Principles of Interpretation I: From Facts to Meaning

Okay, let's turn back to Overview Sheet 2. That's at the beginning of your book. Okay, at the top of the page it says, remember the title of our Sunday School class is How to Study the Word of God. And this Overview Sheet 2 simply reminds us that the Holy Spirit's involved in every part of the right understanding of Scripture. And our beholding the Lord Jesus Christ through His Word and thereby being changed from glory to glory is really the purpose. I mean, the idea here is that The believer is in a position of knowing Christ, Christ resurrected and seeing himself or herself positioned in the Lord Jesus Christ. And everything in scripture for the church, for the body of Christ must be celebrated. We can actually go back to today's lesson because everything else is pretty much exemplified in the points that are raised here in the text. We're on page 35 now. of principles and interpretation, one from facts to meaning. So, you know, it's interesting.

I was at a meeting actually writing board examination questions for my area of medical subspecialty. And I sat next to a guy at dinner two nights ago who is going to these kind of philosophical religious groups on Saturday morning with a mixture of Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Jews, Presbyterians, and Methodists, so he described it. And basically I drilled down on what exactly they did on Saturday mornings when they went through these studies, and they look at contemporary issues, and they look at how their spiritual roots relate to these contemporary issues. And I said, well, what do you do with Jesus Christ in this group?

And he said, well, I said, do you all agree that he was crucified for each and every one of us and risen and positioned us in newness of life? We kind of went through that. I'm giving you a condensed view. He said, well, some of us accept that and some of us don't.

And I said, well, what do you do with the Word of God? Is this the inspired Word? Is it inerrant? Is it true? Sometimes we think maybe it's okay. I kind of got to the point where I think this guy's saved, but I wasn't totally convinced. The point here on page 30, the Bible is God's inspired word. You've got to start there. If this book is errant, we're in trouble. So, what makes us think and know that the Bible is God's inspired word? Prophecy. He says it. And we either believe it or we don't. So, read 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Okay, Kurt, so I'm an unsafe man, you're reading that to me, that's meaningless to me. So what allows you to believe that and me to believe that now that I'm on the other side of the cross? Well, I think there's a couple questions you have to ask. of that gentleman. You said, well, what do you do with Jesus and what do you do with Scripture? A couple other questions to ask her.

Is there absolute truth? And what's our answer at this table? Yes. Where do you find it? Can you know that absolute truth? Okay, where do you go? All right. Now, do all of you or most of you remember when you were unsaved? Did you believe that this was inerrant truth at that time? I sure didn't. I mean, when I was in college, for sure, anybody could pick a scripture to make their point in any way at any time they wanted. I mean, I thought this was full of contradictions.

What allows us now to say this is the inspired word of God, as stated in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17? OK, the Holy Spirit, but... Our faith. Well, you become transformed when you get into the Word. You just truly do become transformed. Why is it that people have no faith, read and look for mistakes and can't find them and either go crazy or believe? OK.

A lot of things too, especially in the New Testament I'm thinking of. It's not just our faith. It's based upon personal witness of certain people that saw, for instance, saw Christ rose after his death. So there's accounts of different things that people made that are a matter of history. And then it's a matter of faith beyond that.

More. I'm not hearing totally the right answer yet. Pat? I can't remember. believing that the Bible and the Word was the ultimate truth, but not, early on not being able to, well still not totally being able to understand how application and incidents and what I've heard here and as we study it, going back to look at culture and history and all this type of stuff, and put it into perspective that sometimes things that sound contradictory, if you understand the whole circumstance, are such a different culture, but they're not contradictory. And how the different disciples described same event in different ways, according to their background.

And just understanding more of what's into, not only this, but most anything. You understand the background, you understand the whole thing better. But this is certainly, because it covers such a long period of time, sort of by different people, it has different perspectives in it that you have to, for me, have to understand. 40 different authors.

I mean if we look towards next week's lesson, remember that was what I prepared for today and I'm going to jump ahead just for a second. If you turn to page 38, I mean it looks at scales of context in the Bible and Randy will cover this next week. I mean, you can't just read John 1, 1 through 3 and say, gee, this exists as an isolated text in the scripture.

