Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast, equipping our leaders of this great weekly Bible study held at Dario, our wonderful, gracious host. all across North Carolina. This is to equip, encourage, and guide you as you prepare to teach the word and guide the discussion. At each location each week, and we continue our journey now through the book of Daniel.
Here we are with today's special guest, Dr. Sam Warren. 2 Peter. Here we are in chapter one. Verses 12 through 21.
Really, some sacred ground going To the amount of transfiguration where Jesus spoke very candidly with with Peter, James, and John. and Moses and Elijah about The days of his death to come.
Now, Peter, in this passage leading up. To those words. is going to talk about his Putting off his earthly tent, and his soon impending death by martyrdom Dr. Sam Horn. Man, I tell you, this is some hollowed ground.
that we're coming upon in this great epistle really We look at 2 Timothy. Chapter four As Paul's I Have Fought the Good Fight passage, his final words.
Well, these could be, this very well is Peter's swan song and. Perhaps his memoirs, as we look at these words, we're coming up on. It's a lot, Dr. Horne. Give us a little bit of a, maybe a little bit of a review of what happened, of what we're looking at here.
Just give a context for our listeners and all of the folks in the Wednesday in the Word podcast here.
Well, thank you. It's always a joy to be with you. But, you know, it's interesting as we record this. We're recording it physically on the day after Thanksgiving. And so we look back and our heart is full of things God has done for us.
And yet between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there is this sort of gap. And we live in the gap. And as we live in the gap, we look back on Thanksgiving and we look ahead to Christmas, the birth of the Lord. And in a sense, that's what Peter is doing here. He is looking back.
On an immense event that he was privileged to be a part of, the Transfiguration. But he's looking ahead. to the coming of the Lord. And in the gap, he's living according to something. And the something that is guiding him is the word of God.
And so the look back for us. goes all the way back to the very beginning where Peter says, look. You and I share a common faith. You didn't get a faith that was less valuable or less powerful than the one I got when I repented of my sins. And the same God who gave us that salvation in verses three through five.
has granted us by his authority and by his power, everything we need for life and godliness. And then he's gone on to talk about the fact that the word of God actually tells us what to add to our faith.
So that when we come to the end of our earthly journey, like he's about to come to the end of his earthly journey, I love the way that you framed it as he's putting off his earthly tent, because that's exactly how he describes it. In verse 14. Um, but but as he comes to the end, he looks to us and he says, Now, when it's your turn, when you come to this point in your life. where I am. I'm about to put off my earthly tent.
When that time comes for you, if you will add these things to your faith. You will have lived the kind of life you will not have stumbled around in darkness. You will not have forgotten. You will not have turned away from the way that you embraced when you repented of your sins. Instead, you will have an abundant entrance.
into the kingdom of habit. And so that's the look back. What you have been doing in the adding of your faith. And then the look forward, way forward is the abundant entrance, but then there is this gap. And in the gap, Peter says there is grave danger.
And the danger is that you will be swerved away. from your faith you will be robbed of your abundant entrance. And the thing that will rob you. And the thing that will cause you to stumble around in darkness. And to reject or to turn away from the truth you have embraced is error.
And the error is going to come in this book, Peter says, in chapter 2, from within. There are false teachers who are going to bring a very compelling error. And your mind is going to be fascinated with the error, and the flesh that you are constantly fighting is going to love it. It's going to run to it. And you are going to be swept off your feet if you don't remember to remember.
And so when we come to verses 12 through 21. Peter is actually arming us.
so that when the error comes that will tickle our mind. Or fascinate our flesh, or draw in our flesh, we will be armed and ready for this real and present danger. Yeah, there's this theme all throughout the Bible as soon as. The truth is revealed as soon as. As soon as God reveals to Adam This beauty of being fruitful and multiplying, and naming the animals, and replenishing the earth, and all of this.
The lie comes in. The lie comes in through the serpent. Hath not God said. There's this attack on revelation, on truth. everywhere, and as Peter lays a foundation here for us, Dr.
Horn. of God's word. He is coming against the Gnostics, the false prophets who are attacks from within the church, coming and questioning God's word, questioning God's word. The next great event in history, which is the return of the king, the return of Christ, the second coming. And I know we'll get into that in the coming chapters.
Dr. Horne. This framework that Peter, well, really, groundwork he's laid here on. The grace and peace multiplied, the things he's given, his divine power has given us all things, the life and God, these great. Exceeding great and precious promises, he's given us, he's made us partakers of the divine nature.
And then he's told us, you gave us these beautiful. We call them superfoods, we call them superpowers, whatever you want to call them. You know, in this cultivating our faith, adding to our faith, all these brilliant things of chapter. These seven things of chapter one in those in verses you know five through ten and five through eleven.
Now Peter's turning the page and he's drilling down even more on this idea of remembrance. And so I. I'd like for you, we always do, we've kind of done the. I'd like to jump into the preview for our teachers as they get their hands around, their arms around And their minds around these verses that are so critical. One of the sermons, Dr.
