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This is a good question. And 
I haven't said that for all the questions. They're all good questions. 
So, you know, the bulk of them are coming from our church. Again, 
I was trying to find a bit of solace. Well, you know, Mike's 
church, Nod, Wim said, they're pretty much all our people. So 
I do want to communicate to our dear brethren, these are great 
questions. It is good stuff to think through. But this one in 
particular, I know it comes up quite a bit. Can I apply Old 
Testament promises to my life? Sometimes a verse is meaningful 
to me, although it seems that I took it out of context. And 
then there's a particular example, Jeremiah 29, 11 to 13. That's probably a text that's 
been used at every Christian school graduation. I know the 
plans I have for you. That's right. You're going to 
be a success, Junior. And it was a letter to the exiles 
in Babylon. So I think that's a really very 
good question. He said it was for you. Well, 
there's a really broad and universal statement in 2 Corinthians 1, 
all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. So 
I think that we have to distinguish promises because you wouldn't 
want to do the same thing with threats under the Old Covenant. Can I personalize this threat, 
you know, make it my own threat? No, it was a historical event 
under a unique covenantal epoch with temporary purposes that 
served its purpose. But even from those, if you read 
the Confession carefully, and I think Scripture, you can gain 
you know, principles from that. And Paul does that from Deuteronomy 
25 and 1 Corinthians 9 and 1 Timothy 5, muzzling the ox and stuff. He draws a principle that you 
need to pay your pastor from that. So there are ways to do 
it. Some of the texts are, would 
be, you know, like that one. It does have, it was the people 
of God in exile. But somebody's going to say, 
well, we're in exile, too, in one sense. So is there a principle 
there? Yeah. What is it? Probably not 
what we usually make it, you know. You probably aren't going 
to be an astronaut. Yeah. We over-inflate the promise 
and ourselves in light of the promise. So, I don't know if 
I have a really good answer for it, but some of these, that's 
a good question. I mean, how do you take what 
are promises to ancient Israel and apply them to Christians 
now? I think it's a good emphasis, though, to remember covenant. 
You know, if Israel is being, you know, Deuteronomy 28, I don't 
think a young guy who may be struggling with a couple of sins 
or, you know, things that are common can read Deuteronomy 28 
and conclude he's going to be exiled and he's going to get, 
you know, reap disease and all those consequences. I mean, again, 
generally you do bad things. God is a just judge, but we need 
to be cautious not just in the application of those curses, 
but in the blessings as well. To take an Old Covenant promise 
unique to Israel, and this seems to happen a lot, apply them to 
America. Whatever God said to Israel in 
the Old Covenant is true of America today. What you just did is you distinguished 
covenantal epochs or eras, and you distinguished between moral 
and positive laws. So some of these threats and 
promises are very positive, very anchored, very connected to the 
time in which they were done. Their tenure in the land. Do you have anything else you 
want to add to that? No. Okay. There's not one text that 
you muse on often in the Old Testament that you take for yourself. 
Can I just say one more thing? Sure, please. The 1 Timothy and 
1 Corinthians use of Deuteronomy 25.4 is paradigmatic, I think. So you have these weird civil 
laws about animals, and Paul extracts a principle from that 
and says, therefore, I think he's saying this, thou shalt 
not steal. Pay the man what he's worth. And so even in the positive 
laws that are fulfilled, if you dig deep enough, you can 
get a principle, a moral principle behind that that's being applied 
in a specific redemptive historical context that doesn't entail to 
this day, but the principle does. And that's the hard work of... 
Yeah, I think that's where strategies like, well, whatever is true 
in judicial law in the Old Testament must be applicable to the U.S. 
of A. That's an easier tactic on one 
level. I think it's a very difficult 
thing on another level, but the going through, because there 
is a connection between the Decalogue and chapter 20 of Exodus and 
then 21 to 23. These things were concrete applications 
in terms of their civil life. And there's a lot of things there, 
like our confession says, the general equity, whatever that 
means, there's something there for us to use, but it's not a 
one-for-one transference, moving from Old Covenant to New Covenant, 
therefore. And it's the therefores that 
I think get us into a lot of trouble, and it does not take 
into consideration those redemptive movements in history. Yes, very 
excellent. Something I share with students 
sometimes, I'm sure I've shared it from the pulpit as well. The 
nature, what is scripture? It's a written word of God. Scripture 
is organic because it's from God. It's all connected somehow, 
some way. It's progressive, and this helps 
hopefully with answering this question. And it's climactic. And the climax is not you and 
me. It's not our problems. It's the 
incarnation, sufferings, and glory of Christ. That's the big 
boom, the crescendo, the drum roll, please, and the cymbals 
are going. Galatians 4.4. Why do we have a Bible? To present 
the mediator of salvation for the glory of God. And if you 
take that with you, reading some of those things, You don't read 
them as personal. You're looking for something 
bigger, you know? That's right. I think we all need a dose of 
looking for something bigger than yourself in the overall 
trajectory of what Scripture is revealing to us. Not wanting 
in any way to deny what we've just said, because I wholeheartedly 
affirm it. But I think we also have to be 
careful that we Don't phrase ourselves in such a way that 
we remove the Old Testament from the Christian believer. Amen. 100%. It was the only Bible of 
the Apostolic Age as the New Testament was being written. 
