Video Transcripts for Day 21-30

2 Video Transcript

Video Transcript: The Holy Spirit Element (Dr Weima)

So far, we've covered a number of introductory issues. And we're finally ready to look at this reform hermeneutic in more detail. So we started off by explaining some key terms hermeneutics, broad rules, guidelines, principles for interpretation, exegesis, the application of those rules, eisegesis danger we want to avoid, and then homiletics or application, and again, the balance between those terms. And we also anticipated the objection hermeneutics, hermeneutics, and saw that it is indeed a necessary valid part of a good interpretation of Scripture. And so now with that prep work out of the way, we're ready to look at what goes into a reformed hermeneutic. Again, reformed very similar to broad evangelical as we stand within the Protestant tradition. And in my paradigm, or in my outline, I suggest to you that there are five hermeneutical principles that we need to think about. So these are five headings, that kind of give you a helpful way to subsume various discussions under one of these different categories. And so before we look at them in greater detail, let me explain to you where they come from. Of course, in a certain sense, they don't come directly from the Bible, it's not like we can turn to Ephesians seven, I picked that text by deliberation, as you can understand, because it doesn't exist. 

But it's not that we can turn to Ephesians seven, verse six. And Paul says that there are five things that should go into a good hermeneutic. And so we don't get it directly from Scripture. But it's more of an inference from Scripture, how scripture was revealed to us and how we ought then to interpret it. And historically, interpreters have often talked about three different categories. And let me share those with you in case in your reading, you come across them, they often use the word grammatical, historical, and theological, those are the three. But then I took those three, and I added another one, you can see I added literary, I'll explain what that is, because it wasn't as if they didn't know about literary in the past, but that has kind of blossomed into a whole new area that I think is worthy and helpful to have as a separate category. So that then gave me four grammatical, now literary as a new one, historical and theological. But then there was another one I added at the very beginning, the one that we're going to turn to in just a minute, and that is the Holy Spirit element. It usually isn't talked about in hermeneutical discussions, and is more of a presupposition underlying the hermeneutical process. 

But I think there's much wisdom and value in making this assumption a lot more explicit. And so now I've added it to my reformed hermeneutic. And then I end up with five, then as you see before you, 

the Holy Spirit element, the grammatical element, the literary element, the historical element, and the theological element. 

And if these terms aren't familiar to you, now, don't worry, they will be at the end of our survey of these terms together. And so in this section, we're going to turn to the first one, and that is, again, the Holy Spirit element. And let me spell out to you again, and stress that the first one is indeed different than the other four, of course, you say it's different, it has a different name. No, I mean, it's different in character than the other four. Again, it's more of a presupposition that underlies or undergirds the remaining four. And the first one is more of a subjective category, because it's hard to analyze, or to put the Holy Spirit under the microscope, so to say, in a way that the other four are not the other four more objective categories. 

So the first one is indeed, distinct from the remaining ones. Well, then, that's the name that I've given to this approach that I want you to think about as you interpret the Bible as you seek to read the Bible. for all it's worth. What do we mean by the Holy Spirit element? Well, I mean this. And when I slow down, that usually means I think my words are important because I speak quickly. I apologize for that. I had the nickname motor mouth in high school, you can understand why I was on a camping trip with a bunch of students and you know how sound carries on the water and my teacher yelled out in front of all my classmates, he said, Weima? Why don't you stick your head under the water and use your tongue as a propeller. So I apologize for speaking quickly. But when I slow down, that means that what i what i what I'm about to say I think is important. And I'm hoping you'll have time then to maybe make notes about it, or to better capture the idea. So here we go again, the Holy Spirit element. What do I mean by that? 

I mean that the same Spirit of God that inspired the biblical writers to record God's revelation, that spirit now needs to work on our hearts and our minds to properly interpret that revelation. Let me say that again, the same Spirit of God that inspired Paul and, and Peter and Isaiah and Amos and all the biblical writers to record God's revelation, that same Holy Spirit needs to work in our hearts and our minds to properly interpret that revelation, we often give this function of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit has a number of functions or purposes, we often give it the function, the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you've heard that term before. It's the idea that sin darkens our mind our understanding, and so we can't really in our sin tainted brain, comprehend what God is saying in his work. So the Holy Spirit comes along and sheds light on that darkness, and allows us to know and to hear and to accept the will of God. In fact, many churches have in their liturgy, a prayer for illumination, I don't know if the liturgy just always realize it. But that's a very specific prayer, it doesn't come at the beginning of the service, it doesn't come at the end, it always comes right before the reading, and the proclamation of the word. 

