The Power of the Word

"The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the LORD. ²⁹ "Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"

Jeremiah 23:28-29

These were key verses from the sermon preached today at Calvary Chapel Sydney.  The supremacy of God's word over the imaginations, ideas, and dreams of men is without question.  The irony is we can give great credence to the claims of people who claim to speak for God without comparing their words with the scripture once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3).  This chapter reveals many priests and prophets in Israel who claimed to have received revelations from God spoke falsehoods from their own hearts.  Compared to the nutritious grain of God's Word their words were worthless as dry and dusty chaff.

Those who have God's word ought to speak it faithfully, and when received in believing hearts God's word grows and produces spiritual fruit in our lives.  The chaff is nothing to the wheat and even a slight breeze will cause it to blow away and be lost forever.  There are many books in Christian bookshops which are useful to convey spiritual truth, but they can only do so by revelations from God's word.  A lot of books and DVD's available today are nothing more than chaff, glitter that sparkles, dazzling the eyes but cannot meet our real spiritual need.  A person can fill their belly with chaff but ultimately will starve because their dietary needs remain unmet.

Verse 29 is a glorious truth:  God's word is like a fire, like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.  It is not the passion of the preacher in the pulpit or his hammering on a point which affects any change in men:  it is the divine work of God's word which accomplishes dynamic, transformational change.  God's word consumes like chaff the empty dreams, deceit, and lies of men.  The scripture can crack the hardest heart and break the stubborn will of those with ears to hear.  It is not the pounding of a pulpit which impacts listeners but the still, small voice of God which speaks in the pages of the Bible.  God sets our hearts aflame with shame of our sin to purify us and breaks us so we might be healed and restored to fellowship with Him through repentance.