How to Understand What the Bible Says

Transcript

GRM 836
2/2/2003
How to Understand What the Bible Says
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

We've been talking about biblical prophecy. This is a subject that grows, and we've just scratched the surface. It is said that one quarter of the Bible was prophetic when it was written. Over 300 of those prophecies were fulfilled in connection with the first coming of Christ. Now we have hundreds of others to be fulfilled in connection with the second coming of Christ, events surrounding that and following that. Our Bible is a Bible that speaks much to future events.

We talk about biblical prophecy we can come to an area that divides among even those who claim to be Bible-believing Christians. Sometimes I'm asked how come Christians who claim to believe the Bible have so many different opinions regarding future things. I want to address that this evening. It's really a matter of Bible interpretation, Hermeneutics which simply means interpretation. The issue is how do we interpret the Bible.

The beginning point is very simple. God created us to communicate with one another and with Him verbally. From the very beginning of creation with Adam and Eve in the Garden we find them communing with God, speaking with God, God speaking with them. He's a God who created us with that ability, with the intention that we would be able to communicate and so it characterizes the human race. In Genesis 11 God divided mankind into different races, into different languages. But the facts still remain true. We're to be a people who communicated verbally. What entered now is we would have different languages, but we'd still be communicating verbally within our language. We just could not understand someone else's language as he confused them at the Tower of Babel.

It’s God's intention in our communication that we understand one another. It's just foundational as we talk about interpreting the Scripture that we follow certain basic principles of language and communication. When we depart from that we bring confusion. If someone would stand up here and just use what we would call baby talk which is what? Just a collection of words. Car, drive, come, hit, go, eat, candy. You'd say well those are all words you really didn't say anything. You didn't communicate anything. It was just a collection of words. You didn't put it together in a way that would communicate. But we understand language. We are excited when our smallest children as babies begin to say a word, then a couple of more words. The common things they hear they begin to say. That's the beginning but it's only the beginning because you have to progress beyond that to be able to communicate intelligibly in any significant way. With our babies and real young children, we understand. If they use one word, we put all the rest of that in context. Because we are with them. We know what they're talking about. But over time we what? Tell them no, you tell me what you want. Now what are you going to do? We want them to learn to communicate. As God has spoken to us He has done the same thing in the same way. By that I mean from the beginning of the Scripture and consistent through to the end, we find anytime God speaks either directly or indirectly. Directly - a sound, His voice from heaven. Indirectly - through prophets, through angels and so on. He speaks with the intention that he be understood in ways that we are expected to understand and held accountable for understanding. We can assume He is going to speaking in ways that are normal communication.

When it comes to the matter of God revealing Himself there are two basic matters in revelation. There's what we call general revelation which is the revelation of creation. It’s general in that it is everywhere, and everyone is exposed to it. "The heavens declare the glory of God," Psalm 19 speaks of God's revelation in creation. Why don't you turn to Psalm 19. We'll just use that as a basis to jump off from. Psalm 19 and the first six verses are the general creation, general revelation which is found in creation. "The heavens are telling the glory of God. Their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech. Night to night reveals knowledge." God has communicated through creation. Romans 1 speaks specifically of this that God has revealed Himself in creation. You see something of the vastness of the universe and universes, the intricacies of the creation and all of that. You see something of the awesomeness of God as the Creator. But that does not reveal the specifics that specific revelation reveals. So specific revelation in contrast to general revelation is specific. It gives more details. In verse 7 of Psalm 19 picks up with specific revelation which is God's verbal communication. “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandments of the LORD" and down it goes. Until the psalmist responds verse 14, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer."

God has revealed Himself specifically in His Word. The Scripture is the Word of God. All Scripture is God breathed. It comes from God,
II Timothy 3:16,17. It is the Word of God. Now that means what it reveals and what it says is the most important things that have ever been said or ever could be said. This book contains what God has to say to us verbally. It really explains and unfolds the revelation of creation. It enables us to understand it in a way that we could not apart from the specifics of his verbal revelation.