And this is not a prayer where we give congregational concerns and we pray for problems around the world. No, this is a very fixed prayer for the Spirit of God to be present through the reading and proclamation of the word. And that is, again, then the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. Well, there's a biblical basis for this idea. And so let me share some of those texts with you. A couple of them come from the Gospel of John, the upper room discourse, John 14:26, reads as follows. But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have said to you. And a second one, similar in those five Upper Room sayings of Jesus, John 16:13-15, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, he will take what is mine and declare it to you. So in both of these texts, we read about how the spirit in a sense, takes what belongs to Jesus and makes it known to you or declares it to you. We have here the Spirit's role in taking the meaning and the words and the significance of Jesus life, and impressing those truths upon his followers. Notice that then the spirit has a strongly christological focus, the Holy Spirit doesn't speak or draw attention to himself, it's always drawing attention to Christ. I use the analogy often Oh, floodlights in front of a church or a big building. 

When people drive by, we don't hope they say, oh, check out those lights, the whole purpose of the license to draw attention to the building. And in a certain sense, the Holy Spirit's function is not to draw attention to himself, but rather to Christ. And then finally, notice also in the John 16 texts, how he is identified, he's identified as the Spirit of Truth, he's identified as one who guides us into all the truth. And so that's, of course, what we're talking about. When we read and try to interpret the Scripture, we want to know the truth that is found in the Word of God. Well, the apostle Paul so knows about the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. And chapter two of First Corinthians, let me set up the context for you before I read the text, the Corinthians were, well, frankly, a little bit embarrassed about the gospel, or at least the gospel the way that Paul preached it. And so Paul, throughout these opening chapters of First Corinthians has this contrast pair between wisdom and foolishness, wisdom and foolishness, because the Corinthians thought that a lot of their neighbors view the gospel as foolishness. And they were in a culture where everyone wanted to be wise, and to be impressive. And so Paul comes along, in a sense rebukes the Corinthians, and says, Wait a minute, we do have a wisdom. It may be foolishness to the world, but it's a wisdom to us. And he says this about it. 

He says, God has revealed it, that is wisdom, which is just another word for truth, which is just another word for God's will, what he has done and how he's called us to live. God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man spirit within him. In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. So Paul, in this quote is using an analogy, you know, analogies, one thing is like another Paul says, You can't know what another person is thinking. In fact, only the spirit of the person can know what he or she is thinking. So if we, if we tried it out for a minute now, okay, I'm just thinking about something. So you tell me what I'm thinking about. It's kind of hard, isn't it? I mean, in fact, it's impossible for you to know what I'm thinking about, right? 

Only I or my spirit can know what I'm thinking about. And Paul says, one of the same thing is true of God. No one can know God, he says, except the Spirit of God. And the good news, he says to the Corinthians, and to you and me is that we have the spirit, these truths, this wisdom has been revealed to us. Now, there's a little bit though a bit of debate here, between what kind of knowledge does the spirit give us but let's first look at this next text. It's just a couple of verses from the one we just read. Paul says, the person without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness. And what's more, this person who doesn't have the spirit cannot understand "una Tae gun oni" right, he is unable to know them, because they are discerned only through the Spirit. So Paul is pretty clear here between a believer and an unbeliever and how crucial the spirits role is, in. Now, what and here's a bit of the debate, does the Holy Spirit cause us to know the truth? Or does the Holy Spirit also cause us to accept the truth? 

Or to put it differently? Is it possible for a non Christian to in a certain sense, know the Bible? Is it possible for a non Christian scholar with all of his or her gifts and abilities, to so to say, hear the voice of God, and then the Holy Spirit doesn't so much deal with knowledge as he does with accepting it as true? Or might you argue that Wait a minute, true knowledge, not just regular knowledge, but a true knowledge involves some kind of acceptance of the truth. And so think about that is the Holy Spirit, the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, one that reveals truth to us helps us to know the truth. Or more than that also, does the Holy Spirit cause us to accept that truth, to hear it as truth, and to believe it? Now, the reformers, so we have a biblical basis for the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, I just gave you a few brief texts. And the reformers were well aware of this hermeneutical principle, even though maybe they didn't always call it a hermeneutical principle, they were well aware of the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, and how crucial the spirit was in the interpretation process. Here we have a quote from Martin Luther, he says, No person perceives one iota, not even a little bit of what's in the Scriptures, unless he or she has the Spirit of God, all people have a darkened heart, so that even if they can recite everything in Scripture and know how to quote it, yet they apprehend and truly understand nothing of it. 

For the spirit is required for the understanding of Scripture, both as a whole and in any part of it. So Luther strongly affirmed the crucial role that the Spirit plays in the interpretation in the knowing in the accepting of the truth process. John Calvin also has an interesting quote in a sermon on First Timothy three, he says, when we come to hear the sermon, or to take up the Bible, we must not have the foolish arrogance of thinking we shall easily understand everything we hear or read. Before we go any further, I'm struck by that, and hopefully you are to remember, John Calvin is the same guy who argued for as we talked about earlier, the perspicuity of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture. And yet the same guy who argued for the perspicuity of Scripture says, we should not have the foolish arrogance of thinking we shall easily understand everything we hear or read. is Calvin contradicting what he said earlier? 

