God’s People Live by God’s Word

2 Peter 1:19-21
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, September 09, 2018
Copyright © 2018, P. G. Mathew
Language [Japanese]

Introduction

God’s people are those who are born again of the Holy Spirit, who live by true repentance and by saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who obey the Scripture all of life by the power of the Holy Spirit. No regeneration means there is no living by God’s word. Unregenerate people are spiritually dead, but they are alive in their sins. They are dead toward God. They have no interest in God, but they are very active in sin.

God’s people live by God’s word, meaning God’s people will obey God’s word and walk in the straight and narrow way that leads to heaven, to eternal life. This is how you find out whether you are God’s people or not. Do you love the word of God? Do you believe the word of God? Do you obey the word of God?

In 2 Peter 1:19–21, Peter speaks of the uniqueness of the Bible in teaching us about God. The great preacher of the twentieth century, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, under whom I studied, said, “In this Book we have the only account of God that man has.”[1]

The Word, the Light in a Dark World

Peter begins, “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pet. 1:19). God has given us his one book, consisting of the Old and New Testaments. It is his inerrant, infallible word, in which his people delight. It is our counsel book. It tells us how to make decisions.

In the Bible, God speaks to us, and we hear and do what he says. Jesus fully and perfectly obeyed the Scripture. In so doing, he accomplished our redemption and proved the absolute authority of the Holy Scripture. Jesus himself said, “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him” (John 8:29). He also said, “The world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (John 14:31), that is, in the holy Scripture. He prayed to his Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). He was speaking about the work of atonement on the cross for our sins. And when he died, he said, “Tetelestai,” meaning, “It is finished.” What was finished? The work God gave him, he finished by his death.

Jesus and the apostles confirmed the authority of the prophetic writings of the Old Testament. The prophets spoke about the sufferings of the Messiah, that is, his first coming in the fullness of time, and the prophets spoke the glories that would follow his second coming. In his first epistle, Peter wrote:

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. (1 Pet. 1:10–12)

Throughout the Old Testament, the coming of the Messiah was predicted. The first prediction is found in Genesis 3:15: “And I will enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Paul writes, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (Gal. 4:4–5). There are many other Old Testament predictions, such as Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Isaiah 7:14 (about the virgin birth), Isaiah 9:6, Psalm 16:10 (about the resurrection of Jesus Christ), and so on.

Jesus himself spoke about this. He told the Jews, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39). He also told them, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me” (John 5:46). Paul writes, “Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs” (Rom. 15:8). Christ’s first coming confirmed the Old Testament promises.

In Luke 24:25–27 we read, “[Jesus] said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” We also read, “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:45–47).

In the preceding passage, Peter spoke of Christ’s transfiguration (2 Pet. 16–18). The apostles saw Jesus transfigured before their eyes, which was a foreshadowing of his second coming in glory. This apostolic testimony gave proof that the Old Testament prophets prophesied truth by the Holy Spirit’s total control. Their prophecies received their first fulfillment in the incarnational life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. And consider this logic: If their prophecies of the Messianic sufferings came true, then their prophecies regarding the Messianic glories would also most certainly come true when Christ comes again (see Matt. 24 and 25).

We must understand one thing: God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Paul says, “Let God be true, and every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4). Scripture is God’s word, and God is truth. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Jesus also said, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).

All God’s promises will be fulfilled. Paul writes, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ” (2 Cor. 1:20).

The devil is a liar. He is the father of all unbelievers. Jesus declared, “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). When people lie, they are inspired by the devil and must be dealt with severely.

In Genesis 2, God said, “The day you eat thereof, you will surely die.” But in Genesis 3, the devil said, “The day you eat thereof, you will not surely die.” The devil always negates what God says. That means any person who will not believe in the authority of Scripture is inspired by the devil, which includes many university professors, philosophers, scientists and others.

Peter is saying that we must pay earnest attention to the words of the prophets and the words of the apostles, because all Scripture is God’s word. The whole Bible is God’s word. Peter says, “I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles” (2 Pet. 3:2). He also writes, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:15–16). This means the apostolic writings are Scripture.

Peter says we must pay attention “as to a light shining in a dark place.” This world is a dark place, for the devil himself rules this world. John writes, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). In the high priestly prayer of John 17, Jesus did not pray for the world. He prayed for those whom God gave to him out of the world, the elect people of God (John 17:9).

The people of the world are dead in their transgressions and sins, and they obey fully and completely the devil (Eph. 2:1–3). False religions and false Christian theology, as well as worldly philosophy, psychology, and science give us no true light. Jesus is the only light in the world, and he is revealed in the inspired writings of the holy Bible. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Are you a disciple of Jesus? If not, you are walking in darkness. And, eventually, you will stumble and fall and go to hell.

