Understanding The Bible

Introduction

Well, good morning to everyone. I want to tell you about something that I’m kind of excited about. An idea that I’ve had that I’ve been thinking about for several months as I try to wrap my mind around how to help people do evangelism and how to be more effective in doing evangelism myself because I can only be in one place at one time. And I’ve decided to create a series of videos that can be viewed on YouTube and they can be easily shared with your friends, and corresponding material to go along with the videos.

I’ve made that video this week and put it on YouTube. There’s a three-minute version of the video and a 12-minute version of the video. The 12-minute version is packed with as much as could normally be said in about half an hour. And it’s really just packed in there and all the fat is just trimmed off. But it’s it’s just straight material that’s useful. The three-minute video is just a very brief overview of the 12-minute video. And so it is understanding the Bible, and that’s what we’re going to be talking about this morning as well. And so I’m going to have a series of of these lessons that are appropriate, especially in evangelism. Now, this morning’s lesson is going to be the same information that’s on that video.

I still encourage you to watch the video, of course. But it’s now on our website, and I think I’ve sent an email out to everybody. At least that was supposed to happen. If you haven’t received that, then you were supposed to of that three-minute video. So this morning’s lesson is very basic, and you may be thinking this is too basic for me, but I guarantee you can learn something from this. But more than that, what I’m intending with this lesson this morning is for you to see some things that need to be taught to others. And maybe you can learn some things in evangelism, to learn in evangelism this morning. And also see what’s going to be in that video that you can share with others.

1. The Bible’s Unique Claim to Inspiration

So we’re going to talk about understanding the Bible. The Bible is the most important book in the world. It is the only book that is from God, and it is the only book that teaches salvation. So this lesson simply introduces some fundamentals of the Bible to help you begin to understand the Bible better. For starters, the Bible makes a very unique claim to inspiration. For example, in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the men of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. So all scripture is inspired of God. Now for some basics about the Bible. The word Bible comes from the Greek word biblia, meaning books.

And the Bible is a library of books, 66 books, divided up into two major sections. The Old Testament, which consists of 39 books, and the New Testament, which consists of 27 books. The Bible was written not by one man who sat down and thought he’d write this one cohesive unit, but it is it was written by 40 different men over the period of 1,600 years. And these men were guided by the Holy Spirit. In 2 Timothy 3 16, the passage we just looked at, it says all scripture is inspired by God. Inspired by God is three words in English, but one word in the Greek, and that word is a word that is basically two words combined, God breathed. So every scripture is God breathed. That’s a beautiful thought.

Ephesians 3 5 said it has now been talking about the mystery of Christ. It has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. And in 2 Peter 1 and verse 21, no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. So these men were moved by the Holy Spirit. So really there is only one author that guided all 40 of these men. The theme of the Bible is the salvation of mankind. God planned it. God planned it before the foundation of the world, from all eternity. He had this plan in mind. I think that this passage in 1 Peter 1 sums it up nicely, for he was foreknown, talking about Jesus before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

2. The Flow of the Bible

That kind of says it in a nutshell to me. Well, a lot of people know random stories of the Bible. They could tell you about David and Goliath or Jesus and Zacchaeus, but they cannot put the Bible together in one flowing story. They don’t understand how it all connects. And so I’m going to do that for you very briefly. I’ll may at another time do a full sermon on this, maybe when I can preach at the second hour and go over it, but I don’t have that option right now. So this is going to be very, very brief, the flow of the Bible. First, we have creation stories. These are all the stories that are grouped back at the beginning of time. God spoke the world into existence in six days.

Adam and Eve committed the very first sin in the Garden of Eden and were driven from God’s presence. And this creation was subjected to futility. Cain killed Abel. Years after this, man fell into such sin that God was very angry and grieved and decided to flood the world to kill everything that breathed. And everything died except for Noah and his family and the animals that Noah put on the ark. Noah’s descendants wanted to build a great city and a great big tower high up into the heavens. And that doesn’t mean like jack and the beanstalk so that they might get to God. So, you know, don’t tell children that. That wasn’t the point. The point was to build it up high in the heavens, in the skies, like a skyscraper to make a name for themselves.

Well, God wasn’t pleased with this. He didn’t want them to be one nation with one language and everything. So he divided their languages, and they scattered and spread and filled the earth. On down the line here, following the line of Noah through Shem, we get to a man named Abraham and his son Isaac and his son Jacob. These are what we know as the patriarchs, the fathers of the Jewish people. And God gave three promises to them land, nation, and seed. So their descendants would inherit a wonderful land and would become a great nation. And all the world would be blessed through the descendant of these men, specifically one descendant. Jacob had twelve sons. His favorite was the one who had that special coat that he gave to him.

