Every Bible Word Has a Meaning

       During those days in Nanchang, Dr. Sung told me that every word of the Bible has a meaning, a spiritual meaning, even the numbers.  No word of Scripture, nor phrase, is there just by chance.  If we will wait before the Lord, the Holy Spirit will reveal to us the meaning.  Sometimes it has been necessary for me to wait on my knees all day to find the meaning of one word or phrase, such as: What did Jesus write on the ground? (John 8:8.) Then it would come in a flash like lightning revealing great sweeps of scenery, opening up great vistas of truth.  Often this revealing would come just before time to preach, sometimes while they were singing the first song, and me on my knees upstairs.  So I must hastily jot down the main lines of thought, and trust the Holy Spirit to reveal the details as I preached.  Most of my sermons on Mark came that way at Wuhu.

       One thing more, among many, that Dr. Sung told me, was that each chapter of John's Gospel is divided into three parts: Dead to the World, Dead to Self, and Dead to Our Own Ability.  Or to put it positively: Pardon, Purity and Power.  I have found this valuable in preaching, and I have one series of 21 sermons on John, which developed over the years, and which I used in evangelistic meetings in many parts of China, and later preached on the radio in Manila, broadcast over the mainland China.  He also explained each of the three octaves of John by the seven days of Creation: Light (Genesis 1:3) explaining John 1, 8 and 15; Division of Natural and Spiritual (Genesis 1:7) explained Chapters 2, 9, and 16, etc.  Chinese Christians just "ate up" this method of Bible exposition, but American congregations did not seem to care as much for it, nor did Americans seem to desire three meetings a day with two-hour sermons, seven days a week, like the Chinese Christians enjoyed in those early days.  I owed all this to Sung.