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If you'll open your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians, 2nd chapter and
verse 13, you'll read Paul saying, "For this cause also
thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received," and
I'm going to try and distinguish, "when you received
the word of God," and I'm trying to underscore, "which ye heard
of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in
truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you
that believe." Now, if you can, in your Bible, somehow try and
underscore or circle, because I wish to; I'm going to really
drive this home. In fact, normally I don't come with this
many; I have copious notes, but I don't bring the whole, the
whole deal. Usually, it's just a couple of bullet points. I've
put out enough in my notes to make sure I don't miss--I may
even actually use my notes to make sure I don't miss
something. First, the idea here; and don't think, "Well,
this is a simple concept." It is, but getting there may be a
little taxing. We're basically looking at two concepts: the
word of God in contradistinction to the word of men. And although
this is a; this is a concept I have treated on Festival, I
thought it good that this would be something I would actually
lay out, very importantly, because as Dr. Scott, and
following his pattern, displayed the taxonomy of "what is the
church?" as we went down that taxonomy and explained
everything about what the church is and isn't according to a
taxonomy that analyzes the functions in the church, its
reason for being, et cetera. One of the primary goals that is
communicated within that taxonomy is the declaration of
the one who brought into being, essentially not the subjective
idea of the church, of what is the church, but rather the one
who said, "I will build my church." His objective goal, if
you will, for the church, which I think these diametrically
opposed concepts, which seem to be ever at conflict within the
church. You see people come in the church and they say, "I'd
like the church to be..." and they fill in the blanks.
Now, having said that, my problem is for weeks, maybe
months, I don't even know if it's maybe been years as I've
been lamenting about the state of the church. And just recently
we started studying the book Jeremiah and I said, "Wow, I
really identify with Jeremiah," because Jeremiah was railing
against all these false prophets and these false preachers
telling the people, "Peace, peace," but there was no peace.
The message of God to the messenger to the mouth of
Jeremiah was judgment, "Repent; turn back," judgment, "You're
going to be carried away into captivity." There is this
impending doom. That was the message of God, the true message
of God, and yet the people wouldn't hear it. And I said,
"Boy, this comforts me," because the true message of God today is
still not being listened to. If I could I would take some of
those folks that are not listening and I would subject
them to two things: listening to the taxonomy rightly taught and
listening to the message I did on "Are You Listening?" A
tribute to Ralph Nichols, because between the two of
those, we would clearly deduce that people who may be listening
because they have ears are not hearing and are not receiving.
Now, only God can do that and I've been saying this for weeks.
But what caught my eye here, in this passage is the
contradistinction between Paul telling these people, whom he's
addressing, that he's giving thanks without ceasing because
they received the word of God. They received it when they heard
it; they received it as the word of God and not as the word of
men. And there is such a clear definition between these two. I
said I'm going to stop here and we're going to look at this.
Now, let me give you some quick background, not to belabor too
much of the background of Thessalonians, but if you read
in the book of Acts, you find that Paul journeyed to
Thessalonica, preached for three sabbaths. Let me tell you; God,
with all of these witnesses, God, give me the ability through
You working through me to do what Paul did. For three
sabbaths, he preached. For three sabbaths in Thessalonica, he
preached, caused a stir and many people believed and the church
was birthed right there. Now, they had to leave the city
because of such contention against what was being preached.
It was, to some it was rank heresy. But three sabbaths only
and the word took. Now, I want to tell you, first of all,
that's good preaching. That's real good preaching. The second
thing I want to tell you is I don't read an ounce, anywhere,
of Paul telling you "Your best life now and that you're going
to, "really. Now, you know I've been talking about this for so
long that some of you go; you know where my mind always goes.
I have a one track mind. But herein, it really becomes clear.
I said, "You know what? This text gives me the opportunity,"
because this 1 Thessalonians is only five chapters. It's a very
small book. Paul spends the first three chapters of, out of
five, extolling how these Thessalonians received the
message and they got it. That's the marvel. Now, there'll be
other problems later, because every church in the New
Testament, clear until now, had problems. But I just want you to
know he spent three chapters extolling the greatness of their
faith and what a miracle this was. And he says they give
thanks, he gives thanks without ceasing. Now, if you will just
kind of follow along the lines of what goes on here, I
highlighted in my Bible some of the things that he makes clear
to them. In that second chapter, 1 Thessalonians, he says at the
beginning of chapter 2, verse 1, "For yourselves, brethren, know
our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain: But even
after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully
entreated, as you know, at Philippi, we were bold in our
God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention."
