Is It True? How Can I Know?

Peter writes to his audience and says, you have in such a dark world, you have a light. You have like a flashlight.

Yes, you're shaken, but you're not shaken like people who don't understand this stuff. We know what the Bible predicts is coming. We have a dependable light in a dark world and it's scripture. Psalm 119, 105, David says, your word is a lamp to my feet and it's a light to my path.

You need to live for him. How much time do you spend studying it? Today on Connect with Skip Hi-Tech, Skip looks to the scriptures to affirm your beliefs and give you confidence in your faith. But before we begin, here's a resource that encourages you to live with bold faith as you explore the inspiring stories of women in the Bible. What comes to mind when you think of great godly women? Probably Jesus' mother Mary. Maybe Ruth, the unlikely ancestor of Christ.

But what about you? Here's New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas. Clearly, if God created us male and female in his image, it's leaning into who we are as women, if we're women, that is going to show God's greatness. Discover how the lives of some of the greatest women in history can show you the path to true greatness in your own life as a woman made in God's image. That's what you'll find in this month's inspiring resource by Eric Metaxas.

In every one of the seven women, I think you see a different side of femininity. Seven Women is our thank you for your gift of $35 or more today to help connect more people to God's Word. And right now, we'll also send you a special bonus resource, Pastor Skip's six-message CD collection on prominent women from Scripture.

Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely or call 800-922-1888. Okay, we're in 2 Peter Chapter 1 today as we get into the teaching with Skip Hi-Tech. I have heard and read hundreds and hundreds of testimonies of Muslims in restricted Islamic countries who've had Jesus appear to them in a dream and they were converted because of it. One who was an Iranian radical Muslim became disillusioned with Islam. And as he was disillusioned in the peak of that disillusionment, Jesus appeared to him in a dream. And eventually he gave his life to Christ. Another by the name of Ahmed, instead of having a beautiful vision of Jesus, kept having recurrent nightmares of judgment. This so shook him that he found an Arabic Bible and read it in secret. Why in secret?

Because they would kill him had they found it. And so he read about Jesus and what he said and the miracles that he performed and he was so impressed and drawn to Jesus that he gave his life to Christ. So Peter said, I was an eyewitness, I saw this miraculous transfiguration happen before my eyes.

Personal experience. It's what I saw. But notice he also says, this is what I heard. Verse 17, for he, Jesus, received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the heavenly glory. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Now you know God the Father said that twice in Jesus' ministry, right?

Once at the baptism and once here at the transfiguration. And we heard, notice this, we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. So now we understand that the vision that he saw was accompanied by a soundtrack. He heard a voice. God spoke. Now this is written in the emphatic and it could better be translated, we ourselves heard this voice and others did not. Now somebody will read or hear this and go, oh, hearing voices are we Peter?

First of all you saw some crazy things, now you're hearing some crazy things. And Peter would say, oh no, not just me, but me and James and John. All three of us together saw the same thing and heard the same thing at the same time. And, by the way, Jesus was there. Oh, and also let's count Moses and Elijah. There's a whole group. And the more you have who see and hear the same thing, the chances of fabrication are greatly diminished.

And why is this important? Because people who are unknowing will accuse New Testament writers of hallucinations. Oh, they heard voices or they were so predisposed to this they thought they saw a resurrection or they thought they saw a vision. But that defies everything we know today about hallucinations. Experts in the field will say that individuals can get a hallucination, groups cannot. If a group sees the same thing and hears the same thing, that's no longer classified as a hallucination. There's something happening that needs to be accounted for.

And, by the way, they will say typically there are certain profiles of individuals, high, strong individuals, imaginative individuals, those are the kinds of people that hallucinate. That does not fit the profile of Peter, James, and John. So Peter is saying, I, along with two of my other buddies, we were eyewitnesses to this glorious apparition. It was a trailer to the real event and that is the second coming and it's something we saw and it's something we heard. Have you ever paused to think what it would have been like to be an apostle, to just be hanging around Jesus, living with him for three, three and a half years, and just watching him and hearing him and it's now starting to dawn on you who this guy is you're following around. At first he was just this rabbi who said some really cool stuff, but now he's walking on water, now he's raising dead people, now he's doing this miracle and that miracle. And you're astonished at who you're following. John wrote about that in 1 John chapter 1.

