WEBVTT 00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:06.280 Well, good morning again. Let's see, can we hear me? Good morning again. My name is Tommy. 00:00:06.919 --> 00:00:11.439 For those of you who I didn't get a chance to say hello to before the service, hopefully 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:17.199 we'll get a chance to meet after the service. We are in a series, we're in week two of a 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:22.980 series that we started last week called Read, Mark, Learn. We're looking at essentially 00:00:22.980 --> 00:00:29.240 the doctrine of Scripture. We're asking what should we believe about this book, about the 00:00:29.239 --> 00:00:34.079 Bible? How should we think about it? What role does it play in the life of God's people? 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:39.539 What are the things that are important to believe about it? And really what we're asking is, 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:46.039 what does the Bible teach about itself? Doctrine of Scripture. And so last week we looked a little 00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:52.140 bit at the kind of relationship that is possible with God's Word. And this week we're going to 00:00:52.140 --> 00:00:58.480 take a little bit of a different focus. Before we get too far into this series, it's probably 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:06.140 important for us to ask, is it possible to know what the Bible teaches about itself? Or 00:01:06.140 --> 00:01:11.739 to put it another way, is it possible for us to really know anything at all with any degree 00:01:11.739 --> 00:01:21.859 of certainty? Is it possible to understand Scripture in ways that are reliable, right? Over the years 00:01:21.859 --> 00:01:26.159 I've had many conversations with people, I've had many conversations with people where we are discussing 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:34.799 some issue of doctrine, and I begin to try and demonstrate where a certain doctrine comes from in 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:44.099 Scripture, and the person responds, well, that's just your interpretation. And the assumption behind that 00:01:44.099 --> 00:01:50.819 kind of response is that we all have our own way of interpreting the Bible, but there's really no one 00:01:50.819 --> 00:01:56.759 right way, and there's no way to know if there is a right way. And, you know, that's one of the many 00:01:56.759 --> 00:02:03.519 ways that postmodern ideas have influenced the church, just as they've influenced us and really 00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:10.620 every corner of society. One of the things that came with postmodernism was an undercutting of our 00:02:10.620 --> 00:02:19.259 epistemology, an undercutting of the idea that it's possible to know anything really. And so there's a 00:02:19.259 --> 00:02:24.259 lack of confidence in our ability to know things, that just sort of something that we've been raised 00:02:24.259 --> 00:02:30.379 with, and anyone who therefore comes forward with any degree of certainty in their claims is seen as 00:02:30.379 --> 00:02:38.719 either arrogant or naive, right? Now, that's one extreme. It's not possible to know anything. That's 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:43.099 postmodernism. But there is another extreme, and I'm inclined to think that probably there are some 00:02:43.099 --> 00:02:50.120 people who flee from one extreme to the other, right? The other extreme is the kind of fundamentalist 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:56.959 Christian culture that some of you grew up in that says not only is it possible to know exactly what 00:02:56.959 --> 00:03:02.959 this means in the Bible, but this is the only way to think about it, right? There's a right, and we have 00:03:02.959 --> 00:03:08.859 it, and everybody else is wrong, this kind of wooden, literalist approach to Scripture that is highly 00:03:08.860 --> 00:03:17.460 rigid and doesn't create space to explore or question or certainly to disagree. So, what we're 00:03:17.460 --> 00:03:25.760 wanting to do is to ask, is it possible to avoid these extremes? Is it possible to understand Scripture 00:03:25.760 --> 00:03:33.040 and to draw out its meaning with enough confidence that we can live it out, that we can build our lives 00:03:33.040 --> 00:03:38.080 on it? That's what we're asking this morning. And we're going to be looking at 2 Peter chapter 3 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:43.780 verses 14 to 18, Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4 through 9. We're going to be asking three questions. 00:03:43.900 --> 00:03:50.340 One, does it matter if we can interpret Scripture? Does it matter? Number two, is it possible? And then 00:03:50.340 --> 00:03:58.000 number three, if it is possible, how do we do it well? Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for Your Word, 00:03:58.180 --> 00:04:06.300 and we thank You that it is something that we're not left to our own to make sense of, but we're 00:04:06.300 --> 00:04:11.500 thankful that You are present with us. You don't just promise to be a God who writes us a letter and 00:04:11.500 --> 00:04:17.540 leaves. You promise to be a God who is present with us and a God who speaks to us, who dwells in our 00:04:17.540 --> 00:04:23.120 midst. And so, we pray that even as we attempt to understand Your Word, that Yours would be the voice 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:28.220 that helps us interpret it faithfully, Lord. We pray this for all of our good and edification, 00:04:28.400 --> 00:04:33.000 and ultimately that You would be glorified through us. We pray this in Your Son's holy name. Amen. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:41.339 Amen. So, the first question we want to ask is, does it matter if we can interpret Scripture 00:04:41.339 --> 00:04:45.420 reliably? Now, this is going to be a quick point, but I think that it's a point worth making, 00:04:45.660 --> 00:04:49.079 because a lot of people might be tempted to say, well, I don't really… I mean, who cares 00:04:49.079 --> 00:04:55.279 if I can really understand the Bible? Who really cares about that? I don't really need the Bible 00:04:55.279 --> 00:05:00.540 because I have a relationship with Jesus. I go straight to the source. And there are some people 00:05:00.540 --> 00:05:06.460 who say, you know, I hear from God directly. I don't really need the Bible to screw that up. 00:05:07.420 --> 00:05:13.379 The assumption being that somehow hearing from God through Scripture is a sort of secondary way 00:05:13.379 --> 00:05:22.520 of doing it. And so, in the face of these questions, we look at 2 Peter. 2 Peter is written 00:05:22.520 --> 00:05:27.540 out of concern for all of this false teaching and misinformation that is circulating in the church. 00:05:27.540 --> 00:05:34.540 And here at the very end, chapter 3, the final paragraph of 2 Peter, he's warning about people 00:05:34.540 --> 00:05:39.760 who will intentionally misinterpret Scripture to suit their own needs or their own agenda. 00:05:40.080 --> 00:05:45.560 It says in verses 17 and 18, you, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, knowing that 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:49.879 all of this misinformation is going to be happening, all the false teachers are going to be saying their 00:05:49.879 --> 00:05:55.540 things, take care that you're not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own 00:05:55.540 --> 00:06:01.420 stability. Verse 18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 00:06:02.439 --> 00:06:08.720 So, in other words, growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus requires two things. It requires 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:15.400 that we, number one, avoid false teachings of Scripture, and number two, hold to accurate 00:06:15.400 --> 00:06:23.700 interpretations of Scripture. The implication here is that the only way I can grow in the grace and 00:06:23.699 --> 00:06:31.579 knowledge of Jesus is by correctly understanding and interpreting Scripture. It's necessary for that. 00:06:32.479 --> 00:06:38.319 This is why when we look at the writings of the various apostles, like Paul or Peter or the author 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:47.159 of Hebrews, they all talk about the need to move from milk to solid food. Milk refers to the basic, 00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:56.300 most elementary teachings of Scripture. Solid food refers to the deeper, more complex teachings of Scripture 00:06:56.300 --> 00:07:04.680 that require a certain amount of maturity in order to apprehend, right? So, we need to move from immaturity, 00:07:05.200 --> 00:07:11.780 only understanding certain things in Scripture, to the solid food of understanding the deeper truths of Scripture. 00:07:11.779 --> 00:07:18.579 They're tying Christian maturity to our understanding and interpretation of Scripture. Jesus Himself 00:07:18.579 --> 00:07:24.299 actually says in John chapter 8 verse 31, if you abide in My Word, which is a shorthand way of saying 00:07:24.299 --> 00:07:32.039 My entire body of teaching, you are truly My disciples. So, He's saying being a true disciple of Mine means 00:07:32.039 --> 00:07:38.939 abiding in My Word. You can't abide in something unless you understand it, right? So, in answer to this 00:07:38.939 --> 00:07:45.579 first question, yes, it does matter if we understand Scripture, if we can interpret it reliably. It's 00:07:45.579 --> 00:07:54.920 actually very important. So, now to the question that really is the meat of this sermon, is it possible 00:07:54.920 --> 00:08:03.759 to understand Scripture? And the answer, as you can probably surmise, is yes, but with a caveat, okay? 