That was Joseph. Well, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and went down into Egypt. But in Egypt, he became powerful. He became a ruler. And eventually his brothers came to him and he received them in peace and moved. All of his family moved to Egypt. And so the Israelites were there and they multiplied for the next several hundred years until we get to the time of Moses. By this time, the Israelites were very great in number, and they were slaves. And so God uses Moses to deliver the Israelites with the ten plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea. They exited out of Egypt. And they went down to Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments, which is kind of a table of contents for the law of Moses.

So they received the law of Moses is what they received. They were now not only a nation, they were God’s nation. And they left Sinai and headed up towards the promised land. They got to Kadesh Barnea and sent in the twelve spies who came back with a fearful report. And so all the rest of the uh of the congregation were filled with fear. We can’t enter this land. These people are too big for us to fight and battle and defeat. And so, since they feared God, God sentenced them to wander in the wilderness. And they would live in the wilderness for 40 years until they were dead. And the next generation would be the one that would enter Canaan. And so in that time, when that next generation was ready, they did invade and conquer Canaan.

Under the leadership of Joshua, they went into the land and they defeated many of the enemies, and they took possession of the land as was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so now the nation promise was fulfilled and the land promise was fulfilled, but not yet the seed promise. After Joshua died, the Israelites turned away from God and fell into idolatry and sin. And so God punished them with their enemies round about. And they cried out for help. And then God was true to his covenant and delivered them when they cried out for help and gave them the judges, such judges as Gideon and Samson and Samuel. Now this picture up here shows us a very skinny version of Samson. Well, I got to looking at that.

He almost looks like a skeleton. I kind of doubt, I kind of doubt Samson looked like that. But he didn’t have his strength from his muscles, did he? He had his strength from the Lord. Whatever the case, Samuel was the last judge. And in the days of Samuel, the people said, We want a king. And so God gave them what they wanted, and we have the united kingdom. Saul was the first king, then David, and then Solomon. Solomon built the temple for the Lord. And Solomon turned to idolatry. And so after Solomon died, God divided the kingdom, as he told Solomon he would do. And so we have two kingdoms now Israel in the north and Judah in the south. This existed, these two kingdoms coexisted for about 200 years until the northern kingdom of Israel was taken away into Assyrian captivity.

They were taken away because of idolatry. And so Judah was left alone in the land. You would think that she would learn from her older sister, from her other sister, not to commit idolatry. But she did not learn. And so 135 years later, since Judah followed the same course as Israel, Judah also was taken away into captivity in Babylon. And so 70 years in Babylonian captivity, we have all of the stories of Daniel. And we have the stories of Ezekiel as well that fit in this time. When the 70 years of Babylonian captivity were over, God allowed a remnant to return to the land. And so a remnant did return. And they rebuilt the temple and they eventually rebuilt the walls, but they did not rebuild their hearts.

And so, after the last prophet of the Old Testament, Malachi, God had nothing more to say to his people. And so for 400 years there is no revelation from God until finally the coming of the anticipated Messiah. The Son of God now come in the flesh. This is Jesus the Christ. And Jesus fulfilled the plan and the mission and the purpose of God by providing salvation for all mankind. Ultimately, he did this by dying on the cross, the cruel cross. And then on the third day, he raised from the dead. And after 40 more days of living on earth, he ascended into heaven, and he is now at the right hand of God in heaven. The life of Jesus and his story is the center of all human and divine history and is the most important event of all the world, of all time.

3. Three Key Prophecies

After Jesus died, his church was established. And the great commission that Jesus gave to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature began to be carried out. And the church grew exponentially, even in the face of severe persecution. This is the story. You know, we talk about the plan of salvation being here, believe, repent, confess, be baptized. That’s not the plan of salvation, folks. Those are the conditions for salvation. The plan of salvation is this glorious story that I have tried to give you some glimpse of in the past few minutes. Now we’re going to change gears a little bit and focus on three prophecies. Three key prophecies. The first of those is Satan’s head to be crushed by the seed of woman.

Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. This is after Adam and Eve had sinned. God said to the serpent, and I will put enmity, meaning hatred between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He, that is the seed of woman shall bruise. A word that in the Hebrew means more than what we mean by bruise. It means to crush. He shall crush you on the head, and you shall crush him on the heel. The picture is if, you know, you see a snake. Most of us would squeal and scream and run or whatever. But if you if you stomped on it with your heel, that actually hurt a little bit. And crushed your heel in the process. You stomp right on that thing’s head, you kill that serpent, but you injure yourself in the process.

