Let's go, Lord, in prayer. Heavenly
Father, we thank you for allowing us to gather together today.
What a privilege and an honor it is, we who are Your people,
to be able to come and gather together and worship Thee, O
Lord, when so many others have no care for Your Gospel, have
no care for who You are, Lord, but You have given us an interest.
You were born again by Thy Holy Spirit, and we have an interest
in who You are and what You've done, and we praise and glorify
Thee for what You've done for us. May You be lifted up high
and mighty today through the preaching of Thy Word. May your
people's hearts be lifted up in praise and adoration as we
sing hymns and rejoice in the wonderful truths of the gospel. In your name we pray, amen. 2 Peter chapter 1, today's message
is called A More Sure Word of Prophecy. 2 Peter chapter 1,
we'll be reading verses 16 to 21. Peter writes to the born-again
blood-bought believers, for we have not followed commonly devised
fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received
from God the Father honor and glory, which when there came
such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. We
have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto you do well
that you take heed is unto a light that shineth in the dark place
until the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts. Knowing
this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The name of the message today
is a more sure word of prophecy. Now last week we looked at verses
16 to 18 where we saw Peter bring forth that he was an eyewitness
to the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was one of the three
that were at the Mount of Transfiguration when our Lord was transfigured.
And we consider that the gospel of the grace of God in and through
Christ alone is not a commonly devised fable. It's not a story
that some men came up with. As some claim, it's not a story,
it's not a cunningly devised fable, it's the truth. It's the
truth. We know that God the Holy Spirit
is the author of the scriptures. It's not a fictitious story that
someone's telling with no truth behind it. Beloved, the gospel
is fact. The gospel is truth. is truth, and it speaks about
the one who is truth incarnate. Remember Christ himself said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. No other way. So it's all about
He who is the way, the truth, and the life. The gospel is.
It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about God who
became a man. Fully man and yet fully God.
And it's Christ, a God-man, who received glory and honor when
the Father spake from Him, spake from heaven and said of Him,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Notice that? This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. That cannot be said of anyone
else in the natural flesh, except Christ. The sinless, spotless
Lamb of God. God is well pleased with him.
And then the voice from heaven said, hear ye him. Oh may God
give you ears to hear if you've never heard his voice. Oh my. Now Peter and James and John
were eyewitnesses to the majesty of Christ. He was transfigured
in front of them. That would be something they would never
forget. That would be something they would never forget. And
they would tell others about it. And they were ear-witnesses
too, to the Father's voice from Heaven. They heard this when
they were with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. And
take note that in these verses here we have a three-fold witness
of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we know from the
Holy Scriptures and the Old Testament that the Word of God proclaims
in Deuteronomy 19 1915, at the mouth of two witnesses or at
the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established.
Deuteronomy 1915, at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth
of three witnesses shall the matter be established. For something
to be counted as fact and not fiction, then it had to come
at the mouth of two or three witnesses. It had to come at
the mouth of two or three witnesses. It must be established on the
principle of these witnesses. Now take note, Peter, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God, brings this truth forth in establishing
the truth. They proclaim that, first of
all, Peter proclaims that this gospel that he preaches is not
a cunningly devised fable. It's not a cunningly devised
fable. But God himself gives witness to it. Noticed in this
text, we read Peter again will give us a three-fold witness
of the true gospel of God's grace in and through Christ Jesus.
Why? To prove to us that what we believe is not just some story.
Now there's many people out there who claim the Bible's just a
book written by men. I've ran into them many times
and witnessed them to people. I've seen it and read it online.
People just don't believe the Bible. They just believe it's
a storybook. Well, they just show their utter
ignorance, don't they? And you know what? I can't really
put them down because I was there at one time, too. But it just shows the depravity
and ignorance of man in natural state. This gospel It is not a cunningly
devised fable. It's not a story. It's truth
proclaimed. It's truth proclaimed. God's
people take God at His word. Unbelievers don't. Unbelievers
don't believe what the Word of God says. God's people believe
what the Word of God says. Because we have the Holy Spirit
in us. He guides us and directs us into all truth. Again, unbelievers do not believe
the Word of God. They think it's of man's making.