Do you hear any "best life yet"? I don't either. "For our
exhortation was not of deceit," oh, oh, I have to move on, "nor
of uncleanness, nor in guile: But as we were allowed of God to
be put in trust with the gospel." That, friends, before
anything, let me just say parenthetically, to be entrusted
with the gospel, to be entrusted; there is another
stewardship concept right there. We could talk about money, but I
can talk about the ministers who have been entrusted with the
stewardship to properly and rightly divide the word of God
to bring the full council, the full gospel to the forefront,
not holding anything back. Entrusted with the gospel, "even
so we speak; not as pleasing men," but God,
which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we
flattering words," oh, "as you know, nor a cloak of
covetousness." Well, hmm. God is witness. I said God does see.
Some may think He doesn't, but they'll be terribly mistaken. He
sees it all. "Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor
yet of others, that we might have been burdensome, as the
apostles of Christ." And I read multiple times over he's
going to say the same thing, "the gospel of God," in verse 8;
"the gospel of God," in verse 9. And then clearly now, he's going
to make known how wonderful that these that came and heard
received the word of God. They received it. So, I broke this
down, kind of a little bit old-timey, first by asking the
question, simply put, do we know and understand; and forgive me.
This is not meant as an insult. I'm doing this for the benefit
of all those who possibly may be helped and be delivered from
some very misleading concepts. What is the word of God? And we
say, "Well, it's the 66 books that were canonized. That's
pretty simple." But then, let me ask you something. If one is
entrusted with the word of God, with the gospel of God, then why
isn't the gospel being preached? Why do we have to go to
substitutes and life coaches and people who are manipulating,
twisting and conniving to deceive even the very elect? So,
the word of God, which Paul refers to in the opening
chapters of Romans as "the holy scriptures," also is referred to
in Hebrews 4:12 as "sharper than any two-edged sword." I love the
fact that if you're really going to get into what the word of God
can and cannot do, Hebrews 4:12 spells it out really plain,
"dividing asunder," even "soul and spirit," between the
essential whole person. We'll say it in a nutshell. "The word
of God will bring life to some and death to others." We know
that that is such a strong concept. We're familiar with it,
but I'd ask you just for the benefit of those who may be
listening for the first time to understand the word of God came
out of the mouth of prophets, before Christ came in the flesh,
out of the mouth of prophets, out of those who God breathed
into, inspired to write and chronicle. And it is the whole
book that God used. The word of men; He gave this mouth; He gave
Adam a mouth in the garden. Let's go all the way back there.
I think people sometimes read the Bible and again, it becomes
a caricature. Did Adam really talk? And we've had this
discussion before in the early, early days when I was teaching
on Genesis. And what language did he talk? You know, whatever
language he talked, he conversed with God, that's all we need to
know. And I don't think they spoke King James English, by the
way. That's just a sidebar. But God gave speech to man. If there
is anything inherently that separates man from mere brute,
it's the capacity to communicate in a set way. Now that set way
may be as diversified today; we say we speak, we email, we text;
some people communicate by sign language. But the communication
we all communicate with, back in the beginning, mankind,
humankind communicated by one language, by one tongue, until
the time of the tower of Babel, where it says at that point,
God confused the tongues. And these break off,
a diversity of tongues became known to man. Prior
to that, man spoke one language; at least from the scriptures,
that's what we know. So when we speak of the word of men, I want
to make this clear at the beginning. Speaking the word of
God, it's important to understand that God gave man the
capacity for speech and communication, and used in its
right forum to converse man to man, to discuss, to understand,
to express need or want. Used in its right forum it makes perfect
sense. But where our tongue and language fall short is
approaching the things of God, because our ways are not God's
ways and our thoughts are not God's thoughts. And if we begin
to try and even; I've said this before, this container that has
a time limit on it, reaching to the eternal, definitely there is
a disconnect there. Not because we're not able, God is not able
to reveal His heart to us. He has through His word. But
rather, it is the infinite touching the finite and the
impossibility of humankind through your life, through my
life to take to ourselves the fullest understanding of God,
who the Person of God is, through His word. I believe
people will study this word; myself and ears and hearts in
front of me, will study this word your whole life. I don't
think there's a creature that could fully come to know
absolutely and completely every single nuance uttered by God by
His speakers. I don't think it's possible. We only have in part,
or as Paul says, "We see through a glass darkly." So, when I
speak of the word of God, it's important to say that God uses
the mouth, the words of mankind to communicate His word. But
make no mistake that because a man or a woman communicates by
the tongue of men that that brings down the reduced
understanding of who God is in His Person. In other words,
because we are; if we have a right view of ourselves, we are
infinitely less, even if we are just a speck of dust, of what
God's greatness is, there is an inability even for the most
articulate man or woman of God to express the fullness of who
God is. "Well, you mean that?" I mean absolutely; absolutely I
mean it. We can know in part and we can know from what is
revealed, but no man can come to the full knowledge in his
lifetime. I believe a lifetime of this and then we stand before
God and the things that are missing become revealed as we
stand before Him, the things we couldn't understand or we could
not know become revealed then. But it's important when I say
"the word of God," and I'm referring to the word of God
that Paul is referring to, we're speaking about the word that is
the gospel of God. That's why I highlighted these; "the gospel
of God," "the gospel of God," in verses 2, verse 8 and verse 9,
because a right understanding prohibits us from making
it some other gospel. This is what Paul belabored and
complained to the Galatians who these Judaizers came and they
preached another gospel; but there is no other gospel. You're
either hearing the good news of God, you're either hearing the
gospel of Jesus Christ or you're hearing the words of men.
