The Prophetic Word - 2 Peter..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. We have the opportunity to continue with our studies and our meditations upon the words of the Holy Spirit through Peter the Apostle. great grace extended to Peter, not only to be an apostle, but also to give us these truths.

So, beloved of Christ, let's open up our Bibles there to 2 Peter. And I hope that today, this afternoon, we might be able to address the end, the remaining section of chapter one, which is from verse 16 all the way until the end of that chapter. So that's going to be a few verses there. May the Lord give us grace to address all the truths that are contained in that section there. So now, because we are approaching to a new section and a new chapter here in this book, I'm going to get you to read rather a long portion, and that is going to be chapter one and also chapter two, all the way to verse 10.

So, brothers and sisters, paying much attention with reverent hearts by the grace of the Spirit of Christ, let's read together the inerrant, sufficient, life-giving, the soul-changing word of our Savior. I'm going to be reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible, and this is 2 Peter 1. Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a fate of equal standing with ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, They keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he's blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.

For in this way, there will be richly provided for you. and entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are establishing the truth that you have. I think you're right, as long as I'm in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. Verse 15, I will make every effort So that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things.

Pay attention to 16 and the end of the chapter. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths 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 God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of the scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along. by the Holy Spirit. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality. And because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed.

And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words, Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to change of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to their godly, and if he rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, as that righteous man lived among them, day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Amen. This is the word of God.

Beloved of Christ, your attention should be in the last section of chapter 1, from verses 16 to verse 21, in which the apostle is going to give a final exhortation in regards to the Word of God. And as I have said in the many times that I have had the opportunity by the grace of God to address you, beloved of Christ, the purpose of this book, as I have said again many times, is to give an exhortation or a warning, if you want, to the Christians, to the churches of the reality and the existence of false teachers and false prophets, and how the Christian is not only to be careful, but to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we will not be carried away by the reality of false teachers and false prophets. The apostle has this burden in his heart. This is the desire of the soul of the apostle to communicate these to the church. And in this last section of chapter number one, starting in verse 12, the main particular burden of the apostle Peter is that of the vital importance of the word of God.

That it is that if you as a Christian are not going to be carried away or taken by the deceitfulness, the satanic and demonic power of false teaching, then the word of God is going to be vital in preserving your soul until the end. This is the message of the apostle and this is the heart of the apostle. That's why he was showing us in verses 12 through 15 the urgent need for the Word of God to be constantly poured into the soul of the believer. Not only the urgent need for it to be poured, but the urgent necessity that the Word of God should be alive in the context of the church. The apostle says that as long as he is alive, he will bring these things to the mind of believers because he sees the importance of it.

Even he says that he is going to make every effort so that after his exodus, after his departure, after he dies, the believers will be reminded of all of these precious things. As we move now in verse 16, we're getting into the main topic with the main I thought of the main reason of this letter, and that is that of false teachers. He is starting verse chapter two in verse one saying, but just as there were false prophets among the people, speaking of the old times and the old covenant, there will be false teachers among you. And these false teachers will secretly bring disruptive heresies. From there, the apostle is going to start with an open without shame, accusation of the sins and the wickedness and unrighteousness of these false teachers.

Very difficult to go through chapter two. And as I'm thinking, it's going to be very difficult even to preach through it. But brothers and sisters, sometimes we exalt men who stand in the truth and say one word or two. This fisherman is bringing clear accusations of the wickedness and righteousness and the eternal condemnation that is reserved for the false teacher. I want to be like the apostle Peter, who had his mouth, without shame, filled with biblical truths to call that which is true, true, but also to call that which is unrighteousness what it truly is.

So the apostle is going to start to give us that heresy. It is this deviation from the truth that is going to capture the mind of people. And this is the burden of this apostle, that people will be carried or taken away by the heresies of these false teachers. And the way that he is going to introduce or enter into that section of chapter two, speaking about that which is not, it is by telling us in the remaining section of chapter one that which it is. That which is sound teaching, that which is correct, that which is true.

