Preach Biblically - Session 4 | 2025 LA Preachers' Conference

The Mandate to Preach Biblically

Well, good morning, brothers. So thankful that you guys have taken your time on a, I'm sure, an otherwise partially relaxing Saturday to spend it with us as we talk about preaching and we encourage one another as brothers, particularly in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. My task for this conference is to speak to the task of preaching biblically. And man, if I mess this up, then, you know, I'd be the worst conference ever, right? I love the simplicity of my part. I love the other brothers are bringing an excellent word on so many different things. I'm just trying to teach on the topic of the reliability of Scripture and why we should emphasize the scriptures and God's word in the preaching, in the teaching, in the shepherding task.

Turn your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 1, I'm sure a familiar passage to so many of you guys. And here in 2 Peter chapter 1, we'll be looking at verses 16-21 this morning. I want to say a couple things just by way of thinking through this. So thankful for Thomas's highlight of Peter yesterday, and oddly enough, and providentially enough, we come back to Peter. And Peter is so helpful and encouraging for his many failures, etc. But Peter is a centerpiece in the beginning of the church, right?

And there are some traditions that hold that Peter is the first apostle, the first of the apostles, and there's some succession, some authority that comes after him that is laid out through generations because of what he is. And if there was ever a place in the scriptures where you could see Peter kind of leaning into that concept of him being the first amongst equals and that everyone should have this high and excellently exalted authority, apostolic authority, go from one generation successively to another generation, you would expect it here because here's the background.

We're not looking at verses 12-15, but Peter will say a couple things. One, unexpectedly, he'll let us know in 2 Peter that he's expecting to be with the Lord soon. He is at the end of his time, right? Oh, sorry. He is towards the end of his life on earth. And as he's approaching the end of his life on earth, I'm going to read this passage from verse 12 all the way through 21 in a second. But as we listen to it, listen for what he is trying to do. You're going to hear him say that he is trying to remind them. He's trying to help them to recall. He's trying to encourage them to walk in the things of the Lord, even in his absence.

And so, okay, take those two things in mind. Peter assumes that he's going to die soon, and secondly, that Peter wants to leave them a legacy, something to help them continue to grow. And then it makes sense for us in our passage that we'll be looking at verses 16-21 that he leaves the bulk of the responsibility of sanctification and, on our part, of preaching and what it means for us to affect a congregation for the things of the Lord. He leaves that authority, the reliability, he leaves that authority on the reliability of the scriptures.

When we talk about preaching biblically, it seems like the most obvious thing in the world. But, brothers, we need to constantly be reminded that it's not about us. It is about the word of God and about conveying what God's word has to say. My words cannot save. My words cannot transform. My words cannot even convince a broken and lost heart to look to the things of the Lord. The word of God is the only vehicle by which that supernatural work can be accomplished.

Reading from 2 Peter

So, let me read for us starting in verse 12 all the way down to verse 21. Therefore, I'm sorry. I'm like, "Why is this looking?" I'm in 1 Peter. Don't make that mistake, brothers. Like, that's a freshman mistake. I did that for your sake. Sorry. Verse 12. 2 Peter chapter 1.

Therefore I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have. I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder, since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me. And I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any time after my departure. For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!” We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain. We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. — 2 Peter 1:12-21 (CSB)

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the word of God. We thank you for these brothers, and for these sisters as well, that are willing to spend a Saturday just talking about the gift that is the preaching of your word. Lord, I thank you for the other brothers and the word that they have shared already and the things that we will hear today, the rest of today. And may it all give us, Lord, just a sense of the gravity and the greatness of what it means to be able to proclaim your truth to your people and to the lost. Father, would you grant to us eyes to hear? I'm so odd to think that we look and then we hear, but that we might look upon your word and then we might hear it in our hearts and that our souls would absorb the things that you have given to us. Lord, grant us the preaching of your word with an understanding for its application so that we might glory in the fact that you have been so good to us in giving us your scriptures that we might know the truth of our God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. We thank you for all of this and for this day in Jesus name. Amen.

