Sermon for Lord's Day January 1,2023 How to study the Bible

Let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning. Our Heavenly Father, as we come before your throne today,

I want to come first and foremost just to say I thank you. Thank you for the hope of eternal life.

Thank you for the forgiveness of sins. Thank you,

Lord, for the hope that there is life beyond this world. I'm thankful,

Lord, for your faithfulness, for your graciousness, for your goodness, for your mercy, for your steadfast love that endures to all generations.

Thankful, Lord, today for brothers and sisters in Christ. Thankful, Lord, today to know and to have assurance and confidence in who you are, that you are capably building your church,

Lord, that you are keeping your church. Lord, I thank you and I praise you today for your word.

And I would ask, as we stand to teach and preach your word today, that you would help us, dear

God, in our shortcomings where we're unable to articulate as we should. I pray,

Lord, that your Holy Spirit, through your word today, would lead us to a greater knowledge of you, that our love for you might be more than what it was when we came in this place today.

For it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. We are going to be returning to the book of Luke next

Sunday. This Sunday, we are going to kind of do something that we don't do a whole lot of, but kind of preach and teach a topical message.

But I was thinking, as I was considering what we might teach and preach today,

I thought about the fact that how everybody at the New Year is always so focused on getting better by going to the gym, by getting better, by losing weight, by getting better, by reading more.

When our desire, as God's people, ought to be to know God better, so that we can love him all the more.

Why were we created? What is the chief end of man? It is to glorify

God and to enjoy him forever. And there is no way that we as Christians can grow in the faith, outside of growing in the knowledge of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The knowledge of our great

God and our Savior is not found in the newspaper. It's not found on the internet.

It's not found in the latest blogs. It is found in the word of the living

God. And that must be our high tower that we run to.

I believe it's the book of Proverbs. The name of the Lord is a strong tower.

The righteous run into it and are safe. And so I would encourage you this coming year to run to the scriptures.

For in the scriptures, Jesus said this to the Pharisees, search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life.

But I am thankful today as well. I'm thankful for a lot of things, but I'm thankful today as well, that not only can we, we don't have to go to the scriptures and search them in hopes that we'll find eternal life, but to give assurance to us as God's people that in this book are the words of life.

For it is in this book that we find and know our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, the challenge for us as Christians, we intentionally chose this passage of scripture because we have to understand first and foremost this fact, that all scripture, as Paul writes to Timothy here in verse 16, all scripture is breathed out by God.

All scripture is inspired by God, means it comes from God.

What are the holy scriptures? How did the scriptures come to us? The Holy Spirit moved men to write the text of scripture and there we have it preserved through God's holy word.

So all scripture, not some, but all, all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable.

Profitable for teaching, profitable for reproof, profitable for correction and for training in righteousness.

It is profitable for teaching in that we can learn. We ought to be students of the word.

Maybe perhaps there are some in Christendom who have reached the pinnacle in the zenith of knowledge of God where they need not have any kind of extra learning that they stand in need of.

But here's a man, I'm standing before you today telling you there is not a day that goes by that I do not need more of God.

I do not need more of the knowledge of God. I need it every day, every moment.

It's profitable for teaching. It's profitable for reproof and correction.

These are dirty words in some areas, in some circles. We need to be reproved. How often do we need to hear the gospel?

Every day. We need the gospel every day. What does the gospel teach us, show us?

The gospel shows us the person and the work of Jesus Christ. He is the gospel in real life.

He personified, he fully kept the law of God that we were unable to keep.

Why do we need the gospel? Because we need to know that there is one who justified us. There is one who sanctifies us.

There is one who keeps us, and that is our Lord and our Savior.

So all scripture is breathed out. It's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.

We need to be training. If you want a better body, you've got to train. If you want to have a sharper mind, you've got to train.

There is a discipline that we all must put forth in and of ourselves to study the scriptures.

As a matter of fact, in the previous epistle, I believe, and it was the Apostle Paul told

Timothy, study to show yourself approved unto God. A workman that does not need to be ashamed, but rightly divides the word of truth.

