Truth and the Interpretation of Scripture

Three Reasons We Need To Consider Truth And Interpret Scripture - Part 1

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Apologetics

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2022-05-06

Synopsis: Pastor John Weaver introduces a series on interpreting Scripture, focusing on the command to 'consider' God's Word from 2 Timothy 2:7. He emphasizes that understanding comes from God as we diligently study, and that we must interpret Scripture to resolve seeming contradictions. Using 1 John 2:27 and other passages, he demonstrates how proper interpretation reconciles apparent conflicts, establishing that Scripture interprets Scripture and that no private interpretation can override the divine author's intent.

[John Weaver] 2 Timothy 2 and verse 7. This is going to be the first in a series of messages. How many? I do not know. Probably six to eight at least.

[John Weaver] The title of this message is Three Reasons We Need to Consider Truth and Interpret Scripture. However, we're going to have more reasons probably on down the line and more sermons following this as well. So look if you would please in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 7, The Apostle said, Consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things. Consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things.

[John Weaver] Most Christians read their Bibles. However, most Christians do not read their Bibles daily, consistently, constantly, and repeatedly. And when they do read their Bibles, usually They read them without thinking, without grasping what is being said, without even noting the place in which they're reading. And usually a lot of Christians who try to read their Bibles all the way through every year, they read them so quickly that it's almost impossible to absorb and to learn that which they have read. I've often said that I'd rather read three verses with understanding than three chapters and not understand a word that I had read. Moreover, usually when we read something from the Bible, we don't normally think about it, we don't meditate upon it, and we certainly do not apply it, and consequently, it's easily lost.

[John Weaver] Now, there's a warning in Scripture. You'll find it in Hebrews 2 and verse 1 where the Bible says this, We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." And certainly things do indeed slip away from us. I find it not only most interesting, but sometimes even amusing to observe that most Christians can listen to a well-developed sermon, and an interestingly communicated sermon, and one with excellent oratory. And by the end of the day, they've already forgotten what the sermon was about. And usually, they've forgotten everything within a week's time.

[John Weaver] Now, you have to ask, why in the world is that true? Well, there are a number of reasons it could be given. One of the first reasons, I suppose, is that most people really don't listen. They really do not hear. Listening indeed is an art. But usually, a lot of people who come to church, they're sitting there, And they're thinking about other things. They're not really thinking about what is being said. Sometimes they're planning a week's worth of events in their minds. And sometimes they're just mentally dozing or acting as if they're in a mental stupor. I've known a lot of people who would stay up late on Saturday night either going out or watching TV or watching some movie and then watch them on Sunday morning and they stand there and or sit there and just keep dozing off because, you know, they didn't really come to hear. They didn't really come to learn. They just simply came out of habit. Now, I suppose the second and probably the most important reason is a biblical reason, is because when we hear something, we don't really make application of it to our lives.

[John Weaver] So I want you to hold second Timothy, but I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Mark, chapter four. And look, if you would please, beginning there with verse 23. And we'll read through verse 25. Look at Mark chapter 4, verse 23. Our Lord gives us this truth. He says, in verse 23, If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And He said unto them, Take heed what you hear, with what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you, and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath to him shall be given, and he that hath not from him shall be taken, even that which he hath."

[John Weaver] Now, actually there are three principles in this passage that we really need to comprehend. The first one is this, if you look in verse 24, and he said unto them, take heed what you hear, with what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you. In other words, God is going to measure truth to us to the same degree and to the same measure that we give in seeking and learning truth. He's not going to give us an ounce more. So you're not going to study the scripture for two hours and get a week's worth of knowledge. It's impossible. Neither are you going to study for 15 minutes and get two hours worth of knowledge. If you study 10 minutes, you're going to get 10 minutes worth of knowledge and that's it. Because he said he's going to measure back to you exactly the same measure that you put in in giving the truth.

[John Weaver] Now here's the second principle. Look again in verse 24, part of it in verse 25. He said, unto them, take ye what you hear, with what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you. Now watch this. And unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given. So the word here in the Greek, in verse 24, means to hearken. It means to give audience, to consider, to learn, to understand, and to comprehend. So here is what our Lord is teaching us, that the more we understand the truth and apply the truth, the more truth you and I are going to be given, the more truth we will receive. In other words, if you want to learn more truth, you need to apply the truth that God has already given you. So here's a good question to ask. Why in the world should God give you any more truth, if you will not obey the truth that he's already given you? So he says if you want more truth, then you have to apply and use the truth that he's already given you.

[John Weaver] Now this fits right in with the text in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 7. When the Apostle Paul told Timothy, Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

[John Weaver] Now the word consider is the Greek word noi-o, and it means literally to consider, to perceive, to understand, to think, to ponder, and to grasp with the mind. Also, it is a present active imperative. You say, I don't know what that means. It is an imperative, which means it is a command. You are being commanded to consider. And since it is a present active, it means it is something that you are to be doing continually. In other words, what he is telling us is this, you are commanded to consider his word incessantly. And so therefore, it is a present active command.

[John Weaver] The third principle that you're going to find is in verse 25. Look at it. We'll read verse 25. He said, For he that hath to him shall be given. Here's the third principle. And he that hath not from him shall be taken even that which he hath. In other words, if you do not consider the truth, if you do not hear, if you do not grasp, if you don't understand, if you don't apply the truth, you'll lose it. It'll be gone.

[John Weaver] Because it's not really yours anyhow. It's kind of like I've known students, I knew some when I was in college. We were going to have a test and they would cram for the test. I mean, they would cram. And they'd pass the test. And then immediately forget everything that they'd studied. It really didn't do them any good. So, this is what God is saying here. If we really truly do not grasp it and apply it, it is not ours at all. We will lose it.

[John Weaver] Now, when you look at II Timothy chapter 2 and verse 7, when the Apostle Paul says, Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. You must first discern in that passage our duty, our responsibility, our obligation, and our privilege, and that is to consider the Word of God. So that means as we consider it, we are fulfilling our responsibility. However, responsibility does not necessarily imply ability. We may be responsible to study, consider, to hear, but that does not mean that we have the ability in and of ourselves. Because he said, consider what I say, the Lord give thee understanding and the word give is the Greek word diddle me which literally means it is a gift it is a grant it is furnished is given as a favor so as we study as we contemplate as we consider at the same time we must be seeking our Lord to give us understanding in other words We may study independently in the sense that we might study by ourselves or we might study individually, but our independent study is to be dependent.

[John Weaver] That is dependent upon the Lord to give us understanding. David said it like this in Psalm 119 and verse 169. He said, Let my cry come near unto thee, O Lord. Give me understanding according to thy word. Give me understanding according to thy word. And there's a verse that I'll probably quote a number of times before I finish this series, and that's Proverbs 2 and verse 6, where the Bible says, For the Lord giveth wisdom. Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. So the Lord gives wisdom. So the truth is that we must study, we must meditate, we must ponder, but at the same time we must ask the Lord to grant us and to give us wisdom, insight, illumination, and understanding.

[John Weaver] Now, so many people think, well, all I've got to do is just sit down and read the Bible and that's it. Well, reading the Bible is quite different than reading another book. And the reason it's quite different is because we must have God's gracious understanding in our lives. I do not suppose that any men on earth were closer to the Lord Jesus Christ than His disciples. And yet, oftentimes when He taught, they did not understand what He was teaching. They had to ask. And on two occasions, the first one, Matthew 15 and verse 16, our Lord looked at His disciples, the apostles, please understand, the apostles, And he said, Are you yet also without understanding? They didn't understand. Then in Mark 7 verse 18, he said unto them, Are ye so without understanding? Also, do you not perceive that whatsoever from without in the man, it cannot defile him? In other words, twice he asked them, Are you without understanding?

[John Weaver] And numerous times in the scripture, they understood not. I'm just simply saying. What our Lord did for His disciples is what we need for Him to do for us. If you look in your Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 24, and verses 44 and 45, our Lord did this before His ascension. And look at it. Luke 24, verse 44 and verse 45. Verse 44. he said unto them these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures then opened he their understanding so here's a principle that Here's a lesson. Here's an application we should already draw.

[John Weaver] We may study until we are completely fatigued. We may fill our brains with scripture and work tirelessly in seeking for truth, but unless he opens our eyes, unless he opens our understanding, unless he illuminates our mind to the truth, we will never see it. So the truth of the matter is you could have the best preacher on earth. He could present the clearest message on earth He could have the best illustrations But unless God opens your eyes, you're never ever going to see unless he opens your ears You're never going to hear unless he opens your heart. You're never going to receive now It is truth that the Holy Spirit is to be our teacher We'll cover some of this later on in this study However, that does not mean that we do not need human instruction or human teachers.

[John Weaver] If you were to take the time to read Ephesians chapter 4, you will find that our Lord gave gifts of ministry to the church. The Bible says that He gave some prophets and some apostles and some evangelists and some pastor-teachers. Why? For the perfecting of the saints for the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the church, for the building up of the church, to bring us into the fullness of the body of Christ and the fullness of the stature of Christ. In other words, he gave pastor-teachers as his ministry gift to the church. When you get to Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 15, God told his people this.

[John Weaver] He commanded them to repent and turn back to him and he said, And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding." So God said, I will give you pastors, and they will feed you.

[John Weaver] Now, in 2 Timothy chapter 2, since you're there, look if you would please at verses 1 and 2, and see what the apostle said. He tells Timothy, Thou therefore my son, Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to fateful men who shall be able to teach others also. So the apostle Paul taught Timothy, and now he's telling Timothy to teach fateful men who shall be able to teach others also.

[John Weaver] So once again, let me say it again. The truth is, no matter how gifted the preacher, no matter how clear and plain and simple the presentation is, no one's going to understand unless God the Holy Spirit opens their eyes. Now, I'm going to be dealing later on with the doctrine of illumination, but illumination is indeed the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, whereby He opens our minds that we might understand the words that He has revealed in Scripture.

[John Weaver] But I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter, I want to cover a passage that so many have probably not really understood, but I want you to see this, 2 Peter 1, where the Apostle Peter is talking about the fact that there is no such thing as a private interpretation. I'll explain this. Now look at it. It is 2 Peter 1. Beginning there with verse 19. Look what he says. He says we also have a more sure word of prophecy Where until you do well that you take heed as into a light that shines in a dark place Until the day dawn and the day star arrives in our hearts Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation for The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now, the more sure word of prophecy that we have in verse 19 is indeed the Word of God. It is not only the written Word of God, but it's also the living Word of God, because He said, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart.

[John Weaver] And in the scripture, Jesus Christ is the bright and morning star. He is the day star. So the more sure word of prophecy is not only the written word of God, but it is also the living word of God as well. Consequently, there cannot be any private interpretation. So let me explain that. It is explained in verse 21. That's what the little word for is about. When he said in verse 20, knowing this verse that no prophecy of the scripture of any private interpretation, what does that mean? Then he explains it. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. In other words, the Bible is not man's word, the Bible is God's word. And men moved, or men ran, as God sent them. So the Bible is not the work of man, but it is indeed the work of God.

[John Weaver] Now I want to give you two quotes. The first one is from John Trapp. And the second one is from Matthew Poole. I want you to listen to what John Trapp said. Quote, that is, of human interpretation, private is not here as opposed to public, but to the divine, to the Holy Ghost. So what he is saying is, when the Bible talks about there's no private interpretation, it is explained by verse 21. It's not private versus public. It's not me up here whispering. In Steve's ear, something I heard Lorraine say, versus me telling everybody what I heard Lorraine say. That's private versus public. Okay? But this is private versus divine. Now, I want you to listen to what Matthew Poole said. Listen carefully.

[John Weaver] The meaning is, not that private men are not to interpret Scripture, only referral to the church, but that no man, nor company of men, no church, nor public officers are to interpret the scripture of their own heads according to their own minds so as to make their private sense to be the sense of scripture, but to seek the understanding of it from God, who shows them the meaning of the word in the word itself, the more obscure places being expounded by the more clear, And by his spirit leads believers in their searching the scripture into the understanding of his mind in it. God himself being the author of the word is the best interpreter of the word.

[John Weaver] Now listen to the second paragraph. Here it is. Mission or dismission, a metaphor taken from races where they that ran were let loose from the stage where the race began that they might run their course. The prophets in the Old Testament are said to run as being God's messengers, Jeremiah 23, 21. And God is said to send them Ezekiel 13 verses six and seven. And then this does immediately concern the interpretation of scripture. Listen, he said, and then this does not immediately concern the interpretation of the scripture, but the first revelation of it.

[John Weaver] spoken of it in the next verse that would be verse 21 and the question is not who have authority to interpret the scripture now written but what authority the penman had to write it and consequently what respect is doing to it and why believers are so carefully to take heed to it and then the meaning is here's what he's saying That it is the first principle of our faith that the Scripture is not of human invention, but divine inspiration, that the prophets wrote not in their own private sense of it, but in the mind of God, and at His command, and not at their pleasure." So what he is saying is this, and this makes perfect sense, when you look at verse 20, knowing this verse, that no prophecy of the Scripture of any private interpretation.

[John Weaver] In other words, the men that God used to pin the Word of God didn't sit down and say, you know, I think this is what this means and I think this is what I'm going to write. No, no, no, no. He says, for. Here's the explanation why it can't be that the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God were moved by the Holy Ghost who inspired them to write that which was true. So what we are being taught is The Scriptures are indeed the Word of God, and they are not the Word of man. Since I made that clear, let me say that this also leads to another application.

[John Weaver] No one has a right to determine or force a private interpretation upon a passage. So that means this, that one cannot lawfully, biblically, or hermeneutically simply state independently that this is what the scripture means and I'm not going to allow it to mean anything else and no one else can allow it to mean anything else. Why? And the answer is because God is the true interpreter of scripture. It is God the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible to be written and God the Holy Spirit is the interpreter of the Bible. Therefore, one of the very first rules of hermeneutics is that the is that scripture is to interpret scripture. We are to allow scripture to interpret itself. So, that means it is scripture that gives us the true meaning and the true interpretation, which leads us to another truth. We cannot interpret scripture so as to make it contradict itself. I've had plenty of people tell me that they have interpreter passage and they would say, well, let me tell you, this is what I think.

