Faithfulness to God’s Word Has Two Sides!

2nd Sunday after Pentecost, 6/22/14
2 Peter 1:20-2:3


Faithfulness to God’s Word Has Two Sides!
I. Uphold it.
II. Defend it.


More than one of you has told me over the years, “You know, sometimes the children’s message really helps me understand your sermon for the teens and adults.” Perhaps that’s already happened for you this morning. Two sides. Same coin.

You see it in sports teams as well. Take the game of football for instance. You have your offense and your defense. Almost always they are not the same players. Two squads of players. Different function. Same team.

But in many other teams sports you do both. In baseball you play the field and then you hit. In hockey it depends on which team controls the puck at a particular moment. In basketball and soccer, it depends on which team is controlling the ball. If your team does, you’re playing offense. If the other team does, you’re playing defense. You’re either advancing towards the other team’s goal or you’re protecting yours.

In a way that’s what we do with any blessing we have. Parents, one of the most precious blessings God has given you is your children. On the one hand, you want to enjoy your children as much as possible while you can. On the other, you want to guard and protect them from harm and danger. Or consider something materialistic that you possess, especially something that has value. You possess it to enjoy it for yourself, but you also defend it from loss, theft, misuse and any element that will ruin it.

Our God has given us many great spiritual gifts worth more than all the money in the world. He’s given you the forgiveness of sins, Jesus as your Savior, faith in Jesus, membership in his kingdom, eternal life. And his word through which those gifts come to us.

Today our God calls on us to be faithful with his word. Just what does that mean? Like a coin, it has two sides. Faithfulness to God’s word has two sides. The Apostle Peter explains what they are in this morning’s text. May our love for our God lead us to be faithful to his word!

Part I.

When did it happen that people—even Christians—no longer considered the Bible to be the word of God? Many would answer that question by pointing to the late 1800s when rationalism had taken hold among the learned people of the world. Theories were developed about how the Bible came into existence apart from anything supernatural. It became popular for university professors to teach that the Bible was simply a collection of various humans’ thoughts about the divine being, if one even existed.

It would be true that such a terrible teaching about God’s word dealt a huge blow to it and to the Christian church on earth. But actually, that type of thinking about God’s word—either written or orally conveyed—has been around ever since the fall into sin. Think about it. Adam and Eve had a clear word of God from God himself. Don’t eat of this tree. But they came to the deadly conclusion that either God wasn’t serious about what he had said or he wasn’t telling them the truth.

Noah had a clear word from God. Repent because world-wide destruction is imminent. But the people ignored what Noah proclaimed.

King Jehoiakim of Judah had the original scroll of the Book of Jeremiah in his hands. But as it was unrolled and read to him, he carved it up with a knife and fed it into the firepot in the room to take the chill out of the air.

The scribes and Pharisees had none other than the Word of God in human flesh standing before them speaking God’s word to them, but they concluded he was none other than the devil himself.

My point is this: Throughout the history of the world there have been low opinions—dreadfully low opinions—about the word of God. Faithfulness to that word moves us to uphold it for what it is—God’s saving truth.

Peter reminds us of that very thing this morning. He states, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Contrary to what “learned professors” may say, the Bible is not a collection of the spiritual thoughts of human beings. Peter plainly says that prophecy—in other words, God’s word—never had its origin in the will of man. No writer of the Bible ever woke up one morning and stated, “I think I’ll write a book of the Bible today.”

Instead, the Bible is a product of the Holy Spirit’s work. Peter says the writers of the Bible were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Another way of saying that is that he was conveying to them what to write as they wrote it. St. Paul uses the phrase “God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16). The Holy Spirit inspired the writers with the thoughts and words they were to write. He used their personal style and experiences, but what they wrote was exactly what he wanted them to write.

That makes the Bible God’s truth, not the spiritual thoughts of well-intentioned but fallible human beings. That’s what sets this book far above all others. That’s why we stake this life and the life to come on the word of God. Faithfulness to it demands no less.

Faithfulness to God’s word has two sides. The one side is to uphold it as the word of God.

One important way of being faithful to your marriage vow is to honor your spouse by respecting what he or she says. One important way of being faithful to the God of your salvation is to respect what he says in his word. Having a high view of God’s word is likely one of the reasons you are here today and not in a church of another denomination. Having a high view of the Bible means that we are up against our government, our world, every other religion in the world, and even far too many denominations of Christianity. We just sang about that word, “By pow’rs of empire banned and burned, by pagan pride rejected, spurned” (Hymn 291 st. 3). That’s daunting enough. We hear and see it every day. But we’re also up against from within ourselves. It’s not just pagan pride that rejects God’s word; sinful pride does too. Whenever I sit in judgment over the word of God, whenever I am unwilling to believe and do what it says, whenever I decide that I will think and say and do as I please, I am unfaithful to God’s word. I have a low opinion of it. God be merciful to me—to you too. And that’s what his word is all about—a merciful, loving, gracious, forgiving God. This is the word of the God who loves us so much he sacrificed his Son for us and he wants to share that saving word with us every day of our lives. What could be greater news than that?! Be faithful to that word and uphold it as God’s word!

Part II.

It never ceases to amaze me what people will believe. This past February Rev. Jamie Coots of Kentucky died while handling snakes as part of his congregation’s worship. Why would you believe God wants you to do that? It’s a gross misinterpretation of one passage of the Bible.

Almost 2 centuries ago Joseph Smith claimed he received an addition to the Bible from the angel Gabriel, an addition that contradicts all sorts of clear teachings in the Bible, including the eternal deity of Jesus Christ and what happens? Today millions of people believe his lies. It never ceases to amaze me what people will believe in spite of what the Bible clearly says.

Peter reminds us that it’s always been that way. “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” Among God’s Old Testament people there were countless false prophets. At one time wicked King Ahab supported 450 prophets of the vile idol called Baal.

Peter saw it happening among the believers in ancient Asia Minor. He warned them, “They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.” Their false teachings sound good. They appeal to the people. They may even sound loving. But they’re deadly. God calls them shameful. He has reserved destruction for such false teachers at just the right time—his time.

So watch out! Jesus warned about wolves in sheep’s clothing. Yes, I’m here to help you watch out for them, but realize that, all too often, the wolf in sheep’s clothing is standing behind a pulpit. It’s always up to you to compare what the preacher says with what God’s word says. And when the two are at odds, you must defend the truth. That’s what being faithful to God’s word is. Defend it!

You realize, I’m sure, that defending God’s truth is not easy in a world that only embraces this one truth: absolute truth doesn’t exist. It’s all subjective, personal, individual. But God didn’t share his truth with us in order to vex and trouble us. He shared his truth with us in order to bless and save us. The God who is love shared his truth with us. Love for him and for the salvation he won for us moves us to protect and defend his truth from all error. One of the reasons we’ve come together as a congregation of Christians is to encourage each other in faithfulness to God’s word. May our God bless us as we uphold his word and defend it. Amen.