Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Understanding-the-Nutrients-Interpreting

Transcript

Understanding-the-Nutrients-Interpreting · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

0:01
Speaker 1: Because this is God's work. It is to be done
0:03
Speaker 1: with excellence. If anyone is ever bored, we owe you
0:09
Speaker 1: an apology. The ministry has never meant, was never designed
0:15
Speaker 1: to bore anyone. Unfortunately, when people get a hold of idea,
0:21
Speaker 1: it turns into an entertainment time, or an attempt to
0:25
Speaker 1: somehow tell people what they want to hear, or in
0:29
Speaker 1: some way sort of keep them laughing until the end.
0:35
Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with laughter, you know me better than that.
0:38
Speaker 1: But there's something wrong when we get off target and
0:42
Speaker 1: we forget the purpose of this gathering is to worship,
0:46
Speaker 1: and our worship is to be done at the height
0:50
Speaker 1: of excellence. Music to be played should be practiced well
0:56
Speaker 1: and played with excellence. The sermons preached should be thought through,
1:03
Speaker 1: prepared and delivered so that they're interesting. And then the
1:08
Speaker 1: response of the congregation. You too have a responsibility to listen,
1:14
Speaker 1: to learn, to apply, to take the message that's delivered
1:21
Speaker 1: through God's word and put it into your life in
1:25
Speaker 1: a way that your life is changed. Your attitudes at home,
1:30
Speaker 1: at work, with friends, with strangers is turned from negative
1:36
Speaker 1: to positive, so that your influence is magnetic and attractive.
1:45
Speaker 1: Nothing should be more contagious today than a person living
1:50
Speaker 1: out the Christian life. I can tell you when you
1:54
Speaker 1: are contagious, you'll have no trouble telling someone about the
1:59
Speaker 1: Savior who has changed your life. We gather around the
2:05
Speaker 1: Word of God that has been revealed from heaven to earth.
2:12
Speaker 1: The doctrine of revelation is God's giving his word to
2:17
Speaker 1: people on this earth who were to write it. Inspiration
2:21
Speaker 1: is the doctrine related to the recording of his word
2:27
Speaker 1: as He would have it read to his people on
2:30
Speaker 1: this earth. And then illumination has to do with our grasping,
2:38
Speaker 1: reading it, understanding it, being enlightened and encouraged and changed
2:43
Speaker 1: by it. Revelation is over, there will be no more
2:48
Speaker 1: revealed inspired word. Inspiration is finished. God no longer is
2:55
Speaker 1: giving his inspired word, no matter what false prophets might
2:59
Speaker 1: t tell you otherwise. His word is now complete. But
3:06
Speaker 1: illumination goes on and on as you find yourself encouraged
3:13
Speaker 1: or may be convicted or strengthened or comforted. That's because
3:20
Speaker 1: of illumination, where the spirit of God takes the revealed
3:24
Speaker 1: inspired word of God, which is our treasure amazing in
3:30
Speaker 1: our own language. I have a missionary friend who sent
3:35
Speaker 1: CYNTHI in me a note just this morning that their
3:39
Speaker 1: friends are in a place where isis has reached the neighborhood,
3:45
Speaker 1: and they're going from one door to the next, beheading
3:49
Speaker 1: those who stand for their faith and stand against the
3:55
Speaker 1: teachings of the savages, going through the community, right down
4:01
Speaker 1: to the little children beheaded in front of their parents.
4:09
Speaker 1: You and I can forget what a treasure it is
4:13
Speaker 1: to have the Word of God in our language, openly taught,
4:21
Speaker 1: without fear of interference or the threat of our lives.
4:27
Speaker 1: Who knows how long the privilege will be ours. As
4:31
Speaker 1: long as it is, this place will be a place
4:36
Speaker 1: where you can count on worship that honors Christ and
4:41
Speaker 1: the teaching of scripture that illumines our minds, our hearts,
4:50
Speaker 1: and our lives. Today we're looking at the inspired Word
4:55
Speaker 1: as recorded in Psalm one nineteen. Locate verse twenty seven,
5:00
Speaker 1: and please, and then when you've done that, find Acts,
5:05
Speaker 1: chapter eight, the fifth book of the New Testament, the
5:10
Speaker 1: Book of Acts, and we'll begin reading that at verse
5:15
Speaker 1: twenty six. The first Psalm one nineteen, verse twenty seven.
5:22
Speaker 1: Out of respect for the Word of God, may we
5:25
Speaker 1: stand together for the reading of it. Psalm one, nineteen
5:32
Speaker 1: twenty seven. Help me understand the meaning of your commandments,
5:39
Speaker 1: and I will meditate on your wonderful deeds. Verse thirty two.
5:48
Speaker 1: I will pursue your commands, for you expand my understanding.
5:54
Speaker 1: Teach me your decrees, O Lord, I will keep them
5:58
Speaker 1: to the end. Give me understanding, and I will obey
6:04
Speaker 1: your instructions. I will put them into practice with all
6:10
Speaker 1: my heart, so that we might grasp what we're reading.
6:15
Speaker 1: The reading of the scripture has to do with observation.
6:21
Speaker 1: Interpreting the scripture has to do with understanding. See the words,
6:28
Speaker 1: pursue your commands. You expand my understanding, give me verse
6:34
Speaker 1: thirty four understanding and look at the application, and I
6:38
Speaker 1: will obey your instructions. I will put them into practice
6:43
Speaker 1: with all my heart. Now acts chapter eight, thank you
6:51
Speaker 1: for turning verse twenty six. As for Philip, an angel
6:57
Speaker 1: of the Lord said to him, go south down the
7:01
Speaker 1: desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he
7:06
Speaker 1: started out, and he met the Treasurer of Ethiopia, a
7:10
Speaker 1: eunuch of great authority under the Candate, the Queen of Ethiopia.
7:17
Speaker 1: The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship. He was
7:22
Speaker 1: now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud
7:29
Speaker 1: from the book of the Prophet Isaiah. The Holy Spirit
7:35
Speaker 1: said to Philip, go over and walk along beside the carriage.
7:43
Speaker 1: Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the
7:48
Speaker 1: Prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, do you understand what you were reading?
7:57
Speaker 1: The man replied, how can I unless someone instructs me,
8:04
Speaker 1: and he urged Philip to come up into the carriage
8:08
Speaker 1: and sit with him. The passage of scripture he had
8:12
Speaker 1: been reading was this. He was led like a sheep
8:16
Speaker 1: to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before
8:20
Speaker 1: the shearers, he did not open his mouth. He was
8:25
Speaker 1: humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants,
8:32
Speaker 1: for his life was taken from the earth. The eunuch
8:37
Speaker 1: asked Philip, tell me, was the prophet talking about himself
8:44
Speaker 1: or someone else? So, beginning with the same scripture, Philip
8:52
Speaker 1: told him the good news about Jesus. I want you
8:59
Speaker 1: to do so something you've not done before in our
9:02
Speaker 1: time of worship. I want you to place your Bible
9:05
Speaker 1: on your chest just like this. I want you to
9:08
Speaker 1: bow your head as we pray. Days come and go,
9:17
Speaker 1: But your word lives forever. The grass withers and the
9:23
Speaker 1: flower fades, but your word endures forever. People we know
9:31
Speaker 1: and love live and then die, but your word lives
9:37
Speaker 1: on forever. Nations will rise and fall, but your word
9:45
Speaker 1: will live forever. Times are hard and times are great,
9:50
Speaker 1: but your word endures the same forever. Thank you for
9:58
Speaker 1: truth that is timeless, ageless, and ever relevant. We're like
10:06
Speaker 1: the one who wrote, Oh how I love your word.
10:12
Speaker 1: I think of it day and night. Thank you for
10:17
Speaker 1: your word. Father, But today Lord, we acknowledge we do
10:22
Speaker 1: not worship your word. We worship you the one who
10:27
Speaker 1: revealed and inspired your word, the one who illumines your
10:34
Speaker 1: word so that we can grasp its meaning, the one
10:39
Speaker 1: who enables us to apply it. Your word gives light.
10:44
Speaker 1: Without it would walk in darkness. Your word directs our steps.
