Isaiah chapter 55, Isaiah 55. And I will read the chapter, Isaiah chapter 55. Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come by wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me. Here in your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. The sure mercies of David. Indeed, I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people. Surely, you shall call a nation you do not know and nations who do not know you shall run to you because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my way, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down in the snow from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. 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. For you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace. The mountains in the hill shall break forth into singing before you, and the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." May God truly bless his powerful word. Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 55. Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55, we're going to be looking at verses 10 and 11. I want to speak to you today about the power of God's word and the fact that his word will ultimately triumph. Now we get hints of this in history. In John Blanchard's book, Does God Believe in Atheists?, he writes that David Hume believed the Bible would soon be looked upon as a discredited relic. Shortly after his death, his house in Edinburgh became the headquarters of the Edinburgh Bible Society. And then he writes also about Voltaire. I mentioned this to you before that Voltaire, a French philosopher and satirist, predicted that the Bible would be extinct by 1850. And again, soon after his death, his house and also his printing press were being taken over by the Swiss Bible Society and they began to produce Bibles using his house and his printing press. So, you get hints of this in history that the Bible will triumph. Of course, then we have our text this morning, verses 10 and 11 of Isaiah 55. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. 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." studying in a series called Benefiting from the Bible, and I want to conclude that this morning. In this series, we've looked at the nature of the Bible, and we've seen that it is, as you well know, inspired by God or breathed out by God. We've looked at how to handle the Bible. We need to handle the Bible properly, rightly divided, as the Apostle says. We've seen that there is a need according to David, to hide the word of God in our hearts so that we might not sin against the Lord. And then we've been considering some of the blessings of the Bible. We've seen that the Bible reveals. It reveals truth about God and it reveals truth about us. We've seen that it transforms us. And by the grace of God, through his word, he makes us happy in the biblical sense and he makes us holy. And then we've seen that the Bible helps us. It proves to be a great, a tremendous help to the people of God, giving us wisdom for life, showing us the way of holiness, helping us when we're in trouble, and lifting our eyes towards heaven, helping us to see above this world and realize that there is a world to come. And today we want to think about the triumph of the Bible, that is, that God's word is powerful and that it will accomplish his purposes. Now, to give you some background to this text, we see that God, in order that he might comfort his people, his people Israel, his people in captivity, the Jews have been attacked by the Babylonians. We've learned about that and are learning about that as we study the book of Habakkuk. Well, they did come and they did capture. And they did take them captive to Babylon. And so, Isaiah writes words that would prove to be a comfort to them. And God's desire is to comfort them. You read in Isaiah chapter 40 and verses 1 to 3. God wants to encourage and comfort the Jews in Babylon. And so what He does is He points them forward. And he points them to the coming of a Savior. He tells them about the servant of the Lord. And we know that that is in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the Lord wants to comfort His people. We read in Isaiah chapter 40 and verses 1 to 3 these words. Comfort. Yes, comfort my people, says your God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned. for she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." And you know that passage and you know it points forward to the coming of first John the Baptist and then the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And so God comforts His people by telling them about the coming Messiah and telling them about what He will do and what He will accomplish. Now, at the point at which we are this morning in Isaiah 55 verses 10 and 11, the Lord has said in the previous chapters a variety of things, a variety of comforting and encouraging things about what is going to happen. He's talked about the salvation that will be accomplished. Read about that in the passage we know very well, Isaiah 53. He's talked about the blessings that are involved in that salvation. You can read about that in Isaiah chapter 54. And then in chapter 55, you can read in the first nine verses about God's invitation, about God's offer of this salvation to anybody and everybody. The chapter begins with an attention-getting device, and God says, now you listen, oh, everyone. And He's calling people, whoever hears this, come and drink and eat, and it's free of charge. And all of these blessings that are involved in salvation, you can come and you can partake and you don't have to pay and you don't have to do. God provides it all by His grace. And then we come to our