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[0:00] So we talked last week about establishing the text, and we talked some about getting the right translation and it's God's word.

[0:12] And so we want to take great care to understand it and to have the right text in front of us. And we also talked about how it's the spirit of God from 1 Corinthians 1.

[0:23] It's the spirit of God who gives us understanding. The natural man cannot understand it. And so today we're coming to how do we interpret the Bible? How do we understand it? And really the first thing we need to talk about and the most important thing you can do is to pray.

[0:42] It's only the spirit of God can give us understanding. It's the people, the greatest Greek and Hebrew scholars who have gone to the most renowned seminaries in the world can study the Bible if they don't have the spirit of God.

[0:57] If they are not believers, they can't understand God's word in the right way, the way they're supposed to understand it. And so you have something that they don't have.

[1:08] The people with the PhDs who are studying the Bible their whole life, they don't have what you have if they don't have the spirit of God. And you have the one thing that is necessary to understand God's word.

[1:22] And so we need to ask the spirit of God for help. And that's something that I've experienced time and time again. And there will be times I'm stuck on a passage, trying to understand the passage.

[1:37] One time it was Ephesians 3. Like, God, what is the height and the breadth and the depth and the width? Like, what is it? What are you referring to? And then translators disagree on that. You do what I tell you guys to do last week and then you'll see it's different.

[1:51] What is it referred to? And I pray. And God helps me. Gives me understanding. Ah, I had that. Oh, and then all these connections, all these other passages come to mind. And then you're able to put it together.

[2:02] Same thing happened to me. I think you guys remember the sermon I preached on the muster seat. Right? What is faith that moves mountains? Right? What is faith like a muster seat?

[2:14] And I'm like, this doesn't, I'm not understanding it. Like, it doesn't quite make sense. Like, if Jesus just told the disciples that they have small faith. And then now he's saying that all you need is small faith to move mountains.

[2:25] Like, what in the world can that possibly mean? And wrestle with it. And I can't understand it. So I pray. God, help me. Help me. And then, boom. 1 Corinthians 13. 1. If you have all faith, so let's remove mountains but have not love.

[2:39] Right? The faith that moves mountains is not a small faith. It's a childlike faith. It's the faith that moves mountains. It's all faith. Right? So it's like a, that kind of understanding. It's happened to me so many times.

[2:50] I have a lot of confidence now that when I go to God and ask him for help, he'll help me. How to understand it. And so I think the, and so this is something that, a couple things that I've done is when I prepare for a sermon.

[3:06] Before I read any commentaries, before I do any other external reading, I just pray. I pray over the text. I read through it. Pray through the text. Ask God, God, what is it that you want our church to hear?

[3:19] What is it that you want them to learn from this text? Because you're speaking in it and there's something you want them to get from that. Right? And so you're starting, starting with that. And a good, we're going to look at Psalm 19 later.

[3:32] That's a great Psalm to memorize and pray through before you read the word. The law of the Lord is perfect. Refreshing the soul. Go through what, how precious is God's word?

[3:44] And then it'll put you in the right frame of mind before you, before you study and interpret the word. So I know I'm not really getting into the nuts and bolts of the stuff yet, but that's really, really important. Just to ask God for help and know that you have the spirit of God who can help you with that.

[3:58] And, oh, I mentioned, it's 1 Corinthians 2, the 10 to 16, but I only read a part of it. A natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him, for he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

[4:15] You can only discern them by the spirit. So read the scriptures prayerfully and try to read the scriptures personally too.

[4:28] The, yes, the Bible was written for, you know, written for over thousands of years, right? And it was written for people in the ancient world, for them to understand.

[4:40] It was, and many of the books are occasional texts. And what I mean by that is, like, some of the letters that were written were written for, with a specific audience in mind, right?

[4:52] That are going through a specific set of circumstances, right? And so you need to understand that original context, that historical context rightly before you can interpret and apply it to our context.

[5:05] And so that's true. So Revelation, for example, right? It was written to those seven churches in Asia, right, that it names in Revelations chapters 2 and 3. We need to understand that that was the original context.

[5:19] However, because it's the living word, right? Hebrews 4, right? It says in verse 12 that scripture is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and the spirit of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

[5:35] Because it's not a dead word, something from the past, but it's a living word, God still speaks today. And he speaks personally to you when you read the word.

[5:48] And so come to the word. Don't think of it as like a history book, you know, that you have to dust off and something. Like, this is what happened a long time ago. Come to it expecting God to speak to you today.

[6:00] Like, what do you want me to hear right now? What is it you're interested in my life? You're invested in my life. You see everything that I do and say, what is it that you want me to learn here right now?

[6:11] And you're just going to, it's just going to be a much more fruitful reading if you do that. So read prayerfully, read in a personal way, and then read patiently. Like a, you know, cow chewing the cud, you know, read patiently, slowly and over and over again.

[6:28] And then it's, how many, I mean, I won't ask for a raise of hands, but if you guys, many of you guys do your, you know, devotionals, you know, read the Bible, pray and stuff in the morning, right?

[6:43] And then, and how, if, when you have to rush through that in the morning, I assure you, you're not having a quality time with the Lord, right? It's, when you're, when you have the time and space to really sit and relish what you're reading, the things, things just jump off the pages and the Lord speaks.

[7:03] And so I think that just try to give it the space so that you could read and study the scriptures in an unhurried way and read it again and again, meditate on it, memorize it. And then, if you, even if you don't learn any like skills, I am going to, we're going to talk about some of those things now, but in exegesis, hermeneutics, if you prepare yourself spiritually and engage in the way I'm talking about, you're going to get so much from your scripture reading and learn and understand so much more.

[7:33] And in terms of actually getting down to interpretation and understanding the text, the most important thing to remember in the Bible interpretation is the importance of context.

[7:46] And it's a, it's a famous saying, a popular saying among preachers and interpreters, pastors, that a text without a context, without its context is a pretext, right?

[7:59] You're, you're, you're, you're, when you, when someone, you know, tells you, it takes a verse, an isolated verse out of context and says, oh, here, look at this first. And therefore you should do this, or therefore you should leave this.

[8:11] It's often a pretext for what they want you to believe, not what the scriptures actually says. Because when you examine the word in light of its context, often means something very different from what you, what you think it means.

[8:23] And there's a word, so exegesis is a word that we use for interpreting the text. When, when someone, instead of extrapolating or kind of exegeting or interpreting what's in the text, they import into it their own meaning, what they want the text to mean.

