Laying The Foundation - Part 2
Authority And Power of God's Word Tonight we're going to proclaim Psalm 19, verses 12 through 14,
which are the last three verses of the psalm. These words are a prayer of David, they are a prayer that we have been
praying ourselves for several years. And we’ve been quite surprised
at some of the answers. Because it begins with: Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse me from secret faults. And I look back and I’m amazed at
the number of secret faults in me that God brought to light
since we began to pray this. So we’ll pray it through and
then we’ll invite you to join us in praying the last verse. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also
from presumptuous sins, let them not have
dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent
of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength
and my Redeemer. All right. Now, we’re going to get
you to join us in the last verse All right, now this is a prayer. Don’t pray it
if you don’t mean it because God will take
you at your word. Now we’ll say the words
phrase by phrase and you say them after us.
All right? Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength
and my Redeemer. Now we’ll let you say it once more,
this time together with us. All right.
Are you ready? Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. God bless you. Now we’re going to turn to the
theme for this evening’s session. Which is: The Authority and
the Power of God’s Word. In my previous session
I pointed out to you that two different... there are two different
ways in which the title, The Word of God,
is applied. It’s applied to the Bible
and it’s applied to Jesus Christ. Each of them is called
the Word of God. And this brings out the fact
that there is a complete identity between Jesus and the Bible. The Bible is God’s written Word. Jesus is God’s personal Word. And if we really want to be
rightly related to Jesus, we have to be
rightly related to the Bible. We cannot be rightly
related to Jesus but wrongly
related to the Bible. So this evening I want to
deal with this theme which is obviously
of great importance. the authority and the power
of God’s Word. To begin with the
issue of authority, if you stop and consider it you’ll
realize that the word authority comes directly
from the word author. In other words: The authority of any work
is the authority of the author. It’s the author who gives authority
to whatever he produces. So we need to know who is the author of the Bible, who is the author of Scripture? The Bible clearly
answers this question in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. It says: All Scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof for correction
for instruction in righteousness that the man of God
may be complete thoroughly equipped
for every good work. So if you want to be complete and thoroughly equipped
for every good work, the source of it all
is Scripture. And Paul says: all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God. The Greek word is God-breathed. And the word for breath and
the word for spirit are identical. So it means all Scripture is
inbreathed by the Spirit of God. In other words, the authority
behind all Scripture is the authority
of the Holy Spirit. He is ultimately the author. He used many different channels
and many different instruments, but behind them all is the authority of the Holy Spirit
who is God Himself. So when we
confront the Scripture we confront the authority
of God Himself. Now it says all Scripture
is inspired, not some. Some people would weed out the
passages they consider inspired from those they don’t consider
really authoritative. But that is not
in line with Scripture because the Holy Spirit
Himself says: All Scripture is inspired by God
and all Scripture is profitable. In other words,
there’s no books that you can leave out and
say they’re not important. Books like Ezra and Nehemiah
are very important. The Song of Songs
is very important. The prophet Nahum
is very important. Don’t just focus on a few well
known passages of Scripture and think that they are all that
matters because that is not correct. And if you want to be equipped, you have to be equipped
by the whole Scripture. And it will take you many years
but it’s progressive. You can move on from
strength to strength, as you meditate on,
and study and apply the Word of God.
And remember that Jesus said building
on His foundation is hearing and doing
the Word of God. Not just hearing,
but hearing and doing. And then as regards the
interpretation of Scripture, there is only one
authorized interpreter and that is the author. Out there somewhere you can
find quite a number of books that have my name on them.
I’m the author. If you’re not quite
certain what they mean I’m the best person to consult
because I know what I meant. I may not have said it as
clearly as I should have done, but I do know what I meant. And if you want to know what
any passage of Scripture means consult the author. He’s the only one who is
authorized to interpret Scripture. Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 20–21: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture
is of any private interpretation... No individual can say:
Well I know, this is what it means. The only one that’s authorized
to interpret is the Holy Spirit. And then he goes on: for prophecy
never came by the will of man but holy men of God spoke as they were moved or
borne along by the Holy Spirit. Again Peter points out
what Paul has pointed out. The authority behind the Scripture,
the source of inspiration, is the Holy Spirit. Now you might say,
and very reasonably, but the men that wrote the Bible, were in many cases
very weak and fallible. And the Bible even records
a lot of their sins. I think that’s a mark of
the Bible’s accuracy that it records the sins
of the people who wrote it. A lot of people today would hush
up their sins and not expose them and try to present
themselves as infallible. No author of the Bible does that. Even David who was the
author of most of the psalms, his serious sins
are recorded for all to read. So then, how can
the Bible be infallible if the people that
wrote it were fallible? There’s a beautiful answer given
given to that question in Psalm 12, verse 6, one simple verse. Psalm 12:6: The words of the
Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace
of earth, purified seven times. That’s a little picture of how
people used to purify metal. They would build
a furnace of clay, light a fire in it, and then put the metal
there to be purified. So you’ve got three
things in that picture. You’ve got the furnace of clay, which is the human instrument,
just clay. You’ve got the fire,
which is the Holy Spirit, which purifies the silver,
which is the message. So that tells us how
fallible men and women can be the channels to produce an inspired and authoritative
Word of God. Let me say that again. The clay is the human vessel. The fire is the Holy Spirit. The silver, purified seven times,
absolutely pure, is the message of God. And the number seven in
the Bible links us to two things: the Holy Spirit
and perfection. And perfection is
by the Holy Spirit. So, the Bible, though it
came through vessels of clay, weak, fallible, sinful
men and women, has been purified seven times by the fire of the Holy Spirit.
