Let's turn tonight to 2 Timothy
chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Let's begin reading in verse
13 and we'll just read to the end of the chapter. 2 Timothy
3.13 Paul is writing to Timothy. He
says, evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing
of whom thou hast learned, and that from a child thou hast
known the Holy Scripture. which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 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, throughly furnished unto all
good works. I read something that said that
from Thanksgiving through the New Year that more people read
the Bible more during that time than any other time of the year.
And when I read that survey, I got to thinking about What's
the key to understanding these scriptures? What would you tell
somebody if you just want to, they're coming to the scriptures
for the first time and they're sitting down to start reading
the scriptures, what would be the thing that you would teach
them that are the basics concerning understanding the scripture?
Do you have a regularly scheduled time every day that you read
the scripture throughout the year? That's a good thing to
do. And we really should do that. It's good to do that for ourselves. It's good to do that to teach
our children the scriptures. It's good to teach them to read
the scriptures to them and teach them what the scriptures mean.
The Apostle Paul commended Timothy for that. He said that he knew
the Scriptures from his youth. And he said that why it's important
to know the Scriptures. He said, they're able to make
you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
And then he said, they're profitable that the man of God may be perfect
that he is throughly furnished unto all good works. And as a
child, Timothy was probably taught the scriptures by his mother
and his grandmother. You look back to 2 Timothy 1
and verse 5, and Paul there said, I call to remembrance the unfeigned
faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother
Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I'm persuaded that in thee also. That's a beautiful illustration
of how God saves a sinner and uses that sinner to teach another
sinner and then saves that sinner. You look at that, you got by
God's grace, God gave Timothy's grandmother, Lois, a heart to
be able to hear the scripture, a ear to hear it, to search the
scriptures and faith to believe on the Lord Jesus. And then she
taught her daughter Eunice, Timothy's mother, she taught her. And through
hearing the gospel and reading those scriptures and learning
those scriptures together, God gave Eunice faith to believe. And probably Lois and Eunice
taught Timothy. And then when, from a child,
and when Timothy heard the Apostle Paul preaching the gospel, these
things were familiar to him. He'd been hearing these things
from his mother and his grandmother. And God gave him faith to believe
on Christ. That's an example of Proverbs
22, 6. It says, train up a child in
the way he should go. And when he's old, he will not
depart from it. That's a beautiful picture of
that, example of that. And I commend you, you faithful
fathers and mothers, you bring your children to hear the gospel,
and here you are on a Wednesday night, it's snowing out, rainy
out, slushy out, here you are, brought your children to hear,
and then when we hear, What Paul is saying here is it's important
to go home and study and study what you've heard and see and
try to see why these things are so and ask God to give you more
light on them. Some of you have asked to get
my sermon notes and I'm delighted to send them. I send them out
to you and I send them to anybody that asks for them for that reason.
Here's why, right here, right here. It's because God, when
He gives you a heart to seek the Scriptures, and you walk
in the light He's given you, He gives you more light. You
remember the Bereans? The Scriptures tell us about
the Bereans in Acts 17, 11. It says, these were more noble
than those in Thessalonica. Their nobility wasn't in the
fact that in their standing in the world. Here's what He's talking
about, the reason they were more noble. in that they received
the word with all readiness of mind. They came ready to receive
the word and hear the word. They were ready to hear. And
it says, and then they searched the scriptures daily whether
those things were so. And therefore, it says therefore,
God had to give them that light to do that, to have a heart to
do that. And they walked in the light
God gave them. And it says, and therefore many of them believed. Many of them. And also honorable
women which were Greeks and of men, not a few. God saved a number
of folks in Berea. Do you know the key to understanding
the Scripture? If somebody asked you, what's
the key to understanding the Scripture? What would you tell
them? It's not enough to hear the Gospel preached. We have
to know and understand. It's not enough to just read
the scriptures. We've got to know and understand the scriptures. And to do that, we have to know
what's the key. What's the key to understanding
the scriptures? That's our subject. The key to understanding scripture. It's a lot like a personal letter.
