God Has Spoken--But Why? B

This book is the revelation about salvation in Christ.

That's what it's about. God didn't write it as a bunch of sort of an almanac of spiritual clichés. God didn't write this to be a whole lot of little religious curiosities. This is a guidebook to bring you to Christ, which is to bring you to God. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. If you randomly open your Bible multiple times, each time you'll likely land on a portion by a different author, writing in a different period of history, to a different audience, and in a different style. So how could the whole Bible be telling a single story? And what is that story?

And what do you need to learn from it? That's John MacArthur's focus today as he continues a series that answers the question, is the Bible reliable? So with a lesson now, here is John MacArthur. Now, in special revelation, how did God reveal Himself? Well, I'm just going to reveal quickly. I told you, first of all, in theophany from phino and theos, which means a visible form of God. Secondly, through prophecy.

Now, what do we mean by that? Prophecy just means speaking forth, telling forth, announcing, proclaiming. God spoke through human instruments.

That's prophecy. So you have theophany and prophecy and, thirdly, miracles. God revealed Himself in special revelation in terms of miracles. And these three areas, theophany, prophecy, and miracle, make up the totality of God's special revelation, and then God took all that He wanted of that information and put it in the Word of God. And so this Bible is a composite of theophany, prophecy, and miracle, and in it God is revealed. Now, that gives to man, notice, the intellectual knowledge of God. More than just a consciousness that God is, He reads the Word of God, the Bible, the verbal revelation, and then He understands the facts about God. This is to give to man the intellectual knowledge of God beyond just the sense that there is a God.

This defines Him more clearly. But what is the purpose? What is the purpose of all of this?

To lead to the next step. Who is that? Christ. You see, the consciousness of God is meant to lead you to the Word of God, which gives you the intellectual knowledge of God, which leads you to Christ. What did Jesus say to the Jews? He said, search the Scriptures, and who will you find there? You'll find Me there, for they are they which...what?...testify of Me. And so God has not only given a verbal revelation, but a verbal revelation to lead to a living revelation, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is God's standard. When a man comes to Jesus Christ, it isn't just the consciousness of God, it isn't just the intellectual knowledge of God, it's the spiritual knowledge of God that equals what? Salvation, and that brings man right back to God. And that's the pattern of God's revelation. If the revelation doesn't lead you to Jesus Christ, it's incomplete. Isaiah, even with all God said, wanted more.

Did you know that? Isaiah heard a lot. God said a lot, but he wasn't satisfied. He says, verily, God, I've heard everything you said so far, but you're still a God who hides yourself. Listen to what Isaiah said.

I love this. He said, oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down. God, you're hiding.

Why don't you split the heavens and get down here? Did he? That's exactly what he did. Jesus is not the bringer of revelation. He is the full and living revelation. God who at sundry times and diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. Jesus is the revelation of God. And so God's written revelation is to lead to God's living revelation, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in human flesh.

Oh, there's so much we could read about that. There's a marvelous statement in John 1.18, no man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.

Yes. And so God's special revelation, two sides, the Bible, the living Christ. And so God discloses Himself to men.

Jesus talking to His disciples in John 14 and gathered around for the last time the night before He was betrayed and executed. Jesus said, I am the way, truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. And He said, if you had known Me, you should have known My Father. And Philip said, Lord, could you show us the Father? What did Jesus say? Have you been so long with Me, Philip, and you don't know that if you've seen Me, what?

You've seen the Father. He is the revelation of God. He is the self-disclosure of God. And all this is to bring men to that knowledge which gives them the spiritual knowledge of God equals salvation and places them back in a relationship to God. So there's the revelation.

Now let me go a step further. Thirdly, in our little look at this is the idea of the reason. Why was the revelation given then? And one word starts with S, salvation.

That's why it was given. God wants to restore man. You say, well God is self-sufficient, what does He need? I mean, Acts 17, 25 says, as though He needed anything. Why the Old Testament?

Why the New Testament? What does God need? You know what God needs? God needs to fulfill His love and He loves us. And the fulfillment of His love is to bring us to Himself. You know, as I thought about this and just kind of thinking about the simplicity of what our salvation is, I thought there are really three things God wants from us in the New Testament. He wants us to be friends, to have fellowship, and to be family.

Friends, fellowship, family. That's what God wants. Abraham was called the friend of God, wasn't he? Jesus wants to bring us into personal, intimate relationship with God because that is God's desire. God wants us to be with Him. John 4, 23, the hour comes and now is when true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. Listen, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. Did you know that God seeks you?

Why? The Son of Man has come into the world to do what? Seek and to save that which was lost, Luke 19, 10 says. God desires, first of all, that we be friends, not enemies, not rebels, not foes, friends.