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:09.579 So, I'll give you the yes, and then I'll give you the caveat. Yes, it's absolutely possible to understand and 00:08:09.579 --> 00:08:17.219 interpret Scripture in reliable ways. If we go back to the Old Testament, to the place where Scripture first starts 00:08:17.219 --> 00:08:21.860 to be written down by Moses, we read in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 6, 00:08:22.519 --> 00:08:29.819 these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, 00:08:29.819 --> 00:08:34.840 and you shall talk about them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, 00:08:34.860 --> 00:08:43.720 and when you rise. Not only are adults commanded to discuss Scripture in an ongoing way as they're 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:49.500 going about their daily life, but they are specifically commanded to teach these things to 00:08:49.500 --> 00:08:56.939 their children. How many people have ever tried to teach children anything, right? If you've ever tried 00:08:56.940 --> 00:09:06.120 to teach children anything, you know that you need to be able to distill things down into very plain 00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:11.420 ways that are easy to grasp, especially if you're dealing with younger children who are not 00:09:11.420 --> 00:09:17.560 developmentally capable of abstract reasoning. You have to be able to distill it down into simple, 00:09:17.900 --> 00:09:26.020 concrete terms. The ability to teach these things to children assumes that we can not only reliably 00:09:26.019 --> 00:09:32.919 interpret them, but that we can distill them and present them in ways that even children can 00:09:32.919 --> 00:09:37.179 understand, right? That the implication is that we should be able to do this faithfully. 00:09:38.500 --> 00:09:42.759 Now, you may say, okay, well, that's Deuteronomy, that's the Old Testament. What about the New 00:09:42.759 --> 00:09:48.259 Testament? That doesn't apply to the New Testament, does it? And this is where this passage in 2 Peter 3 00:09:48.259 --> 00:09:55.899 is very helpful. Notice that in this reading, he refers to the letters of Paul as Scripture. It's easy 00:09:55.899 --> 00:10:02.279 to overlook this and not recognize how significant this is, but he's in the midst of talking about how 00:10:02.279 --> 00:10:09.620 some people twist Paul's words, and he says some people will twist Paul's words as they do the other 00:10:09.620 --> 00:10:16.639 Scriptures. And that word that is translated Scriptures is the word graphi, and that word is only ever used 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:25.580 in the New Testament to refer to writing that is not only authoritative, but canonical. It's used to refer 00:10:25.580 --> 00:10:32.139 to writing that has been set apart as canonical, meaning it is the body of writings that we believe 00:10:32.139 --> 00:10:39.720 come directly from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And so, Peter clearly groups Paul's letters, 00:10:39.720 --> 00:10:47.779 which are already in circulation, in with the other body of canonical writing. So, he's saying, number 00:10:47.779 --> 00:10:53.940 one, Paul's letters have the same status as the Old Testament canon. And he's saying, number two, 00:10:54.220 --> 00:11:01.660 we should be able to understand Paul's letters just like we do the Old Testament canon. So, you say, 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:07.160 okay, well, that applies to the New Testament. Then we look at what Jesus teaches. Jesus also affirms that 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:12.559 we should be able to understand Scripture. This is a great point that I first came across 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:19.319 from Wayne Grudem. He makes this point. He says, you know, Jesus, whether in His teachings or His 00:11:19.319 --> 00:11:26.000 conversations or His disputes, and He had a lot of those, right? Jesus had a lot of conversations and a 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:34.620 lot of disputes and a lot of disagreements with people. He never says, right? He never once blames the 00:11:34.620 --> 00:11:40.659 Old Testament for being unclear, right? He's dealing with people who were living in the first century. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:47.139 That means they're living one to two thousand years after these texts were written in the Old 00:11:47.139 --> 00:11:53.139 Testament. And yet, when He's debating people about the Old Testament, He never blames the Old Testament 00:11:53.139 --> 00:11:59.560 for being unclear. He always operates with the assumption that people should be able to read and 00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:05.059 understand it. And in fact, when people do misunderstand Scripture or when they misapply 00:12:05.059 --> 00:12:12.179 Scripture, Jesus never says, oh, man, you're right, my bad, that really was unclear. You know, we really 00:12:12.179 --> 00:12:17.739 should have said that differently. I'm really sorry about that. He never says that. Instead, it doesn't 00:12:17.739 --> 00:12:21.959 matter if He's speaking to learned scholars and teachers of the law, scribes and Pharisees, 00:12:21.960 --> 00:12:28.700 or if He's teaching or speaking to untrained common folk, no matter who He's talking to, 00:12:28.820 --> 00:12:35.920 He always responds the same way. He always assumes that the blame for misunderstanding any teaching of 00:12:35.920 --> 00:12:41.740 Scripture is not to be placed on Scripture. It's meant to be placed on those who either misunderstand 00:12:41.740 --> 00:12:49.960 or fail to accept what is written. So, again and again, when people ask Him questions, He says things 00:12:49.960 --> 00:12:56.639 like, have you not read what David did? Have you not read in the law? Have you never read in the 00:12:56.639 --> 00:13:01.879 Scriptures? Have you not read what was said to you by God? Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do 00:13:01.879 --> 00:13:08.019 not understand these things? In Matthew 22, He says, you are wrong because you know neither the Scriptures 00:13:08.019 --> 00:13:15.040 nor the power of God. So, again and again and again, Jesus says the blame lies, the responsibility lies 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:22.599 with the people who are misinterpreting or failing to accept what has been written. So, clearly, Jesus 00:13:22.599 --> 00:13:27.079 holds us responsible for reading and interpreting the Scriptures faithfully, even if they were written 00:13:27.079 --> 00:13:34.799 a long time ago. That's the yes. Here's the caveat. Yes, it is possible to understand Scripture, 00:13:35.219 --> 00:13:42.360 but it is not always easy. It's not possible to understand it all at once. It's not possible to 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:50.039 understand it easily or in an instant. There are a lot of parts of Scripture that take a whole lot of time 00:13:50.039 --> 00:13:58.399 and effort and even more help to be able to understand. And that's why I love this passage in 2 Peter. 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:03.560 He's in verse 16, he's talking about the letters of the Apostle Paul, and he says this wonderful phrase, 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:11.399 there are some things in them that are hard to understand, right? So, Jesus never blames the text for 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:17.379 being impossible to understand. He never says this is… nobody could understand this. But there is 00:14:17.379 --> 00:14:23.579 this acknowledgement from Peter that sometimes things are hard to understand. He's not saying 00:14:23.579 --> 00:14:28.120 it's impossible, he's saying it can be hard. So, some parts of Scripture require a lot more time and 00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:32.539 effort to understand them properly. I don't know about you, but I draw tremendous comfort from that 00:14:32.539 --> 00:14:38.319 little sentence. Tremendous comfort, right? There's a lot of grace in that. I remember a few years ago, 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:42.460 I preached a series, our team preached a series through the book of Revelation. 00:14:43.740 --> 00:14:48.520 We did the whole thing. And, you know, there were moments when I had to say, you know, 00:14:48.680 --> 00:14:54.740 this is my best guess as to what this means, right? This is… if you've ever looked at Daniel, 00:14:55.340 --> 00:14:59.900 if you've ever looked at Revelation, if you've ever looked at some of the visions and parts of Ezekiel, 00:15:00.200 --> 00:15:04.540 if you've ever looked at, you know, the Song of Songs, I did a series in the Song of Songs, 00:15:04.539 --> 00:15:09.839 highest attendance ever in the church. Just kidding. I'm kidding, but that actually might 00:15:09.839 --> 00:15:17.719 be true. There's a lot of things that we think Song of Songs is about, right? And, you know, 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:22.599 but we're not sure always exactly what's being said, right? So, it can be very hard, 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:28.860 and it can sometimes take a lot of time. Thankfully, the parts of Scripture that are the 00:15:28.860 --> 00:15:35.220 most clear are also the most foundational for our faith, right? We see in 2 Timothy 3.16, 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:39.680 all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, 00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:45.560 and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 00:15:45.580 --> 00:15:49.820 And that's a very important word. Everything we need to know in order to have a relationship with 00:15:49.820 --> 00:15:57.460 Jesus, to follow Him faithfully, and to grow into fully formed men and women of God is clearly laid 00:15:57.460 --> 00:16:04.740 out. We've been given everything that we need to become complete in Christ. And because of this, 00:16:04.820 --> 00:16:09.639 because of the acknowledgement that there are some things that are clear and easier to understand, 00:16:09.720 --> 00:16:16.139 and other things require more effort, there are some doctrines that we treat as essentials, 00:16:16.860 --> 00:16:22.379 right? We treat certain doctrines as essentials. God's creation of all things, the problem of sin 00:16:22.379 --> 00:16:28.460 and human rebellion, the sacrifice of Jesus to atone for sin, the resurrection, right? Paul says, 00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:32.960 if without the resurrection, the whole faith is in vain. It's pretty clear that that's important. 