And that is the aim, that is the goal of the message this morning, is to give you something that might equip you to study your

Bible better this coming year, so that, to the end, you may know God better, that you may love

God all the more, and that you may be able to stand against the false teaching that bombards

Christians on every hand in the world in which we live. So, how to study our

Bibles is what we're going to look at. First, we understand it's the inspired word of God. We understand it's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that, to the end, that the man of God may be complete, so that we may be whole, that we may be solid, that we may be able, as the

Apostle Peter writes to the church scattered abroad, so that we might be able to give every man an answer of the hope that lies within us, beyond just those surface -level answers that most

Christians have. We must be growing in our knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So, for two texts we're going to look at today, two sections of Scripture, we're going to look at to make application.

I'm going to give you all some information, and then I want us to look, by way of the Scriptures themselves, as a group.

It's kind of a different type setting. It's more of like the teaching type setting that we're going to have this morning.

But we want to look at these texts so that you might understand and know how that you can apply what you have learned today.

So, in the London Baptist Confession, chapter 1, section 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10, this is what the

Confession states. The Confession states, Concerning the Word of God, the testimony of the

Church of God may stir and persuade us to adopt a high and reverent respect for the

Holy Scriptures. Moreover, the heaviness of the contents, the power of the system of truth, the majesty of the style, the harmony of all the parts, the central focus on giving all glory to God, the full revelation of the only way of salvation, and many other incomparable qualities and complete perfections all provide abundant evidence that the

Scriptures are the Word of God. Even so, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority of the

Scriptures comes from the internal work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness with and by the

Word of God in our hearts. It goes on, Some things in Scripture are clearer than others, and some people understand the teachings more clearly than others.

However, the things that must be known, that must be believed, and must be obeyed for salvation are so clearly set forth and explained in one part of the

Scripture or another that both the educated and the uneducated may achieve a sufficient understanding of them by properly using ordinary means.

So that section is simply stating this, that concerning salvation, the

Lord has made it so clear in the Scriptures that whether you're big or small, smart or dumb, to put it in layman's terms, you are able to comprehend and to hear and to apply the truth of God's Word concerning salvation.

For the Gospel is quite simply this, Christ died for our sins.

It goes without saying, we're all sinners. No one's outside the scope of being a sinner.

We're all sinners. Christ died for our sins. He was buried, and on the third day He arose victorious over the grave.

And it is by His death, burial, and resurrection through which we have hope in Jesus Christ.

The confession goes on to state this, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the native language of the ancient people of God.

The New Testament was written in Greek, which at that time it was written was most widely known to the nations.

These Testaments were inspired directly by God, and by His unique care and providences were kept pure down through the ages.

They are therefore true and authoritative, so that in all religious controversies, the church must make their ultimate appeal to them.

So if there are any disagreements, if there are any concerns, if there are any arguments, if there are any challenges with what is being taught or proclaimed, we must always go back to the

Scriptures themselves. The confession goes on to state this, all

God's people have a right to and claim on the Scriptures, and are commanded, in the fear of God, to read and to search them.

Not all of God's people know the original languages, so the Scriptures are to be translated into the common language of every nation to which they come.

In this way the Word of God may dwell richly in all, so that they may worship Him in an acceptable manner, and through patience and comfort of the

Scriptures, that they may have hope. The infallible rule, the infallible rule, section 9, for interpreting

Scripture is the Scripture itself. How are we to understand Scripture?

By comparing Scripture with Scripture. There is a difference between natural and spiritual, right?

We compare spiritual with spiritual when it comes to the Scripture. So, therefore, when there is a question about the true and full meaning of any part of the

Scripture, and make sure of this, each passage has only one meaning, and not many.

It must be understood in light of other passages that speak more clearly.

This is referred to as the analogy of faith or the analogy of Scripture, right? So when you come to a passage of Scripture that you read, and it seems fuzzy to you, rather than making an off -the -wall interpretation and just running with it, look for other places in the

Scripture that speak more clearly to the question that you may have concerning that particular passage of Scripture.

