The Christian life..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So as I said, brethren, tonight I hope that the Lord help us to speak about the topic of hearing the Word of God. So we have spoken extensively about the importance of the Word of God, not only for the individual, but also the Word of God for the local church.

This is something that we have said many times from the very moment that we started with Cornerstone. In July 2018, we have tried by God's grace to present and to exalt the scriptures as everything that we need for life and godliness for the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that our lives are to be guided and ruled by what the scriptures say. And this is the way that the Lord speaks to us individually and also as a church, as a community. So it's very important that we ask ourselves that question. What is hearing?

the Word of God. Because when we say hearing the Word of God, we're not speaking about the physical activity of interpreting sounds that correspond to language, whatever language, in this case English, that enter through our ears and they produce certain sounds in our brains. We're not speaking about that physical ability just to capture sounds, but rather to spiritually hear the Word of the Lord, which is that which edifies the soul of a person. And what I'm going to try to present to you here from this passage, my dear brethren, or this is going to be in a starting passage from us. Romans chapter 10 from verse 5 to verse 17.

I want to speak to you about what is to hear the word of God. What is that? What do we mean biblically? What is it to hear the word of the Lord? Primarily from that verse 17.

So that once we meditate just briefly about what it is to hear the word of God, then we can speak about how Do we hear the word of God? One thing is to define what it is. Another very important question that we need to ask ourselves from the scripture is how do we hear the word of God? Because it's not only by having the physical ability to hear sounds, but how do we hear the word of God? Now, another question that I want us to ask ourselves and answer from the scriptures is how do we know that we are hearing the word of God?

Because if hearing the word of God is not only a physical activity, but by God's providence, everyone is able to physically receive the sounds of even the reading of the word to the preaching of the word. How do we know that we are hearing the words of God as individuals and as a church? How do we know not only the definition of what it is or how do we do it, but how do we know that we are hearing the words of God? And then also from there, I want us to take us from the Scriptures also just to see what is the result in the local church when the members are either hearing the word of God or when the members of the church are not hearing the word of God. And then there's another a couple of things.

But as I'm just going through those things, I'm just realizing that he's going to be very long. So let's see how the Lord guides us and allows us just to go through those questions. And we'll see if we address anything else. So let us read. Brethren, Romans chapter 10, in light of that topic of hearing the words of God, namely the first point of the definition of what it is to hear the words of the Lord in verse 17.

Let us read together from verse five and the apostle here. Brethren, he is going to compare the old covenant in Moses and what the old covenant in Moses required, namely obedience, and what the new covenant in Christ requires, namely faith. And then he speaks of that faith connected to hearing the Word of God, as we know in verse 17. So let us get the context, and then we will just briefly speak about the definition of what it is to hear the Word of God. So this is Romans chapter 10 from verse 5.

Let us read together. It says, For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law. That is the old covenant, the righteousness that is based on the law. that the person who does or obeys the commandments shall live by them. That is Moses.

Verse 6. But the righteousness based on faith, New Covenant says, do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down. Or who will descend into the abyss? That is to bring Christ up from the dead.

But what does it say? That is the righteousness based on faith. What does it say? Verse 8. The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart.

That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. The contrast there between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Verse 10. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

For the Scripture says, everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So he's saying everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now pay attention to how he uses now these questions here.

They are not rhetorical. They are questions, informative questions in question from verse 14. It says, How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

And how are they to preach unless they are sent As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news, that they have not all obeyed the gospel, obeyed the truth. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? And then the answer there is basically the conclusion of that passage. So faith comes from hearing. and hearing by or through the Word of Christ or the Word of God.

It says, verse 17, Faith comes through or by hearing and hearing through or by the Word of God, the Word of Christ. And we're speaking about hearing the Word of God. That is the Word of the Lord that we have read together. Now, my dear brethren, the first thing that I want to mention and that we have mentioned very clearly in the past is that hearing the word of the Lord is a spiritual exercise. We will be deceived and very confused if we only think that hearing the word of God is a physical exercise, as I said in the beginning, in which we only engage our ears and our physical ability to capture sound.

Hearing the word of the Lord is not reduced down just to simply opening the scriptures and reading aloud the words. That is to hear the sounds of what the words of God will sound like. But as you can see here, hearing the word of God brings a spiritual transformation in the heart of the person who hears the word of the Lord. Hence, hearing the word of the Lord is not physical, but primarily is a spiritual exercise, is a spiritual activity. And what we see from verse 17 is not only that it's a spiritual exercise that is initiated by God, but that hearing also belongs to a process.

A process in which the outcome of that process is faith. And we have the elements of that process in verse 17 that it says that faith comes by or through hearing. And this hearing is the result that comes through the word of God. That is that for a person to hear spiritually the word of God, that which is necessary initially is not the person him or herself willing to hear that is necessary, as we will see, but that which is ultimately necessary is God speaking. So God is the one that initiates the process of a person hearing the Word of God.