Not knowing that the author of this book is the Holy Spirit
of God. The Holy Spirit of God. Again,
let's read verses 16 to 21. For we have not followed culinary
devised fables when we were made note when we made known unto
you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. So again, this isn't just someone
telling you a story, this is someone who actually was there
and saw what occurred. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. Again, God is only pleased with
Christ, no one else. But think of this, if you're
in Christ, God's pleased with you. That's wonderful news. Outside of Christ, God's not
pleased with no one. But in Christ, oh my, oh my. in this voice which came from
heaven we heard when we were with Him in the Holy Mount. We
have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto you do well
that you take heed is unto a light that shines in a dark place until
the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private
interpretation For the prophets, they came not in old time by
the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost. The first witness of the threefold
witnesses here, the first witness the apostle Peter brings forth
is the apostles, Peter, James, and John. They were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. They were eyewitnesses of who
he was. Then we have the witness of the
Father in verse 17. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. So the Father is the second witness. And thirdly, the witness of the
prophets. The witness of the prophets,
as Peter brings forth, that we also have a more sure word of
prophecy. That's the prophets, beloved. That's the prophets. Verse 21 proclaims, not by the
will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved
by who? The Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the author
of the scriptures. And we believe this. We who are
God's born again, blood washed saints, we believe this because
we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. We didn't believe
this before the Lord saved us. Now we do. We believe this. We've been enlightened by God
the Holy Spirit to see by God-given faith the glory of God in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're delivered from the power
of darkness. And we believe what the prophets of the Old Testament
proclaimed. Being taught by God the Holy
Spirit that all the Old Testament prophets wrote about who? Who
did the Old Testament prophets write about? Christ. That's who
they wrote about. So with that as our introduction
for today's lesson, let us look at our text again in verse 19.
We see we have a more sure word of prophecy. We have also a more
sure word of prophecy where unto you do well that you take heed
is unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Now Peter was not speaking lightly
of what had happened to him and James and John at the Mount of
Transfiguration. What he and the other two apostles
witnessed could not have been anything but positive proof that
the Lord Jesus Christ was who He said He was. He's God. He's the promised Messiah. He's
the eternal Son of God. And they were privileged to experience
what occurred there at the Mount of Transfiguration. That was
a privilege for them. As Pastor Henry Mahan comments
on the words of this text, we have a better foundation as believers
and a more sure evidence of Christ in the Gospel than an eyewitness
account of His glory. Because we have His Word. We
have His Word. And that is the Old Testament
scriptures and the New Testament revelation given by the Holy
Spirit in Peter's day. A man's testimony is to be received
only if it is according to the scriptures. If people did that nowadays,
there'd be a lot of nonsense that would just go the wayside.
A lot of what people claim out there, if people just looked
at what the Word of God said instead of believing what some
man says, they'd realize people were lying
to them. The word of God is the final
test. This is our final authority, beloved. This word right here,
this book, is our final authority. And it tells us about Christ.
You do well to take heed to the scriptures in way every man's
word accordingly, Brother Henry says. That's good, sound advice. That's good sound advice. So
let us then carefully consider the words of the Holy Scripture
that Brother Henry Mahon referred to. Let us consider the importance
of these holy inspired words when it says we also have a more
sure word of prophecy. What does the scriptures proclaim
in the Old Testament? In Isaiah 8.20 it says, to the
law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this
word, it is because there's no light in them. Now if you weigh
that compared to what some people are saying out there, well it's
very easy to see that there's no light in them. There's hundreds of men standing
up in pulpits today telling people what they have to do. telling people what they have
to do. And the scripture says, that
if they're not telling you about Christ, there's no light in them. Because this book's all about
Christ, isn't it? That's who we preach and proclaim.
Not about what we have to do, because we know from studying
the scriptures, we've been taught by the Holy Spirit of God, because
we can't be haughty about it, because we've been taught this
by the Holy Spirit of God, that there's nothing good in us. That
there's nothing in us that would gain merit and favor with God.
That if we are to, and I was reading an excellent article
by Joe Terrell this morning, he brought out a wonderful point.
He said, we rejoice that we're justified before God, but we
rejoice in the justifier, the Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice
that we're pardoned and all our sins are forgiven, but we rejoice
in the pardoner of all our sins. You see, it always goes back
to Christ. It always goes back to Him, no matter what. No matter
what. To the law and to the testimony
that they speak not according to this Word. If they speak not
according to the Scriptures, there's no life in them. There's
no life. That's what it says in Isaiah
8.20. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 to
4. 1 Corinthians. And again, according
to the Scriptures is the key. According to the Scriptures.
