Thank you, Dan. Would you take your Bible and turn with me please to 2 Timothy 3, verse 16.
Before we come to the next book study, which will be Romans, Lord willing,
we are looking for a few weeks at some topics that I think are important for us in our understanding of God's Word.
Last week we talked about the uniqueness of the Bible, and we studied two terms that are important for us to get a handle on.
The one is the term Revelation, which refers to the content of the Bible.
The Bible is, in a very special sense, the self-disclosure of God.
It is the record of God's revelation of Himself.
So we refer to what God has said as Revelation.
Then there is the second word that we studied last week, Inspiration.
That is a word which describes how God miraculously brought to us the revelation of Himself.
It is the method that God chose to use.
We turn to 2 Peter, chapter 1, verses 20 and 21, and we look briefly at this verse in 2 Timothy.
It says, All scripture is God-breathed, is inspired.
A very special word.
All scripture is God-breathed and is useful or profitable for four things.
Notice what they are.
For teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.
The purpose of the Word of God for us is fourfold.
To teach us the doctrine of God.
That we may understand who He is and who we are and how we may be related to Him.
It is also purposed to rebuke us when we as believers are out of step with the Lord.
It is purposed thirdly to correct us, that is to get us back in line and into step.
And finally, it is purposed to train us in righteousness.
And that word train there has to do with the training up of a child.
The disciplining of a child.
So the Word of God is given that we might be disciplined and trained or matured, if you please, in righteousness.
Now the Bible is a wonderful book.
And because of its uniqueness, it has great authority.
In fact, our confession is that it is our final authority.
Our ultimate authority in what we believe and how we are to behave ourselves.
But the Bible's authority is sometimes diminished by the idea commonly expressed
that there are many different interpretations to the Bible.
Has anyone ever said to you, well that's your interpretation, I have my interpretation?
As though it is very acceptable to have many different interpretations.
Now if that is the case, it means that the Bible loses its authority in our lives.
If it can mean one thing to one person and something else to another person,
then who is to say which is right, which God intends to say, etc.
Its authority is tremendously weakened by the idea there are many interpretations.
Now of course the fact is that there are different interpretations.
Whenever you have two people who interpret a passage differently,
one of them, or perhaps both of them, is wrong.
Because one of the basic rules regarding the interpretation of the Bible is
that every passage has only one true interpretation.
Only one true interpretation.
There may be many applications.
Let's talk about the difference of those two terms.
Interpretation has to do with what God is saying.
It answers the question, what does God mean in this verse, or in this phrase, or in this passage?
What does God mean here? That's interpretation.
Application answers the question, now how does this apply to my life?
Interpretation is what does God mean, application is how does all of this now apply to me personally?
Now the Bible is not profitable for teaching and rebuking, correcting, and training if we don't interpret it correctly.
It loses its authority if it's not properly interpreted.
And so one's method of interpretation is very critical.
In fact, here in 2 Timothy, the apostle says such a thing to this young man in chapter 2, verse 15.
This was the key verse, part of the logo, I guess you would say, of the Bible school which I attended.
2 Timothy 2, 15.
It says, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,
a workman who does not need to be ashamed, and who correctly handles the word of truth.
That verb there, who correctly handles, or who rightly divides, in the original language means to cut straight.
Those of you who grew up on the farm as I did know what it is to get out on the tractor with a plow behind you and make a mess.
I can well remember the time when I wasn't plowing.
I was cultivating some very straight rows of corn.
I was heading down the row as I was supposed to be, and I looked behind me to make sure it was doing a good job.
And before I knew it, I was not only cultivating the weeds, I was cultivating the corn right out.
And I took a whole row before I could get back in line.
Why? Because I wasn't cutting it straight as I should have been.
The same is true in plowing. You have to keep your eye on something ahead and not look behind, or your plowing will be just like this.
You ladies understand the importance of cutting something straight.
You get out a piece of material and you lay a pattern down over that material.
Then you get your scissors out and you begin to cut.
And if you don't cut straight along the lines of that pattern, what happens?
You get done, you try to put it together, and you've got problems, don't you?
The pieces don't fit together like they're supposed to unless you cut straight.
You see, the same thing is true with regards to the Bible.
If we don't cut it straight, that is, if we don't interpret it properly, when we get the pieces all together, they don't fit.
So it's important to cut the Word of God straight, that way we don't become workmen who are ashamed.
