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Todd Nibert

Interpretation

Genesis 41:1-13
Todd Nibert December, 18 2022 Video & Audio
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In the sermon titled "Interpretation," Todd Nibert focuses on the significance and challenge of rightly interpreting the Scriptures, particularly in relation to God's sovereignty. Central to his argument is the assertion that true interpretation comes solely from divine revelation, highlighting Genesis 41:1-13, where Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dreams. Nibert emphasizes that the natural man cannot discern spiritual truths without God's assistance, referencing 1 Corinthians 2:14 to illustrate the necessity of divine revelation for understanding Scripture. The practical importance of this doctrine lies in the need for accurate biblical interpretation to avoid misleading congregations, stressing that every interpretation should align with God's intended meaning as revealed in the Scriptures.

Key Quotes

“I don’t want to give my own interpretation. I want to give what God says.”

“The preparations of the heart of man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.”

“No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. It means what God means.”

“You won't know the meaning, I won't know the meaning... unless God is pleased to reveal himself.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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I've entitled the message for
tonight, Interpretation. And just the thought of standing
up and claiming to be interpreting what God says is a very overwhelming
thing. And it scares me. I don't want
to give my own interpretation. I want to give what God says. And I really understand what
Paul, I don't understand it to the same extent he did, but I
have some understanding of what Paul meant when he said, I was
with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling because
I and scared to death of misinterpreting what God says in His Word. And
I ask that you pray for me, that the Lord would deliver me from
that, that we would hear His Word interpretation. Now, whether
we're conscious of it or not, we interpret everything we hear.
Everything. Sometimes we're unconscious.
We don't think much about it. Sometimes we're very cognizant
of the fact that we're interpreting something, and we may interpret
it right, and we may interpret it wrong. You know, someone may
say something to you, and perhaps it's a compliment, and it's something
nice, and you could interpret that as, Well, what a blessing. I'm thankful to hear that. It was an encouragement to me.
I loved what I heard. And you may hear it as this person
is flattering me. They're trying to get something
out of me. They're manipulating me. So that's just an example
of everything we hear, there's an interpretation to it. Right
or wrong. Conscious or unconscious, we
interpret what we hear and preaching is the interpretation of scriptures. I don't want to give the wrong
interpretation and you're going to hear something. Now in this
passage of scripture, look in verse 13. And it came to pass. You know, I love that, uh, word. It came to pass. God purposed
it. It came to pass. I love those,
uh, scriptures we're reading in Proverbs chapter 16, the,
uh, preparations of the heart of man. And the answer of the
tongue is from the Lord. You know what that means? He is completely sovereign over
everything we say, although we say what we want to say. He's
completely sovereign over the free and uncoerced actions and
thoughts of men. And we have an example of that
in our text, the way that butler forgot Joseph. I mean, three
days later, he's set free and he forgets all about it. Maybe
he had a bad memory. I don't know what was going on
with him, but I know why he forgot it. Sovereign God was going to
have him remember this two years later when it was necessary for
Pharaoh's dreams to be interpreted. Now, interpretation, another passage
of scripture I loved at the end of that chapter, the lot is cast
into the lap. The whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. Doesn't that comfort you? to
know that he controls and reigns over every thought, every event,
everything that we would think is happenstance or chance, he
controls everything. The whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. And when we read it came to pass,
the reason it came to pass is because he purposed it. He purposed
it, it came to pass. God purposed for me, to be here
tonight. You know what? It came to pass.
He purposed for you to be here tonight. Now, if he purposed
for you to be here, is there any way that you wouldn't have
been here? No. He purposed it. It came to pass. And it came to pass. The butler says to Pharaoh, as
he interpreted to us, So it was. Pinpoint accuracy. As he interpreted it to us, so
it was. Now, if you'll remember from
the last chapter, we have the butler and the baker. The butler
had a dream. He dreamed, well, let's read
about it in chapter 40. Verse five, and they dreamed
a dream, both of them. Each man is dreaming one night,
each man according to the interpretation of his dream. The butler and
the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison,
Joseph came in unto them in the morning and looked upon them,
and behold, they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers
that were with him in the ward of the Lord's house, saying,
wherefore look ye so sadly today? And they said unto him, we've
dreamed a dream, and there's no interpreter of it. We have
no idea what it meant. We're troubled. God gave him
this dream. Now I have dreams all the time
and I never know what they mean. I almost don't want an interpreter
of my dreams because I'd be afraid of what they tell me they meant.
