When God Speaks

Good morning. If you'd like to open your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. We'll be looking at verse 12. For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we are thankful that you have spoken, that you have given us your word and that you have revealed your grace and your glory through the scriptures of thy dear Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. How hopeful we are this morning that this word, which is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, would be alive in our hearts and that it would be powerful enough to cause us to believe and that it would reveal to us our need for Christ. Lord, might the windows of heaven be opened. Might our hearts be opened. Might thy book be opened? Lord, we know that what you open no man can shut. And yet, Lord, if you don't open it. It cannot be open. We depend upon you now. Send your spirit in power. To bless your word. The hope of our. our salvation. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Many would debate whether or not the Bible is the word of God.

We have no need to do that. We have no desire to do that. We know that when the Spirit of God reveals through the written Word of God, the Bible, God's holy book, and reveals Christ to our hearts, then we know beyond any shadow of a doubt that this is nothing less than the inspired, inerrant Word of God. The Lord doesn't need to prove himself to us. Just as men would debate whether or not the Bible is the word of God, men would debate whether there is a God. God doesn't seek to prove himself. He doesn't need our logic. He doesn't need our historical investigations to prove his existence. He simply declares, in the beginning, God. He states his existence.

And whatever unbelief exists to what God has said and what God has revealed is to our shame and to our judgment, not to God's. I have titled this message, When God Speaks, When God Speaks, and how desperate we are for him to do just that, for him to speak to our hearts in such a way as to drown out all other voices. We begin by asking the question, is there Is there a clear and simple word directly from God Almighty that I can believe? A word that I can believe for the salvation of my mortal soul, a word that I can believe to know that this is beyond any shadow of a doubt, the truth, the truth.

So many voices, so many opinions in the world. Politicians all disagree with one another. How can we have any hope in their answers? The philosophers speak in language that is beyond most of our ability to to really understand. I doubt seriously whether they understand what they're talking about.

The religious men of this world, seems like on every corner there's a church or a synagogue or a temple or a mosque and all the religions of this world have their fanciful ideas, their opinions to who God is and how a man can be right with God. As I've already said, it's not our intent nor our desire to prove that this book that we're reading from is the inspired Word of God, and God doesn't doesn't defend it as his word. He just simply states it.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God. All scripture is profitable for doctrine. It is necessary if we're to understand the truth, we must have the scriptures. It is profitable for reproof If we are to be corrected properly, if we're to be taught, if we're to be convicted for sin, it will come by the inspired word of God. It is profitable for correction. It is profitable for instruction. All that we need is in God's word.

When the Lord Jesus asked the disciples, after the 5,000 went their way, he asked the disciples, will you lead me also? And Peter responded by saying, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou alone has the words of eternal life. We know and are sure that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.

Now that's faith. Faith is not a decision that we make to believe God. Faith is when God shuts us up so that we have no other options. We have no other choices. To whom shall we go? We've looked everywhere else we know to look and there are no answers. You alone have the words of eternal life. And we know, and we are absolutely sure because you've persuaded us that thou art the Christ, the anointed one, the one scent of God, and that you alone have the words of eternal life. We've got no place else to go, no one else to go to.

When the Pharisees sent the police out to arrest the Lord Jesus, and they came back empty-handed, and the religious authorities said, where is he? And the arresting officers, whom I'm certain went with the authority of the Roman government, said, never a man spake like this man. We had no authority before him. And when those Roman soldiers came to the Garden of Gethsemane, in God's ordained purpose and in God's perfect time to arrest the Lord, to take him to the cross, he asked them, whom seekest thou?

Jesus of Nazareth, and the Lord just simply said, I am. I am. And when he declared his name, those fearless Roman soldiers all fell to the ground. Amazing. Amazing. We do not separate what God has revealed in this book. from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a living book.

