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God's Visible Guidance. Part 2 By Greg Lee

He's a Christian fellow, and he's the absolute pick of his church.
He's young, he's handsome, he's sensitive, he's sporty,
and best of all, he's godly.
Reminds me a little of me at his age.
But Wendell has a dilemma, you see.
There are two girls in the group that Wendell likes,
Wanda and Wendy.
And both Wanda and Wendy like Wendell,
and both Wanda and Wendy are great girls.
Both of them are godly, both of them serve others,
and Wendell likes both of them.
So Wendell wishes to wed Wanda or Wendy,
and wonders what the will of the Lord would be.
Who does God want Wendell to wed, Wanda or Wendy?
So Wendell did some thinking about how God guides,
and he came to these conclusions.
He decided that the Bible gives good general direction in life.
So the Bible provides all the broad stuff that we need to know.
How to be saved, how to be godly.
God's really big plans for the universe,
but Wendell still wondered about the specifics.
How does God tell me who he wants me to marry?
How does God tell me which career he wants me to have?
How does God tell me where he wants me to settle down?
How does God guide in the specifics?
And then Wendell remembered Walter.
Walter was Wendell's Bible study leader,
so Wendell went to see Walter, and Walter was very helpful.
Walter said, yes, the Bible is good for guidance on the big stuff,
but for the specifics, God uses the Holy Spirit,
and the Holy Spirit guides us individually.
The Bible is general, the Holy Spirit's the specifics,
and the first way the Holy Spirit guides specifically is through the inner voice.
The inner voice isn't so much a voice so much as a leading.
It's thoughts that God sends you to urge you in the direction you should go.
You'll just have this sense that Wendy's the one, a strong Wendy type urge,
and often to hear the voice you have to clear your mind
so that you don't get distracted by this world
and you can concentrate on God's leading with his still small voice.
And when you're going in God's direction, you'll often feel at peace.
It's from Philippians chapter 4.
If God wants you to marry Wendy and you propose to Wendy,
God will confirm it by giving you a peace in your heart,
but if God wants you to marry Wanda and you propose to Wendy,
then you'll be uneasy and troubled.
Or God can use doors.
You see, if you're not sure which way to go,
look for the doors that God is opening and closing.
Say you ring Wendy and ask her out this Friday night,
but she's defleeing her guinea pig and she can't make it,
but Wanda can make it.
Well, that's God opening a door, but say on Thursday night,
Wanda rings up and it turns out that she can't make it.
Well, now you know that Wilma's the one to go out with on Friday night.
Or say doors don't work for you, you can use fleeces.
This is like Gideon in Judges chapter 6.
Gideon wanted confirmation about something God had said,
and so Gideon asked God to wet a fleece that he laid on the ground
and to keep the ground around it dry.
You see, a fleece is a sign and we can do the same thing.
You can say, God, I'm about to ring Wanda
and if she picks up on the third ring and says hello,
that means I'll be certain that she's the one you want me to marry.
Now, Walter had been very helpful to Wendell.
Inner voices, God's peace, doors, fleeces,
but as Wendell was leaving, he said,
but Walter, what if different signs point to different things?
Well, he said, ah, well, then what you do is you add them up
and whichever has the most points, you go with that one.
Well, it all worked out well.
Wendell wetted Wanda, they had three boys, William, Willard and John.
And they lived happily ever after.
And Wendell's story is pretty familiar.
It's pretty much the popular view on how God guides today.
The Bible is good for the general stuff,
but for the specifics, God gives you the Holy Spirit
using inner voices, peace, doors, fleeces.
Occasionally you'll hear a new one as well,
maybe dreams or something like that.
Tonight, what I want to do is help you to think through this model.
And by the end of tonight's talk,
we are going to have a foolproof method
for knowing God's guidance in every situation in life.
That's our aim.
We want a foolproof method for finding God's guidance
for every situation in life.
And I have to say right at the beginning of tonight's talk
that this is even harder than last night's talk.
It's a little shorter than last night's talk,
but it's a little more dense.
You're very much, you're going to have to concentrate.
If you're not traditionally a note taker,
can I suggest that tonight's a good night
just to do it as a one off
because it'll stop you from drifting.
I don't want you to miss some of the logic
and miss out on what we've got to say,
but it's worth working hard because it's how God guides.
Now, the first answer is just the one we saw last night.
God guides invisibly through his control over everything.
You can know God's will for your life after he's done it.
You see, if I want to know who it is I should marry,
I can have absolute certainty at the reception.
You see, when I see what God does for my life,
then I know what God's will is.
A great verse that was shown to me recently is up on the overhead.
It's Psalm 138 verse six.
Though the Lord's on high, he looks down upon the lowly,
but the proud he knows from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.
You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes.
With your right hand you save me.
The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me.
Your love, O Lord, endures forever.
That's a wonderful summary of what we saw last night.
God will fulfil his purpose.
His love endures forever.
That's the first way we see of God guiding.
He doesn't need to speak to me.
He doesn't need to tell me.
God's invisible guidance means he'll bring about his purposes.
But the great news is God does speak to us.
Now I hope you've got your Bible open to Hebrews chapter one,
because we're going to be spending a bit of time in this part of the Bible.
We're going to keep coming back to it.
