Don Kistler - Felonious Eisegesis

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Well, Mike has just given me the privilege to introduce our next speaker. I love this brother
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Tremendously, he's not only a true yoke fellow in ministry Not only
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I treasure him as a dear co -laborer in the gospel, but also as a wonderful friend
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He and his wife Beverly. I appreciate so much Don has done a great service for the kingdom of God and That he has
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I think the Lord's used him uniquely single -handedly almost to Begin Soledad Gloria publishing many years ago to bring to light these great classics from the 16th 17th 18th centuries predominantly and Think of what we would not have at our disposal if it wasn't for the
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Lord using our dear brother I am so grateful for these wonderful messages and sermons that he
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Used to just type in every syllable by hand and to think of the great wealth of knowledge the
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Lord has blessed this brother with but to bring that to us and these Recovering of these great Puritan classics the thing though.
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I like about Don is this is not a professional Christian What you see is what you get
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Don is one of the clearest expositors. I believe in the body of Christ today
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There are great ones. I think of my mentor and friend. Dr. John MacArthur my dear late friend.
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Dr. Stephen Olford Certainly, dr. R. C. Sproul and others, but I think
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Don stands unique in this way He brings a theology that people can wear he exalts greatly the
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Lordship of Jesus Christ and preaches the truth uncompromisingly But it's not just lofty
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Idealism that our brother gives his ministry is so impacted my life because this is a man who brings me
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Not only to the heights of glory through his teaching through the exposition of God's Word But then brings it down daily to where we need to live and apply it
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We have to be effective hearers of the word but listen if we're not doers of it, it doesn't mean a hill of beans does it and So Don's ministry has so impacted my life that he unmistakably calls me and Unavoidably, so to be not just a hearer of God's Word, but a doer of it
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This is a great brother in the Lord, and would you please welcome our dear friend? Dr. Don Kistler? I so much appreciate being introduced by someone who really doesn't know me and will say things like that.
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I Think we all live with the fear that if anybody really knew us They'd never listen to anything we had to say and so Steve hasn't awoken to the reality of who
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I really am yet. I Would invite you to take the Bible if you have one and turn to the book of 1st
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Thessalonians and the second chapter this has
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Been awkward writing these messages for this conference and this cruise Because I'm not used to getting a topic.
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I'm used to getting a text to preach on and When I saw felonious Isis the first thing
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I thought of was a jazz musician from the 1960s named felonious monk
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I Was sure that felonious and felonious were somehow related
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Follow along with me as I read the first 13 verses of 1st Thessalonians 2
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You yourselves know brethren that our coming to you was not in vain
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But even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi as you know
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We were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict
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For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness Nor was it in deceit but as we have been entrusted by God approved by God To be entrusted with the gospel that phrase alone scares me out of the pulpit this very minute to be entrusted with the gospel
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What a responsibility even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts
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For neither at any time did we use flattering words as you know Nor a cloak for covetousness
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God is witness Nor did we seek glory from men either from you or from others when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ But we were gentle among you just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children
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So affectionately longing for you We were well pleased to impart to you.
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Not only the gospel of God But also our own lives because you had become dear to us
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For you remember brethren our labor and toil for laboring night and day That we might not be a burden to any of you.
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We preach to you the gospel of God You are witnesses and God also how justly and Devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves
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Among you who believe as you know how we exhorted and comfort and charged Every one of you as a father does his own children
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That you would walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory For this reason we also thank
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God without ceasing Because when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us you welcomed it not as the
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Word of men But as it is in truth the Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe
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In this passage Paul is talking about how these believers should live so as to please
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God in Verses 11 and 12. He shows that the primary function of his ministry
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Among them had been to exhort them to walk worthy of God. I have a message on that text
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I call the Christians dignity and duty Your duty is to walk worthy of God your dignity is that God has called you
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He Says we exhorted we comforted we charged every one of you In other words the entire focus of our ministry was to get you believers to live a life.
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That's worthy of God the great Scottish Presbyterian preacher James Durham said that the goal of all preaching was to get those who are outside the covenant within and To get those who are already in the covenant to live like it
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Verse 13 appears to be a continuation of this idea of the worthy walk.
