Hot, hasn't it? Been hot here, it's been hot
out in the Central Valley, it's been hot in the
Midwest as well. You say, how hot has it been?
Thank you very much, I appreciate that. How hot
has it been? I heard that Campbell's Soup was
going to change the directions on the can. Just
going to say, pour and eat. If you're out on
the farm working, all you have to do is reach
down, pull a potato out of the ground, split
it open, put butter on it. It's ready to go.
That's how hot it's been. You say, how hot is
it? I tell you how hot it is. The cows are giving
evaporated milk. The chickens are laying hard
-boiled eggs. The trees are whistling for the
dogs to come. I mean, that's hot, friends. It
is hot, enough of that. It's getting hot under
these lights. Today we are going to talk about
truth or consequences and think about how we
can know what the Bible means. I invite you to
open your Bible to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse
15. A familiar text to readers of the word of
God. 2 Timothy 2, 15. 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. The Bible is God's
truth. What God says is truth. And so someone
says, well, why are there then so many interpretations
of the Bible? How can the Bible be the truth
of God when there are so many disagreements about
it? Fact is, the Bible, like most other books
or speeches or whatever, can be made to say whatever
a person wants it to say in certain circumstances.
And so it brings us to a very important question.
How do you know what the Bible means? The verse
here in 2 Timothy chapter 2 says that we need
to be careful, we need to be diligent. As the
King James says, we need to study, to present
ourselves to God as workmen who are approved
and not ashamed. How do we do that? Well, he
says, by correctly handling the word of truth,
the Bible, correctly handling it. The verb that
is involved there is a picture. It is a picture
of the people who, in the Bible, when it was
written, in that day, made tents. And when they
would make tents, they would cut the cloth or
the leather. And when they had finished cutting
it, it all had to fit together. You ladies understand
this if you're going to make a dress. Did you
know that ladies used to do that? They used to
do their own sewing? Yeah, some of you still
do, as a matter of fact. And when you have finished
with that pattern, you put the pieces together
so it fits. The word here means cutting the word
of truth straight. That is, when you handle the
word of God, cut it, deal with it, handle it
in such a way that it all fits together. You
and I have a teacher to help us. We who are believers
in Jesus Christ have the Holy Spirit who lives
within us, a resident tutor in the Word of God.
In First Corinthians chapter two and verses nine
through 12, It says, however it is written, no
eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him,
a quotation from the Old Testament. But down
in verse 12 it goes on to say, we have not received
the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is
from God that we may understand what God has
freely given us. One of the reasons that God
has given us the Holy Spirit is so that we can
understand this book that he has written. In
1 John chapter two verse 27 it says, as for you,
the anointing you received from him remains in
you. The anointing refers to the Holy Spirit.
And you do not need anyone to teach you, but
as his anointing teaches you about all things.
Notice that. His anointing teaches you about
all things. And so each of us has a personal
tutor so that we can understand the things of
God. It is the Holy Spirit who lives within us.
And yet there are many different understandings
of the Bible. Among believers, there are different
understandings of the Bible. There are also critics
of the Bible. There are people who attack the
Bible, who say that the Bible is filled with
inconsistencies and contradictions. Dr. Rick
Cornish, in his fine book, The Five Men of the
Apologist, says that there are some common mistakes
of those who criticize the Bible. I only have
time this morning to go through them, not to
illustrate them. But number one, they assume
that what they cannot explain cannot be explained.
And that's false. For only a tenth of 1 % of
the so -called contradictions of the Bible do
we have difficulty coming up with a plausible
explanation. But there are critics of the Bible
who say, well, I can't explain it, therefore
this is a mystery and it cannot be understood.
False. Somebody can explain it. Secondly, they
often ignore or miss the context. of what they
think is a contradiction. And we'll talk more
about that in a moment. Third, they sometimes
take New Testament references to the Old Testament
as quotes, when in fact they are summaries or
they are paraphrases of the Old Testament. And
so when they compare one to the other, they say,
well, see, it's inconsistent, but not at all.
