07. The Application Principle

CHAPTER SEVEN The Application Principle a. Definition.

1. The principle by which an application of truth may be made only after the correct interpretation has been learned.

(a) This means that when you study the Bible you must first seek the proper interpretation of the text, the exact meaning always, and the literal meaning. You ought never to take a text and preach on it without examining the words of the text. Discover –

(1) Why that passage was given.

(2) What was the original purpose of God in writing the Scripture.

(3) What was in the mind of God when He caused it to be written.

(b) When the meaning is learned, then you may apply it to the life of an individual, of a community, etc., but first of all discover the real meaning of the text. There is a great difference between application and interpretation. There is much confusion in the church today because men have taken the Word of God and made application without any true reference to the interpretation.

(c) All Bible students should be agreed as to the interpretation. There may he many applications, but there is only one correct interpretation.

(d) Things necessary for interpretation:

(1) Common sense – the ability to discover harmony in things that agree and differences in unlike things.

(2) Faith in Scripture as the Word of God.

(3) Mental perception.

(4) Other things that help:

[a] Obedience.

[b] Knowledge of Bible geography, people, etc.

[c] Knowledge of contemporary history.

[d] Purity of life.

(5) 2 Timothy 3:14-16; Ephesians 3:3-4; Colossians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27. The Scriptures were to be read and understood by all.

(e) Hindrances in interpretation.

(1) Desire for the applause of the world.

(2) Vanity and flattery may lead to blindness.

(3) Study without regularity and without system.

(4) Studying only favorite portions.

(f) Methods which prevent proper interpretation.

(1) Mystical. It originated in heathenism. It goes back to the study of the priesthood. Here is a belief that those only who are divinely appointed by God can properly interpret.

(2) Allegorical. This method treats the Bible as though it were made up of combination of metaphors or comparisons. It adds to the Scripture.

(3) Rationalistic. This is a method of unbelief. Nature is the standard, and reason is the guide. All must harmonize with man.

(4) Apologetic. Absolute perfection of every statement in the Bible is the claim. There is a swing from the rationalistic to the other extreme.

(5) Literal. This takes everything in Scripture literally. b. Interpretation and Application of Texts.

1. David and Mephibosheth – 2 Samuel 9.

(a) Interpretation .

Kindness shown by David and his faithfulness to his covenant with Jonathan.

(b) Application. This is a beautiful picture of salvation by Christ.

David is now king and wishes to show the kindness of God to the house of Saul because of his covenant with Jonathan, Saul’s son.

David now had the upper hand, and no one would have found any fault with him if he had rounded up the members of Saul’s family and killed them all, hut David’s throne became a throne of mercy rather than of judgment because of another (Jonathan). We may draw a comparison here and show that through the blood of Jesus Christ the throne of God is a throne of mercy today because of Another, God’s Son. But this throne will some day become a throne of judgment because of those who reject Christ.

Verse 3 tells us that Jonathan had 8 son whose name was Mephibosheth and was lame on both feet. Mephibosheth was lame because of a fall. His nurse had dropped him when fleeing with him from the enemy. He had fallen at the hands of another. Sinful man has fallen at the hands of another, who was Adam. Every son of Adam is lame on both feet. Now where was Mephibosheth? He was in the house of Machir, in the land of Lodebar. That was an interesting place, and that is just where the sinner is. Machir means "sold." Mephibosheth was living in a house of bondage. We are all sold under sin in a house of bondage-a slave of sin and a slave of Satan. The land of Lodebar means "no pasture." Where there is no pasture there is no satisfaction. No pasture means "no peace."

