II Peter 1:18 Holy Utterance

(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. - Well, welcome to Steadfast Hope. We're so glad that you joined us. This is Kent Stainback. I'm Steve Lawson. And we're coming to you from Herb's house here in Dallas, Texas. It's a coffee shop. And we would love for you to come join us sometime. We're in second Peter one, verse 18 for this study. And the title of this devotion is Holy utterance. We're gonna talk about this for about five minutes from the scripture. And then Kent and I are gonna talk for another five minutes. So we've got about a 10 minute window of time. And I wanna begin by reading this verse Kent. And it says, "And we ourselves heard this utterance, "made from heaven when we were with him, referring to Jesus, "on the Holy mountain referring to Mount Herman "and the Mount of Transfiguration." Before we work our way through this, what really leaps off the page to make Kent is that God is a speaking God. - I'm not bad. - Francis Shay for years ago wrote a book, God is there and he's not silent. - That's good. - And God has revealed Himself to us. He has spoken to the prophets. He has spoken through the prophets to us. He has spoken through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has spoken through all to us, through all 66 books of the Bible. He is even speaking to us through the witness that creation itself brings to us. So every moment of every day, God is revealing Himself to us, in Scripture, in creation, and even in our conscience as He is speaking to us, what is right and what is wrong. And so we need to have ears to hear. We need to be listening to what God is saying to us. And as Peter writes this verse, he brings testimony that on the man of transfiguration, which is found in Matthew chapter 17, that he actually heard the audible voice of God speak. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And so he brings this affirmation, we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven. There was this Shaqqana glory cloud that came down and God was in that cloud. And God spoke out of that cloud to Peter, James, and John. And the reason that Peter makes mention of this is there were, in the first century, false prophets, false teachers in the church, who were claiming to speak for God. And Peter really wants to shut them up. And he wants to draw attention to the message that is coming through him from God. And he is reminding the early believers just as I'm speaking the truth to you right now. I heard the truth 40 years ago, when I was on the man of transfiguration with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we heard the utterance made from heaven when we were with him, the hymn refers to Jesus Christ. They were with Jesus on the man of transfiguration on the holy mountain. And the word holy means that which is set apart under God. And that mountain became the holy mountain because of the presence of God. And the voice of God speaking to them. And can't this really speak to the fact how important it is that we give attention to when God speaks, that we give undivided attention, that when God speaks through his word, the written scripture, the Bible, that we do not allow other distractions to pull us away and that we do not listen to false teachers or false prophets, but that we listen to the truth as it is made known to us in pages of scripture, and that we align ourselves with God called God saved, God gifted men who preach the truth of the Word of God, and that we sit under that kind of preaching and teaching. And so it is imperative that we are hearing the truth just as Peter heard the truth on the man of transfiguration. So can't we live in a day with mass media that it's so easy for false teachers to gain a hearing really around the world in a way that was unprecedented in the past. And that's why our antenna really need to be up and that we need to be careful what we allow to come into our ears. So can't we need to talk about this as always? I love this. I know you do. I love this verse. I know you do because it's the Word of God. And I've always heard that, and I don't know if it's all like a detacture at that, a third party can sell someone else whether they can sell themselves. And I know we need to listen when Jesus speaks, but Steve, how important is it that these humans like Peter James and John heard this and it's coming from them? Yeah. And not Jesus. How important is that for us? Well, it's God's ordained means to work through fallible, redeemed creatures who have been gifted by God to understand the Word of God and to teach and preach the Word of God. The whole Bible from cover to cover is the record of prophets and apostles and Christ bringing the Word of God as a human mouthpiece to others. And God has just chosen to work this way. God could make every day like the management figureation and a glory cloud come down. And God could just speak with an audible voice out of heaven and we could all just get it direct. But that's not how God has chosen to work. God has chosen in his infinite wisdom to work through fallible human messengers to bring the infallible truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world. And why God has done this is perhaps known only to God. Maybe it is to make the truth more accessible to us, to bring the message down and put the cookies on the bottom shelf to even have just a human messenger place it right in front of us rather than it be a booming voice out of heaven that would probably scare us, would be hiding behind the curtains. But this is how God has chosen to work. Maybe this is the same answer to this question. But to your mind, do you think there's a reason why it was just Peter, James and John? Why was just those three? Yeah. Well, they were the inner circle. There was the 70. Let's back it up. There were the 120. Let's back it up. There were the 3,000 that were saved on the day of Pentecost. There were the 120 that were in the upper room. There were the 70 that Jesus sent out during his earthly ministry. But there were the 12 that he chose to spend time with the most. But there were three inside that inner circle who were the leaders among the leaders. And there was even just one among the three who was the primary leader of the leaders, and that was Peter. But they needed to have the assurance as they provided the guidance and the direction and so much of the preaching. They needed to have this close encounter with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration so that there would be no equivocation on their part when they sit up to preach. This is the absolute truth of God. That they had gone through this experience on the Mount of Transfiguration. It's interesting. It wasn't just John. It wasn't just Peter. Yeah. It was Peter, James, and John. Right. That was all three of them. So there couldn't be-- well, he was had delusional. Yeah, yeah. Well, and we know that the Bible and Deuteronomy talks about a matter must be confirmed by two or three witnesses. That's great. That's great. So this isn't just Peter. It's Peter, James, and John, all three bear witness. And Ecclesiastes talks about a rope of three cords cannot be broken. And they were willing to die for this message. A liar is not going to die for a message. When you get to that point, you just go, hey, I was just making the whole thing up. No, they were willing to go to the mat and pay the ultimate price. Three different men, three different personalities. Yes. Yet they had one message. One message. And they shared that one. one experience together on the amount of transfiguration, which really had the effect of just setting the truth even deeper into their very soul. - Confirming. - Yeah, confirming it. Well, I trust that the truth is set down deep in your heart and in your soul and we have not heard the audible voice of God and will not till we go to heaven. However, we have something more sure, which is the written word of God that has been brought to us. And I trust that your faith is strong and immovable in the truth that is found in the scripture. So, sometime today, perhaps even right now, I would urge you to spend some time just to read the Bible and perhaps even this book that we've been looking at, second Peter. Maybe you should just go ahead and read the rest of the chapter. Maybe you should read the rest of this short epistle. It's only three chapters. It would be a great benediction to your heart and soul. I'm certain. Well, thank you for joining us for "Steadfast Hope." I look forward to the next opportunity that we can be with you or can't stay back in myself. God bless you. Thank you for joining us. - 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. Steven 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."