Truth: Objective Or Subjective? - [2 Peter 1:16-21]

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I have a question this morning to start the sermon. Here's the question. How do you know that Christianity is real?
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How do you know that Christianity is not made up? Some myth, fable, maybe it is the opiate for the masses.
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I mean, life is difficult. There's all kinds of issues that go on and we need some kind of crutch to get by.
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I mean, the world is chaotic. Are you certain that Christianity is real?
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And if you are certain, how do you know that it's real? That's the question for today.
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How do you know that Jesus really is Lord? How do you know that he died on the cross, not for his sins, but for believers' sins, that he was raised from the dead and he ascended into heaven and he's in heaven now praying for saints like you, that he's coming back?
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Is it just made up or is it real? Could this be some cunningly devised fable?
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Sometimes people say, well, I know Christianity is true because my life has changed. I've had an experience.
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And by the way, if you're changed and you've had an experience, I commend you. I'm thankful that you're a different person.
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I'm thankful that you're not the person you used to be. But that is no objective certainty for something to be true.
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Just because somebody's life has changed, that is not the standard for truth. Peter, why is
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Christianity real? Well, I used to be a hit fisherman in Galilee and now I write eloquent
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Greek, both first Peter, second Peter, and I preach Christ crucified in a way that I never thought
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I was able to. I'm happy for the transition, but experience does not validate anything.
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Psychology can change you. Cults can change you. Ativan can change you. Xanax can change you.
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Lots of things can change you. The question is not, I've had an experience. How do you know
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Christianity is real? Well, maybe you say it has to be real because there's no greater, more noble, exalted ethic in all the world.
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Love others. As you would like to be treated, you treat other people. Could there be such an exalted ethic in all the world?
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Christianity has to be true. I mean, it is so wonderful. That's not the reason to believe
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Christianity. What if you said something like, I believe in Christianity and I know it's true because that's my truth.
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I don't know if it's your truth, but it's my truth. Don't you hate it when people talk that way? My truth.
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I wish my truth wasn't flying over the handlebars two weeks ago on that gravel road. That's what my truth
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I wish wasn't, but it is true. Either Jesus is real, either he was a real man in Palestine 2000 years ago, or he wasn't.
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He really lived a perfect life and loved God and loved his neighbor, delighting the Lord as he did it, or it was all a scam.
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He literally was raised from the dead or he wasn't. He literally ascended into heaven or he didn't.
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If you ask Peter, why is Christianity real? How do you know it? How would Peter answer?
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I invite you to take your Bibles and turn to 2 Peter chapter one. That's what we're gonna look at today. The objective certainty of Christianity.
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The reliability, its surety. We could talk about its sufficiency.
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We'll do that another day. Today we're going to talk about the apostolic witness of the Lord Jesus's message and what the
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Old Testament prophets talked about. Peter is going to say there's an objective certainty for Christian truth.
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And it's not inside of us, it's outside of us. It's historical. And since it's historical, there can be theological implications.
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I think this is our fifth message in 2 Peter. I love the book of 2 Peter. It exalts the
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Lord Jesus and at the very beginning, Peter has a message of good news to tell his people.
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They're hurting, they're scurrying, they're running around, there's persecution, there are issues that are going on in the first century.
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And he wants to encourage them. And how do you encourage a group of Christians these days?
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Well, he encourages them by saying there is truth and you can know it for certain. The false teachers,
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Jesus isn't coming back. Is he going to come back? How do we know that? And it's not any better for our day.
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It's been 2000 years almost since Jesus said, I'm coming back. And yesterday he didn't come back.
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10 years ago he didn't come back. 100 years ago he didn't come back. Is he really coming back? How do I know that?
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How do I know it's just not some kind of placebo to get me through the night? I mean, is this all real? Did we lose an hour of sleep and get up today for nothing?
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At the very beginning with a little bit of review, do you notice what he says in chapter one of 2 Peter 1?
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For those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. At the very, very beginning,
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Peter wants you to know, and if you're a Christian, I want you to know through Peter that you're right with God.
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You're right with God because Jesus was right with God and you are in Christ. You are in union with Christ.
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You get what was Christ because he earned it not for himself. He earned it for you. And at the very beginning, you're like, well, you know what, after my last week,
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I don't even know how God could like me, let alone love me. But he wants these believers to know.