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I mean, it's a continuation of an argument for this reason Paul says that he thanks
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God unceasingly for one specific thing and that is that when the believers in Thessalonica Received the
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Word of God. They did not receive it as the Word of men. They received it for what it was the
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Word of God and He adds an interesting quality About this Word of God He states that it works effectively in a specific group of people.
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It works effectively in those who believe For me that is reminiscent of John 10
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Where Jesus says to the Pharisees that you do not believe my word because you are not one of my sheep
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That is one of the marks of Christ sheep. They hear his voice They believe what he says and they follow him
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One of my mentors told me the story once of speaking at a Christian college in New York about the demands of discipleship and the absolute necessity of obedience and Afterwards one of the co -eds came up and said you have me all confused
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You seem to be saying that in order to be a follower of Jesus Christ. You've got to follow
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Jesus Christ As if that were somehow a logical fallacy that was throwing this college student
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Jesus says in John 10 You don't believe what I say because you're not one of my sheep.
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That there is one of the marks of Christ sheep they believe what he says and The reason they believe what he says is because they belong to him and they're so used to hearing his voice
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They're so attuned to the sound of his voice. They wouldn't think of following anybody else and When he says they follow me it's in the present active indicative.
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They are following me It is not a mark of Christ sheep that they followed him once It is not a mark of Christ sheep that they followed him for a time
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It is a mark of Christ sheep that they are following him right now Paul reiterates this thought here.
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The Word of God works effectually or Effectively in those who believe and one of the reasons it does so is
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Because true believers see the Word of God for what it really is The scriptures are the
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Word of God They are not the Word of men and that is going to be our focus in this time The Bible is the
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Word of God It is not the Word of men and the truth of that has implications for everything
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It's going to be said today and everything that's going to be said on the ensuing cruise Paul is a great champion of this truth that the
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Bible is the Word of God. Paul was no slouch mind, you know
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By the age of 21. He had the equivalent of two doctor's degrees Even secular historians agree that if he hadn't wasted his life by giving it to religion
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He would have been one of the greatest minds in the early world pass it in Socrates and Plato But you know any of us who give our lives to the gospel ministry pretty much here from the rest of the world
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What did you waste your life doing that for? Paul wrote to Timothy that all scripture is breathed out by God which makes it inspired and That being the case
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Paul writes it is to be used first and foremost for doctrine
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Doctrinal preaching is what the scripture calls for is also to be used for reproof for correcting error
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You know, there's a lot of people who don't want to hear that kind of thing. They have a Rodney King mentality
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Can't we all just get along and? Yet most of the New Testament Almost all of Paul's epistles are written to correct error in order to correct error.
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You've got to state what the error is And then you've got to show what's wrong with it but the basis for all of that for Preaching doctrine for reproof for correction and error and for instructing
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God's people in how to be righteous is that this is indeed the Word of God and it is authored by him and If it is what
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God says, you know one thing off the top. There are no errors in it
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Because God is incapable of error Now Since the
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Bible is the Word of God spoken by him Then that dictates our response to it so we come to it to listen not to speak
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That's what the book of Ecclesiastes tells us when we come into the house of God come to listen not to offer the sacrifice of fools and The way you interpret that is the sacrifice of fools is to do anything in God's house other than listen
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In other words You go to the original Greek It's shut up when you come to church just shut up Sit there and listen
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The issue is what does God want to say to us? Not what do we want to tell him?
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That's the difference between what is called exegesis and what goes by the term?
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Isagesis the first is what we get out of the passage extract anytime you see ex it is taking out
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The second is what we read into the passage or what we bring to it what we add to it
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I Can put it simplistically the first requires that we get our doctrine from the scriptures
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The second allows us to bring our doctrine to the scriptures and then find text to support what we are already convinced of You probably heard that popular story of the minister who told his friend.
