Good evening, tonight's message
is called The Sure Word of Prophecy. Turn if you would in your Bibles
to 2 Peter chapter 1. We'll be reading verses 16 to
21. Now we will see here in verses
16 to 18, we'll see that Peter brings forth that he was an eyewitness
to the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ when he was with the Lord
on the Mount of Transfiguration. And let us always remember that
the gospel of the grace of God in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ alone is not a cunningly devised fable. It's not a fictitious
story that someone is telling with no truth behind it. No.
The gospel of salvation in and through Christ alone by the complete
sinatoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a fable. No, beloved,
it is the truth. So in 2 Peter chapter 1, let's
read verses 16 to 21. Remember that Peter is writing
to the saints that are scattered abroad. And he's writing this
to those who are the called out ones, the elect of God. And he
says, For we have not falled, cunningly devised fables, when
we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 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." Now note that the Father is well
pleased with Christ. because He is His Beloved Son,
He is the Word of God, He is God incarnate in the flesh. And
this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with Him
in the Holy Mount. So now we see Peter's giving
us a location of when this occurred. And he's saying, this isn't a
kind of devised fable, this isn't a story about what happened.
He's saying, I'm writing this as one of the eyewitnesses to
the Lord Jesus Christ, as one of the eyewitnesses of the Mount
of Transfiguration, of hearing the voice of God and saying,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And so if
God the Father is well pleased with Christ, then he's well pleased
with all who are in Christ, isn't he? Oh, praise be to God. What
a precious, precious truth. Peter goes on to pen, again by
inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. We have also a more sure
word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as
unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn,
and a day star arise 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 man,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So here we see that these men,
these chosen vessels of God, penned these words, but they
were moved by who? By the Holy Ghost. He is the
author of the Scriptures, the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is
the author of the Scriptures. Very clear, set forth very clear
there. Now, a lot of people in our day,
just like in the days of Peter, say that the Bible's a fable,
say that these stories are just a bunch of fables. Well, we see.
What does this show us? This shows us that what Solomon
said is true, that there's nothing new under the sun. See, man has
not changed. Man has not changed. Men still
hate God in their natural state. And we were there as believers.
We may not have outrightly said we hated God, but by our sinfulness
and our actions, we were shaking our fist at our great God. But
you know what? His love was being said upon
his people even then, even when we were dead in trespasses and
sins. So the gospel of salvation in and through Christ alone by
his perfect work is not a fable. No, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the good news of the gospel, that there's salvation
for sinners only in Christ is true. And the gospel is all about
He who is the way. There's only one way to heaven.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is all about He who
is the truth. Christ is the way and the truth.
And the gospel is all about He who is the life. So we see our
Lord is the way, the truth, and the life. He tells us in John
chapter 14 that no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. He's
God incarnate in the flesh. He's the Word of God, the second
person of the Trinity. And Christ received glory and
honor when the Father spoke from heaven and said, This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. God the Father said
that. Now Peter, James, and John were
eyewitnesses to this. And not only were they eyewitnesses
to the majesty of Christ, but they were earwitnesses to the
Father's words, which came from heaven. And they heard this when
they were with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. And
take note, in these verses, we have a three-fold witness of
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we know from the
Holy Scriptures in the Old Testament that the Word of God proclaims
in Deuteronomy 19.15 that 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 must be
established based upon the principle of these witnesses. Now take
note that Peter, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, brings
this truth forth in establishing that the truth they proclaim
is not a cunningly devised fable. It's not a story. But God Himself
gives witness to it. Notice in this text as we read
it again, that Peter will give us a three-fold witness of the
true gospel of God's grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why? Well, to prove to us that what
we believe is not some story. It's not a cunningly devised
fable. He's showing us the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ as fact and not fiction. And God's people
take God at his word, don't they? We believe what the scripture
says. Now, unbelievers, they don't
believe the word of God. They think it's of man's making.
They don't know who the true author of this book is. They
don't know who the true author of the holy scriptures are. Just
look at yourself before the Lord saved you. Did you think the
book was just written by men? I didn't really even understand.
I didn't even really know anything about the authorship except some
men wrote books. But now I know who the true author
is. God the Holy Spirit. Let's read verses 16 to 21 again
of 2 Peter chapter 1. We will see this threefold witness.
For we have not fallen cunningly devised fables when we made known
unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but
were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 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. 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, whereunto ye do well,
that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,
until the day dawn, and the day star arise 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 man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So we see then that the first
witness is the witness of the Apostle Peter, and he brings
forth that they were eyewitnesses of Christ's majesty. We see that
in verse 60. Then we have the witness of the
Father proclaimed in verse 17, where it says, 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. And in third, we see the witnesses
of the prophets. As Peter brings forth that we
also have a more sure word of prophecy. The prophets spoke
sure word of prophecy which the prophets spoke. Verse 21 proclaims
that the prophets spoke not of their own will. Look at this.