[John Weaver] And when they finished telling me that, I said, well, what are you going to do with this other passage over here that contradicts what you just think? And what you just said to me, what are you going to do with that? In other words, if your interpretation of a scripture contradicts other plain passages in the Bible, the Bible is not wrong. It's your interpretation that's wrong. This is what I mean by allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture. The problem is never with the Scripture. The problem is always with our limited, finite understanding.

[John Weaver] Now, you've heard me use the word hermeneutics several times. Hermeneutics is nothing more than the art or the science of Bible interpretation. That's it. And if you're going to be a serious student of the Bible, you need to get a book such as A.W. Pink's book, The Interpretation of Scripture. where he'll lay down certain biblical rules and give you illustrations on how to interpret the Bible. There are many, many other books on interpretation. But let me just say this, if you get a book on the rules of hermeneutics or on hermeneutics, you need to make sure that the book is written by a Christian. Because liberals, leftists, Marxists, communists, they all write books to discredit the Bible. I remember When the lord first saved me many many years ago, and I really want to know the bible and I was under the impression That you know If it was a christian book in a christian bookstore Then a christian must have written it but it's not true I remember I was reading

[John Weaver] through the old testament and I saw a book on the exodus and I thought boy, this will be an excellent book And so I bought the book. First of all, it was written by a woman, not necessarily discrediting women by any stretch of the imagination, but this woman happened to be an unbeliever, and I read the book eagerly until I got to the point of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, and she stated very plainly the reason the Moses and Israelites got across the Red Sea was he knew when the tide was going to be out. And the reason Pharaoh and his army drowned, they didn't know when the tide was coming back in. Really? When the Bible said they went across on dry ground. I'm just simply saying.

[John Weaver] Now, this was in a Christian bookstore being presented as a Christian book, which is totally, absolutely contradicting scripture. So you have to just make sure.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to consider something. You have to consider in reality, everyone interprets scripture. It is impossible not to interpret. We may not interpret accurately, but we interpret. In fact, we interpret every day. We interpret everything that is said to us. We also interpret everything that's not said unto us. Well, I wonder why I didn't say this. I bet I know. And we go off into a zillion reasons. We interpret facial expressions. We interpret bodily movements.

[John Weaver] A man can see a pretty girl doing like this with her eye and the man thinks, oh, she's flirting at me, she's winking at me. Well, all she's got is an eyelash or an eye affliction or nerve twitching. No, it's not flirting at all. Not at all! I'm just simply saying, but that we interpret. We interpret every time we turn around. That is why there are rules on the interpretation of Scripture. We want to interpret Scripture, but we want to make sure that we interpret it accurately, and that we stay within the bounds of Scripture. Now, I'm going to give you probably five reasons as to why we must interpret Scripture. I think it said three, but I'm going to probably add two of these, so I'm going to go ahead. Here's the first one. It's the only one we're going to cover today. Listen carefully. We must interpret scripture in order to explain seeming contradictions. The emphasis is on the word seeming. We must interpret scripture to explain seeming contradictions. A seeming contradiction is when you read one passage, and you turn over and read another passage, and they seemingly contradict each other.

[John Weaver] When that happens, then you have to study, you have to look, and you have to then interpret so as to reconcile those two seeming different statements. I began this message by giving you certain scriptures, and I want to reinforce those scriptures right now. I'm just going to remind you of them. Then I'm going to quote a few more. But over and over in the Bible, we are commanded to preach and to teach the Word of God. I told you in Ephesians 4, God, of course, gave pastor teachers as ministry gifts to the church. I told you in Jeremiah 3 and verse 15, God said, I'll give you pastors according to my heart, which will lead you with knowledge and understanding. And there are multitudes of passages in the Bible that deal with men teaching and preaching the word of God. For instance, in Acts 5 and verse 42, the Bible says in daily in the temple and in every house, they cease not to preach and to teach Christ Jesus. And then when you get to first Corinthians four, And verse 17, Paul said, And for this cause I also send unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, who is faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.

[John Weaver] So he said, I teach everywhere and in every church. And then, of course, in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 2, where he says a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. Now listen carefully. If I took the time today, I could show you from the Bible where every one of these qualifications of a pastor is also required of every believer with one exception. God does not require every believer to be apt to teach. He does require every believer to be hospitable, and to be sober, and to be faithful, and to be of good behavior, and to be vigilant. Yeah, he does. But the one that really stands out that he requires of pastors that he does not require of anyone else is he must be apt to teach. And then when you get to 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 11, Paul told Timothy, these things command and teach. Now, here's the thing. With all of these plain scriptures, who could deny, who could ever deny that God has not commanded man to teach and that we need human instructors, even though we know the Holy Spirit of God is our instructor.

[John Weaver] Believe it or not, I have run into people who said they need absolutely no man to teach them." Really? And I asked one individual, why? And the response was, well, the Holy Ghost is my teacher. And the Bible says, and I want you to look in your Bibles to 1 John chapter 2 verse 27, 1 John chapter 2 verse 27, and here is the verse, These individuals were basing the fact that they did not need to be taught by a man. I John 2, look if you would at verse 27, where it is written, But the anointing which you have received of Him abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, And even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in Him." Well, let me just say up front, I know, and you know, and we know, that truly God is the greatest teacher. That's what is said in Job 36 and verse 22.

[John Weaver] Behold, God exalted by His power, who teacheth like Him. Obviously, No one can teach like Him. But notice if you would, in verse 27, it says, And you need not that any man teach you. And these people took up this verse and said, We just don't need human teachers. We just need God. Well, let me ask you a few questions. First of all, did God use men to write His Word? Hmm. Did not God use prophets, priests, Levites, apostles, pastors, to communicate his truths.

[John Weaver] And here's a good question. Why would God, in one verse, undo, confound, and destroy everything that he had done for thousands of years? That's a pretty good question. I wonder if some of these people who says we don't need human teachers, I wonder if any of them would listen to the Apostle Paul. I wonder if any of them would listen to Jesus Christ. He's the God-man. Wow.

[John Weaver] Well, let's learn a very important truth right here. Here it is. Context is everything. There is an immediate context which you will usually find in the paragraph or the chapter. Sometimes it might go back another chapter or so. But there's also a remote context, which you might find even in the beginning of the book, or sometimes even the entire Bible. So when you look at 1 John 2 and verse 27, this paragraph begins with verse 18, where the apostle is dealing with seducers deceivers, Antichrist. So let's go back to verse 18 and let's read it. And we'll read through verse 27.

[John Weaver] He says, Little children, it is the last time. And you have heard that Antichrist shall come. Even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us, for they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us. But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. I am not written unto you, because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar?

[John Weaver] But he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whoso denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.

[John Weaver] And this is the promise that He has promised unto us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you. But it is the same anointing teaching you of all things, and it is truth, and it is no lie. And even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him."

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to note, the whole context now is dealing with the Antichrist, with deceivers, with seducers. And if you are going to take verse 27 out of context, Let me ask you about verse 20. Would you please look at that? Would you also take this out of context? Because, again, he says, but you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. Wow! Now, who is going to be so insane enough to claim that they know all things? Hmm? If you tell me that you know all things, I have a number of questions to ask you. Number one, when are you going to die? Number two, what's going to happen tomorrow? Number three, what's going to be the winning lottery number? I've never bought a lottery ticket in my life. But one thing for sure, if you know absolutely, I might run out and buy one. No, I'm teasing. But how about this one?

[John Weaver] How many stars are there? What are their names? You see, what in the world is he saying when he says in verse 20, But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. You do not know all things knowable, but you know all things needful in the context to avoid these deceivers. That's what he's saying. Now, I want you to look, if you would please, 26 he says that again. This is the context These things have a written you concerning them that seduce you so we're talking about deceivers We're talking about Antichrist and therefore he says in verse 27 But that anointing which you have received of him that abided in you that is the Holy Spirit You need not that any men teach you what in light of the context of the deceivers and the seducers of But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, that is, that Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ is God, Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and is truth, and is no lie, even as it is taught you,

[John Weaver] you shall abide in Him." So, he is saying that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit has enlightened us and illuminated us and taught us that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and we do not need any man to teach us that because we know that. And the reason we know that is we are abiding in Him, and He abides in us.

[John Weaver] Now, I want to show you. Remember now, He's talking about deceivers, seducers, Antichrist. I told you there's an immediate context, and there was. It began with verse 18. But there's also a remote context. So if you'll turn back to 1 John chapter 1, and look if you would please at the first four verses. 1st John chapter 1 verse 1 that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes Which we've looked upon our hands of handle of the word of life For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life Which was with the father and was manifested unto us That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with us and And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. Now, I want to call your attention to verse 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life.

[John Weaver] John, the apostle, is refuting the heresy of Gnosticism. Now Gnosticism is from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge, or the verb gnosko, which means I know. The Gnostics were an intellectual elite who believed that they had the knowledge that would make you spiritual, make you holy, make you saved, and it was a secret knowledge. And you had to be in their club to have this knowledge. So it's much like the cults and isms and secret organizations of the day. You have to have their special secret knowledge in order to be in their club. And there were two types of Gnostics. There were the Docetic Gnostics and there were the Corinthian Gnostics. Now, the Docetic Gnostics denied The humanity of Jesus Christ. They said that Jesus Christ did not have a real flesh and bone body. And the reason they said that is because they believed that all matter was inherently evil in and of itself. So my arm is flesh. And so they would point to this fleshly arm and say, that's evil, that's matter.

[John Weaver] This table? is matter, so this table is evil in and of itself. These dodecagnostics said that Jesus Christ could never have had a real physical body because that is matter and that would be evil in and of itself.

[John Weaver] Now, the Greek word, the verb dokeo, means I appear. So, the Docetic Gnostics believed that Jesus Christ was a mirage, an apparition, a ghost. He was not, he didn't have a real body, because matter is inherently evil. That is why John wrote in verse 1, look at it, that which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, our hands have handled. He was real. He had a real body. We touched him. We felt him.

[John Weaver] I laid upon his breast. This was the same John the Apostle. Yeah, he said he's real. See, doketic Gnosticism always led to asceticism. That is a withdrawal from the world since all matter is inherently evil. And therefore you have the cave dwellers, you have the stylite dwellers, those that inhabit monasteries and nunneries, What are they doing? They're ascetics. They're withdrawing from the world. Do you remember even Martin Luther, before he was converted, was at the monastery and he was beating himself with whips, trying to drive the evil out of his body, because the body was evil, until God opened his eyes and saved him and he saw justification by faith. So, these docetic Gnostics would say, yeah, the body's evil, the body's sinful, because it's matter. It's not because of a sin principle, but because it's matter. All matter was evil according to the Docetic Gnostics. Then the Corinthian Gnostics were just the opposite. They said that Jesus Christ was a little God.

[John Weaver] He was an Eon, would be the Greek word. They went the opposite extreme, although they believed that matter was evil. So let me try to explain it like this. If you can watch my finger and pretend I've got a blackboard here. If I drew a huge circle and put God in it, then I could come down and draw a smaller circle and put God. Come down and draw a smaller circle and put God. Come down and draw a smaller circle to put God. These are eons. They're emanations from God. God is up here. He's so holy, He can't have anything to do with matter.

[John Weaver] But what He does, He creates a series of lesser gods. And finally, one of the lesser gods creates the world. But, the Corinthians then went the opposite way from the Deucatics. Although they believed that matter was inherently evil as well, What they said, and by the way, to show you the stupidity, they said that Christ, the Christ Spirit, came upon Jesus Christ at His baptism and left Him at His crucifixion. So, they're still saying that matter is evil, but They went then into antinomianism.

[John Weaver] In other words, their mantra was this. If the body wants it, do it. Eat it. Drink it. Make merry. For tomorrow you're going to die. You see, the ascetic Gnostics, the duchetic Gnostics, they wanted withdrawal. They said, if your body wants it, if your body wants to do it, it's evil. Stay away from it. Ah, but the Corinthians said, no, no, no, no. It's evil. That's true. But it's going to die.

[John Weaver] So you might as well indulge it while you can indulge it. And so, what John is doing in chapter 1 and in chapter 2 is he is demonstrating that these seducers are not going to seduce someone who is genuinely saved. Now, look back, if you would, at verse 27 in 1 John chapter 2. Watch this. He said, But the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you. What is it that any man does not need to teach a true believer?

[John Weaver] That Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ is Lord, that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. He says, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, that is, He interprets Scripture for us, and is truth and is no lie, even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in Him. So, clearly then, He is talking about avoiding the seducers. We're not going to fall for them because we know the truth.

[John Weaver] Now, let me point out something I think that is extremely obvious. Who wrote 1 John 2 and verse 27? I know the Holy Spirit inspired it, but the truth is, this is 1 John. That means this book was written by John the Apostle. So John the Apostle has written, you need not any man teach you. So if someone's going to come along and say, well, I don't need any man to teach me, all I need is the Holy Ghost. Really?

[John Weaver] Where do you get that? 1 John 2, 27. Excuse me, didn't a man write that? Of course a man wrote that. John wrote that. Thus, if one is going to reject a human teacher based upon 1 John 2 and verse 27, he should also reject 1 John 2, 27 because it was a man that taught it. So let me try to tie this together. The same heresies are alive today that were alive during the times of the apostles and John, specifically here in 1 John.

[John Weaver] There are isms and cults that deny the humanity of Jesus. There are isms and cults that deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Some, like the Docetic Gnostics, want to go into asceticism. Others, like the Corinthians, they want to go into antinomianism. And some, like the Corinthians, they kind of believe that since there are so many little gods, coming down that it's possible then for man to become God.

[John Weaver] All of that is absolutely heresy. Anytime, anytime some interpretation leads you into asceticism, it is heresy. If an interpretation leads you into antinomianism, it is heresy. Some interpretation leads you into an intellectually elite group that says, we have the truth, and unless you are in our club, you don't have the truth. It is heresy. It is heresy.

[John Weaver] Now, this is why I'm saying, we need to interpret Scripture to be able to explain seeming Contradiction. There's not a contradiction between 1 John 2 and verse 27 and the rest of the Bible. It just seems that way to people who know absolutely nothing about how to interpret scripture.