The supreme judge for deciding all religious controversies, and for evaluating all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, human teachings, and individual interpretations, and in whose judgment we are to rest, is nothing but the holy

Scriptures delivered by the Spirit. So it is in this Scripture, in the

Word of God, that our faith finds its final word. So, we ought to read church history.

We ought to read good books. We ought to have a broad spectrum of things that we read, but everything that we read ought to be measured and weighed according to the

Scriptures themselves. So there is a temperance there. So, what is the process?

What is the process that we can follow, that you can study your Bible with this coming year, so that you might have a greater knowledge of Christ and might love

Him all the more? Number one, the process begins with this.

Are you ready? Read the text. Read the Bible.

I had a bad problem in high school. I don't know if any of you had this problem. But they had to be the most uncomfortable things in the world.

But man, when I sat in the school desk, all I wanted to do was lay my head down and take a nap. Right? And I had a teacher,

Coach Wyatt, in geography. If he caught you with your head down on your book, he would ask you this question,

Are you studying by osmosis? You cannot learn the Bible by osmosis.

You cannot learn the Bible by just holding it up to your head like you're

Carnac the Magnificent, Johnny Carson, right? And thinking that you're going to gain knowledge of the

Scriptures. We must physically sit down, lay down whatever position you like to read in.

If you like to stand, stand, whatever the case may be. That doesn't matter. But the key is simply opening the book.

It's opening the book and reading the text of Scripture. That's the easy part.

Now comes the challenge. Number two, ask yourself these questions.

Ask yourself these questions concerning the text that you have just read. Number one rule for interpreting

Scripture is understanding the context. Now, some people have heard that word used, and you've heard that word used, but you've never heard that word defined.

Let's define context today. What is context? If you're taking notes, the definition of context is this.

Contexts are the circumstances that form the setting for an event. They are the circumstances that form the setting for an event.

They are circumstances that form the setting for the statement or the idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.

I would encourage you, do not leave off halfway understanding a section of Scripture.

Keep at it until you can understand it. That doesn't mean you've got to sit and stare at the

Scripture for 24 hours. I just mean this, don't give up on the text. God is able, by and through the continuity of His Word, to bring you to a right understanding of the text.

So, ask yourselves these questions. What is the context? Next question, this is profound.

What did I just read? By asking yourself, what did I just read, you're asking yourself these questions.

Who is speaking? It will aid you greatly in understanding what you read by knowing who is speaking.

Next question, ask yourself, who is being spoken to? So, who is saying what's being said, and who is being spoken to?

What may be an even more important question, as you progress through these questions, as you move through this progress, it may be this question, is what

I'm reading describing an event or an action? Is it prescribing an event or an action?

Is what I'm reading a historical narrative, or is it a book of imperative direction or instruction?

Or, even this, is it a combination of the two? So, what do we mean by this?

What do we mean? So, when we're reading a text in the section of Scripture, it's important for us to know, is this commanding me as an individual

Christian to do these things, or is what I am reading a historical narrative or a telling of something that took place?

It's important for us to make this distinction, because what happens in Christendom is that you can read a historical narrative.

Take, for example, the book of Acts. That's going to be one of our texts that we'll make application with this morning.

The book of Acts itself is not an imperative direction for us as Christians.

It is a historical narrative. It is a history of events that took place. Called the

Acts of the Apostles, some may refer to the book of Acts as the Acts of the Holy Spirit, but it is a historic narrative.

Where in the case of the other passage that we're going to look at in Titus, Titus is a book of imperative instruction.

It's a book of instruction. Paul writing to Titus concerning the church at Crete, in which elders were to be established, in which he gives specific direction on what is to be taught, what is to be communicated to the individual members of that church, of that congregation.

So it's important that we understand the difference between historical narrative and instructive text.

It can be shortened like this. Is the book descriptive or is the book prescriptive?

Next question. Ask yourself this. Is what I'm reading a literal statement or is it hyperbole?

Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement for dramatic effect. Is it an exaggerated statement made for dramatic effect or is it literally saying this?

In the book of Mark, we have an excellent example. In the Gospels, which are historic narratives, right?

