The One Who Hears You Hears Me

Okay, let's pray. We're gonna do a little mini study today. I'm glad that Dwayne's not here in order to hurt me because we're not gonna be in Leviticus.

So we're gonna do a little mini study in light of our gospel text today. So we pray.

Almighty Father, lead us to your word so that we may find healing of heart, soul, mind in the gospel of Jesus.

Be near to us as we read for ourselves that Jesus has indeed died, has risen again for us.

Keep us steadfast in your grace and your mercy so that we may spread your love to those who haven't heard the good news and to those who have heard but have forgotten it.

Let us do all that we can to win souls for you that they may go out and do the same.

In Jesus' most holy name we pray, amen. Okay, real quick,

I'm gonna have, if you have questions regarding the sermon since we're gonna be in the same topic, I want you to hang on to them for just a little bit.

I wanna build off of the text from the gospel of John, Luke, sorry,

Luke 10 that we heard today. Luke 10, 16, hear again the words of Christ. The one who hears you hears me.

The one who rejects you rejects me. The one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.

Now, real quick question. This is not a trick question. Who's the one speaking here?

Jesus. All right, Jesus is the one speaking. The red letters are kind of a clue.

When did Jesus write this? Who wrote this?

Who wrote these words? Luke. All right, so you're gonna note something here.

Luke wrote these words, and although Luke wrote these words, who is speaking to us through these words?

Jesus. And so this is an interesting aspect of what Christ is saying here, and you'll note that this is even playing out in the very text itself.

The one who hears Luke here is actually hearing Christ. The one who rejects

Luke here isn't rejecting Luke. Who is he rejecting? Christ, because he's the one speaking to us, and this is the unique nature of the scriptures themselves, and so you'll note then when it comes to voices claiming to come from God, the question is where can we go to trust that what we are hearing is the actual voice of God, the voice of Christ?

Where can we go? Well, we can go in the Bible. There are a lot of competing voices today, a lot of competing voices.

There are a lot of people who claim that they have a special anointing, that they have a prophetic gift. There are a lot of people who are outside of kind of normal Christianity involved in actual cults, and they've got secondary authorities and stuff like this regarding the voice of God, but when it comes down to competing voices,

I mean, if I were to tell you that last night I had the most vivid dream ever, and that God was speaking to me, and that I had coffee with the archangel

Michael, and that he told me that he wants you guys to all stock up on military weapons so that we can fight the

Antichrist when he shows up next Thursday, okay? Is my dream the voice of God?

You look skeptical, Mark. I'm really, I'm hurt here, man. I don't see the book of Christ in here. Ha ha ha!

Exactly, exactly. So the thing is is that when we talk about hearing the voice of God, I think it's important for us to look back at how

Scripture talks about itself. Now, a lot of times people get this really interesting idea because we have a

Bible. Mark, you're a perfectly great example here. Look at that leather. Look, whew, and the gold leaf on the outside.

You even have tabs, man. For yeah, that's a good -looking Bible, man. All right?

So you sit there and you go, the Bible is one book. It really isn't.

The Bible's a library. It's a collection. It's a compendium. It is a group of texts written over a long, long period of time by multiple authors, 66 authors, 38, 40 -something authors, depending on who you think and wrote what, certain things that we're not sure about.

And how do you know, how do you have confidence that what you're reading there is the actual voice of God?

Well, you have to test them against what, you know? Well, they seem to, yeah.

That may not be the best method of kind of sorting that out because there's a lot of atheists and skeptics who've made a career out of trying to find discrepancies within the

Bible to say that the Bible's nonsense. At least that's their claim. But how do you have confidence that what you're hearing is

God's voice in it? Jesus said so. Okay, now that's a great answer. You cheated. That's like the standard Sunday school answer, though.

But it's really good, it's a good answer. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna do a little bit of work today and we're gonna pay attention to a few things.

And so, because Marilyn has given us the standard Sunday school answer in talking about Jesus, we're gonna take a look at a few things that Jesus said.

So let's take a look first at the Gospel of John 5. Gospel of John chapter 5.

And in this text in particular, Jesus is telling us something about the scriptures themselves.

And so we're gonna pay attention to his words and we're gonna note then his relation to the

Father as he's kind of sorting this text out. And so we're gonna apply what I like to call my three rules for sound biblical exegesis, which are context, context, and context.