Because Paul is not referring only to the inscripturated Word of the Lord, the ink and the words that we see in paper. But he's speaking about the spiritual words of God that carry the life of God himself. So we say that hearing the Word of God for each one of us is a spiritual process that is initiated not by me coming in the morning and opening only the Scriptures, or not by the church gathering on Sunday and coming just to hear the preaching of the Word. But rather, ultimately and beyond that, the Lord, the God of heaven, is the one that initiates that process in giving His Word. Hearing comes from or through the word that God has given.

And the spiritual exercise is confirmed in that the result of the hearing of the word of the Lord produces a fruit in the person, and that fruit is faith. Now, nobody can produce faith in and of himself. Nobody has the ability to intellectually come to the conclusion that a plus b is equal c, and then c to the power of 3, then it's equal to d, or whatever, whatever. No one has the ability, intellectually, in and of themselves, through a piece of information or a collection or set of information, to produce faith in and of themselves. So we conclude from this passage here that hearing the words of God requires the initiated work of speaking that comes from above God, and that when those words come into the person hearing spiritually, then the result of it is that there is going to be faith, because faith is source in hearing, and that hearing the word of God or the word of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, the apostle is going to confirm those two conclusions. That is, a spiritual exercise, and that is indeed a process through the text. What we have read here is a description of that spiritual process and how it takes place in a person, and how it is manifested as a process. So if we just simply go once again to the text, we will see that very simply how the apostle is going to explain that. Hearing of the word is a spiritual exercise that is seen in genuine faith, the outcome of faith.

And that is not something that happened mystically, but it's actually a process. And that process is worked providentially by the Lord. So if we have read from verse five there, Paul is comparing Moses in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant faith, the righteousness that is by the law and the righteousness that is by faith. And if we take there from eight in which verse eight in which the apostle now is going to speak about that righteousness that is based on faith, he's going to speak to us about that faith, which is the genuine outcome of hearing of hearing the word of God. Nobody can have faith if they have not heard the word of the Lord.

So now we're going to see how the faith is produced through hearing. Verse 8, it says, But what does it say that is the righteousness that is of faith, the righteousness of the new covenant? The word is near you. And then he uses two parts of the body to illustrate the process that takes place in the person. And those two parts of the body are the The mouth and the heart.

OK, so the puzzle is now going to illustrate or not illustrate to just speaking our language so that we will see what happens when a person has faith. It says in verse eight, the word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. And not words are taken or written carelessly in the scriptures, because now the apostle is going to use those two, the mouth and the heart, to speak of that spiritual reality that takes place when a person hears the word of the Lord. It says, the mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim, New Covenant. Verse nine, because if you confess with your mouth, that is, if your mouth is open to utter, right?

That is, confess with the mouth, to proclaim with the mouth. For if your mouth or if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and together with, Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So the apostle says that in salvation there is a belief that happens in the heart. We believe with the heart and that belief with the heart comes together with a confession that happens with the mouth. Now, the puzzle is not saying that for a person to be saved, they need to have a mouth and an ability to confess.

Simply, it's saying that in the heart we believe, and then with whatever ability we have to communicate, that deposit that takes place in the heart is uttered. In this case, with the mouth. In verse 10, For with the heart, and then the explanation comes here, one believes and is justified. That is, belief happens in the heart. We believe in the heart and is justified.

And with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. So how is a person saved with genuine faith when the person believes with the heart, and with the heart is justified, and there's together also a confession of the Lordship of Christ, and in that confession of the Lordship of Christ that is rooted in the spiritual reality, then that person is saved. But the Apostle continues to speak to us about this confessing the word and believing the word as this spiritual reality from the point of view of the mouth and of the heart. And he continues in verse 11. For the scripture says, Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him." Now the apostle is going to summarize believing in, calling on Him, because the person who calls on Him is the person who has believed in the heart. The person who calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is the person who has believed in the heart and it has been justified. So then that person confesses that the Lord is Lord and that person is saved. And they're saying everyone who calls on Him will be saved.

Verse 13, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Basically, what he's saying is that this is the experience of faith in a person who is genuinely saved. Transformation of the heart and then a confession with the mouth of the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. But then from verse 14 to verse 16, he is going to give us the process, if you want, of the requirements, if you want, or the elements, if you want, of the communication of God's Word that is initiated by Him and the result of faith in the heart of a person, which is the conclusion of the Apostle in verse 17. He says that faith comes by hearing and hearing the words of the Lord.