Historic narrative of Mark, this is what we learn. Mark 9, verse 42, 43, 45, 47, and 48.

Here's what the Word of God says. And this will help us to make application of what you just heard.

Whoever causes one of these little ones to believe in me to sin, Jesus said, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

And Jesus goes on. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into a life crippled than with two hands and go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

Now this statement is unequivocally true, but we must understand it in the sense in which it is written.

Do you actually think Jesus is advocating that we chop off our hand, that we poke out our eyes, or that we cut off our feet?

No. So this is an example of hyperbole, understanding an exaggerated statement, rather.

So if we were taking this to be a prescriptive text rather than a descriptive text, if it were a prescriptive text, then everybody should cut their hands off, cut their feet off, and poke out their eyes.

But this is not a prescriptive text. Jesus is using strong language to communicate the point and the importance of the fact that we are to be holy people.

So we must make that distinction. So after asking yourself these questions, your next step in the process, your next step in the process to study the

Scripture, studying your Bible, the next step would be this. Formulate your own thoughts about what the text is saying.

Literally take time with a pen and a paper, or an iPad, a

Kindle, whatever you like to type on your phone. Take time and just write out what you think the text is saying.

Now are you saying, Preacher, are you advocating that my thoughts are equal to the Word of God? No, hang on.

Your thoughts are not equal to the Word of God, but your thoughts can be tested and tried according to the

Word of God. And this is how we know if we're right or wrong. You've got to be willing to take that step of writing out what your understanding of the text is saying.

And by the way, it is okay to think. That might be a lot of the problem with folks today, right?

Do not eat the silica gels that you get in certain products. Why should anybody need to be told that?

Right? Do not put this plastic bag over your head. We must be a thinking people.

It's sad, but it's true, right? So formulate your own thoughts about what the text is saying.

Think about what you're reading. It's important to think next, a little bit deeper, a little bit further.

Consider the meaning of the words that you are reading. Remember what the confession states?

The original Old Testament was written in Hebrew. The New Testament was written in Greek.

So naturally we come to this stop sign that says most of us in general are unable to read

Hebrew and Greek. Can I get a witness? Amen. However, that does not get us off the hook because we have tools that we can use.

There's Blue Letter Bible. There's all sorts of study material on the interwebs that you can go to.

And you can look up the Greek word. You might not be able to recognize it when you read it, but when you go to the individual word, you find out what the meaning of that word is.

And when you go through a sentence or a statement or a paragraph and you begin to look at what's called the etymology of the words, line upon line, precept upon precept, text upon text, all of a sudden things really begin to make sense.

When we know the meanings of words, where we don't just assume we know the meanings of the words.

In the confession that we're beginning this year, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, later on down in the catechism, speaks about the humiliation of Christ.

The humiliation of Christ was not talking about the embarrassment of Christ. Christ was never embarrassed, but he humbled himself.

We don't need to assume we know the meaning of words, but we must look to the meanings of the words themselves.

So we've asked ourselves these questions. We formulated our own thoughts. We've looked at the etymology, the meanings of the individual words.

The next step after this, you say, good grief, if I do this,

I can say I'll study my Bible. That's kind of the point. And that way you can really test the preacher on what he says.

So when myself, sir, Kenny, any of us get up, teach and preach, you can line it up with what the scripture says, and you can be confident in the fact of whether it's right or wrong.

And then you can come to us and you can say, preacher, this does not line up with the scriptures.

And my responsibility would be say, all right, I'm going to be willing to be teachable.

I'm going to be willing to receive rebuke and instruction and reproof. Let's go to the text.

And then let's go to the text that talks about that text. And then let's go to the text that talks about that text that we just looked at.

So on and so forth. We are to be a people of the book. So next step that you can take would be this.

Read multiple commentaries. Read multiple commentaries. Don't get hung up and caught up on just your favorite writer.

Matthew Henry commentary is fantastic. But don't limit yourself to Matthew Henry's commentary.

Alexander McLaren's commentary. He was alive during the time of Spurgeon.