It is totally reliable. Now we need to consider the attitude of Jesus Himself
toward the Bible. Because for us who are
His disciples He is the pattern. How did He relate to the Bible? Well, we looked at
a Scripture this morning but we’ll look at it again
in John chapter 10. John chapter 10, verse 35. We don’t need to
look at other verses, just that. John 10:35. Jesus said... And it’s in the
context of a discussion with the Jewish leaders that we
don’t need to go into. If He that is God called them gods
to whom the Word of God came and the Scripture
cannot be broken. And I pointed out this morning
but I’ll say it again, there Jesus gives to the Bible the two titles which His followers
have used most ever since. the Word of God
and the Scripture. When it says the Bible
is the Word of God it means it proceeds from God. It didn’t proceed from man,
it came from heaven, from God. And when it says the Scripture it means that which has
been recorded in writing. God said many things which
are not recorded in writing, but those that are recorded
in the Scripture, in the Bible, are recorded
for our special benefit. They contain all the things we
need to know for our salvation. So that was the attitude of Jesus
summed up in that phrase, that we looked at this morning
but it will be good to repeat it. The Scripture cannot be broken. Nothing can express
the authority of Scripture more completely than
that simple phrase: It cannot be broken. I would like to invite you
to do again this evening
what we did this morning. Repeat those words with me. The Scripture cannot be broken.
Say it once more. The Scripture cannot be broken. And now remember, God holds you
accountable for what you’ve said. Because He’ll expect you
to accept the authority of Scripture
in every area of your life. Now let’s look at how Jesus
Himself used Scripture. And here again
He’s a pattern. We’ll turn to Matthew,
the fourth chapter. and we’ll look at
something that happened when Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted by Satan. Matthew chapter 4,
but we need to begin at the end of chapter 3. Chapter 3 at the end records how Jesus was baptized by
John the Baptist in the Jordan. And when He came
up from the water the Spirit of God,
the Holy Spirit, descended like a dove upon Him
and remained upon Him. Notice that, it’s important.
The Holy Spirit remained on Him. The Holy Spirit has descended
on some of us at various times but He hasn’t always
remained on us, because we have said
and done things that He couldn’t remain on. But Jesus never said
or did anything that grieved the Holy Spirit
or caused that dove to fly away. And then a voice came from
heaven, the voice of God the Father: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Now you might think,
and I might think, Well, after that Jesus was
going to have a really easy time. He had the endorsement
of both the Father, and the Spirit, and the
prophet John the Baptist. But that’s not so. The next
thing that happened was: He found Himself in the
wilderness fasting for forty days and being tempted by Satan. And so, please don’t imagine that God’s blessing will
always make life easy for you. In fact, in a certain sense,
it may make life more difficult. Because Satan much
more strongly opposes those whom God has anointed. And in Luke’s gospel,
we won’t turn there, it says that Jesus was led
by the Spirit into the wilderness but at the end of the forty days He came out in the
power of the Holy Spirit. Those are two different things. One thing is to be
led by the Spirit it’s another thing to move and
operate in the power of the Spirit. And Jesus did not do that until He’d had His conflict
with Satan and won. And in some degree or other,
that will apply to each of us. We will have to overcome
temptation and opposition in order to move in the
power of the Holy Spirit. Now, when the tempter came
to Him in Matthew 4, satan, the first thing he tempted
Him to do was to doubt. And that’s nearly always
the initial approach of satan. He will not immediately
deny the Word of God, he’ll question it. He’ll cause you to doubt it. This has worked so many
times in Church history that he never has had
to find another tactic because it always
seems to work. But don’t let it work with you. So you notice, the first thing that
satan said to Jesus in chapter 4 of Matthew,
verse 3: Now when the tempter
came to Him, he said: If you are the Son of God command
that these stones be made bread. Now, God had just spoken
from heaven and said: This is my beloved Son. But Satan was challenging Him to
doubt what He’d heard from God. If you are the Son of God
then do something to prove it. Make these stones bread. But Jesus answered him:
It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone. Incidentally, it’s interesting,
all the three answers that Jesus gave to satan
are all taken from one book. The book of Deuteronomy. And it’s interesting, too, that
neither Jesus nor the devil ever questioned the authority
of the book of Deuteronomy. So, why waste
your time doing it? So that’s how Jesus
dealt with temptation. Very, very important. He dealt with temptation
by meeting it from the written Word of God. It is written. Don’t think that you are clever
enough to argue with the devil, he’s much cleverer
than you are. And he’s been in this
business a long, long time. Don’t try to convince
him with your arguments, meet him with the Scripture. Each time Jesus was tempted this is what He said: It is written.
