The importance of the prophetic word

… Thema 423 Herrn Vater, hai dein Kinderheor, mach dich in meine Hand, I'll respect their God's response to me, and my spirit's promise to hold. All my life will walk in thy way, but my heart will walk in thy way, I will honor and proclaim thy name, and the Lord my God will praise. Still the still air waves in me, eyes of glory I see, and my eyes thy face I see, and the Lord my God will praise. I will never disappoint thee, ever shall I praise thy name, as the air of all my conscience over the universe will fill. Many a time his grace I find in thee, many a time his hand he has found, as the bonds they bound and broken as the world upon his own. When our hearts bow down before him, this the glory that sends him, every interest there must pay him, how he shall pay us to live. God of God, forgive me my sin, raise me evermore and now, please as much as I am telling, all my powers I'll derail. Take me there, for to be heard in thee, in thy word my counsels raise, every day and hour his praises, all the glory of thy grace. Let us read together a passage from the second epistle of Peter, chapter one. And Peter one and verse sixteen. For we have not made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ following cleverly imagined fables, but having been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, such a voice being uttered to him by the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight. And this voice we heard uttered from heaven, being with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word made surer, to which ye do well taking heed as to a lamp shining in an obscure place, until the day dawn and the morning star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, that the scope of no prophecy of scripture is had from its own particular interpretation. For prophecy was not ever uttered by the will of man, but holy men of God spake under the power of the Holy Spirit. In this short and well-known passage, I suppose, we find, I would say, four different things about the prophetic word, the prophetic word being the subject of this conference, especially the revelation. The first thing is that it gives us insight into the true divine character of prophecy. The second point is that we find here the divine subject of prophecy. The third point is that we find here the aim of prophecy. And the passage ends again with the giving us insight into the divine character of prophecy. And I suppose there are many young people here who have perhaps posed, put themselves the same question. Why has God given us so much prophetic information in his word, the Bible? I've never counted the pages, but it could easily be done. And one would see that at least more than a quarter, maybe a third of the Bible is taken by prophecy. All the prophetic books of the Old Testament, then the prophetic parts in the New Testament is quite a large portion of scripture taken up by the prophetic word. And the part of scripture which we have been considering here in the last couple of years is also a very important part of the prophetic word, the prophetic part of the word of God. But in this portion, we find very little about, very little prophetic information. We find some very important, but it is not much. But how weighty. But what we find here is that we get a being informed, being enlightened as to the character, the subject, and the aim of prophecy. Why is this all given? And I think dear friends, especially our younger friends, it is a wonderful, wonderful subject. But the first thing which is said by Peter here is denial. It is a negative thing when he says, we have not, verse 16, we have not made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ following cleverly imagined fables. Because that is, I remember very well reading for the first time as a young man, a commentary on some prophetic part of scripture by a rationalist theologian. This is all fantasy, that was his judgment, all fantasy. And this is, in the first place, put aside. Peter says, no, it is not fantasy. The prophetic word is not fantasy. We have not followed cleverly imagined fables, for cleverly imagined they would certainly be if they were fantasy, very cleverly imagined. But it is not so. And what does he say as a counter-word? Very simple, but very important. He says, we were eyewitnesses. We were eyewitnesses of the subject of all the prophetic word. Eyewitnesses. Now, dear friends and brothers and sisters, there is no more important witness than witness of an eyewitness, the testimony of an eyewitness, who has seen the things of which he reports. And this was the case, as we see here, with Peter, not only with Peter, all the twelve in a way were eyewitnesses. John, the apostle John, writes in his first epistle, and he is speaking of all the twelve, first John 1, that which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, that which we contemplated and our hands handled concerning the word of life. Then again, verse 2, and we have seen and bear witness and report to you the eternal life. And then verse 3, that which we have seen and heard, we report to you, eyewitnesses. They were there. And we know and can imagine how Satan tried to eliminate these eyewitnesses. In Acts 12, we read, in the first verse, at that time Herod the king laid his hands on some of those of the assembly