A More Sure Word!

Temple Baptist Church - 2-14-2018

2 Peter 1:16-21

Introduction:

A.  While writing to these displaced but saved Jews, Peter directs their hearts toward the Word of God.  If we are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts when we do not understand, we must learn to trust in His Word.

B.  Peter will go back to the past to establish a present truth as he establishes the importance of faith in the Word of God.

1.  First, in verses 16-17, Peter established their faith in God’s Word that was spoken in an audible voice.  Everyone here tonight, if you heard the voice of God and knew that it was He that spoke, would believe EVERY WORD spoken.  Not one of you would have thought that God was too wordy or did not speak as many words as He need to speak.  Not one of you would have said, “God could have said it better this way,” and then re-phrase what He said.  You would take God at His Word and honor every single word spoken.

2.  Second, in verses 20-21, Peter established their faith in God’s inspiration of the Scriptures through holy men of old.  Everyone here tonight believes that the initial inspiration of the Word of God was verbal, plenary, inerrant, and infallible.  Every single word of God!

C.  In verse 16, Peter uses the phrase “cunningly devised fables.”  The word “fables” is used 5 times in the New Testament.

1.  Fable – a tale or fiction.  Also, to teach or instruct a tale or fiction.  Cunningly devised is a tale that has been crafted.  We get a lot of that in politics these days.  You craft a story that presents a deception to the hearer.

2.  The most quoted use of the word “fables” is in 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy 4:1-4  I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;  (2)  Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.  (3)  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;  (4)  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

D.  The fables referred to in 2 Timothy had to do with turning those deceived away from the preaching of sound doctrine and the Word of God.  That is where we are today.

E.  For tonight, I want to break down verse 19 to get a good grasp upon what Peter is speaking about when he references a more sure Word.

1.  “we have” – to hold or to have in possession

2.  “a more sure” - A stable or firm base

3.  “word” – Logos, the same as John 1:1, in the beginning was the Word.  An utterance or something said.

4.  “prophecy” – to foretell whereas we “forthtell.”  It is a word that knows the future.

5.  “take heed” – not only to have in possession but to adhere to or to apply to oneself.

6.  “light” – a portable lamp, white in lamination.  Psalm 119:105.

7.  “that shineth” – luminous, to lighten or to show, to allow to see.

8.  “dark” – to blow dust or to be dirty.  The meaning is not just an absence of light but something dirty that obscures the light.  Dust storm.

9.  “place” – a condition, not a room.  As Israel sat in spiritual darkness when the First Advent took place, so we also sit in a time of spiritual darkness just prior to His Coming again.

10.  “until” – continuance of time and place.

11.  “day” - ffiguratively a period instead of a 24 hour day.  The Millennium or 1000 year reign; a thousand years is as a “day” with God.

12.  “dawn” – to beam or break through.  To appear.

13.  “The Day Star arise in your hearts” – to bear light.  

14.  Revelation 22:16  I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.  Many commentaries along with the Strong’s Concordance made a mistake in Isaiah 14:12 when they refer to Lucifer (brightness, often called the Light Bearer) as the morning star.  Jesus Christ is the Morning Star!

Conclusion:  If the emphasis of inerrancy and infallibility is place upon the original manuscripts, then why is the Bible called a “more sure” word of prophecy in the end time?

1.  Because we do have the original manuscripts, so they are no longer of value.

2.  because God no longer speaks from heaven or gives extra-biblical revelation.

3.  Because we must therefore rely upon the Bible that we hold in our hands.