Church of Christ Studies

The Power of God's Word

In Heb. 4: 12 you will find this statement: "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." The Revised Version suggests this: "The word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword."

 

I am sure that in this statement there is a wonderful truth that possibly we do not fully accept or appreciate be cause of the fact that our attention has not been fixed upon it. We live in a land that might just as appropriately be styled "the land of the dying" as it is frequently called "the land of the living." Death and decay and passing away are written upon the wings of time and timely things.

 

In view of the fact that all things are transient and ephemeral in their nature, Paul boldly declares an exception to that general statement: "The word of God is living, and active." Is it not strange, therefore, that of all things beheld by mortal man upon which the forces of corruption have fastened themselves, there is one within our midst unaffected by the passing of time? The Bible has been pursued from century to century by bitter and relentless foes, but it has survived all the efforts of its enemies and the corroding influences of time. It is still "quick, and powerful."

 

I had occasion to speak to you this noon from the statement found in the first verse of the first chapter of this same book, where the same writer declares that God has spoken unto men. I tried to emphasize the fact that God has spoken by his Son. Since God has spoken, I ask: Is there any power, force, or effect in what he has said? Is what the Lord said vital to the salvation of the sons and daughters of men, or has it passed according to all timely things? Shall we assume that it is still living and active in our midst?

 

There has always been a disposition on the part of humanity to minimize the word of the Lord. For some rear son not fully known to me, we seem to want some extraordinary experience. I recall that when Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was affected by that loathsome disease of leprosy, and when he was told in plain, simple language to go down to the River Jordan and dip himself seven times, that such procedure was not according to Naaman's fancy. He had it all thoroughly fixed in his mind and said: "Behold, I thought the man of God would come to me and strike his hand upon me, and perhaps say some word, or some peculiar miraculous event would come to pass, and I would be rid of the leprosy." When it did not happen according to his opinion, he was reminded by his servants that he had better go and do what the Lord had said.

 

Not only have men upon earth tried to discredit the word of God, but even in hell men have sought to set aside the sacred oracles. In the sixteenth chapter of the book of Luke there is a record and story of what is called "the rich man and Lazarus," both of whom, as you know, died. One of them was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. Then began that conversation in which he asked Father Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool his tongue. When the negative answer was given and all hope of himself had been abandoned, he then said to Abraham: "Send Lazarus back to my father's house, for I have five brothers still alive, and I want you to have him warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment." But Abraham said: "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." The rich man wanted God to set aside his word and in its stead perform a miracle. But Abraham insisted: "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." The rich man continued to argue the question, and said: "Nay, Father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." He seemed to understand the nature of his brothers. The word of God had but little effect upon them. He seemed to think they would pay very little attention to Moses and the prophets, and insisted that if one went from the dead—something out of the ordinary—they would repent. Then Abraham said: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."

 

If there was ever a time for God to answer the feeble and humble petition of a soul writhing in agony and set aside the regular plan, this seemed to be the occasion; but his spiritual law is no less immutable than his natural law. So long as the law of Moses was in force, every soul was amenable and accountable to it. This should impress all men with the fact that when they reject the word of God, all hope is gone.

 

We have tonight not only Moses and the prophets, but, in addition, Christ and the apostles as they were guided into all truth. The word of the Lord thoroughly furnishes the man of God unto every good work. He has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness. In view of all this, is it not strange that there are persons upon the earth seeking and expecting something separate and distinct from the word of God? There are those in our land that acknowledge the Divine origin of the Bible and pose as its friends, but whose claims tend to set aside God's word in the most vital concerns of life. If men now speak as the Spirit guides them and if revelations have been made since the visions to John on Patmos isle, then the Bible is no longer our standard and complete guide; and unless you and I can uphold God's book to the world and let it be known that we propose to be governed and guided solely by it, we had just as well acknowledge that it is a book of fallacious teachings, of myths, and of old wives' tales. It is a square issue. Either God's word is our guide, either it must be respected and manifestly obeyed, or else every man can launch his boat out on the great ocean of life and let it drift whithersoever the tide of circumstances may carry it. As for me and mine, I believe with all my heart that the word of God is living and active and powerful, which means it is full of power and adapted to the purpose intended— namely, the bringing of conviction and conversion to the sons and daughters of men.

