Since Christmas is right around the corner I am feeling somewhat Santa-like. Therefore on Sunday night I am bringing a rather useful gift for each person that attends. Some of you might be thinking come on Bert no gimmicks please. But this is not a gimmick just to get you to leave the comfort of your homes with dinner, family and football do discuss God's word. You know I would never do that - right? Right? Hmmm....I can see this is going to be tougher than I thought.

Seriously, I have specially ordered something that I am very excited to give away to each of you. I predict that this gift may become one of your top spiritual go to resources outside of the Bible. I found it almost 2 years ago, by accident and ordered immediately for Nancy and me. This may be an overstatement but can almost guarantee that you never seen or heard of it. And yet it has received the endorsement of some of the countries leading theologians. For those coming on Sunday night it will be yours as a gift from me to you.

I have spent some time thinking about election day next Tuesday. But as I ponder many of the things that occupy my mind the one thing that most occupies it is the judgment day. Election days will come and go but at the judgment day all things become final.

Jesus Christ, God incarnate did come to planet earth, was born of a virgin, was fully God and fully man, lived a perfect life and was sinless, died on a cross was buried and on the third day He rose from the dead. I thankfully have cast myself on the mercy and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and have received Him as LORD and savior of my life. There was nothing in me deserving of nor meriting my salvation. Since it was nothing I did but everything that He did there is no way I can boast. How can I boast about a gift that was freely given and also knowing that I had nothing to offer. If someone were to ask me how do I know these truths it would be based on God's word which through research and study I believe is:
1. Inspired
2. Infallible
3. Inerrant

Even if I had not done the research these things about the Bible remain true, whether I believe them to be or not. I have used the example before in training about gravity. You can go to the top of the Sears building in Chicago and say all day long that you don't believe in gravity. But as soon as you jump, your wrong and incorrect belief system will yield to a natural law that will overcome your belief system.

Election day is about who will be our President for the next 4 years but at the judgment day we will have our eternal destinies either secured in heaven or in hell. I have heard that one prominent theologian would argue this way with his non-believing friends and family members. He would say something to this effect "Let's say you are right and there are many ways to heaven and no hell at all. Then my believing in Christ, my way will still result in me reaching the same destination as you for eternity. However if I am right in this regard in which Jesus says in John 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me" and you are wrong then you will spend an eternity away from God in an eternal hell. This argument was motivated by a protect yourself from a worst case scenario. If you don't believe in Christ then hell is the non-believers only alternative, and that is worst case. (Side note: the not wanting to go to hell is not a saving affection but may be one of the ordained means that God uses to bring about salvation.)

Election day is a cause for some anxiety and worry based on the candidate of choice and future implications. But judgment day is a cause for the most critical and important thinking one can ever do because your eternity is what hangs in the balance.

Romans 3:23 says this "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Your sin and my sin have offended a holy God to the decree that if not paid for will result in our everlasting punishment. Folks you could spend 50 years building hospitals in third world countries that might save millions of lives and still go to hell. Because your works will not earn your way into heaven. We need someone to pay the full price for our sins and that person is Jesus Christ. When we cast ourselves on the mercy of Christ at the cross, trust and receive Him as Lord and Savior, then He pays the penalty of our sin (past, present and future) and breaks the power of sin in our life. At the cross of Christ there is a great exchange. All of my sin is imputed to Christ and all of Christ's righteousness is imputed to me. Just think of this transaction, He doesn't deserve my sin but takes it on and absorbs it, I don't deserve any of His righteousness but He gives it to me freely and credits to my account. So what happens when the truth of the cross is preached to men, women, boys and girls? For those who are perishing it is complete foolishness but to those who are being saved it is the power of God! (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Therefore my time, effort, attention and energy will be spent by God's grace teaching and exhorting others to keep the main thing the main thing. And that is a focus on judgment day not election day!

There is much uncertainty in our country right now. People are worried and anxious because of the upcoming election, the economy, the war on terror and many other things that can occupy the mind in these days. However God remains sovereign over all things in this world and we can rest in the fact that our God is the God, and there is no other.

My devotion time this morning was in Isaiah 45-50. It is very obvious that the "sovereignty" of God is on display in a major way in these chapters. After our tour of the Bible the next stop in our journey will be on the doctrine of God. Therefore it will be, I think, quite exciting for us as a class to see what the Bible says about the sovereignty of God. But for the sake of this email allow me to give a working definition of God's sovereignty as follows; God plans and carries out His perfect will as He alone knows is best, over all that is in heaven and earth, and He does so without failure or defeat.

Check out these verses from the reading this morning (NLT):
Isaiah 45:5-7
5 I am the Lord;
there is no other God.
I have equipped you for battle,
though you don't even know me,

6 so all the world from east to west
will know there is no other God.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.

7 I create the light and make the darkness.
I send good times and bad times.
I, the Lord, am the one who does these things.

Isaiah 45:11-13
11 This is what the Lord says—
the Holy One of Israel and your Creator:
"Do you question what I do for my children?
Do you give me orders about the work of my hands?

12 I am the one who made the earth
and created people to live on it.
With my hands I stretched out the heavens.
All the stars are at my command.

13 I will raise up Cyrus to fulfill my righteous purpose,
and I will guide his actions.
He will restore my city and free my captive people—
without seeking a reward!
I, the Lord of Heaven's Armies, have spoken!"


Isaiah 46:9-10
9 Remember the things I have done in the past.
For I alone am God!
I am God, and there is none like me.

10 Only I can tell you the future
before it even happens.
Everything I plan will come to pass,
for I do whatever I wish.

And then I was struck by the phrase "I am the LORD and there is no other."

Isaiah 45:5
5 I am the Lord;
there is no other God.

Isaiah 45:6
6 so all the world from east to west
will know there is no other God.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.

Isaiah 45:14
"...'God is with you, and he is the only God.
There is no other.'"

Isaiah 45:18
For the Lord is God,and he created the heavens and earthand put everything in place.He made the world to be lived in,not to be a place of empty chaos."I am the Lord," he says,"and there is no other.

Isaiah 45:21
Consult together, argue your case.Get together and decide what to say.Who made these things known so long ago?What idol ever told you they would happen?Was it not I, the Lord? For there is no other God but me,a righteous God and Savior. There is none but me.

Isaiah 45:22
Let all the world look to me for salvation!For I am God; there is no other.

Isaiah 47:8
"Listen to this, you pleasure-loving kingdom,living at ease and feeling secure.You say, 'I am the only one, and there is no other.I will never be a widow or lose my children.'

Isaiah 47:10
"You felt secure in your wickedness.'No one sees me,' you said.But your 'wisdom' and 'knowledge' have led you astray,and you said, 'I am the only one, and there is no other.'

