Alone with the Almighty, Part 3b

Whenever there's a need, we need to go to the Word of God. And the true believer knows that when times of turmoil come, he needs to engulf himself, entrench himself in the words of Almighty God. That's what we are trying to do, even as we speak this morning, to help you understand what you need to do as you spend time with God, alone with the Almighty, receiving the strength you need from Him for day to day. We began by looking at the primacy of salvation. It is the essence of our time with Him. The essence of my time with Him, the primacy of salvation, the responsibility of preparation, and thirdly, the centrality of revelation.

Wherever you spend time with God, whenever you spend time with God, the central aspect of that time is around the revelation of God Almighty. That is the Word of God. Everything is about God, and everything we need to know about God is in His Word. Therefore, the revelation of God is central to my time alone with God. You need it more than you'll ever know. Turn with me, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians 2 for a moment.

2 Thessalonians 2. And listen to what Paul said to those in Thessalonica. We'll begin reading with the 13th verse, and you're going to want to remember this verse at the end of our message. It says, But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation, through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us. Paul says, You know that you've been born again. How do you know? God chose you in eternity past. And because He chose you in eternity past, He made sure the gospel came to you. And by faith, you receive the truth. Therefore, because you're born again, you've got to stand firm. In order for you to stand firm, you have to hold fast. You have to cling to the teachings, whether they were given to you in written word or whether they were given to you by the words of my mouth.

That is how you stand firm by clinging to the truth of God's Word. The centrality of revelation. God has challenged me this week with some things I need to share with you. And here's the first one.

The revelation of God is purposeful and powerful. That's why it's central. Because God's Word always accomplishes His desire in the lives of His people. That's good news for us. Number one, if God's Word is purposeful and powerful, it is purposeful and powerful enough to number one, confront me on my sin and confront my life.

My Word confronts man on his sin, on his lifestyle, and demands there be a change in his life. God's Word is purposeful. God's Word is powerful. Why? Because it confronts man in his life on a sin. Number two, it convicts man.

It convicts man of a sin. It confronts him on a sin. It confronts him on his lifestyle. It convicts him of that lifestyle. It convicts him of his sin. Over in Psalm 19, verse number 11, it says about the Word of God and the laws of God. By them thy servant is warned. By the law of God, the servant of God is warned. He is told, don't do that. Don't go there. Don't say that. Don't be that way. And it brings conviction. Why? John 17, 17, God says, sanctify them in truth.

My Word is truth. God's Word is true. So whenever I look into truth, if there is error in my life, I am convicted. I am confronted because that's what God's Word does. Remember over in John 16, Christ says that he gave us another comforter, the Spirit of God.

And that Spirit who comes is going to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Spirit of God who dwells in us when we open the Word of God begins to convict us of our sin that we might serve God. The centrality of revelation is purposeful and powerful. Number one, because it confronts man.

Number two, because it convicts man. Number three, because it cleanses man. It cleanses man. John 15, verse number three, that you are clean, Christ says, by my words.

By my words. Ephesians 5, 26, Christ set the church apart. Sanctified her how? By the washing of water through the Word. It's the Word of God that cleanses man. So we see God has a purpose in his Word. Coming to confront man. Coming to convict man. Coming to cleanse man. And fourthly, coming to convert man. To convert man. It's what transforms the life from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Psalm 19, 7 says, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Listen to what Peter said over in 1 Peter 1, verse number 22.

Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. For you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and abiding Word of God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord abides forever. And this is the Word which was preached to you. How is a man converted?

He's converted to the seed of the Word of God that has been preached to him. Listen to James chapter 1, verse number 18. In the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the Word of truth, so that we might be as it were the first fruits among his creatures.

James says that we are born again by the Word of truth. That's why Paul said Romans 1, 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Listen, this is so important. God's Word is purposeful and powerful to confront man, to convict man, to cleanse man, and to convert man. Now listen to what I'm going to say very carefully. The only way a soul is converted is through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. That's the only way. God's Word is that which converts the soul. That's why the centrality of revelation is so key to your alone time with the Almighty. That's why it's so key to the ministry of the local church. If God's Word is not proclaimed, souls will not be saved.

You say, well, we understand that pastor. We know that. Listen, I've been challenged again this week with this very fact that in evangelicalism today, there is a sweeping, and I mean a sweeping, all-encompassing movement that believes this. It is not important for God's Word to be preached to all the people groups of the world. It is not necessary for every tribe and nation to somehow hear the Word of God. That if somehow that tribe or that nation believes in the heart of some creator, of some higher being, that somehow God will look down upon them with mercy and grace and save their souls, and they'll have entrance into heaven.

