Overwhelming Testimonies of Faith
Scripture reading: Isaiah 40:28-31
Text: 2 Peter 1:12-21 – Overwhelming Testimonies of Faith
Introduction: By God’s grace and foreknowledge we as a body of Believers are able to be here this morning. In four areas in the ministry of this church we have or are about to speak about the true foundation, the true knowledge of God. The Word of God, this is called Bibliology, and you and I who adhere to the very Word’s of God are Biblicists. The Word of God is our foundation, but as you have studied in Sunday School, and in Leaders Bible Study, and now this morning that is not a vain hope in a formless truth. A great hymn of the faith is, The Bible Stands, the first verse to the Bible Stands says, “The Bible stands like a rock undaunted mid the raging storms of time; It’s pages burn with the truth eternal, and they glow with a light sublime. The Bible stands tho’ the hills may tumble, it will firmly stand when the earth shall crumble; I will plant my feet on it’s firm foundation, for the Bible stands.
Central Idea: The Bible as we know it today is God’s inspired word to us, plant your feet on its firm foundation.
Main Transition: As we finish out chapter 1 of this short and too the point book I want us to understand the importance of standing firm on the Word of God, the right way. So we follow Peter’s testimony of how and why the Word of God is the inspired Word of God. We begin with Peter’s lasting instruction, which requires that we do something about the instruction but also the testimony of the Apostles, which give support second to none to the witness of the Word of God
I. Peter’s lasting instruction (12-15)
A. What God had revealed to Peter (12-14)
1. We are not going to spend too much time here as we looked at this passage a few weeks ago.
2. Peter is revealing why he wrote, he knows that his time is limited.
a. He sees the church, knowing one thing and doing another, so he sends a reminder to them
b. Peter’s testimony is what the Lord revealed to him 40 years earlier was that he would die a martyrs death, that time is now and Peter is confident past the point of death that the Lord is faithful to those who love and serve Him.
B. What Peter requires of us (15)
1. Peter’s goal in writing was that the scattered church as well as you and would be able to remember what he has told us.
2. You responsibility as a Christian is to live in holy conduct and godliness, you do that by being holy, living in and with the Family of God, you remember who you belong to and how that cam about.
3. All of this is what Peter wants you to remember even though he is not standing in this room with us this morning.
Illustration: The second verse to the Bible Stands says, The Bible stands like a mountain towering far above the works of men; its truth by none ever was refuted, and destroy it they never can.
Transition: I include the verse from the “Bible Stands” because this is going to be the theme through this message, but as we observe Peter’s plea we should recognize the cost of his reminder, let us not be so easy to throw that away, especially as we begin to understand what Peter is trying to reveal.
II. The Testimony of the Apostles (16-18)
A. The Apostles were not fooled by trickery (16)
1. Peter moves from his own testimony of the Lord to the testimony of the Apostles.
2. The reason Peter includes this defense of the Scriptures is to defend the words of Scripture.
3. The Apostles believed and were changed not because they were tricked, but because they were there.
Illustration: In our Family Sunday School this past summer Alpha and Omega posed the question of reliable witnesses, in the case of millions of years, there is not witness, in the case of Creation the witness is God himself. So when our faith is challenged we ask the question, were you there? Peter would have said, Yes, yes we were, we watched it happen, we knew who Christ was because we watched the transfiguration.
B. They were eyewitnesses (16)
1. Peter says we made known to you not some secret knowledge, but what we saw and were witnesses of.
Illustration: The unbelieving world tries to convince us that the Word of God both the living Word (Christ) and the written Word (Bible) are just a bunch of moral lessons or mythical stories. Peter, would say, I was there I saw the events with my own eyes. How dare we minimize the Word of God to some moral lesson or moral Being.
2. Turn to Matthew 17:1-8 – Peter, James, and John the inner 3 disciples watched as God the Father ministered to and confirmed Jesus Christ as Lord.
