In his sermon, Michael Tutor addresses the complexity and varying levels of understanding required for different scriptures. He explains that while some biblical doctrines are straightforward, others, like the Trinity, are beyond full human comprehension. He warns against distorting these teachings to fit human logic, as this could lead to spiritual destruction. Tutor emphasizes that while we may struggle with complex doctrines, the essential teachings necessary for salvation are clear and accessible even to the unlearned. He refers to 2 Peter 3:16 and Psalm 19:7 to highlight that the scriptures provide wisdom and understanding needed for salvation. The sermon encourages trust in God's word and warns against reshaping it to fit human perceptions, advocating for faith in the promise that greater understanding will come with spiritual growth or in the afterlife.

So this is a pretty short one today, not super complicated. The first sentence, all things in Scripture are not like plain in themselves nor like clear to all, is pretty much a paraphrase of the first part of 2 Peter 3.16. It's saying some scriptures are difficult to understand, some easier. We can't all understand things as easily, maybe as one another. Some of us are more mature or more enlightened by the Spirit.

As we've grown and studied, some of the doctrines taught in the Scriptures are very simple even for children to understand, and some are difficult to grasp for men in our mortal minds. The Trinity would be one example of this. We can't really wrap our minds around a three-in-one person or Godhead. You can't imagine how that can work, and we often try to make that something that's not just so that We can understand it or put it in a man-shaped box. We can't understand how Christ can be fully man and fully God at the same time.

We can believe that it's true, And we can trust in what the Scriptures say, but we can't really explain it in a way that makes sense for a human perspective, not right now. And the second part of Peter 3.16 talks about those who are unlearned or unstable resting or twisting the Scriptures, which rest in the concordance means to twist, and then in the sense of language to perverse even, or pervert the language. So when we try to make some of these really difficult scriptures or doctrines something that we can understand, we twist it to our own destruction according to that verse. One of these that we see is creation. We read in Genesis that God spoke the earth into existence and the whole complex ecosystem that's on it, but we can't really imagine how does that work.

You can't visualize there just being there. So, we see Christians or professing Christians that they backpedal on some of what the Bible teaches us to make exception so that it will fit in more with what our our perception of physics is. We'll say maybe Maybe those six days are actually six billion years, and maybe an evening and a morning doesn't really mean that when He defines the first day. Start down that road and we lose so much of our other foundation for our doctrines that our faith is on. We start to doubt the Scriptures or to think we can define them based on our perception of reality instead of defining our reality based on Scriptures.

The second part of the reading today reminds us that everything we need to know to be saved is taught clearly in the scriptures that even the unlearned can understand, which in 2nd Peter 3.16 the unlearned are some of the people that it listed as twisting the scriptures to their destruction. So even If we are perverting the complex doctrines, we still have what we need in the Bible that we can understand to be saved. There's Psalm 19-7, which we read. The testimony of the Lord assured it makes wise the simple so even children can read and they can be made wise. They can be taught and grow in the scriptures to understand more and more each day.

I think that a couple of applications for this, one as a warning to us and one an encouragement, is that we have that promise that the words give light and understanding, and we can trust that God has given us what we need. We don't have to all be theologians or scholars to have the knowledge that we need of God. And then those things that we can't understand today, those complex doctrines, or those difficult Scripture passages, Either we'll grow and we'll understand them later in our life, or someday we'll go and we'll be with God in heaven, and then I think we will have a more perfect understanding so that we can glorify Him better until then we just trust and take the Scripture. So I think the warning is not to try to water down God, especially the doctrines and the Scriptures about His character, that we try too much to put Him in a man-shaped box, that we need to make sure that the scriptures shape our minds and not our minds shaping the scriptures.