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Text – 2 Peter 1:12-21
This morning we’re going to look at the plenary sufficiency of scripture. Plenary is an important word because it means that scripture contains all we need to know about God and how to be saved. There is nothing we need to know about God that isn’t in the Bible. Another big fancy word about the Bible is perspicuity, it means that the Bible speaks clearly to us and requires no big elaborate interpretation to understand what it means. While we’re talking about big words and concepts, let’s look at Occam’s Razor, which basically means the most simple and straightforward interpretation is probably correct. This will be important to remember as we look at our passage today.
Before we get into the lesson, I wanted to correct myself on one important point. Last week I said that Peter wasn’t saved under the New Covenant, but was probably under the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant, or salvation under the Old Testament, was harder to discern than being saved today, because people then weren’t born-again and given the Holy Spirit. However, they were saved the same way through faith in God, trusting that he is able to save those who hope in him. Today we know that God does that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what I want to correct is that it is impossible to say if Peter would have been saved if he died under the Old Covenant, because it seems he was trusting wholly in God, albeit he didn’t realize why the Messiah had come.
Second, and something I just want to mention and hopefully spend some time on in the future, is that after reading the letter in Jeremiah 29 I think that we could say Peter had this letter in mind in his First Epistle. I hope that at some point, probably in August, we can look at this hypothesis and see if it is true. What this letter was was instructions to the exiles in Babylon on how to live until God rescued them, and likewise this was what Peter’s Epistle is.
I mention that idea both to get your imagination going, because I think it will be useful to see Peter’s great illustrations, and also to remind you how well all of the Bible fits together and that it is a complete thought written by God to reveal to us who God is, who we are, and what God demands of us.
Let’s do a bit of review before we read our passage.
What makes this Epistle special in the New Testament? It is Peter’s last letter before he was executed.
Which other Epistles are similar? Second Timothy and Hebrews.
What are the four major themes that Peter wants us to know in this Epistle? How to know you’re a Christian, the sufficiency of scripture, the danger of false teachers, and the surety of judgment through Christ’s return.
Last week we talked about how to know you’re saved, how do we know that? Our faith, which is how we’re saved through grace, is bearing fruit; fruit of virtue and knowledge and love and worship and every good thing.
What do these fruits show? That we have partaken in the Divine Nature, and that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us.
And how do we know all of this? Do we just make it up and hope it’s true? No, we know it through the Bible, which is our final rule of faith and practice; for as the Baptist Faith and Message 2K puts it so well, “The Bible has God for its Author, Salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its content.” Let’s read now how we know that;
2 Peter 1:12-21 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. For 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. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, 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 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 love how Peter starts out this thought process, he says basically, “I know you already know this and are putting it into practice. Still, I’m going to remind you and hopefully by reminding you it will cause you to live an even more godly life.”
Check out how he puts it,
vv.12-14 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,
Heretofore Peter has had the ability to tell his followers this in person, and to demonstrate this way of living, and to exhort them in sermons, but something is about to happen to him that is going to cause him to no longer be able to deliver these ideas in person. What is it?
v. 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
Peter is on death row while he is writing this, not too much later he would go to his death; the execution style was crucifixion, and he requested to be crucified upsidedown since he was not worthy to die in the same way as his God and Saviour. He had known for over 30 years that he would die when he was old, as Jesus made clear to him;
John 21:18-19 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, "Follow me."
Peter says that he is about to die for two reasons, first to give his rationale for writing what he is about to write, and second to remind his hearers that he spoke face to face with Jesus Christ, the Word which became flesh.
v.15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
Peter is saying that we won’t have him, but at any time we can be reminded of the words of Christ and the teachings of Peter; how is that? He pick up the Word and read it! In the next verses he is going to say that what he is writing are not myths or made up, but were derived directly from the teaching of Jesus Christ, brought to remembrance through the Holy Spirit.
John 14:26 the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
vv.16-18 For 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. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
Peter is referring to the event on the mountain in Caesarea Philippi when Jesus Christ was transfigured and seen in majestic light, at this point Peter heard with full clarity the voice of God the Father. Check this out, Peter spoke face to face with Jesus Christ, he heard from Heaven personally, and yet he is going to point us at the written Word, and he’s going to give a very good reason for it:
v.19 And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, 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 hearts,
Something more sure…how could it be more sure than God speaking directly to Peter? It’s because the written Word is objective, it means what it means and you can’t interpret it to mean something it doesn’t mean. You obviously can misinterpret it, but that doesn’t change what the author meant. Words from Heaven or in your head are subjective, they can mean whatever you want them to mean and even make them up. When you claim God told you something you are required next to give the chapter and verse reference!