Rather, our goal should be to study and to be diligent in the Word of God,
to show ourselves as approved workmen who can cut it straight in understanding or interpreting what the Bible has to say to us.
Now, no one, in my opinion, approaches the Bible without some method or basis for determining the meaning of the Bible.
How can we evangelicals know with confidence what God means to say in a given passage?
We can know with confidence what God means to say if we will prayerfully apply certain principles as we interpret the Word of God.
And that's what I want to talk about this morning.
This is not an expository message like we're used to getting here,
but I think it's a relevant and I hope a practical message that will help you in your personal Bible study.
What are the principles that should guide us in determining what a passage of Scripture means?
Well, in your worship folder, you should have an outline that lists for you five principles of Bible interpretation.
I want to talk about those principles today, define them, and illustrate them, so you'll understand, I hope, what I'm saying.
Principle number one is the principle of self-interpretation.
In other words, there are times when the Bible will interpret itself.
We don't have to sit and scratch our heads and say, now, what is God trying to say?
Because God himself tells us in the Word what another portion means.
Let me try to illustrate that to you by turning with you to Matthew chapter 13.
In this chapter, we have several parables.
These parables describe the course of Christendom during this age in which we live.
Someday, we'll have to do a study of Matthew 13 because this is a terrifically interesting chapter.
In Matthew chapter 13, let me simply point out to you the first parable that Jesus tells.
It is commonly called the parable of the soils or the parable of the sower.
You remember it, a farmer went out to sow his seed.
Now, what does that mean?
What was Jesus trying to communicate as he told this story that has a deeper meaning to it or this parable?
Well, we have the answer to that.
In verse 18, he himself tells us what the parable means.
He says, listen then to what the parable of the sower means.
And then in those following verses, he explains exactly what he was trying to communicate through that teaching.
Once again in this chapter, we have an illustration of this principle.
Jesus, in verse 24, gives a second parable.
This one is called the parable of the tares and the wheat.
What does this parable mean?
Well, again, we have Jesus' own explanation of it.
In verse 36, it says, then he left the crowd and went into the house.
His disciples came to him and said, explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.
He answered, and then he begins to explain exactly what that parable means.
Do you see the point?
There are times when the Bible interprets itself.
Those are easy times.
We don't have to scratch our heads then and try to work to figure out what the Bible means.
The Bible explains itself and what it means.
Another example, a more difficult one, is found in Revelation, chapter 17.
We're not going to turn there.
But those of you who are familiar with the book, remember that we are introduced to a personage there who is described as the harlot.
In fact, the mother of all harlotry is this female figure who is introduced.
What is that all about?
As you read through chapter 17, there are verses that explain who this personage is.
In that passage, this is not a literal woman, but it is a figure of something else.
The Bible explains there what she figures, what she typifies.
That, too, is an example of what I mean by the principle of self-interpretation.
Look for that in the Bible.
The apostle talks about the mystery.
Do you remember that in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15?
He says, Behold, I show you a mystery.
What does he mean, a mystery?
Paul explains it himself in Ephesians, chapter 3.
He tells us the definition of what a mystery is, another example of self-explanation or interpretation.
Now let's talk about the second principle of Bible interpretation, which we call the principle of normal interpretation.
In other words, we should accept what is written as the author intended for it to be accepted.
That is, there are times when what is said is clearly figurative.
There are other times when we have no reason to think that it is other than literal.
This is the way we read our newspaper, for example.
You pick up the newspaper and you may read the editorial page.
And you know what is on that page is not hard factual news, but it is personal opinion and commentary.
You turn on the sports page and you see figures of speech used to describe the accomplishments of an athletic team.
Then you go back to the front page, perhaps, and there you see hard, fast news that you take as literal truth, as sometimes a mistake.
But we accept it that way, nonetheless.
So you see, that's the way we read our newspaper.
We interpret different sections of it as it is intended to be interpreted.
And that's the way the Bible should be read, too.
There are passages that are clearly allegorical or figurative.
And there are other passages that are literal, and there is no reason to try to explain them away or to read something else into them as though they were an allegory.
Let me explain to you or illustrate to you what I am saying.
Jesus made the statement in John, I am the door.
Are we to picture our Savior as a door?
He said, I am the vine.
When we think of Jesus, are we to see a vine growing?
Of course not.
Obviously, he is saying, I am like a door.
I am the entrance to eternal life.
I am the vine.
I am the source of life, and you are like the branches to the vine.
I flow into you with my life and produce fruit through you.
We take those as allegorical, don't we?
