16 “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. 17 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,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 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, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 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.”
The Holy Scriptures are the means by which God has determined to reveal to human beings HIS existence, HIS Nature, and HIS will. HE provides this “revelation” of HIMSELF by enabling men to both know and write the very words God would have written if HE had chosen to physically write them HIMSELF!
“Revelation” is God making HIMSELF known to mankind; “Inspiration” is God enabling men to write that Revelation of God in human language!
This coming Lord’s Day, as the LORD allows, I will bring our next Sermon in the series about the Believer and Your Bible. I have already attempted to impress on you that the Bible is the most important thing in your life as a Christian. In fact, no one can even become a Christian apart from the work of the Word in their life!
In the first two sermons, I have tried to establish that the Bible is the Word of God; it works effectively in the life of the believer; and, it has four main attributes: necessity; authority; clarity; and sufficiency.
This coming Sunday, I want to begin looking at the seven-step process of getting this revelation of God from the mind of God to the mind of HIS people.
That process is… (1) Revelation; (2) Inspiration; (3) Preservation; (4) Canonization; (5) Translation; (6) Interpretation; and (7) Application!
I will attempt to do the first six of these two at a time, and then take a final sermon in the series to teach about the all-important work of applying the Word of God to our everyday life!
There are several ways by which God reveals HIMSELF to humans including Creation, the Conscience, the Content of Scripture, and the Person of Christ. Occasionally, God reveals HIMSELF through a supernatural phenomenon such as a “Burning Bush!”
BUT, GOD usually and normally reveals HIMSELF to humans through the words of the Holy Scripture!
We will take a careful look at our text in 2nd Peter 1, as well as several other pertinent Scriptures, and see what we can learn about these two vital processes of “Revelation” and “Inspiration.”
I hope you will read over, think over, and pray over these verses between now and Sunday as you prepare your mind to hear the Living Word of the Living God!
As my friend Tom Rains loves to say, “I hope to see you Sunday with a smile on your face, your Bible in your hand, and your family and friends by your side!
2 Peter 1:16-21 (ESV)
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