[8:46] The, the preconceptions that they already bring to the text, we call that eisegesis. It's a, and we don't want to engage in eisegesis. We want to engage in exegesis. And, and hermeneutics is just a study of exegesis, study of how to do interpretation.

[9:03] And there are, we have a lot of exercises to do this, so I'm just going to skip this part. And, and there's a, there's a helpful quote from Bible scholars.

[9:14] One of them was my professor, Gordon Commonwealth, Douglas, Gordon Fee and Douglas Stewart. And they were, they said this one time. He said, the single most serious problem people have with the Bible is not with the lack of understanding, but with the fact that they understand most things too well.

[9:33] And of course, it's not a problem to understand the Bible too well. Uh, that what they're referring to is that people think mistakenly that they understand the Bible too well. And because of that, when they come to a text, they already know, oh, I know, I know what this means.

[9:47] Oh, okay. I, this is what it says. And then they kind of skim through it or they, uh, kind of, uh, force the text and mold it and to, to fit their, the meaning that they're bringing, that they're expecting.

[10:01] Uh, so don't, don't, don't do that. That's how you end up in, in eisegesis. So let's, we're going to do, I've done this before, uh, but we're going to only do a few. Uh, if someone could read, uh, sorry, I didn't show you guys these slides.

[10:18] Oh, this is a great quote from, uh, Harold Sankbiel. It says, to link the person and work of Jesus to every shifting era by means of his unchanging word, not to contextualize the message, but to textualize people into the text of scripture.

[10:31] That's how he defines controversially exegesis. Um, now, uh, it's not the case that you don't need to contextualize. You do need to contextualize the Bible so that people in the modern times can understand it.

[10:43] When, when we use illustrations, examples, things from the modern times to make the text come alive for people, that's all contextualization. Uh, but what the, but he is making an important point that contextualization is not the only thing we need.

[10:56] We also need to textualize the people. Um, you can't expect people to stay always in their own culture and time, uh, and never make the jump to the biblical context.

[11:07] You need to know the biblical context. You need to know the historical background. We need to textualize the people into the text so that they are in a biblical world and they become more Biblian people in a way.

[11:19] Uh, and, and that's going to help them to understand and appreciate scripture more too. So that's a, um, I had all of these helpful slides that I just, uh, uh, didn't, uh, all right, context exercise.

[11:36] Someone look up Jeremiah 29, 11. If you've done this already with me, uh, don't, uh, don't blurt out the answer right now. Yeah. Um, someone just read it for, for us out loud. Jeremiah 29, 11.

[11:53] Or another place I have for you. You said Rebella, right? Yeah. Okay. It was quite good. Okay. Another place I have for you declares the Lord plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a hope and a future.

[12:04] Yeah. How have you seen this verse used before? How have you used it before? Yeah. When someone's about to do a new journey, like graduate and then, you know, the next step.

[12:16] Yeah. Something like that. God has good plans for you. Yeah. Right. Yeah. He's going to prosper you, not harm you. Right. When somebody's in a difficult situation, it's really hard. Yeah. Making themselves feel better.

[12:27] Yeah. God has good plans for you. Well, there's some truth to that, right? Romans 8. Right. God does work all things out for our good, for the, for the, for the good of those who love him.

[12:39] Of course, that good is not what we think necessarily. It's to conform us to the image of his son. But, uh, so here, uh, let's look at the context. Look at the surrounding context in, in Jeremiah 29, 11.

[12:52] Particularly starting in verse four. To 14. You know, I can read that first. It says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, To all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

[13:09] Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

[13:28] For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you. And do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name.

[13:39] I did not send them, declares the Lord. For thus says the Lord, When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

[13:51] For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you.

[14:01] You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I'll stop reading there. What's the original context in which God says that verse? Jeremiah 29, 11.

[14:14] What's happening to the Israelites? They're in exile. They're going to exile. And what does God promise them will happen? How long are they going to be in exile for? Seventy years.

[14:25] Seventy years. There's lying prophets, false prophets coming to them saying that you're not going to go into exile. Don't worry about that. That's not going to happen. God says, I didn't send them.

[14:36] You're going to exile. You're going to be there for seventy years. So make a home. Expect you to be there for a while. Get married. Give your kids a marriage.

[14:46] Make a living. That's what this passage is about. And then when is he going to bring them back and promise to do good to them? It's after the seventy years of exile.

[14:57] Right? So it doesn't fit how a lot of people use that verse at all. Right? In the context that they're talking about. It's a... If anything, what fits better is that we're in exile now.

[15:10] That's our life now. That's what Peter says. Right? In verse Peter 2. To elect the exiles. It's addressed to the saints. They're called the exiles because our life here on earth is like an exile.

[15:20] We're on our way home. We're not home yet. All right. So let's do... Let's look at one more here. Maybe one or two more. Matthew 18, 19. Hopefully this one you guys know.

[15:34] Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. How have you guys seen this verse used? You can say it if you want.

[15:45] If any two Christians want something to happen, they just pray and it will happen. Yeah. I mean, in isolation, that's what it looks like. Right?

[15:56] You just need to find another Christian body. Just find one more Christian body. Get together. Agree in prayer. Right? Agree in prayer. You have it. It's like magic.

[16:07] Right? What's the context? Look up the context. What is it? What's it in the context of? It's church discipline. Church discipline. Right? It's not saying God's going to listen to anything you want and make anything you want happen.

[16:21] You just have one person agree with you. It's one referring to the Old Testament standard for a witness. You need two or three witnesses to bring a charge, to establish a charge against somebody. And when you have, so when you're gathered as a church under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you decide to excommunicate someone, say this person is no longer living as a believer.

[16:41] They're living in unrepentant sin. And God's saying that what you bind on earth is bound in heaven. What you lose on earth, it will have been loosed in heaven. That's what it's talking about. It's not talking about anything you want, you and your Christian buddy wants.

[16:52] Right? And so context is so important. Right? It's when you take it in isolation, what text without a context is? Pretext. Yes. I mean, just remember that.

[17:02] And then let's look at one more example. Philippians 4.13. The most popular one. For I can do all things. When have you seen that used?

[17:13] Philippians. Athletes. Climbing mountains. Oh my goodness. One of my favorite athletes uses this all the time.

[17:26] You guys know who that is? Tito? I do like Tim Tito. Steph Curry. Steph Curry. Who said Steph Curry? Do you see you, Jason? He writes 4.13.

[17:38] I can do all things on every pair of his new sneakers when he writes. But I guarantee you, you can do that to your sneakers all you want. You will never shoot threes like Steph Curry.