That’s the imagery here. A second key prophecy. All nations to be blessed through the seed of Abraham. God said to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 and in the second part of verse 3, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Not just the Jews will be blessed, but all will be blessed. In Genesis 22 and verse 18, in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. And that seed there is referring to one in particular. The third key prophecy is David’s descendant to reign on his throne forever. In 2 Samuel chapter 7, the prophet Nathan said to David, When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. These prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the seed of woman, who crushed Satan’s head on the cross and recovered from the blow that he received, which is dying on the cross by raising from the dead. Jesus is the seed of Abraham, who offers a blessing to the whole world, because he offers salvation to all mankind. Jesus is the seed of David, who is now on the throne because he is risen from the dead. And so our faith and hope are truly in God.

4. The Two Testaments

This could really be a separate lesson entirely. And we’re going to talk about the two testaments, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The word testament means covenant, which means an agreement.

Now, when we say Old Testament, we typically we typically think of all of the Bible that precedes Matthew. But technically, the old covenant is the law of Moses, and the Old Testament can be divided up law, prophets, and writings. But technically, old covenant law of Moses, new covenant, law of Christ. Which one are we under? Well, we’re under the new covenant. The old covenant is our tutor to lead us to Christ. Tutor is the idea of really kind of a babysitter in a way, to watch over us, like as if we were a little child that needed to be watched over. In Galatians 3 24 and 25, it says, Therefore the law became our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith.

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. In 2 Timothy 3 15, Paul said to Timothy that from childhood you have known the sacred writings. Well, what sacred writings had Timothy known of from childhood? The New Testament writings? No. The Old Testament. So from childhood he knew of the Old Testament writings, which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation which through faith which is in Christ Jesus. So the Old Testament paves the way for faith and salvation in Jesus Christ. Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. Abolish means destroy. He didn’t come to destroy the law or the prophets.

He said, I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. And fulfill he did. And while he did not abolish the law, he did set it aside as a binding covenant. It’s no longer a binding covenant. In Colossians chapter 2 and verse 14, having canceled out the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees against us, which is referring to the law of Moses, which was hostile to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Hebrews 9 gives us a little bit more insight in this topic. For this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant. So that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead. For it is never enforced while the one who made it lives. And so Jesus had to die in order for his will to go into effect. Illustration.

And I have no will.

And I do that, and it includes, of course, my three children and my wife and all of that. I just get it real nice and the way I like it. But then ten more years pass, and I have, let’s say I have two more children. And that’s not going to happen. But let’s just say that that happens. Okay? And at that point I say, well, you know what? That other will is kind of dated, and it doesn’t include all of my children, so I’m going to go and I’m going to make a new one. And so I do that and I update some things, and it’s a better will, really, and it includes all of my children. When I die, which one is going to go into effect?

The second one.

Not intended to be the permanent covenant. It didn’t even cover all the one that went into effect when Jesus Christ died on the cross. And it includes the Gentiles. And it is a better covenant. All of this is in accordance with what Jesus said when he instituted the Lord’s Supper, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. In Hebrews 8, verses 6 and 7, but now he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. In Hebrews 10 and verse 1, it says, for the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very substance or form of things.

When you see the word law in that context, that’s the law of Moses. And so, you know, my shadow, I can see it down here, and I can sort of see the shape of my body and everything. But that’s not the real me. And so the shadow, I mean, the law is simply a shadow. It’s just a representation that’s sort of closely resembles the real thing, but it’s not the real substance. Their substance is Christ. The old law is now obsolete. When you think of the word obsolete, what do you think of? Cell phones, maybe. Electronic gadgets. That’s the first thing that comes to my mind, you know. Well, my iPhone, you know, four is obsolete now. Maybe even iPhone 5. I don’t know, because of the fast uh evolution of technology.

Uh it means kind of like, well, it’s pretty much useless now. And so really the idea is old. It’s old. In Hebrews 8 13, when he, that is God, said a new covenant, which, if we had time, we would study that passage in Jeremiah 31 where this is quoted from. He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. In Romans chapter 7, Paul gives an illustration in verses 2 and 3 of a woman who’s husband dies, and so she has the right to go and marry someone else, and she will not be called an adulteress if she does that. And so then Paul says, Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to him who is raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

And so the idea is that specifically to the to the Jews, you are dead to the law of Moses. You are free to go and marry Jesus Christ.