If he is going to introduce us and is going to present to us that which is the crooked way of the unrighteous and the wicked and the sinner, the one that is appointed unto condemnation, then he needs to present to the congregation that which it is. Imagine, imagine, beloved of Christ, he's presented his heart, he's opened his heart to these people that there is an urgent need for them to abide in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, as long as I'm alive, I will remind you of these things. And even after my departure or my exodus, after I died, I will make every effort to remind you of these glorious things. The question will be, why are we to believe the things that you say, Peter?

Why are we going to treasure that as something valuable? And then the apostle will give the answer starting in verse 16. he will explain the right way of the words of God and beloved of Christ. The summary of what he says and what he does from verses 16 to verse 21, it is simply this, that the reason why the Christian should pay attention to the words of the apostle is because the words of the apostle are the words of God. Simply that, as simple and clear as that.

The reason why these people should pay so earnestly attention to the words of the Apostle Peter is because the words that come out of the mouth of this Apostle Peter are the words of God. Now, beloved of Christ, that you might not miss the importance of the word of God when it comes to the genuineness of these things that we call eternal. Genuine salvation is a real and genuine encounter with the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. So that is that if a person is generally and eternally saved, that is because that person has generally heard the words of God.

God has spoken to that person from heart to heart. That person has generally heard the words of God. And those words are spoken through the prophets. Beloved of Christ, that you may not reduced the word of God to a system of truth or a system of just simply commandments or rules or directions or instructions that make sense and that even that you believe that they are true, disconnecting them from the person of God. You see, you can't believe that the world was created in six days.

You can't even consider that that is true. You can't believe and consider that it is true that man is sinful and that he had fallen. You can consider even that it's true and universal flaws and the promises to the patriarchs and the Israel in the wilderness. And you may even consider true the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the moment that a person disconnects those truths from the living person, the living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the living God of Israel, the living God of this universe, then you have not had a genuine encounter with the words of God.

It is completely impossible for men to hear the words of God. You can hear truths of this book. You can even understand superficially truths of this book, but it is impossible for sinful man. It is impossible for the Adamic race to hear the words of God. So the urgent need of the hour for the apostle and the urgent need for the Christian church is to be able to hear the words of God as they are proclaimed through the apostles.

So he says, and the heart of the apostle is, that is all of these things that I've said to you are so important is because when I open my mouth, I'm speaking on behalf of God. Now, brothers and sisters, this is just simply the summary of what we have here in verses 16 through 21. But of course, deeper things that I want us to see, which I think are going to be a blessing to our soul when we behold not only the words of God and His scripture, but also the God of His scripture. Now, in order for us to understand this passage, which is going to be a very particular passage, as you can see, the apostle is once again using a personal experience, just as he did from verses 12 through 15. Speaking of his awareness of the proximity of his death, now from verses 16 through 21, he's also going to reference an experience that happened through his life with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if we're going to understand what we have in this version of the Scripture, I think it is important for us to address, first of all, what we have in verses 20 and 21. You see, verses 20 and 21, we'll start with these words, at least in the ESV. It says, Every time that we have a word in English, it's a verb that is together with I-N-G after a statement, that word will describe, or whatever comes after that, will describe what has been said before. I've mentioned this a couple of times to you. But for instance, in verse nine of chapter one, it says, for whoever lacks this quality is so near sighted that he is blind.

Now, this blindness is going to be explained. having forgotten. Every time that we find a word that has I-N-G in English, this will describe, not always, but when it is a word like this, the statement that has been said before. That's why I'm just trying to clear my conscience to explain to you why I'm addressing verse 20 and 21 first before 16 through 19. And the most important reason is that the apostle himself says that we are to know this first of all.

that we are to know this first of all. So verses 20 and 21 do not only explain what he has said before, but this is required of us to know this first of all. That's why I'm going to get you, brothers and sisters and friends, to get us to meditate on verses 20 and 21. So pay attention to what Apostle will say here for us then to move into what he says in verse 16. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of a scripture comes from someone's own interpretation For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, beloved of Christ.

