Hearing God’s Voice In The Scriptures

Text: Luke 24:13-32

Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)

Date Preached - (01/13/02)

Introduction:

You are facing an important decision (Give Example). Where will you get God’s mind on the matter, How will you know what God has to say?

Where Can I hear God’s voice?

Does He speak audibly? Through Dreams and Visions? Through an Apostolic Gift? Some man? The Pope The Dalai Lama? (ILLUS: Muslim Boy born with a four-inch tail, now revered as a hindu god – [hanuman] monkey-god)

Verse 32 is Key!!

MUSINGS:

Men can be blind to the plainest doctrines of the Scripture.

(Yet claim to speak with God)

God has appointed men to explain the Scriptures.

Before one can explain Scripture, he must understand Scripture.

ILLUS: The Ethiopian Eunuch & Philip in Acts 8 “Understandest thou what thou readest?” - “How can I, except some man should guide me?”

Like the Eunuch, you may have questions about the Bible?

How Do I Know The Bible Is God’s Word?
How Can I Know The Truth Of God’s Word?
How Do I Know When God Is Speaking To Me Through His Word?

In our text, Christ emphasizes the primacy of God’s Word in the matter of Hearing & Believing God. (CONTEXT: Death & resurrection of Christ)

EXPLAIN: Briefly give account of events in today’s text.

I. How Do I Know The Bible Is God’s Word?

A. By It’s Amazing Fulfillment vs.18

Paul is before Herod Agrippa in….

Acts 26:26 For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.

The fulfillment of Scripture was not accomplished in secret, but wide out in the open for all the world to see and believe.

Verse 44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

If someone wants to disprove the Bible, then let them simply disprove the fulfillment of prophecy!!

B. Because It is ALL true vs.25 & 27

“all that the prophets have spoken:” (vs.25)

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets” – “in all the scriptures” (vs.27)

Christ puts the emphasis on the Word of God.

The Lord referred them to the Scriptures not to His Scars!

2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

LOOK UP & READ II Peter 1:16-19

II. How Can I Know The Truth Of God’s Word?

A. By Faith vs.25

“O fools, and slow of heart to believe…”

PASCAL (Mathemetician) - "Human knowledge must be understood to be believed, but divine knowledge must be believed to be understood."

It all begins with faith…..

BY FAITH I believe in Creation

BY FAITH I believe in an Inspired, God-Breathed Book

BY FAITH I believe in Salvation through the Blood of Christ.

BY FAITH I believe in a Sovereign Lord. Etc. etc….

You may say, “I don’t have faith to believe all that”. Well… “What do you accept by faith?” You place your faith in something, …Everyday!!

The point is this: Your faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed!!

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

B. By Divine Guidance vs.27

“He expounded unto them”.

What a thrill for those disciples to have Christ Himself teach them!!

Verse 45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

Today it is God’s Holy Spirit that gives Divine Guidance in the Scripture.

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Our Prayer should be…

Psalms 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

We should come with a humble attitude to the Word of God. Just because you read the Bible does not mean that you know it. The Holy Spirit of God will have to make it real to you.

ILLUS: Tom Williams learned God’s Word on his wife’s ironing board.

ILLUS: Ironside’s pastor-friend – “Learned God’s Word on the floor of a mud hut in the north of Ireland”.

III. How Do I Know When God Is Speaking To Me Through His Word?

Now here is the third and great question.

A. Christ Will Be Revealed vs.27

“The things concerning Himself”

Wrong views of Christ arise from wrong interpretation of Scripture.

2 John 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

1 John 4:2-3 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

EXAMPLE: Book of Revelation (Often Misunderstood, feared, etc.)

LOOK UP & READ Revelation 1:1-3

B. The Heart will Burn vs.32

The burning heart speaks of deep interest and pleasure.

A yearning and hungering for more. Not for the mere soothing of one’s conscience, but for the deep satisfaction of the soul in Christ.

Jeremiah 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

Jeremiah 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

Psalms 39:3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,

The words of Christ are intended to reach the heart.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hearing God's Voice In The Scriptures (Luke [24]13-32)