Sermon Brief
Date Written: May 25, 2010
Date Preached: May 30, 2010
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: Great Questions of Our Faith
Sermon Title: Does God Speak?
Sermon Text: 1 Cor 2:10-13 [ESV]
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
Introduction:
Does God speak to us? Can we hear the voice of God? If God speaks, how does He do it? Does God speak internally to our spirit? Does God speak externally through a holy man or guru or prophet? Does God choose NOT to speak because He is distant and disinterested in us?
These are questions that many ask everyday in our world, but the main question I hear most people asking, in their comments and in their seeking and searching is… Can God speak to ME?
As a creation, we are created by God as social and curious beings. The human desire to explore and discover is only exceeded by our desire to preserve our life. However, in some cases we find that even when danger is imminent, humans still press forward to discover the unknown and learn more…
But what about our search for knowledge about God, about our creator? Can we know Him? Can He know us? Can we communicate with Him? Can we ‘hear’ His voice? Does God speak to ME today in this world of technology and scientific advancement?
One of the 1st things we learn about God in Scripture is that speaking is something God has always done on a frequent basis. In Genesis 1 no less than 10 times does Scripture say… “And God said…” And as we go thru Scripture we find this truth reaffirmed over and over again, thousands of times…
God speaking to His people is a foundational element of the Christian faith and belief about God. God speaks in many ways. God reveals Himself and His message in many ways!
How does God reveal Himself? v.10
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
Here Paul acknowledges a couple of things that I believe to be very important in answering our question this morning. First, Paul begins this passage with “God has revealed” God has spoken… God is speaking… God SPEAKS!
2nd we find that God speaks through the Holy Spirit, and it is thru the Holy Spirit that we find God revealing Himself to us in many ways! This morning I want to share 2 distinct ways God reveals Himself… 1st He reveals Himself from the general perspective…
Thru General Revelation:
God’s general revelation is available to ALL people, and consists of the world around us [i.e. His creation] Granted the view we have is perverted because of the fall of humanity into sin, and so all we see is the broken and fallen result of God’s perfect and beautiful creation…
We can witness beauty around us and see the hand of God present in creation, but what we are seeing is a poor substitute for what God created before the fall of humanity to sin, and before sin distorted and damaged our world!
Paul states in Rom 1:19-20 [ESV]
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
God is revealed all around us in our world, so much so that we have NO excuse if we don’t believe He exists. Scripture tells us that He not only exists, but it is His desire to commune with His creation, so He speaks… He reveals Himself in many ways!
General revelation includes the creation around us…
General revelation includes the common grace that is extended to all people on earth… this is a grace that comes from God that is extended to all humanity… a grace that allows us to exist, strive and flourish and prosper.
Common grace allows those outside the kingdom of God to live what would appear to be a morally upright lifestyle… a life of compassion and service, although their deeds are not meant to glorify God.
Another aspect of General revelation is the aspect of our own conscience. Walt Disney even created a character to illustrate what this was… Do you remember the character in Pinocchio named Jiminy Cricket?
He was an open and vivid illustration of the conscience of a person. Do you remember how Pinocchio heard Jiminy’s advice but eventually refused to listen to it because he gave into the temptations around him and his own selfish desires…
God has given us all a conscience to guide our decisions of right and wrong… and in the beginning that conscience was submissive and obedient to God, but it rebelled and sought its own desires!
God speaks through our consciences BUT the issue is that most of the time we ignore our conscience and focus on our desire… we rationalize our sin and marginalize God’s leading to the point where we feel vindicated in doing what WE desire over what God is leading us to do…
We all have a conscience, it is a general revelation of God’s presence in our lives, but because we are fallen creatures, living in a fallen and a broken world, our conscience is overwhelmed by the volume of our own desires and the cares of this world.
God speaks to His creation in many ways thru what we would consider a general revelation of His will and way… but what we need to understand is that the general revelation of God is what leads us to a more intense and far more specific revelation of Himself…
Thru Specific Revelation:
One specific way is God revealing Himself thru the Spirit…Jesus promises in
John 16:8, 13 [ESV]
8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment… 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
The specific influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit will open eyes and hearts. The Holy Spirit was the guiding and directing force for the authors of Scripture, working thru their own personalities and writing style.
Scripture details the nature of God and reveals to His creation His attributes, desires and plan for humanity. Scripture reveals the specific intention of God’s desire in salvation. Scripture reveals the specific destination of those who accept God’s plan and of those who reject God’s plan!
Scripture is a detailed account of God’s revelation to humanity and so we can see that God speak SPECIFICALLY through the Bible! But we can also see God speaks directly to us in many other ways as well…
2. Can We Comprehend What God is saying? v.11b-12
…So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
Well Paul is sharing with the church that if it was not for God and His specific revelation of Himself to us, we could NEVER understand Him or comprehend Him…
We have rec’d this revelation through the Spirit of God and not from anything the world brings to us… what does this mean? Well, it means that you can have the most advanced degree that humanity has to offer… you can be the most intelligent man on the planet, but that has NOTHING to do with know and understanding God and God’s plan! That comes directly from God in His revelation of Himself…
This is because seeing the revelation of God and believing the revelation of God are two separate things! There are many things I can see or hear about, that I may have doubts about… I have heard that there are people who make 10 million dollars a year for what they do… sports personalities, actors, CEOs… you name it!
But it is hard for me to fathom that sort of salary! It is hard to believe that THAT much money actually exists in the world! I know it is true in my heart, but bringing it to belief in my head is difficult.
Same goes with Spiritual things… God has revealed Himself in many ways to His creation. One way is thru His Son, Jesus Christ who died on the Cross of Calvary some 2000 yrs ago for the sin of the world!
