God Told Me? - [2 Peter 1:16-21]

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Well, it is great to be back here at my home church. I've been on vacation the last two weeks at a place that makes
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Massachusetts seem conservative, and that is Santa Cruz, California.
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And it's good worshipping with the saints over there, but I wanted them always to sing a cappella, the last stanza, because I'm so used to that now.
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And I was thinking, you know, you can train your congregation to sing better if they're forced to sing a cappella, the last stanza.
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It is great to be back. I'll be here for a couple weeks, back to California for a conference and some more vacation, and then back, and then
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South Africa. And so I want to say thank you to the men here and all the faithful ministers who, while I'm gone, it's nice to be able to go.
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And I think I need a little more volume, Brian. Can you hear me up there? Good. No, not really.
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I like loud. I don't think you should ever sit in a congregation and have to go, what did he say? I always have one message to the sound room people, and wherever I go, louder.
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There you go. Plus, I'm a little tired, and I said to Steve this morning, or last night, if it's 10 o 'clock and I'm not there at church tomorrow, don't panic.
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If it's 10 .15, begin to panic. We've been working through the book of Matthew, the great story of the king,
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King Jesus, and we've come to his manifesto in Matthew 5 to 7, otherwise known as the Sermon on the
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Mount. But since I'll be in and out the next several weeks and the next two months, I want to deviate from the
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Sermon on the Mount and hallowed be thy name and address a subject that I like to address wherever I go and speak, whether that is in Germany or India.
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As a matter of fact, I'll preach this passage in South Africa as well, and that is from the book of 2
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Peter. If you'll open your Bibles to 2 Peter. This morning we need to address this issue, again with next week's sermon.
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Is the Bible enough? Is the Bible clear? Is the Bible sufficient?
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Is the Bible, in fact, all you need? There are competing philosophies in the world, especially those that would say,
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God told me, God spoke to me, God gave me an impression, God led me,
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God has helped me see circumstances in such a way that it surely must be the hand of God.
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There are people probably in this room that will put out some kind of fleece, a Gideon -like fleece to get some kind of guidance from God.
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God, I have a difficult decision, I have to make a choice, no choice is still a choice, and God, I need wisdom and I need help.
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That's actually a good thing to do. It's what we do after that statement that can be problematic.
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And it was no different in Peter's day. Peter was dealing with all kinds of false teachers, and they were saying lots of things, and they were especially saying, you know,
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Jesus is never going to come back. And some of them could have even said, you know, God has told me, Jesus isn't going to come back.
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God has spoken to my heart, God has led me, God has given me an impression. And we'll focus on 2
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Peter to make sure we all understand this morning, something you as a congregation I know do, in fact, embrace.
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And that is that the Bible is sufficient, we adhere to sola scriptura, we need nothing else, and my privilege this morning is to come alongside of you and reteach you that and then say, are you sure you really believe it?
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By your practice, by your methods, are you really believing the truth that we have an...
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Sorry. It's been 21 days since I preached, and so I feel like I'm just trying to remain calm.
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I usually go about 7 days, 8 days without preaching, and I start getting apoplectic.
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And now it's been 3 weeks. I'm just saying to myself, hold on, brother.
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We have an objective guide. God has spoken. He has spoken clearly, He has not stuttered,
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He has not murmured, and we need to make sure we embrace this in not just our theological minds, but also in the way we live.
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And if I have a purpose this morning, that is to take the Scriptures, and by the Spirit's help, focus them down to a point so you're forced to say,
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I in fact believe that the Scriptures are sufficient and the only reliable guide. It's almost like a magnifying glass.
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Remember magnifying glasses when you were a kid, especially you young men? You'd get this convex piece of glass, and if you held it just at the right focal point, above a little bug, it would cause something to happen, and it would burn.
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As a matter of fact, in the old days, they had these things called burning glasses or burning mirrors, and that's how they would start fires.
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As a matter of fact, one story in the about 1100s, they tried to get 48 mirrors on the side of a beach and would try to reflect the sun's rays towards these incoming ships to try to burn them.
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Well, I hope to try to burn this truth into your brain. I hope to try to just focus this passage in 2
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Peter in your mind so that you'll never be led astray by those that would say, it's the
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Bible, comma, plus something else. The Bible's sufficient, but you don't understand this.
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And if you don't think it's around the church, 10 years ago, experiencing God by black, he came in and took the church by storm, and the undercurrent regarding that whole thing was, the
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Bible is sufficient, but. In other words, this morning,
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I'm going to try through the Scripture's power to teach you this truth. The Bible is reliable, and you have an objective, exhaustive, authoritative truth.
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I don't want you to make decisions like some Christian rock stars have made. God has told me it's okay to divorce my husband because he wants me to be happy.
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Do you know that happens? God told me this. And this passage is going to require us to say, when people say
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God told me, and don't quote a Bible verse, they're really saying this euphemism. I've decided, and this appeals to me, it will have nothing to do with God speaking.
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God has spoken, and if he has not spoken, we are going to be in trouble. And the people in Peter's day would have been in trouble as well.
