Open your Bibles this morning to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I want us to read the entire chapter. We'll be going a little longer this morning and our message is not a short one. We'll be speaking in both services today on hermeneutics, the science of interpretation, because of the importance of this subject, we'll be also teaching on the same subject but from different points of view in both services next Lord's Day. Now we feel that we cannot go beyond five messages on this subject because we cannot deal with every doctrine in detail in our study of the eschatological kingdom. However, since this subject, interpretation, is so important in reference to the subject that we are now studying, I feel it absolutely necessary to spend several lessons on the subject of interpretation. We're going to read the entire second chapter of 1 Corinthians, And this morning is only the introduction, notice what I'm saying, only the introduction to a real close scrutiny of verses 10 through 14 in our study tonight. Let us read. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency or superiority, of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." There you have the person of Christ, first of all, and secondly, His work. Verse 3, "'And I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing or persuasible words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among you that are perfect or mature, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to naught, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world or ages, unto our glory. which none of the princes of this world or this age knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save or except the Spirit of man which is in him, even so the things of God knoweth, underscore that word, no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit, and the word Spirit should be capitalized in the King James, it isn't, but it should be, which is of God or out from God, and it's the preposition act, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost, our Holy Spirit, teacheth. Now, underscore the word teacheth. Now, I want to stop for a moment. Look at the next words. Verse 13, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. This statement is as controversial as what we discussed last Sunday night in our first message on interpretation, the interpretation of the kingdom from 2 Peter 1, 16-21. And this is following up. what we gave last Sunday night. Now notice this statement, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. I'm emphasizing this because we're going to make an in-depth study of this controversial statement tonight. You don't see it in looking at the English translation, but you have two adjectives and one participle. two adjectives, and one participle. That sounds a little strange in this last statement. I'll give it to you in the Greek, and some of you will want to study and see whatever you might have in your home library during the afternoon. Pneumatikos, pneumatika, and then the participle, synchronitis. Now, those are the three words you have. Now, how are they to be interpreted? That'll be our study tonight, believe it or not. And I assure you, it'll take all the time to do justice to it. So let's read verse 13 once again. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, pneumatikos, pneumatika, synchronontes. I gave it in the Greek. Now verse 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Underscore the word discern. You see, I've called attention to four major words here. Now verses 15 and 16. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things. Yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." I wanted to read the entire chapter for a reason. I think it should be studied in connection with the entire chapter. Our subject this morning is entitled, Interpretation of Scripture. This is the introduction to our study tonight, especially verses 10 through 14. We'll be looking, however, at those verses in the light of the overall context of the second chapter. Every Christian is responsible for recognizing and supporting true interpreters. You cannot shirk your responsibility as a Christian. Every time you listen to someone teach or preach, you are responsible. No one else can be responsible for you. You are responsible to know whether that person is a true interpreter of Scripture or if he is not a true interpreter. You say, well, I'm not qualified to do it. You can't blame anyone but yourself. You can't even blame the preachers that you might have been under for a long period of time. You can't blame me. Every Christian is responsible to know if the interpreter of Scripture is a man of God really representing the Lord or if he is a heretic. I wanted to impress upon you what your responsibility is. I've been preaching to myself all week in the preparation of these messages. So now I'll preach to you a little bit this morning. You see, every Christian is also accountable to God for failure to properly elucidate the Scriptures. Now if you fail, to properly elucidate the Scriptures. You're held responsible. I'm not held responsible for you unless I've been teaching you improperly. And I'll be held for my false teaching. But you're responsible. However, it must be understood that no interpreter can