The Mona Lisa, an oil painting on a poplar wood panel, is the most famous painting in the world. Painted by Leonardo da Vinci sometime between 1503 and 1519, when he was living in Florence, it now hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, where it remains an object of pilgrimage to this day. Say “The Mona Lisa,” and most people will know the painting you are referring to.
In Second Peter chapter one, there is a phrase that, over the years, has reassured me because of what God says in His Word about me. Okay, I won’t be selfish. He also says the same thing about you.
Simon Peter opens the epistle by reminding the believers that it is only through a full and personal knowledge of who Jesus is that they can know and understand who they are in Him. Let's read verses 3 and 4.
(3) According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
(4) Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
In verse 12, Peter reminds the reader of these truths even though they know them and are firmly standing on them. In verse 13, he says he is doing this to “stir them up” – to make sure they remain diligent in their walk with Christ because Jesus has showed him that his time on earth is about to end (verse 14).
In verses 16, 17 and 18, Peter tells them what he personally witnessed on the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-5) and that he heard God say, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (verse 17)
Then, in verse 19, he uses the phrase that I have cherished over the years.
“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”
Peter says that what we have – the scriptures, the Bible – is “a more sure word” than his recounting what he witnessed on the mount of transfiguration because we did not witness it ourselves. He then tells us that God has given us something much better.
Let's read verses 20 and 21.
(20) Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
(21) For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Peter says the foundation, the first principle to never lose sight of is that the scriptures did not originate in the mind of men. The scriptures originated in the mind of God and that is why it is a “more sure word” than Peter’s eyewitness account of the mount of transfiguration.
The word “sure” in verse 19 means “fixed, sure, certain; figuratively that upon which one may build, rely or trust; that which does not fail or waver, immovable.” This is how God describes His Word.
Now, why is this important? Let’s read Genesis 3:1.
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”
Satan wants us to question the truth of what God says. He wants us to question the truthfulness of the “more sure word” that God has given to us, especially when it comes to what the Bible says about us.
Why is the Bible a “more sure word”?
Turn first to Psalm 138. We're going to read the first two verses from the Amplified Bible.
“(1) I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness;
(2) For you have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all your name!
David says that God’s Word, the Bible that we hold in our hands, is a written version of who God is. The Bible is the “more sure word”!
Now look at Psalm 18:30.
“As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him.”
The word perfect is “complete, whole, entire, sound, without blemish, without spot, undefiled, upright.” Again, the Bible is the “more sure word”!
Turn to Psalm 119:160.
“Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.”
There has never been a time when God’s Word, what He has spoken, has not been truth. There has never been a time when the Bible was not the “more sure word”!
Now turn to Titus 1, verse one.
(1) Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;
(2) In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began:” (Titus
Now Hebrews 6 beginning with verse 17.
(17) Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of Hus counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
(18) That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:”
Knowing that God’s Word is “more sure” and why it is “more sure” is the reason it is reassuring when it talks about me, when it talks about you.
So, what does the “more sure word” say about us? Let's find out.
Turn to Ephesians 2. We're going to read verses one through six.
(1) And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
(2) Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
(3) Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Ladies and gentlemen, these verses describe our old life when we didn’t have access to God and the sinful nature called the shots in our lives.
(4) But (in contrast to what we just read) God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us,
(5) Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us (made us alive) together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
(6) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Since we have been made alive with Christ, when we read about Jesus and what He did in the gospels, we are literally reading about ourselves! This is what the “more sure word” says!
Verse 6 says we are also seated with Jesus in heaven. Wrap your minds around that ladies and gentlemen. When things happen down here on earth, we have access to heavenly knowledge that can deal with it. This is what the “more sure word” says!
Before we continue with Ephesians 2, I want you to draw your attention to something else that has happened to us. Turn to Colossians 1.
(12) Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
(13) Who hath delivered us from the power (authority) of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son:
Satan no longer has authority over us because we are seated next to Jesus in His kingdom. Satan is not there and he will never be there. Think about who you are! You are seated in heaven next to Jesus, next to your Father. This is what the “more sure word” says!
Now, let’s go back to Ephesians 2 and pick up with verse seven.
(7) That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
(8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
(9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
(10) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
The first part of verse 10 is the “more sure word” that I want you to see – “For we are His workmanship.”
The word “workmanship” means “a thing of His making, handiwork.” Can you say “masterpiece”? Say it with me: “I am God’s masterpiece.”
Genesis 2:7 says, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Of all His creation, we are the only ones God touched. Think about that. He spoke everything else into being. God said. God said. In Genesis 2, when it came to us, God touched. This is what the “more sure word” says!
You are God’s masterpiece. You were His last creative act. Turn to Genesis chapter one. We're going to read verses 26 through 28.
(26) And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
(27) So God created man in His Own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
(28) And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
“For we are His workmanship.” “We are God’s masterpiece.” Do you know why you are God’s masterpiece? Ephesians says “unto good works.” The good works don’t have to be healing. The good works don’t have to be a miracle. The good works, first and foremost, is telling the person who does not know Jesus who He is and why he or she needs Him.
I opened this message talking about The Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world. Ladies and gentlemen, when someone says your name, do you know what heaven hears? Heaven hears “Mona Lisa” because you are God’s masterpiece! You are God’s prized possession! This is what the “more sure word” says!
Never again underestimate your value in heaven. Never again speak of yourself as something less than what the “more sure word” – the word that is “fixed, sure, certain; figuratively that upon which one may build, rely or trust; that which does not fail or waver, immovable” – says about you! And it says “You are God’s masterpiece!
You are who the “more sure word” says you are!
