Good day, good evening, good
night, whatever time of the day it is for you. I pray that everyone
can hear me, so let me know that you can hear me well today. I
seem to be having some issues with my camera or my microphone,
et cetera, but it's okay. Lord willing, if you can hear
me, everything will be good. In part of our questions tonight,
I have continued to pick through some of the questions that I've
gotten over the last month or so, and as you know from last week
and then tonight, We're going to talk about interpretation
of the scripture. We're going to talk about, you
know, the purposes of the writing of the Bible, how to apply and
live out the scripture and things of that nature. For those of
you who don't know, my name is James, pastor of Grace Truth
Church. You can ask your questions in the chat. You can also ask
your questions in. on anchoringfaith.org or gracetruth.org
or on YouTube. If you're watching on YouTube,
click that like button down there or the subscribe button. And
then if you're on any of our other platforms, we welcome you.
We're glad you're here. We typically do this every Sunday
night at 6 p.m. Eastern time, except for the
last Sundays of every month, we take time off to deal with
some things. But I've got three or four questions
tonight that I'm hoping I can get to as it relates to living
out the scripture, living out the scripture. And for those
of you who have been part of the conversations on Facebook,
you'll know that my presence on Facebook has been nominal
over the last few months, and it is going to continually and
gradually decrease. And I personally, you know, our
ministry will still be there, our chat groups will still be
there, but Personally, I'm going to disengage, and the primary
reason for that is because I found myself through the years spending
a lot of time with a lot of people from all over the world, and
I don't mind doing that, but what has happened is that because
I have engaged so deeply in some people's lives, they have taken
that for granted and taken advantage of that to the detriment of the
church in a negative sense. And so I don't want to go into
any more detail of that, but it has not been a very pleasant
experience over the last eight to nine months, for those of
you who are aware. However, the Lord is sovereign,
and He purposes all things after the counsel of His will. He purposes
all things for our good, and so we're very thankful that He
has continued to provide for us the engagement with you all
to teach the truth of the gospel. And if you ever have questions
about what's taught, if you have questions about our clarity or
things of that nature, or you want to learn We are always called
by the scripture to help each other learn. We're always called
to be able to be patient and to discuss things, but those
discussions come to a halt when the discussions and the intimacy
becomes conditional. In other words, if I tell you
what you must do or be in order for me to have a relationship
with you or a conversation with you, Those things, that's just
not the way that the scripture calls us to. And brothers and
sisters, we need to make sure that we guard ourselves and our
hearts and minds against those types of relationships. The scripture
teaches us to just have nothing to do with people who are divisive
and constantly causing division in their relationships of the
church, as well as those who continually refuse to lay down
false doctrines and out of pride, anything that causes division
in any way. We just we sort of just settle that by obeying what
the scripture teaches. I'm gonna have to go in real
quick on this first question. I forgot to put the other questions
in as I sat here. I remembered that I had to add
a few notes. I wanted to add a few notes as
I was teaching so that it would be easier for you guys. And then
I'm going to delete this one. You won't even see it, but there
you go. So here we are. We have a couple of questions
tonight, and this is gonna be the first two. I'm sort of sticking
them together. They're leftover from last week.
But what is the purpose of church history for the believer? And
does this also apply to the theology of history or historical theology?
And let me explain to you what church history is and what, you
know, really what historical theology is. It's sort of self-explanatory,
but I assume that everybody understands this, so I'll explain it there. Church history is just the historical
record of the church, and we see it in the book of Acts. As
I talked about last week, the Gospels, we see some church history,
and we know that the Scripture is the only historical record
that matters. I'm going to say that. I want
to say it very clearly. The Scripture is the only historical record
that matters concerning the things of the church. I'm not talking
about the history of the world and everything in it. So church
history is not the Bible. Church history, when somebody
says church history, what they're saying or what they're discussing
is the, you know, the annals of church history. Like I've
got, you know, Philip Schaff's complete volumes up there and
we see, you know, early church history. We see, you know, I've
got Clement and some other historical writings of people who were pastors
and elders early in the turn of the century, the second century,
the third century. We see different establishments of church hierarchy. We see the cult's birth. We see
all sorts of denominations birth. So church history is just the
historical record and the records are wide and broad and Every
iteration of religion and every iteration of the Christian religion,
in a historical sense, has its own historical pages, has things
to think about, things to read. And so church history then has,
in some people's minds, become the record of the work of God.
But that is true in a sovereign sense, but beloved, the seasons
of history and the continued theology that comes out of that
historical record, which would be called historical theology,
does not make the authority of the Bible any better. As a matter
of fact, most of those things usurp the authority of Scripture
by people being able to quote historical things and use historical
language above and beyond what the language of the Scripture
teaches. And I'm not talking about the use of words in as
much as I'm talking about the use of ideas. And then when the
use of words become more dominant than the teaching of Scripture
itself within a particular vernacular, historical theology and historical
church history become the power behind it. And that's a dangerous
place because what that does is it allows non-apostolic authority. In other words, men who are not
apostles to tell the church what they should do and how they should
believe. And there is no man in the world that has that authority.
Jesus Christ appointed his 13 apostles. And that was the end
of it. That was the end of it. They
are the only ones who have authority over the church. There is no
succession of the apostles. There's no apostolic succession.