speak ex cathedra when it comes to the Scriptures because he cannot claim to be inspired. Beloved, you're going to have to follow almost every statement that I'm making this morning. I realize that I'm putting a lot into about an hour of teaching, but it's important to do this. Now I want to use an illustration. The Roman Catholic Church and we exposed her teaching last Sunday evening on the subject of private interpretation as it is translated in your King James Version, 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 20. But the Roman Catholic Church claims to speak ex cathedra for God. To her, the term ex cathedra means the one who speaks from St. Peter's chair as doctor or pastor of all Christians is God's official voice. Beloved, I'm giving you what I have just given you from their own works. The Church of Rome has said that she will not interpret the Holy Scriptures other than according to the unanimous consent of the fathers. And if you didn't hear my message last Sunday night, you're at a loss to follow me right now. So you'll have to listen to that tape. But I can't go back and do a lot of reviewing. However, history records anything but a unanimous consent of the fathers from Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Gregory, Chrysostom and others. Now let me give you a few statements by these early men concerning the scriptures. You might be amazed. The following are things these men, whose names I've mentioned, taught. Number one, spiritual things have been conveyed to us by their being committed to writing. That's a good statement, isn't it? I agree with that a hundred percent, so do you. Secondly, the scriptures constitute the foundation and pillar of our faith. That too is an outstanding statement. Number three, heretics will be exposed by scripture. You and I cannot argue with that. And number four, The will of God is to be understood by the Scriptures, and by them alone we know the whole will of God. I wanted to give to you some quotations, some brief statements by these men whose names that I've mentioned. On the other hand, others, and I'm talking about Catholics, have vigorously stated that the Church of Rome is not the Church of the Book. I'm pausing for a purpose. That's a long comma. Because the study of the Scriptures has led to countless divisions. Therefore, they advocate that their people, the Catholic people, are better protected by the long line of tradition which embodies their current practices and beliefs. One of the members of the church handed me the December issue of National Geographic magazine. Almost the entire magazine is taken up with the Roman Catholic Church. You know they're having a council now. If you've been reading the papers, the Catholic nuns are greatly disturbed because they have not been recognized in this council meeting in Rome. Well, I won't say any more because you can read all of this in the newspapers. Human tradition has always been the means of making the Word of God of none effect. I'm now quoting Mark 7.13. Mark said, making the word of God of none effect, and he was writing concerning the traditions of the Pharisees and others, the religionists of Christ's day. Let's look at this. The words none effect come from a Greek participle which is the present active of the verb ak-yurao. Ak-yurao means to deprive of authority, to annul or to abrogate. It is used only in Matthew 15, 6 in talking about the same thing that I gave to you, the quotation from Mark. Mark 7, 13 and Galatians 3, verse 17. Multitudes of religionists have been shackled by an undue reverence for human authority. Do you understand what I'm talking about? Not only has that been true in the past, but that is true today. I said multitudes of religionists have been and they are being shackled by an undue reverence for human authority. I think there are a lot of preachers and I think there are a lot of individuals who strive and want to be preachers for the sake of the authority they think they have. And there are a lot of people who manifest an undue reverence for human authority. Stay with me. Men commit a heinous sin when they exalt their interpretations, thus forcing the Scriptures to take a secondary place. That has been done. that is being done and it will continue to be done unto the Lord comes. Now let's illustrate this point. Confessions and creeds are at their best only interpretations by men. A creed concisely stated in scriptural language serves some purpose in witnessing. I'm not totally against confessions, creeds, and so forth. They do serve some purpose by presenting truth in a condensed form. But stay with me. Let's look at this subject from its overall picture. Every such creed should always remain open for improvement or change as growth in knowledge of truth demands it. But sad to say, this is rarely practiced. Now I know whereof I speak, having been in the ministry for more than 40 years. having pastored churches for more than 40 years. I've had people under my ministry, especially when I was in the Southern Baptist Convention, who would come to me and quote what the confession said, what the bylaws said. And that's about as far as most of them ever went. They didn't go to the Word of God. They would run to the confession. Stay with me. When the work of man has been brought in