BIBLE-POWER
God’s Holy
Spirit creates His people by His Word. We can create a people by other means,
and this is the great temptation of churches. We can create a people around a
certain ethnicity. We can create a people around a fully-graded choir program.
We can find people who will get excited about a building project or a
denominational identity. We can create a people around a series of care groups,
where each feels loved and cared for. We can create a people around a community
service project. We can create a people around social opportunities for young
mothers or Caribbean cruises for singles. We can create a people around men’s
groups. We can even create a people
around the personality of a preacher. And God can surely use all of these
things. But in the final analysis the people of God, the church of God, can
only be created around the Word of God.
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Crossway,
2000, p. 36
God’s Word
has always been His chosen instrument to create, convict, convert, and conform His people.
Mark Dever and Paul
Alexander
The
Four P’s, taken from The Deliberate Church, © 2005, Crossway Books, a division
of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, p. 33, www.crosswaybooks.org.
God’s Word is
His supernatural power for accomplishing His supernatural work. That’s why our
eloquence, innovations, and programs are so much less important than we think;
that’s why we as pastors must give ourselves to preaching, not programs; and
that’s why we need to be teaching our congregations to value God’s Word over
programs. Preaching the content and intent of God’s Word is what unleashes the
power of God on the people of God, because God’s power for building His people
is in His Word, particularly as we find it in the Gospel (Rom. 1:16). God’s
Word builds His church. So preaching His Gospel is primary.
Mark Dever and Paul
Alexander
The
Four P’s, taken from The Deliberate Church, © 2005, Crossway Books, a division
of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, p. 35, www.crosswaybooks.org.
A layman who
has the Scripture is more than Pope or council without it.
I simply
taught, preached, wrote God’s Word: otherwise I did nothing. And then when I
slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my friend Philip of Amsdorf,
the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such
damage to it. I did nothing: the Word of God did it all.
An honest man
with an open Bible and a pad and pencil is sure to find out what is wrong with
him very quickly.
Quoted by Curtis C. Thomas, Practical
Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 50.
The amazing
thing is that everyone who reads the Bible has the same joyful thing to say
about it. In every land, in every language, it is the same tale: where that
Book is read, not with the eyes only, but with the mind and heart, the life is
changed. Sorrowful people are comforted, sinful people are transformed, peoples
who were in the dark walk in the light. Is it not wonderful to think that this
Book, which is such a mighty power if it gets a chance to work in an honest
heart, is in our hands today?
Thou Givest...They
Gather, Christian Literature Crusade, p. 7.
In
opposition…to all the suggestions of the devil, the sole, simple, and
sufficient answer is the word of God. This puts to flight all the powers of
darkness. The Christian finds this to be true in his individual experience. It
dissipates his doubts; it drives away his fears; it delivers him from the power
of Satan.
A Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians,
Baker Book House, 1980, p. 389.
God’s Word
does not merely impart information; it actually creates life. It’s not only
descriptive; it’s effective too, God speaking is God acting.
Michael
Horton
People and Place: A Covenant of Ecclesiology,
John Knox Press, 2008, p. 40.
The Word of God is creative. It is a hammer
that crushes the hardness of our insubordination. It is medicine that heals the
broken-hearted. And it is light that gives us guidance and hope on our way.
John
Piper
Jesus Christ is an Advocate for Sinners, Sermon,
February 10, 1985, www.DesiringGod.org,
Used by Permission.
We change
because we have seen a superior beauty and worth and excellence. If you look
into the face of Christ and then look into Sports
Illustrated or Glamour and are
not moved by the superior beauty and worth and excellence and desirability of
Christ, then you are still hard and blind and futile in your thinking. You need
to cry out, “Open my eyes to see wonderful things out of your Word!” And your
life will show it. Where your treasure is – your desire, your delight, your
beauty – there will your heart be also – and your evenings and your Saturdays
and your money. We are changed by seeing the glory of God in the Word of God.
John Piper
Wonderful Things from Your Word, Sermon, January 11,
1998, www.DesiringGod.org. Used by Permission.
As we
prayerfully expose ourselves to the Scriptures, we begin to understand what
God’s will is regarding our conduct and character. And then as the Holy Spirit
applies His word to specific areas of our lives, and as we are obedient to His
promptings, we begin to develop Bible-based convictions. Our values begin to
change so that God’s standard becomes our delight and our desire.
The Practice of Godliness, NavPress, 1996, p.
124. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com.
All rights reserved.
Strangely,
church leaders get caught up in all kinds of power for building their churches…
But does any power in the universe match God’s power to breathe out worlds or
dismiss death simply with words? “Let there be light!” and “Lazarus,
come forth!”? No there is nothing like it. Yet this same power is
available to the preacher through God’s Word.
Jonathan Leeman
Reverberation,
Moody Publishers, 2011, p. 73.
We must learn
to trust the power of God’s Word to convince, convert, and change lives (Rom.
1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23)...without the help of our man-made systems… We
must be so convinced, or we will be tempted to add things to the preaching of
the Word to secure greater commitments… Here is the real question: How powerful
is the Word of God? Can it change men from sinners into saints without the use
of an altar call? Will it convict and convert (as God promises), or will we
need to add something that helps men “settle it”? You will never be able to do
without the invitation system until you are thoroughly convinced of the power
of God’s Word.
Jim Ehrhard
The Dangers of the Invitation
System, Christian Communications Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org, 1999, p. 18-19, 22.