God Has Spoken, Part 3

Amen. If you got your Bible, turn me to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter one, and we are looking at how God speaks today. That's the major question. That's what the writer of Hebrews begins with in Hebrews one, when he records these words, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days or in the last of these days has spoken to us in his son. So the question comes, how did God speak? How does he speak? How did he speak in ages past?

How did he speak today? And the question comes, is God still speaking today? The answer is yes, he is. He speaks to us through the written revealed word of God. But some will say, well, no, he speaks in other ways too. He speaks as he did in days past. He speaks in visions and in dreams and revelations and supernatural appearances. There are many people who believe that and they stand hardcore on that. And they say things like, well, you know, you, you can't say he doesn't do that because you've never experienced that.

Or you can't judge me because you have not come to the same understanding that I have come to through the vision or through the revelation or through the dream. How can you say that I did not experience that? What I'm telling you, I did experience that. And that happens all the time. I probably face that at least once a week that someone says, well, the Lord told me, God told me, the Lord spoke to me, the Lord in a vision or in a dream said this or said that. But you see the question comes, is that true?

And how do you know it's true? Does your experience make it true? Does what happens to you tell us what is true or is God's word and what he says true? It all comes down to the sufficiency and the supremacy of Jesus Christ, our Lord. And the writer of Hebrews emphasizes that sufficiency and that supremacy. And so to establish the fact that God is supreme, he rules over all that God is sufficient. His word then is sufficient. The writer of Hebrews begins by telling us how God has spoken, how he spoke in the past and how he speaks today.

In the last of these days, what days are those? The days in which God was speaking, he spoke to us through his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, it's interesting to note that the problem is ever present with us. It's not that it just happens every once in a while. Paul would write about this in the book of Colossians. In fact, if you get your Bible, turn to Colossians chapter two. You say, I thought we were in Hebrews. We are. We're in Hebrews chapter one, verses one and two, but we're trying to set the tone for the rest of the book by helping you understand how God speaks today.

And in the book of Colossians, remember Paul was addressing the false teachers. He was addressing those who were of the Gnostic persuasion. They believed in Gnosticism, which was a belief that true enlightenment comes from some other source beyond scripture, something else beyond what God has already said. And while the Gnostics did not outright deny scripture, they did believe that the key that unlocked the message of the scripture was a supernatural enlightenment that comes only through a mystical experience.

That's what Gnosticism is. And so Paul would have to address that. And in addressing that, he says in Colossians two, verse number 18, let no one keep defrauding you. He's writing to the church at Colossae. He's writing to believers in the church. He says, let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen inflated without cause by his fleshy mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the entire body being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments grows with the growth, which is from God.

Paul says, listen, don't let anybody defraud you. Don't let anybody come along and intimidate you because somehow they want to elevate themselves through a false humility. They come says by delighting in self abasement. The new American standard has a very good translation there because it is a self abasement. Don't let someone come and intimidate you because they have a false humility. It's a self abasement because it's not induced by God and his word by saying you're a sinner. You're separated from God.

It is a self inducing humility by saying we are so humble because we can't go to God. So we have to worship angels who intercede for us to get us to God. And that's what they believe. And so Paul addresses that by delighting in self abasement and the worship of the angels. Although the word of God says you shall have no other God before me, you should not worship any other God.

Matthew four, verse number 10. There's one intercession between God and man. That's the man, Christ Jesus, not angels. Angels, in fact, worship God. And so they outright deny scripture when it comes to that. And they take their stand, listen, on visions they have seen inflated without cause by their own fleshly mind. They had this elevated view of themselves because they've had this vision. They've had this mystical experience that unlocks to them the mysteries of the kingdom, the mysteries of the word of God.

And they come and through the self abasement, they defraud you. They intimidate you by saying, this is what's happened to me. This hasn't happened to you. Well, what can I say? It's an experience that I've had and you haven't. And Paul says, they're not holding fast to the head who is Christ, the all sufficient one, from whom the entire body being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments grows with a growth, which is from God. Listen, the only way to grow is by abiding in Christ. The only way to grow is through the word of God.

