Exercising True Faith: Its Authoritative Foundation - 2 Peter 1:16-21

1:07And the crown of thorns testifies to a historical reality. The day when the Son of God stepped on to the human scene, saw your sin, understood that the wrath of God was going to be poured out on you, and that there is no way. That you would ever stand through that. And the Son of God stepped onto the scene and said, I will stand between the wrath of my Almighty Father and you and me. This has historical reality.

1:56Peter is going to talk about much about faith and its historical foundation. It's based not in fables or cleverly designed myths, but in reality. Faith has a sure foundation. And that's what we've been looking at in this first chapter of Peter. We've looked first of all at faith and its divine nature in verses 1 through 5. We've looked at faith and its spiritual effects of verses 6 through 15. And today we look at faith, its authoritative foundation. And we'll be looking at verses 16 through 21. So let me read them to you. For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. But know this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

3:54I want to walk you through this passage, and we'll come to Peter's message, main message here in just a moment. But I want to walk through and look at, first of all, Peter's and the apostles, for that matter, the message that they routinely shared when they were with the churches. What was the message? What was the main part of the apostolic message? Look at verse 16. For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known. To you, the power and coming of our Lord Jesus. The main verb is right there: when we made known to you, or we made known Peter's purpose for being among the churches, we here, he's referring to also the other apostles. The purpose for them being among the churches was to disclose something, to make known to them the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4:56To reveal, that was the purpose. We want to make known. Do you remember back in Luke chapter 2 and the Christmas story? And the angels came to the shepherds and they said, Look, do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy. For today, in the city of David, there has been born to you a Savior, Christ the Lord, and this is going to be the sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And so then the angels leave, and the shepherds say, Let us go straight to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has revealed or made known to us. So there were shepherds sent by God for the purpose of making known Christ's birth to the shepherds. Well, the same language is used to describe the apostles. They went out to make known the great power and coming of Christ.

6:00That was their message to disclose, to make known. You wouldn't know about it unless they told us. And just like the angels, just like the shepherds wouldn't have known about Christ's birth unless the angels had told them, so we would not know about the powerful coming of Christ unless the apostles had made it known. And the word, look what they made known: the power and coming. Power speaks of the mighty strength or the overwhelming force of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the coming speaks of his personal presence, his personal appearance. And whenever this word is used, parousia, it always speaks of his return.

6:52So power and coming. The apostolic message was one about the future power and coming, or the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, I'm sure that Peter and the other apostles spoke much about the authority of Christ and his first advent. They watched him calm the sea, they watched him walk on the water, they watched him create matter out of nothing. They were very aware of his resurrection, his ascension. They knew all of that. But their message was not so much what historically had Christ had done, but that these historical realities of his first advent point to his second advent, and he will come in power and glory. His powerful coming.

7:49Jesus speaks about this in Matthew 25:31. He says, When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. It's throughout the New Testament. 2 Thessalonians 1:7 says, The Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in a flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes to be glorified on the saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who believe. Powerful future coming of Christ. And this was a major theme of Peter, right? In 1 Peter 1:6. You don't have to turn there, but it's laced throughout there. 1:6, he says, In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials. You remember the first Peter was dealing with this church. And these churches that had been beat up pretty hard for their faith, and they were suffering greatly because of the name of Christ. And so they were distressed by various trials. And he says, Look, rejoice, because your proof of your faith is more precious than gold, which is perishable. But your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. In other words, he says, Put your suffering in light of eternity. And then again, in chapter 1 and verse 13 of 1 Peter, he again says this: Prepare your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Again, Peter is very much has his mind focused in these two books about the future powerful coming of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 4:13, he says this, but to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing. So also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation. 1 Peter 5:4, he speaks of exhorting the elders, and he's saying, When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Very much a theme, the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's like the main thing because there's a future day. When you will meet and you will see the power and the glory of the resurrected Christ in all of his strength and all of his beauty and all of his glory and all of the honor that the Father gives him.