Who were some other people who heard directly from God? Moses, Abraham, Jeremiah, Elijah, Paul…how do we know that they heard audibly from God? Because the written Word tells us so. We read the Bible to see what God wants us to know about him and how to live, it is our light in a very dark world, because apart from it we would not know the attributes of God. Apart from the Bible we can know there is a God and that he is a moral being, but he has been very specific to reveal himself explicitly through the Bible.
The Bible is our lamp until the dawn. What do you think that means? The Bible is a light for us in a dark world, it is sufficient to light our path,
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
But, do you guys use a flashlight during the day? Did you bring a Coleman lantern to class today so you can find your way to your next class? No, because you don’t need a lamp during the day. Peter is pointing out that the Bible is only necessary while Christ is away, when he, the Morning Star, rises/returns, then we will not need this Bible because we will see Christ face to face and he will be the complete revelation of himself to us.
Revelation 21:23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
The Bible is truly supernatural that the same Word was totally applicable in Peter’s day and is totally applicable in our day. There isn’t a single part of the Bible that we don’t need today, there isn’t a single part that Peter wouldn’t have used because it was for people later. The Bible speaks to all people at all times and is totally relevant. The neat thing about this is that one book is all we need and we don’t have to have a book of rules and contingencies and back-up plans for our individual needs, because all of the Bible is useful for every believer.
We don’t stand in front of the refrigerator waiting for the Holy Spirit to tell us what we should have for lunch. We don’t sit around meditating waiting for the Heavens to open up and give us personalized instructions on where we should share the gospel. We don’t ask God who we should marry because in every way he has given us principles in the Bible on how to walk in this world while honoring Christ.
v.20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
No prophecy comes from someone’s own interpretation. This one verse is hugely important for reading the Bible. If you want to say that a verse means something that it doesn’t, it doesn’t change what the verse means, because what is important is what the Holy Spirit meant.
A great example is John 3:17, turn there with me. It says, “God did not send his Son into the world.” Wow, that’s pretty straightforward isn’t it…According to this verse, Jesus either didn’t come to the world, or he wasn’t God’s Son, or he came of his own accord, or maybe he was running away from Heaven? Are any of these interpretations correct where it says God did not send his Son into the world? No, what’s the verse say in context?
John 3:17-18 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
So it turns out that God did send his Son into the world, despite my weird interpretation a few seconds ago. It’s way more important what the Bible means than what someone says it means.
Another thing to look at is translations; the exact words that God chose to express himself are there for a purpose and there is a huge benefit to reading the Bible in the original languages, but it is more important what the Bible means than which words it says it with. Our translations all use minorly different words, but they all say the same thing. If you think about all of the translations from the Greek to the English to the Spanish to the Swahili, they all use radically different words to say the same thing, and so the interpretation which the Author intended is more important than how he says it.
And who is this author?
v.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.
Every last word in your Bible was put there by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, being very God of very God, doesn’t make mistakes. So you can trust your Bible wholly that it contains no errors or contradictions or extra or missing information. In the 19th century the Institute of Paris researched the Bible and found 82 things they thought would discredit the Bible, such as supposed contradictions, errors, or places they believed were made up. Since that time all 82 have been resolved through scholarship, archaeology, and just plain readings of the scripture. If you want some homework for summer, I’d encourage you to go home and look up on an atheist website, “Contradictions in the Bible”, find one that seems especially plausible, then put it into Google, and I guarantee you that there is a definitive resolution to whatever they think is a contradiction.
One last thing I want to hit upon is when we talk about the Bible being inspired. Part of the reason this is an issue is the way the King James translators translated a word,
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness...
The word for inspiration may have meant something different to them than what it means to us, but what does it mean to be inspired today? It means to be motivated, to be influenced, or to breathe-in.
But what the Greek word means breathed…literally expired…so when we say the Bible is God breathed or inspired we mean it literally has the life of God in it, it came from his own lungs. Just like he breathed life into Adam, so does the Bible have life-giving properties that are able to quicken a dead soul.
And so this is why Peter reminds us to read our Bibles, because this Book is literally the very Word of God, it was given by him to point us towards godliness and grow us into salvation, to light our paths, to let us know that Christ will return and light all of Eternity.
So beloved, read your Bibles, be reminded of the wonderful things which God has given to us through his prophetic Word, which Christ fulfilled and which will last until the end of the age. Truly there is no greater book ever written, worth more than every other book combined, and so I highly encourage you to read and know this book.
