Alright, good morning. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Alex Costa. I am an outreach leader here, and I just want to say hello, especially for those of you who are new here, I've been wanting to meet you and I still want to meet you.

So, I would love to make that happen as soon as possible. We are in the book of second Peter, and we are transitioning to a part of the book where Peter is now going to be defending his word against the words of heretics and wolves and false teachers. And I want to draw your attention to the fact that a majority of the epistles are written to confront sin. error in damnable teaching. And we're going to see that in the passage. I'm going to read, and we're very much going to see that next week, the next few weeks in chapter two, where Peter delivers a scathing rebuke to false prophets. But we also see that from John.

We're going to read a little bit of first John today. And we very much see that through, throughout all of Paul's epistles this mindset of, we need to confront error. We need to defend the truth. And before we read our passage today, I want to set it up by reading a few verses from Acts 20.

Just to get our minds, our mindset in order. And this is Acts 20 where Paul addresses the Ephesian elders. And I want to read this first to remind you of the work, the apostles work. But not only the apostles, but any work of a faithful elder. And of the work of our elders, Eric Tuff and Sam, and Michael Clary, who I am so thankful for, and you should be as well.

This is their work. Acts 20, starting in verse 27. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention yourselves to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you.

Not sparing the flock and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be alert. Remembering that for three years I did not cease night and day, night, or day, to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend to you God. Into the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands minister to my necessities, to those who are with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

And when he said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. So, understand the work of Paul the Apostle here, and understand that this is their work.

Paul declared, the whole council of God. He warned them of fierce wolves, that fierce wolves would come. He didn't cease to admonish everyone with tears. He was, he earnestly contended for the truth, and he commended the Ephesian elders as he was departing to the hard work of being an elder. Peter, it's the same work.

John, it's the same work. When you read their letters, know that they are confronting Error and sin all throughout, and it's with this mindset that I want to read 2 Peter 1:16-21 towards the end of the chapter, to the end of the chapter, but first let me pray. Father, help us as a church, help us individually, help us to love each other.

And know the truth, help us to know where our source of the truth is, that it is from you and from your word that you have given us. That these pages of scripture are sufficient. Let us learn to love the truth and know the truth and discern the truth and discern error so that we may not fall into it, and we may warn others away from it.

Help us, Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.

2 Peter 1:16-21. 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. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, Amen.

We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you would 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. Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

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. So, these six verses, it's broken up into three different parts that I want to tell you about right now. Verse one, the first part of verse one, 1A, is the main point. Everything is built off of this first point.

We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you His coming and His glory. Everything else is built on that. The part two is Peter's testimony of how he was an eyewitness of Jesus coming in glory and how he was, he heard the literal words of God. Peter witnessed lots of things.

He witnessed the life of Jesus, but then he even had access where he witnessed some other things that only a couple other of the apostles witnessed. And so, we're going to talk about those things. And then verses four through six, we have an even better testimony than Peter's eyewitness, which is the word of God itself.

So, starting in verse one, we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that it says we, and not I, it's not Peter saying I thought I did not follow cleverly devised myths. So, there's a we here. And we need to understand who the we is.

And so, at first, I believe he's talking about the apostles. He's talking about all of them, how they did not follow cleverly devised myths. They made known to the kingdom, to the kingdom of God that was being built of Jesus Christ's power but then he narrows it down. There's a point where he definitely narrows it down to himself, James, and John, as he talks about the voice from heaven on the holy mountain.

And we'll get back to that part. So, what is that? That's a transfiguration. So, he's talking about his brothers in arms. He's talking about those with whom he is ministering. Keep that in mind as we're going through this, but there is a point where he is much more focused on a specific event. So, we'll talk about that in a few here.

Next part. We did not follow cleverly devised myths. What is a cleverly devised myth? I want to contrast two things here. On one hand, we have a cleverly devised myth, which is a lie, but it's a more, what's the word, a more thought through lie, a lie that's built on something, a lie intended to deceive, versus, so a cleverly devised myth versus just a flat out lie.

And so, we have the first cleverly devised myth in existence in Genesis chapter 3. Thanks for watching! So, I want to read verses one through five. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, God didn't say to eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden.

