God Has Spoken--But Why?

Selected Scriptures

As we look again at our subject of is the Bible believable, tonight we're continuing to talk about the subject of revelation.  And by that, I don't mean the book of Revelation, I mean, the subject of revelation.  Basic to Christianity is the fact that the Bible is revealed book.  That this Book was not written by men.  It may have been put down on paper or whatever was used by men, but it was written and authored by God. 

This is our commitment, this is our confidence, this our belief, this our assurance.  And so basic, I believe, to the Christian is the fact of the inspiration and authority of the scripture that it is God's own revelation to men.  The truths regarding God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and man and sin and all of the facets of information revealed in the scriptures are the disclosure of God.  They are the revelation of God.

Now if we do not believe that this is the revelation of God or if we question that it is, we have no foundation for our faith.  Unhesitatingly week in, week out, Sunday after Sunday and then all through the week we teach the word and the teach the word and teach the word and study it and share it and discuss it and minister it.  And we must beginningly at the bottom of all that have absolute confidence in its authority and its inerrancy.

But more than ever before the truths of the word of God have been questioned in recent years.  The dogma of the authority and inspiration of scripture is being questioned.  It is being challenged.  Seminaries challenge the inspiration and authority of scripture.  Pulpits and pulpiteers are set up to fight against the concept of biblical inspiration and authority.  And it's an amazing thing, but we shouldn't be surprised. 

Because if you went all the way back to the very beginning, you would find that the very first attack on the part of Satan was aimed at discrediting the revelation of the God.  In Genesis Chapter 3, in verse 1, Satan said to Eve, "Hath God said?"  The first...the first attack of the tempter was to question the word of God.  Nothing different.  It's still going on.

It'll be that way at the end.  The apostle Paul said to Timothy, "every scripture is inspired of God."  Later on in that same epistle, he said, "Preach the word for the time will come when they will not endure," what, "sound doctrine.  But having itching ears will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts and turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to fables."

So says 1 Timothy 3 and 4.  What about the Bible?  What about this dilemma?  Is it resolvable?  Can we really say what Jesus Christ, who said in John 17, "Thy word is truth."  Or do we have to stand along side of Pilate in John 18:38 and say "What is truth?"  It will be the purpose of this study as we pursue it to show that we can say with Christ "Thy word is truth." 

Now to begin with we've been studying the subject of revelation.  Revelation by definition is the act of God by which He has made known what was otherwise unknowable.  This information that is herein in terms of its spiritual content, in terms of the revelation of God and His self disclosure is unknowable unless God reveals it.  Revelation then is that act by which God makes known what is otherwise unknowable.

And this book is just that.  Now we've seen five things to be considered in revelation.  The revealer, the revelation itself, the reason for it, the result of it, and our response to it.  Now just reviewing very quickly we started talking about the revealer.  Who is the revealer?  God is the revealer.  Hebrews 1, "God has spoken in sundry times and diverse manners."  This is the word of God.  "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by," what, "every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." 

God then is the revealer.  And we find that in His revelation He reveals Himself to be personal, moral, the source and stay and end of all things and He reveals Himself to be, praise Him for this, available, available to us.  And so we met the revealer who is God.

Secondly then, we looked at the revelation itself. And we said that revelation as God has revealed Himself comes into broad categories.  God reveals Himself in what we call natural revelation.  Now natural revelation as we have seen is made up of two parts, creation and conscience.  And the result of natural revelation is a consciousness of God.  Natural revelation then is designed by God to give men the consciousness that He exists.  And more than that, some idea of His character.

Now we said that natural revelation comes also in two parts.  First of all, creation.  Creation itself is the revelation of God.  "The heavens declare the glory of God," Psalm 19.  Romans Chapter 1 and verse 19 and following tells us that the things of God are revealed in the world by the creation so that man is without excuse.  He can know His eternal power, His God head, that is absolute deity, and he can know something about the wrath of God, because he finds that God is a moral God.

So God has revealed Himself in two areas of natural revelation.  Creation, which is external and conscience which is internal.  And through that revelation there is the consciousness of God.  And men in the world today, because of what they sense inside and because of what they see outside are conscious that God is, and that's the beginning.  "For he that cometh to God must believe," what, "that He is." 

And so God by natural revelation establishes in the consciousness of man that He is.  Like Einstein said, you have to believe in a cosmic power.  A man who does not believe in a cosmic power who is the source of all things is a fool.  You have to believe in that.  You say well, he's sort of biblical.  Yes, because the Bible says "The fool says in his heart," what, "there's no God."  That's the word of a fool.