Now, Alexander McLaren, he was not reformed in his soteriology. He was

Armenian. But man, he writes some good commentaries. There is

John Calvin, J .C. Ryle, William Tyndale, John Knox, B .B.

Warfield, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, Augustine. You say, but these are not the sacred texts of Scripture.

No, they are not the sacred texts of Scripture. But they are found to be faithfully consistent with the

Scriptures in most areas. Some, they're off. Because guess what?

We're all off in one way or another. But you can take the continuity of what's been said and taught down through church history and help you to have a better understanding of what the

Scriptures are saying. So, the reason we're looking at various sources of information is because we need to see whether or not what has been taught, whether consciously, throughout church history, is what we were thinking when we formulated our own thoughts.

That's why it's important. Formulate your own thoughts, then compare it. Then when you test the two, you can understand.

Have I just invented and thought of a new doctrine that nobody in church history has ever understood?

Chances are, no. You've thought of something that was taught as heresy historically throughout church history, and you're just as wrong as the heretic.

Right? Think of it this way. If it's new in theology, it's likely it ain't true.

It ain't good English, but that's the truth. If it's new in theology, it's likely it ain't true.

Because the truth of the Scriptures have been taught faithfully down throughout the ages. Let's take for an example here.

There's nothing new under the sun. Pelagianism. Pelagianism is named after Pelagius.

He was a monk who lived in the late 300 -400s. Pelagius began teaching the doctrine associated with his name in an effort to promote holy living among Christians.

When people sinned, Pelagius grew weary of hearing the excuse, I can't help it, it's in my nature to do wrong, which was true.

He grew weary of hearing this, so to counter that excuse, Pelagius stressed the freedom of the human will, essentially teaching that all sin is the result of a conscious choice of evil over good.

Pelagius taught this. Everyone has the ability to freely choose to do good all the time.

Sounds good. The problem is that since Adam and Eve's fall in the garden, the sentence of death was passed and pronounced upon all men.

We don't have to try to sin if you've got children. How about that?

Have you ever had to sit down with your children and say, okay, this is how you lie. This is how you pitch a fit.

Nobody's teaching classes on that. It's natural. It comes to us. We're born with that.

But Pelagius went on and he said there's no such thing as original sin or an inherited sin nature, and so we cannot blame

Adam. This is what he said. This was the idea. He said God created us good, so no one has ever had an excuse for sinning.

If you're not living a holy life, it's because you're not trying hard enough. Fourth century heresy, boy, does that not sound like the name and claimant, health and wealth, prosperity gospel.

You don't have this because you don't have faith enough. Friend, you wouldn't have any faith if it were not given to you by God.

For faith is the gift of God to believe in Jesus Christ. And the scriptures clearly teach contrary to this.

Another example, moving forward in time, of assumed new revelation taught to the church, and the church lapsed it up.

In 1900, examinations were held on the subject of repentance, conversion, consecration, sanctification, healing, and the soon coming of the

Lord. But there was a problem with the book of Acts, and this is the history of a man named

Charles Fox Parham. There was a problem they had with the book of Acts. What Parham had always felt was that missionaries to foreign lands needed to preach in the native language.

And having heard so much about this subject during his recent travels, Parham sent the 40 students an assignment to determine the biblical evidence of baptism in the

Holy Spirit, and to report on their findings in three days while he was away in Kansas City.

So he's not going to give instruction. He's just going to say, I want you all to figure out what's going on and when

I come back, you tell me. Does that sound like a good teacher? No, he's not giving them instruction.

Parham was astonished when the students reported their findings that while there were different things that occurred when the

Pentecostal blessing fell, the indisputable proof on each occasion was that they spoke in other tongues.

This was the realization they came to. About 75 people gathered with the 40 students for a watch night service, and there was an intense power of the

Lord present. And it was here that a student named Agnes Osmond, she asked that hands might be laid upon her to receive the baptism of the

Holy Spirit. She believed she was called to the mission field and wanted to be equipped accordingly.

Now at first Parham refused as he himself had never had the experience.

Nevertheless, she persisted and Parham laid his hands upon her. And this was a quote from Parham.

