0:03
so we continue our discussion this morning on um that element of early church worship where the disciples were continually devoting themselves to the
0:17
apostles teaching and I want to look at some of Paul's writings in terms of his desire um I think it's it's
0:30
fairly unremarkable to say that in the church throughout the ages the idea of teaching and learning has been segregated to a subset of
0:44
professing Christendom called the clergy or ministers um those who go to Seminary those who who study the original languages and then those who go back to
0:54
the churches to preach and to teach but there's um very little concept of a a
1:06
universal discipleship now that's become more in the news since about the 1970s when discipleship groups started up again the idea of um people getting together and
1:18
meeting in homes and studying the Bible then you get it's like kind of ironic elely just mentioned an article in the daily new or the Greenville news about Bible Study Fellowship um preset
1:30
Ministries you get these par church Bible teaching Bible teaching organizations and one of the reasons that that those phenomena developed was
1:42
because teaching wasn't being done in the churches the churches anymore that the class that had been assigned the clergy were no longer actually teaching the word to the
1:52
congregations and those within the congregations again a minority felt the need of being in the word and the lack of that need being met by
2:03
the church itself and then you start these par Church organizations to teach the Bible um that may that sounds good
2:14
but as we talked about last week if you turn again to Acts 2 four things are
2:30
and the verse 42 of chap chapter 2 and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to Fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer the continually devoting
2:40
that uh verb and adverb combination applies to all four of those things the apostles teaching to Fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer and
2:52
while um while they're all in integral we said I said last week the foundation of them is the apostles
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teaching because that tells them how to do the other things but what these Bible study parot Church organizations
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Church organizations do is they take that one component out and put it on Tuesday evening okay but often times they recognize the
3:25
lack so everybody brings a snack and they have what the Baptists call Fellowship okay or that they also have a time of prayer okay so what is it that
3:38
they're doing well they're becoming little churches right it all comes back to I mean these four things were not meant to be separate frankly that's one of the
3:48
problems with problems with Seminary it does separate one component of our of our worship from the other components and then the seminaries try to do the same thing they have Chapel
4:00
okay you see it all comes back to there's something within our regenerate psyche that tells us that just studying the Bible isn't enough that we're supposed to be fellowshipping with one
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another that's coin Andia we'll talk about that Lord willing next week um Fellowship dinners breaking bread together and then times of prayer well
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any any Christian group that leaves a church setting because of the lack of teaching in the in the church will inevitably develop a church
4:33
setting in whatever par church group they have but they won't call it that you know it's it's still Bible Study Fellowship or precept or seminary it's not a church but they are
4:46
actually doing trying to do what the church was supposed to do the difference between a seminary and Bible Study Fellowship is that I think that's fairly
4:56
obvious people go to Seminary in order to what go into of the ministry right people go to Bible Study Fellowship why to learn the Bible as if those are two
5:08
separate things well Jesus said to whom much is given much is required if you study the Bible and then do don't do anything with it then that's not
5:19
valid but remaining willfully ignorant of God's word is also not viable either okay so where does this all lead well I
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think when we read Paul we realize that he expected he expected every believer to be a disciple the word disciple simply
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means a means a learner he didn't expect there to be two classes of classes of Christians those who heard and those who talked those who studied and those who
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didn't so he prays in Ephesians um Ephesians chapter 1 and some of Paul's prayers are among the most significant things that we can read
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in scripture um it's a little bit lengthy but beginning in verse
6:17
15 for this reason I too having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which exists among you and your love for all the saints now that that's the introduction to his prayer and all that qualifies these
6:29
people to be the object of his prayer is their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that's all believers in Ephesus
6:40
right he says I do not cease giving thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers that the god of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of Glory may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of
6:52
Revelation in the knowledge of him I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know know what is the hope of his calling what are the riches of the glory of his
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inheritance in the Saints and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might and he goes on to
