Clean Transcript

Has The Lord Spoken To You?

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• What before the children of Israel? And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns and bound him with fetters and carried him to Babylon. The title of the message is, "Has the Lord Spoken to You?" And I ask that question in sincerity. Has the Lord spoken to you?

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• If so, when and how did He speak to you? This question also poses another very pertinent question, and that is, why should the Lord speak to you? I find it interesting that many people claim that the Lord speaks to them on a regular basis and gives them information and instructs them. And yet everything in their life and everything they do is basically contrary to the Word of God. We have to remember that God is not the author of confusion, as He said in 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 33. And so many people that try to say that God has spoken to them directly, their lives are just absolutely in shambles. And they do that which is contrary to the Word of God.

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• I remember when Alice and I were in Greenville, South Carolina a multitude of years ago, there was one woman on trial for murdering her husband. He was asleep on the couch with his feet on the couch and she came up and put a bullet in his head and said the Lord told her to do it. Well, first of all, God says, "Thou shalt not murder." But since then, whenever Alice tells me not to put my feet on the couch, I don't do it. But you know, you have to ask yourself this question and stop and think about this: Why would God nullify His full and final revelation in Jesus Christ? Stop and think about that.

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• I want you to hold 2 Chronicles, but turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 1. And I want you to look with me please at the first five verses. Hebrews chapter 1, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1, note if you would what the Bible says: "God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners"—that just simply means different ways—"spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets." Watch verse 2: "Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who, being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath

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• by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee'? And again, 'I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son'?" But note if you would, the Bible says in verse 1 that God spoke in times past in different ways to the fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. Now I want you to note something: Jesus Christ is God. And the Bible tells us that He is now seated at the right hand of God. In fact, God has declared Him to be God. Now, it is true, according to the book of Hebrews, chapter 1 and verse 1, that before the Bible was completed and before Jesus Christ had come and accomplished His work, that God spoke in different ways in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament. Oftentimes, there were trances. There were dreams.

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• There was the Urim and the Thummim. And of course, there was always the prophets. However, you have to remember this, that Jesus Christ is the living Word of God, and the Bible is the written Word of God. And these are the full and final revelation of God. So when God then gave us His Word, He gave it to us fully and finally. When He gave us His Son, He gave Him unto us fully and finally. So when someone then claims to have information or a voice or a word from God over and above and beyond Jesus Christ and over and above and beyond the Bible, it is a denial that Jesus Christ is the full and final revelation of God. It would be also a denial that the Bible is the full and final revelation of God. In one sense of the word, it's not only a form of pride, but it's also a form of foolish pride to think and believe that God somehow singles us out and speaks to us in a very unique and special way and gives us information and gives us knowledge over and above and beyond the Word of God.

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• Now, when you and I stop and think about the Bible, we have to remember that the Bible is not only the Word of God. It is the revealed will of God for our lives. Everyone in this room knows about the verses that says, "Thou shalt not add to, nor diminish from, the words of this law." And you know the passage in Revelation, if you add to or take from, you're under the curse of God. We understand that so much. But you've got to understand this: when God gave us His Word, when God gave us His Son, that is the full and final revelation of God. Now God may give us insight. He may give us understanding. He may give us enlightenment. He may give us illumination in His Word, through His Spirit, but that is not giving us information above and beyond His Word. There's a wonderful passage in Deuteronomy 29:29. I would encourage everyone to memorize this passage. It's very important. The Bible just simply says this: "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."

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• So the secret things belong to the Lord, but the things which He revealed belong unto us, He says, forever that we may do them. Now, there are two basic presuppositions of Scripture. The first one is that God is, and the second one is that God has spoken. And the truth is that God has spoken, and God still speaks. So the question is, how does God speak? How do you hear God? How do you know when you are hearing God, and if He speaks—you know that He speaks—why do you not obey Him?

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• So if you look back in 2 Chronicles 33 and verse 10—and I'm going to be quoting this passage several times because I want you to see the implication of it—2 Chronicles chapter 33 in verse 10, our text: "And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken." Now the word "spake" there is the Hebrew word dabar, and it's translated "speak" 840 times in our Bibles. It's translated as "command" four times and "say" 118 times. So God spoke to Manasseh. God spoke to the Judeans, and yet they would not listen. God only spoke to the people. The Bible tells us very pointedly that God spoke to Manasseh. Now let me tell you something. It's very difficult to believe—well, it's not difficult to believe, it's just difficult to comprehend.

