Session 1 Our Best Approach to the Word Of God

Scripture tonight will be from Matthew 7, if you would please stand in honor of God's Word. We'll be reading verses 1 through 5.

Judge not that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Why do you seek the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is the log in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Well, I should have looked before I got up here, but I don't remember what annual

Bible conference this is. 38, 39, 37, 30th?

30th, that's three decades of our Bible conference. It used to be in the fall, now it's in the spring.

But I always love our Bible conference because God has never failed to bring us someone who can give us the

Word of God and help us to learn together. My friend, Peter LaRuffa, is one of the pastors at Grace Fellowship Church.

He's pastoring at Fort Thomas, Kentucky. And I was trying to remember, when

I first met Peter, I think it was in Amsterdam when we were headed to Albania.

And he was going to meet us there at that airport, and Annie told me this.

She said, this guy comes walking up, Annie went with me on that trip, she said, this guy came walking up to us.

And I never saw this guy in my life, and he walked up and said, hi, you must be

Annie. And she's like, who is this? Anyway, Peter grew up in, okay, let me try to remember the,

Queens, right? Peter grew up in Queens, one of the boroughs in New York City.

And I remember, here's one story. So I'm fascinated with this guy.

I'm meeting a guy who grew up in New York City, and I'm thinking, what kind of a life was that like? And I remember asking him all kinds of questions and him telling me about his experience of moving to Kentucky and so forth.

And we're standing in Tirana, which is the capital of Albania, and we are surrounded by thousands and thousands of people.

I mean, it was unbelievable. And he's standing there and he says, I feel so much safer now.

Now you all laugh because we're thinking, yikes, this is terrifying.

I said, why are you saying that? And he says, oh, when there's people around, I just feel so much better.

I don't know how you folks do it where you live. Like you're in the middle of nowhere. Anything could happen to you.

I guess. I never thought of it that way. But Peter has ministered in Kentucky at Fort Thomas now for 18 years.

And I count it a privilege to call him my friend. And I appreciate his commitment to the scripture and his commitment to preaching the word of God.

So, Peter, come on up and bring the word of God to us. Thank you.

I didn't know if it was at the airport that we met or if you were my supervisor for ACBC first.

I don't remember which order it was in. I was I was certified. I was

I've always been certifiable, but I was certified in 2014. So that means we must have done supervision in 2013.

And yeah, it was such it was just a joy to this. I have always told people when it comes to the

ACBC certification process. So being certified as a biblical counselor through the

Association of Certified Biblical Counselors was a very sanctifying experience for me, largely for the supervision part.

The theology exam, that's fine. It was. I would love to never do that again.

I mean, it was really intense, but it wasn't really sanctifying. It felt like a hoot. Other people are more sanctified by that.

For me, having somebody comment on my counseling is a once in a lifetime experience.

Nobody ever does that. If the counselee ever does that, you're like, you're the counselee. So having somebody from outside comment on your counseling and say, now, why did you do that?

How come you went that that long? Peter, you're preaching again. This is supposed to be a dialogue.

All these things that were really, really helpful. But then I also so I kept telling people, if you're going to do the certification process, just wait till you get to supervision.

It was phenomenal. I felt pastored. These people are pastors, pastors, pastors of pastors.

And then I found out I had Tim Pazma. And that was my experience. That's not necessarily the experience of everybody who goes through supervision.

I had a unique experience with a unique shepherd of shepherds, with somebody who loved me very well.

Loved biblical counseling tremendously, was phenomenal, continues to be phenomenal at it. But really shepherded me as a shepherd of others.

And so I'll tell you something that you probably already know, but it's worth repeating. And that is that you have a tremendous, tremendous gift in the pastoral leadership of this church.

This is not something that you just have. Oh, yeah. Any any churches has this. It's no big deal. Just seen one, seen them all.

That's not the case. And so you have something very, very unique here at LaRue Baptist Church.

LaRue, LaRue, LaRue. If you're born here, it's

LaRue. OK, so you have something very unique at LaRue Baptist Church. And it's just a joy to be able to be with you again.

And yes, and part of the joy of having that fellowship with with Tim was him laughing at me, laughing.

He says laughing with me was really laughing at me and how I was still coming into my own, moving from a global city like New York to northern

Kentucky. Northern Kentucky is kind of weird. Have you ever been to northern Kentucky? It's where the Ark is and the

Creation Museum. It's not it's just on the border of the Ohio. So it's not Cincinnati. It's not really Kentucky. We're like this weird island of a hodgepodge.

We have Skyline Chili. People there say, do people here say please as and they mean pardon me, like, excuse me.

Is that a thing? When people when you want somebody to repeat themselves, do you say please? Just right, because you're right, because you're normal, like people don't do that.

But in Cincinnati, it's some German thing. Some I don't

I don't really understand. But they say please when they're late, if they didn't hear you. So you might be checking out the register and somebody if that person doesn't hear it, they'll say please.

And then you repeat yourself. Well, nobody told me this. And I was at a Taco Bell drive -thru because I'm a health freak.

And I was getting food for my wife and myself. And I'm sitting at the Taco Bell drive -thru.

