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Thank you Mark for filling in tonight for John as his assistant.

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Well I don't know about you but I really liked the march, didn't you?

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Yep.

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Brought back a lot of memories.

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How many of you played in a high school band?

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Would you lift your hand?

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Oh that's great.

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That's probably a good quarter of us here tonight.

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Did you play El Capitan?

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Would you lift your hand?

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Yes, that's some of you who played in the bands.

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Were there any tuba players or sousaphone players?

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Would you lift your hands?

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Yes, amen.

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There are several of us.

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That was my instrument.

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That's why they called me Hot Lips when I was in high school.

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And the only reason.

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Well tonight we are going to take up part two of our study on Here We Stand, dealing

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with what we believe as a church about the Bible.

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Last week I read to you from our doctrinal statement about it.

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Just to summarize our convictions regarding the Bible, we believe that the Bible is the

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revelation of God.

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By that we mean God's self-disclosure.

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God has told us of himself in this book, the Bible.

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It is given to us by inspiration.

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That is the work of the Holy Spirit in and upon the writers of Scripture.

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So that what they wrote were the very words that God wanted them to author.

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That results in what we call an inerrant record.

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By that we mean there is no error in the Scripture of any sort.

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And we believe that it has been accurately preserved for us too by God's work down

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through the ages so that we have today a Bible that is trustworthy and a Bible that possesses

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final authority in all that we believe and how we behave.

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Both in faith and in practice this book becomes our final authority.

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That it in fact is God's word is proven by several things.

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First of all, what I call a structural argument.

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In other words, it's amazing unity written over 1,500 or so years by 35 or 40 different

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authors, most of whom who did not know each other.

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People from various backgrounds who lived in different places there in the mid-east.

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And yet despite all of that diversity, there is a theme that runs right through the Bible

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so that instead of 66 individual books, we have as well one book with one theme.

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And that is the theme of redemption.

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A second argument for the fact that the Bible is God's word is an historical argument in

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the fulfilled prophecies.

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It would be impossible to calculate the likelihood of the prophecies that have been fulfilled

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if it were done by chance.

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There had to be a mind behind these words which is eternal, which knows the beginning

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from the end, and who is therefore able to accurately predict coming events.

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Those events range from circumstances in the lives of individuals to the course of Gentile

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world history.

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Because of these prophecies and the fulfillment of them, we know the Bible to be the word

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of God, the historical argument.

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But then what I call the effectual argument, that is its transforming power.

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The Bible is unlike any other book, including all of religious literature.

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It has the ability within itself to transform a life.

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Yes, there are religious writings that can cause people to turn over new leaves, which

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can cause them to try harder or to go through a moral transformation of sorts.

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But not the complete, in-depth, spiritual transformation that takes place through the

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words of this book, which is living and abides forever.

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And finally, the internal argument, because the Bible claims that it is the word of God.

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Some 2,000 times in the Old Testament, 525 times at least in the New Testament, it claims

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to be what it is, the word of the living God.

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Listen with me to the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament.

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Let's look at one example of how the Bible claims to be the word of God and how this

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author speaks by the work of God in his own mind and life.

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Jeremiah 1,9.

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These are the words now of Jeremiah the prophet.

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He says, Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth.

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And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

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And then in verse 17 he says, Now gird up your loins and arise and speak to them all

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which I command you.

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God is speaking here to Jeremiah.

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Do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you before them.

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So Jeremiah is speaking by God's work in his life, the work of inspiration.

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Now we see this same kind of claim that these words are the words of God in the New Testament.

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For example, turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and let's look at the words of the apostle

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Paul.

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1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13.

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And for this reason, writes Paul, we also constantly thank God that when you received

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from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it

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really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.

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Paul says when we came to you, we came preaching to you the word of God.

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The Bible claims to be God's word.

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And then turn over to 2 Peter chapter 3.

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I think I referred to this verse briefly last week, but notice in verse 15, we're going

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back to verse 14 to catch the sentence.

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2 Peter 3, 14, he writes, Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, that is the

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prophecies he has just written, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and

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blameless and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation.

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This is also our beloved brother Paul, notice this, according to the wisdom given him, wrote

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to you, as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things.

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So what is Peter saying?

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He is authenticating the fact that what Paul wrote to them was in fact the word of God.

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And he goes on to say, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and

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unstable distort, as they do also the rest of scriptures to their own destruction.

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So Paul is saying, or rather Peter is saying here that what Paul wrote is equated with

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the other scriptures.

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The Bible throughout claims to be the word of God.

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But tonight I want to focus primarily on how do we know what the Bible means.

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If there is any argument that is raging today, it is the argument of how to interpret the

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Bible.