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He wants you to know that if you're a Christian trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, God's not angry with you.
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He poured out the anger that you deserved, but the son intercepted it. The son took it because that was the will of the father.
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And by faith and by faith alone, even though as the Heidelberg Catechism says, your conscience accuses you, and even though you've grievously sinned against the commandments of God in the last week,
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God, without any merit of our own, of mere grace grants and imputes to us the perfect satisfaction and righteousness of Christ Jesus.
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And so right at the very beginning, okay, crazy times, rollercoaster times, stable foundation.
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And then he goes to verse five and there's that hinge there. You're saved by faith alone, verses one through four essentially, but that faith isn't alone.
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In other words, you have evidence of your Christian life. You have fruit of the Christian life. You're a different person.
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You're standing right in God's eyes, justification, and then you begin to live a life commensurate with your calling, a holy living, and you live a holy life.
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For this very reason, verses one, two, three, and four, make every effort to supplement your faith, this faith that's been given to you with virtue.
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And he goes on and lists a variety of things that sound just like the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're a
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Christian, act like a Christian. He's on his deathbed.
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He knows he's going to die. Verses 12 through 15, we saw last week, that he essentially says, I'm departing and I want you to remember these things.
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These are my deathbed wishes. Don't forget the gospel and don't forget that Jesus is coming back, even though the false teachers are telling you he's not going to come back.
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He said, I'm departing. And even with that word, departure, wasn't that wonderful when we saw last week, Exodus? It doesn't mean
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Peter's just stopping, ceasing, getting annihilated, full stop, terminal.
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He's departing from one place to another, right? When you go to the airport, remember airports?
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You go to the airport and it says Boston, Orlando. You're departing Boston and you're going to Orlando.
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And Peter has been told by Jesus in John 21, you're going to die for me and I'm departing this earth and I'm leaving to go to heaven.
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And then he says in verse 16, and following is our passage today, you can know this is true.
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False teachers run their mouths. Why should we not listen to them? And the answer is found in verses 16 through 21.
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So I think for today, we'll just get through the first three verses of this section, verse 16, 17, and 18, as we talk about the objective reality that Jesus is coming back because of the certainty we have in his word.
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Don't forget chapter three, verse three, what do these false teachers say? Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with their scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
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They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.
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Same old, same old. We're not any closer to having Jesus come back because he's not coming back, you fools.
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So why are you denying your earthly pleasures and passions saying no to sin? You could be living it up.
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Eat, drink for tomorrow we what? Die. But if Jesus is coming back, well, that just changes everything.
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If I only knew that he was coming back, if I only knew it wasn't just kind of like a hope, a dream.
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Jesus said, I'm coming back, Mark 24. You'll see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with great power and glory.
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Paul in Titus says, Jesus is coming back. It's a glorious appearance, he says. John in the book of Revelation says,
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Jesus is coming back. He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.
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And on his robe and on his thighs, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
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And even the angels, when Jesus went up into heaven, they said to the men present, Jesus is coming back.
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Paul, John, Peter, the angels, Jesus is coming back. False teachers, no, he's not.
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Who do you believe? We need to hold our ground regarding objective certainty and truth found in the
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Bible. Even though there's an attack, we hold our ground. So our outline today is simple. And the outline for this passage in verses 16 through 21, let me give you three charges, kind of like a fixed bayonet charges.
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So that you'll hold your ground for the objective certainty of biblical truth. Three irrefutable objective
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Christian facts that should motivate you to trust the Bible as your only guide to determine, will
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Jesus come back or not? Is Jesus true or not? Is forgiveness of sins real or not, et cetera.
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And we'll look at the first two today. The first two bayonet charges to hold your ground. Bayonet charge number one, you dear congregation should see the
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Bible as reliable because of an apostolic witness. Apostle just means sent from Jesus.
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So Jesus isn't here, so he sends his apostles. Why should I believe the Bible? It's what do you mean? It's make believe maybe.
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You should see the Bible as reliable because of an apostolic witness verses 16, 17 and 18. Let's take a look at it.
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And you probably think to yourself, when I say for second Peter chapter one, this is the passage that comes to mind.
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Because it really is glorious. Second Peter 1, 16, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths or fables when we made known to you the recipients of this letter and to you if you've obtained a faith of equal standing by trusting in Jesus.
