WEBVTT 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:13.759 Would you turn in your Bible to Second Timothy chapter two? 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:27.839 As we come to the conclusion of our series on the clarity of Scripture. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.000 Thank you all for joining me in this. 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:37.119 Thank you to Jesse for allowing me to preach this series, which has been a burden on my heart for a long time. 00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:45.200 I hope it's been useful and helpful, and that's my prayer for this evening as well as we close out the series. 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:53.359 2 Timothy chapter 2, 1 verse, verse 15. 00:00:54.320 --> 00:01:12.239 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:16.640 So reads the word of the living God. 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:34.879 He was strangled and then burned and then blown up for the sake of the clarity of Scripture. 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:51.040 William Tyndale, one of the great reformers who was the first to translate the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into English, lost his life because he wanted other people to read the Bible and really believe that they could. 00:01:52.159 --> 00:02:01.280 He was asked in one interchange what he thought about the difference between the Pope's laws and the laws of God. 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:05.920 And the person he was talking to said, I would rather be without God's law than without the Pope's. 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:08.080 And he said, Fie upon the Pope. 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:17.680 If God spares my life, ere many years pass, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the scriptures than thou dost. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:19.759 He was speaking to a priest. 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:28.639 He was utterly committed to everyone in the English language having a Bible to read for themselves. 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:31.120 To the degree that he became a fugitive. 00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:32.080 He went on the run. 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:34.159 He went to Germany so that he couldn't be captured. 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:41.120 It was illegal, according to the Roman Catholic Church, to reproduce the scriptures in English. 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:49.360 He would smuggle Bibles back into England in boxes of soap underneath hay. 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:56.800 And when he would get caught, he'd jump onto a riverboat and rush down to another town and just start working again. 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:02.560 One time all of his work was captured and burned, and he just started right at verse one all over again. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:06.000 And eventually he was betrayed. 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:22.319 The Catholic Church sent uh a spy, essentially, to befriend him and then eventually lead him into a dark alley where he was jumped and he was put in prison for 500 days, very little food and water, and at the end of that he was martyred. 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:26.639 He was brought into an open square, tied to a stake. 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:34.560 They put chains and rope around his neck and gunpowder all over his body. 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:42.879 And then they strangled him, killed him that way first, and then lit him on fire, and then his whole body exploded because of the gunpowder. 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:47.520 All because he wanted people to read the Bible and thought they could. 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:55.120 His last words were, Lord, open the King of England's eyes. 00:03:56.240 --> 00:04:10.400 And three months, sorry, three years after that, King Henry VIII actually made it a law in the land that every church would have to provide a copy of the scriptures, the one he translated, to their congregates. 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:12.479 God answered that prayer. 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:18.959 Satan knows that the Bible is clear, doesn't he? 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:23.680 He knows that the Bible is powerful because it's clear. 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:32.240 Which is why all throughout human history he has endeavored to keep it away from people by various insundry means. 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:42.560 One method that Satan has used is simply to convince us that the Bible is too hard to read. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:44.319 You started in the garden. 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:48.160 God isn't good, you can't trust him, who knows what it means. 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:51.360 And he's continued to today. 00:04:51.519 --> 00:05:01.360 Probably the most sustained effort on Satan's part to keep the Bible away from people, to keep God's word confusing, is the Roman Catholic Church. 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:33.600 Its doctrine has consistently denied the idea of private interpretation of Scripture, and has in fact asserted shortly after Tyndale's martyrdom in the Council of Trent, quote, in order to restrain petulant spirits, it decrees that no one relying on his own skill shall, resting the sacred scriptures to his own senses, presume to interpret the said scripture contrary to that sense which Holy Mother Church, whose it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, hath held and doth hold. 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:38.079 In case that's too confusing, only the Roman Catholic Church is allowed to interpret the Bible. 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:39.360 You are not. 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:56.800 And the justification that's been made over and over and over again by the Roman Catholic Church, to Satan's delight, has been to quote Scripture itself to prove that the Bible is too hard to actually be understood. 00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:00.720 Second Peter chapter 3, verse 16. 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:16.480 Peter writes, as Paul does in all his letters, when he speaks in them of these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their destruction as they do the other scriptures. 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:23.360 The irony is how much of this verse has been twisted to make the Bible seem inaccessible. 