There's three things you've got to know when you get a personal
letter. There's three things. Number one, from whom is it written? Number two, of whom is it written? Who's it about? And number three,
to whom is it written? Those three things are vitally
important when you get a personal letter. And those things apply
to the scriptures, to understanding the scriptures. First off, we
must understand from whom the word is written. From whom? Who wrote these words? Well,
the Bible is the word of God. It's the word of holy God. Paul
says there in verse 16, all scripture given by inspiration of God. The scriptures, he says in Romans
3, are the oracles of God. That word oracles means utterances,
words, the utterances of God. Isn't that amazing? Holy God
who created heaven and earth, holy God who who rules everything
in heaven and earth has condescended to give you and me little low
worthless sinners his word. He told us about how he created
the world, why he created the world, what he's doing in the
world, what he's going to do in the world, what he's going
to do with the world, everything. He gave us his word. This is
a word you can read and actually believe and depend upon it being
absolutely so. It's true because it's the word
of God who cannot lie. There's no other book in the
world, no other book in religion, in any other religions, is the
word of God not any of the other. This is the only book the Bible
that is the word of God. Now some people are going to
say but these are the words of men. Men wrote these words. Well
God used men to pin these words. But it's God who dictated through
the Holy Spirit to the men who wrote the words and they wrote
the words of God. David was used to pen the Psalms.
And this is what David said over in 2 Samuel 23, 2. David said,
The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His Word was in my
tongue. The God of Israel said, The Rock
of Israel spake to me. That's how he penned the Psalms.
And then some argue, Well, if I could see God, then I'd believe
God then. Turn over to 2 Peter 1. Look
at 2 Peter 1. Peter saw God, saw Him face to
face. He walked with God, he spoke
to God in human flesh face to face. And he was with Christ
when he was in the mount of transfiguration and he saw Christ transfigured. He saw Christ in all His glory. And this is what Peter said.
Verse 19. 2 Peter 1.19. He said, We have also a more sure word. After speaking about seeing Christ
glorified, he said we have something more sure than that. A more sure
word of prophecy, where unto you do well that you take heed. As unto a light that shines in
a dark place. If you were in a dark place and
you could not see, it was totally dark, and there was just one
light to lead you, wouldn't you walk in that light? Wouldn't
you? value that light and cling to that light and look to that
light to lead you. He said that's what this book
is right here. It's a light shining in a dark
place. He said you do well to take heed
to it till the day dawn and till the day star arise in your hearts. Christ himself, the son of righteousness. Knowing this first. Here's the
first thing to get by this. No prophecy of the scripture. Nothing written in this book
is of any private interpretation. That means no word in this book
is a man expounding his own words. That's not what this is. 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.
So this is the Word of God. Now faith believes God and faith
is the substance. It's the evidence. We don't have
to have proof that this is the Word of God. But you know we
do have proof that Bible is the very Word of God. One sure standing
proof that this is the Word of God is this. This book causes
a reaction in men that no other book causes. This book does. When in everybody's conscience
In everybody's conscience, this book stirs up either enmity against
God, or it stirs up faith and hope toward God. But that's what
this Word does, and that's proof it's God's Word. Just the thought
of reading or hearing this book, you can just mention the book
itself, and it manifests what dominates a man's heart. You
know that when you mention this book to somebody that doesn't
know the Lord, doesn't have an interest in God at all, you mention
this book, you don't even have to mention the words of it. Just
start talking about something about the Bible. And they immediately
are offended, are defensive, or want to change the subject
and talk about something else. are for those who know it they
want to hear it they want to hear what tell me something about
this word what you what you what do you have out of it tell me
they want to hear it and there's not another book that creates
that kind of response this book is is the Word of God. That's
why it does that. Here's why it does it. God said
the Word of God is quick and it's powerful and it's sharper
than any two-edged sword. It pierces even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, the joints and marrow. It's a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And it discerns it,
and it manifests it, what's in a man's heart. That's proof,
brethren. That's proof. We don't have to
have proof. You ever read a history book, heard it, anybody reading
a history book, sitting in a class reading a history book, first
thing the students in the class are doing is butting. But, but,
but. You gotta prove to me this history
book's true. Prove to me this book was written
in truth and that everything in it's true. You don't ever
hear that. Start talking about the Bible. But you've got to
prove to me that word. How do you know that's the Word
of God? I proved it just by that reaction. Just by that reaction. So first, the key to understanding
this book is to receive it as it is the Word of God. It's the
Word of God. The very God before whom you
and I will stand in the Day of Judgment. You know what the Lord
said was one of the key problems with folks when He walked this
earth? You do err not knowing the Scriptures or the power of
God. And so we do well to take heed.