This God is sovereign and this is the only true God of the world, there is no other! Folks we must know this, embrace this, believe this and live this! Let's be in awe of our God, let's be amazed, marvel, worship, praise and exalt this one true and sovereign God. Do you see how this fits into what we have been learning about the authority of the Bible for our lives?
1. It is inspired - God Himself breathed these very words through the prophet Isaiah
2. It is infallible - God Himself can not fail and whatever He says He does, just read these chapters and be amazed!
3. It is inerrant - God can't make any mistakes, His word is pure and true

May I exhort us today to praise the sovereign and only God of this universe. In our culture it is so easy to put things like job, family, security, friends, elections, worry and busyness between us and our worship of God. These things in and of themselves, can become like idols that we have on the display in the shelf of our minds. I pray that as we move forward this year we will passionately desire to know Him more, love Him greater and serve Him with delight and not out of duty. Oh may we embrace the fact that God is sovereign, He rules and He reigns and that He is our God and there is no other!

praising and exalting our God with you

In last Sunday's lesson at the end I put up the following chart:

1. GRACE comes down (from God)

2. JOY rises (in the believer as they are satisfied in God)

3. LOVE overflows (into the lives of others)

It is easy to draw a chart but to live this out is where the "rubber meets the road" in the Christian life. I am constantly reading and listening to those who have modeled godly living in their lives and ministry. In studying this week I came across notes from a Dr. John Piper lecture on "how" he fights for joy! Hopefully this will encourage you to run the race, and keep the faith as you continue fighting the good fight.

1. Meditate on the word of God both day and night – Psalm 19:8, Jeremiah 15:16, Romans 10:17, Psalm 1, Romans 15:4, John 17:17, Holiness is someone who is so satisfied in God that sin has lost its appeal to them. Ephesians 6:17

2. Memorize the Scriptures – people who have done this have the where withal to fight for the fight for joy. Pick a time of day and a place and a plan then it will happen. If you don't do it then the devil will fill your life up with good things so you never get to the best things.

3. When reading the Bible focus on the centrality of Christ. Have a goal of being able to see God when you read the Bible. Ask questions like who are you and what are you like and why are you speaking and acting this way… Reading the Bible – all authority on heaven and earth is mine, Lazarus come forth, these are things Jesus says and does. When you go to the Bible you meet a man that is self-authenticating. You need to see Jesus as glorious as your read.

4. Don't spare yourself in the Bible the parts of the Bible that describe the wrath of God. Because of Nehemiah 1:11 – "those who delight to fear Your name…" There is a component in us that want to fear and it makes them happy.

5. Learn to preach to yourself – Psalm 42 and preach to yourself the promises of God

6. Pray earnestly continually for everything that you need to be happy in God I – incline your heart to your testimonies (Psalm 119:36), O – Open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things in Your law (Psalm 119:18), U – unite my heart to fear Your name (Psalm 86:11), S – satisfy us in the morning with Your loving kindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. (Psalm 90:14)

7. Resolve to fight every known sin in your life – the root of all sin is unbelief, which means that you consider that sin at the moment to be more precious and valuable to you than Christ. In other words sin has the power to persuade you to cherish other things over Christ. Sin comes from darkness and its strategy is to keep you in darkness so immediately go for the light. The more you kill the darkness, the more light goes on in your life.

8. Share your faith – a spring needs to create a stream and we do this by commending Christ

9. Spend time with God saturated people that will help you fight the fight of faith – 1 Samuel 23:16 – this is where life groups come in the Christian life, God has ordained that the word of God come to us through our reading, preaching and in friendships and small groups. That is essential according to Hebrews 3, so hang out with people who can get in your face with promises. Call sin into the forefront and then give a promise from Scripture.

10. Read Biographies of great Christian saints – Hebrews 11 is about the heroes of the faith – yet dead but speaking… For example – William Tyndale by David Daniell

Blessings,

Our class can be summarized as follows: “Back to the basics of the Bible in such a way that Christ is demonstrated as great and glorious in each of our lives.” However as I have taught over the years, one of the dangers of intense Bible study can be legalism. We need to be on alert constantly against this very deadly disease. And the only antibiotic that can provide the cure is the cross of Christ.

Therefore, before we continue moving forward in our survey of the Bible, I am pulling our tour bus over to the next overview stop in order to look out into the valley of legalism. As many of you know that have been with us for the last 9 weeks, I have exhorted us as a class back to the Bible. In doing so I have encouraged you with a number of tools that can help in your Bible reading, Bible devotion and Bible study. But I also know that some people have processed this information through the filter of “I need to start building a task list or to do list for my spiritual life.” One of the points this past Sunday was as Americans we are hard wired to be legalists. Should you want to hear that flushed out in more detail just refer to the audio link for October 26 or these power point slides from last Sunday.

This Sunday instead of focusing our attention on the problem we will in fact be emphasizing the cure. Now before I give you the homework assignment let me give you a pastoral heads up. The problem that existed in the first 100 years of the church and the big problem that we face now is the same. And the name of the problem is SIN! Please don’t ignore this but seek rather to understand this from the Bible. Read carefully the apostle Paul’s conclusion about the entire human race (pagan, moral man and religious man) in Romans. Remember Romans is the most thorough epistle we have on the doctrine of salvation.
Rom. 3:10 as it is written,
“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
Rom. 3:11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,
THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
Rom. 3:12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;
THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”

Legalism is sin rooted in pride which focuses the attention on my effort and ability in order to merit or get God’s approval. But in me there is nothing good so all I can bring to God are deeds that are in fact unrighteous. I once heard a prominent theologian proclaim “ the best work you ever do in your lifetime, needs to be bathed in repentance.” When I heard it I backed the tape up and listened again. He did not say the worst thing you will ever have done but the best thing needs to be bathed in repentance. Why is that? Because our sinful nature is so utterly sinful that it even taints the most wonderful things that we do in our kingdom work. I must admit hearing that did not help my self esteem or self concept one little bit. But isn’t that the point! If I don’t admit and deal with the problem then I will never appreciate nor apply the solution. Class we are sinners in need of a savior and that savior is Christ. Did you ever see the movie “Amazing Grace?” Well, in that movie there is a conversation between Wilbur Wilberforce and John Newton. At this point Newton is old and looks to be a bit senile. But he says to Wilberforce the following statement, “one thing that I know, I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”

The key to killing the deadly disease of legalism is the cross of Christ. It may be that legalism has never been a problem for you but what about lust, envy, jealousy, lying, anger, coveting, hating, gossiping, and I could go on but you get the idea. Romans 3:23 states “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Therefore all need the one cure for that problem that is common to every man, woman, boy and girl that has ever lived or will live except for Christ Himself.