Horn, that I linked in the leader notes, and I send out leader notes every week. Is a sermon by Dr. MacArthur, and he opens the sermon on this passage talking about. the Holocaust Museum. And every every he went to the Holy Land.
And he, of course, he went to all the different places. Of antiquity, but he said the more modern thing he went to is the Holocaust Museum. And all through, and I've been to that, and I'm sure you have, and all throughout there, it's. Remember We will never forget, don't ever forget. You know what happened?
as to not to let this happen again. to not repeat Mistakes the past.
So that's true there. But it's also true all throughout the Old Testament, Deuteronomy. Don't forget. In fact, write God's word on your on your you know your arms and your your forehead and on your door frame so you don't forget. that he has brought you from the land Of captivity into the land of promise.
So, Dr. Horn. By way of preview, getting this passage, you've got this. It looks like there's a. a section here opening Where Peter really says, remember, stir up remembrance, remind.
I want to remind you. repeatedly early on, and then he gets into the section on God's word. Which is what we've got to remember, which is why we hide in our hearts. But give us, kind of frame this passage for us as someone who wants to teach it. And understand that pastors, like the one I just mentioned earlier, he probably preached three or four messages.
On these verses, we're doing one week. On these passages. And some of our teachers will text me or call me and say, hey, how are we doing? You know, why are we doing more than one week on the chat on chapter one of 1 Peter? But when you really start to study and feed the word, Dr.
Horne, there's a lot in here, and we've. God's word is so rich. The question is: do we really believe it is? And are we really going to spend the time? To study it and to teach it.
And so break it down and address that importance of not rushing through the scripture in every verse is so important. Yeah, sometimes, you know, there's always this temptation as a teacher or preacher of God's word. to, you know, you have the tension between getting through a book in a timely way. Uh And or missing important things in the book. And you always have to manage that tension, right?
You know, it's unrealistic. to think that your listeners are going to take seven years to go through 2 Peter. And so, what ends up happening sometimes to us as teachers and preachers is we have this schedule that we're on. And, you know, 2 Peter has three chapters. And so we're going to have an introduction and then one thing on each chapter and a conclusion so we can wrap it up in five messages and be done.
And I and while I get that. And you got to do some of that. What ends up happening is you can artificially constrain yourself. And so fly. Over the book in such a high altitude that you really miss the point of the book.
And Peter doesn't do that. Peter bogs down. He just sort of hunkers down here. And he goes at it. I mean, he starts off in verse 12, and he says, I intend always.
to remind you. of something And the word always is interesting. Peter says, I'm going to do something that will always remind you of something. And I'm going to argue the thing that Peter's going to do is write a book. Today, Peter is still reminding us.
Just as fervently and just as intentionally and just as passionately as he was 2,000 years ago when he penned this book. Peter said, I'm going to do something. That will always remind you.
So, this is incredibly important. And I would just urge all of our teachers. And pastors and preachers who come to this passage not to skate over this. too easily. This is an immense statement Peter is saying.
And so let's talk for a minute about the word remind. He says In verse 12, I always intend to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. And then in verse 13, I think it is right. This is morally necessary. to stir you up by way of reminder.
I know that I have limited opportunity to do this while I'm still in my body. I know that there's coming a day in the very near future when I will put off. My body, just like the Lord made clear to me. Um way back at the beginning. of my journey after the resurrection.
So I will make sure in verse 15. By using every effort available to me, so that after my departure, you will be able at any time to recall these things.
So the first thing I would say is that 2 Peter is that reminder. And then, secondly, what does Peter mean when he uses the idea of remembering? In the scriptures, remembering is not just something that we do mentally. It's not like we lost our keys. And we're racking our brain trying to figure out where could I have left those keys.
We've all done that. You know, we kind of mentally play back.
Okay, I went here, I went here, and we sort of mentally retrace our steps. And we go back to the last place we thought they were. And so that's the idea of remembering, or we work really hard to remember a name. You know, I can't remember this person's name. Let me see, A, B, C, D, E.
And you kind of work your way through the alphabet and then you get to the letter of their name and it's like, oh, there it is. It pops into your head. That's not what Peter means when he talks about remembering. When he talks about remembering, remember is a moral term. It is a term that means to act.
In Exodus 2, for example, God remembered the covenant that he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember, the Israelites were in Egypt under bondage, and they were crying up to God, and God remembered. And it's not like God said, Oh, I forgot. I made a promise way back to Abraham. Oh, yeah, and I renewed it with Isaac.
How could I ever forgotten? And Jacob, as deceitful as he was, I renewed it.
So, yeah, I remember. That's not what's being said there. What's being said there is God acted. God acted according to the promise. And Peter is saying this: when you remember, you are acting according to something, and the something that is in focus in 2 Peter.
Are these great and precious promises that God has given to us in His Word?
