Message: APPLICATION: What God wants us to do with the Bible

Series: The Year of Lving Biblically

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THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY
5. APPLICATION

Here’s the problem with the Bible: We live so far away from it. You say, I don’t live far away from my Bible at all, Rick, I have one in my hand! No, I mean, we live so far away in terms of HISTORICAL distance and in terms of CULTURAL distance.

Follow me where we’ve traveled thus far in this series and you’ll understand the problem. Let’s say you agree with the steps thus far:
- One, we have a RELIABLE text. The bible is at least a roughly historical document, it’s not just a collection of myths.
- Two, we have an INSPIRED text. Jesus endorsement of the Bible as God’s Word is the greatest reason we have for accepting it as such.
- Three, we have a TRANSMITTED text. Here we dealt with the telephone game problem – maybe the Bible got corrupted as it’s messages was transmitted over time.
o But despite centuries of hand copying, we realized that because of the age and number of manuscripts that we know we have the very words of the original authors.
- Four, we must INTERPRET the text. Using simply tools of history and language we can know what the Bible authors intended to say.

But, we still have one final step to take: So I understand what they meant to say, but is that the same thing as knowing what God wants me to DO with it?
- How should I apply it?
- SHOULD I apply it?
- Maybe, we can agree that the word IS from God. But like this cartoon here, the message for us at the tail end, is impossible to apply.

Let me illustrate with a story. When I was about 4 years old, I have a fuzzy memory of an argument in the family kitchen between my older brother who was 7 and my older sister who was 5. In this argument I remember only one main point:
- “I want to sit by the door!”, my brother declared.
- No, my sister replied, “I want to sit by the door. You ALWAYS get to sit by the door! It’s my turn!”
- “But I’m the oldest I should be able to sit by the door! You’re too little, you should sit in the middle!”

Now, what door do you think they were talking about? While you’re guessing, let me ask you another question: what lesson would YOU take away from that discussion in the kitchen? Whatever door they’re talking about, the lesson is, you WANT to sit by it, right? That’s the take away. The door is the coveted spot!

If you made that conversation into a commandment you would hear this message:
“Thou shalt earnestly desire to sit by the door!”

So that’s the message my siblings were clearly sending. But here’s how I APPLIED it. I grabbed a stool that was in our porch and I put it right beside our front door, and I proceeded to sit on it. What a coup! While those other two morons were fighting about the coveted spot, I had beaten them to it! Ha ha!! What fools they were! I had taken their message and applied it for myself and stolen the choice spot – by the door.

The best part was, I knew we were leaving for a trip and soon they would have to come by the front door and they would see me on my perch by the door and be SO jealous that all this time they were arguing about sitting by the door, I had already been doing it! (I wasn’t a very bright child.)

Now, it took about 30 seconds for me to realize that sitting by the door wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. This is stupid and boring! Why would anyone fight about sitting by the door? Right about then, my brother and sister go blowing by me, knock me off the stool running outside to the truck waiting to take us on the trip. And my brother gets in the truck last and gets to what?
HE SITS BY THE DOOR!

Ah, that’s what they meant! Sitting in the front seat of the truck, by the door! Shotgun! So while I understood the meaning of the words, I APPLIED that meaning in a completely inappropriate way.

With that in mind, some people look at the bible and say,
- I’ll agree, God spoke back then, and
- I’ll agree that we can understand the gist of what was meant TO THEM, but
o maybe it wasn’t meant for US.
o Maybe it’s all culturally bound instruction!
o So it’s anyone’s guess what we’re supposed to DO with that meaning.

This is a big question. And it leads to some of the biggest shots fired against the Bible FROM THOSE OUTSIDE the church and it leads to some of the biggest confusion and division FROM THOSE INSIDE the church. People say:
- Well the bible condones slavery and holy war – are we supposed to apply those passages, Rick? The bible is evil!
- The Bible forbids the eating of pork – do Christians apply that? Why not? Do we just pick and choose what we like to apply?
- The Bible talks about showing affection between Christians with kisses – do we apply that? Why not?
o You say, “that’s one I think we should start up again!”

The point is, there’s a lot of APPLICATION CONFUSION!

