What happens when we do not!

RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH

http://www.2timothy2-15.net

INTRODUCTIONThere are so many directions we can go with this study of

Scripture.

In this study, we will be comparing two sections of Scripture.

INTRODUCTIONThese two sections are primarily found in Genesis 2:16 – 17 and

Genesis 3:2 – 3.

I say primarily because this is where a majority of the comparison occurs,

but to place this study in the correct context we must also look at some of the Scripture directly around these two sections.

INTRODUCTIONWe read in 2 Timothy 2:15 the following:

2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV) 15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

INTRODUCTIONAs we shall see in this study, an extremely important component of

our study includes neither taking away from God’s word nor adding to God’s word.

This is a sinful practice that results not only from pride, but also a disregard for the word of God.

INTRODUCTIONThis is why we use the King James Bible in our studies and not any

of the new versions which further corrupt an already corrupted Vatican text.

How true it is what God says about heresy begetting heresy.

In other words, heresy gives birth to further heresy.

INTRODUCTIONWith this in mind, let us begin our study comparing the

commandment of God to man

and the woman’s response to the serpent which occurred in the Garden of Eden.

THE SCRIPTURES TO BE COMPAREDFirst, let’s read the Scripture containing the commandment given

by God to the man.

Genesis 2:16–17 (KJV) 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

THE SCRIPTURES TO BE COMPAREDSecond, we will read the Scripture of the woman’s response to the

serpent’s question in the garden.

Genesis 3:2–3 (KJV) 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAID

God

And the LORD God

commanded the man

Woman

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDOne of the things that struck me was how the woman did not refer

to God when she addressed the serpent.

The serpent did but the woman did not.

Genesis 3:1 contains the following statement from the serpent.

“…And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said…”

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDSo, the woman starts off with her opinion.

I say opinion because what she states does not equal what God said.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAID

God

Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDRight from the start in the woman’s response, we see an addition

to God’s word and actually two subtractions from God’s word.

ADDITION:

Adding the word “fruit”

SUBTRACTION:

Removing “every”

Removing “freely”

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDThe Addition

Adding the word “fruit” not only adds to what God spoke, but takes away from the tree that God is speaking of.

It takes away the root of the tree, and the leaves of the tree as some examples.

Adding to God’s word takes away from God’s word and introduces confusion, or doubt.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDThe Subtractions

Taking away the word “every” and using the word “trees” does not speak of every tree.

Trees can mean more than one of a single type of tree, while every tree means just that, EVERY TREE.

God said it correctly!

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDThe Subtractions

The woman also removes the word “freely” from her answer to the serpent.

God created both male and female in His image.

They were both free in the beginning to do all things freely.

Their only bound was that of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDThe Subtractions – Freely

Genesis 1:27 (KJV) 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 5:2 (KJV) 2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAID

God

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDHere we do not even get through an entire sentence and we need

to stop and see how God’s word has been abused.

ADDITION:

Adding the word “fruit”

Adding the location of the tree

SUBTRACTION:

Removing the name of the tree

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDOnce again, we see the word “fruit” added in the woman’s

response and once again anytime you add to the word of God, you are taking away from the word of God.

In our context of rightly dividing the word of truth, it is important to note that confusion is not an excuse for not rightly dividing the

word of truth.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDI say confusion, because I am giving the woman the benefit of it in

this case.

God did say previously,

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDGenesis 1:29 (KJV) 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

“…to you it shall be for meat.” is speaking of every tree and every herb, not the fruit of the tree.

The fruit is what yields the seed.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDWe also see woman leave out the name of the tree of which it was

forbidden of them to eat.

God specifically calls the tree by name.

A couple of extra facts here.

One of which, many have not spoken of!

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDGod names two trees in Scripture.

1. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

2. The tree of life.

God gave the responsibility of naming all living creatures to Adam.

Adam was given the names of the trees by God. Adam did not name them.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDThe tree of the knowledge of good and evil was named by God.

The woman does not specify the name of the tree.

That is careless when talking about the word of God to others.

One thing we need to keep in mind when speaking to others is to

DEFINE YOUR TERMS!!!

The woman never defines which tree she is speaking of.

Maybe she was confused and forgot the name of it.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDGod spoke of a tree in the midst of the garden.

Genesis 2:9 (KJV) 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDGod gave a list of the trees he caused to be formed out of the

ground in Genesis 2:9.

• Pleasant to the sight

• Good for food

• The tree of life in the midst of the garden

• The tree of knowledge of good and evil

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDHe did not say the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was in

the midst of the garden!

The woman however spoke of the tree in the midst of the garden. She either got her trees confused, or she was just careless about

the handling of God’s word.

Neither is good!

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDAs we are going to see in a little bit this is a horrendous handling of

God’s word.

God brings out the woman’s motives in a little bit, also!

So, we have seen here that in addition to adding the word “fruit”, the woman has also incorrectly added the location of the tree and

does not name the tree.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAID

God

thou shalt not eat of it

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDHere we see the example that most people first notice when

reading through this section.