And this is what He said. "'This is My commandment that you love one another,' John 15, 12. Greater love hath no man than this than that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth."

In other words, the servant isn't in on the decision making. "'But I have called you friends,' not servants, not slaves, friends." It's exciting to think about God wanted us to be a friend in the purest sense of all that that means. And secondly, He wanted us to be a fellowship. He wanted to create something even closer than friendship. Fellowship is the epitome of friendship because fellowship means the intimate interchange of life. God wanted us to be friends. Jesus used the idea of friends in the Gospels. And then when you come to 1 John, you find out that John uses the concept of fellowship.

That which was from the beginning concerning Christ which we've heard and seen with our eyes and looked upon and our hands have handled are the Word of life. That which we have seen and heard declare unto you that you may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. You know what that means? That means partner.

Koinonos means a partner. First we're just a friend and that's good and that's fulfilling. Then all of a sudden we become a partner. Then you move a little further along and you find out that as Paul puts it in Ephesians 2 19, God's made us family. We are part of the household of God.

And the Bible says in Hebrews, Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and over and over and over and over again we're called children in 1 John. So friends, fellowship, family. God desires us.

He wants us for intimacy. The Bible even looks to a day when the fullness of all that that means is going to happen. I think about 1 John, beloved, now are we the sons of God, but it doesn't yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him. I mean, it's nice to be a friend. It's better to be in fellowship.

It's better to be family, but oh, to be like Him. This is God's desire to bring men to Himself. Mr. Standfast, one of the great characters of John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress, dying said these words, quote, "'I am now going to see that head that was crowned with thorns, to see that face that was spit upon for me. I have formerly lived by hearsay and faith, but now I go where I shall live by sight and I shall be with Him in whose company I delight myself.'" I think that's the anticipation of every Christian, isn't it? But did you know that's the anticipation of God? Did you know that the Old Testament says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints? You know why?

Because He wants them. God has spoken to bring men to Himself. But you know, it isn't easy to accomplish this because men are sinners and there's a big barrier in the way. I mean, it's a case of paradise regained, isn't it?

Because paradise was lost. Men were alienated. Man is a rebel.

I mean, man is really a rebel. Ecclesiastes 9, 3 says, "'The heart of the sons of men is full of evil.'" Jeremiah 17, 9, "'The heart of a man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.'" You know, you can go back and say, well, they got more evil toward the end there.

No, no. You can go back to Genesis 6, 5, "'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.'" That's in Genesis, friends.

And nothing's changed, except evil men are worse and worse. When you start reading in the New Testament, you find the same thing. You come to Romans chapter 3 and you get a characterization of men that really just lays them bare. "'As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.'" And that's for the one who would say, there is none righteous, but me. So he says, there's none righteous, no, not you. Verse 11 says, "'There is none that understands.

There is none that seeks after God. They're all gone out of the way. They have become unprofitable.'" That's sour milk. It's a term used to turn sour. They've all gone sour, the whole human race.

"'There is none that does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open, seperal curve. With their tongues they've used deceit. The poison of snakes is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.'" There's a progression.

You start with the throat and then the tongue and then the lips and then it comes out of the mouth. And Jesus said in Mark 7, whatever's inside is going to come out. It's the things that come out of a man that defile him. So men are evil.

Men are wicked. Their devices are against God. Titus 1, 15. Have you ever thought about this verse? Even their mind and conscience is defiled. God has given them a mind to think with and a conscience to be convicted by, but those things don't even function.

They're so tainted with sin. And so God looks at man and He says, I want you for friends and fellowship and family and ultimately I want you to be like Jesus, but you've got a problem. And so God had to come and there had to be more than just the revelation of Christ.

There had to be the atoning death of Christ, you see, to pay the penalty for sin. Listen, the Word of God as it goes out, this Word right here has power to transform lives, faith comes by hearing and hearing by a speech or the Word about Christ. Boy, you read this book and it can save.

It does all the time. It's powerful. For the Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It's powerful. I never knew anybody that really gave themselves to reading that book that didn't see the power in it. Boy, it's potent.

I mean, it changes my life daily. And when God puts something in here, it has the power to accomplish. Listen, Isaiah 55 11, God said, So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth. It shall not return to Me void, it shall accomplish that which I please, it shall prosper in the thing where unto I send it. God said, If I say it, it has the power to accomplish what it's intended to accomplish, the power of the Word. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto what? Salvation to everyone that believes. Listen, this Word can bring a man to Christ and this Word can transform a man into a child of God.

That's the reason. The reason for revelation is to bring men to God. This book is the revelation about salvation in Christ.

