How To Study The Bible

Okay, we want to take a look this morning at the continuing on in our study of John chapter 3 With the idea we're using that as kind of a test passage to look at how do we study the Bible and We're looking at this this week, you know moving on into verse 6 and we've been we've been creeping at this thing and matter of fact we're here we are, you know going through the whole quarter and and next week will be the last day in the quarter. I hope we finish our John 3 1-21 by the end of next quarter. Anyway, we are slow. Before we go into John 3, I want to bring up another subject. This may seem like a funny question for me to ask. What biblical place is there for seminaries? Ever think about that? What verse and chapter do you see seminaries come up?

Actually, you don't. It's kind of an individual command. By example, we believers should be It can be a very human approach. Let's look at it this way. What would you say are some advantages of a seminary? What are the pluses? in some rough way to be analogous to when Jesus was teaching his disciples. Okay, you can look to situations like that. Here's Jesus spending time with his disciples. And can you think of other instances that are somewhat similar?

Experience would be a thing. You learn from older men. But the idea being that there are others in the seminary who have experience. They spend a lot of time in the study. So there is a lot of good that goes on there. What are some other advantages you can think of of a seminary? How else is it a good thing? It's pretty legal. It's pretty legal? Meaning? Well, you have to do this and do that. Okay, yeah. There's requirements laid out. You jump through these hoops. Now, what is the disadvantage of a seminary? What are some of the spiritual hazards and risks of a seminary? Ivory Tower mentality. Okay, Ivory Tower. Isolated from the rest of what's going on. Ivory Tower, good point.

What else? It depends on the seminary. Okay, it depends on the seminary. There are some seminaries I could say, hey, this one or that one, and it's like, good luck. I was over not too many blocks away from where I live, having coffee with Brian White. And we sat down next to some guys who were some seminary students. And I looked over at their stack of books and I just couldn't believe it.

Because it was all stuff that was sort of skeptical about whether Jesus ever really resurrected or not. Yeah, this is going to Iowa School of Theology and I might as well say home. Yeah, that's where they were from. And so the bottom line is to them even the very explicit historical statements that the Bible makes are highly questionable. And so it's like the content of scripture itself is pure speculation, mythology, analogy, things of that sort. People always call it the Islet School of Mythology. And that's not a bad name, Islet School of Mythology.

But there are lots of schools like that. And frankly, here's another pattern that I have seen. I think it's September. John Whitcomb is going to be here for the Rocky Mountain Creation Fellowship. He'll be speaking. He spoke at a conference I was at in January.

One of the things that he said there, which is the same thing that the president of Tyndale Seminary said, is that we cannot find any seminary that stayed on course doctrinally for up to a century. Once it was founded, any seminary we've tracked went substantially off the mark within less than a century. So the seminary president where I was at, he says, I would like to put a time bomb under the school. At the end of about 50 years, it just goes off and we start over somewhere else. Because he says just the pattern is so consistent, the seminary gets off course.

I think it relates in part, this is only part of the answer, to what Tom made reference to, this ivory tower mentality man's intellect ends up skewing the whole pattern as well. Instead of this being a work of the Lord, man's intellect ends up getting exalted all too easily, and that never works. Let me suggest one other thing, and that is one of the things we started off with in this class, remember I handed out a one-page sheet and we talked about it. The three steps in understanding the Bible are observation, interpretation and application.

A great deal of seminary does the first two but fails to do the third. And in this you'll end up having pastors who know a lot of stuff but have nothing in the way of real shepherding to pass on to their flock. And you'll end up with a great many pastors who have all sorts of knowledge But frankly, the moral statistics on pastors is not good. Statistically, after doctors and policemen, number three in terms of divorce rate is pastors. Nasty. I mean, it's sad. It's sad in terms of occupations.