Text – 2 Peter 1:12-21
This morning we’re going to look at the plenary sufficiency of scripture. Plenary is an important word because it means that scripture contains all we need to know about God and how to be saved. There is nothing we need to know about God that isn’t in the Bible. Another big fancy word about the Bible is perspicuity, it means that the Bible speaks clearly to us and requires no big elaborate interpretation to understand what it means. While we’re talking about big words and concepts, let’s look at Occam’s Razor, which basically means the most simple and straightforward interpretation is probably correct. This will be important to remember as we look at our passage today.
Before we get into the lesson, I wanted to correct myself on one important point. Last week I said that Peter wasn’t saved under the New Covenant, but was probably under the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant, or salvation under the Old Testament, was harder to discern than being saved today, because people then weren’t born-again and given the Holy Spirit. However, they were saved the same way through faith in God, trusting that he is able to save those who hope in him. Today we know that God does that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what I want to correct is that it is impossible to say if Peter would have been saved if he died under the Old Covenant, because it seems he was trusting wholly in God, albeit he didn’t realize why the Messiah had come.
Second, and something I just want to mention and hopefully spend some time on in the future, is that after reading the letter in Jeremiah 29 I think that we could say Peter had this letter in mind in his First Epistle. I hope that at some point, probably in August, we can look at this hypothesis and see if it is true. What this letter was was instructions to the exiles in Babylon on how to live until God rescued them, and likewise this was what Peter’s Epistle is.
I mention that idea both to get your imagination going, because I think it will be useful to see Peter’s great illustrations, and also to remind you how well all of the Bible fits together and that it is a complete thought written by God to reveal to us who God is, who we are, and what God demands of us.
Let’s do a bit of review before we read our passage.
What makes this Epistle special in the New Testament? It is Peter’s last letter before he was executed.
Which other Epistles are similar? Second Timothy and Hebrews.
What are the four major themes that Peter wants us to know in this Epistle? How to know you’re a Christian, the sufficiency of scripture, the danger of false teachers, and the surety of judgment through Christ’s return.
Last week we talked about how to know you’re saved, how do we know that? Our faith, which is how we’re saved through grace, is bearing fruit; fruit of virtue and knowledge and love and worship and every good thing.
What do these fruits show? That we have partaken in the Divine Nature, and that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us.
And how do we know all of this? Do we just make it up and hope it’s true? No, we know it through the Bible, which is our final rule of faith and practice; for as the Baptist Faith and Message 2K puts it so well, “The Bible has God for its Author, Salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its content.” Let’s read now how we know that;
2 Peter 1:12-21 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. For 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. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, 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 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 love how Peter starts out this thought process, he says basically, “I know you already know this and are putting it into practice. Still, I’m going to remind you and hopefully by reminding you it will cause you to live an even more godly life.”
Check out how he puts it,
vv.12-14 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,
Heretofore Peter has had the ability to tell his followers this in person, and to demonstrate this way of living, and to exhort them in sermons, but something is about to happen to him that is going to cause him to no longer be able to deliver these ideas in person. What is it?
v. 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
Peter is on death row while he is writing this, not too much later he would go to his death; the execution style was crucifixion, and he requested to be crucified upsidedown since he was not worthy to die in the same way as his God and Saviour. He had known for over 30 years that he would die when he was old, as Jesus made clear to him;
John 21:18-19 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, "Follow me."
Peter says that he is about to die for two reasons, first to give his rationale for writing what he is about to write, and second to remind his hearers that he spoke face to face with Jesus Christ, the Word which became flesh.
v.15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
Peter is saying that we won’t have him, but at any time we can be reminded of the words of Christ and the teachings of Peter; how is that? He pick up the Word and read it! In the next verses he is going to say that what he is writing are not myths or made up, but were derived directly from the teaching of Jesus Christ, brought to remembrance through the Holy Spirit.
John 14:26 the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
vv.16-18 For 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. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
Peter is referring to the event on the mountain in Caesarea Philippi when Jesus Christ was transfigured and seen in majestic light, at this point Peter heard with full clarity the voice of God the Father. Check this out, Peter spoke face to face with Jesus Christ, he heard from Heaven personally, and yet he is going to point us at the written Word, and he’s going to give a very good reason for it:
v.19 And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, 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 hearts,
Something more sure…how could it be more sure than God speaking directly to Peter? It’s because the written Word is objective, it means what it means and you can’t interpret it to mean something it doesn’t mean. You obviously can misinterpret it, but that doesn’t change what the author meant. Words from Heaven or in your head are subjective, they can mean whatever you want them to mean and even make them up. When you claim God told you something you are required next to give the chapter and verse reference!
