2 PETER 1:16-21 - The Holy Spirit Wrote A Book

Introduction

Back before the 2016 presidential election, Andrew McGill wrote a piece in The Atlantic entitled, “The Seldom-Read Books of U.S. Presidential Candidates”. In it, he writes:

These days, you can’t run for president without writing a book… Pretty much [every serious candidate] has... written a book or two during election season, pitching their ideas and policies with a bit of autobiography and a few anecdotes from the campaign trail. They’re usually … not so good. (That’s what you get with a ghostwriter and a lot of time spent on a campaign bus.) And that’s OK. These books are rhetorical devices. They’re not meant to be critically acclaimed. But given the potential personal rewards, the candidates would surely like them to be commercially successful. Unfortunately, according to numbers collected by Nielson BookScan, which covers print sales at 85 percent of booksellers (though not e-books), that doesn’t look likely for most… (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/the-poorly-selling-books-of-us-presidential-candidates/419496/ Retrieved 05/04/2023)

McGill goes on to say that while a candidate’s book might get a boost if his polling numbers are high, those sales don’t last (Jeb Bush’s book, Reply All, for instance has a grand total of 25 reviews on Amazon and sits at the 2,648,760th position for sales…) It seems that people don’t really pay much attention to the books their candidates write.

And, from the assessment that McGill makes in his Atlantic piece, that’s probably understandable. Campaign trail books are usually just a bare-bones sketch of a candidate’s policies and worldview that may or may not translate into real action or policy if the candidate wins office. So you can probably take or leave them without much consequence. There are plenty of people out there who will enthusiastically support and promote a political figure even if they have never read one of their books, and that’s fine.

But bring this discussion into the Church, and we have an issue, don’t we? Because there are far too many people who take the name Christian for themselves who want to tell you all kinds of things about Who God is and what He is like and what He is doing—who say that they are “Spirit-filled” or “Spirit-led” Christians. They will constantly claim that “The Holy Spirit told me this”, “The Holy Spirit gave me this vision”, or that the Holy Spirit is filling them with some sort of power to heal and deliver people, that the Holy Spirit gives them prophecies and dreams—that they are either claiming to (or desiring to) “hear a word from the Holy Spirit”. But in the middle of all of that desire for “a word from the Holy Spirit”, they will set aside the Word that the Holy Spirit has actually written.

Occasionally you will hear a taunt leveled against a church like ours, that the Trinity we believe in is “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Scripture”, as if we worship the Bible and deny the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But what I aim to show you this morning—from these Scriptures—is that that “taunt” is a slander. Because if the Holy Spirit really did write this Book, then this IS the means by which He works in our lives. You cannot claim that you want to be led by the Holy Spirit and not submit to the Book He has written.

And so the way I want to say it this morning is that

The Spirit-filled CHRISTIAN must be FILLED with the WORD He has WRITTEN

This is the Book that God the Holy Spirit has written. There are three main passages of Scripture that I want us to consider this morning in this regard. The first is in 2 Timothy 3—it is on page 996 of the pew Bible. In verses 16-17 of 2 Timothy 3 we read:

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV)

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

And so the first consideration about the Book the Holy Spirit has written is that

I. This is His COMPLETE Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

First, consider in verse 16 the phrase “breathed out by God”—the word there in Greek is theopneumatos - literally “God-breathed”. Part of that word, pneuma is also used to refer to the Holy Spirit. This verse is where we gain our understanding that all Scripture—everything in this Book, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21—all of it has literally been breathed out by God. We will discover more about that truth from 2 Peter in a moment, but for now you need to understand that this Book is literally the breath of God’s Holy Spirit.

See also here in these verses that this God-breathed Word, this Holy Spirit-breathed Book is complete. This Word will make a Christian complete in every good work—that you will lack nothing for life or holiness. Can you be made complete by an incomplete Word? Can you be perfectly equipped by an imperfect Book? To ask the question is to answer it, isn’t it?

Because this Word that the Holy Spirit breathed out is complete, that means

He will never CHANGE it (cp. 1 Peter 1:24-25, Isa. 40:8)

The Apostle Peter quotes Isaiah 40:8 in his first letter—in 1 Peter 1:24-25, he writes

1 Peter 1:24–25 (ESV)

24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

This Word—like God Himself—does not change. It does not expire, it does not fade. The Holy Spirit has written this Book, and He will never contradict what is written here. He will never violate or alter what He has said here. He meant it when He delivered it, and He will never go back on it.

