back to indexWed Bible Study (BCC 2) - 10-26-16
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Last week, we were talking about handling the Word of God, and in the next, this week 00:00:14.040 |
and even the next, we're still talking about that as in combination with our church's vision, 00:00:20.480 |
but in just thinking about what was presented last time is just this idea that how important 00:00:25.960 |
interpretation is of the scripture for us, right? 00:00:29.960 |
As we think about our faith and what it's built upon as a foundation, and then also 00:00:34.200 |
as we think about the authority that we receive from God, interpretation is incredibly vital. 00:00:41.280 |
And one of the things that Pastor Peter mentioned was that accurate and clear interpretation 00:00:47.980 |
is absolutely crucial because only when that interpretation is clear, so is the authority 00:00:55.120 |
Now, when we don't have accuracy and clarity in the interpretation of scripture, then that 00:01:04.200 |
And so the authority of God that is the message given to us is also unclear. 00:01:25.360 |
All right, so the impetus is on us to make sure that we try our best to accurately understand 00:01:33.440 |
And another way I wanna put it is just to kind of, again, inspire us to make sure that 00:01:37.400 |
we're actually digging is that in us trying to have that clarity is truly our hunger, 00:01:44.560 |
We're exercising not just simply a process of hermeneutics, we're exercising our thirst, 00:01:51.120 |
we're exercising our desire for scripture when we try to approach it with the desire 00:01:57.960 |
Now along those lines then today, we're gonna talk about one major aspect of biblical hermeneutics, 00:02:14.120 |
Today is gonna be, you know, again, more like class time and talking specifically about 00:02:20.360 |
the principles and guidelines for interpretation, but I don't want it to be something where 00:02:25.480 |
it's like, "Oh man, that's just too much specifics and details that I don't have time to get 00:02:32.120 |
Truthfully speaking, the things that we're gonna be talking about today, a lot of it 00:02:41.500 |
It's just an admonition for us to be both regular and consistent with our approach to 00:02:46.920 |
What I mean by that is, when we think about genre, you know exactly what I'm talking about. 00:02:51.800 |
When you enter into a library, you know that you go to a certain section when you're looking 00:02:57.720 |
The whole library is divided not by date, but the whole library is divided up by genre. 00:03:06.520 |
You have your fictional section, you have your teeny bopper stuff on one side, you have 00:03:14.320 |
And you do realize that likewise, the scriptures, it's not organized strictly in a timeline. 00:03:21.920 |
A bunch of the Old Testament is, but actually the scriptures itself is collected by genre. 00:03:28.320 |
So instinctively, when we walk into even, again, a library or whatnot, or instinctively 00:03:33.080 |
when you approach your Bible, there is this knowledge that within the text, there are 00:03:41.000 |
And so, I'm going to bust out my remote here, bam. 00:03:47.760 |
Essentially, when we're talking about genre, all we're talking about is the type of text 00:03:54.640 |
The type of text has various elements that gives us the indication that it is a different 00:04:01.760 |
The first is content and the content style, okay? 00:04:06.200 |
What we're talking about is, obviously, we have sentences and paragraphs, but what kind 00:04:13.400 |
of literary devices, what kind of expressions and verbal elements is this passage using, 00:04:21.240 |
And so, for those of you guys who are English majors, you've got a heads up on us. 00:04:26.160 |
You learned about different types of literary devices. 00:04:29.560 |
You learned about whether it be idioms, or you learned about expressive sayings, or metaphors 00:04:35.040 |
and similes, and all that kind of stuff, right? 00:04:37.800 |
So that kind of expressive speech, the figures of speech in the content of the passage that 00:04:43.320 |
you're studying, gives you an indication immediately of, hey, this could be a certain genre. 00:04:55.320 |
Immediately as you open up, obviously, to the Book of Psalms, you see the sentence structure 00:05:03.280 |
When you look at, you know, let's say even a narrative, you have different segments. 00:05:07.560 |
You have movements within it, and how it's organized, of whether there's a conflict and 00:05:14.520 |
You look at even epistles, and you have a certain structure where a lot of times the 00:05:19.200 |
apostle will write certain doctrines and then give you exhortation. 00:05:23.200 |
There is a sense of form and structure to the writings that we see. 00:05:26.200 |
But one of the most important things is the function, okay? 00:05:37.160 |
And we realize that the biblical authors and God, as he ordained even the way that it's 00:05:42.960 |
written, has an intent of writing certain things in certain forms, or I guess certain, 00:05:49.800 |
you know, styles and types, so that it accomplishes a purpose. 00:05:54.480 |
Whether it's to illustrate, whether it's to give you clear teaching, whether it's to move 00:06:06.640 |
So again, all I want to say with this is that there exists in the scriptures literary genres, 00:06:13.720 |
and it's very important for us to pay attention to them. 00:06:17.560 |
And I just want to say again, it's intuitive for us. 00:06:21.080 |
You know, I don't know if some of you guys are into like home decor, interior design, 00:06:27.160 |
some of you guys into, you know, architecture and stuff like that. 00:06:30.320 |
When you walk into a house, you walk in and you understand living room, kitchen, right? 00:06:37.280 |
And what that does for you is it starts to build essentially a framework. 00:06:42.200 |
You understand what kind of things should go. 00:06:50.040 |