Number four, they may point out. the numbers
of differences between, number of differences
between accounts of the same incident, not realizing
that one author may be rounding off figures.
For example, in the Old Testament, the prophecy
is that the people of God will be enslaved in
Egypt for 400 years. But Paul in the book of
Galatians says was 430 years. And so critics
of the Bible say, well see, here's an inconsistency.
But in fact, in the one case, there was a rounding
off of the numbers. It wasn't intended to be
precise, but in the New Testament, Paul gives
us the precise number. Number five, they often
judge the Bible by modern technical standards
when it speaks the common language of ordinary
people at the time of its writing. Why are there
in some cases such diverse opinions though from
Bible believers about what the Bible says? About
people who love God about people who who are
Christians who are Christ followers Why are there
in some cases such diverse opinions and it brings
me to the main point that I want to bring to
you today and that is what God says is truth
and How we interpret what he says is vital. What
God says is truth. How we interpret what God
says is the vital thing. Now there are different
schools of interpretation. People who look at
the Bible differently. For example, there's the
allegorical school of interpretation. These folks
look for hidden meanings in the words. This is
a favorite way to interpret the Bible for the
Roman Catholic Church. In addition, of course,
they have other sources of authority that they
follow. But when they come to the Bible, they
often look at it allegorically. They don't take
it literally. The problem with this is that the
meaning then is left to the fancy of anyone's
imagination. Allegories themselves are legitimate
figures of speech. One of the high schoolers
was using some sarcasm this morning. Well, that
is a legitimate figure of speech. So is an allegory.
For example, we this morning sang a song calling
Jesus the lamb. Does Jesus have four feet and
bah like a lamb? Of course not. It's an allegory.
It describes something about Jesus. We talk about
the church being a bride or a temple. These are
allegories. They're legitimate. But allegorism,
meaning that we approach the whole Bible with
that way of looking at it, is not a legitimate
method of interpretation. Because in the end,
who's to say what it means if everything is an
allegory? And then there's the liberal school
of interpretation, which subjects scripture to
human reasoning and human experiences. This is
the way that liberal churches and denominations,
humanists in general, look at the Bible. The
problem is that it cuts the heart of the supernatural
out of God's truth. Because if it doesn't fit
within what man can reason or what man has experienced,
they throw it out. God wants us to use our minds.
We do interpret the Bible in light of our experiences.
These things affect how we understand the scriptures,
but the Bible is above our human reasoning and
our experiences. We interpret those in light
of what God says, not the other way around like
the liberal school of interpretation. Now there's
a third school of interpretation called the literal
school. This is the one that I belong to and
this church does. and most of you do. The idea
in literal interpretation is that we need to
discover what the author intended the meaning
to be. That's the purpose. I'm not looking for
hidden meanings in the words. I'm trying to see
what the author intended to say there. And so
the words and the sentences are interpreted in
their usual and customary way. I began my message
time this morning telling you that Campbell's
Soup has changed the labels. Did you take that
literally? No, of course not, because you understood
that I was telling a joke. Don't go out looking
for potatoes in the field to be cooked. You'll
be surprised, they aren't. Because you see, you
interpreted what I said for what it was. It was
humor. Maybe poor, but it was an attempt, right?
You understood the context of that. You took
it in the usual and customary way for that kind
of a story. But now let's suppose you get the
newspaper out and you begin to read the news.
Do you take that as humor? No, sometimes. You
go to the funny pages. Do you take that seriously?
Right, sometimes, I know, I can see this coming,
right? You go to the editorial page, what do
you do? You either weep or you get angry, one
or the other here in San Jose. Well, you see,
you learn to interpret things in the usual and
customary way in which it's intended by the author,
and that's what literal interpretation means.