And I ordered our our meal. And she's at home where I just come back from Home Depot, which

I found out closed 24 -7 in New York. They closed. And so I was at Home Depot and I got but I had to rush because they were closing and I got the paint.

And I'm sitting there at a Taco Bell drive -thru where we have one baby at home. And we're getting all the things.

And it's like, sure, I'll stop in and get some dinner. And I give my order. And the lady goes, please.

And so I go, please, like, am I being corrected?

I'm sorry, I was not polite. Like, I didn't say please. So I give my order and they say, please.

And I went, please. And it's like, no, no, no.

Excuse me. And I'm like, okay. And then I found out, oh, that's the thing. That means I was like,

I've even offended a Taco Bell drive -thru person. I'm never going to make it here. But, yeah, all the things that I'll try to think of a different story every time

I preach. I did that, I think, last time about like City Boy meets the country. And it's scary.

It's scary. Cows are big. I don't care if they're dumb. All right. They're big. If they realize how big they are, they could hurt me.

I know they may not, but they're very, they're large. It's not why you came here today. But, yeah, let me tell you a little bit.

So last time I came with my family, they were not able to join me this time. And so here is our, this is our

Christmas card picture. And so that's, we were here six years ago.

And our whole family was here. They ran all around Maroon and had so much fun with so many of you.

You were so hospitable. And so on the left there is Justin. He's my oldest. He's 20. He's a sophomore in college.

He is a diehard New York Mets fan, as we raised him to be, because we're a

Christian family. My second oldest is

Jonathan. He's 16. He was really wanting to come, but he had to work. He works for, he's also in ministry.

He works at Chick -fil -A. The gospel birder. But he couldn't get off from work, so he was not able to come.

But he was very, very sad. And that's Emma Lyon. Emma is 14. And then

Silas. Where's the Silas that I met? You're Silas, right? There you go. See, I told you. My son's name is Silas and he also wears glasses.

And Silas is 10. And when Justin comes back from college, Justin says that Silas is being raised by a different set of parents.

He's like, must be nice to be raised by your friends. That's not, but he's a little right. You know what I mean? We care, but we don't care as much as we cared with.

We let a lot of things go. But we're doing well. And that's my wife,

Sarah. We've been married for 21 years this past November. We'll be married,

Lord willing, 22 years next, this coming November. And so it's a joy to be here.

I miss them. They miss you. They send their love. And I'm so grateful to be able to open up God's word with you.

It was hard to pick what to preach on for a few reasons. Number one, Tim said, you know, brother, just preach on whatever you want to preach on, which is good.

But it's a big book, you know. So it's like a lot of it's good. So I didn't really know what to narrow it down. But then I have the added problem that every time

I had an idea of what I wanted to preach on, I realized I learned that from Tim. And so I was like, no, stole that from Tim.

All right. No, I can't do that. Let me think some more. But it's I've just I asked him if we could spend some time in Luke chapter 15,

Luke chapter 15. And so that's what we're going to look at for the remainder of our time together.

So if you would turn to Luke chapter 15. And while you do that,

I will share some information with you about Luke chapter 15.

So we've since we've not spent a lot of time together, I told you about myself, my family, a little about my background.

Well, Tim told you about my background by way of making fun of me. But we don't know each other well. But now, you know, a little more about me than when then maybe you did an hour ago.

And so somewhat similarly, what I would like to do, since we haven't spent much time in this portion of Scripture, that is the gospel of Luke.

By way of introduction, if you would permit me to acquaint or reacquaint you with the text that we're going to spend a good deal of time on over the next few days.

So that's in Luke chapter 15. We actually don't know much about the author of the gospel of Luke.

He includes almost no personal details about himself in the Scriptures. But what we do know about Luke from the

Bible can be found in Colossians four. We're not going to look there today. But Colossians four, for example,

Paul distinguishes between Luke and those who are, quote, of the circumcision. So that means

Luke was a Gentile. On that note, he was the only Gentile to write any Scripture and wrote a chunk of the

New Testament, having authored the gospel that bears his name, as well as the Acts of the

Apostles. Eusebius and Jerome identify Luke as a native of Antioch, which might be why so much of the

Acts of the Apostles kind of centers on Antioch. He often accompanied, excuse me,

Paul from the time of his Macedonian vision in Acts chapter 16 all the way up to his martyrdom.

Something else we learn from Colossians four is that Luke was a physician. Paul refers to him as such in Colossians four and verse 14.

And as you read through the gospel of Luke, you can see Luke's great interest in the time and attention and ink he dedicated to Jesus's healing ministry.

Like that would amaze anybody, but particular if you were in the business, if you will, of helping people to be well, watching somebody walk in and say, take up your mat and walk.

That's going to get your attention. You're going to want to know, like, how did he do that? And so Luke gives more attention to this and to the poor and the marginalized than any other gospel writer.

A running theme throughout the gospel of Luke is Jesus's compassion for Gentiles, for Samaritans, for women, for children, sinners and tax collectors and others who are typically marginalized in Israel at the time.

In fact, fun fact, every time Luke mentions a tax collector, it's in a positive sense.

Now, both Luke and Acts start out with him dedicating his writing to most excellent

Theophilus, a name that literally means lover of God. It's almost certain, though, that Luke envisioned a much broader audience than merely

Theo. I call him Theo. The dedications in Luke and Acts are similar to dedications that we find in books today.