[17:51] It's like, it's just not going to happen. And that's not what's happening. Look at the context again. Philippians 4.13. Look at the original context. Read verses 11 to 13.

[18:04] Not that I am speaking of being in need. For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

[18:15] I know how to be brought low. And I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance. I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger. Abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

[18:27] What is the all things that he can do? Because Christ strengthens him. Persevere. Persevering. Persevering through good times and bad times. Yeah. Being brought low.

[18:38] Abounding. Being content. It's not about, you know, changing my circumstance. Making what I want happen. It's about how do you endure in the midst of your circumstance.

[18:50] How do you be content in Christ? Jesus strengthens you for that. Right? Do you see a common thread in all three of these? That tend to get so misused often?

[19:03] It's what we want. It's all about what we want. I is the. Yeah. It's all stuff that give us Warren to claim what we want for ourselves. Is it not?

[19:13] Yeah. Is there any surprise that the simple human heart will take God's word out of context and do that? Right? That's why the context is important. God's given us his word. And we need to take it and understand it the way God's given it to us.

[19:26] Not make it what we want it to say. Right? And so one of the best methods for doing this is you guys have probably heard of the Oya method. Right? Observation, interpretation, and then application.

[19:38] That's the method we try to practice in our CGs. Right? And sometimes the questions will be geared toward that. And you got to do that. And starting with observation, you're going to say, ask yourself, what does the text say?

[19:54] And interpretation, what is the intended meaning of the text? Why does it say what it says? And then application is how does the text apply?

[20:06] Really simple three steps, but really important for understanding it. And I'm going to read you guys one illustration of this that is really, really helpful. And just indulge me for a minute.

[20:16] It's a little bit long, but I think it's worth reading. This is a story of Samuel H. Scudder, who was a leading entomologist during his lifetime. He specialized in the study of butterflies and grasshoppers.

[20:29] He was trained under Luis Agassiz, a distinguished Harvard professor of natural history. And Scudder once told this story about one of the most important lessons Agassiz taught him.

[20:41] He says, By and by, I will ask what you have seen.

[21:14] And with that, he left me. In ten minutes, I had seen all that could be seen in that fish. And started in search of the professor, who had, however, left the museum. Half an hour passes.

[21:25] An hour, another hour, the fish began to look loathsome. I turned it over and around, looked it in the face, ghastly. From behind, beneath, above, sideways, at a three-quarters view, just as ghastly.

[21:38] I was in despair. At an early hour, I concluded that lunch was necessary. So with infinite relief, the fish was carefully replaced in the jar. And for an hour, I was free. On my return, I learned that Professor Agassiz had been at the museum, but had gone, and would not return for several hours.

[21:55] Slowly, I drew forth that hideous fish, and with a feeling of desperation, again, looked at it. I might not use a magnifying glass. Instruments of all kinds were interdited. My two hands, my two eyes, and the fish, it seemed a most limited field.

[22:09] I pushed my finger down its throat to feel how sharp the teeth were. I began to count the scales in different rows, until I was convinced that that was nonsense. At last, a happy thought struck me.

[22:20] I would draw the fish. And now, with surprise, I began to discover new features in the creature. Just then, the professor returned. That is right, said he. A pencil is one of the best of eyes.

[22:31] I am glad to notice, too, that you keep your specimen wet and your bottle corked. With these encouraging words, he added, well, what is it like? He listened attentively to my brief rehearsal of the structure of parts whose names were still unknowns to me.

[22:46] The fringed gill, arches, and movable operculum. The pores of the head, fleshy lips, and lidless eyes. The lateral line, the spinous fins, and forked tail. The compressed and arched body.

[22:57] When I finished, he waited as if expecting more. And then, with an air of disappointment, you have not looked very carefully. Why? He continued more earnestly.

[23:08] You haven't even seen one of the most conspicuous features of the animal, which is plainly before your eyes as the fish itself. Look again. Look again. And he left me to the misery.

[23:19] I was piqued. I was mortified. Still more of that wretched fish. But now I set myself to my tasks with a will and discovered one new thing after another until I saw how just the professor's criticism had been.

[23:33] The afternoon passed quickly, and then towards its close, the professor inquired, Do you see it yet? No, I replied. I am certain I do not. But I see how little I saw before.

[23:44] That is next best, said he earnestly. But I won't hear you now. Put away your fish and go home. Perhaps you will be ready with a better answer in the morning. I will examine you before you look at the fish.

[23:55] The cordial greeting from the professor the next morning was reassuring. Here was a man who seemed to be quite as anxious as I, that I should see for myself what he saw. Do you perhaps mean, I asked, that the fish has symmetrical sides with paired organs?

[24:11] He's thoroughly pleased. Of course, of course, repaid the wakeful hours of the previous night. After he had discoursed most happily and enthusiastically, as he always did, upon the importance of this point, I ventured to ask what I should do next.

[24:25] Oh, look at your fish, he said, and left me again to my own devices. In a little more than an hour, he returned and heard my new catalog. That is good, that is good, he repeated.

[24:38] But that is not all. Go on. And so for three long days, he placed that fish before my eyes, forbidding me to look at anything else or to use any artificial aid. Look, look, look, was his repeated injunction.

[24:51] This was the best entomological lesson I ever had. A lesson whose influence has extended to the details of every subsequent study. A legacy the professor had left to me, as he has left it to many others, of inestimable value, which we could not buy, with which we cannot part.

[25:09] Right. It's what made him the successful entomologist that he became, later specializing in butterflies and grasshoppers instead of fish, but still, right?

[25:20] And I want you to take that lesson away today, is to look at the text again and again and again.

[25:33] And I've been reading the Bible, I don't know, since I was, started reading it seriously when I was 11, right?

[25:44] Been reading it, I think, at least once a year, every single year. I studied deeply for sermons every single week. And every time I come to a text for a sermon, I see new things. Every time.

[25:55] Isn't that amazing? Like, I mean, God's word really has that kind of depth. And you could see again and again and again and again and again. And so, first thing that I want you to practice listening, and I do want you to take out your pencils, because sometimes that's the best I, right?

[26:11] And let's look at Psalm 19 together. As you're looking at Psalm 19, try to focus on what's repeated. Because that's one of the most important things to try to observe when you're observing a text.

[26:24] What's repeated? Words, phrases, clauses, and not just necessarily the same exact words, but similar concepts. What's the theme that's repeated? And go ahead and take a few minutes to do that, and then let's just share.