00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:38.779 The final judgment, the new creation, these are so clear and central that they're really not up for 00:16:38.779 --> 00:16:45.439 debate because what we believe about these things directly impacts whether or not we can have a 00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:52.020 relationship with God. So, these are the essentials of the Christian faith. Now, there are other doctrines 00:16:52.020 --> 00:17:00.100 that are very important. They're very important. They shape our lives as Christians, but there is room 00:17:00.100 --> 00:17:07.380 for Christians to faithfully disagree over because it is possible to interpret Scripture in different 00:17:07.380 --> 00:17:13.259 ways, right? So, there are certain questions that we debate among faithful Christians, whether or not 00:17:13.259 --> 00:17:22.299 to baptize infants, the mode of baptism, sprinkle, pour, or immersion, how many offices in the church? 00:17:22.339 --> 00:17:27.079 Do we have priests and deacons or bishops, priests, and deacons, right? These are issues that Christians 00:17:27.079 --> 00:17:32.859 have disagreed over for a very long time. I have my personal convictions about these things, and they're 00:17:32.859 --> 00:17:39.819 fairly strong convictions, but I'm open to the fact that I will meet Jesus one day and realize I was wrong 00:17:39.819 --> 00:17:45.259 on them, and therefore, I'm going to show charity to my Christian brothers and sisters who disagree with 00:17:45.259 --> 00:17:52.079 me over these issues, right? It's because we recognize that there are some things in Scripture that are 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:57.419 hard to understand, okay? So, yes, it's possible, but there is a caveat. It's not always easy. 00:17:58.220 --> 00:18:02.879 If we want to go about interpreting Scripture and doing it faithfully, how do we do it well? 00:18:03.700 --> 00:18:06.960 Now, we could spend a whole lot of time on this. We don't have all the time in the world on this. 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:12.059 There's lots of resources available for learning how to interpret Scripture faithfully, and over the 00:18:12.059 --> 00:18:15.740 course of this series, we're going to be sending out some resources for people who want to dig deeper 00:18:15.740 --> 00:18:22.259 into that, but let me just give you a few things from these texts to get us started in interpreting 00:18:22.259 --> 00:18:28.960 Scripture well. How do we do it well? Let me just give you four things. Number one, always interpret 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:36.880 Scripture using all of the tools available to you. Okay, number one, you need a Bible that is 00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:42.700 written in your language, a language that you can understand, and you may want to compare several 00:18:42.700 --> 00:18:48.480 different translations. Now, I recognize this is more teaching than preaching, and this whole series 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:53.520 is going to be like this, but what we're doing now is to try to equip you, okay? So, there's a spectrum 00:18:53.520 --> 00:18:59.020 of translations that are available. Most of us are native English speakers. There's a spectrum of 00:18:59.020 --> 00:19:04.920 translations that are available to you, and really now this is true for many languages. 00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:11.000 On one end of the spectrum is what we call the formal equivalence, and on the other end is the 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:17.080 dynamic equivalence, right? So, the formal equivalent translation is the translation that is a direct 00:19:17.080 --> 00:19:22.320 word-for-word maintaining the words and the structure of the original language as closely and 00:19:22.320 --> 00:19:30.080 accurately as possible. They're highly accurate, but sometimes the direct transfer from Hebrew or Greek 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:36.059 to English, it can lose a little of the clarity. So, you have a lot of accuracy, but it can be harder 00:19:36.059 --> 00:19:40.059 to understand because it doesn't always work to go from one language to another language. 00:19:40.819 --> 00:19:45.299 But something like the New American Standard Bible would fall on that end of the spectrum, 00:19:45.799 --> 00:19:49.619 right? I think Young's literal translation would fall on this end of the spectrum. 