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to say that this was the strength that raised Christ from the dead and elevated him above all Rule and Authority power and Dominion so what Paul is praying
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here is that we might all believers might have insight and knowledge into what God has done and who God is so that's essentially the goal of a
7:41
disciple is to learn more about God through Jesus Christ I think also it tells us in kind of connecting with back in act Acts
7:54
chapter 2 this is this is a prayer it's it's not really a command it's it's not establishing Bible
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study groups it's a prayer and as a prayer as an Apostolic prayer that has been obviously inspired by the Holy Spirit it should be our
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prayer that we should pray not only for ourselves individually but for our congregation that we might have this Spirit of wisdom and insight and
8:27
knowledge in and revelation um but it doesn't really seem to let anybody off the hook now now don't get me wrong I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a
8:40
ministerial level of preaching and teaching we've already we've talked about that in past studies with regard to elders and responsibility of of being able to
8:51
Shepherd the flock according to the word of God um I'm I'm not I'm also not saying that every single believer should be an elder Paul is very clear that
9:02
there are difference in giftedness differences in calling both Paul and Peter and we've mentioned this a number of times indicate that there are really two types of spiritual gifts the
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speaking and the serving and and that that within the speaking gifts the church has been given Elders to guide in those gifts in terms
9:28
of the serving gifts the church has been given deacons again deacons are not Elders on the on Deck Circle they're they're not Junior Elders it's a different
9:39
giftedness it's a gift of serving so just to put that up here speaking and
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serving and if you look at the lists that are in the letters in terms of the types of gifts that the Holy Spirit distributes you can see that some of them are definitely speaking gifts prophecy for example and then
10:12
others helps Administration Mercy those are serving are serving gifts but do the serving gifts are are they then um Exempted from
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Paul's prayer they they don't have the need to study God's word to know him better to grow in Insight is that because they're
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servants no that that wouldn't be a Biblical response to to the serving gift because again the the Bible is what tells us how to do what we do in a way that pleases
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God so even serving um that's what naab and abue were doing when they offered up Strange Fire to the Lord right and they did it wrong and the fire from the altar
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leapt out and consumed them so we can't just serve according to our own wisdom because what we'll be bringing will not be pleasing to the Lord and then
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obviously the speaking gifts does it if if you happen to have a speaking gift it seems rather seems rather obvious that you ought to be very knowledgeable in God's word now how many of you have had any
11:26
experience with the charismatic movement anybody okay um that's one of the biggest faults this idea and it's been
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in and out through church history this idea it comes from where Jesus says when you are when you are dragged before the the Kings and the judges don't give any thought to what you might say because
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the spirit will give you that was a particular instance but there are those who think that they should never give any thought to what they will say because the spirit will tell them what to say and then they
11:59
just open their mouths and it isn't the spirit telling them what to say but there's this idea that if you have a if you have the gift of speaking if you have the gift of Prophecy then you
12:09
really don't need to study the Bible because you're you're just operated on by the Holy Spirit and you say whatever comes into your mind because you're you're a you're a prophet uh it's not
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that's not how it works because even Paul who was an apostle as well as a prophet was very very learned in scripture so was Peter and John Apollos
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you know everyone that we meet in the scriptures were men who knew their scriptures and would say according as it was written according to the scriptures as the prophet Isaiah says okay so these
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men were giving to us Revelation that was rooted and grounded in the revelation God had already given we we can do no better than that and we could
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do a whole lot worse so we we talked about the Teaching Ministry um Paul goes on in Ephesians 3 this kind of reiterates what he said in the first
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chapter um it's another prayer starting in verse 14 for this reason I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in Heaven and Earth derives its name that
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he would Grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the Inner Man so that Christ May dwell in your hearts through faith and that you
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being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of