But I dream wild dreams, crazy dreams. You do too. Well, they
were troubled. God gave them these dreams and
they wanted to know what they meant. And Joseph said unto them,
do not interpretations belong to God. Tell me ye them, I pray
you. And the chief butler told his
dream to Joseph and said to him in my dream, behold, a vine was
before me and in the vine were three branches and it was as
though it budded. And a blossom shot forth in the
clusters that are brought forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup
was in my hand and I took the grapes and pressed them into
Pharaoh's cup and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. And
Joseph said unto him, this is the interpretation of it, the
three branches are three days, yet within three days shall Pharaoh
lift up thine head and restore thee unto thy place, and thou
shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand after the former manner
when thou wast his butler. But think on me, remember me
when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee,
unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me
out of this house, for indeed I was stolen away out of the
land of the Hebrews. And here also I've done nothing
that they should put me into this dungeon. When the chief
baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph,
I also was in my dream and behold, I had three white baskets on
my head. And in the uppermost basket, there was all manner
of baked meats for Pharaoh and the birds did eat them out of
the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered and said,
this is the interpretation thereof, the three baskets are three days
yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee.
and shall hang thee on a tree, and the bird shall eat the flesh
off of thee. And it came to pass the third
day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all
his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief butler
and of the chief baker among his servants. And he restored
the chief butler unto his butlership again, and he put the cup into
Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had
interpreted to them. Yet did not the chief butler
remember him. We considered that last week.
There's a powerful gospel message in that chapter. Verse one, and
it came to pass, chapter 41. It came to pass at the end of
two full years that Pharaoh dreamed and behold, he stood by the river.
Behold, there came up out of the river, seven fat cows and
they fed in the meadow and behold, seven other Cows came up after
them out of the river, skinny, ribs showing, and stood by the
other cows upon the brink of the river. And the ill-favored
and lean-fleshed kind did eat up the seven well-favored kind,
so they were all woke. And he slept and dreamed the
second time and behold, seven ears of corn came upon one stalk
rank and good and behold, seven thin ears blasted with the east
wind sprung up after them. And the seven thin ears devoured
the seven rank full ears and Pharaoh woke and behold, it was
a dream. And it came to pass in the morning
that his spirit was troubled. He was troubled by this dream.
He didn't know what it meant. He knew it meant something, and
he didn't know what it meant. And he sent and called for all
the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men thereof, and Pharaoh
told them his dream, but there was none that could interpret
it unto them. None of the magicians, none of
the wise men knew what the dream meant. Did you know that not
one fallen son of Adam, including me and you, can interpret correctly
the message of the gospel? We're shut up to revelation.
You won't know the meaning, I won't know the meaning. You won't know
the interpretation, I won't know the interpretation unless God
is pleased to reveal himself. We'll never know. Scripture says
the natural man, and that's the way we're born into this world.
The natural man, 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither indeed can he
know them. They're foolishness unto him.
Neither indeed can he know them. He lacks the ability to know
them because they're spiritually discerned. It's only that spirit
that God gives, that new man that can understand the gospel.
You can go shut yourself into a room and devote 20 years to
trying to figure out what the Bible means, and you'll never
know unless he's pleased to reveal himself. You and I can't figure
this thing out. And if you think you can, you've
deceived yourself. You can't. And the wise men,
And the magicians could not figure this out. Turn with me for a
moment, hold your finger there in Genesis 41 and turn with me
to second Peter chapter one. Now remember our subject is interpretation. We'll get into the meat of, um,
Genesis 41 in the weeks to come as to how, what happened after
Joseph interpreted the dreams, but look in second Peter. Chapter one, verse 16, for we've
not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto
you the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know,
that's an accurate description of most preaching. Cunningly
devised fables, nothing more. And Peter says, we've not followed
cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. He's talking about on the Mount
of Transfiguration when the Lord was transfigured before them.
