We have said that everyone needs to speak the word of God. How can we speak? We must pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and we must experience life. Then what kind of word should we speak? We need to speak the word of grace, the word of the truth, the word of the gospel, the word of life, the healthy word, the edifying word, the good word, the word of righteousness, the word of knowledge, and the word of wisdom. We must speak at least these ten kinds of words.
However, we must not only speak; we must also read. If we only speak, we will eventually run out of words and have nothing more to say. Therefore, we need to read the Bible. I often thank God for the Bible. If there were only the Holy Spirit on the earth today, and if there were no Bible, men would be in total darkness and confusion. But we praise the Lord that there is the Bible. It is no wonder that all those who loved the Lord in the past generations treasured the Bible. The Bible has been translated into many languages. Nearly every written language has its version of the Bible. This is the Lord’s doing because the Bible is so important.
However, merely to have the Bible in our hands is not sufficient; we still need to read, study, and get into it. We cannot read it in a superficial way; we need to read and get into it deeply. Therefore, I will also give you some principles on how to read the Bible. First, we must interpret it according to the literal meaning; then we must pray-read it with our spirit, entering into it to eat it and to drink it. We must also breathe in the spirit and the life that are in it, going beyond the words and phrases to explore its depths and to receive life and revelation. We must also take care of the context, and we must use the entire Bible to interpret the Bible.
Finally, we need to realize that we are not the first ones to read the Bible, but we are the followers of those who have gone before us. There are many who have walked this way. What they have practiced can benefit us. The wisest way is to learn from the past experiences of others and to see what others have said. A person may not know whether certain goods, in themselves, are inferior or superior, but when he compares one kind of goods with another, by comparison the superior ones are manifested. Therefore, we need to learn from the theologians and theological books of the past. But when we do our research, we must have the Brethren theology as the foundation of our understanding of the Bible, and we must match it with the line of the inner life. We must absolutely accept the Calvinist view of predestination, and we also need to know that the Arminian doctrine of human responsibility is absolutely not according to the Bible and cannot be accepted. Finally, we need to have the truth of the kingdom to balance us. We must not take those verses which warn of receiving punishment or reward in the coming kingdom, and say that they mean that those who have been saved can still go to hell and perish. This is wrong.
There are five warnings in the book of Hebrews. If we read these five warnings superficially, they seem to say that it is possible for a believer to perish again. For example, the first warning, in 2:3, says, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Many preachers use this verse to preach the gospel. They say, “This ‘so great a salvation’ is the salvation of the cross, the salvation of Jesus’ death for you. If I preach this to you and you neglect it, how can you escape? You will surely be judged and go to hell.” To borrow this verse in this way may be acceptable, but strictly speaking, it is not the meaning of the words here.
Hebrews chapter one says that Jesus is God, the Creator, the Son of God, the effulgence of God’s glory, and the express image of God’s substance (vv. 2, 3, 6, 8). It also says that He has passed through death and resurrection and has become the firstborn Son of God (vv. 5-6). Then chapter two says that this One is not only God but also a man (vv. 5-9). He became flesh, taking on a body of flesh and blood. He then died on the cross and did away with sin and Satan (v. 14). Then He resurrected from the dead, producing His brothers, who are the church (vv. 12, 17a). He also ascended to the height and was crowned with glory and honor (v. 9). Now He is sitting in the heavens, and He will come again, bringing all those who believe in Him into glory (v. 10). How great a salvation this is!
This word of such a great salvation was not spoken to sinners, but to those Hebrew believers who had believed and were saved. Since they had been saved, they should have come out of Judaism. But they were influenced by Judaism and desired to return to it again. To return to Judaism was to forsake this Christ, who is such a God-man. He is God, having so many aspects according to Hebrews chapter one, and He is also a man, having so many aspects according to Hebrews chapter two. This warning was written to ask the Hebrew believers, “How can you forsake such a wonderful One? How can you neglect so great a salvation? If you neglect such a Christ and return to Judaism, how can you escape? God will surely punish you for this.”
Although Judaism was originally set up by God, it became a traditional religion which forsook God. How can we say this? Was not the Lord Jesus God? He became flesh and came to dwell among the Jews. But Judaism rejected Him and finally cast Him outside the city of Jerusalem, to the hill of Golgotha, to be nailed to the cross. Thus Judaism totally rejected God.
God Himself passed through many processes. He was incarnated, passed through human living, died, resurrected, and released His life, completely accomplishing His redemptive work. He not only did away with the negative things, but He also released the life within Him in order to enter into man, thus causing man to be regenerated and become a new creation. This is the beginning of God’s salvation. This God-man redeemed us and gave us so great a salvation. We should not leave Him and go back to Judaism; this would be a sin. This is a proper interpretation of this verse, showing that we should not take verses like this out of context.
The second warning begins in chapter three of Hebrews (3:7—4:13). This chapter says that we have a great Apostle, the Savior, Jesus. He is superior to Moses and to Joshua. He desires to bring us into the coming rest which God has ordained, and that rest is the kingdom. When the millennial kingdom comes, we who are following the Lord will all enter into rest. Today we are like the Israelites in the wilderness. It was Joshua who brought them across the river Jordan to enter the land of Canaan as their rest. However, that was only a type. Joshua is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word Jesus. Today our Joshua is Jesus, who is bringing us through today’s wilderness. One day when He comes again, He will set up His kingdom, and He will bring us into the kingdom to be kings in the kingdom with Him. Then we will enjoy the rest. While they journeyed, many Israelites fell in the wilderness and thus were not able to enter into the rest of Canaan. Therefore, we also need to be careful. We can see that many Christians today are falling. Therefore, there is such a warning not to come short of the promised rest.
Following these two warnings, there are three more warnings in the book of Hebrews. These are described in a very detailed way in the Life-study of Hebrews. When you read it, you will be clear concerning these warnings. We thank and praise the Lord that we are all rising up to speak. If all the saints in Taipei and all the saints in Taiwan continue to speak, eventually there will have to be a result. The word of God will grow and prevail. We need to speak until the Lord Jesus comes again.