How To Read Your Bible (part 2)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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October 9, 2022

Husbands, Love Your Wives (part 3) - [Ephesians 5:25-32]

00:00: Father, thank you for our time tonight. It's good to just be reminded as we sing that you're good faithful Reliable, I love it with the psalmist calls you a rock
00:11: And we are so easily Swayed back and forth, but you're a constant and you're a
00:19: Firm foundation ever faithful ever true help these dear people tonight They want to learn how to study the
00:24: Bible better And if they could pick up at least even one nugget to help them as they study your word I pray that you would grant that in Jesus name.
00:31: Amen All right, just a quick review I talked last time about motivations to read and study your
00:37: Bible and The first motivation I gave you if remember is that you actually have a Bible to hold Up until a couple hundred years ago.
00:44: It was very very difficult to have a Bible to hold in your hands They were chained to the church
00:50: They were in the synagogues, but now you get to have a Bible Motivation number two the Bible is not an ordinary book
00:57: God wrote it and Why don't you turn your Bibles to first Thessalonians 2 13 as you know, we normally go verse by verse
01:03: We park in one spot. You're gonna need to put some WD -40 on your spines of your Bible tonight We're gonna jump around a lot.
01:09: Here's the first verse. We're gonna look up first Thessalonians 2 13 When you sit underneath preaching gospel preaching and when you read your
01:17: Bible you ought to be Hopeful and expectant that God is going to change you
01:24: That's one of the reasons why this isn't an ordinary book because it changes you first Thessalonians 2 13
01:30: Of course Paul loved this church and he said in verse 13 and we thank God Constantly for this that when you receive the
01:40: Word of God, which you heard from us You accepted it not as the Word of men
01:45: But as what it really is the Word of God which is at work in you
01:52: Believers, isn't that good to know? Maybe you can't see it in your own life Maybe you can't see it in your spouse's life or your friend's life
01:58: But the Word of God does its work in believers. And so if you'd like to be Saying no to sin more often and yes to righteousness more.
02:07: This is the book that we devote our lives to hence Bethlehem Bible Church Reminds me of that story at Iwana there was a very very
02:16: Disgruntled man who had his child here and I could tell he was causing a big fuss on Wednesday night
02:21: I said, would you please come into my office so we could talk privately and his child I think was in Sparky's or something and he said
02:28: I can't believe you're teaching my child that she's a sinner and I'm mad And I thought okay number one.
02:36: He looks smaller than I am. So I think I could take him But number two that was back in the old days now
02:42: I need a lot of help I Said what's that sign say outside?
02:47: So we walked over to the side and looked out the window Oh, it says Bethlehem Bible Church And we're gonna teach anybody that comes what the
02:53: Bible teaches and therefore when you walk in these doors You should expect that the Bible is going to be taught and one of the great things that happens when preachers preach the
03:02: Bible Are you study the Bible on your own? You're not the same people that you used to be right, hopefully you can see progress in leadership
03:09: Paul said I Hope you see that it's evident that progress is being made in my life and We see it as we look around if I thought about Kirsty's life or Bob's life or others that I've mentioned you get to see
03:20: The transformation of people as they sit underneath the Word of God. So a motivation that we have
03:26: Besides a command is that we want to change and honor the Lord as we walk
03:33: Motivation three we saw last time that there's a Bible translation fit for every person no matter where you are intellectually
03:39: No matter where you are theologically, you can find a good Bible translation in your language
03:44: English that you can read well after that motivation those three motivations we talked a little bit about what not to do when you
03:53: Study the Bible we looked at random of random openings Where you just take the
03:59: Bible and just open it up and think that the Lord's gonna lead you in that area We talked about reading the
04:04: Bible too fast That would be something that you don't want to do because it doesn't help you if you're gonna read really fast
04:10: But not understand what you're reading We talked about how it's wrong to place ourselves over the
04:16: Bible How can this be true? Sodom and Gomorrah or lot or the
04:22: Canaanites are killing all the children and animals and and women and all this stuff
04:27: No, we're gonna put ourselves under the Bible the Bible's authoritative we talked about The to me method the
04:36: Bible is true if I think it's true This is what it means to me and to watch out for that And then we only got to one positive thing last week, and it was thinking about studying the
04:47: Bible with sections It wasn't last week when was it a month ago last time sorry we talked about sections remember
04:53: There's 66 books of the Bible two Testaments, and then I had you do that kind of corny 512 5512 thing remember five books of Moses 12 books of history five wisdom literature books five major prophets twelve minor prophets
05:10: And then the Old New Testament four one twenty one one four Gospels one book of Acts 21 epistles and one book of Revelation so when you parachute down into a certain part of the
05:23: Bible You're realizing. Oh, that's the part I'm parachuting down into if you wanted to make it more simple you could say
05:30: Kim's starting to clap already I Think last week we had somebody starting to try to clap during hymn songs that we had or praise songs that was fun
05:40: It's okay to clap isn't it do we mind clapping? One time a side note somebody said
05:46: I want to make sure we clap to every song at Bethlehem Bible Church every Sunday morning Because here's a psalm that says clap your hands, and I said well nothing wrong with clapping as a kind of an overflow
05:59: But I said only five psalms talk about clapping out of 150 so to use your logic should we just clap five?
