June 2, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every Christian has the capability to hear from God for themselves.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Doctor Tony Evans says, the better you know the author,
the clearer his message becomes.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
The closer you are to the Holy Spirit, the more
you pick up on what He wants to communicate to you.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless Biblical teachings
from the archives of doctor Tony Evans. Even the most
beautiful sentence means absolutely nothing if it's written in the
language you don't understand. Today, doctor Evan shows how interpreting
scripture correctly is key to experiencing its power. Let's join
(00:39):
him to discover how God has provided us the tools
we need to help grasp his message accurately.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Communication involves three things.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
It involves a encoder, and encoder is a.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Person sending forth a message.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It involves a decoder that's the person on the other
end receiving the message. And it involves the message the
information being sent. The goal of communication is to make
sure what the decoder receives is what the endcoder intended.
(01:21):
It was the job of the Holy Spirit to make
sure that the message of God didn't get distorted.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So from fourteen hundred BC to ninety a d.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
The Holy Spirnt's job was to make sure the message
had started back here didn't get messed up down here.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Without that.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Communication over that big a gap would not have been
possible to stay accurate. Today, I want to say a
word about interpretation, because understanding is key to making the.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Bible meaningful in your experience.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Many people avoid the Bible because they say, I don't
understand it. It doesn't make sense to me. So the
issue is interpretation or ascertaining the meaning of scripture. We
have a technical word for this. It's called hermaeutics. Hermaenutics
comes from a Greek god called Hermes, and Hermes his
(02:27):
job was to take the language of the gods in
Greek mythology and communicate it.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
To human beings on the human level.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Because there was such a gap between the gods of
Greek mythology and mere men that they needed to be
a translation of that information, and this role of translating
from Hermes came to be known as a process called hermaeneutics,
and Hermaeutics is the science and art of interpretation that's
(03:00):
to do with understanding the Bible.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Turn first of all to Acts Chapter eight. We have.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
The story of the Ethiopian eunuch who is now a
big wig in the administration of Canvas. And he was
returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the
prophet Isaiah.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
So he's reading his.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Bible, and the spirit said that Philip go up and
join this chariot. There's a whole lot in mad and
we don't have time.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
To mind out.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
But the spirit of God led Philip to a man
who was reading his Bible. And when Philip had run up,
he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, do
you understand what you are reading? You're reading it but
doesn't make any sense to you. And he said, well,
(03:57):
the eunuch says, well, how could I unless someone guides me?
And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
And then it goes into the passage he was reading,
which was about Jesus Christ being led to the sacrifice
and verse thirty five, and Philip opened his mouth and
(04:19):
began from this scripture he preached Jesus to him. Here
we have a man reading but not understanding. How many
times have you read your Bible? Got finished reading and
didn't know what in the world you had just gone through.
(04:40):
There was not the interpretation. The reason why interpretation is
critical because.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
It's possible to read and not understand.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
He needed to be guided in an understanding of what
he was reading. It's not enough to read if you
don't also understand, because without understanding, you don't know what
to apply. So it's reading, interpreting, and then applying what
(05:17):
you now understand needs to be applied. You say, Doc,
my stomach hurts, my head hurts. He tries to diagnose
the problem through tests to come up with the right
cause that he might apply the right solution.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
If he interprets.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Wrong, he applies wrong, he's gonna give you the wrong medication.
As a boy, I suffered horrifically with asthma, and every
week I had to go to the hospital to get shots.
On top of that, I wanted to try to do everything,
all the sports and everything, so I was constantly carrying
on this battle with asthma. Every week I would go
(05:59):
and get these shots to deal with the allergies that
would bring about the asthmatic attacks.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
On one occasion, I went to the doctor.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
And they prescribed the wrong medicine, and on that night
I almost died. I'll never forget the sight of my
father standing over the bed with tears in his eyes,
watching me.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Gasp for breath and go into convulsions.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Because the doctor gave me the wrong application. So interpretation
or understanding is key. Some parts of the Bible they
jump out at you. You know what they mean just
by reading it. Other parts, like Peter says and second
Peter three fifteen and sixteen, Peter says, some of the
things Paul wrote a hard to understand. When you get
(06:54):
the proper understanding along with the right application, there is
no issue that the Scripture talks about that cannot be
addressed victoriously. So understanding and application join together to make transformation.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
That leads me to the next point.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
What are the qualifications if you're going to interpret rightly? Now,
let me say this, every Christian is a believer priest.
