Growth in grace begins with the new birth and the impartation of a divine nature, enabling believers to add to their faith qualities that make their calling and election sure. The sermon emphasizes that the apostles' witness to Christ's power and coming, particularly their eyewitness account at the Transfiguration, is not based on fables but on divine revelation. This eyewitness testimony, combined with the sure word of prophecy found in Scripture, provides a solid foundation for faith and hope. The first coming of Christ is the basis for faith, while His second coming is the basis for hope, and both are confirmed by the prophetic word, urging believers to diligently engage with Scripture to strengthen their faith and anticipation of Christ's return.
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tonight when the people began to gather and stay to one side I said it was time to to move across to the other side remember you're on my left hand and the scripture says then shall the king say to those who are on his left hand now I'm not going to finish the text What you see as you come in the building, you're really on the right. But nevertheless, we're in Second Peter, and we're in the first chapter. Second Peter, chapter one, and we begin our reading at verse twelve.
The first eleven verses of Second Peter provide a great exhortation for growth in grace. And that exhortation begins with the knowledge of being born of God. No one can grow unless they're born. Therefore you have the new birth in verse four. We are partakers of the divine nature. And the scriptures are very clear as well as nature is clear. It is birth that determines nature. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. Apart from the new birth, there is not a new nature.
And if there is not a new nature, it is impossible to grow. And we are exhorted beginning at verse five to add to our faith. Now, if we don't have faith, we can't add to it. You can't add to something that isn't there. So this produces faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, enabling us to know that we have passed out of death and into life. Now, when you get down to verse nine, he says, he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
So in verse ten we are told to give diligence to make our calling and election sure. And then in verse eleven he speaks that if we're diligent in these things we're going to have an abundant entrance in the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the result of genuine growth. Now because of this in verse twelve he says wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things. The things here are these things that were to add to our faith. After being born of God, God doesn't expect us to just sit idly by.
He expects us to grow in grace. Peter says, I will always put you in remembrance of things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables. when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
For He received from God the Father honor and glory. When there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with Him in the Holy Mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Ver unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place. Until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. These verses teach us that the person of Christ was the theme of apostolic preaching. When the apostles preached, they preached Christ. Now they were commissioned by Christ for that very purpose, to proclaim His truth. In other words, they published the first advent of Christ as the basis for human faith.
And they proclaim the second advent of Christ, the coming of the Lord, as the basis for human hope. Now these two words go together. The blessed hope that is ours is the coming of the Lord. Now to have more hope, you have to have more faith. It is faith that produces hope. Hope never produces faith. If you imagine that hope produces faith, you're going to be a hope-so Christian or a hope-so person. I just hope everything will come out all right. But faith is determined by the revelation of God.
And if you want more faith, there's only one place you can get it. Faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God. A person who does not read and spend time in the Word of God will not have a strong faith, and a person who does not have a strong faith can never expect to have a strong hope. They go together. Our Lord's first coming, He provided salvation for sinful men. That was the purpose of His coming. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And he does that through the work that he did on the cross on Calvary's Hill.
Second Corinthians five, twenty-one says that God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. God made Christ the sin-bearer. in order that we might be partakers of that which we need to stand in the presence of God. I need to be righteous. That's what God demands. He demands perfection. He'll have nothing less. And do you know anybody that's perfect? I don't.
And yet you and I are enabled to stand in the presence of God, it is only because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. No one else can ever stand on any other foundation. No other foundation will be acceptable to God. Our standing is in Christ. And you see, this is appropriated by faith So the first coming of Christ is the basis for human faith. But the second coming of Christ is the basis for human hope.
The second coming has not taken place. And we're looking forward to the coming of the Lord. Now Peter's second epistle deals, especially when you get to chapter three, with the importance of the coming of Christ. And of course, He lays a foundation for this in chapter one, here in the passage that is before us. Now you'll notice in verses twelve through fifteen, Peter uses the word remembrance three times. And it's quite interesting the way he does it. He says, I want you to always remember these things. It's amazing to go through the scriptures and notice what God asks us to remember.
He asked us to remember Lot's wife. When's the last time you thought about it? Remember Lot's wife. The woman, the only woman or the only person who was ever led out of the city of destruction by the hand of an angel and said, I wanted to go back for her heart was still back in Sodom. And she looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. The judgment of God came upon her immediately. God does not do things in vain.
This is why God says, Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. So, remember us. It's easy to forget. And Peter says, I will always have you in remembrance of these things. Now, I know he says that you know them, but I want you to be established in them. And a lot of times, the things that we know become things that hinder us from genuine growth. Oh, I know that. I learned that when I was in Sunday school, when I was ten years of age. Yes, but what have you done with it? What have you done with it?
What is it doing for you the day in your life? That's the thing that's important. And basically, that's what Peter's saying. That's what he's saying. And then in verse thirteen, he said, Yea, I think it's fitting, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Peter says, As long as I'm alive, I'm going to stir you up. That's what my gift is. is what Peter is saying God has given me the gift to keep you stirred up in order that you remember these things for they're so important and then he goes on to speak about what our Lord told him when our Lord was here on earth in the twenty first chapter of John you remember our Lord after Peter had denied him and our Lord had arisen from the dead He showed himself alive to the disciples who had gone back to the old business of fishing.
