 Okay, so we're in the class of Biblical theology and if you look at your outline what we've covered so far in This class the class is a Biblical theology is Understanding the story and scope of the Bible in the big in the big picture We the first week we looked at what is the Bible? How is it? What's the litter literature in it? What is the big picture? We began to cover in week two the exegetical tools were in the section of the tools that are needed to understand a Biblical theology We're still in that section so far. We've covered the exegetical tools looking at the genre the type of literature We looked at the historical grammatical approach to understanding the the word of God needing to Examine the grammar and now we're getting into Biblical theology tools today And we're going to look at covenants. We're going to look at Horizons of interpretation We're going to examine the promise fulfillment character of Scripture typology and continuity and discontinuity These are the key tools to understand the the Bible in the big picture in the big scope, okay? So by way of introduction, I love movies. I like adventure movies sometimes a romance movie, you know depends with my wife's there that helps I Love Historical movies. I love action movies I love The themes that are in movies are stories that that affect the soul They have a good movie is a good story And I like to think about how movies are told What are they? What is they? What are they trying to communicate and why why are they doing what and where? I like to examine that and it helps me to understand narratives in the Bible to see what is it the The author trying to communicate Think about the point of Biblical theology class is to think about the story of history the story of history and where you fit in to the grand scope one of my favorite movies is the Lord of the Rings and You'll forgive this this introduction if it seems a little bit like a nerd, but I'm exposing myself as the to the truth Okay, so in the end of one of those movies there's two characters who are best friends Frodo and Sam and they're in another life-threatening situation and Frodo says I can't do this Sam and Sam says I know it's all wrong by rights We shouldn't even be here, but we are it's like in the great stories, mr. Frodo The ones that really mattered full of darkness and danger. They were and sometimes you didn't know the end Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way that it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow even darkness must pass a new day will come When the sun shines it will shine out the clear those were the stories that stayed with you They meant something even when you were too small to understand why but I think mr. Frodo I do understand I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't They kept going because they were holding on to something Frodo says. What are we holding on to Sam? Sam says that there's some good in this world mr. Frodo and it's worth fighting for You understand what he's in what he's saying here is that there are stories that matter and the stories that matter Are the ones where there's a great darkness? But then people fight through it People fight through it and he says what are we holding on to that there's some good? When the Christian is in great times of darkness what does he hold on to but there's not that there's something good not in us But in Jesus Christ and in what God is doing throughout the history of the world the the big picture of what God is doing is What holds you through the dark times what gets you through from turning back? That's what biblical theology is understanding the Bible as a whole and it's key for to live for the Lord and it's key to die for the Lord okay, so starting on The week three outline the week three outline We're going through tools that are needed for you to read your Bible and understand the big picture of the scripture So first is understanding that the self-revelation of the word comes through Covenants it comes through covenants God has condescended God has condescended humbled himself to communicate with us in a way that we would understand and in the the time of the book of the law in Genesis X is the biggest numbers to an aronomy the what is a key part of the culture is Covenants and Covenants typically had these five points that you'll see on your outline a preamble a historical prologue stipulations a document clause and blessings and cursings So covenants are key to understanding the big picture of the Bible and in order to understand a covenant You should understand these different parts that take place Let's turn to Exodus 20 you're gonna see this taking place Exodus 20 Starting in verse one and God spoke all these words saying I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house Of bondage you shall have no other gods before me and He goes on to continue with the rest of the Commandments Look at your outline and see in a covenant. There is a preamble that identifies the parties to the Covenant Okay Here in Exodus. God is the key party in the Covenant There's a historical prologue point to there's a historical prologue outlines what the great king has already done for the vassal king you remember how the in Deuteronomy is set up with a Suzerain vassal treaty or a Suzerain vassal Covenant the Suzerain is the greater king the vassal is the lesser king So there's a greater king lesser king idea in a Covenant. It's a Covenant made between a Greater king lesser king his servant In this case, it's God with Israel and The great king outlines what he's already done for the vassal king if you see an Exodus Exodus to the great king I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. You see that in