God-Applied - 4

Well let's return to Isaiah chapter 55 where we have read the Word of God together and this will be our starting point tonight as we consider the subject of the good news applied by God. We're speaking this week concerning the scriptures, the Word of God. We've considered that they are God-breathed, inspired of God, that they are God-preserved, that they are God-blessed. Wherever the Word of God goes, blessing accompanies it.

Prosperity follows. And tonight we consider the matter that it is God-applied, the Word of God applied by God Himself. And therein is the power of the Word that makes it effectual.

If you look and read the Word, look to the Word and read the Word. And indeed we welcome our friends from the rescue mission tonight with thanksgiving that in God's kind providence we have the opportunity to be together here in the house of the Lord. The 55th chapter of Isaiah has that wonderful, wonderful invitation, O everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And it is not an advertisement. Advertisers are selling things. This is free.

Come without money. Take without price. The price is paid by the one who is the water of life, the bread of life, our Savior, who on the cross with His own blood redeemed unto God everyone who will ever believe in Him. The 11th verse, and he is comparing the Word of God, the scripture, that which comes from the mouth of God, to the snow and to the rain.

They are an illustration. And I would encourage you to let this illustration be engraved upon your mind so that whenever it snows or whenever it rains, you are reminded of this very truth. The rain falls from the heavens above to the earth. It disappears into the earth.

It's out of sight and out of mind. But lo and behold, vegetation grows because of its moisture. The orchards grow and produce. The fields grow. The gardens grow. And you have the food that we eat. And from that growth, not only comes the food that we consume, but the seed to sow next season's crop, the water, the water, whether frozen in the form of snow or the liquid like we get during most of the year, though it may be out of sight. It is not out of effectiveness.

It is producing, and we have a harvest as a result. So is the Word of God. The Word of God may be sown, and you think to yourself, it's out of sight. It's out of mind.

It's out of sight. It's been forgotten. It's not been effective. Ah, but you're wrong on that. It is effective.

And this is what he is arguing. Just as the rain and the snow are effective in bringing forth crops and vegetation, so the Word of God will not be unfruitful. It will not return unto him empty or void. But he affirms there, very clearly, verse number 11, it shall accomplish that which I please. In other words, God doesn't waste his breath. When he has breathed forth his Word, it will accomplish exactly what he wants it to accomplish. In some cases, it will be the saving of a soul. In other cases, it will be that a soul refuses to believe and is hardened by it. But the Word of God has not failed.

The same sun that melts the wax bakes the clay. And this is what we're talking about here, that God's Word will be effectual because it is God who applies it. Do we live on this planet Earth, which is more vast in all of its details and makeup than any of us can know? Do we stop to think of the fact that God created it out of nothing? It's one thing to take a substance and from that substance, to mold a masterpiece, be it a sculpture or be it a painting with paint on canvas or what have you. But not a one of the artists who has rendered a masterpiece to mankind has produced that masterpiece out of nothing. But God has done so.

And this is how. The writer of Hebrews says, by faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. He speaks and all things come into being just as he intended, just as he desired. And the prophet Isaiah here is the mouthpiece through whom God breathes forth that very truth to us concerning all of his word.

None of it will return to him empty. All of it will accomplish his everlasting, holy and glorious purpose. It's great encouragement in this. I can preach the word and not have to be discouraged because I didn't see results.

The fact that I didn't see results doesn't mean there are no results. For the things of God are wrought spiritually and we cannot see a spirit. Nor do we see the workings of Almighty God by his word in the hearts of men and women, any more than we see the workings of the rainwater that has disappeared into the ground but comes forth with fruit. We are dealing with God applying his word to bring about his purpose. And he says it shall accomplish the purpose unto which he has sent it.

It cannot fail. And so we focus today on the matter of. The good news and the only place we find good news is in the scripture. The news you can trust. And again, the only news you can trust is the good news of God's word. We have seen it illustrated amazingly before our eyes, especially the past two years, when you can believe nothing that you hear except the word of God. And the word of God will always be true.

