Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. That is the testimony of every
believer, isn't it? And tonight, as every night we
gather, our hope is that God would speak. He would speak life. He would show us the light, show
us the way, the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us the words of life. If
he speaks to us, the good news is it'll be in mercy. It'll be
in grace. He doesn't speak to everyone.
He speaks to his people, and when he speaks to them, he speaks
by grace. He speaks in mercy. He speaks,
it is finished. That's what he speaks. It's always according to his
own purpose and will. You know, something he never
does say, and tonight I've titled this message, The Word of God.
But you know what he never ever says? He never says, won't you
let me have my way? God doesn't say that. I remember
so often coming out of false religion, as some of you did,
men would say that, well, just that, you better let God have
his way. You better do this and you better
do that. Aren't you glad God's gonna have
his way? And nothing you and I can do can stop that, or can
change it, or can alter it in any way, in any way. Christ says
this, I am the way. The Lord doesn't say let me have
my way, he says I am the way. I love the Lord's authority,
don't you? I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man come
to the Father but by me, but by me. It's my choice, it's my
power, it's my purpose, it's by my will. I'm glad I can't
mess that up. It's his command, isn't it? Let's
read this, I didn't give you my text yet. Proverbs chapter
four, turn with me there. That's a first, isn't it? Proverbs chapter four. As I was
studying this, there is a lot in this particular chapter regarding
wisdom and I was trying to determine, and I had too much information.
It was just so, there's so much there. It was hard to condense. And so I went back and I read
the verse that we read last week. And I'm just gonna read one verse
tonight, it's verse five. Get wisdom, get understanding,
forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. That's why I've titled it The
Word of God, The Words of My Mouth. This is the Lord. This
is the Lord talking to his people. He's saying, don't decline from
the words of my mouth. If we are to have wisdom, it
must come through and by the word of God. That's the only
way it comes. The wisdom of God and the word
of God, as we just read in John chapter one, is one and the same.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the wisdom of God and he
is the word of God. He always speaks to his people
of his darling son. He always points us to the finished
work of Christ. Never saying do, but done. Never saying work, but it's finished. Never commanding us to merit
a righteousness, but look to the merits of the Lord Jesus
Christ as our righteousness. He always speaks of his son.
Do you remember in Mark 9, mountain of transfiguration, the Lord
was there with Peter and a couple other, James and John, a couple
other disciples. And the Lord was transfigured
before them. His glory came upon him, if you
will. They saw him there glorified. And Elijah and Moses were speaking
with him. And I love Peter. But boy, he
put his foot in his mouth this time. He looked at the Lord after
Elijah and Moses left, said, Lord, it's good that we were
here. Let's build three tabernacles right now. One for you, one for
Elijah, one for Moses. And God speaks and says, this
is my beloved son. Hear him, hear him. Don't go to the law. Moses represents
the law. Don't go to the law for righteousness. Don't go to the prophets and
try to find some new prophecy that hasn't come to pass. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness and he's the complete fulfillment
of all the prophecies of the Old Testament. No, we don't need
three tabernacles, do we? No, we just need Christ. We just
need Christ. The simplicity that's found in
the person and work of Christ is eternal life. This is what
God speaks. This is why it's important we
don't decline from the words of his mouth. Declining from
the words of his mouth is to decline from Christ himself. If he doesn't choose to speak,
if he remains silent, then that's all that has to happen for you
and I to condemn ourself. If he doesn't choose to speak,
if he chooses to leave us to ourself, that's all that has
to happen for you and I to be left to ourself. It's all power
is given him, he said, all power is given to me, both in heaven
and in earth of my father, all power. He must choose to speak,
to reveal himself. Turn with me to John chapter
six. I think we looked at this recently, but this is exceptionally
fitting for what we're describing tonight. Here in chapter six, they just
had the miracle of 5,000 being fed by five loaves and two fishes. the Lord departs from them on
a ship and He goes to the other side. And they track Him down. When they came to find Him after
He sent them away and they came back they wanted more bread.
