All right, it's running, Paul.
If you would like to follow along, please turn to Hebrews chapter
one. Sometimes a sermon comes easy. Things just fall right into place
when I'm studying or when I'm looking at stuff. And sometimes
a sermon comes hard, where nothing seems to work, Walter, and it
doesn't work out sometimes. Because sometimes I wonder if
I have a sermon at all, and I have to lay it aside for later, maybe,
or not. This sermon I'm gonna try and
preach today is one of those where I have a statement that
I think I need to proclaim. I know that sounds a little presumptive,
but that's actually what we're supposed to do here. We are to
proclaim his holy name. Believe me, I know better than
you that I am nothing but an earthen vessel. And I'm not a
very good clay pot. I not only have feet of clay,
I've got a head full of clay. I've got earthly desires and
distractions and everything in between getting old, et cetera,
whatever. But, uh, I was thinking the other day,
I have found preaching to be a strange vocation or sending
or activity, however you want to term it, whatever you want
to call it. because I don't know exactly how to put
this other than the fact of this. Sometimes, Walter, I really don't
want to do this. And sometimes I do. And it might
be the same time. I don't quite get it, but that's
the way it is, you know? I really want to preach his word.
I want to proclaim his holy name. I wanna tell people about Jesus
Christ, his life, his work, and his love, and I am so scared
that I will mess it up. But here's the beautiful thing
about the gospel. I can't mess it up as long as I tell the truth. His truth will out. Man's truth,
no way, but his truth will out. I know we always triumph in Christ,
but sometimes I just don't feel triumphant. But anyhow, that
being said, the statement I wanna give to you is this, and then I'll read the
scripture. The creator speaks to his creation. Hebrews 1 verse 1, God who at
sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the
fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also
he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and
the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so
much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained
a more excellent name than they. Folks, that's the gospel. Right
there. See, I can read that and not
mess up, Mason. I don't have to worry about that.
But here it is, what Paul's written here is that God has spoken to
his creation. I was reading some stuff, looking to get an idea for a
sermon. And I read that phrase. The creator has spoken to his
creation. And that's just jumped right
out at me, which is really kind of strange because I'm seeing
how I'm the one that actually wrote that down. I was reading
something I wrote back in 2006. The creator has spoken to his
creation and it hit me all of a sudden, what a grace that is. You understand, think about it
this way. You know, God is way up here,
and we're way down here underneath the floor of the basement. We're
worms, maggots. I mean, I can understand that
he talked to Adam in the garden before he fell, but why talk
to us now? You know, what did he say about
us? We're less than the dust of the balance, not even the
dust, the small dust of the balance. We're less than a drop in the
ocean. But the creator has deigned,
as is his right, as sovereign, to speak to his creation. Now, I know some people might
get an idea by my saying that up there. I'm not talking about
the way I talk to animals because I talk to animals. They don't
understand me, but I talk to them anyway, but they understand
there. I'm carrying on both sides of
the conversation here. Our Lord in this book has told
us exactly what he wants. And he's told us exactly how
he's going to do what he wants. And he's doing it, done it, doing
it, and gonna continue to do it in his son, our Lord Jesus
Christ. God has spoken in times past. God whose thoughts are so much
higher than ours. has brought himself down. He sent himself down in the form
of a man at one time. But he spoke to us in words we
could understand by his grace. By his grace. The natural man
doesn't understand the things of the spirit of God, but the
spirit will reveal them to a man. Hmm the Creator has spoken to
his creation He who is perfection speaks to us fallen sinful man
That's a miracle. That's a miracle He spoke to
the fathers by the prophets Hmm with the exception of Adam
before he fell I All of the fathers that he's talking about here
were just like us. Fallen, sinful men. That goes for Moses and Abraham
and Isaiah and all the prophets. But he spoke to them. He spoke
to them. He spoke to the fathers. How? By the prophets. And he speaks
to us now. How? Well, he speaks to us through
the prophets. We've got your word right here.
