[0:00] Meat offered to idols, when it talks about, I'll get the verse right this time, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.
[0:11] All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. And it's basically, Paul, I have grace, I have Christian liberty to do a few things. And meat offered to idols is one of those things.
[0:24] If someone sets it before you, eat it, don't ask questions. But then it also talks about Corinthians, where it talks about the meat offered to idols would be taken, sold in the shambles for a reduced rate.
[0:36] Some Christians would buy it, other Christians would not buy it. It was a huge controversy. Do we have any controversies like that that would be? The principle is, I'm going to limit my love so that I don't cause a stumbling block.
[0:50] Okay, you want me to go first? I'll take an easy one. I didn't grow up in church, so I don't have very many paradigms or presets. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.
[1:03] I met my wife when we were 18. I got saved when I was 18. I met my wife when I was... Anyway, I am married to my wife. Okay, got it. And one of the things we used to do during Halloween is we would carve pumpkins for Halloween.
[1:18] And then, little did I know, when we moved from Southern California to Baltimore, Maryland, that that was anathema. Anathema. I mean, and so, even though I wasn't offering that idolatrous pumpkin head to the false god of Moloch, even though, you know, it was like a funny clown face that I would put the ears, isn't that cute?
[1:41] And we'd make pumpkin pie, and it was no ill will or evil intent or malicious or... I don't think I was overcome by an evil spirit. But because I was going to a place that was more, I guess, old school.
[2:02] I don't know what you want to call it. But they really frowned. They looked down on. We've even tried to eventually go to a harvest party so that our kids would have an alternative.
[2:13] Some in here may, some may not. I don't... I'm probably just alienating myself from everybody, probably. But I haven't worked up enough courage even to do a harvest party on...
[2:24] So that they would have an alternative. So when everyone else is, their kids could... I'm probably making it harder for everyone else to say anything. But out of love for the people that God has given me, I'm going to limit my liberty.
[2:42] We'd all agree that there are some debatable items where people fall on both sides. We would agree with that? And I agree with where Independent Baptists and the pastor can dial his church wherever he wants to dial his church.
[2:56] That's his God-given right. That's Independent Baptist Church. In my view, in my opinion, for Rosedale Baptist Church to be healthy, even inside of Rosedale Baptist Church, diversity is our strength.
[3:11] And if I come to a passage like Romans 14, my scriptural integrity demands that I preach it like it's written.
[3:23] How it plays out is... Okay, I'll give you another one that can become a debatable item. And that's, you know, my wife grew up in a conservative home.
[3:40] The only thing... They were allowed to watch two shows. They were allowed to watch Little House on the Prairie and WWF Wrestling. Go figure. I have no idea. There's a disconnect there.
[3:51] I mean, just... You kidding me? And... Char, come on! Anyway. You know, and there's debates over, you know, should we watch any entertainment?
[4:07] Carl, the fellow that lost his 22-year-old son, the only thing he watches is Gunsmoke. And it's just, you know, amen. So anyway, and then, obviously, and I don't want to show my cards if I haven't already.
[4:23] You know, definitely movie theaters become a debate. But then there's people that won't go to a movie theater, but they'll have a Blockbuster card and go rent them. And then, okay, you don't have a Blockbuster card. Then you watch it on TV. And I understand the control of a DVR, VCR.
[4:36] There's a whole lot of tangibles in there. But what I'm trying to say is the landscape is very broad. And somewhere, each person in here decides where their personal preference is.
[4:51] And you get where I'm going with this. And for Romans 14 to be taught, number one, I have to admit that... Okay, music, music. If God wanted to, he could have put a soundtrack in the Bible for all of us to listen to.
[5:06] And this is right music. This is wrong music. He could have addressed 4-4-6-8, cut time, 3-4. He could have addressed all of that if he wanted to musically.
[5:19] You know, they talk about... I always smile when... Living, he loved me. Dying, he saved me. I always picture myself waltzing around the room with my wife.
[5:31] Waltzing. I mean, it's a perfect... One day, he looks coming. So, rhythm, no rhythm. And so... But music, even southern gospel, bluegrass, hillbilly, should it be a cappella?
[5:43] Should it be a piano? If it's piano, should it be a piano that's very lively? Should it not? And should it be more than that? Should it be soundtrack? Sound no wrong. And just all of the whole landscape, we would agree that there are debatable items, right?
[5:57] And so the question comes, okay, where's our personal preference? But then our gracious allowance... Should I just rescind the question, are there any meat offered to idols?
