Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 3:1-17
2 Timothy 3, last week we considered verses 16 and 17 under the consideration of the doctrine of Scripture. Tonight we're going to consider the interpretation of Scripture. And I just want to begin reading in 2 Timothy 3 at verse 1. But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away. For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Janice and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith.
But they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also was. But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Amen.
Introduction
So last week we looked at the doctrine of Scripture concerning its extent. The Apostle says all Scripture. We consider that that includes both the Old and the New Testaments. We considered its character.
It is given by inspiration of God, or literally, it is God-breathed. And then we noticed its utility or its profitability in verse 16. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And then we drew out some implications, some obvious implications from the passage, and tonight we're going to draw out another implication, and as I said, some principles of interpretation.
Perhaps you've heard people say, with reference to the Bible, everyone has his own interpretation. You ever heard that? Everyone has his own interpretation. Well, that doesn't mean that his own interpretation is necessarily correct.
Just because everyone has their own interpretation doesn't mean that the truth is somehow relative and that whatever it means to Mike or to Stephen or what it means to Tony that is right. No, because everyone has their own interpretation does not invalidate the truth that there is a correct interpretation. If you met five people that said 2 plus 2 equals 3, it doesn't make it so. 2 plus 2 equals 4, whether the entirety of the world acknowledges that fact or they reject that fact. The Bible is the Word of God, it is objective truth, and as a result we ought to be able to come to a proper interpretation of Scripture.
You've heard the old saying, this is our idea tonight, if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. You teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. It is important for us as Christians to have some basic understanding of how to approach, how to interpret the Bible.
Definition of Hermeneutics
Now this discipline is called hermeneutics. Do not be afraid of big words. I hope to define all of those words or all the words that we use tonight. First thing we want to do is provide a definition of hermeneutics.
Secondly, the necessity of hermeneutics. And then thirdly, some basic principles of hermeneutics. I realize some of this may be review, but that's a good thing. Hermeneutics is defined by Louis Burkhoff as the science that teaches us the principles, laws, and methods of interpretation.
That's all it means. When we speak about hermeneutics, we're talking about the science of interpretation. Now hermeneutics does not just apply to the Bible. There's a hermeneutic for when you study Shakespeare.
There's a hermeneutic for when you study other types of literature. There are principles of interpretation that one brings to the particular study in a particular field. So general hermeneutics applies to all kinds of writing. The word was first used by Plato, the philosopher, as a technical term.
Special hermeneutics applies to certain definite kinds of writing, and sacred is what we're concerned with. Sacred or biblical hermeneutics applies to the Bible as the inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God. So hermeneutics provides the principles, the laws, the methods of interpretation. Exegesis is what we do when we take those principles and we put them into practice.
Just like if a young man goes to university and he learns the theory of engineering, he learns the principles, he learns the laws, he learns the methods of how to do his particular task. When he takes that body of information and he goes and he's hired by a particular firm, and he starts to flesh that out, now he's engaged in practice. So there's theory, there's practice, there's idea, and there's application. And when we consider hermeneutics, it's the principles of interpretation, and then when we go to specific texts and seek to open up those texts to draw out the particular meaning, That's what's called exegesis.
Exegesis means to lead out of the text the meaning that the Holy Spirit intended. We don't want to read into the text what we'd like it to say, even though people do that. We don't read into the text what we wished it would say, but rather we are tasked with leading out of the text of Scripture what the Holy Spirit intended for it to say. So, while this has primary application to people that are teaching and preaching the Word of God, it has general application to all of God's people.
When you sit down with your Bible tomorrow morning, Notice the assumption. You're going to sit down with your Bible tomorrow morning. Don't you want to know what it means? Don't you want to understand what it says?
Don't you want to take that word and internalize it so that you can obey God and bring glory and honor unto Him? I hope that's your intended goal. So having some basic principles, and tonight It is going to be just that, basic principles. But even if you read the biggest, fattest books on hermeneutics, you probably wouldn't be really surprised, because much of what is said there really makes a lot of sense.
And if we just take the time to reflect, we will see that it isn't rocket science, it isn't brain surgery. God has saved common folk and has called upon them to understand his word. The psalmist says that the law of God makes wise the simple. The psalmist says that God's law made him smarter than all of his instructors, all of his teachers.
