Interpretation of Scripture

Well, I have a confession. I'm a nerd because I love hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is very important and I trust that this will be edifying to you tonight and even enjoyable. I think we're going to have fun walking through some of these important interpretive methodologies that are very important if we're going to rightfully understand the Word of God. And I want to thank David Parker not only for tonight but every week providing these outlines.

A lot of labor went into these and it's a wonderful, wonderful template to guide us through how we might study our Bibles more effectively. And so tonight we're going to talk about hermeneutics. Alright? And so open your Bibles. If you have your Bibles, and I know most of you do, forty-something of you have them. So if you would open your Bibles, first of all to Second Chronicles, chapter 27. Second Chronicles, chapter 27 and we'll get there in a moment.

I'm not going to tell you which verse because I don't want you to read it yet. I just want you to get there so you're ready. Second Chronicles 27. And now we're going to go to the, you know what? We didn't open in prayer, did we? Let's go ahead and pray. Alright? If you'd pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessing that we have to come together and meet in Your name in freedom without interference.

And Lord, let us not take that for granted. We know there are many believers around the world that don't have that liberty and we thank you for that. During this hour, Lord, I pray that everything that's said would be truthful, would be edifying, and Lord would build us up in the knowledge of You and Your Word. It's in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright now, first of all, let's go to number one on your outline, okay?

And let's read it together. Number one, we're going to have a definition or kind of figure out what hermeneutics is, alright? Hermeneutics is the methodology of biblical interpretation. We seek to exegete or bring out the text's native meaning. We avoid eisegesis, which is putting a foreign meaning into the text. Sound exegesis makes sure that we are allowing God to speak rather than us speaking for God.

You got that? So kind of to sum it up, exegesis is drawing out of the Word. In other words, I'm going to the Word in good faith trying to rightfully understand what the message is of the text. Whereas eisegesis is importing into the text or reading into it perhaps my own agenda or my own preconceived notions. And so exegesis really will challenge, will often challenge my preconceived notions or my suppositions.

Whereas in eisegesis, I'm simply looking to affirm them or looking to sometimes make a point, right? Alright? And it's very vital that when we come to God's Word, we come to God's Word with an open mind and willing to have our understanding challenged. Even if that understanding came from people that we love, we have to go to God's Word, of course, for the truth. And so I have to have an eagerness to actually learn from God's Word.

Now, how does eisegesis show itself? It can show itself in a Sunday school class or a group where let's say someone has a pet doctrine. Sometimes we have our pet doctrines, don't we? And maybe it's predestination. Maybe it's the love of God. Maybe it's giving to the poor. And so every time we see a text, we kind of read that into it, even though it may not actually be part of that particular text. Alright?

Abraham Maslow was a psychologist and he talked about Maslow's hammer. He said, what does a hammer do? It looks for a nail. And we don't want to just be a hammer looking for a nail, right? We want to honestly understand God's Word. And so we need to get out of the way, let the Bible mold us, not us mold the Bible, right? Alright, so the processes between exegesis and eisegesis are very different.

Here's the process of exegesis, 3D Bible study. Alright? I observe the text. I read the text slowly. I observe the words. If I really want to be diligent, I want to make sure I'm understanding the original meaning of those words. So I might have a study aid or study tool to know what the Greek means, right? So I'm going to observe the text and then I'm going to interpret it. Once I consider the nouns, the verbs, read the text slowly, then I'm going to interpret and then I'm going to apply it.

What is eisegesis? Eisegesis is not so much observation as imagination. Alright? In eisegesis, when I come to the text, I'm going to explore the text and look for what I want to find. Now let me give you an example and this is Second Chronicles. If you have Second Chronicles there, chapter 27, I want to introduce to you Pastor Eisegesis. Alright? It's Wednesday, Sunday's coming and Pastor Eisegesis wants to bring a message.

