I've entitled this message this
morning, Every Word. Every Word. Matthew 4 and verse 1. Then was Jesus led of the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had
fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward a hungry. And when the tempter came to
him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these
stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It
is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Every word. that proceeds out of the mouth
of God. Now this is not the first time
in the Bible that that statement was made. It was made long before back
in Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 3. where it says, "...and he humbled
thee," that is, this people of Israel. "...God humbled thee,
and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna which
thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might
make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth
man live." Not only is he saying that natural means are not what
is to be depended on, but the God who can do all things. But not only is he saying that,
but the fact stated is that just as the body requires natural
food, so does the soul require spiritual food. And the food
for the soul is simply every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God." In other words, not only is it the necessary
food, but we are not to come to the Word of God as we would
a buffet or smorgasbord, just selecting what we want to, But
he says, every word. Job, you might remember, said,
neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of
his mouth more than my necessary food. If you notice, he does
not say that we do not need physical bread. But since we are more
than physical beings, and though we do have need of physical bread,
we do not and we cannot live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." You see, God has
given us words. We know this for sure. God has
given us words as a means to communicate with each other. But much more importantly, He
has used words to communicate to us, He has used words to communicate
something to His people especially, to His elect. And so we find the Lord Jesus
Christ in John 17, when He speaks to the Father, He says something
like this, "'For I have given unto them the words which thou
gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that
I come out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me." He gave them the words, and they were enabled of God
To believe. To believe the words. And these words that he's talking
about, these words, when they are spoken to our hearts by the
Spirit of God, they are life to us. They are life to us because
There are words concerning Christ who is life. There is no life apart from these
words. And if you turn over to John
chapter 6, the Lord Jesus Christ, where
we've been looking At some on Wednesday evening, the Lord Jesus
Christ, after having performed a great miracle of providing
physical bread, feeding a multitude of people by that miraculous
multiplying of those five loaves, But look at what it says in verse
63. He says, it is the Spirit that
quickeneth. I hope we understand what that
word quicken or quickeneth means. In the King James Version, it
means to make a life. It is the Spirit that quickeneth
the flesh, profiteth nothing, the words." You see that? The words that I speak unto you,
they are Spirit and they are life. The words. But there are some of you that
believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. And He said, Therefore said I
unto you, that no man can come unto Me except it were given
unto him of My Father." And from that time, after even having
seen that great miracle, after having looked at God manifest
in the flesh, after having received of His hand such great and gracious
gifts," it says, from that time, many of His disciples went back
and walked no more with Him. As a matter of fact, most of
them, after having seen all of that, after having heard Him,
they went back, departed, and they walked no more with Him. And then Jesus said unto the
twelve, will you also go away? Will you also go away?" Why did
they not go away? Because they, by the grace of
God, had found a food that was much more essential and necessary
to their souls than that physical bread was. Then Jesus said unto
the twelve, Will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered
him, O presumptuous, impetuous Simon Peter, with all his failures. He answered him, Lord, to whom
shall we go? We've got a need that we can't
find met anywhere else except in you. Lord, to whom shall we
go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. They had found, by God's mercy,
and by His grace and by His Spirit, they had found the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ to be the words of eternal life. And consequently, he says, and
we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ The Son
of the Living God. Here are all these individuals,
this multitude of people, well over 5,000, they saw the miracles,
they did all these things, they heard Him speak, and yet they
walked away. And yet here are these men who
stayed and were convinced of something that all the multitude
of others, they did not see or understand or believe about the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that is that He was the Messiah. He is the Savior. He is the Son
of God. He is God manifest in the flesh. And the only way that they came
to that position, if you will, they came to that confidence
and belief, was because God in grace enabled them to believe
the words. You see, the others had signs.