10:50
Speaker 1: Without it, we would be adrift and a wash. Your
10:55
Speaker 1: word leads us to truth. Without it, we would wallow
11:00
Speaker 1: in error. Help us in a day that has forgotten
11:04
Speaker 1: your word, to come to trust your word, to claim it,
11:13
Speaker 1: to use it, to understand it, and to live it. Now,
11:20
Speaker 1: our Father, we worship you because you have given us
11:23
Speaker 1: your son, Jesus Christ, who died to pay the complete
11:31
Speaker 1: penalty for our sins. Because we have trusted in Him,
11:37
Speaker 1: we know the joy of those sins forgiven. And because
11:41
Speaker 1: of the promise in your word, we anticipate standing before you,
11:47
Speaker 1: clothed in the righteousness which has been provided by grace
11:55
Speaker 1: through our Savior. May these gifts that we give our
11:59
Speaker 1: Father be use to disseminate your ever abiding word that
12:07
Speaker 1: others across the city, in our state, in all the
12:13
Speaker 1: states of this great country, and in countries beyond that
12:19
Speaker 1: others might hear and come to know you through Christ,
12:25
Speaker 1: and grow in a knowledge of your word. We worship
12:30
Speaker 1: you with our gifts. In the name of Christ. We
12:35
Speaker 1: express these things. Everyone said, Amen, please be seated. We're
12:44
Speaker 1: on a short but very important journey together. Our destination
12:49
Speaker 1: is not an actual sight, but it is it is this,
12:56
Speaker 1: to come to the place where we can handle the
13:00
Speaker 1: word of God responsibly and accurately. See. The Bible was
13:07
Speaker 1: never written to become a museum piece. It was not
13:12
Speaker 1: put into our language that we might have it as
13:14
Speaker 1: a large book sitting on our coffee table. The Bible
13:19
Speaker 1: was revealed so that God's people might understand his will
13:26
Speaker 1: and walk in his ways. That's it. That's its purpose. Now,
13:35
Speaker 1: it doesn't come naturally. You're not born with an innate
13:39
Speaker 1: ability to understand the truth of God, even when you
13:44
Speaker 1: become a Christian. And there is no such thing as
13:47
Speaker 1: a spiritual giant where everybody gathers to listen to this
13:52
Speaker 1: person pontificate, and to speak without error so that we
13:57
Speaker 1: understand the Bible. That's not the way it works. We
14:02
Speaker 1: in the Family of God are call the body the
14:05
Speaker 1: Body of Christ. We all have minds. Thankfully we've all
14:11
Speaker 1: been taught to read. We understand as we read that
14:17
Speaker 1: a sentence develops a thought, and sentences put together become
14:24
Speaker 1: paragraphs that convey a meaning, an idea. We're learning in
14:30
Speaker 1: the process of getting to know how to handle the
14:32
Speaker 1: Bible accurately and responsibly, that there must be disciplines that
14:39
Speaker 1: are perfected. I spend my life continuing to perfect them.
14:45
Speaker 1: And I decided sometime back, not too long ago, that
14:49
Speaker 1: I need to share these insights with all of you
14:53
Speaker 1: so you might be able to do the same. Because
14:55
Speaker 1: my basic task as an expositor of the script, as
15:00
Speaker 1: a pastor of a church is to equip the saints,
15:04
Speaker 1: to equip God's people to be able to do the
15:08
Speaker 1: work of ministry. You need the guidance to do that,
15:13
Speaker 1: and that's found in the Holy Scriptures. But to understand
15:19
Speaker 1: how to take those truths and to apply them, you
15:22
Speaker 1: must follow certain guidelines. Here we go again, Number one observation.
15:30
Speaker 1: We must determine what the Scripture says. That's done by
15:36
Speaker 1: simply reading it, rereading it, reading it aloud, reading it
15:41
Speaker 1: in various versions, reading it orally, and at the same
15:47
Speaker 1: time thoughtfully and carefully paying attention to words, phrases, even
15:55
Speaker 1: parts of speech and punctuation. Observation answers what does it say.
16:03
Speaker 1: If I pick up a novel to read it, I
16:05
Speaker 1: read it to observe first what it says. If I'm
16:11
Speaker 1: reading an article from a magazine, I read words that
16:15
Speaker 1: form sentences, paragraphs so that I might see what the
16:20
Speaker 1: writer has in mind. We observe the text of scripture
16:24
Speaker 1: in order to learn what the Bible says. That leads
16:29
Speaker 1: to the next step in the journey interpretation, which has
16:34
Speaker 1: to do with understanding what the Bible means. You can
16:40
Speaker 1: actually read the words in the verses, but not understand
16:46
Speaker 1: what you have read. Observation leads to interpretation to find
16:53
Speaker 1: out the meaning of what I've just read, whether it's
16:57
Speaker 1: a novel, magazine article, a verse of scripture, or a
17:02
Speaker 1: note from my wife or a friend, or an email message.
17:08
Speaker 1: To get a hold of the meaning of it, I
17:10
Speaker 1: must go the next step interpretation interpretation. As I am
17:19
Speaker 1: in the process of learning how to interpret, which means
17:24
Speaker 1: understanding what the Bible means, I must check other verses
17:30
Speaker 1: that are included in the same book. For example, when
17:35
Speaker 1: we look at Acts eight in a moment, we will
17:37
Speaker 1: be reminded of Isaiah fifty three, because the man who
17:42
Speaker 1: is reading from the scroll of Isaiah is reading from
17:46
Speaker 1: what we have today in our Bible, as the fifty
17:48
Speaker 1: third chapter verses seven and eight. We correlate Isaiah with
17:55
Speaker 1: Acts eight, and then he tells them. Phillip the Vents
18:00
Speaker 1: tells the Eunuch, the Ethiopian treasurer, about Christ, and he
18:06
Speaker 1: ties that in with a knowledge of salvation which is
18:09
Speaker 1: found in the Gospels. So he correlates what he tells
18:13
Speaker 1: him in interpreting the Bible what it says elsewhere. Observation
18:17
Speaker 1: what does the Bible say? Interpretation what does the Bible mean?
18:23
Speaker 1: Then there's a third stet we'll look at next time.
18:25
Speaker 1: It's correlation, which has to do with realizing what the
18:30
Speaker 1: Bible says elsewhere on the same subject. If the Lord
18:36
Speaker 1: writes this in his word in Psalm one nineteen, does
18:40
Speaker 1: he address this somewhere else? And if he does, what
18:43
Speaker 1: does he say there that he doesn't say here? And
18:47
Speaker 1: by bringing all of them together, like teeth in gears,
18:51
Speaker 1: we began to have a smooth running understanding of the
18:56
Speaker 1: full picture of whatever may be the subject. It's called correlation.
19:02
Speaker 1: No vers is isolated. No truth lives and dies by itself.
19:08
Speaker 1: Just as the diamond in your ring has a setting,
19:12
Speaker 1: So every verse of scripture has a setting, and when
19:17
Speaker 1: understood and it's setting when compared with other verses, we
19:21
Speaker 1: gain an understanding of what it means. Observation What does
19:27
Speaker 1: it say? Interpretation? What does it mean? Correlation? What does
19:32
Speaker 1: it say elsewhere? The fourth crowning part of our four
19:39
Speaker 1: disciplines is application. What does the Bible mean to me personally?
19:46
Speaker 1: How does it apply to where I work, where I
19:50
Speaker 1: go to school, the person I'm with who is difficult
19:54
Speaker 1: to get along with, my marriage, my children, my parents?
20:02
Speaker 1: What does it have to say about decisions I make?
20:06
Speaker 1: What about when I get sick? And I'm not getting well.
20:10
Speaker 1: How do I stay strong through that? The Bible tells me,
20:14
Speaker 1: It instructs me and how to be strong even though
20:17
Speaker 1: I'm going through a time of sickness. And when I
20:20
Speaker 1: apply what I have observed, interpreted, and correlated, it begins
20:26
Speaker 1: to fall together. May sound very confusing, it is really not.
20:31
Speaker 1: It's new information for many, but it isn't difficult to
20:35
Speaker 1: grasp if you will just concentrate. Just think, Just think
20:41
Speaker 1: with me. Last time we were together, we probed into observation,
20:48
Speaker 1: and today we take the next step into interpretation. What
20:52
Speaker 1: is it? Very simply, it's coming to an understanding of
20:57
Speaker 1: what the Bible means. I have interpreted the Bible for you.
