Alrighty, let's go to 2 Peter
and I'm going to finish up here tonight with our little doctrinal
study on church, its life, its worship, its foundation. When
I'm done with this little mini-series, I always know how to title it. 2 Peter chapter 1. The scripture says in verse 3,
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain
to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called
us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us
his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may
become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the
corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For
this very reason, make your Make every effort to supplement your
faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge
with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness
with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and
brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours
and are growing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks
these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten
that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers,
be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for
if you practice these qualities, you will never fail. For in this
way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the
eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore,
I intend always to remind you of these qualities. though you
know them and are established in the truth that you have. I
think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up
by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body
will be soon, as the Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And
I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be
able to recall these things at any time. For we did not follow
cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses
to 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 would 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 has ever been
produced by the will of man. But men spoke from God as they
were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. We thank
you, Father, that we have your word for us tonight. We have
the word that we can open and read, and Lord, not only do we
know how to hear it and understand it in our language, but Father,
supernaturally, you have given us understanding. You have taught
us of Christ. You have taught us of your work
that you've accomplished in Christ. You've taught us that we are
yours through Christ. And that we are found in his
life and his righteousness and his death. And Father that we
are promised to be found in his resurrection. And so I pray that
as we continue to look at this text, Lord, that we would be
full of joy, that we would rest with an incredible faith of knowing
that your promises and your divine power are sufficient for us.
And Father, all that comes from that is just grace upon grace. And we pray these things in the
name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, I wanted to continue
here because I believe that it's important for us to see that
Peter is reminding the church to understand these qualities
and to grasp, grab hold of these things as a way of life because
of the gospel. And I want to reiterate, I said
this several times last week and the week before. and in different
times we continue to state it, but these things are not what
prove or confirm our salvation, these things being that which
we live and the way we live and the way we interact with one
another, but they are the fruitfulness and the effectiveness of the
gospel. in our lives. So we know that we have been
saved by the grace of God through the finished work of Jesus Christ
and that the imputation of Jesus' righteousness, His holiness,
His perfection, His obedience, everything that He is, the fullness
of all His glory as we see God face to face in the human person,
Jesus, we get credit for all that He is. And in that we are
the righteousness of God. And so when we want to be effective,
we are taught throughout all the New Testament narratives,
several different things. As we get back into Hebrews,
we'll see that we are to be submissive and subject to the elders and
subject to the government and subject to one another, as Paul
would teach us and teach the church in Rome. And so tonight,
as the Lord has spoken to us through his word, as it did to
the first century hearers, we can be encouraged And so we saw
in the last few weeks that God has, by grace alone, given us
eternal life, and by grace alone granted us his divine power to
establish ourselves together as the body. I want to remind
us too, beloved, that we are not talking, these letters were
not written to individuals here, though we see some individual
pastoral letters written by Paul. They were written to the elders,
and then in that way, the elders then taught them to the church,
and everyone grew together. So the church, the gathered ones,
the called out, the assembly, we are to learn these things
together. And so yes, our salvation, our
redemption, our knowledge of the truth is a very personal
thing. Individually we are saved, but we are saved as one body.
We are saved collectively unto one praise, unto one purpose.
unto one function, many different parts, functioning to the praise
of His glorious grace. It's why we're here, and so it's
why we ought to live together. Now there is a sense in which
we would see if we were going through 2 Peter, and we may in
the months to come, just since we've already dived in a little
bit, we may do a reading of 1 and 2 Peter. It wouldn't take very
long, but we see that there are some false teachers, and we see
what they've brought in. And we know that Peter is exhorting
us as believers, exhorting his original audience, and therefore
us, to know that the foundation of our joy, the foundation of
our life, the foundation of our worship, is indeed the gospel,
proclaimed through the Spirit of God, through the prophets
and the apostles, and now divinely continued and carried in the
pages of this text. And so we saw that Peter says
in verse 12, I'm going to remind you of these things. That's my
purpose. Not because you're ignorant of them, but you are established
in the truth of the gospel. So I want to remind you of these
qualities, though you already know them. You see these two
things, you know these qualities and you are founded, you are
established in the truth of the gospel. You know it. So I want
to remind you of these two things. I think I said this last Wednesday
night, if not it was Sunday. I said that any preaching that's
contextual will point to two specific things. It will always
point to the person and the work of Jesus Christ for his people.
