The God Who Speaks

I. Introduction
A. This year we are talking about this book we call the Bible. And most of this year we’re going to be looking at what this book says...about this book.
B. Last week: what it means that God’s word is the truth.
C. Next week we talk about the written word of God. But before we get to that, we talk about the word of God in general, we talk about how God is a God who communicates.
D. Today: the God who speaks, a sermon on the topic of revelation
E. You don’t need the Bible to know that humans are prone to think wrongly, to believe things which are not true.
1. This is one thing everyone should be willing to acknowledge.
2. The fact that everyone believes such different things
3. If you were transported to a very different place and culture, you would be scandalized by things they believe and do. E.g. Child-trafficking
4. Or to a different era: 100 or 200 or 300 years ago in Gainesville, VA
5. And there is a second like it: no matter how wrong they are, humans are prone to believe untrue things with great conviction and self-assurance.
6. This means that if we’re left on our own, we are a sorry lot.
7. Evolution? We are no closer to being on the same page than in history. Presidential campaign
F. Hebrews 1:1–3 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
II. God speaks. That is most obvious point of Hebrews 1:1-3.
A. I recently read someone who was saying that while it is possible God exists, ultimately we have no way of knowing or finding out.
1. The problem with this thinking is that it excludes the possibility that God might reveal Himself.
2. And, of course, that’s what we believe God did.
3. But we also agree with the person’s premise. If God didn’t choose to reveal Himself, we wouldn’t be able to know whether He existed. In other words, if God left us in the dark, we would definitely be in the dark.
4. “It is only as God makes Himself known that He can be known, in any measure whatever.” – BB Warfield
5. Knowing God, then, is not the result of man’s search for the divine. It is God’s gift. It is a result of God’s self-revelation.
B. The God of the Bible has not remained shrouded in darkness. He has communicated to us. He has not left mankind in the dark. He has spoken. He is not silent. He is there and He is not silent.
C. And God is so smart that He knows how to speak to us. He knows who He’s speaking to. He knows how to make Himself clear to us. He knows how to speak so that His hearers will understand.
III. In ancient times God spoke through the Hebrew prophets.
A. 1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers.
B. God has been speaking for a long time. These words were written 2000 years ago and God had already been speaking for thousands of years.
C. Our fathers — This is the letter to the Hebrews. It was written by a Jewish Christian to Jewish Christians. When the author refers to “our fathers,” he’s referring to the ancient people of Israel.
D. In ancient times revelation came through a certain ethnic people – the people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham.
1. From one to all – “Through you all the nations on earth will be blessed.”
2. The oracles – Romans 3:1–2 “What advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.”
3. John 4:22 “Salvation is from the Jews.”
E. But in the OT, before Jesus, He chose to speak in a partial and shrouded way.
1. God spoke “at many times and in many ways.” Bits and pieces
IV. God speaks in these last days by His Son: “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (2)
A. “These last days” — There is no “next age” coming. These are the last days of life on this world as we know it.
B. 1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2a but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,
C. There is a certain finality in God speaking through His Son Jesus.
D. In the OT God spoke to His people primarily through the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son.
E. Not like in Islam, where Jesus is in a continuum of prophets and was superseded by Mohammed.
F. In the OT, God spoke His word through the prophets. They came saying, “Thus says the Lord!”
G. In the NT, all God’s communication has become focused on One.
H. In the NT, God has spoken in a final way through His Son.
I. But Jesus is much more than just the greatest prophet.
1. Jesus: “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
2. Why? Because “He is the radiance of the glory of God & the exact imprint of his nature.” Heb.1:3
3. Jesus doesn’t just speak the word of God; Jesus is the Word of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.” (John 1:1-2, 14)
4. He IS the living word of God. He is God revealing Himself to us fully & finally.
V. Now, does Jesus supersede the Bible once He comes?
A. Is that what’s implied by Hebrews 1:1–2a “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”
B. This doesn’t mean that Jesus cancels out the things God revealed long ago through the prophets. In fact, He was the fulfillment of all that revelation.
C. But revelation is progressive. It builds and increases — from ‘bits & pieces’ in the OT to Jesus.
D. How do we know about Jesus today? Mostly it’s through the Bible!
E. It’s not Jesus instead of the Bible or Jesus over and against the Bible. It’s Jesus as revealed in the Bible.
F. 2Cor.11:4 tells us that some preach another Jesus. It’s the Bible’s Jesus that is the real Jesus!
VI. Application
A. People criticize Christians for what they believe. But the issue is not what we believe, the issue is: Is there a God and has He spoken?
1. If there is a God and He has spoken, then of course we must believe what He tells us.
2. Who are we to think we know better than God?
3. If God HAS spoken to us, then what He says is all that matters. Whether others LIKE what He says is irrelevant. Whether WE like what He says is irrelevant.
B. Our preferences often don’t line up with the truth.
1. We’d like disease to go away. We’d like to escape mortality. We’d like to look young when old.
2. We can’t trust our preferences to correspond to the truth. The truth often contradicts our preferences. Therefore, we need an objective outside perspective about what is really true which isn’t influenced by human preferences.
C. This is why the Bible is so essential.
1. Our knowledge of God grows not as we discover Him but as He reveals Himself to us, as He tells us about Himself.
2. We are not crime scene investigators trying to figure out what happened here. That’s the way it is viewed by many today.
3. Putting together a new vacuum cleaner with an instruction manual.
4. Our ability to figure God out is obviously insufficient. There are many religions in the world. They demonstrate the insufficiency of human imaginations about God. We need revelation.
5. And whether we like it or not, primarily God has chosen to reveal Himself in our day in a book.
6. We may wish that the vacuum cleaner came with a video or that the company would send someone to help you put it together. But that’s not what we have. We have written instructions.
7. And if we want a working vacuum cleaner, we’re going to have to put in the work to figure out the instructions.
D. And if we want to understand God, and understand ourselves, if we want to understand life in this world, we’re going to have to put in the work to figure out God’s written revelation.
E. Maybe we would prefer it a different way: to be able to walk with Jesus and see God’s living word.
1. But the fact is, we can’t. We have no say. The all-wise God chose us to live in the 21st century and to have to grapple with God’s written word.
2. Or maybe we’d like an angel to visit and answer all our questions. That’s not likely.
3. But who are we to complain? He is gracious to reveal Himself.
4. We must trust that He knows what He’s doing and make the most of it.
F. We have nowhere else to go except to the Bible.
1. Sure, there’s lots of disagreements about what it says — and we’ll talk about that. But where else can we go? What else can we trust as a source of infallible truth?
G. We must be willing to listen to what God tells us about Himself, about ourselves & about the future.