WEBVTT 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:14.720 As we begin a five-week series dealing with the clarity of Scripture. 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:26.480 Genesis chapter three reads as follows. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:36.479 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that Yahweh God had made. 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:45.359 He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:58.240 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. 00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:16.879 But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:28.079 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to be make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:33.760 And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:43.920 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:47.599 So reads the word of the living God. 00:01:51.760 --> 00:02:06.560 He was called a horse beater, a gambler, a cheapskate, a dictator, and a most horrid swearer and blasphemer. 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:14.159 He was called mischievous, a spoiled child, a tyrannical monster. 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:20.960 He was accused of sedition, treason, faithlessness to his country, to his wife. 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:27.919 His most famous friends publicly disowned him and twisted his words to try to end his career. 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:31.919 One even prayed in a newspaper that he would die soon. 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:34.879 Who is it? 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:39.599 Well, you know him as the namesake of the district. 00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:46.639 The first president, the model of a modern major general, General George Washington. 00:02:48.240 --> 00:03:00.400 As lauded as this father of founding fathers is in American history, in his day, he was equally vilified, especially by the press, and he never actually responded publicly to it. 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:13.680 He was silent before all of his critics, except on a couple of occasions in private correspondence, he made known his feelings about this slander. 00:03:14.159 --> 00:03:34.240 One letter to Thomas Jefferson, he wrote, quote, the newspapers printed the grossest and most insidious misrepresentations in indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, a notorious defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:46.080 Washington suffered wild intentional misunderstanding, and he responded essentially with silence. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:51.919 How then would God respond? 00:03:53.120 --> 00:04:07.680 Who has been vilified, intentionally misunderstood, rejected, and vilified more than anyone else in all of history, how would God respond to that kind of slander? 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:13.039 What does this slander sound like? 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:15.520 Well, it's usually attacking his word. 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:21.439 According to recent polls, half of Americans say that the Bible contains outright lies. 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:31.839 One in four evangelicals say that the Bible is mythical, like every other book, every other holy book. 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:42.720 One in three, one in three evangelicals, that's people who say that they believe the Bible, one in three evangelicals say, quote, religious belief is a matter of personal opinion. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:44.959 It is not about objective truth. 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:59.759 You hear this kind of misrepresentation of God and his word all the time, I would guess, in your relationships with people at work or school, maybe family members or friends who don't know the Lord. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:01.279 It sounds a lot of different ways. 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:03.600 Tell me if you've heard something like this. 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:11.839 Well, you can't really know what the Bible says because there's all those different translations out there, right? 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:15.279 How could anyone possibly know which one is right? 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:24.800 Or maybe you've heard, you know, there's a whole bunch of different denominations that all believe a bunch of different things. 00:05:25.839 --> 00:05:28.959 Who are you to say that yours is right? 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:32.319 I mean, who are you to judge, really? 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:33.920 Have you heard that one? 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:40.720 Who are you to be the ultimate decider of what scripture really means? 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:42.879 Or my personal favorite. 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:46.480 That is just your interpretation. 00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:53.839 All of this is really nothing less than a slander of God. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:59.279 And it's a rejection of one thing: the clarity of Scripture. 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:01.439 The clarity of Scripture. 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:05.279 And it's a deception as old as the garden itself. 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:08.480 Did God really say? 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:12.399 Why? 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:17.839 Why has this subtle rejection of God's word caught on so much? 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:23.680 Why do so many people really believe that the Bible is very unclear? 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:27.120 And I think there's something to it. 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:32.879 I mean, just think of hard Bible passages that you've encountered in your life. 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:39.519 I think of 1 Corinthians 15, 29, where Paul talks about baptism for the dead, whatever that is. 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:47.120 I think of 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul speaking about head coverings says, you know, you should wear head coverings because of the angels. 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:48.480 Whatever that means. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:58.399 I mean, I think of 1 John 5, 16 to 17, that passage that has to do with the sin not leading to death, the sin leading to death. 00:06:58.720 --> 00:06:59.920 What's that about? 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:02.959 Have you encountered passages like that in your Bible reading? 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:05.920 Ones that made you scratch your head and you couldn't really figure it out? 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:10.240 I mean, the Bible can be challenging to interpret, can't it? 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:20.560 And then there are a host of texts that say things clearly, but things that we don't necessarily like to hear. 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:24.399 For some people, it's complementary in doctrine, right? 00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:28.319 1 Timothy 2.12, I don't promote a woman to teach or exercise authority over man. 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:31.120 I don't like what it says, so it doesn't seem very clear to me. 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:35.759 Or I don't know how to make that work with the rest of what I know to be true about God. 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:41.519 Or maybe it's just how barbaric God seems, particularly in the Old Testament. 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:44.079 Remember the end of Psalm 137? 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:47.279 Blessed is he who dashes his babies against the rocks. 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:48.560 I mean, good night. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:50.240 That's in the Bible. 00:07:52.160 --> 00:08:03.600 My guess is that if you have professed to follow Christ for some amount of time, there's been some point at which you've been like a little embarrassed to admit that you actually do think you know what the Bible means. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:05.759 That it is clear. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:09.759 And after all, who are you? 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:14.000 Good and godly people disagree. 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:17.120 So who am I to say, really? 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:20.240 I mean, have you felt that? 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:26.560 Ultimately, it all comes down to one question. 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:29.600 Has God spoken clearly? 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:33.279 Did God really say? 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:45.600 So we're gonna spend the next five weeks, Sunday evenings, going through a study of the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture. 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:49.759 So you can already probably guess what my answer to that question is. 00:08:49.919 --> 00:08:51.039 Has God spoken clearly? 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:52.399 Yeah, I think he has. 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:54.240 Is the Bible clear? 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:56.080 Yes, I do think it is. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:08:59.039 God has spoken clearly. 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:13.440 And the reason that we're going to do that is because I have felt, and I think maybe you have to, that there is a kind of lost art of having convictions in our day. 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:22.480 That I have felt afraid at times to plant my feet firmly on God's word and say, thus saith the Lord. 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:30.000 I've felt embarrassed, like I'm being arrogant or prideful to say that I really do know what the Bible means. 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:36.080 But I think God would mean for us to have convictions from his word. 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:43.360 And I think the key to unlocking them is to rightly understand the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture. 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:48.960 Every generation has to defend God's word at some level. 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:52.639 In previous generations, it was the inerrancy of Scripture. 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:55.279 Scripture's full of all kinds of falsehoods. 00:09:55.600 --> 00:09:57.679 Other generations, it's just the authority of Scripture. 00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:00.000 There's other authorities besides the Bible. 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:09.039 I think in our generation, in this day, what seems to be the hottest point of the attack is the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:11.360 Did God really say? 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:13.840 And who are you to say? 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:24.879 Really, your whole devotional life is either vain meditation or it's communion with the living God. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:28.480 And the difference is the clarity of Scripture, isn't it? 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:37.120 The church has stood on the clarity of Scripture since Peter's sermon at Pentecost, and we need to reassert it today. 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:50.639 What I want practically out of our time together is for you to be able to respond to your friends and family who aren't believers and confidently say, Yes, I do know what the Bible says, and let me show you why. 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:54.000 But I also want you to feel confident in and of yourself. 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:56.720 I don't want that to be just an evangelistic technique. 00:10:56.799 --> 00:10:58.720 I want that to be true in your Christian life. 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:03.600 I want you to have convictions deep down in your bones that you know God has said. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.480 And you can live everything in your life based on it. 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:10.879 You could even lose your life because of what this book says. 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:12.320 You're that certain. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:18.559 And if you don't think that Scripture is clear, I don't think that you can have that kind of conviction. 