There's no apostolic office. We might have pastors who help
churches get started, but they're not apostles. And so the use
of that term today, a lot of people don't believe they're
an apostle, but they use that term erroneously. And of course
it means the sent one or the messenger. But in the context
of the New Testament, these are people that God taught by the
Holy Spirit and has called them to be the pins or the voices
of continued revelation concerning the doctrines of Christ. So the
purpose of church history for the believer first is a hobby. I think it's a hobby for me.
I like history of everything. As a matter of fact, I've learned
the history of certain types of Wind turbines this week. I've just in and some of you
think well, man, what in the world? Listen, if I see something
odd come across my desk I'll read it. I'll read an article
So if I read four or five articles a week, it may take me 20 minutes
But it doesn't mean that I'm and I'm spending hours upon hours
upon hours of time, you know diving into things I do have
my other interests but histories one that my household my wife
loves history is very well-versed in European history and US history
and so I'm always interested. I'm inquisitive and I enjoy learning
new information, especially when it relates to how people live
and some of the things that have happened in the lives of people. Some of my favorite times in
life is to sit around and just let people tell their story and
tell me things about their lives and their family and things of
that nature. I just enjoy it. So church history for the believer
should really be a hobby. It should be an interest. but
it cannot be something that undergirds or supports or stacks up or stands
up or holds up our faith. Because if it does, then several
things could happen. And I haven't really thought
this through much, so I'm going to leave out some stuff, and
for the sake of time, I'm just going to leave it at this. But
something can happen in the context that someone else's ideas and
response to their engagement with scripture or with the gospel
or with the congregation that they may be in historically or
their theology may begin to twist our minds and I use the word
usurp often but that's that's the best word that I've come
up with yet but usurp and overpower the authority of scripture thus
not being learned by God but being taught by God but being
taught by someone else's experience. That's one danger. And in like
kind, the second type of danger that we have when we use church
history in an authoritative way is that we begin to establish
our theological positions not from the source, which is the
Word of God, but rather through a trickle-down-the-lane mentality.
So, I mean, I can speak authoritatively about all sorts of different
things. And this year, I have spent hundreds and I'm and this
is seriously, I've spent hundreds of hours, you know, studying
the historical record in the context of the topic of common
grace as it is understood historically in that theology. And so a lot
of people just sort of rest on that historicity, and they don't
know how to defend it whatsoever except inference in the Word
of God. And so there's something to be
said about that. When we learn the Scripture, we first learn
directly from the Scripture, and then we apply and live those
things according to the Scripture. the inferences or further ideas
or philosophizing or reasoning logically because of what we
clearly see is always tertiary. It's third in the context. We
can listen to those things, we can think about those things,
but they are never the foundation for making right judgments. Right
judgments concerning the truth of Christ, the confession of
Christ for people who are born of God, etc., can be found in
the simple teaching of Scripture. When we impose church history
and historical theology against Scripture, we are causing a lot
of damage. And I have been on this drum
even when I was working in my postgraduate stuff and working
toward my terminal degree. I've always been beating this
drum and people don't like it because we love the things that
we love. It doesn't mean that we can't
enjoy them. For example, I like to read William Plummer in the
Psalms. I love to read his commentary
and I do so because I really enjoy reading what he has to
say about how he not interprets the Psalms, but how he worships
through the Psalms. So it'd be like if I got up on
Sunday morning and read some poems that I wrote throughout
the week based on my interaction with the Scripture, it would
be a blessing to the people who heard it, it would be an encouragement,
but it would not be power and it would not be authoritative.
So my experience is not authoritative, neither are the experiences of
the people who have lived before us or the people who may be famous
because of history or the historical record, like what we call the
Reformers or Church Fathers or John Gill, like famous Baptist
ministers. I mean, you know, Brother Scott
Price gave me a John Gill set. a couple of years ago, and it's
one of my prized possessions. It's one of my highest idols
and physical things. But, you know, he's not authoritative,
and I enjoy reading what he has to say, and I agree with almost
all of it, but that's not where I go to get my understanding. The same thing, you know, with
church history or what have you. So that's the quick and short
answer to that. I can make this entire broadcast
and I can make this entire video about this and talk, but I think
if I did, I actually would be doing harm, more harm than good. Now, this next question may take
up the remainder of our time, so I pray that, you know, I've
never told you to take notes before, but right at the end
of, you know, five minutes till, I was typing in some things,
which is what I just had to replace, and I wanted to make sure that
the things that I was going to say, I told a brother earlier
today that I had about 16 things. I don't think I, I think I've
put them down to maybe 10. I'll answer this next question.
The next question is this. Sorry, guys. Rambling here. How
should we approach the text in understanding it and are there
assumptions that should guide us now? You'll notice that I'm
adding some questions together. There were about five questions
in this set and when we When we come to learning things that
are taught, we have a pet word that we use called doctrine.
And we go, oh, this is the doctrine of, and this is the doctrine
of, and let me go ahead and let's eliminate some things out of
our vocabulary for a minute. The word doctrine literally means
teaching. So if I'm to learn the doctrines
found in the New Testament, it means I'm learning the teachings
of the apostles and the teachings of Jesus. Period. All the teachings. So there's no such thing as a
set of academic things. There's not a list of things.