And He even tells them that, He said, you didn't come to Me for the
words of life you came to get your bellies full. You came to
get your bellies full. And as they are talking He tells
them, I am the bread of life. Look at verse 35 of chapter 6, And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe not. This is to the point that we
said just a few moments ago about if the Lord doesn't cause us
to believe, we will not believe. We will not come to him for the
bread of life. We'll look for health, wealth,
and prosperity as favor of the Lord, but we won't come to him
for eternal life. Here's the good news of the gospel,
though, look at verse 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. He's saying every single person
given to me by Father will come to me. They will be given faith
to hear my voice. They will be given faith to believe
me. They will be given the need to
hunger and thirst after righteousness. Verse 38, for I came down from
heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will, which has sent me, that
of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of
Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth
on Him. Now, many people saw the Lord
Jesus Christ, as we're gonna see that here in just a moment,
but they didn't believe on Him. They were not enabled to believe
on Him. Everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last
day." Now, what did they do at this point? Did they say, amen,
truth, Lord, and believe? Give us this bread. Give us your
body. We don't understand it, but we
believe it. We've got to have it. No, what did they do? Look right
here. The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am
the bread which came down from heaven. They murmured. They murmured,
it's amazing. They asked him for a sign just
before this. They said, show us a sign. What
brought up this whole conversation was, is they said, Moses gave
us manna in the wilderness. Show us a sign like Moses. Lord
just fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes, the same group.
That wasn't a good enough sign, was it, to believe? You remember
the rich man that died and he went to hell. Scripture said,
lifted up his eyes being in torment. Seeing Abraham afar off, he didn't
ask for the fountain of living water. He asked for one more
drop of water. Hell itself is not enough to compel or cause
a man or woman to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He has
all the power through and by his word. And if he doesn't speak,
we'll remain lost. But the good news is, all that
the Father giveth me, they're gonna come to me. They're gonna
come to me. Everyone else is gonna murmur. It's left to ourself,
that's us. We'll see the 5,000 fed. We'll see the 12 baskets taken
up at the end of it, and we'll say, yeah, Lord, but show me
a sign. Show me something else. Give
me a wow factor. Lord said, there'll be no sign
given but that of the prophet Jonas, who was the belly of the
whale for three days and three nights. So shall the Son of Man
be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. It's his
death, it's his burial. The sign is his resurrection.
That's our only sign to believe on. And what did Abraham even
tell that rich man in hell? If one was to return from the
dead, they would not believe. He said, let me go back to my
brothers, send Lazarus to my brothers so I can warn them about
this place. If one returned from the dead, they will not believe.
Why? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing comes by the word
of God. Now, I used to think that that
meant you have to hear more of the Word of God to have faith.
No, the Word of God has to give you faith to have faith. That's
what that means. The Word of God is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the power, by
the purpose, by the will of the Word of God. Let's read some more of this.
After they murmur, look here at verse 60. Skip down to verse
60 with me. He continues to talk with them.
And as he's talking to them about being the bread, he said, I'm
the bread that came down from heaven. Your father's a deep
man in the wilderness. He said, I'm the bread of life. And here's
what they do in verse 60. Many therefore of his disciples,
when they had heard this said, this is an hard saying. And here's
the question, who can hear it? Who can hear it? Who can hear
the word of God? That's the title of the message.
Who can hear the word of God? Those which God enables to hear. Those which God enables to hear.
Then Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it
and he said unto them, doth this offend you? What and if ye shall
see the son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the
spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. That's
the difference right there, isn't it? They're life. They're not,
they are the words of eternal life by the spirit of God. It's
not of the flesh. That which is of the flesh is
flesh. That which is of the spirit is spirit. That's what he told
Nicodemus. But you have to be born again and only God can birth
us. by his spirit. Verse 64, but there are some
of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they
were that would betray him, that believe not and who should betray
him. He said, therefore, he said, therefore said I unto you that
no man can come unto me except it were given of him by my Father."
There it is again. You cannot come unless it's given
of the Father. You cannot hear my voice unless
I give you the ability, the faith to believe, the life. Here's
verse 66. He says, from that time, many
of the disciples went back and walked no more with him. But
some stayed, and here's what happened. Then said Jesus unto
the 12, will you go away also? And here's our confession, brethren,
if you've heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, this is your confession. Then
Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life. Where are we gonna go? Nobody
else has the words of eternal life but you. Where are we gonna
go? We can't go back to the the pig trough that we came from
to satisfy from the husks. No, that ain't gonna work. We
have to have the water now. We have to have the bread of
life now. We have to have Christ. To whom
shall we go? No, when someone hears that it's
his blood alone, his work alone, that he predestinated a people.
He elected them unto eternal life according to his own good
purpose and will. Then he justified. It's his work
that justified his people. It's his work that redeemed his
people. It's his work that put away the sin of his people forever.
You hear those words. You'll be like some of these.
