Sermon Title:
Every Page Is Profitable: How to Use the Whole Bible Without Stealing Another Man’s Mail
Key Passage:
1 Corinthians 10:11 — “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
Series:
Foundations of Right Division
Topic:
All Scripture Is for Our Learning, but Not Every Passage Is Directly Addressed to the Body of Christ
Book:
1 Corinthians, Romans, 2 Timothy, Ephesians, Genesis, Matthew, Acts, Hebrews, James
Speaker:
Paul Tackett
Suggested Sermon Text:
1 Corinthians 10:1–11; Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Timothy 3:16–17; 1 Corinthians 10:32; Romans 9:4–5; Ephesians 3:1–9; Matthew 10:5–7; Acts 3:19–21; Romans 16:25–26; Hebrews 1:1–2; James 1:1
Short Sermon Description:
This sermon outline explains the vital difference between Scripture written for the believer’s learning and Scripture directly addressed to the Body of Christ as Church-age doctrine. First Corinthians 10:11 teaches that Israel’s experiences were written for our admonition, while 2 Timothy 2:15 commands the workman to rightly divide the word of truth. This study shows how every passage remains inspired, profitable, authoritative, and useful without pretending that every command, covenant, promise, warning, ordinance, or prophetic event was given directly to the Church. It explains historical, doctrinal, and spiritual application; preserves Israel’s promises; keeps the Church under grace; protects the gospel from law and kingdom mixture; and teaches believers how to profit from Genesis through Revelation without stealing another audience’s mail. All Scripture is for us, but not all Scripture is directly to us—and that distinction makes the entire Bible clearer.
Every Page Is Profitable
How to Use the Whole Bible Without Stealing Another Man’s Mail
Introduction
There is a difference between saying that all Scripture is for us and saying that every verse in Scripture is directly to us. That distinction is not an attempt to weaken the Bible. It is the only honest way to believe the whole Bible without turning it into a pile of contradictions. First Corinthians 10:11 says Israel’s wilderness experiences “happened unto them for ensamples” and were “written for our admonition.” Notice the wording. The events happened to them, but they were written for us. Israel lived the history. Israel stood under the covenant. Israel received the commandments. Israel suffered the judgments. Yet the Church is expected to learn from what happened without pretending that it has become Israel in the wilderness.
Every letter in your mailbox may contain real words, important information, and something worth understanding, but that does not mean every envelope bears your name. You may learn from a letter written to your neighbor without possessing the right to cash his check, inherit his property, obey his private instructions, or assume his legal obligations. That is the problem with careless Bible interpretation. Men open Noah’s mail and start building an ark. They open Abraham’s mail and claim Canaan. They open Moses’ mail and place the Church under Sinai. They open David’s mail and claim an earthly throne. They open Matthew 10 and try to restrict the Church’s ministry to Israel. They open Matthew 24 and drag saved members of Christ’s Body into Jacob’s trouble. They open Revelation and tell the Church to prepare for the mark of the beast. Then they call the resulting confusion “taking the whole Bible literally.”
The whole Bible must be believed, but the whole Bible must also be rightly divided. All Scripture reveals God. All Scripture exposes man. All Scripture points toward Christ, records history, establishes doctrine, reproves sin, corrects error, and instructs in righteousness. But God has spoken at sundry times, in divers manners, to different people, under different covenants, with different responsibilities and promises. The approved workman does not reject any of it. He asks where each passage belongs. He lets Israel be Israel, the Gentiles be Gentiles, and the Church of God be the Church of God. He learns from every page while refusing to steal another man’s mail.
I. All Scripture Is Inspired, Authoritative, and Profitable
Key Text: 2 Timothy 3:16–17
Supporting Texts: Psalm 12:6–7; John 10:35; 2 Peter 1:20–21
Second Timothy 3:16 begins with the sweeping declaration, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” That settles the authority of the whole Book. Genesis is inspired. Leviticus is inspired. Numbers is inspired. The prophets are inspired. Matthew is inspired. Acts is inspired. Paul’s epistles are inspired. Hebrews, James, Peter, John, Jude, and Revelation are inspired. Right division cannot be used as an excuse to dismiss, correct, neglect, or ridicule any portion of God’s words.
Paul says all Scripture is profitable “for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The entire Bible contributes to the believer’s understanding. Genesis reveals creation, the fall, the flood, the nations, Abraham, and the beginnings of Israel. Exodus through Deuteronomy reveal redemption by blood, God’s holiness, the law, sacrifice, priesthood, and covenant responsibility. Israel’s history reveals the consequences of faith and unbelief. The Psalms reveal worship, suffering, prophecy, and the heart. The prophets display judgment, restoration, Messiah, Israel’s future, and the coming kingdom.