Interestingly enough, the word fool can also be translated to wicked.  You know atheists are usually wicked.  That's how they get to be atheists.  They have wickedly reduced God to non-existence in order to entertain their sin with a sense of moral obligation.  A fool denies God because he reasons against his own innate knowledge.  He reasons against the most simple and obvious fact and his existence that something had to make everything.

In order for the fool to say the word God, he had to have a concept of God.  And if he had to have a concept of God, that implies that God is.  So when an atheist comes along and says there is no God, maybe the best answer is there is no, what?  There is no God.  What's that?  I mean, if there isn't one and you've got the thought of one that you had to eliminate.  You say well, that's the old analogical argument.  Yes, you see, it's impossible to think of something that isn't.

You say well, what about the people who may have dreamed in the future about an airplane.  That's simply the putting together of mechanical devices.  That's just a modified bird.  That's not something that isn't.  That's a mechanical thing and that's just putting together the pieces of what is.  But to think of an absolute non-existent thing is impossible.

Were the fool to work hard enough to try to eliminate God is testimony that God must be or he wouldn't have to worry about getting rid of Him.  You say well, how would a person ever come to that.  Romans 1:25 says he develops futile thinking patterns and they result in the rejection of God's existence.  Now a natural revelation reveals the consciousness of God.  And it tells us that God is glorious.  That He is also powerful.  You have to believe that when you look at the universe.  That He is sovereign.  Whoever He is, He's running the show.

And that He is moral, because people can see in the world that generally speaking evil brings evil results and good brings good results.  There is a moral entity somewhere in the universe.  And only a very wicked man denies it.  You can call him a full or a wicked man.  It's the same thing.  Nature then is God's self-disclosure in man and around him. 

Herschel, the astronomer said and I quote, "the broader the field of science grows, the more manifold and irrefutable become the proofs of the eternal existence of a creative and omnipotent wisdom."  Van Nadler, the professor of astronomy in Dorpat in Europe said, "No true scientist can be an atheist.  Whoever has looked as deeply into God's workshop as we have and has had as much opportunity to admire omnitions and eternal ordering of nature must bow the knee in humility before the rule of a holy God."

Manaus the professor of medicine and botany at Upsula said, "I have seen the footsteps of God."  Kepler the astronomer said "In creation I grasp God as it were in my hands."  One of the outstanding Christian leaders of the third century, long time ago, was widely known for his wisdom.  And he was once asked where he got all of his wisdom.  This is what he said.  "The source of all that I have learned is in two books.  The one book is outwardly small, the other is outwardly large.  The former book has many pages, the latter only two.  The pages of the former are white with many black letters on them.  One of the pages of the big book is blue and the other is green.  On the blue page there is one big golden letter and many small silver ones.  On the green page there are enumerable colored letters in red and white and yellow and blue and gold.  The small book is the Bible, the large book is nature.  These two books belong together.  Both testify to the revelation of the one living God.  Their testimonies are in harmony and point to the power greatness and love the Lord of the world."

So natural or general revelation gives to man the consciousness of God.   But that isn't enough.  God went further than that and gave to us what we call special revelation.  Now special revelation really came in two parts.  First of all, special revelation appears in the Holy Bible, verbal revelation.  This is God's verbal disclosure of Himself.  Special revelation.  Now I want you to notice one thing, only in the Garden of Eden was natural revelation sufficient.

Only before the fall was natural revelation sufficient to lead men to a total knowledge of God.  Because you see, they had an absolutely unclouded mind.  They had a crystal clear perception.  There was no sin.  There was no barrier.  They could live with God out of the depths of a pure heart before there was sin and so God didn't need to write anything down in the Garden.  God didn't need any special revelation.

Natural revelation, the disclosure that all of creation was the work of God that that which was in the man revealed God was sufficient before sin clouded his mind.  Cut the cord of life, darkened his intellect and alienated him from God.  And once that happened, natural revelation wasn't enough because man was alienated.  Oh it was good for him to have the consciousness of God, but the consciousness of God was only to lead him to the word of God.

It isn't enough just to know that God is unless you know who He is.  And unless you know what it is that He desires.  And so the consciousness of God is to lead men to the searching to find the revelation of God that is specific.  And by slow steps and gradual stages, God revealed Himself in special revelation.  We say that special revelation as it comes in the word of God was progressive revelation.  You know, if you were to read the book of Genesis would you get all the revelation of God?  No.

Very limited isn't it?  Say if you were to read only the Old Testament, would you get all the revelation of God?  No, it's very limited.  It isn't that it's wrong, it's that it's progressive.  It isn't that it's in error, it's just in progression.  You don't get it all until you get it all.  God slowly and in stages revealed as much as He desired and finally when the fullness of time was come, He revealed Himself totally in Jesus Christ.

