Thank you for directing your internet connection to the sermon audio page for Christ Orthodox Presbyterian Church. You can learn more about ChristOPC by visiting our website at www.christopcatl.org. ChristOPC meets for worship each Sunday at 11 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. Our sermon text this evening comes from 2 Peter 1. We'll be going through verses 19 through 21, and for context, we'll begin reading back in verse 16. So 2 Peter 1, verses 16 through 21. Hear now the holy, inspired, and inerrant word of our God. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty, For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven. for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of men, but man spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Now it's important to remember where Peter is at in his letter. He is transitioning from the summary of his message to remember who Christ is and who you are in Christ, to his dialogue and his engagement with the false teachers. And as he's transitioning to the final two chapters where he's going to go again and again and again, toe to toe with the false prophets and the false teachers who lead the people astray by following their own sensuality and exploit the people of God with false words, he begins that transition by seeking to anchor you in the origin and content of his message. And in verses 16 through 18, Peter wanted you to know that the origin of his message was from God himself. That he was an eyewitness to the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ upon the Mount of Transfiguration where God revealed who Jesus was as his beloved son and the pleasing work that he had come to do. and that the content of his message was really an exposition of that word, and how he has borne an eyewitness testimony to the work of our beloved Savior. But in verses 19 through 21, Peter shifts gears just a little bit. And he wants you to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ and the message of Jesus's glory is not just something that Peter and the other apostles were witness to in the New Testament times. Instead, he carries on and he wants you to know, beloved, that that is actually the content of the entire Bible. that all of the scriptures together, old and new, come from the same source, which is God himself, and contain the same message, which is the glory and majesty of Jesus because of who he is and because of what he has done for you, his people. You'll see Peter comes along here and he wants you to know tonight That the message of the apostles, that the message of Peter is not just his message, but rather the message of the prophets of old. That the Old Testament and the New Testament, in essence, teach the same thing. Because the Old and the New Testaments are really all about the sufferings and subsequent glories of the Son of God, who has come into the world to save sinners. and will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. And he wants you to know that you have this prophetic word. You have this wonderful word about Jesus Christ in an age when your Messiah has come. In an age of fulfillment where the promises of God has been kept by the Son of God. And because of that, you can have even greater assurance and trust in the word that has come from heaven and has been given as the faithful deposit to you, the church of Jesus Christ. Three points as we consider this this evening. First, how the word is confirmed in verse 19. Second, the word interpreted in verse 20. And then lastly, the word inspired in verse 21. Well, Peter begins this second statement for the origin of his message, saying that we have the prophetic word more fully confirms. And the prophetic word that I think Peter has in mind here are all of the words of the Old Testament from Genesis all the way to Malachi. See in verse 20 he calls it the prophecy of scripture or we could say the prophecy of the writings. And so we're to recognize that the Old Testament scriptures as a whole are what Peter has in mind here. He is not isolating himself out to discuss one passage in particular. He's not saying that one section of the Old Testament is about Jesus and not the rest. He's not even saying you should go to just Isaiah 53, or just Jeremiah 31, or just Isaiah 7, or just Psalm 110. He's really saying that all of these scriptures come from God and are about the Son of God. And in light of the overarching context of the origin of Peter's message, there is a sense where he is saying that the Old Testament teaches what he teaches. that the prophetic word, that the prophetic scriptures testify in promissory form to the coming of the Son of God. the one which the apostles have now borne witness to in their lives. And essentially what he's saying is that really my ministry is an exposition of the scriptures in light of the scriptures fulfillment and the coming of our savior. And I think that's what he means when he says that the prophetic word is more fully confirmed. See, some might read this and assume that Peter is saying something more along the lines of, don't you know that the apostolic witness is better than the witness of the Old Testament? That really all you need is the New Testament or maybe the New Testament and the Psalms if you want a little green book or something of that nature. And the rest of the Old Testament can just be set aside. It's really not all that important for your Christian life. Some translations even seem to go in this direction where, for example, the King James Version translates this phrase saying, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. See, if this is the case, Peter is not so much talking about the significance of the Old Testament for your Christian life, but rather how his word is