Bible Study Part 2
Fundamentals • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
As most of you know we have been focusing our Sunday morning lessons on the theme titled “Fundamentals.”
The goal has been to remind each of us of the “pure spiritual milk” that furthers our study unto salvation.
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
Having, up to this point in the last two lessons, established “Bible Authority” and “How God Does Not Authorize” through his word we now turn our attention to ways God does authorize within his holy writ.
By that I’m we are going to look at what we need to be looking for while studying the Bible to determine what God has said we can do and/or should do.
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The reality is God authorizes through his word in four ways.
Direct Statements
Examples
Implications
Expedients
Today we are going to focus on the first two.
Direct Statements & Examples.
Direct Statements
Direct Statements
The Old Tried & True.
The Old Tried & True.
Over the years the church as been very good at coming up with short pithy statements to summarize more complicated subjects.
How God authorizes and thus what we should be looking for while studying is one of those areas.
The most common of these, concerning bible study, is “command, example, and inference.”
Though this is concise and gives a very basic understanding of what to look for it is far from complete.
The old tried and true saying is good but not fully complete which is why the seasoned bible student should examine this statement to its fullest beginning with “direct statements.”
Eleven Different Statements.
Eleven Different Statements.
Commands are for certain a type of direct statement but there are also ten others that must be considered when scrutinizing God’s word for his authority.
We won’t get into all the technical terms because, in reality, you know them without maybe understanding perhaps their technical determinations.
To illustrate a technical term that everyone knows and understands and why it’s not necessary we will look at a direct statement that is a declarative statement in the indicative mood.
In other words, this is simply a “statement of fact” that holds authority.
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Other direct statements might include…
Conditional Statements.
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Mandatory Statement.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Wishful or Hopeful Statement.
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
God, through Paul, in verse 2 answers verse one with a “wish” so to speak that all would remember that grace doesn’t increase based on our willfulness to sin but our desire not to sin.
Summary
Summary
Remember there are eleven different direct statements in four different moods but as I just showed if we keep our eyes out for direct statements, in general, we can clearly find God’s authority on most matters.
The reason for this is simple, God authorizes mostly through direct statements.
There is a second method of authorization and that is through…
Examples
Examples
Defining The Word.
Defining The Word.
It might sound strange to say we need to define the word example, after all we use that word a lot in our modern tongue and day to day life, however, the actual biblical definition must be understood.
I say biblical definition because we cannot count of Webster’s to always keep the true meaning of a word.
Illustration: When Amy Barrett used the word “preference” when speaking about sexuality and many Democrats called it “shameful and offensive” Webster’s dictionary changed the definition of the word to imply sexual orientation to offensive to the LBTQ…community.
So, what does Webster’s actually say, in light of how we use it?
Webster’s defines it as “one that serves as a pattern to be imitated or not to be imitated (a good example or a bad example). 1
However, as stated this only applies if you put the adjectives “good” or “bad” with it; what does it mean on its own?
Example means…
“That which is to be followed or imitated: a pattern.” 2
Thus, this definition tells us that an example is an action which we are to follow or imitate.
Now you and I know that we are not to follow every action within God’s word so how do we go about determining which actions are examples and which are not?
Examples are always…
Authoritative Actions.
Authoritative Actions.
Today, when studying the bible and finding examples we must look for two basic things.
First, is this an example that is demanded and thus must be done?
The Lord’s Supper is a perfect illustration of that which is an example that is demanded and thus must be done.
We are commanded to partake of the Lord’s Supper (therefore it must be done).
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
We know the early church was meeting on the first day of the week.
7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.
We also know the early church was meeting every first day of the week.
2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
We know that the church in Corinth was partaking of the Lord’s Supper “every time they met” which as we just saw was “every first day of the week.”
20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
Here is information we don’t have.
First, there is no authority to partake of the Lord’s Supper any day but Sunday.
The example is always on the first day of the week.
Second, there is no authority to partake of the Lord’s Supper only on certain Sunday’s.
There is no example of a Sunday wherein it wasn’t partaken of.
Thus, we authorized to partake of the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week.
The second basic thing we must look for in an example is whether or not some “must” be done.
Again, the Lord’s Supper has parts to it that are a perfect illustration of an example of that which is authorized but doesn’t have to be done.
We find the Lord’s Supper being partaken of in an “upper room” (Acts 20:8).
We find the Lord’s Supper being partaken of in the “temple” (Acts 2:42-46).
We find the church met to worship in people’s homes (Philemon 1-3).
Therefore, God isn’t concerned where we partake of the Lord’s Supper as long as it is done every first day of the week when the church gathers in one place to worship.
Summary
Summary
Obviously , when studying the bible we will find a lot of actions that are not to be imitated, but for those that are examples let us hold to the pattern of righteousness that is expected to be followed.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we scrutinize the the scriptures for God’s authority let us first look for the many direct statements, and if there are none on the subject of study let us then turn our study to examples which are just as binding and authoritative as direct statements.
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Endnotes
Endnotes
Merriam-Webster, Inc. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003.
Ascertaining Bible Authority by Roy Deaver pg. 52