The apostle is just simply going to argue that the importance of his words is rooted in the fact that his words are not his, but are the words of God. And in verses 20 and 21, he's going to explain to us the method on how or how these words of God are given to men. This is the whole thing. He's saying this is so urgent, so important for you to pay attention to, not because they are my words, but because they are the words of God. And in verses 20 and 21, he's going to give us the method of how these words of God are given to the church through men.

So he starts by saying that no prophecy of his scripture No prophecy of Scripture. So now he's going to give us something very important. He's given us a type of words of God, and these are Scripture. Now, Scripture are spoken or written? Brothers and sisters, written.

Scripture, this prophecy of Scripture is written. It is actual writing. It says, knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture, that is the words of God that are written, comes from someone else's interpretation. That it is that man is not able to produce the words of God that are going to be scripture. Man is not the source of the words of God of the Scripture, or the words of God better, that are in Scripture.

We know that and we believe that, I hope. Verse 21, and then he gives an explanation of it. For no prophecy was ever produced, or for no prophecy came into existence by the will of man. Very clear. Man is not able to come up with the words of God that will be scripture, because no prophecy comes from the will of men, but men, or better, holy men of God spoke from God.

That is, that now he's referring not to the written scripture, but now he's speaking to the words of God as given to holy men of God that are now spoken. It says, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of men. But he will explain men, holy men of God, spoke from God. And he gives us the important thing that I want to drive your attention to. As they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, beloved of Christ, are the scriptures produced in men?

No, scriptures are not produced by the will of men. Are the scriptures given to us by or through men? Yes, scriptures are given to us through men. Men is not the ultimate source of the words of God. God is.

But when God speaks and that becomes his scripture, he carries or he moves, he speaks to holy men of God. And the words of these holy men of God are not only the prophetic words of God, but they become a scripture. The word that I want you to pay attention is carried along by the Holy Spirit. Beloved of Christ, God does not speak our language, right? He does not speak English or Spanish.

He has given his word to us in a language because he has given to us through men just as when you're watering your plants and then you have the tap and then you have a hose the hose is the instrument by which you take the water from the tap to your plants now the hose is not producing the water the water is coming from the tap but you need the hose to water your plants otherwise you're going to be wasting a lot of time right this is the role of sinful, fallen, Adamic men in the role of giving these words of God to us. Now the glorious word, it is this carried along by the Holy Spirit. Remember when the Lord was explaining to Peter in John chapter 21 on how he was going to die and how he was going to be old and that he was not going to be able to dress himself, not to go from one place to another? And then he said, but someone, will dress you and someone will take you from one place to another almost against your will. Something like that.

This is exactly the word that is used here to express the role of the Holy Spirit carrying and moving men so that when they speak, they will be speaking the words of God. God has decided the unapproachable God. The mind of God is unapproachable. The thoughts of God are higher than your thoughts. The thinking of God is just much more higher than what we could ever imagine.

But he has decided in his mercy, in his condescension with men, that he's going to speak to us. And the way that he's going to do it, it is by and through men. And these men are going to be carry it along. They are going to be moved by the Holy Spirit. In other words, that is that those who speak the words of God are the ones that are followers of the will of the Spirit.

So the words of God are not coming to the church from their will, but rather from the will of God that has now been aligned with the will of the instrument. This is glorious, because when you go through a scripture, you're reading the words of God, yet you are still seeing the style and the personality and the background of each one of the authors. I did not expect to extend so much, but I'm just seeing faces of not convinced. Brothers and sisters, this is how God gives to us his words. And the battle, the battle between truth and wickedness is going to be a battle that is going to be fought by men.

Now, ultimately, it's a spiritual battle between the spiritual things of God and the spiritual things that Satan and demons and all of these, but the field of this battle is a battle of men. Men who are carriers of the truth. And this is going to be the argument of the apostle, because false prophets and false teachers and these mockers of the truth are going to be the ones that are carried by doctrines and spirits of demons. But the apostles, the ones that are speaking of God, are the ones that follow or the ones that are moved by the spirit of God. Go to chapter three, please, here, and then see how the apostle makes that clear distinction between these two camps of this battle.

