Good morning everyone.  We are continuing our series entitled, “Pathways of Grace.” We are looking at the various means of grace God gives us whereby we can walk with him and accomplish his purposes for our lives.  We have been looking at the essential means of grace of the word of God.  We’ve talked about how the word is necessary for true life, how we benefit from it as we read it, memorize it, hear it  and today we are going to continue last week’s topic on how we benefit from it as we study and meditate on it. The title of the message today is “Understanding and Enjoying  God’s Word.”  Let’s pray as we seek God for his blessing on the preaching of his word today. 

Last week we started off by looking at Psalm 119.  This wonderful Psalm celebrates the wonder of God’s precious word in all 176 verses.  It is a Hebrew acrostic poem, each 8 verses beginning with the same Hebrew letter, running through all 23 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  We are springing off of the wonderful sentiment we find in Psalm 119.  Listen again to a few of the verses from what we read. 

Psalm 119:9-32 (ESV)
18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. 19 I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! ……. 27 Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. …..  32 I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!

Wow!  This psalmist loved God’s word and longed to draw his life from it.  From this longing came a heartfelt prayer that God would grant him understanding from the word.  And that is what I want to talk about this morning – studying and meditating for the purpose of understanding and enjoying God’s word.  There are 4 points I want to convey in this two-part message about the study of scripture.  1) Scripture is Compelling, 2) Scripture is Clear and 3) Scripture is Christ-Centered.  Last week we looked at how Scripture is compelling.  This week we will talk about the clarity and Christ-centeredness of scripture.

1.      Scripture is Clear

1.1.       Clarity as a Doctrine - Perspicuity

First, scripture is clear.  Oh how important this doctrine is to us.  Theologians call this the perspicuity of scripture – that is just a big word that isn’t very perspicuous but means the clarity of scripture.  You can make it your vocabulary word for the day and impress your friends.  Try not to spit on them as you pronounce it. All kidding aside, this is a vitally important understanding of the scriptures we must have.  Basically it is the truth that the scriptures are not designed by God to be accessible only by the learned and those with advanced degrees.  There have been those who have taught or implied that scripture is too complicated for the average person and we must rely on the work of especially gifted or ordained men to truly understand it.  I would submit that this is contrary to the testimony of scripture itself!  In 2 Timothy Paul says this “from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 3:15, ESV) Now folks, if scripture isn’t clear than Timothy had no business in knowing the scriptures from infancy unless he was some child prodigy.  Check out what it says in Deuteronomy 6: "And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." (Deuteronomy 6:6-7, ESV) Again, if scripture is not clear than God must be very confused in insisting that the people of God discuss the word with their children and as a normal course of life.

The scriptures are vividly clear on all essential issues because God has purposely designed them that way.  The bible is inspired by God, it is inspired and preserved by God who cares for the lowly and wants all men to know him and enjoy salvation with him.  It would be contrary to his very nature, supported by scripture and the very incarnation of Jesus, to create a complicated book that could only be understood by the elite.  Folks, God has given us his word to be understood and enjoyed by us no matter what our education and no matter what our reading level.  So take it and read it and study it and enjoy it!  It is for you from Him and he has made it clear!!

Now, having said all that, I want to acknowledge that there are some parts of scripture that are harder to understand.  Scripture itself acknowledges this – take 2 Peter 3:16 for instance, Peter says this about the portion of scripture written by Paul, " There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures." (2 Peter 3:16, ESV) Yes, there are portions of scripture that are harder to understand.  Yet, these portions are a small percentage of the overall content of scripture and if we use some common sense and rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the bible is very clear and amazingly helpful.

