How To Study The Bible

Let's see, last week, boy, it just went flying by in our class time. We went over kind of dispensational interpretation, OK? And is anybody that missed that that would like to get the handout on that, by the way? I think at least, let's see if I can find it. Here we go. Let me get that one. Pass that down. I think he has it, but I can get to him. The other thing, last week I was passing out, right? The other thing is we handed out some discs and I noticed those things went and we had none left. So if you were shorted a disc and would like one, I've got five spares here as well as the sheets indicating what they're like.

Boy, this is amazing. Somebody went and did a fancy label for this thing. It includes all the contents and address and a picture of the church. I mean, it's just phenomenal. Roy. So anyway, amazing things are possible. He says he's going to produce more of these and so we'll get those to you.

That way you'll know what it is. Nice having a blank disk, right? At any rate, those are some things to make available to you as well. Yes? I think it's a label that you can put on, but you may have a machine or something. Do you need to have a machine to stick that on? It's a little plastic thing that centers it. So if you bring your disc back, you know, you can... I'll bring in the deal and put the sheets on here and you can... Yeah, you can stick them on. So anyway, you get them labeled, which is great.

These anonymous disks can be a little scary. Incidentally, that disk, it's not a program like you just run it, but it is a bunch of files that you can make reference to on that CD. There's over 1,500 files, over 180 little folders in there. But just a huge number of files, for example, from a lot of the 1800s, the Plymouth Brethren and a lot of their writings, a lot of different books of the Bible, commentaries on them, historical references, both during the church age and during biblical times. I mean, there's lots of things there. So anyway, hopefully that'll be really useful to you. With everything, use discernment. Use it as a tool, not as, you know, the Gospels between the pages of your Bible there. That's the Gospel truth, okay?

Everything else is reference. What we want to do this morning, we've got, since Mike is out of town, we've got an opportunity here. How many are from the Romans class? Is it just yourself? Okay. The Romans class is not meeting, so what we're going to do is we're going to focus on We're going to focus on chapter 7 of Romans using the principles and tools that we've been learning so far.

So, what we're going to do, I'm going to pass out again. And you've got questions last week. Is there anybody that's missing those? You need one as well? Okay, you got some? Okay. Alright. Okay. Okay. Everybody else? Anybody else got them from last week and need them? Yeah, okay. Here, just pass a couple down there. Okay. These are the questions that Mike had left with his class, and we want to get to those. But preliminarily, well, I'd just love to pass out. I want to pass out some more things here. This will pass out. Yeah. OK, I'll get one. OK. The folks who have been going through the class in Romans have the advantage that they've been going at it for several weeks here.

Because we're kind of hitting it afresh, we want to ask some questions. here, just to make sure we've got a frame of reference. And these are the kinds of questions, frankly, I just took these right out of the book that we've been studying, been reading from. And we're going to ask these questions about this, just to make sure we've got this squarely in mind. And perhaps there might even be a few little kind of surprises in this as you look at it. Let's take a look. Who wrote the Book of Romans? Paul. Okay, how do we know that? Cecil! Hey, that helps, doesn't it? Okay. It says so. It sure helps when it says so. Now, who is he writing to? Hey, there we go, the Romans. The Christians in Rome.

What were they like? What do we know about them? There's kind of three main groups that we tend to deal with in the New Testament era. One is the Jews. The next one is the Greeks. And the third one is the Romans. Now, we also know that there were a number of Jews that were situated there as well. And so Paul, he talks rather readily about Jews and the Jewish things, as if the Jews have enough prominence there that they'll be able to understand that. So we know here that the primary thing, though, you've got Latin speaking people that they must be able to catch on Greek, otherwise he wouldn't have written it that way. But these are people that speak Latin.

They're Romans. They're right there in the headquarters, okay? And here they've got, you know, the Roman government just right down their neck. Okay? It's those people. Yes. Yes. It's both Gentiles and Jews, but predominantly Gentiles. Predominantly Gentiles. But both. And there's enough Jews so that you've got substantial Jewish influence and discussion there. a lot of the founders of that church had Jewish background.

Then what has he been saying up to this point? Obviously we're not going to read the first six chapters in the next three minutes, but what we're going to do is look right below here. Here's a Roman teaching outline in that section below, and it kind of gives us a quick summary of what he's been saying. First he had this introduction where he first comes into them and, of course, says, hey, I'm Paul. But one of the things that comes out in the first chapter of Romans is what?