Some people will be like some of these. The disciples went
and walked with him no more. Couldn't hear that. It's a hard
saying, they said. Who can hear this? It's a hard
saying. That's too simple. Who can understand
this? But then you see the gift of
faith by grace. It says, Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal
life. We're just like Mary. Just keep talking, Lord. We're
just listening at his feet, at his feet. It's the Lord's word that ordained
his people to eternal life. Did you know it's not difficult
to believe that? It's impossible. It's impossible
to believe God in the flesh. I said that Sunday. It's true.
I used to think, well, it's really hard to understand some of these
things. No, it's impossible. It takes faith. Somebody asked
me one time, had a list of questions, and they were asking me these
questions, and they said, what about this? And the Bible says
this, and what about this? And what about that? And I said,
come sit and listen. Come sit and listen. And after
some time went by, he came up to me, probably a year or so
went by, he came up and said to me, I've been sitting and
listening and I don't have any questions anymore. I don't have
any questions anymore. And I said, why is that? He said,
because I realized Christ is all. That's it, isn't it? Only the Lord can reveal that.
I can't reveal that. He has to do it. Oh, the Lord
does to his people. He reveals the truth. God must speak the word to the
heart and give faith. Lord, to whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life. You're the only one that can
speak the word. Only one that can speak the word. Let there
be light, and light comes out of darkness. Only one that can
speak the word. Lazarus, come forth, and death
has to let go. Only one that can speak the word.
Peace, be still, and the winds and waves immediately become
calm. What manner of man is this that the winds and seas obey
him? He's the word of God. In another place, they were talking. Peter had a right answer sometimes,
and sometimes he had terrible answers. But this time, he had
a really good answer. And it was given to him. We find
that Peter didn't produce it. God gave it to him. And they're
talking, and the Lord said, who do you say that I am? Who do
men say that I am? And he says, well, some say you're
Elijah or some, or this prophet or that prophet. And he said,
who do you say that? And that's the question. Who
do you say that the Lord Jesus Christ is? The only way that
you can have this answer that Peter gave is if the Lord gives
you the faith to believe and to say it by faith. Lord, I believe
that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed
art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal
this to you, but my Father which is in heaven. No man come to
the Father but by me. No man can come to me except
the Father which sent me to draw him. He's got all the power. He's got all the words of eternal
life. I love that he, When he speaks
the word of power, life comes to existence out of death, light
shines out of darkness, peace is created out of chaos and fear,
sorrow is turned to joy just by his word, just by him speaking
it. The lame walk, the dumb speak,
the blind see, the deaf hear, just by his word. Wilt thou be
made whole? Sir, I have no man, I can't help
myself. That's what that infinite man
at the pool of Bethesda said. Lord passes by all these people,
walks up to this young man or older man, he'd been there for
40 years, he's probably an older man. Says to him, wilt thou be
made whole? Passed by these thousands, we
have to speculate, but probably thousands of people, it's a city.
Wilt thou be made whole? He had a good answer. Sir, I
have no man to help me. I have no man. This cannot help
me. I don't have a man to help me.
Nobody will help me, and I can't help myself. The Lord said, arise. At his word, the man gained strength,
no longer impotent. At his word, arise, take up your
bed, and immediately, immediately, he gained strength, and he got
up. He got up, and that's exactly what he does to each one of his
people. At the appointed time, he comes to them where they're
at, laying beside the pool that they're hoping one day will give
them righteousness, but never will. And he says, well, thou
be made whole. And at that time, he's given
repentance and he's given faith to believe him. So we say, sir,
I have no man. And he said, be thou made whole.
Be thou made whole. And he shows us, he takes away
the filthy rags of our righteousness and reveal he has put away the
sin that we are and he's robed us in his righteousness and put
a ring on our finger, his signet. Sat us at his table to eat from
the Lord's own, and you know something that you just, it's
too hard to understand. He says, I'm gonna girt myself
one day and I'm gonna serve you. at the marriage supper of the
lamb. It's like, Lord, you're not gonna serve me. That's what
Peter thought when he said, Lord, you ain't gonna wash my feet.
He said, Peter, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with
me. We hear those words. We're gonna say, Lord, not my
feet only, but my hands and my head too then. We gotta have
part with you. What a picture of the Lord's
humility. He's gonna serve his people.