06:07: Over 150 which is what percentage does anybody know what is it three percent?
06:17: 3 .3 of course the WPI people know they're like three how many significant figures would you like I?
06:26: Mean if you want to think big -picture you could think I'm coming into the Bible as it is it creation fall
06:32: Redemption or consummation if you wanted to divide the Bible up into four sections you could kind of think that way could you not?
06:39: creation fall Redemption and consummation, but the key really is all right. I'm gonna think before I just drop into some
06:47: Passage so it's out now for some new stuff tonight one of the things I want you to do is to remember that every language has genre
06:57: Genre, it's a French word genre, and it just means type or literary type or as da
07:03: Carson says pastor Steve Jean I Like when the kids repeat that kind of a fun one to repeat and genre helps us
07:15: Understand the Bible a lot So let's turn to our Bibles to Psalm chapter 1 verse 1 and Whether we go to epistles our narratives our parables our wisdom literature if you can think genre
07:29: I think you're gonna be helped so we come to Psalms, and we think okay. These are songs
07:34: These are wisdom songs praise songs and so if I come to Psalm 1
07:40: Thinking like it's Romans. I'm gonna come to the wrong conclusion Oh if it's Romans because it's inspired and it's
07:46: God breathed and all that it's in the canon fine But if it's the same genre as Romans 1 it's going to be difficult
07:52: So let's just give you an illustration of why genre helps so that you when you study your
07:57: Bible you think what genre is this? Because it's really related to what section am
08:02: I in? Am I in Torah? 5 books of Moses am I in wisdom
08:08: Ecclesiastes here's genre with Psalm 1 The gateway to the
08:13: Psalms Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the way of sinners
08:20: Nor sits in the seat of scoffers But his delight is in the law of the
08:26: Lord and on his law he meditates Day and night this particular blessed man.
08:32: He is so delightful Delighted in rather the Word of God that he's he's just saying it over and over and over Meditation it's got the idea in the original
08:43: Hebrew of you're saying something under your breath Repeating it to yourself because it's so good over and over and over Now if I come to this passage, and I don't know anything about genre, and I don't say what about genre
08:55: What about literary type here's how I teach this passage, but this is not the meaning of the text take a look at verse 1 again
09:02: You'll teach it this way if you don't know genre first You walk near the wicked people and before you know it you get really comfortable so then you stand by them and Then when you're really comfortable you sit by them, and there's a progression of walking standing and sitting
09:22: Now is that actually true could it be true? You're hanging out with a bunch of people that are sinful and and you're you're before you know you're just part of the gang
09:32: There's a book by Beal a Greg Beal, and he said Here's the name of the book. I think it's called right doctrine from wrong texts
09:40: Where you could go that's true. I want to avoid Evil I want to avoid appearance of evil
09:46: But what's this really saying so if you notice? Today we sang some refrains in the songs this morning and tonight kind of that little extra refrain in italics
09:56: So probably people miss that if you realize this is a song and it's wisdom genre
10:02: Then one of the things you'll do is you'll say oh I should read this differently and what wisdom genre does especially in the
10:10: Psalms it loves parallelism Stating one thing and then another and that's exactly what's happening here
10:18: So instead of saying before you're before you know what you're walking, and then you're standing, and then you're sitting
10:23: It's saying this with parallelism Just avoid the ungodly at all at all counts
10:29: He uses three different ways to say the same thing to emphasize and lots of times
10:35: That's what the Psalms do and so one of the things that I'm just gonna say tonight. Just super Without without getting into 20 different genres if you ask yourself the question hmm.
10:47: How should I interpret? different genres I Want to make sure and and this is
10:53: I could say this to Wesley or other WPI students if you're really Logical and you're really
10:58: Pauline like and you love Romans and Galatians. I'm glad for that but You have to kind of come over here and use your artistic side when it comes to poetry
11:10: I've told you this I'm sure before But I used to think when I was a kid in Nebraska that poetry was kind of for sissies
11:18: You know I wouldn't hang out with some new kid who said I say hey, what are you doing? What do you like to do you're in fifth grade, and he says
11:25: I love poetry We probably beat him up is what we would do in Nebraska. Oh, I like poetry
11:31: Thinking who was this person go back to to, California But the
11:37: Bible's got a lot of poetry and poetry has this repetition. They just say it different ways
11:42: There's antithetical parallelism. There's consistent parallelism all kinds of things, but when you just come to a psalm say this
11:49: Here's here's the takeaway for tonight when you come to the Psalms say to yourself Psalms I should probably read it a little bit differently.