By believer priest, we mean every Christian has the capability
to hear from God for themselves, so that while preachers
(07:39):
and pastors can help guide, they do not replace your
own capacity for the Scripture to speak to you. The
first principle is that to clearly and fully understand the Scripture,
you must be saved one Corinthians, chapter two, verse fourteen.
(08:00):
He says, the natural man does not welcome the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness under him.
He does not mean you can't repeat the Bible. He
means you can't experience it. The unsaved man does not
have the capability or the capacity to interpret divine truth.
(08:24):
It's like me going to a foreign land without any training,
any knowledge, trying to get the language, and I don't
have the capacity to do.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
That on my own. So first of all, and I know.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
This may not seem to be need to be said,
but when emphasized, your ability to appropriate the reality of
scripture is tied to you having conversion, regeneration.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Or salvation. But secondly, the closer.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
To the Holy Spirit, the more clearly you will understand
his word.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Let me say that again.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Once you're saved, you have the capacity to understand. As
I said last week, you have the.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Anointing. I got one person who was here.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Anointing is your capacity to receive divine truth. You have
the capacity now to hear from God. Philip guided the
Unich and the understanding of what he read. Now look
at John chapter sixteen, verse thirteen. A few pages back,
John chapter sixteen, verse thirteen.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
This is what it says.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will
guide you into all truth. For he will not speak
on his own initiative. But whatever he is, he will speak,
and he will disclose to you what is to come.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
The Ethiopian Unich had Fillip to guide him.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Every believer has the Holy Spirit to guide him. It
is the Holy Spirit's job to clarify truth, to tell
you what it means, and then, of course.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
How to apply it.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
It is his job to make the truth of scripture
become real to your mind and to your heart, so
that it can become your experience. The closer you are
to the Holy Spirit, the clearer.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
You will be about the meaning of scripture.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
The further you are from the Holy Spirit, the more
fuzzy scripture will be to you. So as you can
see the guid the Holy Spirit, his job is to
clarify or turn the light on. Have you ever been
confused about something and the Holy Spirit clear it up
and just like turn the switch on. It may have
(10:55):
been through a human teacher, It may have been just
through your own reading. It may have been through a book.
And I'll talk about those things.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
In the moment.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
But what he did was he turned the light on
and you said, Oh, he opens your eyes.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
He lets you see.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
When doctor Evans returns in a moment, he'll explain how
tuning into the Holy Spirit's voice makes all the difference. First, though,
we're only one day away from wrapping up Tony's powerful
sermon series on the Glory of God's Word. This ten
part collection highlights the uniqueness, power, and divine origin of
Scripture and how embracing its truth can reshape every area
(11:33):
of your life. The series includes content we haven't had
time to present on the air, so we're making the
full length versions of all the messages available to you
as our gift when you support the Ministry of the
Alternative with a generous donation, and as an added bonus,
we are also including Tony's book, The Transforming Word. It's
a guide to moving beyond just reading the Bible to
(11:56):
actually receiving and applying its life changing truth. Request both
resources today at Tonyevans dot org or call one eight
hundred eight hundred thirty two twenty two to get the
details for this special offer. That's Tonyevans dot org. Or
speak with someone from our resource team. When you call
(12:17):
one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two anytime
of the day or night, I'll repeat that contact information
for you. After the second part of today's lesson, here's
doctor Evans with more on the interpretation of scripture.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
The Holy Spirit's job is to communicate.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
The closer you are to the Holy Spirit, the more
you pick up on his signals, the more you pick
up on what he wants to communicate to you. Another
characteristic of understanding the Bible has to do with the living.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
One Peter two.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Therefore, putting aside all malice, all guile, or hypocrisy or envy,
and all slammed. Verse two says, like newborn babes long
for the pure milk of the Word, that by it
you may grow in respect to your salvation. He says,
get rid of things that will put static on the
line and stop you from understanding God's truth.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Another way that you.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Prepare yourself to properly understand the word of God, being
willing to respond even before you get the understanding, as
opposed to let me understand, and then I'll let you
know whether our respond.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Saint John's seven verse seventeen.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
If any man is willing to do his will, he
shall know of the teaching.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Did you get the order?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
He says, you must be willing to do it, then
you will understand or know the teaching about it. So
God is not going to give great understanding. Remember the
verse to him that hath more will be given, but
to him that does not have that which he has
will be taken away.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So you can actually come to church and learn less.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Because nothing gets done with what is said, and so
God reduces rather than increases understandings. So the process for interpretation, okay,
you want to understand so that you can apply. Okay,
two Timothy, Chapter two, verse fifteen, be diligent to present
(14:35):
yourself approved to God as a workman who does not
need to be ashamed handling accurately the word of truth,
the word of God.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
The Bible.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Interpretation involves presenting yourself approved. So your mindset is, I
want to be pleasing to God because I want to
understand what God is saying through his word to me.