I dare say that the youngest child that attends this particular church that can answer the question, what is God, is smarter than the most celebrated PhD who is an atheist and one who denies God. So the scriptures are given to people like you and I so that we can understand them and so that we can put them into practice in our lives. Now remember last week we considered Peter's statement about Paul's writing. Peter identified that in some of the Pauline corpus, in some of Paul's letters, there are things that are difficult to understand.
That is the case. When you go through Scripture, there are those things that are difficult. But for the most part, those things concerning the glory of God and man's salvation are expressly set down. They are clear.
They are obvious. It isn't difficult to interpret the sixth word. You shall not murder. Now, if everybody has his own interpretation of that, hopefully they're all right.
It means you don't cut people's throats, you don't murder babies in the womb, you don't poison people, you don't hate people without cause in your heart. That is a very straightforward passive. So beware the people that say, you know, I've tried to read the Bible, but it's all so confusing. What's confusing about you shall not commit adultery?
What's confusing about you shall not steal? You see, most of the Bible is very straightforward. I would suggest that some of the difficult passages are oftentimes clear when we take some principles and apply it to the text at hand. So never let the idea come into your head that the Bible is so confusing, I am not going to read it for myself.
Or I'm going to let the specialists, the preachers, tell me what I ought to believe. No, the people of Thessalonica or Berea were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica because they examined daily the scriptures to see if what the Apostle Paul was teaching was accurate. So when Paul the Apostle is teaching and preaching, he's not offended that the Bereans are opening their Bibles. I doubt they had, you know, Cambridge wide-margin genuine goatskin leather Bibles or they had the ESV study Bible, but wherever that word was contained, they searched those things to make sure that what the Apostle Paul was preaching and teaching was accurate and was correct.
Beware of the idea where we have a professional priesthood that has to tell us what we believe. It is unfortunate that more Christians can't open to passages, can't open to chapter and verse to ground their faith. Don't just walk blindly, but rather verify and validate the things that you hear according to the scriptures themselves. So that's a brief definition, the science that teaches us the principles, laws, and methods of interpretation.
Necessity of Hermeneutics
Secondly, the necessity of hermeneutics. do we need these principles? Because we're sinners and our minds are darkened and our hearts are hardened and very often we will impose meaning on the text that the Holy Spirit never intended. We like to find exception clauses where there are none. You shall not commit adultery except for us because we really love each other and we believe the Holy Spirit would have us to engage in such a practice.
You shall not steal unless you work for the federal government, then it's perfectly acceptable to steal randomly for anybody that you are over. We can't do that. We can't impose our meaning. And sin darkens our understanding, darkens our minds, darkens our hearts.
The scriptures themselves indicate that they are to be interpreted properly. Look at Ephesians chapter 4. just while you're turning there, the incident where our Lord is led out to the wilderness by the Holy Spirit and there He is tempted by the devil indicates that to know Scripture itself isn't necessarily adequate. Remember when the tempter came to our Lord, the tempter brought Scripture with him. The tempter said, throw yourself off of the pinnacle of the temple, because he will give his angels charge over you.
Well, he understood, or he had the proof text in his mind, but he didn't interpret the passage correctly. So just because a Jehovah's Witness can recite a few scripture verses, that does not mean that Jesus isn't God. Just because a Mormon knows several scripture verses, that doesn't mean their whole theology of good Mormons attaining godhood and having multiple wives so that they can populate their own planets with spirit babies in the eschaton is necessarily right. You see, just because someone knows or can recite a passage doesn't mean they understand it, doesn't mean they've interpreted it properly, and the devil sets that forth very clearly in the wilderness with our Lord.
The Lord not only uses the word, but He interprets it accordingly and appropriately. Now notice in Ephesians 4, verse 11. And he himself, this is speaking of the ascended risen Christ, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Now notice their threefold function. the equipping of the Saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine." You see, there ought to be those gifts given by Christ to his church to instruct the people of God in this manner, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, so that the people of God are not tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." Now, again, the primary application of this is for the gifts that Jesus gives to the church so that they may instruct the church." Now I think a legitimate application, or at least an implication, is that when pastors or preachers effectively communicate the Word of God, they are also effectively communicating how to interpret the Word of God. whether they have sermons like these, whether they have Bible studies like these, it ought to undercut or undergird all of their teaching that the people of God are not learning only the specific text, but how to approach every text so that they themselves can rightly interpret the Word of God.
