Thank you Mark for filling in tonight for John as his assistant. Well I don't know about you but I really liked the march, didn't you? Yep. Brought back a lot of memories. How many of you played in a high school band? Would you lift your hand? Oh that's great. That's probably a good quarter of us here tonight. Did you play El Capitan? Would you lift your hand? Yes, that's some of you who played in the bands. Were there any tuba players or sousaphone players? Would you lift your hands? Yes, amen.
There are several of us. That was my instrument. That's why they called me Hot Lips when I was in high school. And the only reason. Well tonight we are going to take up part two of our study on Here We Stand, dealing with what we believe as a church about the Bible. Last week I read to you from our doctrinal statement about it. Just to summarize our convictions regarding the Bible, we believe that the Bible is the revelation of God. By that we mean God's self-disclosure.
God has told us of himself in this book, the Bible. It is given to us by inspiration. That is the work of the Holy Spirit in and upon the writers of Scripture. So that what they wrote were the very words that God wanted them to author. That results in what we call an inerrant record. By that we mean there is no error in the Scripture of any sort.
And we believe that it has been accurately preserved for us too by God's work down through the ages so that we have today a Bible that is trustworthy and a Bible that possesses final authority in all that we believe and how we behave. Both in faith and in practice this book becomes our final authority. That it in fact is God's word is proven by several things. First of all, what I call a structural argument.
In other words, it's amazing unity written over 1,500 or so years by 35 or 40 different authors, most of whom who did not know each other. People from various backgrounds who lived in different places there in the mid-east. And yet despite all of that diversity, there is a theme that runs right through the Bible so that instead of 66 individual books, we have as well one book with one theme. And that is the theme of redemption.
A second argument for the fact that the Bible is God's word is an historical argument in the fulfilled prophecies. It would be impossible to calculate the likelihood of the prophecies that have been fulfilled if it were done by chance. There had to be a mind behind these words which is eternal, which knows the beginning from the end, and who is therefore able to accurately predict coming events.
Those events range from circumstances in the lives of individuals to the course of Gentile world history. Because of these prophecies and the fulfillment of them, we know the Bible to be the word of God, the historical argument. But then what I call the effectual argument, that is its transforming power. The Bible is unlike any other book, including all of religious literature. It has the ability within itself to transform a life.
Yes, there are religious writings that can cause people to turn over new leaves, which can cause them to try harder or to go through a moral transformation of sorts. But not the complete, in-depth, spiritual transformation that takes place through the words of this book, which is living and abides forever. And finally, the internal argument, because the Bible claims that it is the word of God.
Some 2,000 times in the Old Testament, 525 times at least in the New Testament, it claims to be what it is, the word of the living God. Listen with me to the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament. Let's look at one example of how the Bible claims to be the word of God and how this author speaks by the work of God in his own mind and life. Jeremiah 1,9. These are the words now of Jeremiah the prophet. He says, Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth.
And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. And then in verse 17 he says, Now gird up your loins and arise and speak to them all which I command you. God is speaking here to Jeremiah. Do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you before them. So Jeremiah is speaking by God's work in his life, the work of inspiration. Now we see this same kind of claim that these words are the words of God in the New Testament.
For example, turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and let's look at the words of the apostle Paul. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13. And for this reason, writes Paul, we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. Paul says when we came to you, we came preaching to you the word of God. The Bible claims to be God's word.
And then turn over to 2 Peter chapter 3. I think I referred to this verse briefly last week, but notice in verse 15, we're going back to verse 14 to catch the sentence. 2 Peter 3, 14, he writes, Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, that is the prophecies he has just written, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation.
This is also our beloved brother Paul, notice this, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things. So what is Peter saying? He is authenticating the fact that what Paul wrote to them was in fact the word of God. And he goes on to say, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of scriptures to their own destruction.
So Paul is saying, or rather Peter is saying here that what Paul wrote is equated with the other scriptures. The Bible throughout claims to be the word of God. But tonight I want to focus primarily on how do we know what the Bible means. If there is any argument that is raging today, it is the argument of how to interpret the Bible.