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:24.720 Let me ask you a question. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:29.839 In that verse, does it say there are things in them that are impossible to understand? 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:35.040 There are things in them that you could only understand if you were Holy Mother Church. 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:40.319 There are things in them that you needed a degree from a qualified seminary in order to understand. 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:41.839 Is that what it says? 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:44.160 No, it just says hard. 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:45.759 Of course there are. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:51.279 Of course there are parts of Scripture that are more and less difficult to interpret. 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:55.120 Hard doesn't mean impossible, it just means it might take some work. 00:06:55.759 --> 00:07:06.480 And of course, Satan has endeavored to twist those parts of Scripture, including Paul, to his own ends, to keep the Bible away from people. 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:16.560 But I think there's something about Satan's half-truth, half-lie that probably you feel in a tangible way. 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:25.279 That when you're reading the Bible for yourself in your devotional time in the morning, you do come across a text and you say, I don't know what this means, right? 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:33.120 You are reading through Job and you're not certain, is this supposed to be true or false? 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:35.920 This is like a good statement or a bad statement. 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:40.480 You read about Moses and Zipporah and you're a bridegroom of blood. 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:42.879 What am I supposed to do with that? 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:53.040 There are texts in scripture, I'm sure, that's been your experience, it's certainly been mine, that when you read through it at first blush, you're not immediately fully understanding everything that's there, right? 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:59.360 And so the Roman Catholic Church has said, well, because of that, the scriptures are too hard to understand. 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:00.720 You can't do it. 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:03.120 Let us do it for you. 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:13.199 So often I think our response to this kind of attack is to retreat, essentially. 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:26.800 Whether it's postmodernism or the Roman Catholic Church or any other source of distortion, we get bullied into believing that we actually can't understand the Bible for ourselves. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:30.720 We really do need someone else to come down from on high and explain it to us. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:38.799 Well, I mean, I guess the Bible says that marriage is between one man and one woman, but maybe I could be wrong about that. 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:53.759 I mean, I guess that the Bible is clear about when life begins, and I guess the Bible says that Jesus is the only way to be with the Father, but I don't know. 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:55.679 Good and godly people disagree. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:57.279 What am I supposed to do? 00:08:58.879 --> 00:08:59.360 G.K. 00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:05.440 Chesterton said, quote, what we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:10.799 A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth. 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:13.039 This has been exactly reversed. 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:19.279 We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication tables. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:21.200 I think we've actually arrived there. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:23.360 We're not on the road anymore. 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:31.440 And so, for many Christians, their Bibles and their mouths stay shut. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:39.360 As some preachers have said before, the problem with Christianity today, the problem with preachers today is that nobody wants to kill us anymore. 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:45.200 There's nothing dangerous about what we're saying because it agrees with everyone. 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:49.600 An unclear Bible is safe in an unclear world, isn't it? 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:53.679 A clear word from God is an atomic bomb. 00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:57.840 And here's my concern for us. 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:04.080 I don't think anyone will die for a book that they cannot understand. 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:16.080 Nobody will give their life to place a book that is as impenetrable as a diamond into the hands of others. 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:18.480 Nobody would give their life for that. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:23.679 And yet, we've been called to do just that. 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:29.679 As we've learned, the Bible is a clear book for a whole bunch of reasons. 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:31.440 One is because God is good. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:39.360 Secondly, because it's a book that requires obedience, and God gives us sight and hearts to obey through his spirit. 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:45.120 And we know that the Bible is clear even though we disagree, which is what we talked about last week. 00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:49.440 Disagreements don't hamper anything in the clarity of Scripture. 00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:51.360 It just means we disagree. 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:53.440 We could still have convictions. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:56.240 But now you're faced with a hard text. 00:10:56.320 --> 00:11:02.559 I want to get as practical as I possibly can in this sermon, this last time together thinking about the clarity of Scripture. 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:04.000 You're faced with a hard text. 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:11.759 Say you're there by yourself in the morning reading scripture, you're in a Bible study, and someone says, You're up to teach next. 