So here we are, January 25th, looking at the Continuing to Review and then moving on in the Knowing, Studying, Applying and Teaching the Written Word of God. I'm very excited about this study. I've been working on it and I pray that you will be blessed as well. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, shall we? O Lord, this is your holy word. We are your servants. Give us understanding that we might know your testimonies. You have prayed, O Lord. Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. Use your holy, eternal, inerrant written word to set us apart to your service and to your glory. Show us now great and mighty things which we do not know. The sower sows the word. Let not your word go out and return empty, but accomplish that purpose for which you have drawn us together and for which you are now sending it out. Protect us from Satan, Lord, who will snatch your word, making it fruitless. Protect us from a wrong reaction to difficulties and discouragements and persecutions which make our hearts hard and unresponsive to your word. Protect us, Lord, from the world's cares and the delight of wealth and the passion of other interests which enter in and choke your work, making it fruitless. Rather, give us good soil, O Lord. Plow up now the hard ground of our hearts, that your sown written word might send roots downward and bear fruit upwards. Unsheath now the sword of your spirit, O LORD. Cut to the dividing point of bone and marrow, soul and spirit. Judge now the thoughts and intentions of each heart gathered here. Spread your word before us as a banquet table, O LORD. grant grace that we might eat of the rich meat and drink of the sweet milk of the great doctrines of your word. Give us the heart of the prophet who cried to you. Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart from call by thy name, O LORD God of hosts. Oh Lord, we live in a dark and a wicked age. Broad is the way and many are on it, which leads to destruction. Make your word a lamp to our feet. Make your word a light to our path. Show us that narrow way that you would have us run. And Lord, as we run in the paths of your commandments, enlarge our hearts that in loving you we might be more obedient to your written word. Drop your word against our lives as a plumb line, O Lord. Grant grace that we might see how we deviate from its high and holy purposes. Make Your Word to us a mirror, O Lord. Grant grace that we might not be as those who look and go away and forget, but make us active doers, not forgetful listeners of Your written Word. O Lord, because of our fealty to You, Because of our undying love and devotion to your Son, our resurrected Savior, we pledge to you this day our total submission to your holy, eternal, inerrant written word, and we pledge to you our unquestioning obedience to all of its commands. In the name of our Lord and resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Thank you. Now, Renny, if you will lead us in prayer for Brother Richard, member of our study and board of directors who's now in Nairobi. It is 9.45 p.m. now in Nairobi. Would you pray that Richard and Kathy would be able to sleep Pray for their protection from disease, not just COVID, but malaria, typhus, other diseases. And pray for the empowerment of the word of God as they teach. So that's three things, Renny. Sleep, health, and teaching. Could you lead us in prayer now, please? Okay, I've unmuted myself so I can pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you Lord that Kathy and Rich have made it safely to Nairobi. We pray Lord that their ministry there would be great and that you would greatly bless it and that they would be watched over by you and not in all of these things that John has mentioned. that all of these things would come to pass, that they would stay healthy and well, and they would be in good sleep, and that their time in Nairobi would be very fruitful, in and amongst all of those people that are there, and so far away, but yet so close that that we can pray to you and you know them by name and you know their work and you know who they are and we just praise you and thank you and we ask these things not in our name but in the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. Thank you, Rennie. And I'll send this out, some prayer requests too. My next dispatch is going to feature Brother Richard, his ministry. And so the age of what I would call the vacation mission trip is over. There was nothing wrong with that, but I can remember there was a time and probably from the 80s for about a 30-year period, 80s, 90s, and the first 10 years maybe of the 21st century, but really in the 80s and 90s when families could go on mission trips, it could be kind of a vacation and ministry combo. But that era is over. Violence and danger in these countries is so prevalent that those going on mission trips need to be very serious and thoughtful before they leave. Now, here's a question. We'll begin with that. I recently became acquainted with a young man that believes the King James Bible is the only true translation of the Bible. Can you offer me some insight on how to respond biblically to this argument? Well, first thing I remind you is he has not presented you with a biblical argument. there exists no prophecies proclaiming the giving of the one true translation through King James." So, you are not under an obligation to present a biblical argument other than the promise in 1st Peter chapter 1 you'll turn with me in your holy scriptures. 