The Personal Impact of Sufficiency - Special Guest Dan Philips | Adult Sunday School

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We were extremely fortunate this last couple of days to have a number of guest speakers with us to discuss the subject of cessationism, that doctrine, and one of those is going to be our speaker here for adult

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Sunday school class, and then one of the guests for the conference is going to be taking the worship service.

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Our guest speaker for this morning's Sunday school class is Dan Phillips. Dan is a pastor down in Texas, and he was once a blogger with Phil Johnson on the

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Pyromaniacs blog, so if you're familiar with Dan at all in his ministry, it may be because of that connection back then with that blog.

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It was at one time one of the fastest growing and most visited blog sites on the internet.

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It was very popular, at least with people in our theological circles, not so much popular with people in other theological circles.

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So please welcome Dan Phillips. Our Father, there's no time at which we don't need you.

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We need you not just every hour, but every moment. We need you more than we know we need you, and we know we need you a lot.

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We need you to move in our hearts, to take the life of your Word and communicate that to us.

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We need your Holy Spirit to move in our thoughts that we might love you and see you, gaze on you, who are our life and our hope, and see the hope and joy that are in you.

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And we pray that during this time the Holy Spirit will take his inerrant, sufficient

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Word and apply it to our hearts, lead us to learn truths from your Word that will help and strengthen us and help us to lives that are glorifying to you and that communicate your truth to others as well.

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We pray in Jesus' name, amen. So I'm really continuing something today that I started in yesterday's talk.

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You may recall I mentioned that when we talk to Charismatics about the sufficiency of Scripture, they hear us as asking them, in effect, to trade what is very personal and intimate to them, very meaningful and warm to them, and emotionally satisfying to them for something that is distant and bloodless and formal and lifeless.

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And of course, I think the exact opposite is the truth, but how do you communicate that? Well, one of the things that I'd like to continue doing today that I started yesterday,

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I talked yesterday about the approach of Paul in his letter to Colossians of an expulsive approach to false teaching that is showing the fullness and robust nature of the truth in such a way that it pushes out the error.

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So I'd like to continue doing that, talking today about seeing how much better God's provision is than the pale imitation that Charismaticism offers.

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How much better it is, really robustly, to understand and embrace the truth of the sufficiency of God's living, inerrant, sufficient word.

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So first I want to lay down fundamental truth, and then we'll talk about applying that truth personally. Digging right in then,

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Roman numeral one, understanding the truth. Understanding the truth. And I want to start out talking about, in general terms, how

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God relates to his creation, number one in your outline, how he relates to his creation.

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So let's see how God relates to his creation in the first words of the Bible. Turn back to Genesis 1.

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I always like to say, one of the two easiest books in the Bible to find. The other one's not Concordance, it's

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Revelation. But turning back to Genesis chapter 1, we read, in the beginning

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God created the heavens and the earth. And verse 2 introduces the spirit of God and the state of things on initial creation.

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And the first activity after the creation of all things is verse 3, then

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God said, let there be light, and there was light. So the way the infinite, personal

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God, who is spirit, interacts with his material creation is how?

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It's by his word. He speaks, and things happen in his creation. And he speaks in a personal, understandable way.

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He says, let there be light, and it's not like there's hamburgers everywhere, you know, or light and there's mist.

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No, he says, let there be light, and there's light. So his speech is meaningful, it's powerful, and it's his point of contact with his creation.

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Now look at a poetic commentary on this in Psalm 33, verses 6 and 9.

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This gives us more light on what we just, no pun intended, more light on what we just read. Psalm 33, verse 6,

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I'm reading from the Legacy Standard Bible, which I prefer. By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

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Now that's a commentary in poetic terms on Genesis 1, verses 1 through 3.

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So when we read, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the psalmist tells us that that was by his word.

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He created these things by his word. He spoke it into existence. And by the breath of his mouth all their host.

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We see the spirit of God moving. And then verse 9, for he spoke and it was, he commanded and it stood.

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So God's word is his point of contact with his material creation, generally speaking.

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Now let's see how God relates to his people, number two in your outline. How does God relate to his people?

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Turn back to Genesis 1, if you would, and put yourself in,

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Adam had no shoes, I guess put yourself resting on his plot of grass, and what was his first experience of God?