21:03
Speaker 1: When I have explained to you what I believe, it's teaching.
21:08
Speaker 1: But you really don't need me. If you know the
21:11
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ, you have the equipment necessary for you
21:16
Speaker 1: to do your own digging, which I'll talk about today.
21:19
Speaker 1: And as you dig on your own and discover on
21:22
Speaker 1: your own, you will realize that interpretation is both a
21:26
Speaker 1: science and an art. It is a science because it
21:32
Speaker 1: is guided by rules that form a system. When you
21:37
Speaker 1: know the rules and follow the rules, you will be
21:41
Speaker 1: able to interpret accurately, you'll be guarded from error. You'll
21:46
Speaker 1: be like the people of Maria who went back to
21:49
Speaker 1: the scriptures to see if what those things that were
21:52
Speaker 1: said exactly what is found in the scriptures. You get discernment.
22:00
Speaker 1: I'm mature. You're not guided along by every whim of doctrine.
22:07
Speaker 1: You're not driven by your emotions as you interpret the
22:12
Speaker 1: scriptures correctly. Interpretation is not the result of what I
22:17
Speaker 1: feel the Bible is saying, or certainly it is not
22:22
Speaker 1: what I want the Bible to say. You'll spot a
22:26
Speaker 1: phony when you hear him or her as they speak
22:30
Speaker 1: or have written. You'll be able to stand on your
22:33
Speaker 1: own because you have begun to master the science of interpretation.
22:39
Speaker 1: It's also an art in that it requires skill, spirit
22:45
Speaker 1: directed skill to follow through in these rules as you
22:50
Speaker 1: interpret the Bible. How easy it is, especially for preachers
22:54
Speaker 1: and teachers to have a point they want to make,
22:58
Speaker 1: and then they search for a verse and they land
23:01
Speaker 1: often on half of the verse, and then make it
23:04
Speaker 1: say what they are trying to get across in their point,
23:08
Speaker 1: Poor poor habit. And it happens all the time. The
23:12
Speaker 1: Psalmi says, help me teach me give me understanding. You say,
23:22
Speaker 1: no one is born with a supernatural ability to interpret
23:29
Speaker 1: the scriptures on his or her own. There is no
23:34
Speaker 1: pope we turn to to get the final word on
23:38
Speaker 1: what scripture says, whether Roman, Catholic or Protestant or from
23:44
Speaker 1: some cult. We don't need a final spokesperson. We have
23:51
Speaker 1: the final authority in his word. I know I'm overdrawing
23:55
Speaker 1: the point, but there's so little said of this today.
24:00
Speaker 1: We're all impressed with personalities and with gifted teachers, and
24:06
Speaker 1: there are many of them. I learned from a number
24:09
Speaker 1: of them, and I'm grateful for everyone. But not one
24:12
Speaker 1: was infallible. Not one of my teachers spoke without error.
24:18
Speaker 1: In fact, I found during my seminary years that even
24:21
Speaker 1: while I was there, one professor had this particular position
24:26
Speaker 1: on an interpretation and another had that one. Now that
24:31
Speaker 1: sounds scandalous to say it unless you're involved in it.
24:34
Speaker 1: You realize, of course that's going to happen. There will
24:38
Speaker 1: be differing opinions. But understand, and this may throw you,
24:43
Speaker 1: but it's true. There is one correct interpretation from any text.
24:52
Speaker 1: The goal of interpretation is to understand the meaning the
24:57
Speaker 1: writer had in mind. When the Lord led him to
25:01
Speaker 1: record what he wrote. Don't miss that. It's to determine
25:06
Speaker 1: the meaning the original writer had in mind when the
25:12
Speaker 1: spirit of God led him to write what he wrote. Now,
25:17
Speaker 1: what is it not? This is as important as what
25:19
Speaker 1: it is. It is not my subjective thought that I
25:25
Speaker 1: read into the Bible. I may have been taught something
25:28
Speaker 1: all my life that is incorrect, and I find myself
25:32
Speaker 1: looking for proof of that in the Bible. That's not interpretation.
25:37
Speaker 1: That's trying to prove something someone told me. Interpretation is
25:42
Speaker 1: drawing out from the text what it says and what
25:47
Speaker 1: it means. It is not what I've been told by
25:50
Speaker 1: others necessarily, it's what I'm learning from the text itself.
25:55
Speaker 1: It's not the way I feel. I may feel like
25:59
Speaker 1: certain things, and therefore that's what the Bible means. The
26:02
Speaker 1: Bible does not depend on my feelings. Some days I
26:06
Speaker 1: do not feel good at all, and I'm involved in
26:09
Speaker 1: the study of the scriptures. It may affect my ability
26:12
Speaker 1: to concentrate because I'm not feeling well or feeling right.
26:16
Speaker 1: But the scriptures speak for themselves. It's not wanting it
26:20
Speaker 1: to say what I have in mind. It's learning what
26:24
Speaker 1: it says and how it applies to me. Let me
26:27
Speaker 1: show you how dependent we are. Look at Ps One
26:30
Speaker 1: nineteen earlier, we were in verse twenty seven, so let's
26:34
Speaker 1: go back there. Pal One nineteen twenty seven. The first
26:39
Speaker 1: two words and the new Living translation. And I use
26:42
Speaker 1: it because it's easily understood, since many who hear do
26:46
Speaker 1: not have a Bible before them, so hear what the
26:49
Speaker 1: Bible says. First two words in this version are help me,
26:55
Speaker 1: in fact, help me understand. Those are words of dependence.
27:00
Speaker 1: It's a prayer. I don't know how many times in
27:04
Speaker 1: my Christian life I've said to the Lord in prayer,
27:07
Speaker 1: help me help me with this, help me get through
27:12
Speaker 1: this difficult assignment that's before me. Help me as I
27:16
Speaker 1: handle this problem, Help me as I get into an
27:19
Speaker 1: area I'm not familiar with. Help me as I lead
27:23
Speaker 1: this flock, Help me as I work with our staff.
27:27
Speaker 1: This is a prayer of dependence. In this case, help
27:30
Speaker 1: me understand the meaning of your commandments. So obviously, to
27:36
Speaker 1: be one who interprets the Bible well, we pray for understanding.
27:41
Speaker 1: Look at the first words of verse thirty three. Teach me.
27:48
Speaker 1: Teach me your decrees and I will keep them. Look
27:51
Speaker 1: at verse thirty four, give me, give me understanding, and
27:56
Speaker 1: I'll obey your instructions. Look at that verse twenty seven
28:01
Speaker 1: began with help me, verse thirty three, teach me, verse
28:08
Speaker 1: thirty four, give me. The whole point is I'm dependent
28:16
Speaker 1: on you to direct me into an understanding of what
28:22
Speaker 1: you have written. One after another, we have these requests
28:26
Speaker 1: that the writer, the Psalmist is asking of God. It
28:31
Speaker 1: would be interesting to read through this one Psalm and
28:34
Speaker 1: find how many requests he asks of God. It'd be
28:38
Speaker 1: a great study. You would observe what the Psalm is
28:42
Speaker 1: teaching regarding prayer, and then when you dig into each one,
28:47
Speaker 1: you would begin to discern the meaning of what that
28:52
Speaker 1: prayer is all about. You know, this breaks with the
28:54
Speaker 1: age old tradition of having a Bible sitting on a
28:58
Speaker 1: coffee table just for the purpose of having a Bible
29:02
Speaker 1: in our home. There's nothing wrong with that, But a
29:06
Speaker 1: coffee table Bible is not a Bible you're spending time in.
29:10
Speaker 1: Most likely it lies there, it rests there on the table,
29:16
Speaker 1: but you've never really made a study of it. God
29:20
Speaker 1: never gave us his word to put on display to
29:24
Speaker 1: impress a neighbor or a family member. He gave us
29:29
Speaker 1: his word that we might read it, interpret it correctly,
29:36
Speaker 1: see what he says here and elsewhere, and then apply it.