as an authoritative interpreter of Scripture, however well-intentioned, God's Word has been lowered to a human level. All of us in the past, I'm sure most of us at least have, had a school field referenced by him. And most people who have had one will refer to the footnotes rather than studying the scriptures themselves. And you know what I'm saying is true. That means that every Christian is to be well-versed in the Scriptures to know if what the man has in his footnotes is in harmony with the revelation of God's mind or not. Believe me, what I'm saying this morning and tonight and next Sunday are so fundamental. These things are so fundamental to the interpretation, proper interpretation. of Scripture, handling the Word of God correctly. Furthermore, there has been an abridgment of Holy Scripture which must never take place among Christians. Do you remember here, a short time back, a Reader's Digest that came out with a condensed form of the Scriptures? And there were a lot of preachers at that time that commended it. Well, you can imagine about what kind of preachers they are. I wouldn't waste time listening to any one of them. Any condensed form of Holy Scripture is a confession that it is not all needed for man's benefit. Beloved, I'm giving some statements that have meant a lot to me. This is in direct contradiction to Paul's statement that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, and the word perfect in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and 17 means complete, ready, or entirely suited. The word translated perfect in your King James Version of the Scriptures is arties. And it means complete, ready, or entirely suited. Notice what he says, that the man of God may be complete. That's what he's saying. may be entirely suited or equipped. And we'll go a little further into that. Notice this, throughly furnished unto every good work. That's verse 17. Look at the words throughly furnished. Here we have a perfect passive participle of the Greek verb exartizo. It means to equip are to furnish completely the Christian unto all good works. Don't come to me and tell me that there are some things in the Scripture that aren't necessary. Everything in the Bible is necessary for the place in which it was put there and for the purpose in which it was placed there. creeds and confessions, in almost every case, have replaced the whole Bible. Let's be honest. Thus they are used to form, this is an important statement, thus they are used to form the church's belief rather than to express it. The average creed, the average confession put out by any denomination is used for the formation rather than the expression of what is believed. You see how important the subject is. Christians are not exhorted to study the confessions and creeds. but to consider what God has said, 2 Timothy 2, 7, in order to show themselves approved unto God, verse 15 of the same chapter. Consider what the Lord has said. Nothing wrong with preaching, nothing wrong with teaching, nothing wrong with writing, But nothing, preaching or writing, cannot take place of the Scriptures, the whole counsel of God, the Word of God from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22-21. That's why I told you this morning that I think the highest compliment that has been paid me is that I do not build my teaching, my preaching, my writing around the five points of Calvinism, but around the whole counsel of God. Tell you the truth, years ago I got so tired of going to these so-called grace conferences, and I quit. My time could be served far better by staying home and studying. You know why? Heard the same thing over and over and over again the five points and That doesn't mean that I got tired of the five points But beloved there are some things in the Word of God other than the five points I'm talking about the five points of Calvinism Confessional exclusiveness too often becomes destructive to true spiritual growth. Would you agree with that? I said confessional exclusiveness too often becomes destructive to true spiritual growth. I want you to read what we have written. But I preached it even before I've written it. But beloved, never to the exclusion of studying the Word of the Living God. How can you test what I say or what I write if you are not acquainted with what the Bible says? Most people today are too lazy to spend any time studying, so they depend on their preacher or their Sunday school teacher or somebody else to give them the information that they want when they want some information. There must be personal freedom, the right of personal judgment, but this does not mean unrestrained license. Private judgment is to be controlled by the contents of Scripture. Listen to this, grammatically expressed. I want to put a little emphasis on grammatically expressed. Now, tonight I'll give a vivid illustration of this very point. Pneumatikos, Pneumatikos synchronontes. Two adjectives and one participle in that phrase. Beloved, we have to know something about those two adjectives. The first one can be either masculine or neuter. Gender. It can be either one. The second, pneumatica, is neuter. It cannot be either one. But the first one can be either one. We have to study the Scriptures. We have to study the Scriptures in the light of the grammatical