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:20.159 Here's the text, and it's that part where Peter says that Jesus descends into the depths and he's preaching to the spirits in prison and you're scratching your head. 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:21.759 I don't know what to do with that. 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:26.159 So what do you do when you're faced with a hard text in Scripture? 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:32.320 Do you throw up your hands and say, Well, I guess, I guess it's just not for me to know. 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:34.559 I guess I just need to be a specialist. 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:37.279 I gotta get a degree if you're gonna understand that. 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:40.240 No, I don't think so. 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:45.200 I think you just do what Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, verse 15. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:46.879 You do your best. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:59.120 He says, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:07.120 Now, if anyone ever asks me, and they don't, but if anyone ever asks me, Dan, do you think that the scriptures are clear? 00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:10.879 I would just point them to this verse. 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:13.759 This would be my one-verse answer to that question. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:18.799 The text says rightly handling, accurately handling is the meaning of it. 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:23.679 Correctly handling, interpreting, and then using the word of truth. 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:28.240 Timothy is not some super apostle. 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:31.120 He's a faithful pastor in Ephesus. 00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:34.080 He's got the Spirit like you and I do. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:46.399 He has no other special qualification, but Paul certainly seems to think that he has everything that he needs to rightly, correctly ascertain the truth of what's in this book. 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:53.600 And I think this is also, in some way, a one-verse argument for how you do that. 00:12:53.840 --> 00:13:15.279 Paul shows us that clarity depends not only on the Spirit of God illumining our minds and giving us understanding, but also on means, on human, ordinary, basic, plain means that are accessible to everyone. 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:19.519 The clarity of Scripture demands that we work at it. 00:13:19.919 --> 00:13:32.320 That has been the confession of the church for a long time, to include the Westminster Confession of Faith, which says the following: All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all. 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:51.759 Yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and open in some place of Scripture or other that not only the learned, but the unlearned, and then listen to this phrase, in a due use of ordinary means may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. 00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:57.360 A due use of ordinary means. 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:03.759 So when I hear that, I'm thinking, how ordinary? 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:07.360 When you say ordinary, what kind of ordinary do you mean? 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:10.399 And I think Paul answers that for us in this text. 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:20.639 What are the ordinary means by which we can know the truth of Scripture, by which we can rightly divide the word of truth? 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:23.360 And I'll give you three. 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:24.879 This will be our outline for this evening. 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:28.480 The ordinary means to rightly read the scriptures. 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:31.519 And the first is this it's your mind. 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:32.960 Your mind. 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:50.240 What Paul is telling Timothy to do here is to use his brain, his God-given thinking muscle in an active way in order to rightly handle the word of truth. 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:50.799 Look at the verse. 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:52.320 He says, Do your best. 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:53.840 Do your best. 00:14:54.159 --> 00:14:58.080 Make great effort at take pains towards this end. 00:14:58.559 --> 00:15:01.600 Get up a mental sweat with this thing. 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:03.919 To do what? 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:06.559 To present yourself to God as one approved. 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:08.320 As if God is testing you. 00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:16.559 God is looking to see if you are going to measure up to the standard that He has set for you as a pastor in a local church. 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:19.759 He's saying, work hard at that. 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:21.759 What kind of work is it? 00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:26.320 Well, he says the object of the work is the word of truth. 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:28.240 So this isn't manual labor. 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:31.440 This is mental labor. 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:40.879 He's saying, read and understand and explain rightly words and truth. 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:44.159 That happens by our thinking. 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:50.639 It's also implied by this word here, rightly handling, which so much is bound up in that little word. 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:53.120 It's not used hardly anywhere else. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:16:03.600 It's used in Proverbs 3, chapter 3, verse 6, and a couple other places, but the basic meaning, the metaphor is of cutting a straight line. 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:10.960 Whether it's cutting a straight line in the land or on stone or whatever it is, the idea is it's cutting a straight line rather than a jagged or a crooked line. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:23.600 And metaphorically it became picked up to mean to cut a straight line, truth and error, to divide correctly between truth and error, which is probably why some of your translations say rightly dividing the word of truth. 