[6:10] Will no one man up and jump in? Will anybody meat offered to idols? Okay. I'm wearing a tie. You guys aren't wearing a tie. Up here, we got some.
[6:20] Anyway, you know, we all have different pressure points and levels. What I need to realize is that's not going to apply meat offered to idols directly.
[6:35] The broad principle, I go over here, I recognize, I recognize what the original intent was. And that's not to disqualify verses. Every verse in the entire Bible has application.
[6:48] Period. End of sentence. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. For all scripture, for reproof. All scripture, for correction, instruction, and righteousness.
[6:59] All scripture, that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works. How about when the Lord told the story about the Good Samaritan, and he told this whole story, and the Pharisee, you know, well, who is my neighbor?
[7:23] Who is my neighbor? I'm mixing up the story, but the very end, Christ said, go and do thou likewise.
[7:34] He made application. He hid him where he lived. How about where John the Baptist was preaching, and to the publicans, he addressed finances.
[7:48] To the soldiers, he addressed not doing harm. But he made it very practical, very applicable to each person, wherever they lived. And he recognized the original intent, the author's intent.
[8:05] And then it's a trans-temporal, trans-cultural principle. Romans 14, meet offered to idols. That doesn't apply directly, typically.
[8:16] And so the principle is, because of my Christian love, and I don't want to make a brother to offend or to stumble, love limits liberty, and then I need to bring it down here to appropriateness sake, being appropriate.
[8:31] In my opinion, if I go to someone's house that's more conservative than I am, I'm going to make sure that I honor the preferences that they have. I should probably get off of this, or we're going to just go sideways, aren't we?
[8:47] So anyway, crossing the bridge, making sure we get from the one side to the other. Okay, let's forget about all of that.
[8:59] Turn in your Bibles to the book of 3 John. The book of 3 John. Let's look at 3 John for a while. The seven-step process in expository preaching, point number one is what?
[9:15] Point number one is selection. Selection. Selecting the passage of Scripture that you're going to preach. Selection.
[9:31] Anybody in here preach through books of the Bible or preach passages of the Bible? Selection. For a funeral, for a wedding, the selection process.
[9:42] You're going to have different tones depending on who you're preaching to. A funeral, your tone is going to be different than a wedding. A wedding is going to be a different tone than a revival. A revival is going to be a different tone than a Wednesday night Bible study. Different tones. The selection process will also, if you're going to do a missions presentation and try to get support, the selection process.
[10:01] The selection process will be greatly changed depending on whether you decide to preach through the whole Bible or not.
[10:13] If you're going to preach through the whole Bible, boy, you're going to need to be more deliberate in your selection process. If you're a team pastor or if you're a missionary still doing support, the selection process is going to be...
[10:26] But if you're preaching through the book, you should only have to do this one time if you're going to preach through a book of the Bible. And so for selection, I want to look at 3 John for a little bit.
[10:37] 3 John, after we select the book, we want to saturate ourselves, saturate ourselves in the book.
[10:51] Who was it that G. Campbell Morgan said that he would read through the book of the Bible 50 times? 50 times before he would preach through the book. 50 times. 3 John, I mean, just saturating, saturating, saturating yourself, saturating yourself in the book.
[11:08] You want to just be so filled up with that book that you don't get halfway into the book and realize the whole premise for your teaching that book was on a faulty premise. Boy, you don't want to have to change midstream and say, oh man, I messed up.
[11:21] It's not, you know. So saturation, two parts. Saturation of the book. Read it. Reread it. Get your hands around it.
[11:32] Get your mind around it. Get your heart around it. Become freshly familiar with the book. Saturation. Saturation. My opinion, expository preaching is not based upon the length of the passage, but your approach to the passage.
[11:53] Expository preaching. The best way is to preach the expositional units, which are paragraphs, but you can preach more than one paragraph and still do justice to it and the interrelation between the different paragraphs.
[12:10] Let's look at 3 John quickly. 3 John. 3 John. 3 John.
[12:24] 2 John. 3 John. 3 John. 4 John. 4 John. 4 John. 4 John. 5 John. 4 John. 4 John. 6 John. 5 John. 5 John. 5 John. 5 John. 5 John. 6 John.
[12:34] 7 John. Hebrews 3 John. 9 John. extremist. 5 John. 7 John. 9 John. 7 John. 6 John. 8 John. 10 John. 7 John.