No, Calvin, as we said to you earlier, must have made a distinction between a more narrow view of perspicuity right limited to those things that are essential for salvation compared to what the whole of Scripture teaches. And what's more, I like the way Calvin puts it. If you're the kind of hermeneutics smhermeneutics person that we talked about earlier, he says that you are foolishly arrogant. But anyway, what is the right posture we should have he says, we should come with reverence. We must wait entirely upon God, knowing that we need to be taught by His Holy Spirit and that without him that is the spirit. We cannot understand anything that is shown to us in His Word. That's a pretty strong affirmation of how crucial the Spirit's role is in the interpretation process. Without him we can't understand. And I would add on the basis of Paul's text, we also cannot understand it, we also can't accept it as the Word of God. Now, Klaas Runia is a theologian from the Netherlands who surveyed not only Calvin, not only Luther, but all the reformers and his survey of their writings highlighted for him, how, how strong they affirm this illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. 

Here's a quote that he has. Finally, if we want to come to a truly biblical hermeneutics, we must realize that with the reformers that the word of God cannot be understood without the illumination of the Spirit of God. The final key to the hermeneutics of the reformers is the confession "Spiritus Sanctus est Verus Interpres Scripturae" is translated, the Holy Spirit is the true interpreter of Scripture. Therefore, the beginning and end of all biblical hermeneutics is the humble prayer, "Venu Creator Spiritus" come creator spirit. And so this is a summary his summary of what all the reformers stressed. And I like the way he said that the beginning in the end is that prayer, that ought to be the prayer that we use when we open God's word, and we seek to implement our hermeneutic and do exegesis we ought to pray "Venu Creator Spiritus" come creator spirit. But it's not only the reformers, it's even within the broader evangelical camp, a wide recognition for the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. 

James Packer is a well known evangelical and a good person for us to use as a as an example of this belief. He says the characteristic procedures and techniques of evangelical hermeneutics are now before us. And it remains only to add, you see, he's, he's done the opposite way that I have, right. He's taken the other principles that we're going to talk about. And now at the end, he adds about the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. I think it's better and more fitting to put it on the front end, and to recognize it as a presupposition underlies the whole process. So he says it remains only to add right in addition to all the things Packer says, I've already talked to you about hermeneutics, to add that the evangelical way of practicing them involves radical dependence on the Holy Spirit, a dependence that is expressed by prayer for wisdom and insight before, during and after the hermeneutical exercise itself. evangelicals Do not forget that sin as an inbred anti God, perversity of the soul disables minds from understanding God no less than a disables wills from obeying Him. So that divine help is needed at every stage of the process of receiving the divine message. It's a long sentence, it's one of those Pauline long run on ones. But if you look at it again, carefully, you can see there the words he talked about a radical dependence on the Holy Spirit right before, during and after the whole hermeneutical process. 

Bob Stein comes from a Baptist background and has a nice little book on hermeneutics more user friendly titled playing by the rules, but he too affirms the same thing. He says it would appear that what the reformers called illumination refers to understanding the meaning of the text conviction to the attribution of a positive significance to the text. In other words, the Spirit helps the reader understand the pattern of meaning that the author willed and the Spirit does something else convinces the reader as to the truth of that teaching. Henry Virkler whom we've quoted in the past has also a helpful comment here. One attempt to resolve this dilemma this has to do with the point I raised earlier, there's a bit of debate about whether the work of the Holy Spirit makes known to us the truth, or whether the Holy Spirit causes us to accept that truth. And one attempt to resolve this dilemma on the Spirit's role in the interpretation process is based on a definition of the term know according to the Scriptures, persons do not truly possess knowledge unless they are living in the light of that knowledge. True Faith is not only knowledge about God, which even the demons possess, but knowledge acted upon.

The unbeliever can know that is intellectually comprehend many truths of the Scripture using the same interpretation the same hermeneutic he would use with non biblical text, but the non Christian cannot truly know that is act on and appropriate those truce, as long as he or she remains in rebellion against God, that text he quotes from James is an important one. James says, Do you believe that God is one? Of course writing to a Jewish audience, this is allusion to the "Shama, Shama Israel Here O Israel, the Lord our God is one", And James says, well, big deal, even the demons know or believe that and shutter. So again, there's a difference between knowledge in the sense of intellectual apprehension, and true knowledge by which you accept an appropriate in which you sort of say, submit your life to and believe.

