"Now Hear This!" How Does God Speak? - Part A

I love a good biography. I'm reading one right now on the life of Augustine. I love reading how a life was formed and decisions made.

It's very inspiring to read a biography, but every biography must have a biographer. The Bible is filled with biographers, people who interacted with God and they wrote about what they observed, what God said to them, what God did for them. We have in this book a true biography of God. Most of us want to hear from God clearly, but short of Him speaking to us in an audible voice.

How do we do that? Today on Connect with Skip Hitek, Skip points out the exciting ways God speaks to you. Then, at the end of today's program, Skip and his wife Lenya share some more evidence for God's existence with you. Evolution is impossible because what do you do for 40 million years while you're waiting for the eye to evolve? You still can't see. So if our eye has irreducible complexity and for millions of years creatures were evolving toward that state, then they would have gotten killed because of the survival of the fittest.

They wouldn't have been able to survive. Thank you, Skip. If you want to hear more, please stay tuned after the teaching. Now we want to tell you about a great resource that helps you navigate your life circumstances so you can embrace your God-given potential. I've enjoyed watching the growth and the ministry of my friend Levi Lusko. This month's Connect with Skip resource, Take Back Your Life, the new book by Levi Lusko.

Here's Levi to tell you about it. It's all around this idea of taking back your life. It's a 40-day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right. And it's going to be really powerful and special, I think, for people to have this. Not only is it in hardcover, which just makes me happy because I've never had a book released in hardcover, but it has a ribbon so you'll be able to keep track of your progress through these 40 days. It would be an incredible gift to someone who is looking to grow in their faith or for any of us who want to maybe kind of do an oil change for your heart, a checkup on your wellness, on where you're at.

It'll deal with internal difficulties and help you deal better with external circumstances that are challenging as we explore how we can get to the very best version of ourselves that we are meant to be. Get the book, Take Back Your Life, with a donation of $35 to connect with Skip. Call 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com. This hardcover book by Levi Lusko will help you take back your life. It's a 40-day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right.

1-800-922-1888. Okay, we're in Psalm 19 and Skip Heitzig starts today's study. Words don't always translate from one language to another language. Advertisers have found that out the hard way. When Coca-Cola wanted to advertise in China because of the growing market, they promoted Coca-Cola and they were told to pronounce it ke ku ke la and so they put out thousands of banners and posters that people should drink ko ke ke la. And they found out that it doesn't translate all that well, that that term means female horse stuffed with wax in Chinese. Pepsi Cola also decided to launch in China and their slogan was come alive with the Pepsi generation only it translates when the test market was in Taiwan. It translates Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead. Kentucky Fried Chicken also launched in China with their finger lickin' good slogan.

It came out as eat your fingers off in Chinese. When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova years ago to a South American audience, they didn't know why the sales went so poorly. They discovered that in Spanish no va means it won't go. No wonder they didn't sell anything. Accours put out its slogan turn it loose in Spanish.

It was read suffer from diarrhea. That may be the only honest slogan there. Communication can get lost in translation and repetition. Have you noticed?

Have you ever done that experiment? You get 10 people in a room, you whisper a story, fill it with enough facts, it's told to the next person to the next person. By the time it comes out with the 10th person, it's a very different story than what was started. That's why the book that you and I hold in our hands, this Bible, amazes us.

It shows itself to be very different in its communication. We've started a series, as the banner behind me suggests, called The Biography of God. I love a good biography. I'm reading one right now on the life of Augustine. I love reading how a life was formed and decisions made. It's very inspiring to read a biography. But every biography must have a biographer. The Bible is filled with biographers. People who interacted with God and they wrote about what they observed, what God said to them, what God did for them. We have in this book a true biography of God.

Last week I said that there was a time in my life where I walked outside, cocked my head back, and I said, How can I know that God exists? What's funny is I never thought once to crack open a Bible. We had a Bible in our house. It was huge. It was those two-ton family Bibles.

It took a crane to move from one room to the next. We never read it. We never consulted it.

It was never a family reading thing. The only thing I did was look at the pictures. I had a lot of great pictures. But even the people in the pictures looked nothing like anybody I knew.

Except they must have liked Frisbee, I thought, as a child because they all had glowing Frisbees behind all their heads in these pictures. In our first study, we saw the obvious things, that God exists and that God is personal. If you want to know Him, it takes faith and pursuit.

That was Hebrews 11. Then last week in our second study, we looked at the clues that God has left in this world to discover that there is a God. Even if we have no Bible at all, we can look for a cause. We can look at the universe and we can look within the conscience, the moral law. We can discover there is a God, but we need more than that. We need a biography.

We need a testimony of a biographer. Now, the Bible indicates that God has spoken in a variety of ways. That's how Hebrews opens up. God spoke in many ways at many times in the past. But of all the ways that God has chosen to communicate Himself, you can actually put them in two categories.