And really Hebrews one verse one provides the basis,
the structure of our talk.
So Hebrews chapter one verse one.
In the past, God spoke.
To our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways.
Now the most important words in that sentence are actually the fourth and the fifth ones.
God spoke.
He didn't have to.
No one forced God to speak, but God is a speaking God.
Because you see, God is a relational God.
God is Father, Son and Spirit.
Now think about that for a minute.
What does it tell you that God is Father, Son and Spirit?
Well, it tells you that built into God is relationship.
Yahweh is a God of relationships.
And not just relationship, the most intimate relationship of all.
The family relationships of Father and Son.
God is Father, Son and Spirit.
You don't get any more relational than that.
And the Father, the Son and the Spirit have existed eternally
in a relationship of love and glorification.
Have a look up on the overhead of what Jesus prays before he dies in John 17 verse five.
John 17 verse five.
And now, Father, glorify me in your presence
with the glory I had with you before the world began.
You see, Jesus and his Father were always sharing in each other's glory.
They were always together and sharing love as well.
Look at the next one.
John 17 verse 24.
Father, I want those you've given me to be with me where I am
and to see my glory, the glory you've given me
because you loved me before the creation of the world.
You see who our God is?
Our God is a God who loves within himself.
He's a God who loves and shares glory within himself.
God's a God of relationships.
Long before we ever came along,
sometimes we get the idea that God must have created us because he was lonely.
That God was somehow incomplete without us to talk to.
But no, God didn't need to create us for company.
God didn't need us so that he could have relationships.
God has relationships within the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit.
But the amazing thing about this relational God
is that he does want relationship with us.
Not because he needs it, but because of who he is.
You see, since God is relational, he relates to his creatures.
Look in verse 24 up there again.
Father, I want those you've given me to be with me where I am
and to see my glory, the glory you've given me
because you loved me from before the creation of the world.
You see, when Jesus is glorified by his Father,
he wants you and I there as well.
Jesus wants to bring us into God's family.
The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is essentially
Jesus inviting us home to meet his dad.
That's what the gospel is all about.
Come and meet my Father.
Come and live with my Father.
Come and call my Father your Father.
You see, the whole gospel is caught up into this idea that God is a relational God.
And so it's right that God speaks.
In fact, at every significant event in the world, God spoke.
How did God create?
Well, Genesis 1, verse 1.
And God said, let there be light.
How did God create Israel?
Well, we saw last night, God made promises to Abraham.
At every significant point in history, God speaks.
In fact, God speaks right throughout Israel's history.
Have a look in Hebrews 1, verse 1 again.
Hebrews 1, verse 1.
In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets
at many times and in various ways.
Now, up on the overhead, you're about to see
a bunch of those times and ways that God has spoken.
What I want you to do is just break up into groups of three or four
and pick one each at random and see all of the myriad ways.
It's a bit like the seminars, isn't it?
I wanted to get in on Seno's act here.
Just pick, well, I'm a lot nicer to you than Seno is.
Just pick one each in your little group
and look at some of the myriad ways that God spoke in the past.
All right, you yell them out.
What are some of the ways that God spoke in the Old Testament?
Sing them out.
Visions.
Yes.
The spirit.
Dreams.
Fire.
Where is that one?
Mount Sinai.
Is that one from...
Numbers.
Okay.
The ground split apart and eight people.
People ate a scroll.
A hand wrote on the wall.
Really?
The commander of his army.
Yeah.
Others?
Face to face.
A burning bush.
Someone rising from the dead.
He just does.
Okay.
Yeah, he guided Israel with a cloud.
Yeah, when you look through the Old Testament,
there are all sorts of ways that God speaks.
He spoke on Mount Sinai and he wrote with his own hand
the Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone.
He spoke to Belshazzar in Daniel 5 through graffiti
being written on a wall.
He spoke to Nebuchadnezzar through a dream.
God uses Urim and Thummim, which are two stones
that essentially say yes and no.
God guides Israel by getting Ezekiel to build little models of cities
and to have a siege works, kind of like divine Lego.
God guides in Amos through a famine, in Joel through a locust swarm.
God gives Joseph dreams.
You see, in the Old Testament, God speaks in any number of ways.
In Numbers 22, God even uses a donkey.
However, and this is a big however,
but just because God did speak in those ways in the past,
doesn't mean he will speak in those ways again.
You see, this is the mistake we often make.
We assume that since God has spoken through dreams or visions
or writing on the wall, that he will do it again.
But the thing is, we have no promise of that.
In Numbers 22, God spoke through a donkey.
Does that mean that I should expect God to continue to speak to me through a donkey?
Should I take a donkey with me everywhere I go?
Just in case God wants to guide me.
Every time I have to make a big decision,
should I sit down face to face with the donkey and look into its eyes
in case God's Mr. Ed wants to speak to me?
No.
You see, just because God did speak through a donkey doesn't mean he will.
Now friends, we know that instinctively, don't we?
Your decision to come here to Winter Con,
did you go into your bedroom every day to see if God had written on the wall,
go to Winter Con?
No.
Mind you, if Stu thought it would work, I think he'd have had a crack at it.
You see, we know instinctively that just because God did speak in certain ways in the past
doesn't mean he will speak in the same ways in the future.