When we claim that the Bible says this or that, it is not uncommon for someone to say in response if they are on another side, well that is what you think the Bible says, but what I think the Bible says is blah blah blah, and on they go. So how do we know what the Bible really means and what it says? That is a key question. That brings us to what is called the subject of hermeneutics. That is the science and art of interpreting the Bible.
There are some approaches to hermeneutics or to interpretation which are false or at best weak. I would just like to go over them briefly with you so that you understand where some other people are coming from. For example, there are those who approach the scriptures to interpret them allegorically. In other words, they search to find a hidden meaning in the words of scripture.
They take the words and they say rather than understanding these words literally for what they say, we need to try to find the hidden meaning that is here. Now the problem with the allegorical method of interpreting the Bible is that it is left to the fancies of each individual's imagination to come up with whatever that hidden meaning may be. This is the method that is used primarily by the Roman Catholic Church. When they come to the Bible, they interpret it allegorically.
Now some examples of interpretation which they have used in their commentaries would be as follows. Here are examples of allegorical interpretation. In the book of Genesis where it says, let there be light, how do you understand that? What does that mean? Well we understand it to mean that God said let there be light and there was light. That it's an historical statement as a part of creation.
But in the commentaries, at least one commentary of the Roman Catholic Church, here is their interpretation of let there be light. They say it means, quote, let Christ be loved. Isn't that wonderful? Say where do they get that? Well that's just what somebody feels is behind those words. That's the hidden meaning in let there be light. In the book of Daniel, you know there is that division of a tree and there's a root that is involved.
The Roman Catholics interpret that root of the tree in Daniel's vision to be proof of the immaculate conception of Mary. That's how they interpret that. Rebecca at the well, you remember the story from the book of Genesis. What does that mean? Well we understand that to mean that there was a woman one time by the name of Rebecca and that she was at a well. And it was there that she was found and then brought to Isaac. Well here's how they interpret it allegorically.
They say what that means is, here's the interpretation allegorically. It means go daily to the scriptures to meet Christ. So you see those thoughts are maybe okay in themselves, maybe. But the point is that's not at all what those verses mean. Unless you interpret it allegorically. That is trying to find for some hidden meaning in the literal words of scripture. Then there is the liberal approach to interpreting the Bible.
They say when you interpret the Bible, whatever you come up with rests upon, is predicated upon, man's reasoning and experience. And if it doesn't fit with your ability to rationalize or with your own experience, then you must toss out what that says. Of course this subjects God's revelation to man's intellect. To them any statement in scripture where God intervenes is unreasonable. And therefore they totally reject Genesis 1 through 11 because of the amazing interventions of God.
It talks about creation there, the beginning of sin. It talks about the flood. It talks about the tower of Babel. They say well there's no way to interpret all of that literally. I mean it's just unreasonable to think that such things could ever happen. And therefore they approach it a different way. But they reject the literal understanding of it. Likewise they reject the miracles of Christ and call them but myths and legends. Then there is a school that is called neo-orthodox.
That may be a new term to some of you. But it is a school of theology. The way they approach scripture is this. They try to discover what they call the word, capital W, behind the words of scripture. Here's how it works. You read the Bible. You read these words. And all of a sudden some verse just leaps off the page at you. That verse then becomes to you the word of God. It may not be the word of God to somebody else. But at that moment that verse is inspired to you.
And therefore it becomes the word of God. They believe that the Bible contains myths that has errors in history and science and geography and so on. But nonetheless the words and sentences can leap off the page in some kind of a moment of experience. They become inspired to you. And at that moment they become the word of God. We accept the Bible literally as the word of God. Now there are those who laugh at that and who make fun of it these days, even in some so-called evangelical seminaries.
They say, how can you really believe the Bible to be literally the word of God? Well, you have to understand what literal interpretation of the Bible means. What it means is that we understand the words and the sentences of Scripture in their normal, usual, customary, proper designation. In other words, we approach the Bible something like you approach a newspaper. When you got out the newspaper today, if you get a Sunday newspaper, you read the front page. You interpreted that in one way.