This book is the complete Word of God. The Holy Spirit will never change it, and

He does not need to SUPPLEMENT it

This Word is sufficient for everything you need for this life—all the obedience and godliness and direction and guidance that you need. When the Holy Spirit breathed out the words

2 Timothy 3:17 (ESV)

17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

He meant it. The Holy Spirit doesn’t need to keep adding new words or new directions—He doesn’t need to keep giving you new revelations, new visions, new prophecies, fresh words—He already gave you everything you need for life and godliness. It’s all in here, either directly stated or discoverable by careful and honest study. There is no question about your life as a believer that is not addressed in the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit never looks at something going on in your life and says, “Oh—I forgot to write down what to do in that circumstance; I’d better go talk to her directly!” This is His complete Word.

A Christian who wants to live a “Spirit-filled life” must be filled with the Word the Spirit has written. This is His complete Word, and

II. This is His AUTHORITATIVE Word (2 Peter 1:16-21)

Turn with me to 2 Peter 1—it’s on page 1018 of the pew Bible. In this letter, Peter is writing to Christians who were being tested in their faith by the persecutions around them and the false teachers that were confusing them. Peter is writing here in these verses to encourage them and draw them to the Word of God as their final authority. He writes about his own experiences starting in verse 16:

2 Peter 1:16–18 (ESV)

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.

Peter was one of three disciples—along with James and John—who had an actual encounter with the Glory of the LORD in the face of Christ. He did not make these things up; he was an eyewitness of God’s glory, he actually heard the very voice of God from heaven.

But what does Peter then go on to say in the next verse?

2 Peter 1:19 (ESV)

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,

The literal word order here in the original language is “And we have more sure the prophetic word...” In other words, Peter is saying that as great as his experience of God’s spoken word on the mountain was—Scripture is even more authoritative:

It is superior to REMARKABLE EXPERIENCES (vv. 16-19)

Peter says that as great as it was to hear God’s audible voice on the mountain, the Scriptures carry more weight—this is clear from the context of the next verse:

2 Peter 1:20 (ESV)

20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.

As remarkable as hearing the audible voice of God may be, what will bring you through the dark places of your life, Christian, is the lamp of the Scriptures shining into your life.

But do not suppose that means all you have to do is find a verse that sounds like what you already want to do and then using that as your justification for your behavior. Because Peter goes on to say that this Book that the Holy Spirit has written is not only superior to remarkable experiences,

It is superior to PRIVATE INTERPRETATION (vv. 20-21; cp. 2 Peter 2:1-3)

2 Peter 1:20–21 (ESV)

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.

When the prophets of the Old Testament wrote their prophecies, Peter says, they did not come up with their own ideas. They wrote “as they were carried along” by the Holy Spirit. (The word for “carried along” is the same word used to describe Paul’s boat in Acts 27 being “driven along” by the wind of the storm that eventually shipwrecked them on Malta.) The Holy Spirit wrote this Book, and He did it using the thoughts and styles and personal experiences of the men that wrote it, while at the same time superintending their writing so that every word of what they wrote perfectly expresses His intended message.

This truth is expressed theologically as the doctrine of the plenary inspiration of Scripture (“plenary” means “full” or “complete”). Briefly stated, the doctrine of plenary inspiration teaches that

The plenary inspiration of the Scriptures: Every WORD of the Bible, in its ORIGINAL form, is fully INSPIRED by God and therefore completely TRUE and AUTHORITATIVE.

And this doctrine of the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures is one of the reasons why no Scripture is a matter of “private interpretation”. If the authors who wrote the Bible did not put their own private interpretations into it, then you may not draw your own private interpretations out of it. It is not enough to say, “Well, what this verse means to me is...” or “Here’s what I think this verse means...” God the Holy Spirit did not carry those authors along and superintend precisely what they were to write to reflect what He intended so that you could come along and make any verse say anything you want it to!

But then the question naturally arises—then how do you know what a particular verse says? If it’s not a matter of personal interpretation, then how do you know that you are accurately reading the Scriptures? And this is where the doctrine of plenary inspiration is very practically helpful. Because if that verse that you are reading is precisely inspired by God, then so are the verses on either side of it! You can understand the meaning of any particular verse by reading the rest of the paragraph it is in, and the chapter that that paragraph is in, and the book that chapter is in, and the place that book has in the entire scope of the Scriptures. If all of it is inspired, then all of it is profitable for helping you understand it!