He hasn't promised to.
Now the fact is, God spoke in all of those different ways
because they were appropriate for the circumstance.
Balaam's ass just happened to be there and fitted the situation.
So how should we expect God to speak now?
How does God promise to speak now?
Well, Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1.
Look in Hebrews 1 verse 1 again.
In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways.
But in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son,
whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe.
The son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being,
sustaining all things by his powerful word.
After he provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.
So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he inherited is superior to theirs.
Now friends, I'm about to say to you the most crucial thing I'll say to you all week.
If you've fallen asleep and missed everything up to this point,
now's the time to wake up.
Give the person next to you a nudge, snort some instant coffee.
Here is the big point that I'm going to make.
Okay, are you ready for it?
I'll say it slowly for the engineers.
God spoke in many ways before, but now he's spoken by Jesus.
God spoke in many ways before, but now he's spoken by Jesus.
Jesus is how God speaks today.
Now if you look under point four on your outline,
you'll see there are three things that I want to say to you about this.
The first thing is Jesus has spoken at the crucial time.
Look in verse one again and notice how the passage talks about time.
In the past, God spoke through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
but now in these last days, he's spoken through Jesus.
You see how he talks about time there?
There's been a shift.
We've gone from the past to the last days.
That is the author of Hebrews says that Jesus has brought the climax,
the climax of history because you see Jesus brings the climax
of all of God's plans for his universe.
God used to speak through the prophets, but Jesus is the climax.
And no wonder because look at who Jesus is in verse one.
In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets and many times
and in various ways, but in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son.
You see who Jesus is?
He's God's son.
God used to speak through prophets.
He used to speak through men, good men, trustworthy men,
but now at the climax, God speaks through his son and the son is God himself.
Look in verse one.
In these last days, God's spoken by his son whom he appointed heir of all things
and through whom he made the universe.
The son's the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.
Do you see who Jesus is there?
Jesus is God.
He's the heir of the universe.
He made the universe.
Jesus shows us God's glory.
He shares in God's being.
Jesus is God himself.
And so Jesus perfectly reveals God.
In the past, human beings spoke God's word to us.
Good human beings, trustworthy human beings, but still human beings.
But Jesus is God himself speaking to us.
So Jesus perfectly reveals God.
See, once you've seen Jesus, there's nothing more to see of God.
Once you've seen Jesus, God is no longer a mystery.
Jesus is the radiance of God's glory.
You want to see God's glory?
Look at Jesus.
As a good friend, a great preacher once said, Jeremiah Burns,
Jesus is God with skin on.
You want to know God?
Look at Jesus.
That's what he looks like when you...
Jeremiah got a much bigger laugh when he said it.
Say God with skin on Jeremiah and they'll all laugh.
But he's not as good looking as I am, is he?
You want to know what God looks like?
Look at Jesus.
Jesus is everything you need to see of God.
That is, once you've seen Jesus, what more do you need to know?
Well, nothing.
In John 14, Philip says to Jesus,
Lord, show us the Father and that'll be enough for us.
And Jesus says, don't you know me, Philip?
I've been after I've been with you for such a long time.
Anyone who's seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say show us the Father?
Don't you know I'm in the Father and the Father's in me?
The words I say to you aren't my own.
Rather, it's the Father living in me doing his work.
You see, once you've seen Jesus, once you've heard Jesus,
once you've met this man, you now know God himself.
Everything that needs to be revealed about God is revealed in Jesus.
And Jesus has spoken God's definitive word in his death.
Look in verse three.
After he provided purification for sins,
Jesus sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.
All of history has revolved around one question.
It's the question that was raised in the garden.
How will humanity get right with God?
Now that we've sinned, how can we get right with God?
That's what the world's been about.
It's the big question of the Bible.
That's the question the law wrestled with.
That's what Israel wrestled with.
That's what the prophets wrestled with.
How can we be right with God?
And Jesus has answered it.
God himself came in the flesh and preached to us and then died on the cross.
Jesus has brought God's big message.
In the past, we got glimpses.
We got whiffs of it through the prophets.
We got bits and pieces of the message.
We got little bits of the jigsaw puzzle.
But now with Jesus, we see God in living color, in stereo sound, in the flesh.
This is God with skin on.
How does God speak?
Jesus, friends, you must understand this.
This is another of those Copernican revolutions.
We get so wrapped up in the idea of ourselves and our issues and our questions.
We just want to know who we should marry.
We just want to know what job I should do.
But God has something much, much more important to say to you.
Jesus.
Jesus is God's ultimate revelation of himself.
Jesus is the most important thing you can ever know.
God himself came and stood on this earth and lived and taught and showed us God's holiness.
Jesus coming was the most momentous event in the history of the universe.
God came to live with us.
Who cares about your wedding day?
Who cares about your job?
Jesus.
Jesus.
Jesus.
That's God's big message to you.
If you want to know what God's got to say to you, look at Jesus.
Listen to Jesus.
Okay, why don't we break for a song and then we'll come back and we'll see what else.
We've just discovered the crucial truth for this week.
If you understand it, you'll understand biblical history.
You'll understand the world, I think.
That is, God speaks to us through Jesus.