So you know when you're opening up the front cover of a book and you read a few pages in and it says, dedicate to my wife and children, to my husband without whom

I could not have done this, to the following people who are my great friends. We understand that as an acknowledgment, but we don't then close the book and be like, oh, this isn't mine.

Like, no, that's not how that works. That author is just acknowledging somebody who that means a lot to them.

And so we believe, there's reason to believe that Luke had a much broader audience in mind, even as he was penning both

Luke and Acts. From the get -go, Luke is clear that his knowledge of the events that he describes is secondhand.

They came from others who were eyewitnesses to Jesus's life and ministry. His account of the

Nativity, for example, is the fullest of all the gospel writers. He's the only gospel writer to report the circumstances surrounding the birth of John the

Baptist, the annunciation to Mary, the manger scene, the shepherds, Simeon and Anna.

They're all unique to Luke. Now, in our church, we began preaching through the gospel of Luke in September of 2020.

And Lord willing, we'll finish at the end of July. So we have been taking our time. I know, we spend more time in the gospel of Luke than Luke spent with Jesus.

I mean, than Jesus spent on earth, quite frankly. Like, it really has been a slow go at it, but we've really enjoyed spending that time taking it slowly and looking at all that God has for us in the gospel of Luke.

The text that we're going to look at, Lord willing, over this time together is Luke 15.

And as you'll notice, Luke 15 contains three parables.

The parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the prodigal son.

So what I'd like to do before we move on is I would like to read through this portion of scripture.

I'm going to actually read aloud the entire chapter of Luke 15, all three parables, probably for the only time in our time together.

And then we'll focus on different portions of that chapter as we continue to spend this time together.

And so Luke 15, beginning in verse 1, this is what the word of God says.

Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him.

And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

So he told them this parable. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he had lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.

Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

Or what woman, having 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.

Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

And he said there was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.

And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.

So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into the fields to feed pigs.

And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger.

I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.

And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

And the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate.

For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

And they began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field.

And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

And he said to him, your brother has come home and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.

But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and he treated him, but he answered his father.

Look, these many years I have served you and I have never disobeyed your command. Yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.

And he said to him, son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours.

It was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this.

Your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.

Father in heaven, we come before you. Grateful to have heard from your holy word.

Grateful for the opportunity that we have to be gathered together here in this place. Grateful to be a part of the family of God.

All of which comes to us by no doing of our own, but is all given to us through your sovereign grace and mercy.

Lord, thank you for choosing to set your love upon us instead of your wrath.

Thank you for saving a people for yourself. And thank you for calling us among those people.

Lord, would you bless us as we spend this time in your word? Would you bless me as I seek to speak your truth?

And would we all leave these meetings together even more excited about not just our

Bibles, but about Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Lord and our

King. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. And so Luke 15, that was a rather lengthy reading of scripture, but it contains three parables, all which follow a similar theme.

They all have a similar moral, if you will, and a similar application. Because Jesus is speaking these parables in response to the grumbling of the scribes and Pharisees who were upset.

Take a look again at verses 1 and following in Luke 15. It says,

And I went with some people from our church, and it was a tremendous time of learning and a great time of fellowship.

One of or the plenary speaker that year was Dr. John MacArthur, and he was sharing his time in Luke chapter 15.

And most of his messages had to do with the parable of the lost son or the parable of two sons or the parable of the prodigal son.

And that is the one thing that I remember from that conference, to be honest with you.

I was so moved by how he had opened up the scriptures to us and how we had seen things from the text.

It was a parable that I was completely familiar with. I had seen it in Superbook. Anybody? Superbook? Am I the only one?

Nobody remembers Superbook? It's a video series. No? McGee and me?

Okay. Anyway, Superbook was like a 2D, really poorly animated, something like a step above Minecraft as far as picture animation and quality is concerned.

But it was something that we used to watch as kids, and my mom attended. I was raised by a single mom, and we lived in apartment 6F, and in apartment 1F was a weekly home

Bible study. I'll tell you more about that in my testimony. But we were from a

Roman Catholic background, and then God saved my mom, and we didn't know another church to go to. So we thought what

God called us to do was now that mom was a Christian, we were going to go to the Catholic church on Sundays and complain about it in Jesus' name.

So that's what we did for several years. But mom on Friday nights grew from this home Bible study that took place just five stories below us in apartment 1F.

And she would hear the word preached. There was a bunch of people there who would gather together and pray for one another and care for one another, and we would be in the back watching

Superbook. And Superbook was there, I think, like it assuaged their souls. Yes, they're putting us in front of TV, but it's godly

TV. And so we watched Superbook, and one of the things there was the Prodigal Son. I was familiar with the

Prodigal Son, the parable of the Prodigal Son, from a very early age. This is not an uncommon or an unfamiliar portion of Scripture.

But I think there are ways that we can look at it and best understand it and better apply it to our own lives.

And so when Dr. MacArthur, Pastor John MacArthur preached it, I thought, wow, I really want to get into this portion of the text.

And I was a youth pastor at the time, and that's when I made the theme of our youth camp was I preach through Luke 15 and focus on the

Prodigal Son. And as I thought how to best spend this time together, I thought it would best to start out to talk about how to best approach parables.

