The More Sure Word | Sunday, August 17, 2025

God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also made the worlds. (Hebrews 1:1–2)

God is not a distant clockmaker — he has spoken through the prophets and supremely in his Son, leaving his fingerprints across history so we might know him.

Are We Living in the Last Days?

Over 26 years of pastoring, among the top five questions I'm asked is some version of this: Is this the last time? Are these the last days? The word that sends shivers through people — apocalypse — comes from the Greek apocalypsis, meaning "the revealing." An apocalypse is the unveiling of something previously a mystery.

The question is actually easy to answer from Scripture. Hebrews 1:2 says God "has in these last days spoken to us by his son." The answer to "Are we living in the last days?" is a clear yes. That's challenging because this letter was written nearly 2,000 years ago — so that was the last days, and these are the last days. Perhaps we're in the last of the last days, certainly further along than when Hebrews was written.

From the time Jesus ascended into heaven, we have been living in what the Bible calls the last days, or as Peter says, the "last times." First Peter 1:20 says Jesus "was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you."

The Church Age and the Time of the Gentiles

This period is also called the church age. Before ascending, Jesus commissioned his followers to go into all the world and preach the gospel, calling people into the church — the gathering of the people of Christ. It's also called the time of the Gentiles. Under the old covenant, God worked primarily through one people group, the descendants of Abraham, but always with the goal of reaching all peoples. Now we see that plan executed. When the second coming happens, there will be people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people group gathered around God's throne in worship.

So will Christ's second coming happen soon? Christians in every generation since the first have anticipated it, because Jesus said, "Behold, I will come soon." We've waited 2,000 years, which has not seemed soon to us. Yet every one of you has a personal appointment with Christ — he will come at the end of your lifetime, and you will meet him.

Waiting, Watching, Working

In the longest passage where Jesus discusses his second coming — the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24–25 and Luke 21 — he wraps up with three parables giving three applications. Our task until he comes is to be waiting, watching, and working. Waiting on the Lord like a waiter, serving him; watching, looking for his return; and working, doing the work he set for us, so that when he comes we might hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord."

These end-times topics are fascinating, and I will speak more about them in the future. But this morning I want to focus on the line from the Nicene Creed that says the Holy Spirit "has spoken through the prophets" — exactly what Hebrews 1 declares.

God Has Revealed Himself

Point one: God has revealed himself so that we might know his will and his ways. This is crucial. The Christian faith is built in large part upon the reality of the revelation of God — the Scriptures, which reveal the person and work of Jesus Christ.

This matters in our cultural context. Around 250 years ago, as our nation began, there was also a shift in the Western worldview — away from a historically theistic worldview, in which a God in heaven made everything and is intimately involved in our lives, toward deism. You'll hear it said that many of America's founders were not theists but deists, and there's truth to that. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were deists, and John Locke, whose political theories shaped our nation, was a deist who believed in God.

What does a deist believe? A theist believes in a transcendent yet imminent God who is personally involved in our lives. A deist believes there is a transcendent God who is the first cause of everything — but who, like a clockmaker, wound up the universe, set it going, and is no longer interested or involved. This God is as far away as possible, out on the edge of the universe, perhaps making new universes, but not here.

Not the God of the Bible

First, this deistic God is not the God revealed in Scripture. As God reveals himself in the Bible, he is interested, near, intimately involved. Yes, he transcends — he is outside and above the creation he spoke into existence — but he is also imminent. Theologians have taught this for centuries: God is transcendent and imminent. He is not distant, disinterested, impersonal, or uninvolved.

Second, many in our culture today picture God as more like that distant, deistic deity. In 2005, sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Denton published Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, based on research of 3,000 teenagers from the late 1990s to early 2000s. They summed up the prevailing worldview in three words: moralistic therapeutic deism. There is a God; he mainly cares about your happiness (therapeutic); he only gets involved when you have a crisis and cry out for him to fix it; and he wants you to be good, kind, and fair, with all good people going to heaven in the end. This is the predominant worldview of many in Southern California in 2025.

But the God of the Bible is near, and he has revealed himself through the prophets. Why? That he might reveal his will and his ways.

The Fingerprint of God on History

People often ask, "That sounds good — how do I know it's true?" One of the answers lies in this statement: He has spoken through the prophets.

Point two: Prophetic Scripture is the fingerprint of God on the pages of history. One validation that there is a God intimately aware of our lives is fulfilled prophetic Scripture. Now, I'm not the eschatology guy — I don't talk about these things frequently — yet I am convinced that God's voice through the prophets reveals his hand in history.

Apologists call this the argument from fulfilled prophecy. There are prophetic passages that predicted things later fulfilled in history, pointing to the fact that whoever inspired this text knew what would happen before it happened. How cool would it be to know someone who knows the future? The one who inspired these words proves he knows what is coming by telling us beforehand — and then it happens.

In Isaiah 46, God says he is greater than the idols Israel bowed to, because those idols are deaf, dumb, and blind, while he can tell what happens before it happens — and no idol can do that. Peter taught the same thing in 2 Peter 1:

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty... And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place... knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation... but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Three Kinds of Revelation

Point three: God is unknowable apart from special revelation. There are three kinds of revelation.

General revelation comes three ways. First, creation: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth his handiwork" (Psalm 19). Everything that exists had a cause; God is the uncaused causer. Second, consciousness: you are consciously aware that you and this place exist, and that you did not come from nothing. Third, conscience: as Paul says in Romans 1, you have a moral law written on your heart, which indicates a moral lawgiver.