Because that is supposed to be hard news. And so you interpret that as fact. Then you turn to the editorial page. And you know that this is not necessarily fact, but this is opinion. And so you very naturally and normally interpret the editorial page a little differently. And then you turn to the page that you really been looking forward to, the comic strips. And you read that and you interpret that entirely differently because you know what that is. Now, what are you doing?
You are reading the newspaper literally or normally. You're simply using the words, the sentences, and understanding them in the normal, customary way in which they're used. Now, that is the way that we approach the Bible. Sometimes it's called the normal, sometimes it's called the historical, geographical interpretation, or excuse me, the historical grammatical interpretation of the Bible. Now, I'd like just to review with you just some principles that we follow in interpreting the Bible.
As in any science, there are certain laws or principles that are used in interpreting the Bible. Interpreting the Bible is a science. It's an art as well. But it's a science. You say, well, I haven't been to seminary. I don't think that I can interpret the Bible. My friend, anybody can interpret the Bible. You don't have to go to seminary to try to interpret the Bible. In fact, sometimes it takes you years to get over seminary.
So don't feel like you have to have a graduate degree in Greek or Hebrew or archeology or in theology in order to interpret the Bible. You have to have none of those things. Not that they're bad. They can be of assistance to you and help you. But anybody can interpret the Bible. But there are certain basic principles that we use when we follow the normal method of interpreting the Bible that I've explained and defined. We just allow the words to mean what they would normally, customarily mean.
The first principle is this. I call it the principle of self-interpretation. What I mean by that is that the Bible, in some instances, will interpret and explain itself. So we don't have to guess what those words mean. Because God tells us in the Bible what they do mean. We could turn to some examples of Jesus' parables. Where he gave a parable, and you can read in some commentaries a very fanciful interpretation of what those parables mean.
I mean people just go off the deep end sometimes explaining what Jesus meant in those words. And yet our Lord himself, in some instances, told us what he meant in those parables. In those cases we can apply this principle, the principle of self-interpretation. We let the Bible tell us itself what it means. An example of this would be back in Psalm 2. Go back there with me. Now Psalm 2 was written a thousand years before Christ.
In Psalm 2 we have a number of interesting statements, but I'm particularly focusing on one that is in verse 7. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. Now if you have ever run into a Jehovah's Witness, they will go to a verse like this and they will say to you, what this verse means, now they're going to interpret it for you. What this verse means is that God begot Jesus, the Messiah. That he had a beginning.
That there was some point when he began to be that he's not eternally existent. Because it says here, today I have begotten thee. And therefore they say he couldn't be eternal. They agree with us that this psalm applies to Messiah, to Jesus, but they say obviously God said, I have begotten thee. In other words, there was a beginning to him. But what does that verse mean? Here we have an example of self-interpretation. Go to the book of Acts now, and the 13th chapter, and the 33rd verse.
The apostle Paul is preaching, in verse 32, let's begin there. He says, and we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers that God has fulfilled this promise to our children. And notice what he says, in that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm, thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. And so he quotes from Psalm 2, and he gives us the understanding of what God meant a thousand years before.
It did not refer at all to Bethlehem, but it refers rather to the resurrection of the Son Jesus Christ. So what does that phrase in Psalm 2, 7 mean? The Bible tells us what it means. Acts 13, 33, it refers to not his birth, not his beginning, not to Bethlehem, but to his resurrection from the dead. An example of self-interpretation. I have to move ahead to another principle. I wish we could illustrate that some more, but I hope you get the gist of what I'm saying.
Now there's a second principle that I want to name, the principle of normal interpretation. I've briefly stated something about this, but let me express a little more about it. It means that we accept the words as the author intended them to be read. Normally it is very clear in the writings of Scripture, as in most writings, whether the author intended for these words to be understood figuratively or literally.
This principle simply means that we try to understand what the author intended as he wrote these words. We try to get into his skin, into his mind. As he wrote those words, what would be the normal understanding of that author as he penned them? Let me read to the words of Dr. David Cooper. He says, when the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense.
Therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual literal meaning unless the fact of the immediate context indicates clearly otherwise. What's an example of this? Well, Jesus made a statement in the Gospel of John. He said, I am the door. Now there are those who laugh at those of us who believe in what is commonly called the literal interpretation of the Bible, and they say, you believe Jesus is a door? You believe he has four corners, a doorknob, that that's Jesus?
Well obviously that is not what John intended as he wrote those words. In fact, that wasn't even the kind of door that was in mind there in the context in John chapter 10. He was talking about a sheepfold, and there's a whole picture that's built up. What do we do? Well, we go back to John chapter 10 and we look at the context there, and we see that he wasn't literally saying that Jesus Christ is a door. It's figurative in that case.
What it means is that he is the way of salvation, that he is the way to God. Another example would be found in the Old Testament in Psalm 60 and verse 2, where God says Moab is my wash pot, overeat him, I will cast out my shoe. Well are we to accept that literally to mean then that God has a face that he washes, that God has feet on which he wears shoes? Of course not. God is spirit. He has no face in that sense. He does not have feet in that sense.
Again God is speaking obviously here in a figurative way. What he's saying is, in this statement, is that Moab, Edom, will be his servants. It is a figurative statement and the context of it makes that clear. So what's the point here? Well we look for the meaning which the author intended. Did he intend for it to be understood literally or did he have some figurative meaning that's in view here?
Another example of this is Luke chapter 16, the last part of the chapter, where Jesus talks about the man Lazarus, not his friend but the poor man, who died and went to Abraham's bosom and he talked about the rich man who died and went to Hades to the fire. All their people say, hey that's figurative. There is no real such thing as hell, as fire, as Hades.
But if you look at the context there and you see what Luke is saying, he's quoting our Lord Jesus, there is no indication at all in the Bible that the author intended for that to be only figurative. As we read it very naturally in Luke chapter 16, it's obvious that Jesus is speaking literally in that case. So that's another example of normal interpretation. We simply understand the words normally, try to understand it from the viewpoint of the author.
Another important principle is that of contextual interpretation. I've already used the word context but let me re-emphasize the fact that whenever we understand Scripture, try to understand Scripture, we have to look at the context. Bernard Ram in his book, The Principles of Biblical Interpretation quotes a Dr. Todd this way, the Bible is no mere collection of good texts or verses put together without any relation to one another.
A 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. In other words, we do not look at a verse of Scripture and try to understand it without looking at it in the larger context. What does it mean within that paragraph or within that chapter or within that book? For example, in the Old Testament there is a command. It says, go over this Jordan. Well, have you done that?
Have you obeyed that command of God's word? If not, why not if you believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible? God said for you to go over the Jordan. Well, the reason you haven't obeyed that is because you're good interpreters of the Bible, obviously, besides the fact that Jordan River is 10,000 miles away. In the context, God is speaking to Joshua in the Old Testament. So what did God mean? God was telling Joshua and the people of Israel to go over the Jordan.
But the context there clearly shows he's not speaking to all people for all time. Other times the context shows otherwise, that it's not just the individual, but it's all people. But the context will tell you. Did you know the Bible says there is no God? I can show you in the verse in the Bible where the Bible itself says there is no God, Psalm 14.1. But if you look at the context, you find out what it says is the fool says in his heart, there is no God.
The context changes it just a little bit, doesn't it? I think my favorite story along this line is the one that's told by John MacArthur. He tells of a preacher who was wailing away at the recent hairstyles of the women in his church and the text of scripture that he was using was, top knot go down. Top knot go down. He was trying to get them to let their hair down, not to put it up in a knot. Top knot go down. Where was this verse?
Well in Matthew chapter 24 where it says, let him who is on the house top knot come down. You see? It makes a little difference, doesn't it? When you look at the words that surround that phrase. So this is the principle of contextual interpretation. Folks you have to look at the context. A lot of people get in trouble in Matthew 24 and 25.
There are people there who teach strange things about the rapture because they see the rapture there and what it says to Noah, or about Noah, as it was the days of Noah. Is the rapture in Matthew 24 and 25? The context says no. He's talking to Israel. Does it teach there that the gospel must go into all the world before the rapture can come? It does not teach that in Matthew chapter 24. You have to look at the context, beloved, whenever you come to scripture.
