Grammar is as important to the inspiration of the Bible as the flesh of Jesus is to the incarnation of the Son of God.

And it's a heresy to think that you can get into God's head without learning grammar.

Why is grammar essential to knowing God?

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper opens Ephesians 3 verses 1 to 4 to demonstrate how reading

scripture carefully makes all the difference in our relationship with God.

This Wednesday evening teaching was originally delivered at Bethlehem Baptist Church

on September 10th, 1997.

I want to say some introductory things about interpretation and Bible reading.

And what I'm doing tonight is trying to train you more in how to read the Bible. Point number one, God is known through his self-revelation.

If God hadn't chosen to reveal himself in the universe, we wouldn't know God.

There's a self-revelation of God, and it is mediated to us by a book, the Bible.

You could say, ah, but doesn't Psalm 19 say, the heavens are telling the glory of God and I say,

yes, yes, yes, I don't deny that at all. But that's not the clear authoritative self-revelation.

That's a hazy revelation.

You don't find out much about redemption by looking at the clouds,

the forgiveness of your sins, and the nature of the Trinity,

and the second coming of Jesus and the judgment and how to live the Christian life,

the things we so desperately need to know besides that there's a great and glorious orderly God of power come to us through

a book. Therefore, God is known and spiritual life is sustained through reading

or some oral dependence upon somebody else's reading.

If you don't know how to read,

there are millions of people in the world who don't know how to read,

...