So I'm just trying to figure out if you're understanding the Bible properly. And so then I can help you work through and track through, what does it mean?

What's the context? But we're not trying to sit around, you know, a bunch of Socratic method of what does it mean to me?

What does God want me to learn from this passage? And even though you might be yearning and drooling for a certain kind of interpretation,

I so want that verse to mean that. You have to be ready for this. God, I will submit to what your

Bible says. I will submit. This morning we didn't get to it. We're going to talk about justification by faith next week.

But there was a verse in there, in chapter 3 of Romans, I thought if this verse teaches that you can get your salvation by works and that salvation and justification is an ongoing process, like the religion of choice in this

New England teaches, please make my heart willing to submit to this teaching.

If this teaches that, then I have to believe it. And so I could give you even an example. If you don't have to turn to it,

Hebrews chapter 6. If Hebrews 6 says you can lose your salvation, are you willing to believe you can?

You have to just put it all on the line and say, God, what you're teaching me, I'm willing to submit to. By the way, it doesn't teach you can lose your salvation, but you have to be willing to say,

I'm coming at this passage with all this stuff and I want to know what does God mean when

He says this. It doesn't mean, Genesis 8, how to act in a trial.

Let me show you another illustration. Turn to Matthew chapter 18. It would be an illustration of what people want the

Bible to say. Certainly, when you get together with other Christians and you pray, you think, oh, it's nice that the

Lord is here and maybe if you have two or three, there's an extra portion of His presence somehow.

But Matthew chapter 18 verses 19 and 20 is not a verse you should put up in front of your church. There's a church

I go to every year and visit here in New England for a conference and they have Matthew 18, these verses 19 and 20 right up front.

What does that mean? What does God want you to understand or what do you want

Him to say? One's kind of warm fuzzy and the other is a cold slap in the face. Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my

Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.

If you pray by yourself, is the Lord in your midst? Is God still omnipresent? What's this verse talking about?

Is this if you only get two or three at your prayer meeting, God's just there kind of extra? No, this is a cold hard reality that if a church member is a wayward sheep and the church goes after them in church discipline,

God is there in the act of church discipline to round up the sheep as it were. Let's go back to Genesis chapter 8.

There was mud outside the ark. Here's what this man did when he was trying to preach. Then when you finally get out of your trial,

God lets you out of a trial, there's just another trial there and there's mud everywhere. And so you get out of this box, there's no way out, finally

God gives you a way out and there's still more trials when you get out of that big box. There's mud. There's mud everywhere.

And of course you might be thinking certainly after the rain, there's going to be a lot of mud.

But what does the text say? Genesis chapter 8 verse 13. It's not what we want it to say, it's what it says.

Towards the end of the verse, then Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up.

Chareb. It means the root word to be parched, to be dry, to be void of water, to be desolate.

It has a derivative that means to have the heat which causes dryness. It was dry.

What does the author want us to understand? How about this one? Matthew chapter 22 verse 39.

Let's go there and give you another example. And if I'm stepping on any toes as we go, that's okay.

We just want to find out what the Bible teaches. Actually, in my life, when I was in seminary, that was one of the most exciting experiences

I ever had. When I thought I believed something and I was lock, stock and barrel in a certain view and the professors persuaded me not by their personality, not by their friendliness, not by their domineering personalities, but they persuaded me from the text and I had to say,

God, I used to think I could lose my salvation, but now I understand that if You've achieved salvation for me and salvation is about Your glory and You demonstrating

Your righteousness to even the angels, that I can't lose my salvation, I give.

You win. That was one of the most amazing days in my life. Matthew 22, verse 39.

We want to know what the author says and if you're not careful, modern day thinking can get jammed into this.

Matthew 22, verse 39. Let's go back up to 36.

Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law? He said to him, You shall love the Lord your

God with all your heart, all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment.

The second is, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets.

How many commands were in that little section? How many?

Two. How many commands do you think some people teach are in there? Three.

And what would the third one be, Nate? Yeah, and how do they rationalize that?

They rationalize it like this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And if you don't love yourself, how can you love your neighbor?

There's three commandments. Love God, love yourself, and love other people like you love yourself.

What you have to be careful of is not to import some kind of new thing, whether it might be evolution, or it might be psychology, into the text and somehow read it with eyes or filters of modern society.

Dr. Mayhew said in Matthew 22, Jesus speaks of two commands, loving God and loving our neighbor. There is no third command to love ourselves.

At times, it appears that the basis for self -love comes more from Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs than the

Bible. Certainly, we're to take care of our bodies, and we're made in the image and likeness of God, and we're not to go around and grovel and cut ourselves and hate ourselves, but we're not to love ourselves because we already do.

