2 Peter 1 - part 2

Verses 8 and 9 now bring before us the danger of the opposite. If these things are in you and abound, then you won't be barren or unfruitful. Unto the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, he that lacketh these things is blind, cannot see afar off, hath forgotten he was purged, and so on.

So we have a number of things. We have bad memories, blind eyes equal barren lives. Bad memories of the past, blind eyes to the future, barren lives in the present.

And he is going to stress that for us in the verses that follow, as we'll see. But he is reminding us here that these things really should be in us and abounding, should be multiplying, growing, so that we will continue not to become great preachers, it's not what's in view here. Not even to see large numbers of people saved and great blessing, it is growing in the knowledge.

It's knowing more and more of Christ. And the result of knowing Christ is becoming like him. You cannot look at Christ without becoming like Christ.

Just can't be. Can I ask you in verses 8 and 9, is he describing the same group of people or does he change the group in verse number 9 to a different group? Okay, very good question. In verse number 8 you'll notice these things be in you.

So he's speaking to the believers that he's writing. Verse number 9, hypothetical possibly, or what he is referring to are these apostates. These individuals whose lives are barren, he's going to speak of them in chapter 2 without taking from our brother Lavery's chapter about wells without water, wandering stars, lives that are totally unfruitful, nothing in them for God.

So the danger though is our becoming like that to some measure as a result of our poor memory, spiritual dementia, as well as spiritual myopia, and becoming barren in our present lives. So it's definitely not the idea that the false teacher had once been purged from his old sins. Oh no.

No, I mean I know you're clear on that, but the idea is that we can become like that in our daily lives. Not to take from our brother Lavery's reading, but I'll just state now so there's no confusion. Apostates are not people who are saved and lost their salvation.

They are people who never were saved. They saw the truth. They were brought to the truth in all of its fullness.

They turned back, repudiated it in one form or another, whether you're in the Hebrew epistle, they go back to the temple and to its worship, or whether here they're false teaching, whatever it is, they're not believers who lost their salvation. So to confirm what you're saying in verse number nine, he speaks of the believers, you in verse number eight. When we come down to verse number 12, I don't want to push your head, but in verse number 12 he says, though ye know them and they are present with you, in verse number 10 he speaks to a different group and he says, these things are not present.

These things are lacking. Okay, very good. I think if we want to make this epistle really work in our own lives and speak to us, we need to recognize that while we are possessors of eternal life, we're not apostates.

These people in chapter two are horrible people. It's like, have we ever met anybody this bad before? Do these people really exist among us? Peter's painting them in their full developed, worst possible garb, I guess you could say. Well, the problem is we can drift in their direction.

The problem is that some of the things that are absolutely true of them can be partially true of us. And so we need to take warning that while we may not be apostates ourselves, that we can drift into the kind of thinking that they have. So this section here, eight and nine, as you said, myopic is the word in the original.

They only see the present. They don't see the future. They only see the physical.

They don't see the spiritual. They have no perception of anything but this world and the now and the here and the physical tangible material. We need to have the spiritual insight and wisdom and of course vision, to use that word, to understand that it is what is, the things that are seen are temporal, the things that are unseen are eternal.

We look to heaven. We look to the future. We look to the spiritual.

These are capacities these people don't have. Can we drift into that kind of thinking ourselves? What are your old sins? It speaks at the end of verse nine. So is it suggesting we shouldn't be sinning at all? Certainly that is a very good practical application.

I just thought myself that it was the idea of my former life. Yeah, well that's what I mean. Living for this old world instead of looking forward, looking ahead, looking for and hastening on to the coming of the day of God.

So we should be looking forward. These people can't see afar off. We should be looking forward.

We should also keep in mind the past, what we were. And that will bring praise and thanksgiving. Very good.

Does it maybe anticipate at the end of chapter two as well, the sow and the dog? Yeah. So verses 10 and 11 to bring us to the end of this section and keeping an eye on the time. Give diligence.

Again, the same word here we had in verse five. Give diligence. Give diligence.