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:24.879 That's the sense of it. 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:34.159 It certainly includes for Timothy teaching the Bible, but it starts with the way that he reads it and understands it. 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:36.320 He handles the word of truth. 00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:38.720 And this is necessarily then a mental work. 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:43.039 Rightly doing that involves thinking, thinking about it rightly. 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:50.320 Mental sweat is required to rightly read the Bible. 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:58.799 Meaning, you should not expect that when you open up your Bible in the morning and you just read it at first blush, you will have all understanding. 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:00.240 Should you? 00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:02.480 It might take some time. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:04.319 You might have to think about it. 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:09.599 And this reality is argued for all over the scriptures. 00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:14.880 Just up a couple verses in 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy 2, verse 7, Paul says, think. 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:20.240 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:21.200 And I love that. 00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:33.920 He's saying, when you do this very ordinary basic thing called thinking, God Himself supernaturally undergirds that very ordinary means to give you supernatural insight. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:36.319 That's incredible. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:42.720 But you can't just remove the thinking work from it. 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:48.640 God doesn't download spiritual truth into your mind absent any actual mental work. 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:51.279 He requires that you think about it. 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:54.799 And I just want to show you this from a number of different texts. 00:17:57.119 --> 00:18:08.480 In 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 15, he tells him, speaking of the scriptures, practice these things and immerse yourself in them. 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:09.839 Immerse yourself. 00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:11.680 Be in them, literally. 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:13.440 Be inside of them. 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:16.799 Let that be the world that you're living in, these truths. 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:22.720 And if you go all the way back to the Old Testament, you'll see the same command put forward. 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:24.400 Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. 00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:34.720 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that's written in it. 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:39.759 Or meditate, to chew the cud, so to speak, of this idea in your mind. 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:43.440 Let it roll around and steep in your thinking. 00:18:45.519 --> 00:18:47.839 Ezra is a model of this, Ezra 7.10. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:56.400 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:02.720 And we get this promise of blessing to the one who does that in Psalm chapter 1. 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:15.759 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night, all the time. 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:17.599 He wakes up, he's thinking Bible. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:19.839 He goes to sleep, he's thinking Bible. 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:25.519 That's how you get the truth out of it, is by thinking about it. 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:30.000 And then just a handful of passages from Psalm 119 to underline this as well. 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:37.119 Psalm 119, verse 6, then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:42.400 Psalm 119, 15, I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:48.240 Psalm 119, 27, make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:49.440 Do you see the connection there? 00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:50.559 You want to understand it? 00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:52.640 You're gonna have to meditate on it. 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:54.640 You're gonna have to think about it. 00:19:54.880 --> 00:20:03.839 This is why one of the Puritans said, I would rather someone hear one sermon and meditate on it than hear 500 sermons and never think about it. 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:08.799 Psalm 119, verse 97. 00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:10.880 Oh, how I love your law. 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:13.680 It is my meditation all the day. 00:20:14.079 --> 00:20:20.720 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. 00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:25.519 You want to be smarter than the people who teach you? 00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:26.799 Think. 00:20:27.839 --> 00:20:28.400 Meditate. 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:33.119 Put it in your mind and roll it around. 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:36.160 How does this work? 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:37.839 What does it mean to think? 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:42.319 Maybe it's self-explanatory, but in case it's not. 00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:48.640 Usually this takes the form of asking good questions and trying to answer them. 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:50.240 So I'll give you an example. 00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:54.799 I came to 2 Timothy 2.15 this week and I see the phrase the word of truth. 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:56.000 The word of truth. 00:20:56.160 --> 00:20:57.759 What does that mean? 00:20:58.240 --> 00:21:06.400 Is the word of truth just a reference to the gospel itself, or is it a reference to all of Scripture? 00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:11.119 Is it a reference to just apostolic doctrine or certain texts in Scripture? 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:11.920 What is it? 00:21:12.079 --> 00:21:14.720 What's Paul getting at when he says the word of truth? 