29:41
Speaker 1: You know what, Those who do that grow up spiritually,
29:48
Speaker 1: and there's no shortcut. There's no such thing as a
29:52
Speaker 1: spiritual giant. There's no human fountain of truth that you
29:58
Speaker 1: come to listen to so that you might learn from
30:02
Speaker 1: him or her the truths of Scripture. Every human being
30:07
Speaker 1: is fallible, every one of us. We can all make mistakes,
30:13
Speaker 1: but God's word is infallible, in errant. Now with that
30:20
Speaker 1: in mind, move ahead into the New Testament, to the
30:24
Speaker 1: Book of Acts. Let's pick up a story that appears
30:30
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the chapter regarding two people
30:35
Speaker 1: who could not be more different. One is an evangelist
30:41
Speaker 1: named Philip. Another is an Ethiopian. We never have his
30:45
Speaker 1: name given us. He's a treasurer of Ethiopia and he
30:50
Speaker 1: has come to Jerusalem to worship. Interesting how their lives
30:55
Speaker 1: are intertwined. In God's providence, he brings them together. Look
31:01
Speaker 1: at the story an angel of the Lord set to him.
31:05
Speaker 1: Now wait right there, I've got to pause and say,
31:08
Speaker 1: don't wait for an angel to say something to you.
31:12
Speaker 1: The reason it happened, then, is because the Bible wasn't complete.
31:16
Speaker 1: Understand this, many people are waiting for a voice, or
31:22
Speaker 1: looking to the clouds to read the message, or listening
31:26
Speaker 1: late at night to the whisper of God. It isn't
31:32
Speaker 1: going to come that way. He shots at us. From
31:36
Speaker 1: his word. He says, if he whispers anything, read my word.
31:42
Speaker 1: It's all there. But back in Philip's day, the Bible
31:45
Speaker 1: wasn't complete, and people were led directly by the working
31:50
Speaker 1: of angelic beings, sometime in visions, sometime in dreams. In
31:56
Speaker 1: this case, an angel says to Philip, go to a
31:59
Speaker 1: day desert place called Gaysum. What you don't know, perhaps
32:05
Speaker 1: unless you know your Bible is Philip has been up
32:08
Speaker 1: in some area having a grand time, sort of the
32:11
Speaker 1: Billy Graham of the first century. He's an evangelist preaching
32:15
Speaker 1: and it's been a marvelous result, and people are coming
32:18
Speaker 1: to Christ and there's rejoicing all around because there's a
32:22
Speaker 1: peace and place of chaos, and there's forgiveness in place
32:26
Speaker 1: of guilt, and the message of the Gospel has gone
32:29
Speaker 1: forth and Philip is having the greatest time. There's nothing
32:32
Speaker 1: more thrilling than being engaged in that kind of a
32:35
Speaker 1: revival atmosphere where the Lord is reaching the souls of
32:40
Speaker 1: the loss and they're coming to Christ. We've all been
32:44
Speaker 1: in cities where there's been a Graham crusade, and the
32:48
Speaker 1: result is remarkable, as the spirit of that sweeps over
32:52
Speaker 1: that great city. Now back to Acts eight, now that
32:56
Speaker 1: we know where we are, the Lord tells him to
32:58
Speaker 1: leave that place where there's been such fulfillment and joy,
33:03
Speaker 1: and to go down to that desert town of Gaza.
33:08
Speaker 1: I'm impressed that there's no fight, there's no resistance. He
33:12
Speaker 1: doesn't have to persuade Philip and beg him to leave
33:16
Speaker 1: the place of blessing and favor and all the joy
33:21
Speaker 1: we read. Philip went, look at what it says, go
33:25
Speaker 1: south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza. Okay,
33:33
Speaker 1: you don't know where Gaza is. You look at me
33:35
Speaker 1: like you do, but I know you don't. I didn't either,
33:39
Speaker 1: So guess what. Oh, I couldn't wait. I got to
33:41
Speaker 1: turn back to the maps. So go back in the
33:44
Speaker 1: back of your Bible. I really mean this, Go right
33:47
Speaker 1: on back there. These aren't filler pages that the publisher's
33:52
Speaker 1: stuck in a Bible to make it thick. These are
33:54
Speaker 1: really maps that you need. I'm finding the map of
33:57
Speaker 1: the Ministry of Jesus. That's where I find Gaza. Took
34:00
Speaker 1: me a little looking because Gaza doesn't appear on all
34:04
Speaker 1: the maps. And that's another subject. But if you're on
34:07
Speaker 1: a map where there isn't two bodies of water, you're
34:09
Speaker 1: on the wrong map. There's a small body called the
34:12
Speaker 1: Sea of Galilee in the north, the Dead Sea in
34:15
Speaker 1: the south. Trace the little river called the Jordan River
34:19
Speaker 1: down to the Dead Sea. Look at the top of
34:21
Speaker 1: the Dead Sea and go west left. For you who
34:27
Speaker 1: are geographically challenged, go to your left and you will
34:31
Speaker 1: see Jerusalem. Got it. Some of you haven't even looked
34:35
Speaker 1: in your Bible. Look at the map. Look at it.
34:41
Speaker 1: There's Jerusalem. Now where's Geza? Southwest? Uh for God. Go
34:49
Speaker 1: down to the bottom and turn left. There it is
34:53
Speaker 1: right there by the Mediterranean. See Gaza. That's a hale
34:58
Speaker 1: from Jerusalem. In fact, he's up in Samaria. You can
35:02
Speaker 1: go up there and see where he was to start with.
35:05
Speaker 1: He's gonna go from Jerusalem down to Gaza. It's a
35:09
Speaker 1: long trick. That's a lonely desert area. You don't see
35:13
Speaker 1: many towns or cities between Jerusalem and Gayza, do you.
35:19
Speaker 1: The reason is this is the Judean wilderness. And if
35:23
Speaker 1: you ever go to Israel, you'll visit the wilderness and
35:26
Speaker 1: you will not believe how barren not a blade of grass,
35:30
Speaker 1: not a bush, not a shrub in the in the
35:34
Speaker 1: heart of the of the Judeon wilderness. He goes down
35:39
Speaker 1: to Gaza. Now why do you go there? Well, go
35:41
Speaker 1: back to Acts eight. Look at how the Lord works.
35:46
Speaker 1: He started out and when he did, he met the
35:48
Speaker 1: treasure of Ethiopia a eunuch. Now isn't that amazing? You see,
35:52
Speaker 1: when you serve a God who is over all the universe,
35:56
Speaker 1: no one is a stranger to him. So he's got
35:59
Speaker 1: a he's got an Ethiopian unit coming back from Jerusalem.
36:02
Speaker 1: On his way back to Ethiopian, I have to go
36:04
Speaker 1: through Gaza, So that's where he is. God knew exactly
36:07
Speaker 1: where he was at the time. Don't ever think that
36:10
Speaker 1: you're lost from the Lord's eyes. Can a woman forget
36:14
Speaker 1: her sucking child that she should not have compassion on
36:16
Speaker 1: the sun of her womb? Asked Isaiah. Yes, the mother
36:19
Speaker 1: may forget, but I will never forget you. I have
36:22
Speaker 1: inscribed you on the palms of my hands. Your walls
36:25
Speaker 1: are continually before me. You are as clear to the
36:30
Speaker 1: Lord and in your location as the lines of your
36:33
Speaker 1: hand in your palm. Right now, he knows exactly where
36:37
Speaker 1: you are. He knew where the Ethiopian was. He knew
36:40
Speaker 1: that that Ethiopian needed to talk to Philip, and he
36:42
Speaker 1: knew Philip had the information he needed, so he sent
36:45
Speaker 1: Philip to be with him. Now look at what happens.
36:50
Speaker 1: The youth opens riding along and is reading from the
36:53
Speaker 1: scroll of Isaiah. He had been to Jerusalem to worship.
36:58
Speaker 1: Look at the next line, verse twenty nine. The Holy
37:02
Speaker 1: Spirit said to Philip, Oh, wait a minute. Don't wait
37:06
Speaker 1: for the Holy Spirit to talk out loud to you.
37:10
Speaker 1: If you hear in the middle of night, it could
37:11
Speaker 1: have been a bad taco for supper, could be gas.
