Orwell Bible Church

The Bible is inspired, inerrant, and infallible (see our doctrinal statement on the Bible). While the writers were human, its ultimate author is God. This fact makes what it says:

• Absolutely true
• The only authority for what you should think about God and how you should live before God
• All that you need to live a life that pleases God

Because of these things, unbelievers must hear the gospel message that is found only in the Bible (2 Tim 3:15) and Christians must continually listen to and learn from the Bible (2 Tim 3:16-17).

Christian, while holding a Bible in your hands and considering all that is in it, it can be very easy to get discouraged—“How can I ever learn all that is in this?” Don’t get discouraged! Remember that real growth in Christ takes time. You didn’t grow from an infant to an adult overnight, in a week, or even in a year! Physical growth and maturity involves slow and steady growth, and such growth only comes from eating food. Spiritual growth is no different—“like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord” (1 Pet 2:2-3).

Perhaps you say you’re a Christian but you really don’t see the importance of learning from God’s Word. “What’s the point?” you could think. “Jesus Christ saved me from hell, so I’ve got the most important thing taken care of.” Consider what God says in the Bible about why you must learn from Him in its pages:

• It is essential for spiritual growth (1 Peter 2:2), the “text book” for Christian living (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
• It is necessary for living a life that pleases Christ (Colossians 1:9-10)
• It is what the Spirit uses to make you holy (John 17:17)
• It is the tool for protection against temptation and sin (Psalm 119:9, 11)
• It is the means of learning Christian truth so you are protected against the many false teachers that would deceive you and take you away from Christ (Ephesians 4:14)
• It is the instrument used for serving the Lord (Ephesians 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

In a nutshell, it is impossible for you to be and do what God expects of you as a Christian apart from the Bible. You must learn from God in the pages of Scripture!

Hopefully by this point you agree with what God says about how important it is to learn from Him in the Bible. How can you? There are three essential activities that you must be involved in to grow and mature in the Lord.

1. You must read and study God’s Word
2. You must listen to the preaching and teaching of God’s Word
3. You must meditate on and memorize God’s Word

Let’s quickly consider why these three activities are essential for you as a Christian.

First, your own daily personal reading and studying of the Bible helps you continually learn and gain encouragement from your God. Think about that! Sin’s power and penalty had separated you from God yet He saved you from that. Not only did He restore you to a special relationship with Him, He gave you His written Word so you can know exactly what He wants you to know! By learning and studying the Bible you will have a regular diet of God’s Word to help you grow, and you can never get enough of this good thing! Start with the New Testament and then work your way through the entire Bible.

Second, you must regularly listen to preaching and teaching at a good Bible believing and practicing church. You will receive correct, challenging, and helpful instruction aimed at helping you be more like Christ. This is important because your pastor and teachers are mature in the Word, and you’ll need the help and correction for your own personal reading and studying. It is so important to recognize the importance of learning God’s Word with God’s people (Acts 2:42)—too often the emphasis is on the individual, and while that is important, if you look in the New Testament you’ll see that more often than not God’s people learn God’s Word with each other.

Third and last, you must meditate on what you have learned (Joshua 1:8), memorizing important parts, so it is ingrained in your heart (Psalm 119:9, 11). Continually meditating (mulling over and over) will help you grasp the significance of God’s Word for your life. Memorizing passages of Scripture enables you to always have God’s Word ready to use for any situation in your life.

How, then, can you profitably learn from God’s Word through these activities? You must be in SHAPE, learning from God’s Word—

Submissively: Always be ready to change in any way when confronted with God’s Word (Proverbs 1:23; 2 Timothy 4:2-4; James 1:22-25). It is easier to think “so and so should read this verse,” instead of applying it to yourself. It is easier to criticize the pastor or teacher than to give serious consideration to what God is saying to you through him.

Habitually: Discipline yourself to regularly read the Bible and listen to preaching and teaching in order to learn about God and His will for you (Acts 2:42; 17:11; 1 Peter 2:2). This commitment adds discipline, which will help carry you through distractions, things that would pull you away, and simple laziness or neglect.

Accurately: When reading the Bible, let it speak for itself—don’t change or miss its plain meaning (2 Timothy 2:15). Using a good translation will be a real help (such as the New American Standard Bible). Be sure you’re being taught from a church that proclaims and practices what the Bible says, not what people want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Prayerfully: Continually ask God to help you understand and apply what you’re learning (Psalm 119:18; Ephesians 1:18; Jude 20). Before and during your Bible reading time or listening to teaching, pray for God’s help in understanding the significance of the Word for your life.

Eagerly: This isn’t a chore to get out of the way but the wonderful Word to hear and obey! (2 Chronicles 36:15-16; Proverbs 1:24-33; 29:1; 1 Peter 2:2) Every time you have the opportunity to read or hear the Word, go expecting something good and looking for something helpful.

In addition to having a biblical understanding of the character and effects of temptation and sin, you need to have

Have a Biblical Approach to Temptation and Sin

First, you need to recognize the sources of sin and temptation. As a believer, especially if you’re a new believer, you may wonder “If Jesus saved me from the power and penalty of sin, why do I still sin? Why am I still tempted to sin?? Why do I still struggle with sin???” Good questions!