Now, I've given a definition of the Holy Spirit element, I've given a biblical basis for that idea. I've talked about how it was stressed and the reformers and how it's still acknowledged in the broader reformed and evangelical community today. But before we finish this first principle, this first hermeneutical guideline, I would like to spell out for you some consequences of this principle. The first consequences this, it ought to instill in you and me an attitude of humility before the text. It's not as if I'm standing on top of the Bible, armed with my PhD degree, and my knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew language, and the historical context and all the other things as if I'm in control of the Bible, but actually, it's just the opposite. Instead of standing on top of the Bible, I stand underneath the scriptures. There's a powerful sense that no matter how talented I am, no matter how knowledgeable I may be, no matter how hard working I am, without the spirits, illuminating presence, I will not properly know and accept the will of God. And so it ought to instill in me and in you a sense of humility before the text. And I hope that in our time together, that I will demonstrate this humility, you know, for the Word of God. Second, the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit does not take away the need for a careful study of Scripture. 

There are some people I'm afraid, who, in an unhealthy way rely on I would argue, maybe abuse the presence of the Spirit. This is the idea well, okay, maybe I didn't work hard enough on this passage, or maybe I didn't spend enough time on it. But well, the Holy Spirit will help me and that will somehow he will somehow take care of all of this. A quote from Robert Stein is helpful in this regard. He says the role of the spirit in interpretation is not an excuse for laziness, to pray that the Spirit would help us understand the meaning of a text because we do not want to spend time studying or using the tools that have been made available to us may border on blasphemy, for seeks to use or misuse the spirit for our own ends. The Holy Spirit brings to the believer a blessitt assurance of the truthfulness of the biblical teachings. But he that is the Holy Spirit cannot be manipulated to cover for laziness. In this study of the Word of God, I want to exhort you to work hard on this business of exegesis, I might as well say it right now, because I may not remember to say it later, exegesis is hard work, to to study the then and there the text to hear clearly what the Word of God meant. That doesn't happen easily, it's a lot more easy to move to application, or homiletics, it's a lot more easy to tell a story or two a joke or two, or to spell out how a text might be relevant for your life. 

It's hard to kind of work through the original languages or to go back in time and understand something about Judaism or the Roman world or the ancient world in which the Old Testament took place. It's hard to look at what the whole of Scripture may say about a particular subject. It's hard to think about literary devices, which we'll talk about in our next or two sessions down. And so exegesis is not easy. It's not surprising for me that the pastor's might be tempted to shave some corners. And sometimes, you know, we fool ourselves to you know, we, we come to the pulpit, or we come to the class and we recognize it's not our best work, but hey, it was a bad week, you know, we had this we had that and, and then you know, oh, so and so said it was the best measure they heard in a while and we kind of tricked ourselves, you know, we, we develop habits that are not healthy and well, we, we become maybe lazy and not doing due diligence to a proper interpretation of the Scripture. And then maybe we try to baptize all of this by appealing to the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. 

As well, please don't be one of those pastors who's in the study on Saturday night, early Sunday morning, because you haven't spent enough time during the week and the word. God's word needs to be properly understood and proclaimed. And so pray yes for the presence of the Spirit. And God answers that prayer. The Spirit does help us hear God's voice and to understand its implication for us, and for those to whom are called to minister. But don't shortchange this crucial step of spending time in the word and devoting enough time and energy and, and handling the scripture in a proper way.

Well, there's a third implication that I want to share with you. And that's this, that is we have to make sure that we have a proper balance between the spirit and the word sometimes people wrongly, separate the two from each other. They, they divorce the spirit from the Bible, there's a little saying effect that that goes like this, that's very helpful. If we live by the word alone, we dry up. If we live by the Spirit alone, we blow up. But if we live by the word and the spirit we grow up, there's a really good theology in this little ditty, if we meant by the word alone, in other words, if our faith is only kind of a dry rationalistic, faith, one devoid of the infusing life giving presence of the Spirit, well, that's not going to go anywhere, that's just going to wither dry up and die. On the other hand, if we live by the Spirit alone, whoa, I mean, wild and exciting things happen. I mean, people will throw themselves down on the ground, they're slain in the spirit, people will apparently just burst out laughing uncontrollably. I mean, amazing and surprising things happen when you live by the Spirit. But unfortunately, a lot of people who do that we say in English crash and burn, they have these highs, but then they're followed by great lows, or there are others in their community who don't have those high experiences. 

And they kind of doubt whether or not they have the spirit or doubt whether or not they're a true believer. But if we live by the word and the spirit, right? If we recognize that the same spirit of Gods speaking to believers today is the same spirits who has spoken in the past, right, then we realize how they have to be that in fundamental agreement. Sometimes people come to me and they say, Oh, the spirit told me this, or I just feel led by the Spirit that this is the case. And I typically will say, well, that's great. That's wonderful. But how does that compare with what the same spirit has already said, in God's word, so we can't divorce these two from each other? There's a little quote from Kevin Vanhoozer, which is obviously playing off of Jesus words in John 3. But then who's a rightly says, the spirit may blow where he wills, but not what He wills. Right. The spirit, there's a kind of a mysteriousness about the spirit. We don't know how the Spirit works among hearts and lives of people. But the spirit is, again, he doesn't just speak anything that he wants, right? It's tied into what he has already said, in the word, the scriptures, the Bible. And so let me encourage you to always keep those things together. Well, dear friends, that's the first principle of our hermeneutic. And remember, it's different than the other four, it's more of a subjective category. And we have to remember that too. 