They had wonders, if you will. They beheld with the natural
eye things that men and women in our day would just dearly
love to behold, but that did not make them believers. They believed. They knew who
Jesus of Nazareth really was. They came to rest, they came
to some kind of spiritual and eternal satisfaction in the matter
of their sins, in the matter of their salvation, because they
were enabled not only to hear, but believe the words. And they were the words of eternal
life. And they are the words of eternal
life because they are concerning, as He Himself said, they are
concerning Him who is Himself, the incarnate Word. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, And the Word was God,
and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." The words are
about the Word. And they are the means, these
words are the means by which the Spirit of God brings forth
and manifests His true people. I know there are some who believe
that a person may be born again at this time and maybe never
even know about it. There are some who believe in
our day that a person can be born again and never actually
believe on Christ. But it is by these very words
that He brings forth and makes manifest who His elect people
are. This is what James said. He said,
of His own will, not somebody's so-called free will or somebody's
decision, but he said, of His own will, of God's own will,
begat He us with the word of truth. He brought us forth. He made us manifest as His children. What was it that distinguishes
His people? It's got something to do with
His Word. Our Lord in John chapter 8 tells
us this, He says, He that is of God, what does that mean to
be of God? He that is chosen of God. He that is loved of God. He that is redeemed of God. He that is called of God. He that is of God, of God's people. He says, Heareth God's words. And sometimes I feel like I ought
to remind you maybe of what that actually means when you find
that ETH, that it was a part of the King James English, what
it really is signifying there. What that's saying is, he that
is of God is hearing, continues to hear God's words. Then he said to those Pharisees,
"'Ye, therefore, hear them not, because you are not of God.'"
You don't hear His words. Not that you don't have His words. He said, you search the Scriptures
and then you think you have eternal life. But they testify of me. and you will not come to me that
you might have life." You can't separate the Word from the words. And so any knowledge, head knowledge
of the Scriptures, any remembrance and ability to quote verses of
Scripture, or knowledge of various texts of Scripture, or historical
facts from Scripture, all these things, They really have nothing
to do with actually hearing the Word of God. Because Christ said, My sheep
hear My voice. What does that mean? They're
walking around here and they hear the voice of God audibly
in their ears. They hear the voice of God somehow
speaking to them in a particular way. They hear His words. My sheep hear My voice. My sheep
hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And you cannot
separate this necessity of the new birth. You remember Christ
said, you must be born again. You cannot separate this necessity
of our being born of the Spirit. You can't separate that from
the words of God. That's what Peter says. Not only
did James say, "...of his own will begat he us with the word
of truth." But listen to Peter. He says, "...being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God which liveth and abideth forever." I've heard a number of people,
and I may even believe in that verse, it is a reference, they
are saying there that the word there is Christ. I don't have
a problem with that. But if you're trying to use that
in that context, in that verse, so as to show that it's not necessary
for somebody to hear the gospel and believe, I can't go with
that because of what Peter continues to say. He says, but the word of the
Lord endureth forever. Well yes, is that Christ? Absolutely. But he says, and this is the
word which by the gospel is preached unto you. How can He be preached? How can the living incarnate
Word, how can He be preached unto you except by the gospel? How can the Word be told about
and declared apart from the words? You can't separate the living
Word, the incarnate Word, from the written Word. And then God's words are the
means by which we know the truth. You remember in Psalm 119, all
those verses in that largest of the Psalms, all those verses,
each one of them in some way has reference to the Word of
God. You just go and read it. But
two times in there, Two times in there, we find this statement,
something like this, through thy precepts. What is that? His words? The psalmist says,
through thy precepts, through thy words, I get understanding. Why is our society so ignorant
of God? Because they know so little of
the words of God. He says, through thy precepts