As a Christian, you still struggle with temptation and sin because:

You Still Have A Sinful Nature! As an unbeliever your life was oriented toward sin; your nature (what you were like, what you wanted) was oriented away from God. When you became a Christian, you received a new nature (a new character, set of desires) oriented toward God (see Rom 8:5-8; 2 Cor 5:17; 2 Pet 1:4). The good news is that your old, sinful nature does not dominate you anymore—it no longer has complete control of your life (Rom 6:6-14). The “bad” news is that the lusts of the flesh (sinful nature) continually “wage war against your soul” (1 Pet 2:11). Until you are glorified, you still have the capacity to sin; those desires and leanings to sin are still there. However, since Christ is in you, you now have the capacity to please God. Thus the lifelong struggle!

You Still Live In A World Dominated By Sin! Your “old” sinful desires seek fulfillment through the things of this sinful world (Gal 5:17; Eph 2:2). Your “new” Christ-like desires seek the things of the Lord (Rom 8:5-6). There is nothing in the world that pleases Christ, so your godly desires will never find anything that will please Him (Titus 2:11-14; 2 Pet 1:4). You live in a world that is entirely opposed to the things of God (Jas 4:4; 1 John 2:16), so it is a struggle to resist its temptations and allurements!

You Still Face The Sinful Schemes Of The Devil! As long as you are alive in this world, you are in Satan’s territory (2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2) and need to struggle, resist, and stand firm against him (Eph 6:11-17). Thankfully, because Christ dwells within you can successfully resist Satan because Christ is greater than he is (1 Pet 5:9; 1 John 4:4; cf. John 17:15)!

Recognizing the sources of temptation and sin is important so you will be aware of your own sinful desires and the sinful temptations Satan will assault you with while living in this world.

Recognizing where temptation comes from may be a bit discouraging though—you could be thinking, “Outside of me there’s an extremely powerful supernatural being who’s using everything in this ungodly world to get me to sin, and I still have a sinful desires and leanings that I have to struggle within myself. Ahhhh! I can’t do this by myself! Help!”

You are right—you can’t do it by yourself! Just as there was nothing you could do to save you from sin’s power and penalty, you can’t successfully live a holy life on your own.

There were false teachers in Galatia instructing believers that while Jesus saved them from sin, they needed to do their part to keep themselves saved by obeying the Mosaic Law. Paul emphatically says, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal 3:3) As they were saved by faith alone in Christ alone, so they must continue to live by faith in Christ, just as Abraham did (read Gal 3:6-5:15).

“But,” you may wonder, “I still have these sinful desires because of my sin nature. How can I not carry out those desires?” The answer: “walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law…if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:16-18, 25).

Second, you must live by the Spirit. What does it mean to walk, or live, by the Spirit? For a fuller discussion about this, see the lesson on Making Christ Preeminent by Spirit Led Living. Here’s a quick review of the important points:

• While there are activities that are essential for living a spiritual life, relying on your performance of those is not truly walking with the Spirit. Instead of being freed from sin’s power you enslave yourself all over again. Keeping the checklist doesn’t make you right with God: it is “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6).
• Walking—living—by the Spirit means that your life (actions, thoughts, feelings, etc.) is governed or controlled by Him. This is not some weird, mysterious impression you feel at certain times during life. The Spirit-controlled life is just normal Christian living. When the Spirit controls you, your sinful desires are not controlling you! That’s great news!
• How does the Holy Spirit govern and control your life? The tool the Spirit uses is the Word of God. A Spirit-led life that results in not carrying out the desires of your sinful nature is a life governed and controlled by the Spirit’s sword (Eph 6:17).
• Note the following passages for additional teaching: Rom 8:1-17; Gal 3:2-3; 5:16-26; 6:8; Eph 5:18

Third, be in the Word of God. When we look to Jesus’ temptations for instruction we focus on His use of the Word, but we neglect the fact that He was under the direction of the Spirit. Because of that He responded to temptation with the Word.

Through the Bible you receive instruction on how you should live (involving your actions, thoughts, feelings, etc.), including how to avoid and resist temptation and sin (Psa 37:31; 119:11; Prov 19:27; Matt 4:1-11)

Through the Word you will grow in your understanding of Who God is and how God wants you to live. This will help produce in you a holy, reverential awe (“fear”) that will help you avoid sin (Prov 2:10-12; 13:14; 14:27)

Growing less like this world and more like the Lord begins with the mind (Rom 12:2). The objective is to take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:5) and build your life on Him (Matt 7:24-27) by hearing and obeying the Word (Jas 1:22-25). Through God’s Word you receive instruction for every area of your life of Christ-like qualities (2 Pet 1:3-8).

In order for the Spirit to control you rather than your sinful desires, you need to trust and obey what He says in Scripture. The more you are in the Word, hearing and obeying the Lord, the greater control He will have in your life. You need to privately read, study, meditate, and memorize the Word, and you need to regularly listen to teaching and preaching of the Word in church services (see the lesson on Profitably Learning the Bible for more help in this regard).