00:19:50.019 --> 00:19:55.699 On the other end of this continuum, we have the dynamic equivalent approach, which is a translator 00:19:55.700 --> 00:20:02.220 who takes the meaning of the original text, and they come up with an equivalent English way of 00:20:02.220 --> 00:20:08.200 saying it that preserves the meaning, but it's much more accessible to a native English speaker, 00:20:08.539 --> 00:20:13.720 right? Now, that does require more interpretive work, right? There's a certain amount of interpretation 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:18.700 that is required to do that, and that's why some people don't like the dynamic equivalent as much. 00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:23.160 They want the much more accurate, but what it does is it makes it much more immediately accessible 00:20:23.160 --> 00:20:30.140 to those of us who are trying to understand what is being said. So, there are lots of examples of 00:20:30.140 --> 00:20:35.980 this. The New Living Translation would be a good example of this. Even further over, I wouldn't 00:20:35.980 --> 00:20:40.920 actually count this as a translation, but you would have something like Eugene Peterson's The Message, 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:47.580 right? Which is not so much a translation as it is a kind of paraphrase of Scripture. I like to call it 00:20:47.580 --> 00:20:52.880 the massage because there's a fair amount of… there's a fair amount of interpretive work that goes into 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:57.880 that, right? But very helpful. So, what I would recommend you do is to find a kind of go-to text 00:20:57.880 --> 00:21:01.780 that you like. I prefer the English Standard Version because it's somewhere in the middle 00:21:01.780 --> 00:21:07.320 between dynamic and formal. I prefer that, but I always consult multiple translations. 00:21:07.900 --> 00:21:12.120 And so, you can go to BibleGateway.com, and you can look up whatever passage you're reading, 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:16.500 and you can immediately compare different translations. So, look at a literal translation, 00:21:16.900 --> 00:21:21.340 look at a dynamic translation, look at something in the middle, look at the message. That's going to give 00:21:21.339 --> 00:21:27.859 you much deeper insight into the meaning of the text, okay? So, some resources. Also, use study 00:21:27.859 --> 00:21:35.379 Bibles. Use commentaries. I've been teaching the Bible for over 15 years. I still love a good study 00:21:35.379 --> 00:21:40.559 Bible. You never outgrow the need for study Bibles. And I would say the English Standard Version study 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:45.359 Bible is among the finest resources available. So, get your hands on that. It's about this thick. 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:50.399 It's just packed. It's like a commentary. It's like a single-volume commentary. It's fantastic. 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:55.779 And so, that's available. There's also a wide variety of commentaries that you can use, 00:21:56.119 --> 00:21:59.439 people that have devoted their lives to understanding and interpreting Scripture. 00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:05.979 You can go to the website, bestcommentaries.com, and that's like a rotten tomatoes for commentaries. 00:22:06.879 --> 00:22:12.019 And you can just… These are insider secrets here that I'm letting you in on. 00:22:12.019 --> 00:22:16.920 And go to bestcommentaries.com, and lots of commentaries reviewed there, and you can figure 00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:21.299 out what you might want to get there. And then thirdly, listen to Bible teachers and preachers. 00:22:21.879 --> 00:22:25.359 You know, this is one of the reasons we have pastors. This is one of the reasons we have 00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:30.639 church leaders, that the idea is to set a few people apart, to devote the majority of their time 00:22:30.639 --> 00:22:34.220 and energy to studying and trying to understand Scripture because of what we said earlier, because 00:22:34.220 --> 00:22:39.720 it's hard, because it takes a lot of time and knowledge, not only of the language, but of the 00:22:39.720 --> 00:22:44.819 culture and the history and the interpretive tradition. So, that's what Bible teachers and 00:22:44.819 --> 00:22:48.720 preachers are here for, is to help the church grow in their understanding of Scripture. So, 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:53.779 that's the first thing. Number two, how do we do it well? Not only do we want to use the 00:22:53.779 --> 00:23:00.160 resources available to us, number two, interpret Scripture with a posture of submission, 00:23:01.160 --> 00:23:06.799 with a posture of submission. Peter calls people who deliberately twist the meaning of Scripture 00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:14.059 lawless, lawless people. What that means is these are people who are not in submission to Christ 00:23:14.059 --> 00:23:21.359 as Lord. And so, one of the symptoms of that is that they readily take Scripture out of context 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:30.399 and reinterpret it to fit their own agenda. Posture matters a great deal. You can use Scripture to 00:23:30.399 --> 00:23:36.539 justify just about anything you want. We've seen that throughout history, right? When those in power, 00:23:36.539 --> 00:23:43.099 people wanted to justify their crusades, they found Bible teachers who came along and twisted 00:23:43.099 --> 00:23:49.159 Scripture to justify their crusades. A couple hundred years ago, when the Europeans wanted to justify the 00:23:49.159 --> 00:23:55.920 slave trade, they found Bible teachers who came along and were willing to twist Scripture in order to 00:23:55.920 --> 00:24:04.839 justify the slave trade. Whenever people come along and they discover new ways of interpreting 00:24:04.839 --> 00:24:14.359 Scripture that just happen to line up with the current cultural agenda that those in power are wanting to 00:24:14.359 --> 00:24:25.459 push, always be suspicious. As my kids like to say, that's sus. So, always ask lots and lots of questions 00:24:25.459 --> 00:24:31.799 whenever a new interpretation arises, and it just happens to align. If it's wildly unpopular, okay, maybe. 