3. It is important to distinguish between the written Word and the incarnate Word (Christ). They are both major avenues of God’s revelation and therefore both come into focus throughout the remainder of this chapter. A Christian’s faith does not rest on clever stories as did the doctrines of the false teachers Peter attacked. Instead, true faith is founded on historical facts, which eyewitnesses corroborated.
C. They were hearers of God’s approval (17-18)
1. Peter, James, and John heard God the Father confirm Christ as His Son. It is interesting that what Peter heard had more impact then what Peter saw.
2. As Peter is writing to those that are scattered he is saying, Christ is who we have testified, not because we established Him as such, nor because He was able to get a following of people, but because God, the creator of the universe said He is, and unlike any religious system in the world, there were witnesses who heard and testified to it, I being one.
Illustration: The third verse of the Bible Stands says, The Bible stands and it will forever, when the world has passed away; by inspiration it has been given, all it precepts I will obey.
Transition: The testimony of the Apostles testifies too much this is why no book was included in the New Testament that was not written under the authority or direct pen of an Apostle. Peter’s point is to establish the Word of God above all other books, as it is like no other book written before or after. Before the false teachers can be answered by Peter he must establish the complete authority of the Word of God.
III. The witness of the Word of God (19-21)
A. The light of the World (19)
1. Given the evidence of the Living Word of God, Peter now moves to the written Word of God.
2. Because of the overwhelming testimony of those who where there, we can believe in the Written Word of God with confidence. In fact with urgency
3. We should seek after it as a lamp shining in a dark room.
Application: Darkness encompasses but light is piercing, when darkness falls the light gets brighter and we live in the light. The world we live in is darker then ever before, are you striving for the light?
4. Peter says we are to pay attention to the light until the day dawns and the morning star rises, he is saying until the day of the power and coming of our Lord strive after His written Word.
a. This theme was introduced in verse 16 as he was making establishing the power and prominence of the Living and written Word of God.
b. You do well to pay attention to the lamp in this ever darkening world.
B. The source of the Word of God (20)
1. The prophecies of the Word of God did not come from men, but from God.
2. There are many ways that one could interpret this sentence in verse 20, but the context seems to indicate that this not the act of applying the Word of God, but rather refers to the source of the prophecy
3. No doubt we are to interpret the Word of God literally within its context and style or writing, but this verse is saying that the Word of God was not and is not written by the whims of men.
C. The Bible’s Divine Author (21)
1. This verse is anchored to the very core of our faith.
2. The context of verse 21 supports the understanding that it was not men who wrote on their own accord under their own understanding, if this were so the Bible would have been nothing more than a cobbled together collection of short stories and myths, but this is not the case.
3. The Word of God was inspired by the Holy Spirit through men speaking the things of God.
4. The Scriptures’ human authors were controlled by the divine Author, the Holy Spirit. Yet they were consciously involved in the process; they were neither taking dictation nor writing in a state of ecstasy.
5. No wonder believers have a word of prophecy which is certain. And no wonder a Christian’s nurture must depend on the Scriptures. They are the very words of God Himself!
Conclusion: The final verse to the Bible stands says, The Bible stands every test we give it, For it’s Author is divine; By grace alone I expect to live it, And to prove it and make it mine. The Bible Stands tho’ the hills may tumble, it will firmly stand when the earth shall crumble; I will plant my feet on its firm foundation, For the Bible stands. Those words take me back to a rather simple time in my life. But a time when the Lord was establishing on my heart the foundation of my faith, the Word of God.
Beloved, you hold in your hands the very Word of God, Peter’s testimony is just a part of what it took for you to grab hold of His word. God say fit to give you His word, to reveal who He is to you, He saw fit to give you His word to show you to live, and He saw fit to protect it throughout the ages to display His sovereign majesty. How dare we place it on the shelf and forget it during the week, how dare we use it as a tool to bring other’s down or ourselves up, and how dare we erode it away to appease our finite conscience. The Bible is our middle name, Goodland Bible Church, let’s make sure its appropriate.