Partially certainly one of this collection, we examined the biblical sample of reminder, and particularly Peter’s effort to remind his readers of the essential truths of the Gospel, which he declares in 2 Peter 1:12–15 . By repeatedly coming again to the necessities, Peter sought to forestall his readers from being led astray by false lecturers who denied Christ and the Gospel.
Partially two, we thought of the Gospel message and the exhortations and warnings that emerge from it. Essentially the most primary ingredient of Christianity is the Gospel of salvation by grace via religion, giving us peace with God via the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. As a result of we’re united to Christ by religion and indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we have now energy from God to reside rightly. Since we have now this energy, we’re to make each effort towards obedience, which is an indication that He’s truly at work in us.
On this remaining half, we’ll think about the authority on which we make these assertions: the prophetic and apostolic witness, which involves us with divine authority within the Bible. In distinction to the false lecturers, Peter’s testimony about Jesus Christ was not invented however was what he and the opposite apostles noticed with their very own eyes. Jesus’ coming confirms the authority of the Scriptures, that are the usual on which pastors at this time should rely and to which they need to return as they remind themselves and their congregations of the fundamentals.
The one real pastoral authority that ever exists comes by the wielding of the Phrase of God introduced dwelling by the Spirit of God to the lives of the individuals of God.
An Eyewitness Account
For we didn’t observe cleverly devised myths once we made identified to you the ability and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, however we have been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he obtained honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “That is my beloved Son, with whom I’m effectively happy,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we have been with him on the holy mountain. (2 Peter 1:16–18)
The way in which verse 16 begins implies that Peter is defending himself in opposition to an accusation coming from false lecturers. We will think about that a few of individuals have been saying, “You don’t need to go together with that man Peter. He’s simply been making issues up. Include us, and we’ll present you the true manner.”
However he wasn’t not making it up. In actual fact, he was a witness of these items. As Eugene Peterson paraphrases it, “We have been there for the preview! We noticed it with our personal eyes” (2 Peter 1:16 MSG). Particularly, he’s referring to the transfiguration, throughout which He noticed the glory of the Lord Jesus revealed and heard the Father’s testimony concerning the Son. He isn’t inventing one thing out of his thoughts; he’s reporting what he and different disciples noticed.
We get the same testimony from the apostle John: “That … which we have now heard, which we have now seen with our eyes, which we regarded upon and have touched with our arms, in regards to the phrase of life … we proclaim additionally to you.” (1 John 1:1–3). Paul, too, asserted that he proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ not due to anybody else’s testimony however as a result of he had seen and heard the risen and exalted Lord on the Damascus Street: “The gospel that was preached by me just isn’t man’s gospel. … I obtained it via a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:11–12). The authority of the Gospel they preached got here from the truth that that they had seen it themselves and, by the Spirit’s energy, may testify to it.
It’s not hypothesis. It’s not invention. The transfiguration that Peter witnessed, together with James and John, was one thing a preview of what it is going to be like when the Lord Jesus returns: the manifestation of glory, the looks of the Previous Testomony saints within the firm of the New Testomony disciples, the kingly Son in all of His honor, and the presence of the divine Father. And Peter’s message, he tells us, was based mostly upon what he and his fellow apostles each noticed and heard: “We have been eyewitnesses …. We ourselves heard this very voice.”
That’s the Phrase they proclaimed to us, and it’s what they wrote for us within the New Testomony Scriptures. As Christians, we don’t stake our confidence in a succession of infallible popes or modern-day prophets, however we have now a deposit of impressed and infallible fact. We’ve the Bible. True apostolic succession is discovered within the ongoing communication of the Gospel that the apostles preached, “the religion that was as soon as for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Due to this fact, the one real pastoral authority that ever exists comes by the wielding of the Phrase of God introduced dwelling by the Spirit of God to the lives of the individuals of God. Pastoral authority is discovered solely within the authority of the Scriptures.
When anybody comes round claiming to have some new message, we have to level them again to the authority and sufficiency of the message we have now within the Scriptures.
Dick Lucas has written, “There’s a pure yearning for a voice from heaven. That certainly has been given …, however to not us.” A voice has come from heaven, but it surely got here to the apostles. The apostles’ fact is now inscripturated for us. We shouldn’t have to pressure ourselves listening for a voice or make up tales about voices to present ourselves credibility, for the voice has come from heaven to them, they usually have now conveyed it to us. We by no means must take our congregations past the Bible. We by no means must take our congregations past apostolic observe and apostolic educating. And when anybody comes round claiming to have some new message, we have to level them again to the authority and sufficiency of the message we have now within the Scriptures.
Certainly, Peter will start chapter 2 by speaking about people who have been making daring claims, who have been full of pretend anecdotes, and who have been luring in those that have been searching for some recent message. These are the false lecturers who make it crucial for Peter and people of us who adopted him to return to the fundamentals many times. Peter says the reply to those lecturers lies within the certainty, authority, and sufficiency of Scripture.
