 Okay, so in our systematic theology, biblical theology, well, biblical theology class, we're going to cover today the relation with systematic theology. Normally we'll have an essentials class going on for those who are interested in membership, those who are newer to the church, and you'd be in that essentials class, but since special mark has been sick, things have shifted around so that everyone's in here this morning. Okay, so we're going to try and review what we've covered so far in the biblical theology class. We have four major parts to the class over a 13-week schedule. The first part was an introduction to the class about what is biblical theology. The second part is going into the tools that are necessary for forming a biblical theology. We covered exegetical tools, looking at the grammar and the texts in which we're reading, the specific relation between the parts of speech. We were looking at the historical setting. When you read the Bible, understanding that historical setting, we're looking at these exegetical tools to understand a passage in particular. Then we begin to look at biblical theology tools, such as covenant, continuity, discontinuity, typology, promise, fulfillment. We're looking at some of these biblical theology tools, which I had to cover many of those in one class last week. And today we're considering how does systematic theology relate with biblical theology? How do the two go together and how do you, in order to understand your Bible better? Then we're going to move on in a couple weeks to understand it and apply it with the ideas of creation, fall, love, sacrifice, promise, and then we're going to put it all together with two weeks of application. Yes, Josh? Yes, I was trying to work on that and I have the only copies right now. Probably ask Tina if she has them on her computer. I sent them a different week, but I apologize for that. I didn't get them to her in time. You can ask her if she has them on her computer because I've sent some before. I'm not sure if I sent this particular lesson. So I'm just working off the outline in a loose format here. There's not a lot as much with this class on the outlines that I have in detail. So hopefully I can help you guys follow along with, by just by listening and following what I have on the board, okay? Okay, so when we think about our different practices of how to know the Bible, okay? Exegesis, understanding the grammar, historical background when you read a passage of Scripture. Another piece of this puzzle is biblical theology, understanding the big scope. Where are we in the epoch or the administration or the dispensation? Where are we in that particular time? So if you pick up your Bible and you read Leviticus 17, you're going to have to understand it different than when you read the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians, okay? Those things, those differences are defined by what time, what the promises of God have given, what stage we're at. So there's exegetical understanding, understanding the grammar history, then there's a biblical theology understanding the scope of how the story of the Bible is told, and then there's systematic theology. Let's help work together to understand these things and the relation between them, okay? So in the past 20 years, 15 years, there's what's called the emergent church movement, and it may be dying out some more recently, but I'll give you a little church history for the past 25 years. The seeker movement is a movement that has developed in the church in order to try and make church popular in order to try and get more people to come to church, and the way they do it is they survey people, and they say, what do people in the community want in church? And then from that survey, then they design church. Instead of looking at the Bible and saying, what does the Bible say church should be, they pull people and say, what do you want in church? From that, that philosophy of ministry produces different types of churches. And in an older generation, like a Rick Warren generation, that produces one type of seeker church. Then in a 20-something, 30-something nowadays, then that produces a different type of church because of the different generation wants and pulls out a different type of church known as an emergent church movement. And this movement, it likes biblical theology. This movement likes biblical theology because they like to view the Bible as a story without any authority. Does that make sense? So this is an introduction, trying to make this so you understand the class is practical. The movement likes the story of the Bible without having any authority. Yes, Josh? No, it is week five, biblical theology, it is systematic theology tools one. Oh, great, great, thank you. It won't be an adjusted outline, I typically will adjust them a little bit, but it'll be basically the same. Thank you, brother. I appreciate that. So this movement likes, like I said, reading the biblical story without authority. So to give you an illustration, I was at a UCF campus and one of the brothers was open to preaching at UCF campus, and I began to talk to a guy who was listening. You can see him standing around, listening to preaching, and so I come up to him and start a conversation. And he explains about how he's been reading Rob Bell, a popular author in evangelical circles, and Rob Bell has written this book called Velvet Elvis. And he describes to me that the same ideas that he's learning from Rob Bell is that you see what you're doing here in this preaching of definitive, authoritative, thus says God. What you're doing is you're building, you're taking your doctrine as bricks and building up a wall, a building up a wall that separates people from your doctrine. This is right, this is wrong, this is heresy, this is not. Instead what we should do is, and his phrase was, we should jump on the trampoline of loving Jesus. Let's just all go