It is written. It is written. And whenever Jesus said that,
satan changed the subject. He knew he had no
answer to the Scripture. So, don’t be tempted into trying to overcome satan with your
philosophy or with your theology. Just answer him
with the written Word of God. You see Jesus didn’t make
the mistake that Eve had made. If you go back to the
beginning of human history, in Genesis chapter 3, the first few verses,
it says: Now the serpent [who was satan in bodily form] was more cunning than any beast of
the field which the Lord had made. And he said to the woman: Has God indeed said, You shall not
eat of every tree of the garden? What did he tempt
her to do first? To doubt, that’s right. And when you doubt
the next step is disbelief, and the next step
is disobedience. Remember that.
Don’t entertain doubt. Well, Eve made the mistake
of thinking that she could meet the devil on his level
so she gave him an answer: Well, we may eat of every tree
[she didn’t want to acknowledge that there were any restrictions]
except the tree in the middle of the garden
which is the tree of life. And concerning that she said:
God has said, You shall not touch it nor eat of it, lest you die. [And notice the devil’s answer:]
The serpent said to the woman You will not surely die.
[That’s what he’s coming at.] He begins by questioning
but he goes on to deny. And if you'd study church history
for the last hundred years or more, you’ll find that wherever
satan has persuaded theologians, or preachers
or whoever they may be to question the Scripture, he has always brought
them to the point where they actually deny it. Don't start on that
slippery downward path. The Scripture is authoritative. It’s the Word of God, accept it. Live by it.
Answer the devil with it. He cannot answer
the written Word of God. In Ephesians 6:17 Paul says:
Take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. And you probably know there
are two Greek words for word. One is logos,
the other is rhema. Logos is the total,
eternal counsel of God, rhema is a spoken
word of God. And that’s the word that’s
used in Ephesians 6:17: taking the sword of the Spirit,
which is the rhema, the spoken Word of God. And when you have
to meet the devil, you have to meet him by
speaking the Word of God. The Bible will not protect you
if it’s just in your bookshelf, or even if it’s just on
your bedside table. It only works
when you quote it. You have to take it in your mouth
and say it for yourself. And then it becomes
a sharp, pointed sword from which the devil backs off.
He has no answer for it. Now let’s look also
at what Jesus says about the authority of
the written Word of God. You remember what I said? The word Scripture means
God’s Word in writing. And Jesus said in Matthew 5, verses 17 and 18: Do not think that I came to
destroy the Law or the prophets. And that was the Jewish way
of speaking about what we call the Old Testament,
the Law and the prophets. I did not come to destroy
but to fulfill, for assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from
the Law till all is fulfilled. Now, the words jot and tittle... Jot, in modern Hebrew yood, is the smallest letter in
the Hebrew alphabet. And a tittle is just a little curve put on a letter in writing to
distinguish it from a similar letter. So, those are the two smallest
items in written Scripture’s text. And Jesus said not one of
them will ever pass away. This clearly indicates
that Jesus acknowledged the absolute authority
of the written Word of God. He wasn’t talking about the
spoken Word of God at that point, because the words jot
and tittle only apply to that which is in writing.
So Jesus absolutely endorsed the total authority of
the written Word of God. And then a little further on, or
quite near the end of His ministry in Matthew chapter 22, He was dealing
with the Sadducees, who were the
liberals of that day, the people that did not accept
the authority of all Scripture. In fact, they only
accepted the authority of the first five books,
the Pentateuch. And they were challenging the teaching that there will be
a resurrection of the dead. And they came to Jesus
with a smart question but this is how
Jesus answered them, in Matthew 22
verses 31 and 32: But concerning the
resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was
spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living. Notice how Jesus
applied that Scripture. Those words were
written by Moses about fourteen
centuries earlier. They were actually words spoken
by the Lord direct to Moses. But Jesus didn’t speak about them
as something that was said to Moses fourteen centuries
ago. This is very powerful. He said: Have you not read what
was spoken to you by God? You see? The Scripture
is never out of date. It’s never just the record
of human cleverness. It is God. And even if it was written
three thousand years ago, it’s still God speaking
to you today. That’s the authority of Scripture
as Jesus understood it. Now we need to consider also how the life of Jesus
fulfilled the Scripture. If you go through the New
Testament you’ll find that in eighteen different places it says something happened
in the life of Jesus that the Scripture
might be fulfilled. In other words, not merely
did He believe the Scripture, not merely did He
proclaim the Scripture, but He obeyed the Scripture. His whole life was
the outworking of Scripture. You can take various aspects
of His life but we’ll just take four. His birth,
His human life, His death and His resurrection.