[26:38] Huh? All right, let's share. Share some of your, I know you guys probably need more time. We can't, we don't have the time to do what Professor Scott did. But what's the, you can do it at home, though, all you want.

[26:53] And what are you guys seeing? What are you noticing? What's repeated? What's repeated? The law of the Lord, testimony of the Lord, precepts of the Lord, fear of the Lord.

[27:07] It's like all about the word, right? The word of God in that second half, right? So that's clearly the theme of that second half of the song.

[27:19] What else do you guys see? Yeah. There's a lot of supporting text of the perfection of God's law. After it states its perfection, then it supports it with all these other things that one would, one would perceive.

[27:41] You know, you would understand that the word would be perfect in those ways. And they go back to glorify the original statement in verse one. The, the, the glory of the Lord, is, is shown in his hand.

[27:57] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's extolling the glory of God in, in different ways, right? Yeah. Anything else you guys notice? In the first four verses, it's a lot of, uh, speaking and sound of verbs and things like that.

[28:11] Like, declare, proclaims, pours out, voice, speech. Yeah. Yeah. And, and it's, what is it that's speaking? Creation.

[28:23] Creation. Did any of you guys notice that? Right? It's the first half is, is creation. Where second half is scriptures.

[28:35] Right? So in the, in the first half, it's creation. And how does creation speak? It's, it's soundless speech. Right? It says, there is no speech, nor are there words, verse three.

[28:48] And yet they speak. It's soundless speech. Uh, yeah. What else, what else did you guys see? He repeats himself a lot. Like, the first half and second half of the verse is basically saying the same thing, just saying it twice.

[29:02] That's, that's, that's, that's a Hebrew parallelism. Yeah, that's poor, that's poetic device. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good observation. The absoluteness of it, like, the life, it is perfect. It is short.

[29:12] They are right. It is, it is clean. They are true. Mm-hmm. See? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Perfections, the attributes of, of God's word.

[29:24] Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's, it's going everywhere, like, to the end of the world, the end of the heavens. End of the heavens. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

[29:34] Anything else? So, speaking of parallelism, Yeah. like, the, the verse one opens with, heaven's declaring the glory of God, and 14, kind of, close out my mouth, he's declaring the glory of God.

[29:50] Ah. There's a parallel there, but also a contrast, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, the creation speaks, forth God's praise, without sound. And who are the people, who ought to declare his praise, with sound?

[30:02] And that's us. Right? We declare his praise, with our words. Right? Uh, uh, rocks, do not cry out. They would, if we didn't, because we're the ones, who are supposed to cry out.

[30:15] Right? It's the, um, anything else? There's more. It's closed out, with, basically, a prayer, um, that, um, a prayer for worthiness.

[30:28] That's right. That's right. As he, as he, extones these truths. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, it closes with the prayer, and again, that prayer is about the words, by my mouth, and the meditations of my heart.

[30:40] Um, anything else, did you guys notice, repeated? Yeah. Jason, go ahead. Um, I think the effect of the word, covers, like, all of us, where, like, a lot of the Lord, or, the law of the Lord, rebides the soul.

[30:55] Yeah. Rejoice with the heart, and, like, the eyes. Yeah. Um, I was thinking of, Matthew 22, like, the great command. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Focus on the inner person, and what it does to us, renewing us from the inside out, right?

[31:09] Um, anything else you guys noticed, repeated? In 11 through 13, there's kind of the idea that, um, like, we're not perfect, and it's like, we need the words to warn us, to discern our errors, to keep us back from our sins.

[31:30] And there's, again, a contrast between the word of God, and us, right? The law of the Lord is perfect, we are not, right? We fall short, which is why we need the word of God, to examine us, right?

[31:41] Uh, and, uh, correct us, challenge us, uh, it's, there's a, any, anything else, any words, specific words, repeated again and again, that you guys noticed?

[31:54] Lord. Lord. And where is that word repeated again and again? Yes. Jesus, word, testament. Hmm?

[32:05] Next is word, and testimonies, and, yeah, what? His law, the testimony, the precepts, that's right, the section about scripture, consistently, and repeatedly says, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, in the second half, what about the first half?

[32:26] It's not there at all. What's there instead? God. What's the difference between God and Lord?

[32:39] Yahweh is covenant. Ah, Yahweh, Lord is, is, is standing there for Yahweh, the Lord's actual proper name, which is the personal name of God, the covenant name that he reveals to his people.

[32:53] Contrasted from the generic word for God, that's in verse one, heavens declare the glory of God. What's, what's, what's the significance of that?

[33:07] General revelation, specific revelation in scripture. Yeah. You guys familiar with, with that? There's a general revelation that God grants to all people.

[33:20] Everybody, Romans 1, 19, right? Like you, you, God's divine attributes have been displayed for all. You can see his eternal power. You can see his divine power. So that people are without excuse.

[33:31] Yes. General revelation gives people enough knowledge so that they are without excuse. They can be held accountable. But in order for them to come to know God as the Lord, as their covenant Lord, what do they need?

[33:44] They need scripture. They need revelation, special revelation. So you see that contrast here, right? In this first half and the second half. So it's, people can know God from nature, from the glory that God has revealed in creation, enough to not excuse them from God's judge, just judgment, but they cannot from creation alone, get to know God enough to be saved, to know the Lord, right?

[34:15] You can only get that from the perfect word of God. Isn't that amazing? In that short song, there's so many things here, right? Now, flip it over.

[34:27] Let's try. Let's do one more. Which, what do you guys have on the other side? Isaiah 55. So another thing that you can look for.

[34:39] So you want to look at what's repeated. Actually, let's just do this first. This is on the other side. Let's look at, you know what? Let's do this. Let's look at what's referenced.

[34:51] Leave that paper for now. Open your Bibles to Revelation chapter one. I guess, I guess it's exciting.

[35:11] Are you guys having fun with the ethics? Yeah, it's like, because you should be. Yeah. That's my main goal here. It's like, give you just a taste of it. You're like, oh, I want to do this more.

[35:23] And I want to go read it. I want to go study it. And then, and I promise you, like the, whenever you hear me preach and I say stuff, you're like, oh, I never saw that before. Oh, I never thought of it before. It's not because of some, some amazing thing.

[35:36] It's just, it's just because I'm looking at the text longer than you. That's it. That's really the difference. Just look at it longer and you'll see it. Yeah. It's a, it's a, do the, do the fish thing. Yeah.

