Show Video time stamps

As we continue to look at the word of God, the greatest book in this world, God's word can be understood. It can be applied if it is studied the way God intended for us to study it, and we derive the profit that God put in the word of God if we discover how God divides and applies the word of God.

Let's look at a third point, continuing from the last time we were together, the intended effect of Bible study. What you're about to hear can transform your life. If you allow the truth of God's word to do its work, it will provide you with keys that unlock the doors of every passage of scripture. However, understand this, that it is fraught with barriers and obstacles that are placed there by traditional and historic Christianity. You'll be face to face with the reality that most of modern Christianity does not agree with you.

Names will be attributed to you that are meant to show how extreme you've become. But why rob yourself? Why rob your family and your circle of influence, of the opportunity to know the truth and be set free by it? You'll need to consider the scriptures that follow sincerely and let them speak to your heart. Allow scripture to establish your doctrine.

Bring reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness as we read in II Timothy, chapter three, verses 16 and 17. So that's the effect of scripture. Verse 16 and 17 of II Timothy, chapter three says, all scripture is given by inspiration, God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works. The Bible is the word of God, and it was given to us by a very unique and distinct process called inspiration.

Literally coming from the Greek, that word means God breathed. It was given to us, authored by God himself. And it's a process that is only reserved for the giving of God's word to man. You do not find inspiration anywhere else. Further, the contents of the Bible have a special profit or benefit unique only to scripture, to the word of God.

We read in II Timothy 3:16 and 17 that the word of God is profitable for doctrine. The content, that's the content of what we are to believe. It is complete, it is detailed, it is totally sufficient, it is authoritative, it is fully reliable and eternal in its very essence. We're to rederive our doctrine, not from the church, not from church leaders or otherwise. The word of God must be our one and only authority.

And to the degree that spiritual leaders and teachers lead you to that, you're on pretty good ground. Profitable for doctrine, profitable for reproof. The sense of this word as used in the Bible has to do with chiding, with rebuke, with bringing conviction. It's, by the way, when you read about that, on the one hand, it speaks well of those who respond positively to reproof, and on the other hand, calls those who don't foolish and stubborn. Profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and for instruction, for correction. Correction is the next one.

Which is the purpose of scripture to build strong and accurate teaching into our lives. That's doctrine and correct. That's correction and correct. Inaccurate beliefs, inaccurate interpretation of the word of God, inaccurate application of God's word. And therefore, once you have correct and accurate beliefs, once you've been reproved and corrected by the word of God and the doctrine it teaches, then you can engage in correct living.

Because if you don't, you'll engage in wrong living.

The fourth instruction, there is instruction in righteousness. That's the benefit and power of the word of God. This has to do with training, with education, with instructing us in God's righteousness and how we live and produce a righteous life that is pleasing to God and productive for God. So that's the benefit of scripture. That's the role and purpose of the word of God, for us to get sound teaching, for us to be reproved, for us to be corrected in our wrong beliefs and wrong living, and to receive instruction in righteousness, how we are to live so that our lives are pleasing to God.

Now, point number four is that God's prescribed approach to Bible study is very, very clear. Second Timothy, 3:16 and 17, as we just saw, speaks of scripture as being profitable. But how do we get the profit from the word of God? There's only one way, God tells us we get the answer as we should, from the word of God. And it's in the context of II Timothy, chapter two, verse 15.

God says, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth. This rightly dividing the word of truth in its original language means to cut straight, as when you're working with a pattern to manufacture, to produce a garment, you follow the pattern exactly, and you cut it straight. You cut it where it needs to be divided. That's the idea here.

Now, to be fair, every Bible teacher, every religious institution claims that they handle and apply the word of God rightly. And there are as many opinions on the subject as there are denominations. I was once speaking to a friend about what specifically applies to us today. He said, rather defensively, but with strong conviction. The Bible is whatever it means to me.