And so I use that example to show us that essentially the importance of understanding 00:06:54.920 |
genre will help us have the right approach and expectation. 00:06:59.720 |
So on your packet there, there's a lot of blanks on the first page. 00:07:03.320 |
Somebody actually accidentally took my teaching notes. 00:07:06.960 |
But anyway, there's a lot of things on the first page here. 00:07:10.640 |
The first one there is underneath why it's important is because it guides our approach 00:07:18.440 |
We realize and we have to confess that sometimes we're looking for something when we go to 00:07:26.640 |
Whether it is because you're struggling, you need because you need encouragement, I don't 00:07:31.280 |
Different circumstances of our lives, in certain positions, we go to this text wanting to hear 00:07:39.680 |
And in that kind of circumstance, it puts us in a dangerous situation. 00:07:44.600 |
But the genre and context of the passage is actually giving for us parameters of what 00:07:54.000 |
It helps us to understand the overall purpose and intent of that passage, okay? 00:08:01.340 |
It helps us to understand the overall purpose and intent of the passage. 00:08:06.400 |
And then lastly, it prevents us from making the kind of mistakes that oftentimes we see 00:08:14.340 |
A lot of times the mistakes are gonna, I'm gonna summarize as going out of bounds, right? 00:08:22.260 |
Basically, what I'm presenting to you is that the study of genre helps us to build a framework, 00:08:29.540 |
overall structure by which you can pretty much hang your, you know, your co-hangers 00:08:33.260 |
and whatnot and have a little framework for you to understand the general whole and then 00:08:38.260 |
to make sure also in terms of how you practice interpretation, you stay within its bounds, 00:08:44.340 |
Now, the next couple of portions I'm gonna go over quite quickly. 00:08:48.860 |
If you look, I wrote down that there are many different types of genres found in the scriptures. 00:08:55.600 |
You look down the list and there's everything from history and narrative, there's the law 00:09:00.980 |
and wisdom, and I'm not gonna take time right now to go over every single one. 00:09:06.080 |
You can take time to kind of read up on that. 00:09:11.420 |
At the end of your handout today, I put some resources down for you. 00:09:15.440 |
One of the resources that I really like is called Talk Through the Bible. 00:09:19.020 |
I used it when I essentially just worked through the Bible in a systematic way. 00:09:23.620 |
And it's kind of like an expanded version of if you have a study Bible and it goes over 00:09:27.420 |
background, historical context, author, major themes, right? 00:09:33.340 |
Essentially, it's a expanded version of that that gives you a more thorough outline, multiple 00:09:43.020 |
There are some pivotal verses to make sure you maybe even memorize and keep in mind as 00:09:52.200 |
Now again, for a lot of you, that might be review and whatnot, but this is again important 00:09:55.840 |
for us to make sure we understand at least by principle, this is how we approach scripture 00:10:01.320 |
So there are many different types of genres found in the text. 00:10:06.460 |
What I wanna make mention of is this, and this is super important, okay? 00:10:12.200 |
Although in that list I give you, it's not exhaustive. 00:10:17.280 |
And what's more, even if I said, "Hey, there are parables in the Gospels," you do realize 00:10:25.360 |
When Nathan rebukes King David, he uses a little parable. 00:10:30.040 |
He says, "There was a guy who was poor and had one lamb. 00:10:37.240 |
And then he made a very pointed point, he says, "That's you." 00:10:40.080 |
Parables actually exist all through scripture, Old Testament and New. 00:10:43.800 |
What's more, even words of wisdom, these maxims and pithy statements exist all through the 00:10:53.300 |
My point is, actually when you practice your interpretation and when you study the Bible, 00:10:59.760 |
even the passage that you're at, maybe you're in the New Testament reading Galatians, okay? 00:11:04.400 |
In that passage, you should be thinking, "What kinds of literary forms exist in my passage?" 00:11:11.480 |
Because even as Apostle Paul is teaching us, he could be using illustrations, he could 00:11:21.280 |
So in each passage, you should actually be taking care to make note of the genre that's 00:11:26.280 |
What we're gonna do today is look at two examples of these genres and see how it affects our 00:11:32.800 |
interpretation and our understanding of the passage, okay? 00:11:37.800 |
And I know it's a big group and stuff, but any questions? 00:11:49.720 |
Let's take a look at the first example and the thing that we wanna look at is Proverbs, 00:12:01.800 |
Proverbs and wisdom have with it a very interesting element, and I wanna say again that the reason 00:12:10.600 |
why I'm starting with the book of Proverbs is because there have been a lot of questions. 00:12:16.800 |
There have been a lot of misinterpretations and wrong applications as well deriving from 00:12:22.320 |
Well, if you would, please take your Bible and turn to Proverbs chapter 1, okay? 00:12:38.640 |
And I'm gonna be reading just a small section here starting from Proverbs chapter 1, verse 00:12:45.560 |
And he says, "The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. 00:12:52.240 |
To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction 00:12:58.440 |
in wise behavior, righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the naive, 00:13:04.520 |
to the youth, knowledge, and discretion, a wise man will hear an increase in learning 00:13:08.720 |
and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. 00:13:12.060 |
To understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles, the fear 00:13:23.160 |
I told you at the beginning that oftentimes what you see in terms of content, it's expression, 00:13:31.480 |