Notice 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2 verse 15. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God. It's absolutely crucial. Not be diligent to present yourself approved to men, first court the favor of men.
Rather, gospel ministers ought to be diligent, not haphazard, not sluggish, not lazy, but rather be diligent to present yourself approved to God, notice, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. What does Paul's language indicate? There is a right way to divide the word of truth. If there is a right way, guess what? there's also a wrong way.
And gospel ministers are to take pains, they are to be diligent, they are to understand, they will give account to God for the way that they have handled His Word, and therefore they ought to truly and earnestly seek to divide it accordingly. 2 Timothy 4, verses 2 and 3. We've already considered this one. Last week, preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season, Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine." You see, the text contrasts the proper conviction, rebuke, exhortation, teaching, and long-suffering that Timothy is to undergo versus the contrary or the false doctrine that those will turn away to.
So Timothy is to take seriously the Word of God, to interpret it properly, to handle it rightly. And then 2 Peter 3, we referred to this text as well last week. 2 Timothy 3, verse 14. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless, and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you. as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, here it is, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction. Untaught and unstable people will do what with the Scriptures?
They will twist them. Untaught, unstable people do not handle accurately the Word of God. Untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction the Scriptures as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. So within the Bible itself there is this emphasis on handling the Bible accurately, handling the Bible properly, dealing with it faithfully.
If we do not do that, we will be like the devil, citing verses taken out of their context, applied in ways that God the Lord never ever intended them to be applied. I'm sure you've probably heard people with their examples, you've heard some strange things before that people bring out of the Bible Well, those things are not supposed to be brought out of the Bible, because they were never in the Bible to begin with. We can only exegete or lead out of the text what the Holy Spirit has intended by inspiration. So the definition, the necessity.
Basic Principles of Hermeneutics
Now thirdly, some basic principles. Some basic principles. This is not a particular order. This isn't the eight most important.
These are basically, dare I say, a random suggestion of things that you ought to be on the lookout for. A bolo, that's what that means, be on the lookout. Be on the lookout when you're studying your Bible for some of these basic things so that you don't mess up too badly. And again, I don't think any of these things will be mind-blowing and you'll stand there and go, wow, we never ever thought that it would be like this.
And I don't know why, but they have taken the form of realize and understand.
Principle 1: A Spiritual Exercise
The first thing is that we need to realize that interpreting the Bible is a spiritual exercise. Realize that interpreting the Bible is a spiritual exercise. While there is a hermeneutic for Shakespeare, there is no hermeneutic like the sacred hermeneutic. It is in a class by itself.
So we need to realize that interpreting the Bible is a spiritual exercise. Therefore, dependence upon the spirit for illumination and for guidance is essential. Pray that the Spirit of the living God will help you in your understanding of the Word of God. The psalmist prayed, Psalm 119, verse 18, Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law.
He's calling out to God. In a psalm celebrating the word of God, he says, open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law. John Owen said it this way, for a man solemnly to undertake the interpretation of any portion of scripture without invocation of God, to be taught and instructed by his spirit is a high provocation of God. He then says, nor shall I expect the discovery of truth from anyone who thus proudly engages in a work so much above his ability.
In other words, if a man is tasked with studying scripture in order to preach scripture, Owen says for a man to undertake that without invoking God, calling upon God, entreating God to be taught and instructed by his spirit, he says that is to provoke God himself in the exercise and the execution of his duty. Spurgeon has a wonderful sermon on the Bible, and Spurgeon makes this comment. If you were reading a book that was written by your next door neighbor, and you came across something you didn't understand, what would you more than likely do? You'd probably walk next door, you'd knock on his door, and you'd say, what do you mean when you write this?
Or nowadays you'd email him, or you'd text him, right? What did you mean when you said this? The same thing is true with God. We have the book of God.
How many times do we actually wrestle with the text of Scripture, pray about it, and if we don't get the specific answer, put it on the back burner, think about it another time, roll it about in your head, seek guidance from the Lord, God will give answers to such things. If we mean business about studying his word, we can trust that the author of truth will himself bless us and aid us and guide us and instruct us. So realize that interpreting the Bible is a spiritual exercise. Therefore, dependence upon the Spirit for illumination and for guidance is essential.