That's what it's about. God didn't write it as a bunch of sort of an almanac of spiritual clichés. God didn't write this to be a whole lot of little religious curiosities. This is a guidebook to bring you to Christ which is to bring you to God so He can have you as friends and fellowship and family. The whole Bible is all about Christ. The whole thing is meant to bring you to Christ. You know, there are people who study the Bible for its literary value.

You can go to hell doing that. That's right, because that's not what it's for. Listen to what Paul said to Timothy. He said, Timothy, you continue in the things which you've learned and been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child you have known the holy Scriptures – listen, the holy Scriptures right here – which are able to make you wise unto salvation.

That's right. That's what it's for. It's to make you wise unto salvation. It's to lead you to Jesus Christ.

It doesn't do any good to have a Bible if you don't come to Christ. Listen to what John said. John 20, 31, these are written. Why, John? Why is all this stuff written down?

What's the reason? These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name. That's why it's written. In fact, in Revelation 19, 10, it says, the Spirit of all prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.

That's what it's all about. So the reason for revelation, redemption. Fourthly and quickly, what are the results? What are the results of revelation? Well, number one, we just saw salvation. To the results of this word, you know what this word does?

It saves people. The result is, first of all, salvation. Have you ever listened to these words from Peter? Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which lives and abides forever?

First Peter 1, 23. Peter says, you're born again by the Word. One of the purposes of the Word is salvation. And he says, all flesh is like grass, you know, and the glory of man is like the flower of grass. The grass withers and its flower falls away but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Salvation.

But you know, Peter says it's for something else too. He said, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word that you may...what? Grow by it. It's not just for salvation, it's for growth.

You know, you can be saved by the Word and stay a spiritual infant all your life. Or you can grow. The Word is for growing.

Long for it. But you know, it isn't just for salvation and just for growth. The Word is also for holiness. The Word of God is the thing which purifies you. Listen to the words of James in James 1, 21. Wherefore put away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness and receive with meekness the engrafted Word. The Word is that which purifies and is able to save your lives. John 15, 3, Jesus said that My Word is like a pruning instrument.

It purges you. Remember He said, I am the vine and you are the branches. And He talked about how important it was that the Father tend the branches and He said, Now are you clean through the Word which I've spoken to you? The Word is the cleansing agent.

The Word is the knife that prunes off the suckling branches, the sucker branches. Spurgeon said, It is the Word that purges the Christian. It is the truth that purges him.

The Scripture made living and powerful by the Holy Spirit effectually cleanses the Christian. He said, Affliction is the handle of the knife. Affliction is the grindstone that sharpens the Word.

Affliction is the dresser that removes the soft garments and lays bare the diseased flesh so that the surgeon's knife may get at it. And the knife is the Word. And so the Word is for salvation and for growth and for holiness. And you know something else, just general? The Word is for blessing.

It is. You study the Word and I'm telling you, you're going to get blessed. Let me take you back to James 1.

He says, verse 22, Be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Nothing more self-deceiving than to think that you just hear. And you know that can happen in a situation like this.

You come and say, Wasn't that nice? We heard the Word and take all your little notes and go out and live like you always lived. Don't kid yourself. You haven't learned it until you've done it.

Did you know that? You haven't learned it until you've done it. You haven't learned it because you heard it.

You've learned it when it's part of you. So He says, Don't be hearers of the Word, but doers. For if you're a hearer of the Word, you're like a guy who looks at his face in the mirror and walks away and forgets what he looked like. You've had that happen. You got to work and forgot, men, that you had a cowlick sticking up in the back and you didn't know it until you took your coffee break.

Oh, have I looked like that all day? But listen to this. But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, whoever is saturated in the truths of the Word of God, particularly in this text as regards love, but whoever is saturated in the Word of God, he is not a forgetful hearer. He is the doer. This man shall be blessed. See, bless him. I don't know about you, but I like to be blessed. Now listen, the Word will accomplish its purpose.

It can save, it can give growth, it can purify, and it can bless. Close with this. John, what should be my response?

This is Revelation. How should I respond to it? Let me just tell you simply. One, believe it, believe it. Say, well, I know that. Well, just I want to remind you, believe it. You know, our response should be like Peter. We should say, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. We should be open to receive every word. It's enough.

It's sufficient. Jesus said in Luke 16, 31, if they don't hear Moses and the prophets, they won't be persuaded though someone rises from the dead. Miracles isn't the route to go.

If they don't believe the Word, they wouldn't believe miracles either. Believe it as is. Take it as the revelation of God received it.

Second, study it. You know, you ought to be like Apollos. You ought to be mighty in the Scriptures and so should I. You know, when you study it, it has its fruits. I always think of the guys on the road to Emmaus and Jesus opened the Scriptures and taught them the things concerning Himself.