But general revelation has limits. It cannot tell us what this God is like (his nature) or what he likes (his will). For that we need special revelation — where God speaks to us linguistically so we can grasp his nature and will. Those who receive it are called prophets, or seers, and they tell God's word to us.

The third kind is personal revelation, which Hebrews 1 describes: in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son. Jesus is the incarnate God, the perfect expression of God's nature and will. When God says through the prophets, "I have loved you with an everlasting love," we don't fully grasp it — so Jesus came to show us: "Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," and "God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Under the old covenant we have primarily the word of the prophets revealing God's nature and will. Under the new covenant, God has come to us in Christ Jesus, his incarnate Son.

Messianic Prophecies

This book — 66 books by 40 authors in three languages on three continents over 1,500 years — tells one cohesive story from Genesis to Revelation, and in it God prophetically announces what he will do in dramatic ways. Consider four areas.

First, messianic prophecies. Two thousand years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God told 75-year-old Abraham, whose 65-year-old wife was barren, that a descendant from him would bless all nations. God even changed his name to "father of many nations" while he had no children. Twenty-five years later, Sarah, at 90, bore Isaac. The promise passed through Isaac to Jacob, and in Genesis 49, nearly 2,000 years before Christ, through the tribe of Judah. In 2 Samuel 7, it came through David's royal line. In Micah 5, some 600 years before Jesus, it was said he would be born in Bethlehem. Zechariah foretold he would enter Jerusalem on a donkey, and in Zechariah 11, that he would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Theologians count 300 distinct prophecies fulfilled by Jesus in his first coming. Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands a Verdict explores the staggering statistical odds.

National and Historic Prophecies

Second, historic and national prophecies with geopolitical fulfillment. Ezekiel 26 predicted the destruction of Tyre (modern Lebanon) 200 years before it happened. Isaiah 13 predicted the rise and fall of Babylon before it was a world empire. Nahum foretold Nineveh's destruction a century beforehand. Daniel described the rise and fall of the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman empires centuries in advance. Isaiah 40 even names the Medo-Persian king Cyrus 150 years before he came to power.

How do skeptical historians deal with this? They redate the books to fit a naturalistic worldview — claiming Ezekiel was written in the 2nd century rather than the 6th, or that Isaiah was written in the 4th century rather than the 8th — because they don't believe anyone outside of time could foretell events within time. Isaiah 66 even foretold Israel becoming a nation reborn in one day. After being expelled by Rome in 70 AD and finally scattered by 120 AD, the Jewish people returned and Israel was reborn on May 14, 1948, even reviving the Hebrew language.

Jesus's Prophecies and the Apostles' Prophecies

Third, Jesus's own prophecies in the Gospels. He predicted his crucifixion, his resurrection on the third day, his betrayal, Peter's denial, his disciples' flight at his arrest, and the destruction of Jerusalem 40 years before it occurred in 70 AD. He predicted the global spread of the gospel, followers in later centuries, the persecution of his people, and the rise of false Christs — all of which we have seen.

Fourth, the prophecies of New Testament writers. Peter predicted false teachers and scoffers in the last days. Paul described perilous times in 2 Timothy 3:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away.

And whatever your interpretation, Revelation seems to picture global governance, unified trade, and a single currency in the last days — something we appear to be watching unfold.

Fulfilled Prophecy Encourages Faith

Point four: Fulfilled prophecy encourages our faith in God's word and faithfulness to its author. Even as a pastor and theologian, I have times when I'm tempted by doubt to wonder if these things are really true — and these prophecies are what encourage my faith.

The King James Version speaks of "the more sure word of prophecy." Isaiah 46:9–10 says, "Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other... declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done." Only a God who is both transcendent — outside time and space — and imminent — intimately involved here — can reveal what is coming before it comes. He is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, and also omnipersonal and omnibenevolent — all-loving and desiring relationship with us. As Daniel says, he "reveals secrets and makes known what will be," and he desires a relationship with you.

The Prophets Point to Christ

Point five: The prophets look forward to Christ, who is the fullness of revelation embodied. The prophets, Old Testament and New, all point to Jesus. So if I get sidelined and absorbed in prophetic curiosities and miss Jesus, I miss the point. The last book of the Bible is called the Revelation of Jesus Christ — its whole purpose is to point us to him. Eschatology, the study of last things, looks ultimately to Christ's rule and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.

In 1972 the apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote He Is There and He Is Not Silent. His premise is that the deepest questions of existence — identity, purpose, origin, destiny, morality — can only be answered by a God who both exists and has spoken. That is the God of the Bible. The transcendent God has spoken so we might know he is near, interested, personal, involved, and desiring relationship.

Hebrews 1 continues: he has spoken to us by his Son, "who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." Jesus is the express image of God; "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." Get to know Jesus and you will know God — and discover that God loves you and conquered death and sin to die in your place, making life with him possible. In him we are chosen, predestined, redeemed, adopted, accepted, forgiven, and blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1–2). Jesus is the more sure word of prophecy, in whom dwells all the fullness of God in bodily form, and you and I are only complete in him.

Closing Prayer

God, I thank you for the more sure word of prophecy, the word we find in the pages of Scripture, validated in that you reveal to us things that will happen before they happen — in a way so incredible that people try to make excuses for it, change the timeline, or claim we're not interpreting it correctly. So many of these things are so distinctly clear that they cannot be cast aside. And Lord, you did all of this so we might know who you are, that we might have the relationship you desire with us, that we might experience wholeness and oneness with you. I pray you would help us come to deeply desire to know you, for the Scriptures say you are the rewarder of those who diligently seek you. Help us be diligent seekers of you. We ask this today in Jesus' name. And all those who agreed said, Amen.