Something More Powerful than the Word of God pt 1

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome. Thank you for joining us in the program again today. We are always delighted to have your company, and we thank you for joining us on this interesting study. Now, the topic will surprise you today. It's a topic which is always going to look like we're trying to contradict what we've said in the last few programs. Braedan but this is a fascinating study that we're going to have, and it's called Something More Powerful than the Word of God. Now, knowing how much emphasis we've put on the Word of God and how essential it is for faith to exist, you're going to say, how can there be something more powerful than the Word of God? Well, we're going to unpack this today. And just before we start, we're just going to ask God to lead us in our study. Gracious Father in heaven, we're so grateful for your love. We're thankful for your word. And Father, as we look at something that can actually interrupt and disrupt and be more powerful than the Word of God in our lives, we just pray for your Holy Spirit to guide and lead us, illuminate our minds so we can understand clearly what the Bible teaches on this topic. We commit ourselves into your care and our dear listener as well today. And this is our prayer in Jesus name, amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C So we're going to talk about something that apparently is more powerful than the Word of God. Now, we've unpacked before that the Word of God is so powerful that when God says, let there be light, immediately, instantly he commanded, and it was so. But is something that actually rival that in regards to receiving the benefits of the power of God. So this is what we want to unpack. Braedan so we're going to talk about something we'll have to identify what that power is, and then we're going to start unpacking that from Scripture. SPEAKER D Well, I think what we could possibly do is start at our original verse in the book of Ephesians. SPEAKER C Okay? SPEAKER D So this is a verse that's perhaps been one of the most famous verses for our series of studies. SPEAKER C Ephesians ephesians, chapter two. Is it? SPEAKER D Ephesians, chapter two. That's right. Ephesians, chapter two and verse eight through ten. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D It says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Now, one of the things that I guess we can look at is the things that are guaranteed. The Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D God says, I am the Lord, I do not change not. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And in the book of Isaiah, I believe it says that the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my loving kindness will not depart from you, nor my covenant of peace be removed. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And so God says the world itself will fall apart before my character will fall apart. SPEAKER C Right. And my promises. SPEAKER D And my promises. So basically God says I will never fail in my covenant of peace toward you, my faithfulness toward you. And so the Bible says we are saved by grace. SPEAKER C That's very clear. SPEAKER D Very, very clear. And it's such a rock solid case that we have that God will never, ever fail us. His grace will never fail. So grace is the great source of our salvation. But then it says we are saved by grace through faith. SPEAKER C Okay? SPEAKER D And we've unpacked this before, but it's worth mentioning again that we have a guarantee that grace, God's grace, will not change. It is an everlasting supply for every need that the human family needs. SPEAKER C Matter of fact, it's so evident from the scripture that grace is the power that saved everybody, and everybody in Christ has been saved. So we're talking about the in Christ motif in that sense. If you look at verse eight, it says, for by grace not you will be saved, says you have been saved, you have been so in Christ. Christ is the savior of the world. And then the text says there I think it's Timothy first Timothy, chapter four, verse ten, christ is the savior of the world, especially of those who believe. So he has saved everybody. But it says there that we have been saved. And then the next word is through faith. So we have something to do with this in regards to whether we accept what the Bible says or whether we reject what the Bible says, because what is not a faith that's right is sin. The Bible says. I think that's Romans, chapter 14, verse 23. SPEAKER D So this is the interesting thing. We've got grace, which is unchanging, but do we all by nature live lives of trusting dependence upon God? And that's obviously the answer is no. By nature we do not trust God. And so it says by grace, which is immovable, which is unchanging, we're saved, but it comes through and we experience it through faith. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And so God's word, God's promises, god's great love for humanity can flow into our lives in the fullest extent only through the person who is willing to trust God and to love Him. And so if we do not have faith, it's almost like picture a big reservoir of water and there's a little tiny pipe that goes down to another little bottle or something like that. If there's a blockage in the pipe, the water cannot flow. And so God is longing to pour out his goodness and his grace into our lives. His promises are so powerful. You mentioned the power of God to speak and a galaxy spirals into orbit. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D When God speaks, light begins to shine. Yet God could say and just think about this god could say, everyone be good. And there is power in His Word to make everyone good. Just like there is power to say, let there be a light, and light, it comes into existence. SPEAKER C Yeah. That's right. SPEAKER D Everyone be righteous. Everyone be faithful. Everyone be obedient. God could say that. And His Word has the power to actually transform people's lives. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D He could also say, everyone die. And the Word has so much power to affect what it actually what he says. SPEAKER C I mean, a storm. We know, for example, when Jesus on that boat with his disciples and they think they're about to drown, they boiling water as fast as they can. And then finally they think, oh, we've got Jesus on the boat. Why don't we go and see Him. SPEAKER D When the problem started? SPEAKER C And then he gets up and he goes, you have little faith. And he says, Peace, be still. And immediately the waves will come. That is the power that God has. So as you're saying, God can say, everybody be good. God could do that. However, there is something that can stop that from happening. So that's what we're talking about in our program today. The program's title is something more powerful than the Word of God. What is that? SPEAKER D And it's interesting, there is nothing more powerful than the Word of God. No, but there is. If God wanted to, he could force us to do whatever he wanted to do. If he did not respect us or care about us, he could speak and we would just be molded according to his will. SPEAKER C That's right. We'd be like zombies. We'll just follow the commands. And that would be, for example, God says, everybody love. He could force that love on everybody. But love cannot be forced. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Love is the response, because we see the love of God for us. SPEAKER D That's right. And so this is where we find out what is more powerful than the Word of God. God will not I'll say this in the book of Revelation three and verse 20, it says that Jesus stands at the door of our heart and he knocks. And if anyone is willing to open the door, he will come in and will dine with them and have friendship and connection with them. We're presented with a God who doesn't barge down the door. SPEAKER C He doesn't bust the down. That's right. SPEAKER D And just think about this. Remember when Jesus was resurrected? The disciples were huddled in that upper room, locked the doors, triple locked the doors, everyone's huddling there. Jesus just walks in. He doesn't need the you know, he walks into that room and he talks with them. God is powerful, he's not limited. Doors. Don't bother God. SPEAKER C There's no physical limitations. SPEAKER D There's no physical limitations. Like he doesn't have to wait outside. But when it comes to our hearts, he will not barge into our hearts. No, he will not knock the door down. SPEAKER C He wants free, willing access, and we are to ground that. SPEAKER D That's right. And so the whole thing of us receiving God's grace, can we receive it or fail to receive it based upon faith or unbelief? Right, faith and unbelief. And we can think about the story of the children of Israel. And I've just been memorizing a chapter of scripture with my wife and I love to take you there. This is in the book of Psalms. I believe it's Psalm 95. Let me just check on that. Yes, Psalm 95. And this is a beautiful, beautiful chapter that looks at the glory of God and why he's worthy of our worship. He's the creator of the universe, he's the great king above all gods. He's the shepherd and we are the sheep. And then in verse seven, at the end of it, it says, today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. As in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness. When your fathers tested me, they tried me, though they saw my work. For 40 years, I was grieved with that generation and said, it is a people who go astray in their hearts and they do not know my ways. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. SPEAKER C Wow. So it's obviously in that psalm, it's recounting the experience of Israel after God had delivered them by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, as the Bible says. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C From Egypt, from Pharaoh, which was the mightiest nation and the mightiest king at that time on planet Earth, delivered them, brought them through into the wilderness, and they kept on murmuring and complaining. Matter of fact, they sent out twelve spies into the land. And when the spies came back, two of them presented a good report and ten of them presented a lying report using half truths and half lies combined to saying it's impossible for us to take the land. But Joshua and Caleb said, yes, it is possible because God said, god said he promised. So it was unbelief that prohibited them from entering the land, quite simply because they rather believed a lying report than believing the truth of the word of God, where God said, I'm taking you into a land flowing with milk and honey. SPEAKER D And just think about the whole journey out of Egypt. As you've mentioned, that the most powerful nation on the planet. They had the nation of Israel just under the thumb. They were oppressing them, crushing them down and just beating them and just forcing them to do different things. And it was just a terrible, abusive situation. And Moses turns up with Aaron as well, and they confront