The psalmist declares, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Ps. 119:105). Paul writes, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” We become light through regeneration. He continues, “Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them” (Eph. 5:8–10).

Do you see the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian? It is the difference between light and darkness, life and death, and heaven and hell. It is not a little difference. It is a total, radical, fundamental difference as we live our lives in this dark world.

All true believers, who live holy lives according to the Scriptures, are, according to Jesus, also the light of the world. He said to his disciples, “You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). He also told them, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). We shine by our faith and by our lives. And it is God himself who makes us light by regeneration. Paul says, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

Peter says, “We have the word of the prophets made more certain” (v. 19). It was those prophecies that Paul used as he reasoned in the synagogues. He was proving that Jesus is the promised Messiah, who, by his death and resurrection in our behalf offers us justification, the complete forgiveness of sins.

We read, “As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. ‘This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,’ he said” (Acts 17:2–3). This is the reasoning: The Old Testament promised a Messiah who would suffer, who is perfect in holiness, who never sinned as God/man (Isa. 53). This Messiah would die and be raised up on the third day according to the Scriptures; no one else has ever been raised up in this way except Jesus. This was the proof. Jesus alone was raised from the dead; his body never saw decay (Ps. 16:10).

In the same way, Paul reasoned before King Agrippa II and others. He concluded, “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8). Paul was speaking about the God of Genesis 1:1, who made the whole world by his word.

Peter by the Holy Spirit, also reasoned from the Scriptures. On the Day of Pentecost, he declared, “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:23–24). He also said, “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:21).

Jesus is going to come again. In his first epistle, Peter wrote of Jesus, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed [saved]” (1 Pet. 2:24).

The apostolic message confirmed the veracity of the prophetic word. Thus, as true, born-again, Spirit-filled believers, we can live in a dark world of moral depravity by walking in the light of the holy Scriptures. There is no other light.

In Proverbs 4:18–22 we read: “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body.” God in his mercy has given us true health from his word. Yes, it is good to eat and live in a healthy manner, but the first and most important thing we must do is to live in the light of God’s word in this dark world of total moral depravity.

We Are to Live in Obedience to Scripture until the Day Dawns

We are to live lives of obedience to Scripture “until the day dawns,” when we will have fullness of light. Paul writes, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.” “Face to face” means when Christ returns. He continues, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12).

We must live in obedience to Scripture until we die and go to heaven, or until the second coming of Christ in glory, that is, until the day dawns—the day of Christ’s coming—and “until the morning star rises in your hearts.”

“Until the day dawns” refers to the second coming. Later in this epistle Peter writes, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare” (2 Pet. 3:10). The Hebrews writer says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25). Paul writes, “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:12).

Peter says, “until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” The morning star is Jesus Christ. We read, “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall” (Mal. 4:2). Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, spoke of “the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven” (Luke 1:78). Elsewhere Jesus himself said, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star” (Rev. 22:16). Jesus also said, “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26).

Do you think about the coming of Christ? Or do you think about where you are going at death? Two thousand years have gone by since Christ’s first coming, but he has not come yet. However, our day is coming; it could even be today.

But as surely as Christ came the first time, so he will surely come again. John writes, “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him” (Rev. 1:7). Paul declares, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16). Paul also writes, “We will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51–52). Again, Paul says, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:20–21). This is the hope of the glory of God for all true believers.

The Authority of Scripture

Then Peter says, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (vv. 20–21). (PGM) The first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith is not about Jesus Christ or God the Father; it begins with the authority of Scripture in which God himself speaks to us.

Peter is saying that we are to know one thing in this world: the holy Bible and its authority. In the Scripture, God triune—the infinite, personal, holy, almighty, omniscient, omnipresent, creator, redeemer, covenant God—is speaking with all authority. Let me ask you: When you read the Bible, do you hear the voice of God Almighty?

We are alive in this world to hear God’s word and work out our salvation with fear and trembling. The Scripture did not come to exist by a prophet’s own understanding—by his brilliance, ingenuity, or imagination. Scripture did not originate in man’s mind, as unbelieving theologians and pastors imagine. Professor Eta Linnemann was highly educated in theology, especially higher criticism, and wrote several books propounding that theology. But when God saved her, she said, “Burn all my previous books.” Why? Because they were against the authority of Scripture.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said the idea found in verse 20 is as follows: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture, originates or arises, as the result of any private determination.”[2] And I say, nor is the holy Scripture the result of the evil spirit’s activity.

