And our desire. Some people have been asking us
lately, what's the goal? What's the goal?
For the church, for the ministry of NBC, I can tell you this,
we're not looking to grow in size just for the sake of having
a bigger ministry. If we can, however, facilitate a
greater space for more people to come to receive instruction and
guidance and inspiration like what you're hearing today,
that's that's our dream that more people would hear the
unadulterated word of God being preached and shared and to
mobilize and equip more Christians.
And so that's been our prayer lately in this time, in this day
and age, we want. To see a revival and a revival
that we're praying for is not a revival of emotionalism or
sensationalism, but a revival of the Bible.
You know, the Bible being rediscovered and loved, and if
you actually look at the Old Testament carefully every time
there's a significant reformation.
It always boils down to a rediscovery of the law of the
Word of God and, and, and appreciation and irreverence
toward it. So thank you so much again for
your prayers and for your giving.
We, we, we give glory to God for all of them.
Why don't we pray before we continue?
Lord, we acknowledge that there is such a tangible sense of love
in this place. To be amongst people who have
the same desire and the same goal of knowing you through Your
word is a is a treasure in itself.
And as we approach these final moments, we pray that Your
Spirit would be with us in a more real way and that we would
sense the the grace of God upon our learning.
We pray, Lord, that as we leave this place in a few moments, we
would leave here with joy. We would leave here with the
same testimony as those two on the road to Emmaus.
Did not our hearts burn within us when the Scriptures were
opened up to us? And so, Lord, may there be no
confusion. May there be nothing that would
interfere with the transmission of truth that will take place.
Now we ask these things in Jesus name, Amen and Amen, Amen.
So we are now embarking on a Part 2 for these tools for
deeper study in the Word of God. I want to say to begin that
everything that you have heard thus far and everything that you
will hear. In this last hour are tools that
I personally implement on a regular basis.
I could have easily, we could have easily just grabbed a
famous well known book or seminary kind of hermeneutic.
Hermeneutic is just a kind of a fancy word for interpretation.
We could have grabbed this science book, this interpretive
kind of method and just put it together on the slides and give
it to you. But my conviction was I don't
want to go beyond anything that I do.
So everything that you hear on a Friday and a Sunday stems from
what you're hearing here, which means that you may be aware of
more tools than what's presented today.
And there are same not to say they're not valuable and not to
say that there isn't room for growth on my end.
But what you're hearing today is what I can think of as a regular
kind of approach that I have towards the Bible.
And so really. You're seeing my tool belt from
Monday to Thursday. And I hope it's something that
will inspire you. So just to give you a heads up,
we won't be looking at things like Hebrew or Greek.
We won't be looking anything in depth with grammar, though.
That's very important. We won't be looking anything in
depth with Chiastic. Structures.
Have you heard of chiastic structures?
Yeah, how certain texts are structured in a way where you
have a kind of like a mirroring taking place.
You have a ABBCCNNX marks the spot where the passage in the
center is the main point of the message.
That's also valuable in some context.
But we're not going to be looking at these things.
Once again, what you're hearing is what's deep in my heart and
and things that I implement on a regular basis.
So we are now at tool number. Six types and shadows.
Types and shadows. Have you heard of the phrase?
Have you heard people mentioning types and shadows?
What does it mean? Well, types and shadows are Old
Testament persons, objects, symbols, events, or practices.
You can even include their places that prophetically
foreshadow New Testament realities, primarily focusing on
the person of Jesus Christ and the Gospel.
Why say? Primarily is because, as Charles
Spurgeon said, listen to this quote.
The scriptures are like the swaddling.
Clothes of the holy child Jesus, unroll them and there you find
your Savior. The essence of the word of God
is Christ. That's such a Spurgeon quote,
isn't it? Only he can say things like
this. The Prince of Preachers for a
reason, so that. That is something that we
understand. The Spurgeon is not making a
unique observation here. We know that Christ himself
advocated for. His person, his ministry, his
work being the golden thread of the Bible.
We see from Genesis all the way to the New Testament.
And So what types and shadows permit us to do is to look at
the Hebrew Scriptures and to see where can I find Christ?
Where can I find gospel truths? But more than that, we can also
see things for our own worship, for our own sanctification, for
our own personal application, which we'll get into in a
moment. But I want us to look at briefly
here where types and shadows come from.
And what we're going to find is that it is not, again, something
external imposed on the reality of the Bible.
It is something that is found within the Bible itself.
So let's consider this. Look what Paul says in First
Corinthians 10/11. He writes, now these things
happen to them as an example. Now who is he talking about?
He's actually reflecting on the wilderness journey of the nation
of Israel, and he's applying it to the consecration of the
Corinthians. And he says this, he makes this
known. Now these things happen to them
as an example. But they were.
Written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has
come. Now the Greek word for example
is 2 posts. Now the Greek speaking people
here. If I said that wrong, I
apologize, but it's where we get the word type from and it
appears many times in the New Testament and this is an
exemplary place to consider it. The word example there is a word
type, so you can understand in the following way.
Now these things happen to them as a type, as a model, as a
pattern, as a picture, right? And he's again pointing to the
Israelites in the wilderness. What about what he says to the
Colossians in Colossians 216? Therefore let no one pass
judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard
to a festival or a new moon or Sabbath.
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance
belongs to Christ. And that's really the main point
of the author of Hebrews, where the Jewish believers at the time
were making their way back to the Levitical system.
And the author of Hebrews is elaborating on what Paul is
saying here. Look, you're going back to the
shadow. The substance is in Christ.
Now, if I see a shadow, depending on where I'm
positioned, a shadow in a sense announces the arrival of
somebody or the arrival of something.
And what the New Testament is saying about the old is as
though there is rather practical and historical value to those
texts. It ultimately is pointing to a
greater. Reality, something to come more
more real and more substantial. And this is what we find here.
We have types and shadows. So here's some questions that we
want to be asking. About types and shadows, very
straightforward. Nothing profound about them, but
something along the lines of #1 Is there any part of the
character story? If I'm looking at a character in
the Old Testament, a person in the Old Testament, is there any
component about their story, their experience that
illustrates a New Testament truth, including Christ?
Do we see Paul doing this in Romans?
We do. In Romans 514.
He compares Christ, or he contrasts Christ rather with
Adam, and he makes a different points.
One of the points is in the same way that Adam's disobedience led
to the fall of all man, Christ obedience leads to the
redemption of all man. So you see this type and anti
type, right? In the same way that Adam was
like a federal head for humanity, that the consequences
of his actions impacted his descendants, namely us.
In the same way Christ now enters the scene and he's going
to perform righteousness and his actions will then impact those
who are his lineage, his spiritual descendants.
And so we see this practice of is there something in the Old
Testament character story that points to Christ and Adam is
just the beginning, literally the beginning.
And we have permission to look at various characters moving
forward with that same principle in mind.
Another thing to consider number 2, is there any ceremony, many
ceremonies in the Old Testament, any ritual, any feast or symbol
that points to a new covenant principle?
So Old Testament law is not binding on us.
We know that, but that doesn't mean that we can't learn
something from them, even the feasts, right?
So one way to approach Leviticus, if I can use that
example, is what's Leviticus really about in terms of
principle? It's about worship.
How to approach God in worship.
OK, these specific instructions no longer apply, but what themes
or motifs or attitudes or approaches about worship can I
now make in light of the new covenant?
And there's a lot to learn about worship.
You have the the burnt offering in the beginning, the whole
beast is to be placed on the altar.
That says something about our worship, isn't it?
At least it should. And that's a very preliminary
kind of understanding of these things #3 is there any object or
event that foreshadows a gospel truth?
Yes. We can even get down to objects
and events that seem unrelated to gospel realities but are in
fact very much related. So I put 2 references there.
One is Hebrews 1310, where the author of Hebrews says we have
an altar, right? He's talking to these Hebrew
Christians that want to go back to the temple and they want to
be brought back into that whole life of Judaism and they don't
want to be ostracized anymore. They don't want to be
persecuted. They don't want to betray their
ancestors. So what does the author do?