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Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to the fullness of
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knowing he is talking about in um I just read it where is it yeah Verse 18 that you may be able to comprehend with all the
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saints that means everybody that has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit made Holy by the holy spirit so again the idea of a clergy Ley split the idea that
14:20
that the teaching and the learning is really up to those who are going into the ministry the rest of us of course we have to learn a trade to make a living right right we don't have time for that
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we leave that up to the clergy and then they'll get up and preach a sermon on Sunday morning and and that will be our serving really our our dose of Christian
14:45
teaching on Sunday morning well I think if you if you look at that Paradigm if you look at that kind of situation is it any wonder that the church has been so chronically weak and
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apostate first of all all of the Teaching Ministry is put upon a handful of men and maybe even just one and that's dangerous in it of itself then everything else is put on
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him as well so that he no longer actually studies the word he just keeps preaching whatever he's been preaching for 20 30 40 years
15:24
and the people die of starvation seems like also those the books that are geared toward the teaching the are not geared toward
15:35
theology geared toward they Christian Living right Christian Living good
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pointy what you is just how you're supposed to live day to day yeah you don't really see um I guess there's probably a theology for dummies you know I mean there there's everything else for dummies there's probably a theology for
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dummies but if you go into a Christian bookstore and again please don't but if you do um you you're going to see Christian devotions you're going to see little excerpts that you can read each
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day in your private devotional and they're almost entirely geared toward you living a Christian life but what's interesting about it is you're you're living the Christian Life without learning about
16:20
learning about God okay you're not learning theology it's not expected of anybody other than the ministers to know theology which means that the average
16:33
congregation wouldn't know if their Pastor was apostate or heretical right so that's putting a whole lot of
16:43
trust that a man will not go astray and you don't really know if he is or he isn't Aaron I think a lot of people don't like the word theology they think that's just
16:55
AIC they don't want that in their Church they don't want to turn people away they don't want whatever but the thing about theology is if you don't know it you don't know what it's wrong right exactly
17:05
you don't know what's wrong and and that's an excellent point I appreciate both of you mentioning that because and and I appreciate that the the word theology is often pejorative PE
17:18
people think you know they call seminaries cemeteries and theology is often you know just the path to liberalism but theology is simply the study of God
17:30
and the whole curriculum of theology which includes such other weird words like christology soteriology pneumatology eschatology ecclesiology I
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mean that those are all aspects of what Paul has prayed that we would comprehend okay christology is the love of Christ ecclesiology the church the
17:53
fullness of him who fills all in all I mean these are the things that God is and God has done and he wants us to know them Aon often and to ask question out loud theology
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thead to liberalism because it is not of those two things are separated of the
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right they the idea of a seminary always begins well and that is we're going to help prepare men for the ministry in the churches and they often come from the churches they start a the they start a seminary
18:32
but there is a certain uh spirit involved in Academia whatever that Academia is it's a spirit toward novelty
18:42
and liberalism and I don't know that there's ever been an example of a church that or a seminary or a university that over the course of course of generations has not departed from the
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original charter and sometimes departed 100 0 degrees starting as a Christian College is now a liberal arts college and which
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you know denying Christianity entirely seminaries are the same way um and and I want to bring that up because um I preached in in Mark's Place a couple
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weeks ago as he was out of town and talked about what we're talking about here and that is who is is supposed to to learn who are disciples and I want to
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talk about what are you supposed to learn and then why are you supposed to learn it and right after the sermon someone did ask you know does does this mean that is it a requirement for the ministry at Fellowship Bible Church that
19:40
you attend you attend Seminary and the answer is no it's not a requirement because it's not a Biblical requirement therefore it cannot be an ecclesiastical requirement
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okay um Seminary for me was helpful in that that additional level of this is due next Wednesday okay