 

In one of the plainest and easiest of all the Savior's parables—named, that of the sower—we have this statement: "The seed is the word of God." I know quite well, in common with you, that in every seed there must be the germ of life; that life is perpetuated, made possible, by virtue of the liveliness and the vitality that lies within the grain of corn, wheat, or whatever it may be. And it makes no difference how long that seed may have been garnered. If it came from a crop of a thousand years ago and has been preserved, wherever and whenever it may chance to be planted, regardless of who does the dropping or sowing thereof, it will produce fruit like unto the original kind; for God said in the book of Genesis that "of everything created, let it bring forth fruit after its sort and after its kind."

 

If, for instance, there had not been a church of God upon the earth, after the New Testament order, for the last nineteen hundred years; if all the congregations and Christian people had been blotted out and wiped off the map, but God's word still survived and you people to-night were to read, understand, and obey it, it would make of you exactly what it made on that memorable Pentecost of the long ago. It would make of you Christians only, and would cause you, by obedience to its teachings, to be members of the church of which it speaks.

 

Sometimes we are told, just in this connection, that of course while Jesus Christ was upon earth there was power in what he had to say, that his spoken word was effective, that it carried conviction, power, and vitality; but they tell me that all we have now is the written word, and sometimes it is spoken of in a way that tends to discredit and minimize it.

 

I want to raise the question: Does the mere fact that God's word has been written rather than forevermore spoken by his Son--does that tend to reduce the force or the effect or the influence thereof? Is that the principle upon which we act in our relationship one to another—namely, do we regard our oral words more sacred and binding than we do our written documents? Is it a fact that all our deeds, our mortgages, our government bonds, securities, etc.—are they rendered valueless because of the fact that they have been written? Had we better destroy our county court clerk's office, our recorder's office, and do our business by word of mouth to give force and power thereto ?

 

If I were buying a piece of real estate within your city limits, and from one of your best citizens, would I want to make only an oral contract? Just somehow or other I would prefer that we reduce that thing to writing and that you subscribe your name "hereunto. I am more particular than this, for I would rather have it written down the second time here at the courthouse and certified by the recorder of the good county of Davidson on the ground that we believe a written document is more forceful and effective than any oral contract or agreement.

 

Now, to those who think there is more force and effect and power in oral statements than in the written word I want to say: I hardly think the devil himself would agree with you on a proposition of that kind. I think, by sad experience in his mighty conflict with the Son of God, that he has learned what all of us should know—viz., that "the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword."

 

The Savior understood full well that there is power in the word of God. If there be sufficient power and energy back of it to withstand the enemy of our race, to make possible the opening of the gates of paradise and give us an insight to the tree of life and all things that bloom in beauty and grandeur over there, it ought to be considered by you to-night as having enough power and force for the accomplishment of that which God intended—namely, the salvation of the souls of men.

 

In the ninth chapter of the book of John there is a very fine story told, illustrative again of the force and power of the voice of God. A young man was born blind, and the disciples came to the Savior and said: "Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered: "Neither bath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said this, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the young man with the clay, and then said unto him: "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent)." The young man went and washed, and I have thought that perhaps he came back singing:

 

          "Amazing grace—how sweet the sound!—

          That saved a wretch like me!

          I once was lost [to the beauties of this world],

          but now am found; Was blind, but now I see."

 

Do you think tonight that there was virtue in the anointing of clay? Do you think there was virtue and power in the waters of the pool of Siloam? Absolutely not. This young man did not give praise and honor to the anointing of the clay. He never, so far as history shows, looked back to the pool of Siloam as his savior, but he gave honor to whom honor was due. He recognized that the power rested in the Son of God Divine, and he had only but to speak the word, and eyes that had never seen opened to behold the grandeur and glory and brilliancy of the light of God's day.