This is what he said. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at in our hands, they have touched. This we proclaim concerning the word of life. The life appeared and we have seen it and we testify to it and we proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We are eyewitnesses. We saw his works, we heard his words. We saw withered limbs healed, dead people get up.

We heard sermon on the mount, we heard the sermon in the upper room, we heard parables, we heard his words, we saw his works. We had the personal experience with him. The only problem with personal experiences is that they are personal experiences. They're subjective.

They're your own. And somebody could well say, well, that's your experience with truth. My personal experience with truth is far different than yours. You say you've seen and you say you've heard. You know, people see and hear things all the time.

Experience itself is not valid and that would be true. Let's say somebody stood before you and said this. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a message for you. I have smeared rotten bananas all over my head and my life has changed. I now have peace, I have joy, I have love in my heart, I now talk like a monkey. I've been changed. The first question you ought to ask, I know what the first thought would be that would go through your mind.

You think, guys, absolutely nuts. But the first question you ought to ask is are there any others throughout history who have also smeared rotten bananas on their head and their lives were changed and they had peace and love and joy and talk like a monkey? Because if we can find throughout history this constant stream of individuals who've had the like experience of that person who gave the testimony, we may be onto something and we might want to invest in bananas in the next few years.

But perhaps not, maybe this is an isolated case. So we look at the apostles of Jesus and beyond the apostles, those throughout church history who've had the similar experience of inviting Christ into their lives and their lives being radically changed and experiencing peace and joy and love. All of the disciples were radically changed. And one of the strongest evidences for the gospel is that every one of those apostles except for Judas went to a martyr's death because of what they testified that they saw and heard. It's what we saw, this is what we heard, this is what we know.

Our lives were changed. But Peter doesn't end with that. And it would be inappropriate to end with that. If we were just to say, we know it's true because I've experienced it, I've seen it, I've heard it, it wouldn't be enough. And Peter knows that. And so he writes about the second line of evidence which is scriptural evidence. Verse 19, notice, And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

You see what he's doing? They haven't seen what he has seen. They haven't heard what he has heard. But they have the scripture.

And he says, you do well to take heed to that, knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. I know it's true because of what I've seen. I know it's true because of what I've heard.

But now I know it's true because of what I've read. Scriptural evidence. The Bible is confirming. We have the prophetic word confirmed, he said.

I love the King James, the old King James. We have a more sure word of prophecy. I know it's true because of what I've seen and heard, but I really know it's true and more certain than my own personal experiences is what the Bible says. The Bible predicts the second coming of Christ. So if you don't believe me, read your Bible. As you read the Bible, you find case after case after case of fulfilled prophecy. Now, I'm not going to give you a study on prophecy this morning. We've done that in the past. But when you have a book where you find a prediction that God's people would be in slavery in Egypt for 400 years and then it happened, and in the same book it's predicted that these people will eventually be in a 70-year captivity in Babylon and it happened, and you have prophecy after prophecy of what the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would do and he fulfills them, you may want to think twice about that book and not just relegate it to another holy book.

Example. In Isaiah 45, it is predicted that the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed 100 years before the actual event. In the same chapter, Isaiah 45, it is predicted that Cyrus the king would rebuild the temple before Cyrus was ever born.

He wasn't even a twinkle in his daddy's eye. He wouldn't come on the scene for another 160 years, but his name was written by the prophet Isaiah. And yet, today in America, four out of 10 Americans believe that the Bible was written its entirety, decades after the death and resurrection of Christ, which is not true and it can be shown to be true. But they actually believe it was all written decades after his death and resurrection.