I want you to know that this class has not been designed nor will it be taught from a “you” centered perspective. This class will be taught from a “Christ-centered” perspective. We somehow have gotten the notion today that if we market Jesus to unbelievers as the One who can fix their marriage, smooth all relationships, guarantee financial prosperity, take away all their guilt and also keep them out of hell then we are involved in kingdom building. But wanting to not go to hell is not a saving affection because I can want to avoid hell and still not want to be with, love and praise Christ. We in evangelicalism have fallen into the deadly trap of promising the blessings but leaving out the Blessor. We have guaranteed the gifts and yet at the same time diminished the Giver. Many churches today will not talk about the sinful, evil and wickedness in the heart of man that can only be solved by the blood shedding of Jesus Christ. By the grace of God I will not allow that to happen in this class. This will not be about getting your best life now, but rather it will be about how to lose your life now in order that you can save it!

Class, can I teach you this hard but very important truth? In you, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. there is NO GOOD THING, your heart is evil and desperately wicked! The only thing you want to do is rebel, be in charge of your own life and you do not want to submit to God in any way. As a matter of fact prior to Christ you were at war with God. No, that needs to be stated the other way God was at war with you! So what could possibly allow you in your wicked and evil state to be reconciled to a holy and righteous God. It was God’s gracious gift to you of repentance and faith that turned you away from self as you cast yourself on the mercy of Christ in order to trust in Him.

So this week we look at, yes, the solution to legalism but we could say the solution to sin. You see when we started the four obstacles I listed to Bible study were as follows:
1. Motivation
2. Priority
3. Skills and Tools
4. Spiritual Condition

I could have wrapped all of these up in one word which is SIN. Because SIN will be the one thing that keeps you from the Bible whereas the Bible will be that which keeps you from SIN.

Here are the important study verses that Lord willing I am going to teach on this Sunday:

Romans 1:16
Ephesians 2:8-9
1 Corinthians 1:17-31
Galatians 6:14
Galatians 2:20
1Corinthians 2:1-2
Titus 3:3-7
Romans 3:21-26
1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Here are some words that I would like you to pay attention to as you read and meditate on these verses prior to Sunday.

Gospel
Christ-crucified
Saved
Regeneration
Justification
Mercy
Boasting

There is only one cure for legalism and that is Christ crucified for our sins! This is not something you can
do but rather it is something that must be done for you! When we start to understand that kind of GRACE,
a GRACE that saves rebellious, evil and wicked men, women, boys and girls then we will start to be
amazed. As GRACE comes down JOY rises in the form of delight, satisfaction and a genuine treasuring of
Christ. And naturally from our satisfaction in Christ a love springs forth from our lives in the form of our
LOVE for others. And now when I perform deeds in the body of Christ they are done not out of a “DUTY”
mentality but rather from a “DELIGHT” mentality. The only cure for legalism is the cross of Christ!

The teaching today was about the Christ crucified life as opposed to the me emphasized life. I will put more up later but here are the power point notes.



Here is the audio of today’s class. Click on this LINK and look for October 26.

I was reflecting on the life of Christ this morning. Check out these verses written and then let me make a quick comment. (Normally I don't make quick comments as you have probably noticed.)

Jesus speaking:
John 5:30 "I can do nothing on My own initiative As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me."

John 6:38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me."

John 8:28 "...So Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me."

John 12:49 "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak."

John 14:10 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.

OK, let me see if I really understand these verses. Jesus Christ doesn't speak, teach or do anything on His own initiative! He only does what the Father speaks, teaches and does through Him.

Hmmm...

Question - How much did I think about, speak and accomplish this week in my own initiative? Check out what the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31 "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

Live each day, let me back up, live each moment in such a way that God is demonstrated as great! Christ becomes the very center point of everything that gets filtered in and through your life. So let me be radical for just a minute:

1. When you drink a cup of coffee in the morning drink it to the glory of God
2. When you brush your teeth, then brush them to the glory of God
3. When you talk to a customer on the phone, then talk to them to the glory of God
4. When you are waiting in your car at the bank and in a long line of cars then wait to the glory of God
5. When you talk to your spouse about what is bothering them about you then listen to the glory of God
6. When you are online with your computer do so to the glory of God
7. When you pay your bills this month do so to the glory of God

Live in such a way that it is not you but Christ in you the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

The life that Christ lived qualified Him for the death that He died, but the death that He died qualifies you and me to live now the life that He lived then. Which means that we do nothing on our own initiative (our glory) but rather depending and relying on Him (demonstration of His glory).

P.S. We were created for His glory.

Isaiah 43:7 - Everyone who is called by My name,
And whom I have created for My glory,
Whom I have formed, even whom I have made."

Here is the weekly update in podcast format for our class on Sunday.


Click here--> Podcast

PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE BELOW ON LEGALISM

Legalism means to obey a set of rules or regulations in such a way as to seek or try to merit God’s approval. As Americans we are hard wired to be legalists. Just think for a minute at the number of roles you have acquired to date in your life.

• son
• daughter
• brother
• sister
• aunt
• uncle
• friend
• student
• athlete
• business owner
• employee
• neighbor
• church member

I can remember growing up my mom, who I loved dearly, had a thing about grades in school. The message that came across to me was “the Brimberry’s don’t make “C’s” in school work. Well, at least they didn’t make any until little Bert showed up on the scene. Whenever I brought home an A or B the atmosphere was one of acceptance and positive affirmation. For the sake of this blog article lets call that a “STROKE.”
BUT when I brought home a C or even the dreaded D, even in my little brain I noticed my mom’s disappointment. Whenever my parents felt good about the results I accomplished then naturally I felt good about me. And whenever my parents were disappointed it always seemed to translate in me feeling bad about myself. Therefore this is how the information came into and got processed in my mind. If I wanted to feel really good about myself then I needed to be sure to meet or exceed my parents expectations. Unfortunately it seemed, the older I got the higher they raised the bar. In high school I was a pretty good athlete and played two sports, basketball and tennis. Because of my size the high school football coach approached me to encourage me to play football. I went out for spring practice but really wanted to focus on basketball and tennis so I quit the football team. When I arrived home that day and told my father he looked at me and said “Bert I am ashamed of you.” Of course my dad had no idea how that statement would register in my 18 year old brain but I never forgot it. Once again the bar had been set and if I achieved the results then I was stroked but if I didn’t then I got discounted. My identity as Bert to either feel good or bad about myself was closely tied to my performance as a son, student, athlete or any of my roles. Please don’t misinterpret these stories with my mom or dad they were great parents but I picked up some baggage along the way.