Thats not what he said. He didn't say a flat out lie. Why did he not say a flat out lie? Because he's more crafty than any beast of the field. He knows that if he just says, God didn't say to eat of the fruit of the tree, that Eve could just turn to Adam. Didn't God say that? And Adam's yes, that's exactly what God said.

What are you talking about? No. So let's read it. Let's read what he actually said. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? Any tree in the garden, okay. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden.

Neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, a cleverly devised myth, you shall, you will not surely die. Lemme finish this. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Is there some truth in that? So, Eve ate the fruit.

Adam ate the fruit. They didn't die immediately. So, this is the structure of a cleverly devised myth there. There's a truth. In there that is built, but this is the playbook and I'm going to define a cleverly devised myth in a minute here, but this is the playbook when we're talking about cleverly devised myths, we're talking about the one page from the playbook of a man or woman who wants to destroy your soul.

There is a playbook. There is one page. And this is it. We've got to be mindful of that. Concocters of cleverly devised myths. They are never going to lie to you. They're never going to, if someone comes into the church, and listen, there will be wolves and false teachers who come into this church. They're never going to come in here and tell you what they actually believe.

If they don't believe that Jesus Christ is God, they're not gonna just flat out say to you, Jesus Christ isn't God. If any of you were to just flat out say, Jesus Christ isn't God, you who are members of this church, we would meet with you, we would urge you to repent of your unbelief, and if you do not repent, you would be Dismissed, excommunicated from this church, and that's what, that's not how they're going about this.

Maybe, if they believe that, what they'll do is that they will introduce some concepts that attempt to lower Jesus in the Trinity. Or remove him entirely, but you wouldn't think of that. So, you've got to be mindful of these things. So, here's my definition, and I believe this is the definition of what a cleverly devised myth is.

Cleverly devised myths are lies that are built on a foundation of truth. You have some kind of truth here, something that's true, and then you just keep lies upon lies on that truth, and then it makes the truth unrecognizable. So, we need to think about the cleverly devised myths of our day, and we'll get to that.

But what I want to do first is think about the cleverly devised myths of the days of the Apostles. So, we need to know what foundation of truth these myths were built upon in those days. As we go through this passage here. And there are two, that I think, two truths at that time that people built, false teachers built a lot of lies on.

And those truths are, number one, Jesus Christ is fully God. That's true. And now there's a lot of ways that you can build lies upon that truth. And number two, and we're going to read 1 John 1:1-4, and then John 1:14. Number two, Jesus Christ is fully man. And then again, there are lots of lies that can be built.

On that truth, and that's what Peter is dealing with in this passage. First John 1:1-4, That which was from the beginning, hear this from a man, sorry who is earnestly contending for the truth. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, Which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, Concerning the word of light, The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal life Which was with the father and was made manifest to us that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you So that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete And then John 1:14.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory as of the only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth. So, John is writing to those who are building, he's not writing to them, he's writing to, against those who are building on the truth that Jesus Christ is fully God.

But what do they believe? What are the lies that they're heaping on that truth? He's writing to those who deny the manhood of Christ. There were some who claimed that all flesh was corrupt. It's not possible for God to take on flesh. So, he was a spirit who appeared to have human form. He looked very much like you and I, but he did not have flesh.

He was a spirit. And if that's the case, he didn't die on the cross, he didn't shed his blood, he didn't die for our sins, and we are doomed. This is a damnable heresy. So, can you see the emphasis in John's words here? That which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, touched with our hands.

The word became flesh. This is the error, the cleverly devised myth that he's fighting against. Can you see his emphasis here? Jesus Christ was fully man. That is orthodoxy. That's true. On the other side, you have those who say, yes, he was fully man, but he was only a man. He's not God. And this is the cleverly devised myth that Peter is dealing with in this passage.

So again, verse 19. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ power and coming, Peter is saying here he saw Jesus in all of his power. He saw Jesus as he will be when he returns to earth because he is returning along with James and John.

Because it's we did not follow cleverly devised myths along with James and John. Peter saw a glimpse of Jesus. As he will be when he comes back to earth. As he will be when we see him again, coming down from heaven. You've got to see this. Matthew 17, the transfiguration. And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun. And his clothes became white as light, and behold, there appeared with them Moses and Elijah talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, Rise, and have no fear.