10:48In fact, in 2 Peter, you look back at verse 11. What's the very last thing he says there in verse 11? For this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. And there's an issue going on in 2 Peter with false teachers. False teachers. If you flip over to 3.3, he speaks about these last days, this period from Christ's ascension to the end. That in these last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning. In other words, there's going to be these false teachers in the church, in society, that's mocking, where is his coming? You guys have been talking about this a long time now. He's 2,000 years. He's not here yet. Where is he?

11:54And even I think some of the false teachers that Peter is dealing with right here, they're calling. Into question this final day of judgment. And that's one of the first things that false teachers, false religious systems, false philosophies of men want to get rid of. A day when God steps back onto the scene in power and in glory, and he sets up his son as the governor, the ruler, and he will judge and he will enlighten the world with his glory and his presence.

12:37Going on in verse chapter 3 and verse 10, Peter says, This, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief, which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed this way, what sort of people ought you be in holy conduct and godliness, looking forward and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements melt with intense heat. But according to his promise, we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found in him in peace, spotless and blameless. So the apostle Peter and the other apostles, they were all about the second coming of. Christ and the implications of his coming. See, the primary message is that Jesus, the one who walked among us, is more than a teacher, more than a carpenter. He is King of kings, Lord of Lords, and one day you are going to see that with your own eyes and experience it with your own being. So be ready for that. This was their message, and this is our message. The resurrection wasn't just some spiritual resurrection. No, there's reality.

14:12And it has a future implication for your reality. His reality has a future and bears on your reality. So Peter's message was when we made known to you the power and coming. That's what they did. Next, I want you to see Peter's testimony. Peter's testimony. Look in verse 16. For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. In other words, when we were witnessing to you about this powerful glory of Christ, we weren't just making this up. We weren't following some sophisticated, cleverly devised, homespun yarns.

15:09The idea is the expression is used to speak about that which is deceitful or hidden or sophisticatedly concocted, that idea. We didn't follow cleverly devised tales, which is the word we get myths from in English. And these would refer, you think about the Greco-Roman culture, which were all about myths, where they did not follow religions that came from divine revelation, but they made up their religions. They came up with these fascinating tales. They wanted a God of war, so they created a God of war that they could worship. They wanted an erotic God, so they created Eros so that they could worship her. And they came up with all these tales, all these craftily or cleverly devised tales that founded the bedrock for their way of life.

16:26But the idea is that there is no solid foundation. In a tale. It's not a matter of history. They are fictitious stories told by skilled storytellers. Paul makes it very clear: we are to have nothing to do with these. Faith is not built upon clever stories, but on solid facts of history. That is what Peter is saying. We didn't just make this up. When we talk to you about the future coming and power of our Lord Jesus Christ, we didn't just suck this out of our thumb.

17:05It's reality. Today, there are all kinds of cleverly devised tales, which are nothing more than the mere opinions of man defended by weak and sophisticated reasoning, the way of the false teacher. But Peter's message was not based on cleverly devised tales, but upon reliable sources. Reliable sources. First, Peter gives his eyewitness account of the events that took place on the Mount of Transfiguration. Look at verse 17. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven. When we were with him on the holy mountain, there's only two occasions in the scripture where such an utterance was made. There was at Peter's, or at the baptism, John the Baptist's baptism, and the Transfiguration, the Mount.

18:17It's debatable whether Peter was even there at the baptism, and second, it did not take place on a mountain. So, very clearly, Peter is referring to this experience that he had on the mountain, on the Mount Transfiguration. You can read about it in Mark 9, Luke 9, Matthew 17. Let me just turn to Matthew 17 and just read it to you. You can turn there. It's your choice or not. But I want to give you a context of what's taken place for this event. You remember, Jesus asked, Who do men say that I am?

