HOME-GROUP QUESTIONS 'FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD' CHAPTER TWO

FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD - QUESTIONS 2

CHAPTER TWO

1. Why is it helpful to know something about how we got our Bible? (To put it a different way - Why bother with pages 21-37?)

2. What is the most helpful way of showing a new believer the truthfulness of the Bible and the importance of reading it? (See pages 26-28)

3. "I believe Jesus, not Paul." Discuss. (Pages 29-34)

4. How can the Bible written 2,000 years ago still be relevant today? (Pages 37-38)

5. A guest preacher, we will call him Apollos, says in the morning sermon that he does not believe in inerrancy, that it is an erroneous American teaching, but he does believe in infallibility. He is your guest for lunch. What would you say to him about this? (This is your opportunity/responsibility to be his Priscilla and Aquila - Acts 18:26 Apollos "began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately.") (Pages 38-45)

6. On page 45 he says: "It has become commonplace among contemporary Christians to believe that God speaks to us apart from and in addition to his word." Did you find his discussion of this issue helpful? (Pages 45-48) 

HOME-GROUP QUESTIONS 'FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD' INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER ONE

'FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD' - QUESTIONS 1

INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER ONE

1. Christians have only been able to own their own Bibles for the last 400 years (page 3). Jesus did not have a Bible of his own, how do you think that he knew the scriptures so well? How different do you think things would be if we were not able to have our own copies of the Bible?

2. 'From the mouth of God' (Page ix) is the description Jesus used when speaking about Scripture - how does this help us think about the Bible?

3. 'The darkness is not outside, but inside' (page 6) how much can an unbeliever understand the Bible? How much of the Bible had you read before you became a Christian?

4. Can you explain 'concurrence'? (page 11) The Bible is, 'both a divine and human book from start to finish', (page 14) what happens if we forget the 'human authorship aspect'?

5. What is the principle of 'divine accommodation'? (page 17) How does this help us in our approach to reading the Bible?

6. Do you agree with the way in which he says we should approach reading a passage in the Bible on pages 18/19. Why may we sometimes be tempted not to do this?

Why not look up the following if you do not know too what or whom he is referring:

John Knox; Servant Songs in Isaiah; Geneva Bible; John Calvin; Abraham Kuyper; Herman Bavinck; BB Warefield; Augustine.

Wikipedia does not get everything right but it does give useful brief answers. For those who want to delve deeper some of the people he refers to have web sites dedicated to them and their works.

IS YOUR GOD NOTHING MORE THAN A SCARECROW? JEREMIAH 10:1-25

JEREMIAH 10:1-25 

1. DO NOT THINK OR ACT LIKE THE WORLD - v1-3a

v2 Thus says the LORD: “Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, v3 for the customs of the peoples are vanity.

We all want to fit in. We want to be like others. Churches want to fit in to their day and age. None of us want to be thought of as 'odd'. We live in a particular culture where people think in a certain way. The desire and pressure to fit in, to belong, can be very great.

We live in a tension. On the one hand we know that we are not to be conformed to the world:

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

On the other hand we desire to remove all unnecessary barriers to belief in the gospel.

1 Corinthians 9v19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.

21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.

22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Then Paul's instructions to the Romans suggests that it takes real discernment to know the will of God in some issues, to know what is the good and acceptable and perfect.

"Tell me the same old story when you have cause to fear

That this world's empty glory is costing me too dear."

Jeremiah is concerned that the people are becoming too taken up with wanting to be like other nations. They are taking an unhealthy interest in the way of the nations. They are learning from them. so much so that they are beginning to share their same fears (astrology?).

Do not do this - their customs are vanity (like a mist).

There are some things we do not need to know, and are better off not knowing! 1 Cor 14:20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

The Lord's people would be far better off being infants in their knowledge of idols.

2. IDLE IDOLS ARE IGNORANT ONLY CONSULTED BY IMBECILES - v3b-16

Jeremiah 10v5 "Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,..."

v8 They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood!

v14 Every man is stupid and without knowledge;

[1] v3b-6 WHY WORSHIP A SCARECROW?

The farm I grew up on had scarecrow. It wore my Dad's old jacket and trousers. It's job was to keep the birds off the strawberry field. After a while the birds used it as a resting place!

An idol may be dressed in silver and gold, but underneath it is no different than a scarecrow - they cannot speak, they have to be carried, they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them.

