Speaking the Same Thing

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Good to see all of you. I'm looking way in the back. It's wonderful to have so many people here together in Cincinnati. It's wonderful to see so many ministers here. This is a highlight, one of the highlights of the year, God's Holy Days being the major highlight where we get together. It's good to have you here, and to all those that are listening on the web, good to have you with us as well. This is a special weekend and a special time in God's life for all of us as we live in a world that is ever-changing in a time that we have to focus more on the job that God has called us to do and fulfilling the mission that he has.

I know some of you were, you know, heard Dr. Ward's Bible study this morning, and I appreciate that. It made me think of the power of the spoken word, and it's so good to hear the words of truth spoken and documented and recorded because we all need to hear that. You know, God, when he created mankind, he gave us so many blessings, so many features of our life. He clearly set us apart from the animals of the world because he had a special purpose in mind for mankind, as you've heard this morning. As we think about the spoken word and the ability to speech, that's one of the key things that God gave us. It's how we relate to each other. It's how we relate to him. It's how we give the message that he has given us to the world, and very important. So today, I want to focus in on that just a little bit here. So if you turn with me back to Genesis 3 or Genesis 1, you know, we see where God created man. You know the verses well in verses 26, 27, where he created man in his own image. And in verse 28 of Genesis 1, when God created man, he says, God blessed them, and then God said to them. You know, when you read about God creating the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the animals and everything, he blessed them and said, but to man he said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. He gave mankind dominion, and he gave us abilities, the spirit and man that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 2 that enable us to think, to reason, to make plans, to learn our environment. Later on in chapter 2, as he is instructing mankind, in verse 15 of chapter 2, it says, The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. He was teaching them truth. He gave them absolute truth and fact.

And as you read through the rest of the chapter when he takes the rib from Adam and turns and she becomes Eve, in verse 23 Adam has a response to God. He understood what God was saying. That communication was there and the truth was delivered. He says, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. And then it says in verse 25, They were both naked, the man is woman, and they were not ashamed. They understood what God had said. There was one voice. There was one clear message to Adam and Eve. But when you move into chapter 3, you see another voice and other words that were introduced into mankind's life. Verse 1 of chapter 3, The serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. He said, Hasn't God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? He's got a different message. Now there's other words that are there. Now there's another voice speaking. Now there's a voice that's dedicated to, Let me create doubt. Let me take you away. Let me put some thoughts in your mind that weren't there before. Let me challenge that truth because I have a mission in mind that's different than God who has spoken to you.

Eve answers, but then in verse 4, The serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. A lie. A lie. And mankind now had a choice to make. God had said, If you eat of the tree of life, that's good. But if you the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in that day, you will surely die. One says, Don't. The serpent says, You're not going to die. There's a doubt there. And Eve made the wrong choice. She made the wrong choice, as we all know, and it brought death upon her. The power of speech, the power of words, what they can do and what they can convey to us. It's no wonder that back in the book of James, James chapter 3, verses you know very well, that God inspired words that talked about the tongue, the power that it has, the power to do good, or the power to take people in the opposite direction. In James 3, verse 8, it says, No man, no man contained the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full, full of deadly poison. The power of the words that are spoken, 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 or the image of God. With some words we can bless God and say the things that are true. With other words we can do all sorts of damage, just like Satan's words did. We can curse God. We can lead people astray. We can create doubt. We can rumor. We can gossip. We can destroy other people's character. We can do whatever we want with words. That's the carnality that's in us. And no man contained the tongue. We've all been guilty of this. Every single one of us have looked, have said things in our lives that I hope we regret when we realize what we've said. Only with God's Spirit can we control the words that we have that they would be used just for good and just for truth. We go back to verse 2 of the same chapter.

It says, we all stumble in many things. If anyone doesn't stumble in word, he's a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. If we can control our tongues, that self-control, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit that help us and give us the power to overcome self, overcome the world, overcome Satan. And down in verse 5 it says, the tongue is a little member and both great things, but see how great a forest a little fire kindles. We've all probably done that.