Ideally, you wouldn't have seminaries. Ideally, the church would be the place where the equipping gets done. If you look at Ephesians 4 that we looked at last summer, Ephesians 4, 11-16, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, what for? For the equipping of the saints. And that process by itself should be sufficient.

A seminary, I would take it from that point, is really a kind of a crutch solution. It's not God's ideal. I'm not saying it's inherently evil, but it isn't the ideal that God set up. I bring that up because our mindset so frequently is to put seminary, that's a place you go to learn. When in fact, yes there are some pluses, but there are also some serious drawbacks. And in the end, the local church is the place where God intended that that equipping take place and that that learning take place.

And what did he lay out there in Ephesians 4? We no longer be children, and what he described as the characteristic, that there no longer be this thrashing about, and I'm using that as a paraphrase, doctrinally. no longer being tossed to and fro, doctrinally. Because that being tossed to and fro is symptomatic of being immature. And what do you have going on at a lot of seminaries? A lot of tossing to and fro of doctrine.

I think you've shown us right here in chapter 3 that Nicodemus, as teacher of teachers, he can't see. Yeah, yeah. Some of the textbooks that we look at, as this guy really studied it and all that, many of them are not believers. One of the best New Testament Greek language texts is written by Robert Funk. He is an older gentleman now, but he has headed up this Jesus seminar where they are highly skeptical of the truth of the New Testament. I have a commentary set on the New Testament which offers lots of insights into the Greek by William Barclay.

Lots of insights, but the man doesn't believe in the deity of Christ. I don't believe he is saved. Any of you heard of Thayer's lexicon? Thayer, as far as I understand, was not a believer. So here are just multiple examples of people very knowledgeable as to all the nuts and bolts But lacking a personal relationship with the Lord, that is sad. That is sad.

The seminary I went to, Tyndale, in terms of standing on solid doctrine, a very good seminary. They even taught position and condition. But there was admittedly no connection between that and how I apply it. Even teaching position and condition, you say, boy, that's right on. But no connection with how does that get lived out.

What does that mean? See the difference there? The difference is huge. And that's why as we kind of go back, I want to make sure we don't miss, we've got the three steps, observation, interpretation, and application. That last part is essential. And really when we talk about the Holy Spirit leading us into all truth, that's the part where the Holy Spirit I think has the greatest involvement in terms of where does that fit in my life. It must be applied or else it's useless. It's just stuff we pack in here. I could put it on a hard disk and do just as much good if it isn't applied, if it isn't lived out. Take me back to my friend E, when she took a look at your asthma point and she says it makes you smart. Yeah, makes you smart, makes you wise. Oh boy! Yeah.

So a seminary can be an okay thing, but I think it is frankly not God's ideal. I think that God's ideal is that the local church is the place where people are fully equipped to stand not only on solid doctrine, consistent doctrine, but also, as Paul goes on in that very same passage, to teach believers that we are interdependently dependent upon the Lord. And that's something a seminary can't do.

I'm emailing with pastors all over the country and even some out of the country. And one guy I'm talking to is real confused doctrinally. He's a pastor and his church is ready to boot him out. I had a hard time knowing where to start with him because he was so mixed up. He went off to some school but he came out with just a whole bunch of, it's an omelet so far as his doctrine is concerned.

The yolk and the whites all mixed up and everything else scrambled up with it. and standing on solid doctrine, knowing what God's word says and being in a position to apply that in the context of a church. I can come out with all kinds of courses and I've got good grades and all that, but does that apply to the shepherding of the church? Does that apply to equipping of the saints? Do they know how to take it from there So I've got all my forms of the Greek. Do they know how to take that from that point to how do I live? How do I walk?

Am I beholding the Lord? I don't think I ever heard that in seminary. As doctrinally sound a seminary as it was, I don't think I ever heard that. Because the seminary has a tough time getting attached to the real things that go on actual believer's lives, and in the context of the local church. It's something that's tough to isolate and keep true.

