“These are the days of Divine favour!”
Hebrews 4:12-4:13 “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 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. (13) And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
Living
Powerful
Sharper
Here is a question How many words from Jesus did it take to change the modern world?
The answer three.
Jesus said – It is finished!!!! n the Greek "It is finished," which is one of Jesus' most important statements, is translated from the single Greek word tetelestai.
These three words mean that as a result of what had just happened – all sin was dealt with death had lost it’s sting and life could never be the same again. There is power in the word of God
This one word declaration from the Son of God is incredibly powerful – It ushers in the age of grace and salvation for every person who truly repents and bows their knee before God’s son Jesus.
In our reading the word “living” (zon) is placed in the empathic position in the original language. The word of God is no dead letter, but as the word of the living God it cannot itself fail to be living. As the living word it continues through each age with compelling relevance. “Gipsy Smith told of a man who said he had received no inspiration from the Bible although he had “gone through it several times.” “Let it go through you once,” replied Smith, “then you will tell a different story!”
[source unknown - www.bible.org/illus/Bible (application)]
Charles Swindoll comments, “News articles may inform us. Novels may inspire us. Poetry may enrapture us. But only the living, active Word of God can transform us.”
[Charles Swindoll, p. 73]
“One of the most dramatic examples of the Bible’s divine ability to transform men and women involved the famous mutiny on the “Bounty.” Following their rebellion against the notorious Captain Bligh, nine mutineers, along with the Tahatian men and women who accompanied them, found their way to Pitcairn Island, a tiny dot in the South Pacific only two miles long and a mile wide. Ten years later, drink and fighting had left only one man alive—John Adams. Eleven women and 23 children made up the rest of the Island’s population.
About this time, Adams came across the “Bounty’s” Bible in the bottom of an old chest. He began to read it, and the divine power of God’s Word reached into the heart of that hardened murderer on a tiny volcanic speck in the vast Pacific Ocean—and changed his life forever. The peace and love that Adams found in the Bible entirely replaced the old life of quarreling, brawling, and liquor. He began to teach the children from the Bible until every person on the island had experienced the same amazing change that he had found. Today, with a population of slightly less than 100, nearly every person on Pitcairn Island is a Christian. [Signs of the Times, August, 1988, p. 5. - www.bible.org/illus/Bible (changes it makes)]
The bible has 66 books Bible is essentially a library And we get the privilege of flicking through God’s Library every day. As we do then we find the words we read are more than ideas and a collection of ancient works.
They are in fact very powerful and dramatically affected life in civilisations since the dawn of time. As we go back to the very birth of the Universe we find that the very creation of the Universe depended not on a big bang but on the very word of God breathed from his mouth.
Genesis Chapter 1 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. 9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kindsAnd it was so. 25 And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,
What do we glean from this summary from Genesis Chapter 1 – God said – and it was so – God saw that it was good.
That is still true today – What God says – happens – What God has said that happens is good.
The Bible is God’s word and in fact contains something sacred in it that no other book in history has every been able to emulate. No other religion can possibly produce such a book.
The writers of the books of the Bible were, of course, human beings. But it has always been the historic Christian belief that they wrote under an influence of the Holy Spirit which has been called "Inspiration."
This fact of inspiration makes the Bible qualitatively different from all other books in the world. It is different not merely in degree but in kind. It stands in a class by itself, unique and unparalleled. It is in very truth the Word of God.
We live in a frenetic and often paranoid world that moves at an ever increasing pace and in tighter and tighter circles. The whirlwind goes in ever increasing circles and the vortex it produces drags people down not up and leads to death.
But there is a counter force the force of what God’s word can produce. That upward draft sucking people up into the stratosphere of hope carries them through their lives into the very arms of Jesus
If we ask the question as an article I read this week did what has the Bible done for the world?
We can but glimpse through the window:- Christianity led to the end of the murder of slaves in the coliseums of the Roman world, the beginning of healthcare for the masses and education for the common man. It brought an end to the slave trade and slavery itself. It brought workers rights through Lord Shaftesbury, and child protection agencies, It led to the end of Apartheid in South Africa, thanks to the leadership of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.
Christian leaders like John Knox, Martin Luther and John Calvin were also inspired in the Christian tradition and helped change our world.
Christian’s like Elizabeth Fry, inspired by the Bible, fought for prison reform and the first Workers Union was set up by a Christian preacher and his friends, fighting for fair pay, better working conditions and a day of rest.
In the U.S., Rick Warren said, “It was Christians who helped abolish slavery, achieve women’s suffrage, lead the civil-rights movement and drafted the Bill of Rights.”
. In Africa, it was Dr. David Livingstone, the missionary who worked to end slavery and introduce Christian values to much of the continent. He is one of the world’s greatest explorers and humanitarians.
In the field of science, many of the founding fathers of many areas were Christians, with a devout belief in the God of the Bible and the same is true for the leaders of the Industrial Revolution, which shaped the world we live in. Michael Faraday founder of the Greenwich Observatory that gave us the world’s first great star map, was of course a preacher as well..
The Bible in addition shaped politics, which gave us laws that protected the common man, as the Bible’s teaching on the equality of all men shaped our civilisation. Then missionaries spread these values around the world, turning entire nations into new realms to be shaped by the Christian message.