So today we’re going to cut through all that and give you principles that will help you know how to read and APPLY the Bible. EXTENDED. You ask, Rick where do you get these principles? Well, there’s some common sense we should bring to this problem of application, but first if we believe this is God’s Word, our principles of application must come from Scripture itself.

Some people think just our own common sense should guide us. One skeptical scholar I read says the Bible contains the principles for it’s own correction. So the sexism and violence and patriarchism he said, can be filtered out.

But those who trust Jesus was the Christ and trust this book that he endorsed cannot think like that. Why not? Because if we do, then basically WE rewrite the Bible applying what WE like and not applying what we don’t like. And how is that different from writing our own Bible? We might as well invent a new religion if we’re going to do that.

No, if we’re going to be TRUE Christians, we have to submit ourselves first to Jesus and then to this Book which he trusted as God’s Word. And if we do, then we will not say that the Bible has the principles for it’s CORRECTION, we will instead say that the Bible has the principles for it’s own INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION.

What are those principles which come out of the text?:

These principles are not arbitrary you’ll notice. They’re answered by the text itself. So the Bible it the prime tool to help you interpret and apply the Bible. That’s pretty cool. It’s not to say that ALL Bible mysteries clear up if we do this, but most are. And if all Christians applied their Bible using just these 4 principles, we would never get fringy sub Christians groups. They have one thing in common: they may SAY they hold the Bible in high esteem, but they always violate one or all of these clear rules – and that’s where they get off the tracks.

BIBLE APPLICATION DECISION TREE
Now, if you stack these principles on top of each other, they form what could sort of be called a application decision tree. I’ll show you graphically how this works. Take these four principles and turn them into questions you can ask about any part of the Bible you read. Your answers to those questions determine what and how you apply.

READY? Let’s start with the first question:

- WHO WROTE IT? There are two answers to that question,

o the UNGODLY or the GODLY. The first thing you’re asking is whether a passage is endorsed as coming from God’s spokesperson or not.

o  if you determine that it’s not a godly source, of course don’t apply it!

o But if it IS a godly source, then we proceed to the next question:

-  WHAT DID THEY MEAN? Last week we talked about finding the author’s intent, here we’re asking something specific about their intent and we have two possibilities:
o  is the author describing something that happened or is the author prescribing something.

o  So if a passage is not telling us what to believe or do, we don’t apply it just because it’s in the Bible!

o But if it IS a prescription, it’s specifically calling for us to apply it so then we proceed to the next question:

- FOR WHOM WAS IT INTENDED? This question asks whether or not the author limits the application of what’s being said, OR if other Scriptures limit the audience. There are two answers to this question:
o  one, the prescription has a local and specific audience, or two, the prescription has a universal audience for all.

o So for example, when Paul tells his apprentice Timothy to “come before winter, and bring my parchments and don’t forget to drink wine for you many illnesses”… he has a very specific audience in mind: Timothy. So if a passage explicitly limits who it was intended for, we have not need to apply it!

o BUT if this IS a command for a universal audience, and most Scripture is like this, here we get to our last question:

-  WHAT PRINCIPLE DOES IT REVEAL? This question asks what principle a passage reveals when stacked up with other Scripture.
o Specifically the two answers are, it reveals a cultural principle, or it reveals a transferable principle.

o  So you find most churches today do not apply verses that in comparison to other Scripture seem to reveal a cultural principle that is not transferable, like when Paul indicates that long hair for men was wrong because of “nature”. Yet uncut hair was a sign of holiness for the Old Testament Nazirite. So in light of all scripture, we realize that long hair must be a cultural issue and not an intrinsically moral issue for all men of all times.

SO THEN put this all together: If the source is GODLY, and it’s a PRESCRIPTION and it’s audience is UNIVERSAL and it’s PRINCIPLE is transferable… then friend:

-  APPLY IT! It’s not rocket science at that point. Do what it says. The Bible says of itself:
- James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

So now, let’s take several passages of the Bible and run them through our application decision tree. Let’s start easy:

A. Ps 14:1 “The fool says in his heart , "There is no God."
So we ask, “who said this?” A fool; IE not God’s spokesman, therefore we do not need to apply.

Another example: when you read Elihu’s speech to Job, it may or may not make sense, but it’s not revealed Truth even though it’s in the Bible. Why not? Because God explicitly rebukes Elihu later so he is not operating as God’s spokesperson.