I wish I could go into that, but I have to go on. The principle of consistent interpretation, number four. What I mean by this is the Bible cannot contradict itself. It is consistent. And therefore we must interpret difficult passages with the light of the clear passages.
If you have a passage that gives you trouble, and we all have passages like that, all of us, if you can't understand what that passage means, go to some other portion of scripture using some Bible study tool that you have guiding you to another portion of scripture, maybe a cross reference in your text or whatever, and allow that clearer portion of scripture to give you light regarding that difficult or dark portion of scripture.
This is why some people come up with the idea that one can lose his salvation. They'll go back to Hebrews chapter six or Hebrews chapter ten to some difficult portion of scripture, and they'll say, see right there, it says that one can lose his salvation. But I'll tell you this, if Hebrews chapter six or Hebrews chapter ten teach that, then there are other clear portions of scripture not at all difficult to understand, which contradict that, and let's throw the whole book out.
Because the principle of consistent interpretation says the Bible cannot contradict itself. There may be portions of scripture you will never understand to your satisfaction until you get to heaven. Don't let that disturb you. Don't let that disturb you. If you don't understand it, just thank God for the ones you do understand, for those clear portions of scripture. And finally, the principle of background interpretation.
When you go to a passage of scripture, go to it as best as you can with some understanding of the history and the language and the author. Need to understand the terms, the places, the people involved here. There was one woman who refused to believe the Bible. You know why? Because she could not believe that the Israelites would carry Noah's ark around in the wilderness for 40 years. She wouldn't believe the Bible. What's her problem? She's ignorant. She's ignorant of this principle.
She did not understand what the ark was which they carried in the wilderness. It was not Noah's ark to say the least. When we go to scripture to try to understand what it means, we have to have some understanding of its background. Now there are excellent aids which you can get. You don't have to study a word of Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic to use the aids that are available today to give you insight into the meaning of original words.
If you have a Young's Concordance or a Strong's Concordance, you can get some basic help. If you don't have Vines' expository dictionary of New Testament words, then you're missing a key tool in your library. Old Testament word book for the Old Testament words. You say, yes, but I don't understand those languages. Do you understand English?
If you understand English most of the time, then you will be able to use basic tools that are available today to help you with words and phrases of scripture. That's what Bible study is all about. As we go to the Bible and seek to understand it, we recognize that ultimately we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit. We use these principles that we've talked about tonight and there are some others.
We use those principles as best we can, but ultimately we depend upon the Holy Spirit to guide us in understanding what the book means. Remember this, a basic rule of Bible interpretation. There can be only one interpretation of any passage, not many. If you and a friend interpret a passage differently, you have two different interpretations. I'll let you in on a little secret. One or both of you are wrong. It could be that there's an entirely different interpretation.
Number three, that neither of you have. That's the proper one. But there's only one interpretation of every scripture. However, there can be a number of applications out of any text. An application. Before you decide what the Bible means to you, seek to understand what the Bible means. And once you understand what it means, then seek to apply it to you, what it means to you in your own life. That's the right way to do it.
As we depend upon the Holy Spirit whom our Lord sent to be our teacher, we can gain an understanding of this book. And as we understand this book, it will set a fire in our hearts. Just as those disciples experienced on the road to Emmaus, when our Lord walked with them and explained to them what the Old Testament meant concerning Himself, and what was the result? Spiritual heartburn. Their hearts burned within them.
Warren Wiersbe 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. That's it. That's the bottom line. We come to this book, we say it is our final authority. That we believe it from cover to cover, and we believe the cover because it has Holy Bible on it. What does it mean? And then what does it mean to me? How do I apply that to my life?
And I allow the Spirit of God to burn that into me so that I'm different, so that it transforms my life. That my friend is what we believe about the Bible. Not just what we say in a document, a statement of faith, but that's what we believe with our hearts, and that's what we as a church seek to live in our lives. Let's bow together in prayer.