Words from the Mouth of God 1986

When Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil And he fasted 40 days and 40 nights And afterward he was hungry and the tempter came and said to him You are the Son of God Command these stones to become loaves of bread But he answered He's written Man shall not live by bread alone But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God And here we see the difference between Jesus And all the religious people who stood aghast at him were offended by him And finally saw to it that he was nailed to the cross These religious people knew their Bibles inside and out They were forever hurling scriptures at each other and especially at those sinners out there But they lived By this world's bread For all their religion and all their knowledge of scriptures the bottom line for them Was money Mammal The things that money can buy They were ruled not by the words that came from the mouth of God But by whatever would promise to sustain or protect or enhance or Gratify their bodies or their egos Jesus On the other hand Live Not by bread alone But by every word that came from his father's mouth Now he didn't make a production out of it He didn't say I just spent five hours in prayer And I got a word from the father and you better do what I say never But He spent tremendous amounts of time listening listening always listen You could say that inside his heart. There was a continuous Sabbath where inwardly he was at rest Drinking in words from his father and these words made this man alive as no man had been alive since before Adam fell So that when he opened his mouth he spoke with authority when he stretched forth his hand there was healing flowing out Because he lived by every word that came from the mouth of the father After his temptation Jesus went out and began to gather disciples and the way he gathered the disciples was simply by allowing the word that he spoke to attract to draw And then he picked them But They could see people could see that this word coming forth from this man originated in a place of awesome holiness an unspeakable grace This word however that Jesus spoke Also had the power to offend the same word that drew some offended others And so we read in John chapter 6 verse 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them truly truly I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you Unless you are joined to my cross unless you become with me broken bread and poured out wine unless you Understand that you join yourself to me even in my death You have no life in you He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life And I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him as the Living Father sent me and I live Because of the father so he that eats me Will live because of me This is the living bread these words that he speaks This is the bread which came down from heaven not such as the father's ate and died He who eats this bread will live forever This he said in the synagogue as he taught it fraternity Many of his disciples when they heard it said this is a hard saying who can listen to it? But notice that the same word which offended these disciples and caused most of them at this point to leave and never come back With nevertheless spirit and life Many of his disciples when they heard it said this is a hard saying who can listen to it But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it said you take offense at this Then what what if you were to see the son of man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life the flesh is of no avail the words That I have spoken to you They are spirit and they are life But there are some of you that do not believe For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe and who it was who should betray him And he said this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my father After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him And so this word for some had the power to draw For others had the power to repel and offend But it was life for both it was life But when this was was received not with with an open heart, but with a hard heart then that life became death After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve.

Will you also go away? Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go? you have the words of Eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Where can we go? You have the words that come right from the mouth of the Father And so this little band this little remnant of disciples Peter and the others Now had to learn From Jesus how to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God and that did not happen overnight Many times these disciples were almost as hard as the scribes in Paris Many times that word went right by them Often it angered them or confused them or frightened them Sometimes the words that Jesus spoke drove them almost to despair Lord then who can be saved they would say But the thing that distinguished these disciples from the multitudes who had heard Jesus the same marvelous words but remained unchanged and Really when you hear Jesus words and you remain unchanged you are unchanged only on the outside on the inside You turn to stone now the thing that distinguished these disciples From the multitudes who inwardly were turning to stone were becoming petrified and hard was that these disciples were open They received it. They were listening and they were responding They were coming to life the hour is coming and now is when the dead Shall hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear shall live.

They were the dead coming to life They were changing The kingdom of God on this earth is made up of those people who in fact live Not by bread alone But in fact live by every word that comes from the mouth of God and those words coming from the mouth of God Visit us now He's risen from the dead. He is alive He stands among the lampstands and he speaks to his people and he speaks words that are not riddles No longer parables, but very very clear words that are spirit and light Words that bring light into darkness words that heal the sick and raise the dead The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and those who listen will live Now most of us in this place have at least Tasted the power of those words have had have experienced the impact of those words on our wills and on our behavior and many of us here have experienced some form of healing in those words and yet Very few if any of us Have yet to have come to the place Where we are living by Really living where these words have become our life Where we are living no longer by this world's bread But by every word that comes out of his mouth and this is what he's calling us to now all of us He's calling us to believe and live our belief that the real bread It's not what is being offered all over the place out there or whatever But that the real bread is the word coming forth from his mouth To receive that bread to eat that bread and to live by it Lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life and we have believed that have come to know that you are the Holy One of God Revelation chapter 2 verse 1 To the angel of the church in Ephesus write the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand who walks among the seven golden lampstands Revelation 2 8 to the angel of the church at Smyrna right the words of the first and the last who died and came to life to 12 for the angel of the church at Pergamon right the words of him who has the sharp to exhort and to each one of the seven Churches the words the words the words Those words are being spoken to the body of Christ all over the earth now a lot clear unmistakable life-giving and we can hear We can hear a word that is unmistakably from Jesus We can hear this if we are willing to give to those words the absolute top priorities in our lives and if we are willing to say this is more important to me than anything else, I want to hear from you and Draw near to him with hearts and with ears that are open which means for them first of all We will hear a word from the Son of God. He will absolutely speak clearly unmistakably to us first of all if we Begin to eliminate the static and the static is simply made up of all the words that come from everywhere else For instance when Satan said to Jesus at the temptation if you're the Son of God turn these stones into bread His words were static.