At the end of history, God has spoken his great climactic word in Jesus.
But that raises a question, doesn't it?
How does Jesus speak to me?
It's fine to say that God speaks through Jesus, but how does Jesus speak to me?
He's not here.
I can't speak to him face to face.
I've never seen him.
He's sitting in heaven.
And the answer is point five.
Jesus now speaks through his Spirit, the Gospel, and Scripture.
So, I've noticed I've added a bit in there.
The Spirit, the Gospel, and Scripture.
See, the Holy Spirit was the great long-held hope of the Old Testament.
We're going to do a little bit of Bible flipping now.
Come back with me to Joel in the Old Testament, the book of Joel chapter two.
Joel chapter two.
I'll give you a little bit of time to look it up.
Joel chapter two.
After Hosea.
Joel chapter two.
And look in verse 28.
Joel chapter two, verse 28.
And afterwards, Joel 2 28, and afterwards I'll pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams.
Your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women, I'll pour out my Spirit in those days.
I'll show wonders in the heavens, and on the earth, blood, fire, and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
You see, in the Old Testament, not everyone had the Spirit.
Well, the prophets did, and certain kings had the Holy Spirit,
but God promised that in the last days, at the end of the world,
all his people would have his Spirit.
Old men, young men, young women, fathers, sons, and daughters,
all of God's people will have the Holy Spirit.
God says the same thing in Ezekiel 36.
So come with me to Ezekiel 36.
One of the very big, big passages of the Old Testament.
Ezekiel 36.
One of the big books of the Old Testament, so it's not too hard to find.
After Isaiah and Jeremiah, you hit Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 36, and take a look in verse 24.
Ezekiel 36, verse 24.
For I'll take you out of the nations.
I'll gather you from all the countries, and bring you back into your own land.
I'll sprinkle clean water on you, and you'll be clean.
I'll cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols.
I'll give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you.
I'll remove from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh,
and I'll put my spirit in you, and move you to follow my decrees,
and be careful to keep my laws.
You see, God promises in the Old Testament to bring Israel back into the Promised Land,
and he promises to give them the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit that's going to move them to keep his decrees and laws.
The Holy Spirit is the great long-held hope of the Old Testament,
and with Jesus that hope is fulfilled.
Come forward now to John.
John chapter 16, verse 5.
John chapter 16, verse 5.
John 16, verse 5.
Jesus says, Now I am going to him who sent me.
Yet none of you asks, Where are you going?
Because I've said these things, you're filled with grief.
But I tell you the truth, it's for your good that I'm going away.
Unless I go, the counselor won't come to you.
But if I go, I'll send him to you.
When he comes, he'll convict the world of guilt
in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment,
in regard to sin because men don't believe in me,
in regard to righteousness because I'm going to the Father
where you can see me no longer,
and in regard to judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
I've much more to say to you, much more than you can now bear.
But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he'll guide you into all truth.
He won't speak on his own, he'll speak only that which he hears,
and he'll tell you what's yet to come.
You see, Jesus is God's definitive word.
Jesus is God with skin on, but Jesus is going.
He's leaving his disciples and he's going to his Father in heaven.
How will Jesus continue to speak after he goes?
Well, the answer is, Jesus sends the counselor behind him.
The Holy Spirit is Jesus' word on earth.
Verse 13, Jesus wanted to say much more to the disciples,
but they couldn't bear it.
So when the Spirit comes, the Spirit will guide them into all truth.
The Holy Spirit is Jesus' counselor on earth for us.
But notice, the Spirit's not a different guide.
Look in verse 13, he won't speak on his own.
It's not as if we've got two guides, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
No, there's only one guide, that's Jesus.
The Holy Spirit only speaks what he says from Jesus,
because Jesus is God's definitive word.
We need nothing else.
The Holy Spirit is Jesus' Spirit who speaks Jesus' word.
So you see, Walter was actually right.
When Walter told Wendell that the Holy Spirit guides in the specifics,
he was absolutely right, the Spirit is our guide.
And in fact, if you have the Holy Spirit, you don't need any other teacher
come towards the back of your Bible to 1 John chapter 2.
1 John chapter 2.
As you're turning it up, John's writing to a church
where lots of people have left.
The people who've left are saying they've got a new source of wisdom.
And John's writing to the little group that have been left behind.
And have a look in 1 John chapter 2 verse 20.
1 John chapter 2 verse 20.
1 John chapter 2 verse 20.
But you have an anointing from the Holy One,
and you know all the truth.
I don't write to you because you don't know the truth,
but because you do know it.
And because no lie comes from the truth.
Who's the liar?
It's the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ.
Such a man's the Antichrist, he denies the Father and the Son.
No one who denies the Son has the Father.
Whoever acknowledges the Father has the Son also.
See that what you've heard from the beginning remains in you.
If it does, you'll also remain in the Son and the Father.
And this is what he promised us even eternal life.
I'm writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you.
And you don't need anyone to teach you.
But as his anointing teaches you about all things,
and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit,
just as it taught you, remain in him.
You see, Christians have an anointing from God, the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is our teacher.
Not a new teacher though.
No, look in verse 27.
He teaches us to remain in Jesus.
Our real teacher is Jesus.
The Spirit is Jesus' teacher with us.