The only way to grow is through God himself, no other way. And so Paul, 2,000 years ago, would address this at the church of Colossae because people believed that somehow they would gain a deeper knowledge of God from some vision, some revelation, some mystical experience outside of the word of God that would draw them closer to God. One author said it this way, modern mysticism embraces the concept of faith that is in effect, rejects reality and rationality altogether. Waging war on reason and truth, it is thus in direct conflict with Christ in scripture.

It has taken hold rapidly because it promises what so many people are seeking. They're seeking something more, something better, something richer, something easier, something fast and easy to substitute for a life of careful, disciplined obedience to the word of Christ. And because so many lack certainty that their sufficiency is in Christ, mysticism has caught many Christians unaware. It is thus swept much of the church into a dangerous netherworld of confusion and false teaching. They say there's something more, there's something better.

Like we told you last week with Sarah Young in her book, Jesus Calling, there's something better than the word of God. There's got to be something more than how God speaks to us through his word. And so now she says that God speaks directly to her. And so she records that so you know what God is saying to her. Well, that's just hogwash. It's from the Greek word, which means absolute hogwash. And we need to be more discerning people in what we read and what people are saying. But it's so easy to be confused.

It's so easy to be caught up in this stuff. Let me show you how easy it is. Turn with me to John chapter 14.

I'm going to show you how easy it is to be caught in this circle of something more than just what Jesus said. Because Philip, who was a disciple of the Lord, he was one who wanted something more. So don't think that this is just prevalent with people who are false teachers. It's prevalent everywhere in the church, even today. But it was even with the disciples. Remember, Jesus is about to be crucified. It's the eve of the crucifixion. They've celebrated the Passover and Christ goes into this long dissertation in the upper room about what it means to receive comfort from him.

He's going to send another comforter, which is the Spirit of God, and he prays for them. It's a beautiful passage to help us understand the heart of Christ as he speaks to his men. He tells them he's going to go away, and if he goes away, he'll prepare a place for them. If he prepares a place for them, he will come again, receive them unto himself so that they can be with him forever. So he tells them in advance he's going to go away, but don't worry, I'm going to come back and receive you unto myself.

He says those famous words, verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. And then he says in verse 7, if you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you know him and have seen him. Now these are the words of Christ. Now listen to what Philip says. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough. Well, wait a minute. Christ says if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

But Philip says we need something more than that. What you said I hear, but it's not sufficient. I need to have a vision of the Father. I need to have a glimpse of the Father. I need to be able to see the Father. Show us the Father. If you show us something other than what you've already shown us, if you show me something other than what you've already said, that other will be sufficient for me. And of course the answer to that is it never is sufficient because Christ alone is sufficient. Philip says, can you show us the Father?

Can you give us a miracle? Can you give us a sign? Can you show us something that will satisfy us outside of what we've already seen and what you have already said? Philip was a practical mystic trying to think of something else outside of Christ himself. What you have done is okay, but I need something more. Give me an experience. That's what Philip's asking. And so Jesus says, have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know me, Philip?

He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Christ says, Philip, I am enough.

You have seen me. You have seen my works. You have heard my words and still you want more? What Philip said was an insult to the living God. You, Christ, are not enough. I am seeking for something more. In other words, the scripture that reveals to us Christ, the sufficient Christ, is truly sufficient. And yet people still seek for something more, some kind of experience, some kind of personal revelation outside of the Word of God. You know, God's Word is so powerful that it causes all kinds of emotions in the life of the believer.

Now, remember this. After the resurrection, Christ appeared to two disciples on what's called the Emmaus Road. Remember Luke 24? We spent nine years in the gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 24. And Christ does not disclose himself to these men, but he comes up to them and says, what are you guys talking about? Well, they said to him, where have you been? Have you not heard what's happened in Jerusalem? All the things that have taken place? Christ says, what things?

