In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of approaching the Bible without personal biases or preconceived notions. They encourage listeners to compare different passages of Scripture to gain a deeper understanding of God's message. The speaker highlights the trustworthiness of God and the consistency of His Word, stating that there are no contradictions in the Bible. They use the example of Jesus riding a donkey, explaining that apparent contradictions can be resolved by examining the context and other related passages. The sermon concludes with the speaker addressing the question of how to understand difficult portions of Scripture, offering guidelines for interpreting and studying the Bible effectively.

We're going to read a portion this morning from 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. If I have to give a theme to the sermon this morning, I would just call it simply understanding scripture. It has happened over the past few months that some people, students and others, when I've taken a service in the dining hall have asked me, how do I understand what I read? There are so many portions in scripture which is difficult to understand. So what guidelines are there to make it easier to understand scripture? And I thought that when God gives the opportunity again, to me, I would like to talk and to perhaps give guidelines on how does one handle the Bible when it comes to prayer. And I thought that when God gives the opportunity again, to me, I would like to talk and to perhaps give guidelines on how does one handle the Bible when it comes to prayer. 2 Timothy is a verse which is well known and it says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. This verse starts off with the words, all scripture. It means the whole Bible. It means the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Bible is known as the canon. The canon or the standard. The Greek word that is being used for canon means measuring stick. So in the same way that we would use a ruler, the Bible is to be used to measure your life against the standard of God. Let me give you some facts concerning the Bible that we so easily take into our hands. It would seem that the Old Testament was written in totality by approximately 150 years before Christ was born. In the year 90 after Christ, there was a meeting in a small town in Israel called Yamnia. Where the rabbis got together to decide on the content of the books of the Old Testament. At that stage, they still didn't know about a few books that needed to be included in the Old Testament. For example, the Song of Songs. In the year 200 after Christ, the first complete list of the Old Testament was published in the Mishnah. That is the commentary on the Old Testament by the Jews. So by 200 AD, the Old Testament was closed. That means that no books could be added and no books could be taken away from the Old Testament. And that's how we have it today still. The same process happened with the New Testament. In the year 367 after Christ was born, a bishop, Athanasius, the bishop from Alexandria, published the first list of 27 books of the New Testament. In the year 367 after Christ was born, a bishop, Athanasius, the bishop from Alexandria, published the first list of 27 books of the New Testament. In 393 after Christ, there was the first meeting of Christian bishops in Hippo, where they decided that those 27 books will be the New Testament. In 397 in Carthage, in North Africa, the New Testament canon or standard was closed. In 397 in Carthage, in North Africa, the New Testament canon or standard was closed. So no books could be added, no books could be taken away from the New Testament, and we still have it like that today. There are 66 books in the Bible, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. The Bible was written in three languages. Most of the Old Testament is written in Hebrew. That's the language of ancient Israel. Certain portions were written in Aramaic, and that was in the time of the exile. But the New Testament was written in Greek, and the Old Testament was translated into Greek as well. So those are a few facts that I feel is perhaps important that we take note of in our discussion of this book, which is called the Bible. But why is the Bible different from other books? There are perhaps two reasons that I would like to share with you this morning. The reason being revelation, the concept of revelation, and the concept of inspiration. Revelation means to uncover something which is hidden, which is closed. So when something is uncovered, it becomes knowable, it is known. So revelation in biblical terms means that God uncovers Himself. God reveals Himself so that He can be known. Not only does He reveal Himself, but also His will for mankind is revealed in the Bible. So people wrote down in the Bible, in the books of the Bible, that which God did and said about Himself. So these records of what God did and what God said was written down and is recorded in the Bible as we have it today. In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself in the history of a people. In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself in the history of Israel, a chosen people, and these people wrote down how God revealed Himself and that is recorded in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, we have God's final revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ, His Son. So God's revelation started in the Old Testament and it was finished, it was completed in the New Testament in Jesus Christ the Lord. So that's what makes the Bible different from any other book. It's God working in the lives of people which is recorded in the book. Now before we think that the Bible is a book in which people wrote down their own experiences and their own feelings about God, there is the concept of inspiration. Inspiration in Greek. The Greek word means to breathe, to breathe into. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3 verse 16 that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. So we can read there that all scripture is given by the breath of God. This is very important because how you are going to understand the Bible, how you are going to handle the Bible is very much related to this principle that this word is God breathed. Write down this verse that I'm going to give to you now. 2 Peter 1 verse 21. This verse says, no prophecy ever originated because some men willed it. But men spoke from God who were moved by the Holy Spirit. The word of God to be inspired, to mean breathed by God, has the meaning that it's not the product of man. The Bible is the sole product of God using people to put it in writing. Now if that's the case with the Bible, it's God's revelation and it's God's inspiration. How do I understand what I read then? How do I interpret what God has written there? How do I bring out the meaning of that text which I am reading in my quiet time? Because every time that one reads the book, you want to understand what it is saying. And that's very important that I want to understand what the Bible is saying and I don't want to make the Bible to say what I want it to say. So I want to understand the meaning of the text, not I must give a meaning to the text. In the 16th century, the reformers formulated a very, very essential principle. It says for you to be safe in interpreting the Bible, always allow the Bible to interpret itself. Paul said all scripture is inspired by God. In the Greek, the word is theopneustos. It means God breathed. Now the theologian J. I. Packer said God has not only breathed into scripture. He said no, that's too simple an understanding of it. He said God breathed out scripture. And therefore scripture is a divine product. And we must acknowledge and appreciate the Bible as a divine product. So how does the Bible differ then from other religious books? How does it differ from the Muslim's Quran? Or the Bhagavad from the Hindus? Or Shakespeare's writings? The difference between the Bible and all other books is that it is Christ centered. Every page of the Bible from the first to the last testifies to Christ. Whenever we read the Bible, whether Old Testament or New Testament, we must read it to find Jesus Christ in the portions we are reading. Did you know that in Genesis 3 verse 15 there is already being spoken about Jesus Christ? Where God said to Eve that he will send somebody someday that will destroy the serpent. Other portions are Psalm 22 for example. Isaiah 7 and 42 and 49 and Zechariah 9 and Micah 5 These are all places where we find prophecies about the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is it so? Because the Holy Spirit of God is the primary author. He is the first author of the Bible. The Holy Spirit as the first author used people to write down in human words and in human letters what he wanted to say to his people throughout the ages. Never think for example that Moses was the primary author of the first five books of the Bible. No, the Holy Spirit of God wrote the first five books of the Bible. But he inspired and used Moses to write it down as the secondary author. Now carefully listen at this. The Bible is God's word spoken through the lips of man or written with the pens of man. Now this is an important principle because if the Bible was written by the Holy Spirit in the first place, if the Holy Spirit is the primary author, then it goes without saying that you need the Holy Spirit to interpret the Bible. Not by any other spirit can the Bible be interpreted correctly, only by the Holy Spirit of God. In other words, only a Christian filled with the Holy Spirit can interpret the Bible correctly. No unbeliever, no atheist at a university can interpret the Bible correctly because he lacks the Holy Spirit of God in his life. Therefore, no Muslim, no Hindu, no New Ager, no Buddhist, no anyone who hasn't got the Spirit of God can teach the Holy Scriptures of God. To the non-Christian, the Bible is a closed book. And that goes for us as well if we are not in right standing with God. If we don't live a spirit-filled life, if we are not guided by the Holy Spirit of God every day of our lives, we cannot interpret the Bible correctly. There are four guidelines which I would like to give to you when it comes to the interpretation of the Bible. Because the Bible is there to profit your whole life. Understanding the Bible is very important because it has a word for every portion of your life. And we want to understand what the Bible is saying to us. The Bible must interpret us. And we must be kept from the sin to read into the Bible what we wanted to say. Now, the scholars, the biblical scholars, the scientists have developed many methods to interpret the Bible. But most of them, if not all of them, cannot interpret the Bible correctly because they can't acknowledge Christ and His Spirit in the Bible. So I would like to give you this morning a method for interpreting the Bible which has benefited me tremendously. And I trust and hope that you yourself will also benefit from this. The first principle, show respect for the text of the Bible. The text of the Bible is God's word. It comes from God and it returns to God. It's not a product of man. It's a product of God. Indeed, Jesus Christ is called the Logos, the word of God. So if you don't show respect for the word of God as His word, you will find it extremely difficult to be able to correctly interpret what you are reading. So to respect the word of God, the Bible is God's voice in the form of words. So to respect the word of God means to allow oneself to listen to the words of the Bible. When you have