#M110
Power in the Word
Copyright © 2012 James L. Melton
Preached January 29, 2012,BibleBaptistChurch,Martin,TN
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
I want to spend some time today dealing with the power of the word of God. For the past sixteen years we have occupied ourselves with the printing and either shipping or personally distributing well over two and one half million Bible-believing tracts and booklets. We could have done a lot more than that, if we would just have made light of the Scriptures and published only these weak and lovely little “gospel” tracts that never speak about the blood of Christ, the resurrection, hell, or repentance. Those tracts don’t produce real converts because they don’t contain enough Scripture to produce converts. About all you get from those things is John 3:16, Romans 10:9-10, and an anemic prayer. Those tracts and the Laodiceans who use them produce fake Christians who will attend church as long as you provide entertainment for them and their kids. I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in piercing the hearts of men with the power of God’s word. That’s what changed my life and set me on the straight and narrow way, and that’s what the Bible emphasizes, as we are about to see.
When you do something all the time, you run the risk of losing sight of its importance. You run the risk of taking it for granted and just going through the motions like a machine instead of maintaining a personal interest in every aspect of it. That can be true in a marriage, in parenting your children, in school, in work, and also in the ministry. I want to always be excited about our publishing work. What about you? Were you excited last Saturday night when you helped put together those two new booklets, or was it just another work night? Have you been praying that God will use this new material to change lives? Have you prayed that the new catalogs will bear much fruit for the glory of God? That’s what I want to deal with today: the need to remain mindful of the fact that we are dealing with the living words of the living God—that there is power in the printed pages that we publish, and we should be making the most of the power.
Our text from Hebrews says that God’s word is quick, which means that it’s alive. When you hear the word of God, that means spiritual life is entering into your ears. That’s why Jesus said, “Let these sayings sink down into your ears . . .” (Luke 9:44) Another time He said, “. . . the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63) That’s what we really need to get. People spend anywhere from twelve to twenty years studying books in schools, yet most of those people have never read the Bible through even once, and they’ve never studied it at all. Isn’t that something? The one book that contains living words and has the supernatural ability to impart life is ignored while people spend their years studying things that impart no life at all. With so much non-life influence around us, like news stories, gossip, education, politics, and sports, it gets real easy to stop thinking of the Bible as a supernatural book and just treat it like a daily reading routine.
Well, God’s word is not just a daily reading routine, and tracts and books about the Bible are not like other reading materials, not if they contain the living words of God. Ecclesiastes 8:4 says, “Where the word of a king is, there is power . . .” If the word of our King is on a Bible page, then there is power there. If the word of our King is printed in a tract, then there is power there. If the word of our King is on a T-shirt or on a Scripture magnet, then there is power there. If those powerful words find their way into someone’s heart, then there is power in that heart—the supernatural and spiritual power of God’s word. I believe that just as much as I believe I am saved, else I would have never started this church or the publishing ministry.
Apparently, most churches and most Christians don’t believe that. If you think they do, just read some of these stupid church signs that they display to the public. “God loves you so much that, if He had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it . . . Smile, you’re okay—God doesn’t make junk . . . We have better Sundays than Dairy Queen . . . God loves you—no restrictions apply . . .” and other such foolishness. There are over 31,000 verses in the Bible, yet all these people can find to put on their sign is that kind of mess. I think they all need the exact same church sign—one that reads “Caution: Children Playing.”
If you’re a child of the King, then you ought to value and use the words of the King! If you are employed by someone, then you use their tools and equipment on the job, not your own. Your boss wants things to be done in a certain way, so his tools and equipment are required. When I give Diana some booklets to take to work and trim, then she has to use the standard paper cutter for the job. She can’t use a pair of scissors just because she likes scissors better and they don’t make as much noise. She is employed by someone else, so she must use his tools and equipment. Likewise, we are employed by God. We are part of the “Father’s Business” (Luke 2:49), and He has given us His living words for the purpose of imparting life to those who are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). Sinners are spiritually dead, so they need something alive, not something cute or funny.
Alright, look at Luke 4:32: “And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.” What does that mean exactly? Verse thirty-six tells us what it means: “And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.” It adds the word “authority.” They were astonished at the preaching of Jesus because He spoke with authority, boldness, and confidence. He wasn’t preaching for a paycheck; He was preaching because He firmly believed something, and He knew that others should believe it also. Much of His preaching would be considered judgmental and rude by our weak and sick generation.
Paul told the young preacher Timothy to “preach the word” in II Timothy 4:2. He didn’t tell him to preach the philosophies and traditions and customs of men. There’s life in the words of God, so it is the words of God that we must give to people, and we must always keep that fresh on our minds and never take it for granted or make light of it.
How many tracts have you handed out this past week? How many have you enclosed with a mail-in bill that you paid? That’s what I’m addressing today: the fact that we need to remember the power of God’s word and its ability to work wonders in the hearts and lives of people. II Corinthians 6:7 says, “By the word of truth, by the power of God . . .” Those two words are closely connected, the word and power. We sing “power in the blood, power in the blood,” but we could just as truthfully sing “power in the word, power in the word.”