to do them hurt. And he slew James, the brother of John, with a sword. And seeing that it was pleasing to the Jews, he went on to take Peter also. John, Peter, and James were the three of whom Peter is reporting here. They were on the holy mount, on the mount of transfiguration. They were, these three disciples, were the eyewitnesses. And Satan tried to eliminate them. So that no divine and perfect testimony could be rendered of the subject of the prophetic word. Because that was the point before us. Four, what Peter says here in verse 16 is clearly that the act of the transfiguration on the mount, of which we read in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9. Those three gospels give us the story of the transfiguration. And if we turn just to one of these, Matthew 17, just to call to mind what Peter is speaking about here in short words, we start with the last verse of chapter 6, Matthew 16. Verily I say unto you, there are some of those standing here that shall not taste of death at all, until they shall have seen the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. And after six days Jesus takes with him Peter and James and John his brother, and brings them up into a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them. And his face shone as the sun, and his garments became white as the light. And lo, Moses and Elias appeared to them, talking with him. And Peter, answering, said to Jesus, Lord, it is good we should be here. If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, for thee one, and for Moses one, and for Elias. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight, hear him. And the disciples, hearing it, fell upon their faces, and were greatly terrified. And Jesus coming to them, touched them, and said, Rise up, and be not terrified. And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus alone. This is the transfiguration of which we read also in Mark 9 and Luke 9, and of which Peter here is speaking again. And this is, this short episode in the life of the Lord Jesus, which is so well known to us, gives us, as it were, in a nutshell, the whole scope and subject of prophecy. And this is quite, it is quite simple, but it is quite important to note and to remember that what we have here, in very short words, the Lord presented in glory, and I shall go, we shall enter into the details presently, the Lord in glory is the subject and the scope of every prophecy. This seems a little far-fetched, but it is true. It is true, because God only has one aim with his Son, and that is that he who has been despised in this earth, who has been crucified by man who presented himself as his enemy, that his Son, his beloved Son, in whom he has found all his delight, should be acknowledged and recognized in glory by his creatures here as the glorified man on earth. This is exactly the contrary of what happened when the Lord was on this, on the earth for the first time. But when he will come for the second time, not to take up the saints, that is not the subject, but to appear on this earth, then every knee shall bow. Every creature shall acknowledge, recognize him as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, so that the Lord shall be glorified as man here on earth as the center of his creation. That is the aim of God in all prophecy. A very simple, but a very wonderful subject, because it shows us that God has not only eternal and eternal counsel, of which we love to think, and we may think, and it is also mentioned here, the morning star, but God has a plan for this world in which we live, which is now characterized by enmity against God. This world shall once be subject to him who is his beloved Son, and that is the scope and subject of prophecy. The Lord in glory as the center of his creation. The Lord, I would add, in glory as man, as the glorified man. That is God's way to end up history. Man has his thoughts about history, all about the future, but God has his ideas, his thoughts about the future already finished. This will be the end of the history of the universe. The Lord being recognized as the center in glory, as the glorified man. And when the Lord was on this earth for the first time, he was, one could say, seen in a very great contrast to that. He came not as king of kings, but as in the form of a slave. He did not come as the one who ruled, but as the one who obeyed. He did not come to rule as king, but he was despised and derided as king of the Jews even at the cross, and he died despised and put aside by men who did not want him. God in this way accomplished his eternal counsel of salvation for lost sinners, as we all were. That is the end. Though this is, in a few words, the first appearance of the Lord Jesus on earth. But in the prophetic word, God had spoken in the Old Testament of glorious days, and the disciples had hoped for these glorious days. We have given up everything, they say to the Lord, what will we have now? And so, on the one hand, to strengthen the faith of these poor disciples, but on the other hand, we may venture to say it was also for our Lord Jesus himself, as man, that God gave him this view, that God gave this view of that which we have been just speaking about. The Lord as the center of glory in this creation. And that is why the Lord said to the disciples, there are some here who will not die, as we have