text and we come to this reminder, this encouragement that God is going to accomplish his purposes and he's going to save a people and he's going to do great things through the ministry of his word, because his word will not and his word cannot return to Him void. God will accomplish all His holy will. Messiah will come. Salvation will be wrought. God will save a people. He will bless all nations through the seed of Abraham. And He will be glorified. Now, sometimes we think that the seed is sown in vain. Sometimes we think We feel that the Word is preached, and it falls on deaf ears, and our friends are not saved, and our children turn away. And we look at the state of the church, and it seems to be one of a decline and declension. And perhaps we grow discouraged. Perhaps we think that as the Church of Christ, we're knocking our heads against brick walls. As Christian people in this world trying to be a witness and trying to propagate the gospel, we're hitting our heads against brick walls. It's just not working. But then God says, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish Would I please? And we're going to see two things here. We're going to see the power of God's word and then the purpose of God's word, the power and then the purpose. We'll begin then with the power of God's word. You look at verses 10 and 11, and it's very clear what God is saying. He is saying that the word, his word is just like the rain and the snow. And the rain comes, and it waters the earth, and it produces growth. Well, the illustration that God is using is one that we are very familiar with. It's one that we witness every year. April showers bring May flowers. That's all God's saying. April showers bring May flowers. My word is like that. It is effective. From your vantage point, it may not always seem that way because you're in the middle of maybe a difficult situation. It may not be apparent to you, but this is what God is saying to us. My word is effective. The water comes and things begin to grow. My word comes and it produces fruit. It is effective. And it will accomplish my purpose. He says, my Word will not come back to me void. It won't come back to me empty. It won't return to me without having produced fruit. It won't come back to me without having accomplished the reason for which I sent it forth. My Word is effective. Well, no wonder. Because it's God's Word. Notice who says this. So shall my word be. This is the word, after all, of the omnipotent God. This is the word of the sovereign Lord. And so no wonder when God speaks, it brings about results. When God says something, when he sends out his word to accomplish something, since it is the word of a sovereign and all powerful God, it must accomplish something. We would be shocked if it didn't. We read in Zechariah that the Lord informs us and instructs us and reminds us and tells us not to forget this, that it's not by might or by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. So if anything good is done in the kingdom and in the purposes of God, it's because God himself does it. So the spirit blesses the word as the word goes forth and it brings forth fruit. The word is effective because it's his word, and it must be effective because it's his word. It's interesting to think about Jesus in John chapter 11, and Jesus stands there beside the grave of Lazarus, and here is a man who's been dead three days, and his body is putrefying. He is clearly dead. There's no question and no doubt about that. And Jesus stands there and he says, Lazarus, come forth. Now, that word is effective, and Lazarus comes forth. He was dead, but now he's alive. And he comes forth and he responds because Jesus said it. If you and I had stood there, We could have said, Lazarus, come forth till the cows come home. It wouldn't have had any impact at all. But it's because Jesus said it that Lazarus rises from the dead. And he comes walking out. The word is effective, the word is powerful because it's God's word. Remember 1 Corinthians 3 and 6, I planted, says Paul. And Apollos watered, but it's God who gave the increase. I always find it curious when pastors say, well, I went there and I built up the church. You did no such thing. God built up the church. If the church really did grow and people really did come to know Christ, well, you planted or you watered, but God gave the increase. God saved souls. They will only come forth from spiritual death if God speaks with that voice that wakens the dead, if He blesses His Word by His Spirit and empowers it so that there's fruit. God does these things. It's the power of His Word. That's what we're thinking about. And we're going to realize, first of all, that this Word has power to save. The Word of God has power to save. We were reminded already this morning about this fact, that the word of God has power to save. We were reminded by our brother Michael that the book of Acts is just this record of the explosion of the word of God. Let's take a look at these verses, Michael mentioned chapter six of Acts, Acts six and verse seven, then the word of God spread. And the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faithful. Now, why did they come? Well, because God sent His Word forth. And they believed. Chapter 12 and verse 24. How the Word of God grew and multiplied. Chapter 13 and verse 49. The word spread. The word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. And then there's just a lovely text in chapter 19 and verse 20. It's wonderful the way this is put. Verse 20 of chapter 19. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. As the church grows and as people are won to Christ, the way Luke describes it is that the word of the Lord prevailed. It grew mightily. It was just spreading like wildfire. That's what Paul says believers ought to pray. Remember 2 Thessalonians. He says, pray that the Word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified. And so the Word of God has tremendous power. And it is power to save. Let's look at how it begins in Acts 2. Acts, chapter two, and we'll begin at verse thirty six. The word has power to save years, one sermon, verse thirty six, then therefore, let all the house of Israel know is surely that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ, when they heard this. They were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call. And then you see that the result is that when they heard this, they were pricked in their conscience and they asked for instruction. What must we do? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll be saved is what the response is. And we are reminded then that the gospel as Paul says in Romans, is the power of God unto salvation. It's not us. It's not our persuasive abilities. It has nothing to do with men. It is salvation that is possible only with God, and it is through His Word that He brings sinners to Himself. 1 Peter 1.23, people are born again as a result of God blessing the ministry of His Word. They are born again through the incorruptible seed of God's Word. That is what explains what happened on the day of Pentecost. The Word of God was preached, the Spirit of God blessed it, and thousands of people believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. God's Word is powerful to say it's the Scripture that explains this. It's the Scripture that explains what happened in, and is happening in China. These again are the words of, the author has escaped me now, a book on revival of people saturated with God. And he writes about statistics as to what has been happening and what is happening in China. Now you have to be very careful about statistics with what is happening in China because it's very difficult to know with any degree of certainty. I was talking with someone in Malaysia not so long ago and he was, I was asking him about what's going on in China and he's, A Chinese Christian, he said, it's very, very difficult. He assured me that it's wonderful, but it's very difficult to know statistics. But let me pass these on to you just to show you the kinds of things that God is still doing in our day as he blesses his word, that word which is powerful to save. When missionaries were expelled in 1949 after 140 years of missionary activity, There were fewer than a million national believers. Today, some estimates suggest that there may be nearly as many Christians in China as the entire population of the UK. By 1980, Bishop Peter Saia of Fuzau reported that in his city of a million people, there were 20,000 Christians. On one of his pastoral journeys, he discovered 7,000 new Christians in seven remote mountain villages. In the same year, Christians throughout the whole province were known to number at least 600,000. And in one area alone, in one year, 6,000 new converts were baptized. In some rural areas, it is estimated that over 90% of the population is Christian, and that as many as 27,000 people have been converted each day in China between 1980 and 1983. It's staggering numbers. One elderly pastor in China commented that, before the communists came, I remember that shepherds were searching for sheep. But now all over China, it is the sheep who are searching for shepherds. Well, how is this? Well, what happened at Pentecost has been happening there, and the Word has been preached, and the Gospel is going forward, and God is blessing it to the saving of souls because the Word is powerful to save. We forget that in the day of small things that we experience in our land, but we must remember that what was true is still true. And God's Word is powerful to save multitudes like that, and God's Word is powerful to save individuals. You go to the book of Acts, chapter 9, and there you are confronted with the man who begins the day breathing out threats against the people of the way. And he wants to do everything he can to eliminate those who are the followers of Christ, but then, Christ meets him, and Christ stops him, and Christ knocks him down off his horse and changes him from within. And by the end of the day, he's a follower of that Christ. God does that. His Word is powerful to save. Let me give you another example this time from history, from the 20th century. Let me tell you about a man by the name of Jacob de Schaeser. You have to understand who Jacob DeShazer is. This is during World War II and the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor December 7th, just celebrated. And the Americans responded with what was called the Doolittle Raid and they fly over and they bomb Japan. But they know they can't get back and so the planes, They abandon them and they crash and so forth and a number of them, a number of these pilots and these men end up in Japanese concentration camps. And when they're in these concentration camps, they are treated horrifically. In one camp, there are now only four of them remaining. They are being treated horribly. The soldiers have attacked a mission station and they've looted some books and they bring the books back to the concentration camp and they tell these four remaining men from the raid that you can look at some of these books. DeShazer is told here is a Bible, you can read this. And so now this is his account of the day and the weeks when he got that book, he got the Bible in his hands. He's allowed to have it for three weeks. In a little tract called, I was a prisoner of The Japanese, he says this. He says, I