So that you don't actually need me.
You don't need a teacher.
You have Jesus' Spirit.
That's why we get you to do the Bible studies in the morning.
Have you noticed that there are no staff members in the Bible study groups?
That it's just you with just the Bible and we've given you as few notes as you can.
We just give you the text because you don't need us.
You don't need a teacher if you have the Holy Spirit.
And in fact, the Spirit guides us in all things.
Look in verse 27.
His anointing teaches you about all things.
See, right there, we have a rock solid promise that in the Spirit and Jesus,
we have everything we will ever need to know about God.
We have perfect guidance from Jesus and His Spirit, which is wonderful to hear, isn't it?
God has provided guidance for you in the Holy Spirit for every decision you will ever have to make.
For every decision, no matter what it is,
God will ensure that you have the guidance through the Holy Spirit
to make the decision right the way through the rest of your life.
Not just in His invisible sovereignty, but also through the Spirit.
You can know what God wants for you.
Isn't that wonderful?
It's a glorious thing to hear.
God hasn't left you in the dark.
No, He's sent His Son and Jesus has given us His Spirit.
We need no other teacher.
So how does God guide now?
Through Jesus.
Through Jesus' Spirit.
But that raises another question, doesn't it?
What question does it raise?
You tell me.
How does the Spirit speak?
God speaks through Jesus.
Jesus now speaks through His Spirit.
But how does the Spirit speak?
Does the Spirit use dreams?
Does He use visions, adores, voices, fleeces?
How is it that we know?
Well friends, the answer is through the Gospel and through the Scriptures.
Come with me to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1.
And you'll see how the Spirit spoke to the Thessalonians.
1 Thessalonians, chapter 1.
1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 2.
Have a look how the Spirit speaks to the Thessalonians.
We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.
We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith,
your labour prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
For we know, brothers loved by God, that He's chosen you
because our Gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power,
with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.
See, how did the Holy Spirit speak to the Thessalonians?
Well, it was through Paul's Gospel, the message about Jesus.
Paul spoke the message of Jesus to the Thessalonians
and the Holy Spirit spoke through that message to give them faith, love and hope.
You see, the Holy Spirit speaks in the message of Jesus.
You think, well, hang on a minute.
The Gospel is Jesus' message.
Shouldn't the Holy Spirit have His own message?
No.
Remember, Jesus is God's great revelation.
Jesus is God with skin on and the Holy Spirit is Jesus' messenger.
The Spirit speaks Jesus' message, not His own message.
The Spirit isn't here to speak about Himself.
He doesn't have the spotlight on Him.
No, the role of the Spirit is to speak Jesus' message.
Remember from John 16, if you are looking for where the Spirit is speaking today,
look for where the Gospel of Jesus is being preached
because the Spirit is Jesus' messenger.
That's why the Spirit also speaks through the Bible.
I'm going to do something a little bit naughty at the moment,
something that I'm not meant to do,
but if you don't tell Stu, I won't tell him either.
Come with me to a certain book that I'm not allowed to mention
but I understand you're spending a bit of time with it.
In the mornings.
Remember, if you don't tell Stu, I won't tell him either.
Chapter 1, verse 20.
Now, after we've read this bit, I'll forget all about it
and won't be able to answer any questions about it in question time
because I'm not allowed to answer questions about this book.
But have a look in 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 20.
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture
came about by the prophet's own interpretation.
For prophecy never had its origin in the will of men,
but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
You see, who wrote the Bible?
Well, the Holy Spirit did.
In Scripture, men were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus' Spirit swept them up
so that the Bible was written using the personalities and the words of humans,
yes, but the Spirit ensured that the men said exactly what Jesus wanted them to say.
You see, the Bible is a unique book.
On the one hand, it's written by Matthew and Mark and Moses and Paul and Peter and John,
and you can see their stamp on it.
You can see Peter, Paul's passion and his aggression,
and you can see Luke's precision, and you can see their personalities,
yet behind the personalities, Jesus is there in His Spirit carrying the writers.
The word that Peter uses there is like wind carrying sails along on sailboats.
In fact, the Spirit is how God breathed out the Bible.
Quick, let's leave that book before I get in trouble.
Come with me now to 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16.
2 Timothy 3.16.
2 Timothy 3.16.
All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting,
and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
You see, the scriptures there are breathed out by God.
God breathes out His words.
In fact, we all do that.
Every time you speak, you are breathing.
Just put your hand in front of your face for a minute, nice and close.
Now say the words, rotting, rapacious, rhubarb.
What do you feel?
Your breath, right?
You see, whenever we speak, our words are carried on our breath.
Speaking is essentially breathing while you're vibrating your vocal cords.
You can't speak without breathing, although I've had a crack at it a couple of times.
Speaking and breathing go hand in hand and God breathed out the scriptures.
But to say that God breathed out the scriptures is actually to say that God spirits the scriptures.
Because in the language of the Bible, the language that the Bible is written in,
both Greek and Hebrew, the word for breath, for breathing, and the word for spirit
are exactly the same thing.
The word pneuma in Greek is both breath and spirit.
God's breath and God's spirit are exactly the same thing.
God's breath is his spirit.
So what Paul's really saying here is that God spirited out his scriptures.