To make your calling and election sure, if you do these things you shall never stumble. Now that doesn't mean that you can't perhaps lapse or have a, or sin. I think he's talking about stumbling into apostasy.

If you do these things, you'll never stumble. And entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now the first difficulty to face is making your calling and election sure.

Is this something that is addressed to an individual believer so that he knows he's saved? I have great difficulty with that. The only thing that the word of God ever points to to give a believer assurance that they are saved is the word of God. I don't even think looking for fruit in your life is a safe way to be sure you're saved because there are people who are very introspective, very negative, can easily, easily begin to think I'm not saved because of so little love.

Here they are talking about loving the Lord and being like the Lord. I am so unlike the Lord Jesus. My love is so cold I must not be saved and on and on.

The only thing the word of God gives us to tell you that you're saved is the word of God. So I think though this is rather something that others will see. It is for others to realize that I am genuine, I am not an apostate.

So that by giving diligence, I'm not making my calling and election sure to myself. I'm making it clear to others. I am a genuine child of God and not an apostate.

So this is done in the manner of your living. Yes, this is what is outward for others to view. As they see these virtues developing in me, they will then realize this is a true child of God.

So then you shall never fall or stumble. Would you say stumble others? I had thought more that this is the way you will show you are not one of the apostates. But certainly the principle would be.

I mean, I'm adding on to what you. Yeah, yeah, certainly the principle would hold wouldn't it be from Hebrews, the Hebrew epistle, lift up holy hands and so forth, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way that my life will affect others. Just just to show that I do agree with Mr. McCandless, sometimes Peter himself stumbled, but he didn't stumble in the way that these men do in Chapter two, stumbled to fall.

Very good. William, go ahead. You're you're frowning, aren't we? Maybe it's just natural Irish.

OK, Irishmen assume that at every Bible reading. Correct me if I'm wrong, but verse 10, the end of verse 10. If if a person is doing these things, you shall never fall.

That would be the person themselves never stumble. Right. OK, but yeah, I was just asking the question because he was saying it was your testimony and now we've stumbled ourselves.

Yeah, that was. Yeah. Related, you know, that's what the fall be the same as in Chapter three.

And 17 falling from your steadfastness. Our brother has asked if the expression here in verse number 10, you shall never fall is the same expression that is used in Chapter three and verse number 17 at the end where he speaks about falling from your steadfastness. And I would take it the thought is that is the same.

Yes, myself here falling into sin. Falling into sin as opposed to these virtues, right, following in some measure the apostate way of living. Meanwhile, again, I don't want to take, you know, it's a life of liberty and license and so on that we're going to be looking at and the danger that we I mean, there are I mean, there are evangelical places in the world today in America, North America, USA.

Where the pastors are telling people, as long as you love each other, it doesn't matter if you're married. You can live together and as long you know, and we've got to be tolerant of alternate lifestyles. And these are people that claim to be evangelical.

Well, that is the apostate thinking of our age, which has affected people who profess to be Christians. Now, so as not to get confused, remember that when your New Testament was written, there was only one thing. There was an assembly, believers gathered to the Lord's name.

There was only one thing in every place. And as Mr. Jack Hunter used to say, now there are many things in one place and false teaching that right now may be out there in that day was in here or trying to get in here. So, you know, you may say, well, we don't have this in the assembly today.

Thank God we don't. But it's in professing Christendom, which is all around us. And that thinking can begin to infiltrate us.

Every one of us is far more tolerant of sin today than 25 years ago. We have all become tainted by the tolerance of our age. And you recognize it and you fight against it.

But it's reality. And that's what we're looking at here is the possibility of this kind of thinking affecting us in testimony for God. So these things will be verse five, six and seven.

That's what we have to keep in mind and do to do these things, you're not going to stumble. Right. These things.

Can I ask you about verse 11? I'm allowed to take you there. I'm good. Yeah, I've heard people pray sometimes and someone's dying and they say, oh, Lord, give them an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom.