construction. What would you think of an English grammarian who just did away with the English grammar and said it's not important? Well, you'd ridicule him. And yet, beloved, that is exactly what religionists are doing when it comes to the Greek grammar. No person has the right to be wrong as though one's accountability to God were abrogated. You see why I'm saying this? I don't know how many times I've heard Christians say, I've heard Baptists say, I've heard others say, it sounds good on the surface. I believe that liberty should extend to the point that a person should have the right to be wrong. Now think about that for a moment. Think it through. You see, I've been subjected to that for years. I've heard it over and over. So I want you to deal with it. I wanted to deal with it. Now how do you take that? I said no person has the right to be in the wrong as though one's accountability to God were abrogated. Let's investigate this for a little bit. This false idea of freedom is too often expressed, but it is not justified in the interpretation of Scripture. Feelings, beloved, are not the norm of truth. But the truth alone must always be the standard of our feelings. Does that make sense? The so-called gut feeling has no place in determining what one believes. We hear that expression so much today. It's just my gut feeling that this is right. Better forget that. Let's go a step further. There are some who think that their conscience should be a guide. Well, let's look at that point for a moment. The conscience of man is not so powerful that it cannot be made subservient to passion, self-interest, and abuse. It can even become seared. Did you know that? The conscience can become seared. Listen to the testimony of Scripture. 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. Paul said, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, and that should be demons, not devils, but demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. The Greek word for seared with a hot iron is a perfect passive participle of kosteriodzo. Kosteriadzo means to burn in with a branding iron. This verb is used only in this verse. And it means their conscience, having been branded, and notice, arias, completed action, I mean perfect, completed action, and is passive, they remain in a state being. Hence those who have departed from the faith have been branded with a mark of Satan himself. They have become apostates. You want to know what an apostate is? You want to know who he is? He's one who's been branded by the branding iron of Satan. He's an apostate. Now let's look at the conscience of the believer for a moment. The conscience of the believer without proper training and discipline, I said without proper training and discipline, will prove to be weak according to 1 Corinthians 8, 12 and 1 Corinthians 10, 28 and 29. Conscience is appealed to in the scriptures as something needing assistance. I want you to know your conscience alone is not sufficient. I want to give you a verse of scripture that I think most all of us have overlooked. Conscience needs the assistance of the Word of God. In fact, conscience must have the assistance of God's Word. Listen to Paul's statement in Romans 9 verse 1. I think all of us have overlooked something important in this text. Paul said, I say the truth in Christ. I lie not. Now here it is. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit. I say the truth in Christ. I lie not. my conscience also bearing witness in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is never going to bear witness to anyone that is contradictory to the Word of God that's already been given. For after all, it is the Holy Spirit who has given us the Holy Scriptures. Your conscience, my conscience, needs the assistance of the Word of God. It must have it. Hence the conscience is described as that arrangement of our mental and moral constitution which intuitively responds to God's truth when subjected to it, but which can be repressed by passion or self-interest. Yes, I want you to know that you can repress it. I can repress it. And beloved, don't tell me this morning, I believe that every Christian sitting in this auditorium this morning has to some extent in his or her Christian life repressed the truth of God because of his own or her own self-interest. You might say, well, it was in a little matter, but when it's repressed in a little matter, it will become a larger matter, and then a larger matter, and after a while, it'll repress something that is major. I believe everything in God's Word is for a purpose. And when I hear any Christian, when I hear any member of this church speak lightly of something that might not be a major issue, I shiver. What each one of us should do is to admit that this is the truth of God's Word and I'm not applying it like I should. I heard a good testimony from one of our members last night. He told me about witnessing to his own parents just recently. Both are Baptists, been Baptists for years and years and years and years. But in a time of crisis, a very flimsy witness. In fact, no witness for truth at all. This man's father did not even know the difference between the sins of nature and the nature of sin. Let me make it applicable to all of us. Beloved, if you were facing death tomorrow, How