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Was his first experience of God a feeling, a sound, colors?

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Was it an aroma, a fragrance? What was his first experience of God? Well, we see that in verse 28.

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God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. God speaks to him.

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His first recorded and I take it that scripture tells us everything we need to know. We'd love to speculate and know more, but we don't need it.

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What we need is here. And what this shows us is Adam's first contact with God is not by emotion, it's not by wordless sound, it's not even by a sense of immensity, you know, it's by words.

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God connects with his creature made in his image by speaking words to him. And that continues, you know, in chapters two and three, and you have various kinds of words, and they're all personal words as God speaks to Adam, and he tells him what his life is, and he tells him what to eat and what not to eat.

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And then when Adam sins, when Adam rebels against God, again, God speaks to him and he speaks words of judgment and he speaks the word of promise.

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So as we saw that God's word was his point of contact with his material creation, so we see that his personal word is his link, his point of contact with his human creation, with the creation in his own image.

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Turn to chapter 12. Turning point in redemptive history.

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You already know it, but I just want to point out, What are these?

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These are words. God is creating a relationship with Abram by his word. What's more,

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God is binding himself to Abram by a covenantal word. A covenant, as I understand it, is a regulated relationship, and God creates a relationship by words that mean exactly what he said, or they would be useless.

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So Abram hears God speaking and understands it well enough to leave his place and go off to where God takes him to.

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And so now turn to another pivotal chapter right next door, chapter 15. You know this is something that's used again and again in Scripture, but I wonder if you've seen this particular point in it.

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We know verse 6, That's wonderful, praise

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God, love that truth, but I know what people do. People see that and they believe and they say, oh yeah, you gotta have faith.

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And their idea of faith is something that we work up within ourselves, a feeling of confidence and some goal or some hope that we've identified for ourselves.

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That's not at all what this means. Thankfully, for context, you just have to back up one verse.

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Look at verse 5, And then there's a pause in the narrative, so he lets

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Abram start counting, and he waits maybe until he runs out of numbers or something, and then he says,

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So when we read Abram believed Yahweh, what was he specifically believing? The word of Yahweh.

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The word Yahweh spoke to him. Abram's point of contact with God was

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God's word. Looking at it from the other angle, God's word is the means by which

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God reached out to Abram, and his word is the means by which Abram laid hold of God and was counted righteous.

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You with me so far? I could back up. So the word of God is

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God's means of contact. Even by the way, just this absolutely no extra charge, but this is the case with miracles too.

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Somebody might be thinking, well, God does things. Yeah, but you'll notice that commonly when God does things, first he'll say what he's going to do, right?

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And then he'll do it, and then he'll talk about what he did. Just as a brute event, we wouldn't know what it meant.

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You're in Egypt and frogs start coming and fleas and darkness and hail, what does that all mean? No idea without the word of God.

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You see? The word of God frames even the acts of God before and after.

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But I digress. Let's look at letter B. Specifically, now we've looked generally how

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God relates. He relates to his creation by his word. He relates to people by his words.

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But now let's look in specific terms that interest us as fallen sinners living today.

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It is specifically how God relates to his people in redemption, number one under letter

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B, under redemption. Turn to Romans 10 with me, please.

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Starting with verse 13, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

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Well, I mean, that's important to know, isn't it? I want to be saved. I feel my sin. I know God's holiness from the word, by the way.

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And so I want to call on the Lord. I hear I call on him and I'm saved.

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That's great. But I've got a question. How then will they call on him in whom they've not believed? Oh, good point.

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So the calling is not just a mechanical saying of Jesus, you know, that would be easy evangelism.

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Get somebody just to say Jesus and he's saved. But that of course is not what this is saying, is it? How can you call on who you don't believe?

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And how will they believe in him whom they've not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And then skipping down to verse 17, the conclusion.

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So faith comes by hearing and hearing by what? The word of God or the word of Christ.

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By the word. This is the connection. So this is how specifically God connects with me, how

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God connects with you redemptively. The same way he's connected with his creation, the same way generally he connects with people, the way he connects with a sinner who he means to save is by sending his word to that sinner.

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And from that word, just as with Abram, God speaks a word to Abram. He believes it.

