Well good morning good morning good morning and welcome to the Believers Bible Assembly Today we're

going to look at 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 19 through 21 This passage of scripture is one of

the clearest in the Bible about the authority and the reliability and the divine origin of

God's word So let's examine the text this morning 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 19 through 21

and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you would do well

to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the

morning star rises in your hearts Knowing this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's

own interpretation for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from God as they

were carried along by the Holy Spirit I wanna talk to you this morning about the more sure

word Now the context of this passage in verses 16 and 18 Peter is reminding

the believers that he is not just passing on to them some myth or clever stories about Jesus

He explained to them that he personally witnessed the glory of Christ at the transfiguration in Matthew 17:15

He's a personal witness of the glory of Christ And he assured the believers that even though he personally

witnessed him that there is something even more reliable than being an eyewitness and that is

the written word of God a more sure word That's what we have today We have the written

word of God Let's begin to unpack this passage today so we can understand what we have that when

we come to the word of God we're just not coming to the word of God engaging in

some intellectual exercise We're in contact with the written word which reveals the living word and it's the living

word that is the more sure word that is reliable and will never fail First thing I want to talk

about is that God's word is completely reliable That's where we have to begin 2 Peter

chapter 1 verse 19 says and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed The scriptures

are more sure than our personal experiences That's what Peter was sharing with the believers that the word

is more sure than our personal experience And the reason for that is because the word of

God does not change Our emotions will change The culture that we live in changes Even our personal opinions change

but the word of God stands forever It never changed So that's why the scriptures are

more sure than our personal experiences Psalm 119:160 says the entirety of your word is truth and

all your righteous judgments endure forever The entirety of your word is truth Some people

like to pick their favorite portion of the scripture Old Testament Gospels something Paul wrote

This verse says the entirety of your word from Genesis to Revelation is truth and all your righteous judgments

endure forever Let's go to Isaiah 55:11 So my word that proceeds from my mouth will

not return to me empty void useless without results but it will accomplish what I please and it will prosper

where I send it This is why we have a morial word because it comes from God God is the

author and he said in the word That his word that comes from his mouth will

not return back to him empty void useless without results So that's why we got

to make sure that the word that we hear is from God Thank God for secondary resources but

secondary resources aren't scripture They can lend understanding to the scripture but they're not scripture So

I'm going to focus on the more sheer word which comes from God that's found in the scripture that does

not change that stands the test of time Jesus said in Matthew 24:35 heaven and earth

will pass away but my words will never pass away So we can trust the scripture over

our feelings we can trust the scripture over our emotions We can trust the scripture over

our personal experiences and opinions God's word is truth and it's reliable It never fails So we have to

line up our emotions and feelings and personal opinions with the word and then we'll be on the right track

We have to evaluate every teaching every so-called prophecy and experience through God's word We're living

in a world of false teaching and false prophecy It might sound good it might even tickle your ear

but we have to evaluate every teaching every prophecy every word every experience through God's word God's word is

completely reliable It's trustworthy We can put our faith in it because it comes from God And it has a

purpose It eliminates the darkness 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 19 to which you will do well to pay

attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place The word of God is light and it

provides clarity direction and hope in a world that's spiritually dark and without the light of the word we

will stumble through life but with it we can see the truth and that truth will make us free We

live in a world of darkness and people love the darkness instead of the light John 3:19

and this is the verdict light has come into the world but men love the darkness rather than

the light and here's the reason why because their deeds were evil Jesus said this is the

verdict The verdict has already been rendered guilty Those who love darkness rather than light are guilty because the light

Jesus Christ has come into the world but men love the darkness rather than the light

Jesus Christ because their deeds were evil You see darkness represents sin It represents separation from

God who is the light and this is due to a willful ignorance of the word This is what

I'm saying and listen very carefully It's not that they did not know the word they

willfully ignored the word about Jesus Christ They loved the darkness They would rather stay in the dark than

be in the light because in the light that's where all of their evil deeds are exposed so they

feel comfortable in the darkness Men love the darkness but as long as they're in

the darkness they will always remain spiritually blind until the light of Christ shines on them 2 Corinthians chapter

let me add some believers as well So they cannot see the light of the gospel

the word of the glory of Christ who is the image of God That's Satan's

main objective He can't stop the word so he blinds the mind of unbelievers and some believers so they

cannot see the light of the gospel because light dispels the darkness And Satan wants to keep people spiritually

blind He comes to steal kill and destroy He uses false ideas and suggestions to create fear worry and doubt

His job is to keep the minds of unbelievers blinded to the truth of God's word and sad

to say some believers This is the age that we live in The only thing that can dispel the

darkness It's the light of Christ which expels the darkness and reveals the truth Psalm

word is a lamp The word is light The word illuminates The psalmist says the word is a lamp

to my feet Without the light you will be stumbling through the darkness stumbling through

light and that's not the will of God for you He wants you to be able

to see and to see clearly because he is the one that's going to guide

our steps guide our path And it's not until the light of the word come that

we now can see the path that we're on and be able to follow it in accordance with

God and His word We have to seek the scriptures daily We have to seek the light

of the word that will guide us lead us and direct us in all aspects of our life The word

will guide our decisions and it will eliminate spiritual confusion The third point this morning is that God's word

points us towards Christ 2 Peter 1:19 until the day dawns and the morning star rises

in your heart The word not only guides us now but it points us forward and this

is important because we can get stuck on the now and lose focus But the word does not point us

to the now what's going on now your current situation what's going on in the

world but it points us forward towards Christ God's words directs us towards the ultimate hope and that's Jesus Christ

He is the morning star in Revelation chapter 22 verse 16 He is our blessed hope He is our

only hope And until his return we have to allow the word of God to rise in our hearts

on a daily basis which will cause a spiritual awakening that will prepare us to live for Christ

Until he returns we have to let the word create hope in us hope in our hearts rather than

fear about the future fear about the unknown 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 says for God

has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind Fear

does not come from God The love of God dispels all fear so we have to keep our eyes stayed

on Jesus We have to keep our eyes stayed on the more sure word that points us to

Jesus If not we're going to get caught up in the affairs of the world the things

of this life and it will choke the very word out of us So that's why we have to live

with an eternal purpose with our eyes stayed on Jesus Christ that will keep us

centered and grounded and anchored in the hope that Jesus gives but you got to stay

focused on Christ and the word of God it points us to Christ the author and

the finisher of our faith And that brings me to the main point of this passage

of scripture Why we can be assured that the word of God is true how we can be

assured that the word of God is reliable Number 4 because scripture did not originate from man The scripture

did not originate from human will 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 20-21 says this Knowing

this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation for no prophecy

was ever produced by the will of man That's the first thing that we need to

know That's the first thing that we need to understand If you talk to people who are anti-Bible anti-scripture the

first thing they will throw up in your face is that the word came from man Now we have

the scripture that can refute that No prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation for no prophecy was

ever produced by the will of man So the Bible did not originate from man But

that's the argument they'll present that this came from the mind of man So we need

to know and understand that the Bible is not a human invention nor is it the

personal opinion of man but God did use human authors to write His word to communicate His

word but the message what they wrote originated with God 2 Timothy 3:16 is clear All

scripture how much scripture All scripture is God-breathed given by inspiration of God Jeremiah 1:9 says that God put His

word in the prophets Jeremiah's mouth and what did Jeremiah do He spoke it That was

one of the qualifications of a true prophet that they spoke what God said and what they said came to

pass That's why when you read the prophecies in the Old Testament over and over again you

will hear the prophet say Listen not me but the Lord is saying this to make a clear distinction This

is the Lord speaking not me It's best for you to adhere to what I am saying Jeremiah

tried to warn the nation of Israel about 70 year captivity They didn't listen What

happened Everything the Lord said the way the Lord said it through Jeremiah happened Because the scripture did

not originate from Jeremiah The scriptures were God breathed God spoke through Jeremiah to the people

and Jeremiah spoke and wrote what the Lord wanted him to say God put his word in his mouth

and he spoke it Hebrews 1:1 says that God spoke through the prophets to communicate his truth

In the last day in this time in this hour he has spoken through Jesus Christ So we can trust

the word and we can trust the reliability of the word because we know that the author of the

word is God He is the originator but he spoke through men God is spirit and God

works in and through men then and he still works through men today We have the mortial word because

the word came from God and it can be trusted Now it goes on to say how God

did it He did it through the Holy Spirit 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 21 says but men spoke

from God as they were carried along as they were moved by the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit whose job it is to guide us into all truth guided the writers of Scripture so that

God's truth was faithfully communicated without error The Holy Spirit guided the writers of Scripture The Holy Spirit will

only speak what he hears the Father say We're talking about the original God-breathed word Now we know

that translations and versions of the Bible are full of errors but the original God-breathed word was without error because

the Holy Spirit superintended He guided the writers And he ensured the accuracy of the prophetic

message We still need to depend on the Holy Spirit when reading and studying the word because his job is

to illuminate the word We talked about that earlier illumination means to bring light As

we continue to devote ourselves to the reading and the studying of the word the Holy Spirit's job is

to bring forth light on the text on that passage of scripture so that you can understand it and apply

it to your life That's why before any reading and studying of the word you have to

pray and ask the Holy Spirit for understanding Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to enable you to be

a doer of what you're reading and what you're studying The word of God falls apart The word of God

makes no sense without the illumination and the leading and the guiding of the Holy Spirit Because

it's the Holy Spirit's role to lead and guide us into all truth God continues to

speak through His word today but only those who have an ear to hear will hear what

the Spirit is saying to you through the Word meaning they're dedicated and committed to seeking the

truth that comes from the word of God The Bible says when you seek you will find The

casual believer will only pick up the Bible on Sunday just to carry it to church because you know

we're supposed to have a Bible They don't have an ear to hear Only those who have an

ear to hear will hear what the spirit is saying to you through the word

So we can trust the word because the Holy Spirit job and role is to make the scripture plain

to make the scripture clear to shed light in the areas of darkness So I want to leave you

with this this morning In these verses of scripture Peter emphasizes the absolute reliability of

the prophetic word It's a lamp that shines in dark places and if there's ever a

time we need the light of the word we need the light of the word right now

The word will illuminate those dark places in our life so that we'll be able to see the truth of

God and not be spiritually blinded by Satan Biblical prophecy the scriptures are not a matter of

personal interpretation Listen it doesn't matter what you think It don't matter what I think It's a matter of what

the Bible says because the word of God is truth and His word is settled in the heavens forever

So I don't understand all this debating back and forth what you think it means what you think it

means it don't matter what you think it means God said it Now you and I have to

do we have to understand the original intent of the word when it was spoken

and to whom it was spoken to That requires work that requires rightly dividing the word of truth So yes

the Bible reveals truth but we have to seek after the truth We have to be diligent in

our study of the word so the Holy Spirit now can do his part to bring wisdom understanding knowledge and

truth from the Word And we can rely on the Word because we now understand it has no human origin

It all originates from God You and I today we can trust the word We can put our faith

in the word because the word of God is reliable and is a sure foundation that

we can build our faith upon Amen