Fourth, be constant in prayer. Trust God (1 Cor 10:13; Heb 2:18; 2 Pet 2:9) and pray (Matt 6:13; 26:41). How specifically should you pray? Pray specifically, asking for help, expressing faith in God’s promises (see previous passages). To be constant in prayer means to have a steadfast resolve—be faithfully praying; it’s a regular part of your life.

How does prayer help you resist temptation and sin?

• When you pray believing God will help you, He answers and will help you (Jas 1:2-8)
• While you are praying your mind is on the Lord
• By expressing faith in God’s promises you are strengthened to resist temptation and sin
• As a definite command from the Lord (Luke 18:1; Eph 6:18; 1 Thess 5:17; 1 Tim 2:1ff), when you gladly and willingly obey this you will be walking by the Spirit; He will be governing and controlling your life

Fifth, be separate unto God and from sin. Avoid anything that you know would provide the opportunity for temptation (Prov 4:14-15; Rom 13:14; 1 Cor 15:33; 2 Cor 11:1-3, 13-15; 1 Pet 2:11-12; 2 Pet 3:14-18)

Determine to dedicate every part of your life (actions, thoughts, feelings, etc.) to Christ and not to sin (Rom 12:1-2; 2 Cor 7:1; Heb 12:14). Set your mind on and seek Christ, not the things of this world (Col 3:1-4; 1 John 2:15-17). Make Christ the center of every aspect of your life (the “scent” in your car, home, etc) (1 Cor 15:33)

As a definite command from the Lord (see passages above), when you gladly and willingly obey this you will be walking by the Spirit; He will be governing and controlling your life

Sixth, regularly associate and fellowship with God’s people. By regularly associating and fellowshipping with God’s people, you will receive for instruction, help, encouragement, and see good examples on how to live a Christian life (Prov 12:26; Gal 6:1; Heb 3:13; 10:23-25). God’s plan is for you as a Christian to learn and grow with other believers and help them grow (Eph 4:11-16).

As a definite command from the Lord (note especially Acts 2:42; Heb 10:25), when you gladly and willingly obey this you will be walking by the Spirit; He will be governing and controlling your life

Seventh, recognize and reckon as true your position in Christ. Recognize that you are “dead to sin” (Rom 6:11), that “sin shall not be master over you” (6:14), and that you have “been freed from sin” (6:18). Because of these facts, you need to make those facts “real” in your life—reckon or consider them as true! (6:11-13).

This is especially helpful when you have feelings of hopelessness while struggling with temptation and sin. You can feel like sin is the master of your life and you’re powerless to fight against it. It isn’t, and you’re not! Read Paul’s own struggle with sin in Romans 7:17-24 and then his confident faith in verse 25!

Eighth, do right. Before you were a believer, you did not live for Christ. As a believer, you have been saved to “walk in good works which God prepared beforehand” (Eph 2:10), to be “zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:11-14). Thus, you must “be careful to engage in good deeds” (Titus 3:8) so that you will “meet pressing needs” and “not be unfruitful” (3:14). Just as you once lived to sin, now live to do what is right (Rom 6:19).

Be actively involved in obeying and serving God (Rom 12:21; Eph 4:27; 1 Tim 6:6-11). The old saying “idle hands are the devil’s tools” is true! Put your hands to work for Christ so they will not have opportunity to work for sin and Satan!

Ninth, don’t sin. This can sound too simplistic, but it really hits the nail on the head—a biblical approach to temptation and sin is to resist them (Rom 6:12-13; Jas 4:7; 1 Pet 5:7-9)!

Tenth, and last–look for Christ’s return. The “day of the Lord” refers to Christ coming in judgment and salvation (2 Pet 3:10). You will give an account for how you have lived your life as a believer, and you also look forward to Christ glorifying you so that you will be without any hint of sin (2 Pet 3:14-18; 1 John 2:28-3:3).

In light of that day, you need to “be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (2 Pet 3:14). Those who will see the Lord are those who are striving to be holy (Heb 12:14). It is a biblical fact that “everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).

If you are looking for Christ, that will affect what you think, want, and live for–seeing and being with Christ is what you will live for. Other passages to read about how Christ’s return is a help to holy living are Phil 1:9-10; 2 :14-16; 3:20-21; Col 3:1-4; 1 Thess 5:2-6; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Pet 1:7, 13.

Wanting Christ to have first place all the time in everything and making Him that are two entirely different things, aren’t they?! Out of a desire to give Him the place in your life that He so richly deserves, it can be very easy to think about various things that you should do and shouldn’t do. To be sure, there are definite commands and exhortations that God gives Christians. There are things that you should do or shouldn’t do. What we’re talking about though is what do we depend on to give Christ the preeminence He deserves? Another way of saying this is what do you need to do to live a spiritual life?

Think about some specific things that are essential for living a spiritual life:

• Personal Bible reading
• Church attendance
• Witnessing
• Praying
• Giving
• Avoiding wrong music, entertainment, etc.
• Dressing modestly and appropriately
• Serving the Lord

These are definitely good things! None of them are wrong. If you were a young Christian and knew someone who had been a believer for a long time and these are things that he did, you could quickly come to the conclusion that if you do them you can be just as spiritual!

