Learning The Bible by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: Sermon Notes

The Danger of Misdirected Knowledge

When knowledge is not directed correctly, it hardens the heart. Paul says they are puffed up with knowledge, ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. There are people that have read this Bible and they are in error.

Interpreting scriptures is so serious. During the slave trade, people's hearts were hardened to see other human beings as animals — and they used scriptures. There is nothing you want to do in this life that you won't find a scripture to back you up if you take it out of context. People have been used, oppressed, beaten, cheated, manipulated with scriptures. Most of the problem is from wrong understanding of scriptures.

The Hallmark of False Teaching

From the moment you release your responsibility to grow for yourself, you are in a horrible place. One of the major things that false teachers do: a false teacher doesn't start off teaching false things — that's not how it works. Even the devil, if he was your pastor, he would use the Bible. He went to Jesus in Matthew 4 and said, "The word of God says he will give his angels charge over you — jump." That's the devil. He knows the scripture, but he doesn't know the truth of God's word.

If you are in a false teaching ministry, how will you be able to discern it? They are using the Bible, calling the name of the Holy Spirit. Moses dropped his snake; Pharaoh's magicians also dropped their rod and it turned to a snake. If you are going to weigh the authenticity of ministry based on the miraculous, you will be worshipping demons. Even in the other side, you have miracles.

There are many altars that are not altars of God. But there is one thing that false teachers do — they will teach with the scriptures, they will use the Bible, and they will gain your trust. Deception is not deception if it is glaring. What makes it deception is that it would be 99% true and 1% the lie. You will notice the inconsistency in the message of revealing Christ and you will notice the man-centredness. There is no drive to push you to the word of God.

People that want to use God always end up used. Anybody that wants to use God always ends up used. If you see people that were used by ministries, they had no personal relationship with God. They were just all about his hand; they were not about his heart.

You must give optimum attention to the word of God. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.

How Not to Study the Bible

What is being taught here is not just how to read the Bible — it is fortitude against false teaching, against being a victim.

I will endure sound doctrine. If he says "endure," it means it's work. People like exciting messages. They have a lot of things to unlearn. They don't preach the gospel — they preach healing from pain. Sometimes when you preach about pain too much, you never heal, because every Sunday they are reminding you and scratching you. The message of Jesus is word-centred.

• Method 1 — The Lucky Dip: Don't do this. Don't open your Bible randomly and take a verse as a word from God divorced from its context.
• Method 2 — Two Chapters a Day: The Bible was not originally written in chapters. Follow thoughts, not chapters. Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 2 are absolutely connected. If you stop at Ephesians 1 you are not seeing the entire thought. When you read Philippians 2:1 it says "therefore" — that means there was something being talked about before. For you to know what the "therefore" is there for, you have to start from chapter one. And Philippians 3:1 says "finally" — what has he been talking about that brought him to this conclusion? If you don't know, you clearly don't understand what he's saying. The book of Philippians is a letter, and it was meant to be read at once. Everybody sat down and they read it to the church in Philippi. This book is very small — you will finish it in 16 minutes. For the Old Testament, read thoughts — that one is long, but still follow thoughts not chapters.
• Method 3 — Devotionals Only: Devotionals are like bullet points of messages. You cannot pass an exam by reading only bullet points of a textbook. People tend to study devotionals more than they read and study their Bible. You have to have time where you are studying the Bible. 2 Timothy 2:15 says study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Study to show yourself approved — it did not say study to make yourself approved. Our study is not making God love us more. Our study is not getting more favour with God. You have already been approved. If I say "get dressed," that means you have a dress. Study is the evidence of the thing we have with God. The Greek word for workman is a labourer — a teacher — somebody that is working hard. Studying the word of God is work.

The Fruit Test

If you are not rightly dividing the word of God, there are fruits that will show. One of the major ways to test is to test doctrine. If you join a church and you get validation for the contradictions in your life, you are in a bad church. Every sound theology must increase your desire for consecration. If you are hearing the right word of God, you will be losing appetite for sin the more you hear it. On the other extreme, if you join a church and you are constantly beaten in condemnation, you are also in the wrong place.

The understanding is: teach the word of God, don't add to it. You are not wiser than God. Teach what God says. God says we are the righteousness of God in Christ. God says you are saved — now live out what you are. The wisdom of God is: I don't want you to do to become; I want you to become to do. I want to make you righteous so that you can do righteousness.