[John Weaver] Now, very quickly, let me give you a couple more. I want you to look in your Bibles to Genesis 22 and also James 1, if you would. Genesis 22 and then James 1. In Genesis 22, I'm showing you we have to interpret Scripture to explain seeming contradictions. Not a contradiction, just a seeming contradiction. But look in Genesis 22, beginning there with verse 1, then we're going to James chapter 1. Genesis 22 and verse 1, And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here I am.

[John Weaver] And he said, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him therefore a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I tell thee of. Now, look in James 1 in verse 13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man.

[John Weaver] Now wait a minute, didn't the Bible just say, in Genesis 22 in verse 12, And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham. That's exactly what it said.

[John Weaver] Now it says in James 1 and verse 13, that neither tempteth he any man. Well, you have to understand the word tempt. In the Hebrew, in the King James Version, and in the Greek, in the Septuagint, I believe probably the word is maybe rath, peresmos, I don't know. I didn't check that in the Septuagint, but, In Genesis 22, the word basically means to test, to try, to prove, to assay, to put to the test. So, in Genesis 22, and he came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, but it means he tested him. And you remember he passed the test. And he said, now I know that thou believest God. Obviously. When you look at James 1 and verse 13, look at it now. He says,"...let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempted is he of any man." So, when you get to Genesis 22 and verse 1, it is a word that means to test, to try, to prove.

[John Weaver] When you get to James 1 and verse 13, it means to seduce someone to evil, or to seduce someone into sin. So he says in verse 13, Let no man say when he is tempted, that is, he's being enticed to sin, I'm tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted of evil, you can't make God sin, and neither tempteth He a man. God does not entice man to sin.

[John Weaver] Well, where does man's temptation come from? Look in verse 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. We are tempted from our own flesh, from our own lust. To show you this, look back in verse 12. James 1, verse 12. There's the same exact word, per es mas. Watch it. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. The word temptation here means a test, a trial. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, when he is tested, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Now look at verse 13. Let no man say when he's tempted. Now it's the same word, but used differently. I'm tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man. So, here's the same word that is used different ways in the scripture.

[John Weaver] And you have to interpret it to avoid a seeming contradiction. Now, let me give you the illustration because we have the same thing in the English language. Suppose I ask Gary, I said, Gary, I would like you to stand up and give me the definition of this word. It's a small word. It's three letters. It's spelled R-O-W. So give me the definition. You know what he would say? Before I can give you the definition, I have to hear it in a sentence. Maybe a paragraph. Why?

[John Weaver] Because R-O-W could be a noun. It could be a row of corn. It could be a verb. Steve rowed the boat. And it could be a noun in another sense, R-O-W, but pronounced row, because row is a fight. So you've got the same word, spelled exactly the same, used three different ways. The context makes it clear. That's why I said earlier that context is everything. Let me give you another quick one.

[John Weaver] I want you to look to John 10 and verse 30. And John 14 and verse 28. John 10 and verse 30. John 14 and verse 28. And John 10 and verse 30. Jesus Christ said, I and my Father are one. I and my Father are one. Now look in John 14 and verse 28.

[John Weaver] Now he says, you have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I. Wait a minute now. John 10 and verse 30, I and my Father are one. Now John 14 verse 28, my Father is greater than I. How can that be? In John 10, Our Lord is proclaiming His deity. He is proclaiming His essential oneness and essence with the Father. He is God. In John 14 and verse 28, our Lord is speaking of His mediatorial office. He has come as the representative of and as a servant of the Father.

[John Weaver] Do you realize that one of the names, if you would call it a name, or one of the phrases that is used of Jesus Christ over and over in the New Testament is the sent one? Because He came to do the Father's will. He came as a servant of the Father. In John 5, in verse 30, he said this, I can of mine own self do nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which sent me. And then he said in John 6, in verse 38, I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of the Father which sent me. So in his mediatorial office, he's the servant of the Father. Let me ask you, Is the master greater than the servant? Well, of course. Jesus Christ has come now as the Father's servant. So, in John 10, He's proclaiming His deity, His essence, His oneness with the Father. And in John 14 and verse 28, He says, I'm the servant of my Father, the Father's greater, because I came in this official capacity to do His will.

[John Weaver] So you have to interpret scripture in order to explain seeming contradictions. Now, let me make a couple of applications. Here's the first one. We must read and study our Bibles with understanding. Reading and studying is our responsibility, but it is God who must give us understanding. So here's the point that I want to drive home. God does not give understanding apart from His Word. God is not going to give understanding apart from your studying His Word. He said, consider what I say and the Lord give the understanding in all things. So the Lord is not going to give you understanding without your consideration. Moreover, you're not going to go to bed stupid and wake up smart. It's just not going to happen. You're not going to put the Bible under your pillow and somehow absorb it through osmosis. It will not work. No. The only way you can get it is through considering, through studying, and at the same time asking the Lord to give you understanding. Here's the second one. I want you to let this one sink in very deeply.

[John Weaver] Remember this truth and apply it deeply in your mind. God is going to measure to you the amount of truth that you give and that you measure in seeking to learn the truth. In other words, if truth is really important to you, you're going to seek it, you're going to study it, you're going to consider it, you're going to meditate upon it, you're going to chew it up over and over. If you are merely a casual reader of the Bible, you're not interested in truth anyhow. And God's not going to give you any truth. Because you don't really want it.

[John Weaver] You have no desire for it. You know what the Bible says in Psalm 111 verse 2, listen to this. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all of them that have pleasure therein. In order to seek out the works of God, you have to have pleasure in them. If you have no pleasure in the works of God, you're not going to seek them out. If you have no pleasure in the word of God, you're not going to seek out the truth. The casual reader of scripture is not going to get hardly any truth at all. He might get some, but not much. He'll get the skim milk instead of the whole milk.

[John Weaver] I'm just simply saying, if we want truth, we have to give ourselves to seeking and studying and learning truth and asking the Lord to open our eyes. The very first reason you must interpret scripture, the very first reason is to explain seeming contradictions. There are no contradictions in the Bible. There are some that are seemingly contradictions, but once you begin to interpret and compare Scripture with Scripture, you find out that usually the contradiction is only in our mind because of our finite understanding.

[John Weaver] It's not in the Word of God. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee this day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. We pray, Father, that you would indeed teach us, build us up in the most holy faith. Help us, Lord, to learn your word and to interpret it so that we may understand and grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. ♪ ♪ you

Three Reasons We Need To Consider Truth And Interpret Scripture - Part 1

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	_tm3nxF6b20
Subject	Apologetics
Course	Truth and the Interpretation of Scripture
Genre	Sermon
Date	2022-05-06
Dictation Name
Book	Book 065: Three Reasons We Need To Consider Truth And Interpret Scripture — Chapter 1
Source Timed Segments	78

Formatted Transcript

Introduction and Series Overview

Weaver introduces a series on truth and interpreting Scripture, beginning with 2 Timothy 2:7 and the command to consider God's Word.

2 Timothy 2 and verse 7. This is going to be the first in a series of messages. How many? I do not know. Probably six to eight at least.

The title of this message is Three Reasons We Need to Consider Truth and Interpret Scripture. However, we're going to have more reasons probably on down the line and more sermons following this as well. So look, if you would please, in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 7. The Apostle said,

Scripture Reading — 2 Timothy 2:7

"Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things."

Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

The Problem of Superficial Bible Reading

Most Christians read the Bible without understanding, meditation, or application, leading to forgetfulness and spiritual loss.

Most Christians read their Bibles. However, most Christians do not read their Bibles daily, consistently, constantly, and repeatedly. And when they do read their Bibles, usually they read them without thinking, without grasping what is being said, without even noting the place in which they're reading. And usually a lot of Christians who try to read their Bibles all the way through every year, they read them so quickly that it's almost impossible to absorb and to learn that which they have read. I've often said that I'd rather read three verses with understanding than three chapters and not understand a word that I had read. Moreover, usually when we read something from the Bible, we don't normally think about it, we don't meditate upon it, and we certainly do not apply it, and consequently, it's easily lost.

Now, there's a warning in Scripture. You'll find it in Hebrews 2 and verse 1 where the Bible says this,

Scripture Reading — Hebrews 2:1

"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip."

And certainly things do indeed slip away from us. I find it not only most interesting, but sometimes even amusing to observe that most Christians can listen to a well-developed sermon, and an interestingly communicated sermon, and one with excellent oratory. And by the end of the day, they've already forgotten what the sermon was about. And usually, they've forgotten everything within a week's time.

The Principle of Measured Truth (Mark 4:23-25)

God measures truth to us according to the measure we give in seeking it; applying truth leads to more truth, while neglect leads to loss.

So I want you to hold 2 Timothy, but I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Mark, chapter 4. And look, if you would please, beginning there with verse 23. And we'll read through verse 25. Look at Mark chapter 4, verse 23. Our Lord gives us this truth. He says, in verse 23,

Scripture Reading — Mark 4:23-25

"If any man have ears to hear, let him hear."

And He said unto them,

Scripture Reading — Mark 4:23-25

"Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath."

Now, actually there are three principles in this passage that we really need to comprehend. The first one is this, if you look in verse 24, "And he said unto them, Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you." In other words, God is going to measure truth to us to the same degree and to the same measure that we give in seeking and learning truth. He's not going to give us an ounce more. So you're not going to study the scripture for two hours and get a week's worth of knowledge. It's impossible. Neither are you going to study for 15 minutes and get two hours worth of knowledge. If you study 10 minutes, you're going to get 10 minutes worth of knowledge and that's it. Because he said he's going to measure back to you exactly the same measure that you put in in giving the truth.

Now here's the second principle. Look again in verse 24, part of it in verse 25. He said, "...unto them, Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you." Now watch this. "And unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given." So the word here in the Greek, in verse 24, means to hearken. It means to give audience, to consider, to learn, to understand, and to comprehend. So here is what our Lord is teaching us, that the more we understand the truth and apply the truth, the more truth you and I are going to be given, the more truth we will receive. In other words, if you want to learn more truth, you need to apply the truth that God has already given you. So here's a good question to ask. Why in the world should God give you any more truth, if you will not obey the truth that he's already given you? So he says if you want more truth, then you have to apply and use the truth that he's already given you.

Now this fits right in with the text in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 7. When the Apostle Paul told Timothy, "Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." Now the word consider is the Greek word noieo, and it means literally to consider, to perceive, to understand, to think, to ponder, and to grasp with the mind. Also, it is a present active imperative. You say, I don't know what that means. It is an imperative, which means it is a command. You are being commanded to consider. And since it is a present active, it means it is something that you are to be doing continually. In other words, what he is telling us is this, you are commanded to consider his word incessantly. And so therefore, it is a present active command.

The third principle that you're going to find is in verse 25. Look at it. We'll read verse 25. He said, "For he that hath, to him shall be given." Here's the third principle. "And he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath." In other words, if you do not consider the truth, if you do not hear, if you do not grasp, if you don't understand, if you don't apply the truth, you'll lose it. It'll be gone. Because it's not really yours anyhow. It's kind of like I've known students, I knew some when I was in college. We were going to have a test and they would cram for the test. I mean, they would cram. And they'd pass the test. And then immediately forget everything that they'd studied. It really didn't do them any good. So, this is what God is saying here. If we really truly do not grasp it and apply it, it is not ours at all. We will lose it.

Our Responsibility and Dependence on God for Understanding

We are commanded to continually consider God's Word, but understanding is a gift from the Lord, requiring prayerful dependence.

Now, when you look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 7, when the Apostle Paul says, "Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." You must first discern in that passage our duty, our responsibility, our obligation, and our privilege, and that is to consider the Word of God. So that means as we consider it, we are fulfilling our responsibility. However, responsibility does not necessarily imply ability. We may be responsible to study, consider, to hear, but that does not mean that we have the ability in and of ourselves. Because he said, "Consider what I say, the Lord give thee understanding" and the word give is the Greek word didomi which literally means it is a gift, it is a grant, it is furnished, is given as a favor. So as we study, as we contemplate, as we consider, at the same time we must be seeking our Lord to give us understanding. In other words, we may study independently in the sense that we might study by ourselves or we might study individually, but our independent study is to be dependent.

That is dependent upon the Lord to give us understanding. David said it like this in Psalm 119 and verse 169. He said,

Scripture Reading — Psalm 119:169

"Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD: give me understanding according to thy word."

Give me understanding according to thy word. And there's a verse that I'll probably quote a number of times before I finish this series, and that's Proverbs 2 and verse 6, where the Bible says, "For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." So the Lord gives wisdom. So the truth is that we must study, we must meditate, we must ponder, but at the same time we must ask the Lord to grant us and to give us wisdom, insight, illumination, and understanding.

Now, so many people think, well, all I've got to do is just sit down and read the Bible and that's it. Well, reading the Bible is quite different than reading another book. And the reason it's quite different is because we must have God's gracious understanding in our lives. I do not suppose that any men on earth were closer to the Lord Jesus Christ than His disciples. And yet, oftentimes when He taught, they did not understand what He was teaching. They had to ask. And on two occasions, the first one, Matthew 15 and verse 16, our Lord looked at His disciples, the apostles, please understand, the apostles, and He said,

Scripture Reading — Matthew 15:16

"Are ye also yet without understanding?"

They didn't understand. Then in Mark 7 verse 18, He said unto them, "Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him?" In other words, twice He asked them, "Are you without understanding?"

The Necessity of Divine Illumination

Even the apostles needed Christ to open their understanding; without the Holy Spirit's illumination, no human teaching can impart spiritual truth.

And numerous times in the scripture, they understood not. I'm just simply saying. What our Lord did for His disciples is what we need for Him to do for us. If you look in your Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 24, and verses 44 and 45, our Lord did this before His ascension. And look at it. Luke 24, verse 44 and verse 45. Verse 44,

Scripture Reading — Luke 24:44-45

"And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures."

Then opened he their understanding. So here's a principle that—here's a lesson. Here's an application we should already draw.

We may study until we are completely fatigued. We may fill our brains with scripture and work tirelessly in seeking for truth, but unless he opens our eyes, unless he opens our understanding, unless he illuminates our mind to the truth, we will never see it. So the truth of the matter is you could have the best preacher on earth. He could present the clearest message on earth. He could have the best illustrations. But unless God opens your eyes, you're never ever going to see. Unless he opens your ears, you're never going to hear. Unless he opens your heart, you're never going to receive. Now, it is truth that the Holy Spirit is to be our teacher. We'll cover some of this later on in this study. However, that does not mean that we do not need human instruction or human teachers.