the King on behalf of God, the God of the Universe, and say, Let my people go. The king resists. And through a series of amazing judgments, god reveals his power to this obstinate king. Over and over again, God reveals his power. God reveals his power. And time and time again, the King just hardens his heart. Hardens his heart, hardens his heart until after the last plague, he finally says, Get out of here. Just leave. Go. I've sinned. Go away. These amazingly big and powerful miracles that God does, he then sets his people free and he starts leading them. They then find themselves at the Red Sea. They get as the story goes, the Egyptians follow them coming down. There's no way of escape. SPEAKER C They've got mountains on both sides, the Red Sea in front of them, and the army and the army of Egypt. SPEAKER D Behind army behind them. And what does the God of the Universe do? He makes a path in the sea. SPEAKER C A dry path, it says. SPEAKER D It's basically impossible for us as human beings to even attempt anything like that. But God just with the breath of his nostrils, as the Bible says, he makes a way in the sea and he sets them free from this situation. They march through on dry land out the other side. Then they're complaining about water, they're complaining about food, and God miraculously feeds them. There's bread on the ground in the morning, in manna. There's even birds, quails that he brings as well. Yes, water. He even brings water out of a rock, plenty rock. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D God is demonstrating that there is nothing too hard for Him. If you can make a path in the ocean, how powerful are you? If you can bring water out of a rock, how powerful are you? If you can rain down bread from heaven, how powerful are you? And yet the people of Israel are so slow to trust in Him, even though he reveals Himself in his power and glory. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And so then he brings them up to the border of Canaan. And the Bible has this very unfortunate thing, a sad end to that story, and it's in Hebrews chapter three, they could not enter because of unbelief. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And if we just take this, ponder this for a moment. The God of the universe has been working, has done everything that he possibly can, and yet all but two of the people that went out of Egypt died in the wilderness because they were unwilling to trust God. They were unwilling to connect with Him. They were unwilling to allow him to do what he promised to do, and they perished in that wilderness, and they could not enter in because of their unbelief. SPEAKER C That's right. Now, I like those texts because it obviously repeats Psalm 95 there, when he starts explaining about what happened in the wilderness during that 40 years and how they always went astray in their hearts. And then it says there in Hebrews, chapter three and verse 19, so we see that they could not enter because of unbelief. Now, faith is demonstrated by works of obedience. When Noah was told to build an ark, how do we know that Noah believed that God would destroy the Earth with a flood? Well, he went and built the ark that demonstrated his faith. It says that they could not enter in because of unbelief. But if we go there just a few verses later in Hebrews chapter four and verse six, it says there that they did not enter because of disobedience. So unbelief always produces disobedience, which goes contrary to the commandments of God. God says, Go, I give you this land. Enter the promised land. And they go, no, we won't. God had said that was the whole purpose of leading them out of Egypt, to bring them into this promised land flowing with Milton honey, the land that God had promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob in the fulfillment of their covenant. So then, finally, then God says, okay, you didn't want to receive it for the 40 days of the spies were in the land. I'm going to leave a day for a year for every day they spied at the land. I'm going to give you a year in the wilderness. You will not enter because of your UN belief, so I'm not going to allow you to do that. Then they go, oh, we sinned. We're sorry about that. We will now go, and we're going to attack the people across the river. And then Moses says, don't go because God is not with you. You will be defeated. SPEAKER D You'll get destroyed. Yeah. SPEAKER C So they're saying, but hang on. God said he wants to take us in there. Let's go and do it. But there's something in the Bible known as present truth. I think Peter uses that word present. SPEAKER D He does. SPEAKER C What happened is the truth for them was that God wanted to take them out of Egypt and lead them into the Promised Land. Then, because of circumstances, because of unbelief, god then gives a new command, said, you will not enter into my rest. You will not enter into the Promised Land. And then they go, Hang on, but we will. Now, what do we call that when God has given a command and we go contrary to a truth or we manipulate a truth that no longer exists? I think it's called presumption, isn't it? SPEAKER D Presumption and disobedience. SPEAKER C Presumption and disobedience. So what happens is they now disobey the command of God a second time. But they want to base it on a truth that is no longer relevant to them. God has changed his mind. You're not going to enter in. And so they go and get attacked. And I forgot how many people were slaughtered that day. They actually lose. It's a terrible battle, and they're weeping and mourning before God. And Moses said, I told you God is not with you. You've been disobedient once, now you want to be disobedient at the wrong time using presumption. SPEAKER D Isn't this interesting? God says to them, Go into the land, I'll be with you to protect you and give you the land. And they say no. And he says, okay, well then stay. And they're like, no, no, we'll go now. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D It's this spirit of rebellion that whatever God says, it's like, we want to call the shots. We want to call the shots. And it's the whole thing when you're pushing the other person's pulling, and then it's just this back and forward kind of thing. We do not like to be brought under the yoke of Christ. We don't want to do his will by nature. And I wonder how many times when we've been frustrated about our walk with God and we're saying these questions, god, where are you? The children of Israel said, is God with us or not? SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D They actually had the audacity to call out and say, god even are you even here? Do you even exist? After they had seen Him do all these wonderful things. I wonder how many times we have felt that or said that God, where are you? Is God even here? And we blame God when who is really to blame? It is our own unbelief in our rebellious. We hamper and restrict God because of our unbelief. Imagine the things that God could have done in this world already if human beings had not just rebelled against Him and turned aside. Imagine what could have been the history of the nation of Israel if they had not turned aside, if they'd been willing to humble themselves and to trust in God. SPEAKER C Yes, it's incredible that pressure cooker environment creates an issue for them now. Right. Because in Numbers chapter 14, israel refuses to enter into the Promised Land and they accept the lying reports of the Ten spies. Well, there's twelve. Two of them give good report, but they don't believe the good report, which is accordance to the Word of God. That lines up joshua and Caleb's report lines up with the Word of God. SPEAKER D Said, everything okay, it's all good. SPEAKER C What God said is true. Let's go and possess the lamb. We can do it. God said he'll do it. The Ten convince them that what God has said is not true. It's impossible, we cannot do it. And they believe the false report contrary to the Word of God. And then that creates an environment where leaders can stand up. So we got to now go to chapter 16 of Numbers and there's some leaders that stand up there. There's Korra, dathan and abram. Korah is a Levite so he's part of that ministry that actually works in the tabernacle. And then you've got Dathan and Abram who are actually descendants of the oldest son of Jacob Reuben. And they get another 250 leaders together with them and saying listen, Moses is making some terrible decisions here for us. We now want to go. But now he's saying no, we can't go anymore. So they're blaming Moses rather than God. But Moses is presenting the word of God to them and they've already asked Moses, listen, let not God speak to us lest we die. Moses, you speak to us. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C So based on their request, moses is presenting the word of God to them and they reject that. And then they say listen, these people are not bad people. They are good people, they are holy people and God is in the midst of every single one of them. So what happens is they flatter them and through flattery they convince these people now to rise up against Moses. That pressure cooking environment brought out of them a wickedness and an evil that they weren't aware of until the circumstances brought it out. Now we can think of an example of know just before the program we were talking about history and we spoke about the Second World War. Germany was obviously involved in the Second World War just like they were in the First World War. After the First World War. They had to pay reparations. There was a huge amount of debt that was crippling the economy. Crippling their economy. I mean there was hyperinflation. They were a proud nation but then all their pride was taken away. They were impoverished by all the other nations around them. And all of a sudden a man comes on the scene who starts flattering the nation and saying we better than this. Matter of fact we can become a great nation. Matter of fact we believe that we can be the world's greatest Reich. We can be the Third Reich Reich which has been the third great nation of the world. So Hitler comes to the fore and he starts doing some good things. He starts turning the economy around. He stops, he refuses to pay some of these debts. And all of a sudden through this impoverished circumstances he rises up flatters the people and he rallies them. Now when he came to power he hardly had just over 20% of the votes. And during those circumstances you can see that what was brought out of that group of people was a wickedness and an evil where what was the final number of people that was killed? Is it 50 million? That was just millions and millions of people that died during the Second World War. And also we know of course, about the Holocaust where 6 million Jews were killed, gas chambers and all that. These atrocities. Now, are Germans as a people any different to us? I know some beautiful German people. I can tell you they're no different to me and you. But under the right circumstances, any group of people who have a fallen human nature can be brought to circumstances