11:56: It's a song Let me give you another illustration of genre. Please go to Proverbs 6
12:01: Proverbs 6 This is also wisdom literature when the men are going to go to the preaching class next
12:09: Sunday I'm going to teach them that every time you come to the book of a Bible and you say please open up your
12:14: Bible to The book of Acts it's Pastor Steve is teaching all right Here's what we know about the book of Acts to kind of settle us in in here's the book of Ecclesiastes It's wisdom literature that means we don't we don't look at it the same way as we do
12:27: Galatians Chapter 1 and the same thing when it comes to Proverbs. This is wisdom literature It's a certain kind of genre, so I'm gonna expect things from this text that aren't going to be
12:39: Statements of no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus that just shall live by faith. This is kind of flowery.
12:45: It's poetry again I'll give you an illustration Proverbs 6 16 there are six things that the
12:53: Lord hates Seven that are an abomination to him. I mean can't you get it right?
13:00: I mean you want you to say seven to start this whole six and seven thing What's going on, and then he lists it haughty eyes one lying tongue to I mean does
13:11: God hate those Yes Hands that shed innocent blood three heart that devises wicked plans for feet that make haste run evil five false witness
13:20: Who breathes out lies six and now the seventh one one who sows discord among the brothers?
13:28: Did you know in wisdom literature this kind of genre? That if you want to emphasize something, and you don't have a yellow marker
13:38: You say things like this there are six things the Lord hates yes Even seven are ye even seven and he's emphasizing the seventh one he hates all
13:49: Seven but the one that he hates the most is the seventh and of course you can see what that does to a church sowing discord among brothers
13:58: God Hates that What's the point when it comes to studying the Bible? I want you to think sections, and I want you to think genre so far so good
14:09: Okay Next I want you to think Figures of speech this is really going to help you there are figures of speech that we use all the time in English Let me give you a few
14:23: She has a green thumb It's raining
14:31: Cats and dogs third -string quarterback for the
14:39: New England Patriots Zappy is that his name Zappy yeah, did anybody watch the game on the
14:47: Lord's Day today? Drop back and threw a bomb get off your high horse
14:59: Those are all figures of speech Why do we use figures of speech well one it gets your attention right you're like.
15:05: Oh, that's an interesting way to say it It can make things memorable
15:12: There's an illustration in Hosea the Israelites are like a stubborn heifer You ever try to push up a stubborn heifer into its
15:21: Pen I mean these things are stubborn as anything and it makes things really
15:29: Beautiful and vivid and full of color. I said that earlier when I was praying Psalm 18 the
15:35: Lord is my rock You could say God's faithful God strong God's immovable, but when you say rock that that helps you think oh
15:43: That's a vivid way of doing that and sometimes figures of speech help with Kind of almost as you've heard me say before like a zip drive a zip file where you think there's a lot of information
15:57: That's condensed and if I said for instance this has nothing to do with figures of speech
16:02: But if I say the just shall live by faith I'm really saying the just shall live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and was raised for me who lived for Me who died for me who was raised for me, and he's coming back for me
16:12: There's a there's kind of an abbreviation so too if I say to you the Lord is my Shepherd What pops in your mind when you think about all the things that a good
16:21: Shepherd would would do provide and and pity and protect? And guard so sometimes figures of speech are used to kind of really jam things into a small sentence
16:32: No wonder people love psalm 23 because it's a short psalm, but it gives you so much about who
16:37: God is just a shepherd analogy So let me give you a few figures of speech that will really help you turn to first Peter chapter 2
16:46: We're coming to the Bible, and we're saying to ourselves Yes It's a divine book and it's gonna change me and I want to be under its authority and I'm gonna think all right
16:54: What section on my end what kind of genre does that section have and then what kind of figures of speech might be used?
17:00: So we're going big picture And we're funneling down big picture sections coming down a little bit to genre and now coming down to the very tip of the funnel
17:10: That's what we're doing. That's what I'm attempting to do now first Peter 2 2 Of course this is on my mind getting ready to be the grandpa.
17:19: I guess technically. I'm a grandpa now right Amen They won't tell us the name.
17:25: They just said it's a biblical name So I don't know
17:32: I'm just gonna have to live with it, I guess First Peter 2 2 like Similes give a comparison using like or as Like newborn babes
17:50: Long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.