Now, in verses 14 through 16, he's going to speak to us about the elements of the speaking of God from heaven, initiated in heaven, and the combination, that is Spanish, of the conclusion in faith, in the person, in the faith, in the heart, and the confession with the mouth. It says in verse 14, How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? That is, how are they going to utter with their mouth a confession of faith if they have not believed in the heart? And then it says, there's something that is necessary for them to call, and that is in this next question. How are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? So now the apostle has broken down that process of initiated in God and the finish, which is the conclusion of faith, genuine faith in the person saying that for this person to call Upon the name of the Lord, that person needs to believe, which he has said already. A person has to believe in the heart. But for this person to believe, they need to hear the words of the Lord.

And for this person to hear the words of the Lord, they need someone to preach. And for that person to preach, they need to be Sent. Sent by who? Sent by God, who is the one who initiates the message, who is the one that speaks to a person, and the result of speaking to that person is the result of faith. And God has appointed in the way that he speaks is not only through the scriptures as we come individually, but also as he has appointed men to be sent to preach the word of God.

And then the preach the preach word of God, not only the preach word of God, but the preach word of God that is preached by a person who has been sent by God. Right. Then that word is the word that arrives and is heard and is believed. And that is the word that produces faith. So, brethren, we have here the disposition on the heart of God when it comes to the faith of the heart of the person that is going to be saved.

And that is that genuine hearing of the word of God is going to be evidence in the result, which is faith, because this is initiated by God who providentially works through means, and those are the means of preaching the Word, sending people to preach the Word, messengers of God who carry the message of the Lord, who preach the message, receive it in their ears, believe in their heart, and they call upon the name of the Lord. So what is to hear the Word of the Lord? Hearing the Word of the Lord is a spiritual exercise, is a spiritual activity. that is part of a process and a process that is initiated by God and that has an outcome which is genuine, not man-made, or not just in the will and in the flesh of man-produced faith. That means, brethren, that every time that the Lord genuinely speaks to us, that when he speaks to a person and he wills that his word will go and produce the fruit of faith, that there's nothing that is going to go against the will of the Lord in speaking to a person, but it's actually going to produce faith.

But then someone will say, yes, but the apostle is speaking about Salvation when the person first believes. And that is true. The apostle is speaking about a person being saved, confessing with the mouth and believing in the heart the moment of salvation. But brethren, the life of the Christian is a life that is meant to be lived by faith. And faith continues to be produced by hearing the words of the Lord, and it's not produced in and of ourselves.

So then the question is, how do we hear the word of the Lord? Not only when we are initially saved, but then when we have our lives and we continue to live our lives of Christendom, the answer to that is just as simple as faith. Faith is the result of hearing the Word of the Lord, and then faith is the requirement for us to approach and to diligently seek the Lord through the Scriptures and through the Holy Spirit so that we will hear the voice of the Lord. We cannot approach either the Scriptures or we cannot be in the context of the church when we are receiving the Word that is preached with a faithless heart. Not only because it is sinful, remember the definition of Paul for sin in Romans chapter 14, that that which does not proceed from faith is sin.

So brethren, the seriousness of hearing and approaching the word of God either individually or when we are in the context of the church on a Thursday or in the context of the local church on Sunday, on the Lord's Day, and the word of God is being preached, The expectation of the Lord is that the saints come together with faithful hearts, not because is a man the one that is going to preach or that is going to speak. But if the words that the men speaks correspond to the heart and to what is written in the Scriptures and the heart of God, then those are the words of the Lord. And the intention of the Lord is that that person will receive that word by faith. because hearing the Word is a spiritual exercise that is initiated by God and is supposed to produce faith. Now, brethren, that means that every time that we come to the Scriptures individually on a daily basis and we seek the Lord through the Scriptures, and when we come together as a local church, the result of that seeking the Lord by faith and the outcome of it should be a strengthening of our faith.

And our faith is just simply having this conviction, this certainty of the things that we hope and the things that we have not seen, namely of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, every time that God speaks to us and we receive by faith, we have more certainty that the one that we love, even though we have not seen, the one that we're waiting for, even though we have not seen, the one whom we love. Every time that the Lord speaks to us, that should be the outcome. And now, brethren, just as God requires, you know, as he says, repent and believe, you know, when the gospel is preached, the Lord also is the one who works in us faith. But also, he says, believe when we come together, believe in the words that I'm that I'm communicating through you to the picture.

Believe in the words that you're reading as a call for us to believe. Because, my dear brethren, faith is how we hear the voice of the Lord. That is the warning that he gives in Hebrews chapter 3 that is very well known if you go there just very quickly. So we answered that second question, how we hear the voice of the words of God in Hebrews chapter 3. Verse 12, it says, take care, brothers and sisters, Hebrew chapter 3, verse 12.