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• In fact, Alice and I were talking about this recently. Did you know that wicked, evil, ungodly, reprobate Manasseh was a son of godly, obedient King Hezekiah? One of the greatest acts of revival and one of the greatest acts of restoration of the true worship of God took place under King Hezekiah in the Old Testament. Manasseh was his son. Manasseh knew this firsthand. He saw it firsthand. And may I remind you also that it was under King Hezekiah that God sent and slew in one night 185,000 Assyrians who had attacked Jerusalem or were about to attack Jerusalem. And Manasseh knew this firsthand. Manasseh, in contradiction to his good education and the good example of his father, abandoned himself to all impiety. Just looking at the passage that we just read, Manasseh embraced all the abominations of the heathen. He ruined the true worship of God. He unraveled all that his father had done in reforming the people. He profaned the house of God with idols.

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• He dedicated his children to Moloch. He burned his own children in the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. He listened to witches and enchanters. He communicated with an evil spirit. He even built houses for sodomites in the temple and beside the temple of God. He also had an Asherah, which was a sex goddess, and put her in the house of God as well. He had another idol that he put in the house of God. He profaned the temple. He debauched the people. He seduced the people. He made them worse than the people that God drove out of the land because of their sins. And yet God spoke to Manasseh. I've heard people say that they were too wicked to be saved. Well, the truth of the matter is, no one is too wicked to be saved.

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• In fact, Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Luke 19 in verse 10 tells us, our Lord Himself said, "For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." God's salvation is only for lost people. God's salvation is only for sinners. Now, there are some wicked men in this world. I understand that. There are some men that are exceedingly vile and exceedingly wicked, but I will tell you this: you would have to go the extra mile and you would have to do the extra work and you would have to be extra depraved to surpass Manasseh in his wickedness and his rebellion. And yet God spoke to Manasseh. Now the question that you have to ask is this: How did God speak to Manasseh? How did God speak to the people?

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• Did they hear an audible voice? Did they receive a dream? Or were they in a trance? Usually when we think about God speaking, we think about something exotic, exciting, and exhilarating. And we tend to think that there must be something great and marvelous happening when God speaks. Most of us have never really learned to think in terms of God speaking as He did to Elijah. Let me show you.

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• I want you to hold 2 Chronicles, but turn back to 1 Kings chapter 19. And look, if you would please, beginning there with verse 11. You know the story: Elijah has defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. He's come back. Jezebel has threatened to kill him, cut off his head, and so he runs. And God sustains him. God feeds him. And God sends him to a mountain so that He can speak to him. So if you look in 1 Kings 19, beginning there with verse 11, God is speaking to Elijah. And He said, "Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by. Now listen: "And a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his

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• face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, 'What doest thou here, Elijah?'" So God was not in the wind. God was not in the earthquake. God was not in the fire. It was the still small voice that came to Elijah. You see, the truth is most people want to concentrate on the externals. They want to concentrate on that which they believe is phenomenal. They want something exceptional, and they refuse to hear the still small voice.

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• What we suffer from in this day and time is what I'm going to call the Naaman complex. If you don't know what that is, let me show you. Turn right over to 2 Kings chapter 5, if you would. 2 Kings chapter 5. Naaman was a Syrian. He was a very valiant man and evidently a very decent man. In one of his raids, he had captured a little Israelite maiden. But Naaman was a leper. And the little Israelite maiden said, "Would to God that my master were with the prophet that is in Samaria! For he would recover him of his leprosy."

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• And so the king of Syria sent a large amount of money to the king of Israel. And he sent Naaman and said, "Here's my servant, cure him from his leprosy." And the king of Israel said, "What? What does he think I am? Who does he think I am? I'm not God. I can't cure the man. He's trying to provoke a war with me." And while he's so upset, Elisha sends word to the king of Israel, said, "Send him down to me. And he'll know that there's a prophet in the land of Israel." So Naaman comes to Elisha to be healed.