We read late r that David sent and fetched him. Mephibosheth did not go, he was not seeking David, and he did not fetch himself, but David sent and fetched him. When we were sinners, God sent and fetched us. When Mephibosheth came to David, he fell on his face. He feared David. This is a picture of the sinner in fear on that great judgment da y. But Mephibosheth was to be shown kindness for the sake of another. God, for Christ’s sake, will save the sinner. God did not save you for your own sake, but because of another. Mephibosheth went to live in Jerusalem, which means "Peace." He came from Lodebar, no pasture, to Jerusalem, the "city of peace." Here is an opportunity to tell the sinner to leave Lodebar and move down to Jerusalem. God is all ready to fetch him out of Lodebar and over to Jerusalem. The end of the story is – "so Mephibosheth did eat continually at the king’s table; and was lame on both of his feet." The fact of the matter is, that when Mephibosheth came from Lodebar to Jerusalem, he brought his lame feet right along with him. When we came to the King’s house and ate at the King’s table, and became members of the family of God we brought our lame feet with us.

2. Naaman and Elisha – II Kings S.

(a) Interpretation. This has to do with a Syrian captain and the Jewish captive.

Here was a little girl who believed that the prophet could heal Naaman of his leprosy.

(b) Application.

Someone has said that there are two million physical lepers in the world. We are not certain as to that number, but we do know that there are many times that number of spiritual lepers. Spiritually every man is a leper until cleansed in the blood. This story gives the gospel plan of salvation.

(1) Leprosy is a symbol of sin. Men are lepers in the sight of God, when in sin.

[a] In the nation of Israel lepers were excluded from worship in the temple of God by the command of Jehovah. This was not true in any of the other nations, for lepers were allowed to mingle with the rest of the people. Sin, like leprosy, breaks out in the most loath· some forms. You can see it on all sides. Sin, like leprosy, makes everyone hideous. Sin, like leprosy, brings separation. In the nation of Israel the leper could not come into the camp with the others. When anyone came near he must shout, "Unclean, unclean!" If the moral lepers of today had to shout, "Unclean" there would be a terrific racket. Sin, like leprosy, cannot be cured by man. A sinner is a death-doomed man and no one can cure him but God. It seems that no one could cure leprosy but God, in the Scriptures. We mention here that there are some ways in which the sinner and a leper are not alike. A leper never makes light of his leprosy, but a sinner does make light of his sin. The leper knows he is a leper, but the sinner fail s to recognize that he is a sinner.

(2) When a sinner is awakened to his sin he will be miserable, as was Naaman. With all of his good things, Naaman was not happy.

(3) The gospel of cleansing came to Naaman through a little girl – not a great woman; but she had a great message. She had a humble position. Though she was a servant of Naaman and his wife, she was also a servant of Jehovah. Here is a lesson. The thing necessary to get Naaman in to touch with God was the testimony of a servant. When this little girl started to testify, things started to move. Naaman moved, and the king moved, and then Naaman moved over into Israel.

(4) The law of Assyria did not bar Naaman from society, but in Israel God’s law said a leper must be separated. When Naaman came into Israel, then Elisha treated him as a leper should be treated. The trouble today is that the world is trying to make sin respectful, and God will not have it so. You should treat the sinner as a sinner and put him in his place. You can never save a man by patting him on the back and then feeding him cream puffs. When the sinner takes a sinner’s place, then he will be saved. There is too much fellowship with sin, and compromise with sin. Naaman had to take the leper’s place before he was cleansed. The sinner must take the place of the sinner.

(5) Naaman was willing to go far and do much, but he wanted to do things his own way. The sinner is much like Naaman, for he is not satisfied with the remedy prescribed. He will say it is too easy. A sinner never docs like God’s plan, and the reason is – God’s plan strips the sinner of all his righteousness. It brings all sinners on the same plane.

(6) Naaman dipped 7 times. 7 is the number of God. 6 is the number of evil and of man. There is no cleansing for man until 6 is submerged in God’s 7. In Adam we are marked with 6, but ill Christ we are marked with 7.

3. The Prodigal Son – Luke 15.

(a) Interpretation.

Now notice the setting. The Lord Jesus is surrounded by the publicans and sinners. The Pharisees and Scribes are murmuring, "This man receiveth publicans and sinners and eateth with them." He spoke this parable to the Scribes and Pharisees and it is for them. By interpretation this parable belongs to that dispensation, and if it is to be understood it must be treated dispensationally. The publicans and sinners were Jews as well as the others, and they were all in covenant relationship with God. That sacrifice taken into the tabernacle every year cleansed all of them. The publicans and sinners were wayward children of God. The parable teaches a great love of God for the children in covenant relationship with Him. This was a national covenant.