If you were to take the time to read Ephesians chapter 4, you will find that our Lord gave gifts of ministry to the church. The Bible says that He gave some prophets and some apostles

Scripture Reading — Ephesians 4:11-13

and some evangelists and some pastor-teachers. Why? For the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the church, for the building up of the church, to bring us into the fullness of the body of Christ

and the fullness of the stature of Christ. In other words, he gave pastor-teachers as his ministry gift to the church. When you get to Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 15, God told his people this. He commanded them to repent and turn back to him and he said, "And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." So God said, I will give you pastors, and they will feed you.

Now, in 2 Timothy chapter 2, since you're there, look if you would please at verses 1 and 2, and see what the apostle said. He tells Timothy, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." So the apostle Paul taught Timothy, and now he's telling Timothy to teach faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. So once again, let me say it again. The truth is, no matter how gifted the preacher, no matter how clear and plain and simple the presentation is, no one's going to understand unless God the Holy Spirit opens their eyes. Now, I'm going to be dealing later on with the doctrine of illumination, but illumination is indeed the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, whereby He opens our minds that we might understand the words that He has revealed in Scripture.

No Private Interpretation (2 Peter 1:19-21)

Scripture is not of human origin but divine inspiration; therefore, interpretation must come from God, and Scripture must interpret Scripture.

But I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter, I want to cover a passage that so many have probably not really understood, but I want you to see this, 2 Peter 1, where the Apostle Peter is talking about the fact that there is no such thing as a private interpretation. I'll explain this. Now look at it. It is 2 Peter 1. Beginning there with verse 19. Look what he says. He says,

Scripture Reading — 2 Peter 1:19-21

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

Now, the more sure word of prophecy that we have in verse 19 is indeed the Word of God. It is not only the written Word of God, but it's also the living Word of God, because He said,

Scripture Reading — 2 Peter 1:19-21

"until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart."

And in the scripture, Jesus Christ is the bright and morning star. He is the day star. So the more sure word of prophecy is not only the written word of God, but it is also the living word of God as well. Consequently, there cannot be any private interpretation. So let me explain that. It is explained in verse 21. That's what the little word "for" is about. When he said in verse 20, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation," what does that mean? Then he explains it. "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." In other words, the Bible is not man's word, the Bible is God's word. And men moved, or men ran, as God sent them. So the Bible is not the work of man, but it is indeed the work of God.

Now I want to give you two quotes. The first one is from John Trapp. And the second one is from Matthew Poole. I want you to listen to what John Trapp said. Quote, "that is, of human interpretation, private is not here as opposed to public, but to the divine, to the Holy Ghost." So what he is saying is, when the Bible talks about there's no private interpretation, it is explained by verse 21. It's not private versus public. It's not me up here whispering in Steve's ear, something I heard Lorraine say, versus me telling everybody what I heard Lorraine say. That's private versus public. Okay? But this is private versus divine. Now, I want you to listen to what Matthew Poole said. Listen carefully.

The meaning is, not that private men are not to interpret Scripture, only referral to the church, but that no man, nor company of men, no church, nor public officers are to interpret the scripture of their own heads according to their own minds so as to make their private sense to be the sense of scripture, but to seek the understanding of it from God, who shows them the meaning of the word in the word itself, the more obscure places being expounded by the more clear, and by his spirit leads believers in their searching the scripture into the understanding of his mind in it. God himself being the author of the word is the best interpreter of the word. Now listen to the second paragraph. Here it is. "Mission or dismission, a metaphor taken from races where they that ran were let loose from the stage where the race began that they might run their course. The prophets in the Old Testament are said to run as being God's messengers, Jeremiah 23:21. And God is said to send them, Ezekiel 13:6-7. And then this does not immediately concern the interpretation of scripture, but the first revelation of it."

Spoken of it in the next verse, that would be verse 21, and the question is not who have authority to interpret the scripture now written but what authority the penman had to write it and consequently what respect is due to it and why believers are so carefully to take heed to it. And then the meaning is, here's what he's saying, that it is the first principle of our faith that the Scripture is not of human invention, but divine inspiration, that the prophets wrote not in their own private sense of it, but in the mind of God, and at His command, and not at their pleasure. So what he is saying is this, and this makes perfect sense, when you look at verse 20, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation."

In other words, the men that God used to pen the Word of God didn't sit down and say, you know, I think this is what this means and I think this is what I'm going to write. No, no, no, no. He says, "For." Here's the explanation why it can't be that the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God were moved by the Holy Ghost who inspired them to write that which was true. So what we are being taught is the Scriptures are indeed the Word of God, and they are not the Word of man. Since I made that clear, let me say that this also leads to another application. No one has a right to determine or force a private interpretation upon a passage. So that means this, that one cannot lawfully, biblically, or hermeneutically simply state independently that this is what the scripture means and I'm not going to allow it to mean anything else and no one else can allow it to mean anything else. Why? And the answer is because God is the true interpreter of scripture. It is God the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible to be written and God the Holy Spirit is the interpreter of the Bible. Therefore, one of the very first rules of hermeneutics is that scripture is to interpret scripture. We are to allow scripture to interpret itself. So, that means it is scripture that gives us the true meaning and the true interpretation, which leads us to another truth. We cannot interpret scripture so as to make it contradict itself. I've had plenty of people tell me that they have interpreted a passage and they would say, well, let me tell you, this is what I think.

The First Reason to Interpret: Explaining Seeming Contradictions

We must interpret Scripture to reconcile apparent contradictions, such as 1 John 2:27 versus the command to teach, and Genesis 22:1 versus James 1:13.

When that happens, then you have to study, you have to look, and you have to then interpret so as to reconcile those two seeming different statements. I began this message by giving you certain scriptures, and I want to reinforce those scriptures right now. I'm just going to remind you of them. Then I'm going to quote a few more. But over and over in the Bible, we are commanded to preach and to teach the Word of God. I told you in Ephesians 4, God, of course, gave pastor teachers as ministry gifts to the church. I told you in Jeremiah 3 and verse 15, God said, "I'll give you pastors according to my heart, which will feed you with knowledge and understanding." And there are multitudes of passages in the Bible that deal with men teaching and preaching the word of God. For instance, in Acts 5 and verse 42, the Bible says, "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." And then when you get to 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 17, Paul said, "For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church."

So he said, I teach everywhere and in every church. And then, of course, in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 2, where he says, "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach." Now listen carefully. If I took the time today, I could show you from the Bible where every one of these qualifications of a pastor is also required of every believer with one exception. God does not require every believer to be apt to teach. He does require every believer to be hospitable, and to be sober, and to be faithful, and to be of good behavior, and to be vigilant. Yeah, he does. But the one that really stands out that he requires of pastors that he does not require of anyone else is he must be apt to teach. And then when you get to 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 11, Paul told Timothy, "These things command and teach." Now, here's the thing. With all of these plain scriptures, who could deny, who could ever deny that God has not commanded man to teach and that we need human instructors, even though we know the Holy Spirit of God is our instructor.

Believe it or not, I have run into people who said, "I need absolutely no man to teach me." Really? And I asked one individual, why? And the response was, well, the Holy Ghost is my teacher. And the Bible says, and I want you to look in your Bibles to 1 John chapter 2 verse 27, 1 John chapter 2 verse 27, and here is the verse these individuals were basing the fact that they did not need to be taught by a man. 1 John 2, look if you would at verse 27, where it is written,

Scripture Reading — 1 John 2:27

"But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."

Well, let me just say up front, I know, and you know, and we know, that truly God is the greatest teacher. That's what is said in Job 36 and verse 22.

"Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?" Obviously, no one can teach like Him. But notice if you would, in verse 27, it says, "And ye need not that any man teach you." And these people took up this verse and said, "We just don't need human teachers. We just need God." Well, let me ask you a few questions. First of all, did God use men to write His Word? Hmm. Did not God use prophets, priests, Levites, apostles, pastors, to communicate his truths? And here's a good question. Why would God, in one verse, undo, confound, and destroy everything that he had done for thousands of years? That's a pretty good question. I wonder if some of these people who says we don't need human teachers, I wonder if any of them would listen to the Apostle Paul. I wonder if any of them would listen to Jesus Christ. He's the God-man. Wow.

Well, let's learn a very important truth right here. Here it is. Context is everything. There is an immediate context which you will usually find in the paragraph or the chapter. Sometimes it might go back another chapter or so. But there's also a remote context, which you might find even in the beginning of the book, or sometimes even the entire Bible. So when you look at 1 John 2 and verse 27, this paragraph begins with verse 18, where the apostle is dealing with seducers, deceivers, Antichrist. So let's go back to verse 18 and let's read it. And we'll read through verse 27.

He says, "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar?" "But he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father."

"And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." Now, I want you to note, the whole context now is dealing with the Antichrist, with deceivers, with seducers. And if you are going to take verse 27 out of context, let me ask you about verse 20. Would you please look at that? Would you also take this out of context? Because, again, he says, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." Wow! Now, who is going to be so insane enough to claim that they know all things? Hmm? If you tell me that you know all things, I have a number of questions to ask you. Number one, when are you going to die? Number two, what's going to happen tomorrow? Number three, what's going to be the winning lottery number? I've never bought a lottery ticket in my life. But one thing for sure, if you know absolutely, I might run out and buy one. No, I'm teasing. But how about this one?

How many stars are there? What are their names? You see, what in the world is he saying when he says in verse 20, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." You do not know all things knowable, but you know all things needful in the context to avoid these deceivers. That's what he's saying. Now, I want you to look, if you would please, verse 26 he says that again. This is the context. "These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you." So we're talking about deceivers, we're talking about Antichrist, and therefore he says in verse 27, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you," that is the Holy Spirit, "and ye need not that any man teach you"—what? In light of the context of the deceivers and the seducers. "But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things," that is, that Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ is God, Jesus Christ is the only Savior, "and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you,

Scripture Reading — 1 John 2:27

ye shall abide in him." So, he is saying that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit has enlightened us and illuminated us and taught us that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and we do not need any man to teach us that because we know that. And the reason we know that is we are abiding in Him, and He abides in us. Now, I want to show you. Remember now, He's talking about deceivers, seducers, Antichrist. I told you there's an immediate context, and there was. It began with verse 18. But there's also a remote context. So if you'll turn back to 1 John chapter 1, and look if you would please at the first four verses. 1 John chapter 1 verse 1, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." Now, I want to call your attention to verse 1. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life."

John, the apostle, is refuting the heresy of Gnosticism. Now Gnosticism is from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge, or the verb ginosko, which means I know. The Gnostics were an intellectual elite who believed that they had the knowledge that would make you spiritual, make you holy, make you saved, and it was a secret knowledge. And you had to be in their club to have this knowledge. So it's much like the cults and isms and secret organizations of the day. You have to have their special secret knowledge in order to be in their club. And there were two types of Gnostics. There were the Docetic Gnostics and there were the Cerinthian Gnostics. Now, the Docetic Gnostics denied the humanity of Jesus Christ. They said that Jesus Christ did not have a real flesh and bone body. And the reason they said that is because they believed that all matter was inherently evil in and of itself. So my arm is flesh. And so they would point to this fleshly arm and say, that's evil, that's matter.

This table? Is matter, so this table is evil in and of itself. These Docetic Gnostics said that Jesus Christ could never have had a real physical body because that is matter and that would be evil in and of itself. Now, the Greek word, the verb dokeo, means I appear. So, the Docetic Gnostics believed that Jesus Christ was a mirage, an apparition, a ghost. He was not, he didn't have a real body, because matter is inherently evil. That is why John wrote in verse 1, look at it, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled." He was real. He had a real body. We touched him. We felt him.

I laid upon his breast. This was the same John the Apostle. Yeah, he said he's real. See, Docetic Gnosticism always led to asceticism. That is a withdrawal from the world since all matter is inherently evil. And therefore you have the cave dwellers, you have the stylite dwellers, those that inhabit monasteries and nunneries. What are they doing? They're ascetics. They're withdrawing from the world. Do you remember even Martin Luther, before he was converted, was at the monastery and he was beating himself with whips, trying to drive the evil out of his body, because the body was evil, until God opened his eyes and saved him and he saw justification by faith. So, these Docetic Gnostics would say, yeah, the body's evil, the body's sinful, because it's matter. It's not because of a sin principle, but because it's matter. All matter was evil according to the Docetic Gnostics. Then the Cerinthian Gnostics were just the opposite. They said that Jesus Christ was a little God.

He was an Aeon, would be the Greek word. They went the opposite extreme, although they believed that matter was evil. So let me try to explain it like this. If you can watch my finger and pretend I've got a blackboard here. If I drew a huge circle and put God in it, then I could come down and draw a smaller circle and put God. Come down and draw a smaller circle and put God. Come down and draw a smaller circle to put God. These are aeons. They're emanations from God. God is up here. He's so holy, He can't have anything to do with matter.

But what He does, He creates a series of lesser gods. And finally, one of the lesser gods creates the world. But, the Cerinthians then went the opposite way from the Docetics. Although they believed that matter was inherently evil as well, what they said, and by the way, to show you the stupidity, they said that Christ, the Christ Spirit, came upon Jesus Christ at His baptism and left Him at His crucifixion. So, they're still saying that matter is evil, but they went then into antinomianism. In other words, their mantra was this. If the body wants it, do it. Eat it. Drink it. Make merry. For tomorrow you're going to die. You see, the ascetic Gnostics, the Docetic Gnostics, they wanted withdrawal. They said, if your body wants it, if your body wants to do it, it's evil. Stay away from it. Ah, but the Cerinthians said, no, no, no, no. It's evil. That's true. But it's going to die.

So you might as well indulge it while you can indulge it. And so, what John is doing in chapter 1 and in chapter 2 is he is demonstrating that these seducers are not going to seduce someone who is genuinely saved. Now, look back, if you would, at verse 27 in 1 John chapter 2. Watch this. He said, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you." What is it that any man does not need to teach a true believer? That Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ is Lord, that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. He says, "but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things," that is, He interprets Scripture for us, "and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." So, clearly then, He is talking about avoiding the seducers. We're not going to fall for them because we know the truth.