When Paul was writing to the church at Thessalonica, he said, our gospel came not unto you in word only. We didn't just speak words, but it came unto you in power. and in the Holy Ghost with much assurance. When the Holy Ghost takes the Word of God and shuts us up to Christ, then we have assurance. We know that where we stand is the only place to stand. We know that the one in whom we believe is the only one to believe, and we cannot be persuaded otherwise.

The Lord Jesus said, and they shall be all taught of God. In 2 Peter, Peter is talking about the experience that he had with John and James when the Lord Jesus took them up on the mountain. We call it the Mount of Transfiguration. And Peter, James, and John were there. And the veil of our Lord's physical body, his humanity, was removed far enough for the radiance of his deity to shine forth like the noonday sun. Peter, James, and John all fell to the ground. They heard the audible voice of God speak from heaven. When God Almighty said audibly, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Hear ye him, hear what he has to say, because he is the word of life. And the only hope you're going to have is what he has said and what he has done. He's the word that was made flesh. He's the word that dwelt among us. He's the word that we beheld of his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.

And Peter, James, and John had that glory revealed to them physically and audibly. They heard the voice of God speak. You talk about a religious experience, a mountaintop experience, an experience that was that would have been life-changing. And yet when Peter writes about that experience, he says it like this, he says, we did not bring to you cunningly devised fables. We didn't make this up. We handled the word of God and we saw his glory on the mount when God spoke. And you might think, boy, to have that kind of experience would convince me.

And yet, the very next verse, let's look at it. Just past the book of Hebrews in 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 18. and this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount." How could you ever forget such an event? Verse 19, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. We have something that's more certain than that experience.

Feelings come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. Experiences are deceiving. They are all subjective. In that we have our feelings, our thoughts involved in all of our experiences. And that makes them all subjective. Not so with the Word of God. We have something that's more certain than any experience that we could ever have. Any feeling, any thought, anything.

This is what God says about His Word. We have a more sure word of prophecy, where unto you do well if you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place. He's talking about the word that we're reading right now. He's talking about the scriptures.

He's saying that the inspired, inerrant word of God is more sure than that experience that we had up on the mountain. and that the voice of God that we hear in our hearts, when the spirit of God teaches us, when the spirit of God convinces us that this is nothing less than the word of God, is louder than any audible voice that we could ever possibly hear. It's louder.

And it shines as a light in a dark place. Oh, how dark and deceitful our hearts are. Like in creation, we are without form and void, and darkness is upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God must hover over that darkness, and God must say, let there be light. He must speak.

And that's what he does in the new birth. and take heed to this word, take heed to this prophecy that shines in a dark place until, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. That's the sun. We see it, physically speaking, as the S-U-N, but in light of what the Lord is telling us here is the S-O-N. This is the sun that rises in our hearts. When God, by his word, reveals to us what he did and who he is, this is what God's word is.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. This is not, let men debate all they want. Well, the Bible was written by men. Yeah, it was penned by men. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men.

And that word holy doesn't mean that they were somehow without sin or that they were perfect in and of themselves. It means that God took certain individuals and set them apart and revealed to them his word and inspired them by his spirit to pin the words that would reveal to us.

When the Lord, you remember Thomas wasn't there when the Lord first appeared to the disciples? And when Thomas finally came, the disciples were so excited, they were so enthralled. The Lord's been here, we saw him. Thomas said, I'm not gonna believe it until I can thrust my hand into his side and put my fingers into the nail prints of his hand. That's when I'll believe, when I see it. When I see it, that's when I'll believe it. When I can experience it.

The Lord appeared to Thomas. And the next time he came, Thomas was there. And in all of Thomas's doubts, Thomas is the first one in the Bible that ever fell to the feet of the Lord Jesus and said, oh my Lord and my God. No evidence that he had to touch him He saw him.

But the point that I want to make is this. The Lord Jesus said to Thomas, Thomas, it's a good thing that you have made this confession and that you believe this. But it's better yet, for those who have not seen what you've seen, they're going to believe on my word. The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Turn back with me to Hebrews chapter four. Brethren, we have Throughout the history of mankind, the Tower of Babel is repeated over and over and over again. Let us make a name for ourselves and let us build a tower up into heaven. And men of every generation and of every culture have been seeking to know God, at least to know the God of their imagination. The scripture says, no man seeketh after me at any time. They're not looking for the God who is. They're looking for a God that they can control, a God that will give them credit for something.