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When we claim that the Bible says this or that, it is not uncommon for someone to say

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in response if they are on another side, well that is what you think the Bible says, but

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what I think the Bible says is blah blah blah, and on they go.

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So how do we know what the Bible really means and what it says?

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That is a key question.

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That brings us to what is called the subject of hermeneutics.

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That is the science and art of interpreting the Bible.

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There are some approaches to hermeneutics or to interpretation which are false or at

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best weak.

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I would just like to go over them briefly with you so that you understand where some

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other people are coming from.

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For example, there are those who approach the scriptures to interpret them allegorically.

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In other words, they search to find a hidden meaning in the words of scripture.

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They take the words and they say rather than understanding these words literally for what

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they say, we need to try to find the hidden meaning that is here.

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Now the problem with the allegorical method of interpreting the Bible is that it is left

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to the fancies of each individual's imagination to come up with whatever that hidden meaning

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may be.

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This is the method that is used primarily by the Roman Catholic Church.

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When they come to the Bible, they interpret it allegorically.

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Now some examples of interpretation which they have used in their commentaries would

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be as follows.

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Here are examples of allegorical interpretation.

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In the book of Genesis where it says, let there be light, how do you understand that?

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What does that mean?

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Well we understand it to mean that God said let there be light and there was light.

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That it's an historical statement as a part of creation.

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But in the commentaries, at least one commentary of the Roman Catholic Church, here is their

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interpretation of let there be light.

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They say it means, quote, let Christ be loved.

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Isn't that wonderful?

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Say where do they get that?

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Well that's just what somebody feels is behind those words.

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That's the hidden meaning in let there be light.

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In the book of Daniel, you know there is that division of a tree and there's a root that

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is involved.

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The Roman Catholics interpret that root of the tree in Daniel's vision to be proof of

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the immaculate conception of Mary.

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That's how they interpret that.

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Rebecca at the well, you remember the story from the book of Genesis.

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What does that mean?

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Well we understand that to mean that there was a woman one time by the name of Rebecca

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and that she was at a well.

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And it was there that she was found and then brought to Isaac.

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Well here's how they interpret it allegorically.

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They say what that means is, here's the interpretation allegorically.

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It means go daily to the scriptures to meet Christ.

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So you see those thoughts are maybe okay in themselves, maybe.

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But the point is that's not at all what those verses mean.

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Unless you interpret it allegorically.

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That is trying to find for some hidden meaning in the literal words of scripture.

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Then there is the liberal approach to interpreting the Bible.

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They say when you interpret the Bible, whatever you come up with rests upon, is predicated

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upon, man's reasoning and experience.

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And if it doesn't fit with your ability to rationalize or with your own experience, then

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you must toss out what that says.

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Of course this subjects God's revelation to man's intellect.

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To them any statement in scripture where God intervenes is unreasonable.

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And therefore they totally reject Genesis 1 through 11 because of the amazing interventions

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of God.

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It talks about creation there, the beginning of sin.

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It talks about the flood.

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It talks about the tower of Babel.

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They say well there's no way to interpret all of that literally.

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I mean it's just unreasonable to think that such things could ever happen.

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And therefore they approach it a different way.

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But they reject the literal understanding of it.

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Likewise they reject the miracles of Christ and call them but myths and legends.

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Then there is a school that is called neo-orthodox.

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That may be a new term to some of you.

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But it is a school of theology.

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The way they approach scripture is this.

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They try to discover what they call the word, capital W, behind the words of scripture.

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Here's how it works.

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You read the Bible.

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You read these words.

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And all of a sudden some verse just leaps off the page at you.

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That verse then becomes to you the word of God.

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It may not be the word of God to somebody else.

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But at that moment that verse is inspired to you.

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And therefore it becomes the word of God.

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They believe that the Bible contains myths that has errors in history and science and

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geography and so on.

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But nonetheless the words and sentences can leap off the page in some kind of a moment

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of experience.

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They become inspired to you.

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And at that moment they become the word of God.

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We accept the Bible literally as the word of God.

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Now there are those who laugh at that and who make fun of it these days, even in some

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so-called evangelical seminaries.

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They say, how can you really believe the Bible to be literally the word of God?

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Well, you have to understand what literal interpretation of the Bible means.

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What it means is that we understand the words and the sentences of Scripture in their normal,

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usual, customary, proper designation.

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In other words, we approach the Bible something like you approach a newspaper.

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When you got out the newspaper today, if you get a Sunday newspaper, you read the front

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page.

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You interpreted that in one way.

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Because that is supposed to be hard news.

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And so you interpret that as fact.

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Then you turn to the editorial page.