It has shaped every area of our lives, yet because its influence is so huge, we take its heritage for granted and forget that Christianity was the source of this civilisation!
www.byfaith .uk
Let us ask ourselves the question not only What does God want us to know about the Bible but also what does God want us to do with his word?
1.Know it’s content – Get to know the bible – Find a readable version and---- read it.
Psalm 119 verse 11 says Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, “–
The sword used to be the most lethal weapon in the world – The Bible is compared to the sword because it is incredibly powerful.
One of the great problems in the world today is the problem with not walking in the will of God. The Great problems in the world today would be solved if people would only hide God’s word in their hearts.!
In Jesus life in the wilderness when the devil tempted him it was God’s word that saw off the devils attacks.
Hebrews 4:15-: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Know that the bible will save you in all manner of situations. I once met a bible in Schools teacher who told me how she taught memory verses. One of her pupils once left school and one new years eve got drunk. It was reported that he was standing out on the street roaring out his memory verses.
Perhaps God’s word in his heart eventually transformed him.
Bill Wilson pastors an inner city church in New York City. His mission field is a very violent place. He himself has been stabbed twice as he ministered to the people of the community surrounding the church. Once a Puerto Rican woman became involved in the church and was led to Christ. After her conversion she came to Pastor Wilson and said, "I want to do something to help with the church’s ministry." He asked her what her talents were and she could think of nothing---she couldn’t even speak English---but she did love children. So he put her on one of the church’s buses that went into neighborhoods and transported kids to church. Every week she performed her duties. She would find the worst-looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whisper over and over the only words she had learned in English: "I love you. Jesus loves you."
After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. The boy didn’t speak. He came to Sunday School every week with his sister and sat on the woman’s lap, but he never made a sound. Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday School and all the way home, "I love you and Jesus loves you."
One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, "I---I---I love you too!" Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug. That was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. At 6:30 that night he was found dead. His own mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash......."I love you and Jesus loves you." ....Those were some of the last words this little boy heard in his short life---from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English. This woman gave her one talent to God and because of that a little boy who never heard the word "love" in his own home, experienced and responded to the love of Christ.....
God’s word had transformed her heart and her heart had reached out and transformed the boy.
SOURCE: Mark Adams, "The Roads He Walked - Palm Avenue." Illustrations for April 13, 2003. www.esermons.com.
If you know the word of God you can share the word of God.
Secondly Know it’s power.
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 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.
When you know the power of the word of God Then it can be applied to lives around you.
- Someone once said: A Bible in the hand is worth two in the bookcase.
- And someone else said: A Bible stored in the mind is worth a dozen stored in the bottom of one’s trunk.
- DL Moody said: “The scriptures were not given for our information but our transformation.”
- Mark Twain, not exactly a die-hard Christian, wrote these words: “Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me most are those I do understand.”
- No matter how many times you have been through it, let it go through you.
- We get more out of the Bible when we let it get into us. When that happens it is easier to discover and apply it’s power.
Jesus filled himself up with the word of God and at 12 years of age could debate with the greatest theologians on earth. In his ministry he applied the word of God – What he had learned he applied. Application is everything –
A. M. Chirgwin quotes the example of Tokichi Ishii. Ishii had an almost unparalleled criminal record. He had murdered men, women and children in the most brutal way. Anyone who stood in his way was pitilessly eliminated. Now he was in prison awaiting death. While in prison he was visited by two Canadian women who tried to talk to him through the bars, but he only glowered at them like a caged and savage animal. In the end they abandoned the attempt; but they gave him a Bible, hoping that it might succeed where they had failed. He began to read it, and, having started, could not stop. He read on until he came to the story of the Crucifixion. He came to the words: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." and these words broke him. "I stopped," he said. "I was stabbed to the heart, as if pierced by a five-inch nail. Shall I call it the love of Christ? Shall I call it his compassion? I do not know what to call it. I only know that I believed, and my hardness of heart was changed." Later, when the condemned man went to the scaffold, he was no longer the hardened, surly brute he once had been, but a smiling radiant man. The murderer had been born again; Christ had brought Tokichi Ishii to life.
The word of God was and is transformational – Jesus was confident that his authority was complete with the Father in John chapter 11 we see this.
(John 11:43,44 NIV) When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped in strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Just as words spoken by God bought about creation so words had power over death and Lazerus was raised from the dead.
We need to know the power of the word of God and we need to know the power of words when uttered from the heart of God. Jesus did and Lazerus staggered out of his early grave.
Thirdly Put God’s word above all else.
I Feel this or that are words often uttered – our feelings can dictate our actions!
But -"We walk by faith, not by sight" 2 Corinthians 5:7.
Faith puts God’s word first! And they are connected.Romans 10:1717 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
"Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" John 20:29.
Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the Glory of God" John 11:40.
We need to put God’s word above all else!
Andrew Murray writes:-In the further life of the Christian, there is no temptation that is more persistent and more dangerous than this same feeling. We do not find the word "feeling" in Scripture. What we call "feeling" the Scripture calls "seeing." Faith simply adheres to what God says.
Put the word of God first.
Hebrews 4:12-4:13 “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 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. (13) And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
Living
Powerful
Sharper
Amen