Let us build a city for ourselves, for our own name, and then we'll build a tower up into heaven. The God who is. will never be sought from earth. The God who is must come down from heaven and reveal himself for who he is if we're to know him. And that's exactly what he's done. That's exactly what he's done.

Notice in our text, the word of God, and I know you've heard me say this many times, but it's so important that we remember this simple, simple truth, that we don't separate the written word from the living word. The Lord Jesus said of those Pharisees, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life, plenty of people, throughout the history of the world have been diligent students of the Bible. And they've come to a lot of understanding as to language and theology and history and doctrine. But unless the Lord is pleased to reveal himself, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. You missed the meaning of the Bible, for these are they which testify of me. In the volume of the book, it is written of me. And beginning with Moses and the Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto them those things concerning himself.

When we go to the Bible, if we don't If we're not looking for Christ, we'll find what we're looking for. We always do. Self-fulfilling prophecy always finds what it's looking for. May the Lord be pleased to put into our hearts a desire to look for Christ and the grace to know him.

Three things the Lord tells us about the written word and the living word, which are one together. For the word of God is quick. That word means that it is living. It is alive. It's not a stagnant word of principles and rules and regulations and doctrines and laws and history. No, it is a living word. that reveals the word that is alive, the one who rose from the dead.

And it is powerful. That's the second thing the Lord tells us. It's powerful, powerful enough to make us to believe. And it is sharper than any two-edged sword. It kills and it makes alive. It wounds and it heals. It exposes us as sinners and it reveals Christ as the Savior. That's the two-edged sword that we have from God. James puts it like this in looking at the Bible, Christ, as being alive. The Lord Jesus rose from the dead, ascended back into glory. He is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. He is alive, he ever liveth, and he makes intercession for us. And by his spirit, he lives in the hearts of his people. The word of God is quick.

James put it like this. Of his own will, not of our wills, not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, it's of God's own will, of his own will begat, birthed us, made us alive. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. He made us alive. Of his own will begat he us with, the word of truth, the word of truth. Peter put it like this in those, well, in the first Peter, we were looking at second Peter.

He said, being born again, not of corruptible seed, not of a seed that dies, not of our own thoughts or opinions or our own will or decision, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. God's word is a living word. And we hang the hopes, all the hopes of our immortal soul on what God has said, what God has promised.

And it is a miracle of grace that we would do so. Paul said this, yes, for by grace, by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of works, and not of our works. If we're saved by our works, then we have reason to boast. We're saved by grace, but we're saved through faith.

And then Paul went on to say, faith, I actually think James actually says, faith cometh by hearing. and hearing cometh by the word of God. So God takes his word, his inspired word, and he empowers it by his spirit, and he causes us to believe him, to believe everything that he said, everything.

Well, you know, there's a king in the Old Testament. The prophet came to him and told him about the judgment of God. And the king sat there in his pride with the scriptures that the prophet had given him and took what the Bible calls a pen knife, a pen knife, a little knife. And he cuts out the sections of this scroll that he doesn't like and he throws it in the fire. What arrogance to stand in judgment of the Word of God. Now, faith believes God.

Can't always explain what it believes, never really fully understands what it believes. Not fully. We know in part. We see in part. We look through a glass. The Bible says, darkly. But that word darkly is the word riddle. That passage in Romans is the picture of a mirror. And mirrors back then were made out of metal, polished metal. And the metal would tarnish. And so the reflection of that mirror was always needing to be was always needed to be polished in order to give an accurate reflection. But even then, the reflection was nothing like what we have in our mirrors today. And the Lord says, we look, 1 Corinthians, we look through a glass darkly. We look in this mirror and we see images, but they're not.