In other words, I read any passage of scripture, and what he means is if I can somehow identify with it and claim it for myself, that's what it means to me. That's what the intended purpose of the Bible, well, that is at best sloppy and uneducated, and at worst, it is toxic and deadly. So unless we adhere to the ludicrous belief that the Bible is whatever it means to me, we've got to ask the question, how do you rightly divide the word of truth? Well, guess where we go for that. For an accurate answer, we must first set aside all of man's views on the subject and discover what God says about how to rightly divide the word of truth.

As a very close friend of mine once said, as we were talking about this, he said, you know that most people don't believe this. Sadly, I know that's true. But you will need to stand not on what most people believe, but on what the word of God says. And I urge you to examine this real careful and then base your convictions on the word of God and not on what others believe and may have taught you. The first word in this verse, in chapter two and verse 15 is the word study.

Study to show yourself approved unto God. The word in the original language has the sense of laboring hard, being diligent, to give oneself completely to studying the word of God. There are truths in the Bible that will only yield to diligent study. The verse elaborates on the importance of study by using the word workman. Study to show yourself approved unto God.

The workman who's doing the work of digging for the treasures of God's word and doing it God's way.

It doesn't come through a cursory reading of the Bible. Reading through the Bible has its value, but the greater value comes through deliberate and diligent work. We are to be workmen. That study.

There's a two sided coin here. One emphasizes the positive view of God about this work, of studying. The other, the negative, in this verse, in chapter two and verse 15 of II Timothy. Not only is the issue the profit we derive from studying the word of God the way God wants us to study it. The ultimate and infinitely more important issue, what is it that honors and pleases God? What he approves?

And it says in verse 15, study to show yourself approved of God. And now the negative side of that coin, it's a workman that needs not be ashamed before God. Rightly dividing the word of truth. So, on the one hand, you can please God. You can be approved of God if you study and apply the word of God correctly, rightly dividing it.

But you can also be ashamed before God if you do not. And God tells us that clearly. And so following are some principles, some keys that will unlock the meaning God put in his word, thus being able to understand his word, apply it as God intends, and ultimately honoring and pleasing him. And so the next point is number five. And we'll be, throughout this study, we'll be giving several points that really cement this concept.

All scripture is for us as we read before, but not all scriptures to us or about us in general terms. Scripture divides itself into what is written directly to us and what is not, but is written for our learning, as we saw in Romans chapter 15 and verse four. What is it that applies directly to us? Well, a good beginning is to see what God says in the book of Ephesians chapter two and verse seven.

And we have in verse seven, in verse eleven and verse 13, three applications, three perspectives, three divisions that God has made in his word. So in Ephesians chapter two, let's start with verse five, Paul is writing to the Ephesians and he says, Even when we were dead, in sins, God quickened us together with Christ, so he made us alive. That's the word for quickened. By grace, you are saved. He has raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And then here's the time period that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. So in the ages to come, not today. In the ages to come, future ages, God is going to do certain things that he's not doing today and that he did not do in the past.

And then in verse eleven, it says, wherefore? And now he's going to pass. He says, wherefore? Remember that you being in time past, he's addressing Gentiles. That's the non Jewish population are called Gentiles.

And he's saying, remember that in time past. So we've seen, first of all, in the ages to come, that's future to where we are today. Now he's looking at the past before what is true today. Remember that you Gentiles in time past, who are called uncircumcision by those that are called circumcision. So there is a distinction there between Jews and Gentiles.

And he said, there's a division. There was a division between Jews and Gentiles. You who were called uncircumcision by those who are called the circumcision. The circumcision was a sign, a symbol of God's covenant with the nation of Israel. The promises he made to them, and they, in a derogatory way, looked down at non Jewish people and called them the uncircumcision by those that are called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands.

Now he says more things about what was true in time past. He says, at that time, you were without Christ. Gentiles were without Christ. We have in the word of God throughout history, the history of the Bible. We have writings about prophecies and pictures and shadows of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, right from Genesis, chapter three, verse 15.

Throughout scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ, in fact, when he was here on earth, he quoted Psalms, chapter 40, verse seven, saying, in the volume of the book, it is written of me. Don't miss it.

Paul says in Ephesians, chapter two, verse twelve, that at that time you were without Christ. You were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. Everything that was true and part of the Jewish people, anything at all, they were completely separated from the nation of Israel, was God's chosen nation to accomplish an eternal purpose with them. And Gentiles were completely separated from that. They were separated aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel.