I can remember the first time I started reading the scriptures.  I had never read anything previously except a short quote here or there or a portion of the bible used in Sunday liturgy.  When I first opened up the bible and started reading cover to cover, wow, it was amazing and exciting and overall, with little understanding of biblical history and no knowledge of biblical languages and a very minute knowledge of biblical theology, I caught the gist of the bible and was overwhelmed with it’s message of God’s glory and goodness, mankind’s weakness and sin and God’s amazing plan of redemption of his beloved people.  That in a sentence is the storyline of the bible and a child can understand it.  I was so excited I tried to get my dad to sit through an entire reading from me of the book of Hebrews.  I can remember my excitement and my dad’s gracious but quizzical look!

Martin Luther has said about the clarity of scripture, “Any who cannot see the aforementioned clarity, and blindly stumble in the sunlight of Scripture, thereby reveal, if they are godless, how mighty is the dominion and power of Satan over the sons of men, which prevents them hearing and grasping the plainest words of God, and makes them like men whom an illusionist has mesmerized into thinking that the sun is a cold cinder, or believing that a stone is gold.”^[1]

RC Sproul, perhaps a little more graciously has said, “The heart of the Reformation was, for Luther, perspicuity, or clarity.  The basic message is not obscure.  A child can understand the message of redemption.  God's revelation is understandable to the most primitive individual.  God is not an elitist, communicating only to the highly educated.”^[2]

1.2.       Counsel of the Spirit

Now, don’t get me wrong, this truth is no excuse for us to haphazardly read our bibles with no regard for common sense and reliance on the Holy Spirit.  We are not to play bible roulette where we just flip the pages of scripture and put our finger on a verse and take that as our guidance for the day.  No, the bible is a book that requires Spirit inspired interpretation.

So first, when we approach the bible we are to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit.  He is given to us that we might understand the bible. In John 14 Jesus say, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. … But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." (John 14:18,26 ESV)  and later in 1 John, the apostle John says, "But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth." (1 John 2:20-21, ESV)

Yes, one can read and understand, in part, the bible without the Holy Spirit, evidenced by some of the fine commentary from men and women who do not believe the scriptures.  But, if we are to truly understand them in a life changing way we need the Holy Spirit.  Ultimately, the ability to grasp and truly welcome the good news of Christ, the core of the bible, comes only through the illuminating work of the Spirit.  1 Corinthians 2 says, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:12-14, ESV)

JI Packer says it this way, “The work of the Spirit in imparting this knowledge [of divine things] is called ‘illumination,’ or enlightening. It is not a giving of new revelation, but a work within us that enables us to grasp and to love the revelation that is there before us in the biblical text as heard and read, and as explained by teachers and writers..”^[3]

So, as we go to study God’s word, let us ask the Holy Spirit to show us the truth.  Let us pray before we start, pray as we go through the word and pray at the end that we might rightly respond to God’s word.  We are to be full charismatics in studying scripture, depending on and fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit throughout our study and application of the word – it is only through his power that we can understand and obey!

1.3.       Common Sense

So, scripture is understood because it is clear, because we rely on the counsel of the Spirit and through the application of common sense.  I say this because sadly, a lot of times folks don’t approach the scriptures with common sense.  We can use a number of silly methods to draw something from the bible.  We treat it as some magical book or a fortune cookie.  We pop it open it just expect some word from God for the day to drop on our lap.  I’m not saying God can’t do that, but it can also lead to trouble.  Say I happen to open my bible and lay my eyes on the following three successive verses: “and he went and hanged himself.” (Matthew 27:5b, ESV) , “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:37b, ESV)  “What you are going to do, do quickly.” (John 13:27b, ESV).  Do you think that would be God speaking?  No!  Absolutely not – murder and self-murder is clearly prohibited and contrary to God’s way.