Concerning all of those the Scripture says it took place that the
Scripture might be fulfilled. Jesus could not in any way have more strongly endorsed the
authority of Scripture than that. Now let’s turn to
the New Testament. What is the authority
behind the New Testament? You’ll be surprised to
learn it’s the same that’s behind the Old Testament. Let’s look at two passages in which
Jesus spoke to His disciples. In John chapter 14, verses 25-26. Jesus is taking leave of His
disciples, He’s preparing them for the fact that He’s going to leave. And He says: These things I have spoken to
you while being present with you. But the helper... [The Holy Spirit, that's
the title of the Holy Spirit. The Helper. Sometimes
He’s called the comforter.] the Holy Spirit whom the
Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance
all things that I said to you. So the authority behind
the writings of the apostles is the authority of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said
He’ll do two things: Whatever I didn’t teach
you, He will teach you, and whatever I said that
you might have forgotten, He will bring
to your remembrance. So the record of the gospels does
not depend on human memory it depends on the truth
of the Holy Spirit. And then again in John 16,
verses 12-14, the same thing is brought out. Jesus says to His disciples I still have many
things to say to you but you cannot
bear them now. However, when He, the
Spirit of Truth, has come [and let me point out that Jesus
breaks the laws of grammar to emphasize that the Holy
Spirit is not an it but a He. I can’t go into that because
it’s too complicated, but according to Greek grammar
He should have said it. And He didn’t, He said he.
In other words, please understand, the Holy Spirit is not just an it. He’s a he. He’s a person. You need to
relate to Him as a person. When He, the Spirit
of Truth, has come He will guide you into all truth for He will not speak
from Himself but whatever He hears
He will speak. And He will tell you
things to come. So again Jesus says,
whatever teaching you need that you have not yet received it will come to you
by the Holy Spirit. Then He says: He will not speak of Himself
[or from Himself] but whatever He
hears He will speak And He will tell you
things to come. And then the next verse:
He will glorify me for He will take of what is mine
and declare it to you. And let me point out
to you that’s another extremely important
mark of the Holy Spirit. He always glorifies Jesus. And if you ever are confronted
by spiritual manifestations that do not glorify Jesus but give glory to a man
or in some other direction, you can be sure that
it’s not the Holy Spirit. Because the supreme
ministry of the Holy Spirit is to reveal and
to glorify Jesus. That’s one good way
of testing the spirits. The Bible says
we are to test the spirits. And you can test if a thing is from
the Holy Spirit. One sure test is: it will glorify Jesus. If it doesn’t it may sound very good,
it may sound very spiritual, it may be uttered in a
loud, resounding voice, but it isn’t from the Holy Spirit. because He will not
glorify anyone but Jesus. And the moment human personalities
begin to take glory to themselves the Holy Spirit says,
Sorry, but I have to leave. You can carry on
but I won’t be here. And that’s how many,
many ministries have gone astray
in living memory. My living memory, which extends
a lot further than some of yours. I could not count the
number of ministries that have ended in ruin
because men took the glory, which the Holy Spirit will
only give to Jesus. And I want to tell you I’m very,
very conscious of that myself. I’m continually examining myself
Am I giving the glory to Jesus? Or am I trying to persuade people that Derek Prince
is someone important? Derek Prince is a sinner
saved by the grace of God. Now, let’s go on to a really
interesting and important theme which is the nature
of God’s Word. This is very, very interesting. In Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12, we get a kind of analysis of the nature of
the Word of God. Hebrews 4 verse 12, For the Word of God
is living and powerful and sharper than any
two-edged sword, [you’ll notice it’s compared
again to the sword] piercing even to the
division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. So the Word of God
is not dead, it’s not just black marks
on white paper, it’s not just sounds that come
from a preacher’s mouth, it’s alive,
it’s living and wherever it comes
it brings life. The Word of God is alive
and powerful. Thank God it is powerful.
It’s more powerful than all the lies with which
satan has filled the world. The Word of God
is the ultimate answer. And then it says: piercing even to the
division of soul and spirit. Spirit...
