A Voice From Heaven

Introduction

A facelift to an old great hymn. I enjoy that arrangement even more. But I like even more what it says. And the firm spiritual footing that we would desire for everyone in this place today. And I hope I can contribute to that in some way by this message this morning that begins in Luke 3, perhaps a familiar story to many of you, as Jesus is introduced, the forerunner, John, speaking of the one who was coming who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, because some were thinking that John himself might have been the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah of the Old Testament. But John pointed the way to Jesus, and ultimately when Jesus comes to him in verse 21. It came about when all the people were baptized that Jesus also was baptized, and while he was praying in conjunction with the baptism that was taking place, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.

In thee I am well pleased. This would not be the only or last occasion in which Jesus would hear such a voice, or that others even would hear. At the Mount of Transfiguration, there present Peter, James, and John, with the Lord, who was transfigured before them and visited by Moses and Elijah. As they were speaking concerning his imminent departure, a voice came from heaven on that occasion. As Peter was wanting to build a tabernacle for all three, which was a very generous gesture, would have taken some time. But he wanted to build a tabernacle for all three. A voice from heaven says, This is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him. And at that point, Jesus was left alone. As Moses and Elijah disappeared. But that was not the only occasion brought to my attention during a Lord’s Supper talk recently by Scott Wigginton.

If this sermon goes poorly, it is Scott’s fault. This was the impetus for these thoughts. As Jesus is speaking to a number of Greeks brought to him by the Apostle Philip, one of the things we do know about that apostle Philip, along with Andrew, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified in verse 23, and yet in verse 27, Jesus is troubled by the prospect of this departure, the Exodus that we mentioned earlier, and he says, And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. This is the purpose for which I came. Father, glorify thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven. I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The multitude, therefore, who stood by and heard it, not sure how many, if any heard the statement at Jesus’ baptism, were saying that it had thundered.

And certainly the voice of God does so.

Jesus answered and said, This voice has not come for my sake, but for your sake. Of course, there are numerous occasions in the Old Testament where God communicated like this directly with his people. We were studying in the book of Deuteronomy in Deuteronomy chapter 4, how that the thunderous voice of God could be heard, and it scared the people so that they only wanted God to speak to Moses and not them. And God granted that request. Sometimes God spoke directly to individuals, but through the medium of angels, such as the case in one of my favorites in Judges chapter 6, as the Judge Gideon is selected, and an angel just appears and says, The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior. Unbeknownst to Gideon at the time that he was of such ilk, but a direct communication from God.

And then specifically we have the call of Samuel, which I love in 1 Samuel chapter 3, a child that is dedicated to the Lord by his mother, and yet it says the word of the Lord was rare in those days, or the word of the Lord was precious in those days. The fact is, at that particular time there wasn’t much direct communication from heaven to man. And so that helps us to understand that when Samuel hears this voice, he thinks that it is the priest Eli, the judge Eli calling from the other room, and he goes in and says, What do you want? And he says, That wasn’t me. And so you need to go back in and hear when you hear the voice, say, speak, Lord, for thy servant is listening.

And so Samuel then has this discussion with God that is going to pertain to even Eli, who sleeps in the other room. And not to mention the one sided conversation, we might say, mostly one sided conversation, that happens between God and Job, as God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind, and I want you to imagine that in your mind. That’s an impressive way for God to speak to his servant Job as he speaks about his control over creation is a reason why Job should trust in him regardless. Okay, all about your introduction to this question. If God spoke to individuals like this three times in Jesus’ ministry that we’ve cited, the question is sometimes raised. How about little old me? Why not me? Have you heard the voice of God?

Interestingly enough, in researching this week, I ran across a website called The Blaze. I don’t know anything about it. It may be right-wing political, but they asked those who subscribed to their readership. Some 3,100 people responded, so this is a pretty good sampling of individuals.