They were static even when he quoted scripture Because these words were coming in between the Son and the Father and Jesus finally had to say get out of here In an age where the big thing is input get input lots of input take a survey find out what everybody thinks That's the last thing we need if we want to hear a word from God What we really need to do is narrow it down so we don't hear endless words words words words all the time words and This beat and rhythm and blare all around all the time And even the the fear and the anger and the resentment that comes up in our hearts and makes all kinds of noise So that we can't hear We all know what it's like to try to carry on a conversation With somebody when their TV is blaring in our ear, you know They're sitting over here and TV's here and we're here and we're trying to hear what they say And this TV's gone we hear about the soap opera who just shot somebody or who just went after somebody else's husband You know, we're trying to talk and we hear all this junk and now comes the commercial, you know And if you were sitting at it looking at it this way, you'd probably fall asleep But when you're over here, you're trying to listen to this person. You just can't hear there won't be any valid conversation So somebody presses the off button and that's what we need to do Somehow or other if we truly want to hear from the Lord We have to give him a chance to speak to us and start eliminating all this static which we can recognize as static Secondly We will hear a word From the mouth of the Lord Jesus clearly and directly to us When we learn To quiet our own mouth even righteous Joel received very very little light on the absurd and difficult and baffling situation in which he found himself until Joel learned To quiet his mouth And so we read Joel 38 verse 1 then the Lord answered Joel out of the whirlwind Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man. I will question you and you shall declare to me Who is this who darkens my counsel with all these words? Joel you want to hear shut up I'm gonna ask you a few questions and then you talk to me To the Psalms the Lord says the same thing be still know that I am God I'll be exalted among the heathen.

I'll be exalted in the earth. You just be quiet for a while and to us he says Let everyone be swift to hear Slow to speak speak and slow to anger For the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God and one of the ways in which the evil one Hinders us from hearing is that he gets a span You know, he uses one against another. Oh, we walk around with so much anger.

No wonder we can't hear Now if we want to hear a word from the mouth of the Lamb We have to still our own lives And our hearts and our minds So that he can get food There is art. There is for sure a time for words of praise and songs and shouts of Thanksgiving But there is also a time To listen the two go together if I don't spend time listening My shots will become absolutely hollow and empty You know took six days of marching around Jericho and then six more times Until finally the seventh time on the seventh day They could shout and all during that first period of time. They had to just be quiet.

No words And we need to learn to do that. We need to learn the importance of quiet in our private prayer life It's important to do some listening And in our corporate life, we need to learn to do that. You know the first charismatics of modern times That is the last few hundred years with the Quakers And all they did was sit on those hard benches and listen until somebody received a word from God and we need to do that We need to learn like our Lord to have an inner Sabbath inside where it's quiet where we can hear something thirdly We will absolutely hear a word a living word from the mouth of Jesus When we learn to pull down and remove the convenience barriers Now the convenience barriers are these barricades which we raise up in front of the doorway to certain areas of our lives Well, we would prefer not to have God say anything to us at all You know, so what we do is we raise up a barrier I raise up a barrier at this door here God wants to say something to me about not the way I deal with my wife or my husband Or the way I handle my money or my attitude toward my boss or My partner or my employees But I just put up this barrier and I don't hear anything at all pretty soon 80% of the doors of my inner mansion are barricaded and 20% are open so that God can speak the 20% that God can say anything he wants to and I won't have to change my lifestyle And I can say conveniently Oh Lord.

Thank you for that word Thank you for telling me that all things will work together for my good When he's trying to tell me to make some changes in my life Now you say wait a minute. I haven't done anything. I don't have any of these convenience barriers.

My life is open to the Lord a Simple test very quickly to find out how open our lives are to the Lord is this Take the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 6 and 7 and take a slow journey through sermon on the Mount Read carefully Matthew 5 6 and 7 and If you can get through Matthew 5 6 and 7 without having the Spirit of the Lord put his finger or one of those barriers My friend you have a 1-800 line to heaven Go ahead. You're doing great and you're gonna bear much fruit But if as you're reading through Matthew 5 6 and 7 He puts his finger on Go be reconciled to your brother then coming off your gift whoever looks on a woman in lust You know has committed adultery with her in his heart. Let your yes be.

Yes, and you know, it's no be no Beware of practicing your piety before men Judge not we shall not be judged And there are lots of other ones None of that touching you're fine But if the Lord begins to put his finger on these things And the minute you begin to pull down the barrier and say Lord, I don't even know how to conform But help me he will and we will begin to hear very very clearly and get great encouraging We will hear a living word from the Lord When we start taking some steps new steps When the Lord speaks to me and I've heard it and I act on what I heard just take one step in obedience Then my light becomes brighter I hear more clearly I get vision I get encouragement I get all kinds of help from God when the Lord speaks to me and I hear and I Hear but I don't act on it. The word that I hear becomes fainter and fainter and so finally I think When the Lord is dealing with me for instance about forgiveness or when he's dealing with me about truthfulness or about an attitude all I have to do is start to move in the direction of some active obedience and I will hear more When he speaks to me about these things and often they're very close to home and I don't act I become deaf Matthew 7 24 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built this house upon the rock and The rain fell in the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house but it did not fall because it had been founded upon the rock and Everyone who hears these words of mine these words and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built this house upon the sand and The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell And great was the fall Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil And he fasted 40 days and 40 nights and afterward he was hungry and The tempter came and said to him if you are the Son of God Command these stones to become loaves of bread But he answered it is written Man shall not live by bread alone But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God And the question we need to ask ourselves is What are we living by are we living by in fact this world's bread And for most of us that boils down to mammoth or are we living by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lamb? He is risen He's alive And he's among the golden lampstands. He's in our midst And he speaks and we live eternally Or we die eternally by what we do with his words