According to the Scriptures. Look at this in 1 Corinthians.
15, 1 to 4. And I want us to think about something. As we read this, if you have
an understanding of the Scriptures, give God all the glory. Thank
Him and praise Him that you're born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. Because not everyone has an understanding of the Scriptures.
All we have to do is look back to where before we were saved.
And sure, we may have read the Bible, we may have looked at
the Scriptures, but I'll tell you, I had no understanding.
I had no understanding until the Lord saved me and I was born
again by the Holy Spirit of God. Look at this. 1 Corinthians 15,
1-4. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have
received. So God's people receive the gospel.
We receive it. There was a time when we didn't.
But when we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God, when
we're taught of God, we receive the gospel. And we receive it
with joy. with joy, because it's all about
Christ and all about what He's did. And wherein ye stand. We stand in the truth of the
gospel, don't we? We don't stand in man's word.
We don't stand in cunningly devised fables. No, we stand in the sure
word of God, which tells us about Christ, our great Redeemer, our
Savior. We stand in Him, by which also
ye are saved. If you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you believed in vain, unless you
just made an empty profession, but if you really believe, this
is sweet, this is honey to your soul. For I delivered unto you,
first of all, that which I received, how Christ died for our sins,
what? According to the scriptures. According to, that's the key
right there. According to the scriptures. And that he was buried
and that he rose again the third day again. according to the scriptures. What did the saints in Berea
do? What did the saints in Berea
do, beloved? Well, the scriptures proclaimed that they searched
the scriptures daily, whether these things were so. So they
heard the preacher preach, and then they searched the scriptures
to see if these things were so. Always measure a man by the scriptures,
what he preaches by the scriptures. Check out the scriptures. See
what they say. Every gospel preacher will say,
search the scriptures. Because we know they testify
of Christ. They testify of the one we proclaim. That's who they
testify of. And the scriptures are our final
authority. Not man. Not man's opinion. The scriptures are our final
authority. Man may say what they want. And
they may say how they feel about certain things, but the believer
bows his knee to the Scriptures and says, thus saith the Lord.
It don't matter, I can't tell you how many people I've talked
to and witnessed to them, and what they want to do, the first
thing they want to do is tell you what they think. And I often
stop them. And I don't be rude about it,
but I'll stop them. And I say, it really doesn't matter what
you think. What does the scripture say? Let's look at what the scripture
says. Always, when you're talking with someone about Christ, take
them to the scriptures. Don't just give them your opinion.
Take them to the scriptures. Take them there. Because they
can't fight it. If they profess Christ, they can't fight the
scriptures. Although they do, they wrestle them. But oftentimes,
When you take him to the scriptures and you just say, take this home
and read it. One of the guys I talked to,
he's coming around, coming around to what we believe. He's seeing
it more and more. But I constantly point him to
the scriptures, point him to the scriptures, point him to
the scriptures. That's all you can do, beloved. Just keep pointing
him to the scriptures and say, thus saith the Lord. This is
what the Lord says. Listen to the words of the Master
when He was talking to unbelieving Jews. Do you know what He said
to them? He said, search the Scriptures. Search the Scriptures. For in them ye think ye have
eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me. John 5.39.
They testify of Christ, beloved. They testify of Christ. Now Jews
were very religious, weren't they? And very devout. Very religious
and very devout. They thought they had eternal
life based upon their works. Based upon who they were. They
said, well, we're the sons of Abraham. Doesn't matter. A lot of people claim, well, I
go to this certain church that claims that they're the one true
church. No, they're not. I go to this church, they say,
you've got to be baptized to be saved. That's a false gospel.
I go to this church, they say, you've got to worship on Saturdays,
or you took the mark of the beast. That's a false gospel. You see,
it's all things men do. The gospel preacher preaches
and proclaims Christ, who's finished the work. He did it all in the
room and place of his people. So people are very religious.