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• I want you to watch this. Look in 2 Kings chapter 5, beginning with verse 9. "So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha." Now watch. "And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying"—Elisha didn't even come out, he just sent a messenger—"saying, 'Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.' But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, 'Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean?' So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, 'My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?'

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• "How much rather then, when he saith to thee, 'Wash, and be clean'?" Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Now let me ask you a question: Why was Naaman wroth? Why was he in such a rage? He turned around and left. Here's the answer: Because Naaman was expecting something spectacular. He was expecting something extraordinary.

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• He had a preconceived idea as to how Elisha was going to come out and heal him. And when it didn't happen the way he thought it should happen, he fled in a rage. Five of the men with him said, "If he had bid you to do some great thing, you'd have broken your neck to do it. How much simpler is it just to go dip seven times in the Jordan and be clean?"

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• Do you realize that is exactly where most Christians are today? They want something unusual. They want something spectacular. And most Christians tend to think if God speaks, well, lightning is going to strike and the thunder is going to roll and the hair of the head is going to stand up and goose bumps running up and down their spine. And if it doesn't happen like that, then God hasn't spoken, because they have a preconceived idea of what it's like when God speaks. Now when you have a preconceived idea of what you think God ought to do, when He does something contrary to what you think, you refuse it. You will not have it. If you look back in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 33 and verse 10, I want you to look at this. 2 Chronicles 33 in verse 10: "And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken." The word "hearken"—the word "hearken"—it's from the Hebrew word qashab, which means to hearken, to heed, to hear, to regard, to incline, and to pay attention to.

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• So let's read it like this: "And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to the people, but they paid him no attention. They refused to listen to him. They did not incline their ears to his word." So here's my question: We know that God spoke to Manasseh and we know that God spoke to the people, for the Scripture says so. Why then would they not hear? Why would they not listen?

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• Why would they not obey? Well, let me answer that. I want you to turn back in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 21. This passage also deals with Manasseh. I'm not going to read all of it, but I'm going to read enough to show you why Manasseh would not hearken and why the people would not hearken. Look at it, if you would, in 2 Kings chapter 21. In fact, if you will look at verse 1, just look at it. Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign. He reigned 55 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Hephzibah. And you read all the way down and again there's a category of all the wicked things that he did. Now skip down, if you would, to verse 9. The Bible tells us that God spoke to them, but note if you would in verse 9, "But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spake by his servants the prophets, saying, 'Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that

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• the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols: Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria'—that is, He'll destroy them—'and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies; because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.'" Wow. Verse 16: "Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord."

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• Now, if you hadn't picked up on it, allow me to spell it out for you. The Bible tells us that Manasseh would not listen. The people would not listen. Why? And here's the answer: Because God spoke the way He usually and normally spoke. It is true that occasionally there were dreams, occasionally there were trances, but those were few and far between. God usually spoke through His prophets, through His preachers. So if you look back at verse 10, you will see the answer: "And the Lord spake by his servants the prophets, saying..." It is amazing to me that most people always want something astounding and extraordinary just for them. They want their pride exalted, they want their feelings elevated, they want their desires fulfilled, so that they may think that they're special.

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• And that somehow God singles them out and uniquely speaks to them and gives them information that no one else possesses. And these same people will never study their Bible. They'll never read their Bible. And very seldom will they come to the preaching of the Word of God and hear the Word of God explained and expounded and applied. No, no, no, no. They're waiting on something extraordinary and special just for them. Now, let me tell you something. It is true that God spoke in different ways, but the normal, most usual, and ordinary way that God spoke was through the prophets.

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• So, I want you to turn back to 2 Kings, look in chapter 17, if you would please, and verse 23. And I want to just show you this in a number of passages. I'm not making this up, here it is. 2 Kings, chapter 17, verse 23: "Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day." But note, "as he had said by all his servants the prophets." Now go back to 2 Kings 21 and verse 10. We read it. I'll read it again. Notice 2 Kings 21 verse 10: "And the Lord spake by his servants the prophets, saying..." Look in 2 Kings 24 and verse 2. 2 Kings 24 and verse 2: "And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the prophets."

