Turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13. I am going to read part of this from verse 1.
On that day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.
And there were gathered unto Him great multitudes, so that He entered into a boat, and sat; and all the multitude stood on the beach.
And He spake to them many things in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went forth to sow;
and as he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the birds came and devoured them.
And others fell upon the rocky places, where they had not much earth: and straightway they sprang up, because they had no deepness of earth;
and when the sun was risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
And others fell upon the thorns; and the thorns grew up, and choked them:
but others fell upon the good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
He that hath ears, let him hear.
And the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speakest Thou unto them in parables?
And He answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.
Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
And unto them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive:
for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should turn again, and I should heal them.
But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.
For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not.
Hear then ye the parable of the sower.
When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one, and snatcheth away that which hath been sown in his heart. This is he that was sown by the way side.
And he that was sown upon the rocky places, this is he that heareth the word, and straightway with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while; and when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, straightway he stumbleth.
And he that was sown among the thorns, this is he that heareth the word; and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
And he that was sown upon the good ground, this is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; who verily beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Shall we bow together in a word of prayer?
Our heavenly Father, we thank You, as we come to Your Word, that You have not left us to our own gifts, talents, energies, or understanding. But, Lord, You have provided for us that precious, powerful anointing through the finished work of our Lord Jesus, and You have made it available to us in the Person of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, dear Lord, we want to avail ourselves of it: I for speaking, and all of us for hearing, that this time may not in any way be futile. May it be redeemed time in every part.
O Lord, we commit ourselves to You, that You will give us that kind of light, that we may truly, Lord, hear with understanding. O Lord, work in all our hearts in this way. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus, and to Him we shall give all the glory and praise.
As you know, the theme of this conference is “The King Is Coming,” and I have been given the portion in Matthew 13 to do with the parables of the kingdom.
Now, I do not know what our brothers have done to me, but they have given me a very controversial part of the Word, upon which there are a whole number of different and diametrically opposed interpretations. Of course, Brother Stephen will have an even bigger problem when he comes to chapters 24 and 25, and I have therefore derived great comfort from that.
I want to take four phrases and spend each of the times given to me on one of those phrases that comes from this chapter. I want to speak this morning on the Word of the kingdom; tomorrow evening on the mysteries of the kingdom; next time, on the sons of the kingdom; and lastly, on being made disciples to the kingdom.
These are four phrases you will find within this chapter. I believe perhaps they bring us more to the heart of the matter, and to our need to be prepared in the light of the Lord’s coming, than anything else.
Without any further ado, I would just like technically to point out one thing about these parables. We have seven parables here in these fifty-three verses. Some people say eight, because they add the little one about the faithful householder who has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven, who brings out of his treasure things both old and new. They say this is a parable. I think there are actually seven, not eight.
These seven parables are divided quite interestingly. There is first an introductory and foundational parable; then we have three, and then another three. So we have one, a trio, and another trio.
Matthew is the most Jewish of all the Gospels, and therefore we have a framework that is almost rabbinic. In the first trio, we have one parable and then two that have some kind of similarity; and the Lord interprets the first of that trio after He has given all three. Then we have another trio, and the first two of that trio have something in common. Then we have a last one, and the Lord interprets the last one, as if He is giving us some key to understanding these two trios.
I hope that has not befuddled you, but that at least gives you the framework of these seven remarkable parables.
Now I want, this morning, to talk about the Word of the kingdom. You find this phrase in Matthew 13:19:
When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one.
The Word of the kingdom is the Word of God. There are some expositors of God’s Word who tell us that the Word of the kingdom is not the Word of God. They say it has something to do only and specifically with the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus.
But I think that if we look very carefully, we shall find that the Lord Jesus Himself interprets the Word of the kingdom in terms of the Word in general. The Word of the kingdom must have a special emphasis, but it is the Word of God emphasizing a certain theme that runs through it from Genesis right through to Revelation.
For instance, in Matthew 13:20, the Lord says of the rocky places, “This is he that heareth the word.” In verse 21, He speaks of tribulation arising “because of the word.” In verse 22, He speaks of the one among thorns as “he that heareth the word.” In verse 23, the one upon good ground is “he that heareth the word, and understandeth it.”
It seems as if He is explaining that this is not a particular or specific word, but something to do with the whole Word of God. In Luke 8:11, Luke records this same parable:
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Then turn to Mark 4:14:
The sower soweth the word.