In chapter 3, verse 1, this is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through us, the apostles, so through your apostles. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing or with lies. Brothers and sisters, the battle of truth, it is ultimately a spiritual battle from the truth of God with the deceitfulness and the lies of Satan, right? That he's the father of lies, right?

Satan is the father of lies. But this battle in the proclamation of it is fought, the battlefield, humanly speaking, is men. So that's why the apostle is going to change completely the way that he's addressing these people from verse 16. It is not an individual exhortation anymore, but he's going to move it to we. So he says in verse 16, for we did not follow cleverly devised means.

In the end of that verse, he says, we were eyewitnesses. In verse 18, it says, we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him. And in verse 19, and we have this prophetic word speaking now of the carriers of this truth, namely the apostles. The apostles and the holy prophets, beloved of Christ, were moved, carried along by the power of the Holy Spirit. They were followers of the Spirit.

And this is why he starts in verse 16 saying, For we did not follow cleverly devised means. For we did not follow thou which comes from Satan. We did not follow the voice of the one who is the father of lies, but rather, as he says in the end, and he's going to represent themselves in verse 19, as the ones that are carried by the Holy Spirit. Beloved of Christ, that was just my exercise for us to see verse 19, 16, but please pay attention to this. The apostle starts saying that it is so important for them to pay attention to the words of God, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But he's going to compare his not following these cleverly devised myths with. But we were eyewitnesses. we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He says these words that we speak to you are not the result of following cleverly devised myths, that actually these cleverly devised myths speak of sophisticated words of wisdom, sophisticated, highly exalted words of wisdom that are lies, but rather one would expect that he would say, we were speaking the truth according to scriptures or something like that, but rather he says, we were, I, witnesses of the majesty. And he is going to now quote an experience.

Bear with me here, please, brothers and sisters. The way that the apostle is going to prove to these Christians of the urgent importance of these words of God communicated to them, because they are the words of God, is that the apostles, or in this case, the apostle Peter, was an eyewitness of the majesty of his majesty, the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not the first time that he has called himself eyewitness of Christ. In first Peter chapter five verse one and two, he calls himself eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ, a co elder with the elders and also I witness a partaker of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ and the story that he's going to quote here is something that you know this is the glorious transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ we are told here by the apostle Peter that he went to the holy mountain and in that holy mountain he heard the voice of the Father, the majestic glory, speaking, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, that that was the testimony of God, the Father, confirming the majesty, the divine power, and the eternity of this Son, this Son of God, that as a brother said, He was the Son of God, just as Israel was the Son of God, the begotten of the Father. that the fullness of the majestic glory of the Father, the radiance of the glory of the Father was abiding in completeness and in fullness in the person of Jesus Christ.

And just as Moses had gone into the mountain and his presence before God had conveyed unto him the glory of God so that when he came down, he had to veil his face because of the shining glory of God in him. This prophet, like unto Moses, this Jesus Christ, also in that experience in the holy mountain, was given this glory from the Father, confirming that this was not only the Messiah, but that this was also the Son, that this was the prophet like unto Moses. In other times, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets, but in these times, in this, latter times, these later days, these last days, He has spoken to us through the Son. And that is the confirmation that the Lord Jesus Christ received with the public testimony of God the Father communicating the glory to the Son. And Peter and two other apostles were witnesses of that majestic glory.

Now there is a complication, at least when I read this, there is a reality and that is that in the first century the witness of a person will be somehow of high esteem. These days, the witness of a person is something that we may not consider something to be valued or something to be appreciated, but we know from scripture that the witnessing in the first century was something of great appreciation from those who received the witnesses of that person. But even then, brothers and sisters, the witness of a man about eternal matters in the ears of men is not sufficient to convince a person that what he says is actually true. These people that were receiving this letter from the lips of Peter, they also have heard that you, Peter, were a coward. Also you, Peter, we have heard the testimony that you ran away from a little girl.