But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Now, beloved of God, we who are the born-again, blood-washed
saints of God, we've been born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
We've been taught by the Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness for all his people. And we believe
this. And the only reason we believe
this is because we've been enlightened by God, the Holy Spirit, to see
this truth. By God-given faith, we see the
glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are
now delivered from the power of darkness. And we believe what
the prophets of the Old Testament proclaimed. We believe now being
taught by God that the Holy Spirit is the author of all the scriptures. And we believe, again, having
been taught by the Holy Spirit of God, that the Old Testament
prophets wrote about Christ. And as we grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see that Christ fulfilled
all the Old Testament prophecies, and that the law and the prophets,
they testified of Him. So with that as our introduction
to this lesson for tonight, Let us look at our text again where
we see Peter declare, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Look at verse 19. 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. Now, Peter
wasn't speaking lightly of what happened to himself and to James
and John with the Lord Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. What he and the other two apostles
witnessed, could not have been anything but positive proof of
the Lord Jesus Christ being the promised Messiah, that He was
the Eternal Son of God, and they were privileged to experience
what occurred there. Listen to what Pastor Henry Mahan
comments on the words of our text. He says, We have a better
foundation and a more sure evidence of Christ in the gospel than
an eyewitness account of His glory. 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 Scripture. The Word of God is
the final test of every claim or creed. You do well to take
heed of the Scriptures and weigh every man's words accordingly."
So with that in mind, let us then carefully consider the words
of the Holy Scriptures that Brother Henry referred to, and let us
consider the importance of these holy inspired words, which proclaim
we have also a more sure word of prophecy. What does the scriptures
proclaim in the Old Testament? In Isaiah chapter 8 verse 20
it says to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not
according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them. Then Paul pens and 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 1 to 4. ye have believed in vain. For
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how 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. So the Scriptures, the Old Testament
Scriptures, they testify of Christ. What did the saints in Berea
do? Beloved, they searched the Scriptures. The Scriptures declared
they searched the Scriptures. The New Testament declares they
searched the Scriptures. But what was that? No, that was
the Old Testament they searched. And they searched it to see if
these things were so. They didn't just take the preacher's
word. No, they searched the Scriptures to see if it was so. And the
Scriptures, beloved, are our final authority. The inerrant
Word of God is our final authority. And as believers, men may say
what they want and how they feel, but we bow our knee to this.
Thus saith the Lord. Listen to the words of the Master
to the unbelieving Jews. He said to them in John 5.39,
So our Lord clearly there proclaims His deity, proclaims that the
Scriptures teach about Him, proclaims that He is the Messiah. Now these
Jews were very, very religious and They were very devout, and they
thought they had eternal life based upon their works, and who
they were, their standing in society, and their standing in
religion. But all they were doing, beloved,
was basing their salvation on their own self-righteousness.
They weren't basing their salvation on Christ. not the Christ of
God, that is found on every page of the Holy Scriptures. And remember
that our Lord was right before them when he said, Search the
Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they
are they which testify of me. Beloved, their doctrine was not
according to God's Word. No, they were teaching doctrine
and commandments of man. Why? Because there was no light
in them. Now again, there's nothing new under the sun. Mankind has
not changed in 6,000 years. There's nothing new under the
sun. It's the same way even today. The majority of professing Christians
in our generation claim to believe the scriptures and some of them
spend a lot of time in the word of God. But they are like the
unbelieving Jews. Their thoughts of eternal life
are based upon what they have done and what they do, not based
upon what Christ has done. They don't believe that Christ
died for a particular people. They don't believe that he laid
down his life for his sheep. No, they proclaim that, oh, Christ
died for everybody. No, he didn't. He died for his
people. His scriptures declare he came to save his people from
their sins. And they're like the unbelieving Jews. Again,
their thoughts of eternal life are based upon what they've done
and not based upon what Christ has done. They don't believe
that our Savior, through the offering of himself, sanctified
and perfected forever those he died for, Hebrews chapter 10,
verses 9 to 14. No. They don't believe that Jesus
Christ by himself purged our sins, Hebrews 1.3. They don't
believe that Jesus Christ was delivered for our offenses and
he was raised again for our justification. They don't believe that our blessed
Redeemer by his own blood entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. They don't believe that
Jesus Christ not only has risen from the grave, but that he is
seated on the throne in grace. and that we'd be made to sit
in heavenly places in Christ? No. There's multitudes of religious
people who don't believe those things. 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. They don't believe that God the
Father has given Jesus Christ the power over all flesh, and
that he should give eternal life to his sheep, to those who were
given to him by God the Father, even though this is plainly brought
forth in John chapter 10, verses 27 and 28, and John chapter 17,
verses one to three. If they don't believe these things,
well, then they don't believe the Scriptures, do they? They
don't speak according to the word of God. Why? Well, because
there's no light in them. They think they have eternal