But the revelation was progressive.  Did you know that some of the Old Testament prophets according to 1 Peter used to look at what they read and try to figure out what it meant?  And they had written it.  They would search in their own prophecies to determine the fulfillment regarding the Messiah.  So special revelation was a process.  First God would reveal Himself in just a small frame, then larger, then larger sometimes to a family, then a tribe, then a nation, then a race, and then the world.  And so God's progressive revelation came. 

Now, let me add a footnote.  You say how were people saved in the Old Testament if they didn't have the whole thing?  I mean, if they were somewhere between the consciousness of God and the compilation of the Bible, let's say all they had were the books of Moses, how were they saved?  You know what the requirement for salvation was?  What is it in every age?  Faith.  Well, what was it that they had to believe then?  Did they have to believe what God hadn't said?  What did they have to believe?  What He had said.  So in any generation of time, the requirement for salvation was that a man believed what God said. 

Abraham believed, what, God and it was count unto him for righteousness.  In any period of time up until the totality of scripture was compiled, a man was to live up to that revelation which God had granted.  And finally the revelation was complete.  Now in special revelation, how did God reveal Himself?  Well, I'm just going to review quickly.  I told you, first of all in theophany.  From phino and theas which means a visible form of God. 

Often in the Old Testament God appeared in a visible form.  For example He appeared as a burning bush didn't He?  The Lord Jesus Christ appeared as an angel, the angel of the Lord.  There were times when God's presence was there, such as the Shekinah glory.  There was a form to it, Exodus 33.  So sometimes God's special revelation was in the form of a theophany.  Or an actual appearance of God in some form.  Now mark this, God's not a man.  "God is a," John 4, "Spirit."  And Jesus said, "A spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have."  So God is not a man. But God could take on any form that He wanted to take on.  That's no problem for Him, for the purpose of manifestation. 

So God revealed Himself through theophany.  Secondly, through prophecy.  Now what do we mean by that?  Prophecy just means speaking forth, telling forth, announcing, proclaiming, God spoke.  How did He speak?  In many, many ways.  Why I listed for you last week a whole lot of ways.  God spoke through the casting of lots.  He revealed His will through casting lots.  Then He spoke through dreams.  And He spoke through visions.  And He also spoke directly and verbally.  How many times have you read the prophet saying "Thus saith the Lord."  And sometimes He spoke face to face, like He'd come down nose to nose with somebody and in a verbal confrontation in private way He would communicate.  Doesn't mean that God was literally there in a body, but God came down and spoke verbally, face to face.

Now the last two that I mentioned, God's direct verbal speaking, God's said and the face to face seem to be the dominant ways that God revealed Himself in terms of prophecy.  Now you can study throughout the Old Testament and you'll find this to be a very common thing.  Let me show you just a couple of verses to show you what I mean by God speaking or God confronting face to face.

Deuteronomy 18:18, "I will raise them a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and put My words in his mouth. And he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him."  Now here's the prophecy of Christ, but it is a perfect picture of a prophet.  "There's coming a prophet and I will put My words in his mouth.  And he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him."

Now that was the characterization of a prophet in general.  He spoke God's words.  So God's self-disclosure, God's special revelation was a verbal revelation.  In Jeremiah 1:9, listen to this, the commissioning of Jeremiah the prophet.  "Then the Lord put forth His hand," and of course this is an anthropomorphism, that means it's putting God in human terms, God doesn't have a hand.  "The Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth."  Jeremiah said something touch my mouth.  God place His hand, as it were, on my mouth.  "And the Lord said unto me behold I have put My words in thy mouth."

Now when old Jeremiah opened up his mouth you know what came out?  God's word.  God used human instruments to be the vehicle of revelation.  Now this becomes very much a pattern and a standard procedure for the prophets.  Look at Ezekiel, you find the same thing in Chapter 3, verse 4.  "He said unto me, Son of man, go get thee unto the house of Israel and speak with My words unto them.  Speak with my words unto them."

That was the characteristic of a prophet.  He spoke with God's words.  Verse 26 and 27 of the same passage in Ezekiel 3, "And I will make thy tongue cling to the roof of thy mouth that thou shalt be dumb and shalt not be them a reprover for they are a rebellious house."   He will put words in his mouth and sometimes He won't.  And He'll leave them without words to here.

But verse 27, "But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth and thou shalt say unto them thus saith the Lord God."  And so there was the very stringent characterization of a prophet.  He spoke God's words and only God's words.  God could silence him or God speak through him.  Now do you remember the first great prophet that we know about?  The man by the name of Moses.