Very clearly here, King Solomon is saying, "This is my purpose for writing all these 00:13:39.600 |
He wants to make the naive and simple wise up. 00:13:43.220 |
He wants the individual to understand sayings of the wise, of those who have gone before. 00:13:49.880 |
He wants us to understand what is righteousness and what is not righteousness and be able 00:13:57.720 |
And if you look also in chapter two, okay, in chapter two, he reiterates his purpose. 00:14:06.120 |
Verse one, he says, "My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within 00:14:11.160 |
you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding. 00:14:15.200 |
For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding. 00:14:19.000 |
If you seek her as silver and search her as for hidden treasure, then you will discern 00:14:24.600 |
the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God." 00:14:30.960 |
So here he's talking about your own hunger and desire for wisdom, and then it's the resulting 00:14:47.520 |
He says what you'll arrive at is this discernment of who is God. 00:14:55.200 |
And so that's where we want to start off to frame how we want to understand the book of 00:15:06.440 |
And first, the book of Proverbs are short wisdom sayings that expresses general truth. 00:15:19.960 |
These are short wisdom sayings that expresses general reality. 00:15:26.320 |
These are aphorisms that, you know, these pithy statements that state the general reality 00:15:38.680 |
When a huge chunk of it's 12 chapters, but the vast majority of it, essentially King 00:15:44.040 |
Solomon summarizes, he says, "I pursued all the wealth I could possibly have. 00:15:48.920 |
I pursued all the pleasure I could possibly have. 00:15:51.880 |
And I pursued all the knowledge I could possibly have. 00:16:03.000 |
Because truthfully speaking, when I talk to people who've really not, you know, tried 00:16:09.840 |
to live this life to the deceptive, like, promises, but rather live this life aware 00:16:16.120 |
of all the empty promises that this life has, they will concur. 00:16:20.760 |
Solomon is so wise because all of what he says is quite true. 00:16:24.560 |
They'll see the reality like, "What is this?" 00:16:28.360 |
And so a lot of the statements, not every single proverb has the same function or the 00:16:32.840 |
same statement, but a lot of these proverbs have a summary of looking at specific circumstances, 00:16:43.600 |
And what's more, proverbs I see as general principles of life. 00:16:50.520 |
If you think about it this way, even King Solomon says, "There are these men of wisdom 00:16:55.360 |
who've said wise statements, and they give you general principle of life, and I believe 00:17:01.360 |
that there is an aspect of art to our Christian living." 00:17:08.000 |
I believe there is an aspect of art to our Christian living. 00:17:20.200 |
For example, I know that certain animals are incredibly dangerous. 00:17:28.200 |
I could have the knowledge that that snake with one bite could kill me. 00:17:31.640 |
I could have a knowledge of what kind of snake that is. 00:17:36.400 |
But in terms of being able to handle it, what to do with that snake, that's an experience 00:17:42.420 |
and skill that certain trainers, that certain zookeepers will have beyond any other individual 00:17:50.480 |
Likewise, there's a certain skill that we learn to handle this life that we have, to 00:17:56.440 |
handle the word of God, to appropriately react to our holy God, to even seek to serve and 00:18:08.200 |
Well, the book of Proverbs is meant to guide you towards not just simply this is truth 00:18:13.320 |
proposition, but it's guiding you towards skill and wisdom to live a life that is fearful 00:18:23.280 |
And so as I think about that, I want to again say that the book of Proverbs when you look 00:18:28.480 |
at it is not meant to be taken as like, "Oh, book of Proverbs is teaching me that all X 00:18:41.320 |
So now that I've given you just a brief definition of what book of Proverbs in a genre is, we 00:18:52.840 |
I want to give you an example of a New Testament proverb, use of a proverb. 00:19:02.440 |
This comes from Galatians chapter six, verse six through 10. 00:19:07.040 |
I actually encourage you, please turn your Bibles there. 00:19:09.360 |
I only briefly quote it here so that we can kind of see which proverb that I'm talking 00:19:15.280 |
about, but you should be looking at the context, right? 00:19:19.680 |
So he says here, "Let the one who is taught," I'm going to give you a little bit of time 00:19:27.040 |
He says, "Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 00:19:32.040 |
Do not be deceived, God is mocked for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." 00:19:40.400 |
We know that that statement is repeated several times through scripture. 00:19:47.240 |
Now if you read this at face value or like right now like this, it's really choppy. 00:19:55.840 |
So it kind of goes from like, "Hey, he who is taught the word share the good stuff with 00:20:01.000 |
Don't be deceived, God is not mocked, whatever one sows that he will also reap." 00:20:06.600 |
So here now we have to ask this question like, what is he saying? 00:20:12.640 |
Is he saying like, "Give your pastor lots of good stuff so that he will invest into 00:20:23.480 |
Essentially when you look at the context of it, he talks about how in the book of Galatians, 00:20:30.880 |
How we should care for each other so that we should even care for each other's sins. 00:20:39.760 |
And then he starts to go to this and say, "Hey, do not be deceived, God is not mocked 00:20:45.000 |
for whatever one sows, that he will also reap." 00:20:47.880 |
And then the next passage teaches us that we should not sow to the flesh, but we should 00:20:55.160 |
So the context is teaching us just a simple truth. 00:21:02.280 |
There's a principle here that honestly speaking, it's not a hard one. 00:21:07.280 |
It's not a hard parable for her to interpret, right? 00:21:13.240 |