00:24:31.799 --> 00:24:42.579 But that's not often the case, right? The Anglican Catechism actually says in question 33…well, 00:24:42.639 --> 00:24:47.240 actually, I'll get to that. I'll get to the Catechism in a second. A faithful interpretation 00:24:47.240 --> 00:24:54.200 of Scripture always requires us to humble ourselves. And what that means is instead of submitting the 00:24:54.200 --> 00:25:00.980 Scripture to us, we are called to submit ourselves to Scripture. So, before you even open it up, 00:25:02.039 --> 00:25:08.200 you know, I will often just say a quick prayer of submission to the Lord before I even open it up, 00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:16.380 just so I know that as my eyes fall on this text, I'm doing it from below, right, and not from above, 00:25:16.380 --> 00:25:22.040 looking down, putting it on a table to be dissected. I'm submitting myself to it, right? 00:25:24.040 --> 00:25:28.280 Number three, how do we do this well? Not only do we use the tools available and approach it with a 00:25:28.280 --> 00:25:34.100 posture of submission, but number three, always interpret Scripture in community with other 00:25:34.100 --> 00:25:41.200 believers, in community. Man, I'm deeply grateful that the Bible has been translated into so many 00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:47.559 languages. It's one of the great gifts of the Protestant Reformation. But as with anything, 00:25:47.700 --> 00:25:52.519 that comes with a cost. It comes with a risk, right? Because it makes it possible for people 00:25:52.519 --> 00:25:58.680 to read and study the Bible in total isolation with no help from other Christians. And all of that 00:25:58.680 --> 00:26:03.880 leads to a lot of very bad interpretations. There are a lot of cults and offshoots of Christianity, 00:26:04.059 --> 00:26:09.620 heretical offshoots that started with one, usually man, sitting, but not always, 00:26:09.619 --> 00:26:16.339 sitting in a room by themselves, reading the Bible and interpreting it in their own way and thinking, 00:26:16.579 --> 00:26:24.159 you know what, I should start a movement based on this, right? It seldom goes well for us if that's 00:26:24.159 --> 00:26:29.979 our only time we ever read and interpret the Bible is in isolation. So, Peter, like all of the New 00:26:29.979 --> 00:26:34.500 Testament writers, assumes that his letters are going to be read and studied by the community of 00:26:34.500 --> 00:26:41.799 believers, right? By the whole community. Not just one person who has the anointing, but the whole 00:26:41.799 --> 00:26:47.160 community of believers, right? And so, you know, the community of Christians in the Old Church 00:26:47.160 --> 00:26:51.380 regularly met together to hear and study the Scripture together. And so, most of the New 00:26:51.380 --> 00:26:55.839 Testament epistles are not written to one leader. They're written to the whole church. And the 00:26:55.839 --> 00:26:59.460 assumption is that the person delivering the letter would come in and they would, in front of the 00:26:59.460 --> 00:27:02.980 whole community, they would read it to the whole community. So, everybody would hear the same thing. 00:27:04.500 --> 00:27:08.980 So, it's very important for us to do it in community. Scripture is meant to be read, 00:27:09.119 --> 00:27:12.980 interpreted, and applied in community with other believers. Of course, there are some people 00:27:12.980 --> 00:27:21.500 with training or spiritual gifts that make them more effective at interpreting and teaching Scripture, 00:27:21.960 --> 00:27:28.140 but their role is to help the whole community become better at that. We're all meant to be 00:27:28.140 --> 00:27:34.259 interpreters and teachers of Scripture at some level. And we all need help from other 00:27:34.259 --> 00:27:37.660 Christians in our study of Scripture. So, it's important to say, you know, when I preach a 00:27:37.660 --> 00:27:44.160 sermon or when Jeff preaches a sermon, even though I'm standing up here alone and even though I'm the 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:51.759 only one you see, this is not just my interpretation of Scripture, right? This is a distillation, 00:27:52.339 --> 00:27:58.279 right? What you're hearing is a distillation of tons of input. This is a distillation that comes from 00:27:58.279 --> 00:28:06.440 the people around me, like our clergy, like our staff, like my friends, like my wife. I never preach 00:28:06.440 --> 00:28:12.940 a sermon without talking through the passage with the people around me at some point. That's always a 00:28:12.940 --> 00:28:20.299 part of the preparation. Also, numerous Bible commentators, theologians, philosophers, historians. 