And he's going to bring a message he wants to bring. And so he's thinking, what would be good for my people? What do I want to share with my people? You know what, attendance has been a little bit down. I think I'm going to bring a message on church attendance. And so now that's my imagination where I've decided what it is that I want to bring my message. And now I'm going to go to God's Word and find some language that I can use as a prop to support my message.

That's Pastor Eisegesis. Alright? Now in a moment I'll introduce you to Pastor Exegesis. But let's go to Second Chronicles, chapter 27, verses 1 and 2. Now someone who's a loudmouth, would you read those verses out loud? 27, 1 to 2.

Pastor Eisegesis has found his text. Look at verse 2. "He did right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father, Uzziah, had done. However, he did not enter the Temple of the Lord." Jotham, unlike his father, he was a good king, but you know what? He didn't go to church. He stopped going to church. And you know, as fathers, we have to be sure to transmit our values onto our children to make sure they go to church. And I preach on." Now that's kind of a good message, isn't it? What's the problem with that?

Let me introduce you to Pastor Exegesis. Let's go back to the text. And what am I going to do? I'm going to observe the text. Okay. I'm going to read it again. Jotham was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok. He did right in the sight of the Lord according to all his father, Uzziah, had done. However, he did not enter the Temple of the Lord.

Now as an exegete, I want to know a little bit more about Uzziah. I want to know a little bit more about Jotham. So I'm going to read the whole chapter. I'm going to go back in. I'm going to look at chapter 26, 2 Chronicles, chapter 26, maybe even go over to Kings. And you know what I'm going to discover? I'm going to discover that King Uzziah was a very good king, but he disobeyed the Lord when he entered the Temple, and he usurped the authority of the priest, offering incense.

And as a result of that, disobeying the Lord, usurping the authority of the priest, kind of getting political, he actually was diseased with leprosy and spent the rest of his life in isolation. And so I might even then get a little more interested in leprosy and how the Lord disciplines His people and go into Leviticus and study that. But see what the exegete has discovered is when it says in this text, "He did right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However, he did not enter the Temple of the Lord." That was actually a good thing.

You see, understand, see when Jotham didn't enter the Temple of the Lord, it's saying he did not in pride like Uzziah had done usurp authority. And so what would the proper message be from this text from an exegete? The Lord disciplines His own when they disobey Him, right? Don't repeat the mistakes of the past, or the blessings of total obedience.

And you see, I'm letting the text drive the message. I'm not starting with the message I want to convey and then exploit or use the Bible to my own ends. That's the difference between exegesis and eisegesis. I'm so thankful that here, not to flatter, I'm speaking the truth, we don't do that. That 3D Bible study leads us to exegesis and not eisegesis. And sometimes it's even hard to recognize when we might be doing it. I gave you an obvious example, but sometimes it's hard to recognize.

Alright, so exegesis is drawing out of the text, eisegesis is of course putting into the text. Now let me ask you a question. What's easier, Pastor Eisegesis's task or Pastor Exegesis's task? Which is easier? Which is lazy? It's lazy, but worse than that, look at our verse that David's provided for us here, 2 Timothy 2:15, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Alright, and so the exegete is diligent.

He uses God's Word, he lets God speak instead of himself, and he need not be ashamed for abusing the scriptures. Alright, exegesis. Alright, moving to our next, number two. Well, let me go to the application. How does exegesis show reverence to God? How does exegesis show reverence to God? Yeah, how arrogant to think what my people need is to hear the message that I came up with and scripture as a prop to support it, as opposed to maybe working through Ephesians systematically letting God's Word speak as it unfolds progressively and we understand those truths, right?

Alright, let's go to number two. Sound exegesis is based on the truth that scripture is one book by one author with one theme. The central subject that connects all of the scripture is the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Did you get those blanks? Did I mess up? Okay, sound exegesis is based on the truth that scripture is one book by one author with one theme. The central subject that connects all of scripture is the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The truth is this, there is one story that traverses its way from Genesis to Revelation and it's the story of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about the diversity of scripture. 66 books, 40 authors written over 1,500 years, during 10 different civilizations, three different languages, and you have one coherent foundational theme and it's the story of Jesus. Alright, now turn to Luke chapter 24. I'm going to give you a moment to get to Luke chapter 24.