Now, today in our world, When people say they
believe in the literal interpretation of the
Bible, all kinds of bells and whistles and flags
go off. Oh, you're one of those people, you believe
in the literal interpretation of the Bible? President
Bush was attacked for this during the last campaign,
you may recall. There was an attempt to undermine
his credibility and his worthiness by saying
he believes in the literal interpretation of
the Bible. Can you imagine having somebody in
the Oval Office with their finger on the nuclear
button who believes that the Bible should be
taken literally? Oh my, how terrible. The problem
here is that many people fail to understand what
literal interpretation means. And so today I
want to talk to you about principles of literal
interpretation. The story is told about two friends.
One of whom went to college and was well educated
and had become very successful. And the other
had not gone to college, had not been particularly
industrious, but he too seemed to be doing well.
And so the one who was the college graduate asked
his less educated friend, well, how's everything
going with you? And this less educated, less
ambitious man said to him, well, one day I opened
my Bible just at random and I dropped my finger
on a page. And then I lifted my finger up and
underneath my finger was the word oil. And so
I went out and I invested in oil. And oh my goodness,
the oil wells just gushed. And so I decided to
try the same method again. I went out and I put
my finger on the Bible and I looked underneath
my finger and it was the word gold. And so I
invested in gold and those minds really produced.
I have become as rich as a movie star. A successful
friend was so impressed with this method of using
the Bible that he rushed back to his hotel, he
opened the drawer, got out the Gideon Bible.
He flipped it open, shut his eyes, dropped his
finger in. and then he opened his eyes to see
what was under his finger, and right under his
finger were the words, chapter 11. What do we
mean by literal interpretation of the Bible?
That's what we need to find out this morning.
So bear with me as we work our way through these
principles of interpretation. The first one is
the principle of accuracy. the principle of accuracy.
There are some things we need to consider when
we come to a text of the Bible. First of all,
we need to be sure we understand what the language
is really saying. This means we need to get some
tools, some Bible study tools perhaps, or a good
study Bible that will help us understand the
grammar, or the definitions, or even the structure
of the language. I remember reading an article
years ago in a newspaper in Ohio about a man
who was a Christian and he was protesting a law
regarding union bargaining. And he said the Bible
is against it because the Bible says there should
be no striker. Now if you've read the King James
Bible you know that those two words are put together
in Timothy. No striker. But it's not talking
about union bargaining. You need to go back and
check what that word striker really means before
you come up with that kind of a crazy interpretation.
Galatians chapter six. In verse two it says,
bear ye one another's burdens. Three verses later
it says, every man shall bear his own burden.
Bear one another's burdens, every man will bear
his own burden. Doesn't that seem inconsistent?
It's a contradiction there, isn't there? Go back
and check the words. And most of the more contemporary
translations have picked up on this and they
interpret it so that it's not confusing. But
the point is, be accurate before you decide what
the interpretation is. Look at the history. Find
out what was happening in the larger scene. when
Jeremiah wrote those words or when Isaiah gave
that prophecy. Understand something of the history.
Look at the culture. I don't need to tell you
that the Bible was not written in Western civilization.
It was not written in the 21st century. And so
we need to understand something of the culture
of that day when the author wrote it. Look at
the geography. In the Bible, it warns about,
in the last days, the King of the North and the
King of the South. Does that mean that we need
to beware of Canada and of Mexico? Well, maybe,
to be honest, but that's another sermon. But
the geography of the Bible, when it talks about
North and South, it's talking about North of
Palestine, not North of San Jose. It's talking
about what's South of Palestine. Understand the
geography. The point is, what did the author
mean by these words? Sometimes you hear people
say, well, here's what it means to me. And folks,
there's nothing wrong with that because we all
are trying to interpret the Bible, but the key
question is not what does it mean to me. The
key question is what did it mean to the author
when he wrote those words? And once I understand
what he meant by it, then I can see how it applies
to my life, to my situation, to my world. Second
principle, the principle of accommodation. First,
the principle of accuracy, but now the principle
of accommodation, which says that God is speaking
his truth in man's terms, in human terms. He
uses expressions that you and I can identify
with and grasp. I mean, after all, God is so
different than we are that if he didn't do that,
there's no way we could comprehend his truth.