I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. A lot
of these people, they don't hate anything. You just ask them,
I don't hate anything. I don't hate anybody. Well, the
only reason that can be is because you don't know His words. You
don't know His truth. Again, in Psalm 119, He says,
therefore I esteem all thy precepts. all of your words concerning
all things to be right. And therefore I hate every false
way." Every word. It's not that here we can come
over here and just pick us out a verse here and a verse there
and build us a doctrine on one verse or build us a denomination
on one verse or a whole religion on one verse. It's every word. And whenever we cannot come to
the Scriptures, to the words of God, whether they be in the
Old Testament or New, whether they be plain statements of doctrines
or pictures of doctrines, whenever we can't go to every part and
parcel of these words and find ourselves in agreement with them, we've got a problem. Because
the truth is, if we're not in agreement with every word, we're
not in agreement with any word. That's right. If we're not in
agreement, if God has not shown us in the Scriptures the harmony
of all the Scriptures as they set forth in either type or picture
or plain statements or gospel, Christ and Him crucified. We don't know anything about
the words. You may say, I can quote John 3.16, this is what
I believe. No, you don't. Because we find
so many other places in Scripture, and you read them to men and
women, you try to preach them to men and women, and what you
find is immediately they are not in agreement with and cannot
receive all the words. This is the means by which the
Spirit of God speaks peace to a sinner's heart. I can tell
you this, you can walk down an aisle in somebody's church, shake
the preacher's hand, and you do not have peace in your heart. You may hear him say, now you
have believed this, and you've confessed this, and you've done
this, and all that individual is doing is just what Christ
warns against in Jeremiah, those who speak, peace, peace, when
there is no peace. There's only one that can speak
peace to your heart, I'm telling you that. There's only One who
can speak that peace that passeth understanding. There's only One
who can speak that peace that was made by the blood of His
cross, and He does it by His words. His words by His Spirit. And that's when His Spirit enables
us to believe what God has said. The Scriptures give us the gospel
as a whole as being the promise of God. And then it speaks in
reference to that promise, describing it in so many ways as being many
promises, all of which are yes and amen in Christ. When do you benefit from those
promises? When God enables us to believe
what He said. He enables us to believe the
words. You can't believe the words that
you've never heard. You can't believe the words that
you've never read. And as I've tried to caution
you so many times, you cannot simply because I said it or somebody
else said it, you cannot count them to be the words of God until
you open this book and read it for yourself and the Spirit assures
you that these are the words of God. My word's no good. Mama's word's no good. Oh, Grandpa
so-and-so. Oh, Preacher so-and-so. They're
no good. And when you do not know the
words, when you've not read the words and received them as being
the words of God, you don't really believe at all. You might believe
me, but you don't believe God until you receive and believe
His words. They're the means by which we
know what is right and what is wrong. I've told you that we
know what is right, first of all, by what God does. He does it. It's right. But we know secondly of all,
we know what is right by what God says. And we not only know
what is right by what God says, we know what is wrong by what
God says. And men and women can hear, When
we say what the Bible says, what God's words say is wrong and
not right, they can charge it to my opinion if they want to. I don't have an opinion anymore.
All I have is the words. The words. And God's words, they are the
very things that sustain His people. They're the things that
comfort them and secure them and feed them. We don't have
to have physical bread. As a matter of fact, most of
us could do with a whole lot less physical bread. But there's
a necessary bread. And that's every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God. How did our Lord Jesus Christ,
who as God Himself, how did He in His humanity, when
He took on Himself human flesh and was in that humanity confronted
and tempted by the devil, how did He overcome him? You go back
and read this fourth chapter of Matthew. And you'll find that
in that physically weakened state, the Lord Jesus Christ is tried
and tempted by Satan. But He doesn't at any point simply
say, well, I'm God, and therefore I'm casting you immediately into
outer darkness. No. Because he's the representative
of his people. How will they ever overcome?
