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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/scott-macleod/the-word-of-god/
Now let's turn back to the Psalms, please. Psalm number 12. Continuing a little bit on with the Word of God. Psalm number 12, and it's very interesting the context that we get this promise of preservation, God preserving His Word.
We'll just read it verse number one, starting Psalm 12 and verse 1. I believe this will fit in with what we've already been listening to. Psalm 12 and verse 1. Help Lord, for the godly man ceases, for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
Sounds like a deteriorating situation. They speak vanity, every one with his neighbor with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak. And come down to verse number six. The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. And then once again we go back to the wickedness of the generation. Verse 8, the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted.
So we have a emphasis on verse 6, the words of the Lord are pure words. Just keep in mind the context. As silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, thou shalt keep them. I believe that is a reference to the words of God.
I don't believe that is a reference to the individual Christian. I'll explain that in a minute. In the latter part of verse 7, thou shalt preserve them from this generation. Some people will try to interpret that little section there, verses 6 and 7, as referring to the individual believer.
But my problem with that is who do we blame when an individual believer fails? I can't blame God. I believe the correct interpretation is God has promised to preserve his word. And if I take my eyes off of the word of God, then I fail.
And that is the only thing that will keep me with all of the pressure and all the deterioration. If you want to get a sight of him on the throne, how and where are you going to get it? It's in the word of God.
So let's come into the New Testament for a minute to 2 Peter. 2 Peter is really where my mind is, but I just want to start it with that little point there of sometimes people tend to argue with you when you go to the word of God to explain things about the word of God.
But that is really our only source of information is the word of God. If you and I want to know anything about the deity of Christ, that's where we go. We go to the word of God. If we want to know anything about the virgin birth of Christ, we go to the word of God.
You want to know anything about anything, you go to the word of God. Well, if you want to know anything about the Bible, you go to the word of God. Some people will try to accuse you that that's circle reasoning.
You ever heard of that term? You ever been accused of that as a believer? You're arguing or debating with a non-believer and you always respond with the word of God and they say, listen, you're always going back to the Bible and one part of the Bible says the other part of the Bible is the word of God and that part says the other part's the word of God, so you're really staying within this circle.
You ever heard of the young boy that came into the house one day and he told his mother, he said, I'm seven feet tall. She said, Johnny, you're not seven. Oh yeah, he said, I'm seven feet tall. I measured myself.
Well, how did you know? Well, he said, I made myself a measuring stick. That's how people sometimes look at the Bible. Listen, the Bible is not one book. We need to go over the basics. The Bible is a collection of 66 individual, they stand alone authority on their own and they cover a span of writing of 1600 years.
I mean, these are simple things that an awful lot of people don't understand and if you were to just to try to get a little tiny picture, just try to talk to your great or grandfather or mother and just see what change they've seen in a hundred years.
Okay, can you imagine the change that these writers saw over 1600 years, the different governments that came on the scene and off the scene, the social changes, the scientific changes, all of the different changes, yet when these 66 books are compiled into one volume, it's not that, oh, now they've come, there's authority linked with it.
No, no, no, they were, Genesis is authoritative by itself and Exodus and Revelation and now by God's providence, they're taken together. Amazing, not one contradicts with the other. And there's just that constant thread right from Genesis right to Revelation and it's all focused upon Christ and the devil has tried his best to tear it apart.
Now, wonderful, I think it's tremendous in 2015 that I am actually able to hold onto the word of the living God. That's tremendous and men and women that have risen up against it, they're buried, they're in hell and I've got the word of God.
That's why, because God has promised to preserve it. Now, with that being said, come to 2 Peter chapter one. Now, look, this is Peter's final words, okay? I find it interesting just what he's going to leave us with.
So starting at verse number 12, 2 Peter one, verse number 12, here's what we read. Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them and be established in the present truth.
Now, that's what we need. We need to be firm on the foundation of God. Yea, I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me.
So there's his closing words. Verse 16, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mount.
Now, I'm just going to pause there for a minute and we're just going to sort of, maybe for those that are not too familiar with what he was referring to there, we'll just quickly go over it. If we were to take time to go back into the gospels, you might remember the time when the Lord Jesus took his disciples up into a mountain and then he stopped and he left some of his disciples and he took three of them and he went further up into the mountain.
It was a night scene and it's called the Mount of Transfiguration. And really what it is, it's a miniature picture of the coming millennial reign, the thousand year reign when the Lord Jesus will reign from shore to shore.
That's really what it is. It's a little tiny picture. And that was prophesied in the Old Testament. Every prophet of the Old Testament, they always had their focus and they always looked forward to this tremendous time when Christ will be acknowledged and he will be reigning.
So here they are up in the mount. It's a night scene. What we discover from the gospels, they're asleep. And all of a sudden they just shocked out of their sleep and there's this bright light and the Lord Jesus, his inherent glory is just starting to glisten, just blaze out through his clothes.
His face is shining brighter than the sun. And you just can imagine waking up to this and be like, and all of a sudden they hear this voice from heaven. As clear as you're hearing me, this is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased.
Wouldn't that be something now to be there? Now to want to refer to it as the Holy Mount. This is the first time Peter spoke about it since it happened. 30 some years after it happened. This is the first time he's telling anyone about it.
And you would think if he had such an experience like that, I saw a light from heaven. I heard a voice from heaven. It was tremendous. You, I mean, if that happened to you or I, man, we'd be up all night sending emails to people.
You'll never guess what I just saw. You'll never guess what I just heard. Tremendous. And you'd be telling everybody about it. Now, listen, this is his closing words. Is that what he's going to leave us with?
Come back to verse number 18, verse 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Where onto we do well that you take heed is onto a light that shineth in a dark place. This is the dark place. And the word of God is the light.
He's not referring to what he saw on the Mount until the day dawn. That's the thousand year millennial reign of Christ and the day star. That's the rapture arise in your hearts. Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture.
Now in his mind, he's got the Old Testament scriptures before him. Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. People wonder what does that mean? Private interpretation.
I mean, if the Roman Catholic Church has a favorite verse, this is their verse. See, the Bible is not to be sat down with and privately. You are to try to interpret it. No, no, no. That's why you need a group of men in front of you to tell you what it means.
But the word of God tells us what it means. Verse 21, for the prophecy came not in the old time by the will of men. But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. You see, what really he's getting at is this.
Allow all of the different prophets covering the 39 books of the Old Testament to come through your mind. Moses and Jeremiah and Isaiah, all the different prophets. Moses one day did not decide to pick up his pen and write all by himself.
I think I'll just record what happened in Genesis. No, behind that pen, behind that mind, there was the spirit of God that came along and literally picked him up and directed him as to what to write. That is why there's no contradictions with the different writers.
Even though you can look at those different writers and go through the Old Testament. Some were kings. Some were shepherds. Some were poor. Some were rich. All different classes of people. But the thing that they had in common was the spirit of God that picked them up and moved them with purpose.
And the spirit of God had the person of Christ in his view. I just love that. I'll tell you what I love too. Holy men of God spake as they were moved. You know, born along, you've probably seen a sailboat.
And you've probably seen the main sail up. And you ever seen when a sailboat puts up what's called a spinnaker, that thing that goes out in front of the bow of the boat, is it? Well, that's the Greek picture that's in that word.
And the wind is just catching that sail and just picking that whole thing up and moving it along. And it's tremendous what we have, the word of God. Now, really, what does this mean? Come back to verse number 19.
We have also. Why is the word also there? Why doesn't it say we have a more sure word? Number one, what does the word more sure mean? It's the idea of something that is concrete, something that is solid, firm, something that can be dependent upon a foundation.
OK, now here's what some people think it means. I don't believe this. Some people think the prophecies of the Old Testament that were given. Peter had them in his mind. Now he's been given a visual glimpse of the fulfillment of what was given.
And in his mind, it was, ah, it's more concrete. I do not believe that anything in the Bible needs to be reconfirmed. I don't believe that. I believe what God said will happen. I'll tell you why I believe the little word also is in there.
I want you to follow this for a minute. Look at verse number 17. I want, I'm going to follow a Greek word, OK? For he received from God, the Father, honor and glory. One word in the Greek language. When there came such a voice from the excellent glory from heaven.
Now come down to verse 18. Same word is going to appear. And this voice, here it is. Which came, same, same word, from heaven. Come down to verse 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. OK, we understand that.
Come to verse number 21. For the prophecy, here it is, came. You know what he's doing? He's tying it all back to the same source. The very same source that gave this vision and this voice from heaven is the very same source that gave us the word of God.
That's powerful. Now, why am I emphasizing that? Because, listen, why is Peter not emphasizing the light and the sound from the mount, but he's emphasizing the firmness of the word of God? Because the word of God can never mislead you.
But what you see can. What you hear can. I mean, in Peter's mind, the vision is gone. It's over. It's gone. There's probably parts of it he can't remember. The voice is gone. But what does he have? The written word of God.
What does that tell me? The word of God trumps every experience. There is not an experience that you and I will ever come into that will trump the written word of God. That's why I'm back in Psalm 12, where God says, listen, do you and I want to be preserved from this wicked generation that's all around us?
How are we going to be preserved? Is God going to put his hand upon me and he's going to divinely keep me out of temptation? Yes, he can do that. But if I take myself out of the word of God, this is what preserves me.
And I can blame no one but myself when I give in to temptation. Oh, I think it's tremendous. I think it's tremendous. You know, it's funny, the things you experience as you get older, you know, I was telling someone here recently when the boyfriend started coming around the house, dating my daughter, the old hound dog was sniffing around.
I thought, you know, I'm going to have to put this young fella in his place. So I said, all right, young fella, arm wrestle. So I was 48 at the time, he was 20. And I thought, you know, I'm going to show them.
One second, he had me down, flattened me. And you know what I was impressed with? Just the strength in that 20-year-old arm. I thought, man, I'm losing it. Boy, I've lost it. I was humiliated. I walked out of the kitchen with my tail between my legs.
But that's what happens as you get older. Maybe, maybe there's younger people here and you're up there wondering, well, you know, you have some strength and youth and vitality and I can handle anything.
And you experience a little sickness that causes your mind to crumble. I've been there. And it just feels like God is nowhere. Thank God, I can come back to the Word of God. And I can remember running on my treadmill.
And I can remember saying, God, where are you? Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And that attack of the mind that would just come in like a flood. What was the only thing I could do to stop the flood?
Quote the Word of God. I can't see you, God. I can't feel you, God. I don't understand why this is happening. But I believe the Bible. That's what I would say. I believe there's a God because of the written Word of God.
You ever sometimes think you hear something you turn? No, it must be just my ears. You ever think sometimes you see something? I thought for sure I saw something go through the kitchen. Nope, all by myself in a house.
This is what happens to these little things that are affected by sin. But sin can't affect this. Can't affect the Word of God. So I'm coming back to this, dear child of God. Is it my treasure? Is it where I've got all of my hopes, all of my desires?
I'm just resting. I remember the story. You've heard this, the older man, they went to visit him in the hospital. And there he was laying in the bed. And he had his arms just wrapped around like this.
He said, what are you doing? Oh, he says, I'm just loving it. I can't read it anymore, but I'm just loving it. That's what we have. We have not followed cunningly devised fables. We haven't. And what held all of those godly men and women of a bygone generation is the very same thing that God has left us to hold us.
And it's the Word of God. I'm coming back to tomorrow. Communication. That's where the devil will start. And if I can shake your confidence, Christian, in this book, you're going to shake me. And I've got nothing.
So there's the final words of Paul, or Peter. He doesn't leave us with, oh, and go on and on and wax out only about this tremendous light and this tremendous voice that he heard. Oh, he says, listen, he says, forget about that.
We have a more sure word of prophecy. Dear child of God, put it in your mind. Memorize it, take it and put your whole upon it.