So here is the way this played itself out as I transitioned into adulthood. Since I wanted to always feel good about myself, I was determined to meet or exceed all of the expectations in whatever role(s) I acquired. Therefore my life modus operandus became as follows: when I perform successfully in my roles then and only then can I feel good about me. This is the way my parents were raised, this is the way I was raised and unfortunately to some degree this is the way my children were raised.

And then I become a Christian! This means that naturally I bring my performance based mindset right into my spiritual life. In other words when I hear things like, have a Bible reading plan, pray daily, serve based on your gifts, attend SS class and worship services, and give financially I immediately think I need to meet this performance expectation to feel good about me. But now the person I am trying to please is God Himself. Therefore the mindset or the motif that I enter into the Christian life with is if I obey and follow all the rules then I will get God’s approval. Do you see how easily this can happen in our performance based and results based culture? All this becomes the very breeding ground for legalism or religious activity in the church.

In teaching and preaching full time over the past 10 years I have watched it, participated in it, and this week want to provide a warning for us not to fall prey to it! If you want to understand the full implications of legalism from a Biblical perspective then you only need to study about the Pharisees. So please understand my point to this article and to this pause in our Bible tour. We need to be very guarded that legalism not slowly and subtly creep into our Christian lives. There is only one solution to this problem and that solution is the “gospel-centered” or “Christ-crucified” life. Please understand when you have a class that is built around “back to the basics” it can tend to become religion centered instead of gospel centered. The example of the difference comes from one of my favorite preachers today whose name is Dr. Tim Keller. I will talk more about Tim and his ministry this week but look at his teaching on religion vs. gospel.

Religion	Gospel
“I obey-therefore I’m accepted.”	“I’m accepted-therefore I obey.”
Motivation is based on fear and insecurity	Motivation is based on grateful joy.
I obey God in order to get things from God	I obey God to get to God-to delight and resemble Him
When circumstances in my life go wrong, I am angry at God or my self, since I believe, like Job’s friends that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life	When circumstances in my life go wrong, I struggle but I know all my punishment fell on Jesus and that while he may allow this for my training, he will exercise his Fatherly love within my trial
When I am criticized I am furious or devastated because it is critical that I think of myself as a ‘good person’. Threats to that self-image must be destroyed at all costs	When I am criticized I struggle, but it is not critical for me to think of myself as a ‘good person.’ My identity is not built on my record or my performance but on God’s love for me in Christ. I can take criticism. That’s how I became a Christian
My prayer life consists largely of petition and it only heats up when I am in a time of need. My main purpose in prayer is control of the environment	My prayer life consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. My main purpose is fellowship with Him
My self-view swings between two poles. If and when I am living up to my standards, I feel confident, but then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people. If and when I am not living up to standards, I feel humble, but not confident-I feel like a failure	My self-view is not based on a view of my self as a moral achiever. In Christ I am simul iustus et peccator— simultaneously sinful and lost yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad he had to die for me and I am so loved he was glad to die for me. This leads me to deeper and deeper humility and confidence at the same time. Neither swaggering nor sniveling
My identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard I work. Or how moral I am, and so I must look down on those I perceive as lazy or immoral. I disdain and feel superior to ‘the other.’	My identity and self-worth are centered on the one who died for His enemies, who was excluded from the city for me. I am saved by sheer grace. So I can’t look down on those who believe or practice something different from me. Only by grace I am what I am. I’ve no inner need to win arguments
Since I look to my own pedigree or performance for my spiritual acceptability, my heart manufactures idols. It may be my talents, my moral record, my personal discipline, my social status, etc. I absolutely have to have them so they serve as my main hope, meaning, happiness, security, and significance, whatever I may say I believe about God	I have many good things in my life—family, work, spiritual disciplines, etc. But none of these good things are ultimate things to me. None of them are things I absolutely have to have, so there is a limit to how much anxiety, bitterness, and despondency they can inflict on me when they are threatened and lost

I want to be sure that we be aware of and stay away from a legalistic approach to living the God-centered life. Again there is only one solution to this deadly
disease, and that is the Christ-crucified life. So this week we will discuss the dangers to avoid and the solution to embrace as we move forward in our tour of the Bible!

There may be some of you on the 52 week Bible reading plan that is on our blog site? Devotion time this week has been in Judges 12-16. In the book of Judges one reads this phrase quite often "they did evil in the sight of the LORD." Isn't that the core problem with the heart of man? There are many verses that affirm this about man but here are several.

Genesis 6:5 - Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick..."

Romans 3:10 - "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
Romans 3:11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
Romans 3:12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."

And instead of God exacting His justice by sending a lightning bolt or fire from heaven instead He provides them with a judge. And when these different judges come into power they restore peace to the region and defeat the enemies of Israel. God gives to His own people what they do not deserve, and what do we call that? We call that GRACE and define it as unmerited favor. In the book of Judges you see this continuing pattern, because of their evil the people deserve death and instead God provides to them grace upon grace.

Folks we are no different than those Israelites who were rebelling, worshiping false gods, being sinful and evil. Therefore should God exact His rightful justice on us, in which we would immediately be judged, condemned and sent to an eternal hell. But instead God sends His only begotten Son to absorb the wrath of God for you and me that He did not deserve, and in turn credits to our heavenly account the righteousness of His that we do not deserve. What? Christ gets all my sin and in turn I get all His righteousness! Sometimes in evangelical circles this is called the "great exchange." What do we call that? How about AMAZING GRACE!

Do you see how the book of Judges points us to the One who would eventually come and save us permanently? The Lord Jesus came and defeated our two greatest enemies which are sin and death. He pays in full the penalty of all your sin, past-present-future and also defeats the power of sin. Or as Major Ian Thomas used to say "the life that He lived qualified Him for the death that He died, but the death that He died qualifies us to live now the life that He lived then."

How often do you think, meditate and preach the gospel to yourself? What do you and I deserve? Instead what has God the Father so lovingly and willingly provided? I pray we would see His grace more abundantly, meditate on it more passionately, and live it out among those that God puts in our sphere of influence more consistently!

Blessings,

Today was a chance for us to review again the first three principles of our Bible survey. Occasionally we will pitch a tent and camp on some material that we have previously covered. This morning I wanted to review and stress what as orthodox evangelicals we believe about the Bible.
1. It is inspired (God-breathed)
2. It is infallible (can’t fail)
3. It is inerrant (without error)

May I encourage you to review the notes from todays class. Read over and meditate on the passages listed that highlight:

• The truthfulness of the Bible
• The purity of the Bible
• The power of the Bible
• The reverence for the Bible
• The joy of the Bible
• The daily nourishment from the Bible

These are interesting days in which we are living. How easy it is for us to get distracted with the things of this world. Brothers and sisters keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus! Do not look to the left or to the right, grab up the word of God and allow His Spirit to transform you into the likeness of Christ. The most important thoughts you will ever think are the thoughts that you think about God. I appeal to each one of you as strongly as I know how get into His word so that His word can get into you!