When we make value judgments about the spirit, we have to also recognize that we speak and live within a larger community, and that the Holy Spirit works within the larger church community. So those are our communities, and ways in which we ought to evaluate maybe what the Spirit is saying to us. But that's the more subjective principle that kind of underlies the hermeneutical process. And I can only say that in my own life, there is a sense of desperate need for the Spirit's help. On one hand, you know, preaching maybe doesn't seem so hard if you've been doing it for a while. But on the other hand, I'm always a little bit daunted when I sit down to write a sermon, because I, I know that for many people, they haven't opened up God's word during the week, and this will be so crucial for them. And then somehow it raises the stakes and you say this up, I want to make sure I get it right. I want. I don't want to distort what God has said in the word. And so there's a powerful dependency, a powerful awareness that I need the spirit to be present and to illuminate and to work and sanctify this process of exegesis so that again we can be confident about what God was saying then and there and then with equal confidence, we can spell it, spell it spell out the implications for audience here and now. So dear friends, the first principle of how to read the Bible for all it's worth and that's the Holy Spirit element.

Video Transcript: The Living Voice of the Living God (Dr Feddes)

To study the Bible is to listen for the living voice of the living God. You are listening and seeking to hear and understand what God is saying. And that means that when one is studying hermeneutics and exegesis and principles for properly interpreting the Scripture, we need to avoid the danger of thinking that we're just studying some dead, inert object or dissecting something. The Bible is not a dead frog. Some of us have been through biology classes in school and part of the class was labs where we would dissect some kind of animal or another. exegesis is not dissection. It is not a situation where we are the ones in complete control, slicing and dicing and cutting up and categorizing something that we are in charge of the written word is the living voice of the living God, not a dead thing to be dissected. If anything, God's word dissects us. Listen to Hebrews chapter four, the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and the spirit of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight. But all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him, to whom we must give account. God's blade, the sword of the Spirit cuts very deep. 

And there is a sense in which God does dissect us in which God knows us totally. And we are utterly subject to his gaze and to his knowledge, the Lord reads our minds. The Psalmist says, joyfully, you perceive my thoughts from afar. But there's also another side to that I the LORD, search the heart and test the mind and the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, is the context for where the Lord is searching that heart and testing that mind. For the wisdom of this world, is foolishness. in God's sight as it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness, and again, the Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile, he reads our minds. But what he reads there is that even the smartest of us, those who may consider ourselves very wise, have only futile thoughts, without his help, without a new heart given by him without a new mind, and discernment given by him. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, none of the rulers of this age understood it for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. 

The man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for their foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The word comes from the Spirit of God, and can be discerned, discerned and understood only spiritually that is, by the work of the Holy Spirit of God and otherwise, the gospel will seem foolish. Now, Jesus Himself said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. If you hear that, and you're someone who is studying hermeneutics and exegesis or principles for interpretation, you might say, Well, then, what is the point? If God hides everything from the wise and learned it, I'm going to try to have as little learning as possible and be as ignorant as a little child if I can. Well, that's not what the point of this is. This point that Jesus has is God can reveal himself to even the smallest and least intelligent person, he can hide himself, even from the wisest and most learned, and it shows our total dependence on God, our knowledge of God depends entirely on God revealing Himself to us. And all that we might study about interpretation of the Scripture will be a waste unless God Himself chooses to enlighten our minds and make himself known to us.

Jesus met at night with a prominent leader and teacher named Nicodemus and this teacher turned To be quite clueless about the true realities of God, even though he was a leader in the whole religious field and a very knowledgeable man, about the scriptures, Jesus told this man, no one can see the kingdom of God, unless he is born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Nicodemus was baffled by this. He says, How can these things be? And Jesus said, You are Israel's teacher, and you do not understand these things. While later on Nicodemus did come to understand that he was there to assist in taking Jesus body down from the cross and openly identified himself with Jesus. But at this point in his life, he was someone who did not yet understand the necessity of being born again, and the necessity of believing in Jesus because Christ told him, God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. But one can discern that only if you're born again, by the Spirit of God, and otherwise, you just can't see the kingdom of God. 