May my words, I pray God, may my words be not received
to you as the words of a person; I'm using "men" now
again, a generic; as the words of men, but I pray God that the
words that I speak as a minister from this platform
to the world be heard as the words of God. Not
because I merit or have some better standing before God, but
rather this is the reason why we gather, to hear the word of God
go forth. That means any man or woman coming into this building
with some expectancy personally towards the speaker has already
lodged their mind to receive the word of God as the word of men.
Do you understand what I'm saying? Because, if I
understand aright what Paul is saying here, he had to
confront this elsewhere. And I think I have confronted it
here, people say; you've heard this argument from my mouth how
people say, "Well, I'd go to the church, but I just don't want to
listen to a woman," because they come from some background where
women speaking is, you know; that's their doctrine. Well,
then, friend, I feel sorry for you, because in the big scheme
of things, you're still busy looking at the container. I
don't want you looking at the container. This is what I saw
with Dr. Scott. Many people came in the door to come because they
liked his swagger and they liked his moxy and they liked the
person; they liked the fact that they were listening to a
Stanford Ph.D. They liked the fact that of all the people out
there, he was the one that would put a cigar in his mouth, light
it on the platform and say, "Go up and" yeah; exactly. But they
may have loved the man, but I ask you a question.
If you receive the gospel, if you receive the word
of God as the word of men, then you're listening to a man
and not the word of God. This is not rhetoric. This becomes
highly important as people will use every device that I've ever
heard to blame me or my position. And when I read this,
it became so clear to me. The word of God is the word of God.
Let's put this down and put this point by point. You can put the
points down in your Bible as well. First, the word of God;
first. The word of God; I will not try to debate the
authenticity of scripture today. I will not try to debate the
validity of what was canonized. I will simple say to you,
because it's much like the resurrection. You have to
believe that Jesus lived before you're going to argue about
whether He rose from the dead or not. One has to take this book
and say, "I believe that every person who wrote was inspired."
And the actions that were captured, chronicling those who
heard and came and delivered the word of God, were either given
by God to the mouth of men to deliver the word of God or they
weren't. That's your only choice. But I'm not going to
debate that today. My point is one must come to the conclusion
either Moses went up the mount, heard from God; God instructed
him to write on the tablets. This is what God said, "Go down,
speak to the children of Israel," the first me:
offering, right. God r spoke that or He didnr
Moses was very confusa lot of high altitude s
going on, came down, e heard something and s,
some guy out of a clos talking to me, and it was cool!
I wrote a few things in the meantime; can't hear, can't see;
feel really good. See ya." I don't think it happened that
way. Then there's a long record of the prophets. Listen to the
voice of the prophet Isaiah deliver the word of God. As he
was in the temple, it says in Isaiah 6, and it says he saw
the Lord, high and lifted up. He makes an utterance, "Woe is me,
a man of unclean lips." Coal is taken from the fire to cleanse
his tongue, symbolic of God sanctifying the use of his
mouth, and from that point forward, he's told he's going
to go preach, but guess what? "Who will go?" "Me."