[35:47] Yeah. Yeah. So, um, uh, revelation chapter one. What, another thing that's important is what's referenced. Um, and apocalyptic literature like revelation or some parts of the prophetic literature, especially important to look at what's referenced because they refer to other parts of scripture so much and rely on those images and those, those phrase and clause to give, give it meaning.

[36:10] Right. So do you guys have, um, uh, cross references in your Bibles? You guys, hopefully you all have them. If you don't have any cross references, um, you should really get one that has one.

[36:22] Yeah. It's a, it's super helpful resource. Um, and, uh, and basically what, what it is is if you never use one, it has like a little footnote or like a little letter, a small letter, uh, in superscript.

[36:37] And you follow that, it'll give you other scripture references that it's, it's connected to, that it's referring to. And so let's look at revelation one. Starting in verse, verse four, John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was, and who is to come.

[37:02] And from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings of earth, kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by blood and made us a kingdom priest to his God and father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

[37:21] Amen. What is that a reference to made us a kingdom priest to his God and father? Saints. To the saints.

[37:32] What scripture is it referring to? You guys try to use your cross references. Verse six. First few.

[37:43] Two five. Yep. That isn't, that isn't first period. Do you guys not have any, anything, any other? Yes. It's also referenced in Exodus. Right. And so he's taking old Testament language used of the people of God and applying that to new Testament states, which includes Jews and Gentiles.

[38:01] Right. Uh, not only the Jews, but also these, all the saints are now kingdom priests to God. Uh, let's keep reading. Behold, he's coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.

[38:15] Even so. Amen. That's, you guys might should recognize. Where have you seen that recently? Um, coming with the clouds, all the trip, Matthew, right?

[38:27] Uh, so that that's going to help you understand what is, what is John talking about here? And what was Jesus talking about when he mentioned this in Matthew? Uh, I am the alpha and omega and the omega says the Lord God who is, and who was, who is to come the almighty.

[38:41] I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day.

[38:51] And I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.

[39:03] Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands. What is that a reference to? Golden lampstands. Tabernacle, right?

[39:15] In Exodus again, right? Uh, and so if you see a golden lampstand, where are you at? Which is? In the throne room.

[39:25] Yeah. You're, you're in, you're at the footstool of God or in the, in the throne room of God. That's where John is right now. Right? That's the, that's the vision he's seen. Uh, and in the midst of the lampstand, one like a son of man.

[39:38] Everybody knows this now today, right? Jesus. Yes. What reference to what? Daniel seven, right? Son of man, uh, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. There's some other references there too, but from Daniel 10 and other places, the hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.

[39:56] Where's that a reference to? Daniel seven. And in Daniel seven, interestingly, if you go back, it doesn't describe the son of man. It describes the ancient of days like that. So it's connecting Jesus to the ancient of days, uh, and to the image of the ancient of days from Daniel seven.

[40:12] And then his feet were like, uh, his eyes were like flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze refined in the furnace. And his voice was like the roar of many waters in the right hand. He held seven stars from his mouth came a sharp two edged sword.

[40:25] And his face was like sun shining in full strength. Does two, where's what does two edged sword remind you of? Why? Where is that from?

[40:36] Hebrews four. And so how do you know what the two edged sword is? Cause of that reference. And where does it come from? His mouth.

[40:47] That makes a lot of sense. Doesn't it? Right. And when I saw him, I felt at his feet as well dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not. I am the first and the last and the living one.

[41:00] Now just looking at just reading the text closely. What does the first and the last remind you of? Something we read earlier in this chapter. Alpha and Omega. Who was Alpha and Omega?

[41:12] God. Who was the first and the last? It's Jesus. Again, applying the attributes of God, the ancient of days to Jesus Christ.

[41:23] So it's like, there's so many things like this. You just study the references and you will, it'll just open up your vistas and you'll be able to make so many questions. And understand it more deeply. So what's the first thing you need to look for?

[41:34] What's repeated? Yeah. And then second, what's referenced? And then the third thing I want you guys to really focus on is what's related. You're trying to get to the structure and the logical flow and the sequence of the text.

[41:48] What comes before and what comes after the passage. Look at order and structure. Think of cause and effect. The purpose. Pay special attention to conjunctions and prepositions.

[42:03] What do the conjunctions and prepositions signal so that you can understand the relations between the clauses and the verses in the sense that you're looking at? Right. So let's now look at Isaiah 55.

[42:16] Yeah. Go ahead. I have a quick question. Yeah. Previous slide. Yeah. Sure. So how does the author use these processes?

[42:27] Yeah. Yeah. So there's God, the author, and then there's John, the author book. Yeah. Now, when I'm reading Revelation, I'm taking John just as he was there, he was a witness, and he's just writing down what he saw.

[42:40] Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not, I'm not thinking about him necessarily trying to make intentionally his own stitchings of cross-references, cross-structure. He's just writing down what he saw.

[42:51] But then God as the author, he's at the metal level, like tying in all these details. Yeah. So, but should we be reading even Revelation, as John's own authorship, and he's trying to make some points apart from just him writing down what he sees?

[43:09] It's like in other scriptures too. Paul, right? He, he does bring in explicitly certain scriptures from the Old Testament to make a certain point explicitly. Yeah. But then, I always saw that as different from like saying that John is trying to make these references.

[43:24] That's a great question, Asher. So you're, you're asking about like, um, since John is prophecy, and John is prophesying, and Revelation is prophecy, and he's just writing down what he sees in vision, in perfect vision, uh, should we be trying to, is John even crafting the book like a human author would to make things fit?

[43:45] Or is it, are we only just trying to understand God's intentions behind the book? Like that's, is that a good summary of the question? Yeah. I can understand. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I never saw it. Yeah.

[43:56] Yeah. That's a great question. And, and that goes back to our theory of inspiration. Uh, and so there are some who hold to the, the theory of dictation theory of inspiration, which is basically God dictated to the humans, what he wanted to write them to write.

[44:13] And so you're really not looking at what the humans are crafting. You're just looking at what God, God has, God has done. Uh, and then the, the, the theory of inspiration that, uh, that, that I hold to, that's, uh, that a lot of, uh, reformed evangelicals hold to is based on the Chicago statement of inerrancy.

[44:29] Uh, and it's called verbal plenary inspiration, where we believe that the human authors were, were intimately involved in their writing, and they were trying to make certain emphases and points, and they were crafting their writing.

[44:42] And yet in and through and above all of that, God's the one, the divine author is, is overseeing all of it. Right. And so, uh, God doesn't write the scriptures in such a way that he overrules the human, uh, traits or tendencies, uh, of the, of the human authors.