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:22.240 And so I chased down different references, and there's some things that might make you think, okay, the word of truth is used in certain contexts where it just has to do with obedience. 00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:25.519 So maybe it has to do with the obedience of faith and having to do with the gospel. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:26.559 Maybe. 00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:36.480 But then if you turn to chapter 4 in the very same letter, you see Paul say, preach the word, and then verse 4, that people will turn away from listening to the truth. 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:46.480 So he's equating here the truth and the word, and the word is the Bible, so I take this to be centered on the apostolic message, the gospel itself, but inclusive of all of Scripture. 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:49.200 Now, all I did was I just asked questions, right? 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:53.839 Just asking questions and trying to answer it according to the Bible itself. 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:55.839 That's how you think. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:59.440 And you want you want to know what's the best tool for thinking about Scripture? 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.079 Memorizing scripture. 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:07.759 The more you memorize it, the more it's just going to be on replay in your head. 00:22:08.079 --> 00:22:10.319 And then you just naturally think about it. 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:12.640 Maybe even day and night. 00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:15.599 You meditate, you think. 00:22:16.400 --> 00:22:19.519 Maybe some of the students in here are like, no, thank you. 00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:20.960 I do enough thinking. 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:25.039 My teachers are quizzing me all the time. 00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:26.720 I don't need to think anymore. 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:29.839 Friend, this is the most important thing you could ever think about. 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:35.279 This is what your mind was made to think about is the truth of God. 00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:38.640 This is why you have logic as a faculty. 00:22:39.279 --> 00:22:41.599 This is why you have reason. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:44.319 Is so that you can think about God. 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:49.839 What a waste if all we ever thought about was school. 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:55.279 What a waste if all we ever thought about was work, entertainment. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:06.000 Instead, we ought to do our best, work hard at thinking about the Bible so that we can rightly handle the word of truth. 00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:15.519 So that's one of the very ordinary means that everyone, as it turns out, has in order to rightly understand the Bible. 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:17.440 Ordinary means to read the scriptures. 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:19.599 The second is this it's the church. 00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:22.799 You need your mind, but you also need the church. 00:23:23.039 --> 00:23:33.119 The clarity of Scripture as a doctrine does not mean that you by yourself should be the sole authority on everything in the Bible. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:40.640 Nobody in church history, at least Protestants that I know of, has ever argued that the church is a bad idea. 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:47.039 That you need only to open up the book and read it, and it's just you and Jesus, you'll be fine. 00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:50.160 God instituted the church for a reason. 00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:55.200 Teachers and pastors and fellow Christians, and you see this all over this letter. 00:23:55.519 --> 00:23:57.680 Chapter 1, verse 13. 00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:02.960 Paul says, follow the pattern of the sound words that you heard from me. 00:24:03.680 --> 00:24:09.200 So, Timothy, the reason you have understanding to begin with about the scriptures is because I told it to you. 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:11.920 As a fellow Christian, as an apostle. 00:24:12.160 --> 00:24:13.519 Chapter 2, verse 2. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:20.880 And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 00:24:21.119 --> 00:24:26.640 So find elders, appoint them, and then you teach them so that they can go teach other people. 00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:27.920 Like that's the design. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:31.200 There's supposed to be teaching going on in the church of the Bible. 00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:33.839 That's not antithetical to the clarity of Scripture. 00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:38.559 It is a part of how we get to the truth of the clear scriptures. 00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:41.279 It is a glorious means that God has given. 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:45.680 Or chapter 4, verse 2, he just says, preach the word. 00:24:46.079 --> 00:24:47.599 That's what a pastor is supposed to do. 00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:52.319 Preach the word because he wants to help people understand the text. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:25:04.240 Or chapter 3, verse 14, but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from who you learned it. 00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:09.680 His grandmother and his mother, how they taught him the scriptures. 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:16.079 Parents have a powerful role to play in the lives of their children in teaching them about the truth. 00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:18.559 That doesn't mitigate against the clarity of Scripture. 00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:23.200 This is just a means that God uses to reveal the truth that's really there. 00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:26.160 And I think this is all kind of bound up in this word worker. 00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:32.000 He says in the text, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed. 00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:34.319 Worker there could mean a number of different things. 