In his sermon on 'Biblical Interpretation,' David Green emphasizes the importance of accurate and faithful interpretation of the Bible. He begins by referencing 2 Peter 3:13-16, highlighting the dangers of distorting scriptures as done by some even in the early church. Green contrasts different Bible translations, noting that while the King James Version is valuable, its language is no longer commonly used; hence, other translations can be equally good or better. The sermon underscores that differences in translations do not affect core doctrines. Green elaborates on the concepts of exegesis and isogesis, stressing that interpretation should derive meaning from the text itself rather than imposing personal ideas onto it. He warns against the proliferation of misinterpretations facilitated by modern technology and calls for diligence in studying and interpreting the Bible correctly. The speaker highlights the role of personal hermeneutics, drawing attention to the Bereans' example in Acts 17:11. He concludes by affirming the reliability and consistency of God's Word across different translations and encourages believers to engage deeply with scripture through accurate interpretation.

2 Peter chapter 3. And Let's start with verse 13 and we'll go down to verse 16. Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent. They may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless." In account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures under their own destruction.

This morning as we continue on in our series on the history of the Bible, I want us to consider the subject of Bible or biblical interpretation. Interpretation. Biblical interpretation. I read our text from the King James and originally I intended on reading just verses 15 and 16 but I wanted to catch verse 13 and 14 there I think it's quite fitting we do look for new heavens and new earth or in dwelleth righteousness. Oh, how we long for that.

The comparing comparing this text with the legacy standard verses 15 and 16 says and consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of scriptures to their own destruction. And so what we give from this, what we can glean from this is that even from the time of the early church, There were men who were distorting the Scriptures. They were distorting, they were twisting the Scriptures of the Old Testament. And even the Pauline epistles, before the ink had even dried, before Paul was even laid in the grave, there were men who were distorting and twisting the things that were written in the New Testament, Paul's letters. I believe this will be my last in this series unless there's a question that comes up or something happens this week that I say well maybe I should go back and revisit this or go deeper into this portion of the history but I'll admit that this series has not been in depth as in depth as no no I said series not Siri.

My iPad thought I was talking to her. So sorry about that, but technology you know sometimes I'll smart the people, I think they want all the attention. But anyway, let's see where was oh so this this hasn't been as in depth as maybe some others that you've heard before. But like I said early on, I believe the Lord has placed me here to preach the word, not to give history lectures. Although history is important, and I believe it is important for us to consider what history looks like from time to time, I don't believe it's good for us to get bogged down into it too much.

Hopefully, hopefully I've given you enough that you can rest assured that the Bible is God's word, that his word has been preserved for us in our language. And certainly, as we think about this and look at this series, I hope that these are, if you didn't get anything out of it, except for these key takeaways, I hope you got that the Bible, all 66 books, is God's word. That this is the word of God, every bit of it. And His word has been preserved for us, even in our language. And indeed, when we think about the translations, while the King James translation is a good translation, and we ought to love the King James and appreciate it, King James onlyism is a tradition of men.

There are many other translations which are just as good and I would say arguably better and the only reason why I say that, the main reason I say that is because the simple fact that the King James was written in a language, a dialect of English, that nobody speaks anymore. As we think about Biblical interpretation, when you walk into a Christian bookstore, I know those are extinct, there's a few of them still around, But if you walk into a bookstore or if you're to go on Amazon or Christian Book Distributors or something like that, and imagine that you're shopping for a Bible and you see all kinds of Bibles on the shelf. You see the King James, you see the New King James, the English Standard Version, the New American Standard Bible, the Legacy Standard Bible, and so on and so forth. These, If we were to narrow it down to just those, for instance, what we find and what we found in those is that the differences in those translations is not doctrinal. Indeed, there's not a Bible for the Presbyterians, a Bible for the Baptists, a non-denominational Bible, so on and so forth.

You can't go to a salesman at the bookstore and say I'm looking for the Baptist Bible. Don't give me the Presbyterian Bible. Don't give me the, you know, the, the, don't give me the Armenian Bible. Give me the good Bible. One of the Bible salesmen is gonna be a little confused.

Like, what are you talking about? What you find is that There are Arminians who use the King James. You'll find that even if you go back in the history of it, the King James was translated largely by Anglicans. And even though Anglicans and Armenians and we have read from the same Bible, There's some very key differences. The words are the same.

We know some Baptists who preach from, read from, use other translations. The New King James, the ESV, New American Standard, Legacy standard, and yet we find them to be in agreement with us on all the major Baptist distinctives. So what is the issue? What is the issue if it's not translations? It is exactly what Peter is talking about here.

It is interpretation. It is that there are folks who take the same words and they have come to different interpretation. Now some, some portions of the scripture it's happening just like Peter is describing. Unlearned and unstable men have taken the text and they have indeed distorted what the Bible clearly says. You can approach a text, and I can approach a text, and someone else can approach a text, and even among good brothers, we may come to different conclusions.