The Bible only has one plot, one plan, one champion, one king, and that's what we're going to see here in Luke chapter 24. And we're going to look at verses 25 to 27. This is shortly after the resurrection. Jesus appears to the men on the road to Emmaus and there's a buzz about the resurrection and they haven't even recognized the Lord and here's what He says, "And He said to them, O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? Then, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in the scriptures."

And then after He appeared, jump down to verses 44 and 45, after He appeared to His disciples shortly after the resurrection, here's what He says to His disciples. "Now He said to them, these are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their mind to understanding the scriptures."

When I understand the person and work of Christ, I have the illumination to understand the scriptures. If I don't have a relationship with the Lord Jesus, I'm not going to understand the scriptures. And it's not as if He just spoke to His disciples about this and the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He told the Pharisees before He died, in John chapter 5 verse 39, I believe David's provided this verse, John chapter 5 verse 39 and 40, here's what He said to the Pharisees.

"You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about Me, and you are unwilling so that you may have life. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me."

Have any of you heard of B.B. Warfield? B.B. Warfield, this is a paraphrase, but he basically said this about the Old Testament. He said the Old Testament is a room full of treasures dimly lit. He said the prophets predicted the Lord Jesus, the patterns in the Old Testament previewed the Lord Jesus, and the promises in the Old Testament anticipate the Lord Jesus.

There's another gentleman, I can't recall his name, but I've heard others say this too, if you take a whole sweep of scripture from Genesis to Revelation, what do you have in the Old Testament? You have the Lord Jesus anticipated, right? In the Gospels, you have the manifestation. I should say the anticipation of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament. In the Gospels, you have the manifestation of the Lord Jesus. In Acts, you have the proclamation of the Lord Jesus. In the Epistles, you have the explanation of the Lord Jesus, and in Revelation, you have the consummation of the Lord Jesus. And so from beginning to end, the Bible is about Him.

Now why is Jesus so central? Why is Jesus so central? Jacob gave testimony to that earlier. God became man. Jesus lived a perfect life. He died an atoning death. He was raised from the dead, conquering sin, death, and hell. In other words, where Adam failed, Jesus succeeded. Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. And where you and I fail, Jesus succeeded. And so Jesus is the hero of scripture from beginning to end.

And if we put our trust and our faith in Him and come to know Him, we have real life. Alright? Jesus loves to forgive, that's why He came. He loves to make all things new, that's why He's coming again. So back to our hermeneutics. Let's read it again with some context there. "Sound exegesis is based on the truth that scripture is one book by one author with one theme. The central subject that connects all of scripture is the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ." So I think it's good advice for preachers and Sunday school teachers.

It's never wrong to make a beeline to Jesus before you're done, right? Because He's what it's all about. Alright. So the application. If Christ is central in the Word of God and central to understanding and interpreting, the question is, is Christ the central subject of my life? Is Christ the central subject of your life? Alright. Let's move to number three. Alright, you ready? Any commentary before we move on?

Okay, let's move on. Number three. Scripture is one book by one author with one theme. Sound exegesis is guided by the principles of unity and non-contradiction. This means that if the Bible is God-breathed, all the parts of the Bible must go together to tell one story. "And if two parts seem to contradict, or seem to be in opposition or contradiction to each other, our interpretation must be in error." Alright, now this hermeneutic is wedded to what David taught when we studied the attributes of God.

That is that God is one. There's no internal contradiction with God. That's the principle of non-contradiction. Alright? God is one. I mean, if God was internally contradictory, we couldn't trust Him and we couldn't follow Him. And so God's Word doesn't contradict itself because God is one. He's undivided. Alright? He's indivisible and His Word does not contradict itself. Alright, can I be a little mischievous?