Take care, brethren or brothers and sisters, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart or heart of unbelief, an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away or to separate from the living God. That is what an unbelieving heart produces. Speaking to the church, right? It's not speaking to the one that is to believe for the first time. It's speaking to the church.

An unbelieving heart or a faithless heart will bring separation from the manifested presence of the Lord. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Absolutely nothing can separate us from our position in Christ, in God and our union that we have with Him. But the presence of sin or the lack of faith in our hearts will remove us from the manifested presence of the Lord. When, brethren, when we say, you know, I'm dry or I'm not feeling that I'm walking in the light or that I'm not walking in the Spirit, I have this burden upon me.

These are the words of the way that we express those things. There's a separation from the manifested presence of the Lord. And He says, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief or an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. He's the source of life. Verse 13, But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that is in the heart.

For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end, as it is said. And here it says, the analogy now that the author of Hebrews is going to give, it says in verse 15, as it is said, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart, as in the day of the provocation of the rebellion. Now, brethren, speaking of Israel, Israel were in the context of God. God was in the midst of them. God was speaking to them words.

And now he's going to say that hearing the word, it was not so much as seeing the presence of God among them and hearing the words of God, but rather that hearing of the word. It was a spiritual exercise that was initiated by God that is supposed to conclude in faith. So a faithless heart in the process of hearing that were initiated by God, does not produce absolutely anything. You're not hearing the word of the Lord. And that is what the author of Hebrews says, starting in verse 16.

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And the answer is yes. And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? With them.

Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? Yes. And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of lack of faith and belief, because hearing the words of the Lord is in a spiritual process that is initiated by God for his people. That is supposed to result in faith, a faithful heart that hears the words of the Lord to receive and to apply.

And the outcome of it will be fruit of righteousness, more particularly the fruit of faith. That is what hearing the word of God is. And that is how we hear the words of the Lord by faith. Without faith, my dear brethren, it's impossible to please the Lord. Without faith, it's impossible to act in righteousness, because everything that is not rooted in faith is sin.

Without faith, it's impossible to hear the words of the Lord. And without faith, every church activity or every religious exercise of the individual or the community is a waste of time. because we are to hear the Word and not to be like the people of Israel who heard the Word of God and did not respond in obedience and in faithfulness, but rather they were disobedient to the Word of the Lord. And actually, the result of not hearing the Word of the Lord with faith for the people of Israel was judgment. It was judgment they perished there in the wilderness.

And the author of Hebrews is putting that warning there for us, brethren. He's not putting that just as a historical recollection, but rather he's putting this as a warning for us. Now, but then how do we know then? How do we know that we are hearing the Word of God? If we have said that hearing the Word of God is a spiritual process that is initiated from God, and it is supposed to conclude in faith, in the abundance of faith, and then the continuation of the ongoingness of hearing the Word of God requires the presence of faith, How do we know that are coming to the Scriptures every morning?

How do we know that are gathering together on a Thursday or a Sunday to hear the Word of God that is preached according to what Paul said there in Romans chapter 10? How do we know that we are hearing the Word of the Lord? Well, if we are going to test something that is spiritual and something that is to be manifested in the faith, then we are to confirm and to see a spiritual substance in us. Come with me to Ephesians chapter one. And in Ephesians chapter one, Ephesians chapter one, the apostle Paul is going to ask, is going to pray for the Ephesians.

Actually, I think it's like three times. But in the first prayer of the apostle for the Ephesians, He's going to speak about this process of growing in hearing of the Lord. Or in other words, you know how sometimes we call it illumination or revelation. Because when we hear, brethren, the Word of God, it's not only that our faith grows in this abstract, mystical way, But when we hear the word of the Lord, we grow in understanding and knowledge of God because he speaks about who he is and the things that he has done and the things that he will do. And that is everything that we need to know, right?

The things that he who he is, the things that he has done, the thing that he continues to do according to the scriptures and the things that he will do. That is what we need to know of God, His revelation in the person of Christ through the Scriptures and all His mighty works. And that's what the testimony of the Old Testament, the work of the hand of the Lord and His character. And that is what we ought to grow in understanding and knowledge of. That is what they called the illumination of the saint.

When the saint hears the words of God, either when it's preached, or when the saint hears the words of the Lord, when they're coming to seek the Lord individually through the Scriptures, then the saint is being illuminated. Light is coming to a revelation of who God is and things that He has done, He does, and He will do. And this is an illumination of the heart. Well, this is a revelation of God Himself to that person. Why?

because hearing the Word of God is a spiritual process that is initiated by God. In other words, He reveals Himself. We cannot describe and break God down and define it in our own minds and our own concepts. It's God the one who reveals Himself and continues to reveal Himself to us, the process of illumination. The Apostle knowing that, and all the Apostles knowing that, And as we know, it is the God who opens our eyes continually.