And God will always apply it to bring about exactly what he purposes. Now, this evening, I want us to look at several passages of scripture and we will put them in two categories. Call it two points if you want to the first point in the second point in the first point is just scriptures that affirm. What we're seeing right now from Isaiah, 55 scriptures that set forth the biblical claim unto. Effectiveness accomplishing God's purpose. And then we will look more precisely at illustrations of this from the one who is the living word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And observe how his word, while among men, never returned to do him void, but rather was in every case, an exhibition of divine power and of the divine will to bring about his purposes.

By way of his word, just as he did when he created all things by the word of God. So turn with me, if you will, to Romans Chapter 10 and verse 17. And you will recognize all of these passages, I'm sure, as being quite familiar to you in Romans Chapter 10. The apostle Paul, the mouthpiece of the spirit of God, is writing concerning the salvation of Gentiles as well as Jews. And that is affirmed in the 13th verse where he says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And clearly verse 13 is an elaboration upon verse 12 where he says, there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.

The same Lord overall is rich unto all them that call upon him. And Paul wrote in an era of history when the truth of God's word had been revealed to the people of Israel, many of whom thought that was the limit and extent of the revelation of God only to the seed of Abraham, only to the people of Israel. And after Christ's work on Calvary, it was revealed to the apostles that indeed Messiah had come to save not just Jews, but whosoever believeth in him. Jew and Gentile alike. John repeated this often when he used the word world, for God so loved the world, not just the Jewish people, but people of every language and tongue and tribe and nation.

The whole world was in the focus of the atoning work of Christ as he went to the cross of Calvary. And here the apostle Paul is pointing out, it's not a matter of Jew or Gentile, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And I think many times this text of scripture perhaps has been mistakenly applied in that it has been put into practice with this mindset.

If we can just get him to say the sinner's prayer, we'll get him in. If we can just get them to make a profession of faith by hook or crook, whatever it takes, if we can just get him to do it, they'll be saved. And I'm not sure that's what the passage is saying. Rather, what the passage is saying is an answer to this question. Who is it that is truly saved?

This is who. It is those who call upon the name of the Lord. In other words, the mark of a saved person is that he calls upon the name of the Lord.

It is not a one time event where, presto, it's done. He said the right formula and got in. But it is a fact that those in whom the Spirit of God has worked to bring the life of God to them, they commune with God. They call upon the name of the Lord, and it doesn't matter if they're a Jew or a Gentile, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, how is it they can call upon him? Paul goes on to explain they can't call on him in whom they've not believed. And they can't believe on him of whom they have not heard.

And they can't hear unless there's somebody proclaiming it to them. And what he's doing is coming down to the point that a person must hear the message of God. If he is to come to faith and then come to call and be among those that call upon the name of the Lord.

And you see, he's coming down to this point, the word, the word. It is by the word of God that one hears and then believes and thus calls upon God. And so in verse number 17, he concludes, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And what we are seeing in this passage is that it is God who saves by way of applying the word of God to the soul. That the sinner might become a hearer and having become a hearer, become a believer.

And having become a believer, one who calls upon the name of the Lord, and it doesn't matter who it is. But his salvation comes by way of the word. His faith comes by way of the word. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. This is God applying the word of God to the heart and conscience of the hearer. But Paul goes on to express the fact that Isaiah, the prophet, said they've not all believed.

That some who've heard have not believed. Which only highlights the fact that those who do believe are those unto whom the word of God has been purposefully and effectually applied by God. And God applies the word of God in order that he might thereby generate, produce, beget faith in the unbelieving heart.

And faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Turn with me further to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter four, another passage I'm sure that you're quite familiar with. Throughout the book of Hebrews, the writer warns professed believers of the danger of apostasy.

The danger of going back on their profession. And while the saving grace of God brings a soul with certainty unto salvation never to be lost. Yet the people of God are warned throughout this epistle to take heed.

Not to presume upon God and not to pull back, but persevere in the faith. And as he stresses that in verse number 11, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. Lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Like the people in Israel who remained in the wilderness to die and be left there in its dusty unmarked graves.

Because they did not believe to go into the promised land as God had promised. And so the believers are told, let us labor to enter. Let us guard our faith. And he proceeds then to say in verse number 12, for the word of God is quick or living and powerful. And sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow. And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there you have another statement concerning God applying the scripture, the word of God effectually.