better than the Old Testament. The New Testament's better than the Old, and so you really just need to study it and nothing else. Well, I find this interpretation highly unlikely. And I find it highly unlikely not just because if this is true I wouldn't have a job, But also because the term translated more true here or more sure here doesn't actually mean something that is better. It actually means something more along the lines that is constantly and always reliable. something that is binding and abiding, something that is unwavering. It's a word that you would use if you have made a promise in the past and you have kept that promise in a sense where now your word is more trustworthy than ever before. You see, Peter is not saying that his word is somehow better than that of the Old Testament, but rather that the Old Testament scriptures are reliable. that they're abiding, that they are unwavering in the revelation and majesty of Jesus Christ. In fact, I think what he's trying to say here in this verse is that the Old Testament scriptures are all the more reliable. They're all the more abiding. They are all the more unwavering in light of the coming of the Messiah. Because we have the Old Testament now in an age when Christ has come. You see, when you're reading the Old Testament, when you're going back and you're reading all the promises and the prophecies and the shadows and of circumcision and the Paschal Lamb, you're reading promises that were yet to be fulfilled. But you're reading them now in a context where God has kept all of those promises and therefore, The faithfulness of that word is all the more sure for you, is all the more reliable for you, is all the more unwavering for you because you know this side of the coming of Christ, that all of his promises are yes and amen. That none of his promises will ever fall down to the wayside, that you can stick your flag in the trustworthiness of God and in the trustworthiness of his words. You have the Old Testament Scriptures in an age where God has kept his promises concerning the coming of the Messiah. And he's saying that therefore, the Old Testament Scriptures should be a rich mine for your Christian life where you can go to them and learn more about who Jesus is and who the triune God is and what he has done. the sending of his son, the application of your salvation through the work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, I think it's very similar to what Peter said back in 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 10 through 12, where Peter says there, concerning this salvation that is the salvation that is now yours in Christ, the prophets who prophesied the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully. inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was making clear when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. And notice what he says in verse 12. It was revealed to them, that's the prophets of old, that they were not serving themselves, but you. And the things that have been announced now have been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, things into which even angels long to look. You see, a significant part of Peter's ministry has really been an exposition of the Old Testament in light of the coming of Christ, to which he was an eyewitness. And so he bears witness not only to the reality of Christ's coming, but to the surety of God's word, to the trustworthiness of his promises, and the reality that the Messiah, the seed of the woman, the child of David, has come into the world to save sinners. And far from diminishing the reliability of the Old Testament, far from diminishing the significance of the Old Testament for your Christian lives, this actually means that it is a far more profound thing that you need to pay attention to. And isn't that what Peter says here in verse 19? That you do well to pay attention, to listen, to the Word of God in the Old Testament Scriptures. I can't tell you how depressed I get when even students come up to me and say, I've never read the entirety of Leviticus. Obadiah, I don't remember who exactly that is. It's good for us to go to the Scriptures of the Old Testament and to listen to God's Word and to submit ourselves to it. Because Peter says here that those Scriptures The Old Testament scriptures are as to a lamp shining in a dark place. You probably hear an illusion here, don't you? Back to the Old Testament, to a Psalm that we sang just a few moments ago, Psalm 119, where in verse 105, it tells us that God's word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It is God's word. that shines lights into the darkness and that reveals all that we need for faith and for life. It is the word of God that must lead you and guide you upon the path of faith and righteousness that God himself calls you to live. And so if you ever find yourself asking the questions, how should I live my life? What is God's will for me? Then you look to his words. You run to the scriptures and you find God's own revelation of what he would require of you. And the life he desires from you. And this is especially true. Notice how Peter puts it here. This is especially true. As it is a lamp shining in a dark place. A dark place. If you've been a Christian for long, then you probably know well what Peter's talking about here. That there are times in this life when a Christian finds themselves in a dark place. In fact, I'd even go so far to say that Peter is actually talking about the entirety of this age as the dark place, because the reality of the Christian life right now is we live in a time of significant and often intense suffering. Whether it's from persecution of those that are outside or just the reality of living in a world that is marred by sin and