So when we say doctrine, a lot of times people think there's
theological things there, which is part of doctrine. There's
historical things in the Bible that are part of doctrine. There's
some commands in the Bible that are part of doctrine. There's
some proclamations in the Bible that are part of doctrine. And
the whole show last week was about the understanding of how
we approach the scripture in that. And I'm sorry that I didn't
even have the chat history up or the chat window up. It's a
separate software. I didn't even turn it on last
week, and I'm so sorry because I know that the microphone had
gotten pushed away. So now I'm up a little bit closer to the
camera and everything today. Hopefully you could hear it enough
to understand it. But, you know, we need to realize
that, yeah, there are hermeneutical principles. There are principles
about how to deal with the genre of the text. You know, is this
a narrative? Is this prose? Is it history? You know, is it just, is it poetry? And I didn't mean to say prose
in that context, but is it poetry? Is it a song? Is it, you know,
is it prophetic? What kind of text is it? And
how do we read it? How do we apply it? Those are
interesting things that are important, but I've learned that when God
teaches the people that He has called to understand the Gospel,
when He teaches us the Scripture, we don't really have to think
about these things. Now, they help us in problematic areas,
but we don't really have to think about literary styles. We don't have to think about
genre. We don't have to think about the syntax. until we get
to a place that we start saying, what does that really mean? You
know what I'm talking about when there's some the text in the
scripture where we have to really pay attention and there's always
somebody that can come along and help us. But for the most
part, and I believe this is true not only in my experience, but
from the context of Jesus teaching his own disciples, the teachings
of Christ carried by the Holy Spirit are simple. And so, there
are some things that we need to assume and understand as we
approach the Bible, and those are the things that I want to
talk about today. So, let's just dive right in. The first thing that I want you
to understand, and these are not in any particular order,
and like I said, there were 16 or 18 of these, and I've tried
to consolidate them, so forgive me if this doesn't sound as academic
as it should, or as spiritual as it should, but these are just
things that I think the Scripture details for us in its holistic
picture of just common sense and good divinely inspired understandings. So when we approach the Bible
and we try to understand it, we try to apply it, and we try
to interpret it, what are some things that we need to keep in
mind? And here's the first one. Well, right here. Know that Scripture
is God-breathed, and 2 Timothy 3.16, it teaches us that Scripture
is breathed out by God, and that means it's carried along by God,
that God has caused the writing of Scripture. The Bible attests
to that, not just in Timothy, but everywhere else that we see
that God gave this word here, God gave this word here. Paul
specifically says that, you know, when he makes a difference or
a differentiation between his thoughts and wisdom on something,
and then, you know, the command that the God, the Holy Spirit
has given him, he'll say, like he says to the Corinthians in
chapter seven of first Corinthians, he'll say that this is from me,
not the Lord. These are my thoughts, but not
a command from the Lord. And then he'll pick back up and
he'll say, now this is from the Lord, not from me. So scripture
is breathed out by God. That means God's revelation of
himself to his people is written in these books and all these
different writings. And this is a compilation of
66 writings. The Bible is not a book in and
of itself. It's not a composition. This
is not one composition. This is 66, depending on your
thoughts on Isaiah and some other places. We have 66 compositions. They could be 60, could be 70,
depending on how you look at 1st, 2nd Chronicles, 1st, 2nd
Corinthians, Isaiah, things of that nature. But as far as we
know, in the Christian faith, there are 66 separate writings,
separate books, letters, literary compositions that comprise the
Bible that we know. And God, throughout the history
of the writing of these documents, not only has he written them
according to these documents, but he has preserved them perfectly
according to these documents. And the attestation of the scripture
gives its author as divine in every aspect. So when we approach
the Bible as believers, we by faith believe this is God speaking.
Not what God has said, not what God has done, though it contains
that, but what God is saying today. So God is revealing Himself
to us through 66 independent writings that have been compiled
divinely with His sovereign power and purposes so that we might
know Him as the Creator, Redeemer of His people. And all the ways
in which God has established this salvation and redemption
is chronicled here. All the teachings that are necessary
to understand the depths of the judicial idea of this redemption
are here in the Bible. And it's interesting because
I say this My entire life, I've said these things, and I've said
these things, when I say my entire life, my entire ministry life,
and I constantly press the great emphasis about the Scripture
alone, period, no matter what, and a lot of people jump into
that. They go, oh, you're certainly right, you're certainly right,
you're certainly right, and they enjoy that aspect of our ministry,
our teaching, the emphasis of Scripture. But then when it rubs
against some of their practical theology, or their historical
theology, or their church history, it drives them a little bit silly.
Or when it rubs against our inferences, it drives them a little bit upset,
and then they don't want to listen to the teaching anymore. And
so that's something that we have to make sure that we remember
Scripture is God's revelation and so when Paul says this is
how you settle differences, when Paul says this is the epitome
of worship, when Paul says do this and don't do that, to ignore
those things is to truly say I will not listen to God and
to close one's ears. It doesn't matter who says it.
Unbelieving heretics and charlatans became the evangelist in Philippi
when Paul was arrested. He says it. He says they were
preaching out of pretense and false motives. They did not know
the truth. They were not God's people, yet
they could mimic and parrot the message of Christ. And what does
Paul say? Let them preach because the truth
was there. No matter who or what or through
whatever means the scripture is given, the scripture is authoritative
because it is God speaking. It is God speaking. Now, that
doesn't mean that everybody who uses the Bible is right. That's
why these questions are so important. We have to read the Bible, and
we have to read the Bible with a certain understanding and with
a certain approach, et cetera, and let's keep going. First thing
is we need to know that Scripture is breathed out by God. The second
thing goes without saying, and I've probably already said it
probably a dozen times tonight, but the Bible is the final authority
on all matters of faith. and all matters concerning the
faith, or in other words, the teaching concerning the truth
of the revelation of God to His people concerning their redemption
through His Son, which starts in Genesis and goes all the way
through all the letters of the Bible, even the maps in the back.