What those four out of 10 Americans need is a good study and fulfilled Bible prophecy. And I have had wonderful lengthy conversations with people about this and I have yet to meet someone who honestly considers the evidence for this and rejects the scripture. Because somebody say, oh, but there's many books that purport to be the word of God. You're right, there's about 25 books right now in the world that claim to be God's very word. Of those 25 books, you know what they're all lacking?

Fulfilled prophecy. And the Bible has that in spades. A few years ago, National Enquirer put out an interesting article speaking of tabloid magazines. But the article was interesting.

It was called Modern Day Prophets. And they asked movie stars, sports figures and politicians to make predictions of what would happen not in six or 60 years, but in the next six months. That's pretty safe. Give us a prediction. What will happen in six months? They made 61 predictions in total. Venture a guess.

What would you say? They were half right? Maybe a third of what they predicted was right? Not a single thing they predicted happened. They flunked completely.

Zero on the test. Now Peter will admit that experience is not valid by itself, but when you combine it with scripture, now it's objective and verifiable. I know what I saw, I know what I heard, but I also know what I read and that what I saw and what I heard was predicted by the prophets. So the Bible is confirming. He also wants you to know the Bible is enlightening. For notice what he calls it.

Verse 19, we have the prophetic word confirmed or a more sure word of prophecy, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place. I don't know how you're reacting to the news of the last few weeks and months. I wonder if it's getting to you.

It is to a lot of Americans. Attack after attack almost daily. Guys with hatchets in New York attacking police officers in the name of their religion. It's happening in Canada and it's almost like you can't keep up with that news. Diseases like Ebola that are happening and people are being shaken.

Well, you need to know that some of these events likewise were taking place in that time. And Peter writes to his audience and says, you have in such a dark world, you have a light. You have like a flashlight.

Yes, you're shaken, but you're not shaken like people who don't understand this stuff. We know what the Bible predicts is coming. We have a dependable light in a dark world and it's scripture. Psalm 119, 105, David says, your word is a lamp to my feet and it's a light to my path.

When Jesus began his ministry, the prophet Isaiah was quoted by Matthew. The people who sat in darkness, they have seen a great light. You do well, says Peter, to take heed to scripture because it's like a lamp, a lantern that lightens the darkened room. You will notice that he says, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Well, what is he speaking of until the day dawns? He must be speaking about what he has been speaking about, the second coming of Christ.

One day, Jesus will come and when he comes, all spiritual darkness, social darkness, political darkness, moral darkness will give way to a bright day. What's interesting is he says, and the morning star rises in your hearts. The morning star, the Greek word is Phosphorus. It was a technical term for the planet Venus, which was that bright light just before the dawn. You could tell the dawn, the day was about to begin when you would see that planet.

And you'd see that star. And the morning star rises in your hearts. Look at the last two verses and we'll close here. The Bible is unerring.

Besides confirming and enlightening, it's unerring. Peter writes, knowing, he loves that word, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man, the holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. This is one of the two most important New Testament verses on divine inspiration. The other is 2 Timothy 3.16.

You know it. All scripture is given by, I thought you knew it. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.

Need to be reading a little more. All scripture is given by inspiration. It's God-breathed. It's God-breathed. But this one says they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Now, there's a word I want you to notice in the text. That's why I hope you bring a Bible. Look at verse 21. Look at the word interpretation.

No prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. That's an unfortunate translation because when you read it or you hear it, it makes you think of understanding the Bible, right? I'm reading what is written and I have an interpretation. I have an understanding of what is written. And it's an unfortunate translation because cultic groups will come along and say, No, you really can't understand the Bible.

We, the leadership, need to explain it all to you. And I know you think it means that, but it really means that. So the word interpretation in the Greek language refers to the origin. That's why the New Living Translation puts it this way.

No prophecy ever came from the prophets themselves. It's speaking about the origin of the text. It's not like, you know, David or Paul was sitting around one day going, You know, I kind of want to write about that.

Or, I have an idea. It's not like it originated from them, though God used them. Now this is a very good text for Bible inspiration because it says, Holy men of God spoke as they were what? Moved by the Holy Spirit. That's a nautical term.

