Video preaching

A more sure word of prophecy, Pt1

Sermon notes

It is Peter’s desire to establish these saints in the truth that they have believed. His purpose is that they might progress triumphantly toward heaven, v10-14.

He points them to the word of God/Scriptures as the sure means of this progress and advance. Cp v19, 21. There is no other way to acquire such advance. Cp Acts 20:32.

This desire ought to be the burden of every preacher and of every Christian. It is a text that will serve very well as a motto for this year as it stretches before us in the will of God. If we live according to this truth it will be a year of advance and growth.

I  A MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY.

1. An instructive comparison, v17-18. The use of more introduces a comparison between two considerations. Peter is comparing the experience of the word of God that we have in its written form and his aural experience of it in the mount of transfiguration. There is a more solid foundation for the Christian walk in the written word than in any other experience of God. Such experiences of God, however genuine and beneficial, are less substantial and solid than the written word. Not that God’s spoken word is of less value than His written word but that our experiences are liable to our errors and limitations. Stability in the Christian life is the product of the attention to the written word that Peter is advocating here. Cp Josh 1:7-8.

2. How more sure? A number of things are stated here that support Peter’s assertion.

Negative, v16-17. The Scriptures can be regarded as more sure because of what they are not—‘clever myths’. Peter argues against this concept from his own experience but also from the existence and nature of Scripture. Cp v21.

Scripture is self-authenticating and self-interpreting, v20. This is a primary consideration. These words assert that all Scripture is mutually supportive. No one passage stands alone or can be interpreted on its own so as to mean something that the whole of Scripture does not support. Each truth is witnessed to by the whole book and carries the weight of the whole. Cp Rom 12:6—‘analogy of the faith’. Teaching is to be based on the comparison of all that is revealed. Personal experience cannot be so cross-referenced and supported. It is highly subjective and esoteric in nature resting for its whole authority in the experience of the individual.

Scripture is the product of the process described on v21. It is thoroughly Divine in its origin and transmission to men. The human pen-men employed in the process are described as holy men of God. They were men in whom we can have confidence and yet our confidence does not rest in them but in the fact that they were ‘carried along’ in the work by the Spirit. The Scripture is the product of a single author. It is a written work that can be objectively studied and analyzed.

3. The subject matter of this more sure word, v16-17. The person and work of the Saviour is revealed here. Specific aspects of His person and work are to the fore here. His power, majesty, honour and glory, specially as revealed in His coming again. The transfiguration was simply a foretaste of that event. Cp 1Pet 1:10-11.

 

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