37:18
Speaker 1: You don't know what it is, but it isn't the
37:19
Speaker 1: voice of the Holy Spirit. Don't wait on that kind
37:22
Speaker 1: of supernatural event. Because the God who gave us his
37:26
Speaker 1: word expects you to go to his word. He will
37:30
Speaker 1: speak to you through the Spirit's help, through the word
37:33
Speaker 1: of God. So this gets away from all of the
37:35
Speaker 1: visions and dreams and voices in the middle of the
37:38
Speaker 1: night or the middle of the day. Don't trust that
37:41
Speaker 1: it'll invariably lead you into error. The word of God
37:47
Speaker 1: never will if it's handled accurately and responsibly. So in
37:52
Speaker 1: this case, because there wasn't a Bible, the Holy Spirit
37:55
Speaker 1: said to Philip, go over there and walk alongside the
37:58
Speaker 1: chariot or the carriage. So Philip obeyed. He not only went,
38:03
Speaker 1: he ran over there. He heard the man reading from
38:06
Speaker 1: the prophet Isaiah, and Philip asked, do you understand what
38:12
Speaker 1: you're reading? You're reading words, but do you understand what
38:18
Speaker 1: you're reading? Look at the man's response, It is wonderfully vulnerable.
38:24
Speaker 1: How can I? How can I unless someone instructs me?
38:30
Speaker 1: What does he want? He wants an interpreter. I'm reading
38:36
Speaker 1: the words, but I don't know what they mean. And
38:40
Speaker 1: he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and
38:44
Speaker 1: sit with it and then correct. It's like being on
38:47
Speaker 1: an airplane and you're at this window seat and somebody
38:50
Speaker 1: over there is at that window seat, and there's nobody
38:52
Speaker 1: in between you. That happened in nineteen ninety seven. Last
38:57
Speaker 1: time I checked, there's nobody in between the window. He's
39:00
Speaker 1: on the window and he's reading from his New Testament.
39:03
Speaker 1: He goes past. Yeah, Hey, I'm reading God so loved
39:09
Speaker 1: the world and he gave his own You know what
39:12
Speaker 1: that means? Uh? Yeah, I know. Come over and help me.
39:16
Speaker 1: So you slide over six seats and you sit down
39:19
Speaker 1: by him, and you have the chance to tell him.
39:21
Speaker 1: That has never happened in my entire life, but it
39:26
Speaker 1: does with Philip. Can you get up here and help
39:29
Speaker 1: me out? So Philip climbs up in the carriage and
39:33
Speaker 1: notices the passage he's reading. He was led like a
39:40
Speaker 1: sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent
39:43
Speaker 1: before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. He
39:45
Speaker 1: was humiliated to receive no justice. Who can speak of
39:49
Speaker 1: his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth?
39:51
Speaker 1: What in the world? Who's he? Who's him? He's probably
39:57
Speaker 1: never read that before. When he was in Juri, recently
40:00
Speaker 1: got the scroll of Isaiah. On the way back, he's
40:03
Speaker 1: unrolled the scroll and he's come to Isaiah. What we
40:06
Speaker 1: know today is fifty three, seven and eight. If you
40:08
Speaker 1: go back to those verses, you'll see those verses appear,
40:11
Speaker 1: And that's a correlation. We'll get to that next time.
40:16
Speaker 1: And so the eunuch asked Philip, tell me, tell me
40:21
Speaker 1: was the prophet talking about himself or someone else? Isn't
40:26
Speaker 1: that a great question? Of course he needs to know that.
40:31
Speaker 1: Is Isaiah saying this that he's going to be like
40:34
Speaker 1: a sheep led to slaughter? Is he talking of himself
40:38
Speaker 1: and the third person? Or does he haf somebody else
40:41
Speaker 1: in mind? And Philip, who knows the answer, must have thought, oh, Lord,
40:49
Speaker 1: you are too good. There. I was up in Samaria,
40:54
Speaker 1: not even knowing about what's going on in Gaza, and
40:57
Speaker 1: you led me right down here to carriage to sit
41:01
Speaker 1: alongside this man. And I have the privilege of telling
41:05
Speaker 1: him about the lamb that would be slaughtered, and knowing
41:09
Speaker 1: that it has a reference to the Messiah who would
41:13
Speaker 1: suffer and die. Philip could explain that to the eunuch.
41:18
Speaker 1: In fact, he does and later baptizes him, and the
41:23
Speaker 1: eunuch has gone full circle. When he started reading, he
41:29
Speaker 1: didn't know the Lord from a lizard. But when he
41:32
Speaker 1: finishes reading, the Lord is now his savior. You know how,
41:38
Speaker 1: because somebody interpreted for him. You have no idea how
41:45
Speaker 1: many have never heard the story of Jesus. How many
41:51
Speaker 1: have no concept of the meaning of the cross except
41:55
Speaker 1: it's maybe a Christian symbol, or it's something that is
42:00
Speaker 1: outside of church or hangs inside a church. And why
42:04
Speaker 1: do we do that? Because the cross is central to
42:07
Speaker 1: the message of salvation. If you've never known God personally,
42:14
Speaker 1: the reason is you've never come to the Cross. You've
42:17
Speaker 1: never come to Christ and trusted him as your own savior.
42:23
Speaker 1: Now back to the subject. Let's say I'm sitting in
42:27
Speaker 1: a Spanish church and the speaker is speaking Spanish, and
42:32
Speaker 1: I've gone there with a friend of mine who's bilingual.
42:36
Speaker 1: He knows both that language and my language. He knows
42:40
Speaker 1: Spanish and English. I only know English. And the speaker
42:44
Speaker 1: is saying something and people are laughing or responding, and
42:47
Speaker 1: then he says something else and ooh, they get in
42:50
Speaker 1: the message and I'm sitting there blank look and he
42:53
Speaker 1: leans over and he says, do you understand what you're hearing?
42:56
Speaker 1: And I say no, I can't understand. What I need
43:00
Speaker 1: is a there you go. I need an interpreter to
43:05
Speaker 1: do what to explain what's being said. Interpretation is understanding
43:12
Speaker 1: what has been written. Now then, so far, so good.
43:19
Speaker 1: Sounds pretty simple until you get to digging into it.
43:24
Speaker 1: See the value of good interpretation in observation. Think of
43:30
Speaker 1: it like this. We excavate in interpretation, we erect an observation.
43:38
Speaker 1: We're digging through to find these words, these phrases, these
43:44
Speaker 1: sentences and what they say. But when we begin to interpret,
43:50
Speaker 1: we are building a structure of understanding so that we
43:56
Speaker 1: understand the one to whom he and we understand about
44:02
Speaker 1: a sheep that is silent before his shearers. So the
44:07
Speaker 1: Savior was silent before those who were taking his life.
44:13
Speaker 1: We understand that, and we realize what he's writing about. Now,
44:21
Speaker 1: in understanding all of this, we have to realize there
44:24
Speaker 1: are some barriers. There's a language barrier. You and I know,
44:30
Speaker 1: but many people don't know that. The Old Testament was
44:33
Speaker 1: originally written in Hebrew, mainly, but also some in Aramaic,
44:39
Speaker 1: a sister language. The characters look very very similar, meanings
44:46
Speaker 1: are a little different, and the language is a little different.
44:49
Speaker 1: But Hebrew and arame When you get to the New Testament,
44:52
Speaker 1: the writers originally wrote in common, ordinary everyday Greek. You
45:00
Speaker 1: read all the way through first of Matthew to the
45:03
Speaker 1: end of Revelation. If you could read it in the original,
45:06
Speaker 1: you'd be reading Greek. So we have a language barrier
45:11
Speaker 1: because the vast majority of people I'm around don't know
45:16
Speaker 1: either Hebrew or Greek. You don't that's not meant to
45:22
Speaker 1: be criticism, You've just never studied it. So my responsibility
45:28
Speaker 1: in interpreting scripture and yours when you interpret, is to
45:32
Speaker 1: get as close as you can to the original meaning,
45:36
Speaker 1: because you want to know what that writer had in mind.
45:41
Speaker 1: The closer you get and the more careful you are
45:44
Speaker 1: to read what has been written, the better equipped you
45:48
Speaker 1: are to get into the meaning. But you've got that
45:51
Speaker 1: language barrier. You've got to realize. If I were in
45:54
Speaker 1: the New Testament, as in this case, it would be
45:57
Speaker 1: in Greek. Don't speak Greek. You don't understand it when
46:02
Speaker 1: you see it written or when you hear it. You've
46:05
Speaker 1: not studied it. So you need a version of the
46:08
Speaker 1: Bible that is as close to Greek as you can get.