[12:46] 9 John. quote where he said, get saturated in the text. I always find that I can preach best when I can manage to lie a soak in my text. I like to get a text and find out its meanings, its bearings, and so on. And then after I've bathed in it, I delight to lie down in it and let it soak into me.
[13:07] By just saturating yourself in the text, becoming very, very familiar, what does the text mean? How do I know what the text means? What concerns were caused for this text to be written?
[13:22] And you'll see a lot of those in Corinthians when Paul is addressing problems. He's addressing problems with their Lord's Supper, with lawsuits, addressing problems with immorality. What does it mean? How do I know what it means? What concerns cause this to be written? What do we share in common with those? And we're trying to establish context. And if you don't have the context of a passage, you're really on faulty ground. A text taken out of context is a pretext to say whatever I wanted to say. You remember when the onslaught that was happening with Rabshakey and Sinatraib, they were coming in, they were threatening the Jews and Rabshakey, who I'm not sure that's how you pronounce it. He kind of sounds like a rock singer that way. But Rabshakey, remember when he said, if I gave you 2,000 horses, you wouldn't even have 2,000 men to put on the horses and one of the least of our. And he's mocking God's people. I've heard someone preach that as God will provide the horses if you provide the men. God will provide the horses if you provide the men.
[14:42] And that thing was so lifted out of context, it was just a mess. Has anyone heard those contexts just totally ignored? We need to make sure that we stay in context, that we stay grounded, our bearings, our moorings. The next two point, context. I told you the story last year about Shara and I and Hannah were in the back seat and we're driving on Mountain Road and my wife starts reading this text from my son and the text that he wrote, he's in college, and the text that he wrote is, I'm through, this is ridiculous. That's the text that he wrote. That's the text that she read.
[15:32] But remember a text taken out of context, all right? And so the context I did not have, I was just, when she read that thing, I'm probably too hard on my boy than I should be. He's doing well so far, but I turned and said, get him on the phone. Get him on the phone. I want to talk to him. I'm through.
[15:54] This is ridiculous. To me means someone falsely accused him of something. He's quitting or he's just done. And I've been there in college. My freshman year, second semester, I lost every credit I had.
[16:07] And I was through. This is ridiculous. And so I was taking my context, not his context. And my wife was, you know, I'll call him. You know, I'll call him later today. No, I want him on the phone now.
[16:22] And if you talk to my wife and my daughter who was in the back seat, they would say that I was over the top in my response, which I can't imagine that to be the case. But what the context of it was, was I'm not through with college. I'm quitting. This is ridiculous because something happened to me that shouldn't happen. He had just gotten done with his finals, the workload studying.
[16:48] I'm through with my last finals. This is ridiculous. This workload trying to study for the finals. Does anybody see how that I didn't have the context of that? And the meanings were two totally different things because my context wasn't right. In Baltimore, they have what they call packaged good stores. Anybody know what a packaged good store is? Does anybody know? I'd never heard of it.
[17:16] You've heard of it, Jeff? A packaged good store? It's where they put your alcohol in a package. It's a liquor store, right? And I didn't know that. We're in a workers meeting and some crazy person in the back is saying, hey, I need picked up. And where do you need to pick you up? Where are you picked up? I need picked up by Louie's packaged good store over on Essex. Okay. Who knows where Louie's packaged good store is? And I'm just, you know, Louie's packaged good. Yeah. Pick them up at Louie's packaged good store. Packaged good store. And when I came out of the pulpit, one of the deacons said, you have no idea what a packaged good store is, do you? And I said, no. What is it? Yes, you buy groceries. They put it in a package. I don't know. But it's the context. If you miss the context, what I want to do is 3rd John is the book that we've chosen. We have the selection. We have the saturation. We've read it. We've re-read it. The next two steps are investigation and observation.
[18:20] Investigation and observation. What I want to do is last year we block diagrammed it. We pushed, remember we took a subject verb and then we pushed the prepositions over the modifiers. We took the main part. The verbs are the bearing walls of a text, the bearing walls. And then we pushed the modifiers to the right. You want to make sure you can grab each piece of this book by paragraphs, by paragraphs. Does anybody have a Bible where it shows you where the paragraph breaks are? Does anybody have a Bible like that? Does the Thompson chain reference show you where the paragraphs are?
