One of the passages that Jesus made very clear, He said, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures…” (Matthew 22:29).  It’s very interesting that Jesus said, “It is written.  It is written,” over 20 times during His temptation, right?  That’s how He dealt with Satan, “It is written.”  Isn’t it interesting how the devil tried to quote the Scriptures?  You want to know what?  There are a lot of devils quoting the Scripture, today.  It’s called eisegesis.  Exegesis and eisegesis come from two different perspectives.  Exegesis draws out truth from the Word of God.  Verses don’t just stand alone, that verse has to be in context; amen?  You have to know who wrote this, who did they write it to, and for what purpose was it written?  Those are some very basics of being able to study the Scripture and know that we’re going to arrive at truth.  I’ll just give you an example—and then you have eisegesis which means you read into, and you take a verse, and then you read your thoughts or what you want it to say into it.  I’ll give you a passage you’re very familiar with: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray…” You all know that verse, right?  “…then I will hear from heaven…” (2 Chronicles 7:14).  

There are a lot of Christians praying that for America today, believing that today, and it has absolutely nothing to do with America.  That verse was not written to America.  It was not written for America.  But there’s a truth in it that can be applied to our circumstances.  Who is that verse written to?  Well, it was written to the covenant people.  It was written to the nation, Israel.  “My people that are called by My name.”  Even if we were going to apply it to our situation in America today, it would be a promise to the church, not to secular society.  We don’t need that verse to get a whole bunch of verses on God answering our prayer; amen?  There are a lot more clear passages that God will hear and answer our prayers.

Oh, beloved, the effectual, fervent prayer of righteous men avails much; amen?  “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it, that the Father might be glorified in the Son,” (John 14:13).  I’m just saying that to say this:  we have so many people taking the Word of God—and we’ve heard that phrase, “My Jesus would never do that,”—and they’ll look and say, “My Bible would never do that.  I will not apply that truth, that principle specifically to, absolutely as written.”  The professed church begins to secularize, humanize, empathize, sympathize, when we need to just be good stewards of God’s Word and what He’s given us.  We need to let God’s Word be true, and every man a liar.

We’re being challenged on every side, it’s been from the beginning, concerning the absoluteness of truth in the Scriptures.  You’ll hear it said over and over, “Well, men just wrote this,” right?  Well, let’s remind ourselves about what the Scripture says about itself.  If we believe that the Bible is truth, the Bible has something to say about its own inspiration; amen?  So, why wouldn’t we go there instead of to the secular world?  Remember, absolute, undisputed, true science said the world was flat.  You've got to follow the science.  When all the while—and you know who discovered that it wasn’t flat?  Christian scientists.  They were studying the Word of God, and Isaiah spoke of the circle of the earth, and they said, “This thing’s not flat!  It’s a circle!”  Then they went out to prove it, and lo and behold!  Amen?