For he received from God the Father honor and glory when there
came such a voice to him from that excellent glory. This is
my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. This voice which came
from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount. We also have something that's
better than that. Right now, me and you. We have
something better than that mountain top experience. And what is it? We also have a more sure word
of prophecy where until you do well, that you take heed as into
a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and
the day star arrives in your hearts, knowing this first. Now this comes first. That no scripture, that no prophecy
of the scripture is of any private interpretation. What does that
mean? No prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation. Well, how many times have you
said something from the scriptures and somebody said, that's your
interpretation. You've heard that. That's your
interpretation. That's how you view it. Peter is saying, it doesn't work
like that. Well, here's what it means to
me. Have you heard somebody say that? Here's what it means to
me. Now, when we make a statement
like that, we're saying it might mean, it means this to me, it
might mean something else. to somebody else, but this is
what it means to me. I am not interested in what the
scripture means to me. I'm not interested in what the
scripture means to you. I'm interested in what the scripture
means. What does God mean when he says
that? The scripture is not of any private
interpretation. Here's what it means to me. Accent
from your vocabulary. That's your interpretation. No,
the scripture means what God means, whatever that is. It means what God means. The scriptures of no private
interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Turn with me for a moment to
Job 33. I want you to see this. Job chapter 33. This is Elihu speaking. And when a man is verse 19, he's
chastened also with pains upon his bed, the multitude of his
bones with strong pain. So that his life of whoreth bread
and his soul, dainty meat, his flesh is consumed away that it
cannot be seen in his bones that were not seen stick out. Yea,
his soul draweth near unto the grave, his life to the destroyers.
If. there be a messenger within, an interpreter. One among a thousand to show
unto man his uprightness. To show man's uprightness? No,
to show his uprightness. God's uprightness, God's righteousness. Then he, God is gracious unto
him and saith, deliver him from going down to the pit. I have
found a ransom. Now, if there'd be one among a thousand,
I'd say that's generous with regard to preachers. One among
a thousand. Very few give the right meaning
of scripture. And what is it they make known? They show unto man his uprightness,
as far as I'm gonna show you how good you are and how righteous
you are and how upright you are. No, it's showing to a man his
uprightness. That's the message of the gospel.
I mean, everything belongs right here. Paul said, the gospel is
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein in the gospel
is the righteousness of God revealed. Now in true preaching, this is
what's going on. God's righteous character is
made known. If I ever see his righteousness,
I'm gonna understand that I'm a sinner. Not until then. The
only way I'm going to understand that I'm a sinner is by seeing
the character of God, his righteousness. Turn to Romans chapter 10. I'd
like you to read this with me. This is such a powerful passage
of scripture, Romans chapter 10. Paul says in verse one, brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. They were not saved and Paul
desired their salvation. He wasn't indifferent about these
people. He wanted them to be saved. I mean, I think of in
Romans chapter nine, he said, I could wish that I myself were
a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the
flesh. That's how much he desired the salvation of these people.
He wasn't being hard hearted. Oh, he desired their salvation.
But look what he says. He says, I bear them record that
they have a zeal of God. And he's talking about the God
of the Bible, but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness. Now that's his righteous character.
That's his righteousness. And I want to say this, I wish
I could say this the right way, but his righteousness in my damnation.
I can't be ignorant of that. If he sent me to hell, if he
sent you to hell, would he be unjust? Would he be wrong? Now, if Christ died for you and
he sent you to hell, that would be unjust. If you have the righteousness
of Christ and he sent you to hell, that'd be unjust. That
ain't gonna happen. That's just not going to happen, but God
is righteous. But not only do we see his righteousness
in our condemnation, his righteousness is revealed in our salvation.
You see, my sin was paid for to honor the righteous demands
of God's law by the Lord Jesus Christ. His righteousness is
given to me. So the very righteousness of
God demands my salvation. Now that's what a true interpreter
tells the uprightness, the righteousness of God in all things. He says
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. And here's what
people do who are ignorant of God's righteousness. They go
about to establish their own righteousness. They've not submitted
themselves under the righteousness of God. Now, somebody who has
knows this Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
You believe that? You rejoice in that? Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness. To everyone that believeth. Back to Pharaoh's dreams. Back
to Genesis 41. Interpretation. What if someone
would have interpreted those dreams wrong? Now, okay, let's say One of the
magicians said, those fat cows are your good works. Those skinny
cows are your bad works. It could be that your bad works
will just eat up your good works and you won't have anything left
and you'll go to hell. What if they interpret it like that?