I love being mischievous. Okay, ready? Pipe down there. Isn't there a verse about women remaining silent in church? Laughter. That's sound exegesis, by the way. It's an explicit text, which we'll get to in a minute. Alright, thank you. Thank you, Melissa. I love my wife. Alright, here it is. True or false? I dare you to blurt it out. I dare you to blurt out your answer. I've warned you because I'm being mischievous. True or false? Man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Now, open your Bibles. I want this side from here over to open your Bibles to Romans chapter 3 verse 28. From here over, Romans 3:28, and from here over, I want you to open your Bible to James chapter 2 verse 24. Alright, James 2:24. We're talking about the law of non-contradiction, right?

Now, I know one of our young scholars over here understandably answered that quickly. That was very understandable. Who was that? Okay. Don't you all accuse me of child abuse. I'm going to go right back to you, Abigail.

Now, what I asked you was this. True or false? Man is justified by works and not by faith alone. And everyone said false.

Now, I would like you, Abigail, with a good strong voice to read James chapter 2 verse 24. Read it good and strong. Okay. James 2:24. This is the Word of God. "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone."

Now, someone over here with a good strong voice read Romans chapter 3 verse 28. One more time, Tori. Paul the apostle has just said that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. James, the brother of Jesus, has just said, "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone."

Now, we're talking about the law of non-contradiction here. What gives? Don't criticize my hermeneutics. You are exactly right. What have I done? I have excised a verse from its overall context and read it on its own, and then I've excised another verse. And there seems to be an apparent contradiction. And you're shaking your head no, and I like that. I like that.

When we read James, Nancy, I'll let you go ahead and elaborate. Paul talks about Abraham's faith was rendered to be righteousness. That's what the whole times question is, and I can explain it very well. No, you did very well. And Abigail, you nailed it when you said false, because if we're talking about soteriology, if we're talking about salvation, we're talking about the mode of righteousness, the mode of justification, I should say, then I would answer just like you, just as quickly, false.

Alright? James is not talking about the mode of salvation or the imputation of righteousness. As you said, he's talking about the manifestation of righteousness. And if you read it in context, the entire chapter, that's very clear.

What he's saying is that those who are justified by faith prove their justification by fruit, by righteousness, by the way they live, alright, by obedience. It's not a mere imaginary or a false, empty phantom profession. And that's what He is dealing with. He's dealing with a dead false faith, a false profession, a lip service faith that has no fruit, alright. He's saying where there's a root, there's fruit.

How about that? Alright? Paul the Apostle, on the other hand, is dealing with, of course, put it this way, James and Paul are not facing one another with swords fighting one another. They are soldiers in the Gospel and they're standing back to back. Paul is dealing with Jewish legalism where they are insisting that you can somehow earn or win salvation, but you have to do these certain things. And Paul is saying by no works of the flesh is man justified.

Alright? James is encountering another issue, another foe of the Gospel, which says as long as you say you believe you're good and there need not be any demonstration of righteousness. Yes? "But someone will say, you have faith, I have works. Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works." You did it better than I did. That's right. And that's what James is dealing with.

And by the way, you know what? The emphasis that Paul gives and the emphasis that James gives, our Lord Jesus gives as well. Jesus did not teach a lip service salvation. He teaches lordship salvation, right? Go to the Sermon on the Mount in the beginning in the Beatitudes in 5:3. He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God." In other words, that one that is totally destitute, they realize they have nothing to offer God. They shall see the kingdom of God, okay?

But then when you go to the end in chapter 7, you know what He says? "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom, but he who does the will of the Father." Alright? And so, Nancy, that's exactly right. To extract a verse on its own like that and then say there's a contradiction is simply not fair. But it can be confusing sometimes if you're reading along and you read that and you hear that. Is he teaching works salvation? James is not teaching works salvation. He's teaching that salvation is not a fruitless salvation. Faith is not dormant. And Paul doesn't teach that either. He says we become slaves to righteousness, right? And we could go on.

