I don't know many songs, but
this is a good one anyway. On a cross crucified in great
sorrow He died. The giver of life was He Yet
my Lord was despised and rejected of me This Jesus, the Lamb of
God He was bruised for our transgressions
He was bruised for our iniquities Surely He has borne all our sorrows And by His stripes you're healed He has healed my sick soul Made
me every way whole He'll do the same He's the same yesterday and today
and forever. The healer of souls, you'll see. He was wounded for our iniquity. Surely He has known all our sorrows
by His stripes we are made. Surely He has won all our sorrows
And by His stripes we are healed I'm thankful for a lot of things.
I'm thankful that the Lord was gracious to allow us to have
a safe trip to get here last night. I'm thankful that we have this
week to be able to spend with Paul and Mindy and Hannah that
the Lord's given us something that we could even do. I'm thankful
that I have the privilege this morning just to be here. That's
a great honor to even be asked to stand in a place that is only
deserving of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one that deserves
to stand up. to have anything to say, but
it's through the foolishness of preaching that he has chosen
a way to have his word proclaimed. I'm thankful that the Lord has
given you a man that loves you, that loves his word. It's faithful. I'm thankful. that this morning that God has
given us another opportunity, that we can all come together
and we can hear something, hopefully, from him, from his Word. And
I pray this morning that the Lord might be pleased to say
something to us. Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Job, chapter 4. Job 4, and I'd like to read verse 15
and 16. Job 4, verse 15. Then a spirit passed before my
face. The hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not
discern the form thereof. An image was before mine eyes. There was silence, and I heard a voice saying, there was silence. And in that silence, Job said,
I heard something. I heard a voice. There was nothing
there, but I heard something. It was quiet, but I heard something. Now, you know, a moment never
passes that the Lord that God of all creation does not constantly
speak. The song that we just sang, Summer
and Winter, Harvest, you know, there's never a time when we
cannot say that God is not speaking constantly. The sun never rises. The moon never shines, the stars
never twinkle, the wind never blows, the waves never move their
majestic waves unless God is not speaking. In some way, the
Lord is saying something in his august voice of order. The sun came up right on time. The oceans never move unless
they stay right within their boundaries. The tide comes up, it comes up
just so far, and it goes right back. Nothing ever happens unless
God is not speaking in complete authority. Man would be foolish,
he'd be speaking out of the utter depths of his depravity unless
he would admit that God does not speak constantly. Now, let me ask you something. Did God not speak to Moses on
the Mount out of a burning bush? Does the Scriptures not say he
did? Does the Scriptures not say that he spoke on the day that the Lord Jesus
Christ was baptized and said, This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased? Does the Scriptures not say that? Does the Scriptures not say that
he spoke to Saul of Tarsus? on the road to Damascus. And
when Saul asked him, Who art thou? does the Scriptures not
say that I am Jesus, whom you have persecuted? Does the Scriptures
not say that? Yes, God does speak, but I think
that we are many times in how he speaks to men. Now, I know
that there are a lot of people that pride themselves in saying,
well, the Lord spoke to me. God said to me. The Lord spoke to me. I had a vision. I had a, you know, well, you
know, I don't want make a big deal out of this, but let me
tell you what the Lord said to me. People have a real sense
of pride in saying that they perceive something from the Lord,
but it often appears to me that when someone starts telling me
how the Lord has spoken to them, it always seems to have something
to do with that which is not consistent
with Scripture. It's contrary to Scripture. And
immediately, when we start talking about having heard something
from the Lord, we immediately have to start thinking about
this thing that hangs on the side of our head. It has something
to do with the anvil and the stirrup. You know, I'm speaking
right now. You hear my voice. There's something
that comes out of here, and look, it's a funny thing. It comes
out of here, but I can do like this, I can do right here, but
you still hear. You can still hear what I'm saying.
It's a funny thing, you know. There's nothing right here. There's
nothing. But you still hear me, and it
doesn't come out of my voice. I mean, it's not out of my mouth
that quick. And immediately, you hear exactly what I said.
Something, you know, right here in the front. You hear it just
as quickly as they do on the back, and it goes right in, and
I'm saying these words, and there's just one word right after the
other, and it's just right in a flow, and you hear, you heard
it, and you understood it. You understood what I said six
words ago, and all of a sudden, you know, it makes sense to you.
You heard something. So someone says, I heard from
the Lord. The Lord spoke to me. We start
thinking about this ear right here. I heard something. But let me ask you something.
