The Power of the Word

Intro:

This morning open your bibles to the book of Psalms 89:34 let’s read it together. It says, “My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.”

I want you to take a moment and consider what we just read. God says, My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips. In this passage I see two distinct things.

1) God will not break His covenant.

2) God will not alter the word that He has spoken.

Pause for a moment to pray over the message.

As we begin I want to take a moment to unpack what a covenant is.

A covenant is Arrangement between two parties involving mutual obligations. This may sound similar to a contract but, contracts and covenants differ in a few areas.

In terms of initiation, contracts are made by the exchange of promises, whereas covenants are sworn by solemn oaths. An oath bound promise is where one party solemnly pledges to bless or serve another party in some specified way.

Sometimes the keeping of the promise depends upon the meeting of certain conditions by the party to whom the promise is made. On other occasions the promise made is unilaterally and unconditionally.

In application, contracts are limited by the terms of the exchange of property (“this is yours, that is mine”), while covenants involve an exchange of life (“I am yours, you are mine”), which covers a virtually unlimited range of human relations and duties.

In terms of motivation,

Contracts are based on profit and self-interest, while covenants call for self-giving loyalty and sacrificial love.

Contracts are temporary while covenant bonds are permanent, even intergenerational.

Such distinctions do not imply that covenants are necessarily opposed to contracts, since covenants call for both promise-making and oath-swearing (Heb 6:13–18).

A contract is an arrangement in human affairs that may be reinforced by swearing a covenant, in order to add the more binding dimension of the divine.

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Submit:

Covenants are seen in the scripture from the beginning. God sanctified the Sabbath as a day of rest after he ended His creation. He then instructed Israel in Exodus 31:16-17 to keep the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Divine Covenants in the Economy of Salvation History

God’s “fatherly plan” for his family advances at every stage of salvation history through a series of divine covenants with chosen mediators: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and ultimately Jesus Christ.

With Adam its the covenant of Marriage.

With Noah it was covenant to preserve His family from destruction through the Ark. God even made a covenant with Creation to never curse the ground for man’s sake, nor again destroy every living creature as He had done.

God makes a covenant with Abraham that through Him all nations of the earth would be blessed.

The mosaic covenant is seen in the exodus of Israel and that if they would keep is covenant they would be a special treasure above all the peoples of the earth. In this covenant the law is given which defines the nature of the covenant and what was to be done by both sides.

With David God declares in covenant that He would establish for King David a house or dynasty of kings who would perpetually reign over God’s people.

Ultimately a New Covenant would come through Jesus Christ. He is depicted as the son of David. This new covenant surpasses the mosaic covenant, and fulfills the other covenants of salvation history.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary (The New Covenant)

Jesus is a new Adam (Rom 5:12–19) who makes us a new creation (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15). He fulfills the sworn promises of the Abrahamic covenant (Luke 1:72–73; Rom 4; Gal 3–4). Christ also fulfills the Mosaic covenant with his new Passover and new exodus (Luke 9:31; 22:14–20). For Paul, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that the divine law, which was given to Israel in the Mosaic covenant, is fulfilled in the new covenant (Rom 8:3–4; 10:4; 13:8–10). The notion of covenant reaches its zenith in Christ, who fulfills the divine covenants not only in who He is, as the eternal Son of the Father, but by what He accomplishes in causing us to share in the grace of His own divine sonship (1 John 3:1–2)

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Apply:

Turn with me now to the book of Hebrews 6:13.

Hebrews 6 :13-20 (AMP) For when God made the promise to Abraham, He swore [an oath] by Himself, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.” 15 And so, having patiently waited, he realized the promise [in the miraculous birth of Isaac, as a pledge of what was to come from God]. 16 Indeed men swear [an oath] by one greater than themselves, and with them [in all disputes] the oath serves as confirmation [of what has been said] and is an end of the dispute. 17 In the same way God, in His desire to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable nature of His purpose, intervened and guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge would have strong encouragement and indwelling strength to hold tightly to the hope set before us. 19 This hope [this confident assurance] we have as an anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whatever pressure bears upon it]—a safe and steadfast hope that enters within the veil [of the heavenly temple, that most Holy Place in which the very presence of God dwells], 20 where Jesus has entered [in advance] as a forerunner for us, having become a High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

God is a covenant God who keeps His word. What He has spoken He desires to do, and His word contains within itself the power to come to pass. Isaiah 55:11 “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

How does God’s word return to Him?

God’s word returns when it is spoken by faith. Listen, Faith comes by hearing, but it is released by speaking.

Remember that faith is a confident trust in God’s nature and abilities. It is rooted in the truth that God will do what He says He will do.

Minister and Author Charles Capps had great understanding of the power of words and he gave this picture to help bring clarity to the power of the word.

He said, “Words are containers. They carry faith or fear, and they reproduce after their kind.” He also said in his book God’s creative Power that, “God’s Word itself is creative power. That creative power of the word is produced by the heart, formed by the tongue, and released out of the mouth in word form.”

In essence, the word of God must first be in our heart, formed by our tongue and released out of our mouth.

To have faith in our heart we first need to hear the word. I believe that there are two primary ways to hear.

1) The first is by the preaching of the word. Romans 10:14, Romans 10:17.

Romans 10:14 “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”

You see, Romans 10:17, So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

This morning as I preach the word to you faith arises in your heart. As we preach of the goodness of God, the power of His reign, the authority of His word, the gift of salvation and that He can save to the uttermost. Faith arises in the heart. If we preach how God brings deliverance and sets the captive free faith arises that God can deliver and set me free too!

2) The second way to hear is through the reading of the word. Hebrews 4:12.

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

God speaks to us by the Holy Spirit through the word. He discerns the thoughts and the intents of our heart and He speaks to us accordingly to bring things like encouragement, direction, conviction, correction, wisdom and so on.

Both the preaching of the word and reading the word cause faith to arise in our hearts. This is a vital first step! But we must understand that faith indeed comes by hearing, but it is released by speaking. Therefore, we must learn to declare the word of the Lord.

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Closing:

As I close the message let me give you an example of this.

Romans 10: 8-10 “But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

The word that was preached is near us in our heart and in our mouth, but notice that it is believing and confessing the Lord Jesus Christ that brings salvation. With the heart through faith we believe, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The confession of our salvation is our oath: that we are His, and He is ours. Not that we are earning our salvation, but that through faith and the gift of salvation we are entering into covenant with God.

Through faith we are choosing to bind our selves to Him in faithful service and live as children of the most high God.

What I love is that it doesn’t stop there! On top of the promise of salvation we receive empowerment through Holy Spirit to live out the word of God. The result of Spirit empowered word in our lives is transformation and blessing!

If we are wise today we would take the word of God to heart.

I will leave you with a final scripture today. Proverbs 4:20-22.

Proverbs 4:20-22 “My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.”

Let’s Pray!

For Salvation

That God would gives us the ability to understand covenant, and that as a result it would completely change our life.