Alright, so how do we apply this? Let's see. "Labor rightly to understand God's Word." That took a lot of work, didn't it? Are you tired? Right? And so we have to labor rightly to understand God's Word. By the way, Pastor Casey could talk about the labor that goes into delivering God's Word on a Sunday. I can remember my grandfather. He said it in an old country way because he was an old country preacher from Kentucky and it was like driving so many mules when he was done preaching.

He just, you know, had to go collapse for a while. It's labor. It's labor. Alright, let's go to number four, alright? Number four, in order to properly exegete a text, we must give attention to the context of the verse within its paragraph, its chapter, and its book, and the entire Bible. Alright, let me read that again because I was a little stilted. Okay, in order to properly exegete a text, we must give attention to the context of the verse within its paragraph, chapter, book, and the entire Bible.

Okay, now if you would turn in your Bibles to 1 John chapter four. I'm gonna move. 1 John chapter four verses seven through sixteen. I'm gonna expedite this a little bit for time's sake, okay? But 1 John 4:7 through 16. I wanted us to read the whole text there, but here's my point. What's the most common thing you would hear if you were to go out on the street and say, "Tell me something about God?" And you were just talking to some person that maybe went to church. "God is love." I heard it. Thank you. That's what I was searching for.

Okay, God is love. Well, it certainly is, in verse eight it says, "The one who does not know God, for God is love." Now, we're talking here about context here, alright?

Now, is it possible to take "God is love," standing on its own, excising that? Is it possible to take that out of context and maybe draw some false assumptions? Can you tell me about that. I'm sorry, I call you out. Yeah, God is love. God loves everything and everyone at all times, and it's this kind of gushy sentimental love. Yeah, it's not judgmental, okay, right. Alright. Right, because God's love. And a loving God wouldn't send anyone to hell, and we can just take it from there, right?

And we can justify everything. Alright, now, context, right? Context. Let's talk, first of all, about grammatical context. Okay, we've got a 3D card with us, and we just read "God is love." And we're going to look up what love there is referring to, and we're going to find that it's agape love. And agape love is a sacrificing love for the benefit of another, right? Okay, and so that's the grammatical context.

And so the essence of love that's found here is a sacrificial love for the benefit of another. Now, let's go not only to the grammatical context, but kind of the historical context. Who is John writing to, and why is he writing to them?

First of all, who is he writing to? Believers. He's writing to believers. And if we were to read that whole text, we would find that He is writing not for the purpose of defining God's love per se. He is writing, teaching them, and preaching to them to distinguish between a false believer and a true believer. That's what's going on here. And so in verse seven, for example, those who do not love do not belong to God, because God is love, right? And then in verse eight, He loved us before we loved Him, verses nine and ten. And all of this is why we should love one another and thereby prove that we are His. Alright.

And then the other thing is synthesis. Notice in the outline here, it says not only the chapter in the book, but the entire Bible. Does the Bible say other things about the attributes of God other than that God is love? He's holy. What else? He's a warrior. He's a warrior. He's a warrior and He's love. He's righteous. He's faithful. He's kind. He's merciful. Jack, righteous, holy. Alright. He's the atoning sacrifice. Alright. And so we have to consider the entirety of scripture. We have to consider the context, historical, grammatical, ask questions. Who was this written to? Who was the audience? Was it a Jewish audience? Was it a Gentile audience? What was going on? Was there persecution? Who was king? These are all things. Takes hard work. Alright. But if we're going to truly understand, right?

So context now, what's the application there? Have you ever been out of context? Tell you what, I've got an example of that, but I'm not, I'm gonna move on so I don't get in the flesh. Alright. Ever been taken out of context? Certainly we don't want to take God's Word out of context. Alright. Let's move on to principle number five. We must interpret the Old Testament in light of the New Testament.

Jesus and the apostles often refer to Old Testament types that prefigured Christ and point to Him as their true fulfillment. To seek to interpret the Old Testament by itself and apart from the vantage point of the New Testament reveals, and results in, error and misses God's perfect Revelation, Jesus Christ. Alright. We must interpret the Old Testament in light of the New Testament.