We have the obvious addition of,

“neither shall ye touch it”

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDHave you ever wondered why the woman added this to God’s

word?

After all, she finally acknowledged God with her words,

“God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it”

But then she adds to God’s word.

“neither shall ye touch it,”

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDThink of all the times we read about Jesus saying,

“It is written”

The wise men who came and said to Herod concerning Jesus’ birth,

“It is written”

We see many instances of properly using God’s word, but many more of misusing it.

The Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Satan, and the woman.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAID

God

for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDIn this section the woman has done basically done 3 things:

1. She failed to realize the blessings she had been given by God– Could eat of every tree of the garden

2. She overstated the restriction given by God– Added to “shall not eat of it” with “neither shall ye touch it”

3. She understated the penalty given by God– Said “lest ye die” as opposed to “thou shalt surely die”

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDGod said “ye shall surely die” while the woman said “lest ye die”

SU´RELY, adv. Certainly; infallibly; undoubtedly.

In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Gen. 2.

Surely means just what it expresses.

You can almost hear God saying you will die just as surely as I am God.

Just as surely as I created you Adam from the dust of the ground.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDGod said “ye shall surely die” while the woman said “lest ye die”

LEST, con. [from the Sax. leas, Goth. laus, loose, separate. In Saxon it was preceded by the, the leas, that less, that not, ne forte. Hence it denotes a loosing or separation, and hence it comes to express prevention.] That not; for fear that.

Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. Gen. 3.When you think of for fear that, it sounds more like, for fear that

you might die.It removes the certainty of the situation.

WHAT GOD SAID AND WHAT THE WOMAN SAIDIn comparing what God said to Adam and what the woman said to

the serpent, we end up with no less than 9 alterations to God’s words!

I counted 4 additions to God’s word and 5 subtractions.

It almost turns out to be 4 ½ of each if you consider the last point we looked at was a bit of a subtraction from God’s word that had

the effect of adding to God’s word.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGAs in most things there is a cause to things that happen and there

is an effect to things that happen.

What we have looked at is no different.

So, what do you think was the cause of the woman’s mishandling of God’s word?

Aside from the fact that she was deceived by the serpent, there is actually an underlying reason for the deception that we find in this

story.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGFirst the deception presented by the serpent in the form of a lie

with an element of truth in it.

Genesis 3:4–5 (KJV) 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGThe lie is in verse 4 of what we just read when the serpent said,

“Ye shall not surely die:”

That is a lie because God said,

“Ye shall surely die”

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGThe element of truth is in verse 5 when the serpent said,

“in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

Compare this statement with what God says a few verses later.

Genesis 3:22 (KJV)

22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGThe woman was deceived by the father of lies, the master of

deception, Satan.

She was able to be deceived though because of her lack of skill in handling of God’s word and because of pride.

Consider the following verses.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGWhen Paul was instructing Timothy he said this concerning those

who desired to be bishops.

1 Timothy 3:6 (KJV) 6 Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

Paul’s warning to Timothy here is based on what the Holy Spirit has instructed Paul on.

A novice, like the woman, will be lifted up with pride.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGTake a look at what the woman thought before eating of the tree of

the knowledge of good and evil.

What she thought when the serpent told her she would be as a god.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGGenesis 3:6 (KJV) 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Remember what God said about the trees?

We see another addition to God’s word here!

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGGenesis 2:9 (KJV) 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The woman got the order turned around and she added to what God said about every tree.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDING“…and a tree to be desired to make one wise”

The woman was wanting to gain wisdom from a route that was not ordained by God.

If God wanted them to have wisdom from eating of a tree, he would have told them to.

God was to be the source of their wisdom, not the serpent, and certainly not that specific tree.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGSo, because of pride, the woman was deceived and the man was

openly rebellious.

They sinned against God by not rightly dividing the word of truth.

They leaned unto their own understanding as provided by that serpent in the garden.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDING

Proverbs 3:5–7 (KJV) 5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGThe same thing happens these days when we just listen to men and take their word for what is spoken instead of judging those

words against the word of God.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGActs 17:10–12 (KJV) 10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 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. 12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGThe effect of not rightly dividing the word of truth is sin.

Scripture tells us in Romans 6:23 that wages of sin is death.

We are born in sin and we surely die.

If we die in that sin, without being born again, we spend eternity in a lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGRomans 6:23 goes on to say, however, that the gift of God is eternal

life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So, in spite of the fact that we truly deserve death and that eternal lake of fire, we have the love of a truly loving God.

God has provided the means for us to escape our own pride and unrighteous handling of his word.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGJohn 3:16 (KJV)

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have

everlasting life.

One can be a novice to be saved.

All of us are novices in the beginning.

Will you be saved and learn God’s word?

If you are saved then you are commanded to not be a novice.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDINGPsalm 119:89 (KJV) 89 LAMED. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

You cannot change God’s word,

it is established forever in heaven.

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF NOT RIGHTLY DIVIDING

2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV) 15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that

needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.