God wrote the Bible using his Holy Spirit.
Remember 1 John chapter 1, we have the spirit who teaches us.
And what he teaches us is the Bible.
The way the Holy Spirit speaks to us, the way the Holy Spirit guides us,
is in the message of the Gospel and the Bible,
which makes perfect sense because both the Gospel and the Bible are about Jesus.
The Gospel is all about Jesus and the Bible is all about Jesus
and the Spirit is Jesus' spirit.
He's the one Jesus sent to teach us about Jesus.
The way the Spirit speaks to us is in the Gospel and the Bible.
And in the Bible, the Spirit tells us everything we need to know
because look in verse 16 again.
All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking,
correcting and training in righteousness.
So the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Now friends, this is a big, big issue.
If you get what I'm about to say to you, you'll save yourself a lifetime of frustration.
The Bible is everything you will ever need for guidance.
Do you want to know how the Bible, how God will guide you in the specifics?
The answer is the Bible.
The Bible equips us for every good work, verse 17.
Now stop for a minute and consider the scope of this.
It's every good work.
It's not just some good works.
It's not just the generalities.
It's not just the big picture.
No, every good work.
There is no area of your life that scripture is not the perfect guide for.
Big things, little things, medium things, everything.
All of scripture is God-breathed, it's spirited out
and it's useful for training you and equipping you and correcting you and guiding you
so that you will be equipped for every single good work that you will ever do.
Who should you marry?
Look in the Bible.
It will guide you to God's good work.
What do you need to know about your job?
Look in the Bible.
How should you tie your shoelace?
Look in the Bible.
The Bible will guide you to that good work.
That's what it's saying.
The Bible will equip you for every decision you'll ever have to make.
You see it in Psalm 119.
Psalm 119 is one of the most wonderful bits of the Bible.
Come back with me there.
If you've never looked at it, it's 176 verses,
all of them telling us how wonderful the Word of God is.
How wonderful scripture is.
Psalm 119.
Psalm 119.
Look in verse 1.
Psalm 119.
Blessed are they whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to the law of the Lord.
You see, how do you get blessed?
By walking according to God's law.
Or verse 9.
How can a young man keep his way pure?
That's an area we're on guidance in, isn't it?
By living according to your word.
Or verse 24.
Your statutes are my delight.
They are my counselors.
Or verse 50.
Look in verse 50.
My comfort in suffering is this.
This is a good one, isn't it?
We all need comfort when we're suffering.
We all need guidance.
Your promise preserves my life.
Or verse 97.
Look in verse 97.
Oh, how I love your law.
I meditated on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are with me.
I have more insight than all of my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
There, you want to be wiser than Seno?
You want to be wiser than your lecturers?
Read God's word.
You see, God speaks through Jesus.
Jesus gives his Spirit,
and the Spirit speaks through the Gospel and the Scriptures.
We need no other guidance from God.
The Scriptures are useful for every good work.
Do you want guidance about your career?
Do you want guidance about where to live,
marriage, house, car, for all of them?
For every decision you'll ever make,
right down to the very smallest decisions,
you have right there, in 2 Timothy,
a rock-solid promise from God.
The Scriptures will prepare you for every good work.
Now, at this point, you're thinking,
but Greg, the Bible doesn't tell me who I should marry.
The Bible doesn't tell me what job I should do
and where I should live.
It's blank on all those things.
Do you want to know why it's blank on those things, friends?
Because, to be frank, those things really are unimportant.
Who you should marry, where you should live,
what job you should do,
God doesn't tell you those things in the Bible
because you really don't need to know them.
They're unimportant.
You see, the Bible has a wonderful way of showing us what's important.
The Scriptures prepare us for every good work.
The Scriptures are everything we need.
So, if the Scriptures don't speak on something,
that's because we don't need to know it.
I'll say that again.
The Scriptures are all written by God.
The Scriptures are everything we need to know.
So, if the Bible doesn't speak on something,
I don't need to know it.
I don't need to know who I'm going to marry
because, really, it's unimportant.
Who, where, what, the Bible doesn't tell me those things
because they are just not important.
If God thought they were, he'd tell us.
The Scriptures prepare us for every good work.
If God thought I needed to know it, he'd tell me.
So, since the Bible doesn't, it mustn't be important.
God will tell me lots of other things about marriage.
He'll tell me lots of other things about my work.
He'll tell me lots of other things about my car and my lounge,
all sorts of things that we're going to look at tomorrow,
but all of them are more important than who, what and where.
Tomorrow night, we're going to look at what the Bible does say
is important about marriage
and what the Bible does say is important about work and houses
and you'll discover that the Bible gives you everything you'll ever need to know
to make exactly the right decision.
But the Bible has a wonderful way of showing us what's important.
If you need to know something, the Bible will tell you.
In every situation, if the Bible doesn't speak to me on it,
I don't need to know it.
It's unimportant.
In fact, point six, we have been promised no other guide.
So far as I can see,
you've discovered that there's a third page.
So far as I can see,
the only place God ever promises the Spirit will speak to us is in the Bible.
The Bible never promises that God will send us dreams.
The Bible never promises that God will send us visions and leading.
So far as I can see,
the only place God ever promises to speak is through the Bible.