How to best approach parables and then focus on how we can best approach the Word of God together as believers.

And so I think you were handed an outline, or there's an outline that's available. The screen behind me is just going to highlight the points on that outline.

It's very straightforward. It'll just tell you the point that we're under. And so point number one is where we're at now.

You need to fight distraction and stay focused on the main thing. You need to fight distraction and stay focused on the main thing.

The Greek word used for parable is parabolai, parabolai.

That's the correct mispronunciation of the Greek, which means something placed alongside something else for the purpose of comparison.

So when I think parable, parallel. That's how I think. Parable, parallel.

There's Jesus saying, He's trying to make a point and so He's laying down something right alongside it to say,

Hey, it's kind of like this. And He speaks in terms that would be familiar to the readers so they could say,

Oh, I know about that. Oh, parable of the sower. It was like, well, a guy had some seed. And they're like, I hear that.

I know what it's like to have seed. And He threw out the seed. And wouldn't you know, some birds came along with God. And He's like, yeah, I hate when that happens.

So people are understanding what He's saying. These are very, very familiar terms that He is using.

And so parable, again, is the Greek word parabolai, which means placed alongside something else for the purpose of comparison.

And so we have this in the first two verses of the chapter. The tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Him.

The Pharisee and the scribes were grumbling. Imagine that. They do that every day. The grumbling about the fact that this man receives sinners and eats with them.

And so Jesus, in response to their grumbling, says, let me tell you a story.

It's kind of like this. Maybe it's like that. And it's something else that's important for us to realize is that parables are purposely figurative, but are not allegories.

Parables are intended by God, by Jesus Christ, to be figurative, but are not allegories.

The allegorical method of interpreting Scripture is when somebody looks beyond what we call the prima facie reading of the text for a supposedly deeper spiritual meaning within a biblical text.

And so, basically, people who like to allegorize Scripture inappropriately, they look at what the text says, and they think there's a deeper spiritual meaning.

There's a meaning underneath the meaning that we've got to get to, and they don't just take it for what it is.

It's not necessarily a denial that the text has a literal meaning or that the historical incidents reported are true.

But usually, those who ascribe to this way of understanding or this method of interpreting

Scripture aren't happy unless they find some deeper symbolic meaning. Now, over the centuries, allegorization has been employed to create more confusion about the plain meaning of Scripture than perhaps any other hermeneutical device.

Let me give you some examples, and they're listed in your outline. The Song of Solomon is often interpreted allegorically as referring to Christ's love for the church.

I'm not saying there aren't parallels or illustrations you can draw from that, or even applications you can draw secondarily.

But oftentimes, when people are talking about the Song of Solomon, they're kind of afraid or a little embarrassed for what the Song of Solomon talks about.

And they're like, I don't want to feel awkward around pomegranates like I do when I read the Song of Solomon. I want to just look at a gazelle as a gazelle, bro.

I don't really want that picture. But God has that written for us for a reason. And so people would allegorize it and say, no, no, no, this is not really that.

It's not really what it plainly says. There's really a different meaning here. And so a lot of things could be behind that.

Sometimes I think it's people who are more embarrassed about biblical sexuality than God is.

But Song of Solomon is a book that is often interpreted allegorically as referring to Christ's love for the church instead of for the love story that is told therein.

Genesis 1 and verse 16 says this, And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars.

That's Genesis 1 .16. In the Schofield Reference Bible, Schofield interprets

Genesis 1 .16 allegorically. Although he doesn't necessarily deny the plain meaning of the verse regarding creation, he finds a deeper spiritual, he calls it typological, meaning.

He says that the greater light, the sun, is Jesus, the lesser light, the moon, is the church, reflecting the light of Christ, and the stars are individual believers.

And that's a pretty picture, but it's nowhere in the text. This is us being told how

God created the universe. That is what's in the text. It's a prima facie reading of the text.

And so he allegorically says, you know what's really going on here? I'll tell you what's really going on. This represents this, and this represents that.

It's like, wow, but he's wrong. So allegorization is not helpful.

Genesis 2 and verse 23, we read this, Then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. In a work called

Portraits of Christ in Genesis, a man by the last name of Dehan says that Adam is a type of Christ because Adam was put to sleep, his side was opened, he was wounded, and his blood was shed, and from that wound his bride was taken.

In the same way, Christ died, had his side pierced, and from that ordeal his bride, the church, is produced.

Just as Adam said that Eve was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, so the church is the body, flesh, and bone of Christ.

No, that's not what Genesis 2 .23 means. I mean, that's pretty. I'm not saying that we are not the bride of Christ.

We are the bride of Christ. Genesis 2 .23 does not point to that fact. Genesis 2 .23 points to how

God created woman from man. Maybe the most popular allegorization is taken from the parable of the

Good Samaritan in Luke 10. Origin says that the man who is robbed is

Adam, Jerusalem is paradise, Jericho is the world, the priest is the law, the

Levites are the prophets, the Samaritan is Christ, the donkey is

Christ's physical body which bears the burden of the wounded man, and the wounds are his sins, and the inn that he sleeps in is the church, and the

Samaritan's promise to return is a promise of the second coming of Christ. Okay, slow down, professor.