He talks about God gave them over to. And there's kind of a ladder we like to think of going up. This is a ladder that goes down. This thing is kind of a cascade. God gave them over to. God gave them over to. and they keep dropping down to more and deeper spiritual depravity.

The things that Paul lists there are basically creator rejection. Now, next, he talks about justification. Big issue. Justification. God's righteousness, not ours. And then he starts into this section here that we're in the middle of as we study this morning, And that's sanctification. How does that get lived out? Alright, now I've been justified, now what?

So he's been talking them through. If you read through Romans, it is the writing of a logician. He goes through, duh, duh, duh. You have this rhetorical question, he gives it the logical answer. Come up with the next rhetorical question, he gives it the logical answer. That's what he's proceeding through here.

What's the literary form? Remember we had on that one kind of introductory page on that chapter, kind of a listing of different literary forms. What are some of the literary forms that the Bible uses? Pardon? Letters, okay. There are letters, sometimes the word epistle or epistolary, okay. So there's letters. All right, what are some other forms that the Bible uses? Poetry, good. And there's an example of that would be? Psalms is a primary example, good. What else?

History, all right? And what you find is there's a good deal, especially of the Old Testament, that's history. And actually, the book of Acts is substantially history, right? So history is another form. What is this Romans here? It's an epistle. It's a letter to these people, okay? It is in a letter form.

And you're gonna read each one a little bit differently. Remember the analogy we used a week or two back When you go to a newspaper, each section of the newspaper, you look at it and you say, all right, I know how to read this section. We don't say, gee, I wonder what happened today and turn to the funny paper, right? We don't turn to the comics. Hello. Let me get a couple of things in your hands here. Yeah. We don't turn to the classified section and start laughing. Well, maybe we do.

So when we come to this letter, we have an idea, I know how to read this. Because we look at its literary style to know how to read it. I'm going to read Psalms a little differently because it's poetry. I'm not going to look at the book of Romans to try to necessarily get historical sequence. because it's not a historical writing. So, here's the value of knowing what form it is.

Now, what's the next part? When is it taking place in history? Okay, about 60 AD. What had happened before, in the decades before? Okay, so here's Paul, and he'd made missionary journeys up to that point. And what else had happened in the decades before? Yes, Christ was here on earth.

We have the Gospels that record those accounts. We have the book of Acts that gives a historical connection between the Gospels and now in these epistles. Acts is a backbone that gives this historical connection to the various letters. Without Acts, we wouldn't know who Paul was. We'd go from the end of the Gospel of John and open to the Book of Romans and say, who's he? But now with the Book of Acts, we have a connection, an introduction. So it's important to keep in mind what's the context? What's happening? What's the connection? Yes. Did you say that Acts is a prelude to Romans? A prelude to Romans and to every other New Testament book after it, yes. Because without Acts, we'd be lost. We'd be scratching our head about all these, what are all these books, you know, who's Paul? What sense does this make, you know? We would wonder what's going on. Exactly. Yeah, Doug? 60 A.D., would this have any bearing on the fact that the 70 A.D. hasn't happened yet? Yes, yes, exactly.

If you look at that next decade, some of the things that would happen is that Paul would die before the temple was destroyed. about 10 years later the Jewish temple would be destroyed and who would destroy it? Romans. General Titus would come in with his Roman army and they trampled Israel and finally took out Jerusalem.

So yes, this is kind of the context. There is still a lot of tension in Israel but it hasn't reached a crescendo yet. So Paul can write back and talk about the law without lighting the whole city on fire. Now, why is he writing this? What's his purpose? What's he trying to get across? He's trying to clarify from the little bit they know and bring them up.

Yeah, in other words, here's the folks in Rome. They've obviously, you know, they're not living in a vacuum, but these are some issues that need to be addressed. And the one that he's hitting here right now is this issue of the law. What is my relationship with the law?

And frankly, it's an important one. There's an awful lot of Christians almost 2,000 years later that still haven't got that figured out. Okay? So it's critical, isn't it? It's very important. He's trying to get them settled. Look, this law thing is no small issue. I want you to understand it. I want you to understand the value of it and also the place that it doesn't have. Okay? So why is he writing this? He's trying to have them have an understanding of the fact of where they are in Christ, of the place of the law, that that's not going to put them ahead. And then he continues on later on, of course we've got some outline here of how he continues. Alright, what does the phrase, the law, mean?