18:55Peter makes that wonderful statement: You are the Christ. Jesus says, Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And then right afterwards, what happens? Jesus goes and says, Oh, by the way, the Christ, you're right, I am the Christ, and I'm going to go up to Jerusalem. I'm going to suffer, and I'm going to die. And Peter basically says, No way, that's never going to happen to you. And Jesus says, Get behind me, Satan. So, wow, so here's Peter up way up high, brought up. Real low. And then Jesus says to them, verse 27, speaking about whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. And he says this in verse 27: For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with the angels, and then repay every man according to his deed. I am the Christ. I am going to go to the cross. But know this, Peter and everyone else around here, that I am going to come in power and glory. And then the transfiguration happens. He says, There are some who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. So let me just read this to you. Verse 17, or chapter 17, verse 1. Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him. Peter said, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will make you three tabernacles, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. Him. When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, Get up and do not be afraid. And lifting their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus alone. So he, this account is on his mind. We were there on the mountain. We saw his glory. We saw his face change. We saw this peasant from Galilee put on an eternal robe of glory and it shattered our world.

21:37Now, we have a lot of name-dropping stories we can tell, right? That's one thing I like about being in College Station is we get a lot of little local celebrities. I just happen to now have met Kevin Sunlin, the coach for the Aggie football team, because my son and his son are on the same baseball team. I've met him. Yes. I mean, come back from practice. Oh, yeah, by the way, I talked to Kevin Sunlin today. You know, we're buddies now. Kind of, you know? Said, hi, you know. Or I can remember going to Silver Taps one night when the Aggies remember the fallen.

22:22And I looked back to my left and just a few rows back, and there was Barbara. Bush. And her husband was with her. With him. Yeah, with her. George Bush, Bertha, right there. So that was the memory. That's sort of like, you know, we all have these stories. We like to name-drop, don't we? We're really name-dropping type people. We like to think highly of ourselves because we know somebody pretty sophisticated. And so we spend a lot of our time going around telling about those great events we had and who we know, right?

23:03Well, Peter's got a story that trumps them all. He was there on the mountain. He saw God's person. He saw God's Christ glorified. What was his reaction? Felt like a dead man. But what's interesting about this is that he seems to be more interested in what he heard on the mountain than what he saw. Because in verses 17 and 18, he really spends more time speaking about his utterance, this utterance. But notice what they see. Look at verse 17.

23:51He received honor and glory from God the Father. That's what they witnessed. Received glory and honor. That glory would be what he saw, that radiant splendor. The honor was that utterance. This is my son. Back in the Greek, it's like this. This is my son. I love him. I am very, very, very pleased with him. Listen to him. That's the idea. It's interesting to note why, of all the questions, of all the events in Christ's life that Peter had witnessed, why did he refer to the transfiguration as proof of Christ's powerful second coming? I mean, he witnessed the resurrection, he witnessed the ascension, he saw all kinds of things. Why did he then, when he's talking about the powerful coming, why did his mind go here?

24:55And the answer is because the transfiguration was a preview of Christ's honor and glory that all are going to see at his second coming. Yes, thou art the Christ. But you're not going to be crucified. Oh, yes, I am. And know this, I am indeed the Christ. Look at my glory. Hear the honor given to me by the Creator of the universe. You see, there's no question in Peter's mind that Jesus is the Lord. The prophet that Moses spoke of.

25:33And it's important to understand that Peter responded much in the same way that the Israelites in Exodus 20 did when they saw God on the mount on Mount Sinai. What did they do? Moses, speak to us yourself. If we hear him again, we're going to die. And so God instituted the prophets so that we would hear the words of God in veil, in a veiled form, because we cannot stand before him face to face in our fallen state and not be terrified out of our wits.

26:18But then Peter makes this incredible statement. Look in verse 19. Incredible statement. So we have the prophetic word made more sure. In other words, he's saying, Look, you have my eyewitness account. I didn't follow clever tales, cleverly devised tales or myths. You have my personal eyewitness testimony. But then he says this: but we have the prophetic word and we have the prophetic word made more sure. Literally, Greek, we are having. Having absolutely certain the prophetic word. There is a degree here that he is comparisoning, something that is trumping even Peter's experience, and that is the prophetic written word. And we are having it. It's present tense.