74% said that they had that experience. Only 26% of Blaise’s readers said that they have never heard the Almighty speak in this manner. And as I was researching this, I also found a website that spoke to how you could hear the voice of God, some coaching. Some coaching. And here were the four things. Build relationships with other Christians. That’s a positive thing. Daily Bible reading, another positive thing. Mark Roberts’ sermon on Monday night of the meeting. It was great. Share your faith with others. That’s another good thing. And prayer. So apparently, if you do those four things, you are more likely to hear the voice of God. You’ll be in a good place to hear from God, the article said. You have turned to the right channel, so to speak.

God promises that he will answer if you will pray and wait.

The article said, a clear and simple, a clear and simple response to your prayers. Now, this small still voice thing, I have another whole sermon on that from 1 Kings chapter 19, has to do with God speaking to Elijah in his despondency. As he ultimately communicates with Elijah, don’t despair.

I’ve got a prophet who is going to succeed you. I’ve got kings for you to anoint. Get out there and get busy. Quit wallowing in despair. But it was a small still voice, a gentle blowing. The New American Standard says in 1 Kings chapter 19 and verse 12. But let me add about that small still voice, that this was not something that Elijah had to discern in his mind. Is that the voice of God or isn’t it? It was something audible. It was something that he heard. It was actual sound in his ears. It wasn’t a deciphering in the mind of what God’s intentions might be. Now, let me let me offer this at the beginning. I do not stand where I stand on this subject because it is my theology to do so.

Or it is my tradition to believe a certain way about hearing God’s voice audibly. Because I want to tell you, like other things that I’ve talked about that people believe that I don’t think is true. If God is still speaking audibly to people today, sign me up. If he’s still doing that, and he’s certainly capable of doing that, we’ve read that in the scriptures. This is not about God’s ability or power. God could choose to speak to any one of us. A voice could be heard in this auditorium this morning. That would shake things up. That would wake some people up. Not that anybody’s sleeping. But if the voice of God could audibly be heard, and God still does that sort of thing, then we would welcome it, would we not?

I don’t know, it might scare us, so we might be like the Israelites. Don’t speak to us. Speak to Tony, don’t speak to us. I am not opposed to this from the standpoint of this is my religious thinking all the way along, and therefore I’m opposed to this. If God is still speaking to people audibly, sign me up. I would love to hear the thunderous voice of God. But I would also add this. Those who did actually hear the voice of God audibly were not necessarily faithful to him. It was not an automatic, oh, I’ve heard the voice of God, I know he’s real, and therefore in their lives it’s borne out in perfect obedience. That didn’t always play out. Especially with Israel. How did it?

1. Why Is God's Voice Not Audibly Heard?

So why is God’s voice not audibly heard, or at least by my affirmation, why is God’s voice not audibly heard like it was in biblical times? A familiar text. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16 provides, I think, some of that answer. All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. It has always been God’s intention to provide an objective, ultimate and final standard by which he would guide men and equip them for everything that they might need. Lacking in nothing. That’s what 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16 is saying. We don’t lack anything when we listen to the God breathed information that he has provided to guide us, to give us all the training and direction that we need.

2. Voices From Heaven Confirmed the Word of God

And so that leads me then to a few thoughts about the voices from heaven in biblical times as to their purpose and their uniqueness from our times, at least. Why are things like this so far from our experience? Why were biblical times different? In the absence of a final and objective source of instruction available to all, God communicated in a variety of ways that indicated his presence and conveyed man’s responsibility to serve him. Did you notice in John 12? When Jesus said, it was not for me, it was for you.

That may be not merely me, not just for me, but even more. It was for you. It confirmed to his audience, including these Greeks, that this is indeed the chosen one of the Old Testament. It wasn’t just for me. Certainly it did something for Jesus, but it needed even more for his audience as it confirmed things about Jesus to be true. Miracles, tangible evidences, witnessed by hundreds, yes, thousands in biblical times, confirmed the presence and the work and the word of God. That’s why we read about them in the scriptures. Again, they confirmed the presence, the work, and the word of God. And they are placed in historical settings. Real people, real events, and all of this testimony is overwhelming. I think that’s what Peter is referring to in 2 Peter chapter 1 when he said, we did not follow cleverly devised tales.