And so he accommodates himself to us. For example,
he speaks in his word about his hand, the hand
of the Lord. It speaks about the face of the
Lord. It speaks about the arm of the Lord. Now
that doesn't mean that God has a face, a hand,
an arm. God is spirit. He doesn't have those
features about himself, except as he is incarnate
in Christ. But those are words that accommodate
to our understanding that God is active. God
is watching. God is guarding. God is attacking
the principles of accommodation. Principle of
accommodation. Number three, the principle of
progressive revelation. When I seek to interpret
the scripture, I need to understand that God
has revealed his truth little by little over
a span of time. So that when I look into the
Bible at one particular point, before I seek
to understand what God is saying in that verse
about that idea, I need to be sure that I have
an understanding of all that God says about that
idea. Because when I'm back here somewhere or
up here somewhere, I need to know what the rest
of scripture says. In Hebrews chapter one, verses
one and two, it says, in the past, God spoke
to our forefathers through the prophets at many
times and in various ways. A little here, a little
there. But in these last days, He has spoken
to us by His Son, which is a way of saying that
God has now fully and finally spoken. So I need
to understand the principle of progressive revelation,
if I'm going to interpret scripture literally.
And then, fourthly, there's the principle of
unity. That is that every passage of scripture
has but one meaning. And that meaning must be
consistent with the whole of scripture. You say,
well, if every passage has one meaning and you
have three people with three different meanings,
who has the right one? Well, if you're one of
the three, of course, that answers the question,
right? No. The fact is, all three of them could
be wrong. But every passage of scripture has
only one meaning. and that one meaning will fit
with all of the rest of scripture. That's what
Paul was saying to Timothy, make it all fit,
cut it straight so that you don't end up in your
understanding of the Bible with these huge gaps
that things just don't come together. The principle
of unity. The story is told about the devil.
who was walking along the road with one of his
cohorts one day, and as they were walking along,
they saw a human being in front of them, a man
pick up a shiny object. And the devil's cohort
said, well, what did he find? And the devil said,
he found a piece of the truth. And the cohort
of the devil said, well, doesn't it bother you
that he found a piece of the truth? And the devil
replied to him, no, I'll see to it that he makes
a religion out of it. You see, and so often that
happens. People have a piece of the truth. And
around that piece of the truth, they build a
structure of belief that is inconsistent with
the rest of the scriptures. Beware of getting
just a piece of the truth. Understand it in its
whole. You say, well, that takes time. It does.
You say, well I'm just a new believer, how can
I possibly then understand the scripture? Grow,
be disciples, get somebody else who's further
down the road from you and ask them to help you
get caught up. This is not something that takes,
well it does take a lifetime in one sense. But
the fact is you can understand the whole of scriptures
in a relatively short period of time in the big
picture of things. so that you can interpret
correctly. And then, fifthly, there is the principle
of context. The point here is check the environment
of what you're interpreting. Seek to discover
the meaning in that environment. The point is
this. I have a little bit of an illustration
to show you. You start out with one verse of
the Bible. And that's the verse you're focusing
on, let's say. Now, if you're going to interpret
that verse, you need to look at the immediate
neighborhood of that verse, which we call the
paragraph. Most Bible translations have some
sort of paragraph structure that are given to
it, and so look at the larger paragraph. Who's
talking here? Where is this happening? What is
being talked about here in this paragraph? And
when you think you'd understand that paragraph,
then go to the next level and look at it in the
context of the book. Okay, so this is from the
Gospel of Matthew, and let's see, Matthew talks
especially about Jesus as the king, and so here's
how this verse can be understood in the context
of Matthew. And then folks, it's helpful if you
take it to another realm, and let me just use
the word, look at it in the context of its dispensation.
That is, with whom is God dealing in the world?