eagerly began to read its pages, the Bible. Chapter after chapter gripped my heart. In due time, I came to the books of the prophets and found that their every writing seemed to focus on a divine redeemer from sin, one who was to be sent from heaven to be born in the form of a human baby. Their writings so fascinated me that I read them again and again until I had earnestly studied them through six times. Then I went on to the New Testament and then read of the birth of Jesus Christ, the one who actually fulfilled the very prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah and the other Old Testament writers. My heart rejoiced as I found confirmed in Acts 10.43, to Him give all the prophets witness that through His name, whoever believes in Him shall receive remission, the forgiveness of sins. And after I'd carefully read this book of Acts, I continued on into the study of the epistle of Paul to the Christians at Rome. And on June 8, 1944, the words of Romans 10.9 stood out boldly before my eyes. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And at that very moment, God gave me grace to confess my sins to him, and he forgave me and saved me for Jesus' sake. Even as I later found that his word promises so clearly, we confess our sins. God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How my heart rejoiced. In my newness of spiritual life, even though my body was suffering so terribly from the physical beatings and lack of food, but suddenly I discovered that God had given me new spiritual eyes and I looked at my captives with compassion. I found that my bitter hatred towards them had changed to loving pity. I read in my Bible that while those who crucified Jesus on the cross had beaten him and spit upon him when he was nailed to the cross, he tenderly prayed for them, and so he prayed for his captors. And in the providence of God, he wrote a tract about his conversion that God later used to save the soul of the man who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, a man by the name of Phokira. Well, it's a marvelous thing, isn't it, to read about how God uses His Word like that. It's powerful to say. Many Christians lack confidence in God's Word. The actual fact is, if this text is true, then the best thing we can do for people, for unbelievers, is to give them the Bible. That's why the work of Wycliffe and the work of the Gideons is so essential. Put the Bible in people's hands. I want to see your children say, put the Bible into their minds. Because we know that God's Word will not return to him void, and so we have tremendous confidence in God and in his Word. This Word is powerful to save. But I was at a pastor's meeting recently, and there was a man speaking who's the head of the Associated Gospel Churches, and he was talking about ministry to Buddhists, of which he had great experience. And he said, if we want to see Buddhists saved, then there must be two things. They must have a word encounter, and they must have a power encounter. So they must have the word, but then they must also have a power encounter, and what he meant by that was a dream. They must have a dream. I thought to myself, well, they're listening to evangelicals here. You see, the Lord Jesus made it very clear in Luke chapter 16 that even if someone rises from the dead and stands there, they won't be persuaded. Several years ago, there was what they called the Signs and Wonders Movement, and they were saying that if the gospel is to progress, if people are to be saved in North America, there needs to be some kind of power encountered. There needs to be some kind of miracle. But of course, the Lord Jesus says, even if you could somehow manage to get someone to rise from the dead, they're not going to be persuaded. It's the Word, it's the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. It's God taking His Word and causing people to be born again. They're going to be born again through the incorruptible Word of the living God. We have supreme confidence in the Word of God. And so we teach people and we preach to people the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's wonderful to have this book in our possession and to be able to bring it to bear upon the lives of unbelievers. I'm saying then that the Word is powerful to save. I'm not saying that every time you witness And every time you preach, and every time you evangelize and give the gospel, that God is going to save that person. I'm not saying that. No, sometimes God's purpose is quite different. The Apostle Paul says that in some cases we are an aroma of death leading to death. That's a sobering text there in 2 Corinthians 2.16. Sometimes we are an aroma of death leading to death, and we witness and they reject, and that just increases the severity of judgment. The point is that in all of this, God is nonetheless fulfilling His purposes and His will. So, I'm not saying that God always saves. What I am saying is that if God saves, it is through His Word, and it is the Word that is powerful to save. Let me take you to another passage, one final example about the power of the word to say the Ezekiel chapter 37, Ezekiel 37. This is a tremendously encouraging passage, because here Ezekiel is living during the early deportation of the Jews to Babylon. And this is a time of great barrenness, a time of great judgment in the history of Israel. And God is showing Ezekiel what could happen. He takes him to a valley of dry and dead bones and shows him what God can do through the ministry of his word. And so let's read a few verses here. The hand of the Lord, verse one, came upon me and brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley. And it was full of