full of misery, there are times when it's like we're living in the darkness. There are times where we feel spiritually like we are groping about in the dark, where we feel like as we're trying to walk upon the path of faith that our feet are beginning to slip right out from under us. And Peter wants you to know, beloved, that what you need in those times is to illumine the lamp of God's Word, to run to the scriptures because it is there. that the light shines upon your path, the light illumines your life so that you are able to find the sure footing and that you would not slip and fall. You see, Peter is telling you that God works mightily through his word. to strengthen you for today, to give you what you need so that your feet do not stumble and so that you do not fall because the Word of God shines forth and illumines the path of faith for you. Indeed, the Word of God comes forth and it also gives us the way of salvation for those who are living in the kingdom of darkness as well, doesn't it? such that God's word, through its faithful proclamation, is the means that sinners who are blinded in the darkness, groping about with no footing at all, can begin to see the light and to walk upon the path of faith. But as God's Word shines and illumines this path in an age that is often marked by darkness and suffering and persecution and even temptations to sin, it does this in a fashion where it provides you with a bright hope for tomorrow. Because as the lamp of God's Word illumines the path of faith today, notice that Peter here gives us a terminus in this, a goal in this illumination where it moves, Peter says, Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Beloved, the day that Peter is talking about here is the day of the Lord. It's the day when Christ himself comes with the glory and majesty of the sun at its full strength as the Apostle John says in Revelation chapter 1. And he ushers in a kingdom of perfect and perpetual light such that there will never be any darkness in it at all. The prophet Balaam once said that a star will come out of Jacob whose scepter shall hold sway and will defeat all of his enemies. And Peter is saying that that star will come. The day will dawn. The day is coming when the Son of God will usher in the kingdom of His marvelous and glorious light. and that you will be found rejoicing with him forever in glory. You see, this day of darkness, illumined by the word of God, guiding you upon the path that he has set before you, takes you along the narrow way, where its end is the kingdom of light. You see, on the day of Christ's return, the Word of God is no longer something shining in the darkness. It is something that illumines the entirety of the kingdom. See, Peter's not talking about a day in which the Word of God loses its utility or loses its profundity for the Christian. No, he's talking about the use of the Word of God in one age versus another, where for now it illumines you that path to glory in an age marked by darkness. And another, it is the word that you find that has been faithful and true as you live in the kingdom of his marvelous light. A day where you, the Christian, experiences the wonderful subjective change that is promised to you in God's words. where there will no more be any sin remaining in you, where there will no more be any temptation, where there will no more be any suffering or anything for you, all of that will be wiped away and there will be no darkness at all. That's why I think Peter says here that not simply is it a day of light, but it's a day that dawns, he says, and a morning star that rises in your hearts. So we like to and we often do consider the kingdom of God as something very very abstract. It's something out there not necessarily something that has a profound impact on us. But beloved that's not true is it. When Christ comes again, there will be a great change for you, and that the light that now illumines your path of faith today will give way to the kingdom of sight and the new heavens and the new earth, and everything will be illuminated. There will be no darkness at all as you are living in a kingdom of perfect and perpetual righteousness. Do you see the path of salvation that the Word of God illumines for you in this dark place. It is a light unto your path that takes you heavenward and leads you to the kingdom of glory. But even as Peter wants you to consider the hope of that kingdom of light that the Word of God illumines the pathway to in this age, In verse 20, he also wants you to be on your guard against false interpretations of God's word that do not see Christ as its substance and do not take you to that hope of glory. He says to you here in verse 20, know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. I want to acknowledge that this verse is a little bit odd. It's not entirely clear whether Peter is talking about the origin of the prophet's message and saying it doesn't come from the prophet themselves, but rather from God, or whether he's dealing with those who have interpreted the prophet's message falsely. And some translations try to answer that conundrum for you, where, for example, the NIV translates this verse saying, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophets. own interpretation of things. But I find the ESV closer to the original, where it says no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. And on this matter, I think the ESV is right. Because I think Peter, as he's beginning to transition to talk about the false teachers in chapter two and verse one, he wants you to understand that there will be those who will misuse and abuse God's word and bring harm upon his church in doing so. He warns about this as well at the end of his letter. And think about what he does here. He begins this section where he's going to deal with false teachers by calling you to be on your guard against false interpretations. And then he ends this section in chapter 3, verse 16, saying essentially the same thing. We're speaking especially of Paul's writings, he says, there are some things in them that are hard to understand. which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction. And then hear this, as they do the other scriptures. See, there are false teachers out there who will so seek to twist and distort the word of God that will make it say a whole host of wrong and even terrible things. There are even those who will use God's word, not as a lamp shining in the dark place, not to illumine and encourage you and you walk of faith, leading you onto the kingdom of God, but as a blunt instrument to bring you down and to discourage you. But these are false shepherds. These are false teachers who use God's word for exploitation rather than for building up your faith. And so Peter wants you to be aware. Peter wants you to be on your guard. That just because someone says that the Scriptures teach X, Y or Z is not the same thing as them actually teaching it. And so what do you do? How are you to handle this situation where it might be so many voices saying so many things about God's words? I think first of all, it gets to the heart of the Christian life. What you are meant to do as a Christian Is to humble yourself before the scriptures and to listen to the whole Council of God? To let scripture interpret scripture and to to do as Peter has instructed us to do and and pay attention to the Word of God. One of the best ways to to be on guard against false teaching is to know the Word of God. To believe upon the Word of God, to listen to that word well, and you need to do that in order to be able to discern the false teachings of others. who often try to use one phrase or maybe even one verse to drive a wedge between you and a faithful Christian confession. But there's another thing I think Peter gets to a little bit subtly here in verse 20. And I get to this in the way he puts it. where he draws our attention, not just to a manifold number of interpretations that are out there, but rather he says, notice, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. It's become commonplace, especially here in American culture. I know I was raised this way as well. that the way you should approach the scriptures is with a me, myself, and my Bible mentality. That the best route to the Christian faith is to take your Bible, go up a mountain, sit by yourself, and just ponder what the word has to say, and then there, you're gonna have everything that you could ever possibly have to live with a Christian life. While we do need to individually go and to read God's word and to meditate upon it day and night, I warn you that it is actually far easier to mishandle God's Word when you do it all by yourself, without the help and the aid and the guard of other believers gathered together to hear God's Word preached and to read God's Word as a community of faith. When we isolate ourselves in our own Christian lives, we begin to make our own interpretation of things, the standard of truth and our own understanding that the measure of what God's word says, but we need the body of Christ. We need the gathered worship of God's people to hear the word faithfully read and proclaim to better understand it and to better handle it rightly, even for ourselves. See, it's the gathered worship of God's people that keeps us from accumulating teachings that seat our own passions. As Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, verse 3, that prevents us from turning from the truth and wandering away into a myth. So I charge you, beloved, to be attentive to the word of God within the context of the people of God. It is given to all of the Church of Christ, and we need one another to keep us faithful in our approach to God's Word. So humbly submit yourself to it and humbly maintain a faithful work to go to Christ Church to hear God's Word proclaimed and to rest. Upon that word, it is faithfully interpreted and faithfully proclaimed. And as you do it. The key to understanding what the Word of God is really all about is to know that its central content is the person and work of Christ. Peter has been making this point all along through this paragraph, but I think he's making it here as well, where when he gets into the false teachings and the false prophets of chapter two, they are those who have a core part of their ministry being that they deny the master who bought them, as he says in verse one. The key to understanding the Bible is that it is all about Jesus, and it's all about his sufferings and his subsequent glory that gives hope to the humble who call upon his name, whom God even calls to himself and brings them to gather to his church, the Bride of Christ, where they worship him and they hear his word proclaimed week in and week out. See, any interpretation Any approach to the Bible that denies this master is a lie. And it's a lie really following the temptation of the devil who seeks to lead one away from the word of God, just like he did back in the garden. In fact, I would submit to you that the primary way that the devil is going to attack the church of Jesus Christ today is the way he did it all the way back there where he posed the question, did God really say? You see, Satan's first and Satan's principal attack on the people of God is to diminish their confidence and rest in the word of God. But the hallmark of a life of faith is one that submits itself to the scriptures and seeks to do so in the context of a faithful body of Christ church. And they do this because the scriptures are the very word of God and not the word of man. And that's what Peter says last of all in verse 21, that this word is inspired. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. See, Peter first makes his point negative. The word of God, the prophecy of scripture, it's not the product of men. When you read the Bible, it's not the product of particular religious genius. It's not political propaganda for an ancient Israelite state or the Davidic monarchy. It's not the word of religious elites trying to get the masses to fall into line with their own version of ethics or morality. The origins of the Bible come from God himself. They are the word of God making himself known to his people. And even our children can get this, can't they? Luke has been learning the children's catechism and it poses the question, who wrote the Bible? And it answers rightly, chosen men inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is because the scriptures are the word of God. The word of the one true God that we can have full confidence in their promises, full assurance in their truthfulness, and every willingness to submit ourselves to its instruction, because it comes with the authority of the God who is speaking to us. Have you ever been asked the question? I know I have. Who are you to say that this way of my life is a sin. Who are you to say that Jesus is the only way to salvation? Who are you to say? You know what the answer is? I didn't say it. God did. And I believe what God says. And because of that, I am but an emissary of his words. How about share what the God of heaven is making known about the only way to salvation and that the only righteous life you are called to live is one that he has made known. Know this word comes with the authority of its author and its primary author is God himself. But it's also important that God makes himself known through men speaking for him. See, there's another mode of questioning that people will often have, and it's not who are you to say, but it's how can God even make himself known? There are those who will say that God is so high, or if you believe this God that you say you believe is true, then he is so high, then he is so exalted, and there's really no way that you can truly know God. See, there's questions not only about the content and authority of God's word, but also about the ability and manner that God can make himself known. And the answer to this other question, how can God even make himself known, is that God stoops down to reveal himself to us. The word of the scriptures are not from man upward, but from God downwards. Where God stoops down and as a work of the Holy Spirit, makes his will known to his people, reveals his promises to his church, such that we might lay hold of him by the power of the Spirit and through faith, and believe upon the word that we have been given. And this way of God making himself known is fundamentally different than any other religion in the world. Any other mode of or any other religion in any other mode of revelation begins with man and makes their way up to God. But the origins of the Christian faith and the ground for our Christian life is not something that we make up and then attribute to God, but something that God makes known to his people by a work of the Holy Spirit, inspiring the prophets of old. And this word was not given as one single revelation on a golden tablet that you can't find and can bear no testimony to. It was not given by a single wonderful prophet who comes in and says makes grandiose claims that nobody else could ever follow in their steps off. No, it is a revelation of God's work and God's will for us. Given through a multitude of witnesses that that cross centuries and have the same word of Christ. the talus of his sufferings and his subsequent glories. Many prophets, many men carried along through the work of the Holy Spirit that all seek to make God known, that God works to make God's word known to his people. And Christian, beloved in the Lord, Believing upon this word, resting upon this word, and hearing this word proclaimed, Lord's day in and Lord's day out, is a central mark of the Christian faith. Because we believe, don't we? that God has made himself known in his words. And we believe because the Spirit has worked in our hearts that Christ has won our salvation and that we can rest upon it and hear of it because God's Word is what makes us wise for salvation, for faith in Christ Jesus, as the Apostle Paul says. And God's Word is profitable for our teaching, for our reproof, for our correction. and for all of our training and righteousness, as he says in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. God's word gives us everything that we need so that we would be equipped for every good work. Beloved, listen to it. Submit yourself to its teaching. Pray for the Spirit's work in your life that you would understand it rightly that you had come to know and increasing your knowledge of the son of God who has made known to us in his word. And in that, find rest for your weary souls. Because this word is a light unto your path in this dark age. Trust it, learn it, memorize it and know that this light, this light of God's word leads you upon the path of faith and righteousness which ends in the kingdom of light, where you will see God fully, even as you are fully known. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that you have made yourself known in your word to us, that we do not need to fashion for ourselves a tradition to be pleasing to you, but you have given us everything that we need for faith and for life. So, Lord, we ask that you cause us to be faithful to your words, to submit ourselves to it, to listen to it, and to believe upon it. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.