If this is your approach, I want you to see what you would be relying on to live a spiritual or Christ-preeminent life: yourself. One of the problems with the “list” approach to spiritual living is that it can quickly and easily degenerate into a “check, done that—I’m okay with the Lord” attitude. The result is that you are spiritual because of what you’ve done. The objective was accomplished by your compliance with a “law” of spiritual things that spiritual people do.

There were some believers during Paul’s day who felt that by observing a certain “code of Law” they would be spiritual. But listen to the apostle Paul’s response to them: “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal 3:3). If the Galatians continued believing this way they would not be freed from sin’s power but enslaved to it all over again (cf. 4:9-10). Paul says that if one is in Christ Jesus, “keeping the checklist” isn’t what gets you and makes you right with God: it is “faith working through love” (5:6).

So, how does a Christian live a truly spiritual life so that Christ is preeminent in all things? The Bible says that you must “walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal 5:16). The idea of “walk” refers to how you live your life. Thus, to “walk by the Spirit” means that your life is governed or controlled “by the Spirit.” Another way that the Bible describes this is “being filled with the Spirit” (cf. Eph 5:18). This doesn’t mean that you get “more” of the Spirit. That’s impossible, because the Holy Spirit is God and omnipresent—you have all of the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit has to do with being controlled by the Spirit.

But how can you “walk by the Spirit” and “be filled with the Spirit”? Does the Holy Spirit “whisper” in your ear in some kind of weird way? Is it based on impressions or feelings that you have within your heart? How can the Spirit govern and control your life? Is it something that happens once in awhile at certain crisis times in the Christian life?

The Spirit-controlled and governed life is an ongoing thing; it is the normal Christian experience of walking with the Lord. The tool the Holy Spirit uses to govern and control Christians’ lives is the Word of God. Therefore, a spiritual life, one that has Christ preeminent all the time in everything, is a life that is governed and controlled by the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17). Consider these essential aspects of a life that is governed and controlled by the Holy Spirit:

1. Yielded to the Word (Simple Obedience)

• Rom 6:13 “present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” The more you’re in the Word, the more the Word is in you

2. Continual Prayerfulness, Asking for Help & Confessing Sin

• Eph 4:30 “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” Harboring sin grieves the Spirit
• There isn’t a special prayer you need to pray in order to be filled with the Spirit. The Spirit will be in control of your life when you gladly obey Him. God commands you to be controlled by the Spirit (Eph 5:18); He does not command you to pray to be controlled.
• There is, however, a relationship between prayer and being controlled by the Spirit. In Acts 4:24-31 the believers prayed and were filled with the Spirit. The Bible doesn’t say that they prayed to be filled with the Spirit but prayer was in the context.
• Before one is yielded and obedient there is a knowledge of the Word and a communication with God about the things to be obeyed. Prayer cannot be avoided; it is the expression of humility, submission, and yieldedness.

3. Obey, Depending on God’s Help and Enablement

• You must take that step of obedient faith and obey God, and you need to do it depending on God to help you.

A spiritual life, one that has Christ preeminent all the time in everything by walking by the Spirit, is simply a matter of knowing the Word of God and gladly and willingly obeying it by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:13). What can you expect to experience if the Spirit controls and governs your life?

1. Strength in temptation (Luke 4:1-2)
2. Witnessing (Acts 4:5-6)
3. Boldness in testimony (Acts 4:23, 31)
4. Equipping for service in your church (Acts 6:1-3)
5. Courage in the face of death (Acts 7:54-58)
6. Power to proclaim Jesus (Acts 9:17-20)
7. Thanksgiving and singing in the heart (Eph 5:18-21)
8. The fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23)

Walking by the Spirit, being controlled or governed, does not mean one instantly becomes spiritually mature. Consider a six-month old baby: she is in good health, but she is far from physically mature. So it is with a new Christian: you can be in excellent health but you have a long ways to go before you’re spiritual mature.

All this does not mean obedience will be easy and instantaneous. It does mean, though, that, regardless of how you feel or what the circumstances may be, you will do what God has said.

Remember, there are definite commands and prohibitions from Christ. The issue here is our attitude and approach to these. Don’t rely on keeping a checklist; rely on the Lord to gladly and willingly obey His Word. It is a freeing, liberating thing to realize that you obey God not out of a legalistic fear but out of a desire to walk with the Spirit.

How can a Christian resist temptation and sin?

Have a Biblical Understanding of the Character and Effects of Sin and Temptation

First, understand how the Bible describes sin. Remember this definition: Sin is a lack of conformity to the moral law and character of God, in acts, nature, thoughts or omissions (Rom 7:19; Jer 17:9; Eph 2:3; Gen 6:5; Jas 4:17).

It can be easy to think of sin only in terms of actually doing something wrong—you sin only when you say something hurtful, break a law, or lie. There is a real danger though in thinking that sin only happens when you do something: after awhile, if you think you’re not actively involved in actually doing much sin, you can develop a sense or feeling that you’re alright and are doing good.