Exodus 22 That's the historical prologue then their stipulations given in a Covenant the summary and detail of what is expected of the vassal But what are the stipulations in Exodus? It's chapter 20 the Ten Commandments and it goes on Through chapter 23 with more stipulations. What is expected? Often historically, there's the document clause Stipulations where the Covenant of where the copies of the Covenant are to be placed when it should be read and who the witnesses are Typically the the gods were called to be witnesses of the Covenants. Well, and if you continue through Exodus where the Covenants to be held is told in Exodus 25 21 in the Co in the Ark of the Covenant and In Exodus 24 1 to 11 it talks about how it should be Read who the witnesses are these elements are there So then where are the blessings in the cursings? Well, if you remember that your your Old Testament law Deuteronomy is packed full of the blessings in the cursing and the the unit of the Torah or the law it Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy is originally written as one book And so the blessings and cursing come at the end at the reiteration of the law So those elements are in the beginning of the Bible, okay? Look now in your next page of the outline There's a definition of a Covenant a Covenant is not merely a contract. It's not merely a promise It is a bond in blood that establishes an all-encompassing relationship It's a claim on someone's total loyalty and allegiance and that is secured with the life of the vassal Okay, so it is not just a contract not just a promise. It is a bond of blood That is an all-encompassing relationship in other words in Covenant with God means you owe him your total allegiance is encompasses all of your life and You owe him all of your lo loyalty and allegiance So when in the original language To make a covenant is called cutting a Covenant and that's because it was typical in the Covenant to For animals to be torn in pieces or cut in pieces often to symbolize what happens to the vassal if he does not obey The stipulations in the Covenant Sometimes so much so that the animals Legs will be cut off and put in the animals mouth To illustrate this in the time of it in the time of the exodus So God has humbled himself to communicate with his people in a way that they would understand Culturally just like we have a Bible where it's filled with stories poetry Letters the different genres It's God humbles himself to communicate to us in ways that we understand Covenant is a key way to understand the Bible and in the big picture of the Bible and So there's different types of Covenants Covenants of works or Covenants of grace and We see here in the outline the difference lies in those in those who take the oath And so it undertakes to suffer the curses should the Covenant be broken We I'm going to be covering this very briefly because we've already spent a class on this Okay, so the seven biblical Covenants you remember them from our class on the Covenants the Covenants So the Covenant of works made with it Adam Genesis 2 15 to 17 That that is the the time in which And Adam would be tempted and tested in the garden. It was not for an indefinite period of time There was the Covenant redemption Implied in Genesis 3 15 with with the the first time the gospel is spoken We see the no way at Covenant Where made with Noah and all the living creatures Genesis 9 8 to 17 the sign was the rainbow You know, you've heard the rainbow is the Warriors bow at rest We're the Warriors bow at rest those as in the bow and arrow that symbols that God's Judgment will not come in what by way of a flood anymore the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 15 made with Abraham his seed There's this in the sign of it is a circumcision. There's the mosaic Covenant Exodus 2025 and retold in Deuteronomy made with the people of Israel and the signs both circumcision and the Sabbath The Davidic Covenant in 2nd Samuel 7 and the sign is by the birth of a son Here is a great picture of the Covenant of grace and in the new Covenant. That's that's promised in Jeremiah 31 Ezekiel 36 and Fulfilled in the Lord when he says this is my blood of the new Covenant Okay, so to understand Covenants there is three horizons of interpretation So we're gonna get into this The horizons first. There's the textual understanding. Okay, so if you take There's what's happening on in the text for example, let's let's Let's turn to Genesis 15 to understand these multiple horizons of the Covenant. Okay Genesis 15 After these words the word of the Lord came to Abram with a vision saying do not be afraid Abram I'm your shield. You're you're exceedingly great reward, but Abraham said Lord God What will you give me seeing I go childless and the air of my house is Eleazar of Damascus Then Abram said look you've given me no offspring indeed one born in my house is my heir Behold the word of the Lord came to him saying this one shall not be your heir But to whom but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir Then he brought him outside and said look now toward the heaven and count the stars If you are able to number them and he said to him So shall your descendants be and he believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness And then he said to him I am the Lord who will brought you out of error of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it so first When you look and understand of the different layers of a covenant, there's the textual there is The epoch or the administration and then there's the canonical The interesting the big picture so what I mean by textual for example will be what's going on With the cutting up of animals that happens at right after this text