and love Jesus together, okay? So this idea is that we should just all get along, we should just get all get along and love Jesus. You love Jesus, I love Jesus. Why should we argue about doctrine? Why should we argue about who's right, who's wrong? These things, let's just, look the Bible is mainly a story. Let's just enjoy the story. And so the idea of what this guy was learning from Velvet Elvis is popular in a younger generation to just like biblical theology, to say, yes, I like it. But I don't want to have it related with systematic theology, okay? And that's what this class is about, that the two must be related. They must be related. The idea about the Rob Bell in Velvet Elvis, I didn't know what a Velvet Elvis was. I just thought, that is a strange name for a book. And so I Googled this week, I Googled, what is a Velvet Elvis? And I don't know if you ever like, driven on the side of the road and you see like it was carpets that have like kind of like a white tiger painted on them and they're like big and them on the side of the road or a Velvet Elvis is something like that. It's like an Elvis painting on a carpet, you know? It's like one of those things where I would drive by and be like, I would never buy anything like that. But some people do, I guess. So I guess apparently taking Velvet and putting a description of Elvis or some sort of picture of Elvis singing, maybe with some sort of white, you know, strange outfit that he used to wear. And the point is, each of those artists communicates a picture of Elvis that is not exactly what he looked like, but it's their perception. Here's my perception of Elvis. And they do some pose, right? So the point of the book being entitled Velvet Elvis is to say, here's my perspective of Jesus Christ. You may have a different perspective and that's fine. Here's just my perspective. Let our perspectives all get along. Why should we argue about who's right, who's wrong? Let's just share our perspectives. Isn't that love? No, no. If you haven't heard the first term, the, you know, Patrick Sermon, then stay tuned for the answer for that. Okay, so do you see that this is my introductory illustration to say this is necessary and it's necessary to connect and relate biblical theology with systematic theology in the next two, this week and next week are about that. Okay, so in order to try and help you understand how the differences between exegesis, biblical theology, and systematic theology, an illustration that was helpful to me is if you imagine plans of a house, okay, you got the outline of the house, different things in the room, in each room, is like the details of a text. You're going to read 1 John 4 verses 7 to 11. You're going to look at the Bible at a small portion. That's like looking at the plans of a house and seeing one part of a room and how that's, the architect has designed that one part of a room. You're looking at a small picture. Biblical theology relates the rooms of the house as a whole. How do all the rooms relate to one another? Why is the living room here and the bathroom here? Oh, look, there's a bathroom on the bottom floor and a bathroom on the top floor. There must be a reason for that. It relates all the rooms together. Systematic theology, what it does is it looks at the electrical plans. Here's all the electrical plans for the house. Then it looks all the plumbing plans. Here's all the plumbing plans for the house. Okay, does that make sense? All of these different ways to look at the house go together and the more you understand these different ways, the more you understand the house. It's the same with the Bible. You have these different practices and what they do is they help you to understand the Bible as a whole, and they all work together. Okay, so first off, let's think about Biblical theology, the definition of it again. Then we're going to look at the definition of a systematic theology and then we're going to relate to two. Okay, so first, a biblical theology. What I'm working off of here is three different quotes about what biblical theology is and thanks to the graciousness of Josh and his diligence, you will have that in a little while, some of those quotes. Thank you, brother. So first quote would be from Vos. He's considered a father of systematic theology. He defines, I'm sorry, a father of biblical theology. He defines biblical theology as biblical theology is that branch of exegetical theology, which deals with the process of self-revelation of God deposited in the Bible. So the key to that definition is process, understanding biblical theology is you understand that when you're reading a particular passage of scripture, you're in the middle of a story. You're in the middle of a story and you need to understand what's happened before and what's happened afterwards. It's kind of like coming in the middle of a movie, right? If you come in the middle of a movie, you're like, what has happened? Like, my family was notoriously late to everything and they were late to movies and we went to a movie before and you know how sometimes they have different ones showing in different rooms and so we said, oh, here's the sign for our movie and we jumped in the movie and we were like, we did not understand anything that was going on. We found out we were halfway through a movie. We had walked into the wrong building and we were like, man, that movie was short, too. And so we tried to find another one so we could see the first half of the movie and so we understand the parts together. The Bible, you must understand, you can't jump in halfway through the movie. Okay? You got to understand it's a process. That's the point of that definition. The second definition, I'm sorry, the process, let me help define that little more. The process, there's a progress that's happening and the progress is building just like the story builds. The second definition is from Don Carson. Carson says that