How To Read Your Bible (part 2)

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

And we are so easily Swayed back and forth, but you're a constant and you're a

Firm foundation ever faithful ever true help these dear people tonight They want to learn how to study the

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.

Amen All right, just a quick review I talked last time about motivations to read and study your

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.

It was very very difficult to have a Bible to hold in your hands They were chained to the church

They were in the synagogues, but now you get to have a Bible Motivation number two the Bible is not an ordinary book

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

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.

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

Bible you ought to be Hopeful and expectant that God is going to change you

That's one of the reasons why this isn't an ordinary book because it changes you first Thessalonians 2 13

Of course Paul loved this church and he said in verse 13 and we thank God Constantly for this that when you receive the

Word of God, which you heard from us You accepted it not as the Word of men

But as what it really is the Word of God which is at work in you

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

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.

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

Disgruntled man who had his child here and I could tell he was causing a big fuss on Wednesday night

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

I can't believe you're teaching my child that she's a sinner and I'm mad And I thought okay number one.

He looks smaller than I am. So I think I could take him But number two that was back in the old days now

I need a lot of help I Said what's that sign say outside?

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

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

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

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

The transformation of people as they sit underneath the Word of God. So a motivation that we have

Besides a command is that we want to change and honor the Lord as we walk

Motivation three we saw last time that there's a Bible translation fit for every person no matter where you are intellectually

No matter where you are theologically, you can find a good Bible translation in your language

English that you can read well after that motivation those three motivations we talked a little bit about what not to do when you

Study the Bible we looked at random of random openings Where you just take the

Bible and just open it up and think that the Lord's gonna lead you in that area We talked about reading the

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

But not understand what you're reading We talked about how it's wrong to place ourselves over the

Bible How can this be true? Sodom and Gomorrah or lot or the

Canaanites are killing all the children and animals and and women and all this stuff

No, we're gonna put ourselves under the Bible the Bible's authoritative we talked about The to me method the

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

Bible with sections It wasn't last week when was it a month ago last time sorry we talked about sections remember

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

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

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

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

It's okay to clap isn't it do we mind clapping? One time a side note somebody said

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

But I said only five psalms talk about clapping out of 150 so to use your logic should we just clap five?

Over 150 which is what percentage does anybody know what is it three percent?

3 .3 of course the WPI people know they're like three how many significant figures would you like I?

Mean if you want to think big -picture you could think I'm coming into the Bible as it is it creation fall

Redemption or consummation if you wanted to divide the Bible up into four sections you could kind of think that way could you not?

creation fall Redemption and consummation, but the key really is all right. I'm gonna think before I just drop into some

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

Genre, it's a French word genre, and it just means type or literary type or as da

Carson says pastor Steve Jean I Like when the kids repeat that kind of a fun one to repeat and genre helps us

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

I think you're gonna be helped so we come to Psalms, and we think okay. These are songs

These are wisdom songs praise songs and so if I come to Psalm 1

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

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

So let's just give you an illustration of why genre helps so that you when you study your

Bible you think what genre is this? Because it's really related to what section am

I in? Am I in Torah? 5 books of Moses am I in wisdom

Ecclesiastes here's genre with Psalm 1 The gateway to the

Psalms Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the way of sinners

Nor sits in the seat of scoffers But his delight is in the law of the

Lord and on his law he meditates Day and night this particular blessed man.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where you could go that's true. I want to avoid Evil I want to avoid appearance of evil

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

So probably people miss that if you realize this is a song and it's wisdom genre

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

Psalms it loves parallelism Stating one thing and then another and that's exactly what's happening here

So instead of saying before you're before you know what you're walking, and then you're standing, and then you're sitting

It's saying this with parallelism Just avoid the ungodly at all at all counts

He uses three different ways to say the same thing to emphasize and lots of times

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.

How should I interpret? different genres I Want to make sure and and this is

I could say this to Wesley or other WPI students if you're really Logical and you're really

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

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

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

I love poetry We probably beat him up is what we would do in Nebraska. Oh, I like poetry

Thinking who was this person go back to to, California But the

Bible's got a lot of poetry and poetry has this repetition. They just say it different ways

There's antithetical parallelism. There's consistent parallelism all kinds of things, but when you just come to a psalm say this

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.

It's a song Let me give you another illustration of genre. Please go to Proverbs 6

Proverbs 6 This is also wisdom literature when the men are going to go to the preaching class next

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

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

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

Statements of no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus that just shall live by faith. This is kind of flowery.

It's poetry again I'll give you an illustration Proverbs 6 16 there are six things that the

Lord hates Seven that are an abomination to him. I mean can't you get it right?

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

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

Who breathes out lies six and now the seventh one one who sows discord among the brothers?