He goes, you want to go back to the altar so badly.
Do you understand that? We have an altar, We have a
greater altar that they cannot partake of.
And the altar ultimately is the gospel.
It's the work of Jesus Christ. What about what the Lord said in
John 314 when He points to an event and an object, the brazen
serpent that was lifted up, right?
And out of all the things that he could have said about that,
the only thing that Christ mentions at this point before
Nicodemus is in the same way that serpent was lifted up, so
the Son of Man will be lifted up, right?
Just the lifting up was a point of application, or at least a
type and a shadow concerning Christ.
Here's a very important rule. If it doesn't fit a strong and
clear New Testament paradigm, don't force it.
Don't force it. Do people force it?
All the time, all the time. And I don't want to sound too
subjective here, but in many ways there is a ring to it when,
when somebody interprets a type or a shadow or points one out
and it's, it's true, it's consistent, it's spirit LED it,
it sounds right when it's forced, you can feel it as it's
being explained. Like you're going too far,
brother. You're, you're, you're, you're
looking too deep into this, right?
So people ask them, what's the rule for types and shadows?
Let the New Testament be your guide.
Is this a strong New Testament paradigm that you're trying to
apply this to? Is this something that is
amplified in the new covenant? Is it complemented well?
Does it fit? Does it make sense?
Or are you trying to just expound on something for other
reasons? So here's a bad example with
this. I'm going to pick on the Mormons
a little bit today. OK, We heard about the Mormons
earlier. I'm going to bring them up again
because why? Well, they, they, they appeal to
the Bible. That's why.
So let me, let me. Before I go here, actually, I'll
just keep it. So here I am.
When I used to live closer to the city, there was a particular
park where I used to live. The park was by the house I used
to live in. And I would frequently,
especially in the spring or summertime, go out to that park
'cause they had kind of like a, a little track, if you would,
not a official track, but just just a pathway to walk around
and jog. And, and so I would always go
there. I was so close and I would just
walk and I would just use that time to pray, just walk and pray
and sit on the park bench sometimes and just meditate and
enjoy nature and just just walk with the Lord.
And I won this. On this particular day, I'm
walking and what catches my peripheral are two guys with
bright white dress. Shirts and bicycles, you know,
sound familiar? And so I look over and I
realized that they're on the opposite end of the track and
they're sitting on the bench. So I thought, OK, I'm on my way
there. I'm going to, I'm going to rest
by the bench too, you know. And so I make my way there and I
plot my side myself beside them. And I just.
They were young, 1819 years old. If you don't know anything about
Mormon doctrine or Mormon practice, if you're a serious
Mormon, you will dedicate 2 years of your life to missions.
That you will. You will.
Just give up the prime of your life, especially to go to a
different nation or state and just.
Wherever you go, you're going to preach and you're going to knock
on doors and you're going to bike around town and you're
going to try to evangelize people.
You're going to give up two years of your life just for that
goal. And that's what these kids were
doing. And they they came to Chicago.
That's where they were sent by their elders.
And so I just asked some questions, what they're doing
around here, this and that. And finally we got.
To talk about the differences between Christianity and
Mormonism. And finally, one of these young
men very innocently said, well, do you understand that the the
Bible speaks about the Book of Mormon?
I said, really, tell me where I must have missed it.
And he goes, it's in Ezekiel 37. I said, where in Ezekiel 37.
And he goes, well, when, when Ezekiel receives a vision about
two sticks, let me read it to you.
Ezekiel 37, verse 15, The word of the Lord came to me, Son of
man, take a stick and write on it for Judah and the people of
Israel associated with them. And take another stick and write
on it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the House of
Israel associated with him. And I'm reading as I'm saying.
Tell me where the Book of Mormon is in this.
He goes well, the sticks represent books, and the stick
for Judah symbolizes the Bible and the stick.
For Joseph symbolizes the Book of Mormon, and what you see in
this prophecy is that God wants to combine the Bible and the
Book of Mormon to be 1 unit again.
And I said, did you keep reading the prophecy or did you just
stop with verse 15? Did you honor rule #3?
He said rule #3 no joke, I didn't go there.
I said, did you look? At the before and after the
text, what is he talking about? He's talking about the
reunification of the nation of Israel.
It was divided Northern Kingdom, southern Kingdom, and there's a
time coming, this prophecy is sharing that there's a time
coming where they'll become one Kingdom again.
Where did you get? Books from well, that's that's
the literal meaning, but there's a spiritual meaning.
Really this is an example of if it doesn't fit strong and clear
New Testament paradigm. Don't force it.
And that's a really extreme example, right?
I mean, a whole cult started from this and that's what it can
lead to. And so you have to be, you have
to be very understanding where in the new.
Testament. Do you find what you are trying
to explain or what you're trying to prove?
So is there more evidence in the New Testament that Jesus is the
Ark of the covenant? Or Mary might have stepped on
some toes there. Because what do our Catholic
friends want to say that Mary? Is the Ark of the Covenant.
So is there any hint in the New Testament that Mary?
Is the presence of God on earth, or do we see in John one that
Jesus dwelt among men? In the original word for dwelt
there is tabernacled. Do we see in Hebrews?
How there are all these different facets of the
Tabernacle that point to a facet of the ministry of Christ.
What one holds more weight, right?
So this is a bad example. But let's consider a good
example. Joseph.
That's not an actual picture of Joseph.
Joseph is one of the most compelling cases for Types and
shadows concerning Christ. Let's open it up here.
What elements of Joseph's story stand out to you to point to a
facet of the ministry or the person or the work or the
experience of our Lord Jesus? Any idea?
Let's let's share this time together.
Yes, he suffered. Yes.
Yes, he was rejected. Who was he rejected?
By? His own brothers?
Yes. Anything else?
Redemption. Yes, forgiveness.
Beautiful. He forgave those who rejected
him unjustly. Accused.
Sure. He marries A Gentile bride.
Is Jesus married? Gentile bride?
Yes. The church is a picture of
church, yes. Anything else?
Say that again. Right hand of power, yes.
No sin is mentioned of him. Yes, that's a good point.
Betrayed. Absolutely.
He's a saviour. Saviour of who?
The world, yeah. OK, there is something there for
sure. Absolutely.
Anything else? He reveals himself to his
brothers. Very good.
He was loved greatly by his father.
So good. I mean, we're everybody here is
ready to do an Old Testament study.
It's it's on the life of Joseph. This is excellent.
Yeah. Anything else?
Maybe a couple more. Yes that's a big one actually.
Very good. These are all great points.
You already mentioned most of them.
Like Joseph Jesus was persecuted by his brothers.
Like Joseph, Jesus was rejected but sent to the Gentiles.
Like Joseph, Jesus rejection led to the salvation of the world.
Like Joseph, Jesus's flesh and blood did not recognize him.
Like Joseph, this point really excites me.
Look at this in Genesis 45 verse one.
Then Joseph cannot control himself before all those who
stood by him, those were his brothers.
He cried. Make everyone go out for me, so
no one stay with him. When Joseph made himself known
to his. Brothers, did the Jews recognize
Jesus today? There's a remnant, but most of
them don't. But there's a day coming where
he's going to reveal himself, and his brothers will recognize
him, and they will mourn after him whom they have pierced
right? And they will believe on him,
and they will recognize that he was their Savior and the Ruler
all along. Doesn't that ring right?
Doesn't that feel right? Right.
This, this, this is a mess, right?
Two sticks means two books. Joseph, because of the word
Joseph means Joseph Smith, their prophet.
Where are you getting that from #7 We talked about.
Types and shadows. This is close to it, but with
types and shadows, we're starting from the New Testament,
looking to the Old. But we also have to understand
that from the Old Testament. We have to look into the new,
and that's where illusions come in.
Now here's something fascinating.
The New Testament contains hundreds of references to the
Hebrew Scriptures. Hundreds.
But what most people miss is that it also.
Includes thousands, and that's not an exaggeration.
Thousands of illusions. What's an illusion?