Jesus is figuratively speaking so that we can get a deeper idea about his ministry to us.
But then on the other hand, there are passages that are spoken by our Savior that are very, very literal.
Now let me turn you to one that is often taken as being figurative, but is in fact literal as we look at it.
And that is in Luke, chapter 16.
In Luke 15, we have three parables.
The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.
Chapter 16 begins with a parable.
It is the parable of the shrewd steward.
In verse 19, Jesus says something else.
He says, There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen, and lived in luxury every day.
At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table.
Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The time came when the beggar died, and the angels carried him to Abraham's side.
The rich man also died and was buried in hell where he was in torment.
He looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.
So he called him, Father Abraham, have pity on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.
There are those who say that this is simply a figure of speech here.
They say, well, Jesus is simply trying to say that all of us make our own hell in this life by the way that we live.
But I would point out to you that Jesus does not call this a parable.
Normally when Jesus told a parable, he made it clear that that's what it was.
Furthermore, I don't know of any parable that Jesus told in which he named an individual.
What is recorded here should be understood just as it's written.
Jesus said, There was a rich man.
He tells how he was dressed. He tells how he lived.
He says, There was a beggar who laid beside the gate. His name was Lazarus. They both died.
The beggar went to paradise. The rich man went to hell. There he was in flames. He was tormented.
We have no reason to accept this other than as it is literally written down for us.
So that's what I mean by interpreting the scripture in its normal sense.
If Jesus had meant for this simply to be a figure of speech, it would clearly say that here.
He would not use a person's name in it, etc. We accept this as being literal.
Another example. In Psalm 60 verse 2, God says, Moab is my wash pot, and overeat him I will cast out my shoe.
Does that mean that God has a face and hands that he washes over Moab,
and he takes off his shoes at night and empties them, overeat them? Of course not.
Obviously that is figurative. God doesn't have a face. He doesn't wear shoes. God is spirit.
But God is communicating there that these foreign, gentile countries are in subjection to him.
So obviously that is figurative. These are illustrations of principle number 2.
We should interpret the Bible in its normal sense.
The third principle I would point out is that of contextual interpretation.
In other words, we need to look at the context of a verse before we decide what it means.
A person can prove any point of view he wants to from the Bible just by selecting a verse here or a phrase there,
pulling them out of context and saying, see, here's what I told you.
Do you know an atheist can prove atheism from the Bible?
He could go, for instance, to Psalm 14.1 where it says, There is no God,
and say, here's biblical proof that God doesn't exist.
But what that verse says in its context is, The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.
It's a little different, isn't it?
Let me read to you the statement made by Dr. Bernard Ramm in his book called Protestant Biblical Interpretation.
He quotes a couple of other men.
Todd has correctly observed, says Dr. Ramm, that the Bible is no mere collection of good texts or verses put together
without any relation to one another.
But careful study very soon shows that each verse or passage has a very real relation to that which immediately precedes as well as what follows.
And Barrows aptly states that, To interpret without regard to the context is to interpret at random.
To interpret contrary to the context is to teach falsehood for truth.
Both of these writers, says Dr. Ramm, speak to the point that an understanding of the context of sentences is important for their proper interpretation.
You have to see how the piece fits into the whole before you decide what that piece means.
One of the things, for example, that we have to discern as we read the Bible is, To whom is this written?
For you see, all the Bible is not to us, though it's all for us.
Let me illustrate that.
There's a verse in the Old Testament that says, Arise and go over this Jordan.
Have you ever obeyed that command?
Have you?
It's a command of the Bible.
Get up and go over the Jordan River.
I've been in Israel, but I've never gone over the Jordan River and obeyed that command.
Why?
Because that command was written to Joshua and to the children of Israel.
That may be a silly illustration of what I'm saying, but I think you get the point.
We have to look at the context.
To whom is this written?
Another example of that would be the verses often quoted from Malachi chapter 3 regarding tithing.
People say, Well, God promises that if I tithe, he will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing and make me rich.
God doesn't say that in Malachi chapter 3 in the first place.
In the second place, Malachi chapter 3 is written to the Jews, to ancient Israel.
I got some papers one time from a man in Oklahoma before I got off his mailing list,
in which he told me that if I would send him my tithe, he promised me that within 30 days,
God would return that tithe multi-fold and make me rich.
That was his promise.
He quoted verses out of context from the Bible to prove his point.
You see, we've got to be careful of doing that.