Now notice a couple of things here.
Firstly, it's almost impossible to prove a negative.
To say that the Bible never promises something is a very difficult thing to do
because that means that I really need to have read the whole of the Bible.
So there may be a verse somewhere buried in the back of Nehemiah
that says that God promises to speak to you in dreams,
but if it's there, I haven't found it yet.
But secondly, notice that I'm not saying God can't speak apart from the Bible.
I'm not saying God never will.
What I'm saying is God never promises to.
So far as I can see,
God only ever promises to speak by the Bible.
Now there are all sorts of ways and places people say that God has spoken to them
and they may be right.
God can speak any way he likes.
He has in the past, but he never promises to.
And when you compare all of the other forms of guidance that people use today,
when you compare them with the Bible,
I want to say they have massive weaknesses
and that they are exceptionally dangerous.
Doors, inner voices, peace, fleeces,
all have huge weaknesses and dangers for guiding us.
Now because of time, I'll focus on doors
and you can ask me about all of the others in question time if you like.
But doors seem to be the big one that people are using nowadays.
People talk about God opening and closing doors
and usually what we mean is that it's a sign of God's will.
Clearly God wants me to go to Siberia.
Well no, we'd never say that.
Clearly God wants me to be a heart surgeon because I got into medicine.
That's God's will because he opened the door.
But friends, that form of guidance has massive weaknesses.
For one, it's unbiblical.
All right, I'll give you the references.
Paul talks about open doors in Colossians chapter 4 verse 3,
1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse 9, Colossians 4 verse 3,
1 Corinthians 16 verse 9 and 2 Corinthians 2 verse 12.
But he never uses them as signs of God's will.
Doors are only ever one possibility among heaps of others.
And in fact, you need not go through the door.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 12,
Paul has a terrific open door to preach the gospel in Troas.
But he decides not to take it.
He leaves there and he goes off to Macedonia.
You see, an open door isn't guidance that you should do something.
It's just an opportunity.
Just because I have the opportunity to be a lawyer or a doctor or a dentist
or even a missionary, that doesn't mean that God wants me to do it.
But secondly, the danger of doors is our selective eyesight.
We only ever see the doors we want to see.
We have an attractive opportunity, but we turn it into a sign.
You see, right now, you have the most,
in fact, every single person in this room as far as I can tell,
has the most wonderful open door to drop right out of university
and to go and be a checkout operator at Coles.
That door is open to everybody.
Well, perhaps not everyone because there'll be a rush on it
and not all of you would get jobs,
but some of you could probably work at Bylo as well.
Now, did you see that door that's open to you?
There's no one here who's under qualified for that job,
so far as I can tell.
But you didn't see it, did you?
Because it's not attractive.
You see, you could finish your degree
and you could go and be a missionary in Kenya.
That door, so far as I can tell, is again open to everybody in this room,
but it's not a very attractive one, is it?
Which is why we didn't see it.
See, all you have to do is go to Bible college
and then go and approach a mission society.
But we tend to only see the doors we want to see.
But friends, the real danger of doors is they give us the feeling
that God wants our lives to be easy.
You see, if a situation looks like it'll be enjoyable,
it looks like it'll be fulfilling,
and there's no real opportunity to it,
we assume that God wants us to do it,
because we assume that God wants our lives to be easy.
But friends, that's not the case.
God doesn't want your life to be easy.
God wants your life to be godly.
Come with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 16,
one of the most amazing passages on doors.
1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 7.
1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 7.
Paul says, I don't want to see you now
and make only a passing visit.
I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits,
but I'll stay on you in Ephesus until Pentecost,
because a great door for effective work has opened to me,
and there are many who oppose me.
Now, does that strike you as being a little bit weird?
Ephesus is not the easy option.
Many people oppose him.
Terrible persecution and heartache for Paul if he stays.
We would call that a closed door, wouldn't we?
I've got to leave because everyone's opposed to me.
But Paul says, no, a wonderful door.
It's a great opportunity.
I get to suffer for Jesus.
You see, friends, sometimes God will put us through
terrible heartache for our word, for his work.
Sometimes he'll seem to shut doors in our face
to test our endurance.
You see, friends, doors as opportunities
can never be relied upon as signs.
They're simply opportunities.
Now, all of the other forms of guidance
have similar weaknesses, weaknesses in uncertainty.
That is, how do you know that that feeling in your heart
that you think is God leading you to marry that fellow
is actually God leading you to marry that fellow?
How do you know it's not just your desire?
How do you know that the voice which speaks to you is God?
You see, the great problem with all of those other forms
of guidance is they are so uncertain,
which actually casts doubt on God's character, doesn't it?
You see, if it is God speaking,
why doesn't he make himself clear?
If God's a loving God, why does he speak so unclearly?
Why is it so uncertain?
That'd be the loving thing to do, wouldn't it?
To speak clearly to us.
And the answer is he has in the Bible.
The Bible is where God promises to speak
and he does so with absolute clarity.
Not to mention, friends, the fact that the other forms
of guidance mostly just read the Bible wrongly.
People talk about being led by the Spirit.
But you know what the Spirit leads us to in the Scriptures
in Galatians 5 and in Romans 8?
It leads us to godliness.
That's the leading of the Spirit.