What if they interpreted the ears of corn? Well, the fat ears
of corn is your decision to accept Jesus as your personal savior.
But the skinny ears of corn blasted with the east wind, those are
your bad works. And those will turn around and
eat up that decision, and you won't be saved. That's ways of
interpreting those dreams. Somebody says that's foolishness.
I know it is. I know it is. But what would have happened
if they would have given the wrong interpretation? Well, Uh,
they wouldn't have saved for the seven years of famine. Uh,
there wouldn't have been any food when the famine started
and everyone would have starved to death and the sons of Jacob would not have
been delivered. A wrong interpretation would mean nothing good happened, but he did not give the wrong
Interpretation. Now you think about this thing
of, of, um, interpreting the scriptures. Joseph gave in verse
25 of Genesis 41. And Joseph said into Pharaoh,
the dream of Pharaoh is one. God has showed Pharaoh what he
is about to do. Don't you love that? You know,
that's what everything is. Everything that hadn't happened
yet is what God is about to do. And that's what he tells him.
This is what God is about to do. Now, the right interpretation
comes from God. Look in verse 14. Then Pharaoh
sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the
dungeon. And he shaved himself and changed his raiment and came
unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I've dreamed a dream.
And there's none that can interpret it, but I've heard say of thee
that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered
Pharaoh saying, it's not in me. I have no ability to interpret
a dream. Absolutely none. It's not in
me. God shall give Pharaoh an answer
of peace. And you know, when you hear the
right interpretation, you know what you're going to find from
it? Peace. Peace. You're going to be able to rest
your soul when you hear the truth. It's going to be God's answer
of peace. Now let's think of right interpretations. We give an interpretation of
everything. We have an interpretation for
everything we see, everything we hear. Whether conscious or
unconscious, maybe it's below the thinking, but we're still
interpreting everything we hear. Joseph's interpretations were
right. Let's look at his answer to Pharaoh. We're going to consider this
more in a couple of weeks. This is after Pharaoh tells Joseph,
what he dreamed, verse 25, and Joseph said unto Pharaoh, the
dream of Pharaoh is one. God has showed Pharaoh what he's
about to do. The seven good kind are seven years, and the seven
good ears are seven years. The dream is one. The seven thin
and ill-favored kind that came up after thee are seven years,
and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven
years of famine. This is the thing which I've
spoken unto Pharaoh, what God is about to do he show unto Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years
of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, and there
shall arise after them seven years of famine. And all the
plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine
shall consume the land. And the plenty shall not be known
in the land by reason of the famine falling, for it shall
be very grievous. And for that the dream was doubled
unto Pharaoh twice. It's because the thing is established
by God. God will shortly bring it to
pass. Now therefore, let Pharaoh look
out a discreet man wise and set him over the land of Egypt. Let
Pharaoh do this and let him appoint officers over the land and take
up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plentous
years. Let him gather all the food of those good years that
come and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh and let them
keep food in the cities that should be food for store to the
land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in
the land of Egypt that the land perish not through famine." And
the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in all of his
servants. He knew that this is what it
meant. It made sense to him. He felt
at peace with Joseph's interpretation. Now, you know, in this thing
of preaching, every preacher is giving his interpretation.
You know, we consider John 3.16 this morning. Some will interpret John 3.16.
God loves everybody, wants to save you. Christ died for everybody,
wants your sins to be put away. He wants you to accept him, but
you have to believe first or you're believing will negate
his love for you and Christ's death for you. And that's the
way some people would interpret that verse of scripture. There
are others who say, God so loved the world, just as the Bible
says, that he gave his only begotten son. Anyone believing is not going
to perish, but have eternal life. There's a scripture in James
2. A man is justified by works and not by faith only. You're
familiar with it. A man is justified by works and
not by faith only. Somebody says, well, faith only
isn't going to get it. There's got to be works that
prove the reality of your salvation. If you don't have good works
along with your faith, You won't be saved. Don't give me that
stuff about faith only. There must be works in your life,
a change in your life that proves you're saved. And somebody says,
faith is salvation by faith only looking to Christ. And there
will be works that prove you really did believe that. I think
the best illustration of that is Lot. Your approved lot really believed
he needed to get out of there and not look back as the angel
said to him. He didn't look back. His works
proved he believed what he said he did. He didn't look back. There will be works that give
evidence that you really believe what you say you do. Let's say
somebody says, I believe the gospel of God's grace, but they
go to a church where the gospel of God's grace is not preached.