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When we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
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You think we're making this up? We're not making this up. Now there's something that you're gonna notice here.
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It's gonna be very simple. We can, let's see, I'm trying to see who do we have here for kids? If I took this, you kids, have you reserved those seats?
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Have you reserved those seats? If we take a camera and put it at this situation where we're gonna see the
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Mount of Transfiguration, what would it record? If it's inside of Peter and he's having a feeling or a bosom burning or a gizzard shiver or a liver shiver or something that happened,
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I've had this experience internally, this doesn't show any of it. CNN cameras show none of it.
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But if there's something that really happened, a real person on a real mountain with real decibels, with real retinas that we can see things, well, that's going to be more reliable.
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That's what he's doing here. There's not just eyewitness language going on here, but earwitness.
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He says, we didn't follow these myths, these fables.
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He's using language of, you ever go to a doctor that's no good? What do we call those kind of doctors?
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Think duck, quack doctors. Well, how do we ever get that name?
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But these doctors, they don't know what they're doing. I just read about one account this week. Somebody says, I'm going to operate on somebody and they call themselves a doctor.
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They're not a doctor. And guess what? Botched surgery. Peter says,
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I was there. I saw it, not internally, but externally with witnesses, Peter, James, and who else was there?
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John. We're not gullible people.
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They are selling snake oil, but we're telling you what we saw and what we heard.
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By the way, is there any snake in snake oil? That's a good question. The answer is no.
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Snake oil was just usually petroleum, minerals. Somebody in the wild west would pull up a stagecoach and sell some kind of cure -all and some liniment or something.
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And they'd want to try to take your money. False teachers want something from you, by the way, and not just a high view of them.
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They want your money. I did find it interesting. Just a side note. This is just for fun.
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William Rockefeller, the senior, sold petroleum -based rock oil as a cancer cure because he didn't want that whole snake stuff in there.
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Who wants to get snake oil? How many snakes do you have to kill to get oil out of there? I guess that's what they're saying. The point is this.
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They're using deceptive marketing practices, so don't fall prey to these false teachers.
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I like what the text says. We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. We made known to you. I've heard churches say, we are all about being known by God and making
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Him known. Does that make sense? God knows us, and then we make Him known. We tell other people.
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That's the language here. Everything about Peter, the apostles, Paul, Stephen, John the
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Baptist, we want you to know. We want you to have a knowledge of who the
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Lord Jesus is summarized by His power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They say
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Jesus isn't coming back. Yes, He is. We've told you that He's coming back. We've proclaimed that truth, the power of His return, the soon coming of His return.
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He is going to return. Everybody in the old days when the king would come into town, a vice -regent would come into town, a prince would come into town, there'd be a dramatic entry.
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And similarly, Jesus is going to make a dramatic entry. That's sure. Now, what these false teachers love to do is they'd love to say this.
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We're going to infect you with a little bit of this falsehood. And then you can start going through steps to learn deeper knowledge.
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And you can pretty soon one day, if you pay enough money, we go behind that black curtain over there, as it were.
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And now you can come behind that black curtain and see some special things with only your eyes. Again, after you get enough money.
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He uses that language against them. We were eyewitnesses. You're trying to say you've got special knowledge.
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I'm trying to tell you we actually saw things with our own eyes. I'll never forget the time we were walking in Crete.
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Remember Crete? There's a lot of liars in Crete and evil beasts and lazy gluttons.
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Are there not? This testimony is true. They're still there. If you're in Athens, you still think about people in Crete that way, kind of backwards.
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And so we're in Crete walking around. We didn't know what to do. We had three hour kind of layover in Crete. And so I said, you know what?
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I'm not a big Starbucks fan, but I would love to have a Starbucks mug that says Crete, just for fun,
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Crete, Cretans. So we're walking there and we walked past St. Titus's Church, a
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Greek Orthodox Church. And so we walked in. I said, be very respectful. We're just gonna stand in the back.
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We can't speak Greek. And we were watching all the smells and the bells and all this high
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Orthodox stuff. And then before you know it, there was a black curtain in the back and only the high priest walked back there.
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That's kind of the idea that he's playing against. They've got their secret mystery religions.
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They've got their higher knowledge. We were on that mountain.
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When particularly verse 17, for when he received, talking about Jesus, received honor and glory from God the
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Father, and not just eyewitnesses, but earwitnesses as well. And the voice was born to him by the majestic glory.