1 Peter chapter 1 23-25 For you have been born again, not of a seed, which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. That is the word which is preached to you. And so we have the prophetic promise that God will maintain his word intact for all generations. And we discussed that in one of the earlier lectures. Those of you in the U.S. should all have your flash drives by now. Matthew, did you get your packet with your flash drive in it and information good? Okay. Malacu's Bible, flash drive, and books are somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean bobbing around in a container ship, as I understand. Because when I mailed them, Europe was in a lockdown in terms of air freight. So it's coming. So Melaka, don't despair. One day is like a thousand years in the day of the Lord's returning, and one day is like a thousand months in the U.S. Postal Service. But it will come. So he has not presented you with a biblical argument. So you are under no constraints to claim any biblical promises other than the ones that he must claim. And that is God's word will be presented intact. And so you should not allow people to, when you're discussing issues like that, to bracket you in to a response that they are not holding themselves accountable to. For instance, if someone were to say to you, give me scientific proof of evolution. Well, the first thing I tell them is, give me scientific proof of creationism. I say, well, the first thing I want from you is scientific proof of evolution, because there is not. There is only observation and hypothesis. There's no scientific proof. There's no a double blind study by which any organism has been forced scientifically to evolve rather than by chance. People will say to me, give me scientific proof that life begins at conception. Well, I say, hey, you are offering me no scientific proof that when you kill those babies, they're not alive. Now, fortunately for us, we can give them scientific proof. But a study which will never be conducted is, do unborn babies feel pain? The fact that there is prenatal surgery and treatment of unborn children is an established scientific fact. So the first thing we do is we do not allow people to bracket us. If someone says to you, now in terms of miracles, miracles are a violation of scientific laws and I reject that. No, I say miracles are a revelation to man of God's knowledge and creation of science of which scientists are ignorant. It's not a violation of scientific laws. It is the revelation of God's control and all of the things which God knows can and do happen which men are ignorant of. So, there's no need to present him with a biblical argument that other translations are as viable as the King James because he does not have a biblical argument. Are we to assume, the second question I would ask, rhetorical question I would say, are we to assume that all Christians must first learn English in order to study the Bible? Because the translation of the King James Bible into Chinese is a translation, isn't it? It's not the original King James Bible, it's a translation of the King James Bible. And so are all translations of Bibles into other languages, must we translate them from the King James or can we go back to the original Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic texts? In other words, when we translate the book of Isaiah must we use the King James translation of Isaiah in English and translate that into Chinese or Japanese but we have a manuscript of Isaiah dated 500 years before Christ but there's no changes in it in terms of the book of Isaiah we have today but our scholars required who want to uh... are japanese christian scholars who want to translate the bible in japanese instead of learning hebrew are they required to learn english a uh... example of this would be uh... i'm gonna add another one An example would be, this would be the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church, of course, at its earliest inception, Latin was the language of Rome. Then, that began to change, didn't it? And the language of the Roman Empire began to be the vernacular. German, French, English, Italian, Greek, Spanish. Of course, these were all medieval versions of those languages. And so the Roman Catholic Church says, no, the Latin Bible, that is the only translation. So anybody who wanted to read the Bible had to learn Latin. Well, the people who want to use the King James Bible, that's a translation of the Latin Bible, not from the original languages. I saw a Japanese student at Rice University who was a new Christian, one of the men in the ministry of our church at Rice Temple Baptist. had gone through our witnessing program, had led him to Christ, and I was meeting with him in the student union and discipleship, and as he was studying the Bible, he was really having trouble reading. Well, Rice University is a premier university. I asked him, are