The apostle is going to ask and pray for the efficience and in his prayer, asking the Lord so that the efficiency will grow in this revelation. In this understanding, we see very important matters, very spiritual realities that should, or at least the apostle expects, that will take place as the saint grows in the revelation, in the illumination of the Lord, of the knowledge of the Lord that comes from hearing of God. And that starts in verse 15 of chapter one. If you read it with me together in Ephesians chapter one verse 15, it says, For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, Now pay attention, this is the prayer that God the Father may give you, and then He says, "...the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him."

That is the prayer of the Apostle on behalf of the Ephesians, praying to God the Father, saying, Father, give them, please give them the saints at Ephesus, give them the spirit of wisdom and together with a revelation in the knowledge of Him, Christ, right? So he's asking, please give them the ability to be wise, the spiritual ability to be wise and give them the knowledge of Him, revelation and something that is to be revealed is something that is to be open. And the one who opens that is God himself. Verse 18 is going to break down more that of this spirit of wisdom of this revelation in the knowledge of Christ. Verse 18, having the eyes of your face?

No, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, or in other words, illuminated. Why? Because God is the one that initiates that process of illumination. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. And here, the apostle is going to expect that the enlightenment, that is the word that you say, enlightenment, or the light that the heart of the person receives, or the revelation of the spirit of wisdom that the person receives, is going to be seen and observed in knowledge, of course.

Because as I said, this is not something mystical. But the Lord speaks to us through the word. So that we may know, he says there, that the saint will know something. What is that something that the saint knows when the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Christ and having the eyes of their hearts is illuminated? What is that knowledge?

It says first that you may know what is the hope? to which He has called you, one, the hope to which He has called you. Peter says in 1 Peter 1 that this is a living hope, right? Speaking of Christ through the resurrection of the dead, a living hope that is waiting for us. So that is that when the Christian receives the revelation of the wisdom of God, the knowledge of God, when God reveals himself to the Christian, and we know that that happens through the scriptures, that happens by faith, that is that we know and we apprehend more by faith the hope to which we have been called.

Not only that, but also what are the riches of his glorious inheritance. Not only inheritance, but glorious inheritance. And not only glorious inheritance, but a rich, glorious inheritance. So that is that when we receive that revelation, brethren, from the Lord, that illumination from the Lord, we know the hope to which we have been called. But also this inheritance that is yet to come.

It's not an abstract idea that Christians hold and that said, the Lord is going to come. I'm just going to be with him. But rather, the experience of the Christian is experiencing that inheritance as glorious and as rich inheritance in the Saints and verse 19. And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power? Imagine the measurable that we will know the measurable greatness of his power.

that we will have the ability to know in our feeble, limited minds, the immeasurable that just by definition cannot be contained in anything because it's an immeasurable, but that we will know the immeasurable and immeasurable greatness and greatness, not of just someone's power, but his power, the power of God to create the heavens and the earth and to give light to the one that is death. the power of God to hold all things with the power of his word, the power of his mouth, that the saint will know all of these things, the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe. Brethren, that is something that the mind can perhaps acknowledge. But for a heart to experience and to generally apprehend these concepts that in the ears of the fleshly men are just simply romantic, abstract words that the Apostle Paul simply just wrote there just for the sake of making things complicated. That is what the fleshly carnal mind would think, but each one of these words, intended by the Spirit and intended by the Apostle Paul, immeasurable greatness of his power, glorious inheritance of the saints, and the hope to which we have been called, that we will know, that we will experience as a reality in the heart.

A reality that is according to this power, the power that resurrected the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection power working in the hearts of believers. And that is what is supposed to happen when we hear the word of the Lord. And now, brethren, we have abundance of opportunities to hear the word of the Lord. We have abundance of opportunities for us individually to come together, to come individually before the Lord, together in the Spirit with the Lord, to come into the Scriptures and to hear the voice of the Lord, to seek him diligently by faith. Not only that, we have the peace and the freedom to congregate and to come together as a local church to hear the word of the Lord.

And brethren, it seems that at times that the Western church will not value those freedoms and opportunities and the peace that we have to access the words of the Lord, not only individually, but in the context of the church until those are taken away from us, brethren. until those are taken away from us and then we will just be like beggars, just trying just to hold a, you know, a little piece of what the Lord can speak actually to us. But brethren, I know that at times when we speak these words of the immeasurable riches of the power and the measurable or the hope to which we have been called, well, of the riches of His glorious inheritance, that when we speak those words, our minds can easily just redefine that experience because it's very difficult. How do we measure? the experience of knowing, or how do we see, how do we see the experience, the genuine experience of knowing the hope to which we have been called?