And by the way, this is a real important question. Because that comes up so many times in this book, if we don't understand what it means, we're going to be really scratching our heads. What's that? Okay, now. Here's where we've got to be careful. We've got to look at each time it shows up, because frankly, the word law shows up in this chapter several times, and it doesn't always have the same meaning. Ah, okay. Yes? Ah, excellent. Think about it.

How do we use the word law? What are some examples? How do we use the word law, even in just our own society? Okay, so we think of it theologically. We think of it in terms of what's our relationship with the Lord. Okay, that's one way. What's another way we use the word law? Okay, yeah. The rules, the laws, regulations, codes, you know, all those things. Okay, so that's another. What's another way we use the word law? Exactly. The law is after you. We're not talking about these tablets running after somebody. The policeman's after you. So we use it that way. There's another one.

What's another way we use the word law? How about science? Talk about the laws of thermodynamics, law of gravity, things like that. So we use the word law in several ways. The fact that it would be used in a few different ways I mean, that's understandable, but we have to look at the context in each case where he uses it and figure out which one is he talking about.

One of the things that will help, and it's a real critical point that Joanne pointed out, and that is this. There are places where it talks about the law and you have to look at the context because sometimes it's talking about the law of Moses, other times it's talking about a principle. For example, you'll see the phrase, Law of Christ. That's not talking about the Law of Moses.

As we go through this, keep in mind that there are different definitions, and we have to look at the context. Remember the principle we set a number of weeks back? In real estate, there are three things to remember. Location, location, location. In interpreting the Bible, there are three things to remember. Context, context, context. That's the same thing we're going to be doing here as we look through this. The word is the same.

One of the things that is helpful is whether there is an article in front of it. Is it the law or is it just law? If it says law without the article, the general indication is that means principle. If it has the law, then you've got to look, typically that's talking about the law of Moses, or the law in a more general sense.

Pardon? The biblical law, too. Yes. Pardon? But it's still not 100%? Again, you have to look ultimately at context, but that is kind of the first thing to look at. In the end, you need to look at context, but that's a prime indicator. Okay? Let's take a look at the passage. And let's keep in front of us these questions here that Mike has put us through. Someone read for us the first seven verses. First seven verses of Romans chapter 7.

How do you not know, brethren, for I am speaking to those who know the law? that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then if, while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law so that she is not an adulteress. though she had joined to another man.

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die for the law, through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to him who has raised you from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were and members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letters. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law, for I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said thou shalt not covet. Okay.

Now, what's his starting analogy? What does he begin with? Marriage. He uses marriage. Now, there's something he's taking advantage of that is real helpful here, and that is that regards marriage and death, the Roman law was basically the same as the Jewish law. because of Augustus Caesar, remember that name? The guy that told Joseph and Mary, you've got to go and get counted? He instituted monogamy as the law of the land.

But it was broken, obviously, by death. And that person was free to remarry. As a matter of fact, if they were childbearing age, they had to get remarried in two years. But, aside from that, the Jews had a similar thing, So they would get married and as death came on one of the partners, the living partner was free to remarry.

Now, what he's getting at here is if there is a death, the person that dies is now separated from that obligation. So, you see the phrase dead to? What's that talking about? It is separation from. Permanent separation from. That's what that phrase dead to means, okay? Permanent separation from.

So, here he gives the analogy. Here's the husband and the wife and they're married, okay? If one of the spouses dies, the other one is free, but the obligation is now broken. He gives that analogy, and he says, Why would he use death? Why wouldn't he use something else? Does death mean separation?

One. And two, it's permanent. Okay? And he's trying to get across to these folks, your relationship with the law isn't just some sort of, hey, we're going to go away for a while. This is a permanent separation from the law. You get the picture there? And what's interesting, he says that death makes the separation, but he doesn't just leave it there. What is the believer united to after that? We're separated from the law and what are we united with? What's this passage, Jones? United with Christ. And it says the law of Christ.

