Is There A Verse That Says How To Read The Bible?

What I wanted to first I wanted to ask you was um it's a it's a way of interpreting scripture. Now I've always heard this but what I failed to see is it somewhere found in the Bible or is it just scholars that have read the Bible have come up with a good rule of thumb. I've always known that to interpret scripture, you take the scriptures that speak more direct to help you answer the scriptures that are, I guess you want to say, a little not as direct or a little more uh gray areaish to to find out the the answer to those verses. Now to understand, let me if we take uh Acts 22:16 and put that against uh Ephesians 28-9. Now, I'm not saying what Ephesians what Ephesians 28-9. >> Okay. And then Acts 22:16. >> Acts >> 22:16. >> Mhm. Okay. Let's do this real quick. Sure. Uh let me if you going to put them up on the screen, I could read from there or or Okay. So, oh now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on his name and compare that so with Ephesians 2:8-9. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast. Okay. >> Amen. So if as we read in Ephesians, it says just as you read, there's no works that I can do to contribute to my salvation. Amen. But I've heard people use Acts, the act, that verse in Acts, that word baptize has to be water baptism in order to wash away your sin. So I go, "No, that can't be." Because if Ephesians stated that I can't do anything myself to contribute to my salvation, then that answers the question of Acts 22 that baptized cannot mean a water baptism because that is an act, a personal act that I'm doing to state to the world that I'm a new creature in Christ. So how can that contribute nec, you know, directly to what my salvation is? Now that's just an example of me saying before how we take that that notion is is there a verse that states that notion where the um where scripture obviously interprets scripture but where the the more direct verses will help you understand the less direct verses. So, so you you were using those kind of as as an example. >> As an example, but I mean I do find it in arguments, but just an example. >> There is no biblical text to say go with the easier to understand verse over the more difficult verses. Say, but I would say this. I would say this, you would want to go with the preponderance u of evidence and take the more clearer verses. Let's say if I've got five clear verses, I got another verse that um doesn't seem as clear. I'll go with the five clear verses, right? What you'll see all throughout scripture is God will say the same thing different ways. So, what does it mean to be saved? It means to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. It means to be a disciple. It means to be born again, right? It means to believe. It means to confess. So, there's different ways of saying the same thing because somebody might it might click differently with certain people. And we see that when Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, he says that you must be born uh born again. Nicodemus didn't get it. He said, "You must be born of water and spirit." Nicodemus quite a get. Jesus says, "You're a teacher of Israel. You don't know this." Then he says, "You must be born of the spirit." So I think it started I think it started clicking because we see Nicodemus seeming to be with the fellowship of the believers later. So sometimes even Jesus, he's doing so saying it three three different ways. the same thing three different ways. Sometimes what might be an easy read for me might be difficult for someone else. Some reading that might be a little bit more difficult for me or or not as clear might be clear for other people. I don't think there's a rule to go by say you have to do it that way. So I've got one text that says seems clear and this text doesn't seem clear. Let's go with the clear reading. If they're talking about the same thing, um I'm going to go with the clear reading. I'm not going to ignore the clear reading and then just uh for the sake of this unclear reading because okay fine that's a little hard to understand but maybe the clear reading helps to if they're talking about the same thing if they're talking about the same thing the unclear reading is to be helped by the clearer reading but remember this every when the when the writer writes something he believes he's saying it in a way that it should be understood and his expectation God's expectations that we do understand it now some things are might have been said kind of more in a cultural way and they would have understood it and so it might be unclear to us where it's clear to them. For example, Proverbs 22:6, I use this all the time. Um, train a child in the way that he should go and when he's old and not depart. So, how we read that, we try to make it clearer because it's a Hebrew idiom and idioms don't make sense to us because we're not there. So he says, "Train a child upon the mouth of his way, >> and when he'll when he's old, he won't depart." >> What does train a child upon the mouth of his way? Well, that's unclear to us. That's a weird thing to say. So, the translators decided to take upon themselves to kind of give it the way that this should be taken, right? That this should be understood. Um, wait. Oh, I see what's happening. I got one of my internets is messing up. So, I'm sorry. So, >> no. >> So, the translators know that we don't understand idioms. We we're not there in whatever 100 BC. So they give it to us so where we can understand. They're trying to do the work for us. But even still, guess what? That seems like a clear understanding. But it's not because I can promise you most people that hear Proverbs 22 is going to take that the wrong way. It doesn't teach us that however you train this child when he's old, he won't depart. Because didn't God train his children, the children of Israel? >> Yeah. And did they depart? They sure did. He says, "If you