46:11
Speaker 1: That's your New American standard version. Okay, you begin to
46:16
Speaker 1: read it, you're getting as close as you can. I've
46:19
Speaker 1: studied those languages. I am not a scholar in them,
46:22
Speaker 1: though I keep them up. I work in the original
46:26
Speaker 1: text but I'm not trying to get anybody. I need
46:29
Speaker 1: all the help I can get, just like you do,
46:32
Speaker 1: and understanding the meaning of what this is saying. So
46:34
Speaker 1: we have a language barrier, we also have a cultural barrier.
46:42
Speaker 1: Think about it. People didn't marry in the first century
46:46
Speaker 1: like they do in the twenty first. Children weren't reared
46:50
Speaker 1: in the first century like they are on the twenty first.
46:56
Speaker 1: Work and its responsibilities were different in those days than
46:59
Speaker 1: it is today. All different kinds of cultural things have happened.
47:05
Speaker 1: So to correctly interpret you've got to take in mind
47:09
Speaker 1: those cultural differences. Let me read you the words of
47:13
Speaker 1: one scholar, Bernard ram writes, people of the same culture,
47:21
Speaker 1: same age, and same geographical location understand each other. But
47:28
Speaker 1: when the interpreter is separated culturally, historically, and geographically from
47:37
Speaker 1: the writer, the task of interpretation is no longer easy.
47:45
Speaker 1: The greater the divergences are, the more difficult the task
47:51
Speaker 1: of interpretation. The most obvious divergence is that of language,
47:58
Speaker 1: and I've explained that there is also the culture gap
48:03
Speaker 1: between our times and biblical times, which the interpreter must bridge.
48:11
Speaker 1: A knowledge of marriage customs, for example, economic practices in
48:17
Speaker 1: Paul's Day spoke of a woman wearing a hat to
48:20
Speaker 1: church and she's not to come to worship without a
48:23
Speaker 1: hat on. You read that and you think I need
48:27
Speaker 1: to go out and buy a bunch of hats because
48:29
Speaker 1: I got to wear them to church. And I shouldn't
48:31
Speaker 1: cut my hair because it talks about that. Those are
48:34
Speaker 1: all cultural issues you have to deal with. When you
48:37
Speaker 1: interpret the scriptures. You can see where people have been
48:40
Speaker 1: led astray and become legalistic about things because they didn't
48:45
Speaker 1: do a careful piece of work in their interpretation. If
48:50
Speaker 1: I may finish this quote, agricultural methods are different legal
48:54
Speaker 1: systems or different military systems are different. They're all very
48:58
Speaker 1: helpful in p of the scriptures. And then there's geography.
49:04
Speaker 1: The understanding of most passages of the scripture is dependent
49:08
Speaker 1: on some understanding of history. I love this next line.
49:12
Speaker 1: If geography is the scenery of scripture, history is the
49:16
Speaker 1: plot of scripture. Now right about now you're thinking, well,
49:23
Speaker 1: we're getting serious here. I mean, my idea of carrying
49:27
Speaker 1: around a little Testament my pocket every once in a
49:29
Speaker 1: while looking through a few verses is not going to
49:32
Speaker 1: really get a lot done. If I'm going to get
49:36
Speaker 1: stable and mature in my walk. I need a Bible
49:44
Speaker 1: that can get me as close as possible to the
49:46
Speaker 1: original language from which I need to study. The New
49:51
Speaker 1: American Standard Bible, that translation, that version is the closest.
49:57
Speaker 1: Scholars to this day agree the New American Standard Version
50:02
Speaker 1: of the Scriptures is a great study Bible. Every week
50:06
Speaker 1: of my life I'm using that English version of the Bible.
50:11
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily preach from it because many who listen,
50:16
Speaker 1: many of you don't even have a Bible with you,
50:19
Speaker 1: so this is more easily understood in the reading. But
50:22
Speaker 1: if I were studying it, I use that version because
50:26
Speaker 1: it really gets as close as you can get as
50:29
Speaker 1: an English reader to the original languages. Now I've been
50:36
Speaker 1: blessed having studied a little a bit of Hebrew and
50:39
Speaker 1: Greek to know enough to know where the resources are,
50:42
Speaker 1: and I'm able to go there. I'm by no means
50:45
Speaker 1: a scholar in any of those languages, but I'm a
50:48
Speaker 1: student of them, and I love those languages. And I
50:53
Speaker 1: encourage fellow pastors to stay up in the vocabulary and
50:58
Speaker 1: the syntax of the languge, which is why it helps
51:01
Speaker 1: you interpret the Scriptures better. Our goal is an accurate interpretation,
51:08
Speaker 1: so you need to become a pretty good student of
51:11
Speaker 1: all of that. Now I can hear some of you
51:15
Speaker 1: say that's enough for me, I'll just listen to Chuck. Well,
51:20
Speaker 1: that's a wrong response. So let me tell you a
51:24
Speaker 1: little secret it maybe no one's ever told you before.
51:28
Speaker 1: On the Internet, there is available some very helpful tools
51:33
Speaker 1: for interpreting the Bible. And most of you are computer literate,
51:38
Speaker 1: and you are often in the Internet. So let me
51:41
Speaker 1: give you a couple or three websites to turn to,
51:45
Speaker 1: and from that you can pull up whichever one of
51:47
Speaker 1: the systems you'd like to purchase or get a hold of.
51:51
Speaker 1: The first, in my opinion, the best is the Lagos
51:55
Speaker 1: Bible Software Logos log Bible Software. You find it on
52:03
Speaker 1: logos dot com. That's simple. It's really the best digital resource.
52:11
Speaker 1: But it's best to think of it not so much
52:13
Speaker 1: as software, but as libraries. It's a library of a
52:17
Speaker 1: number of research books, really several libraries. Beginning with a
52:22
Speaker 1: starter set only for three hundred dollars, you get two
52:26
Speaker 1: hundred books, which would include commentaries, dictionaries, bibles, atlases, all
52:32
Speaker 1: of that for under three hundred bucks. Logos dot com
52:36
Speaker 1: there's another one called olive Tree, and if you want
52:40
Speaker 1: to go a little less money, and much of this
52:43
Speaker 1: is free, but it's less robust in its as an alternative.
52:49
Speaker 1: Olivetree dot com is very affordable. You start for free
52:54
Speaker 1: with a few books, and then you began to purchase
52:58
Speaker 1: versions and books that you can afford. And there's one
53:02
Speaker 1: that's all together free, and that's Bible Study Tools dot com.
53:08
Speaker 1: Any one of those logouts dot com, olive Tree dot com,
53:12
Speaker 1: Bible Study Tools dot com. If I were preaching in
53:16
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, the congregation would be staring at me
53:19
Speaker 1: right now, wondering what in the world is that guy
53:22
Speaker 1: talking about? Dot com dot com dot com. These are
53:26
Speaker 1: all available to you. You get serious about biblical interpretation,
53:31
Speaker 1: you don't have to go to seminary, but you do
53:34
Speaker 1: need help, and the resources I've just made available to
53:38
Speaker 1: you through that information will help you. Now, I don't
53:42
Speaker 1: want to overwhelm you, I honestly don't, but I want
53:45
Speaker 1: to make you aware of the value of interpretation. If
53:52
Speaker 1: you will, I want to sell you on it. I
53:54
Speaker 1: want to convince you of it. So there are some
53:57
Speaker 1: crucial questions we need to answer. Here we go. Here
54:03
Speaker 1: are a few of them. Always ask the question, what
54:08
Speaker 1: is the setting? What's the context? Acts eight falls into
54:14
Speaker 1: a context, and if you don't know what precedes verse
54:17
Speaker 1: twenty seven where we started, you won't have the full story.
54:23
Speaker 1: Since verse twenty seven begins with soul, you know it's
54:26
Speaker 1: a continuation of the stories. You need to go back
54:30
Speaker 1: check what was written before and what is written afterwards.
54:34
Speaker 1: Always integrate the section you're reading with its context. Without that,
54:41
Speaker 1: you will be a wash and it won't be long
54:44
Speaker 1: before you'll move into error. Trust me, context will hold
54:50
Speaker 1: you true. Always ask that integrate with the context. Second question,
54:56
Speaker 1: what type of literature am I reading? You mean the
55:01
Speaker 1: Bible isn't all the same kind of literature? It isn't
55:05
Speaker 1: There is narrative literature, where the scripture tells a story
55:10
Speaker 1: and you read of people events, You read of a plot.
