Why Can’t Some People Understand the Bible?

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say, time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, once again, we're ready to start for another half hour, and for those of you in the studio audience, you can be turning to Ephesians chapter 3, and we got it on the board. We're going to start at verse 18, but for those of you who watch every morning, we were in 1 Corinthians at the end of our last program, and we're going to go back there in just a minute. But first again, for new listeners, how shall I put it? We're just an informal Bible study. I guess that's the best way, and all our past programs are available on video and audio and the little books, and we don't have any high-pressure sales on them. But if you're interested in this material for a home Bible study, my, so many people are starting home Bible studies using the videos, and then if their students want the little book, which are word for word, practically, you call us, and we'll help you get started on something like that or for your own study or whatever. But you call us on the 800 number or drop us a note, and we'll get these things to you. Okay, I think that's sufficient announcements for today, and let's get right back for a moment to Ephesians chapter 3, verse 18. Ephesians 3, verse 17, "...that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints..." See, now this is the desire of God and of the Apostle for every believer. This isn't just for the clergy. This isn't just for the Sunday school teacher. This isn't just for the theologian in the seminary. This is for every believer, see, "...and that all saints might comprehend the breadth, length, depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ." All right, then we went back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 in the closing moments of our last half hour, and we're going to go back there again, because I think here the Apostle makes it so plain how these things are understood by the average believer. And remember that the Corinthian believers were the weakest, the most carnal of all of Paul's congregation. They had a lot of hang-ups, but he could still write these things to them in language that they could understand, and if they could, I think any of us can. All right, verse 10 again, "...but God hath revealed the things that have not been seen or heard." In verse 9, "...God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." How many believers today go into the deep things of God? Precious, precious few. Hopefully we're lighting the fire under a lot of people. Oh, I wish you could read our mail. How many write that for the first time in their life they're studying the Bible? They're reading it and enjoying it. Well, that's all we can ask, you know, and that means far more to me than you'll ever know. All right, so how do we know the things of God, the deep things, but by the Spirit of God? And so He's the one that has to enlighten us and teach us and direct us through the Scriptures. Now, of course, it certainly helps in Bible study to have a good reference Bible. I don't care which one you use, but get a good reference Bible, and hopefully one with some footnotes to clarify some things that may be a little hard to understand, but whatever. Learn to just do Bible study, comparing Scripture with Scripture. All right, now verse 12, still in 1 Corinthians 2. Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, and this is where I commented in the last half hour, that if you ask an auto mechanic something about car engines, he's going to unload on you everything he knows. But see, we're not looking at it from a secular point. We're not looking at what we have learned from education and experience in the material. No, but we have received the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Now see, this is what we have to recognize. You can't go in and say, well, I'm going to learn what this Bible says no matter what. No, it won't work that way. We have to depend on the Spirit of God. Now, fortunately, I'd like to again, you know, everybody's human. I like words of encouragement and compliment, where over and over people have written how they prayed that God would somehow open the Scriptures to them, and the next day they found our program. And 10 minutes into the program, oh, we've had letter after letter expressing it. 10 minutes into the program, they'll recognize and they'll say, thank you, Lord. This is what we were looking for. But I can't do it. It has to be the Spirit that opens understanding. All right, reading on. Which things also we speak in verse 13? The things of God. See, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teaches. And how does the Spirit teach? Comparing. Comparing spiritual with spiritual. See, you have to constantly compare these various concepts of Scripture with other concepts, and you'll see how they all fit, just like a jigsaw puzzle. But you see, so much of what's going abroad today is—and again, I thought of this the other night. You know, I'm always trying to think of good illustrations that sort of tantalize your thinking, but it's been a long time since Iris and I have put a jigsaw puzzle together. But how would you like to put a jigsaw puzzle together if somebody had taken out a few of the pieces and put in a few from another one, and you had no picture to go by? What would that be? Oh, that'd be pandemonium. It would drive you up the wall, because number one, you would have no frame of reference. You would have no idea where this color is on the edge unless you've got the picture. And then after you get so long, then all of a sudden you've got pieces that don't fit. And oh, you can struggle, and you can push, but they won't fit. Listen, that's what too much Bible study does. They've got things that come along and you think, well now wait a minute, this doesn't fit. Of course it doesn't. It's not supposed to. But when you keep the Scripture with Scripture and keep it fitting and fitting, hey, it all falls in place so beautifully, cover to cover, no contradictions. Change the program, like I said earlier in Ephesians, of course the dispensation of grace is a whole different economy than the dispensation of law. And you remember several programs ago, I showed you how ridiculous it is when people say, I go by the whole Bible. I go by what the whole Bible says, and I say, oh really? Then let's go look at Leviticus 5, you remember? That if anybody touches something that is dead, then what does he have to do? He has to bring