So I want to be pleasing to God as a workman.
He says, learning the Bible involves some work.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Now, everybody's not a past.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Everybody's not a full time preacher, that's not the work
we're talking about, although that would have applied to somebody
who does it full time. But it does involve your participation.
First of all, you have to be willing to read
the Bible. You can't have the Bible sitting on your
shelf talking about I have a Bible in my house.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
The Bible is not.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
You know, to fill bookspace. You must be willing to
read your Bible. You must That takes some time. Then
you must be willing to ask some questions about what
you're reading.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
You want to ask some questions.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
They some simple questions, but they will give you the
basic understanding. Assuming you're proved of God and you're yielded
to the Holy Spirit, which I mentioned in the moment,
some basic questions. Question number one, what did it say?
I read it, so just say back to yourself, what
did it say? Paraphrase it back to yourself. Second question
(16:23):
to whom was it said? Is there any indication to
whom he was speaking? Because that will affect meaning. If
you're talking to non Christians, it's gonna mean one thing.
If you're talking to Christians, it's gonna mean another thing.
That's gonna affect the context. In what you're reading, to
whom was it said? Another question is why was it said?
(16:46):
Is there anything indicating why this thing is being discussed
in the first place, because that will affect meaning why
did he bring this up? And of course that's gonna
vary for persons to person, and they're usually the keys
in the passage. You have the Holy Spirit to open
up your eyes why is he saying this? And then
(17:07):
the final question that you need to ask is what
is to be done with what has been said?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Well? What am I to do with what I just read?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
You will find yourself as you answer these questions by
becoming a workman, willing to put in a little bit
of time, the passages of the Bible becoming clearer and
clearer to you. How do you know when the Bible
is making sense? Here's the key, here's the key. The
(17:38):
keys to the scripture is this, how do I connect
with what I read and learned to Jesus Christ. So
Jesus is the key that unlocks the door to the
understanding of the whole Bible.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
The whole Bible wraps around Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Because remember, Jesus is the living word, this is the
written word, and those two words always agree.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
It is okay to ask.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
God to give you a word today. You're at a
crisis situation. You need him to speak to you, and
God will do that. But a lot of people do
that because they don't want to be workmen, they want
to be luck men. They don't want to spend any
time with God. And you can't rush learning heavenly language.
(18:27):
What happens in closing? What happens when you begin to
interpret rightly the truth of God's word?
Speaker 3 (18:34):
What happens? Luke, Chapter twenty four. Luke, Chapter twenty four.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Two disciples are on their way back from the amassed road.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
They're on their way back to home. They're going back
home and they are depressed, and Jesus comes and says,
what's wrong? Verse nineteen.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
They say, didn't you hear about Jesus and Nazamath, the
man mighty in word? Indeed, how the chief priests delivered
him up and he was dying, he was crucified. Here's
why everybody gets the pressed verse twenty one. Because we
were hoping. You know why.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
You get depressed.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Your hopes get dashed, your dreams get shattered, your expectations
get lost. They said, we were hoping we had dreams.