biblical theology seeks to uncover and articulate the unity of all the biblical texts taken together, reshoring primarily to the categories of those texts themselves. Okay, so what's helpful about that quote? Primarily that it's your understanding of the historical context. That there is particular development in history and progress in theology. Okay? So it's understanding that when you read a particular part of the Bible, and where the people are in this context, they don't have the same thing as you with a whole finished Bible. You understand that historical context. Third quote, Steve Wellum says that biblical theology attempts to demonstrate that the scripture does have a unified, coherent message that the documents are not mutually contradictory. What's helpful about that quote? But that there's one person who writes the whole Bible. There's one author, God himself. Okay, so biblical theology understands there's a progress in revelation and building up of understanding of who God is as it grows and grows and grows like a tree that grows to a big, like a little seed that grows to a great big tree, it's organic, it grows like a plant. The understanding of who God is throughout the Bible. It's a process through a historical context. And it all comes out to be one story from one author. The Bible has it unified that God is the one who wrote it. Okay, understanding that big picture is helpful to you. Okay, now let's think about systematic theology, okay? Systematic theology and does everyone have an outline? Yes? He's dividing us. Okay, so it seems like this side of the church, yes? Okay, that's because you're on the not having one side. We will no longer be divided in a little while. Don't worry, we'll be unified. Thank you, brother, for working on that. Okay, so now systematic theology. Let's try and work on that together. Let me get some interaction. Tell me some of you, help me define systematic theology. That's something we've covered a lot more in the past than biblical theology. Let's work out a definition and ideas of that. Tell me what systematic theology. Jen? Okay, so we're looking at a specific topic in the Bible and what's the summary of that? What does the Bible say about money and how in the handling of it? Okay, how else? Can anyone add to that, Sergio, or crush the head of the surfing? Okay, so the tracing it through would be something more of a biblical theology. Okay, and Josh? Yes, well, the systematic theology is a summary and it's not exhaustive, typically. Okay, so let's work off of our outline, the one half of the church. The systematic theology is an attempt to summarize what the whole Bible has to say about any given topic in an orderly comprehensive manner. Okay, so systematic theology, what's helpful about that is systematic theology is not concerned about the storyline. It's concerned about the bottom line. If you're thinking in a systematic theology way, which is the point, the end point to get to, um, you are thinking about that. What's the bottom line? But, but biblical theology thinks what's the storyline? This systematic theology will give us an organized worldview. How do we understand the world? I got money in this wallet. How do I understand how to handle that? Like Jen's illustration. What does the Bible say about money and how do I apply that? Biblical theology is going to be concerned about the storyline and how people have handled money throughout the story of the Bible. Off of our outline, it seeks to, systematic theology seeks to formulate those summaries into precise and accurate doctrines, which define the boundary between truth and error, between orthodoxy and heresy. Okay. When you're summarizing the Bible and applying it to us today, then you begin to, in a systematic theology way, you begin to say, this is right doctrine. This is wrong doctrine. It, it is a definitive application. It's concerned, systematic theology is concerned about bottom line about what is right and what is wrong and how do we apply it? It's in a definitive summary way. So for example, if we took the Great Commission in biblical theology, you'd be looking at how does the Great Commission fit into the timeline of redemption? In other words, what were the promises that God gave in the Old Testament? How did the, how do those promises have fulfilled? How does the Great Commission work out as an app, as in that storyline of the word getting out of that story? But systematic theology, when they would look at the Great Commission, they would say, what does it mean for us? What do you, what does it mean for us to teach and obey everything that Jesus commanded and to get that word out? What does that mean for us? How do we apply that today? So when you begin to relate to two, okay, we've kind of gone over what is biblical theology? What is systematic theology? How do we begin to relate the two together? We're concerned about the authority. What has God clearly said? How do we get this? The message from God? Well, first we're going to exegete. And in order to exegete, we got to rightly understand the time and promises were in the context of the story, the biblical theology. And then from these disciplines, we form our systematic theology. Does that make sense? From our exegesis, from our looking at rightly handling each particular text, we understand the big scope of the, of the context in the promises, the fulfillment in our biblical theology. And then from that, from these disciplines, we form our systematic theology that defines the truth. It defines the message of what God has given. So to relate this, let me kind of do it like a, something else to help. I'm trying to say the same thing in a whole bunch of ways so that it makes sense, okay? Um, when we look at the differences between biblical theology and systematic theology, um, we say, what is the organizing principle of the two? The organizing principle in biblical theology, um, if it's