read in Matthew 16, the last verse, until they have seen the kingdom of God. And many have asked, well, when will they ever see the kingdom of God? Well, the fulfillment of this word of the Lord is in the next verses. After 17, and this is the same in Mark 9 and Luke 9, the following passage is the direct fulfillment of what the Lord has said. There were some, three of them, James, John, and Peter, who did not see death, who did not die, before they saw the Lord in glory. It was like a view, a miniature view of the kingdom, of the thousand years' kingdom. That is what Peter was speaking about. He was there. He was an eyewitness. God had given to the Lord Jesus, and also to these three chosen witnesses, this episode on that mount. We don't know which mountain it was. Christian Christianity says it was Mount Tabor, but nobody knows it. It is a very spectacular mountain in that area, but we don't. It is called, we don't know it, it is called here the Holy Mount. And there, what happened? The Lord Jesus was transfigured. His garments became white as light, and his whole outward appearance was changed, was, as it were, clothed with heavenly glory. That was the one thing, a glorified man. He was in weakness there, and still God showed him to the disciples as the one, like the one as he is now in heaven, the glorified man. Secondly, there were these two men from the Old Testament, Elijah and Moses, the two best known men of faith, one could say, leaders in the people of Israel. Moses, the one who had led Israel out of Egypt, who was in that way a figure of the Lord Jesus, our apostle, our high priest of our confession. But Moses was a man who had died. Nobody knows his grave site until the present day. God himself buried him, but he died, and the disciples saw him there. Elijah was another prophet. Moses is called a prophet. He calls himself a prophet. Deuteronomy 18 verse 15 says, a prophet like unto myself God will raise. Elijah was another prophet in a quite different time, in the end time of Israel, when everything went upside down. He stood there before the face of before Jehovah, and he was one who did not die. We know that he was taken up in a storm wind, and Elijah saw him and cried, my father, my father, chariot of Israel and his horses. So we have here, as far as I can see, in Moses a picture of those believers who have died. We have in Elijah a picture of those believers who did not die, or rather who will not die because the Lord Jesus will take them as we may believe and hope ourselves, livingly into his presence. But they were both there in glory with the Lord Jesus. Those who had died, believers who have passed away already. Those who will be when the Lord comes to take us up, which is not the subject here, will be taken up livingly. And then we have as a third group, the disciples, who were not glorified, who saw that glory, but who were representing at that time, believers on earth. Now dear friends, brothers and sisters, this is exactly what will be seen during the millennium. There will be seen a glorified Christ. Our Lord will no longer be invisible. He will come down in glory from heaven. Before that, but that is not the subject here, he will come to take up the believers. That is the first thing which we may wait for. But what we see here, what Peter saw here, what Peter is reporting here is the appearance of the Lord and the following thousand years realm. Together with the glorified believers, but also on the earth there will be believers who live in the millennium on this earth, represented by the three disciples. So this is the fulfillment, this little image, this little miniature picture of the millennium is the fulfillment of what the Lord said to the disciples, there are some of you who will not see death until they have seen the kingdom of God. And when Peter speaks of this here, he speaks of it in three different terms. He says in verse 16, we have not made known to you the power, firstly, and coming, secondly, of our Lord Jesus Christ following cleverly imagined fables, but having been eyewitness of his majesty. Now I think that all the three gospels give us different characters of this appearing, of this presence of the Lord. If we turn to Matthew, to Mark, Mark 9 verse 1, there we find that the Lord says in verse 1, Mark 9 verse 1, I say unto you there are some of those standing here that shall not taste death until they shall have seen the kingdom of God come in power, power, the power and coming. Now in Matthew, the passage we have already mentioned, the last verse of chapter 16, verse 28, the same, practically the same words of the Lord, but still a little different, verily I say unto you there are some of those standing here that shall not taste of death at all until they shall have seen the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Here the coming is stressed. And thirdly in Luke, Luke 9, we read here about, we have now in Mark the power, in Matthew the coming, and thirdly we read here of majesty or glory and excellent glory. Now in Luke we find an expression which we do not find in the other gospels. In verse 33, in the middle of this episode, who were Moses and Elijah who appearing in glory. Now this expression is only here in Luke, not in Mark and not in Matthew. So is that we can say when Peter speaks of these three marks of this episode, the