Seeing what the world doesn't

(still working on new article and will post tomorrow for certain)

"People say, 'The King James is so hard to read; we want something easier.' Why in the world would you want God to talk to you like your pal? Wouldn't you rather He talked to you like God?

"A writer for the Chicago Tribune once wrote just that. He said, 'I'm not a Believer but I think God ought to sound a little more like God than somebody's counselor.'

"You see, there's something about the Word of God that's different from anything else and people know that," says Richard Jordan. "When you try to dumb it down and make-believe that making it easier to read is going to make it easier to understand, you've cut the heart out of everything there is about understanding God's Word, because understanding it has nothing to do with making it easier to read.

"If you could read it in the original language He wrote it in, it isn't easy to read. Oh, yeah. When you get a passage in your Bible that's kind of knotty and hard to understand, you know what, you go read the Greek text or the Hebrew text and you know what you'll find out? It's kind of knotty and hard to understand there too.

*****

Hebrews 4:12: [12] For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

"The reason that first phrase is translated that way is the Word of God, it's not just that it's alive--it's alive and able to work quickly. Listen, when you take the solution God's Word gives you and apply it to your life it doesn't take forever to solve the problem. 

The verse says the Word is 'sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.'

"It can get right down to the nitty-gritty of what's going on in your inner man. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents . . . ooh, wait a minute. When you read that Book, it's reading you! That's why some of you don't like to read it.

"That Book is the only way as a Believer you can know whether you're walking in the flesh or in the Spirit; whether it's that old life that's running you or it's the new man.

"Look at verse 13: [13] Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

"Who is the 'him with whom we have to do'? That's God. But he says the Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of your heart because God knows what they are. In the passage, he talks about the Word of God doing what God does.

"When you're dealing with that Book, you're not dealing with any other book like it. There isn't another. God's design is that when you're dealing with God's Word you're dealing with God Himself. And if you're going to deal with the God of creation, you're going to deal with Him through His Word. That's how powerful that Book is. That's what that Book is. There's God literally talking to you and you've got it in your hand.

"The Bible Believer's attitude is, 'When I'm facing God's Word, I'm facing God Himself and that Book's going to be a discerner of what's going on inside of me in a way that I couldn't do myself--in a way that only God could do.' 

*****

"Let me show you an illustration. Here's how Paul thought about it. Romans 9:17: [17] For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

"If you go back to Exodus 9:16, the one who is talking in the passage is Jehovah. Jehovah says to Pharoah, 'Even this same purpose have I, Jehovah, raised thee up,' but who does the verse say said that? The Scripture said it.

"In Paul's mind, when you're reading the Scripture, you're reading what God says. The power and the authority of the Scripture is there because it's God speaking. Paul doesn't hesitate to use God and the Scripture interchangeably.

"That passage in Romans deserves some real cogitation. When God speaks it's the Scripture, and when the Scripture speaks, it's God speaking. That's where the power and the authority of that Book comes and it's not like any other book you'll ever read.

Galatians 3:8: [8] And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

"Folks, who tells the future? Only God can do that. But Paul doesn't mind saying the Scripture does what God does, because when you're reading the Scripture, you're reading what God's doing.

"A Bible Believer's viewpoint is that, 'When I'm dealing with that Book, it's God talking and if I want to talk to God, I've got to go to that Book to get it.' I don't go to dreams, spirits, seances, religious activities. I don't do a bunch of praying and asking God to talk to me. He already has and I've got it in a Book.

"David says in Psalm 138:2: [2] I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

"Write down by that verse Nehemiah 9:5 where it says 'blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.'

"In Philippians 2, Paul says, [9] Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

[10] That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

"His name is above everything and He takes His Word and puts it ABOVE that! That's God's attitude."

*****

"I used to preach on the street in Alabama and when I came to Chicago I'd go downtown into the Loop and stand and watch all these people going by. All these people running to and fro in darkness.

"We understand something that is of eternal value, but if you turn a little light on, people run like sour bugs. I don't know about you, but if I think about that enough I get aggravated and I get a little depressed," says Richard Jordan. 

"Shining His light in darkness is a challenging thing, is what I'm trying to say. It's challenging in every way and the world doesn't get it. Everything you do--you know, we do radio, TV, fair ministries, on and on. I just talked to lady yesterday telling me 'how frustrating it is that I have this information and my family just won't see it.'

"I want to look at a guy who faced the same situation--Noah. Hebrews 11:1 says, [1] Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

"That actually is not a definition of faith; it's a description of what faith does. Faith is what provides the substance of things hoped for. You have this hope; this stuff out in the future, but you don't have any evidence right now that that's true. You have a promise and faith is what gives the conviction that what that future thing that's coming is a reality. It's the evidence of things not seen.

"Faith comes by hearing. Faith is dependent on what God says. You're persuaded. In Romans 4 it says Abraham was 'fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.'

"That's the better definition of faith. This is a description of faith's work; of faith's accomplishment. That's why he says in verse 6 that without faith it is impossible to please Him. There's that thing we know and yet you have to have faith to see it; faith to understand it. Because it's the Word that gives light.

Hebrews 11:7: [7] By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

"He was 'warned of God of things not seen as yet.' Noah was given some hidden information. We've been given some hidden information about a future event that was completely unbelievable by everybody you talked to.

"Noah says, 'Hey, God's going to destroy this planet with rain.' And you know what everybody said to him? 'That's scientifically impossible.'

"Look back at Genesis 2: [4] These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

[5] And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
[6] But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

"The ecology system before the Flood was that it didn't rain. There was a mist dew that came up and watered. The hydro-system was different.

"In Noah's day, when he was told, 'It's going to rain; the skies are going to open up and water is going to come down and cover the whole planet and destroy everybody,' he told others, 'I'm building a boat; you got to get into that boat.'

"For 120 years, Noah goes about building that boat because God told him what was going to happen in the future and He believed what God said. But he couldn't point to scientific evidence. He couldn't point to experience.

"Can you image how people horse-laughed him? Can you imagine what people said about him? What his kids had to experience when they went to school? Go down to the mall? 'Your old man's crazy, you know that?!'

"He goes over to the lumber yard and gets lumber and people say, 'Are you nuts?!' They say to the boys' girls, 'Why, you going to marry into that family?! Are you nuts?!'

"But what does light do? It reproves. So Hebrews 11 says he condemned the world. How? By building the ark.

"He didn't have any evidence to point to except what God said and the world didn't get it because nobody believed him. After 120 years he only had his family as converts. You think, 'Man, you talk about feeling like your ministry's not getting anywhere!' But he believed what God said.

"You and I are building an ark for people to get out of the world into the Body of Christ. All we have to do is point to God's Word, but you know the world doesn't see in God's Word what we see in it."