Next week it’s on to principles 4-8 which have already been posted on our blog site. There will be other “pauses” along the way as we take this tour of the Bible. Hopefully when we get done you will have a good overall grasp of some of the basics from Genesis to Revelation.

Continue running the race, fighting the good fight and keeping the faith;

Here is the audio from today’s class, just click on this LINK and look for mp3 download October 19.

Vance Havner was one of the great preachers of his day. I have included one of his best messages called “Getting used to the Dark” on the class download page. Just click on this LINK and go to the mp3 download labeled “Vance Havner.” It is hard to hear because the recording is old. It makes me think of the days with the radio by my ear trying to tune in and hear what was being said. It may be good to grab a cup of coffee or tea and gather the family around this timely message for the church!

In this first phase of our class we are looking closely at the Bible itself. During our last class together I mentioned the authority of the Bible for the orthodox evangelical church.
1. The Bible is inerrant
2. The Bible is infallible
3. The Bible is inspired

In the coming weeks I will be giving an overview of the entire Bible from Genesis through Revelation. Also I think it important for us to listen to solid preaching when it comes to the importance of God’s word. Nancy and I attended a conference this past April at the Cove in Asheville, NC. The speaker was Dr. John MacArthur and his commitment and message as always was in essence “get back to God’s word.” Therefore I have posted a couple of messages he has recently preached on the working of God’s word. Just click on this LINK and look for “God’s word.”

Dr. MacArthur on how to understand what the Bible means

Principle #6
The Old Testament consists of 39 books that were written prior to the birth of Jesus Christ.

Principle #7
The 39 books of the Old Testament are divided as follows:
➢ The first 17 books of the Old Testament are called “historical narrative.”
➢ The next 5 books are called poetical or books of experience
➢ The next 17 books are called prophetical or books of prophesy

Or for those who want to be even more technical:
The first 17 books of the Old Testament are divided in the following way
➢ The first 5 books are called the Pentateuch – Genesis-Deuteronomy
➢ The next 12 books are a historical chronology of Israel – Joshua-Ester
➢ The next 5 books are poetical – Psalms-Song of Solomon
➢ The next 5 books are the major prophets – Isaiah-Daniel
➢ The next 12 books are the minor prophets – Hosea-Malachi

So you could divide up the Old Testament:
5 – The Law
12 – The History
5 – The poetical
5 – The Major Prophets
12 – The Minor Prophets

Principle #8
The first 17 books of the Old Testament provide the story line in which all the books of the Old Testament fit.

Principle #9
The Old Testament can be divided into *9 historical divisions:
1. Creation
2. Patriarchs
3. Exodus
4. Conquest
5. Judges
6. Kingdom
7. Exile
8. Return
9. Silence

* these divisions come from Max Anders book “30 days to understand the Bible”

Here is a summary of the story line from Genesis through Ester

Greetings to the “Learning and Living the God-centered Life” class from Charleston, South Carolina. Nancy and I have been here during the last week preparing for and hosting Dr. Bruce Ware and his wife Jodi. They came to East Cooper Baptist Church in which Bruce was asked to speak on the doctrine of Christ. The conference concluded last night and was a great time of learning and discussion on this vital area of Bible doctrine.

For those of you who don’t know Dr. Bruce Ware I have posted a short bio that may help bring you up to speed on his background and ministry.

Bruce Ware received a B.A. in English from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. He later earned his M.Div. and his Th.M. from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon, before he moved to Pasadena, California, where he completed his formal education with a Ph.D. in Philosophical Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Dr. Ware currently serves as the Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Prior to his current occupation, Bruce has held teaching positions at Bethel Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota; Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon; and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.
Books Published:
Perspectives on the Doctrine of God: 4 Views (Editor)
Broadman & Holman - 2007
Serving God with Determined Faith: Studies in the Book of Nehemiah
Lifeway Press - 2005
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance
Crossway Books - 2005
God's Greater Glory: The Exalted God of Scripture and the Christian Faith
Crossway Books - 2004
Their God is Too Small: Open Theism and the Undermining of Confidence in God
Crossway Books - 2003
God's Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism
Crossway Books - 2000
Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace (Editor)
Baker Books - 2000
The Grace of God, The Bondage of the Will (Editor)
Baker Books - 1995

Last night I had the opportunity to talk with Bruce about his background, past writing, present day ministry and thoughts about ministry in general. I hope this podcast will encourage you as we continue to commit ourselves back to the word of God for His glory!


Interview with Dr. Bruce Ware

Thanks to Pastor Russ Rosser for teaching our class this past Sunday morning. Nancy and I have been blessed to know Russ and Carol since they first arrived in Charlotte. He is affectionately known to us as “Papa” Russ. Here are the notes from this past week.

The BIBLE can be summarized by using 5 CHRIST CENTERED DIVISIONS:

1. ANTICIPATION - If you were to read through the Old Testament over and over it would leave you with a strong impression that someone is coming. And that would in fact be correct because the Old Testament is constantly pointing to the coming of Christ.
Do you remember what Jesus explained to the two men on the road to Emmaus? Luke 24:27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. Therefore when we read the Old Testament we need to be aware that it speaks of the Jesus Himself.

2. MANIFESTATION - When we arrive at the books of Matthew-John we can see that He is here! The gospels in the New Testament record for us the birth, life, teaching, ministry, miracles, rejection, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
This means that Jesus is the unfolding or declaration of God the Father to us, to see the Son is to see the Father. Therefore as we read the Bible and pull out the truth from the text, to do so correctly means that we will see Jesus.

3. PROCLAMATION - In the book of Acts, we have the resurrected Jesus giving instructions to His disciples in Acts 1:8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” In Acts Chapter 2 the Spirit fills those at Pentecost and this begins the taking of the message to Jerusalem, Judea, Sumaria, and then to the outer most parts of the earth.

4. EXPLANATION - In the Epistles which are from Romans through Jude, you have letters written primarily to churches and individuals to address the problems and circumstances that are going on in these churches. In the epistles we get a good understanding of:

• Who Jesus Christ is
• What Jesus Christ did
• How we ought to live in lieu of who He is and what He has done

5. CONSUMATION - This is the book of Revelation. What God started in Genesis He will finish in Revelation. Revelation ll:15 - Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”
In Revelation we have letters from Jesus to the seven churches and His second coming which establishes the new heaven and earth.