Now, let me point out something I think that is extremely obvious. Who wrote 1 John 2 and verse 27? I know the Holy Spirit inspired it, but the truth is, this is 1 John. That means this book was written by John the Apostle. So John the Apostle has written, "ye need not any man teach you." So if someone's going to come along and say, well, I don't need any man to teach me, all I need is the Holy Ghost. Really? Where do you get that? 1 John 2:27. Excuse me, didn't a man write that? Of course a man wrote that. John wrote that. Thus, if one is going to reject a human teacher based upon 1 John 2 and verse 27, he should also reject 1 John 2:27 because it was a man that taught it. So let me try to tie this together. The same heresies are alive today that were alive during the times of the apostles and John, specifically here in 1 John.

There are isms and cults that deny the humanity of Jesus. There are isms and cults that deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Some, like the Docetic Gnostics, want to go into asceticism. Others, like the Cerinthians, they want to go into antinomianism. And some, like the Cerinthians, they kind of believe that since there are so many little gods coming down, that it's possible then for man to become God. All of that is absolutely heresy. Anytime, anytime some interpretation leads you into asceticism, it is heresy. If an interpretation leads you into antinomianism, it is heresy. Some interpretation leads you into an intellectually elite group that says, we have the truth, and unless you are in our club, you don't have the truth. It is heresy. It is heresy.

Now, this is why I'm saying, we need to interpret Scripture to be able to explain seeming contradiction. There's not a contradiction between 1 John 2 and verse 27 and the rest of the Bible. It just seems that way to people who know absolutely nothing about how to interpret scripture. Now, very quickly, let me give you a couple more. I want you to look in your Bibles to Genesis 22 and also James 1, if you would. Genesis 22 and then James 1. In Genesis 22, I'm showing you we have to interpret Scripture to explain seeming contradictions. Not a contradiction, just a seeming contradiction. But look in Genesis 22, beginning there with verse 1, then we're going to James chapter 1. Genesis 22 and verse 1,

Scripture Reading — Genesis 22:1

"And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am."

"And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." Now, look in James 1 in verse 13. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." Now wait a minute, didn't the Bible just say, in Genesis 22 in verse 1, "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham." That's exactly what it said. Now it says in James 1 and verse 13, that "neither tempteth he any man." Well, you have to understand the word tempt. In the Hebrew, in the King James Version, and in the Greek, in the Septuagint, I believe probably the word is maybe nasah, peirasmos, I don't know. I didn't check that in the Septuagint, but in Genesis 22, the word basically means to test, to try, to prove, to assay, to put to the test. So, in Genesis 22, "and it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham," but it means he tested him. And you remember he passed the test. And he said, "now I know that thou fearest God." Obviously. When you look at James 1 and verse 13, look at it now. He says, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." So, when you get to Genesis 22 and verse 1, it is a word that means to test, to try, to prove.

When you get to James 1 and verse 13, it means to seduce someone to evil, or to seduce someone into sin. So he says in verse 13, "Let no man say when he is tempted," that is, he's being enticed to sin, "I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." God does not entice man to sin. Well, where does man's temptation come from? Look in verse 14. "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." We are tempted from our own flesh, from our own lust. To show you this, look back in verse 12. James 1, verse 12. There's the same exact word, peirasmos. Watch it. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation." The word temptation here means a test, a trial. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried," when he is tested, "he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." Now look at verse 13. "Let no man say when he is tempted." Now it's the same word, but used differently. "I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." So, here's the same word that is used different ways in the scripture.

And you have to interpret it to avoid a seeming contradiction. Now, let me give you the illustration because we have the same thing in the English language. Suppose I ask Gary, I said, "Gary, I would like you to stand up and give me the definition of this word. It's a small word. It's three letters. It's spelled R-O-W." So give me the definition. You know what he would say? Before I can give you the definition, I have to hear it in a sentence. Maybe a paragraph. Why?

Because R-O-W could be a noun. It could be a row of corn. It could be a verb. Steve rowed the boat. And it could be a noun in another sense, R-O-W, but pronounced row, because row is a fight. So you've got the same word, spelled exactly the same, used three different ways. The context makes it clear. That's why I said earlier that context is everything. Let me give you another quick one.

I want you to look to John 10 and verse 30. And John 14 and verse 28. John 10 and verse 30. John 14 and verse 28. And John 10 and verse 30. Jesus Christ said, "I and my Father are one." I and my Father are one. Now look in John 14 and verse 28.

Now he says, "Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I." Wait a minute now. John 10 and verse 30, "I and my Father are one." Now John 14 verse 28, "my Father is greater than I." How can that be? In John 10, our Lord is proclaiming His deity. He is proclaiming His essential oneness in essence with the Father. He is God. In John 14 and verse 28, our Lord is speaking of His mediatorial office. He has come as the representative of and as a servant of the Father.

Do you realize that one of the names, if you would call it a name, or one of the phrases that is used of Jesus Christ over and over in the New Testament is the sent one? Because He came to do the Father's will. He came as a servant of the Father. In John 5, in verse 30, he said this, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." And then he said in John 6, in verse 38, "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." So in his mediatorial office, he's the servant of the Father. Let me ask you, is the master greater than the servant? Well, of course. Jesus Christ has come now as the Father's servant. So, in John 10, He's proclaiming His deity, His essence, His oneness with the Father. And in John 14 and verse 28, He says, I'm the servant of my Father, the Father's greater, because I came in this official capacity to do His will.

Practical Applications

We must study with dependence on God for understanding, and God will measure truth to us according to our diligence and pleasure in His Word.

So you have to interpret scripture in order to explain seeming contradictions. Now, let me make a couple of applications. Here's the first one. We must read and study our Bibles with understanding. Reading and studying is our responsibility, but it is God who must give us understanding. So here's the point that I want to drive home. God does not give understanding apart from His Word. God is not going to give understanding apart from your studying His Word. He said, "Consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." So the Lord is not going to give you understanding without your consideration. Moreover, you're not going to go to bed stupid and wake up smart. It's just not going to happen. You're not going to put the Bible under your pillow and somehow absorb it through osmosis. It will not work. No. The only way you can get it is through considering, through studying, and at the same time asking the Lord to give you understanding. Here's the second one. I want you to let this one sink in very deeply.

Remember this truth and apply it deeply in your mind. God is going to measure to you the amount of truth that you give and that you measure in seeking to learn the truth. In other words, if truth is really important to you, you're going to seek it, you're going to study it, you're going to consider it, you're going to meditate upon it, you're going to chew it up over and over. If you are merely a casual reader of the Bible, you're not interested in truth anyhow. And God's not going to give you any truth. Because you don't really want it. You have no desire for it. You know what the Bible says in Psalm 111 verse 2, listen to this. "The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." In order to seek out the works of God, you have to have pleasure in them. If you have no pleasure in the works of God, you're not going to seek them out. If you have no pleasure in the word of God, you're not going to seek out the truth. The casual reader of scripture is not going to get hardly any truth at all. He might get some, but not much. He'll get the skim milk instead of the whole milk.

I'm just simply saying, if we want truth, we have to give ourselves to seeking and studying and learning truth and asking the Lord to open our eyes. The very first reason you must interpret scripture, the very first reason is to explain seeming contradictions. There are no contradictions in the Bible. There are some that are seemingly contradictions, but once you begin to interpret and compare Scripture with Scripture, you find out that usually the contradiction is only in our mind because of our finite understanding.

Study Guide

Major Themes

The Command to Consider Scripture

Summary: Believers are commanded to continually ponder and seek understanding of God's Word, as seen in 2 Timothy 2:7.

Evidence: The word consider is the Greek word noieo... it is a present active imperative... you are commanded to consider his word incessantly.

Dependence on God for Understanding

Summary: While study is our responsibility, true understanding is a gift from God, requiring prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit.

Evidence: We may study until we are completely fatigued... but unless he opens our eyes... we will never see it.

Scripture Interprets Scripture

Summary: The Bible is its own best interpreter; no private interpretation can contradict the whole counsel of God.

Evidence: One of the very first rules of hermeneutics is that scripture is to interpret scripture.

Resolving Seeming Contradictions

Summary: Proper interpretation reconciles apparent conflicts in the Bible, demonstrating the unity and consistency of Scripture.

Evidence: We must interpret scripture in order to explain seeming contradictions... There are no contradictions in the Bible.

The Danger of Neglecting Truth

Summary: Failure to apply and meditate on truth leads to spiritual loss, as God takes away even what one seems to have.

Evidence: If you do not consider the truth... you'll lose it. It'll be gone.

Key Arguments

Understanding requires both human effort and divine enablement.

Summary: We are commanded to study diligently, but only God can grant true understanding; the two must go together.

Evidence: Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding... our independent study is to be dependent.

1 John 2:27 does not negate the need for human teachers.

Summary: In context, this verse addresses protection from deceivers, not a rejection of God-ordained teaching ministries.

Evidence: The whole context now is dealing with the Antichrist, with deceivers, with seducers... we do not need any man to teach us that because we know that.

Seeming contradictions are resolved by understanding context and original language.

Summary: Words like 'tempt' have different meanings in different contexts; careful interpretation harmonizes passages.

Evidence: In Genesis 22, the word basically means to test... When you get to James 1... it means to seduce someone to evil.

Jesus' statements about His oneness with the Father and the Father's greatness refer to different aspects of His person and work.

Summary: John 10:30 speaks of His essential deity, while John 14:28 refers to His mediatorial role as the Father's servant.

Evidence: In John 10, our Lord is proclaiming His deity... In John 14... our Lord is speaking of His mediatorial office.

Scripture References

2 Timothy 2:7

Context: The foundational text for the series, commanding believers to consider God's Word with the promise of divine understanding.

Hebrews 2:1

Context: Warning to give earnest heed to what we have heard lest we let it slip.

Mark 4:23-25

Context: Jesus teaches that the measure we give to hearing and applying truth determines what we receive.

Psalm 119:169

Context: David's prayer for understanding according to God's Word.

Proverbs 2:6

Context: The Lord gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

Matthew 15:16

Context: Jesus questions the disciples' lack of understanding.

Mark 7:18

Context: Jesus again questions the disciples' understanding.

Luke 24:44-45

Context: Jesus opened the disciples' understanding to comprehend the Scriptures.

Ephesians 4:11-13

Context: God gave pastor-teachers for the equipping of the saints.

Jeremiah 3:15

Context: God promises to give pastors who will feed with knowledge and understanding.

2 Timothy 2:1-2

Context: Paul instructs Timothy to commit what he has learned to faithful men who will teach others.

2 Peter 1:19-21

Context: Scripture is not of private interpretation; holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Acts 5:42

Context: The early church ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 4:17

Context: Paul taught everywhere in every church.

1 Timothy 3:2

Context: A bishop must be apt to teach.

1 Timothy 4:11

Context: Paul commands Timothy to command and teach these things.

1 John 2:27

Context: The anointing teaches believers, and they need not that any man teach them—understood in context of avoiding antichrist deceivers.

Job 36:22

Context: God is the greatest teacher.

Genesis 22:1

Context: God did tempt (test) Abraham.

James 1:13

Context: God does not tempt any man to evil.

Historical References

John Trapp

Context: Quoted on 2 Peter 1:20, explaining that 'private' means human versus divine, not private versus public.

Matthew Poole

Context: Quoted on 2 Peter 1:20-21, emphasizing that God is the best interpreter of His Word and that Scripture interprets Scripture.

Gnosticism (Docetic and Cerinthian)

Context: Heresies in the early church that denied either the humanity or deity of Christ; John's epistle refutes them.

Martin Luther

Context: Before conversion, practiced asceticism in a monastery, beating himself to drive out evil, until God opened his eyes to justification by faith.

Important Quotes

Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

Significance: The foundational verse for the entire message, establishing the dual responsibility of human consideration and divine illumination.

Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.

Significance: Key principle that God's revelation of truth corresponds to our diligence in seeking and applying it.

We may study until we are completely fatigued. We may fill our brains with scripture and work tirelessly in seeking for truth, but unless he opens our eyes, unless he opens our understanding, unless he illuminates our mind to the truth, we will never see it.

Significance: Emphasizes the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit's work in understanding Scripture.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Significance: Establishes the divine origin of Scripture and the principle that interpretation must align with God's intent.

One of the very first rules of hermeneutics is that scripture is to interpret scripture. We are to allow scripture to interpret itself.

Significance: Foundational hermeneutical principle for resolving apparent contradictions.

The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

Significance: Highlights that delight in God's works motivates diligent study, which in turn leads to greater understanding.

Discussion Questions

What does it mean to 'consider' God's Word according to 2 Timothy 2:7, and how does this differ from casual reading?

Context: Weaver explains that 'consider' is a present active imperative, commanding continual, thoughtful engagement.

How does the principle of 'measure for measure' in Mark 4:24-25 affect your personal Bible study habits?

Context: God measures truth to us according to the diligence we apply in seeking and obeying it.

Why is it important to balance personal responsibility in study with dependence on the Holy Spirit for understanding?

Context: Weaver stresses that we must study, but only God can open our eyes to truly comprehend.

How does the context of 1 John 2:27 clarify its meaning regarding the need for human teachers?

Context: The passage addresses protection from antichrist deceivers, not a rejection of God-given teaching ministries.

What are some 'seeming contradictions' in the Bible you have encountered, and how might proper interpretation resolve them?

Context: Weaver uses examples like Genesis 22:1 vs. James 1:13 and John 10:30 vs. John 14:28 to illustrate resolution.

Applications

Diligent Study with Prayerful Dependence

Summary: We must commit to regular, thoughtful Bible study while continually asking God to grant understanding.

Evidence: Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding... our independent study is to be dependent.

Apply Truth to Receive More Truth

Summary: Obedience to known truth is the condition for receiving further revelation; neglect leads to spiritual loss.

Evidence: If you want to learn more truth, you need to apply the truth that God has already given you.

Interpret Scripture with Scripture

Summary: When encountering difficult passages, compare them with the whole counsel of God, allowing clearer texts to illuminate obscure ones.

Evidence: Scripture is to interpret scripture. We are to allow scripture to interpret itself.

Guard Against Heresy Through Sound Interpretation

Summary: Proper hermeneutics protects against false teachings that deny Christ's full deity or humanity or promote asceticism or antinomianism.

Evidence: Anytime some interpretation leads you into asceticism, it is heresy. If an interpretation leads you into antinomianism, it is heresy.

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T01:59:52Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T15:39:58Z

Clean Transcript

Three Reasons We Need To Consider Truth And Interpret Scripture - Part 1

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

2 Timothy 2 and verse 7. This is going to be the first in a series of messages. How many? I do not know. Probably six to eight at least.
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The title of this message is Three Reasons We Need to Consider Truth and Interpret Scripture. However, we're going to have more reasons probably on down the line and more sermons following this as well. So look, if you would please, in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 7. The Apostle said, "Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
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Most Christians read their Bibles. However, most Christians do not read their Bibles daily, consistently, constantly, and repeatedly. And when they do read their Bibles, usually they read them without thinking, without grasping what is being said, without even noting the place in which they're reading. And usually a lot of Christians who try to read their Bibles all the way through every year, they read them so quickly that it's almost impossible to absorb and to learn that which they have read. I've often said that I'd rather read three verses with understanding than three chapters and not understand a word that I had read. Moreover, usually when we read something from the Bible, we don't normally think about it, we don't meditate upon it, and we certainly do not apply it, and consequently, it's easily lost.
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Now, there's a warning in Scripture. You'll find it in Hebrews 2 and verse 1 where the Bible says this, "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." And certainly things do indeed slip away from us. I find it not only most interesting, but sometimes even amusing to observe that most Christians can listen to a well-developed sermon, and an interestingly communicated sermon, and one with excellent oratory. And by the end of the day, they've already forgotten what the sermon was about. And usually, they've forgotten everything within a week's time.
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Now, you have to ask, why in the world is that true? Well, there are a number of reasons it could be given. One of the first reasons, I suppose, is that most people really don't listen. They really do not hear. Listening indeed is an art. But usually, a lot of people who come to church, they're sitting there, and they're thinking about other things. They're not really thinking about what is being said. Sometimes they're planning a week's worth of events in their minds. And sometimes they're just mentally dozing or acting as if they're in a mental stupor. I've known a lot of people who would stay up late on Saturday night either going out or watching TV or watching some movie and then watch them on Sunday morning and they stand there and or sit there and just keep dozing off because, you know, they didn't really come to hear. They didn't really come to learn. They just simply came out of habit. Now, I suppose the second and probably the most important reason is a biblical reason, is because when we hear something, we don't really make application of it to our lives.
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So I want you to hold 2 Timothy, but I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Mark, chapter 4. And look, if you would please, beginning there with verse 23. And we'll read through verse 25. Look at Mark chapter 4, verse 23. Our Lord gives us this truth. He says, in verse 23, "If any man have ears to hear, let him hear." And He said unto them, "Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath."
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Now, actually there are three principles in this passage that we really need to comprehend. The first one is this, if you look in verse 24, "And he said unto them, Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you." In other words, God is going to measure truth to us to the same degree and to the same measure that we give in seeking and learning truth. He's not going to give us an ounce more. So you're not going to study the scripture for two hours and get a week's worth of knowledge. It's impossible. Neither are you going to study for 15 minutes and get two hours worth of knowledge. If you study 10 minutes, you're going to get 10 minutes worth of knowledge and that's it. Because he said he's going to measure back to you exactly the same measure that you put in in giving the truth.
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Now here's the second principle. Look again in verse 24, part of it in verse 25. He said, "...unto them, Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you." Now watch this. "And unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given." So the word here in the Greek, in verse 24, means to hearken. It means to give audience, to consider, to learn, to understand, and to comprehend. So here is what our Lord is teaching us, that the more we understand the truth and apply the truth, the more truth you and I are going to be given, the more truth we will receive. In other words, if you want to learn more truth, you need to apply the truth that God has already given you. So here's a good question to ask. Why in the world should God give you any more truth, if you will not obey the truth that he's already given you? So he says if you want more truth, then you have to apply and use the truth that he's already given you.
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Now this fits right in with the text in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 7. When the Apostle Paul told Timothy, "Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things."
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Now the word consider is the Greek word noieo, and it means literally to consider, to perceive, to understand, to think, to ponder, and to grasp with the mind. Also, it is a present active imperative. You say, I don't know what that means. It is an imperative, which means it is a command. You are being commanded to consider. And since it is a present active, it means it is something that you are to be doing continually. In other words, what he is telling us is this, you are commanded to consider his word incessantly. And so therefore, it is a present active command.
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The third principle that you're going to find is in verse 25. Look at it. We'll read verse 25. He said, "For he that hath, to him shall be given." Here's the third principle. "And he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath." In other words, if you do not consider the truth, if you do not hear, if you do not grasp, if you don't understand, if you don't apply the truth, you'll lose it. It'll be gone.
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Because it's not really yours anyhow. It's kind of like I've known students, I knew some when I was in college. We were going to have a test and they would cram for the test. I mean, they would cram. And they'd pass the test. And then immediately forget everything that they'd studied. It really didn't do them any good. So, this is what God is saying here. If we really truly do not grasp it and apply it, it is not ours at all. We will lose it.
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Now, when you look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 7, when the Apostle Paul says, "Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." You must first discern in that passage our duty, our responsibility, our obligation, and our privilege, and that is to consider the Word of God. So that means as we consider it, we are fulfilling our responsibility. However, responsibility does not necessarily imply ability. We may be responsible to study, consider, to hear, but that does not mean that we have the ability in and of ourselves. Because he said, "Consider what I say, the Lord give thee understanding" and the word give is the Greek word didomi which literally means it is a gift, it is a grant, it is furnished, is given as a favor. So as we study, as we contemplate, as we consider, at the same time we must be seeking our Lord to give us understanding. In other words, we may study independently in the sense that we might study by ourselves or we might study individually, but our independent study is to be dependent.
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That is dependent upon the Lord to give us understanding. David said it like this in Psalm 119 and verse 169. He said, "Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD: give me understanding according to thy word." Give me understanding according to thy word. And there's a verse that I'll probably quote a number of times before I finish this series, and that's Proverbs 2 and verse 6, where the Bible says, "For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." So the Lord gives wisdom. So the truth is that we must study, we must meditate, we must ponder, but at the same time we must ask the Lord to grant us and to give us wisdom, insight, illumination, and understanding.
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Now, so many people think, well, all I've got to do is just sit down and read the Bible and that's it. Well, reading the Bible is quite different than reading another book. And the reason it's quite different is because we must have God's gracious understanding in our lives. I do not suppose that any men on earth were closer to the Lord Jesus Christ than His disciples. And yet, oftentimes when He taught, they did not understand what He was teaching. They had to ask. And on two occasions, the first one, Matthew 15 and verse 16, our Lord looked at His disciples, the apostles, please understand, the apostles, and He said, "Are ye also yet without understanding?" They didn't understand. Then in Mark 7 verse 18, He said unto them, "Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him?" In other words, twice He asked them, "Are you without understanding?"
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And numerous times in the scripture, they understood not. I'm just simply saying. What our Lord did for His disciples is what we need for Him to do for us. If you look in your Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 24, and verses 44 and 45, our Lord did this before His ascension. And look at it. Luke 24, verse 44 and verse 45. Verse 44, "And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures." Then opened he their understanding. So here's a principle that—here's a lesson. Here's an application we should already draw.
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We may study until we are completely fatigued. We may fill our brains with scripture and work tirelessly in seeking for truth, but unless he opens our eyes, unless he opens our understanding, unless he illuminates our mind to the truth, we will never see it. So the truth of the matter is you could have the best preacher on earth. He could present the clearest message on earth. He could have the best illustrations. But unless God opens your eyes, you're never ever going to see. Unless he opens your ears, you're never going to hear. Unless he opens your heart, you're never going to receive. Now, it is truth that the Holy Spirit is to be our teacher. We'll cover some of this later on in this study. However, that does not mean that we do not need human instruction or human teachers.
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If you were to take the time to read Ephesians chapter 4, you will find that our Lord gave gifts of ministry to the church. The Bible says that He gave some prophets and some apostles and some evangelists and some pastor-teachers. Why? For the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the church, for the building up of the church, to bring us into the fullness of the body of Christ and the fullness of the stature of Christ. In other words, he gave pastor-teachers as his ministry gift to the church. When you get to Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 15, God told his people this.
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He commanded them to repent and turn back to him and he said, "And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." So God said, I will give you pastors, and they will feed you.
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Now, in 2 Timothy chapter 2, since you're there, look if you would please at verses 1 and 2, and see what the apostle said. He tells Timothy, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." So the apostle Paul taught Timothy, and now he's telling Timothy to teach faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
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So once again, let me say it again. The truth is, no matter how gifted the preacher, no matter how clear and plain and simple the presentation is, no one's going to understand unless God the Holy Spirit opens their eyes. Now, I'm going to be dealing later on with the doctrine of illumination, but illumination is indeed the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, whereby He opens our minds that we might understand the words that He has revealed in Scripture.
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But I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter, I want to cover a passage that so many have probably not really understood, but I want you to see this, 2 Peter 1, where the Apostle Peter is talking about the fact that there is no such thing as a private interpretation. I'll explain this. Now look at it. It is 2 Peter 1. Beginning there with verse 19. Look what he says. He says, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Now, the more sure word of prophecy that we have in verse 19 is indeed the Word of God. It is not only the written Word of God, but it's also the living Word of God, because He said, "until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart."
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And in the scripture, Jesus Christ is the bright and morning star. He is the day star. So the more sure word of prophecy is not only the written word of God, but it is also the living word of God as well. Consequently, there cannot be any private interpretation. So let me explain that. It is explained in verse 21. That's what the little word "for" is about. When he said in verse 20, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation," what does that mean? Then he explains it. "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." In other words, the Bible is not man's word, the Bible is God's word. And men moved, or men ran, as God sent them. So the Bible is not the work of man, but it is indeed the work of God.
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Now I want to give you two quotes. The first one is from John Trapp. And the second one is from Matthew Poole. I want you to listen to what John Trapp said. Quote, "that is, of human interpretation, private is not here as opposed to public, but to the divine, to the Holy Ghost." So what he is saying is, when the Bible talks about there's no private interpretation, it is explained by verse 21. It's not private versus public. It's not me up here whispering in Steve's ear, something I heard Lorraine say, versus me telling everybody what I heard Lorraine say. That's private versus public. Okay? But this is private versus divine. Now, I want you to listen to what Matthew Poole said. Listen carefully.
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The meaning is, not that private men are not to interpret Scripture, only referral to the church, but that no man, nor company of men, no church, nor public officers are to interpret the scripture of their own heads according to their own minds so as to make their private sense to be the sense of scripture, but to seek the understanding of it from God, who shows them the meaning of the word in the word itself, the more obscure places being expounded by the more clear, and by his spirit leads believers in their searching the scripture into the understanding of his mind in it. God himself being the author of the word is the best interpreter of the word.
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Now listen to the second paragraph. Here it is. "Mission or dismission, a metaphor taken from races where they that ran were let loose from the stage where the race began that they might run their course. The prophets in the Old Testament are said to run as being God's messengers, Jeremiah 23:21. And God is said to send them, Ezekiel 13:6-7. And then this does not immediately concern the interpretation of scripture, but the first revelation of it."
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Spoken of it in the next verse, that would be verse 21, and the question is not who have authority to interpret the scripture now written but what authority the penman had to write it and consequently what respect is due to it and why believers are so carefully to take heed to it. And then the meaning is, here's what he's saying, that it is the first principle of our faith that the Scripture is not of human invention, but divine inspiration, that the prophets wrote not in their own private sense of it, but in the mind of God, and at His command, and not at their pleasure. So what he is saying is this, and this makes perfect sense, when you look at verse 20, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation."
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In other words, the men that God used to pen the Word of God didn't sit down and say, you know, I think this is what this means and I think this is what I'm going to write. No, no, no, no. He says, "For." Here's the explanation why it can't be that the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God were moved by the Holy Ghost who inspired them to write that which was true. So what we are being taught is the Scriptures are indeed the Word of God, and they are not the Word of man. Since I made that clear, let me say that this also leads to another application.
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No one has a right to determine or force a private interpretation upon a passage. So that means this, that one cannot lawfully, biblically, or hermeneutically simply state independently that this is what the scripture means and I'm not going to allow it to mean anything else and no one else can allow it to mean anything else. Why? And the answer is because God is the true interpreter of scripture. It is God the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible to be written and God the Holy Spirit is the interpreter of the Bible. Therefore, one of the very first rules of hermeneutics is that scripture is to interpret scripture. We are to allow scripture to interpret itself. So, that means it is scripture that gives us the true meaning and the true interpretation, which leads us to another truth. We cannot interpret scripture so as to make it contradict itself. I've had plenty of people tell me that they have interpreted a passage and they would say, well, let me tell you, this is what I think.
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And when they finished telling me that, I said, well, what are you going to do with this other passage over here that contradicts what you just think? And what you just said to me, what are you going to do with that? In other words, if your interpretation of a scripture contradicts other plain passages in the Bible, the Bible is not wrong. It's your interpretation that's wrong. This is what I mean by allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture. The problem is never with the Scripture. The problem is always with our limited, finite understanding.
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Now, you've heard me use the word hermeneutics several times. Hermeneutics is nothing more than the art or the science of Bible interpretation. That's it. And if you're going to be a serious student of the Bible, you need to get a book such as A.W. Pink's book, The Interpretation of Scripture, where he'll lay down certain biblical rules and give you illustrations on how to interpret the Bible. There are many, many other books on interpretation. But let me just say this, if you get a book on the rules of hermeneutics or on hermeneutics, you need to make sure that the book is written by a Christian. Because liberals, leftists, Marxists, communists, they all write books to discredit the Bible. I remember when the Lord first saved me many, many years ago, and I really wanted to know the Bible and I was under the impression that, you know, if it was a Christian book in a Christian bookstore, then a Christian must have written it. But it's not true. I remember I was reading
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through the Old Testament and I saw a book on the Exodus and I thought, boy, this will be an excellent book. And so I bought the book. First of all, it was written by a woman, not necessarily discrediting women by any stretch of the imagination, but this woman happened to be an unbeliever, and I read the book eagerly until I got to the point of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, and she stated very plainly the reason Moses and the Israelites got across the Red Sea was he knew when the tide was going to be out. And the reason Pharaoh and his army drowned, they didn't know when the tide was coming back in. Really? When the Bible said they went across on dry ground. I'm just simply saying.
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Now, this was in a Christian bookstore being presented as a Christian book, which is totally, absolutely contradicting scripture. So you have to just make sure.
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Now, I want you to consider something. You have to consider in reality, everyone interprets scripture. It is impossible not to interpret. We may not interpret accurately, but we interpret. In fact, we interpret every day. We interpret everything that is said to us. We also interpret everything that's not said unto us. Well, I wonder why he didn't say this. I bet I know. And we go off into a zillion reasons. We interpret facial expressions. We interpret bodily movements.
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A man can see a pretty girl doing like this with her eye and the man thinks, oh, she's flirting at me, she's winking at me. Well, all she's got is an eyelash or an eye affliction or nerve twitching. No, it's not flirting at all. Not at all! I'm just simply saying, but that we interpret. We interpret every time we turn around. That is why there are rules on the interpretation of Scripture. We want to interpret Scripture, but we want to make sure that we interpret it accurately, and that we stay within the bounds of Scripture. Now, I'm going to give you probably five reasons as to why we must interpret Scripture. I think it said three, but I'm going to probably add two of these, so I'm going to go ahead. Here's the first one. It's the only one we're going to cover today. Listen carefully. We must interpret scripture in order to explain seeming contradictions. The emphasis is on the word seeming. We must interpret scripture to explain seeming contradictions. A seeming contradiction is when you read one passage, and you turn over and read another passage, and they seemingly contradict each other.
