Men Spoke from God

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If you'll turn your
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Bibles, please, with me to the epistle of 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 1.
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2 Peter chapter 1. Once again, before we look to God's Word, let us ask him to bless the time that we have together in the
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Word. Our Heavenly Father, once again, we handle that which you have given to us, we handle that which you have provided to us for guidance and for light.
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We would ask that you would help us to understand, we would ask that you would give us a properly obedient spirit, and Lord, that we would honor your truth as we seek to honor you, in Christ's name.
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Amen. When giving instructions to someone, very often someone will say, now it is of first importance that you understand this.
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Of first importance. And if you do not listen to that and ignore this foundational, prime issue, you may end up misinterpreting the rest of the information that is given to you.
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This can be true, for example, in the sciences. I remember I had a chemistry professor in college,
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I've mentioned him to you a few times. He was a brilliant man, but so brilliant he couldn't teach his way out of a paper bag.
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I mean, he could enunciate the most in -depth understanding of chemistry in all of us.
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We were in the advanced class, we were supposed to be the best students around, and we just all sat there staring at him.
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And it reminds me of how I got a job actually teaching Hebrew once. They had a
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Hebrew professor that couldn't get anybody through first year Hebrew. And the guy had a
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Ph .D. in Hebrew from Dallas Seminary. And the problem was, he'd read the section from the grammar, and when people didn't understand or ask a question, he just re -read the section from the grammar, because he couldn't put it any better way than the grammar did.
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And evidently my chemistry professor, once he had said it once, just couldn't understand how we didn't just grasp it and just didn't understand.
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And he would tell us, you've got to understand this, we couldn't understand that, we weren't getting anything else.
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Well, I'll tell you, that was a rough semester. It was a rough semester. Thankfully, we got a different professor for the second semester, and all of a sudden, we all started understanding what was going on.
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It was actually sort of enjoyable, sort of how that worked. Because the professor understood how to lay things out in a logical fashion.
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And once he said, this is the first thing you need to understand, he made sure that we understood what he was talking about.
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And that made all the rest of it make sense. In 2 Peter, we encounter a statement similar to this.
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We're told that there's something that we need to understand first of all. Let's take a look at what it is.
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We know that in 2 Peter, the apostle had talked about, briefly, in verses 17 and 18, he makes reference to that encounter that was his, many decades earlier, on the
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Mount of Transfiguration. And obviously, that story, Peter could simply make reference to it without having to tell it all over again, because the gospel stories were being told over and over and over again, and all the
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Christian people would have known about that particular instance. And so, he talked about that time when he heard
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God speaking, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.
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And then he says this, so we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
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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. So the apostle can speak of his own personal experience, but that was his experience, and yes, he can tell the story, and yes,
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God can have that written down in scripture, in the gospels, but it was still his experience, he was the one that heard the voice.
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But all Christian believers are given the prophetic word, the message from God, and that is a more certain, a more sure word than anyone else's personal experience.
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Yes, it's partly because it is the common possession of all people, it is God's intention that we have his revelation, it's
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God's intention that the church possess this unchanging revelation from generation to generation to generation, and when you think of the forces that have been arrayed against the
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Bible down through its long, long history, when you think of the efforts that have been made to pervert or to destroy that scripture, and the fact that you and I, we have either a beautiful printed
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Bible in front of us, or now some of us have entered into the 21st century, and you have an electronic device in front of you, and you have multiple translations available at your fingertips, well where did that come from?
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How did that come to be? Never take for granted, when you hold the word of God, when you look at the tremendous amount of information available to us today, the blood that was spilled, that you might have that word.
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I think sometimes we are so apathetic about that. I think that sometimes explains why more of us do not memorize the word of God.
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In fact, I think some of us who are the children of the electronic age, or even if we're a little bit older, have been the type of person, like I am, that has had a computer from back when computers were, well a portable computer was the size and weight of a
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Singer sewing machine. And again, you younger people don't know what a Singer sewing machine was. That really didn't make much sense either, did it?
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But for those of us who are into the electronic thing, sometimes I think the availability of it, it's always right there on my phone.
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Why should I memorize it? We may not always have that.
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You know, there are many of our brothers and sisters this evening that sit in jail cells around the world, and I don't think they have an iPhone.
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But if they've memorized the word of God, they have that. They have that. There's something to think about as we consider this.
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But the Apostle says that prophetic word has been made more sure. To which you do well to pay attention is to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and a morning star rises in your heart.
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I don't have to repeat for you, because we go through Psalm 119 every, what, 3 .2
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years or so on a Wednesday night. I guess it works out somewhere around there, maybe three and a half when you throw in a few interruptions along the way.