train him according to the mouth of his way," what that means is the way that he wants to go. Now, they try to fix it, but we still get it. If you train him the way that he wants to go, he wants to be a jerk. Well, when he's 50, he'll be a jerk. He the way that he wants to go, he wants to be a messy child. So, when he's 70, 40, 30, whatever, his house is messy. He's You train him to be selfish. If you allowed him according to the mouth of his way, the bent or the way that he wants to go, he's selfish. So when he's 50, 60, he's selfish. Why is he like that? Because that's how he was trained. And it and it was according to his heart. So that's what he's saying. So it seems clear, like a clear teaching, but it's not cuz we get it wrong. So now we got to go back to get kind of get the real fix. Sometimes we got to go back and see what the text says that the the original says and then see if we can change the words to kind of help us in our modern day understanding. So, um here's a word uh um whosoever in John 3:16. That's not the word that's used there. You can now I get why they used it, but it can cause some confusion in John 3:16. It's not saying who whoever wants to. That's not what it says. The word is pass. So all the ones that are believing. >> So whoever is believing >> the whosoever kind of conotes a whoever wants to. Now that might be the point but that's not the word that's used there. >> So use the preponderance use the overwhelming evidence that you have on a particular topic. Now sometimes the topic might still be a little gray or that verse might still be a little gray. So we have two ways of reading things there. There's what's called systematic theology and biblical theology. [snorts] Systematically, systematic theology is more or less studying a particular topic. So, if I'm studying baptism, then what ends up happening is I'm looking for all the references and obviously the the immediate context around it to see what the person is talking about and I've already probably got built into my mind a certain understanding regarding baptism. So [snorts] if I believe, for example, I might think a certain way about baptism and I'll go to the text that you brought up, Acts 22:16, and think that clearly must be spirit baptism. But another person might because they are doing a study, a systematic a systematic theology, a study of of baptism. They've got their own presupposition about baptism. They say, "Well, see, that's clearly water baptism." Now, if I go to this text, you know what I did? I usually have baptism colored a certain way. I think yellow for spirit baptism and blue for water baptism and then white for it could be either or. >> Okay. >> Now, there's an argument here that can be made for either or. The reason why is because I would like to I'd much rather lean on biblical theology. That is taking the Bible, taking the passage, taking the book for what it's saying. So, what is the goal of of what's being stated here? Now, it's hard to get the the a sharper context for Acts 22 than let's say in 1 Corinthians because the Paul is writing the church of Corinth for a specific reason and he's not going all over the place, right? But in Acts, we're covering a whole lot of stuff, aren't we? Because it's just a chronicling of what the apostles did. That's why it's called Acts of the Apostles, right? So [snorts] now if I take this though, I got to have this kind of in comparison to all the other times that baptism is used. Sometimes baptism refers to a literal water baptism. Is it possible that in Acts 22 that Paul is speaking of uh that that he's been told to get up and be baptized, water baptized, but then it's this next phrase that that catches us and wash away your sins. Well, does baptism wash away your sins? Well, if you believe that water baptism saves you, then you're going to be inclined to believe here. That's a proof text. That's a text that I go to to prove that water baptism washes away my sins. It saves my sins. Right? Problem is though, people were being baptized in the Gospels, water baptized, and their sins weren't washed away. [sighs and gasps] So, how do we take this? Well, the next phrase might help us out where it says calling on the name of the Lord. So this phrase right here as I'm calling on the name of the Lord, this is pro this is what's washing away this this is what's taking away the sins, the calling on the name of the Lord. So he could mean one of two things. He could mean you actually getting water baptized. As you're doing so, you're calling on the name of the Lord. That's why you're getting water baptized. And though you're getting water baptized, what's actually washing away your sins is you calling on the name of the Lord. Because getting water baptized without calling on the name of the Lord won't do anything. You just got wet. Or he could mean spirit baptism. So does water baptism take away sin? Well, let's look at other books in Acts. So that's why the biblical the biblical theology helps out because how often do we see baptism in the book of Acts? A lot, right? And so Acts uh 10:44- 47, they call upon the name of the Lord and they get spirit baptized, right? They receive the Holy Spirit. Clearly, that means their sins are gone away or their sins have been washed away. Then they get water baptized. So water baptism could not mean that that's the way that you get rid of your sins. So, I think what you're what you're on to though is good, though. I think that that that that's a good rule of thumb, though. If I've got some easier to understand passages versus some difficult understand passages, I'll go with the easier to understand passages first cuz I know this is what this must mean. This can't mean anything else. So, if I got another related passage that seems difficult. Hm. For example, when we deal with the end times, people are divided over what's going to happen in the end times. Am I preerttrib, post-trip, midrip? Am I