Session 1 Our Best Approach to the Word Of God

Matthew 7: A Call to Humble Self-Examination

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 it's do we do. 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 hoop.

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 to get the supervision.

It was phenomenal.

I felt pastored. These people are pastors, pastor, 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 is 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. He 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, but 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 through 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 on up the light 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.

This is 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, I'm 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's here. They ran all around Maroon had so much fun with so many of you are 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 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 bird. So he 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 line. Emma is 14. And then Silas. Where's the Silas?

Yourself. Right.

There you go. See that.

Told you something.

Silas 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. 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 had 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, ah, no. Stole that from Tim.

All right.

No, I can't do that. Let me think some more. But 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 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 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 4.

We're not going to look there today. But Colossians 4, 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 4 is that Luke was a physician. Paul refers to him as such in Colossians 4 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' healing ministry.

Like, that would amaze anybody, but particularly 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' 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 second-hand.

They came from others who were eyewitnesses to Jesus' 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 ninety-nine 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 ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Or what woman, having ten 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, quick, 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 one and following in Luke 15. It 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.

Verse three, so he told them this parable. And he begins to tell them not one parable, but three parables. And he begins with the parable of the lost sheep. Now, years ago, I was talking to Tim, we don't remember what it was, but it was the ACBC annual conference that was in St. Louis, Missouri.

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 I left. That is the one thing that I remember from that conference, too.

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 remember Superbook? It was 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 apartment 1F was a weekly home Bible study. And so 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 preached through Luke 15 and focused 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, very straightforward. I'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 parabolae. 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. I 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 and got him.

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 parabolae, 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 could 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 Dahan 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. Origen 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. That's... 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 10, which is where, in verse 25, we read of the parable of the Good Samaritan.