I heard John MacArthur tell one time, and I think I've shared this with some of you,
about a preacher who was just wailing away against women who wore their hair up.
His verse for it was, in Matthew, he said, It says, Topknot come down.
Topknot come down.
You know what verse he was using?
The one that says, Let him that is on the housetop not come down.
I think that's a little out of context, don't you?
You see, when we interpret the Bible, it has to be with a sense of the context here.
Another example that we won't point out specifics is in Matthew, chapters 24 and 25.
There are people who see the rapture in there and all kinds of other things relating to the church.
Matthew, chapters 24 and 25 has nothing to do with the church.
It is an explanation to the disciples of when the Lord would come back and establish his kingdom for Israel.
And when you interpret those two chapters, you have to see it in that regard, in that context.
And so the context is very, very important.
Whenever you look at a verse, back up a few verses and get the flow of it.
And read a few verses further.
And if you can, discern how that fits into the flavor of the whole book.
Who wrote that?
What is the context of that verse?
Don't ever let someone come into your house and open a religious book and try to prove to you a certain point of view
without forcing them to look at the whole context of that verse.
You will destroy them.
They don't know how to handle that.
They're very clever at taking a verse here or a verse there and putting them together.
And as long as you keep them on their little spiel, they're in good shape.
But you try to force them to show you the context.
And you'll have one flustered evangelist on your hands.
The fourth principle of biblical interpretation is the principle of consistent interpretation.
In other words, the Bible cannot contradict itself.
There are people who say, well, I don't believe the Bible.
It's so filled with contradictions.
Have you ever heard anybody say that?
If you want to shut him up, just carry a Bible with you and hand it to him the next time he says that and say,
please point out one to me.
And he'll zip his mouth and won't open around you again.
Because most people who say that have no idea what they're talking about.
It's just something they're parroting because they've heard it from somebody,
probably a liberal preacher or in a liberal book somewhere.
The Bible does not contradict itself.
When we find an apparent contradiction, what we have to do is just keep studying that
and allow the light of Scripture where there are clear passages to help us understand what that dark verse,
that verse darken our understanding, may mean.
Let me show you an example of this.
Let's go back to Hebrews for a minute.
This is the source of a lot of trouble to some people.
Hebrews chapter 6, verse 4.
The writer says,
There are those who come to this verse or these verses and they say,
see, here's proof that if a Christian sins, he loses his salvation.
And usually they go on to say, and what he needs to do is to get saved again.
The point is that if that's the way you interpret this verse, it says here,
there's no chance to be saved again.
You can't renounce repentance if that's what this verse means.
But it doesn't mean that, you see.
What do you have to do with a passage like this?
Well, in the first place, you understand that there are clear verses in Scripture
that teach the security of the believer.
That when a person trusts Jesus Christ as his Savior and is born into God's family,
there isn't the slightest possibility in the universe for him to lose out on his salvation.
There are clear verses of Scripture that teach that, and so we allow those to shed some light on this.
And then we understand to whom the book of Hebrews is written,
and a little bit about that time.
And as we keep adding all of this together,
it helps us to understand what the interpretation of these verses is.
Do you want to know what it is?
Well, study it and find out.
Apply the principles we're talking about and see if God doesn't give you some insight
into what these verses really mean.
I want to go on now to the fifth principle of interpretation,
and that is the background principle.
In other words, we need to look at any passage with the light of its background turned on.
Try to understand who the author is and a little bit about the history of that time.
Try to understand something about the language, if you can.
Be sure you understand the terms and the places and the people involved.
There's a story about the one woman who said,
I refuse to believe the Bible because I can't imagine the Israelites
carrying Noah's ark all the way through the wilderness for 40 years.
We know what she needs to do.
She needs to understand what the ark is, which the Israelites had.
She doesn't understand the background of that particular word and that thought.
So the background principle is so very important.
We have to understand the origin of some words and what they really mean.
For example, twice in the New Testament we are called peculiar people.
Did you know that?
Some of us fit that term very well, I know,
but that's not what the Bible means when it says we're peculiar.
If you look up that word, you find that what it really means is that we are God's special possession.
We are His in a very special sense.
That's the meaning of that word in the original language.
We have to be alerted to idioms that were used in that day,
which of course are not used in our day and in our language.
Let me just show you an example of this back in Matthew chapter 16.
Here's a couple of verses that are really difficult for some people.
Matthew chapter 16, verse 18.
Well, let's look at verse 19 first.
