Let us also now turn in our Bibles to Psalm 78. Reading there this evening, the first eight verses. Psalm 78, the first eight verses. Again, the word of God. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob, appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God. But keep his commandments, And that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. And then please turn with me once again to Ephesians chapter 4. And there looking this evening at the verses 20 and 21. Ephesians 4, verses 20 and 21. Again, the Word of God. But that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus. Thus far, the reading of God's word this evening. Let us look to God for his illumination. Our God and Father, we thank you that you speak to us. We now ask that you would also send your spirit to open up our hearts and our minds to receive and to understand that we might know what it is that you would teach us and what you would say to us as your children. In Jesus' name we do pray, amen. I'm sure that you are all quite familiar with the normal sort of overused reference to reading the instructions. When everything else fails and you can't get it put together or you can't get it to work right, you go and read the instructions. The point being that anything that we do or are involved in requires some knowledge. Perhaps there is a simple principle to follow, or just to follow basic steps in order to accomplish. Again, if you're working with some machinery or whatever, to follow the manufacturer's order in order for the tool to work. A little knowledge certainly helps. Although when you're someone my age, when it comes to computers and cell phones, you really wonder whether it does or not. We talk about knowing Jesus in terms of having a heart knowledge about him. That is to have a conviction. Heidelberg Catechism speaks of that in in question answer 21, in terms of faith, that there's a hard conviction. You know Jesus in your heart. And that's important. But there also, again referenced in Heidelberg 21, there is a need for head knowledge. What was made abundantly clear in the previous verses, which we looked at this morning, that as a believer there is a change that needs to take place in the life of God's people from the unbelief to the belief and from the pagan world to the godly world. The question is, how does that happen? And that's a very, very important question for us to consider, even for us who will not have any experience, as I assume is the case for most of you, of having gone very openly and very clearly from an ungodly lifestyle or world to a godly one. It is still very important. How do we know where we are at today and what that means? How is it possible for us to, in fact, walk, or to have this lifestyle which is not like the world. There are three aspects to that that we want to consider this evening, and that is, first of all, to understand that you have heard Christ. You have heard Him. Secondly, that He is, of course, the source of all truth. And he does teach that truth. Jesus said in that well-known passage in John 10, verse 27 and 28, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life. Anyone who is following Jesus, anyone who believes that Jesus is their Lord and Savior has, in fact, heard Jesus. Hasn't just heard something about him, hasn't just picked up a few bits and pieces, he has heard Jesus. The fundamental thing about salvation is that Jesus does speak. If you are in that category mentioned in the previous verse as no longer being as the Gentiles, unbelievers, if you are now not like the Gentiles, but you are in that category of having switched over or being the people of God, then here is an absolute truth that you need to understand. You have heard Jesus. He has called you and you have responded. Now, of course, I am using the word heard Jesus in the normal sense. We know that there is the unusual of someone who is unable to hear physically speaking and those sorts of things, but ultimately they still, in their way and by the grace of God, have heard Jesus. How is that? Did not Paul say, first of all, again, reminding us that he's writing to people who are dead in trespasses and sins? Dead people don't hear. Dead people don't hear anything. It means that to hear Jesus, there must have already been, and part of hearing Jesus is that the work of the Holy Spirit is active and is bringing the dead back to life. The Spirit works through the Word. It's how God raises people up from their being dead in trespasses and sins. You see, the God that we have is the God who speaks, and what he says are the words of life. God is not something that man has imagined. He is not something that man has made his own God, as we read of it in the Scriptures, and in fact, as every other understanding of any kind of God that there is, is ultimately the result of man's own imagination. That is not God. God is a God, as the scripture says, who is in His temple and He speaks. Remember what Jesus said about His sheep. He said He knows them before they hear Him. He already knows who they are. He knows whom He is speaking to. The word goes out, the message of the good news of salvation is made known, but specifically and personally, Jesus speaks. to his own lambs, to his own sheep. If it were not possible to hear Christ, no one would be saved. We do not live in a world where we do not know how to live or what to do. We do not have a situation in which we are struggling, trying to find out. You have heard Jesus, your Savior, Now you may say, well, of course, when he was here on earth teaching and walking on earth, that's nearly two centuries ago. The words that he said, the words that are recorded in the scripture are the words that were the words of life two centuries ago. Life is different today. What has he said about life today? Listen to what we read in the book of Hebrews in the fourth chapter. where we read the author of Hebrews speak in verses 14 and following. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The Lord knows, the Lord has himself been there with you in whatever situation that you might be in, whatever difficulty in life you might be dealing with, whatever situation of temptation there is for us, not one person can say, well my situation is absolutely unique and there is nothing that can help me. The Lord has been there with you and the Lord speaks to you in that situation. To live the lifestyle of the world today, Paul says that it is not what you have heard, that is not what you have heard. To live as those today out there in the world who's, as we said this morning, whose minds are empty, to live that kind of a lifestyle is not what Jesus has spoken to you about. We need to zero in a bit more regarding how this has taken place. as we sang and read from Psalm 78, give ear, O my people, to my law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. There is a very specific reference, and again, in a general sense here, there are the exceptions, very specific reference to mouth, what is spoken, and to ear, what is heard. From God's mouth to your ears, But then notice how that happened. He is addressing the fathers. Fathers teach your children about the works of God. When fathers are teaching their children, or parents are teaching their children, or parents through the church are teaching their children, what they know about what they were taught about the works of God, those children are hearing. Jesus. That's the Word of God, the Word of Life that they are hearing. That is to say, when you read this book, this book here, Jesus is speaking to you. You cannot say, I did not hear Jesus, when you find yourself doing what the Gentiles do. You have heard Jesus. But it gets even better. Paul tells us in the 10th chapter of Romans, and verse 14. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching But God's people are meeting with God as we are now. And the words coming from the pulpit are faithful to this book. It is not just words about Jesus. It is Jesus speaking to his people. Those who would say that Reformed people don't have messages from God, don't understand what worship is or what the Word of God is. You want to hear God and his direction for you and your life? Gather for worship. Jesus speaks to his people. He speaks to you directly and you need to listen. We speak of this as the means that is a means of grace. It is the tool, if you will. It is the means that God uses to get accomplished. Our confession in Heidelberg Catechism 65 says that the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the Holy Gospel and confirms it by the sacraments. Let us be absolutely clear. Jesus does speak. And as God's people, we hear what Jesus says. Now ask yourself, why does the psalmist instruct that you should teach your children about the works of God? Why does that lead to continuation and covenant faithfulness? Because that's where truth is at. There's no guarantee. We as parents all know that. But the way that the word of God goes from generation to generation, the way God is faithful to his covenant, is by continuing that we would know, that our children would know, even as the psalmist says, those children in the future that we will never see, have not yet been born, will know, teach them now. So Jesus is speaking here. The Apostle John introduces Jesus in this way. John 1.1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then he says, and the Word became flesh, dwelt among us. Jesus is truth. As we saw earlier in this chapter, when you look anywhere else for truth, all you will find ultimately is foolishness, not the expanse of knowledge in the world. Yes, there may be a lot of things that are known out there by others, but truth comes from God. The rest is empty. Do not be taken in by the so-called experts because in this modern world of scholarship and experience there is now therefore a greater truth. Of course we need to understand the truth of Christ as applies to our lives in an ever greater way with ever more application Also the old saying of we have never done it that way before, you've ever heard that one before, well we can't do this because we haven't done it that way. That's not the way to maintain truth. It is the scriptures. To continually go back to the scriptures. The model is to go again and again to the word of Christ. Well, of course, Jesus reveals the gospel, the good news of salvation. That's the heart, that's what this book is all about, from the beginning to the end. It is the message of the good news of salvation that Christ, that God has sent his son so that his people might have salvation, sinners. We read again in the book of John, believing you may have life. You cannot put life into compartments. If you say on the one, well certainly I need Jesus to know the answer to my problem of sin, and I need Jesus to tell me of the good news of salvation, and I listen to him about that, but that's this part of life, that's one part of life, that's just dealing with my eternal existence and what's the answer to the problem of sin. I have to look to the world now to learn how to live Monday through Saturday. and all of the other aspects of life. When you look over here, that is the world for direction. Yes, we live in that world, and we deal with the knowledge that's in that world from day to day. But if we look to the world for direction, you have lost the life that you have learned over here. in terms of Christ as your Savior. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. Like with many things in life, we want to make things often, at least it seems to me, a whole lot more complicated than they need to be. So we know where the truth comes from. We know how it comes to us. And Jesus is our teacher. There's really a three-way, very simple connection in this passage. It is simply this. Jesus is truth. We have his word. It is here in this book. And finally, from this and through the ministry of the word, you are taught. There is truth. It has been revealed to us. We are taught by that truth. It's that simple. I want to carefully point out how Paul states this and notice in this passage. The whole idea of how we live and how the Bible condemns us for wrong living is very often wrongly presented understood. Paul does not say that you have been given the word of Jesus so that by means of that word you might be able to know what it is that you need to do in order to get right with Jesus. That you might be able to be taught how you can make yourself closer and better in the eyes of Jesus. That could never be. No matter how much word we have from God, no matter how much we have information given to us, if we are relying on ourselves to get to the point that we are right with God, we will never get there. No one. Paul does not say that you'll be given the word. Notice he states it in the past tense. You have not so learned Christ. Now I don't know how much time has taken place between what we read in Ephesians 2 about all those people who were dead in trespasses and sins, and now in chapter 4 he says you may no longer walk like the Gentiles do. but apparently a fairly short period of time, but that's really not the point. The point is that as soon as they are no longer dead in sins, as soon as the Holy Spirit has opened up their hearts and their eyes to hear the truth of God, they have heard Jesus. He is not speaking to those who are still dead in trespasses and sins. He's speaking to those who do know Christ, who have confessed Him. He is reminding us in what manner we have learned Christ. And that is to follow a different lifestyle. Now, of course, there's an ongoing process. And he goes on in the last part of this chapter to lay out some very specific directions for life. Here are the kinds of things you need to be doing. Here are the kinds of things you need to not be doing. And so there is a learning process for those who have heard Jesus. And we do even need to at times be sharply rebuked from the Word of God and reminded about what Christ has taught us as we come to know Him. But again, if you know Christ, you have heard Jesus. Now in the very next verse, and you continue from there, as I've indicated, there are all of these instructions about life. You have not learned him to live by disregarding his direction for life. How you live as a believer is of absolute importance, though it has nothing to do with being right with God and having eternal life. That may be a very fine point, and I want to be really careful and say it a very careful sort of way. Absolutely what Jesus teaches us about how to live is of fundamental importance, but not in the sense of how you become saved. Let me state it another way. You cannot have eternal life, to state it in a negative way first of all, you cannot have eternal life and live as the Gentiles do. You cannot read Ephesians 4 or any other passage and conclude that the law is not important for Paul. It most certainly is. To say that it has nothing to do with how you can work your way to Jesus, how you can find Jesus through these steps and so on, is not to say that the truth of God is not important for you in every day of your life. about how to live and how to understand the foolishness of the world out there and the directness of the truth of God as you take this world and apply your life in it. Jesus calls you to faith, and when he does, he teaches you how to live and requires. And again, it's not that, well, okay, I didn't listen to Jesus so well this past week, so I guess I'm in trouble with God. What does that say for the accomplished work of Christ? That's not the point. But if you have had a time, and we all do, which the temptation of our own sinful hearts and the world becomes more powerful than the Word of God in our lives, it's not that we have somehow lost connection with Christ and need to regain it. If you belong to Jesus, you belong to Jesus. But you have denied yourself the privilege and the joy of enjoying life in the presence of God. That is the life that is most fulfilling and most enjoyable. I want you to see that this passage is both a statement of what the Christian life is and an encouragement as to how you know that Christ does speak to you. It's an exhortation, it's a strong exhortation. You have not heard Christ in terms of living as the world does. That's what Paul says. To walk as the Gentiles still do. That's not the way you have learned Christ. You have heard Christ as to his direction for life. There is an exhortation for you to do something. Hear the word. Study the word. Make sure it is instilled in your heart. You know, the Pharisees had a habit of carrying around with them virtually a big book that had in it a direction for every little detail that might come up in life in order to make sure they did everything exactly properly. Now we have the scriptures, and we need to follow it, and we need to read it daily, et cetera. But we do not live our life, and every moment that comes along, we make a decision, and we pull out a little handy-dandy direction book from our pocket and say, well, what do I do now? You know what to do when you have the word of God, when you have Jesus in your heart, because you have heard it, and you've read it, and you've heard it again. That's how you have learned Jesus. He calls you to know his word in your heart, and thus you will know what to do. Let us pray. Our God and Father, we do ask that you would indeed teach us, that you would continue to speak to us, and that we would hear you more. We are grateful, oh Lord, that we have a God who does speak. We have a God whose word is truth, and that truth is not fleeting, but we can hear it. Our prayer is by your Holy Spirit. Help us to hear it more. In Jesus' name we pray.