We will never see any teaching of the Bible that does not have
that as its foundation. And then also in the New Testament
letters, then we see the therefores. Then therefore we ought to, as
God's people together, function in this way because of the gospel.
That our lives of worship are bound to our intimacy and our
service to one another as God has given us gifts. And so Peter is saying, hey,
I'll remind you of these things. And then in verse 13 he says,
I think it is right, as long as I am in this body, to stir
you up by way of reminder. And I said, it was last Wednesday,
and I said, you know, sometimes when we know something, we hate
being reminded of it. And like teenagers, well, I know,
I know, whatever, you know, we all know, but being reminded
of the gospel and then being reminded of gospel life qualities
should not be a burden for us. As John would write in his first
epistle, remember, we've gone through that first epistle over
35 sermons. And we have learned that as it
states there, that the law of God and to love the Lord and
one another, to know the gospel and to live it out together in
affection and service is not burdensome. Why? Because Christ
has fulfilled these things. So we aren't working in our submission
to the commands of the scripture and to the commands of Christ.
We're not working to submit to these things so that we may be
perfected or that we may become righteous or that we may earn
some favor. It is all of grace. God has without
merit given us eternal life through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Yes, and the implication of that philosophically would bring us
to the place of knowing that the application of the work of
Christ was applied even to those who have yet to be born again.
For God is not bound to time, yet we do not teach that in evangelistic
ways. We just worship and rejoice when
we come as the believers to know the depths of the power of God
unto salvation. And then he says he wants to
remind us of these things. And now he also says that he wants to
continue to stir us up by way of reminder. What is that? To
stir one another up onto holding fast to the confession of our
hope, and to work and to love and to good service, good deeds,
as Paul would say to the Hebrews. Why, verse 14, why is he wanting
to do this? Because he knows the Lord Jesus
Christ has told him that he is soon to die. He's made it known
to him. He says, I know that the putting
off of my body will be soon, as the Lord Jesus has made clear
to me. So therefore, When everything
is facing Peter, when the end of his life has come, his primary
focus, his primary bucket list is that he would be effective
in the qualities that he is now teaching by proclaiming the gospel
and teaching the church to continue in the manner in which they have
been taught. So that their worship would be pure. So that their
understanding of the gospel would continue to be reminded of them. He says, I make every effort
so that after my departure, you may be able to at any time recall
these things. Now, sometimes we get flustered
with this. We think, OK, I know the gospel. I've had people sit
down and say to me, Pastor, we're tired. Seriously, and I'm just
going to blow your minds. And some of you've heard me tell
this before, but I've had people say we're tired of the gospel. Give us something else. And I
mean, I can't even smile when I hear that. It's like, I feel
like I'm gonna throw up. You're tired of the gospel? Then
the implications of the gospel make no sense without the gospel.
So how can we learn anything else if the gospel is not also
with it? But see, that is the world's
religion. That is the Christianity of our culture. Let's just make
Christ a figurehead of redemption possible. And then let's learn
to live and do everything that the Bible teaches us to live.
Let's use the Bible as a rule book to see how we're supposed
to act and treat each other and talk and speak and all these
good things. And it doesn't matter if you get Jesus right. That's
what the world says. But look where Peter goes in
verse 16. See he doesn't just quit there. I want to teach you
before I die how to walk in a manner worthy. Remind you to stir these
things up. He's already said I want you
to supplement the foundation of your faith which is in Jesus
Christ with your life together also being reminded of this gospel
that you have, of this truth that you have, that you are established
in, who is Jesus Christ. And then I want to remind you
of these qualities, these things that should be evident among
you, these attributes, if you will, of a good, healthy Christian
assembly. That's what it's all about, isn't
it? I mean, anybody can have a family, anybody can have a
relationship, but is the relationship healthy? Is the family healthy?