Now if God has spoken to man and He created man to communicate verbally, we can assume that the One who created us to communicate verbally, who now speaks to us verbally is able and will do it in an understandable way. Why else. If He created us to communicate verbally and now, he intends to speak to us in that way, why would He speak to us in such a way that is totally confusing and not understandable. It would make a mockery of communication. We could not say, and he could not claim that His intention was to reveal Himself to us. Because if he speaks in a way that we are not able to comprehend, that is contrary to the way He created us to communicate, His intention never was to reveal Himself. We come to the Bible, we come to a book that is revelation from God, is a word from God to the creation that He created to communicate with words. That should encourage us that He intends us when we come to this creation to understand it.

The principle we are going to talk about, first of all, and it will govern everything. When we talk about the Bible and interpreting the Bible is simply, we interpret it literally or normally. I use the words interchangeably. We'll say more about the specifics of that in a moment. But we'll assume that when we come to the Bible, we will interpret just like we interpret normal speech. I am speaking to you now and we are both all of us, both you as a listener and me as a speaker, are operating on a certain basis of rules of communication. Words have meaning. Words in context communicate certain ideas. All of our lives are governed by that. If I just start to put together a collection of words as I did a moment ago, you'd go out of here saying he didn't say anything. Nothing made sense. Now I realize sometimes that's true. After the service Sunday morning a week ago, one of you shared with me last Sunday night we had some people here who were visiting. After the service they turned around and asked this Indian Hiller did you understand what he was talking about. The person at Indian Hills said yes. They asked are you a preacher. No. Well, we didn't understand anything. We never heard any of that. Well, that does go on. Part of that is when you move into a new realm. If someone stood up here and began to talk in, you know, higher mathematics . . . about higher mathematics or involved science, I would go away saying I didn't understand anything they said. But it wouldn't mean he didn't communicate. He didn't communicate in an understandable way to me. Now that may mean I'm a little dense, but it would still be governing certain rules because he didn't intend to communicate with me. I go in and sit at a science lecture given to scientists, I don't understand anything going on because he wasn't really addressing idiots. He was addressing scientists. So, he did communicate.

But God is communicating to the human race that he created, and we can assume He will do it in an understandable way, in the normal way following normal rules of communication. The way we talk to one another, the way we read the newspaper, the way we listen to the news on TV. All those things governed by the same normal or literal approach to language.

We come to the revelation of God, just a couple of guidelines. First, I would say - to put these in some order - observation. You have to look at it and say what does it say. I would start with the simplest. Most people are in trouble with the Scripture because they really don't know what it says. They've just heard things or picked up things and they really haven't carefully considered. The first principle in knowing what God has said is to read it or listen to it, become familiar with the content because anything new is more difficult for me. We tell our children when they are entering a new subject in school or taking a step up to something more difficult. They say I'm never going to be able to understand this. You say you will. You just take it one step at a time. They have to learn. They have to grow. They have to grab the basics first. You know they have to learn to add and subtract and to multiply and divide. You don't start out with calculus in First Grade. Some of those things presuppose a foundation. Now we can expect the Scripture is going to be like that. All of life and communication is like that. The general rule is look at what the Scripture says. Become familiar with it. Why do we find ourselves more comfortable in the New Testament than the Old Testament. We are a lot more familiar with the New Testament, right. I get in the Old Testament all of a sudden, I'm not as familiar. I'm not as sure of the context and what's going on historically and all of that. Now the more I'm in the Old Testament the more familiar I become with it, the more able I am to understand. That's why I think there's help in just reading the Scripture, going through the Scripture. My pattern over the years has been to listen to Scripture in the morning while I walk a treadmill or walk generally or something like that, ride a bike, a stationary bike. I don't stop. I come through passages and if you'd ask me what that meant, I'd say I wouldn't know. Right now, all I'm trying to do is get myself familiar with the content. If I spend 45 minutes a day listening to Scripture, I will go through the whole Old Testament in 3 months and the whole New Testament in 1 month. Every 4 months you go through the whole Bible. It's not you have to spend six hours a day. You can divide it out. Spend 15 minutes a day then you'll go through the whole Bible in a year. The value, just go through. Now you have to be careful. That's just remember the observation, getting familiar with Scripture. You're three verses along and you say oh, I'm . . . what I'm going to . . . No, that's not my purpose in my observation. I'm just getting familiar.