Guess what? That “sense or feeling” is a disposition—an attitude, nature, or mood—and you can have sinful attitudes and dispositions!

As the definition states, sin is anything that falls short of who God is (His character) and what God expects (His law). That sounds a lot like Romans 3:23, doesn’t it? “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

You fail to conform to God’s character and law in your:

• Actions—“…I practice the very evil that I do not want” (Rom 7:19)
• Disposition/Nature—“The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick” (Jer 17:9), “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh [sinful nature], indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (Eph 2:3)
• Thoughts—“Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (Eph 2:3), “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5)
• Omissions—“For the good that I want, I do not do” (Rom 7:19), “to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin” (Jas 4:17)

Temptation occurs when you are enticed or lured to sin. Through temptation you are being lured and persuaded to go astray from the course God intends you to follow. Temptation, like sin, can take many different forms:

• Deception—“Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ And the woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” (Gen 3:13). Satan succeeded in getting Eve to rebel against God by planting the seeds of doubt and disbelief.
• Desires—Matthew 4:1-11. Satan failed to tempt Jesus to rebel against God through physical desires, pride, and greed.
• Doubt—1 Thessalonians 3:1-8. Satan tried to get the Thessalonians to turn their backs on God through doubt.

It is so important to know that temptation in and of itself is not sin—Jesus was tempted and He was without sin (Heb 4:15)!

You must understand and recognize that as a believer your battle against temptation and sin occurs in every aspect of your life, and that sin in any aspect of your life has serious, harmful, and detrimental effects. You must be committed to doing whatever it takes to resist the many different ways temptation and sin can erupt in your life

Second, have a biblical understanding of the effects of yielding to temptation:

• You will obey it and become the servant of sin (Rom 6:12-14)
• The Spirit is grieved (Eph 4:30) and quenched (1 Thess 5:19)
• Your zeal/enthusiasm to serve is lessened (Titus 2:11-14)
• Your experience as a believer of fellowship with God, joy in the Lord, and the peace He gives are lost (Psa 38:1-8; 51:8, 12)
• Your love grows cold for Christ and Christians (Rev 2:4-5)
• Your heart is calloused to sin (Heb 3:13)
• You’re deceived to think that you’re okay when in reality you’re headed for trouble (Heb 3:13)
• Growth is stunted (Heb 5:11-14)
• Ability to discern between good and evil is weakened, (Heb 5:11-14)
• Desire to pray and ability to continue in it are weakened (1 Sam 12:23; Jas 4:1-10)
• Provision is made for the sinful nature and you’ll stand aloof from Christ (Rom 13:14)
• Pursuit of sanctification is derailed (Heb 12:14)
• You’re conformed more to the world than to Christ (Rom 12:1-2)
• You will not want to do God’s will (Rom 12:1)
• You allow thoughts of rebellion against Christ to exist (2 Cor 10:5)
• Your prayers are unanswered (Jas 4:3; 1 Pet 3:7)
• You allow the enemy to infiltrate your soul (1 Pet 2:11-12)

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15)

Have you ever wondered why there are so many different views and opinions about what the Bible says will happen in the future, or any other doctrine for that matter? How one interprets the Bible will affect what is believed. Different interpretations will yield different beliefs.

The fundamental issue when coming to Scripture’s prophecies is how one interprets them. The various ways that the Bible is interpreted can be summarized under two categories:

1. All the Bible must be consistently interpreted in a literal, normal way
2. All the Bible cannot be consistently interpreted in a literal, normal way

From the following four points it will be shown that the only way all of Scripture should be interpreted is through a consistently literal or normal method of interpretation.

Communication Depends On Words Having One Meaning In A Given Context

In a single context the words can only have one meaning—they cannot have two or more meanings. If this were not the case, communication be impossible and would be nothing but gibberish and nonsense!

There is a world of difference between a word being able to be used a number of different ways and a word in a single context have multiple meanings. Take the follow sentence as an example:

After John passed third base, he slid safely into home.

You probably know that this sentence is in the context of a baseball game. Because of this, you would not understand “passed” in the sense of John dying, though “passed” can be used that way. You also would not understand “home” as referring to where John lived, though it can be used that way. You understood “passed” and “home” as having only one meaning because of their use in this context.

The languages the Bible was originally written in (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) were human languages, having human grammar (what the words mean) and syntax (how the words function in a sentence). The authors were genuine, human authors, having individual personalities, cultures, and language backgrounds. If this were not the case, we as human beings would not be able to understand their figures of speech.

Because words only have one meaning in a given context, a passage in the Bible cannot have a “deeper” meaning or more than one meaning.

The Author Determines Meaning

When interpreting the Bible—regardless of whether it is poetry, history, epistle, gospel, or prophecy—the goal is to find out what the biblical author meant by a particular statement. A helpful, guiding principle is found in Fee & Stuart’s How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, p. 27—

“A text cannot mean what it never meant.”

This principle will help you understand what a biblical passage did mean and what it did not mean. When weighing someone’s interpretation of a biblical passage ask “Is this what the biblical author wanted to get across?”