How about this approach – I take a passage of scripture and I see some unconnected symbolic meaning in it.  Only, I don’t call it symbolic I call it prophetic or a word from God – this too can be very dangerous.  John MacArthur tells this story: “a young couple came into [a pastor] for counseling - marriage counseling.  He began to talk with them and after about 30 minutes, he said, "You'd been married only 6 months and you are already on the edge of a divorce?  Why did you ever get married?  You're miles apart." "Oh," said the husband, "it was a sermon that the pastor preached in our church."  "What was the sermon?"  "Well, he preached on the walls of Jericho."  "Jericho?  What does that have to do with marriage?"  "Well, God's people claimed the city, marched around it seven times and the walls fell down."  And he said, "If a young man believed God had given him a certain girl, he could claim her, march around her seven times, and the walls of her heart would fall down."  "That's what I did and we got married."  "That can't be true," he said.  "Your kidding, aren't you?"  .."No, it's true.  And there were many other couples who got married because of the same sermon."^[4]

Now, can you imagine if we dealt with every other bit of communication this way?  Imagine if I picked up the local paper and read the following forcast: A major storm is underway across the nation, with numerous strong tornadoes and severe thunderstorms over the Southeastern quarter of the nation, raging snowfall from Iowa to the Central Great Lakes, flooding rains in the Midwest, yet a quiet Thursday here at home.  A great day to push back the snowbanks in Northern New England and get ready for another one to two feet of snow, while some Southern New England communities will see a fairly impressive display of early morning snow on Friday as well.^[5] And my wife asked what the weather man was saying and I said, “well, I believe the weatherman actually meant that there are some hard economic times coming, they are going to blow across the entire nation but if we fight and push back the snowbanks in our own lives we will weather this storm.”  What would you think?  And you’d be right.  Folks, when we come to the weather report we use simple common sense to discern what the weatherman is saying.  We do it automatically because we intuitively understand how to communicate. 

For instance, think of the following examples, courtesy of Mark Mullery: 1a) A friend at work sees you Monday morning and says, “How are you doing?” vs. 1b) Your car flipped over on highway, you’re trapped inside; paramedic rushes over, asking, “How are you doing?” or  2a) A piece of obvious junk-mail comes and your name is on it; it says, “Important information inside; please open and read carefully vs. 2b) Another letter comes addressed to you; it’s from your fiancée, [and it says, please open and read carefully.]

Well, when we approach the scriptures we are to do the same thing – use common sense. Now, we do this automatically when speaking with people so we may not be aware of what it is that we do but let me spell it out.  First, we understand the context – who is speaking, what is going on, what is their background, their role, their present situation?  Next, what do they mean when they say what they say?  What form of speech are they using – command, conversation, story, poetry?  And finally, how does this relate to us?  Those are the simple rules of understanding communication and they are the same rules we are to use when we approach scripture.

1.3.1.                 Cultural and Historical Context

So, first, we need to know the context – when we read a book of the bible it is helpful to consider what the background to the book is, who wrote it, when it was written, to whom it was written and what was going on that prompted it to be written.  Now, we can get most of that from the text itself but there are many bible study aids that can help us tremendously.  The best I can recommend for you is a good study bible – like the Reformation Study Bible or the NIV Study Bible.  These bibles provide numerous helps in the form of notes at the bottom of the page, charts, maps and illustrations that will aid us in understanding the context of the passage.  This is oh so helpful. 

For instance, what would we do if we were reading the book of Hebrews and we came across the following verse: "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption." (Hebrews 9:11-12, ESV) If we didn’t consider context this might really confuse us.  But if we understand that this letter has been covering the history of Israel and showing how Christ is the fulfillment of all the promises and practices of God’s word it might start to make sense, particularly if we go back and read the whole letter and then maybe read the Old Testament a bit.  We would need to context to truly understand what it is saying and then we would see that it is teaching us that Christ is the ultimate sacrifice for our sin and he has secured for us an eternal redemption.  So we must consider the context – and keep broadening our circle of context to get the most accurate meaning.

1.3.2.                 Genres

We also must understand the form of speech being used.  This is where folks can make a lot of mistakes.  Again, we usually get this right in other contexts – we know not to take poems too literally, we know not to take jokes, most jokes that is, personally, we know not to read mysterious symbolism into billboard advertisement – yet we can often misunderstand the form of speech in the bible and thus misinterpret scripture.  There are various forms of speech in the bible – there are true stories, there is history, there is poetry, there is symbolism, there are wise sayings, there are letters and there is prophetic speech.  Each of these has to be taken for what it is and not confused.