Of course, the whole of Matthew has to do with the kingdom of heaven. That is his favourite phrase. It is all to do with the King and all to do with the kingdom. Therefore, instead of simply speaking of the Word of God, Matthew speaks of the Word of the kingdom. He speaks of sons of the kingdom, mysteries of the kingdom, and being made a disciple to the kingdom. This is his contribution to us—the truth that God laid upon his heart in a specific way to communicate to us.
Actually, the Word of the kingdom is the summing up of the whole Word of God. When Jesus came proclaiming the kingdom, He went to the very heart of the whole Bible—the revelation we have in these sixty-six books—and said that it is all to do with God’s King and God’s kingdom.
That is why there is a universe. That is why God created Adam and Eve. That is why He created a human race. That is why the serpent, Satan, came in to rob God of that kingdom and to take it over. That is why man fell. That is why another authority came into the earth: the powers of darkness, the authority of darkness, came into the world to contradict and contest God’s purpose concerning His Son.
That is why Jesus was born: the long-promised Messiah, the Messianic King, of the seed of David. That is why He was born in the Jewish royal city of Bethlehem. That is why He was born of the tribe of Judah, because He was the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David.
This King came into this world to take back the usurped authority for God. Do you understand what I am trying to say?
When we come to Matthew’s Gospel, we have the Lord Jesus proclaiming the kingdom, and therefore the King. He is, as it were, telling them, “The kingdom of God has arrived. The kingdom of God is here.” What did He mean? He meant that in Him, as the King, the kingdom of God had come.
Then the rest of the New Testament is the explanation of this kingdom. We are told how we are born into the kingdom. John records:
Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
All the way through the letters of Paul, Peter, James, John, and Hebrews, wherever we turn, we find the interpretation and explanation of this kingdom of God that has come in the Person of the Lord Jesus. Through His work, you and I, as sinners, have been delivered from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.
We are told that one day that kingdom is going to come when the King finally returns. There will be a public manifestation of the glory of God, a public manifestation of God’s righteousness, and a public manifestation of God’s kingdom throughout this whole universe. Well, we thank God for that.
That encompasses the whole sixty-six books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. It is all to do with this. So, when the Lord Jesus began to give these parables of the kingdom, He was going to the heart of something. It was not something new, or something you never find anywhere else. It goes right back to before the foundation of the world, into the very heart and thought of God for humanity, in His creating us; and it goes right on to the ages of the ages to come. This is the Word of God.
Turn to 2 Timothy 3:16. Listen very carefully to this:
Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness:
that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.
Did you hear that? All Scripture, or every Scripture, is inspired of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction which is in righteousness. For what reason? That the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.
The Word of God: the authority of the Word of God, the inspiration of the Word of God, the accuracy of the Word of God, and the relevance of every part of the Word of God.
By the time we are through this hour, I hope we shall have seen something about the Word of God. There is an enormous onslaught on the Word of God, not least in evangelical and charismatic circles. It has been shelved; it is being put on one side; it is being devalued. It is not being given the place God has given it: sixty-six books, in every single part.
Because of that, there will come a great falling away amongst the people of God, because they have exchanged the foundation of God’s Word for their own experiences and their own concepts.
I, for one, am all for experience. The more experience you have of the Lord, the better. I do not mind even if you have ecstasies. Why not? In this terrible world, with all its affliction and problems, thank God for every single being caught up to a third heaven, every single meeting with the Lord that means you walk on air for at least a few days.
I am not against it. But to exchange the solid, objective, defined basis of God’s Word for shaky experiences—for something that can be emotional, counterfeit, undefined, and entirely subjective—is entirely dangerous. It may bring us to the place where the great apostasy comes amongst the people of God.
There will be a great falling away when they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They have ears that only want to hear certain themes and subjects. They will do away with certain books, or certain parts of books, and only dwell on certain areas. They only want to hear what they want to hear, what falls in line with their own pleasure, interest, and fulfilment.
My dear friends, I believe this matter is of tremendous importance in the light of the coming King.
The Lord Jesus said something so simple, and yet so profound, in His great high-priestly prayer, recorded in John 17:
Sanctify them in the truth: Thy word is truth.