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The moment these folks under Peter's ministry would say to themselves, Scripture is less than final, it's less than authoritative, it's less than the exclamation point of God, it is less than a past tense written book, it's going to be chaos.
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So let's go to 2 Peter, and we're going to work through verses 16 through 21 in the first chapter.
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The second letter of Peter. Of course, Peter wrote this book. It's amazing how many people don't think he did, but we of course believe that he did, because if you look at chapter 1, verse 1,
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Simon Peter. Which Simon Peter? The slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.
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And he's writing to other Christians. To those, verse 1, who have received a faith of the same kind as ours.
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How do you get this faith? By the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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And so Peter, as you know from Steve's preaching the last few weeks, and over the last year as he's been in 1
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Peter, is ministering to suffering Christians in the light of Jesus' return. Christ will soon return.
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There's an imminency, an expectancy, and they long for that day because they're suffering on earth.
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Peter wants to encourage them in 1 Peter. In 2 Peter, Peter is dealing with scoffers, false teachers, who are saying,
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Jesus is never going to come. And let me tell you why, they'll say.
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And if you go over to chapter 3, it kind of summarizes the whole book, kind of gives you a purpose of why
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Peter is writing. You'll notice in chapter 3, verse 1. This is now, beloved, the second letter
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I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of our
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Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. I'm going to try to stir this up in your mind.
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It's like a big stick in a cauldron, and I'm going to stir these things up so you'll remember them. And it's all taking place in this atmosphere, verse 3.
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Know this, first of all, that in the last days, post -Christ resurrection last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, nothing to do with following God.
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And how do these self -proclaimed prophets preach?
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They say this, verse 4. Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.
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It's the uniformitarian philosophy. Same old, same old, everything's the same. You mean
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Jesus is really going to come back? This is important because if you don't think Jesus is going to come back, it will affect the way you live.
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So Peter's whole argument, going back to chapter 1, please, is an argument against the false teachers who say
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Jesus will not return. So what do you tell a group of people like this, who have these false teachers, some charismatic, some persuasive, some eloquent,
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Jesus isn't going to come back. And who's Peter? Who's Paul? These men aren't natural -born leaders and kind of American Marlboro men.
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They're weak, they're fragile, they're frail. But with apostolic authority,
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Peter says, let me first tell you that your salvation is assured. And you can notice that in chapter 1, verses 5 through verse 11.
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Although these false teachers will tell you Jesus isn't coming back, don't forget, you're saved and nothing can undo the work of God.
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People ask all the time, can you lose your salvation? The question really is, can Jesus lose a Christian? Jesus can't lose a
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Christian. It is the Father who has chosen before time, the Son who has died for those chosen ones, and then the
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Spirit makes alive those chosen ones. And so in the midst of false teachers, in the midst of suffering, you're safe, you're secure, you're not going to lose your salvation.
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And then he goes into verses 12 and following to say, I want to convince you that the apostolic writings are true.
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Matter of fact, if you did a little study sometime in 2 Peter, and look up the word knowledge, knowledge,
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K -N -O -W -L -E -D -G, you'll find it in some form or another 16 times in the book of 2
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Peter. Knowledge, you have to know, this is a religion, this is a religion that says you've got to use your mind to love the
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Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and strength. You've got to know real doctrine.
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Doctrine is important. And Peter wants to encourage them. He wants to strengthen them. He wants
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Christians to have certainty. Ron Farrar, where are you, Ron? Right there.
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Can I tell the story of what you told me before the service? I mean, what are you going to do? Say no? No, Pastor, you can't.
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Ron said, I'm so glad to be here today, because the world I live in and these doctorate classes and these philosophy classes, nothing can be certain.
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Everything is gray, everything is relative. I don't know anything. That's not what
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Ron said. They don't know anything. And it's good today to just tuck yourself underneath the preaching of the
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Word to know for certain. It's no different back then as it is today.
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We need to know for certain that there is truth. And if you had to summarize in one sentence, 2
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Peter 1, verses 16 through 21, it is this, that Christian truth is objectively certain.
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The objective certainty of the Christian faith and scriptures. And since it's certain, since it's final, since it's complete, we don't need to go someplace else.
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Now, how are we going to approach this passage? In the Civil War, there were some Yankees who ran out of, because you can't really give this illustration of the
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South, but the Yankees, they ran out of their ammunition. And they were on this ridge, and their commander said on this ridge, we can't lose this ridge or we've lost the battle.
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Fix bayonets. Confederates were so stunned, the story goes, that they fled.
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And the ridge today for our message is the certainty of the Bible, and it can't be lost in your spiritual battle or the battle is over.
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So I'm going to give you three fixed bayonet charges, so you'll hold your ground, so you'll hold the ridge for your own protection and for the honor and glory of Christ Jesus and His words.
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In other words, three irrefutable, objective Christian truths that should re -motivate you to trust the
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Bible as the only infallible guide. Fixed bayonet charge number one.