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He's counted righteous. God speaks the gospel to me. I believe it. I'm counted righteous.

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You see, but it's the same way throughout scripture. God relates to people by his word.

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He relates to people by his word in redemption, and secondly, he relates to his people by his word in direction.

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Number two in your outline, in direction. In other words, it's not just how he brings us to himself and saves us and then we're on our own.

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It's how he starts a relationship with him. One of the, again, this is free, but one of the good things about evangelicalism historically is that we've stressed the fact that conversion is a decisive, it's a punctiliary thing.

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You don't just evolve your way into the kingdom of heaven, right? You need to repent and believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. But then the trouble is that so many have put so many on that spasm of faith and reduced it to a signature, a raised hand, or a repeated prayer, and so the idea is created that, okay, the way

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I get saved is I have this, I'm going along in unbelief and I have this spasm of faith, I'm saved, and then

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I go back to my life. But the truth is that when God saves me, he makes me a believer.

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That's the name for a Christian. Paul simply calls Christians believers because that becomes our life, not a spasm, but a way of life.

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So look at 2 Timothy 3, verses 15 through 17, and I just want you to note here that Paul makes the

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Word of God the whole entilada for Timothy, starting with verse 15.

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And this is, by the way, preparing Timothy for days just such as ours. And he reminds him that from childhood you've known the sacred writings,

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Tahira Gramata, speaking of the holy ABCs of the Old Testament, what

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Timothy learned basically from his mother's breast. Since you were an infant, he says, you've known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

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Now there's something worth really pondering. Timothy was evangelized and brought to saving faith by, not the

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Gospel of John or even the Book of Romans, but by the Old Testament, Paul says. But then, he says, all

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Scripture, Passagraphe, using a term that is broader than the Tahira Gramata, not just the

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Old Testament, but now a term he applies to, he quotes Luke's Gospel in chapter 5 and calls it

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Graphe, Scripture. Peter quotes, refers to Paul's writings in 2

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Peter 3 and calls them Graphe. So Scripture is not just Old Testament, but the writings of the apostles that are being created and of them,

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Paul says, all Scripture is Theopneustos, God breathed. If you were to write down what

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I'm teaching you right now, what you'd have would be Dan breathed. The why you would do that is another question, but that's what you'd have.

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Now this, we're told, is God breathed. These are words that came from the heart and carried by the breath, the

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Spirit of God and put down in Scripture. All Scripture and liberals and mystics and charismatics have tried to denigrate the

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Word of God, but they've got to put aside the Word of God to do that. And again, by the way, whenever they make a case for their ongoing revelation, they've got to put

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Scripture down. That's always part of it. I always got to talk about the insufficiency of Scripture, but of course they can't go to Scripture for that because Scripture says the opposite, such as this verse.

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It is God breathed. It's profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness.

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And I would ask, what more do you need with those four? What does that leave out?

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But regardless, for those four things, and then verse 17, the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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So God's Word is not only how he comes to us in redemption, it's how he comes to us in direction.

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It's how he steers our lives. So that's the principle, the truth principles that we need.

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And now I want to approach talking about, so how is it that this

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Word of God, which God has spoken to all his people for all ages, how do

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I have any experience of that? How does that become personal to me? See our belief, our position, our response is not to say to charismatics, you know, emotions aren't that important.

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You just need to give all that up. To be a real good Christian, a Bible Christian, you just got to forget about emotions.

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You know, you wanting to be emotionally satisfied, I'm sorry, that's childish. Walk away from the emotions and step to the life of scriptural obedience, you know, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

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That's not what we're saying at all. The Word of God is very robust and very personal, and I want to show you how.

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Yes, I'll do that perfectly in the next 28 minutes or whatever I've got. And you'll be completely convinced and ready to do it entirely, and I won't ever have to teach again.

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So experiencing the truth. Now let's talk about some implications. First turn to Hebrews 4 .12,

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and here we're going to be reminded about what the Word of God is in itself and what it can be to me.