a particular sacrifice to the priest. That's what the Bible says. Got their foot in their mouth, haven't they? Of course. Same way with so much of Jesus' earthly ministry. He was teaching directly to the nation of Israel. And I hope I don't bite off more than I can chew. Let me see if I can find the verse. I may not. So those of you in television, you may have to write and tell me where it was. But it's back in Matthew, I think it's chapter 20. Oh, I'll find it here in a minute. Oh goodness. They all understood that he spoke of them. I've used it before, and I'll find it in just a minute. Maybe I won't. No, I guess I'm not going to. But anyway, it was in the midst of his parables, and after—yeah, here it is, 21. I was looking at it, not seeing it. You know, I've made the comment on this program before. I also tell me more than once I can look at a gallon of milk in the refrigerator and not see it. I think all of us men are pretty much the same. But it's the same way here. You know, I can look at a verse and just not even see it. But here it is in Matthew 21, verse 45. Matthew 21, verse 45. Y'all there? Because all this says it all. And when the chief priests and the Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them. Not us, them. And it was to them that it was appropriate, not to us. Now a lot of his things, of course, are applicable, don't get me wrong. Jesus never taught anything that was completely out in left field, but He's constantly driving these things home to the nation of Israel and all the parables. Their only true meaning was as it fit with the nation of Israel. And when you take those things out of the Gospels and try to bring it into Paul's teachings, you've got some puzzles, pieces that don't belong there, and they won't fit. And they keep trying to push them in, but they won't fit, because here is the secret that everything he spoke in parables, the Sadducees and the Pharisees perceived that he spoke of them. Now that's what the book says. That's not my idea, it's what it says. All right, now let's come back to 1 Corinthians. There we were. 1 Corinthians again, chapter 2, verse 13. And this is all part and parcel of what Paul, I think, is enlarging on in Ephesians, when he prays that we might have the might and the power of the height and depth and length and breadth of spiritual discernment. Verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 2, "...which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual with spiritual." All right, now what's he saying? How many people lean on what men have said? Now I know the philosophers of ancient Greece said some tremendously appropriate things, and they made a lot of sense, but they're not Scripture. They're still the things that men teach. And on the other hand, when you take the things that the Holy Spirit has prompted men to write, and we bring this into focus, now we've got something more than what men teach. We've got the spiritual. All right, and then verse 14, "...but the natural man..." The unbeliever. I don't care if he's in church every Sunday. I don't care if he's in church three times a week. If he's still unsaved and he's in the natural, he cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. It's impossible. Oh, he can sit there and it just... I don't know what happens to it, in one ear and out the other, or whatever, but it never affects them. All right? Why? They're foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them or understand these things. Why? Because they're spiritually discerned. So when you're talking with unbelievers, and you try to maybe express some of the deeper things in Scripture, expect them to look at you with a blank look. That's all you can expect. They'll just look at you as though, what are you talking about? Well, that's to be expected. They don't know what you're talking about, and they cannot. You know, I think I gave the illustration on the program one time. I had a gentleman come up after one of my classes, and he was really trying to give me a hard time with all of his own man-made ideas, and his own philosophies, and he just couldn't agree with anything I'd been teaching that night. And a fellow who was off to the side, and who had come out of quite a lifestyle in the past, and had been in my class a long time before he came to know the Lord. And he came up and tapped him on the shoulder, and he said, let me tell you something, buddy. He said, after you get saved, you'll understand. Well, now he could say that I couldn't. I would never do that. But he could. And it was hitting the nail on the head, see? And so the unbelieving world, they'll argue with you, they'll fuss with you, and they'll give you all their ideas. But listen, it's nothing but just secular gibberish, and when they finally get the Spirit of God, then they can comprehend. Of course they can, and that's why Paul makes it so common for the believer to understand these deep things of God. He expects us to. All right, now let's go back for a few moments that are left to chapter 3. So when Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, and we're rooted and grounded in love, that is the love of God that brought us unto Himself, then we'll be able to comprehend with all saints. Now I'm reading this over for a reason. Then we can comprehend what is the breadth and depth and height. We can step into the whole spectrum of spiritual understanding, and the unbelieving world can't get that. But oh listen, for us it's all here if we'll just search it out. Now then verse 19, to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, and that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Verse 19 again, to know the love of Christ. Do you remember when I was in that verse a program or two back, the unsearchable riches of Christ? And I mentioned that very thing. How can I, a mere mortal, how can you comprehend the fact that the eternal sovereign creator God condescended to be born of an ordinary little lady in Israel, to be born under the humble circumstances of Bethlehem, and then go through 30 years on this old planet for the sole purpose of going to that cross? Now listen, that's beyond human comprehension. But what did it? The love of God. How God loves the human race, and how He paid the very extent of all the riches of heaven to accomplish a plan of redemption. Now remember, remember lost humanity is under the clutches and the chains and the control of a powerful, powerful being. Never lose sight of that. And in order for God to bring salvation to the human race, first after taking upon Himself all the sins of this human race, He also had to break the powers of Satan. He literally had to break the bands of Satan that held everything in its power, which He accomplished at the cross. And then again, you repeat that for every believer that is saved, God has to do it all over again, breaking the power of the Satanic forces that hold us. Well, keep your hand in Ephesians, come back to 1 Corinthians again. No, 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And this is where I'm getting what I'm telling you. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, dropping down to verse 3. We've used them before, and we'll use them again, because it is so explicit. Y'all got it? 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. Now you want to remember, every human being on the face of the earth is lost until they're what? Until they're saved. A lot of people aren't aware of that. But the whole human race is lost until they're saved. All right? Verse 4, "...in whom," that is, in lost people, this isn't for you and I as believers, but for the lost world around us, "...in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should sign unto them." So who's the culprit? Who is keeping lost people lost? Well, Satan is. I mean, we're getting in a society where you almost fringe from using the term, you know, they think you're some kind of a fundamentalist kook if you believe in Satan. But listen, the Bible explicitly tells him, tells us that his power is tremendous, and only the power of God can break his blinding the unbeliever. And that's where I think prayer comes in. Oh, let me give you another one that I use over and over. Come on back a little further. Come back to Acts chapter 16. Oh, you'll recognize it. I've used it umpteen times. Acts chapter 16, and Paul has been up in Philippi, up in northern Greece. Acts 16, verse 13. Acts 16, coming down to verse 13. And on the Sabbath, now you want to remember early on in Paul's ministry, he still is coming out of the law background, and this of course was the Saturday Sabbath, and so these were Jewish women, no doubt. And as they went to the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake unto the women who resorted thither. In other words, they were probably out there on their Sabbath day devotions. Now verse 14. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God. So she was Jewish and was worshipping of course the God of Abraham, and this Lydia heard us. But oh, look at the next statement. "...whose heart the Lord opened." Now before the Lord could open her heart to believe Paul's gospel, what other power did he have to exercise? He had to break the blinding power of Satan, because she was no different than anybody else. Just because she believed in God, that didn't mean that she wasn't blind to the truth of the gospel. She was. But here we have the perfect account of how the Lord, not Paul, the Lord opened her eyes. The Lord broke the bands of Satan, but she listened to what Paul had to say, and of course became a believer. Now this is all part and parcel of what we're up against even in our own day, that Satan has blinded the eyes of them that believe not, and only the power of God can open their understanding. All right, coming back to Ephesians chapter 3, verse 19 again, "...and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." We can't comprehend what love it took to drive him to the cross. "...and with all the fullness of God is what we're to be filled with." Now I don't think any of us understand what that is, do we? I don't think there's ever been a human alive, at least not on this side of the apostle, that has really understood the fullness of God. We can't even come close, I can't. But whatever, it's potentially there. Verse 20, "...so now he ends this prayer, now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above," beyond all that we ask or think, "...according to the power that worketh in." Now look, what a prayer request on behalf of you and I. And I'm just thinking as we're winding down a half hour, come over with me to Colossians, one of Paul's other prayers for believers. Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, and I always like to start down at verse 9. Colossians 1, verse 9, this is another prayer of Paul on behalf of you and I, a believer. And so he says, "...for this cause we also since the day we heard it," that is their salvation, "...we do not cease to pray for you, and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Ring a bell? Oh, he's praying for almost the same thing that we've been looking at in Ephesians. Now verse 10, "...that you as the ordinary everyday believer out amongst the world, that you may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." Now you know what I always say? Nowhere in Scripture does God tell Christians to be a thorn in people. Nowhere in Scripture are we to be obnoxious. Nowhere in Scripture are we admonished to make a fool of ourselves. But what are we to be? We are to be a living example of the love of the One who died for us. Alright, reading on, "...unto all pleasing, fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." Now that's a constant thing, isn't it? We don't get it all and then say, I'm arrived. No, it's a day by day increasing in the knowledge of God, as long as He leaves us here. Then verse 11, "...strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power unto all." In other words the world again around us, as well as our fellow believers, we're to exercise patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, and we'll be giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us or prepared us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, and the One who has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. My, what a prayer request, see? And that's for every believer. That's for every believer, not just for the preachers, not just for the evangelists, this is for every one of us. Alright, now let's go back to Ephesians for the few seconds we have left. Verse 21, we'll wind up the chapter. Ephesians 3, now verse 21, "...unto Him be glory in the church that is in the body of Christ. Let there be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all the ages, world without end." In other words, this isn't the end. Eternity is out there in front of us, but you know one is never going to change, and who is it? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is the same yesterday, today, and what? Forever. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feltick.