If you read 1 Corinthians, Paul says, "Know you not that your body is the temple of God?" What he is saying in other words is that you are treating your body wrong because you don't know that your body is the temple of God. If you know your body is the temple of God, the correct response to that revelation is that you embrace consecration.

If you are listening to wrong teaching, you will look like who you are listening to. Jesus said by their fruits you shall know them. Matthew 7:15 — beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.

You look like your pastor. You don't pick a pastor like you are choosing clothes. One of the signs of the end time — the Bible says in the last days men will heap up teachers after their own lusts. Don't listen to what you like; listen to what you need. There are pastors that teach that polygamy is allowed; a polygamist hears that message and says, "Yes, this is my man of God." There are some pastors who take scriptures about salvation — like the lost coin — and change them to principles for making money.

Your pastor is God's example to you. You have to pick a pastor that looks like what you want to be. By their fruits you shall know them — you are the fruits that this scripture is talking about.

Method 4 — Textual Reading

Another way not to read the Bible: do not interpret scripture textually.

Let me use Romans 1:17 as an example. It says the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." If you read just this context, you say that means there are different levels of faith — from one level to another. But that is not the meaning.

Our faith as Christians is a gift. God supplies our faith by the hearing of faith. Romans 10:17 — faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Faith is supplied to us; faith is not earned. The reason why we fast and pray is to get rid of unbelief and to be fed by the word of God that gives us faith. When I am fasting, I am not starving — I am feeding. I am actually taking in the word of God that energises my faith.

So what does "faith to faith" mean? Start from Romans 1:1. It says "which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures." Now, faith is described in Hebrews 11:1 as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. But that faith is not describing your faith. The reason you think it is describing your faith is because you did not read Hebrews 10.

In the message of Christ there is the promise of the Messiah coming. There are two different dispositions — people before the death of Christ and people post Christ. There is faith before Christ and there is faith after Christ. Those who had faith before Christ had faith in the coming of the Messiah. The faith we have is faith that he came. So they had faith in the coming of Christ; we have faith in the fact that Christ came. That is faith to faith.

Is Moses in heaven? Is Solomon in heaven? How did they get there? They had faith in Christ — but the kind of faith they had was faith in the coming of Christ. Look at Hebrews 11:39: all these have obtained a good testimony through faith, but they did not receive the promise. God promised them the Messiah — they had faith that he would come, but he did not come in their time. But we have faith in the fact that the promise has happened. It says God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. The evidence that God did not lie to David is that we received the promise.

So Ephesians 1:13 says, "In him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." What God promised them in the Old Testament is the Spirit of God within — the Holy Spirit that will dwell in them. That is what Jesus said in Acts 1:4 — wait here for the promise of the Father. That promise is the Holy Spirit coming inside.

So from faith to faith is: from faith that Christ will come to faith that he has come. He is not saying there are levels of faith. If you think there are levels of faith, you will not be able to walk in faith. One of the major things that will destroy your faith is to get information that it does not always work. If I teach you why faith does not work, I am already teaching you how to doubt. You have to be almost simple to walk in faith. God called Abraham at 75 and gave him a brand new ambition at 75.

Old Things Have Passed Away

Many people think "old things" in 2 Corinthians 5:17 means your old life, old habits. That is not what it means. You cannot understand chapter 5 if you have not read chapter 3.

2 Corinthians 3:6 — he says there are two different types of ministers: ministers of the New Covenant, which is not of the letter but of the spirit, for the letter kills but the spirit gives life. There is the spirit and there is the letter. The letter is the ministry of death. The spirit is the ministry of righteousness.

2 Corinthians 3:7–11 — the ministry of death, written and engraved on stone, was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away. How will the ministry of the spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

So "old things are passed away" — what passed away? The letter. It is not your old habits. "Behold all things have become new" — the ministration of death has passed away and the ministration of life is what is new. He is not talking about you; he is talking about the finished work of Christ. That is why he called it a new creation.