Our dreams have fallen through that he was gonna redeem
Israel and were just going home, and we are discouraged,
(19:34):
and now we can't find him.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
They've stole his body.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Okay, hold on your horses, Verse twenty five, Old foolish men, Jesus.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Is too cold, he calls the God's fools, you.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all
that the prophets have spoken? Was it not necessary for
Christ to to suffer these things and to enter into
his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he explained to them the things concerning himself in the scriptures.
(20:11):
So he went all the way back to the Old
Testament and saying, you know what that I'm talking about me?
You know what that that was talking about me? You
know what about that was talking about me? He went
to the scriptures to deal with their hopelessness. Now where
do you run when you lose hope? You run to
the movies, you run to your friends, or do you
run to the scriptures?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (20:30):
God, let David go through a lot of hopelessness so
you and I would have some place to run to
in the Book of Psalms. He says, they approached the village,
he's been giving them a Bible study while they're walking. See,
you don't have to be in church. They walking down
the road doing a Bible study. They get to the village,
he's getting ready to go further. He's gonna say, okay,
(20:51):
will y'all home? That Bible studies over. And they urged him, saying,
stay with us, for it's getting toward evening and the
day is down nearly over. And he went in to
stay with them. He wasn't gonna go in and less invited.
God'll only go deeper with you if you won't him there.
He won't go deeper if you don't want it. And
it came about when they reclined to the table, he
(21:13):
took the bread and blessed and broke it.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
He began giving it to them.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Their eyes were open, and they recognized him, and he
vanished from their sight. Oh this is sweet stuff Verse
thirty two. And they said to one another, were not
our hearts burning? Anybody ever heard of heart burn? Talking
about a showing up heartburn, heart bent on fire? Did
(21:38):
not our hearts burn within us? He says as he
was speaking to us on the road, and as he
was explaining.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
The scriptures to us.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
What led to the heart burn? He says, our hearts
started burning when he started walking and started talking and
open up the Have you ever come to church without hope?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
With head low?
Speaker 1 (22:07):
And the Holy ghosts? See when we get serious, we
call him the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
And the Holy.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Ghost zeroed in on you and acted like you are
the only person in the sanctuary, and in a fifty
minute sermon took hopeless ness and gave you a burning heart?
Have you ever been depressed? And he become the lift
of your head? And all you did was heard from
(22:33):
the word of God. That's all you did. Understanding brings
a new.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Disposition, Doctor Tony Evans reminding us what happens when we
allow God's word to come alive in our understanding, and
he'll return with a final thought in just a moment. First, though,
if you'd like to receive the complete, full length version
of today's message, The title to ask about is the
(23:02):
interpretation of Scripture, but the best way to get it
is to request it as a part of Tony's ten
part series The Glory of God's Word. As I mentioned earlier,
We are offering this powerful collection as our thank you gift,
available on digital download as well as on either CD
or USB flash drive when you support Tony's ministry with
(23:22):
a financial contribution and don't forget, We're also including doctor
Evans's book The Transforming Word as an added bonus when
you make your request right away. Just visit Tonyevans dot
org to get the details again, that's Tonyevans dot org.
Or give us a phone call day or night at
one eight hundred eight hundred thirty two twenty two and
(23:45):
let one of our resource team members help you. That's
one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two. When
it comes to hearing from God, people often ask why
just the Bible. Well tomorrow, doctor Evans explains why the
collect action of books we call scripture is complete, trustworthy,
and final. Right now though he's back with he's closing
(24:07):
comments to wrap up today's lesson God.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
The Holy Spirit wants to guide you and the understanding
the scriptures, and he doesn't want you to just be
under the Word. He wants you to be in the Word.
He just doesn't want you to come to church. He
doesn't want you to do that, but he wants you
not only to be under it. He wants the leap
off of the pages to you directly, because you're in it.
Because when that happens and you would apply what you interpret,
(24:34):
you must be transformed by it.