[19:05] Does it show you that? Cambridge shows you that? I'll use Logos. It shows me that. The two Bible programs I use is Logos and Word Search. Logos and Word Search. I still use Word Search because I used that originally and I'm not sure how to use Logos fully. But it costs a lot. I should use it. But anyway, you'll want the paragraph breaks. Does everybody see 3rd John? Where are the paragraph breaks in 3rd John? The paragraph breaks in 3rd John are, does anybody have them? The paragraph breaks? I see three paragraphs. Anybody else see three paragraphs? You need to get a Bible program and obviously our computers aren't open. If you have a computer, open your computer. We're going to start looking at stuff.
[19:53] After Revelation, I'm teaching 1st John, 2nd John, and 3rd John. I'm done with 1st and 2nd. I need 3rd, so I need your help, okay? So 3rd John, does everybody have it open? You don't have all your study materials, obviously. Your library's not there. Paragraph breaks in 3rd John. Where are the paragraph breaks in 3rd John? Verse 9? Verse 9 would be the second paragraph. Yep. Verse 13 would be the third paragraph.
[20:29] Where do you guys see that? You guys see that in your Bible? Or do you have a computer? Or is Brother Gardner helping? Yeah, come on, Robert. Cheating, cheating up a pastor. And verse 1 through 8 is the first paragraph. Verse 9 through 12 is the second paragraph. Verse 13 and 14 is the third paragraph.
[20:50] Investigation, observation. Investigation, observation. Two ways I would approach it. Last year we talked about block diagramming, getting the main meat of the passage, and then all of the modifiers would push off. And then on your left side, there's some books on block diagramming. I don't know if I have them off the top. Kaiser has toured an exegetical theology. Chisholm, Schreiner, McKnight have some.
[21:24] Fee, Liefield, Bach, Fanning, interpreting the New Testament text, New Testament exposition, New Testament exegesis. Tim O'Donnell block diagrams it from the right to the left, pulling out the main thoughts. I typically would do it from the left to the right. You can intuitively do it also. The main thing you have to be able to do is boil away all of the modifiers and make sure you have the meat. Verse number one, the other way to do it is with a book this short, I'm going to read it and then I'm going to reread it and then I'm going to reread it until things start floating to the top. If you want to try to track it by way of personalities that are in the text, I think there's three names that are in the text. What are the three names that are in the text? Third John, is that too too long of a book for all of us to do? Is that too long? Three names. Let's go shorter. I don't know.
[22:23] Is there a shorter one? But what are the three names? Three people, three main characters of third John. Gaius, Diotrephes, and Demetrius. And Demetrius, verse number 12. I'm going to keep hold of these, especially with Gaius being in the first chapter, first paragraph, Diotrephes being in the second paragraph. The second thing I want to look at grammatically are unusual words, unknown words, repeated words. Read through the first paragraph and tell me if you see any repeated words. Any repeated words? Prosper. Prosper. Prosper. Is that an unusual word? A unknown word? Or is it a repeated word? Repeated. That thy soul may as prosper as thy soul prospereth. It's still a part of the same thought. I don't know that I would start highlighting it as much. But I would look at it.
[23:37] What I'm going to, what you're going to come, after you start lifting some of this and seeing some themes throughout this, I'm going to go back and look at, okay, what does prosper mean? In which I go into word search and if I double click the word, it pulls up the strong's number. And then I can right click on the strong's number and it's going to show me every other verse where that same strong's number is used. And so I can interpret words with the Bible. Context determines meaning. A word doesn't have meaning until you have context for that word. My wife ran to the store because she had a run in her hose. They were having a run on hosiery and she ran into some people she knew from the church who ran out as soon as they saw her because of whatever. That same word ran, is it the same meaning for every one of those? Run in the hose, ran to the store, they ran out, she ran into someone. Just because you think you know a definition of a word, context is what determines, what determines meaning. And you got to make sure that it's not isolation, it's interrelation. Repeated words, repeated words, 3rd John, repeated words. Truth, yes, yes. In verse number three, it says testify to the truth. I actually did this last, last night or the night before just looking at it, but testify to the truth that is in the, even as thou walkest in truth. Verse four, I have no greater joy than my children walk in truth.
[25:22] Verse number eight, that might be fellow helpers of the truth. I'm going to at least put that in the back of my mind and say, he may be trying to get a point across about truth, okay, about truth.
[25:35] Much, repeated words, repeated words. If we get nothing else profitable out of this, we'll read 3rd John, okay, and that's profitable.