you a computer science student? Because I find this a lot in computer programmers. their narrative reading skills are usually not as strong as their scientific. And he said, no. And I said, well, what translation are you using? He was using a Korean Bible. He was trying to read a Korean Bible, then translate it in his brain in Japanese, and then translate his answer into English for me. And I said, why are you doing that? And he said, well, I was talking with some, I've been attending a Korean church, an Asian church led by Koreans here on campus. And they told me that the Korean Bible was the only accurate translation of the Bible, that all the other ones had been corrupted. I said, that's not true. So I got him a good parallel English, Japanese Bible. I ordered it off of Amazon. He was very happy. When I'm ministering in Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church says that the Russian Orthodox Church is the only church, the Russian Orthodox Bible is the only Bible, and the Russian language is the language of God. In fact, they even teach that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a Russian. Anti-Semitism runs very thick and deep in the Russian Orthodox Church. It's a great embarrassment to Christians in Russia. They say God would never use a Jew to be the mother of the Messiah, so he brought a little peasant girl down from Russia to marry. I say, of course, well, Mary is a Russian name. So anyways, the Russian Orthodox Church will say you have to read the Bible in Russian. Well, there's no difference between those arguments and the King James argument. The King James Bible is not the language spoken by Paul or the Apostles or by any of the prophets. The King James Bible is a translation. are we to assume that all Christians must first learn English in order to study the Bible? If you say no, that they can have the King James Bible in Russian, well it's not the King James Bible in Russian. It's a Bible, it's the Holy Scriptures translated into Russian. Well, so I have to understand that since the writing of the King James Version, there have been advancements in the understanding of languages. There have been advancements in understanding of languages. Since the writing, this is called lower criticism. We are not saying that man is able to judge what is the word of God, what is not the word of God, what are miracles, what are not miracles. Did Jesus really say this? How many authors of the first five books of the Bible are there. You know, we say you attribute them to Moses, but there are really five authors. There's no historical proof for that, but they say these things. But there is a valid study of languages in order to more accurately translate one language into another. that's valid and so it wouldn't be changes in the Bible but there can be tweaking in the Bible. There is also changes in word use and spelling which make older versions awkward. Now the King James Bible used today has underwent four revisions before it became the New King James. For instance, let's look at Ephesians 2, 1 through 5. This is cut and pasted from the original 1611 King James. And you have he, see the spelling of he, quickened, who were dead in your trespasses and sins. See the spelling of sins? wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air see the spelling of air the spirit that now worketh see that word worketh in the children of disobedience among you also we all had our connoisseuration in times past now that's a that's an old word It's not even in use today. If you do a spell check on Word, it will try to change it to conversation. in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, see the spelling of mind, and by nature children of wrath, eon or even, as others. God who is rich in mercy for his great love which he loved us even when we, see the spelling there, were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are saved." Well, the kernel of truth is there in the old King James. You could sort that out, but a modern translation would be much better in terms of teaching the word of God. And people who use the word thine, thou, thouest, quickened in reading the scripture, when they preach, don't use those words. So if the King James Bible is the true only translation, then people in their speech should use their words. Now, when I moved down to the Clear Lake area in South Houston, and I think it was around 1965, there was a Quaker community. It was called Friends. They were called Friends. They were Quakers. We would go over with my father to the market that the Quakers ran, the farmer's market, and he would warn me not to laugh or to snicker when I heard them talk, because at that time Quakers all talked in the old King James. They dress much like the Amish we dress in this particular Quaker community. And they would say, how art thou, how thou, how is thou doing? Things like that, when they would talk to us. Well, at least they were being consistent, weren't they? They were saying that King James Bible is the only Bible and King James language then becomes the only language. You can't have it both ways. So I would ask the person who believes that the King James Bible is the only true translation, why isn't