**Reinterpreting The Bible to Fit Your Own Agenda

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Alright, let's open in our Bibles to the book of 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1, and the title of this message is Private Interpretations.

Private Interpretations and the Authority of Scripture

Private Interpretations. Now here's what I wanted to title the message. If your interpretation of the Bible results in you believing the opposite of what the text says, then what you have is not an interpretation, but a denial.

But you know, that's not a very good title. It's a little long. So if that can't be my title, that's going to be sort of my summary of the message. Let me repeat that again. If your interpretation of the Bible results in you believing the opposite of what the text says, then what you have is not an interpretation, rather a denial.

How many of you have talked to someone about Jesus or about the Bible, and you tell them sometimes just what the text says straight out, and they say, well, yeah, but that's just your interpretation. Who's heard this?

Yeah, just about everybody. You might have said it. And I realize some verses you do need to interpret. It's not obvious, the meaning, on the surface. But you know, sometimes people will say that to just deny the clear truth.

Well, that's just your interpretation. Well, we're going to look at this subject because this is what a lot of people are doing. A lot of churches are doing that these days. They say they believe the Word of God, but their quote-unquote interpretation has them believing things and doing things that are really the opposite of what the Bible says.

Or it's their refusal. Sometimes they, you know, reinterpret things to make it the opposite. But another problem is sometimes people don't want to apply the Scriptures. Okay, yeah, that's what it says, but they don't want to apply it to the here and now.

And here's the thing. If you refuse to apply the Word of God, you know, the Scripture says be doers of the Word and not hearers only. So, if you say you believe the Bible, but you're not willing to do it, you're not willing to apply it, I mean, really, what good is that?

Oh, great, you believe it, but you're not willing to live it out. I mean, that's no good at all. So, we're going to read 2 Peter 1, 20 and 21 in a moment, and then we'll go back and look at the passages.

Just one example, though, and I'm going to come back to this at the end, and hopefully it will all fit together. But, you know, the Pharisees, they said they believed the Scriptures, didn't they? When Jesus dealt with the scribes and Pharisees, His enemies, they said they believed the Jewish Scriptures.

But, you remember, Jesus says, no, you don't, because if you believed Moses, you would have believed me. And, of course, they put their own interpretations, the man-made tradition, they actually placed the tradition above the Word of God, making it of none effect.

So, we have a lot to get to this morning. Let's read, because this is one of the most pressing issues Christians face today. 2 Peter 1, verses 20 and 21, the apostle writes, Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.

For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So, what's Peter saying? He's saying it's not of any private interpretation. God is the source of Scripture.

And, you know what? The Scripture, it means what it says. So, this is a common passage, 2 Peter 1, 20 and 21, a common passage that people will quote to speak about or to defend the authority of the Bible.

And the way it's often applied is that the Scripture, yeah, it means what it says. You can't have your own private interpretation. If you come to one of our church Bible studies, it's a teacher teaching the Word of God.

All too often, and I'm not down on anyone, because we've probably all been part of this. But a lot of Bible studies today, it's a group of people sitting around in the circle to open the Bible, read a verse.

And everyone goes, well, this is what this verse means to me. Yeah, but this is what this verse means to me. And the person over here, yeah, but this is what this verse means to me. And can it really mean all of these different things?

See, that's people having their own private interpretations. Now, that's fine if you want to discuss it, and try to work things out, and get the answer. But you have to recognize there's only one actual meaning.

So, the Bible really can't mean one thing to you, and one thing to this person, and something totally different to that guy over there. And it's all legitimate. It's all, no, no, no, that's just not the way it works.

You wouldn't want someone taking your words and twisting them to mean the opposite of what you say, right? It's like you tell your child, can you go upstairs and clean your room? And I'll be up in 15 minutes to check.

Okay, okay, mom, okay, dad. And then you go up and check their room in 15 minutes.

And what is this?

You didn't clean. Oh, well, the way I interpreted your statement was clean your room meant I don't have to clean it. Well, that's absurd. Well, I don't know, maybe kids have tried that, but people are doing that with the Bible.

Okay, I promise you people are doing it. I've seen it. So, once people start treating the scripture that way, the word of God, all of a sudden, it doesn't lose its authority. But in people's minds, it loses its authority because everyone has a different interpretation.

So, Peter's point is that these are not words from men where we can all think what we want. No, this is the word of God. Peter says prophecy never came by the will of man. So, let's try to get more context for these statements.

Go back to verse 13 because when you want to find out what a passage of scripture means, you know this by now, what do you do? If you want to find out the meaning of a text, you need to take it in context.

Read the verses before, read the verses after, compare scripture with scripture. This is all very basic. So, verse 13, Peter says, yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you.

Okay, this, you could say this takes some interpretation because we don't talk like this today. When Peter says, as long as I am in this tent, he's referring to his body as a tent. So, his spirit is in his body.

His body is the tent. So, in other words, Peter is saying, as long as I'm still alive, verse 14, knowing that I shortly must put off my tent. So, as long as I'm still alive, I'm going to die soon. So, he continues, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me, moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.

Okay, so Peter recognizes that he only has a little time left on this earth. He's writing this epistle maybe around 64 A .D. And it was decades earlier where Jesus had indicated to Peter that he would die by crucifixion.

You can find that in John chapter 21. So, Peter has maybe a few months left to live, maybe only weeks. And he knows his time is drawing near, his time to go home and be with the Lord because persecution was increasing.

The emperor Nero of Rome was starting to imprison and kill Christians. Peter knows his time is short. So, what does he want to do? He wants to remind the believers that he is the shepherd of. So, he wants to strengthen them in their faith.

Because a lot of false doctrine had been creeping into the church, which he gets into in the next chapter. So, the point that Peter is getting at, he's building the saints up and reminding them to follow the scriptures.

Hey, guys, I'm not going to be around much longer. So, when I leave, I want to leave you with this word. You need to follow the Bible. And that's something a preacher would say, isn't it? You need to follow the scripture.

Verse 16, Peter says,. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory.

And what did that voice say? This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Verse 18, And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. So, let's compare scripture with scripture.

Let's go to Matthew 17, because that's the event Peter is referring to. Matthew 17. So, Peter reminds them of how he was part of that inner circle, you might say, of Christ's disciples. You know, Peter, James, and John.

They were three men that actually got to see the Lord transfigured before them. This was on the mountain, right? We call this the Mount of Transfiguration. So, this is the event that Peter refers to when Jesus, his glory sort of broke through his mortal body.

And I say mortal because, remember, his body did die. But within Christ was the immortal God, the Spirit. Look at Matthew 17, verse 1. Now, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.

And he, that is Jesus, was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here.

If you wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. And that might seem like a strange thing to suggest, but I mean, what are you going to say? When you're there and you're seeing this, I mean, you know Peter, he just had to say something.

Now, why does Moses and Elijah appear? Let's just look at that for a moment. Remember, Moses is the lawgiver. Elijah was Israel's most revered prophet. So, for them to show up with Jesus, this really says something.

This makes a point. So, the law and the prophets, Moses and Elijah, represent God's Old Testament revelation. So, the Old Testament is what? That's just a collection of books we can ignore now?

No, no.

The Old Testament is the word of God. But Jesus being there with Moses and Elijah, Jesus is the picture or symbol of God's New Testament revelation. So, you have the three of them representing all of God's revelation, or as we might call it, the Bible.

So, Peter is seeing all this. Christ transfigured before them. In verse 5, it says,. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying about Jesus, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Hear Him. Listen to Him. Okay, let's go back to 2 Peter chapter 1. Now, this would just prove and affirm and confirm that Jesus is the word of God. He's the Son of God. Listen to Him. If Peter had any doubts, this should have cleared it up.

If you experience something like that, you know, if you were visited by an angel or you saw Christ transfigured before you, would you have any doubts about the faith?

Well, I don't know.

I think that would certainly help you in strengthening your faith. So, here's the interesting thing. Peter brings up this story as a way of reminding the church that, number one, he didn't just come up with his own teachings.

Peter was with Jesus. Peter got his doctrine from Christ. He followed Christ. He learned it from Christ. And he even got to experience this amazing thing that only two other men got to see. And yet, with all of that, notice Peter's conclusion.

This is very, very important. His main point that gives us the context of verses 20 and 21 is found in verse 19. And Peter says, his conclusion of the transfiguration, he says, And so, we have the prophetic word confirmed.

But I like the way the King James Version puts this. He says, What's the more sure word of prophecy?

You know what it is?

It's this book right here. This is the more sure word of prophecy. So, really what Peter is saying, he is saying the Scripture, don't miss this, the Scripture is more dependable than experience. Even seeing Jesus transformed, as amazing as that was, we still have a more sure word.

You know, experience can lead you astray. Sometimes people's eyes play tricks on them. Some people see things that they don't really see, that aren't really there for a variety of different reasons. You know, whatever you've gone through in the past, whatever experience, maybe even a religious experience, that's not as important.

It's not as trustworthy as the word of God.

Amen?

That's what Peter is saying. The Bible, the word of God is more trustworthy. And then he says about it, So, in other words, until Jesus comes back, this, the word of God is what you follow. We follow the word of God.

That's what this church seeks to do, right? No matter what my opinion is, no matter what your opinions are, no matter what private interpretations might come up, we have, as Christians, we have to follow the word of God.

Take away the word of God, what do we have? What are we even doing? You're just making it up as you go along. So, this is the Christian's authority. And that's the context at which point he says in verses 20 and 21, Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

And another parallel passage that we often use, that Christians use to speak about the authority of the Bible, is 2 Timothy 3 .16, which says, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness.

And then he goes on, That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Okay, so that's kind of the doctrinal foundation that I'm laying before I get into the application. So, just a summary.

We have a more sure word of prophecy, amen? Yes, because this is what people say. They say, well, yeah, but the Bible is just a book written by men. Well, I understand that men penned the Scriptures, but Peter is saying their message was not their own.

They wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And that passage, 2 Timothy 3 .16, that all the Scripture is, the Greek word is theionistos, which means it's God breathed. So today we simply say the Bible is the word of God.

God is the source. It came from God. And it's used for doctrine. That's what is right. It's used for reproof. That's correcting someone what's wrong. It's used for correction. That's how you make things right.

And then instruction in righteousness, that's how to keep things right. So, if you want to know how to live and how to live the Christian life, the Scripture is sufficient. Okay, so now that I've said all that, I've told you what is right, now let's get into what's wrong.

Can we do that for a few minutes?

How long do I have?

I need a lot of time to talk about what's wrong. Say, Pastor, you could have just, you know, the past 15, 20 minutes, you could have just said the Bible is the word of God, it's our authority.

That would have been enough.

But I had to show you from the Scripture. I gave you the correct interpretation. But a lot of people, they have their private interpretations. Okay, so let's get into that. That's the name of the message, private interpretations.

Here's the problem. A lot of people today, this is how they view the Bible. It can mean whatever I want it to mean. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornickChurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.

Amen.