An indirect reference? An echo of some sort of subtle
passing reference. Why is that the case?
Because the New Testament doesn't want to spoon feed us.
It expects you and I to be acquainted with different
content and themes of the Old Testament.
And this is one of the rewards of tool.
Number one. What was tool #1?
Read through the Bible. Expose yourself to the verbiage,
to some known sayings, to repeated prophetic dialogue and
contents, so that when you come to the new, you're somewhat
prepared, because not every New Testament author is going to
give you a reference to something that they're saying.
It can be a word, it can be a phrase.
And again, the Holy Spirit expects you and I to have been
studying the rest of the Bible, not just the right side of it.
And this is where so many people miss out on the depths of the
New Testament because they're only just, they're just looking
for references, quotations, right?
Failing to. Realize that there are thousands
of illusions. We can consider a couple.
Look at this one from Mark 113. This is in the beginning of the
Gospel of Mark says here. And he was in the wilderness 40
days being tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild animals and
the angels were ministering to him.
Anything stand out to you with this verse?
It's one verse. You can call it out 40 days.
Yeah. Is that a significant number?
Absolutely. What does it symbolize according
to the Bible? A period of testing, right?
So yeah, there's that. But I'm not.
I'm looking beyond that, yes, yeah, sure.
So we're relating Jesus wilderness experience to the
Israelites 40 year wilderness experience.
Yeah, you can definitely derive that.
Anything else? There's one.
Specific thing, that's one too sure.
The angels are ministering to him.
We see that in more than one place.
Wild animals. Why do I need to know that Jesus
was with the wild animals? Again, you're asking the test
text questions, but I'm doing more than that now.
I'm trying to put pieces together because the author is
brilliant, because the author is led by the Holy Spirit.
So I see wild animals, but I see other ingredients that might
lead me to something. I see temptation mentioned, I
see Satan mentioned, and now I see animals mentioned.
Is there any other scene in the Bible where I can find these
three ingredients? Temptation, Satan, animals, the
Garden of Eden, talking about the beginning of time, right?
But there's some differences as well.
So now things are starting to go off here.
I see temptation, I see Satan, I see animals.
Again, if the wild animals were not there, I may be just staying
in the lane of 40 days, 40 years.
Tempted, tempted. Christ succeeds where Israel
failed. And that is, that is true.
But there's a deeper thing being applied here.
Temptation, Satan, animals. So I'm thinking the Garden of
Eden, I'm sure, and that's not wrong, but there's also some
differences. OK, so you have temptation and
you have Satan and you have animals in the Garden of Eden.
But was was the Garden of Eden in a wilderness?
No, it was a luscious, beautiful place.
Were the animals wild in the Garden of Eden?
No, they were tamed, right? And I mean, Adam was able to
name them. So I see some differences now,
and I think now there's something being conveyed here.
Did Christ succeed in the setting?
Overcoming temptation? Did Adam succeed?
So here's one potential lesson. The conditions.
Of Jesus tests were far less favorable than those of Adam in
the garden, yet he's still triumphed over temptation.
Adam had a garden. Adam had animals that weren't
wild, that weren't dangerous, and so he was in paradise.
And he still. Fell.
Jesus, he was in a desert. Jesus, he had looming danger all
around him, including wild animals.
And with all that discomfort and all that ugliness and all more
reason. To perhaps disobey Christ
succeeds where Adam fails. It's potentially another lesson.
The curse not only infected those made in God's image,
right? But it also transformed glorious
gardens and peaceful animals at the terrifying wastelands and
wild beasts. But what do we find in the
beginning of Mark that Christ is reversing?
He's beginning to reverse the curse of Adam's disobedience.
Through his obedience. He's going to be restoring not
just us. He's going to be restoring
gardens that became wildernesses and Beautiful Creatures that are
now wild. And this is the beginning of
what's going to come into full effect.
And now you can, you can put in Isaiah's prophecy where the wolf
will lie down with the lamb, right?
We're going to see a restoration of what was lost.
And not just the restoration. It's going to become more, more
glorious, more permanent. And we're getting a hint here of
both the past and the future. The past is Christ is greater
than Adam. And we're seeing a future here
too, that Christ is restoring what was broken through Adam.
He's entering into our failure, He's entering into the
destruction that we caused, and he's beginning to restore it.
And it's only through His obedience you see.
But he's giving us hints here. He's giving you a picture.
We we find this even in the epistles when I'm speaking about
allusions. Look at this in Philippians 210
very known passage, so that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Anything stands out to you from
this one verse. Is it a powerful verse?
Absolutely. It's amazing.
But there's more to it because of illusions.
Look at this. So that the name of Jesus every
knee should bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and
every tongue confess. Is Paul making this up?
Is Paul maybe? Better explained, saying
something that's never been said before.
Is this something that he was writing by the inspiration of
the Spirit for the first time, or is?
Paul making reference to something that you and I should
be familiar with in the Old Testament.
You know the answer, right? Look what Yahweh says about
himself in Isaiah 4523. By myself I have sworn from my
mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall
not return to me. Every knee shall bow, every
tongue shall swear allegiance. You know the Septuagint, which
is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that actually
reads to me. Every knee shall bow every.
Tongue shall confess you are God.
Is this coincidence? Or is Paul borrowing from
Isaiah's prophecy A prophecy that is exclusive to God, and
now he's applying it to you, to who in verse 10, so that at the
name of Jesus? What does that say about Jesus?
According to Isaiah 45, he's Yahweh, you see.
Now the Paul hearsay. According to the prophet Isaiah,
every knee should bow and no, but he expects you to know it.
What about this one? Second Thessalonians 28 And then
the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus
will kill with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nothing by
the appearance of his coming. Breath of his mouth I mean,
there are so many ways somebody can kill somebody else out of
all the ways we read here that he will do it with the.
Breath of his mouth again. Is this a new, fresh idea about
Christ that Paul is presenting to us?
Perhaps, and there are instances of that in the new, but this is
a case of Paul also making an illusion again in Isaiah.
Listen to these words about the Messiah in Isaiah 11, one of
the. Features of Messiah Isaiah 11,
verse 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and
decide with equity for the meek of the earth, and he shall.
Strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath
of his lips. He shall kill the wicked with
the breath of his lips. So what's Paul doing here with
this? Reference he is showing that
Jesus is the is the Messiah in a very unique way.
I don't think I would automatically say can I prove to
you how Jesus is the Messiah according to the New Testament.
This wouldn't be one of my go to.
You know that Messiah will kill people with the breath of his
mouth. Just the authority of His Word,
but it just adds a layer to how Christ fulfills what the Old
Testament expects. And then you have another layer.
I didn't highlight it, but right before it says he shall strike
the earth with the rod of his mouth.
That's that's a reference to Revelation too.
So now you're seeing the interconnectedness of the whole
Bible. But the point I want to convey
is that even this truth of illusion is not just found in
narratives. It's not just found in Gospel
accounts, but even in the epistles for those who come here
on Sundays with with our study in Revelation.
You and I see this over and over again that there are obvious
references to the Old Testament. There are many more illusions
that John expects us to know in order to properly interpret his
prophecy. So I believe now we're going to
come to number 8 and this is our last point.
We're going to expound on each of these points.
We can't have a discussion. About studying the Bible without
outside resources, and I want to mention four of them to you.
Commentaries, Concordance, quality books, emphasis on
quality and community. So let's look at these things
separately, shall we? Commentaries.
Commentaries are not infallible. So they must be evaluated and
compared. And as I showed earlier,
commentary should never do the thinking for you, and
fortunately they do for many people.
So sometimes people will ask, where do commentaries play?
In my knowledge and my growth of understanding of Scripture,
commentaries are consultants. Paul told Timothy.
Think over what I say in the Lord will give you understanding
and everything. What commentaries do is that
after you've done the heavy lifting of thinking and trying
to understand the text and doing all that you can with your tool
belt to then see, are there others who can shed light on
this? Are there others who confirm
what I am coming to? Are there others who can say
yes, this is in fact what the Holy Spirit has shown?