18:02: I Else it's for your good. It's like silver. It's like gold, but when Peter writes like newborn babes
18:09: What does that tell you? like newborn babes longing for the pure milk of the word When the baby's little and you try to give the baby like I would at two months old ice cream the baby wouldn't even want
18:18: Ice cream at two months right the baby would not go for anything except for milk Sometimes you can trick a baby right with with your pinky that lasts for about ten seconds and the baby
18:31: Insists on the word no the baby insists on milk and just like that we want
18:38: To look to God and get to the word. Well you guys know similes What if I said the
18:44: Lord is my shepherd? That's not a simile. What's that? What kind of figure of speech is the
18:50: Lord is my shepherd? It's not a simile. It's a Okay an analogy be alright
18:56: Metaphor okay, I made my lips like an M I can just see myself with my children, and we've made the children always order food at any kind of fast -food restaurant or ice cream at Rota Springs And and so I never really liked it when somebody says can
19:12: I have well you know of course you can but you're asking someone So you should say May I so I've looked at my children a thousand times maybe ten thousand times, okay?
19:21: Haley time to order and she's eight and then I always look at her and I'm like May I please the
19:28: Lord is my shepherds a metaphor the Lord is my shepherd is a metaphor and so metaphors don't use like or as a
19:41: Simile would say the Lord is like a shepherd to me But a metaphor says the Lord is my shepherd are these metaphors you're the light of the world
19:48: Jesus said I'm the bread of life, and what we're doing is we're saying section
19:55: Genre, let's make sure we have figures of speech True or false the Bible teaches that God has fingers
20:04: True or false the Bible says God has an ear The Bible says true or false
20:10: God has eyes a true or false the
20:16: Bible says God changes his mind well what we see a lot of times is a figure of speech called and Thrax no just kidding and throw
20:37: Promorphism and you just look at the word anthro man morph form it's a word in form of How we would talk as a man or a woman would talk and so we realize that we're attributing human features or human
20:52: Actions are sometimes human emotions and something we call anthropopathism To God and so when you see
20:59: God and Zechariah 8 say I'm exceedingly zealous for Zion That's just how we have to describe
21:06: God using human words All right Let's say you come to the
21:12: Bible, and you've got a problem and your problem is I don't understand this passage Years ago
21:19: Steve, and I were at the Bible study, and I thought you know what to try to remember Preaching the gospel let's come up with the four
21:26: W's who is God? Who is man? That's not the gospel that shows us the need of the gospel
21:33: What did Jesus do what did God the Father send Jesus to do and to the Spirit help?
21:39: That's the real gospel there, and then what's the response to the gospel so who is man?
21:45: I mean who is God who is man? What did Jesus do gospel? Here's how the respond to the gospel believe trust receive etc so the four
21:53: W's so that you can understand The need of the gospel the gospel the response to the gospel etc so tonight
22:00: I'm gonna give you three C's and I'm I think I think there's a good idea that I'm gonna try to put these on some
22:07: Little index cards, and maybe if you're good at it Maybe you can send them to me And we can work on the fonts and everything else and laminate them if you can just get this in your mind
22:17: The men in the hermeneutics in the preaching class have to read a hermeneutics book. This is everything Distilled down to these three
22:25: C's so when you read the Bible There's a problem studying the Bible of course the problem is not God's.
22:31: It's our problem, and you think how do I go about? Trying to figure out this problem so that you don't congregation immediately go to the
22:39: Internet Because guess what the Internet will tell you whatever you want it to tell you You're like oh do
22:45: I believe in baptismal regeneration you become born again when you're baptized. I just type that in and guess what?
22:51: You You've got it, and the only thing you have to do is go Well, it kind of looks kooky or the graphics are really good
22:57: It might be right, and you say well, what about purgatory is purgatory real there's the stuff
23:03: Here's pro con, and then what do you need to do? so I'm gonna give you the three
23:09: C's that will help you and if you want to search on the Internet for things fine I also want you to search the scriptures yourself so that you don't immediately say
23:17: What's my favorite celebrity say about this passage? What's my favorite study Bible say about this passage?
23:23: What does my pastor say about this passage? I want you to study yourselves and so the three
23:29: C's are context Comparison and Christ if you study the
23:36: Bible You probably if you've been teaching the Bible already do this. You just don't know that you do it context
23:44: Comparison and Christ and seriously it will help you study the Bible the rest of your life.
23:49: What's the context? What kind of comparison can I do with other passages in the
23:55: Bible and comparing it to the all the Bible? Systematic theology wise and then what about Christ?
24:02: How does this point to Christ? What does it make me think about my need for Christ my thankfulness for Christ?
24:08: Is this a type of Christ is it a shadow of Christ is it Christ himself talking? I think if you just boil it all down What's the context?
24:17: What's the comparison and what about Christ? Okay? That's what we're gonna do now
24:23: And I'm gonna finish soon because we can't turn this into a three -part series because we're known as the church of the two -part series not three -part
24:33: Number one context go to Galatians chapter 5, please. It's no Surprise that context is important and when we read
24:43: Epistles for instance, you ought to read the entire epistle It's meant to be read that way and that's one of the challenges of preaching
24:50: We're in a certain section, but we have to remind you what section we're in and what's already been said So you get the right context.