55:14
Speaker 1: Often a climax is reached. You're reading a narrative, so
55:18
Speaker 1: you must interpret it with a narrative in mind, as
55:21
Speaker 1: we have done with the story of the Evangelist and
55:26
Speaker 1: the treasurer. Then there are parables. That's another interesting style.
55:33
Speaker 1: Turn from here to mark chapter four. Okay, do it
55:38
Speaker 1: quick now, because this ungodly clock is moving along, and
55:43
Speaker 1: I gotta get this done before there's mutiny in the rank.
55:47
Speaker 1: So look at Mark chapter four, and you'll read an
55:52
Speaker 1: early parable that appears early in this gospel. And every
56:00
Speaker 1: page is stuck together, so I can't get there quickly.
56:05
Speaker 1: So Jesus begin to teach him by the seashore. A
56:09
Speaker 1: very large crowd gathered around him, so he got into
56:12
Speaker 1: a boat. Then he sat in the boat while all
56:14
Speaker 1: the people remained on the shore. He taught them. Notice
56:18
Speaker 1: by telling them many stories in the form of parable.
56:25
Speaker 1: It's good for you. Parabole It means to cast something
56:29
Speaker 1: alongside something else. So a parable is told for something
56:34
Speaker 1: is analogous to something else. This represents that these things
56:41
Speaker 1: represent those things. When you're working through a parable, in
56:47
Speaker 1: this case, you will read of four different kinds of soil,
56:51
Speaker 1: and you wonder what does all this mean? And you
56:57
Speaker 1: may be at a loss. In this case, the end
57:00
Speaker 1: not in the back of the book. It's at the
57:02
Speaker 1: end of Jesus teaching. How good is that I wish
57:06
Speaker 1: all of the parables and did like this one? And
57:09
Speaker 1: he tells them look at this down in verse fourteen,
57:14
Speaker 1: the farmer plants seed by taking God's word. That's what
57:18
Speaker 1: the seed represents. He takes it to others. The seed
57:21
Speaker 1: that fell on the footpath represents this. The seed that
57:26
Speaker 1: fell on rocky soil represents that look at it. And
57:33
Speaker 1: since they don't have deep roots, et cetera, et cetera.
57:35
Speaker 1: And the seed that fell among the thorns verse eighteen
57:39
Speaker 1: represents this other kind of individual. And fourth, the seed
57:44
Speaker 1: that produced one hundredfold represents those things. Just a little warning.
57:51
Speaker 1: I picked this up years ago and you need to
57:53
Speaker 1: remember it. Write it down your notes. Don't try to
57:57
Speaker 1: make a parable. Walk on all fours, okay, guard against
58:02
Speaker 1: every little bang. Must stand for this, or you'll spend
58:08
Speaker 1: half a time and you'll missuffer trying to figure out
58:12
Speaker 1: what in the world is that about. Do as best
58:15
Speaker 1: you can as you walk through. Let me give you
58:17
Speaker 1: a little saying I learned years ago. If the normal
58:20
Speaker 1: sense makes good sense, seek no other sense. Say what
58:25
Speaker 1: Here we go again. If the normal sense makes good sense,
58:31
Speaker 1: seek no other sense. You read it, makes sense, you
58:37
Speaker 1: understand it. Prodigal Son that's a parable. Good Samaritan, that's
58:41
Speaker 1: a parable. The rich fool that's another parable. The sore
58:45
Speaker 1: and the seed. All of these are great, but they're parables.
58:48
Speaker 1: Remember that when you get the parable material, you're in
58:52
Speaker 1: another genre. Then there is poetry. Back to our languages
58:58
Speaker 1: or the literary style, there's poetry. When you read the Psalms,
59:02
Speaker 1: you're reading poetry. So there will be lines that follow
59:06
Speaker 1: lines that are much like the first line. Poetry has parallelism.
59:12
Speaker 1: The Lord is my Light and my salvation. Whom shall
59:15
Speaker 1: I fear? Psalm twenty seven begins. Next line, the Lord
59:19
Speaker 1: is the strength of my life, of whom shall I
59:21
Speaker 1: be afraid? Sounds similar. It's because it's parallelism. The second
59:26
Speaker 1: line isn't different from the first. It's amplifying the first.
59:30
Speaker 1: You're reading poetry, so have a heart. There's emotion here.
59:37
Speaker 1: It includes color and beauty. As you interpret poetry, leave
59:42
Speaker 1: room for that. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
59:45
Speaker 1: not want listen to the parallelism. He makes me lie
59:48
Speaker 1: down by green pastures, He leaves me beside still waters.
59:52
Speaker 1: He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths
59:56
Speaker 1: of righteousness for his namesake. All of these are parallel thoughts.
1:00:00
Speaker 1: It's giving you various ways of knowing that you will
1:00:03
Speaker 1: have nothing that you need as long as you keep
1:00:06
Speaker 1: the Lord as your shepherd. There's another it's called proverbial.
1:00:10
Speaker 1: Are the proverbs you're reading proverbs. You've got contrasting proverbs
1:00:16
Speaker 1: and comparing proverbs separated by the word but or in
1:00:20
Speaker 1: the case of comparison and or as and so you've
1:00:24
Speaker 1: got to remember this may be the opposite from that.
1:00:27
Speaker 1: Pay attention to those words as. When you get to
1:00:30
Speaker 1: prophetic literature, you have to determine has this been fulfilled?
1:00:34
Speaker 1: Will it be yet future? Was it future to that day?
1:00:38
Speaker 1: But it's already happened in their day. You determine all
1:00:41
Speaker 1: of that when you work through the kind of literature. Now,
1:00:46
Speaker 1: what are the hazards? Some problems in all of this.
1:00:50
Speaker 1: One of them is reading into the text what it
1:00:53
Speaker 1: doesn't say. Watch that you'll be tempted to do that.
1:00:59
Speaker 1: Here's one that you'll hear a lot about if you
1:01:02
Speaker 1: have enough faith God will heal you of every one
1:01:04
Speaker 1: of your diseases. Bible doesn't teach that. That's been read
1:01:09
Speaker 1: into it by someone who wants it to say that.
1:01:12
Speaker 1: But there are some very definite guidelines about healing in
1:01:15
Speaker 1: the scriptures, and if you ignore them, you'll be a
1:01:19
Speaker 1: disillusion when your suffering doesn't go away. Here's another one.
1:01:24
Speaker 1: Material blessings are a sign of spiritual strength. Wrong. You
1:01:30
Speaker 1: won't get rich because you know the Bible, which ties
1:01:34
Speaker 1: in with the other one. The more money you give
1:01:36
Speaker 1: to the Lord, the more he will give you in return.
1:01:39
Speaker 1: There's a great Greek word for that, hogwash. It's nonsense,
1:01:44
Speaker 1: it's a lie, it's heresy. Prosperity Gospel is built on it.
1:01:50
Speaker 1: Televangelists are full of information like that so they can
1:01:53
Speaker 1: get more money. Think think about it. The Bible never
1:01:59
Speaker 1: says you give God money, he'll give you more in return.
1:02:03
Speaker 1: Otherwise every spiritual person I know would be rich. That's
1:02:07
Speaker 1: not how it works. That's misreading the text. And by
1:02:11
Speaker 1: the way, when you really do a great job of
1:02:15
Speaker 1: reading the text, you have to guard against misreading it.
1:02:20
Speaker 1: Like saying money is the root of all evil. Bible
1:02:23
Speaker 1: never teaches that money isn't the root of all evil.
1:02:28
Speaker 1: The love of money. The verse says, don't leave out
1:02:32
Speaker 1: the love of or you'll twist it. You'll make it
1:02:35
Speaker 1: say something that was never meant to say. Here's another hazard.
1:02:41
Speaker 1: Watch out about becoming overly dogmatic and super confident. That'll
1:02:47
Speaker 1: make you conceited. It's a funny thing happens when people
1:02:51
Speaker 1: began to grow on the knowledge of the scriptures. Their
1:02:54
Speaker 1: head begins to enlarge, and it gets too big to
1:02:58
Speaker 1: get inside their own house, and they wonder why people
1:03:01
Speaker 1: in the family don't worship them for their knowledge of
1:03:04
Speaker 1: the scriptures. The reason is, you're a jerk if you
1:03:08
Speaker 1: walk around with a swelled head because you know a
1:03:11
Speaker 1: little bit about the Bible. Nobody's gonna listen. Let me
1:03:13
Speaker 1: tell you what He'll disarm him your humility admitting that
1:03:19
Speaker 1: there's much you don't know and will never know. If
1:03:22
Speaker 1: you knew at all, you'd be the fourth member of
1:03:23
Speaker 1: the Trinity. Last time I checked, there is no such thing.