I don't like verses out of context. I like to see what's going on in the passage so that we can pay attention to it.

But in the Gospel of John chapter 5, starting at verse 19, Jesus told them, and he's talking to the

Jews and the ones who are seeking to kill him. You know, that's quite the group here.

This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Jesus. So we'll just say that's a tough crowd.

So Jesus said to that group, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, only what he sees the

Father doing. For whatever the Son does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing, and greater works than these will he show him so that you may marvel.

For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the

Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the

Father who sent him. And you'll note, you can kind of see how this piggybacks on what we heard

Jesus say. The one who hears you hears me, the one who rejects you rejects me, the one who rejects me rejects the one who sent me.

So you'll note the intimate connection between Christ and his words and Christ and the

Father. 24, truly, truly, I say to you, and listen to the words, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has, presently, now, eternal life.

He does not come into judgment. He is passed from death to life.

Who says this? Jesus says this. Who wrote this?

John. So you're hearing the words of Christ through the

Apostle John. And so Jesus is telling you, everyone who believes in him has passed from death to life and does not come into judgment.

That's quite the claim. And then he says, truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the

Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the

Son also to have life in himself. And he's given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.

So do not marvel at this. For an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

So I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me.

Now, I want you to pay attention to what he's saying here. Verse 32, Jesus says there is another who bears witness about me.

And let's see what that turns out to be. And I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.

You sent to John, and he is born witness to the truth, not that the testimony I received is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John, for the works that the

Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, they bear witness about me, and that the

Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.

So note here, the Father himself has borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen.

And you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

So here you're gonna note that Christ is talking about the voice of the Father that is bearing witness about Christ, and he's saying to those

Jews who want to kill him that they have not heard his voice, and the fact that the proof that he's given that they haven't is that they don't believe him.

That's the proof. So his voice you've never heard, his form you've never seen. You do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

And you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.

It is they that bear witness about me.

Yet you refuse to come to me so that you might have life. So you'll note here, the one that Jesus says bears witness about him is the

Father, and he's saying that the Father has borne witness about him through the written word of God.

The scriptures themselves. You see the connection?

And who are the scriptures about? Christ. Now up to this point, how many books of the

Bible, don't give me a number, which of the books of the Bible have been written? Only the

Old Testament. Up to the point when Jesus says this, there's only one body of work that you can go to, a collection of works, and that's, you would refer to it as the

Tanakh. The Tanakh, that's the fancy Hebrew way of saying the Old Testament. And the

Tanakh is comprised of three sections. The first five books, called

Torah. The next group are the writings, and then after that, the prophets.

And Jesus, in his ministry, he quotes from all three parts of the

Tanakh, and he refers to different passages from within those three portions as the word of God.

He says, those are the word of God. I'll give you an example of that in just a little bit. So Christ himself, you can say, puts his stamp of approval on the

Tanakh, and definitively says, God said. These are the words of God.

He spoke to you. This is the way Jesus talks about how God speaks to us through the

Scriptures. And you're gonna note then that Christ is pointing to the Scriptures and saying they are the ones that testify about him, and that this is the very voice of the

Father speaking in the biblical texts. Now, a little bit of a side note.

Oftentimes, if you have Roman Catholic friends, they're gonna bring up the Apocrypha and claim that you have an incomplete

Bible. Nowhere, at no time does Jesus quote an

Apocrypha text and say that it is the word of God. It's never quoted.

Not one section of the Apocrypha is quoted by Christ as coming from God. Interesting, right?

Okay. So, keep that in mind. So, the

Scriptures are testifying about him, and that's a good way to put it. Now, I'm following an outline.

I wanna check the next text. Okay, I want you to take a look at Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three.

Paul's wrapping up his argument that he began in chapter one and as he's wrapping things up, he's going to talk about what, you know, is there any advantage for the

Jews? Because he's been kind of harping on the Gentiles and the pagans, and then he's now switching the subject because he's going to make it so that everybody, both

Jew and Gentile, is under sin and is guilty of breaking God's commands. But in leading up to that portion,

Paul writes in Romans 3 .1. So, what advantage has the Jew? What is the value of circumcision?

He says, well, much in every way. To begin with, the

Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.

Now, that's a fancy word. We don't use that a lot, by the way. Now, I'm going to show you this in the Greek. Oh, man, why is my

Greek so small? I keep doing that to myself. I'm going to show you this in the Greek. And it says, talking about that, that because they were entrusted, ta logia, this word logia is from logion.