Is there really any difference in men's ears right here? Now, I know that there are some
people that have a hard of hearing. We were talking about Bill Sasser
a while ago, and I always pick at Bill. Bill would tell me,
he said, now Marvin, he said, some people think I'm hard of
hearing. But he said, I hear everything they say. He said,
I just pretend like I don't hear sometimes, just to see what they're
going to say. I know sometimes there are people
that we say are hard of hearing, but really, if there's nothing
wrong with this ear, is there really any difference? in the
ears of men? If it's this, if this is what
we're going to hear from God with, is there any difference
with this? Now, when the scriptures speak
of men hearing from the Lord, there's times when I've read
that some men heard and some men didn't. If there is no difference in
the ear, the natural ear, then evidently we could start
debating forever whether God's voice was an audible voice, or maybe we could say that it
was something like the little story that I've heard a question
that people have asked me before, and I don't know. They'll say,
you know, if a tree falls in the forest and there's no one
there, is there any sound? Who cares? I don't know. I mean, how am I going to know?
I mean, what difference does it make? Is there an audible sound or
is there not an audible sound? I'll tell you this when it comes
to this thing of hearing from God. It doesn't make any difference
whether or not Moses heard an audible voice,
or whether Saul heard an audible voice, or whether or not anyone
has ever heard that which we'd call audible. Personally, I tell you that I
believe that the things of the Spirit are
not carnally discerned. That's what the Scripture says.
So then really the bottom line is it doesn't matter if it's
an audible voice. When a man hears from God this
thing of an audible voice, what you're hearing right now, you're
hearing an audible voice. But I promise you this, unless
you hear something more than an audible voice, it will avail
you nothing. Job said, There was an image before mine
eyes, and there was silence And I heard a voice. There is, in this thing of hearing
from God, there's a language of silence that we must be brought
to hear. There was silence, but I heard
the voice. Now, I know that you take a congregation
of people, and there's going to be some
audible words proclaimed. Everyone is going to hear this
way, but some of you will hear a language
of silence. There's a broadcast that's made,
and there's two voices when it comes to this thing of the gospel.
And this voice, this audible voice, will go out, but then
there's a language of silence that's only spoken by the Spirit
of God. And to one person, They'll hear
something. They'll hear something that's
more than an audible voice. You'll hear something even while
these words fall upon this anvil and this stirrup. All the while,
there's something else that's happening. And there's two conversations
that's going on at the same time. And one conversation that is
silent, but audible, is feeding the soul of a believer. And you
hear, humanly speaking, you hear something, but all the while
there's something on, and there's two conversations going on, and
one of them is fed to you naturally, and the Spirit of God takes that
natural voice, and he takes that natural voice and he speaks to
your spirit. He speaks to the soul of a person. And you hear something. But you
just can't put your hand on it. It's a language of silence. It's
something that's happening while something else is going on. You
can get anybody in here. You can pull anybody off the
street and shut them down and put them under the sound of the
gospel. And let them listen to what's being said. And naturally
speaking, they'll say, I heard the gospel right here. But unless
God does something for them, there was another language that
was there that they didn't hear. There was an image before mine
eyes, and there was silence, but I heard a voice. Some hear it, some don't. Some have hearts that burn while
they sit under the sound of the truth, and others just tolerate
the time. sit through and just wait and
just listen, you know, flip through the books. They just bide their
time. And others just sit there and
they hear something, but they hear something else. And God
speaks to them, and He takes words that had been spoken to
them maybe years before concerning the gospel, and He brings it
back to their memory. And once again, they hear something,
that caused the very innermost part of their being just to glow
with thanksgiving because of one that has done something for
them that they realize now by the grace of God that had he
not done it for them that they'd be sitting right here lost, hopelessly
lost. And there's a praise, a thanksgiving
that's going on in this language of silence. And they're just set afire by
the grace of God with a language that cannot be heard. That's
a strange thing. What's happening during this
time of fellowship? I believe absolutely that there
is a language of silence that's heard by some, and by some it's
nothing. Two people can hear and one can
get up out to the service, has truly heard something, he can
say to the other one, Boy, wasn't that good? And the other one
may say to him, Oh yeah, that was good. But he's a liar. He didn't hear anything. While a man speaks and everything
seems to be silent, you're not saying anything. But if God has
done something for Christ's sake, for you, you hear something. You hear something more than
what I can say. You hear a language that I do
not know how to speak. I speak in a language called
English. But in the book of Hebrews, the
Word of God says, God, diverse times and in sundry manners,
spoke unto us by the prophet, hath in these last days spoken
unto us, and you look at it, his, the word his is italicized. means it's not there. It says,
"...has spoken unto us by sun." There is a language that you
and I know nothing about, and it's the language of sun. I speak
in English. He speaks in sun. And we hear
this language of sun silently by his grace, by his power, by
his mercy, but we do hear. We hear. This language, first of all,
it's a language of the heart. It's not a natural language. It's not a language that's understood
naturally. It's a language that's understood
by the heart. by the being of a person, by
the spirit. You have to hear something because
God has ordained that you must hear the preaching of the gospel. Can a man be converted under
any kind of preaching? No. No. No, because the scripture
says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The Lord
not going to honor preaching that does not honor his Son.