We've all probably been on the receiving end of words that kindle a fire that just sometimes just doesn't go away. Once the words are out there, it's hard to pull them back in. It's hard to retrieve them, to make amends for them, or to erase the hurt that we might have had if those words were spoken about us. The tongue is of fire, verse 6 says, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature. And it is set on fire by hell. Satan uttered those first words that led people away from God, that encouraged them, confused them, and led them to disregarding and rejecting God. Our words in so many areas can have the same effect, so it is something that we need to pay attention to. Back in—turn with me back to Exodus. You know, when God was calling Israel out of Egypt, and he was going to work with this people that he was bringing out, it would be his own special people, he wanted to—he set a pattern that has been established throughout the Bible that continues into New Testament times in our time today. In Exodus 4, you'll recall when God called Moses and prepared him through the many times of his life—the time in Egypt, the time that he spent with Jethro and Midian—and God called him from the burning bush, and God says, this is what I have in mind for you, Moses. This is what you're going to do. And you remember Moses had excuse after excuse after excuse why he couldn't do what God wanted him to do. So if we pick it up in chapter 4 of Exodus in verse 10, God says this to Moses. Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I'm not eloquent, neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. I just can't say those words. I can't do it. It's just not me. So the eternal said to him, Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Haven't I, God says, now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. I'll give you the words, Moses. Trust me.

Moses has another response to that and says, please just find someone else to do it. In verse 14, the anger of the eternal was kindled against Moses and he said, Isn't Aaron your brother? I know he can speak well and look he's coming out to meet you when he sees you he'll be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and I will teach you what you shall do. I will give you the words. You pass them on. You pass them on. I'm making you responsible to speak and pass my words on to my people.

And you, we don't have to turn to Exodus 20, you will remember at the foot of Mount Sinai.

As the people were there and they trembled when they heard God's voice and they said, or the thunder and the lightning and they said, no, no, no, Moses, don't let God speak to us. You speak to us. And God did. And down through the ages, a pattern was set. God spoke through his prophets.

The minor prophets, the major prophets, the former prophets, God spoke to them. How many times do we read in the Bible? Thus saith the Lord, go and tell my people this. God gave the words and they were transmitted to the people. They were the words of truth and those prophets and those people were responsible to deliver those words exactly to God's people and carefully.

We turn back to Zechariah. Zechariah 7.

We read about all those prophets and where the words that were put in their mouths came from.

Zechariah 7.

As God is, through Zechariah, talking about the people and their fast days, and are they really fasting to God or are they really fasting for themselves or they're doing their will rather than God's will. In verse 7 of Zechariah 7, he says this, shouldn't you have obeyed the words which the eternal proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous? Shouldn't you have obeyed those words? Shouldn't you have paid attention to what those prophets were telling you? Down in verse 12, yes, they made their hearts like flint, talking about the people. They made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets.

They wouldn't listen. How many times do we remember the prophets would go and people, we don't want to hear that. We don't want to hear what God had to say. Other times, they would find their own prophets who would tell them if they wanted to hear. A little bit different than what God easier on them. But God here tells us all those former prophets, all those prophets that he sent, they were given his words through his spirit to pass on.

They did, as we read the Bible, the people rejected it, just like Eve wanted to believe other words that would benefit her more or make her life easier or whatever she wanted to believe, rejecting God, rejecting what the prophets had to say. In Acts 3, we read the same thing.

As we go to the Feast of Tabernacles each year, these verses are read. Go to Acts 3 and look at verses 18 through 21. We see the same pattern continue as God works through his prophets in the old time to tell what the truth is, to tell what would happen to all those prophecies, some of which have been fulfilled perfectly into the letter and others that have yet to be fulfilled. In verse 18 of Acts 3, it says, but those things which God foretold, by the mouth of all his prophets, that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled.

And then the message. Hear the message, he says, repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. The truth was there. Always, as you go through the Old Testament, the truth is there.

Nothing has changed. God foretold what it was. The words are true. The words were spoken. People rejected them. Maybe they were led astray by other words that were similar, but not the words of God, because there is something with speaking the words. The hear has to discern what is truth, and must know the word of God and be close to it, and love it, must be written in his heart, something that ancient Israel wasn't good at, but now, as we have God's Holy Spirit, we certainly are responsible to do that. In Hebrews 1, Hebrews 1 and verse 1, God talks about speaking again and the words that are spoken. Hebrews 1 verse 1, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has been pointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the worlds, spoke to us by the prophets through the Holy Spirit, but now speaks to us through Christ. His words. His words are truth. We heard this morning John 6, 63, his words are spirit and they are life. They give life to us and we need to know those words and pay close attention to them. And Jesus Christ was clear on where the words he spoke came from.