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I've got a great sermon for Sunday I just need to find a text for it between now and then that's a good example of is a
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Jesus And it's all too common among ministers But before we can try to show that this is criminal behavior
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We first got to show what it is that is expected of God's messengers First and foremost we are commanded as you've heard several times already to preach the word when
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Paul writes to Timothy And I love that phrase because in that statement in that command there are two aspects to the divine charge
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The first is to preach The second is to preach the word and here in this three -word statement
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Paul gives Timothy from God both the method and the message and Those are now eternal verities
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If a gospel minister alters either one of those two things he is disobedient to Jesus Christ If he gets up in the pulpit and shares what's on his heart
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He is disobedient to Jesus Christ. That is not one of Christ's gifts to the church is
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Sharers if he preaches, but he doesn't preach the word he is disobedient he must preach and he must preach the word and According to our present text if he doesn't preach the word as the
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Word of God. He is also disobedient Paul tells
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Timothy that this Word of God is a treasure to be guarded and we do not have
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Permission to play fast and loose with it. We dare not come to it and use it for our own purposes
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Not even our own doctrinal agendas The Bible is what
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God wants to tell us so it is really our job to find out what it says and Then give that message to God's people as purely as we are capable of doing
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Paul writes in Corinthians that we are quote stewards of the mysteries of God and the main thing that we must strive for is to be faithful We're to come to the scriptures so that we can do what
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Jesus told Peter to do feed my precious little lambs It was one of the marks of the false teacher in the
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Old Testament that he prophesied on his own authority Which is really a nonsensical statement
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Now there's so many of those going around today things Words that have no meaning at all post modern
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Post means after modern means what is right now? How can you live in a world?
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That's after the one you're living in It's like going to Red Lobster and ordering an impossibility jumbo shrimp
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Or my favorite contradiction of terms rap music Those are mutually incompatible
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But ministers have no authority other than what proceeds from Christ and his word all the authority is in the word
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It's not in the man and the problem with Jeremiah's assessment of false teachers Was that the people love it when the shepherds do that?
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He said the prophets prophesy on their own authority and my people love it.
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So At least one of the reasons that misguided shepherds do this is because the people liked it that way and so they're really giving them exactly
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What they want so many congregations reject true biblical preaching in favor of sharing
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Preaching is authoritative Sharing is one person giving his opinion, but it's not authoritative
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Sharing is not thus saith the Lord. It's here's what I think and the reason people love that is because it eliminates any authority involved in preaching
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But when Paul wrote to Timothy, he told him preach in the command mode There aren't any suggestions in Scripture God didn't give ten suggestions.
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He gave ten commands and Jesus didn't say if you love me keep my helpful hints He said keep my commands
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Preaching by its very nature is authoritative. It's telling God's people what God's Word says and then in joining them to do it
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So once again, we see that the issue is what the scripture says Not what I wanted to say or wish
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I would what I wish it would say The confessions of faith over the centuries that have been written say this.
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This is just from the Westminster confession of faith the authority of the Holy Scripture for which it ought to be believed and obeyed
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Depends not on the testimony of any man or any church But wholly upon God who is truth itself the author thereof and Therefore it is to be received because it is the
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Word of God There's one thing that my dad and God have in common.
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I Never thought my dad was particularly like God when I was growing up But they had this in common when he told me to do something and I'd say how come
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I got to do it? He'd say because I said so and That's what
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God does You can read through Deuteronomy and through Leviticus and almost inevitably every time
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God gives a command the reason for us having to obey it It is the following Because I am the
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Lord God is God is the reason for everything that God asks
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God himself is the odds all we get. How come I got to do that because I'm God Okay, but what's a real good reason we say
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Let me give you a quote from the the book that you just got by dr. White He defines is a
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Jesus this way reading into a text a text of the Bible a meaning that is not supported
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By the grammar the syntax the lexical meanings and the overall context of the original
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Exegesis is where you read out of the text its original meaning by careful attention to grammar
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Syntax the lexical meaning of the words used by the author as they were used in his day and in his area and the overall context of the document as Common as is a
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Jesus is it should be something the Christian minister finds abhorrent But when you stop and think about it isogesis muffles the voice of God if the text of Scripture is in fact
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God breathed then isogesis involves silencing the divine voice and Replacing it with the thoughts and tense and most often traditions of the one doing the interpretation exegesis is a skill honed over years of practice and There's no greater spiritual service.
