Good morning, everyone. Good morning, blessed morning. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, we're here before you this morning.
Lord, help us to look into your word, to be edified, to be encouraged, Lord. Help us, Father, in heaven to take your words to heart. Help us to see the cross of Christ and what it means, Lord, for us. Let me just pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus, amen.
So good morning, everyone. It's good to be here. I would like to begin reading three passages, one from Genesis one, one from John one, and one from first John. So here's the first one, Genesis one.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, let there be light, and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And this is from John chapter one, next. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. And the last one right now, first John chapter one. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the word of life.
The life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness, and declared to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from him, and declared to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. It's not amazing, it's not amazing truth. I like the way that these passages complement one another, and reinforce the word of God. And so I've titled this message, words, the word, and the word made flesh.
You know it's hard to, when you're reading from the word of God, it's hard to know when to stop sometimes. I mean, it's so rich, it's satisfying, it's comforting at times, and in some cases it is troubling. I find it interesting that the word spoke, the word, God spoke, and the universe was born. I find that interesting, that the word God, he spoke.
The word. You know, we, as human beings, God has given us the gift of language, words, words are so powerful, and they can do tremendous good or tremendous damage from whom the words come say a close friend, or parent, or sibling, it can affect us for years. Good and bad, I had a friend that I've worked with you since past. I gave him the gospel, I shared with him the truth.
But he told me something that his father had said to him when he was just a young man, he was probably around 65 at that time, and he was really old, David. So, you know, that stayed with him when he said, and I wouldn't repeat it, I mean, it was terrible what he said. But that haunted him, that lingered with him for his whole life, and that skewed, I think, a lot of his attitudes towards people, maybe. So our words are very powerful.
Now, God has a spiritual component to his word that we don't have, but when we speak the word of God, his word does the work. And when Jesus took simple things, words like bread or wine, he took those words and gave them a spiritual meaning. And he talked about his words that they were spirit, and they were truth. And that's why I think when we read the word of God, and as I said earlier, it's hard to know when to stop sometimes because it truly is food.
It's life to our spirits, and it can give people hope, and it can give people comfort. And so, it's not something to be taken lightly or for granted, and I know brothers and sisters, we hear the word of the Lord all the time, and we look into its meaning, and what is God saying to us. Language, you've probably heard the phrase right out of the box. You know, it has a certain meaning to it, just like when we say six of one half dozen of the other, there's an intrinsic meaning behind those sort of things.
No assembly required, out of the box. It's ready to go. Have you ever wondered what language Adam and you spoke? Yes?
No, I'm only one. It's probably some form of Hebrew or Aramaic. You know, prior to the Tower of Babel, people spoke one language. What's interesting is that although men and women, nowadays, speak the same language, we still can't understand going on in one another.
You know, we're different in many ways. Okay, so back to Adam and Eve. So they weren't born as babies, so God gave them the ability to communicate with him right out of the box, well, not really out of the box, out of the dirt and for Eve out of the rib. Now babies are born with all the necessary components.
They've got a tongue, they've got lips, the vocal cords, you know what I mean? But words, but unlike Adam and Eve, they've got to be taught the language. And as we as Christians, we have to be taught the word of God. It's something that doesn't come naturally to us because the natural mind resists that.
And when you see a small child, and I think of this one for my own children, when you teach them words, and then they sort of repeat the words back to you. But after a while, there's actually conversation going on with that little person. That little person is expressing themselves in their thoughts, they're trying to convey information. And such as words, they're trying to tell you how they feel.
A lot of times our words fail us. I find language very, very incredible and very complex. David Henson was speaking, or we're having a bit of a conversation. And I think it's Mandarin, one of it has like thousands of characters in it.
Is that right David? Thousands. That's one language. How many people here can speak more than one language?
Just a show of hands. Can you, how many here can speak three languages? How many people here can speak more than five? You know, you've heard of Noah Webster.