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But we go through the Psalter, and we go through Psalm 119, and of course there are other places where the same concept is given to us about the word being a lamp shining in a dark place.
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A lamp that's a light unto our feet. It's a light to our path. And it's important for us to remember that in our day, we have tremendous technology that allows us to move around at night.
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And I'm not just talking about the special forces that have night vision goggles and stuff like that.
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I don't know if any of you have noticed, but man, they have developed incredible lighting technology over the past ten years.
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I have a couple of flashlights in my bag over there that are just, they're ten times brighter than almost anything that was available only a number of years ago.
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And so if you want to go out in the dark, you can go out in the dark. Not a big deal, you know.
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I've got lights for my bike that, I have cars flashing their lights at me at three o 'clock in the morning to get me to try to dim the light on the front of my bicycle.
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That's how bright the thing is. And by the way, I do not dim it. I'm very happy that they are annoyed in seeing me because that means they will probably not run me over.
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They may shoot me, but they probably won't run me over. So those things are so bright.
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It's like riding in the daytime. I can see everything. And the battery lasts forever. So man, when
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I first started riding, you basically strapped a flashlight to your handlebars and you really couldn't see much of anything at all.
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Things have changed a lot. Well, I'll tell you what, when it comes to spiritual things, there is only one light.
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There is only one light that we need. The Word of God is a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and a morning star arises in your heart.
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Let me simply say to any of you, if you ever find yourself finding the light of the
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Word to no longer be bright and satisfying, look to your heart and ask yourself, where have
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I grown spiritually cold? Where is there sin? Where is there rebellion?
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Because anyone that I've ever met who began finding a desire in their heart to start looking for other sources of guidance, other sources of light, there was always a reason for it and it almost never turned out well.
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I can assure you of that. Peter would have us to know that the Scriptures, even though he had experienced that tremendous,
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I mean he saw the transfiguration, he saw Jesus shining with the bright light, and yet it is the prophetic
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Word which is a more certain Word to which we would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.
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And it doesn't matter what generation, it doesn't matter what the situation, the world, the insanity of the political system, whatever else it might be, for the people of God, there is always a light shining in a dark place.
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And I've said many times before, I am convinced that in the work of regeneration, there is placed into the heart of the regenerate man, woman, child, a love for, a respect for, an obedience to, an abiding faith in the revelation that is the
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Word of God. And my friends, do not, do not, do not look around at others as the basis for your trust in the
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Word of God. Do not look around and say, oh well, there are so many people, polls say so many
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Americans believe the Bible is the Word of God. Please, really? If the number of people in those polls actually believe the
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Bible is the Word of God, this nation would be a completely different place than it is. That's obvious. But do not go, well, because R .C.
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Sproul says that encourages me. Well, I guess you can be encouraged by Brother Sproul or anybody else, but the reality is, even if you're one of the last people left on earth, that will not change the truthfulness of the
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Word of God. And it shouldn't change your commitment to it. Just something to remind us of, because I truly believe that we are in a day where there is going to be tremendous apostasy, huge names, big names coming to question their commitment to the perspicuity and clarity and accuracy and inspiration of the
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Word of God. Do not be shaken by what happens with others. Be convinced in your own heart, and that's where we encounter then the beginning of verse 20, but know this first of all.
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Make this a primary thing. Make this a foundational thing.
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Put it in front of your emotions. Put it in front of your experience. This needs to be presuppositional to utilize some of the philosophical language.
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And you are to know this, not simply have a vague inkling of it.
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It needs to be something about which you are convinced, something about which you have thought. I believe that as you experience as a believer the work of the
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Spirit in your life, as you are experiencing that progressive sanctification, which is
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God making you into the image of His Son, as you go through difficulties in life, you will receive evidence after evidence after evidence of the truthfulness of the
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Word of God. And what you want to pray is, Lord, do not allow me to forget these things.
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So often you and I, we go through things, we experience things.
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The Lord brings us out on the other side and we have seen the depth of the Word of God and we have seen how it was true and we have made application.
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We are so thankful. And two years later we are back in the same position because we already forgot.
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We are such a forgetful people at times. So we are told, know this first of all.
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Understand this. But then there is a bit of a problem. What are we supposed to know?
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The rest of this verse is translated in different ways, in different translations and has been understood in a number of different ways.
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The New American Standard says, no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation.
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Well, that is an appropriate translation. It's a literal translation.
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But there is a little problem. The term for interpretation is a term that is difficult to render into the
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English language. And when you put it together with that little word for one's own, well, who are we talking about?
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For many people, it might be one of the first times you encountered this verse in a way where you really had to struggle with it.
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I know this was the case of me, in fact, for some odd reason. Again, like I say,
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I'll go to the grocery store to pick something up and you stand there in the middle of the aisle with that vague, hazy look in your eyes, wondering why you didn't write it down because now you don't have any earthly idea why you're there.
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And you go around picking stuff up just so you don't look stupid when you go out the checkout thing. But I remember with absolute clarity what direction
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I was facing at a large Baptist church in the valley that had something called an outreach dinner.
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And I was sitting there eating and someone sat down across from me. I was facing west.
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And someone sat down across from me and they said, you know, I'm talking to a
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Roman Catholic and they brought this verse up and I'm wondering what you think about it. And what had happened, of course, is that in a number of translations it talks about is of no, the
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King James, of no private interpretation. And what Roman Catholicism has understood that to mean is that you are not to privately interpret scripture.
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That's the church's role. The church does that. You as an individual are not to go to the scriptures and interpret them.
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Instead, you are to recognize that God has given the church. And the church is the one that is to give you the interpretation of the scripture.
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Well, that's an interesting understanding. There's nothing about the church interpreting the
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Bible or anything here. But here's what's actually being said. Because if you'll allow that Peter might expand upon his point in the next verse.
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If you'll allow a text to stand as a whole. What is he talking about in verse 21?
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Well, he talks about prophecy never coming about by the will of man.
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The will of man. So he's talking about the origin and source of the prophetic word.
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And in fact the description given at the end of verse 21 of how scripture comes to us is one of the most clear, in -depth discussions of the methodology that we have in all the
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Bible. And clearly what it's talking about is men spoke from God as they were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. So this is the process of how the word of God enters into human speech and becomes available to us as what we call the word of God.
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So if we understand that and there is a clear connection between 20 and 21 in the original language for connects the two together.
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Then we go back to verse 20. That interpretation is not interpreting the text.
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What's being said is, as some translations will put it, for scripture never had its origin or for scripture is never coming forth from the thinking of the prophet himself.
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It's not like the prophet gets up one day and says, you know, it's like Jeremiah. Jeremiah gets up one morning and he says, you know, it's been a while since I've done some of that prophecy stuff.
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And I'm thinking that my book's not really quite big enough yet and so I need a little more prophecy today.
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So I'm going to go out and I'm going to watch the sunrise and I'm going to listen to some beautiful birds singing and listen to the breeze and the trees and I'm going to get inspired and come up with some beautiful poetry about God today.
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You got to understand, you all can tell I'm being slightly sarcastic about that, but that's pretty much how the world thinks.
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The literature, especially of the Old Testament came about primarily, at least as far as the prophetic literature and amongst the prophets came about.
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But that's not what it's saying. It's not the prophet's own interpretation of the world around him.
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He's not going, well, you know, I see this in that. No. Peter is saying the reason that you need to know this, first of all, is that scripture is fundamentally divine in its origination.
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It's not, and this is why I think it's very good when we look at the other key texts, well, one of the other key texts in this, 2
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Timothy 3, to not render it as it's rendered in most
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English translations, all scripture is inspired. Why?
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Because to inspire means to breathe into something. It's a Latin term. That's not what the
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Greek is not inspiratus, that's Latin. The Greek is theanoustos, it is
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God breathe. It's like if you hold your hand in front of your mouth while you're speaking, you will feel that intimate breath that is necessary for the enunciation of words.
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It is God speaking. All scripture is theanoustos, God speaking.
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It's not man's words that God has breathed something special into.
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We use that of Shakespeare, oh what an inspired section of Macbeth that was.
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No, it's not taking human words and elevating them. That's not what scripture is.
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Instead, what's being said is, the prophecies of scripture did not have their origin in the thought process of the prophets themselves.
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For, prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but, and then here again, not only issues of translation, but there's also a small issue of text comes into play.
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And once again, I think that it's the King James that says that holy men spoke from God.
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Well, I think the best text and the best translation would be, it's literally this, but by the
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Holy Spirit being born along, spoke from God, and the last word at the end of the sentence is men.
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It's at the end. And generally, if you want to emphasize something, you put it earlier in the sentence, but the very last word is men.
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Instead, the emphasis is cast upon the agency of the
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Holy Spirit in bearing along those that are speaking from God.
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What they speak is from God, they are speaking as men. But they are speaking from God as they are carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. Now, a couple of things. Obviously, we need to keep in mind, if someone is being born along by the
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Holy Spirit, will the Holy Spirit bear them into areas of self -contradiction?
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Error? Is the Spirit of God not the one that searches all the deep things of God, knows all things, has existed eternally, was hovering over the face of the waters of creation, as Genesis says?
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Will this Holy Spirit make errors? Well, I suppose if your theology is such that the
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Spirit can only try to do things and not accomplish things effectively, then
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I guess you'd have to leave some room for that. But, this Holy Spirit is the one bearing along.
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It's literally the word for carrying someone along. Men is at the end of the sentence, and those men do something, they speak from God.
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Not about God, they don't speak godly words, they are speaking from God.
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Now, obviously, when we think about the nature of Scripture, the tendency on the part of many, and I understand this, the tendency on the part of many is to adopt the idea, when you hear such terms as plenary verbal inspiration, to think that that means, in essence, dictation.
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And that the inspired, even there, inspired, what does that word mean?
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The prophets, those beings used by God, somehow started to engage in automatic writing.
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Like they were an mp3 recorder. Like they just all of a sudden would go into a trance, and just, oh, wow, a letter written, wow,
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I didn't even know. I realize there are a lot of people that have that idea.
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But, there's a fundamental problem with that. There's a fundamental problem with that that is especially clear when you read the original languages.
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And that is, I can tell you, very clearly, the difference between the style of John and the style of Luke.
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They don't write in the same style. And Paul has a very distinct style as well.
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They're all different from one another. And there's all these places where the human author expresses their experience.
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We think of the Psalter. We think of some of those psalms. The heart crying out in despair.
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And there's a couple of psalms where there's no happy ending to the psalm. Are we to think that that's just the psalmist?
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That's not really what he was experiencing. He just went into that trance, and that was all there was to it.
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No. And since there are different styles between the authors, and even within an author, for example,
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Paul in Galatians looks very different than Paul in Romans or in Ephesians.
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Why do I say that? Well, the words are, it's a little bit choppier. Sometimes he skips over the verbs, which you can do in Greek, by the way.
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It's perfectly acceptable. But he obviously was writing with tremendous emotional fervor.
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We can understand that. So which is it? Is it from God? Or is it from men?
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Well, I think Peter gives us the perfectly balanced example here. When Paul writes and says, please bring the cloaks and the manuscripts, the papyri and the cloak, and the scrolls because he's cold, he wants something to write on.
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A lot of people look at that and go, eh, you know, it's just Paul speaking. No, that is Paul speaking, just as when
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Paul writes Romans 8. But in each instance he is being borne along by the
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Holy Spirit so that what is given to us is exactly what God wants to be given to us, but it is
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Paul speaking in Paul's language. Our God is big enough to use men in that way without turning them into an automatic dictation machine.
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We have a very high view of the inspiration of Scripture. And I would say to you that the dictation theory is a low view because God seemingly doesn't understand his creatures well enough to be able to choose them or to create them so that they can use their language and yet it's still what he wants us to have all down through the ages.
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My God is big enough to do that. And I'm awful glad he did that or reading through the Psalms would probably be a little boring.
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But instead you read through the Psalms and the entire range of experience of the people of God down through the ages right there in one book.
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Right there in one book. And so, men, they are speaking from God.
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They are speaking from God. It is God's revelation. And the reason that we can have confidence in it is because they are being born along by the
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Holy Spirit of God and we can trust his activity, we can trust his superintendence, we can trust his supernatural power to give us exactly that which
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God intends us to have. But this also then highlights another issue. And that is,
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I mentioned to you, I'm a little concerned about the rendering or the reading or the understanding of holy men.
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I don't think there's anything about men being holy in this text. I think it's the Holy Spirit. And I think it's vitally important to recognize that there were people who spoke in Scripture, don't strike me as very holy at all.
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Daniel chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar speaks, pagan king.
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But man, what he spoke was truth. Didn't have anything to do with the holiness of him.
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Balaam? You know? I think we need to be careful in Christian theology, it's not the character of the person
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God chooses to use, because the locus of inspiration, as Paul says, is in what is written.
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Same thing here. Graphas in verse 20. It's in what is written.
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When you, when we, and I just, I slipped just a few moments ago. When we are a little bit less than accurate in our thinking and we talk about inspired men.
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I know what we mean by that. We're talking about those who were used by God to give us the inspired
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Scriptures. But the Scripture never says they were inspired, it says they were carried along. What's inspired, what is theanoustos, what does
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God breathe, is the Scripture itself. It's what God gives to his church.