20:03
that that honestly just the reality that that something was due helped me get it done and and I think there is a reality of that especially when you're young you
20:14
have young children a young family it's very difficult to apply yourself to the level that should be required of those who devote themselves to preaching and
20:27
teaching so I guess what we're talking about if I can summarize this there is no difference in kind among us we are all called to be
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disciples if we are in Christ we are called to be disciples and that includes theology not just how do I live a good Christian life but who is God what has
20:49
he done who is Jesus Christ what has he done who is the Holy Spirit I mean you could really look at the Apostles Creed and say okay that's an entire curriculum right there and now let's let's dig into
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the word under all these different headings now I'm going to talk a little bit I hope about the difference between systematic and biblical theology but okay so that kind of establishes the
21:12
kind we are all disciples but there is a difference in difference in degree that we're not all called to the same level of
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level of study now you may and I guess I should put it this way we're not we're not all called to the same level of responsibility as a result of our
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study we're not all called to be Elders okay we're not all called to be pastors we're not all called to be preachers so that's an individual thing
21:48
that you must know before God now again at Fellowship Bible Church we do believe the scripture teaches that only men are to be pastoring elders that does not mean women do not have a
22:00
Teaching Ministry within the body or that women should not study theology I don't personally have a problem with that at all and I think it is important as Believers that the women seek to see
22:14
themselves as Saints There's no distinction between male or female that okay this is for the men women just stay at home and learn how to sew and like no
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that is that is not at all what Paul is getting at and out and actually through the history of the church there have been some very very significant women including during the
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reformation and afterward in the English Puritan Era these women were not preachers but they were very knowledgeable in scripture and in Theology and they were as so many women
22:49
were in Jesus's Ministry very supportive of the men who were preaching the reformed Faith okay so you you it's it's really all of us in kind but then there
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are different degrees now it's a sad situation when the congregation exceeds its ministers in knowledge of the word and that's happened in a lot of churches
23:13
because of Bible Study Fellowship precept and these par Church Ministries have sometimes allowed the congregation but it's actually a movement in in opposite directions
23:24
opposite directions the congregation may be growing in its of God Through the Bible and the ministers are actually decreasing because they're bringing in extra biblical philosophy truth wokeness
23:37
whatever it may be called you know they're adding to which means subtracting in Christianity okay and so there's there's a there's a movement in opposite directions and it's really sad
23:48
you I hear it a lot especially from my siblings it's it's very prevalent in larger churches where there will be uh a handful of fam Ames who are who are
23:59
trying to devote themselves to studying the word and learning about God but they've been abandoned by their pastoral staff and the majority of the congregation is very happy with the way
24:10
things are so you can feel very very lonely in large churches in America today I can't remember where it said the disciples should share all things with
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his teacher seems that again in pulling those things apart that support the elder or ERS and and is in fact the
24:34
congregation unwittingly failing their ERS as well as their failing it is yeah it is and and there's also the sense that's um I think that's in Galatians
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Paul also says in 1 Timothy um five that the Elder who works hard at preaching and teaching is worthy of double honor and he mentions do not muzzle the oxes he's treading grain um it's it's a
24:57
fairly biblical Concept in fact Paul says I had the right to the Corinthians I had the right to be paid for what I did but I didn't take that right uh because he didn't want to be a burden um
25:08
so yeah the the financial compensation and support of the minister but what they're learning they're learning it somewhere else and are they
25:20
is that is that really oh yeah that's a good point as well if you're learning outside the context of the church what benefit is that to the church and one of the
25:31
passages I want to touch on is 1 Corinthians 8 where Paul says that knowledge puffs up love edifies now it would seem almost like Paul is is denying what he had previously prayed
25:43
that we would have knowledge but he's not he's saying knowledge without love and then he goes on of course a few chapters later in
25:53
Chapter 13 to tell us that anything without love is useless is empty okay prophecy knowledge all of those things
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self-sacrifice are worthless without love so in in the context of the parot church whether it's a seminary or a Bible Fellowship study um what benefit
26:15
is it to the church and if it's of no benefit to the church what church what benefit is it Yuri you can have two kinds of Bible stud you can have Church