He speaks to us through the recorded words of his only begotten son,
which again, we have right here. He speaks to us through the words
of his apostles, which we have, again, right here. It's amazing
how whenever you wanna talk about the words of God, all we've got
is this book right here. is the scriptures, and that's
what we say. The scriptures are the final
authority. We believers don't really have
what the Catholics call the church fathers, and we don't need the
writings. His writings are right here.
Now I enjoy good books where people have actually looked at
the scriptures and talked about them, written about them. But
you understand, the final authority is not them, the final authority
is this book. What is it the book says? If
they speak not according to the law and the testimony, what's
it say? It's because there's no light
in them. You understand? That's not making a mistake.
Mistakes happen, I make them all the time. And I may even
make a mistake up here. Say the wrong word, say Moses
when I meant Noah. But listen, if they're not speaking
according to this book, it's because there's no light in them.
And that's all the truth of it is. He speaks to us through his
apostles, by his word, and by his preachers now. God speaks to his creation. who being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power. That's everything. That's me standing up here, and
you sitting right there, and you sitting there on the television,
watching. You understand? Everything is
upheld by his power, or it's not upheld. And it's upheld by the word of
his power. You understand what Jesus Christ
says? He's talking about the son here.
What Jesus Christ says is, not might be, not could be, not should
be. Whatever he says goes. Matter of fact, put it even,
even more of a thought, whatever he thinks is so. God has never had error in his
thought, his word, or his deed. And he upholds it all by the
word of his power. When he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high,
being made so much better than the angels, he hath by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. See, here's the thing. What do we get out of the fact
that the creator speaks to his creation? We get to know that
Believers, we, believers, those who have heard his voice by his
spirit are saved. We are saved. He has purged our
sins and he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high,
having reconciled us to God. How do we know that? His apostles
have told us. Jesus Christ the Son saved us And we those Whom he has revealed
himself to can know this We are a part of his inheritance He
owns us in more than creator rights and He's got creator rights
over everything and everyone, but you understand, he by himself
purged our sins. Guess what? That mere word means
cleansed. Purged away, cast away, cleaned. Those sins are no more in God's
sight. Oh. We believers are heirs of
God. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. How? In Jesus Christ. In Christ, in him. He's purged
our sins, cleansed, purified. And how do we know? He told us.
He told us. And he tells us today. present
tense. What did he say? He said, he
that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Then he asked, believest thou
this? That's the question. Do you believe Christ? And what
are you talking about? Do you believe what Christ has
said? By his prophets, with his own
mouth, by his apostles, and by his preachers who preach the
truth. The creator is speaking to his creation. The question
is, are you listening? Are you listening? What does,
well here, because God has spoken, God is speaking, and God shall
speak, and that's the question. Shouldn't we listen? You understand? Shouldn't we listen? Now, you
know, God has gone to all this trouble. Now, I understand it's
no trouble for God. But he has gone to this extent
to actually, in this book we have recorded, where he spoke
in audible form. He spoke in audible form. Now, I realize, and it'll tell
you in here, that the one who spoke to Adam was Jesus Christ.
God is a spirit and no man has seen him. Jesus Christ, pre-incarnate,
spoke to Adam in the garden. Jesus Christ, pre-incarnate,
spoke to Moses as a man speaks to his friend. And Moses speaks
to us. What? What God said. That's the whole point. what God said. So is it too much
trouble to ask that you might listen to his beloved son? For some people it is. For some people it is. We've
got the record that God gave of his son. We have his gospel. We have the words of God concerning
his son. Shouldn't we give them more earnest
heed to that? So what does the creator say
to his creation? I just got some examples here.
You understand, because what I said, God spoke to Adam personally. Now here's the thing, this is
the wondrously gracious thing. He spoke to Adam before he fell
and he spoke to him after he fell. Because what do we have? We've got the words here. It's
in Genesis three, I'm not gonna turn to it. Because God, after
the fall, God came to the garden. And he, get this, he called to
Adam. Where art thou? He called to Adam, that's what
the scripture says. He knew where Adam was. He knew
what Adam had done. And after Adam had done it, he
came and he called Adam and said, where are you? And Adam answered. Then God, Jesus Christ, told
Adam, the seed of woman, so bruise the head of the serpent. And
the serpent was going to bruise the seed of the woman's heel. And after he had called them,
and after he had talked to them, he clothed them in skins. What did God speak to Abraham?