[25:53] Okay, you want me to show you the one that jumped out at me? Is the elder unto the well-beloved, loved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
[26:05] Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper. Verse five, beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest. Verse six, which I've borne witness of thy charity, thy love. And then look at verse number nine. I wrote unto the church after Paul said, you're my well-beloved Gaius. He's calling him the beloved. I love you in the truth. Beloved, thou doest faithfully. I've borne witness of your love, your charity. And so, Gaius, I love you. I love you. You're my beloved. And Gaius, you love the truth.
[26:41] You love the truth. You love the truth. Look at the next paragraph, the contrast that it gives us, the love. Look at verse number nine. I wrote unto the church, but diatrophes who loveth to have the preeminence.
[26:59] Does anybody think that if I highlight that in my people's mind as I'm preaching on, and I don't know how I would do it, but just Paul's love for Gaius, Paul's love for people, Paul's passion for him, Gaius' love for the truth. But wait a second, diatrophes, he doesn't love people. He doesn't love truth. Diotrophes who loveth to have the preeminence. It's where we're connecting. We're trying to the interrelation, how one paragraph relates to another paragraph. And to be honest with you, I think I'm going to teach 3 John all as one sermon, 3 John. Does anybody else see any commonalities between the two paragraphs? And probably the way I'm going to contrast it is Gaius versus Diotrophes. Gaius versus Diotrophes. What's that?
[28:05] What was his reaction? His love for him? Yep, yep.
[28:23] Yeah, yeah. Prating against us. Malicious words. No. To me, the thing sets itself up for a great contrast. It sets itself up for that. Look at another one. Verse number 10.
[28:41] Diotrophes, wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, praying against us, and not content. Not content. He's not content. Look at verse number 7 about Gaius. Because that, for his namesake, they went forth taking nothing. But it seems like they're content.
[29:00] Taking nothing of the Gentiles. It's the contrast. The contrast. Is there another contrast to where I usually just preach this thing harder than it should ever be preached? It's usually Diotrophes, who love it to have the preeminence, doesn't receive us.
[29:23] He doesn't receive us. He rejects us. He's not receiving us. And you see that in verse number 9, where it says, he loved to have preeminence, he receiveth us not. And then you go to verse number 10.
[29:36] Wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, not content. Neither doth he himself receive the brethren. So he didn't receive us. He doesn't receive the brethren. And forbiddeth them that would. He doesn't let anybody else receive. He doesn't receive us. He doesn't receive the brethren.
[29:50] He doesn't receive anybody else that would. And casteth them out of the church. In contrast, anybody see that up in the first paragraph? Verse number 8.
[30:01] We therefore ought to receive, we ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers of the truth.
[30:18] Just, you start, when you read it and you re-read it, and I know we're just glancing at it now. You read it and you re-read it, things will start lifting up. Things will start highlighting out.
[30:28] The other way to do it is the block diagram. And I may give an example of that next hour, maybe tomorrow morning. But as you're saturating in that, you're going to start having things lift to the top.
[30:44] After that, I would start looking at unusual words. Deeds. Deeds. Up in verse number Verse number His deeds.
[31:01] Verse number 10. 10? Yeah. If I come, I'll remember His deeds. His deeds. The Greek words is ergon. Ergon. His energy. Ergon. His energy.
[31:12] It's not even just a one-time act. The energy He's putting into that. And this guy, He's expending His energy. Not like Paul, who would very gladly spend and be spent.
[31:23] But he's spending himself casting people out. But he's wearing himself out rejecting people. I'd look up prating. I'd look up malicious. I'd look up forbidden.
[31:35] Paul loves Gaius. Thyatrides loves preeminence. Gaius speaks the truth. Verse number 3. Pointed out four times. Testifies of the truth.
[31:45] He walks in the truth. No greater joy than to hear my children walk in the truth. Fellow helpers of the truth. Diotrephes' words weren't truth.
[31:56] They were accusations. They were slanderous attacks forbidding them. Casting them out. Malicious words. Rather than the truth. It was malicious words. Rather than the truth.
[32:07] The receptivity. Everybody sees the contrast of the two. Contrasting. Look at.
[32:19] In a lot of this is. We talked a little bit about. In fact. Let me give you a name of a book. Two books that are great books to get. Robert Trena. Robert Trena has a book on methodical Bible study.
[32:38] Robert Trena. And he's. It's all about. The part we're in now is examination. Investigation. And observation. Investigation. And observation.
[32:49] But just. Looking at the verse. Like you're seeing it for the first time. Looking at the verse without any pretext influences. Without any paradigms.