Scripture tells us that Jesus did this, history coo berates that account! We know that Jesus lived! We know that Jesus died! We know of the many accounts of witnesses who saw Him after He rose from the dead!
Many people see the 1st two facts, but the final fact of His resurrection, they just can’t seem to grasp… bringing it into belief in our hearts is difficult! But Paul is saying here, that you can reason and think logically all you want … but that will do you NO good!
The only way you are going to hear and accept God’s full and complete revelation is through a spiritual encounter… it is the revelation of God thru the Spirit! We cannot know God in His fullness on our own, it takes God to reveal Himself to us!
This is why Paul teaches what he does in Ephesians 2:8-9[ESV]:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
We can know the revelation of God and experience God in our lives, but we can only know and experience this because God has blessed us with the gift of revelation… the gift of salvation… the gift of understanding Him and seeing Him as we should! Outside of God’s revelation to us, we are spiritually blind and grasping in the dark!
You see what Paul is saying here in this passage is that God does speak to us, and even though God is God and so far above us, He speaks to us in a way we can hear, but also in a way we can understand what He is saying! God is speaking today, do YOU hear Him? Has He spoken to your heart this morning?
3. What does God’s Revelation mean for us? v.13:
13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
God’s revelation carries with it great and wonderful implications for all of humanity! When God reveals Himself out of His love and mercy to His creation, He imparts a wisdom to us that we could never attain on our own!
Without God’s revelation, we would never be able to know salvation! We would never be able to experience forgiveness! We would never experience the peace of God in our hearts!
With the revelation of God we are imparted heavenly wisdom to impart crucial and critical spiritual truths that lead us to where God desires us to go…
However, without this revelation, we could NEVER know God, we could NEVER understand Him and we could NEVER fathom the spiritual ramifications of our actions! Without God’s revelation we are left to live as we see fit in our own eyes… we are left to live by our own selfish desires… we are left to live based on the fallen and carnal nature of our fleshly spirit!
But with God’s revelation of Himself thru Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to know God! We have the opportunity to experience God and His love, mercy and grace!
But not all of us who are exposed to the revelation of God choose to accept it! There are many today in this world who see the revelation of God… from the general to the specific and they reject it!
They see God’s revelation and insist on placing a human and carnal explanation onto all things professed by God’s revelation! They are adamantly opposed to accepting God’s revelation at face value and constantly attempt to explain it away with human reasoning or supposed human intelligence!
One example I see of this is the Creation story in and of itself. I firmly have faith in and fully believe the Creation account as presented in Genesis 1 and 2…
I see NO conflict and have no problems accepting the creative nature of the God of the universe and the fact that He can speak things into existence… and that He can do it in a time frame that boggles the mind!
I am not the only one who believes this… this is the stance of ALL of evangelical Christianity! Creation Ex Nilio is creation from nothing, this is what Scripture says, and this is what I believe!
Now I am NOT a scientist, I have not studied intensely in the disciplines that bring one to become a scientist. But what I do have is a working knowledge of God, and a faith and belief in what He has revealed to me thru His general revelation of Creation to the specific Word He has given us in Scripture and in His Son Jesus Christ!
There are those who sit in our pews today who will tell you to your face, that they believe in Jesus, but they also believe in evolution and that the creation account simply is not scientifically possible and so they cannot believe it!
Now as a believer I believe God’s word to be what many call, inerrant, which means it is without falsehood… it is without error! This means that I believe ALL of what Scripture teaches me… ALL of what Scripture reveals!
For one to discount any part of Scripture is to discount the very veracity of God’s character and His revelation to His creation. I believe the Bible to be wholly true, but I also understand that those who READ the Bible are not inerrant in their understanding…
What this tells me is that it is NOT the revelation of Scripture that is in question, but our understanding of that revelation. Just because we cannot ‘explain’ something does not mean it did not happen or does not exist!
The conception of life is something that happens on a daily basis in our world but to this day, although Science KNOWS the basic mechanics of how happens… they cannot fully explain WHY it happens or HOW it occurs!
For the poor man, one million dollars seems UNBELIEVABLE and beyond comprehension. He knows it is there, he can see it, but he cannot fathom how it can be real to anyone!
For the Scientist, this creation is here, he can see it, smell it, taste and experience it, but He cannot explain it, as hard as he tries to explain it away and take the Creator OUT of the picture… he cannot do it!
God reveals Himself and because He has revealed Himself we can know things about God and His creation that we could NEVER know on our own!
Conclusion:
What does this mean for us today? God’s revelation focuses on one central theme and character! Jesus Christ is that one central character and the redemption of humanity is the theme!
The question this morning is, “Does God speak?” and the answer is a resounding YES HE DOES! He has spoken in many ways to reveal Himself to you… to let you know He loves you and it is His desire for you to be part of His eternal family!
God DOES speak, and this morning He has spoken to you through the songs that we have sung, thru the Scripture we have read and thru the message I have spoken…
God can speak to us through His word, thru the circumstances of life and through other people, the question is NOT “Does God Speak?” the real question today is “Are you listening?”
God is speaking to your heart today… are you going to listen to Him? He could be speaking to you from a ministry standpoint and guiding you down a pathway of ministry…
He could be speaking to you from a fellowship standpoint and guiding you to join our church and fellowship, worship and serve with Oak Park…
He could be speaking to you today from a standpoint of obedience, He is calling you to do something and you have yet surrendered to Him…
He could be speaking to you this morning from a perspective of Savior… you have sin in your life… He is calling you to confess your sin and accept His forgiveness and salvation!
The question for you today is ARE YOU LISTENING… as Bro Steven comes to lead us in our hymn of invitation… are you going to listen to God and step out this morning, or are you going to continue to ignore His calling… wont you come as we begin to sing!