Now, they didn't know it was the Christ. And so they began to talk to him about what took with Jesus. And as they're walking on the road, Christ begins to explain to them by opening up to them the law and the prophets. And they are so compelled by what he says. Remember, they don't know it's Christ. They just think it's some stranger. Because Christ is in his glorified body. He did not reveal himself to them. They just think it's some stranger on the road. And they are so compelled by what he says.

They ask him to stay for dinner. And when he stays for dinner and he breaks bread, they recognize that it's the Messiah. He unveils himself to them and then he vanishes. And they had to run to Jerusalem from Emmaus to tell the disciples. And as they were going, what did they say? They said these words, Luke 24, verse number 32, were not a our hearts burning within us, while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us. Now remember, that took place before he ever revealed himself as the Messiah.

In other words, when the word of God is opened, and the word of God is explained, and the word of God is expounded upon in the heart of the believer, there is a burning sensation. There is something that happens. Remember we talked about it last week, Jeremiah 23, is not my word like a fire? Is not my word like a hammer? As a hammer, it shatters the soul. As a fire, it purifies the soul. And these two men on the road to Emmaus were so overcome with emotion, their hearts were burning within them, because this individual, whoever it was, they did not know it was Jesus, but it was.

Their hearts were burning within them as he explained to them the truth of God's word. What happens in your heart when God's words explained? What do you do? Do you fall asleep? Do you get bored? Does your mind wander? What happens when God's words explain to you? Because if God says, my word's like a hammer, it shatters the soul.

If my word's like a fire, it purifies the soul, then that hammer needs to be breaking up all of the rocky soil that's there. And as a fire, it needs to be burning away all the chaff that's there. See? That's why Paul would say in 2 Thessalonians, excuse me, 1 Thessalonians 2.13, that God's word effectually works in those who believe. In those who don't believe, it doesn't work. But in those who do believe, it always does its purifying sledgehammer kind of work. Now, let me ask you a question.

What happens when God's words expanded to you? Does anything happen? Or do you just leave the way you arrived? See, that's very important to understand too. Remember, the book of Hebrews is a book of examination. It's a book of exhortation. It's a book of explanation that leads us to all those things to help us understand exactly what Christ is doing. Christ is sufficient. His words are sufficient. What Christ says is more than enough.

Listen, if Christ is not sufficient to you, His words not sufficient, you'll always be seeking for something more outside of His word. Some kind of experience, some kind of vision, some kind of revelation, some kind of angelic appearance, something that's there that will somehow help me know and communicate with God. And that's what mysticism is. And that's what was happening in the church at Colossae. And that's what's happening in the modern day church today. Not much has changed over the years.

People are into sensationalism. People are into emotionalism. People are into mysticism. They are into some kind of exterior experience. Listen, there's only two ways, two ways in which you can approach truth. Okay, only two ways. One is historical. The other is personal. One is biblical. The other is mystical. One is factual. The other is delusional. But there's only two ways to approach truth. Only two. One is objective. The other is subjective. Okay. So the objective is the biblical, factual, rational, historical approach.

The subjective is the personal, mystical, delusional approach. Only two ways to approach truth. And the rational, biblical, historical way is the objective way. And that simply says that God has spoken to us through his word, and his word defines who he is. But the personal, subjective way says, no, God is defined by my personal experience. So the subjective way says, it's outside of me, it says, listen, God will be defined by how I experience him. And that's how I will come to my truth. Versus the objective way that says, no, God has already defined himself in his word.