[33:00] Boy. Just walking in. Remember the first time you read through the Bible. I remember the first time I read through the Bible. I was saved. December 27th. 1984. I went back home. In 519 11th street.
[33:10] 18 years old. I couldn't believe some of the things that were in the Bible. It was just. Man I couldn't wait to get to the next page. Next chapter. By the next book. And this was just. It was just. A kid in a candy store. Eat it up.
[33:21] And what happens is. Is. So much of our Bible reading now. Is. What we see in the Bible. This next time. We read the Bible.
[33:32] Is what we've always seen in the Bible. Every other time. Because we're not viewing it in a fresh way. We're not looking at it like it's the first time we saw it. And we miss things.
[33:43] We miss things. He gives the example of Psalm 23. Reading through Psalm 23 where. It says. The Lord.
[33:54] The Lord is my shepherd. The word Lord there is all capitals. It's Jehovah. Is there significance to that? Jehovah is my shepherd.
[34:04] Why doesn't it say El Shaddai or Elohim is my shepherd? Is there significance that Jehovah is my shepherd? Why does he call him a shepherd and not guide?
[34:17] Or. Is there. How does that impact me? The Lord. Jehovah. Is a shepherd. Why does it describe him? Okay. Why the personal pronoun before shepherd?
[34:29] The Lord is my shepherd. He's my shepherd. What is that? Is there any significance to that? The Lord is present tense my shepherd.
[34:44] I shall future tense not want. Why would the shift in verb tense be there? The Lord is my shepherd.
[34:55] I shall not want. Why wasn't I do not want? Or. I never have wanted. Why is it the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
[35:06] Why the word want there? Does it just mean I won't lack? There's times when I felt like I've lacked things. Anybody in here felt that way? What is that?
[35:17] The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Has anybody heard that phrase? He maketh me to lie down in green pastures as a shepherd with a sheep that wanders off and wanders off, gently breaks the leg, remends it so that the sheep won't wander.
[35:36] He makes me. Does that imply that? I don't know. In David's repentant psalm he said, make the bones which thou hast broken, talking about mending the bones that thou hast broken, to rejoice.
[35:50] Boy, is it talking about that? He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still water. Still. What significance? Is anybody following this at all?
[36:02] Just read it, think through it, meditate on it. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters.
[36:13] What's the next one? He restoreth my soul. Is that what it is? He restoreth my soul. I'm reading a book now by, is it Guy King? It's a small book on all throughout the day.
[36:26] And he takes Psalms 23 as a day in the life of a sheep. The first thing a sheep wakes up, the first thing he sees, the shepherd is the door. That sheep fold, the shepherd lies down in the door.
[36:39] John chapter 10, I am the door. The good shepherd, that part, I am the door, that passage, I am the door. Okay, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
[36:49] He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters. In the heat of the day, he restoreth my soul. That energy, that energy. He restoreth my soul.
[37:00] For the purpose of the next verse, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul.
[37:11] He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Isn't that a great add on that? For his namesake? He doesn't just lead me in the paths of righteousness so that I can live in right paths.
[37:23] for my sake. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. The fact that I'm resting the verse before he's leading me again in paths of righteousness, that's what our rest, our recreation, our downtime, if we do play golf or if we do unplug, it shouldn't be just for fun.
[37:43] It should be recreating our strength so that we can get back on that path of righteousness. By the way, I kind of wonder why he maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
[37:55] He leadeth me beside the still waters and he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness sake. Those two leadeth, they're two different Hebrew words. Why is that?
[38:07] Why is that? Why does he have two different words? He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. What's the next verse? Let's see. He restored my the Lord my shepherd.
[38:17] Oh, good. Thank you. Is that the next verse? Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. By the way, I wonder if the valley of the shadow of death is one of those paths of righteousness.
[38:31] He leads me in the paths of righteousness. He's walking through the shadow of death. Well, I wonder if that's a very path of righteousness. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
[38:45] Walk. He doesn't camp. He doesn't plant there. He doesn't stay there. He's walking through there. The shadow of death. They tell me that there's an actual valley of the shadow of death. I've never been there.
[38:55] If I'm preaching this in our church, I would say I've never been there, but we are going there the second week of November. Anybody that wants to sign up information, death. Okay, where were we? But anyway, through the valley of the shadow of death.
[39:07] I wouldn't really do that. I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Are they two different things? How does it play out?