That's not what is being said there at all. But if we try to play connect the dots, it's unhelpful.

It's unhelpful. This was a popular method of scriptural interpretation for about a thousand years, and thankfully it was displaced by the

Reformation when the reformers sought the plain meaning of the text and the doctrine of the perspicuity of the scriptures, that the core message of the

Bible is clear and understandable by all people. If the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense.

Parables, again, are purposely figurative, but they're not allegories. They are an incredibly helpful teaching method because everyone loves a story.

We all love a story. Nobody told a story and taught a lesson better than Jesus Christ, and so that's what he is doing here.

But it's important to know that even though parables are purposely figurative, they are not allegories.

So what I want to do is I want to go over some common best practices when interpreting Jesus's parables.

And for that, I'm going to have you turn five chapters back to Luke chapter 10, which is where, in verse 25, we read of the parable of the

Good Samaritan. The parable of the Good Samaritan is interesting for many reasons, one of which is it's never actually called a parable.

So in Luke 15, we heard Luke say, and he told him this parable.

I don't know if you noticed, but in Luke 10, verses 25 and following, it doesn't say, and Jesus told them this parable.

But we still call it a parable because of the type of language that's used and how Jesus is answering this lawyer with what seems to be a random story.

And so it is, in all likelihood, a parable. But some common best practices when interpreting

Jesus's parables would be this. First of all, letter A in your outline, understand the scope of truth being presented.

Understand the scope of truth being presented. And so it's important to pay attention to introductory words, oftentimes that are setting the scene and the context that you can find there.

So if you look at Luke 10, beginning in verse 25, we see this conversation taking place.

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall

I do to inherit eternal life? So right there, we're told by Luke, this lawyer is asking a question, and it's a loaded question.

He's doing this to put him to the test. He's not really looking for information. He's trying to corner him. He's trying to catch him in something.

Unfortunately for him, he's dealing with the Son of God. And so God knows what he's doing, and so he's not going to win this.

Verse 25, a lawyer stood to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Verse 26,

Jesus had said to him, What is written in the law? How do you read it? You're a lawyer. How do you read it?

Verse 27, And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbors as yourself.

And he said to him, You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

And now we're off to the races. And that's the context. That's what leads into Jesus talking about this.

Jesus telling this parable of the Good Samaritan. And so it's important to realize that the introductory words can set the scene and the context, which is why we really don't have any reason to allegorize.

We know why Jesus is telling him this parable. We don't have to play connect the dots because God's word is clear and God connects the dots for us.

And so paying attention to the introductory words oftentimes sets the scene and the context. But then also closing remarks can help the reader understand the application.

So we're going to skip that parable, but look at verse 36, Luke 10 and verse 36.

When Jesus finishes telling the parable of the Good Samaritan, he says, Which of these three do you think prove to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?

He said, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise.

And so it's kind of crazy. That's pretty plain, right? Jesus is saying, who's the hero?

Who's the zero? The hero of the story is the guy who showed him mercy. Great. You go and do likewise.

And then for somebody, that's very clear. And now for somebody to open up this portion of scripture and say, but I'll tell you what it really means.

I think it really means something else. And if you look at the donkey and the fact that the donkey wasn't really a donkey, and we don't really know it, like just all this crazy stuff, there's no point in doing that because God's word is clear.

And sometimes looking at the introduction and looking at the conclusion will tie it all together and help us to apply

God's word. Something else, let it be in your outline. I think it's important to understand the meat of the parable and spit out the bones.

Understand the meat of the parable and spit out the bones. So we're not going to look at it today, but the parable of the sower, for example,

Jesus explains that parable, but look at what he doesn't explain. So he explains the sower, but he doesn't explain every single detail.

For example, Jesus' own explanation, he doesn't comment on the fact that there are four and only four different types of soil.

That was an insignificant detail. It was immaterial. It was meaningless to the overall point

Jesus was making. But sometimes people say, yeah, but what about this? If you think of it this way, what about the fact that Jesus got into a boat and that's

Jesus coming into the world and the thing outside is sin? It's like, no, the boat represents buoyancy.

And Jesus did not want to walk across the water, and so he just got in a boat. Let's not read into it beyond what is actually happening.

And so it's also important to understand the meat of a parable. Of course, Jesus going into a boat is not a parable, but understanding the meat of the parable and spitting out the bones, not tripping over the different details and getting caught up in every single thing, because sometimes it's just meaningless to the overall point that Jesus was making.

Finally, letter C, always first compare Scripture with Scripture.

Always first compare Scripture with Scripture. This is a basic principle of Bible study, of hermeneutics, and it's invaluable when you're reading or studying your

Bible. It's very helpful when trying to best understand parables. Jesus' parables will never contradict the rest of the

Word of God. Jesus' parables will never contradict the rest of the Word of God, which he came to express as we read in John 12 and verse 49.

The parables are meant to illustrate doctrine and the teachings Jesus illuminated are found clearly taught elsewhere in the

Bible. So Jesus' parables will never contradict the Word of God. John 12 and verse 49,

Jesus says, For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak.

Also, the doctrine that Jesus illustrates in his parables will always be found elsewhere in Scripture.

