Participants: David Asscherick, Karen Thomas, Daniel Mesa III
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000040
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00:32 Welcome to "Issues and Answers."
00:33 You know today we're gonna talk about the Bible. 00:37 Did you know that the Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek? 00:40 Well, for some of you who are watching 00:42 you may still feel that it is in Hebrew and Greek 00:44 because you do not understand it completely. 00:46 We are going to go through how to study your Bible, 00:48 yes, a self-help study for you and for others 00:52 who are willing to know how to peruse 00:53 through God's word intelligently and proficiently. 00:57 And to help us today our two very special guests, 00:59 one whom we had on another show, it is Daniel Mesa. 01:03 He is pastor of the Revelation Promises Hope, 01:05 SDA Church and Maranatha Bible Fellowship 01:08 SDA Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 01:11 And he has brought his best friend, 01:13 evangelist David Asscherick of the Mission College 01:16 in the Black Hills in Hermosa, South Dakota. 01:19 Welcome to the program, gentlemen. 01:20 Thank you. It's very nice to be here. 01:22 So we are going to learn about how to study our Bibles. 01:25 Well, I'm excited about this. Amen. 01:27 Where do we begin? 01:28 We begin with David. 01:30 Well, the Bible, it's interesting 01:32 that you would say that it was written in Hebrew and Greek. 01:34 It's actually written in Hebrew, Greek and-- 01:37 Aramaic. There was a third language. 01:38 Do you know what it was? 01:40 Aramaic. Aramaic, you got it. 01:41 It was written in Hebrew. 01:43 Of course, the Old Testament is in Hebrew and Aramaic 01:44 and the entire New Testament was written in Greek. 01:46 And it's interesting to me that you would say 01:47 that many people might still feel like 01:50 it's written in those languages because I have found 01:52 that very few people really understand the Bible. 01:55 I hate to say that but as we travel around the country, 01:59 it's really perplexing to me, 02:00 and I Sir Daniel was a pastor, 02:01 that there are very few people who really seem to have a grasp 02:05 on the totality of Scripture, what's being taught. 02:08 And the Bible is definitely a unique document. 02:11 The Bible is written on three different continents 02:15 over a period of probably about 1500 different years 02:18 by not less than 37 different authors. 02:21 These authors ranged in their vocations from being a farmer, 02:25 Jeremiah was a scribe, Matthew was a tax collector, 02:29 Peter was a fisherman, 02:31 so various socio-economic backgrounds, 02:33 cultural backgrounds, over 1500 different years, 02:37 3 different continents and it all coalesces 02:39 into one volume that we call the Bible, 02:42 which is really 66 different books. 02:44 And so when you're perusing this, 02:46 this volume it's not a-- it's not a normal book, 02:48 it's not an ordinary book. 02:51 It's unique and so therefore, 02:53 we must understand how to study this Bible. 02:55 And that's what we want to talk about today. 02:58 Well, I think it's neat that you're here 02:59 because we'd had Daniel 03:01 tell us how he came to the Lord in our last program 03:04 and I understand that there is a special story 03:06 about your baptisms. 03:08 Yes, actually I was in California, 03:12 baptized June 6th, I think it was or July 6th. 03:15 And he was baptized the 8th, 2 days apart. 03:18 He was in South Dakota and just a short time 03:20 afterwards the Lord brought us together. 03:22 And at that point we'd become best friends. 03:24 And I'd mentioned before that we wanted to work together. 03:27 So we prayed together that the Lord 03:28 would lead us together to work together. 03:30 And we've been best friends ever since. 03:32 So it's been quite a blessing. 03:34 Wonderful. Amen. 03:36 So, David, you're going to share with us some key principles 03:40 on how to study or how to learn the Bible. 03:44 Understand the Bible. Understand the Bible, okay. 03:45 We have five principles. 03:47 We've distilled it down to five principles, 03:49 that if you'll follow these five principles-- 03:52 they are principles that are actually derived 03:53 from the Bible itself. 