This author, this author, this theologian?
So that's what you want to do you you don't want to run to
commentaries right away because it robs you of the experience of
God giving you understanding, right?
And and he promises to give us understanding we.
Should approach the scriptures prayerfully depended on the Holy
Spirit and as much as we might, this might be like a quick fix.
This might be something that gets us to answers quicker.
It doesn't substitute the worship of the Word, of being
able to engage with God through the written word and.
Seeing him bring things to the surface.
That being said, there are two extremes.
There are some, and I remember when I first got saved, people
around me were saying you should never look at a commentary that
the Holy Spirit should teach you everything.
And they're almost implying that if you're really spiritual, it
would just be you and your Bible and nothing else.
But then the Bible also shows us that God has gifted us teachers.
The Bible has shown us that God has gifted certain men to be
able to bring even greater clarity and instruction and
insight into the Scriptures. And we should we should delight
in seeing those expressions of gifts as God's.
Grace to us, and so. Yes, there's the extreme of
people only relying on outside sources and never doing the
heavy lifting themselves. And then as I mentioned, there
are those who think you should never do that and we need the
proper balance. You engage with the scriptures
first, and then you consult with the wider community, namely the
commentaries. Here are some free resources
that I recommended that I use all the time and a couple
examples of ones that if you're willing to pay for they're,
they're worth having. studylight.org has any.
Can you just lift? Your hand.
If you've never heard of Study Light, that's most of us here.
Study Light is a wonderful resource.
You can write down the the domain here, but let me tell you
how to use it. You go to Google, for example,
and you'll write study light. And this is the important
keyword verse by verse, study light, verse by verse.
And then you put any verse of the Bible beside that.
And what it'll do is usually the first option after the Google
search is entered will be the one that you want to click on
and when you click on it. It will give you a list of
faithful, reliable integral commentators all on one page.
Give me an explanation for that one verse.
So it's it's. Really on a silver platter for
you. And you can easily just compare
the different thoughts about that one verse.
And you have to understand some of these commentators have
theological dispositions. They have a different
theological backgrounds and framing, so they're going to
interpret verses differently. This is where you have to
evaluate and compare and be careful.
But Study Light is a amazing resource that is freely
accessible to anybody who has the Internet.
David Guzik. Has anybody heard of David
Guzik? Yeah, most people here based out
of Calvary Chapel, a wonderful teacher of God's Word.
All you have to do is look up Guzik and put in any chapter of
the Bible or any verse of the Bible and it will come up
usually on Blue Letter Bible, which we'll talk.
About in a moment. But David Guzik, I mean, I've
just been blessed by him over the years and he's faithful and,
and God has used them to bless so many people and I can just, I
can truly recommend him. He he's just a, he's a wonderful
teacher of God's word. Who can forget about Matthew
Henry? I think Matthew Henry is one of
the. Greater greatest commentators
and theologians of all time. And I'll tell you why, because
he he merges the academic with a devotional.
He's more on the devotional side actually.
And that's that's what I prefer. So Matthew Henry is just a
remarkable man of God and. You want to look up his complete
commentary because if you don't include that, then you might get
his summary of his explanation of passage of scripture.
But the complete commentary is where you you get the meat.
And so look up Matthew Henry complete commentary and again,
just refer to that as a reflection point after you've
done your own research in the word.
If you want to pay for commentaries or different sets,
I mean there are many. I can recommend just a couple
that come to mind, especially Warren Weirsby for those who are
more inclined to benefit from the practical.
Warren Weirsby. He was a pastor at Moody Church.
He he has much more to his resume than that, but.
He has a complete set of both Old and New Testament
commentaries. And again, Warren Weirsby does a
wonderful job and making his points devotional and practical.
And just look at different, you know, Christian publications.
His sets go on sale. It fluctuates from time to time.
I recently got the physical copy of his study.
I was looking at it online on one of my software's for years.
But this one is something that worth buying and adding to your
library. And if you're if you're more
inclined or you're more wanting to open up to the academic side
of things, the New American. Commentary is a great set to
have as well. And again, this is something
that will really help you, it will really bless you, and it's
worth investing money in, you know, So if your birthday's
coming up. Somebody asks you what you want
for your birthday. Maybe you I want a new American
commentary on, you know, these books are the New Testament or
these books on the Old Testament.
If you want even more of your thing, I already have those you
have any more Just come see me after these last slides and I
would gladly recommend others to you.
So commentaries, any questions about commentaries before we go
on to the next point? Yes, and.
You feel like there's somewhere else in the Bible where it
exists, but you don't know yourself, but you feel like,
yeah, this has to be. Where do you normally go?
Over. Did you have a look at my
slides? Because that's the very next
point. Concordance.
Hopefully this will answer your question.
Yes, One moment, brother. We're going to go through this
and I'll and I'll. I won't forget you, I promise.
With a concordance, it's exactly that.
A concordance is an index of biblical words and phrases where
you will find a survey of where that verse or that word or
phrase is found throughout the entire Bible.
Now, they're exhaustive concordances and they're concise
ones. Some translations have them in
the back of the Bible, some don't.
But if you have like an ESV, you'll have a concordance found
back there. You've probably seen it before.
Concordances and maps don't get as much attention as they
deserve, but they're there and they're wonderful for, for our
for our aid and our guide. So I'm looking at my Bible right
now. I'm looking at the word wisdom
and it says here and God gave Solomon W Usually it will it
will just kind of add the 1st letter of that word and then it
gives me the reference right beside it and it goes to 1st
Kings 4. The next one in wisdom.
You have made them all. It's a reference to Psalm one O
4. So concordances are wonderful
tool. The beauty of the age that we
live in is that you can have one on your phone.
You don't have to buy physical copies.
The one I strongly recommend is Blue letter Bible.
It's an app that you can download.
It's something that you can search on a Google engine, but
what you want to do with Blue Letter Bible, if you do use the
Google search bar, you put in BLB.
I don't even write blue letter Bible.
I just do BLB and it'll pick it up and then you write a verse
and then the Blue letter Bible website will pop up with the
verse in the link. You click on it and when you
click on it again, if you, if you're really not taking you
want to step by step, just see me after the session and I'll
show you exactly. How it works and then there's
there's a button where you click in a linear and it'll take the
verse and split it up in it. Let's say it's an Old Testament
verse. It will split up every word and
it'll have. The Hebrew Strong's Concordance.
That's the concordance you want Strong's Concordance and Blue
Letter Bible applies it automatically.
But in case you want to buy the physical copy, Strong's
Concordance is the go to and it'll break it up and I'll have
the reference and then when you. Click.
Let's say I'm looking for the word love in John 316.
I click on the Greek concordance reference there and then it will
give me all the references of that same Greek word love.
From Old to New Testament. So that's great for topical
studies, for word studies, and it's something that I think
everybody should have in their toolbox.
Concordances. This is a great thing that I
think is not emphasized enough. Quality books.
And why do I promote books?
Because books help us explore and expand our mind to how
others have discovered, connect, and explain and applied
scripture. And I emphasize devotionally.
Devotionally. And if you've been here for the
past few months, you know that I've been more vocal about the
Puritans than ever. Because as I've been growing in
my understanding of the Puritans, I just can't hold it
back. I can't keep it to myself.
The Puritans, I won't get into their history too much, but they
were Christians and pastors in the 1500s, in the 1600s
primarily. And they were Christians who
were under the Anglican system and they thought that the
Anglican Church needed reviving and they were persecuted by the
Anglican Church. And so they had to find a way to
preach and teach God's word to those at a very high price.
And they were around for a good solid 100 to 150 years.
But their their writings and their sermons and their
commentaries have been preserved by God's grace.
And why I recommend the Puritans is because.
They have a hold on scripture, a grip on scripture.
They have a way of putting a scriptures together that are
unmatched and in my estimation and that's why I recommend them
more than even modern authors though God is using many modern
authors today. I think that there's something
unique about this group of believers in history.
For me personally, when I read the Puritans, they make me
excited to read the Bible. That's why I want people to to
feel that same joy as well other.
