You will never guess my little girl’s first word. Not Dadda, Momma, but ice! She was born on a hot August afternoon in Raleigh, NC, a place that will get snow more often than we get snow here in Mississippi. One day when we lived in our parsonage, while the snow was on the ground, she was playing at the sliding back door and saw snow on the ground and said, as clear as day, ice! We were thrilled because she would Mmmmm, her way through her day before she spoke. We spoke her language. We knew what she wanted. After all, she was the firstborn and Daddy’s little girl. Why take the energy to muster a word when everyone knows what you want and I am ready to give it to you?
Communication is something special. When my little girl spoke, we entered a new plane. She could now communicate, and she, at 11, is still learning to communicate. Today she says much more than “mmm.”
Moms and Dads, grandmas and granddads, and even aunts and uncles all compete for the communication of a baby. When Adalee was a baby, a few ladies would always fuss at Katie and me when they talked to the baby. They would say, in the sweetest southern old lady voice, “Where are your socks? I’m gonna skin your mamma for not putting socks on your feet…” (keep in mind this was that hot Raleigh Summer), all while Katie had to be the good pastor's wife and smile, as the baby smiled, though the two smiles were not the same. Adalee just saw a sweet old lady’s face. Katie heard the charming southern grandma's well-intended cut.
As we continue to discover “What Christians Believe,” we consider today a significant point that encourages our exploration. We Believe God has spoken. How has he spoken? Where did he speak? When did he speak? Does he still speak today? All of those questions are important questions that press us to answer. Followers of Jesus have answers to those questions. Hebrews tells us:
Long ago, at many times and many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whose he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact expression*, of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Two truths in that verse. We have the Word of God who, for our sake, has taken on flesh for our salvation, and we have a book. The book is the Bible. The Word that helps us understand the book is Jesus. God speaks through the Bible and in the Bible. Paul said,
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness… (2 Tim. 3:16)
Peter says,
No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Ptr. 1:20-21)
And Jesus says,
Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass away from the Law until all is accomplished. (Mtt. 5:18)
We cannot know God except through Jesus Christ, and we cannot know Jesus except through Scripture. When we come to the Bible, we come to hear God speak!
We go back to an old prophet to learn the truth, God has spoken. Isaiah 40:6-8 has been used by me in the past as a launch pad for a message on the Bible, but today we come to preach the passage as it stands.
From it we learn 4 truths about God speaking.
God Speaks
This is the book of comfort. After a challenging word of judgment, God looks ahead to what he will do to bring salvation to a people ready to receive his word. Isaiah 40-55 is called the “Book of Comfort” because of the first verse in Isaiah 40.
Isaiah 40:6-8 corresponds to another section in Isaiah at 55:10-11,
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (ESV)
The texts between Isaiah 40:6-8 and Isaiah 55:10-11 is our path to discovering What Christians Believe.
Isaiah 40:6 begins by telling us there is a voice outside the text now expressed through the text. A voice says… There is a God beyond the text. Here we have to be precise. There is a God beyond the text, not so much a God "behind the text." In other words, the Bible doesn’t become the word of God, the Bible is the word of God, and it expresses a God who is beyond the text. For example, we don’t worship the Bible as some do. We are not KJV only types or red-letter edition Christians. We believe the Bible is a perfect treasure of divine instruction, without error, and is God’s revelation of himself to man. Through the Bible, we know Jesus. Through Jesus, we know God. We have a Word, and we have a Book.
God stands beyond the text, but he is known through the text. He speaks through the Bible. We call his speaking through the text, revelation. Through revelation, there is salvation, but there is no salvation if God does not speak. Praise God we start with the truth that makes all other truths knowable - God speaks.
Can we know what he says? Yes! How, through language. By the way, that passage we cited earlier from Peter is important for us. A close reading reveals that we have the prophetic word more sure. The more sure word we have is Holy Scripture - the Bible. God says, “You want to hear me speak? Open your Bible.”
God Speaks In a Way We Can Understand
A voice says, Cry! And I said, what shall I cry? The answer follows. But before we get to the answer, consider the truth that God speaks not in enigmas but in terms we can grasp. This does not mean there are some things God says that are beyond our grasp. For example, we have wrestled and divided over things like the order of salvation, election, predestination, the timeline of the end-times, and the like. Just last week, we looked at the uniqueness of God and reminded ourselves that God is Trinity. There are some things that are beyond our grasp but through the Bible we have a direction for our reach.
A renowned theologian was asked the summarize his entire theology in a sentence. He replied “Jesus loves me; this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”**
I remember my time in seminary. You could chase down a row of 1,000 books on one word of Holy Scripture. One word sets the direction for 1,000 other thoughts. God speaks in terms that we can understand and uses words and images, accommodating to our creatureliness so that we can at least understand the understanding of him.
God speaks, and the sound of his voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing to listen in. ***
God speaks, and 100 Billion Galaxies are born. In the vapor of his breath, the planets form.****
The Bible has sold more than any other book. In 2022 the numbers tell us there are an average of 100 Million Bibles printed each year; 20 million sold a year; 1.66 million each month, 384,615 per week; 2,289 per hour; 38 per minute; 6.4 every 10 seconds; with more than 6 Billion currently in print!*****
Tune to his voice by taking the Bible and listening to him speak. The Bible is unique because of the one who inspires every word. It is his book, and he shares it with us.
The word of the Lord is different than our word. Continue reading.
A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever. (ESV)
Humanity is Broken
God’s Word Cannot Be Broken
Humanity is broken. Our word is incomplete. Though we often treat our word as if that’s all there is. We have a whole society that disregards God’s word. But the problem is not just out there; it is in our churches filled with people who can tell you more about the last baseball game than the truths of the Bible. Our churches are filled with people who know "about the Bible" more than they "know the Bible." So many are content pursuing fading flowers and withering grass when God has given us his Word.
The imagery of the text is beautiful. God has to blow on our existence just barely, and the most stable of lives built without the anchor of his word crashes like sand.
We are broken. We are unable to see our way. In the midst of our frailty and brokenness, God spoke, sent the Son, and gave us a Book. He saved us. In this we find comfort: God has spoken, and his word cannot be broken.
* ESV reads, exact imprint. CSB reads exact expression.
** Often attributed to Karl Barth.
*** Hymn, In the Garden.
**** Hillsong, 100 Billion Galaxies.
***** https://wordsrated.com/bible-sales-statistics/ accessed August 24, 2022.