Peter in particular. Peter said, I go fishing. John chapter twenty one. And our Lord that night they caught nothing. And of course our Lord called to him the next morning. And there on the shore of the sea of Galilee he restored Peter into fellowship. with himself and with the apostles. And then our Lord told Peter how he's going to die. Prophetically. That he's going to have a violent death. That he's going to be crucified. Just like he was. And it's going to be difficult.
But then he said, follow me. Follow me. Isn't that amazing? Now Peter is getting to be an old man. And he says, I know I can't be around long. Something's going to happen soon. But as long as I'm in this tabernacle, I have a message for you. I want you to give diligence to make your calling and election sure. That's what he's saying. As long as I'm here, that's what I want you to do. And then in verse fifteen he adds, Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance.
These things are so important. Peter uses that word remembrance three times. Now, Peter here, it's amazing, as he speaks about his tabernacle, you remember. And Peter is going to talk about the mind of transfiguration. He uses the language of Paul here. The language Paul used. He says, knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle. In Second Corinthians five, Paul says, we know that if our earthly house of this tent, this tabernacle be dissolved.
And it's speaking of the earthly house of this body in which we live. Peter's saying, I'm going to put off this tabernacle. And the word put off there in the Greek text has the thought of being unclothed. And that's the very thought that Paul uses in Second Corinthians chapter five of what takes place when a believer dies. He is unclothed. of an earthly tabernacle he puts this off and he puts on a heavenly tabernacle for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord now that's one way of looking at it but you remember in the earthly life of the Lord one of the high water marks of Peter's life was what took place on the mind of transfiguration and he talks about that here And you remember what Peter suggested.
Lord, it's good for us to be here. Let us make three tents. A tent is very temporary. This body that we live in is temporary. I remember something that took place when I was in eighth grade in school. We had a teacher. Boy, he was big. and he was tough I ought to know I got it but anyway his name is Ralph Degler and he was a Dutchman all the way but I remember him musing one day with us as a class we were just kids eight year in eighth grade in school and he said and he was talking about the year two thousand he said you children here may live to the turn of the century, the year two thousand.
He said, I may not. Well, he's already gone. He's not around anymore. I may not. And I thought to myself, I was sitting there, oh, two thousand. That's a long way off. Well, I don't think that anymore. It's right around the corner. That's a long way off. Peter said, I must shortly put off this tabernacle, the tabernacle, the tent. This earthly tent is a very temporary thing. And there on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter suggested that they make a temporary tent, one for the Lord, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
And Luke's gospel account said he said it not knowing what he said. You know, he just had to say something. And he said it. You see. But then Peter talks about his exodus here. The same thought that you have there in Luke chapter nine. He says that I must put off this my tabernacle. I must make my exodus, my release, my decease. As Moses and Elijah talked to our blessed Lord. But that brings us to verse sixteen. It is verse sixteen that we want to consider because from verse sixteen to the end of the chapter and we're not going to cover the last three verses tonight.
But in these verses you have the witness of the apostles and you have the certainty of prophetic revelation. Don't miss this. If you miss everything in second Peter. Here you have the witness of the apostles, number one, and number two, you have the certainty of prophetic revelation. You have an eyewitness account. Peter says, For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
I would like you to turn with me to the sixteenth and the seventeenth chapters of matthew for just a moment in matthew chapter sixteen you have the great confession of peter as to who christ is when our lord asked the question whom do men say that i am and then he asked but who do you say that i am and peter said uh Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then our Lord went on to teach his disciples who he is and the importance. When you get to his earthly ministry and the importance of knowing him, when you get to the end of the sixteenth chapter, the last verse we read, Verily, verily, I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, Till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
And it's unfortunate that there's a chapter division between right here. It's unfortunate because the first word in the next chapter is And. For it connects us with a previous chapter. The previous verse. He said to his disciples, Now some of you that are standing here will never die until... You see the Son of Man coming in the glory of his kingdom, in his kingdom. And the Israelites, he expected a glorious kingdom. And that's what Peter, James, and John saw. So in verse one of chapter seventeen, we read, And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and Johnny's brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them.
And his face did shine as the sun. And his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, or Elijah, the Old Testament, talking with him. Moses, the leader and the giver of the law, Elijah, the leader of the prophets, the great one in the prophetic office. In other words, the two men who answered to the law and to the prophets. You have a beautiful witness here in these two men. Elijah was the man who never tasted death, who was raptured into heaven.