Is the church in and of itself healthy? It is if it focuses
on the gospel and learns the qualities of brotherly affection
and submission to the word and kindness and patience and constantly
caring about each other in the faith and in the world. But it doesn't end there. It
doesn't start there and it doesn't end there. In verse 16 he says,
for we did not follow cleverly devised myths. Now isn't that
strange? He just all of a sudden start
talking about myths? No, it's not strange at all because he's
going back to the bedrock of their assurance. He's going to
the bedrock of their eternal life. He's going to the foundation
who is Jesus Christ alone and his propitiatory, substitutionary,
atoning work. All those big words that we like
to talk about. Christ has satisfied the wrath
of God in his death. Christ has lived according to
the righteousness of God in his person. Christ's death has brought
his people to God without guilt, without shame, because he has
placed himself in the place of guilt as an innocent, sinless,
perfect human. And God was pleased to crush
him, and on his back he bore our iniquities. and then he was raised to life. And Peter is saying we did not
follow these clever and made up myths. We didn't do that when
we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. See right here, this section of scripture I could
probably teach many many hours in it But there is a single point,
and the single point, I'll start with it, and we'll unpack it,
and then we'll end with it. The single point is this, is
that the gospel is the story of the person and the work of
Jesus Christ. What the scripture reveals concerning him prophetically
as a promise of God, and then powerfully as a fulfillment of
that promise for the elect. So that the teaching of the gospel
is not something, let me say this, the gospel is not something
that we can knit down into a presentation. Yes, we can present the gospel,
we can present gospel truths, but we can't just say, you got
30 seconds? Let me just teach you everything
there is to know about the good news of Jesus. But there is an element
in which the Bible would show us in the narratives of the New
Testament and the instruction of the doctrinal teaching. I
know that's redundant, but I have to say that. The doctrinal teaching
of the apostles that there are some things that are necessary
that always are coupled with the new birth, specifically the
fact that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and he died to substitute
himself for his people. And that substitution was effectual. That substitution was powerful. Because God is satisfied in it,
therefore there is no condemnation for all those who are in Christ.
Who are those that are in Christ according to the Bible? Those
who know who He is and hold fast and rest, that's saving faith,
in what He has done. And faith in and of itself is
a divine work of God in the life of His people. Who are those
who will believe they are the elect of God? and only the elect
of God, all those given to the Son. See, when we think about
the finished work of Christ, we have been so desensitized
to the teaching of the gospel because of the way our culture,
even we who know the gospel, we're still desensitized to the
point that we think we can fit the gospel on a three-word card
and say, you know, just believe in Jesus. The gospel is not believe
in Jesus. That's actually a command, isn't
it? If I said, hey, get out of your seat. That doesn't give
you anything to think about. That doesn't give you any information.
That doesn't tell you why. That doesn't tell you what I
want you to do after you get out of your seat. I could just
be playing Simon Says or just see who all would listen. There
could be a spider under there. There could be a snake under
there. Your seat could be on fire. Getting out of your seat, you
might win the million dollar prize of Monopoly money. Believe the
gospel. What does that say? That's cliche. It's cliche. Believe in Jesus
Christ who saved you. What if he didn't? You see how that rubs? Jesus Christ saved his people.
And this is how. Yeah, we can do it in 30 seconds,
but it's more than just a one-off phrase. The scripture teaches
us that Jesus, the God-man, substituted himself for his people, and that
God's wrath is satisfied, and that none of those for whom he
died will perish, but they will have eternal life, and they will
be called to believe. Do you believe? Are you resting
in the person of Christ? You see what I think right here?
If Peter were to write this letter today, he would be thinking about
the myths of evangelicalism. The commonplace little one-offs,
and one-liners, and phraseologies, and outlines, and faith, and
Romans Road, and, you know, Titus Tantrum, or whatever other kind
of evangelical thing. That would be cool. Let's try to make that
work next week. We'll create our own new little gospel presentation. We'll just give it some cool
points. I'm joking. but the Titus Tantrum. Let's
see what that would look like. T-A-N-T-R-U-M. That'd be too many points. It's
too much for me. You know, E-E, evangelism explosion. That's
a big one back in the early 80s. In every denomination, every
iteration, every congregation, throughout history, especially
from the 19th century, there's always been some gimmick. Yeah, there's no gimmick in salvation. It's the finished work of Jesus
for his people. And the Bible has been talking about it since
the very thing that has been written says in the beginning.
It's been talking about it from the beginning. God has been exposing
it and revealing it and exegeting himself as a redeemer from the
beginning. And so there is a depth in which
we go, but it is not heady. It is not hard. It is simple.