Jesus says, I will give you, Peter, the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Now is that verse teaching that Peter is the one who stands at the pearly gates and he's got the key?
If he wants to let you into heaven, he'll open the gate, and if he doesn't, he won't.
That's what all of our jokes tell about, isn't it?
Going up to the pearly gates near St. Peter.
Does it mean here that Peter can forgive sins, and then God will forgive them,
and he can fail to forgive sins or bind sins to people, and then God won't forgive them of their sins?
Of course not. That is not what this verse is saying.
If you begin to study this verse, you'll find that there was an idiom used that day by the rabbis
that was very similar to this.
Jesus was using that when he says,
whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Thank you.
He was building on an idiom that was common in that day.
To understand what he says here, you have to understand that idiom.
Look at the verse before, and let me give you another example.
He says, and I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.
Now there are those who say, well, it says here that God built his church on Peter.
But it doesn't say that.
They say, oh yes, but Peter's name means rock, and Jesus says, and on this rock I'll build my church.
Oh, does it?
But did you know that the word rock, which is translated as Peter's name, means a little stone?
The kind of a rock you might pick up and throw.
But when Jesus says, and on this rock, he uses a different word.
It's a play on words.
He calls Peter Petros, and he says, upon this Petra, different word,
this strata of rock, this Gibraltar, if you please, I will build my church.
Now what is he referring to?
Well, I think if you back up a couple of verses, you'll find that he says,
Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus is simply referring back to that confession of who he is.
He says, I'm going to build my church on that truth.
How do we know that that's what this means?
Well, I think we understand that if we get another passage of Scripture to shed some light on it.
1 Corinthians 3, 11.
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Peter.
Right?
No.
Which is whom?
Jesus Christ.
And so when we interpret the Bible, we need to understand something about the grammar,
the original language.
It doesn't mean, though, that you have to speak Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic to interpret the Bible.
There's one false teacher down in Houston, Texas.
He has a lot of tapes.
He used to be kind of popular.
His name is Bob Thieme.
He has the idea and promotes the idea that unless you are fluent in Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic,
you cannot interpret the Bible, so don't try.
Now, that's absolutely false.
It is not true.
What about those of us who don't know any Greek?
We have one who comes to church here, but I mean the language.
You don't know any Greek.
You don't know any Hebrew.
See?
You don't know any Aramaic.
What do you do?
Let me suggest some things to you.
There are some very helpful tools that we make available to you in our bookstore.
You can get them in other Christian bookstores.
And I want to encourage you to purchase some of these to help you in your Bible study.
I want to list a few specific tools.
I encourage you to copy them down because you may want to give these as a gift to someone or buy it for yourself.
To understand something more about the words of the New Testament and what they mean,
a book that is invaluable is entitled, The Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.
You don't have to know Greek to understand this.
If you can read English, you can read this book,
The Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words by W.E. Vine.
It will help you.
You may also want to purchase a book called, Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament.
It's a one-volume study of the words of the New Testament.
It takes you through the books, phrase by phrase,
and helps you understand some of the background on the words.
If you have a little more money to invest and want to dig a little deeper,
you might try Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament.
Six volumes.
Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament.
I'm assuming when I mention these that you already have some of the basic tools,
the rake and the hoe of Bible study.
For example, a concordance.
A concordance is a book that compiles all of the words in the English Bible
and helps you understand where all those words are used.
If you get Strong's Concordance or Young's Concordance,
there are references in there to help you understand what those words mean.
An excellent tool.
You should have a Bible handbook.
Unger has written one.
The old standby is Haley's Bible handbook.
A Bible handbook will give you archaeological information to help you understand the passage,
or historical background to a book.
Excellent tool.
You should have a Bible dictionary, which explains terms used in the Bible.
And then I think it's wise to have a one-volume commentary on the Bible.
A one-volume commentary is limited because it obviously can't cover every phrase and every verse,
but it gives you invaluable help in your general Bible study.
And there are numbers of them. Wycliffe Bible Commentary is good.
The New Bible Commentary.
One that I especially enjoy is Jameson, Fossett, and Brown, three men who worked on it.
Some of these are available.
And by the way, this is not a commercial, understand.
We're going to have these books available from time to time at special rates
to make them reasonable for you to purchase so that you can get involved in deeper Bible study.
Another book I mentioned in passing, which I like, is The Treasure of Scripture Knowledge.
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge is a fantastic tool for learning what a verse is saying.
We have some copies of that, in fact, I know, because I looked at one yesterday in our bookstore.