So the word remember is a moral term. It means to act in accordance. with what you know and what God has given you. The word forget is the opposite of that. The word forget doesn't mean that you forgot who God was, or you forgot about Moses, or you forgot about the Torah.
It means that you disobeyed. This is what. Moses talked about in Numbers when he said to them, speak to the sons of Israel and tell them that they will make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments. Remember how you go to Israel today and they've got these little tassels on the corners of their garments? And the point of the tassel was to remind them to remember all the commandments of the Lord.
And to do them. And not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes.
So it's really important as we come to this text that we understand Peter is saying when he says, remember, he is saying to obey. And when he talks about forgetting, he's talking about disregarding. Because in chapter two, there are going to be false teachers that come. And they're going to work really hard. to get God's people to forget.
God's promise. And the idea there is to live as though God had never made the promise in the first place. Wow. That's the attack of the enemy to forget about his great and exceeding promises. That's why we've got to go.
Back to the word and remind ourselves, and like Jerry Bridges said, preach the gospel to yourself every day. You know, what thoughts are you thinking? How are you? You're always gonna talk to yourself. Are you gonna listen to the anxiety and repeat those things?
Are you gonna? Remind Yourselves of who he is and what he's done in you, what he's done for you. And that's really what the whole point of Thanksgiving is: is remembering, looking back. Dr. Horne, I am so convicted by, and I don't want to spend too much time.
On, we're doing this whole chunk of scripture 12 through 21 of 2 Peter chapter. One, I'm Stu Everson. With me is Dr. Sam Horn, a pastor, author, and radio host as well. And Dr.
Horn, I. I'm just kind of thinking about that idea because honestly, when you do a. a funeral service for someone. It's a service to say, okay. How are we going to remember them?
And everyone's kind of moving toward, we're all getting closer and closer to the grave, right? We're getting the older you get, the more funerals you go to, the more funerals you officiate as a pastor. Peter says these words, and they're somewhat sobering the more I look at them. And I want to jump into, of course, the importance of God's word, the foundation he lays. Here coming up in the next chunk of this, in the next little section.
But before we go there, he says, I will be careful to ensure. that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.
So it's almost as though Peter is saying, look. I'm going. I'm moving. In fact, it's almost as though God, through inspiration of scripture, is saying Peter is not going to see the rapture. He's not going to see.
The returning king. He's going to see him, but not, you know, when Christ comes back and he meets him in the air. He's going to go. by way of death, which is all that is, is a simple transition into glory. For Peter.
So Peter's almost saying here. Hey, this is how I want to be remembered. And he's, I mean, this is pretty profound. And it makes me think: how do people listening, how do I want to be remembered? What kind of holy remembrance Is my name and my legacy going to stir up others?
to grow in Christ into Grow closer to Christ. Dr. Horn, is that a. Is that application in line here? One of the things that maybe we could uh drill down on this week as peach as our leaders prepare to teach?
Yeah, well, so you remember when Peter denied the Lord? Before he denied the Lord, he made a really bold statement. Remember the bold statement? The bold statement was. Even if everybody else around me denies, I'm going to stick with you.
You can count on me. I will never abandon you. I will never deny you. And the Lord looked at Peter. with love and he said to Peter, actually before the rooster crows in the morning, you will have denied me three times.
Peter, Satan has desired to have you.
so that he could sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you. And when you have turned. Strengthen your brothers.
So, Jesus, before anything ever happens, has already told Peter what's going to happen. You are going to face such immense pressure. That you are intentionally going to deny me. You are knowingly going to deny me. But I'm praying for you, Peter.
And Satan isn't going to have you. He's not going to be able to hold you. He's not going to be able to have you. When you repent, that's the word for turn. When you repent, strengthen your brothers.
And that's exactly what happens. You remember in the book of John? Jesus appears. Peter has been so broken that he denied the Lord. that that he doesn't feel worthy to even be the apostle much less the the first uh teacher of the church and so he goes back to fishing And Jesus goes to Capernaum and makes breakfast on the seashore on the side of that lake.
And has an intimate moment with Peter, apart from all of the others, where three times he asks Peter the question: Do you love me? Peter denied the Lord by a fire three times, and now at a fire, he is restored three times. He's completely and fully restored. And he goes on to do exactly what Jesus told him to do. He strengthens his brothers.
And he does it through writing two letters, 1 Peter and 2 Peter. And in 2 Peter, he knows there is grave danger coming. And it isn't so much his personal legacy that he's worried about, it's the legacy of Jesus. His whole life. Has been spent lifting up Jesus.
When you think of the apostle Peter prior to his restoration, it was all about Peter. Peter was like, I want to be first in the kingdom. I want to sit at your right hand. Peter's always jumping out in front of everybody. But after the resurrection, Peter has one.
One thing in mind, I want to exalt the legacy of Jesus. I want Jesus to be lifted up. To the point that when it comes time for him to be executed and he finds out he's going to be crucified, he doesn't want anybody to think. That he even came close to Jesus, and so he asked to be crucified upside down. And so, this is a man who has been radically transformed by the gospel.