After everything he's already done, he's gonna, what do you
think's gonna be on that table? Oh, it's gonna be the bread of
life. It's gonna be the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's gonna be the water, the
water of life. These Pharisees, you go into
the next chapter, as Jesus is walking through Galilee, chapter
seven, it said, and the Jews sought to kill him. The Jews
sought to kill him after he told them just the truth. That's all
he said was the truth. They actually sent to him, this
is glorious, they sent for him. They said, go get him. They said,
we're gonna kill him now, but we've had enough of him. And
they sent for him to take him away. And as they go to talk
to him, he's speaking, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to these
Jews and they leave empty handed. They go back to the Pharisees,
the ones that sent on the religious sect. They say, why didn't you
bring him? That was your whole job to go get him. Look what
it says in verse 46 of chapter seven. The officers, verse 45 first. Then came the officers to the
chief priests and Pharisees. They said to them, why have you
not brought him? The officers answered, never
a man spake like this man. Never a man. Spake like this
man. The Pharisees got upset and said,
are you deceived also? He said, no, never a man spake
like this man. He has the words of eternal life. He has the words of eternal life.
Wilt thou be made whole? They that are whole need not
a physician. These Pharisees were whole. They didn't need a physician,
but they that are sick. Scripture says, Lord said, I
didn't come to call the righteous, but the sinners, the sinners
to repentance. I come to cleanse the lepers.
I come to show them that they have leprosy from the top of
their head to the bottom of their feet. I've come to show them
that they are sinners, but fear not. I've put away your sin. You shall not die. That's what
his word says. Pharisees, they go on talking.
Pharisees said unto the Once you get over to chapter nine,
you remember the young man that was blind from birth and he was
sitting outside a temple and the Lord walked by and he healed
him. But it was on the Sabbath day.
Of course, they didn't realize he is the Sabbath. That's the
whole point. They thought it was a day. He
is the Sabbath, we know that. But they come out ridiculing
him and whatever else. Then they wanted to know, they
asked the parents, they said, was this Jesus? Is he the one
that did this? And the parents looked at the
Pharisees and said, well, he's of age, ask him, ask the boy.
And the boy, they said, this was the question. I was trying
to remember the verse, but yeah, this is the question, this is
the verse. They said, give God the glory. Is this man a sinner? And the man said, whether he's
a sinner or not, I know not. This one thing I know, whereas
I was blind, but now I see. Never a man spake like this man.
Never a man spake like this man. They came and interrogated Jesus
after that. And they asked him, he said, are you telling us that
we're blind? We're not blind. The Lord said to him, If you
were blind, you should have no sin, but now you say, we see,
therefore your sin remaineth. Your sin remaineth. And he tells
them why. You believe not because you're not my sheep, as I said
unto you. You believe not because you're
not my sheep. You will not come to me that you have everlasting
life, because you're not my sheep. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
from my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them from my
Father's hand. I and my Father are one. You know what the next
verse says? And they took up stones to stone
him. They took up stones to stone
him. Never a man spake like this man. He asked them when they took
up stones, for which good work? Are you stoning me for?" And
he said, that's not for a good work. It's because you being
a man, make yourself God, like God. He was the God man. He didn't make himself the Lord.
You understand. It was, they, they couldn't see
him. They couldn't see him. He was
the God man, a hundred percent man, a hundred percent God. So
they decided they're going to take him there by force, but
he slipped out of their hands. He escaped away from them. Unless
God reveals himself to us, unless he speaks this word of power
and causes us to hear, we will never see him. We will never
know him. But the good news of the gospel
is all that the father give me, they shall come to me. They shall
come to me. He comes to where we are. polluted
in our sin, saturated in our pride and our unrighteousness,
our filthy rags. And he says, I put away your
sin, you shall not die. I put away your sin, you shall
not die. He's the only one that could
say Lazarus come forth and he does that for every one of his
people. We have another account in the
scripture of when the Lord actually went somewheres and explained
who he was to someone, and they believed. You remember the Samaritan
woman? And it's interesting how that chapter starts. The Lord
says, I must needs go through Samaria. I've got to go. Why? There's a sheep there. There's
a sheep there. I've got to go to my sheep. Lord
goes to the well at noon, knew exactly when that woman would
be there. And he walks up to her and she says, she says, you have
nothing to draw with. The well is deep. And he said,
if you knew who asked you give me to drink, you'd asked of him
and he would have give you living water. She said, sir, give me
this water that I thirst no more. And he said, well, go fetch your
husband. She said, well, I don't have a husband. He said, you're
very well spoken. You've had five and the one you
have now isn't your own. She said, sir, I perceive you're
a prophet. Well, here's my religion. We worship in this mountain.