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:50.000 I think what he's going for is the idea of a craftsman, someone who makes wood or metal, and they're either approved by the person who they're working for, or they are ashamed of their work. 00:25:51.039 --> 00:25:54.960 And what's the work that Timothy is engaged in? 00:25:55.279 --> 00:26:06.880 Well, over and over and over again, Paul tells us in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 11, command and teach these things until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and to teaching. 00:26:07.039 --> 00:26:09.279 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. 00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:11.279 What is Timothy supposed to be doing? 00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:12.240 What's his work? 00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:13.599 He's a teacher. 00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:25.759 And so Paul says, when you are working at figuring out what the text means so that you can teach it rightly, you might need some help. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:27.759 You're a help to other people. 00:26:29.119 --> 00:26:30.480 But you might need help as well. 00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:32.960 You see this also all throughout the scriptures. 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:42.640 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 2, and we sent Timothy, our brother, and God's co-worker in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and exhort you in the faith. 00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:47.200 Timothy is supposed to go and exhort people, establish them, because he's a worker. 00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:48.720 Same basic word. 00:26:49.039 --> 00:26:54.799 Or go all the way back to Deuteronomy chapter 4, where Moses begins preaching to the people. 00:26:55.200 --> 00:27:08.319 He declared to you his covenant, he says, which he commanded you to perform, that is the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone, and the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules. 00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:13.279 From the beginning of Israel's life as a nation, God appointed teachers for them. 00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:15.839 And then you see this in Ephesians chapter 4. 00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:26.480 In the church, he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. 00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:29.440 So the church is supposed to have teaching in it. 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:31.839 What we're doing right now is a good thing. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:32.960 This is a good plan. 00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:39.440 This isn't saying the Bible isn't clear enough to be understood, so you need people who have some secret knowledge to come up and explain it to you. 00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:40.319 No, no, no, no. 00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:44.000 All teachers are doing is getting up and saying, I did some mental sweat. 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:45.440 Let me show you what I've seen. 00:27:45.599 --> 00:27:46.880 Do you see it too? 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:48.079 That's it. 00:27:49.519 --> 00:27:51.359 The scriptures are still clear. 00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:56.880 Teaching is just another means of helping us see what's really and truly there. 00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:00.799 Like I said, parents have a powerful role in this with their kids. 00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:02.480 Deuteronomy 6. 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:05.920 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:14.559 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:15.839 Or Ephesians 6:4. 00:28:16.079 --> 00:28:21.279 Fathers, don't provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. 00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:24.160 You're supposed to teach them parents. 00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:34.960 One of the verses that's quite often used to try to undermine the idea of the clarity of Scripture is Acts chapter 8 with the Ethiopian eunuch. 00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:45.599 You remember he's riding in his chariot and he's reading Isaiah 53, and he says, Philip runs up next to him and he says, Do you understand what you're reading? 00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:48.240 And he said, How can I unless someone guides me? 00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:52.319 And so the Roman Catholic Church has said, Aha, you see. 00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:56.960 You need someone authoritative to interpret the scriptures for you. 00:28:57.359 --> 00:28:58.559 Is that what that means? 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:03.680 Have you ever needed help understanding something in your life? 00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:09.039 Have you ever missed something that somebody else saw and they could point out to you? 00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:13.519 I mean, in this instance, we're just talking about a guy who didn't know about Jesus. 00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:20.000 He had heard this testimony from Isaiah 53, but he didn't know is this guy talking about himself or is he talking about the Messiah? 00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:20.960 I don't know what's going on. 00:29:21.119 --> 00:29:25.920 And so Philip says, man, I don't know where you've been, but let me tell you what just happened. 00:29:26.880 --> 00:29:29.200 Isaiah 53 just happened. 00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:31.759 And his name is Jesus. 00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:36.559 There's not a problem with the clarity of scripture here. 00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:39.119 This is just God's good means of instruction. 00:29:39.359 --> 00:29:43.680 Or a couple chapters later, in Acts chapter 15, you get the very first church council. 00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:46.000 They've got a big issue with circumcision. 00:29:46.160 --> 00:29:47.920 Do you need to be circumcised in order to be saved? 00:29:48.079 --> 00:29:48.720 So what did they do? 00:29:48.880 --> 00:29:50.319 Acts chapter 15, verse 6. 00:29:50.400 --> 00:29:54.559 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 00:29:55.119 --> 00:29:56.799 They got together and they talked about it. 00:29:56.880 --> 00:29:58.000 They worked through it. 00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:02.559 And as we'll find out in a minute, they went to the scriptures to figure it out. 00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:08.400 So, fellow Christians are supposed to be a help to you in understanding the Bible. 