2 Corinthians 3:14 — if you are reading the scriptures and you are not seeing Christ, there is a veil covering your face. Many people still have the veil on their face. They don't know how to see Christ. You are Christians — you are not Judaists. People are trapped in the culture and traditions of the Bible; they have not been able to pick the revelation of Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:16 — when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Repent means to change your mind. When you see that the scripture is not about you but about Christ, you are not just looking for principles for Godly marriage, principles for making money, ten things that will sharpen your brain — that is not what the scripture is for. Am I saying you can't get wisdom from it? Romans 15:4 — all scriptures was written for our learning, so that through patience and comfort of scriptures we might have hope. So there are things to learn that we can apply in our lives. But the primary reason for scriptures is salvation.

2 Corinthians 3:17 — now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of God is, there is liberty. Liberty to do what? Liberty to behold the beauties in the word of God.

2 Corinthians 3:18 — but we all with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of God, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. What is this glory to glory? Many people think it means from one level of glory to another level of glory. But remember, all through this passage he was comparing two glories — one more glorious than the other. When he says we are transformed from glory to glory, it means from the glory of the letter to the glory of the spirit. We have already moved. So there are no levels of glory for the believer. The believer is now in the glory.

Never interpret scriptures textually — textual interpretation is a curse to the church. It has put people in trouble. People are sick and don't use medicine because of horrible textural interpretation.

Don't Lift a Text — Lift a Principle

For example, "remove not the ancient landmarks" (Proverbs 22:28) — if you read Deuteronomy 19:14, it simply means the way Moses shared land: don't change it. It was geography. Just think about doing a program and shouting "remove not the ancient landmarks" when God is talking about land sharing.

And "by his stripes we are healed" — this does not refer to physical healing. Look at where Peter lifted it from: Isaiah 53:5 — "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed." The next verse says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." He is talking purely about salvation.

There are other scriptures that apply to healing. And there are things God will tolerate when you are growing. You can be using a scripture wrongly and God's mercy can answer for you. In fact, I would rather you approach God from a standpoint of mercy than legalism. But as you begin to grow, there are things God will expect you to mature in.

1 Peter 2:24 — it is not about healing. And "eyes have not seen, ears have not heard" — that scripture was lifted from the Old Testament and was referring to Christ, the promise of receiving him. Eyes have seen now. That thing has been fulfilled in Christ.

There is something called scripturation — applying a principle, not a text. When I wanted to understand how God would have me do ministry, I saw in the book of Acts that the apostles traveled and returned to Jerusalem, and when they returned, they stayed with the brethren, and then the gospel began to spread. From that thought I got that God wants me to have a Jerusalem, and from my Jerusalem they will spread. I didn't lift a text — I lifted a principle.

If God is going to speak to you from the pages of scripture, cross-check it in four categories: Poetry (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon), the Epistles, History (it happened in the life of somebody in the Bible), and Prophecy (prophetic books like Isaiah, Jeremiah). The word will stand out in each one. That is how you confirm a word.

There is something called divine speed, but there is no divine delay. What that means is: if you are late, there is an advantage — than to run ahead of God. I would rather be late and trust God for divine speed than run ahead and have nothing God can do to help me.

God is a king — you can't rush him. You can ask God questions. In fact, revelation is often bettered from questions. The disciples asked Jesus, "Teach us to pray" — and we got the Lord's Prayer. The reason we don't know what Jesus prayed is because they didn't ask. So ask.

For New Believers — Where to Start

Start from John, then the New Testament, then go to the Old Testament. You have to understand the character of God before you go into the Old Testament. The first thing every believer must focus on is knowing the character of God. Without understanding the character of God, you can't understand God's intention. Without understanding God's intention, you will misinterpret by observation. If you don't know who God is and you see how God killed Jesus, you won't like it. But the understanding of his character and his intention to multiply his sons — then you know this is an act of love and faithfulness.

Bible translations are also Bible interpretations. You have to be careful. "In my Father's house are many mansions" — grammatically it doesn't sound right; you can't have mansions inside a house. The original is: in my Father's oikia (family) are many monai (dwelling places). He is saying in my Father's family are many dwelling places. Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am you may be also." He is talking about being in the family of God.

Knowledge is a two-edged sword. There is a difference between false teaching and wrong teaching. When you know something, don't go around attacking people. If you have an opportunity to share, share with love. Don't say "but" — say "and." Start with a compliment. Appreciate every right thing they said. Give them an opportunity to ask questions and be part of the conversation, not an opportunity to be defensive.