They were entrusted with the very words of God. So, ta logia tutheo.

They were entrusted with the very words, oracles, revelations. These are ways we can talk about logion.

These are the very words of God themself. And if you were to check different English translations, some

English translations take logion and translate it as words. So, whose words comprise the

Tanakh? God's words. Now, remember, when

Jesus is being tempted by the devil in the wilderness.

Jesus is being tempted by the devil. The devil is saying, turn these stones into bread.

Jump off the temple. I'll give you all of these things. How did Jesus defeat the devil?

The word. Jesus always fought back by saying, it is written.

It is written. So, you know, the Christ himself wields the word of God.

And in the way he wields it against the devil, he wields it with the assumption that the words he is speaking when he says, it is written, have none other than God himself as the authority, the one who is speaking.

In other words, in the Tanakh, we know for a fact,

God is the one speaking to us in these words.

God is talking. We can hear his voice when we read the Bible. You know, that crazy lady on TBN, not so much.

You know, there's a good reason you're not hearing God's voice in her, all right? Next text,

I think we're gonna be in 1 Peter. Let me double check. Yep, 1 Peter chapter one. I'm gonna start at verse 10.

Again, context. Particularly, we're gonna take a look at a few things. Peter writing in 1

Peter says, concerning the salvation, the salvation that is revealed, he says, concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, they searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ was to manifest in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

And so, you're gonna note here, Peter here is talking about how the Old Testament is prophetic and that the spirit of Christ himself was at work in giving us the revelations that we find in the

Old Testament and the very revelations that we heard Jesus say in John chapter five, testified about him.

And so, even the prophets, when they wrote their words down, which are recorded for us in scriptures, they were searching through them in order to figure out when all of this was gonna take place.

And so, it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the

Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which even the angels long to look.

Isn't that interesting, right? And so, you'll note here that he is taking the good news, the euangelion, the gospel of Christ, and saying that the

Holy Spirit is intimately involved in the preaching of the good news, and he's equating it, he's putting it on the same level, and you'll see this in verse 25, the same level as the written word of God that he's referencing from the

Old Testament. So then he says, therefore, preparing your minds for action, being sober -minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be revealed to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.

And if you call on him as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, and you were ransomed not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but he was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through him you are believers in God.

Now, I can do a whole sermon or a lesson on this idea then. Note that we are believers in God because of Christ.

Christ has made us to be believers. So we are believers in him who through him we are believers who raised him from the dead, gave him glory so that your faith and hope now are in God.

So having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and the abiding word of God.

So note then, watch what he says. You have been born again through the living, abiding word of God.

And that's going to be an important thing. So note, he's saying something is the word of God. And now he's going to quote the prophet

Isaiah. He's going to quote Isaiah chapter 40 verses six and eight. And he says this, all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass, the grass withers, the flower falls.

But the word of the Lord remains forever. And if you were to take a look at the cross reference in Isaiah chapter 40 verse eight, it would say the word of Yahweh, that's the name of God, remains forever.

And watch what Peter says. And this word that remains forever is the good news that was preached to you.

Isn't that interesting? So now the very gospel that has gone out preached by the apostles,

Peter says that is the living, abiding word of God by which we were made believers.

Paul says it in Romans 10. He says, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ.

It's God's words, his voice that makes us alive in Christ, causes us to be born again, forgives us of our sins, and it is

God's voice who is speaking to us in the very words of scripture.

Fascinating. Now, any questions as to whether or not the

Old Testament is the word of God? Let's throw one more thing into the mix here.

Because again, the question always comes up, who you gonna believe? Who you gonna trust? And so let's take a look again at a passage that I come back to fairly regularly.

Mark chapter seven. And I want to look at this passage in light of hearing the voice of God.

How do we hear God's voice? And this is a text where it's always important to note, and I've said this before, always good to review though, that the

Pharisees were heretics. They were not truly Bible -believing

Jews. The Pharisees are nowhere mentioned in the Old Testament in the Tanakh. They rise up in the intertestamental period.

And as part of their claim, their claim, this was their narrative, that when

Moses ascended Mount Sinai, God gave him two

Torahs, not one. The first Torah was written.