In other words, sanctification may be an experience. At times it may have tremendous emotion in it. It could blow your mind when God meets you and, for the first time, you understand that the Holy Spirit has been given to you—that He not only indwells you, but empowers you.
It can blow your mind when, for the first time, you understand that you were crucified with Christ; that when Christ died, you died; and that now you can live and walk in newness of life. It can blow your mind.
But, my dear friends, you are not sanctified by experience. You are not sanctified by your own indefinable experience, which may differ from one person to another. It is through the Word of God that you are sanctified, when God makes His Word a living reality in our hearts.
When we hear the Word with understanding, and it goes into our heart, takes root, germinates, grows, and bears fruit, then we are sanctified. Then we are joined to the Lord. Then we discover the Lord. Then we are safe from following our own experiences.
This is the Word of God. Jesus said:
Sanctify them in the truth: Thy word is truth.
Not their experiences, nor their understanding. Thy Word is truth.
I think of Psalm 119:160:
The sum of Thy word is truth;
And every one of Thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
The sum of Thy Word is truth, my dear brothers and sisters. What a necessity it is for us in the time left to us. We do not know how long we have. I personally am not sure. Stephen may have more light on this than I. I do not know whether the Lord is coming tomorrow, in ten years, or whether we have another century to go.
But there is a necessity, in the time given to us, to get to know God’s Word—not to ignore it or despise it, but to study the Word of God, meditate in the Word of God, and allow the Spirit of God to do His work through the Word of God in our lives.
Suppose the Lord’s coming is delayed for a hundred years. Will you be sorry that you spent time studying the Word of God, learning the Word of God, and allowing the Word of God to do something in your life?
Who of us knows whether we shall be here on this earth in one year’s time? None of us knows. Only God knows the span of a man or woman’s life. You may have much shorter time than you realize, but in that brief time given to you, God can enable you to get to know the Word of God and allow the Spirit of the Lord to do His work through the Word in your life, preparing you for the coming King.
Do not think for a single moment that because you might die, you will not be there at the coming of the Lord. The dead in Christ shall rise first. I have often wondered which would be the more remarkable experience.
Is it more remarkable to be alive? Some people are so selfish, thinking, “Oh yes, I do not want to die. I do not want to be put into the earth, or whatever else they do in these parts. I do not want any of that experience. I want to be alive at the coming of the Lord.”
Well, I am not sure that the Apostle Paul will not have a better experience when he finds that his body is reproduced from the atoms that have somehow gone back into the earth. Dust to dust and ashes to ashes: after two thousand years, his body is recreated, and he is not one whit behind you and me who may be alive at the coming of the Lord.
The dead in Christ shall rise first, and Paul will say, “I got there before you. Two thousand years, but I got there before you.” I do not know which is the most wonderful experience, but I must not digress.
The fact of the matter is, whether you have only a few years left or a whole lifetime, whether the Lord comes within a few years or in another century, we need to get to know the Word of God. It is not a luxury. It is a fundamental necessity.
People’s attitude is, “Well, when I retire, I will have plenty of time.” But, my dear friend, I am not yet retired, but I often think that when people retire, their minds are not the same. I do not want to be rude to those of you who are retired, but what a stupidity it is to be taken in by a device of the enemy which says, “One day, when you retire, you can study the Word.”
Why, my dear friends, we may not have the same keenness, alertness, or ability to study. So we put it off, and put it off, and put it off, until in the end, half-blind and nearly deaf, we have time to do it. It is so stupid.
It is a necessity to study the Word of God. “How shall a young man cleanse his way?” By hiding God’s Word in his heart. A young man needs to read the Word of God. Read it.
Some people’s idea is that somehow, magically, they are going to get to know the Word of God. They come to a conference like this, sit and listen to people like me, and think, “It is magic. It is going to work. I am going to listen to the Word of God day after day, hour after hour.”
But, my dear friend, that is not the way for the Word of God to enter your life, fall into good ground, take root, and grow. Of course, it is good to come to a time like this. We get light and understanding in these times. Some of us, who have been lazy and careless, are suddenly challenged, and the whole course of our life is redirected as a result of such a conference.
I am not despising coming together in this way—not at all, not for a moment. But, my dear friend, you have got to read the Word of God for yourself.
In these days, when everybody—especially here in North America, it seems—likes television, they watch. That is all they ever do. People do not read books any more. It is unbelievable. We have a whole generation of watchers, television watchers.
