The Great Conversation

"The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." (Deuteronomy 29:29)

Dr. Edwin P. Elliott

I. God Converses with People

A. People who come to God believe the effort is possible and valuable. "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)

B. Conversation with God leads to understanding and in turn that becomes eternal life. "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3)

C. Conversation is natural when dealing with Someone Who describes Himself as the Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:1-3)

D. Understanding of reality begins in conversational encounter with God. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." (Proverbs 9:10)

II. God Speaks in Scripture

A. God communicates hope through Scripture and reveals Himself in the process; Scripture is different from all other literature or information. "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." (John 20:31)

B. The first generation after the resurrection, the missionaries who had known Jesus described themselves as Bible-believers. "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:" (Acts 24:14)

C. God keeps some things to Himself, but what He discusses with His people is theirs to know, understand, and obey. "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." (Deuteronomy 29:29)

III. Life Worth Living Emerges through Scripture

A. Knowledge of God generates changed lives. "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." (James 2:26) "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)

B. God speaks His mind so that people can live lives of meaning; believers who know Scripture do not have the terrible search for meaning which characterizes so much of life for nonbelievers. "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8)

C. The conversation is so perfectly designed by God that it inevitably displays what is in a person’s best interest. "Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest." (Joshua 1:7)

D. The entire pattern of church life and Christian institutional and cultural development flows from the heavenly conversation. "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:18-20)

E. Jesus promised an interpreter to continue the conversation. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:26) "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:21)

F. People may write many things about God but until they speak the language He speaks and begin to hear what He is saying, everything in the Bible is in an unknown language. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)