The Bible is the final authority. James Tippins is not the final
authority. The elders are not the final authority. As a matter
of fact, if you remember in some previous discussions we've had,
elders are called and equipped by God divinely to rightly divide
the word of truth, is what Paul says in Timothy, to divide the
word of truth and to teach others to divide the word of truth in
order to give oversight to the intimacy of the church and the
teaching of this church and the instruction of the church that
the church may be, as what is to say to the Ephesians, may
be taught to do the work of the ministry to meet each other's
needs. And for some strange reason in our day, everybody wants to
be a theologian. Well, Pastor Shepherds are not theologians.
This is a misapplication of learning the Bible to think we're supposed
to be professors and theologians and academics. No. Study to show
yourself approved that you may rightly handle the Word of God
does not make us an expert academically. It shows us humbly that matters
of faith, that what we're supposed to do and what we're supposed
to know have come from the Bible alone. not from any other source. And so when the elders of a church,
when they answer the call of God appropriately, they teach
the scripture, they equip the church, and they watch out that
the church stays in unity and doesn't allow people to come
in and run amok and cause division and fear and anger and frustration. in the body of Christ, no matter
what. Because when people are corrected,
we are to celebrate that correction. When people refuse to listen
to correction, we are to warn them. Then we are to have nothing
else to do with them until they come back and say, you know what?
I was wrong. I'm going to listen to the Word
of God now. So a reasonable person being led by the Spirit will
listen to the Scripture when the Scripture tells us to do
certain things or teaches us certain doctrinal matters. Inferences
and distinctions outside the Scripture are not authoritative. They are not God-given. That
is Gnosticism, and we do not hold to the authority of outside
knowledge coming in through logic and reason and all these other
ideas. Now, some people go, well, you
know, no, we're not yell button anything. We're going to hold
to the authority of the Word of God on matters of faith. And
if our thoughts and thinking go outside the margins of clear
teaching, we put those to death because they're not important.
They may be beneficial, to ourselves, but they're not beneficial and
nor are they required to be taught to the church. If it's not written
in the Bible, it should not be taught to the church as a doctrinal
distinction. So the Bible is the final authority
on matters of faith. handling faith, living faith,
etc. Three, biblical synergy provides what I call a safety
net. It will not contradict or deny
its own teaching. In other words, it's self-teaching, it's self-interpreting,
and it also is inerrant. Now, people don't like the word
synergy, but it actually means works together. The Bible works
together. In other words, the Bible is
always teaching the same thing. Excuse me, the Bible is illustrating
the same thing. The Bible is pushing its readers
to the same truth, and it does not contradict itself. So we
come to the Bible knowing that when we open its pages, it is
God-breathed, it is the final authority, and it works together
with itself to teach us about itself. And we don't do that
through proof texting. Let me tell you what proof texting
is. Proof texting is for me to take a verse and use a sentence
or a verse and say the verse and then tell you what it means
without the whole of the words around it, without the subject
in the paragraphs surrounding those words, and without the
whole of the actual letter in which it's found, and without
the whole of the actual scripture in which it's bound. So I probably
cannot repeat that. It sounded a little poetic there,
but I can't repeat it. You can rewind it. But this is biblical
synergy. We know that the Bible works
together and is interpreted by itself and that it's not contradictory. It does not deny its own teaching.
So when we find things that seem contradictory to us in our own
mind, we know that it's because we're looking at it incorrectly.
So we have to back up and look at the whole. Next. The fourth
thing that we need to understand is the simplicity of Scripture,
and we need to realize what is being said simply. I have a plaque
somewhere that I used to keep in my study when I was in California,
and when I walked into my door, it was about 15 inches long and
about 8 inches high, and it was just this metal cutout, the word
simplify. because as I learn things and
as I work through things, I mean, I'm a poet, philosopher, I like
to think, but I found that I opined too much in the areas of my own
imagination and people would look at me like, what are you
trying to say? What are you trying to walk us through? What are
you trying? And I realized that I was not doing that church any
good. So I went and I found this. I
wasn't looking for it, but I was at a store one day and I saw
this big metal thing that said Simplify. And I said, you know,
I should do something like that in my study. And the very next
week, somebody in the church bought it for me and brought
it to me and said, here, put this in your study to simplify
the way you speak and simplify the things that you're saying
to realize that the scripture is sufficient and you don't need
to have all this high knowledge and this high vocabulary in order
to teach the people of God correctly. For some strange reason, yes,
like Brother Quiller said, you don't have to have a PhD. Listen,
you know, terminal degrees are fun for those who like to do
research, for those who like to do, you know, project-based
things. And it's great, but it doesn't
make you a better pastor. It doesn't make you a better
Bible teacher. It doesn't do anything sometimes but get in
the way. The scripture is simply enough, and what it says is simple
enough to be understood, especially when the divine is at play, and
we'll talk about that as well. The Bible instructs on things
that we are to both know and to do. Years ago, and I mean
this is original in my brain, but I'm not the first person
to have ever said it, is we answer the question, so what? Or now
what? which is the therefores, the therefores of the Bible.