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Now why is that important? Well, for example, I don't think there's anything at all, a problem recognizing that Paul dictated most of his letters.
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Look, when people are naming their scribe, they were dictating the letter. That bothers people.
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Well, Paul's inspired one, I must mean that the scribe was the inspired one. Missing the point that the locus, the focus of the concept of inspiration is what is written.
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And the same way, it's like, well, you know, I guess I can understand when an apostle, you know, they're particularly holy.
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Well, in what way? How are you connecting their character to what they do in the giving of Scripture?
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There are a number of books in the Bible, we don't know who wrote them. So how can we know anything about the character of the person who wrote them?
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The point is that God is the one who has given these books to his church. He's the one that inspired them.
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He carried their authors along. We don't need to know the social security number of each person that was writing these books.
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Now why do I emphasize that? Well, obviously, I deal with an entire major world religion where we are at 180 degree loggerheads on that very issue.
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In Islam, you have to know who gives it, and you've got to know their character. Prophets never sin.
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It's all based upon how holy they are, and if you don't know that they were holy, then you can't trust anything they wrote.
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And they have a complete 100 % dictation theory of inspiration.
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The Quran, nothing of man in it. Nothing. You can't even ask the question, what did
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Muhammad understand about Christianity? You can't ask that question, because it's irrelevant. The Quran is uncreated, it's eternally existed, it was sent down one night, it was parceled out by the angel to Muhammad who memorized it, it's a dictation theory, it's
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MP3, and that's all there is to it. Take it or leave it as it is on that level.
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And so I find that to be a substantially lower view of inspiration.
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The author of the Quran did not understand the higher view of inspiration that is actually found in the
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New Testament. But then again, unfortunately, a lot of Christians have not thought through how high indeed the concept of inspiration really is, and have not given necessary thought, because it is right here that the enemies of the faith will focus, and attempt to especially attack the uneducated in the church, and say, well, obviously, haven't you ever noticed the differences between Paul and Peter, and the differences in terminology, and etc.,
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etc., etc. And if you don't have, if you haven't done what
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Peter says at the beginning of verse 20, knowing this first of all, understanding what it is you actually believe on this matter, then you will be open to truly having your faith shaken.
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And you may indeed struggle as a result. So what are we to take away from this evening?
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Well, you think of Peter, his tremendous personal experience, and yet what does he recommend to the people of God?
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Not to trust in his personal experience, but to remember, God has spoken, and when he did, those men who spoke were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit. What greater evidence or assurance could you ask for in regards to the sufficiency of the
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Scriptures? God wants to give to you that which will be a light to your path.
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What greater evidence could you ask for that he has in fact done so, and what is given to us in his holy word?
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Now my friends, we live in a day and age where the entire mindset of the world around us is to make you embarrassed to confess that you believe the highest views of the
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Bible. Make you embarrassed. You're a
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Luddite. You believe in myths. Don't you realize all that stuff has been disproven?
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That's exactly what you will be told. And so my friends, I can tell you over and over again,
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I've examined so many alleged contradictions in the Bible and errors in the
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Bible, and I've always found the word of God to be true, but that's my experience.
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That can't support you. That might encourage you, but it can't be the foundation upon which you build your own confidence.
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But instead, you need to pray, really each and every day, just as the apostles did, increase my faith.
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But recognizing what the target of attack is, then
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Lord, increase my faith. Increase my love for your word. Increase my passion for your word.
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Increase my understanding of your word. Because without that guidance, without that sure foundation, knowing this first of all, from Peter's perspective, from the
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Bible's perspective, we will have no way of knowing what
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God would have us to do, have no foundation upon which to authoritatively proclaim the gospel to anyone.
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We need to trust God's word, and God's word is trustworthy.
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Let's pray it again. Our gracious heavenly
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Father, you have told us that you have established your word in the heavens. You have told us that it is guidance to us, it is light to our feet.
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You've told us that you have a purpose in providing it to us, for our encouragement, for our edification.
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And to the man of God, we need only to look to that which is inspired, which is given by God, for all the teaching, rebuking, reproving in the church.
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It is indeed sufficient for your people. But Lord, we know we live in a day where there is great unbelief.
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We would ask that you would help our unbelief, that you would grow our faith by growing our knowledge of your word, by helping us to see how often your word has been found true in our experience.
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That's not what makes it true, but help us to remember those times. And Lord, as we speak that truth to others, may you bring it to our minds, may you drive us into it.
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We might memorize your word. And then may that word have its effect within our lives in conforming us to the image of your
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Son. Give us the opportunity even this week, Lord, to speak that truth to others.