He could speak 26 languages. You know, he wrote that book, that big boat of a book, Noah, Noah Webster. He wrote, I'll say it again if you don't learn it. So I just find it very amazing that language, in its complexity, it carries meanings, information.
You know, there was a time when everybody's on the earth spoke one language, right? Genesis 11 says, now the whole world had one language in one speech, and it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plane in the land of Shinaar. And they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.
They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt from order. And they said, come, let us build ourselves a city. And a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.
But the Lord came down to see the city in the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, indeed, the people are one. And they all have one language. And this is what they begin to do.
Now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them come. Let us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there, over the face of the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth.
After the God of the Ark, God said to Noah and his sons, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Well, the people who are of one language, after that, and they disobeyed God in rebellion, because that's what people do. This is what we do without Christ. We're in rebellion to God.
We do our own thing. We make our own choices. We want to believe what we have to think and say, rather than what the Lord has to think and say. So they disobeyed God and he confused their language.
Well, that's such a contrast to in Acts 8, where it says, therefore, that's the persecution of the church. Therefore, they who were scattered went everywhere, preaching the word. So one group of people scattered abroad, still in rebellion against God, even with the confusion of the language. Then you have another group who were scattered through the persecution, but they went about preaching the word.
And I find that a very interesting contrast. So they disobeyed God, he confused their language. And you know, in this day and age, there is still confusion, and the devil is capitalizing on humanity's ignorance of the word of God. People want to redefine words or things to make them fit their worldview, words like marriage, or when life begins, or gender, or God.
And without the light of God's word, people will stay in darkness. They're gonna die in darkness. The word of the knowledge, they can save their soul, the gospel, and in darkness be damned in the blackness of darkness forever. That's troubling.
If we know that the word of God is true, and it is, then people do perish. Jesus said so, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Unless you believe that I am here, you will die in your sins. That is such a striking thing to say.
Die in your sins? Did he mean what he said? Yeah, but he also said, in me you may have life, life to the fullest. You see, in the word of God, there is a warning, but there's so much hope, we talked about that this morning, we spoke about that at the breaking of bread.
There's so much hope, so much hope in the Lord. So much hope contained in the word of God. The world doesn't have hope like that. World needs hope, and I hope they find hope.
And that's why we do what we do as believers, right? Read the word of God, and we obey the word of God. We talk to God about the word of God. No, you've probably heard Jesus was referring to himself when he said, it's the Son of God.
But he also referred to himself as the Son of Man. The devil took Jesus to the pinnacle, or top of the temple, ironic, since you have the very one Jesus, who is the pinnacle of perfection, the pinnacle of thought and speech. No one ever spoke like him. He's the pinnacle of love, pinnacle of honor.
I could go on and on. Words matter. Jesus said, every idle word men may speak, they'll give a count of it on the day of judgment. I don't care how long you've been a Christian.
When you hear someone blasting the name of God, when they take the name of Jesus Christ and they just use it in such a foul way, it gets you right in the gut. How much more does that affect God? And we hear it on the street all the time. They don't know God.
They blasting his name. They don't know him. And yet God terries. He waits.
Can blasting the Son of Man, Jesus said, and there's forgiveness for that. How is it that words can be so used by beings made in the image of God? Well, because of the fall, because of who we are, without Christ, it comes naturally to us. And when they were going to throw, and they did, Chad, Rachmieshik, and then to go into the fiery furnace, remember that so hot that those that were going to toss them in, they died because of the heat.
It was so great, those that were throwing them in. But then Nebuchadnezzar looks after their enemies, says, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt. And the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. I love that.
The Son of God, Jesus is God. He's perfect. He also referred to himself as the Son of Man. He identified with us in a sense that he's human.
He was manifested in the flesh, the Son of Man. And what an important distinction that is, because it's, what's the word for? Unique. He's full of God, and he's fully man.
He's fully able and capable to forgive us of our sins. Only God can forgive sins. The word sin in and of itself is a strange word. It means to miss the mark.