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

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

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

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

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

She has a green thumb It's raining

Cats and dogs third -string quarterback for the

New England Patriots Zappy is that his name Zappy yeah, did anybody watch the game on the

Lord's Day today? Drop back and threw a bomb get off your high horse

Those are all figures of speech Why do we use figures of speech well one it gets your attention right you're like.

Oh, that's an interesting way to say it It can make things memorable

There's an illustration in Hosea the Israelites are like a stubborn heifer You ever try to push up a stubborn heifer into its

Pen I mean these things are stubborn as anything and it makes things really

Beautiful and vivid and full of color. I said that earlier when I was praying Psalm 18 the

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

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

That's condensed and if I said for instance this has nothing to do with figures of speech

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

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

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

No wonder people love psalm 23 because it's a short psalm, but it gives you so much about who

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

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

What section on my end what kind of genre does that section have and then what kind of figures of speech might be used?

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

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.

I guess technically. I'm a grandpa now right Amen They won't tell us the name.

They just said it's a biblical name So I don't know

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

Long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

I Else it's for your good. It's like silver. It's like gold, but when Peter writes like newborn babes

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

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

Insists on the word no the baby insists on milk and just like that we want

To look to God and get to the word. Well you guys know similes What if I said the

Lord is my shepherd? That's not a simile. What's that? What kind of figure of speech is the

Lord is my shepherd? It's not a simile. It's a Okay an analogy be alright

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

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?

Haley time to order and she's eight and then I always look at her and I'm like May I please the

Lord is my shepherds a metaphor the Lord is my shepherd is a metaphor and so metaphors don't use like or as a

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

Jesus said I'm the bread of life, and what we're doing is we're saying section

Genre, let's make sure we have figures of speech True or false the Bible teaches that God has fingers

True or false the Bible says God has an ear The Bible says true or false

God has eyes a true or false the

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

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

Actions are sometimes human emotions and something we call anthropopathism To God and so when you see

God and Zechariah 8 say I'm exceedingly zealous for Zion That's just how we have to describe

God using human words All right Let's say you come to the

Bible, and you've got a problem and your problem is I don't understand this passage Years ago

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

W's who is God? Who is man? That's not the gospel that shows us the need of the gospel

What did Jesus do what did God the Father send Jesus to do and to the Spirit help?

That's the real gospel there, and then what's the response to the gospel so who is man?

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

W's so that you can understand The need of the gospel the gospel the response to the gospel etc so tonight

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

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

The men in the hermeneutics in the preaching class have to read a hermeneutics book. This is everything Distilled down to these three

C's so when you read the Bible There's a problem studying the Bible of course the problem is not God's.

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

Internet Because guess what the Internet will tell you whatever you want it to tell you You're like oh do

I believe in baptismal regeneration you become born again when you're baptized. I just type that in and guess what?

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

It might be right, and you say well, what about purgatory is purgatory real there's the stuff

Here's pro con, and then what do you need to do? so I'm gonna give you the three

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

What's my favorite celebrity say about this passage? What's my favorite study Bible say about this passage?

What does my pastor say about this passage? I want you to study yourselves and so the three

C's are context Comparison and Christ if you study the

Bible You probably if you've been teaching the Bible already do this. You just don't know that you do it context

Comparison and Christ and seriously it will help you study the Bible the rest of your life.

What's the context? What kind of comparison can I do with other passages in the

Bible and comparing it to the all the Bible? Systematic theology wise and then what about Christ?

How does this point to Christ? What does it make me think about my need for Christ my thankfulness for Christ?

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?

What's the comparison and what about Christ? Okay? That's what we're gonna do now

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

Number one context go to Galatians chapter 5, please. It's no Surprise that context is important and when we read

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

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.

So here is a perfect way to think about context for hermeneutics

Galatians chapter 5 verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy. Peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self -control

Against such things there is no law and he writes verse 24 and he writes verse 25

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

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

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

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

To see what follows for instance chapter 6 of Galatians Gives us the action fruit

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

Transgression you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness keep watching yourself lest you to be tempted

Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ And when the Spirit of God is using the word in you

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

You're right there for him. So here immediate context is super simple

Let's use another illustration first John chapter 2 many people Preach this and it makes folks very

Unsettled when it comes to their assurance, and I want you to just make sure you read what's before your passage

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

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

Verses 3 and 4 and by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his

Commandments whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him

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

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

Hurt people by taking out a context now. I could either read after But in this particular case,

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

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

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

Present tense always and forever right now an advocate with the

Father Jesus Christ the righteous He is a propitiation or he assuages

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

Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar And so one of the things we know about the

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

Stephen Steve you mentioned this this morning You didn't know I was gonna have this in my message tonight Kind of the the

Columbo style how many people watch Columbo or have watched old Columbo's? Okay.

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?

happens if you get saved out of a licentious lifestyle often what happens is then like I'm a legalist.