You've got to put it in the context of when the epistle was written, what the ultimate society was at the time. You put it in the context in terms of the time. You look at how it relates to the other Gospels and how it relates to the New Testament. So in a sense, you're correct, but we're still not there.

How do we know the Word of God is inerrant truth? Okay, but I'm an unbeliever and I don't believe that. What do you mean it's from God? That's not convincing to me. Even if it's a historical document and we can look at it in prophecy, Doug, yes, correct, but I'm not a believer. how can I be convinced, and I'm telling you I can't be convinced as I don't believe this is the word of God, the inerrant word of God. You're right. As a believer you cannot be convinced. Okay, so what allows us as believers to accept this as the inerrant word of God?

Well, people have died. People have died for the sake of God. You know, they have been willing, like with Paul, when he died. did what they did. I mean, they all have said the same thing. They all, at different times, like what you said. Everything I'm saying is true, but I think you're stopping short. Stan?

The whole purpose, one of the purposes and one of the themes in 1 John is why he wrote this so that you may believe. That's a quote from the book. And one of the things he constantly talks about in the book of 1 John, another one of the themes, is fellowship. Fellowship of man through the Trinity. And then he tells you how.

And it's through faith in Jesus Christ. Monique was absolutely right when she said the only way you get to this is faith. You have to have a certain aspect of faith to be able to do this. That's why so many people in the scientific community will not and cannot believe because they rely totally on their senses. You're an exception. But many of the people... I've been told that before by other people.

Most scientific and very logical people that I know cannot get into the true meaning of scripture because they don't have the faith. And the Holy Spirit is not working through their faith to help understand the scripture. The Holy Spirit moves in our hearts and minds and confirms that which is true. What takes you from being an unsaved person to coming to Christ?

Guidance. Okay, but what's the principle? Belief. Belief. And what's the belief based on? Well, you have to be willing. You have to be willing. No, what is the truth of the Gospel for the individual believer? But you're a sinner, you have to understand you're a sinner. Now we're moving on. Okay, so before God we're totally unrighteous. And who's the Lord Jesus Christ?

He in fact came to pay the price of all sin for all men for all time. Alright, so for the individual coming to that fact that, I love this phrase, I'm not sure I coined this but I use it all the time. The cross is the great equalizer of all man for all time. Everybody's equal at the foot of the cross.

Okay, so to be a believer now, we've come to the point to say, God, without you, I'm nothing. But putting our faith in what the cross represents, the Son of God being crucified for not only the sins of the whole world, but for my sin, to be saved by that truth then says, gee, if that's true, what about the rest of this stuff? So I think we grow to accept the Word of God as inherent in the fact that when we know the truth of our personal salvation, we start saying, gee, when I start realizing God's great grace to save me and who I am and what I represent, to then think, gee, God created the heavens and the earth in six days? I mean I start opening up my mind and spirit-led understanding that the what he says about me is true that is so well documented in the scripture that other things of God start to fall into place in terms of by faith stat I'm accepting beyond the fact that for me individually God has paid the price. Yes. And I want to add to that that even the simple thing of seeing yourself as a sinner maybe I'm just stupid. but I never saw that until it was revealed to me from God.

People told me that forever and I kept saying, but I haven't done anything bad. Are men basically good or basically bad? What a great conversation. And I would say 90% of the world, unsaved world, some of the saved world actually, I'm sorry, but man's basically good. Oh yeah, there's these little flaws that come up now but man's basically good.

Somebody told me that once and I said, and I thought, I seriously thought about this and I contemplated it and I remembered that I took a stapler from Coors when I worked there. Fifteen years prior to the guy telling me that. Did you send it back? I would have, you know, and I was seriously thinking about it because I thought, if this is what it takes to rectify my situation, it's only the cost of a stapler.

I'm starting to question your salvation. No, you see what I'm driving at, though? It's our own personal salvation that starts opening up the fact that this has got to be in there, because as we get into it more detail, we can't pick and choose. Gee, if it's his truth about my salvation is there, what about all this other stuff in here?

And then, Doug, you turn to the prophecy, and then you turn to the historical record, then you turn to the deaths on behalf of an early church for the gospel, and then it all starts getting tucked in. And, you know, we can believe God's future prophecy. Why? Why can we believe what things are prophetic for the times to come? The period of the Antichrist and the Tribulation and the Millennium. What's the basis of our believing that?