[39:20] What is his rod? What is his staff? It's his rod. It's his staff. They comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
[39:32] Is that the next verse? Does it go from a shepherd leading to a host supplying? Or is this still part of the shepherd?
[39:43] It's just nuances to think through. And it's kind of like 3 John. As you're reading 3 John and reading 3 John and reading 3 John, pretty soon stuff's going to lift to the top. And someone would say, well, pastor, it seems like this is going to take a lot of time.
[39:59] I think that's why the Bible says, study to show thyself reproved unto God. A workman, a workman, a workman that needs not to be ashamed. Hey, Carl's workshop, typically I'm at his place of work.
[40:14] And he gets to work early. This is a man's man. He works hard. I'm typically at his place putting a, it's a diet Pepsi all set out. It's a reminder. Tomorrow morning I'm going to take a picture of a diet Pepsi because I'm not there and just say, hey, here's your reminder.
[40:28] I'm still praying for you. I'm still praying that God would help you and bless you and you have a better day today than you had yesterday. This, this, we don't get in the ministry because we like the schedule.
[40:39] Okay. If you did, you may want to reevaluate your motives. We didn't get in just because this is, hey, high on the hog, fat of the land. It is a lot of work to plant the wheat, to harvest the wheat, to grind the flour, to make the noodles, to cut the noodles, to do the sauce from scratch all the way.
[41:01] That's the extreme. The other extreme is over here, opening the ragu, going to a different website or hearing a sermon and then parroting it. Boy, we are all trying to be somewhere in here to where thou prepares the table before me in the presence of my enemies.
[41:19] Thou anointest my head with oil. Thou anointest my head with oil. Is that referencing the Holy Spirit of God? Does that reference, most books say that it's the mites and the mosquitoes that are getting into, the shepherd is anointing each individual sheep.
[41:36] My cup runneth over. What's the tie back? What's the back reference for that? The Lord, if my cup's running over, I have so much, God has given me so much, my cup's running over.
[41:48] Is that any allusion to the first phrase where the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I'm not going to have an empty goblet. My goblet's not going to be empty.
[42:00] My goblet, is that, is goblet, it's Kool-Aid that's in the goblet. My goblet's going to be filled to overflowing. The Lord daily loadeth us with benefits.
[42:11] Is anybody seeing, just walking through, contemplating, my cup runneth over. And I know there's one more verse and I'd love to be fed good. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
[42:25] Guy King says this is the end of, and I'm not real sure that that's the case or not, but there's a lot of great thoughts in it. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
[42:40] We need to get on this side of the bridge over here and put ourselves, recognize, recognize the cultural, the literical, if it's poetic or if it's historical literature or prophetic literature, over here, the context, get ourselves here, and then as we soak and saturate, selection, saturation, investigation, we're turning over every word, we're looking at unusual words, we're defining, there are some words, leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, leadeth me besides so water, same word, different Hebrew word, why is that?
[43:25] Why is that? And what are the nuances of that? Does it mean one's different? The second one is more, he guides me, he guides me. It's almost not just someone in front of you, but he guides kind of talking and instructing and mentoring along the way.
[43:39] There's some English words that are the same, but they have a different Greek word. Turn to John 20 quickly, John chapter 20, John chapter 20.
[43:58] Selection, 3rd John. Saturation, we read it, we reread it, we reread it, we reread it, the book, the passage, the book, the passage. Investigation and observation, either the block diagramming it, or just taking that paragraph and digesting it, and then, I had this sermon for Easter, and I never saw this until just recently, and I changed the entire sermon.
[44:25] John chapter 20, look at verse number 1. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken from the sepulcher.
[44:36] Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, which I guess Easter would also be one of those Romans 14 things, right? Resurrection Sunday, Easter Sunday, do we celebrate it all? We celebrate it every Sunday, that's when he rose from the dead.
[44:48] Anyway, look at verse number 2. She runneth, come and Simon Peter, the other disciples whom Jesus loved, saith in him, they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple came to the sepulcher, so they ran together, and the other disciple did outrun Peter, came first to the sepulcher, and he stooping down and looking in saw.
[45:09] The Greek word for that is blepo, blepo, to physically see. He stooping down and looking in, boy, he saw it. The linen clothes lying, yet went he not in.
[45:20] Verse 6. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and seeth. The first one is blepo, to see physically.
[45:30] The second one is theoreo, which means theory. Boy, he's formulating, not just seeing physically, theoreo. He's contemplating a theory. Man, it may be. This is possibly.
