We want to continue our studies in understanding Bible prophecy this morning, and we're looking at the normal literal method of interpretation, which is very fundamental, and we want to deal with this in some detail. And so why do we interpret the prophecies literally? Just to break this down for teaching, we give eight reasons in the textbook. And that is, first of all, the apostles interpreted prophecy literally, as we've already noted. And we looked at these two key passages. just as examples in Acts 3, 18-21 and Romans 11, 25-27, and these are very clear. Peter preached that there is a literal, there was a literal fulfillment of Christ's first coming to suffer for man's sins, so there will be a literal fulfillment of the prophecies pertaining to Israel's conversion and kingdom and Christ's second coming. And in the meantime, the heavens will receive Christ until he returns. Very clear that Peter interpreted these prophecies literally and for the future. And then in Romans 11, 25 through 27, Paul did the same thing. These are simple and clear. You stand on the simple and clear things. Heretics like to go to the more obscure things that are not quite as easy to understand, and let's build our doctrine right there and overthrow all the clear things. That's backwards. It's backwards. And verbally, that's what they do. Even Augustine, in his day, 5th century, when he died, Even though he was the father of all millennialism, he admitted that there are many in his day still that believed in the literal fulfillment of Revelation 20. And so, the apostles interpreted prophecy literally. That should be enough. We can stop right there. Church at Antioch continued to interpret prophecy literally, long after the allegorical method was coming on the scene. Antioch being a very special church. We don't go to Alexandria, Egypt. We don't know about any good churches that ever were established in Alexandria, Egypt. We don't know that, but we know that a very important church was established at Antioch, and it continued to hold to sound doctrine for a long time. Second, God gave the scriptures to reveal truth, not to hide it. That's God's objective with the Bible, revelation. And we see that in Deuteronomy 29, 29, that, very important verse, Deuteronomy 29, 29, that the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us. for us and to our children forever, for our children, that we may do all the words of the law. So God gave this to reveal. It's a revelation that we might know these things and teach them to our children. They can be taught to a child. And the objective being that we obey God. That's a major objective, be saved and obey God. Number three, Bible prophecies have always been fulfilled literally. That's fundamental. Israel's entire history, one of my favorite prophecies is Deuteronomy chapter 28. And Moses, just before he died and just before Joshua led Israel into the promised land, Moses gave this great prophecy which described Israel's entire history all the way till today. in Deuteronomy 28 and how that Israel, if God said, if you sin against me, if you turn to the idols, this is what I'm going to do. You're going to be scattered to the end of the earth. A foreign nation is going to destroy your cities and you're going to be scattered to the ends of the earth. And there you're going to be in fear and in doubt and in big trouble. Yeah, well, that's the last 2,500 years of Israel's history. But that prophecy was written 3,500 years ago, but literally fulfilled always. The nation's pertaining to the, I'm sorry, the prophecies pertaining to the nations fulfilled literally. By the way, I said I'm bad at mathematics, obviously I am, because 10 to the third power is 1,000. Well, there you go. But it's not what that man said it was. That's for sure. Tyre. Oh, what a magnificent prophecy. This is an example of the great prophecies about the nations, pagan nations. And the prophecy in Tyre, Ezekiel 26, 3 through 16 and other passages, but amazing detail. Nebuchadnezzar would besiege and sack Tyre. That happened in 573 BC, and Nebuchadnezzar conquered Tyre after a 13-year siege. That's just the beginning of the prophecy. Many nations would participate in destroying Tyre, Ezekiel 26-3, and that happened as Tyre was sacked by the Assyrians, and the Babylonians, and the Greeks, and the Syrians, and the Romans. and finding the Muslims, poor old Tyre. But Tyre's walls and towers would be destroyed, Ezekiel 26, 4. Now the thing was, there were two parts to the old city of Tyre, and that one part was on the coast, and the other part was over on the island, short distance from the coast, separated by part of the ocean. And that first tire on the coast was what was first destroyed. Walls and towers were destroyed. That was done by Nebuchadnezzar first, and then Alexander the Great came along. And Alexander the Great came along, and so the tyrants went over to their island fortress and thundered a nose at Alexander. That was dumb. That was real dumb, and turned out to be dumb. Alexander just said, I want