would you try to assure yourself that you're a Christian? I'm asking you a real pointed question now. Would you try to assure yourself that you are a Christian by looking back over your past life and saying, well, I didn't do this and I didn't do that. These are things that I didn't really do. But here are some things that I did do, and these things that I did do overshadow the things that I did not do. Is that the way that you assure yourself in the time of crisis? No. The only way that you and I can truly assure ourselves in a time of crisis is to say, Oh Lord, search my heart, reveal to me, enable me to see through the word of your testimony, just where I stand in your presence. But I know a lot of church members today, Baptists, Methodists, what have you, in a time of crisis, they try to get assurance by looking at deeds rather than really looking at the Lord Himself and His marvelous grace. It's important, isn't it? It's very important that we have the testimony of Scripture to assist us in the way we feel about things. Paul said, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not. My conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit. The truth is too frequently repressed by persons who are steeped in religious tradition. Its pervading influence, apart from the assistance of the Holy Spirit, causes many to succumb to tradition. Now we're facing the time of the year when people manifest their traditional views. But beloved, I'm not going to spend my time talking to somebody and condemning the Christmas tree. I say these folk that don't know enough about the scriptures to know the truth about Christmas, we'd be wasting our times condemning the Christmas tree. That doesn't mean that we're not to take a stand. But we must first of all point them to the truth of Jesus Christ. And Christmas is not Christ's Mass. I said Christ's Mass. People by nature are traditionalists. And most church members are traditionalist. The contents of Christianity are in the written revelation and scriptures understood only by the aid of the Holy Spirit within us. Biblical doctrine is unchangeably the same. Don't you get amused at the council in Rome or even a Baptist council or any other kind of council? And there are all kinds of councils. Beloved, I'm saying that biblical doctrine is unchangeably the same. Doctrine never changes. People change. Therefore, doctrine, which does not change into something different by either the individual or the church, must ever be held up as being the unchangeable, unalterable, inflexible Word of the Living God. I don't know about you, but I get so sick of all of these statements made by religionists today. And they water this down, and they water that down. People change, but truth doesn't change. Human helps are important. And I'm thinking about the word helps in the light of 1 Corinthians 12, 28. And the Greek word means aid, assistance, or one who aids or assists, a help. So human helps are used by the Holy Spirit to propagate truth, but only, only if chief reliance is placed upon the Scriptures as given by Him. Now we come to the main part of our subject this morning. All that I've given before what we're now going to discuss has been an introduction. Four basic facts must be considered by you and me. Better listen closely now. We're getting down to the real core of our discussion. And we must understand these things. These are building blocks for the proper interpretation of Scripture. The four basic facts that we must know Our revelation is the unveiling of truth. Revelation is the unveiling of truth. Inspiration is the communication of truth. Illumination is the understanding of truth. And interpretation is giving the proper sense or judgment of truth. Now let me run them back by again. We have inspiration, revelation, inspiration, illumination, interpretation. So revelation is the unveiling of truth. Inspiration is the communication of truth. Illumination is the understanding of truth. That's why I ask you as we read 1 Corinthians 2 this morning, verses 1 through 16, underscore certain words. And finally, interpretation is giving the sense of the judgment of truth. Listen closely to this. The first three, revelation, inspiration, and illumination, may act cooperatively or separately. They may act cooperatively or separately. I said the first three, revelation, inspiration, and illumination may work cooperatively or separately. However, the last one, which is interpretation, can never work separately from the illumination of the Spirit of God. Let's look at these now. First of all, revelation is the unveiling of truth. Hence, that which has been unveiled has been discovered. The Greek verb apokalupto means to unveil, to reveal, to uncover, or to make known. The noun form means a disclosure, apocalypsis, a revelation, or an appearance. Revelation may be given separate from inspiration. I'll give you an example of these. I said revelation may be given separate from inspiration. This is demonstrated in the Old Testament when God spoke directly to the patriarchs. Spoke to Moses, spoke to others directly. And it will be demonstrated when He reveals Himself to all the world when Jesus Christ comes as King of kings and Lord of lords. That's revelation. Let's look secondly at inspiration. Inspiration is