26:28
sanction Bible study where say Wednesday night everyone breaks out and Aon or an elder of a larger Church disciples you are a small group
26:41
that that way they would be reinforcing what the church is teaching but there like you would say Church actually one gone to one where
26:54
someone has a Bible study a large church but is trying to correct what the pastor is saying uh many this
27:07
church started H it was a Sunday school class from another from another church now that's ancient history that's
27:18
like 1980 um but many churches start from the Sunday School classes of larger churches and it's that small group within the church that realizes that the preaching
27:30
the teaching has gone astray and no one else has noticed okay um all of these things explain the polls you know the
27:41
the Gallup polls the Barna polls that show us the the high level of biblical illiteracy among professing Christians uh total lack of knowledge of of Christian doctrine uh sometimes
27:53
they'll be you know put a a alleged Bible verse like God helps those who help themselves you know and the people cannot recognize that that's not in the
28:05
Bible um and so we we um we are I mean I think it is interesting what Islam how Islam refer refers to
28:16
Christians how the Quran refers to Christians we are people of the book that's book that's interesting but are we really people
28:27
people of the book now I don't want to take our identity from a false religion but sometimes you know even um even the world gets hits the truth every now and then just by well I
28:40
guess they say a broken clock is right twice a day so um we are supposed to be people of the book and so what happens is that we get
28:50
uh we get Bible study reading programs and we've done that and we encourage people to read through their Bible um we have read through the Bible in a year we have different reading
29:01
guidelines that you can follow to help you read through the Bible there's no harm in reading through the Bible but that's not the same as being a disciple reading the Bible is one thing
29:13
but studying the word is something different so I want to talk about how we do it here at fellowship and why we do it this way
29:24
um I went to Seminary so I know a little bit of something Mark went to Seminary we went to the same Seminary reformed Greenville Presbyterian Theological
29:35
Presbyterian Theological Seminary um and in a seminary the emphasis is going to be on
29:53
Theology now I say the emphasis this is not usually exclusively taught and again I'm talking about seminaries that are still conservative okay I'm not talking about liberal seminaries because they're not interested in theology at all
30:04
conservative one way you can tell that a that a seminary is conservative is that it will still be teaching Hebrew and Greek as required parts of the curriculum um many seminaries do not
30:15
require that you learn the original languages which is really in our day in the protestan ironic because it was a rediscovery of the original languages that led to the Protestant Reformation
30:27
okay everything that prior to that had been done in Latin in fact in some instances and some Er eras it was forbidden to study Hebrew
30:39
okay and only certain types of people could study Greek but it was the rediscovery of those two languages that actually ignited the Protestant Reformation now we're abandoning that
30:51
we're abandoning that for classes on demographics and demographics and marketing okay because what what is important important now is causing your church to grow and not in knowledge but
31:02
in numbers in programs and of course in Revenue okay so it's really sad what's happened in the Seminary scene but if you look at a seminary curriculum if you're considering going to a particular
31:14
Seminary and you see you know here here is the curriculum for a master of divinity you will see Hebrew 1 Hebrew 2 Hebrew exog Jesus um job in Hebrew you
31:27
know and the same thing for Greek well okay that's still a conservative sem Seminary may not be your cup of tea but that's so systematic theology is the
31:38
core of the curriculum of most conservative seminaries now this is where the word systematic means we take the Bible and we dissect it into
31:52
categories and we bring together verses from the Bible into these Cate ategory so you'll have theology
32:06
proper it's often called and and when I teach it I call it the existence and attributes of God so we're we're looking at what the Bible says about God and of course in this there will be the the
32:39
demon distinctive which most people to do some kind of dispensational things including exology including exology and those are usually presented the subject is presented
32:56
by people right the graduation ceremony yeah I was able to to not take Presbyterian polity uh because I was a Baptist I was given a different course that's
33:11
thean they have them there they there they do oh do oh okay all
33:25
right that's actually the title of a two volume book by Steven charno from the the Reformation era existence and attributes of God um uh is it toer who wrote knowledge of the Holy a toer you
33:36
know there there are these These are or the focus here is just looking at the nature of God as he is revealed himself to be now I think that's pretty important especially since people today
33:48
take one attribute of God particularly love and they exclude all the others um and we're not looking and and it's brought out very early that that when we do it this way we're not saying God is
34:00
this way sometimes and he's that way other times that he is all of these things all the time and typically it begins with God is Holy you know because
34:11
that is the the sum of all of his attributes and Perfection so we're studying christology then um and this is not always in the same
34:27