We learn about the love of God. We learn about the gospel. We
learn about the grace of God for His people. We learn about
all these things, and then we ask the question, now what? Or
so what? Or therefore? Or what do we do with that? Because
the scripture teaches us things to know about God. and about
ourselves as humanity, about redemption and what God has done
and who God is and all this stuff. And then the apostles give us
things to do. Therefore, because of that, do.
So we're to love, to love, to love, to love, to love. And it's
amazing how a lot of people who say they're loving have never
said a loving thing or done a loving deed or given in love. themselves
to anybody, but they say they're loving because they're constantly
cracking heads and cracking whips. Beloved, the love of God does
not crack whips. And yes, he disciplines those
he loves, but discipline is not punitive. It's corrective. So you're using it like if you
held a cup with the backs of your hands, a hot coffee, and
you held it like this, and somebody says, no, no, no, don't do that.
This is discipline. Hold it this way. Because if
you keep doing that, you're going to spill it on yourself. You're
going to burn yourself. You're going to burn your computer. You're going to
do all sorts of damage. Turn around this way. For our good,
the Lord corrects us. Yes, When we sin, there's some
consequences of that, but it's still not punitive. It's corrective.
It's to show us His sufficiency. It's to show us His love for
us and to correct us for our joy and for our good and so on
and so forth. So the Bible instructs us to both know and do, and we
cannot ignore either. If we ignore one, we are denying
the authority of Scripture, and we're spitting at God. And if
we deny the other, we're denying the authority of Scripture and
spitting at God. We have to take the full counsel of the Word
of God. And I say this, and it's going to sound so self-serving,
beloved, but if those who are called to be elders are divinely
gifted, according to the scripture, to keep simply the scripture
before the church, and to patiently guide and instruct the sheep.
And the sheep who listen to that counsel from Paul and the apostles
and from Jesus on how to deal with things, how to deal with
conflict, how to deal with emotions, how to deal with differences,
how to deal with false teaching, how to deal with sin and aggression
and everything else, those people will rejoice because they will
be shown the reconciliation, the doing, comes from God alone,
not from our desires and our so-called wisdom. We are not
wise in our own minds. So we have to do that, which
is counterintuitive, which is to be submissive to the Scripture.
And a lot of people aren't going to like that because they don't
like having their babies called ugly. And I'm at the point where
I really am not concerned about how people feel when their babies
get called ugly. So, if my baby's ugly and I know it's ugly, I
need to just confess that it's ugly and move on so that I am
reconciled to God's people and then I'm at peace. And when I'm
saying that, I'm not talking about a literal baby, but sometimes
our way of thinking is such an idol that it's like if you told
a new mother her baby was ugly. That's the point in that illustration. The sixth thing is that we need
to realize and understand that scripture should be exposed or
exposited. In other words, I've already
said this, but it becomes self-interpreting in its context. Contextually,
what the Bible is saying is answered. I've moved off, well, I've not
moved off, but I'm not on social media much, but I've been part
of some forums for decades. And I still get questions from
people from time to time in some of those forums, and I had one
last week. It's the first time in about a month that I've gotten
one on this particular medium. They wanted to know about how
does Jesus and the elect have one source? What is this Does
that prove that Jesus is created? Talking about Hebrews chapter
12, I think it was. And no, because when you read
before, and then when you continue to read, it's talking about the
fact that God the Father sent the Son, and God the Father called
the elect. God the Father created humanity. God the Father sent the sun into
humanity, and so on and so forth. There's the specific reality
of what that is trying to teach is continued in the context of
the scripture below it. And so we don't have to sit here
and ponder about all these things philosophically. We can philosophize
on these things theologically within the context of the Scripture,
so we can learn simply by listening to what the Scripture says and
expounds. And you'll find that, especially, for example, like
in 1 and 2 Peter, there's a lot of instruction in those letters,
and it's difficult sometimes. What does it mean to have your
call in an election? Sure. Oh, my goodness. What is this? What's
this? I thought assurance. No, listen.
It teaches us to practically live out the faith, And in doing
so, God promises to continue to reassure us. Why? Because
we're with the body of Christ, we're together in the gospel,
we're unified in the understanding of grace, and we continue to
live as worshipers serving each other. You know, you worship
Christ by serving each other. You love Christ only by loving
one another, sacrificially, sometimes at a great cost. And then in
doing that, the scripture teaches us if we continue to read, it'll
show us contextually that these things will not hinder your joy,
nor will they hinder your assurance, but you won't even be inundated
with all of this doubt and despair when you're serving the Lord's
people. It won't enter into your mind. It'll just, you'll just
sort of live at peace with the knowledge of truth. And so this
is a prescription that God has written. Exposition is what protects
us in our understanding of that. And then this one, seven, these
are, see, you notice I really do have like 18, but I've put
them in pairs. We've looked at a lot of things,
you know, how are you to understand and apply scripture? And, you
know, scripture is to be learned individually. And when I say
learned individually, I mean read individually. You should
read the Bible. Okay. I have more Bibles than
I could ever use. And I've recently picked up another
one that, you know, I like a reader's Bible and I didn't have a, I
only had a hardback reader's Bible. And so I picked me up
a leather-bound reader's Bible that doesn't have any footnotes
or anything in it. And I love to read it. And I
learn scripture when I open it and I read it. Not when I study
the notes, not when I study the commentaries, not when I listen
to the teaching. I do learn things from that,
but when I learn scripture by myself, it's because I'm reading
it, and I'm reading it, and I'm reading it, and I'm reading it.
you'll find the Lord will teach you if you read the scripture. Then corporately we come together
and we share that learning. We share what we've been reading
and we engage with each other in that reading. And then the
pastor shepherds who are called and going to be held accountable
for the joy and the oversight of the intimacy and the correction
and the forgiveness and the love of the church and the purity
of the church and all those things, in the very small scope that they've
been given that responsibility, they have to exercise that oversight.