Is that what we're looking at in verse 11? You'll pray that for me, won't you? Yeah, I hope you're going to be with us for a long time. There was one man who was not looking for the rapture. I was the apostle Peter, so he doesn't write about it.

Peter knew he was going to die. The Lord Jesus told him that. So Peter was not looking for the rapture, but he was looking for the kingdom.

And what we are looking at here is not how I go into heaven. It's how I come out of heaven, how I come in, how I am, how I enter into the kingdom. Now, this is the only place I think in the scriptures we have the expression, the everlasting or the eternal kingdom.

So, yes, there is a kingdom for a thousand years, but also there's a kingdom that will be without end. So just just for clarity, this entrance is the threshold of the millennium. Is that what you have in mind? OK, what our brother has helped us with is what we are looking at here is not when you go into heaven, not even at the rapture when you go in, if it should be by rapture that we go into heaven, but rather when we return with the Lord Jesus Christ in his kingdom and his kingdom is established on earth.

Believers will be given places of responsibility determined by their lives for Christ here upon earth. So if you add to your life all of these virtues and you grow and continue to grow in character, then God will add to you an abundant entrance into that everlasting kingdom. So why is it that point in time? Why not the rapture? Why not at death? Why? Let me understand your question.

Why is he stressing this particular aspect, this particular point in time? I think this is when what you have been for God and Christ throughout your life is going to be manifested. Second, Second Thessalonians one. Well, he when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and admired and all them that believe.

I mean, there are some of us here. I don't want to cast aspersions on any that. People will wonder what God did with that person, how could God have ever changed that person to be like that? You know, I mean, Christ must be remarkable to have been able to take that and make it that you're going to wonder at me.

And no, brother, you were a good little boy in Eden, Gary. I mean, there was nothing else but the gospel hall in the whole town, right? That's it. The focal point.

This is the gospel hall in Eden, Gary. So you pointed out earlier, you have this word super added again. Minister is super added and it's abundantly.

So rather than the rapture itself, which is glorious in itself, there's a glory that's going to be increasing in that day of manifestation when we're with him. Is there also the point that the end of the chapter gives us the reason why Peter mentions the kingdom here? Because he never, ever forgot the experience that was his on the Mount of Transfiguration. Yeah.

OK, our brother is bringing us really, and I guess we really should go because we have some very valuable things to notice. No, no. Good.

No, that's very good. Verses 12 down. The danger, the believers were in were forgetting and not seeing.

Peter says, I never forgot. And he says, I'm looking forward to. OK, so Peter says here in this section, he says, we saw we weren't blind.

We saw. And he says, I remember I didn't forget. And those two things are going to be prominent and stamp itself upon the remainder of this chapter.

So I think you have in your outline versus 12 to 15. Peter makes that wants to make them aware of something versus 16 to 18 to anticipate something and the remainder of the chapter 19 to 21 to be assured of something. And he is going to bring before them a coming kingdom that is going to be an incentive then to wanting to add these various virtues to our faith.

Why is it worthwhile? Why is it worthwhile to develop Christlike character? Well, we live by faith. And faith just takes God at his word that it is worth living for because of a coming day of of glory and manifestation. And this is open to our brothers and sisters.

We are looking at character, not preaching. We're not looking here at your public service. We're looking at Christian character, which in the end is the ultimate thing that God is interested in.

Not what I am doing, but what he is doing in me is far more valuable to God than what I do for him. So with that before us, we'll look at some of these verses 12 down to verse 15 and consider very quickly some of the keep an eye on the time. We want to get to the inspired word of God at the end.

Very definitely. So comments on verses 12 to 15. We always need to hear again and again familiar truths, don't we? Because we forget so easy, easily.

So our brother has reminded us of now this would be for all of us who have any responsibility in ministry in a local assembly. I know personally, you know, you're so often looking for something new and fresh, which is good, but the wise householder brings out of his treasures things new and old. So the need to continually teach the truth of God, even though you, you know, and especially, you know, when you get to be my age, I think everybody's heard everything.