When I was working one time with the city of Edmonton, driving the Zamboni, autographs later, there was a team that came on. Now, I'm pretty sure they started playing maybe a year or so before I came to know the Lord. And the name of their team was Saints and sinners. I kind of looked at that, go Saints.
OK, you know what the Saints, you know? I didn't really think much about it. What's a sinner? I have no idea.
I had no idea. After I came to know the Lord, I knew what a sinner was, because I was one. I know a man 27 years ago. OK, it's me.
Came to know the Lord. We talk about speech. One day I was at work, the profane man. Working with other profane people.
This part of our common everyday speech. Well, the next day when I went to work, something where I actually said happened prior to that. The night before that, I got before the Lord. And I said, I'm guilty.
I don't want to go to hell. Will you save me? Jesus, will you help me? The next day he changed me.
The swearing was gone. The using God's name in vain was never a huge thing with me. So I thought everything else was OK. What a contrast without me doing anything.
He changed me. He's changed so many of us here in this room. And if you're in this room and you've not been changed, if you've not had your sins forgiven, if you've not had your sins away, then there's other scriptures, the word of God that should trouble you. A lot of people when they think about certain words, like mercy, you know what mercy is?
Mercy is God giving us what we don't deserve. We talked about mercy this morning a little bit. It's profound. Look what God has given us.
His son. I mean, the list goes on and on. I spoke with some people on the street probably close to 10 years ago. And he says, what has God ever done for you?
I thought, how am I going to begin with that? So I just kind of rounded it up with one word, everything. Because he truly has, right? He's given us everything.
Even we're not aware of it. Just like a little child, you know, we give them things. They take it. You know, they just take it.
God gives us air to breathe. We just take it. Clean water. Many people don't even have clean water.
You know, we are in a place of abundance. We are. We have the word of God. We have, there's churches.
I'm not saying they're all Bible believing churches. But they're all over the place. And yet people still walk around. And they don't know, not only the Savior, but they don't know the word of God.
And they don't know the gospel. Some of them haven't heard it before. John was speaking with a fellow. I don't know if it was on Friday, but prior to that, I've never heard that before, they say.
And that's shocking, isn't it? So we all carry within us that word of God, that incorruptible seed. So God in the flesh came down from heaven. And our helpless estate, he'll reach down, he'll pick you up out of the mud out of the filth.
The confusion will be gone. You'll know who you are, created by God. Where you're going, heaven, if you're a believer. And if you're not a believer, as I said earlier, if you're sitting in this room here and you're not a believer, the outcome is not good.
It's hell. God describes himself as holy, just. And I love that word this morning, loving kindness. When you see both sides of the equation, the holiness of God, the wrath of God, the righteousness of God, the purity of God, the loving kindness of God, that's all seen at the cross.
If you wanna see the holiness of God, if you wanna see God's wrath, if you wanna see God's judgment, look at the cross. Look what he did to his only begotten son for us. Look at that cross. And when you look at that cross, you see the goodness of God in laying the sins of ourselves on his son.
So the word of God is powerful. I used to read when I was younger, abide in me, and I'm gonna abide in you. Why didn't he see me by that? It's the word of God.
Stay in the word of God. Believe the word of God. Obey the word of God. These are trying times, folks.
This is not the time for us to just wait it out on the sidelines. I know not everybody's called to do the street ministry. I know that, but we're all called to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. So use gospel tracks, please.
Someone gave me a track I've said it before, 27 years ago, somebody handed me a gospel track. I took it home, and he changed me. He gave me everlasting life. So I don't mean to belabor the point, but it is so important.
What else is gonna matter? What's gonna matter when people stand before God still in their sin? What else will matter to them? Nothing.
It's over. I said before that Jesus is the son of God, and he's the son of man. I like to read this out of Matthew 14. Now on the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them walking on the seat, and when the disciples saw him walking on the seat, they were troubled saying, it's a ghost.