Tom? I'm kind of wondering, Moody used to have students go out in groups to missionary activities. Is that still true, or is that kind of all gone? It's my understanding that they still do that kind of thing, but here's case in point, Moody and a nearby school, Wheaton, We used to be both considered really solid schools. Moody has not slipped as far, but it has.

A good number of the staff now are progressive dispensational, and that's true almost entirely of the Dallas Theological Seminary staff now as well. Just when I was back in Texas last time, they told me that Dr. Leitner, who was the last on staff who was not a progressive dispensationalist and just got kicked off. And he got kicked off for screaming, you know, bring it up too many times in class. And so Mark Bailey, the newly appointed president, who was recommended by John Walvoord, called him into the office and said, you're done. Yes. Could you tell us what that means?

Progressive Dispensationalism is a teaching that came up about two decades ago by two professors, Bach and Blazing, and another associate, Robert Saki. The idea is this. Let's take Dispensationalism, and I'm simplifying here, but the point is well taken. They take Dispensationalism, and then they take Amillennialism, and they say, let's come up with a hybrid that mixes the two.

And the reason they can do that is because of the philosophy that's worldly. If I say post-modernism, does that connect? And let me give you a real world example. That's true for you, but it's not true for me. You hear that? Subjective truth allows multiple truths to be true.

So when they say, you know, is Jesus going to reign during the millennium from Israel in Jerusalem as the Messiah. And they will say yes. But they will also say, but He's already reigning. And that's what the all-millennials would tell you, right? And so what they do is they use a phrase, and the phrase has gotten to be so common that I look for that word. I use my computer to look for that word if I see something that smells like it's that teaching and I have the computer search already slash not yet and it just finds it like that because that's the phrase that they use, it's already not yet and all it is is the postmodern mentality, it's true but it's not true yet but it's going to be true. How's that for a dance?

And that's taken over, I only know of one professor at Moody that that's not true of and the last one at Dallas just got fired. who doesn't believe in that. So that's pretty well taken over. And at Wheaton, it's gotten worse. It's worse than that, at Wheaton Graduate School. They're farther down the road than that already. So this slipping is what goes on.

And I think part of the problem is you end up, as Tom mentioned, this ivory tower mentality puts this thing off and it's some sort of a think tank. Instead of saying, bring it down to the local church level, and how does this fit into reality? Let's connect this up here and test it out in the laboratory of life. Does this make sense? Because an awful lot of seminaries can get off into realms that are purely theological.

One of the things that Paul challenged Timothy, he says, watch your life and doctrine closely. He didn't make one different than the other, but he put them together. He says, in doing so, you will save many. The basis for evangelism is living and doctrine that are consistent with scripture and consistent with the life of the Lord.

And apart from that, you're in trouble. Because one of the things that the seminary can easily do is isolate the doctrine part from the life part. See the difference there? And that's toxic. And that's one reason why There are seminaries, there are some good ones, but a lot of them have really slipped, including here locally, and a lot of them have really slipped badly. Ultimately, I think the problem is that there has been a dependence upon those seminaries instead of the local church. Anyway, we've taken up enough time. Let's move on to John chapter 3. We were looking at chapter 5 last time. Now let me just read that for the sake of having it in front of us. Excuse me, verse 5? Yes, thank you.

Something didn't sound right about that. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Now we've, of course, been talking about this at length, including the nine interpretations of verse 5 that are out there. and also recognizing that nobody ever said anything and intended nine different things. That when Scripture states something, it's because God intended to convey a truth, not postmodernism. Not all nine and that's fine.

So when we go into verse 6, Again, keeping in mind, it is clear from Nicodemus' initial statements and initial questions that Nicodemus didn't understand. He didn't understand who Jesus was fully. What he said was not untrue, but it was short of the full truth. He also clearly did not understand, remember when Jesus talked about you must be born again, what did Nicodemus think?