What did their work say? That's pretty easy to see that. Here's another scripture. Like
I said, interpretation. that worketh not, but believeth
on him that justifieth the ungodly." His faith is counted for righteous.
Now somebody can say, see, all you got to do is believe and
your works are of no consequence whatsoever. It doesn't matter.
You can sin without restraint. You can do all you want. You
can live a wicked life as long as you have faith, as long as
you believe. Everything's okay. Somebody else says, to him that
worketh not, you know salvation is in no way by your works. You
know enough about yourself to know that you cannot be saved
by what you do. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Now, the point I'm making is
you can hear God's word preached and hear two totally different
interpretations. What God meant is right. What God says. God meant it a
certain way. And if a preacher doesn't give
what God meant, woe unto that preacher. Paul said, woe is unto
me if I preach not the gospel. Take something like election.
Just anybody that reads the Bible, they're going to have to deal
with elections. Somebody says, well, God looks. I got a letter from somebody
this week, actually. They said, don't you know that
election only has to do with Old Testament Israel? I mean,
it doesn't even have to do anything to do with the New Testament.
Oh, okay. And somebody else says, well,
election is a God looking down through the telescope of time
and foreseeing who's going to believe. And he chooses the ones
he foresees who will believe. Really? One preacher actually
said this, election is God voting for you, the devil voting against
you, and you casting the deciding vote. Wow, that's ridiculous. Election is what God says it
is. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. Interpretation. Now what I would
like to close with is 1 Corinthians chapter 14, if you will turn
with me there. Like I said, the next time we're
going to get more into the story of Genesis 41, but I wanted us
to think of the importance of this thing of, of interpretation. When you hear the scripture,
you're giving it, you're giving your own interpretation. Better
be the right one. And that's why I pray God would
give me hearing ears, that he would give me the tongue of the
learned to give what he means. I hope you'll have quickly discerning
ears to know the difference. Interpretation. Now, what is
the subject in 1 Corinthians chapter 14? Well, there was in
the early church the gift of tongues. Now the gift of tongues
is the ability to preach the gospel in other languages. I'm not sure if it's just that
the people would hear the language or you'd be speaking it. You
might be speaking your own language and whoever you're preaching
to, they'd hear it in their own language. As a matter of fact,
that's the way it appears in Acts chapter 2. Because when
they were preaching, 17 different dialects said, we hear the gospel,
the wonderful works of God in our own language. And so this
ability to speak in tongues was a great gift. If one of the apostles
laid his hands on you and gave you that gift, you had that gift. Now it was only the apostles
that could lay their hands on somebody and give them that gift.
Acts chapter eight says, when they saw that by the laying on
of the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given. And I'm sure
they laid hands on a lot of people who had this gift and all of
a sudden they could speak in other languages. Now, in the
Corinthian church, people who had the gift of tongues were
getting up and speaking in tongues in other languages and no interpreter. Nobody knew what they meant.
Now, this is the setting. They had this gift. and they
would get up and speak in this other language. And I imagine
if I would get up here right now, and I had the gift of tongues,
and I started speaking fluent Korean, and then fluent Russian,
and fluent Arabic, or whatever Aramic, or whatever language
it might be, and having never studied those things, You'd be
impressed. Now you would, you'd be impressed,
but how much would you learn from it? Nothing. And that's what Paul is addressing
in first Corinthians 14. Let's pick up in verse five,
the first Corinthians chapter 14. I would that y'all speak
with tongues. But rather that you prophesied,
this is what I'd prefer, that you preach the gospel clearly. For greater is he that prophesieth
than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the
church may receive edify. Now brethren, if I come unto
you speaking with tongues, other languages, what shall I profit
you except I shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge
or by prophesying or by doctrine? Now that's what's going on in
true preaching, those four things. knowledge, saving knowledge,
saving knowledge. Next, it says, I speak to you
either about, no, first revelation, revelation. That's what, when
God speaks, he reveals himself so that you know. And if he reveals
himself, you know what? There will be knowledge, the
knowledge of God, the knowledge of the scriptures, the knowledge
of the gospel. You can't believe what you don't know. There will
be knowledge. And then he says there will be prophesy. Thus saith the Lord. There will be doctrine. In true
preaching, that's going on. Now you can't do that if no one
could understand the language. And that's what was going on
in the church. Somebody says, how did it get there? I don't know.
It happened here. If we still had that gift, I
guarantee you, probably it'd be me. I'd get up and start speaking
in another language to impress everybody and show you all how
gifted I am. So don't ask, how could that
happen? Anything can happen. Wherever you got sinners meeting
together, you got problems. I've said this before, if you
ever find the perfect church, don't join it, you'd ruin it.
And that's true. We, we believe that with regard
to ourselves, but this was going on at this time. So look what
Paul says in verse seven and even things without life giving
sound with a pipe or harp, except they're given distinction in
the sounds. How shall it be known what is
piped or harped? You've heard kids get over on
the piano and just start banging. It's not pretty. It's offensive. The proper notes have to be hit
or no one will know the song. If you just start banging, banging,
it's noise, but it's not beautiful music, is it? And no one will
be able to recognize it. Verse eight, for the trumpet
shall give an uncertain sound. Who shall prepare himself to
the battle? If it's an indistinct, I mean, at that time, if there
was a certain sound, when you heard, you knew it was time for
war. What if the man blowing the trumpet gave a wrong sound?
No one would prepare himself for battle and everybody would
be killed. That's what he's saying. So likewise you, verse nine,
except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood. How shall it be known what is
spoken? For you shall speak into the
air. There may be so many kinds of voices in the world, none
of them is without significance. But if I know not the meaning
of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian,
and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." Words easy
to be understood. Now, most preaching And it's
not God-honoring preaching, it's not God-inspired preaching, but
most preaching would go under what Paul called yay-nay preaching. Yay-yay and nay-nay. Yes and no do the same thing. Is the blood of Christ enough
to save you? Yes. Yes, absolutely. But not if you don't do your
part. Yay, nay. Is salvation really all of grace? Oh, yes. Yes. Yay. Salvation is by grace. But if
you don't fill in the blank, you won't be saved in the sense
of Grace is not enough to save you. There's something you need to
do to activate that grace. Yes, salvation is by grace, but
if you don't activate it, if you don't do whatever work you
need to do to make it work for you, it's no good. That's yay,
nay preaching. He said, except you utter by
the tongue words easy to be understood. It's easy to understand that
the Bible is the inspired word of God. You might not believe
it, but the concept is easy to understand. It's easy to understand
that God is absolutely, immutably sovereign. Controls everything
and everybody. That's easy to understand. You
might not love it, but it's easy to understand. It's easy to understand
that a man can't save himself. If you put dead in sins, you
don't have to say, well, what's that mean? It means you can't
save yourself. That's what it means. You can't save yourself.
If God leaves you to, if he leaves me to myself, I won't be saved.
Somebody says, what's that mean? You know, exactly. That's easy
to understand. You might not like it. You might not agree
with it, but it's easy to understand. Christ accomplished salvation
for everybody he died for. Somebody says, that's deep. No,
it's so, and it's easy to understand. You may not like it. I realize
that, but it's easy to understand. God's grace is invincible and
irresistible. Everybody that God has his grace
for, they're saved. That's easy to understand. If I don't utter words easy to
be understood, Nobody will get it. May God give
us grace to be just like Joseph. As he interpreted it, so it was. And I earnestly request your
prayers for me, but that'd be my preaching. and earnestly pray
that that will be your hearing, that you will hear with the right
interpretation. We're so completely dependent
upon the God of all grace for this interpretation. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that we might be
delivered from our own understanding and our own wrong interpretations and that you would cause us to
believe what you say as you say it and that you will enable us
to preach what you say as you say it. Lord, we cannot understand
except you make yourself known and we pray that you would make
yourself known to us and enable us to believe the gospel. Bless
this message for Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen.
Todd Nibert
About Todd Nibert
Todd Nibert is pastor of Todd's Road Grace Church in Lexington, Kentucky.

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