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Now, charismatics, not all, but many of them will dismiss the

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Word as a dead letter, a letter that kills, and so forth and so on. And I've seen the most shameful speech that is not at all like what

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Scripture says about itself, such as this verse, Hebrews 4 .12, for the

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Word of God is, well, what's the first word? Zone. Zone. In fact, that's the first word in the verse in Greek, for living is the

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Word of God. Zongarhologos toutheou. Living is the Word of God, but he's not done.

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It's also active, a word meaning effective, operational with divine power, and sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow.

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Let me pause there. Not dividing one from the other, but piercing even to those things, piercing to the very soul and spirit of us as nothing else can, and then he says that it is criticos, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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It stands over my emotions, over my thoughts, over my intentions, and it judges them.

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It discerns them. It parts the foolish from the wise. It parts the evil from the righteous.

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The Word of God does that. That's what it is in itself. That's what it can do for me, but I want to say something to you very important.

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The Word of God is supernatural, but it's not magical, and I fear a great many people who are sound in their doctrine of Scripture don't understand that distinction, that simply going to a

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Bible -teaching church, as far as that goes, that's great, doesn't mean a thing if we don't listen, believe, and apply.

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Reading Scripture, wonderful thing, everybody should do it, doesn't mean a thing if we don't look to God, listen, think, remember, and apply.

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See, that's the thing about magic. You just say the idea of magic. You just say a word, and something automatically happens.

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There's no faith required. It's automatic. You just operate the forces of nature right, is the idea.

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That's not the Word of God. The Word of God is supernatural, but people must respond, and that is caused by the

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Holy Spirit of God, and He calls us to use means towards that, which is what I want to go on to talk about.

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So how can this power that is innate to the Word of God, how can that have an impact on me on a personal level?

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Turn to Psalm 119, and we will look at verse 24.

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Psalm 119, 24. It's just such a lovely verse, and there's so much in it, just all by itself, but even more in this connection.

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He says, your testimonies also are my delight. Well, that's just normal spiritual health, and if we're in the place where we feel dull and indifferent about the

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Word of God, then that's a good reason to go to God and get our hearts warmed up. We need to delight in the

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Word of God. If we don't delight in the Word of God, well, that's like having sniffles or a fever.

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That's a sign that something's up, and we should not say, oh, well, that's just the Christian life.

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No, that's not the healthy Christian life, not the healthy life of a believer. If we understand

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God's words the way He does, they will delight us. If we see how much we need them and how much they give us, they should delight us.

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But the verse isn't done. They're my delight. They are my counselors. That's interesting.

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They are my counselors. Now, I'm not going to make the case that we should never go to a counselor, but I should say we should always start with that counselor, and if we go to a good counselor, that's where that counselor will take us.

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The words of God are our, and it's a very vivid expression in Hebrew, anshe etzathi.

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They're the men of my counsel. What's the word? His testimonies are the men of my counsel.

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They're the people. So you picture a board of men there, of sage men, there to give you counsel and advice and direction, and he's saying that's what

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God's testimonies are. They're the men who give me counsel. That's where I look for advice. Now, do you see what a personal term that is, though?

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What is counsel? It's direction in how you should live, where you should turn. He says, well, that's what scripture does for me.

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Scripture gives me counsel. How does it do that? Well, look back to the first verses. Psalm 119, in the opening verses, he says, how blessed are those whose way is blameless.

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How do you have that kind of way? Who walk in the law of Yahweh? And that word law, torah, is broader than just rules.

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It's the entire teaching and instruction of Yahweh. Two, how blessed are those who observe his testimonies.

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They seek him with all their heart. I love that verse because there are people constantly saying, oh, you know, you go ahead and you study your

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Bible, you studious little gnome, you, and I'll seek God. I'm not about doctrine.

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I just want to seek God. Well, it's not an either or. In fact, it is a can't if not.

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You can't do this if you haven't started here. What does he say? He says they observe his testimonies and seek him.

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He would never imagine somebody saying, well, I don't want to observe his testimonies. I just want to seek him.

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Well, you won't know anything about him if you don't listen. What's a testimony? It's God bearing witness of himself.

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It's God giving his testimony. That's what scripture is. It's God's testimony to us.

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So, and also look at verse 105. Just one more quick one before we move on. Psalm 119, how is the word a counselor to me?

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Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Well, now a couple of things about that.

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One is, where do you need a lamp and a light? In the dark, thank you.