I recall many years ago, as I was preparing to enter the ministry and talking with my father whose whole life was used in the gospel ministry. Asking the question, what if you present the scripture and the person you're presenting it to doesn't believe it? He said, it's a sword.

Stick them with it, whether they believe it or not. It doesn't matter whether a person believes it's a sword or not. It's still sharper than a two-edged sword, pierce them with it. For indeed, it is a piercing discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. A person can live his life in sin to his greatest pleasure and delight. But when God chooses to apply the word of God effectually, suddenly that person sees that his way of life, which he thought nothing evil of, is in fact evil and wrong. As the apostle Paul had said concerning the law, that he would not have known that it is a sin to covet had not the law said thou shalt not covet. But suddenly covetousness was smitten by the sword of the Spirit through the Ten Commandments.

And what do you know? It revealed an evil in the human thought, jealousy, envy, greed, covetousness. And what the scripture is affirming is that this word of God by which faith comes is a word that also is penetrating, piercing, even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Perhaps you've had the experience of opening the scripture without any plan to go to one specific place and suddenly you come across the text of scripture that strikes you like a dagger in your conscience.

Any of you ever had that experience? Indeed. And it's God himself applying the word of God, making it effectual, exposing to you what you did not know about yourself. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And then we go to yet another passage in 1 Peter Chapter 1. 1 Peter Chapter 1. The Apostle Paul in the latter portion of this first chapter admonishes the believer to gird up the loins of his mind. The idea of being vigilant, being alert, being mindful to the utmost.

The ancient men would wear a long flowing garment and if they had to get someplace fast, it was in their way and they could trip over it so they would reach down and pull up the hems of it and tie it in a knot, perhaps around their midsection, and then they could run or work without it being in the way. And Peter says in the same way, gird up the loins of your mind. And he speaks of exercising a diligence in the things of God of in fact valuing what you have by God's grace because we know verse number 18 that we're not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, we are redeemed, purchased with nothing less than the blood of Christ. Were it merely the blood of any human being, that in itself is more valuable than gold or silver, but the blood of Christ, the blood of the God-man, the blood of the sinless one has redeemed us. Therefore, let's take this redemption seriously.

Let's treat it as something that is of great value, precious. And let's recognize, in addition, we should value it because verse number 24, verse number 23 rather, we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. 65 years ago, I was born in Haverty Grace, Maryland. I was born of corruptible seed. My father contributed a cell and my mother contributed a cell. And when those two cells united, it was not a new life that was formed. Rather, I became a partaker of two lives and the life of my father and mother was imparted thereby miraculously unto me. And nine months later, I was born of corruptible seed. This is why I have on glasses this evening. This is why my back aches when I sit or stand very long in one place.

This is why I take blood pressure medicine. This is why one day I will die because I am born of corruptible seed. And my father and mother both lie in their graves in Bel Air, Maryland and not too long hence I will lie in mine and you will lie in yours because we are born of corruptible seed.

Therefore, we can do nothing but corrupt. But there is an incorruptible seed which begets a new birth and the time came in the gracious providence of God when I was born again a second time. And when I was born the second time, God himself gave the seed by which I would be born again. And that seed, unlike the seed of my first birth, is an incorruptible seed and therefore it begets an incorruptible life. I will live forevermore because I am begotten of incorruptible seed and I ought to value that. There's no value that can be attached to it.

It is infinite in its worth. And Peter is saying, value this precious life because it's more precious than gold that perishes, the blood by which you redeemed. And the seed of that is the word of God and the word of God liveth and abideth forever.

That is utterly priceless. Therefore, value and esteem this life God has given you, gird up the loins of your mind and be earnest and diligent and faithful in the things of God. And so the word of God is the seed of the new birth, a seed that germinates when God pleases for it to germinate. The first time I was born, I did not put in a request list of what I wanted to be.

I want this and that and whatever else. No, that was all programmed by Almighty God in the genetic composition of my parents. And so it is with the new birth, as I could not on my first birth say, well, this is when I want to be born.

