2 Peter 1:16-21

2 Peter 1:16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

There is need in these perilous times to come back to such an elementary truth as this. The truths taught us in God's Word are not fables, myths, or merely parables, but they are matters of actual fact. The apostles were eye-witnesses of «the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ»-« eyewitnesses of his majesty.» We receive these truths without the slightest question, and base our faith upon them. We should be troubled indeed if we had any doubts whatsoever about these great foundation facts of our holy religion.

2 Peter 1:17. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

They were not deceived,-neither Peter, nor James, nor John. There was «such a voice» from God himself, which they literally heard; it was the Father bearing approving witness to the person and work of his only-begotten and well-beloved Son.

2 Peter 1:19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy;

Surely, nothing could be more sure than the evidence presented to the apostles in the holy mount. Yet Peter thus writes to express his utmost confidence in the Word of God. Surer than the light he saw, which dazzled him; surer than the voice he heard, which he never failed to remember, and to which he ever bore unfaltering witness; surer even than these things is that divine Book which is still preserved to us: «We have also a more sure word of prophecy.»

2 Peter 1:19. Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

You have already the assurance of the Word itself; you must build upon that, and upon that alone; but you shall have added to that a «day dawn» and a «day star» in your own hearts. We have the witness within us now: «The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God;» and those things which we have received by faith we now have proved to be true by their effect upon our own souls. We know the light now because we walk in it; we know it to be light, for it has enlightened us.

2 Peter 1:20. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

How we do rejoice in this fact! We shall never give it up. It is a disbelief of inspiration, which lies at the bottom of all the modern theories; but with this disbelief we have not the slightest fellowship. In our inmost souls we believe that «holy men of God spake as they were moved (or, «borne along») by the Holy Ghost.» They spoke not for their own age alone, neither were the prophecies given to a few persons so as to belong privately to them; but the whole inspired Scripture stands fast for all the faithful, and is the truth to us today, even as it was to those to whom it was first spoken.

This exposition consisted of readings from 2 Peter 1:16; 2 Peter 2:1.