How To Study The Bible
Vern Peterman · Sep 29, 2002
How to Study Bible (2001-02), No. 51
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826224847169

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

And there was no limit to it. And if you refused to pay it, it was the sword through your stomach. So it was a terrible system. What's that? Yes, it was very much like mafia. And this is why Zacchaeus, who's the instance we hear about, here's why Zacchaeus would say, and if I've taken more than my due, I'll pay it back four times. Because it was pretty well a given that the tax collectors would do exactly that, take more than their due.

And they were hated. It was why there was zealots, even one of Jesus' disciples was a zealot. And yet when you read, like Romans 13, first seven verses, you know, be subject to the government, pay the taxes, tribute to whom tributors do, etc. I mean, it just...

And another interesting point, Jesus and the apostles at various places, had contact with Roman soldiers. And not just one or two points, at several different points. And interestingly enough, at no point were they told, you know, hey, you've got to get out underneath this government and get your sword off. John the Baptist even says, be happy with your wages, you know, don't gripe about your wages. That was one of the things that they If they're known, we have other documents that record their being constantly disgruntled about what they're being paid.

It's a big issue, because you get into, do I fight in a war, is it a just war, and all those kinds of things. That's of course an extremely bitter situation for all the Christians in Russia, you know. These people in their churches, because they were underground churches themselves, Christians in Islamic countries now are facing that exact same thing, and the government's response is brutal. I mean, at the very least, the government's response is not satisfactory, you know. But in many cases, it's very brutal. So it gets to be a very tough issue. But I think somewhat fortunately, we have the influence in the New Testament to give context. It was not a nice government.

By the time Paul had written those letters about being subject to the government and whatnot, Rome had already been in power in Israel for a little over a century. Interestingly enough, there was a period of time, about 40 B.C., when the Parthians came in and drove the Romans out of Jerusalem. and then lost it again. So the Romans had come in, the Parthians came in, and then the Romans were back. I mean, it was, you know, who's in charge? And yet in the midst of that kind of changing, drifting situation, they still said, be subject to governing authorities.

Essentially, whatever God has you to do with it, the government, you're subject to it. There's no way out. The only thing that stands out is you see in Acts where the apostles said we'll obey God rather than men when they were told by the Sanhedrin, I don't speak of Jesus anymore. They said no, we're going to speak. So unless God has a specific direction that is contrary, the government is to be obeyed.

And sometimes that can be real hard. Whether it's an unfair taxation system, I would even question the legality of our own taxation system. However, that's not an issue, biblically. That's the way I understood it. I just wanted to be sure. I mean, when you read it, there's actually no way out. I mean, when you read it, it's so plain. It's so very simple. I mean, I do meditate on the whole context.

Yeah. Bob? Well, the whole issue is citizenship, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're in a different country. Yeah. That doesn't make things easier. No, it doesn't. As a matter of fact, it makes things more difficult. It does. And I'm a member of the heavenly body. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where is my citizenship? The earthly governments are just pale. Yeah. Here's an example.

They came to Jesus, the temple leaders, and said, hey, don't you pay the temple tax? Because that was a tax on top of all the other Roman stuff. It was legally a voluntary tax. There was no compulsion legally to pay it. There was no consequence. And yet it was, I'm not saying, are you a good Jew?

You're going to pay this. And so our Lord had a brief discussion with Peter over it. He says, you know, do the sons of the kingdom, do they, you know, pay? Or is it the kingdom that supports them? And so Peter says, you know, the sons of the kingdom, they don't need to pay. And the Lord says, you know, that's true.

However, so that we don't offend them, let's go ahead and pay it. Interesting. It wasn't an obligation. They weren't even spiritually obligated to pay it, but in order not to offend them, pay it anyway. So that's a real interesting thing, especially in view of there's a lot of tax rebels these days who will say, you know, IRS is illegal, and I'm not going to get real wound up about it. And here's Jesus in a situation where the tax is entirely voluntary. There is no consequence. to not paying other than being shunned. And Jesus even talks with Peter about, we really don't owe this, but just so we don't offend them, let's pay it.