But the past even doesn't become reality until we come to a saving relationship. And part of that's really believing everything about the Lord Jesus Christ, what his prophecy was to him, ultimately the events of Calvary, and everything that's happened subsequently. I used to read, and I would read with the intent to find something that was a contradiction, because that's just the way that I am, analytically. And when I find something, I'd say, Aha!

See, this is wrong. Now, after doing all the Bible studies and stuff, and I'm much older, and hopefully some wiser, I read the Bible, but when I find a contradiction, I say, what don't I understand here? And so that requires more study, so I can put the answer to the contradiction, so it's no longer a contradiction. Because there are no contradictions. I just have to find one. I forgot the verse, but it's precept on precept. I can understand that better than I can understand why me and not Doyle's friend across the street. How come I understand it and the person next door doesn't understand it? That's always a puzzle. I don't remember which chapter. And again, for Randy next week, I mean, we're going to, well, maybe even this week. I'll delay that. It's all relevant. Bob's going to knock out two weeks. We're taking next week off.

Basically, you're saying the first thing people have to do is recognize that they are sinners. That's the bottom line. Next, okay, so there is a greater spirit, the great white spirit that causes all of this. So that's a whole lot easier for me to address. and people, because you can just shoot that down with all kinds of glory and everything, and say, okay, well, I believe in God, but I don't believe this, and you have to prove it one step at a time. Right. That's where it really comes.

Had you're so right, I think that gets into the next point on page 35, is that the Bible is necessary for spiritual growth and understanding. When I got saved, I still didn't believe that this was the inner world of God. All I know is I needed Christ. You begin with milk. What's milk?

1 Peter 2.2 says, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. So what's this milk stuff?

Enlightening, really enlightening about the, I don't know, who he really is saying, hey there's something, there must be something doing this. You get more into it, right? You start to grow and you start to finally understand more things about what that salvation means. But more gets revealed to you and I suppose more gets revealed to you even the day before you die because there's new stuff constantly that you're learning.

What kinds of things might we define as meat then? I mean, would be accepting the word of God as inerrant be milk or meat? Meat. Well, it might be milk. You might need to have that be part of milk before you get into the meat. That's the last part of the milk. Because at that point in time, suddenly you get something. That's the jarred baby food. You're starting to get into solids. Again, remember, this is not scriptural. What we're doing is trying to interpret this for our conversational purposes. But milk is the basics, and I think at the end of the milk trough, clearly you can't have meat until you accept the Word of God as inherent and the only source of truth. Right.

Another way that I think would be interesting to look at that milk and meat is you look at the death, burial, resurrection, seeding, and ascension of Christ. I think the death and burial are milk. Understanding what the resurrection means, understanding the ascension and the seeding, that's when you're starting to get into the meat of what your relationship is with Christ. Okay, so would you, Kurt, then go on to say that, and I'm just going to kind of challenge you with this a little bit then, is Milk believing you've been saved, i.e. who you were in Adam and now you're in Christ? I mean, not necessarily a mature, understated position, but at least you're saved and that you have life eternal. All the body of Christ who have the ability to reason know that they have eternal life, right?

I mean, if you're not there, it's a shame. Or you can lose your salvation. I think that's milk, to lose your salvation. But how you live the Christian life is... Remember, I was saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved. It seems to me that I was saved as basic milk. I will be saved as milk. but I'm being saved, we start asking how we live the Christian life. So how we live the Christian life, it can be milk. I'm going to try hard to please God. That's kind of milk, isn't it?

I mean, I came to the Lord and boy, what do I do to pay God back? What a wonderful thing he's given. and you start on the path of works. They may be partly based on faith, but what happens when we get into this mindset of paying God back for his great grace? When was the last time you had infinite resources?

Would it be fair to say that the meat for the believers started to see, ultimately, that it wasn't just our sins that were forgiven, but that we were co-crucified with Christ and buried with Him in baptism unto death and risen with Him in newness of life. I mean, now we're starting to get into who we are in Christ and what the Christ life is all about. The meat is how, I mean, this is my opinion, the meat is kind of how we live the Christian life. Now we're getting deeper.