He said, I had scarcely repeated three dozen sentences when a glory fell upon her, a halo seemed to surround her head and face.

And she began speaking in the Chinese language and was unable to speak

English for three days. When she tried to write in English, she wrote in Chinese copies of which we still have in newspapers printed at that time.

Osmond's later testimony claimed that she had already received a few of these words while in prayer, while in their prayer tower.

But when Parham laid hands on her, she was completely overwhelmed with the supernatural power of the

Holy Spirit. What's the point? The point is that Charles Fox Parham had formed his own idea and his own interpretation of what the baptism of the

Holy Spirit looked like. And he determined that it was to speak in other tongues.

And so he communicated this to the people. Now we, we read this in the history here. Agnes Osmond began to speak in Chinese.

She began to write in Chinese. That's all she could do. Thankfully, history was preserved of her writing in Chinese from newspapers.

And when you look at it, having been tested in and examined by many authorities on the matter, it was just scribbling.

It was not Chinese. Now see what happened here was there was a group of people who were led astray into a false doctrine because they did not test what they heard by the scriptures, but they based everything on their own experience.

Our experiences are good. Our experiences can be glorious. Amen. It's good to get happy in the

Lord. It's good to be enthralled with the love of God. It's good to rejoice in the weep and the cry tears of a bitter agony over our sin.

But my friends, our emotions are not the arbiters of truth. The scripture is the arbiter of truth.

So this is not to say that we will always be in absolute agreement. Going back to the commentaries, we will not always be in absolute agreement with what the commentaries say, but the non -negotiable doctrines, right?

We'll always be in agreement with the scripture. Having said all that, based on the knowledge that you gained from going through these steps, reread these passages and apply the information that you have learned.

So, very quickly, very quickly, because this is important. This is the application part.

I know it's been long, but bear with us. This is so very, very important. Acts chapter 8.

Acts chapter 8. We're making application of what we just, what we just learned.

Acts chapter 8, verse 26. It's the account of Philip and the

Ethiopian eunuch. Okay. So what we want to, what we want to determine, we want to do first, read the text, right?

So the text says this, in verse 26, an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is a desert place. He rose and he went and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the

Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet

Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading

Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, how can

I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this, like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent.

So he opened not his mouth in his humiliation. That's again, importance of words in his humiliation.

Justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth.

And the eunuch said to Philip about who I ask you, does this prophet say this? Is it about himself or about someone else?

Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with the scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

And as they were going along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, see here's water.

What prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop. They both went down into the water,

Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried

Philip away. And the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at a

Zotus. And as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

So the question that we asked first, what did I just read? Was it a historical narrative or was it a prescriptive text?

Historical narrative. It's describing what took place, right? Who is speaking here? Who is speaking?

Luke is the writer of Luke's gospel in Acts. So who is speaking?

Luke. Who is being spoken to? Us.

We're reading this, right? Right. But technically he's giving the account, so we can say here it's us.

What's being described? What event is being described? The event of Philip being carried away from a great revival to go out into the desert to one man to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ so this one man might believe in Jesus Christ and be saved.

What happens next? This Bible says the Ethiopian eunuch said, here's water, can

I be baptized? Philip said, come on. He put him under, brought him up, and the

Bible says he was carried away by the spirit. Now, if the scripture left off there, we might have a reason to over -spiritualize this text and say that he just vanished.

No, he was literally, as soon as he baptized him, he just hit the road because the

Bible says he found himself at Azotus. He found himself at Azotus.

So this is what we've read. We've read a historical narrative, that particular verse about him being carried away.

Is this a literal statement? What type of genre are we reading? Or is it hyperbole or an exaggerated text?

Next, formulating our thoughts. That's basically what we've done in this process. Now we consider the meanings of the words that are used.

For an example, I gave you that earlier, in his humiliation concerning Christ. It's not embarrassment.

It's literally in his humility because he was God in the flesh.

He could have any moment called 12 legions of angels to stop what was going on, but because he had to perfectly fulfill the law to the jot and the tittle, die as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, it was not possible that he would do that.