What is the covenant that's involved here in
this relationship that I'm looking at between
Noah and God, for example? Or between Abraham
and God? or between you and God. Now here's one
of the big issues today in our culture and the
fear that people have of those of us who take
the Bible literally. Turn with me to the book
of Leviticus chapter 20. Leviticus chapter 20.
And we will look at verse 13. It says, if a man
lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both
of them have done what is detestable. They must
be put to death. Their blood will be on their
own heads. Have you ever heard this verse quoted
in the culture today? Very commonly used. You
can't go to the Bible and what it says about
homosexuality. Well, if you take the Bible literally,
you'll be stoning homosexuals. You say, oh my
goodness, yes, I guess I would be. So are you
put off by that? As one who interprets the Bible
literally, you shouldn't be. You shouldn't be.
Because if you interpret the Bible literally,
you're following the principles we're talking
about this morning. All of them apply to this
verse that we've talked about. Be sure you understand
the language. Is God accommodating himself here
in some way to us? And so forth. And then we
come to context. And so we stop and we think.
And we ask ourselves, well, Is this written to
the church today? And the answer is no, it's
not. You see, as we look at this in the context
of the book, we understand that this is a paragraph
in a book that deals with regulations for the
people of Israel as they would establish a theocracy.
3 ,000 years ago. And in the context of that,
this is what God says. But notice he not only
says that about homosexuals, he says that about
someone in verse 10 who commits adultery with
another man's wife. If a man sleeps with his
father's wife, if a man sleeps with his daughter
-in -law, He even says in verse nine, if anyone
curses his father or mother, he must be put to
death. So how literal do we want to be? We want
to be literal. But remember, literal means that
we use this principle of context. And so we remember
that this was not written to the church, this
was written to another people, another time.
God was relating to the people of Israel under
the covenant of the law. We are not related to
God under the covenant of the law. We are related
to God today under the covenant of grace. We
are not Israel. We're part of the church. So
you say, well then we just throw the whole thing
out? Oh no, wait a minute, wait a minute. In
the New Testament, The moral standard represented
here is repeated for the church. God still calls
it sin, but God never authorizes the church to
carry out capital punishment. I felt like it
a couple of times in my life in ministry. God
has never authorized that. Because you see right
now he's working on the invisible kingdom of
the heart. Someday he will establish a visible
kingdom and reign in the world. So you see what
we take from Leviticus 20 is the moral standard,
the moral definition that God does give there
and he repeats in the New Testament for all time.
But he never authorizes the carrying out of capital
punishment for that sin. in the age, the dispensation
in which we live. So you see how that works?
As a person who literally interprets the Bible,
you can't go back to Leviticus 20 and demand
the death penalty for these kinds of actions.
Because you believe in the literal interpretation
of the Bible. And the principle of context. And
then after you've looked at the dispensation,
is this written to Israel? Is this written to
me? You need to remind yourself of this, that
all of the Bible is for me, but not all of the
Bible is to me. Do you understand that? In other
words, what's written in the Old Testament is
for my instruction, my example, and my learning.
I need to go there, it's for me. But it's not
to me what's especially to me is the New Testament
Because that's the the the covenant the new covenant
by which I am related to God And after you've
looked at all of that then look at the whole
Bible and say well How does this verse fit into
the whole of scripture and what I know about
God? To be very honest with you one of the reasons
that I for years now have not been able to support
Bill Gothard and the Institute of Basic Youth
Conflicts is because of the failure on the part
of that ministry to apply principles like these
to their interpretation of the scriptures, which
has led them in some cases, not in every case,
but in some cases to really miss the mark and
to teach some bizarre things. How we interpret
the Bible makes a huge difference. And this morning
I've talked to you about five of these principles.