How do we measure that? How do we know, how do we measure, how do we witness the fact that a person has come to understand or to know the riches of the glorious inheritance that the person has? How do we know that that person has come to know or experience the power, the immeasurable greatness of God's power that was the power that was in Christ? Then it kind of like becomes subjective to the mind of the person, whatever they want to describe it, to define it. And our minds are deceitful.

But thankfully, brethren, there is a passage in the scriptures. There's a passage of the scriptures. that clearly gives and speaks to the depths of the heart of the Christian, in which we can see if we have the wisdom that the Apostle mentions here, you see how it says in verse 17, the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and knowledge of him, a wisdom that comes from above. a wisdom that is initiated by God, a wisdom that is heavenly wisdom, and not a wisdom that someone can just simply work on his own, a wisdom that is just simply accumulating words and accumulating pieces of information in the brain and accumulating just simply doctrines and calling those doctrines the knowledge of the hope of the Lord. or the knowledge of the immeasurable power of the Lord, or calling those thoughts just simply the riches of the inheritance that we have.

Because we're very good at doing that, brethren. We're very good at just defying with our brains and just simply putting information in our brain and defining our Christian life by just simply things that we have in our head. Of course, if the Lord speaks and if faith is produced, there has to be a change in the life of the person. And there is a passage of the scriptures that speaks about two types of wisdom. One wisdom that is heavenly, that comes from above, and another wisdom that is earthly, that is not coming from above.

Both of them are called wisdoms according to the passage of scripture that we're going to be reading together very soon. One comes from above. The other one is of the flesh. It's an earthly wisdom. And in that passage, the person who wrote that passage in the power of the Holy Spirit is going to give some indications, some indicators or some tests that will help us discern what type of wisdom is the one that abides in the heart of the Christian.

And one of the type of indicators, we're going to read the passage, but I'm just going to present it to you. One of the indicators that this author of the scriptures speaks is about the life of the person. It says, if in your life you have confusion, if you have disorder, if your life is confused from one place to another, like a wave of the sea, there's disorder and there's confusion. And in the midst of that confusion, in all of that confusion, in that confusion, there is evil works, there is sin. then your wisdom is not coming from above, but it's earthly wisdom.

But yet still a person at times in the deceitfulness of our hearts, we may have the ability even just at times to remove ourselves or just to redefine the confusions of our lives. And even though the life of the person may be a chaos and indeed disordered, and there may be unrighteousness, that person may be blinded to all of those things. And the confusion and the disorder of the life may be just simply said, no, I'm not doing those things. In the same passage, the author does not only give evidences of things that happen outside of confusion and sin, but he speaks to the heart. And he says something very, very powerful.

I'm going to invite you to James, as you perhaps may know now, because there in James, James is going to speak about that type of wisdom. James chapter 3. Now, brethren, Here, James is going to speak about realities of the life of a person and realities of the heart of that person. That if those things are happening in the life of that person, and if those things are taking place in the heart of that person, then the wisdom that that person has is not the wisdom that is coming from above. In other words, not hearing the words of God, but it's wisdom that is earthly.

And that is found in chapter three. Very strong words there, brethren. And these are very serious words. Very, very serious words. Let us just perhaps let us just read the passage instead of just speaking about it.

Let us just read from verse 13 to verse 18. OK, from verse 13 to verse 18. Brethren, please carefully read these words, because if any of these two things is manifested in our hearts, if any of these things is manifested present in your heart, your conscience will testify to you. If any of these things is present in your spiritual experience, then this is not wisdom that comes from above. And we are to be serious about that.

It says, Who is the wise and understanding among you? Speaking to the church, and this is in the context of, you know, don't make yourself that the teachers will have a stricter judgment, says, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with a greater, stricter judgment. It says in verse one of the same chapter. So this is speaking in the context of the church. Those who having the word of God, those who profess to be wise, those who profess to know, those who profess to hear the word of the Lord and to have wisdom and to have the word of God.

It says in verse 13, Who is wise and understanding among you? And then he says, by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But then he's going to pierce the heart, but saying, but if you but if you have bitter jealousy or envy. And selfish ambition in your heart do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above.

And then he uses very strong words, speaking to Christian's brother. But it's earthly, unspiritual, demonic. I said to you that when we hear the words of the Lord, it's a spiritual exercise that is initiated by God. The outcome is faith, faith that produces fruit. It says, verse 15, this is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but it's earthly and spiritual, demonic.

And then it says in verse 16, what I was just mentioning to you, for where jealousy or envy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile or evil practice. Pay attention to that truth in verse 16, brethren. It says, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, it says there may be perhaps. No, it says there will be this order and every vile practice. A life that is regulated by confusion and disorder.

And the disorder is accompanied or comes together with evil practices or vile practices. Now, it might be the result of immaturity, but also it may be the result of this in the heart. Two things. Now, James could have said many things, right? But through the inspiration of the Spirit, it says, envy or bitter jealousy and selfish ambition.