See Psalm 115v4-8

See Tim Keller: What is an idol - page xvii-xviii

You can make your husband/wife an idol; your children an idol; your job an idol. Things that are good in themselves can become an idol. If anything happens to your idol then you are shattered. Your treasure has gone.

PRAISE 732v1&4

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
be thou my best thought in the day and the night,
both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:
be thou mine inheritance now and always;
be thou and thou only the first in my heart;
O Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.

[2] v7-10 THERE IS NONE LIKE THE LORD - v6a & 7b

Idols creep into our hearts? How for they cannot move? The same way the Trojan Horse entered the city - the people took it in. We bring idols into our lives without even realising what we are doing.

We need to 'spring clean' our minds and hearts on a regular basis.

Idols once in place are difficult to move. There is only one way we can move them. That is to see how much better, how more desirable, is the Lord.

Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) preached a sermon called: 'The Expulsive Power of a New Affection'

There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love of the world—either by a demonstration of the world’s vanity, so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment, so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon not to resign an old affection, which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one.

My purpose is to show, that from the constitution of our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent and ineffectual and that the latter method will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it.

The only way to remove an idol is to replace it by something greater, more worthy, more glorious - the Lord himself.

So Jeremiah shows that the Lord is greater than their silver and gold idols.

[3] v11-16 GOD THE CREATOR IS REAL, IDOLS ARE A DELUSION:

Jeremiah is not ashamed to appeal to the fact that God created the Universe - v11-12. The foreign nations did not believe this but it is the truth.

We should not be ashamed of the doctrine of creation. All people know this is true, even those who most vehemently deny it.

God not only made the world he also is still very active in it - v13

Idols will put their makers to shame, not so the Lord who made heaven and earth - v14-16.

3. v17-25 GOD WILL BE GOD

v23 I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

[1] v17-18 PREPARE FOR EXILE

The Lord is going to sling them out of the land, as he has warned them many times.

[2] v19-21 A LAMENT FOR A WOUND

Who is lamenting? Is Jeremiah lamenting, but he had no children? Is it Jerusalem or Judah? Do we hear God's lament over his children? Properly something of all these.

Bad leadership resulted in the scattering of the flock - v21.

[3] v22-25 DANGER FROM THE NORTH

Once again Jeremiah warns that the enemy will come from the North. The mention of wild animals adds to the picture of desolation.

Jeremiah acknowledges the sovereignty of God. This is something every Christian has trouble with because it goes against the world's thinking, our own before we became Christians, and the devil's against it.

Yet, what peace of mind knowing that God is sovereign gives when we can say as Jeremiah in v23.

When we see God is sovereign we stop questioning all he does for we trust him more than we trust ourselves. We believe all he says about himself and about us. We not only let God be God we are glad that he is.

This however, does not turn us into fatalists! Jeremiah pleads for God not to bring his full anger upon his people - v24; and for him to bring his wrath upon those who devour Jacob, the Lord's people.

SAY IT WITH TEARS - JEREMIAH 7:29-8:3; & 8:18-9:26

JEREMIAH 7:29 - 8:3

Jeremiah 7:29 “‘Cut off your hair and cast it away; raise a lamentation on the bare heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.’

30 “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the LORD. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it.

31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.

What evil had the people in Jeremiah's time done to cause the Lord to reject and forsake that generation?

[1] v30 - they have defiled the Temple.

[2] v31 They have sacrificed their own children: 2 Kings 16:3; 17:31; 21:6; Psalm 106:34.

A practice God had forbidden - Leviticus 18:21; 20:1-5. Deut 12:31, 18:10

How far does a society have to go before God gives them up? Read Romans 1:22-28.

Who would have thought that the Lord's people would engage in child sacrifice? What have we been doing to our children? They have been failed by parents, failed by social services, failed by the Police; failed by society.

God's wrath will fall on the people in the very place where they have sacrificed their children turning it into a grave yard - v32-33.

He will bring silence to the streets of the cities - v34.

Last century saw two World Wars and Spanish Flue that killed more than the 1st World War. How long before the Lord brings his next major judgement?

Even the bones did not escape - v1-2.

What of the living? They will prefer death - v3.

How would you answer the question: If offering children as a sacrifice then how can it be right for God to sacrifice his own Son?

See John 10v11,15, &17.

JEREMIAH 8:18- 9:26

1. LAMENT FOR A PEOPLE - 8:18-9:3

9v1: "Oh that my head were water and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night..."