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What a name for God. This Jesus, this particular one is my beloved son with whom
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I'm... Now think about it just for a second. If you get what
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I'm going to say now, it will unlock this section. Not because I have secret knowledge, but because you'll just get it.
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This is what Peter's doing. If you wanted to prove the second coming of Jesus to be true, using a miracle or something
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Jesus did in his life, what would you pick? He touched a leper.
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That's pretty fascinating that he touches a leper. And instead of the uncleanness going to Jesus, the cleanness of Jesus goes to the leper and he heals the leper.
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How about walking on water? Would that be impressive? Hey, false teachers are saying
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Jesus isn't going to come back. Jesus walks on water. He calms the storms. He heals
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Peter's mother -in -law. He, Jesus, raises Lazarus from the dead.
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If Jesus can do that, he's certainly going to keep his word and come back. And all those are glorious.
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But what's the thing on Jesus's ministry when he was on this earth that gave us a little preview of the second coming that pointed to, you know what?
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Here's a little glory. Something more glorious is going to come. And the answer is the Mount of Transfiguration where Jesus is transfigured.
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We know that Jesus is gloriously going to return because we had a sneak preview.
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You ever go to a movie theater? Remember movie theaters? There's a lot of memories we have here. And they play something.
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What do they play? You call them previews, but what were they originally called? Trailers. Why were they called trailers?
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Because only people in mobile homes could afford them. No, of course not.
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They were played at the end of the movie reel, but nobody stuck around, but they're still called that way.
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Now they're at the front and they're usually two minutes and 30 seconds. And they usually have three different acts.
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So you can study all that. The preview of the transfiguration, the preview of the second coming was the transfiguration.
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That's why he's bringing this one out. He could talk about anything that the Lord Jesus has said or done. And that would be great.
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But the reason why he does a transfiguration is because it's the preview of the second coming. And here he says in the text in verse 17, the father is saying to affirm all this.
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We could hear it if we recorded it with a recording device. This is my beloved son with whom
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I'm well -pleased. Not within Peter's heart, not a still small voice, but the father speaking out loud, confirming that God himself has chosen the son as vice -regent, as king, as prophet, as priest.
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This is my beloved son. He's always my beloved son. He said that at baptism. He says that at the transfiguration.
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He says it at the resurrection, does he not, with words that aren't audible, by raising
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Jesus from the dead. I am well -pleased with my son. I'm always well -pleased with my son. He's done what I've sent him to do.
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There's more ear witnesses, verse 18. We ourselves, Peter, James, and John, heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him,
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Jesus, on the holy mountain. We heard it. What did the false teachers hear?
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Besides a desire for Benjamins. They don't hear anything. They want your money. We were there.
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We saw the preview. Now, I regularly tell preachers, when you're in an epistle, one of the best things you could do is go to a gospel account to make sure you get a good, long look at who
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Jesus is. And this is not forced at all this week or last week, because this is something we need to do.
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The gospel that Peter supposedly had the most influence on was the gospel of, not
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Matthew or Luke or John, but the gospel of Mark. So keep your finger in second Peter. And let's go to Mark chapter nine.
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I want you to see the transfiguration account, because this is the focus here. And I want you to see in Mark chapter nine that Moses finally made it to the promised land.
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Did you know that? Moses made it to the promised land. If you go to Jordan with us sometime in the future, on a trip to Israel and then
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Jordan, you can stand on top of Mount Nebo where God buried Moses, never got to go into the promised land.
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But now, if you ever have Bible trivia game, Moses made it in the promised land? Answer, yes, he did.
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And we're going to find out right here. Mark chapter nine, verse two, after six days,
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Jesus took with him Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain, probably
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Mount Hermon, 9 ,200 feet up. We don't know which one it is. It doesn't matter where the mountain is, how tall the mountain is.
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It's what happened on the mountain. And to whom did it happen? And he,
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Jesus, was transfigured before them. What an amazing thing.
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Luke says they went up to pray and now Jesus is transfigured. There's some kind of metamorphosis going on.
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It means to change form. It means now his glory is seen.
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It's super dark, you're walking. Lightning flashes and for a split second, can you not see everything perfectly?
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Then the lightning's done. It's dark again. For those moments, Jesus is transfigured and who he is on the inside, the eternal son with the transcendent, effulgent glory comes out.