And as the pastors teach the church from the Scripture, the
church is always on guard because they are learning the Scripture
through the reading, then the pastors read the Scripture and
they're learning, then they're instructing the church in matters
necessary for the church's joy, and then it all works together,
doesn't it? So the Bible must be learned
individually and then shared and taught corporately so that
we are affirming each other's Now, what I'm not saying here
is that the historical church and the hierarchies of the bishops
of the historical church have the final authority. We've already
done that. And if you're just now popping
in in the middle of this video, go back and listen to this entire,
this is answer seven of this question. And so realize that
the scripture is the final authority. It's like somebody accusing us
of usurping the authority of scripture with using the framework
of historical confessions. Friends, we've been rewriting
confessions for five and a half, six years now. And we have so
many caveats that last year, the middle of last year, I just
took all those documents down off of our public sphere and
off of our web page. And then the wording is still
there, but it's very clear that the authority of Scripture and
Scripture alone is that which we use to understand the things
according to the Bible, the things of Christ, the teaching, the
doctrines, all these things, the theologies and the application
of those things. So anytime we may say, oh, this
is what I think, when we corporately get together, we begin to experience
stuff. that we've never experienced
before. We begin to experience issues, or problems, or thoughts,
or ideas, and how we handle them is biblical. And then when we
come on the other side of them, we realize, you know what? We
had no idea about this, or we were wrong over here, or we got
this right. And then we massage and change
the information that we have in our minds, and then the information
that we hold to for the public to see as Christians. corporately
and without corporate submission to the Word of God, that'll never
take place. Everybody will be a federation
of Christianity upon themselves, and they can do exactly what
they want to do. And beloved, there is no call in the entire
Bible for a lone ranger evangelist, lone ranger theologian, lone
ranger there's nobody. Nobody. There is no such thing
as a Jeremiah in today's time. God does not call people to these
things anymore. He calls all believers to be
subject to the word and to be subject to the apostles teaching
and to as much as possible, if they are able, be submissive
to the teaching of scripture, corporately to other believers
and to the oversight of elders who teach the gospel. And that
is not a lording over, that is a safety net. And so we learn
and the only way that we are going to know that we understand
the joy of intimacy is when we find things we disagree on. And
then when we see the Lord flesh those things out, He is worshiped
for it. Those who refuse to flesh these
things out according to the Bible, they can live in their misery,
because there's nothing for them in that context. So approach
the Bible in this way. 8. Biblical instruction is to
be applied practically. Now, I've already said this,
but I feel like I needed to practically deal with it in the closing section
of this question because if we don't apply practically the Bible,
we're not paying attention to it. So, for example, if there
is a division in the church, and why do I keep saying that?
Because that's last week. The whole reason that most of
the letters were written is because of division in the church. Division. And what was the division? The division always had to do
with relationships. Relationships were at odds either
because of someone's sinful actions, like they were having incest,
they were committing adultery, they were stealing, they were
lying. Or someone's sinful teaching, who they continue to want to
stir things and cause problems with false teaching. Or sinful
attitudes, like feeling better than others, or hating people,
or not wanting to be around people. And so all of this is a practical
instruction. Because of the great gospel of
free and sovereign grace, therefore you all need to get along. Elders,
I'm holding you responsible, the Lord says, for making sure
people listen to the word. If they don't listen to the word,
have nothing else to do with them until they learn to play
nice and to be submissive and at peace. You realize the whole
Christian experience is supposed to be wrought with trials and
suffering. Yet, we're supposed to be at
peace in the midst of that. And beloved, I have allowed my
flesh to become very sinful over the last year because I have
submitted to my anxiety and to my stress and to my what-ifs
and all these things. And it's just become overbearing
to the point of physical illness. And by the Lord's mercy, He's
brought me through it and putting me on a path to health emotionally
and physically and by all means spiritually. But I cannot fall
back into that by thinking that there is something that I must
do to eliminate trials and suffering. Those are promised to us. The
difference maker is, am I willing to continue to be together intimately
with those who will practically apply the Bible? And the answer
is yes. And in contrast, I have no obligation
to those who are not willing to practically apply the Bible
in every circumstance. And that is such a peace for
me because I think, I say, I humble brag because in my mind, I know
that I don't have any power or anything that can help anybody. But there's always something
in the back of my mind because of my actions and my obsessions
with issues of division and stress, etc. I think I can fix it if. I wish I could just do, if I
could just, or that I mull around on how I could have done differently,
what I could do better. And the Bible gives us those
answers practically. Here's the instruction. Here's
the truth of the gospel. Here's the commands. Do these
things. You don't, you're not going to listen to that. Well,
then you're off the hook. Goodbye. And it sounds so bad. It sounds so bad for me to even
say that, but that is part of the peace that God has promised
us, that if we just stick to what Scripture gives as the teaching,
and we stick to the gospel, and we stick to making right judgments
and right application of the Bible in a practical sense, according
to Scripture, we're gonna be at peace in the
midst of incredible turmoil and Beloved that is something that
I wish I could just cement into my own mind So that I would not
go through these things again, but it's gonna happen we're going
to continually happen. So the Elder Brothers and I have
to maintain our responsibility. We have to teach. We have to
be submissive. We have to serve the local church
as servants unto Christ, as they submit to Christ through our
oversight and do that which is required of each of us and support
one another, you know, emotionally and spiritually and even financially.