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• If you would turn over to the book of Jeremiah chapter 25. Jeremiah 25 and look at verse 4. Jeremiah 25 verse 4, watch carefully. Jeremiah 25 verse 4: "And the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear." Note: "The Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, but ye would not listen." Look in your Bibles, if you would please, to the book of Jeremiah chapter 35 and verse 15. Jeremiah 35 verse 15. Here it is again, and I could multiply these passages. Jeremiah 35 and verse 15: "I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, 'Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers': but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me." In the book of Daniel, you don't have to turn there, but in Daniel 9 in verse 10, Daniel was confessing his sins and the sins of the nation, and he says this: "Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our

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• God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets." In other words, His servants the prophets told us what to do, but we wouldn't hear. I'm sure that you're aware of the passage in Amos 3 and verse 7 where the Bible says, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." So the usual way that God spoke in the Old Testament and in the New Testament was through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Let me tell you something: here's the absolute truth. If you will not hear God's voice through His Word and through the exposition, explanation, and application of His Word, then you will not hear God. If you will not listen to the Scriptures, if you will not listen to the Scriptures explained and applied, you will not hear God's voice. Turning away from the reading of Scripture and turning away from the preaching of the Scripture is turning away from God. It's refusing to hear Him.

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• It's refusing His voice. Now I want you to turn to two passages and I want you to see something that is very clear in each of these passages. I want you to look in 1 Samuel chapter 12, 2 Kings chapter 18, and we will do 1 Samuel chapter 12 first. Okay, 1 Samuel chapter 12, and then we'll go to 2 Kings 18. Okay, now watch this. 1 Samuel chapter 12, notice verse 14. Samuel the prophet makes this statement. 1 Samuel 12 verse 14: He says, "If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him"—I want you to watch this—"and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God." Now, wait a minute. Look at that carefully: "If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice." Well, how do you hear God? How did He speak? "And not rebel against His commandment." In other words, God spoke through His commandment.

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• God spoke through His Word. Ah, turn if you would please to 2 Kings 18 and look at verse 12. 2 Kings 18 verse 12: "Because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them." Now in each one of these verses, we read about the commandment, we read about the covenant. We also read about the voice of God. God spoke. But how did He speak? It was in His covenant, in His commandments, through the preachers who gave those words to the people. God spoke. Now, the Bible is the revelation of God. It is God's law. It is God's covenant. It is God's commands. It is God's warnings. It is God's promises. It is God's sanctions, which are both positive and negative.

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• Let me just say it plainly. It is God's voice.

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• Now there's a passage that most of you probably are at least aware of, if you can't quote it. It's 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and 17. Now listen carefully. "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 perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." The Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God. The word "inspiration" is a very unique Greek word. It is theopneustos. The word actually means "God-breathed" or "God-exhaled." So when it says that all scripture is given by inspiration, what it is saying is all scripture is breathed out of the mouth of God.

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• It is my breath that carries my voice. God's Word is His voice. Inspiration is the act of the Holy Spirit of God whereby He moved upon the men to write the Scriptures. But the words that they wrote, and or if they prophesied, the words they spoke, and the words that they wrote were and are indeed the very words of God Himself. The men were nothing more than the vessels. They were the amanuenses. They were the secretaries.

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• They took dictation, so to speak, in one sense they were. In other words, the words were God's. God used the men and they may have spoken what God said not only in their language but in the vernacular of that day, but it was still the very words of God. We have to understand the Bible is the voice of God. Now there's a passage in 2 Peter chapter 1 in verse 21. Listen to this: "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." So it was not just someone who sat down and said, "Well, I think I'll write the Bible." Number one, it'd be impossible for one man to write the Bible. Number two, the reason it'd be impossible is the Bible is written by over 40 different authors over a period of 1,600 years. So you have each of these men being inspired to write down and all the prophecy fits in like a hand in a glove.