Go back and we'll do a little survey through the book of John, gospel of John. Let's pick it up in John 12. As you're on your way to John 12, I'll reference John 1 where it says, the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

He spoke truth and left us a legacy and left us the words that are bespoken. John 12.

The words that we have read in the not too distant past as we prepared for Passover and observed it. In John 12 and verse 44, I'm going to read down to verse 50, but let's just read the words that Jesus said. It says, Jesus cried out and said, he who believes in me believes not in me, but in whom who sent me. If you believe in me, you believe in God the Father. He sent me. And he who sees me, sees him who sent me.

I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness.

And if anyone hears my words and doesn't believe, I don't judge him. For I didn't come to judge the world but to save the world. I came with words. Some will reject it, but I'm giving you those words because their light, their life, that's what you need to cling to.

Verse 48, he who rejects me and doesn't receive my words has that which judges him, the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last days. Because they are truth, they are solid, they are the way of life that God has called us to, those are the words to live by, and any other words lead to death. Verse 49, for I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.

The words come from the Father, and Jesus Christ gave them to His disciples then, to His disciples now, you and me, and I know that His command is everlasting life. That's what His will is. Listen to these words. Follow these words. Don't be deceived. Don't be tricked. Listen to the words of truth. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak. He did exactly the words of life that God gave Him to give, not on His own authority, but the words that God the Father gave Him. John 14. John 14, verse 6, He says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, if that's what you're looking for, pay attention to what I say. Follow me. Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. It tells us in Acts 4, 12, and other places in the Bible. But in John 14, in verse 10, He repeats it again. That is the Father who gave Him the words. Verse 10, don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I don't speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works. Verse 24, He who does not love me doesn't keep my words. If you love me, remember, said it twice, if you love me, keep my commandments, keep my words. He doesn't love me, He who does not love me doesn't keep my words. And the word which you hear isn't mine, but the Father's who sent me.

And then in verse 25, He highlights it again. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name, it will teach you all things, and it will bring to you remembrance the things that I said to you.

They're in your mind, they're in your heart, God will write them there, and in the proper time, the Holy Spirit will recall those words that guide us, that lead us, that lead us to life, all based on truth. In John 17, Christ's prayer for His disciples before He would complete His mission on earth that day, that Passover day.

In verse 6, He says, as He's praying to God the Father, I've manifested your name to the men you have given Me out of the world.

I've given them your name. They were yours. You gave them to Me, and they have kept your word.

They've learned it. They've been living by it. Now they have known that all things which you have given Me are from you. For I have given to them the words which you have given Me, and they've received them, and they've known surely that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent Me. I gave them the words. They listened. They received them. They lived by them.

They were disciples. Now let's pause for a moment. Think about the word disciple for a minute, because you and I are all disciples, just like the men and women who followed Jesus Christ back then. What is a disciple? What does a disciple do? Some of the world confuse it and just say, a disciple is a student, and indeed, a disciple is a student. They learn the words, but it's more than that. Keep your finger there in John 17, because we're going to come back to that in a second. Let's go back to Luke 6. Luke 6, because it defines what the disciple is.

Luke 6, verse 40, says, a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. Well, that's the goal you and I have, right? Become like Christ.

Think like him. Have the mind of Christ. Act like him. Speak like him. Talk about the same things and be led by the same spirit that he was led by. Be like him. Study him. Study his words. Become like him. Back in Matthew 10, Christ is sending some of his disciples out, if you'll remember, to the lost tribes of Israel, he says, and he gives them specific directions as they're going out to these various cities to do things the way they've seen him do. He tells them what to preach. He tells them what to do. He tells them what to take and what not to take. What happens when they go some place and someone doesn't want to receive the words that he sent them out with. So let's look at that for a moment in verse 24 of Matthew 10. He says here again about a disciple. A disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master. It is enough. Well, that's interesting. It's enough, Christ said. It's enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher. Well, that is the goal.