I can't do anything Nothing's allowed everything was allowed before now. Nothing's allowed. And so then you're like, you know,

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

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.

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

TV again only certain shows like Columbo Kojak McLeod And he said he watches

Columbo because of Columbo's style of asking Questions and I looked it up on the

Internet and just as you can find baptismal regeneration on the Internet You can find Columbo techniques of asking questions on the

Internet And when you come to the passage you ask all kinds of questions The the author of the

Internet article said saving the question until the end of the conversation For example as leaving you might say like Columbo.

Oh before I go may I just ask Asking it in an unsuspecting moment catching the responder off guard and so when

I come to the Bible I say There's an immediate context There's a chapter context.

There's a book context There's a Testament context and there's a

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?

What has he said before what he is not saying etc. So context is important number two

All right. Well, we got two more to go and we're gonna be done number two comparison comparison

Let me use technical language So when you see it online or you're studying books, you'll get it

But I'll explain it as easily as I can and by the way, everybody uses technical language

Why can't pastors right he he John just used pastor John the

Apostle used propitiation It's fine to use a big word. Let's just explain it So there's two things with comparison one.

You'll see called the analogy of Scripture in Theology books and the other one called the analogy of faith

Analogy of Scripture is I'm in a passage and something's difficult. I can't quite understand it

Are there other verses that I can compare elsewhere in the

Bible that talks about the same thing. Oh I'm in Matthew and I having kind of a hard time understanding this

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

Right and so that's a very good thing to do because come to find out as Spurgeon said the best interpreter of the

Bible the best commentary of the Bible is the Bible itself so analogy of Scripture is

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.

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

I want to talk about tonight is the analogy of faith the analogy of Faith I'm reading the

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.

What does the Bible say in its totality about God? Does God have eyes? I'm not talking about the

Incarnation God. Jesus said is in John chapter 4 a Spirit what does the

Bible say elsewhere even as a total? All right, I'm gonna say it you ready systematized theology

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

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

I don't want you to do that. I I mean if you open up the

Bible now to Genesis 1 1 in the beginning God I'm thinking systematic theology because I've read the rest of the

Bible I know what else he says and when you say God, what should you be thinking? Doesn't say anything about the triune

God there. But what do we know about God? He is triune. And so when I come to the passage,

I'm thinking Okay, what's the systematized theology that I've learned elsewhere that can help me understand the problem?

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

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

Let me give you an example. Why don't you go to John 14 28 when you read the

Bible you come with presuppositions Here your presupposition Jesus is alive. Jesus is coming back.

The Bible is God breathe God is triune God is the God. The Son is truly man truly

God The list could go on and on and on So when

I come to the text, I'm not trying to empty my mind I'm trying to say let the text speak

But God has spoken in 66 books and this is going to be in harmony with the rest of those books

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

John 14 28 Hi, welcome to my home may

I help you two people on bicycles wearing ties Calling yourselves elders, but you're 14 years old

Verse 28. I have a pass a question dear sir at your house Here's what Jesus said you heard me say to you

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

Father for the Father is greater than I See Jesus is a lesser being he's a lesser

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

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

Father's greater than I am What are you thinking about automatically what comes to your mind? Incarnation and in eternity past the

Father the Son and the Spirit Three persons one God one will one essence nobody greater

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

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

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

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

Systematic theology helps Bible knowledge helps and so we say to ourselves

Okay at the incarnation Jesus arrives to do the will of his father and Jesus's divine will true or false is

Lesser than the father's Excuse me. Let me rephrase that Jesus divine nature is

Lesser than the father's divine nature. Are you sure?

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

Trinitarian theology, so you've got God the Father He's got a will the divine will and now in Jesus assumes human nature.

He's divine still, but he's assumed a human will human nature and what's greater in God the

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

Father Now let me Remind you.

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

How can I do all this comparison? Number one, you should read a systematic theology

There's books that have systematic theology that go through tried and tested. My favorite one is Burkoff it's online for free.

There's a PDF and Short of a couple things he's right on most everything and you want to learn about how can

Jesus be truly God and truly man? He's got that down. How can God be triune? It's got that down.

What about the resurrection? He's got that down. And the other thing that you can do is read our statement of faith

This happens to be the London Baptist Confession of 1689 and it will help you because you can say you know what?

What do I believe about all the Bible when it comes to the fall of man's sin and its punishment

Well, here's a good concise definition and you go don't try to pull a fast one on me

You're trying to take this and put it over the Bible am I Did you know that this says?

Don't put me above the Bible because the Bible is the only final authority Even the confession says this is just a confession.

We confess We believe it's not inerrant, but it's helpful to get our arms around all these doctrines

What about Jesus showing up in person the second person of the

Trinity in the garden? When Adam and Eve are there? Well has to be

Jesus. How can it be Jesus and your systematic theology? Helps I like what

Pat said my brother Pat put this one together with an introduction Confessions They help us with humility.