respect for a person, you listen to that person. So to have respect for the word of God means that I would be prepared to listen to the voice of God coming to me in words being read. This word of God wants to reveal God. God wants to reveal Himself firstly to me, the reader of the Bible. And only if I approach the Bible, the word of God with respect, will I allow that word to reveal God to me and to reveal myself to me. The second principle. Recognize the fact that the Bible is an old and a new testament. So many times you hear of people who say, I only read the old testament. Others say again, we only read the new testament. There are two testaments but one Bible. And there is a continuous revelation of God in both testaments. Both testaments are God breathed. And Jesus is in both testaments. So we have to read both testaments with the understanding that Christ will be found in both testaments. The third principle. Spend time with the text of the Bible. Read and re-read a text that you want to share several times. Pray to God before you read the Bible. Pray to God when you have read the Bible. So that you can ask God to open it up for you to understand. Your attitude when you read the Bible should be one of openness, of humility. Humility just because you take into your hands what was never done by man but by God himself. And because of that the words of the Bible are alive with the spirit of God. It is dead to the unbeliever unless the spirit of God reveals it to him. It is dead to the atheistic scholar reading the Bible. But it is alive with the spirit-filled Christian which reads the Bible to understand it. When you read the Bible, set aside your own presuppositions, your own feelings, your own beliefs about the Bible and all kinds of doctrines that one acquires for yourself. Because many times when we read Scripture, these things force Scripture to say what we want it to say. We don't allow Scripture to say to us what God wants to say to us. The fourth principle. Compare Scripture with Scripture. Scripture is its own and best interpreter. So if you find yourself with a difficult piece of Scripture, you need to go to Scripture and other pieces of Scripture concerning the same topic and allow through that understanding to come to you. So let the whole of Scripture be available to you to understand what God is saying in any particular portion you are reading. The Old Testament can explain itself. The Old Testament can explain the New Testament. The New Testament can explain itself. The New Testament can explain the Old Testament. Why? Because Christ Jesus is the unifying factor in both the Testaments. So let Scripture allow Scripture to interpret itself. Now I've tried to give you some facts around the Bible and I've tried to give you some way of going to the Bible and understanding Scripture. And there are many scholars today which says that Scripture contradicts itself. And that may be the case because they are using humanistic, man-made methods to understand Scripture. Scripture never contradicts itself. Because there is one God through one Spirit who wrote the Bible. And there is one center in the Bible and that's Jesus Christ. So there can be no contradiction. Now with you I'd like to look at such a portion in the Bible which the scholars queries. And with you I would like to apply the principles that we have looked at So that you can see and understand the goodness of God in His Word. Turn with me to John chapter 12 verse 14. It's a very simple verse to understand one might think. And it simply says then Jesus when He found a young donkey sat on it as it is written. Now the scholars say that this is a contradiction of other portions in the Bible. Because other portion says that Jesus sends out His disciples to find a donkey for Him and brought it to Him. So how should we understand this verse then? Remember that we said the principle is that the Bible interprets itself. So let's see where this verse comes from. It comes from Zechariah 9 verse 9. Five hundred and fifty years before this happened where the Lord Jesus got this donkey cult. Five hundred and fifty years before that Zechariah spoke about it the first time. Zechariah 9 verse 9. Zechariah 9 verse 10. This portion says that the Lord Jesus will ride on the cult of a donkey. In other words a young unbroken cult. It would be a donkey on which nobody else has ever sat. And you know perhaps and I know that such an animal will never allow in an unbroken state anybody to sit on it. But when the king comes, he will sit on such a donkey. Now let's turn to Matthew 21. Matthew 21. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples, go to the village and you'll find a donkey tied there. Matthew 21. Verse 7 says they brought the donkey and the cult. And the Lord Jesus sat on the cult. Matthew is using the same words that Zechariah has mentioned. So it must be clear to you and me both that in essence Matthew is focusing on the prophecy in Zechariah and is quoting it word for word in a sense. So for Matthew it was important to show to the people of that time that this prophecy was fulfilled in word and deed. Let's go to Mark 11. Verse 7. Then they, that's the disciples brought the cult to Jesus and threw their clothes on it and he sat on it. Now Matthew is the only one who mentions the donkey as well. But Mark here is telling the people that this prophecy is fulfilled. And he focuses on the Messiah, on Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of that prophecy. Because just after that he quotes at length out of Psalm 118. The song that starts with Hosanna. So he focuses on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's turn to Luke 19 verse 35. And if we read verse 35 it says then they, the disciples brought him to Jesus, that's the cult, and they threw their own clothes on the cult