God Speaks Through His Word

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to 2 Peter. Second Peter, chapter 1. We are going to be talking today about how God speaks through His Word. We’ve been talking a little bit specifically about how God is speaking. And the question is, are we listening? Do we have hearts that can hear what He is speaking? God wants to speak to people. He is speaking. But we need to have hearts that are prepared and ready to hear His voice. And I want to talk about one of the fundamental, most prominent ways that God speaks to us, and that’s through His Word. Amen.

A more sure word

And so we’re going to start at 2 Peter chapter 1, starting at verse 16. Let’s read this together. It says, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

I want you to notice — this is Peter speaking, and there are a few things that I wanted to highlight. Number one, Peter says, I was an eyewitness of all that Jesus did, of all that He said. In other words, Peter is saying, listen, I walked with Jesus. I saw the healings. I saw the miracles. I heard the teachings. Anybody a little bit jealous right now of Peter? Right? We hear that and we’re like, that’s amazing. This isn’t just a fairy tale. Peter’s saying, no, I witnessed this. I’ve seen this. I’ve seen the glory of His majesty. And he says in verse 18, “And we heard this voice which came from heaven,” that said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” We heard that.

But I want you to notice what Peter says in verse 19. He says, “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed.” Peter’s saying, listen, I saw the works, I saw the miracles, I heard the teachings, but there is something even more certain than that. It’s the prophetic Word of God. The NIV translation says it this way: “We have the word of the prophets made more certain.” More certain than what? More certain than actually seeing Jesus perform those miracles. More than actually hearing Him with your own ears. More certain than that, we have the prophetic Word of God. Amen.

Listen, the King James Version says, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy.” Well, let me ask you: what could be more sure than seeing with your eyes or hearing with your ears? The Word of God. Peter’s saying, we have something more certain, something more true, something even more unwavering that has been given to us. It is the Word of God.

And so the Bible is telling us, listen, the surest way for you to hear God is to know what His Word says. The surest way for you to hear God and to know God is to know what His Word says. In other words, it’s not what you experience. How many of you know there’s not certainty in your experience? I’ve lived life, and I’ve learned a few things, but how many of you know that’s not that certain, really? There are perspectives. There are scenarios. There are outliers. There are all of these things. It’s not your experience. What is true is not what we think we know. What is true is not just what we value. What the Bible is telling us is that God’s Word is a more sure, more reliable, unwavering, never-changing source of hearing God’s voice.

Sometimes I’ve heard people say things like, “Well, if God would just give me a sign. If He would just prove something to me.” Or, “If I only saw an angel. If an angel came and appeared to me and just said something to me.” But how many of you know that’s actually not more certain than what we’ve been given? In fact, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11 that Satan himself can transform himself into an angel of light and cause deception. Paul says in Galatians 1, even if an angel comes and teaches you any other gospel, let him be accursed. You see, we’ve been given something more certain. So if you’re going to depend only on what you can see with your eyes, if you’re only going to depend on what you can hear with your ears or what you can physically relate to in this world, then you are subject to deception. You see, this is so important, because we have something that we know is the truth. Amen.

Blessed are those who have not seen

How many of you remember the story of Thomas? In fact, Thomas was given the nickname Doubting Thomas. That sticks. That’s the last thing I want for my reputation. But how many of you remember that story? Jesus was raised from the dead, and He appeared to some of the disciples, and Thomas was not with them. And when the disciples came to Thomas, they said, “We saw the Lord. He is raised from the dead.” And Thomas said, “I don’t believe that. Unless I can put my fingers in the holes in His hands, and unless I can put my hand in His side, I will not believe.”

Well, later Jesus appeared again to His disciples, and Thomas was there. And what did Thomas do? He said, “My Lord and my God.” I can see it, and because I can see it, now I believe it. And what did Jesus say to Thomas? He says, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed.” But notice this: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Jesus is saying, listen, it is most blessed when you don’t have to see or hear. Most blessed is when you can just believe His Word. Amen. This is huge, because what have we been given? We’ve been given His Word. And what do we have the opportunity to do? To believe His Word. And that’s exactly what Jesus was saying is most blessed. Blessed are those who don’t have to see in order to believe. The best way is to stand on His truth, to hear it and to believe it and allow it to become light to you.