The second Torah was entrusted, they claimed, to the elders of Israel. And it was an oral

Torah. You heard it. And their claim was is that God gave the oral

Torah so that the Gentiles would never know the whole truth so that they couldn't be saved.

That was their narrative. And so that body of work, the oral

Torah, was called the tradition of the elders. You gotta capitalize it, because it's a body of work.

It's an actual thing. And so Jesus, and we can see this in this text, told his disciples, you will not obey any of the commands of the tradition of the elders.

And this set the Pharisees off. This was the hill they wanted to die on.

Because if the tradition of the elders is not authoritatively God's word, and his voice is not being spoken through it, their whole industry, their whole business that they've set up religiously is nothing but flim -flam and lies.

And they know it. And so this is the hill they're gonna die on. And let me pull something up in the

Old Testament just as a preparation, because I want you to see this.

I'm gonna type in the word walk, and I'm gonna add a modifier so that we have, and the modifier's commandments.

Walk and commandments. All right, now we're through there. So watch how this works. So the Pharisees gathered to Jesus, Mark 7, some of the scribes, and they came from Jerusalem.

They saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

For the Pharisees and the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, and here's the reason why, holding to, and this is the body of work, the tradition of the elders.

And when they come from the marketplace, they don't eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups, pots, copper vessels, and dining couches.

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?

Now, that's a loaded question, and you have to hear the sentence the way it's meant to be heard.

Listen to these passages of Scripture, because the concept of walking according to something or walking in is a very

Hebrew way of talking. Walk, yalach, in the Hebrew here is talking about how you conduct your life.

So Leviticus 26 .3, if you walk in my statutes, observe my commandments and do them.

Deuteronomy 8 .6, you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.

Deuteronomy 11 .22, if you will be careful to do all his commandment that I command you to do, loving

Yahweh your God, walking in all his ways, holding fast to him.

And Deuteronomy 13, a text I'm hoping to get into today a little bit. You shall walk after Yahweh your

God, fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice.

And you shall serve him and hold fast to him. You kind of get the idea.

Now, listen to the question again. Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?

Now you can see it. The question itself is assuming that the tradition of the elders has the voice of God in it, a voice that is to be obeyed.

And obeyed to the point of walking and conducting your life and obeying the commands that are in the tradition of the elders.

Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Watch Jesus' answer.

Well did Isaiah prophesy, and note here he's quoting authoritatively saying that Isaiah prophesied the very words of God.

Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written, this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. The answer to the question, the reason why my disciples do not walk according to the tradition of the elders is because God's voice isn't in there.

The tradition of the elders are doctrines created by man. These are commandments created by men.

All under the pretense of having the authority of God behind it. Now go back to your catechism class.

Which commandment now is being broken by the Pharisees and Jesus is exposing that.

Second, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. So they've hijacked the name of Yahweh.

This is a bad analogy but I think it works. I've never traveled to Thailand or places where you can buy cheap knockoff polo shirts and Rolexes and things like this.

I've heard of these things. I have not purchased them. New York City, there are streets in New York City.

I have heard of that too. So some guy, you're walking down New York City and some guy with a strange trench coat goes like this.

And you see watches and you're thanking God. Thank you Lord. Those are, yeah right.

And so what they've done is they've stolen the Rolex logo and the

Rolex name and they've put it on products that are not authorized, not made by Rolex.

So the breaking of the second commandment here is taking the designer name Yahweh, the name of God and slapping it on your schlocky, counterfeit, cheap man -made knockoffs and claiming that God is the one responsible and he's the one speaking to you through these things.

That's the idea. So Jesus is having none of it. This people honors me with their lips and they're teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

And then he says this. You leave the commandment of God. Now who's commanding you?

God. So note, Jesus' assumption here is that God is commanding you through the

Torah. And he says, you've left the command of God. God is actually speaking to you.

Where is he speaking to you? In the written word of God. You leave the commandment of God and you are now holding to the tradition of men.

Yikes. And I've made, this is a good analogy, but it's as if faith only has one hand.

You're either gonna hold on to the voice and the commands of God and his promises or something bright and shiny is gonna distract you and you're going to let go of that and you're gonna hold on to the other.

And that's always the case, isn't it? All right, let me give you an example, Mormonism. Mormonism, they say they believe in the

Bible and the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants and the

Pearl of Great Price and all of the prophecies that come from any living prophet from Joseph Smith onward from Salt Lake City, right?