power, the coming, and the majesty or glory of the Lord, that he is by the Spirit referring to the three different characters of the transfiguration as reported by Mark, Matthew, and Luke. These three gospels give us the transfiguration and this is, to repeat it shortly, the subject, gives us the subject of the prophetic word. It is the Lord as man, as glorified man, as the center of the government and glory in this creation. It is not heaven, it is not the assembly, it is not eternity. This is never the subject of prophecy as far, I would make one qualification, the assembly is mentioned naturally in Revelation, but only I think as far as it comes into this view of the glory of the Lord in this world. And the assembly has its place there. And in so far one could, should not perhaps say that the assembly is never mentioned in the prophetic word, which would not quite be true. Sometimes it has been said or written even and one should not do that because the assembly has also a link to the glorified man and in so far it can and will be also mentioned in the prophetic word. But it is not the subject or a special subject of this. It is always the Lord Jesus and there couldn't be found a more wonderful picture than this episode on the Mount of Transfiguration where the Lord, which the disciples did not understand, let us make three tabernacles, three houses, where the Lord is the center and above all. And this is given a stress and underlined by that voice of which Peter speaks here in verse 17, being uttered to him by the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom I have found my delight. This is the seventh time I suppose we find this expression in the New Testament. This is my beloved son or thou art my beloved son. Three times the first three Gospels give it at Jordan when the Lord Jesus was baptized. Three times the first three Gospels give it at the Transfiguration, sixth time. And then Peter mentions it here for the seventh time. What a wonderful and heartwarming testimony of our Lord that God himself, God the Father, he spoke it twice, at the beginning and almost at the end of the service, the ministry of the Lord Jesus on earth. But he took care that this expression should be written down seven times in the New Testament. This is or thou art my beloved son. How does this show the wonderful love of the Father to his son and also vice versa? For the Father, the Lord Jesus says this once in John 14, only once the Father loveth the Son. But what eternal love, thou hast loved me, the Lord Jesus says, before the foundation of the world. We are allowed a glance into eternal relationships, which have been revealed in this world, and which shall have their display during the millennium, the beloved Son of God, as the glorified man on earth and the center of all creation. That is the subject of all prophecy. Now I can understand that some might say, well, I cannot find this in all prophetic word, in all the prophetic word. How many in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel? How many chapters are there where the name of the Lord is not even mentioned? How can you say such a thing? Very simple. I said this is the subject, not the contents. Not in detail in every verse we find the Lord Jesus. Not in this simple superficial sense. But it is the scope and the subject we must always bear in mind is only this realm of the Lord Jesus as glorified man. And all the many, many chapters which speak of judgments on peoples and on persons, what do they have to do with this? One may ask. The answer is very simple. Everything which is preparatory for this subject of the word of prophecy is also mentioned. The revelation. We have been considering chapters in revelation which speak only about judgment upon the earth and the peoples and nations of this earth. But all these things are preparations for that great moment in chapter 19 where the Lord will come on the white horse and present himself in this world as the Lord of lords and king of kings and shall reign 1000 years accompanied by his heavenly saints. And that is the simple explanation that everything which must be fulfilled or rather which must be accomplished to this end is also mentioned in the prophetic word. And if we see this under that aspect we will more easily understand the prophetic word. Because we must not see these chapters, the beast and the antichrist and all these things isolated. In an isolated manner as if God wanted to inform us or instruct us on these things in themselves. By no means, by no means. The subject is always to lead us to that moment of which Peter speaks here and of which he and the other disciples were eyewitnesses. They had seen it. They could say we have seen it. And I do not wonder but I am convinced that this even as Paul who had quite a different task was taken up into paradise to see and hear things which man must not say. So that Peter and John and James who was taken away by Satan because he was one of the witnesses and Satan wanted to destroy this testimony but two remained. Peter was liberated from the prison in a wonderful, most wonderful way because God did not want this double testimony to be destroyed. But that these three men, John and Peter and also in his time James were sustained by what they had seen on the mountain. We see this, we can read this, sense this from the