LINE ON LINE
Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>
LINE ON LINE
I. Introduction
A. Have you ever wondered why:...
1. People vary so widely in their ability to understand scripture?
2. Some intelligent people seem blind concerning simple truths in the Bible?
3. It takes so much work and diligence to prepare to teach others
B. The answer to these questions is found in (Isa 28:9-17)
1. ISA 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? {them that are} weaned from the milk, {and} drawn from the breasts. (KJV)
a) Here God asks who can understand God’s teachings. Who can know His will and have a better understanding than others?
b) The answer is simple...
(1) Those that are weaned from the milk (I Pet 2:1-2) The milk is the “sincere milk of the word” that will make babes in Christ grow.
(2) The milk is not to be always the only diet of the growing Christian (Heb 5:12-13)
(3) Strong meat belongs to the ones experienced in knowing good from evil, who have seen and experienced more
c) How can I get to be weaned from the milk, from the breasts?
(1) You have to first gain the strength that the milk gives you. (you don’t START with meat, but milk)
(2) With that strength to begin, you grow by spiritual exercise and wholesome diet (Tit 2:1-8) (I Tim 4:8)
(3) You must grow beyond the milk to the meat, and then gain strength from the meat by careful, diligent study (Heb 6:1-5) Let us go beyond first principles (II Tim.2:15) Study to show thyself approved...
2. ISA 28:10 For precept {must be} upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, {and} there a little: (KJV)
a) The reason why study of the scriptures is so important is the way the scriptures were written.
b) What is a precept?
Precept: A command (Hos 5:11)
c) How does God give His commands?
1) Why didn’t God make an ALPHABETICAL CATALOG of all
commands to be looked up?
2) It’s not because He COULDN’T, is it?
3) If He had, we would ONLY LOOK when we thought we needed to
4) The book is NOT WRITTEN THIS WAY so we would study
3. (ISA 28:11) For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. (KJV)
a) This is quoted as “other lips” in (1COR 14:21)
The message would be STRANGE
It would yet be GOD’S MESSAGE
b) In (1Co 14:21) It is applied to other languages by miraculous power given.
4. (ISA 28:12) To whom he said, This {is} the rest {wherewith} ye may cause the weary to rest; and this {is} the refreshing: yet they would not hear. (KJV)
a) What has God said to us about a rest? (Heb 4:1-9)b There is a rest for God’s people now—Not the Sabbath, not the Jubilee year, not any rest of the Old law, but a rest still to come—a rest from our labors like God rested.
b) The problem was that God’s people then (and sometimes now) wouldn’t listen to Him
c) (JOHN 5:39) Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Did they LISTEN TO JESUS?
5. (ISA 28:13) But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, {and} there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. (KJV)
a) This explains why some people can study the Bible all their lives and still miss the point of some passages
b) The problem: Not COMPARING THE SCRIPTURES and taking ALL GOD SAYS on a subject...”You have your verses, I have mine...”
c) This also shows us the importance of CAREFUL BIBLE STUDY in which we compare one verse with another with diligence
C. Let’s look at some examples of this principle...
Examples of “Line upon Line...”
A. The Jehovah’s Witnesses use (Eccl. 1:4) to show the eternal nature of the material world (the earth abideth for ever)
1. But the astute Bible student turns back to (Exod.21:1-6)
Same construction—same type of usage—a man serves his master FOR EVER The expression means FOR A LONG DEFINITE PERIOD, not eternally
2. This shows the power of turning to the right scriptures during the discussion with those in error
3. Experience and study should help us to find the right scriptures when we need them
B. Dealing with a supposed contradiction in the book of Acts
1. (Acts 9:7) The ones with Saul heard a voice
2. (Acts 22:9) The ones with Saul were said to “hear not the voice”
3. Two possible explanations:
a) The voice the others heard was not the one Paul heard...
b) The voice was “heard” but not “understood” by the bystanders
In this sense we often hear someone without understanding what they said—we only hear the sound of the words
4. The second possibility is more likely—and the words for “heard” in the Greek bear different meanings, one to hear, the other to understand.
C. How do we know there was not a great “time gap” somewhere in the first day(s) of creation to allow the large amounts of time claimed by the evolutionists?
1. (Gen 1:1-4) Does not give us a difinitive answer on this
2. But (Exod. 20:8-11) DOES In Six days... How long was this?
D. Some deny a “soul” was made when God created man
1. (Gen 1:26-7) (Gen 2:7) God “formed man” out of the dust of the ground and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”
They argue that the only spirit in man is his breath—purely physical
2. The answer is not in Genesis, but Zechariah.
(ZECHARIAH 12:1) The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, AND FORMETH THE SPIRIT OF MAN WITHIN HIM.