"But they won't hear." They're not going to
hear, they're not going to receive. That's been the pattern
of God's spokespeople through the children of Israel. Oh,
we're studying the prophet Jeremiah. How many times do you
read, "And the word of the LORD came to the prophet Jeremiah,"
and "The burden of the LORD," "The word of the LORD came to
the prophet Jeremiah saying, Go and," fill in the blanks there's
so many chapters of it. You either believe that God spoke
and used the mouth of a man as the messenger to deliver God's
word; and the ones that were hearing, guess what? We have a
chronicle that they did not receive the message.
So this is why, when I say to you Paul rejoiced and was
giving thanks, because Paul had knowledge that behind
him there was a whole history of preachers, prophets, declarers
of God's word that fell on deaf ears. So when he says, "I thank
God for you always," this "without ceasing," it's not
because he's just a happy preacher. He was so grateful
that they had received the word of God. Now, if you put that as
--hang one peg right there, the word of God is declared in
scripture. And I've got a whole list of them and I won't bore
you, but I've got a whole list of them. The word of God is
declared as the word of life, the word of God is pure, truth,
enduring, inspired, effectual, sure; sometimes compared to a
hammer, a lamp, a fire, a seed and a sword. That's just a few.
So when people talk about the mishandling of the word of God,
you can tell the severity of what I am saying today. It
becomes clear. You may have listened to a certain preacher,
Mr. Happy, smiling, fun, every day is a good day preacher,
and you say, "But I heard a little bit of gospel
in there. There was just a little scripture quoting. And
then, over here, there's Pastor Scott. She's over here telling
you: "the stuff's going to hit the fan, bear down,
and you're going to go through valleys and you're going
to need some tough shoes, and boy, you'd better have on
the full armor of God." And you sit there in front of your TV,
oh, this remote here signifies this side I was looking at,
"This is somewhat entertaining. Maybe there's something to it,
because the masses are listening." But listen
carefully, because the masses are listening because it is the
word of men. And if, indeed, there is any word of God being
delivered, it's being received as the word of men, because it's
easy to receive. There is no rebuke. There is no conviction
brought by the Holy Spirit. You know, when somebody is preaching
and somebody is bringing forth the word, there are a few
things, there are a few marks. Good preaching will do a few
things. Good preaching will put you to sleep. It will bring,
actually, even if it's something hard, it will bring comfort to
your heart, it will soothe your soul. Good preaching will bring
conviction; preaching of God's word, the word of God will bring
conviction that can only come by the Holy Spirit that something
inside of you goes pop! And you feel it in your heart. It's
called being pricked inside, that somehow, something maybe
isn't right and you and God need to work it out. "Yeah, I know
what she's saying is true. I felt this one time over here and
one time over there." That is receiving the word of God from
the speaker, not as the word of men, but as the word of God.
Now, if we understand the word of God has the power to heal, to
redeem. Jesus said you are made clean by the word of God. If we
understand what the word of God can do in our lives, we are told
that this gospel being preached is the power of God unto
salvation, the dunamis of God being delivered to our hearts.
And of course, we get faith by hearing the word. So you can
imagine. I'm reading this and I'm thinking, okay. So now that
I've, I think, combined two things. One, describing the word
of God and two, the contradistinction between;
distinction, between the word of God and the word of men. I
thought to myself, it's so abundantly clear to me, I pray
it's abundantly clear to you. You see, only God's word coming
from God, using a messenger, whatever that messenger may look
like; I'm sorry. You know, there are a few messengers out there,
and they're good messengers. In fact, one is deceased and they
used to say that he had a face; he used to be on TV and they
used to say he had a face for radio. I happen to agree, but;
sorry. But he preached the word. You'll understand why, and I
really believe this, the word of God in contradistinction to the
word of men will have such a profound impact, if you will
that once we get beyond the point of the container and
fussing over whether- is this person a good orator or not? Do
they flow with the poetry of Shakespeare and the capacity to
convey the English language like a Chaucer, or do they stumble
around fumbling, but at least grabbing hold of these
scriptures to deliver something to the saving of your
soul. Now, in my book, I'll take a sloppy orator
reaching into the book who may not communicate very
sophisticatedly and with great dimension of speech. I'll take
that one any day over the smooth talking, silk-tongued, very
little pepperings of God in there, trying to convey to the
world that this power that we have is not of God; it's within
you because you have positive thoughts. This is the gospel of
men. This is the word of men to mankind. This is why the
multitudes have been--I'm sorry, like the Galatians, they've been
bewitched. There was a simpler day in America. People forget