A lot of us sometimes we wrestle and we complain about circumstances that are fruit of what 00:21:21.240 |
If we have been, I don't know, just distracted, if we have been sowing to the flesh by, I 00:21:27.880 |
don't know, all the entertainment that we take in. 00:21:30.360 |
I'm not going to name specific stuff, but all the entertainment you take in. 00:21:33.360 |
Your investment clearly is like you're investing a lot in just entertaining yourself. 00:21:39.040 |
You've never said no to yourself, but all you've invested in is constantly self-improvement 00:21:46.080 |
And then you complain like, "Oh, how come I'm not there? 00:21:51.240 |
How come I'm not spiritually able to do this? 00:21:57.520 |
And then we can just simply state the proverb, "What you sow, you will reap," right? 00:22:02.800 |
And we struggle a lot with the things that have consequences or the fruits of our investment. 00:22:08.240 |
But here in this specific passage, he's talking about how we should not sow to our flesh, 00:22:15.140 |
And then he says in verse 10, "Sow then," so he uses that as a specific application. 00:22:20.600 |
He says, "As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially those who are 00:22:28.240 |
So here specifically, he's using the proverb to say, "Sow not to yourself, sow not to your 00:22:34.840 |
own indulgences, but carry the burdens of your brothers and sisters. 00:22:43.040 |
And there is admonition always for us to be rich towards others. 00:22:47.480 |
We're very, very generous and rich to ourselves. 00:22:49.520 |
He says, "No, be rich to the people around you." 00:22:53.400 |
And that's the specific application Apostle Paul has for that proverb. 00:22:58.200 |
Now, one of the truths I want to remind us, okay, remind us, is that there are exceptions 00:23:09.080 |
These are, I kept on saying, general truths, general principles. 00:23:13.000 |
They have general principles for life, but there are exceptions. 00:23:19.520 |
Remember that in the book of Job, oops, in the book of Job, there's this idea where Eliphaz 00:23:30.960 |
He was like, "The innocent people who invest into their spirit and to the people around 00:23:39.280 |
And then so he says, "Remember who that was innocent ever perished, or where were the 00:23:45.000 |
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. 00:23:49.360 |
By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed." 00:23:53.280 |
So he essentially says the whole principle of what you sow, what you reap, man. 00:23:58.200 |
And so Job is like miserable because he's in pain. 00:24:01.800 |
He's aching and hurting because he lost his children. 00:24:05.320 |
He's aching and hurting because his body is beaten down. 00:24:09.280 |
And then his friend comes over and says, "Man, what you sow, you reap." 00:24:17.080 |
You can sow, sow, sow, sow, and sow, but the fruits are in God's hands. 00:24:21.720 |
That's another principle for life that we understand. 00:24:24.480 |
So we recognize that there are principles in scripture, right? 00:24:29.040 |
General principles in scripture that does not cross apply to every single position in 00:24:36.000 |
So I want to give a warning about that, okay? 00:24:38.880 |
The warning is the proverbial statements are essentially individuals who have great, lengthy, 00:24:47.160 |
long experience summarize into short expression. 00:24:52.600 |
But to go backwards, take the short expression and just start to like sticker it on every 00:24:57.600 |
single situation of your life, it's backwards, right? 00:25:01.980 |
So I want to give the warning that should you read a proverbial life principle statement 00:25:12.320 |
in the scripture and then you say, "But this should be true of my life right now," you're 00:25:21.700 |
Should you take a proverbial principle statement and then say, "This is the doctrinal truth. 00:25:29.720 |
You know, then you're going to be frustrated. 00:25:34.580 |
When we universalize or dogmatize certain things that we find in proverbial wisdom statements, 00:25:40.380 |
then we're going to have a misunderstanding of that genre, okay? 00:25:44.100 |
And so what's more is on a personal level, people sometimes take proverbial statements 00:25:50.420 |
and then because it's personal, they take it as a personal promise to themselves. 00:25:56.340 |
And the warning about proverbial statements in the process of interpretation is do not 00:26:01.580 |
make every proverbial statement a promise specifically to you. 00:26:07.300 |
As a matter of fact, when you see promises in scripture, these promises oftentimes speak 00:26:16.100 |
more greatly about the character of God rather than for you to be like, "I was searching 00:26:27.140 |
Especially when you read Old Testament and you hear God promise them like, "I will never 00:26:37.700 |
I mean, you know instinctively like that has a lot of personal bias behind it rather than 00:26:45.140 |
carefully looking at what is God saying, okay? 00:26:51.600 |
And obviously these are kind of more ridiculous ones or like obvious ones. 00:26:59.780 |
In Proverbs 3 9-10, he says, "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits 00:27:08.280 |
Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine." 00:27:14.820 |
I picked this one because I saw this blasted on the TV and a guy saying, "First give of 00:27:26.280 |
And later I'm just going to ask you, just for the sake of practice, okay? 00:27:29.940 |
And for those of you guys who have already prepared yourself, like those of you guys 00:27:34.540 |
who have already come, like you're already always armed to fight prosperity gospel, don't 00:27:42.020 |
But I'm going to ask you to share in your groups like by specific interpretive process 00:27:48.040 |
and principles, how do you prevent either yourself or somebody else from saying, "Hey, 00:27:53.800 |
this is a promise for us because that passage, I mean the context, I mean in terms of other 00:28:00.000 |
