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CHAPTER THREE

THE WAY TO UNDERSTAND THE WORD OF GOD

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OUTLINE

  1. The way to understand the Word of God:
    1. Taking care of the context.
    2. Expounding God’s Word with God’s Word.
    3. Learning from the saints of the past:
      1. Relying on the teaching that the Brethren have received (the higher theology).
      2. Knowing thoroughly the inner life teaching.
      3. Receiving Calvin’s revelation concerning predestination.
      4. Refusing the insistence of Arminianism on human responsibility.
      5. Holding the balance of the truth concerning the kingdom reward and punishment.

GOD’S DISPENSING BEING THE CENTER OF THE REVELATION OF THE BIBLE

In this message we shall learn how to read the Word of God practically. We all know that the Bible is the Word of God and that it is extremely mysterious and all-inclusive. Its most central point is to reveal God Himself to us. The purpose of this revelation is not merely that we may know God, as is often emphasized by Christians, but much more that He may work Himself into us. The way He accomplishes this is through dispensing. Even though we cannot find the word “dispensing” in the Bible, still the fact of dispensing is in the Bible, just as the term “the Triune God” is not in the Bible, yet there is the fact of the Triune God.

How can we prove this? Second Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Here we can see that when love comes, this love becomes grace, and when grace comes to us, it comes through fellowship; this is dispensing. Moreover, in Romans 8 we can even see the steps of this dispensing. First, Christ, the life-giving Spirit, who is God Himself, comes into our spirit, causing our spirit to have the life of God (v. 10). Then He desires to enter into our mind, which is the major part of our soul, so that our soul may have the life of God (v. 6). Last, He supplies His life to our body (v. 11). Thus our spirit, soul, and body all have His life. This process is God’s dispensing. This is the central and major point in the Bible. The divine Trinity is for the dispensing of God Himself into us.
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The Full Knowledge of the Word of God   pg 11