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He's veiled with flesh. The word made flesh. But now we get to see who he is.
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For this brief time, the disciples see this. The word who became flesh and dwelt among us, we beheld his glory.
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Now we really see his glory. Radiant. What does verse three say?
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His clothes even got affected by this. Radiant, intensely white as no one on earth could bleach them.
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This is shining, dazzling, bright. If you think of glory, maybe you could think of it this way.
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When you look at something that's bright and you close your eyes, you can still see it. That's what the word glory is talking about.
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It's so bright, there's like an after effect. Driving down the street, on the freeway, on 495,
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I wanted to say the 495. And your father says, there's some people welding over there, don't look kids.
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What do you do? Well, of course you look, right? That's just the way it goes. Secretly though,
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I can just imagine myself. I'm not gonna turn my head because dad could see that, but I could kind of just look out of the corner of my eye.
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And if you stare at the sun, or you stare at a welder and close your eyes, you see that after effect.
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That's the idea because it's intense, it's dazzling, it's shining. John writes in epistle, 1
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John 1, God is light and in him, there's no darkness at all. Moses' face shone as a reflection.
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Jesus was shining because that's his essence. Daniel 7,
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I kept looking until the thrones were set up and the ancient of days took a seat. His vesture was like white snow and the hair of his head like pure wool.
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His throne was ablaze with flames. Its wheels were a burning fire.
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Anybody else there? Verse four, and there appeared to them two men that would summarize all the
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Old Testament. The law Moses and the prophets Elijah. Two men were there with those three disciples and Jesus himself,
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Elijah and Moses. And what were they doing? Talking with Jesus.
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The Greek is, it was a long talk. They talked to him for a long time. I wonder what they were talking about.
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Would you pay good money to know what they were talking about? I know what they're talking about.
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It was the prayer of Jabez. It was purpose -driven life. It was experiencing
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God. It was wild at heart. It was, the Bible is just written by men, you can't really believe it.
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Was it any of those things? I mean, the list could go on and on. Luke says, they were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
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They were speaking about his exodus. Everything in Moses talked about the prophet who would proclaim the truth, perfectly obey the law,
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Jesus. Elijah, representing all the prophets in the Old Testament, pointing to the one who would come,
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Jesus. Everything in Torah, Moses says, Jesus, you're gonna die on the cross and be raised from the dead.
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We wanna encourage you. By the way, did Jesus need encouragement on earth? I mean, come on, he's
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God, who needs encouragement? Is Jesus perfectly man?
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Do men need encouragement? The answer is yes. And Moses and Elijah come alongside of Jesus, as it were, and they encourage him with a direct quote in Luke, his exodus, his departure.
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He's going from some place to some place, and it's through the cross that's going to happen at Jerusalem.
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It's fascinating, it's amazing. Everything in the Old Testament was pointing to who Jesus was.
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Pastor Steve read Exodus 29. Should be going through your mind, sin offering outside the camp. What does that remind you of?
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Jesus. I mean, do you just think about the way the Holy of Holies was set up and the tabernacle and the temple?
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It was set up with this purpose. You can't go there, don't try it, or you're dead. How's that?
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What do you mean, only the high priest could go to the Holy of Holies? Once a year, and then there's the holy place, and then there's courtyards of the priests, courtyards of the men, courtyards of the women, courtyards of the
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Gentiles, and they even found a stone. Historically, we have the stone, and it's right at the court of the women, from the
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Gentiles to the court of women. And if you're a Gentile and you get caught inside that court, or the next court, or the next court, you're going to die.
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No access, no access, no access. God is holy. And then all of a sudden, we realize, after that veil was rent from top to bottom, torn, we have access.
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I have access. You have access. Not just Aaron on that Day of Atonement, not just any other high priest.
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Everything's leading up to that. The access we have. Sometimes study the tabernacle and the temple, and when you walk in, you start getting closer, you're going to see things like altars.
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Why? Because you've got to get some sin atoned for, covered. No wonder
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Christ is called our Passover Lamb. 1 Corinthians 5. They're talking to Jesus about His death, which is the fulfillment of all the
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Old Testament, of the law and the prophets. And I don't know if you've recognized this congregation, it's not in your text, but it's true.