If someone does not accept the literal or normal interpretation of a passage it is usually because he or she has an agenda that must be proven or upheld. Their beliefs do not come directly from Scripture and they make the Bible’s statements fit into their system.

The Unitary Authorship of Scripture

A third principle that must guide how all the Bible is to be consistently interpreted focuses on who wrote the Bible. Many people say that the Bible has a “dual authorship”—a human author and God. The problem here is that when you have two authors, you end up with two different messages! So instead of “dual authorship,” it is more biblically correct to think in terms of a united authorship.

How could Amos the sheepherder and God be unified in the production of a written message? The answer is the doctrine of inspiration. Consider these two important passages:

2 Tim 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God”

2 Pet 1:21 “no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God”

When the Holy Spirit moved Amos to write a message to Israel, God guided him to write exactly what God wanted him to write and protected him from making any errors. God guided Amos the sheepherder to write a message that used all of Amos’s personality and way of writing (grammar and syntax), yet protected Amos from making any errors. The result of this united authorship was a single message given to and understandable by human beings that is absolutely true because of God’s guidance and protection.

The result of inspiration is a single message: What God said, the human author said; what the human author wrote, God wrote. The only way we can know what God meant is through the human author’s words. Because of this, no one can say that Amos meant one thing, but God meant another. What the human author meant is what God meant.

The Meaning is Based in the Text

Where can we find what the biblical author meant? Only in the text. There is only one correct interpretation and meaning of a passage, and that is the one that the biblical author intended. How can we find out what the author meant? Through consistently interpreting Scripture with a grammatical-historical method of interpretation. What does that mean?

Grammatical: what the words mean and how they function

Historical: the setting of a biblical book (culture, geography, etc)

In order to find out what an author meant, you have study the meaning and use of words in a given text and understand the important historical and cultural factors of the time they were written in. If you cannot get a meaning from a text, it is because it is not there! The only way you will get a meaning foreign to a biblical text is by putting it in there.

If the Bible is not consistently interpreted in a literal, normal way, what will the result be? Interpreters will find more than one meaning or say that a passage can have “multiple fulfillments” or a “fuller sense.” This raises a problem: where do you stop? If a passage can have two legitimate meanings, why stop there? Why not 3? Or 7? Or 70? Another problem is the issue of controlling interpretation—if the text does not control interpretation, then what does? Your imagination?

All of Scripture must be consistently interpreted in a literal, normal manner using a grammatical-historical method. That is the only way to learn what the Bible says.

Pastor Greenfield brought this message Sunday evening, February 18, 20007.

In addition to Fee & Stuart’s book quoted above, material was also gleaned from Rolland McCune’s syllabus on Dispensationalism from Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, pp. 47-51.

Pastor Greenfield preached this message Sunday morning, February 18, 2007

The Bible has a lot to say about the end times, but it can be possible to wonder, “Well, that’s great, but what does that mean for us now?” Christians and churches should learn from Scripture what God wants and expects of them in these times, especially what he expects of the man who feeds, leads, and protects the flock—the pastor. God’s Word provides pastors with four important truths that give guidance on how they must minister in these last days.

A Pastor Will Answer For His Ministry, 4:1

Paul is addressing Timothy for the last time, and for that reason these words have special significance. Timothy receives a serious call by the words “I solemnly charge you.” What Paul tells Timothy isn’t merely a good idea or nice suggestion—this is a momentous, somber charge. Pastors today need to see the seriousness of their calling and reflect that in their fulfillment of it. This isn’t a matter of fun and games.

This serious call is made in the presence of a solemn court, made up of “God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead.” The preacher’s life is continually under the gaze of God and Christ—24 hours a day, seven days a week—not just for a few hours on Sundays and mid-week meetings. The day will come when pastors will stand before Jesus Christ and give an account for how they have fed, lead, and protected the flock entrusted to their charge.

Paul gives this serious call before a solemn court in light of Christ’s sure coming, “by His appearing and His kingdom.” Jesus is coming, and when he does, the truth Timothy must proclaim will be clearly seen and false teaching will be exposed for what it really is. Jesus will reign, and when he does, believers will faithfully serve him. These are definite, future realities that have significant, practical importance now! They demand that God’s work be done God’s way until Christ returns.

Since a pastor will answer to the Lord Jesus Christ, he had better do what is expected of him! What does Christ expect?

A Pastor Must Preach the Word, 4:2

Here Paul gives four essential aspects of the ministry Timothy and today’s pastor must fulfill in these last days. First, he must preach the Word. The activity is clear—preach, proclaim, herald. It is not the pastor’s place to harmonize God’s Word with culture or science, to philosophize, or debate. He must preach the Word—all of it, not just pick out some things and ignore others. This is what Jesus wants for his church, and this is what the church needs!

Second, today’s pastor in the last days must always preach the Word—“be ready in season and out of season.” His ministry of the Word is not to be conducted by taking polls to find out whether people are ready to hear the Word or what they want to hear. It doesn’t matter if the times are “good” or “bad”—God’s message must be proclaimed! The call is not to “impact the culture for Christ” or to “bring in the kingdom.” The call is to preach the Word.