He told him to go into a mountain, I'm gonna show you, and offer
a burnt offering unto me. And Abraham took his son Isaac
and offered a burnt offering that the Lord provided. He was
gonna offer Isaac. And the Lord spoke to Abraham
and he said, no, spare your son. Does he just ram over here? Offer
it in his place. You know what? God spoke to Abraham. He spoke a substitutionary gospel. A substitute was given for the
son of Abraham. just as a substitute was given
for us, the Son of God. What did God say to Moses? And
he spoke to Moses, it says, face to face, as a man speaks to his
friend. That's what it says. Isn't that
amazing? I quoted it last week. What did
he tell Moses? He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. And, I will not destroy you when
I destroy Egypt. There's a lot there. What did God say to Isaiah? He
said unto us a child is born, a son is given. Who is it? The mighty God. the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. What did Jesus Christ say when
he came? The words of God manifest in the flesh. He said, I am the
way, I am the truth, and I am the life. And then what'd he
say? He says, no man can come unto
the Father but by me. Folks, that's the gospel. That's
the gospel. I am. He said that a few times
and the Jews took offense. Because that's the name of God.
I am. Guess what? Jesus Christ is God. And no man comes to the Father
except by him. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. Whosoever believeth in me shall
not perish, but hath everlasting life. What did God say through his
apostles? Well, through his apostles, we got all the recorded words
of Jesus Christ. We've got the Gospels through
his apostle But also Peter preached that
God Made this same Jesus Who you crucified? both Lord and
Christ The apostles told us from the
beginning he has chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of his truth. Belief of the truth. Oh. Y'all believe that election stuff?
Yes we do. Why? Because the apostles have
told us so. Because the prophets told us
so. And because the son of God himself told us so. That's the only reason I got
to believe anything You understand let God be true and every man
a liar Now you want to know why that's in the scripture because
God is true and every man is a liar That's the way we are You understand I don't have to
guard myself against saying something really really wise I I have to
guard myself about saying really something stupid and something
wrong, and error is what I have to worry about. The truth doesn't come easy,
folks, but by God and by His grace, through His Son, by His
Holy Spirit, the truth will come. And here we've got it in written
form. He has given it to us, what the Creator has said to
his creation and what he is still saying because whatever God said
has never changed and will never change because what God has said
is true. It's right, it's holy, it's just,
and it's good because he is true and right and holy and just and
good and we're not. I don't have to worry about me
being right so much as I try to worry about me not being wrong
sometimes, Walter. But I do worry about me being
right. I wanna say what this book says. We try to put it in
words of our own experience, in words of things that he has
taught us in this world. But you understand, the basis
for everything I say has got to be this book or it's just
a waste of time. It's got to be the words the
creator spoke to his creation. What does the creator say to
his creation? He tells us his gospel. He's told us by his prophets. He's told us in the garden by
his own mouth. People say, where do you get
this gospel from? Well, Jesus Christ preached it
to Adam in chapter three of Genesis. In the beginning was the word. And the word was God. Ah. People want to leave some of
this stuff out. Jesus Christ is God. His gospel, his salvation,
his work, his labor of love is what the creator has to say to
his creation. The gospel was preached by the
creator himself. Where did he say? By whom also
he made the worlds. The creator himself spoke it
to his disciples verbally. And you know some of the things
he told them? He said, unto you it is given to know these things.
But unto others, it's not given. It's not given. What? Did you ever read the Bible?