 

In the eleventh chapter of this same book there is another splendid story. About two miles east of Jerusalem, beyond the garden of Gethsemane, behind the Mount of Olives, was the little town of Bethany, where lived Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. With these Jesus was wont to stay. These he loved, and with them he associated. It came to pass that the brother in that home became sick. Word was sent to the Savior with reference to the same. Jesus replied: "This sickness is not unto death." Then it was that he tarried for two days, and said to his disciples gathered about him: "Lazareth sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." The disciples misunderstood him, and said: "If he sleep, he shall do well." They understood that his sleep was that of rest. Then Jesus said plainly; "Lazarus is dead." As he approached that humble home, Martha went out to meet him, perhaps with tears streaming down her cheeks, and said: "If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Jesus said: "Thy brother shall rise again." Then she replied: "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said: "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." In the course of time, Mary, who had lingered behind, likewise came, and, as she approached the Savior, fell down at his feet, saying: "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews which also wept with her, "he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled." Then the sweetest verse of the story is: "Jesus wept." Some of the people said: "Cannot this man that bath opened the eyes of the blind—cannot he even now speak the word, and bring Lazarus back?" Lazarus was buried in a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said: "Take ye away the stone." Martha cried out: "Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days." But the Savior, groaning in agony, cried with a loud voice and said: "Lazarus, come forth." And Lazarus came forth in his graveclothes, with the napkin round his face, and the Savior said to those standing by: "Loose him and let him go."

 

My friends, the power that can speak the word and cause the grave to give up its dead is the power that belongs to the word of God to-night. It is that which Paul says is living and active and effective for the purpose intended. Do you know that but for the fact that there is power in the word of God, man would have no prospect or possibility of the resurrection from the dead ?

 

Ofttimes to the little city of the dead wherein those whom I loved and those who loved me He sleeping to-night I have frequently gone and beheld the sacred mound, and often I have called their names and tried to commune with them in fancy's vision; but they were disturbed not from their solemn silence. All the people of Nashville might go out to your cemetery and call to loved ones sleeping, but it would avail nothing. But, thank God, there is an assurance given by the Savior, as announced in John 5: 28, when he said: "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and 59 shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."

 

But for the fact that in the word of God there is wonderful power—a power that defies the Hadean world and that is able to burst the bars thereof—this world would have no hope beyond the sunset's radiant glow. God's word is the power by which man is the be converted. It is the power by which he should be directed and guided in his journey through life. It is the power that will at last cause death and Hades to deliver up their dead. Our hope of immortality rests upon the power of God's word.

 

But that is not all. In the fourth chapter of the book of Mark there is another story illustrative of the same idea. After Jesus had spent quite a busy day in giving a series of parables to those on the western shore of Galilee, he said: "Let us pass over unto the other side." This he did that he might have occasion to rest from the multitude. The record says that he went into the rear part of the ship, and there he lay upon a pillow, bidding them to sail across the nine-mile stretch to the further shore. While the Savior slept, a mighty storm swept down upon them. The lightnings flashed, the thunders roared, and the waves became so great that they overleaped the bow and filled the ship. The mariners and those on board became frightened, and, coming to awake the Savior, said: "Master, caress thou not that we perish ?"

 

Do you know that here is a picture true to life? While all things are running smoothly, while everything is lovely and the sky is clear, and while all is calm, we rarely ever think of an appeal to the Power supreme. When all things go according to our own fancy, we rather become puffed up and inflated, wonderfully egotistic, independent; we care for but the things of earth. But when we lose our bearing and our station among men; when the stalwart form is touched and made to feel the infirm nature; when the clouds begin to lower round us; when we look out and become conscious of the fact that life is, at best, but a brittle thread, we then begin to cry: "Lord save me. I am conscious that I am nearing the other shore, that death and destruction are apparently just ahead. Won't you pick me up and bear me safely across to the other shore?"

 

While the storm king raged and the winds blew, while the tempests rolled high, they went back and said: "Master, caress thou not that we perish ?" And then it was the Savior rose and rebuked the wind and simply said: "Peace, be still." You know the result. The record says: "The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Fear came upon those passengers, and they said one to another: "What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him ?"

 

My friends, the power that can calm the tempest and allay the storm king's rage, that can make the ship to ride upon the bosom of the mighty deep, that can stop the winds, that can bid defiance to the physical forces of nature, is the power that characterizes the word of God. It is the power by which the world must be saved, if saved at all.

 

Forget it not, ye that live, two thousand years have passed, twenty centuries have smiled upon us, since the valedictory of God's book was written; yet it is just as powerful tonight as it was when fresh from the pen of inspiration.

 

But that it not all. I remember that in the text of the forenoon (Heb. 1:3) Paul said that Jesus Christ is the upholder of all things. How, then, does he uphold? "By the word of his power." There are a number of things that well illustrate this principle.