he using the original 1611 King James? And why isn't he incorporating the vocabulary of 1611 into his day-to-day language? So Voight uses it to study the King James, if it's the only viable translation, and then to teach it in a corrupted linguistic form. Of course, we know that all language is corrupted, don't we? Even the ones that the Jews spoke and the Greeks spoke because of Babel. so we all live under the curse of Babel and we do the best we can and what we know is that God has promised the Word of God to be intact for every generation until his return. The scholarship and integrity of the Board of Editors is the issue with all translations and to the best of my study of history, the scholars, the integrity of the translations of the King James Bible was there. Their scholarship was not as advanced as scholars today. And of course their language is archaic. If you want to be frustrated and take a Shakespearean course and be forced to read the Shakespeare writings, not not as updated into modern language, but into old language, old English, or Chaucer's works. Well, the King James Bible is the same way. It's not bad, but the linguistic form is archaic. So, since it wasn't presented with a biblical argument, you do not have to respond with a biblical argument. you can claim the same promises for the preservation of scripture that they have. You can ask, are they to assume that all Christians must learn English? If they say no, and study the Bible in the King James, if they say no, then they have by default acquiesced to other translations of the Bible. you can remind them that King James is an Anglican translation. Are they now saying that instead of the Church of Christ or the Baptist Church or the Presbyterian Church or whatever church they belong to is the Supreme Church but rather the Anglican Church of England, the Church of England is the Supreme Church because God used it to translate the King James Bible? You could also point out the inconsistency of their using archaic language in the King James Bible while and their preaching and teaching of the Bible, they are using corrupted modern speech. Last but not least, you can also point out to them that they are not using the King James Bible as written in 1611 as I've shown you in Ephesians 2, 1 through 5. They are using probably the fourth updated version of the King James Bible or they are using the new King James which is another updated version which also corrects some of the problems we have with the 1611 version simply because they did not know what certain vocabulary words meant. So, I hope this is helpful. Now, having said that, let's move on. Review. Teaching the Bible. Question number one. The law of language. What are the definitions of the key words in the passage? That's the first thing we ask ourselves. This means interpretation is subject to the definition of the key words in the passage. When people begin speaking authoritatively concerning the Holy Scriptures, you always want to be thinking, by what authority are they saying these things? There are no self-evident spiritual truths. They are revealed or not revealed. Question number two, is the passage Old Covenant or New Covenant? Remember, we are not asking, is the Old Passage Old Testament or New Testament? The Old and New Testaments are arbitrary divisions created by man. They're not wrong, but they are an arbitrary division. And we know that there are Old Covenant passages in the New Testament, because the New Testament in the book of Luke opens with Zacharias ministering in the temple as a priest. So that's Old Covenant, isn't it? Is the passage historical revelation, a narrative, or is the passage doctrinal revelation, teaching? That's important. We only take direct application from doctrinal revelation. Doctrinal revelation judges all things, not vice versa. We take devotional application from historical revelation. Moses parted the Red Sea, Joshua parted the Jordan, Elijah parted the Jordan, Elisha parted the Jordan, Jesus walked on water, Peter walked on water. We cannot say from the law to the judges to the prophets. to the gospels, to the apostles. There is a blue river running through the Bible teaching us that godly men have power over water. No, we cannot say that. But what we can say is that these men, irrespective of how illogical it was, obeyed the word of God. Parting these waters Putting the water by Moses, by Joshua, by Elijah, by Elisha, and walking on the water by Peter was not their idea. It was God's idea. And no matter how illogical God's word was, they obeyed it. And so our devotional application, as we read the written word of God, and it commands us to do things, no matter how illogical it is, we obey it. For instance, a self-evident truth is that, boy, Buddhists, they have no Christian culture, they have no concepts of God that we have, they have no orientation, they have nothing. So, of course, you can't just share the gospel right out to them. You might have to take weeks, months, or I even read a newsletter put out by a Christian organization that used to be very evangelistic, and they were saying sometimes it takes years before you share Christ with a Muslim. and yet God tells me in Romans 1 