How will they ever be sustained? Where will they ever find comfort? And so he looks the devil eye
to eye, who has just told him, if you be the Son of God, make
from these stones bread. What does he say to him? Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He had already been forty days
and forty nights without food. But being our Savior, being our
Lord and our representative, being the One who is our Deliverer
in that humanity that is like ours, yet without sin, He overcomes
with three words really. It is written. It is written. And I am going
to tell you this too. In your lowest times, in your
hours when unbelief rises up in you the most of all, when
you cannot look in your life as so many do and try to find
some evidence that you're the Lord's child, when weakness consumes
you, when sin overwhelms you, where can you go What is the
only ground of real assurance that you can ever have? It's
the words. I am what God says that I am. Not what I feel like today. Not
what I may have acted like yesterday. Even in the spite of my great
unbelief, I believe the words. I've got
to have the words. I love what old J.C. Philpott said about the Lord's
true child. He said, he cannot live by doctrines
in the head. He cannot live by bodily gestures. He cannot live by rites and forms
and ceremonies. He cannot live by anything that
springs from the creature. His life is first given by God,
and His life is maintained by every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God. What the Lord teaches, He knows. What the Lord works, He feels. What the Lord gives, He possesses. What the Lord speaks to His heart,
He has in His soul, as from the lips of the Sovereign Majesty
Himself. The psalmist said, the words
of the Lord are pure words. You read a commentary, you read
a book, you better read it with the Holy Scriptures in your hand,
because what you're getting from man, that's not pure words. Everything
is to be tried and tested by the words of the Lord. They're
pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified
seven times, the words. The psalmist says also in Psalm
19 again, he said, this is my comfort in my affliction. You
got affliction? You know, what kind of life we
have is often revealed by what we run to in our afflictions.
We got to hear somebody Assure us we've got to have some natural
or outside basis for our hope or comfort. The psalmist said,
this is my comfort in my affliction, for thy Word hath quickened me. Thy Word. If I see my life fading
out physically in this world, The Word says that my life, my
real life is hid with Christ in God. If I feel myself abandoned
by every human being that lives on this earth, the words come
from the Word Himself. I'll never leave you or forsake
you. But we live in a very sad time. There's very little preaching
of the words of God. Especially like at this time
of year, it's replaced by programs to entertain old and young. There's much talk about the opinions
and the philosophies and the commentaries of men. They're
more about how to live than the words of life. more concern over
political and moral issues, much ceremony and many rituals, but
very little proclaiming of the words. I'll tell you this, God's church
has only one thing to offer. God's preacher only has one thing
to offer. I'm not an organizer. I'm not
an administrator. I'm not a cheerleader. All I have is the words, the
words of God. But not only is there little
proclaiming of the words, but there's very little hearing of
the words. I tell you, over the last year
I've had some experiences with individuals who seem like they
had some interest in the words, who really, I suppose, thought
they already knew something about the Word, but when I actually
gave them the Words, it's like I became maybe a carrier
of the Ebola virus or something. Or was it because of the Words? There's very little hearing of
the Words so as to heed them. so as to believe them, so as
to partake of them spiritually. And we live in that day that
God spoke of through the prophet Amos. He said, Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not
a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of the hearing,
of the words of the Lord." This is our day. Sad it is that so
many have more important things to do than to hear the words
of God. Sad that they regard the words
of family and friends more than the words of God. Sad that they
have no interest in the words of God and no love for them. hold their opinions above the
words." And I'm telling you, that's what distinguishes God's
people. The perfect Son of God in human
flesh. When He went down to His hometown
of Nazareth, and He began to read from the Scriptures there
in the synagogue at Nazareth, they'd heard what He read many
times. But when He began to apply them
to Himself, when He began to show them how that God's grace
was not to a nation of Israel, but to a people He chose out
of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. When He said to them after He
had read concerning the Messiah, this day is the Scripture fulfilled
in your eyes. They sought to stone Him. What
was it for? It was because of the words. They never sought to slay the
Son of God because of what He did. It was always because of
what He said. And many people, they think that
what distinguishes or makes manifest true Christians, what shows who
really is a believer, They think it's outward morality, or who