words we have not followed cunningly devised fables as some may say and even more say today. Go around in Christianity, in Christendom and ask people about the prophetic word. Ha, ha, they say. Prophetic word does not exist. There is no prophecy. Isaiah must be cut into three or four just to eliminate prophecy because in the second and third part people are mentioned like Cyrus, the king Cyrus and how can somebody speak in advance about a person who has not even lived? Impossible. No prophecy. Cunningly devised fables they say. But Peter says, no, not cunningly devised fables but we were there, we have seen it and we announce it to you, this wonderful prophetic word. And that is why this short passage has such a weight for the believer because, and for everybody, because here it is said again, we have seen it. Not only one, not only two, but three people have seen it. The voice we heard uttered from heaven being with him on the holy mountain. That sustained them, as I am sure, during the rest of their life to go through all this trouble, all the persecution they had to endure because they had seen what God has promised. And then he comes in verse 19 to the aim of prophecy. Until now we have spoken a little bit about the character in the 16th verse, then about the subject and now we come to the aim of prophecy. God has an aim by giving us this prophecy in his word. And he says in verse 19, and we have the prophetic word made sure to which ye do well, taking heed, as to a lamp shining in an obscure place until the day dawn and the morning star arise in your hearts. That is the aim, why God has given us that. Because there are, this prophetic word, there are two things. The subject will be fulfilled at the appearance of the Lord. That is the subject. But it would also be fulfilled if God had not instructed us about it. He need not instruct us. So the subject of prophecy is something more or less absolute. But the aim is something very personal. Here God explains to us why he has given us the prophetic word in advance. He need not do so. He could have said, wait till it all comes and it will be wonderful. But no, he says, I give you the prophetic word. And we have seen that it is quite a large portion of scripture. But here we find why he has done it. He says it is something which shines in a dark place. It shines in a dark place. We are in a dark place. This world is a dark place. It is darkness against the light of God. And everybody who is not yet converted, everybody, maybe there is anybody here who does not know the Lord Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. You are in darkness. Darkness. Far from God. That is what darkness means. Because God is light. He is light himself. God is light. 1 John 1 verse 5. And he is in inaccessible light. 1 Timothy 6 verse 15. Light in inaccessible light. That is God. And he stretched out his arm by sending his son to draw us out of the darkness. Because darkness is the state of the world. Still is. And everybody who accepts the Lord Jesus as Savior is taken out of this darkness. And I hope and wish that should anybody here be here tonight, who could not say that he is light in the Lord, that he goes to the Lord. How do I do that? May somebody, he may ask or she. Very simple. There was a man in the gospel who said, went to the temple, stood apart and bowed his head, and beat his breast and said, Oh God, be thou graceful to me as me the sinner. That was enough. That was enough. No more. You don't have to make any religious exercises or do anything. Just see that you are a sinner. And see that the Lord Jesus died for you. Actually we must be very careful not to interpret scripture by history or by daily events. But it is the other way around. It is the prophetic word which explains what is happening. And we know how many expositors have thought to find Antichrist in this or that person. But Paul is very simple and says, it is all wrong. You cannot find Antichrist now. That is the prophetic word. But if you dim this lantern and say, No, no, this side, dark paper, black paper, black paper, you have a lantern and you don't see anything. You come to fantasy. The second Thessalonians 2 says, Antichrist cannot be here now. He can only come after the rapture of the saints. Very, very simple. And still there are, I think I could give you a couple of books in which speak about Antichrist Christ now or in the past. So they have not used the prophetic word rightly as a lamp. And so one could go on. But there are other things where we say, this is only to be explained by the prophetic word. For example, the return of Israel. The return of Israel as a people after more than 2,000 years of non-existence as an independent people. They have been always Jews in the country. The country has never been void of, emptied of every Jew. They have always lived some Jews in the country through the millennia. But as an independent people, that is what God says. But he says much more and that has not yet been fulfilled. Therefore, we should be careful not to come into an Israelomania or something like that. That would be quite out of the place. But that Israel as a people is returning to its old country as God has even announced when the people had not even yet come into the country. Deuteronomy 27, 8, 9, and 30. There we find that God said, I will bring you in this