This will be a presentation of Aids to Bible Understanding which is designed to provide the dedicated bible student with aids to better understand the Bible as a whole, as well as individual bible verses using such internet tools as Bible Gateway to conduct verse searches as well as word searches which are faster to use than a bible concordance.

As I mentioned in a previous study, eventually this ministry must close, and again I am not saying that I am going to shut things down -- I am only saying that I could be involved in a car wreck, airplane clash, have a heart attack or whatever, and if something did happen to me then I have no staff to continue this ministry.

Back in the early 80's I saw the need to teach pastors what the Bible really said, and I figured that if I could educate them, then they in turn would be able to educate their respective flocks. Well it didn't take too long to realize that this idea was a big mistake since preachers know all they want to know, and besides that, if they accepted what I had to say, then it upsets everything they know -- and that causes them a huge problem.

It is easier for most of them to stick to faith, grace, and salvation and continue to feed their flocks the pablum of God's word. In saying that, I do not mean to downplay faith, grace, and salvation, I am only trying to say that there is far more to God's word than faith, grace and salvation.

So, finding this goal an impossibility, I turned to the ministry itself, and my approach, for the most part, was not to teach that which most Christians already understood but to teach that which is generally left untaught in the pulpits of America.

While I am Kingdom oriented, I do not dwell on the subject of Israel either, but knowing the kingdom message is certainly one of the keys to understanding the Scriptures. However, it seems to me that all of God's word is truth and we need to not be so narrow minded in what we study.

I remember many years ago when I attended a church, we received a new pastor who was very, very knowledgeable on the Old Testament, so naturally many of his sermons came from the OT. This was not favorably accepted by some members of the congregation, and their comment basically was, "The Old Testament is nice to read from once in a while but we are New Testament Christians and he should place his emphasis on teachings from there." This is just one narrow-minded approach to the study of God's word that I am referring to.

But then come the questions, what is the best way to study the Bible? And are there certain things I should know as a foundation, and what are the better study helps available to me?

In this study I hope to answer those questions for you. I do this for the reasons I mentioned earlier, but also because I have often stated that the truth of God's Word has not been revealed to me as it was revealed to the prophets and the apostles. Study takes much time and effort, and is something that few people have the time to do, and this creates the necessity for ministries such as this one.

But on the other hand each and every one of you are responsible for your own growth in the knowledge of God and His word, and I do not want to be responsible for what you know and understand to be true. In that regard, I would like to think of myself as simply another study aid for you to use in your study of God's word.

In my study of God's word over the years I have been able to narrow things down a bit, and I find that I use less and less materials to assist me now. In other words I have found some things to be more beneficial than others and have discarded those which are less helpful. It is this kind of knowledge I hope to leave you with as a result of this study. This is not going to be a short study as it will take several tapes, and at this point in time I cannot say how many.

Enough said, it's time to move forward, and the first principle which we must keep before us when we study the Word of God, is not to treat the Bible as something which we have to interpret, such as the courts in this country attempt to do with the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution was written by men with the grand design in mind to limit the powers of a federal government and to insure that all men would be able to pursue life, liberty, and domestic tranquility, or to enjoy property:-- that is, the fruits of their labor, and it was not intended that the Constitution be interrupted -- but simply understood and followed.

To some degree the same is true of God and His word -- we are not to look at the Bible as something to interrupt but as being that which God has given us in order to reveal Himself and His will to us.

With that I will begin by asking a question: What do you suppose is "THE ONE GREAT OBJECT OF GOD'S WORD?" In other words, what is it that we see, over and over again, from Genesis to Revelation? This is presented to us in three forms, and they are:

1. The LIVING word, making known the Father
2. The WRITTEN word, revealing the Son, and
3. The LIVING and the WRITTEN word

We will look at each of these individually. First of all, Christ is presented to us as the Living Word, and when we speak of the "Word" of God we should never separate the Living Word, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, from the written word, the written word being Bible. Both of these can be called the "Word," because the Greek word "Logos" is used of both: that is to say, the word "logos" is used of both the spoken word and the written word, and "the word" is used of Christ, that is the Living Word, because He reveals to us the unseen or the invisible God. We say that God is unseen or invisible because in the Gospel of John at 1:18: we read:

"No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, He being in the bosom of the Father, This one [hath] declared [Him]" John 1:18

When it says no man has seen God, it refers to the human eye, that is "no human eye hath seen God." You should have noticed a contrast in this verse between the words no human eye or "man hath seen" and "he hath declared him," that is the "only begotten son..hath declared him," -- "him" being God.