to come over and worship at Hercules. They should have let him. You let Alexander do what he wants to do. As we look back in history, we can understand these things pretty well. The Tyrians didn't have a good grasp of this yet. So they thought, no, so how am I going to get over there and destroy that island? And so Alexander said, we're going to build a road. We're going to build a road across the ocean to that city, and we're going to take that city. That's exactly what they did. And to build that causeway out across the ocean, they scraped. Ezekiel said the city would be flat like the top of a rock, even the dust would be scraped. And that's exactly what Alexander did with his men and his slaves. Slaves come in handy. And they just literally, all the material from the destroyed city on the coast was put into the ocean to make this causeway in 332 BC. How did Ezekiel know that was going to happen? And then Tyre became a place for the spreading of nets. And that's exactly what happened. Alexander built his bridge. And he conquered that magnificent city on the island, and he crucified hundreds and hundreds of those people that had thumbed their nose at him. And so that's exactly what happened, and Ezekiel described it, and Ezekiel said that Tyre's going to be a place for the spreading of nets, Ezekiel 26, 5, and 14. And that's what became of it, and that's pretty much what it is today. But it didn't happen just overnight. The time element in the prophecies can be hundreds of years and whatever. And unbelievers come along and say, well, that didn't just happen. It didn't become a fishing village right away. No, it didn't, but it did become a fishing village. And even today, they spread the nets there. And that's what Ezekiel said. It was the great mart of the nations, but it eventually became a lowly fishing village. Tyre was spoiled to the nations, Ezekiel 26, 12. And that's what it was. Tyre never regained her position as head of the great commercial empire. And she was a vassal of whatever power happened to come along and dominate the region. And so amazing prophecies, literally the scraping of the dust, the building of that causeway, But the prophecies of Christ's first coming literally fulfilled every one of them. Psalm 22 is magnificent. There are hundreds of prophecies of Christ's first coming, but Psalm 22 just describes Christ's crucifixion. Psalm 22, verse 1, the words Jesus spoke on the cross. Now, how did David know that? thousand years before Jesus. My God, my God, why are, where is it here? Psalm 22, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? It's the words that Jesus spoke on the cross. By the way, Psalm 22 has nothing to do with David. David never experienced any of this. The modernists try to figure out, you know, when did this happen to David? It didn't. It's prophecy. It's Christ, his son, the Holy Spirit speaking through David. Psalm 22, 6 through 8, 12 through 13, the people reviling Jesus, reviling him. I'm a worm. And no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." They're mocking and scorning, reviling. It's exactly what they did. That's exactly the words that spoke. We give the references here from the Gospels. Psalm 22, 11, there was none to help him. Right, Peter took his sword up and then, but Peter went away and denied Christ. None of them, nobody stood with him. It's all alone. As the prophet said, be not far from me for troubles near for there is none to help. And then verses 14 through 16, they crucified him. They pierced my hands and my feet. pierced my hands and my feet, crucifixion. That was not practiced yet in David's time, but he saw it a thousand years into the future. He saw it in Psalm 22, 14 and 15, Christ's thirst from blood lost. Tremendous thirst, I'm poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, piece of broken pottery. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Thou hast brought me into the dust of death." Description of his physical torments on the cross and experiences. They did not break any of his bones, verse 17. I may tell all my bones, I may count all my bones. They didn't break any bones. And that's the fulfillment of the Passover. They broke no bones of the lamb, no bones. And they stared at him, chapter 17, verse 17, chapter 22, verse 17. They look and stare upon me. Don't you like it when somebody stares at you? They stared at Him, the Son of God on the cross. And then verse 18, they gambled for His garments. And this is fulfilled in two different passages in the New Testament and the Gospels describe the fulfillment. And it's so precise. Verse 18 says, they part my garments, plural, among them, and cast lots upon my vesture," singular, which is exactly what happened, exactly what happened. And so they parted my garments among them. That was fulfilled by the Roman soldiers. And they, John 19, 23, then the soldiers, then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, plural, and made four parts, and to each soldier a part, they gambled for that, and also, but the prophecy doesn't stop there, and