Jeremiah writes about the activity of evil spirits in prophecy: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you.” He was speaking about false prophets whose prophesies were of the devil. “‘They fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’ But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?” (Jer. 23:16–18).

So Peter is telling us that prophecy, which stands for the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, was never brought by or had its origin in the will of man. Scripture is the written revelation of God’s mind to man. But then he explains: “But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (v. 21). Holy men spoke from God, who is the source, as they were under the complete control of the Holy Spirit. The human authors of Scripture were passive in this way. They were borne along, carried along by the Holy Spirit, who was active. Yet these human authors were also active as they spoke and wrote Scripture. And the end product was the word of God in its totality.

God himself speaks to us through the mouths of Moses, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, and others. We are told in Hebrews 3:7, “As the Holy Spirit says.” We are also told, “The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this”

(Heb. 10:15). The Holy Spirit speaks to us in the Scriptures. David said, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue” (2 Sam. 23:2). And Moses said, “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3).

So Peter says, “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (v. 21). The picture is of a ship being carried along by the wind, as we read in Acts 27:15, 17.

In other words, the Bible is not man’s word; it is God’s. And we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). Children, you are to obey your parents. We are to obey our leaders and submit to them. I have said several times that the basis of our salvation is the perfect righteousness of the God/man Jesus Christ, but the proof of our salvation is our obedience to the word of God. If people do not obey Jesus Christ in the word, they are not saved.

Scriptures is the very word of God. Paul writes, “All Scripture is God-breathed [God-spoken] and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17). This verse tells us four things about Scripture:

1. The extent of inspiration is all Scripture.
2. The character of Scripture is that it is God-breathed (theopneustos), which means God spoke.
3. We profit from Scripture in four ways: Teaching us God’s ways; rebuking us when we sin; correcting us and bringing us back to the narrow and straight way of God; and training us in righteousness, to form new habits in us, so that we may do what is right in the sight of God. Then we can live to please God. As Paul says, “The kingdom of God . . . is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).
4. The purpose of Scripture is that every true believer be fully furnished to do every good work. Paul says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,” that is, to obey God, “which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10). What is the purpose of human existence? To obey God. Paul also says, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:12–13).

Conclusion

The Holy Bible alone is the word of God.  Throughout the Bible, we find expressions: “The word of the Lord”; “Thus saith the Lord”; “The burden of the Lord”; and, “It is written.” The New Testament quotes the Old Testament hundreds of times as proof.

All Scripture is God-breathed. The Holy Spirit says so. Thus, if the promised Messiah came in suffering as the prophets prophesied, what can we conclude? That he will surely come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Jesus Christ will come again to create a new heaven and a new earth, a sinless earth, to dwell with his people and elect angels for all eternity. And, Peter tells us, that will be joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Pet. 1:8).

Let us, then, consider the following questions:

1. Do you read the Bible daily to practice Matthew 7:24, meaning, to hear and do what God tells us in the Scriptures? Our God does not beg. He commands us in the Scriptures to repent, to believe, to love, and so on. Do you do this?
2. Do you practice holiness as you wait for the second coming of Christ, or for the time at your death when you will leave this world to be with him in heaven?
3. Is your church a part of Christ’s holy church, where the word of God is preached by pastors sent by Christ? Or is it a synagogue of Satan, where pastors entertain you to make money?
4. Do you seek counsel of the word from the council of elders? They are men of God who have the word of God for the people of God. Some people do not want to go to them because they will speak the word of God, and they do not want to hear it.
5. Are you familiar with the presuppositional apologetics of Professor Cornelius van Til of Westminster Theological Seminary? God raised him up as a champion of the gospel. Either we think autonomously, or as, van Til said, we think God’s thoughts after him in submission to God’s word. Professor van Til presupposed the Scripture. He did not submit to the rationalism of Princeton Seminary. Thus, in time, he and a number of other professors came out of Princeton to establish Westminster Seminary to teach and interpret the Bible. This is the biblical apologetics. Paul asked, “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8). And we can ask, why should we consider it incredible that the same God created the world out of nothing? The Hebrews writer gives us the answer: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command” (Heb. 11:3). We understand by faith in the infinite, personal, triune, all-holy, almighty, everywhere present, all-knowing God. This is the presupposition of a true Christian.
6. Finally, do you walk in the light of the holy Scriptures? John writes, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

May God help us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us both to will and to his good pleasure.

 

[1] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Expository Sermons on 2 Peter (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1983), 99.

[2] Lloyd-Jones, 2 Peter, 95.