Those are all things of the old law. Things of which are a mere shadow of what is to come. But the substance belongs to Christ. So there we see that shadow and substance contrast again. And so we are not bound to the old law, and we must not listen to anyone who tells us that we are. And I’ve had people try to tell me very emphatically that I am. And I say, No, I’m not.

5. The Old Law Is for Our Learning

Oh, it’s it’s certainly for a purpose. It is for our learning. In a positive way. Romans chapter 15 and verse 4 says, For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. So the Old Testament can instruct you in such a way as to give you encouragement and hope. But also in a negative way, we can learn from the Old Law. And 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul in the first 10 verses lists out all of these sins that were committed in the time of the Exodus and the wandering in the wilderness. We kind of recapped this a little bit last week. And then Paul says in verses 11 and 12, now these things happened to them as an example for us.

And they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. One of the greatest lessons you can learn from the Old Testament is look at all of this sin and look at what God does because of all of that sin. I don’t want to do that. And therefore we need the Old Testament terribly.

What would you be left with? It’s a shredded mess. Well, I had a Bible that was kind of ruined anyway. I had dropped it, submerged it in water. I mean, just totally submerged in water. And so it was, you know, one of these all bubbled up looking things. And so it’s kind of falling apart anyway. So I thought this is the perfect Bible to try this experiment on. Plus, we had a member at the church where I was preaching that thought that we basically didn’t really need to waste time studying the Old Testament. So, I took that Bible and I took a pair of scissors and I cut out just all of the direct quotations from the Old Testament. I didn’t cut out all the references.

Just the direct quotations, and I put them in a ziploc bag. This took me a while. And you should have seen that. I still got it, I think I’ve got it back there in my office. I don’t have the bag full of quotations, but I think I still have the Bible. And to make an object lesson, I passed that Bible around while I preached on this very topic and let everybody flip through that thing to hopefully make the point that, you know what, we really do need the Old Testament, or we cannot comprehend the new. The Bible is sometimes hard to understand. As Peter admitted in 2 Peter 3, verse 16, speaking of Paul’s letters, he said, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction.

6. The Bible Can Be Understood

And so, since the Bible is sometimes hard to understand, we have to be careful that we do not twist it to our own destruction. But the Bible can be understood. In fact, it must be understood. It is a command in Ephesians 5 17, so then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. So if we’re going to understand the will of the Lord, if we’re going to understand the Bible, then how are we going to do that? It’s going to take work. It’s going to take reading and studying diligently. And I would couple that, of course, with prayer. In Ephesians 3 and verse 4, Paul said, When you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. So just by reading, we can have the same insight that Paul had into the mystery of Christ.

Pretty amazing thing. In the second missionary journey, Paul, after he had passed through Thessalonica and went down to Berea, he found that those Jews there were, they were more receptive. And in Acts 17 11 it says, Now these were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Brethren, that’s really what it’s going to take if we’re going to truly understand the will of God is diligent search and study on a regular basis.

Conclusion

Jesus said in John 12 and verse 48, He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him. The word I spoke is what will judge him in the last day. And so, if you have a final exam coming up, what are you going to be studying? The textbook. So that on the day of the exam, you’re already.

And we need not just to read it, but we need to follow it. Would you bow your head with me in a word of prayer? Our God and Father, thank you so much for your word, the Bible, which is a truly amazing and incredible book. That when we examine, we are convinced that this cannot be from man, that it must be, that it can only be from you. We are convinced of this, Father. And we thank you for giving us the plan of salvation, which is this glorious story of the redemption of mankind, as you have sought to reveal and teach to man since the beginning of time. And you have sought to have man to come to you as you have reached out to us.

We who are fallible.

Be patient with us, Father. Thank you for your revelation. For if it were not for your revelation to us, then we would have no way of knowing you. No way of knowing how to follow you or what you would want. But you have given it to us in 66 books. And we are amazed when we read that. And Father, we pray that you would help us to understand your will. That you would help us, Father, to abide by the word of Jesus and His Savior. And we realize, Father, that His Word is what will judge us in the last day. Be with us today as we continue to worship you and study your word. Help us to focus our minds and to be engulfed in the worship of you, the Almighty God, and of your Son, Jesus the Christ.

It is through Him that we pray. Amen. We will now be dismissed to our Bible classes, which I actually ended on time, so we have 10 minutes. And then at 11, we will reconvene for another period of worship.