We encourage you to purchase these Bible study aids, not to supplant the Bible,
but to help you get into it and understand what it says.
There was a young lady who came to me one time.
She had been to a Bible school which shall remain nameless for two and one half years.
And she said to me, Pastor Cole, what do you mean when you talk about a Bible commentary?
And I thought, oh, brother, that tells me something about that Bible school.
They teach that all you need is the Bible and the Holy Spirit.
You go to your closet and God will show you what it all means.
Now, there's some truth to that.
But let's not flush the comments and the helpful aids from other men
that can help us to understand what the Bible is saying, too.
I hope you understand my heart on that.
The background of the Bible is so very important.
Use that to help you get into what the Bible means.
Warren Wiersby said, the test of successful Bible study is not simply how much you learn,
but how much you live.
The proof that Christ has taught you is not a big head, but a burning heart.
Does your heart burn?
He also went on to say, the success of your Christian life depends entirely on what you do with your Bible.
Let's just talk for a minute.
What are you doing with your Bible?
Is it just a dry textbook that you use in your seminary class or in your college class?
Is it just a book of poetry or good literature to you?
Is it a nice decoration for your coffee table?
Dear friend, we talked last week how unique the Bible is.
It is God's revelation given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
God wants to meet with us in the reading of that book.
Is your spiritual life vital?
Are you warm? Are you hot?
Are you to the point of boiling in your fervency of love for Jesus Christ and then you'll walk with Him?
Or do you have to frankly say as you sit here today that you are kind of bored with it all and cold and dry?
Oh, I've been there.
And there are times I still get there.
We all have to continually keep ourselves fresh spiritually.
I remember one time in my life when I was in Bible school, and of course there you study the Bible for a living.
And you get good grades because if you don't, you flunk out.
So you study the Bible.
But there's a difference between that kind of Bible study and the kind we're talking about here.
I came to my senior year, in my senior year to one point when I got down on my knees and I said,
God, if this is all there is to the Christian life, then I am going to drop out of school tomorrow and I'm going back to plowing on the farm.
That's a pretty desperate statement.
You know, as I prayed, God spoke to me in the Word and refreshed me spiritually.
I repented of sin and I got up to walk on with the Lord.
And I'm talking to some people today who are at that point.
The congregation this size, there's no question in my mind that that's the case.
Some of you are depressed and miserable and dry spiritually.
And your need is to get alone with God and to do business with God.
And get back to that place of fellowship in the Word.
The success of your Christian life depends entirely on what you do with your Bible.
What are you doing with it?
Let's pray.
Father, for some of us here, the Bible has become a dry book.
Not because it is dry, but because it has become dry to us.
Our hearts have become calloused and hardened by sin and neglect and carelessness.
We need above everything else revival, new life.
We need fresh water from the Word.
I pray right now for each one of us, and particularly for those of us who are in that dry spiritual state.
You help us to do business with you as we close this service.
We don't walk on in a lukewarm or cold condition.
With our heads bowed and our eyes closed and as we wait upon God,
I wonder if by the uplifted hand you would say, Pastor, today I am not spiritually where I ought to be.
And the Bible is a closed book right now.
I'm getting nothing out of it. My walk with God is almost non-existent.
And by this uplifted hand, I want to confess that before God and commit myself to repentance, confession,
and getting back to that spiritual walk where I ought to be.
Will you lift your hand and then put it down? Yes, Vinnie.
There are times when we could all lift our hand.
How about you this morning? Anyone else?
Lord, we have lifted our hands not for others, but for you.
We have pledged ourselves. Thank you for speaking to us in this hour.
And I pray that right now you will bring to a consummation your dealing in many hearts.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Our custom is to close with an invitation hymn and as we do that,
we want to encourage you if you have a spiritual need in your life to slip out from where you are and come to the front.
Now, just because you lifted your hand a few moments ago doesn't mean that you automatically need to come forward.
You may have, as we were praying, dealt with this matter of your own spiritual walk and things are right now between you and God.
But it may be that today you have need for someone to sit down with you and answer some questions and pray with you to help you through this tough time.
Would you allow us that privilege?
Particularly if you've never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior,
could we sit down with you today and show you how simple it is to become a member of God's eternal family?
As we sing number 123, we encourage you to come forward if we can deal with you personally and help you and counsel you.
We would count that a privilege.
Let's sing together.
These words that are very meaningful,
Break thou the bread of life.
Let's stand as we sing, please.