His Son must be honored. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. You hear him. And anything that
does not honor the Son is not blessed of the Father. It's a
language of the heart. For a man, then, to ever hear
anything from the Lord God's going to have to do something
for his heart, not this thing that pumps inside, but he's going
to have to change the nature of a man. For a man to ever hear
this language of silence, God's going to have to do something
for him. Jeremiah chapter 24, I'll just read this to you. Jeremiah
24, verses 4 through 7, the Lord says, Again the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, Like
these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive
of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of
the Chaldeans for their good. And I will set mine eyes upon
them for good, and I will bring them again to this land, and
I will build them, not pull them down, and I will plant them,
and not pluck them up, and I will give them a heart to know me,
that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will
be their God, for they shall return unto me with their whole
heart." Now, you listen. That last little part of that
verse, they shall return unto me with their whole heart, that
is a heavy statement. Because I've heard people say,
well, I live by the Ten Commandments. Well, you know when the first
commandment, you know, love the Lord thy God with all your heart
and your mind and your spirit. How many people here can truthfully
say, well I got up this morning and I tell you from the moment
that I was conscious, that I was even awake, I have yet to cease
Loving the Lord with all of my heart and all of my spirit and
all of my being and everything that I've done this morning,
even when I got in my car, I started that car to the glory of God.
And I drove here every moment praising with a perfect praise. I've blessed him. And to this
moment, I have yet to stop honoring him. We're all guilty. There's not one that has done
good. Not one. So when the Lord says, I will
cause them to honor me with their whole heart, that's outside of
you and me. We're guilty. And unless God
does something for us, we're just not going to hear. It's
a language of the heart. Ezekiel 11, verse 19, the Scripture
says, I'm going to give them a heart, I'm going to put a new
spirit within you, and I'm going to take the old stony heart out
of their flesh, and I'm going to give them a heart of flesh
that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and do
them, and they shall be my people, and I'm going to be their God,
unless God does something for me. then I have no hope whatsoever
of hearing something that is by nature unhearable. It just
goes out. There's a silent language that
goes and just mingles out. And one person hears it and one
person doesn't. One person, it just permeates
his very being, brethren. It just passes him by. And he
never knows it. If God gives a man a new heart,
that which is dead and silent to others is going to be an anthem
of jubilee and praise to the one that God's done something
for. What do I owe this ability to hear this language of silence?
Who do I owe that to? I owe it to the one who is my
substitute. I owe it to the one who is my
propitiation, the one who is my mercy seat, who is my covering,
the one who now has wrapped me in the robes of his righteousness. That's who I owe this to. He's
going to praise God with a praise that's outside of himself. 1
Samuel chapter 2 and verse 1, Hannah says, It says, Scripture
says, And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord,
my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth is enlarged over mine
enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. If God does something
for a person, they'll forever praise him for
what he has accomplished. It's a language of the heart. It's a language that absolutely
demands my respect. Oh, that I could, that I had
the words to be able to say, I'll tell my children, I want to be right up front with
you. My prayer is that God would open your heart and teach you
something about the gospel. If God doesn't open the heart of my kids, my wife, and myself,
we're going to die. If God doesn't give them some
understanding, he will justly send my children to hell. And
he'll be right. And I will praise him for his
justice. This language demands reverence
and respect. In Habakkuk, Chapter 2, verse 18, the scripture says,
What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven
it, that the molten image, and the teacher of lies, and the
maker of his work, trusteth therein to make dumb idols? Woe unto
him that saith to the wood, Awake, and to the dumb stone arise,
which shall teach. Behold, it is laid over with
gold and silver, and there is no breath in all the midst of
it. But the Lord is in his holy temple,
and let all the earth keep silence before him." Parents, we are
talking about children, but there is no difference in our children
and us. It is imperative. that when we
come and we hear the preaching of the gospel, there is a great
responsibility. Paul, you know the responsibility
that you have to teach the word of God. That is an awesome responsibility,
to sit in a study and to realize, I must hear from God has given
your pastor the responsibility to study and to pray that God
would be pleased to tell him something. But you have a responsibility,
too, to come and to listen and to hear. And I would encourage
you, I encourage, I'm talking to me. Oh, that when I come to
hear the word of God, that God would prepare my heart to hear
that word. Because I know that this is the
only place that God's going to speak. He's
going to speak through the preached word. And my soul depends on
what I'm about to hear. Don't tell me a lie. For the
sake of my soul, you tell me the truth. And please don't sit
idly by. If you catch yourself, I'm just
being honest with you now, you catch yourself with your mind
a hundred miles away. How many of you have ever been
praying? And all of a sudden you catch yourself, you know,
you're just thinking about all, I mean, you just went right out
of prayer, right into what I'm going to do tomorrow. You know,
then you, oh God. You know, what am I doing? Where was I? Oh, that he would
keep me, keep me seeking after him. Lord, please don't let me
stray. Please don't let me just wander
off. Oh, listen, we're going to have,
I'm really looking forward to this week, to spending some time
with Paul and for you men that will be able to to help him. Honestly, I'm sincere when I
say this. I'm looking forward to this.
