2 Peter 1:16-21 - A More Sure Word

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Hope you're having a good week so far. And we are continuing our study in the book of Second Peter.

And we saw yesterday how Peter was writing, and he told the believers there, he started off by saying, hey, you have just as much of a faith, a relationship with God as we do there in chapter one and verse one, to those who have received a faith

equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. And then we saw how he talked about the fact that God's grace, his power, has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

And we looked through how we can join in and follow and imitate Jesus in his actions and his character, and how it will make it so that we don't really have to question our walk with God, our calling, our election, as Peter put it, that we can know

that we are his. And we know that we are his because we have that desire to follow him.

It's not that we are perfect, even as Peter says, hey, if you've got these things in increasing measure, as you grow over time, you'll look back and you'll go, man, I'm not the same person that I was, and I'm not perfect, but now I care about these

things. I care about self-control, care about godliness in my life way more than I did 10, 20, 30 years ago. And as one of those assurances that God gives us.

Then he ends, he ended that section talking about the fact, he says, I'm telling you guys about this. It's not that you don't know it, but I'm reminding you again, because God's made it clear to me that I'm going to die soon.

We would know from church history, Peter ended up getting crucified upside down on a cross because he said, I'm not worthy to die in the same manner as my Lord was. And so he's telling them, I want you guys to remember what I told you.

And then he says this in verse number 16 of the passage. He says, I want you to remember what I told you, for we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He says, it wasn't a trick. He says, instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He says, Jesus isn't a myth.

Instead, I'm telling you this from first-person experience, I was with him. Verse 17, for he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory, saying, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

So he tells him like, hey, I heard it straight from the Lord's mouth on that Mount of Transfiguration. Verse 18, he says, we ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the Holy Mountain.

He says, we also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed and you will do well to pay attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

He says, hey, everything that we heard about in the Old Testament, like it's been confirmed. It has been made more sure because of what we heard on the mountain. Like we believed the Old Testament before.

He says, but when we saw what God had done, when we saw Jesus, man, it confirmed everything that we had heard from childhood. So he says, pay attention. He says, pay attention to both what I've taught you and pay attention to the Old Testament.

Like pay attention to the word of God that you have because it's gonna shine that light. It's that lamp in a dark place because one day the sun, the S-O-N is going to come up and you won't need the lamp anymore.

There's gonna come a day where this word of God will be somewhat obsolete.

It's not that God's commandments or his communication to us wasn't perfect in any way, but the living word of God, Jesus himself, the word that made the world, the word that died for our sins, the word that is coming again, that will defeat the

nations through simply the words from his mouth. He's the one that we're going to be worshiping forever and ever. This is a lamp that helps us to see. I think of Psalm 119 where he says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

And that's exactly what Peter describes it as. He says, pay attention to the prophetic word as to a lamp shining in a dark place, because one day the sun is coming and you will no longer need the lamp to be able to see.

You'll be able to see it with your own eyes. Verse number 20, he says this, above all, you know this, no prophecy of scripture comes from the prophet's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man.

Instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. This is such an important portion of scripture. OK, let's kind of break this down a little bit, starting in verse number 20.

He says, you know this, no prophecy of scripture comes from the prophet's own interpretation. So it's not just that Joel or Amos or Zephaniah said something, and they just said it of their own accord.

And it didn't just mean whatever they wanted it to mean. He says it meant what God wanted it to mean in the way that God wanted to mean it. And it didn't come just from the own heart of Zephaniah.

It didn't just come from the heart of Daniel. It was God that was moving. It's God's interpretation.

It's not the prophet's. Verse number 21, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man. Man can't tell the future.

Man can guess or man can perhaps see some trends and go, I think this might happen at this time.

But they cannot say, hey, hundreds of years from now, there's going to be a virgin that conceives and brings forth a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel.

No man could ever say, hey, I know that one day the descendant of David, they will pierce his hands and his feet, and he will die in our place.

You can't be, no person ever said, hey, hundreds of years from now, there's going to be a baby that is born in Bethlehem of Judah. And he's going to be the one that's from everlasting ages past. Peter says, that never happened.

No prophecy ever came by the will of man. Man can make guesses, but every time God speaks, it's truth. No prophecy ever came by the will of man.

Instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Second, Timothy would tell us, all scripture is inspired, it's given by inspiration.

It is breathed out by God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, righteousness, so that the man or woman of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, completely equipped for everything that God wants

for us. The Holy Spirit is the one that wrote scripture. Yes, he used the instruments of man.

He used their particular backgrounds, what they knew of the world that they were interacting with, the vocabulary that they had, even some of the writing style that they had.

It's why, though Mark and Luke and John, though they are all inspired scripture, it's why they don't read the exact same.

If you look at perhaps the level of excellence of Greek in each of those, you have some simpler styles in Mark, and you have some really well-written, some very complex stuff happening in Luke's Gospel and in the Book of Acts.

And you could say, okay, well, God, it's why we don't believe in just a dictation theory that the Holy Spirit was just like whispering in their ears and they wrote everything down.

No, no, God moved in their hearts, as it says here, that they were carried along by the Holy Spirit so that what they wrote down was exactly what God wanted written, that there was nothing that the Holy Spirit moved them to write that they did not

write or anything that they wrote down that God went, oh no, that's a big mistake, we better go back. Through God's sovereignty, it worked through their free will, that they chose the words, that even as they meditated on the Old Testament scriptures

or as they meditated on their time with Jesus, that they said, okay, well, here's how I'd phrase it, but the Holy Spirit was the one that was working behind the scenes, that was working in their heart, working in their mind, working, if you will, in

their pen, so that what was communicated was exactly what God wanted for us. That is a measure of faith, but as Peter here says, we know that that's true because we heard, we saw, like as he's thinking here of the Mount of Transfiguration, he

remembers seeing Moses and Elijah. Moses representing the law and Elijah representing the prophets. And as he is there with Jesus and the law and the prophets, he realizes everything God ever said was true.

I'm here on a mountain, like I'm interacting in much the same way as Moses interacted with God on Sinai or like Elijah interacted with God and saw him work on Mount Carmel with the burning up the sacrifice or when Elijah was in the little cave and

heard the still small voice of God. And he says, I now know that all of this is true and I am telling you as an eyewitness that all of this really did happen. And it wasn't just something that someone wrote down as a myth.

It wasn't just something that someone wanted control over someone else. He says, all of it is true and you can believe it that these people were not just gifted writers, though they were.

He says, these people wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So that was what was written was exactly what God wanted us to have. Think of Proverbs chapter 30, and I think it's verses five and six.

Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those that put their trust in him. He says, don't add to his words so that he reproves you when you're found a liar.

God's word is completely sufficient.

We don't have to go outside of the Bible to find new sins or new ways in which we tell people, yeah, if you do this thing or that thing, if you drink caffeine, you're in sin, or if you, you know, any number of 100 different things that legalism kind

of manifests itself as. If you have a green shirt, if you wear a hat, you're in sin. None of those things are from the Bible.

The Bible is sufficient for everything we need because instead of it coming from the prophet's own interpretation, I as a pastor don't get to necessarily put my own interpretation or my thoughts in for how everything goes.

I want to be faithful to communicate what God said and the way that God said it because just as it wasn't Elijah's interpretation or it wasn't Moses's interpretation of scripture, it was God's working, that it was what God wanted said and how he

wanted it said, and he orchestrated that. And so I need to be faithful to preach the Bible, not my opinions, not my thoughts, not what I would think would make people more holy or that would keep them from sin. I need to preach what God said.

And if God's spirit brings something to someone's heart to say, hey, here's what I want you to do, or here's what I want you to stop doing from something that's outside of scripture, he's the Holy Spirit.

He can guide, he can direct, but I don't want to pretend to be the Holy Spirit in the lives of people. That what people need, they need the word of God, so I need to be faithful to give this.

People don't necessarily need me, unless it's as helping point people to the word of God. People need the Holy Spirit.

People need the Holy Spirit to work in their lives and work in their hearts to go, hey, yeah, here's how God's word can be specifically applied to me.

Now, pastors can be very, very helpful in helping to direct and guide people to, hey, here's how maybe one way the Bible can direct or apply to your situation. I can't make this specific judgment call for you because it falls outside of scripture.

Here's maybe what I might do, but armed with these verses, armed with what the word of God says about the topic, make your decision based on that.

I'm not called to make every decision for everyone in my church, but I am called to say, hey, let's point to the word of God, the prophetic word that has been strongly confirmed through eye witnesses, through the fact that Jesus really did come and

he really did die and was buried and was raised from the grave, that he is victorious now and forever. He calls for us to acknowledge him as the Lord of our life and the Lord of the cosmos. And he invites us into that relationship with him.

Today, do you love God's word? We're here 13 minutes in to the podcast and I would think there's some element of you that does love God's word, that wants to know it, that wants to obey it. But can I encourage you?

It's not a fable. It's not a myth. This is real.

These are real accounts of what really happened in the world. And it's been so strongly corroborated, both internally and externally.

Time would absolutely fail for me to illustrate all of the ways in which God's Word is true and has been proven over and over and over again to be accurate in what it says about our world, about history, about the way that the world works.

The Bible is trustworthy. So will you turn to it? When you have questions, when you need to adjust your character, don't just turn to people.

Don't just turn to self-help books. Turn to the Lord. Turn to His way.

And ask God, what do you want me to do? Maybe invite other people along. Maybe other people know some verses or passages or ways in which they can help you in your walk with the Lord.

But our primary goal should be, okay, if I want to be like Jesus, if I want to go through this life in the way that God wants me to, then I've got to turn to the Word of God over and over again. This is not man's opinion. It's not man's thoughts.

This is exactly what God wants me to have for today and every day. Thanks for tuning in. Hope that this would be an encouragement to you that you would turn to the Word of God.

It is so worthwhile. See you tomorrow in Chapter 2. Thank you.