There are more that we could talk about, but
these are five big ones. What God says is truth,
and how we interpret it is vital. You say, well,
it sounds to me like a lot of work really to
do this, and the fact is, of course, yes, it
is. It is work. Show yourself a workman. a workman
who is approved and not ashamed. I can come to
the word of truth and put together stuff that
I say I believe and end up being ashamed of it
because it just simply is a mishmash, it doesn't
fit together. In one church we had a gentleman
who had come to the Bible and he was quote self
-taught and I admired his study habits, but he
had come up with this bizarre combination of
doctrines that simply did not fit and he wanted
desperately to be a teacher in our church, but
he couldn't be. Because though he had studied,
he had not studied rightly and could not be approved.
It is work. It is work. And when I come up with
my interpretation, I need to keep an open ear
to others as well. Let me just finish up by saying
this. By applying these principles, a follower
of Jesus can, number one, be humbly confident
of what the truth is. Now we are being intimidated
these days by our culture that says you can't
really know what the Bible means. So just keep
it out of the conversation. That's baloney. You
can be confident of what the truth of God is,
but there's always space for humility in that
because no one has a perfect grasp of all the
truth. I was in a pastor's meeting one time and
a person got up and asked Dr. John MacArthur,
who is not known for having few convictions or
light convictions, right? And ask him, well,
is there any place that you're wrong? Oh boy,
there's a loaded question. John answered it beautifully.
He said, you know, I very well may be. But if
I knew where it was, I would change it. Isn't
that true of all of us? So he's confident about
what the truth says, and you need to be confident
about what the truth says, but with humility.
You don't have to be indecisive and uncertain
about what the Bible means, study it. And when
you've applied these principles of literal interpretation,
then be confident, but always with an open mind
to learn from somebody else. Secondly, By applying
these principles, you as a follower of Jesus
can be graciously bold to stand for the truth.
There has never been a time in history, perhaps,
when there was more of a need for people of God
to stand for the truth. This is no place and
time in history for timidity. God calls you and
me to publicly and graciously Be courageous to
represent the truth in our world. And so if you
know the truth, don't be intimidated. Don't be
embarrassed. Don't be reticent to stand up for
the truth. But don't be a jerk about it. Some
people can be so obstinate and mean -spirited
that you're embarrassed to run around with them.
Thirdly, By applying these principles, you as
a follower of Jesus can be genuinely caring to
share the truth with others. You see, God teaches
you and me the truth so that we can then impart
it to others. He does not give us the truth so
that we can get really smart and keep it for
ourselves. It is too eternally vital for others.
And so we need to look in our sphere of influence
and say, God, Who needs this truth today? To
whom can I share this little tidbit that I have
from your word and understand and believe and
accept with all of my heart and pass it along?
Look in your world and discover where people
are on that evangelism scale that we used last
spring. Remember that? from the minus side down
here all the way up to conversion and then beyond,
find out where they are and on that scale and
seek in sharing with them some truth that will
move them along a notch at a time. Let the Holy
Spirit be your partner in that. What God says
is truth. What God says is truth. The consequences.
for failing to follow the truth are enormous
and potentially eternal. Potentially eternal.
I can go up in an airplane and decide that the
law of gravity does not apply to me. I can say
I'm above and beyond that. I have evolved as
a creature to the point that the law of gravity
no longer applies to me. But all the time there's
this truth out here about the law of gravity,
right? But I can be so convinced and so ignorant
that I would ignore the truth and step out of
the airplane. The consequences are enormous.
And so it is morally and spiritually. with God's
truth. You and I can say, it doesn't mean that.
You and I can say, it's obsolete. It's for another
age. It's for another day. And we can battle
with the Bible. We can say it isn't true. But
my friend, the Bible is God's truth. It is God's
truth. And if we fail to follow it, there are
enormous and potentially eternal consequences
in our lives. It's important we understand it.
It's important that we practice it. Let's pray.
Father, I pray that you will take these words
this morning that deal with how to understand
your word and motivate all of us to be even better
students of it. I pray that we will apply the
principles that we've learned this morning that
we will be humble and gracious with what we do
with it and how we understand it. I pray that
you will make us men and women of the truth and
may we share it, may we stand for it in our culture
and thus represent you well. In Jesus' name,
amen.