And the legacy he wants to leave is a legacy that points people to Jesus. And that's the legacy office should want. It isn't in our marvelous career or the church we pastored or how well it went for us or even our moral record or how good our family was or how wonderful a husband we was. That's really not the legacy that we should shoot for. The legacy we should shoot for is, did we exalt Jesus?
Wow. Did we leave a legacy? that is so powerfully transformed. That people can only think about Jesus. And this is the hope for anybody who sinned a great sin.
I mean, if you think about some of our listeners out there, they haven't lived the kind of life up to this point. that they could be proud of. Maybe they destroyed a marriage. Maybe they committed a great sin. That has shamed the name of Christ.
And all they can do is kind of hang their heads and they come to these Bible studies, hoping against hope that maybe they would get a little bit of energy for the day. And Peter says, Let me tell you something, I sinned a great sin. I betrayed the Lord. I was a traitor to the name of the Lord. I denied him.
I cursed his name. I sinned a great sin. but there was great grace for my great sin. And there's not a person coming to these Bible studies, there's not a person listening on the air, no matter what their sin has done, no matter how much damage it has caused, that can't repent like Peter and then go out and live the rest of their life strengthening their brothers by reminding them of the immense grace of Jesus. Amen.
What a blessing. What a good word. Pastor Sam Horn, here's. The second section of this passage, the first being, you know, 12 through 15, where he's setting up. By reminding them of this, of his legacy, that he's going to put his tent off shortly, the tabernacle, it's temporary.
And he'll be with the Lord, but he wanted to leave this legacy. And then that legacy really. These next verses, Dr. Horn 16 through 21. Are the the bedrock.
They're the kind of the anchor. Of everything we've said without God's word. You know, someone could listen randomly, turn this on, this podcast, and say, hey, what's your authority for all this? You know, who are you to say this is the truth? Who are you to say Jesus is the only way?
Who are you to say that all of this is accurate?
Well, Peter's going to tell us, take us in this next section, will you, Dr. Horn, real quick? Yeah. Because these aren't cunningly devised fables. These aren't myths.
That word fable, I believe, is mythos, which is, you know, mythology, which Peter's writing in a world where you have all this pantheon of false gods everywhere, the Greek gods and the Roman gods. And it's all based on mythology. And maybe this Mount of Transfiguration was just kind of a story. His imagination run wild, you know, to see Moses and Elijah. But Peter's saying these aren't devised fables, right?
Well, do this because what comes in verse 16 through 21. uh is an answer ahead of time to four major errors That the false teachers are going to bring, and I know we're going to talk about these more later on as we get into the book, but let me give them to you really quickly. Number one, these false teachers deny the second coming of Jesus, so there is no coming of Christ. And you can see this really clearly in 2 Peter chapter 3 verses. One through four, and particularly in verse three, knowing this, first of all, that in the last days mockers will come.
mocking saying, where is the promise of his coming? Remember, Peter said, we've got great and precious promises. One of the great promises is his coming. And so here's the first great error: there are false teachers that have come up in the church that are convincing believers that the second coming of Jesus is a myth. Secondly, they deny the judgment of God on sin.
So not only is there no coming, there's no judgment. And that you can see in 2 Peter 3, verses 5 through 7. It escapes their notice, Peter says, that by the word of God, the heavens existed and the earth was formed. through which the world at that time was destroyed. With water.
And so Peter says they forget that God has already judged the world once. With water, and the next time he's going to judge it in wrath with fire.
So they deny any judgment on sin. Thirdly, they deny the teaching of scripture. There is no truth, there is no coming. There's no judgment on sin, and now there's no truth. And you can see this in chapter 3, verses 15 through 16, when Peter says.
about Paul's letters. That in which in those letters of Paul are hard things to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort. as they do the rest of their scriptures to their own destruction. And then the fourth thing is they deny. the Lord who died for them.
There is no authority. In other words, Jesus is good. and it's great that he came and died but he has no real authority over our lives And so Peter says about these false teachers: they deny the master, the Lord who brought them. bringing swift destruction among themselves.
So here's what's going on in the lives of the writer of the people that Peter loved, and they're going on in the lives of people today. The same four errors that were in Peter's day are going on right now. There's no coming of Jesus. There's no judgment on sin. There's no absolute truth to live by.
And God really has no moral authority to tell us how to live. This is why in our country we feel completely okay murdering millions of babies a year. Why?
Well You know, that's just the way it is. We just. You know, the culture around us and we have all kinds of ways to justify there's no moral authority, even in the lives of many Christians. This this is why When it comes to the whole idea of gender. and the whole idea of human sexuality and the definition of marriage and all of these things that are under fire.
This is why so many Christians get sucked in. Because, in their mind, the Bible is a nice book to break out. You know, when a person gets baptized, when a person gets married, and when a person dies. That's when we break this book out and we say nice things about that person and we express nice hopes about their future from that book. And then we put the book away and we don't let that book come out in the public square and we don't let that book come out in our daily life.