We're not the first it avoids the cult of personality Not what my pastor said or favorite internet pastor it complements sola scriptura

It's not trying to go against sola scriptura, but sola scriptura Only the

Bible what does that even teach only the Bible is that scripture is the only authority true or false?

Sola scriptura is the scripture is the only authority true or false? Why? There good job.

This is a Frisbee Did you have one Okay, all right.

They have apps now for this too, so you don't have to throw them the scriptures are the final authority

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

This is an authority yes, but it's not the final authority so it tucks right underneath the scriptures.

It's fine lastly We've just got a few minutes context comparison and now

Christ Robert did me a favor by reading

Hebrews chapter 1 And I thank him for that and we're going to end on that in just a moment

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?

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?

Does it just tell me that I need Jesus because it's just a passage about sin Ephesians chapter 1 verses 9 and 10

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

It is about every event in history every supernatural event every event comes under the rubric of these two verses

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?

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

The history of redemption exists because of the coming of Christ and who he is

No wonder Jesus said the scriptures bear witness to me

And so when you read the Bible, I want you to say all the promises of God find there

Yes in Jesus Christ 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 I want you to remember what

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

Hebrews looks at the Old Testament and sees Jesus everywhere even in passages that aren't messianic

Quote -unquote quote -end quote Hebrews context comparison and Christ We have lots of sermons true or false in the

New Testament Do we have any sermons in the

New Testament that are written to a particular church? Do we have evangelistic sermons? Well Peter Peter.

Yes, James Paul and the book of Acts, but I think this is the only sermon given to a church

A New Testament Church, and I wonder what he talks about Hebrews chapter 1

I just want you to see when this man read the Old Testament He thought of Jesus everywhere as my friend said,

I'm not reading Jesus into the Old Testament I'm refusing to not see him there. No, I want to see him there

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

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

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

He says let all God's angels worship him Everything for this author is talking about the

Lord Jesus even texts that aren't directly messianic They apply to the Lord Jesus verse 7 the fourth

Psalm that he brings up or fourth Old Testament passage Psalm 104 Here's the quote from Psalm 104 of the angels

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

Psalm 45. Is this a messianic Psalm but of the Son? He says your throne.

Oh God is forever and ever the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom You've loved righteousness hated wickedness

Therefore God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your comparison beyond your excuse me companions

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

Psalm Look you can look in your notes. You have a little cross -reference notes there Psalm what?

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?

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

Jesus is Take a look at this this Psalm Psalm 102 is about the

Messiah and that's how this Apostles are this Apostles friend reads it you

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

They will be changed, but you are the same and your years will have no end The creator of the universe

Is Jesus the culmination is Jesus and then he goes on in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 13 and 14 to quote

Psalm 110 When I read the Bible, I read 66 books as Christian literature and I say to myself

What is the context? What is the comparison and what does it tell me about Christ if anything?

That's how I think would be an easy way for you to read Your Bible.

I sent something out this week and I'm going to just read it to you now because I think it's so Wonderful.

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.

He's the Passover lamb in Leviticus He's the atoning sacrifice in numbers.

He's the smitten rock in Deuteronomy He's the prophet in Joshua. He is the captain of the

Lord's hosts in Judges, he is a deliverer in Ruth He is the kinsman in 1st

Samuel 2nd Samuel 1st Kings 2nd Kings 1st and 2nd Chronicles He's the promised

King in Nehemiah. He's the restorer of the nation in Esther He is the advocate in Job.

He is my Redeemer in Psalms. He is my Savior in Proverbs He is my wisdom in Ecclesiastes.

He's my Goel in Song of Solomon. He's my satisfier in the prophets

He's the coming Prince of Peace peace in the Gospels He is God in Christ Jesus come to redeem in Acts.

He is alive in the church in the epistles He is Christ at the father's right hand and in Revelation.

He is the mighty conquer and that good So the three C's that will help you are number one number two

Comparison number three Christ let's pray. We'll skip the last song and have some apples.

How about that? We have apples applesauce Apple grande all kinds of don't we have

Apple stuff. I Think so. We have some Apple stuff and before I close in prayer if you knew

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,

Patty It was 2 30 this morning that Patty's mom died and maybe you want to send her a note call her

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

She loves you. And now we want to come alongside folks like Natalie Hilt and Patti Makarovsky All right, let's pray father.

Thank you For our time I pray that you would give great desire in all the hearts of these dear folks

To keep studying the Bible to find the treasures to dig in and to see wonderful things that you revealed in your law

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

By sending Jesus to rescue us to die that vicious death death in our place

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

Would you grant us boldness to speak the truth and for Natalie and Patty tonight as pretty prayed so wonderfully this morning