And they cried out for fear, but immediately, Jesus spoke to them saying, be of good cheer. It is I do not be afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. So he said, come.
And when Peter had drawn down out of the boat, he walked on the water to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, oh you of little faith, why did you doubt? It's like our kids, getting to the doctor, they're all afraid.
Oh no, what's gonna happen? Check her son to the doctor one time. Cheers were coming, he was just little. I was there with him the whole time, it was strange to him.
And after I said, Jordan, I was here the whole time. I'm here and God is here the whole time. He's been with you. As a believer, you're cherished, you are loved.
And when they got into the boat to the wind ceased, then those who were in the boat came and worship him saying, surely you are the son of God. And Jesus came into the region of Caesarea the Lapai, Matthew 16, he asked his disciples saying, what do you men say, who do men say that I, the son of man am? I think he really liked to use that phrase. He uses it a lot, I the son of man.
Don't be afraid. So they said, some say Joan the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
Where's matter? Many years ago, I applied to join the fire department in Edmonton. Somehow, I don't know if it was an interview, but they made it aware of me that I had to write a test. Yeah, an attitude test, that's what I heard.
I thought I've got a great attitude. I'm gonna do so well on this. Well, so I got the test. We're all sitting in this room, lots probably in the rooms David that you lecture in.
There are a lot of people in there. I don't think I'm mad, there's a lot of people here. So I got my little open up my test, looking, I'm going, there's like gears and there's numbers and there's like mechanical stuff on there. I'm going, this is an attitude test.
This is an aptitude test. Yeah, I'm going, oh my attitude's not gonna help me with this, I don't think. So somehow I did okay with it, not good enough to go to the next level, but I thought, wow, you know? A lot of people on the street, they hear words like sinner and really they have no idea, it's vague to them.
Sinner, just like I was when I was in the arena. I kind of thought this was what a saint is. A believer, you know, Paul addressed to people he was speaking with, to the saints, what's Ephesus, I'm sure, one of those. But he said that repeatedly, referring to believers as saints, right?
So right then and there when I became a believer, I go, oh, this is different, right? Saints aren't somebody that's appointed by somebody else like that. When you're appointed to eternal life through Jesus Christ, by God and Father, you become a saint, right? A believer.
And the sinners, well, sinners as I said, I thought that was a very vague word. Yeah, I mean I've done a few, not very nice things, said a few things that weren't very nice. But when you look at the Word of God, and even when I was saved, I didn't see it at first, but when I looked through the law, the law, the Ten Commandments, you look at that, it drills it right down. When Jesus said, and Matthew five, he said, you've heard, said to those of old, you should not commit adultery.
I say to you, he looks at a woman to lust for her, has already committed adultery through her and is sorry. That's way different. That is hugely different. God knows our thoughts, you know what I'm thinking?
He knows everything. Yeah, he does. And he knows those that don't know him and knows what they're thinking. And some of those people are thinking, how do I get out of this mess?
How do I get out of this thing that I've gotten myself into my life? People I've heard, my own brother said it once a morning. I've said so many bad things. He's talking about his girlfriend who died of cancer, actually.
And he was broken in the sense that he, all these things kept flooding back, the things that he had said. So, words are so important, and I know I'm belaboring the point, but there is a point to my point here. So, if you're not a believer, you look at that moral law, you look at those Ten Commandments. You use God's name in vain.
You not always put God first. You've dishonored your parents. Maybe you've done that. Lied or stolen even once.
Looked with lust. Sinners need a Savior. The Bible says many times, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. What is it to believe?
When I became a believer, I mean, what exactly is it to believe? It's to accept and act upon that truth. It's to rely on it, to depend on it. When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're depending on him.
It's like someone's throwing you a life preserver. You hang on to it. That's it. You're hanging on it.
That's what Christ is. He's your life preserver. He'll save you out of the world, and he'll preserve you throughout this, and preserve you into eternity. That's good news.