references, in terms of, I mean even the wording and stuff could be, could be legitimate." 00:28:10.760 |
So here's another one, Proverbs 22, verse 6, this idea of train up a child in the way 00:28:17.800 |
Even when he is old, he will not depart from it, okay? 00:28:21.660 |
And the reason why I'm bringing these up is because earlier I mentioned, I'm going to 00:28:28.840 |
I honestly don't think that it's, you know, like because of crazy far out there teaching 00:28:37.760 |
of interpretation that a lot of people have wrong interpretation. 00:28:41.120 |
I kind of feel like what I said earlier is that because there is always personal interest, 00:28:49.180 |
because there's always conditional hungers that we have and things that we're looking 00:28:53.600 |
for, there can be misinterpretation of the Bible. 00:28:58.000 |
And a lot of times when I see that, you know, maybe parents, of course, when we think about 00:29:06.600 |
the salvation of our children, many, many times when we think about whether the kids 00:29:11.840 |
are saved or not, if I think back to like previous youth group experience and all that 00:29:16.120 |
kind of stuff and parents are unwilling to see like my child is potentially not saved 00:29:20.720 |
or is questionable, but they're always just like, "No, they're Christian," you know? 00:29:26.040 |
I kind of think like, man, there's so much personal investment in that. 00:29:32.600 |
But even then, when you look at passages like this, this is not a promise that when you 00:29:37.200 |
do X, Y, and Z for your kid, for sure he's going to be saved. 00:29:41.500 |
And this is not a promise that when you do Y and Z for your child, for sure he's always 00:29:46.820 |
I mean, truthfully speaking, God Himself says in Isaiah that He was the Father and His children 00:29:59.120 |
But again, we talked about general statements of reality, general principles living. 00:30:06.320 |
But these aren't guarantees and promises for us personally. 00:30:12.480 |
So my exhortation and challenge for us simply was for every passage, look at the specific 00:30:19.960 |
use of proverbial and principle statements, okay? 00:30:23.880 |
We're going to do one more exercise pertaining to this. 00:30:36.600 |
Take an example in Titus chapter 1, verse 15. 00:30:49.280 |
I'm going to just for the sake of the example, read verse 13 through 16. 00:30:59.160 |
Just to give you guys context, Apostle Paul has taught Titus that there has to be qualifications 00:31:07.660 |
Because they have to be able to teach and also to correct. 00:31:11.860 |
And then he gives this exhortation and forewarning, there's going to be false teachers who are 00:31:17.720 |
incredibly hurtful and incredibly strong, so to speak. 00:31:23.640 |
And it's kind of summary form, they're going to come off super strong. 00:31:26.200 |
So the elders and the teachers need to be strong themselves, that there has to be qualifications. 00:31:31.520 |
And within this, in the description of those who are the false teachers, he says this, 00:31:40.480 |
Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in faith, not devoting themselves 00:31:45.960 |
to Jewish myths and commandments of people who turn away from the truth. 00:31:50.400 |
And he gives a principle, or like, not a principle, but a maxim, like a general saying. 00:31:59.160 |
But to the defile and unbelieving, nothing is pure. 00:32:02.840 |
But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 00:32:05.880 |
They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. 00:32:09.560 |
They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. 00:32:17.960 |
There have actually been many ways I've personally heard this statement be used. 00:32:24.040 |
To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. 00:32:29.400 |
I want you guys first to try and be creative, okay? 00:32:32.960 |
So be bad Bible students and be a little creative, okay? 00:33:04.640 |
The whole idea is, hey, to me, everything is pure. 00:33:11.000 |
So the idea, focus on the to the pure, all things are pure, is kind of like to me, everything 00:33:17.400 |
And then to the defiled, if you're defiled, then everything is defiled, right? 00:33:22.240 |
And then, I should have just not put this up. 00:33:28.120 |
Well, I'm just gonna give that one, is the, I remember somebody, I quote this, we were 00:33:35.000 |
in a team meeting, and then somebody was complaining, and he was like, man, to the defiled, everything 00:33:40.640 |
So he was like, if you're a complainer, everything is gonna look bad to you, right? 00:33:45.400 |
So they just use this as kind of saying, like, there is a subjective sense in which, depending 00:33:50.240 |
on who, the focus is on depending on what you are and who you are and how you perceive 00:33:54.240 |
things, everything is gonna not be sufficient, okay? 00:34:00.160 |
Is everything pure, or is everything defiled? 00:34:10.440 |
Any other creative uses of, to the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, 00:34:26.920 |
Well, I just wanted to do that exercise to think about that a little bit, because again, 00:34:35.600 |
with Apostle Paul using a proverbial statement to just your regular reading of it, it sounds 00:34:46.340 |
But once you realize what he's saying, you realize, wow, he's using that as a poignant 00:34:54.000 |
You look at it in context, and the false teachers are the Jews, right? 00:34:59.280 |
He talks about how they're devoting themselves to Jewish myths. 00:35:02.720 |
In previous section in the passage, he talks about those who are false teachers, especially 00:35:12.240 |
So in this passage, when you look at that, you wanna focus on who he's talking about 00:35:19.040 |
So you ask the difference, not so much on like, oh, what could this possibly relate 00:35:26.960 |
There is a clear contrast between those who are pure and then those who are defiled. 00:35:32.520 |