Every Christian has the capability to hear from God for themselves.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Doctor Tony Evans says, the better you know the author,
the clearer his message becomes.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
The closer you are to the Holy Spirit, the more
you pick up on what He wants to communicate to you.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless Biblical teachings
from the archives of doctor Tony Evans. Even the most
beautiful sentence means absolutely nothing if it's written in the
language you don't understand. Today, doctor Evan shows how interpreting
scripture correctly is key to experiencing its power. Let's join
(00:39):
him to discover how God has provided us the tools
we need to help grasp his message accurately.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Communication involves three things.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
It involves a encoder, and encoder is a.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Person sending forth a message.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It involves a decoder that's the person on the other
end receiving the message. And it involves the message the
information being sent. The goal of communication is to make
sure what the decoder receives is what the endcoder intended.
(01:21):
It was the job of the Holy Spirit to make
sure that the message of God didn't get distorted.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So from fourteen hundred BC to ninety a d.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
The Holy Spirnt's job was to make sure the message
had started back here didn't get messed up down here.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Without that.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Communication over that big a gap would not have been
possible to stay accurate. Today, I want to say a
word about interpretation, because understanding is key to making the.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Bible meaningful in your experience.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Many people avoid the Bible because they say, I don't
understand it. It doesn't make sense to me. So the
issue is interpretation or ascertaining the meaning of scripture. We
have a technical word for this. It's called hermaeutics. Hermaenutics
comes from a Greek god called Hermes, and Hermes his
(02:27):
job was to take the language of the gods in
Greek mythology and communicate it.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
To human beings on the human level.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Because there was such a gap between the gods of
Greek mythology and mere men that they needed to be
a translation of that information, and this role of translating
from Hermes came to be known as a process called hermaeneutics,
and Hermaeutics is the science and art of interpretation that's
(03:00):
to do with understanding the Bible.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Turn first of all to Acts Chapter eight. We have.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
The story of the Ethiopian eunuch who is now a
big wig in the administration of Canvas. And he was
returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the
prophet Isaiah.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
So he's reading his.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Bible, and the spirit said that Philip go up and
join this chariot. There's a whole lot in mad and
we don't have time.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
To mind out.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
But the spirit of God led Philip to a man
who was reading his Bible. And when Philip had run up,
he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, do
you understand what you are reading? You're reading it but
doesn't make any sense to you. And he said, well,
(03:57):
the eunuch says, well, how could I unless someone guides me?
And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
And then it goes into the passage he was reading,
which was about Jesus Christ being led to the sacrifice
and verse thirty five, and Philip opened his mouth and
(04:19):
began from this scripture he preached Jesus to him. Here
we have a man reading but not understanding. How many
times have you read your Bible? Got finished reading and
didn't know what in the world you had just gone through.
(04:40):
There was not the interpretation. The reason why interpretation is
critical because.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
It's possible to read and not understand.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
He needed to be guided in an understanding of what
he was reading. It's not enough to read if you
don't also understand, because without understanding, you don't know what
to apply. So it's reading, interpreting, and then applying what
(05:17):
you now understand needs to be applied. You say, Doc,
my stomach hurts, my head hurts. He tries to diagnose
the problem through tests to come up with the right
cause that he might apply the right solution.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
If he interprets.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Wrong, he applies wrong, he's gonna give you the wrong medication.
As a boy, I suffered horrifically with asthma, and every
week I had to go to the hospital to get shots.
On top of that, I wanted to try to do everything,
all the sports and everything, so I was constantly carrying
on this battle with asthma. Every week I would go
(05:59):
and get these shots to deal with the allergies that
would bring about the asthmatic attacks.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
On one occasion, I went to the doctor.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
And they prescribed the wrong medicine, and on that night
I almost died. I'll never forget the sight of my
father standing over the bed with tears in his eyes,
watching me.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Gasp for breath and go into convulsions.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Because the doctor gave me the wrong application. So interpretation
or understanding is key. Some parts of the Bible they
jump out at you. You know what they mean just
by reading it. Other parts, like Peter says and second
Peter three fifteen and sixteen, Peter says, some of the
things Paul wrote a hard to understand. When you get
(06:54):
the proper understanding along with the right application, there is
no issue that the Scripture talks about that cannot be
addressed victoriously. So understanding and application join together to make transformation.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
That leads me to the next point.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
What are the qualifications if you're going to interpret rightly? Now,
let me say this, every Christian is a believer priest.