03:54 And if we'll understand these five principles, 03:56 we will be able to arrive at an accurate understanding 03:59 of what the Bible is teaching. 04:01 I need to tell a little story. 04:02 This is how some people study the Bible. 04:03 Perhaps, you've heard of this before. 04:05 People will say, "Well, you know, 04:07 I'm in such a hurry in the mornings 04:08 that I just flip through and I just say, 'Lord, speak to me.'" 04:11 And they open it up and, you know, whatever the text is, 04:14 this is God's voice to them that day. 04:15 And I'm not discounting the fact that God can do that. 04:18 There's a little story, somebody studying the Bible and, 04:20 "Oh, Lord, I'm in a hurry, I just need a quick devotion" 04:23 and it says, "Judas hung himself." 04:25 Oh, this is not a particularly good devotion, 04:27 so he closes it and he... "Go thou and do likewise." 04:32 Oh, this is not a good study at all. 04:34 So he says, "Lord, I need-- 04:35 I really need you to give me a good devotion this morning." 04:36 So he goes one more time and it says, 04:38 "What thou doest, do quickly." 04:40 So this is not a legitimate way to study the Bible obviously. 04:44 And sadly, many people are employing 04:45 these same kinds of principles. 04:47 You know, we laugh at it. 04:48 It's clever, but people are employing 04:49 these kinds of happenstance principles 04:51 to understand the Bible. 04:53 The Bible as we have said is a unique book 04:55 and God has given us ways, 04:57 principles in which we can use to understand the Bible. 05:01 And these principles are derived from the Bible itself. 05:03 We'll give five principles as I've said. 05:05 And the first principle is this, I'm going to read here 05:08 if you'd like to look in your Bible, 05:09 it's in 2 Timothy 3:16, 05:15 2 Timothy 3:16. 05:21 The Bible says this, "All scripture is given 05:24 by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, 05:28 for reproof, for correction, 05:29 for instruction in righteousness 05:32 that the man of God may be perfect, 05:34 thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 05:37 And here we find the first key 05:40 that's going to help us to understand the Bible. 05:42 We need to understand that the Bible 05:43 makes an incredible claim about itself. 05:46 Prior to becoming a Christian 05:48 I studied into eastern religions. 05:50 I read a large portion of the Hindu holy book 05:52 call the Bhagavad-Gita as it is. 05:54 I've read large sections of the Koran. 05:56 I'm a voracious reader. 05:57 But I have learned that no other holy book 05:59 that I'm aware of makes the claim to be the word of God. 06:04 The Bible is unique and that it makes that claim. 06:08 Now just because it makes the claim 06:10 doesn't necessarily mean that it's true 06:12 but we have to treat this Book as a unique Book 06:14 just by virtue of the fact that it makes the claim. 06:17 Now the key passage here I wanted to look at is, 06:19 "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." 06:23 And the first principle that we derive from the Scripture itself 06:27 is that in order to understand the word of God 06:29 we must rely upon the author of the word of God 06:32 who according to this verse is God. 06:36 And that's the first principle, reliance upon God, 06:39 upon the Holy Spirit to lead us and to guide us. 06:42 And, Daniel, I know you're just charged up with the text here. 06:44 That's right. I want you to turn to John 16. 06:49 John 16 gives us one of those 06:52 principles of studying the Bible, 06:54 reliance upon the Spirit saying that 06:55 "all inspiration is given by"-- oh, I'm sorry-- 06:58 "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God." 07:00 The inspiration is, you know, by the Spirit 07:03 and in John 16:13, we read 07:06 "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, 07:10 He will guide you into all truth." 07:13 Not just some, but all truth. 07:14 And so the promise is that God will lead us 07:17 through His Spirit into truth. 07:20 We're also told that the Bible is truth, 07:22 "Your word is truth," it says in John 17:17. 07:25 But if we finish the text it says, 07:27 "For He shall not speak of Himself." 07:28 We learn in a few verses after and a few verses before, 07:31 he is speaking of Christ. 