People are very religious. But they base their salvation
upon their own self-righteousness, beloved. I know I was there. I was there. They don't base
their righteousness on Christ and what He's done. Christ is
not their righteousness. They base their standing before
God on their works, but in the Scriptures,
Our righteousness is based upon what Christ has done. See, but men don't believe the
Scriptures. Remember, the Lord was right
before them when He said, Search the Scriptures, for in them you
think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify
of Me. They were right there before Him when He said that
to them. Their doctrine was not according to God's words because
they were teaching for doctrines the commandments of man. Therefore there was no light
in them. There's nothing new under the sun. Men are still
doing that today. They set conditions that you
have to fulfill. Well, I'm thankful I'm trusting
the one who the scripture says did it all. Are you? We rest in Him, don't we? We
trust in Him. Not what some man says we have
to do. There's nothing new under the
sun. It's the same today. The majority of professing Christians
in our generation claim to believe the Scriptures, and some of them
spend a whole lot of time in the Scriptures. I know some folks
who profess Christ, and it's obviously they don't know Him,
but they spend a lot of time in the Scriptures. But they're like the unbelieving
Jews. Their thoughts of eternal life are based upon what they've
done. And they're quick to tell you what they've done. They're
quick to tell you what they're doing. They don't believe that Christ
died for a particular people, that He laid down His life for
His sheep. Just tell them that and watch the knives come out. They don't believe that our Savior,
through the offering of Himself, sanctified and perfected forever
those He died for? Even though we're still sinners,
and yet we're saved by the grace of God? And when God looks upon
us, He sees Christ? And when you tell them that you're,
when you say, well, I'm still a sinner, but I'm a sinner saved
by grace, they look at you like, what, you still sin? Yeah, and
so do you. Because the Scripture says every
man's a liar. Well, there are none righteous.
No, not one, is there? Not one. They don't believe that Christ
by Himself purged our sins, and that we're clothed in the perfect
spotless righteousness of Christ, because they're still going about
trying to establish their own righteousness. Cease from your
labors if you're doing that. Cease from your labors and just
flee to Christ, and Christ alone. He's the only hope for sinners.
They don't believe our blessed redeemer by his own precious
blood entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal
redemption for us. My. Therefore they don't believe
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and
that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. These word of faith guys out
there, my those guys, they tell you well you just got to have
more faith. Gotta have more faith. If you're
sick, well, you gotta have more faith. But I know every one of
them goes to the dentist when they got a toothache, don't they? They're hypocrites, Bob. They look to themselves, as Brother
Joe brought up, they look to themselves and they don't look
to Christ. They don't look to the one who's finished the work.
But we do. Because we've been given. And think of this. Think
of the privilege, if you're a born-again believer. Think of the privilege
that God has revealed Christ to you. And passed by other family members
who we love dearly. But he's revealed Christ to us.
And we, by God-given faith, look to him. It's a miracle of grace,
beloved. We should be full of joy, shouldn't
we? And rejoicing that He's done this for us. That He's done this for us. God's born-again children don't
think we have eternal life. God has been pleased to reveal
His gospel truths to us. And we know that we have eternal
life. We know that we have eternal life. Why? Because we have a
more sure word of prophecy. We have the Scriptures, Paul.
We have the Scriptures. We know that the Son of God has
come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true and we are in Him that is true, even in the Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God in eternal
life. First John 5 20. We know those
things as God's born again people. We know these things. We know,
as 1 John 3.14 says, we know that we passed from death unto
life. We're not the same person. We're
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And we can say with the Apostle,
can you say this? Can you say this? A believer
can say with the Apostle Paul, I know whom I believe. I know
whom I believe. And I'm persuaded that he is
able. There's the key words right there. That he is able. I ain't
able. I'm not able to save myself.
Are you able to save yourself? Because if you think you are,
you're deceived. No one's able to save themselves,
but he is able. I know whom I believe, and am
persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed
unto Him against that day." 2 Timothy 1.12. And we know that the only
way we believe is because He has given us the gift of faith
to believe. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
what? called according to his purpose. And God's people believe
that, don't they? Because we have a more sure word
of prophecy. This is what the scriptures declare. This is not
our opinion. Too many people base things that
they believe on their opinion. But God says to us, your thoughts
are not my thoughts. and your ways are not my ways."
Sometimes we think we know better, but we don't. Oh my. Let's look at verse 19
again. We have a more sure word of prophecy.