Then I have to go to what does it mean. I don't want to just be able to refer and quote scripture and not have any idea what's it's talking about. I read sometimes about computers. I can talk about computers; I don't have the foggiest idea what I'm talking about. I've just read it and if it's fresh in my mind, I can talk about it. I don't understand it. I don't know what I'm talking about. If I sit down at the computer, I can't do anything, but I read something on it. Well, I don't want myself to be that way with the Bible. I come now to the issue of interpreting the Bible.

We know what it says. Now I want to discern what does it mean. Part of this is compounded when we come to the Bible because we have a book that is at least 2000 years old and then it goes back from there because the New Testament was closed almost 2000 years ago. It was written in a different time period, in a different culture. Now we have translations. We can thank the Lord. We don't have to learn Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek to be able to read the Bible. But God has provided individuals who have applied their abilities to the text and manuscripts and have translated the Bible and we have very accurate translations to deal with. But we still have to deal with the matters of history and culture and so on.

Well, the first principle in interpretation. We already mentioned that I'm going to take it literally or normally. In other words, it means what it says. If it says Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, I take it means Jesus went up on a mountain, as we know mountains, and He prayed. He talked to His Heavenly Father. It does not mean Jesus had to overcome the obstacles in His life before He felt comfortable in His spiritual walk. That would be allegorizing, spiritualizing and sometimes we do that. Jesus went up to a mountain and just stop and think don't we all have mountains. You have to count the mountains of the difficulties of your life if you are going to develop a prayer life with God. Well, that's not interpreting the Bible. That's misusing the Bible. That's what I'm talking about when we say literal or normal.

Literal interpretation was followed in the early years of the church's history. The first 200 years or so literal interpretation was followed. Then we got into allegorizing and then with the reformers Lutheran and Calvin they brought us back to literal interpretation. The problem is they failed in an area. They interpreted the Bible literally in every area except in the area of prophecy, future prophecy, unfulfilled prophecy and there they just left it the way it had always been since the days that allegorizing . . . Origin and then Augustine and so on who allegorized the Scripture. We still have confusion down to our day. The problem with many Bible-believing Christians is they interpret the Bible literally or normally in every area except unfulfilled prophecy. Now they want to talk about dealing with things like the church has become Israel and so on. Well, that's not literal or normal interpretation. Why would Israel no longer mean Israel. Israel always meant Israel through the Old Testament. Israel always meant Israel through the Gospels. Israel always meant Israel through the book of Acts. What are we now changing Israel to the Church and deciding well somewhere in the New Testament and probably when the Church in the book of Acts, somewhere along the line even though we continue to talk about Israel, the Church has really become the spiritual Israel and all the promises given to Israel now are transferred to the Church even though the nation Israel continues on. I say wait a minute, wait a minute. We've left literal or normal interpretation of the Bible. That's mainly the foundational principle why there are different views.

The Lutherans still follow Martin Luther who followed where . . . he had when he came out of Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholics are amillennial. They do not interpret prophecy literally. Things like the virgin birth and so on Roman Catholics are adamant. They take that literally. But future prophecy, coming kingdom - there is no kingdom. We are in the kingdom now. There is no earthly kingdom as such. We have a kingdom in the hearts of people.