07:33 "But whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak 07:35 and He will show you things to come." 07:38 So the promise here is just really quite a blessing. 07:41 God's going to lead you through His Spirit into truth 07:43 but also reveal things to come. 07:46 And just as David said this is a unique Book. 07:48 This Book has promised not only to reveal the will of God 07:51 and lead us into truth, but things to come. 07:54 So we don't always have to be in darkness 07:56 not knowing the things or only knowing the things 07:59 that are behind and what are present 08:01 but God has promised also to reveal to us the future. 08:04 So before we even open the Book we can know that it's fact, 08:06 that it's coming from God 08:08 and that as we study God through the Holy Spirit, 08:12 His Holy Spirit will guide us. Amen. 08:15 And that's principle number one. 08:17 Because the Bible is a spiritual book, 08:19 we can't just come to it like we would come to any other 08:21 historical work or work of antiquity. 08:24 We need to come to this Book saying, 08:26 "Lord, you wrote the Book. Now teach me the book." 08:29 You know, He is going to be the best teacher 08:31 if He is the author. 08:32 I'm reading now from 2 Peter, 08:34 just quickly, chapter 1 verse 19. 08:36 He says, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; 08:39 whereunto you do well that you take heed, 08:42 as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, 08:44 until the day dawn, and the day star 08:46 arise in your hearts knowing this first 08:48 that no prophecy of the Scripture 08:50 is of any private interpretation." 08:53 So it's not up to Karen to determine 08:55 what the Scripture says or David or even Daniel. 08:57 How can we be so sure that the Scripture 08:58 is not a private interpretation? 09:00 The next verse is the key. 09:01 He says, "For the prophecy came not in old time 09:05 by the will of man but holy men of God spake 09:10 as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 09:14 So we've seen just three Scriptures 09:15 right as we get started here that the Holy Spirit is the one 09:18 who wrote the Bible through the prophets 09:20 but the Spirit was the one inspiring. 09:22 And so when we come to the word of God 09:24 principle number one is it's not David's intellectual prowess 09:28 or David's education that's going to help him 09:30 to understand the word of God 09:31 but it's going to be David's reliance 09:33 upon the author of the word of God. 09:35 That's principle number one. 09:36 You know, I think back on how you said how you met. 09:38 You know my brothers are David and Daniel as well. 09:41 And so here's a David, here's a Daniel 09:43 that are two worlds apart 09:44 but yet the Lord has brought them together. 09:46 So the same Holy Spirit and the same God 09:49 who can bring people together through circumstances 09:51 can guide us through His word as well. 09:52 Amen. That's right. 09:54 That's good. I like that. 09:56 Well, our second principle is not just 10:00 that the Spirit teaches us principle number one, 10:02 but the second principle is that the theme 10:04 of the entire Scripture from the beginning to the end 10:07 is actually Jesus Christ himself. 10:10 Jesus is the theme of the Scripture. 10:12 In fact, go to John 5. 10:16 John 5. 10:20 For those of you at home, that's in the New Testament, 10:23 that's the fourth gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. 10:26 John 5:39, 10:28 Jesus here is discussing some issues with the Pharisees. 10:33 These were the intelligent people of Jesus' day. 10:35 And Jesus says this in John 5:39, 10:38 He says, "Search the Scriptures." 10:41 And in the days of Jesus, of course, the Scriptures 10:43 would have been just Genesis to Malachi. 10:44 The New Testament would not yet have been written. 10:46 Jesus says, "Search the Old Testament." Why? 10:48 Why should we search it? 10:50 "For in them you think you have eternal life 10:54 and they are they which testify of Me." 10:59 So Jesus is saying, from Genesis all the writings of Moses, 11:03 all the way up through-- all of the chronicles 11:06 and the chronologies through the Kings, 11:07 through Samuel, all the way 11:09 through all the Old Testament prophets, 11:10 He says, all of those Scriptures 11:12 they testify of one central theme, 11:15 the pulsating bottom line of Scripture is Jesus. 