I make sure I come that day at nine in the morning. No, that was of God. And so my second birth, born again of incorruptible seed, is by the word of God. Now, we look at these few passages, Isaiah 55, Romans 10, Hebrews 4, 1 Peter, Chapter 2, just to set the biblical stage concerning the word of God, which must be applied by God and which is applied by God. And when God applies his word, it shall accomplish that which he purposes.

It shall prosper in the thing where into he sends it. But now the second category of scriptures I want us to look at, and if you'll turn with me to John Chapter 7, we'll start there and we will stay in the Gospel of John, considering the word of God as it came from Christ himself. We begin in John Chapter 7. We do well to consider the point that everything Christ said and did was the word of God. Now, that does not make the teaching of Christ in the New Testament premier and superior to the teaching of Paul or anyone else. It is all God-breathed. It is all the word of God.

A number of years ago, when I was pastoring in Spartanburg, South Carolina, I received a visit from a former United Methodist minister who didn't have a high, high regard for the doctrine of inspiration that we've been dealing with this week. And as I asked him a question about the resurrection, he said, well, Paul said this, but that contradicts with what Jesus said. And when he said that, he had said the wrong thing.

I knew it. Here he was pitting Paul against Jesus because the poor man really didn't believe. And of course, you see the problem with doing that. If Paul is liable to mistakes, then we cannot trust anything the Bible says concerning Jesus' words. Because we really don't have Jesus' words, we have what Matthew, Mark, Luke and John said Jesus said.

And they were no better than Paul. And so if you're not going to accept Paul, then you can't say that you accept Christ because Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, they're the ones that tell us what Christ said. The Lord Jesus didn't write a word of the scripture.

But all that our Lord said was the word of God. And so in John chapter four, did I say chapter seven? Chapter four, I think is yes. Chapter four is where I wanted to start. Chapter four is a passage you know quite well, no doubt. No wonder I'm not finding it. I'm in the Book of Luke.

Have you ever done that? John chapter four. I need a new pair of glasses.

I need a new set of brains and just a couple other things and I'll be back on target, maybe. John chapter number four. Jesus, amazing, amazing truth. Jesus, the son of God, the creator of the ends of earth, who fainteth not, neither is weary, became weary. And set on the edge of a well there in the territory of the Samaritans. He had gone there because there was a Samaritan woman whom he would save from her sin that very day. And this Samaritan woman came out, you know the account, and Christ engaged her in conversation and it quickly developed into something of a debate, on her part at least, as she wanted to argue for the position of her forefathers. And Christ revealed to her his knowledge of the thoughts and intents of her heart and she was astonished. And that day she came to faith in Christ and brought her illicit husbands to Christ to hear of him. And before the day was over, many of them were believing because of what she had said about the Lord Jesus. But we read there in verse number 29 where she went to call these men and she said, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did.

Is not this the Christ? And what we see in that statement is the effectual power of the word of Christ. She heard what he said, what he said about her, about her sinfulness. And hearing his word, that word which was a discerner of the thoughts and intents of her heart, she knew this is the Christ and she knew it with such a conviction that she hastened to bring others.

I have heard Messiah. And what we are seeing here is the word of God applied effectually to her own salvation. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That day as Christ spoke to her, words she didn't want to hear necessarily, what she was hearing was the word of God and the effect thereof was to produce within her faith. Is not this the Christ of faith that made her an evangelist on the spot?

Let me go and tell others. That's the first illustration we look at of God applying the word and its power when it's applied. Turn with me now to chapter seven, John chapter seven. By the time we come to John chapter seven, the ministry of Christ is caught up in great, great controversy as the religious leaders who despise him and will eventually have him crucified are continually endeavoring to ensnare him in his speech, making fools of themselves in the process, but unbelief will accept such foolish activity and defend it. Evidently, the religious leaders had sent people to apprehend Christ, to arrest him and bring him in to them that they might silence him.

And so we read in verse 44, and some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him. And then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees and they said unto him, why have you not brought him in? And the officers answered, never man spake like this man.

And what kind of answer is that? The officers, these are officers, they are delegated with certain authorities and they've been sent out to bring Christ in. And they come back without him and their superiors who sent them say, why didn't you bring him in?