 

I am not accustomed, may I suggest, to being in cities. I came from the country, away back close to the Tennessee River, where the train is not, and where society's ways are unknown. It is, indeed, attractive to me when I see your skyscrapers towering heavenward. I have seen the preparation for these buildings being made. I have seen men dig down into the bosom of Mother Earth to lay a safe and secure foundation. For what ? That it may uphold the twenty or the thirty or the forty stories that must rest upon it. And when I see this, I am made to think that Jesus Christ is the upholder of all things—not by columns of stone, not by piers of brick, but simply "by the word of his power."

 

At the city of Memphis I have viewed, time and again, both the Frisco and the Harahan bridge. I saw the construction of the latter in two or three phases of its development. The waters were parted, a solid foundation was reached, and those mighty piers were erected. What for? That they might uphold that great mass of steel that spans the "Father of Waters" from the "Volunteer State" to the soil of Arkansas. There those mighty columns stand, bidding defiance to the immense volumes of water that sweep down the Mississippi Valley. On this bridge the trains pass back and forth, richly laden with human freight and human lives. The safety of it all depends upon the stability and the power of those gigantic piers that underneath it stand.

 

I have gazed upon your splendid bridge at the foot of Broadway, and also this one down at another part of the city, and noted the construction thereof. Wonderful in deed are the feats performed by men.

 

But Jesus Christ, according to Holy Writ, has but to speak the word and all things are beheld. It is by the power of God's word that this old earth occupies its place and revolves around the sun at the enormous rate of eighteen miles a second; at the same time it rotates upon its axis at the rate of a thousand miles per hour. And you may leave this terrestrial sphere and go out to the respective sister planets of Mars and Jupiter and Saturn and Uranus, and then far beyond Neptune to all the myriads of worlds that float in space about us, even to the twinkling stars, and all are upheld by the word of God Divine.

 

Are we an appreciative people? Do we feel grateful for the fact that God has spoken to us? Can we treat lightly and pass indifferently the message and the declaration of Him who has thus spoken unto mortal man in the plainest, simplest, easiest terms? He has announced the law of pardon to the alien sinner, to the foreigner, to the stranger He has made known the terms of adoption, the laws of our naturalization, by means of which we may be born into God's family. We may be translated out of darkness into light, out of the kingdom of His Satanic Majesty into the kingdom of God's dear Son. But in order that the rich provisions of heaven and the benedictions thereof may be made ours, God announces we must hear his word; not only that, but we must believe his word with all our hearts. And, in addition to that, God has suggested in that same powerful word that we must repent of all our sins—that is, resolve by the grace of God to abandon the wrong, to turn our backs upon the former career that was enmity toward God, to change about, and let that firm resolve result in a reformation of life. Short of that, any repentance is not acceptable unto the Lord. That same word, in its wonderful power and its living activity, bids us to acknowledge the Son of God before our fellows. And, again, that same wonderful word assures us of the fact that if we thus do, and live faithful "hereunto, heaven will be pleased to gladly confess US as children Of God, precious in the sight of Jehovah.

 

I need not stop to tell you, more than merely to call your attention to it, that in the same word, for reasons known to him, Jehovah has ordained it the duty of all nations to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That, my friends, is in the same word of God, coordinate and in perfect harmony with the obligation on your part and mine to believe and to repent. Just why the world rebels at that, I do not know. Just why man should interpose his opinion and partially accept God's way, I never have understood. Why the prejudices against my duplicating the burial and resurrection of my Savior, I cannot. understand. All men, every character in your splendid city, will tell you that God commanded people to be baptized. It is not the authority of Hardeman. It is not of my brethren. It is not an ordinance of your city. It is not a law enacted on Capitol Hill. Neither is it a proclamation from the President at Washington. But it comes from the King of kings, the Lord of lords—Him who speaks as man never spake. It is from Him that has authority and to whom all power in heaven and earth has been granted. And as you and I stand on the plains of that eternal judgment, that same solemn declaration—to believe the gospel, to repent of our sins, and confess our faith to be baptized in His name will face us. If we refuse it here, ten thousand worlds would be gladly given for one opportunity like this to-night. While truth instructs and mercy lingers, while angels look out from their heavenly regions and anxiously wait for those that may come to acknowledge the Christ, it is our pleasure once again to extend to you the invitation and pray for your response.

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