All of these are important to consider as we look ahead to the time we'll spend together in what is literally my absolute favorite portion of Scripture to preach from, bar none.

And while we won't allegorize, I hope to bring to your attention some details about the parable that the first century audience would have likely understood based on their time and culture, things that we likely overlook because we're in this time and culture, which can change from place to place and from season to season.

There's a town in northern Kentucky called Bellevue, I don't know if you've heard of it, but Bellevue.

So there's Cincinnati and then right across the river, you have Covington and you have Newport, you have

Fort Thomas, you have Dayton, Kentucky, and you also have a town called Bellevue, Kentucky. Unfortunately for me,

I was not told that this was a town and I only had the Bellevue from my context in New York City.

In New York City, anybody who grew up in New York City knows Bellevue is a mental institution. So we would make jokes.

In fact, do you remember the show The Honeymooners? Jackie Gleason, it's terrible, don't do anything they do in their marriage.

It's a horrible marriage show, but it'll make you laugh. And when you watch it, one of the things that even he says is,

I'm calling Bellevue because you're nuts. And so in New York, that makes a lot of sense. We would laugh because that's obviously, oh yeah, you're threatening to send your friend

Norton, who you say is nuts, to a mental hospital. Here I moved to Northern Kentucky and somebody said, I live in Bellevue.

And I'm like, but it's really not funny. They like legit live in Bellevue. It's a town. And so things change from time to time.

It's the context, it matters. And so I hope that we get to look at some of that together as we open up God's word together.

Now, setting that aside, more important than the tools or methods you use in interpreting

Scripture is the heart you bring to the table. Let me say that again.

I would say more important than the tools or methods you use in interpreting Scripture is the heart that you bring to the table, the attitude that you bring to God's word as we open it up together.

People can use certain tools for great good or for great harm. There are likely a variety of farm tools that are used for great good that I should never touch because someone will lose a limb.

Like I just don't know how to use them. And so these things can be used for great good, but in the wrong hands or the wrong attitude or the wrong motive, they can also be used for great harm.

And so we've spoken about a bunch of ways to interpret parables. We've spoken about ways not to interpret parables.

We've laughed a little at people who interpret them wrongly. It's been great, but I really want to now set all that aside and I want to talk to you about you.

Because I think when it comes to parables, one of the things that is most important is you should look for yourself in the story before you look for anyone else.

You should look for yourself in the story before you look for anyone else.

Anyone involved in the biblical counseling movement and biblical counseling ministry or pastoral ministry should know about something that we refer to as the noetic effect of sin, sin's effect on the mind.

We are born with a sinful nature. And so when God created Adam and Eve, he created them and they did not have sinful parents because God created them.

And so they were not sinners by nature, but they disobeyed. And so they were sinners by what? Sinners by choice.

Then as a result of their choice, all of Adam and Eve's progeny, all who come after that are sinners by nature and therefore sinners by choice.

And so we're not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we're sinners.

Does that make sense? We don't enter this world a blank slate. Let's see how this one's going to go up.

Turns out he's a sinner. No, we're born with a sinful nature. The wicked are estranged from the womb.

They go speaking lies, Psalm 58 verse three. David says, in sin, my mother conceived me.

Meaning from the moment I was conceived, I had sin. We know that we have sinful, sinful natures, and therefore we make sinful choices.

It's why you've never had to teach your kids how to do wrong. Hey son, this is how to be greedy.

Now watch here, send no one ever. Like they know how to do that on their own. It's why nobody has to teach you when you're looking at a good picture.

The first person you look for is yourself. Admit it. I do it, you do it. When there's a good picture, you're just naturally drawn towards, oh, there

I am. You stand out to you. I stand out to me. We have sinful natures.

Our mind has been impacted by sin. And so it's very easy for us to sit under the preaching of God's word and think this was a really good sermon for her.

Wow, I really hope he heard that. I don't even mean you're saying it arrogantly.

I'm going to be saying it from the bottom of your heart. Oh wow, this would be so good for so and so to hear.

I'm going to send them a recording. I'm going to text them because they've got to hear this. I'm not even saying it's wrong.

God's calling people to your mind that you think would be impacted by the word of God. I think that's great. It shows that you care.

But you should look for yourself before you look for someone else. You should be coming to God's word saying, what is in this for me?

What is in this for me? I know as a pastor, if I am hearing the word preached, and the first thing that I think of is how

I could use this in ministry, I may not be wrong, but it's usually during times in my life where I'm kind of dry when

I walk with the Lord. Because I start viewing the Bible as the thing that I do for work. Now I know that's not the

Bible. I read my Bible daily. I commune with the Lord, apart from sermon preparation, early in the morning.

I meet with my son Jonathan. We both wake up. We read our Bibles, but not together. We don't read it to each other.

It's too early in the morning for that. But we sit down next to each other. We're kind of like hungry. He's an old soul, so he has a robe.

It's really cute. And so he's down there. He does. He's a 16 -year -old with a robe. I'm telling you, he's the youngest old man

I know. And he's got his robe, and he sits down there, and I've got my coffee. So I'm reading

God's word together. That's how we start out most mornings. Most mornings. That's not for sermon prep.

When I did that this morning, it was not in Luke 15. It had nothing to do with LaRue or Labor.