neither did the fulfillment, and also his coat, his robe. Now, the coat, we're told about it, details, was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said, therefore, among themselves, Let's not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled, which said, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture did they cast lots. These things, therefore, the soldiers did." Now, those Roman soldiers didn't know anything, probably, about Bible prophecy, but they fulfilled it precisely. just amazing, irrefutable evidence that the Bible is the infallible Word of God. But the point is that we're making here is that these prophecies that have been fulfilled were always fulfilled literally. Fourth, the Lord Jesus said the major prophetic events are yet future. Jesus. And in Matthew 24, it's very clear here. He gives the major events of the day of the Lord are the great tribulation. And he tells us exactly when those, the hand of Christ, the signs in the heavens, these things, exactly when there'll be persecution of Israel, exactly when they'll be fulfilled. Matthew 24, 15 through 29. It's irrefutable. You can get confused about prophecy if you want to, but you don't have to be led astray. I was just talking to a young lady in the break and was asking about a man that I knew that got saved in one of the Australian churches some years ago, and I asked about him. Well, he got confused about prophecy and he's off the rails, Charlie. And yeah, scattered the sheep, no good fruit there. That should tell you something. The Lord Jesus said the major prophetic events are yet for the future. And so he begins in, well, the question he's answering is in Matthew 24, three, tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? end of the world. And so that's what he's answering. And he describes the beginning of the beginning. Where is it there? Anyway, the beginning of sorrows in the first few verses after that, he begins to give the major events, the coming of the Antichrist, verse 15, the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, the prophet, and how that he's going to go into the third temple, declare himself as God, require the world to worship him? That's antichrist? Well, what is antichrist? Is it something that's happening throughout the church age? Is it some kind of government or something? I was talking to some elders of a Baptist church one time in England, I said, what about Antichrist? Is it a man? He said, we're not sure about that. Well, you need to be sure about that. You need to nail that thing down because it's sure in the Bible. He's standing, sounds like a man, standing in the temple. That would be a man. That wouldn't be a government or something. It's a man. Now, what man is it? And when is it going to happen? Has it already happened? No? Very clear. And so the Great Tribulation, verse 21, this is so perfectly clear. The Great Tribulation, and so terrible that, except those days, verse 22, should be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, and we do believe in the elect, those days shall be shortened. You can be a zero Calvinist and believe in the elect. But when is this going to happen, all these things, these major events that are described in many prophecies that Jesus is summarizing here in a magnificent way? Well, verse 29 nails it, nails the timing. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, and that includes the coming of the Antichrist and that whole package of things, shall the sun be darkened immediately after the tribulation of those days. So what? Christ will come. The sun will be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, one end of the heaven to the other. It's not the rapture, obviously. And so, immediately after the Antichrist, the Great Tribulation, the trouble that is so great that if Jesus doesn't shorten it, no one will survive on earth, which is Revelation 6-18, describes all those things in much greater detail, many prophecies, when is it going to happen? immediately before Jesus comes back. So this thing is very clear. It's very clear, the timing of it and what it is and the literalness of it. Very clear, is it not? Yes. So Jesus said the major prophetic events are yet future, will happen just before He comes. Fifth, Christ rebuked the disciples for not believing the prophecies by their literal interpretation. And we've already read that in Luke 24, 25 through 27. All fools and slow of heart to believe the prophets and interpret them literally. Six, the stage is set today for the literal fulfillment of the prophecies. Yeah, everything's ready. The machinery for a one world government, one world religion, as described in Revelation 13 and 17, is being set up before our very eyes. Everything toward a globalism. and the tearing down of national boundaries and national identities and all of that. It's all fulfillment. It's all the preparation, setting the stage for the man of sin, the technology to control the world's commerce so that you cannot buy or sell without the mark, the technology. It's