And he's present there in the glory. Moses was a man who died. But he's present in the glory too. A picture of all God's people. They're representative of God's people. Those who have died and have gone on to be with the Lord, and those who were translated and taken directly into His presence. There are two that have been translated and taken directly into the presence of God. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, Genesis chapter six, and Elijah, second Kings chapter two. But there's a whole... group of people that are going to be translated when our Lord comes in the rapture the Lord's people who are living and awaiting the coming of the Lord are going to be translated from earth into the very presence of the Lord without dying one moment here the next moment there so here in the seventeenth chapter of the of Matthew you have this great transfiguration scene our
Lord is transfigured he is there in all his kingdom glory in the presence of the disciples now Peter says in the ending of verse eighteen of second Peter one he says that voice of God the Father we have heard when we were there on the holy mountain we heard it we were not only eyewitnesses but we heard with our ears now the certainty of prophetic revelation is very important he's using this incident that took place in the earthly life of the Lord at his first advent to show how important the holy scriptures are because what is future is contained in Holy Scripture.
He says here, and I'm giving you another translation, and so we have the prophetic word made more sure. And that is the we of verse nineteen. The we of verse sixteen are the apostles, Peter, James, and John. They who were on the mountain and saw it. He says, we have not followed cunningly devised fables. The disciples didn't follow cunningly devised fables. I'll have a little more to say about that in a moment. Now when it comes to verse nineteen, this we is far more inclusive. It is all of us who have the prophetic scriptures.
I was never on the holy mountain to behold the glory of the Lord with my physical eyes. But I'll tell you this. I believe it took place. I can enter into the joy of it. Why? We have a prophecy, a prophetic word made more sure than seeing and hearing. You notice that seeing and hearing the way I put it. Put it backwards. But we have a more sure prophetic word. Now that adjective prophetic here it's the only time it's found in scripture except in Romans sixteen and verse twenty six and it's descriptive of the written word of God as having the character of prophecy in other words it contains the prophetic element in Romans sixteen twenty five Paul speaks about the gospel and the writings of the prophets whether and the whole of scripture is looked upon as the prophetic writings they
are the voice of God now we as believers and that's what he's telling us here we have the prophetic word made more sure we have another source of assurance That is even more reliable than the testimony of the apostles. It is the prophetic word of God. Now that not only embraces the prophetic statements concerning Christ's second advent. And then we think of prophecy. We usually think of the coming of the Lord. And the things related to the coming of Christ. But the prophetic word has reference to all the details.
of the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the earthly life of the Lord when he came the first time. You must remember the Old Testament scriptures spoke of Christ in the details of his earthly ministry here on earth. Isaiah sixty one is a great chapter, is a great passage. The spirit of of the Lord God is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach a gospel to the poor he hath sent me to bind the brokenhearted to preach deliverance to the captives and in Luke four our Lord said as he read it this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears but the scriptures also Isaiah fifty three have much to say concerning the ministry that our Lord was engaged in when he was here on earth But going back to verse sixteen, Peter says, we have not followed cunningly devised fables.
That word cunningly devised is used here in a bad sense, and it is used one other place in a good sense. It is used in second Timothy three sixteen. Speaking of the scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, it's amazing. The scriptures which are able to make one wise unto salvation are not cunningly devised by man. Peter says we have not followed cunningly devised fables. In other words, we're not following something that was cleverly framed by human ingenuity or human cleverness.
We're not following something like that. and the word fables here has referenced here to the word myth the Jewish myths that abounded in the first century the rabbinical embellishments to the Old Testament scriptures and mine are many of them if you read the Talmudic writings they abound in the rabbinical embellishments. And then there were the heathen myths of the descent of the gods to earth. And you can read it in Greek and Roman mythology.
And of course, there were also the Gnostic speculations that Paul dealt with in Colossians chapter one and chapter two. We have not followed cunningly devised fables. The prophetic scriptures stand alone and apart from human cleverness and Peter says why he says when we were with Christ on the holy mountain we heard that excellent voice from God the Father and that excellent voice was this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him now when you take that verse apart That statement, it is a composite sentence.
It is made up of the whole of the Old Testament. The Old Testament of our Lord's Day was divided into three parts. The law, the Psalms, and the prophets. This is my beloved son. That is a statement from the second Psalm. In whom I am well pleased. That's a statement from Isaiah forty-two. Hear ye him. That's a statement from the law in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy eighteen, where Moses said, The Lord your God shall raise up unto you a prophet.
Like unto me, unto him shall ye hearken. God says, This is a prophet. This is the one to listen to. He is none other than my beloved son. Peter says we heard it. We heard it. We were with him on the Holy Mountain. But we have something that's more sure than that. The Word of God. This book. How do I get faith? Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing by the Word of God. And I'll never get it any other way. If you want faith, you've got to be in the book. To increase faith, you've got to get more of the word. The only way it will come.
And therefore, faith becoming the foundation of hope. And the greater the faith, the greater the hope, and the more the hope shines. The more you know of the coming of the Lord, the more you look for him and the more joy you have. Knowing that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The truths of Holy Scripture. Faith and hope. The first coming of the Lord is a basis for faith. The coming again of the Lord is a basis for hope. And the foundation of it all is right here, the Holy Scriptures. Now let's pray.
We thank the Our Father for the witness of Holy Scripture. We thank you that we have a more sure word of prophecy. We thank you that we're not following cunningly devised fables. We're not making anything up. We simply believe your word. Oh, help us, our God, to increase our faith by exposing ourselves more and more to Holy Scripture and cause thy name to be glorified in our lives for Jesus' sake. Amen.