Folks, that movement is sweeping evangelicalism from the number one evangelist in the history of America to the Roman Catholic Church.

In fact, the Pope recorded these words, all who live a just life will be saved, even if they do not believe in Jesus Christ and the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope has stated that a man can get to heaven if he doesn't believe in the name of Jesus, if he never calls upon the name of Jesus. He goes on to say, the gospel teaches us that those who live in accordance with the beatitudes, the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, those who bear lovingly the sufferings of life will enter God's kingdom. Is that true?

Is that what the Bible teaches? But you see, that movement has swept over into evangelicalism today that gets us to buy into the fact, what about the tribes of people who have never heard about the gospel? You mean to tell me that God is not going to save them unless they hear the truth? Absolutely. That's what God said. God is not that way, we respond. God can't be that way. Somehow God is going to look at them as sincere people, that if they look at general revelation, if they look at the revelation of God through the creation of God, that somehow that's all they need to know, and God will save them because they believe in a higher being, they believe in some God.

That's not true. That's not true. Christ said, you go into all the world and preach the gospel. You do that. Why? Because all the world's got to hear the truth. All the world must hear the truth. What did Paul tell Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.15? He says, from childhood, you have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Timothy, how does a man come to saving faith? Through the sacred writings. The sacred writings give you wisdom.

Why? Because a man who is born in sin is foolish. Therefore, he needs to be wise. In order to be wise, you must have the sacred writings. That wisdom leads you to salvation that enables you to have faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord. So important for us to grasp. Listen, Satan is being very effective today in modern churches with the same lie he perpetrated back way in Genesis chapter three, when he said, hath God said. Adam and Eve heard it. God said, this is what you shall not do. Adam and Eve had special divine revelation.

God would speak to them. And Satan came and said, hath God said. Is that really what God says? You can't really believe that that's what God says, can you?

And Adam and Eve began to doubt what God said. They no longer trusted in revelation. They trusted in what? In reason. Their own human reason. And whenever you deny revelation and trust in reason, you always fall into sin. Always, always. And they did. They did. They fell into sin. And Satan has brought that lie even to this very day and said, hath God really said? You mean to tell me that all those people over in Bogobogoland, God is going to send to hell because they never received the truth of God's holy word that there was no missionary for them to hear from?

Oh, no, God's mercy has got to be wider than that. God's grace has got to be greater than that. God's love must somehow be lovelier than that. A God of love is not going to send those people in a tribe who never heard the truth of God to hell. But that's exactly what the Bible says.

Exactly what he says. Why? Let me give you a series of verses. Because Romans 1 says that man suppresses the truth. He suppresses the truth. Man has everything he needs in creation, in general revelation, to cause him to seek divine special revelation. And if he doesn't do that, he won't receive it. If a man truly seeks divine revelation, the Bible says, if you seek me with all your heart, you will find me.

God promises that. But because man, according to Romans 1, suppresses the truth, he suppresses it. He builds for himself another image, another idol based after himself. And read Romans 1. It details for you the degenerate heart of a man. Because he will not face the fact of what God says to be true.

That's important for us to grasp. Because the Bible says these words over in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse number 18. For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. What is the power of God? It's the word of the cross. Man doesn't get saved unless he understands the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord. For that is the power of God. And so Paul says that the cross to the unbeliever is foolishness. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. Did you get that? The world through its wisdom does not come to know God. No matter what tribe you're born in, no matter what island you live on, your wisdom will never get you to know God. Read on. God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

How was man saved? He is saved only one way. And that is through the message of God that is preached. To man, that's the only way man is saved because man needs to know the truth. God's word is purposeful. God's word is powerful. God says my word will not return empty.

It will accomplish the purpose by which I sent it forth to accomplish. Therefore, it will confront man. It will convict man. It will cleanse man. It will convert man. But it is the message of the cross, the truth of almighty God that saves man. Not because he has a sincere heart and just because he offers sacrifices to some God that he doesn't know but believes in a higher being that does not save a man. In fact, if that was true, then why did Paul on Mars Hill, the Areopagus say, I've noticed that you have a statue.