there. It exists, the technology. to see the witnesses in the street of Jerusalem preaching, and then they're being killed by the Antichrist in Revelation chapter 7, and their bodies lying on the street for three and a half days. You ought to watch that on Facebook. Yeah, you're not if you say, but that's the world, or whatever. TikTok will have that. No, the whole world will see those things and will rejoice and have a big global party and send gifts to one another, the technology for these things in our lifetime, and most importantly, Israel back in the land. Israel back in the land and Israel setting the stage for all of these things. That's why Israel's back in the land in a spiritually blind condition. Ezekiel 36, spiritually blind condition. And so I trust that you've come as a student. Some of you haven't, some of you haven't. I thought all of you were serious students, but I'm seeing that that's not exactly true. But I don't want to get off of that now. So the states of Israel, they want peace. They're just almost at any cost. They're just so tired of wars. So tired of wars. And the man of peace, but not Jesus, the false man of peace, he's coming. Stages said, the temple, they want to build that temple, they're ready to build that temple, but they can't. And you go to the Temple Institute where they're making preparations for these things and training the priest. And the priest recently, they were training how to sing in the temple. They're not very good singers, by the way, because it's on YouTube, you can find it. They're preparing, practicing the Passover sacrifice. They have the altar built and all these things are ready to go. They think they could just put that temple up and prepare it in a very short time. That's what they say and what they want to do. But you go to the Temple Institute, as we did one time, and ask the lady there, How is this going to happen? Muslims wouldn't like this. And we don't know. We don't know, but we know it's going to happen. Yes, so do we. But we understand much more about it than the Antichrist. They think they're looking for Christ. According to rabbinical Judaism, Talmud, whoever will come and build the temple is the Christ. And so that's what they're looking for. But we know it's Antichrist. The stage is set. How could you not see that? Seventh, the practical necessity demands the literal interpretation of prophecy. Practical necessity, as we've already mentioned. If the prophecy does not mean exactly what it says, there's no way to know for sure what it means, as we've given examples of already. But J. Vernon McGee. And he was a New Evangelical, but I liked the fellow a lot. I listened to him that first year I was saved on the radio a lot, and his whole whole new way of teaching the Bible, it was helpful to me. And I was sad to learn he was a New Evangelical, but I still liked the old guy. But he had an experience in seminary that's fascinating in this regard, which he describes here. I went to a seminary that was all millennial. where they attempted to fit the rest of Revelation into a historical or amillennial viewpoint. It became ridiculous and even comical at times. For example, when we reached the place where Scripture says that Satan was put into the bottomless pit, we were taught that... I asked the professor, how do you explain the satanic activity that is taking place today? He replied, Satan is chained, but he has a long chain. It's like when you take a cow and put it in a vacant lot and tether her out on a long rope and let her graze. That was his explanation. And my comment was, doctor, I think Satan's got a pretty long chain on it then because he's able to graze all over the world today. Yeah. The practical necessity Number eight, the prophecy as an apologetic demands a literal interpretation. As an apologetic, when we've already looked at this, and Isaiah particularly, God says to the pagan nations and pagan gods and the whole pagan world, show me the future. Tell me what's going to happen. And the fact that the Bible does exactly that proves that it is the infallible Word of God. We looked at Psalm 22, and it's important to understand and have a good grasp of these things and be able to use them in evangelism. If you can find someone that's willing to listen, then show them these things. They don't believe them, but this can turn them into a believer. It's what the Spirit of God uses. So the apologetic, Let me show you Psalm 22, which was written a thousand years before Jesus. Let's look at these details here. And so we go into the normal literal interpretation of prophecy a little bit. What about the figurative language, which we're going to deal with separately, but we'll deal with it separately. So the normal literal interpretation of prophecy Now, context. Context is probably the single most important rule of Bible interpretation. The Bible is a self-interpreting book if we interpret the words according to the context. And even the individual words always have to be defined by their context. And so you have to know the main theme