The Certainty of the Phrase
And we have now the prophetic phrase extra totally confirmed, to which you’ll do effectively to concentrate as to a lamp shining in a darkish place, till the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, realizing this initially, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from somebody’s personal interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the need of man, however males spoke from God as they have been carried alongside by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:19–21)
In verses 19–21, Peter turns his personal readers to their Bibles—that’s, to what we name the Previous Testomony—with the phrases “We’ve the prophetic phrase extra totally confirmed.” John Calvin appears to get to the center of this when he writes, “The authority of the Phrase of God is similar because it was to start with, after which it was given additional affirmation than earlier than by the appearance of Christ.” In different phrases, the reality of the entire prophetic materials that’s pointing ahead discovered its full validity in Jesus, the Reality made flesh. So Peter does what each pastor who desires to be devoted should do: always flip women and men again to the Bible.
How will we ever change into helpful within the pulpit? In massive measure, it has to do with the conviction that God stirs inside our hearts in regards to the Scriptures. We pastors haven’t any final authority! We will’t come to our individuals with ourselves or our concepts. They want the sure, authoritative, and ample Bible. Once we lose confidence on this e-book, we’ll deliver within the newest developments and leisure concepts, and we’ll neglect the Phrase of God.
The absence of the Bible in massive swaths fashionable Christianity is epidemic and terrifying. It’s on the coronary heart of the demise of the type of vibrant Christianity that Peter was reminding his pricey buddies of on this letter. We must be alarmed every time when individuals collect for reward and pay scant consideration to the Bible. We must be deeply troubled when evangelistic outreaches are convened with no thought to the Bible in any respect. We must be actually involved to listen to nice tales from people who’ve dreamt up little anecdotes to tickle ears however don’t preach the Bible.
The Scriptures usually are not the non-public insights of the prophets. They’re the very Phrase of God to us.
In lots of quarters, the authoritative phrases of the apostles and prophets is changed by a “prophetic phrase” spoken on a Sunday morning, by an academic-sounding justification of up to date tastes, and even by the easy repetition of an ideological fad that’s been baptized in Christian terminology. However the pastor’s activity is to make sure that his congregation is anchored to the Phrase of God and grounded within the work of Christ.
The prophets weren’t simply out doing their finest, vulnerable to brighter individuals who would come alongside behind them. The Scriptures usually are not the product of “somebody’s personal interpretation.” They don’t seem to be the non-public insights of the prophets themselves. They’re the very Phrase of God to us.
Till Christ returns, there’ll by no means be another divine gentle by which God’s persons are to be led than the Scriptures. Finally, the day will daybreak, and the morning star will rise in our hearts; exterior revelation and inward illumination will mix, and we are going to know God as He’s. Within the meantime, the Scriptures have been given to us illuminate our paths. Because the hymn author says,
The heavens declare Thy glory, Lord;
In each star Thy knowledge shines;
However when our eyes behold Thy Phrase,
We learn Thy identify in firmer strains. …
Thy noblest wonders right here we view
In souls renewed and sins forgiv’n;
Lord, cleanse my sins, my soul renew,
And make Thy Phrase my information to heav’n.
God doesn’t want the pastor’s mouth. Certainly, it’s a thriller of His grace that He makes use of any of us! These of us who’ve been entrusted with the items of educating the Bible due to this fact want always to be saying, “It’s to the Lord we glance. It’s to the Bible we go.” We’re beneath the Scriptures, we’re standing on the Scriptures, and we’re enclosed by the Scriptures in order that, by the information of God they disclose to us, we could worship Christ.
If that turns into the sincere conviction of our hearts, then it is going to energize us for the duty at hand, as a result of it is going to give us super confidence—not in ourselves however within the energy of the Spirit as He works via the Phrase. We should all the time take our individuals again to those issues, as a result of right here is the place we discover the one phrases value listening to: the phrases of everlasting life (John 6:68–69 ).
Again to the Fundamentals
Reminder issues. We have to remind ourselves and our brothers and sisters in Christ of the essential truths of the Gospel, as a result of it’s in these truths that they’ll discover life. Our reminder has the ability to guard them in opposition to the false educating that encourages them to maneuver past and to disclaim Jesus—a temptation as prevalent in our day because it was in Peter’s.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s one and solely provision for humankind. In it, we have now peace with God via the righteousness of Jesus Christ given to us. In it, we have now energy from the Holy Spirit to do the nice that we may by no means hope to do other than Him. There’s nothing higher than the easy Gospel. If we depart it behind, we depart behind God’s peace and energy.
And this Gospel is preserved for us in God’s Phrase, in order that we could measure our effectiveness in reminder by our dedication to evangelise the Phrase. If we might have our individuals hear the voice of God, there’s nowhere else to show. Actually our personal voices is not going to suffice, and the “prophetic,” educational, and classy voices of our day and age can add nothing to God’s sure, authoritative, and ample Phrase. So allow us to preach the Phrase and in so doing preach the Gospel, bringing individuals many times to the actual supply of their hope.
This text was tailored from the sermons “Back to the Basics” and “An Eyewitness Account” by Alistair Begg. Subscribe to get weekly weblog updates.
Again to the Fundamentals, Half One: “‘The Old, Old Story’ That Never Gets Old”
Half Two: “Christians Are Saved by Grace. But Then What?”
Half Three: “The Sole Authority of God’s Phrase”