Hearing the voice of God

So Father, draw near. Thankful again for all that have stayed for this particular session. Thankful for what has gone before.

Hear us in our request and draw nigh to us just now in the Savior's name. Amen. Book of Job, please, chapter 33.

I'd like to pick up just a sentence or two from where our brother Higgins closed. If it's any help to some of my young brethren, who have an interest in the hearts and souls of men, let me try and encourage you that I used to think and thought wrong. But I used to think that if I could preach like Norman Crawford, well, then I would think about the Lord's work.

If I could preach like a, like our two brethren, I would think about the souls of men. But Mr. Slabel taught me something. He said, Al, God is not interested in your ability as much as he is interested in your availability.

And that was a big help. So dear young man, dear young couples, because it takes two. Dear young couples, think about the souls of men.

They're perishing and there's nobody to stop them, but the message that you and I have. So think about it and hope it'll be an encouragement to you. Job 33, reading at verse 8. Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing, and I have heard the voice of thy words.

There is something wonderful about email, about texting, and all these forms of communication that has no access that we have and can use them and use them properly. The difficulty of, obviously, as we all know, is the amount of time that it can take and consume us, especially if there is a lack of self-discipline and we let it so. There's something better than texting.

There's something better than having an email, and that is to hear the voice, to hear the breathings on the other end, to hear the, feel the emotion of the person that you're talking to. I have talked to, I've texted certain individuals and not only do you know, not only do you not understand what their text is because they chop it here and they chop it there, and I don't know all the abbreviations of, I just found out not too long ago that what LOL means. And I wasn't aware of that, that all these abbreviations carry a big message.

But when you get on the phone and when you hear the voice and you hear them chuckle rather than saying LOL, then you have a much better feel, you have a much better contact with that individual. So there is something that I have experienced in this weekend. I have experienced something that I hope all of us have, saved and unsaved, and that is I've experienced the voice speaking to me.

I wasn't passing it to my wife and I wasn't a passing it to my brethren, but I was taking it. And even like Jim said, it's straight, but thank God that when it does where there's no pain, there's no gain. I want to look at this simple text tonight, this afternoon.

Many people, many people have not heard the voice of God. They don't know what the voice of God really is. They're void totally to the voice of God to the conscience.

But there's something, dear boy, would you listen to me just for 20 minutes. What time's the meeting over, Jim? I'm done in 20 minutes. There's something that there's very something very important, dear boy, and that is this, that you must listen to what God is saying.

If I am going to enjoy sins forgiven and heaven my home, if I'm going to enjoy even reading this blessed book, even being able to digest it, this book into my system, then I must know what it is to be able to speak, be able to have the attitude like one of old long time ago, speak Lord. So there must be the receptance of his word, regardless of what speaker, regardless of whether he's gifted or whether he isn't. Regardless of what type of a speaker he is, the word of God comes home.

And dear boy, this afternoon, you're not saved. You have grandparents that are. You have parents that are.

Dear girl, on the wrong road. You're going downward, and there's something that has to happen. And that is this, you have to listen to what God is saying and listening to it while you're young.

Who was it that was telling me in the break? I wish I had, Isaiah was, I wish I had trusted Christ earlier. It was so simple that night. He said, why didn't I see that before? What made him say that? It's because he finally stopped.

He finally stopped and listened to what God was saying. You can listen to everybody else in this world. You can listen to teachers.

You can listen to TVs. You can listen to all kinds of internet communication. But friend, what God wants you to understand and what God wants you to know comes from this book.

And when you hear the voice of God, I heard, Job says, I heard thou hast spoken in my hearing. He was receptive to it. He knew that this was God speaking to him.

I didn't have to wonder what was going on the night that God spoke to me. Sitting in that gospel hall, a hundred and, no, about 95 miles from here. Sitting in that gospel hall, a very large, very large audience that night.

And Robert Orr was speaking, and he was speaking on the coming of the Lord Jesus. How the two shall be in the bed, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two shall be grinding at the mill, and the one shall be taken and the other left.

And I didn't have to pass it down to my cousin who was sitting there. Or I didn't have to pass it down to the other way, to another boy, Wayne Kramer, that was sitting there. That was directly to me.

And I went out of that meeting that night detecting this. I have heard the voice of his words. What did it do? It made me search.

It made me go to the book. And for the first time in my life, I wasn't too proud to park my car in an old road, or even park it inside the, remember, brother, in the corn cribs that had an alleyway in it? And you, you, you pull the door shut and, and you parked the car. I wasn't too proud to read gospel papers.

Why? I wasn't too proud to open my Bible. Why? Where did it start? It started with detecting that this is the voice that was directly to me. I have heard his voice.

I believe young people hear the voice in different various ways. I think men and women detect the voice of God in sickness. And perhaps there's laid aside upon a loved one that is laid aside.

And perhaps maybe you walk past the bed and perhaps maybe you look at their, at their sick form. But let's go a little step further. Some of you young people have visited your grandpa and grandma's funeral.

You have gone to their funeral. You have looked into the voice, or rather you have looked into the face of your loved one. They often put a $5 bill into your birthday card.

Maybe that was when you was four or below. Maybe when you got to be a teenager, it was a $20 bill. And now you look at their form and they're gone.

They're in eternity and you're never going to hear their voice again. And you have wondered, now be honest, haven't you? You have wondered if that was my body, where would my soul be? I've often thought that you dear young people have a, using a worldly expression, which I don't like, you have a world by the tail. You have opportunities that are so favorable.

You have been blessed into heaven. With privileges. Tonight, today, you're on a, map's not up, you're on a downward road.

It goes down to death and hell. You know where you're headed? You're headed for the rich, where the rich man is. The rich man's been there.

How long has he been there? You do the math. You're going to be in the same place with a rapist. Be in the same place as the murderer.

On their Christmas vacation, they only killed 50, I'm sorry, they only killed 11, or was it 12, in Chicago? Shot 50. 12 into eternity. Going to the place of the extortioner.

Going to the place of the Sunday school student who rejected the voice. I say that's terribly sad. I say that's, brings tears to the eyes of grandpa and grandma.

Dear boy, you have it so good. Dear girl, you have been blessed above millions and tonight, today, you're still rejecting the voice. Not only in sickness, not only in death, but I believe that you detect the voice of God even in a sleepless attitude.

Sleeping rather, sleeping and just going with the flow. Just going with the flow. A couple of years ago, was it, I went down with a brother and one night to the jail.

One of those dear men asked a couple of questions after the message was given. I finally said to him, how does a man with your privileges that you had in lifetime, how do you end up in a place like that? I said very simple, you just go with the flow. You just go with the flow.

Today, dear children, you're going with the flow. Today, there are men and women who that have awakened out of their sleep. They have rose normally.

They have gotten dressed. They have prepared themselves for the activities of this Sunday. And at 2.30 this afternoon, they're gone.

They're bent to eternity. Something has happened somewhere. A wrong turn.

A wrong turn from somebody that wasn't watching. We walked, we drove on to Interstate, what was it, 45? Coming out of Denver a few years ago. I had just bought a car from from what was his name? Mr. Aarons, Bill Karnes.

Had a beautiful, beautiful 25,000 mile, three-year-old car. I'd had it ten days. Coming on, coming, taking an entrance onto that busy Interstate north of Denver.

The only thing I heard was Gloria said, watch out. And as soon as she said it, down the ditch we got, we went. A man come out of nowhere, had no idea where he was at.

Come out of nowhere, blasted us into the ditch. And on the side, our wheels stuck out and on the side, her door is sliding down the ditch. My only thought was if this thing burst into flames, her doors pinned, my doors pinned because of the impact.

And if this thing burst into flames, two people are toast. Gone. How quickly did it happen? Never saw it.

And you sitting here today, dear boy, with grandpa and grandma on the road to heaven, and the possibility of never seeing them again. Because the Savior's about to get ready to give the shout. I wonder, I wonder if there isn't communication in heaven with divine persons.

I wonder if there isn't almost a day coming, we can almost hear the footfall on the threshold of the door. And our heart, every Christian can say, our heart is longing to be with Him evermore. But you today, you're rejecting the voice.

Rejecting the voice of God. I'm thinking that the voice of the Lord is heard in Psalm number 29 in a most remarkable way. He breaketh.

He breaketh the cedar, the proud and lofty. Those cedar trees that are so proud and so on, they stand so straightly and so so high, He breaketh them. In the very same Psalm, you'll notice that there was the, there was the shaking.

There was the shaking of the cedar trees. And those proud trees shook under, under the judgment, under the north wind. They were shaking.

Don't forget that in that same Psalm, there was the making. And of course the force of that, force of that tree made them. So there's something, friend, there's something that would be far more profitable if you would listen to what God is saying before He shakes the trees, before He comes in and judgment, before He comes in and makes the tree listen.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if at this most enjoyable weekend, by the way, you were above a five, most enjoyable weekend, if you heard the voice. You know what I, what I thought of as our brethren were ministering today. There's a several in this room.