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And you know that this is not necessarily fact, but this is opinion.

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And so you very naturally and normally interpret the editorial page a little differently.

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And then you turn to the page that you really been looking forward to, the comic strips.

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And you read that and you interpret that entirely differently because you know what that is.

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Now, what are you doing?

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You are reading the newspaper literally or normally.

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You're simply using the words, the sentences, and understanding them in the normal, customary

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way in which they're used.

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Now, that is the way that we approach the Bible.

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Sometimes it's called the normal, sometimes it's called the historical, geographical interpretation,

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or excuse me, the historical grammatical interpretation of the Bible.

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Now, I'd like just to review with you just some principles that we follow in interpreting

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the Bible.

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As in any science, there are certain laws or principles that are used in interpreting

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the Bible.

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Interpreting the Bible is a science.

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It's an art as well.

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But it's a science.

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You say, well, I haven't been to seminary.

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I don't think that I can interpret the Bible.

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My friend, anybody can interpret the Bible.

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You don't have to go to seminary to try to interpret the Bible.

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In fact, sometimes it takes you years to get over seminary.

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So don't feel like you have to have a graduate degree in Greek or Hebrew or archeology or

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in theology in order to interpret the Bible.

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You have to have none of those things.

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Not that they're bad.

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They can be of assistance to you and help you.

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But anybody can interpret the Bible.

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But there are certain basic principles that we use when we follow the normal method of

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interpreting the Bible that I've explained and defined.

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We just allow the words to mean what they would normally, customarily mean.

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The first principle is this.

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I call it the principle of self-interpretation.

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What I mean by that is that the Bible, in some instances, will interpret and explain

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itself.

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So we don't have to guess what those words mean.

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Because God tells us in the Bible what they do mean.

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We could turn to some examples of Jesus' parables.

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Where he gave a parable, and you can read in some commentaries a very fanciful interpretation

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of what those parables mean.

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I mean people just go off the deep end sometimes explaining what Jesus meant in those words.

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And yet our Lord himself, in some instances, told us what he meant in those parables.

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In those cases we can apply this principle, the principle of self-interpretation.

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We let the Bible tell us itself what it means.

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An example of this would be back in Psalm 2.

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Go back there with me.

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Now Psalm 2 was written a thousand years before Christ.

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In Psalm 2 we have a number of interesting statements, but I'm particularly focusing

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on one that is in verse 7.

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I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord.

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He said to me, thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.

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Now if you have ever run into a Jehovah's Witness, they will go to a verse like this

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and they will say to you, what this verse means, now they're going to interpret it

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for you.

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What this verse means is that God begot Jesus, the Messiah.

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That he had a beginning.

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That there was some point when he began to be that he's not eternally existent.

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Because it says here, today I have begotten thee.

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And therefore they say he couldn't be eternal.

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They agree with us that this psalm applies to Messiah, to Jesus, but they say obviously

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God said, I have begotten thee.

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In other words, there was a beginning to him.

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But what does that verse mean?

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Here we have an example of self-interpretation.

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Go to the book of Acts now, and the 13th chapter, and the 33rd verse.

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The apostle Paul is preaching, in verse 32, let's begin there.

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He says, and we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers that God

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has fulfilled this promise to our children.

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And notice what he says, in that he raised up Jesus.

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As it is also written in the second psalm, thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.

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And so he quotes from Psalm 2, and he gives us the understanding of what God meant a thousand

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years before.

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It did not refer at all to Bethlehem, but it refers rather to the resurrection of the

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Son Jesus Christ.

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So what does that phrase in Psalm 2, 7 mean?

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The Bible tells us what it means.

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Acts 13, 33, it refers to not his birth, not his beginning, not to Bethlehem, but to his

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resurrection from the dead.

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An example of self-interpretation.

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I have to move ahead to another principle.

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I wish we could illustrate that some more, but I hope you get the gist of what I'm saying.

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Now there's a second principle that I want to name, the principle of normal interpretation.

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I've briefly stated something about this, but let me express a little more about it.

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It means that we accept the words as the author intended them to be read.

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Normally it is very clear in the writings of Scripture, as in most writings, whether

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the author intended for these words to be understood figuratively or literally.

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This principle simply means that we try to understand what the author intended as he

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wrote these words.

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We try to get into his skin, into his mind.

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As he wrote those words, what would be the normal understanding of that author as he

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penned them?

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Let me read to the words of Dr. David Cooper.

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He says, when the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense.

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Therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual literal meaning unless the

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fact of the immediate context indicates clearly otherwise.

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What's an example of this?

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Well, Jesus made a statement in the Gospel of John.