24:57: So here is a perfect way to think about context for hermeneutics
25:04: Galatians chapter 5 verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy. Peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self -control
25:14: Against such things there is no law and he writes verse 24 and he writes verse 25
25:20: And he's talking about when the Spirit of God is in Christians, and he's always in Christians the overflow the evidence the fruit is
25:29: Love joy, peace, etc. These are all attitude fruits I always remember s Lewis Johnson would say before you go around and talk to somebody else saying
25:36: I don't see any fruit in your life There's attitude fruit that you could never see maybe if they have joy they might smile
25:44: But there's attitude fruit when the Spirit of God is working in you, but there's also action fruit and sometimes our chapters present prevent us from looking
25:55: To see what follows for instance chapter 6 of Galatians Gives us the action fruit
26:01: You want to know what a spirit -filled person's like well their attitude is love joy Peace and their actions are this verse 1 if anyone is caught in any
26:10: Transgression you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness keep watching yourself lest you to be tempted
26:18: Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ And when the Spirit of God is using the word in you
26:25: I have love and you have love and joy and peace and you're concerned About other people I could put it this way you love other people and when other people are struggling in sin
26:33: You're right there for him. So here immediate context is super simple
26:40: Let's use another illustration first John chapter 2 many people Preach this and it makes folks very
26:48: Unsettled when it comes to their assurance, and I want you to just make sure you read what's before your passage
26:54: What's after your passage? Sometimes we have that slogan if you don't understand the Bible keep reading and read the passage before and here's one of those
27:02: If I wanted to really convict you and ask you if you were a Christian or not I might misuse this passage and say in first John chapter 2
27:10: Verses 3 and 4 and by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his
27:18: Commandments whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him
27:25: So if that was your passage and you just read that Those words are true But those words have a context and those words could be pretty frightened frightening for people who actually are truthful with themselves
27:37: How many people here have kept all the commandments of God, let's just say the last month Well, it says by this will he we have come to know him if we keep his commandments if he kept his commandments, and so if you're not careful you go to that and you can really
27:53: Hurt people by taking out a context now. I could either read after But in this particular case,
27:59: I'm gonna read before because one of the things about context. I want you to see After and before here's the before chapter 2 verse 1, which is really the center and heart of all of first John This is the center of the wheel the hub
28:14: The strength my little children you can just hear John. Can't you I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin
28:20: Of course, he doesn't want anyone to sin But he realizes people do sin in chapter 1 and now he says but if anyone does sin we have
28:29: Present tense always and forever right now an advocate with the
28:34: Father Jesus Christ the righteous He is a propitiation or he assuages
28:41: God's wrath he exhausts God's wrath for our sins and not only ours only but for the sins of the whole world and There's a word there and and by this we know we've come to know him if we keep his commandments
28:52: Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar And so one of the things we know about the
28:58: Bible is when we look at a passage I want you to look after and I want you to look before Maybe almost we could call this
29:07: Stephen Steve you mentioned this this morning You didn't know I was gonna have this in my message tonight Kind of the the
29:13: Columbo style how many people watch Columbo or have watched old Columbo's? Okay.
29:19: So when I first got saved I got saved out of a licentious lifestyle and then when you first get saved then kind of what?
29:24: happens if you get saved out of a licentious lifestyle often what happens is then like I'm a legalist.
29:32: I can't do anything Nothing's allowed everything was allowed before now. Nothing's allowed. And so then you're like, you know,
29:38: I can't watch any TV I can't do this. I can't listen to any secular music and whatever your conscience is fine
29:43: Follow your conscience and at that time my conscience was bad, but I was sitting in seminary class as a legalist but happy to be saved and Dr.
29:52: Roscoe of all people started talking about the detective show on TV Called Columbo and He gave me the gateway drug to be able to watch
30:05: TV again only certain shows like Columbo Kojak McLeod And he said he watches
30:17: Columbo because of Columbo's style of asking Questions and I looked it up on the
30:23: Internet and just as you can find baptismal regeneration on the Internet You can find Columbo techniques of asking questions on the
30:30: Internet And when you come to the passage you ask all kinds of questions The the author of the
30:36: Internet article said saving the question until the end of the conversation For example as leaving you might say like Columbo.
30:45: Oh before I go may I just ask Asking it in an unsuspecting moment catching the responder off guard and so when
30:55: I come to the Bible I say There's an immediate context There's a chapter context.
31:01: There's a book context There's a Testament context and there's a
31:06: Bible context. And so the easiest thing you can do is say what's the context? Because that'll start giving you all kinds of answers about what's he saying?