the communication of truth. The Greek word for inspiration is theopneustos. Two words, compound word, made up of theos, God, and neo, to breathe. So what inspiration means is simply this, God breathe scripture. That's what you and I have in the word of God. It is God breathed scripture. That's 2 Timothy 3, 16. Now this word is used only one time. Listen to this. One time. Therefore it must ever be used with great caution. Don't come to me and talk about being inspired. I won't listen to that. Now you may want to use it in the light of Webster's definition of inspiration, but I'm not talking about Webster's definition of inspiration, I'm talking about the Biblical word. Theopneustos, God breathed, used only one time and refers to the God breathed scriptures we have. Man can't use this term. It is never to be applied to man, and it isn't applied to anyone apart from those inspired of God to give us the Holy Scriptures. When you hear someone on the television or on a radio station, he talks about being inspired to do this, inspired to do that, you better write him off. And then he talks about some religious opinion that he has. He's been inspired to say this. He's lying through his teeth. He's a liar and the truth is not in him. And in most instances, their conscience have been seared or branded with a branding iron of Satan, their apostates. That's a strong term if you just use. You better believe it is and I used it. I used it and it can't be contradicted. Unless a person just used it ignorantly. But most of the men you hear use that term are not using it ignorantly. They actually believe what they're saying. Their consciences have been branded with the iron of Satan himself. I do not speak to you this morning by inspiration. I'm speaking to you, I trust, by illumination from the inspired Word. And what a difference! As a Christian, I can claim illumination. But you're never to confuse illumination with inspiration. So we have God breathed scriptures. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. Means that scripture is free from corruption. And the holy men used were free from dictation. Let's go just a little further here on inspired men giving to us the scriptures. There seems to be a lot of confusion today among commentators that you might read. I want to illustrate how the scriptures have come to you and me, how the written word of God, the written scriptures have come to us. And I want to use as an analogy how the incarnate Word came to you and to me. I believe we have a perfect analogy. So let's go back first of all and consider the incarnate Word. The Holy Spirit 2,000 years ago brought into being the incarnate Word through the channel of Mary without corrupting either the eternal Son of God or violating Mary's personality. Think that through for a moment. What a wonderful truth. The eternal Son came through a human channel And while coming through the human channel, the eternal Son was not contaminated, even with depravity. And at the same time, Mary's personality was not destroyed. Now, having looked at that biblical fact, let's think about how the God-breathed scriptures have come to you and me. Just as the Incarnate Word came through a human channel without the Incarnate Word being contaminated and Mary's personality not being destroyed, the written Word of God has come to you and me through holy men And while coming to you and me through holy men, the Word of God settled in heaven, has not been contaminated, and neither was the personality of any inspired man destroyed. Therefore, you can't use the dictation theory, you see, to the extent that some want to use it. They were so led so overpowered, so mastered by the Holy Spirit that what they said was the very words of God or the mind of the sovereign God of the universe. I don't know of a greater analogy to illustrate how the scriptures have come to us. The scriptures are complete. complete. Therefore nothing is added or nothing can be added to them and nothing can be taken from them. Now there may be inspiration without revelation and inspiration which may include revelation. Let me give you two biblical examples. You say, this seems to be rather confusing. Oh no, we have to make proper distinctions, beloved, so let me state it again. I said there may be inspiration without revelation. And inspiration which includes revelation. Let me give you an example from the Bible for both of these statements that I've made. Take, for instance, the narrative of the gospel according to Luke. It's a good example of inspiration without revelation. Inspiration without revelation. Turn to Luke's gospel for a moment. Chapter 1. We'll look at his narrative in the first four verses. I taught on this, by the way, not too many weeks ago on Wednesday night. So I won't say too much. It's on tape, most of it. that I want to give. Let's read the verses and then I'll use a statement here to show you the simplicity of it. Luke said, For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding, and that's not a good translation, it should be really, to follow closely and hence to trace accurately, of all the things from the very first to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. Now let's look at this narrative for just a moment for an illustration. Luke was not an eyewitness of