this. I'm sorry; this strikes at the core of things that I
believe, that I believe this church should not forget. This
country, the populace, the first people here came for the ability
to worship; religious freedom; to be able to read the Bible. I
want you to think about how far we've come. So when I read this
I think it will be my task--and if nobody else wants to stand
with me, I don't care--to make sure that there is some, some
person somewhere not afraid to preach the word of God; not
seeking as Paul will say many times over both here in
Thessalonians as well as in Galatians, to not be pleasing
people. You know, if you'd like to be pleased I suggest that you
find somewhere else to go, because my goal is to equip you
to get to know exactly what this word says. That at least in the
scheme of things the word of God may never be reduced down to the
mere gospel of men. That's a huge task. Now, it would seem to
me for a man such as Paul, who-- I want you to see this, it's a
very subtle thing--he was familiar with the word of God,
he was schooled at the feet of Gamaliel, he was a brilliant
scholar. On his way on that Damascus road, when most like to
talk about that Damascus road experience, but it is there that
the Lord in, in audible voice, and blinding light revealed
Himself to the heart of Paul to tell him; and you'll read this
chronicle that is being recounted in Acts 26
that Paul was called to go and minister. He was going to
be used as a vessel. It seems plausible that people can hear
the word of God and not apply it either. We have this tendency to
think somehow it only magically happened to Paul. It only
magically happened that at midday when that light blinded
him and he fell to the ground it only happened to him. No, it
happens to people everywhere, and when the gospel is being
preached it may not be as dramatic as that, but believe
me, the light of the gospel; Jesus said, I am the light of
the world; the light of the gospel is so blinding at the
first, so glaring at the first, and then after that immediate
shock, if you will, illumination to the darkened soul comes and
you're never the same; you're never the same. This is why we
preach; I preach. I think this gospel of God is the most
powerful. If people will just say, "Look, I'm not shopping for
the container." I get tired of this as someone who stands, I
really believe, between the living and the dead, I get tired
of people looking at the container and judging. "Well,
it's the container I can't deal with. It's the voice I can't
deal with. It's the hair. It's the makeup." Would you prefer it
if I was; if I had three heads and weighed five hundred pounds?
Or maybe if I grew a tail or antennas? I think to myself I
remember Dr. Scott saying, "If a parking meter is preaching the
word you better be paying the parking meter. If it's a monkey,
pay the monkey," but for goodness sakes. Forgive me
but I'm, I'm looking at this from a whole different
perspective. You say, am I still in the text? Yes, I am, I've not
forgotten where we are: the word of God in contradistinction to
the word of men. You see, the word of God is difficult because
we have a limited learning frame. I mean, it's simple in
the respect that if you'll just read it, but I'll say it
like this. Just because a person learns and
grows in knowledge doesn't necessarily make them a
spiritual giant unless you're feeding on spiritual food. Like
a baby that learns the alphabet, the child only will recite what
it has learned. If you are not feeding your soul with the word
of God how can you ever think that you will even speak on the
same plain as the infinite and eternal? If that's not your
method of whatever you're ingesting being the word of men.
I know, "If you'll just, if you'll just quit harping on us
about this and move on to another subject we'll all feel
good about ourselves." But it's not you I'm worried about;
you're sitting here. It's not you I'm worried about. I mean, I
worry about you. I look at your faces and I worry about all of
you. But it's the ones out there, the ones that cannot
yet get it in their mind, while you sit, and it's as if with
arms folded like this, "It's no big deal." You know what? It's
no big deal to you, but it's a huge deal to me. As I, as I see
it, the word of God being preached is a demonstration of
God's Spirit and power, and anything else lacks the ability.
When we look at these two concepts; I've put them already
on the board. I'm going to give you one more: receiving the word
of God as the word of God. I just covered this in my opening
statements. If you come into the church and you expect; you come
in because you like me. You know what, that's not
going to help you in eternity. You may like me, but
I've always said this, I'd prefer actually that you leave
here kind of sometimes with disdain and say, "A-r-g-h!" I
upset your apple cart and made you go back to the word of God a
little bit more to do some more digging and some more probing
and made you go back to the word again to begin to pray afresh.
"Yeah, maybe she's right." What happens then to those who will
receive the word of God as the word of God, and not as the word
of men? Let me give you the reverse. In the book of Acts we
have Simon the sorcerer. This is remarkable. It says of him he
heard Phillip preach, he believed, he was saved, he was
baptized. And immediately after that, it says that they laid
hands on the people that they should receive the Holy Spirit.