11:19 So when we're going into the Bible, 11:21 we're looking not for little details here 11:23 and little idiosyncrasies here and little nuances here, 11:25 we're looking for the vast thing, Jesus. 11:29 You remind of me of another Scripture, David. 11:31 In Luke 24:25, 11:39 Jesus actually believed the same thing 11:41 that David was just talking about, 11:43 how that the whole entire Scripture refers to Himself. 11:45 He is the central theme. 11:47 And in verse 25 of Luke 24, it says, 11:49 "O fools, and slow of heart to believe 11:51 all that the prophets have spoken. 11:53 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, 11:56 and to enter into His glory?" 11:57 Verse 27, "Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, 12:02 He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures 12:06 the things concerning Himself." 12:09 And so from Moses, 12:10 just like David was talking about the Old Testament, 12:11 when He said search the Scriptures, 12:13 He's referring to Genesis to Malachi. 12:15 Jesus took Moses and all the prophets 12:17 and expounded or opened up, 12:19 unpacked the Scriptures about the things concerning Himself. 12:23 And, you know, that reminds me 12:24 of an illustration I'd like to teach. 12:27 When we're studying the Bible we should do something 12:29 what's called as Jesus said "expounding the Scriptures". 12:33 But I call it unpacking the Scriptures. 12:35 And it's much like you take a suitcase, okay. 12:38 You pop it open, you open it up and you see 12:40 that you've got in there a few folded items of clothing. 12:43 Well, you see a shirt there 12:44 and you don't really know the shirt much 12:46 because it's folded up. 12:47 So you take it and you unfold it a little bit here, 12:49 you unfold it a little bit there 12:50 and find it's a short sleeve shirt. 12:52 And then you unfold it here a little bit 12:54 and there's an emblem on it, "Jesus loves me," okay. 12:57 You unfold it again and you find it's a white shirt 12:59 with the emblem, "Jesus loves me." 13:01 You turn it over and it says "Jesus loves you too." 13:03 So now you know the full broad scope of this shirt. 13:06 Well, then you put it on, okay. 13:09 You go into your suitcase again 13:11 and pull out what looks like a pair of shorts, 13:14 but you unfold it and, or unpack it as it were 13:17 and it's all of a sudden a pair of pants with your, 13:20 you know, perfect pockets 13:21 and the kind that you like perfectly and just your size. 13:24 So you slip that one on too. 13:26 You do the same thing with the sweater, 13:28 do the same thing with the hat and all the other things. 13:29 You unpack them, find out all about them, 13:32 whether you like them or not, 13:33 if they fit and then you put them on. 13:35 In the same way, we should be able to take the Scriptures 13:39 and we should search the Scriptures 13:40 and expound everything, the things concerning to Christ. 13:44 And so you can take one Scripture, 13:46 any Scripture and pull the first word. 13:49 For instance, "For God so loved the world." 13:52 What does God mean? 13:53 Unfold that, make it big, 13:55 make it real, apply it to yourself. 13:58 For God so loved, 14:00 so is obviously an emphasis on loved. 14:03 What does love mean? 14:04 What does it mean to so love 14:06 in opposite of or in next to just loving. 14:08 And so you can unpack these things 14:10 and then put that article of word on. 14:13 And so really, it's the unpacking of the Scriptures 14:17 that's something that we should try 14:18 to do every time we study. 14:22 There's a point I wanted to say on that 14:23 and what Daniel is talking about is almost like 14:25 you would go into a laboratory and use a microscope. 14:28 Say you had a piece of tissue here, 14:31 you know, maybe it was a piece of skin or something 14:32 and you get under the microscope and you really peer in 14:35 and look at all of the details of what you're looking at 14:38 but there's not just a microscope involved here, 14:40 because if we were just spending all of our time 14:42 looking at the little minutia we wouldn't understand, 14:46 well, what is the big picture. 