You know, we have an obligation to the body of Christ first and
foremost. and we learn about those things in our understanding
of Scripture. And the final thing is that we
must understand the Bible and apprehend it prayerfully. We must realize that if we're
not asking, if we're not seeking understanding, we probably won't
get it. There's a big difference between the person who goes,
okay, I know what I'm talking about, this is what the Bible
says, and this is the truth, versus the person who says, Father,
I think I know Please teach me the truth. Please show me wisdom
here as I read your word and as you teach me. There is an
expectation that is not arrogant. The scripture teaches that God
opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. That's not a salvific
thing. That's an expressionary reality
of what God the Holy Spirit does and how believers, when they're
haughty, can expect nothing from the Lord, as James says. But
believers who are humble, who realize that everything that
they are is from the Lord, and that if He doesn't come and give,
they have nothing, even in the practical sense of Christian
living, that they can expect nothing. So that is very important,
because all these other things are important for us to know
and realize. But beloved, that's really what the church is all
about. We're supposed to be living together and learning together
and learning from the Bible and encouraging each other to read
the Bible, not prying into each other's business, not being busybodies,
but we're to prayerfully study and prayerfully teach and prayerfully
inquire and be patient. God is not on James Tippin's
timetable. And if he wants to take 10 years
to grow somebody and to correct somebody, that is his business.
If he wants to do it in 10 seconds, and blow the man's hair back
or my hair back or whoever, then that's his business. But we are
instruments of mercy. We're objects of mercy and grace.
And so we have no warrant to feel like we are better off spiritually,
more knowledgeable spiritually, or in any way in any position
different than anybody else around us who confesses the gospel of
Christ. And when we find things that don't fit the correct narrative
of scripture, the correct instruction of scripture, we're to be kind
and we're to be gentle and we're to correct with all patience
and all gentleness and kindness. Because if we're not going to
do that, it means that we think that our aggression and that
our power moves are going to make a difference. Listen, our
aggression and power moves are not going to make a difference. You
notice that even Joshua, you know, sometimes people like to
be Joshua. They want to be aggravated that the spies don't want to
go in there because they're scared. Let's just go in there and do
it. But even Joshua never, ever, ever did anything without the
command of God through Moses. And then when Moses was dead,
Joshua never did anything without the command of God directly.
So the command of God directly to the New Testament church is
written in the apostles' letters. And we do well to pay attention
to that. Peter even says that, doesn't he? He even says that.
I think I've got one more question. Let's see, I might not be able
to, yeah, I can do this. All right, this one. It came
in yesterday, and I saw it as I was typing in some of the other
stuff on Facebook. And sadly, I know this sentiment. This is why I'm coming off of
Facebook. I'm not going to engage in these
things anymore. People who make a living, and I'm using that
term lightly, but people who are known for always telling
who are and who are not believers, who are and who are not true
Christians, who are false teachers, these people are to be avoided
according to the scripture. These people have no use in the
body of Christ whatsoever. They aren't prophets, and it
breaks my heart, but these people should be avoided, and they'll
tell you that I should be avoided because I believe this. It's
ironic. You know, that might be a straw
man fallacy, it doesn't matter. The scripture does not give us
the warrant, nor the command, nor the instruction. to make
much of error and to make much of wrong. We just sat here and
heard nine things that we should understand and know of how we
approach and interpret and apply the scripture in our lives as
Christians. And none of the instruction there has anything to do with
constantly dealing with error, mocking unbelief, talking about
false teachers. This stuff for Grace Truth Church
is coming to a quick end. It will be a matter of discipline
in the future And that means correction, because it becomes
cumbersome, and it creates a law that someone can't live under.
If these things are necessary for salvation, and these distinctives
are necessary for assurance, then the Bible is a lie. and
Christ is a liar, and God the Spirit is a liar, and the prophets
and the apostles are liars, because they teach through the Scripture
that Christ is sufficient, and His work, His atoning work for
His people is sufficient, and that the instructions given to
the New Testament church had nothing to do with these things.