And Peter says, when we do that, we have forgotten. the thing that he gave us that will keep us safe and will guarantee an abundant entrance into the life that comes.
So what is that thing? And that thing is the Bible. And so let me let you comment on that. Stu, and then we'll come right into verse 16 and following because I think those are incredibly important realities. Oh, yes, sir.
And wow. And I love your four points. And I love how it's very important as you teach the word, you connect God's word. To the rest of God's word. And so you have scripture is the greatest interpreter of scripture.
And Dr. Horne, we've led up to this point. All right, when we do the questions on our handout, which I'll send out to all the leaders. And we'll make it available at our Facebook page, Wednesday in the Word Facebook page. And my Facebook page, it's just at Stu Epperson.
I believe it's at dot Stu Epperston, is my big fan page. It has all the notes, the podcast, everything. Dr. Horn. You know, the uh the connection To authority and the connection to You know, Peter's building up into...
This He was an eyewitness account. We have a lot of people running around saying, I'm an apostle. I'm an apostle of Jesus. I'm the chief apostle of this church. I know they don't mean necessarily What?
that sounds like, you know, they, you know, but effectively, An apostle by Jesus Christ himself. In the language of Peter using here, we were eyewitnesses. These weren't fables, we were eyewitnesses of Jesus. We heard the voice. From glory.
This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. You know, that's quoted here. in uh 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 17. And Peter says, We've heard this voice which came from heaven. And we were with him.
On the holy mountain. And so it's a little bit like 1 John 1: that which we have seen and we have heard and our hands have handled. Declare we unto you.
So, Dr. Horne. This is a word that is true, authentic. This speaks to the veracity of God's word. And then he talks about.
How this is a scripture that's not of private interpretation. by the will of man This is not something that just someone said, Well, this is what I, you know, I have a word from God. People walk thousands of people walk into churches. This Sunday, and say, I have a word from God.
Well, no, you didn't. You had some bad ethnic food last night. And it and it you know, you had a weird dream and And there's this other thing where people say, Well, let me tell you this dream I had. And I'm not. downplaying those things.
But We have to be very, very careful. that we don't replace because i heard a guy go 45 minutes on a dream he had He could have spent 45 minutes teaching God's word. He could have spent 45 minutes breaking down the revelation we already have. that we don't want to forget. And he could have, we know this is inspired.
Was his dream inspired?
Well, we we really don't know. You know, honestly, yet we spend time on that.
So, Dr. Horn. I want to, you know, golly, this time goes by so fast, but I want to, I want to take some time. with what could be the prima facie case for God's Inspired. Verbal plenary.
authentic, authoritative, reliable, trustworthy. Word of God, which you set up nicely with your words. I just see all these verses in here. How do we break this down? And how do we make sure that people walk out of this lesson?
And they're going to a church where the pastor is studying and preaching God's word. Not a 45-minute or 30-minute sermon on his. His experience and a great anecdotes and some great points touching God's word, but actually teaching. The Word of God.
Well, those churches are harder and harder to find. Because what ends up happening, Stu, is we have bought into the mindset of practicality. We want to go on Sunday. and we want to hear a 20 to 30 minute message at most and we want it to meet all the needs of our life. And so pastors are under immense pressure.
To try to come up with a sermon that will meet the needs they think their people have that Sunday. And so they're going to take the message and they're going to sort of shape it so that it meets whatever those needs are. Whereas Peter didn't do that. Peter said, look, I'm going to give you the word. And the word is the one I got from the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is going to shape this word in such a way that it's going to confront your life. And then you're going to have to shape your life according to the word. That's a very big difference. And the reason for that is in chapter two, there are people who are going to show up in the church and they're going to use words. You can see this in verse 3 of chapter 2.
They will exploit you with false words. They're going to speak. They're going to claim to be speaking for God. They're going to make promises to you in verse 19. They're going to promise you freedom.
And so, on and on it goes that these people that are going to lead. God's people astray are going to use words and they're going to claim that those words come from God. And so Peter in verse 16 through 20, or 21 rather, is going to arm us so that we know how to recognize God's words. And the first thing that he wants us to know about God's words is that they come from credible apostolic witness. You brought up the fact that there are a lot of people walking around today who claim to be apostles.
It's interesting in the book of Acts. Chapter one. When The apostles went to replace Judas. They actually had a criterion. It had to be somebody who would take that office.
In other words, in Acts chapter 1, verse 20, they say, Let another take his office.
So there's an office here. It's not just somebody who's a sent one. You know, the word apostle can mean sent one. It's not just a sent one. There's actually an office to which Jesus has appointed people.
And the ones he appointed. are now gonna replace Judas. and and they say the one who's going to replace judas has to be someone who's been with us during the lifetime of Jesus. Beginning from the baptism until the day he was taken up. and he must be a witness to the resurrection.