27:18The word for absolutely certain there is the same that he uses in verse 10. He says, Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing of you. In other words, practice this chorus of virtues here that he's laid out. Make sure that you're in the faith by practicing them. Because if you're growing in these, it's a sure indication that what you have is true Christianity and not something concocted by the false teachers.

27:55Be absolutely certain. So Peter is saying that we, that is, he and us, have something in our possession that is more certain, more secure, more reliable than Peter's eyewitness testimony. Listen, Peter passed off the scene. The only reason why we still have his witness is because it was inscripturated. And so what Peter is saying to this body is: start paying attention to the scriptures. Pay attention to them because you're not going to have apostolic first-hand accounts. And you're going to be a people that have to pay attention to the scripture.

28:37What can be more sure than Peter's eyewitness account? Well, Peter's answer is the scripture. The scripture, Old Testament and New Testament. Certainly, the Old Testament speaks of the powerful coming of Christ, and it's attested throughout. But Peter is also aware that he is writing scripture at this moment. And he's also, look over in chapter 3, in verse 15, he makes this statement: and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which some things are hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do the rest of Scripture.

29:28Peter puts Paul's writings on par with Old Testament prophets. Scripture, scripture is what he is saying, is even more certain, more reliable. It's going to endure with the age of the church. And so that is more reliable than eyewitness accounts. Look at verse 19, and we come to Peter's main message and my sermon. By the way, so we have the prophetic word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention. This is what Peter is about: you do well to pay attention to this prophetic word.

30:15Present tense. You are doing well by paying attention, by paying attention to the prophetic word. The idea is a well here. You do well. Would you like to do well in paying attention? It's very important that you go through life doing well, paying to attention the things that you need to pay attention to. It's like a building that's being built up. It's very important to get that foundation right. Pay attention to the details of what has to go into a foundation. Luke 6:46, Jesus says this: Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not what I say? And do not do what I say. Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock. And when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and it could not stand because it had been because, or I'm sorry, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. It was built well. So, when judgment came against the house, it stood. But in 49, verse 49, but the one who has heard and not acted accordingly is like a man who built his house on the ground without any foundation, and the torrent burst against it, and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great. You see, if we're going to build our lives upon a truth that will not fail us, we're going to have to pay attention to God's truth rather than cleverly devised tales of man, no matter how sophisticated they are. And we are going to have to be a people who can discern between the shallow, hollow philosophies of men and the truths of God. And that's what Peter is communicating. If you're going to withstand not only the persecution of the day, but also the myriad of false systems that will come against you, you will need to be able to discern between truth and error. And this is the main message in this verse, or in this chapter, or in this section. We are to be paying attention to God's Word. The question is, how do we do that? Well, Peter tells us.

32:47And he gives us three guidelines. And I wanted to give you these three guidelines so that you will act appropriately. Three guidelines that will motivate you to. Pay attention to God's word so that you will act upon it appropriately. So that was my introduction. Don't worry. The house isn't as big as the porch. So, number one, three guidelines to motivate you to pay attention to God's Word. Verse 19. First of all, you need to understand the purpose of Scripture. Understand the purpose of Scripture. Verse 19, so we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place. See that word as? There's a conjunction there that's making a comparison. The prophetic word that you need to pay attention to is like a lamp shining in the dark place.

33:54Dark place speaks of that which is, well, dark. Can't see. Murky. All you can see is shadows, or if even that, you can't see clearly. And it refers to the blackness of the fallen world, the darkness, the spiritual lostness, the spiritual darkness. And this is what nations are in. Spiritual darkness. You know, if the lights are turned off, you can't. See, right? You need lamp, light. In fact, it was this very kind of language in Matthew chapter 4. You remember after John was taken into custody that Jesus withdrew to Galilee. And then it is, he left Nazareth and he came and he preached. And in verse 16 of Matthew 4, it says, This the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death upon them, a light dawned. And this is Jesus began teaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven. It was his words that brought light to the regions, brought them out of that spiritual darkness, that spiritual stupor or funk.