[45:00] Uh, and yet he has inspired them in such a way and use them in such a way that what we do have, the finished product is exactly what God wanted written. Uh, and so, so because of that, that's why when you look at, uh, when we're comparing, um, uh, for example, when we were in the parable of the lost sheep, right?

[45:18] Uh, in, in Matthew, uh, in, in Luke, the more famous version, right? It, it's, it's, it's in the context of seeking out the lost, the tax collectors and sinners.

[45:28] You gotta go and, you know, call them to repentance and bring them back to the fold. Do you guys remember what context it was in, in Matthew? Yeah, Jason, right? Within the church, airing brothers and sisters, going and getting them back, right?

[45:43] So, Jesus told the same parable, maybe in multiple contexts, uh, multiple times. We're not, we're not, we don't know for sure, but Matthew and Luke have a very clear, uh, uh, reason for including that, that parable in the exact place they have it, right?

[45:56] And so, we do need to discern what is it, what is the human author doing? Because whatever the human author is doing is also what God is doing in and through them, right? And so, so even with John, I would say that we need to ask ourselves that, like, what, what is it that John's trying to get?

[46:09] Why is he using this imagery and this reference and not, not something else? Like, you know, why, why does he, uh, and, and somehow God's still, God's showing him these things and they're, he's using the things that are in John's mind as well as he's, the things that he, he's showing him, right?

[46:24] And so it's a great question. Yeah. It's a, I think the, um, and I hope, I hope that, that answers the question. You know, it's satisfactory. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Does that mean that prophecy, every time we see prophecy, even in the old Testament, um, the authors were making certain points as well.

[46:44] It's not just like direct, but in the same way that John, when we're seeing this revelation, he made certain points. Um, yeah.

[46:55] I should also be looking at Jeremiah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's a great question. So what about the old Testament prophets? Is it similar? Um, so if you look at, um, Jeremiah one 11, right?

[47:11] Um, and it says, and the word of the Lord came to me saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see an almond branch.

[47:22] Then the Lord said to me, you have seen well, for I'm watching over my word to perform it. Because the word almond in Hebrew sounds like watching. Right. And so here's like an example of like the prophet.

[47:36] He's looking at an almond branch. God told him that like, he'd look at this. Yeah. He's looking at it. Oh, almond branch, almond watching. And the Lord says, I'm watching, uh, over my word to perform it.

[47:50] Right. So he's using the prophets sensory experience, uh, and what he brings to the table to speak what he wants to say. Right. Uh, and so, so I'd say even if the old Testament prophets that's happening to varying degrees, but that doesn't give us any less confidence that that's exactly what God wanted them to say.

[48:06] Yeah. Yeah. So I think the, um, yeah. And that's why the different authors have different like tendencies, the way they write kinds of words they use. Um, you, you look at John, uh, when he thinks that talks about the decisive victory of Christ over Satan, uh, during his earthly ministry, he talks about how the, the, how Satan was the ruler of this world.

[48:28] It's cast down, cast out. That's the language he uses in the gospel of John. That's the language he uses in the John, John, John, John epistles. That's the language he uses in revelation. So synoptic gospels refer to the same event.

[48:39] They'll use the word bind. The strong man, Satan is bound. Right. Uh, and so, uh, and so it's, uh, you, they just, they use different words. And so then when you take the synoptic gospel authors and you say bound, and then you say, well, yeah, revelation 20, it says bound.

[48:55] Uh, it's like, it means it's talking about the exact same thing that you could run into trouble. Right. Uh, because John actually doesn't use that. He's the one gospel author that doesn't use that word, uh, to refer to that, that event, what happened there.

[49:07] So it's the, uh, so that I, I think it's really important to pay attention to the, uh, great. Yeah. Great question. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions? Yeah.

[49:17] The thing that is amazing though, that there were over 40 authors. I know. Bible in three different languages. Yeah. 1500 years. Yeah. It's still, it's interwoven together. It's amazing. It's such a beautiful perfection.

[49:28] Yeah. Like no other book. Yeah. But so many different professions from fishermen to scholar, you know, that's right. And teachers. That's so perfect. There, there's nothing like it.

[49:40] Yeah. Uh, it's, it's a holy book, uh, on my vineyard, uh, because it's set apart. So, yeah, it's, there's nothing, nothing else like it.

[49:51] Only must read book. Like we said last week. Um, so pay attention to what's repeated, what's referenced. And then now let's look at what's related. Yeah. Oh, wait, Tim had a question.

[50:02] Yeah. Tim. Um, yeah. Yeah. The verbal plenary inspiration. Um, if I can take that further, is it valid to say like, for example, in revelation, um, that like, would it be valid to say that John, he didn't actually see a sword coming out of the mouth of somebody.

[50:26] Instead, he saw something and then he wrote it in a way to like, in his references, like he knew that, this is like something of the word. So I'm going to write it like a double sword. But he didn't actually literally see it.

[50:38] Um, I'm less comfortable with that because John does say that in the book that he saw them. He saw the vision. Yeah. And so, and I think the, but I do think what's happening is he has these biblical images in his mind.

[50:53] And I think God uses those images to show him what he sees. Right. Uh, and so the, when he sees the four, uh, you know, be surrounding the, the throne of God, when he sees the, the chair of him, right.

[51:06] Or the, the, the, or the angels, like, like the way they are, it comes from Isaiah or Ezekiel, the way they're like the, the, the, the describe it. I think he's so steep in the old Testament scriptures.

[51:20] Uh, even the images that he sees are like things that come from scripture. Right. Uh, uh, and, uh, and, and, and I think God's using all that and showing him things to, to write that. So I, uh, I do think he actually saw visions.

[51:32] Yeah. Uh, and, uh, um, and then because he tells us that that's, that's, that's fine. Cause you don't have to see visions to write prophetic books, right? Uh, you could just have prophetic impressions and words and phrases that you could write.

[51:46] You don't have to see them, but John said he saw them. Yeah. So I think that, and that's what a unique thing about revelation is it's, it's a book that's intended to help us, it's see, right? Uh, C.S.

[51:57] Lewis writes, talks about how in good writing, they're not just, don't just tell someone that this beast was terrible, right? Uh, describe the beast in such a way that people who read it are terrified, right?

[52:10] You got to show them, don't just tell them, show them that like a revelation is a book that shows us, uh, what the spiritual realities are. It doesn't just tell us. And so I think it was very important that John sees that, sees what vision.