This is the truth. So you sit there, you go, Mr. Mormon, do you believe the

Bible to be the word of God? Yes, I do. Ooh, you know what the asterisk is, right?

As long as it's properly written. Yeah, they believe the Bible to be the word of God as long as it's the

King James Version and insofar as it's correctly translated. So they've got all these interesting caveats and here's how the game is played.

You say to the Mormon, you believe that you can become a God someday. Well, yes, the law of eternal progression states, they say, that as man is,

God once was. As God is, man can become. That's the law of eternal progression.

So we believe that our God was a man like us and he became a God by following his God. And you sit there, well, the prophet

Isaiah says, the Lord says, before me no God was formed nor will there be any after me.

That's pretty decisive and they say, well, that verse isn't correctly translated. Really, you know

Hebrew? I don't need to. It can't be correctly translated because it contradicts Mormon doctrine.

See how the game is played? And they don't really believe the Bible but they believe their stuff. Exactly, right?

Okay, so I saw an interesting, there was a YouTube video, you get the recommends when you're on YouTube.

We recommend this video. And the video they were recommending that I look at, the headline read, Anglican priestess says

Bible is flawed and supports gay pride. It's an interesting headline.

I watched the video and sure enough, yeah, there was an Anglican priestess. So she was wearing a collar and everything.

She was in favor of Pride Month. And when challenged on this, how can she do that?

Because the Bible says homosexuality is a sin. She said the Bible is flawed. The Bible's flawed.

So you pick whatever you wanna believe. But see, how has Jesus approached this? It is written.

God is speaking. God is commanded. He's speaking to us through his word.

This is the voice of God that we're hearing in the scriptures. So it says, you leave the commandment of God and you hold to the tradition of men.

It says you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your own tradition.

Now watch this. This is great when it comes to the doctrine of inspiration regarding the scripture. Moses said, now, trick question.

Who said? Moses. Moses said, honor your father and your mother, fourth commandment.

Whoever refiles father or mother must surely die. But you say, if a man tells his father or mother whatever you would have gained from his korban, that is a gift given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you've handed down and many such things.

Moses said, word of God. So who wrote the

Torah? Moses. Who's commanding us through the

Torah? God. And this is the doctrine of inspiration. And let me give you another text then from 2

Peter. Two texts in particular. 2 Peter chapter one.

Listen to what Peter writes. I'll start at verse 16.

Peter says, we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ. But we were witnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the

Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom

I am well pleased. You'll note that Peter here is referencing the Mount of Transfiguration.

He heard the voice of the Father say, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. We ourselves, we heard this voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

Now watch what he says. And this is Peter's last letter before he's gonna be crucified for confessing

Christ. He says, and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed.

To which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart.

Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

Holy Spirit. So of all the 66 books of the scriptures, the written word of God, although there be 40 something different authors, there's one common author in all of them, and that's

God. And it's interesting that inspiration is not this thing where it's just this wooden,

God said, now write these words. Good, you got it? Good, got it. Now write these next words. And then it's not like that.

As they're carried along, you'll note then that, I mean, stylistically, there's a huge difference between the way

Peter writes and the way Paul writes. There's a ginormous difference between the grammar of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, and the book of Revelation.

I mean, it's night and day. So you'll note that when

God, the Holy Spirit, carries along a human author and inspires them to actually write these words, that it doesn't overpower the person to where they're like channeling a spirit, like in the

New Age. But that inspiration means that their normal way of writing, their grammatical errors, their idioms, then get used by the

Holy Spirit or embedded in that text so that the human author's style and flair and even some of their personality, that's not dissolved in that.

That's now embedded and scripturated for us. It's there. So Moses said, but God is the one commanding.

Moses said, God is the one commanding. And so you get the idea here. Now I wanna show you this. Did you know that Peter believed that the apostle

Paul was writing scripture? Did you know that? Second Peter chapter three, starting at verse 14.

Beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found in him, that's Christ, without spot or blemish and at peace.

Count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him.

And if you remember, Paul wrote an epistle to the church at Rome, it's called

Romans, right? Peter here is making reference to that very body of work, that the actual epistle of Romans, because Peter spent his ministry time near the end of his life in the city of Rome.

This is true. And so as our beloved Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he does in all of his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.

Now there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and the unstable, they twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.