that we read What does this mean personally for Abraham? These are the questions you would ask of in the particular to textual understanding what's happening with the Covenant Then you would want to ask the epoch questions How was the promise fulfilled and kept in the life of Isaac Jacob and Joseph? Then ask yourself How does this relate to the patriarch families departure to Egypt? So how does this promise? continue on When the family departs from Egypt this this Covenant has implications throughout the book of Genesis and throughout the law Then when you you would look at first you look at the text then you look at the epoch then you look at the canon as a whole What is this Covenant? How does it relate to the new Covenant established in Christ's blood? In what sense are Christians the seed of Abraham? Yes epoch is going to focus on The The closer time frame okay as opposed to where we're at we're at is the end of the canon Looking at the whole scriptures a whole but before that's completed. What is that? What does this Covenant mean for? Isaiah what is this Covenant mean particularly for Jacob and for the people of Israel as they're reading this for the first time from hearing it from Moses Does that make sense? Okay, so what this class is remember the big picture of the class the class is is Giving you tools okay. I'm not gonna go over the details of every text I'm just saying how do we understand the Bible as a whole with exegetical tools and with biblical theology tools So we're covering is the biblical theology tools so when you Again refer back to your outline with the three horizons of interpretation you ask what's going on with the text What's going on with the epoch what's going on in the canon? How does this affect these things as a whole? So that understanding the epoch is when you read you maybe this will help clarify to is is understanding Okay, what stage are we in? What stage are we in in the scope of the scripture when you're reading? Say Leviticus 9 what stage are we in within Leviticus 17 say when you're We're to offer sacrifices So that the offering of sacrifices that is command in Leviticus 17 is understood because of that You understand that we don't apply that today because we're in a different epoch. We're in a different administration We're in a different time frame There are new commandments that have come that make that obsolete okay, so It's important to understand the epochs or the biblical divisions that the author that the authors of scripture outline and give Some of those clear give you some clear examples from the scripture Old Testament the New Testament, right? You can't get much clear with a difference in the epoch or difference in administration Romans 5 talks about the time before and after giving of the law The Romans 5 also talks about the division before and after Adams fall Galatians 3 refers the mosaic epoch as a caretaker period But not giving salvation 2nd Peter 3 6 to 7 talks about a major division of the world's world's flood and how the Lord is not going to again flood the world But he will flood it with fire In act 7 when Stephen speaks about the history of Redemption and of what the Lord is doing he speaks of the time of the patriarchs He speaks of the time of the mosaic epoch and of the monarchy when there are kings in Isaiah 63 to 64 There Isaiah contrast the time of Abraham and the time of Moses with the exilic period and He has a prayer for another Sinai event when God would run the heavens So the script the authors of scripture note that there are different times or epochs different Administrations whatever term you want to label it with Throughout the scripture and that these important events help you understand They're there the the signposts throughout the scripture to help you understand the big picture They're key for biblical interpretation. Okay It's why we're not Offering a lamb today as part of the worship and I'm sure you're glad right that you don't have to buy one and bring one Okay, so they're very briefly is how The Bible is Given to covenants those seven biblical covenants and understanding the different horizons of interpretation The next outline We're flying through in order to catch up for last week. Okay, so the next outline is Again sets of tools to understand biblical theology So the tools in this outline are the prophetic character of scripture with promise fulfillment typology and continuity discontinuity These are all keys that will help you understand your Bible. Okay So first off the promise fulfillment of the scripture This is fundamental to God's character that God gives promises and he keeps them It's not some random in good intentions you see in your outline But they point in delineate a divine plan for history that redemptive history is linear and it follows a pattern or framework Aren't you glad that God is writing the story of history and that the store the story of history is not cyclical it doesn't go like some Eastern philosophy where Well what it's happened before will happen again and and eternity will just always continue in the same sort of circular event That's not the way the Bible describes history. There there's a beginning and an end it's a linear thing and we are involved in that story and The promises are the glue of the Bible The promises are the glue of the Bible There they hold the Bible together and they'll hold you together if you understand the promises There they reflect God's divine plan for history Now to understand the promises we understand that there are multiple horizons of fulfillment when God's gives promises Okay So under multiple horizons of fulfillment in your outline I'm reading the promises of God Prophecies in the broadest sense of the