Books. You may be drawn to the author,
or their style, or their anecdotes.
What the Puritans do is they mine areas of the the Bible that
are rarely explored, and they bring them to your attention and
they make you. Convinced I shouldn't skip
Obadiah because I didn't think that I can learn from Obadiah in
this way. I didn't think that Amos can
can. Touch my heart with that one
verse. It's amazing how they're able
especially to take the Old Testament and apply it again to
New Testament principles and not just their their illusions and
their references, just the way they talk about doctrine or they
talk about Christ. Kindle something in your heart.
So what I thought to do is just give you a few quotes just to
give you an idea of how they can stir you as they have stirred
me. So this is from John Flavel and
his word, his work keeping the heart.
Notice what he says your quote suppose.
That by revenge you might destroy one enemy, yet by
exercising the Christians temper you might conquer 3.
Your own lust, Satan's temptation, and your enemy's
heart. Isn't that beautiful?
So you can say you should forgive others and not take
vengeance because vengeance is God's.
Is that true? Sure, but look at the poetry.
Look at the depth here. What's the temptation of taking
revenge? That we want to destroy our
enemy. We want to get back at him and
he goes, OK, if you're so ambitious to destroy, let me
give you 3 enemies you can. Destroy if you do it God's way.
One, is your own lust, 2 is Satan's temptation, and three,
your enemy's heart, right like burning coals on their head.
When you show mercy and love and kindness, though they don't
deserve it, you can. Actually conquer them the way
Christ would want to conquer them.
Isn't that beautiful? George Swinnik from his work The
Fading of the Flesh and the Flourishing of Faith.
This is him using an Old Testament character to make a
point about discontentment. Haman from the Book of Esther.
Notice what he says here. Quote Haman.
Although he has the favor of the king, the adoration of the
people and the sway over 127 provinces was discontent because
he wanted Mordecai's knee. You know the story with Heyman,
right? I mean, he was so privileged.
He was so honored by the king and by again, the provinces.
But what made him boil inside? He wanted that one Jew to bow
his knee, and he wouldn't. Everybody else was bowing before
him, but just that. One person wasn't, and we find
George here using as an example as an illustration for how
discontent is so powerful and how foolish.
It is really. I'm sure you're getting the hint
right? How about Thomas Brooks?
Notice how he talks about death? Quote.
A Christian knows that death shall be the funeral of all his
sins, his sorrows, his afflictions, his temptations,
his vexations, his oppressions, his persecutions.
He knows that death shall be the resurrection of all his hopes,
his joys, his delights, his comforts, his contentments.
Isn't that beautiful? If you fear death, if that's a
nagging thing, if that gives you nightmares, if if you, you know,
are paralyzed to the thought of you leaving this world and
leaving your family behind, I can't offer anything apart from
the Bible. The Puritans talk about death
like it's something to look forward to for the Christian,
and this is just an idea of it. And that's why we gave you one
of many. Puritan books just to give you a
sample and for you to expose yourself to to these men and how
they write about the truths of scripture.
And if you don't know where to begin, the specific kind of
publication we extended to you is a good place to start.
The Puritan Treasures for today. There is a set that was on sale
this past Christmas, I believe. But what Reformation Heritage
did was. Sometimes the language of the
Puritans is a little daunting and archaic, so they simplified
it without stripping the meaning away.
And it's for anybody who wants to be introduced to this group
of ministers. To really, really engage with in
a hopeful manner. And I, I wouldn't say to read
the Puritans in a way you would read a normal book.
I would say just like read a chapter a night or a chapter
every week, maybe even to start out with because it's so dense,
it's so meaty that you don't. Want to miss anything?
And here's what I do, and I've mentioned this recently.
I'll have my notepad open when I read one of these books and I'll
put down quotes that just. Jump out of me and these are
quotes from my phone. And if I stumble upon a teaching
and I think, you know, I'm going to talk about discontentment
from this text, I might return to my vault and find this quote
from George Swinnick and apply it to the message.
Or if you want to offer something as a quote in a
counseling session, you know. If you're afraid of death, I
want you to hear what Thomas Brooks has to say and just read
that. I mean, just hearing it is so
powerful. And so these men are men that I
recommend and I hope they they will bless you leaving this
place. Lastly, community I heard a
pastor say this and it's still ringing in my ears, but I want
to flip it. Let me let me tell you the way
he said it from the pulpit when he was addressing pastors.
He. He reminded pastors that over
time, most people in your church will read the Bible the way you
preach it, that your mode of interpretation.
That the way you dissect the text, that the way you apply it,
how you speak about Christ. How you speak about the things
of God, how you are careful with even if I'm not sure about an
illusion. And I say, you know, this
picture reminds me, not saying dogmatically.
This is a prophetic picture of Christ, but this imagery has the
perfume of what we find here in the New Testament.
All of that will be imparted to the people that you preach to
overtime. And that was a sobering reminder
for for for me. But I want to flip it and ask
you because you have a choice to sit under whatever ministry you
want to sit under. Who is shaping you?
Who are you allowing to shape your thinking of the Scriptures?
Not every pastor has the same style.
Not every pastor has the same depth or insight.
Everybody's uniquely gifted. Some pastors are more effective,
effective preaching 30 minutes. Others are more effective
preaching 55 minutes. That's not the point.
The point is, are they, are they encouraging you to go back to
the text? Are they showing you the beauty
of the text? Because God designed His church
to be supplemental to your personal journey with the Bible.
And you have to ask yourself, why do I go to the ministry I go
to and who am I allowing to inform my family's thinking
about? The word of God that is so
crucial. And if you think that you're not
being affected by that, that's a problem.
You are, whether you realize it or not, over time.
For example, I'm and. This is more innocent, but if I
have the habit. Of going through books of the
Bible and I cover 2 chapters every Sunday.
And I do that with every book. Then you are being trained in
your own reading unless you have great discipline and and you
have a robust personal devotional life.
Generally though, for the people who are who are just really
learning and taking it all in. You're going to read the Bible
and that kind of scale where you're looking at it more of an
overview. But if you are sitting under a
teaching that goes into the verse and you know can.
Dissect it and bring it apart and connect it to other ports.
You're going to train yourself to see it that way as well.
So ask yourself, who am I being shaped by?
Who am I listening to? Who am I submitting to
ultimately? But I want to also say community
goes beyond what kind of church you go to.
It speaks about your circle of friends as well.
And I want to encourage every person here to incorporate the
wonders and the mysteries of God's Word in your fellowship.
That doesn't mean that everything you talk about is the
Bible when you get together with your friends, but may I suggest
that you include it if it's not there at all?
Some of the greatest insights I've received, some of the most
powerful balm for my soul that I've experienced, was being on
the phone with people who are not even in ministry but have a
love for God's Word. And they're able to apply
Scripture to my situation in a way that does something deeper
than just calm me down for the moment.
And that can only go back to what we heard early from
Colossians. Let the word of Christ dwell in
you richly, teaching and admonishing.
It has to dwell richly in you first.
And so I've received so much from people.
Who, who might have sent me something that they have
written, or who might have called me and asked me what's
going on. And then they're able to take
even obscure things in the Bible and relate it to my circumstance
and it, it keeps me going. There's a force behind it
because it's God's word. So how can you do this?
Maybe you're like, I would love to have friends like that.
I don't. In fact, maybe you have friends
where it's like you bring up the scriptures to them and they go
on like screensaver mode, right. You could talk about sports and
they're like, yeah, oh, did you see that?
You could talk about money or the business that never saw.
And then you bring up description.
They're like, yeah. Amen.
God bless you. Yeah.
Have you seen that?
Man? I've seen it so many times so
maybe it's not just me. I think sounds like it's other
people too experienced it, but there are some things to maybe
prime that. And change that without being
awkward or forceful. Maybe ask your friends after a
sermon on Sunday what stood out to you from the message instead
of talking about the weather immediately after, right?
Maybe when you're downstairs with fellowship.
Hey, what stood out to you, I mean?
