Address—Bruce Anstey
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I want to talk this afternoon on.
Great principles of Bible study.
The reason why I want to do that is because many a man has stood in this podium and addressed an audience like this and told the audience to read the Bibles and to pray. It is an essential thing. It's our very lifeline to communion with God, and I'm one of them that has done that and more than one occasion. But rarely if at all, have I ever heard a man take up the subject of how.
We are to read the Bible for prophets, and that's what I want to take up this afternoon, more along the lines of how we can study the scriptures for profit. And I want to address particularly the complaint that is often heard, especially among the young. And that is, I read my Bible, but I don't get much out of it.
Well, I want to look at 10 principles from the scriptures that will show us how to get profit from our Bible reading so that we might grow and progress in the things of God. Now, the things I'm going to tell you this afternoon are not my own ideas, some little scheme that I've dreamed up that I would like to share with you or this kind of a thing? No, not at all. What I want to do is to bring 10 principles out of the word of God itself that shows us how we are to take up and handle the scriptures.
For profit, I think that's amazing. I really do that the God is not only given to us this book that is to feed our souls and instruct us in the path, but he's told us how we are to use the book so that we can profit from it. So I want to stand back here and just point out these principles in the scriptures and let the spirit of God apply them in our to us and for our good and blessing. OK, let's look at the first one, Isaiah, chapter 34.
Verse 16.
Seek ye out the book of the Lord and read. Here's the first thing we need to read it.
How are we going to profit from the word of God if we're not going to read it?
Here's the first thing. Seek out the book of the Lord and read.
We need to read the scriptures. We need to read it with attention carefully and prayerfully as it says in chapter 28 of the Same Prophet, line upon line.
Precept upon precept, and so on. We need to read it in the Spirit of Mary. She sat at Jesus feet and she heard his word. She put other things aside so that she could have that opportunity. She was helping with her sister, but when the Lord Jesus came she said this is an opportunity for me. And she left Martha and she sat at Jesus feet and she gained apart. The Lord said that she would never be taken away from her.
And so the things that you will profit from reading the scriptures are going to be something that you're going to carry with you. You're going to be able to carry with you into eternity. It's often been said that really there's only two things that we can take with us to heaven and then to eternity. Now, what are they? Well, first of all, it's the truth that we have.
We've learned and taken in and made it our own and the second would be our children, our family.
Can't take my bike, can't take my piano.
Can't take my toys, but I can take the truth that I've learned and I can take my family, and that's the same with you. So we want to read it with the spirit of Mary, because there's eternal Prophet. If you take it up as a task, it'll likely be just that. A lot of hard work grinding away and so on, and it won't be very much fun. So you don't want to take it up as if it's a task. Don't read it as if you're cramming for an examination. Read it.
As if you are living with a friend and you want to hear what they have to say. So remember, it's not a manual that you have to study. It's more of a message that you want to hear. And God has plenty to tell us in His word. And so if we take it up in that spirit, I think we're going to profit. And don't let the things that we don't understand spoil our enjoyment of the things that we do understand. God will show us those things in His time, but the main thing is to seek out the book of the Lord and to read it.
Read it. And do you think in the language of Scripture? Some old brothers used to say you know who I'm talking about? Probably.
00:05:02
And that's good.
But I find an appalling ignorance among Christians today, and even among those who are gathered through the Lord's name. I might mention some story in the Old Testament or something people look at you as if.
Is that in the Bible?
And I say, well, you know, the story of, let's look at you like, and that's that's inexcusable, really. If you're a Christian that's been in the past for any length of time, you may not know what every chapter means. I understand that. That's why we have this meeting this afternoon to help you in that direction. But at least you should know of the existence of such and such a story and such and such of things that are in the Bible. And you're only going to gain that by reading. So seek out the book of the Lord and read. Let's look at the next one, James.
Chapter One.
Verse 21.
Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity, or overflowing of naughtiness or wickedness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. Be ye not doers of the word, but be doers of the word, but not hearers, only deceiving your own selves. So here's another thing. Not only are we to read it, but we're to receive it with meekness.
Receiving it goes beyond just reading it, and James talks about the man who looks into the.
Scriptures and lets it go in one ear and out of the other, so to speak. He likens it to a man looking into a mirror and he goes away. He can't remember what he saw. So it's possible for us to read it and get little profit from it. But here he tells us something that's more than just reading and that is to receive it. To receive it, so that it becomes part of our being. Now notice he says here.
With meekness, the engrafted word, see, God's intention for us in reading His Word, is that it would become part of our lives. It would become part of our being, part of our souls, so that it would govern our lives in a direct way.
And this needs to be received on our part.
And he tells us here how it is going to be possible that we will receive the word and it will become engrafted in our souls. And that is.