Third, pastors must preach to save souls—“reprove, rebuke, exhort.” Earlier Paul told Timothy “pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you” (1 Tim 4:16). The salvation of people’s souls depends on the faithful ministry of the Word. To “reprove” is to point out sin. To “rebuke” is to tell people to stop sinning. To “exhort” is to urge people to live for the Lord. These essential activities of preaching are hard to do if the pastor only speaks in generalities or ‘positive’ themes. Preaching in the end times won’t seek to bring a stop to specific aspects of sinfulness but will focus on making the hearers feel good about themselves, to “live their best life now.” Such preaching will not save souls.

Fourth, pastors must preach with compassion and conviction—“with great patience and instruction.” When preaching the whole counsel of God, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting, pastors cannot lose their temper—they must reflect God’s attribute of patience and forbearance. The soil out of which true Christian living grows is doctrinal, theological, and biblical in content. Pastors are not told to merely encourage moral living; they must give the doctrinal foundation on which a truly Christian life can only be built.

A pastor has a solemn calling: always preach the whole counsel of God for the salvation of his hearers. While engaged in this ministry, he must remember Paul’s third truth to Timothy:

A Pastor Must Understand The Times, 4:3-4

There are three important facts the pastor needs to know. First, people will not want sound doctrine—“the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” This world is not going to get better; evil is going to increase! The fact that people will not want true doctrine does not give the pastor the right to give them what they want or change the message so it is acceptable to them. Pastors must continue to preach the Word!

Second, the pastor needs to understand that people will only hear what they want—“wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” Note where the blame lays—the hearers! Aaron made a golden calf because the Israelites demanded it (Exod 32:1). More often than not, people measure and evaluate a pastor by their own sinful feelings and desires. It should not be surprising that churches are formed on the basis of hip-hop music, beer, improving self-image, and thinking positively about oneself. That’s what people want!

Third, the pastor must know that people will reject God’s truth for lies—“they will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to myths.” They will actively reject God’s truth because their sin is reproved and rebuked. Refusing to listen to God’s truth, they will then invent a substitute that matches and supports their lifestyle.

By understanding the character of the times—that these last days will grow more difficult and sinful—a pastor must see the great need there is for preaching the Word of God in its fullness. The greater the darkness grows, the greater need there is for light. Pastors must not give people what they want; they must give them what they need—God’s Word!

There is one last truth a pastor in the last days must take to heart:

A Pastor Must Finish His Course, 4:5

The pastor in the end times must keep his head—“be sober in all things.” He must not be influenced by things that will divert and distract him from his holy calling of preaching the word. The pastor must not give up—“endure hardship.” The more evil these days grow (cf. 3:13) the stronger the current pastors must swim against. Pastors must win the lost to Christ—“do the work of an evangelist.” Sinners are saved through believing in Jesus Christ. How will they believe if they have not heard of Christ? How will they hear without a preacher? Pastors must finish the course—“fulfill your ministry.” They cannot go about their work in an uncaring manner. Pastors must throw themselves completely and fully into every aspect of their calling.

The kind of pastor a church needs in these end times is one who:

• Recognizes the seriousness of his calling
• Faithfully proclaims all of God’s Word
• Does not bend to the times but faithfully ministers God’s Word in it
• Devotes his life to doing God’s work God’s way

A Christian is a follower, a disciple of Jesus Christ. You become a Christian when you understand and accept as true these biblical truths: you have sinned against a holy God; the just penalty for your sin is eternal judgment in hell; there is absolutely nothing you can do to make things right between you and God; Jesus Christ, the God-man, lived a perfect life, died for your sins, and was raised from the dead; the only way you can be delivered, saved, from sin’s power and penalty is to turn from it completely and trust entirely in Who Jesus Christ is and what He did on the cross.

The moment you become a Christian, many wonderful and amazing things occur: you are united forever with Christ; you are declared righteous before God; you are placed into God’s family as an adopted son, gaining all the rights and privileges that come with that; and God begins a work in you of setting you apart from sin to Himself. Your relation to God is completely changed, and that for the better!

What about your relation to other Christians though? Do you need them? Do they need you? If you are a Christian, you do need other believers. God expects believers to grow in their faith and to do so by growing together in God’s Word. The growth and protection Christians need to experience occurs as believers assemble together as a local church—it won’t happen by individuals or families attempting to do it on their own. Christians and Christian families need each other to grow in their Christian faith.

This isn’t ultimately an issue of joining an organization as if it were a civic or social institution. This is an issue of your obedience to Christ and attitude toward Christ’s people. I’d like you to consider six reasons why you need the fellowship of other believers if you are one of Christ’s followers:

Believers Are Known As The Church

In the New Testament, Christians are always identified with other Christians. The images used to describe this essential relationship between Christians are a body and a family.

The Bible describes the believers in Rome as being “one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:5). It describes every Christian in Corinth as being essentially connected to each other—“the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,’ it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body…the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Corinthians 12:14-15, 21).