Which is why when Jesus himself picks Paul The scriptures describe Paul as an apostle. out of time. And he has to receive. the right hand of fellowship from Peter and James, which is the whole point of the book of Galatians.
So it wasn't just anybody, even in the first century, who could be an apostle. It had to be somebody that the apostles recognized. And so Peter is saying. We did not follow. We apostles.
You are speaking. We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we talk to you, when we reveal to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses. And so he's going to talk about being an eyewitness. And an ear witness.
We saw something and we heard something, and the thing we heard from heaven. was A voice Born to him by the majestic glory, saying, This is my beloved Son. with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves. heard this very voice, for we were with him.
On the holy mountain. So the first thing Peter says is the words that are going to give you life. The words that will teach you what to add to your faith, the words that will keep you from error, are not the words of religious people. They're not the words of a pastor. They're not the words of a preacher.
They're not the words of a so-called apostle or a prophet. They are the words of the original apostles who saw with their eyes and heard with their ears what Jesus did and said, and what God the Father said about him.
So that's the first thing we need to know about the words that Peter is talking about. They had to be delivered. to us by an official apostle. And that's what you see in verses 16. through uh through 18 which means That when somebody comes along and says, I have a word from God for you, or I had a vision from God about you, or I had a dream, we can listen to that dream.
It's certainly possible that. You know, the Lord did give someone an impression, or the Lord did sort of help someone see something about us, and we should evaluate it. But the only authoritative word that shapes our lives and governs our living is the word that God gave to us through the apostles who saw Jesus. Heard Jesus and heard God speak about Jesus. Does that make sense?
It makes a lot of sense. And it really. goes to the critical critical doctrine of the inspiration of scripture. Because it is the apostolic authority through which God wrote his word, you know, the Old Testament through the prophets. And the patriarchs, the New Testament, through the apostles.
And so we read the Bible. We say, well, can I trust the Bible?
Well, what's your authority for the Bible?
Well, either Jesus did or didn't speak directly to these men. Either the Holy Spirit didn't truly. uh inspire them through God his God-breathed process. Like we hear about, like we read about in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, either it's true or it's not, and it goes back to either the resurrection is true or not.
So. It makes a lot of sense, Dr. Horne. And this is what we, you know, we bank our life on it. I remember street witnessing.
In Los Angeles, 30 years ago, with a buddy. And I remember him saying this, and I have subsequent to that time said this myself. If you find one error in my Bible. I will eat my Bible. Page by page.
I'll just tear it out and I'll eat it. Yeah. But for a believer to get to that point. The question is: Do you trust the Bible? Do you read the Bible?
Has the Bible changed your life? Do you interact with the Bible? Have you studied the Bible? Have you looked at the Bible? What God says.
Don't take my word for it. You know, most of the people that say there's a contradiction in the Bible, they've never read the Bible. You know, you say, you stop them, we say, well, show me one and let's go there. Dr. Horne.
There's a process. We won't get into it extensively. You touched on it just briefly a little bit ago. Verse twenty one And well, really, verse 20 and 21. Go into some important detail about that, no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation.
Prophecy ca never came by the will of man. But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
So God used human instruments, Dr. Horne. It's real important. But God, what God has done to preserve His holy word. Is Supernatural is miraculous.
The Bible we're holding in our hands today is a miracle, Dr. Horne. A miracle that men like William Tyndale. Bled and died for so we could have God's word. Will you speak to that as we kind of wind this up and how important it is?
Going back to not forgetting. God's Word, remembering God's Word, you know, over and over again. That's why when Ezra pulled out the book and they started reading the book for the first time in a long time, the people of God started weeping. Because they remembered. What God said to David.
They remembered what God said to Abraham. They remembered God's word. His word hasn't changed, his word has not, he's not shifted. He hasn't forgotten. It is we.
who are frail, who will get out there and we're like that church. That in Ephesus that had all the great doctrine, but they forgot their first love. And what did he say? What did John say? What did the Spirit say?
Through John's pen in Revelation 2, verse 5. Remember. From whence you've fallen, repeat. those things and repent. And what a word, you know, so speak to that and speak to this.
This beautiful veracity of scripture we have that we don't want to neglect and that we want to. Reach and teach and study and memorize and internalize and then share with everybody. Yep.
So Peter says, the first thing you need to know about the words that you need to remember. is that they came from apostolic witness. But the second thing he wants you to know is it's not the experience that as marvelous as it is, it's not the experience that we're going to point to. Peter says, look, we saw something majestic. We heard the very words of God coming down from heaven.
We had this amazing experience, but it's interesting in verse 19, that's not what he points to. He said, we have something that's even more sure than that. If I want you to build your life on something. I want you to know that we are the credible witnesses we saw and heard. We had that Mount Transfiguration experience.
There couldn't have been a greater experience in the life of any Christian than to see Jesus in his glorified body and right next to him, Moses and Elijah, and to listen into that amazing conversation. And as amazing as that experience was, Peter says, that's not what I want you to build your life on.
Now, think about that. How many times do we build our life on an experience we had, a dream we had, a vision we had? you know some some Immense thing that took place that we can't explain, but was so meaningful to us. And Peter says: as wonderful as all those things are. Don't build your life on that.
We have something. more sure. And in verse 19, he's going to talk about the Old Testament. And in verse 20, he's going to talk about the new. And in both cases, the 39 books that make up our Old Testament.
Were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God and given to designated official spokespeople. And the 27 books that make up the noob. were given by that same Holy Spirit. to designated spokespeople. And that's what we build our life on.
Look at verse 19. Peter says, and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed. In other words, if you want to build your life on something. As wonderful as our experience on the Mount of Transfiguration was, don't build it on that. Build it on what the Holy Spirit told us to write down and give to you.
You build it on a prophetic word made more sure. The life of Jesus has confirmed everything those Old Testament prophets talked about. There are more than 400 Old Testament prophecies about Jesus, and two-thirds of them were fulfilled in his first coming. And they were fulfilled literally. In fact, when you read the gospels, the writers of those gospels will often say, now this happened so that what Isaiah said would be fulfilled.
or what Hosea said would be fulfilled. And so, all of a sudden, you're beginning to realize that the Old Testament prophecies that we were trying to figure out. Have actually been confirmed. That's what the word made more sure means. They've actually been confirmed because they were fulfilled.
And so you can look at the Old Testament. and take everything those profits told you to the bank. They told you about a coming king. Take it to the bank. They told you about a coming kingdom.
Take it to the bank. God said to Adam and Eve, I'm going to send a son, take it to the bank. He said to David, I'm going to give you a son. Take it to the bank. He said to Abraham, I'm going to give you the earth as your inheritance.
Take it to the bank. And you can take it to the bank because the son that God promised. Adam and Eve that would crush the head of the serpent. Has already come, and when he came, something happened to him that God said would happen. He said to the serpent, You will deal him a mortal blow on his heel.
In other words, you're going to attack him in a way that's going to kill him. And that's exactly what happened. Jesus was killed. And he was murdered. He was executed on a cross, and he rose again on the third day.
And so we have the Old Testament, and as we look at the life of Jesus, and as we see what the New Testament says about him. That Old Testament word is a sure, confirmed word, so pay attention to it. Just like you would follow a lamp in a dark place that is illuminating that dark place and making it brighter and brighter and brighter until the day star comes. The word day star is a reference to numbers. Remember how Balaam saw a star rising?
Well here is that star. It's Jesus. And here we are in a dark place. And we just did the book of Daniel. We have so much more light than Daniel did.
The light we have since Daniel's time has made the way brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter until there's no doubt in our minds that Jesus of Nazareth. is the son who came to crush the head of the serpent to reverse the curse and to redeem the ancient race That had been so devastated by Adam's sin. Paul says in the book of Romans: let me tell you about that son, he's the second Adam. We have so much more light. And those Old Testament prophecies become brighter and brighter and brighter, and the room becomes much more clear.
If you ever walked into like a darkened theater, And your eyes aren't accustomed to the darkness, you're kind of walking really slow and putting your hands out so you don't bump into things. And then all of a sudden, the lights start to come up slowly. And all of a sudden, you can see more clearly and more clearly and more clearly until the day star finally shows up. And that's what Peter is talking about here in verse 19. He said, This Old Testament.
has been a lamp shining in a dark place. And that light has gotten brighter and brighter and brighter.
So pay attention. Listen to it. And the reason you can listen to it in verse 20. Is that It is the infallible witness of the Holy Spirit, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from somebody's own interpretation. When Isaiah told you about a son that would be born, whose name would be Wonderful Counselor.
Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. He didn't think that up on his own. That wasn't his own interpretation of events.
Somebody else was speaking through him. That's the idea. This didn't originate with Isaiah. It didn't come from Isaiah. He was the mouthpiece.
Through whom the Holy Spirit And that's the whole point to verse 21. No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. Isaiah never produced this. Ezekiel, when he talked about the kingdom, he never produced it. When he talked about the valley of bones being breathed on and new life given, he didn't come up with that himself.
Somebody else was speaking through him, and that person was God. God was the one speaking. God was the one making those promises. And he was delivering all of that through the Holy Spirit. And that's why no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
So, when you hold your Bible in your hand, you have a message from God that was delivered by the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the prophets of the Old and the New Testament. That's why Peter says. Pay attention. Order your life by these things that are written to you. Don't order your life by the guy who gets up and gives you four T's to make you a better worker at work, or a more pleasant husband, or a more effective person in the role you have at your job.
Sunday morning is not a self-help session. to make you a better father or a better husband or a better mom or a better worker or a better neighbor or how to improve your life so that you don't have any trouble. Sunday morning is so that you will come and worship the God of heaven who spoke to you in his word. And that word was delivered through the Holy Spirit through men like Peter who paid for it with their life.
