We all know there is a lot of confusion in American style religion about what God really says in His Bible. Does it make any difference what He says? Oh, we hope so. Stay tuned; we will see.
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As you may suppose, we get lots of mail. I mean lots and lots of it. I never see all of it, of course. But occasionally I get a letter addressed to me, personally, and some of it is unsigned. I seldom even read unsigned mail, for obvious reasons. But there was something about one the other day that-- well, I don't know why-- but I read it. I guess it was because it was so short; it was a post card. I will tell you about it after awhile.
If you would like a copy of today's program titled, "Did God Really Say that?", you may have it free on CD or audio tape or in printed form by writing us, In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083-- or by e-mail searchtv@aol.com. Or you may use our toll-free telephone number and just call us. The number is 1-800-321-8633. Ken Helterbrand is going to lead now as we sing, and then I will be back. Join with us as we sing.
Our reading today is back in Genesis, chapter three, beginning at verse one. “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” And I have read through verse six. Now let us go to God in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we are so thankful that You have revealed to us Your will as You have, and that we have a perfect copy of what You would have said to us and what You would like to say to us, and the things that we need to know, and that it is written down and unchangeable and secure and safe for us. We are thankful to You for all of that. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Now about the unsigned mail that we mentioned a moment ago. Let me read you the first sentence or two of it and let you be the judge. "I haven't been sending a return address on certain mailings and am hesitant to do so, only because God tells us in his word to not put our trust in man." Well, I had to think about that awhile. I couldn't remember where in the Bible God said we are to distrust people so much we shouldn't even sign our correspondence or put our return address on it. Yes, I know Scripture warns us not to trust man more than we trust God for many things. But, does the letter-writer mean that I shouldn't trust in him to be telling me the truth? Or, does he mean that God says in the Bible he shouldn't trust me, the writer shouldn’t trust me, as the recipient of his letter? If that is it, he would not have written me in the first place. I don't know what he is saying. Now mind you: I am not holding man up to ridicule. He is my friend. He is one of the viewers of this program. And every viewer of these programs is a friend of mine. B-u-t, did God really say what the man was saying He said?
Well, anyway he put me to thinking, and I came up with a title for the message today. In the Scripture text that we read a moment ago (Genesis 3:1 to 7) the conversation between Eve and the tempter in God's Garden. "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" That is the New King James Version of 1982. Another more recent translation, which I don't use in preaching, quotes the serpent as saying the same thing, but in different wording. It has the serpent asking: "Did God really say you must not eat from the tree in the garden?" Now I am not a master of the Hebrew language in which the Old Testament was written, but that one verse in that modern version seems to be the way we would probably say it nowadays, doesn't it?. "Did God really say that?" That is our subject today.
If your mind is only occasionally turned to religion, you are aware of the confusion and contradictions there are in current religious thought. One reader interprets what he reads in the Bible to mean one thing, and another understands the same verses to mean something else entirely different. And, we are told, "Who can say which one has the "right" understanding of it? After all, there is no right way and wrong way of understanding what God says. Besides, we are told, it doesn't make any difference, God loves us all regardless of what we believe; it doesn’t make any difference what we believe, God still loves us. And, even if we are wrong, God will forgive.” But, "Did God really say all that?"
Isaiah, Jeremiah and others of the Old Testament prophets preached and prophesied of the destruction of Israel and Judah, unless the people repented and turned to the Lord. Some of them also foretold their return to the land after a season of bondage to a pagan nation. The very first of the Ten Commandments that God had given them as a people, when He called them out of Egypt and they had become a nation themselves, was and the first commandment-- you know it-- "You shall have no other gods before Me.” Those are God’s words (Exodus (20 and 3). However, they had broken that very first commandment. They had made them other gods. Habakkuk pictures their worship of other gods in Habakkuk 2:18, 19: "What profit,” he asks, “is the image that its maker should carve it. The molded image, a teacher of lies. That the maker of its mold should trust in it, to make mute idols? Woe to him who says to wood, Awake! And to silent stone, Arise! It shall teach! Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet in it there is no breath at all." Now listen carefully to the very next verse: "But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him." Habakkuk is saying the only alternative to idolatry is to listen carefully to what God-- the one and only true God, he says and let all the earth keep silence when He speaks. Ohhhh, what a strong message to American style religion in these dawning years of the 21st century. When and where God speaks, is the time and place for us men to be silent! Did you hear me? No councils, no conferences, no votes about any of it. Listen to God; listen to him speak in His word. That is the message!