This is very interesting. I must not get
sidetracked on it. But, the Bible reveals
that man is a triune being, Spirit, soul and body. a triune being created in the likeness of a triune God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But, the only way we
can learn to distinguish between the soul and the spirit
is by the Word of God. It’s the only instrument that's
sharp enough to penetrate. and separate what is soulish
from what is spiritual. It’s very important because if
you study the New Testament, and we don’t have time to go there,
you’ll find that the soulish in many ways is in opposition
to the spiritual. In 1 Corinthians chapter two,
Paul says the soulish man does not receive the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are spiritually discerned. So, it’s important that
we learn to distinguish between what is spiritual
and what is soulish. But only the Word of God
can do that. It can also divide between
the joints and the marrow. So the Scripture
can penetrate where no surgeon’s
scalpel can penetrate and where no psychiatrist’s
probing can penetrate. It’s the only thing that takes us right into the
very depths of human personality. And then it says: it’s a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. To discern means to analyze, to see into the very
nature of something. And somebody said years ago
when I was a young believer, and it’s always stuck with me: Remember, when you’re
reading your Bible, your Bible is also reading you. It’s a two way transaction. It was so vivid to me because
I started to read the Bible simply as a
professional philosopher treating it as a work of God. But as I went on reading
and I found it very dreary and only my determination that
no book would ever defeat me kept me reading. I began to feel quite
different about myself. I thought up to that time I already
had the answer to everything. Philosophy could provide
a solution to everything. But as I went on reading the Bible
I became less and less self-confident. I couldn’t understand what was
happening to me. I thought I was getting old before my time although
I wasn’t even 25 at the time. I didn’t realize, while I was reading the Bible,
the Bible was reading me. And at the end I felt like
Belshazzar at his feast, when the writing
appeared on the wall. You’ve been weighed in the
balances and found wanting. And my self-conceit,
my pride, my arrogance, my intellectual assurance, all began
to wilt before the Scripture. And yet, I didn’t believe it at the
time but it was still doing its work. So, bear that in mind, when you read your Bible
your Bible is also reading you. Now, let’s turn also to
1 Thessalonians for a moment, just for one further aspect
of what the Bible will do. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2,
verse 13. Paul is writing to the
believers in Thessalonica, who had responded in a wonderful
way to the message of the gospel. And he says: For this reason we
also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the Word
of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it
not as the word of men but as it is in truth
the Word of God, which also effectively
works in you who believe. You understand that what
the Bible will do in you depends in part
on how you receive it. If you merely receive it
as the word of God it will not work
its full work in you. As a word of man, I'm sorry.
As a word of man. But, if you receive it
as the Word of God it works effectively in you. And when you read your Bible take time from now and then to say to the Lord:
I believe this is your Word. I receive it as your Word, let it work in me
everything you’ve sent it to do, in every area of my being, spirit,
soul and body, because I believe it. And then we need to see a remarkable statement
that Peter made in 2 Peter chapter 1, one of the
most remarkable statements, I think,
anywhere in Scripture. Just verses 3 and 4
of 2 Peter chapter 1. And it’s in the middle
of a sentence. The apostles wrote
rather long sentences. I think Paul wrote the longest but Peter came up with
some pretty long ones, too. And in English we usually
have to divide them up. So, I’m not going to go back into
the beginning of this sentence, I’m going to start in the middle. His divine power
[that’s God’s divine power] has given to us all things that
pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who
has called us to glory and virtue. That’s an amazing statement. It says God’s divine, omnipotent
power has already given to us everything we’re
ever going to need! You might respond, Well, God,
I don’t seem to have it, where is it? And the next verse tells you. by which has been given to us exceedingly great
and precious promises that through these you may
be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. So how has God given
to us all things that we need for life and
godliness? Where are they? They’re in the promises. I like this little sentence
that I’ve coined The provision
is in the promises. Would you say that with me? The provision
is in the promises. So, if you want to receive all
that God has provided for you you have to receive it through
His promises because in them is everything
you’re going to need. But it also comes
through the knowledge of Jesus. Because the Scripture
reveals Jesus. And the amazing statement, if this weren’t so clearly written in
the Bible I wouldn’t dare to say it, is that through
partaking of the promises we can be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. Now, we need to be
very careful because there’s a kind of teaching,
which I won’t name but many of you would
know the name of it, which is very
fashionable today, which teaches that if
you go on long enough and do the right things
you can become a god. I’m sure some of you
have encountered that teaching. In fact, let me tell you