Now you can't just say, I've been on milk for a long time and I just want to be on milk for the rest of my life. In fact, 1 Corinthians 3 is an example of the carnal church, if you will. They've been on milk only and they're kind of living on milk. You know, the old man, the Adam nature still does what he wants and they think that's all fine. Oh yeah, I'm saved. But, you know, the meat is translated, I think, into the young man and the old man having grown into the truth of what Christian life is all about.

And by the way, we don't measure that for one another. It's not my job to look at Bud and say, gee, Bud, you know, what's going on? I mean, we encourage one another in the thing. I mean, that's part of the body. that this isn't for us to judge one another unless it's an apparent outward sin that the body needs to be able to stand.

I just wanted to add that I think that again back to 1 John where it talks about the fellowship. It's like if you have a close friend initially you don't know much about that person or do you know much about yourself toward that person. Okay but as you get into this relationship and into this fellowship you learn more about that other person, and through that other person you learn a lot more about yourself. Okay, this fellowship with God is basically the same thing. The more and the deeper you get into the fellowship, the more that you read the Word, the more that you pray, the more that you participate in being a Christian, you find out the holiness of God, and the forgiveness of God, and the love of God, and who God is. And through the process of finding out, and this is the me, of finding out who God is, your reflection through Him comes back to you and you find out so much more about yourself. Many times, not things that you really want to know, but also many times things that you never knew and the fact that you are strong and courageous and all the other things that you can do through God. As the light gets brighter, the cave of the dead man becomes revealed for more of what he really is. We don't dwell there, we thank God for the grace to move on.

Notice this theme here, the Bible is necessary for spiritual growth and understanding, and 2 Peter 3.18 says it well, but grow imperative in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. both now and the day of eternity. Right? It's the constant revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ that is our growth. But not only Jesus, but God and the Holy Spirit. The whole trinity. Sure. It's so important. Well, you can't separate it. You can't separate it. Yeah, right.

Well, that's why the Old Testament sometimes, you know, if you just read the New Testament, you can get saved, you can be a Christian. You don't need that. The Old Testament is written to be people of the back. is where a lot of your education comes in.

You understand a little better how God is working in your life and how he does work. But I would say a great error of our time is in many churches ultimately they're studying judges and trying to apply the legal system that was intended for Israel to the believer. Nothing wrong with judges. It's a perfect part of God's inerrant work.

But the thing is context. We've got to study in context. And it took us 20 minutes to get there. But the sinner has to recognize that they're a sinner. And that's what God is doing by giving His law and things along those lines. In the Old Testament, He's telling these people that He is Savior. You need something to make it right. And the blood of bulls and goats can never take away that.

The thing, I remember a quote, Mike was leading a service, this had to be three years ago, and he read a quote from Hungry Heart, and my rough recollection of it is that spiritual growth happens when we realize what's already true of us in Christ. It's true.

And unless you study God's Word and have an understanding of God's Word, where it tells you who you are in Christ, particularly from the Pauline epistles, you've got No matter how much meat might be right there for you to grasp, you may not understand it because you don't know who you are in Christ.

Yeah, and along that line, let me just say about the study of the book of Ephesians, which is Randy and I are going to be co-teaching that with a couple of other guys, but Ephesians establishes firmly in position in the first three chapters. And by the way, a lot of people turn to 4 and 5 and 6 in terms of what the Christian life should be like, but keep in mind is what 4, 5, and 6 are is reflecting who we are in Christ in 1 through 3. This is what the Christ life looks like. You can't go to 4 through 6 without being firmly founded in 1 through 3.

So just a perfect example of that. We turn to page 36 at the top, it says, rightfully so, a verse that we reflect on frequently in this body of believers here at Holly Hills is, but we all with unveiled face beholding as an emir of the glory of the Lord are being transformed in the same image, glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. I mean, how about the Trinity in that verse?

And how about the fact that, you know, that this This idea, what's the will of God for our lives? To be conformed to the image of his son. Is the will for me to sell my house Or is God's will for me this job versus that job? Or is God's will for me to ultimately choose this versus that? I get so tired of, that's milk. The milk is God's will for this circumstance. No, God's will is to conform us to the image of his son. And to bring glory to himself. Exactly. And this is from glory to glory. This is in 318.