14:48 And so there's not just a microscope. 14:49 That's point number three by the way, Daniel. 14:52 There's a telescope. There's a telescope. 14:54 You see, we don't want to just stay 14:56 honed in on all the little words. 14:57 We have to do that. 14:58 But then we have to back away 15:00 and be sure that the conclusions 15:01 that we've reached from that text 15:03 agree with the conclusion of the entire Bible. 15:06 So point number one is reliance upon the Holy Spirit. 15:09 Point number two is that all of the Scriptures point to Jesus. 15:12 He's the central theme of Scripture. 15:13 Point number three is unpacking the Scripture, 15:15 letting every word have its proper bearing. 15:17 God so loved the world. 15:20 And point number four is that all of the conclusions 15:22 that we reach from a particular understanding of a verse 15:26 need to agree with what the other things 15:28 that the Bible says. 15:30 For example, you know, we did our little illustration, 15:31 you know, Judas hung himself. 15:33 Go thou and do likewise. What thou doest, do quickly. 15:35 Well, you could arrive at that conclusion 15:37 but that would not be a conclusion 15:38 that's consistent with the rest of Scripture. 15:41 In fact, look at the Book of Isaiah. 15:42 This is point number four here. 15:44 The Book of Isaiah is in the Old Testament, 15:47 not long after Psalms, through Proverbs, 15:49 through Ecclesiastes, through Song of Solomon 15:52 and you come to Isaiah 28. 15:56 Our fourth point here is a very important Scriptural point. 16:01 And Isaiah 28, beginning in verse 9 16:05 there's a question being asked here by the prophet Isaiah. 16:07 The question is this, "Whom shall He," that's God. 16:11 "Whom shall God teach knowledge? 16:14 And whom shall He make to understand doctrine? 16:17 Them that are weaned from the milk, 16:18 and drawn from the breasts." 16:20 In other words, God teaches His spiritual insights to those 16:23 who are desiring to be mature in the things of God. 16:26 Not just those that are babies, 16:28 you know, suckling from the mother's milk 16:30 but those that are interested in actually learning 16:32 and studying, the more, you'd say, spiritually mature. 16:34 Here's how He does it, verse 10, 16:36 "For precept must be upon precept, 16:39 precept upon precept, line upon line, 16:42 line upon line, here a little, and there a little." 16:46 You see, Karen, this is our fourth point. 16:49 God teaches us not just in one verse, 16:52 He teaches us many things out of a single verse 16:55 but what He teaches us in that single verse 16:57 needs to be consistent with what He shows us 16:58 in the rest of Scripture. How does He do that? 17:01 The Bible is internally consistent. 17:03 So what He says in Genesis is consistent 17:05 with what He says in Revelation. 17:07 What He says in Isaiah is consistent 17:09 with what He says here and there and so we bounce. 17:11 What does Isaiah say about it? 17:13 What does Jeremiah say about it? 17:14 What did the wise man Solomon say about it? 17:16 What did Samuel say about it? 17:17 What do all of the various Bible writers say about a given topic, 17:21 line upon line, precept upon precept, 17:23 here a little and there a little. 17:26 And one of the key ways that you can do that, 17:27 you know, we might have somebody sitting at home today saying, 17:29 well, how can I do that? 17:30 How can I go from here to there? 17:32 I don't know where to go. 17:33 I'll give you a key word that often comes 17:34 when we talk to people. Go ahead. 17:36 Wine in the Bible. Wine in the Bible. 17:37 How can I do a research on wine in the Bible? 17:40 Excellent. 17:41 If you wanted to do research on wine in the Bible, 17:44 what you would do is you'd go to your 17:45 local Christian book store, you'd pick up a book called 17:48 "A Strong's Exhaustive Concordance." 17:50 There are many different concordances 17:51 but the one I recommend is the Strong's Exhaustive. 17:53 It was compiled by a man named James Strong back in, 17:55 I think, 1600s. It's not a commentary. 17:58 It's a reference tool that lists alphabetically 18:00 every word that appears in Scripture. 18:02 So you go through the As, through the Bs, through the Cs 18:04 and you eventually come to the Ws and you'd look up wine. 18:06 And you'd have there all of the times 18:08 that wine occurs in the Bible. 