Hi, my name is Mike Abendroth, and I love myself. Who's next?

I mean, we all love ourselves, don't we? And Jesus said, like you love yourself with time and energy and effort and money and passion, love other people.

What does the author intend? The author did not intend for us to somehow say, we've got to just learn how to love ourselves better, and Freud and Adler and Skinner and all these people are just right.

It even gets worse. If you listen to some of the people out there today, you'll get kind of a redefining of what things are.

Let me ask you these questions, and you tell me if this is true or false. True or false? Sin is any act or thought that robs myself of another human being of his or her self -esteem.

Is this statement true or false? Hell is the loss of pride that naturally follows separation from God, the ultimate and unfailing source of our soul's sense of self -respect.

A person is in hell when he has lost his self -esteem. True or false?

To be born again means that we must be changed from a negative to a positive self -image, from inferiority to self -esteem, from fear to love, from doubt to trust.

Now, that was from the man who's got the largest TV ministry in the world. And who's that man?

Robert Shuler. Is that what the Bible intends us to believe? What sin is?

What being born again is? What hell is? No, or do we have to come at it from this other view, the psychological view?

What does the author intend? Thirdly, so far we've seen, read the text in context, seek authorial intention.

Number three, make sure you study Revelation progressively. Make sure you study

God's revealing Himself, His Word, I'm not talking about the book of Revelation. Make sure you study the Bible progressively.

What do I mean? You got to be up on the latest fads? No, I mean, God has spoken in Genesis chapter 1 -1, but He had a lot more to say.

God has spoken in Genesis chapter 50, but He had more to say. So we want to read all the

Bible. That's why if you take a look at their statement of the pastor that I gave you the quiz of,

Abraham wrote Genesis. How do you know that Abraham didn't write

Genesis? Anyone? Well, he died before the end of the book, but that's true.

But on the flip side, if I was going to argue, I could say no one was around when Adam and Eve were born, and they didn't write the

Genesis, and so who could write Genesis because it was before, not after. Moses is identified as the author.

Who would identify Moses as the author? Jesus did.

That's right. If you study all the Bible, especially this, if you take an Old Testament passage, ask yourself this question, does the

Bible in the New Testament speak of this issue? If the Bible talks about something in the New Testament, ask yourself the question, does the

Bible talk about this earlier in Revelation? Let me just have you go to Luke 24.

Now, without getting into too many details, I think it's fair to say that Jesus called

Moses the author when he just said, Moses and all the prophets.

When he put those two categories of Old Testament, he just called it Moses. And even the Pharisees said, well,

Moses said this about divorce. Moses said this about separation. Luke 24, 27.

I think this is important today, especially when people are going around saying Moses didn't write the

Torah. Luke 24, 27. Someone says

Moses didn't write the Torah. Okay, fair enough. What does the New Testament say about it? Luke 24, 27.

Beginning with Moses, with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself and all the Scriptures. That's John explaining that.

Excuse me, Luke explaining that. And then Jesus said, and we said to them, verse 44. Jump down to verse 44, the same chapter.

These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the

Psalms must be fulfilled. You can study how Moses writes the Torah.

His own hand. Okay, I can't get bogged down in that too much. Let's do another one. In your quiz, what's the quiz number with how many people on the ark?

Number eight. There were possibly hundreds of children on the ark. What would you say? This has to do with us studying the whole

Bible. In other words, is there a place in the New Testament or somewhere else in the Bible we know how many people were on the ark?

Yes. First Peter. Let's go there. You could say, well, he doesn't say the word only in Genesis, but here we have a very easy cross -reference that is not an easy passage to deal with, but the cross -reference is easy.

There were eight and only eight people. When you study the Bible, you study not only the text and the context, and keep reading it, you not only try to figure out what the author wants, you try to understand the whole corpus of Scripture.

What does Genesis say about the subject? All the way through Revelation. You're going to say, I need some

Bible tools. Well, that's going to be when we get together next time to talk about Bible tools to help you.

First Peter 3 .18. Remember, these are people who are suffering. This is at the

Roman hands of Nero. They all say, oh, we're going to have a big party. Yesterday there was a big party in the neighbor's backyard and they had balloons and a canopy and everything else and they had floodlights.

No floodlights in those days, so we better get a few Christians and we'll take the Christians and put some pitch on them.

We'll impale them up on a stake and then light them. At least we can have some light while we're having our party. That's what

Nero would do. Christians were dying left and right. And Peter is saying here, you're going to have suffering in your life.

And Jesus suffered too. Verse 18, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, and good comes out of suffering, in order that he might bring us to God.