You can't digest this. You can't take it. It's impossible for you to, to absorb this.

Because the natural man understands not the things of God, neither can he know them. And so there is the impossibility of you to enjoy I, I had a piece of rich raisin cream pie. Oh, was it delicious.

25 years ago, I would have said give me number two. It was still good today, but I couldn't have number two. You can't enjoy the precious things, these sweet, precious things.

Why? Because you haven't listened to the voice the voice that's been trying to get to you. The voice that's been trying to get your attention. The voice that has been trying to tell you and to teach you that there is something far better, far better than watching your bingo games, far better than Xbox or is that old theology, that old game, far better than something else that you could watch.

Something far better. Today there's all there is a, there is a verse that stands out of my mind that is very, very solemn. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck.

What is Proverbs 29 and verse 1 saying? Proverbs 29 and verse 1 is saying, He that heareth my word. Oh yes, now let's go to a step further. Let's say that God has spoken to you.

Let's say you detected that voice. Let's say that there have been times in the quietness of the night. I know and after, especially after this past series of meetings here at Marian, there's been boys and girls and men and women who have gone to their homes.

They have gone to their homes quietly. They've gone to their homes convicted and pricked in their heart. This is something that I should give attention to.

This is something that I must give attention to. Not right now. And as soon as you say, this is something I must give attention to, Satan, Johnny on the spot, right there to tell you, yes, but not now.

The world looks now so bright. When I feel that I'm dying, I'll be saved, but not tonight. The sports world, dear Christian parents, the sports world has a tremendous hold on people.

To think that some of our boys and girls could get swept into this. Oh friend, will you listen to, would you listen to his voice? Would you respond to the tender, tender entreaty of the voice? Because there is something that he has for you. The Lord Jesus went one day to dark Golgotha's tree.

He went all the way to Calvary. We sometimes sing, he went for me. He died.

He set me free. And because of one who is willing to go all the way. There was one who wanted to, wants to give you now something that you don't deserve.

Would you not listen to his voice? Would you not listen to his voice? I was impressed with what our brethren were trying, were preaching last evening in the fact that I don't know about you, but there was two men up here last night that was, and especially Frank, that was actually pleading. Pleading with men and women. Just pleading with them.

Begging them to give attention to the voice. I think of dear Chris right now. Chris is a man who sits in agony and so, so despondent towards the truth of God.

Sit down, he said to me one day. He says, and tell me what your religion says. Oh, what do you, of course I sat down.

We opened the Word of God. And there it is right in front of him. He said, this all seems so mystical.

All seems so desperately mystical. You know what is happening? They're not listening to the voice. The voice is not being adhered to.

So the Savior said one day, It is finished. Candice liked that verse this morning. It is finished.

He bowed his head. He really did, friend, finish it. He finished it for the whosoever.

He finished it for everyone in the sinful corrupt world. Red or yellow, black or white. He finished it.

So the voice comes out from John chapter 19 and verse 30. It is finished. He cried with a loud voice.

Matthew 27. He cried with a loud voice to tell us die. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Look down through the ages.

Bypassing angelic hosts came the suffering Savior, born of a virgin, died upon a wooden tree, rose again, triumphant over death, grave, and hell. Went back to heaven and through Satan's domain, he entered into that place, crowned today with glory. And dear boy and dear girl, today and tonight, you're saying no.

You're saying no. The person that says no to heaven says yes to hell. And the person that says yes to hell is going to be with, it's going to be with those people that I've tried to declassify to you.

The murderers, the rapists. And every group at Revelation 22 says, you know what's at the top of the list? The unbelievers. The unbelievers did not take God at his word.

So simple, isn't it? It's so simple. Christ died for the ungodly. If Christ died for the ungodly, friend, what are you going to do, this right now, 15 minutes of, what are you going to do with Christ died for the ungodly? Search around in the community for the ungodly? Are you going to search it and throw it down the roof or somebody else? No, friend.

If Christ died for the ungodly, the voice of God to you today is, isn't that me? Isn't that where I'm at? Doesn't that fit me? If he did, friend, if it does fit, well, then what does it mean that if Christ died for the ungodly or in the place of the ungodly, did he not pay the price for you? May God help you to take it. May God help you to simply rest upon a friend that the work is done. The Savior has died.

He's risen again, paid for your sins in full, and he's waiting for you. He's now waiting for you to take him at his word. May God help you to trust him.