The Reformers continued that thinking. Back to Augustine and you find major Protestants today, Lutherans, Presbyterians and so on are amillennial. Why? Well, their system of interpretation breaks down. Why would you decide that you interpret the Bible literally or normally, that all prophecy, all prophecy including the 300 and some prophecies relating to Christ's First coming were all fulfilled literally but all the prophecies yet to be fulfilled will be fulfilled allegorically, spiritually. When I say spiritually, I don't mean it's spiritual. Spiritually in that we are not taking them literally any longer. It's another meaning. The kingdom does not mean Christ will rule over the earth as the Old Testament prophesied. It means He will rule over the hearts of men. Interpretations like that.

Well, if you abandon the anchor where does it stop? You know what happens with that? Pretty soon people are expanding what they don't take literally. I know it says hell. I know it says suffering forever, but we wouldn't take that literally. I know the Bible talks about judgment and condemnation, but we don't take that literally. I know Bible says all won't be saved but we don't take that literally and pretty soon this spreads out and out and out. So, it may seem well it's not major; at least we agree on this. But remember your bad theology always catches up to you and so does your bad interpretation.

We interpret literally or normally. We interpret historically. In other words, in the historical context in which it was written and that means I have to perhaps expand my study and there are commentaries and so on that are a great help to us that are available today. Because when I read in the Gospels, I read Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor, I say what do you mean the Roman Governor? What are the Romans doing here? What are they doing with a governor in Palestine? I thought Herod the king . . . And what does it mean he's a Idumaenian and not truly a Jew and . . . Well, you know, now I have to go to the history, the Pharisees. You know we talk about people who are Pharisees. They say who you are a Pharisees. Well, there aren't any Pharisees today. We use that in a figurative way today but that's not what the Bible is talking about when it talks about talks Pharisees. It's talking about a literal group of people that had a specific identity. So, the apostle Paul says I'm a Pharisee of the Pharisees. What is a Pharisee? What is a Sadducee? That's the historical context in which that was written. If I am going to understand what the Bible is talking about, I'm going to have to expand now as I try to understand this passage. Again, we are helped greatly because of the availability of resources. We don't have to do a lot of original digging out, thank the Lord. We can go to a Bible dictionary and look up Pharisees and it will explain what a Pharisee is or a Sadducee. If we want more, we can go to a Bible encyclopedia in addition to commentaries.

We interpret grammatically and that is simply just according to the rules of grammar. The Bible says we are to study to show ourselves approved unto God workmen that don't need to be ashamed. When it says we are to study to show ourselves approved, it means to labor, to toil. You know we have this light superficial approach to the Word of God that, you know, I want something, brief, practical and helpful, not too heavy in its theology in its content. The old sermonettes for Christianettes idea that is almost so true today it doesn't even merit, you know, as a joke. That's what people want. Brief, light, minimal scripture. You know, it's fine. Maybe I don't need to read my Bible. Just put the verse up. That will be good. That way I don't have to bother learning how to find it. I'm not saying that if you put your verses on a screen or anything that means you're liberal. I mean there is an attitude that comes. We don't come to church to do serious work. Yet the Bible says we must study, and the word there means to toil, to labor in the Word so that we can be approved before God. Note God takes His Word seriously. He has communicated to us. He expects us to understand it. Not to just glance over it and say oh boy, that's too much for me. You just digest it and give me some thoughts that will help me through the week. That doesn't make me approved to God. I have to be able to handle His Word properly. That doesn't mean I understand every verse and everything there. But I'm to be growing and maturing. We don't expect our kids to know everything, but we expect them to know more in sixth grade than they did in first grade. More in college than they did and so on, and so, it is as believers. We ought to be growing and maturing.