Yeah. You know, when when Pastor
mentioned that point, I'd never saw the Scripture that way.
And it could be just that, you know, or like, I don't know that
I had a question about that. I have to explore it more.
You can just start that way. Or hopefully you're reading your
Bible on a regular basis. Maybe when you're catching up
with somebody that you talk to multiple times a week, you can
incorporate, hey, I read, I read Philippians.
And what stood out to me is that Paul is telling those outside of
prison. He's in prison and he's telling
them to rejoice. You would think that they would
say that to him in prison, but he's telling though, and I just
ministered to me. Another person could just say
that's beautiful and that's it. You go on.
Just little seeds. Right.
Or relate scriptural examples and observations to real life
situations. When you do offer counsel, when
you offer help to a friend. I mean, where can you go better
than the Bible? I can assure you this.
There is not one problem in life that the Bible doesn't have an
answer for. Not one.
There is not one situation I'm telling you.
I remember a. Conversation having with
somebody, and I didn't plan this, but I remember they were
describing A relational conflict and the example that came to
mind. You know what it was when Saul
through his spear toward his son Jonathan.
And you know what Jonathan's conclusion was, if he's willing
to kill me, surely he's willing to kill David because Jonathan
was testing to see if his dad actually want to kill David.
And I remember this conversation.
We were going to that reference because we were speaking about
somebody else who was causing issues, and we're thinking, if
that person was willing to do it to that person so close to them,
what makes you think he's not willing to do it to so and so do
you See, you can apply these things in situations that you
can't even imagine. And it's so riveting when the
Holy Spirit brings these things to mind.
What's the fruit of this? Conversing over the scriptures,
speaking about the scriptures, mentioning the scriptures, it
becomes the word. The word becomes contagious.
It just makes an impression on
you to think that's amazing how you came to that arrival, that
conclusion in the Scriptures. That's amazing how you're able
to relate that to my life. And there's some people when
they talk about the Bible, I sit there and I'm listening and I
go, I can't wait to go home and read my Bible, you know?
And it's natural. It's not forced.
And none of this, I hope, is forced.
Please don't force it because when you force it, it's
artificial. I'm saying let it be the
overflow of your own life. Let it be the overflow of what
you discovered. But I want to say that there's
something so valuable community speaking about the things of God
that can bless you and bless others.
Here's a bonus thought and it will open up for Q&A.
Before we end here. Have you ever come to a point
where you even after this, it's possible that a week from now
you have 0 motivation to read your Bible and there's some days
where you have more motivation than others.
I've discovered something that has never failed.
That's a big statement, isn't it?
And when I've offered it as advice to others, so.
Far. It's a perfect track record if
you ever lack motivation to read for long periods of time.
I'm not talking about a day or two.
I'm talking about a week or two weeks, 3 weeks, maybe even a
month. Your Bible's collecting dust.
It's become your vacuum now. You don't know what to do with
it, so you're ignoring it. This may shock you, but I would
say. If you want to read again, don't
read. Memorize.
Stop your reading and find a text to memorize.
Saying what? What does that have to do with
anything so? Let me give you an example.
If I'm going through Luke and I have, you know, I made it
through the 1st 6 chapters, but for whatever reason I can't get
past it. There is no compelling desire
for me to continue in it. I would tell somebody, stop
reading Luke for a second and look for a different passage of
scripture that you think would be valuable to memorize and give
yourself to memorizing that text, that chapter for the next
two, 3-4 days, maybe even a week or two.
And I want to see what's going to happen to your heart.
So I would I. Would even recommend just
memorize A Psalm, find a Psalm short enough for you to memorize
and see what will happen. Even what I found when you
memorize the scripture, when you when you really you take a
different approach where you're now compounding the word in your
heart and you're you're incorporating all your faculties
to that one discipline. It it revives something in you
and now you're saying it out loud and you're writing it down
and there you can't get that much word in you without it
affecting you to some point. And then it kind of generates
the energy. For you to be able to return to
the scriptures, there's nothing in my experience, and this is
personal so you may disagree with me.
That's fine. But I can't think apart from
prayer. I can't think of something as
energizing to my walk with Christ, the memorizing
Scripture. And we find this principle in
the Scriptures. I've hidden thy word in my heart
that I may not sin against thee, right?
And we find that throughout where there is a call for us to
know it, not just because I have a book in front of me, but
because I'm carrying it with me in my bosom.
And what that will do though, when you bring it to that?
Degree of of investment is that it kind of opens up wells.
That may have been clogged and it just burst forth and now
there's a drawn attraction to the Scriptures again.
I can't explain the mechanics of it necessarily in detail.
All I know is that when you get to the point of looking at
verses and reciting them and saying them over and over again,
it's empowering. And you quote it and you share
it. It does.
Something to you and then almost revives just your engagement
with the scriptures overall. So I would say if there's one
emergency tool to use. In your reading of Scripture,
and you're saying the Scripture where you find yourself.
I'm in trouble. I went to a one day conference.
I got all these valuable thoughts, but why is my heart
stale? Pause.
Don't read anymore. Find a text to memorize.
Psalm 1, Psalm 23, Psalm 11, Psalm, whatever, any Psalm, it
can be a promise in the new, It can be a benediction.
It can be a doxology and go over.
Write it on a piece of paper. If you have a whiteboard, write
it on the whiteboard. And just see what will happen
and if it doesn't work for you, e-mail me.
You'll be the first. And if it doesn't, maybe you're
the first time I have to find a different strategy.
But thus far this is my go to. It's worked all these years.
Brothers and sisters. We've come to the end of our one
day Bible Study seminar. We have a little bit of time
here, so I'd love to just answer any questions that you might
have, any maybe even insights or thoughts that you'd like to
incorporate. I know there's some things I
left out, but again, if there are things that you felt like
maybe, why didn't you touch on that all that I've showed you
here? Are things that I employ on a
weekly basis, and you may have additional tools that I'd love
to learn about as well. Yes, brother.
Something that has been perplexing to me in the last
couple of months is that reading scripture, if you remember all
the Christ referencing salt, right and there is solutions
based on that New Testament, I believe just the Gospels makes
references, Psalms, Isaiah, etcetera.
When I go back in the cross reference and go to the salt
that that's for example salt 2, right, which is one of the
biggest like crisis running salts out there.
If you start to read the Psalm, it doesn't like a like a
messianic Psalm. What I've noticed that the Bible
does is it takes the verse almost out of context.
That makes it a messianic verse. And I want to know what your
thoughts about that is because sometimes I feel like I'm
reading that Psalm and it feels like I'm reading about something
else. And I'm later told, oh by the
way, that's a. Messianic Psalm.
That's a good point. I would say that if you do
believe that the New Testament is indeed God's revelation, then
if it does make a reference to a Psalm to say that this is
messianic, then you have to trust that.
You'd be surprised, however, that if you look at rabbinic
literature, how many rabbis throughout history affirm the
same text that we would say are messianic to be messianic.
So there's a consensus even among those who don't believe
that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, that texts like Isaiah
53, Psalm chapter two different parts that may seem a little
ambiguous or veiled are in fact about Messiah.
So I would just say New Testament gives us permission.
Because these are not just men making assumptions.
These are men led by the Holy Spirit who are again clarifying
things that might have been mysterious according to Paul's
old language. So I would just say just trust
what the New Testament has to say about those texts if.
You see that there's a difference in wording.
It's just because the New Testament authors are making a
reference to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew
Scriptures, which came about 2-3 hundred years before the time of
Christ. So there might be a wording
difference, and I use that argument to actually.
Push up against the thought that there's only one reliable
translation of the Bible. You know the.
King James Version is the only Bible for us.
Any other translation is a perversion.
And I remind, do you realize that there's multiple
translations in the disciples days and they they went to the
Septuagint to quote scripture. So you can't really use that
argument for them because they weren't one translation only.
So I would just say rest on the the wonderful truth that God is
guiding the New Testament authors to bring illumination to
the old. Any other thoughts?
Yes, Yona, it's. A tough one for.
You it's OK. So I grew up in the Messiah.