In a course on hermeneutics and exegesis, we need to understand the sobering possibility that one can be an expert of sorts, in the Scriptures, and the clueless about the reality of the new birth of the life of God within the living word of the living God corresponds to the life of God that he puts within us. And one of the great dangers is that many, many teachers have gone out. claiming to be expositors of Scripture, claiming to be experts in religion, who have not been born again and have not seen the kingdom of God. All they have is flesh and the best that flesh can do. The necessity of the Holy Spirit in making us new people, and then giving us insight into his world can't be overlooked. Jesus went on to say, this is the judgment, the light has come into the world. And people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. The devastating impact of sin, on the human intellect, and on the human will we sometimes treat matters of truth as just something that we analyze by our intellectual powers. 

Jesus says, where there is light, people may hate it, if their deeds are evil. If we are living wicked lives and our hearts are filled with sin, then our minds are so distorted that we can't understand properly, and our wills are so polluted, that we can't appreciate and embrace what is revealed in the Word of God. evil deeds go together with dark minds. And let's never underestimate the power of a wicked life to dark and corrupt the understanding. This means again, that we must be born again. It also means that those who have been born again, must walk in the Spirit and live a life of holiness. Or it will not only affect your conduct, but it will also affect your ability to grasp and understand the scriptures. for teachers who are dead. The Bible is dead teaching. The Living voice of the living God can be known only by those who God has made spiritually alive without rebirth. Even religious leaders and expert scholars cannot experience cannot embrace and cannot expound the living word to others. Now, some teachers have been born again, they're not spiritually dead. But they may still produce dead teaching or at least largely dead teaching. 

If they're not living and studying in the power of the Holy Spirit, if they're relying on their own flesh, and if they're not living a godly and holy life. We need to know the knowledge of his will. And that doesn't just happen as an intellectual process only. The apostle Paul prays for his readers, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. You see, that as spiritual insight comes Holy Spirit, given wisdom and understanding. Then there is a fruit of godly living a very fruit and every good work and that in turn, leads to more of an increase in the knowledge of God, you can't keep increasing in the knowledge of God without increasing in godly ness in the way you live, and in the way you relate to God, and in the way you're filled with knowledge of His will. These things all go together. The Scripture tells us that nobody knows God's thoughts except the Spirit, the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. No one knows the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God. 

We can't even guess what other people are thinking, let alone guess what God is thinking. Only God knows what's in God's mind. Only the Spirit knows the thoughts of God. The good news for us is God doesn't keep all of his thoughts to himself. He reveals some of them to us. He goes beyond that even he in a sense, helps us to read his mind. God has revealed these things to us by His Spirit, for who has known the mind of the Lord that He may instruct him. Nobody, in one sense, knows the mind to the Lord except the spirit, but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit, and by rebirth, we've been given the mind of Christ. God gives us a piece of his mind. This is a staggering, staggering thought that God gives us in some sense, a piece of his mind, as His Holy Spirit comes to live in us, and gives us the very mind of Jesus Christ. And therefore, it is not simply a technical, dry, intellectual procedure, when we're trying to understand the written word of God. We're trying rather to already with the mind of Christ, by the Holy Spirit inside us hear more of the voice of God, that speaks to us from the written word of God. 

Jesus Himself promised the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Later on, the apostle John writes, the anointing that you have received from him abides in you, that is the anointing with the Holy Spirit, who is our teacher, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you abide in him. So keep remaining in the one who teaches you. Now again, when it says you have no need that anyone should teach you, you have to understand that in context, because right, while john says this, he is teaching them. But he's saying you, you don't need to think that you don't have any teacher within yourself, or that you're totally dependent on someone outside yourself. You do have an anointing from God, the parent cleat, the counselor, the teacher, the Holy Spirit, who lives in you, and He has promised to continue working in you, and teaching you if you already belong to Him.

Now what the Spirit does, is he takes away a veil, the apostle Paul writes about a veil that prevented people from understanding the Old Testament scriptures and seeing how they pointed to Christ. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit, the Spirit takes away the veil that prevents us from understanding the scriptures and the revelation of Jesus Christ. And as he takes away that veil, and gives us the understanding, and the first hand knowledge of Jesus Christ, our faces are unveiled, and we're beholding the glory of the Lord. Other translations render it and since this is, of course, an exegesis we could get into that more, but I won't. Sometimes it's translated also reflecting the glory of the Lord, depending on how that word is understood. Whichever is the proper exegesis of this particular text. Both are true as revealed in the wider scripture. 

a veil is taken that allows us to see and to behold the glory of the Lord, as the Holy Spirit works in us. And also we reflect the glory of the Lord, our faces are unveiled. We're not like Moses who had to veil his face, when he had glory shining from him, we have unveiled faces that, that shine with the glory of the Lord and we're being transformed more and more into the light and the image of the radiance from one degree of that glory to another. That's what the Spirit does within us. These are thrilling, amazing realities that the Spirit accomplishes. radiant face. What does that mean? When you're in a class on hermeneutics or when you're preparing to speak the Word of God? Well study to be a skilled interpreter, and a skilled speaker. And as you do it, do it depending on the spirit and delighting in his manifestations to you delight when you're discovering fresh things in the Word of God, and fresh ways to have an ear that is better tuned to the living voice of the living God, so that you can study scripture and get more out of it and understand it more accurately understand that this is one of God's ways of giving you a greater radiance, both in perceiving his light as well as then, in the radiance of his light as you speak to others, a preacher needs the spirit. 