I come to the Word and look at it grammatically. That's what I was illustrating before. You have to have some sentences, you know, put together. There is order. When I look at the grammar . . . Our kids have to learn what is the subject, what is the verb, what is the object. We communicate that way even when we couldn't go back and give the rules of English. If I said to you, "I gone to the store tomorrow." You gone to the store tomorrow? You say no. You can't gone to the store tomorrow. You might go to the store tomorrow and what's wrong? "Gone" doesn't fit. Some of that we just know when we hear it. Even if we can't say I'm not very good with English Grammar. Now I don't know the English rules regarding that but when we come to the Scripture, we read it that way. That's why we'll have classes and what do we do? Looking at structure of sentences because we sometimes we have to learn English a little better to help us understand the Word of God a little better. Just like we go to other countries and what do we have to do? Sometimes helps those people to learn to read so they can read their Bibles. All of us have strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps we didn't learn to read very well and so on. Well now I have motivation. I want to do it because I want to learn the Word of God better. That's the growing process.

Historically, grammatically, just the rules of grammar. That keeps me from just pulling something out, a word out. I want to preach to you on this word. Well, wait a minute that word is in a sentence. That moves us to context. We have the literal, historical, grammatical method and we interpret in a context. That word is in a sentence. That sentence is in a paragraph. That paragraph is in our Bibles in a chapter. That chapter is in a section of a book. There's the overall book. I have to read it in its context. How does this fit in Scripture. One of the greatest abuses among Christians is taking the Bible out of context. We quote a verse, and we act as though we've proved a point. Well, that verse is in a context and the context has to be considered. Like we talked about in prophecy study. Is this addressed to Israel or is this addressed to the Church. If God is addressing it to Israel, I have to be careful about telling the Church this is directed to them. Or if it's to the Church, let's be careful saying well that's Israel. All kinds of confusion in this among believers.

Come back to the book of Chronicles, II Chronicles. Back in the first part of your Old Testament a third of the way through your Bibles. II Chronicles just to give you an example that I think most of you are familiar with. A verse that is so often quoted today. Verse 14 of II Chronicles 7, "And if my people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and heal their land.” How many times do we see this verse and hear this verse as though it's the solution for revival to the United States of America. Where there's no doubt that's what the verse said. We just read it. Now who's he talking to? What's the context? Back up and look in chapter 6 and where are we? We are with the dedication of Solomon's temple. In verse 24 Solomon prays to dedicate the temple . . . Look at verse 24, "And if your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned, they return to you, confess Your name and pray and make supplication before You in this house. Then hear you from heaven. Forgive the sin of Your people Israel. Bring them back to the land which you've given them and to their fathers." Then you come into chapter 7 and sacrifices are offered. You have the feast of dedication. Then you have God's promises and the warnings to Israel and it's in that context you read verse 14. Verse 13, "If I shut up the heaven . . ." If I do what we read Solomon knew in his prayer and the judgment that God would bring on Israel. If the people will do it, Solomon prayed that God would respond and heal them if they asked. God says yes, I'll do that. My people are called by my name. He's talking to the Jews. He's talking about His judgment when He removes them from the land. He's talking about He will hear from heaven, forgive their sin with judgment from their land. America is not the land he's talking about. Americans, even American Christians, aren't the people that he's talking about. There are no specific promises given to the United States of America. There is coming a time when God will restore the nation Israel as we've seen with judgment from their land and so on.

I have to be careful. I take a verse out of context and out of its context I give it a meaning and the people not familiar with the context say that's true, that's wonderful. The prayer of Jabez is another example. Here you have thousands of books on the prayer of Jabez being sold and it all involves taking that prayer out of context, misinterpreting and misapplying it and people think it is wonderful. It really is a twisting of Scripture. Oh, well, I think the idea is good. Who gives us the right to take God's Word, the God who has said don't add anything, don't take anything away . . . Well, is there any harm done? Isn't it good to have people pray and won't we . . . Now wait a minute, Let's get down to the issue. We're talking about interpreting what God says, not deciding I think this is a good idea and I'm going to twist what God says to support my idea. If it's something God wants done, it is in the Word. I don't have to twist a portion of Scripture to find something to make an impact on people to get them on board.