bones. And he caused me to pass by them all around. And behold, there were very many in the open valley. And indeed, they were very dry. And he said to me, son of man, can these bones live? I mean, when we look at unbelievers, that's what we see. We see dry bones. We see spiritual death. We see hopelessness. Can these bones live? Well, our immediate response is, well, I don't think so. Here's a better response. He says, Lord, you know. And again, he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Well, that's what we are to do to our generation. And when we are confronted with the dead bones of people who are spiritually moribund, spiritually dead, they are separated from God without hope and without God in the world. When we're confronted with these people, what do we do? We give them the word of the Lord. We speak the gospel to them because we know that God's word is powerful. It's the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. And look at verse 10. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. God's Word is powerful to save. And then, God's Word is powerful to transform. God's Word is powerful to save, and it is powerful to transform. Now, sin is enslaving, isn't it? We used to be, you and I who are Christians, we used to be slaves to sin. Now we're free. We've been set free. We're free from the penalty. We're free from the power. We're not in bondage to Satan and sin anymore. But the slaving elements of sin still plague us. And ridding ourselves of sin is so very hard. And falling back into sin is so very easy. And the battle against sin can seem so very hopeless. It's a struggle. Look at verse 8 of our chapter, Isaiah 58, verse 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Nor are your ways my way, says the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, the snow from heaven does not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower, bread to the eater, so shall my word be." It'll be effective. Now, verses 8 and 9 tell us that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, and God's ways are not our ways. The real focus is not so much the transcendence of His ways, but the ethics of His ways. That is, God's ways are beyond us in this, that He is absolutely pure and He is absolutely holy. God is calling, verses 6 and 7, calling them to turn from sin and to trust Him, to come and turn from their wickedness and believe in Him, and He will save them. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He is the holy God. He is the righteous God. If we're to be in His presence, we must be holy and we must be pure, and we can't do that by ourselves. He's the holy God who alone can give us righteousness. You see chapter 54 and verse 17, and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord. So you see, God's will and God's purpose for us is that we be righteous. His will for you, if you're a Christian, is that you be a holy man, you be a holy woman. But given what the hymn writer says is our proneness to wonder, that's you and I. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Well, in light of that, if that's my proneness and my tendency even as a Christian, what hope is there? Well, 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. It shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. So God's Word is powerfully effective, not only in the salvation of souls, but in the sanctifying of souls. Not only in bringing you to Christ, but making you like Christ. God's Word is able to prosper you spiritually, to make you grow, make you a better man and a better woman, make you a man or woman who's more like Christ. God's Word can do that. As your spirit blesses it, it can make you prosper spiritually. Turn to Psalm 1 and see what God's Word is powerful to do in the life of a believer. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be... Now we're going to see the results. This is the fruit that God will bring about. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. If you hide the Word of God in your heart, and God sends His Word into your life, He's able to bring about tremendous fruit, make you prosper spiritually, make you more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. That's His will. Romans 8, 29, and 30. God has predestined us to be like the Lord Jesus. That's His will. That's His purpose. Well, He sends forth His Word to accomplish that. That means that God's Word will be effective to make you more like Christ, make you holy. That's what Jesus prayed, John 17, 17. Sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth. You can grow this week. This week you can grow in holiness. God takes His Word, uses it to shape you, and change you, and transform you, because this is a powerful Word. This Bible that we have in our possession in such abundance turns to Hebrews chapter four and verse 16, you see how powerful this book is, this word of God, Hebrews chapter four and verse 12. Or rather, verse 16. No, it's verse 12, sorry. Verse 12 of Hebrews 4, 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, of joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now, we can spend a lot of time thinking about what is being said in that passage, that text there. But just focus on that one word, powerful. God's Word is living and powerful. Listen to this writer as he comments on that word powerful. You might have it translated active or something like that. It comes from a word from which we get energy. It means to energize or be productive. And while the Bible is constantly actively alive, it is also productive. In other words, Scripture, he says, is God's instrument for the production of spiritual results. Think about that. This book is God's instrument