If you're a prophet, we worship in this mountain, but you say
to Jerusalem is where we're supposed to worship. The Lord says, well,
the time is coming and now is that no man, no one will worship
in this mountain. God is a spirit and they that
worship must worship him in spirit and in truth. And I love this
part. She says to him, well, when Messiah
comes, he'll fix you right up. He'll tell us everything. He'll
fix it. And he says, I am. And she left her water pot. And
she ran into the city and she said, same thing the other man
said, no, I never, no man's ever spake like this man. Come see
a man that told me all things ever I did, is this not Christ?
That's the word of his power. She left her water pot. She left
her false religion. She left her righteousness behind.
She wasn't worried about that mountain anymore. She'd seen
the face of God. She seen the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it odd that the first thing
he does is he exposed her righteousness. He knew how to do that. He's
God. He knew how to do that. And it
was her hiding her sin, but penance was paid because she worshiped
in that mountain. That's what it was. And he exposes that first,
then reveals who he is. And that's what he does for each
of us. He exposes our sin first, shows us that we're sinners.
And then shows us the Lord Jesus Christ as the savior, the substitute
of his people. On the other hand, isn't it odd
that the Lord says unto them, I'm the bread of life. These
Pharisees, he said, I'm the bread of life. I'm the door to the
sheepfold. I am the good shepherd. I and
my father are one. He even says, my word is eternal
life. This is what he's telling them.
And that's what I'm preaching right now. That's exactly what
I'm declaring. And they took up stones to stone him. They
said, away with this man. Let his blood be upon us and
on our children. We don't want him. We don't want him. They refused to believe because
they had a righteousness by the law. Righteousness by the law,
that's not a righteousness at all. But this woman was given
faith and he said to her, I am. And she left her water pot. Bet
you she left that one man she was with too, don't you? Or got
married, she had to fix it, I know that's right. She wanted to honor
the Lord after that. She wanted to honor the Lord.
She left her water pot. Said, come see a man that told
me all things ever I did. Never a man spake like this man. Never a man spake like this man.
What manner of man is this that the winds and sea obeyeth his
voice? We have but one hope. We have
but one hope tonight that the Lord would speak the same words
of peace to the storm of God's wrath that we deserve. And he did. On the cross of Calvary
for everyone that he loves, everyone that he died for, everyone that
he shed his blood for, he put away their sin. There is no more
wrath due us. And one of the greatest words
that we ever hear in the scripture that we can believe by faith
is, it is finished. That's what he reveals to his
people. The work is done, rest on the Sabbath. rest on the Sabbath,
there remaineth a rest to the people of God. Why? Because the
word of his power, he's accomplished it all. Everything he said he
would do, he did. The law was satisfied. Every
prophecy fulfilled. Justice has been executed. Righteousness
has been bestowed upon the children of God. Upon everyone he ordained
to eternal life, they've been saved. And then in time, that
word of power comes to where you and I are and he calls us,
calls us out of darkness into his light, says live, says live. He says to his elected wayward
sinners, I like that word wayward, I looked that up. His elected
wayward sinners, fear not, the Lord has put away thy sin, you
shall not die. Come, take of the water of life
freely, that's the word of his power. What does freely mean? Somebody said, well, that's a
silly question. No, there's a lot of people I don't think understand
what freely means. Freely means freely. I love that
simplicity. Freely means freely. You can
come and buy, but you come by without money and without price.
Why? The blood of Jesus Christ has
paid it in full. Come and buy, but you can't bring
your money. Come take freely the water of
life. Now in closing, I wanna read
our text again. Proverbs four, verse five, get
wisdom, get understanding, forget it not, neither decline from
the words of my mouth. Oh, how we need the word of the
Lord. how we need the word of the Lord
to be spoken in our hearts. If you want the wisdom of God,
come to Christ. He is the wisdom of God. If you
want the word of God to speak to you, come to Christ. Come
to Christ. How do I come to Christ? Don't
move a muscle. Come to Christ with the faith that he's given
you to. Cry out unto him, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.
And not one sinner that he's put that prayer in their heart
has ever been cast away. All that the Father give me shall
come to me. and I will not cast him out. You that desire to hear the word
of God, his word, look to Christ who is the word of God. It's
amazing, scripture says, in the beginning, the very beginning
was the word. The very beginning was the word.
You know what's gonna be at the very end of all this? The word. The word is everlasting. He never
had a beginning, he never had an end. And everything he's spoken
has come to pass and is going to come to pass because he's
spoken it. It's finished. It's finished. May God be pleased
to speak the words of eternal life to us right now. Let's pray. Father, we love your
word. We love your truth. Take this
and bless it to our understanding. Thank you for getting your glory.
In Christ's name, amen.