has real zeal, or who is it that is the most dedicated? I'm going
to tell you this, and we ought to be zealous, we ought to be
dedicated, and we certainly are to conduct ourselves in a morally
upright fashion. But everything you can name that
a person does, and give us an example of what a true Christian
is, I'll guarantee you the devil can counterfeit it to the T. I know a lot of religious people
in this world that are so zealous. They are dedicated to the point
of putting me to shame. They are flawless morally. They are outwardly kind. Generous. Whatever. Just one problem. They hate the words. They'll have nothing to do with
the words. They can do without the words. They look to their own works
in all these things, and their hope is not in what is set forth
in the words. You say, really? Well, Christ
said they'll stand at that day before Him and they'll say, Lord,
we've done all these things in Thy name. We preached in Your
name. We did many benevolent works
in Your name. We even cast out devils in Your
name. And He said, I'll say to them
in that hour, depart from Me, you that work iniquity. I never
knew you. Those were not works of righteousness,
because there's only one work of righteousness that God has
and will accept, and it is the one set forth in the words. It's that righteousness that
He gives as a gift. It's that righteousness that's
in the Lord, our righteousness. It's that righteousness that
he imputes or charges to the accounts of his people. And what
a blessed day it is when he enables them to believe the words. Because that righteousness, their
being made the righteousness of God, is what the gospel is
all about. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. I set forth at every opportunity
to preach the gospel, to speak the words. Why? He said, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. The words of God declare salvation
to be all of grace and not works. The words of God are all about
the Lord Jesus Christ. The words of God give Him all
the glory. The words of God are the only
way we ever find what we are as men and women lost in sin,
none good, none righteous, no, not one. You read the words that
we find in Ephesians 1 and you tell me whose choice it is that's
the choice of salvation. You read the words of Ephesians
1 and you tell me who it is that must do the accepting. You read
the words in Romans 9, that passage where everybody wants to kind
of skim by. You read the words of Romans
9 and you tell me, does God love everybody? Or does he hate somebody? It's the words. You read John
10 and you tell me who Christ died for. Who the Shepherd laid
down His life for. Rather, you tell me what the
words say about it. We have an objective standard. If I get in a discussion with
somebody about some issue Gospel truth, and they say, well, let
me tell you what I think about it. Case closed. I wouldn't argue
with you on that basis for nothing in this world. I want to know
what the words say about it. Every word. Now get over here
in one little corner and quote this verse. Throw away all the
rest of the Scripture. No Scripture is of any private
interpretation. We interpret each part by the
whole. Because I'm going to tell you
this, the words are the final authority on all things and the
only true test of all preaching. God says in Isaiah 8, to the
law and to the testimony, to the words, If they speak not
according to this Word, it's because there's no light in them.
And God's words will be the final witness. The final witness. Turn over to Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8, and look at what
Christ says in verse 38. He begins the verse with, Whosoever. Whosoever. None are going to
escape this. Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me. And I know so many people in
this world who say, I'm not ashamed of the Lord. Oh yes you are. Because you're ashamed of His
words. You're not ashamed of how you
want to think of Him. how you imagine him, or you are
not ashamed of how some false prophet has presented him, but you are ashamed of him as
he is in his words. Whosoever, therefore, shall be
ashamed of me and of my words." You can't separate the two. in
this adulterous and sinful generation. Of him also shall the Son of
Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with
the holy angels." Everyone he receives, they will have already received
his words. The words of his grace Right
now are the words of His glory hereafter. You're dead, no matter
how much physical bread you've got, apart from the words. You say, well, why did God choose
the words? Why didn't He just write it in the sky? Why didn't
He just speak it in the heart? I don't know. Joe says it's because
He wanted to. I think that's right. He wanted
to. May the Lord help us to be receivers,
consumers, delighters in every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. Every word. Father, this day
we pray that you'd help us. We know that to receive your
word is not natural to us. Give us that hearing ear Give
us that understanding. Give us that believing heart
that we might feast upon every word that proceeds out of your
mouth. That we might know that nothing in our maintenance,
our salvation, depends on natural or man-made means. It just depends on you and what
you'll speak to sinners like we are through your words. We
thank you in the name of our Savior, who is the Word Himself. We give you praise. Amen.