It had nothing to do with this Bible conference. It had nothing to do with any sermon. It's me coming to the word of God to feed off of God's word.

What I'm telling you, I'm just confessing, that if during those times, while I'm reading God's word,

I think I can make enough out of that. It's saying that I could use that.

But the fact that my job and other people is usually a bad sign for where I'm at with my walk with the

Lord. Does that make sense? I should be feeding on God's word first for me because I need nourishment.

And secondarily, yes, I would love to give it to others. I would love to help my family. I would love to use it in ministry.

But I think it's important for you to look for yourself in the story before you look for anyone else.

Now, the scripture reading that was read before was from Matthew 7. Matthew 7.

So why don't you go there in your Bibles. Matthew chapter 7. Let's read the first five verses once again.

Matthew 7, beginning in verse 1. This is Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, Judge not that you be not judged.

For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but you do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is the log in your own eye?

You hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye. And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

So let's walk through this portion of scripture together. Beginning in verse 1. It's an awkward portion of scripture if you think about it.

Because at first glance, Jesus is saying, don't judge. And then he's kind of telling you how to judge.

It's like, don't judge. But if you're going to judge, you should probably do it this way. So the first verse says,

Judge not that you be not judged. So what Jesus is basically saying there, like I like to tell people, is he's saying, don't be judging.

Don't be judging. Don't be judgmental. Don't make it your life's mission to always be casting judgment on other people.

If you're not judgmental, you will not be judged. Don't judge not, and you won't be judged. Because if you notice, the people who are usually judgmental, you're usually talking about them, therefore you're judging them.

So that brings us to verse 2, which also says, For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. And that's, we've all seen that come true in our lives.

It usually happens when somebody is critical of you. And it's like if Tim's like, nice shirt.

You know what I'm thinking about right now? For the first time, Tim's shirt. So he's like, nice shirt,

Pete. I'm like, your shirt's not so great either. He's like, with the measure you use, it will be judged back to you.

I wasn't thinking about his shirt at all. But you know, someone's like, hey, you alright? You don't look so healthy.

And I'm like, you know what? You're no spring chicken yourself. But I wasn't thinking that at first, but that's just, it's how our sinful natures work.

With the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

We tend to interact with one another in that way, right? When somebody says something to you, you tend to reciprocate it, whether you're right or wrong in doing so.

And so Jesus is calling it is what it is. So he says, judge not that you not be judged. Don't be a judgy person.

Don't be judgmental. And keep in mind that the judgment you pronounce, with that judgment, you will be judged.

The measure you use it, it will be measured back to you. And then in verse three, he asks a question, which brings me to the first point right there under Roman numeral two, letter

A. Beware of where your eyes are set. Beware of where your eyes are set.

Because Jesus says this. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

I think that's a rhetorical question, right? But I don't think it's only a rhetorical question.

I think we would do well to answer it, actually. First of all, the reason why

I see the speck in my brother's eye, the reason why I see my brother's sin before I see my sin or my sister's sin before I see my sin, is because of my sinful nature.

And I think more of myself and less of others. And so I'm more prone to see the speck in your eye and not the log in my eye.

That's kind of the rhetorical, ooh, you got me, Jesus. That's what you're saying to me. But there's another reason why

I am more prone to see the speck in your eye than the log in my own eye, and that's because I can see you easier than I can see me.

I can see you easier than I can see me. I will know if Emma has something in her teeth before I'll know if I have something in my teeth.

Just common sense, right? And so I'm going to be able to see somebody else before they can see me.

And so not only is my heart predisposed to not see my own sin, but honestly, quite frankly, it's just easier for me to see you than for you for me to see me.

You will know if I have a kidney sign in the back of me long before I do. There are parts of my body that I have never made a direct observation of.

I've only seen them indirectly. I've never looked at my face directly.

I've only seen it in an image, a mirror or a picture. But you're seeing it, ta -da, right now.

You see it directly for what it is. I don't really know what it looks like right now. And so when

Jesus asked the question, Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

I think we have to be aware of where our eyes are set. We have to realize that there's an answer to that question.

It is a rhetorical question, but the answer is, because I'm a sinner and I tend to look outward, and really just because it's easier for me to see others than it is for me to see myself.

That's why we need each other. Because we have blind spots. Beware of where your eyes are set.

Letter B, beware of seemingly righteous goals and intentions. Verse 4 says,

Or how can you say to your brother, Hey, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is the log in your own eye.

And so the picture that's being created here by Jesus is, I don't remember the word in the

Greek, but it's not just like, Oh, the thing in your eye is bigger than the thing in my eye. That's weird.

It's like, How can you talk about the speck in my eye with a telephone pole in your eye?

I mean, the comparison is obvious. The contrast is obvious. It's not like,

Oh, your eye is blurry and so is mine. LOL. No, no, it's a huge deal. How can you look at the speck in my eye when you have a telephone pole sticking out of your eye?

Verse 4 says, How can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye when there is the log in your own eye.

And so as you're looking to take a speck out of somebody else's eye, and you have a log in your own eye, here's what's going to happen.

You're going to hurt them. Right? Because if I was to get like close enough to Silas to take something out of Silas's eye, but let's say

I have a huge telephone pole sticking out of my eye. Okay. And I try to go over there.