A quick case study can help us understand. One of the verses in the New Testament that has been abused by private interpretation perhaps more than any other is Philippians 4:13:

Philippians 4:13 (ESV)

13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

It’s short, it’s sweet, it’s easy to memorize and it’s brief enough to be put on a plaque or coffee mug or tattooed on an athlete’s inner forearm. Whatever I want to do in life, God will give me the strength—all things I want to do, God will give me power. He will strengthen me to get the job I want, order my life the way I want, run a marathon, get a raise, lose weight, get into college, you name it—it is one of the most-quoted verses in the New Testament.

And it doesn’t mean any of those things. Because this inspired verse has inspired verses on either side of it as well! And those inspired verses explain what this inspired verse means. If you back up a few verses and read the context of Philippians 4:13, you come to what the Holy Spirit actually intended when He moved Paul to write it:

Philippians 4:10–13 (ESV)

10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

The context of Philippians 4:13 is Paul’s expression of gratitude to the church in Philippi for their deep concern for his welfare while he was in prison in Rome awaiting his hearing before Caesar. Prisons in First Century Rome did not provide anything for their inmates—no blankets, no food, no medical care—if a prisoner had no one to bring him those necessities, they simply starved. So the Philippians were anxious that Paul was in great need while he awaited trial. And his answer was to say, “I am fine—whether I am in the lap of luxury or in terrible deprivation, I have learned the secret of being content. I can do poverty, and I can do riches—I can live either way through God who gives me strength!”

Do you see how that is a far cry from the private interpretations that pick that single verse out of its context and twist it to suit a self-centered desire to have what you want out of life? The Book that the Holy Spirit has written is His authoritative Word—it is superior to any private interpretation.

A Christian who wants to live a “Spirit-filled life” must be filled with the Word the Spirit has written. This is His complete Word, it is His authoritative Word, and

III. This is His LIVING Word (Hebrews 4:12-13)

Turn with me to the book of Hebrews, Chapter 4. (Page 1003 in the pew Bible.) The writer is using an Old Testament quotation from Psalm 95 to call his readers back to repentance for their desire to seek their right relationship with God through the Mosaic Law:

Hebrews 4:1–2 (ESV)

1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

In order to demonstrate his point, the author goes on in verses 3-7 to quote from Psalm 95:7-11--

Psalm 95:7–11 (ESV)

7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

Much like a preacher would do today, the author of Hebrews applies Psalm 95 to the current situation of his readers. And then in verses 12-13, he goes on to say that the Psalm he just quoted will have its effect in their lives:

Hebrews 4:12–13 (ESV)

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. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

In other words, Hebrews is saying, “You must repent of your desire to enter a right relationship with God through your own efforts of law-keeping. The Scripture says in Psalm 95 that those who try to enter rest that way will never enter that rest! And Psalm 95 is God’s Word—it is alive, it is active, and it will work its way down to your most secret thoughts and intentions—if you are hiding legalism there, God’s word will bring it to light!

The Book that the Holy Spirit has written is a living Word--

This is how He WORKS in you (Heb. 4:12-13)

This Book is unlike any other book in the world. Against the slander that says that we “worship” the Bible, that we have no room in our theology for the active work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, these verses declare that the Scriptures ARE the way the Holy Spirit works in our lives. This Book is the way the Holy Spirit speaks to you; this is the means by which He will pierce through your self-justifications for your sin and your blind spots and your weaknesses.

This Book that the Holy Spirit has written is how He works in you, and

This is how He SPEAKS to you (1 Cor. 2:12-14)

Look with me at 1 Corinthians 2—page 953 in the pew Bible. In verses 12-14, Paul writes:

1 Corinthians 2:12–14 (ESV)

12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

If you want to “hear the Holy Spirit speak to you”—read this Word. If you want Him to direct your steps, if you want Him to guide you by His words, read the Book that He has written. He illumines this Word so that you can have the spiritual discernment to understand its treasures—as the Psalmist prayed in Psalm 119:18

Psalm 119:18 (ESV)

18 Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

Do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to hear Him speak to you and reveal spiritual truth to you and understand His will and His mind for you? Then fill yourself with this Book. A Christian who desires to be filled with the Spirit will be filled with the Book He has written. it was said of John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, that “when you pricked him, he bled Bible”. So fill yourself with this Word—read it, memorize it, meditate on it, study it, immerse yourself in it—and be prepared for Him to speak to you through it!