Principle 2: Exegesis Not Eisegesis
Secondly, understand that it doesn't matter what the text means to you. Again, I'm sure all of you have heard me say this. You can stand to hear me say it one more time. Understand that it doesn't matter what the text means to you.
It matters what the text means. You see the distinction? There's Bible studies where people sit around and say, well, this text means this to me. Well, this text means this to me.
Well, this text means this to me. Now, what if we're talking about the same text? And three of us have three separate meanings. Somebody's wrong.
Two people are wrong. It doesn't matter what the text means to you, unless, of course, you're right. But then again, it still doesn't matter what it means to you. It matters what it means.
If you look at that sign up there, it says exit. The preposition at means out of. If there was a fire, we would go out of that door. Exegesis.
Out of. The preposition ice means into. And we do not want to practice eisegesis. That means reading into the text what we want it to say. reading into the text what we hope that it says.
The task of biblical interpretation is to lead out of the text, not to read into the text. I remember giving on several occasions the illustration by Pastor Greg Nichols. Have you ever seen the torture rack? That's that thing they used to use when they'd tie your feet and they'd tie your arms and then they'd start to sort of twist this thing and it would stretch you.
This wasn't chiropractic, this was pain, this was suffering, this was torture and punishment. Well, Pastor Nichols suggests that sometimes Christians take texts and throw them on that torture rack and they start to crank that wheel and they're basically screaming at that text, say it, say what I want you to say. That's not the task of biblical interpretation. We don't torture out of the passage a meaning that we want to be there.
Rather, we understand that God the Spirit is altogether wise, infinitely holy, majestic, and is the Lord God of truth. And that as He breathed Paul to write the epistles, as He breathed Isaiah to write his prophecy, as He breathed through Moses to write the Pentateuch, our task is not to try and impose a meaning, but our task, rather, is to try and uncover a meaning. The debate about baptism is an interesting one. I've got to say, if infant baptism was taught in the Bible, I'm not opposed.
I have no problem. If God says, sprinkle babies, that's fine, if it's a passage taught in scripture. But I submit that it's not a passage taught in scripture. But the point is that we ought to be willing and able to come to the scripture to be taught by the spirit wherever he leads us.
We ought not to impose things. We ought not to thrust things. We ought not to force things. We ought to practice exegesis, not eisegesis.
Principle 3: Grammatical-Historical Method
Thirdly, now, I'm going to just say this the way I have it written, and I'm going to explain it. Understand and use what has typically been called the grammatical historical approach to interpretation. I will explain that in just a moment. I noticed that as the literature continues and progresses, sometimes words get changed in the meanings and the titles and the nomenclature and all that sort of thing.
What I mean here is that when we come to the scripture, we employ a grammatical interpretation. Grammar has to do with words, right? God the Lord spoke. God the Lord had His apostles and prophets write.
In other words, we come to a book, and we open that book, and we see ink on a page. That ink takes the form of words. Those words are connected to each other, and as a result, they convey meaning. When we take a statement like, you shall not steal, Grammar says that we look at that, we look and see what it means, there's a subject, there's a verb, there's something told us what to do or what not to do.
Grammar, take the words as they are written and learn. Learn about words, learn about verbs, learn about nouns. I realize some of you are going, wait a minute, It'll help you in your Bible study. If you know what a noun is, if you know what a verb is, if you know what a predicate is, if you know what a subject is, stay with me, Stephen.
Stay with me, buddy. When we see that words are what God gave, We need to understand that. Grammar. Do you realize that in the book of Galatians, the apostle hinges an entire argument based on the singular use of a particular word. 1S, in English, makes all the difference between Paul's argument in Galatians chapter 3 when he is telling us that he does not say, and to seeds, plural, but to seed, singular.
He tells us that the seed of Abraham is Jesus Christ. And as a result, those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are Abraham's children. The whole argument hinges upon the use of a singular. So when we know these things, it will help us, hopefully, to understand and interpret the scripture.
So grammar just has to do with the words in their connections in the way that we find them. When you read through the book of Romans, have you ever seen the word therefore? You say no, then I'm going to say you've never read the Book of Romans. Because Paul uses the word therefore all the time.