You have lots of statues. But you have one to the unknown God because you don't want to leave anybody out. You see, they were afraid that if they didn't have a statue to the unknown God, some of the gods might get jealous. So they made one to the unknown God so that everybody was taken care of just in case they missed one. Paul says that's not good enough. Oh, you might have erected all these idols thinking that they're good but it's not good enough. God is demanding in Acts 1730 that all men everywhere repent.

All men everywhere repent. God demands that. He preached to them about the resurrection. He preached to them about the death of Christ. And the Bible says to them it was mockery.

It was foolishness to them, you see. But Paul said, unless you had the truth, unless you know about the one who died on the cross of Calvary and rose again, you won't be saved no matter what you believe or who you believe in. So important for us to grasp. Listen, the wisdom from above is divine. The wisdom that comes down from God is revelation. James 3.15 says the wisdom from below is earthly, natural, and demonic. It's demonic. Listen to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse number 20. I say, the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, and there are tribes all over the world making sacrifices.

And Paul says, the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, the pagan nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to who? To demons, not to God. That means that every tribe in the world who makes sacrifices and worships an unknown God is worshiping something demonic, is not worshiping the true God. That's why they must receive the revelation of God. They must know the truth of Almighty God. Folks, we need to understand this. Why are we sending Bruce McLean to India? Why? If the people in India have a good heart and they believe in some higher being, that somehow there is a greater being that brought all this universe into existence.

Is that not enough? Is that not good enough? Won't God look upon those people in India and say, you know what, you had a good heart. You really were sincere in your offering of sacrifices to demons. Come on into heaven. That's not what God does. No, that's why we labor to preach the gospel to every person in the world. We've got to give them the truth of God's Word because it's purposeful and it's powerful to confront man, to convict man, to cleanse man, and to convert man from sin to righteousness.

Only God's Word can do that. Persuasive speeches don't. God's Word does all of that. Remember Romans 3, there is none good, no, not one. In fact, over in Romans 3, it says this, that we need to understand in verse number 20, by the works of the law, no flesh is justified. No work, no matter what you do, no matter how many sacrifices you offer, no matter how sincere your heart may be, no work will ever justify your soul. And Paul goes on to say in Romans chapter 3, verse number 22, the righteousness of God comes through faith to those who believe.

Who believe what? Who believe in the message that has been given about Jesus Christ our Lord. Listen, this is so important. If you can be saved without the gospel, if you can be saved without the truth of God's almighty Word, then you can be justified by your works. You can be, but you can't. You must hear the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Folks, I've been challenged this week again that this is the absolute truth. You need to understand this because if not, you'll be bought into reason.

Well, God certainly is gonna let those people in Bogal, Bogaland go to heaven. Certainly He's gonna do that, even though they don't hear the truth. No, that's not true. I've just given you a plethora of verses that describe otherwise. You need to know the truth. In fact, 2 John verse number 7 says these words, For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves that you might not lose what we've accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.

Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. If anyone does not abide in the teaching of Christ, you don't have God. You've got to preach the gospel. You've got to teach the truth to people. Why? 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 sums it up very well. In verse number 7, it says this, When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels and flaming fire, dealing that retribution to those who do not know God. Who are those who do not know God? To those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Those who do not know God are those who do not obey the gospel. Those who haven't heard the gospel, that they might learn to obey the gospel. And it says, And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day. Listen, you need to get this. Why? Because as we move closer and closer to the return of Christ, which is ever so eminent, more and more people will begin to deny the fact that Jesus' name needs to be proclaimed throughout the world, as the Pope himself did just last month.

Is that the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Listen, God's Word is purposeful. God's Word is powerful enough to confront man on a sin, to convict man of a sin, to cleanse man from his sin and to convert man from his sin. And if that doesn't happen, then man will be condemned because of his sin. How do we know that? Revelation 19 tells us, And I saw heaven opened. Behold, the white horse, and he who sat upon it is called faithful and true.

And in righteousness, he judges and wages war, and his eyes are like a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems. He has a name written upon him, which no one knows except himself. He's clothed with a robe dipped in blood. His name is called what? The Word of God. His name is called the Word of God. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the exact representation of God. He is the revelation of God in the flesh. God's Word and God are inseparable. And God will use His Word. The Bible goes on to say that He will slay man with the sword of his mouth.

He will speak the Word of truth, and man will be condemned because they did not believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So important that we understand the centrality of revelation to confront man on a sin, to convict man of a sin, to cleanse man from a sin, to convert man from a sin. God's Word is purposeful. God's Word is powerful. Do you believe that? I hope that you do. Let's pray.