That's putting it nicely. And I find him in my own
scriptures. What do you think?
Would you have found Jesus that you couldn't have and didn't
open on New Testament? I love that question.
I, I, I don't think, I mean, it's a hard question, I'm sure
maybe to some, but I think it's a very important question that
we have to address. When I was in Israel, I've
shared the story before. When I was in Israel, we had
some free time in the Holy city and I saw a group of young men
just kind of, you know, hanging around by the street corner and
one of them had a Toronto Raptors jersey on.
And I thought, interesting, a Canadian's here, maybe he's not
a Canadian, but I'm going to assume that he is.
And so people were doing their own thing.
And I approached them and I said, hey, are you Canadian?
He goes, yeah, I am. And all their friends turn
around. And they began to tell me how
they were in Israel for a year to learn a Tanakh, like an
intensive course for one year. And in this moment, I thought,
this is my chance. This is my chance, right?
I'm in Israel and I get to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ.
But then I realized they don't have the New Testament.
They have the Hebrew scriptures. We have the Hebrew Scriptures,
the same Hebrew Scriptures. So right there and then, for the
first time ever, I had to use the Hebrew Scriptures alone to
prove Jesus Christ was Messiah. And it was one of the most
humbling and exciting experiences I've ever had in
evangelism. How am I going to talk about
resurrection? How am I going to talk about
atonement? How am I going to talk about
heaven and hell? Using the Hebrew Scriptures
alone and leading that conversation?
I believe the Lord used that in my life to impress it upon me to
master the Old Testament and to see where I can find Christ in
the Hebrew Scriptures. We just had a couple of visiting
our church last Friday and one of them was a Messianic Jew from
New York and I asked him about his testimony of how he came to
Christ and he said, well, one of the starting points that got me
thinking was when I used to go to synagogue, at one particular
point the the rabbi read Isaiah 52.
He skipped Isaiah 53 and he went to Isaiah chapter 54.
And then he went home. And he asked his dad, hey, why
did the rabbi skip over Isaiah 53?
And this is what his dad said. Honestly, because it's too
similar to the description of Jesus Christ that the Christians
believe in. It's true.
It's. True right, it's known as the
forbidden chapter. And so that began to spur him on
to consider more than he came to Christ in college.
So to answer your question, the the New Testament authors appeal
continually to the Scriptures to prove their gospel truths.
And what scriptures did they have at the time?
Primarily the Old Testament. So if they can find, according
to First Corinthians 15, the truth of the death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus according to the scriptures, as he tells
tells the Corinthians, then I should be able to find the
death, burial and resurrection of Christ in the Hebrew
Scriptures as well. I would say begins there even
you need to go to the old. Testament because if you don't
go to the Old Testament, then how do you understand the
concept of atonement and life being in the blood and and all
these different facets? So I would say it's totally
possible and I and I think it's the the job of the Gentile
believers to show our fellow Jewish brethren that we have the
Christ of the Hebrew Scriptures. Amen.
Yeah, we're going to have more conversations about that, I'm
sure later. Yes, you've been.
Raised in the church or you become familiar with the Bible
for a long time, which is great. I wonder if this is something
that you struggled and then sometimes you can just get your
passages because you it's becomes a familiarity.
So how do you how do you challenge yourself and never
lose respect and wonder or never lose the freshness of.
Scripture. That's a beautiful question.
It's by faith. Our justification is by faith
and our sanctification is by faith according to Galatians
Chapter 3. Every time I come to a new text.
So I just finished Daniel. I'm going into Jose again.
I've read Jose many times, but every time I'm about to enter
through the threshold of a new book, I prepare myself in
excitement to say I believe that God is going to show me
something new. I believe it.
I tell myself that. I pray about that, and sometimes
the new is just something I've forgotten about.
And he reminds. Me of sometimes it's something
maybe you've experienced this, especially if you underline your
Bible. You're there in a passage of
Scripture and this part is blue. Then you skip over some and then
it's red or whatever colors you use.
And then this time around you're reading it and you're like, why
didn't I highlight that part? Right?
The Lord is illuminating things to you.
So I would just say. There is no bottom to the ocean
of the Bible. You have to believe that no
matter how many times you have visited it.
And I'll tell you this, even when I think personally that I,
I've got a firm grasp on a certain doctrine, God never
fails to remind me, no, there's, there's a, there's a component
of it that you totally missed. And then I hear and I go, how
did I miss that? And so the way you combat that
is you have faith that it's a never ending source of
revelation. There is no bottom to that
treasure. Chest of the Bible, and as long
as you have that in your forefront of your mind, it'll
never be a dull moment. Maybe a couple more before we
send you off here. Any other thoughts, questions?
Yes, what? Was your advice be a brother to
talk to, a sister in Christ to talk to?
What would be your? Recommendation.
Two ways to go about it. Maybe you can be the pioneer for
that, right? So maybe with your friend group,
you can introduce that kind of element to your relationships
and hopefully it goes in that direction.
And if it doesn't, then pray and ask the Lord for such friends.
Lord, bring people in my life that feel this way about your
word that we can sharpen one another.
And you'd be amazed to know how the Lord will put people in your
path. And I've seen it in my own life.
So I would just say maybe, maybe this is God challenging you to
be that person, to lead a group of friends or siblings to
entertain those kind of conversations.
And if it doesn't go anywhere, then pray, say, Lord, I really
want this. And that's a gift that he's
willing to give. It's a great question, though.
Yes, Erica, you want? To apply everything yourself
rather than the line on the overly studious.
But then you you may sway the other way or perhaps overly rely
on the Holy Spirit. So where do you?
Find Yeah, it's a great question.
And you brought this up earlier and I asked Erica to ask it
publicly because I think it's a very important question.
It is very possible for each of us to leave this place and to be
kind of over stimulated. And I'm telling you these tools
here are things that can be expounded on.
You can imagine and we can add more things and that's why I
kept it as concise as possible. You would do exceptionally well
if you apply these things, but two things to keep in mind, one,
be patient. Be patient with the process and
two there. Are going to be times where
remember, here's the visual. It's a tool belt and for every
project you don't need every single tool.
That would be sometimes unnecessary.
So not everything that you heard today has to be applied every
single time you come to the scriptures.
That would be overwhelming, and maybe even.
Discouraging. I would just say though from
time to time, pull those tools out to begin with and see where
it takes you. But at the same time, there's
also nothing wrong when it comes to reading.
If we go back to tool #1, reading through the scripture
doesn't mean you have to apply all the other following.
Tools in order to do it well. Sometimes reading the scripture
just means that just read. Don't, don't pull out the
concordance. And log on to Blue Letter Bible.
You know it's 7:00 in the morning whenever you wake up,
and sometimes it just looks like you having that cup of coffee
with an open Bible. And just letting the word wash
over you, that's it. And there's power in that and
there's, there's a, there's a, there's a joy in that as well.
And so one of the ways I do this personally, and I mentioned this
to you earlier, is when I have, I mean, I prepare at least 2
messages a week for Friday and for Sunday, and all the tools
are coming out for those every single time.
But I determined early on in ministry that I will never
substitute my preparation for my personal reading of God's Word.
And So what that looks like is before I do anything else, I'm
opening this Bible and the tool belt is to the side and I'm just
going through the Word of God to just let the Word minister to me
directly. And sometimes things stand out
and sometimes that they don't. But here's the thing, I don't
remember what I ate last week. All I know is that I ate.
Right. And I don't.
Remember everything I read, but I know I ate right.
And so for example, I'm going I was telling you I just entered
into Hosea. I was reading Daniel earlier
this week and one of the I mean. Daniel, you want to talk about
you. You need tools for Daniel.
Beast horns, little horn, goat. There's the goat.
Again, but I don't think it applies RAM.
But then what I found with Daniel is a simple point.
Gabriel visits him. He's so overcome by the vision.
He's so overcome by the manifestation.
More accurately, he faints. And all I read in that moment
was he was touched and strengthened.
And then he confessed that he needed to be strengthened again,
that he couldn't even lift himself up.