Who were some other people who heard directly from God? Moses, Abraham, Jeremiah, Elijah, Paul…how do we know that they heard audibly from God? Because the written Word tells us so. We read the Bible to see what God wants us to know about him and how to live, it is our light in a very dark world, because apart from it we would not know the attributes of God. Apart from the Bible we can know there is a God and that he is a moral being, but he has been very specific to reveal himself explicitly through the Bible.
The Bible is our lamp until the dawn. What do you think that means? The Bible is a light for us in a dark world, it is sufficient to light our path,
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
But, do you guys use a flashlight during the day? Did you bring a Coleman lantern to class today so you can find your way to your next class? No, because you don’t need a lamp during the day. Peter is pointing out that the Bible is only necessary while Christ is away, when he, the Morning Star, rises/returns, then we will not need this Bible because we will see Christ face to face and he will be the complete revelation of himself to us.
Revelation 21:23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
The Bible is truly supernatural that the same Word was totally applicable in Peter’s day and is totally applicable in our day. There isn’t a single part of the Bible that we don’t need today, there isn’t a single part that Peter wouldn’t have used because it was for people later. The Bible speaks to all people at all times and is totally relevant. The neat thing about this is that one book is all we need and we don’t have to have a book of rules and contingencies and back-up plans for our individual needs, because all of the Bible is useful for every believer.
We don’t stand in front of the refrigerator waiting for the Holy Spirit to tell us what we should have for lunch. We don’t sit around meditating waiting for the Heavens to open up and give us personalized instructions on where we should share the gospel. We don’t ask God who we should marry because in every way he has given us principles in the Bible on how to walk in this world while honoring Christ.
v.20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
No prophecy comes from someone’s own interpretation. This one verse is hugely important for reading the Bible. If you want to say that a verse means something that it doesn’t, it doesn’t change what the verse means, because what is important is what the Holy Spirit meant.
A great example is John 3:17, turn there with me. It says, “God did not send his Son into the world.” Wow, that’s pretty straightforward isn’t it…According to this verse, Jesus either didn’t come to the world, or he wasn’t God’s Son, or he came of his own accord, or maybe he was running away from Heaven? Are any of these interpretations correct where it says God did not send his Son into the world? No, what’s the verse say in context?
John 3:17-18 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
So it turns out that God did send his Son into the world, despite my weird interpretation a few seconds ago. It’s way more important what the Bible means than what someone says it means.
Another thing to look at is translations; the exact words that God chose to express himself are there for a purpose and there is a huge benefit to reading the Bible in the original languages, but it is more important what the Bible means than which words it says it with. Our translations all use minorly different words, but they all say the same thing. If you think about all of the translations from the Greek to the English to the Spanish to the Swahili, they all use radically different words to say the same thing, and so the interpretation which the Author intended is more important than how he says it.
And who is this author?
v.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.
Every last word in your Bible was put there by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, being very God of very God, doesn’t make mistakes. So you can trust your Bible wholly that it contains no errors or contradictions or extra or missing information. In the 19th century the Institute of Paris researched the Bible and found 82 things they thought would discredit the Bible, such as supposed contradictions, errors, or places they believed were made up. Since that time all 82 have been resolved through scholarship, archaeology, and just plain readings of the scripture. If you want some homework for summer, I’d encourage you to go home and look up on an atheist website, “Contradictions in the Bible”, find one that seems especially plausible, then put it into Google, and I guarantee you that there is a definitive resolution to whatever they think is a contradiction.
One last thing I want to hit upon is when we talk about the Bible being inspired. Part of the reason this is an issue is the way the King James translators translated a word,
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness...
The word for inspiration may have meant something different to them than what it means to us, but what does it mean to be inspired today? It means to be motivated, to be influenced, or to breathe-in.
But what the Greek word means breathed…literally expired…so when we say the Bible is God breathed or inspired we mean it literally has the life of God in it, it came from his own lungs. Just like he breathed life into Adam, so does the Bible have life-giving properties that are able to quicken a dead soul.
And so this is why Peter reminds us to read our Bibles, because this Book is literally the very Word of God, it was given by him to point us towards godliness and grow us into salvation, to light our paths, to let us know that Christ will return and light all of Eternity.
So beloved, read your Bibles, be reminded of the wonderful things which God has given to us through his prophetic Word, which Christ fulfilled and which will last until the end of the age. Truly there is no greater book ever written, worth more than every other book combined, and so I highly encourage you to read and know this book.