No, you are not going to get to know the Word of God that way. You are going to have to make time to take this Book and read it.
Someone says, “Well, I find it very difficult in the old King James.” Well, that is all right. There are lots of newer versions. Why do you not get a newer version? Sometimes a very modern version may not always be so accurate, but at least you can read. You can read a whole book in one sitting.
Instead of reading that cheap novel that thrills you for a moment but does nothing in your life, you could read the whole Book of Ruth in less than twenty minutes. Maybe some of you are not used to reading and it would take you forty-five minutes, but never mind. Whether it is twenty minutes or forty-five minutes, you get to know the Word of God. You are reading the Word of God. We have to read.
I thank God that when I first came to the Lord, if you forgive a personal thing, I had no Bible. At that time, everybody had a Bible, so nobody ever thought to give my sister or me one. We only had a little Gospel of John. That was the only thing they gave us on the day we made that decision they talk about.
They gave me this little Gospel of John, and I read it and read it and read it until it fell to pieces. To this day, I know the Gospel of John because it burned in me. I had nothing else. That was the Word of God for me.
At the end of that, when it fell to pieces, I finally managed to get a Bible. Then I found it the most exciting thing in the world. There were all these Christians in that church, so gracious; they only listened to sermons. If you said something to them about Genesis 24, they would look at you as though you had said “Genesis 25.”
For me, it was the most exciting thing in the world to read the Bible, to discover something I had never read, never been taught, and never encountered in religious instruction at school. It was so exciting.
I thank God for the people who first taught me something of the Word of God. There was one old Swedish lady whom I called Auntie. She adopted my sister and me when we were both saved. She was very wealthy and lived in a great mansion, and my family did not think it too bad for us to have something to do with her.
She was very clever. She used to say, “I will give you so many shillings if you learn by heart Psalm so-and-so.” I remember Psalm 37 was one. There were Psalms and passages that I learned by heart. Every Saturday morning I would go to her home, have a cup of tea, and then stand before her and the servants—she brought them all in—and recite my passage. If it was correct, I got the money.
Maybe it was Jewish blood that made me even more interested in studying the Word of God, but she did something for me I shall never forget. She used to say, “Store the Word in your heart. There will come a day when you will not have that Word. Store it in your heart.”
I found that so exciting. I remember the first time in Egypt, when I was sent to two old retired missionaries in Port Said. I have never forgotten them. They were walking Bibles: Miss Liblik, Alexandra Liblik, an Estonian, and Kathleen Smith, an Irishwoman.
They were the most remarkable people I had ever met to that time. In ordinary conversation, suddenly one would say, “Does not Nahum say something about that?” And I would say, “No.” “Nahum says something.” Then in prayer, one of them would say, “Lord, in Obadiah, Your servant has said this.” And I thought, “Obadiah? Where is Obadiah?”
They were walking Bibles. They were not pious and heavy. They were able to laugh. They were normal human beings, flesh and blood, but the Word of God was in them. They were those into whose lives the Word of God had come into good soil, and they were bearing fruit: a hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold.
I thank God for these people who had such an influence on me when I was young in the Lord. Auntie Dagmar used to say to me, every time she saw me put anything on the Bible—anything—“This is the Word of God.”
It did something to me. Maybe you think it is superstition, but it did something to me. I began to understand that this Book is not any ordinary book. This Book is not simply to be put on a shelf as Holy Scripture, revered almost as an object of worship, and never read.
It is the Word of God. Through this Book, God can do something in me—always through this Book, never apart from this Book. He takes this Word, gets into my life, and does something in me.
My dear friends, the King is coming. If God has not done that kind of work in your life and mine, what are we going to do when the King comes?
What a battle there has been over this Word of God. What conflict.
One of the things most precious to me when I was young in the Lord was to understand how people had died—burned at the stake, strangled, some buried in dungeons and eaten alive by rats—to give us this Book in our own mother tongue.
Nowadays, there is a kind of devaluation of it. We take what we want and leave what we do not want. We have no idea what it cost people to give us this Book.
Whatever faults the Reformation may have had, one thing recovered in that great work of the Spirit was the unique and absolute authority of God’s Word in all matters to do with life and conduct.
How Satan has hated this Book. This battle has been continuous and gigantic in its dimensions. It has never ceased.