So that was all a part of his humility, in his humiliation, in understanding the meaning of the words.

What do other writers say about this? You can look at that on your own this week. So we've looked at these various sources of information.

We've considered these questions and having understood, just having set that first premise, what am

I reading? Am I reading a historical narrative or am I reading a prescriptive text?

That helps us to understand what we're reading. Years ago, I used the example.

How many of you use deodorant? If you get a good kind of deodorant and you turn it on the back and you look at those instructions and it says apply to the skin.

Now, you've got to understand, it's not talking about your forehead, right? If you're putting deodorant on your forehead, there might be some bigger problems.

Don't apply it to your arms. You apply it to your underarms, okay? There's a right application that has to be made of the instruction that you've been given.

A wrong application of what you read will not lead you into the truth, knowledge and truth of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It must be rightly applied to be rightly understood.

Last passage for application. So there we have the historical narrative. Now turn over to the book of Titus 2.

And we'll move to a close here. Titus 2.

We'll go a little bit out of order on these questions just to make them chronological. Who is speaking?

If you read verse 1, we see in the greeting of the letter, you can do this with every book, you can see who's speaking.

Paul, a servant of God and the apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness and hope of eternal life, which

God who never lies promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested His word through the preaching with which

I've been entrusted by the command of God our Savior. Who's speaking? Paul. Who is he speaking to?

Verse 4 tells us. To Titus, my true child in the common faith. Who is being spoken to?

What is being said, right? And then for us to, we must read the text to understand, is what

I'm reading prescriptive or is it descriptive? It's more in the epistles here, the letters to the churches, it is more prescriptive for Paul says this, this is why

I left you in Crete so that you might put what remained in order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.

So we see instruction being given to Titus, right? And then in chapter 2, notice what the word of God states.

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Teach this, to the end, that it may be followed.

It's a specific instruction, specific command with a specific outcome desired.

Teach sound doctrine. What are you to teach? Older men to be sober -minded, dignified, self -controlled, sound in the faith and love and in steadfastness.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self -controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands that the word of God may not be reviled.

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self -controlled. Do you see the specificity here that this instruction is being given to?

He goes on in chapter 3, remind them to be submissive to the rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

But when the goodness and the kindness of God, our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

So you see, Paul begins by saying, teach sound doctrine. What is sound doctrine?

The truth of the scriptures. The word of God is inspired. God breathed and is profitable.

There is nothing that will benefit you in this life or the life to come more than the word of the living

God. So we made very quick application there.

I encourage you, again, I know that we said a mouthful today, but I would encourage you, take your notes, literally, go home this week, apply what you have heard today.

Test the scriptures by the scriptures. And you will find that as you work through the scriptures that you might have a little less time to do the things that you normally do, but you will find yourself, you will find yourself growing in the faith.

And what you will find when you grow in the faith and as brothers and sisters in Christ that we come together as a church body and we sit in Kenny's class and we hear the word of God taught, we hear

Sir preach the gospel to us, we are able to identify with what we have heard and it brings a full assurance of faith.

And it is like heaven. It is like having something stirred up in us.

The gift of faith stirred up in us. And we go out and we live our lives with passion and with zeal and with fervor, with fire in our hearts and the word of God.

And the word of God, you can be sure of this, it will accomplish its purpose. Or it will accomplish the purpose that it was sent to do.

And it might just be because there might be folks like that. Now there is a spiritual application for that Ethiopian eunuch passage.

There may be those Ethiopian eunuchs out there in the world who have been contemplating God's beginning the work of regeneration in their hearts and their minds and they just need to hear it.

Jesus died for my sin. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is done.

And God came to earth. Emmanuel, God with us.

He lived a sinless life, perfectly fulfilled the law of God, was crucified on the cross at the hands of wicked men, but understand that it did not come as a surprise to God himself, for it was verily foreordained before the foundation of the world that he should give his life a ransom for many, that he was buried, that he rose from the grave physically, and that he ascended to the right hand of the

Father where he ever lives to make intercession for us. Stand with us this morning if you would.