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I heard that answer. I just would have had to stand here if still somebody answered. That's how it works. So the first trouble is that if a person is not convinced he's living in a dark world, then he won't know how much he needs the word of God.

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Or if he thinks that he's got light within himself because he's such a smart cookie, then he won't realize how much he needs the word of God.

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But for those of us who know how dim and how slow and how foolish we're inclined to be and what a dangerous, hateful world we're living in, well,

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I tell you what, you bring me a good flashlight and I will say thank you. And I will take it and I will use it.

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And that's what the word of God does. Now, again, the other part of the phrase, to my feet, to my path.

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So how do I know how to walk? The word of God. Not some work of the spirit of God apart from the word of God, but the spirit -breathed word of God, you see, because the word is how

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God connects with his people. And it's the way that God directs his people by his word.

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Gives counsel, gives testimony, gives light. But wait, there's more.

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Next, Proverbs chapter six. This is something I talk about at more length in my

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Proverbs book. I belabor this section pretty hard. So let me belabor it a bit for you.

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So, verse 20 says, "'My son, observe the commandment of your father.

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"'Do not abandon the law of your mother. "'Bind them continually on your heart. "'Tie them around your neck.'"

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So first then, there are four lines of instruction of what I need to do with the words of God.

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Taking the father is standing for God, father and mother standing for God's instruction. Again, it's not magic, simply because I sit there and he says something that does nothing for me.

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And this is another, by the way, and no extra charge, but you know those parenting books that say that, that imply that if you use the right methods, then your children will always turn out godly and perfect.

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Have you read Proverbs? Do you even proverb? I mean, why even say this if it's automatic?

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You know, you don't put the coin in the slot and then say, all right, candy come out.

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You know, and that's not how it works with children either. They need to listen, they need to apply.

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So, but here are these words to us. What do we need to do? We need to observe, understand them, study them. Don't abandon them, don't walk away from them.

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Bind them on my heart. What's my heart? It's my mind. It's what I think and love and decide with.

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That's what the heart is. And I'm to bind God's word on my heart. Tie them around your neck.

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Why, what does that mean? What's the image there? Well, everywhere I go, there they go, because I've tied them to me.

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What's the benefit to me if I do that personally? Verse 22, when you walk about, they will lead you.

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When you sleep, they will keep watch over you. And when you awake, they will speak to you.

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Well, I just marvel because those are all the things that Charismatic says the Holy Spirit does apart from Scripture for him, right?

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You with me? But here's all these offices, all these personal interactions, and Scripture says,

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Scripture does that. You say, oh, then you have no use for the Holy Spirit. Quick review, where did we get the word of God?

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Men carried by the Holy Spirit. They are God -breathed words. This is the

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Spirit of God speaking to me. And you've heard it, I know you've heard it. You wanna hear God speak to you?

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Read the word. You wanna hear him speak out loud? Read the word out loud. But this verse says just that, doesn't it?

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As you walk, they'll lead you. When you sleep, they'll guard you. When you awake, they'll speak to you.

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But this is the word of God. Do you want a personal, okay, so here's the question. Do you want a personal relationship with God?

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Yes. Do you want a personal relationship with God on his terms?

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Maybe there, the answer doesn't come so fast. Because I have ideas that are the way

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I would like God to relate to me. And I would like him to play along. But he tells us.

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So we can't really, if we don't listen to God's terms and don't walk that way, and then announce that relating to God is unsatisfying and unfulfilling, well, you know, read the directions again.

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They're not that complicated, really. It's the modern scene that complicates them. But there it is, don't you see, isn't, wouldn't you say, wouldn't you agree that's a very personal interaction?

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Talk with me. But this is that same word of God. It's the word of God that Jim reads, that Kevin reads, that each believer reads, but it speaks individually to Kevin, to Jim, to me, to you, as we read it in faith.

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How can it do that? We'll get into that in a moment, if I don't keep digressing. So, number two, the individual appropriation of the word.

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I wanna get into that now. How do I do that? So here's the issue, because our next step's gonna be a little surprising, maybe.

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The issue then is, like I said yesterday, to the charismatic, we're like saying, no, no, no, give up this whole idea of having a personal relationship with God, and here's this form letter.