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• Because it is inspired of God. There are passages in the Bible that speak very clearly and distinctly concerning the fact that the Holy Ghost inspired the men to say and or write what they said or wrote. For instance, look in your Bibles to the book of Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12, and let's begin reading there with verse 36. Mark 12 verse 36. Here it is, watch carefully. I'll show you some other verses as well. Mark 12 verse 36: "For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.'" Now that's a verse taken right out of Psalm 110. David wrote most of the Psalms, not all of them. Moses wrote Psalm 90, Asaph wrote Psalm 73, but David wrote most of them. But David wrote Psalm 110, and note if you would: "For David himself said by the Holy Ghost." In other words, David may have said it and David may have written it, but it was inspired by

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• the Holy Spirit. That's what the Bible is claiming. If you look in your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 1, Acts chapter 1 and notice verse 16. Acts 1 and verse 16, look at what Peter says: "Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus." Now here's another quote from David out of the book of Psalms, but notice if you would: "Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake." David may have said it, but it was the Holy Ghost that moved upon him to speak and to write those words. Look in your Bibles to Acts chapter 28. Acts chapter 28, beginning there with verse 25. Acts 28, verse 25 through verse 27.

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• "And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, 'Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.'" Go back to look at verse 25: "And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, 'Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers.'" What Isaiah said, Isaiah wrote it, but it was the Holy Ghost that inspired it. That's what he's saying. This is not just the words of David. This is not just the words of Isaiah. This is not just the words of Paul. These are the words of God. God spoke it.

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• It is the voice of God. It is breathed out of His mouth. It is God-exhaled.

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• Now I want you to turn to two passages and I want to show you particularly concerning one of these passages, but look if you would first of all at the book of Judges chapter 6 and then we're going to 2 Chronicles 36. Just three passages or three chapters past our text. But look first, if you would, to the book of Judges, chapter 6. In the book of Judges, chapter 6, the Midianites have come into the land. They're devouring the land. They're destroying the land.

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• And the truth of the matter is things are pretty bad. I'm not going to read all of Judges chapter 6, but I will tell you this. The Midianites came in with such devastation and such oppression that many of the Israelites fled to the mountains and hid in caves and dug holes just to avoid the Midianites. So they're under great persecution. They're under great oppression. And watch Judges chapter 6 and verse 6: "And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord." Now watch this: here's a people that are being impoverished, persecuted, raped, looted, killed, whatever. And so they cried to the Lord. Watch verse 7: "And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, 'Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;

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• and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; and I said unto you, I am the Lord your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice.'" Wow! "Ye have not obeyed my voice." I said it, you have not obeyed my voice. How did God say this? Through Moses. Through Moses. That's what Moses told them. That's what God told Moses to tell them.

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• But here's what I find very interesting. Listen to me now. Because here's an application for today. These people were oppressed. They were persecuted. They were being devastated. They were being destroyed. They had no help militarily. They had no power militarily. And so they cried to the Lord. And what did God do? He did not send them a great military leader. He sent them a preacher. Isn't that amazing? He sent them a preacher. And God said through that preacher, "Here's where you're in trouble.

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• I told you not to do this. And you've done it anyhow. I told you. You just would not listen." Let me show you.

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• Now I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 36. 2 Chronicles 36. And let's begin reading there with verse 15. 2 Chronicles 36 verse 15: "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers"—that would be his prophets, his preachers—"rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place."

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• Now let me just stop right there. Some time ago, many years back, I preached a message. I think the title of it was "The Mercy of God Revealed." But I don't know if you've ever noticed this in the Bible. Anytime God has compassion upon a people, anytime God is going to do something special for the people, He always sends a preacher. That's what this verse says: "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on them." Remember, it's Jeremiah. He said, "I'll give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." So when God wants to bless the people, He sends them His preachers. By the way, the opposite is also true. When God wants to curse the people, He either removes their preachers or He shuts their mouths. You remember that passage with Elijah? I think it's 1 Kings chapter 17 and 18. Ahab and Jezebel are on the throne. Because of the sins of the people, God's going to send a three-and-a-half-year drought, and God sends Elijah out of the land to Zarephath, to a widow woman's house. Now the drought

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• for three and a half years was just a physical picture of a spiritual reality. The nation was under the curse of God because the prophet of God, the man of God, the preacher of God was not in the land. So God sent him out. Jeremiah, on the other hand, stayed in the land. Yet when you read Jeremiah 7, Jeremiah 11, Jeremiah 14, God tells Jeremiah, "You're in the land, but pray not for this people for their good." God refused to allow him to pray for the people. Finally, when you get to chapter 14, you know what God tells Jeremiah? Jeremiah wanted to pray for them so badly, God said, "All right, I'm going to let you pray for them. But you pray that I will destroy them, because that's exactly what I'm going to do." So in Elijah's time, He just moved Elijah out of the land. In Jeremiah's time, He just shut his mouth.