anthropology so sometimes called just basically man in or and sin okay just the the what the Bible says about Fallen human nature but also
34:39
about man as the image of God and how both the image of God and the fallenness of man are joint realities of this present life and that helps to explain a
34:50
tremendous amount of what scripture says about salvation which is soteriology the doctrine of Sal salvation and on it goes we are saved by grace through faith
35:04
and we are baptized into the church well that's ecclesiology and then of course everybody puts at the end of the book the last chapter eschatology okay now we don't do that we
35:15
don't put it there because I don't think that's where it belongs I think it belongs with ecclesiology frankly but eschatology is the doctrine of last things so systematic theology is is
35:25
necessary for the reason that this is how we think generally man thinks systematically we we we know with our our small children that eventually they
35:36
get to the lining up and stacking stage right and and it's a it's a sign of them being able to process sensory perception correctly if
35:47
they are able to put all of the blue blocks in one place and the Red Blocks in another okay that's part of our mental process is to systematize Modern
35:57
science is characterized by that systemization corus lenus what does he do he takes the plant an animal kingdom and puts them into Kingdom film ask
36:09
Martha um we do the same thing over in chemistry I got it I got this one we got uh Dimitri Mev who recognizes different chemicals have similar shape
36:21
and form and reactivity and he puts them in columns next thing you know we have the periodic table of the elements systemization is how we think okay the
36:31
problem is when we systemize too much we lose the big picture and I think this is one of the major faults of reformed theology in its academic setting is that
36:42
it is so focused on getting this right that it loses sight of biblical
36:58
so now that's not to to to insinuate that Systematic Theology is not biblical if it if this is not biblical then it's not valid at all but the
37:09
problem is is that St staring at the brush Strokes we lose sight of the portrait biblical theology is the step back to study God's Redemptive plan from
37:22
beginning to end so look at the entire metan narrative of what God is doing now I think it should be um so so here's
37:33
where we get the idea of progressive revelation that God did not reveal everything to everything to Moses he revealed even less to
37:46
Abraham okay his Revelation has been Progressive Through Time culminating as as the writer of Hebrew says culminating in these last days God has sent his
37:59
son which also teaches us that there's no more to be expected that since he has he has progressively unfolded his purpose his
38:09
plan even his own identity to us he culminated that he validated that by sending us the fullness of himself in his son there's nothing else there's no
38:21
Muhammad to come after that I mean when you realize who Jesus is then there's no room for a Muhammad or a Joseph Smith or or any other even a
38:32
senior pastor to take that place as the mediator between God and man and certainly not one to be the discloser of God Jesus says no man knows the father
38:45
only the son knows and to whomever he reveals him so we we know we stand at the at the end of this story in the sense that God is not revealing any
38:56
anything more we have it we have all things Peter says for life and godliness but what progressive revelation does is it it um in a sense it stands
39:11
back and back and sees the big picture you mentioned that Systematic Theology is the is really the focus of
39:24
your seminaries and system by which they teach where do we go to find biblical theology taught is that also found in seminaries or is that something you have
39:35
to excavate for yourself it is in seminaries but often as an as an elective a single course that you take
39:46
and it is an elective it's not necessary um and the reason for the Seminary to do this is that each Seminary was was established because other seminaries
39:59
were leaving the confession that was their Foundation their their their uh founding Charter so for example Greenville Presbyterian Theological
40:09
Seminary was founded back in the 1980s because the other seminaries of the Presbyterian Church in America the PCA were already leaving the Westminster
40:22
Confession okay that that's their document okay Baptist Reformed Baptist seminaries would be the 1689 London Confession so confessions are
40:34
essentially statements of systematic theology they're summaries of systematic theology they become the the shth for
40:45
that rigid Orthodoxy within that denomination we believe these things and our seminaries then teach to the test so really above systematic you have to put
40:56
the confession yes yeah yeah the confession is is really what guides them uh and I think it's interesting that at the Seminary we attended now this actually changed when
41:08
they changed presidents U Back In the late 90s but the Systematic Theology curriculum began with intro to reform
41:22
theology it should have ended with it but what they were doing is okay here's the square the square whole now we're going to fit all of these pegs into it whether they're square round triangular or whatever
41:33
they're going to fit into that square hole we tell you what we believe the reformed faith and then we give you the proof texts rather than giving you what
41:44
the scripture says about these and trusting that the holy spirit will guide your mind to reformed theology which actually I think it will they start with it which is again
41:55
that's that is the ultimate statement of their confession okay someone had comment Tim not only that theform
42:06
theology class is point by Point through the Westminster profession okay was when yeah in in okay the int the intro to reform theology is essentially Point by