I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword. I didn't come to
bring peace, but a division. And what'd he say? He that hath
ears to hear, let him hear. Why? Because nobody else is gonna
hear. If you're uncircumcised in heart
and ears, you're gonna always resist the Holy Ghost. But the
Creator has spoken to his creation. He tells us of his love for us
in his Son. In the Son, the Creator tells
us of his choosing his people in his Son from the beginning. The Creator tells us of his Son
coming to this earth and redeeming us to himself. By himself purged
our sins. And the creator tells us of his
life given for us and given to us in Christ Jesus. And he tells us he will raise
us up at the last day. That's a promise. That's a promise. And it's a promise by the one
who keeps all his promises. The Creator tells us that our
names are written in His book of life. Isn't that a glory? The Creator tells us to preach
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And who is
He? He's the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. He's the Lord of hosts and our
Redeemer. He's the glory of God, manifest
in a person. I don't understand it, but I
believe it. People ask me, they say, do you
believe all that stuff in the Bible about part and red seas
and water turned to wine? They're interested in that one
for some reason, I don't know why, but you understand, yes. I don't have any problem with
that, because you understand, I have come to a conclusion,
I'm getting old now, right? I have seen how powerless we
are. And I say we, but I mean me. You understand? I can't do anything
that I'd like to do. I used to be able to kid myself
that I could do almost anything. You understand? I could lie to
myself. Capacity of self-deception is a sin. But I could lie to
myself and think these things, you know? Like, I could be rich.
I like to think it. I ain't so necessarily, but I
like to think it. But I'm certainly not willing
to put in whatever it needs to be to be that way. But I like
to think I could. That's a sin, folks. That's my
pride. That's my pride, but I have figured
it out. We can't do anything. You know
why? Because we don't have any power whatsoever. He has it all. You understand what he says is,
if he says he's gonna raise you up at the last day, if you believe
him, then if you believe him, he's gonna raise you up at the
last day. And guess what? It doesn't matter what you think
about it. if he's given you his faith, and it's his faith, he's
the creator, he's the author, and he's the finisher of it,
you're gonna believe him. You may fight against it, Walter,
you may kick it, but the creator has spoken to his creation. Well,
you say, verily, verily, the hour has come, and now is. This is the words of Jesus Christ
in John five, verse 25. when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. And guess what? They weren't
even asked about it. They were dead. Now this is not
talking about being dead in the grave. He goes on into that a
few verses later. Because he's gonna deal with
that. But that's not what I'm talking about. He's talking about
those that are dead in trespasses and sins, but by grace, through
faith, Not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, but it all starts
with the voice of the Son of God. What's that mean? That means
the creator is speaking to his creation. And he says, live,
like he did outside that tomb when Lazarus was dead inside,
physically dead. He said live, Lazarus lived. Now he was still bound in grave
clothes, but he was alive. When Jesus Christ says for someone
to live, they're gonna live. I guarantee it. And I don't even
have to. You understand? What God says
is so happens. And who are those? In John 10
and verse 16 he said this. Other sheep I have. Whose sheep
are they? They're his. He said I am. I am the good shepherd. He says,
other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I
must bring. So, what do you think Jesus will
do? What do you think Jesus will
do? WWJD, Walter. Jesus is gonna bring in sheep.
Other sheep I have. They're mine already and I must
bring them in. And, what? They shall hear my
voice. The creator is speaking to his
creation in a special way. And there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. Now who are these people also?
Paul wrote it, one of his apostles, Romans 11 five. Even so then
at this present time also There is a remnant according to the
election of grace. Oh, election's in the Bible.
Yes it is. And it's an election of grace. Those who were dead in trespasses
and sin have heard the voice of the Son of God and they live. We believe him through the working
of his mighty power. I can't even take credit for
believing. Don't want it. Because it's up to me, I'd mess
it up anyway. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. Those who live and believe in
me shall never die. God speaks to his creation. Jesus Christ speaks to his creation. And his creation will hear when
and only when he wants them to. What is it? The hearing ear and
the seeing eye. Where'd they come from? The Lord
hath made even both of them, both of them. You can't see Christ
and you can't hear Christ unless he gives you the eyes to see,
ears to hear, and a heart to understand. But when he does,
oh when he does, the creator speaks to his creation and you
hear. And they that hear, what? Shall
live, shall live. and I'll raise them up at the
last day. You understand, that's amazing
grace. He speaks, and we hear. And thank him for that. Our Heavenly
Father, we're thankful for this time. Lord, this place. But most of all, your Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ, Sent him and he willingly came
and paid the price. We couldn't pay and purged our
sins. And now is speaking peace where
there was no peace. Oh, speaking life where, where
was only death. Thank you, Lord. Be with Walter
as he comes to preach your gospel in Christ's name, we pray.