And his word is God's actions toward man that comes to a rational, cognitive understanding of the God of the Bible. That's the only way you can approach truth. One is based on my personal experience. One is based on what happens to me. Because what happens to me then is truth. And that's what's happened with people who have these visions and dreams that somehow truth is based on what happens to me. And how do you rationalize that with Jeremiah 17, which says that your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

No man can know it. Or Proverbs 14, 12, which says there is a way with Seamoth right into a man, but the ends thereof are always the ways of death, never life. So how do you rationalize your personal experience with Jeremiah 17, 9 and Proverbs 12, excuse me, Proverbs 14, verse number 12. And how do you rationalize it with Hebrews 4, verse number 12, where the Lord God says for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

There's only one thing that can judge the intentions of your heart. And it cannot be your personal experience. It can only be the word of God based on what Hebrews 4, verse number 12 says. When you draw spiritual reality out of your personal experience, you subvert biblical authority. Whenever you draw spiritual reality out of your experience, you subvert biblical authority. The new standard in the church today is personal experience. That's the standard. The Lord told me, the Lord showed me, the Lord appeared to me, the Lord came to me.

So what do you do with that? How do you handle that? You have to understand Hebrews 1, 1 and 2 to be able to offset what people say concerning their experiences. You cannot define God by your personal experience. Truth is the only way to know God. The truth of scripture is the only way to know God. You begin with the word of God and every thought that you have, every experience that you have has absolutely nothing to do with discerning the truth. Nothing. All those experiences and all those feelings must be subjected to the authority of God's word.

And God's word will define whether or not your experience was a false experience or a true experience. You can't do that because that's too subjective. It must be done by the objective rational truth of the word of God. Most important. So mysticism really is an outflow of existentialism. We talked to you about this a couple of weeks ago. Existentialism is a philosophy that says that life is meaningless, life is absurd in and of itself, and therefore only you can bring meaning to it. You're free to do whatever you want to do because you can create your own meaning.

Truth is whatever grabs you. Truth is whatever you want it to be and whatever you want it to be, that it is. And a stepsister to existentialism is humanism, which states that humanity is the ultimate power and potential. Giving enough education, giving enough experience, giving enough opportunities, you can solve your own problems. Which at its base is paganism, but really what's at its base is Baalism, the worship of Baal. And people don't even understand that. We've been talking about Elijah and we've been talking about Elisha and how Israel got swept into Baal worship and how it just encompassed the whole nation.

How did that happen? How is it that Baalism just infiltrated all of Israel and everybody began to move in this direction? It's because Baalism is based on an experience outside of the objective truth of God's holy word. Eugene Peterson has done a study of this. He says this, the emphasis of Baalism was on psychological relatedness and subjective experience. The transcendence of the deity was overcome in the ecstasy of the feeling. How do I feel? How does make me feel? Baalism made me feel a certain way.

Baalism is worship reduced to the spiritual stature of the worshiper. Its canons or standards are that it should be interesting, relevant, and exciting. That's what drew Israel away from, the writer says, Yahwehism. Why? Because Baalism was relevant. It was emotional. It was exciting. It played on my emotions. He says Yahwehism, which is the Old Testament Judaism, established a form of worship which was centered in the proclamation of the word of the covenant God. The appeal was made to the will.

Man's rational intelligence was roused to attention as he was called upon to respond as a person to the will of God. In Yahwehism, something was said, words which called men to serve, love, obey, act responsibly, decide. The distinction between the worship of Baal and the worship of Yahweh is the distinction between approaching the will of the covenant God, which could be understood and known and obeyed, and the blind life force in nature, which could only be left absorbed and imitated. In other words, in the church today, we have a modern neo-Baalism.

We have the worship of Baal. We have Sarah Young who worships Baal. She doesn't worship God. You have William P. Young who worships Baal. He doesn't worship God. You can't say you're worshiping God and say God is speaking to me outside of what he's already said. That he's not sufficient enough for me. There must be some kind of experience, some kind of relevant exercise that touches me emotionally, that sends my senses through the roof. Really? But that's where the modern church is gone. All you got to do is just listen to what preachers say on TV and what they say on the radio and what they read, what they write in books.

So all that to say is this. Peter, okay, Peter had a great experience, right? Let's look at Peter and Paul and ask this question.