premeal, postmeal, i meal? Okay, those things didn't come out of thin air. And often times our theology colors how we're going to see the text. But there are some things that we can look at that are pretty easy and clear to understand. Like what does God plan to do to Israel? Well, everybody, and I mean everybody, is in agreement on this one thing. God plans to punish Israel, right? Is there anybody in in the chat that would disagree that God plans to punish Israel? Everybody say, "Yeah, he does." You know what we do, though? This is where theology comes in. In all those texts where where the Bible I think in all the texts where where God says he's going to punish Israel, do you know what he says after that though? But then I'm going to save them. So what happens is I might turn around and say I might re see that as kind of a to be filled by types and shadows or he's referring to the church. Well, wait a second. You can't say that he's really going to he's really going to punish Israel, but he's not really going to save Israel also. So the first part I see the clear understanding, the clear teaching. >> The second part, now we're divided. >> Well, what about the first part? can we all agree with? So how come every time that he says that he's going to do this he follows it up with he's going to raise them up like Jeremiah 31 and we say well that ain't really is right. So that helps us. So the clear teaching or clear portion of the teaching can help to deal with the part that we are all divided on. So I think you're right. Take the clear teachings first and then use those. Put them to the side and take the other more difficult or debated text. Put that to the side. Let's deal with the clear text first and then see if that kind of helps understand the difficult text. Problem is though, there is no biblical passage that tells us that's what we have to do. It just I think that's just good wisdom though. >> Okay. Because I was going to also say that I've seen you do it a bunch of times even a little while ago when you mentioned how uh I do not I forget the the verse um the Timothy verse I do not permit a woman to uh >> or to have authority over a man versus the many times I've heard you sir where people will bring up Deborah Rahab and and do linguistical mental gymnastics to pull something that's not in those texts >> in in order to counteract the direct verse you just stated in Timothy. Yeah. >> So, you know, it it it but I'm just like, how are you, you know, and obviously all the verses work hand in hand. I'm a full believer in that. You just have to understand how. But if you insist on hitting one verse against the other, how do you not how do you attack a direct verse with something you kind of have to stretch and manipulate and pull to even even >> there there's something natural about how we read the Bible. There's something natural to it >> that we ignore when we start reading the Bible. >> There's a natural way to read things. There's a natural way to view things. Let's let me use a non-reading example. We all watch a movie. Maybe we've even watched a movie that has series. Nowadays, me and my wife, if someone says, "Hey, you ought to watch this show." And the first thing we ask is, "Is it a series or is it a movie?" Cuz we don't want any more series. We we we are we got like five series that we're watching and we're in the middle of all of them. We haven't finished them because we got to go to this series. This can be a movie. I got two hours. And so now if I'm watching a series and someone comes in in the sixth season on the third episode and they watch like, "Wow, okay, that that's good. What's going on?" You miss so much. So where do you where do you figure out what's going on in the beginning? Start with the beginning and work your way on through. We don't pick up books and read the middle. We don't we don't we don't go and grab a story. You know, I'm reading a newspaper article and I'm going to start in the middle and work my way down and up. No, start in the beginning. And so, we read the Bible like it's a story. The story of the Bible. The Bible is a story. It's a book. Now, it's a supernatural book and a supernatural story, but it's a book and a story nonetheless. So, read just that way. It's just a normal way that we that God has so wired us that we all read things this way. We do things that way. So, let's keep doing it that way. It makes it easier. So now when we go to certain texts that are debatable, let's go back and look at what God said he was doing all along. So when God says he's going to do X, Y, and Z, then in the future when it happens, so here's the thing. The promise from Jesus was not the promise of John. John's baptism was a water baptism, right? But what was the promise all along? We don't even have we don't even have an Old Testament promise of people being baptized in water. Not one Old Testament promise or prophecy points to people being baptized in water. But we do have Old Testament promises of people being baptized in the Holy Spirit. >> And so and and that's what that's Jesus's job. So what is going to take away our sins? What does Jesus do? What actually washes away our sin? According to the Bible, from the beginning to the end, it's blood. Jesus says, I mean, the writer of Hebrew says almost everything is cleansed with blood. So our faith is in what Christ has done, the finality of it and so forth. And so there is our sins being taken away. And so what does Jesus do? Baptize us based on our profession of faith in what he's done. What does he do? He baptizes us in the Holy Spirit. So knowing that, yeah, now Acts 22:16, knowing what we already know is going to happen and it's happening and it's happening with Paul, the one who was persecuting Jesus. Yeah. I think I would lean towards this being spirit baptism like you did. >> The proponence of the evidence, even not even talking about baptism, just based on what God said he's going to do. >> Amen.