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The minister can render to the Lord and to the flock entrusted to his care And to allow
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God's voice to speak with the clarity that only sound exegesis can provide in quote
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It's an excellent statement In 1645 as part of the work of the
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Westminster Assembly of Divines That word divine throws you it simply is what we would call today a theologian a theologian studies theology a divine studied divinity and So that's all that means they wrote the directory for the public worship of God and regarding preachers
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These great preachers wrote that when they were raising a point from the text quote It is to be a truth contained in or grounded on that text
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In the quote and they were to ensure that quote the hearers may discern how God teaches it from there
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So once again, we go to the scripture and take from it not put into it
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Now before I give some examples of that I want to state up front all of us are guilty of it It is not just them out there
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One of the things we can do with our brothers is quit making it an us versus them mentality we all do it
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We just shouldn't do it much. Well, we should correct it when it happens. I mean we firmly believe in our theology
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We're pretty much airtight You know after all we've listened to a RC Sproul tape once in our life.
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So we know what we believe We go to the Bible and we give the Bible every chance to agree with us
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Isn't that how we do it? More scary than that is I find that more people get their theology from their hymn books than from their
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Bibles The Bible is to be the source of our doctrine
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Not a Charles Wesley not an Augustus top lady because fallible men write fallible hymns
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That's why so many of us here are committed to expository preaching all wrote in Titus 1 that God has revealed his word through preaching
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In Exodus 37 where Ezekiel is told to prophesy to the dry bones God said to him prophesy
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They may live through hearing my word That's the centrality of preaching and if we really believe that the scriptures are all sufficient for matters of faith and practice
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Then the only important thing for us to know is what do they say, right? So in biblical preaching
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We are seeking to mine all the riches that are in the Word of God oftentimes one verse at a time
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So we go to the language to see what the word means We put the passage in its historical
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Context and we do that for a reason because what is important to know is what did the text mean to the people to whom?
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It was spoken. What did they understand? I Your righteousness exceeds that of the
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Scribes and Pharisees you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven and I've said that to people talking about the need for us to be holy people and well,
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Jesus was talking about positional righteousness How do you get that from the text?
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What would the Jews have understood about positional righteousness? They would have understood exactly what
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Jesus was saying if the life that you live Doesn't go beyond The conduct of people who hope to be saved by their righteousness.
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You have no chance of getting into heaven They understood that Why don't we
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This is very important. For example when we preach on Paul's usage of armor in Spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6 or when we preach from the
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Beatitudes in Matthew 5 You know, obviously the imagery of a Roman soldier in his armor is instructive for us in our battles with the world the flesh and the devil and For example when we use the phrase poor in spirit
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It's certainly helpful to know that Jesus was using the word for a beggar who had no skills No talents and absolutely no way to help himself out of his condition.
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That would make a difference Wouldn't you think that only somebody who fits that description will ever inherit the kingdom of heaven?
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We often refer to this as the historical grammatical interpretation of Scripture or putting the passage into its historical context and letting the words speak for themselves
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Our English language can really be very impoverished sometimes For example in John 3 36 when
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Jesus says that the wrath of God Abides on the one who does not believe in Christ.
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The Greek word is or gave from which we get or G Has no sexual meaning here at all
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It's simply the idea of unbridled unrestrained emotion in other words Rather than telling a sinner
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God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life Jesus is saying The unrestrained anger of God abides on you right now to the hottest degree
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That was the seven Greek words for anger. This was the hottest the most intense That'd be helpful in evangelism.
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I would think There's no limit to the anger hand
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God has for those who reject his son now the other side of this is what goes by the term topical preaching and that's where a preacher picks a topic and Then finds a myriad of verses to support it or explain it
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And so we'll have seven weeks in a series on fixing a broken marriage Where I think one sermon on self -denial on fighting for the bottom instead of the top would fix more broken marriages
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Than a thousand sermons on fixing a broken marriage an Expository preaching the topic is determined by the text not the other way around This can often become the case in point when a preacher wants to be quote relevant in his
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Sunday message I'll never forget years ago reading a cartoon in Christianity today
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Where they were having a modern Bible study Which means that we all sit in a circle somebody reads a verse
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We all give our opinion of what the verse means and we call that a Bible study. I Call it pooling our ignorance so the pastor read the verse where Paul says
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I am in chains for the sake of the gospel and Then the little group went around the circle and what do you think that means?