But notice the difference between "no eye hath seen" and "the son hath declared." What is interesting here is that it does not say "the son hath seen him," it only says the "son hath declared him."

The expression "the only begotten Son, He being in the bosom of the Father," denotes intimacy, friendship, and affection. Actually the phrase "being in the bosom of the Father," is spoken of in reference to the custom of reclining at meals, as the person who was reclined next to another was said to "lie in his bosom," and the person who occupied this position was supposed to share the master's peculiar views, and to be in a state of utmost favor and intimacy with him.

Thus, the idea being expressed here is that Jesus is as the person who occupied the favored position next to the master of a feast, which means that Jesus had an intimate knowledge and understanding of God's character, His nature, and His design which no other person had. That being the case, that more than qualifies Jesus to make God the Father known to men.

But it is not for us to explain Christ, but to understand that Christ's mission was to explain God to us, and so, it is Christ who interprets the Father to us, and it is for us to simply believe Him. This is made known to us in verse 18, by the use of the word "declare." The Greek word for declare comes from two words: the first meaning "out of, or forth," and the second meaning "to lead." So we see that the Greek word means to lead forth, to make known, to guide, to interpret, to unfold, to reveal, and to expound. The word occurs 6 times in the NT and was translated as "declare" 4 times, and one time as "declaring," and once as "told." It is from this word that we get our word "exposition," or to expound."

For our purposes, the best meaning would be "to make known" -- this is why Christ is called "The Word of God," i.e., because "He makes known," or He reveals, and He explains to us the Father. This is also why the Scriptures are called "the Word of God," because the Scriptures also make known to us the Father and the Son.

Next let's consider John 14:5-6, where we read:

"Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:5-6

It is from verses such as these that we know and understand that Christ is "the Way" to the Father. That is, Christ makes God known to us in all His attributes, His will, and His words. And how did He do this? Well, he did this by making known to us "THE WORD" of God -- not the words of Christ, mind you, but "The word of God.". For example we read in John 17:8, 14, and 17:

"For I have given unto them the words (or thy words) which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. Verse 8 "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Verse 14 "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. Verse 17

Notice that it is always "THY WORD," -- not my word. The idea I have been presenting here is that "The LIVING word, that is Jesus Christ, has made known to us the Father.

The next thing we are going to look at is that the WRITTEN WORD reveals to us the son, and in that regard, the Written Word -- the Scriptures if you will -- are given to us in order to testify of Christ; and this is why Christ is the one great subject of the Word, and much more will be said on this subject later on.

Briefly, I want to say that the Holy Spirit is the interpreter of both, and was that not His mission? After all, in John 16:13 and 14 we read:

"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. John 16:13-14

Thus we see that the mission of the Holy Spirit is not only to glorify Christ, but also to receive and show us the "things of Christ" as we read in John 14:26:

26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

The "all things" spoken of here, refer to "things of Christ," and specifically, "whatsoever I have said unto you." So the Spirit of God shows "you all things" and he does so in accordance with the Written Word, as we read in 1 Corinthians 2:9-14:

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
"But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
"For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:9-14

I am not going to dwell on these verses, as I only quote them to show the mission of the Holy Spirit, and it is because of His mission, that it is He, and He alone, who enables us to "preach that Word." And yes, we are commanded to "preach the word," and we were so charged in 2 Timothy 4:2, where Paul says:

"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 2 Timothy 4;2

Now the Greek word translated as "preach" means "to herald," or "to proclaim," and as a matter of fact, it was also translated as "proclaim." Although the word "preach" means "to proclaim," I still prefer the use of the word "proclaim," because the word "preach," at least to me, has become a word to denote what preachers have to say about the word of God -- and that's certainly not proclaiming the word of God.