By laying apart all filthiness and overflowing of naughtiness, in other words, by self judgment, this verse is addressing our state of soul. We need to be in the right state of soul if we're going to receive and profit from the scriptures. It's not enough for us to read it. We need to have practice. We need to practice self judgment every time we take this book in hand if it's going to be for profit and it's going to be engrafted in our souls whereby our lives are affected by it.
There was a young man he followed after Mr. Darby after he gave a lecture one night, and he caught him up the road a bit. And he said, oh, Mr. Darby, Mr. Darby, I would just like to study the scriptures in some way so that I could be like you and have this, so that I could get a grasp of the word of God like you have. And he looked at the young man and he said, I would like the word of God to get a grasp of me, never mind me grasping the word of God. And I think that's very good for us too, you know.
Learning the scriptures is really not the goal. You know, Bible knowledge is not the goal. We're going to talk about what the goal is in a minute. But right now the need for self judgment if we when we take up the scriptures is so very important and it's with meekness that is the idea that we are willing to be adjusted on doctrine or practice. So if we read something that doesn't line up to what we think you know about some certain principle or so on, we need to be meek enough to receive it, get adjustment, or in our practice with our lives.
So there needs to be that state of soul with us.
If the word of God is going to take hold and grow in that grafted way and notice what it says which is able to save your souls. He's not talking about the salvation from a lost eternity that is announced in the gospel here. He's talking about a practical salvation of our souls in our daily lives. Our souls love many things and can get drawn away after this or that, and we need to be saved in a daily way way and that is a result will be a result of receiving the word of God.
And it becoming part of us, it would guide us and direct us in every different way. Now let's look at Luke gospel for a third thing, chapter 24, Luke 24, verse 27. Beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself turn on a few pages in John's Gospel to chapter 5.
00:10:04
Verse 39.
Search the scriptures.
For in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me. And then?
In Acts chapter 17.
Acts 17.
Verse 10.
And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night to Berea, who coming thither, went into the synagogue of the Jews. And these were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind. Search the Scriptures daily whether those things were so.
Wherefore, therefore, many of them believed also of honorable women, which were Greeks and of men, not a few. Here's the third thing I'd like to bring before you, and that is, we need to not only read it and receive it, but we need to look for Christ in it.
The three scriptures that I've looked at and Luke 24, John 5 and now this one has to do with the theme of all scripture which as Christ himself. And when we take up the Bible we need to look for Christ in the scriptures because he is the theme of all scripture.
The tendency for us, especially young, is to look at the scriptures for what God has to say to us. And God has plenty to say to us. But that shouldn't be the first reason why we look at the Scriptures. We should be looking into the word of God to see what God has to say about his Son and what pertains to His glory and all. The scriptures will have that theme wherever you may turn in it. That is the supreme theme, and it reminds me of a story that I heard. I don't know if they still do it now in the British Navy.
They have their ropes and in those ropes they have made for identification purposes in the middle, I read.
A cord goes down the middle of all their throats, millions of yards of ropes that they have made for all their ships. But one thing that identifies them all is there's a red line in there. So if someone wants to steal one of those ropes, they could cut it open and say this belongs to Her Majesty the Queen Navy. What are you doing with it?
Reminds me of the Scriptures. No matter where you cut that rope open, if it was 1 foot down the line or 50 feet down the line or 200 feet down the line, you always see that red line. And it's the same with the Bible. Whether you open it at the first page of the 10th page or you open it halfway through, you would always see the same theme. That's Christ and his glory and the work that he accomplished at the cross. That is the supreme theme in Scripture. We must look at it with that in view. Now I know that every verse does not mention Christ.
But it will. The passage will pertain to what?
Is to his glory, and we need to get the principle that's behind it, what God is teaching us. Otherwise we're going to get a wrong frame of reference. And that's what happens. And many a young person has done just that. They look at the scriptures for what God has to say to them.
And you know that we are not the theme of Scripture. I have news for you.
He is the theme of scripture.
And so we want to take it up with that in view to look for Christ in the Word of God. Now that's what happened at Berea. You see, it says that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, asserts the Scriptures. You see, if these things were so, what were those things?
Were they searching for Paul's doctrine in the scriptures?
No. Why?
Because Paul's doctor hadn't been written yet in the scriptures. How could they do that?
He hadn't even written an epistle yet by this point, or at least maybe one. No, I don't think he even wrote one by this point. So it couldn't be Paul's doctrine that they were searching for in the scriptures. Well, what were they searching for then?
Well, you go back to verse two and three. Paul's habit was to go into the Jewish synagogues and he would open an allege from the scriptures that Christ could be found there. His life, his death, his resurrection, his Messiahship. And so these Bereans went home and searched the scriptures. They found it was so Christ is in the scriptures, and I'm here to tell you the same Christ is in the scriptures. Go home and look for it Him rather. It's beautiful to see how that he is the theme of all scripture.