31:16: What has he said before what he is not saying etc. So context is important number two
31:22: All right. Well, we got two more to go and we're gonna be done number two comparison comparison
31:29: Let me use technical language So when you see it online or you're studying books, you'll get it
31:36: But I'll explain it as easily as I can and by the way, everybody uses technical language
31:41: Why can't pastors right he he John just used pastor John the
31:47: Apostle used propitiation It's fine to use a big word. Let's just explain it So there's two things with comparison one.
31:54: You'll see called the analogy of Scripture in Theology books and the other one called the analogy of faith
32:02: Analogy of Scripture is I'm in a passage and something's difficult. I can't quite understand it
32:08: Are there other verses that I can compare elsewhere in the
32:13: Bible that talks about the same thing. Oh I'm in Matthew and I having kind of a hard time understanding this
32:20: Does Luke say anything about it or does Mark say anything about it? I compare what other passages say about the same account and that is called the analogy of Scripture That's like cross -referencing
32:32: Right and so that's a very good thing to do because come to find out as Spurgeon said the best interpreter of the
32:39: Bible the best commentary of the Bible is the Bible itself so analogy of Scripture is
32:45: I'm in a passage and is there some other passage that's similar to this that I can go to And see if it can help me so I can understand something.
32:54: That might be difficult, but elsewhere It's clear. So I'll interpret the difficult and lighted the clear so that's the first comparison, but the one
33:02: I want to talk about tonight is the analogy of faith the analogy of Faith I'm reading the
33:13: Bible and I've got a problem because I just read that God has eyes Context might not help me but comparison will and So I begin to compare.
33:27: What does the Bible say in its totality about God? Does God have eyes? I'm not talking about the
33:32: Incarnation God. Jesus said is in John chapter 4 a Spirit what does the
33:39: Bible say elsewhere even as a total? All right, I'm gonna say it you ready systematized theology
33:48: What kind of theology do I come to the passage with now? Here's the way that some people do it I'm coming to the
33:54: Bible and I'm gonna study it like no one's else study it before and I'm gonna Unclear my I'm gonna clear my mind and I'm not gonna have any presuppositions and I'm just gonna let it say whatever it says
34:05: I don't want you to do that. I I mean if you open up the
34:10: Bible now to Genesis 1 1 in the beginning God I'm thinking systematic theology because I've read the rest of the
34:19: Bible I know what else he says and when you say God, what should you be thinking? Doesn't say anything about the triune
34:26: God there. But what do we know about God? He is triune. And so when I come to the passage,
34:32: I'm thinking Okay, what's the systematized theology that I've learned elsewhere that can help me understand the problem?
34:40: I'm reading the text for what the text says But I know that there's a harmony taught in the scriptures about theology because God is the divine author
34:49: He's not going to contradict himself It might be difficult for us But there's a harmony of theology that we can take and when we come to the passage it can help us
34:58: Let me give you an example. Why don't you go to John 14 28 when you read the
35:04: Bible you come with presuppositions Here your presupposition Jesus is alive. Jesus is coming back.
35:10: The Bible is God breathe God is triune God is the God. The Son is truly man truly
35:17: God The list could go on and on and on So when
35:23: I come to the text, I'm not trying to empty my mind I'm trying to say let the text speak
35:28: But God has spoken in 66 books and this is going to be in harmony with the rest of those books
35:35: You say that kind of sounds like analogy of Scripture. That's true. But if you listen to me, it's not quite exactly the same
35:41: John 14 28 Hi, welcome to my home may
35:47: I help you two people on bicycles wearing ties Calling yourselves elders, but you're 14 years old
35:56: Verse 28. I have a pass a question dear sir at your house Here's what Jesus said you heard me say to you
36:02: John 14 28 I'm going away and I will come to you if you love me You would have rejoiced because I'm going to the
36:08: Father for the Father is greater than I See Jesus is a lesser being he's a lesser
36:13: God. He's not eternal Jesus himself said that God the Father is greater Now if you come to the passage with no presuppositions without any systematic theology without any kind of doctrine of God Doctrine of God before Genesis 1 doctrine of God before the incarnation doctor of God with the incarnation
36:33: Christology You're going to be in big trouble So when I come to the passage and I say I'm Jesus said for the
36:38: Father's greater than I am What are you thinking about automatically what comes to your mind? Incarnation and in eternity past the
36:47: Father the Son and the Spirit Three persons one God one will one essence nobody greater
36:54: Even though the father's called the father and the son's called the son that just tells me their relationship Nobody's greater because there's one
37:01: God. How can there be somebody greater in the Godhead? That would be tritheism So I come to the passage and I go for the
37:08: Father's greater than I am The text the Bible didn't start at the incarnation Something has happened in eternity past and the nature of the
37:15: Godhead that I know because I've studied and whatever is happening in this first It's not going to contradict the harmony of all the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation in a systematic way
37:25: Systematic theology helps Bible knowledge helps and so we say to ourselves
37:32: Okay at the incarnation Jesus arrives to do the will of his father and Jesus's divine will true or false is
37:41: Lesser than the father's Excuse me. Let me rephrase that Jesus divine nature is
37:48: Lesser than the father's divine nature. Are you sure?