The context is crucial as I interpret normally, literally. Kids will come home, and they will say something the teacher said. You'll say I don't think you understood that right. No, that's what they said. That's what they said. Well, tell me more about what they said. What do you want them to do? Put it in context. Well, they were talking. They said my dad is ugly. Well, I don't think your teacher said your dad is ugly. Yes, he said he is ugly. What do you mean he said he's ugly? Well, if your dad was a big, hairy monster and blah, blah, blah, your dad would be ugly. Oh, well that's the context. Well, he was using an illustration or making a, you know . . . Now I understand. Everything is what? The context determines the meaning.

Now we talk about literal, normal, grammatical, in context. That doesn't mean there aren't figures of speech and all of that. Literal interpretation includes figures of speech. In fact, the only way you can understand figures of speech is with a literal interpretation. Reading one person who said literal interpretation that whole concept is shown to be ridiculous by just reading, Jesus said, “I am the door.'" You cannot interpret the Bible literally and take what Jesus said literally when He said I am the door. Well, everyone understands figures of speech. They are part of our general communication. But there is a literal truth there. The door is what? The way of access. That figure of speech conveys a literal truth. Jesus said I am the door. You say oh, that means that Jesus flies across the heavens twice a day. You say what connection is that with a door. You just can't make a figure of speech mean anything you want. To communicate the figure of speech has a literal significance in meaning that is understandable. We have figures of speech. We're not . . . All speech includes that. We still do it literally. They do it when you listen to the evening news. They will use a figure of speech. You read the newspaper, you read a book, you read the Bible . . . It's all there. So don't get confused over symbols and figures of speech and so on. They are just part of language. It's clear that's what's they are. When Jesus said, "I am the door," no one thought He's become a piece of wood on a hinge. It was a clear figure of speech, part of communicating normally.

There is an application of the Scripture. You know, we sometimes think well; you know, you study the Scripture . . . Make it more practical. What do we mean to make it more practical? The Bible is practical. I mean, God is speaking. He tells us about sin. He tells us how to deal with sin. He tells us how to live lives that are pleasing to Him. He tells us how to conduct ourselves before human government, how to conduct ourselves before those who have authority over us, how to conduct ourselves if we have authority over others. On it goes. The Bible is practical. It's applicable. Now that does not mean every portion of Scripture is directed to me. When we are studying prophetic portions and we're talking what God is going to do to Israel in the Tribulation, that is not directed to me. It is not even applicable to me in that sense because I won't be in the Tribulation and I'm not a Jew. I'm not going to be part of the Israel that returns to God at the end of the Tribulation. I have already turned to Him, and I'll be in heaven when all that goes on. So why should I care? Because it’s all part of God's revelation of Himself, of my understanding what God is doing in the world and where He has taken the world and His people and preparing me to live as I should today. The book of Revelation closes with exhortations to the Church and warnings and so on.

So just because we say that's not directed to us, the interpretation means He's not speaking to me in that, does not mean that I am not to learn from it. Our kids always go through that, don't they? I used English when I was in school. I wasn't crazy about learning English grammar. Little did I know what my future would be. I remember talking to my English teacher. I can still remember seeing him standing there. I just don't see any purpose in my learning all these rules about English grammar. I know how to talk. I don't think he was a believer, but God gave Him common grace to put up with that. We don't think it's of any importance. You know what happened? I finally got out of school after going to summer school for English for three years. I went to college and had to take Greek and you know what? I couldn't understand Greek grammar until I went back and learned English grammar. Because it's talking about participle phrases and all these things. I had to go get an English grammar and learn my English grammar so that I could learn what I had to learn. But what? As a kid. We're like that sometimes as God's children. I don't see why I have to learn that. You know, I'm just willing to believe whatever God said about the future. You know, I'm confident He'll do it right. Wait a minute. Who am I to decide what God says whether it's important or not important. Lord, I understand You've said a lot of things. I've decided that this is the part I find important. I'll pay attention to that. I guess you gave the rest of it for a reason. Doesn't matter to me but this is what I . . . I mean, who is God here? Who is sovereign? That doesn't mean I don't find certain parts of the Word more appealing, more interesting, even more helpful directly. But I have to come to appreciate that all of it is there for my edification. "All Scripture is God breathed and profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness in order that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So now all of a sudden this is important because this is to enable me to be all that God intends me to be and prepared to do all that God wants me to do. I come to the Word on that basis.