Ah, interesting. Does the law of Christ the same as the law of Moses? What's going on there? That's an important observation. Here we have to look at it. Are you aware of any law of Christ that's identical to or similar to the law of Moses? No. There isn't any such thing. What it's talking about then is a principle. Okay? Just as Joanne pointed out earlier. We're talking principle here. Okay? Yes?

Just an observation here. When the woman who is now free to marry another, she's still under the law, isn't she? Because she has been married to another where the same thing applies, right? But he is using the analogy of applicable under both Jewish and Roman laws that yes, she's free to remarry, free to connect to another. Yes.

He's using an analogy that you've got to be careful about carrying the analogy too far. Otherwise, you'll actually counter his point. A higher law, if you will. He's using a general principle that death breaks the old relationship. That's really the way to put it. He wasn't referring, in this case, exclusively either to the Jewish law or the Roman law. He's just saying, this is the way it works. So he's using that as an analogy, not saying, now you're back under law. Now you're back under mosaic law or something.

Yes? Well, I think that what Sherrilyn is able to say is that when someone enters into a new relationship, that they're now under the law again. But to take the analogy, we go from being under the law of Moses to being under the law of Christ. I see what you're saying. Yes. In here, she would be choosing herself to put herself under the law of the local law when she gets remarried. Yes. Right. Yes. We put ourselves in union with Christ subject to everything that the Lord has set in place to define that. That's right. Isn't that weird? I can go back to that. Yeah. We were freed and now I can go back. And many Christians unfortunately do.

Alright, now, let's take a look here. First question, is the issue demonstrated in chapter 7, verses 1-7 a description of how a marriage should stay together or something else? What is it? Is it how a marriage should stay together or is it something else? Something else.

And it is talking about that marriage bond being broken by death. too, is it? Not by just choice, but by death. By the way, who died? Who died? In the first case, it's the husband. In the second case, it's self. He died of sin. He died of self for the livings of the Lord. Okay. As believers, who died? The Adam. Okay, yeah. The old man. Yeah, the old man died. Okay, alright.

So is it to stay together or something else? Something else is the answer, right? And what it is, is it's talking about what is breaking apart, okay? That death is a permanent separation. It is a death too. Now the next one, which is the last part of what Carol read for us, is the law sin?

By no means. Now, see, here's the interesting thing is you might look at it and say, well, the law is bad. Well, no, the law isn't the problem. What's the problem? Ah, okay. It's the old man, okay, is the problem. Not the law. Okay? What was the purpose of the law then? Okay. Yeah, the problem is not with the law. The problem is with us and the law is there to show us the problem with the old man, where the old man fails to measure up. If we see the law as a straight edge, the straight edge shows us where things are crooked. How many of you have been to some of these mystery houses or, you know, mystery spots? Yeah, there's various places, you know. Everything is cockeyed. The walls are a little bit goofy, the floor is goofy.

If you go in there with a level and a plumb bob, nothing is square. Everything is goofier than a wooden watch, as my wife hears me say sometimes. The law is like the plumb bob or the level. It says, I know what's wrong with this house. This door jamb isn't straight up and down. This floor isn't level. This wall shrinks as it goes from one side of the room to the other.

That's what the law does. It's the level, it's the plumb bob. There's nothing wrong with the level, nothing wrong with the plumb bob. But it'll sure show you what's wrong with the floor and the wall and the door jamb. Okay, someone read verse 9 and 10 for us. For I was alive, apart from the law, once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. Ah, okay. Now what's this talking about? Is this decipherable? Okay. He just settled out there in a couple of verses, didn't he? The last couple of phrases there, I think, those are the phrases that kind of lift the veil on what these verses are about.

He will die. Under the law, he will die. Yes. The law is not bad. The law itself isn't the problem, but the law is going to do something. It's going to bring about death. The law will bring about death. If one tries to operate under a law system, what will the law do to him? Verses 9 and 10. So what do a great many churches do? A great many of them will go and institute some kind of law. Some kind of rules. And what are they doing? They're bringing in death.

That's pretty sad, huh? Let's not do that. Okay, now a longer section there, verses 11 through 23. Someone read those for us? Yes. I'm sorry. Yes, if death is separation, He's already defined that here, then yes. And was your question going a little further? Okay, just that. In other words here, is that church like that you're talking about? You're talking about fellowship? Okay, there's two things to take note of.