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek so no matter how illogical that may seem I share Christ with Muslims I share Christ with Buddhists I share Christ with Hindus and I see them come to Christ to repent be born again, be baptized, and join a church and become disciples. So that's my application to the historical revelation of power over water. God said to do it. It seemed to be illogical. They did it anyways. God says for me to witness. It seems to be illogical. Don't share Christ at a funeral. People are mourning. Don't share Christ when people are standing around in the front yard with the police and the firemen. People are in shock. Don't go across the street and ask your neighbors, are you prepared to die in your sleep? They'll get angry at you. Well, they killed Jesus, so nothing's going to fix it, so they won't get angry at us. And people do receive Christ. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. Seems illogical, but we do it. Question number four. Is it revealed or hidden? The revealed Word of God is in written form for the Church Age. From Adam to Moses there was no written revelation of God. It was only mystical. The Jews did not sit around campfires sharing stories of creation and Babel and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph because there weren't any Jews. You know Moses wasn't a Jew, I mean Noah wasn't a Jew, don't you? Israel didn't come into existence until the 12 tribes of Jacob, sons. No, God, as Moses went in and out of the tent of the tabernacle for 40 years, God gave him the first five books of the Old Testament. We have the reveal word in written form. So from Moses to the Isle of Patmos there is mystical and written revelation. And from the Isle of Patmos till your death or the return of Jesus there is only written revelation. We've covered that before. really upsets people that there can't be mystical revelation during the Church Age, but it doesn't upset them that there was no written revelation for thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years before Moses, from Adam to Moses. So the revealed Word of God is in written form, the hidden Word of God is hidden. Some things are hidden by teaching. Jesus said no one knows the times or seasons. Some of the Word of God is hidden by omission. It's simply not included. I recently got to share Christ with a neighbor. I was taking out the trash and he called me over. He said, I heard recently, and I'm not sure, it's probably from Joel Osteen, because Joel Osteen has a mega-church, that he calls a mega-church here, but he believes Hindus are Christians. He said that, I heard recently that the that the Magi were from India, they were holy men from India and so that Jesus during his teenage years and young adulthood traveled to India and studied under the Magi. Is that true? and i said no it's not true so what do we do i said well that's him god does not tell us but we do know two things one is that and i share with him luke uh... where jesus lived under subjection to his parents and then i share with him several verses where the pharisees said isn't this the son of joseph the carpenter Isn't he from Nazareth? Does the Bible say that any prophet will come out of Nazareth or out of Galilee? So I said, nobody ever said when Jesus came on the scene, wow, Jesus has returned from the east with these strange teachings. No, they didn't say that. So he was satisfied with that. and then i said now we're going to begin our bible study uh... and uh... he said yes yes let's talk about it so he's inching closer he's gone from saying he wants to be in a bible study to doing bible study in his front yard and uh... soon we will be doing bible study in my office so keep playing for carlos is his name now besides things hidden there are things which are higher Isaiah 55, 8 and 9, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So we have to understand this. And let's always remember as we're talking about this, God is not threatened by the fact that we don't know everything. That doesn't threaten God. God is not threatened by the fact that some things in the Bible seem illogical to us. That doesn't bother God. Let's look at an example of something that is revealed but is too high for us to understand. And the reason higher things are placed in scripture is for us to be judged in terms of our fallen mind. It's to humble us. In 2 Peter 1, 20 and 21, the Holy Scriptures revealed to us by God the Holy Spirit, but know this first of all that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Well, if you do cross-references in your Bible next to this phrase men but moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God you can write 2nd Timothy 316 now that's the definition of inspiration. Inspiration is not given by a matter of man's human will so everything in the Bible is given by God also know that prophecy is not a matter of our own interpretation and the church through the ages has embarrassed itself by interpreting prophecy that God the Holy Spirit has not given us the interpretation. Interpreting prophecy to which God the Holy Spirit has not given us the interpretation. I'll give you an example. Let's look at Jeremiah 31 15. Now, you