42:17
Point exegesis of the Westminster Confession of Faith so that that's how they're founded where do you find biblical theology um most people find it
42:29
in books they they that's how I found it was by reading and realizing that wait a minute there this is all this is all one
42:39
story now keep in mind that that our era of the church's history has been massively impacted by dispensationalism and there really is no
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biblical theology to dispensationalism because God's plan is not it's not singular it's plural there have been seven
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plans okay and and each of them has failed so God has started another one that is that is theologically
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soteriologically sealed from the others that's others that's dispensationalism we're living in the church age so you then learn Systematic Theology as the Theology of our
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dispensation yes exactly and that's Lewis SP chaffer and he has a great Systematic Theology series but what you're seeing and and I recommend that if you do get systematics get
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several triangulate okay don't go with one facet you will not arrive at the truth but if you if you triangulate and you read um chaffer theology alongside of Dabney or
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burkhoff you know reformed then you're going to see them coming at this from their perspective their perspective and and in that sense you're seeing some biblical theology because what Biblical
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theology is this is how I view scripture and if I'm dispensational I view scripture as sever hermetically sealed dispensations of God
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okay that's got to impact my systematics it's going to impact my biblical interpretation across the board I'm going to read things that I'm going to say well no that only applies to Israel
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not to the church well that again reformed theology doesn't do that but reformed theology is covenantal and therefore the idea of the Covenant is going to be the
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framework that all of these things fit into but unfortunately this is there but it's behind the scenes okay and what we try to do at
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Fellowship Bible Church especially with the preaching but but I'm I'm trying to explain also I'm going to explain the plum line Ministry the the logic behind that is that we we don't want to just
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simply dissect the Bible put it under a microscope and tell you what we see because again it's it's too easy for our minds to lock in on those
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individual uh individual uh categories and I think there's a great danger a greater danger for Pride here than here because if you
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study biblical study biblical theology you see the overarching glory of God in Grace and you see the consistent wickedness and rebellion of man there's
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no room for human exaltation but over here the danger of pride is right there in in 1 Corinthians 8 knowledge puffs
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up and and this is this is a school of knowledge this is an sense uh like a law school this is s sitting at the feet of Galeo okay dotting our eyes or crossing
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our tees and getting all this right becomes the essence of our Christianity and that's very
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atast theology restricts your ability that's a good point um when you study this way you know you're you're going to present this to someone and they're going to say
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well what about this verse okay where where it says Christ died for all men first John what do you do with that well we got to do something with it but often times it's not
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convenient and the dispensational does the same thing The Armenian does the same thing okay they leave out those verses that don't fit the Paradigm I likey should be like the grammar school
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and then systemology College school need to start with that more of a chronolog and and you might use a Biblical analogy of milk and
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meat although I will say there's a lot of meat in biblical theology but it it's more reflective yeah start at the beginning
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um and and what happens is when you do these together this is deepened by this okay so under the biblical theology is
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also what we call exegetical preaching and what that means is essentially we preach verse by verse
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through a book of the Bible rather than thematically thematic preaching can has the danger of allowing the preacher to only present what he wants ra and get really get on a soap
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box essentially um and that does happen Charles Spurgeon advocated thematic preaching as the only proper one because of the movement of the Holy Spirit but I think he though he was reformed I I
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don't think he he realized the sinful tendency of men to to focus to not actually be hearing the Holy Spirit each Sunday and to focus on their own U but biblical the or biblical theology going