The Gospels reveal the person and earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. Acts records the transition from Jerusalem-centered kingdom testimony toward Paul’s Gentile ministry. Paul’s epistles reveal direct doctrine for the Body of Christ. Hebrews through Revelation provide essential truth concerning endurance, Israel, prophecy, judgment, the Second Advent, the kingdom, and eternity. Nothing is wasted. Nothing is accidental. The Bible believer receives the whole Book, but he uses every part lawfully.
Main Truth:
Every word of Scripture is inspired, authoritative, and profitable, though every passage does not carry the same direct doctrinal address.
II. Israel’s Experiences Happened to Them but Were Written for Us
Key Text: 1 Corinthians 10:11
Supporting Texts: 1 Corinthians 10:1–10; Romans 15:4; Hebrews 3:7–19
Paul looks back at Israel’s wilderness history and says, “all these things happened unto them for ensamples.” Israel passed through the sea. Israel ate manna. Israel drank water from the rock. Israel lusted after evil things. Israel committed idolatry and fornication. Israel tempted Christ. Israel murmured. Israel was overthrown in the wilderness. These were real historical events experienced by a real nation under a real covenant.
Yet Paul says those things were written “for our admonition.” The Church learns from Israel without becoming Israel. We learn not to lust after evil things, but we are not commanded to gather manna. We learn to reject idolatry, but we are not camped around the tabernacle. We learn not to tempt Christ, but we are not wandering between Egypt and Canaan. We learn that murmuring brings consequences, but we are not standing beneath the Mosaic covenant at Sinai.
Romans 15:4 says things written aforetime were written for our learning, so that through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope. That is how the Old Testament serves the Church. It gives examples, warnings, comfort, types, patterns, history, prophecy, and revelation concerning God’s character. But its profit does not depend upon pretending that every command was issued to us. The distinction between “happened unto them” and “written for us” is built directly into the verse.
Main Truth:
Israel’s history teaches and admonishes the Church without making the Church the nation that originally received Israel’s covenant instructions.
III. God’s Address Determines the Direct Doctrinal Audience
Key Text: 1 Corinthians 10:32
Supporting Texts: Romans 9:4–5; James 1:1; Ephesians 1:1
First Corinthians 10:32 gives one of the simplest maps in the Bible: “the Jews,” “the Gentiles,” and “the church of God.” These groups must not be carelessly blended. The Jews are not the Gentile nations. The Gentiles are not the Body of Christ. The Church is not Israel renamed. A saved Jew and a saved Gentile are united in Christ today, but national Israel still possesses a distinct prophetic calling and future.
Romans 9:4–5 says the adoption, glory, covenants, giving of the law, service of God, promises, and fathers pertain to Israel. That means the law at Sinai was addressed to Israel. The land promise was made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The throne was promised to David. The new covenant in Jeremiah 31 was promised to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. A Gentile church cannot simply erase those addresses and put its own name over them.
James opens his letter “to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.” Ephesians is addressed to saints and faithful believers in Christ Jesus and unfolds the Church’s heavenly position. Those addresses matter. A letter may contain truth from God and remain profitable to every believer, but its direct doctrinal application begins with the people God names. The workman who ignores the address will inevitably misdeliver the doctrine.
Main Truth:
The direct doctrinal application of a passage begins with the audience God identifies in the text.
IV. Scripture Has Historical, Doctrinal, and Spiritual Application
Key Text: Nehemiah 8:8
Supporting Texts: Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:6; 2 Timothy 3:16
Nehemiah 8:8 says they read in the Book distinctly, gave the sense, and caused the people to understand the reading. Before applying a passage personally, the preacher must first give its sense. What actually happened? Who was speaking? Who was addressed? What covenant was active? What command was given? What promise or judgment was involved? That is the historical and doctrinal foundation.
After that foundation is established, spiritual application may be drawn. David and Goliath happened historically. David was not a modern Christian fighting his personal difficulties, and Goliath was not merely a bad habit. Yet the event can teach courage, faith, dependence upon God, the folly of trusting fleshly weapons, and the victory of God’s anointed. Joseph was a historical man sold by his brethren, but his life also illustrates purity, providence, suffering, exaltation, and many features that point toward Christ.
The danger comes when spiritual application replaces interpretation. A preacher may produce an emotional sermon from a passage while denying what the passage actually teaches. Spiritual application is legitimate only when it grows out of the text’s true meaning. The historical event must stand. The doctrinal audience must remain intact. Then the spiritual truth may be brought home to the believer’s heart.