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He said, I am the door.

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Now there are those who laugh at those of us who believe in what is commonly called

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the literal interpretation of the Bible, and they say, you believe Jesus is a door?

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You believe he has four corners, a doorknob, that that's Jesus?

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Well obviously that is not what John intended as he wrote those words.

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In fact, that wasn't even the kind of door that was in mind there in the context in John

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chapter 10.

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He was talking about a sheepfold, and there's a whole picture that's built up.

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What do we do?

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Well, we go back to John chapter 10 and we look at the context there, and we see that

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he wasn't literally saying that Jesus Christ is a door.

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It's figurative in that case.

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What it means is that he is the way of salvation, that he is the way to God.

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Another example would be found in the Old Testament in Psalm 60 and verse 2, where God

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says Moab is my wash pot, overeat him, I will cast out my shoe.

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Well are we to accept that literally to mean then that God has a face that he washes, that

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God has feet on which he wears shoes?

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Of course not.

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God is spirit.

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He has no face in that sense.

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He does not have feet in that sense.

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Again God is speaking obviously here in a figurative way.

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What he's saying is, in this statement, is that Moab, Edom, will be his servants.

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It is a figurative statement and the context of it makes that clear.

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So what's the point here?

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Well we look for the meaning which the author intended.

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Did he intend for it to be understood literally or did he have some figurative meaning that's

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in view here?

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Another example of this is Luke chapter 16, the last part of the chapter, where Jesus

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talks about the man Lazarus, not his friend but the poor man, who died and went to Abraham's

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bosom and he talked about the rich man who died and went to Hades to the fire.

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All their people say, hey that's figurative.

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There is no real such thing as hell, as fire, as Hades.

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But if you look at the context there and you see what Luke is saying, he's quoting our

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Lord Jesus, there is no indication at all in the Bible that the author intended for

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that to be only figurative.

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As we read it very naturally in Luke chapter 16, it's obvious that Jesus is speaking literally

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in that case.

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So that's another example of normal interpretation.

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We simply understand the words normally, try to understand it from the viewpoint of the

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author.

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Another important principle is that of contextual interpretation.

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I've already used the word context but let me re-emphasize the fact that whenever we

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understand Scripture, try to understand Scripture, we have to look at the context.

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Bernard Ram in his book, The Principles of Biblical Interpretation quotes a Dr. Todd

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this way, the Bible is no mere collection of good texts or verses put together without

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any relation to one another.

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A careful study very soon shows that each verse or passage has a very real relation

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to that which immediately precedes as well as what follows.

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In other words, we do not look at a verse of Scripture and try to understand it without

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looking at it in the larger context.

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What does it mean within that paragraph or within that chapter or within that book?

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For example, in the Old Testament there is a command.

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It says, go over this Jordan.

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Well, have you done that?

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Have you obeyed that command of God's word?

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If not, why not if you believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible?

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God said for you to go over the Jordan.

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Well, the reason you haven't obeyed that is because you're good interpreters of the

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Bible, obviously, besides the fact that Jordan River is 10,000 miles away.

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In the context, God is speaking to Joshua in the Old Testament.

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So what did God mean?

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God was telling Joshua and the people of Israel to go over the Jordan.

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But the context there clearly shows he's not speaking to all people for all time.

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Other times the context shows otherwise, that it's not just the individual, but it's all

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people.

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But the context will tell you.

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Did you know the Bible says there is no God?

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I can show you in the verse in the Bible where the Bible itself says there is no God, Psalm

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14.1.

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But if you look at the context, you find out what it says is the fool says in his heart,

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there is no God.

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The context changes it just a little bit, doesn't it?

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I think my favorite story along this line is the one that's told by John MacArthur.

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He tells of a preacher who was wailing away at the recent hairstyles of the women in his

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church and the text of scripture that he was using was, top knot go down.

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Top knot go down.

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He was trying to get them to let their hair down, not to put it up in a knot.

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Top knot go down.

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Where was this verse?

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Well in Matthew chapter 24 where it says, let him who is on the house top knot come

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down.

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You see?

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It makes a little difference, doesn't it?

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When you look at the words that surround that phrase.

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So this is the principle of contextual interpretation.

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Folks you have to look at the context.

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A lot of people get in trouble in Matthew 24 and 25.

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There are people there who teach strange things about the rapture because they see the rapture

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there and what it says to Noah, or about Noah, as it was the days of Noah.

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Is the rapture in Matthew 24 and 25?

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The context says no.

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He's talking to Israel.

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Does it teach there that the gospel must go into all the world before the rapture can

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come?

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It does not teach that in Matthew chapter 24.