And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, tell no one of the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead. So, he saw Jesus, they saw Jesus as he will be. And then Jesus last command, tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.

And so, what did Peter do? He didn't tell anyone. John and James did not tell anyone. About Jesus power and coming. About his second coming. His return to earth as a conquering king. He didn't tell anyone until after Jesus was raised from the dead. And then, when Jesus was raised from the dead, he told everybody.

Listen, Jesus is coming back as a conquering king. I saw him in all his glory. His face shone like the sun. His clothes became white as light. Words cannot adequately describe to you what this looked like when I saw him in glory. I'm trying to describe it. I can't put it to words. And what's the response?

He's telling this to everyone as the church is being built. And what's the response from God's enemies? What's the response from false teachers? No, he's not coming back. He was just a man. You're lying, Peter. You didn't see Jesus. You didn't see Jesus looking like that. You are lying. Where is he? He hasn't come back yet.

Which is something people can say to us today, right? Have you ever heard that? It's been 2, 000 years, he hasn't come back yet, obviously he was just a man. This is what Peter was dealing with just as much in that time. And can you imagine being in that situation? Have you ever seen something so amazing, and then you went and told people and they didn't believe you?

Have you ever, can you imagine how frustrating that would be? I was trying to think of examples from my life, I couldn't think of anything, I'm sure that's happened. But if you had an experience like that just tell me you saw a once in a lifetime thing, a one in a million thing, and you told people and they're like, no you didn't see that.

I would be, alright, personally, Peter's a little fiery too, I'm gonna maybe speak for Peter as well, that, that would be incredibly frustrating. And verses 17 and 18, hear this, perhaps, some frustration coming out here. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. Maybe I added a little too much emphasis there. It's all good. He's saying, look, I saw Jesus in all his glory. I heard the literal words of God. I was there. But not only me, James, and John, go ahead and ask them.

The three of us were there. We all saw this. And these false teachers had the audacity to say to him, no, you didn't. All right, let me pause for a second. Peter's word should be enough. Peter's word, his testimony should be enough for us. All right. He lived with Jesus. He walked with Jesus. He saw Jesus calm the storm and the seas.

He saw Jesus walk on water and feed 5, 000 men with a few loaves. He saw Jesus rise from the grave, and of course he saw Jesus as he will be when he returns to this earth. His testimony should be enough, but if not, even more I were in Peter's shoes and I knew this was a lie my whole life, there would be a point where I would be like, I would be tempted to be like, you know what, I might have fudged a bit, and perhaps it's around the time that he's getting crucified upside down.

Alright, forgive me, put, I'm just gonna put myself in his shoes. If I were believing a lie, And I was teaching a lie at that point, perhaps I'd be like, I just I might have fudged things a little bit. I'm just gonna if it's okay with you, I'm gonna bounce. But he didn't do that. So, he took that lie to the grave.

No, he was telling the truth and all the apostles. 11 out of 12 of them died miserable deaths and the one who didn't suffered plenty. Peter's testimony should be enough for you.

But even more than that, here's the amazing thing. It gets better, even more than that. Here's what he says in verse 19, first part. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed. In other words, Peter is saying here, yes, literally God spoke to me. I heard the literal words of God. But do you know what is an even more reliable testimony that what we are telling you is the truth?

It's this right here, the word of God, because he was with Jesus. Jesus explained to him from the beginning to the end of what we now call the Old Testament, how, why everything that happened had to happen. He explained to him from the scriptures, and Peter saw without a doubt that this word is true.

And I want to warn some of you. You would do well to follow Peter's lead here. Peter heard the literal words of God, and he's still saying the word of God is a more reliable testimony than his own testimony. And so, whenever I hear the words say this is, this happens so much in modern day Christendom.

Whenever I hear it here, any of you say, God told me. I'm not raising red flags but there's some yellow flags. My immediate response is, no, he didn't. The heart is deceitful above all things, Jeremiah 17:9. and desperately wicked. Who can know it? It seems like whenever someone says God told me, it tends to align with something they really want to happen anyway.