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That's what you got. And you look at that, and it says, to whom it may concern. I know, yeah, my heart's definitely warm now.

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Thank you so much, and I really appreciate you doing this for me. So how does, but we've seen that the word itself says that's how

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God personally relates to us. So we know this is the right avenue, so how do we pursue that avenue?

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I think I know. Let's look at Galatians two together. That's the next. In principle, in principle,

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Galatians two, and you may just think I've gone to the wrong verse at first, which

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I've done, but I don't think today. And when

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I go to the wrong verse, I always say, that's a good verse too, but instead let's turn to, so never let them see you sweat.

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Galatians 2 .20, now look at what the apostle says here. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer

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I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the

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Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. All right, so that's,

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I'm sure, a dear verse to all of us, and it is a dear verse. But do you notice, have you ever reflected, this is not the way

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Paul usually talks. He usually talks about that Christ loved the church and gave his life for her, or that he died for us, or the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the

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Holy Spirit, and things like that. In other words, it's usually corporate, and many of us pastor types want to stress that, well, don't individualize all these things as if you want to think of yourself as God's little tumbleweed bouncing across the plain all by yourself.

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You're part of a church, you're part of a people, you're called into community, and all those things are true, but still here's this verse where Paul exactly does precisely say that I died with Christ, he loved me, he gave himself for me.

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Now, how does he do that? Is it one of those apostle things? Did he have a special revelation from God telling him that he was a special object of God's love?

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Well, no, there is no need for such a thing. Let me explain, I think, how his thought process went when

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Christ, back up a step. So here's something to wrap your head around.

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When an infinite person does anything, that infinite person does that one thing with all of his focus and all of his attention as he is doing every other thing that he does.

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That's the thing about being infinite. Now, maybe you've got attention span like this and I've got attention span about like this, and we can do one thing at a time if we try really hard, but that's not

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God. Being infinite, God can do everything he does as if it's the only thing he's doing.

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And he does everything he does as if each thing is the only thing he's doing. And how does that apply here?

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Well, that means that when Christ died for the elect, for those who God chose out of the world and gave to him to save, that he died for countless people of all nations, tribes, and tongues, men and women alike, amen, amen, amen.

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He did that for all of them. And he did that for each of them.

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And being an infinite person, what he did for all, he did for each as if each was the only person he was dying for.

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You see? They weren't, but all his love went to each person he died for.

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All his life is given to each person he redeemed. And so Paul can look at that death of that infinite person and say that in dying for all of his elect, he died for me.

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And in loving all his elect, he loved me. Why? Because I'm special?

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No. Because he's special. Because he's infinite.

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And he can do everything he does as if it's the only thing he does. So how do we apply that to this then?

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Turn to Hebrews 11, verse one, which again will perhaps initially look unpromising for what we're talking about.

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But stay with me. Keep your arms and legs inside the car. Nobody will be harmed. Hebrews 11, one.

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Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

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And perhaps your first thought is, ah, yes, don't see what that has to do with what you're talking about, but yes, that's the definition of faith.

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Well, no, let's start right there. That's not a definition of faith. That's not a definition of faith. The definition of faith, theologians,

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I think, have said very helpfully, they've divided into three things, notitia, census, and fiducia, meaning knowledge and consent and faith, trust.

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In my little green book, I try to make it a little simpler by saying recognizing, realizing, and resting.

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In other words, very simply, first, in approaching faith, the first thing I need, like Paul says, how can they believe in whom they don't know, they've never heard of?

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So the first thing I need is I need to know what God's calling me to believe, right? You say believe, and my question is believe in what?

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So the first has to answer that question. I need to know what it is I'm being called to believe. And then secondly,

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I need to realize, have recognized the facts I'm being called to believe, that I need to realize that they're actually true, that these are true statements, that the words of God are true words.

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And many would say, oh, well, there you are. That's what saving faith is. Not quite, there's another element you see in Scripture where that word that I realize is true out there becomes a word on which

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I rest. I rest my trust. So I see this thing floating, and you tell me that's a boat.

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Oh, good, now I know that. And then you tell me how boats work, and I look at it, and I think, yeah, if I got in that boat,

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I think that I would float too. But I'm still not in the boat, right? What do

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I need to do? I need to get in the boat. And that's that third aspect of trust, of reliance.