I wish I had time to talk about the entire context of 2 Peter this morning, as Peter is about to depart, as he says in chapter 1, and this is his last will and testament, and he wants his readers to know that this didn’t originate as a concoction in anyone’s mind, but this came directly from God. He said, We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. This is about things that we saw with our eyes. Voice that we heard, he references that, the transfiguration. Things that we saw, things that we heard. These are real events. And men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. So as Peter nears the end of his life, perhaps it is because these instances are about to disappear altogether. Because after all, history does not record their ongoing occurrence.

You read in the church fathers, there’s not a lot of discussion about these kinds of things ongoing into the second and third and fourth century. And we’ve talked many times about, as we did this morning in Bible class, about the apostles’ ability to lay out of hands and pass these gifts alone, but not everyone could do that. And ultimately, when that generation died, and when the apostles were no more, confirmation would no longer be necessary. Well, if we need things confirmed today, no worries. We have Snopes.com. Some people would say Snopes can’t even be trusted, and perhaps sometimes they can’t, but they’re always trying to do a fact check to give you the sources for information so that you can determine whether a story has some validity or not, and they’ll give you how much validity they think it has.

They rate it. And I like that. And I was checking that this week. I don’t know why, just in conjunction with this lesson. And there was a video about gay lions mating. Seriously. And several did have enough brilliance to note that same-sex interplay between animals is not like homosexuality, and we are not descended from animals anyway. Seriously. But half the things that run around, it’s sad that we live in a culture like this. Half the things that get shared on Facebook, it seems, are not true. Or at least cannot be confirmed by reliable sources. And so Snopes is where you need to go to check those things out. But we do not need Snopes to verify biblical events. And there’s no reliable dissenting evidence anyway. Divine confirmation.

3. We Walk by Faith, Not by Sight

Now let’s go some other places. Why not the audible voice? John 20 helps us with that. Remember Thomas, whom we unfortunately call doubting Thomas? He did doubt, but as one pointed out, he doubted that we might believe. And when confronted with the evidence, he said, What? My Lord and my God. And of course, Jesus’ response to that. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. And the point of that narrative is these things, these signs Jesus performed that you might believe, and that believing you may have life in his name. But we’re not seeing the miracles. We’ve not seen the resurrected Lord with our eyes. We don’t need to. That’s the point of John chapter 20. Reliable historical evidence suggests that Jesus is risen.

And Paul turns to that in 1 Corinthians 15 and says, look, some of the people who saw Jesus alive with their eyes are still alive. Over 500 saw him at once. And some of them still remain until now. You can check these things out. But that’s not our experience today. And in the context of 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it says, we walk by faith and not by sight. And I would love to look again at the greater context of that statement where Paul is talking about his eternal home with God, a house not made with hands in the heavens, departing from the body and being absent from the body and being in the presence of the Lord in that context. And he says, look, in a physical state right now, I’m in pitiful shape.

Death works in me, and life in you, he says. He says the outer man is decaying. He was the perfect picture of that. He says, Don’t judge things on the way they appear, tangibly. And then he expresses this in the midst of this context where he says, walk by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. And I think one of the problems as people clamor for this tangible evidence that God is really there, that I’m really his child, that there’s some voice from heaven that’s going to say, Tony, you are my child. That we’re looking to walk by sight rather than by faith. So where does our assurance come from? Well, 1 John chapter 3, and if you’ll turn over to 1 John, we’re going to spend a little time there as we conclude this morning in 1 John chapter 3.