where they will act contrary to the good principles they would normally espouse. SPEAKER D Interesting. SPEAKER C And this is what happened with Germany. SPEAKER D That's right. And I can also think about the fall of man. You got Eve in that particular situation as well. She has left the side of Adam and she's on her own and she's evaluating this tree and it looks great. It looks fantastic. We might as well turn there to Genesis, chapter three. SPEAKER C Yes. God had given them a command. Says of the trees in the garden you can eat freely, but the tree in the midst of the garden you may not eat because the day you eat of it you'll surely die. Then there's the serpent who's in the tree eating the fruit apparently received the ability to speak because of the fruit. There's something miraculous about this fruit. And he talks to her, starts having a conversation and starts creating doubt in her. Did God really say you can't eat of this tree? I've just had someone I'm talking to you. Now, normally serpents can't speak but he's given me some supernatural abilities. SPEAKER D This is interesting, right? God created a perfect being, two beings, Adam and Eve. Perfect, holy and beautiful and selfless and kind. Yet God did not make them robots. God had great plans for them to show them his favor and love throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. And that in turn they would reflect that character to the world and to their children and to the animals and just to the to the universe. And here we have this woman, Eve, interacting with the devil and he's taking her on a journey, a thought journey. He gets her to question the goodness of God and then basically tries to convince her that the best way forward is actually in disobedience to God. And in that moment she relinquishes trust in God and she clings in trust to the word of Satan. SPEAKER C She receives another word. SPEAKER D She receives another word and all of a sudden there's a rebellion that takes place. She takes it, eats it. The Bible actually says here. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. SPEAKER C So what she now does is she receives another word. But to satisfy the fact whether this word can be trusted or not, she does a scientific experiment. Quite often when experiments are done through observation in a controlled environment we see whether things are so or not. And can you duplicate it. And if it's duplicatable, then probably it's right and correct and so on. She then uses a census because the devil had just told her, your eyes will be opened. She goes, well, look, I'll use my eyes and it says there then the woman saw the tree. It was good for food. God said It's not good for food because if you eat of it, you'll die. But she says, there's nothing wrong with the tree. It's good for food. So now she's finding evidence to support the lie that has been sold to her. She saw it was pleasant to the eyes. It wasn't an ugly tree. There didn't seem to be any death in this tree. It looked just as glorious as the other trees around it, right? And a tree that was desirable to make one wise because she wanted to be as wise as God. So all of a sudden, when you start accepting a word contrary to the word of God, it seems like the human psyche will start walking down that path and before you know it, you find yourself in a place where you never thought you'd end up. Adam and Eve never thought they would end up where they did. All of a sudden, they realized they're naked. Adam, who was prepared to cast in his lock with his wife very noble thing to do. Self sacrificing almost. When God confronts him, said, Adam, have you eaten of the tree? He doesn't say, yes, Lord, I take full responsibility because I didn't want to have my wife die by herself. He goes, no, Lord, it's actually this woman. It's her fault. SPEAKER D She gave it to me, threw her under the bus. SPEAKER C He threw her under the bus. So he blames her instead of taking personal responsibility. And it seems like we under the same conditions now because we've inherited that fallen humanity under the same conditions. God will sometimes reveal things to us that we didn't know through circumstances. And we saw the evilness and wickedness of the human heart, not of the German people, the wickedness of the fallen human heart through that pressure cooker environment that we saw during the first and Second World War. SPEAKER D Wow. I've just got a verse here in Psalms 19, David speaking, he says, who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. We don't know what's inside of our hearts. SPEAKER C We do not know. SPEAKER D And it's our unbelief and rebellious spirit that stops God from doing the things that he wants to do. But God's word is powerful if we let him to transform and renovate our souls and recreate us in his image. SPEAKER C Amen. And I like. That point you brought out there. In verse twelve of Psalm 19 it says who can understand these errors? Cleanse me from secret faults, that's unknown faults, things that are hidden to us until circumstances reveal them to us. And that ties in beautifully with Psalm 139, where we read in verse 23 and 24 and we'll close with this search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Dear Listener, we pray that God would bless you and lead you in the way everlasting. Until we meet again, god bless. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning. 02 4973 3456. Or you can send an email to [email protected] You can also contact us on our 3ABN Australia radio Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you.