We have heard also, Peter, that you will call Satan, but this Jesus that you proclaim. How is now this testimony of a man going to be sufficiently powerful to move these Christians onto seeing by the Spirit the urgency of what the apostle was trying to communicate with very limited words, I have said something to introduce this very important point, beloved of Christ. And the reason, and that is that the reason why the churches and the recipients of the letters, and the reason why genuine Christians receive the testimony and the witnessing of fishermen, of that which was despised in the early century, in the early first century, The reason why we receive the testimony of these men who are sinful, the testimony of these men who are limited, the testimony of these men that were despised and of low reputation, is because the testimony that is in them is not the testimony of the men, but is the testimony of the Holy Spirit. These men were being carried along by the Holy Spirit. This is the promise that the Lord gives to the apostles.

Go to John 15. This is the promise. And this is the commandment of better. This is the instruction that the Lord gives to the apostles. In chapter 15, in verse 26 and 27.

Verse 26, but when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father, he will bear witness about me, and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. Beloved of Christ, I know that you believe this, but there's a deeper part of our spirits that will be very benefited and blessed by us seeing these with the eyes of the Spirit and of Christ. When this man spoke, Peter, a fisherman, When Paul spoke, when John spoke, these men did not have absolutely anything, humanly speaking, that would back up whatever they were saying, would, for no reason, anyone would hold a truth that comes from a man, and especially over time and over time and over time and over time, we have in our hands, yes, the words of God, that we have in our hands the words and the teachings of Fischer, humble, meek, low reputation, secluded, removed men of the first century, not of the high of society, not the big philosophers, not these men who wrote things that were appreciated in the flesh by human, you know, fallen, sinful men, but rather we have in our hands the words of lowly people of the first century. And we believe that what they said is true. And the only reason why that is a fact is because the one that was bearing witness through these men, it was the Holy Spirit of God.

The Holy Spirit of God will speak through them, not only prophecies that will become scripture, but the Spirit of God will be speaking to the heart of those who received the words. And this is when we go back to 2 Peter, because the apostle has indeed spoken about something that he accomplished when he visited them, or when he saw them, or when he spoke to them. If you go back to 2 Peter, It says, for we did not follow cleverly devised means. When? When we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That it is that when we came to you, these feeble, weak, humble men, and when they opened their mouth, they were able to make none to these people the power and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this made none to you every time that is used in the Bible is for something that requires divine revelation. That it is that when Peter came to these people, he was able in the limitations of his humanity to speak words that not only were the power of God, but also gave these people the certainty of the coming of the one whom they have not seen. Now these men, feeble men, meek, humble men, are not only speaking about a man who lived 30 years ago, who died and whom you have not seen, but I'm speaking also about a man who is almighty and powerful, and who is going to come again, who is going to come to judge the living and the dead. All of this glorious power and truth was revealed to these people when the apostle came and spoke to them.

This is the carrying, this is the moving along of the Holy Spirit and beloved of Christ, We are never to disconnect the truth of the written word from the power of the living word that is given and is produced through the Holy Spirit. That's why, first of all, the apostles will use the same system to defend their witnessing. So the apostle says, these things that I'm saying to you, I made them clear to you, not following cleverly devised myths, but I was an eyewitness of the Lord, so I received His words, doing exactly the same or a similar thing that Apostle Paul does in Galatians, remember? He says, this gospel I did not receive from men, but this gospel that I preached to you, I was taught, I was given by a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the message that comes from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that the same Apostle Paul can say to the Corinthians when he comes, I did not come to you with lofty words of wisdom and high speech, but rather I came to you with much fear and trembling.