When Paul writes his famous words about Scripture in 2 Timothy 
3, First he's referring to the Old Testament, and then to the 
new, added to the Old Testament. So the Old Testament is a Christian 
book, and it needs to be understood as a Christian book, but with 
a careful understanding of the progress of... revelation and the progress of 
the covenants and the difference between Old Covenant and New 
Covenant and how we understand those laws. So, you know, what 
put this into my mind is you asked me the question, is there 
an Old Testament text that you muse on? The answer actually 
would be yes. Yeah, I hope so. When I sign my autograph in books, 
I have an Old Testament text that I always put there. It's 
because the Psalms have become so important in my life. Oh, 
yeah, that's right. And I see Christ there, and I 
want those Psalms not just to be nice religious poetry that 
can soothe my heart, but I want to be able to see in them how 
they do relate to, first, Christ Church, and then to me as a member 
of Christ Church. Yeah, that's right. Jeremiah 
29.11 is the example. I've used it in lectures. I point 
that out to guys that we have to be really cautious in the 
way that we relate the Testaments to each other. Let me go back 
to Mark 1.1, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There's 
a change that comes with the appearance of John the Baptist, 
but still, the Old Testament is our book, and we need to see 
it as our book, use it, be strengthened in our lives and in our churches. 
I believe that as preachers, we ought to be preaching regularly 
from the Old Testament. So on the Lord's Day morning, 
when I'm in Surrey, I'm going to preach on Psalm 15. And maybe 
I'll preach from a Psalm. Yeah, you've heard that one. 
Yeah. That's a good sermon. Maybe I'll preach a Psalm for 
you guys on Sunday night, you know, because I want God's people 
to lay hold of the Old Testament. And with the Jeremiah 29 passage, 
Appreciating it in its context yields a wonderful view of our 
God. These people have been in captivity. 
You're going to be freed from captivity. You're going back. 
For their sin. For your sin, you're there. But I have plans 
for you. This isn't the end of the story. 
And just seeing it from that vantage point gives us hope. 
So, everything ought to lead us back to an appreciation of 
God. Right, yeah. And I always think that's a good 
practical application. This, be a better you, or be 
a better this, or be a better that. Can't I just see my God 
and want to worship him more? That to me is a good application 
of text. It's like the end of the book 
of Habakkuk. I think the same idea is there. Though everything 
falls apart, God is God and we can trust in him. So I have plans 
for you. I can look at that and I can 
say that I know that the Lord has plans for me. It's not the 
specific promise that's given to Israel, but I know that he 
will glorify himself and he will bring me safely to the end, whatever 
trials I face in this life. Absolutely. That's the consistency 
that we hold on to. Jim said we should treat the 
Old Testament as Christian scripture. You know what Augustine believed 
the first book of the New Testament was? Genesis. The Old Testament. No, I agree 100%. I'm not an autograph collector, 
so if I did ask you to autograph a book, what is the text? Psalm 
73, 25, and 26. Oh, good. Which says... Who do 
I have in heaven but you? Right, yeah. Who do I have in 
heaven but you? I think the NAS actually translates that beautifully. 
Whom have I in heaven but you, and there is none upon earth 
that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fail, but 
God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Which 
I think is so wonderful in Psalm 73 itself, because Asaph had 
almost, that's right, a leader among God's people. Until he 
went into the house of God. It's such a great psalm. Oh, 
it's wonderful. And the conclusion. He's had 
his eyes down on earth, on other people, and when he finally looks 
up, he says, oh, it makes sense. What have I done with my life? 
Exactly. And who do I have? I'm not going 
to preach to you right now. Yeah, you can preach that on 
Sunday night. Great, great, great. Oh, there's 
so much more. Keep going. It's the first in 
the third book of the Psalms, right? Book three, Psalm 73 begins. Book three is the book, Palmer 
Robertson calls it devastation because it consistently reflects 
the trouble that has come upon Israel and the failure of the 
Davidic and Solomonic kingships. Preparing the way for the fourth 
book. What's the first book, first Psalm and the fourth book? 
It's Psalm 90. a psalm of Moses, the man of God, which speaks 
about God's eternity. The kings have failed. Israel 
is falling apart. All of this is true, but God 
is still God. And so the fourth book turns 
our eyes upwards. But this is not a discussion 
about the structure of the psalms. It could be. It's fantastic. Psalms are fantastic. Oh, yes. It's just a gift from our God 
to the people of God.