The Holy Spirit does not speak beyond what He has already said here in His Word. His Word is complete—He does not need to add to it or adjust it or amend it. There is nothing that He has left out of this Book that you need for your life or godliness. You have no grounds to say “The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said...” unless the next words out of your mouth are a verse of Scripture. Any spirit that claims to add to or change or reinterpret or re-write or adapt or contradict this Word is not the Holy Spirit—it is the same spirit that whispered to Eve in the Garden, “Has God really said…?” Have nothing to do with such a spirit—flee from all voices that claim to change or add to or nullify this complete Word.

This Book that the Holy Spirit has written is authoritative—it is not a matter of private interpretation: “What does this verse mean to me??” Don’t toy with such shallow and unhealthy habits with the Word of God. The old seminary professor’s slogan is true: A text without a context is a pretext. Don’t grab one verse out of the Bible and stake your beliefs about God and what He commands off of one verse or one sentence. All of the verses around that verse of yours are just as inspired, just as authoritative, and they must be allowed to interpret each other. God spoke all of this Word; He wrote every verse. You have no more right to make up your own interpretation in reading it than the men who wrote it down—and the same Spirit who directed them in writing it will direct you in understanding it.

But if this Word that we have been reading and studying does not have any effect in your life; if reading this Word is tiresome or boring or confusing; if the only time you pick up a Bible is here on Sunday morning and the rest of the week it never occurs to you to open it, then please—won’t you consider why that might be? It’s one thing to read parts of Scripture that are difficult—even the Apostle Peter said that some of Paul’s writings were hard to understand:

2 Peter 3:15–16 (ESV)

15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

But there is a difference between the Scriptures being difficult to understand and the Scriptures being boring. There is a difference between the Bible being challenging to read and being pointless to read. If you struggle because the Bible has difficult or challenging things to say, then you are in the right place! We love this Book, and we never tire of talking about what the Holy Spirit is saying to us in it. We love to ask questions, we love to look for answers, we love to search these Scriptures so that we can know that we are understanding what the Spirit means to tell us in them. So if you are wanting to learn more about the Bible but find it hard to read, we are so glad you are here!

But if the reason you rarely read the Scriptures is because you don’t really care what they say; that what is written here seems irrelevant or pointless or out of date or bigoted or laughable—then you need to consider whether Paul is describing you in 1 Corinthians 2:14

1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

If this Book and what we say about it is folly to you, it is because you have no share in the Holy Spirit who wrote it. Your natural mind and all of your own wisdom fights against this Book because you are fighting against the authority of the God who wrote it—you want your own way, you want your own authority, you do not want to submit to God or His Word.

But in His grace and mercy toward you, God had drawn you here this morning to hear His Word

And so God’s Word calls you today:

1 Corinthians 1:18 (ESV)

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

When you lay down your pride that says you know better than God, when you recognize that all you deserve from His Hand is judgment for your arrogant rebellion against Him and insistence that you know better than Him, when you see that the only hope you have is found in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ to pay the penalty for your sin, then this Word of the Gospel of the cross of Christ is no longer a joke to you—it is the power of God to save you.

Don’t disregard this Word; don’t ignore it or brush it off or argue with it. It is the living power of God Himself to save you. Let this Word work its way deep into your thoughts and intentions; let this Word cut through all your self-justifications and excuses; let this living and powerful and active Word of the Holy Spirit do its work in you—repent of your pride, repent of your wilfulness, repent of your rebellion and come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What is the doctrine of plenary inspiration of the Scriptures? How does this truth govern the way we read the Bible? Specifically, why does this truth make the context of a particular verse so important?

Read 2 Peter 1:16-19 again. How does Peter compare his extraordinary experience of hearing God’s voice with having the Scriptures available to teach him? What does this say about people who claim that the Bible is less important because the Holy Spirit speaks directly to them today?

How does the writer of Hebrews use Psalm 95 to call his readers to faithfulness in Hebrews 4? What does he say in Hebrews 4:12-13 about the psalm he quoted? How does this help you understand the power of the living Word to transform your life?