Isn't that interesting? Peter thinks Paul's writings are on the same level as the

Tanakh. Isn't that interesting? Consider what the apostle

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, kind of wrapping up his commands as far as cleaning up the abuses of the spiritual gifts that were occurring in the church at Corinth.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, 36, or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only one that it has reached?

So if anyone thinks he's a prophet or thinks he's spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the

Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. So you'll note that even here,

Paul in writing 1 Corinthians believes that Christ himself is commanding us through what he's written, that his words that are written down have the very weight of God behind them.

And who was it that sent the apostle Paul, by the way? Jesus. Jesus sent him.

And the gospel he preached, he claims he did not receive it from a human being. He received it by revelation from Jesus Christ himself.

So the question then is, we know that Christ, we know that Jesus said of the

Old Testament that this is the word of God, that God is commanding people through it. His voice is heard in the writings of Moses and Isaiah and of the authors of 1 and 2

Kings, of Judges and Joshua, of Amos and Malachi, that God himself is speaking to us, commanding us through these words.

This is Jesus' opinion. But what about the disciples? Remember what our text was. The one who hears you hears me.

The one who hears me hears the one who sent me. Jesus wrote zero books in his lifetime.

And yet Christ is commanding us through the gospel writers. He's informing us, telling us ahead of time, commanding us to repent, to be forgiven, to believe, assuring us of the forgiveness of our sins.

We take his words and we put red letters on it, but he didn't write those words, but he sure did speak them.

And they were recorded for us, and now Christ is speaking to us through these texts. So consider then what

Jesus says about the disciples. In his high priestly prayer in John 17,

Jesus says this, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.

So Jesus put a stamp of approval on the apostles that he sent and said, and even prayed for all of us in his high priestly prayer, who believe in Jesus through the words that they wrote.

And you'll remember what Peter said in 1 Peter, that the gospel itself is the living, abiding word of God that endures forever.

He's assuming that what he's writing is scripture, that it's the word of God. Paul assumes what he's writing is the word of God.

Christ even prayed for every one of us who believe through their words. So where can you go today to hear the voice of God?

The scriptures, right? Now, let me show you the job of a pastor real quick, okay?

2 Timothy 4, Paul writing to young pastor

Timothy, a pastor of a congregation in the city of Ephesus. He says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who's the judge of the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word.

Now, if there's any question as to which word he's talking about, just back up into chapter three and you'll see it.

He says this, as for you, chapter three verse four, continuing what you've learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, grammata, the sacred.

And what, look at the word, sacred writings. Not just any old writings, sacred writings, holy writings.

We call it the holy Bible. It is a sacred text. What makes it sacred and holy?

These are God's words, God's voice is speaking through it. So you've been acquainted with the sacred writings.

They are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Now he says this, all scripture, grafe, is theanustas, breathed out by God.

So I can say with absolute 100 % certainty, all scripture is breathed out by God.

And you'll note then that breathed out by God is kind of intimately connected to the concept of spirit.

Numach, okay? All scripture is theanustas, breathed out by God.

It's profitable for teaching, for reproof, which no one likes to do, for correction, which no one does anymore, and for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

The answer is second, and it has to be because when he wrote 1 Corinthians, he made it very clear.

1 Corinthians is the first epistle that Paul writes. First, it's the oldest of his epistles. And he makes it very clear in his first epistle that what he's writing is a command of the

Lord. He's fully aware that he's writing scripture, and we know this for a fact because Peter himself is acknowledging that Paul's writings are the very word of God, that they are scripture themself.

Exactly. Second Timothy is his final.

So Second Timothy is his last letter. This is the one that he writes from prison days, weeks before he's beheaded.

He's anticipating the close of the canon with the death of the apostles. I mean, they're getting long of tooth at this point, right?

We all do. So all scripture, it's breathed out by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

And then chapter four, job of a pastor. So I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing and his kingdom to what?

Preach the word. Be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, complete patience in teaching for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching.

But having itching ears, they'll accumulate for themselves, teachers to suit their own passions. Listen to this.

They will turn away from listening to the truth and they will wander off into myths. Scripture told us this ahead of time.

But the job of a pastor is to what? Preach the word. So the idea then is that when a pastor preaches the word, rightly handles the biblical texts, it is no longer the pastor who's making his appeal to the congregation, it's

God himself. But if he's mangling the word of God, he's manipulating the biblical texts, adding to the biblical texts myths and stories and doctrines that are man -made and things like this, then he's making void the word of God.