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:25.519 If the Bible is clear, then your God has spoken and we ought to listen. 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:31.679 So let me just give you a brief roadmap for what we're going to do over the next five weeks, and then we'll get into what we're going to do for tonight. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:42.639 We're going to walk through the Bible and see how the scripture itself argues for the clarity of Scripture rather than kind of taking a systematic approach, which I'll do just in brief this evening. 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:47.279 We're going to take a kind of biblical theological approach and march through scripture. 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:51.279 So we'll start in Genesis where God first speaks and speaks clearly. 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:58.399 We'll go to Deuteronomy next week and really to the rest of the Old Testament to see where clarity is tested by Israel. 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:03.120 Then we'll go to Matthew and we'll see how Jesus thinks about the clarity of Scripture. 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:07.120 And then we'll turn to Romans and think about how clarity works itself out in the church. 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:10.240 That'll be Secret Bowl Sunday, so I expect to see all of you here. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:18.720 And then we'll look at 1 Corinthians to think about how the clarity of Scripture then impacts our evangelism, how we take it outside of the church. 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:24.240 So that's what we're going to do this evening, beginning this study in Genesis by asking three questions. 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:28.399 And the first question is this: Does God speak clearly? 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:30.320 Does God speak clearly? 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:31.519 I don't want to hide anything here. 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:33.279 I'm not trying to play any fancy games. 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:34.559 Does God speak clearly? 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:35.440 My answer is yes. 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:36.960 I just want to defend it briefly. 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:46.159 In case you don't hear any of the other sermons, at least you will have heard this and you get just a broad overview of the doctrine of clarity of scripture, kind of from a systematic approach, and then we'll look at Genesis. 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:49.200 So, does God speak clearly? 00:12:49.440 --> 00:13:04.080 And I would say yes, and supremely so in his written word, the Bible, the scriptures, which we would say are the 66 books of the Old and New Testament inspired by God over thousands of years, 40 plus authors for our edification and salvation. 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:08.639 But what do we mean when we say that God speaks clearly? 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:12.000 There's a couple ways that you could approach this. 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:13.759 One would be just to give synonyms. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:16.159 That's one way to define a word is with synonyms. 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:24.399 So here's a couple synonyms for you: Accessible, understandable, intelligible, graspable. 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:29.279 It's a way of saying you can actually read God's word and understand it. 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:30.080 Truly. 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:34.720 And I just want to defend this briefly from a couple of texts. 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:38.480 We'll look at these at length later, but I just think it's valuable to read them right now. 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:40.879 Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 11. 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:46.240 Moses says, For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:51.039 It's not in heaven that you should say, Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it? 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:55.759 Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say, Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it? 00:13:55.919 --> 00:14:01.679 But the word is very near you, it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:09.759 Moses fully expects when Israel receives his word on the plains of Moab, that they can understand it such that they can respond and obey. 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:35.200 It says in Isaiah 55, 8, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares Yahweh, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts, which you might think is kind of a death knell for the clarity of Scripture. 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:39.840 I mean, how how on earth are we going to get access then to these high, high thoughts? 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:54.399 Then he says this, verse 10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and don't return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth its sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. 00:14:54.639 --> 00:15:01.360 It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:04.480 If God's word is not clear, it can't do its work. 00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:12.240 And really, this is the strongest argument for the clarity of Scripture, is just how widely it's assumed in the Bible, isn't it? 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:17.200 Everyone who believes in God in the Bible assumes that he could be understood. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:25.919 Jesus even goes to such great length, and we'll look at this in two weeks, to say over and over and over again to the Pharisees, I mean, haven't you read? 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:33.679 Not, haven't you taken that class and learned Greek and Aramaic and all of that so that you really could get it? 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:34.480 No. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:38.639 Did you just have like a passing glance at the text? 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:41.440 If you did, you should have known this. 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:46.480 That's the assumption of Scripture, is that it's clear. 