term typically have multiple horizons of fulfillment What's more each successive fulfillment is not only late later in time chronologically but greater in significance Both theologically and historically Okay, so Let's turn to Genesis 12 And we'll look and consider what the scripture has to say and you'll see these multiple horizons Of the promise fulfillment Genesis 12 Reading verse one now the Lord had said to abram get out of your country From your family from your father's house to a land that I will show you I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great And you shall be a blessing I will bless those who curse you and I will curse him who curses you And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed Okay, so consider the promises here of the land seed blessing The seed can be seen in verse 7 and the Lord appeared to abram and said to your descendants or said to your seed I will give this land and there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him Okay, so by multiple horizons another word another words the mountain peaks in which the This promise can be seen and fulfilled First you can see how the promise is fulfilled in the birth of Isaac And then how Isaac has jacob and then jacob has 12 sons So in reading through genesis you see the promise being fulfilled Then you see how Reading on in exodus how the promise is fulfilled in moses and the nation of israel being constituted as a nation holy to god Where where he becomes a great nation The seed of abraham Then we see how the promise is fulfilled later on with joshua And the people where he provides the first fulfillment of the land Then the promise continues on And we see under solomon's reign The blessing being to other nations happening And we see the fulfillment of the land Being given in in the greatest way in the greatest expansion to history to date Of what israel had Then if you could read on in your bible, you see the promise the same promise coming again in galatians Where christ is seen as the true seed and remember how we talked about how the word for seed in hebrew can be like our seed The way it can be plural or singular it has a multi Purpose it's multi purpose or multi use like you can say i have a bag of seed You know you got more than one or i have a seed here you have one it can be plural or singular In the same way the bible uses it to say The seed of the many the people of israel and then in galatians refers to the seed of the one Of jesus and how he has come and that true children of abraham are of all nations now We see how this promise For the land is fulfilled even in revelation With the new heavens and the new earth the land that's given to the children of abraham is expands out to the whole world okay, so Think about all the different horizons that happen in this promise How wonderful are the promises of god When someone promises something to you Like imagine you go to a used car salesman And he promises something to you. This is the best deal that you'll ever get consider the promise that you'll receive from Masses or not massy. What's that? Holler honda or something right You guys seen a million commercials for Used car the promise that you receive today Compared to the promises of god God's promises are so much greater Then even you see first heat in your first hand reading of genesis 12 1 to 3 of genesis 12 1 to 7 You don't see all the multi layers of the promise of god And how it expands out to the entire universe How expands out to the entire world? It's difficult to see here But then when you're reading you're concluding the bible at the end of revelation You see how this same promise has come What a blessing to know the promises of god This will help you to understand the promise fulfillment and how there's multiple horizons to the Of fulfillment to the promises of god Next looking at typology so become a promise fulfillment typology Typology can be abused But it is there's a balance to it It is a great blessing when it's rightly understood an extreme blessing But there's also a warning of how it can be abused for example, um the keep Understanding typology keeps you from just moralizing the bible Just think reading the old testament and thinking well Here's a life lesson for me to learn in order to be a better person and you read the old testament like a muslim Or like a jew In judaism where you read the old testament. You're like well, I'll just try harder. I'll just do better It's about me living a more righteous life in that alone And typology helps you to understand that in the old testament how it's pointing to redemption And the big picture so typology keeps you from just moralizing the bible It helps you get your eyes off yourself to understand salvation christ But then there's a warning about typology that it can be abused and misused and misinterpreted Where it can can become an allegory a wild allegory okay, so Reading some of these outlines in order to help keep us balanced in the the way the bible uses typology I'm reading the definition of the one definition typology is simply symbolism with a Prospective reference to fulfillment in a later epoch of biblical history It involves a fundamentally organic relation between events persons institutions The type in one epoch with its counterparts Antitype in the later epochs so typology involves a type And then the anti-type Okay, that's what we get out of that definition the very basic form. Okay Next the biblical understanding of types is that there's an organic relationship between the essential aspect Of type and anti-type so there must be an essential aspect. It can't be just an allegory That's what's in the parentheses. There must be Uh a biblical basis for the establish you're