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The conversation between Moses and Elijah and Jesus is the conversation that you'll have forever in all of eternity in heaven.
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Not saying, Jesus, we want to encourage you to go to the cross, but praising Jesus that you went to the cross.
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Worthy are you to receive honor and glory and power because you purchased for God with your blood men of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
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You will never get over that. People say, well, you're just in heaven, cherubs, clouds, and harps. How does that work?
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No, no, this will be the theme of conversation for the rest of your life. It'll be a theme of praise. True or false,
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Moses said back in Exodus 33, show me your glory, God. 1400 years later.
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Luke says, they were sleeping. And when they were fully awake, they saw his glory and two men standing with him.
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It's like they went up to the mountain to pray with Jesus. By the way, was that a regular thing? Regular, let's go pray.
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Was it a regular thing that they fall asleep? Yes. I used to pray on my knees over there in my study.
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And two things would happen when I pray on my knees. One, I would remember my to -do list. If you ever forget something, just start praying.
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Your mind's like going everywhere but prayer. And then I'd start falling asleep. They start sleeping, but when they wake up and they see the glory, they don't know what to say.
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Peter's eloquent in 2 Peter, but here he's just a bumbling fool. Rabbi, it's good for us that we're here.
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Let's make three tents. Let's settle in. One for you. That'd be good, stop there.
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Full stop, Peter. My advice to you, follow what you're going to do in 2 Peter and 1 Peter. Jesus, period.
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Where God places a period, never put a comma, right? Ever see those posters? Except it's usually the other way around.
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One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.
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They're just talking. They shouldn't have even probably talked. It's probably nice that they want to just be comfortable and settle down, but beside that, blurting out, saying things because they're dumbfounded.
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I call that BTE, Bad Transfiguration Etiquette.
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It's just like all that stuff. They don't know what they're talking about. They're afraid.
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And so what happens, they're feeling these things, and now God from the outside says something, so now we can think properly.
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How can we think properly? God interrupts. We find this, of course, in 2 Peter 1. Then a cloud formed overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud.
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This is my beloved son. Listen to him. By the way, that's exactly what
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Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 18. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me among you from your countrymen.
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You shall listen to him. Okay. Am I gonna buy what the false teachers say?
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They're just talking. They don't even know what they're saying. Apostles really saw this.
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It's sure. It's reliable. It's trustworthy. Verse 8, they all at once looked around, saw no one with them anymore, and here's the exclamation point.
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Instead of Moses and the prophets, they all pointed to Jesus, and now Jesus is here.
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I don't need to go back to signs anymore. I don't need to go back to shadows anymore. I don't need types anymore. Saw no one with them anymore except Jesus alone.
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I think they already were afraid, and now they're more afraid, and they looked around and saw no one with them anymore except Jesus alone, the ultimate prophet.
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Dear Christian, you should see the Bible as reliable because of the apostolic witness outside of themselves.
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Number two, let's go find that in 2 Peter 1, the second fixed bayonet charge to protect yourself from false teachers that tell you to live unholy lives because Jesus isn't coming back.
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Not only should you see the Bible as reliable because of an apostolic witness, both eye and ear, you should see the
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Bible as sure because it trumps experience. It's more reliable than experience.
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Verse 19, and we have, 2 Peter 1, 19, the prophetic word more fully confirmed.
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Peter was confirmed that this was true. It was real, it was valid, it was reliable, the transfiguration, but there's something more certain, more confirming than experience itself, even with the real experience, and that's the
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Bible. We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed 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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Stop there. Okay, do you see what he's doing? This is so fascinating. Let's say you meet somebody, they're a false teacher, and you're trying to tell them, you know, this is why
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Christianity is real. Peter, James, and John were on the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw
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Jesus, they heard the Father. Moses and Elijah were there, and the false teacher looks at you and says, were you there?
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I don't know, I can't, I mean, it's like secondhand knowledge. Just because you were there, that doesn't really mean anything to me.
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I don't argue with false teachers as a side note, I proclaim truth to them, but if they ask the question, it's an interesting question.
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What do you have, dear Christian, if you weren't with Peter, James, and John? You weren't with Peter, James, and John, and neither was
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I. So what do I have to know that the false teachers are wrong, and Jesus is right? Is there anything
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I have that can be sure and reliable? I'm not an ear witness to the Transfiguration. I'm not an eyewitness to the resurrection.