Simple grace looks like this. It is by grace you have been
saved through faith. Ephesians is a good place to
really get. Ephesians 1 and 2 can give you
a mouthful of gospel depth, but yet it is not so deep that it's
impossible. So we explain these things, we
teach these things. Peter is teaching not for the
first time. He's really archiving this so
that they don't forget. He's reminding them of the qualities
that should be theirs in Christ Jesus. Just like Paul did to
the Philippians. The mind which is theirs in Christ
Jesus. The attitudes, the attributes,
the affections. Put these on because the flesh
has been crucified with Christ. We do not follow cleverly devised
myths. This reminds me of what Paul
says in 2 Corinthians 4, when he says, he goes on to talk about
the veil through which he saw or Moses saw God. And then now
we see God face to face in Christ. He says in 2 Corinthians 3, verse
12, since we have such a hope, What is that hope? The ministry
of death and letters of stone came with such glory that the
Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory,
because of its revealed essence. That's what that means. Seeing
just the closeness of the fullness of God exposed in the law. See, that's what the law does.
It exposes God. They could not gaze at His face,
which was being brought to an end. Will not the ministry of
the Spirit have even more glory? He asked. For if there was glory
in the ministry of condemnation, the law is a condemning ministry,
the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.
Indeed, in the case, what once had glory has come to have no
glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what
was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what
is permanent have glory. Since we have such a hope. You
see what Paul says there to the Corinthians? That's 2 Corinthians
chapter 3. Since we have such a hope, we
are very bold. What is that boldness? The boldness
is not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites
might not gaze at the outcome of what is being brought to an
end, but their minds were hardened. And I don't want to go into reprobation,
but we can make a case by looking at the Old Testament, looking
at Hebrews, looking at Jesus teaching to the Pharisees and
the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin, and show that there is reprobation
actively at work by God Himself. Their minds were hardened, for
to this day when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil
that blinds them remains unlifted. Because only through Christ is
it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses
is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to
the Lord, the veil is removed. And somebody says, ooh, look
at there, now that guy decided to see. No, he didn't. He explains
that in a minute. I've got to keep going because
if not, I'll mess this up. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Freedom
from what? Death, the Old Covenant, the Law, the Moses, the Moses. You know what I mean, Moses.
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding, seeing the glory of
God, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same
image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from
the Lord who is the Spirit. Therefore, having this ministry,
chapter 4, by the mercy, by the grace, by the kindness, by the
love of God, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced. This is
what I was getting to. Peter says, we do not follow
cleverly devised myths. Paul says the same thing. We
have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We have refused to practice
cunning, to be slick about evangelism, to use gimmicks or side shuffles
or magic tricks or card games or hot dog suppers or whatever
it might be. We don't have to get people's attention. We don't
have to prick people's hearts. We don't have to garter up some
kind of a crusade to go out and scare people. We don't have to
have prophecy conferences to talk about the last days and
judgment. We don't have to do any of that. We don't have to
create methods. We don't have to create opportunities.
We don't have to create responses. We just have to do what the scripture
says to do. And it's boldly do that which
is simple. Teach the details of the gospel
of grace that is free and sovereign. Simply. And what happens when
we teach it and people don't understand it? What do they do?
They go, can I ask a question? Certainly. And only when God
gives them understanding will they understand. He says, we
refuse to practice cunning or tamper with God's word, but by
the open statement of the truth. We would commend ourselves to
everyone's conscience in the sight of God. In other words,
we'll put ourselves out there. You can judge us in that context.
We're gonna do what is right, and we're not going to play games
with the scripture. And then the next question that some people
ask me, well, what about those who don't believe? Are we not
supposed to do some type of an apologetic to get them to see
it? Nope. The apologetics of the faith
is what? Teaching the faith. teaching the faith, teaching
the scripture, spend some time. Somebody keeps coming back and
want more, give it to them. If our gospel is veiled, it is
veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, verse 4, the God
of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep
them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God. Now, the God of this world is
dependent upon your understanding of things, can be the enemy,
but even if the enemy is doing that, he's doing it by the power
and the will of God. God is doing it. God blinds the eyes of unbelievers. The scripture teaches that very
clearly. For what we proclaim is not of
ourselves. It's not about us. It's not about our wisdom. It's
not about our understanding. It's not about our power. It's
not about our eloquence. It's not about our knowledge. It's about the knowledge of Christ.