Almost 250 times in the New Testament Christians are called “brother,” “sister,” or “brethren.” These Christians were from different cultures, backgrounds, and races. In a single church fellowship there would be men and women; poor and rich; slaves and masters; Jews, Greeks, and Romans. Yet they were “brothers,” “sisters,” and “brethren.” It didn’t matter what their status was in this world because they were related to each other in Jesus Christ: “you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28).

Christians associate with and are committed to each other simply because they are Christians! That’s what Christians do because that’s who they are—a body and a family.

Believers Assemble To Grow In Their Faith

Being a disciple involves following the teaching and example of Jesus Christ. Since Christ ascended into heaven, how are Christians to realize God’s plan for their life of being “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29)? How is a believer to grow in his faith?

Right after Christ ascended into heaven believers were “continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). Christ provided believers, the church, with pastors and teachers “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13).

Not only do believers assemble together to hear and learn from the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, they are actively involved in helping each other to grow in their faith—“Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Learning more and living more like Jesus Christ has an important effect: “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14). The result of growing stronger in one’s beliefs and Christian life is protection from wrong teaching and living. You will only be conformed to the image of Christ as God intended when you assemble with other believers and grow in God’s Word.

Believers Assemble To Obey Jesus Christ

Jesus gave believers special instructions before He ascended into heaven: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). Read the book of Acts and you’ll see that as Christ’s commission was carried out it resulted in people being saved, baptized, and organized into local churches. Then these believers who assembled together carried out Christ’s commission by spreading the gospel in their region (1 Thessalonians 1:8).

Jesus also expects believers to remember His death and look forward to His return by observing the Lord’s Supper. In the New Testament, whenever the Lord’s Supper was observed it was when believers assembled together (Acts 2:42; 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

The New Testament teaches that obeying Jesus Christ’s orders was accomplished by Christians who had gathered together for that very purpose. This is how God expects His work to be done!

Believers Assemble To Worship The True God The Right Way

When the Bible speaks of believers worshiping they worship together (Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 14:24-25; James 2:2). This isn’t to say that you can’t worship God alone in your car—you can! Rather, almost all of the biblical references to believers’ worship are when they have assembled together for that very purpose.

Christian worship consists of believers’ joining together for the heartfelt magnification of God. Believers’ worship occurs when they gather together to hear the preaching and teaching of the Word (Acts 2:42; 2 Timothy 4:2-5); prayer (Acts 2:42); singing (Colossians 3:16); giving of finances to help believers and the cause of Christ (2 Corinthians 8-9; 3 John 7-8); and observing the Lord’s Supper together (Acts 2:42; 20:7).

Is it possible to heed these commands by yourself? If you read the passages, No! If there is a good group of Christians in your area who meet for these purposes, think about the fact that their worship of the true God is enhanced when more believers gather with them! You need other believers to worship the true God the right way, and they need you to worship with them!

Believers Assemble To Help And Be Helped By Each Other

What kind of needs do you have? Your needs are probably like many other believers. One of the neat things about Christ’s body (the assembly of believers, the church) is that it is designed to help and be helped by its members. Remember, Christians are described as a body and a family. If your body and family are functioning correctly, pain is felt and taken care of!

This same kind of care is also what God intends for a church—“God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it” (1 Corinthians 12:24-26). If you read how Christians cared for one another in the New Testament, you’d find how they cared for each other’s physical needs (Acts 9:36, 39), financial needs (Acts 4:32-35), emotional needs (Romans 12:15), and spiritual needs (Ephesians 4:12).

The Lone Ranger was a resourceful, smart, and courageous lawman, but there were many times when he needed the help of a posse—and don’t forget about the many times Tonto came to his rescue! God’s plan is so wonderful that He has provided for every possible need we could have on this earth through His Word and His people, the church. You can’t be a “Lone Ranger Christian” because you need other believers’ help, and they need your help too!

Believers Assemble To Encourage Each Other To Continue In The Faith

The experience of people leaving or never joining a church is nothing new; it was present even in the New Testament! There were individuals then, as there are now, who really wanted nothing to do with a good church, who steered clear of other believers, who kept away and stayed away. Is that good? How can it be prevented?

God tells believers “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25). You can’t find a more clear and direct statement from God about believers’ need to assemble with other believers. There were people who said they were Christians but made forsaking the assembly of believers a habit, and God uses them as a negative example, something not to do. The positive side is that Christians assemble together to encourage each other to continue in the faith!

Before you read this pamphlet, were you of the opinion that you really didn’t see the importance of fellowshipping with other believers? Hopefully by now you do! Have you thought that you really didn’t have the time for that or felt that “church” isn’t really your thing? To believe either of these excuses shows either that you have some wrong priorities or that you’re really not a believer after all! “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19).

Christians associate with and are committed to each other because they love Christ and His people—their desire to be with other believers shows they are a believer. Committing yourself to regularly assembling with other believers is the real evidence of true love for Christ and His people. You will gain their help and encouragement to be faithful to Christ through the trials of life, and you will be able to encourage others as well.

If you profess to be one of Christ’s followers, you need other Christians and they need you! What fellowship of believers are you a part of

Download a PDF brochure of Why Christians Need Each Other