And so don't get so strung out on the small details about what God's will is. I mean, many things are amoral. That means if it's a white car or black car we're going to buy, what the heck, you know? That doesn't mean we choose sin. But by the way, even if we fall into sin, God's will is us to be conformed to the image of his son. Don't choose sin. None of us want to do that, but we all do at times, don't we?

But we're forgiven immediately, the cross is sufficient, and that's conforming us increasingly into the will of God. So this, you know, being in a position of beholding the mirror of the glory of the Lord and reflecting on who we are in Christ ultimately is part of the process of the image of His glory to be seen in our lives. And ultimately bringing glory to Him. Now, the unbeliever and the out-of-fellowship or immature believer have limited understanding And we see examples there.

Look at 1 Corinthians 2.14-16.

But the natural man, number one, doesn't accept the things of the Spirit of God. What do you mean this is inerrant? I don't believe it. So you have no conversation. They don't accept this as being a thing of the Spirit of God. These are foolishness. These things are foolishness to him or her. can't understand. Notice, no ability to understand. You have no conversation. Why? Because they're all spiritually discerned or appraised. But he who is spiritual praises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. Very important.

The conversation with the world is like oil and water. You need, from a scientific perspective, an emulsifier. What's an emulsifier do? It allows the oil and the water to be mixed. You need the Holy Spirit as an emulsifier to have a conversation with the world.

By the way, it's the Spirit's act. We can have a conversation with the world, but we need to start having the oil and water get merged by the power of the Spirit in that conversation. If we are seeing no emulsification taking place, we have no conversation. You can't intellectually convince somebody that this is the inner glory of God.

But the spirit allows the process by which you've been saved to be shared with the unbeliever. The testimony of an individual would often be the spirit-led emulsification process. Each one of us hangs out in our own world system. And our mission field are those people we hang out with. and ultimately the life that God has created within us will hopefully bring curiosity to those who are unsaved about our life and allow that to be a witness unto them. Okay, now we've got the problem with the body of Christ in its own right. 1 Corinthians 3, 1-4.

Brethren, I can't speak to you as spiritual men. Why not? Because you're kind of like men of the flesh. this milk stuff you're still on, not solid food. If you're able to get the meat, and I can appeal to you with the meat, you'd be able to take it, but you're not able to take it. Even as now, you're not able, for you're in the flesh. Since there's jealousy and strife, among you? Are you not fleshly? Are you not walking like mere men?

When one says, I am a Paul, and another, I'm a Paul, are you not mere men? What Paul is saying here is even among our fellow believers, there are those who cannot really be appealed to in terms of the truth of the growth in the Word of God. It doesn't mean we don't keep encouraging and trying, but All right, so we're challenged then, next point is our approach must be with diligence. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. I left the King James there better.

It's also interesting on that previous passage about Paul when he's talking about Apollos. I think that's one of the great passages to reveal Paul's learned humility. God really started off saying that Paul kind of had this problem with pride. He talked about all the things that he was and Benjamin and all this stuff. Even when he first came to the Lord on Damascus, Jesus said he would have to suffer much. Here, he's saying it doesn't make any difference whether it's me or Apollos. Bring glory to God. Bring glory to God. Don't look at me.

Isn't that awesome? A very proud, intellectual man To me, that's just amazing. What a change. He also saw himself as the chief of sinners. So he knew God so well, just like you were saying, that he said, well wait a minute, if God is that holy, I'm the chief of sinners. I mean, that's a mind-boggling thing too. And he was perfect. He didn't even steal his tape record. But you know he was so humble.

Let's really dissect this verse a little bit because I think it's such an important verse. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God. What do you make of that? What's that say? Be diligent? I'm going to make my mind up here. Is that what we're talking about here?

What makes us approved to God to begin with? We're seated in heavenly places in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So be diligent, present yourself, approve to God. That's our active faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and who we are positionally, right? Well, it says approve to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. What's a workman? Study to show thyself for proven that God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.

This is King James. I love it. Right. Okay. So who does not need to be ashamed? Yeah, I think you need to come to this passage with some knowledge of God and how great he is and how powerful and all. I mean, here's this. How do you define God? I mean, he is eternity. And what's eternity? So you come to this passage knowing how great God is and that I am but a human being and a sinner.