Would Peter and Paul base their ministry on their experiences? And there's nobody alive today who's had the same experiences that those two guys had. So let's take Peter for example, okay? Remember Peter was on the Mount of Transfiguration, Matthew chapter 17. In Matthew 16, Christ said that some of you will not die until you see the glory of the Son of Man. The Son of Man come in all of his glory, right? So they automatically believe that Jesus is going to come one day in all of his glory in their lifetime.

Six days later, they're on top of Mount Hermon and the Mount of Transfiguration and Christ unzips his flesh, right? And there stands Moses, there stands Elijah, the great law giver and the great law garter, Moses and Elijah. And Christ unzips his flesh and the voice comes from heaven. This is my beloved son. Listen carefully. Listen to him. That's the voice from heaven. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. And this is where Peter wanted to build three tabernacles. One for Christ, one for Moses, one for Elijah, because he felt like the kingdom was here, the kingdom's coming.

The experience that would supersede all the other disciples experiences. He had seen the glory of the Lord on top of Mount Hermon. And so listen to what he says in second Peter chapter one, verse number 16.

For we do not follow cleverly devised tales, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were our witnesses of his majesty. Now what's he talking about? He's talking about transfiguration. For when he received honor and glory from God, the father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory. This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. And Luke's account says, listen to him. Very important. Now listen carefully. And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

So we have the prophetic word made more sure, or we have a more sure prophetic word. We have a more sure prophetic word than what? Listen carefully. Peter is saying we have something more sure than a valid experience because his experience could be verified. How could it be verified? James and John, right? Out of the mouth of two or three, every witness shall be confirmed. Okay. Can't use Moses and Elijah because they stood in the back of the glory. Couldn't use Jesus because he wasn't there. So he could use James and John.

So he could have verified his experience. That's what we tell you, these people with visions and revelations, they're unverifiable. Therefore they're unreliable. You can't verify them. It's just that person. But Peter can verify his experience. How? Through James and John. But what does he say? He says, we have a more sure prophetic word. We have something more sure than a valid experience. And that is the prophetic word of God. And he goes on to talk about how it was delivered unto us. How holy men of God spoke as they were born along by the spirit of God.

Well, what a powerful statement. Peter, James, and John could have gone on the TV circuit and they could have gone on the speaking circuit and they could have gone around saying, Hey, listen, we know that Jesus is coming again because we had an experience. They didn't do that. We know about the glory of Jesus because we were on the mountain. They didn't do that. Peter did the exact opposite of what the charismatics do today. Peter did the exact opposite of what those people based on visions and revelations do today.

We have a more sure prophetic word and I had a valid experience. I had a verifiable experience. I had a reliable experience, but there's something more sure than that. And that is the prophetic word of God. Folks, this is crucial. So important because you can't grow spiritually on experiences because you're always searching for some kind of emotional experience. Can't grow that way. You grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord. As newborn babes, Peter says, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow.

Thereby you grow through the sufficient word of God. That's how you grow. Hosea said, God said to Hosea, my people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge. They don't know me simple as that. And so it's the prophetic word made more sure. So Peter, he could have, he could have traveled around all of Israel based on his experience, right? That's what people do today. They write books based on their experience. 90 minutes in heaven by Don Piper. Seriously? Who believes that? Come on. Or, or heaven is for real.

So Dodd Brupo, who was a pastor now believes heaven's for real because his four-year-old boy died and went to heaven. What kind of pastor is that? Who goes to that kind of church? Are you kidding me people? What have we come to today? Heaven is for real because God said heaven is for real. Not because somebody made a movie about it or wrote a book about it, which by the way is filled with all kinds of errors and heresy. See that? How about Paul? How about the apostle Paul? Talk about a conversion experience.

I don't think anybody in the room had a conversion experience like Paul's conversion experience. He's the persecutor of the Jews, right? He's going to kill the Jews and the glory of the Lord shines all around him. He falls flat on his face. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who art thou Lord? And Paul on the Damascus road with a face full of dirt had been thrown to the ground by the voice of Almighty God has an incredible conversion experience. Now if Paul was a charismatic that would be his key to television ministry.