In Exodus Chapter 4 we find an interesting account.  The Lord has said to Moses that he is to go out and preach, proclaim.  And Moses said to the Lord, "Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue."  What he was saying was I have a speech impediment.  You know, he was saying God, I...I...I...I...I stutter.

I've got a problem.  And I love this answer.  "And the Lord said unto him who made man's mouth?"  Isn't that tremendous.  Who do you think made your mouth?  I think if I made it, I can make it go.  Or who makes the dumb, the deaf, or the seeing or the blind, have not I the Lord.  Now therefore go and I'll be with your mouth."  Oh what I promise.  I wish to God that I was a prophet, but I'm not in the day of prophets.  I have to dig it out and I praise God for His truth in the word of God, but how fantastic it would be to have no preparation.

And then when people come to me afterwards and say I made a mistake I'd sorry fellow, no way.  Now I have to say yeah, right I probably did.  So He says who made your mouth, I did.  Verse 12, "Now therefore go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say."  What a tremendous promise.

Well, you go on further.  Moses the great hero, you know, that we think he is was really a weak character.  He said, "Oh my Lord send I pray thee by the of Him whom thou wilt send.  And the anger of Lord was kindled against Moses and He said is not Aaron the Levite they brother?  I know that he can speak well.  And also behold he comes forth to meet thee and when he sees thee he will be glad in his heart, and thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his mouth and I will be with thy mouth and his mouth and teach you what you shall do."

You know, Moses messed up by not believing God and had to go through his whole life whispering everything in Aaron's ear and Aaron announced it to the people.  "And he shall be the spokesman unto the people," verse 16.  God said I made your mouth.  This was standard procedure.  This was the way God spoke His word through the mouths of His servant.  This is special revelation, verbal revelation.  The Spirit of God came upon them and they spoke the word of God.  That's the standard procedure in the Old Testament.  And in the New Testament with the apostles who are responsible for the writing of scripture.

And so God spoke through human instruments.  That's prophecy.  So you have theophany and prophecy and thirdly miracles.  And I want to speak to this a minute.  God revealed Himself in special revelation in terms of miracles.  Now watch this, those three areas make up the testimony compiled in the Bible.  The Bible includes the appearances of God, right?  And what is the ultimate theophany?  The ultimate incarnation of God, what is?  Jesus Christ.

The Bible also has all the prophetic statements that  God wanted recorded and the Bible also records thirdly the miracles.  So the visible presence of God, prophecy or the spoken word of God and miracles are the composite disclosure of God that then was put together in the word of God to make up the Bible.  You say well, how John do miracles reveal God?

You see any miracle is a revelation that God exists.  Anything that violates the human order.  Anything that alters the normal human course of events indicates an intervention by a higher power.  Do you see?  It's no problem for God to do a miracle.  He made the world a miracle just like sticking His finger in the pond and making waves.  C. S. Lewis points out so very well in his book on miracles, which is something every Christian really ought to read, that when God makes a miracle, it doesn't go bouncing through the world and create havoc all the rest of the time until Jesus comes.  It has a way of just flowing back in.

For example, Jesus stands at the grave and says Lazarus come out.  And you know Lazarus came out, took his grave clothes off him, he went over had dinner, and a few years later died.  You see the miracle occurs and then goes right back into the natural stream again.  It doesn't go pounding and bouncing through chaotically.  God just makes ripples and the ripples go and they hit the shore and they're done.

God can intervene any time He wants.  If there's anybody out there, He can stick His finger in the pond and make a wave.  That's a miracle.  And every time a wave was made, God was saying I'm here.  Do you recognize that?  I'm up here.  Now the unregenerate world has difficulty accepting miracles because they don't like to accept God.  The liberals, amazing, David Hume, don't recommend that you read David Hume, it's really bog you down.  But he's written thing called the Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding.

He says that experience shows the laws of nature to be absolutely unalterable.  So he says, therefore, miracles are ruled out.  Furthermore, no miracle has ever been observed in any age by any person.  Isn't that interesting?  It's nice of David Hume to tell us that.  And he said, those who did testify to miracles were not telling the truth.  He stands on his square inch in his own little century and lives his own 60 years and tells what happened all throughout history.  You see he just says there were no miracles, no one ever saw one, and everybody who said they saw one in the Bible lied or were misled.

Renan in his book Life of Jesus, regards Bible miracles as legends.  For example, he explained the raising of Lazarus this way.  Lazarus faked being dead.  You know why?  He was so much a lover of Jesus Christ and people were being critical of Christ and he wanted people to really believe in the power of Christ, so he faked being dead and set up a phony resurrection.  And he got himself laid in the tomb and then he had Mary and Martha pull off the deal.  Jesus came down, everybody was gathered around, a big deal, come out and he came out and he never was dead.</