I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And my preaching, my communication to you was not with wisdom of men, but rather was with a demonstration of the power of the Spirit, so that your faith may not rest upon the wisdom of men, but that your faith may rest upon the Spirit and of power. The Apostle said, my fearness, or my being afraid, and my trembling when I came to you, was a demonstration that the truth of the message that I was preaching to you was not human, but was coming from the mouth of God. This is the same what the apostle says to the Thessalonians. Remember when he comes to Thessalonica, he praises God because people on Thessalonica did not receive the words of the apostle and the words of Silvanus as the words of men, but they received those words as the words of God.

And the manifestation and confirmation and demonstration of it was that those words or the power of that spirit bore fruit in the Thessalonians. That's why beloved of Christ, the same apostle Paul, when he's defending his ministry in 2 Corinthians chapter three, he says, do you want me to defend myself? Do you want me to give you my credentials? Do you want me to show you that I'm also an apostle? And then he says, look to your hearts.

I don't need written letters of confirmation over my apostleship. If you see in your heart, now you have written in your heart the power of God, not in tablets of stone, but they are written in your hearts. He says, examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith in the end of 2 Corinthians. Not so much to call them to self-examination for the sake of being or not in Christ, but he says, because you are in Christ, And the fact that when you examine yourself and you are in Christ, it is a proof that when I came to you, I preach as an apostle of the Lord and the words that was speaking were the words of the Holy Spirit. These humble men were carried and moved by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And every time, beloved of Christ, that a mouth is spoken, or a mouth is opened better, and words are uttered, or words are spoken, and those words penetrate the heart of a person, is because those words have not been spoken by the man who is uttering the words, but by the Spirit of God. The Apostle John in 1 John speaks of us having the anointing of the Spirit. He speaks of the children of God, those who have believed, having the testimony of the Spirit in us. And while when we speak, we don't produce holy scripture, the Spirit of God speaks through the church. Brothers and sisters, it will be diminishing the work of the Holy Spirit to believe that a proper articulation of a truth is sufficient to save the life and the soul of a person who is in enmity with God.

Every time that a person is genuinely saved, And every time that a person is genuinely edified and conformed to Jesus Christ, it's because God has spoken to that person. And God speaks to that person through men. Now, the words that those people speak are, again, not holy scripture, because there was a time for us to receive the scriptures of God. But there is a sense in which a person, when they open their mouth, and that is aligned to the will and the heart of God, then that, those words, are the words of God, and the result of it should be either that the flesh and the deceitfulness of Satan operating in a person rejects those words, or that that person is saved and furthermore edified. This is the glorious power of the Spirit of God operating through sinful men That is, the preaching of the Word is to be done, not with lofty speech, not with wisdom of men, but rather the preaching of the Word and the teaching of the Word is to be done through and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Beloved of Christ, you see this exhortation that is given by the Apostle in verse 19 only makes sense when we understand that the edification of the saint happens only through the preaching of the word that is done in the power of the Holy Spirit. So he says, he sees the urgency of this being a real experience in the Christian. He says, and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed. But it is that God speaks to us, and by speaking to us, he's going to give a scripture. And that written word is fully confirmed that that is the word of God.

But the exhortation is not so to the confirmation of the word, but rather, he says, to which you will do well to pay attention or to take heed. You do well to take heed to this word that has been confirmed to the apostles. You see, beloved of Christ, when I saw when you are rejecting and when you have a heart that is cold, indifferent, when you have a heart that is bored by the preaching of the word, that is sleepy, enduring the preaching of the word, when you have a heart that is departed, from the words of God. This speaks not of a relationship that you have with the preacher, or a relationship that you have with the word that has been spoken, but a relationship that you have with God. A relationship that you ultimately have with God, because the words that we have in this book, when the words that we have that are preached and that we believe are the commandment of the Lord, of the coming together and the preaching of the word, those are the words of God.

And brothers and sisters, the Christian life comes down to this. What do you believe about the Word of God? That is, in other words, do you believe the Word of God? That comes down absolutely to only that question. Do you believe the words of God or not?

I'm not speaking about, I believe in a word of God, humanly speaking and with the mind, but do you believe that the words that are in front of us are indeed the words of God? Because your relationship to the words of God is going to be defined by that reality. And your life is going to be defined by that reality. What does the Word of God say about this particular matter? Where am I?