So he was touched again and he was brought to his feet.
And we see this repetition where Daniel admits his weakness and
there's this impartation of strength.
And all I left with this was on Tuesday morning, and I'm still
riding on that truth today, that God.
Is willing to provide more than one touch to strengthen us when
we ask for it. He is not selfish in his
empowering grace. I like Daniel can come to say
Lord, I need more than one touch.
Thank you for the touch. But I still feel weak in the
knees my soul is tired I'm over I'm just overwhelmed.
Can you give me a fresh touch again?
And what you find in that small little description, this
interaction between Daniel and the Angel, is that the Angel,
being the conduit of God, is strengthening the servant every
time you requested it. Do you see that?
I didn't have to, you know, pull out anything.
It just stood out to me, ministered to me, as tempting as
it was to look at. OK, now let's get into this
vision. Sometimes God's Word just wants
to minister to your heart. Not so that you can teach it,
just so you can find some fresh. Strength.
Yeah, great question. Be patient with yourself.
This is, you know. You could present.
Something like this and expect everybody to just get it no,
this is years and years and years of observations of
mistakes of learning and and I and I want you to enjoy this I
don't want this to be this fresh sense of duty OK one more maybe
two more than we'll go yes so I've.
Found it. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So what it means to meditate, I
think it looks like you taking one element of what you read and
to chew on it mentally, think over it, ask yourself questions
like what, where, when, how, What does this mean?
And if you don't arrive to a conclusion that that you're
still meditating on it, I think it means talking about it with
others. It's interesting, interesting.
In Psalm one, the word for meditate actually means to
murmur in the Hebrew to mutter something.
So it's not like even this internal thing someone speaks
about, like you're whispering the law.
And I think that conveys the idea of communicating it out
loud and even to others. So I would say talk about it
with others. I would say maybe at some point
maybe explore what others have said about it, that you're just
doing more than just saying I read it and I'm done.
So engaging with it throughout the day.
I mean, that doesn't mean that you can't think about anything
else, but maybe when your head space is is kind of out of
default to revisit what you read.
For me, sometimes what meditation looks like is I read
a passage and maybe I was rushed that morning so I'm going to
read. I'm going to listen to that
chapter as I drive to my meeting 20 minutes from now.
I'll just repeat it, listen to it over and over again.
There are different ways of doing it and I would just say
just engage with the text in different ways.
That's what meditation is. It doesn't look like you sitting
in a certain way and just thinking about nothing else.
It's much more practical and achievable than that.
One more brother. I know we're going to close.
Yes, Jonathan. Yeah.
I think that's what you were alluding to, David, right?
Like how it relates to Yes, yes. Yeah, when things seem a little
bit more ambiguous or irrelevant, I think we have to
leave it to the new. Testament authors.
To actually do that, I think we should refrain ourselves from
trying to make something seem like it's saying something about
Christ when it's not there. So I would say, yeah, there are
some portions of Scripture, like if I read that on my own, I
would not have arrived to that conclusion.
And when those things happen, to just leave it to the authority
of the apostles by the Spirit to determine those conclusions.
So yeah, I would say. You're you're you're doing.
Yourself a better service erring on the side of caution than on
exploration because again there are some things that just the
New Testament says and we have to trust in that alone.
Although we can dissect that to see how that applies to Christ
more. I would just say as a general
rule, be careful trying to force something.
Oh Jesus was an that's a New Testament thing that clearly is
conveyed. But stick with what's clear.
Stick with patterns that are and paradigms that are obvious in
the New Testament to identify what's in the old.
We must be tired, Daniel. One more if you.
Don't. Mind.
Yeah, here you go. To my own experience in reading
the scripture, that's in relation to your question.
What I do, I make an effort to read the scripture daily and
once a year from cover to cover. Why?
I want first to know the scripture.
Well, I want to be familiar of every book of the scripture.
So yes, I go through the scripture once a year, every
year from from Genesis to Revelation.
Now last year was an exception, by the way, I decided to read
the New Testament 4 times in Hebrew, in Arabic, twice in
English. So that was an exception.
This year I'm going back to the whole scripture, but I do
something else. As I read the scripture, I
highlight and when there is something that I want to study
more, I go back to it and study it.
So I divide it into two reading the scripture and studying
deeper the scripture, where I find prompted by the Holy Spirit
to dig deeper. I can do that when I have time
during the day or in the weekends, but daily in the
morning and then the first thing in the morning I do.
I have disciplined myself. I have taught myself that
everything that every day in the morning, the first thing is read
the scripture, cup of coffee and the scripture.
So I do 3 chapters. If it's Psalms, could be 5, but
make an effort to read the Holy Scripture once a year in
additional to my deep study of the scripture.
So this plus this. Last morning Pastor Mark
mentioned this and I promise you I'll leave you after this.
Be careful of AI ChatGPT is not the Holy Spirit and ChatGPT has
quickly become a replacement for pastors and preparing their
sermons. You can ask that thing to do
amazing things and to many it would be undiscernible.
But here's the thing I would say why chat?
As remarkable as this technology is, I'm not against using AI,
but what I would say is AI gets it wrong a lot.
And I've caught it on many occasions.
I've tested AI ChatGPT, Gronk. I don't know what the other ones
out there are, but I've asked the questions and sure enough,
it's it makes it makes wrong references or wrong conclusions.
And then I would correct it and you've probably seen it goes,
yes, you're right. Sorry, I didn't you know.
I thought, I thought this is dangerous.
If you're, if you're this is good, even if you're not a
pastor, if you're, if you're leading a Bible study, if you're
in charge of a youth group, if you're taking all your
information from AI unchecked and you're going up there, then
saying things that AI is getting wrong, you and I are going to be
held responsible for that. And so I would say refrain from,
I think it's there are things that it can offer, but it's not
perfect. So to just take it for what it
gives you is malpractice. So be careful of that.
OK, Yes, Jim, Sure. I.
Would offer to my brother in my own personal life when it comes
to reading this. A little overwhelmed in life and
I got to realize that my quality of reading is sometimes more
important than my quantity. And.
Then I keep my quantity in check with my quality.
Beautiful. And realize that the quantity
will catch up in. Time.
I can't think of a better way to end everything with that
thought. Seriously.
I think that's go aim for quality, not quantity.
Quality always Trump's over quantity.
And I can't wait to see how God's going to use this time to
bless every single one of you. And I want to pray that God will
use it. Let's do that together before we
close. We do thank you, Father, for
this morning and afternoon that you've gathered brothers and
sisters from across the world to be in this place.
And Lord, there's so many other things that we could have
explored, but we believe that this session sufficed for today.
In this moment of our journey with you, we pray for your great
blessing upon those who have made great sacrifices to be
here, that they would sense that this was not in vain and that
you have equipped them and that you have encouraged them.
Lord, we do help. We do ask for your help to
fulfill the Great Commission, to teach others what you have
taught us and that you would receive glory in all things.
Protect us from the knowledge that.
Puffs up. Oh Lord please, we don't want to
become arrogant. We don't want to become the go
to person that knows all these things though.
We want to be humble servants who point people to.
Christ, who share the joint excitement that we've
experienced in you and take Glee and other people experiencing
and not just experiencing it, but excelling in it far beyond
us. So we do pray in this place that
there will be wonderful, amazing, empowered teachers of
God's Word, disciple makers, evangelist that would go beyond
what any minister in this house has ever been able to do.
And we asked, Lord, that what happened here would multiply in
our families, in our friends circles, in our churches.
And we do pray for what we mentioned earlier, Lord,
sincerely, a revival of the Bible in our pulpits.
Move the hearts of our pastors to stay faithful, those who are
unfaithful, or to to sense your conviction to get back to the
book. And to give the people of God
what the word of God says. Lord, we pray that you would go
before us for the rest of this time and the rest of this
weekend. And as we gather here tomorrow,
or many of us will be here tomorrow, we pray that you would
speak loud and clear and that our amazement will only continue
as we hear your voice through your word.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
The Lord be with you. Yes, Amen.