And may I just add this to the great and 1St moral lesson in the whole Bible is what it's found right in the opening words.
In the beginning, God.
00:15:03
In the beginning, God, and I know it's talking about creation there, but there's moral lessons that God has throughout his word. The book is a moral book. It's not just a history book and.
That's the first moral lesson in the Bible. In the beginning, God. That is, in the beginning, God must be at the beginning of everything for your life.
He should have 1St and preeminent place in everything in your life, whether it's your work, whether it's your life, your marriage, your family, whatever it may be. God must have his rightful place. And so when we look at Scripture and we see Christ there, we will be greatly encouraged because it's feeding on Christ in Scripture that brings joy to our souls. Let's turn to another passage, Second Timothy chapter 2, Second Timothy chapter 2.
Verse 15.
Study to show thyself approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now this is interesting. Not only are we to look for Christ in it, but we are to rightly divide it.
The fact that we're told to rightly divide it would tell us also that there are divisions in Scripture.
There are things that pertain to the Church. There are things that pertain to Israel. There are things that differ, and God would have us to make those distinctions when we look into the Scriptures. Otherwise we're going to jumble everything together and come up with a hodgepodge, which is.
What is known as Reformed theology, where they mix Israel and the church together and so on. Fact that he's telling us to rightly divide in the word of God tells us this too, that it's possible to wrongly divide. It's possible to take up the word of God and get it in its wrong day or its wrong setting, and you're going to end up miles from what the truth is. So it's important to realize that there are divisions in Scripture and we must pay attention to what is written to us and what is written to Israel and so on.
I have news for you. Not all. The Bible is written to you. In fact, very little of the Bible is written to the church. I mean, think of it. Maybe the axe epistles. Revelation. The rest of the Bible was written to Israel.
But while the Bible is not necessarily all written to us as Christians, it is all been written for us so we can read it and get principles for our lives and understand help us to understand the truth of God. So while not all of the scripture is written directly to us, it is all been written for us for our learning. That's what Romans 15 and verse four tells us is things were written a four time were written for our learning. The we, through patience and comfortable scriptures may have hope.
So it's written for our learning. We can get something from it. So even though.
Exodus 20 or 10 commandments is not written to me. I can still read Exodus 20 and learn something from it. I can learn of the moral ways of God, for instance.
And I think that's very important that we learn to rightly divide the scriptures. As I already overloaded in First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 32. I think it is, he says, given an offense to the Jew, the Gentile and the Church of God, showing that there are three different companies of people that God distinguishes in the earth.
Today and we need to be careful to understand what pertains to each turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 and.
We'll see a little more of that.
2nd Corinthians chapter 3 rather verse, six Second Corinthians 3 verse 6.
Who also have made us able ministers of the New Testament or could read New Covenant.
Not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter killeth. But the spirit giveth life or quickens.
Now this is interesting. Paul and his coworkers spoke of themselves as able ministers of the New Covenant.
May I ask you, what is the New Covenant? Or maybe I could ask you this, where is the New Covenant found in the Bible now? I think probably half you would say, well, the New Testament, isn't it? No, the New Covenant is in the Old Testament.
I know it's quoted in Hebrews 8, but it's quoting the Old Testament, the Old Covenants in the Old Testament, and the New Covenants in the Old Testament.
The old and the new covenants were made.
With Israel, and will be made with Israel in the coming day. Nothing to do with the Church.
But those who are Christian ministers, like the Apostle Paul, could take of those things that applied to Israel and become an able minister in ministering the spirit of those things, those things that are the character of them, even though they are not the direct thing itself as far as fulfillment is concerned.
00:20:17
And that's very important. So he says here made us able ministers of the new covenant. None of the latter.
Those things with regard to the letter of the New Covenant will be made with Israel a coming day.
But he says, but of the Spirit. And that's a small ***. That is the spirit of that passage.
We can gain a lesson from and we can learn of God's ways in grace because he's going to have grace toward Israel in that coming day, not of the latter.
But of the Spirit.
So I think that's important to see. Now here's something that I would like to pass on to as a general rule.
As a general rule, when something in the new test is meant written in the New Testament, that is quoted from the Old Testament, and it's a fulfillment, it will say it's a fulfillment.
As a general rule.
Otherwise, it's referring to it because of its character or a principle that's mentioned there in connection with it. Now let's look at. I'll demonstrate that turn to John 19.
This is important to see. This because our dear Reformed theologians that make up a large portion of the Christian profession today do not understand this principle and they have mixed the church with Israel because they have passed over this. It is not a new doctrine that's out there. It's a very, very old doctrine. The reformers believe these things before the recovery of the truth happened in 1800s.
And uh.
Yeah, it's permeated the Christian profession today. John 19 and verse 20.
4 Verse 24 They said therefore among themselves. Let us not rend it talking about the Lords garment, but cast lots for it. Whose it should be that the scripture might be fulfilled. The narrator comes in now.
