The Sword of The Lord

The Word of God is a name for Christ as well as for the Scriptures.

The Scriptures are meant in this place, but the Lord Jesus is never dissevered therefrom: indeed, he is the substance of the written Word.

Scripture is what it is because the Lord Jesus embodies himself in it.

Let us consider from this text—

I. THE QUALITIES OF THE WORD.

1. It is divine. It is the word of God.

2. It is living. “The word of God is quick.”

   • In contrast to our words, which pass away, God’s word lives on.
   • It has life in itself. It is “the living and incorruptible seed.”
   • It creates life where it comes.
   • It can never be destroyed and exterminated

3. It is effectual. “Quick, and powerful.”

   • It carries conviction and conversion.
   • It works comfort and confirmation.
   • It has power to raise us to great heights of holiness and happiness.

4. It is cutting. “Sharper than any two-edged sword.”

   • It cuts all over. It is all edge. It is sharpness itself.
   • It wounds more or less all who touch it.
   • It kills self-righteousness, sin, unbelief, etc.

5. It is piercing. “Even to the dividing asunder.”

   • It forces its way into the hard heart.
   • It penetrates the smallest opening, like the arrow which entered between the joints of the harness.

6. It is discriminating. “To the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.”

   • It separates things much alike: natural and spiritual religion.
   • It divides the outer from the inner: external and internal religion, “joints and marrow.”
   • It does this by its own penetrating and discerning qualities.

7. It is revealing. “A discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

   • It cleaves the man as the butcher cleaves a carcass, and opens up the secret faculties and tendencies of the soul.
   • Laying bare thoughts, and intents, and inner workings.
   • Criticizing them, and putting a right estimate on them.
   • Tracing their windings, and showing their dubious character.
   • Approving that which is good, and condemning the evil.
   • All this we have seen in the preaching of the Word of God.
   • Have you not felt it to be so?

II. THE LESSONS WHICH WE SHOULD LEARN THEREFROM.

That we do greatly reverence the Word, as truly spoken of God.

That we come to it for quickening for our own souls.

That we come to it for power when fighting the battles of truth.

That we come to it for cutting force to kill our own sins and to help us in destroying the evils of the day.

That we come to it for piercing force when men’s consciences and hearts are hard to reach.

That we use it to the most obstinate, to arouse their consciences and convict them of sin.

That we discriminate by its means between truth and falsehood.

That we let it criticize us, and our opinions, and projects, and acts, and all about us.

Let us keep to this Sword of the Lord, for none other is living and powerful as this is.

Let us grasp its hilt with firmer grip than ever.

Sharpeners

All the great conquests which Christ and his saints achieve in this world are got with this sword; when Christ comes forth against his enemies this sword is girded on his thigh (Psalm 45:3): “Gird your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty”; and his victory over them is ascribed to it (verse 4), “And in your majesty ride prosperously because of truth”; that is, the word of truth.

We read of Apollos (Acts 18:28), that he “mightily convinced the Jews”; he did, as it were, knock them down with the weight of his reasoning. And out of what armory fetched he the sword with which he so prevailed? See the same verse, “Showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ”; and he therefore is said to be “mighty in the Scriptures” (verse 24).

Bless God for the efficacy of the word upon your soul. Did ever its point prick your heart, its edge fetch blood of your lusts? Bless God for it; you would do as much to a surgeon for lancing a sore, and severing a putrefied part from your body, though he put you to exquisite torture in the doing of it. And I hope you think God has done you a greater kindness.… There is not another sword like this in all the world, that can cure with cutting; not another arm could use this sword, to have done thus with it, besides the Spirit of God. None could do such feats with Scanderberg’s as himself.

The word of God is too sacred a thing, and preaching too solemn a work, to be toyed and played with, as is the usage of some, who make a sermon but matter of wit and fine oratory. If we mean to do good, we must come unto men’s hearts, not in word only, but with power. Satan moves not for a thousand squibs and wit-cracks of rhetoric. Draw, therefore, this sword out of your scabbard, and strike with its naked edge; this you will find the only way to pierce your people’s consciences, and fetch blood of their sins.—William Gurnall.

When the heathen saw the converts reading the book which had produced the change, they inquired if they talked to it. “No,” they answered, “it talks to us; for it is the Word of God.” “What then!” replied the strangers, “does it speak?” “Yes,” rejoined the Christians, “it speaks to the heart.”—Life of Moffat.

Miss Whateley says, “To rouse the torpid and unexercised mind of a Moslem woman is wonderful, for they are sunk in ignorance and degradation; but while I was reading to one of them a few weeks ago, she exclaimed, ‘Why, it is just as if I were out in the dark, and you held a lamp to me, that I might see my way.’ ”

The Rev. James Wall, of Rome, relates the following instances of conversion through the reading of the Scriptures:—One of the converts, when first presented with a New Testament, said, “Very well; it is the very size for me to make my cigarettes,” and so he began to smoke it away. He smoked away all the Evangelists, until he was at the Tenth Chapter of John, when it struck him that he must read a bit of it, for if he didn’t, there would soon be no more left to read. The first word struck home, and the man read himself into Christ.

A secret society of political conspirators, who sought to achieve their purposes by assassination, were in the habit of placing a Bible (as a blind) on the table of the room where they met for deliberation; and one night, when there happened to be little business to transact, and they were all rather sleepy, a member of the society opened the Bible, and saw a verse that went right to his heart. He soon returned to the book, and read more of it; and now he was a very earnest follower of the Lord Jesus.—Missionary Herald.