Jesus, the Son of God, often taught in parables. The one generally believed to have been his first one was about a sower who went forth to sow his seed. It is recorded in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke chapter 8. Some of his seed fell by the wayside He said, and the birds ate it. Some fell on the stony ground or the shallow ground, or shallow soil, and when the sun shined on it, it died. Other fell among the thorns or the unprepared ground, and it was crowded out. Some fell in the good soil and it produced! Jesus said the seed is the word of God. Of course the sower is the one who teaches or preaches the word of God. Jesus said the wayside hearers are the ones who readily hear the word but they don't understand it and, He said, "the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart." Those hearers depicted by the seed fallen by the stony places are those who hear and receive the word of God with great joy; but they are shallow. Oh, they endure for a while, but when trials or persecutions come because of something God really says, they quit; they drop out. Jesus said, "Now he who received the word among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But, he who received the word on the good ground, he received the seed on the good ground, is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces...." Sooo, yes, one reason some people hear God saying something He doesn't really say is they just aren't good listeners. At the end of Mark's account of that same parable, Jesus is quoted as saying, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." Well, there must be no "y-e-a-h, but I think..." None of this business, "I know what the Bible says, but my church says..." Or, "Yeah, I know, but I have always been taught..." and so on. My friend, when God speaks, “Let all the earth keep silence before Him." Do you get it? Oh, I am sure you do.
We have called Jesus’ parable "The Parable of the Sower". But, really now, don't you agree, it is a parable of the soils? It is about how people hear the Word of God. Some people really never hear God's word at all. First: False teachers come and snatch it away. Second: Others hear with joy. Oh, they raise their hands and they shout hallelujahs, but when troubles come, and they do, they are quick to give it all up. You see the "what's in it for me" faith isn't worth much when it comes to real living. Others let cares and riches choke out their spiritual life. But, many others hear, and understand and endure to the end. So, yes, one reason people (like the writer of the anonymous message to me) hear God saying something He doesn't really say is they aren't good listeners. When and where God speaks, "Let all the earth keep silence". God gave us the sense of hearing so we might hear.
The first Psalm is one of my favorites: The first four verses say: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law does he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf shall not wither; and whatsoever He doeth shall prosper." Now I quoted that from the King James Version because I love it in the Psalms.
Jesus not only said "Take heed how you hear” (Luke 8:18); He also said "Take heed what you hear" (Mark 4:24). Now, what do you suppose He meant by that? He means that some people-- well, let us let Him speak for Himself in His word: "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn away their ears from hearing the truth, and be turned to fables" (2 Timothy 4:3 and 4). "Did God really say that?" Yes, friend, He really did and that is one prophecy that is being fulfilled before your very eyes today. But you don't hear many self-styled prophets talking about it on television and radio, do you? He said it again in I Timothy 1:2 and 4: "To Timothy, a true son in the faith…I urged you...that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables..." He said it again in 2 Peter 1 and 2: "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And (now hear this) many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed." "Did God really say that?" Oh yes, He did, my friend. "What does He mean?" you ask. Well, you just don't say things like that about other teachers and preachers in our current society; we are told that. "It isn't Christian to do that." What God is saying in those passages and many others is this: "Take heed what you hear." Just don't listen to every charming, charismatic Tom, Dick and Mary Jane that comes along with some kind of fantastic religious show. Do not hear and "follow cunningly devised fables" (2 Peter 1:16). "Take heed to what you hear."
Our Lord didn't leave us with no further instructions about hearing Him in His word. He teaches powerfully-- His way for Christ-like living in what we call His sermon on the mount. As He approached the end, He set the pattern for the conclusion of all good sermons. He called for action. He insisted on and strongly urged a response by His hearers. It hadn't been His purpose to amuse or to entertain the crowd of perhaps 5,000 people. His words are not to be "enjoyed," but "obeyed." Many people shake hands with the preacher on Sunday morning with the expression, "Enjoyed your sermon today, preacher.” The sermon is not to be given to be enjoyed necessarily, but obeyed. Jesus' sermon is found in Matthew, chapters five, six and seven. As you would expect, the conclusion is at the end. (Yeah, that is right where you would expect to find the conclusion of anything, isn't it-- right at the end.) Beginning at verse 21, He said, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven…” Wait a minute. Did Jesus really say that? Not everyone will enter the kingdom of heaven. Did Jesus really say that? Well, who will then? “Let all the earth keep silence.” And I will read it again, “but he who does the will of my Father.” “But he who does the will of my father. Many will say to Me in that day (what day? day of judgment), Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name and done many wonderful works in Your name? And then when I declare unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness! Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock: and the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house; and it fell. Great was the fall of it." Let us pray. Holy Father, we are thankful for the revelation of Your will in the Bible. Let us heed it. Help us to understand it and obey it. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
God begins what constitutes the last book of the Bible-- the book of Revelation, with these words: "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near (Revelation 1:3). Then in the last chapter of that book, right near the very last of the last revelation mankind has from God, He says, "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14). What a great thought that is, my friend! And what kind of a hearer of God's word are you? Are you an obedient hearer; are you listening only to the present amusement? Say, I hope you will obey the Lord in all He teaches you to do in His word. After He proved His deity by His glorious resurrection from the dead, He said to the eleven apostles, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved." Did Jesus really say that? Read it for yourself, my friend, in your own Bible in Mark 16, verses 15 and 16. What kind of hearer are you? Are you an obedient hearer? Oh! I hope so! I hope that we will hear from you this week, that you obeyed Him today in baptism.
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