And they say, never man spake like he spake. And what we are seeing here is the power of Christ's word. They were neutralized in their determination to take him. These men would return before their superiors empty handed and therefore liable to be faulted because hearing his word had a power over them that they could not describe, that they could not explain, but they could go no further. He stopped them with it and nobody knew what was happening.

Christ I'm sure knew what was happening. But the word that he was speaking was of such note and power that it rendered them incapable of fulfilling their duty of laying hands on him and bringing him in. His hour had not yet come. There would be a time when a mob of men would be able to bring him in to trial, but only when he would let them and the time was not now. And then we go to John chapter 8, the very next chapter. And doubtless this account you know well, the religious leaders, vile men that they were, heartless users of humanity brought to Jesus a woman whom they said had been taken in adultery in the very act. Why they didn't bring the men, we don't know.

We do know you don't commit adultery alone. There had to be another partner there, but he wasn't brought in, just the woman. And here you had the religious leaders who should have been for the good and counsel and comfort of this poor sin-laden woman instead using her as a pawn in their little game, against Christ, and they bring her before the Lord Jesus Christ. Try to put yourself in her shoes. I cannot think that any woman who lived as she did in the depths of her heart is really happy with herself. And now she is brought before the premier religious teacher of the day, Jesus of Nazareth. And there she stands alone before the one who is the eternal personification and embodiment of righteousness, and she is unrighteousness, surrounded by the religious leaders who present themselves as righteous ones when in fact they are hypocrites. And they say to Jesus, she was taken in adultery. Moses in the law says stone her to death.

What do you say? And they were endeavoring simply to ensnare Christ with his own words, something they would never succeed at because his words are the word of God. And so we read there how the Jesus upon hearing them, the middle of verse 6, stooped down and with his finger rode on the ground as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her. And again he stooped down and rode on the ground.

And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. Various suggestions have been made as to what Jesus rode on the ground. We don't know what he rode on the ground.

We don't need to know what he rode on the ground. If we needed to know that, the Spirit of God would have recorded it for us, but he didn't. But this we do know, that what he rode on the ground was the word of God. It was not the first time that the finger of God had written in mineral substance such as the ground. The finger riding in that ground had once engraved upon the stones of Sinai, the Ten Commandments.

And now the giver of the law is being faced by law breakers who want to make him out as a contradictor of the law which he gave. And so he returns with his finger riding in the soil and whatever he rode, pierced even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and was a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Such is the word of God applied to the sinfulness of man and they melted away. And Jesus asked the woman, where are your accusers? And then said to her, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. And I fully believe that day that woman was converted by a gracious savior and the evidence of it is this. He said, neither do I condemn thee. God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

In that day, a scarlet woman was washed white as snow in the eyes of Almighty God pronounced pure and uncondemned by God himself in human flesh. And we see in this yet another illustration of God applying his word effectually, powerfully. It will not return into him void, but it will accomplish that which he purposes.

And it will prosper in that to which he sent it. And what we have in this first portion of John Chapter 8 is a demonstration of the great prosperity of the word of God and his applying it effectually. And then we come to John Chapter 11 for another example. And again, John Chapter 11 is a familiar chapter to you for you know that that is where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

Lazarus, his good friend, has been dead for four days and it is known to everyone that a corpse lying in its grave for four days has already begun to decompose. And so when Jesus told them to roll the stone away from the tomb in which he was interred, his sister protested, by this time he stinketh. Jesus proceeded and called Lazarus, come forth. Stories told of an unbelieving minister who was preaching from this passage what he preached. I have no idea, but he was explaining that when it says Jesus cried with a loud voice, that that was necessary because in fact a prearranged deal had been made by which Lazarus would feign death and be there in his tomb, but Christ would call loud enough so he could hear it, at that time he would know to come out.

And an old woman hearing this message interrupted and said no. He didn't say Lazarus in order to get Lazarus' attention and signal it's time to come. The fact is if he hadn't said Lazarus come forth, every corpse in that cemetery would have come forth and that's the fact. Christ, when he calls a soul to come forth, it will. And the good shepherd knows his sheep by name.

He goes before them and he calls them and they follow him. And this is all illustrated in the calling forth of Lazarus. Lazarus come forth, wait a minute, you're talking to a dead man.