That's one thief on the cross, said. Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Keep saying you're my only hope. There's a lot of options.
See, a lot of people, they don't want to think about this stuff. That's why they get caught up in drugs or alcohol or sex or whatever. Anything to sort of dumb down the reality, that there is a God in heaven. And he is holy, unique, different.
The phrase born again. I always like to explain that to people on the street. Born again. They've heard it term maybe, but they think it's baptism, or brought up in a Christian home.
Maybe having some sort of an experience at one point in their life. With many people say, I've been born again many times. Then you know they've not been born again. But they're sincere in the sense that they actually think that they're going to get to heaven, by maybe doing a bunch of good things.
So born again, what is it? That's when the Holy Spirit comes and dwells within a person who's turned to God saying, I've sinned against you. I believe that your son Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. I need him.
I'm calling out to him, God. I'm calling up to you. Save my soul. Then you become born again.
The Holy Spirit dwells within you. It causes you to walk in holiness and righteousness. You see, folks, because if you're not saved, if you've not had your sins forgiven, and by saved, I mean, if you've not had God's gracious cleansing, ultimately, you won't be spared God's judgment. So to be saved is to be spared God's judgment.
But it's much more than that. It's to live a life that we can't live on our own. So you can suppress your behavior. Even the worst of worst can suppress the behavior for a time, but their attitude has never changed.
They're still guilty. God can change your attitude, which leads to changing your actions, changing your thinking. Bible's been translated into over something like 700 languages. They're still working on Cape Breton Ease David.
I don't think they're going to make it. So another layer of the complexity God in his word, I said this earlier, the Bible conveys thoughts. There are so complex it actually transforms our minds. So I know it's spoken a lot about the word of God, the word made flesh.
It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, this is Jesus, John chapter 6, saying, the words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.
For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, who did not believe, and who would betray him. And he said, therefore I've said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. Then Jesus said to the 12, do you also want to go away?
But Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. The word made flesh has the words of eternal life. And he's given us his word.
He's given us his word. This is the word. This is the word of God. Maybe you've heard the objections some people have said this to us on the street as well.
Oh, the Bible's been translated into so many different languages. It's gotten changed and all these kinds of things. I just don't like that because the word of God spoken by us as believers, the whole spirit, he goes to that person and that person. It's not a person, person, person, person, thing.
The gospel is maintained and preserved because it's sources the same. And that's a very interesting way to look at it. Because if you're dealing with people that don't believe the word of God, they have no hope, right? Unless you believe that I'm healed, I'm your sins, Jesus said, right?
So without the word of God, his words, if you don't believe his words except an act upon them, then you really don't believe. Let your speech always be with grace seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer one another, that no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. But what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, this is in James, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. The likeness of God.
Out of the same out for seed blessing and cursing. And he says, my brethren, these things ought not to be so. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. Colossians chapter three, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And whatever you do in word or deed, do all. In the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father through him. That is God was in Christ second Corinthians, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. That's a great word, reconciliation.
Made right, brought into fellowship once again. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Second Peter, but the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and tradition of ungodly men. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood.
This is in Revelation 19, and his name is called the word of God. You have to take God at his word. You must take God at his word. It's our only hope, even as believers.
A lot of the times were slammed around by this world, and I look at what's happened in the last year. Take him at his word. You're going to get tossed around to him for, every time somebody comes up with something that contradicts the word of God, comes up with another gender, a different way to describe the common sense things. Like he and she, in the beginning, he created the male and female.
How could we as human beings get it so wrong? Because we don't have the word of God. And that's why the word of God is being phased out by the world. It's been vilified.
It's been like that since the beginning. We're living it though. But we're safe in the ark, which is Christ, the float on a sea of God's promises, un-syncable. Sinks, make your words count.
Make your words count. Let's pray, Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you for your word. Your word is truth, sanctifies by your truth. May your word go forth, Father in heaven.
Your words count, Lord. Fall parts two. In the name of the Lord Jesus, amen. Thank you for listening.