Ephesians 4 tells us that to the measure of the fullness and stature of Jesus Christ. It's enough. That's the goal. Be like your teacher. Be like Jesus Christ. Become like him in every aspect of our lives, individual personalities, but one spirit, one truth, one doctrine, one baptism, one way of life, one way to salvation by Jesus Christ. Become like him. It's enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher. Now, if we go back, back up in the chapter to where he's sending them out, in verse 7, he tells them what to preach, and he tells them, you preach the same thing I've been preaching. As you go preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Isn't that the first recorded words of, prepent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Go and talk about the kingdom of God. Let them know Jesus Christ is returning. Let them know there's hope. Let them know there's a plan. Let them know they may receive it. We pray they will receive it, but if they don't, Jesus Christ told them what to do. Some will not receive it. Sad, but some will not receive it. Go down to verse 17. He says, beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. What does that mean? That doesn't sound very comfortable, does it? That doesn't sound like, you know, standing in front of a crowd and talking about the gospel of God and the gospel of the kingdom. It may be very different, but you know what? It's an opportunity for you to preach the gospel to them. You stand for what you believe. You preach what it is. You preach the truth of God, and you don't waver in the front of a threat from man, because later in the chapter, he says, don't be aware, don't be afraid of what man can do to you. Be aware what God can do to you in the terms of life. You will be brought before governors, verse 18, and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles, but when they deliver you up, don't worry about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak. God will provide the words. He knows what we're going through. He knows what's happening, and he can give us the words just as he gave the words to the prophets of old, just as he gave the words to Jesus Christ, just as he delivers the words to us. Same spirit. Same spirit in the prophets, Jesus Christ, you and me. God says the words are important that you will speak.

Let's go back to John 17 and read on in the prayer that's there. John 17. Let's drop down to verse 13. John 17 verse 13. Christ again praying to the Father, he says, but now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they aren't of the world, just as I am not of the world. I don't pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify or separate them by truth. Your word is truth. Christ says, as you sent me into the world, I'm sending them into the world, and for their sakes, verse 19, I sanctify myself that they might be sanctified by the truth. I don't pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. What word? The words that Jesus Christ left for us to teach others in that commission. Teach all nations to observe all things I have commanded you.

Preach the gospel. Preach it loudly. Preach it clearly. The power of the spoken word, the truth that the world needs to hear. I've given them your word, and others will believe through their word because it's the same pattern. God speaks through prophets, through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4, when you get into Paul, who was taught by Jesus Christ and gave the words and spoke the words that God gave him, you see where God established His church and said, these are how the words of truth are passed on as He directs. Let's go over to Ephesians 4 for just a minute. Of course, as you read through the first part of Ephesians 4, you read about the unity that God wants for all of us. You certainly read that in John 17. How many times? I think it's four times that Jesus Christ said, my will is that they are one with each other as they are with you and me. One. Unity. Unified in everything they do. The first part of Ephesians 4, that's what Paul talks about there, reminding us to endeavor for the unity of the Spirit. Dropping down to verse 13, the goal, become like Christ, that's what disciples do, that's what we're here for, till we come to the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we would no longer be children, tossed to and fro by various doctrines, things that can rattle us, things that we listen to, things that can take us away from the truth that was delivered to us by God, that can cause problems for ourselves spiritually, cause problems for others, too. Stick to the truth. Stick to the Bible. Read the words of the Bible and let God lead us to all that truth that He wants us to have. In verse 15, we've heard this verse talked about much, and we know that truth in verse 15 is a verb, but it says here, but speaking the truth in love, and truth as a verb would include living the truth, doing the truth, and speaking the truth, right? Speaking the truth in love, that you may grow up in all things than to Him who is the head. Christ. Disciples. It's enough that you become like Him.

That's the goal. Down in verse 25, he talks about speaking again. Verse 25, he says, therefore, put away lying. Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor. Quoting directly from Zachariah 8 16, I believe, therefore put away lying. Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Speak truth in the church wherever you are.

Speak truth. Paul wrote those words as inspired by God, and this is an epistle that he wrote a little later on, but one of the early epistles that he wrote was the church at Corinth.