This is going to be a week of relaxation to me, to come and
just to spend some time because the work, you know, that's no
big deal. I mean, you know, we'd be doing
something anyway. I mean, you know, I'd find something to fill
up this week. I'd have to go to work somewhere,
you know. Oh, what a privilege to be able
to to come and fellowship with some men that love the gospel,
women that, you know, that love the truth. Have a lot of time
for that. But oh, right now, please don't
let me concentrate on that which is going to perish. Let my mind
be fixed on that which is imperative. This life has been a vapor. I
mean, it's over. I mean, you know. Old? I think, you know, I turned
40. Can you imagine? Forty. You know,
do you know how old that sounds to me, you know? It doesn't sound
as old as it used to. I mean, you know, 50 used to
be ancient to me when I was a teenager. Look old to me, 60 is not old,
you know. But all of a sudden, this life
is going to be This language is a language that demands some
reverence. Zephaniah 1.7 says, Hold thy
peace at the presence of the Lord, for the day of the Lord
is at hand. For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, and he
hath bid his guest. Zechariah 2.13 says, Be silent,
O all flesh, before the Lord, for he is raised up out of his
holy habitation. This language is a language that
demands reverence. When we come together, it is
demanded of us, hear the word of the Lord, all ye lands. The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all of the earth keep silence
before him. The best thing in the world that
you could do is to come and to sit under the sound of the gospel
and pray that God would say something to you. I want him to say something
to me. You know, it's one thing for
a mortal being to be silent before the Holy One. But I read something
that really struck my heart with conviction when it says, Be silent
before the Lord. You remember in the book of the
Revelation, when the Lord was opening and breaking the seals of the book. And the Word of God says that
right now, that there are cherubim, seraphims, that hover over God
himself. And they have never looked upon
him, because the scriptures say that they cover their eyes with
two of their wings. And with two of their wings,
they cover their feet. They are not pure in his sight. With two of the wings, they fly. And the scripture says that they
cry, holy, holy, holy, without ceasing. And when it comes to this saying
of being silent, when I think of these angels
that cry, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, Scripture says in the book
of Revelation chapter 8 and verse 1, it says, And when he opened
the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of
a half an hour. Do you realize the unfathomable
holiness of majesty of God that would cause these cherubims to
remain silent for a half an hour, that constantly cry, Holy, Holy,
Holy? The Scripture says that there
was silence in heaven for a half an hour. There is no way in the world
that I could even remotely begin to think about the reverence
that is demanded of this silence. of this language. The silent language demands some
respect. We may not see it right now.
We may not even come close. It may all be a joke. But one of these days, it's going
to be real. You know, there's language in
a look. I'm talking about a language
of silence. There's language in a look. If you think there's not language
in a look, you let me get on the telephone,
and I'm talking to someone, and it's important, and you let my
kids get loud. And then you ask them if there's
language in a look. When one of them realizes that
I'm looking, Buddy, she's trying to get the attention of the others
and say, Hey, Dad's looking. There's language in a look, and
for the Lord to look upon a sinner? Oh, listen, I don't want him
to look on me. Don't look on me outside of Christ. I don't want him to look at me.
No, Moses. No, we don't want to go up there.