What is therefore therefore? It's an old cheesy saying, but it certainly has application here. Why does Paul say therefore? There's a reason.
Usually it's an implication, usually it's a conclusion, usually it is the fruits of the argument that has preceded it. So grammar is important, but not only grammar, history, the historical understanding. Now I'm not suggesting that you have to be a Ph.D. in ancient Near Eastern history to properly understand your Bible, but to properly understand the Old Testament, a working knowledge of Israel, is quite helpful. When you study the prophet Jeremiah, it's very helpful to know what kingdom he is speaking to.
When you study the prophet Jeremiah, it's helpful to know what empire is the dominating force in the world at that particular time. It's helpful to know where the people of Israel or Judah are in terms of their religious commitment to the Lord. It's good to know who's sitting on the throne as the king in that particular kingdom. history. Not only the grammar, the words on the page, but the history of a given situation.
It will help you, it will aid you, it will enable you to rightly understand the Word of Truth. One man says, biblical interpretation that seeks to understand the text on a grammatical, syntactical level. Syntax just means how words relate to one another. on a grammatical or syntactical level as well as situated in its historical context. This approach often seeks primarily to know what the author intended in the text and what it meant to its first recipients.
When we get to Matthew chapter 24, for instance, it's going to be very important to understand how Jesus' disciples would have understand his statement concerning the destruction of the temple. If we don't understand or try and put ourselves into the minds of that original audience, then we will probably mess up the interpretation of that particular prophecy. The same thing is true with the Old Testament prophets. You do not understand where the author is or where the prophet is at the particular time.
I'm not saying you can never uncover the meaning, but it's like trying to dig a hole with a fork. You'll do a lot better with a shovel. Hodge says the words of scripture are to be taken in their plain historical sense. That is, they must be taken in the sense attached to them in the age and by the people to whom they were addressed.
So very often in preaching, preachers We'll try and set the stage, set the context, what characters are involved, what's going on, what's the issue, what is being identified, what is being addressed. Doesn't that help you to uncover the meaning of scripture when it's opened up in that manner and you're able to see what's going on? Hodge says, this only assumes that the sacred writers were honest and meant to be understood. Historical means the author of a particular book, the date of composition, the audience to whom the book was written, the historical background at the time.
Again, when we introduce a new book that we're going to study in our church, our practice usually is to tell who wrote it, to tell when they wrote it, to tell why they wrote it, to whom they wrote it, and some of the major themes. So that when we go through the book, we're tethered to history. We're tethered to the context, and we don't run amok. You see, if the Bible is taken out of its context, it can be made to say anything.
And if it says anything, then it means nothing. We need to take it seriously. There was a school of interpretation in the early church that looked for the allegorical meaning. In other words, they saw what the text said.
They had a surface meaning. But they said the important meaning is below that. The important meaning seeks to penetrate deep down and to try and find the mystery that the Spirit intended for us as readers to get. Most responsible exegetes say, no, it is the meaning on the surface.
It is what is written. John Calvin said, with reference to the allegorical method, a contrivance of Satan to obscure the meaning of scripture. You know, you meet somebody who's trying to find the hidden deeper meaning to a particular parable, and they've missed the point. Pretty sad, isn't it?
Get the point. Generally speaking, that's the point. You get that, you don't need to penetrate down into the lower echelons of mysterious esoteric truth. That's not the way the Bible is written.
The Bible isn't a code. The Bible doesn't need to be cracked. The Bible doesn't need to have a special priesthood that's skilled in uncovering the mysteries. The Bible was written for people like you and I, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we'd be able to read, you shall not murder, and not try and find a deeper hidden meaning, an allegorical meaning.
That's not what we are supposed to do. So that's the third. Employ, whether you call it this or not, the grammatical historical method.
Principle 4: Context Is Paramount
Fourthly, realize that context is of the utmost importance in interpreting scripture. Context. Context. Context. very crucial that you understand context.
It flows out of that third one. That whole idea of grammar, that whole idea of history brings us to a particular context. It's helpful to understand what is going on to understand the situation that the Scripture is given to. Remember that all of the Bible is written for us, but it wasn't all necessarily written to us.
There are very specific instances in the Scripture where if we take them out of their context and we apply them to ourselves, we are wrong. I've used the illustration before. The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah were pretty well destined to fail in their ministry. Isaiah was told, you're going to go preach and speak to these people, but hearing they will not hear, seeing they will not see, and they will not receive the truth.