As we progress through this tour or survey of the Bible would you take time to reflect on these principles during your study time.
In your review of Principles 1, 2 and 3 just click on this LINK.

On November 2 from 5:30-7:00 PM we are going to have a “digging deeper” session at Jack and Jeanette Bickett’s home.

The format will be to ask questions and to dialog in more detail the first 2 months of our class. In the past I have found these types of gatherings to be very effective, in order to help folks get even a better grasp on the Bible, and how to apply it in their lives.

Here is a short training video on the importance of cross references in your Bible. If you are using a study Bible then you will notice the letters or numbers in the margin of your Bible. Even though most people know they are there, it is something that is rarely used. Again I hope these short videos will encourage you to use the tools in order to make us better students of God’s word. Just click on this LINK and look for the video titled “cross reference.”

This particular phase of our study is being called “explanation to the head.” As you remember I listed basic steps for us as we commit to getting back to a healthy reading, devotion and study time in God’s word.

Step #1 - “The preparation of the heart”
Step #2 - “The explanation to the head”
Step #3 - “The application for the feet”

Therefore in this phase of our study I will be giving a basic overview of the Bible in the format of approximately 20 different principles. Along the way I will take a couple of side trips in order to make us aware of some current issues that we are battling in the evangelical church regarding the Bible. This past Sunday we covered the first 3 principles in our overview of God’s word.

Principle #1 - The Bible is unity through incredible diversity.
Principle #2 - The Bible has a layout that is similar in both the Old and New Testaments
Principle #3 - The Bible is the authoritative word of God

It was here in Principle #3 that we took a small but very important side trip. This side trip deals primarily with the definitions of the words interpretation and meaning. Should you want to review these terms in more detail click on this LINK.

Here is the battle that we are facing in the church. There are some who want to take the word of God, and say that when you read and interpret it, that it can mean whatever it means to you. That is very, very incorrect and the mainstream orthodox evangelical church does not support that kind of Bible interpretation. So if that is incorrect then what is correct. There is only one correct interpretation for any one Bible verse and that is equal to what the author intended for it to mean when he wrote it.

My word of encouragement to you is that for this section of our study in our “explanation to the head” this will be as technical as we are going to get.

But know this is an important issue for us in the church. Folks, if we have incorrect interpretation of the Bible that will lead us to incorrect application. Right now I am just laying down this principle as a foundational piece that we will be building upon as we get back to the basics of the Bible. There will be examples and illustrations in this regard as we go through the year but just want you to ingrain this Biblical principle in your minds.

The question frequently comes up to me and it is a good question, but Bert aren’t there some hard verses in the Bible to understand in terms of what they mean? And the short answer to that question is yes. But it doesn’t neglect this principle of Bible study that says there is only one correct interpretation for any one verse of Scripture. Though man may wrestle, disagree and be confused about the meaning I can assure you that God is not confused about it at all!

You can’t make the Bible mean whatever you want it to mean. It can only mean what God intended for it to mean when He inspired the writing of that Scripture through the human author. Our job and yes it can be quite difficult and challenging is to use good Bible study methods in order to discover the author’s intended meaning. As we learn correct Bible doctrine that will lead us to correct Bible living.

We have a stop sign in our neighborhood that is fairly new. Over the years we have never had to stop at this particular intersection. And then one day the dreaded stop sign was installed. It has been interesting to watch the different attitudes of those in our neighborhood toward that stop sign. Here are three different interpretations of this stop sign from the drivers perspective.

Driver #1 - Doesn’t see the need to stop at all. The sign has been installed as an unnecessary inconvenience and therefore I don’t see a need to stop.

Driver #2 - This is what we call the “Philly Slide.” The car doesn’t but it will slow to a yield if necessary. But stopping all together is totally out of the question.

Driver #3 - An official stop to the point that the wheels come to a point of complete rest.

Is it more important how you interpret the stop sign or is it more important to know what the stop sign actually means?
If your interpretation is not consistent with the actual meaning of the stop sign according to Mr. Policeman, then you will likely receive a ticket for your bad interpretation. Do you see how an incorrect interpretation leads one to an incorrect application.
When it comes to a stop sign and Mr. Policeman your job is to be sure that your interpretation is in line with the actual meaning!

Thanks to Nancy B. for this illustration!

Here is a sound clip I am posting of some American Christians being interviewed on their particular interpretations of what the Bible means. This exchange occurred after a Sunday morning worship service from a prominent evangelical church.
Listen carefully at the end of the clip for the interpretation given of John 14:6. Would you say this persons interpretation would be consistent with the author intended meaning when he wrote John 14:6?

So what does the Bible mean when it says...

Today’s class went from easy to what might have seemed a little difficult. If you will review the notes in Power Point then I think it will clear up many questions. Here is a quick review of the main points from this morning’s class.

• The Bible shows us amazing unity through incredible diversity. Just look at the number or authors, occupations, styles of writing, time of writing, and locations in which the various authors wrote the Bible.
• The Bible has a unique format in that the Old Testament and New Testament have similar layouts.
• The Bible must be interpreted correctly if we are going to live it out correctly.

The first two points are basic to the Bible that are helpful to know but not difficult to understand. However the third point and the following 4 words we discussed today will take some study and review.

1. Exegesis
2. Meaning
3. Interpretation
4. Application

This is a huge issue today within the evangelical church. It will be more and more important for our children and grand children, especially within our American culture.
I think we can all agree that the culture has consumed many people with an attitude of “it’s all about me.” So it is not surprising now that when people come to the Bible, you hear this kind of statement “well if it means that to you great, but this text means this to me.” In other word since the focus is me then I can read the Bible and interpret through my feelings and beliefs, or what it means to me. Folks please don’t hear this wrong, it doesn’t matter what you think it means, it only matters what God says it means!

Basic principle of correct Bible study:
The correct interpretation of any one Scripture is always equal to what the author meant by what he wrote. We must bring our interpretation directly in line with the author’s meaning. This is not always easy to do and at times it takes some work but these things of God’s word are the most important things in our life!

And even though there must be only one correct meaning for any one Scripture, one Scripture can have many different applications.

We may not be clear on what a particular verse means but we know that God is not confused as to what it means. Our job is to study as best we can, with the tools that we have available, in order to try and determine exactly what was in the mind of the author when he wrote the text. In essence we are trying to go back and stand within the language community of that particular author.

Now please understand this is not a class on the “how to” of in depth Bible study when it comes to interpretation. But you should be somewhat familiar with the process that goes in understanding what the author meant by what he wrote.

For now just review and digest the information that you can most easily grasp as it relates to our overview of the Bible. In the coming weeks I will review this and hopefully get this ingrained into the basic core of your Bible study.

