Peter Warns All Believers Against False Teachers Within and Exhorts Us to be Steadfast Volume 13

Christ's Wonderful and Powerful Glory Seen by the Apostle Peter 2 Peter 1:16-18 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. 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. KJV Note: NKJV=New King 👑James Version All that Peter has written in his first letter ✉ and now this very second letter ✉, he wrote with concrete assurance of who our Lord, Master, and Savior Jesus Christ truly is and that being God Manifesting Himself in Human Flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). The Apostle Peter was an eyewitness of the majesty and power of Christ's Glory (2 Peter 1:16). Peter saw His face 😔 shine forth as bright as the sun ☀, yet Peter only saw a glimpse or a foretaste of His Mighty Glory (remember Moses Exodus 33:18-22). Peter wanted those early true believers and all of us true believers who have come after them to know that this Christ (whom he speaks of and writes about) is the One True and Only God. This why Peter says here in the beginning of 2 Peter 1:16 that they did not follow after fables, that is, deliberately false or improbable accounts; stories about mythical or supernatural beings or events. The Lord Jesus took Peter and James and John up on a high mountain ⛰ and let them be eyewitnesses of part of His Glory that was veiled or covered up by His human flesh, even as He made Moses and Elijah appear before Him talking with Him (Matthew 17:1-8). So this is why Peter wrote these incredible words in his first and second letter ✉, for example remember what he wrote at the very beginning of his first letter ✉. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:3-5) (NKJV). He (God the Father) has begotten us, that is, made us His offspring through new birth. Our inheritance waiting for us in Heaven is incorruptible. We are kept or guarded by the Power of God. Wow! Wow! and Wow! The fact that Peter knew that Jesus Christ is God and that the Spirit of God moved him along like the wind does a sail on a ship is why Peter wrote such awesome, amazing, and absolute words in each of these letters. Here is what Adam Clarke had to say of 2 Peter 1:16, "I think, with Macknight and others, from the Apostle's using eye witnesses, or rather beholders, in the end of the verse, it is probable that he means those cunningly devised fables among the heathens, concerning the appearance of their gods on earth in human form. And to gain the greater credit to these fables, the priests and statesmen instituted what they called the mysteries of the gods, in which the fabulous appearance of the gods was represented in mystic shows. But one particular show none but the fully initiated were permitted to behold; hence they were entitled beholders. This show was probably some resplendent image of the god, imitating life, which, by its glory, dazzled the eyes of the beholders, while their ears were ravished by hymns sung in its praise; to this it was natural enough for St. Peter to allude, when speaking about the transfiguration of Christ. Here the indescribably resplendent majesty of the great God was manifested, as far as it could be, in conjunction with that human body in which the fullness of the Divinity dwelt. And we, says the Apostle, were beholders of His own majesty. Here was no trick, no feigned show; we saw Him in His Glory whom thousands saw before and afterwards; and we have made known to you the power and coming, the appearance and presence, of our Lord Jesus; and we call you to feel the exceeding greatness of this power in your conversion, and the glory of this appearance in His revelation by the power of His Spirit to your souls. These things we have witnessed, and these things ye have experienced: and therefore we can confidently say that neither you nor we have followed cunningly devised fables, but that blessed Gospel which is the power of God to the salvation of every one that believes." God the Father affirming God the Son by speaking from Heaven in an audible voice that could be understood and was understood by the three Apostles on the Mountain ⛰. For these words spoken from Heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (2 Peter 1:17), were spoken for them and us to believe and understand and never doubt again. God had come to earth 🌎in human form to bring man back to Himself, as the Apostle Paul wrote it with these words, "Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people's sins against them (but canceling them), and has committed to us the word of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)(NKJV plus a little Amplified Bible). Here is what Matthew Henry had to say of 2 Peter 1:17, "What a gracious declaration was made: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased - the best voice that ever came from Heaven to earth; God is well pleased with Christ, and with us in Him. This is the Messiah who was promised, through whom all who believe in Him shall be accepted and saved. This declaration is made by God the Father, who thus publicly owns His Son (even in His state of humiliation, when He was in the form of a servant), yea, proclaims Him to be His Beloved Son, when He is in that low condition; yea, so far are Christ's mean and low circumstances from abating the love of the Father to Him that His laying down His life is said to be one special reason of the Father's love, John 10:17. The design of this voice was to do our Saviour a singular honour while he was here below: He received honour and glory from God the Father. This is the person whom God delights to honour. As He requires us to give honour and glory to His Son by confessing Him to be our Saviour, so does He give glory and honour to our Saviour by declaring Him to be His Son. This voice is from Heaven, called here the Excellent Glory, which still reflects a greater glory upon our blessed Saviour. This declaration is from God the fountain of honour, and from Heaven the seat of glory, where God is most gloriously present." The Apostle Peter wanted to make it very clear that they heard this voice from Heaven (2 Peter 1:18) for it was not a figment of their imagination, but a clear detectable audible voice from Heaven speaking in the Hebrew language that they could clearly discern. Here is what again Matthew Henry had to say of 2 Peter 1:18, "This voice was heard, and that so as to be understood, by Peter, James, and John. They not only heard a sound (as the people did, John 12:28, John 12:29), but they understood the sense. God opens the ears and understandings of His people to receive what they are concerned to know, when others are like Paul's companions, who only heard a sound of words (Acts 9:7), but understood not the meaning thereof, and therefore are said not to hear the voice of Him that spoke, Acts 22:9. Blessed are those who not only hear, but understand, who believe the truth, and feel the power of the voice from Heaven, as he did who testifieth these things: and we have all the reason in the world to receive his testimony; for who would refuse to give credit to what is so circumstantially laid down as this account of the voice from heaven, of which the Apostle tells us, It was heard by them in the holy mount, when they were with Jesus? The place wherein God affords any peculiarly gracious manifestation of Himself is thereby made holy, not with an inherent holiness, but as the ground was holy where God appeared to Moses (Exodus 3:5), and the mountain holy on which the temple was built, Psalms 87:1. Such places are relatively holy, and to be regarded as such during the time that men in themselves experience, or may, by warrant from the word, believingly expect, the special presence and gracious influence of the holy and glorious God." If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...