But let's start out with just some basic principles
of how to understand the Bible.
And particularly, what do you do
when you run into hard to understand things in the Bible,
difficult things in the Bible,
things in the Bible that are confusing
or that seem to contradict
or they're just hard to wrap your mind around?
Well, number one, go to Hebrews 11.
Here's the first and most important principle
for understanding the Bible.
And I've got some sub points under this,
but the first thing is that you must believe
that every verse in the Bible is true.
Now, if you don't believe
that every verse in the Bible is true,
you will never understand the Bible
because that has to be the first thing
that you start out with.
That's your foundation, that's your basis.
And of course that ties in with being saved.
You know, you gotta be saved to understand it.
The Holy Ghost will illuminate.
But not only that,
you have to just really come to grips with the fact
that every verse in the Bible is true.
Now, if you go into it thinking maybe some of it's not true,
you're never gonna understand it.
It's never gonna make sense to you.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11.3,
"Through faith we understand."
I mean, that right there is the thought of this point.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed
by the word of God so that things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear.
So faith is the key to understanding.
You must believe the Bible in order to understand the Bible.
Let me give you an example of this.
Go to Mark chapter 16, Mark chapter number 16.
You see, if I believe that every verse of the Bible is true,
'cause that's our foundation, right?
That's the first thing we're laying out.
I believe every verse in the Bible is true.
Then that means if I come to two verses
that appear to contradict each other,
the first thing that I have to realize
is that they're both true.
Does everybody understand that?
If I run into two passages or two scriptures or two verses
that appear to contradict one another,
the first thing I need to understand
is that they're both true,
because if they're both God's word,
they both have to be true.
Therefore, I must find a way to understand that scripture
whereby both can be true, okay?
Now here's a perfect example of a scripture
that is often twisted, often used to teach a false doctrine
when it really teaches no such thing.
Mark 16, 16.
I was out soul winning yesterday,
and somebody just believed that you had to be baptized
to be saved.
Look at Mark 16, 16.
It says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
but he that believeth not shall be damned."
Now, this verse right here says that if you believe
and you're baptized, you'll be saved, right?
And he that believeth not shall be damned.
Now, some people have struggled with this verse.
They've had a hard time with this verse.
They said, "Pastor Anderson, I don't understand this verse.
It seems to be a contradiction in the Bible."
Because we have all these other scriptures, don't we, that just say "believe" and they
don't mention "be baptized," right?
Like John 3.15, John 3.16, John 3.18, John 3.36, John 5.24, John 6.47.
I mean, how many of you want to quote, "Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have
eternal life."
What must I do to be saved?
And they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
And you literally could easily, right now, I mean, we could just have people start popping
up all over the room and easily reach a hundred verses that say that if you believe, you'll
be saved.
Then you come to this, and it says, "If you believe and be baptized, you shall be saved."
And people think, "Well, there's a contradiction there."
Well, wait a minute, let's start with our first principle.
Both are true.
Everybody got that?
So, John 3.15 says that, "Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life."
Mark 16.16 says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."
How can both of those be true?
Well, it's very simple.
Both can be true if you believe that the only thing you have to do to be saved is believe.
The only thing you have to do to be saved is believe.
Both are true.
Because by that method of interpretation, is John 3.15 true?
If the only thing you have to do to be saved is believe, is Mark 16.16 true?
That if you believe and you're baptized, you'll be saved.
You see, if you believe and stand on your head, you'll be saved.
Because if you believe, you'll be saved.
So there's no contradiction at all here.
Because notice in the next statement, he says, "But he that believeth not shall be damned."
Does it say, "If you're not baptized, you'll be damned"?
No.
Now then we'd have an issue here.
Then we'd say, "Okay, wow, this looks like a contradiction."
If it said, "If you're not baptized, you'll be damned."
That would give us pause.
But here, he's not saying that at all.
He's saying that if you don't believe, you'll be damned.
And in fact, there is no verse anywhere in the Bible that even comes close to saying,
"Hey, if you're not baptized, you're not saved," or "You're damned," or "You're going to hell."
Find me a verse that says anything remotely near that.
It's not there.
Okay, you want to see some verses that say if you don't believe, you'll be damned?
Where do you want to start, right?
We got a ton of them that'll tell you that.
So you see how that helps you understand the Bible when you just realize, "Okay, how can
both of these be true?"
Makes perfect sense.
It's not a problem at all.
Now, do we know that there are people out there who believe, because then the next breath
somebody will say, "Well, you know, everybody who believes is going to be baptized."
That's the other way to make them both true, is if everybody, I mean, you know, I'm just
for sake of argument, if both are true, well then everybody who gets saved must automatically
be getting baptized.
But here's the thing, we know that that's not true, because first of all, we can see
examples in the Bible of people who believed but were not baptized, like the thief on the
cross or like a great big group of people in the book of John who believed on Jesus
Christ but refused to confess him openly for fear of the Jews.
So that's an example of people who believed but they didn't want to make that public that
they believed, because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
That was wrong of them, that was sinful of them, and even you and I both know just in
our own lives we've seen people get saved without getting baptized.
Now we don't always know who's getting saved, but we've probably seen so many examples of
people who get saved and don't get baptized, and we've known people like Brother Dave.
How long was it after you got saved that you got baptized, Brother Dave?
Did you hear that?
Brother Dave got saved, he got baptized seven years later.
I got saved and got baptized three years later, okay?
So that right there shows that, you know, you don't always get instantly baptized when
you're saved, and some people never end up getting baptized.
Now it's a command to be baptized, but it's not required for salvation.