If you want to go more into this subject in a much more in depth way then click on this LINK. This will give you my recommended books that give a detailed look at this subject of “how to” study the Bible.

Did you happen to hear Dr. Poplin in the 11:00 AM service?
He went to Genesis 3:16:
To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”

Now listen to what Dr. Poplin said next, he said many men read this verse as a blessing by saying “yeah I get to rule over my wife!” Then Dr. Poplin commented by saying “that is not what this verse means.” I almost jumped up and said, “ Dr. Poplin ,that is exactly what we studied in Sunday School class today! “ Do you think he would have minded? Anyway, he went on to say the verse is not a blessing for the man but in fact a curse. He then took us to Genesis 4 and read us this verse regarding what God said to Cain.
Genesis 4:7:
“If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.

Dr. Poplin then told us that Genesis 3:16 means based on the cross reference of Genesis 4:7, that a woman’s sin nature will always manifest itself in her wanting to dominate her husband. Do you see what Dr. Poplin did for us in this verse?
He gave us the correct meaning by bringing it directly in line with what the author meant when he wrote Genesis 3:16.

Do you see how the wrong interpretation of this verse would lead a person to the wrong application? A certain man reads this verse and says I like this verse because it says I need to rule over my woman. But that is not at all what that verse means. It is a warning that because of original sin the woman will always have a natural bent to want to take over the leadership of the family.

Please don’t get impatient or frustrated at this point with this important Biblical principle. I would not mention it, and spend this kind of time on it, if I didn’t think it was really important! And the more we move along in our study the more critical this will become to us.

Well that does it for the first 3 principle in our overview of the Bible. If you have a brain cramp at anytime, please take two aspirins, and don’t drive or operate heavy machinery. Seriously though, thanks for your wonderful attentiveness today in some things that are difficult but necessary for us to learn!

If you are following the 52 week Bible reading plan online then you encountered Matthew 11:28-30 today.

First of all there are three verbs written in the imperative mood which means the mood of command.
1. Come
2. Take
3. Learn

So what is Jesus commanding me to do?

Come to Him! When you come somewhere doesn’t that mean you leave where you are? We are commanded to come to Jesus!


Take His yoke! I sat under a Bible teacher who did some excellent research on a yoke. Here were some of his points.

• There is alway a lead ox in the yoke
• A yoke is made for two
• When two animals are yoked together and you see them from the side, it looks as though there are only one pair of legs.
• The miracle of the yoke - If one oxen can pull 2000 pounds when yoked with another oxen they can collectively pull 8-10,000 pounds.
• If anyone tries to get between two oxen yoked together they will suffer physical harm.

Learn from Jesus - this word for “learn means to learn, be apprised, to increase one's knowledge, to be increased in knowledge. And it is from this particular word that we get the word disciple.

Disciple - this word occurs 264 times in the New Testament and means a learner, pupil, disciple. So let’s put it all together.
A disciple of Jesus is a person who is increasing in the knowledge of who He is, and also what He commands as they continue to learn and follow Him daily.

If those three verbs that we just studied are to be our response to Jesus and His word then what does He promise will be His result?

Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that He will give you and me REST for our souls.
If you look across the landscape of America we have people who are much more restless than they are restful. And the problem is where they are coming, what they are taking and who they are learning from?

Now look at the meaning of the word “rest.”
Rest - to cause or permit one to cease from any movement or labour in order to recover and collect his strength.

Do you remember last week in class when we talked about the six “I WILL’S” from God in Genesis 12 to Abram? And I asked the question can you think of some of the I WILL’S from God in the New Testament. Here is one in Matthew 11:28-30.
God gives us a promise of rest! Do you recognize what a wonderful testimony this is in a world of craziness, busyness, and restlessness?

We need to be a people of rest as we come to Him, take His yoke and continue to learn from His word as we follow Him daily. Isn’t that what our class is all about? Learning and Living the God-centered life!

This is a quick podcast summary of our first six weeks in “Learning and Living the God-centered Life.” I discuss where we’ve been, where we are now and where we are going next. If you are new to the class this is a good place to start and then take a tour of our website for more information.

To listen click on to this Podcast

We are going on a tour of the Bible, Lord willing, starting on Sunday. Of course as we have been doing, there will be stops along the way to look at specific verses along the way. Over the years I have studied under various excellent Bible teachers, order materials and written out many notes. This is not original with me and is at best a hybrid of how it has worked best for me. This past summer I went through an excellent overview called "Clarifying the Bible" by Mitch Maher. Some of the concepts presented will be from his overview while others will be an insert of my study through the years.

Introduction - ever since you have stepped into the "living and learning the God-centered life" you have continued to hear me exhort you back to the Bible. You may have even gone home thinking that guy is a broken record, does he have another track? Well you won't be the first person to think that or even meet with me on that issue. But I am not saying these things just to be a broken record, because through the Bible God makes Himself known to us. Buck Hatch a former teacher used to say "this Book is the closest thing that you will ever touch, hear or see of Jesus Christ this side of heaven." And if you remember right out of the gate in our study we got right to the HEART of the problem. Many people come to the Bible to get their hearts rights but we are learning that we must get our hearts right before we come to the Bible. As one theologian once said "it doesn't do us much good to tune our fiddles once the concert is over." And now with hearts prepared, let's see if we can take a tour of the Bible to get a better handle on the whole of Scripture.

I am going to introduce 20 plus points, ideas or principles in order that we may have a good overall view of the Bible. Each week I will attempt to give you as many of the principles as I think we will be able to cover in class. Are you ready? Here we go! Remember these are main points and I will only cover them in a brief manner.

Principle #1 - The Bible is the AUTHORITATIVE word of God

• The Bible is INSPIRED (God-breathed)
• The Bible is INFALLIBLE (can't fail)
• The Bible is INERRANT (without error)

The Bible is Inspired:
Let's talk first about the inspiration of Scripture and what that really means. Inspiration is the act where God superintended the authors of the Bible so that they composed and recorded without error God's message to mankind in the words of the original writings. As the author wrote each of them wrote exactly what God wanted them to write.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 - "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

Questions to ask from this verse:
1. How much of Scripture is inspired? Answer - ALL OF IT
2. For what reason? Answer - in order to teach us, reproof us, correct us, train us in righteous so that we might be adequately equipped for kingdom work!
We can say that that is the "fact" of inspiration. But there is another verse we need to consider.

2 Peter 1:20-21 - "But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
And we can say that this is the "act" of inspiration.

The Bible is infallible
The second category we are dealing with under the authority of Scripture is that of infallibility. Infallible simply means that the Scriptures will never lead us astray in matters of faith and practice. The infallibility of Scripture emphasizes the trustworthiness of the Bible.
Psalm 111:7 - The works of His hands are truth and justice; All His precepts are sure.