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You have to look at the context, beloved, whenever you come to scripture.

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I wish I could go into that, but I have to go on.

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The principle of consistent interpretation, number four.

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What I mean by this is the Bible cannot contradict itself.

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It is consistent.

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And therefore we must interpret difficult passages with the light of the clear passages.

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If you have a passage that gives you trouble, and we all have passages like that, all of

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us, if you can't understand what that passage means, go to some other portion of scripture

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using some Bible study tool that you have guiding you to another portion of scripture,

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maybe a cross reference in your text or whatever, and allow that clearer portion of scripture

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to give you light regarding that difficult or dark portion of scripture.

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This is why some people come up with the idea that one can lose his salvation.

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They'll go back to Hebrews chapter six or Hebrews chapter ten to some difficult portion

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of scripture, and they'll say, see right there, it says that one can lose his salvation.

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But I'll tell you this, if Hebrews chapter six or Hebrews chapter ten teach that, then

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there are other clear portions of scripture not at all difficult to understand, which

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contradict that, and let's throw the whole book out.

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Because the principle of consistent interpretation says the Bible cannot contradict itself.

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There may be portions of scripture you will never understand to your satisfaction until

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you get to heaven.

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Don't let that disturb you.

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Don't let that disturb you.

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If you don't understand it, just thank God for the ones you do understand, for those

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clear portions of scripture.

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And finally, the principle of background interpretation.

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When you go to a passage of scripture, go to it as best as you can with some understanding

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of the history and the language and the author.

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Need to understand the terms, the places, the people involved here.

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There was one woman who refused to believe the Bible.

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You know why?

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Because she could not believe that the Israelites would carry Noah's ark around in the wilderness

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for 40 years.

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She wouldn't believe the Bible.

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What's her problem?

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She's ignorant.

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She's ignorant of this principle.

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She did not understand what the ark was which they carried in the wilderness.

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It was not Noah's ark to say the least.

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When we go to scripture to try to understand what it means, we have to have some understanding

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of its background.

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Now there are excellent aids which you can get.

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You don't have to study a word of Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic to use the aids that are

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available today to give you insight into the meaning of original words.

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If you have a Young's Concordance or a Strong's Concordance, you can get some basic help.

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00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:03,840
If you don't have Vines' expository dictionary of New Testament words, then you're missing

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00:33:03,840 --> 00:33:06,520
a key tool in your library.

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00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:10,600
Old Testament word book for the Old Testament words.

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You say, yes, but I don't understand those languages.

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Do you understand English?

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If you understand English most of the time, then you will be able to use basic tools that

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are available today to help you with words and phrases of scripture.

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That's what Bible study is all about.

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As we go to the Bible and seek to understand it, we recognize that ultimately we are dependent

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upon the Holy Spirit.

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We use these principles that we've talked about tonight and there are some others.

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We use those principles as best we can, but ultimately we depend upon the Holy Spirit

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to guide us in understanding what the book means.

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Remember this, a basic rule of Bible interpretation.

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There can be only one interpretation of any passage, not many.

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If you and a friend interpret a passage differently, you have two different interpretations.

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I'll let you in on a little secret.

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One or both of you are wrong.

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It could be that there's an entirely different interpretation.

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Number three, that neither of you have.

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That's the proper one.

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But there's only one interpretation of every scripture.

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However, there can be a number of applications out of any text.

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An application.

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Before you decide what the Bible means to you, seek to understand what the Bible means.

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And once you understand what it means, then seek to apply it to you, what it means to

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you in your own life.

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That's the right way to do it.

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As we depend upon the Holy Spirit whom our Lord sent to be our teacher, we can gain an

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understanding of this book.

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And as we understand this book, it will set a fire in our hearts.

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Just as those disciples experienced on the road to Emmaus, when our Lord walked with

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them and explained to them what the Old Testament meant concerning Himself, and what was the

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result?

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Spiritual heartburn.

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Their hearts burned within them.

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00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:22,920
Warren Wiersbe said, the test of successful Bible study is not simply how much you learn,

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but how much you live.

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The proof that Christ has taught you is not a big head, but a burning heart.

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That's it.

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That's the bottom line.

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We come to this book, we say it is our final authority.

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That we believe it from cover to cover, and we believe the cover because it has Holy Bible

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on it.

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What does it mean?

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And then what does it mean to me?

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How do I apply that to my life?

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And I allow the Spirit of God to burn that into me so that I'm different, so that it

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transforms my life.

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That my friend is what we believe about the Bible.

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Not just what we say in a document, a statement of faith, but that's what we believe with

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our hearts, and that's what we as a church seek to live in our lives.

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Let's bow together in prayer.