Which saith they parted my garment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots.
These things therefore the soldiers did. Isn't this interesting? So we find here that this which they did is an actual fulfillment because it says it is and we know where it is. Son and I, Psalm 22 turn over a little further in that same chapter to verse 36.
For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him should not be broken. Now that's a quote from the Passover Exodus 12. And we know that the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover. He is the Passover lamb. And so those scriptures with regard to the Passover in type have been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus death.
Now let's go on to the next verse, and again another scripture saith. They shall look on him whom they have pierced or they pierced. But notice something doesn't say fulfilled here.
37 doesn't say that, just says and another scripture.
Now why? Because it's not a fulfillment.
That's being that's quoted from Zechariah 12 When at the appearing of Christ, he will come back and show himself to the remnant of the Jews.
And they're going to look on Him and whom they have pierced and mourn in repentance and get restored to him. It hasn't happened yet. But the Spirit of God has taken that scripture and quoted it here because in principle that's what happened. They were looking on him whom they appears. That's the very people of Israel who crucified Him. Only then they're going to look on him. And repentance here they were not. But the principle is brought forward from the Old Testament and applied here. Now that's very important to understand this distinction.
Turn over to Acts now a couple verses further. Acts, chapter 2 and verse 16. Talking about the the Day of Pentecost, verse 16, Chapter 216. But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel, that shall come to pass in the last days. That God shall pour out his spirit upon all flesh, And your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, and your young men shall see visions. And your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaids will I pour out in those days my spirit, and they shall prophecy. And I will do wonders in heaven above. And signs in the earth beneath blood and fire and vapor and smoke.
The sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before the great and notable day.
Of the Lord come now here again notice it does not say that this is a fulfillment.
This is a quotation from the prophet Joel chapter three, I think It is no chapter 2. And there he's talking about the last days of Israel. When the Lord comes back and he restores them, he's going to pour out his spirit on the nation, and there's going to be these wonderful expressions of power of God by the Spirit. But in the day of Pentecost, there were certain things out of that same character were happening when the church was formed. And he quotes that as Peter quotes by the power of the Spirit, that passage and applies it in character and in principle.
00:25:29
Doesn't say it's fulfilled because it wasn't fulfilled. And as I say, there are those who are trying to tell us that the Church of Brother Israel, the promises to Israel, have been fulfilled in the Church, and they'll turn to passages like this to support their erroneous doctrine, but they have missed the point.
I well, you have to go all the way through the book of the Acts. You'll see what is fulfilled and what is lonely looking at a character. And let me just look at chapter 3 and verse 18 turn one more page, Chapter 3, verse 18.
But those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets that Christ should suffer.
Hath he so fulfilled? So all the passages in the Old Testament with regard to a suffering Messiah were fulfilled in the death of Christ. That's what it says.
Turn to Chapter 8 now.
Chapter 8.
And verse 28, This is the Ethiopian eunuch. He's driving on his chariot. He's going home to his land of Ethiopia, and it says here.
Verse 28 was returning and sitting on his chariot he read Isaiah's the prophet. Then the spirit said to Philip go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet. Isaiah's and said understand is what thou readest. And he said, how can I accept some man should guide me. And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him in the place of the scripture which you read was this he had let his sheep.
To slaughter and like a lamb dumb before, sure. So he opened not his mouth and in his humiliation and his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation, for his life was taken from the earth, and so on. But notice here we know that's Isaiah 53. You notice Philip never said to the eunuch that this was fulfilled when the Lord Jesus died at the cross. Now why wouldn't he say that? You say Isaiah 53 It's all about the sufferings of Christ, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
But Isaiah 53 has not yet been fulfilled, he said. What are you talking about? Is the Lord going to die again? Now what are you? What are you talking about? Well, it's important that we get an understanding of the the, the context of the whole passage to see that it's talking about the remnant of Israel confessing their part in cruising.
When they did it in ignorance, now their eyes will be opened, and they will see that he indeed was dying for their sins on the cross. It is yet to be fulfilled, and it will happen at the appearing of Christ, because it's a description of the confession of the remnant in a coming day when they realize and it all comes together for them what Christ did at the cross. That's the proper.
Setting here of that, do I just think that's interesting to know? And I could go on through the passage through the book of Acts, but I don't have time. It'll be digressing too far.
Another place you'll see distinctions in scripture that is the divisions are to do with Israels last days and the churches last days. Have you not read in first Peter chapter one for instance where it says there in verse 20 it'll say who verily was for ordained for you in these last days talking about the death of the Lord Jesus. He died in the last days.
What? That's what it says, Hebrews one tells us. Two. He came in the last days, spoke to us and son.
And then you turn over to Second Timothy, where we are right here in verse chapter 3, verse one, he talks about the last days too, but he's talking about a different last days. One is talking about the last days of God's dealings with Israel. That's when the Lord Jesus died.