country, into this country. But you will be unfaithful and I will dispel you from this country. But at the end of time, I will return you. But he says, you will have to repent. And that is what is lacking now. Ezekiel speaks of it, chapter 36, of a return of a dead people, dead bones. They come together. There is skin and flesh and bones, but no spirit. Now, I think that state is described also in Isaiah 18, where God sits in his glory and sits and looks at the people who is coming back from all parts of the world. But then the judgment comes. So this is, just to take one point, the measure in which the prophetic word enlightens this dark surroundings. If you speak to anybody in the world about the people of Israel, you will find all kinds of commentaries, but never the prophetic word. Never. All the, that anti-Semitism. Where does it come from? Why are so many people in this civilized western world anti-Semitic? This is the answer. Because a German emperor, at that time he was a Prussian king. I think it was Frederick the Great. And he asked one of, he was an agnostic. He was a friend of Voltaire, the great, a mocker of God. He was a friend of Voltaire. And he asked once one of his believing generals, give me a proof of the existence of God. You know what this believing general said? Majesty, the Jews. That was the answer. The proof of the existence of God. Why? Because the then existence and the now existence of the Jews is proof of the truth of the word of God. And we see it. And that is why there is so much anti-Semitism in this world. Because Satan says, if I can destroy that people, as I have thought to destroy Jesus, then I can destroy the truth of the Bible. And that is, in my eyes, the only, only reason for anti-Semitism. It is Satan against God. It is enmity against the earthly people of God. And to come a little closer home, if we as Christians are a strong testimony for the Lord, then we will also find the enmity of Satan. But if we adapt to the world, if we are worldly minded, we are no testimony anymore. And Satan is content. Young people, that is his device, his design at this present time. To take the force out of our testimony. Go on. Christian? Okay. Buddhist? Okay. Muslim? Okay. Believer? Christian? Jesus? Okay. Okay. But never be a testimony of Lord Jesus. Satan will be content. But as soon as we stand up for the Lord Jesus, then Satan will also stand up. And this is, in our countries now, the great design of Satan. To make us worldly minded. To take the force out of our testimony. We are also to be lanterns, but we are speaking here about the lantern, the lamp of the prophetic word. This prophetic word enlightens our environment, enlightens our life. But there is only one light. The other light is much more glorious. There is another light. There is the lamp of the prophetic word, but there is the morning star in our hearts. And that is much more. And there we come, we see the connection. Not the oneness, but still the connection of the prophetic word with the heavenly call of the assembly. I don't want to repeat what I just said, but here we have a glimpse of what our hope is. Our hope is not in the first place, as Christians, what we have been considering tonight. The fulfillment of the prophetic word here in this world, but our hope is heaven. And this hope is expressed in the word, until the day dawn and the morning star arise in your hearts. The day dawn means not the day of the Lord. When the son of righteousness will come with healing under its wings, as the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 4 says. It is the Lord Jesus as the king of kings. The son of righteousness with healing under his wings. But here we have the daylight of truth in our hearts. The daylight of true Christianity, which makes light instead of darkness. But then he speaks about the morning star. The morning star which is also in the last chapter of the New Testament. And where the Lord says, who is this morning star? Revelation chapter 22, verse 16. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things to you in the assembly. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. And the spirit and the bride say, come. I am the morning star. Here we find that Peter speaks about the morning star. The morning star comes before the sun comes up. The day of the millennium, the day of Jehovah, the day of the Lord is the whole period after the coming, the appearing of the Lord Jesus in this world. And the millennium, the thousand years reign, that is the day of the Lord. And then the Lord will appear as the son of righteousness. But before this day starts, we will be taken up into heaven. And that is why the Lord Jesus is not presented here as the son. He is presented, he is compared to the son in that transfiguration. His face becomes more brighter than the sun, as the sun shines in his strength. But here, to us, he is presented as the morning star. We are in the night, the darkness of this world now. We know that the prophetic word will be fulfilled in the coming, in the appearing of the Lord Jesus as the son of righteousness. But we know, and that is what is given as the aim, that when all this draws near, is drawing near, before it, the Lord Jesus will come. Will come as the morning star to take us out of the sea and to unite us with himself. And still it is not said