When we were studying Revelation, I believe David Parker told us, correct me if I'm wrong, but revelation in God's Word is progressive. It's progressive, right? If revelation is progressive, now it's not contradictory, it's complementary. Alright. It's not like we're overruling something written before, but it's progressive. And so it makes natural sense that if I'm going to understand the Old Testament, I'm going to interpret it in light of the New Testament.

Alright. Listen, the Old Testament is Christian scripture. It's not that the Old Testament is Jewish scripture and the New Testament is Christian scripture. The Old Testament is Christian scripture, and we're not supposed to interpret it as if Messiah Christ never came. Right. And so if we're going to have a true understanding of the Old Testament, we're going to have to interpret it in light of the Gospel, which is the revelation of the mystery.

Alright. That is spoken of from prophets of old in Romans chapter 16. It says it speaks of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but through the prophetic writings has been made known to all of the nations. And so a relationship with Christ is essential to understanding the Old Testament. The veil is removed when we come to know Christ and we can actually fully grasp the Old Testament's meaning in a way that magnifies and honors God.

Alright. We took a speed trip through that one. Let's look at the verse there in Luke. "Then He said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" And we read this earlier. "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself."

And so the application is this. Do you interpret the Old Testament like Christ does? Do you interpret the Old Testament like Christ does? Alright. Any commentary before we move on? Alright. Let's move on to, we just left off with what? Number five. So we're going to go to number six. We must interpret the obscure scripture passages in light of the clear. Let scripture interpret itself. Alright. We must interpret the obscure scripture passages in light of the clear. Let scripture interpret itself.

Now, last week I did not make it last week. It was on perspicuity of scriptures, the clarity of scriptures, right? So we affirm the clarity of scriptures, but that doesn't mean that every single text is as clear as another, right, as we read it. Alright. And numerous heresies have grown up by people pressuring conformity to an obscure text to the exclusion of a clear text.

Alright. And it leads to misunderstanding. It can lead to heresy. And so when we have two passages that we can interpret in various ways, we are to interpret them and not violate the basic principle of the integrity of scriptures. We go to the clear verse. Now turn to the back. David has provided good verses here under number six. I say the back, page two. I love this because I believe that Jacob read from this earlier.

A different text, but the same message. In Luke chapter 14:26, listen to this. "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life, he cannot be My disciple." Now would you say there's a little obscurity in that in light of what's said? Alright. I mean, you know, if you had a bad hermeneutic, you would say, well, the precondition or prerequisite, I see Ken back there, the condition precedent.

Ken, how's that? The condition precedent, he's a lawyer. So the condition precedent to coming to Christ is that I must declare my hatred. I must have hatred for my family. Alright. So that seems a little obscure. It seems a little odd. Jump down two verses there in Matthew 10:37. It seems to be reaffirmed. "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." So again, we have these verses that are talking about family, and one of them talks about hating family in a sense, and the other talks about kind of a comparison between family and Christ.

So if I was to look at these verses and say, wait a minute, am I to honor my mother and father? Am I to have a disposition toward my mother and father that is honoring and loving? Is there a clear scripture that deals with that? Alright. Jacob read one from Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 6, 2 and 3. Jacob, can you say that again? Honor. Honor. Amen. And so we have a clear text that we are called to honor our mother and our father.

We have a commandment, don't we, in the Old Testament in Exodus that we're to honor our mother and father. Alright. More can be said there, but let's move on.

Let's move on to number seven. Okay. We must interpret scripture as it is written. This means all the forms of writing in the Bible are to be interpreted according to the normal rules that govern their forms. This is the true literal sense. This includes grammar. Nouns are treated as nouns, verbs as verbs, et cetera. This includes genre, law as law, poetry as poetry, history as history, apocalyptic as apocalyptic, et cetera. This includes language, figurative as figurative, hyperbole as hyperbole, idioms as idioms, anthropomorphic as anthropomorphic, et cetera.