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I wasn't there in Acts chapter one when Jesus was raised up in the clouds under glory.
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What do I have? Am I defenseless? Is it my word against theirs? And so now he says to the congregation, he says to the recipients, he says to anyone who's received faith by the sovereign decree of God, trusting in Jesus, you have a prophetic word more sure.
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He's writing to the people, he's not saying now Peter, James, and John, he's saying we, you recipients and me,
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Peter, we have a prophetic word, do you notice it again? More fully confirmed. Transfiguration confirmed.
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Moses and Elijah standing on there reliable, that's all true, but is there something that's more reliable? Something more sure than the
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Transfiguration? And the answer is it's the Bible, the prophetic word. All the
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Old Testament. That's the idea here. Not strictly the prophets, but the entire Old Testament.
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Even in the Greek, that word more sure, that idea there, fully confirmed, is emphatic in the
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Greek, pushed forward so that you say, oh, that is so true. One writer said, the original arrangement of the sentence supports the interpretation that Peter is ranking
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Scripture over experience. The prophetic word is more complete, more permanent, and more authoritative than the experience of anyone.
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More specifically, the word of God is a more reliable verification of the teachings about the person, atonement, and second coming of Christ than even the genuine firsthand experiences of the apostles themselves.
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You have that. You have that very thing in your hand. It's called a Bible. Same writer said, what's more sure than experience?
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The word. Peter's point is precisely the issue that many charismatics fail to understand. The pilgrimage from experience to experience, more and more spectacular, is not only frustrating, it's counterproductive.
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Peter says, I had an experience, a real one, might I add, outside of him, but I have a more sure word than my own senses.
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I can't even trust my own senses in a real experience of seeing the glory of Christ. And so what do you do?
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Verse 19. If you've got this word and it's gonna teach you the truth, false teachers, they run their mouth and do
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I just sit there and go, okay, I can take it. No, no, I do both. I fix my bayonet and then what's the text say in verse 19?
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To which you do well, very pastoral, certainly not scolding.
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You do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place. So, and as a pastor,
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I am so thankful. That's our church. That's what you do. It's called Bethlehem Bible Church for a reason.
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It's pretty simple. We wanna make sure we study the Bible. Show me somebody that falls prey to people on TV, false prophets from Benny Hinn to Stephen Furtick to Copeland, Hagen, and the list goes on and on.
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They just multiply like flies. Show me people that fall prey to them and I'll show you somebody that is not paying attention to the lamp shining in a dark place.
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Because if you read the Old Testament or New, you'll realize that it's the theology of the cross that leads to the theology of glory.
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And that's for Jesus. It's the cross, then the crown. And when people try to tell you, it's your best life now, it's the crown now, it's everything good now, go for it now, speak to your disease.
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I listened to one lady. She was from Denver. And she said, just take out your wallet. And you say to your wallet, you're a thick wallet.
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You're a full of money wallet. You've got a lot of money in your wallet. And I just thought, if a fifth grader read their
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Old Testament, they would say she's a liar. False teachers don't want you to pay attention.
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False teachers want you to go on a motion. False teachers want you to go with the crowd. Look at all those people.
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How can five million people support Benny Hinn and you call him wrong? That's what they want.
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Yes, I call him wrong because I call him wrong based on the Old Testament. And the prophetic word made more sure.
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So he says to a congregation, stick, don't take my word for it.
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Don't take their word for it. You can read your Bible. Does the Old Testament teach and now the new that the
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Messiah is going to rule and reign? The answer is obvious. Even if somebody said,
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I'm not a Christian, but I read the Old Testament, there's a Messiah who's going to come and he's going to rule the world with righteousness.
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That's what this book teaches. I don't believe it says the unbeliever, but it teaches that. And so Bethlehem Bible Church, may
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I continue to encourage you. If you're walking in the dark in the Middle East and you don't have your iPhone with you 2000 years ago, you need a little lamp, don't you?
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It's the same thing. You're walking through the darkness of this world. You've got to have a lamp shining in a dark place. And how long do we need to do this?
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What's the text say? Until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.
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It's figurative language. It's metaphorical. Here's what it means. You keep reading the
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Old Testament and now Christian New Testament until you are settled in your heart.
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Yes, I've been reminded that Jesus is coming back. Yes, it's true. Power. Yes, it's true.