Hetty Lalleman in the IVP commentary helpfully identifies the speakers in the lament as follows:

v18 Lament of Jeremiah

v19a Listen to Jeremiah

v19b Lament of the people

v19c God's answer

v20 Lament of the people

v21 Lament of the prophet

v22 Lament of the prophet and people

9v1-3 Lament of the prophet or maybe of God

in Gilead the balm from a tree was famous as a perfume and a medicine.

2. NEIGHBOURS, EVERYBODY HAS BAD NEIGHBOURS! 9:4-9

v4 "Let everyone beware of his neighbour"

Further evidence of a breakdown in society.

Lies, deceit, slander, oppression - at the bottom of it all v6 they refuse to know the Lord.

Such behaviour will bring punishment from the Lord - v8-9.

3. LAMENT FOR THE MOUNTAINS, PASTURES & CITIES v10-11

v10 “I will take up weeping and wailing ....and a lamentation..."

God's judgement will be upon the whole nation, nowhere will escape, country and city alike.

4. WHY, WHY, OH WHY - v12-16

v12 "Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness..."

Because they have forsaken God's law, not obeyed it, nor walked in accord with it and followed their own hearts after Baals - v13-14.

Judgement is coming - v15-16

5. SEND IN THE MOURNERS - v17-22

v17 “Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;

It is a time for mourning. Professional mourners, we meet some in the time of Jesus in Jairus's house. There will be death on a massive scale.

Jeremiah had a real message of judgement.

6. BOASTING IN THE LORD - v23-26

v24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me,

The apostle Paul took up these words - 1 Cor 1v26-31 & 2 Cor 10v12-18.

Gals 6:14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Ephesians 2v8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Jeremiah is part of the 'Bible' that Jesus and Paul read.Knowing the context of the OT quotes that appear in the NT helps us to better understand them.

JEREMIAH 8:4-17 "HERE IS A QUESTION FOR YOU"

JEREMIAH 7:1 v 8:3

Jeremiah 8:5 Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding?

v8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us’?

v14 Why do we sit still?

Name me a Greek philosopher?

Name me a book he wrote?

"By all means marry; if you get a good wife you'll be happy. If you get a bad one you'll become a philosopher. Socrates (469-399 BC)

"Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior."

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

"True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing."

Most of what we know about Socrates comes from books that his pupil Plato wrote.

Socrates was born in Athens in 470 BC. He was a soldier in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). Athens v Sparta and Sparta won which was very bad for Athens.

He made no charge for his teaching. He earned his living when not a soldier as a stone cutter. He would go to the market place and engage people in conversations, asking probing questions. He saw his role of a teacher as being that like a midwife whose task was to assist at the birth of wisdom in those he taught through dialogue.

There is a way of teaching named after him: the 'Socratic method'. By asking probing questions you seek to show someone if their thinking has a sound basis, or if they are using faulty logic; what assumptions they are making; what may they have neglected to consider; what the implications of what they are saying.

Eventually the authorities considered that he asked too many questions when he begun questioning the use of the death penalty. He was accused of corrupting the cities young men and sentenced to death. A penalty carried out, to the great sorrow of his pupils, when he drunk the cup of hemlock - a poisonous plant.

Jeremiah lived before Socrates. His ministry started in 627 BC and continued until after 586 BC. Jeremiah used questions to challenge the people of his day, to show them their sin and foolishness, to them teach God's word.

He was not the first to do so. Asking questions can be used for good or evil purposes - see Genesis 3v1; 3v8-13.

Jeremiah 8v4-17 uses questions to probe the people.

v4-7: THE QUESTION: "WHY?"

We generally think of people asking of God the question Why. Here God asks people that question - v5a.

He sets up this questions by asking two questions to get people thinking - v4. The natural thing when you fall is to get up, and when you go away to return. So why haven't the people got up and returned to the Lord?

Backsliding is turning away from the Lord. It is 'going backwards'! It is translated in 2v19 as 'apostasy' and 5v6 as 'apostasies' and in 3v6, 'faithless' in 3v6,8,11,12&22.

Their perpetual backsliding is stubborn and wilful - v5b

No one asks themselves the right question: "What have I done" -v6a

Everyone is like a War Horse plunging into battle - v6b - read War Horse page 51ff.

v7: The stork, turtledove, swallow and crane know what time they should return - but the Lord's people do not know.