That would be the key to his new book. But ask this question. How did Paul prove the resurrection? He could have proved the resurrection because he saw the living glorified Christ on the road to Damascus. He could have gone on the speaking circuit and said, hey listen I've seen Jesus. He is alive. Ah, but listen to what he says in Acts 17. Acts 17 verses 2 and 3. And according to Paul's custom, this is what he always did. He went to them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from his experience.

No, from the scriptures. Explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. This was the custom of Paul. How did Paul prove the resurrection? Never once did he try to prove the resurrection through his experience. Why? Because his experience was non-verifiable. His experience was not something that was reliable. But what was reliable was the more sure prophetic word. And so when he talks to people who are Jews about Jesus the Messiah, he tells them let me show you from the scriptures what the Bible says about the arrival of the Messiah, the death of the Messiah, and the resurrection of the Messiah.

Because it's a more sure prophetic word. He believed in the sufficiency of scripture. So much so that at the end of his ministry in Acts chapter 28, listen to what he says. He's about to die. He's in a Roman prison and all he's doing is gathering people around him who come to him and want to hear what he has to say. When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers and he was explaining to them about the experience he had on the Damascus road. No, he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and from the prophets from morning until evening.

Paul never closed the book. Never did. Because his personal testimony paled in comparison to the truth of God's holy word. Do you see that? Here are two men, Peter and Paul, who truly, truly had remarkable experiences but did not use them to prove the truth of God's word. Even in 2 Corinthians 12. Remember that? Verse 1, Paul says, boasting is necessary though it is not profitable, but I would go on to visions and revelations of the Lord so I could do that. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body, I do not know, or out of the body, I do not know.

God knows. Such a man was caught up to the third heaven and I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know.

God knows. Here he is. Paul says, I don't know exactly what happened. I can't explain it to you. Three times he says, I don't know. I just don't know. Why? Because my experience that I had is not verifiable. And I don't know exactly what happened. All these people today who write books about heaven, they know exactly what took place. How does Paul not know? Are they greater than Paul? They have a different experience than Paul had? Paul says, I don't know. I can't tell you. He says, I was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.

Why? They're not verifiable. They're not repeatable. If it's not verifiable and not repeatable, you can't bank on it, even though it's true, because it's in the scriptures. It's the word of God. But Paul makes it very clear. Look, I don't know exactly what happened. I know I was caught up in the third heaven.

I know I heard words that were inexpressible. Okay. I could boast in that, but you know what? I'd rather glory in my weaknesses because in my weaknesses, God has made strong. God has made strong. And I want to be strong through my weaknesses. Folks, this is so important. In the last of these days, what days? The days in which God was speaking, he spoke to us through his son. God is no longer speaking as he did before, but he is speaking to us through his inspired word of God. That's why we elevate God's word.

That's why we truly exalt God's word. That's why we lift God's word. When you come to Christ Community Church, it's all about the word of God. It's all about God himself. It's not about me or any man. It's all about Christ, exalting him as the all-sufficient God of the universe. And if he is sufficient, his word is sufficient. The entirety of his word, Psalm 119, 160, is truth, is truth. And we want you to be in a church where God's word is lifted high. Because as the standard itself is lifted high, we know exactly what the truth is.

Because God has given us his truth. That's why he said, sanctify them in truth. My word is truth. Hebrews 1, 1 and 2 sets the tone for the rest of the book of Hebrews. If you don't believe what God said is true, then you can't believe what the writer of Hebrews is going to say about Jesus. So you must know that God's word is complete. God's word is true. God's word is sufficient for all things. It's profitable that the man of God will be thoroughly furnished, equipped for every good work. Let me pray with you.

Father, we thank you for today and the truth of your word. The chance we have to study it together as a church. We are blessed people, Lord, because we hold in our hands the true and living word of God. We ask that, Lord, you would go before us this day, that we might live in the light of that word, truly believing that the all-sufficient word of God truly is more than enough, because Jesus himself is enough. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.