Sermon Summary: This sermon explores the contrast between law-based religion and grace-based faith, using the 400 years of silence between the Old and New Testaments as a backdrop. The speaker examines how the Pharisees, in the absence of a fresh word from God, developed elaborate systems of external control — 613 commandments — in an attempt to achieve righteousness through human effort. Against this backdrop, the sermon presents grace as a steady, daily, renewing flow of divine enablement that replaces the burden of self-effort with trust in God. The speaker also addresses how believers can hear from God through stillness, focus, and journaling, and closes with a powerful impression about how God deliberately chooses imperfect, unlikely people to accomplish His purposes — a timely message for a season of spiritual awakening.
Key Points:
- Hearing from God is not as difficult as we make it out to be; it requires stillness, focus, presenting our concerns to God, listening, and writing down what He speaks
- God speaks to each person in their own language, vocabulary, and framework of experience
- The 400 years of silence between the Testaments led the Jewish people to rely on external systems of control — the Torah, the Mishnah, and 613 commandments — rather than a living relationship with God
- Every person desires three things: to belong, to be loved, and to be significant; these must be rooted in God rather than in heritage, performance, or systems
- Confidence placed in rules or personal ability displaces confidence in God; true righteousness comes through grace, not works
- Grace is defined as the enabling power and spiritual renewal offered through the love and mercy of Jesus Christ — a steady, predictable, daily current of divine assistance
- In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon people for specific tasks; in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit comes to live within believers, giving us a distinct advantage
- Faith, as defined by Webster, is a firm, warm, and affectionate confidence in the certainty of what God has declared simply because He has declared it
- Freedom is internal, not external — it is the Holy Spirit guiding from within rather than a system of rules controlling from without
- God is less concerned with human quirkiness and failure than we are; He deliberately chooses and works through imperfect people to accomplish His purposes
- A third great awakening is underway, and believers must resist a judgmental or legalistic posture toward those who come in unconventional appearances or backgrounds
- Personal history with God — the record of what He has said and done — is a foundation for faith and a clue to calling
Scripture Reference:
- Habakkuk 2:1-4 — the process of positioning oneself to hear from God: going to a place of watchfulness, being still and alert, and writing down what God speaks
- Philippians 3:5-6 — Paul’s description of his credentials as a Pharisee, illustrating zeal for the law as a basis for identity and righteousness
- Romans 10:3 — a description of those who, ignorant of God’s righteousness, sought to establish their own
- Romans 11:6 — grace and works cannot coexist as the basis of righteousness
- Matthew 21:28-32 — the parable of the two sons, illustrating that outward compliance does not reveal inward agreement
- Leviticus 19:32 — an example of one of the 248 positive commandments: honoring the elderly and fearing God
- Deuteronomy 18:10 — an example of one of the 365 negative commandments: prohibiting occult practices
- Romans 2:4 — God’s kindness is meant to lead people to repentance
- Lamentations 3:22-23 — the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies are new every morning
- 2 Peter 1:4 — God has granted believers precious and great promises so they may become partakers of the divine nature
- John 16:13 — the Holy Spirit guides believers into all truth and declares what is to come
- Luke 1:37-38 — nothing is impossible with God; Mary’s declaration of acceptance as a model of receiving the promise
- Judges 14:4 — God was working through Samson’s conflict with the Philistines according to His own purpose
- Judges 13:5 — Samson was set apart from birth as a Nazarite and appointed to begin saving Israel