the life of Christ. He was not an eyewitness, so it was not by revelation. It was not by revelation. However, if you'll notice the narrative closely, he gathered the material, he classified the material, and he put down the material in an orderly arrangement. all the information which he had received from eyewitnesses themselves so here we have inspiration without revelation or apart from revelation now this in no way detracts from inspiration but it does show that the scripture through Luke was apart from revelation now let's go a little further You'll notice he makes the statement, having had perfect understanding from the first. This deserves close scrutiny. Here we have a perfect active participle of the Greek verb, which means to follow or accompany closely. To follow or accompany closely. Now here is a good lesson for you and me in interpretation. Do you see what I'm talking about? You and I, in order to properly interpret the Scriptures, must follow the information that God has given to us in the Scriptures. Just like Luke, he went around to all of these eyewitnesses, and he gathered the data from all the eyewitnesses, and having gathered the data from the eyewitnesses, then he put it together in a systematic order, and he's given to you and me the whole life of Jesus Christ, beginning at the very beginning until he had finished his work and ascended. That's what you and I are to do when we properly interpret the Scriptures or handle the Scriptures correctly. So this means that before writing chronologically what he found, Luke traced everything from the beginning of Christ's life on earth. Now lastly, inspiration including revelation is exemplified in the Apostle John being told what to write. He was to write what he saw. Here it is, Revelation 111. What thou seest, write. Here you have both revelation and inspiration. He was to write what he saw. Luke, on the other hand, wrote the truth, but he didn't see it. He got his information from those who did see it. Now let's look Once again at another point that is very important, illumination. Illumination is the understanding of truth. The Greek verb photidso means to give light to, to illuminate or to enlighten. Now the Ephesian saints in Ephesians 118 were illuminated in regeneration. were illuminated in regeneration. That's chapter 1, verse 18. And then they were also made to see, and we have the same verb used, it's an arius active infinitive of fotizo, and they were made to see what God's administration for this age includes, and this is found in Ephesians 3, 9. So there was inspiration without illumination according to 1 Peter 1 11 and there was illumination with inspiration according to Ephesians 2 and verse 20. Now we can't elaborate on these too much because each one of these is really a study within itself. So I'm giving you a lot of information. If you'll take down the notes, you'll see what I'm talking about. Now we come to the last. Interpretation. We have seen revelation. inspiration, illumination, now interpretation. And the greatest one single biblical example of this, as far as I'm personally concerned, is the 8th chapter of the book of Nehemiah. I'd like for you to open your Bibles and we'll try to complete this in about five minutes. So turn to Nehemiah chapter 8. I'd just like to preach really and teach for an hour or two from this 8th chapter of Nehemiah. There are so many things in it. We're looking now at inspiration, I mean interpretation. And interpretation is giving the sense of the judgment of truth. Let me give a little history so we won't have to read so much. When Ezra opened the book before the Jews in the site, that is he opened the book before the whole congregation, that had a symbol there to hear him read and give an interpretation of Scripture. It says in the fifth verse that he read in the book of the law of God distinctly, distinctly, and gave the sense, that means the interpretation, So look at verses 5 and 8, verse 5, Ezra opened the book and the sight of all the people for he was above all the people, he was above them in the sense that he was on a platform that had been erected for him to preach to them, he was on the podium so to speak, so all could see him and when he opened it all the people stood up Verse six, and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen. With lifting up their hands, and they bowed their hands and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Notice verse eight, so they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and cause them to understand. There's interpretation. Let's look at this for just a few minutes. So for the first time in the Bible, notice what I said, the first time in the Bible, the pulpit came to the front. Did you know this is the first pulpit in the scriptures? Right here, this is the first. And not only is this the record of the first pulpit in the Bible and coming to the front, but throughout the dispensation of grace, the pulpit is to be in the front. But it no longer remains in the front in most institutions today. They have their little round table discussions and all the other Tommy Rock Notice what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1.21. I'm going now from the book of Nehemiah to 1 Corinthians. And this is in the context, within the context of where