4. Where Does Our Assurance Come From?

These assurances are provided at the end of 1 John chapter 3 and verse 22, and whatever we ask, we receive from him. More on that in a second, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. That’s our assurance. That’s our confidence. Because we know by looking into the subjective standard, his spirit bears witness with our spirit that we’re the children of God. I love that Romans 8 and verse 16. My spirit is a reflection of his spirit. I’m trying to do his commandments, the things that are pleasing to him. Therefore I know that I have this relationship. We walk by faith and not by sight. That’s what 1 John 3 is saying. We ought to love one another just as he commanded us.

Are you loving other people? By a biblical definition of that. And the one who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him. And we know by this that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. Now, there was a tangible part of that to his first century audience as they were being led by the Holy Spirit in miraculous ways, as God was revealing his word to them and confirming it. But we have the Spirit in the final and ultimate and objective form of Scripture to guide us into all of God’s will. And so we know when our lives measure up with this word and we seek to do the things that are pleasing to God, we walk by faith. We have this assurance.

5. Discerning Events That Take Place

So let me let me lead into this. I have some other thoughts here that I don’t have time to share. Let me talk for a moment about discerning events that take place. When we are baptized into Christ, according to Colossians chapter 2, we’re buried with him. We rise to walk anew through faith in the working of God, just as God raised Jesus from dead. We have every confidence that we’re being raised to life in him. It is the removal of an old man, just like circumcision in the old testament, the removal of the foreskin of the flesh was an indication that I am an Israelite. I’m one of the chosen people of God. This removal of the old man is an indication that we are the true spiritual Israel of God or New Testament Christians.

Just like circumcision worked for Israelites of old, baptism, the culminating step that places us in Christ is an indication of our being separated unto the Lord and away from sin. Interesting Colossians 2. As the result of that, inward yielding to the will of God, it has always meant the exact same thing. What that always means is this. Proverbs 3, 5 through 8. Always. It’s always meant that. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding, and all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. So that’s what assurance that we have. When we’ve done the will of God, we receive what is promised. That’s the principle of Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 36. And so when I have been baptized into Christ, and I rise to walk in newness of life because of my trust in the Lord and my continued trust, I have every assurance that he is directing my steps.

Now, what that doesn’t mean is that I’m able to discern every event that takes place as an act of God and that he’s pulling all the levers in my life.

God overturning evil for good. You mean God made Joseph’s eleven brothers, or I guess ten of them, I don’t think Benjamin was involved. Ten of them sell him into slavery because of his ultimate intentions? You mean God pulled the trigger on that? No, his evil brothers pulled the trigger. But God can work in those events to accomplish his will and purposes. And yet sometimes we’re wanting to divine the choices that we make. We’ve got a lot of difficult choices to make in our life. And we will make those choices based upon the best wisdom that we’ve got. And sometimes you’re going to look back and you’re going to say that wasn’t a very good choice. Don’t blame God for all the choices. That’s what I’m telling you.

Like where we’re going to worship, where we’re going to live, who we’re going to marry? You mean there’s more than one choice I could have made in those regards? Absolutely. God knows the choices we’re going to make. Or at least he has the ability to know that.

Marriage, partner, where to worship, my case, where to preach, where not to preach? You know? Is it the providence of God, Tony, that you are here at Decker Prairie? Well, did He pull the switches for me? Or did I try to take the evidence? I think this is a pretty good group to work with, and I think I think things can go well here. And so I make this choice and decision. Can God work through the choice and decision that I’ve made to accomplish his will? Oh, so what you’re saying is, then I could help you hit the road then. You can work the providence of God somewhere else. Yeah, you could do that. You could do that. I don’t want that to happen, but you could do it.

Here’s the thing. Regardless of choices that we make and the circumstances that result because of those choices, somewhat undesirable, perhaps. In whatever circumstance we find ourselves in, we can choose to serve the Lord. We can choose to trust him. And when we do that, we have God’s assurance that he can work in our lives. Look, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. We talk about that a lot in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 12. But then the next verse says, For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. And so instead of trying to discern every event in our lives, oh, this is God choosing this or God doing that, and God flipping this lever.