[52:23] Uh, and so I think, uh, um, yeah. Yeah. Does that answer your question? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's try Isaiah 55, uh, pay special attention to what's related.

[52:35] Pay attention to prepositions. Um, all right. What are you guys seeing? Sorry. I'm not giving you that much. Uh, what are you guys noticing?

[52:50] What are you observing? Things repeated, things related. The last part is first person. Um, um, um, talk, talk about, uh, things about God.

[53:07] Yeah. Um, and the first part, it's almost like a, um, um, cause and effect.

[53:17] Well, not cause and effect, but the response. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The response is actually first though. Mm. Mm. Yeah. I probably missed some quotation marks in there, but you're making a great observation, Kevin, that verses eight and nine is first person speech from the Lord himself.

[53:34] Right. He's speaking through the prophet. Um, mm. So a lot of like these couplet things like, yeah. Um, seek and call.

[53:47] That's good. Found and near. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then like Lord and God, um, compassion and pardon, wicked and unrighteous, and ways of thoughts, especially repeated together.

[54:01] That's great. You coupled it a little differently. I did see that. Thank you for showing that. Um, I had it. The wicked has a way in which they go, and unrighteous has a way that they think.

[54:13] Um, and the Lord then saying that his ways are righteous, and his ways, not the wicked's way, and his thoughts are not the unrighteous thoughts.

[54:29] So I coupled it differently, but I appreciate bringing the other words. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're paying good attention to the literary scheme, where, uh, again, like poetic literature often has parallels, and sometimes they're synonymous parallels, where the two lines, the coupler are saying kind of the same thing in different ways.

[54:47] Sometimes they're, uh, opposites, you know, they're antithetical parallels, right? They're contrasting. So it's like, uh, um, um, yeah, anything else you guys noticed?

[54:58] What's related? You guys noticed any prepositions? Well, I think he's making a point that the thoughts always shape the ways.

[55:09] Those are always together. Say again? Yeah. The thoughts and the ways. Yeah. Maybe it's that Hebrew parallelism you're talking about, but, um, one's ways shapes one's thoughts.

[55:20] And so like for us to like wickedness, it's, it's something of a thought end of our ways and also abiding in the Lord. Also. Yeah. It's a thought level thing. Yeah.

[55:30] It shapes our ways. That's a great observation, right? The, and you guys are doing what we are applying what we learned from the previous exercise. You're noticing what's repeated too. So the way of the wicked thoughts of the unrighteous thoughts of the Lord, ways of the Lord.

[55:47] Right. And so there's that contrast, um, and, uh, and, and, and how our ways flow from our thoughts. You're saying, right. So that's good. Great observation. Yeah. Anything else?

[55:58] Yeah. Jason. Ah, so why does God want him to return? And repent?

[56:11] So he could have compassion on him. So he could pardon him. Right. So that's how we, four tells us that, that tells us that, that he may cut compassion on him for, he will abundantly pardon.

[56:23] Verse seven. Right. And then what's the relationship between that and the following verses? It's four for eight and nine starts with four. So it's the like motivation to, to listen to this advice.

[56:38] Huh? Let, you know, let them return to the Lord for your thoughts or not, or like, not like God's thoughts. Yeah. Your ways are not like God's ways. So four supplies the reason, right?

[56:51] So, why does, why will God abundantly pardon? Because his thoughts are not our thoughts, our ways are not, his ways are not our ways.

[57:09] Right? This, this, this, this verse is often used to talk about God's transcendence. Right? Which is not wrong.

[57:21] Because it's still truth from some other places in scripture where God's ways are not, he doesn't think like us. His ways are so beyond us, higher than our ways. But how is it higher than our ways in this passage?

[57:34] Because he abundantly pardons. He abundantly pardons in a way that man does not. Right? Man does not abundantly pardon.

[57:44] But God will pardon him if he comes to me because I'm not like you, he's saying. My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. That's all from just paying attention to four.

[57:58] Yeah. So I even had somebody this week ask, why would God forgive Jesus to die on the cross? I never thought of the scripture because his thoughts in his ways are not my God.

[58:10] Yeah. Yeah. That's right. I never noticed that. Yeah. Isn't that so rewarding? Mm-hmm. Right? Am I, you guys with me? Like, it's like, yeah. All right.

[58:22] Let's look at the other piece of paper. Yeah. We're going to try to put this together. Let's look at the short one first. Did someone just knock?

[58:33] No. That's my glass. Oh, okay. Yeah. Sorry. First John 3, 16 to 20. I already did the yesterday, last week's work for you guys.

[58:46] That's why you have an as the NASB translation inside of the, instead of the ESP here. So hopefully it'll help you to interpret this correctly. This is the original NASB.

[58:58] From like the seventies. Uh, so go ahead and go ahead and read that. And then let's try to understand what this means. It's a verse that's somewhat controverted in its, in its interpretation.

[59:10] Um, people have debated it. Um, how are you guys doing?

[59:27] It's good. All right. Let's, uh, share. What are you guys observing? What are you guys seeing? What are you guys seeing? What are you guys seeing? What are you guys seeing? What are you guys seeing? What are you seeing? What are you seeing?

[59:37] The word knowing is part of a lot. Mm-hmm. To know something. Mm-hmm. To know is love. And what is this that we're trying to know? Truth.

[59:50] That we are of the truth. Right? Uh, do we really belong to God or not? Can we have assurance of salvation? Are we of the truth? That's the question. That's, that's something we're trying to know.

[60:01] Right? Yeah. What else do you guys see? Yeah. I think this translation is really interesting.

[60:12] I've never looked at this passage in this translation, so it's kind of bringing up things I've never seen. Yeah. But basically, it's, it's talking about the heart a lot. Ah. If, if, if you see somebody in me, basically.

[60:24] Yeah. And you close your heart. Ah. And you don't have love. How can, how can you be of me? Because I laid down my life. Mm-hmm. And you should be laying down your life. And then it keeps saying that, well, set our heart at ease before him, that if our heart condemns us, that God is greater than our heart.

[60:40] Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. Yeah. So basically, if you are, you have love in your heart, and you're showing that to people and laying down your life, then you kind of have assurance of salvation.

[60:50] Yeah. That's a, that's a great observation. And that's the benefit of having a, word for word, translations, that it brings these kind of things to light.

[61:01] Where in a thought for thought translation, you're not going to see that. Because it's not, it's going to have a different word than a heart for a number of these instances. But there's a connection, clearly. Right? If you close your heart toward your brother in need, sister in need, can your heart be at ease before God?