It's about the simple grace of the gospel. For what we proclaim is not of
ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your
slaves for the sake of Christ, for the sake of Jesus. For God,
remember all that blindness and minds and hardening and all that
veiled face, unable to see? Here's the gospel reality of
the power of God unto salvation. For God who said, let light shine
out of darkness, creation of things has shown in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. So we know who God is because God the Spirit
tells us who he is through his word. Back to 2 Peter. We are
not following cleverly devised myths when we boldly proclaim
without twisting the scripture and without cunning the power
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We detailed that out for you. We taught you the doctrine
of the gospel. And not only that, but we were
eyewitnesses of his majesty. You know what Peter's saying
there? We were there. We've taught you about what we have seen.
We have seen the glory of God and now we've taught you about
what we have seen. We've taught you about what we
have heard. We've taught you about what we have touched concerning
the eternal life, as John would put it. We've taught you about
the gospel of the Messiah, the Christ, who is Jesus, who is
the Lord. We were eyewitnesses. We're not
coming up with this stuff on our own. We're not following
after great-grandpa's old silly late-night fairy tales and adding
to it and creating some other thing. We saw it. Now that's
not very credible in our day, is it? I saw it. I mean, people
see all sorts of stuff. It doesn't go anywhere. But it
went a long way in this day. And it doesn't matter whether
people believe them or not. They all saw it. They all walked with
Him for four years. And then they all witnessed it
with many, many other brothers at the Ascension. They heard. Listen what it is. For when He
received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice
was born to Him by the majestic glory, who said, this is my beloved
son with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard this very
voice born from heaven. We heard it. This is the foundation
of the truth that you are established in. Why would God say that concerning
this man who is his son? Because the son was prophesied
since the day of creation. to be the redeemer of God's chosen
people. And God's temporal choosing of
Abram to become the father of many nations was a small picture
like the marriage in the garden, like the temple in the wilderness,
the tabernacle in the wilderness, like the temple in Jerusalem. To the reality of all those things,
who is Jesus Christ? So the lightness of the simplicity
of the teaching of the doctrines of Christ are necessary to establish
a foundation. You just don't buy a bag of quikrete
and say, I've got quikrete, I've got a foundation. You have to
mix it and pour it and lay it. And it has to be a certain strength,
it has to be a certain thickness, it has to be a certain moisture. Paul says the same thing in 1
Corinthians. We build upon the foundations of the prophets.
We build upon the foundations with the same material. The walls
and the trusses and the roof and everything is built out of
the same material that the foundation is. What? Which is the detailed
teaching of the gospel of Messiah that we've witnessed and heard
the very voice born from heaven for we were with him. We were
with him at the baptism, well, not all of them at the baptism,
but more specifically with the transfiguration, which is what
he's referring to here, more specifically. So when we see
all of this happening, these people have witnessed it. And
in verse 19, and it's not just our testimony, but we have the
prophetic word more fully confirmed. What's the prophetic word? What
we call the Old Testament. We have the prophets, which has
been now more fully confirmed. And I love how he says this,
to which you would do well to pay attention. And look at the
simile as a lamp shining in a dark place. I want you to think about
who's he talking to? He's talking to Jewish believers.
People have been born of God by the gospel, by the mercy of
God. They now can see, like Paul would
say to the Corinthians, the veil that Moses put over his face.
And they still read with a veil. The Old Testament is not in and
of itself dark. It's a light. So we hold the
full counsel of God's word. So when we look at the Old Testament,
we see it as Christ. We look at it and we see Christ.
We see the promises, the very great promises of God. fulfilled
in now the teaching that the apostles teach which in my opinion
define and expose the true light of the Old Testament who is Jesus
Christ who is coming to the world. So now make this connection.