And yet, out of all those good brothers, I don't believe that it's always a matter of somebody being unlearned or somebody being unstable or someone having an ulterior motive. There are some things that are hard to understand and indeed one of these days the Lord's gonna correct us all on some of this stuff. I think about things like the timing of the Lord's return and you know eschatology that's a big one. We're going to get into some of that here in a little bit in the series on Mark. There are some differences in interpretation, not because good men have distorted the text because they have some bad motive.

Largely, it's because some of these things are very hard to understand. But one of these days it will all become very very clear won't it? When we're sitting at the feet of Jesus up in glory together we'll understand it better by and by as the songwriter said. Over in 2nd Timothy chapter 2, all that being said, we do have to be careful how we handle the Word of God. And we've got to approach it with the understanding that it is the word of God.

And as Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 verses 15 and 16, he says this, study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word, verse 17 says, will eat his doth a canker, or like a cancer. Of whom is Hymenus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some. He says, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this sealed, the Lord knoweth them that are his let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." Paul told Timothy to be diligent to give maximum effort to impart God's word accurately and clearly to his hearers.

He was told to rightly divide. Literally, the Greek here is to cut it straight. This is something that was true for carpenters, for masonry, even Paul's trade of tent making. Now you think about this, as Paul worked as a tent maker, he had to take that material and he had to be cut precisely. That material had to be cut, it had to be measured, it had to be cut in a way that everything fit together.

Otherwise, he'd go out of business real quick, wouldn't he? So it is with the Word of God. So it is with biblical interpretation. As John MacArthur put it, precision and accuracy are required in biblical interpretation beyond all other enterprises because the interpreter is handling God's Word. Anything less is shameful.

You wouldn't want to go to the store. You're ready for a camping trip, go pick you up a tent. Only to get down to the campground, set it up, and realize that the holes weren't measured right. That the tent material wasn't quite accurate, the door doesn't zip all the way, it'd be pretty aggravating, ruin the whole trip. In the same way, you wouldn't want a man to get up in his pulpit who hasn't done his homework, who hasn't been in the Word, who hasn't been faithful to proper interpretation.

So biblical interpretation is important. Another word for interpretation is hermeneutics. And while the emphasis is a lot of times on the preacher, the pastor, the teacher, everyone has a hermeneutic. Whether you know the word or not, you either have a good hermeneutic or a bad one. And so if I'm reading through my Bible, I read in one place.

My grandfather used to give this illustration all the time. Maybe you've heard it before. I've seen it in a couple books, but if you read in one passage in your daily Bible reading, the Judas went out and hung himself. You say, oh yeah that must be true. And then you remember that you read somewhere else that the word says go thou and do likewise.

That'd be a very bad hermeneutic to squish those two together and make a doctrine out of it. That may be a pitiful illustration, and I don't know anybody who does that with those two passages but I do know some men who take passages out of context and squish them together to make bad doctrine. Either in their private Bible reading or in their preaching. And what we've got right now in this technological age is this. Somebody anybody can be a publisher of ideas.

And so somebody comes up with something, some idea, something that they've read, something that they picked up on, and they can publish it through a blog, through a YouTube page, through a whatever, Facebook post or whatever, and then it's got the potential of going viral. And so we've got to beware of this to make sure that we're cutting it straight, to make sure that we're interpreting the Bible properly. The Bible properly. This is why there's all sorts of cults and all sorts of weird ideas out there. Men will follow, People will follow.

Get a hold of a passage and they run with it, taking it out of context and doing all sorts of things. And before you know it, You've got a group of people who are willing to drink Kool-Aid because the man in the front says to do it, you see, to their own destruction. Instruction. What's important for everyone to know how to read the Bible in their own language, how to study it, how to interpret it, how to rightly divide it. That's what the Bereans were doing in Paul's day over in Acts chapter 17.

Acts chapter 17 verse 11 it says, and these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. You see they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. You see they received the word with all readiness of mind. And they searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. They were in the word, they were searching, they were studying.

And as we study the Bible, we interpret it. There's another term that we use sometimes, a term that comes up sometimes in some circles, and a lot of times among the academia, but sometimes it comes out in preaching, and that is exegesis. It's not meaning the name of Jesus as in our Lord, but it's exegesis. Our Lord, but it's exe-g-e-s-i-s. Ideally, this is what happens, is some exegesis, meaning that It's a word that means simply to guide or to lead out.

It's an approach to the text in which we want the scripture to give the meaning. This is where biblical exposition happens. Over in 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Verse 1-5 He says, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom.

Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They shall turn away their ears from the truth, shall be turned into fables. But watch thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work of the evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. And so Paul told Timothy that he's to preach the Word.