You could label one natural and you could label the other supernatural. Or maybe even better yet, label one general revelation and the other special revelation. And that's what we want to consider today more than the first is the second. We touched briefly on the first general revelation last week, although we're going to tip our hats to it this morning.

We want to deal with the first or with the second. So one is the big book of the universe. The other is the little book of the Bible. Psalm 19 has both of those as the subject matter. And David, who wrote the Psalm, wants you to know that both general revelation of God's creation and the special revelation of God's Word, they both point to God and they do not contradict each other.

Charles Spurgeon put it this way. He is wisest who reads both the world book and the word book as two volumes of the same work and feels concerning them, my father wrote them both. So let's look at the first six verses just briefly because we spent more time with that last time. And notice the contrast at least and how God speaks generally to specifically. Now I want you especially to notice the descriptions of how the universe speaks to us. It says the heavens, here it is, declare the glory of God.

The firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech. Night unto night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone throughout all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

Its rising is from one end of heaven, its circuit to the other end and there is nothing hidden from its heat. David spent a lot of time outside. He was a shepherd boy. He got to put his head on a rock and lay down and look at the bright stars. There was no light pollution around where he lived.

There was no smog. You know we are disadvantaged. We don't spend quite the same amount of time in the outside environment as the ancients used to. We live in a house. It's controlled by air conditioning and heating.

It's temperature controlled. We've got our music and then we walk just a few feet to our car which is also temperature controlled and covered. Our music is there and our cell phone.

We live very protected lives. They live very exposed life and they were able to look and observe the heavens and the world around them more than we do. And David said, The world that I live in and all of its universe spread out is speaking to me. He heard it.

God exists and he's glorious. We've been listening to the skies for a number of years. But we're listening for voices from aliens. Harvard University put out a receiving dish 85 feet in diameter just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. And USA Today said it's part of the most extensive search conducted for intelligent life in outer space.

It allows scientists to listen to and analyze 128,000 frequencies at once 24-7. David is saying the heavens are already blabbering. They're already talking. There's a gossip going on just looking at the heavens of the glory of God, of its creator. Notice in verse 2 it says, Today and today utters speech.

If you have a new international version it's more accurate. It says pours forth speech. It's translating a very strong Hebrew word that uses as an image a gushing spring pouring out refreshing water of God's revelation.

You'll notice also that it's not a one-time deal. That God is speaking through the universe continually. Day after day it says, night after night. These silent preachers are telling us about God and his glory and his creativity and his majesty. It's giving us a message.

Every single day, every week, every month, every year, year after year, it's as if one day passes the baton to the next day and the revelation continues. Not only that, but notice it's universal. It says there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. That means there's no culture, there's no nation that is exempt from this communication. Doesn't matter if you live in the jungles, if you live in the deserts, if you live in the mountain communities, if you live by the sea, there is enough information in the natural world to let anybody know there is a God.

No wonder Paul writes in Romans 1, therefore they are without excuse. The heavens are speaking, the world is speaking, but it's not enough. We need more information than that.

We need a biography. Sure, the heavens tell us there's a God who's intelligent and creative and powerful, but it doesn't tell us much more than that. It doesn't tell us why we're here, it doesn't tell us what His plan is for us, it doesn't tell us where we're going once we die.

None of that is heard of or seen by observing the natural world. So, though it is a revelation of God, it is a speech of God, it's not perfect. So, what David does, beginning in verse 7, is he shifts the focus from general to special.

Notice the noun change, verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord, another statement of God's scripture, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. It's pretty easy to see that the first six verses, he's looking up at the world book, and beginning in verse 7, he's looking at the word book, the statutes, the testimony, the law, the commandments.

And notice the descriptions. It's perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, and righteous altogether. These are moral qualities exhibited in the scripture that are not present in nature. In other words, these scriptures are a trustworthy biography.

The Bible tells you the rest of the story, where creation does not. And that's why you can never say, well, let's forget going to church and reading the Bible. All we have to do is go camping.

We can hug a few rocks and look at the stars. God is speaking through that. You can get some information from that, but you can't get enough information from that. There's more. I love what Peter said. Peter was there and saw a glorious display of Jesus transfigured before him and a few of his buddies on the Mount of Transfiguration. He says, look, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

We saw that glory. But then he says, but we have a more sure word of prophecy. In other words, what I saw with my eyes of the glory of God can't even compare to what is revealed here in this sure word of prophecy. So, the natural world tells us of the glory and power of God, but it does not tell us of the plan of God nor of the love of God. So, what can this book, this biography of God, revealed in the scripture, what can it tell us? What can it do for us? Well, according to the psalmist, in verse 7, it can save the soul.

That's the first step. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. It means to bring back or to restore. Listen, in the Bible, you can be confronted with enough truth to convert you. There's enough truth here to bring you back, to restore you back to God. He says, the law of the Lord is perfect.