are Baruch the scribe and you are copying down Jeremiah's prophecies into a book as commanded by God. Or you are one of Jeremiah's disciples reading the writings of the scribes. And in Jeremiah 31.15 you read, Thus says the Lord, A voice is heard in Ramah, Lamentations and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. So would you read that prophecy and would you say, Oh, that's completely clear. uh... the virgin shall conceive from isaiah that will be married and they will go to bethlehem and jesus will be born in a manger and they will end up in a house and uh... magi will come give gifts to them but then god will warn joseph in a dream to skedaddle and they will head over to egypt but meanwhile the magi head south The Magi who have been told by the scribes where to find Jesus were instructed to come back and give a report but they've been warned in a dream not to. So they, instead of going back to Jerusalem, head back to wherever they came from. Pharaoh becomes enraged and he sends a company of his soldiers up to Bethlehem and they kill every baby in the entire area two years or below. Would you get that from that passage? No, you wouldn't get that from that passage. In fact, in my arrogance, as a brand new Christian, I thought many of these prophecies that were tagged on in the gospel were contrived. As I would read in Matthew especially, it said, thus fulfilling the prophecy. And I would go back to the prophecy and say, hey, I don't get that from that passage. I don't understand that from that passage. In fact, I would even say, and it doesn't even seem to be the exact quotation, Well then, as I matured in a Christian, I realized two things. First, prophecies are higher. We are only understood when they are explained by men. I was reading through the New Testament. I hit 1 Peter 1, 20. It's not a matter of one's own interpretation. And so I repented. And I asked God to forgive me for my presumptuous sin. I'd read about presumptuous sins in Psalm 19. So I asked God to forgive me of my presumptuous sin of judging the Scriptures. And I realized that from now on, I will accept God's, the Holy Spirit's interpretation of what God the Holy Spirit has said. Isn't that right? We want to know what something means that somebody says, we ask them. If somebody says, Matthew Wilkins has said a certain thing, we don't begin thinking, I wonder what he means. We call Matthew Wilkins. And he'll say, no, I didn't say that. Or, yes, I did say that, and this is what it means. Or, yes, I did say that, and it's none of your business. Quit gossiping about me with other people. So all of those would be valid responses by Matthew. Well, Psalm 19.13 says, keep back your servant from a presumptuous sin. So that was a presumptuous sin that I could judge the scripture. Well, then I realized, no, I couldn't. And then God further convicted me as I thought about why are prophecies not quoted the exact way they are in the Old Testament and the New Testament that These were not made by an act of human will, but men by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Paul Luke, John, Matthew, Mark, Peter were not quoting scripture. The Holy Spirit was quoting scripture. And again, if I can pick on Matthew, if Matthew is giving his children instructions, he doesn't have to quote himself exactly the same way every time for them to have to clean up their room. he can say clean up your room he can say straighten up your room he can say pick up all your toys he can say whatever he wants because he's the author of that and they can't say hey we're not sure you know what you're talking about daddy because yesterday you said pick up your room and today you're saying straighten up your room so we're not even sure you're our daddy anymore that's nonsensical and God the Holy Spirit can rephrase his commands any way he wants to because he is God. So I repented of two presumptuous sins. But, so we ask ourselves, would we have come up with that application? while Matthew 20, Matthew 2, 16 through 18. Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and its vicinity from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the Magi. Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled. A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel reaping for her children, and she refused to be comforted because they were no more. So God the Holy Spirit tells us what this prophecy in Jeremiah 31 15 says and we can save ourselves from many embarrassing Bible teachings coming back to bite us if we only teach prophecy in the context of the revelation of God the Holy Spirit and not the ruminations of our thinking of man's fallen brain. Gog and Magog it has been taught as London and Paris. It has been taught as Berlin and Rome. It has been taught as St. Petersburg and Moscow. It has been taught as Baghdad and Tehran. It has been taught as Moscow and Beijing. The list goes on. but the fact is God the Holy Spirit doesn't tell us what Gog and Magog is. The prophets faced this challenge as did all who came after them. until the prophecies were revealed. 