18:10 So what you would do is, you'd say, 18:11 what was wine in the Bible in Genesis, 18:13 look up those references. 18:14 What was it in Exodus, look up those references. 18:16 What was it in all the way through 18:17 Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua 18:19 and as you looked up the totality 18:21 of what the Bible says about wine in all of the Scripture, 18:24 then you'd have a biblical understanding 18:27 of what the Bible teaches about wine. 18:30 That's the telescope. 18:31 Daniel talked about the microscope. 18:33 You might take one text that mentioned wine in it 18:35 and you'd unpack the Scripture and say, oh, okay. 18:37 So I understand what this is teaching. 18:39 But you better be sure that the conclusion 18:40 that you arrive at in your microscope 18:43 agrees with the telescope. You understand? 18:45 That's right. 18:47 If you're looking at a little cell tissue 18:49 here underneath the microscope, 18:50 when you pan out, you're looking at, 18:52 say, a cat or you're looking at-- 18:53 you don't know what you're looking at precisely 18:55 but as you pan out what you see panning out 18:58 always agrees with what you see panned in. 19:00 You're not adding anything new. 19:02 All of it has to agree and that's the fourth principle. 19:04 Biblical consistency and this is one of the great ways 19:08 that we can know that the Bible is inspired. 19:10 As we've suggested written by 37 different authors 19:14 on 3 continents over a period of 1500 different years 19:16 and yet they agree in every detail 19:19 and every specificity with one another. 19:21 I mean, this is incredible on, 19:23 no doubt, the most controversial subject 19:24 in all of human existence, God. That's right. 19:27 Total internal consistency and that's point number four. 19:30 And, you know, Jesus Christ even believed 19:32 in the consistency of the Bible 19:35 because we've already mentioned in Luke 24 19:37 where He went from Moses and expounded unto them 19:39 all the things concerning Himself 19:42 through all the prophets. 19:43 We also learnt that Paul did the same thing 19:45 if you read through Romans Chapter 3. 19:47 He basically took the Scriptures, 19:50 the Old Testament, took sections of Scripture, 19:53 compiled them into one section and taught us about 19:56 the depravity of man's human nature. 19:58 But there's another section of Scripture 20:00 that I'd like to turn to, 1 Corinthians Chapter 2 20:05 and referring to what David was talking about in Isaiah 28:10, 20:10 here a little, there a little, 20:12 line upon line, and precept upon precept. 20:13 We have the same thought in the New Testament, 20:15 1 Corinthians 2:13, 20:19 referring to the Spirit of God reveling to us 20:21 things that are unknown to normal people. 20:24 We are spiritual people. Verse 13. 20:26 "Which things also we speak, 20:28 not in the words which man's wisdom teaches 20:31 but which the Holy Ghost teaches, 20:33 comparing spiritual things with spiritual." 20:38 You know, one thing I like about the Bible 20:40 is that it is researched and intellectually sound. 20:47 The Bible has footnotes. 20:48 And like you were saying the Strong's Concordance, 20:51 well, isn't there a mini version of that in the Bible? 20:53 That's right, I appreciate you having said that. 20:55 In the center of many Bibles 20:57 you'll find between the two columns, 21:00 you'll have a kind of a reference point here. 21:03 And this is what's call the marginal reference. 21:05 Let's see if we can get a picture of it. 21:06 Sometimes it's called the center column reference. 21:09 Just turn your Bible around there and let's see if-- 21:11 In that center column reference that you have right here, 21:14 basically what you have is, 21:16 for example, here's a bold, Chapter 1:2. 21:19 And these are going to the other Scriptures 21:21 that reference the same topic 21:23 that you're dealing with in this Scripture. 21:25 Now this becomes very, very helpful for you especially, 21:27 if you're not extremely learned 21:29 in the things of the word of God. 21:31 When you first come, you pick up the Bible 21:33 and you can just go to any place. 