6. Answered Prayer

We make choices, and then as we continue to live lines of faith, God works in us and through us through his glory. That’s the way it works. Not something tangible. But we walk by faith. I think I need to say something here about answer prayer and have a lot more in the notes than I can deal with here. Daniel thought we were going to have a really short sermon because I only had four slides total. I told Daniel that’s not necessarily an indicator. Because this thing could go another 30 minutes. But I’m about to wrap this up. Puzzling text to me in James chapter 5 about prayer offered for the person who is sick. Some want to make that only talking about spiritual illness, and there is a part of that about sins being healed as well in James chapter 5, but I can’t make that work throughout the whole context in regard to the illness.

And it says the prayer in faith offered for the one who is sick and he will recover. And even what it said about prayer in 1 John chapter 5. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And we have the confidence that we have the request that we have made of him. And we can know that we have eternal life. 1 John 5 3 through 13 through 15 in that context. And so we look at answer prayer. So if I’m praying then for someone that is sick, if I pray in faith, they will recover. Now, is that James’ intention in James chapter 5? Or is he simply saying that prayer works? Prayer changes things. James 5, 16. And that some people would get healthy who would otherwise not get healthy as a result of the prayers of the righteous.

I think that is absolutely so. But if you think about it, I could keep my great-great-grandfather alive for 44 more years. Forever, indefinitely, because I keep praying. God, I know you can do this. I know you. He’s 145, but he’s going to live. Ultimately, prayer will not keep a person from dying. And I just want to say a word about our thoughts in that direction. Because I think sometimes we value this physical life so much. And if we go back to the context of 2 Corinthians 4 and 5, we value this physical life so much that we struggle to really grasp what Paul is saying in Philippians 1. That to depart and be with Christ is very much better. We want to hold on to loved ones because we’re going to miss them.

They’ve been so much a part of our lives here. But this is very temporary. And when someone does pass, and ultimately the answer is no, I’m not going to heal them this time. If they are righteous, if they are Christians, they are in a better, far better place than being here with us. We need to get the right perspective about that. And just because sometimes the answer is, no, I’m not going to heal them this time. That doesn’t mean that God hasn’t heard our prayer. Or that he hasn’t answered. It’s just that the answer is no. God delays law over the prayers of his people. That’s the point of Luke chapter 18. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? That’s all I want to conclude this morning with what I call divine nudges.

Conclusion

God still operating and nudging us along the way, something tangible that says you ought to do this or that. Instead of trying to discern the will of God in all of these circumstances that unfold, this is what we can know for certain. And that is the power of God’s truth that convicts. In John chapter 16, Hebrews chapter 4, the word of God that is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Do not refuse him who speaks. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 25. Oh, yes, he nudges us all right. When we listen to the instruction of his powerful word, and our hearts are convicted, when our conscience becomes educated, and it says, I’m not in the will of God, I need to make this change.

I need to do these things to be in the will of God. And what is baptism, that ultimate step that places us in Christ that we talk about? Baptism doth also now save us, not the removal of filth from the flesh, but what? The appeal to God for a clean conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those things that are accusing us saying, My life is not consistent with the will of God, we can make this appeal through baptism and the change in our life reflected in repentance that precedes baptism, and the fact that I am now going to proclaim my loyalty to Jesus Christ as the risen Savior, and I confess that with my lips. Then those things that accuse me can disappear. Because just as Jesus was raised from the dead, I know that I’m being raised from the death of sin unto a life of holiness and sanctification unto God.

And sometimes in the midst of that, we lose our way. And we may need to return to that initial calling. Be reminded again of this powerful word that can convict us and can bring us back to the paths that we need to walk as we walk by faith and not by sight. It’s the gospel, God’s powerful word calling you today. Won’t you respond while we stand and sing?