To take heed. It's from God. God's Word. Here's the second thing. The
key to understanding the Scriptures, and this is the most important.
is to understand of whom it is written. Who's it about? Look
at Luke 24. Luke 24. I just want you to know
if you sit down between now and the first of the year, and you're
one of those that's going to read it more than any other time
of the year, I want you to understand what the key to the book is.
Alright? For you that know him, this is
just putting you in remembrance. Alright, here you go. Of whom
is this book about? Luke 24, look at verse 27. This
is Christ speaking. This is after He has arisen from
the dead and He's walking on the road to Emmaus with the two
disciples. And it says, Beginning at Moses, that's the first five
books of the Bible, and all the prophets, He expounded unto them
in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. himself. Look down at verse 44. Verse
44. And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you.
All these scriptures and he's expounding to them, these are
the things he said I was telling you while I was with you. that
all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law
of Moses, that's the first five books of the Bible, and in the
Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. That means that whole Old
Testament Scripture is concerning him. And so is the New. It's
all concerning him. This whole book is concerning
the glory of God, the righteousness of God revealed. in the Lord
Jesus Christ, His Son, in saving His people. That's what the whole
book is about. That's who it's about. The Old
Testament Scriptures declare Christ is coming and that He
will succeed. We saw what God told the devil
in the garden. Go back there to Genesis chapter
3 and look at verse 15. Here you have the first mention
of Christ in the Scriptures. Genesis 3.15. He's pictured all in creation,
and we see all in creation what He does. Here's where He's actually
mentioned. Look at Genesis 3.15. God said
to the devil, I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed. Now that's Christ. The only woman
that ever had a child without knowing a man was Mary, and her
seed was Christ the Lord. It, her seed, shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. He's going to bruise Satan's
power. Take his power from him and leave
captivity captive. That's what he's declaring to
him. Right there. Right there in the garden you
have Christ preached to the first, before Adam and Eve. And the
first blood that was shed after the fall, the first blood that
was shed after the fall typified the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at
verse 21. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God
make coats of skins and clothe them. He took an innocent animal
and killed that innocent victim. And he did it so that he could
make a covering for these two sinners. And God himself took
that covering and covered them with it. That's Christ. He's
saying, this is my son. Christ is coming. Abel came to
God and he came to God with the blood of a lamb, and he was accepted. And in the blood of Abel's lamb,
we see pictured Christ, Jesus, the Lamb of God, and his blood,
wherein the believer has acceptance with God. Whenever you read about
the prophet likened to Moses, that's Christ. He's that prophet
that's likened to Moses. You read about the high priest
that's likened to Melchizedek, had neither having beginning
of days nor ending of day. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
You read about the brazen serpent in the Old Testament scriptures.
The people were being bitten by serpents and they took they
took. Lord said you take a piece of
brass and you change that piece of brass. You beat that piece
of brass into what it is. It's biting the people a serpent
and you lift it up. And when the people look to it
they'll be healed. And Christ said that's me. He told Nicodemus
in John 3 just like the serpent in the wilderness had to be lifted
up even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And whoever looks
to him and trusts him and rests in him they'll be saved. That's
what he said. The smitten rock in the wilderness.
There was a rock there in a dry land. They got nothing to drink
at all. And how could they get water of life. You got to have
water to have life. How could they have it. Moses,
who's the law, was told, smite that rock. And the law of God
smote Christ. When he stood in the room instead
of his people, the law of God smote Christ. And from that smitten
rock, water came out, and the people lived. The water of life.
He's the Passover Lamb. All through this Old Testament,
you read, He's coming, He's coming. God's showing us through types
and shadows. He's that Lamb whose blood was put over the house.
of his people so that when God looks and he sees that blood
and his people believe God and they got under the blood and
they rested under the blood he passed over them. That's Christ
our Passover. And then in all the ceremonies
that's who's speaking of in Christ and all the old ceremonial law
is speaking of Christ. Christ is the temple. He's the
temple not made with hands. He's that temple. When you came
there, you had to come with a lamb. He's that lamb. When you come
there, you came to an altar. He's our altar. When you came
there, the high priest slew the lamb and took the blood of the
lamb. He's the lamb. He's the high priest. He's the
blood. The high priest took it, offered it into the holy place.
Picture God's presence. There's where Christ went with
His own blood into the presence of God. And then he took that
blood and he sprinkled it on a mercy seat which was above
the broken law between the offenders of the broken law and God. And
there's the mercy seat. There's the propitiation. There's
the place of mercy where God will meet with his people. That's
Christ. Everything about it, even if
you read about the sanctuary and you read about the shekel
of the sanctuary, that redemption money that had to be paid and
they took that money and it was silver and they put that silver
and they melted it down and they made the floors of that tabernacle
with silver, with that redemption silver. so that everything that
the priests did in service to God, serving God, they did it
on the foundation of redemption already laid. Couldn't add to
that. You couldn't add to that floor.
It was done. That was the foundation. And every time they moved that
tabernacle, they had to pick those up. I read somewhere that
all total, they weighed 3,500 pounds. And they had to move
that when they moved that tabernacle. And that's the weight of redemption. That's the weight of redemption.
Everything in it. You look to people in the scriptures.
You look to Moses. And you look to Joshua. Moses,
the law, carries the people up to the promised land. But he
can't carry them in the promised land because the law can't bring
you to God. He had to die. Joshua, Savior,
he carried them into the promised land. The Lord Jesus. He carries
us into God's presence. You look at somebody like Joseph. Joseph, his brothers despised
him, rejected him, and they threw him into a pit where was no water. That's where they threw him.
But it was through that pit that he was exalted to the place where
he had power over all the storehouse even of water, so that when his
people came to him thirsty and they couldn't drink, he didn't
turn them away because he knows what it's like to be in the pit
with no water. And he gave them water and food. That's Christ. To be in the pit where there
is no water so that he knows when you're thirsty. And he says,
come to me if you're thirsty. I'll give you water and you'll
never thirst again. You look at David, the psalmist
of Israel, the king of Israel. David is a picture of Christ,
our king, that good king who reigns his kingdom in righteousness. That's him. All through the Old
Testament. Then the prophecies and the Psalms,
prophecies aren't written so that men can look, try to figure
out what's going to happen. Prophecies are written to declare
Christ and what He accomplished, what He fulfilled. And you can
look at the times and splice and dice times and people get
hung up in Daniel trying to figure out those weeks and all, you
know, and just miss all together Christ who came and put away
the sin of His people and what He accomplished. That's what
it's about. Psalms, all the Psalms are songs
of our Lord and His redemption and what He's accomplished for
His people. And then you come to the New Testament. You've
got the four Gospels. You've got Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John. They're declaring Christ is here. He's come. First message
I ever preached. I'm going to preach that to you
all one of these days. First message I ever preached. I'm
basically preaching it to you now. First message I ever preached
was John said, Behold the Lamb of God. And I went through the
Old Testament show. There he is. Behold the Lamb
of God. But here in the New Testament, he said, Behold the Lamb of God.
And you look into the four Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
You see Christ made of a woman. Just like God said He would be.
You see Christ made under the law. You see God, Holy God, the
triune God, in a body. Not some big, strong, muscled
up body. You see Him in a baby's body. In a manger. And then you watch
him grow up. And then you see him walking
amongst his people, and walking in the streets of Galilee, and
you see him working miracles, and you see him calling out his
apostles. And then you behold him healing, and healing the
sick, and giving sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf.
You behold him establish his church, and send him forth to
preach the gospel. And you behold him go into the
cross to do what He came into this world to do, to lay down
His life for His people. Him, Him, Him. Behold the Lamb
of God. Him, Him, Him. That's who you
behold all through the Gospels. And then you come to the book
of Acts and you come to all the epistles that follow. And they're
declaring Christ has now risen and He's seated at His throne
at the right hand of God and He's working in His church. calling
out his people, and he will not finish this work until he's called
the last one that was given to him by the Father, that he's
redeemed by his blood, that must be called out. He's going to
get every one of them. It's Christ that's sending the
preacher. That's a prophecy. Jeremiah 3.15 said, it said,
I will give you pastors according to, after my heart, that'll feed
you with knowledge and understanding. That's a prophecy. And Christ,
I just read that scripture to you, all the prophecy must be
fulfilled. Who's going to fulfill that?
A group of church body that gets together, and they nominate a
pastoral committee, and they hear preachers, and they vote
on the preachers, and they make sure the church has got a faithful
pastor? They might be used, but the one who's sending the preacher
is the one that's fulfilling that prophecy, and that's Christ.
He's the one that does that. Christ is the one preaching through
His preachers. He's the one preaching the gospel
to His people. He's that prophet like unto Moses. And he's the high priest who
actually makes the blood effectual in the heart. That's Christ who
does that. And he's the king who's ruling
everything in his kingdom, everything in his church, turning everything
whichever way he'll have it to go, hedging up his people, breaking
down this wall and that wall, making every valley to rise up
and making every hill to come down and making the crooked things
straight. clearing the path for His gospel to come forth into
the heart of His people, and He's the one making it effectual
in the heart of His people. That's what you find out when
you read all through Acts and all through the epistles. So
from beginning to the end, this whole book is concerning the
Lord. And what does it have to say
about us? What it has to say about us, brethren, is all flesh
is grass. That's the message of the book
concerning me and you. The message of the book concerning
us is that in Adam we became lawbreakers and from Adam we
became unholy by his corrupt seed. So that Christ said, your
flesh profits nothing. The way you came into this world,
the way you walked this earth, Before, if God hasn't come to
you and done a work of grace in your heart, he said, your
flesh profits nothing. And that flesh that you have,
that old nature you have, once he's done a work of grace, still
doesn't profit us anything. Doesn't profit a thing. Listen,
our flesh is not righteous, we're sin. That's all we are in our
old man. Our flesh will not and cannot
seek God. Our flesh cannot understand the
Word of God, it can't receive the Word of God. When I say to
you, I'm trying to give you the key to understand the scriptures,
I'm not saying I'm giving you the key that's going to make
you spiritually receive and believe and know the scriptures. Only
God can do that. I'm just giving you a key to
understand who it's about, who wrote it, and to whom it's written.
All flesh is unprofitable. grass. When you read the scripture,
don't read the scripture thinking God's telling you something to
do to make yourself righteous or to make yourself to be clean
before God so that you yourself can save yourself from your sins
and give yourself life and acceptance with God. That's not what he's
saying. Never. Never. Concerning God and Christ,
the message of the book is thy God reigneth. That's the message
of the book. There's the there's the book.
All flesh is grass. God reign. In eternity God chose
a people any any. And He gave the work of redeeming
that people from our sins, declaring God just and justified, declaring
the righteousness of God, the attributes of God, declaring
the fullness of the Godhead. He gave that whole work into
the hand of His Son, the Lord Jesus. And so Christ came into
this world to do for his elect what they couldn't do. We came
into the world dead in sin. Our sins got to be dealt with
before God's law and we've got to be actually created. Because
we don't have a being until he does it. We don't have a being
until he does it. Turn over to Romans chapter 4. I wrote something on this. Hold
your place in Romans. I'm going to come here in just
a second. In Romans 4, I just wrote an article on this. I had
to preach on this sometime. Romans 4, look here. It says, verse 17, as it is written,
I've made thee a father of many nations before him, before God,
whom he believed, even God. Now look at this word who quickeneth
the dead and call us those things which be not as though they were.
And really and truly, this doesn't help. This doesn't apply to the
fact that he said, I've made you a father of many nations.
This is these two things right here, that he quickens the dead
and calls those things which be not as though they were. That
second part right there is not saying that he speaks of things
that are not and pretends they are. That's not what that's saying.
It means he calls into existence things that had no existence.
That's what that means. And this is the reason why salvation
is by faith through grace. It's the reason why Abraham was
made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. It's the reason
that he justified an ungodly man. It's because he takes an
ungodly man and quickens him from the dead. He makes him alive
and he does it by calling into existence a new man that didn't
even exist before. He didn't even have a being until
God did that. God never pretends. That's not
what that means. He calls into existence a creation
that was not there. It's the same phrase, same word
that was used over in the first creation when it said God created
the heavens and the earth. He called into existence something
from nothing. That's what God does. That's
how you can be sure the promise is sure to all the seed because
that's who God is. That's why Abraham didn't stagger
at the promise of God. He knew what God had done for
him personally already, spiritually himself. So he didn't have a
problem believing God could put a child in Sarah's womb and bring
Christ into the world. He didn't act because he knew
what God had done for him when he found him a dead sinner. So
our flesh doesn't profit anything. When God gave this work to His
Son, now here's the key when you read the Scripture. Here's
the key. I say it to you all the time, but this is the key
to understanding. Isaiah 40, 42, 4, Christ shall
not fail. He shall not fail. He shall not
be discouraged until He has set judgment in the earth and the
isles. That's where all His people are
scattered all over the world. They're going to wait for His
Word. He won't fail. He's going to set judgment. He
did it on the cross and He's going to set judgment in their
hearts and He will not fail. So when you read the Scriptures,
read the Word of God, hearing it declare you as a dead, dying,
dung-dwelling sinner and hear it declaring Christ as thy God
reigning, accomplishing the salvation of his people and who shall not
fail. That's how to read this word.
So first of all, who wrote it? That's the key. God wrote it.
And the second key is Of whom is it about? It's all about Christ. Every bit of it. Now here's the
third key. It's to understand to whom it's written. To whom
is it written? Look at Romans chapter 1. Now
when you receive a letter, now I want you to listen carefully
to me. This is just plain old common sense right here. When you receive a letter, first
thing you do is you look to see to who that letter is addressed. Who's it to? Who's it to? And
when you read the Bible, the first thing you want to do is
find out who is this written to? First thing. You've got to
find out who's this written to? Who's this applied to? The epistles
throughout the New Testament, they're letters. That's what
they are. They're letters. They're written to somebody. They're
letters inspired of God, letters penned by men that He gave to
write them, and each letter's written to somebody in particular. Now, the letter to the Romans,
who's it written to? Look at verse 7. To all that
be in Rome. Now, if I just stop right there,
if that's all I read, to all that be in Rome, that means this
letter is to every single person in Rome. And it's not to anybody
in our day. Just to everybody that was in
Rome, that's all it's to. If I stop there. But see, you
got to compare Scripture to Scripture when you read the Scriptures.
You got to see, okay, what's that portion of Scripture say?
And then compare it with this other portion of Scripture. So
here now we got this large, all-encompassing Word to all that be in Rome. All right, let's see if it's
qualified at all. Beloved of God. That big old wide gaping, it
just narrowed down, didn't it? Beloved of God. Called to be
saints. He just narrowed down some more.
And so that's who it's written to. And though we're not citizens
of Rome, this word applies to us too if we meet that qualification.
And God said that. Look at verse 5. He said, By
whom we have received grace, and apostleship, we haven't received
apostleship, Paul had, but we have received grace for obedience
to the faith among all nations. That's what he's talking about,
us who have received grace among all nations for his name, among
whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. To who was the
Corinthian letters written? Look over here now at 1 Corinthians. Just turn to your right to the
next book. 1 Corinthians 1, look at verse 2. Who was it written
to? Verse 2 says, Unto the church
of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in
Christ Jesus, called saints withal, that in every place call upon
the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who is both their Lord
and our Lord. So the things written in this
letter concerning God's blessings and salvation apply to believers,
just like Romans does. They apply to God's people, God's
sanctified people, God's believing people. So you get the point.
You go through all the letters and you read every one of them
and they all tell you who they're written to. They're written to
God's people. All right. When you receive a
letter and it letters addressed to you personally. Okay, when
you read that letter and somebody says something to you personally,
do you apply what was written in that letter to everybody in
your neighborhood and say, this applies to everybody in my neighborhood?
No, it's written to you. That would be foolish. If you
did that, you'd manifest you believe a lie because the things
that were written just to you, you're applying them to people
in your town that they don't even know this person who wrote
this to you. See what I'm saying? And that's
the same with the Word of God. When you read the Word of God,
and you read the Bible, and you read of God's blessings to quote
the world, or all, or all of us, the way to understand who
he's talking about there is first to see who's it written to. Who's
it written to? And then look at who's it's written
to in the context. There's places where it might
not say at the beginning that it's written to this church or
these sanctified or whatever. But when the passage in the context,
it'll pretty much every time tell you who he's talking to.
And then also, compare Scripture with Scripture. If it's true
here, it's got to be true consistently throughout the Word. God said
in His Law, He said, don't take one witness' word for it, take
two or three witnesses' word for it. So, you look through
the Scriptures to see, I want to see some more witnesses on
this to see that this is so, that I understand what this is
saying. And when you find those two or more witnesses on it,
that's what it means. That's what it means. And also
pay attention to the meaning that's being declared in the
passage. The meaning of the words in the
passage. Now let me show you what I'm talking about. Let me
show you what I'm talking about. Look over at 2nd Corinthians
5. Hold your place there in 1st Corinthians. You can leave Romans
now. We're done with that. But look
over at 2nd Corinthians 5 and I'm just about done. But I want
you to see this. Now, the second letter's written
to saints just like the first letter was. And here's who a
saint is. A saint sanctified by God the
Father in divine election, sanctified by Christ the Lord in blood redemption,
and he's sanctified by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. He can be the first two before
he's the third one, but he's still sanctified. And then he's
sanctified fully whenever he's born of the Holy Spirit. But
that's what a saint is. That's who he's writing to. Now
listen to this. Watch this now. Now you remember
scripture, comparing scripture to scripture. Christ said, I
lay down my life for the sheep. That's who he said he laid down
his life for. And he said to some, you're not my sheep. All right? And then we've got to consider
the meaning of the words, too. Now look here, verse 14. The
love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if
one died for all, then we're all dead. Is he talking about
everybody in the world? We've got to know who he's written.
Who's he writing to? He's writing to the saints. And
then look at this. Know what it means. If he died
for all, then we're all dead. It means one, they were, yes,
they were dead in sins, but it means when he died, they all
died. They all died in him. Those that
he died for died when he died. Their old man of sin died and
they died to the law. Look at this now. And that he
died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live
unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose
again. The all are those which are risen
with Christ. They're made alive by God the
Holy Spirit. They live unto Christ rather
than unto themselves. That's who the all are. Read,
look down at verse 17. Therefore if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Let's read verse 16. He says,
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea,
though we've known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth
know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. All things are passed away, behold
all things are become new, and all things are of God. Man didn't
do this, God did it. "...who hath reconciled us to
himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation." Now you see, when you look at the meaning
of the word, this tells you who this all is. Because reconciliation
means that God, by Christ Jesus, reconciled all that He died for. That means He brought them into
peace with Himself, which can never be broken again. So if
there's one child in hell that's at odds with God and is not the
friend of God, that means this all don't mean everybody. It
don't mean everybody. That's not to whom it was written.
Look now. To wit, God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation."
This world for whom Christ died are those to whom God will not
impute sin. He won't charge them with sin.
He will not do it. Period. Now when the man goes
to hell, you know why he's sentenced to hell? God charges him with
sin. But this world that Christ died for, God will not impute
sin to them. You see what I'm saying? I'm
trying to show you. When you find out to whom it's written,
and you compare Scripture to Scripture, Christ said, I died
for the sheep. And then you look at the meaning of the word in
the text. Reconciliation? Will not impute
sin? Look, read on. Why won't he?
Verse 21, For he hath made Christ to be sin for us. who knew no
sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So you see who it's written to,
you pay attention to the context, you compare Scripture with Scripture,
and you pay attention to the meaning of the words. And that'll
tell you to whom it's written, to whom it's written. And by
these things, then, we know that the us and the we and the all
of us and the world that he's speaking to, they're Christ's
sheep. They're the church. They're those
elected of God, redeemed by Christ, regenerated by the Spirit. Kept
by God. That's the us he's talking about.
And that's it. So if you apply the blessings
of God to every blind God-hating rebel in this world, it's a mistake. Because that's not who it's written
to. What does God say to the blind and to the unbeliever and
to the God-hater who won't... Does he have anything in the
word to say to them? The only thing God says in the word to
them is, if you don't repent and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you're going to meet God under the wrath to come and
you're going to perish forever. What God has to say to an unbeliever
is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When you're brought to
believe on Christ, then you can read this book and read the us
and the we and the all and the world and say, I'm part of them.
I'm one of them. And when you read the Word like
that, and now you're on God's side, because He put you on His
side, translated you out of the kingdom of darkness into the
kingdom of His dear Son. When you read the Word like that,
this Word starts opening up to you, and now you see. Now you
see. So, here's what I'm saying. Go
back to 1 Corinthians 1. Just remember this, all the blessings
of God have come to us this way. Verse 4, they're all from A to
Z of God. And He gives them and He don't
fail to give them. And so we could say, I thank my God always
on your behalf for the grace of God, that means unmerited
favor which is given you by Jesus Christ. And then it includes
everything He gives and everything you're enriched by Him. in all
utterance, in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you, the gospel of Christ, so that you come behind
in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
shall also confirm you to the end that you may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom
you were called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ." So
you read this word, knowing. That's true, because God said
it. It's God's Word. It's true, number two, because
it's concerning Christ, who He's going to glorify, who accomplished
this, who it's by. And number three, it's true,
I know it's true, because of who it's to. It's written to
those that Christ accomplished this for. And He don't fail. And He said, if you do the will
of God, you'll know the doctrine. That means the will of God is
you believe on His Son. You believe Christ, you'll know
this book. You'll know the word. It'll open
up to you. The jigsaw puzzle will come together and you'll
see the picture. You'll understand who it's about and who it applies
to. You'll know the word of God.
That's the key to understanding the scripture. Amen. All right,
Eric.