If I have a church, let's say I have people that are genuinely saved, and I bring in law, is law going to break the relationship that those people have? Law won't break the relationship that those people have, but it may, and in fact will, if it's implemented, bring about a break in fellowship. It's just like, over the last month, I've talked over the phone a few times with my dad. If I didn't talk with my dad, I may not have fellowship with him, but he's still my dad. The relationship is still there and is unbreakable and unchangeable. But the fellowship is a different matter. And as a believer, if I try to bring in the law to say, this is going to bring about something good, what it'll do is the law will just show where I fall short. But it does nothing to foster my fellowship with the Lord.

Good point, because I think it's a critical distinction. We need to separate those two. Yeah? Also, death in these two verses I read for you, death is spiritual death. Okay, yes. We use the word death and it's important to make that distinction too. There's spiritual death and there's physical death. Verses 11 through 23?

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Therefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. For then that which is good made death unto me. God forbid that sin that it might appear, sin working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, soul under sin.

For that which I do I allow not, for what I would that do I not, but what I hate that I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, It is no more I that do it than sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not I do, that I do. Now if I do that, I would not.

It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." Okay. When he uses, he talks about law here, frequently he's referring to a principle, isn't he? A principle of law. This law within my members. Now what's the character of the struggle? This is, you know, what's the struggle in these verses? What's the wrestle? What's fighting what?

Okay, so we got the old man, all right, and we got the law involved, and we got sin. Huh? Okay. All right. All right. And so what happens? Huh? Constant battle. Why this wrestling? What's the wrestling? I mean, it's like, you read through this thing and it's like, man, this is...

It's kind of like being in a dryer, you know, and the thing keeps turning and turning and turning, and oh, you're inside it. You know, you ever see the clothes just kind of doing this, you know? And you got this big drum, and you're just constantly, you know, going, turning and turning and turning in this thing.

Yeah. You say, man, this hurts. Man, this hurt. And there's something else, too. Part of you says, man, I sure would like to follow that law. I mean, it's a good thing, but boy, I can't do this, you know? As a matter of fact, the fact that the law is there makes it even worse. Made me think of this is a cartoon that I saw some time back and was able to get hold of it again.

Okay? Absolutely no machete juggling. None. Okay? And this is part of the problem with the law, isn't it? Matter of fact, it's a big part of the problem. You put the law there and all of a sudden that's what you want to do. If I tell you absolutely do not think about a hippopotamus, especially pink ones. Okay? What'd you just do? Okay? It's a part of human nature that we get something like this and all of a sudden even that which didn't even enter our mind suddenly becomes that which we fight against. And so he's presenting this issue and frankly in this chapter he kind of leaves it unresolved. But he's very well laid out the human problem, hasn't he? We set down the rules, no machete juggling or whatever else we set down we're going to do.

And the reality is all it does, much though we might admire the law, all it does is stir up more of it. If we double the number of laws in the United States, does that make us twice as law-keeping? Probably not. If you double the number of laws, I'm not sure if... Yeah, as a matter of fact, after a while it just becomes, I give up. I think there's something like 8,000 pages in the IRS code. How many of you have read those? It's tough to keep up with it all, isn't it?

We wrestle with this point of law. And the point is, he brings no resolution. Let's look at these questions quick as we have a little time left here. Give Paul's conclusions regarding sin, law, and himself. Is there any resolution between those things? I would have to say that the answer is yes, but not in this passage. He doesn't give that. Was Paul delivered? How does he ask the question at the end? Oh, good! Isn't that a fine way to end this thing? Oh, wretched man that I am.

Is the answer to deliverance given in chapter 7? No. So you have to read into chapter 8. Sorry. We've left you there. If you want to have any hope of dealing with this thing, You'll have to start reading in the chapter 8, but we've run out of time, so let's pray.

Lord, we do thank you that, as we've looked over this passage this morning, that there is hope. You've laid out the problem, and it's a big one, and it's a constant. Even James, who we prayed about this morning, wrestles with this very thing. And Lord, though we may not be in quite the same position as James, there's none of us apart from you, Lord, that doesn't come up against this. But Lord, thanks be to God. Thanks be to you, Lord, for what you've done in Jesus Christ. And we turn to you this morning and thank you for your life and your love. In Jesus' name, amen.