How do you ever expect to accomplish anything by a conversation with a corpse? And yet this is the way God works. He gives a command to Lazarus that Lazarus is utterly unable to obey. Would God ever command us to do something that we are incapable of doing? Well, if you have any question about it, I would take you to Exodus chapter 20 where there are 10 commandments that none of us have kept.

And if none out of 7 billion people on earth except one who happened to be not only man but God, if none others have been able to keep the 10 commandments, I would venture to say they are commandments that it's impossible for man to keep. But Paul tells us in Romans 8 that what the law could not do and it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. And this is the glorious beauty of God's indescribable grace. He gives us a command that we cannot keep by which it is revealed to us our inability to do good, our absence of righteousness. Then God comes and keeps it perfectly in our place as our substitute and credits us with having kept it ourselves. This is the imputation of Christ's righteousness.

And all of those who are in Christ, Romans 4 tells us, receive a righteousness by means of faith that is the righteousness of God. And so he calls with commands we cannot keep and then gives us the keeping of those commands. Lazarus, come forth. And it tells us that Lazarus came forth.

But no, it doesn't say it that way. We might imagine for a moment this cold corpse warming up and kind of staggering and stumbling out of the grave where he's been confined, but that's not what happened. He's wrapped in grave clothes.

There's no way he can walk, let alone come forth. In fact, when he does appear before the multitude, Jesus has to say, unwind him and let him loose because he couldn't walk. The fact is that when Jesus called Lazarus, come forth from deep within that cave, the body of Lazarus was catapulted forth out before our Lord to stand there. And he had been raised by the power of the word of Christ, applied effectually unto the dead. And Christ said, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice. Those in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth.

What a glorious day it will be. And the raising of Lazarus is but a picture of how powerful that word will be when the voice of the Son of God is heard by the dead and they come forth from the tomb. And so Lazarus has to be unwrapped from the grave clothes so he then can begin taking strides and walk and pick up life where he left it off. This is the power of Christ applying God's word. And then we go to chapter 18 of John for one last illustration.

John chapter 18, our Lord is in the Garden of Gethsemane where he has taken his disciples that he might pray following the institution of the Lord's Supper, the last Passover he celebrated on earth. And in verse number four, it says, Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said to them, whom seek ye? Now this is the mob that has come to arrest Christ commissioned by the priests and the scribes, the religious leaders. And when I say a mob, that probably is a mis-designation.

A mob is a disorderly crowd of people and these were not disorderly people. These were soldiers, Roman soldiers. These were men trained for military action who were sent forth as part of the Roman governing authority in that area. These were men with weapons upon them.

These were men physically fit, young and in the prime of their strength, who came forth on a military detail to arrest the Lord of hosts, the commander of heaven's armies, of all things. And so as they arrived, Jesus asks them the question, whom seek ye? Now you recognize that when Christ asks a question, it's not in order that he might get information.

He already has all of the information. He knows who they're seeking. He's asking them the question, whom seek ye, I believe is a gesture of mercy to them. After that which he will do before them in just a few minutes, they need to stop and think, what are we doing?

Why have we come here to arrest this man? And in provoking that thought, Jesus says, whom seek ye? In the answer, verse five, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus answered unto them, I am he.

Literally I am, in which he identifies with the I am who revealed himself to Moses centuries earlier. And it tells us that when Jesus had said this, verse six, unto them, they went backward and fell to the ground and the wording there does not fully explain the scene that is set before us. Mind you, these were armed, courageous, physically fit Roman soldiers who were there to guard the interests of Caesar's empire.

These were men of war, hardened for the battle. But when they heard Jesus say, I am, the power of those words coming from his lips drove them backward, backward onto the ground. It literally knocked them off of their feet, soldiers, doubtless hundreds of them put to the ground by the mere word of Christ. The same one whose words spoke all things into being. What we see again is the word of God applied by God, which will not return to him void, but will accomplish that which he sends. And so I contemplate Paul's words in first Corinthians chapter two, where he speaks to the Corinthian believers and says, when I came to you, I didn't come in the excellency of my speech or human wisdom. What are my words?