And you know, when He finally showed them who He was and left, they said, hey, did not our hearts burn within us as He spoke to us? When you study the Word, maybe it just sets your heart on fire. Study it. And Paul said to Timothy, study to show yourself what? Proved of God.

Let me give you a third one. Honor it. Honor the Word. Job honored it. Job 23, 12, the psalmist honored it, said it was better than gold, more priceless than rubies.

Let me give you another one. Along with honor it, love it. Remember Psalm 119, 97, oh how I love thy law. Love it. If you haven't learned to love it yet, you haven't really arrived.

That's where the joy is. Love it. Fifth, conform to it. That's obedience, friends.

Do what it says. Remember in Isaiah, the key to a revival, Isaiah 8, 20, remember what the battle cry was? To the law and the testimony. That was like a battle cry, like you're going to storm the fort. To the law and the testimony.

The revival in Nehemiah's day started when the man came up and said, bring the book, Nehemiah 8. Conform to it, obedience. Let me give you another one, six. Are you ready for this? Contend for it. You know something, folks, we've got something. Let's fight for it. I'm not willing to let some liberals take the Bible out of my hand. I'm not willing to let them take the Bible away from the people and I'm going to continue to preach that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God as long as I have breath. I'm willing to fight for it. Jude, verse 3, beloved, when I give all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. This is the faith.

This is the composite. Contend for it. Fight for it.

The word is epogenizumai, from which we get agony. Agonize for it. Struggle for it.

Fight for it. That's why I'm so protective, you know, when somebody says, well, what do you think about such and such a school or such and such a seminary? If I don't believe that they really believe in the authority of the Word of God, I wouldn't send anybody there.

Sending people to those kind of schools isn't guarding the Word of God and its sanctity. It's fighting and contending for it. Last, preach it. Believe it. Study it. Honor it.

Love it. Conform to it. Contend for it. Proclaim it. Preach it. Paul said to Timothy, preach the Word in season and out of season.

That means all the time, folks. And my prayer for you is, as I mentioned earlier, that you would preach it. When it says that we are to preach the Word, it means just that.

You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. John's current study is titled, Is the Bible Reliable? Now, John, in your list of right responses to the Word, one of them was, contend for it. Believers need to be willing to fight for the Bible. And of course, implied in that is that you actually know what you're fighting for. And if Grace to You is about anything, we're about helping people know God's truth and equipping them to discover the meaning of scripture on their own. Well, of course, I mean, that's the whole issue. Rightly divide the Word of truth.

If you don't do that, then you ought to be ashamed. Paul said, you rightly divide the Word of truth so you don't become a worker who needs to be ashamed. Proper interpretation of scripture is vital. But also, as you said, contending for that truth is absolutely vital as well, because the truth is contentious. In other words, it assaults the lies that dominate the world because Satan is in charge of the world and he is the archetypal liar, of course. So giving people the scripture, helping them to understand the meaning of it, that is the calling of all believers at all churches in the world.

It should be all of our mission. And with regard to that, I want to again mention the newest MacArthur Study Bible. It's based on the Legacy Standard Bible version. This is a translation the faculty of the Master Seminary and University put together did a masterful job. They really upgraded and updated the New American Standard, which also is an excellent text. But this is a greater refinement of that text. It's a rich, rich explicit text that handles the original Greek and the original Hebrew in the most exact and precise way. I'm thankful for another edition of the MacArthur Study Bible featuring the Legacy Standard Bible text. Such a powerful, powerful text.

I can't get enough of it. For years used the New American Standard. But the legacy is just a cut above that in getting clarity to the text of scripture, to the reader. Consistent translation of the word doulos, for example, slave. And this is the only New Testament that really does that. Gender language that is precise rather than kind of being altered to accommodate the culture. Consistent rendering of God's name in the Old Testament. He gives us His name, Yahweh.

Many more features. And here's a heads up for you. If you currently receive my monthly letter, be looking for the October letter. In that letter will be an offer for a free hardcover copy of the MacArthur Study Bible in the Legacy Standard version. And if you currently do not receive my newsletter but want a copy of the New MacArthur Study Bible in Legacy Standard version, contact us by no later than Friday, September 13 and ask to receive my October letter with the offer.

That's right, friend. You don't want to miss this free offer. If you don't already get John's monthly letter, ask to join the mailing list and do that before Friday, September 13 so that you'll receive the October letter. And again, with that letter will be an offer for a free Legacy Standard edition of the MacArthur Study Bible.

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The website again, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Be back tomorrow for the next installment of John's Study Call, Is the Bible Reliable? It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.