A couple of other things in handling the Scripture. You know you can be a good grammarian. You can come to the Bible with a literal, historical, grammatical approach but I want to remind you have to have the Holy Spirit to give you understanding. This is not just physical or intellectual exercise. I say not just because it is an intellectual exercise. It is physical exercise. You have to apply yourself diligently. You have to discipline yourself. You have to labor and toil to show yourself approved unto God. But it is not just intellectual and physical discipline. You must have the Spirit of God to illumine your heart and mind. I Corinthians 2, that you are well familiar with. This explains why brilliant men who write commentaries on the Word of God and yet they are of minimal help. They have not understood the passage. They may have correctly explained the grammar, they may have correctly explained the history, they may have some of the truth out of that passage because it is God's Word. But there is a failure to truly grasp the message of God's Word. That's why I read in those commentaries, and they are saying, well, Paul wrote this, but he was properly in error. Properly Paul was influenced by his rabbinical training when he wrote this. The culture of the day and they are parceling out, discarding parts of the Word of God. They don't understand it, or they don't like it.

But in I Corinthians 2 we are told in verse 9 there are "things which the eye has not seen, ear has not heard, which have not entered the heart of man, all those things God has prepared for those who love Him." Things which the world does not understand, does not know, because it's not enough to hear and to see. "For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things even the depths of God. For whom among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God that we might know the things freely given to us by God." Verse 14, "But a natural man." Literally, a soulish man, the man apart from the Spirit, the man apart from the Spirit. "Does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to him, he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised" or discerned.

Now you note here. That doesn't mean I don't encourage the unbeliever to read the Scripture. I can tell him an unbeliever. I will give him a portion of Scripture, the Gospel of John, and say read this. Just consider it as you read. Why? Because there's a possibility God will open His eyes, open His heart, the Spirit will work on him. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. So, people must hear the truth to believe the truth. We have people who have said under my ministry for multitudes of years and heard the Gospel and the Word of God not only from me but from other teachers and as far as I know and can tell as a pastor and their pastor to this day, they are unsaved. The Spirit of God has to do a work in the heart and part of that is the responsibility of the person to submit to the Spirit and the Spirit works in them.

We have something. This is a closed book. I mention William Barkley often because to me he is perhaps the greatest example because in his day he was probably the greatest New Testament Greek scholar of the day. He wrote a series of commentaries covering the whole New Testament which are still very helpful both on the Greek words and on the historical background. Having read his own autobiography, having read every one of his commentaries, to the best of my knowledge he died an unbeliever. He did not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. He believed in universalism; everyone will be saved regardless of what they believe. I say you can be a brilliant person. You can even know the original language of Scripture. You can devote your life to the study of it. That does not save you. You must believe the truth of the Word of God. As you study the Word, the Spirit of God then as the child of God gives you understanding and it's a beautiful picture.

The Spirit of God was the person of the Godhead who communicated the Word of God. Regarding the Old Testament, Peter wrote that holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. That's why there are no errors in the Bible, Old or New Testament, the Spirit of God moved on them. You read commentaries on the Gospel written by not conservative interpreters, and they are always saying well, there's conflict, there's misinformation, because these men wrote long afterwards, and they had forgotten. No. Remember what Jesus said? When I go to heaven, I'm going to send the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to you and what will he do? He will bring to your remembrance all these things which I have told you. They had supernatural recall, the work of the Spirit in them. It's the Spirit of God who directed that's why all Scripture is God breathed. It is the Word of God.