Main Truth:
Spiritual application is profitable only after the passage’s historical setting and doctrinal meaning have been honestly established.
V. The Church Can Learn From the Law Without Being Placed Under the Law
Key Text: Romans 6:14
Supporting Texts: Romans 3:19–20; Galatians 3:24–25; 1 Timothy 1:8
Romans 6:14 says the believer is “not under the law, but under grace.” That does not mean the Church should tear Exodus through Deuteronomy out of the Bible. The law is inspired and profitable. It reveals God’s holiness, exposes sin, defines righteousness, points to the necessity of sacrifice, and gives countless types of Jesus Christ. The tabernacle, priesthood, offerings, feasts, cleansing laws, and sacrifices all contain rich instruction.
But learning from the law is not the same as standing under the law as a covenant. The Church does not offer animals, observe Israel’s dietary restrictions, keep new moons, enforce national penalties, submit to Levitical priests, or travel to Jerusalem for Israel’s feasts. Colossians 2 says believers are not to be judged in meat, drink, holy days, new moons, or Sabbath days because those things were shadows, while the Body is of Christ.
Galatians 3 says the law was a schoolmaster to bring men unto Christ, but after faith is come, “we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” A man may respect and learn from a schoolmaster without returning permanently to the classroom. Right division allows the Church to understand Moses more deeply because it recognizes the true purpose of the law. The law exposes guilt; grace reveals the finished answer in Christ.
Main Truth:
The Church learns from the Mosaic law as inspired Scripture while standing doctrinally under grace rather than Israel’s covenant system.
VI. Israel’s Promises Must Remain With Israel
Key Text: Romans 11:25–29
Supporting Texts: Genesis 17:7–8; Jeremiah 31:31–37; Luke 1:32–33
A man may claim to believe all Scripture while quietly transferring Israel’s blessings to the Church. He reads Genesis 17 and turns Canaan into heaven. He reads 2 Samuel 7 and turns David’s throne into church authority. He reads Jeremiah 31 and changes Israel and Judah into Gentile Christianity. He reads Luke 1 and transforms the house of Jacob into the Body of Christ. That is not believing the whole Bible. It is rewriting the addresses.
Romans 11 says Israel’s blindness is partial and temporary. It continues “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Paul then says, “And so all Israel shall be saved.” He speaks of Jacob, covenant, the fathers, election, and concludes that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. God has not cancelled Israel’s future or transferred Israel’s national identity to the Church.
Right division allows Israel’s promises to remain literal. Abraham’s seed receives the promised land. Jesus Christ sits on David’s throne. Israel and Judah receive their promised national new covenant fulfillment. Jerusalem becomes the center of Messiah’s earthly kingdom. The Church does not lose anything by allowing God to be faithful to Israel. The Church is already blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Main Truth:
Believing all Scripture requires leaving Israel’s national covenants and prophetic promises with the people to whom God gave them.
VII. The Gospels Reveal Christ but Must Be Read in Their Kingdom Setting
Key Text: Matthew 10:5–7
Supporting Texts: Matthew 5:17; Matthew 15:24; Romans 15:8
The four Gospels are essential to the Christian faith. They reveal the virgin-born Son of God, His sinless life, miracles, compassion, doctrine, rejection, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. The Church should read, love, study, preach, and believe every word. Yet Christ’s earthly ministry took place under the law and within Israel’s prophetic kingdom setting.
Matthew 10 records Christ telling the twelve not to go to the Gentiles or Samaritans but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, preaching that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Romans 15:8 says Jesus Christ was “a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.” Those statements do not diminish Christ. They identify the prophetic purpose and audience of His earthly ministry.
The risen Christ later sent Paul to the Gentiles and revealed the mystery of the Body of Christ. Therefore, the Church does not obey Matthew 10 by refusing Gentile evangelism. It does not place itself under Moses because Jesus addressed people still under the law. It does not prepare for the abomination of desolation because Matthew 24 concerns Israel’s prophetic future. We learn from every word Christ spoke while distinguishing His earthly kingdom ministry from His later heavenly revelation through Paul.
Main Truth:
The Gospels reveal the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly, but their kingdom and Israel setting must be distinguished from direct Body-of-Christ doctrine.
VIII. Acts Records Transition and Must Not Be Flattened Into One Formula
Key Text: Acts 1:6–8
Supporting Texts: Acts 2:38; Acts 10:44–48; Acts 15:10–11; Acts 28:28
Acts begins with the apostles asking about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel and ends with salvation sent unto the Gentiles. It begins with Peter in Jerusalem and ends with Paul in Rome. It records Israel’s rejection, Stephen’s death, Saul’s conversion, Cornelius receiving the Holy Ghost, Paul’s missionary journeys, the Jerusalem council, and the growing emphasis upon Gentile ministry. Acts is movement. It is transition.