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I hear the gospel, I understand it. I come to believe that it's a true statement of how God saves sinners, and then

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I trust myself. And so what Hebrews 11, one does then is a description of faith, not a definition, but it's what faith does for me.

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And what does faith do for me? First of all, you have to remember, every time you see faith in the Bible, you're talking about faith in a word from God.

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That is just, that in itself is so important. Faith is not free -floating, and it's not self -devised.

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It fixes on a word from God. So when I have a word from God, what it does for me is it takes things

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I hope to be true, such as my glorification, such as God's acceptance of me at the judgment, and a host of other things, it takes those things

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I hope for and gives them substance to me right now, existentially, so that I can grasp those things right now in my life.

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And it takes the things I don't see, the love of God, the intercession of Christ, the other many promises of God, and it gives me a conviction that they are true so that I can live in those truths.

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That's what faith does. So in other words, God reaches out to me in His word, and faith lays a hold of that word and makes it personal to me.

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Are you with me so far? You guys answer, I'm just gonna go back. Yes, okay.

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So, faith indeed is punctiliar at conversion. You come to a point where you didn't believe, but now you believe, and that begins a life of faith.

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And so like 2 Corinthians 5, 7 says, we walk by faith.

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And what is that faith we walk by? A continual appropriation of the word of God and its truths and applying them to me.

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Colossians 2, 6, and 7, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and grounded and abounding in thanksgiving.

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So it starts with that commitment of faith. It continues in a life of faith. So let's talk a bit about applications of these truths.

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Letter B, applications. What do we do with these truths? First, we embrace

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God's way of being known on His terms. Embrace God's way of being known on His terms.

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That is such an important thing, and a great many professed Christians stop before that step.

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They see their Christian life as an ongoing negotiation by which they deal with God and let

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Him know how far they're willing to go with Him and how much His way they're willing to proceed.

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But what they need to understand is conversion is the point at which all that's supposed to be settled.

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Conversion, a call to conversion is not a call to negotiate, amen? Call to conversion is a call to put down your arms and come out with your hands up.

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That's what conversion is. Or what does Jesus say? Deny yourself, pick up your cross, follow

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Jesus. So if I want a relationship with God that is satisfying, personal, and true, then

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I've got to embrace God's way of being known on His terms. And what are His terms? We've seen it from the very start of this lesson.

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What is God's point of contact with His creation and with His people? What is that point of contact? His Word.

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His Word is His point of contact with His creation and with His people. So the way we connect with Him is by faith in His Word.

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He reaches out to me with His Word. I connect with Him by believing in His Word personally.

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And that's why false teaching always rebels against that because obviously Satan doesn't want us to have a relationship with God on God's terms.

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Liberalism denies to the Word the place that it gives itself. Mysticism wants to bypass the

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Word. I think you see this in the writings of A .W. Tozer as popular as he is, but I think what he's constantly trying to get people to yearn for is an experience of God apart from God's Word that goes above and beyond God's Word.

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This is the cry and the desire of the mystic. But again, it's not God's way. And charismaticism sort of partakes of the worst of both of those schools.

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They both denigrate God's Word like the liberal does, and they want to go beyond God's Word like the mystic does.

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And you result in a hot mess and not a relationship that's on God's terms.

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So first, embrace God's way of being known on His terms. And secondly, look to the Word with, what word ought

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I to put in that blank? There are a lot of good words that could go there, but the one

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I put there is finality. Finality. God says

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His Word fully equips me for how many good works? 2 Timothy 3 .17,

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how many good works? Every good work. Every good work. And so if I'm constantly anxiously looking to the door or watching the phone, you know, or looking at my phone for texts from God, I don't believe what

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He said, do I? I'm not walking in faith. He's said everything you need's in there. And I'm saying, yeah, yeah, that's great, but can

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I get something more? Well, then that's unbelief is what that is. That's simple unbelief.

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Let me just give you a couple of great words on this, a few great words. John Owen, and I said great,

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I didn't say real easy to understand, but John Owen, he's a little easier read out loud. 17th century

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Puritan, great, great, deep man. But here's what he wrote. Since the finishing of the canon of the scripture, the church is not under the conduct as to stand in need of such new extraordinary revelations.