I've often wondered how motivational a speech that was for the prophet Isaiah. Basically, Isaiah, I am sending you out to preach and no one's going to listen. And then you had Jeremiah. Jeremiah was told they're going to reject you, they're going to despise you.
Now let's say a preacher gets some pretty negative feedback on a Sunday night and on Monday morning he starts to cry and he finds comfort in Jeremiah and Isaiah. He should find comfort in Jeremiah and Isaiah. But he ought not to conclude that because of what was spoken to those prophets, that means his particular ministry is destined to fail. No, maybe he needs to put on his big boy pants and study harder and try better and pray more and maybe God will bless his preaching.
You see, we cannot take things that were written in a specific situation and then universalize it. There's a difference as well between interpretation, what does the text mean, and application or implication. We can make an application or we can make an implication that at times gospel preaching is met with great rejection. People refused Jeremiah.
People refused Isaiah. We ought not to be surprised or shocked. if they refuse us. However, that's different than saying, because of what was stated to Isaiah, I know that my ministry is destined to fail. It's a different ballgame.
Is everybody with me? Context, context, context. Who is the author writing to? Who is the author speaking to?
Who is the speaker addressing? Believers? Unbelievers? Who is reading a book in the study every other Saturday morning?
When you read scripture, look for believers, look for unbelievers, look for the uncertain ones. Who are the players in David's battle with Goliath? Who's involved there? What's happening?
What are the armies of Israel doing? What are the armies of the Philistines doing? What is Goliath doing? There's a contact.
Read it. Survey it. Look at it. Look at the details.
Get into the text of scripture jump into it if you have to but try and think God's thoughts after him as Revealed in a given historical context so context is of utmost importance in Interpreting scripture the end of the night if I give you a test, please answer Context is of the utmost importance very important very very important. This is why people mess up with the Bible. They don't look at context mess up. Existentialism, narcissism, self-absorption, mysticism, esoteric, yeah.
There's not a one definite fixed meaning. It's whatever I think or I give sort of value or I bring to the table or I bring to the scripture. Well, that is absolutely incorrect. The Bible is objective, revealed, propositional truth given by God.
Our task is to understand it. It's not to shape it. It's not to manipulate it. It's not to massage it.
It's not to lift it out of its context and say, well, Jeremiah cried, so therefore I must cry. No, we ought not to do stuff like that. It is indicative of the spirit of the ethos of our age, not only with reference to scripture, deconstruction, taking documents, historical documents. and taking them out of their context, vis-a-vis certain amendments, and saying, well, that's not what they meant. No, no.
What did they mean in their given context? We need to understand that. That's how we get at the meaning of the scripture. A big problem today is the confession of faith.
Everybody, or not everybody, there are factions that say, we need to change the confession. We need to change the confession. No, we need to understand the confession before we ever begin to make improvements upon it. Nine times out of ten, the revisions, I don't know about nine times, but five times out of ten, just to be fair, the revisions that are suggested are oftentimes because we don't understand what the original authors meant. the impassibility of God, simplicity of God, these concepts, these doctrines that the Reformers and the Puritans hashed out and worked through, we don't understand it, doesn't fit our conceived ideas of theology, and so we say, well, let's just change the Confession.
Nobody will ever understand that, so let's just change it. Why don't we educate people on what it really means? So yeah, it's not just confined to the Scripture, it unfortunately happens to other historical documents as well, but it's just irresponsible. It's very irresponsible.
It'd be irresponsible to read another book of nonfiction and not to give credit to context. We would never think to do that in other areas, but when it comes to the Bible, we just sort of lift texts out, and then they mean whatever it is that we want them to mean. Well, that's not biblical interpretation. That's falling.
Sorry, but this really gets my goat when people misinterpret the Bible. And get it, we all misinterpret the Bible. We just need to try and not do it so much. Yeah.
No, it's not just that. I mean, people can take very orthodox translations of scripture and still mess up. So, I mean, Jehovah's Witnesses have formulated their own translation of the Bible to suit and fit their theology, so it certainly helps them. It certainly helps them that they strip away the deity of Jesus when it comes to John 1.1 or it comes to Colossians 1.