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:50.000 God speaks so as to be understood. 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:58.480 It's normal speech, it's not esoteric, you don't have to have a degree, you don't have to go to seminary, you don't have to learn the original languages to understand it. 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:02.080 You can understand it in whatever language it's translated into faithfully. 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:04.559 God's word is clear. 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:10.320 It's not in code, it's not a secret, you don't need a magic ball. 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:15.440 I mean, so much of the Bible is just stories about people, isn't it? 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:17.519 How do you where do you live your life? 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:20.480 You just have conversations with people about what's going on in their lives. 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:22.639 Guess what's a lot of the Bible? 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:24.159 Stories about people. 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:27.519 Very understandable, very accessible. 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:31.279 But a couple of caveats. 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:33.840 Second, I want to say that God speaks clearly. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:39.120 To say that God speaks clearly is not to say that we listen clearly always. 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:40.639 That's an important distinction. 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:44.639 I got um nose surgery this last week. 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:46.559 You might be able to hear it a little bit. 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:52.639 And um for two days after the surgery, they jammed these two rods up my nostrils. 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:54.879 Very pleasant, I'm sure. 00:16:55.279 --> 00:17:02.399 And um my wife later, one of those evenings, got pizza for us, which I love pizza. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:06.799 And she brought it in and she said, Oh, did you know that we were having pizza? 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:08.160 Could you smell it? 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:10.720 No. 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:13.680 No, I couldn't. 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:16.480 Uh why not? 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:19.039 Is it because the pizza didn't smell? 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:20.720 No. 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:23.440 It's because I was blocked up. 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:36.559 The way Calvin says this, which is way more poetic, is that you really ought not to listen to a blind man tell you that the sun isn't shining. 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:42.160 It's not the sun's fault that he can't see it. 00:17:43.039 --> 00:17:45.759 So it is so often with the Word of God. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:49.519 Scripture is, one way to say this, innately clear. 00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:52.880 When God speaks, the actual speaking that he's doing is clear. 00:17:53.119 --> 00:17:55.440 The reception of it, that's another question. 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:58.400 That's actually a lot of what we'll talk about over the coming weeks. 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:04.880 Which means that the clarity of Scripture is properly understood as a property of Scripture, not of interpretation. 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:18.319 Thirdly, I want to say that God speaking clearly is to say that its clarity was at its peak for the original audience, because of this very fact. 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:25.200 So God's word was immediately and totally and supremely clear when it was first written. 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:36.000 On the plains of Moab, when Moses is delivering the second giving of the law, Deuteronomy, that's when the Israelites understood that the most obviously. 00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:36.640 Why? 00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:42.400 Well, because time and cultural change and language barriers enter in, don't they? 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:47.119 And they do add a level of intellectual difficulty to understanding the text of Scripture. 00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:58.240 Which is why it is valuable to study the text, and we'll look later on at what it means to work hard at understanding scripture, how that doesn't actually work against clarity, but for it. 00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:01.359 But those difficulties aren't insurmountable. 00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:07.920 Just because it was mostly clear for the original audience doesn't mean it's unclear for us who are at a distance. 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:12.079 We can still understand God's word through translation and other means. 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:20.400 So, fourth, to say that God speaks clearly is to say that what God wanted to say, he said clearly. 00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:29.839 I think often when we come to the scriptures and we have something that's like a burn our saddle that we just don't understand about it, quite often it's not really what the text is even trying to say. 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:34.240 It's something we want to know that's related to what the text is saying, right? 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:37.200 Like we're trying to do theology and make things meet up. 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:38.960 For example, the sermon this morning, right? 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:41.599 Malachi chapter 1, we're talking about election. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:51.599 Okay, in Malachi's mind and in the divine author's mind, the Holy Spirit, as he's writing that text, he's not trying to solve your problems with free will, right? 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:59.200 He's trying to tell you something about the way that God loves Israel and has a hatred for Edom. 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:08.480 So that question, though it's a good one and a legitimate question, is not a detraction from the clarity of Scripture. 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:11.200 It's just to say that's a good question that we ought to ask. 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:15.359 What God intended to communicate, he communicated perfectly. 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:20.240 But what we want to know about Scripture, that might be more confusing. 00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:22.400 Or it might not be revealed at all. 00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:30.720 The sovereignty of God in saving Israel and condemning Edom is a question of theology, not of exegesis, properly speaking. 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:36.319 And fifth, to say that God speaks clearly means that God speaks. 00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:38.720 That God speaks. 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:46.079 God Almighty, the thrice holy God, is the one who is speaking in this book. 00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:53.759 And so it should not surprise you and I when, as we encounter it, it's kind of mysterious. 00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:57.119 It's transcendent, it's otherworldly. 00:20:57.440 --> 00:21:01.200 It feels like we're grasping beyond where our minds can go. 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:02.880 Of course it is. 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:05.200 Look who's talking. 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:07.920 It's God Himself. 00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:14.559 You should expect the word of an eternal three-in-one being to challenge your thinking. 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:18.400 Because it's God who is speaking. 00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:21.519 All that being said, God has spoken clearly. 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:23.279 God has spoken clearly. 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:27.839 And there's plenty of other caveats that we could give and we will, as time allows. 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:35.039 But I hope that's at least just a beginning understanding of what we mean when we say the doctrine of the clarity of scripture. 00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:37.359 It doesn't mean it's equally clear in all parts. 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:43.519 It doesn't mean that you're going to magically download information from the Bible to your brain without any effort. 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:49.039 The clarity of Scripture simply means that God speaks clearly in his word. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:54.319 But here's the question that I want to turn our attention to this evening. 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:55.279 Why? 00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:59.279 Why is it that God speaks clearly? 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:03.680 And for this answer, we need to turn to Scripture itself. 00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:07.920 Go with me to Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. 00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:14.559 On the sixth day of creation, God makes man, and he says this. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:30.880 Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:39.359 What this tells us is that we were made like God in some respects. 00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:41.279 We were made after his likeness. 00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:51.440 And one of the likenesses that we bear to our creator is our communicative capacity. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:53.680 Don't you even see it in the verse? 00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:56.079 Then God said, Let us make man in our image. 00:22:56.240 --> 00:23:08.799 There's a kind of divine deliberation going on between the persons of the Trinity having to do with creation, such that they're communicating with one another about what to do with these creatures. 00:23:09.359 --> 00:23:10.640 That's why it says us. 00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:20.160 The Trinity, God, is inherently communicative. 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:29.759 And the way that God communicates with God, God the Father, with God the Son, with God the Spirit, is perfect. 00:23:31.599 --> 00:23:33.759 Perfect shared knowledge. 00:23:34.240 --> 00:23:42.079 Everything that's in one mind, in all minds, it is such that it is one mind. 00:23:44.880 --> 00:24:01.920 And whatever ability we have then to communicate, whether through reading or writing or speaking, whatever ability we have to talk to one another and to understand and to get information from one mind into another, therefore, is derivative of God. 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:07.920 The reason that we can communicate at all is because God is a communicator by his very nature. 00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:13.279 God speaks because God is a speaker. 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:15.039 But why does he speak clearly? 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:22.240 And for that we need to turn to Genesis 2, where we see the first conversation on record between God and man. 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:29.279 Yahweh God took the man, it says in Genesis 2.15, and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 00:24:29.359 --> 00:24:40.559 And Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. 00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:50.559 So on the sixth day of creation, God makes Adam, and that very same day begins talking to him. 00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:53.839 We don't know if there is another conversation prior to this. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:56.480 This is the first recorded conversation that we have. 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:00.319 And there's three elements to this first sentence. 00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:01.119 I want you to see. 00:25:01.279 --> 00:25:03.519 First, he gives him a kind of permission. 00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:05.839 He says, You may eat, you may surely eat. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:08.960 God's in control of it, he's in charge, but he gives permission to Adam. 00:25:09.039 --> 00:25:15.440 Second, he gives a prohibition, but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:20.400 He's allowed to say which ones you can and can't, and so he puts a prohibition on one. 00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:25.279 And then he makes a promise, because in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. 00:25:26.880 --> 00:25:28.319 Now, how does that work? 00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:33.599 Like backing up in the most fundamental way, how does that work? 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:36.160 How does language itself work? 00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:52.319 Well, in this text, there's a noun, tree, there's a preposition of, there's a verb eat, there's direct objects, there's clauses, phrases, sentence. 00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:56.240 I mean, just the normal stuff of language, isn't it? 00:25:56.480 --> 00:26:03.359 All the stuff you forgot from seventh grade, all of that is at work in this very first sentence between God and man. 00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:09.519 God made language and he gave it to man as a gift, and it seems like right out of the box it's working. 00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:14.400 God expects there to be understanding from the very beginning. 00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:15.759 Notice it's a command. 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:18.559 It says, Yahweh God commanded the man. 00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:20.079 This isn't a suggestion. 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:26.160 This isn't like, well, if you happen to interpret this correctly one day, then maybe let's talk about the implications of it. 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:26.960 No, no, no. 00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:28.319 This is right now today. 00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:30.960 You better understand this and act according to it. 00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:33.519 Otherwise, you got serious problems. 00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:37.759 All of it works on day six. 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:38.559 Why? 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:44.400 And I think it's because language itself shares something with the rest of creation. 00:26:44.559 --> 00:26:49.920 Back in Genesis 1, what was that refrain that we heard over and over again? 00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:57.279 Verse 10, God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas, and God saw that it was good. 00:26:58.559 --> 00:27:03.279 Verse 12, each according to its kind, and God saw that it was good. 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:16.079 To rule over the day and over the night, verse 18, and separate the light from the darkness, and God saw that it was good, and God saw that it was good, and God saw that it was good, and God saw that it was very good. 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:24.079 So when God makes everything, he looks at it before the fall and says, This is all really good. 00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:28.880 I think language is included in that. 00:27:29.519 --> 00:27:36.559 The capacity for human beings to communicate one with another and for God to communicate to us is good. 00:27:39.279 --> 00:27:40.640 Why is it good? 00:27:42.960 --> 00:27:44.480 Because God is good. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:47.920 And he makes good things. 00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:59.119 See, even in the first warning to Adam, God is putting his goodness on display. 00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:04.559 Not just by the means of language which itself is good, but look what he's doing. 00:28:04.640 --> 00:28:05.920 He's warning Adam. 00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:09.039 He's saying, I care about you. 00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:11.200 I don't want you to face death. 00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:15.119 And so I'm warning you, don't go down that road. 00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:16.079 What is that? 00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:17.200 That's goodness. 00:28:17.839 --> 00:28:21.119 That's kindness, that's generosity, that's love. 00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:25.279 Was God beholden to tell Adam this? 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:27.359 No, of course not. 00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:28.960 God could do whatever he wants with Adam. 00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:30.240 He's his creation. 00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:31.680 But he's good. 00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:35.359 He loves him, and so he talks to him. 00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:46.240 He shares something of what is in his infinite knowledge in some finite way with Adam through the means of this good vehicle called language. 00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:55.839 And I would submit to you that language is only good, in the most proper sense, meaning it works the way that it's designed to work. 00:28:56.640 --> 00:28:59.200 Language is only good when it is clear. 00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:06.559 Language is only good when it is clear, when it effectively gives you access to an author's mind. 00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:09.200 That's the purpose of language from the very beginning. 00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:15.759 God did not put this sentence in Adam's mind so that Adam would just wonder about it. 00:29:16.079 --> 00:29:19.839 He didn't want him to just have a certain kind of experience. 00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:29.599 He wanted him to know something, to believe it to be true, because it was given from a good God by a good means. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:30.960 It was clear. 00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:36.880 Obscurity destroys the very reason for language at all. 00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:48.720 So the reason that we have clear language to begin with, the reason that you can talk to your wife or your kids or your friends or your coworkers and understand each other is because God is good. 00:29:49.759 --> 00:30:01.519 And because he gave you this wonderful, mysterious gift of language, words and sentences that fit together and somehow make whatever's in here go out there such that you know what I'm thinking. 