But in that day, We'll see him as he is and we'll be made like him. We're gonna see him. Oh Lord, what a glorious, glorious day that will be. When our faith is made sight. When our hope is made our experience. There's no faith in heaven. There's no hope in heaven. No, we need faith and hope now. But when we see him, faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. Why? Because love is what all we'll have in heaven. Won't need faith, faith will be our sight. You don't believe in something that you can see, you see it. You won't need hope, hope is that what you hope for. You haven't yet received it. No, we're going to have received it.

For the word of God is quick. The Lord Jesus said, it is the spirit that quickeneth. It is the spirit of God that makes us alive. Nicodemus, except you be born of the Spirit of God, you cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven. You cannot perceive of it. You need the Spirit of God to take the Word of God and give you faith to believe God. And the Lord Jesus said, it is the Spirit that quickeneth. The flesh, the flesh profiteth nothing.

And then he said this, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life, life. Oh, what a, what a blessed thing it is to have the living Word of God, speak effectually to our hearts and to reveal to us the living word. Revelation chapter 19, verse 13 says, his name, speaking of Christ, John, is seeing a vision in the third heaven. Paul speaks of that third heaven.

He said, I heard words that were unlawful for a man to utter. Words that were unlawful for a man to utter. John saw things that he could not communicate. We have glimpses of what heaven might be like, but the truth is that eye has never seen, nor has ear ever heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of man, the things that God has prepared for us.

And John saw the Lord Jesus riding on a white horse, the sword, the double edged sword coming out of his mouth, that's his word. And he said this, his name is called the word of God. His name is called the word of God. Brethren, we have a word from God. And then the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 55, God says this through the prophet Isaiah, my word, which goeth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that for which I sent it. Now, the father sent his son into this world. The living word of God to speak those words, which are spirit, those words, which are life, those words, which we believe.

He sent him in order to save his people. You shall call his name, Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. That's what he came to do. He came to finish the work of redemption. He came to make an end to our iniquities. He came to save us once and for all by the sacrifice of himself. He bore all of our sins in his body upon that tree. He put them away. He buried them in the depths of the sea. He separated them from us as far as the east is from the west. He covered them by his blood. God says, I remember them no more.

He finished the work. It is finished. My word will not return unto me void, empty, but he will accomplish the purpose for which I sent him. When the Lord Jesus ascended back into heaven and took his rightful place at the right hand of the majesty on high, he took with him all those for whom he lived and died. And we are right now, according to what the Bible says, in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, right now. right now. He was successful. Oh, the God who's in the heavens wanting all men to be saved and wishing men would hear him and believe on him and let him have his way in their hearts.

That God is a figment of men's imagination. He does not exist. He is an idol. And just as all idols that men carve out of wood or make out of metal, he's not alive. He's dead. He did. Can't do anything. For the Word of God is alive. Many would, many fundamentalists, many that call themselves Bible-believing Christians, would agree with most of what we've said so far. Now, no, they wouldn't. No, they wouldn't. The point that I want to make is this. Turn with me again to 1 Peter. 1 Peter. Verse one.

For all flesh is as grass. and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away." Oh, what is your life but a vapor? Just a flower, beautiful for a little while, and then it fades away. But the Word of God That's what God's doing here for us, brethren. He's comparing and contrasting His Word to our fleshly existence. But the Word of God endureth forever. It's never going to change. God doesn't change. He doesn't say one thing and then, oh, well, you know, I've changed my mind. Oh, he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is immutable, and his word doesn't change. But the word of God endureth forever.

And here's what I wanted you to see, and this is why I made the statement a lot of people who would say they believe the Bible don't believe this. This is the word, which by the gospel is preached unto you. In other words, if the gospel is not being preached, If the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the good news. That's the gospel. Christ Jesus the Lord is the gospel. His successful work of redemption is the gospel. He can't be added to, he can't be taken away from. This is the word, which by the gospel is preached unto you.

In other words, if the gospel is not being preached, let men stand all they want on the inerrancy of scripture. Let men stand all they want on believing that the Bible is a word of God. They're not preaching Christ. They're not preaching the Bible. This is the word, which by the gospel. is preached unto you. If Christ is not being preached, then no better off than the Pharisees who searched the scriptures because they thought in them they had eternal life.

Paul said in Romans chapter 15, these things were written that through patience and comfort of the scriptures, we might have hope. When everything in my experience, everything in my feelings, all the fears, all the unbelief that remains in my flesh, all the doubts, that we struggle with in this life. And we find ourselves with such uncertainty about things.

We have patience and comfort in the hope. This is not a hope. This is a, this word hope means a confident expectation. It's not, well, I hope it's going to rain tomorrow. I hope my team's going to win. No, this is a confident expectation. I have a good hope, a confident hope. Where's my hope is in what God has said because his word is a living.

It's quick. It's powerful. It's powerful. It's able to expose me as a sinner. It's able to reveal to me the Lord Jesus Christ. It's able to give me faith. It's able to save my soul. We receive with meekness, James said, the engrafted word of God, which is able to save our soul.

That's powerful. That's powerful. There's no other word that's able to save our soul. Only the word of God can do that. And the Lord says, my word is alive, it is powerful, it's sharper than an intuitive sword, and it's able to divide asunder the soul from the spirit, the thoughts, and the intents of the heart. What does that mean?

Before the word of God came to my heart, in power. Before it was the living word of God that revealed to me the person and accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Before I was brought to have only Christ as the hope of my salvation. Only Christ as all of my righteousness. Only Christ for my justification before God. The thoughts and the intents of my heart were that I could redeem myself. I could at least do something that would obligate God to have mercy upon me. I could learn by my own efforts who God is. and what God intended for me, and how God saved me.

I could do those things. But when the word of God came as a two-edged sword, it divided asunder the soul from the spirit. There was a time, a term of me, we have to look at this, Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter 2, I'm sorry, verse 1. Let me get there. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1.

You hath he made alive. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, but he quickened you. Verse two, wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

People say, well, I'm a spiritual person. This word of God divides the soul from the spirit. There's only two spirits. There's the evil spirit. And there's the Holy Spirit. And we believe what we believe by the prince of the power of the air, that evil spirit of God, or we believe what we believe by the Holy Spirit. You walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that spirit or the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as others. Our thoughts, our opinions of God, Everything about us was being directed by the spirit of the devil. That's what God, it's not, there it is.

And when the sword of the spirit came and the living word came in power and revealed to me Christ, then the Holy Spirit, made me to know that everything that I thought was true about God was a lie that was being fed to me by the spirit of this world. But God, but God, verse four, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins has quickened us together with Christ, for by grace are you saved and has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You see, when the sword of the spirit cuts the marrow from the bone and makes a makes me a discerner of the thoughts and intents of my heart. I realized for the first time, there's nothing I did.

The Lord Jesus accomplished it 2,000 years ago. So it says, he quickened us together with Christ. The Lord Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren. That's speaking of his resurrection. When he raised from the dead, I was made alive in Christ, in Christ. When the Lord Jesus 2,000 years ago ascended from the Mount of Olives back into glory, he took with him my name. He took with me more than my name. He took me. Why? Because I'm in him. I'm in him.

Before the sword of the spirit came, the thoughts and the intents of my heart were only evil, and not continually. I denied Christ his glory and salvation. I put myself up on the throne of God. I thought far too highly of myself. I thought far too lowly of God. I thought I could know the scriptures. I thought I could know God. I thought all of these things. I thought, I thought. And then the word of God came. And the discernment and thoughts and the intents of my heart were exposed. They were revealed.

Lord, the only way I could know you is if you make your word effectual to me. Reveal yourself to me. Lord, the only way I can be right with you is if you count the righteousness of Christ for my righteousness. The only way that any of my sins can be atoned for is if you put them under the blood of Christ. I can't apply the blood. That's how we know that we believe what God has said. And that it has become for us quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Let's take a break.

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