Everything that related to the nation of Israel, they were strangers to. And then it says they were strangers from the covenants of promise. God made many covenants with the nation of Israel. He made a covenant with Abraham that pertained to the nation of Israel. He made a covenant with King David that pertained to the nation of Israel. He made a new covenant which pertains to the nation of Israel. But Gentiles, they were completely strangers from the covenants of promise. And it gets worse. Having no hope. Imagine living without hope. They had no hope. Why? It says, because they were without God in the world. What a horrible predicament the Gentiles were in, in time past.

The main point here is to show that what was true of Gentiles in their history in time past is no longer true today. As we'll see, God has changed all of that. Gentiles had no hope and were without God in the world. How tragic, how awful, how hopeless.

Yet there are two amazing transformative words in Ephesians chapter two and verse 13. So while Paul says, what's going to happen in ages to come? What he says was true in time past about Gentiles and these two great words in Paul's letters. But now. But now the message to Gentiles is that they have a new standing.

Everything has changed. But now in Christ Jesus. But now in Christ Jesus. Specifically those who have trusted Christ's work on the cross, alone and exclusively for salvation. He says, you who were at one time afar off are made near by the blood of Christ.

That's verse 13 of Ephesians, chapter two. You were far off. No hope. Strangers having nothing, no God, no hope, no Christ. But now everything has changed through what Christ did on the cross.

How did he do that? Verse 14. For he is our peace, who has made both Jews and Gentiles, that derided themselves, that rejected each other, that were foreigners to what God was doing, completely separate. God has made peace between the two and he has made both one.

He has brought together Jews and Gentiles. Where Paul says, in Colossians, where there's neither Jew nor Gentile, there's no distinction between the two. All those distinctions are gone and has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us. The middle wall of partition is that wall that separated Jews and Gentiles. And specifically here, according to verse 15, it's the law, the commandments, all of that separate.

The covenants, the promises, the provisions that God made for specifically the law. And then circumcision, that was a wall between Jew and Gentile. Notice before that we read that the Gentiles were called uncircumcision, by those that are called circumcision, circumcision was a wall of partition which later became part of the law of Moses. And what did God do? He abolished verse 15 in his flesh, through the death of Christ on the cross as a human.

He removed and abolished the enmity between the two. Even the law of commandments contained in ordinances to make in himself, in Christ, of the two Jews and Gentiles, one new entity, one new man, and so making peace. Verse 16. And that he might reconcile both Jews and Gentiles. Circumcision and uncircumcision.

That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross. That's the means that God used to eliminate the wall of partition, to eliminate the division, to eliminate the predicament that Gentiles were in without God, without hope, strangers from the covenants and promises and so forth. And he, by his work on the cross, verse 16. Having slain, having removed, having killed the enemy status between the two and between Gentiles and God, and came and preached peace to you that are far off and to those that were near. For through him, Christ and his work on the cross, we, both Jews and Gentiles have access by one spirit unto the father.

But now, verse 19, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, with all believers. And you are now of the household of God. And that's what God says in his word. In I Corinthians, chapter twelve, we see this whole concept of body that God has formed.

But now, there's a lot of but now passages. So, but now. And it'd be good for you to study and look up all of the but now passages in the word of God. Now the righteousness of God is revealed without the law. Now we're made free from sin and become the servants of God. Now we're delivered from things that enslaved us previously.

Then we'll look next at two points. Very quickly. I'll make the difference between things revealed and things hidden. In Acts, chapter three, verse 21, the apostle Peter is speaking, he talks about them repenting or turning from their sin to be converted. And then he will send Jesus Christ, verse 21, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. So there are things that have been revealed since the world began. On the other hand, in Romans chapter 16 and verse 25, the things that we now know, the things that the apostle Paul reveals to us, things that were kept secret since the world began. Chapter 16, verse 25.

Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the Revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, either it was hidden in God, not revealed, and now things that were hidden are revealed. And making that distinction is critical to an accurate study of the word of God.