37:56: good, I Pity the poor fool who has to get up here and preach someday as a guest and tries to do any tricks on your
38:03: Trinitarian theology, so you've got God the Father He's got a will the divine will and now in Jesus assumes human nature.
38:11: He's divine still, but he's assumed a human will human nature and what's greater in God the
38:21: Father Why is God the Father greater? That's a better way to phrase it and you know The answer his human nature is lesser than the divine nature of God the
38:30: Father Now let me Remind you.
38:39: Okay, you say pastor I I need help in the systematizing because there are 66 books and if I can look at context, that's not too bad
38:46: How can I do all this comparison? Number one, you should read a systematic theology
38:52: There's books that have systematic theology that go through tried and tested. My favorite one is Burkoff it's online for free.
39:00: There's a PDF and Short of a couple things he's right on most everything and you want to learn about how can
39:05: Jesus be truly God and truly man? He's got that down. How can God be triune? It's got that down.
39:11: What about the resurrection? He's got that down. And the other thing that you can do is read our statement of faith
39:19: This happens to be the London Baptist Confession of 1689 and it will help you because you can say you know what?
39:27: What do I believe about all the Bible when it comes to the fall of man's sin and its punishment
39:33: Well, here's a good concise definition and you go don't try to pull a fast one on me
39:38: You're trying to take this and put it over the Bible am I Did you know that this says?
39:46: Don't put me above the Bible because the Bible is the only final authority Even the confession says this is just a confession.
39:53: We confess We believe it's not inerrant, but it's helpful to get our arms around all these doctrines
40:00: What about Jesus showing up in person the second person of the
40:05: Trinity in the garden? When Adam and Eve are there? Well has to be
40:11: Jesus. How can it be Jesus and your systematic theology? Helps I like what
40:20: Pat said my brother Pat put this one together with an introduction Confessions They help us with humility.
40:27: We're not the first it avoids the cult of personality Not what my pastor said or favorite internet pastor it complements sola scriptura
40:36: It's not trying to go against sola scriptura, but sola scriptura Only the
40:41: Bible what does that even teach only the Bible is that scripture is the only authority true or false?
40:48: Sola scriptura is the scripture is the only authority true or false? Why? There good job.
40:59: This is a Frisbee Did you have one Okay, all right.
41:05: They have apps now for this too, so you don't have to throw them the scriptures are the final authority
41:11: Do you have authorities in your life? Yeah, I mean you haven't even met the church right you have have elders or authority, but we're not the final authority
41:20: This is an authority yes, but it's not the final authority so it tucks right underneath the scriptures.
41:26: It's fine lastly We've just got a few minutes context comparison and now
41:34: Christ Robert did me a favor by reading
41:41: Hebrews chapter 1 And I thank him for that and we're going to end on that in just a moment
41:47: Turn to Ephesians chapter 1 just quickly please Ephesians chapter 1 We've come to ask questions like what's the context what about comparing it elsewhere?
41:58: There's one divine author is there a harmony here in the Bible yes There is and then lastly what about Christ does it point to Christ does it tell me about Christ does it fulfill anything about Christ?
42:09: Does it just tell me that I need Jesus because it's just a passage about sin Ephesians chapter 1 verses 9 and 10
42:15: I want you to know dear Christian that the book the Bible is about Jesus And it is about God uniting everything in Jesus It is about the purpose of God in Jesus alone
42:28: It is about every event in history every supernatural event every event comes under the rubric of these two verses
42:36: And so you ought to be asking yourself the question Where do these other verses fit into God's redemptive purpose for the world and here's the purpose?
42:44: Making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him things in heaven and things on earth
43:01: The history of redemption exists because of the coming of Christ and who he is
43:06: No wonder Jesus said the scriptures bear witness to me
43:14: And so when you read the Bible, I want you to say all the promises of God find there
43:19: Yes in Jesus Christ 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 I want you to remember what
43:25: Jesus said in Luke 24 Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and Beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself and Now we go to Hebrews chapter 1 and I'm just going to show you how
43:47: Hebrews looks at the Old Testament and sees Jesus everywhere even in passages that aren't messianic
43:55: Quote -unquote quote -end quote Hebrews context comparison and Christ We have lots of sermons true or false in the
44:07: New Testament Do we have any sermons in the
44:12: New Testament that are written to a particular church? Do we have evangelistic sermons? Well Peter Peter.
44:19: Yes, James Paul and the book of Acts, but I think this is the only sermon given to a church
44:26: A New Testament Church, and I wonder what he talks about Hebrews chapter 1
44:32: I just want you to see when this man read the Old Testament He thought of Jesus everywhere as my friend said,
44:41: I'm not reading Jesus into the Old Testament I'm refusing to not see him there. No, I want to see him there
44:48: For to which of the angels did God ever say you are my son today. I have begotten you He says that in verse 5 that's from Psalm 2 that is a messianic song
44:57: He gives us another passage, which is messianic found in verse 5 I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son
45:05: There's another passage that I don't think is messianic according to most scholars and again when he brings the firstborn into the world
45:12: He says let all God's angels worship him Everything for this author is talking about the
45:18: Lord Jesus even texts that aren't directly messianic They apply to the Lord Jesus verse 7 the fourth
45:26: Psalm that he brings up or fourth Old Testament passage Psalm 104 Here's the quote from Psalm 104 of the angels
45:32: He says he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire in Verses 8 and 9 of Hebrews 1 he's quoting
45:42: Psalm 45. Is this a messianic Psalm but of the Son? He says your throne.
45:48: Oh God is forever and ever the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom You've loved righteousness hated wickedness
45:54: Therefore God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your comparison beyond your excuse me companions
46:02: There's two more, but I'm only gonna read one and this is the one that's really kind of the jugular Hebrews chapter 1 verses 10 11 and 12 comes from what
46:12: Psalm Look you can look in your notes. You have a little cross -reference notes there Psalm what?
46:20: 102 Psalm 102 a messianic Psalm No, it's a Psalm about God. But when you read about God, what do who are you thinking about?
46:28: If you're reading from the version from the view of the New Testament and we have the closed canon You're thinking about this is who
46:34: Jesus is Take a look at this this Psalm Psalm 102 is about the
46:42: Messiah and that's how this Apostles are this Apostles friend reads it you
46:48: Lord laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the works of your hands They will perish but you remain they will all wear out like a garment like a robe you will roll them up like a garment
47:00: They will be changed, but you are the same and your years will have no end The creator of the universe
47:11: Is Jesus the culmination is Jesus and then he goes on in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 13 and 14 to quote
47:19: Psalm 110 When I read the Bible, I read 66 books as Christian literature and I say to myself
47:30: What is the context? What is the comparison and what does it tell me about Christ if anything?
47:38: That's how I think would be an easy way for you to read Your Bible.
47:44: I sent something out this week and I'm going to just read it to you now because I think it's so Wonderful.
47:50: It's talking about Jesus in all the Bible and this is where we'll close Herbert Lockyer in Genesis Jesus is the seed of woman in Exodus.
48:00: He's the Passover lamb in Leviticus He's the atoning sacrifice in numbers.
48:05: He's the smitten rock in Deuteronomy He's the prophet in Joshua. He is the captain of the
48:11: Lord's hosts in Judges, he is a deliverer in Ruth He is the kinsman in 1st
48:17: Samuel 2nd Samuel 1st Kings 2nd Kings 1st and 2nd Chronicles He's the promised
48:22: King in Nehemiah. He's the restorer of the nation in Esther He is the advocate in Job.
48:29: He is my Redeemer in Psalms. He is my Savior in Proverbs He is my wisdom in Ecclesiastes.
48:35: He's my Goel in Song of Solomon. He's my satisfier in the prophets
48:40: He's the coming Prince of Peace peace in the Gospels He is God in Christ Jesus come to redeem in Acts.
48:48: He is alive in the church in the epistles He is Christ at the father's right hand and in Revelation.
48:53: He is the mighty conquer and that good So the three C's that will help you are number one number two
49:04: Comparison number three Christ let's pray. We'll skip the last song and have some apples.
49:10: How about that? We have apples applesauce Apple grande all kinds of don't we have
49:15: Apple stuff. I Think so. We have some Apple stuff and before I close in prayer if you knew
49:23: Scott Hilt, would you reach out to Natalie and I'll give you her phone number if you Don't have it and you could express your condolences and if you of course, you know,
49:34: Patty It was 2 30 this morning that Patty's mom died and maybe you want to send her a note call her
49:40: Text her would you do that for me? Would you do that for her? I think that'd be kind. She pours her heart out for you
49:46: She loves you. And now we want to come alongside folks like Natalie Hilt and Patti Makarovsky All right, let's pray father.
49:55: Thank you For our time I pray that you would give great desire in all the hearts of these dear folks
50:03: To keep studying the Bible to find the treasures to dig in and to see wonderful things that you revealed in your law
50:09: And when we do study the Bible, we're just amazed We see ourselves and think who could ever love us and yet you've loved us with an everlasting love and you've shown that love father
50:18: By sending Jesus to rescue us to die that vicious death death in our place
50:23: And we're so thankful he's alive we're so thankful we have hope We're sad for our friends because they have no hope without Christ and they just live for this world
50:32: Would you grant us boldness to speak the truth and for Natalie and Patty tonight as pretty prayed so wonderfully this morning