it’s called New Age. I used to use the phrase New Age,
I said a new age is coming. Then they stole it from me,
I had to think of something else! So I said the Kingdom of God is
going to be established on earth. Jesus is going to establish His
kingdom—and that they don’t like! But anyhow,
the New Age, incorporating a lot of Hindu
philosophy and so on, teaches that if you
go on long enough, and incidentally, the
Mormons teach the same, (they don’t say it publicly
at first but it’s there,) that you can become a god. I want to tell you,
that is obviously false. And I’ll tell you
one basic reason. God is uncreated,
we are created. And the created can
never become uncreated. It’s a deception. But we can become partakers
of the nature of God. as we receive and
apply the promises. I always think
of Jacob’s ladder. You probably remember
the dream he had. he was out in the
desert by himself and he went to sleep
pillowed on a stone. How many of you would like
to use a stone for a pillow? Well, I'll tell you,
when I was in the Sudan amongst the hadundua
in the Northen Sudan, I found they did
use stones for pillows. And I watched
a Sudani one day he took a long stone
with a rather sharp edge, put it on the ground and put the
back of his head on the stone. And happily went to sleep. So, it is possible, but most
of you wouldn’t enjoy it. But Jacob was sleeping
with his head on a stone. And I heard somebody
say once: I'd give... I’d be willing to sleep
with my head on a stone if I could have what
Jacob had after that! Because, he had a vision, a dream of a ladder,
reaching to heaven. The foot was on the earth, the
top of the ladder was in heaven and the angels of God were
ascending and descending. And Jesus Himself was at the
top of the ladder and He spoke. But I think of the Bible,
in a sense, like Jacob’s ladder. You see, every promise
is one rung on the ladder. And every time you
appropriate a new promise you go one step higher. And ultimately,
it will take you to heaven. So, don’t ever
neglect your Bible. It’s the key to your well-being, the key to your success. It’s the most precious gift
that God has ever given us. And let’s bear in mind as we have so
many Bibles today and we discuss whether we’ll use this
translation or that translation or whether we want it
illustrated or with notes... Let’s remember that there are millions
and millions and millions of people in the world today who have
never once opened a Bible. They don’t have any choice. And let’s remember another thing,
that in the past in previous centuries, men and
women laid down their lives in sacrifice, to preserve the Bible
for you and me. So let’s treat it with reverence. Let’s be respectful to the Bible, because it is the way that
God comes into our lives. Now I want to deal, in closing
this particular section, with something exciting
which I only have a short while to deal with. That is the effects of God’s Word. Paul said to the Thessalonians
it works effectively in you because you believe it. So I want to point out
to you eight effects that God’s Word
can have in your life. These are things that God’s
Word will do for you and for me. We’ll turn, first of all,
to Romans chapter 10, and verse 17. Actually I can quote it
withouth looking at it, but... Romans 10:17: So then, faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. Now, that is a
wonderful Scripture because I lay in hospital
for one year on end, in the deserts of North Africa, with a skin disease that the doctors
couldn’t heal in that climate. They eventually called
it chronic eczema. And actually they really don’t have
a cure for that disease even today. And I had just newly
become a Christian, and I kept saying to myself, I know
if I had faith God would heal me. But the next thing I always
said was: But I don’t have faith. And there I was in what
John Bunyan calls, the slough of despond,
the valley of despair. I don’t have faith.
And then, one day, a brilliant ray of light
shone into that dark valley, and it came from Romans 10:17: So then, faith comes... If you don’t have it,
you can get it. You don’t need to
stay without it. Faith comes by hearing
the Word of God. And faith is coming to
many of you even now while you’re hearing
the Word of God. You know that in the
time of the New Testament the majority of
the people who read, read out loud, even if they
were to themselves. For instance, the Ethiopian
eunuch was in his chariot reading the prophet Isaiah, and Philip heard him read,
although he was reading to himself. And there’s something to be
said about reading out loud. Because when you hear yourself
read, faith comes, you see? All right. That’s the
number one product of the Scripture. Number two is it
produces the new birth. It’s by the Word of God
that we are born again. James chapter 1 verse 18, speaking about God, he says:
Of His own will He brought us forth by the
Word of Truth [that’s the Bible], that we might be a kind of
firstfruits of His creatures. Of His own will. You know why God did it?
Because He decided to do it. We don’t get any further
explanation than that. When you get back to the
beginning of everything it all starts with God’s decision. God decided to bring forth
a people for Himself, and He decided they would be
brought forth by the Word of God, by the Scripture. And that’s what brought
you and me to know God, to become a new creation, the
people of God, by the Word of God. Then in 1 Peter, He goes on on
the same theme. 1 Peter chapter 2,
verses 22-23. 1 Peter 2:22-23: Since you have purified your souls in
obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren love one another fervently
with a pure heart. Notice how you purify your
soul? By obeying the truth. Not by hearing the truth
but by obeying it. And what will be the result?