By believer priest, we mean every Christian has the capability
to hear from God for themselves, so that while preachers
(07:39):
and pastors can help guide, they do not replace your
own capacity for the Scripture to speak to you. The
first principle is that to clearly and fully understand the Scripture,
you must be saved one Corinthians, chapter two, verse fourteen.
(08:00):
He says, the natural man does not welcome the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness under him.
He does not mean you can't repeat the Bible. He
means you can't experience it. The unsaved man does not
have the capability or the capacity to interpret divine truth.
(08:24):
It's like me going to a foreign land without any training,
any knowledge, trying to get the language, and I don't
have the capacity to do.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
That on my own. So first of all, and I know.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
This may not seem to be need to be said,
but when emphasized, your ability to appropriate the reality of
scripture is tied to you having conversion, regeneration.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Or salvation. But secondly, the closer.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
To the Holy Spirit, the more clearly you will understand
his word.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Let me say that again.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Once you're saved, you have the capacity to understand. As
I said last week, you have the.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Anointing. I got one person who was here.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Anointing is your capacity to receive divine truth. You have
the capacity now to hear from God. Philip guided the
Unich and the understanding of what he read. Now look
at John chapter sixteen, verse thirteen. A few pages back,
John chapter sixteen, verse thirteen.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
This is what it says.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will
guide you into all truth. For he will not speak
on his own initiative. But whatever he is, he will speak,
and he will disclose to you what is to come.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
The Ethiopian Unich had Fillip to guide him.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Every believer has the Holy Spirit to guide him. It
is the Holy Spirit's job to clarify truth, to tell
you what it means, and then, of course.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
How to apply it.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
It is his job to make the truth of scripture
become real to your mind and to your heart, so
that it can become your experience. The closer you are
to the Holy Spirit, the clearer.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
You will be about the meaning of scripture.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
The further you are from the Holy Spirit, the more
fuzzy scripture will be to you. So as you can
see the guid the Holy Spirit, his job is to
clarify or turn the light on. Have you ever been
confused about something and the Holy Spirit clear it up
and just like turn the switch on. It may have
(10:55):
been through a human teacher, It may have been just
through your own reading. It may have been through a book.
And I'll talk about those things.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
In the moment.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
But what he did was he turned the light on
and you said, Oh, he opens your eyes.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
He lets you see.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
When doctor Evans returns in a moment, he'll explain how
tuning into the Holy Spirit's voice makes all the difference. First, though,
we're only one day away from wrapping up Tony's powerful
sermon series on the Glory of God's Word. This ten
part collection highlights the uniqueness, power, and divine origin of
Scripture and how embracing its truth can reshape every area
(11:33):
of your life. The series includes content we haven't had
time to present on the air, so we're making the
full length versions of all the messages available to you
as our gift when you support the Ministry of the
Alternative with a generous donation, and as an added bonus,
we are also including Tony's book, The Transforming Word. It's
a guide to moving beyond just reading the Bible to
(11:56):
actually receiving and applying its life changing truth. Request both
resources today at Tonyevans dot org or call one eight
hundred eight hundred thirty two twenty two to get the
details for this special offer. That's Tonyevans dot org. Or
speak with someone from our resource team. When you call
(12:17):
one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two anytime
of the day or night, I'll repeat that contact information
for you. After the second part of today's lesson, here's
doctor Evans with more on the interpretation of scripture.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
The Holy Spirit's job is to communicate.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
The closer you are to the Holy Spirit, the more
you pick up on his signals, the more you pick
up on what he wants to communicate to you. Another
characteristic of understanding the Bible has to do with the living.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
One Peter two.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Therefore, putting aside all malice, all guile, or hypocrisy or envy,
and all slammed. Verse two says, like newborn babes long
for the pure milk of the Word, that by it
you may grow in respect to your salvation. He says,
get rid of things that will put static on the
line and stop you from understanding God's truth.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Another way that you.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Prepare yourself to properly understand the word of God, being
willing to respond even before you get the understanding, as
opposed to let me understand, and then I'll let you
know whether our respond.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Saint John's seven verse seventeen.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
If any man is willing to do his will, he
shall know of the teaching.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Did you get the order?