35:16Many of you today are in a spiritual funk. You need the light of truth. You need a lamp to make sense. See, when you look at a lamp, what do you do? What's the purpose of a lamp or a light? Do I just stare at it, right? What's the purpose of this? No, it already hurt my eyes. Do you even just looking at that one, right? You don't look at it, you don't get a lamp and just look at it, right? No, you hold it so it reveals what's in the room, so you can make sense out of your surroundings. It illuminates your world. That's what a lamp does, and that's what the Bible does. That's what Scripture does. It illumines our existence.

36:02Listen, we know so much about this world that you cannot know unless you have the scriptures. Many, many multitudes have no idea where the earth came from. We know where it came from, we know who it came from, we know what's going to happen at the end, we know who is going to be coronated as king. We understand why there's sin in the world, we understand what the remedy for sin is. We understand this because we have light.

36:43It makes sense. We understand the nature of sin. We understand God's remedy. We understand the forgiveness that comes. We understand all this. We understand what heaven is. We understand how to get there because God has given us light and we can make sense out of our world without it. You're in a spiritual funk. Darkness, lostness. Can't make sense out of some of the basic things in life. So, the first guideline that will motivate you to pay attention to understand the purpose of Scripture. Well, the first guideline is to understand the purpose of scripture. The second guideline that will motivate you to pay attention to God's Word, I hope, is that you understand the sufficiency of Scripture. Understand the sufficiency of Scripture. Pay attention to Scripture until two events take place. Look back grammatically.

37:46What's being said here? So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until, there's another conjunction, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your heart. It's a temporal conjunction. Two events. First, pay attention to the scripture until the day dawns. You see that? Night will give way to the dawn. Spiritual darkness will give way to spiritual light. What is Peter referring to here? What is that day? Well, the day is that majestic return of Christ for all the nations to see.

38:42There won't be any spiritual darkness. They will understand his man. They will understand the light of his glory. They will understand his righteousness. They will understand who his enemies are. They will understand who his friends are. Jesus Himself speaks about this in Matthew 24 and verse 30. He says, Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with great power and great glory. And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of the sky to the other. Jesus Himself in Revelation 1, verse 7 says, This, Behold, He is coming with the cloud.

39:30And every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. So when day comes, lamps are no longer needed. And when that day dawns, the temporary earthly night of sin is going to be over. Sin is temporary. Spiritual darkness is temporary. And it will give way to Christ's glorious and radiant kingdom.

40:19But there's a second event here. So pay attention until the day dawns. And look back, verse the second half of 19. And the morning star arises in your hearts. The word Morning star, phosphorus. Probably heard that term, meaning light bringer. It's the only time it's used here in the New Testament, and in ancient times, it was used to refer to Venus as the star that accompanies the dawn, the light bringer. Throughout Scripture, Christ is referred to as a star in Numbers, and Balaam's prophecy, and Revelation 22:16. Jesus says, I have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star, the morning star, the bringer of light, the light bringer. But notice, he arises in your hearts. Interesting.

41:19You see, the results of Christ's actual coming are going to be open. They're going to be objective. They're going to be visible. Everyone's going to see them. But it's not only that. It will also bring an inner transformation in his people. He will return. His coming will bring light. It will bring joy. It will bring a transformation that will enable his people to dwell with him in his glory. We're going to have to be reconstituted so that we won't run for fear when we hear and see him in all his glory and we end up flat on our face. Please, somebody else speak to me.

42:04John said it like this, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as to yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is. So a change is necessary. Paul writes much about this in 1 Corinthians 15. He says in verse 51, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

42:48As he's already said in chapter 13, he says, For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known. So what's going to happen? We have to be reconstituted. A change within our hearts, in our being, so that we can behold him. He's not going to live in a state of humility forever. He's going to glorify himself. He will be glorified, and we will see him as he is, and we'll be able to take it in because the morning star, the light bringer, has trouble. Transformed our hearts, our entire being.