The result will be sincere love. And then, Peter goes on:
having been born again... [Notice that]
...having been born again, not of corruptible seed
but of incorruptible. What is the incorruptible seed? through the Word of God
which lives and abides forever. So it’s the seed of God’s Word
received into the heart by faith that produces the new birth. The seed is incorruptible, the life it produces
is incorruptible. The nature of the seed
determines the nature of the life that comes from it. If you plant an apple pit
you don’t get an orange tree. The nature of the seed
determines the nature of the life. The Word of God is incorruptible. And the life it produces
is incorruptible. It’s divine, it’s holy,
it’s eternal. And then once you’ve
been born again, what you need is nourishment. And the marvelous thing is
that God’s Word has provided suitable nourishment for
every stage of spiritual growth. When you’re just a little
spiritual baby, you need milk. And that’s what Peter says
in the next chapter of 1 Peter, in verse 2. 1 Peter chapter 2:2:
As newborn babes, desire the pure milk
of the Word that you may grow thereby. So once you’re born again, you should have a very healthy
appetite for the Word of God. And there are many of us here
tonight, I’m sure, that could testify when we were born again the one thing we wanted
to do was read the Bible. We were born healthy infants with a healthy appetite for the one
thing that could really nourish us. But then as we grow up
we need things like bread. But we don’t need to turn
there, Jesus said to Satan, when he tempted Him to
make bread out of stones: Man shall not live
by bread alone but by every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God. So, God’s Word is not only milk,
it’s also bread. But as we grow up we
need more solid food. And this also is provided. In Hebrews chapter 5, the writer of Hebrews is
writing to Jewish people who had a knowledge of the
Scripture from their background. And he’s telling them what God
might wish to say to some of us. Because of all you know, you should
be doing better than you are. He said: You’ve got the knowledge of
the Scripture but you’re not using it. I’ll just read these words,
in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 12: For though by this time
you ought to be teachers you need someone
to teach you again the first principles of
the oracles of God, and you’ve come to need milk
and not solid food. What was the evidence?
They couldn’t digest more than the very simplest,
basic truths. For everyone who
partakes only of milk is unskilled in the
word of righteousness for he is a baby. But solid food belongs to those
who are of full age or mature, that is those who
by reason of use have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil. You understand?
To mature, you have to exercise your senses.
You have to practice. You have to apply the Word
of God, you have to use it to recognize the
situations that you’re in, the forces that
you’re dealing with. That’s the way to maturity. If you never really seriously
apply the Word of God, if you don’t live
by the Word of God you will never become mature. you’ll never be able to take more
than milk or maybe a little bread. But solid food is only for those, who have practiced,
who have exercised, who have applied the Word
diligently, regularly in their lives. So that’s the third result of the Word
of God, it’s spiritual nourishment. The fourth result is
mental illumination. And I want to turn to Psalm 119. A familiar verse to many,
I’m sure. Psalm 119, verse 130. The psalmist is speaking
to God and he says: The entrance of your
words gives light. It gives understanding
to the simple. So, the entrance of God’s Word into our minds and
into our hearts gives light. It’s different from education.
Education is not light. You can be educated
and totally in the dark. How do I know?
Because I was. Highly educated
and totally in the dark. Until the light of the Word
of God shone into my life. So remember,
education is not light. Years ago I was dealing with
African students in East Africa whose one ambition
was to get education. I wrote a little tract for
them once called: You are seeking education
but are you also finding wisdom? I pointed out wisdom and
education are not the same. And in this tract
I pointed out something which has shocked
some people. Most of the trouble in the world
is caused by educated fools. Theodore Roosevelt, former
president of the United States, once said this, he said:
If a man is a thief he’ll steal a railroad car
or carriage, or compartment. but if you educate the same man
he’ll steal the whole railroad. So, please bear in mind
education is a useful thing but it is not light. In fact, as I say, some of
the most educated minds are in the deepest darkness. It’s only the entrance of
God’s Word that gives light. And then God’s Word
provides physical healing. And I say this out of
my own personal experience. Let’s turn to Psalm 107
for a moment. Reading from verse 17,
through verse 20: Fools... [That’s the people in the other
church, that’s never you and me!] Fools,
because of their transgression and because of their
iniquities, were afflicted. Does it ever occur to you,
that some of us are afflicted because we’ve been
leading a wrong life? I’ve heard so many people
come for healing to me. Very rarely do they ever suggest that the source of their
problem is their wrong living. But it says fools, because
of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorred
all manner of food and they drew near
to the gates of death. They were at the point of death. The doctor could
do no more for them. Then it says: Then they cried
out to the Lord in their trouble. My comment on that is people
often leave it very late to pray. They were at death’s door and
it suddenly occurred to them it might help to pray. And what did God do?