And he said, "I'll pay you. Tell me how this works. Lay your
hands on me. I'll pay you for that power." Do you see, it's
possible for people to receive God's word and not have
something go on inside here where they're pricked in their
heart, where conviction comes. And it was declared to him, "No,
this is not for you to have. You'll have no part in it,
because your heart is not right with God." You might say, "Well,
then, what does that mean?" It means that as Simon heard, Simon
the sorcerer listened, he received and listened to the
word of God, but he received it as the word of men. In other
words it had no power to penetrate through his soul, to
break through the crust and even the sorcerer's heart and mind;
it had no power. Because he received that message; maybe
Phillip was so impressive to look at, or maybe he had a great
voice. He heard, he believed, he was baptized. It's like that.
So, it's possible for people to come into the church and do the
same thing. What I'm saying to you is, it sounds really simple
but it's a very profound thing. And it's very profound. It's
possible for people to come into the church week in and week out
and never hear beyond the sound of my voice. You hear me speak,
you hear the sound coming out, but of my own, if I didn't open
this book and ingest the goods, I'd have nothing to tell you.
So, what is coming out of me is what God gives me from His word.
That's why I said when people come in the door, and this is
an important message regarding how the church is built, this
whole idea that we have to have glamorous people in the pulpit,
or they have to look a certain way, or maybe we can only have
old men with grey hair that are slightly balding that wear bad
colored ties, because that's what a preacher ought to look
like. "And by golly, if the preacher doesn't look old and
ugly and grumpy, I ain't listening." Well, you would have
hated living in Balaam's day then. That'll; that'll hit you
later. All right, I'm going to move down, because I've got
these bullet points worked out. So then, back to my text, "For
this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when
ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye
received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the
word of God which effectually worketh also in you that
believe." And I want to talk about the, now, the effectual
working, because I keep chiseling away. The more I'm
talking, the more I'm revealing the rest of the message. This
word "effectually, effectually," in the English, you have
your Greek cognate to our English word for "energy,"
energeitai. The word of God received as the word of God and
not as the word coming out of the mouth of a man or woman,
energizes. It energizes to those faithing ones. It brings the
energy of life, the energy of healing, the energy of saving.
It energizes when you hear it. In other words this is why some
people can come into a room and they listen to the man or the
woman who is speaking; they only hear the words
of the person. They do not hear beyond the words of the
person declaring. They only hear a person speaking and not the
word of God, and therefore no energy, no life force, no
anything comes, because they're only hearing the word of man.
The utterance may be of God's word, but it is man's utterance
they're listening to. Now, we've said many times the same word
brings life to some and death to others. But I say this
"effectually" as the King James puts it, energizing. And all you
have to do is look at Christ's time. It says He dwelt, in
the 4th chapter of Matthew's gospel, it says He dwelt at
Capernaum, did many mighty miracles there. And now on into
the 11th chapter when He's delivering those woes, Capernaum
is named among those cities that He pronounces essentially a
curse on. I once did a message on Festival, knowing so much and
believing too little, about those cities. They saw the great
and mighty works of God, yet they could never come to the
faith, having seen with their own eyes, but they would not
follow Him. That is the embodiment of what I'm saying
today. No energy because what they perceived was this man must
be; go down the list, He could be a prophet, He could be a
magician, He could be a sorcerer, He could be anything;
but He couldn't be the Son of God performing these mighty
works. Otherwise they would have been energized by what they saw.
You may say, well that's one example and there are many more
examples of, of hearing the word, the word of God and being
energized by it. I reference last week Zacchaeus. He's the
perfect example of what happens when someone will actually come
into this sanctuary; don't say, oh, I'm talking about something
archaic; come into this room and with your heart opened up to
hear God's word, blocking out this container, you will be
changed. You may not be changed instantaneously like, bam,
genie-in-the-bottle. You will be changed, you will be
transformed; the word of God declares that. And that's why I
said this is why the preaching of the word, the word of God,
and not the word of men is paramount. And the understanding
of that, if you're following me at all through this tapestry,
which seems rather simple, you begin; for me anyway, as I
studied this, it was like scales falling off my eyes that how
plausible it is for people to come in and because they will
not hear beyond the container. Now, I must say this, God has to
open up the heart. God has to make the scales fall from the
eyes. And then at some point the word of God becomes the
transforming power you cannot live without, you cannot be
separated from it, you cannot exist without it. Oh, give me
two or three days, some of you, you'll go two or three days
without reading or listening, but about the fourth day some of
you start to pine and it's like, "I can't take it anymore. I've
got to get; I've got to read something. I've got to listen to
something." That's what happens to a hungry soul. Don't think
because you heard it once you're fed. We thirst constantly, and
we ought to. And we'll be filled constantly if we're looking to
this word. So, I'm looking at the effectual working, the
energizing power in those faithing ones. Something else
comes to my mind in this, which is effectually energizing. Think
about this. If you're hearing the words as the word of men and
not the word of God, this word of men, produces works. It must
produce works, because God is not the energizing force to
bring forth His power and His work. It must produce works.
It's mandated. Now, you say, "Wow, that's, that's pretty
profound, too." I think so, too. All you have to do is look to
Abraham. Abraham being told by God, the word of God came to
Abraham and said, "The promised seed will be yours." The word of
men in the mind of a man listening, not listening to God
as having heard the word of God, but having heard a voice
decided, "Well, there may be another way to navigate this. We
can, we can work around this. Come here, Hagar." Right? Works.
I know; no one in that fundamentalist camp would ever
want to admit to you that that is a form of works, but it must
certainly indeed was. "The natural man receiveth not
the spiritual things of God." You don't have to look too far,
as I'm starting to bring all of these different ends to a close,
you don't have to look too far to see that over and over again
in the scripture this is why we're told about wisdom, because
people were searching for wisdom, but when it came to the
things of God for some it was simply foolishness. Now, I'm
looking at this and I'm thinking the cause for giving thanks
without ceasing is this. And it's, this is something that
stirred in my soul as I see some, one, two, three new faces
and new messages, I give thanks, not because, oh boy, I'm patting
myself on the back, "I must have done good today. Or I must have
said something right," but rather the power of God to
awaken, quicken, and enliven people is still working. People
are still being drawn by God, and although there are people
that are still looking for those great signs and wonders like
Simon the sorcerer, there are other people who when they hear
the word of God delivered out of whatever mouth is preaching,
whatever; in some cases, whatever orifice is opened and
working, know they have heard the word of God, are energized,
begin to be transformed by it. And there is something for the
minister of God that says, "Praise God." Praise God for
these at Thessalonica that they heard. I; watch what happens.
You'll see what is conjured up in Paul's heart right after our
verse. Read in verse 14; "For ye, brethren, became followers
of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus; for
ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen,
even as they have of the Jews." It's as if right in the middle
of saying something really good and positive about how you
received and how you heard, something was stirred up inside
of him about these countrymen, their fellow countrymen
suffering even as they have of the Jews. That somehow these
that would not receive, would not hear were still persecuting
those that would receive and hear and be changed. So it seems
very clear to me as I look at this, I give thanks. There's
some faces who have come and gone, but that ones that have
come who have really been gripped by the message, I just,
sometimes I just think, God, I'm not trying to be dramatic, I
just think, "My God, thank You. Thank You for doing what You,"
it's kind of crazy, "for doing what You said You would do."
Here's the spirit of the mouth with a little bit of unbelief,
like really, really? And then the proof is those that become
so gripped in the word that you can't bat them away with a
stick. I want you to think about that. I look at this and I
think, wow. Now, I come full circle, because in Paul's prayer
to the Ephesians, he says something that should be
underscoring of all of these things. Here he gives thanks, in
Ephesians 1 and verse; chapter 1, verse 16, where he
says; actually starting in verse 15, "Wherefore I also,
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto
all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him." It seems
pretty clear to me that even in this prayer, it wasn't enough
for people to come and hear once. The heart had to be opened
for the revelation to come. It's not some mystical thing. It's
just hearing the word of God. "The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his
calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in
the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his
power," that you might know the exceeding greatness of His
power. How might you know that, how might you understand it if
you're not hearing the word of God? This is why I said there's
a whole host of people out there missing out and missing
completely what God has promised to do, all because they prefer
to hear soothing, slick, silk-tongued, preciously coiffed
and always seemingly never, never in the middle of a
tempest, always pleasant speakers. Most of God's speakers
save; we're going to exempt Paul maybe; most of them got kicked
around unfairly, were poorly treated. I don't read of any of
the prophets; not Zephaniah, not Zachariah, not Haggai, not Amos;
not a one of them coming skipping through the park,
frolicking in the flowers, soaking up the rays of the sun.