It means complete, the Hebrew word tamim, completed or sound or whole. Several years ago, when I first met, I met my first messianic Jew. A Jewish person raised with the Old Testament gave his life to Christ. And I was talking to him and I said, what is it you believe in?

I'll never forget this. He said, I am a completed Jew. I never heard that term before until then. I said, explain what that means. He goes, well, all the promises that God would send the Messiah have been fulfilled in Yeshua, in Jesus. And I believe in Him and because I do, I see myself as a completed Jew.

I love that description. Well, everybody in that sense needs to be completed or converted. And the Scriptures will give you the information to do that. I hope you own a Bible.

I know that sounds very elementary, but I hope you own one. I hope you have your own Bible. And I hope that you carry it to church. I'm not down on you if you forgot your Bible today. Don't worry about it.

We got them scattered around. But buy one. It's your Bible. Read from it.

My hope would be every single day. And find out where things are that you'll need in the days ahead. In fact, I hope you'll write in it. I know that's sacrilegious to some, but underline things and circle words and write notes in it because it's not a religious relic. It's a spiritual tool for your maturity. And it can convert the soul. Peter said in the Bible, or in God's truth, is everything we need for life and godliness. You don't need to go anywhere else for the needs of your soul than right here. And the Lord Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but what?

Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Why? Because it's tamim. It's complete. It gives you all you need. That's the first thing it can do, and that's the first step. It can convert your soul. Second, it can satisfy your mind. Also in verse 7, notice, The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The word simple means open-minded. Are you open-minded? I know a lot of people that when it comes to life, they're open-minded. When it comes to this book, a door goes down instantly. Oh, that's the Bible. That's not accurate. Well, how do you know? Tell me your research personally, and how you know so much.

Their mind goes down. There is a description of the Bible, a definition of the Bible from an old Russian dictionary, as this, The Bible is a collection of fantastic legends without any scientific support. It's full of dark hints, historical mistakes, and contradictions.

It serves as a factor for gaining power and subjugating unknowing nations. Close quote. Talk about propaganda. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because you see, the Bible, this biography of God, exhibits certain characteristics that no other book exhibits. I'll give you just a few. First, accurate transmission.

Now hear me. Though the Bible has been copied, and recopied, and recopied, and distributed, it has not marred its message. How do we know that? Because we have in existence today, 5750 some odd manuscripts of the New Testament alone. More than all of the writings of Plato and Socrates and Homer put together. You know how many copies we have of all their works in totality?

18. And some of those documents, the earliest copy we have, is 2000 plus years after it was originally written. We have copies of the New Testament in existence that go back to 30 years after they were originally written by John.

Manuscript evidence. That's Skip Heisler with a message from the series The Biography of God. Now let's head into the studio with Skip and Lenya, as they share some more evidence for God's existence with you. The world, with all its order, complexity, and wonder, is a powerful testament to the existence of God, his majesty, and creativity. Skip, what facts about the natural world have you found to be the most compelling to unbelievers when discussing God's existence? Boy, I love this question, because it really was my world for the first few years of my Christian walk when I was going to school in a secular environment and getting hammered. It shook my faith, and so I decided I need to bone up and understand what it is I believe and why. So I did, and I was able to engage with unbelievers.

So I'll just boil it down for the sake of time to a few things. First of all, there's an argument called the teleological argument. It's the argument of design. If you see something that looks like it's designed, it must have had a designer. So we live in a universe that apparently looks designed. I mean, the distance of the Earth to the sun, 93 million miles. If we're any shorter or any closer or further away, life would not be tenable on Earth. The makeup of our atmosphere is just perfect for us carbon-based creatures to be able to live. So there's enough in the design argument to make a very compelling argument to engage with unbelievers.

There's something else that's really helped me. It's called irreducible complexity. Irreducible complexity means you have to have a certain number of parts for something to function. For example, a mousetrap has irreducible complexity. You take any one of the pieces out of a mousetrap, and it will not function.

It won't catch a rat. One of the things about the human eye is that it has irreducible complexity. If you remove any part of those things that make you see, take them away, you won't be able to do it. So what that means is evolution is impossible because what do you do for 40 million years while you're waiting for the eye to evolve? You still can't see. So if our eye has irreducible complexity and for millions of years creatures were evolving toward that state, then they would have gotten killed because of the survival of the fittest.

They wouldn't have been able to survive. So those two things really helped me engage unbelievers. Then the other thing for those who care is lack of transitional forms in our world. It's the field of paleontology that there just is not enough transmutation or transitional form that should be in abundance if evolution were true. You mean the missing link is still missing? It's still missing. We haven't found them.

And a lot of those missing link theories have turned out to be hoaxes. Thank you, Skip and Lenya. We hope this conversation refreshed you spiritually.

If so, please consider helping keep Truth Like This on air, connecting you and others to the Lord. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift now. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in again tomorrow as Skip Heitzig talks about how God speaks to you uniquely and personally. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.