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This sermon, titled “Eat This Book: But Read the Book Right,” offers an insightful exploration into the correct interpretation of Scripture, emphasizing the balance between literal and figurative meanings within the Bible. It confronts common misunderstandings about biblical texts, illustrating how to discern between literal descriptions and metaphorical language to deepen understanding and faith.
Sermon Notes
Rule #10 Scripture is to be understood in its literal, normal, and natural sense.
The literal meaning of a word is its original, basic meaning.
Man literally means man and day literally means day and devil literally means devil.
Rule #11 You take literal language as literal and figurative language as figurative.
We should take the Bible literal but there are two kinds of literal
Plain literal and figurative literal.
Any figure of speech — statement or phrase not intended to be understood
literally — is figurative.
If the plain sense of the text makes perfect sense, seek no other sense.
If the plain sense of the text doesn’t make sense, seek some other sense.
John 10:9 (AMP) I am the Door; anyone who enters through Me will be saved …
I. THIS RULE CORRECTS.
John 4:30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
John 4:31 In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
John 3:32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
John 4:33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything
to eat?”
John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish
His work.
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of
this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which
I shall give for the life of the world.”
John 6:52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this
Man give us His flesh to eat?”
John 6:53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
John 6:54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise
him up at the last day.
John 6:55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
John 6:56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
John 2:19 Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up.”
John 2:20 Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,
and will You raise it up in three days?”
John 2:21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
John 2:22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered
that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which
Jesus had said.
Jesus never forced anyone to understand something He said.
II. THIS RULE CLARIFIES.
Matthew 13:36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house.
And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares
of the field.”
Matthew 13:37 He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed
is the Son of Man.
Matthew 13:38 The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom,
but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.
Matthew 13:39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end
of the age, and the reapers are the angels.
Luke 10:29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Luke 10:30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing,
wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
Luke 10:31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he
saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Luke 10:32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked,
and passed by on the other side.
Luke 10:33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.
And when he saw him, he had compassion.
Luke 10:34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine;
and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
Luke 10:35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave
them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more
you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’
Luke 10:36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell
among the thieves?”
Luke 10:37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him,
Go and do likewise.
Origen in his Homily 34.3
“Here’s the interpretation of the story. The man who was going down is Adam.
Jerusalem is paradise. Jericho is the world. The robbers are hostile powers,
The priest is the law. The Levite is the prophets. The Samaritan is Christ.
The wounds are disobedience. The animal is the Lord’s body. The [inn] which
accepts all who wish to enter, is the Church. … The manager of the [inn] is the
head of the Church, to whom its care has been entrusted. And the fact that the
Samaritan promises he will return represents the Savior’s second coming.”
Augustine of Hippo aka Saint Augustine lived from 354-430 AD
“Augustine’s allegorisation of the Good Samaritan, in which the man is Adam,
Jerusalem the heavenly city, Jericho the moon — the symbol of immortality;
the thieves are the devil and his angels, who strip the man of immortality by
persuading him to sin and so leave him (spiritually) half dead; the priest and
levite represent the Old Testament, the Samaritan Christ, the beast his flesh
which he assumed at the Incarnation; the inn is the church and the innkeeper
the apostle Paul.”
III. THIS RULE CAUTIONS.
1. Hell will not be decided by a poll,
2. Hell will not be decided by human logic.
3. Hell will not be decided by human emotion,
4. Hell will not be decided by human reason.
5. Hell is only to be decided by Biblical revelation.
Matthew 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me,
you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:
Matthew 25:46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
into eternal life.”
Mark 9:43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter
into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that
shall never be quenched—
Mark 9:44 where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
Revelation 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into
the lake of fire.
A figure of speech is always a pale imitation of the real thing.
Matthew 10:28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Exodus 3:2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the
midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the
bush was not consumed.
Exodus 3:3 Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why
the bush does not burn.”
“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,”
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Revelation 14:10 He himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which
is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented
with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of
the Lamb.
Revelation 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and
they have no rest day or night, …”