Now we have the Spirit of God to open our minds to understand what He has written here. It's just like if I write you a letter. Someone says I'm not sure. I wonder what he meant here. But if I'm there to tell you here's what I meant when I wrote that. Here's what that means. It's clear. That's what the Holy Spirit does. We read the Scripture and say it's so clear how do men not see it? Why do men not believe it? They are blind. It's just words going in here and out here. It's like me listening to a computer conversation. They are talking . . . If I go home, Marilyn says what went on. I was in a conversation today. Oh yeah, what did they talk about? Oh, gigabytes and hard drives and yeah, it was good. I don't have any idea what it was all about. But . . . Some people are sitting in church like that, and you know they've developed great tolerance. They can do it repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly and they go out and they still don't understand. My prayer as I get up to preach every time is Lord, open the eyes of those who are there. I can't. I can't open eyes. Lord, help me to be as clear as I can. Lord, make me an instrument that you speak through. But Lord, only You can reach hearts. Even as a believer I can be bored with the Word. I have to sometimes say, Lord, I need to submit to you and appreciate the truth here and allow the Spirit of God to give me an appreciation of the richness of this truth.

We have the Spirit of God and He intends us to know what He has revealed. A beautiful picture. All of that in our interpreting of the Scripture. We've been talking about prophecy. I interpret prophecy, future things, the way I interpret past things. When the Bible says Christ was crucified, I believe He was crucified. When it said He was buried, I believe He was placed in the tomb. When He was raised from the dead, I believe He was raised from the dead. That's literal interpretation. There are interpreters that say it says He was raised from the dead. It doesn't matter whether He was literally raised. We are talking about a resurrection experience in the apostles’ lives. What do you mean by a resurrection experience? Christ was either raised from the dead or He wasn't. Paul says in I Corinthians 15 he says if He wasn't raised, your faith if worthless. You're still lost. You're telling me whether He was raised physically from the dead or not is not the issue. It's whether we've had resurrection experiences. We've left literal interpretation. I interpret everything in the Scripture literally. That's the way Christ handled it. That's the way the New Testament writers handled the New Testament. Always literally. That's the way all prophecy that has been fulfilled was fulfilled. When I come to things yet to be fulfilled, I take it just that way.

You know what? Bible interpreters that don't follow a literal interpretation of future prophecy even admit; if you follow a consistent literal interpretation of Scripture, you will come to a belief in future things for Israel and a future kingdom on earth and so on. The issue comes to be - are you are going to interpret the Bible consistently? Upon what basis . . . what right do we have to interpret it all of it literally except things yet to be fulfilled. It's an irrational turn.

We follow a literal interpretation, a historical, grammatical interpretation. We put the Word of God in the context of the immediate passage, the overall context of Scripture itself and we see application to us in light of the proper interpretation. I can learn even from what God said about Israel. There may be an application for me. I see the danger of failing to be faithful to the Lord even as His child and so on. But that does not mean it was directly addressed to me. I get the proper interpretation and then I'm sure my application is consistent with the interpretation of that passage. We have a treasure, the Word of God entrusted to us. Paul says we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Let's pray together.

Thank you, Lord, for the richness of Your Word. Thank you that You are a God who has revealed Yourself. You have revealed Yourself in understandable ways. You have communicated clearly with the intention that we would understand and know to appreciate even more fully the greatness of our God, the wonder of Your love and grace, the awesomeness of Your wrath, the terribleness of judgment. Thank you for the beauty of Your salvation. Thank you for the revelation of future things. Lord, we desire that our present lives would be shaped by the fact that we are looking for the coming of our Lord. We see Your hand at work in so many ways in the world. Lord we are a people paired for Glory and that puts even our present situation, our present lives in proper context. We commit the days ahead and this week to you. Lord, use us as testimonies for yourself. Use us to bring honor to yourself. Use us to share the glorious message of a Savior who suffered and died that we might live with friends and family. Lord, may we be faithful with Your Word. We pray in Christ's name, amen.