[45:42] They saw it? Boy, they saw it. Look at the next verse. Then went it also that other disciple which came first to the sepulcher, and saw and believed.
[45:53] Same word, saw, seeth, saw. From blepo, physically saw, kind of surfacely saw, to theoreo. He has a theory, a mental theory. Boy, he saw it.
[46:04] He saw it. He saw it. The last one is idea. Not just mentally, but spiritually. Boy, I got an idea. I'm coming to some conclusions about this thing.
[46:17] When they first came, boy, they saw it. And then they saw it. And then they saw it. Boy, it's a lot like progressive revelation of the two disciples on Emmaus Road, where when Christ was walking with them, they were clueless that it was him.
[46:39] They saw him. They saw him. But it wasn't until he broke bread, and when they saw him again, boy, that's when they saw him. They saw it.
[46:50] But, man, they saw it. And about every ten minutes through the sermon, I stop and I say, man, are you seeing it? Are you seeing it? Same with Thomas.
[47:01] Same with other examples that you could give. When they were fishing, he was there. Boy, it's the Lord, John said. Boy, he saw it. He saw it. He saw it. I went to a Methodist church for 18 years, and I saw it.
[47:14] I saw it. The Lord Jesus, I know he was God. He died on the cross for the sins. Boy, I saw it. It wasn't until I was 18 that, man, I saw it. I saw it. But it's that type of a thing that can make a world of difference.
[47:29] In my preaching, it does. It goes from bad to just a little bit better. But if you could just get that. And the sermon is not realizing the resurrection.
[47:40] She didn't see the signs. The grave clothes were in the form of still cocooned like they're in the body because those that say, well, the disciples rolled the stone and they stole the body.
[47:53] They wouldn't be there. Same passage. The napkin was folded off to the side. If they stole the body, she was missing the signs, missing the signs. She was also missing the scriptures, which is verse number, verse number nine.
[48:06] For as yet, they knew not the scriptures that he must rise from the dead. She, she, she wasn't seeing the signs. She wasn't studying the scriptures. And then you go back to the New Testament all throughout. He said he was going to death, burial, raised again, raised again, raised again, raised again.
[48:21] Not seeing the signs, not studying the scriptures. And then lastly, she wasn't sensing the savior. In verse number 15, Jesus said that her woman, why weepest thou?
[48:33] Whom seekest thou? She supposing him, you talk about the greatest lack of seeing.
[48:43] She supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, sir, if thou was to born him. And she, he turned and said, Mary, she turned and said, Rabboni, that is the master.
[48:55] Boy, she saw it. She saw it. And then she saw it. Boy, there's people here this morning that you're out, family invited you out. You've seen it. You've seen it. But, but the question is, where are you seeing it?
[49:07] Moses, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. Numbers says, if we look, look and live, you'll look and live. Boy, are you seeing it?
[49:18] And you can go into the gospel, but anyway, let's take a break. Selection, saturation, investigation, observation, either block diagramming or just taking that paragraph, but starting to lift out repeated words, unusual words, unknown words.
[49:39] It's, it's, I used to do lunch with a guy by the name of Carmen Cotofamo. And Carmen was great for me because he would look at a passage from every angle you could possibly look at.
[49:52] And he would say, he would start it out, pastor, have you ever considered? Have you ever considered? Have you ever thought about? Have you ever seen? And he would see stuff that I would never see and it would blow me away.
[50:03] And I'm not talking about new things or trying to sensational. I'm not into the shock jock kind of preaching. Um, but I am for, um, keeping my eyes wide open.
[50:15] Open thou my eyes so I can see it, that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law. Investigation, observation will never be a better preacher of the Bible than we are a student of the Bible.
[50:29] Lord, I do pray that you'll encourage the man and, um, and Lord, not preaching at anyone. I, I wished I was on that side and, um, so many that I respect here.
[50:41] And Lord, I just pray that you'll challenge us to, to, to read it and to read it and to study it and to meditate on it and, and to, uh, soak ourselves, to bask in it, to, to, uh, delight in your word.
[50:59] And, uh, Lord, I pray that we'll take your word. We'll, we'll, uh, recognize, we'll recognize um, that, that, uh, original intent, uh, to that person at that time and, uh, help us to, to get that, that, that, uh, principle that's for all people of all times and then to be able to preach it to our people, um, on this Sunday morning coming up.
[51:25] Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Ten minutes.