[61:20] Will your heart condemn you? That's the, that's the, that's, that's what this is dealing with. So the heart, heart is definitely connected. Right?

[61:32] Anything else you guys noticed? When he addresses them as, his little children and beloved. Hmm. Hmm. Gentle and relational.

[61:43] Yeah. That's John's favorite way of referring to the church. Beloved. Yeah. Beloved. The apostle of love. It's, it's very endearing.

[61:54] Yeah. In verse 18. Yeah. Let's not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

[62:07] Hmm. I find it interesting because sometimes, there's a preconception that word and tongue is deed as well. Hmm. But if they're contrasting the word and tongue with deed and truth.

[62:19] Yeah. And also, I guess in, in that sense, John 1, you know, word was God who dwelt among us. They're referring to Jesus. And, and Jesus is the life, the way, the way, the truth and life.

[62:32] Hmm. But here, the word, our word, I guess, is contrasting with the truth. Yeah. Yeah. It's the, is there a passage that this reminds you of?

[62:43] Not loving your brother or sister with just word or tongue, but in deed and truth. It's about, James. James. James. Right? You see a brother coming in need, and you tell them, hey, go and be well.

[62:56] You speak good words to them, but you do nothing to help them. What have you done? Right? It's the exact same idea. Yeah. So contrasting the word and deed and truth from the word and tongue. Yeah. What does that mean there in verse 20?

[63:11] Trying to connect it to what you were saying about using the word for and that. Yeah. That if our heart condemns us. If our heart condemns us, that God is greater than our heart, and he knows all things.

[63:24] That was kind of like a brain twister in there. That's kind of the challenging verse that's often misinterpreted, right? How have you guys seen, how have you guys interpreted that?

[63:34] Have you seen that interpreted? What does it mean that when our heart condemns us, that God's greater than our heart? He knows all things. What is John trying to tell us? I don't know the connection there, but I did go to the cross-reference of 1 Corinthians 4, 4 and 5, that the Lord knows the counsels of our heart.

[63:53] He does, yeah. Yeah. I don't know what that has to do with it. Yeah. Well, that for sure is explaining he knows all things. So he's saying that God sees our hearts, the secret things in our hearts. And so what is verse 20?

[64:05] How does it function mean? What does it mean when our heart condemns us? What's the application for us in terms of you feel your heart condemning you? And then John says, God is greater than our heart.

[64:17] He knows all things. What is he trying to say? I think it's saying that God knows even the conditions of our heart, so there's nothing you can hide from the Lord. Like, if you even feel condemned, like, then, of course, like, God will know how you feel.

[64:32] So it's like, yeah, kind of like how David writes in his Psalms, like, you know, search my heart. Yeah. Is there any, like, not, like, basically saying, Yeah. Yeah.

[64:45] So I think you're getting it right. What's one way you can misinterpret this? Have you guys seen this misinterpreted anyway? Yeah.

[64:55] Do you say that, like, if our heart condemns us, then it might actually be, like, deceiving us? Yeah. We actually don't have to listen to it. Yes. That's what a lot of people think.

[65:07] Right? Can you tell you that? Yeah. So a lot of people think, in verse 20, if our heart condemns us, oh, don't listen to that. God's greater than our hearts. He knows. He knows better than us. Your heart condemns.

[65:17] Don't listen to that. Which sounds almost reformed, right? Sounds like good gospel doctrine. Don't let yourself be condemned. And there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8, 1, right? So don't listen to that.

[65:28] Listen to God. He's greater than your heart. But that's not what this passage is saying. Right? Why? How do you know that? Look at the structure of 20 and 21.

[65:40] Part of the second clause is, like, the last verse, because we keep his commandments and do things that are pleasing in his sight, is attached to the second one, as opposed to the first, in verse 20, that case.

[66:03] Yeah. And there's a parallel construction, right? Between 20 and 21. That's why I use the NASV and not the ESV, because ESV obscures that parallel construction, where it says in 20, if our heart condemns us, then God is greater than our hearts and he knows all things.

[66:19] If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. If our heart does not condemn us, because we did not close our hearts to our brothers and sisters in need, then we can have, we can set our heart at ease before him.

[66:33] We know that we are of the truth because we love our brothers and sisters. We have confidence before God. If our heart condemns us, because you close your heart to your brothers and sisters in need, your own heart is condemning you, and you don't even know all the secrets of your own heart.

[66:50] God who knows all things, how can you pass his judgment? Right? So this is not a, this is not Romans 8.1. This is a totally different passage.

[67:02] Right? It's here to take away false assurance and security from people who are not actually living by the word. Whereas Romans 8.1 is there to assure believers who are walking by the word, but yet have guilty conscience and struggling with different things that they need to be assured that there's no condemnation because of Christ Jesus.

[67:22] Right? Right? Can you get seated? You can do this. This is, this is all right there. You guys can all do this on your own. Yeah. Right? And then, do we have time?

[67:35] We don't have time. Well, you guys could try 1 Corinthians 13 on your own. Yeah. That would be good homework.

[67:46] You guys could take it home and do it with you. A question that often people will bring this is, this is a key text for the debate between cessationism and continuationism. Cessationists argue that there's no, that when the scriptures were completed, God's special revelation was completed, that prophecy ceased.

[68:08] That this passage tells us that they will cease when the perfect comes and the perfect came in the scriptures. And they complete. So this is, some cessation will take a different line of argument. This was kind of historically being the main one.

[68:20] And the continuationists argue that no, no, the spirits, gifts, prophecy, tongues, these things continue to this day. And this passage tells us that, tells us why. And I think if you do, if you look at this text and look at it again and look at it again like that fish and you study it, I think you will all come out in one place.

[68:40] And so this is, so you guys could do that as well. Read it carefully, see what's repeated, see what's referenced, see what's related, and then see where you end up.

[68:52] And then, and then you can tell me where you end up. You can ask me questions next week. All right, let me pray. Father, thank you for your wondrous word. Thank you that you continue to speak, that you are living and your word is living and active.

[69:10] Thank you that it is a double-edged sword. It cuts through the marrow, the bone, the division of spirit and soul. You, you, you, you search us with your word.

[69:22] You govern us with your word. Lord, will you continue by, if your word, to shape my brothers and sisters, shape us and build us up, mature us as your disciples, as a church. All for your glory, Lord.

[69:34] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Yeah. Thanks, guys. This time I knew what time it was supposed to end. So, yeah. Thank you.