Christopher Wright asks at what point is a society so committed to it's immoral path that it passes the point of no return? He then wonders if we already have. Will we ever see the law on same sex marriages changed? Will the National lottery ever be consigned to the dustbin? Will the abortion laws ever be changed to greatly reduce, even stop, the loss of life? What of immorality, drunkenness, swearing, lying, etc that are so common in our society? You have to be over 45-50 to remember a time when it was not so bad.

Richard Sibbes- 'The Returning Backslider' page 257

v8-13 THE QUESTION: "HOW?"

Do you remember the Children's TV program 'How'? 'How' was originally devised as a show for adults returning from the pub. A trial program was shown late one evening. Then it was thought it might work better as a show for children. It run for 17 years. Each item begun with the word, "How".

Once again we find Jeremiah got their first! - v8a

v8b The scribes lie!

Today we are fed a diet of lies by films, novels and songs. Sin, all sin, brings pain, the pleasure is short lived and far less than living with the of the Lord, keeping Jesus' commandments.

v9 If you reject the word of the Lord then you have no wisdom.

If you only go to church once, you get 35 minutes of teaching from the Bible in the sermon, 4 or 5 hymns and songs that teach, 1 or 2 bible readings. How many hours of lies do we fill our lives with each week?

Immorality brings pain; killing in war, glamorised by video games, brings deep psychological problems, Joe suffered even as he was dying.

Greed is not good. It brings judgement - v10ab

People prefer lies to the truth and the false prophets and priests are ever ready to oblige - v10c-11

How different is the real message of peace - Romans 5v1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

They knew no shame - v12

v13 Does this put you in mind of anything?

Jesus parable - Luke 13v1-9; Mark 11v13-25;

3. AGAIN THE QUESTION: "WHY"?

Why do we do nothing - v14a

We are doomed to die - v14b God has given his people a cup of hemlock!

Jeremiah was a very eloquent preacher - v15. The writer to the Hebrews was a little more blunt - Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The enemies war horses are coming - v16

Snakes shall bite you - v17!

This sort of preaching would be considered too much by many, perhaps even most ,congregations today!

Simply saying, none of us are perfect, doesn't really cut it today. This no longer cuts to the heart and brings conviction. We must let our preachers be more like Jeremiah for we are preaching to a sin hardened generation. As Nelson saw no ships because he held up his telescope to his blind eye, so people see no sin in themselves for they are spiritually blind.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones used the Socratic method in chairing ministers fraternals. It became popular about 20 years ago among Christian Unions and then into churches. We went through 1 Peter in this way. It can be helpful. Jesus sometimes used it. It is no substitution for teaching.

The Socratic method held Science back as people tried to 'discover' things through thinking alone. It was only when experimentation begun that science really leaped forward.

Asking the right questions is the key. The questions we need to ask people are not necessarily the questions they may want to ask us. however, their questions may help us learn how they are thinking which will help us tell them the gospel in a way that will speak to them.

A Question for Christmas: Have you ever been to a birthday party to which the person whose birthday you are celebrating was not invited? 

Can you think of any others? 

HOME-GROUP BOOK FOR 2015

Our book for 2015 will be 'FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD' by Sinclair B Ferguson published by Banner of Truth. You can find more details and read an extract from it by following the link:
http://www.wtsbooks.com/from-the-mouth-of-god-trusting-reading-and-applying-the-bible-sinclair-b-ferguson-9781848712423

If you wish us to purchase a copy then please sign up for it on the sheet on the Church Notice Board. We will seek to obtain the best price for a bulk purchase. 

HEAVEN AND HELL QUESTIONS FOR NOVEMBER HOMEGROUPS

HEAVEN AND HELL QUESTIONS 8

1. Please come prepared to say one thing that has made an impression upon you from these months of reading, meditating, and discussing heaven. It may be something that was new to you or something you have known for a long time but it has come to you afresh.

2. How can knowing that we shall never sin again remove some, even all, of the fears that we may have, or have had, about heaven?

3. How can the teaching on the resurrection of the body help us face suffering?

4. How will heaven be heaven when some whom we love are in hell? How do we live with that thought now?

5. It is said that, 'Marriages are made in heaven', but they do not continue in heaven, or do they? Will we know one another in heaven?

6. What would you say to someone who says that they do not wish to go to heaven because their husband/wife was not a believer and they want to be with them?