The light, and I've said it like this but never in this way, the
light of Nicodemus or the darkness of Nicodemus was included in
the context of him looking with no eyes to the Old Testament
thinking he understood it. So it's not just the teaching
of the Christ and the doctrine of Christ that makes the difference. Because a lot of people can know
and understand some things but not be able to see. What makes the difference is
the Holy Spirit that carries the truth, who is the truth,
who calls us the person to see. But you know what? Paul even
says it to the Romans that no one will see if they do not hear. And no one will hear if we don't
teach them. And even when we do teach them,
it is only by the power of God the Spirit that will cause them
to see. So we don't have to worry, what next? I don't want to say rinse and
repeat, just repeat. Repeat. And I think that's part of the
encouragement of Peter's letter is that I'm going to remind you
about who you are and what you believe and I'm going to remind
you about the qualities that you should hold to and strive
to because of the gospel as a sacrifice of praise, as a life of thanksgiving,
as intimacy and unity are required so that you can continue to repeat
that very thing that we've taught to you which is in our writings
and even the prophets that you would do very well to pay attention
to as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and
the morning star rises in your heart. So keep looking to that
Old Testament. Because don't you think that
sometimes when Jews came to believe, they were really sort of like,
I've been, this stuff has been pounded in my head for so long,
I just wanna hear from Peter. Of course. And Peter's saying,
don't ignore it, look at it. And if you're thinking, I just
don't get, I'll see how Christ come, just keep going. Christ
will show himself to you. And this isn't unto regeneration,
this is after regeneration. There's still things that you
can learn about Christ. There's still things that you
can see about the gospel that you know, simply. So know them. But don't forsake the qualities
that you should practice to make your calling and election, what? Confirmed. Live up to the life that you
have. Because when we don't, what happens
is we stop remembering. What does he say there? Whoever
lacks these qualities is so nearsighted. What does it mean to be nearsighted?
It means you can only see what's up close. I think that's a way
of Peter saying you're looking at yourself too much. You're
thinking for yourself. You're isolated in that sense. Emotionally and
psychologically and mentally and spiritually. So you forget
that you've been saved by the mercy of God. That your sins
have been forgiven. by Jesus Christ. You forget who
you are in Christ because you're so focused on yourself. Sometimes
I think that comes in through a lack of discipline of being
together and sometimes I think it comes through sickness and
through hard times and suffering and then we hide and sometimes
I think it comes through focusing so much on wanting to get more
and more and more by ourselves that we forsake one another to
the place that we are so far in a different place with our
understanding of scripture that we can't even have the patience
to teach others around us. That happens. And then we have
what? We have frustration. It's like
when we laugh at people sometimes, and I'm guilty of this. I mean,
we say something that's true of a cult, or we say something
that's true of a false gospel, And we sort of snicker, like,
how'd they believe that silly mess? Because God hasn't granted
them the light to see it. So we should not, we should never
smile. It's not funny, it's not funny.
And I don't know why we laugh at it. Sometimes I think it's
because we get so nearsighted and we get nearsighted together.
Remember we talked about Sunday, that we can have these little
hobbies, these doctrinal hobbies and these theological hobbies
and we forget the very fact that the doctrine and the theology
is supposed to show us who God is and we're supposed to celebrate
him, not the material. Because the material tells us
about him. I start reading a biography about
a woman or a man that will be a spouse, but never getting to
know them and never marrying them. Just, I don't care if I
meet them. Look at all the stuff I know about them. This is my
wife right here. What's her name? I don't know.
I didn't get that information. She likes cats though. I mean,
that's where we are sometimes in the word, right? And then he goes on and says,
just keep looking. Keep teaching. Knowing, first of all, verse
20, that no prophecy of Scripture, what does that mean? No proclamation,
the no telling of Scripture, no understanding of Scripture,
no, well he's going to use it there, no prophecy of Scripture
comes from someone's own interpretation. I have a hard habit of preaching
ahead of the text. I always do it. The way I study
the Bible is I read, and I read, and I think, and I write, and
I think, and I talk, and I talk to myself, and I talk to the
Lord, and I share with other people, and I tweet, and I put
on Facebook so that I don't forget it, and then I forget where I
put it. And then I get so excited about what I wanna say because
of what the Bible says in this particular context that I can
just talk and get everything out, and then go, oh, I forgot
to read it and show you where it is. So I get ahead of the, it's okay,
because you can check me after. And you can still learn, oh,
wow, there it is. But no prophecy of scripture
comes from someone's own interpretation. And that's why I believe as elders
that we have to also, and as believers, that we have to guide
the body together to help teach each other the Bible. Because
sometimes we can see stuff by the mercy of God a little clearer
than someone else can see the same thing, and vice versa. And
if we're together, God has assembled the body as it is best suited
for us. by his power and then we come
and everything that we need together is right there for us. And the explanation of that,
well, you know, church history, that's why church history is
a hobby. That's why historical theology is a hobby. And I can
worship with the best of historians, especially poetic ones. You give
me a book of poems, Somebody writes, when they're opining,
there's a young man on Facebook that I just enjoy to read. There's
several brothers on Facebook that I enjoy reading their poetry
because I just get right down with it. I think, man, this is
good, and I can just absorb it and move right along. But that's
not being moved by the Spirit. It's being moved by another person's
commentary on what the Lord has shown them. And if I'm not careful,
I'll carry my joy on the poetry of the commentary of other men
without ever checking to see if it's truly from the Lord.