The church at Corinth lived in difficult times. You know what Corinth was like. It was a pagan city filled with idolatry, filled with sexual generality. That was the way they lived. And that affected the church at Corinth as well. You'll remember, as you read through the first epistle to the Corinthians, you read all these things that are going on in the church.

They have no idea how to resolve conflict with one another. They don't follow the word of God. Instead, they're going to the courts and allowing them to decide. It's filled with pride. They're using knowledge as a way to puff themselves up and promote themselves above others. There's sexual immorality that's there, and even in the church, you remember in 1 Corinthians 5, they're tolerating sin. They're not following what God said. They put that sin out that that sinner can repent. They're tolerating it. They've gotten used to it by the actions that they take. It's almost like they're condoning it. There's even a controversy over how to keep the Passover. How do we keep the Passover, even though God's commands on the Passover are very clear, as they are in all the holy days? And there's this party spirit that's there. Well, I want this man. I want that man. And whatever.

And so you see this as Paul talks about this and writes to the church at Corinth, not unlike the society that we live in today, not unlike the church in some areas today, because we have some of these same issues that Paul wrote about in Corinthians that come up in our congregations as well. We are, after all, human. We've all made mistakes. We all are there, but we are all here to learn to do the things that God wants us to have. So let's go over and look at 1 Corinthians 1.

Chapter 1. And in verse 11, Paul lays out the purpose for what he is writing. It's been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Go over to chapter 3. He continues what he's saying there.

In the intervening verses he talks about, we are just weak in base things. Everything we have is from God. None of us can glory on ourselves because nothing that we do, nothing that we have is of us. It's all of God. But in chapter 3, he says, brethren, I can't speak to you as spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.

Verse 3, for you are still carnal, for where there are envy, strife, divisions among you. Aren't you carnal and behaving like mere men? When one says, I'm this one, this one, etc., etc., he says, we're a Christ. It's his words that we're supposed to be speaking. It's his words we're supposed to be living by. It's his words that are the way of the truth in life.

It's his words that unify us, just like his Spirit unifies us. And so he goes through this process. Flip back to verse chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, and he lays out, as Paul does in many other places, too, what is the reason that all these things are happening in your church, Corinth? What is it there? Yes, there's carnality. We know that we're still carnal. We have to live by God's Holy Spirit. And in verse 10, he lays out a simple truth.

Verse 10, he says, I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing. That what you hear in Corinth is the same thing you hear in Ephesus. It's the first thing you're going to hear in Thyatira.

It's the same thing you're going to hear in Thessalonica. It's the same thing you're going to hear in Cincinnati, the same thing you're going to hear in San Diego, the same thing in Orlando, the same thing in Africa, Asia, Europe, wherever you are, all speak the same thing. And then there's this word, and. When you look up and in the Concordance, it says it's an uncertain conjunction.

It can be and, it can be or, it can be so. Some of the newer translations will put the word so in there. That you speak the same thing so that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Isn't that what God wants from us? Speaking the same thing, the same truth, directly from the Bible, not my opinion added to it, not your opinion added to it, not a little wrinkle that we've read somewhere on the internet, the same truth.

And so, you know, as we talk about speaking the same things as the theme for this conference, there's a reason. We need to get back to speaking the same things. We need to be careful with the Word of God.

We need to understand it, and we need to preach it exactly the way God wants us to. I'm going to give you three verses, and you can look them up in Proverbs 30 verses 5 and 6. It says, don't add anything to the Word. Be careful with God's Word. It says that in Deuteronomy 12, 32. Be careful with the Word of God. Don't add to it.

Don't take away from it. Preach it and speak it the way Christ did, the way the Word of God is here. Same thing in Revelation 20, where it says, and if anyone adds to this prophecy, judgment will be on him. If he takes away from this prophecy, he won't be. In the book of life, God expects us, and it's our responsibility as his people, speak the Word carefully and live it, and live it, and be an example of it.

We've all been called to do God's will. We all have a commission, every joint together, to do the, to do, to fulfill the commission that God has called us to, to preach the Word of God, and to teach it, and to live it in our lives and our congregations. From here on out, let's be, let's be careful. Let's plan, and let's work an endeavor, as Paul says, to speak the same things.