Introduction

There Apostles are lying! That should wake everyone up! The Bible is not reliable. The authors of the Bible wrote their opinions and not what God told them to write. How do you know the Bible is true? I mean, none of us were there when it was written. You don’t have the original manuscripts. All we have is copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of copies. You know it’s true.
I mean, without the Bible. Creation tells us that there is some God…. Remember last two weeks back I said to you. That creation, Paul’s argument, is that Creation tells us that Yahweh exists. But this is. That’s all we know. That Yahweh exists. God exists! He’s divine, He’s eternal, He’s powerful. That’s it! How do we know that His Word is the Bible? Why not the Koran? Why not other religious books? Why should it be the Bible? I’m sure you’ve had this one more often. Was the Bible written by God or human beings? These are some states… some of the statements and comments that you often hear about or against the Bible. How would? You respond to it. Are all these statements true? Could the Bible just be a… a group of stories that were that used to be told around the fire that some people decided to write down and give to us? Or, as the Bible, some book that was used by Europeans to come and oppress black people in Africa. Must have had that before. I know I did. Or is the Bible only? For Europe, it’s not for Africa. How would you respond to all of this? And these are just a few. I’m sure if I ask you to tell me, you will tell me others that I have not heard before. So how would you, as a Christian, what gives you the confidence, the certainty…. that the Bible is true…. that the Bible comes from God. That what contained in the Bible is from God’s word for it. Take your Bibles and turn with me to 2nd Peter, Chapter 1. And our focus for this message will be verses 16-21. And as you can see on the slide. I’ve titled this sermon: The Reliability of God’s Word. The reliability of God with can we rely on the Bible? Is it truthful? Does it come from God? Or is this just one of the books? How about the books that speak about Zeus? What about Zeus? I mean, the Greeks believed that Zeus existed. But the point I want to… to hang on to as we go through this message this morning. Is that the I want to… to… Which is the main point. Also of the sermon is that you can trust that the word of God. To be absolutely true.
And I… want to prove that! Through this message. That you can trust that the will of God is not only true, but it’s absolutely true. It is the ultimate truth! There is no. Tools above the Bible that you can judge the Bible by. It is the standard of truth that everything else should be judged by. Now Peter was written from Rome. And Peter wrote this letter when he was about to die. Paul is already dead by this time. It was written around AD 64 to around AD68. We know that Paul died around AD62. It is written to the same audience that Peter wrote to when he wrote first Peter. They were facing religious and social persecution. We are only today facing social persecution, not just religious, but we’re getting there! To add on that, there were also false teachers. Who are teaching them that the end times Are not coming. Jesus has not, and will not return to bring judgment. Peter was both a concerned pastor and a champion of theological orthodoxy. The final impassioned plea to… grow in Christian maturity and guard against false teachers was precipitated. Because of the fact that his time was short, and that these congregations faced immediate danger. From forced teachers and from Nero the persecutor. He desired to refresh their memories. And stimulate their thinking so that they would remember his teaching, but not only his teaching, the teaching of the apostles, everyone that taught them. He carefully described the characteristics of mature believers and challenged them to make every effort to grow in grace and knowledge. Credentials of two teachers were given to help the readers discern the difference between false and true teachers. Peter cautioned them against false teachers and exposed their evil characteristics and there is in Chapter 2 and encourage his readers with the certainty of Christ’s return. The purpose of 2nd Peter, therefore, is to call Christians to spiritual growth so that they can combat aspostas as they look forward to their lost return. Apostasies simply means refers to those that proclaim to be Christians and. Leave the church. Those are called biblical support states. Now Peter begins his message with the normal greetings of those times, after which he then caused the believers to grow spiritually. His intention was to remind his readers the importance of the message that they were taught. To hold on to it and to grow spiritually. He says in chapter 1, verse 14 and 15, that he knew he was about to die and wanted them to remember all this. Once he is dead. The reason he needs. To do all this is because false teachers and they are false teaching that infiltrated the readers. These were mounting attacks. These forced teachers were mounting attacks on the message that Peter and other apostles were teaching. And Peter sought to defend their message. Not the message of the first teachers, their messages, apostles. Peter begins in verse 16. To defend his message of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which the first teachers were saying will never happen again. Turn with me to 2nd Peter chapter 1 and we were looking at verse 16-21. And I just want to remind you that I want to, as we go through this sermon. To be able to prove to that you can trust, rely on the word of God to be absolutely true. Let’s read the passage 2 Peter 1: 16-21