1 Peter 1 10-12 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquires, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ was indicated as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glory to follow. That means Isaiah scratched his head when he after writing Isaiah 50 chapter 53 he was trying to figure out when this would happen how would it come about it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you in the things which have now been announced to you by those who preach the gospel to you by what The Holy Spirit sent from heaven things in which the angels long to look. So we know Isaiah 53 and these other prophecies point to Christ because God the Holy Spirit reveals that to us in the Gospels. Keep in mind too, this is a good phrase, things in which the angels seek to look. That gives us insight in two things. One, why we don't bother praying to angels or looking for guidance for angels, because we as born again Christians have more insight and understanding of scripture than angels. they wish they could but they don't and we also understand a devotional thought would be why Satan hasn't figured out his doom because he's an angel and a fallen one he has no idea about these scripture either. Both the church and Christian scholars continue to embarrass themselves and the church as a whole by continually interpreting prophecies with their own unaided powers apart from the written word of God. And all it does is make the Bible look like it contradicts itself. One of the hardest things for a Bible teacher to say is, the meaning of this prophetic passage is not revealed to us. Eleanor was once asked to speak to a woman's group on prophecy. I say to a women's group, because she will not teach or exercise authority over men. People continually think that that's because I'm loitering it over to her, which is an insult to her. She doesn't do that because she believes the Bible and seeks to obey it. Well, Eleanor said to them, it will be the shortest seminar ever given. This would be my three points. God knows, man doesn't know, God's not telling. So she said, but I'd be happy to speak to you on women's role in the church, women being submissive to and being a helpmate to their husband, the women being a disciplinarian and teacher and loving mother to their children, women witnessing to women, what Titus 2 says about the older women teaching the younger women. I would be happy to teach on any of those things, but they passed on that. Rather than Eleanor teaching on evangelism, discipleship, prayer, follow-up, marriage, family, they wanted somebody to give them the good stuff, but she passed. What's another example of a higher thing? Another example of a higher thing are parables. Mark 4, 10 through 12, as soon as he was alone his followers along with the twelve began asking him about parables and he was saying to them, to you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God but to those who are outside get everything in parables so that while seeing they may not see and perceive and while hearing they may not hear and understand otherwise they might return and be forgiven. So, parables are often presented as a way of understanding biblical truths, but Jesus has said no, parables are given as a form of judgment. I remember when I was a student, I was listening to an evening service by a very prominent Baptist pastor and Bible teacher and he was going to teach on the parables and the Sunday service series, evening series, and he said that Jesus would be walking along the fields, he would see a man sowing seed, he would see a father with his son, he would see a slave with his master, he would see men fishing, he would see men reaping, he would see all these things and he wove all of these things into his teachings to make them crystal clear. And so by that time, I had come under the discipline of when somebody said something and I was taking notes, if they didn't give a Bible verse, I put a question mark by it. So then I went back and when I was reviewing my notes that I took in church, I checked up on parables and that's not true. Parables are not given to make things clear. Parable books are given as a form of judgment on our fallen minds just as unexplained prophecies are. Now, we differentiate between parables and illustrations. Parables are identified. Matthew 13, 18. Here, the parable of the sower. Matthew 13, 24. Jesus presented another parable. Matthew 13 and 1, 31. He presented another parable to them saying, Matthew 13, 33. He spoke another parable to them. So, when it's a parable, it will be identified as such. Now, we differentiate between that and illustrations which are word pictures used by Jesus and the disciples. in teaching. Matthew 6, 19-21. Do not store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Store up for yourselves treasures on earth. but rather store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, nor where thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." So you have this word picture of our storehouse in heaven, our storehouse in earth, our heart, we have these thieves who break in and steal, and that creates in us word pictures or illustrations. The Bible gives us the authority to understand and interpret and teach these, given the rules. that we have learned Matthew 6 25 and 26 for this reason I say to you