God has given us His Word. It is the source of truth. It is the source of blessing. It is the

source of victory. It is the source of growth. It is the source of power. It is the source of

guidance. It is the source of hope. It is the path of righteousness. It is everything we need.

We live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Welcome to Grace to you with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. When your grandparents

talk about their childhood reminiscing about life without computers or cell phones or the internet,

maybe even television, do you find yourself wondering how can I possibly relate to that?

I've never experienced the world they're talking about.

Well, in the same way, when you read the Bible, there are going to be some parts you might have

a hard time relating to. After all, the Bible was written thousands of years ago in a different

language and a different culture, so how do you close the gaps in understanding?

Find out today as John MacArthur continues a study that can revolutionize the way you read and

study scripture. It's titled How to Get the Most From God's Word. And now here's John with a lesson.

In order to get the most out of God's Word, in order to really understand what God meant by what he

said, we have to close some gaps. And I want to talk about the way we do that in the study of scripture.

I use five principles to close these gaps, five principles I work with, and this is kind of just

looking over my shoulder. A little bit. Number one is literal principle. Literal principle. When

you interpret the scripture, you interpret it literally. What does that mean? That means you

understand scripture in the natural, normal sense. You understand scripture in the natural, normal

sense. In other words, the customary meaning of the words is what you accept. There's no secret

meaning. There's no hidden meaning. There's no meaning behind the meaning. You say, well, what about

figurative language? Well, figurative language is figurative language, and that's customary and normal.

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