Nevertheless, in our day and age, we can say that the Word was and is presented to us in three forms: The Living Word, The Written Word, and The Preached Word. There is no other. As we have seen, Christ reveals the Father, Scripture reveals Christ, and The Spirit reveals both, and he does so, not only through the written Word, but also in the preached Word, and the preached word, or the word we are to proclaim, comes to us as a gift of the spirit as we read in 1 Corinthians 12:7 and 8:

"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. "For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 1 Corinthians 12:7-8

Thus the "manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit" thereby, and the manifestation of the spirit is received in the form of things like "wisdom" and "knowledge," which, of course, refers to the wisdom and knowledge of the Word, and it is with that knowledge that we are to preach the Word. And so, from what we learned earlier, we can now say that as preachers, or better yet, as proclaimers of God's Word, we are to make known to people the Word of God:-- as that is what preaching is all about -- making known the Word of God.

Earlier we read John 17:8 and 14, and I think it is very important to realize what Christ meant in saying "I HAVE GIVEN THEM THY WORD." He did not say I have given them aids to devotion. He did not say I have given them a hymn book, nor did He say I have given then thy word and something else to help them. No! What He said was "I have given them thy word" and that is all He gave us to accomplish our mission: He gave us nothing else.

Therefore, when the word of God is being preached or proclaimed, what should be happening is the process of making known the Written Word; and again the Word makes known Christ, who is the Living Word; and Christ makes known God the Father.

"The Scriptures and the Word
Bear one tremendous name,
The Living and the Written Word
In all things are the same." -

This is quite true, and I am going to give you just a few examples:

Revelation 19:13 - "His name is called THE WORD OF GOD"
Luke 5:1 - They "pressed upon Him to hear THE WORD OF GOD"
Isaiah 9:6 - The Prince of PEACE . . (referring to the Messiah)
Romans 10:15 - THE Gospel of PEACE . .
1 Corinthians 1:24 - "Christ, the power of God
Romans 1:16 - The Gospel is the power of God
John 14:6 - "Jesus saith unto him, I am THE WAY" . . .
"Teach me, O Lord, THE WAY of Thy Statutes" . . Psalm 119:33.
John 14:6 - "I am . . . THE TRUTH."
John 17:17 - "Thy WORD IS TRUTH"
John 1:14 - Christ-- "Full of grace and TRUTH" .
Psalm 119:151 - "All Thy Commandments are TRUTH". . . .

That is just the beginning, because I know of about 50 such comparisons which can be made about Christ, the living Word, and the written Word. The idea I am trying to present here is that the Living Word cannot be separated from the written word, and that being the case, then perhaps we can also understand why they should not be separated when proclaiming the Word of God; and we might even be able to say that proclaiming the Written Word without proclaiming Christ is not preaching at all.

Perhaps we should ask, what did the apostles do if not proclaim the living and the written word of God? One thing is for certain, they certainly they did not proclaimed the word of God from newspapers or books -- no sir! they proclaimed the word of God. In fact, in Acts 17:2, we find Paul in Thessalonica, where he went into a synagogue of the Jews, and then we are told:

"And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, Acts 17:2

"As his manner was" tells us that it was Paul's habit to go to the synagogues, and there reason with them out of the newspapers. Oops, out of the Scriptures. But there is more, isn't there? because in verse 3 we are immediately told that this preaching consisted in:

"opening and setting forth that CHRIST (the Living Word) must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach (or proclaim) unto you, is Christ (the Messiah)." Acts 17:3

Thus in this case, we see that Paul did not separate the Living word from the written word as he "reasoned with them out of the scriptures," "opening and setting forth Christ."