The Clarity and Authority of Scripture

It's about preaching biblically. One of my favorite, kind of, less mentioned theological terms is the perspicuity – I have to say it carefully, right – of Scripture. And if you guys are somewhat unfamiliar with that, under the doctrine of Scripture, what we mean by that simply is that the scriptures are given to us understandably or with clarity. It doesn't mean that every part of Scripture is clear or easy to understand. That's certainly not, especially as we are removed generationally and culturally from its original written form. There are things that we have to unpack and figure out. Nevertheless, the most significant things, all the significant things that the Lord would have us to know and to teach, are given to us in the plain text of Scripture.

Scripture is supposed to be approached not with some kind of weird spiritual lens, like God gives us a filter that makes us know stuff that no one else will be able to see. Scripture is given to us in plain human language, perspicuous. I probably said that wrong. All right. The idea is just it's clear. And I love that because if Scripture is approachable to us like that, then its authority falls on every single Christian. And as the preacher, our task is to speak the scriptures, not ourselves, not our opinions, not our strong thoughts. I mean, all of that is okay, and the Lord uses some of that for clarifying his word, but if the word itself is not clarified, then our preaching task is failed. It is about bringing the authority and the reliability and the clarity of the scriptures to bear.

Here in 2 Peter, Peter is writing with an anticipation, as we read, that he will be gone, that this will be toward – he is at the end of his earthly life and ministry. And as he contemplates what he's going to leave behind for God's people, did you hear the terms in verse 12? "I want to remind you." And in verse 13, "I want to leave you a reminder." And in verse 15, "that you might at any time be able to recall this even after my departure." Peter understands what his task is meant to be.

The Credibility of the Apostolic Message

And he begins with establishing the credibility of the apostolic message. Look at verses 16-18. "We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." What Peter is doing here is he is establishing the validity of the apostolic message, what they have been teaching. Notice he says that "we didn't follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you." So it's something that they have already conveyed, something they've already taught them, and particularly there's a single article for two words, "we taught you," and this is one concept with two things, right, "power and coming," the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They spoke, Peter spoke, the apostles spoke to God's people about the power of Jesus Christ as it relates to his coming. And the term that is used there, the *parousia*, right, the "coming," when it's used in the New Testament, like 17, 18 times, it is used always for the Second Coming, the return of Jesus Christ. I assume that's what Peter is talking about, that the Lord is coming back and he's coming back in power, and all of that he has made known to the congregation, to the people of God. And his point is, "this isn't just silliness. This isn't something that I've created." His whole point is it's not cleverly devised myths, legends, right? Like fables. This isn't wishful thinking. This is something that the Lord has said, and they are conveying his words to them.

This is particularly poignant because the false teachers that Peter is trying to deal with within the congregation have been preaching that Christ is not returning. If you scan ahead to the second chapter, 2 Peter chapter 2, look at verse 1.

There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them. They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep. — 2 Peter 2:1-3 (CSB)

I think Peter is facing the accusation that what they're making up is just kind of nonsense. It's opinion, right? It's the fancy of Peter because he was one of the early eyewitnesses and he's trying to establish himself, and he's speaking of things that the false teachers are accusing him of as just myths. And I think what Peter is doing is he's turning that back around and he's saying, "Listen, we didn't follow cleverly devised ideas. We didn't make stuff up. We made known to you that which is about the power of Christ's return. That he will return and that he will return in power."

See, in verse 4 of chapter 3, this is what the false teacher is saying:

saying, “Where is his ‘coming’ that he promised? Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.” — 2 Peter 3:4 (CSB)

They're saying, "Look, like, we keep talking about Jesus' bodily return. Come on, man. Like, what are you talking about? Everything's the same. Since the Lord died and he was ascended, since then, like, things just kind of go on. So why are we putting emphasis on stuff that doesn't need to be emphasized? Let's talk about what's relevant today. Let's talk about what we need for this moment: what is happening politically or socially, etc." You pluck it out of the air, whatever you want to deal with. All of that stuff is on the table for them, and they just feel like Peter doesn't have the right or the authority to speak to those things.

And Peter is trying to say, "Listen, what we have taught you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that comes from him." And if you question the credibility of the apostles and their message, see verse 17 and 18, he says, "We have received honor and glory." Sorry, sorry. When Jesus, right, they were eyewitnesses of his majesty (end of verse 16). For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven. For we were with him on the holy mountain.

Peter is speaking of the Transfiguration. That's why he says that there were eyewitnesses on the holy mountain when Jesus was transfigured and his glory was revealed. He says a few things here in this account. The Transfiguration is mentioned in Matthew 17, Mark 9, Luke 9. And in each of those accounts, it's preceded by a discussion on the kingdom of heaven. Jesus literally tells his disciples, "There are some here who will see the kingdom of God come in power" (Mark 9:1). Or in Matthew 16, he says that "they will see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." In Luke 9, he says "they will see the kingdom of God." So every time the Transfiguration in the Synoptic Gospels is mentioned, it's preceded by Jesus promising that some will see his coming glory connected to his kingdom.

This is exactly what Peter is talking about. See, he used the term "power and the coming of our Lord," and he is saying that we have witnessed that, or at least the temporary glimpse of that. We have seen that unveiled to us in the Transfiguration. And in that Transfiguration, he says they witnessed something of a coronation of the Son of God. He says it from the majestic glory. God the Father spoke and says, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased." The speaking of that is not just the statement that this is the Son of God and that God the Father just really likes him. That certainly says that. But the idea is that something unique is taking place there: that at the Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah present, there's an establishment that this is not just the promised anointed one, but the very Son of God.

And Peter is saying, "Like, we're not making stuff up. We beheld the coronation of the one that will return in power. We have seen it for ourselves. We are eyewitnesses. We ourselves," verse 18, "heard the very voice that was born from heaven for we were there with him on the holy mountain." There are so many things about the Transfiguration that I think we would be curious about, right? I mean, the scriptures report things like in the Gospel of Mark that, you know, Jesus's clothes is "whiter than the whitest white that you could make out of your clothing," right? And like, you're just curious, "Like Peter, how did you know it was Moses and Elijah? Not just two old angels or something, right? Like, what did that look like? I mean, describe it for us." And he would lose the capacity to describe it well, as the description in the Gospels don't give us more than simply there is just the manifest visible glory of Jesus revealed.

And I think that's what Peter is plowing forward. He's suggesting that there is power and coming in the Lord Jesus Christ, that it is coming. What they saw there in the mountain of Transfiguration, the entire world will see. That's the credibility of the apostolic message. He's saying, "Look, we're accused of making stuff up, but we're not just speaking our own opinions. We're not claiming to have some knowledge that we have kind of made up in ourselves."

I think about the many times that you have tried to share the gospel with somebody, and they have the strangest worldviews. You know, I think the strangest one was when I was in a talk in a Target with some people that are involved with this weird cult, the "Mother of God" cult. And I remember we're talking and it almost sounded like, you know, they believe the scriptures for a second. And then they started talking about, "Oh yeah, like that's great that you believe in God the Son and God the Father, but do you know God the Mother?" And I was like, "What?" This is taking a weird twist. And they believe, this particular cult believes that God the Father and God the Mother are these old Korean couple somewhere in Korea. And I was like, "Bro, I'm Korean. This is crazy."

And I think that's one of the few times in a gospel conversation where I am so offended that I literally say, "Wait a minute. Wait, hold on. Does that sound right to you that God the Father" – and it turns out God the Father, this old Korean man, had already passed away. He says, "Does that sound right to you that God the Father has died and God the Mother is this old Korean woman that you have to go and see occasionally? Is this not insane to you? Does it make sense?" The question is, "Where do you get that?" And their answer is because someone told me. Or other people that you have tried to witness to that will tell you that, "Well, I don't believe that God would ever send anyone to hell," or, "I don't believe..." Well, "where do you get that?" "I get that from like how I think about the world or what guys have taught me." We get that from just experience and from the capacity of our imaginations.

Do you hear what Peter is saying? He's saying, number one, "Listen, we have credibility because we're eyewitnesses. So if we have taught you something about Christ's power and his return, not only is it validated, we have seen a visible glimpse of what that will look like. We're eyewitnesses to this." So that's incredibly compelling. It's not him just creating something out of the air. It's not wishful thinking. Christian hope is never merely Disney-esque wishful thinking. We just hope for something and hope that the Lord returns. We have the scriptures that affirm that. We have the Lord who has affirmed that. Peter is saying we are credible witnesses, and the message that we have given you, the doctrine that we have taught you concerning Christ, his power, his return, all of that, has a sense of credibility because we're eyewitnesses to his glory.

The More Certain Prophetic Word

But wait, it's like the old, what was the old Calgon commercial, or one of those commercials, right? "Wait, there's more!" Right? I think it was like, you know, the knife commercials, right? "There's more." And there is more. Look at verse 19. And this is where Peter begins to kind of now lean into something that is of greater reliability, certainty than even the eyewitness account. In verse 19, he says, "And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart." He says this first of all, which is an amazing statement: "We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed."

Now listen, the task is to talk about preaching biblically. And I would be remiss if I didn't take the moment to think about the interesting way that Peter decides to refer to the word of God. He uses the term "the prophetic word." He has a lot of other vocabulary he could use. He uses the word "scriptures" in other places. He uses the word "scriptures" for even Paul's writing in chapter 3, verse 15 and 16, to establish that "our brother Paul has written some things difficult to understand," and "the ignorant and the unstable will twist that as they do to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures." So he will use the term "scriptures" later. He has a lot of different terms for the word of God or for the Bible.

But he uses the word "prophetic word," emphasizing that whatever the scriptures have spoken to, prophetically. I think he's leaning into that predictive aspect of God's word because he is trying to emphasize that he has been teaching them that Christ will return, that that has consequence on how we should live, and he will return in glory, he'll return with power, and we should expect that. So when he says "the prophetic word," he's trying to say that the Old Testament scriptures – and he would be referring predominantly to the Old Testament scriptures as the New Testament canon is not fully realized at this point – he's saying the scriptures point to the person, the work, and the return of Christ.

So at the very least, just the terminology of this should suggest to us that wherever we are in scripture, we should recognize that this is supposed to aim us towards the grand finale. And the grand finale is his return. The cross is the center of all of human timeline, right, of all of human history. But the finale is coming. And the finale, the finale is the return of Jesus Christ in power to finally judge and to renew and to remake what all of creation is meant to be. And so by picking up just that simple phrase, by choosing to call it "the prophetic word," Peter is letting us know that this word is prophetic. It aims to someone, to some event, to some individual, and it aims to the person of Christ. So, we ought to preach Christ in all the scriptures. We ought to preach the cross regularly because that's what the word is. It aims at a person, his power, and his coming.

Well, it's not just the prophetic word, but it's also the ESV says "the prophetic word more fully confirmed." Now the word order in the Greek is actually the "the more fully confirmed" is first. It is literally that "we have the more sure" – I think that's the NASB, right? It's the more sure prophetic word. Interpretively, there's a couple things that this might mean, right? Like this idea, what does it mean that we have a sure word or a more certain or more sure word? It means either that Peter's apostolic witness, that what they saw further confirms the word of God. That's probably not what is being expressed here. I think what Peter is saying is that there is validity in what we're teaching because we have seen it. We're eyewitnesses of his glory. We're not just guessing at it. We got a glimpse of it. He promised that there are some among us who would see his glory when he comes in the kingdom, and we saw what that's going to look like.

See, so I think he is establishing that they have credibility. The apostolic message about the Lord and his coming, all of that, he's saying our eyewitness testimony is valid. He is just saying comparatively speaking, though, there is something that's even more certain, more sure. It's the comparative adjective. So we need to feel the weight of the comparison. We have "the more certain prophetic word," more certain than what? Than even what we have seen with our eyes. Even what we have experienced that is amazing. Like I said, there are so many questions that I would have for Peter in the new heavens and the new earth about like, "Dude, so what did that look like? Like was he glowing?" Because in our day and age, like, we could make movies, right, moving pictures that would depict something like, what would that look like? How would you want to display that? Like it would be an interesting thing.

But how amazing. Think about all the times that you thought, "Lord, if you would just do this one thing." Or think about all the unbelievers that you have known that thought, "Okay, man. If God would just, Lord, just close and open that door, you know, just give me a sign that demonstrates your supernatural power that you are real." And Peter is saying, so much unbelief demands to see. "Let me see and I'll believe." And Peter is saying, "Listen, even our seeing, as incredible and miraculous as that seeing experience was, the word of God, the prophetic word, is more certain, is more sure than that experience."

I think the Lord was of the same mind when he tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. You remember that Lazarus is a poor man, rich man dies. And then when the rich man is in Hades, he asks if the angel would send Lazarus to his brothers to warn them of not living rightly in the world. And in Luke 16:31, the angel says,

“But he told him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’” — Luke 16:31 (CSB)

Dude, that, listen, the Lord is so amazing in the way that he puts stuff because at the moment you would think, "Wow." So you're saying that even if they saw something miraculous like someone rising from the dead, they would not repent and turn from faith. In other words, the seeing is not sufficient. What is sufficient is what God has given to them in written form with clarity, understandably, to be read and to be appreciated, to be taken in into our human minds, to be explored and understood on the basis of it being in human language, written – the writings of Moses and the prophets, suggesting the whole Old Testament. They won't listen to the scriptures. They won't even believe if someone rose from the dead in the wondrous kind of, you know, the way that Jesus puts that is he will rise from the dead, right? And even those that know, the religious leaders knew, the guards that the unbelieving guards that guarded the tomb knew, they all knew that the body was gone, that something supernatural had taken place. Did they then, because of their experience and their eyewitness account, did they then turn to the Lord? The answer was no. And the Lord's statement holds absolutely true. If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, if they will not hear the more sure, the more certain prophetic word, they're not going to listen to any experience. They won't be changed by some miraculous thing. Even as they see the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they will not be swayed because the seeing and experience, it is not as certain as a prophetic word. We have the more sure prophetic word.

The Prophetic Word: Enlightening and Hopeful

So we have a prophetic word, we have a more sure word, we have an enlightening word. Look at the second part of verse 19. "We have the prophetic word made more fully confirmed, to which you will 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 heart." It says, "you will do well." And the "well" is a term that means that it will be good and excellent and helpful. I think the Lord would have us to recognize that how we will do well in this life is by paying attention to the scriptures in a way that becomes a lamp shining in a dark place, in a way that is like an anticipation of the coming dawn.

I, the language, obviously Peter is borrowing from Psalm 119:105,

Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. — Psalm 119:105 (CSB)

And I got to be honest with you, when I think about that particular verse, I think it's good. I mean, like, I get the metaphor. I think the symbolism is that you need a lamp when you're in a dark place and it helps you to see, and light often in the scriptures is a metaphor for truth, meaning like ignorance is darkness and truth is light. Like, I get all that. But I think the appreciation of certain metaphors, because they're so common and regular to us, we kind of lose its impact.

Listen, we need light, right? Like one of the reasons why I'm stumbling over words is because it's a little dimmer than I'm used to. My eyes are open and I didn't bring my reading glasses up and I don't want to go back and go get them and stuff. And so I'm having a little hard time seeing my text, right? We need light. And as you get older, you need more light, right? They need to be like blazing sun kind of light, right, to help you to see. Have you ever been somewhere where it's a complete absence of light? I'm talking like so dark that if someone came up to you and did this in front of your face, you didn't even notice. We are city folk. Some of you guys are more outdoorsy than me, and God bless you, and you go do that, and I'll stay here, right?

I'm a city folk, so I don't feel like I need a flashlight ever, right? I'm not in the woods. There's a light somewhere. I mean, even the streets, I'm bothered if for some reason, as I'm driving on a freeway, it's not well lit enough. Like, you know, they need more lights. We're so used to things being lighted for us that that's just kind of our normal world. But in a world, in a time where without some lamp, some help, you have utter darkness, I think the scriptures are trying to use that metaphor in the sense that there is only one way to see. There's only one way to get light, to get truth, to get clarity on what is around us and how to think about the world that we're walking through.

Like, pay attention to it. It is good. It is well. You will do well if you're paying attention to the scriptures as to a lamp shining in a dark place. It's the only means by which we might see the world for what it is. We might see the Lord for who he is, that we might be enlightened. We use that term to even speak of how we've come to understand things even better. I mean, all of that, and the word of God is the only means that we might see things as they are.

I think of Hebrews 4:12 and how the word of God is a "double-edged sword," right? "Active and so sharp it could cut between" – and depending on your translation, things like "sinew and marrow, soul and spirit." And I think as it says that, we're supposed to read that and go, "Dude, I'm not sure that I could even distinguish between my soul and my spirit, and my bone and or my joint and my marrow, right? I don't know what parts they are." The whole point is it is God's scalpel to be able to slice that which probably to us is unslicable, unseparable, right? It can get to the very heart. And in fact, the final thing it says in Hebrews 4:12 is "the very thoughts and motives of our heart." How many times have you thought like, "Man, like I'm struggling. Is this a right motive? Am I thinking right about that?" And the word of God can cleave through that with surgical precision in a way that makes it absent. That's what we mean by the enlightening word.

It is a prophetic word. It's a more sure word. It's an enlightening word, and it's a hopeful word. The last part of verse 19, when it says, "You will do well to pay attention to it as a lamp shining in a dark place," the last part says "until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart." I might have used this illustration last year for something totally different. But you know the idea of the day coming because we are here, I think, speaking of all these things, the Lord returning in power, the Lord victorious, right, until it says "the day dawns." I think it's talking about that day when the Lord returns.

And the illustration I give to you, which I, you know, which I don't know why so encouraging to me, is that when I was younger, I always thought like if I asked you what's the coldest time of the night? I always thought, "Well, you just bell curve that bad boy, right? Like the sun goes down about 6:00 and it rises about 6:00 in the morning, and so it's probably, bam, right there, right in the middle at midnight. That's the coldest part." That's not true. The coldest part of the night is just before the sun rises. You can make, if we want to stay in this metaphor, you can make the case that the darkest time of the night is just before the sun comes out, right? Because until the sun comes out and the brilliant and gloriously warm rays come down upon us, then the earth is getting darker and darker, colder and colder.

So it may not seem in your reading, if you're reading through this in a given devotional day, right, and you're reading this, it might just kind of slide off of you like no big deal. Like, "Okay, so we should pay attention to it. It's like a lamp, which, you know, like, yeah, I don't always use a flashlight, but I guess I get that. It's like until the day dawns. Okay, that's kind of cool. The day will be dawning," you know, like the Orphan Annie song, right, "The day will come out. The day will be better because the day is coming, right? There's always tomorrow. Tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow." The whole thing, right? "Like until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."

But this is what I think the scripture is trying to say. This is what Peter, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is trying to tell us: the day is dawning. The Lord is coming. The darkness will end. When you are in a dark season of life, isn't it glorious? And sometimes the only thing you can clutch to is that you know that this will end. This is not eternity. The worst and darkest day, the worst and darkest moment, the most difficult pain that you've had to deal with in this life will end in this life. All the junk, all the mess, all the stuff that brings pain and difficulty and struggle because of sin in your life, it will end. Why? Because the promise is that the day will come, the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will come in power. He will come in glory. But he will come.

Can I say one more thing about the term *parousia*? In all 17-18 occurrences when it speaks of the Lord's return in the scriptures, most of our modern English translations just translate it "the coming of our Lord." It's a term that you could translate, if you wanted to, like "his arrival," "his return." The reason why they choose "coming" is because the word has that particular sense of presence, not merely schedule. It's not just that he will return at some point. It's that he is not that far off. The term *parousia* itself, the coming of the Lord, is meant to be a word of hope.

So until the day dawns – and is the day dawning? Well, let's take temperatures. It seems pretty dark. Then perhaps the Lord is coming soon. That should be our anticipation, right? And "the morning star rises in your hearts." I love this. He's staying with the metaphor of the light and the sun coming with the dawn. He says, "and as that comes upon the entire world for ourselves, for our hope, the morning star rises in your heart." So one is the entire world. The sun will shine on the dawn over the entire world. But for you as you struggle, as you fight, the morning star will rise in your hearts.

The morning star is not the sun. And again, this is one of these things I had to learn because as a city slicker, I just figured, "Oh, it's the same thing. It's poetic, right? It's parallelism. There's a sun and then there's the morning star." No, no. The morning star is like Saturn. It's like, we wouldn't see it here in the city because we have too much ambient lighting, right? But it would be the bright star just before the sunrise, and the dawn is about to approach. And I think again, the metaphor is meant to be rich for us, that there is hope, that the word of God is like that, is like a lamp. Yes. But it is a lamp that will beckon us, that will promise us that the sun is rising, that all the darkness will end. And the word of God in us is almost like the day star. It's like the precursor of the sunrise. We know it's coming. This is the certainty. This is the reliability. This is the power of the prophetic word. This is what it's supposed to do for us.

The Divine Origin of Scripture

And are we from our pulpit just giving out good anecdotes, right? Are we just telling good stories? Are we preaching our opinions or our thoughts or our convictions? You should have opinions. You should have thoughts. You should have convictions. But if the primary purpose is not the explanation and the application of God's word, then what are we doing? Could they not go to some other self-help guru? Can they listen on the radio to some therapeutic nonsense? They could find help for all of their emotional needs. But the question is, is where can they find absolute certainty about what this world is like, how it will end, and who will be victorious when all is said and done?

One final point, and as usual, I'm going long, so I will work quickly through this last two verses, which is so rich. Verse 20:

Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. — 2 Peter 1:20-21 (CSB)

In case we're wondering about the origin of the divinely certain word, Peter is saying, "Look, we back up a little bit." Peter is saying, "If we're talking about the power and coming of the Lord Jesus, we saw a glimpse of – we're eyewitnesses of it." More certainly, more assuredly, is the prophetic word. The scriptures have spoken to this. And the word is the prophetic word. It's the sure word. It's enlightening word. It's the hope-giving word. And this word is not a matter of human origin. "Knowing first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation."

This is of first importance. "Know this first of all." There's a big takeaway. "No prophecy of scripture." This is comprehensive in terms of negation, literally that all scripture or that all prophecy of scripture does not come from one's own interpretation. What does he mean by that? He means that no prophet heard God's word or his voice and started to think, "Okay, now how can I say that better? How can I decide what that should be for the people?" The prophet did not hear God's word and think, "Okay, I'm going to write it a little bit differently. I think it'd be more helpful if we emphasize this, Lord." There is no interpretive kind of medium between what God spoke and what was written on the pages of scripture.

It is not an implanted prophecy. I like, you know, I read the book *Dune* and I like the movie, and I thought it was so interesting, right? Like these priestesses, they had planted on this planet prophecies, right? And it began a fanatical religion. But the whole point was these were implanted. They left prophecies on purpose for some future guy to come and fulfill. And so there was a certain route that he had to take because they had been written, and the question in that movie as far as their Messiah is concerned is, he has to fulfill something that's prophetically stated. So is it actually prophecy or is that just kind of a narrative, a future narrative, created for someone to walk in?

This is the word of God is exact opposite of that. The Bible's claim is that no prophetic or comprehensive negation, not any part of scripture anywhere, ever was written according to the opinion, the interpretation, the clever purposes of a human author. Instead, verse 21, "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." Literally, it says, "For not by the will of man was prophecy produced ever." "Ever" is the last word in that statement. And I love that, right? There was never by the will of man a prophecy in the holy scriptures. They're written down ever because of the will, because of the desires of a human being. But they were carried along when the Holy Spirit spoke through them. The Holy Spirit uses their vocabulary. The Holy Spirit uses what they know from their time. The Holy Spirit uses all that. But God's word is perfect.

The Sufficiency of God's Word

We began with a concept of the perspicuity of the scriptures. I should really learn to pronounce that better, right? Of the clarity of the scriptures, its simplicity, its accessibility. But so that we're clear, we also need to mention under the doctrine of scripture that the word of God is literally the word of God. It is not a whole bunch of religious people coming together and figuring out, "Hey, what would be the kind of stuff that we should say to start a religion?" It is the word of God. And as preachers, our task is not to convey our own opinions, our cleverness, and use some creativity. I love it. Thomas can talk about preaching with a sense of aesthetic beautifully. I love it. But in the end, it has to be the word of God because his word is his word.

It wouldn't be right if I didn't speak to at least some Puritans, right? Thomas Watson: "The word preached is a sword of the Spirit. It is God speaking to the hearts of men when delivered faithfully." Richard Baxter: "A faithful sermon is the voice of God to the soul. It is not the minister's eloquence, but God's truth working in the hearts of the hearers." William Perkins: "The preaching of the word is the ordinance whereby God speaks to us. The minister is but a trumpet sounding forth the word that God hath appointed to quicken, convert, and confirm souls." Stephen Charnock: "It is a word of God that we speak, and God gives it efficacy. The preacher is a servant, but the word is the power of God unto salvation."

See, this is the more sure scriptures. You have a testimony of what God has done supernaturally in your life. That's valid and good. That's like the apostolic message and their credibility because they're eyewitnesses of his glory. But we have a more certain scripture. Oh, the word of God itself, given to us by the Holy Spirit, inspired by him in absolute perfection so that none of it will ever fail. Guys, the only inherent part – and I might have even read it wrong – but the only part that I could say is the most reliable part of this entire message was that I read the scriptures. And I think I missed something because the darkness of my eyes, right? But nevertheless, that is the most significant part. And the rest of it is me trying to help us to understand how this matters to us, brothers.

Maybe we look – we are different. We may have doctrinal differences. We may have ministerial practice differences. We may have different kinds of congregations. Our worship style might be different. That's all of it. Fine, and worthy of argument and dialogue and debate. But, brothers, if we all believe that this is God's word inspired by the Holy Spirit, there's no other means by which human beings can be saved. There's no other means by which we may know the one true God and the life that we are meant to live. There's no other means by which we offer to our people the very word of God spoken, written, and good for their souls. Let's preach biblically.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you make it accessible to us. And Lord, as poor and as feeble as our minds often are, as difficult it is for us to really think through all that Scripture would have us to know, Lord, we know that it is sufficient. Oh, that we might believe that your word is sufficient. And then we might strive to preach it, to proclaim it, to know it, to apply it, to love it. Because, Lord, you have proclaimed your truth. You have validated and you have written them down so that we might know your word. Lord, even the ability to read, may the primary purpose be so that we might know and understand you through your word. You are a good and excellent God. And we thank you for revealing yourself so perfectly and so well in your holy scriptures. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.