00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:14.480 We look last week at Acts chapter 17, where Apollos understands the scriptures really well. 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:21.359 He's mighty in the scriptures, but he doesn't understand everything, and so Priscilla and Aquila come along and they explain to him more accurately the way. 00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:23.279 That's how it's supposed to work. 00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:29.599 The church is supposed to be a blessing to us to help us understand the scriptures. 00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:34.799 And I think for this, for us, this means both living and dead people. 00:30:35.119 --> 00:30:39.039 We have a glorious chorus of voices from all of church history. 00:30:39.119 --> 00:30:42.559 It's like one massive commentary on the Bible. 00:30:42.799 --> 00:30:45.920 Obviously, you have to read it with a discerning ear and eye. 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:55.759 But all of church history is a way of helping us, even now, understand more of what God has already said and what he said clearly. 00:30:56.160 --> 00:30:58.720 Of course, there's other ways to be helped. 00:30:58.799 --> 00:31:03.759 You can take classes, you can read books, you can get Bible software. 00:31:04.559 --> 00:31:15.039 All of the Bible studies that you guys go to here at church, is that just one big, massive testimony saying God didn't say anything clearly enough for me to get it? 00:31:16.160 --> 00:31:19.920 Or is it saying we all love this book and we want to learn from each other? 00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:30.240 God has ordained the means of the church, his people, to help us understand this clear word. 00:31:30.319 --> 00:31:39.440 And so doing your best to present yourself starts with you thinking critically, meditating on the scriptures, but you continue on and you branch out from there. 00:31:39.519 --> 00:31:44.640 You start reading books or commentaries or asking friends or pastors, people for help. 00:31:45.279 --> 00:31:57.039 I remember when we were in California, there was a family who was homeschooling their kids, and one of their kids was about 10 or 12 years old, and he started asking the big questions. 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:03.359 He said, Mom, how do I know that I can actually believe that the Bible's true? 00:32:04.319 --> 00:32:08.559 And she said, Okay, well we'll stop what we're doing for the day, we'll talk about that instead. 00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:09.839 And so they talked about it. 00:32:09.920 --> 00:32:14.720 And obviously she said, You can believe that the Bible's true, and made her case. 00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:21.759 Later that day, they had a friend of theirs, an older lady, come to the house and he asked her the very same question. 00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:24.960 How do I know that the Bible's really true? 00:32:25.200 --> 00:32:30.079 And this wise older woman looked at him and said, Well, what did your mother say? 00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:33.759 She said the Bible's true. 00:32:34.480 --> 00:32:38.960 And her answer was, Well, can you trust your mom? 00:32:43.440 --> 00:32:47.519 God has put people in our lives for a reason. 00:32:48.400 --> 00:32:56.079 It's not that we're all infallible, it's that we all can be helped. 00:32:56.960 --> 00:33:08.640 God has given pastors and teachers and parents and Bible study leaders and table leaders and all the rest to help us rightly handle the word of truth. 00:33:10.079 --> 00:33:14.640 And so we ought to do our best to avail ourselves of that glorious means in the church. 00:33:14.880 --> 00:33:24.000 So, ordinary means to rightly read the scriptures are mind, the church, and third, this one's astounding, the book. 00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:26.559 The Bible itself. 00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:32.240 God has given us the Bible itself to help us understand the Bible. 00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:36.799 One way that this has been said throughout church history is it's been called the analogy of faith. 00:33:37.039 --> 00:33:38.960 You might hear it said analogia scriptura. 00:33:39.119 --> 00:33:42.319 The idea is that scripture interprets scripture. 00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:45.359 The scripture is its best interpreter. 00:33:46.079 --> 00:33:50.000 That one text helps you understand another. 00:33:50.559 --> 00:33:55.839 I get this in this text from Paul's use of the phrase, the word of truth. 00:33:56.000 --> 00:33:59.519 He does not say the words of truth, though he could, and that would also be appropriate. 00:33:59.680 --> 00:34:00.720 He says the word. 00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:05.839 There is a unity to the Bible because it is all spoken out by God. 00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:08.480 That's what he says in chapter 3, verse 16. 00:34:08.800 --> 00:34:12.159 All scripture is breathed out by God. 00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:25.360 And so if all of Scripture has one author with a divine mind, with no error or contradiction, then that would mean whatever he said in one place must be consistent with whatever he says in another place, right? 00:34:26.159 --> 00:34:28.880 That he can't talk out of two sides of his mouth. 00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:35.119 So when you want to understand a scripture, you go to the scripture. 00:34:35.920 --> 00:34:45.280 When you find a particular passage very difficult or hard to understand, you go to another passage that talks about the same thing to help you understand it. 00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:48.480 All of Scripture is breathed out. 00:34:48.639 --> 00:34:50.239 None of it is contradictory. 00:34:50.480 --> 00:34:54.480 Therefore, all of it can help you understand the rest. 00:34:55.119 --> 00:34:57.599 And this is what we see in Acts chapter 15. 00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:08.800 Acts chapter 15, at the Jerusalem Council, the way that they resolve the debate after they talk about it for a while is that James shows up and says, Hey, let me just quote a bunch of scripture to you. 00:35:09.440 --> 00:35:20.960 He says, Acts chapter 15, verse 15, and with this the words of the prophets, plural, agree, just as is written, after this I will return, I will rebuild the tent of David that's fallen, and on and on. 00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:24.320 He quotes four or five different passages of scripture and jams them all together. 00:35:24.559 --> 00:35:35.440