That is why the sequences in Acts vary. In Acts 2, hearers repent, receive water baptism, and are promised the gift of the Holy Ghost. In Acts 10, Cornelius receives the Holy Ghost while Peter is still preaching, before water baptism. In Acts 19, disciples receive additional instruction and experience the laying on of Paul’s hands. Those events should not be forced into one unchanging formula. They reveal God’s transitional dealings as Acts moves outward from Israel toward the Gentiles.
Paul’s epistles later state the completed Church-age doctrine clearly: salvation by grace through faith, justification apart from the law, sealing by the Spirit upon belief, and baptism by one Spirit into one Body. The Church learns from every event in Acts without turning every event into its permanent doctrinal rule. Transition must not be confused with final form.
Main Truth:
Acts is written for our learning, but its transitional events must be interpreted through the completed Church-age doctrine revealed in Paul’s epistles.
IX. Right Division Makes the Whole Bible Clearer, Not Smaller
Key Text: 2 Timothy 2:15
Supporting Texts: Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16–17; 2 Peter 3:15–16
Second Timothy 2:15 commands the believer to study and rightly divide the word of truth. Right division does not remove verses from the Bible. It removes confusion from the reader. It explains why Noah built an ark but we do not. It explains why Abraham received circumcision but Paul warns Gentiles against trusting it. It explains why Israel offered sacrifices but the Church rests in Christ’s one offering. It explains why Peter preached to Israel in early Acts while Paul became the apostle of the Gentiles.
Without right division, the Bible appears to contradict itself. One passage commands Sabbath observance, while another says let no man judge you regarding the Sabbath. One passage restricts ministry to Israel, while another sends Paul far hence to Gentiles. One passage connects baptism with remission in a Jewish transition setting, while Paul says Christ sent him not to baptize but to preach the gospel. One passage warns tribulation saints about enduring to the end, while another seals Church-age believers unto the day of redemption.
The contradictions disappear when the passages are left in their proper settings. The whole Bible becomes useful. Every history teaches. Every covenant reveals faithfulness. Every prophecy strengthens hope. Every warning admonishes. Every type points toward Christ. Every Pauline doctrine establishes the Church. Right division does not give the believer less Bible—it gives him the entire Bible in divine order.
Main Truth:
Right division enlarges the believer’s use of Scripture by placing every passage in the order God intended.
Conclusion
All Scripture is for us, but not all Scripture is directly to us. Israel’s wilderness history happened to them but was written for our admonition. Abraham’s faith instructs us, but his land covenant remains his. Moses teaches us, but the Body of Christ is not under Sinai. David points toward Christ, but his throne belongs to Israel’s kingdom program. The Gospels reveal our Saviour, but Christ’s earthly ministry must be read in its Israel and kingdom setting. Acts teaches us, but its transitional events are not all permanent Church doctrine.
The man who rejects this distinction does not honor more Scripture. He often misapplies more Scripture. He steals promises, revives ordinances, mixes gospels, confuses audiences, destroys assurance, and places believers under instructions God gave to someone else. He may quote verses from every book, but quoting a verse is not the same as rightly handling it. Satan quoted Scripture in Matthew 4. The issue is whether the word is being used as God intended.
The approved workman receives the entire Bible. He believes every word. He studies every book. He honors every address. He preserves every covenant. He learns from every example. He distinguishes Israel from the Church, law from grace, prophecy from mystery, the kingdom from the Body, Peter from Paul, and the rapture from the Second Advent. The whole Bible belongs in the believer’s hands, but every passage belongs in its God-appointed place.
Final Call
The sinner today is not saved by building Noah’s ark, receiving Abraham’s circumcision, keeping Moses’ law, claiming David’s throne, following Peter’s kingdom commission, or enduring Jacob’s trouble. He is saved by believing the gospel of the grace of God. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried. He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Do not trust your religion, morality, baptism, church membership, ordinances, law-keeping, feelings, or family heritage. Trust the finished work of the crucified, buried, and risen Saviour.
Believer, read the whole Bible. Do not throw away one page. But do not steal another man’s mail. Learn from Israel. Treasure the Gospels. Follow the transition in Acts. Consider what Paul says. Study prophecy. Believe Revelation. Rightly divide the word of truth, and allow every inspired passage to accomplish the purpose for which God gave it.
Closing Verse:
Romans 15:4 — “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
Closing Statement:
Every page of Scripture is for the believer’s learning, but the approved workman leaves every command, covenant, promise, and warning at the address where God delivered it.