1:03:28
Speaker 1: By the way, it reminds me of John R. W.
1:03:30
Speaker 1: Statt's funny story about the young American Presbyterian minister whose
1:03:36
Speaker 1: besetting sin was conceit. He frequently boasted in public that
1:03:42
Speaker 1: all the time he needed to prepare his Sunday sermon
1:03:45
Speaker 1: were the few steps he took as he walked between
1:03:49
Speaker 1: the mans, the parsonage and the church next door. That's
1:03:53
Speaker 1: all they needed. Perhaps you can guess what his elders did.
1:03:57
Speaker 1: They bought a new Mantz five miles away. You have
1:04:01
Speaker 1: a little more time to think on it. I don't
1:04:05
Speaker 1: care how long you've been teaching the scriptures. You are
1:04:08
Speaker 1: never the final authority. Never you are under the authority
1:04:16
Speaker 1: of the Word of God. This book that speaks to
1:04:19
Speaker 1: all of us with its commands, speaks to me as
1:04:22
Speaker 1: well when it rebukes, and rebukes me as well when
1:04:27
Speaker 1: it warns, It warns me and you as well. No
1:04:33
Speaker 1: place for conceit. The knowledge of God makes us feel important.
1:04:38
Speaker 1: King James says it puffs up First Corinthians eight one. However,
1:04:45
Speaker 1: knowledge with understanding will humble you. Someone passed along to
1:04:50
Speaker 1: me years ago that an education is going from an
1:04:53
Speaker 1: unconscious to conscious awareness of your ignorance. The better educator
1:05:00
Speaker 1: you become, if it's truly educated, you'll realize the vast
1:05:05
Speaker 1: amount of information you don't know. Every time I get
1:05:10
Speaker 1: into the Word of God, I realize how much I
1:05:14
Speaker 1: don't know. How thrilled I am to have some knowledge,
1:05:19
Speaker 1: But I realized if I had ten lifetimes, I could
1:05:23
Speaker 1: never find out all there is to know. As one
1:05:26
Speaker 1: of my best mentors said, gentlemen, we have an infinite text.
1:05:33
Speaker 1: You'll never exhaust it. So I'm gonna skip the last
1:05:38
Speaker 1: part of my outline for the sake of time and
1:05:40
Speaker 1: go to these final questions. Here they are. I'll give
1:05:43
Speaker 1: you an assignment to fulfill that you take Romans twelve
1:05:46
Speaker 1: one and two, and on your own you interpret it
1:05:51
Speaker 1: Romans twelve one and two. You get busy. A lady
1:05:54
Speaker 1: told me that she took my assignment last time. I
1:05:56
Speaker 1: came up with eighty six observations. I wanted to say, now,
1:06:01
Speaker 1: go find eighty six more observation, but I didn't. Go
1:06:06
Speaker 1: to Romans Chapter twelve, verses one and two. Do a
1:06:10
Speaker 1: little interpretation on your own. Here are the questions. These
1:06:14
Speaker 1: are absolutely basic questions every interpreter must ask herself for himself.
1:06:19
Speaker 1: Number one, Am I a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?
1:06:23
Speaker 1: God does not illumine unbelievers with his truth. So if
1:06:27
Speaker 1: you've never trusted in the Lord Jesus, this is a
1:06:29
Speaker 1: great moment for you to do. So. Trust in him
1:06:33
Speaker 1: right now. Believe that He died for you, completely paid
1:06:37
Speaker 1: your penalty for your sins. That's why you went to
1:06:40
Speaker 1: the cross. And accept him, and when you do, you
1:06:43
Speaker 1: will have the promise sins forgiven and eternal life. Have
1:06:47
Speaker 1: to ask myself, am I a believer? In the Lord
1:06:49
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, I am. Next question, do I have a
1:06:53
Speaker 1: passion to know God's Word? Do you I have a
1:06:58
Speaker 1: passion to oh the word of God? Is there an
1:07:01
Speaker 1: inner zeal that drives me? I have to tell you.
1:07:04
Speaker 1: Sometime I take those nineteen steps from our first floor
1:07:08
Speaker 1: to the second floor in my home where my study is.
1:07:10
Speaker 1: Sometime I take him two at a time. I can't
1:07:13
Speaker 1: wait to get there. My passion to get into the
1:07:18
Speaker 1: Word of God has never abated. I love the thought
1:07:23
Speaker 1: of being able to study the scriptures and then to
1:07:26
Speaker 1: deliver what the Lord has revealed. It's the most exciting
1:07:29
Speaker 1: part of my life, your passion to know God's word? Third,
1:07:33
Speaker 1: have you humbled yourself before the Lord? Have you humbled
1:07:40
Speaker 1: yourself before him telling him how dependent you are to
1:07:45
Speaker 1: understand His truth? That represents a deep reverence for the Lord,
1:07:50
Speaker 1: something that's missing in our day. Question number four, have
1:07:55
Speaker 1: you taken time to pray? Study? Without prayer is an
1:08:00
Speaker 1: incomplete time of study. There's a song, the old hymn,
1:08:06
Speaker 1: speak Lord in the stillness while I wait on thee
1:08:11
Speaker 1: hushed my heart to listen in expectancy. So I pray, Lord,
1:08:17
Speaker 1: speak to me, help me understand what this is saying,
1:08:21
Speaker 1: so that I might apply it, and then I might
1:08:24
Speaker 1: share what you've given me. Fifth, and finally, have you
1:08:29
Speaker 1: done your homework well? Have you done your homework well?
1:08:34
Speaker 1: Have you dug deeply? Have you set back and thought
1:08:38
Speaker 1: about it? Have you turned the words over in your mind?
1:08:43
Speaker 1: Have you asked penetrating questions. Have you searched other passages
1:08:48
Speaker 1: to be sure you've got this one in line? Have
1:08:51
Speaker 1: you done your homework well? I close with this statement.
1:08:57
Speaker 1: God does not reveal his truth to the hurried soul.
1:09:04
Speaker 1: He doesn't reveal his truth to the hurried soul. You
1:09:10
Speaker 1: will never go deep if you're always in a hurry.
1:09:14
Speaker 1: It takes time. Father, thank you for the ability to
1:09:20
Speaker 1: learn and to grow and to discover how to handle
1:09:25
Speaker 1: your word with integrity. Guard us from man worship, Guard
1:09:32
Speaker 1: us from foolish statements, Guard us from error, from rushing
1:09:38
Speaker 1: to wrong conclusions, from putting people down because they don't
1:09:43
Speaker 1: understand your word. Give us the ability to grasp what
1:09:49
Speaker 1: you have meant as we go through the hard work
1:09:52
Speaker 1: of studying, comparing verses with verses, and trusting you the
1:10:00
Speaker 1: spirit of God, to guide us into all truth. Father,
1:10:05
Speaker 1: develop within us the discipline of interpretation. Take these truths
1:10:12
Speaker 1: that we have picked up today and see and illustrated,
1:10:16
Speaker 1: and begun to grasp and drill them into our minds.
1:10:21
Speaker 1: Deliver us from an emotional method of interpretation, from a
1:10:28
Speaker 1: foolish method of making it say what it was never
1:10:32
Speaker 1: meant to say. Speak Lord, in the stillness, while we
1:10:39
Speaker 1: wait on you, slow our pace, calm us, reassure us
1:10:47
Speaker 1: that every minute spent in study is worth it in
1:10:54
Speaker 1: the days to come, in the name of Christ, we
1:10:58
Speaker 1: pray and we commit these thoughts to You, and all
1:11:02
Speaker 1: God's people say amen.
1:11:09
Speaker 2: The preceding message Understanding the nutrients Interpreting the text was
1:11:14
Speaker 2: copyrighted in twenty fourteen, and the sound recording was copyrighted
1:11:19
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc. All rights
1:11:23
Speaker 2: are reserved worldwide.