B. Next let’s go King David when the Bible says:
1 Sam 25:42-43 Abigail … became his wife. 43 David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives.

So we ask, is David a spokesman for God? Yes, in fact, he’s inspired prophet who writes most of our Psalms. So then should we all follow his example and go get married to multiple women? No, because the Bible is merely describing what David did, not prescribing polygamy as the ideal model for marriage.

When the Bible DOES chime in with explicit principles about marriage the ideal is always the same: one man, one woman for life.
- From Genesis with Adam and Even all the way to
- Paul who told us that the model for Christians is simple: “HUSBAND OF ONE WIFE.”

Another example: in Genesis, Lot offers his daughters to a crowd of violent men to mollify their sexual lust. This is not a very nice thing to do! Is Moses telling us this story so we’ll do the same thing when surrounded by a gang in a dark alley in Seattle? No. He’s simply describing what Lot did.

C. Next let’s go to
Lev 11:12 Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be detestable to you.

Now take this through your application decision tree:
- Is this a godly spokesman? Answer yes, it’s Moses giving the children of Israel the law of God.

- Is he merely describing the foods they are eating, or is this a prescription telling them what foods they should and should not eat? Answer, it’s a prescription. Moses expects this to be taken seriously as God’s will for his people – which means he intended us to not each such things as shellfish and pork or rare steak.

- Next question, is the audience limited? Here’s the answer is yes. But not by Moses. We understand all Scripture in light of all Scripture… and Jesus explicitly says:
o In Mark 7:19 For it [food] doesn't go into a man’s heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." [And Mark the inspired author comments]: (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean .") And later
o Paul says in Rom 14:20 “All food is clean”

- So do Christians apply the Biblical rules about Jewish ceremonial food law? No. In fact, the WHOLE sacrificial system of the Old Testament has been canceled because the work of Christ has explicitly made it obsolete. About those rules the Bible explicitly says:
o Heb 9:10 They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings — external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

Actually this brings up another interesting point. Some would then take this one principle of abrogation to mean the entire Old Testament is invalidated in the life of a Christian. For them because the Bible says Christ is the end of the law, all that the Old Testament says is on the same level as “do not eat pork” – and they don’t apply it.

But that’s not doing proper application. The Old testament clearly has different kinds of laws that are treated differently in the NT. Let’s use our application tree to look at Exodus 20:13-16:
- You shall not murder. "You shall not commit adultery. "You shall not steal. "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”
- That’s part of the Old Order of the Old Testament – do we not apply that anymore because Christ has come?

Remember our last question? We do not interpret one verse in violation of all the others. We look at other scripture to see if the principle is culturally bound or transferable. In this case we look and read Romans 13:9
The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

So Jesus affirms the MORAL force of the Old Testament which remains in force and should be applied by all people in all times in all cultures, even though the ceremonial no longer applies.

CONCLUSION
Friends, the more we work with these simple ideas, the more the Bible will take on a new force for transformation in your life as you surrender to it as God’s Word. Soon every passage, even the descriptive ones will begin to have an application because even bad examples contain a lesson.

Like when the Judge Jephthah foolishly vows to sacrifice to God the first thing that comes out of his house – and his daughter comes out… we’re not supposed to do that – but we sure learn not to make rash vows to God.
- And we learn of God’s providential, loving oversight in the ceremonial law even if we’re not bound by it’s demands.

- And we learn from it the purity of holiness and how much we need grace.

- And we learn that God asked the Israelites to drive out Canaanites, not because he wants us to go on a crusade against our pagan neighbors but because he loves his people and wants to protect them and because he judges sin – all those principles we CAN apply.

Remember what James said…
- James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
- The verse we’ve been memorizing this month says: “All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” 1 Tim 3:16.

So unless Scripture clearly indicates says otherwise, any teaching in the Bible should be taken as God’s will for you – to what end, men and women?
- to form your belief and
- to form your behavior.

It’s so more than a rule book – it’s a Transforming and Powerful Word to set you straight, a mirror to help you see yourself as your are, and see God as he is. When you for your whole outlook and worldview from it,
- it will change you,
- it will remake you,
- it will bring you in touch with your deepest needs and God’s solution to your deepest needs.
- And when you come face to face with that, there’s nothing else for you to do, except trust and obey and be blessed for doing so.