And so here Peter is saying, we were eyewitnesses to this. We saw Jesus ministering. But listen, we have something even more sure than all of those things, more sure than the voice coming from the heavens and saying, “This is My beloved.” We have something even more sure: the prophetic Word of God.

Study the real thing

How many of you know, if you want to know what God is speaking, it starts with His Word? Amen. I’ve had many conversations with young people — the Lord keeps putting them in my life, and I love it — and they often will say things like, “I’m convinced I can’t hear God speak.” And I often will tell them, no, you’ve just spent too much time listening to the wrong voices. If you want to know what God sounds like, it starts with getting in His Word. And the more that you are in His Word, the more your ear gets tuned to what His voice sounds like. And then all of a sudden, as you’re going about your day, you hear something, or something drops in your heart. You could write it off as a thought if you don’t know what God sounds like. But if you know what He sounds like, when that comes into your heart, you’re like, that’s the Lord.

If you want to know how to hear God’s voice, it starts with His Word. We’ve got to be tuned in to the right voice. That’s the way it is with God’s Word. To discern the voice of God from everything else, you don’t need to go studying all the other voices. Amen. We need to study His voice. That’s my son. I’m so proud of him.

I had a friend in college who worked at a bank for a time, and he was telling me about how they would train the bank tellers, the people who were handling the money. And the way they would do it is they wouldn’t train with counterfeit money. They would train with real dollars. Which was always interesting, because I’m like, wait, so you just had a register full of cash, thousands of dollars, in front of these people who are just being trained to handle money? And what they would do is have them count it over and over and over and over. They would have them look at it and study the intricacies, and what things to look out for in real money. And it would get to the point where they became so familiar with the touch of money that as soon as a counterfeit bill was in there, they would stop, and they would look.

You see, they didn’t get trained by studying the counterfeit. They got trained by studying the real thing. Because if they knew what the real thing was, they could immediately identify the counterfeit. And that’s exactly how it is with God’s Word. The way we become more familiar with His voice is by hearing His voice, by studying His voice, and that eliminates all the counterfeits. Amen.

John 10:27 — Jesus says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Notice: My sheep hear what? My voice. Notice, My sheep don’t hear all the other voices. They’re not tuned in to all the secular music. They’re not tuned in to all the opinions on TV. They’re not tuned in to just social media. No — My sheep are hearing what? My voice. And I know them, and they follow Me. And so we’re not supposed to know all the other voices. We’re supposed to know His voice. Amen.

And so anything that doesn’t agree with the Word of God, we have to consider a deception, a lie. Anything that does not agree with the Word of God. How many of you know God can never say what He never said? We don’t add to what He said. He’s already spoken His Word, and anything outside of that that does not agree with the Word of God, we have to consider a deception.

And so this is why the Bible warns us not to be led by ungodly counsel, not to be led by any sort of witchcraft. You would be surprised how many people have given place to that, where they will go to soothsayers, palm readers, tarot cards, horoscopes. All of those things are deceptions that are tied into the demonic. And rather than hearing from the Spirit of God, you’re actually hearing from another spirit. And so many people, even believers, will get deceived, because the demonic spirit will wow them with things — there’s no way they could have known that. And because they are wowed, because they are impressed, because they can say things that maybe they didn’t know, they can easily impress you. And because they can impress you, they can deceive you. And so this is why we have to have something that’s solid. This is why we have to have something that we know is the truth, to be able to judge these things, to know how to navigate these things.

A light in a dark place

Look at this, again in 2 Peter. Listen to this: “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place.” How many of you know there’s a lot of darkness out there? There’s a lot of untruth. There’s a lot of deception. And so it will do you well to heed this Word, to heed this truth — the truth that never changes, the truth that is eternal.

John 17, verse 17 says, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” Jesus says, “Sanctify them by Your truth.” Notice: “Your word is truth.” And so if you want to know what is true, if you want to know what you can actually believe, His Word is true above all else.

How many of you have ever had somebody call you, and maybe the phone number isn’t in your caller ID or in your contact list, so you don’t know the number, but you answer it? And the person, rather than saying, “Hey, it’s so-and-so,” just starts talking. They just start saying, “Hey, I was wondering what time we’re getting together on Tuesday.” And if you’re not very familiar with the voice, you might be like, “Um, excuse me, who is this?” But if it’s someone that you talk to often, you know immediately who it is. You know the intricacies in their voice, the way that they phrase things, the way that they say things. And there are many believers who at first don’t know how to discern the voice of the Lord. And so the way that we get to know His voice is we have to start with what we know for sure is His voice. It is the Word of God.