When we read in Psalm 98 "Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity." (Psalm 98:7-9, ESV) we know this is figurative for the Psalms are poetry with a mix of literal and figurative speech like most poetry.

When we read in Revelation of the beast with ten horns and seven heads we know that this book is prophetic or apocalyptic communication – full of symbolism and mystery, so we realize that this ten headed beast represents something or someone.  Furthermore, when we realize Revelation was written to the early church of Asia minor enduring persecution from Rome we understand that the symbolism probably represents some abusive Roman authority. 

So we need to remember the form of speech or the genre of what we are reading.

1.3.3.                 Authorial Intent

We also must consider authorial intent.  We do this whenever we are talking to someone – we realize the object of our listening must be to understand intent – otherwise we have totally missed it.  Can you imagine how silly it would be if we try to give someone directions to our home and they keep saying, that is so funny – you tell the funniest jokes, and no matter how much we tell them we are not joking they laugh all the harder.  It would be very frustrating.  They have missed our intent entirely.  Well, the authors of scripture have intent and so does the God behind them and it is our job to always ask the question, “What does the author mean in this passage.”  If we ask that we will find ourselves discovering the meaning behind the text.  There is always one meaning in any given text, the meaning the author had.  There may be multiple applications but there is one meaning.  So – context, form of speech and authorial intent are important in using our common sense to interpret scripture.  Finally, we must approach scripture understanding that Christ stands at the center of it all.

2.      Scripture is Christ Centered

In Luke 24 Jesus appeared to two men after his resurrection as they walked on the road to Emmaus from Jerusalem.  They were discussing what had recently happened in Jerusalem with Jesus’ death and apparent resurrection when Jesus joins their conversation, Jesus draws them out on what had happened and after their continued confusion says the following:  “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24:25-27, ESV)

Did you notice how the Savior explained the scriptures to these men?  He showed them where he had been revealed already beginning with Moses and going through all the scriptures.  Jesus testified, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." (John 5:39-40, ESV)

The bible must be interpreted with Christ at the center because everything in it relates to him in some way.  He is the center of the scriptures and when we understand that we will keep ourselves from misunderstanding scripture.  He is the second and perfect Adam, He is the promised seed of Abraham, He is the son sacrificed on Mt. Moriah, He is Abraham’s provision, He is the suffering ruler who brings salvation to his people like Joseph, He is the Passover lamb, he is the promised land, he is faithful Israel, He is the rock that pours out life giving water,  He is the ultimate prophet, priest and king of the bible, the true Son of David, the promised Messiah king of God’s people, He is the wonderful counselor, prince of peace, everlasting father.  He is the suffering servant, the scape-goat,He is our ultimate kinsman-redeemer, our captain and champion, our victorious risen king, He is the first fruits of the resurrection, He is one with his church, he is the ultimate husband, he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Judge of the living and the dead, our elder brother, the eternal word of God, Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord who after he has finished his rule and put all things under his feet will turn it all over to the Father and all creation, you and I and every being will fall down and cry, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12, ESV) and “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”" (Revelation 4:11, ESV) .  It’s all about him and so we must understand all our bible in light of the revelation of Christ – making appropriate interpretation in light of the fullness of revelation that is in Him.  Any theological system that does not exalt Christ at the center and his good news as Savior and King has missed the meaning and proportion of the bible.  So we keep Christ ever central in our interpretation and study and enjoyment of scripture as we do in all of our life as a church and as individuals.

So – we understand and enjoy scripture as we keep Christ central, as we use common sense – that is we remember context and form of speech and intent, we understand and enjoy scripture as we rely on the counsel of the Holy Spirit and the clarity of scripture and as we see that this book is an amazing compelling book – the very words of God.  Let’s pray.