E. Did Jesus go to Heaven when he died?
1. Luk 23:43) He went to Paradise—there are other paradises besides Heaven
2. (John 20:17) He said he had not yet ascended to the Father.
3. (Acts 2:27-31) He went to Hell (hades) in death
4. Thus: There is a place called “hades” which contains a part of it called Paradise, where Jesus went when he died, along with the thief on the cross. He did not ascend into Heaven until after his resurrection and the elapse of about 40 days.(Acts 1:3)
F. Can God tempt man? (James 1:13-15) says no
(Gen 22:1) God tempted Abraham
(Heb 11:17) This is called a trial or test, not an enticement to sin, like is being considered in James 1.
III. More serious applications:
A. Salvation by FAITH ONLY...
1. Affirm:
(ACTS 16:30-31) And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? (31) And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
(JOHN 3:16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
2. RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH must examine this problem:
a) We can find commands likewise to REPENT
(ACTS 17:30) And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
(But no one preaches REPENTANCE ONLY salvation)
b) We can find a command to CONFESS CHRIST WITH THE MOUTH
(ROMANS 10:9) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
(But no one preaches CONFESSION AND FAITH ONLY salvation)
c) We can find a command to be BAPTIZED.
(ACTS 10:48) And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
(But woe be to him who would preach BAPTISM ONLY SALVATION)
3. The truth:
(JAMES 2:10) For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one {point}, he is guilty of all.
GOD EXPECTS US TO DO IT ALL!--NOT JUST ANY ONE PART OF IT.
And if we act by FAITH—if we REALLY believe Christ is God’s Son and the MASTER of our lives, then we wouldn’t think of refusing to obey ANYTHING He has commanded, would we? Faith and Obedience then go hand in hand...
(JAMES 2:14) What {doth it} profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? the answer:
(JAMES 2:24) Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
B. The SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER...
1. Affirmed:
Man CANNOT so sin as to be lost if he is a child of God because:
(EPHESIANS 2:10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
We are CREATED and the created thing has no power over his creation to DO it or UNDO it...
(EPHESIANS 1:13-14) In whom ye also {trusted}, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, (14) Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
If God has SEALED us then we can’t be UNSEALED. We are PRESERVED
2. RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD SHOULD ANSWER THIS PROBLEM...
a) DID GOD SAY THERE WAS ANY RESPONSIBILITY ON MAN’S PART?
Eph 2:10 YE SHOULD WALK IN THEM. Is our life’s WALK something that God makes us do or something we choose?
WE CHOOSE TO WALK AS WE PLEASE
(ROMANS 13:13-14) Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. (14) But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to {fulfil} the lusts {thereof}.
b) Did God make the continuing of our blessings in Christ
CONDITIONAL or UNCONDITIONAL?
(COLOSSIANS 1:21-3) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in {your} mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled (22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: (23) If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and {be} not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, {and} which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
(1CORINTHIANS 15:1-2) Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; (2) By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
THEY ARE CLEARLY CONDITIONAL...
C. On these and other SIMILAR mistakes hang ALL the false ideas of the
denominational world’s doctrines—ALL BY NOT OBSERVING LINE ON LINE.
1. The doctrines about Baptism...
a) One may teach sprinkling OR immersion as valid means
b) Others teach ONLY immersion...
c) Some teach essential—others teach it is not...
d) The denom. are varied in their teachings here
2. But the Bible teaches baptism is IMMERSION FOR THE REMISSION OF
SINS—and that man MUST MEET THE CONDITIONS OF SALVATION GOD HAS LAID DOWN...
3. Those who DIFFER on Baptism will still JOIN TOGETHER and oppose
what the Bible actually teaches—BECAUSE IT TEACHES RESPONSIBILITY
OF MAN FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS IN RECEIVING GOD’S GRACE
Their doctrines CANNOT STAND the idea of HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY!
4. Dear friend, can’t you see that comparing the scriptures DESTROYS THE ILLUSION that these are BIBLE DOCTRINES?
Conclusion
A. There are many other examples of Line upon line, we only skim the surface
B. We should be beginning to learn to appreciate the study of those who have gone before us with diligent study from which we can learn.
C. We also must learn to study to compare scriptures with one another to help us to grow in knowledge and understanding.
D. (ISA 28:17) Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. (KJV)
1. It is surely true that just as judgment was coming for them it is also surely coming for us
2. It is wise for us to study the scriptures now to prepare since the word of God will judge us (John 12:48)
3. Are you prepared to meet God today? Get ready now!
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