Physical and physical. That was his full answer. And why was that? What was the Jews' standard thought on why I'm going to enter the kingdom of God? It's right. They had the right ethnic background. Abraham is my father. Here's the genealogy. You can go look it up in the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. I've got the full genealogy laid out here.

What else do you need? Alright, I've got the right background. And what else? I'm going to keep the Law. I'm going to do the right stuff. It's all physical. It's all what my genealogical background is and what I'm going to do here on planet Earth. And that's going to get me in.

Jesus is from that point forward trying to make the distinction, isn't He? He says there's physical birth and there's spiritual birth. And you need to understand, Nicodemus, one is one, the other is the other, but just because you are born in the right family, just because you're a descendant of Abraham, does not get you an automatic ticket into the kingdom of God. Just because you externally do the right stuff, does not get you a ticket into the kingdom of God.

It's not like little league tryouts. I remember a number of years I coached AYSO, and I had a lot of fun, don't count me wrong, but it's basically one of their little, you know, mottos is everybody plays. And yeah, it's not like, you know, if you show up, they go, hey, I'm a descendant of Abraham.

Okay, you're in. Jesus is saying there's something else going on here. It's not just physical. And so that's what verse 6 is intended to just lay out solidly So here's where he says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. I mean, just lays it out. Okay? What are some of the things you note? Okay, these numbers here which represent the Strong's numbers.

The word born, is that any different from the word born that we've been seeing in the other earlier verses? Is it the same Greek word? Yes, it's the same word. A lot of times folks will talk as if the Greek answers everything. The truth is the Greek is often helpful but it isn't the complete answer and that's why we look at other things like context and context and context and history and culture and things of that sort in order to get better understanding. So that word born is the same and as a matter of fact It shows up twice here, right? It shows up here in verse 5 as well.

And what is it? It's the same word. So there isn't some special distinction in the word born. It's the same word. So in order to make the distinction, Jesus doesn't have some special word in Greek that's different, born physically, born spiritually, right? He uses the same word in Greek for born.

It shows up because the Strong's number is identical on each one. How does he make the distinction between physical and spiritual here? The flesh is physical. I mean, the flesh is flesh. I mean, that's kind of almost kindergarten-ish, isn't it? The flesh is flesh.

I come here and somebody says, where's the church? And I'm standing in front of it. The church is the church. And there's somebody standing in front of me, you know, and I say, I'm Vern, and they say, can you tell me where Vern is? And I'll say, Vern's Vern, you know. See, it's, I mean, he's trying to be real basic here with Nicodemus.

The flesh is flesh. Now, here's something to discern here. Is this the same thing that Paul talks about, don't walk in the flesh? Walk in the spirit and you won't walk in the flesh. Is that what he's talking about? He's just getting Nicodemus jump-started. Okay, he's getting Nicodemus jump-started. But what about the use of that word flesh there? Does he mean the same thing as Paul means when Paul's saying about walk by the Spirit and you won't satisfy the desires of the flesh?

Different thing. I mean arguably you could make an argument that this is a pretty clear statement of two natures. Ah, okay. You know, flesh and spirit. Okay. And in that sense, I would say, yeah, you can, you know, analogize that to Paul's statement. That's what Paul's really talking about there, is true nature. Okay. You know, don't walk in the epidemic nature, you know, walk in the spiritual nature.

Does Paul use that word flesh to mean the sinful nature? Does he use that word for that all the time. Yes. Yes, there are places where he uses that word, that Greek word, sarx, and that's the same word here, sarx. But even Paul does not use that word to mean the sinful nature in every case. So how do we know the difference? Again, it's not because we're wizards of the Greek. It's because of context.

The other thing you'll find is Paul is the only one that uses that word flesh for sinful nature in quite that way. And while Jesus and other writers of the New Testament use that word flesh, they don't use it the way Paul does. So one thing we can look at just in terms of the way John writes, John's not talking about the sinful nature here. It's also in the context of what Jesus is trying to get Nicodemus to see. This flesh is flesh thing, he's talking about this human body and the lineage based on this is only going to result in a lineage based on this. Flesh can only produce flesh. If you have, well, let's put it this way.

In August, our oldest son and his wife are scheduled to have a baby. They know already this is going to be a girl. They're not worried at all that this is going to be a baby giraffe. They aren't. And why? They're not worried about because people produce people. Giraffes produce giraffes.

The flesh is only going to produce flesh. You're not going to get spiritual out of the flesh. And that's the thing that Nicodemus has got stuck in his head. All that's going to happen from the physical human being is to have a physical human being. It doesn't automatically produce something spiritual just because You have this reproduction going on by lineage.

So he's trying to get Nicodemus to understand, who's got this thing stuck in his head from the time he was born, practically, that, well, I'm a son of Abraham. I mean, I'm there spiritually, and he's just trying to tell him, hey, being a son of Abraham means, guess what? You're a son of Abraham, physically. That's what it does for you. It's not going to be your entrance into the kingdom of God.

So that which is flesh is flesh. Flesh is going to reproduce flesh. But then he makes the distinction, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. He's saying physically, this body is only going to reproduce another human body. But Nicodemus, you need to understand something. in order for there to be a spiritual birth. It doesn't do any good for you to try to go back into your mom. He says, in order for there to be a spiritual birth, there must be a birth that is produced by the Holy Spirit. The spiritual birth must be on a spiritual level.

And that's all he's really laying out here. He's saying it really rather simply Because Nicodemus has got this confused idea stuck in his head where everything is physical. Everything is here on planet earth. Does that make sense here? He's just saying, look Nicodemus, this goes here and that goes there.

It's kind of like a railroad track. You can have a railroad track and that railroad track might go all the way across the United States, but that railroad track is not going to get you to Europe. It just doesn't do that. So Nicodemus is trying to make the train go somewhere it doesn't. And not only is he trying to do that, but he's been teaching all of Israel that this train here that starts in Denver goes all the way to Frankfurt.

He has been trying to convey to them, You're sons of Abraham and that's going to get you into the kingdom. And we've got some extra special things to kind of put the icing on the cake and guarantee you're going to get into the kingdom and here's our set of rules. And just in case Moses wasn't quite specific enough, we've got hundreds of extra rules on top of that. And that's to make it just extra special trip. But you're in there because you're a son of Abraham and you follow all these rules down to every jot and tittle.

He was opening up a new way here. Israel was under law. And he was explaining to them that there's a growth process of birth. You used the word growth process. Let's take a look at it. Think of a child. How does a child turn into an adult? How does that happen? It takes time. How did that child get to be a child? It's born. So that being born is the introduction into it and then there's a growth process.

What Nicodemus' problem is, is he's not even getting to the growth process. Here's Nicodemus thinking that he's all mature and everything. In fact, he hasn't gone past square one. That's what Jesus is really focusing on, isn't he? He says, this guy has not gotten past square one. He doesn't understand. Because he's sitting there focusing on physical, physical, physical, physical, physical. But at that time it hadn't been accomplished. Right. It had not happened. Right. But they didn't see that either. Nope. No. Nicodemus didn't see it. He didn't understand it. He didn't comprehend it.

And as later on we'll see, Jesus says to him, here you are, and the Greek says, the teacher of Israel. It's like, I mean, you're the ultimate. I mean, you're numero uno. You are up there. Here you are, the teacher of Israel. Not just a teacher, or one of them, or something like that. You are the teacher of Israel, and you don't understand these things? He's saying that's serious.

What if you had been Nicodemus and Jesus says to you that this is going to be in spirit, what would Nicodemus have thought about the word spirit? Ah, okay. Good point. And what's the answer to that? What would Nicodemus have thought? Because those are exactly the kind of questions we need to ask. How is Nicodemus going to understand that? Obviously, Jesus is trying to make something clear that Nicodemus has confused. How is Nicodemus going to understand the word spirit? Tom? Well, he might say, okay, I guess the Torah or the Prophets writing is okay that he's talking about that. That's as far as it gets. I mean, just words. Okay.

Does the Old Testament, because that's all he had to work with. Joanne's on to something here. Doesn't that early? Does the Old Testament talk about the Holy Spirit? Yes. Okay. The Old Testament does talk about the Holy Spirit. And what are some of the things that the Holy Spirit does in the Old Testament? How would you find that out, just for starters? He enables people to do certain things. Okay. Alright. And so you'll find certain places where it talks about the Holy Spirit enabling it to do certain things.

How about even in the creation process? Where does the Holy Spirit show up there? Yeah, I mean, right in the very beginning, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, okay? And right there in the first few verses, the Holy Spirit is involved in the creation process. So, right there. Yes. You will also see various places in the Old Testament.

What was promised in Jeremiah 31.31? It was the new covenant to Israel, and connected with that, He says, I will put my Spirit within you. The Holy Spirit is not an unknown to Nicodemus, or shouldn't be.

And yet, what were they doing? What were the Jews doing? Well, they were depending on the Spirit. Yes, they were relegating the Holy Spirit to almost an ineffective non-entity. It's like, you know, this doesn't even fit. So, it was something taught in Scripture, but there was no place of action in effect. They had kind of shoved the Holy Spirit off because after all, Why do I need the Holy Spirit if I've got the right genealogy?

I've got the right rules? And I've got to do it myself anyway. Yes, Christians can easily do... As a matter of fact, we can easily do one of two errors. One is to write the Holy Spirit out of our understanding and to say, okay, Lord, thank You. You've told me how I'm supposed to behave. Thanks a lot. I'll meet You there. And so we can make that error, or the other one that's gotten to be common is to put the Holy Spirit as everything. And that's kind of a lot of the charismatic pendulum swing, if you will.

But this understanding here is something, the flesh is flesh thing, Nicodemus would understand that. But the whole aspect of how the Spirit is involved something that was like truncated in Nicodemus' understanding, wasn't it? He didn't get it. So Jesus had really a lot of explaining to do. It seems elementary to us. But Nicodemus, as the teacher of Israel, he didn't get it. He didn't understand. He had not been thinking on that level. It's apparent from reading the rest of John, because his name keeps popping up, that he didn't let this go, but it took him a while to catch on, too. It took him a while. He's been going to rabbinical seminaries. Yes, he's been going to rabbinical seminaries. Two points.

And that really brings it back to an excellent point we brought up earlier at length, the issue of seminaries. The seminary is only going to be as good as, and even this is somewhat subject to discussion, but it's only going to be as good as the extent to which they adhere to scripture. And if they start truncating things as had happened with the Jews, because the Jews had boiled it down to what am I going to do? And the Holy Spirit is inconsequential. So, key point. Tom? I'm wondering if the Jews at one time decided, gee, if the Holy Spirit is only going to dwell in certain people and only at certain times, why bother with it? We've got to do all this other stuff. And that's a good point.

The Holy Spirit, as we read the Old Testament, seemed to be given here, given there, taken away. David would pray, and unfortunately I hear churches singing it as if it's true today, you know, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. There was this sense of this Holy Spirit's going to come and go rather than being the seal and the guarantee as we have it as believers today. The Holy Spirit was not someone that you could count on as they saw it. Therefore, let's just not even figure on the Holy Spirit's involvement. That's enough for today. I guess, anyway, it seems like the clocks are a little funny.

Let's pray. Lord, we're thankful for your word. We're thankful that, indeed, we need not do as Nicodemus did and just say, well, here's the physical facts and here's what I've got to do. Instead, we can rely upon what you have done and what you are doing and what you're going to do. It's simply a matter of our counting upon that as a spiritual fact. And we just pray that you would grow us in that even today. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.