for the production of spiritual results, spiritual growth in your life. That's exciting. That's what God's going to use. And then he comments further, he says, whenever the word of God goes forth in the work of discipleship, as we seek to grow in Christ, it is like spiritual rain being poured out upon God's people and the result. is growth and fruitfulness. In other words, God never sends His Word without accomplishing something for His glory. And in your life, what He is bound and determined to accomplish through His Word is to make you grow as a Christian. He's going to transform you. I met a man last week who has been transformed. I've known him for decades. And I've always thought of him as spiritually a rock. He's a paragon of virtue. He's one of those pillars, you know, he's a pillar in the church. Wonderful man. Then I was chatting with somebody and I was told that he had been sick a couple of years ago. Why had he been sick? I asked. Well, he was suffering the results of his pre-conversion life. What was that? I asked. Well, he'd been a drug addict and he'd been a drug dealer. My jaw dropped. I never thought of that man like that. He's a drug addict, but then I was especially shocked that he'd been dealing. You know, you despise dealers. I mean, they're just, you know, they're practically injecting this stuff into the arms of kids. Well, he'd been dealing. And then God saved him. And he, I thought to myself, what a transformation, what a change has been wrought in this man. If people who knew him then saw him now, they'd never recognize him. Physically, they might still see some resemblance, but in terms of who the man is, they just have no idea what a transformation God has brought about, brought His Word to bear, and sanctified him by His truth. And now he's a monument of grace. What lightness to Christ! What zeal for the Kingdom! What hunger for righteousness! What conformity to the Savior! What a testimony to the love of God! A man destined for glory. You ought never to think that God can't change you. You ought never to feel that your situation is hopeless. You ought never to think that you can't overcome this and you can't be transformed. You ought never to think that. God is able to do mighty things. God is able to change you in remarkable ways. You ought never to feel hopeless, Christian. Sometimes we do, but we ought not to. God's Word is powerful to save and God's Word is powerful to transform. Now, the power of the Word. Now, very quickly, the purpose of the Word, the purpose of God's Word. He says, 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. It shall prosper in the thing to which I sent it. The question is, what is that purpose? What does God send it forth for? Well, two things, the work of God's Son and then the people for God's glory. That's what God has in mind when he sends his word forth. It's the work of God's Son, first of all, that is his purpose. E.J. Young says, the verse is placed in the future for the Word of God, which will bring about the establishment of God's eschatological kingdom, and the accompanying salvation and judgment has yet, in Isaiah's day, has not yet gone forth from God's mouth. The final three words are to be rendered, and it will succeed in respect to that for which I have sent it. So it hasn't happened yet, but God is going to send forth. the living word, and he's going to send forth his written word, and God is going to establish his kingdom. It's going to be set up, and the gospel is going to be preached, and the nations are going to stream towards the sun, and the kingdom's going to go forward in power, and the church is going to be built, and God's going to be blessing all nations through the seed of Abraham, and God will bring honor and glory to his name. And you can read the book of Acts, and it begins there, and you can go over to Revelation chapter 7, or chapter 14, or the last couple of chapters, and read about how it ends, and how that everybody is there because God's word cannot and will not return to him void. He will send it forth. He will establish his kingdom, and he will glorify himself in the saving of all of those for whom Jesus died. Got to rush through this because we're running out of time, but it's wonderful. Take a look at those texts and think about these things. So what is God's purpose? Well, it's the work of God's Son and it will be successful. And then it's a people for God's glory. A people for God's glory, verses 12 and 13 of this chapter. For you shall go out with joy and shall be led out with peace. And the mountains and hills shall break forth into singing before you. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up a cypress tree. Instead of the briar shall come forth a myrtle tree. And it shall be to the Lord for a name and for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. The primary reference there is to the coming of the people out of Babylon. It's kind of an exodus because the phrase, you shall go out, that's kind of exodus language. And there's going to be something of an exodus when they come out of Babylon and come back to the land. But this whole context suggests there's much, much more in mind here. There's a greater exodus. There's a work that Jesus is going to do, the suffering servant. He's going to lead his people out of captivity. He's going to free the slaves, the spiritual slaves. He's going to make a people for God. A new race, a new humanity, people who have a heart for God, for Christ, and they're going to have a new world, a new heaven and a new earth in which they will live, that they will inhabit. Chapter 57 and verse 17. Or rather, chapter 65 of Isaiah and verse 