Think of Revelation. Whatever interpretation of the Book of Revelation we may have, one thing is certain: we have there an enormous conflict between God and Satan, between Christ and the Antichrist, between Babylon and Jerusalem.
This is how it is introduced:
John, a servant of God, who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Then John explains further: “I John, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” All the way through this book, with its summing up of the last issues of world history, we have the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus—the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus—as if there lies the heart of the whole conflict.
We might say, “Let us dwell on the testimony of Jesus,” as if it is experience, as if it is only to do with discovering Him. But, my dear friends, we must have the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus, or we can go off the rails thinking we are holding the testimony of Jesus. Some have.
They have got into weird doctrines and novel interpretations of Scripture, in my estimation according to their own empire-building instinct, because they have not understood that the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus have to go together.
Satan is the father of lies, a liar from the beginning. This Book is truth. That is why Satan knows he must spend an inordinate amount of his time belittling this Book, devaluing it, deriding it, dismembering it, and undermining it in the minds of those who know the Lord.
His object is to sow doubt, to sow disbelief, to make God’s Word appear irrelevant, impractical in the twentieth century, inaccurate, untrustworthy, and impossible to obey.
He wants us to relegate these sixty-six books to an honoured place in our library, where they will remain honoured and unread for the most part—unless we go to fellowship, take the Book down, and open it wherever someone is speaking. He wants this Book to be theology. That is all.
Is it not amazing to hear the Lord Jesus telling the most simple story? These stories are all taken from local life, the ordinary life of the people. Everybody understood the sower. There was not a single soul listening to Him who had not seen the sower going out to sow.
The sower went forth to sow. As he scattered the seed, some fell on hard ground, and the birds came and gobbled it up. They had all seen that.
Other seed fell into ground where there was rock just underneath and very little soil. It grew quickly, but then the sun came up in all its power, as it can in that part of the world, and it died.
The seed fell where there were thorns. When he was sowing, you could not see the thorns. That is the interesting thing. It was not because the sower was stupid. The thorns were not there, because thorns are the last things to come up.
First there are the beautiful things: the cyclamen, the anemones, the ranunculus, and all the other little flowers—the flowers of the field, the lilies of the field. But when they are over and the wheat begins to grow, then the thorns come up. They grow very fast, quickly overtake the wheat before it has a chance, and choke it.
But other seed fell into good ground and yielded a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold.
Listen: this is incredible. If all those theologians had been around Him, they would have died of horror. “What is this Man talking about? Is He speaking about the Word of God as a seed falling into the ground? The Word of God is philosophy, ideas, theology—something to entertain our minds, fascinate us, and give us concepts.”
No. Jesus spoke of the Word of the kingdom as having no meaning unless it falls into a life, takes root, grows up, and bears fruit.
I know many people who are fascinated with the Bible, with all their different schemes for the Bible, systems of interpretation, and schools of prophecy. But you look at their lives, and there is nothing. The Lord spoke of this Word of the kingdom as being a living thing that falls into the good soil of our actual lives and grows up.
I want to say something about the power of God’s Word. I grew up understanding that the Bible was a book of myths and legends, fairy tales basically, with no relevance whatsoever to life—an antique, very antique.
When I first found the power of God’s Word, it knocked me out. God’s Word is alive. Shakespeare, for all Shakespeare’s genius, does not come alive and come out of the printed page into your life, changing the whole course of your life. A word from Shakespeare cannot bring you into an experience so that, for the first time, you are one with God and have union with God in Christ.
Do you understand what I am trying to say about the power of this Word of God? Consider these parables: the sower, even the parable of the tares. The whole idea is growing, growing, growing. “Shall we tear out the evil and leave the good?” No. The Lord says, “Let the two grow together until the harvest.” Something is alive in this thing.
Take the mustard seed. I shall talk about this another time, but all I can say is that here is a seed so small you cannot see it, and it falls into the ground. Something is happening.
Take the finding of the treasure in the field. Take the discovery of the pearl of great price. Action! He sells everything he has to buy the field. He sells all he has to buy the pearl. It is all action.
It is not merely static theory, dead doctrine, or even merely the definition of truth. It is true, it is defined, but it does something in us.