here, until the morning star arise, but arise in your heart. What does that mean? How can the Lord's coming come in our hearts? It is very simply said, the hope and thought of the Lord's coming, which is a strengthening and encouraging factor in our lives. That is what is said here. If we, and if this could be during these days of the conference, that the occupation, the consideration, meditation of the prophetic word, leads to a stronger waiting, a strengthening of our waiting for the Lord as the morning star, then the aim of the prophetic word for our present lives would be fulfilled. That is the aim of the word of prophecy. And then, at the end, we come back to what I said in the beginning, the character of the word of prophecy. In the 16th verse, we have seen what the character of this prophetic word is not. Not cunningly devised fables. But here we find, after Peter having said that they were eyewitnesses, but here we go a little deeper. Here it is said in verse 20 and 21, that the scope of no prophecy of scripture is had from its own particular interpretation. That means, very simply said, that you must never consider a verse of scripture or a verse or a passage of the prophetic word on its own merits. Scripture must always be explained by scripture. And it must all fit into that frame of which Paul says once to Timothy, have an outline of sound words. An outline of sound words. That is what is meant here. There is also an outline of prophecy. And only if we do not find this, then the problem is naturally where and how to find it. And if you go into this Christianity, you find as many outlines of prophecy as you desire. But you find that many, many, many of these outlines are not in accordance with the spirit of prophecy. That they contradict each other. That they contradict themselves. And the prophetic word is also a kind of, must fit into an outline of sound words. That is what is meant here in verse 20. And then verse 21. For prophecy was not ever uttered by the will of man, but holy men of God spake under the power of the Holy Spirit. Verse 16, we had not cunningly devised fables, but we have seen it, we were eyewitnesses. But here he goes, that is the outward, the human side. But here we have the divine character of the prophetic word. And one could say, without any exaggeration, that this can, is applicable to the whole scripture. At least to the Old Testament. Moses, for example, calls himself a prophet. He says in Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, a prophet like unto myself, God shall awaken. That was the Lord Jesus. But he says, like unto myself, I am a prophet. So, Moses books prophecy. From Joshua, the Jews already saw that that was prophecy. Because in the old Jewish Hebrew text, all the books from Joshua to Kings, except Ruth, are the first, the former prophets. And then Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve prophets, not Daniel, are the latter prophets. The Psalms are prophecy. In Matthew 13, the Lord Jesus himself says, Matthew 13, verse 35. Matthew 13, verse 35, so that should be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables. And it is a quotation of Psalm 78, verse 2, the prophet. And there are more passages which speak of the Psalms as prophecies. But here it is said how these prophecies of the Old Testament, and we understand why this is all prophecy. Think of all the types of scripture. Are they prophecy? In a way, they are. That all prophecy was not ever uttered by the will of man, but holy men of God spake under the power of the Holy Spirit. That is one of the passages which speaks about inspiration. The inspired word of God. How did the word of God come to be? Here it is said that the persons who wrote it were men of God. Men of God. Holy men of God. Men which were acknowledged by God as his instruments. Like Elijah, he said, the God before I stand, before whose face I stand, before whose eyes I stand. He was conscious of the fact that God constantly looked at him. And he did not want to go to one or the other side to deviate from the pathways of God. He was a man of God, like Moses. Man of God, Psalm 19. Holy men of God. That is the person, the character of the persons who wrote the Old Testament and also the New Testament. But that is not all. They were also not only possessed the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, no believer possessed the Holy Spirit. And still they were led by the Holy Spirit. They spoke or wrote under the power of the Holy Spirit. Not human ideas. Not human thoughts. But the power of the Holy Spirit was in them and led them to read, to write these things. And the Apostle Paul, just to mention, there are not many passages in Scripture on inspiration, we know. But one other is 1 Timothy 3. Where it is said, where he does not speak about the persons but about what they wrote. 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. Peter speaks of the persons led by the Holy Spirit. Paul speaks firstly here of what they wrote. Every Scripture is divinely inspired and profitable for teaching. Divinely inspired. One could also say breathed by God or breathed by the Spirit of God. Because breath and spirit in Hebrew and Greek is the same word. Here he speaks about what was the result. And I do not want to enter too much into the details. But we see here the persons in Peter were led by the Spirit. We see that the result was inspired by God. And still Paul goes one step further I think in 1 Corinthians 2. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Where he speaks, where Paul speaks of the revelation of divine things which eye has not seen. Verse 9, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. Things which eye has not seen and ear not heard. And which have not come into man's heart. Which God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed to us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things even the depth of God. And then in verse 13. But we have received not the Spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God. That we may know the things which we have been freely given us to us of God. Which we also speak not in words taught by human wisdom. But in those taught by the Spirit. Communicating spiritual things by spiritual means. This passage Paul does not speak about writing but of speaking. But he speaks as an inspired instrument. Nobody today could say or write a sentence like this sentence. Which Paul wrote here. This was an utterance of an inspired instrument of God. By whom we have received new communications. Truths which have never been known before. Things which eye has not seen. But he says God has revealed them to us. And Paul was one of the main instruments. And in communicating these things to us. They received them, he received them from God. By His Spirit. He received understanding from God by His Spirit. He received the power to write, to communicate them to others by His Spirit. And he did it in words, in words. In words taught by the Spirit. This is verbal inspiration. We know that much is said against verbal inspiration. But this is the passage here. We have men are inspired. 2 Peter 1. We have the writings as a whole are inspired. 2 Timothy 3. But we have here that the words are given by the Spirit. So that really the spiritual things are communicated by spiritual means. That means the words are spiritual. Take a word like love. Very simple but very instructing example. The word love in this world has always meant something which is far, far away from what God's love is. And this word in the old, in the time of the New Testament when the love of God was revealed. Had become so depraved and so far from the, even from creation, the ideal of creation. That God took from that language, Greek. That Greek language. A word which meant love. But which was, as it were, in the attic. Nobody used it. This word agape in Greek existed. But it was hardly ever used. Eros. And phileo, phileia. Those were the words. Eros, erotic. That was the word in Greek, in Greece. But God did not use that. Eros doesn't even appear in the New Testament. Phileo, phileia, friendship appears. But the word agape was a word, I dare say, it was on the attic of the Greek language. It was not used. And God said that is the word. I don't want a word which has been befouled by human customs and human sin. And so he took this word. My firm conviction, a word which was not defiled by human behavior, which God could use and gave it quite a new content which it did not have before, but for which God could use it. So that shows us in a way, and one could use many other examples. For example, the word for altar. The Greeks had many gods, had many altars, had a very short and impressive word for altar. It is not used in the New Testament except once when such an altar is in the question. But normally God uses a word which has been constructed, which speaks of a sacrifice, a sacrificing place, but which was not the normal word for altar in the Greek world, which is once used, but only to designate a Greek altar of an idol. And so one could go on, very interesting, but which it shows that really the words were taken by the Spirit and given a spiritual meaning according to what God wanted to communicate. So we have a verbally inspired word of God. And may the Lord, during these days when we are occupied with a prophetic word and revelation, give us this awe, this reverence to his word, that we may all be strengthened in our faith, maybe also enlarged in our knowledge, because it is quite a complicated subject. But let us never forget the place, the central place, is the place of our Lord Jesus, the beloved Son of God as the center of his ways and the crowned Christ in this world, the center of adoration and worship during the thousand years reign, where he who is being despised now will get the honor and glory which is worthy to receive. Would it be O Gracious God, our Father, we thank you for thy word, through every saint so precious that speaks of Christ the Lord. 462 Would it be O Gracious God, our Father, we thank you for thy word, through every saint so precious that speaks of Christ the Lord. We thank you, O Thine Spirit, that moves those men afar to give their holy favor, thy truth and love unfold. For that same one, we thank thee, we beseech thee, who now to thy own children thy covenant will reveal, and some are healed through thee, thy truth to them unfold. So glad are those in heav'n praising thee in the high. So faith in heav'n and power, O gracious God, we give thee, that we may, by thy Spirit, enter in love with thee. For we would thus be gathered to serve a faithful Lord, and in this age of poverty, in truth, in strength, and worth. …