21:34 You pick it up and as you read this verse, 21:36 then you have, say, here four or five or six other Scriptures 21:39 that are going to reference similar topics 21:41 like wine or angels or hell or death or love, 21:45 any of these topics and you can just bounce back and forth. 21:49 A marginal reference here, a reference here, 21:51 a reference here, a reference here, 21:52 a reference here, a reference here. 21:53 This is a systematic way to go through the Bible 21:56 and be sure that the conclusions that you are arriving at, 21:58 lead by the Spirit, looking for Jesus, 22:01 unpacking the individual words, 22:02 allowing the totality of Scripture 22:04 to have its bearing upon Genesis to Revelation, 22:07 all of it making the same sense together, 22:10 a unified document, these are the first four principles. 22:13 If you follow these, you can be sure that the conclusions 22:15 that you're arriving at are accurate 22:17 and most of all biblical conclusions. 22:21 That's very interesting. 22:22 Now can you give us a practical example of how to do this? 22:26 I think so. 22:27 In my marginal reference here, for example, the scripture 22:29 that Daniel just read to us in 1 Corinthians 2:13. 22:32 The verse is "Which things also we speak, 22:34 not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth 22:37 but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, 22:38 comparing spiritual things with spiritual." 22:41 Now as I look at my marginal reference here 22:42 it refers me to Chapter 1 of that same book, 22:46 verse 17, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, 22:49 but to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words, 22:52 lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." 22:54 And clearly here the marginal reference 22:56 is on that word wisdom. 22:57 So we learn over here that we're not looking for man's wisdom, 23:00 we're looking for the wisdom that God teaches 23:02 by comparing spiritual with spiritual. 23:03 Paul over here further elaborates 23:05 on the idea of man's wisdom and how it's insufficient 23:08 to lead us to a correct understanding 23:09 of the word of God. 23:11 Now if you would enlarge upon that even further. 23:12 What does the New Testament have to say about man's wisdom? 23:15 What does the New Testament have to say 23:17 about God's wisdom, the two? 23:18 What does the whole Bible have to say about wisdom? 23:20 And as you bring that microscope and pan out, 23:22 pan out, pan out, pan out, 23:23 you're going to have a very biblical understanding 23:25 of man's wisdom versus God's wisdom. 23:27 There's never an ending to learning God's word, is there? 23:30 Amen. I love that. 23:32 And there's an important point 23:33 that I need to make on this and that is this, 23:35 many of the Bibles that people have today are called, 23:37 maybe you've heard of this before, study Bibles. 23:40 And what this means is basically, 23:41 you go into a bookstore, a Christian bookstore 23:43 and they'll have a study Bible. 23:45 I've seen the women's study Bible 23:46 and the men's study Bible 23:48 and even the African-American study Bible, 23:50 the prophesy study Bible, the father study Bible. 23:52 What that means is, is that man has now 23:54 put his comments onto what the word of God says. 23:58 Now those are not all bad in that. 23:59 Somebody has done a study but then that-- 24:01 we have not done a study, right? That's exactly right. 24:03 It's not that these things are bad necessarily. 24:05 However, we need to be very careful to understand 24:08 that somebody else's conclusions 24:10 might not be the right conclusion 24:12 or the biblical conclusion. 24:13 So I just--there's a warning. There's a caution there. 24:15 Nothing against study Bibles as such, 24:17 but be sure that the conclusions that you are drawing 24:20 are the conclusions that God's wisdom has taught you, 24:23 not what man's wisdom has taught. 24:24 And the best way to do that is to study for ourselves. 24:26 That's exactly right. 24:27 Following the principles that we've been 24:29 speaking of right now. You've got it. 24:31 So we've got our four principles. 24:33 Principle number one is that we rely totally upon the Spirit. 24:36 Principle number two is that Christ 24:37 is the great central theme of the Scriptures. 