Do you? Good, then we're reading the same book--praise God. "What
is the exceeding greatness of his power," of His dunamis, "to
us-ward who believe." This is just another dimension of what I
just said on the other side. Please, if you're listening to
me right now and you're not hearing the word of God, but
you're listening to the person, I urge you, if there's any
switch you can flip in your brain, because when I go it's
much like, it's much like Dr. Scott. People loved the man, but
when the man died, their capacity to engage in the battle
of faith for this church died, which means they were never
staked and planted on the word of God. They loved the man and
no one could love the man more than me. But the love of men
will take you to hell. And only the love of God through His word
shed abroad to us by the Holy Spirit has the capacity and
power to usher you into eternity. Get that straight.
I think I've said a mouthful. My prayer, and I let me say it
now, I said it towards Dr. Scott, let me say it
towards me. My prayer is that if you've been listening
to me and you're listening to me, the person, I pray God,
you look beyond my appearance; whatever that may be to you,
you look beyond my gender; whatever you may perceive
or think. You cannot know my heart nor can I know
yours. But I pray you look beyond the person speaking. Week
in and week out, the greatest honor I have is to prepare for
this moment in time where someone may hear the word of God
and be changed by it. To just come and have people listen to a
person is a vile waste of my time and God's. I take my
calling seriously. I take the pastorate seriously. I pray God,
for those listening right now, who have been tuning in for some
other reason, that you let God's word speak to your heart right
now, that it be God's word working through the mouth of a
person speaking to you and that you receive it. These; let me go
back to the Thessalonians and I'll be done with this. Two
different words are used for the receiving of the word, "when you
received the word of God which you heard of us, you received it
not as the word of men," two different words in the Greek.
One word, the first one is a verb, paralambano. That means
the activity of, with intent of taking, usually if it was in the
middle voice it would be for one's self, but here it is
active. It's a participle and it's active. The intent of
taking, and there is some concept of fellowship attached
to it. It is the intent to grasp lambano, with para at the
front, which means "with" or "for," so it is with the intent
of grasping. And if it was reflexive it would be to one's
self. But the "received it not as the word of the men," there
is another Greek word and that one is in the middle voice. That
means only you can receive it. God must open your heart and
then you must come into the sanctuary and receive it as the
word of God. Friends, I have made so many mistakes in my
life. There are a few I'm not going to make; I can avoid them;
a few. And one is coming here every single Sunday and not
jarring some of you. I can't make you grow in Christ, but if
there's a capacity like the parable of the sower for you to
receive, it will begin when you begin to hear the word of God,
not listening to the mouth as if to say, "Well, I came to listen
to you, Melissa Scott." But that you came here to receive,
to grab hold of that word to take it to yourself that
that word will become an energizing force to the
salvation, and if you want to say to usher you in. There is no
ushering you into His presence without this word dividing
spirit and soul. So if you think it's just going to be a walk in
the park, think again. I believe many are called; very few are
chosen. If you're hearing what I'm saying, I'll just say
I'm wrapping this up looking at Paul. And I'm
thinking the same thing Paul would say right here. It's
staring at me in the face. Read down with me in verse 19,
because he'll say what I'd like to say, "For what is our hope,
or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and
joy." As the speaker speaking the word of God to the ears and
the hearts of men and women, you are my joy. Not because I
possess you, but because you are Christ's. And because you are
Christ's, you hear His word. Like the scripture says, "My
sheep know my voice." This is a scripture that applies to us
today. Now, I'm asking those of you to jar you out of your
complacency and some to get you into the kingdom of God. I
cannot do it, but you must open up the eyes. And those begin
with understanding you're sitting here for a reason,
you're listening to me for a reason. Now, listen not to the
voice of a woman and a human being, but hear the word of God
today, receive it like these Thessalonians, receive it with
joy, with earnest eager joy. And let the power of God's word heal
your soul, touch your life and you be healed in Jesus' name. Amen. Come on up. When we all stand and all the
infirmities of the flesh have passed and the last tear has
been shed because God promised there will be no more pain and
no more sorrow and when we stand it will not be because of the
merits of a man or woman here on earth whether they spoke good
and kind words. But whether you were able to come into the
sanctuary, hear and let that word change and conform you that
at the very end of your course here on earth, you won't look
back to any man you will look to Christ that power that still
saves today and as I said when all the infirmities
of the flesh are gone only one thing will remain.
"Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." You have been watching me,
Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith
Center. If you would like to attend the service with us,
Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive
your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you'd like to
go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com
