There are only two ways that you can believe you can come to God; either on the merits of Christ or on your own merits. It's either by grace and grace alone or it's by works or some mixture of grace and works. It's only two things. There's only two kinds of religion in the world. The religion of divine accomplishment, the religion of human achievement, Christianity, the true gospel is the religion of divine accomplishment: God does it all, you simply believe. Every other religious system in the world is a religion of human achievement.
John MacArthur

Does God Talk To People Today

Does God Talk To People Today

DOES GOD TALK TO PEOPLE TODAY LIKE HE DID TO DANIEL AND ABRAHAM?

That’s dangerous, man.

All right, Hebrews chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. Get Hebrews chapter 1 in one hand, and then get John chapter 16 in the other. Now the question is, Does God talk to today like He talked to people like David? The Lord comes down to Abraham, and Abraham says, “Lord? How about it? Twenty of them?”

And the Lord says, “Well, OK, twenty.”

He said, “Well, what about ten?”

“Well, OK, ten.”

He just talks, you know.

He says, “David, you do this and that, and I’ll do this and that, and so forth, and so on.” And the question is, does God talk that way any more?

Moses was a prophet of God, and the Lord spoke to him face to face. However, when the Lord dealt with other people, He dealt with them in visions and dreams. The question is, after having a completed New Testament and Old Testament revelation here, with the words of God in it–“Thou shalt preserve them from this forth and forever”–having these words here, the question is, does God still deal with people in words?

The prophets who prophesied, what they said is in here. The prophecies are in here. And the people of God whom He appeared to in visions and trances like Paul and Peter on the rooftop, what they had is in here. The question is, is there any more?

Hebrews 1, verse 1: “God, who at sundry times…” different times “…and in divers manners…” different ways “…spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.” Now, that’s a summation. God’s final method of speaking to people was with His Son. And what His Son said is recorded.

All right, John chapter 16, verse 13: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” But, in a sense, that came to pass, too, because the Holy Spirit, what He got from the Father, He revealed to Paul, and Paul wrote down all this revelation after John chapter 16. At the time of John chapter 16, nobody knew nothing about salvation by grace through faith in the finished blood atonement. They didn’t know about it in Acts 3. Peter said in Acts 3 your sins will be blotted out at the second coming of Christ. Paul says they’re blotted out on the cross. So, the Holy Spirit has come and has showed you.

All right, to answer the question, I’d say this. I wouldn’t want you to follow me in my experiences. You have to judge your experience by the Book. You can’t judge the Book by your experience. That’s where your Charismatics get in such a mess. They go through a big experience, and then try to make the Book match their experience. Well, I’ve had some experiences. And I wouldn’t dare say that God didn’t speak to people. I wouldn’t dare say that. Because He spoke to me several times, very definitely, about some things.

But, when He speaks, it’s not like David, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. With those fellows, the angel of the Lord is coming down here and saying, “Well, what do you think about this?”

“I think this.”

“Well, what do you think about going over there?”

“Well, I think that.”

Now, the Holy Spirit in the Christian is not talking in your ear. The Holy Spirit in you is conveying to you what God wants you to know. And the trouble with that, “The Lord spoke to me,” and “The Lord told me,” and, “The Lord led me,” is, the Lord in the Christian is not going to lead him to do anything contrary to this Book. And He’s not going to lead him to say anything contrary to this. And, whatever spirit in a man led him to do something contrary to this, or to say something contrary to this, is not the Holy Spirit.

Now, you ladies and mothers, you call it intuition. I’m somewhat of a mother myself. I raised five children by myself for about ten years. I mean, a year and a half and up. And, I know how things go. I mean, I sleep lighter today than my wife does. I can hear the kids crying in the front room, and she can’t. Every man should spend one Sunday taking care of the nursery. That’s a real experience to take care of a nursery.

And I say that because I have been sitting, typing at a desk, and the Lord has said, “Go up and look in the door.” And I have gone and looked in the door, and seen the grease on fire in the stove, and the flames ten feet up the ceiling, across the ceiling to the bedroom, and smoke two feet from the floor–and the house would be gone in fifteen minutes.

I’ve been busy at work doing something, and the Lord would say, “Go in the living room.” I would go in the living room, and the baby is down on his hands and knees by the open light socket. There probably isn’t a mother in this building who hasn’t had that happen.

I’ve caught them with razor blades–straight-edged razor blades.

And it isn’t that the Lord says, “Hey! Do this.” You can’t describe it as a voice in here (in your ear). It’s more like a feeling–but it has words to it. It has words to it.

Now, you get in some real old prayer meetings with the Lord some nights, and spend a lot of time in prayer, and the Lord will talk with you, and He will deal with you. But, you have to try the spirits; the devil kneels with you.