There's still seven more years of Israel's last days to be fulfilled until they will be restored. But if you just take for a minute the church and God's dealings with the church over this last 2000 years out as a parenthesis, really, the Lord died in the last seven years, roughly of God's dealings with Israel. And so we need to distinguish and divide where God divides in the word of God and see that that's talking about the last days of Israel's God's dealing with Israel. Timothy here is talking about the last days of the church.
We are in those last days now, and everything you read about in Second Timothy 3 gives you to see that we are indeed in the last closing moments.
00:30:02
Now our verse of which we are reading in two Timothy, chapter 215. I know I've digressed all over the place, but that's where we are, and it's talking about rightly dividing the word of truth. Remember when it says study?
That word could be translated strive diligently so and the workmen that needs not be ashamed. When I think of a Workman, what do you think of a man with his tools?
You need tools. If you're going to be a Workman in the things of God and the word of God, you need to have a few tools. What are the workmen's basic tools? Well, if you would ask a Carpenter like Robert here, he'd say a hammer and a saw and a screwdriver and so on. Well, in the viable Workman, he needs to have a Bible. A good Bible. I suggest a wide margin Bible.
He needs to have a good critical translation like Jan Darby's, where you can find the exact mean words and what they mean in the original language, and if there's any difference from the original or from the altar Reading in the King James Version, he can explain to you why very good, very important, need a good concordance.
Bible dictionary. These are the tools of a Workman.
An interlinear maybe? And so on.
And word studies are good, but remember they are just but that words you need to get food for our souls.
So the point I'm getting at here is that we need to rightly divide the word of truth or we're going to get so far off.
Now let's turn to second. Peter.
Second Peter chapter one.
Second Peter, chapter one and verse.
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy came not an old time by the will of man, but holy man of God spake, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And so here we have another great principle that's needed.
For profitable Bible study. And that is not only are we to rightly divide it, but we are to interpret it.
Interpret it in the light of all other Scripture. God wants us to read it, to receive it, to look for Christ in it, to rightly divide it, and also to interpret it in the light of all other Scripture. This is important.
Very important. A golden rule.
Of all Bible interpretation is that we interpret Scripture in the light of all other scripture. A private interpretation is really a an interpretation of a particular passage or a verse that the solution and the meaning is all found there in that verse and cannot be supported anywhere else in the Bible. He says that's dangerous and he said the prophecy of Scripture is of no private interpretation.
And this is something that often happens with people who get a bug in their ear or a hobby horse, and they begin to see one thing in the Bible and they can see it on every page after a while.
I know a man. He could see the assembly on every page of his Bible. I know another man. You could see the family on every page of the Bible. And another man I know he could see. Well, yeah, courtship and whatever else, you know, on every page of the Bible. After a while it seemed to me anyway, I'm exaggerating, of course.
The scriptures are no private interpretation and we have to be careful about isolating it. So my point here now is this. We are to divide it, but not isolated. OK, let me say that again. We are to divide it but not isolate it and come up with our own private meaning with regard to that verse that cannot be supported by anything else.
If you run into a position situation like that, you'd be sure that you're on shaky ground, but to be very careful here. Now Jan Darby said that this verse could almost be translated. It's in his footnote in his new translation. It could almost be translated. No prophecy of scripture interprets itself, he said. Almost, because he said that's going being a little extreme because, I mean, there are some verses that obviously can be interpreted with itself. You don't need the rest of the Bible, for instance, for all of sin to come short of the glory of God.
Now, does that anything more plain than that? You don't need the rest of the Bible to tell you what that means. But the prophecies of Scripture generally will support one another, and they work together as a harmonious whole. And we need to be careful of getting it, Getting a thought or an idea on a particular verse that cannot be supported by the whole of Scripture. That's the point. Have you ever heard people say, well, that's your interpretation. My interpretation is such and such.
00:35:01
You know, friends, that's shaky ground to get involved with your interpretation and my interpretation. Let's get this straight here this afternoon. We don't want your interpretation. We don't want my interpretation. We want God's interpretation. And this book interprets itself. We need to look within the covers of this book. It will interpret itself for us. So in a certain sense, we have no right to even try to interpret the Scripture in a certain sense.
It interprets itself. The Workman that rightly divides in the Scripture is to seek God's interpretation for it, and it will interpret itself. There will be other passages that will throw light on the one we're looking at, and they will fit together like hand and glove. It's dangerous when we isolate passage. That's my point here.
Be careful of looking into the word of God and saying, well, this means to me. This means to me that you know what this means to me.
What this means is what you should be asking when you look at the Bible, not what this means to me because you're opening the door to whatever you feel at the time. And we just said we're not looking for what our thoughts are, we're looking for God's thoughts. Notice that Paul? I didn't read it there. But in Acts 17, have you noticed that what Paul's habit was when he went to the Jews and the synagogue, it says he reasoned with them out of the scriptures?