and they sat Jesus on him. Here it's important to notice that only the cult was brought to the Lord Jesus. And in a funny way of putting it, it says here that the disciples sat the Lord Jesus on the cult. And here it says that the disciples threw their own clothes on the cult and they sat Jesus on the cult. And how by the disciples he was crowned in a sense as being their king. Not only is he recognized as the Messiah. Not only is he recognized as the coming king. But through the prophecy in Zechariah 9, through physically doing what the prophecy is saying, they are crowning him as the king. What I'm trying to tell you dear brethren, is that by studying the various portions of scripture concerning a particular thing, you will find no contradictions. But you will find the richness of God's revelation of himself. And by allowing the spirit of God to open up the words of scripture, you will find yourself understanding the heart of God as he reveals himself through what is happening in those words being written down for you and me. So how then will we understand this verse that we started off with in John 14 verse 12? If we look at Zechariah, the name of Zechariah means God remembers, Jehovah remembers. God never forgets his prophecies about his son. He never forgets what he says will happen in future. 550 years later, Jesus happens to come into Jerusalem just as was prophesied in Zechariah 9 verse 9. God remembered what he prophesied. Indeed a few days later the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. God promised that in Genesis 3 verse 15 four and a half thousand years before it happened. And Jesus was crucified, he was exalted, he was lifted up over being victorious over Satan, he was crowned king of kings on the tree of Golgotha. That is why the word the Bible is no ordinary word. Because it was written so to say by the finger of God himself the Holy Spirit. So out of this verse and the portions we have read there is one thing that stands out like nothing else. God can be trusted. Why? Because the whole Bible testifies that God can be trusted. God didn't make any mistakes in the Bible. He is not contradicting himself any place in the Bible. He can be trusted just as it was written as stated in John 12 verse 14. Friends God is busy in this world. He is busy in your life, he is busy in my life. And there is a promise that he made that we need to reckon with. Zechariah 9 verse 9 promised the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Zechariah 9 verse 10 promises the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are now 2500 years ago away from that verse when it was written. But it is written in scripture. And God remembers. He remembers his prophecies and Jesus will come again. And the question is when he comes to us in his second coming will we crown him as the king of kings or will we once again try to crucify him? At that day he will judge us. Riding on the donkey into Jerusalem the Lord Jesus wept over Jerusalem. And he said to Jerusalem your day has come. The day of the Lord is coming brethren, the day of the Lord is coming. How will that day find us? When you go to scripture to understand what God wants to say to you never forget this. Whatever you read testifies to Jesus. And he will come again. Can I summarize for you what I have said? Just the four principles. Respect the word of God in the first place. Secondly, there are two testaments, Old and New Testament. Read them together to understand what God is saying to you. Thirdly, spend time with the text. Pray, read, read again. Seek to understand what God is saying to you in the first place before you share it with anybody else. And the fourth principle, compare Bible with Bible. Now today is the 30th of November. Tomorrow the 1st of December, that's not difficult to work out. It's the month in which the Lord Jesus was born. There were many promises in the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will hear in the next 3-4 weeks, I suppose, many sermons on the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in Micah 5 verse 2, 700 years before the Lord Jesus was born, it was prophesied that he will be born. How should we understand the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you go now that you know how to interpret the Bible in a manner of speaking, why don't you go and study all the verses concerning the birth of Jesus Christ so that you may know? And why don't you apply the principles you've received this morning and you will find that you will understand God's revelation in Jesus Christ for you and for all mankind. Brethren, Jesus wants you to understand what he has written in the Word. And he has given his Spirit so that you can understand. The Holy Spirit has written it and he can reveal it. If only we will go to the Bible in total dependence on him, he will reveal himself. May God bless you. Lord Jesus, thank you that you didn't leave us behind as orphans, wrestling with the complicated details of an ancient book. And fond memories of great people who lived long ago. But Lord, that you've sent us the Comforter. Your Holy Spirit, to make your Word alive to us. And powerful. Lord, may we experience the fellowship of that Comforter as we read your Word. That we will see you and hear you speaking to us as if we are standing in front of you. Lord, that you can lead and guide us every step of our way. Revive us. Make us a new creation. And that we will read your Word like a baby drinks his mother's milk. Lord, it is your Work that keeps us from dying spiritually. We thank you for this bastion of the truth that you've given us. And our Lord, as we part, may your Word remain in our hearts and accompany us. And continue to speak and minister to us. That we will be written books for you. That we, in our lives, may so to say be living Bibles.