24:39 Principle number three is unpacking 24:41 all of the particularities, the words, 24:43 the nuances of an individual verse or passage. 24:46 Point number four is that all of what we learn 24:48 has to be internally consistent so it doesn't-- 24:50 the Bible doesn't teach that black is white on this side 24:52 and white is black on this side. 24:54 It's always black is black and white is white. 24:55 It's internally consistent. 24:57 And point number five, Karen, is a very important one. 25:00 And it has to do with application. 25:03 When God teaches us something in His word 25:05 it might require a change in the way we're living, 25:07 the way we're conducting ourselves, 25:09 the way we think, the way we move, 25:11 the way we breath, the way we live, 25:13 the way we talk. It might require a change. 25:16 And if it does, we need to be willing to do 25:18 what God has shown us. 25:20 And I think Daniel has a Scripture here 25:22 that he's just desiring to show us. I do. 25:24 and this is a blessed passage, 25:29 one that I took very-- made very close attention to 25:33 when I became a Christian. 25:34 It says in verse 19, "If you be willing and obedient, 25:38 you shall eat of the good of the land." 25:41 And so applying everything that you have learned 25:44 as a result of Bible study, 25:46 at the end of your study, make it-- 25:47 You know, being willing like you said, I think that's key. 25:50 Anytime you go into a new exercise, 25:53 into a new job or for a new class even, 25:57 you have to be willing to be taught. 26:00 You have to have a teachable spirit. That's right. 26:02 And surely we need to have that as we open God's word, 26:05 wouldn't you say? That's right. 26:06 And be willing to do the things that God shows us. 26:09 I'll just quote you a beautiful Scripture in John 7:17. 26:12 Jesus says, "If any man will to do his will, 26:16 he shall know of the doctrine, 26:18 whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." 26:20 Jesus says if you want to know the will of God 26:23 you must first be willing to follow the will of God. 26:25 See, God is not just showing us things in the Bible 26:27 to satisfy our insatiable curiosity for understanding, 26:30 and for wisdom, and for knowledge. 26:32 When God reveals something to us 26:33 He wants us to follow it, to love it, to believe it, 26:36 to live it and that's principle number five. 26:39 What God has shown let us walk in. 26:41 You know, my dad he used to say things to me, 26:43 he'd say, "David, I want you to clean your room." 26:45 He wasn't telling me just to clean my room 26:46 from my understanding, 26:48 he wanted me to clean my room. 26:49 And so it's not just that we look at what God had said. 26:51 Oh, this is neat. God has said "that does so is sin." 26:54 Well, that's great. Now I know that it's sin. 26:57 God says it's sin and if you're involved in it, 27:00 why don't you depart from it? Why don't you leave it? 27:03 And a willingness to follow what God has shown us, 27:05 this makes all the difference. 27:07 God will teach those people who are willing to obey, 27:09 who are willing to listen, who are willing to learn, 27:12 who are willing to follow 27:13 and that's principle number five. 27:14 Let us apply the principles that we've seen. 27:16 Well, let us pray and ask the Holy Spirit 27:18 to help us all as we study God's word to listen 27:22 to the voice of the Holy Spirit as He teaches us. 27:24 Will you offer a prayer for us please, David? I'd love to. 27:27 Our great Father in heaven, 27:29 we rejoice to see today that You have revealed to us principles, 27:33 Father, derived from Your word 27:35 that will enable us to understand Your word. 27:38 Lord, what a blessed privilege we have 27:40 that You have given us this special Book 27:42 and we ask now that as people that have been listening, 27:44 they've learned these principles, 27:45 they see that they are biblical, 27:47 as they go to study their Bibles, 27:48 we pray that You will send Your Holy Spirit 27:50 to guide them into all truth 27:51 as you've promised in John 16:13. 27:54 We love you, Lord, and we thank you for Your word 27:56 and we thank you that you have today taught us how to study, 27:59 In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17