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• Now, I want you to watch this. Look in verse 16 and 17 again. Let's go back to verse 15: "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy."

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• "Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand." Now verse 15 tells us that God sent His messengers because He had compassion on them. Now watch verse 16. What did the people do? What did Manasseh do? "But they mocked the messengers of God." Note if you would please, the word "messengers" is plural. There was more than one messenger. God sent many prophets, many preachers. "But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised"—what's that next word? "His"—He's a singular—"they despised his words." That is, they despised God's words. The messengers were just carrying God's words. So they mocked the messengers of God and despised God's words and misused His prophets.

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• That's why they beat them up and killed them. Because they despised God's word. "Until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy." Wow. In other words, God said, "I'm sending you my prophets. I'm speaking to you. You're going to hear my voice through the messengers that I send." Unless you're like Naaman, and you turn away in a rage, and you say, "I don't believe that, I'm not going to have that. I don't want the still small voice, I want the thunderclap, I want the lightning, I want the goosebumps, I want something special, something extraordinary." You can want all you like. But God says, "I've spoken through my messengers who carried my word." Now let me show you something. I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and let's look at verses 18 through 20. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 18, let's just read it: "And all things are of

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• God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us"—and in the context it's really the preachers there that he's talking about—"and given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us"—that would be the preachers—"the word of reconciliation." Now look what Paul says concerning himself and anyone else whom God calls: "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

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• Now verse 20 is very important. Paul says we're ambassadors for Christ. And notice this phrase: "as though God did beseech you by us." God is doing the beseeching, but it is through the preaching of His word. Now watch: "we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." Now, the word "stead" is the little Greek word huper, which means "in behalf of," "for the sake of," and "in the place of." So literally, he says, "we pray you in the place of Christ, in behalf of Christ, in the stead of Christ, be ye reconciled unto God." So Paul is saying we preachers, we pastors, we ambassadors are here in His place.

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• Now, before I go further, I want to tell you about two other passages where this same word is used. You remember, in the book of Philemon, Onesimus was the runaway slave. He got thrown into a dungeon in Rome, in the same dungeon with the Apostle Paul, and was converted. And Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon. But Philemon and Paul were friends. And Paul says this in verse 13 to Philemon: "Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel." So he says, "Philemon, you've been used to ministering unto me. If it were possible, I would have kept Onesimus so that he could have been here in your place, standing in your stead, ministering unto me. But," he said, "I would do nothing without your consent." So he sent him back. So we understand that. Now I want you to look in your Bibles, hold 2 Corinthians, but I want you to look in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Romans, chapter 5 and verse 8.

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• Romans 5 and verse 8. This may shock you, but that's okay. Here it is, Romans 5, verse 8. Look at this. Romans 5, verse 8: "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." You say, "That's nothing shocking." Well, what is surprising is the little word "for," F-O-R. Would you like to know what that Greek word is? It is huper. Literally, he says this: "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died in our stead. Christ died in our place." It's the same word. Now go back in your Bibles and look at 2 Corinthians 5 in verse 20. Look what the Apostle Paul says: "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us"—by the preachers—"we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." Where is Jesus Christ? He's seated at the right hand of God the Father. He's no longer on the earth. So Paul is saying, "We ambassadors, we pastors, we preachers are here in His place, and we are beseeching you, be ye reconciled unto God." Wow. How did God speak in the Old Testament? Through His prophets. How's God

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• speaking in the New Testament? Through His preachers as they expound, explain, and apply the Word of God. Now, let me show you something. If you will turn back to 2 Corinthians 4 and look at verses 5 through 7, lest you try to think just for a moment that that makes the preachers really something special. Because preachers are no more than vessels. Look what he says. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 5: Paul says, "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." He says, "We're servants first of all." And then he says, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Then he says this: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels."

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• Now watch: "that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." What's he saying? We're flesh and blood. We're of this earth. We're worthless in and of ourselves. So any blessing that you receive through the preaching of the Word of God, God gets all the honor and all the glory. So here you are perishing. You need water. But you have nothing to scoop it up with.