If those two things are in the heart, in your heart or in my heart, we cannot conclude that we have earthly, that we have heavenly wisdom. Right, brethren? We are not hearing God. We might be reading theology and coming to conclusions. We might be having the truth of this or that.

But if in the presence of the heart of the person, there is envious, envious thoughts or bitter, you know, you see those words, there's such strong words here in the ESV, bitter, jealousy, and not in the words, but in the heart, bitterness. Because brethren, we don't have control over bitterness. When bitterness has taken over the heart, then we're just experiencing bitterness. Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, verse 16, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disordered and every vile practice. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure and then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

The harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. disorganized, disorder, chaos, vile practice, things are not in place. The other says peace. There are peace, some in peace in those who make peace. Why, brethren?

Because being wise in this age and being understanding in this age is not about understanding a set of principles. Hearing the word of the Lord is a spiritual exercise that is supposed to be evidence in the heart of the person. And James is writing about things that had been taken in the context of the church. That is what I said to you. What is to hear the word of God?

It is to hear the word of the Lord as a spiritual exercise that initiated by him and that concludes in faith. How do we hear the word of the Lord? We hear the word of the Lord by faith. And then how do we know that we're hearing the word of the Lord? If we are being taken to this knowledge of the hope of His power, of the inheritance that is manifested in a heart that is clean from bitter jealousy or envy, a heart that is clean from selfish ambition, a heart that is in peace, a heart that is gentle, a heart that is merciful, with good fruits impartial.

That is the result of God speaking His Word to a person. And brethren, if that does not happen in each one of the hearts, the consequences for the church, which is the next point, is what happens in verse four, in chapter four. It says, remember that there's no chapters. This is the continuation. So this is the conclude.

This is the organic. continuation of the argument of James it says what causes quarrels and causes fights among you local church right what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you brethren who are in the local church Is it not this that your passions, right? Passions, he has spoken about that which is in the heart already. Passions or those pleasures or those things that move inside of the person are at war within you. Now it says, you desire and do not have, so you murder bitter jealousy, the one that he has spoken about.

You desire and do not have, so you murder. That is to be envious. That is to have bitter jealousy, brethren. To desire what someone else has, or to be what someone else is, or just to hear or to do whatever someone else does, whatever they have, envy, bitter jealousy. You desire and do not have, so you murder.

Because when there is envy, there's going to be hatred against the person that I'm envious. of, or from, or to, whatever preposition you use. Whoever is the person that one is envious, then there's going to be hatred in the heart. Murder. And then it says, you covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

Covet, selfish ambition. He has spoken about bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. You covet and cannot obtain, so you quarrel. And this is the cause, my dear brother and sister, according to James chapter four, of quarrels. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

Say not this, that your passions are at work within you. How is the church going to grow in unity and in maturity? It is through the Word of God. But it's not through the Word of God only being preached or the Word of God being read. It's by hearing the Word of God, by faith, individually.

That is how the church grows. Now, churches, brethren, churches, every congregation, every community of people in which the saints are not walking in the positive aspect of this reality will necessarily have these situations in their heart. will necessarily have situations in the heart. And even though, you know, the scriptures seem to speak about the necessity of times of the reality of divisions and separations in the church, this is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 19, I think that there is necessary that there will be divisions and fractions among you. It seems that there is necessary that there will be those things.

And still, brethren, I want to hold, and I hope that you want to hold to the fact that we can walk contrary to these ways. that we can depend upon the Lord and that the Lord will cleanse us from these ways. Because if there is one among us or many among us that have this earthly wisdom that is called demonic, very strong words, demonic and earthly, satanic, in other words, wisdom, then there is the possibility of quarrels and division among us. And I don't know, and I think that you will be of the same mind. We don't want that in the context of Cornerstone Reform Baptist Church.

And the way to eliminate the possibilities of quarrels or divisions in the church is not by having shallow fellowship in which we do not touch ourselves in the difficult points, but rather walking in the Lord, rather hearing the words of the Lord, hearing the words of the Lord. and having those words treasure up in our hearts by faith, because when each individual member in his own responsibility in the context of the local church and before the Lord has this desire and is careful not to have envy or bitter jealousy in his heart or her heart or selfish ambition, then that person is not only deciding to grow in sanctification individually, but also looking after the unity and the congregation and the saints. That's why the building up of the saints starts in the individual heart of the person. Come with me to 1 Thessalonians, and then I will conclude with that, brethren. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.

This church, they had problems. They had problems as a church. They were idolaters. And it seems that there were some people that were in sexual immorality, or at least the Apostle sees the necessity to warn them against sexual immorality. But brethren, The reality of this church is what may the Lord give us something of this, of what is happening with the Thessalonians, especially specific, more specifically here in First Thessalonians.