We need the spirits work of illumination, we need the spirit to enlighten our hearts. And for a number of reasons we need that, as we've already mentioned, again, and again, we need the Spirit's guidance to understand the true meaning of the text to open our eyes and our minds to which otherwise we might be blind. We need the spirit to help us encounter Christ Himself. The Living Word, we're not simply dealing with a book, we're dealing with the living person, the book that gives us the voice of Christ and points us to Christ. And we need the spirit to shine with divine light. When preaching, when we go into the pulpit, there should be something similar to what accompany Moses when he came down from Sinai, not in the literal sense of, of light radiating from us that blinds others, but a sense of God's presence hovering over us and shining forth from us. And this is not going to happen just with a little bit of technical academic intellectual analysis of the Word of God. It happens when you are in league with the spirit and the spirit is indwelling you and overflowing you and shining from you. And all this is what people hunger for, and thirst for when they seek the living God. A W. Tozer is one of the most eloquent writers about this thirst for God. 

The book the pursuit of God, the text that he put at the front is as the deer pants four streams of water so my soul thirsts for you, oh God. Here are some of the things that Tozer writes in the early parts of that book. He says some Christians are eager for spiritual realities, and will not be put off with words, nor will they be content with correct interpretations of truth. They are a thirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the fountain of living water.

Evangelicalism has laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, referring to the story of Elijah in the Bible where he built an altar and then laid the different parts of the bowl upon the altar, evangelicalism has laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces was never a character is not a sign of fire on the top of lofty Carmel. Tozer is saying, we keep rearranging things we've got our programs, our methods of study are accurate statements about things but where is fire? Where is the fire and the thing that broke his heart was a lot of us aren't even asking that. We don't even miss the fire. A good many manuals on how to grow your church and build your church could be subtitled how to build any religious organization in the power of the flesh, how to cut things up how to stack the stones, but do we miss the fire? But God the thank there are a few who care. There are those who while they love the altar, and delight in the sacrifice are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the continued absence of fire. they desire God. 

Above all, they desire god they appreciate organizations for worship, they appreciate accurate teaching of the Word of God but what they really desire in all of it is God Himself. Tozer said and this is over 60 years ago, it's maybe not quite as true now as it was then there is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly. The principles of the doctrines of Christ, the frayed maybe there is more of a lack even of such teachers now than there were Then, at any rate, he says, even if there is no lack of Bible teachers who correctly set forth the right doctrines, too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They minister constantly to believers who feel within their breasts, a longing which they're teaching simply does not satisfy. You see what he say here, we do need the correct doctrines. We do need the accurate Bible teaching. But we need more. We need God we need a hunger for God and ourselves and a greater and greater taste of God and experience of God. Because not only do we need that, but those to whom we speak desperately need that and only the Spirit of God can make that happen. 

Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the church of the living God Tozer grants that without it, no church can be a New Testament Church, there must be sound and accurate exposition the Bible, but exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment, whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself. And unless and until the hearers, find God in personal experience, they are not the better for having heard the truth, they will simply hear words about something which they have never tasted. And there are some things that cannot be known except by having them experienced and then explained as well in the words of God. The Bible is not an end in itself. But a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into him, that they may delight in his presence may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God himself in the core and center of their hearts. Others before me, says Tozer have gone much farther into these Holy Mysteries than I have done. But if my fire is not large, it is yet real. And there may be those who can light their candle at its flame.

So to you and I, we may not flame with the great flame of some of the mighty giants of the faith, but let there at least the fire that if not large, at least, his real fire desire for God, a fire of the presence of the Spirit of God within us. John Piper has a book simply titled brothers, we are not professionals. Oh, the curse of being a professional expert on the Bible, and not someone who hungers and thirsts and delights in the living God. We are not professionals. We are lovers of God or we are nothing. And we help others come to God and know the living God and bring them the living voice of the living God are we bring them nothing. The scribe tells us what he has read. And the Prophet tells us what he has seen, between the scribe who has read and the prophet who has seen there is a difference as wide as the sea. We are overrun today with orthodox scribes, but the prophets, where are they? The hard voice of the scribes sounds over evangelicalism. But the church waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil and his gaze with inward eye on the wonder, that is God. Those words, don't awaken something in you, perhaps you should just get out of any thoughts of ministry, because we longed for God. 