00:28:20.299 --> 00:28:27.680 Also, the great tradition of interpretation handed down through history. The Anglican tradition, the 00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:33.659 Reformers, what we call the great tradition of the first millennium, the early church fathers, all have 00:28:33.659 --> 00:28:39.079 offered input into how we interpret various passages of Scripture. So, now we can talk about 00:28:39.079 --> 00:28:45.339 the Anglican Catechism. The Anglican Catechism says in question 33, because Holy Scripture was given by 00:28:45.339 --> 00:28:52.799 God to the church, right? Not to certain leaders, but to the church, it should always be understood in 00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:58.619 ways that are faithful to its own plain meaning, to its entire teaching, and to the church's historic 00:28:58.619 --> 00:29:05.619 interpretation. So, we stand within a very broad and deep tradition. So, we may stand up here by 00:29:05.619 --> 00:29:11.159 ourselves, but we stand here, I stand here as a representative of a vast community of believers 00:29:11.160 --> 00:29:18.660 throughout time in history who are too numerous to even count, right? It's very important to recognize 00:29:18.660 --> 00:29:26.259 that. Number four, the last thing I'll say, how do we do this well? We always use the tools available 00:29:26.259 --> 00:29:31.660 to us, approach it with a posture of humility, always do it in community. Then number four, 00:29:32.800 --> 00:29:39.040 seek to interpret Scripture with the help of the Holy Spirit, the help of the Holy Spirit. As Paul says 00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:45.039 in 1 Corinthians 2, 14, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, 00:29:45.299 --> 00:29:51.220 for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually 00:29:51.220 --> 00:29:59.720 discerned. He's very clearly saying, we cannot simply open this book and expect to interpret 00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:04.619 everything faithfully because the natural person, which means the person who is not aided by the Holy 00:30:04.619 --> 00:30:09.299 Spirit, who is not in communion with the Lord, is not going to be able to do that. He's saying it 00:30:09.299 --> 00:30:14.659 right off the bat, so don't even try. You need the help of the Holy Spirit to read and interpret this 00:30:14.659 --> 00:30:21.559 accurately, right? That's why the Psalms are filled with prayers for understanding. Psalm 119, 00:30:21.939 --> 00:30:28.739 verse 18, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. Verse 27, make me understand 00:30:28.739 --> 00:30:33.599 the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. There's a recognition right there. 00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:40.779 I need God to help me read this faithfully and to obey it. So, the good news for us, 00:30:40.899 --> 00:30:47.099 as we consider all of this, is that Jesus promises help for those of us who want to understand and 00:30:47.099 --> 00:30:54.679 follow His Word. It's part of what it means to be in relationship with Jesus. In John 14, He says, 00:30:54.819 --> 00:31:01.679 the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things 00:31:01.680 --> 00:31:08.299 and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. That's the good news for those of us who 00:31:08.299 --> 00:31:12.920 know and follow Jesus, is that we don't ever have to do this alone. All we have to do is ask, 00:31:13.340 --> 00:31:17.620 and Jesus will give us the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit's job, one of the things the Holy Spirit 00:31:17.620 --> 00:31:23.980 does in the church, is to help men and women open this and interpret it faithfully in ways that enable 00:31:23.980 --> 00:31:30.380 us to follow Jesus with all of our hearts. In light of that, I want to invite you to join me 00:31:30.380 --> 00:31:37.079 in praying this collect that we've been praying each week at the end of the sermon during this 00:31:37.079 --> 00:31:42.160 series. So, I'd love to put that on the screen if we could, Josh, and then we're going to pray this 00:31:42.160 --> 00:31:47.799 together. I'm going to invite you actually to stand. Sometimes standing is actually a posture of 00:31:47.799 --> 00:31:51.980 prayer, and then immediately after this, Dan's going to lead us in the creed. But let's pray this 00:31:51.980 --> 00:31:58.220 together. Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, 00:31:58.819 --> 00:32:06.240 grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort 00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:13.460 of your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you 00:32:13.460 --> 00:32:19.099 have given us in our Savior, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 00:32:19.099 --> 00:32:22.439 one God forever and ever. Amen.