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I? Think it means that he's suffering from his addictions. He's in chains to his addictions.
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Oh Interesting yeah What do you think it means Well, it reminds me of Aretha Franklin chain chain chain chain of fools
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That we're all in chains of one kind and so we go around the circle and everybody says something stupid
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And it comes back to the pastor and they say pastor, what do you think it means and he says well
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I think it means exactly what it says Paul was in jail because he wouldn't shut up about Christ and The one person turns the other ones
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I told you he was irrelevant If you tell people what the
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Bible means and you don't use their name in the sermon They think you're irrelevant
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Well, he didn't have anything to say to me So next Sunday you get up and you say and Bob.
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Here's the application for you. You fornicator. See how well that goes over You Want relevance and personal application, baby, there it is it's like that story of Jonathan Edwards who in a sermon one time compared sinners to rats and Afterwards one of the fine upstanding men in his congregation was highly offended and So after the sermon he gave
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Jonathan Edwards the what -for and he demanded an apology and Edwards said I will Go home and pray about that and you'll know my answer next
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Sunday and Edwards got up in the pulpit and said that he had been rebuked and he was convicted and he offered a heartfelt apology to the rats
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He said it was an unfair comparison because rats have honor sinners have none and Rats and all their rattiness are only doing what
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God created them to do. He said where is the sinner who does that? Be careful what you ask for out of your pastor you might get it
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But when a pastor has a topic and then he goes to his topical concordance and simply finds a half -dozen verses to support his premise
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That's to place more faith in what we have to say than in the inspired and errant infallible Word of God Have you noticed that there are fewer and fewer men in pulpits who really believe that the gospel is the power of God unto
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Salvation and they evidence it by the fact. They're unwilling to preach it That's to make the
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Bible our servant rather than us being servants of the word That's to elevate ourselves to an unbiblical position and that is also to worship the creature rather than the
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Creator I'm going to take a look at a few examples of eisegesis to show how some have to bring their predetermined theology to a text for support
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Now there's a passage in 2nd Peter 3 that many use To back up their premise that God does not want anybody to perish but rather that he desires that everybody be saved and So they read this verse
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The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness But is long -suffering toward us
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Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Now in order to come to that conclusion you would have to isolate a part of the verse from the rest of it
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Peter has said that the Lord is long -suffering towards someone toward us and Then he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, but you cannot divorce that last phrase from the us
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So we have to find out who is the us well, the us he refers to is those to whom
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Peter is writing and Chapter 1 verse 1 tells us that Peter is writing to quote those who have obtained like Precious faith with us by the righteousness of our
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God and Savior He's just talked about the Lord's patience in chapter 3.
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Why isn't the Lord returning? Because there's somebody that God has chosen to save that's not saved yet and he's waiting for that person
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This should be the greatest spur to evangelism any of us could ever have We should be pounding on doors.
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Listen, you wouldn't happen to be the last elect person. Would you can we get on with it? Because as soon as you're home we can get out of here
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Those who fit this description of having a like -precious faith by the righteousness and of God and Christ Are the us of chapter 3 verse 9 and God is not willing that any of those should perish
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But that every single one of those should come to repentance and that is why he's long -suffering towards them
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Another passage that some in the church try to make say something it does not say you could find in Isaiah 53
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You don't need to turn there But those who advocate faith healing appeal to this text where it says by his stripes.
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We are healed Now there's nothing in that passage about healing at all.