establishing a type Types i'm reading from the outline types involve a comparison of historical realities that establish an analogy or pattern That organically develops and expands So what what do we mean by when we're saying these things about organically expands? For example, roman's 514 Adam is a type of christ Adam is a type of christ It's not just a a comparison It's not like well, you know adam was kind of like Jesus in this way That's not what a type is it is more weight to it than that But there is a historical reality and correspondence between the two The type they helps you understand the anti-type The type Helps you to understand that there is a change in degrees in other words like adam Let's read um roman's 5 and you can see the theology of type explained by paul romans 5 12 Therefore just as through one man sin into the world and death through sin and thus sent death spread to all men Because all sin for until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law And here we get into the explanation of the type nevertheless death range from adam to moses Even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of adam So everyone sinned like adam who is a type of him who was to come So adam is the type Christ is the anti-type verse 15, but the free gift is not like the offense For if by one man's offense many died Much more the grace of god and the gift by the grace of the one man jesus christ abounded to many So we see here that adam Was much smaller lesser Of a picture than christ the type expands You have the expands To the greater to help you understand the greater anti-type And if you read the fourth paragraph in our outline under typology It says and so like the prophetic promise the type in scripture often finds its fulfillment in multiple anti-types Each pointing beyond itself to one still greater yet to come So and if you're going to do typology If you're going to understand typology according to scripture It's going to help you understand the big picture of the bible It's going to be a historical realities both of them Historical realities and the type in the old testament is going to expand out to a greater picture in the new testament And sometimes it has multiple fulfillments So to give you some examples in the book of in the book of hebrus The temple the temple Is a type of christ The priesthood Is a type of christ The sacrificial system Is a type to point to christ In all of these things The first the type is smaller in significance and expands out to a greater significance to point to the lord jesus christ So think about the restraint now the restraint How can we restrain this from just coming up with Our own ideas like you know David You see the the five stones that david picked up in order to slay the lieth You know those five stones are they are the doctrines of the five points of calvinism You know, so some people have actually taught that okay, so How would you say that how can you? Stop that and say you we would all look at that and go that's really weird. How could you jump from there to there? Well adam was a type Of christ Just like so, how would you restrain yourself from doing some mishandling of the bible like that? Well, look on look in the outline Point one there must be a real historical essential resemblance Or analogy between type and anti type Like king david the king jesus Like the found in the davidic covenant The type point two the type must be clearly Providentially designed to foreshadow god's ultimate redemptive activity in christ Accidental similarity is not enough to make a connection So in other words if I say remember the story of balum's donkey balum's donkey rebuked a false Teacher jesus rebuked false teachers. So g so balum's donkey is a type of christ No, there must be not just an accidental similarity No, there must be a Providentially designed foreshadowing of god's ultimate redemptive activity in christ. You can't just make it up There must point three there unlike a mere symbol which represents a general truth A type by its nature must look forward to the greater fulfillment in other words Blood is a symbol for life in the old testament christ gives life, but um But blood isn't a type in itself so Whether joseph is a type is To be honest is not something i've studied so i'll be honest is that i haven't come to a conclusion about that um, so instead of answering you know the particulars about um interpretation just trying to broad scope the tools and then In the application of those tools Then if you want to come yeah talk to me after class about those i'll need to study that one more brother and then i'll have to come back to you next week and In order i don't want to say something that That would be wrong Now, but i do want to bring back to you. I don't want to push off the question. I do want to answer it. I just want to Think about it more thoroughly before i give an answer. So come back next week and And hold me accountable to the response to that. Okay christian Yeah by shadow I think it was a term that heber's is just using to it's a figurative term to describe the The type to help you understand how it's the lesser as opposed to the greater the shadow is um lesser than the greater reality of christ, okay, so Moving along in our last few minutes that we have continuity and discontinuity Okay, so what we've been talking about is all continuity from this point How do the covenants or have continuity throughout the scripture? How the typology shows continuity How that we see the continuity through the different epochs and throughout the canon So despite the the continuity a god saving actions plans a movement from promise of fulfillment is described in scripture As a movement from shadow into