In verse 21, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will
of man. No man, no woman, no child, No dog, no cat, no mule
has ever sat down at the table and said, I think I'm gonna write
scripture. And bound it up, hand it to the
next guy. Would you add to this please? We're writing a Bible.
No, not happening. But yet one's own interpretation
and one's will come together to make a big fat mess. And I've
made a lot of big fat messes in my life with those two ingredients. It says, no prophecy was ever
produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God, who in
the holiness, in the holy ideas of all the different religions
of the world, has not claimed to be given the word from the
Lord, right? What holy book doesn't come from,
quote, God? All of them claim that. But there's
a difference in the scripture. The scripture, men speak from
God as they were carried along by God, the Spirit. And you know
what makes it evident? It's congruent. It never fails. It doesn't contradict. It doesn't bring us to a place
and go, you know, I could see how they made that work. Doesn't. It's impossible. Yet. Only by the grace of God, through
his power, would one come to believe by faith that the Bible
is truly the revelation of God, because only by that power can
one see it without a veil. You see, chapter two, what is
he talking about? He talks about those false prophets that came
up. All the things that have taken
place through history. All the false prophets of old.
And the false prophets of old were destroyed along with their
prophecies, but the word of the Lord has remained forever. How
many prophets were there in antiquity throughout history? of any fashion. We probably couldn't write their
names down if we had all the paper in the world. Because anyone
who's ever said, this is who God is, or this is what God says,
or this is a Jesus, or this is the way to life, or this is the
way to peace, or this is the way to hope, and it's not carried
along by the words of the prophets and the apostles, by the Holy
Spirit, has prophesied against the Lord. And beloved, we do
the same thing in our own hearts and minds from time to time when
we carry ourselves into these incredible thought processes
and these incredible ideas. And the greatest safety that
we could ever have is holding fast to the simple gospel, the
simple savior, and remember what he has done and encourage each
other in it as we study the word of God, then we are to be diligent
to put on these supplemental qualities, accessories to our
eternal life. Because one day, I think I closed
out with this last week, one day, as we are in the waiting
room of the doorway of eternity, as we practice every time we
are able, every moment of our lives, and as we gather, one
day we will enter the practice, we will enter the permanent gathering.
And we will be the assembly of the heavenly saints, if we can
put it that way. We'll be with our Savior forever. And these qualities that we strive
for today will truly be ours. The only way we have credit for
them now is because of Christ imputed to us. But one day, one
day, as we see him face to face, we shall be like him. And until
that day dawns, let's pay attention and let's love one another with
an everlasting love because that's what God has done to us. Let's pray. We thank you, Father,
for the beauty of the gospel. Lord, for the peace that comes,
for the rest that comes. Lord, there are some of our brothers
and sisters who are suffering deeply. Lord, you know who they
are and you know what they're going through better than they
do. Father calls us to pray for them, to encourage them in the
gospel. Lord, and if needed, give wisdom and counsel, but
Father, please help us to not think that our counsel is better
than Christ. For when we put our hearts and
our focus on that which is eternal, the things of the world can sort
of lose their power. And Lord, when we engage one
another in the same effort, considering how we might encourage each other
and love one another and teach one another and speak the truth
in love. Lord, we all grow as a holy people who have been set
apart before the foundations of the world in Christ Jesus,
whose blood satisfied your justice, your righteousness, your judgment,
your wrath and your anger against sin. And we are forgiven. And so we pray, Father, that
we could continue to proclaim and to grow and to understand
deeply the gospel. And that we would not stop short
of true gospel teaching, that we would stay with people and
be patient and be kind. And that we would encourage each
other as reminders of this great, amazing grace Because Father,
we all need the reminder. We all need the reminder of what
you've done for us in Christ. We all need the reminder of the
power of Christ. We all need the reminder of your
love in Christ. We need the reminder of your
word and its sufficiency, Lord, that your spirit empowers us
in the hearing of it to know and to rest today that which
we had nearly stopped looking at from yesterday. And so, Father,
help us to live this day. by your mercy, by faith, and
by the Spirit. In Christ's name we pray, amen.