As I said earlier, the one great subject which runs through the entire Word of God is the Messiah, or Christ who is the promised seed of the woman, of whom we first read in Genesis 3:15:

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Genesis 3:15

What is important to us about this verse is the fact that what is said here becomes the foundation of the rest of the Bible. In fact, all hope for the restoration of man and creation is centered in Christ; who would be born into the world, who would suffer and die; and, in resurrection, would become the Head of a new creation, and should finally crush the head of the Old Serpent.

Because of this, Christ as King, and the Kingdom which He should eventually set up, become the one great subject which occupies almost the entire Word of God, which means that apart from Christ, the King, the kingdom message cannot be understood, and I will explain this a little bit more. For example:

(1) In the Old Testament we have the King and the Kingdom in Promise and Prophecy, Illustration and Type.

(2) In the Four Gospels we have the King and the Kingdom presented and proclaimed by John the Baptist, and by Christ Himself. And we also see the rejection of the Kingdom, and we finally we read of the crucifixion of our King.

(3) Then, In the Acts of the Apostles we have a Transition period from the Kingdom to the Church. And in it we again find Peter offering the Kingdom, which was again rejected. We also read of Stephen being stoned, and of Peter being imprisoned (chapter 12).

Then we read of Paul, who had been chosen and called in chapter 9, and in chapter 13, we read of his being commissioned for His Ministry, and finally, in chapter 28, we read about the final rejection of his testimony concerning the Kingdom. Because of that rejection, Paul pronounces, for the third and last time, the sentence of judicial blindness in Isaiah 6, and from that time forth, that is from Acts 28, from then on, we read little about the kingdom until we get to the Book of Revelation.

I mentioned that the kingdom was rejected, and that leads to the conclusion that there is no kingdom in the present. In that regard, there is something of interest in Hebrews 2:7-9:

"Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:
"Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Hebrews 2:7-9

Keep in mind that this is the epistle to the Hebrews, or to the 12 tribes of the dispersion, and the one great thing they were looking forward to was the restoration of the kingdom to Israel with the Messiah as king over that kingdom. In fact in Acts 1:3, we read that Christ:

"... shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: Acts 1:3

Please notice that for forty days the risen Christ spoke of "things pertaining to the kingdom of God:" We are not told that He spoke of things pertaining to the church, nor faith, nor grace, but the only thing we are told here is that He spoke of "things pertaining to the kingdom of God:"

After he had spoken for 40 days on things pertaining to the kingdom the only question the apostles had is found in verse 6:

"Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Acts 1:6

At this time, that which was foremost on the minds of the apostles was Christ's speaking on things pertaining to the "kingdom of God" and its restoration to Israel. Friends, this is a remarkable verse for it is very specific in mentioning restoring the kingdom to Israel and says nothing about the other peoples and nations in the world.

But getting back to Hebrews 2:7-9, we see that while there is "nothing that is not put under him," and at the same time "we see not yet all things put under him."

What do you suppose is going on here? After all, has not the king received his crown and has not all been put under him? Well yes, but.... That's right -- go back to verse 8 and you will see that what I am talking about begins "But now we see not," and so on. Notice that things are interrupted by this little three lettered word "but."

The word "but" tells us that the actual exercising of the power has been placed in what we might call abeyance. This almost has to be, otherwise Paul could not possibly say all things are "put under him," and in the same breath say "But now we see not yet all things put under him." Since "we see not yet all things put under him," we seem compelled to conclude that the kingdom is in abeyance:-- because it is missing its king. And I will have more to say on that subject but it will be much later on in the study.

The entire study on "Aids to Bible Understanding" is only available on audio tapes and consists of twenty (20) separate 45 minute messages recorded on ten 90-minute audio tapes packaged in a convenient and attractive cassette album.

01. The One Great Object of the Word
02. The One Great Subject of the Word
03. Rightly Dividing the Word
04. As to Its Subject matter (Israel, Jews, Gentiles, and the Church)
05. The past not to be read into the present
06. The present not to be Read into the past
07. The Future not to be Read into the Present
08. The meaning of words obtained from the scope
09. The scope determined from its structure
10. Consider the context in determining the meaning of what is said
11. And Much More

To obtain "Aids to Bible Understanding" enter Tape Album A016 on the order form.

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