It helps their cause, but people with King James Bibles or New King James Bibles or ESV Bibles still come up with some pretty bizarre interpretations. If it was only those people with their faulty Bible, that'd be nice, but it really isn't that way. That's why it's very important that we understand – again, these are basic principles. I hope no one's scratching their head saying, well, I never heard this before.
Hopefully it's just a reminder of what you already know and it's good to be refreshed so that when we come to the scripture we don't fall prey to making foolish mistakes.
Principle 5: Scripture Interprets Scripture
The fifth observation is realize that the scripture is its best interpreter. The Scripture is its best interpreter. Our confession of faith says the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself. And therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture, which is not manifold but one, it must be searched by other places that speak more Clearly.
It just makes sense, doesn't it? Perfect example. 1 Corinthians 15. Verse 29. Somebody read that passage. 1 Corinthians 15.
Verse 29. You can read it out loud when you find it. A little sword drill here. Otherwise, what will they do for a baptized for the dead?
If the dead do not rise at all, why men are they baptized for the dead? That's an interesting passage, isn't it? Paul assumes that there is baptism going on for the dead. It's an interesting passage, no?
I think it is. Mormonism has a whole theology of baptism for the dead. Now, when we come to 1 Corinthians 15, verse 29, we must conclude that that's a difficult passage, unless we're Mormons. we must conclude that it's a bit of a tricky passage. So what do we do?
Do we let that tricky, difficult passage shape the way we interpret all the clear passages that deal with baptism? Or do we let all the clear passages that deal with baptism help us with the tricky ones? And I think at best, at least for me, it's enough to say, I don't know what Paul means in 1 Corinthians 15, 29. But I know what he doesn't mean.
He doesn't mean that we are to upset the apple cart and start baptizing for the dead. He does not mean that we are to undo every clear passage that speaks to belief, then baptism. So the analogy of scripture or some scripture helping shed light on other scripture may not necessarily give us certainly what it means, but it may at least help us to understand what it doesn't mean. 1 Corinthians 15.29 might remain a melon scratcher, but it's not going to upset the ecclesiology of a particular church. Because we have a whole bunch of verses that tell us that you baptize living people, that you baptize believing people, that you baptize them by immersion.
And that analogy of scripture, that analogy of faith, helps us to deal with difficult passages along the way. Another passage that's quite interesting is found in Revelation chapter 20, where the devil is bound. He is bound with a chain, and he is cast into a bottomless pit. Now, if you've ever read the book of Revelation, you'll know there's a lot of symbol, there's a lot of things signified there, and Revelation 20 is not exempt from that.
I mean, we have a spirit being, the devil, he's bound with a physical chain, and he's cast into a bottomless pit. Obviously, there's some word pictures and symbols going on there. When we read through Revelation 20 and we try to figure out what's going to happen at the end times, we can get a bit confused. What unfortunately happens is that we take very clear passages, like 1 Corinthians 15, 20 to 28.
That's a very clear passage about what's going to happen when Jesus comes at the end. See, I think faulty interpreters take Revelation 20 and interpret 1 Corinthians 15 through its lens, rather than taking the clear passage of 1 Corinthians 15 to help us with the not-so-clear passage of Revelation 20. That really shouldn't be difficult. We take the very clear to help us with the not as clear.
That's all I'm trying to convey here. And this is a helpful rule, a helpful way to apply this principle. Scripture is its best interpreter.
Principle 6: Literary Genre
Sixthly, understand, we're going to run through the last three really quick because I have an unwritten covenant with all of you that we don't go past nine. Understand the various literary genre utilized in the Bible. I will explain the terms. Understand the various literary genre utilized in the Bible.
Genre just means type. If you went to college, the way that you read your book on mathematics, you understood it was a bit of a different approach than the way you read Archie Comics when you were five, or maybe that morning. You read Archie Comics in the morning, and then you went to school, and you got your book on mathematics. They're different genres, aren't they?
The way you approach Archie and Jughead is going to be fundamentally different than the way that you approach quantum physics. I think that's a no-brainer. Well, the Bible is filled with various types of literature. You need to understand that God is good.
God is gracious. God is kind. God is loving. God made steak, and he made chicken, and he made mangoes, and he made asparagus, and he made all kinds of good things for us to eat.