And when you look at the terminology specifically, that term pure has a ceremonial aspect to 00:35:39.040 |
What is acceptable ceremonially to God, right? 00:35:46.520 |
And so the huge contrast should be in thinking about those whom God deems to be acceptable 00:35:56.080 |
And so, you know, when we think about this, I'm gonna give a specific passage for you. 00:36:02.200 |
Jesus speaks to it almost precisely in Matthew 15. 00:36:06.320 |
For the sake of time, I'm just gonna give you the summary version of that. 00:36:10.000 |
The Pharisees come to Jesus complaining, what is wrong and what is up with your disciples? 00:36:16.800 |
Why are they eating with their hands without washing it thoroughly? 00:36:20.620 |
Why aren't they doing the ceremonial act of cleansing themselves? 00:36:23.840 |
30 people, and then Jesus gets very frustrated. 00:36:30.720 |
What do you care about ceremonial cleanliness? 00:36:33.320 |
When you lie about what's being devoted to your parents and then you elevate the ceremonies 00:36:38.680 |
of man, but you neglect everything about what's acceptable to God. 00:36:42.080 |
And then he talks about the heart and he says, what goes into a man by your hand does not 00:36:46.320 |
make you defiled, but everything about your heart produces everything that's defiled. 00:36:52.680 |
All the adultery, the thievery, and falsehood. 00:36:56.720 |
And that's exactly what he's talking about here. 00:36:59.400 |
That when the heart is pure, then what is coming out is pure. 00:37:03.240 |
But when you are defiled, everything that is coming out is unacceptable to the Lord. 00:37:12.040 |
So again, proverbial statement that's used very specifically to attack the false teachers. 00:37:17.040 |
And he's essentially, you know, reminiscent and quoting almost the same thing what Jesus 00:37:24.240 |
Alright, so with that being said, with all the proverbial statements, I just want to 00:37:30.880 |
Someone could be like, well, you know, is that just talking about the heart then and 00:37:38.760 |
Remember, proverbial statements does not have an addressing of every possible what ifs. 00:37:45.960 |
Apostle Paul is using a general summary statement to talk about a specific application, okay? 00:37:54.400 |
Alright, then let's move forward to our second genre that we want to talk about tonight, 00:38:09.400 |
Please turn your Bible over to Luke chapter 1, verse 1 through 4. 00:38:19.840 |
And I really appreciate it when essentially at the forefront of the book, the book itself 00:38:26.920 |
tells you what is the intended purpose, okay? 00:38:31.560 |
And it basically says here, "Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the 00:38:39.160 |
things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the 00:38:43.640 |
beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the world, it seemed fitting for me as well, 00:38:48.520 |
having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in 00:38:52.600 |
a consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the exact truth about 00:39:03.200 |
You don't have to turn there for the sake of time. 00:39:07.040 |
"These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 00:39:12.800 |
of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name." 00:39:18.800 |
Remember how I talked about genre has elements of function, intent, and purpose. 00:39:25.080 |
And the gospel writers has given us very explicit statements about its purpose and intent. 00:39:32.520 |
Now, to give you a definition of biblical narratives, I want to say these three statements, 00:39:40.400 |
For your blanks, it is that biblical narratives are historical redemptive stories. 00:39:48.520 |
Biblical narratives are historical redemptive stories. 00:39:55.480 |
And those three key terms I'm going to use as headings to talk about how we should and 00:40:06.520 |
First, we should definitely read the Old Testament and all the narrative portions of the New 00:40:17.920 |
Meaning simply just that you should read them as real accounts of history in factual terms. 00:40:27.640 |
So in biblical narratives, it is absolutely okay for you to ask, "Wow, what was that historical 00:40:36.320 |
So it's actually okay for you to read up history books. 00:40:39.240 |
Actually, it is not just okay, but imperative that you look up their historical context, 00:40:45.120 |
that you go back so that you drop down into their situation. 00:40:53.680 |
If you're reading the story, an account of, you know, in our BCC class, I say this all 00:41:01.240 |
Everything surrounding Christ, there is so much historical evidence that if you were 00:41:04.920 |
an actual historian, it would be unprofessional of you. 00:41:11.040 |
It would be so biased of you to deny the existence of Christ because so much history describes 00:41:17.680 |
Well we have then the obligation to go back and think about what was their context? 00:41:26.880 |
What was the interaction like between certain people? 00:41:29.400 |
If there's any historical details that would paint a better picture for you of that historical 00:41:42.440 |
And I think that it would be beneficial for us to read it with that kind of faith because 00:41:46.800 |
truthfully speaking, that continues to create for us awe and wonder because all the miracles, 00:41:53.120 |
all of the dealings of God, all the sufferings of the people, all the redemptions of the 00:41:57.560 |
people, all these things are historical actual events that have happened. 00:42:05.800 |
However, however, because there are historical events, we should not be reading them as morally 00:42:15.540 |
We don't read the history of the kings of England and then be like, "That's what we 00:42:26.800 |
But a lot of times because we're reading historical narrative, we automatically think like, "Well, 00:42:34.040 |
That's just like doing one of these like, "Well, MacArthur did it," you know? 00:42:39.120 |
We know we shouldn't be doing that kind of stuff. 00:42:41.960 |
Actually I want to say that we know that from biblical narrative, not only is it not necessarily 00:42:49.240 |
good for us to follow everything as examples, but actually most of the characters in the 00:42:57.400 |
And what's really funny, what's super duper funny is that, I'm just going to give you 00:43:04.280 |
I don't know if you guys remember the story, so I'm going to give it to you a little bit 00:43:10.600 |
Because he loves, you know, Rachel so much, he is willing to stay super duper long with 00:43:19.440 |
You know, he works seven years and another seven years and then grand total he's there 00:43:24.520 |
During that time, he knows he's going to depart at some point or another, so he makes this 00:43:29.120 |
deal like, "Hey, I've worked so hard and amassed this huge wealth of cattle and possessions 00:43:36.800 |
I'm just going to take all the blemished ones." 00:43:40.000 |
And then what essentially happens is, Jacob in his scheming, deceptive ways, he takes 00:43:45.160 |
this certain kind of branch that's spotted and he puts it by the watering hole of the 00:43:51.200 |
And then anytime there was a strong, like muscular lamb, he'd be like, "Here, buddy. 00:43:55.760 |
And they would drink by the branch and then all of a sudden they'd come out all spotted. 00:43:59.720 |
Number one, I remember so many Koreans saying, "See? 00:44:02.800 |
What you should do is put a nice picture, a very picture of a pretty girl or boy on 00:44:06.600 |
the wall by your house so that every time you leave, you would look at it and then your 00:44:20.720 |
There was some hilarious, ridiculous thing about what you look at, that's what your baby 00:44:28.680 |
Or somebody would always quote that story about how shrewd you should be, that it's 00:44:33.080 |
okay to receive the best from what you're working at. 00:44:39.880 |
I mean, if you should work, yeah, you should be a worker that's due his wage, but to use 00:44:45.520 |
that passage as a means to be like, "It's okay as long as you come out on top," that's 00:44:54.040 |
But the fact of the matter is you cannot use Old Testament stories as permissions or this 00:45:03.120 |
I'm going to be honest, there are a lot of people who say to the churches, "Hey, this 00:45:12.960 |
Because there was never any instruction that we should do this. 00:45:20.560 |
And so I remember also even in a counseling setting, someone had made a certain promise 00:45:29.200 |
And then they quoted the whole like Jephthah story, you know, Judges chapter... 00:45:36.360 |
It's like later on, Judges chapter 20 some, and then Jephthah makes this vow like, "Anything 00:45:42.040 |
that comes out of my house, I'm going to sacrifice." 00:45:44.400 |
I mean, first and foremost, why would you ever say something like that? 00:45:47.800 |
So I said, "Moral of the story actually is stop making silly vows, man. 00:45:51.960 |
Scripture says stop making silly vows because you can't even promise. 00:45:55.560 |
You know, let your yes be yes and your no be no. 00:45:58.000 |
Who are you that you're going to promise things for tomorrow?" 00:46:01.120 |
But then he used that by saying like, "Even though it's like a bad idea, I should just 00:46:06.160 |
And I said, "Hey, hey, like you can't use Old Testament stories as moralistic, 'This 00:46:15.800 |
Actually I said, "The New Testament teaches you to be reasonable." 00:46:20.920 |
The New Testament teaches you to be wise and discerning. 00:46:24.760 |
As a matter of fact, the Old Testament doesn't really, that passage, I think it's chapter 00:46:29.400 |
20, now it's bothering me, but that passage never concludes with like, "And thus God 00:46:35.880 |
Or like, "And thus," you know, it doesn't give you a moral discernment, but rather the 00:46:39.720 |
whole book says, "And see, everybody was wicked. 00:46:43.600 |
Everybody was just doing whatever they wanted and there was no king and everybody was just 00:46:49.040 |
It doesn't give you a moral summary of whether that was good or bad. 00:46:53.200 |
So stop using Old Testament as, "This is what I should do." 00:46:58.840 |
I want to say that, again, the Old Testament narrative, first and foremost, is history 00:47:09.280 |
Not necessarily, "This is what should have happened." 00:47:13.800 |
Old Testament narrative, "This is what happened," and not necessarily, "This is what should 00:47:19.680 |
Secondly, I said that the Old Testament narrative is redemptive. 00:47:29.120 |
And all we're saying is, there is a theme and purpose to the story, just like we read 00:47:37.240 |
So the books are not dictionaries or glossaries of all the doctrines. 00:47:42.200 |
As a matter of fact, it's not even a doctrine teaching book. 00:47:50.480 |
So I'm going to say this, that all narratives are by nature selective for redemptive history. 00:47:58.600 |
All narratives are by nature selective for redemptive history. 00:48:02.560 |
Now when I say this, I'm going to say it cautiously. 00:48:06.240 |
The Old Testament narrative is not, sorry, is incomplete in a sense. 00:48:24.740 |
It does not write for you, "Oh, but what happened with those people? 00:48:28.820 |
How come it just drops that character at this point?" 00:48:31.660 |
Because insofar as it is important for the redemptive history, it is there. 00:48:36.660 |
Insofar as it contributes to your faith and understanding of God, your need for redemption, 00:48:43.980 |
But it is not an exhaustive story of the events of history. 00:48:48.040 |
As a matter of fact, if you think about why it's so confusing sometimes to read the Old 00:48:52.660 |
Testament, because you read 1 Kings and 2 Kings and 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, honestly, 00:49:02.460 |
The first time I went through that, I was like, "So what?" 00:49:05.220 |
And then so you're like, "Okay, I'm going to need to diagram who these kings are." 00:49:08.500 |
And then you're halfway through, you're like, "No, that's not okay." 00:49:11.500 |
And you start diagramming and you realize, "Hey, this story repeats itself through the 00:49:16.700 |
But it's emphasizing two very different aspects of redemptive history. 00:49:22.580 |
So what I'm going to say is a lot of the historical narrative has this purpose for your faith, 00:49:32.060 |
And what I'm going to say as an example is this. 00:49:34.100 |
Take for example the stories in the Gospels of all the miracles that are written there. 00:49:44.140 |
The purpose for you, I hope, is not like, "So are we supposed to be charismatic or are 00:49:53.020 |
Like sure, that's a legitimate question that can be answered, but the purpose for you reading 00:49:58.020 |
that Jesus Christ miraculously fed the 5,000 people, that Jesus Christ spoke a word and 00:50:03.260 |
the man came out from the tomb, that's supposed to be awe-inspiring for you so that you'd 00:50:13.620 |
And then you realize this is the Son of God that has authority over substance and material. 00:50:19.580 |
This is the Son of God that has authority over death. 00:50:23.500 |
That's the effect of a story that it should have on you. 00:50:28.660 |
And Scripture says it, that when you put it into context that even in the stories, let's 00:50:34.380 |
say John chapter 6 verse 1 through 15, if you read it, if you read it, it gives you 00:50:40.300 |
the hint of meaning that after all these people experienced a great many of miracles, if you 00:50:45.380 |
read in verse 30 through 31, it talks about how these great miracles contributed to the 00:50:49.740 |
idea that Jesus was the promised Messiah and that people were filled, the people were filled 00:51:01.940 |
And so the idea here is that the redemptive nature of the narrative is more important 00:51:08.500 |
for you to think about than just simply answering your doctrinal questions. 00:51:25.140 |
You should appreciate the biblical narratives as literary masterpieces. 00:51:32.660 |
If you, if any of you are like literature and like English majors or whatnot, and you 00:51:39.260 |
take certain works of, you know, works of literature and you appreciate them for how 00:51:46.100 |
they moved you through the journey, I bet you you would be all the more just engrossed 00:51:52.540 |
in the scriptures if you read it the same way. 00:51:56.940 |
A lot of people that I know read the Old Testament in chunks. 00:52:01.220 |
I read three chapters a day because I'm on the year of the Bible reading plan. 00:52:06.660 |
But whoever reads their literature books like that, you know what I'm saying? 00:52:23.140 |
You don't read all those things the same way. 00:52:25.380 |
The manual you read a couple of verses and you do it. 00:52:31.220 |
The works of art and literature, you don't sit there and chop up into three chapters 00:52:36.500 |
So I'm encouraging all of you, read the narratives and movements so that you would appreciate 00:52:45.580 |
You know, there's always in literature crisis and conflict. 00:52:50.860 |
Then there's desperation and drama, the pinnacle of it. 00:52:53.940 |
And there's also resolution and hope for the future and all that kind of stuff. 00:53:02.580 |
And sometimes you won't appreciate that if again, if you're reading the Bible in chunks 00:53:09.020 |
I want to encourage you guys again, look at it that way. 00:53:12.860 |
Even the Old Testament narratives, even the New Testament narratives, there should be 00:53:20.940 |
So, first is appreciate it as a literary masterpiece. 00:53:25.740 |
First, appreciate it as a literary masterpiece. 00:53:28.740 |
And secondly, when you should not do this, you should not look to it as direct documentation. 00:53:39.740 |
The scriptures teaches us doctrines in the Old Testament, but a lot of times it is indirect. 00:53:47.740 |
It rather illustrates the doctrines that are important to us. 00:53:53.740 |
And then those doctrines are directly taught us in other parts of the world. 00:53:59.740 |
So, even when we think about the holiness of God, you notice that when we started talking 00:54:05.740 |
about the holiness of God, we talked about events in history where a man dared to audaciously 00:54:14.740 |
To audaciously just go and talk to God and enter into his presence. 00:54:23.740 |
We talked about the book of Leviticus and all along, it illustrated how we needed its holiness. 00:54:29.740 |
So, ask those questions of what is the narrative that emphasizes whether by direct quotation, 00:54:35.740 |
right, whether by direct speaking from God, or by the illustration that the prophet is 00:54:42.740 |
But the thing about it is the danger for us when we look to the Old Testament for just 00:54:47.740 |
straight doctrines is that again, we're going to take something as a piece from history, 00:54:52.740 |
and then we're going to extrapolate it from the prophets and say, "I don't know. 00:55:03.740 |
Now, a way of kind of wrapping things up, a way of kind of giving a last exhortation. 00:55:09.740 |
Truthfully speaking, again, this is a lot of review for you guys. 00:55:14.740 |
Some of you intuitively know, trying to teach biblical hermeneutics is kind of tough. 00:55:20.740 |
My exhortation to you as we've been exhorting you all throughout this series is practice 00:55:27.740 |
the hermeneutics as you continue to study the Bible. 00:55:31.740 |
You will realize if the passage dictates that you be allegorical, then you shouldn't. 00:55:38.740 |
You shouldn't just take a preconceived notion like the Bible and narrative is allegorical, 00:55:44.740 |
If the passage has allegory in it, then do it. 00:55:47.740 |
If the passage is didactic, teaching you doctrine, then do it. 00:55:52.740 |
If the passage is meant to give you beauty and it's more romantic, then do it. 00:56:00.740 |
Then the practice of you observing and recognizing the genre and applying the principles of hermeneutics 00:56:10.740 |
Let's take a moment to pray, and then I'll wrap up.