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• And so you go and find some mud, and you fashion a cup out of the mud, let it dry. Then you dip that cup of mud down in the water, bring it up and drink the water, and you're saved. Would it not be absolutely foolish for you to say, "This mud saved my life"? The mud was nothing. It was just a vessel. It was the water that saved your life.

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• Now this is what the Apostle Paul is saying. Preachers are nothing in and of themselves. It's the power of God who works in and through the earthen vessel. And so God then gets all the honor and all the glory. So let me put it like this. The earthen vessel is nothing. The earthen vessel is nothing but the message boy. The message carrier. That's it. It is God who makes the message effectual. It is God who empowers the truth. That's why Jesus Christ said in John 6 in verse 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." The flesh profiteth nothing.

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• Let me tell you something. I have preached some messages. Humanly speaking, and even in my own mind, I would think, "Boy, that's a great message." And it'll fall just as flat as a flitter, if a flitter can be flat. And I've preached messages which were so simple and so childish, and yet God blessed them so greatly. Why? Just proving it's not the vessel. It's not the vessel. I don't care how great an oratory man is. I don't care how great his illustrations. I don't care how great a preacher he is. If God does not empower him and anoint him and make the message effectual, it's nothing. The vessel is nothing. The vessel is nothing. It's God that gets all the honor and all the glory. Now, let me make a couple of applications.

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• The first one should be obvious, and that is this. The most important aspect of preaching is to hear the Word of God. You actually hear the voice of God in the preaching of His Word. When the Word of God is expounded and explained and applied, that is God speaking. And God speaks oftentimes in commands, in warnings, in promises, in admonitions, in counsel. It is His Holy Spirit that makes the Word of God effectual in our lives. And if God doesn't make it effectual, then nothing's going to happen. I'll go ahead and tell you this, but years ago, I preached, and I preached the message, and boy, the power of God was there that day. And one man, right in the middle of my sermon—right in the middle of my sermon—the man screamed out loud, and the church building was packed. It was Sunday morning. He screamed out loud, "Oh God, I'm lost! I'm lost! I'm lost!"

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• And he got up from the pew and he ran to the pulpit and threw his arms around my feet, sobbing and crying and screaming, "I'm lost! I'm lost! I'm lost!" I looked at the pastor. I said, "Could you and some of the men take this fella in this room over here and pray with him and talk to him and tell him about Jesus Christ?" And they did.

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• And I finished my message. And so, when it was over that day, and a number of people I believe God really saved, but this man came out and he was smiling from ear to ear and he said, "God saved me. God saved me. I'm so thankful God saved me." And I was just a young preacher. And so, I said, "I'd like to ask you a question. What was it that I said that got you under such conviction?"

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• Because I was thinking if it worked one time, it might work again. I might say the same thing again, you know. How foolish. But that's what I asked him. And he looked at me and he said, "Preacher, you want me to tell you the truth or you want me to lie to you?" I said, "I want you to tell me the truth." He said, "To be honest with you," he said, "I really didn't hear too much of what you said."

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• He said, "You got short-circuited. God was speaking to me. I heard Him." The vessel is nothing. The second application is this. If you expect God to do something extraordinarily phenomenal for you, over and above the Word of God, over and above and beyond Jesus Christ, over and above and beyond the preaching and teaching of His Word, you're going to be highly disappointed. Because God is not going to pamper your pride. He is not going to satiate your fleshly desires. Nor is He going to please your pompous attitudes. He has spoken and He does speak in and through His Word. It is His voice. It is the breath of God. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 2 in verse 4, "Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel." Hear the word of the Lord. Let me give you one last passage. Jeremiah 6 in verse 10. Listen to what Jeremiah asked: "To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear?" That's an interesting question. "To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear?" Listen to what else he said: "Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken.

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• Behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it." If you do not value the Word of God, if the Word of God is a reproach to you and you have no delight in it, God is not going to speak to you. Because God speaks in and through His Word. Hear ye the Word of the Lord. Has God spoken to you? He speaks in and through His Word.

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• Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. Lord, help us not to have the Naaman complex. Help us, Lord, to be like Elijah and listen for the still, small voice. Help us, Lord, to understand Your Word is Your voice and You speak to us. Give us grace that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. In Thy name we pray. Amen.

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• You.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T23:58:40Z