Calvary Chapel Modesto, Ca 1 2 of 3 — William MacDonald

Thank you very much. Seems rather unusual for dear brother Damien and myself to be here at the same time. In fact when I came in the back there and was speaking with him the young lady went by and said I've never seen you two in the same room before.

Well that's my joy tonight for that to be so. So please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. We'll begin reading in verse 33. Psalm 119 verse 33. Teach me O Lord the way of your statutes and I shall keep it to the end.

Give me understanding and I shall keep your law. Indeed I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the path of your commandments for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to covetousness.

Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things and revive me in your way. Establish your word to your servant who is devoted to fearing you. Turn away my reproach which I dread for your judgments are good.

Behold I long for your precepts. Revive me in your righteousness. I'd like to spend a little time tonight just sharing with you some keys to Bible study that have been helpful to me. Somebody has said better than to be a preacher is to make a preacher.

And I would like to adapt that tonight. Better than to be a Bible student is to make a Bible student. We'd like to multiply the number. Toward that end I'd just like to give you some simple keys. Some of which you already know no doubt.

Others which might be new to you. I'd like to start off by saying that obedience is the organ of spiritual knowledge. The people who do the best in growing in the word of God are those who see what is written and have an earnest determination to do what they see.

They have great faith in God. They believe his word. They said if God says it that's what I want to do. Those are the people who advance the best in the things of God. It's good in studying the word of God.

It's good to know the author isn't it? Good to know the author. To have a personal relationship with the Lord. That doesn't mean if you're not a Christian that you shouldn't read the Bible. For any who do not have assurance of salvation there's a guarantee in the word of God.

Did you know that? It's found in John 7, 17. And if I could just paraphrase that verse it says if you really want to know God will show it to you. I have never known that verse to fail. I've known many people who came to the Lord in desperation.

They really wanted to know the truth. Some of them were on the verge of suicide. They cried out oh God if there is a God show it to me. And they started to read the word of God and God spoke to them through the Bible.

I've never seen it fail. So if you're in that category tonight if you do not know the Savior if you do not know your sins forgiven if you don't have peace with God and are sure of a place in heaven I take you to the word of God and say believe it.

Ask him to speak to you. I tell you he can speak loudly through the scripture. If you are a Christian it should be your greatest joy in life to get into the word of God and hear God speaking to you and then build your life upon that basis.

Let me give you some keys that have been helpful to me. In your study of the word of God follow the literal interpretation of the Bible. The literal interpretation. If it says that Jesus Christ is going to reign a thousand years on the earth Jesus Christ is going to reign a thousand years on the earth.

It's just that simple. You say what else could you believe? Well there are a lot of dear Christian people who allegorize the Bible or spiritualize the Bible so that the millennium is taking place in your life right now.

When you trusted Christ the millennium begins in your life. Or maybe the millennium is taking place in heaven. My attitude is cream lies on the surface. And if the first sense of the Bible makes sense don't look for any other sense.

It's not hard is it? If the first sense makes sense don't look for any other sense. Now there are some passages in the Bible that you don't have to take literally because the word of God explains what they are.

Revelation chapter 120. Revelation chapter 120. And this is clear on the face of it. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.

And the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches. So you have many things in the scripture that are explained by the scripture. And sometimes a literal interpretation of the Bible would be inconsistent with the rest of the word of God.

Jesus said if your right eye offends you pluck it out. If your right hand offends you cut it off. But that would be in conflict with the word of God that this body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I'm not to desecrate this body.

I'm not to mutilate this body. So that passage of scripture, what does that mean? If your right eye offends you, it means there come times in life when you have to take strong, resolute action when there's a temptation in your life.

That's what it means. Joseph is an illustration. When that woman sought to seduce him, he put a few healthy miles between him and her. So I take a verse of scripture like that and say, yeah, I know what that means.

And I have to practice that in my life. We all know there's one correct interpretation of a verse of scripture. Many applications. This is wonderful about the word of God. Not all the word of God was written to me.

Some of it was written to Israel. Some of the promises are written to Israel. But I can extract honey from them and use it in my life. We must study a verse of scripture in its context. You've heard that before.