And then furthermore, he tells him to be instant in season, out of season, or approve, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. So he goes on and tells him what preaching is all about in these nine exhortations in verses 2 and verse 5. But what we find is it all starts with preaching the Word, preaching the text. He's not telling him to preach his own ideas. Even in the Gospels we read in Luke chapter 24, Luke chapter 24, in verse 45, Luke 24, sorry, in verse 32, Luke 24, sorry, verse 32, And they said, one to another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us, by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?

He opened to them the scriptures, Luke 24 and 32. That's what exegesis is all about. This is exposition. This is opening the scriptures. What does God's Word say?

What we don't want is the opposite of that. When we talk about biblical interpretation, biblical hermeneutics, the opposite of exegesis is isogesis. And this is leading into. Isagesis means that we approach the text with our own ideas, with our own notions, And some preachers do that. You know, they have a dream, watch too much TV on through the week, and then put down, you know, what they saw in the news, what they saw on TV, what they saw in their dream, throw a text on the top of it and there you go.

What are they preaching? They're not preaching the Word. They're preaching their dream. They're preaching Fox News. They're preaching the television show.

And so in the most extreme cases of that, You'll see on Facebook and some of these things where these guys will have movies at the, a movie theme at church, and so they'll have the pastor and the associate pastor dressed up like Ken and Barbie and that's what their sermons all about. What's that all? What's that got to do with anything? But that's what's happening, you see. And even in a Bible study among good conservative Christians, sometimes we have to be careful because someone, a lot of times very well-meaning, might say, all right, let's have a Bible study.

We're going to focus on God's Word. Let's read this text. And so, they'll sit down and they'll read from the Word of God. And they'll say, all right, we're going to go around the room. And I want everybody to answer the question, what does this passage mean to you?

What does this mean to you? You see. That changes the whole center of interpretation. This isn't about you and what it means to you, but the real question is, what does the text mean? What is the meaning of this text?

What did Paul mean when he wrote the letter to the Galatians? What did Peter mean when he wrote 2 Peter? What did David mean when he wrote the the song? What's the Holy Spirit mean with that text? The preachers go out to be so much to be in this text that if the original author, so So let's say I'm preaching Mark as I am on Sunday mornings or Galatians on Wednesday nights.

If the original author were alive somehow to come back and take a seat during that sermon. To come in in the middle of that sermon, he would recognize what's being preached. That should be the preacher's goal is to stick so close to the text that that original author would be able to notice know what's being preached. The reality is they were inspired. This was brought out very early in this series by the Holy Spirit.

This is God-breathed book. He is our audience. We ought to be faithful to His word, and we ought to come trembling as we approach to it and not be flippant with it when we think about biblical interpretation. It is a serious thing to preach God's Word. It is a serious thing, this interpretation, to handle it.

But God has given each of us in some sphere the duty of interpretation. In fact, in chapter one. We're going to bring this to a close. Let's start with verse 19 there. He says, We have also a more sure word of prophecy, where until you do well, that you 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, then no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man where holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Indeed it is a great blessing to handle God's Word. It is a very serious thing. But as Peter wrote here, he says, we have a more sure word of prophecy. Take heed as the light shinneth in the dark plains.

He tells his readers and us that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. Indeed, the prophecy came down in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The beauty of this is that God's Word, when it's our standard, you can have a church, you can have Christians that have never communicated with each other, totally separate from each other. They meet up, they talk, find out, hey we believe the same things. How is that possible?

There's no pope, no council, no connection. How is it possible that we believe the same things almost down the line? There may be some differences here and there, but largely on the major doctrines, we're in agreement. This has happened so many times in my life. How is that possible?

It's possible because of the Word of God, you see. God has given us His Word. We read it, we study it, we meditate on it, we preach it, we teach it. As Cobb said in his theology book in the front, he wrote it as the golden rule of interpretation. He said, when the plain sense of the scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense.

Therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths indicate axiomatic and fundamental truths indicate clearly otherwise. God has given us a book. Even going all the way back to someone like Augustine of Hippo, he said the Holy Scriptures are our letters from home. We do have something from headquarters. There's no earthly pope.

There's no council. There's no dictator here on earth that tells everybody what to believe. But what we've got is the word of God. The truth of God's word doesn't change. This is why the Apostles' doctrine was the same whether they were reading from or preaching from the Hebrew scriptures in the temple, or from the Septuagint Greek on the street.

You see, this is why that I can pick up a King James Bible or any of the newer translations that I've mentioned in this series, I can pick them up and preach every sermon I've ever preached. My whole ministry. Why? Because interpretation is where it's at. Get in the Word, study the Word, exegete the word, preach the word.

It's important, very important. And may God add a blessing to our efforts.