You go up there, you talk to God. We'll stay right here. You
go talk to God. I don't want to go. Thirdly, it's a language of mercy. Psalms 94.17 says, Unless the
Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. Unless God had done something
for me, I would have heard nothing. There
is something that I hear. Even though it is a language
of silence, I hear something. Job said, I saw an image And
it was silent, but I heard a voice. I don't want my soul to stay
in silence. I want to hear something. It's not hard to see the vast
deafness of a world that's filled with people who have ears, but
they're dull of hearing. But after all the hoopla This
that men call religious experience is over. The servant of God hears
a sound that is audible only to his enlightened heart by a
merciful God. He came further into a cave and
lodged there, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him,
and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said,
I have been very jealous of the Lord God of hosts and of the
children of Israel. They have forsaken your covenant.
They have thrown down thine altars, and they have slain thy prophets
with the sword, and I, even I only, am left. And they seek my life
to take it away. He said, Go forth and stand upon
the mountain before the Lord, and behold, the Lord pass by,
and a great and strong wind rent the mountain, and break in pieces
the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake a fire, and the Lord was not in the fire.
But after the fire a still small voice." You know, isn't it amazing how
people today are always talking about there's got to be something
magnificent that impresses this old flesh? You know, listen, buddy, you
need to come on out. We're going to have a healing service this next
week. How do you know? How do you know? God's going
to heal some people. How do you know he's going to
heal some people? There were a lot of lepers that God just
passed by. There were a lot of starving
widows in Israel. God didn't come to any of them.
How do you know? Big earthquakes, you know. Big
wind, big fire. They said God wasn't in any of
it. But in that still small boy, I'd rather sit and hear something
of this language of silence. I'd rather God say something
to me, and all it was was just a preaching service. You know,
what did you all do? Well, we just had a preaching
service. Oh, really? Well, I'll tell you this. You
can have all the earthquakes and all the fires and all the
healing services and all of this kind of thing. that one that
heard that still, small voice heard from God. And all of this
other junk was just things and mess and stuff. All of the things that can be
said about this language of silence, there is one thing that strikes
some fear, though, in the heart of an unbeliever. Now, listen
to me. If you are here today, And you know God, you know him
by his grace, by his mercy. You know that. But if you don't know him, I'll tell you, this language, though it's a
language that's heard only by the heart,
it's a language that demands our reverence, It's a language
of mercy. But oh, woe, the scripture says,
unto the man that never hears this language before it's too
late. It's a language of damnation
if a man doesn't hear from God. For man never hears anything,
but with this audible ear, This language one day will be to his
condemnation. If God doesn't do something for
every one of us here today, there's not one person that will stand
before God and say, I never heard. We'll stand before him, and he'll
remind us every time Brother Paul is preached. You sat here then, you sat here
then, you sat here then, and you heard, and you heard him,
and you heard then, and it will be to your condemnation. This
language is a language that will be to our destruction for all
of eternity. Jeremiah chapter 15, verse 1
says, Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood
before me, yet mine Yet my mind could not be toward the people.
Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. And it shall
come to pass, they shall say unto thee, Whither shall we go
forth? When thou shalt tell them, thus saith the Lord, Such are
such for death to death, and such are such for the sword to
the sword, and such are for famine to famine, and such are for captivity
to captivity. And I will appoint over them
four kinds, saith the Lord. the sword to slay, the dogs to
tear, the fowls to the heaven, and the beasts of the earth to
devour and to destroy. And I will cause them to be removed
in all kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son
of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did to Jerusalem.
For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall
bemoan thee? Or who shall go aside to ask
how thou doest. Thou hast forsaken me, saith
the Lord, thou art gone backward, and therefore will I stretch
out my hand against thee, and destroy thee. I am weary with
repenting." If God does something for you, it's God's fault. If God doesn't do something for
you and send you to hell, it's your fault. If he does something
and speaks to me through this language of silence, He will
forever be honored in that which he has
done for himself and by himself. But oh, if he passes me by and
sends me to hell, he'll be just, he's right, and it was my fault
because I heard. If God doesn't do anything for
me, it's a language of condemnation. This last scripture, Micah chapter
3, starting in verse 1, and I said,
Here I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel,
is it not for you to know judgment, who hate the good and love evil,
and pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from
off their bones? who also shall eat the flesh of my people, and flay their
skin from off them, and they break their bones, and chop them
in pieces, as for the pot and for flesh within the cauldron.
Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them.
He will even hide his face from them at that time, and they have
behaved themselves ill in their doings." There are many times that as much is said in silence
as it is in peace. But woe to the man that God is
silent toward it. I pray this day that God, for
Christ's sake, might cause us to hear more in this audible
voice. This audible voice cannot do
anything for you. Pray that the God of all creation
will speak to you in a language of silence. Thank you.