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Daniel. Yes, it's true. Genesis three. Yes, it's true that Jesus is coming back because the
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Old Testament tells me that and the spirit of God has illumined my mind and I understand it. I will keep reading the
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Old Testament until I'm just settled in my heart for certain. The Bible is reliable because of apostolic witness.
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But more than that, the Bible is reliable because it's spirit inspired.
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Now, what are we gonna do for a kind of an encouragement before you leave today?
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Let's talk about testimonies. Peter's testimony. I used to be a fisherman.
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Now, I'm apostle. True. If I were to ask you to give your testimony, what would you say?
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If Pastor Steve were to ask you, please put your testimony together for baptisms next Sunday night. By the way,
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I encourage you to come. How many do we have so far? I think four. Four, okay.
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I want 10. I'm just kidding. What kind of testimony will you put together?
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Now, if I show up next Sunday night, and Lord willing, I hope to be here, and one of you gets in the water, or just before you get in the water, and you say,
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I used to be in the Taliban, and I used to move 10 keys of heroin from Columbia to Miami a week.
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Jesus saved me, and I'm here to tell you about what he's done in my life. You know what I'll be thinking?
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Don't mess with that guy, is what I'll be thinking. I'll be thinking, I'm glad your life has transformed, but that's not a testimony about who
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Jesus is. You can be a Mormon and have a changed life. A testimony testifies to the work and person of the
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Lord Jesus. And if you want to say, I used to be in the Taliban, but something happened, and then you begin to extol the work of Jesus, that will be a right testimony, and as we call it around here, it won't be a testifony.
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You send something to Steve, it happens all the time. Steve says, could you please give me your testimony after you've filled out the application for baptism?
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And I would say probably every single time, Steve says, thank you for that first pass. He says it nicer than that.
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And would you please testify about the Lord Jesus? In my discipleship group with men in preaching classes,
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I always like to say, unannounced, I'll say to a man, Jim, please stand up and give me your testimony in 60 seconds, ready, go.
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And they're like startled, they stand up, and well, I was in this cult,
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I was a murderer, I was this, I was that, all these things they start saying, and there's something worse than a cult, and that's a murderer in a cult, but just going and going, and then
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I go, five seconds, and then they go, Jesus died, was raised from the dead, and he's coming back real soon.
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I'm like, well, good try. It is interesting, of course, and it's not wrong to say, this is what
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I did, but my contribution to my testimony was essentially sin, and Jesus did the saving.
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And I just want you to know whether I was a Taliban heroin trafficker or a homeschool kid who did all the right things on the outside, but was self -righteous on the inside, both unrighteousness and self -righteousness needed saving, and therefore, there's a savior of sinners, and I'm here to tell you about what he's done and how he's accomplished it, and I am a mere recipient.
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He's the actor, I'm the passive one. If you say, I don't have a good Christian testimony, stop saying that.
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Everyone has a great Christian testimony if they're a Christian, because Jesus is King. He's the
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Lord. Who does these things that Jesus does?
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Including his death, burial, and resurrection, but there's a lot more about Jesus than just that that should impress you.
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I rejoice your life is different. God changes everything about a person when he saves them, but the focus is on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Lorraine Bettner said, the gospel is the good news about the great salvation purchased by Jesus Christ, by which he reconciled sinful men to a holy
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God. And therefore, when you evangelize, it's the same thing, talking to people about who
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Jesus is, not necessarily a changed life. And dear
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Christian, this should encourage you because the gospel and the person of work in Jesus is so great, it overrides the sinful imperfections of the person evangelizing or giving the testimony or preaching.
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Is the word of God preached or the word of God proclaimed in evangelism handicapped by frail, sinful people who preach the objective person and work of Jesus Christ?
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Answer, no. You can look at Calvin's life and you go, did he kill
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Servetus? You can look at Luther's life and say, what about the Jews? You can look at my life and say, what about that?
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I can look at your life and say, what about that? That's why when you talk about Jesus, you're safe.
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Your testimony ought to be a testimony about who Jesus is. How do you know the gospel is true?
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How do you know Jesus is coming back? I submit to you that you hold the answer in your hands.
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Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for your truth. Give each of us an opportunity this week to tell people the good news.
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And while the law condemns, Jesus offers free and full forgiveness as the perfect law keeper.