And no pastor is authorized to preach anything other than the word. Consider what's in Titus chapter one.

Titus chapter one, Paul says in verse five, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put away what remained in order and appoint elders.

These are gonna be your presbuteroi, these are your pastors. In every town as I directed you, if anyone is above reproach, husband of one wife, his children are believers, not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination, for an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach.

He must not be arrogant or quick -tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self -controlled, upright, holy, disciplined, and he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict it.

So in Christ's church, Christ's words are the things to be preached. The word of God is to be rightly handled, not manipulated, taught in its purity, so that people can be brought to repentance.

And then when that happens, we are confident that then God is speaking to us all, not because the pastor is so amazing, but because the word of God is the word of God.

And so when somebody starts to manipulate and to teach false doctrine, scripture is very clear what happens next.

So a pastor must be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and to rebuke those who contradict it. So note that there's the expectation that there will be false teachers who manipulate the word of God, and God wills for them to be silenced.

So there are many who are insubordinate. They are empty talkers. They are deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

And listen to this, they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

Now, one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said Cretans are always liars and evil beasts and lazy gluttons. Well, this testimony is true.

Therefore rebuke them sharply so that they may be sound of the faith and not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

Seems kind of basic, doesn't it? But is it? In our day,

I've lost track of all of the different ways that people make excuses for people who are teaching false doctrine.

All right, I'll give you an example. This past week, it came to light that Beth Moore has gone back through her previous books and in her previous books, where she has talked about the sin of homosexuality, she has re -edited those books and removed all references to homosexuality being a sin.

Back in the middle part of June, a group of women put together an open letter to Beth Moore, asking her straightforwardly what her position was regarding homosexuality.

They were uncertain about it. And this past week, someone on social media took a photograph of one of Beth Moore's older books, published before last year.

And in that section, in that book, she talks about the sin of homosexuality. Somebody chimed in and said, yeah,

I have the new Kindle version of that and that section of the book is missing. Beth Moore chimed in herself and said that after careful reflection, she realized that she had said things that outweigh, that go beyond scripture, they exceed scripture, and that the fruit of what she had written was keeping people from the grace of God.

But when you read what she wrote, she merely talked about the fact that homosexuality was a sin and that people can be set free from it and that Christ is a

God. Christ has bled and died for that. So now you have to ask yourself the question, when somebody says, a pastor says, homosexuality is a sin, in thought, word, and deed, has that person exceeded

God's word or have they said the same thing as God's word? Beth Moore says it exceeds

God's word. And not only that, she has now publicly labeled anybody who says that as being a hyper -fundamentalist.

Is she saying the truth? Are we hearing the voice of God in the statements she is making or are we hearing a contrary voice?

What does the text say? Right? Well, let's take a look at the text.

First Corinthians six. Wouldn't that mean all the authors are hyper -fundamentalists?

Yeah, apparently God himself is too. Of course, Jesus, I mean, he's so out of step.

I mean, Jesus, remember, he said that God created us male and female. That's a salacious statement today.

Anyway, first Corinthians six, Paul, and this is the text where Paul, this is the book where Paul says what he's writing is a command of God.

Paul says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? So do not be deceived.

Neither the sexually immoral nor the unrighteous nor the idolaters nor the adulterers.

Now, I'm gonna stop there for a second, okay? As strange as this sounds, there is a growing group of people within the visible church who are challenging the idea that adultery is a sin.

And it makes perfect sense in light of what's going on. All right? Challenging it.

But Paul says that adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And now it says, nor the men who practice homosexuality. Now, I'm gonna read this in the

Greek real quick. Hute maksoi, hute malakoi, hute arsenikoitai.

And so the ESV translates it, men who practice homosexuality.

It describes two different types of homosexuals in the Greek. The malakoi and the arsenikoitai.

The malakoi are the effeminate. If you were to think of it, even homosexual relationships, somebody has to be the receiver, the other has to be the giver.

All right, it was funny, this past week I was at Lowe's and I bought a new hose, I needed an extension. And I got the hose at home and it was in a nice package, pulled it out, and it was a homosexual hose.