And we do not want simply to be orthodox scribes who attempt to dissect the words of the Bible, and have never heard the living voice of the living God, and felt the living flame of the living God and the shining light of the brightness of God coming into our hearts and our minds and then radiating out towards others. We have more than enough scribes, we need prophets, prophets, not in quite the same sense as the Old Testament prophets, who received direct verbal revelation that they were then to relay on to others. We have the verbal revelation, in the words of the Scripture, but still that God given revelation, the Holy Spirit, the light and reality of God Himself, in a union with Christ. These are the realities that must dominate our lives or our attempts at hermeneutics and exegesis and all of that will be an utter failure. And we'll communicate only dryness and death to those around us. We need to be spirit guided preachers. 

First of all, as in the case of Jesus telling Nicodemus, we must be born again to see the kingdom of God, and to give others a glimpse of the kingdom of God, we must be born again and have God's Spirit in us. 

Second, we must keep in step with the spirit, not grieving him by sinfulness or quenching him by thinking that we can discern God's word and study the scripture on our own. But instead by shunning sin, and when we do sin, repenting of it promptly and contritely, and continuing to seek communion with God, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings and the apostles and we to have that as our hearts cry, we want to know Christ. And that is what it means to keep in step with the Spirit because the spirit reveals Jesus and gives us the desire to know Jesus better and better.

And when it comes to extra Jesus, study of the words of God, pray in the Spirit as you study the written word, pray and keep praying and praise when you discover something wonderful. Repent, when something pinches you, ask questions of the Spirit, say, Lord, show me open my eyes, that I may see wonderful things in your law, as one of the biblical writers said, Pray as you study, don't just study as though you're cutting up the frog and figuring it all out. Pray because you only understand God to the degree that he shows himself to you. And then when you get up to proclaim the preached word, say, God, there are going to be people there today, whose hearts are hungry for you, whose hearts thirst for you. Let your reality your truth pour out for me so that people will sense your manifest presence, not just my talk my words, but you among us. And then another aspect of being a spirit guided preacher is to realize you're not the only one who has the spirit. Listen to the Spirit's voice in the communion of the saints. And that can mean listening to how scripture is understood by others, in your church, or perhaps in your denominational circle are the people whom you know, well, that's a valuable thing for Christians to listen to one another, and to look at the Bible and hear God's voice together, and to sometimes correct one another's hearing and get a better discernment.

Another valuable process of listening for the Spirit's voice is where possible, by listening to Christians who are living in other cultures, sometimes there are people from other cultures, right in your own community, fellow believers, and they have a different angle on the scriptures sometimes, and they'll see things you didn't see. And people who have lived in those different cultures can sometimes correct our own understanding, or if not correcting in some cases can simply enrich by adding to it, because of their perception. And then also, don't forget to commune with the saints who have lived in previous eras who are now in heaven. We commute with them not by praying, the saints are trying to have direct communication. But by listening to great writers of the past, who were seeking to understand the word of God, they made their mistakes, but they also discovered many things, and they have the Holy Spirit. And this means that when we're listening to the spirits voice, as part of the communion of the saints, and not just as individuals, we listen to those who are kind of local believers with us to those in our own time, but who live in quite a different setting, and then also to people who just lived in different areas of the church because we as sinners are still vulnerable to misunderstanding many things. 

But the more angles we have on it from spirit filled Christians from various cultures and errors, the more resources we have for correcting the mistakes we make, and for opening our eyes to things that we didn't notice before in God's revelation that are there and that are wonderful. So again, to be a person, depending on the spirit needs, be born again. Keep in step with the spirit. Let all of your study and all of your preaching, be saturated in prayer and in ongoing desire and communion with the spirit and then have your voice or have your ears open to the voice of fellow believers and the Holy Spirit's voice communicating through them as they seek to understand the same scriptures. It is an awesome thing to preach and carry the Word of God to others. If anyone speaks he should do it as one speaking the very words of God if anyone's Serves, he should do it with the strength God provides. So that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory of the power forever and ever. Amen. It is an awesome thing.

Exegesis, preaching, it is an awesome thing to pay close attention to God's way of communicating, and then to speak God's Word to others, and all that you do and understanding basic principles of interpretation is seeking to humbly listen to God's communication and to get your own notions out of the way, and to hear his voice. The apostle Paul prayed for the efficient Christians. He said, I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe this is not just a matter of words, and phrases and technical ideas, it is hope. It is riches, glory, power. And we pray that what Paul prayed for the Ephesians will also come down upon us and it comes in answer to prayer. Another prayer for me Ephesians, one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible, I pray that out of his glorious riches, the father may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 

And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. These words are speaking of realities that go beyond mere words, we want to know the love that surpasses knowledge, to experience the living Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith. These are the great realities of the faith. We don't want to just have the words about the peace that surpasses understanding. We want to experience that peace and bring it to others. We don't want to just analyze the word for love. We want to taste that love and have that love flow from us. We are not just want to study the Greek word for power or analyze what Paul means by power, we want the power. And so to those who come to hear the word of God's spoken through us.