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At least not healing on a physical level What needs healing according to Isaiah is our sinful souls
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Because of our transgressions and iniquity the stripes he bore were because of those things our sins
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It is from those we are healed by the suffering that Christ underwent God laid our sins on Christ Not our diseases because of that were the case that there is physical healing in the atonement
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No, safe person would ever die because of an illness Because of that were true and Christ's atonement never fails then the benefits of that atonement would be eternal just like it is with our sin and That would mean our physical stripes would be permanently healed just like our sin is person permanently done away with Sometimes when we come to a passage, you know, we can't always say emphatically what the passage means
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Not all passages are equally clear to understand Sometimes we may only be able to go to a passage and say, you know,
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I can't tell you what this passage means I think I can tell you with a good deal of certainty what it doesn't mean
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For example when the Old Testament tells us that God repented Well, that would mean that God sinned
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But we know that that's not possible So we may not be able to say what it does mean, but we know for sure what it doesn't mean
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It doesn't mean that God made a bad decision and was up in heaven pounding his head against a tree in many passages, however
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We can say this the Bible means exactly what the Bible says Unless there is good reason from the
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Bible to think it means anything else But you've got to get your arguments from both from the scriptures
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For example, there are people who go to Ephesians and look at the passage that says Let everyone be subject one to another in the fear of Christ And so they take that to the marriage relationship and they say no one's in charge there is mutual subjection husband to wife and wife to husband and People really like that well
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At least women do but you can't do that with that passage because it is talked about everybody being in subjection to everybody else
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That would mean that parents have to be just as subject to their children as they are as the children are to the parents
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You have chaos you have anarchy And since the picture is the marriage relationship between Christ and the church
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You would have to say then that Christ is just as subject to the church as the church is to Christ And I hope nobody's going to try to fly that one by you another example of a passage that is criminally isogetic would be 1st
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Corinthians 8 5 and the King James Version says Though there be that are called gods whether in heaven or earth as there be gods many and Lords many and So the
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Mormons use this verse to say that there are many gods But the text doesn't say there are many gods
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It says there are many that are called gods and being called a god is not the same as being a god
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Being called the head of the house does not mean that you are It simply means you have the title
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One of the problems in our day, which goes even beyond this type of thing There are some who go to the text and read the exact opposite of what it does say
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With no other reason than a predetermined inclination against the inspired text There's a man named
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Kirsten Stendhal Who's had a great deal to do with the new perspective on Paul mentality?
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He admits that years ago. He was reading Paul's epistles. He says I didn't like the way he talked about women and Jews So I decided to reinterpret him.
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That's what people do. You know, that's the universal hermeneutic anymore It's not what does the
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Bible say? It's do I like it? So people will walk out a pastor spends 30 hours studying it for a sermon and some guy who hasn't spent 30 seconds listening
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Says I reject that out of hand why I didn't like it on what basis.
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I don't need a basis Had a man who was arguing with me about the doctrine of election
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I said, what is it about this doctrine that bothers you so much? He says I couldn't live if I thought one of my children wasn't called
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And I said, is that how you determine the truth of everything in Scripture how it affects your children Isn't it true because God said so if we can show that that's what
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God says So they'll go to Paul's statement where he says I do not allow a woman to teach and They say this
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I do allow a woman to teach Where Paul says I do not allow a woman to have authority over man.
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They read it this way I do allow a woman to have authority over a man They don't even need the eyes of Jesus they just says no
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I reject that the Bible calls homosexuality an abomination
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Liberal theologians say that the sin for which Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed was a lack of hospitality
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Where scripture says that the man is the head of the wife today. It's only means that man is the source of life
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They take away his authority in his home There are many well -intentioned persons who have a genuine desire to see sinners saved as many as possibly can and So they go to John 12 32 where Jesus said if I be lifted up,
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I will draw all men to myself And so they have it in print that Jesus will draw all men to himself.
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In other words, he's going to save everyone That's not what the text is saying Just prior to that verse and this there are two things going on here a one verse theology
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Which is always dangerous and a first -glance theology just before this we have the
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Greeks seeking Jesus and that surprised the Disciples because as we know the
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Jews at that time didn't believe the Gentiles would ever have any part in the promises of God's was very Radical to them to think that the gospel would be opened up to the
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Gentiles and to see Gentiles approaching the Jewish Messiah Was a real hard thing for them, but what we have here is different nationalities approaching
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Jesus So most translations translate that I will draw all mankind or all night nations to myself
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Not everybody who's ever lived That's a good example of how important the historical context can be
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Or in the book of Acts where we're told they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues
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Therefore if you are filled with the Holy Spirit you will speak in tongues
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But if you look closer at the context of the passage the they Of whom this is said are
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Defined in chapter 1 as the Apostles Apostles were not then today everyday disciples and there are no apostles today at least none that would fit the biblical criteria
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There are some self -proclaimed ones But the ones who were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues were the
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Apostles and It says that that confused the other devout men who were nearby.