Listen: He saved them out
of their distresses. He sent His word
and healed them, and delivered them
from their destructions. Notice three things that God
does when He sends His Word: He saves, He heals
and He delivers. The three great acts
of God’s mercy: saving from sin, healing from sickness and
delivering from demon power. He accomplishes primarily
through His Word. Some of you, I know this from
experience, you’re looking to find some preacher
who will lay hands on you and pray for you and you’ll
be healed. Well, may it happen. But I know, because
many people come to me, they think if I pray for them
they’ll be healed. But they aren’t. And in fact, I’ve come to the
place where I’m a little bit concerned because I see they’re
really looking to Brother Prince. Not to the Lord. And let me tell you, without any preacher
you can be healed, if you’ll receive God’s Word.
For He sent His Word, healed them, delivered
them from their distresses. And then there comes
my favorite verse, which is what got me out of hospital
when no medication would do it. Proverbs chapter 4,
verses 20, 21 and 22. And I quote it in the
old King James Version because that’s how
it came to me. My son, attend to my words, incline thine ear
unto my sayings. Let them not depart
from thine eyes, keep them in the
midst of thine heart, for they are life to
those who find them and health to all their flesh. God’s words, he says,
will be health to all our flesh. Now there I was, I’d
been about seven months in hospital. The doctors
were not healing me, and I was saying, If only I had
faith I knew God would heal me. Then I got that Scripture: Faith comes by hearing,
hearing by the Word of God. I began to hope and then I began to
look through the Scripture again with a new hope. But you see, I had a problem. I’d been a philosopher,
a professional philosopher, and the job of philosophers is to
make simple things complicated. That’s when they get elected. So, I couldn’t take the Word
of God in its simplicity. I read promise after promise
about God healing, but I thought that only
means He heals my soul. He’s not really interested
in my body, that’s just corrupt, it’s going to die anyhow. Bless the Lord, O my soul,
forgiveth all mine iniquities healeth all thy diseases. I said:
that’s only my soul’s diseases. But when I got to Proverbs 4:20-22,
I couldn’t get around it. God says: His words are life
to those that find them and health to all their flesh. And I said not even a philosopher can make flesh mean
anything but flesh. Health to my whole
physical body. And then I looked in the margin, and the alternative reading
for health was medicine. I happened to be what the
army called a medical orderly. I said how do people
take their medicine? The answer is three
times daily after meals. I said that’s what I’ll do. I can’t go into the details but over
a period of three or four months, I took God’s Word
as my medicine three times daily
after every meal, and it gave me complete and
permanent healing and health in one of the most unhealthy
climates in the world, the Sudan. So, I’ll tell you, brothers
and sisters, it works. Now, let’s come to just three
more results of the Word of God, very quickly. The next one is victory
over sin and satan. Psalm 119,
verses 9 and 11: How can a young man
cleanse his way? By taking heed
according to your Word. And then again in verse 11: Your Word have I hidden,
[or stored up] in my heart that I might not sin against you. Many, many of our
young people today really question whether it’s
possible to lead a pure life. And most of their educators
will tell them it isn’t. They’ll recommend what they call
safe sex, which is never safe. But the Bible says a young man
who gives attention to his way according to the Word of
God, can lead a pure life. And I thank God when I worked
amongst African young people, I saw those words fulfilled
time and time again. They were made pure, they led clean lives because they
gave heed to the Word of God. And you’ll remember that
we looked in Matthew 4, when Jesus encountered satan, He only met him with
one weapon: It is written. And then again, and we’re going
very quickly now, in Ephesians 5, verses 25 through 27. Ephesians 5:25-27: Husbands, love your wives... Just let me tell you husbands, that’s
not a suggestion, it’s a command. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the
church and gave Himself for it that He might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the Word. That He might present it to
Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that it should be holy
and without blemish. How will Jesus provide Himself with a bride who is
holy and without blemish? Through the washing of water
by the Word of God. The Word of God sanctifies us,
it cleanses us. John said of Jesus: this is He
who came by water and by blood. Not by water only
but by blood. By the blood of His sacrifice
He redeems us, but by the water of His Word
He cleanses and sanctifies us. We need both. We’re redeemed by the blood that
we might be cleansed by the Word. And finally, James says,
and we won’t turn there, but in his epistle,
chapter 1, verses 23-25: the Bible is a spiritual mirror. When you look into it, it doesn’t
show you your physical appearance, it shows you what
you’re really like inside. And James points out,
when you look in a mirror and see
there’s something wrong, the sensible thing to do
is tend to it. If your hair is out of order,
you brush it. If your face is dirty,
you wash it. You act on what you see
in the mirror. And James says, you need to do that when you look
in the mirror of the Word of God. You need to see
your spiritual self in it, and act on whatever it shows
you that you need to do. So let me just
recapitulate that and close. Eight effects of God’s Word. It produces faith. It’s the seed of the new birth. It’s spiritual nourishment. It produces mental illumination. It provides physical healing. It makes possible victory
over sin and satan. It provides cleansing and holiness. And it is a spiritual mirror. Amen. To find a Derek Prince Ministries office nearby,
visit www.derekprince.com