And so not only is the Word the surest, most certain, most reliable way to hear God — how many of you know it’s our starting point? It’s our starting point.

They have Moses and the prophets

I didn’t have this down, but I want to look at the story of Lazarus out of Luke 16. I’m just going to actually read this. I feel like we’re going there. Luke chapter 16, starting at verse 19. This is the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Listen to this:

“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”

This is an interesting story, right? This is Jesus speaking, and He’s sharing what was happening in the afterlife at this time. There were those who went to Abraham’s bosom, and there were those who went to a place called Hades. And what’s interesting is they could see each other. On one side there was torment, and on the other side there was this holding place, until our eternal salvation was available.

And so here the rich man is, in torments in Hades. “He lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus’” — I don’t know why I can’t say his name well — “‘that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’”

And I want you to notice this. “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.’”

Notice this. This rich man who is in Hades, being tormented every day, gets to the point where he says, can you just send Lazarus back from the dead to tell them and warn them? And notice what Abraham says: they already have Moses and the prophets. In other words, they already have God’s Word. So interesting. They already have what they need.

Verse 30: “And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”

We don’t think that’s true, but how many of you know it is? How many of you know there are miracles happening every day, and there are still people who will not believe? How many of you know faith does not come by miracles alone? The Bible says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. The way that we inject faith into people is by declaring what God has already said. In other words, there is so much power in the Word of God that when it is spoken, and it goes into people’s ears and down into their hearts, it brings about transformation, and it brings what once was dead into life. How many of you know good works, miracles, or people rising from the dead and saying, “You’ve got to believe this” — it’s not enough. If you don’t believe the Word, you won’t believe the miracles.

We’ve got to know what God has said. And so if you’ll spend time reading the Word, if you’ll spend time hearing the Word, we learn how to hear God’s voice. Amen.

Principles of right and wrong

I’m going to go through this pretty quickly, but I want to share three ways that we hear God speak through His Word. Three ways that we hear God speak through His Word.

Number one: basic principles of right and wrong. Basic principles of right and wrong. One way God speaks to us through His Word is by sharing, this is how you’re supposed to live your life. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

And so in the Bible there are basic dos and don’ts and ways to live the life that God has for you. How should I live my life? Should I murder? Should I cheat on my wife? Should I have sex before marriage? Should I forgive? Should I pray? Should I go to church? The Bible talks about all of these things. The Bible is full of basic principles that we’re to live by, that are designed to help us experience the full life that God has for us. Amen.

I’m not going to spend too much time on that, because there are clear commands and ways that we are to live. But we have to be in His Word to know them. Amen. Because the world has gotten to the point where they say, “That’s not really true for today. That’s not true anymore. You don’t actually have to do that. That was for back then.”

Revelation of spiritual realities

So one way God speaks through His Word is through basic principles of right and wrong. But listen to the second one. The second way God speaks through His Word is revelation of spiritual realities. Revelation of spiritual realities. If you’ve not experienced this before, I pray that you would.

Listen to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, starting at verse 13. It says, “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

In other words, the mind cannot grasp spiritual revelation. There are times when you will come to church, and there might be revelation that the Lord has for you. But if you are only trying to understand it with your mind, you’re going to miss it. There is specific revelation that will only come as the Holy Spirit teaches you and speaks to your heart, to your spirit, and it becomes life to you.

So let me give you an example of this. I remember when I was younger, there was some sin that I was struggling with. I was at that place where I was like, I can’t overcome this. This is just going to be a part of my life forever. And I remember going to church, and I heard a word, and there was a scripture he shared out of 2 Corinthians, where it says, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” And I heard that, and I was like, that sounds good. My mind was understanding. But I knew that the Holy Spirit was speaking something specific to me that was deeper. You guys know what I mean? I was like, there’s more to this than what I’m getting right now. There’s more to this scripture than my eye can see right now.

And sometimes that’ll happen. It can happen as you’re reading the Word. All of a sudden you get stuck on a verse, and you’re like, why is this verse standing out to me? The Holy Spirit wants to teach you something. And I remember hearing that verse, and I was like, there’s something to that for me. I was blessed by the message. The message was amazing. It was fantastic. I was encouraged. But I knew, no, there’s something to this: He made Him who knew no sin to become sin for me. I began to personalize it. I began to meditate on it. Biblical meditation means to actually mutter. I remember I was at work — I was in sales; I sold cell phones, and I was really good at it — but in between, I’d be muttering this verse: “He made Him who knew no sin…” Because I knew there was something there.

And as I began to mutter, I began to personalize it: He made Him who knew no sin to become sin for me, that I might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Then all of a sudden it started to turn into, “I’m the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.” And what was just a mental understanding became a spiritual revelation. And with spiritual revelation — listen — it is more than information. It’s transformation. When you receive spiritual revelation from His Word, it changes you. Because there is something on the inside where you have compromised to the normal, and you no longer buy into the lies that say, this is how it’s always going to be. You can’t do that. God’s not going to really do that for you. That’s for everybody else. Which is preposterous. But that’s where we get, because we’re discouraged, because we stay in our own funk. Why? Because we’re not getting His Word, His thoughts, into our hearts, and we’re believing all the other voices rather than the voice that matters most, the voice that is true, the voice that is eternal.

And so this is beyond basic right and wrong. No, I’m talking about spiritual revelation that brings transformation to your life. Do you want to know what happened as soon as I had that revelation? That sin that was bogging me down, that I thought I would wrestle with forever — “just try harder, just do better” — all of a sudden began to fall off. Isn’t that how the Lord is, where He just begins to lift things off of you?

You see, Jesus is what we’re really after, whether you know it or not. Whether people know it or not, what they’re after is the Lord. But they fill that with every other voice. They fill it with every other thing, with every other comfort, with every other pleasure, trying to find the joy and the satisfaction that will never come, because the only thing that satisfies is the Word of God. When we come to His Word — how many of you know Jesus is the Word, right? John 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is the Word.

When you come to His Word, it is more than a daily reading. It is more than a checklist. You’re looking Jesus face-to-face, and we need to allow Him to speak His Word over our lives. Amen. Are you going to learn things through His Word? Yes. Are you going to learn what’s right and wrong? Yes. But there’s so much more than that. He wants to bring revelation to your life. He wants to bring transformation to your life. And it happens as we come to Him face-to-face and allow Him to speak His Word over us. Amen.

Real-time direction

Listen, the third way that God speaks through His Word is real-time direction and instruction. Real-time direction and instruction. How many of you remember what Jesus said in John 16:13? He says, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come” — talking about the Holy Spirit — “He will guide you into all truth.” And then just the next chapter, in John 17, Jesus says, “Your word is truth.” Jesus is saying, when the Holy Spirit comes, He will guide you into all truth.

That means — listen — it’s not up to you to decipher the Bible like it’s some Da Vinci Code. Did you know that you don’t have to be the smartest to hear God’s voice through His Word? In fact, He speaks to the humble. That’s who He speaks to: those who are humble in heart, who have ears to hear. So the Holy Spirit will guide you in the Word of God. And what’s most exciting about that is this: the Holy Spirit wrote this. This all came from Him. In other words, the One who wrote these words will teach them to you, if you let Him.

I know there are people who, when they open the Word, almost get anxious: “I don’t get it. I don’t understand what this is saying.” And I would encourage you, as you go into your Word, if you don’t know what’s going on, before you even start reading, say, “Lord, You said that You will guide me into all truth. Holy Spirit, would You teach me Your Word today?” How many of you know that makes all the difference? If we would come to His Word and just say, “Lord, would You show me what You have for me? Would You teach me Your truth, Holy Spirit?”

How many of you know the Holy Spirit not only wrote this — He inspired every author to write what He wanted them to write. And so we know that when Paul was looking at the church at Corinth, this wasn’t like an angry Facebook post, where Paul’s like, “I’ve got a letter to write to this church, and I’m going to give them a piece of my mind.” How many of you know that’s not how the Bible came about? It didn’t come about with Moses being like, “Man, there are some cool things happening here. We just got out of Egypt. Maybe I should write these down just to document them.” How many of you know that’s not how the Bible came about?

It says in 2 Peter 1, verse 20, “No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” In other words, when the Holy Spirit breathed out His Word, He breathed it out through biblical authors. And here’s the cool thing. Not only did He have that original audience in mind — the book of First Corinthians was to the church at Corinth; it was for that church — but how many of you know when He spoke that, and He breathed through those biblical authors and moved them along, He had you in mind? He knew that there would be a day when you would be in a certain circumstance, and He knew that on that day you would open His Word and begin to read. And He knew, they’re going to come to Me, and when they come to Me, I’m going to speak My Word to them. When He wrote His Word, He had you in mind, so that whoever needs to hear the Word of God could come to these scriptures, and the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth.

And so when we do our readings — we’ll say things like, here at Chapel Valley, we like to read our Bibles every day. That’s a faith statement, right? Because that is not normal. You have to set time aside to do those things. But how many of you know that’s not a statement of just saying we’re good Christians? No, we read and we come to His Word so that we can be led into all truth by His Spirit, because that’s what His Word says: He will guide you into all truth. Amen.

And so I’m telling you, there is no other book like this book. When we come to His Word, He begins to speak to us. And if you’re like, “I don’t know what God’s voice sounds like,” start with His Word. Get into His Word. You don’t have to read chapters upon chapters. Get into His Word. There’s a reading plan that we do here — we have what’s called a Life Journal, which has a daily reading plan. That’s a great way to get into the Word every day, and then you can journal and write about what God is speaking to you. And if you don’t have one of those, come to me, and we’ll get you set up.

But how many of you know sometimes I’ll come to that plan and I can get task-oriented? Do we have any goal-oriented people here? I’m going to read through — I’m not going to miss a day, and I’m going to read through the Bible twice this year. And so it becomes a checklist. But this is so much more. There are times when I’ll have three chapters to read that day, and sometimes I don’t make it past the first few verses, because the Lord is speaking. And how many of you know that’s the most important thing — that we make room for the Lord to speak to us through His Word? Amen. Amen.

And so here’s what I want to do. I just want us to begin to pray and ask the Lord to open our eyes. Let’s go ahead and stand together, and I’m just going to pray over us this morning. Let’s just bow our heads and begin to give Him thanks.

Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth, Lord — that it is the sure foundation that we can stand upon, that it is what we can build our life upon. That we don’t need to go about life guessing, but Lord, You have spoken Your Word. You have given Your Word to us so that we can live the life that You’ve prepared for us. Lord, I thank You that this isn’t just through effort. This isn’t by our own strength or by our own understanding. But Lord, You will speak to us as we open Your Word. Your Spirit will lead us into all truth. You will give us real-time direction, Lord. As we come into Your Word, even though it was written thousands of years ago, when it was written and penned, You had us in mind. And Lord, You will lead us and guide us into all truth through Your Word.

I wanted to read this out of Psalm 119, and I just want to read this over you guys. Psalm 119, verse 18 says, “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.” And I just want that to be our prayer this morning. Just begin to say that to Him. Just say, “Jesus, open my eyes. Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law, wondrous things from Your Word, things that I didn’t know.”

Lord, I just pray over every person here, Lord, that You would begin to open eyes to see Your truth. Lord, that You would begin to open eyes, to bring life, to bring revelation. Lord, revelation that would set people free. Revelation, Lord, that would get us out of bondage and into the life that You’ve set aside for us. Revelation, Lord, that would bring faith to overcome strongholds and to overcome obstacles, Lord, because Your Word is power. Your Word is true.

And so, Lord, we ask today that as we go from this place, this wouldn’t just be an exhortation of, “Hey, we need to read our Bibles more.” No — that this would be a time, Lord, where we are filled with faith. That we know that when we open Your Word, You are there. When we open Your Word, You are speaking. And when we open Your Word, Lord, our eyes and ears are open to receive all that You have for us. And so, Lord, we commit in our hearts that we will spend time with You. We have to know what You are saying. We have to be tuned in to the right voice. And so, Lord, we ask that You would supernaturally tune our ears to Your voice as we come to Your Word. We give You thanks. We give You praise, Lord, for Your Word. Your Word is life. Your Word is true. And we receive it today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Amen. Amen. How many of you believe God has words for you in this book? Open your heart and get into it right now. I’m not even on the reading plan, I apologize. I’ve been in Hebrews. Like I said, I feel like the Lord’s speaking there. But whatever it is, get into your Word, and allow Him to speak to your heart. Amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.