historical, what is it going to be here? It's systematic theology. This is my test at the class to see if I'm communicating it well. If nobody knows, I'm not doing a good job teaching. Current application is an important part. It's an important part of systematic theology, but what's the organizing principle is going to be topical. Does that make sense? Does that help, um, make it a little less fuzzy, clear as much? Clear as mud. Okay. Let's think about the description then, the description in a biblical theology and the description in a systematic theology in the, in the biblical theology is going to be concerned about, um, the biblical terms that are applied in the setting of the, of the history of the story, the context of the setting. But the description here is going to be like Ron said, it's going to be concerned about application. So how it ends up, when you pick up a systematic theology to use it and understand it, it's going to be getting you here, right here, but it's going to be based on the work of this biblical theology and the exegesis. And, and that comes when you pick up a biblical theology, they're going to be concerned about the biblical terms. Okay. So then the, the summary of the differences would be, this is storyline. This is bottom line. The bottom line of God's worldview. How does God look at the world? And how do we rightly understand everything that's in it? Okay. For those who are new, I encourage you that the essentials class is not like this. It'll be easier to understand. So, and this is to help those of us who have been here for a while to help you to grow. Okay. So how do you make that practical? Okay. So if, if I'm putting before you, here's a biblical theology. Um, the new dictionary of biblical theology. This is a very popular resource. Kind of like if you were to pick up a systematic theology, what's a typical systematic theology that you pick up? Give me some names. Grudem. Very easy to understand, right? Would, would Oliver, would you recommend everything in what, um, Grudem systematic theology? No. But is it a good resource? Okay. So we got to eat the meat and spit out the bones in, in any systematic theology, right? Okay. The same when you pick up a biblical theology. So I'm going to, I'm going to recommend this one to you, but I'm going to also recommend that just like if I was going to recommend Grudem systematic theology, there'd be, um, bones that you would need to spit out. Okay. The, how would you use a resource like this to help you understand the Bible? This is one I would recommend that you could pick up and put on your shelf to help you understand. Here's some ways in which you would use this. If you open up the table of contents, there's three major sections. Okay. There's a section for a hundred pages. That goes over what we're going over in this class. What's biblical history? What's exegesis hermeneutics? What's the unity and versity of the Bible? What's the New Testament use of the Old Testament? How do you relate the testaments? Well, how do you relate systematic theology and biblical theology? How do you relate preaching and biblical theology? A lot like our class, um, there's three sections in this book. One of those sections is just like our class. The next section for 200 pages goes over the particular books of the Bible. How does the storyline in Ruth? What's the storyline in Esther? What about Job? It goes, his articles about every single book of the Bible and it has, um, sections and corpuses like the Luke acts, synoptic gospels. Prophetic books. So if you want to understand the prophetic literature in the Bible better, you can pick this up and get an understanding of that storyline. Okay, then for 500 pages, the third section of a book like this, what it covers is, uh, is a topics. So I could turn to say the Holy Spirit. Okay. And the Holy Spirit and how it's going to be communicated in a biblical theology, there'll be an introduction, then they'll talk about the Israel's experience with the spirit. It's told in a storyline. It goes through, um, the Holy Spirit revealed in numbers in the time of the kings and then it goes over the spirit in Israel's hope, the prophecies of the future, then it goes over the spirit in the gospels. How are the gospels relate to it? Then in the book of acts, how does the Holy Spirit talked about in the book of acts? Then it looks at the spirit in John's gospel. And then it looks at how does the Paul refer to the Holy Spirit and then into the rest of the New Testament. And then it concludes with speaking about the Holy Spirit as a person. Okay. You kind of get an idea of how you would pick up, you would have one of these resources, you're like, I'm wanting to learn about the, how the, the understanding of the Holy Spirit grows throughout the Bible. You would pick it up and you'd have an article that you could read that would be 10 pages. And you can understand and have many references to look up to understand not just the bottom line, but how does the story develop in order to get to the bottom line? How would you be able to make your own systematic theology? Well, what you would do is you'd, you'd take the classes on exegesis and then you take classes on biblical theology, you use both of those things in order to get to a systematic theology and understanding of what is right, what is wrong, what is error, what is not. And to rightly divide the word of truth. Troy. Yes. Yes. Yes. There's so many different wrong ideas out there. That you, you have to understand the Bible rightly in order to develop your belief system and say, where did you get that? Did you really get that from the Bible? Or did you get that from Christian culture? Did you really get that from the Bible? Or is this just the way you think about God? Did you really get that from the Bible? So let's do, I'm going to do another drawing here to help you try and understand. Or I think it's actually on your outline. I