What is my wisdom? He was concerned that he might rely on human persuasion and eloquence and rhetoric and thereby convince some people to make a profession which was devoid of the power of God. And so he came in meekness. He came in fear, in trembling, declaring the testimony of God that their faith might stand in the power of God rather than in the wisdom of man.

And he proceeds then to describe in verse number nine, that I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed them unto us by his spirit. If you're going to know the things of God, you will know them by the spirit's instruction. It will not be by means of the eloquence of some communicator.

By his skill and charm to sway crowds. How much I fear evangelism in the past century has succumbed to that mentality. The preacher has to be a good entertainer.

He has to be a people person and super eloquent and know how to make them laugh and how to make them cry and give the illustration at the right time and pump them up, crank up the service to a certain elevation of psychological excitement and then throw the hook and get them in. Totally contrary to what Paul is saying in First Timothy or First Corinthians chapter two. He said, I didn't depend on man's wisdom, man's eloquence, excellency of speech, but rather the spirit of God, for it's the spirit of God that applies the word of God. And in verse number 14, we find that the natural man, the unconverted man, does not receive the things of the spirit of God, their foolishness unto him.

He is naturally and innately resistant of the things of God, but when the spirit of God speaks to that dead soul that is naturally resistant to hearing anything of God and says, come forth, then like Lazarus out they come and they are brought to the new birth with the new life from the incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth forever. This is the word of God applied and I close with a story that I think I've probably told you before, but I love to tell it so bear with me. I was a ministerial student studying to be a preacher and would have told anybody that I'm saved because I had gone forward at an altar call, multiple times in fact, and had said the sinner's prayer, in fact said it several times, oh Lord if it didn't work the last time let it work this time, literally that's where I was. But I believed I knew the Lord, but as a freshman studying for the ministry I found myself overcome by unbelief, and it was not that I was doubting that I was saved, it was far, far beyond that.

Not because I thought about it and decided this is what I'm going to believe, in fact I didn't want to believe that way, it seemed contrary to everything I had been told, but you mean there is a God that knows the number of hairs on everybody's head on planet earth that's just too fantastic, that's too fairytale-ish, and that's the way I was thinking. I hadn't pondered or contemplated that, I hadn't devised such thinking, but it was there and I was overcome with unbelief and in fact for all practical purposes was an atheist therein, there cannot be such a thing as this I reasoned, and on top of that was the misery of the hypocrisy, here I was studying for the ministry, what would the people at home think? And finally after praying, Lord if you do exist reveal yourself to me, finally I went to the faculty member who was reputed to be the premier Bible scholar on campus, and briefly explained to him where I was and what I've just told you, and he responded that quickly quoting the verses we read tonight from Isaiah 55, my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways sayeth the Lord. As the heavens are high above the earth so are my thoughts above your thoughts and my ways above your ways, and the unbelief was gone. Hearing those words and through no effort of my own I believed, there was not a doubt in my mind and has not been since, and I believe what was happening there, believe this now after years of studying the scripture that God was revealing to me that unbelief is not the decision of my mind to make, but it is the natural constitution of my nature. We are all born unbelievers, thus we are dead in trespasses and sin, and we must be born again of the incorruptible seed, the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, and when we are born of that seed we will live and abide forever. In that day alone with that teacher and with a single text of scripture God applied his word to my heart and I came to life, life more abundant was born again. God applies his word and when he does it will be effectual, it will accomplish that which he purposes and will prosper unto the thing where into he has sent it.

So what we see is that the scriptures are God-breathed, they are God-preserved, they are God-blessed wherever they go, and they are God-applied, and without the word of God applied by God nothing happens of profitability to the soul. Let's bow together as we pray. Oh Lord our God, we recognize that it's entirely possible that there is a soul here tonight that is as dead as Lazarus was in his grave, but you called Lazarus to come forth and he was brought out of that grave to stand before you, and would it please you oh Lord even tonight to call a soul out of death in sin, to regenerate that soul and give it the very life of God which is imparted by the seed of your word and lives and abides forever. Let it please you, oh Lord, to bring a soul from death to life in Christ tonight. Bless your word to our edification and to your glory. We pray in Jesus' matchless name, amen.