My first year out of college, I was on an intern with crew at Indiana University, and I remember during that year I learned of a lover's triangle. There were two guys and one girl, and both guys told the girl, God told me. that we are to get married. She ended up marrying neither of them. And this happens a lot.

God tends to tell you, it seems, just what you want him to tell you. But that's one issue. Here's the bigger issue. When you're going to play that card, the God told me card, what you're doing, what you're going to use a lot of the time, you're going to use that as a trump card. That this inner testimony, this inner monologue, perhaps, that has more authority over the Word of God, over the Word of God itself.

You must not do that. This is what people do all the time with God told me. They will not listen to anything else because God told them. And no, we have the words of God right here. Peter himself, we can't deny, God told him. This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. God literally said that to him.

And he even submits himself, his testimony, to the Word of God. How much more so do you need to do that when you believe that God tells you something? Should I back up? There's many times I've prepared for sermons, and I've sat 15 minutes before coming up here and felt led by God to change a thing. I am moving forward with faith.

I am not going to stand here and tell you; God told me to change my sermon, okay? God does communicate to us. He can communicate to us. But don't use that as a trump card. Peter doesn't. I'm gonna skip the rest of verse 19 for now. Just, we'll get back to that after reading verses 20 and 21. Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

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. All he's saying here, I forgot to say this, when you see the word prophecy, he's referring to the word of God. He's referring to scripture. Okay? So is the word prophecy. Comes up three times in this section here.

And all he is saying here is the words. In these pages are the words of God himself. Men spoke from God. They were carried along by the Holy Spirit, but no prophecy of scripture ever comes from someone's own interpretation. It is from God. 2 Timothy, the word of God is, some of your Bibles will say inspired.

The literal definition is God breathed, Theopneustos. It is breathed out by God. That's what Peter's saying here. So back to verse 19. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you would 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.

This is what we should do, knowing that this is true, knowing that this is God's word. Listen, the world is a dark place. The world is hostile to God. You may convince yourselves, you may live under the facade, that the world is neutral to God. And I want to tell you, this world is hostile to God. And all you have to do to get away from that facade, all you have to do is say one magic word.

One magic word in the world, you will know that the world is hostile to God. Do you know what that word is? No. That's the word. All of a sudden, if you say the word no, when everyone else is saying yes, people who you think are neutral to God will all of a sudden turn quite hostile. Perhaps you learn to use, to say that word, Jesus uses that word a great deal.

And what does Peter say? You would do well to pay attention to the words of God that we have with us because this is our lamp. The world is dark. This is our lamp. The day will dawn. There's a lot of hope in that. But right now, we dwell in a dark place. So how do we navigate this? How do we navigate through this present darkness?

We need to identify the cleverly devised myths of our day. They had their cleverly devised myths. Lies that were built on the truth that Jesus Christ is fully man. And lies built on the truth that Jesus Christ is fully God. What are, what's the truth of our day that lies upon lies are, is being built on?

What's the truth in 20 cent, 21st century America?

God loves you. That's the truth. That is the truth that so many lies are being heaped on today to the point where this truth for so many people is unrecognizable and Lord have mercy, the damage this has caused, the damage this has caused by building lies upon the truth. There is no fear of God. There is no shame, no wondering of the consequences of sin, the lies that are built upon this truth.

It is overwhelming. God loves you. So, he wants you to be happy and healthy. Prosperity gospel. He wants you to achieve all your dreams. He has a wonderful plan for your life. God loves you, so it's okay to pursue sin. He knows you were born with a certain proclivity towards a specific sin. He not only wants you to pursue the sin he approves of it.

God loves you and he knows it's too much of a burden to bear, to stay faith, to stay faithful to your spouse because that spark isn't there anymore. Don't worry about doing the work of loving your spouse. He loves you.

He wants you to be happy. God loves you and he knows it's too much of a burden to bring a child into this world. He understands if you terminate your pregnancy, he's with you every step of the way.

He gets us,

he gets us the worst Superbowl commercial of all time. And that is saying a lot. People paid millions of dollars to lie about the God of the universe in front of 200 million people.