And you forget there's a whole younger generation growing up that has not heard the truth, perhaps as you have heard it in your day. So the need then for repetition and yet at the same time with freshness, not stale sermons. You've mentioned, you know, a dozen times, but freshness with the word of God and yet old truth as well.

Can a sermon ever be stale if it's of God? Well, you've qualified that at the end. I've heard some stale ones, you know, sometimes if it's stale, it should never have been pretty given in the first place. But if there's life and it's of God, it's worth repeating.

And a brother told me he never speaks on the same thing twice. Well, I thought that was sad because the truth of God is of value to all believers, not just one small group. I know what you're saying, but I've heard some stale ones.

Oh, yeah, I know. It's worth preaching once. It's worth preaching twice.

But Peter not only preached it, he put it right down on record here, didn't he, to keep them in remembrance. So new versus old is not the same as stale versus fresh, right? And in a day when, you know, knowledge is increasing and technology is growing and science is advancing, many of us have the mindset that the new is always better than the old. And something that's novel has got to be better and more worth talking about than something that is from the past.

The difficulty with that is when you have the faith once for all committed to the saints and it's all in the past and we need to return to it and draw our source of life from that and not from something novel, then we know that we have to be, like Peter says, reminding ourselves constantly. Even at this point when the canon was not yet quite completed, Peter is looking back as if almost all of the revelation is in the past, Old Testament and new. And therefore, it's a ministry of reminder.

And that's really, it can be given very freshly. I think the same person coming back to the same truth for another time is going to approach it at a higher level, hopefully for himself, if he's not just verbatim spitting out something that he did before. He'll appreciate it better and the people who hear it may as well.

Very good. What about the little saying, if it's new, it's not true, and if it's true, it's not new? Well, there is some truth to that in the sense that there are no new revelations being given. And if you're listening to something you've never heard before, maybe just be a little slow in swallowing it.

But there's something that our young people and not necessarily our young people, they're getting a lot of ministry via the technology that they carry around. They carry around. And they'll hear things about personal responsibility, living godly lives.

They'll never hear anything about assembly truth ever that on the airways. Well, almost never. I don't know of any place.

So those things we assume, like you said, that, well, we've taught this before. We brought this up before. They've heard this before.

You'd be amazed how another generation or two generations down don't know what you assume they know. So with that in view, then, what does it mean to be established in the present truth? The end of verse number 12, where Peter speaks of them being established in the present truth and also of knowing these things and so forth. I think it just means that they were in the good right then of all of the truth of God.

But they were in danger of being drawn away from it. So they had been established in it, in the preaching of Peter, the preaching of Paul up to this point in time. Had you some other thought? No, I think that's exactly what it would mean.

And they were being hearing other people preach other things other than what was contrary to what they had already. Uh, known at that time. It's the thought of being set fast, like in concrete, because you hear all these, even in the assembly, sad to say, you hear all these different teachings.

You should be firm in your Bible and the word of God and the truth that you'll not be easily swayed. And when you hear something, you know, it's different. Go back to the scriptures and see what the scripture says.

There's a sense of which truth is present. No such thing as old truth. Okay, or a future, future aspects of truth.

But truth itself linked with the divine person, of course, is always present. Very good. In fact, many times when the writer to the Hebrews and elsewhere, Paul is quoting Old Testament scripture.

He will say, not as the spirit of God said, but as the spirit of God says, the truth is always relevant to the present moment. So that's very, very helpful, Mary. Here in this section, Peter will use language which is reminiscent of the mouth of transfiguration, speaks about the tabernacle, speaks about, as well, the exodus, which is the word used by Luke as that where he appeared with Moses and Elijah and they speak of his exodus, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.

So Peter's mind now is hearkening back to the Holy Mount, as he calls it, and to the experience that he had on the Holy Mount when he was able to be an eyewitness of his majesty. Because the Lord spoke, didn't he, in John chapter 10 about those that had come before him, he said, it doesn't say they were thieves, they are thieves, they're still at it, nothing's changed. Very good.

So, Peter, he never gave up preaching right to the end and preaching the same truth. How old was Peter here? Would it be the 60s? In the 60s, yeah. So he kept preaching into his 60s, at least.

Well, I mean, he never changed. That's what I'm saying. He kept them in remembrance.

He's speaking right from the age of eternity, as far as he's concerned. So he's very solemn. He hasn't watered things down.

That's what I mean. He just kept on preaching the truth. Brother, we're going to invite you back when you're 85.

I hope I have enough grace to say no. Anyway. Put off this, my tabernacle, it's like taking off or putting down a tent.

Yeah. So he's speaking about his own martyrdom, isn't he? Yes. Under Nero.

Under Nero, Peter was put to death. Tradition has it he was crucified upside down. Paul, as a Roman citizen, was beheaded.

He could not be crucified, but Peter, not a Roman citizen, was crucified and he requested to be crucified upside down, if that is true, but he was martyred for the sake. In what sense, brother, does he put off his tabernacle? What's the thought there? I think the idea of a tabernacle is something temporary. He's looking forward to the temple, the eternal kingdom.

I think the contrast is something eternal, something very temporary. Entrance into the everlasting kingdom. I'm going to something that's going to be eternal and lasting.

I'm putting off what is temporary. But had you thought of it more that I put off or what had you thought there? No, I won't put help on that. It's obviously, it wasn't a case that he takes his own life.

His life is being taken from him. I think of even the high priestly garments that are upon Aaron, they're taken from them. They actually stripped them of them.

So it's this sense here. But is it not that he comes to a point where he realizes this is it? He surrenders to it. Yeah, I think the same with the pre-apostle Paul.

When you get to 2nd Timothy, an acceptance that this is the inevitable and I'm looking forward to it and not rebelling against it. And actually after 12, when Peter's in prison and the promise says he's going to die, he has a good sleep. He knows he can't die.

And as you sort of alluded to, Brother Sandy, Peter was one man who knew that he'd die before the Lord came. And the Lord says, one hour old, John 21, one hour old, another shall carry thee, whether it is not to be a violent death. Could we move then to verses, I know we're rushing verses 16 to 18 and Peter's experience on the Mount.

He is going to make them assured, make them aware of things, make them anticipate a coming kingdom. He speaks of his eyewitness account. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

He will then detail the experience he had. He received from God the Father and he will speak of the evidence. We heard such a voice from the excellent glory.

This is my beloved son. Here is how I can tell you about a coming kingdom. We had a fore view of it on the Mount and it is worth living for.

Just one. It's interesting that when Paul was caught up into the third heaven, we would have thought he would have written, I saw things I can't describe. But he says, I heard things I can't relate.

I don't know how you understand that. But here Peter is talking about what he saw. Paul talks about what he heard.

And Peter is saying what I saw, it's worth living my whole life for and worth dying for. So out of those who were there on the Mount, Peter is the only one who describes the experience. Isn't that correct? And as well as that, would you just like to help us? He refers here to a literal experience in the past.

He uses it as a foretaste of a literal thing which is coming in the future. Would you just touch upon the literalness of the coming kingdom? And it's not amillennial or it doesn't follow amillennial teaching. That's a whole ministry meeting, but what our brother has just mentioned and we can't really deal with it in any depth and extent, but there is a literal kingdom coming upon earth for a thousand years, six times over in Revelation 20.

We read of a thousand years, a thousand years, a thousand years. It will be man's last occasion to be on trial. And with every excuse removed for not believing and trusting God and Christ, with every excuse removed, he will still in the end rebel and choose sides with Satan against Christ.

So the kingdom has many reasons for existing and for being. One is to honor Christ. One is man on trial.

One is to show that Satan has never changed. I mean, you go on and on, but it's a literal kingdom that will be upon earth. It's center in Jerusalem.

It's King, the Lord Jesus, its inhabitants, the redeemed of the earth and so on. Now, I want to add more to that. No, I say amen to that.

So the eyewitness part of this is really important, isn't it? Because we've been thinking about full knowledge or knowledge earlier on, and the Christian faith is based on historical facts, real places, real events, rational thought. It's not mystical. It's not mythical.

It's real. And just as the New Testament was based, the resurrection of Christ was proven by eyewitness testimony. So Peter is bringing that eyewitness piece in here as well.

And he's saying, you know, this is a real thing that happened. And since it happened in the past and I can bear testimony to it, I was there. Just as real is that coming kingdom and the scriptures are based on people like me who really saw these things, saw and heard, saw the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in in in his majesty, in contrast to the weakness of error.

Error is always weak. But I think also it's in contrast to his first coming to earth. He came in lowliness.

He came in a parent. I'll use the word apparent weakness. Yet his second coming will be power and coming.

Our brother mentioned just as an interesting connection. Luke writes in his gospel, he says, I have called my material for men who were eyewitnesses. Different word that is usually the word he uses in Luke chapter one is the word we got our word autopsy from.

People actually examining very, very carefully different parts. The word here is a bit different, but still carries the same force. Individuals who were personal observers of something that occurred.

And he is telling us what that display was like. There came such a voice, not just a voice, such a voice, the uniqueness of it. Never was a voice like this heard apart from heaven communicating with a perfect man upon earth.

Three times a voice came from heaven twice, approving of them once. John chapter 13. I have both glorified it and will glorify chapter 12 rather.

But here the emphasis is upon such a such a voice from the excellent glory. Peter also, I think it's nice to notice just as an overview of the last few verses, Peter's the man speaks so much about the mind and so much about the site and the keenness of such and the preservation of such. But he is realistic.

He realizes this can fade with me, too. OK, here's something that's not going to fade. Exactly.

And that's what he's going to bring you to. Right. Very good.

How often we stood by the bedside of a dear believer, a servant of the Lord, really. And his memory was once so keen. And and, you know, his eyesight and everything he could see.

And that's all failed. That's all in the past. You know something you'll see that far from his Bible hasn't changed the word of God.

Bill, I was going to say it's significant that he doesn't mention Moses or Elijah. He wanted to build three tabernacles, but they saw no man save Jesus only. So he has his eye on the Lord at the end.

It's interesting in Revelation one, the son of man and all his majestic glory that John sees in the vision. You've not only got the person, but you've got the voice. And here you have the majesty of the person and you have his voice.

Very good. So you have you have my beloved son. This is the third love in this chapter.

You were listing the the else in each chapter. You get three loves in this chapter. You have the love of the brethren and you have charity.

And now you have the love of the son. That's where it all starts, isn't it? Very good. Trying to keep an eye on the time here.

There came such a voice from the excellent glory. Now, I don't know if you think of that as being the cloud, the cloud that overshadowed them in a voice out of the cloud or whether you want to think of that as a voice from heaven. But interesting that in each chapter, the world is seen in a different light.

In this chapter, it is a dark and murky place. There is an excellent glory that contrasts with that. We'll see how the world is viewed in chapter two and how the world is viewed in chapter three and notice the contrast in each.

Here we have the excellent glory and an everlasting kingdom and the world as being a very dark place. And he's going to come to that in the next few verses. Now, I know I'm moving quickly.

Our brother Murray has helped us. He is saying some believers, these believers to who he's writing might say, well, Peter, that experience was fine for you. What about us? We weren't there.

Well, Peter says you've got something just as well, something even better. And he will now come to you have the sure word of prophecy, the word of prophecy confirmed, and you do well to take heed to it as unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise and so on. So he's going to bring them now to the word of God, mainly stressing Old Testament teaching.

It's going to come to New Testament in chapter three. This is Old Testament teaching. And he says, here's what you have.

You've got the word of God that's been confirmed to you and you do well that you take heed to it in light of the world in which you are living. So it's not that the prophecies were made more true. No, you can't get through than true.

But it's the impact upon our hearts, isn't it, that we are more assured of it? Can I ask a question about that? I'd like to hear what you think. The word of God made more the prophetic word made more sure. Was it that their experience, Peter's experience on the mountain by seeing Christ in his glory confirmed that the Old Testament was true? Or is he saying that the Old Testament is a true thing that is even more sure than personal experience, even my experience on the mountain? OK, I would take the second that the word of God is more sure than an experience.

But how how had you seen it? I would tend to agree. I mean, this is a special experience because this was revelation to revelation also. I mean, but what we don't want to take away from this is the idea that my personal experience has confirmed that God's word is true.

Now, I can find that God's word is true in my life. That's saying something different. I can prove it is true because God fulfills his promises in my life.

That's a definite and a very precious thing. But to say whether the word of God is true based on what happens in my experience would be a serious tail wagging the dog problem, right? That's completely backwards. You know, Peter did have visions, didn't he? And Cornelius and so on, so some could say, well, maybe this was only a vision.

But no, he said this is real. And the word of prophecy bears it out. But the light that's shining in the murky place is the word of God, the word of God.

It's the Bible, right? So a practical place where this comes out is in people's conversions. The way you know you're saved today is not necessarily to go back and relive that experience. Now, I'm all for the experience, time, when, place, where, manner, how.

I'm not questioning that. But what I'm saying is when people who have no fruit in their lives say, well, I must be saved because I went through this experience, but they have no confirmation from God's word, either then or now, that something actually happened. They are guilty of going at the whole thing backwards.

Experience isn't what matters. It's what God says that matters. That is vital and has ramifications in many, many directions.

Experience never trumps the word of God. The word of God always. Never.

In other words, never interpret scripture by your experience. Never, you know, do missionary dating. And because the person you're dating gets saved, it was the will of God.

It's the grace and mercy of God. Amen. You can't go back and reinterpret scripture because you did something and it worked out.

Scripture always interprets experiences that without. Going too far afield here, the charismatic movement is all about experience, and my experience now reinterprets what scripture says. No other way around as our brother Valens has helped us with.

Can I ask you about just the end of verse number 19 and the day star arise in your hearts? OK, very difficult here. I was brought up being taught to to reword the verse, OK, that the verse says you do well to take heed in your hearts as unto and so forth. But I think the verse means what it says.

Personally, now I've come to feel what it means is until this is actually absolutely established in your hearts that you do well to, you know, here is where it needs to be established in your hearts. And I guess he's not meaning just the affection, but in your innermost being. So what's the day dawning until the day dawn until the Lord comes? And you get this understanding in your heart, you have this hope in your heart.

But until I have to admit, I personally have leaned maybe to your former. I know that's the usual. Sure.

And you are you could very well be right. So there's a parent. There's possibly a parenthesis in the verse possibly.

So the verse reads that you take heed in your hearts. Right. And then the parenthesis comes in as unto a light that shines in a darkness until the day dawn.

Yeah, it makes it very simple to understand it that way. Yeah. The second way that you brought up, brother, you've got two things.

You've got the Lord coming and now you've got what's happening in your heart. OK, and one is now and the other is future. Whereas in your hearts, you should be enjoying and looking forward to the Lord coming.

Either way, we are agreed that here is something, though the word of God is vital to create this in our souls in light of his coming. We have to move because I want to just touch very vital to touch on these final verses in the five or six minutes we have, knowing this, that no scripture is of any private interpretation. Now, I know it says interpretation here.

We are not looking at how we interpret the Bible, although maybe the principle is true that, you know, it's not a free for all in interpreting. We're looking, I think, at origination, the origin of scripture rather than my interpretation of scripture. No scripture ever came by a man's own desire to say what he wanted to say.

Now, again, what is vital to notice here are similar words which do not appear similar in our version. Notice what it says in earlier in the chapter, verse number 17, when there came such a voice, the word for came there is the word for born along. It was carried from heaven.

Now, he uses the very same word in verse number 21, prophecy came not prophecy, never was born along by anybody's imagination or self-will, but holy men of God speak as they were born along. Same word again. So just as God controlled the voice that came from heaven to acknowledge who his son is, this is my son in the very same manner.

God controlled what came from heaven that men inscribed on the page of Holy Writ. So this is telling us the accuracy of the word of God. Number one, that when men put their pen down from writing what the spirit of God directed them to write, it was word for word what God wanted inscribed on the page of scripture, the absolute accuracy of scripture.

We are reminded of the adequacy of scripture. Here's what you take heed to until the day dawn and the day start throughout until the Lord comes. Here is what is absolutely adequate for spiritual life is what is written to you in the word of God.

We have its accuracy, we have its adequacy, and also we are reminded here of its authority came from God. So it's authoritative. It's absolutely adequate for all of your needs, and it is absolutely accurate.

You can depend upon it in your life for God. So he brings us to this at the end of this chapter. And maybe just we could take a few minutes to just emphasize this.

Some of our brethren may want to come in here with some of the David. There are really three ways this has been understood, and there's an element of truth in the first two, but I totally agree with what you're saying. The Roman Catholic position has typically been that you lay people cannot interpret the scripture, only the church can interpret the scripture, which we would utterly reject.

That is against what the Protestants call the perspicuity of scripture, that it is open to any spirit, enlightened person. Having said that, though, it is very important that we acknowledge that God has given teachers to the church and that some crazy upstart idea I have isn't necessarily true just because it's new to me. I need to confirm it with others.

So there's a warning there, but that is not a correct meaning. The second was common at the Reformation, and that is no individual scripture can be interpreted without thinking of the whole revelation. So this is the analogy of scripture, as it's usually called.

And we would totally endorse that. That is true, that the Holy Spirit speaks as one God and with one voice. And he's not going to contradict himself in one part of the Bible from another.

But ultimately, it's even deeper than that. It's the scriptures themselves that are not of private origin. It is not that the prophets thought, well, this would be a good thing to write on today or this is what I've been thinking of lately, but rather the Holy Spirit moved them to say exactly what he wanted to say, using their own life's experience, true, their own personalities, yes, their own words.

But nevertheless, it is precisely the origin that's in view here, God himself. So the mind actually of God himself went right down in that trend. Just a very simple illustration.

Our oldest boy is about seven years of age, and he was writing back and forth with his uncle, and they were debating the quality of certain tractors. And our boy was losing the battle, really, because I mean, his uncle is an older man. So he said, Dad, write this for me.

I said, no, no, no, I'll tell you what to write. When the letter came back, he said, thank your father for the letter. He looked at that and thought, that's no seven-year-old boy.

When we look at this book here, and all due respect to Peter and these men, there's something beyond that. They admit that. Right.

Amen. Well, isn't he paving the way for the next chapter? Oh, absolutely. Yes, absolutely.

That we'll go beyond the word of God and bring things alongside of it. It's interesting that Paul, when he's writing in Corinthians chapter seven, he points out in verse 10 and 11, this is from the Lord. It's probably important from Mark 10, the question to marriage and divorce.

But he uses other times when he's speaking about the widow, verse 39 and 40, and he says, I really don't have the word from the Lord on it, but I think I do have the spirit of God on it. And then again, he says, this is my judgment. Whether it was a quotation from the Lord in Mark 10, whether it was the spirit of God in verse 39 and 40, or whether it was Paul's judgment, it was all of God, because what is recorded in the Bible from Paul, written by Paul, is the inerrant word of God.

So when he says my judgment, he was being borne along at that very time by the spirit of God. So just to recap the chapter in case any have missed out and he came in late, we looked at the rich provision God has made for spiritual growth. We had the imparting of life, we had the inventory of virtues, we had the incentive of a coming kingdom to live for, and we had the inspired word of God given to us to guide us and to assure us of the value of living a life for God and becoming Christ like in our lives.

Thank you all for your cooperation.