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through a book of the Bible you really can't avoid what the scripture says Okay um also in Plum line on Thursday nights this is why we alternate between a study
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of the book of the Bible and a theological study now the current series on Paul that has essentially been biblical theology it's it's mediated through the
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Apostle Paul but he was also the one that was given by God's grace to really understand the big picture probably more than anyone else in scripture Paul
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understood what God was doing in Christ not only in terms of Israel and then the church but also in terms of creation and
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the restoration of all that God had made through Jesus Christ so that's that's the rationale behind going back and forth between a study of a book of the Bible um and a theological study one
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session in the Bible the other session in theology back to the back to that Bible you know back and forth did you're going to first allows the pre also
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yes read talk about well and and I I heard this um and I've shared this before but I heard this it was a radio I was driving to a job site and very very
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well-known Baptist preacher um president of a major Seminary writer of many many books um mostly self-help how to you know but he was in first Timothy and he
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was talking about men and women um and I think it had to do with um I would not have a woman exercise authority over a man and then he said and if you think I'm going to touch that
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with a 10- foot pole you're crazy and you could hear the audience laugh like funny I laughed that's funny and then he went on to the next
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passage he seriously did not touch it with a 10-ft pole okay like okay that was the last time I've ever heard anything read anything from him because
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that was malpractice is that what that was U but it is it is so tempting just to avoid that and to focus on what what we want um and it's also very subtle
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because there are many different verses that will back up there are many proof text for just about whatever that's unbelievers throw this at us all
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the time as you can find a Bible verse to support anything you know that's why we have denominations um well unfortunately that's true but that doesn't disprove the proof of scripture
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it only proves the fallibility culpability and sometimes the the Ingenuity of man that that that we're just simply promoting our own agenda um
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so anyhow uh we're going to close here in just a moment but this is again trying to explain how we do it here to present the meat as well as the milk now
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one other thing I want to I want to talk about next week um is how that works out practically in other words different age groups children versus adults and I want
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to focus on that concept of milk and meat because another danger in a Reformed Church is that we start off with a 24 ounce
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T-Bone okay and many people choke on that and by by young and old I don't necessarily mean biological age either if you are a growing Church you will have new
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believers who are themselves adults but do you immediately put them into a theology class do you immediately put a plate of meat in front of them when
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they've had no milk and I think the reformed churches have a tendency to choke people who are not ready to chew
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and digest the meat so there is there is the necessity for wi wisdom um I think in that respect far more for a Reformed Church than you know
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that Jesus Loves You this I know type of church where everything is milk well let's close in prayer father we do pray that you would G guide us and give us wisdom and help us to
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know how to approach you in our own knowledge how to learn how to as it were
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step into Paul's prayer and to have that Spirit of wisdom and Revelation and knowledge to be able to comprehend and to know the height the depth of the love
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of God we pray father also that we would have the desire Again by your Holy Spirit the desire to know you to know who you are and what you've done and to
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know even better Where We Are are in you and with and with you father we pray that our knowing would always be immersed in the
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love of God that we would not be puffed up that we would not become prideful but rather that we would be
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further humbled that in knowing more we realize how little we really know for you are infinite
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and your depths cannot be fathomed we give you all the worship and praise and glory for you alone are worthy through Jesus Christ