Lord, have mercy. If you didn't see the commercial, it's these images of people, really, it's images, I'm just thinking about this now, of the oppressor washing the feet of the oppressed. AI generated images. We have a police officer washing the feet of a criminal. We have other examples, I don't remember, but there were two that very much stuck out to me.

We have, in front of an abortion clinic, a woman washing the feet of another woman, who presumably had just murdered her baby. And then, in the background, you see all those angry, bigoted Christians, who are so hateful, saying these hateful words to this woman, begging her not to murder her child. He gets us!

And then the crescendo, the one that they spend, at the end, a few more seconds on. It's a man in clerical garb washing the feet of a gay man. He gets us. In other words, yeah, there's all those nasty, awful Christians out there who will say no, but Jesus says yes. They don't get you, but he gets you. Jesus gets you.

What a lie. What a cleverly devised myth. Because there's some truth in there, right? Does he get us? Oh, yes. Jesus gets us. He gets that we are wicked, that we are dead in our trespasses and sins, that we are by nature children of wrath and enemies of God. He gets that we are sinners, desperately in need of a Savior, which is why he sent his, why he came.

and died on the cross as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. Yes, he gets us, but not in the way that it's communicated in a Super Bowl commercial. I abominate that commercial. That is a lie. Lord, have mercy. The lies that are built on this truth have destroyed any concept of shame for the abominable sins that we commit.

And I want to say this because I know you and I love you and I know that many of you fear the Lord and some of you are reeling right now because you fear God and you're being faithful and you're getting a lot of impression from loved ones who claim to be Christians, but they don't fear God.

What does this look like? There's A pastor in Cleveland, I don't want to spend too much time on this, a well-known pastor in Cleveland who blessed the attending of a gay wedding by one of his congregants and never took the time, I didn't take the time to read about it. The issue that I want to focus on is, this shouldn't be a debate among Christians.

Homosexuality is an abomination. God has defined marriage as between a man and a woman. There's no way to nuance this, there's no way to navigate to a point where you would bless something like that. If you're going to attend a gay wedding, there's one example that I could think of, and that is if you're going to go there and object to it.

And so we have this division right now between, Those who are trying to be faithful and saying God's no, and those who are caving, who are fearing man and I'm trying to think through the processes, the thoughts as to what, why do they think what they think when they have the words of truth, or at least they claim to have the words of truth, they'll say things like we want to be the hands and feet of Jesus, the hands and feet of Jesus.

How can you be the hands and feet of Jesus when you have the mouth of the devil? What's the game plan here? You're saying words of comfort, giving them false hope, reassuring them. All the while, they're not repenting of their sins. They're getting more hard hearted. And you're saying these words of comfort all the way until they meet their father, the devil, in hell.

That's exactly what Satan would want you to do. You have the mouth of Satan if you are doing that. You do not have the hands and feet of Jesus. The mouth steers the whole body. If your mouth is going to steer your body is not the body of Jesus. Jesus had compassion. Another response. Jesus had compassion.

And you have none! You have none! Because you have the words of life! And you have unrepented sinners in your life, and you will not give these words to them! How utterly uncompassionate is that? You have no compassion. I want to love people the way that Jesus loved people. Then do it. Love people the way that Jesus loved them by warning them of the judgment to come.

We are so backwards right now. For those of you who are being faithful in the midst of this opposition, I don't want to give you false words of hope. I have every, everything in me wants to just tell you, it's going to be better, and it will be better. That's true. One day, things will be better.

The morning dawn, the dawn will arise. But there's a part of me inside that I need to fight against. It's just a few more days, a few more weeks. You know what, this time next year, things will be better. And I cannot give you those false words of hope. And I know Christina, Elijah, and Gina. Aaron Ingram.

What a loss. She's following, she's doing the right thing. She's following her husband to another church. What a loss for this church. And there's others, I know. I, here's what I can say to you. You have given me strength, and I love you for it.

God sees you. He knows you're being faithful, and he delights in you. We will be with him soon. And this right here will be your lamp shining in a dark place. It says it in 2 Peter here. It will do you well to pay attention to it until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart.

Father, give us strength. Help us navigate our way through this dark world. Let us not be deceived. Let us discern truth from error. Separate the two and love your truth. Let us love it. Let us love you. Help us Lord in Jesus name. Amen.