This Book tells us that this whole universe exists by the Word of God, created by the Word of God; that by His Word He brought into being what did not exist. Hebrews 11 says that. Hebrews 1 says that everything is upheld by the word of His power. Peter says that this whole world is held at present by the Word of God, waiting for that fire that will consume it all.
Listen to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:
Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
What does Paul say? The same God who spoke a word—“Let there be light”—and immediately there was light, has spoken a word into your heart and said, “Let there be light.” In that moment, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ shone into your heart.
You may have been brought up in Sunday school or in a pastor’s home. You may know the Scriptures until they come out of your ears. But until that moment when God’s light shone into your heart, it was all second-hand. It was all just up here. The moment that light shone into your heart, it became yours.
Think of Hebrews 4:12:
For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit.
Listen to this Word of God. This is not just philosophy. This is not just doctrine. This Word of God is living and creative. It is sharper than any two-edged sword. It divides between soul and spirit within the person.
Think of the words of the angel to Mary in Luke 1:37:
For no word from God shall be void of power.
Think of the Apostle Paul saying to the Colossian church, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Let the words here in the Book come out of the Book, get into you, and live in you.
Think of James saying, “Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” The implanted Word.
What is the key to knowing the power of God’s Word? Why is it that some people read the Book and it is dead, while for other people it is the power of God? Why is it that for some the Word of God is alive, while for others it seems to be merely a collection of doctrines?
It has to be what Jesus said: hearing and understanding. He says that the one who hears and does not understand has it gobbled up by the birds of the air. Others are choked by thorns—the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and so on. But the one sown in good soil is he who hears the Word and understands.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Is that not it?
Does that not take you back to the words of the psalmist in Psalm 119? In verse 105, he says:
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
And light unto my path.
Then, in Psalm 119:18, he says:
Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold
Wondrous things out of Thy law.
It seems to me that what Ernie spoke about last night—“Blessed are the meek,” blessed are the gentle, blessed are the teachable—has to do with our attitude to God’s Word. “Open Thou mine eyes.” Open them.
I remember those two old missionaries who were walking Bibles. Once I caused them such trouble. There was a particular passage I could not understand, and I went at it like a terrier with a bone. I ruined their whole time of devotion, coming to it again and again: “But it must mean this. Oh, explain this to me.”
Finally, Alexandra Liblik looked at me rather severely and said, “Now, if you are going to be arrogant with the Word of God, you will learn nothing. If God does not want to show you something, He will not show you. It does not matter if you scream and shout, get into hysteria, wait all night, fast all day, and do a thousand other things. If He will not show you, He will not show you. So why do you not just be still?”
Then she said, “Ask the Lord.” You know, it taught me one of the biggest lessons: to ask the Lord. When there are things I do not understand, I ask Him. If He gives no answer, I know what He is saying. Sometimes I hear; sometimes I do not hear from Him. But I have learned so much from simply understanding: “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.”
We have one short life in which everything must be done by God. He does all that He has said. That does not mean you always understand the Word, but when He does something, it is always according to His Word, and later you come to understand it in the light of His Word.
There is tremendous danger in manipulating the Word of God. Many of us want it to say what we want to say and allow what we want it to allow us to do. We say, “This is cultural. That belongs to the first century. Something else is just Jewish.” In so doing, we disregard the Word.
The Word is not to be played with. God will never show you anything if you want to take His Word, mould it to your own sense, and manipulate it. You will not have any light. Only if you are prepared to obey.
That reminds me, finally, of what the psalmist said:
In Thy light shall we see light.
In the light of this Book, we shall get further light on our life, on God’s heart, and on God’s purpose.
So, my dear children of God, do not despise the Word of God. Do not devalue it. Do not ignore it. Do not manipulate it. Allow God to take this Word and make it real in your life.
Shall we pray?
O Lord, we know that You are coming back. We need this Word of Yours to get into us and do its work in us. Lord, those of us who have had some experience of Your Word separating us unto Yourself, we want more.
Those of us who have never had any real experience in that way, Lord, we want to know Your Word—living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. Help us. Give us the right attitude to this Word of Yours.
Take Your Word, Lord, and bring within our hearts a new awe, a new respect for it; but more than that, a new hunger and thirst for You through Your Word. Lord, hear us.
We know the Spirit of truth Himself will take this Book that He has given and apply it to us. He will work in us all those marvellous things that we read of in this Book. O Lord, do this thing, we pray. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus.