back to index2019-04-10: Wed Bible Study Lesson 12
00:00:00.000 |
All right, we're looking at Colossians chapter 3, 18 to chapter 4, verse 1. 00:00:09.280 |
And let me pray for us and we'll jump right in. 00:00:13.160 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessing that we have in you. 00:00:18.360 |
Help us to open our eyes, Lord God, to see how privileged we are spiritually and even 00:00:27.460 |
Help us, Lord, to function each day, knowing, Father God, that the most important things 00:00:33.200 |
in our lives have been taken care of in Christ so that we would not focus on temporary things, 00:00:40.120 |
Lord God, and have a sense of anxiety and bitterness and struggle, Lord, because of 00:00:48.720 |
We pray for your blessing and greater insight. 00:00:50.920 |
I pray that you would stir in us a hungering and thirsting for righteousness that can only 00:00:55.120 |
be satisfied in pursuing you with all our heart. 00:00:57.800 |
I pray that your word would truly come alive, feed us, encourage us, rebuke us, guide us, 00:01:03.600 |
Lord, that we may be strengthened toward you. 00:01:07.840 |
All right, so the last time I was up here, I shared about investing in a Bible program. 00:01:14.320 |
And so I've gotten a lot of questions about that. 00:01:16.200 |
And I told you there's various Bible programs that you can purchase. 00:01:21.420 |
If you have a Mac, a lot of the pastors like using the Accordance. 00:01:26.240 |
Some pastors, I mean, if you, typically the Bible program that is pushed to us at seminary 00:01:32.480 |
is Logos or Bible Works because it's a lot more comprehensive. 00:01:41.560 |
And the reason why I don't recommend it is it's kind of an overkill. 00:01:44.760 |
And it slows down your computer because it's so huge. 00:01:47.360 |
And because it's complicated, even a lot of the pastors don't like using it. 00:01:51.720 |
If you know me, if it takes me more than five seconds to figure it out, I'm probably not 00:01:56.680 |
You know, and that's how I am with the internet. 00:01:59.120 |
And so I'm kind of like that with the Bible program. 00:02:01.240 |
I've tried using Bible Works and Logos and all that. 00:02:04.920 |
And in order for me to get from one screen to another and to do search, I mean, once 00:02:08.840 |
you learn it, I'm sure it's easy, but it took more than five seconds, so I quit. 00:02:13.660 |
The Bible program that I've been using all these years is probably the layperson's version. 00:02:19.080 |
I recommended to the church before, but I wanted to just kind of show it to you what 00:02:32.360 |
They didn't have it before, so they should probably change their name. 00:02:37.680 |
And then if you did want to purchase it, I would recommend the lowest version because 00:02:43.280 |
the highest version, 95% of that you will never use. 00:02:48.720 |
It's extra stuff like Spurgeon, all of his sermons, his entire life and his prayer and 00:03:00.920 |
So the basic stuff that you need, most of the stuff you can find online. 00:03:06.260 |
But again, the problem with online program is it's limited. 00:03:09.720 |
And like I said, if it takes more than five seconds to go from one screen and go to another 00:03:12.900 |
website to look something else up, and it adds an extra step that takes you 30 seconds 00:03:17.880 |
to do something, if you're like me, you're probably not going to use it, at least not 00:03:23.280 |
But this Bible program is very simple to use. 00:03:27.040 |
So let's say if I'm looking at the text that we're looking at, Colossians 3, 21, it's already 00:03:40.900 |
And here's all the different translations here. 00:03:45.960 |
NASB, ESV, NIB, New King James and King James version. 00:03:49.960 |
And every once in a while I'll come here and look at the Amplified or Living Version or 00:03:55.320 |
And then every once in a while I may come down here and do some Greek study down here. 00:03:59.160 |
But again, that's not something that you need to worry about. 00:04:03.520 |
So I pop up the NASB version, and we're looking at verse 18 through chapter 4, verse 1. 00:04:14.440 |
The button down here will add different screens. 00:04:19.640 |
So now I have NASB, ESV, NIB, and the King James version on one screen. 00:04:25.680 |
So while I'm reading it, I can tell which words are used differently. 00:04:29.480 |
Now I can change the screen based upon, let's say, instead of using the ESV, I click that 00:04:34.040 |
one and I want to see the Living Translation. 00:04:42.240 |
And that one will turn into the Living Translation. 00:04:44.160 |
So whatever translations I want up on the screen, and I can add as many as I want. 00:04:54.000 |
But I'm just telling you what this thing is capable of doing. 00:04:57.960 |
So after I do that, okay, obviously this in and of itself is a huge help. 00:05:01.760 |
But one of the key things that I use probably along with every time this Bible is open, 00:05:07.040 |
I usually have this particular study right here, Complete Word Study. 00:05:15.760 |
There's a lot of word study, like word study study concordances that you can get. 00:05:23.680 |
Vine just happened to be around the longest, and it's kind of like the standard that everybody 00:05:28.560 |
The one that this particular program was pushing was the Complete Word Study of the New Testament 00:05:35.640 |
So when I have the Old Testament up, it gives me the option to click this. 00:05:46.080 |
I would just come here and click that, and that pops up. 00:05:52.360 |
So when that pops up, if I wanna see, like, okay, what is the Greek word? 00:05:56.600 |
And again, you don't have to know the Greek to be able to know this. 00:06:01.520 |
These numbers are the strong numbers, those of you guys who know what it is. 00:06:05.240 |
You just click that, and it'll give me the definition. 00:06:08.040 |
"Goune," and it'll give me the various verses that that word is used, how it's used, what 00:06:17.180 |
And then, over here to the left, when I am on this screen, it gives me other options. 00:06:23.580 |
So if I wanted to go to, you know, New English... 00:06:30.000 |
If I'm here, Exegetical Dictionary, Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Theological Dictionary of the 00:06:36.400 |
New Testament, and Kittel, that's kind of like the standard. 00:06:39.280 |
These are things that I've added so that I can go deeper into the Greek, but I'm assuming 00:06:45.080 |
But again, so if you want to know what word is being used, how it's being used, you know, 00:06:50.960 |
what other verses use this, it's very helpful. 00:06:54.360 |
Now, why this is important, or why I think this would be very helpful, let's say the 00:07:04.160 |
I pop this up, and it gives me the understanding of this word. 00:07:07.960 |
And to place in order, to place under in an orderly fashion, I mean, we knew that, right? 00:07:13.320 |
And then it'll kind of give you the definition, it'll give you more of the background, you 00:07:17.080 |
know, the context, historically, culturally, how they use this term, where other places 00:07:25.140 |
But what's interesting is, in the Greek, obviously, you're not going to be able to go in, in the 00:07:29.240 |
English, you're not going to be able to go in this deep. 00:07:31.080 |
But as we continue to study, the word for "obey" and "submit," they're different words, 00:07:39.520 |
So you go here, obviously, here, obviously the number is different, so you're going to 00:07:49.920 |
The other one was "hupotaso," this one is "hupakuo." 00:07:55.640 |
So "hupo" basically means to place under, but then the second part is a bit different. 00:07:59.880 |
But if you notice here, the difference between "yi" to "obey" and "submit," let me see. 00:08:11.680 |
Okay, so if you look at the second definition, to yield to a superior command or force without 00:08:24.120 |
So the word to obey children, again, and then for slaves to obey the master, is a much stronger 00:08:33.240 |
The word "submit" for the wife also has the understanding of to submit and to place under, 00:08:38.720 |
but it has the idea of to place under in an orderly fashion, to place in a way that God 00:08:47.560 |
So both words have the same significance, to place under, but the thrust of the word, 00:08:54.920 |
the strength of the word is very different between "submit" and "obey." 00:08:59.920 |
Between husband and wife, where they are in a sense partnering together, but in the order 00:09:05.680 |
of the family, God has placed the husband to lead and the wife to be the one who submits 00:09:10.840 |
and honors the husband, where in between children and parents, it says to obey. 00:09:17.160 |
And obey basically means whatever they tell you to do, you're supposed to do. 00:09:21.840 |
Same thing with slaves and master, that when the master tells you to do something, you're 00:09:25.840 |
Where for wives, they are called to submit, generally to honor and to lift up, and to 00:09:34.180 |
So that kind of stuff are things that you'll be able to get if you have access to something 00:09:40.920 |
Where in the English, you'll read that and say, "Well, it says obey and it says submit." 00:09:44.880 |
It also gives you that same idea, but you're not going to be able to dig this far. 00:09:54.960 |
You'll be able to go a lot deeper, and you don't need to have all the Greek declensions 00:10:00.340 |
memorized for you to be able to access all of this. 00:10:03.780 |
And then, as you're studying, you find out, "Oh, there's another study that would be helpful." 00:10:08.980 |
You can always add to the program, get the basic, and then you just buy $30 program, 00:10:13.680 |
and it'll just add to this, and then it'll show up to the left. 00:10:17.460 |
So let's say if I'm doing this, and I wonder what MacArthur thinks about this, and I come 00:10:22.740 |
to the commentary section, and it'll say, "And this is MacArthur's notes." 00:10:32.020 |
So this is his commentary on that particular verse. 00:10:34.980 |
If I wanted to go and look at Adam Clark's, right? 00:10:43.300 |
But if I wanted to know what they have to say, and then if I... 00:10:45.980 |
You can choose to add more commentaries that you want that this particular study Bible 00:10:54.380 |
So I have puppet commentary, Wearsby commentary. 00:10:56.940 |
So all these commentaries, I would say about two-thirds of these came with this program, 00:11:01.020 |
but right now I have the highest version, so you're not gonna have access to all of 00:11:04.860 |
But as I told you, 95% or more of this stuff, you're not gonna access. 00:11:09.540 |
I don't access it, so you're not gonna access it. 00:11:11.820 |
Most of the stuff I end up accessing are the ones that I purchased separately, 'cause most 00:11:15.980 |
of this stuff are stuff that you can find online if you took some time. 00:11:19.540 |
So if I wanna look at a commentary, that's what it says. 00:11:32.620 |
And this is all the different places in the Bible where the English word "wives" are used. 00:11:40.900 |
Like, if you wanted to do a study on submission, like today, where else in the Bible does that 00:11:54.380 |
And so it'll come up so I can go and look at all these verses in the context and see 00:11:59.860 |
If I wanted to study the topic, I just choose one of them, and it'll give me... 00:12:12.260 |
So it'll give me a comprehensive understanding of the term "love," the definition, the Greek 00:12:30.940 |
use of it, and all of this, like the historical, cultural context. 00:12:36.060 |
So I'm not gonna go through all of these things, but I'm just telling you that everything that 00:12:44.660 |
Like I told you before, if I wanted to find out, do a deeper study on a particular word, 00:12:49.340 |
I would have to go to the library, go through the Dewey Decimal System, go find the reference 00:12:53.940 |
library, gather all those books, and then if I have a question while I'm studying, I 00:12:57.980 |
have to go look it up and then write that thing down on a piece of paper, have it next 00:13:14.780 |
I just have Colossians open and as I am studying it, it was like, "Oh, I wonder how the word 00:13:21.180 |
husband or wives or the word embittered, like what does he mean by embittered?" 00:13:29.420 |
"To make bitter," but if you look at the other translations, how does your translation translated 00:13:43.300 |
I want you to see how this is translated and how just having the different translations 00:13:55.500 |
So if you look at verse 19, right, what do you see as the difference between the way 00:14:02.340 |
NASB was translated versus the other versions? 00:14:24.900 |
What do you see the distinction between that translation and the other translation, verse 00:14:58.660 |
NASB says, "Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them." 00:15:03.380 |
ESB says, "Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them." 00:15:37.500 |
I just didn't understand the first part. Oh, so you look at a different first okay 00:15:43.640 |
okay all right so if you look at verse 19 ESV says or NISB says do not be 00:15:50.000 |
embittered against them. So where's the action taking place? It's a prohibition 00:15:55.160 |
against who? The husband, not to have certain feelings toward his wife. Yes, is 00:16:05.280 |
that how you read it? In the NIV, in the ESV, it says do not be harsh against them. 00:16:11.520 |
Don't treat them a certain way. Application may not may be the same but 00:16:17.200 |
how it's written is very different. Yes? Yes or no? Okay some of you guys are 00:16:25.240 |
paying attention other people are not. Okay all right so you do you see why 00:16:33.060 |
that's different? Because one command is commanding the husband to correct what 00:16:40.760 |
he's feeling. The other one is correct what he's doing to her. Right? Now the 00:16:47.400 |
literal translation is more for the NISB. Right? If you look at King James 00:16:52.200 |
version verse 19, do not be bitter toward them. Right? That's exactly like 00:16:57.800 |
literally and let's go back let's see if we were to go here to the word study 00:17:05.320 |
verse 19. It says husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them. 00:17:11.360 |
That's exactly how it's written in the Greek. Okay but obviously what the NIV 00:17:16.820 |
and ESV has done is they taken that and interpreted right and put it into words 00:17:21.520 |
that they felt like this that was the spirit of this verse. Right? The spirit 00:17:26.200 |
of this verse is don't treat your wives in this way. So if a husband is in bitter 00:17:30.960 |
toward his wife how is he going to act it out? He's gonna be harsh against her 00:17:35.440 |
but that's not the prohibition here. The prohibition is against him. Don't harbor 00:17:41.080 |
these feelings toward her. Right? Okay now this is why we switch to an ASB. All 00:17:47.080 |
right so it's more literal. Now sometimes the ESV does a better job I'm not saying 00:17:52.840 |
that all the time that's like that but I think overall percentage and ASB just 00:17:56.680 |
tries to stick closer to the original text and then not. Okay so don't find the 00:18:01.040 |
verse when you say this is a little bit more literal. Yes there are some verses 00:18:04.400 |
that are a bit more literal in the ESV than the NASB but like I said in overall 00:18:08.120 |
I found the NASB tries to stick to it a bit closer. Okay so I wanted to just show 00:18:13.600 |
this to you because I'm trying to get you to invest. Right? Like I said skip a 00:18:19.720 |
couple lollipops you know and don't go out and get an expensive meal because it 00:18:24.960 |
is not that expensive. It's under a hundred bucks for the basic stuff. Right? 00:18:28.640 |
Just one year of non Disneyland will get you this and then some. Okay? I don't hate 00:18:36.640 |
Disneyland. I love PC study Bible. All right. All right so like I said I when I 00:18:45.360 |
study preparing for sermon or Bible study of any kind like I'm I spend 90 00:18:51.880 |
percent of my time in front of this. Just going through verses sifting through 00:18:56.160 |
reading the material and then I put it together like the way I do it is I put 00:19:00.320 |
it up together on paper. I do this on a piece of paper. Right? The other passes 00:19:05.440 |
are more proficient with the computer so they do it on their computer but I 00:19:08.200 |
started doing Bible study on piece of paper and so I think better when I do it 00:19:12.360 |
on paper. I usually do this write it all down find all my findings and then I 00:19:16.520 |
organize it and then put it in an orderly like a fashion and then I put it 00:19:20.760 |
back onto the computer. That's the way I do it. Right? But 90% or 95% of the time 00:19:26.960 |
I'm in front of this. The reason why I never switched to Mac is solely because 00:19:32.080 |
of this. Because they didn't have a Mac version. I got so used to studying the 00:19:36.360 |
Bible this way and if I use a Mac I have to get like a parallel program to have 00:19:41.920 |
the Mac mirror this and just at that time it's just the transition wasn't 00:19:45.960 |
good. I tried it for a while and it just wasn't good. That's the only reason I 00:19:50.040 |
know I am not like a you know Mac hater and or PC is better or one way or the 00:19:55.480 |
other. It would be easier for me to use a Mac because everybody else uses Mac so 00:19:58.920 |
it's easier to kind of integrate. But it's for this reason. But they do have a 00:20:03.440 |
Mac version now. It's only been like two years that they came out but I've been 00:20:07.560 |
using this since I got ordained. So I've been I don't know how many years been 00:20:10.600 |
15, 16, 17 years I've been using this. Okay so there are if you are using other 00:20:18.840 |
programs or you want to use something more comprehensive I'll bet you every 00:20:24.560 |
single one of our pastors they use something else. They because the seminary 00:20:29.360 |
does not recommend this. This is very very basic. But like I said I think for 00:20:34.320 |
lay people this is more than enough. Right in fact sometimes if it's too 00:20:38.680 |
complicated you end up not using it. So this is very very simple. Right but you 00:20:44.320 |
will rarely go beyond this unless you're writing a dissertation on on on some 00:20:50.120 |
deep theological issue. You won't need to go beyond this. Okay so if you are 00:20:55.880 |
serious about studying the Bible and you want to go deeper you know you're gonna 00:21:00.360 |
spend 30 minutes studying the Bible. Might as well spend that 30 minutes 00:21:03.680 |
efficiently and go deeper. Right? A hundred dollars for eternal rewards. 00:21:11.080 |
Right? Lollicup out gone forever. Right? So I recommend this. Okay like I said this 00:21:20.560 |
is not the only one but this is the one I use. So all right let's 00:21:33.320 |
Okay I'm gonna try to go through this in a different way. I found a program that 00:21:40.560 |
will allow me to write on my computer. Oh yeah it took five seconds to download 00:21:47.240 |
and that's why I was able to do this. Okay it was very easy. So basically go 00:21:53.080 |
here and I take this like that. Oh sorry. Oh yeah highlight. 00:22:17.680 |
See it? I'm very proud of myself. Yes give me that. I'm very condescending and 00:22:33.440 |
clapping. Okay all right so just kind of like us to get the structure. Obviously 00:22:45.360 |
you know his primary things that is these are instructions. So last couple 00:22:49.600 |
week Pastor Mark did a great job going over the material and basically the 00:22:53.400 |
broad outline of the past two weeks passages to put off and to put on. Right? 00:22:59.240 |
And the Interparities member in chapter one and two it gives us the gospel and 00:23:03.160 |
then in light of that the application in chapter four chapter three and four and 00:23:08.120 |
then we said that the primary example of that is to put off your old self and put 00:23:13.600 |
on the new self and that was kind of like a broad outline and here he has 00:23:17.200 |
very practical application because when the Bible talks about being being 00:23:22.280 |
sanctified and practicing your faith where is where is it first going to be 00:23:27.520 |
practiced? People that you are closest to that's where it's going to be practiced. 00:23:33.200 |
So you know these aren't things that you say like you know one day when I become 00:23:37.040 |
a dad I'm gonna be like this and those applications are very easy to apply 00:23:41.360 |
because you're not gonna apply it today. Right? Well I'm gonna be so generous when 00:23:45.840 |
I have so much money you know that that's an application that's very 00:23:50.360 |
everybody's generous with money that they might have. You know what I mean? 00:23:55.080 |
Because you don't have to give it right now. But these this is where the rubber 00:23:58.440 |
meets the road. That's why for an elder his proof of his eldership or training 00:24:02.800 |
ground or where he practices it is with this home first. Right? So if he doesn't 00:24:07.920 |
manage his household well he's disqualified as an elder because that's 00:24:10.880 |
where the rubber meets the road. If he's not practicing his faith at home he 00:24:14.960 |
can't practice his faith at church. And so that's not only unique to Christians 00:24:19.800 |
it's unique I mean to pastors and elders it's also unique to every single person 00:24:24.340 |
because that's where you spend most of your time. So if you're a great Christian 00:24:28.560 |
outside of your home but in your home you're contentious selfish and you don't 00:24:32.680 |
practice your faith right then you're not practicing sanctification. Right? So 00:24:38.040 |
if you're gonna be unselfish you have to first learn how to be unselfish with the 00:24:42.120 |
people who are the closest to you which would be your family members whatever 00:24:44.920 |
wherever you may be. So he gives instructions to wives, to husbands, 00:24:50.120 |
children, fathers, slaves, and then masters. Is there anybody in this room 00:25:00.080 |
that doesn't fall into any one of these categories? No. He pretty much covered 00:25:08.720 |
everybody. Right? What's interesting is the word for children is "teknon" and the 00:25:14.640 |
word for children the Bible has a specific word for for child. Right? For 00:25:20.920 |
little one. Right? "Pidea" it's the word for little one. This one children 00:25:27.360 |
if there's no age limitation meaning that every single person is a child 00:25:32.640 |
because you have parents. Nobody came into this world except for Adam and Eve. 00:25:36.720 |
Right? Nobody came into this world without parents and so every single one 00:25:42.080 |
of us some of you may be four of these things or you know three of these things 00:25:46.640 |
but every single one of us falls onto one of these categories. So he gives 00:25:49.720 |
practical application. Right? Wives be subject. Let me change the color. Be subject to your 00:25:59.160 |
husband. Husbands love your wives. Children be obedient to your parents. 00:26:06.040 |
Fathers do not exasperate your children. Slaves obey those who are your masters. 00:26:13.600 |
The masters be just and fair. And that pretty much covers what he's what he's 00:26:20.720 |
saying in this text. Okay? So let's go down and break down quickly. Okay? Because 00:26:24.800 |
I've already spent a good deal of time talking about the Bible program and so 00:26:30.200 |
"Wives be subject to your husband" and he said the reason behind that it is fitting. 00:26:35.760 |
It is appropriate. This is what God has designed. Right? In the home. So it is 00:26:41.920 |
fitting in the Lord. In other words it is a representation of who? Christ 00:26:47.240 |
himself. This is what he intended. The Bible says that he created Adam for the 00:26:52.960 |
purpose of what? Reflecting his glory and one of the main part of his glory is his 00:26:58.360 |
identity. Who is he? He's the triune God. The perfect union between God the Father 00:27:06.000 |
Son and the Holy Spirit. So even in the relationship between husband even though 00:27:10.400 |
one in essence three in personalities. Right? In the way that they're 00:27:15.680 |
functioning. God the Father is the one who initiates. Jesus is the one who 00:27:20.200 |
mediates. Right? And then God the Holy Spirit is the one who executes. And all 00:27:26.000 |
three of them together the triune God is God himself. So he says in the home God 00:27:32.360 |
has created although we are humanly all equal. Does God love the husband more 00:27:37.200 |
than the wife? Does wife have less value than the child? They're all human beings. 00:27:41.120 |
They're all reflect the glory of God. No one was created any less than the other 00:27:44.920 |
person. But in the family structure God has created order just like there's 00:27:49.480 |
order in the Trinity. Right? And as the son submits to the father and the Holy 00:27:55.080 |
Spirit to the others. Right? He calls the wives to be submissive to honor to 00:28:00.080 |
reflect because husband is given the role of initiating. To lead. So if you 00:28:06.660 |
have a contentious wife who's constantly challenging the husband it what does it 00:28:11.240 |
do? It damages what is fitting to the Lord in reflection of his glory. Right? 00:28:16.480 |
And so wives are called to be submissive. And again the word submissive here 00:28:21.680 |
Hufatasa is the same word used in Ephesians chapter 5 22 and when the 00:28:26.320 |
wives are called to submit to their husbands. Okay? Again like I said this is 00:28:30.660 |
a different word than the word that is used for children obeying their parents. 00:28:34.040 |
And you don't have to desire it. It is a military term. When the 00:28:39.280 |
commander says go you go. That is not the term used here. It is more a sense of 00:28:43.720 |
reference. Reverence and honoring. Right? Respecting. Okay? Husbands love your wives 00:28:51.840 |
and do not be embittered against them. Again so this is a 00:28:59.080 |
obviously love your wives is how you ought to treat them. In Ephesians 00:29:04.160 |
chapter 5 it says ask to your own body. Right? And then in Philippians chapter 2 00:29:09.720 |
we're supposed to consider everyone better than ourselves. Right? So that 00:29:13.480 |
would obviously apply to our wives. So what it means to lead. Right? And the 00:29:17.380 |
reason why the wife needs to submit to the husband is because the husband is 00:29:20.440 |
called to sacrifice. So if you live selfishly, if every decision is kind of 00:29:26.080 |
like you know what last time you got to watch you what you want to watch this 00:29:29.040 |
time I get to do what I want. Right? And if you live with that kind of mentality 00:29:33.240 |
like you do 50% I do 50% and you have that kind of mentality in your head 00:29:38.280 |
you're not gonna be a good leader. Right? You're not gonna be a good leader because 00:29:42.560 |
what your your mentality is not sacrifice. Sacrifice means that you live 00:29:49.040 |
your life for her benefit. Like even when you have to make authoritative decisions 00:29:54.720 |
that she may not like it has to be a decision for her not for you. Right? You 00:30:00.280 |
say well you got to eat out last night so I get to play video games four hours. 00:30:03.440 |
You know what I mean? And of course she's gonna have a hard time respecting you if 00:30:07.380 |
your life is live self-centered. So the husband is called to sacrificially love 00:30:11.480 |
her. It doesn't say sacrificially love here but it's the word agape. You commit 00:30:15.600 |
to her and other parts of the Bible obviously explains what that means. So 00:30:19.840 |
the husband is actually called to do a harder job because you're supposed to 00:30:24.360 |
sacrifice for them. Right? So that so that your decisions and your sacrifice 00:30:30.040 |
causes her to love Christ more and so that they could have a better life. Right? 00:30:35.360 |
And you and you live for that purpose and if you do that your wife will have 00:30:39.800 |
easier time submitting to you. The wives are gonna have a hard time if 00:30:43.840 |
the guy that she's submitting to is constantly making decisions for himself 00:30:47.560 |
and then he uses the Bible saying God said to submit. Right? So that doesn't 00:30:54.400 |
mean the wives are wives like if your husband is selfish and he's not doing 00:30:59.680 |
the right thing that that somehow that disqualifies him to be a leader and you 00:31:04.000 |
don't have to submit to him. The Bible does not give stipulations as to who to 00:31:08.960 |
submit. Like if you respect him submit. If you don't respect him don't submit. That's 00:31:12.000 |
the Bible does not. Husbands, wives are called to submit whether you respect the 00:31:16.920 |
guy or not. Whether he's being selfish or not. It will be very difficult for you. 00:31:20.160 |
Right? But that's what God has called the wives to do. But husbands don't make it 00:31:26.920 |
hard for them to submit by being selfish. By making decisions for yourself. Right? 00:31:34.320 |
Give in as much as you can. Right? Learn to die to yourself at home. Okay? I'm 00:31:40.480 |
saying all of this I'm looking straight at Esther. All right. 00:31:44.000 |
Back me up Esther. All right. If you don't, if you live selfishly and they have a 00:31:50.960 |
hard time submitting to you, you know, don't throw the Bible at them. 00:31:55.680 |
Right? Throw the Bible at yourself first. There's a good reason why they might not 00:32:01.280 |
be, they have a hard time submitting to you because you're using authority for 00:32:05.600 |
selfishness. Right? Children be obedient to parents. Again, the word children 00:32:09.720 |
is not referring to young children. At no point. So those of you who are married at 00:32:14.120 |
Berean, you know that in the marriage ceremony we highlight the fact that just 00:32:18.560 |
because you're getting married doesn't mean that your responsibility to honor 00:32:21.600 |
and submit to your parents is done. Right? They will always be our parents. They'll 00:32:27.720 |
always be our parents. That doesn't mean, like, so when you say family, obviously 00:32:31.480 |
you're called to submit to your husband, but your attitude toward your parents 00:32:35.000 |
should always be as a child to parent. Right? Now I know what that leads to, and 00:32:41.480 |
that's, that's, I'll leave that to your small group discussion. You know, I know a 00:32:45.720 |
lot of you guys have unbelieving parents and their values are very different than 00:32:50.000 |
yours, and, and so I know some groups that will never officiate or never allow a 00:32:56.160 |
wedding that either side of the parents are against, like ever. So unless both 00:33:02.960 |
sides of the parents are happy and they're, they're completely like, you know, 00:33:06.600 |
we give you a blessing, they will not officiate the wedding. Right? We don't do 00:33:11.520 |
that at our church, and I can give you, you know, our reasoning behind that, but 00:33:17.560 |
again, that's something that I'm gonna ask you guys to take some time to 00:33:20.000 |
discuss in your small group. Right? But general principle, that the general 00:33:23.800 |
principle of calling is children are called to be obedient for what? For this 00:33:28.640 |
is well pleasing to the Lord. Right? The Bible clearly says if there's one 00:33:33.760 |
commandment out of ten commandments that he highlights, and he says, "Honor your 00:33:37.080 |
father and mother if you want to live long and prosperous life in the land." 00:33:40.280 |
Right? And he said that, that particular, all the commandments obviously are 00:33:44.880 |
important, but that commandment is highlighted to call. If you're gonna 00:33:48.160 |
submit to God and you don't submit to the authority right above you, right, it's 00:33:52.840 |
easy to submit to God because he's, he's far off. Right? Just don't read the parts 00:33:58.320 |
that you don't want from the Bible. So a lot of times when you talk about being 00:34:02.000 |
obedient to God and you're being disobedient to the authority right above 00:34:05.240 |
you, you are being disobedient to God. He said, "But you're not God." Right? But that's 00:34:10.800 |
what the scripture says. Right? So if we're gonna practice submission and 00:34:15.760 |
obedience, it has to be practiced where the rubber meets the road, for the 00:34:19.920 |
authority in your life. Right? So that's, he said, it is well pleasing to the Lord. 00:34:24.400 |
"Fathers, do not exasperate your children so that they will not lose heart." Okay, 00:34:29.360 |
let's look at that. This, this is a bit different too. 00:34:33.320 |
Right? "Fathers, do not exasperate, do not provoke. Fathers, do not embitter." Okay, so 00:34:47.520 |
each one of these translations is a little bit different, but basically it's 00:34:50.680 |
to stir them up to anger. Right? I remember the first time looking at this, 00:34:55.320 |
when it says, "Do not exasperate your children or provoke them to anger." I 00:35:00.760 |
thought, "That was so unfair." You know? You should tell the children to not to 00:35:05.720 |
provoke me. Not the other way. Right? Because typically that's what happens. 00:35:11.680 |
Do not provoke your parents to anger. Right? But why does he say this to the 00:35:16.720 |
father? Not to provoke them to anger. Because fathers were given authority. 00:35:24.800 |
Right? Especially at this particular time, the children and wives did not 00:35:29.960 |
have any rights. So the father can, you know, the idea of being abusive at home, 00:35:35.000 |
you've been laughed at. That's what you're supposed to do. Right? In fact, some cultures today. I told 00:35:41.920 |
you the story out in India, that women and children are treated so poorly over 00:35:46.120 |
there. One of the missionaries actually had to give a seminar about not beating 00:35:50.120 |
your wives. Not the pastors that we work with, but it was another pastor group 00:35:53.840 |
that I was there helping and doing a hermeneutics training with them. And the 00:35:58.240 |
missionary basically says, "A good Christian, good pastor does not beat his 00:36:02.040 |
wife." And all the Western missionaries, we just chuckled. Because we thought he 00:36:06.080 |
was joking. He just kind of threw that in there. And then the response we gave, and 00:36:10.520 |
the response of the pastor was very different. They were confused. They raised 00:36:14.360 |
their hand and then later on we found out that they were bothered by that. And 00:36:18.120 |
one of the pastors went up and asked the missionary, and he asked him, "What if 00:36:24.200 |
they don't listen?" And that was a very serious question. So I talked to the 00:36:28.880 |
missionary about that and he said, "It's a big problem in India. Right? That women and 00:36:34.120 |
children are treated so poorly, you know, in that country. And 00:36:38.120 |
especially in the villages where there's people are uneducated. And so you're 00:36:42.480 |
looking at a culture at that particular time where women and children were 00:36:45.840 |
treated in the same way. Maybe even more poorly than cultures like that. Right? So 00:36:52.440 |
do not exasperate. Do not provoke your children. It's because the guy has all the 00:36:56.200 |
authority. He has the upper hand. And our tendency is, if you have the upper hand, 00:37:00.480 |
how do you treat the people who are beneath you? If you really want to see a 00:37:05.200 |
character of a man, see how he treats people that are clearly beneath him. See 00:37:11.680 |
how he treats homeless people. See how he treats people who are, you know, beneath 00:37:18.160 |
him. Or maybe if you're a store owner, how he treats the employees. Right? You see, 00:37:23.760 |
like, once he has power and authority, see how he, what he does with that. Right? So 00:37:29.240 |
he's telling fathers, basically, don't wield your authority and power. Right? And 00:37:33.440 |
provoking them to anger by basically being abusive. Right? Because he can do it. 00:37:38.560 |
He can express his anger and beat them because they bothered him. You know, 00:37:42.360 |
there's no consequence, at least in this culture. And that's why he says, do not 00:37:46.200 |
exasperate them so that they would not lose heart or be discouraged. Meaning 00:37:51.080 |
you're demoralizing them so that they have, you know, so they they're afraid. 00:37:55.600 |
Right? So that's why he says to the fathers not to do that. And then, he says, 00:38:05.040 |
slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth. So obviously, the 00:38:12.000 |
application of this is a bit different than today. Today we could think of it as 00:38:15.280 |
employer versus employee. And I think there is a correlation. But the 00:38:20.080 |
difference between the slaves and maybe an employee, the slaves basically did not 00:38:24.880 |
have any rights. Right? The master owned you. Even if you were an indentured 00:38:29.600 |
servant for a period of time, during that period, you belong to the master. So the 00:38:34.000 |
master had every right over you. Right? So if you had a good master, you'd have a 00:38:39.080 |
good life. If you have a bad master, you would be miserable because they would be 00:38:42.160 |
able to beat you. You know, senselessly, for any reason. And so it's in that 00:38:48.920 |
context, he says, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth. Right? So 00:38:56.720 |
we're not, there is a correlation. But the application of this is much harder than 00:39:02.280 |
the application of employee and employer. Okay? So just keep that in mind. There is 00:39:06.920 |
a correlation. But he says, obey in all things on earth, not with external 00:39:10.840 |
service. Here's one situation where the ESV just took it literally. He says, I 00:39:18.000 |
service. And that's exactly what it means. Right? In other words, just work 00:39:24.280 |
hard when you're watching or you're being evaluated. Well, when no one's 00:39:28.480 |
watching, you just kind of do whatever. Right? You take 50-minute bathroom breaks. 00:39:33.960 |
You come into work 30 minutes late and leave an hour early. As long as you're 00:39:38.640 |
not being watched. And he said, you're basically, as long as the boss is 00:39:42.640 |
not watching, you do whatever you want. He says, do not, right, in all things who are 00:39:47.440 |
your masters on earth, not external services as those who merely please men. 00:39:50.880 |
As long as you're working and the only person that you're concerned about are 00:39:54.840 |
other men. Right? And as long as they're not watching, you're completely a 00:39:58.880 |
different person. And this obviously applies in every situation. Right? If 00:40:03.560 |
you're a man pleaser, you're godly at church and ungodly outside. Right? If 00:40:08.280 |
you're a man pleaser. And you only perform when there's a lot of people 00:40:12.360 |
watching. But when nobody's watching and there's no consequence, you're a 00:40:15.480 |
completely different person. Right? He said, not only externally, but merely 00:40:18.960 |
pleased to please men, but with sincerity of heart. Right? Fearing the Lord. 00:40:26.360 |
So in 23 it says, whatever you do, do your work heartily. The word here for 00:40:38.760 |
heartily literally is suke. But all the translations translated heartily 00:40:43.320 |
because that's the understanding of it. But one of the questions that came up is 00:40:47.200 |
is verse 23 and 24, 23, 24, 25, is it speaking about slaves or everybody else? 00:40:53.120 |
In this context, it's specifically related to slaves and masters. And the 00:40:57.280 |
reason why I say that is because he says not to do it just external service, but 00:41:03.400 |
do your work heartily. Meaning internally. Right? So again, if you look at the 00:41:09.800 |
language, it's connected. As the Lord rather than for men. Not to simply be a 00:41:14.880 |
man pleaser. It's knowing that, knowing that from the Lord you will receive a 00:41:23.920 |
reward of inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does not, who 00:41:28.680 |
does wrong will see the consequence of the wrong which he has done, and that 00:41:31.920 |
without partiality. So another question that came up is when you're talking 00:41:35.280 |
about the consequences, is he talking about eternal consequence, heavenly 00:41:39.200 |
consequence, physical consequence? Clearly the Bible says there is no condemnation 00:41:44.720 |
for those who are in Christ Jesus. He's not talking about salvation, clearly. But 00:41:48.880 |
the book of Hebrews tells us that those who are his children are what? Are 00:41:53.560 |
disciplined. Right? So does God discipline sin? Yes. He says that. And he 00:42:01.120 |
says he wouldn't be a loving God if he did not discipline us. If he allowed us 00:42:04.920 |
to just live in sin without any consequence, it may be proof that you are 00:42:09.320 |
not his child. But if you are a child of the sovereign God who loves us, he says 00:42:13.400 |
when we sin, we are disciplined. And that's what he's talking about. So is 00:42:17.840 |
there consequence for sins? Yes. The Bible is clear about that. Okay. And then 00:42:24.560 |
finally, masters grant to your slave justice and fairness. Again, so this is in 00:42:29.000 |
a context where, right, the masters, because they have all the power, he can 00:42:37.000 |
wield the power that he has unjustly. But he says to the slave be fair. So if 00:42:42.360 |
you, if somebody comes in as an indentured servant and you said that in 00:42:45.400 |
six years he's going to be released, right, and the master manipulates his 00:42:49.640 |
situation saying that, "No, no, you owe me more than this and that." They don't have, 00:42:53.360 |
slaves don't have rights to go to court and sue his master. So the master has all 00:42:59.040 |
the power. He owns them for that period. So he's saying to be fair and just, 00:43:02.920 |
knowing that you too have a master in heaven. Okay. All right. So I'm going to 00:43:08.640 |
end it there and I'm going to ask you guys to take time for your small group 00:43:12.640 |
discussion. But let me conclude with this and I'm not going to read it. It's all on 00:43:17.560 |
your paper. All of these things, we can talk about it in theory, but if you don't 00:43:23.400 |
practice it where the rubber meets the road, it means nothing. Right. We don't 00:43:28.640 |
want to be hearers of the word, but to be doers. So some of the questions that, that 00:43:33.400 |
I ask, you know, is asked more specifically about submission. Like if 00:43:38.080 |
you are a wife, are you being submissive? If you are a husband, are you being 00:43:44.200 |
sacrificial for your family? Are you being selfish with your time and money? 00:43:48.600 |
Right. If you're a person in authority, do you have a tendency to exasperate 00:43:54.040 |
people because you give full vent, you know, when you're frustrated and you 00:43:58.760 |
don't treat people with kindness because they're, they're not, you know, they're 00:44:03.160 |
not your equal. Right. If you are, if you are a slave, okay, slave meaning if you're 00:44:08.720 |
an employee, right, and if you're an employee you probably feel like a slave 00:44:11.680 |
sometimes. If you're an employee, do you just labor for other people to see? But 00:44:18.920 |
if you don't get caught, you're not a hard worker. So there you're only a hard 00:44:21.360 |
worker when there's consequence. Right. Or do, are we really working for the Lord? 00:44:25.160 |
Right. Everything that we do, we do it wholeheartedly because we're ultimately 00:44:28.960 |
serving God and it's a way to honor God. Just like we talked about worship, right. 00:44:32.360 |
Worship is not just how we sing and how we, how much we give. Worship is how we 00:44:38.800 |
live our life. Right. And majority of you, if you're working, 70% of your life is at 00:44:46.320 |
work. So if you're not reflecting Christ at work, you're not reflecting Christ. 00:44:51.680 |
Right. You're not, if you're not reflecting your, you know, Christ at home, 00:44:56.720 |
which, which where the other 25% is, you're only at church 5% of your life. So 00:45:04.120 |
if only 5% you're generous and gracious and loves God and prayer and Bible 00:45:09.980 |
study, it's only, if your spiritual life is only contained in that 5% of your 00:45:13.680 |
life, 95% of your life you're being disobedient. 95% of your life you're not 00:45:19.440 |
reflecting Christ. Right. So in your small groups, as we take some time to 00:45:24.240 |
discuss, let's go deeper. Instead of just talking about what does this mean? What 00:45:29.120 |
does that mean? And all that is important, but this is where the rubber meets the 00:45:33.080 |
road. Right. Like this is what it means to live worthy of the gospel. Okay. So let 00:45:39.240 |
me pray first and then I'll give you time for your small group. 00:45:43.320 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your living word. We thank you for just how 00:45:53.280 |
practical your word is, how it judges the thoughts and intentions of our heart. 00:45:56.840 |
And I know Father God that in, in one or in many ways, Lord, that these words cut 00:46:03.880 |
us and cuts us deeply. We desire to honor you in every way. And, but we pray 00:46:10.880 |
Father God that our motivation would not be other people, that we may not live 00:46:15.320 |
simply for eye service, to build a reputation, but truly live a life, Lord 00:46:20.440 |
God, worthy of the gospel that you've given us. I pray for your direction in 00:46:24.320 |
the small groups, that the discussions would be open and honest, that we may be 00:46:28.240 |
able to share our weaknesses, that we may find strength in one another. I pray that 00:46:32.600 |
your Holy Spirit would guide and lead us, Lord God, that we may apply these words 00:46:36.360 |
practically in our lives. We thank you in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.