of the particular book that you're studying, and then what's going on in that individual chapter, section. Each of the four Gospels, for example, has a different purpose, and knowing that purpose helps you interpret anything within that particular Gospel. The four Gospels, Matthew presents Jesus as Messiah of the Jews, Christ In Greek, Messiah, in Hebrew, Mark presents Jesus as God's servant, particularly. Luke presents Jesus as the perfect man. John presents Jesus as the eternal Son of God. Those are the major themes of these Gospels. And Matthew, for example, Jesus is presenting himself as the Messiah of the Jews. Behold, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John the Baptist and Jesus both announced, and He's offering Himself in that kingdom that was prophesied in the Old Testament to Israel. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But it helps us interpret these things that He preached in Matthew. Matthew, the other Gospels have parts of the Sermon on the Mount. They were probably preached in different places, these same things, in different ways. But the Sermon on the Mount in its fullest extent is given in Matthew 5-7, and Jesus was on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, and he gave this great prophecy, this great sermon, And it wasn't delivered to churches. Church didn't exist yet. And it was only in Matthew 16 that Jesus first mentioned the church after he's already been rejected by the Jews. And they were saying that he was of the devil. That's a pretty strong rejection. But no, it's not the church. He's talking to Israel. He's still talking about the kingdom God is a kingdom that's described in the Old Testament, a literal coming kingdom. And he talks about, for example, the danger of hellfire. Hellfire, and there's no such danger to the born-again child of God. to be in danger of hellfire. But there will be such a danger in the millennium. If you sin and you break God's law, you can be in danger of being cast into hellfire from the millennium. Not as a born-again person from a New Testament church. Got to look at the context or you can become terribly confused. Terribly confused. Second, Jesus speaks of bringing one's gift to the altar in Matthew 5, 21 through 26. Kind of skipped over the reference, but in Matthew 5, 21 through 26 is what we're looking at at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount. What do these things mean? Well, they mean exactly what they say, but we have to understand the context. See, verse 21 says, You've heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Rekha, shall be in danger of the council. Council, what council? And whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Yeah, literally. Literal councils, literal system of judgment, rod of iron. Verse 23, Therefore thou bring thy gift to the altar. What altar? What altar? Well, you come to know a literal altar in the temple. There remembers that thy brother hath aught against thee. Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." Literal altar in the temple. Personal relationships in the kingdom, especially in regard to Israel. Agree with thy adversary quickly, verse 25, whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge. and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison." Where's your prison? It's a big building. I didn't see the prison yet. You don't have a prison, thank the Lord. So, see, the Roman Catholic Church was all confused about this stuff, willfully, and they had prisons. And no, it's talking about the millennial kingdom, literal kingdom, and when it comes and what the kind of things that will be lost there, literally. And there's application to the church, application to the Christian life, lots of applications. These things are literally looking to the millennial kingdom. And we know that by understanding the context and making sure we interpret things literally and then trying to figure out what this is actually mean. So the context. That's why it's so important to read and reread the passages and study them very carefully. Reread the passages, study them carefully. If you don't understand the Bible verse, stop and read the whole chapter until you understand the context, and then interpret the verse within that context. False teachers do exactly the opposite. They twist things out of the context, so then they can make those things say whatever they please. There's a cult in Nepal that go very aggressive in house-to-house things. And when they get into a house and they just almost force their way in, and then they try to have a Bible study, and these are people who's never seen a Bible, mostly, and they won't let the people look at any other thing before or after. They literally won't allow that, which is a good recipe for spiritual disaster. That's the way false teachers misused the Bible. Now we go, we interpret it literally, we interpret it according to context, and then we interpret comparing Scripture with Scripture, Scripture with Scripture, the Bible as a whole. It all fits together. It was