As a matter of fact, on the several short occasions that we see,
The Apostles teaching people to deal with false teachers he's
talking only to elders and he's telling the elders to warn them
and silence them and That if they don't silence them just
to put them out of the church and say to the church this person
would not Commit and submit to the scripture. He's gone. I Don't
I don't know I don't know how I've been too patient and But
I'm not a patient person, so I overcompensate with, as the
elder brothers will tell me, and some other brothers have
told me through the years, that I'm too long-suffering, that
I almost become negligent in some areas of oversight because
I'm trying to be too patient. I always want to wait. I'm thinking,
okay, another month. this person will come to their
senses. And I think I can be patient and wait on that after
action. So the action is patient correction
and instruction. Those who listen to patient and
those who listen to correction and instruction and come under
subjection to the scripture. They walk together with the brothers
and sisters and those who don't leave. And those who leave are
expelled and excommunicated from the family of faith until such
time as they come back and say, you know, I made a mistake. And
then it's as if we've won our brother because we are able to
celebrate the power of God in reconciliation because of the
Spirit of God who teaches us of our righteousness imputed
from Jesus Christ. So how should we deal with those
who are aggravating us? Block them. If it's social media,
I'm telling you right now, you are under no obligation to listen
to this. Don't listen to them. Those people
who are in your life and they call you, tell them, if you say
this to me again, if you talk to me about these things again,
I'm going to take you out of my life until you stop because
I will not listen. And the same thing goes, you
know, and this isn't just about... this type of stuff that's so
prominent today in the so-called Christian sovereign grace circles,
so-called sovereign grace, people don't believe the gospel, acting
like this. You see how easy that is to do? That's the error that
we have to avoid because we get cynical and we get frustrated.
And then we base their assurance on how we view them in their
actions. No, the Bible says we can just let them go. We can
take them out of our lives and we pray for them and be done
with it. Reconciliation now is on them. As long as it's up to
us, we do what the Bible says, and then that person who is the
offender can come back in. And if they've been offended,
there's a way to do it. See, everybody's a victim at
the end, isn't it? But beloved, there is no warrant for this.
I'm warning the church. No, you're not. You're the devil's
tongue. You are the satanic tongue when you go and you do this stuff.
I found out tonight that people have been writing letters about
me that I've not even seen. It's a joy. It's not the first
time either. It was done in 2012. It was done. It's been done my entire life,
but it's okay because it is what happens when we hold to the truth
and the sufficiency of Scripture as our guiding light and the
rule. of all things concerning faith. So we're not going to
do, we're not going to be bothered but a little while anyway. But
it's not just this either. We also have the obligation,
we have no obligation for those people who continue to bother
us with politics, continue to bother us with the negativity
of social issues, continue to demand that as Christians you
have to believe this way and you have to do this way. I mean
I've lost a lot of friends because I don't agree with their idiotic
philosophies, in my opinion, on their political points of
view. But the very fact that I know that I think that their
views are idiotic means that there's an opposition there.
So what do I do? I don't talk about these things.
I'm not gonna discuss them. And that makes people angry.
I'm not going to discuss them because if I automatically, if
I, from the beginning, think that something's idiotic, what
good is going to come out of it for me to say that or to me
to communicate that or for me to argue it when it has no eternal
value whatsoever. So in the end of that, I'd say,
no, I'm not going to talk about these things. Oh, then I just
can't trust you as a brother because you won't talk about
these things. You see, Don't let people rule you in that way.
You're under no obligation to anyone who is not walking in
the truth according to the commands of Scripture. And there is no
reconciliation except everybody listen to the full counsel of
the Word of God. So these things are important unto the name of
Christ. You might say, well, why does
it matter? Why do we have to work this? Because it's the name
of Christ. We are not glorifying God by being a participant and
constantly in the midst of all these things. Beloved, you can't
pray effectively when your spirit is downtrodden, when your heart
is troubled, when you're in despair, when you're angry, when you're
cynical, when you're depressed. You can't pray effectively when
all you do is get up every day and when you think about spiritual
things or think about the church, all you're doing is worrying
about what's happening. behind the scenes. Beloved, we
have enough to worry about. Let's not add to that. And so,
with all that being said, we have a great Savior. We have
a great God who has loved us eternally in Christ Jesus, and
Christ died in our place to satisfy the righteousness of God, and
He rose Himself from the dead, and He's credited to us His righteousness,
so there is no condemnation. We are free and we're free from
death, we're free of the power of sin, we're free from condemnation,
we're free but yet this old meat suit of ours, this mind, this
world, this culture, there's always going to be everything,
everything it offers is passing away and it's always going to
cause us stress and anxiety Beloved, we are not called to labor in
the mire of anxiousness. We're called to labor in the
midst of anxiousness with joy and peace and comfort. Attach
yourself to the people who are carrying you in the gospel to
places of worship and joy and peace. And don't worry about
the rest. Let the Lord handle them. Let
the Lord handle them. If I were honest and could just
say some things, I'd wreck my reputation in some of your eyes.
But I say it often, I am a fighter. I am a person that can shake
the sense into somebody in my own mind. But because that is
my nature, The Spirit of God has given me the heart to love
and to be at peace and to be patient with people. And so when
people think that I'm not patient, sometimes I want to go, you have
no idea what impatience looks like. You know, like when you
did something, when you got accused of something as a child and you've
done nothing wrong, and so you're going to get punished or you're
going to get chastised. And you just say to your parent,
well, I didn't do anything wrong. I'm getting in trouble. I'm going
to go ahead and do something wrong. You know, that mentality, let's not
be there. It's what our flesh does. Let's
be at peace. And so with all that being said,
that's all the time that we have for tonight, and I love you guys,
and I'm so glad that you choose to spend your time on Sunday
night with us. Share this video if you think
it was helpful. If there's some things that you
have questions about, please let me know. I am glad to spend
time talking with you and celebrating the gospel of free and sovereign
grace together. Until Wednesday, we will see you guys in James,
Wednesday night. Lord bless.