do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink nor for your body as to what you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing look at the birds of the air they do not sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet their heavenly father feeds them are you not worth much more than those? So, you know, these illustrations are given here of clothing, of food, of drink, of birds in the air, of birds feeding, of gods feeding them. We can understand these things. Another good illustration from the epistles is Sword of the Spirit. We can understand what is, that's a good use of an illustration of something to teach a biblical truth and we can teach that. Now, conventional wisdom, parables are innate to truth. Truth, parables are meant to hide truth. They are, parables are, a form of judgment on the fallen mind of man. Although parables are explained to the disciples, not all of them are explained to the Church. Mark 4, 33 and 34, with many such parables he was speaking to them So, the many parables. So far as they were able to hear it. And he did not speak to them without a parable. But he was explaining everything privately to his own disciples. Now, you say, John, when I'm reading the Gospels, they're not parables in every chapter. They're not parables in every teaching of Jesus. Well, by asking that question, that's a presumptuous sin. Matt, John 21, 25. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose even the world itself would not contain the books that were written. So Jesus taught a lot of things that aren't in the Bible, and it doesn't threaten God a bit that the information is not there and you are unhappy with it. God does not wring his hands and worry. Oh, I didn't give them enough information. Maybe they won't believe in me. No, God's not threatened by that. So, he was explaining the parables privately to his disciples. Are we one of the twelve? No. Therefore, unless God the Holy Spirit explains to us the Gentiles grafted on lately to the root, as a branch, we are not going to understand them either. There is an example of a parable explained to both the disciples and the Church, Mark 4, 13-20. parable of the sower. How do we know the sower sows the Word? God tells us the sower sows the Word in the explanation. Jesus explained it to the parable of the sowers to the disciples and God the Holy Spirit passes down that information to us. Mark 4, 14, the sower sows the Word. There are parables explained to the disciples but not explained to the church. Mark 40, 30 through 32, the parable of the mustard seed. It's like a mustard seed when sown upon the soil. What is the sower in the parable of the mustard seed? The Bible doesn't say. What is the soil? The Bible doesn't say. Though it is smaller than all seeds, what are the other seeds? The Bible doesn't say. Yet when it is sown, how is it sown? The Bible doesn't say. It grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants. What are these other garden plants? The Bible doesn't say. And farms long branches. What are the branches? The Bible doesn't say. So that the birds of the air can nest under its shade. Who are the birds of the air? The Bible doesn't say. So, examples from the parables of Matthew 13, 10 through 53. 18 through 23, Matthew 13, these will all be in Matthew 13, EXPLAINED the sower. 24 through 30, the tares, EXPLAINED. 31 and 32, the mustard seed, NOT EXPLAINED. 33-35 the leaven not explained. Tears 36-43 explained. Hidden treasure 44 not explained. Costly pearl 45-46 not explained. Drag net 47-52 explained. One of the hardest things for a teacher or preacher to say is, this parable is not explained in Holy Scripture, its meaning remains hidden to us. One of the hardest things a teacher of the Holy Scripture must say when teaching on the parables Jesus revealed this to his disciples, but God the Holy Spirit did not choose to reveal this to the church. It may mean, and that's perfectly fine, but we do not know for certain. That's the best you can do. I mean, it's there in the Bible. You can make a devotional application to it if you wish. but if Jesus does not explain that parable then you are stuck with while seeing you may while seeing you may see and you may not perceive and while hearing you may hear and you may not understand otherwise you might return and be forgiven and by God's grace you did return and were forgiven and were not relying simply upon the parables well I hope that's helpful to you next week we will go on in our lectures on the word of God and we will be looking at application direct applications in this now our application number one will be what is the strongest argument from scripture. What will that be when we are teaching? The strongest argument from scripture. Then we will look at the application number two, subjection. Then we will look at application number three, biblical revelation. And then our series on the word of God will be over. So I praise God for your patience and the time that you've given me on this. After we finish this series on knowing, teaching, and understanding the written word of God, we are going to look in the same depth at prayer. May God add his blessing on his holy word. In Christ's name we pray, amen.