Is there a gap? Why? Is it sin? Or is it that I don't believe it? And then the life of the Christian comes down to trust and obey, because there's no other way to be happy in Jesus rather than trust and obey.

It is just paying attention to what he says, and you either believe it or not. And now, The answer to that question, beloved of Christ, is not answered in your mind when you defend sola scriptura, I have my Bible and I read it. That is answered in your life. It says, verse 19, you will do well to take heed, or in the ESV, it says to pay attention to this confirmed word. Why?

Because it's a lamp that is shining, or it is shining in darkness. There is darkness, there is a world of utter darkness. And the world of God is the light, is the lamp that is illuminating the way in the midst of all of this darkness. But he continues and he says, until the day dawns and the morning sun rises in your hearts. That is that until completeness of light appears in your heart.

until the fullness of the light that is required takes captive your heart. Until everything that is to be found in you is only the light of the Word of God. And that is going to happen in glory, in the coming of the Savior. But until that particular point, We are to take heed of the word of God, pay attention to this prophetic word that has been fully confirmed through the lips of the apostles and the prophets, and that this word is going to bring much light and illumination to the heart. Beloved of Christ, as I said to the men on Friday, there is fullness of life in Christ when Christ abides in us and the way that Christ abides in us is when his words abide in us is when all the dirtiness and all the wickedness all the unrighteousness that you have in your heart and in your mind are cleansed by the living water of Christ as it is poured into your heart and all the unrighteousness that it is in you progressively and surely by the promise of the Spirit comes out of your heart and then this morning star which is Christ rises in your heart and your heart is start to be filled with much light and all darkness is left behind and you progress to Him.

This has been given to us by the precious treasure of the Word of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Fools despise the words of instruction, the words of understanding that are given to us by our greater Solomon, the Lord Jesus Christ. Fools despise this glorious counsel that comes from the divine mouth of God. Not only fool, but the one that is dead, and the one that is cold, and the one that is hardened.

Beloved of Christ, our relationship to the person of Jesus Christ, it is not only, but it is very, very well measured by our relationship to the word of God. If we indeed believe that God has spoken to us and that is contained here in the scripture, then our soul should be given entirely to this, to treasure this in our hearts so that we will live our lives according to what he has said. But you see, the condemnation of better, the attack of Satan against the church was has been and will be always against the word and the truth of the word of God. Has God said? Has God indeed said?

Is it true what God said? Not so much attacking the truth of the scripture, but the character of the one who spoke. That's why you are not to disconnect the written word from the living word and from the character of God. The life of the Christian utterly depends on the word of God. Beloved of Christ, we can answer even right now this question of where is our heart when it comes to the Word of God, not a book that I have in front of me, but the words that come out of the mouth of God.

Because those who are genuinely in Christ, and genuinely growing in likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ, desire and are carried along, are moved and are followers of the words of God. Because there's another option, beloved Christ. And that other option is what the apostle said in the very beginning, these cleverly devised myths. This is the other option, you see? It is not a matter by what are we drawn, or what do we follow, or what it is carrying and moving us.

There's no option, you see? A person is either moved and carried along and moved by the power of God that is making him or her like the person of Jesus Christ through the power of the Word, or a person is being following or being moved or being carried by these cleverly devised myths. When the Apostle Paul was writing to Timothy in 1st Timothy, he said, as I urge you to remain at Ephesus that you might catch certain persons not to teach other doctrine. Why? Because these people were devoting themselves to myths, which is exactly what the apostle speaks here in verse 16, that it is that men who were supposed to be teachers in the church And men who were supposed to be preaching the words of God had devoted themselves to endless genealogies and devoted themselves to myths, these cleverly devised myths, and they were swerving away.

They were deviating from the truth. These are cleverly devised. These are sophisticated in the Greek. Sophisticated, high, exalted, lofty thoughts that they are not contrary and completely opposite to the truth, but that they seem to be the truth and they're so sophisticated and they have the power to move people away. This is what the apostle says to Timothy, right?

In 2 Timothy, if you go there, 2 Timothy chapter four. This is the fearful warning, beloved of Christ, the fearful warning that the apostle gives to Timothy. It says, I charge you in verse one, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

Why? For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching. Beloved of Christ, endurance until the end is an endurance in the truth of the word of God as it is clearly preached from the mouth of God to the heart of the recipient. It is an endurance in the truth who will not endure sound teaching. They will not be able to hold it.

But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into. meets the same cleverly devised myths that Apostle Peter speaks in 2 Peter 1, verse 16, that people will not endure in the truth, that they have received the truth as it is exhorting and rebuking and confronting and teaching in righteousness, that they not endure the words, why? Because of their carnality, you see? When we feel offended at the preaching of the word, and when we feel this offense, this is our flesh that is insulted. This is the offense to our carnality.

And there's some that will not endure, that some will be offended so much at Christ that they will depart, that they will not endure this sound complete a teaching, but rather, they will accumulate for themselves people that will speak according to their own passions, because they have itching ears, so they want to hear a particular something, so they will go to that particular person that says that particular something, deviating from the truth as if they were deviating from a preacher or from men, but deviating indeed from God into cleverly devised It is not a question of what people are moved or carried on or brought or taken. It is a question of if we are hearing and following the words of God. And it's a question of if we are enduring in the truth of the words of God. And it's a question of if we desire to apprehend the truth of the word. It's a question if we have indeed in our hearts the genuine desire to abide in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and to die to self and to be more like the person of Jesus Christ.

Because the more that the word of Christ is poured into your heart, the more that you will die. The more that you will decrease and that he will increase. And this is going to cause pain in the flesh. But when you see the glory that is to come and the morning star that is rising in you, the light that is brought to completeness within you, then the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is that which empowers you to count everything as loss, everything as rubbish, so that you can say that you are crucified with Christ and that you have been resurrected in the power, in the same power that resurrected him. Beloved of Christ, don't take these as empty words that go just simply over our heads.

There is fullness of life at the hand of Christ, at the feet of Christ. But when you choose the better portion, when you choose the better portion, and that is to abide and to remain at the feet of the Savior, hearing and listening his word and feeling your heart, there is no time for us to play Christianity. Beloved of Christ, each one of you, there's no time for the Christian and for the church to continue to play Christianity in times in which the world is in urgent need to receive the words, not of men, but the words of God. In times in which there's hundreds and thousands of people who consider themselves to be Christians and are on their way to hell, there is no time for us to just hold to political correctness and not to preach the full counsel of the words of God. There is no time to lead lives of lovelessness and not speak the words that God has for the people.

There's no time for us to not to choose be salt and light to this world. There's no time for us to give ourselves to temporary things that are passing away and not to things that are eternal because beloved of Christ, the greater benefit that you can do to those whom you love is that you show them Jesus Christ The greater benefit that you can do to those who are around you is that you show them Jesus Christ, that when you open your mouth, that the countenance of your face is not a countenance fallen of Cain, but it is the countenance of Christ that shines in glory. It is the words of Christ that exhort, that convict, the words of Christ that bring conformity to the Savior. There is no time. There's no time, today is the day of salvation for the lost and edification for the one who is in Christ, that the church, beloved of Christ, might be indeed empowered, empowered, not with lofty wisdom of men, not with the idolatry of intelligence, not with the idolatry of intellect and books, but with the heart that is given utterly to the wisdom that comes from the greater Solomon.

the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when a man or a woman has been in the presence of Christ, when the hand of the Savior has been upon a man or a woman of Christ, when a man has been in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you know and are influenced by the power of those words that are coming through that man. Beloved of Christ, that we might be carried, empowered, encouraged, nourished by the Spirit of Jesus Christ in us. Now we might enjoy the fact that we're dying to self, but more than that, that we might have a greater joy to see Jesus Christ formed in us. Amen?