(b) Application.

If any application is to be made to this present dispensation it must be made to people who are covenant relationship with God. In other words, the prodigal son is not a lost sinner but a saved sinner. He is a eon. The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost boy all apply to the backslider. The one hundred sheep were saved; the coins were saved; the two boys were saved. It was a sheep that was lost, not a goat. It was a real coin that was lost, not a counterfeit. It was just as good as the rest of the coins on the string. The boy that was lost was just as much a son as the one who stayed at home. This boy was a son, and nothing could unmake him a son. He was a son in the home, and a son when he left the home, and a son when in the field feeding swine. If he had died in the far country he would have still been a son. This boy was a son even when he brought shame to the family. The parable leaches the everlasting love of Goo for His own. The son could waste and spend all that he had (save his father’s love) but he could not spend that; and when he returned home his father met him with outstretched arms.

4. Light In our dwelling –Exodus 10:21-24.

There is a darkness in Egypt.

(a) Interpretation. The people of God are in slaver y, and God is going to free them.

(b) Application – the sinner in slavery unto Satan and freed by God.

(c) Comparisons of interpretation and application.

(1) They were freed by judgments; this is the ninth-darkness. It was leveled against the sun god (ra) of the Egyptians. The judgment came in Egypt because Pharaoh would not let God’s people go. Today there is spiritual darkness because the world doesn’t recognize God.

(2) The children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

(3) It was not a natural light, but supernatural. Truly there should be light in our dwellings in the midst of the darkness of the world. We are children of light; there should be a light in our home which is a supernatural light.

5. Book of Ecclesiastes.

(a) Interpretation.

(1) Ecclesiastes 7:16 – " Be not righteous overmuch."

(2) Ecclesiastes 7:17 – "Be not overmuch wicked."

(3) Ecclesiastes 2:24. – "Nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink."

(4) Ecclesiastes 3:4. – "There is a time to dance."

We must remember that Ecclesiastes is the book of the natural man (of the unsaved man). "Vanity of vanities" is used 28 times. It means emptiness of all life aside from God. We could probably translate it "soap bubbles." The key to the book is 6:12.

(b) Application. In chapter one there are three parables:

(1) The sun riseth and goeth down in the same place. Things of the world always come to the same end or place – Verse 5.

(2) The wind goes, but always comes back, and will come back continually. This is a picture of the unsaved man – Verse 6.

(3) All rivers run into the sea, yet are not full; take all the streams the world has to offer and pour them into the soul, and man is never full – Verse 7.

6. Achan and Ai – Joshua 7, 8.

(a) In chapter 6 we have the fall of the city of Jericho – a city given to Israel by the power of God.

(b) Chapter 7 – defeat comes.

Joshua proceeds in the same way as at Jericho. God was to receive the wealth of Ai, but Achan took some of the spoil and hid it in his tent.

Until sin is purged, God’s hand is withheld. There is need of judgment in the church today. We would have more power if we would exercise more discipline.

Achan’s sin was a sin committed in a moment of victory, and led to defeat. It was s sin of sacrilege. He took something that belonged to God. Sin robs God. It was a secret sin, but God knew. God knows everything – 1 Chronicles 28:9.

7. Rahab – Joshua 2.

(a) Interpretation.

(1) Joshua was the greatest General on the pages of history, because he followed the Lord.

(2) Rahab asked for salvation for herself and family. .

(3) A woman saved when Jericho was appointed for utter destruction-here is the gospel.

(b) Application.

(1) Rahab dwelt in a condemned city. Jericho is a type of the world under the curse of God.

(2) Rahab was a bad character – a condemned person.

There was nothing in her to commend her to God. There is nothing in man to commend him to God – Romans 3:10.

(3) Faith of Rahab.

Because she had heard-she knew.

(4) Rahab’s salvation. The men said: "Our life for yours." Here is substitution as portrayed at Calvary.