Study a verse of scripture in its context. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I'm going to read verses 29 through 34. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verses 29 to 34. And I'm looking for that expression, baptized for the dead, baptism for the dead.

29. Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why then are they baptized for the dead? And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? I affirm by the boasting in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

If in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Now, I ask myself, what is the context here?

Well, of course, the context of the chapter is the resurrection. And incidentally, when you come to that word resurrection, it always refers to the body, never to the spirit. The word resurrection always refers to the body.

This chapter has to do with the resurrection, the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of believers. But there's another emphasis in these verses that is quite strong. And if you want to understand that expression, baptism for the dead, whatever the interpretation of this verse, it must take into account that other background.

Can you see it? What's he talking about here? He said, why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? What's that referring to? It's referring to the persecution he underwent as a servant of the Most High God.

I affirm by the boasting which I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord, I die daily. What's that referring to? It's referring to his afflictions and persecutions for the namesake of the Lord Jesus. If in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me if the dead do not rise, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

He's talking about the great fight of opposition which those early Christians went through. Whatever your interpretation of baptism for the dead is, must take that into account. That is the context of the verse.

Okay, what does the verse mean? In those days, people were crowding to Christ and they were not only trusting Christ, they were being baptized. And that was the signal for persecution and martyrdom. And martyrdom.

Did that stop people from getting saved? Did that stop people from moving forward and taking the place of those who had been baptized? No. Today, those martyrs would be laid away, their bodies would be laid away in the grave.

Tomorrow, a fresh group would step forward and say, Christ for me. I am Christ's and Christ is mine. Forever and ever. And they were baptized for the dead, in the place of the dead. To fill up the ranks of the dead.

That's what they were baptized. It's like an army marching into battle. I don't know whether they do this anymore with all the smart bombs they have, but a man out front, a flag bearer, you know. And he's marching forward with a flag of his country and he's shot and he falls to the ground.

But the flag doesn't fall to the ground. One of the other soldiers rushes forward and grabs that flagpole and marches on with it. He's carrying it for the dead. That's what was happening in the early days of the church.

Baptism was, and still is in many countries, the signal for persecution. And in Muslim countries and other countries, signal for martyrdom. More Christians have been martyrs in recent years than in all the history of the Christian church.

We don't realize it. I hope you pray for the suffering church here in Calvary Chapel. I'm sure you do. What I'm emphasizing in there is baptism for the dead. Whatever the interpretation of it, it must take into account Paul, Paul's teaching here, that those who were baptized were killed, they were martyred, and others stepped forward to be baptized for them in their place to fill up the ranks.

Now you know that the Mormon people baptized for the dead, but their baptism has nothing to do with persecution. It has nothing to do with martyrdom for the name of Christ. I'll just do one more. Second Peter chapter 120.

Study it in the context. Second Peter 120. Verse 19, And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed, as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.

But prophecy never came by the will of man, but by holy men of God, as they spoke, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Well, it's that expression, no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.

Now whatever your interpretation of that passage is, it has to agree with the next verse, doesn't it? For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

That verse is interpreted in so many different ways. First of all, you mustn't interpret any passage of Scripture without taking the rest of Scripture into account. There's no private interpretation. You can't make it stand alone.

Well, I think that's kind of a good rule in general, although there's only one passage in the New Testament dealing with the virgin birth, isn't there? It is supported by Isaiah in his prophecy. But is that what the passage is saying?

Or, those who teach that only a particular church has the right to interpret the Word of God, is that what it's saying? No, it's not what it's saying. What's it saying? Peter here is talking about the origin of the Scriptures, how we got the Scriptures, not how we interpret them after we got them, but how we got the Holy Scriptures.

So how do you know? Because verse 21 bears it out. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scriptures of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of men, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

It's the origin of the Word of God that's in view here. In other words, God didn't say to Jeremiah, Jeremiah, you write this out as best seems to you. You give a Dan Rather interpretation of what's going on in Israel at the present time.

He didn't say that. The very words that Jeremiah wrote were the words of God. So just let me say before we go on, that when it says the interpretation of Scriptures, it's not how we interpret them, although if you want to make an application, that's all right, the interpretation has to do with how we got the Scriptures and the way we got them was that God gave the very words to the men to write down.

I hope this is clear. Notice in your study of the Bible, notice to whom a passage is written and about whom it's written. Notice to whom it's written and about whom it's written. Acts chapter 2 and verse 38 can be quite a difficult little verse.

Acts chapter 2 and verse 38. The folks in the Church of Christ like this verse. I don't think you'll ever talk to a person in the Church of Christ, the denomination of the Church of Christ that doesn't quote this verse.

Acts 2 38. Then Peter said to them, And let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Notice that. Repentance first, baptism second, reception of the Holy Spirit third.

Wow. Is that the gospel you preach at Calvary Chapel? I don't think so. Well, it's basically the same gospel but it's a different administration of the gospel. Let me explain that. I said, be careful that you see to whom the book is written.

Verse 22 of that same chapter, Men of Israel. Men of Israel hear these words. These words weren't spoken to Gentiles in general. They were spoken to the men of Israel. And what is God saying to them through this verse?

He's saying, The nation of Israel was responsible in a very special way, not exclusive, in a special way for the crucifixion of the Lord of glory. And I will not send my Holy Spirit upon you when you repent and believe.

I will not send my Holy Spirit upon you until you've been baptized. Why? Because baptism took them off Jewish ground and put them on Christian ground. That's why. Baptism dissociated themselves from the nation of Israel that crucified the Lord of glory.

I hope that's clear. There are four different communities of believers in the book of Acts and the order and the reception of the Holy Spirit is different in each one. First of all, you have Israel here.

You have the Samaritans in Acts chapter 8. You have the Gentiles and that's where we come in. That's where most of us here tonight come in. And what was the order there? Believe, receive the Holy Spirit and be baptized.

And then, of course, you have John's disciples later on in the book of Acts and they had to have the apostles' hands laid on them. Let me say that again. There are four communities of believers in the book of Acts and the order of reception of the Holy Spirit was different in each case.

What's it say? It says to me, God is sovereign. But he has a good reason for each of those and I've tried to show you what the reason here is. Later in this same chapter, Peter said to the men of Israel, save yourselves from this perverse generation.

What perverse generation? The generation that had the blood of Christ on their hands. How could they save themselves from that perverse generation? By believing on Christ, the Messiah, and by being baptized in Christian baptism.

Does that mean that baptism had the power to save? No, it didn't have the power to save. Only Christ has the power to save. But that took them, as I say, off Jewish ground and put them on Christian ground.

To whom a passage is written. Okay, about whom a passage is written. Acts chapter two. Notice carefully when you're studying the word of God about whom the author is writing. Ephesians 2 .1. Ephesians 2 .1.

And you, he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

Notice, in verse one, you. In verse three, we. There's a change in pronoun there. Is it accidental? There's nothing accidental in the Bible. The Holy Spirit writes with special care. What is the thought here?

Well, he's speaking to Gentiles. The letter was written to the Ephesians. They were Gentiles before they were saved. And he says, you Gentiles, he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, among whom we also, we of Jewish background.

It helps you in your understanding of the word of God if you watch for those pronouns and watch about whom Paul is speaking. Another key to understanding the word of God. The law of agency. I call this the law of agency.

Sometimes a person is said to do something when it's actually one of his agents who does it. That's not difficult. We say that today. Actually, when the President of the United States signs a bill, he's really signing it for you and for me.

He's an agent for you and for me. And you have that in the word of God, the law of agency. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 27, 14. Deuteronomy 27, 14. And this is about the pronouncing of the curses on Mount Ebal.

How the children of Israel have the curse pronounced on Mount Ebal and the blessings on Mount Gerizim. Deuteronomy 27, 14. And the Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel, Cursed is the one.

And it goes on to list a whole group of curses there. But notice, the Levites shall speak with a loud voice. Okay, now turn to Joshua 8, 35. Joshua 8, 35. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.

Joshua was there redoing the covenant. Who read them, Levites or Joshua? Well, Joshua was an agent, wasn't he? He was the agent of God for the Levites in reading to the people from the mount. The law of agency.

The law of prior mention. The law of prior mention. This is interesting to me. Sometimes things are mentioned in the Bible that weren't in existence until afterwards. Have you ever noticed that? It's really quite exciting.

For example, in Psalm 5, 7, David speaks about the temple. But the temple didn't come into existence until the time of Solomon. David had passed off the scene, Solomon built the temple, and here David long before that talks about the temple.

The law of prior mention. This past week I was studying in Isaiah, and you know, God calls Cyrus the king of the Persians, king of the Medo-Persians. He calls him by name 150 to 200 years before the man ever appeared on the scene.

I tell you, the liberals and the modernists don't like this. No, they don't. They try to assign a late date to Isaiah. He couldn't have known. He did know. He did know. And all through the book of Isaiah, God is appealing to the fact that fulfilled prophecy is one of the great proofs of his deity, and it is.

Fulfilled prophecy is one of the great proofs of the deity of God, the true God. And he contrasts himself with idols who can't predict the future. I'll say they can't. And he pours scorn on those idols.

Here are men looking to a piece of wood. They've carved it out themselves. They carry the idol. God carries his people, but they carry their God, and they have all these shavings, you know, and sawdust from the making of the idol, and they use some of it to bake bread and some of it to bake meat and some of it to warm themselves by the fire.

Scorn. God pouring upon it. So he is the God of prophecy. A great proportion of the Bible is devoted to prophetic scriptures. Law of first mention. That's another law. The law of first mention. That means that oftentimes you get something of the meaning of a word by the way it's used first in the Bible.

I like that. The law of first mention. It's not the same as the law of prior mention. Prior means before the thing ever happened. First mention means the first time. The first time the word worship appears in the Bible is when Abraham is going to Mount Moriah with his son to offer him up as a burnt sacrifice to God.

And he said to the young men that were traveling with him, look, you and the donkeys stay here, and my son and I will go yonder and worship and come back to you. That's wonderful. Come back to you. He was going to offer his son as a burnt offering.

Come back to you. Come back to you. Faith. What did worship mean for Abraham that day? I and the young man will go yonder and worship and come back to you. What did it mean? Worship to Abraham that day meant offering that which was dearest to his heart to God.

That's what it meant. It's lovely, isn't it? What did it mean to Isaac? Because he didn't struggle. He allowed his father to bind him and place him up there on the altar. It meant giving the Lord his heart, his life, his all.

That's worship. I think as John MacArthur says that offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to God is the purest form of Christian worship. I think that's true. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I love that. Think of that father and son going up there, and their hearts were filled with worship already.

Not that I have my own, I'd call. I'd hold it for the giver. That's what they were saying. Here's a key to the understanding. God is often said to do in the Bible what he only permits to be done. This has solved some difficult problems for me in the Bible.

God is often said in the Bible to do things that he only permits to be done. A good illustration, of course, is found in 1 Samuel 16, 14. 1 Samuel 16, 14. It says, But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him.

But I think in the King James Version it says, An evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. Does anybody have the King James here tonight? It says an evil spirit. Thank you. An evil spirit from the Lord?

Dear friends, I don't believe anything evil comes from the Lord. Do you? I don't believe anything evil. I don't think sickness, tragedy, sorrow. I don't think they come from the Lord. They're often said to come from the Lord because he allows it.

This is an illustration of that. Another illustration is found in Job chapter 1 and verse 21. Verse 20. Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. Who took away? The devil took away. But God permitted it. And God is here said to do what he only permits to be done. Are you with me? I think that's very, very helpful.

Sometimes a verse in the Bible states a truth, but there may be exceptions to it. There may be exceptions to it. In Ephesians 6, 1 to 3, it says, Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the earth.

This is the first commandment with promise. Dear friends, you live long on the earth. This is the first commandment with promise. I've known some wonderful fellows and girls who lived for the Lord and they died young.

I talked to Ed McCulley's father. Ed McCulley was one of the martyrs of Ecuador. And after they had been killed, his father, T. McCulley, said to me, Bill, he said, Ed was a son that never caused his parents a moment of anxiety, he said.

He was a fellow that honored his father and his mother, and yet he died young for the cause of Christ down in Ecuador. Oftentimes there are statements in the word of God and they allow for exceptions.

Train up a child in the way in which he will go. And he will not depart from it. But how do you explain the fact of two boys brought up in the same home and they had the same training from their parents?

Godly home. And while them does well, it goes on for the Lord. And the other one is blotto as far as the things of God are concerned. Accurate definitions are terribly important in Scripture. Accurate definitions.

There was a theologian years ago, his name was Bengel. And he had a list of 20 words, and he said, if you know the definition of these 20 biblical words, you're well on your way to becoming a Bible scholar.

He said, I've never found his 20 words, so I made 20 of my own. And I'll read them to you, I'll read the words. Atonement, atonement. It's a difficult word to define, I'm serious. A difficult word to define, atonement.

Election. Faith. We use them all the time. We should have an accurate definition of them. Foreknowledge, forgiveness. Glory. That word glory has, I don't know how many different meanings to it. I wrote a few down.

Radiance, bright shining, honor, God's perfection, moral glory, etc. Gospel, we know what gospel means, it means good news. Grace. Grace, undeserved favor to those who enjoy the very opposite. Justify, be careful, justify.

Justify doesn't mean to make just, it doesn't mean to make righteous. It means to reckon it to be so. It's important, it's a courtroom word. The law, the Ten Commandments. Predestination, propitiation.

Reconciliation. Redeem, to buy back. Repentance. There's a difference of opinion among evangelicals today about that word repentance. Some think it means to change your mind about God and Christ. Others think it means to change your mind about sin.

To be walking towards sin one day with God at your back. And to turn around. To walk toward God with sin left behind you. I like the second one. Thomas Watson, one of the great old Puritans, said that repentance is the vomit of the soul.

That's kind of crude, but it's good just the same. It is, it's good. Repentance is the vomit of the soul. Doesn't that say something to you? It does to me. Sanctify. Sanctify doesn't mean to make holy.

It means to set apart. Jesus sanctified himself. He says in John 17, for their sake I sanctify myself. He didn't make himself holy. He's always been holy and couldn't be anything else but holy. But he could set himself apart for the work at Calvary's cross.

Be careful of your definition. Sin. What is sin? Well, basically it's missing the mark. But there's a lot more to it than that. If I were to give you two keys to understanding, for the right understanding of the New Testament.

I would say one of them I've already given you. Adopt a literal interpretation of the word of God. The second is distinguish between Israel and the church. We hear so much today that the church is just a continuation of Israel in the Old Testament.

It's not. The church was a secret hidden in God before the foundation of the earth. And was not revealed until the apostles and prophets of the New Testament period gave it to us. Absolutely new. It's a new society that never existed before the church.

That will help you in your understanding of the scripture if you keep that in mind. Be familiar with figures of speech. This almost sounds like back in school once again. But never mind. Similarly, one thing compared to another using the words like or as.

His face was like steel. A metaphor doesn't use the word like or as. His face was steel. And yet when you use that figure of speech, nobody thinks his face was metallic, do they? Hard, stiff, unbending.

Metonymy. One word is used for a related one. Jesus said, this cup is the New Testament. In my blood, drink ye all of it. Drink a cup. You don't drink the cup. Metonymy, you drink the contents of the cup.

But we know what that meant. Nobody ever stumbled over that, did they? We know that when the Lord said drink ye all of it, he didn't expect us to be drinking cups. Anthropomorphism. This is interesting.

Where God is said to have human qualities. His eyes search among the sons of men. Beautiful. I tell you, if you get into the study of figures of speech, it gives you a new love for the word of God, I think.

Parable is a short narrative with a meaning underneath the surface. Matthew 13 has seven parables. You read the parable, it's a story in itself. But you can tell when you're reading it that there's something under the surface there that's telling it.

Allegory is an extended parable. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory. You read that beautiful story. A Christian on his way to the Celestial City. And you say, oh yeah, I can see what Bunyan was getting at here.

And so you can. Hyperbole. I like this because, and the Bible has hyperbole in it. What does that mean? It means an exaggeration. But it's so clearly an exaggeration that nobody is stumbled by it. Jesus said, you strain out a gnat and you swallow a camel.