It had two male ends. I couldn't connect it to anything. So I went back to Lowe's and I said, you guys sold me a gay hose.

I have photographs if you wanna see it. Yeah, I do, actually. But anyway, so yeah, they sold me a gay hose.

But in that particular case, you had two male ends. But even in a homosexual relationship, one has to play the effeminate role and the other plays the dominant male role.

And so the text here then is saying the malakoi are the receivers, and the arsenikoitai, arsenikoitai means the man better.

And it's an interesting phrase because arsenikoitai itself comes from the Septuagint, the

Greek translation from the book of Leviticus, talking about the prohibition that you shall not lie with a man as one lies with a woman.

And in the Septuagint translation, which is the Greek translation of the Tanakh, in Leviticus, it talks about the arsenos and the man better, you know, sleeping with a man the way you would with a woman.

It says this is an abomination. And so you note then, the text itself says that this includes the homosexual.

Now note, we're not singling anybody out here, that adulterers are gonna be your heterosexual adulterers, men who practice homosexuality.

This is a homosexual sin. And then it adds to the list, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, or swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And here's the problem, and that is that this is quite an interesting list because each and every one of us at one point or another is guilty of being one of these things.

Because even Christ himself has made it clear that we are murderers if we hate our brother, that we are adulterers even if we look at somebody who is not our spouse with lust in our hearts.

You don't have to physically do the deed here. In fact, even coveting itself has us fall short, and coveting is a sin of the heart.

So this includes all of us. But watch what he says. And such were some of you, but you were washed.

You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the

Spirit of our God. Now, I would argue that if somebody is unrighteous, and the list of deeds include all of these things, including homosexuality, homosexuality is a sin.

It does not exceed scripture to say that people need to repent of this sin and to be forgiven.

That Christ has bled and died for them, and he wants them to be pardoned, forgiven, absolved, given new life, set free.

This is, am I saying anything different than what the scriptures say when I say that? But when

Beth Moore says that you have exceeded scripture when you say homosexuality is a sin, are you hearing the voice of God, or are you hearing the voice of Beth Moore?

That's the question. What does Beth Moore say about us greedy folks? What does she say about the drunkards?

What does she say, I mean? Yes, she's a little thin when it comes to preaching law correctly and then preaching the gospel.

Seems to be missing, yeah. And she's even now changed her policy.

You know, she's a public teacher, but she even recently preached a sermon in a church, which was like a first for her up until very recently.

She never preached a sermon before, and now she's even preaching sermons contrary to the express command of God. So at the end of the day, the question is, who is saying the same thing as scripture?

Because when that person says the same thing as scripture, then they are saying the same things as God, as Christ.

And who is saying their own things? Because when they're saying their own things, they're not speaking

God's authority anymore. They're not speaking the voice of God. They're speaking their own minds, their own hearts.

The commandments of men rather than the voice of God. And we're instructed, let me end with this text.

Consider what was written for us in Deuteronomy 13. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises, and there's a lot of people out there claiming that they've received a prophecy or a dream or whatever, and they give you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder takes place, it actually happens.

Jesus warns us about a similar thing in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 24, where he says that in the last times that there will be false

Christs and false prophets who will perform magos, great signs and wonders.

And then when you read the Greek, hosta, hosta, so that they can deceive. So there will be in even the end times great signs and wonders performed by people.

And the purpose of those signs and wonders is to deceive people and to mislead if possible, to lead astray if possible, even the elect.

And Christ has told us that ahead of time. So God in Deuteronomy in the Old Testament version of that warning then says that a dreamer of dreams arises and performs a sign or wonder, and it comes to pass.

But he says, let us go after other gods, let's serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the

Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. You shall walk after Yahweh your

God and fear him, his commandments, and listen to the phrase, obey his voice.

So you'll note then the expectation is that you have heard this text and that when your faith is being tested even by somebody performing great signs and wonders, you are to listen to the voice of God.

And where did you learn that? In the written word. And so even Deuteronomy, Moses here is anticipating and fully expecting and believes that you're hearing the voice of God himself in what he's written for us.

And warned us ahead of time of competing voices that will even have signs and wonders accompany them that are preaching a different message altogether and proclaiming a different Christ, a different gospel, a different God, to lead us astray, while claiming to be part of us, but they're not.

And how do you know? Because their words do not comport with the voice of God that we have and we know for sure we're hearing in the written text.