reality from mere copy and the genuine article to the genuine article And between mere symbol and the truth is represents In addition to continuity there's a significant discontinuity as we move across the epochs Okay So discontinuity in point one is required to ultimately fulfill the promise For example in second samuel seven Originally thinking on the unending dynasty When you think about the how the promise is in the David covenant that that someone will there will be a king Raining on the throne of david for all of time When you originally would read that in in second samuel seven Most people would tend to think when they read that okay someone from the line of david is going to remain on the throne but in the bible it's Christ who's going to have eternal dominion and reign and how that fulfillment has a form of discontinuity It's different than what you would originally think in order for it to ultimately fulfill the promise Instead of it just being david's descendants always on the throne Instead it is one descendant who will always be on the throne Point two discontinuity required by the very nature of the fulfillment itself For example the new covenant has a different nature to it and it's described in in jermia 31 How is it it will be unbreakable How all the members will be regenerate How it happens by natural not by natural birth, but by supernatural birth So by its very nature there must be a difference a discontinuity So how do we get a sense of both kinds of discontinuity? For example looking glacial is 321 Glacial is 321 is the law then against the promises of god? Certainly not for if there had been a law given which could have given life Truly righteousness would have been by the law So we see discontinuity described in the scripture between the difference between the mosaic epoch And the law and how the old couldn't bring life But there's a difference the difference is a difference of Effectivity What the law could not achieve could not be effective in christ is effective in How it for christ fulfills the old And in that fulfillment it reveals the glory of god All of these things you know what they're supposed to help you to do They're supposed to help you to see the big picture of the bible That christ is the final word Christ is the true high priest Christ is the lamb of god Christ is the true temple Christ is the true rest Why do we celebrate you know, why do we have the lord's day today? And believe that because it pictures something greater to come The true rest that will come at the end of with the new heavens and the new earth The true rest that we have in christ If you understand these things You can understand the big picture of the bible And it will in turn it will cause you to worship the lord It will cause you to love him more It will cause you to understand your bible better It should lead you ultimately to the worship of the lord jesus christ and to see that the that through him You exist in the great story of the word of god And by the praise of the glory of his grace You do that by employing a careful Right application of typology discontinuity continuity Promise fulfillment understanding of the covenants Brothers, um, there is great disagreement About these different terms and how to employ them But there is great agreement that they should be employed When you employ them there becomes differences. That's why um, there's presbyterians and baptists Because of the difference of how to employ these Uses of biblical theology So i'm not going to say that it's easy But i'm going to say that it's worth it It's worth it to understand this discipline Because in turn it will lead to the revelation of our savior It is worth the time and work To to put in these things and i'll admit i have a lot to grow in these things, but so do you But so do you and when you do Like i said, like i said, you will worship the lord jesus christ i'm going to read to you um to close a song That helps me to think about these different themes and the big themes of the scripture And worship of the lord on a starlight hillside shepherds watch their sheep Slowly david city drifted off to sleep But to this little town of no great renown the lord had a promise to keep Prophets had foretold it a mighty king would come Long-awaited ruler gods anointed one But the sovereign of all looked helpless and small as god gave the world his own son And who would have dreamed or ever foreseen that we could hold god in our hands The giver of life is born in the night revealing god's glorious plan to save the world Wondrous gift of heaven the father sends the son Planned from time eternal moved by holy love He will carry our curse and death he'll reverse so we can be daughters and sons And who would have dreamed or ever foreseen that we could hold god in our hands The giver of life is born in the night revealing god's glorious plan to save the world You know lord the rings is a is a um Is a nice story It doesn't can't hold a candle to the the story of the savior of our world When you understand these things in biblical theology, you will understand the big picture of why you exist And you will worship our savior As he fulfills his plan to save the world Let's let's pray to him Dear lord, we worship you and we pray please help us to wisely obediently Follow what your word has to say about types discontinuity continuity The application of these things Because we want to see you and know you as revealing your word rightly We want to employ them as we understand biblical theology Please help us with these tools We need your word and we need to understand it greater than what we do right now We want to give you glory for your great plan to save the world So lord help us we pray amen