Having been put to death in the flesh, Jesus' body died, but made alive in the spirit. His spirit was alive.

What did he do when he was alive spiritually but his body hung there on the tree?

In which he also went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison. He went and proclaimed to those demons who had fell.

You didn't win. You can study that on your own sometime. Let's just get to the main point. Verse 20, Those spirits in prison who were once disobedient, when were they disobedient?

When the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah. You think about the flood all the time.

You think about the wrath of God and the judgment unfold. What does Peter think about it? He thinks it's

God's patience. Because just as we learned last week, the real question is not how could

God kill Ananias and Sapphira for lying about money? How could God strike down Uzzah when he touched the ark?

He just didn't want it to hit the ground. God once in a while punctuates himself with this wrath so we remember and this judgment so we remember.

We all deserve that yet God is merciful. God is patient. Here the patience of God kept waiting, verse 20, in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark in which a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through the water.

How many people were on the ark? Eight. That's exactly right. And if you read the Bible, both old and new together, what does the

Bible say about this topic that will help you? There's a book that will help you do this. Take a topic like sin.

There are eight Old Testament words for sin, eight New Testament words for sin. How can

I learn about sin? How can I study everything about sin from Genesis to Revelation? And there's a book that will help you and that book is called generically what?

A systematic theology book. What does the theology of sin throughout the entire book? What does it say about Jesus throughout the entire

Bible? What does it say about the Holy Spirit all the way through? The best one I think is by, it's called systematic theology and it's by Wayne Grudem.

Every systematic theology has got its problems but Wayne Grudem is excellent, it's worshipful and you need to get yourself a

CBD sale next to September 6th, 4 .30 in the morning. We're all leaving just before Bill and Sheila get married.

You guys can't go because you'll have things to attend to. We're going to go there and you need to find one of those for 10 or 15 bucks.

You say, what does it say about justification? You open it up and it talks about Genesis 15 verse 6 when

Abraham is declared righteous all the way through and it is a great book and you can just read a chapter every week and in the next year you can cover systematic theology.

You can get the one by Millard Erickson, you can get the one by Burkoff, you can get a new one by Robert Raymond. There's all types but I would say the best is

Grudem. He's post -trib and some signed gifts for today but it's an excellent, excellent work from a godly man and a humble man as well.

How many people have a systematic theology book by the way? It's a big old fat thing.

You just go systematic theology, Wayne Grudem. It's probably a $30 book you can get at CBD for maybe $15.

It's excellent. Ryrie has actually a very good one that you can get for probably $9.

We might have some upstairs even. Alright. So, before we keep going, questions so far and then we're going to have to wrap this up.

Do you have any questions? We've learned what does the context say before and after? Rule number two, make sure you go for what the author intends not what you want it to say which by the way will help a lot of this kind of stuff.

It will help hinder it. You say, Oh, I need a word from God today. I'm struggling and I'm down and you open it up and you're like Then the

Lord sent Nathan to David and he came to him and said, I mean, Okay, I better go. It's like that story.

Do you hear about the story about the wedding cake? And John, matter of fact, 1

John 4 .18 talks about perfect love casts out fear. Wouldn't that be neat to be put on a cake?

Perfect love casts out fear. That would be nice on your wedding cake. Perfect love casts out fear.

Unfortunately, the baker and the one putting on the frosting didn't see the one on there.

So it said John 4 .18 and so let me just show you what John 4 .18 says on the wedding cake and it was quite amazing because the visitors and the guests didn't know what to think.

John 4 .18 For you have had five husbands and the one whom you have now is not your husband.

This you have said truly. You have to be careful.

You need to be precise. What does the author intend? I stole that from Dallas America Conference.

You have to be precise. What does the text say in context? What does the author intend?

And then thirdly, study everything about the Bible so you'll understand that point a little bit better.

It helps, let's say, if you find a very hard passage. This passage seems to teach that you can lose your theology. Then maybe you can.

Maybe you can lose your theology. This text seems to teach that you can lose your salvation.

Well, let's study all the other passages about losing your salvation and see what it says. See what it means. So, any questions?

We'll do the next six steps. Not next Sunday night but in two Sunday nights. We're going to talk about numbers, spiritualizing texts, all kinds of things and we'll go through the rest of the true and false.

If you don't have a book on how to interpret the Bible, may I suggest the easiest one is by Dr. Mayhew, Richard Mayhew, How to Interpret the

Bible for Yourself, $10 or $12. It is excellent. My second favorite is by Bernard Ram, A Protestant Biblical Interpretation, maybe $25, maybe more written at the college level.

