The Bible- God's Special Revelation

In this sermon, Pastor Tony Costa preaches from II Peter 1:16-21.  This sermon actually preceded the one on false prophets, and assures us that the Bible is indeed inspired by and is God's word, not man's imagination.  Pastor Tony also makes the point that our experiences are not a sure way of Christian understanding unless we test the experiences with the word of God. "the Bible is the only book whose author is always present when we read it." Outline: 1. Peter's experience- 1:16-18 2. God's special revelation- 1:19-21 a. the Authority of the Word (Acts  17:11) b. the Authorship of the Word (Acts. 5:32) c. the Inspiration of the Word (Mat. 5:18; John 20:30-31; Acts 1:16; Acts 24:14; Samuel 23:1-2) d. the Illumination of the Word (1 Cor. 2:12-14; John 16:13) "it is possible for a man to analyze the Bible and lose it in the process; to prepare a synthesis of the Bible and lose his soul... to make himself perfectly familiar with the letter and to find out that the letter kills because he has lost touch with the spirit"  G. Campbell Morgan