What's that called? What's that called, Stan? What's that called? I don't know what it's called. It's called grace, isn't it? We don't realize who God is. So why are we not ashamed? How's that grace principle played out? Why are we not ashamed? Because of Jesus.

Exactly. Because we're identified with Him. And because we're identified with Him, it doesn't matter who we are or what we do, because we're identified with Him, the Lord only sees Christ when He looks at us. And therefore, We can stand in his presence and we're not ashamed to be in his presence. That's right. So, so true. Accurately handling the Word of Truth. That's why, again, come back to where we started today, the inerrant Word of God. Notice that's accurately handling the word of truth.

So somebody comes to me and says, well, Epple, what about back here in Nehemiah 4.2, where it says whatever it says.

And I'm going to say, well, let's go back in context and look at that verse and see to whom it was written, what the circumstances were surrounding it, and appropriately interpreting it. Now, this is the crucial part of today's lesson, I think. We start with objective observations. Let's read that lead-in paragraph. We examine a passage of God given scripture for objective facts regarding the elements of language, history, and culture that fit the passage in question.

In order to have confidence that those observations will provide the basis for one singular meaning that God intended, the one correct interpretation of the passage, our observations will fulfill the following criteria. Number one, the observations are complete. So we look at a passage and there's no missing information. The observations do not include any misinformation. mistaken observations, or the observations do not include any from outside the context of language, history, and culture.

So when we have a sufficiently complete set of objective observations, we'll begin to be able to use those observations to logically arrive at one interpretation. Keep in mind, God's word is written to be perfectly clear. And if the verse or passage itself is not clear, that means that maybe there's additional information that allows us to interpret it more so by referring to other scripture to clarify in context what that means.

In a sense, allegories. And again, Rand, you'll get into this next week, but the book of Revelation is full of allegories. So we could give examples. I gave passages for him to look at. Well, let's even consider a passage that I really like. For me to live is Christ. Now is that in its own right an interpretable passage? What if I were teaching somebody for me to live as Christ and die as Gain? Alright, so where would you begin by providing necessary context for me to live as Christ? Let's say you're an unbeliever. What does it mean to live as Christ?

What is that? Where would you go next? Romans. Well, Romans I would put in there, but I would delay it slightly. How about 2 Corinthians 5.17? Let's turn to that. whoever gets it, read it. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old thing passed away. Behold, new things have come. Alright, so now for me to live as Christ and die as Cain begins with the fact that we're seen as new creations in Christ. Okay, so then, Margaret, I agree. Then Romans 6, 3 and 4, I've been crucified with Christ, buried with him in baptism unto death, and risen with him in newness of life.

And then we go to Romans 8.2. So even if God's word is perfectly true when he says, for me to live as Christ and die as Cain, as we provide expansive understanding of that, we can drill down to understand perfectly well what it means.

Romans 8.2, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death. So here we are, for me to live as Christ. Gee, what's that mean? Well, it means I'm seen as a new creation in Christ. and that in Christ I've been crucified with him, buried with him in the baptism of death, risen with him in the newness of life, and now it puts me under the law of the Spirit of Christ, which is really a life led by the Holy Spirit.

I mean, in other words, I'm just giving you one simple verse for me to live as Christ, and saying that if the observation that we're making from that verse isn't complete, we can find scripture and make it complete. And in a sense, all of Scripture is that way. But keep in mind, God is perfectly clear on His intent. Roger, go ahead.

Part of this is that your spiritual maturity at any one point may prevent you from coming to that conclusion. What you shared with us is your understanding over a long time period to explain that verse. you spent years, in a sense, studying that verse because you studied other aspects of that.

So, you know, for a person to, you know, a young believer wouldn't maybe get a totally different interpretation of that verse. And that's what's difficult because you interface with other believers and they'll say, well, I don't see how you got that. And part of it is just simply not growing to that point. And so we're all kind of at different stages. Right. So as you explain it, a person may say, well, I don't, I don't quite see how you got that.

And that's, I mean, that's what Bible studies all about, but it's, but that's something to realize that as you share with people, they may not be on the same page with you and your, and the desire is that they, we all be on the same page, especially like in a local body here. And that's, that's part of the, for us to be on the same page. So that no one person is saying, well, how did Vern get that? Or how did Bob get that? Or Mike get that? Well, this isn't a go-to-the-head-of-the-class kind of scenario. We all need to grow by grace.