Alright. So if someone comes up to you and says, "Nancy, do you interpret the Bible literally?" What would you say? I would say I would interpret the Bible according to genre. If there's history, I'm treating it as history. Yeah. Well, that's exactly right. We don't interpret the Bible in a wooden literal sense, which blinds our eyes to the nature of the text, the genre, and other things. Just recently I was reading that section where Jesus said it was made for man and man wasn't made for it. And I know there are preachers out there that take that too far.

So we must interpret the Bible in the sense in which it is written, right? And so parables are parables. Symbols are symbols, poetry is poetry, as our outline just said. And so the Bible is not just a book. It's a book that's written unlike every other book because it carries with it the authority of God's Word.

However, the rules of grammar we use when we're reading the scripture, right? Nouns are nouns and verbs are verbs. And the fact that the Bible is divinely inspired doesn't mean we import some esoteric meaning into the scriptures. We let the Bible speak clearly, alright? And if it's poetry, we treat it as poetry. We understand, for example, poetic language in the Psalms describing flinging the stars in space and the hand of God. It doesn't mean God has, what do you call it, metacarpals? Tarsals, okay. And so we use the ordinary rules of language. That's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?

Now, I want to do a little combo here based upon time, and that is. We must interpret scripture as it is written. This means all the forms of writing in the Bible are to be interpreted according to the normal rules that govern their forms. This is the true literal sense. This includes grammar. Nouns are treated as nouns, verbs as verbs. This includes genre, which is G-E-N-R-E, genre, which means the style of literature. Law as law, poetry as poetry, history as history, apocalyptic as apocalyptic. This includes language. And I think that's the last one to fill in there, right? Okay, so let's move on to number eight.

Okay, so number eight, we must interpret narrative passages of scripture in light of its didactic passages. What are you talking about, didactic? Right, so let's give some definitions here. What is a narrative? A story. So it describes a series of events, right? A narrative describes a series of events. It tells a story. It's descriptive. Didactic literature is literature which is meant to teach or explain. It is prescriptive. It interprets a story, okay? A great example of that, you know, the parables. Jesus told the parable of the soils, and then, you know what, to our benefit, you know what He did? He actually explained it for us. The explanation was the didactic portion. The parable about soils and sowing the seed and throwing it in the ground with different types of soils, that was the narrative portion, okay?

Now, we must interpret narrative passages of scripture in light of the didactic passages, okay? So we don't read a narrative and start extrapolating doctrine from a narrative. That's very dangerous to do, right? A narrative. We let doctrine be doctrine, alright? And so that prevents us from drawing unwarranted inferences from, like, the records of people. David was a man after God's own heart, so I should go have adultery with my neighbor, you know? That would be nonsense, right? And so we allow the didactic to be the interpretive guide, not the narrative. We don't want to extrapolate doctrine from narratives. That's very important.

Now, a good example is on page two, from 1 Samuel, that David's given us. 1 Samuel chapter 15, 10 and 11, you ready? This is the narrative. "The word of Yahweh came to Samuel, saying, I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not established my words. And Samuel became angry and cried out to Yahweh all night." And so in that verse, you have a narrative where it says the Lord regretted something, right? You know, like, wait a minute, how does the Lord regret something? That sounds more human than divine to regret, okay, right?

But now go to the didactic in the same chapter in verses 28 and 29. It says, "So Samuel said to him, Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. Also, the eternal one of Israel will not lie or have regret, for He is not a man that He should have regret." And that's the didactic portion, alright?

Then I want to give another verse. This deals with interpreting the implicit in light of the explicit. I wanted to deal with John 3:16, but that would be a little provocative. I'm going to jump over that for time purposes and also not to be attacked afterwards.

But let's go to, let me just kind of short story this. In Exodus chapter 32, the Bible speaks about God relenting or even changing His mind, depending on your translation, right? In Jonah, it talks about God relenting or changing His mind. Well, if I take what is implied there, okay, then like the open theists, I know that as a human being, I change my mind, why? Because of a change in circumstances that I didn't know about, because I don't know the future.