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You should see the Bible as reliable because of its apostolic witness. You should see the
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Bible as reliable because of its apostolic witness. It is reliable because the apostles have heard and seen this gospel with their own ears, with their own eyes.
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Look at 2 Peter 1, verse 16. For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
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He's just got done talking about spiritual assurance, spiritual growth, and now he's moving forward and he says, if you look at the first word in verse 16, for, and he's talking about this objective certainty of Christian truth and now he's introducing his justification for this fact.
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The apostles have seen and heard. They weren't making it up. It was not some kind of peyote trip.
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It wasn't a cunningly devised fable. It wasn't some kind of fairy tale.
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It wasn't Esau's fables. It wasn't some kind of myth or something. Matter of fact, the word here for cleverly devised tales was a word that sometimes back in those
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Bible days was applied to a medicine doctor, a quack doctor. You know, you meet the snake oil salesman and Peter is saying, we didn't follow spiritual snake oil salesman.
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That's not what we did. Not some quack doctor. Some fictional tale.
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It's not even historical fiction. There's whole sections now in the bookstores. You ever notice that? Historical fiction.
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Okay, that's good marketing. There's another SKU. Here's fiction, here's nonfiction, here's historical fiction. Peter says there's something true and then there's something false.
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And no matter what you label that false with, oh, this is true, this is proper. It's not.
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It's not what we were after. We didn't follow any of that. We didn't pursue them with some kind of deferring authority.
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And if you take a look at the passage, we didn't follow that when we made known to you the power and coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. The false teachers are saying Jesus won't return and we told you he's going to return.
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And when we told you he's going to return, we didn't consult myth 101. So much so that when we talked about his, literally, his powerful coming, so much so that when we talked about Jesus as he would ride in on his white horse like a triumphant king back in those days would, we were, what's the text say?
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Eyewitnesses of his majesty. And here's what Peter does. Don't miss this. Peter is going to talk about how he was there at the transfiguration and the transfiguration is a preview to the second coming.
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Second coming is going to happen for lots of reasons. One of the reasons it's going to happen is this was just a little taste, the transfiguration, of what was really going to come.
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This splendorous act of Christ in the transfiguration was a precursor to his real, full, complete second coming.
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When was this particular eyewitness watching?
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Verse 17. Let's see how I can phrase that better. When was this particularly when he was an eyewitness of his majesty?
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After all, Jesus was on earth for a long time and Peter was an eyewitness for a long time, but we find the specifics in verse 17.
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For when he received, Jesus received, honor and glory from God the Father. Well, when might that be?
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He's received honor and glory and acknowledgement from God the
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Father on several occasions. Such is an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory.
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What a cool name for God, if I could say so. What a wonderful name. His glory, his majestic glory.
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When was it? This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Peter is saying, what particular incident has happened that we can say we saw that was a precursor to the second coming and I experienced with my ears and my eyes, it was this case right here, when the
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God the Father who says, I won't give my glory to another, says to Jesus, you have glory, you have honor.
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The majestic glory, the mega glory, literally. The great glory. And what did
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God the Father say then at the transfiguration? This is my beloved Son. By the way, beloved means highest type of love, most precious love.
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And then he says, and he said across his ministry through the ages, in whom I am well pleased.
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Then if you look at verse 18, Peter says, and we ourselves, who's we ourselves?
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Who are the people at the transfiguration? Peter, James, and John. We ourselves heard this.
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First of all, I've seen it with my eyes, and now I'm also an ear witness. I've heard this utterance made from heaven.
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It wasn't from within my spirit. It wasn't kind of some within my heart. It wasn't from inside.
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This is external. This is outside source. I heard this when it was made from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain.
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Let's back up a little bit. Books about false teachers. Peter's saying, I was there, and the false teachers were not there.
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They weren't there. I saw with my eyes, and I heard with my ears. Therefore, you should trust us.
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The false teachers were not there. It's a good study sometime to see how
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Jesus has invested his apostles with authority, and some authority even to write the
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Bible. Well, Peter's working his way through, and he says, number one, you should believe the
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Bible is true. You should believe what the apostles have said. Is it related?
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He gives another bayonet charge, and this is where I want to dive in today. The second bayonet charge, fixed bayonet, is that you should see the
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Bible as sure because it always trumps experience. You, congregation, Bethlehem Bible Church, should see the
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Bible as sure because it always trumps experience. This is probably a ten -week series right here, but I like preaching fast, and so here we go.
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It's hot. It's hot up here. The Bible trumps experience, and so what does
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Peter say? Remember, Peter just said, I've seen Jesus. I've heard the Father talk. I've seen the dove come down, as it were, and that probably should be enough, but he said there's something that's better than that, and so we have the prophetic word made more sure.
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Let me repeat that. And so we have the prophetic word made more sure. Peter is now bringing in another reason to make sure you know, readers of 2
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Peter, that Jesus is going to come back. First of all, he says, I've seen the precursor. I've seen
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Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. I have seen it. Not a false teacher, but I, the apostle, the chosen one of Christ.
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But not only that, there's something that's more important, and he introduces that here. You can personally know for sure that Jesus is going to come back because there's something more important than the experience, even, of an apostle, and that is what?
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And you know what, congregation? I'm preaching to the choir right now. We have the Word of God. The Word of God.
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It's only one Greek word, but it's two English words, and it might be the two most important Greek words in this whole book.
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2 Peter, more sure. We've got something sure, and apostles saw it and heard it, but we've got something more sure than apostles' experience.
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We have an ongoing having. We have this thing that's more sure.
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Peter says, here's experience, and where would the Bible go? Equal, under, or over?
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We have something made not just as sure, but more sure than experience.
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More permanent, more complete, more authoritative. Go over with me, if you would, to Luke 24.
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I don't want to get too sidetracked, but this is just such a passage. In my notes, I wrote, wow, and if I'm wowed by it,
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I want to wow you with it. Luke 24. Luke 24, verse 31.
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It's not that often you get to talk to Jesus on the road. Luke 24, 31, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized
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Him, Jesus, and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, verse 32, were not our hearts burning within us while we saw
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Him? Here's Jesus. And they could have said, you know what? I saw Jesus. I saw
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Jesus. That should confirm it right there. I saw Jesus. But what is more comforting? What is more confirming?
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What is more encouraging than even seeing Jesus? And they said to one another, were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the
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Scriptures to us? That's even better than having Jesus there. Is Jesus the incarnate word describing the
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Word of God? It's all about the Word of God. Our eyes can trick us.
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Do you know what? Your heart can trick you. Your biggest enemy in the world is not on the outside.
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It's not a person. It's not a thing. It's not an enemy, an entity. It is your own heart that is desperately what?
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Wicked. We trick ourselves. I'm going to get ahead of myself, but I'm going to say it because I can tell you're looking tired.
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It's one of the worst things you could ever do is say, I have a huge decision to make, and I think I'll do this. I think
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I won't eat for two weeks and just pray a lot and then make my decision. Friends, talk about that in a little bit.
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You can tell I'm just pacing. I'm like, do I say things about fasting? Don't I say things about fasting? The point here is we have the
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Word. If you have a decision to make, why don't you study the Word for a couple of weeks? Dive into that. Now let's go over to Mark chapter 9 and take a little closer look at the transfiguration.
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And we want to see Moses standing in the promised land. Remember, Moses was not allowed to go in the promised land, but he made it.
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And here's Moses standing in the promised land. He died on Mount Nebo. God killed him. He was still healthy, and God buried him so nobody could dig him up and worship his cuff links like they did
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George Whitefield, even though Moses had no cuff links. George Whitefield did.
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They dug up his cuff links and held them out before they went to battle and got slaughtered and then realized, maybe that wasn't such a good little talisman anyway.
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Let's put those back. But here Moses is going to be there. But Moses is going to be there and fade away so all the focus is going to be on Jesus.
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Mark 9 too. Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, brought them up on a high mountain by themselves, and Jesus was transfigured before them.
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Maybe it was Mount Hermon. That's a high mountain. Tabor is probably too small. Mountains were often a place where God would reveal himself and speak.
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But that's not the issue where it was. It's what took place. And Luke says they went up there to pray, and here we have
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Jesus transfigured. What does transfigured mean? It means metamorphosis.
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It means that what Jesus was on the inside came out on the outside. He didn't pull his skin back, but in essence that was what was happening.
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Jesus, the majestic glory himself, is radiating out of his skin, through his skin.
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We don't know the details, but literally the shining, the Shekinah glory is beaming out.
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His glory was being seen. His frail humanity, not the focus.
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I like this verse as a little insight. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
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Glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. And that was talking about when his skin was cloaked on.
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Here we have this glory of God beaming out. Luke says Jesus' face became different.
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It was altered. Look at Mark 9 .3. His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
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The passage in Matthew says that his face shone like the sun. His garments were like white light, shining, white, dazzling.
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Moses, the glory of God, shines off of his face. Jesus, the glory of God, shines out from him, since he is
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God. Jesus is light, and there in him is no darkness at all. Daniel would say,
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I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His vestiture was like white wool, and the hair of his head was like pure wool.
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His throne was ablaze with flames. You maybe have the white -capped summit of Mount Hermon, and then against that you've got the backdrop of this glory of God.
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What else happens? Verse 4. Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Can you imagine?
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Moses has been dead for 1400 years, Elijah has been dead for 900 years, and now the three of them just began to talk.
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And they were speaking. By the way, the text says in the Greek that they were speaking for a long time. It was a lengthy conversation.
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And I don't think they were talking about the merits of open theism, or should women be pastors, something like that.
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I don't think that's it. What are the Jesus Seminar highlights? What about ecumenical movement? Wild Hearts, a great book.
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I don't think they were saying any of those things. Would you pay money to find out what they were talking about?
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I would pay. How much money would it take for you to give so you would understand what they were talking about?
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I could just know. Oh, I do know what they were talking about.
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I know exactly what they were talking about, because God told me. Oh no, just kidding.
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No, how would I know? I would only know because the text says. And Luke 9 .31
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says, and they were speaking of Jesus's departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
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And guess what the word departure is in the Greek? Exodus. They were talking about Jesus's exodus.
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As God redeemed Israelites out of Egypt, he brought them out, so too there was a greater redemption for sin and its consequences.
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This was deliberate. They were reminding themselves about the pinnacle of Israel's history, and that is not the exodus account in Genesis.
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Exodus. This is the real exodus. This is the new exodus. This is the new Passover. They were talking about the cross.
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Jesus is on his way to the cross for the true exodus. And that's what they were talking about over and over and over, bringing
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God's people out of bondage and slavery to sin. I think they were encouraging
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Jesus. Jesus is still fully man -remembered besides being fully God, and what kind of talk that he was going to do that, and assuring him that he would finish his work.
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Who knows what they might have said? But certainly they're confirming that work. They were talking about it. They know what Jesus was going to do.
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And basically, why did Moses and Elijah show up? Any significance? Well, because every messianic prophecy,
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Elijah was fulfilled in Christ. All Mosaic law fulfilled in Christ.
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And by the way, what they were talking about on earth, I think we will talk about forever in heaven. The exodus.
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The cross. When you see Jesus and his pierced side and pierced hands and feet, you'll think of the exodus.
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Moses said in Exodus 33, I pray thee, God, show me thy glory. 1400 years answered prayer.
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I see your glory. It's been 600 years since there's been any kind of glory at all.
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I wonder what Peter was doing. It says in verse 32,
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Now Peter and his companions had been overcome with sleep, but when they were fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
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Who knows, maybe it's a long climb, kind of higher elevation, you're getting a little tired. But now they see.
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And Peter has some wrong transfiguration etiquette. Verse 5 of chapter 9 of Mark.
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Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it's good for us to be here. Let's make three tabernacles. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
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Doesn't sound that bad yet, does it? Kind of nice. Steeped in the culture and the
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Bible days. We just want to settle down. We don't want to leave here. Let's camp here.
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Maybe it's millennial kingdoms here. Zechariah 14. It's what you do in the millennial kingdom is you build a tabernacle, a tent.
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But the text says in verse 6, For he did not know what to answer, for they became terrified. It wasn't that Jesus even asked a question.
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But after seeing that, it demanded an answer. And his answer wasn't very good. Luke says that he didn't realize what he was saying, because he was frightened and you would be too.
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He was terrified. The Greek word is ekphoboi. Phobia.
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This is not some kind of boo. This is afraid. Aghast by dread,
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Wycliffe translated it. King James translates it, and they were sore afraid.
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God interrupts. I don't want you to think about how you feel, what you're doing. You're thinking the wrong way.
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I'm going to interrupt you and teach you the right way to think. And he always does that with Revelation. Then a cloud formed,
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Mark 9 .7, overshadowing them. And a voice came out of their hearts and said, this is all there for a reason.
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When you study the Bible, you need to ask yourself the question, why was that there, and why wasn't something else there?
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I like it when people say, you know, I learned a lot about the church today when you preached, but I learned more by what you didn't say than what you said.
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This is my beloved Son. Listen to Torah. There's Moses.
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There's Elijah. Certainly the Scriptures are to be revered, and they're inspired, and they're profitable. But here comes
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Jesus. You are to listen to Jesus. He is the fulfillment. Hear Him.
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By the way, Moses said this in Deuteronomy 18 .15, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen.
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You shall listen to Him. That's exactly what Jesus is to receive.
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Listening to. Obedience. Listen to Him, God the Father says. By the way, for those who think that there's no such thing as a trinity, this is not some kind of Father, Son, and Spirit, you know, different modes when we drive by Unitarian churches.
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I always say to the kids, Unitarian, what's that mean? Bad? When you ride a bicycle, it's got one wheel, what kind of bicycle is it?
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It is a unicycle. And when you don't believe there's Father, Son, and Spirit, it is not a triune
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God. If you believe only one manifests itself as the Father, then the Son, and now the Spirit, that is a
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Unitarian. These kind of verses will drive them crazy.
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And I think they need to be driven crazy under repentance because we have the Father, Son, and Spirit, one
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God, and here we have the Father saying about the Son, listen to Him.
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Why? Because in these last days God has spoken to us through His Son, Hebrews chapter 1.
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Don't listen to your heart, don't listen to yourself, don't listen to your false teachers, don't listen to Elijah, don't listen to Moses, listen to Jesus.
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Look at signs, don't wait for the Holy Spirit to talk to you, listen to Jesus.
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And then all of a sudden something amazing happens, verse 8, all at once, they looked around and saw no one with them anymore except Jesus.
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God the Father said, listen to Jesus, and by the way, if you don't get that point, let me remove those other two that you might be wanting to follow.
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And what would you do if that happened? Well Matthew says, when the disciples heard this they fell on their faces and were much afraid.
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They were afraid before and now they're even more afraid. The thunder of God's voice. They are extra afraid.
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Only Jesus is around. And Jesus kindly, generously, compassionately says in Matthew 17, arise and do not be afraid.
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Hear Jesus, not Torah. Hear Jesus, not false teachers. The illusions of Moses and Jesus couldn't be more evident.
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Six days, six days, mountain, mountain, divine presence, divine presence, the voice, the cloud, the shining face, divine revelation, all pointing to Jesus alone as the final revelation of God.
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And if you ask Moses, well you know, God told me, I had an impression, I had a feeling. Moses would say, you've got to go to Torah.
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And now we're having the trump card even over Torah, Jesus is the final revelation. Peter is saying this,
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I had an experience, I saw Jesus and heard the Father. But I've got something that is more trustworthy than seeing
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Jesus and hearing the Father and that is what? The Word of God. I know you haven't seen
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Jesus or heard the Father, but I know you have the Word. Why would we go anywhere else?
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Why would we want to trust ourselves? Listen to Jesus. That's an imperative command by the way. Listen to Him.
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False teacher is coming in. Jesus isn't coming back. Peter says, I've seen the Son, I've heard the
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Father and I've got the Word of God. But he says, let me just give you a little more insight. Go back a second to Peter chapter 1 for our final fixed bayonet charge so you can hold the ground.
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The society, the world, sadly many churches are moving away from the objective certainty of Christian truth and they're going to experience and feelings.
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I typed in this morning at home, God told me, into Google. You'd be amazed what you get.
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God told me. It's pretty hard to argue with. God told me that to do this and that.
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Well, what are you going to say? False teachers were running around saying that all the time.
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So Peter said, the Bible is reliable because the apostles have seen and heard. The Bible is reliable because even though they've seen and heard, there's something better than seeing and hearing and that is having the
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Word. And then lastly, in verses 20 -21, the final fixed bayonet charge is that you, congregation, should see the
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Bible as certain because of its divine origins. Verses 20 -21. The origin of the prophetic
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Word. Man did not write the Bible. Of course, he penned it through the
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Spirit's power, but how would Peter describe that? Peter would describe it this way in verses 20 -21.
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But know this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the
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Holy Spirit spoke from God. I don't like that word, interpretation.
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It messes us up. The New International Version does the same thing. No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.
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He's not talking about that's your interpretation, this is my interpretation. He's talking about what?
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Revelation. Information coming from God. This didn't come out of our own gullet, our own gizzard, our own imagination.
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This comes from an external, outside source. Different. Away. The Bible didn't originate in the minds of some men.
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Not just making it up like the false teachers in context of the book, know this first of all.
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Do you see that in verse 20? Ye do well is actually jammed up to the front.
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You do well. This is important. When God speaks, it wasn't because they made it up.
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They were like a sailboat having its sail up and a wind coming along driving that boat where the wind wanted it to go.
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And here we have the Spirit of God like a breath or a wind driving the ship of Apostles exactly where God wanted them to go.
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We're going to talk about that a little bit more next week, but I want to get into a couple catch words so we can have something to think about as we go today.
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In light of this truth congregation, would you make sure you do not replace theology with autobiography?
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Autobiography, to quote David Wells. I don't want you to take the theology you get from the Word and replace it with what happened to you, autobiography.
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As doctrine decreases, experience and its importance goes up.
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Personal experience, beloved, is never a basis for reality.
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Listen to what Frederick Dale Bruner said. The test of anything calling itself
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Christian is not its significance or its success or its power, though these make the test more imperative.
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The test is truth. And even a very studious, scholarly, charismatic named
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Gordon Fee said that if you're not careful, you will exegete your experience.
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You can't say I've had an experience and that is my building block and my foundation now for truth.
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That's exactly what the false teachers did. And I'm not saying that everybody that does that is a false teacher. I'm just saying if the false teachers have a characteristic, you probably ought not to do that.
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The Word is truth. And by the way, what would we do, taken to its extreme logically, if there are ten false teachers up here and they're all saying something about God that's different?
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One man said, if we begin to accept truth based on what has happened, even to fellow believers, we have no basis for rejecting the truth claims of any other religious doctrine.
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How can you say no to a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness if they've said, I've experienced God? What would you do?
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Well, I've experienced Him too? No. You have to go to the Word of God. That's why
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I'm going to give you a few things that you could run across that I want you to watch out for. And the first one is, when you are looking for guidance, you need to stay away from these things.
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And the first one is impressions. Would you please, the pastoral staff here and the elders would love it, if you don't run your life by impressions.
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People say God speaks to us these days by impressions. That's what experiencing God was about.
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And I have to tell you, I'm having an impression right now, and I'm telling you that's a wrong thing to do. I've been impressed to say that.
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Inner promptings and Bill Goddard and checks in your spirit. Friends, that's not how
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God guides today. That's not how He leads. Go with Friesen's comments. Impressions are impressions.
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Inner impressions are not a form of revelation. So the Bible does not invest inner impressions with authority to function as indicators of divine guidance.
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Impressions are real. Believers experience them. But impressions are not authoritative.
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George Whitefield knew that sadly. He had an impression that he would get married one day and have a son.
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God impressed upon his heart that he would have a son. And that God impressed upon his heart that that son would be a preacher.
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And God impressed upon his heart that that boy preacher would be named John. At four months old,
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Whitefield's son was born. His name was John. His only child. And he died.
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And Whitefield later said, I misapplied several passages of scripture. And he learned the hard way and then he, forward looking into his ministry, said,
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Many good souls mistook fancy for faith and imagination for revelation. If you have an impression,
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I met somebody and I've got that kind of check in my spirit and I don't know about them or I can't trust them or anything like that, you just need to be very careful.
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Alright, we might as well go for the jugular. I fly out in a couple more weeks anyway and Steve can clean it up.
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That's why we have a plurality of elders. Friends, if the
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Bible is your only authoritative certain truth, be careful about impressions but also be careful about making decisions by saying,
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I have a piece about it. I have a piece about it. And frankly, when people say that,
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I like to tell them, I don't have a piece about what you've just said because it scares me. And actually, my lack of peace is actually probably better than your lack of peace because I'm trying to base mine on the
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Bible. You have to be careful. When was the last time you had peace about door -to -door evangelism?
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Hey, Mozambique team? You have a lot of peace yesterday down at the Common? Probably you're getting used to it now but at the beginning you're going down to preach to people and you're thinking, great, not a piece.
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I'm nervous. Remember, I used to go door -to -door in seminary. We were forced to go. I mean, who would go any other way but you're forced for a seminary class.
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Knocking on the door, you know, and it's like, oh, nobody's home. I told this story many times that it was always the big, huge Harley guys that were like, hey man, you want to come in and have a beer or something?
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And it was the people that looked like my grandmother, nice and sweet and kind and I'd knock on the door and I'm here to tell you how to have all your sins forgiven in Christ.
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Jesus, wham! Okay, your feelings are deceiving.
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Your feelings are tainted by the fall. Why would God give you an external source if you could just get by with what you felt and emoted?
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Try to do church discipline on someone if you're a leader and have a good feeling about it. I really got a piece about this tonight.
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No. Go to a friend who's in sin and say, you know, I love you and I care for you and I want to come alongside of you and help extricate you from the sin like Galatians 6.
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I know I'm a nobody but I want to help you. You will not have a piece about that. Higher life teacher
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Hannah Whitehall Smith wrote in her book Religious Fanaticism about a woman who would not get out of bed or put on her clothes without God's guidance.
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Time to get up yet, God? Okay. There's another woman who was led to steal money from her landlord.
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I've got a piece about it. I'm going to teach my landlord about the perils of worldly possessions.
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Sandy Patty. I've got a piece about divorcing my husband. Even though he's faithful, God wouldn't want me to be unhappy now, would he?
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It's like we don't care what the Bible says so we will in fact trump the Bible with our own experience and our own feelings and say, now
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I have a piece about it. I know the Bible says to love my wife with sacrificial love but I'm feeling selfish tonight when
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I come home. I've got a piece about it. It's my turn. It's my turn to get the love tonight.
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Feelings are unstable, unreliable guides and they're usually tainted by the fall and governed by pride.
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C .J. Mahaney calls these things lies that feel like the truth. So that's why we need an external source that's objective, that's reliable, that's outside of us because God and His love and His kindness knows we need that.
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We can't trust ourselves. I think the most peaceful feeling, peaceful, easy feeling that's ever been felt, the word of the
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Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, a great city, and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me.
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But Jonah rose and fled to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the
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Lord. The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.
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Then the sailors became very much afraid and every man cried to his God and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.
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But Jonah was sleeping the boat with a peaceful feeling. It was true. Maybe not exactly but you get the point.
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Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship laying down and had fallen sound asleep.
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There's a little ditty by Martin Luther that will serve you well. Feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving.
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My warrant is the word of God. Not else is worth believing. Be careful about a piece of it.
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I'd like to buy this car. I'd like to buy this house. I'd like to move over here. I'd like to go do this.
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Well, I've got a piece about it. Why don't I just start doing that before I preach?
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Okay, I'm not going to get up until I've got a piece about it. You know what, beloved?
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I'd never get up. I'd do all my little nervous things and it's like, you know, okay, try to pay attention.
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Try to sing. I try to obey my teachers and they'll say, there's one worship leader in the church and that's the pastor so make sure you sing.
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Don't study your sermon. Listen to the Scripture reading. I'm sitting there in my heart of hearts trying my best but I'm pacing back and forth going,
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I have no piece about this. It's my turn to stand up and say, thus saith the Lord. I usually don't have a piece until I go home on Sunday night and put my head on the pillow and go, not a very good sermon but duty discharged and I'll quit tonight and rejoin the ministry tomorrow.
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But even then, aren't we people that respond to the love of God with thanks?
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Respond to the love of God sometimes, yes, with duty? We have to be careful. I want to encourage you by saying that if you trust the
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Word of God as soul and authoritative, you can't trust impressions and pieces in your heart, peaceful feelings, as the same as Scripture.
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They're not Scripture. You end up being like someone who says it's the Bible plus and you say, well,
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I don't appreciate Roman Catholic doctrine because it's the Bible plus tradition plus the magisterium. If you say it's the
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Bible plus impressions and feelings and peace, you are doing the exact same thing.
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What you don't want to do in one, you carry over. And Peter says, there's all these false teachers running around.
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They can say they've experienced things but we have the apostolic Word and I'll tell you the exact reason why we default to these other things and it is true,
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I guess when you preach you're not supposed to identify with the congregation because I'm the herald of the king to proclaim to you but I do it too so you all will know.
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The reason why we default to these things like the Spirit led me, circumstances, impressions,
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I have a peace about it is because we are lazy when it comes to reading the Bible. Everything we have is in the
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Bible and it's kind of like that dusty old boring book and we kind of know it and what's it going to say today and I know it's trans -chronological but I've got this certain thing at work going on and I just better pray if I have a peace about it
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I'll make the right decision. Friends, it's just there and you know what's one of the refreshing things about the
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Bible? If I have a huge decision to make in my life, guess what I read? I don't go to the back of my
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Bible and say, you know, concordance, huge decisions. Read all those verses.
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You know when you're anxious? You look up all the anxious verses and check them all off. That's fine to do but this isn't some kind of handbook of life for that.
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This is a book that tells you, you look too much through the lens of your own eyes.
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There's a larger reality of the world and so when we read Scripture we see things from God's perspective and that puts everything right side up.
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We say, you know what? The world seems like it revolves around me. I live in this body and I see through these eyes and I have to take care of all this stuff but there's a larger reality and there's a sovereign king who rules it all and my responsibility is to love and treasure
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His Word, to pray for wisdom and guidance and then make decisions in light of that that would honor
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God and God is sovereign even if I make a wrong decision. But we want to just default to say, you know what?
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God said. Edward said, those people that say that are incorrigible.
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I can hear John Gerstner today quoting Edwards. Incorrigible! Sam Logan said, however you define guidance you must resist anything that moves in the direction of new revelation from God.
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I heard it even this week. Prayer, God talks to you. I mean,
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I just wanted to get slain by the Spirit but I didn't know what spirit I wanted to have slay me. I just thought, God doesn't talk to us in prayer.
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What would He say? Here's what God would talk to you about in prayer. I love you so much that I gave you my son and his apostolic word and everything you need to know about me is found in my word.
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But He hasn't had to say that because He's already said that. We talk to God, just think of conduits, one way.
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We talk to God in prayer. God talks to us in Scripture. Spitting all over.
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My favorite thing to do after the service, I just take this Bible and I just put some sweat on it like that and think, copy, uh -oh, you work.
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It takes work. Why was Paul told, why did Paul tell Timothy, you've got to work hard in the
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Scriptures, you've got to labor diligently because our default's going to go, we want the easy way, God told me and God loves me and God loves what
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I do and what I think's cool, God thinks cool and off we go and everybody's happy and then there's a disaster. God has spoken, clearly, with finality.
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And we have the privilege of a group of people that have hardly ever had such a privilege to have a Bible in our hands.
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People get killed for this today and we have it and we say we've got to make a decision. You can't find the answer out necessarily and we'll look at this next week so how about just say,
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I'll read the Bible, what I do is I just read 1st and 2nd Kings. I read 1st Kings and 2nd Kings and I go, you know what, it's not about me and my life, it's not about me and my decisions,
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God knows all those things, it's about God and His honor. God, help me to make a decision that would honor you and if it's the wrong decision,
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I'll take responsibility and God, you're a God big enough to go ahead and sovereignly work through these things anyway.
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Alright, I'm starting to go crazy. God has just given me an open door to close so I think
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I'm going to close. Open door, closed door, we're going to do that next week. Open door might be, don't go through.
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Closed door might be, keep on knocking. God doesn't talk to you in prayer,
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God does not talk to you in circumstances, God does not talk to you in any other way except His Word.
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And what I would do is tell you the sneak preview of next week is since He only talks to you through His Word, then we'll focus on verse 19, the part
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I skipped, then you do well to pay attention to it as a lamp shining in a dark place.
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Let's pray. Lord, you're very good to us.
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We know why your Son taught us to pray, our Father who art in Heaven. A good God to take care of us in the midst of our own depravity, in the midst of false teachers, society running around,
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Christians even running around, looking at other things that are less authoritative. You've given us your Word.
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Everything we need to know about you is found in this book. How we're to pray to you, think about you, everything is there.
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And so we thank you as a good Father, just like a Father on earth that wants to provide protection, care and guidance for His children.
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How much more, Lord, are you a greater Father. And therefore we want to hallow your name by being diligent students.
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And Lord, myself, I want to say, I want to try harder,
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I want to do better. But Lord, that's never enough. And we need your Spirit to really work in our hearts this week and our minds to give us a fresh appreciation for the
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Word. Father, would you have your Spirit salt our palates so we might thirst for the
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Word and be like newborn babes longing so that we might grow and hallow your name.