we're studying. Paul said, For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. That's the pulpit. To save them that believe. And then in 1 Corinthians 9, 16, Paul further stated, Woe is me if I preach not the gospel. I'm never going to let something else take the place of the pulpit as long as I'm alive. Nothing else is going to take its place. Nothing. And I have the Word of God for it. As we realize, first of all, the greatness of God Therefore he blessed the Lord the great God. Verse 6. Secondly, he also recognized the greatness of his message. Hence he read distinctly and gave the sense, or explained what he read. That is interpretation. The wise Ezra also knew the greatness of Israel's need. They had been in the furnace of mortification, But now understanding the words that the preacher declared unto them, they were ready to be cast into the mold of God's Word. Let me ask you a question this morning. Are you ready to be cast into the mold of God's Word? The Israelites were at this time. Anytime God's people are willing to be cast into the mold of God's Word, you'd better take advantage of it because just like the Israelites, six months from now or a year from now, you may not be. You see what I'm saying? Then notice something else. Notice what the preacher said in verse 10. I'm talking about Ezra. Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. You remember one of the letters I read this morning? We're not to monopolize the truth that we have. Here it is. What did Ezra tell the people? sends something for those for whom nothing has been prepared. The strength of divine joy renders service to others. The strength of your joy is a result of what you're doing for God. You know, throughout my ministry, I've always had somebody who thought he could do a better job than I can, and there are a lot of them who can. I remember a few years ago, a young preacher came up to me after I got through preaching. He said, I'm jealous of you. I feel like I ought to be in that pulpit because I can do a better job than you do. I said, that's the reason you're where you are, and that's the reason I'm where I am. That's what I told him. Today, you know where he is? He and his wife are divorced, sold all of his library, and not even going to church. You see, I'm not moved by what a lot of people say. I'm not moved I know what God has called me to do and a lot of times you have people in the church they feel like they can do a better job than what somebody else is doing but I'll tell you why you're not doing it you're not doing it because the one that is doing the job is the one God has opened the door for him to do it that's getting right down where we all live it I'm talking about interpretation I'm interpreting now I'm interpreting The person who is doing the will of God, who has a desire to do the will of God, that person is going to be given an opportunity to do it. And he'll rejoice when he does it. So notice, the strength of divine joy renders service to others. And divine joy comes from being cast into the mold of God's Word. Those cast in the mold of Holy Scripture are not left to look at the wine of joy without realizing that behind that joy lies the pressure of trials. Trials. While I'm rejoicing during these days, there are plenty of trials. But the joy is overshadowing the trials. However, trials must not be emphasized in our conversation. Listen closer to this in closing. Trials are not to be emphasized in our conversation because that would indicate that we're seeking self-pity. That we're seeking self-pity. We're going to have plenty of trials. I want to conclude with this. Notice in verse 6, when Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, he served a great God, he had a great message, and there was a great need in Israel, just as there is a great need today. But notice what the people, notice their response. The people, all the people answered, Amen, Amen. I remember preaching years ago, and I have the notes here in the margin of my wide margin Bible. I'll just give this in conclusion. There are three interesting amens in the scriptures. There is, first of all, a substantive amen. What do you mean by a substantive amen? Jesus Christ is called the amen, the faithful and true witness. Secondly, There is an affirmative Amen, and this is found in Matthew 16, 28 and Luke 9, 27, and this is used in the beginning of any momentous truth as asserted or assertion. So affirming something. But I want to stress the last one. The last one is called an optative amen and it means let it be so beloved can we say this morning just let it be so let us all be molded by the Word of God let it be so in our lives The Jews felt this way at that time and God used them at that time. And so if you feel that way now, we're going to use you. And the Lord will use you. Because wait a year from now, you may not feel that way. You may be in a terrible backslidden condition. Israel went from a high to a low, a high to a low. And God's people operate the same way. Surely, we're rejoicing in what the Lord is doing. Now, I've majored in these things this morning, revelation, inspiration, illumination, and interpretation. Tonight, we'll zero in on interpretation in the light of verses 10 through 14. or the standards we're seeing. What's the song?