II Peter 1:16 Eyewitnesses of Majesty

(soft music) - Welcome to Steadfast Hope. I'm Stephen Lawson, president of One Passion Ministries. And four times a week, I teach through a portion of scripture to encourage you in your Christian walk. Join me now for this brief devotion in God's Word. - Welcome to Steadfast Hope. I'm Steve Lawson, joined by Kent Stainback. I can't do this without Kent Stainback. So he's right here. It's kind of like a-- - Oh, you can. - Okay, no, no, no. This is Tag Team Ministry right here. And we're coming to you from the iconic herb house in Dallas, Texas. If you want to know what herb house is, it's a coffee shop. So you need to come here. And we're in second Peter 1, verse 16. If you have your Bible, you may want to turn to it. The title of this is "I Witnesses of Magistigh." Let me just read this verse, verse 16. "For we do not follow cleverly devised tales when we made no need to the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of His majesty." Kent, what Peter is saying here is that every one of us have to make choices. And at the top of that list is deciding, am I going to listen to the truth? Or am I going to listen to myths, superstitions, even traditions that are not grounded in the word of God? That really is the mark of a spiritually healthy Christian that he rejects what is not true and he embraces the truth. That's part of the function of an elder, Titus 1, verse 9. He must be able to teach sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. And so Peter is drawing a line in the sand here between that which is true and that which is false and saying that we must refuse what is false and receive what is true. So he begins this by saying, "For we did not follow cleverly devised tales." The we includes Peter as well as the other believers in the early church to whom he's writing this. He said, "We did not follow cleverly devised tales." The word "tales" here, T-A-L-E-S, comes into the English language out of the original Greek as the word myths. And it's just made up fabrications that come out of fallen imaginations of people's minds. And he says that they can be-- that they're cleverly devised. Meaning there is a certain appeal to them. There is a certain mental stimulation, a certain disguise and deception about them that would try to lure a Christian into believing these--what Paul calls old wives' tales. But so often there are just things that are repeated and passed down from one generation to the next. I mean something like the Lord helps those who help himself. Well that's nowhere in the Bible. The Lord helps those who cannot help themselves. And so he says, "We did not follow cleverly devised tales, worldly wisdom, secular humanism. When we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, he's pointing back to the time of the Mount of Transfiguration. When he stood there at that mountain, we think it was probably Mount Hermann, which is in the very northern part of what is Israel. And it's by Cessaria Philippi and very steep high elevation. And Peter and James and John were at that mountain peak. And the Lord appeared to them. And the Lord really for just a moment, his identity as a bond servant was pulled back and his deity came shining forth. Like the shining of the sun. And it was overwhelming to them. And it was intended to affirm the deity of Christ. But it was also to be a prelude for the second coming of Christ that it would be almost like a dress rehearsal for when the Lord returns in blazing glory out of heaven. And so there on the Mount of Transfiguration, they were witnesses of Christ's power and of his coming as it was a foreshadowing of the return of Christ. And he says, "We are eyewitnesses of his majesty." When he says, "We were," he's looking to the past, not to the future. So he's not talking about the future coming of Christ. He's talking about, "We were eyewitnesses of his first coming and we saw his majesty." And this word "magisty" means splendor, magnificence, really like they'd never seen it before. Because through that Christ earthly ministry with them, his majesty was largely veiled. And he took upon himself the form of a bond servant. But they're on the Mount of Transfiguration just for a moment. It is as though God pulled back the veil. And the splendor of his glory came shining forth on the Mount of Transfiguration. And it was stunning. It was overwhelming for them. It was like they had never seen this aspect of him shining so brightly. And so Peter is saying that this is why we don't believe in these fabricated, really myths about religion and a way to live life. We were eyewitnesses of the real thing. We have beheld the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what we preach to you. This is who we make known to you. The one whose glory was unveiled to us. And can't every time, really, we teach the Bible and give a witness to others. We too are in a small measure pulling back that veil and giving a testimony, a witness of who Jesus really is, in not just his humanity, but in his blazing deity as well. So, Kent, let's talk about this. It took a little longer to kind of walk us through this first. There's a lot going on here. Yeah, there is. And here's what jumps out to me. And maybe others who are listening. Yeah. As you said, cleverly devised tales, is that-- can we use the word counterfeit? Is that counterfeit? Yeah. That's a good word. Are you saying that then in churches today on Christian radio? Absolutely. And absolutely. Absolutely. That there's a counterfeit message? Yeah. Yeah. The prosperity gospel, for example, is just a fake message that is dangerous because it dams the souls of men. It appeals not to the heart. It appeals to fleshly appetites. And it's so packaged in a way that it is so cleverly devised. It comes from behind the pulpit. Yeah, it comes from behind the pulpit it does. It certainly does. And I think behind that pulpit is the evil one who is speaking through these false prophets. And they use the words of the Bible? They use the words of the Bible. And it is so brilliant that it far exceeds their intellect, these preachers, that they have been given really a message that really comes from a supernatural source, that comes from the devil himself. And it is so beguiling. And it is so appealing. And it's so deceptive that people buy into it, never realizing that they're really, really advanced down the broad path headed for destruction. They're like sheep led to the slaughter. They're in heat, but having no idea that this is going to really slaughter them and take them into a Christless existence. So here at the coffee shop, we've had a few counterfeit bills come in. And we have a marker that we can mark it and see, hey, this is real or not. Yeah. So how do we know for the people listening that we're not listening to something counterfeit and it's the real thing? Well, first of all, you've got to know the truth. You've got to know sound doctrine. You've got to know the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You've got to know the truth of the Trinity. You've got to know the deity of Christ. You've got to know the deity and the humanity of Christ joined together in one person. You've got to know salvation is by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone. You have to know the reality of death and the final judgment and heaven and hell. You've got to know the cross, the sufficiency of the cross, the exclusivity of the cross. You've got to know that the Christian life requires discipleship and it leads to persecution that there's suffering involved in the Christian life. You have to know these truths are you're going to be sucked in to a message that just says, "Hey, do you want to be rich? Do you want to be miracle? Do you want to be healthy?" Well, every lost person wants that and so it tickles their ears rather than giving them the straightforward truth that you must deny yourself and take up a cross and follow after the Lord Jesus Christ. What is it, Prophet of Man? If he gains the whole world yet lose his own soul and what will he give an exchange for his soul? And so there are people who would rather have this whole world in the prosperity gospel than to walk away from that to have Christ and to follow Christ. So knowing the truth is what gives us the ability to see if it's counterfeiters. Absolutely. And you know the illustration, in order to spot counterfeit dollars, you've got to know what a real one looks like. So you need to know the real Christ and the real truth in order to spot the counterfeit. Well, thank you for joining us for steadfast hope and Peter has much to say to us as we live in an age of lies, how we must hold fast to the truth, a sound doctrine and the Word of God. Well, may the Lord bless you. May the Lord give you discernment and may He give you really the knowledge of the truth so that you can refuse the devil's lies. God bless you. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of steadfast hope. If this was helpful to your Christian walk, please leave us a review wherever you listen to this show. And if you want to connect on social media, I can be found at Dr. Stephen J. Lawson or at One Passion Ministries. Thank you for listening. And I hope you will join me again for the next episode of steadfast hope.