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It doth indeed live upon the internal gracious operations of the spirit, enabling us to understand, believe, and obey the perfect, complete revelation of the will of God already made.

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But new revelations, it hath neither need nor use of.

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And to suppose them, or a necessity of them, not only overthrows the perfection of the scriptures, but also leaveth us uncertain whether we know all that is to be believed in order unto salvation, or our whole duty.

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If this isn't final, then how do I know I'm not missing something essential? And then he says, for it would be our duty to live all our days in expectation of new revelations, without peace, assurance, or consolation.

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Amen, very well said. And then there's another word that is quoted as if it were Owen, but it's not

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John Owen, it's J .I. Packer commenting on John Owen. John Owen was talking about the

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Quakers with their new light, and Packer's referring to the Quakers and their view of new light and private revelation, and what

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Packer says is, if their private revelations agree with scripture, they're needless, and if they disagree, they're false.

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So you hear people say, well, you know, I just make sure this agrees with scripture. Okay, then why do you need it? You've already got scripture.

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And if it doesn't agree with scripture, it's false. And then finally, I really like this. John Frame, a theologian, wrote a very helpful book called

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The Doctrine of the Word of God, and I'll just close with it and a brief comment on it. He says,

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God's speech to man is real speech. And this is very important to learn and to internalize.

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God's speech to man is real speech. It is very much like one person speaking to another.

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God speaks so that we can understand him and respond appropriately. Imagine God speaking to you right now, as realistically as you can imagine, perhaps standing at the foot of your bed at night.

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He speaks to you like your best friend, your parents, or your spouse. There's no question in your mind as to who it is.

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He is God. Now imagine that when God speaks to you personally, he gives you some information or commands you to do something.

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Will you then be inclined to argue with him? Will you criticize what he says? Will you find something inadequate in his knowledge of the rightness of his commands?

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I hope not. For that is the path to disaster. When God speaks, our role is to believe, obey, delight, repent, mourn, whatever he means us to do.

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Our response should be without reservation from the heart. Once we understand, we must not hesitate.

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We may at times find occasion to criticize one another's words, but God's words are not the subject of criticism.

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Scripture is plain that this is the very nature of the Christian life, having God's word and doing it.

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Jesus said, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.

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Everything we know about God, we know because he has told us through his personal speech. All our duties to God are from his commands.

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All the promises of salvation through the grace of Christ are God's promises from his own mouth, amen.

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Let me just add one thought to that. The power that language can have is the power to create an obligation in the hearer.

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The power to create an obligation in the hearer. So a child hears his parents give a direction, he's obliged to obey.

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A child hears someone else's parent give a direction, he's not obliged to obey. The power depends on the speaker.

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When God speaks to us, his power is absolute. And the power of his words to create an obligation in us is absolute.

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So that when he says to rejoice, I'm obliged to rejoice. When he says to humble myself,

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I'm obliged to humble myself because, so let me make this, tie this together back to what we were talking about an infinite person.

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And so when God wrote his word, who did he write it for? All his people, right?

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All believers of all ages. But remember, the author of scripture is what kind of a mind?

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An infinite mind. So when he wrote what he wrote for all believers, he wrote what he wrote for each believer, for every believer.

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And so you're saying, are you saying then that when Isaiah wrote the 40th chapter, when David wrote the 23rd

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Psalm, when Paul wrote Romans 8, that God had me in mind individually?

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That God was individually thinking of me and my needs and what he spoke through Paul, these words of promise and of encouragement and of love and commitment, undying eternal commitment, he had my name in his mind?

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Yes. And so that's how God's word to all his people becomes personally

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God's word to each of his people. And that's how God's sufficient word for all of his people is his sufficient word for each of us, his people.

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Amen? Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for your precious word, how we love it, how we delight in it, how we need it.

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We thank you so much for the infinite wisdom that went into its creation.

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We pray that you'll help us to learn and walk the way of having that word as the light for our feet, a lamp to our feet and a light for our path, that we'll delight in it and that we will hear it speaking to us throughout our lives, lives of joy and hope, purpose and holiness.