That's a sailing term of sails going up and the ship being carried along where the wind determines it will go. So the biblical authors hoisted their sails and the Spirit or the breath of God filled those sails and carried them to the destination God wanted using the individual style of the author, the personality of the author. That's why John writes different than Paul and you notice those differences.

But the destination, what was written, was under the control of the Holy Spirit. This is important because if you try to explain inspiration to a person, we say, well the Bible is inspired. What you don't mean is that it's a mechanical inspiration. It's not like Paul is in the corner and God is saying, now take this down as I dictated to you. That would be mechanical inspiration.

I don't believe that. Nor do I believe in what's called concept inspiration, that God gave them the general concepts, the general idea like Paul, I'll give you the general idea, Paul, about love and so Paul goes, you know, I'm going to write myself my own thoughts, 1 Corinthians 13. That's concept inspiration. Nor do we believe in natural inspiration. You might go to a concert or you might see an artist and you say, oh, oh that artist, he's so inspired. Well there is a level of natural inspiration that great artists or great musicians have but that's not what we mean by this. We mean is yes, these biblical authors had their own styles, their own personalities, but when they hoisted their sails and the breath of God took over, they were carried along so that the destination or the text, the resultant text is indeed the very word of God. We believe that if God can create the heavens and the earth, certainly that's not a big task for them.

Okay. When you add human experience to divine revelation, now you have a powerful combination. If you just have what I saw and what I heard, apart from what the Bible says, you just have a subjective set of experiences. You can argue that with anybody else but you won't get very far.

If you just have the divine text but you've never experienced it, so what? But you put them both together, you have truth set on fire. So I conclude with this.

H.P. Barker said, I was looking out my window and I looked at the garden. I saw three things. First, I saw a butterfly that was beautiful and would alight upon a flower and then flutter to another and to another.

Only for a second or two and then move on. It would touch as many blossoms as it could but derived absolutely no benefit from it. But second, there came a botanist into the garden. The botanist had a big notebook under his arm and a big magnifying glass and the botanist would lean over a certain flower and he would look for a long time and he would write notes in his notebook and he was there for hours writing notes and then he closed them, stuck them under his arm, tucked his magnifying glass in his pocket and walked away. The third thing I noticed was a bee. Just a little bee. But the bee would light upon a flower and would sink deep down into the flower and extract all the nectar and pollen that it could.

It went in empty every time and it came out full. And the author says, which are you? When it comes to Scripture, which are you?

Are you like the butterfly? You flit from this Bible study to this Bible study from this church to that church. I've asked people, what church do you go to? Oh, I go to all of them. And it's like I get a little here and I get a little there and especially I like the kind where there's just a big pep talk and I can smile a lot when I go and leave.

The lighter the better. Or are you like the botanist? Oh no, no, you're in the deep study and you want to take all these notes. You get out the magnifying glass and you search and all the original stuff and you take more notes and then you leave forgetting what you just wrote on the paper.

Or are you like the bee? You go in empty. You come out full. And it's fuel for your life. It's pollen for your existence. It's nourishment to your soul. And they are truths that you live by.

You decide which one you are. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from the series Rock Solid. Right now, here's Skip to tell you about how you can keep encouraging messages like this coming your way as you help connect others to God's Word. We live in a self-styled culture that is focused on pleasure and possessions. Because of that, we strive to promote a lifestyle that's all about Jesus. We do that by sharing biblically solid teachings. But did you know that there are expenses that we have to meet to make that happen? I'd like you to consider partnering with this ministry so we can continue sharing God's unchanging Word around the world with friends like you. Here's how you can become a partner today. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give your gift today. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.

Again, that's 800-922-1888. Coming up tomorrow, Skip Heitzig shares how God's Word equips you with biblical wisdom to spot fakes, especially when it comes to false teachers. If you went to a doctor who diagnosed you with a fatal disease and then said to you, you know, just go home and take two aspirin and get a good night's rest. As long as you're sincere, you can say, no, no, tolerance is not a virtue in this case.

Truth is. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on His Word, make a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.