So let's not cheapen it on Sunday morning by turning it into some kind of self-help moment where, you know, if you don't look too close at the text. uh it could mean this we really need as pastors and teachers to dig down into this word so that we bring people into the presence of the living god whose word it is Well Yeah, TED Talks from the pulpit. are producing spiritual illiteracy in the pews. And it's not producing life. Where the Word of God is, where the Spirit of God is, the Spirit of God wrote the Word of God and gave us the Word of God through holy men.
You have life. And Dr. Horne, we say, well, this is God's word.
Well, why am I not preaching God's Word? Why am I preaching my word or my take on God's Word?
Well, I feel like it means this.
Well, it doesn't matter what you feel. There is an interpretation. That's where you got to study. That's where you got to get into the hermeneutics, which means the interpretation of scripture that will influence your homiletics, which is the preaching of scripture. Dr.
Horne, I say, Well, I'm a Holy Ghost-driven church. We're a Holy Spirit-driven church. We're led by the Spirit every Sunday.
Well, if you're not teaching God's Word, you're not led by the Spirit. In fact, you're grieving the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit inspired God's Word. He has given you the power of God's Word. And, Dr. Horne, I guess, a simple way that helped me understand.
God's word and how it's, you know, the question. Was Jesus God or was Jesus man?
Well, we answer yes, right? It's a miracle. It's a miracle that is taught in scripture. Was the Bible written by God or written by man?
Well, the answer is yes. You know, you have this, you have these, sure, we could say there's a tension there, but it's a divine miracle about how God used, he spoke through. You have the word of God written over this, over a period of 1,500 years. Through how many 40 some authors with with that many different personalities and ethnicities. And Talents and gifts and weaknesses and struggles, and you know, three different languages.
But Dr. Horne, at the end of the day, when the dust settles... The word of God. Proverbs 35 says, Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him.
When we trust in his word, We have a sure word. We have a bedrock word. We have a foundational word in. And, Dr. Horde, I want you to maybe take us out of here with a prayer and a final exhortation.
I love this passage. We've gone way over. I want to just say I really enjoy this very brief paragraph. That I read from Dr. Phillips in his commentary, which I quote quite often in the leader notes I sent out.
I know you've studied him too. He's been a great contribution. He says this: He says, When it was finished, the Bible was something. Hewn out of the living rock, something more permanent than time itself. The Bible is made of the very stuff of eternity.
It is infallible, inerrant, infinite, and indestructible. It is greater than the galaxies. It is the word God breathed ineffably sublime. Of the same nature as God Himself. It is living, authoritative, and divine.
Dr. Warren, take us out of your word and in a prayer. Yeah, so you you brought Up, we just want to be a Holy Spirit-driven church, or we want to be a Holy Spirit-driven person. And oftentimes what we mean by that, even unintentionally, is I really don't really want to be just driven by the word. And here's the point.
If you want to be a Holy Spirit-driven church, which we all should be, or a Holy Spirit-driven person. You've got to go to the word the Holy Spirit inspired. That's how he leads us. There is this idea that the Holy Spirit leads me and he might lead me apart from the word.
Well, actually, he doesn't. He leads us according to the word. He will never ever lead you to do something. that he has written against in scripture. He will never ever prohibit you from doing something or lead you to avoid doing something that he has commanded in scripture.
So sometimes people say, well, I know I shouldn't have cheated on my wife. but I just got an impression from the Lord that this was what he wanted me to do. This was the person I should have married to start with. And the Holy Spirit will never, ever lead us. in that way.
The Holy Spirit is going to take us. To the word that he inspired, because at the center of the word he inspired is the living word, the son of God. And the Holy Spirit is going to use the written word to bring us into a deeper relationship with the living word. And that's the very thing the false teachers are going to deny. They are going to deny the living word.
And and and Paul, I mean, Peter is really clear. He says, listen, there are parts of the word that are hard. They're not easy. There are things Paul wrote that are hard to understand. This is Peter telling us that.
And we're like, well, if it's too hard, you know, we shouldn't worry too much about doctrine. And we just, you know, it shouldn't be that hard to understand. Peter says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second. I told you from the beginning that there are parts of the word that you're going to have to work to understand. And that's why Paul says, labor.
Show yourself diligent. to rightly divide the word, the greatest honor we could give to Jesus. the greatest obedience we could give to the Holy Spirit. Is to love God's word enough that we will spend the time and the effort that is necessary to do our very best to understand it and to obey it. And so let me pray that the Lord would help us to do that.
Lord, thank you that we could spend this time together talking. And Lord, I ask that you would bless us and help us. We spent an hour, Lord, talking about this portion of your word. And I pray that it would be an hour well spent. and an hour of great profit to your people.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you, Dr. Horne, and thank you for joining us for this Wednesday in the Word podcast. Learn more at wedintheword.com.
Follow us on YouTube. Facebook and all social media, including in Stu Graham. and be encouraged, stay in the word, read it. Share it. Study it, memorize it, and Meditate on God's Word.
Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him. Proverbs 30 verse 5.