Where unto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that
shines in the dark place until the day dawn and the day star
arise in your hearts. Note our text continues, where
unto you do well that you take heed is unto a light that shines
in the dark place. Here before us we have an illustration
given to God's people how we should lay the truths of Christ
in the Holy Scriptures to our hearts. We should lay these truths
to our hearts. During the night hours our homes
are dark and all the lights are turned off. Maybe there's one
left on, but most of them are turned off. But for safety and
comfort and enjoyment we keep lights burning before we go to
bed. So we can still do things. Now, when we were lost and dead
in trespasses and sins, we had no assurance of safety. We were
living and loving the darkness that we were in. That's our natural
state. That's man's natural state. We
had no comfort. I ask you, before the Lord saved
you, did you have comfort? Not true comfort. Not the comfort
like the believer has in Christ. No joy, no saving life from Christ. We walked around in darkness,
the scripture says. Listen to the words of the Master.
I am the light of the world. He that follow me shall not walk
in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8, 12. He's the light of life. And the
believer doesn't walk in darkness anymore. We did. We did, we're
born dead in trespasses and sins, and roping around in the dark. We were sometimes darkened, but
we are now light in the Lord. We're to walk as children of
the light, beloved. We're to walk as children of
the light. The Holy Scriptures will enlighten us as to how we're
to walk before God, before the people of this world and the
reason why we are to walk is that's the reason why we're to
walk as children of the light. We're not what we used to be. Now we battle sin instead of
loving it. Sin didn't bother me before I
was saved. Did it bother you? Only when
we got caught at something, right? Let's be honest. Now we hate
it. Now we hate it. Hate it in ourselves. And our text says, you do well
if you take heed. You do well if you take heed
to this more sure word of prophecy, beloved. Of the Scriptures. You do well. These words are
a warning from God to us. We cannot possibly think that
we're doing well if we neglect the study of the Holy Scriptures.
And we who are the people of God, we desire to grow in the
grace and knowledge and truth. of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the prophecy concerning Christ's second coming is as a light,
beloved. It's as a light, a revelation
of that which was in the dark. This truth lay hid as a secret
and mystery in the heart of God, and which could not be made known
by man had it not been foretold by God, the second coming of
Christ. And the scriptures proclaim that Christ will come again.
And God's people, we believe it. He will. He's God. And what He says comes to pass.
What He says comes to pass. He will come again. It's a revelation
to God's people, this truth. And He will come again in great
power and glory, and He'll raise the dead, and He'll judge all
of mankind. All those who shook their fist
at God and said, I don't believe in Him, they're going to face
Him. And unfortunately, they're going
to face them if the Lord didn't save them in their own self-righteousness.
And they'll be cast into everlasting torment forever. And we believe it because that's
what God says. That's what the scripture says. And Christ, who is the light
of his people, shall come and be the light of his people. And
then there follow everlasting day of glory when all darkness
is gone. All darkness will be gone. And
the saints shall see and look upon He who has redeemed their
eternal souls. And you know what? We'll look
upon Him forever. For eternity. There'll never
be a time when we'll be separated from Him. Never. Right now we're separated from
Him, but He's watching over us and guiding us and directing
us through everything we go through. He'll never leave us. He'll never
forsake us. But when we see Him face to face
in glory, we shall never ever be separated from our Lord. Ever.
Ever. With that in mind, let's read
our text again. It says, We have also a more sure word of prophecy,
where unto 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. It says, until the day dawn and
the day star arise in your hearts. The day dawn here speaks of the
last day. It has reference to the dawning of the last day,
the day of the blessed return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And so much the
more, as you see the day approaching. That again is speaking of the
last day again. And the day star is the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. We read
in Revelation 22, 16, where our Lord said, I am the root and
offspring of David, the bright and the morning star. Oh, praise
be to our great God. We have a more sure word of prophecy,
beloved. Peter got to see Christ transfigured,
but we have a more sure word of prophecy right here in this
book, right here. And if a man doesn't speak according
to this Word, then there's no light in him. God's people love to hear this
Word preached, and God's preachers love to preach this Word, because
it tells us all about Christ. It tells us all about our great
Redeemer, and we glorify Him We glorify Him and we praise
His mighty name. Heavenly Father, we thank You
for allowing us again to gather together. Oh, it's glorious,
Lord, that we have a more sure word of prophecy. But what's
even more glorious is that You reveal Yourself to us. It's wonderful,
it's amazing, to give us an understanding of this great, sure word of prophecy
that we have here. Oh, glory to your name. May you
receive all the glory, honor, and praise today, O Lord. In
Jesus' name, amen.