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When that happens, then you have to study, you have to look, and you have to then interpret so as to reconcile those two seeming different statements. I began this message by giving you certain scriptures, and I want to reinforce those scriptures right now. I'm just going to remind you of them. Then I'm going to quote a few more. But over and over in the Bible, we are commanded to preach and to teach the Word of God. I told you in Ephesians 4, God, of course, gave pastor teachers as ministry gifts to the church. I told you in Jeremiah 3 and verse 15, God said, "I'll give you pastors according to my heart, which will feed you with knowledge and understanding." And there are multitudes of passages in the Bible that deal with men teaching and preaching the word of God. For instance, in Acts 5 and verse 42, the Bible says, "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." And then when you get to 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 17, Paul said, "For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church."
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So he said, I teach everywhere and in every church. And then, of course, in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 2, where he says, "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach." Now listen carefully. If I took the time today, I could show you from the Bible where every one of these qualifications of a pastor is also required of every believer with one exception. God does not require every believer to be apt to teach. He does require every believer to be hospitable, and to be sober, and to be faithful, and to be of good behavior, and to be vigilant. Yeah, he does. But the one that really stands out that he requires of pastors that he does not require of anyone else is he must be apt to teach. And then when you get to 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 11, Paul told Timothy, "These things command and teach." Now, here's the thing. With all of these plain scriptures, who could deny, who could ever deny that God has not commanded man to teach and that we need human instructors, even though we know the Holy Spirit of God is our instructor.
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Believe it or not, I have run into people who said, "I need absolutely no man to teach me." Really? And I asked one individual, why? And the response was, well, the Holy Ghost is my teacher. And the Bible says, and I want you to look in your Bibles to 1 John chapter 2 verse 27, 1 John chapter 2 verse 27, and here is the verse these individuals were basing the fact that they did not need to be taught by a man. 1 John 2, look if you would at verse 27, where it is written, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." Well, let me just say up front, I know, and you know, and we know, that truly God is the greatest teacher. That's what is said in Job 36 and verse 22.
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"Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?" Obviously, no one can teach like Him. But notice if you would, in verse 27, it says, "And ye need not that any man teach you." And these people took up this verse and said, "We just don't need human teachers. We just need God." Well, let me ask you a few questions. First of all, did God use men to write His Word? Hmm. Did not God use prophets, priests, Levites, apostles, pastors, to communicate his truths?
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And here's a good question. Why would God, in one verse, undo, confound, and destroy everything that he had done for thousands of years? That's a pretty good question. I wonder if some of these people who says we don't need human teachers, I wonder if any of them would listen to the Apostle Paul. I wonder if any of them would listen to Jesus Christ. He's the God-man. Wow.
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Well, let's learn a very important truth right here. Here it is. Context is everything. There is an immediate context which you will usually find in the paragraph or the chapter. Sometimes it might go back another chapter or so. But there's also a remote context, which you might find even in the beginning of the book, or sometimes even the entire Bible. So when you look at 1 John 2 and verse 27, this paragraph begins with verse 18, where the apostle is dealing with seducers, deceivers, Antichrist. So let's go back to verse 18 and let's read it. And we'll read through verse 27.
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He says, "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar?"
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"But he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father."
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"And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."
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Now, I want you to note, the whole context now is dealing with the Antichrist, with deceivers, with seducers. And if you are going to take verse 27 out of context, let me ask you about verse 20. Would you please look at that? Would you also take this out of context? Because, again, he says, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." Wow! Now, who is going to be so insane enough to claim that they know all things? Hmm? If you tell me that you know all things, I have a number of questions to ask you. Number one, when are you going to die? Number two, what's going to happen tomorrow? Number three, what's going to be the winning lottery number? I've never bought a lottery ticket in my life. But one thing for sure, if you know absolutely, I might run out and buy one. No, I'm teasing. But how about this one?
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How many stars are there? What are their names? You see, what in the world is he saying when he says in verse 20, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." You do not know all things knowable, but you know all things needful in the context to avoid these deceivers. That's what he's saying. Now, I want you to look, if you would please, verse 26 he says that again. This is the context. "These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you." So we're talking about deceivers, we're talking about Antichrist, and therefore he says in verse 27, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you," that is the Holy Spirit, "and ye need not that any man teach you"—what? In light of the context of the deceivers and the seducers. "But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things," that is, that Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ is God, Jesus Christ is the only Savior, "and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you,
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ye shall abide in him." So, he is saying that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit has enlightened us and illuminated us and taught us that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and we do not need any man to teach us that because we know that. And the reason we know that is we are abiding in Him, and He abides in us.
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Now, I want to show you. Remember now, He's talking about deceivers, seducers, Antichrist. I told you there's an immediate context, and there was. It began with verse 18. But there's also a remote context. So if you'll turn back to 1 John chapter 1, and look if you would please at the first four verses. 1 John chapter 1 verse 1, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." Now, I want to call your attention to verse 1. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life."
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John, the apostle, is refuting the heresy of Gnosticism. Now Gnosticism is from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge, or the verb ginosko, which means I know. The Gnostics were an intellectual elite who believed that they had the knowledge that would make you spiritual, make you holy, make you saved, and it was a secret knowledge. And you had to be in their club to have this knowledge. So it's much like the cults and isms and secret organizations of the day. You have to have their special secret knowledge in order to be in their club. And there were two types of Gnostics. There were the Docetic Gnostics and there were the Cerinthian Gnostics. Now, the Docetic Gnostics denied the humanity of Jesus Christ. They said that Jesus Christ did not have a real flesh and bone body. And the reason they said that is because they believed that all matter was inherently evil in and of itself. So my arm is flesh. And so they would point to this fleshly arm and say, that's evil, that's matter.
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This table? Is matter, so this table is evil in and of itself. These Docetic Gnostics said that Jesus Christ could never have had a real physical body because that is matter and that would be evil in and of itself.
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Now, the Greek word, the verb dokeo, means I appear. So, the Docetic Gnostics believed that Jesus Christ was a mirage, an apparition, a ghost. He was not, he didn't have a real body, because matter is inherently evil. That is why John wrote in verse 1, look at it, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled." He was real. He had a real body. We touched him. We felt him.
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I laid upon his breast. This was the same John the Apostle. Yeah, he said he's real. See, Docetic Gnosticism always led to asceticism. That is a withdrawal from the world since all matter is inherently evil. And therefore you have the cave dwellers, you have the stylite dwellers, those that inhabit monasteries and nunneries. What are they doing? They're ascetics. They're withdrawing from the world. Do you remember even Martin Luther, before he was converted, was at the monastery and he was beating himself with whips, trying to drive the evil out of his body, because the body was evil, until God opened his eyes and saved him and he saw justification by faith. So, these Docetic Gnostics would say, yeah, the body's evil, the body's sinful, because it's matter. It's not because of a sin principle, but because it's matter. All matter was evil according to the Docetic Gnostics. Then the Cerinthian Gnostics were just the opposite. They said that Jesus Christ was a little God.
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He was an Aeon, would be the Greek word. They went the opposite extreme, although they believed that matter was evil. So let me try to explain it like this. If you can watch my finger and pretend I've got a blackboard here. If I drew a huge circle and put God in it, then I could come down and draw a smaller circle and put God. Come down and draw a smaller circle and put God. Come down and draw a smaller circle to put God. These are aeons. They're emanations from God. God is up here. He's so holy, He can't have anything to do with matter.
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But what He does, He creates a series of lesser gods. And finally, one of the lesser gods creates the world. But, the Cerinthians then went the opposite way from the Docetics. Although they believed that matter was inherently evil as well, what they said, and by the way, to show you the stupidity, they said that Christ, the Christ Spirit, came upon Jesus Christ at His baptism and left Him at His crucifixion. So, they're still saying that matter is evil, but they went then into antinomianism.
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In other words, their mantra was this. If the body wants it, do it. Eat it. Drink it. Make merry. For tomorrow you're going to die. You see, the ascetic Gnostics, the Docetic Gnostics, they wanted withdrawal. They said, if your body wants it, if your body wants to do it, it's evil. Stay away from it. Ah, but the Cerinthians said, no, no, no, no. It's evil. That's true. But it's going to die.
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So you might as well indulge it while you can indulge it. And so, what John is doing in chapter 1 and in chapter 2 is he is demonstrating that these seducers are not going to seduce someone who is genuinely saved. Now, look back, if you would, at verse 27 in 1 John chapter 2. Watch this. He said, "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you." What is it that any man does not need to teach a true believer?
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That Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ is Lord, that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. He says, "but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things," that is, He interprets Scripture for us, "and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." So, clearly then, He is talking about avoiding the seducers. We're not going to fall for them because we know the truth.
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Now, let me point out something I think that is extremely obvious. Who wrote 1 John 2 and verse 27? I know the Holy Spirit inspired it, but the truth is, this is 1 John. That means this book was written by John the Apostle. So John the Apostle has written, "ye need not any man teach you." So if someone's going to come along and say, well, I don't need any man to teach me, all I need is the Holy Ghost. Really?
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Where do you get that? 1 John 2:27. Excuse me, didn't a man write that? Of course a man wrote that. John wrote that. Thus, if one is going to reject a human teacher based upon 1 John 2 and verse 27, he should also reject 1 John 2:27 because it was a man that taught it. So let me try to tie this together. The same heresies are alive today that were alive during the times of the apostles and John, specifically here in 1 John.
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There are isms and cults that deny the humanity of Jesus. There are isms and cults that deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Some, like the Docetic Gnostics, want to go into asceticism. Others, like the Cerinthians, they want to go into antinomianism. And some, like the Cerinthians, they kind of believe that since there are so many little gods coming down, that it's possible then for man to become God.
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All of that is absolutely heresy. Anytime, anytime some interpretation leads you into asceticism, it is heresy. If an interpretation leads you into antinomianism, it is heresy. Some interpretation leads you into an intellectually elite group that says, we have the truth, and unless you are in our club, you don't have the truth. It is heresy. It is heresy.
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Now, this is why I'm saying, we need to interpret Scripture to be able to explain seeming contradiction. There's not a contradiction between 1 John 2 and verse 27 and the rest of the Bible. It just seems that way to people who know absolutely nothing about how to interpret scripture.
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Now, very quickly, let me give you a couple more. I want you to look in your Bibles to Genesis 22 and also James 1, if you would. Genesis 22 and then James 1. In Genesis 22, I'm showing you we have to interpret Scripture to explain seeming contradictions. Not a contradiction, just a seeming contradiction. But look in Genesis 22, beginning there with verse 1, then we're going to James chapter 1. Genesis 22 and verse 1, "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am."
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"And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." Now, look in James 1 in verse 13. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man."
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Now wait a minute, didn't the Bible just say, in Genesis 22 in verse 1, "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham." That's exactly what it said.
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Now it says in James 1 and verse 13, that "neither tempteth he any man." Well, you have to understand the word tempt. In the Hebrew, in the King James Version, and in the Greek, in the Septuagint, I believe probably the word is maybe nasah, peirasmos, I don't know. I didn't check that in the Septuagint, but in Genesis 22, the word basically means to test, to try, to prove, to assay, to put to the test. So, in Genesis 22, "and it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham," but it means he tested him. And you remember he passed the test. And he said, "now I know that thou fearest God." Obviously. When you look at James 1 and verse 13, look at it now. He says, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." So, when you get to Genesis 22 and verse 1, it is a word that means to test, to try, to prove.
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When you get to James 1 and verse 13, it means to seduce someone to evil, or to seduce someone into sin. So he says in verse 13, "Let no man say when he is tempted," that is, he's being enticed to sin, "I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." God does not entice man to sin.
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Well, where does man's temptation come from? Look in verse 14. "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." We are tempted from our own flesh, from our own lust. To show you this, look back in verse 12. James 1, verse 12. There's the same exact word, peirasmos. Watch it. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation." The word temptation here means a test, a trial. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried," when he is tested, "he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." Now look at verse 13. "Let no man say when he is tempted." Now it's the same word, but used differently. "I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." So, here's the same word that is used different ways in the scripture.
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And you have to interpret it to avoid a seeming contradiction. Now, let me give you the illustration because we have the same thing in the English language. Suppose I ask Gary, I said, "Gary, I would like you to stand up and give me the definition of this word. It's a small word. It's three letters. It's spelled R-O-W." So give me the definition. You know what he would say? Before I can give you the definition, I have to hear it in a sentence. Maybe a paragraph. Why?
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Because R-O-W could be a noun. It could be a row of corn. It could be a verb. Steve rowed the boat. And it could be a noun in another sense, R-O-W, but pronounced row, because row is a fight. So you've got the same word, spelled exactly the same, used three different ways. The context makes it clear. That's why I said earlier that context is everything. Let me give you another quick one.
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I want you to look to John 10 and verse 30. And John 14 and verse 28. John 10 and verse 30. John 14 and verse 28. And John 10 and verse 30. Jesus Christ said, "I and my Father are one." I and my Father are one. Now look in John 14 and verse 28.
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Now he says, "Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I." Wait a minute now. John 10 and verse 30, "I and my Father are one." Now John 14 verse 28, "my Father is greater than I." How can that be? In John 10, our Lord is proclaiming His deity. He is proclaiming His essential oneness in essence with the Father. He is God. In John 14 and verse 28, our Lord is speaking of His mediatorial office. He has come as the representative of and as a servant of the Father.
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Do you realize that one of the names, if you would call it a name, or one of the phrases that is used of Jesus Christ over and over in the New Testament is the sent one? Because He came to do the Father's will. He came as a servant of the Father. In John 5, in verse 30, he said this, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." And then he said in John 6, in verse 38, "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." So in his mediatorial office, he's the servant of the Father. Let me ask you, is the master greater than the servant? Well, of course. Jesus Christ has come now as the Father's servant. So, in John 10, He's proclaiming His deity, His essence, His oneness with the Father. And in John 14 and verse 28, He says, I'm the servant of my Father, the Father's greater, because I came in this official capacity to do His will.
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So you have to interpret scripture in order to explain seeming contradictions. Now, let me make a couple of applications. Here's the first one. We must read and study our Bibles with understanding. Reading and studying is our responsibility, but it is God who must give us understanding. So here's the point that I want to drive home. God does not give understanding apart from His Word. God is not going to give understanding apart from your studying His Word. He said, "Consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." So the Lord is not going to give you understanding without your consideration. Moreover, you're not going to go to bed stupid and wake up smart. It's just not going to happen. You're not going to put the Bible under your pillow and somehow absorb it through osmosis. It will not work. No. The only way you can get it is through considering, through studying, and at the same time asking the Lord to give you understanding. Here's the second one. I want you to let this one sink in very deeply.
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Remember this truth and apply it deeply in your mind. God is going to measure to you the amount of truth that you give and that you measure in seeking to learn the truth. In other words, if truth is really important to you, you're going to seek it, you're going to study it, you're going to consider it, you're going to meditate upon it, you're going to chew it up over and over. If you are merely a casual reader of the Bible, you're not interested in truth anyhow. And God's not going to give you any truth. Because you don't really want it.
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You have no desire for it. You know what the Bible says in Psalm 111 verse 2, listen to this. "The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." In order to seek out the works of God, you have to have pleasure in them. If you have no pleasure in the works of God, you're not going to seek them out. If you have no pleasure in the word of God, you're not going to seek out the truth. The casual reader of scripture is not going to get hardly any truth at all. He might get some, but not much. He'll get the skim milk instead of the whole milk.
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I'm just simply saying, if we want truth, we have to give ourselves to seeking and studying and learning truth and asking the Lord to open our eyes. The very first reason you must interpret scripture, the very first reason is to explain seeming contradictions. There are no contradictions in the Bible. There are some that are seemingly contradictions, but once you begin to interpret and compare Scripture with Scripture, you find out that usually the contradiction is only in our mind because of our finite understanding.
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It's not in the Word of God. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee this day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. We pray, Father, that you would indeed teach us, build us up in the most holy faith. Help us, Lord, to learn your word and to interpret it so that we may understand and grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T01:59:52Z

Three Reasons We Need To Consider Truth And Interpret Scripture - Part 1

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

Pastor John Weaver introduces a series on interpreting Scripture, focusing on the command to 'consider' God's Word from 2 Timothy 2:7. He emphasizes that understanding comes from God as we diligently study, and that we must interpret Scripture to resolve seeming contradictions. Using 1 John 2:27 and other passages, he demonstrates how proper interpretation reconciles apparent conflicts, establishing that Scripture interprets Scripture and that no private interpretation can override the divine author's intent.

Introduction and Series Overview

Weaver introduces a series on truth and interpreting Scripture, beginning with 2 Timothy 2:7 and the command to consider God's Word.

2 Timothy 2 and verse 7. This is going to be the first in a series of messages. How many? I do not know. Probably six to eight at least.

Scripture Reading — 2 Timothy 2:7

"Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things."

Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

The Problem of Superficial Bible Reading

Most Christians read the Bible without understanding, meditation, or application, leading to forgetfulness and spiritual loss.

Now, there's a warning in Scripture. You'll find it in Hebrews 2 and verse 1 where the Bible says this,

Scripture Reading — Hebrews 2:1

"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip."

The Principle of Measured Truth (Mark 4:23-25)

God measures truth to us according to the measure we give in seeking it; applying truth leads to more truth, while neglect leads to loss.

Scripture Reading — Mark 4:23-25

"If any man have ears to hear, let him hear."

And He said unto them,

Scripture Reading — Mark 4:23-25

"Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath."

Our Responsibility and Dependence on God for Understanding

We are commanded to continually consider God's Word, but understanding is a gift from the Lord, requiring prayerful dependence.

That is dependent upon the Lord to give us understanding. David said it like this in Psalm 119 and verse 169. He said,

Scripture Reading — Psalm 119:169

"Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD: give me understanding according to thy word."

Scripture Reading — Matthew 15:16

"Are ye also yet without understanding?"

The Necessity of Divine Illumination

Even the apostles needed Christ to open their understanding; without the Holy Spirit's illumination, no human teaching can impart spiritual truth.

Scripture Reading — Luke 24:44-45

"And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures."

Then opened he their understanding. So here's a principle that—here's a lesson. Here's an application we should already draw.

If you were to take the time to read Ephesians chapter 4, you will find that our Lord gave gifts of ministry to the church. The Bible says that He gave some prophets and some apostles

Scripture Reading — Ephesians 4:11-13

and some evangelists and some pastor-teachers. Why? For the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the church, for the building up of the church, to bring us into the fullness of the body of Christ

No Private Interpretation (2 Peter 1:19-21)

Scripture is not of human origin but divine inspiration; therefore, interpretation must come from God, and Scripture must interpret Scripture.

Scripture Reading — 2 Peter 1:19-21

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

Now, the more sure word of prophecy that we have in verse 19 is indeed the Word of God. It is not only the written Word of God, but it's also the living Word of God, because He said,

Scripture Reading — 2 Peter 1:19-21

"until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart."

The First Reason to Interpret: Explaining Seeming Contradictions

We must interpret Scripture to reconcile apparent contradictions, such as 1 John 2:27 versus the command to teach, and Genesis 22:1 versus James 1:13.

Scripture Reading — 1 John 2:27

"But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."

Well, let me just say up front, I know, and you know, and we know, that truly God is the greatest teacher. That's what is said in Job 36 and verse 22.

Scripture Reading — 1 John 2:27

ye shall abide in him." So, he is saying that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit has enlightened us and illuminated us and taught us that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and we do not need any man to teach us that because we know that. And the reason we know that is we are abiding in Him, and He abides in us. Now, I want to show you. Remember now, He's talking about deceivers, seducers, Antichrist. I told you there's an immediate context, and there was. It began with verse 18. But there's also a remote context. So if you'll turn back to 1 John chapter 1, and look if you would please at the first four verses. 1 John chapter 1 verse 1, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." Now, I want to call your attention to verse 1. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life."

Scripture Reading — Genesis 22:1

"And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am."

Practical Applications

We must study with dependence on God for understanding, and God will measure truth to us according to our diligence and pleasure in His Word.

Three Reasons We Need To Consider Truth And Interpret Scripture - Part 1

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	_tm3nxF6b20
Subject	Apologetics
Course	Truth and the Interpretation of Scripture
Genre	Sermon
Date	2022-05-06
Dictation Name
Book	Book 065: Three Reasons We Need To Consider Truth And Interpret Scripture — Chapter 1
Source Timed Segments	78

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction and Series Overview: Weaver introduces a series on truth and interpreting Scripture, beginning with 2 Timothy 2:7 and the command to consider God's Word.
The Problem of Superficial Bible Reading: Most Christians read the Bible without understanding, meditation, or application, leading to forgetfulness and spiritual loss.
The Principle of Measured Truth (Mark 4:23-25): God measures truth to us according to the measure we give in seeking it; applying truth leads to more truth, while neglect leads to loss.
Our Responsibility and Dependence on God for Understanding: We are commanded to continually consider God's Word, but understanding is a gift from the Lord, requiring prayerful dependence.
The Necessity of Divine Illumination: Even the apostles needed Christ to open their understanding; without the Holy Spirit's illumination, no human teaching can impart spiritual truth.
No Private Interpretation (2 Peter 1:19-21): Scripture is not of human origin but divine inspiration; therefore, interpretation must come from God, and Scripture must interpret Scripture.
The First Reason to Interpret: Explaining Seeming Contradictions: We must interpret Scripture to reconcile apparent contradictions, such as 1 John 2:27 versus the command to teach, and Genesis 22:1 versus James 1:13.
Practical Applications: We must study with dependence on God for understanding, and God will measure truth to us according to our diligence and pleasure in His Word.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Understanding requires both human effort and divine enablement.

We are commanded to study diligently, but only God can grant true understanding; the two must go together.

Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding... our independent study is to be dependent.

1 John 2:27 does not negate the need for human teachers.

In context, this verse addresses protection from deceivers, not a rejection of God-ordained teaching ministries.

The whole context now is dealing with the Antichrist, with deceivers, with seducers... we do not need any man to teach us that because we know that.

Seeming contradictions are resolved by understanding context and original language.

Words like 'tempt' have different meanings in different contexts; careful interpretation harmonizes passages.

In Genesis 22, the word basically means to test... When you get to James 1... it means to seduce someone to evil.

Jesus' statements about His oneness with the Father and the Father's greatness refer to different aspects of His person and work.

John 10:30 speaks of His essential deity, while John 14:28 refers to His mediatorial role as the Father's servant.

In John 10, our Lord is proclaiming His deity... In John 14... our Lord is speaking of His mediatorial office.

Scripture References

2 Timothy 2:7: The foundational text for the series, commanding believers to consider God's Word with the promise of divine understanding.
Hebrews 2:1: Warning to give earnest heed to what we have heard lest we let it slip.
Mark 4:23-25: Jesus teaches that the measure we give to hearing and applying truth determines what we receive.
Psalm 119:169: David's prayer for understanding according to God's Word.
Proverbs 2:6: The Lord gives wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.
Matthew 15:16: Jesus questions the disciples' lack of understanding.
Mark 7:18: Jesus again questions the disciples' understanding.
Luke 24:44-45: Jesus opened the disciples' understanding to comprehend the Scriptures.
Ephesians 4:11-13: God gave pastor-teachers for the equipping of the saints.
Jeremiah 3:15: God promises to give pastors who will feed with knowledge and understanding.
2 Timothy 2:1-2: Paul instructs Timothy to commit what he has learned to faithful men who will teach others.
2 Peter 1:19-21: Scripture is not of private interpretation; holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Acts 5:42: The early church ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 4:17: Paul taught everywhere in every church.
1 Timothy 3:2: A bishop must be apt to teach.
1 Timothy 4:11: Paul commands Timothy to command and teach these things.
1 John 2:27: The anointing teaches believers, and they need not that any man teach them—understood in context of avoiding antichrist deceivers.
Job 36:22: God is the greatest teacher.
Genesis 22:1: God did tempt (test) Abraham.
James 1:13: God does not tempt any man to evil.

Historical References

John Trapp: Quoted on 2 Peter 1:20, explaining that 'private' means human versus divine, not private versus public.
Matthew Poole: Quoted on 2 Peter 1:20-21, emphasizing that God is the best interpreter of His Word and that Scripture interprets Scripture.
Gnosticism (Docetic and Cerinthian): Heresies in the early church that denied either the humanity or deity of Christ; John's epistle refutes them.
Martin Luther: Before conversion, practiced asceticism in a monastery, beating himself to drive out evil, until God opened his eyes to justification by faith.

Important Quotes

Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

The foundational verse for the entire message, establishing the dual responsibility of human consideration and divine illumination.

Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.

Key principle that God's revelation of truth corresponds to our diligence in seeking and applying it.

We may study until we are completely fatigued. We may fill our brains with scripture and work tirelessly in seeking for truth, but unless he opens our eyes, unless he opens our understanding, unless he illuminates our mind to the truth, we will never see it.

Emphasizes the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit's work in understanding Scripture.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Establishes the divine origin of Scripture and the principle that interpretation must align with God's intent.

One of the very first rules of hermeneutics is that scripture is to interpret scripture. We are to allow scripture to interpret itself.

Foundational hermeneutical principle for resolving apparent contradictions.

The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

Highlights that delight in God's works motivates diligent study, which in turn leads to greater understanding.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

What does it mean to 'consider' God's Word according to 2 Timothy 2:7, and how does this differ from casual reading?

[Context]

Weaver explains that 'consider' is a present active imperative, commanding continual, thoughtful engagement.

[Question]

How does the principle of 'measure for measure' in Mark 4:24-25 affect your personal Bible study habits?

[Context]

God measures truth to us according to the diligence we apply in seeking and obeying it.

[Question]

Why is it important to balance personal responsibility in study with dependence on the Holy Spirit for understanding?

[Context]

Weaver stresses that we must study, but only God can open our eyes to truly comprehend.

[Question]

How does the context of 1 John 2:27 clarify its meaning regarding the need for human teachers?

[Context]

The passage addresses protection from antichrist deceivers, not a rejection of God-given teaching ministries.

[Question]

What are some 'seeming contradictions' in the Bible you have encountered, and how might proper interpretation resolve them?

[Context]

Weaver uses examples like Genesis 22:1 vs. James 1:13 and John 10:30 vs. John 14:28 to illustrate resolution.

Applications

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