God has Spoken!
The LORD God has
not left us in the dark groping for answers to our
eternal destiny and relationship with him. He has
clearly revealed himself and his eternal purposes
for his creation.
Man was created for fellowship
with a loving God, but sin interrupted it. However,
God in grace and mercy demonstrated his love for us
by sending his Son to go to the cross and die for
our sins so that our relationship with him could be
restored. There is no other name under heaven
whereby we can be saved (Acts 4:12; John 14:6).
How do we know these facts to
be true? Simply because God has spoken! Hebrews 1:1
says, “After God spoke long ago in various portions
and in various ways to our ancestors through the
prophets” (NET). Yes, the LORD God spoke, not just
once, but “in many portions and in many ways.” His
revelation to man did not come in one big package,
but bit-by-bit, so man could comprehend it. God
progressively revealed himself throughout the Old
Testament preparing man for his full, compete and
perfect revelation of himself in his Son.
In the opening chapters of
Genesis God spoke revealing his eternal purpose for
his creation. After man sinned God came seeking to
save and spoke to Adam and Eve with words of
judgment and hope. Salvation by grace was promised
in Genesis 3:15. The Bible tells us clearly, “The
wages of sin is death,” but God reached down to man
with saving grace even in the garden.
Moreover, God spoke to the
Jewish patriarchs, and by the prophets. He did not
speak just once, but over and over again by means of
promises, types, symbols, commandments, precepts,
warnings, judgments, exhortations, etc.
God has not been silent down
through the ages. God has spoken out of the heights
of his majesty and glory and revealed himself. The
central message of his revelation is that he is a
holy, yet a loving God, who wants us to love him in
return and live in fellowship with him.
“Beautiful is the night in
which the moon and the stars of prophecy and types
are shining; but when the sun arises then we forget
the hours of watchfulness and expectancy, and in the
clear and joyous light of day there is revealed to
us the reality and substance of the eternal and
heavenly sanctuary,” writes A. Saphir.
God spoke through his prophets
and we have his message recorded in the Old
Testament.
Moreover, the God who spoke
“long ago in various portions and in various ways to
our ancestors through the prophets, in these last
days he has spoken to us in a son, whom he appointed
heir of all things, and through whom he created the
world” (vv. 1-2 NET).
Jesus Christ is God in the
flesh. The Son of God, has fully revealed to us what
God is like. God has no further revelation to make.
You do not need the Book of Mormon or the Koran, or
other books of the cults. Jesus Christ is the final
and complete spokesman for Deity. God has spoken.
The written revelation is now complete. It was
finished with the book of Revelation in the New
Testament in the first century A.D. The cannon of
Holy Scripture is closed. Jesus Christ is the center
of all God’s counsels.
God has spoken. God has spoken
in his Son and in so doing has fully expressed
himself. He has left nothing in reserve. The cults
and pagan religions cannot add anything new to God’s
full revelation of himself in Christ. All that we
know, or can know, or need to know of God is what he
has revealed of himself through his Word.
“The whole revelation and
manifestation of God is now in Christ; he alone
reveals the Father’s heart. . . he himself was and
is God’s message. All that God has to say to us is
in his Son: all his thoughts, counsels, promises,
gifts, are to be found in the Lord Jesus. Take the
perfect life of Christ, his deportment, his ways;
that is God ‘speaking’—revealing himself—to us. Take
his miracles, revealing his tender compassion,
displaying his mighty power; they are God ‘speaking’
to us. Take his death, commending to us the love of
God, in that while we were yet sinners, he died for
us; that is God ‘speaking’ to us. Take his
resurrection, triumphing over the grave, vanquishing
him who had the power of death, coming forth as the
‘first fruits of them that slept’—the earnest of the
harvest to follow; that is God ‘speaking’ to us” (A.
W. Pink).
Jesus Christ brings us into a
living contact with the LORD God, the One true and
only God, for there is no other. Jesus brings him to
dwell in our heart, as he dwells in God’s heart.
“Heavenly truth is nowhere
spoken but by the voice of Christ, nor heard but by
the power of Christ, living in the hearer. . . . The
external words of Christ . . . prepare us for, and
point us to, the inner speaking in the heart by the
Holy Spirit, which alone is life and power,” writes
Andrew Murray.
The Son of man came to “seek
and save that which was lost.” That was God
“manifest in the flesh,” God revealing himself in
his Son. That was God speaking to us. What will you
do with Jesus Christ? Where will you spend eternity?
What will you do with what God has said to you in
his Son?
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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Unless otherwise noted "Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.
Wil is a graduate of William Carey University, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries from 1972-2005. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Ecuador.
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