Speaker 1 (13:48):
He says, you must be willing to do it, then
you will understand or know the teaching about it. So
God is not going to give great understanding. Remember the
verse to him that hath more will be given, but
to him that does not have that which he has
will be taken away.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So you can actually come to church and learn less.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Because nothing gets done with what is said, and so
God reduces rather than increases understandings. So the process for interpretation, okay,
you want to understand so that you can apply. Okay,
two Timothy, Chapter two, verse fifteen, be diligent to present
(14:35):
yourself approved to God as a workman who does not
need to be ashamed handling accurately the word of truth,
the word of God.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
The Bible.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Interpretation involves presenting yourself approved. So your mindset is, I
want to be pleasing to God because I want to
understand what God is saying through his word to me.
So I want to be pleasing to God as a workman.
He says, learning the Bible involves some work.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Now, everybody's not a past.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Everybody's not a full time preacher, that's not the work
we're talking about, although that would have applied to somebody
who does it full time. But it does involve your participation.
First of all, you have to be willing to read
the Bible. You can't have the Bible sitting on your
shelf talking about I have a Bible in my house.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
The Bible is not.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
You know, to fill bookspace. You must be willing to
read your Bible. You must That takes some time. Then
you must be willing to ask some questions about what
you're reading.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
You want to ask some questions.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
They some simple questions, but they will give you the
basic understanding. Assuming you're proved of God and you're yielded
to the Holy Spirit, which I mentioned in the moment,
some basic questions. Question number one, what did it say?
I read it, so just say back to yourself, what
did it say? Paraphrase it back to yourself. Second question
(16:23):
to whom was it said? Is there any indication to
whom he was speaking? Because that will affect meaning. If
you're talking to non Christians, it's gonna mean one thing.
If you're talking to Christians, it's gonna mean another thing.
That's gonna affect the context. In what you're reading, to
whom was it said? Another question is why was it said?
(16:46):
Is there anything indicating why this thing is being discussed
in the first place, because that will affect meaning why
did he bring this up? And of course that's gonna
vary for persons to person, and they're usually the keys
in the passage. You have the Holy Spirit to open
up your eyes why is he saying this? And then
(17:07):
the final question that you need to ask is what
is to be done with what has been said?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Well? What am I to do with what I just read?
Speaker 1 (17:16):
You will find yourself as you answer these questions by
becoming a workman, willing to put in a little bit
of time, the passages of the Bible becoming clearer and
clearer to you. How do you know when the Bible
is making sense? Here's the key, here's the key. The
(17:38):
keys to the scripture is this, how do I connect
with what I read and learned to Jesus Christ. So
Jesus is the key that unlocks the door to the
understanding of the whole Bible.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
The whole Bible wraps around Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Because remember, Jesus is the living word, this is the
written word, and those two words always agree.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
It is okay to ask.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
God to give you a word today. You're at a
crisis situation. You need him to speak to you, and
God will do that. But a lot of people do
that because they don't want to be workmen, they want
to be luck men. They don't want to spend any
time with God. And you can't rush learning heavenly language.
(18:27):
What happens in closing? What happens when you begin to
interpret rightly the truth of God's word?
Speaker 3 (18:34):
What happens? Luke, Chapter twenty four. Luke, Chapter twenty four.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Two disciples are on their way back from the amassed road.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
They're on their way back to home. They're going back
home and they are depressed, and Jesus comes and says,
what's wrong? Verse nineteen.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
They say, didn't you hear about Jesus and Nazamath, the
man mighty in word? Indeed, how the chief priests delivered
him up and he was dying, he was crucified. Here's
why everybody gets the pressed verse twenty one. Because we
were hoping. You know why.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
You get depressed.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Your hopes get dashed, your dreams get shattered, your expectations
get lost. They said, we were hoping we had dreams.