There's a whole lot of issues you get into. I mean, here I'm paying taxes and it gets refunded for abortion and all sorts of awful things. So there can be some very difficult issues, but I would suggest to you that the Roman government was every bit as gross if not more so. We get to deduct some things from our taxes for giving to different ministries and whatnot.

The Roman government would have said, what? All that's going to do is get you in trouble. You gave to what? That kind of a claim is only going to end you in jail or worse. The Roman system being as corrupt and unjustified as it was, The command was, pay it. And they used all the different words available for taxation. It wasn't just taxes, it was also tribute money, kind of protection money. Money paid to keep them off your back. Pay that too. It's an amazing area.

Anyway, big question. It's one that's important for Christians to consider, especially as we go into a time now, I think, where there's getting to be less and less regard for Christians. Less and less regard. We may come up to some tougher questions than we've had in the past. I think we're already getting to see some of that. But, good question. Let's take a minute to pray here, and we'll go and turn a corner here.

Lord we do thank you for this morning for the chance to gather. Thank you for your word for the fact that we can stand on the absolute truth of it. Thank you Lord that as Bob brought up that we have a citizenship with you and it's not reversible or revocable. We cannot lose it and for that we give you thanks and praise and a tribute to you glory and honor. We just pray as we gather here this morning that you would guide and lead us. In Jesus' name, Amen.

As we meet here for the last time, because we've been doing this for a year, this is something we handed out like the second or third week we were meeting. This is on cardstock for two reasons. One, I thought this was something you can kind of make regular use of. The other reason is I ran out of paper. But I'd like us to step through it because we've been going through all kinds of details about looking up Greek and looking up this historical fact and chasing down that. I think this kind of helps us pull it all together because we've been looking at little parts and pieces.

Let's kind of talk our way through this thing. Obviously, the big picture is three steps, the observe, interpret, apply. So it's O-I-A. Observe, interpret, apply. The first point, they're under observe, When was it written and what was happening at the time?

Really, this comes back to we're getting a kind of a cultural and historical context, aren't we, on that observation issue? Why does that matter? What difference does it make? What happens if we just skip this question? Right, here's a historical situation. Good, case in point.

Now, we were able to say, okay, it says be subject, and if that was stated in the context of a dream government, that might be taken differently. But the fact that we know that here's the context in which it was given historically, we know that this was in New Testament times, Rome was in charge, they had been in charge for roughly a century. We know what kind of government they were. Now we have a good background, context, to understand what was being said. Good point. We've said before, what matters is context, context, context. And a part of it is, what's the historical context? What is the cultural context? When was it written and what was happening at the time? It can be a real pivotal issue.

Example, we've been going on Sunday morning through Revelation, right? Well, we know this is like the last book written. We know it was, you know, all the other apostles were gone. John is saying, okay, you know, you've got this whole, you know, background here from the rest of scripture.

Now we're kind of taking one last chance to look ahead. To look ahead. Having that perspective helps us. He wasn't just kind of talking some dream out of his head. This isn't dreamy, wispy stuff. This is real things that are going to take place. And kind of getting to his framework that's important to understanding.

The who was writing and to whom were they writing? What do we know about them? How is that an important question to ask? To whom were they writing? If we're going to read somebody else's mail, we want to make sure we're not applying it to us necessarily. One of the things that we find when we say who was writing, each writer tends to have a way of stating things. And sometimes you'll find writers are unique and exclusive in the way that they write.

Only Paul talks about being sealed with the Holy Spirit. Only Paul really speaks in a kind of a propositional sense of the truth of we've been sealed with Christ. John writes narrative, but Paul writes in a propositional sense, making a truth statement.

We get that uniqueness, we get that understanding. It's only John that calls Christ the Lamb in the Gospels and in the book of Revelation. He's the only one who makes that reference. We see, as we see each writer, and see their consistency in the way they say things. Paul is the only one that talks about the body of Christ. The only one that writes in quite that way. John, on the other one, is the only one that writes in a narrative fashion about the heavenly scenes. Paul doesn't do that.

So, a real interesting contrast. Who's writing? How are they writing? What are the kinds of things they say? When Paul writes about death, he writes consistently death as separation. Remember that as we studied that a few weeks back. He writes consistently as death, as separation. We don't look for that in the book of Genesis. Different kind of author, different kind of material. What do we know about them?

I've been going through with one fellow studying the book of Titus for the last few months. One of the things that we did early on, I had about a quarter inch write-up on What was Paul's upbringing? How was Paul raised? What was his education? And all those kinds of things.

Because as somebody writes, we get insight into what they're writing as we understand their background. Whole volumes have been written about Paul's background, just so that when he writes, we have a better understanding of what he's saying. Why was it written? How come why it was written matters? Why does that make any difference?

We ask this question when we get mail, don't we? Why are they writing this to me? Don't we ask that? We may not consciously think of that, but in fact, when we get a letter, we're looking at it and we say, why are they writing this to me? You get a little envelope and it's white and it has a little black lettering up in the corner and it says Internal Revenue Service. You're going to be thinking, why are they writing this to me? Right? Talking about taxation. Why are they writing this to me? And you're going to be thinking in that context.

As we mentioned earlier, when you look at the newspaper, you look at different sections and you understand by the section why they're writing it. If you look at the front page, you don't read that the same way as you read the funny papers, the comics. You don't read them the same. Because you understand by the section it is in, why is it being written.

I think it's extremely important too, when we're looking at the Old Testament, If I do not understand the answer to this question, I can get messed up on everything else. Is that right? If I don't understand why it's being written. One of the examples that we gave here recently was, I can somehow draw the conclusion if I don't get this right that it's my task. I had better get busy building the temple in Jerusalem and thinking somehow that's top priority. I'll read the book of Haggai and say, boy, we better get going. What are we doing here with this thing? We've got to get this temple in Jerusalem built.

So this understanding why is important. You look at something like the book of Galatians. Do you understand why it was being written by the time you get through with the first dozen verses? He says, Hi, my name is Paul, and let me tell you something. Before a dozen verses had gone by, you know why he wrote this. Understanding that is important. It's critical.

What result did the author have in mind? An interesting thing that I heard was that one seminary professor wrote his class up into different groups, and he had each of them in groups of two, three, four, and he said, I want you to go and do a study, come back to me, and among each of your groups tell me what is the number one topic of the New Testament. When they came back, it was interesting because they had different groups doing it, right? So you get a skew, obviously. Across the board, false teaching. Number one topic of the New Testament, false teaching. An issue.

Isn't that amazing? So, when you look at these things, you know, what kind of, you know, Why was it written? What did the author have in mind? What direction are they going? A good deal of the New Testament you'll see pretty quickly as they get into the document why was this written. Sometimes it will explicitly say why it was written. Paul?

I mean, this is just my opinion, but it seems that the epistles can fairly distinguish themselves in terms of being contextual. The Old Testament, despite its redundancy in many ways, ultimately has a purpose for each prophet, each historical book. However, the Gospel accounts are the ones that always have a positive impact. Why all the redundancy, again? What is the purpose of that?

Obviously, there is content that is not in charge. Right. It's like four reporters writing four different articles. Right, right. That's the question I have to ask about this. Right. Mark has written a newspaper record of this kind of theory of facts. Right. And it moves quickly. Yeah, Mark just zoomed.

Well, let's think of, in one case, for example, the Gospel of John. He says explicitly, these are written that you might believe, and that believing you might have life through this name. That's an extension of Paul, right? Sure. And John duplicates that later on. Sure. But John, he actually says explicitly, this is why I wrote this.

Another aspect I would think, I think there's several different answers to your question. One would be that they're addressing different groups of people. That would be part of it. In other words, Matthew is written in such a way that very explicitly addresses the Jewish mindset. Historically, it may well have originally been written in Aramaic, but very definitely focuses on a Jewish mindset and understanding, even the way the genealogy is written and set up in the beginning chapters. They don't leave it alone, but for example Mark being much more factual and also fast-moving Mark does not look as as Matthew does on Jesus as King as much as Jesus is servant because in the Roman mind They weren't looking for a king They want somebody to get something done Give me the facts and get it done That's what they want So that's the way Marcus is written. If you look at them, you'll have a different address because different groups are being addressed by each of the books.

So that would be one answer to your question. I think another, and this has come back repeatedly, having the testimony of multiple voices verifies the truth of something. If I get in a in a quirk situation and one person says something, okay, that has some latitude, but if I have a situation where I get several people telling me the story, and maybe they're not by every single detail all the same story. As a matter of fact, you'd wonder if they were. But by the fact when I put them together, I end up with kind of a stereoscopic picture that jives, that rhymes, then that's telling me what's true.

So I think that may be another reason for the multiple Gospels. Some of them, like John, are very explicit as to, here's why we're writing. Others, it doesn't say quite as explicitly, here's why we're writing. But those would be a couple of thoughts. find better, stronger words than the poor people, and maybe more, maybe some other people, but those poor gods, the people who felt the urge that they had to put this down on paper. I mean, they had almost no choice. I don't think they, at any point, Otherwise, this is an awful task, and I better don't do it. I mean, they were driven to do it.

And that remains the truth. And of course, as you said, the unfolding of all of this, to find the extreme similarities in all the accounts, it is so amazing and so fortifying to know what it was all about. I don't consider that at all a a negative point, something that is so tremendously positive. Okay, good.

Number four, what kind of writing is it? Historical, poetic, prophetic, or a letter? Pretty quickly when we get on any piece of paper, we're looking at it and we're saying, what kind of writing is it? Isn't that kind of what the example of the newspaper that I gave, different sections of the newspaper? You ever see somebody just looking through the classified ads and laughing as if they're reading the funny paper?

Maybe, but probably not. We get a sense of, as we look at different sections, this is what this is for. And same thing here, there are different types of writing. We understand, for example, Genesis is an historical account. You read that differently than you would read the Psalms. And you're going to read that differently than Paul's letter to the Philippians. Each of them is a different kind of writing intended for a different means of conveying a message. What are the contrasts and comparisons in a passage? The contrasts and comparisons within the passage would be something like, as you look at the last half of Ephesians, four, five, and six.

Paul all of a sudden breaks into the use of the word, but. Don't be foolish, but wise. Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. And he goes into that pattern of not this, but this, not this, but this, not this, but this, not this, but this, of contrasts through the rest of the book. The last half of the book is built around those contrasts.

We'll see not just that, but then, let's say you move into the Gospels, and take John for an example. Seven times, Jesus says, I am. I am. I am. So here's an instance of comparison. I am the bread of life. I am the Good Shepherd. Those kinds of statements, and you can make a comparison between those. As we brought up here, Jesus said that with the Greek ego a me which is a statement in the Greek Old Testament Made by Jehovah speaking to Moses out of the bush tell them I am has sent you and the Greek Old Testament says Hey, go in me. So when Jesus says I am the Good Shepherd It was it was an emphatic that duplicates exactly in the in the Greek equivalent of what Jehovah said to Moses. So this is why the reaction in John 10 when he started saying these kinds of things was to pick up stones. This was not something that they made a mistake about. They said, tell us plainly. Okay. They did. They heard it.

Are there figures of speech? Remember we went through and we had a table of figures of speech. There's a fellow by the name of E. W. Bollinger who's put together a compilation about the Gapic with figures of speech that are used in the Bible. Some of those we kind of You think, well, that's a figure of speech.

We use figures of speech in the example that we gave that I thought was interesting. We talk about, if I'm joking with you, I'm pulling your leg. In Spanish, it's I'm pulling your hair. In German, Heidi and Helmer are saying, I'm carrying you in my arm.

These are figures of speech and it's interesting. Each culture has its figure of speech. We need, as we're looking at various passages of scripture, to say, is this one of those? Because if we take something literally that is intended as a figure of speech, and by the way, a figure of speech is intended to have a literal message, so let's not lose track of that. If I use a figure of speech with you, if I say, I'm pulling your leg, you know that I'm joking, but I'm literally joking. I'm not trying to lose the message on it. So we need to look at it and say, is this a figure of speech? Figures of speech can also be very contextual.

Jesus, for example, the instance we went through recently here on Sunday morning, Jesus says, don't go up on the housetop. If you're up on the housetop, don't go down inside the house. We know in the cultural context that what he was talking about is people would spend a lot of time up on top of their house and they'd have a set of stairs on the outside. Go down the stairs and leave, don't go inside the house.

And we know from the cultural context what that means. This is the kind of thing that we're to look at. Is he making a statement that is only to be understood if we understand the culture? If we understand the culture. Paul says, who will deliver me from this body of death? That had a cultural context that fit in there.

We finish that off there in 2 Timothy 2.15, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman that does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

As we're observing, our intent is to arrive at accuracy. Helmuth and I, being engineers, have had discussions about some of our fellow engineers and some of the disgust for their lack of concern for accuracy. And it doesn't engender a lot of respect when we see that taking place. It's a matter of concern. Well, this is focusing on this issue here. This accuracy counts.

Paul uses in this, this accurately handling the word of truth, that word accurately handling, in the King James it comes across as rightly dividing. He was using a terminology in the culture. Now Paul was a tent maker, right? Tent makers would take the parts of the pattern and cut it so that the pieces would fit together. That accurately handling, or as the King James had it, rightly dividing, that word is cutting it along the pattern line so that when it comes together it fits.

That's the word picture he's laying before Timothy. I can imagine Timothy and Paul having spent some time together, a lot of time together, and here's Paul talking to Timothy while he's making tents. Timothy's got the picture in his mind, here's Paul cutting these things so that everything fits together. That's the picture he's carrying across.

The idea is we're aiming at accuracy, so let's observe everything that that counts here so that we'll get an accurate conclusion. The observations are important. They're important to accuracy. The next thing is we're going to interpret. Here we've got some C's to deal with here.

Yes? Do you get a lot of feedback? Just a little bit. Okay. Well, maybe they'll hear me in the back there. I don't have any adjustment ability on this, but they hear me in the back. It sounds like they responded already. Okay. Still got it? Okay. I can try pulling this down a little bit, but I don't want to lose too much. Is that any better? No, it's still a little ringing. Picking up from there. Yeah, they have a tough time. Let me back up a little bit. Okay.

Recognize the context, historical, dispensational, book and passage-wise. There's lots of different aspects to context, aren't there? Lots of different aspects to context. You've been taken out of context at some point in time in your life, right? You've probably seen that, or you've seen a circumstance where that's come about. Getting things outside of the right picture We can misunderstand what's happening. This dispensational misunderstanding.

I notice that the folks here are not taking great pains to stay away from bacon. Now, why not? And not only that, here we are meeting on Sunday instead of Saturday. What are we doing here? These kinds of issues, well, why aren't we real concerned about that?

It's dispensational context. The next one, the content, and this is something we looked at the last two quarters in great detail. Here's how we look at the Greek. Here's how we study the grammar. Looking at those details. That's where that fits into this big picture of understanding what the Word of God means. We're going to look at the details of how different sentences and words are put together. And what are we aiming for? Accuracy. We want to be precise because we know that the original author had a certain intended meaning and not six. Not a half dozen different intended meanings.

Compare Scripture with Scripture, especially those by the same author. Can you think of an instance where comparing Scripture with Scripture is helpful? I think John's a good example of that. In the Gospel of John, which is what we've been looking at, and there's the clasp, part of the clasp sheet, and the Roman pre-context, and then you go to the epistle of John, where he talks about any man's sin, he's not born of his, or something to that effect. And so, I mean, that comparison allows you to help interpret the epistle based on what's already been said.

Yes. Okay. Good point. Good point. I mean, when you say you lose your salvation when you're in hell, you must not be talking about that. A greater, more in-depth understanding. Right. Right. Of course, the Lord by His grace has called all the temples between the Gospel of John and the Epistle of John. Yeah. Not necessarily. I honestly believe there's no mistake to the order of spiritual survival. Okay. And the exception might be Job. But nevertheless, I mean, I think that, you know, Let's think about comparing scripture with scripture.

We talk about the identification truth. Is there any one passage that has all five identifications all in one passage? There isn't one that explicitly teaches all five of the identification truths all in one passage. But if I put them together, I get the big picture.

I can compare scripture with scripture and say, oh, I see, this is talking about identification, and this one here is death, burial, and resurrection, and this one here is talking about ascension, and when I start putting those together, then I get the whole picture. By comparing scripture with scripture, that allows me to see, oh, here is the big picture of what is being communicated. It says, consider the principles of interpretation that apply. It's important to look at the passage.

Let's take it for instance. One of the principles that would apply is the Old Testament isn't talking about the Church. Lacking that principle, all kinds of people end up drawing conclusions about the Church based on reading the Old Testament and end up with a very legalistic Church. end up with a very Jewish church, end up with a very earth-based church. Okay.

It says here, consult commentaries to get various viewpoints and gain new insights. You can look at that or there's also various other resources. We have even footnotes in our Bible and study Bibles and things like that. The idea is to get additional insights. What I like to do is say, okay, what are all the different ways that people understand this passage? Or do they have some piece of information that I haven't gathered yet? So getting additional insights may be valuable.

In the end, you have to end up boiling it down to what did the author of this passage intend to say? Even though I may say there's five different interpretations out there, I'm going to end up eliminating interpretations to arrive at what's the biblical intent. Contemplate the pros and cons of the views and insights. We just talked about that. Conclude by determining the best interpretation which should be both thoroughly biblical and logical. There's but one intended meaning. That's, I think, a key point in this era of post-modernism. where people are looking for what's the subjective response. The idea of having multiple meanings to a lot of people is just fine. But the point is, God is intent on conveying truth to us. And by the way, that's something the church is losing rapidly.

In the mid-90s, George Barna did a survey among those who claim to be born-again Christians, and of course that includes a broad range of people. But only 48% of them at that point in time claimed that there was absolute truth. The latest survey, I just read this last week, 36% now. So the rate, we're getting down to close to a third now after being near a half. So this is dropping rapidly in terms of people believing, I'm talking Christians. believing in absolute truth. And what it says is that probably within a year or so, at that rate, assuming it continues, we've got only one out of every three people who claim to be born-again Christians believing in absolute truth.

Therefore, those folks who don't believe in absolute truth are going to say, what difference does it make if I arrive at a specific meaning? They're going to look for scripture to be inspiring, but they won't believe it's inspired. See the difference? Because we're rapidly getting to a point, if that trend continues, where a very small number of people are going to be looking at scripture and care about the things that we've spent a whole year looking at here.

Isn't that amazing? I mean, it's phenomenal. Okay. Next thing, apply. And I think the thing is, while we're looking at many observations, one interpretation, many applications. Okay? A lot of people say there's only one proper interpretation. They'll be real puzzled because they're thinking applications, which is different. There are many applications even though there's one interpretation. Take, for example, the question that Helmut asked earlier. As I read through Romans 13, the first seven verses, there is one intended meaning in that set of verses. Obviously, it's going to have a great many applications.

How do I deal with the abortion issue? How do I deal with my taxes? How do I deal with, hey, this war is a terrible war. Should I go off? So there's lots of different applications where you're going to have to deal with it. How do I deal with it when I see a speed limit sign?

Many applications, but the passage has one intended interpretation, meaning. See the difference there? And it's critical to make that distinction. One intended meaning, many applications. It is in this area of applications, by the way, that I think it is the Holy Spirit's primary area of work in the believer. Does that make sense? The Holy Spirit is working in our lives to apply the truths of Scripture to our lives. And this is the area, this third one we're looking at here, where the Holy Spirit is going to bring the point home in our lives. We look first at what were the applications in the lives of the people then. Here's a for instance.

I was talking with Dave Gerlund. One of the things we were talking about was in the area of investing, there are people who have stock market letters and things of that sort. Some of them that have been at least recently successful have a lot of astrology mixed into the stock market letters. Now, could I just say, yeah, but they've been successful, so I'll just do it anyway? Or do I say, nah, it's crossing the line, I don't think we'd better go there.

It is very similar to the meat offered to idol issues that the early church had. I've got this meat here, and it's just meat. Does the fact that it's been offered to an idol or not matter? We have some areas like that where you get to a point where you've got to say, between myself and the Lord, is this something that is going to disrupt my fellowship with the Lord? And ask those kinds of questions. And we start off by asking, what did it mean then? What was the context that they were dealing with?

Very few of us, I would guess, are dealing with meat offered to idols. But we deal with those kinds of issues a whole bunch. We run into a lot of them, and my guess is we're going to keep running into even more of them as time goes on, as the world gets more and more pagan. And we start seeing things shift in that direction.

Okay, next thing there. What does it mean to me today? Now this is taking the application and carrying it forward to us. What does God intend for me to take to heart from this passage? One of the things that frequently happens, and I'll just tell you in seminary as they go to here, they observe and they interpret, they observe and they interpret, they observe and they interpret, they observe and they interpret.

This part of it frequently doesn't even get addressed. And frequently it not only doesn't get addressed, but it's It's ignored to the point as if it were, it doesn't matter. And it most certainly does because this is what the rest of this is all about. So, anyway, little point of critique there.

But the fact is that the Lord intends scripture to be taken to heart. All of scripture was written for us. There are certain portions of it that are written directly to us. But there is application in all of it. What perspectives is God communicating to me through this passage?

This matter of perspective is important, isn't it? Let's go back, for the sake of convenience, to the question that Helmut asked. If I just look at Romans 13, 1-7, I'm supposed to be subject to these gross, corrupt governments, unfair, and Perspective is what Bob brought up. Hey, where's my citizenship? If I look at the specific situation, are we going to find things that are irrational, unfair, corrupt in our government?

Absolutely. Count on it. But the perspective is, this isn't where my citizenship is. This is not where I'm planted eternally. And that the perspective is what's critical, isn't it? Yeah. This matter of perspective, we'll be touching on this in this personal finances class. And one of the perspectives is this.

There are a lot of Christians who have the idea, how much do I give? And their question is, how much money do I give in order that God will leave me alone and I can do the rest with what I want. And so people are trying to figure out how much do I buy God off with?

If that's my perspective, it needs to be corrected, doesn't it? So this matter of perspectives is important. How do I look at life? How do I look at what God's doing? If I become a believer, And I'm on my way home and I get in a wreck. I say, thanks Lord, this isn't what I signed up for. Guess what? That's exactly what you signed up for. Okay? The perspective. What's this all about? Is Christianity to make this life so it's nicer and easier? Or the perspective that, no, what's going on here is entirely for somewhere else. Okay? That's a different matter. That's a different matter. No, not at all easy. But that perspective is essential.

What does God want me to be praying about in response to this passage? Again, it's a matter of, Miles uses the word appropriation. It's one thing for us to just kind of write, okay, I've done my observation, this is the interpretation, here's the passage, okay, here's how I apply it, done, next passage. This is a matter of saying, Lord, I want you to work this into my life.

I want you to work this truth into my life such that it's lived out. That it's not just words on the page. It's not just a very nice, accurate interpretation. But that truth is reality by the work of the Holy Spirit. And that's what this is addressing. It's saying, Lord, I want you to work this truth out in my life such that it's real, it's lived out, it's not just stuck up here in my cranium somewhere. And the last thing, what action does God want me to take in response?

If we're not careful, the application can easily get down to just sort of a cookbook thing. And that's where we put this question last. Certainly there may need to be actions taken, but we don't want to just take those actions as an external, this is what you do, cookbook. Real important, because I've come across different kinds of Christian teaching, training, and whatnot that ends up being, here's your steps, one, two, three, A, B, C, and this is what you do.

And it ends up being very mechanical, robotic. Instead of this is something that the Lord is working out in my heart and life And it's going to take time to appropriate because that's the way the Lord works So anyway, it's a valid question but not one to be jumped to And then we finished that one off with the Galatians 2 20 and again, this is a perspective, isn't it? I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me." That's the application. That's the perspective. That's the reality that is being brought home, isn't it? Yeah, Helmer? I wasn't the first to study. Somebody else did something else.

But my last question is that And that is, when Christians, like in the Communist countries, they were not allowed to meet in underground churches at home and so on. And they kind of camouflaged with birthdays, celebrations, and so on. Which was essentially a lie to the government. The government had specifically said that you have to church their Orthodox And that's where you go. And there was a kind of stooge church, a real spiritual church. And now, automatically, these people collided with the government. And they were beaten to death. And then they still continued that sort of thing.

They kind of revolted, not actively, but tacitly, against the government's rules. So with that fallen as a sin from I think the test that you have to apply is the same one the apostles applied when they were told, hey, don't you go talking about this.

There are points at which the Lord has explicitly laid out what he wants to have done, and ultimately we will encounter lots of moral and ethical issues. And lots of things within the government that we'll look at and say, that's not fair and right. But when it explicitly comes to a point where the Lord has laid it out and made it clear, this is where we're to stand, we have to choose that over the government. And sometimes those issues will be very clear.

The early church, it was very clear, we're not going to go into this Roman empirical temple and call the emperor Savior and God. We're not going to do that. And that was very clear. Something that was less clear was the meat-offer-to-idols kind of issue.

That wasn't a government mandate kind of thing, but it's an example of the sort of thing where there may be matters of conscience here that are a little tougher to slice. But that's the ultimate question. Is this something that God is mandating that needs to take place over and above whatever the government says I can or can't do. And that's the bottom line question.

In some cases it may be very clear and we know what needs to happen and we actually would stand against the government as the apostles did. They went ahead and preached the truth and took the consequences. I mean, I haven't been there for the time, but that's the game. And that's, I think, a real critical turning point and I think that would be the right thing to do. And frankly, to take whatever consequences the government deals out. And that's exactly what the apostles did. They just did what was the truth, and said the truth, and took the consequences. As it was.

That is the Christ life, isn't it? Yeah. And the flesh is not capable of that response. No. No. His name can't go there. But look what happened. Here's Peter imprisoned. And rather than Peter squirming out of going into prison, he goes to prison and the Lord lets him out. See the difference? Peter didn't go to prison saying, I know the Lord will let me out. But the Lord sovereignly made that decision, I will let you out. And it sounds like Peter wasn't even expecting it. Yes, yes, yeah. Yeah, you mentioned those three. The Lord is able to deliver us. We in faith know that He is able and we put confidence in that. But whether He does or He doesn't, we will not bow down. But He delivers it from us?

That's right. One way or the other. I would say that their gathering is good. If they're lying in order to do it, that's probably not good. I would have a tough time in good conscience doing that. Because I think that the mandate is to obey the Lord, not lie to the government. I'm taking something good and trying to cover it with something that isn't. That's a quick answer to a difficult question.

Anyway, let's pray. Lord, we do thank you that we can gather together. what a marvelous privilege we have and what marvelous tools we have. As we complete this year-long study, Lord, we give you thanks, we give you praise. And Lord, we just ask you to guide and lead us into all truth, not just academically, but into our hearts and minds and perspectives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.