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It wasn't given to everyone and Then the greater issue becomes whether or not everything that was happening to the first century church
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Was normative for the church throughout all ages is the first of something normative for everything that follows
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That could be highly problematic Adam was a single man for a time. God put him to sleep and then brought
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Eve to him Does that become the norm for men and women in finding a partner? Jacob was drawing water from a well when
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Sarah came along The only thing that's normative here is they were doing what God told them to do I remember many years ago living in Wheaton, Illinois And I was single at the time and I would call my mom in California once a week or so She was quite concerned that I was in my late 20s and wasn't married yet So she would inevitably ask me before I could get off the phone hard as I tried well, have you met anyone yet?
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So I mentioned to her one time what I just said to you, you know mom when
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Eve came along Adam was asleep and When Sarah came along Jacob was getting some water.
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I Don't need to worry about meeting somebody I just need to make sure that I'm doing what God wants me to do and that I'm following him all that other stuff will
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Take care of itself So she was quiet for a minute, which made me realize that she was upset
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And then she said That's good, Don Okay, I've got to get going.
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Listen, honey, you get lots of sleep and drink lots of water. Okay? Now that is is a
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Jesus Well, how do we keep this kind of thing from happening
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How can we make sure that we're using the Word of God for his purposes not just for ours
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Well, one way is to use the scripture for what God intended when Paul tells Timothy what the
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Word of God is profitable for literally useful For it's profitable for teaching doctrine But you get your doctrine from passages that teach doctrine and we call those didactic passages
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Narrative passages are usually for illustrating doctrine, but are not typically where we get our doctrine
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Secondly we go to the Bible as a learner not as a teacher What can
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I learn here? In fact, it's a good idea to go to a passage and ask questions of the passage.
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What does this passage tell me about God? What does it tell me about me? What does it tell me about my duty before God?
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Asking questions shows humility on our part and it gives us more of God's mind than telling
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God what he must have meant It's helpful to have a study Bible or a commentary that will give us the setting for a passage
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It's important to know to whom this passage was written. What were the circumstances? What was happening that this needed to be said to them if it's addressed to you or them or us?
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Who is that and this is where it gets to be a little bit of work But isn't that what
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Paul wrote to Timothy study to show yourself approved unto God a what a work man
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This is hard work If you do it, right How about the words themselves there in plenty of language helps that are available for laymen and pastors?
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Getting a feel for the richness of the original languages is a significant help Another good tool is just a plain old -fashioned dictionary
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Want to see how our words have evolved over the years You know words that were used to say you're a
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King James person Words that were used and had a certain meaning in the 1600s don't have that meaning today
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For example in Proverbs where it says train up a child in the way he should go and when he's old
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He will not depart from it So many people want to take that as an ironclad guarantee where it's really a warning
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The word would and should in the 16th century were interchangeable Literally in the
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Hebrew is train up a child according to his mouth which was a statement that let him do what he wants to do and Here's the guarantee if you let your kid run the show when he's old you'll never get him back
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That's more the import of the verse Than it is an ironclad guarantee We can see that exegesis and expository preaching was the norm for the
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Old Testament preachers by listening to Nehemiah 8 9 so they read distinctly from the book in the law of God and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading
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What's the sense of the passage how do we understand the passage how do we apply the passage and This is what happens when we let the
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Word of God be the Word of God and we let it be our teacher Rather than us trying to tell the scripture what it must mean
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And whenever we do not let the scriptures do the speaking we are all guilty of criminal behavior
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May it never be so shall we pray Father we ask that you would give us learners hearts when we come to the
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Word of God and that we would come as students as Workers To be found approved and not people who should be ashamed