For years we have had these words framed and hanging on the wall at our print shop: “Let us give wings to the truth that it may fly with the word, no longer prepared at vast expense, but multitudes everlasting by a machine which never wearies – to every soul which enters life.” Those are the words of Johann Gutenberg, German inventor of the printing press in 1453. He didn’t say that it was enough to just run around yelling “Jesus Saves” to everyone. He said that we need to let the WORD fly! That’s why it’s good to blitz a parking lot with three or four hundred tracts. That’s why we mail tracts to people all over this county every week. Like Gutenberg, we believe the printed word has power.
You wouldn’t be saved right now, if not for the power of God’s word. You didn’t get saved because of someone’s nice church building or their tall steeple. You didn’t get saved because of a “gospel singing” at someone’s church. If you are saved, then it is because someone got to you with the living words of the living God. It happened to me onMay 3, 1979, when Pat Coleman opened his King James Bible and had me read the Roman’s Road as he explained it to me. Those words had power in them. When I read the words “thou shalt be saved” from Romans chapter ten, I got excited! Those weren’t the words of men; those were the words of God, and they told me that I could escape the damnation of hell! Well, they’re just as true today as they were then, so why aren’t we more excited about giving them to people?
Hebrews 1:3 says that all things are upheld by “the word of his power.” There it is again: the word and power. That’s why so many churches aren’t putting Scripture on their signs. Satan has robbed them of their power. They think that as long as they talk about Jesus and John 3:16 on occasion that they are still in the will of God doing God’s work. Somehow, it is assumed that churches are automatically doing God’s work by virtue of the fact that they are churches. A barber cuts hair because he’s a barber, a mechanic works on cars because he’s a mechanic, and a church works for God because it’s a church. That’s the conventional thinking. But Jesus plainly told us that this is not true. He said that “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” (Mat. 7:22) He then said that He would profess unto them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” They had the name of Jesus, and they did many wonderful works, but they didn’t major in the word! Psalm 138:2 says that God has exalted His word above His name! There’s power in the word. Amen?
We’re all familiar with our opening text: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged 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.” (Heb. 4:12) The word “quick” means alive. The word of God is alive and powerful. That’s why I’m excited about this new booklet of ours, Christ in the Old Testament. That thing has so much Scripture in it that it’s like a stick of dynamite or maybe a cruise missile. After over twenty years of writing and distributing the printed page, I know where the power is. It’s in loading a publication with as much Bible truth as possible in the shortest space possible. I want people to read a few lines and then get a verse that goes BOOM. Then a few more lines until they hit a couple more verses that go BOOM, BOOM. Then they start bleeding, spiritually, and the Holy Spirit starts working. Sometimes they cry, sometimes they laugh, and sometimes they just get mad as all get-out because of how they’ve been so deceived for so long. But it all starts with the power of God’s word.
There’s a church up in Danville, Kentucky, that uses our publications a lot. The pastor, Bro. Travis Alltop, sent me a letter last fall that contained these words: “I kind of imagine the material in our lobby to be similar to a large can of RAID that repels and kills any and all invading insects. So far, you have helped rid our congregation of and protect us from Masons, Baptist-briders, etc. Hallelujah! Keep up the great work!” How can we, down here in Tennessee, help his church in Kentucky? By the power of God’s living words on those printed pages. Bro. Travis likes having that power in the lobby of his church. Many preachers do not like it because they want all the power. They feel intimidated by the power of God’s word floating around the church, so they water-down the tract rack, water-down the Sunday school classes, and they water-down their sermons so that no one is really challenged to dig into the Bible and learn anything. Just listen to the preacher; he’ll tell you what you need to know. You see, he wants all the power because that secures for him a congregation and a paycheck. Unleashing a host of Bible-believing printed publications into the homes and lives of his church members could bring up all sorts of issues that he just isn’t prepared to deal with.
You know, a lot of preachers talk about the need for having the “power of God” in your life, and they usually have a lot to say about prayer and the “touch of God” on your life. They make it sound all deep and mystical so that most of the church members sit there and feel like they’re missing something. Well, you know, I can read just as good as they can, and when I read about “power” in the Bible, I read about it being connected with the words of God, not with a bunch of goofy and spooky stuff than no one can understand. The words “power” and “word” are found eighteen times in the Bible in the same verse, yet the words “power” and “prayer” aren’t found together even once! Now, chew on that for a while. I believe in prayer, but I do not believe it to be the source of the Christian’s power. The apostles got their power when the Holy Ghost fell in Acts chapter two. After a few decades of apostolic ministry, the canon of Scripture was complete, so Christians could get their power from the pages of written Scripture.
You know as well as I do that when you get up and start the day by reading a few chapters from the Bible, your mind is more spiritually tuned than if you just charge off into the day without reading the Bible. You’re more apt to witness, if you read the Bible or if you read some printed publication about the Bible. Why? The printed page has power.
I Peter 1:23says, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” That’s a lot of power—enough power to produce a new birth! That’ll keep a soul out of Hell, will it not? Then put out the printed page! Hand out some tracts! Give some of these new catalogs to your friends and neighbors. Unleash the power of the printed page. They’re not going to be born again by seeing a little chrome fish on the back of your car, but they might get born again if you give them the incorruptible words of God. There’s power in the word of God, and no one in this area is more positioned and more accountable for making that known than the members of BibleBaptistChurch.
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