don't have to do it. If you have the outline, it gives a test case for here's another way to help understand the differences between the two. We'll take a topic that we all love the gospel. And how would you understand the gospel in a biblical theology, but you would understand it as the storyline creation. God has made us, God has made all mankind. And then after that happened the fall, the fall in which Adam as our representative defied God and sin directly against him. And because of that, all of us are in sin. But God promises redemption, the delivery, the delivery, delivering us from the power and penalty of that. And he comes through what his son has done on the cross and all of the Old Testament is building up to that point, to point to that redemption. And then the consummation is that the Lord will one day return and make all wrongs right. He will one day come back. Do you see that, that good storyline of that's good news, the storyline, the biblical theology understanding of the gospel, but then the systematic theology, and this is what you would typically communicate to someone when you're explaining the gospel. You would communicate, well, God is authoritative. God is the one who rules and reigns over you. He's the one who decides when you die, when you live, he's the sovereign. And he is the good, holy sovereign of all. He's the king of the world in the universe. And he's king over you by rights of creator. And you are in sin. You are in sin. Look at all the ways you defy God. And look at how he's given his rule and reign his commandments, and look at your own life and attest that and apply how you have defied your maker and how you have lied, you have stolen, you've committed adultery in the heart. But Christ, you see the systematic theology understanding, God, man, Christ is the savior. Christ is the one who bears the punishment for all those who would repent and believe what a savior we have in Christ. So how should you respond? But you should repent and believe in this, in, in what the Lord has done. You should turn from your wicked ways to follow him to the end of your life for all of eternity. Because does that make sense how you would understand the gospel in a biblical theology, as opposed to how you would understand it in a systematic theology? Is that on your outline? Okay, so this is giving you the tools necessary in order to rightly understand the Bible and rightly organize your, your own theology in order to, you're responsible in your own, from your own study, and you're responsible before God, how you handle his word. Okay, let me conclude with, from last week I was asked about typology, and is it necessary for a, a type, does it need to be directly spoken about in the Bible in order for it to be legitimately a type? And there are different opinions about that from different godly men. So I would say that it is not necessary for the Bible to explicitly say and point out that a type in the Bible in order for it to be legitimate type, it can be, if you apply the same rules of limitation that the biblical authors do when they develop a type, and we went over those last week that there must be a real historical essential resemblance between the type and anti-type, there must be clearly designed foreshadowing of redemptive activity, it can't just be something you make up like, like the illustration I gave last week was about Balem's donkey curses, you know, speaks against false teachers and Jesus speaks against false teachers. No, it's got to be about redemption, it's got to be about the person and work of Christ, and it's got to go from a smaller idea to a bigger idea. Okay, so I know that this class is, is more of a, put your thinking cap on, and it may take time, you know, to have somebody sink in and you may be able to learn more and read more from like a good resource like this. There is a book we have on the shelf from a biblical, it's a very small resource, and communicates biblical theology in a very clear way. It's by James Hamilton, and it's like a church that the Felicianos visited when they're up in, in Kentucky, and he's a pastor of that church, and so that book is on the shelf is a helpful resource to you, and it's like only 150 pages, to communicate in a simple, clear way what is biblical theology. Okay, so and then if you're interested in the heavier stuff, then I recommend a resource like this, you know that you, you can have a thousand page resource to, to dig into and reference. Okay, so please be, here's the application. Be someone who rightly divides the, the word of truth. Be someone who does not twist the scripture, but be someone who rightly understands the scripture. Don't just look at the Bible and say, oh it's a nice storyline. No see the definitive doctrines. Remember the, the beginning illustration about the guy at UCF who says, let's just jump on the trampoline and love Jesus? Well love is a definitive doctrine. Jesus is a definitive doctrine. You can't just make up your own view about love. You can't just make up your own view about Jesus. We are not ecumenical. We say there is right and there is wrong, and there are many groups that are clearly defined who blaspheme the name of Christ that, that much be pointed out and we must discern and test the spirits, or be discerning about right and wrong. Okay, that's the application. Let's pray. Lord please help us to, to understand your word rightly, to apply it rightly. Please help us to learn what these different disciplines are and to grow in our understanding of them so that we can understand your word better. We want to understand your word better Lord and we want to know you more. We want to love you more. Please help us in our unbelief. Please help us in our frailty. Please help us in our, help us not to be lazy. Help us to work hard to know your word. Lord in order to show love to you. Thank you for the love that you have shown us in the gospel. Amen.