So he has given us a book containing various types of literature to satisfy, to entice, to feed, to thrill. I mean, there's something exhilarating about watching David take down Goliath in that battle. There's something exhilarating about Jesus stepping into that boat and the disciples panicking and Jesus hushing the storm. There's something exhilarating about that way that God communicates.
But that's not the only way. There's other times where it's straightforward narrative, straightforward instruction, straightforward history. There's different types of literature in the scripture. The way that you interpret Revelation will have some unique principles as opposed to the way that you interpret Romans.
The way that you interpret the Proverbs may differ from the way that you interpret the Gospel accounts. The way that you interpret 1 Corinthians may be different and will be different than the way that you interpret the Song of Solomon. God has chosen to communicate through story. God has chosen to communicate didactically, strictly teaching.
He's given law. He's given prophets. He's given all of these things. And it's helpful for the interpreter to understand what type of literature We are reading.
That's a good thing.
Principle 7: Old and New Testaments
Seventh. This one's huge. We oftentimes discuss this when we go through the Confession, specifically Chapter 7. Understand the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments.
Understand the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments. Augustine said, the New is in the Old concealed. The Old is in the New revealed. Great statement concerning continuity between the Old and the New Testament.
The New is in the Old concealed and the Old is in the New, excuse me, revealed. It is important to understand there's continuity, there's discontinuity. There are things similar between the Old Covenant Israel and the New Covenant Israel. There are things similar between that theocratic nation and the church, but there's some dissimilarity.
The church is not given the mandate to go out and execute Canaanites in a given city. The church is not to take up arms and destroy people for King Jesus. That is a discontinuity that we need to recognize that exists between the Old and the New Testaments.
Principle 8: The Church's Interpretive Tradition
And then the last principle is realize that you are not the first one to engage in this task. Realize that you are not the first, or should I say first or only one, to engage in this task. Ephesians 4, Christ gave some to be apostles, to be prophets, to be pastors and teachers, to be evangelists so that they may equip, so they may do ministry, all those things for the entirety of the church. Have you ever met anybody who said, all I need is my Bible alone and I'm good to go?
They're the scariest interpreters out there. We need the Bible and the gifts that Jesus has given to His church. You may disagree with John Calvin in some points of doctrine, but you should understand John Calvin in some points of doctrine. Spurgeon said it this way, It seems odd that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves should think so little of what He has revealed to others.
Beware the man who says, oh, you know, I came to this all on my own. You know, I read 15 commentators and none of them saw it. Well, maybe you're right, but be very cautious. If you've come up with a new interpretation after 20 centuries of Christ's rule in his church, I'm not here to say you're necessarily wrong.
I am here to say be very, very careful. before you go into print, or you take on Calvin, or you take on the Puritans, or you take on the Reformers. We need to make sure we realize that this is not an individualistic, narcissistic, self-absorbed task. We are people of a community, the church. We are connected to the church that we are in.
We are connected to the church universal. We are connected to Calvin. We are connected to Augustine. We're connected to the Puritans.
We ought to realize that Christ gave those men as gifts, and for us to turn from or neglect those gifts is to do so at our own peril. So remember, you're not alone. Check yourself. If you come up with a brand new cool interpretation, take a few moments, examine some others, just to make sure you're not whacked out.
All right, so those are eight principles. And I think this came up in our Saturday morning study. It's not like there's a Roman 17 where Paul says, herein lies your biblical hermeneutics. And it's not like Calvin said, OK, here's 15 things you need to do in order to interpret Scripture.
These are just principles that through the age of the church have been recognized by interpreters. Many of them are codified in our confession of faith, that idea. that the best interpreter of Scripture is Scripture itself. So these things have been developed in the church for the use of God's people in the context of the church. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank You for this time to consider these things, and I pray that You would help us to love Your Word, help us to delight in it, help us to read it as You've intended us to do so, God, for Your glory, and for our well-being. Go with us now, we pray. Again, comfort the families tonight, Father, who have lost their loved ones. Comfort the Van Worden family.
Give them great grace. Give them strength. Give them rejoicing at the thought that their dearly beloved brother is now in the presence of God the Lord. Also be with Terry's family, be with Sandy.
She's just lost not only her sister, but her brother as well. Please comfort that dear family also. And we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.