Pay attention to these words just simply here in First Thessalonians chapter one. It says, We give thanks to God in verse two. We give thanks to God always for all of you constantly mentioning you in our prayers. And that is what I encourage you. This is the heart of the puzzle, mentioning each one of you.

constantly in our prayers, mentioning each one of the saints in the prayers. Verse three, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith, the three greatest virtues. Remember 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the virtues. Which one is the greatest of the virtues? Love.

And it says, your work of faith, your labor of love, and your steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. your labor, or your work of faith, your labor of love, your steadfastness of hope. That is what he's thankful of when he's remembering them in the prayers. And he says, for we know, brothers, loved by God, in verse 4, that He has chosen you. And the reason why he knows, as we have said before, is because our gospel came to you, not only in word, because it's not about hearing the sounds, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in full conviction.

You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake. The gospel came with much power, brethren. And every time that the Lord speaks, there is indeed power in the way that he speaks to the heart of the person. That is why it is necessary, brethren, that the person will hear by faith. It's an exercise.

It's an individual commitment, an exercise in which when we're hearing the words, Lord, I'm going to take heed how I hear the word of the Lord, because you have provided this local church and you have gifted this local church in a particular way so that my soul will be spoken by God. So I'm going to be diligent in hearing by faith only one line. Only one statement that I apprehend by faith and that God indeed speaks to me, then that is going to be seen in an outcome of faith. But that which is heard only with the physical human ears is something that moves the emotions temporarily, depending of how good performance the preacher does in the pulpit, moves the emotions temporarily, is forgotten in the next hour and completely gone in the next week. Not good soil, not fruit.

We don't want that because even Paul, it seems to be a man that was of not good speech. In other words, he spoke with knowledge, but he was not very, very talented when it comes to articulating words and speaking in a particular way. But yet the words of the apostle salvation of many. Establishment of the church through the words of the apostle because he's the diligence of the one who hears brother There is a responsibility of course in the one who preaches because who is going to come and preach? Something that has taken from men's books and then just communicate to people as if those things were his We are also to hear the word of the Lord when we come to preach so that we will be speaking from the deposit of our heart and not from the deposit of our mind that is temporal and we forget.

So the saint also will receive in the deposit of the heart, not in the deposit of the mind that is easy and then he forgets and he goes. And then if you go to chapter 4 and we conclude with that, brother, in verse 13, this is the church of the Thessalonians with this work of faith, this labor of love, this steadfastness or endurance of patience or hope. I mean, and then he says in verse 13, and we also thank God constantly, we referring to Paul, Silvanus and Timothy. And we also thank God constantly for this, verse 13 in chapter 2. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, feeble men, feeble men, Paul, he was not appealing, not even to the eyes.

And his word, the way that he spoke was not appealing to the way that wise people will speak in those days. But which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is. Imagine that confidence of the apostle to say this. The Word of God. Now, one would say, yes, this apostle, you know, and the apostle is writing a scripture, but he's speaking about Silvanus, Silvanus and Timothy.

And this is the confidence. This is the confidence and this is the faith. And that is the duty of us preachers of, you know, coming before the Lord to say, Lord, give me your words. Not so much to a commentary or to a book, but Lord, give me your words. So that when I go and I speak, I speak by faith.

And I speak with something that is in my heart. I speak by faith so that the brethren will receive by faith. And that indeed I can say, not as a religious, repetitious thing that, you know, that I'm speaking on behalf of God, but with confidence. Like Paul says through chapter 2, God is my witness. God is my witness.

God is my witness. Terrifying statement. That we will be able to say, God is my witness that brethren, this is the truth. that we will preach with that power. And then it says, well, let me just read, which you heard from us, you accept that it is not the word of men, but it's what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

For you brothers became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove out and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved. So as always to fill up the measure of their sins, a wrath has come upon them at last, those who prevented them from preaching." Brethren, Receive the Word of God. Ask the Word of God.

And then when you have time, if you read chapter one, the other praise of the Lord, brethren, the other praise of the Lord for this church is not only the work of love or the labor of love and the work of faith and the steadfastness of hope, but as he's going to praise them after is that they were an example to the churches in the region. The saints were hearing the word of God. They were being transformed in the heart. The church was abounding, not in money or in power, but with abounding in love and in faith and in hope. They were abounding and they became examples to the brethren.

That is that this cannot be contained. This cannot be contained in earthen vessels. This love and this power, this faith cannot be contained in the boundaries of this box, of this house, of this building. It cannot be contained anymore. Example to the churches and to the Christians.

And that is what happens when one hears the voice of the Lord, brethren. Amen.