He didn't reason into the scriptures. He reasoned out of the scriptures. He took his reasonings from the the statements, the clear statements of scripture and brought them before them and they were convinced that Christ was in the scriptures. But the danger today, and has been in those days too, was to reason into the scriptures. Well I think this so therefore I'm going to go look for it and see if I can find something that will support it. That's dangerous. We reason out not in to the scriptures.
Now, there's two things that we need to consider when we're looking into proper, correct Bible interpretation, and the first one is consider the context of the passage. Consider the context of the passage.
That is, the verses that surround the one that we're looking at. Look at the whole tenor of the chapter.
Does it fit with the context of the passage? You know, when we bought our first house, the realtor sat down and talked to us and he said something like this here. Now remember that when you're buying a house, the important thing is location. In fact, there are three great rules in buying real estate. He said the 1St is location, the 2nd is location, the third is location. And you know, I like to think of that with regard to Bible interpretation, There are three great rules. Context.
Context. Context.
We got to get the context of the passage. Let me demonstrate that turn to hold your hand here. But Isaiah chapter 41, the end of verse 6.
Oh yeah verse six and seven of Isaiah 41. They helped everyone his neighbor and everyone said to his brother be of good courage. So the Carpenter and carpets of Goldsmith and he smoothed with the hammer him the smoke with the anvil saying it is ready for the soldering and he fastened it with nails that it should not be moved. I've.
Dear Sister came to me not too long ago and showed me this scripture. Isn't this encouraging, To think that God would write such things in this Bible to encourage our hearts? And I told her, well, actually, that's really not talking about encouraging the Saints going on for the things of the Lord. That's actually encouraging people in wickedness. Read the context of the chapter, the context of that verse. If you read it in your own time, you'll find that these are a bunch of idolaters that have got together, and they're encouraging each other in wickedness, in building their wicked idols and bowing down to them. Oh good, you're doing a good job building that.
That wicked idol. I hardly can take that as an application for my own soul.
When I think of it that way. So context is very, very important. Philippians 313 comes to mind as another example. You know you don't have to turn to it, but you know that verse that says forgetting those things which are behind the press forward to the things that are before and.
Press on to Christ being the prize and so on. Oftentimes we'll read pastors like that. We'll think of maybe some sad instances in our lives, or maybe.
Something that somebody did wrong to us or maybe even our pre conversion sends a person maybe.
Bemoan himself with it, and he, somebody might say, well, forgetting those things that are behind. We press forward to the things. That's all very well and good, and I sure we suppose we could make an application there. But really it's talking about not forgetting the sinful things and the bad things that have happened to us in our life is talking about forgetting the good things.
In a sense that it man in the flesh could take glory in and pride himself in, That's what that's talking about, forgetting good things. Suppose I was a man that was given to trying to be a fantastic athlete and I gave my life to it for a number of years and then the Lord woke me up and I got going on the path of the Lord. I should forget those things. Trying to climb to the heights of fame and being a great athlete or musician or artist or whatever it may be. In Paul's case it was trying to be the the best in the Jews religion.
00:40:27
And now he says I'm forgetting those things, trying to achieve something. There's another example of how we need to read the context if we're going to get the passage. We can't just isolate a verse or a line of scriptures. Oh, this is great.
I know you can make an application, but remember there is an interpretation that we need to stick close to. Now. The second great point that we need to consider with regard to Bible interpretation and that is that we need to consider the whole tenor of Scripture, not just look around the verses in that chapter to see if it fits. Because there may be times when it kind of looks like it fits that chapter. Maybe the context is right even though we may have an erroneous idea, but does it fit?
The second point, and that is, does it fit with the whole tenor of Scripture?
And if it's an erroneous idea, it will not. Now, case in point here, and I'm not asking you to turn to it because we want to hurry along, but.
And Matthew 13, I think it's verse 33 or 34. Somewhere on there talks about the woman who hid 11 in the three measures of meal. And where are many Christians? I'm not picking on the Reformed theologians again, but again, it is now. I just remembered that will tell us that that's a picture of the gospel. It's going out throughout all the world and just permeating the whole world. People are getting saved everywhere.
Well.
Does that fit the context? Now this is interesting.
Maybe because you know, Matthew 13 is all about the sword that went forth, the soul, and he sows good seed and brings up fruit. So maybe, maybe. But does it fit the tenor of whole scripture? No. No it doesn't. You know, leaven throughout scripture is never looked at as something good.
Always looked at as evil. Always. Always. Always. So it does not fit with the tenor of all the scripture. So let me just tell you some of the different places that you'll find us, or at least a.
You have in Scripture the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. You've got the leaven of the Sadducees, which is infidelity.
You got the leaven of Herod, which is worldliness. You got the 11 of the Corinthians, which was moral corruption. You get the 11 of the Galatians, which is evil doctrine and you get the leaven of this woman in Matthew 13. That must be something evil. So you go back and you look at that and you say, well, it doesn't add up to the rest of the scriptures. I must got something wrong here. So you look at it, you look at it, you look at it and you find out it's the 11 of ecclesiastical evil. The reason why I say that is because there's three women in the scripture in New Testament, only three, and they all of them speak to us of ecclesiastical evil.
One is the rise in the growth of it, the other is the full development in the Dark Ages, and the last is the full blown state. And after the church is gone in the harlot and Revelation 17. And then it fits the tenor of all. I think it's important that we pay attention to not only the context, the chapter where we're reading, but also the whole tenor of Scripture.
All right. We're going to have to move along here.
Let's turn to Acts Chapter 8.
Well, I'll just read a couple of verses in Acts chapter 8. It's another important point and I already read this, so bear with me. Verse 30. And Philip randither heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and he said understand us, what they'll read us. And he said how can I accept some man should guide me and he desired Phillip that he would come up and sit with him turn to chapter 18.
Verse 24 A certain Jew named Paul is born in Alexandria, an eloquent man.
And mighty in the scriptures came to Ephesus, this man was instructed in the way of the Lord. Being fervent in spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him.
Unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into a kid, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him who when he was come, he helped them much which had believed through grace, and he mightily convinced the Jews, and publicly showing from the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. I'm not going to ask you to turn to any more passages here, but we could turn over to the 4th chapter of Ephesians, well known to everybody.
00:45:14
And that is 4th of Ephesians. There were talks about the gifts that have been given to the church for the the building up the Saints and the edifying of the body and the perfecting of the Saints. And they come to the unity of the faith. My point here now is this.
Have it explained to you?
By those who have been taught of God.
Avail yourself of the gifts that have been given to the Church, and even if someone is not necessarily gifted, like it doesn't say policy and a equivalent and Priscilla were at least they were taught in the word of God, and they could explain things to this man Apollos, and he got a benefit from it. So not only are we to rightly divide, we are to interpret it, but we're also to get it explained to us from those who are gifts to the Church. Avail yourself of those things.
Which God has given to us as far as gifts to the Church. This is important. You know we.
God knows it is difficult. Maybe there's someone here that says I feel just like that eunuch. I'm reading scripture, I don't know what I'm reading. Understand it's what thou readest. He asked. He says I don't know. How could I? I need some man to help me. Well, God has provided men to help you. He has given gifts to the church and you need to avail yourselves of what God has given. It could be by attending meetings. Come to the Bible meetings where there is ministry being given, where we'll go through a chapter and explain the verses and help us to understand it.
Or it may be through a book of ministry pamphlet or something that's been written down and published, or maybe even captured on oral ministry, captured on tape. There's there's a number of ways in which we can actually get help on the scriptures. But I'm telling you now, this is, I see from scripture here a principle that God would have us to avail ourselves of. I don't like his brother. Heinz used to tell us the Robinson Crusoe type of Christian. Now you know the story of Robinson Crusoe. He's this guy who was on an island by himself.
I thought he thinks that the whole world revolves around his island, and sometimes we can get like that we we become an island Christian. We don't want anybody else thought on the scripture or anything. We've got our own ideas and we're almost always we'll run into bad doctrine along the line because we need the checks and balances of one another. If it's even in written ministry or by talking to different brothers and sisters in the word of God, avail yourselves of what God has put in the church.
And your brethren is my point here. It's very helpful.
Do you have a verse that you've been reading and you just can't seem to get the context? You can't get the interpretation. You can go to an older brother and ask him. Or a younger brother. I've been corrected by younger brothers. Don't try it now. But I mean, you know.
We need to be open and like this menopause. He was mighty in the scriptures. He was the most eloquent man that probably walked into that synagogue.
But he was open to receiving something from a tent maker and his wife. How humiliating.
I can't be taught by that person. Reminds me of Mr. Wolston. Mr. Wolston, You know, WTP Wolsten, good doctor. They used to call him Man. It was a powerful evangelist and a gifted man amongst the Lord's people. When he was under conviction about getting saved, you read the account of it. His mother told him, well, why don't you go listen to Richard Weaver. He was a rough man that got saved and preached the gospel. He's a man that was in the bars and there's just a rough, rough man. Well, WTP Wilson said when he found out about that, he left the house and he never went because he found out on the way that there was this Richard Weaver guy was just some derelict that had been saved.
Or converted to God or something, he said. I can't get saved by that kind of a man. I'm too good of a man. I'm a an intern of a being, A to be a doctor.
He was too proud and God had to humble listen.
And I think was Andrew Miller that preached and he got saved. No, it was Charles Stanley. Excuse me.
No, we don't want to be that way. Can't receive it because, you know, we're.
That's just you and I'm me.
The spirit that this man Paulus had was beautiful. And that's the spirit that we need. It's the spirit of Mary. Okay, Let's move along here. Now. We've got 5 minutes. Let's turn to Psalm 119. No, Psalm One. Let's turn to Psalm One first, First two verses. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law doth He meditate day and night.
00:50:10
Then 100 and 19119 and verse 97 Oh how I love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments, have made me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I suppose you can understand what I'm saying now, and that is we need to meditate on it.
Having read the scriptures, received it.
And seek its bearing when relation to Christ. And we're rightly dividing it with regards to Israel and the church and so on, and interpret it in its proper context. And had somebody explain it to us to be understand it even more clearly, then what are we to do? We're to meditate on it. We are to put it in our think tank, if I could put it that way, and muse over it through the day as we go about our responsibilities. That's important, you know, to meditate on the scriptures.
And when we do that, it will become sweet to our souls. You know that it was.
It was. It was John, the fear in Revelation 10. You know the story, right, because you read the Bible. John in Revelation 10, he took the little book, which is all the Old Testament prophecies, and he was to go to the great Angel that was there and the and the and he was told to take the book out of his hand and eat it. And when he ate it, it was very sweet to his taste, but then it became bitter in his belly. You know the story. And I think when we eat the things of God, it is meditated, assimilated.
Take it in. And that's what meditation really implies. It becomes sweet to our souls.
Well, we're looking at Psalm 119. Turn back to verse 11 for another one.
119 verse 11 Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee, and I'll read a verse in Titus one it says, holding fast the faithful word. And so the point here is, is that we need to.
Hide it in our hearts. Hold it fast in our hearts. Hide it in our hearts. Whatever way you want to look at that, that's good, you know.
We need to hide it. That's the proper lodging place of this truth of God. Once we learn it in the heart, it's not in the mind. Because if it's in the mind, you can lose it. But in the heart it becomes part of the life and it affects us completely. Old Mr. Keating, where I came from, he's now with the Lord. Many years He used to say there's three things here. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee? He said thy word. That's the best thing. My heart. That's the best place that I might not sit against thee. That's the best reason.
So we have the best thing hit in the best place for the best reason. I like that.
OK, let's pass on here now to Luke's Gospel Chapter 8.
And verse 15.
I know we've turned a lot of scriptures, but what can I do?
God's word gives us all these points with regard to profitable Bible study.
8th chapter of Luke verse 15. But that on the good ground he's talking about the seed that's thrown. On the good ground are they which with an honest heart and a good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. And then in second Timothy we're only going to turn to one more passage after this. If I if that's any good news for you, I'm sorry but we turn to so many here. The second Timothy chapter one very very well known passage verse 13 and 14. Hold fast or have an outline of sound words which thou has heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus, that good thing or that good deposit which was committed to the keep.
By the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. You can see what I'm getting out here. Now, these two passages I've read Luke 8 and for second Timothy one, and that is we need to keep it by putting it into practice and getting an outline of it.
We need to keep it, and when it does, kept by putting it into practice, into our lives, It's going to bring forth fruit. And Paul tells Timothy that he needed to have a sound outline of his words that he taught because that was the way in which he would be able to keep that good deposit.
It's very important that we get ahold of that. He's not telling Timothy here in this verse that he should learn Pauls doctrine.
I know many people have often said that, but that's nobody saying here. The reason why I say that with confidently is because in the third chapter he says thou hast fully known my doctrine. He already knew it.
00:55:01
But he's saying take it a step further and get it into an outline form, that you'll be able to keep it better so you don't lose any part of it. And also you'll go in the second chapter and show you that you need to share it. And if you have it in an outline form, it's easier to disseminate. And that brings us to our last point. And this is the last verse I promise to turn to. And that's Psalm 68, verse 11, Psalm 68, verse 11.
And this one is.
The Lord gave the word. Great was the company of those that published it. There you have it. Great was the public company of those that published it. We need to publish it.
Not only do we want to read it, we want to receive it, Look for Christ in it, rightly divide it, interpret it in the light of all of the Scripture. Have it explained to us by those gifts that God has given to the Church. Meditate on it, Hold it fast in our hearts, or hide it in our hearts.
Keep it by putting it into practice and to publish it, to disseminate it, to give it out to others. What a privilege that is.
And when you do that?
Do it.
As coming from your heart because that what she comes from the heart will go to the heart of others and it will register with them. If it's just a lot of intellectual knowledge, they'll pick up on that and say you know, and if it's used with a lot of strange phraseology or archaeasms, they don't know what you're talking about. You think of it. People are unexposed to these things and you come up to them and start talking like Shakespeare or something. They don't know what you're talking about. They think you ran into to him, you know, so.
Clarity in publishing is what I'm getting at here now, so very important. Now let's pray.