43:36See, at some point, the light of the prophetic word is going to be overwhelmed by the light of the living word. The day of Christ's return will dawn. The light bringer will illumine our heart, and the lamp of Scripture will no longer be needed. John MacArthur said it like this: At his second coming, Christ will replace the perfect temporal revelation of Scripture with the perfect eternal revelation of his person. He will fulfill the written word and write it forever on the hearts of the glorified saints. Until such time, as Peter says, you do well to pay attention to this scripture. It's all we have, but it's all you need. It doesn't write about every mystery of the universe, and I'm thankful. I'm thankful that we can handle it. I'm thankful that we don't have commentary on commentary, and we've got volumes that you can never get through. He gives us a sufficient revelation that if you will pay attention to it as a lamp, until that day, it will not fail in one word, it will not fail you, and it will give you all the information that you need for life and godliness.

45:04The Scripture is sufficient. And until our glorification, we are not ready to speak face to face with the glorified Christ. We hear him through the words of those prophets that he spoke through, that he appointed to speak to us, so that we do not have to say, speak to us, or else we die. He has given us something we can read. So, first guideline to motivate you to pay attention to God's Word is to understand the purpose of Scripture, understand the sufficiency of Scripture, and third, understand the origin of Scripture.

45:49Pay attention to Scripture knowing its origin. But know this, first of all, literally, it's a verb, but knowing this of first importance, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. Epilupsis, Greek word, means to set something free, a loosening, letting something fly. I remember I had a little paralyzed. Parakeet when I was little, and I wasn't supposed to open up the, when I was outside, I was not allowed to open up the gate to the birdcage, because guess what? He would let loose and go. Well, that happened one day, and I saw my parakeet, and he never was, he was happier than I'd ever seen him before, but he never came back. That's the idea: letting something free, letting it go, letting it fly.

47:00In Genesis, it's used by the cupbearer and the baker. If you remember, they were Pharaoh's officials, and they were all downcast, and Joseph's imprisoned with them. And he said to Joseph, We had a dream, and there is no one to interpret it. So we're all upset because no one to let loose this. We had the string, but we don't understand its meaning. We need someone to let this meaning loose. So it's become synonymous many times as explanation, an explanation. But that's really not what Peter's doing here.

47:37Is Peter dealing with the explanation of Scripture or the origin, interpretive issue? And the answer, he's dealing with the origin. Is Peter's statement to be understood from the reader's perspective or from the writer's perspective? One translation says it like this: First of all, understand this: no prophecy of Scripture is to be interpreted by an individual on. On his own. The idea, the reader is in view, that no one can read and interpret Scripture on his own. You need an authoritative interpreter. That's the idea.

48:17Is that what Peter is saying here? It's hard to believe that that's what he's going in light of what he's telling. It's a lamp. Read it, study it, you know, be in this, it will illumine. And then he goes on to say in the next very next verse, he's dealing with the origin of Scripture, very clear in verse 19 or 20. But know first of all that no prophecy of scripture is one matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of the human will, ever made, ever produced, no prophecy of scripture was ever let fly out of someone's own imagination.

48:58But the idea is, do we need the, if you're in a Western kind of tradition, do we need the magisterium and their authoritative interpretation or an Eastern authoritative interpretation? Or in some Protestants, is the authority in the interpretation or is it in the meaning of the text? We have a whole cult called the Jehovah's Witnesses that have built a watchtower, literally not to keep people out so much, but to keep people in. And they have set themselves up as the Authoritative interpreters. Is that what Peter's communicating here? Well, there's a couple problems with this. Number one is that the authority is in the meaning of the scripture, not in the interpreter.

49:46I can illustrate it like this. I know why Bugs Bunny was outlawed. It wasn't because he was so violent, but he was so distorting the law of gravity that young kids were getting hurt. I can remember watching one of these porky pig things, you know, and what happens? He falls out of a plane or something, and his overalls turn upside down, and he just kind of floats to the ground. Well, I figured if I got a trash bag and jumped off my house that was two stories high, that I would simply just float to the ground. I saw the Bugs Bunny rodent, I saw them all do it, right?

50:28Well, I looked at the second, went to the second floor, and kind of thought, you know, it's a little bit too high. I better make sure this thing works. Went down a little lower and jumped, and guess what? It didn't even open up. I didn't float to the ground. I was subject to the law of gravity regardless of how I interpret it. And that's the same is true about spiritual law. The authority is in the meaning, whether I've got it, whether I understand it correctly or not.

51:01But there's a second problem in this. Such a view is out of step with Peter's whole flow of thought. He's saying, pay attention, the light illumines. He elaborates in verse 21, no prophecy is ever made, didn't come about. He's speaking about origin. Peter is speaking about and concerned with the origin of Scripture. Understand the origin of Scripture. Verse 21 makes this clear: for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. The explanation of Scripture, it's not about the explanation, it's about the origin. Man didn't come up with all these prophecies. We didn't have somebody sitting back there, you know what? Let's go through Abraham. We need a prophecy about Abraham. That's it. We need somebody, and through his seed, we need all the nations to be blessed. That didn't come out of the mind of man. Or maybe we need to have someone crucified. That's it. We need to have him pay for the... That's it. No, that didn't originate in man's mind. That came out of the mind of God. So he tells us the origin of Scripture. Look at verse 21. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of the human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. There was never a prophecy, and make sure you understand this. There was never a prophecy of Scripture that came about as an act of men. No prophecy was ever produced. By the will of man, but came from God. Men were carried along, being moved by the Spirit or the wind of God, the Holy Spirit. In Acts 27, we have this picture of Paul, right? And they were on the ship and they had put up the sails and they began to be driven along. And then a strong storm came and drove the ship in a different direction. That's the idea. Men were driven, were carried along. They spoke from God. So, what is written in that text came from God, the words themselves.

53:15So, three guidelines: understand the purpose of Scripture, understand the sufficiency of scripture, and understand the origin of scripture. You see, as we celebrate Christ's resurrection, understand this is not based on some myth, but something that God ordained, a fact in history that has huge implications and bearing upon your life. I'm going to close with one short story. If you come to my house, there's this, you'll notice that we've got a lot of gas cans, a whole lot of gas cans. The Baber property, a whole bunch of red five-gallon gas cans. And the question is: where did you get all those? Why? Well, there's a story behind those gas cans. And it's a story about how dad, me, was not paying attention one day while at the gas pump. We had our family vehicle there, and it's an excursion and it takes diesel fuel. Okay, well, they have the green hose and they have the black hose. Well, I reached over there and grabbed the black hose, which had unleaded or just had regular gas in it, regular unleaded gas. And so, guess what happened? I filled it up completely. The tank was empty, and it filled it up, and then it didn't go anywhere. Just kind of died. So, we had to get the thing towed, had to get it brought over, had to take it, and then all that gas had to be thrown away, and it was hazardous material, so very expensive to get rid of it. And I said, Well, you know, is it cheaper for me to go buy some gas cans and just fill all these cans? And the mechanic said, Yes, a lot cheaper. So, instead of paying the hazardous material, I went and got it, and I used up all the gas and something else.

55:13Point of it is that Peter is telling us to pay attention to the right source of truth. If you put the wrong truth or you put the wrong source of information into your gas tank, you're not going to go anywhere. Clever fables, man-made religion. Philosophy does not produce biblical faith. Faith has an authoritative foundation, and it is God's Word. It speaks of Christ's literal historical resurrection, and it speaks of his second coming with a power and a glory that will melt the hearts of his enemy and overjoy his people.

55:58Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the testimony, the sure testimony of Scripture. Father, that as we celebrate and remember the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Father, that they are not myths made up by man, but realities. And Father, we thank you that you've given us a sure foundation. Father, help us to walk in your ways and to be like that wise builder who will listen, pay attention. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.