Beautiful. That's lovely, isn't it? Did he mean you swallow a camel? No, it doesn't mean that. It means that you're punctilious about the little things in life, the little trivia in life. But you miss the important things like mercy and grace, compassion shown to others.

That's what he meant. But once you hear it, you never forget it, do you? You never forget it. Imagine a camel going down past your Adam's apple. It's ridiculous. Irony. Well, the Bible has a lot of irony in it.

Just let me show you one passage. 2 Corinthians 11 .8. 2 Corinthians 11 .8. I already gave you an illustration where God was using irony with regard to the idols. 2 Corinthians 11 .8. Paul says here, I robbed other churches taking wages from them to minister to you.

I robbed other churches. The great apostle Paul, we know what that means. He was supported elsewhere when he was working among the Corinthians. And he's using irony. They were doubting his apostleship.

They weren't receiving him as they should have received him. And so he wasn't depending upon them for his support. He got it elsewhere. And so he says, I tell you, that has a bite to it. Imagine when this letter was read in the church in Corinth.

I robbed other churches taking wages from them to minister to you. Ouch. I hope they felt the force of it. The Bible often uses the language of human appearance. This is good, too. The Bible often uses the language of human appearance.

From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the name of the Lord is to be praised. Good. We all know what that means. People say, well, the Bible has scientific inaccuracies. Really? You say, well, no, the sun doesn't move.

The sun's always in the same place. It's the earth that moves in relation to the sun. Of course, that's true. That's true. But if you go to the Chronicle tomorrow, it'll tell you what time the sun rises and what time it sets.

The Bible isn't inaccurate. It's the language of human appearance. It seems that way to us. We watch that globe dip down in the West there. And it seems that the sun is setting. The sun is still in the same place.

People shouldn't have trouble with these things. They make mountains out of molehills. Learn to recognize types in the Word of God. Typology is a great study as long as you don't carry it too far. Noah's Ark is a beautiful type.

The whole way of salvation is given there. Melchizedek is a beautiful type of the Lord Jesus. Moses, type of the prophet that would come. The Passover, the priests, the Levites, the offerings, the veil of the temple.

The tabernacle. And some of this is brought on in Hebrews. The manna, the rock, the serpent. Joseph, the son of Jacob. There are over 100 correspondences between the life of Joseph and the life of the Lord Jesus.

And yet he's never spoken of as being a type of Jesus. I think that's beautiful. Joseph is my favorite Old Testament character. Because he makes me think of Jesus. You can't read his story without that.

Recognize symbols in the Bible. Land speaks of Israel. The sea often speaks of Gentiles. Egypt speaks of the world. And Canaan speaks of our present position in Christ and heavenly places. It's marvelous to me that numbers have meanings in the scripture.

Numbers have meaning. Not always. Don't press these things too far. But they do have meaning. Number one. Exclusive and supremacy. One God. One God. Two. Confirming a testimony. In the mouths of two or three witnesses shall everything be established.

Three. Well, three has to do with the Trinity. And it also has to do with resurrection. He rose on the third day from the tomb. Four. Universality. The four corners of the earth. The four winds that cover the earth.

Four beasts comprise Gentile world domination. And so it goes. You can say that these names. Six. The number of man. The antichrist will be 666. Number of man. Six. One less than seven. Man has fallen short.

Seven is the number of perfection. Six is short of perfection. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Eight. New beginning. The first day of the week. New beginning. The Lord's day. And so forth.

Forty. A number of testing. So we could go on. Colors have spiritual meaning too. You know, here are men. Over, I think over 40 men that have written scriptures. And they never got together at a convention.

Or a men's retreat to decide about these things. And yet all of them down through the years. They follow these patterns. That I'm talking to you about in the Bible. Colors. Purple is the color of royalty.

The kings of Midian were robed in purple. Scarlet. Sin. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. White. Purity and righteousness.

Clothed in white garments, which are the righteousnesses of the saints, it says. Blue, the heavenly color. Of course, the names in scripture have a meaning too. And I think this is lovely. Israel means prince with God.

I love Jesus. The sweetest name that ever reached my ears. Jesus. Jehovah. Is the savior. We'll turn to Luke 1. My time is getting away from me. But it hasn't gone yet. Luke chapter 1. I think I'll just close with this.