17. There's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. Behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth. The former shall not be remembered or come to mind and be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. I'll rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people. The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days. For the child shall die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. For as the days of a tree, so shall the days of my people be. And my elect shall enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble. For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer. And while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy, and all my holy mountain." And Isaiah describes it in different passages in wonderful ways about the new heaven and the new earth that will be inhabited by the new people. What's God's purpose? It's the work of His Son, which must be successful. It's the salvation of the people who will inhabit this new earth. This new heaven in this new earth, a glorious place where you see in verses 12 and 13, the whole creation is like a monument, this new creation is like a monument to the saving power of God. One writer says that conquerors of the ancient world, they used to establish monuments to their conquering ability. That's what he's talking about in verse 13. You know, this creation will be a sign to the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. It is a monument to God. The transformed earth will be a memorial to God's victory, forever a sign of the power of the living God. A transformed earth, a transformed community, a transformed humanity. And so, what is God's purpose? It is to save people in a new heaven and a new earth, all of which testify to the saving power and glory of God. And so that's his purpose, and God's affirmation here is that he will send his word forth and it will accomplish his purpose. Now, in light of this, what shall we say? Two things. Number one, give them the word. Unbelievers. Give them the word. Give them the gospel. I learned a lesson 30 years ago. 30 years ago, December 8th, was it? John Lennon was shot. In the weeks prior to that, I'd been thinking to myself, I'd listened to a song of his called, Give Me Some Truth, and I thought, well, I should. I should write to him. I should send him some information. I knew where he lived, the Dakota in New York, you know that. I'll write him a letter, witness to him. Give me some truth, well, here it is. And then I remember the day I walked into a store and I saw the newspaper and I thought, oh, I should have done it. Now, it doesn't plague me. But I remember it every now and then. So I'm saying to you, give them the word. Give them the gospel. And when you give the gospel, don't lose hope. If you've given the gospel to people for a long time, you've sown the seeds, don't lose hope. Don't give up. God's able to do incredible things. Keep praying. And if you're not a Christian, what a privilege that you hear the word. What a privilege that you hear the gospel. And remember that the gospel that is being talked about here, the word of God, he's talking about blessings here, but God will also judge. So you need to respond to the truth. You need to receive the Lord. You need to believe in the Savior. You need to come to him. Thank God someone has shared the gospel with you. And now you need to respond. So give them the word. That's the first thing. The second thing is this. Get into the word. If you're a Christian, get into the word. Just dive headlong into it. If this is true, If this is the Word of God that's so powerful, if it does these things, if these are God's purposes, they're so grand and spectacular, and God says, My Word is going to go forth, and it will accomplish those purposes, what a tremendous privilege for you and I to have the Word. What an impact it can have upon us, and how we ought to avail ourselves of this precious book so that we can be what we ought to be and be transformed, be made more and more like Christ. That means we want to get into it. We want to get under it. We want to have it shape us and influence us. Ephesians 4.11 says that God has provided pastors and teachers so that they'll teach the Word, so that people will grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, become more like the Savior, be able to minister one to another. You need to get into the Word so that it can transform and shape and change you. If this is the Word of God, if this is the power of the Word, you need to expose yourself to it. Get it into your heart. You need to sit under the ministry of the Word. If God has provided the ministry of the Word for your growth and transformation, you want to avail yourself of it. Why wouldn't you want to hear more sermons than you do? Why wouldn't you want to be here tonight to study Habakkuk chapter 4, verse 2, so that God might use His Word? Why wouldn't you want to be under the Word more than you are? Oh, and when you get into the Word and when you get under the Word, don't lose hope. Oh, remember. You know, it's a struggle for us, isn't it? The Christian life is tough to get rid of sin and to grow in holiness. And sometimes we get weary and sometimes we lose hope. If you learn nothing from this sermon, learn this. Don't lose hope. God is able to do great things in your life through His Word. transforming you more and more into the image of Christ. Don't lose hope. Don't lose hope. Let's pray. Father, we want to thank You for Your Word. We want to thank You for Your power and for what a mighty instrument this is in the hands of the Spirit. We pray that He will take that Word this day, save souls, and sanctify us We ask for Jesus' sake, amen.