life and yet they are just like these unbelieving Jews. God's
born again blood-washed children. Don't think we have eternal life
based upon anything that we do. No. We proclaim that God has
been pleased to reveal his gospel truths to us. Why? Well, because
we have a more sure word of prophecy. And there are some things that
we know for sure. There's some things that every
believer knows. And the only reason we know these
things is because God has revealed them to us. The only thing that
made me to differ from anyone else In my family who does not
love Christ, in my friends, is God. If God hadn't saved me,
I'd still be doing the same things I did back then. I'd still be
loving the things that now I hate and hating the things that now
I love. And it's so for you if you're a believer too. Don't
ever forget the rock you were hewn from. Don't ever forget
the pit that you were in and that God pulled you from. Don't
ever, ever forget that. The great mercy and the great
grace that God showed you in Christ. Now, here's some things
we know. 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 His Son, Jesus Christ. This
is the true God in eternal life. 1 John 5, verse 20. We also know in 1 John 3, 14,
we know this. It says, we know we pass from
death into life because we love the brethren. from death unto
life, from being dead in trespasses and sins to being alive in Christ,
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And we can say with the
Apostle Paul, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that
he is able. You see, I'm not able. I'm not
able to keep myself from falling, but I believe like Paul wrote,
and I'm 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 all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. Now we don't
ever understand every situation that comes up in our lives. And
there's some things that come in our lives that we just scratch
our heads. But beloved, the scripture declares that those things are
happening for our good and for the glory of God. For them who
are what? The called according to His purpose. See, God has a purpose. He's
purposed to save the people from eternity. He chose them in Christ. He's loved them. from eternity,
and they're called according to His purpose. If you're saved,
if you're born again by the Holy Spirit of God, if God saved you,
marvel at this. He called you according to His
purpose. Isn't that incredible? It's absolutely amazing, isn't
it? We know our sinfulness, we know our past, we know how much
of sinners we are now. but that God has called us according
to His purpose. Hallelujah. He didn't leave us
where we were, beloved. Praise be to God. Let's continue
reading in 2 Peter 1, verse 19. We have also a more sure word
of prophecy, whereunto 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. Now note our text says,
Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that
shineth in a dark place. Here before us is an illustration
given to God's people how we should lay the truths of Christ
and the Holy Scriptures to our hearts. During the night hours,
our homes are a dark place when all the lights are turned off,
but for safety and comfort and enjoyment, we keep the lights
burning before we go to bed. Now, when we were lost in debt
and trespasses and sins, we had no assurance of safety as we
were living and loving the darkness. We were living and loving the
darkness that we were in. We had no comfort, no joy, no
saving light from Christ, who is the light of life. Listen
to our Master's words in John 8, verse 12. I am the light of
the world. He that follows me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8, verse
12. The scriptures are called a lamp
unto our feet. In Psalm 119, verse 105, it says,
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Beloved,
Christ is the Word of God. It is He who guides our feet
as we walk on His ordained path for us in this world. We were
sometimes darkness, but now are we light in the Lord. And we
are to walk as children of the light, Ephesians 5, verse 8.
The Holy Scriptures will enlighten us as to how we're to walk before
God and how we're to walk before the people of this world. And
the reason why we are to walk is children of light. Our text
says you do well if you take heed. These words are a warning
from God to us. We cannot possibly think that
we're doing well if we neglect to study the Holy Scriptures.
And we who are the people of God desire to grow in the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We desire to grow in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And the prophecy concerning
Christ's second coming is as a light, it is a revelation of
that which was in the dark. This truth lay hid as a secret
and a mystery in the heart of God, and it could not be known
by man had it not been foretold by God. The scriptures proclaim
that Christ will come again, that he will come in great glory
and in power to raise the dead and then to judge all of mankind,
everyone who's ever lived upon this earth will stand before
the Lord and the Lord will divide his sheep from the goats. And
then he will judge the wicked and they shall be cast into hell,
where there be an everlasting torment forever. And then God's
people, they get to go into glory, where there be everlasting joy,
rejoicing over the one who washed us with his precious, precious
blood, who redeemed our eternal souls. And we're just going to
give him glory and honor and praise forever. And how do we
know this is true? Because God said it's so. Christ,
who is the light of his people, shall come, and he shall be the
light of his people. And then will fall the everlasting
day of glory, when all darkness will be gone, and the saints
whom he has redeemed shall see him face to face. With that in
our minds, let's read our text again, 2 Peter 1, verse 19, which
declares we have also a more short word of prophecy, where
until 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. Now notice that, until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Now the day dawn
here speaks of the last day. It has reference to the dawning
of that 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 is the manner of some is,
but exhorting one another, so much the more, as you see the
day approaching. The day star is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we read these words in Revelation
22, 16. We're close here, where our Lord
said, I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning
star. Praise be to God for the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen and amen.