What am I probably going to do? I'm probably going to hit him. I'm not going to mean to, but I'm going to hit him.

Why? Because I have not taken this out of my eye. Maybe don't do this while driving fast, but try covering one eye while driving.

You will quickly cover that eye. The two eyes are depth perception. That's what gives us our depth perception.

And so you can't see clearly with something in your eye. You might not be seeing accurately with something in your eye.

And you're like, no, I really feel like it's good. It's okay. Hey, come here, Silas. No, you will be good. Don't worry.

Okay. No, you're fine. Don't worry about it. I just want to get this out of here. So I have the best of intentions, but it's not going to produce good results.

I'm not seeing clearly. And I'm going to hurt the person that I'm going towards. Even if I don't mean to.

I'm not seeing clearly. And because I haven't dealt with my own sin, I'm going to hurt the person that I'm trying to help.

These are rhetorical questions, but they're not only rhetorical questions. We would do well to answer those questions.

How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye. I can't see me.

Proverbs 14, 12 says, there's a way that seems right to a man, but it's end is the way of death, showing us that what we think is so right can be so wrong, right?

Hey, this way seems cool. Actually, you'll die. So proverbs are general axioms, trying to get you to see the extreme hyperbolic nature of life in many cases.

And so there's a way that seems right to a man, but it's the end is actually the way of death. What seems so right could be so wrong.

Letter C, beware of helping others with God's word before you first been helped by Christ.

And that's the first part of verse five. Matthew seven, verse five says, you hypocrite first, take the log out of your own eye.

And so first things first, first, before I try to help somebody else, first, remove the log from my own eye.

First, take the lumber out of your eye before you go on a lumber removal mission with somebody else's. Take the log out of your eye.

First, deal with that. First, beware of helping others with God's word before you've been first helped by Christ.

Beware of trying to help somebody else see better when you yourself can't see clearly.

But then equally important to that is beware of not helping someone with God's word after you've been helped with Christ.

And so this isn't about how dare you judge. Wow, you really think you're in the place to judge? Hey, you listen.

You're a sinner. You can't ever judge anybody. Period. Hey, take the log out of your own eye and go home.

It's not what the text says. It's about order. See your sin as worse, right?

You have the log. The other person has the speck. Remove your sin first and then you will see clearly to be able to remove the speck from your brother or your sister's eye.

And so order matters and how I see my sin and the necessity for me to deal with my sin matters.

I should see my sin as the log, the telephone pole. This is the greater matter.

My walk with the Lord is the greater matter. I need to make sure that I'm living a life that is as best as possible pleasing to God.

But I don't stop there. Verse 5 doesn't stop there. It says, first take the log out of your own eye and then it finishes.

And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

What about you? I wonder how do you live life with other

Christians for the purposes of mutual lumber removal? How do you approach the word of God?

How will you approach the word of God as we spend this extended time together over these next several days?

It would be best if we're coming before the Lord and as we're reading his word we're saying,

God, what do you have in this for me? Lord, I believe that I cannot live on bread alone but I need to live on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

What do you have for me? To understand from this particular portion of Scripture.

And Lord, what would you have me do with the understanding that I gain from this portion of Scripture for others?

But may what I do with others be the overflow of what you are doing in me.

My sin first. My sin worst. First and worst.

Deal with that. And then see clearly to remove the speck from others.

And so as we spend this time together and look to God's word, it's my hope that we will come here to learn, to grow, to be changed, to be renewed in the spirit of our minds.

That we would put off old ways and put on new ways. And that God would do a great, great work within our lives for his glory and our good.

As he has done for so many, many years in the lives of the people of this great church.

How many times the word has been opened and shared and preached and the gospel has been shared and preached and applied and people have been saved and sanctified in this very room.

But it's not about the room. It's about his word. It's about his word.

And so I'm excited to be able to share this time with you. Trusting that God is going to do a great work in our lives for his glory and our good.

That we might be changed to be more like our savior and less like ourselves. And I'm excited to be here for you.

For that with you to see how that works in our lives. Father in heaven, we are so delighted to have this opportunity to look to your word.

Lord, would you help us to, yes, rightly divide the word of truth. Lord, will you help us to study and come to logical and good conclusions that are time tested and that we would be able to apply the word to our lives.

Lord, we know that that only happens with humble hearts. Lord, that only happens by asking you to clear our minds.

To set our minds right with you. And Lord, would you help us to prioritize coming to you because we need to come to you.

We need to understand you. And Lord, we believe that you'll use us to help others as well.

But Lord, may we deal with the logs in our eyes first. Lord, trusting that you, your kindness, which leads us to repentance, will meet us in the days ahead as we spend this time feeding on your word.

We love you and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I hope you anticipate

God's blessings. I hope you come to the table with the right heart. What a delight.

I mean, I'm ready to hear what the word of God says. Too often, you know, we go to Bible conferences saying, okay, what can

I learn? I hope you're now set to say, I want to come to learn how I need to change.

Let's stand, shall we? Father, we're thankful for your word tonight.

And Lord, we anticipate great blessings upon blessings as we come and ask, what do you have for me?

Prepare our hearts for tomorrow, and we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. See you tomorrow morning.