Our dreams have fallen through that he was gonna redeem
Israel and were just going home, and we are discouraged,
(19:34):
and now we can't find him.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
They've stole his body.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Okay, hold on your horses, Verse twenty five, Old foolish men, Jesus.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Is too cold, he calls the God's fools, you.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all
that the prophets have spoken? Was it not necessary for
Christ to to suffer these things and to enter into
his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he explained to them the things concerning himself in the scriptures.
(20:11):
So he went all the way back to the Old
Testament and saying, you know what that I'm talking about me?
You know what that that was talking about me? You
know what about that was talking about me? He went
to the scriptures to deal with their hopelessness. Now where
do you run when you lose hope? You run to
the movies, you run to your friends, or do you
run to the scriptures?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (20:30):
God, let David go through a lot of hopelessness so
you and I would have some place to run to
in the Book of Psalms. He says, they approached the village,
he's been giving them a Bible study while they're walking. See,
you don't have to be in church. They walking down
the road doing a Bible study. They get to the village,
he's getting ready to go further. He's gonna say, okay,
(20:51):
will y'all home? That Bible studies over. And they urged him, saying,
stay with us, for it's getting toward evening and the
day is down nearly over. And he went in to
stay with them. He wasn't gonna go in and less invited.
God'll only go deeper with you if you won't him there.
He won't go deeper if you don't want it. And
it came about when they reclined to the table, he
(21:13):
took the bread and blessed and broke it.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
He began giving it to them.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Their eyes were open, and they recognized him, and he
vanished from their sight. Oh this is sweet stuff Verse
thirty two. And they said to one another, were not
our hearts burning? Anybody ever heard of heart burn? Talking
about a showing up heartburn, heart bent on fire? Did
(21:38):
not our hearts burn within us? He says as he
was speaking to us on the road, and as he
was explaining.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
The scriptures to us.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
What led to the heart burn? He says, our hearts
started burning when he started walking and started talking and
open up the Have you ever come to church without hope?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
With head low?
Speaker 1 (22:07):
And the Holy ghosts? See when we get serious, we
call him the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
And the Holy.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Ghost zeroed in on you and acted like you are
the only person in the sanctuary, and in a fifty
minute sermon took hopeless ness and gave you a burning heart?
Have you ever been depressed? And he become the lift
of your head? And all you did was heard from
(22:33):
the word of God. That's all you did. Understanding brings
a new.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Disposition, Doctor Tony Evans reminding us what happens when we
allow God's word to come alive in our understanding, and
he'll return with a final thought in just a moment. First, though,
if you'd like to receive the complete, full length version
of today's message, The title to ask about is the
(23:02):
interpretation of Scripture, but the best way to get it
is to request it as a part of Tony's ten
part series The Glory of God's Word. As I mentioned earlier,
We are offering this powerful collection as our thank you gift,
available on digital download as well as on either CD
or USB flash drive when you support Tony's ministry with
(23:22):
a financial contribution and don't forget, We're also including doctor
Evans's book The Transforming Word as an added bonus when
you make your request right away. Just visit Tonyevans dot
org to get the details again, that's Tonyevans dot org.
Or give us a phone call day or night at
one eight hundred eight hundred thirty two twenty two and
(23:45):
let one of our resource team members help you. That's
one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two. When
it comes to hearing from God, people often ask why
just the Bible. Well tomorrow, doctor Evans explains why the
collect action of books we call scripture is complete, trustworthy,
and final. Right now though he's back with he's closing
(24:07):
comments to wrap up today's lesson God.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
The Holy Spirit wants to guide you and the understanding
the scriptures, and he doesn't want you to just be
under the Word. He wants you to be in the Word.
He just doesn't want you to come to church. He
doesn't want you to do that, but he wants you
not only to be under it. He wants the leap
off of the pages to you directly, because you're in it.
Because when that happens and you would apply what you interpret,
(24:34):
you must be transformed by it.
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