in God's mind before it was written as a whole thing. God knew every detail of it before it was given to the holy prophets. It was given piece by piece, but God had the whole thing in mind. And every one of the 66 books has its central and important place in the canon, the whole. And then each part of each book has its important place, the order everything was designed. Of course, at first, there were no chapters or verse divisions, but those were added later, and they're very helpful. But comparing Scripture with Scripture, we're talking about the unity of the Bible, interpreting according to the whole tenor of Scripture, it's been called. And that'll refute Calvinism real quickly. Can man say no to God? How can you miss that one in the Bible? But the whole tenor, there might be a passage that might could talk about sovereign election, but if you stand back and you look at the whole tenor, it just falls totally apart. This requires a good cross-reference Bible. The man that led me to Christ bought me a King James Bible, but it had no notes, no nothing. Really, we need a good cross-reference Bible, at the very least, cross-references. And the Tyndale of the early 1500s, it was the first English Bible with cross-references. John Brown's self-interpreting Bible of 18th century, 1700s. It was a serious study Bible. Study Bible. Had extensive marginal references. George Washington purchased a copy of that. Don't know how he used it, but it was in his library and made a subscription to it. The Self-Interpreting Bible. George had one of those. The most helpful study book for comparing Scripture with Scripture is Treasury of scripture knowledge. I saw it in your library. The treasury of scripture knowledge. It is worth more than its weight in gold. I use it every day. Scripture with scripture. What's that verse mean? Well, let's start looking at other verses. And start there. Let's look at the context, let's define the words, but now let's start comparing Scripture with Scripture and see what the rest of the Scripture adds to this verse. It's just fundamental. And there's nothing more effectual for that kind of study than the treasure of Scripture knowledge, which I have in my computer program, Olive Tree, I use. But you can get the book, which is what we recommend for young people. Don't mess around with computers. and study with the books. I used the books for decades before the first personal computer came along. And I wrote the Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity, the first edition, before computers, B.C. I did. That'll be the last Bible dictionary ever written, B.C. But you can be very effectual in your Bible study with good books and and not as distracted, tempted to be distracted with things on the computer. Isaiah 16, 1 says, Send ye the Lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. Well, what in the world does that mean? Well, it's explained in 2 Kings 3, 4. There, where do you find that? Well, treasure scripturalism. The king of Moab paid tribute to Israel in lambs. And the prophet is advising Moab to do this again and therefore submit to Israel again so that you won't be judged by God, Moab. And in verses three and four of Isaiah 16, the prophet continues this thought by beseeching Moab to rescue the Israelites instead of hating them. Good, good counsel there for Moab. But that's the interpretation. Send you the land of the ruler of the land from Salem. What in the world does that mean? And to the wilderness and the mount, the mount of the daughter Zion. Submit to Israel, Moab. Isaiah 28, 11. Says, for with stammering lips and another tongue will I speak to this people. What's it mean? Simple. Perfectly explained in 1 Corinthians 14, 21. Only simple because it's been explained for us. Tongues. The tongues of Pentecost, the first little part of the church age, the tongue speaking. Another tongue. So it's not just bubbly, bub, bub, bubbly, bub, bub. That was one, Bubbly Bub Bub, that I heard in a Pentecostal converse. And no, it's not some kind of gibberish. It's a tongue. It's a language. Those two parts of that verse, one part explains the other part. And it compares Scripture with Scripture. Things just get very simple. The interpretation becomes clear. Bible interpreting it itself, Isaiah 53, five, with his stripes we are healed. Now that's misused by Pentecostals a lot to prove that physical healing is guaranteed in the atonement. Guaranteed. But 1 Peter 2, 24 explains it. This is interpreted, is interpreted by Peter. 224, and it has to do with spiritual healing. First and foremost, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins, dead to sin, spiritual healing should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed. He has healed spiritually and eternally the forgiveness of sins. And so comparing Scripture with Scripture. We'll give a more extensive study on this in Understanding the Bible for Yourself. Now, interpreting figurative language. We want to stop here, and then we will continue these studies with interpreting figurative language.