But what we're saying here is that when we start with objective observations, sometimes we need to expand a single verse or a section of the Scripture to make sure that we understand and clarify what that means. Stan? And if you go to the third one here, it says, observations do not include any from outside the context of language, history, and culture.

And then if you go to that verse, and you think that here's Paul, who's a Pharisee, who was a Jew of Jews, who persecuted the church, who came to his ministry after Christ had already died. And Judaism was extremely strong during this period of time. And for this man, with just a few things that I mentioned about his culture and history, for him to say that is amazing. There's something powerful in the fact that this man said that right before he was going to die. Wow. What a statement.

And that's what makes growth in grace so wonderful, because as we increasingly get into God's truth. The revelation of what he has for us, in context, based on the entire Word of God, is further substantiated. It's unbelievable how much we grow in grace. By the way, we've all experienced this, I think.

You think you have a passage down and understood, and then you go back to it again, maybe 18 months later, and you take another look. I mean, how many times have I taught Romans, and how many times more would I love to teach it, because it just grows and grows and matures. It's not intellectual arrogance. It's not pride. It's humility, the process by which growth occurs.

The example here is that Christ, for example, proved the Sadducees quite wrong with a verb tense. Let's look at this. But Jesus answered and said to them, you are mistaken, not understanding the scriptures nor the power of God, for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. He was asking, the Pharisees were asking about marriage in heaven, right? Of course they were asking for wrong reasons. But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God? I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. What's genomic? Well, that's nomic. Nominative? Nomic present tense. I am, meaning now. Okay, so that's nominative, probably. Paul appealed to the clear historical sequence of law and grace to convey that we live under the principle of grace and no longer under the principle of law. I mean, I think the I am, they took back to Abraham, right?

Well, the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection. The Sadducees, there's no resurrection, so they're asking him, you know, why do you believe in the resurrection? And he's saying, well, because God says, I am the God of Jacob, and that these people are the living. They will be resurrected. So that's his point there. The resurrection is a true thing. Because these people, I am their God and they are not done away with and never to be seen again. Of course they view this as heresy because he stated that I am is the great I am, right? He is in fact God eternal.

That's a different context. Yeah, I don't know if that's the context of that verse, but I'm not sure. He was saying I am is the present tense, not the past tense. Because Abraham was gone and so was Jacob. But I don't know if that was a claim to the end. No, it doesn't talk about it. This isn't Christ claiming to be, he's just referring to the present. It's really talking about the tense. Right.

Well, if you were going to define eternity, and a person who is eternal, or a thing that's eternal, you would say, I am. because I was would be the past, I am going to be would be the future. So if you're eternal, you would say, I am. The ever-present one. Always. Which includes the past and the future.

Our modern languages are really not geared towards that kind of mindset. We're like really today, tomorrow, yesterday. You're kind of saying my mind's not A gear to this book. Ruby. That's why we have a language history. So we have to guide us into the truth. Okay we need to wrap up on page 37 then at the top it says we proceed by logic to the one correct interpretation of those objective observations and we'll not kind of deal with the first series of examples but if you jump to the bottom Romans 15 4 through 6 for whatsoever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may have one voice glorifying God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. All scripture has one intended clear meaning. We may be confused on that, that's our confusion. And as we continue to drill down and understand the word of God better by his great grace and our own humility and the power of the spirit, ultimately clarity can be brought forth. I'm sure there, I was hoping to maybe find an area where there might be quite a bit of controversy about a verse and see if we could clarify that today, but I didn't get to that point.

But Randy's going to pick up next week then and kind of look at scales of context in the Bible. And I printed out this this language being figurative for you, and he may use that next week. I'll leave that up to him. That's actually really, I recently came up with somebody I was talking with. In what context? The language, well, how do we know that Genesis 1 is not figurative? Thus justifying an evolutionary process. So it's interesting.

Alright, thanks for your input everybody. Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you so much for our opportunity of coming together and looking at your word and looking at how it impacts our lives and how we can study it and know it with certainty. We ask that you would continue to open our eyes to various ways in which case we might have incorrectly understood your word so that we may continue to grow it. Thank you for identifying us with you in Jesus' name. Amen.