Another college level book that is excellent is by Roy Zuck, Z -U -C -K, Zuck, excellent when it comes to Bible interpretation and R .C.

Sproul has a good little book on Bible interpretation as well. If you haven't read one, that would be very helpful.

The other thing that I've found in Bible interpretation that helps so much is to go get a book on English grammar.

Ever diagram sentences when you were a kid? Jack, hit, ball, duh, and you can look at all the things.

It is excellent because, especially in the epistles, what is a participle, what is a gerund, what modifies what, how does this relate?

If you understand English, you will understand the Bible better because the Bible translation is in English.

I used to tell the guys that I discipled back in Los Angeles. If you want to go to a community college and take English grammar, you will understand the

Bible better. Just go take one of those online courses if you want. English grammar.

So you can understand. This is the modifier. This is the object of the preposition.

This is an accusative and you will say, wow, this is helping. Why? So you can impress your friends? No, because don't you want to know what

God says? Haven't you noticed, especially as we've gone through the Bible, Christianity is a religion for the mind.

I know it's a relationship, but in terms of worship, God wants your mind. God does not want you to just lay back at your house and do the dead fly and somehow think that's spiritual.

But that's easier, isn't it? I wish I could just go home into my closet and just groan all day. And then somehow

I've just been praying for two hours. No, God wants our minds engaged. That's why Jesus took implicit

Old Testament and made it explicit. In the Old Testament, it was you should love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength.

But when you said that to a Jew, the word soul talked about mind too. So Jesus said explicitly,

I want you to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Was He adding to the Old Testament? No.

He was bringing out what was implicit. Use your mind. Making it explicit. Here, use your mind here just like Romans 12 verses 1 and 2.

By the renewing of your what? Mind. You need to use your mind when you study the Bible. And you will never grow and mature if you just say all these monosyllabic words and all this stuff,

I just can't deal with it. Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. Well, come tomorrow when you want to submit to that boss but you don't think you have in you what it takes.

You need to have a good systematic theology or a good biblical view of what does the Bible teach about submission.

What did Jesus do when He submitted? What does 1 Peter 2 talk about? That it is God's will for you to submit.

Theology is practical. Or you say, well, you know, I've got to understand this issue in my life or that issue in my life.

You need to know the text. You have a temptation. William Plummer said, a good theology is a great buttress against bad temptations.

Oh God, I'd just love to do that. Probably don't say, Oh God, because you don't want God anywhere in the picture because you just don't want to indulge yourself and you're tempted.

You say, I just want to do that. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, all the Bible verses come into your mind. All these things.

You go, I can't even have any fun when I sin. That's the point. And all of a sudden, you know what the

Bible teaches about a topic, even let's say sin. And you go, it's bad news. And who wants to be called a wretch and vile and all these things?

I don't, but that's who I am and that explains me and the universe and now that gives me more opportunity to glorify

God because He saved someone like that. God did not, you know, this whole theology of, well, if you were the only person alive on the earth,

God loved you so much and you were worth so much, Jesus would have came and died for you. If you were one of the elect, that's true, but that kind of theology turns everything upside down to say,

God, you're just so worthy of love that God died for you. It's the opposite and that's what makes the

Gospel great. We weren't worthy of love. And I'm going to say that when Bill gets married to Sheila, I'm going to say, why did

Bill pick Sheila? Because, and I have to get all the details, I'm just making this up as I go, okay?

But why would Bill pick Sheila? Because there's all kinds of attributes about her that he likes. And he loves her because she's lovely, right?

But that's where it breaks down. Christ doesn't pick his bride because he's lovely. She's lovely, rather.

He picks the bride because he wants to glorify himself and show his righteousness to all the world, including the angels, and then she becomes lovely in him.

All right, I'm starting to preach, so forgive me. We were doing Bible study earlier and I'm going into preaching mode.

So, no Sunday night service next week. In two weeks, we'll look at spiritualizing, numerology, with numbers, and that horrible new book out about the

Da Vinci Code and Bible codes and all that stuff. Follow me if you would.

Father, we do thank you tonight. We want to be Bereans. We want to know about this wonderful love letter you've given us.

Give us hearts and appetites and a thirst for the Scriptures this week. Father, help us to examine everything that we hear.

Let us not fall into that false mindset of we can't judge anything.

Judge not, lest you be judged. Father, I pray that we would even study those verses to find out what they mean.

Help this congregation to examine everything I say. Father, help the elders to hold me accountable for the preaching and proclamation of the word that comes from this pulpit.

Father, lastly, I pray for that elder in that church in California, that you would grant him a desire to study.