If you're looking for what the Spirit's leading you to,
it's not leading you to make decisions,
it's leading you to be godly.
And you say, but what about the still small voice?
Because we've all heard of that,
the still small voice in 1 Kings 19.
You know the story, if you haven't heard the story,
I'll retell it to you,
everything's going pear-shaped for Elijah.
He's the prophet and everyone's against him.
Jezebel's trying to kill him.
So he runs back to Mount Sinai,
where God gave Israel the Ten Commandments
and God comes and there's a fire and God's not in it.
And then there's the wind or the earthquake
and God's not in it.
And then there is silence, the still small voice.
But the problem is it's not a still small voice.
At that point, the King James Version mistranslated it.
The word is silence.
Because you see, God actually had nothing to say to Elijah.
God says to Elijah, what are you doing back here?
We left here years ago.
You should be back in Israel.
I've got nothing new to say to you, Elijah.
Go back to Israel.
Elijah shouldn't have been at Mount Sinai at all.
There was no still small voice in 1 Kings 19.
It's just silence.
God wasn't in the fire.
He wasn't in the earthquake because he wasn't at Mount Sinai.
Elijah should have been in Israel.
You see, friends, the great problem
is almost all the forms of guidance
that people go looking for outside of the Bible
is they're wishy-washy in terms of uncertainty
and they just read the Bible wrongly.
But on top of that, they're dangerous.
Because, friends, every authority I add beside the Bible
only takes away from the Bible's authority.
Every time I start to listen to something next to the Bible,
the Bible becomes less and less my guide.
An old preacher from a couple of centuries ago named C.H. Spurgeon
tells a wonderful story to illustrate this.
What would you do if an angel visited you tonight
with a message from God?
And the angel came and said,
I have a message for you that's going to make your life just wonderful.
It's going to give you clarity and certainty
that you would never have dreamt.
Wouldn't that be wonderful?
If an angel came from God to you tonight
to give you God's sure certain word,
wouldn't that be great?
Spurgeon said, I'd tell him to get lost.
I'd tell him to be off.
The angel says, but Mr. Spurgeon,
I've got a message for you from God himself.
And Spurgeon says, I don't want to hear it.
I don't want, I'm blocking my ears.
I do not want to know.
But Mr. Spurgeon, I've been told I have to tell you.
Spurgeon says, all right, we'll go.
If you must tell me, go ahead.
But I'll tell you now, I don't want to hear it.
Mr. Spurgeon, I've come to tell you
that your name is written in the book of life.
You are going to heaven.
Now, wouldn't that be something?
To know for certain that you are going to have
that sort of degree of certainty in your life
that you are one of God's elect.
Wouldn't that be fantastic?
No, says Spurgeon.
I wish you had never told me.
Go straight to hell.
Because before this, I had my trust in the word of God.
Before this, I had my trust in the rock solid word
of the Bible, but now I'm tempted to trust an angel.
Friends, do you see what these things do?
They take your eyes off the rock solid words of scripture
and they put them on a feeling.
They put your trust in a hunch, a dream.
Anything you listen to outside of the Bible
will only take your eyes off of the Bible.
Who is it that builds his house on the rock?
The man who listens to Jesus.
Not to mention friends,
that all of these things simply make us selfish.
It's the seductiveness of selfishness.
You see, all of these other forms of guidance focus on me.
It's a special word for me.
Something that God only says to me.
Something for no one else.
It's wonderful.
It makes me feel special.
But friends, it's selfishness.
It puts me in the center of my world
and makes God my servant.
And friends, in the end, God's scriptures
are far more personal anyway.
Never buy the lie.
It is a horrible lie that comes straight from Satan.
Never buy the lie that the Bible is impersonal.
Never buy the lie that the Bible is the cold, hard words
of a book and that dreams are somehow more personal
and spiritual in here.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
God has given you the truth.
God has given you the same spirit
that he wrote the Bible with.
The same spirit that wrote the scriptures
all those centuries ago is living right now
inside of your heart.
And every time you read the Bible,
the spirit is your teacher applying it to your heart.
Remember 1 John chapter 2?
The anointing of God is inside of you,
applying the scriptures.
Friends, this is incredibly personal.
It's wonderfully personal and powerful.
It's everything you will ever need.
Friends, the Bible is God's wonderful, glorious gift to us.
The Bible is far greater than anything
anyone would ever realize to guide us.
There is no issue, no question, no situation
that you will ever face that the Bible
is not entirely everything you will ever need.
The scriptures will guide you to every good work.
The Bible is God's lamp to your feet.
You need nothing else.
But friends, as I leave you tonight,
I want to say to you that the Bible does more
than just answer questions.
It also asks them.
You see, in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12,
we're told that scripture, God's word, is living and active.
That it's sharper than any double-edged sword.
That it penetrates and it divides our soul.
That it cuts us into the spirit and the joints and the marrow.
It judges our thoughts and our attitudes of our hearts.
You see, the Bible examines us every bit as much as we examine it.
And the Bible shows us that what we consider small things
are actually crucial.
And what we consider as crucial are actually trivial.
Tomorrow night, what we're going to see
is what the living and active word of God says is important.
Of where God is actually leading us.
But for tonight, let's pray.