And so what the open theists do is they take the truth about me as a human being that I changed my mind because I don't know the future. I changed my mind because of unforeseen circumstances. And then I couple it with these verses that talk about God changing His mind. And I say, God doesn't know the future. Alright? Now I am implying that from the text that says God relents, but do we have any explicit statements of scripture as to whether God knows the future? We have many of them. We have first of all, we have Numbers chapter 23 verse 19. "God is not man that He should lie or a son of man that He should change His mind." That's a didactic explicit statement that tells us God does not change His mind like you and I do.

Alright? So when it says God changed His mind, it's not because He didn't know the future like you and I don't, it's not because of some unforeseen circumstance. In other words, the change that is described, He knew would take place in advance because He knows the future. And we know that from the clear statements in scripture. Okay? But what open theism does is it takes an implication from that text.

I'm going to go ahead and jump to John 3:16 and y'all can stone me later. Okay? "For God so loved the world." Y'all say it for me. I'm running out here. Say the verse. Okay. Now there's a phrase in there isn't there? It says that whosoever believes in Him. Right? Whosoever believes in Him. I can draw an implication from that, that anyone can believe in Him without any regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

Right? Because I imply, I take an implication from that, that if it says anyone who believes in Him shall have eternal life, since the call to believe is given to everyone, it implies that everyone has the natural ability to believe. Right? Even the demons believe, a little more James there. Right? Now that's an implication. I imply that. It's not an unreasonable implication. It's not inconsistent with the text, but in John chapter six, three chapters later, we have an explicit text, right?

And it says this, "No one can come to Jesus unless it is given to Him of the Father." And so there's an explicit text that we are unable, we are lacking apart from the sovereign work of God to respond to Him in faith and repentance.

And so that's a little scenario too. And we could get into some texts on free will as well. David, you shared some of those with me where there are some implications that people draw from texts where they take out the necessity of the sovereign work of God in bringing someone to faith in Christ. And we need to look at explicit texts when we're dealing with that. Alright. That was a little sloppy. I hope you understood that.

Going back to our outline here, number nine, we must interpret the implicit statements of scripture in light of its explicit statements. And the examples that I gave there, of course, is does God know the future? He relented. He relented. He changed His mind. It says has God known the future? Well, we have explicit texts. He's God. He's omniscient. He's all-knowing. Alright. Okay.

Number ten, and we're closing it down to number ten, we must be guided by the Holy Spirit in our interpretation of scripture. The same Spirit who inspired scripture will lead and guide us to truth. John 16:13, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth." And the application, of course, is who do you look to for guidance and truth?

And as we said before, I can't really understand the Bible apart from Christ. And when I put my faith in Christ, His Spirit comes to indwell and live and guide and teach. And so we must be guided by the Holy Spirit. Go back to that 3D card. What do we do first? We divert. And we divert. Why? Because we live in a world of flesh and a world of material, and we want to let the Holy Spirit guide us in our study of God's Word.

Alright. The Spirit will enable us to have all truth. I'm sorry for rushing through some of that, but this is a very important topic. And again, I want to double down on the fact that one of the wonderful blessings about being at Beulah Baptist Church is not only do we have exegesis from the pulpit, but we have the flock being taught exegesis. We have the flock being taught how to exegete and how to study God's Word.

That is extraordinarily rare. Extraordinarily rare. Alright. Someone want to close us in prayer. Any volunteers? I will. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Your truth. Lord, and we thank you that You've provided us with the means to understand Your Word by the Holy Spirit. And Lord, help us to have a greater devotion for being diligent in studying Your Word that we might show ourselves to be approved workmen, not to be ashamed, not to be lazy in how we handle Your Word, but to respect Your Word for what it is.

It's the power, Lord, the Gospel. And we just thank you for Your goodness to us. I pray that You bless each family that's represented here. Give us traveling mercies as we leave and go home. And we look forward to coming back Sunday to worship together again in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright.