We’re going to turn in our Bibles, so remain standing as we read Scripture together. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 1. We’re in a series called The Helper as we pay special attention to the Person of the Holy Spirit whom God the Father and God the Son sent to us to help us. He is our Helper in so many ways. Today we’re going to consider how the Holy Spirit helps us by writing a book. That Book is for us so that we can hear God speak personally, directly, and powerfully every day of our lives. So we’re going to look at 2 Peter chapter 1. I’m going to begin with reading verses 16-21 this morning. The Apostle Peter writes
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 the prophetic word more fully confirmed, 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.
What a tremendous truth! May God encourage us through His Word this morning! Let’s pray and ask that God would apply His Word to our hearts and help us to understand who the Holy Spirit is and the central place of importance His Book is to have in our lives and in our church family.
In high school, the Holy Spirit worked miraculously in several of my friends’ lives. These guys had been known for their partying ways, and when God opened their hearts to the Gospel, just everything changed. It was a radical transformation. One of my newly redeemed friends was particularly bold, courageous and fruitful in his witness for Jesus. Jesus entered most of his conversations. He was a young man hungry to know Jesus more and more. He was drinking in God’s Word and applying it to his life. After high school, my friend wondered if God was not calling him into Christian ministry. I exulted with him in this.

Just as my friend was to join me at Moody Bible Institute, he experienced some severe trials in his life. At that time, he searched for answers to his heartaches and he began opening himself up to some new teachings, teachings about revelations and teachings about visions. One day he told me that in his distress he went out into an open field and with his Bible in his hand he decided to talk with God. At one point, his distress was so great that he took his Bible, he lifted it in the air and he asked, “God, is this all that you have for me?” He came away from that experience with his answer, which was that God had more for him than what the Bible held and that he could know more about God from extrabiblical experiences and extrabiblical revelations.

From that time on, our fellowship began to unravel because we used to sit around the Word and just rejoice in what God had said to us; feeding our souls together upon His Word and growing in Him together. Now, there was a strange distance. While he was looking for God to bring to him more revelation than what the Bible offered, at that very same time, I was finding myself more satisfied, more treasuring all that God was teaching me and telling me and communicating to me directly by His Spirit through His Word.

While some of the details in my friend’s story are unique, I think many believers go through a time in their life when they ask the same questions, “Is the Bible really enough? Is the Bible all that God has to use to talk with me? Am I missing something? I hope to convince you this morning from the Word that God’s Word is amazing, that God’s Word is sufficient, that God’s Word is reliable, that God’s Word is perfect in every way, that God’s Word is a treasure given to us by the Holy Spirit to help us know God and to serve Him all the days of our lives. I believe that any reliance upon another source of revelation other than the Bible is actually a move away from the Holy Spirit. It’s a move away from health and vibrancy in our spiritual life. I believe that God does speak personally. I believe that God does speak directly. I believe He does so through His Word in powerful and precious ways.

David gives testimony to this very truth in Psalm 119. Let’s read a few of these verses.

Psalm 119:72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

I love that! He says there is no greater treasure than your Word.

Psalm 119:97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

He says, “I never come to the end of it and say, ‘I need more.’ I meditate on it and meditate on it and meditate on it and I receive more the more I meditate upon your Word.”

Psalm 119:103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

There is nothing more satisfying, nothing more tasty.

Psalm 119:111 Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.

If you look and say, “What’s the foundation of joy?” there is God’s Word. That’s what David said.

This morning we open up our Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 1. Here’s the main idea we’re going to chase through this passage. God’s Word is enough for us to know God and enjoy Him forever. It is enough for us to know God satisfyingly, sufficiently, fully and enjoy Him forever. God’s Word is the Holy Spirit’s gift to us to hear God speak directly to our hearts each and every day.

We’ve been learning about the Person of the Holy Spirit, how He is our Helper who helps us to live strong and vibrant spiritual lives in fellowship with God Himself. Today, if you are taking notes, we are considering the specific help that our Helper gives us as He writes a Book to help us. The Apostle Peter presses this truth to our hearts this morning here in this first chapter of his second letter. The first statement we want to make and capture from Peter’s writings is that

The Holy Spirit Wrote a Book

This Book is not the work of the will of man. This work is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is its author. Peter is really excited about the Book that the Holy Spirit writes and in verses 19 and 20 we find some of the most important verses in all the Bible that teaches us about the Holy Spirit’s Book. Before we focus on verses 19-21 however, let’s catch a bit of Peter’s heart behind the writing of this letter. Skip back to verse 10 with me for a moment.

2 Peter 1:10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent

You can catch the passion in his voice as he writes to people he cares about, people with whom he shares the Gospel, He shares Jesus Christ. He shares the Holy Spirit. He says, “Brothers, members of my own family through Christ, be all the more diligent

2 Peter 1:10 …to confirm your calling and election,

Make sure that you’re in Christ. Make sure you’re in God’s family. Make sure that you have the life of God in your soul.

2 Peter 1:10-11 …for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way

By being more diligent to confirm your calling and election,

1 Peter 1:11 …there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

What is Peter concerned about as he writes this second letter? Well, he’s concerned for the eternal future of his brothers and sisters in Christ. He wants them on the day that they die, to arrive in heaven not just with an entrance into heaven, but with a rich entrance, a glorious entrance into the eternal kingdom. Peter knows that if these brothers and sisters become passive in this life about their faith, they become neglectful of their own soul, that their lives are in danger. So he urges them to be all the more diligent to care for your soul so that you won’t fall away from Christ, so that you will have this rich entrance into the glorious kingdom on that day. As you read more of this letter, you find that Peter is really concerned about a specific danger, however, to these brothers and sisters. He is concerned about false teachers who are entering the church and drawing people away from Christ and away from the Gospel. For a moment, skip forward to chapter 2, where we catch the heart of Peter behind this concern.

2 Peter 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you,

Do you catch that? He says this is unavoidable. We can’t keep false teachers out. Just know that they’re going to be present. Make sure that you test the teaching of every teacher against the final authority because there will be false teachers. If you listen to these false teachers, they will damage your soul. He goes on to say these false teachers

2 Peter 2:1 …who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

But notice this. Peter says, and you can almost hear his pastor’s heart just bleeding here, breaking as he says

2 Peter 2:2 And many will follow their sensuality,

It breaks his heart that the people he loves who have given testimony to Christ, who have been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, many of those people will listen to the false teachers who rise up from among the fellowship of the saints and they’ll be swayed. They’ll be convinced and follow these false teachers into their sensuality. And he says

2 Peter 2:2 …and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.

Skip back to verse 12 of chapter 1 for a moment.

2 Peter 1:12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities,

Now, Peter is going to say, “I’m going to remind you. Please recall. Here’s a reminder.” He’s saying to the folks that he is writing to, “I know this isn’t new, but we are forgetful people and we need reminder after reminder after reminder if we’re going to be free of this danger of false teaching. So I’m going to remind you. In fact, I’m always going to remind you.”

2 Peter 1:12 …though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.

I’m still going to remind you. You might roll your eyes and say, “I already know this. Come on. Let’s move to the next lesson.” But he says, “I’m going to remind you and then I’m going to remind you again and then I’m going to remind you some more.” He goes on to say

2 Peter 1:13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,

He says, “I hope it’s not a dead reminder. As long as I live, as long as I have breath, as long as I have a beating heart, as long as I care for you, I’m going to keep reminding you to stir you up, to stir up your soul by way of reminder.” Then he says this. Notice this. It’s fascinating!

2 Peter 1:14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon,

You might just underline that. That’s the context of this letter. Peter is saying, “I know that in a short amount of time, I’m going to die.”

2 Peter 1:14-15 as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

He says, “I’m going to remind you and remind you and remind you some more because there is going to be a day that I won’t be able to be with you to remind you, and I’m going to remind you so much that after I’m gone you can’t help but remember what I reminded you about.” He’s driving these folks into the foundation of truth, the truth of God. It’s a foundation that they need to continue. We all need to continue to be driven toward because again, false teachers are so skilled at uprooting us from these things that we once knew to be true.

I love, by the way, how Peter talks about physical death. He calls it “the putting off of my body.” He calls it a departure. You see, he knows that in this world, he is a stranger. He talks about that in his first letter. He’s an exile here. This world is not his home. He knows that physical death is not the end of his existence. Physical death for the Christian is the temporary putting off of our body. We don’t cease to exist. We continue to be more alive than ever the moment our physical body dies. But we do await a future resurrection where this physical body that dies will one day be renewed by the promise of our Messiah who died and rose again bodily. When He returns, we’re going to have a new body. This body of ours that has died will be made new and be joined to our spirit and forever then, together we will be with the Lord. What a day that’s going to be! Peter, in these sort of subtle ways, is calling attention in our mind to this eternal reality.

Peter is likely in prison in Rome. He believes he is going to be executed by the Roman government as a result of his faith. He’s going to be martyred. Again, he says, “as long as I am in this body, I am going to remind you of the Gospel!” You see, at the end of Peter’s life, truth got really clear to him. What’s important got really clear to him. He knows, “I’m about ready to die. It could be today. It could be tomorrow. I don’t know when they’re going to come for me, but it’s going to be shortly.” He doesn’t take time to remind them how to live their best life now. He doesn’t say, “Hey guys, let me impart some good wisdom. Here’s how you should keep your budget so you don’t get into debt. Here’s how you go about your work so you can be successful in your career.” He doesn’t talk about those things. It’s not as though those things are totally unimportant, it’s just that when Peter gets to the point where he is about ready to die, he says, “These things are laser clear to be important. These are the things I’m going to remind you over and over. These are the things I’m going to park on because these things make a difference not just for this life, but they make a difference forever and ever and ever.” He writes to stir them up in their faith so that they would capture eternal treasure.

Here’s an application for us. Let’s talk more about eternal matters and less about temporal ones. I think all of us can take Peter’s example, here. These lives of ours are so short. Let’s acknowledge that. Whether we have a day or a decade or more, these lives of ours are short. It’s important for us as a fellowship to remind one another of these eternal matters. As believers in Jesus, it’s right for us to ask ourselves, “Is my conversation stirring up my brothers and sisters toward their faith in Christ? Is it stirring up their soul so that as a result of my conversations with my brothers and sisters, they’re going to be more ready for that future day when they stand before God? They’re going to be more ready to receive a glorious entrance into God’s presence when they leave this world. Or has my conversation become so clogged up with temporal matters that the eternal matters barely squeak through?”

This is a day of severe temporal upheaval. It is easy for us to have our conversations and the focus of all of our conversations on temporal matters. Whether that upheaval relates to Afghanistan or to vaccines or to masks or to our freedoms or to taxes or to inflation or crime or whatever the subject raising its temporal head that is in our sphere, Peter’s example says let’s be the people of God. Let’s be people whose daily conversation is rooted in the eternal. Now, Peter did live in a temporal world. I don’t doubt that he talked at some times about temporal things, too. It’s just that his focus, the stuff that was primary and first and main was the eternal. I know that I talk about all kinds of temporal matters. I talk about politics and I talk about fishing and I talk about sports and I talk about new restaurants and I talk about coffee, then I talk some more about coffee, (Laughter!) but if you spend a day with me, here’s what I hope. I want you most of all to leave the conversation with me spiritually refreshed.

Last night, we were around a table with some folks from church at a reception for a wedding. I was encouraged because I wasn’t the one that started the conversation. They were saying, “How about if everybody shares their testimony?” We’ve known these two couples for nearly twenty-eight years or more. Someone said, “Let’s share each other’s testimonies.” Get this. It’s kind of a little awkward even for the pastor. One of them said, “Hey, how about if we sing a hymn?” Well, we’re kind of at a wedding reception. She said, “It’s so loud that nobody’s going to hear.” So we kind of sang a hymn there. Actually, this was really cool! At first, I was like, “Okay,” and looking around. But it was really cool. It fed my soul. This person just strengthened my faith by the suggestion and by the kind of conversation we’re having. I think that’s what the Christian church is to be. If we get caught up in the temporal matters, we’ll fail to really stir one another up and ready one another for that future day of great joy.
Peter says in verse 16

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths

Why do you think Peter said that? The answer is because the false teachers were convincing people in Peter’s sphere that he and the other apostles actually were just telling fables, that they weren’t trustworthy as witnesses of God’s revelation. These opponents, these false teachers were coming into the church and saying, “Hey, don’t listen to Peter. Don’t listen to James. Don’t listen to John. Listen to us. These apostles, like Peter, they’re just making stuff up. Come to us to hear the real word from the Lord.”

In every age, the people whom God chooses to speak His truth will be accused of lying and will be accused of making stuff up. Do you remember Jesus, God’s Son? When He came into this world, the religious leaders called Him a Samaritan and they said He had a demon. Beloved, we must decide whom we trust to bring us the truth of God. That’s a key deal. Who do I trust to bring me the truth of God? Often, the most convincing voices that we listen to are not those sent by God. We must not be open to some voice based upon our emotional response, based upon our own biases. “That’s what I want to believe and that’s what the person is teaching, so I really like that teacher.” We must settle the matter of truth at the head of the spring. That’s what Peter is doing right here. What source do I trust to guide my life? What source do I trust to speak for God to me? My argument this morning is that the Holy Spirit wrote a Book so that we would know whom to trust and we would know how to listen to God.

How does Peter defend himself against these false teachers who claim that he is just telling a bunch of myths? First, he reminds them that he is one of the apostles who were chosen by Jesus and who are eyewitnesses to the glory of Jesus.

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.

Peter is referencing the Transfiguration, when James, John and Peter traveled to a mountain top with Jesus and Jesus suddenly transformed in their presence. His face shone bright as the sun. His clothes became white as light. Suddenly Moses and Elijah appear out of nowhere and they begin talking with Jesus on the mountain. A bright cloud overshadows them. A voice booms from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased. Listen to Him.” Peter, James and John then fall on their faces in absolute terror. Jesus touches them and says, “Rise. Don’t fear.” They look up then and Moses and Elijah are gone and they only see Jesus. Peter says now, “We are eyewitnesses to the glory of Jesus. We heard this voice from heaven proclaim that Jesus is God’s Son and that we’re to listen to Him. We’re not following hearsay. We’re not reading some goofy blog making some crazy claim. We have experienced Jesus firsthand! We experienced Him together.” That’s what he is saying.

Now, his critics likely listen to that and they roll their eyes. “Well, that’s your story. We were not there. How do we know you didn’t make it up? We can’t trust you!” So Peter defends his teaching by resting upon the ultimate authority for truth. What is that ultimate authority? Peter is going to say it’s the Holy Spirit’s Book. Peter knows that his strongest argument for truth against error is not his own personal experience with God on the mountaintop. His strongest argument for truth stands with the living and abiding Word of God. Look at what he says.
19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed,
Underline those three words. They’re powerful! More fully confirmed. More fully confirmed than what? The answer is, more fully confirmed than their experience on the mountaintop. He says we all now have this truth from God. If we want to know what God is saying to us, we have His truth more fully confirmed to us not through experiences, but through this Word that God has given us by His Spirit.
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
Again, he’s talking about the written Word. 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.
Again, Peter is saying that what he teaches does not depend upon his personal experiences, as valid as they are, as powerful as they are. As right as it is for Peter to tell us about his eyewitness accounts, it is God’s Word that more fully confirms the truth that what he teaches is indeed from God. Here’s the principle. God’s written revelation, that is, Scripture provides the strongest foundation for our faith. It is much stronger than any spiritual experience or vision that we would ever have.

Peter then says of the Bible, “To which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.” I love that! I love the word picture. Sometimes light in a dark place is a nice thing. I don’t want to stub my toe on the way through the hallway to the bathroom. Sometimes it’s an absolutely necessary thing. That’s the picture Peter is painting, here. The Word of God is as necessary as a light in a really, really dark place.

In World War II, there were six Allied fighter pilots on a mission, and they carried out their mission. They flew off from an aircraft carrier in the ocean. They completed their mission and they were coming home. While they were coming home however, the aircraft carrier was told that they needed to have a complete blackout on the ship because there was an enemy submarine in the area. If even one little light came from that aircraft carrier, then the whole aircraft carrier would be sunk. So they’re coming back and they couldn’t find the ship. They said we need a light to know exactly where the ship is, to land on the aircraft carrier in the darkness on the ocean.
So, one of the fighter pilots radioed the ship, “Give us some light so that we can land.” The response comes back, “Negative. We can’t give you any light at this time.” A bit later a second pilot requested, “Give us some light so we can land.” “Negative. Blackout still in effect.” The third, who is now dangerously low on fuel and flying over the ocean says, “Can’t you at least give us one little light so we can land?” The radio operator was told to shut off the radio and discontinue all contact. These six fighters went down in the dark waters and perished for lack of one little light.

How badly do we need light in a dark world? We need light that bad! You see, those six fighter pilots who were brave and courageous, physically perished for lack of light. But you and I, this is a dark world. Without the light of God, we will not just merely physically perish. We will perish spiritually forever and ever away from God’s presence and be assigned to darkness forever and ever without God and without hope. We need light. So Peter, as he writes, he says, “You would do well to pay attention to the light.” It’s tragic to need light and not have it. But it’s even more tragic to have light and not use it and perish because of an unwillingness, of a willfulness against the light that is shining in the dark place.
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
Again, he’s speaking about the written Word. No prophecy of Scripture.
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.
What Peter is saying is that of the forty human authors of sacred Scripture, not one of them, not one, not once, not ever, got up in the morning, sat down at a desk and said, “Hmmm! I think I’m going to write Scripture today.” That never happened. Prior to writing Scripture, they didn’t say, “I want to write Scripture, so I’m going to write Scripture. I feel it coming on.” No, that didn’t happen. How did it happen? It was by the will of the Holy Spirit who set upon these authors at that specific time and carried them along so that what they wrote was the very Word that the Holy Spirit gave them to write. The Holy Spirit willed these human authors to write and carried them along in such a way that what they wrote was the exact message as from God.

That word “carried along by the Holy Spirit” is such a precious word. The Greek word Peter uses is pharoe. We get the word of the boat, “ferry” from it. A few years ago, Kimberly and I visited Door County and for the first time in our lives, we put our car on a ferry and we went over to Washington Island to smell lavender and all that stuff. On the trip, we weren’t entirely passive on the boat. We walked around the boat. We had some Cokes and we laughed and we pointed things out. But what we were is we were not at all in control of the destination. We had no part in the destination. The destination was totally designed to the will of the captain.

That’s the way Peter is describing the human authors as they are ferried along by the Holy Spirit. They’re carried along, borne along by the Holy Spirit. It’s not as though they’re passive. You can see their personalities come through their writing, but they had no part in the destination, in these exact words that were set there by God, so that what was written is exactly by the word, what God intended to be written to represent Himself perfectly and fully. The Holy Spirit wrote a Book.

The Holy Spirit wrote a trustworthy Book.

How do I listen to God? This is a question that every worshipper of God must ask and must answer. What or whom do you trust to bring you a true message from God? Today, many answer that in many different ways. Some say, “Well, I listen to God by being silent before the Lord and waiting for Him to speak directly to me through an inner voice.” Others suggest that there are some private prayer listening techniques. They say that prayer is mostly about listening and if I follow these techniques, that God will speak.

Others go to intermediaries such as Sarah Young who, in her book Jesus Calling claims to have heard a direct message from Jesus and actually to communicate direct messages. She claims that what she wrote is actually Jesus’ words. Others go to people like Todd Burpo who, in his book Heaven Is For Real claimed his son Colton, went to heaven and returned with new revelations about heaven so that we would know what heaven is more like than what Scripture tells us. Others go to seminars where they learn some new mystical practices for listening to God. Others believe that their own consciences are enough. It’s sort of a rationalistic way of saying, “Well, I think God gave me thoughts and whatever is in my thoughts, as long as it applies to reason it must be true. That’s how I know what God’s truth is.”

So let me ask you: How do you listen to God? It’s perhaps one of the most important questions that any believer could answer. How do you listen to God? What do you trust to deliver to you God’s sure Word? The Holy Spirit answers this question by raising up His Book and saying, “I wrote a Book so that you can know that this message is from God and not from man. I wrote a Book so that you could hear God speak to you powerfully and perfectly every day. The Book I wrote is 100% reliable because I am God of very God and I am 100% reliable. It is a reliable guide for your life in every important matter. I didn’t leave anything important out of it. Every word of it is true. Every word of it is from me.”

Today, oftentimes there is a conflict that people have in their mind between being a Holy Spirit person and being a Bible person. That conflict should not be, because to be a Holy Spirit person is to be a Bible person. If we are people who are in love with the Holy Spirit and walk by the Spirit and are filled by the Spirit, then we’re going to let the Word of Christ dwell richly in us. That’s how we know what the Spirit is saying and doing. To not be a Bible person is to reject the Book that the Holy Spirit wrote. He wrote it for our help, because we need a written source to feed us. We need an objective source so that we will not be deceived by false teachers. Paul would say

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God

He agrees with Peter in this regard, related to this Book. The Bible is the Holy Spirit’s very word to us today. This Book is not merely a record of what God said in the past. This Book is not merely a record of history. This Book is a record of what God is currently saying to His people today. That’s why the writer of Hebrews says

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Every child of God understands what Hebrews 4:12 is talking about because we’ve experienced it. We open up God’s Word and it’s sharp like a two-edged sword, cutting away our flesh, cutting away our selfishness. It reveals our true intentions and it reveals where we’re self-willed, where we’re rebellious. Every time we open it, it reveals something new to help us become conformed to the image of Christ, to hear God’s will speaking directly to our daily lives.

Why would the Holy Spirit write a Book if He could have simply chosen to give personal revelations or mystical messages to each worshipper every day? Here’s the answer. It’s because we have an enemy, Satan, who deceives us. He is a deceiver. Our flesh is very prone to deception. Go back to Genesis 3 to discover that. Even before sin captured this human heart, Adam and Eve were still taken in by the deception of the evil one in relationship to what is a true word from God and what is not. From that day forward, Satan has used his influence to deceive God’s people regarding what is truth from God and what are ideas that should be rejected as false. If Satan can place our feet upon a foundation of subjective experiences, he has us standing on shifting ground upon which the whole house of our soul will fall in a time of storm. The Holy Spirit wrote a Book so that we would have an eternal, objective, consistent, unerring, irrefutable, authoritative, absolute source of God’s revelation to us. Can I hear an Amen to that? (Amen!) Isn’t that amazing? What a gift! The Holy Spirit helps us by writing a Book. This Book, because it’s written by the Holy Spirit, is pure and perfect and sure and trustworthy. Let’s consider what God’s Word says about itself.

Psalm 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.

It’s the utmost purity.

Psalm 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;

Psalm 93:5 Your decrees are very trustworthy;

Psalm 119:142 Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true.

Jesus says

John 17:17 your word is truth.

So I urge you to doubt any other source of revelation as being from God. Doubt it! Question it! Challenge it! Test it! Do not trust it! But yes, trust the Holy Spirit’s Book. The Holy Spirit’s Book can be trusted like nothing else can be trusted because we know it is the very Word of God.

One of the strange deceptions that false teachers make upon followers of Jesus is to convince us that other communications are just as reliable or even more reliable, more accessible, more powerful than the Holy Spirit’s Book. They say the Holy Spirit’s Book is good, but these other forms of revelation are even better. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says to a young pastor.

2 Timothy 4:1-2 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, …preach the word;

Preach the Word. That’s what God’s people need. They need to hear the Word of God.

2 Timothy 4:2 …be ready in season and out of season;

Whether people are ready to hear it or they hate you for preaching it.

2 Timothy 4:2 …reprove, rebuke, and exhort,

All of that is with authority because it’s all based on the Word.

2 Timothy 4:2-3 …with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching,

They will not endure God’s Word.

2 Timothy 4:3 …but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

These will be teachers who say things that come from mystical revelations that are not from God.

2 Timothy 4:4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

That’s Peter’s heart, here. The Holy Spirit wrote a Book. The Holy Spirit wrote a trustworthy Book.

The Holy Spirit wrote a helpful Book.

19 … you will do well to pay attention

In other words, life is going to be great in terms of you living for eternal joy and eternal treasure. You’re going to do really great because this Book is sufficient for you to do well in life if you pay attention to this prophetic Word of Scripture. Why did the Holy Spirit write a Book? Because He is our Helper and He knows we need help.

Before Kimberly and I had any children, we had a couple ask us to spend a long weekend at their house, watching over their kids and their house. We lived in a little apartment. This was a huge, massive house. We’d never lived in this massive house. They had a couple kids. We’d never been in charge of kids for that long before. It was intimidating. We didn’t know anything about the house and how it worked. We didn’t know about these kids. How is this going to work? So we got together with the mom about an hour before they were to leave on their trip and leave us behind, and we had such relief. Do you know why? Because the mom took out like a fifteen page document that she wrote and she went through it with us. It had everything about the kids and their bedtimes and their habits and their schedule. It had everything about what was in the refrigerator and when to take something out from the refrigerator and how to cook it. It had everything about the washer and dryer and how to run it. Everything! She told us everything about the house. Do you know what? We were thankful. Do you know what? We referred to that document often throughout our weekend. It helped us have a great weekend with these kids. She wrote a book because she wanted to help us. She knew we needed help and it helped us. The Holy Spirit wrote you and me, a Book from God. Why? To help us.

How does the Holy Spirit’s Book help us? Let me just give some applications and then some specific ways the Holy Spirit’s Book helps us. Take these applications home and dwell on them to say, “What do these four applications mean to me?” Hear the Word preached. Sit under the teaching of the Word. It’s part of what the church does. I do it. I listen to many other sermons. Often I read many other sermons. I need to hear the Word preached. I know it’s not the word of man. It’s the Word of God. I need to hear God speaking through a human instrument as they lean into the Scriptures. I’m not interested in hearing another person’s opinions or views, as wise and as helpful as they might be. I’m really not that interested. I’m interested in a person to open up God’s Word and tell me what the Word of God says and how to apply it. I need that! Hear the Word of God preached.

Secondly, read the Word written. God has given every one of us access to read God’s Word every day. We’ll not ever understand the will of God apart from the help of the Holy Spirit that He has given us in His Book.

Third, receive the Word spoken. When I say receive, I mean listen. I mean place yourself under, submit to, obey. So then as God speaks to you directly, don’t just say of that Word, “Okay, I’ve left church and it’s gone. Or I had morning devotions and there was a very clear word to me that God spoke to me about an application to please Him, to follow Him, and then I just set it aside.” Receive it. Obey it. Place yourself under it.

Finally, teach the Word given. Every one of us who have been given the Word, have a responsibility to teach it to someone, whether it’s a friend, whether it’s one of our children or grandchildren or niece or nephew, neighbor, fellow church member. All of us have opportunity to teach the Word given. We need to share it with each other.

How does this Book help us? Well, help number one is the Holy Spirit’s Book helps us to obtain eternal life. If you go back to 1 Peter, Peter makes this observation. He says

1 Peter 1:23 since you have been born again,

In other words, you’ve received the life of God in your soul. You’ve been born again

1 Peter 1:23 …not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

What Peter is saying is that if any of us have the life of God’s Spirit, it’s because the Holy Spirit’s Book did something. No one ever receives the life of God’s Spirit separate from the ministry of the Word of God, separate from the ministry of the Holy Spirit’s Book. If anyone has the life of God’s Spirit and we ask, “Tell us your testimony,” somewhere along their story of receiving the life of God, there is going to be a reception of the Word of God into their soul, a word implanted. Other passages tell us the same thing. Paul, in 2 Timothy speaks of Timothy’s testimony and he says of the sacred writings, these writings

2 Timothy 3:15 …are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

James is going to say

James 1:21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

We’re saved on the basis of God’s grace through faith. Paul would say

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

So I want to take a bit of a moment and ask you the question, have you received the life of God in your soul? I don’t ask you if you go to church. I don’t ask you if you’re a member of a church. I don’t ask you if you’ve been baptized. I don’t ask if you’ve prayed a prayer. I ask you, have you received the life of God in your soul? Do you know that God’s life dwells in you through Christ? Do you know that? If you say, I don’t know if I know that,” I say, here’s God’s Word calling. Open up God’s Word and begin to read it. Begin to listen to it and ask God that His Word would have a miraculous work in your soul. You and I don’t have access to make ourselves alive spiritually. We have access to God’s Word and then to receive God’s Word so that the Word is like a seed that does something miraculous. We can’t even understand it. We can’t explain it. It’s just that we know it happens. The Holy Spirit’s Book is so powerful that when we receive it implanted by faith and with humility, it becomes living. It jumps alive in our soul. That life is offered to everyone.

The second help is the Holy Spirit’s Book helps us to grow in our spiritual life. Jesus prays in John 17

John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

In Peter’s first letter, he says

1 Peter 2:2 NKJV as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,

Jesus says in Matthew 4, quoting Deuteronomy,

Matthew 4:4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

You see, there is no growing Christian who isn’t a Bible man and Bible woman. It’s impossible! There is no access to growth, no nourishment apart from the Holy Spirit’s Book. But if we have access to it and we receive it by faith, it guarantees growth as we receive it humbly.

The third help is the Holy Spirit’s Book helps us to turn away from soul destroying sin. Many speak of sin habits that are just so destructive and they want to turn away from those sin habits, but they feel like they’re powerless to. There is a spiritual dynamic that we ourselves are powerless to turn away from sin habits.

Psalm 119:9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.

It is the Holy Spirit’s Book that gives us power to overcome sin problems. So the answer if we have a sin problem is not to do these four or five or however many steps we might have of self-refinement. The answer is to come before God pleading, saying, “I need your Word and your Spirit to do a work through your Word in my life to cleanse me and to rid me of these sins that are plaguing me.

The fourth help is the Holy Spirit’s book helps us to make wise decisions.

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

This Book is the best counsel anyone can receive! It’s the best counsel! As a pastor, the Holy Spirit’s Book is my only reliable tool to help people make good decisions in life. I believe there is a spiritual pandemic sweeping through the churches. That virus weakens the trust the saints have in the Bible. That virus at the same time it is weakening faith in the Bible, it strengthens the faith that saints have in their own opinions and in mystical experiences. How often I have heard God’s people say, “I know what the Bible says, but for my situation right now I think there is a better way.” These precious brothers and sisters believe that at some point the Bible will be a reliable guide for them. They’re not turning away from the Bible altogether. They plan to return to it at some point. But for right now, in this specific situation, it has to be set aside.

Many are saying, “I know what the Bible says about sexual sin, but for me right now, this is what I need. I know what the Bible says about alcohol, but for me right now, this is what I need. I know what the Bible says about divorce, but for me right now, this is what I need. I know what the Bible says about being committed to a local church family, but for me right now, this is what I need. I know what the Bible says about forgiveness, but for me right now, this is what I need. I know what the Bible says about rejoicing in my trials, but for me right now, this is what I need.” It is this virus that undermines our submission to God and our reception of His blessing. It is this virus that is far more destructive than covid could ever be. Covid can kill the body, but this virus will take our souls. May we receive this help the Holy Spirit gives us through His book.

Help number five is the Holy Spirit’s book helps us to find comfort in every affliction. What do we look to when our soul is overwhelmed with sorrow? Well, the Holy Spirit is our Comforter. He wrote a comforting Book.

Psalm 119:28 My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!

Psalm 119:49-50 Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.

The last help that I’m going to suggest is that the Holy Spirit’s book helps us to discern truth from error. This is Peter’s driving point behind this letter. It’s his greatest concern as he gazed into the valley of his own imminent physical death. He has concern for the spiritual discernment of God’s people. He believes that many in the church are listening to false teachers and are being led astray by false teachers and having their souls ruined by false teachers. He calls them back to pay attention to the Holy Spirit’s Book to help them.

As I look upon believers in America, I see a people becoming less interested in God’s Word and more interested in other sources for life. These sources may be news channels or blogs or inspirational and motivational speakers or personal experiences. But I wish to see more of God’s people leaning heavily into the teaching of God’s Word. So I close with both a warning and an encouragement. The warning is from Amos 8. I can hardly read this without a tremble running through my bones.

Amos 8:11-12 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.

Wow! No judgment of God frightens me or gives me a terror more than that one does. To have God judge a people and say, “I’m withdrawing my Word.” Without a Word there is no light and where there is no light, there is only death.

But here’s the encouragement, and I’ve seen this, too. I’m so thankful for this because many here in my own local congregation as well as other congregations, I’ve seen this to be true. This is almost a mourning experience for me as I think of so many of you in this precious congregation.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

Praise God and praise God!