00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:03.359 What an incredible gift. 00:30:05.119 --> 00:30:06.720 And it's all because God is good. 00:30:06.880 --> 00:30:12.480 Oh, taste and see, Psalm 34, verse 8, that the Lord is good. 00:30:13.279 --> 00:30:15.920 Psalm 25, 8, God is good. 00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:23.119 Psalm 119, you are good and you do good, therefore I look to your statutes. 00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:26.799 Why do we believe that the Bible is clear? 00:30:27.039 --> 00:30:29.119 Because we believe that God is good. 00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:32.640 God speaks clearly because God is good. 00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:35.440 He is loving, he is kind, he is generous. 00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:41.920 What I'm saying here is what's true about every aspect of Scripture. 00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:48.960 Any doctrine of Scripture that you have, you have to follow it up the trail to see where it comes from. 00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:51.519 It all comes from the character of God. 00:30:52.319 --> 00:30:58.240 I'm saying that the clarity of Scripture depends on the goodness of God. 00:30:59.359 --> 00:31:02.400 If God is not good, then of course Scripture is not going to be clear. 00:31:02.559 --> 00:31:04.720 But if God is good, then Scripture will be clear. 00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:07.680 The Bible is clear because God is good. 00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:13.119 He intended Adam to clearly understand, and so he spoke clearly. 00:31:14.319 --> 00:31:16.079 That's why he still speaks clear. 00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:18.640 It's out of his goodness. 00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:24.880 But let me ask one other question, and we'll be the rest of our time together. 00:31:25.039 --> 00:31:30.000 Why then does God's word often seem so unclear? 00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:38.079 Really, the whole reason why we're having to talk about the clarity of Scripture is because there's a bunch of people saying we don't think the Bible's clear. 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:40.720 Or maybe you in your own heart have felt that. 00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:43.039 Like, I don't know that the Bible really is clear. 00:31:43.119 --> 00:31:45.440 It feels very unclear to me at times. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:48.000 Why does it seem that way? 00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:51.759 Well, enter Genesis 3. 00:31:52.799 --> 00:32:05.039 Before cultural distance, before translations of the Bible, the clarity of the Word of God was undermined in the only way that it could have been by slandering the very character of God. 00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:07.839 Look at Genesis chapter 3, verse 1. 00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:15.039 Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that Yahweh God had made. 00:32:16.079 --> 00:32:18.079 Genesis 3 begins with the serpent. 00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:20.319 We don't really get an explanation where he's coming from. 00:32:20.480 --> 00:32:21.200 He's just there. 00:32:21.279 --> 00:32:23.039 We know that he's made by God. 00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:25.039 But other than that, we don't know much more. 00:32:25.200 --> 00:32:26.799 We find out later in the scriptures. 00:32:26.960 --> 00:32:30.000 This in Revelation chapter 12, it tells us this is Satan. 00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:39.039 So Satan, in the form of a serpent, enters into the garden, and it says that he's crafty. 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:40.000 He's cunning. 00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:42.720 It's not necessarily a negative word, it just means that he's subtle. 00:32:42.799 --> 00:32:44.880 He's very smart and sharp. 00:32:45.119 --> 00:32:48.160 He knows how to get what he wants. 00:32:51.039 --> 00:32:58.559 There's a kind of play on words here in the text with the word crafty, it rhymes, so to speak, with the word naked. 00:32:58.960 --> 00:33:08.720 And I think the idea here is, as one commentator has said, that Eve looking to become shrewd like the serpent became nude like the serpent. 00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:12.240 And not like she expected. 00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:24.640 And so the serpent tries his first ploy to undermine this good creation of God, mankind, with an outright lie. 00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:31.839 He says to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? 00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:34.720 This is a content question. 00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:38.559 He's saying, was that actually what God Himself said? 00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:41.680 And then he says the opposite, right? 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:43.920 You shall not eat of any tree. 00:33:44.160 --> 00:33:45.519 And Eve gets it right away. 00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:50.240 Remember, this is before the fall, she's got perfect memory, so she's like, no, that's not what God said. 00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:53.119 He really said the opposite. 00:33:53.279 --> 00:33:55.519 You can eat of any tree in the garden. 00:33:55.680 --> 00:33:59.599 So the question is then, why does Satan take that approach? 00:33:59.759 --> 00:34:02.880 He's crafty, he's cunning, he's no fool. 00:34:03.039 --> 00:34:04.720 Why does he take that approach? 00:34:04.960 --> 00:34:09.519 And I think it's embedded in the word in my text, actually, or sometimes translated, really. 00:34:11.039 --> 00:34:12.960 Did God actually say? 00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:15.199 It's like. 00:34:18.079 --> 00:34:21.760 I don't know what I just heard from one of the gazelles over there. 00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:25.519 But did God really say that to you? 00:34:26.079 --> 00:34:27.360 Please, no. 00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:29.119 Seriously? 00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:29.679 To you? 00:34:29.840 --> 00:34:31.119 I mean, of all people. 00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:33.679 God said that to you? 00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:36.880 What kind of God is that? 00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:43.119 It's an attempt to make God seem diabolical. 00:34:43.920 --> 00:34:46.880