The Bible is inerrant
The third category we need to look at under the authority of Scripture is that of inerrancy. This means when all the facts are known the Scriptures in their original autographs and properly understood will be shown to be wholly true in everything that they affirm, whether it be:

• Doctrine
• Morality
• Social
• Physical
• Life Sciences

STOP-LOOK-LISTEN

This is a very critical point that we must look at for a few minutes. The Bible speaks with truth, truth about God, man, sin, Christ, the Spirit and salvation. As you probably know there is much debate today about truth even within the church. Is truth absolute or is it relative?

We have 3 main divisions in the evangelical church. This is may be an oversimplification but it will do for the sake of this point regarding the truth of God's word.
1. Orthodox - we at Carmel are considered to be orthodox in our beliefs. We believe as part of the doctrinal statement that the Bible is the word of God.
2. Liberal - in these churches they tend to believe that the Bible contains the word of God.
3. Neo-Orthodox - in these church they tend to believe that the Bible becomes the word of God.

Therefore on Sunday we need to define the following terms and have a good understanding of them as we move forward.

• Exegesis
• Interpretation
• Meaning
• Application

Exegesis means to unfold, to pull out or to declare. It considers the question "what does the Scripture say." We could say that exegesis is the process of interpreting the Bible.
In John 1:18 - "No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." In this sentence the word of explained is "exegeomai" and means that Jesus is the exegesis of God to us. Jesus is the revelation to us of God the Father, for us to see and know Jesus is to see and know the Father.
In other words Jesus is the interpretation of God to us. When we hear that the preacher exegeted the text, this refers to the process used to pull out or unfold the truth of the Scripture. And hopefully we can see from John 1:18 and other verses that when we pull truth from Scripture correctly we see Jesus revealed.

On Sunday we will discuss a basic Bible method for doing proper exegesis of the Bible. Howard Hendricks in "Living by the Book" describes the method he uses as being three-fold:
1. Observation - which includes but is not limited to things like the author's background, plan of the book and theme of the book in order to get a big picture of the material.
2. Interpretation - this involves a more detailed study of words, grammar and also being able to relate the text to the whole Bible.
3. Application - which generally means how does this truth translate itself to my life on a day to day basis

Interpretation of the Bible is what actually resides with the reader. Most of us naturally think that we understand the things that we read. But whenever we read we bring into our reading all of our life attitudes, beliefs, values, feelings, ideas, education, personality traits and temperaments that impact how we interpret. Therefore when we are dealing with the word interpretation we are focused on what the reader of the Scripture thinks that it means. Have you ever participated in a Bible study like this? Someone reads a particular text and then everyone in the room gets to comment on what they think it means. Question - in that particular scenario how many possible interpretations of the Bible can you have? And obviously the answer is as many as there are readers of the Bible.

Meaning is what resides with the author. Or we might say it the following way; "it is what the author intended for us to understand by what he or she wrote." This brings us to a critical point which I am going to refer to as A CARDINAL RULE FOR PROPER BIBLE STUDY.

There is only one correct interpretation for any one Scripture. This means that the correct interpretation is equivalent to the author's intended meaning.

Now think back with me a few weeks ago when we talked about the 3 eras in American history.
1. Agricultural - family totally together. People worked together and had a unified approach to their work.
2. Industrial - the first time the family is divided and goes from farm to city
3. Technological or Informational - the greatest dividing of the family and the promotion of a total consumer mindset. It's not about team but about the individual, it is not about what one can give but what am I going to receive.

This whole cultural mindset has filtered right into and through the church. And now when we meet those in the Neo-Orthodox church we hear this kind of language "well that particular Scripture means that to you and that is wonderful but it means this to me." Now what we have is the meaning no longer gets to reside with the author but in our culture the meaning gets to reside with the reader. Do you see why this is so very, very dangerous! Just 30 years ago when there was a debate, the strategy was to convince a person by using a series of logical arguments and to persuade them either to your side or vice versa. There was actually a thought process that truth is absolute to the point that there was a right and a wrong. However in the 21st Century the rules have changed. And now when you get into a debate with someone instead of one person being right and the other person being wrong, guess what? Both parties get to be right! What? Yes, that is exactly where we are in the culture and many churches today are moving into that mindset and thinking when it comes to the very Bible.

Therefore it is vitally important that when we study Scripture we keep the cardinal rule for proper Bible study always tucked away in our minds. Again, there is only one correct interpretation for any one Scripture which means the correct interpretation is equal to the author's intended meaning. This is such an important issue that it may take our first class dealing with "explanation to the head" to discuss and digest this truth.

If you are still a bit confused over this issue and why it is critical to the orthodox church don't worry I have several examples/illustrations that I will bring to this subject on Sunday. For now at least I would like you to understand the words exegesis, meaning and interpretation. Also please memorize the cardinal rule for proper Bible study now because it will follow us as we study Scripture together this year. The word application listed will come up as the last part of our "explanation to the head." But right now we are just dealing with exegesis, meaning and interpretation.

Keep in mind that we started with this, the first point was regarding the authority of Scripture. Authority of Scripture means that the words of Scripture are God's words in such a way that to disbelieve or to disobey the word of God is to disbelieve or to disobey God Himself. Therefore you can see why meaning and interpretation play such a vital role in our Bible study. As we come to the Bible we must remember that we don't stand in judgment of God's word but rather we stand under it's judgment. In the important questions of life like "Who is God?" The Bible stands as our authority. When we want to know "Who is man?" the Bible stands as our authority. Should we ask the question "What is sin" the Bible stands as our authority. And finally if we should ask "how can a sinful man who has rebelled in every way ever stand before a holy and righteous God?" The Bible stands as our authority to answer that question.

Principle #2 - The Bible is one Book that consists of 66 books.
Old Testament - 39 books
New Testament - 27 books

The Bible was written over a 1500 year time period.
- Moses wrote the Penetauch around 1400 B.C.
- The apostle John wrote the book of Revelation around 90-95 A.D.

The Bible was written by over 40 different authors from 40 uniques walks of life. For example:
Moses was a political statesman
David was a shepherd and a king
Joshua was a warrior
Ester was a Persian Queen
Nehemiah was a cup bearer
Matthew was a tax collector
Peter was a fisherman
Daniel was a Prime Minister
Mark was an evangelist
Luke was a doctor and historian
James was a carpenter
Job was a wealthy farmer
Amos was a poor fig picking farmer
Ruth was a housewife
Paul was a Rabbi and tent maker

The Bible was written on 3 different continents
Africa
Asia
Europe

The Bible was written in three different languages
Old Testament - Hebrew and small amount