by D r. Theodore H. Epp
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merely by praying for it. It is not the effort of the will only, but the product of the Word. The unsaved man needs the Word to produce faith in Him. Consider the Philippian jailer once more. The record is, “And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.” Give them something to believe. Don’t just say to them, “Believe ’in Christ.” Giye them the Word! For in stance: “As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that be lieve on his name.” Or as John-5:24 says, “He that hear- eth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” Furthermore, the Word gives “faith” with reference to travailing prayer. Mark 11:24 says, “What things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and .ye shall have them.” You cannot make your self believe something. The Word of God, the promises of the Word of God, produce faith. Therefore, we must teach the Word. We prepare for prayer by studying the Word. I read in John 15:7: “If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.” So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. The Word of God has power to cleanse. Ephesians 5:25-26 says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. That he he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” The power to cleanse is in the Word. There is cleansing from the guilt of sin by the blood of Jesus Christ, as revealed to us in the Word. But there is cleansing from the power and the habit of sin by the very Word itself. We live in a dirty, polluted world; therefore, much cleansing is necessary; and a daily, prolonged meditation in the Word of God is the only thing that will keep a life clean. We must give people the Word. Psalm 119 plainly says, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. . . . Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.” Think of it this way. Most of the time we give medicine to a person after he be comes ill in order to rid him of his illness. But there is a possibility that by taking proper vitamins and by taking proper rest and other health measures that one might have built up his body and prevented the illness. The Word of God also has power to build up. We need to build young, stalwart Christians who will be our Christian leaders in the next generation. Paul stated, according to Acts 20:32: “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.” Or as He says in another
I n s p i t e o f t h e r « ic t the modems feel that the Bible is outmoded and' that our youth cannot take its events and history literally, we nevertheless turn to the Bible if we want to see examples of power — and more than that, if we want our lives to be lives of power. Psalm 62:11 reads, “Power belongeth unto God.” We read in Jeremiah 23:29, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that break- eth the rock in pieces?” And so if we want power to break hearts we must turn to the Word of God. Do we want a powerful life of fruitbearing? Then we must go to the Word of God, for the seed is the Word. We can have no physical power without eating proper food; and there can be no spiritual power without proper study of the Word of God. In Psalm 1:2, 3 we read: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, and that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” Yes, my friends, it is the Word that has the power. Only the Word has the power to bring true conviction of sin. An example of this is seen in Acts 2:37: “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” It was the Word that convicted men — God’s Word not man’s word; there fore, we are told in the Scriptures: “Preach the word.” It is the Word that has power to regenerate the soul, for the Word is the seed: “Being bom again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I Pet. 1:23). Or as .we read in James 1:18: “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” A good illustration of this is found in Acts 16:31: “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house.” But more than that, the very next verse plainly says that Paul and Silas taught the jailor from the Word. So it is the Word of God that regenerates the soul. The process is simple. Man’s part is to sow the seed, the Word, into the heart — not man’s word, not some kind of re-thought or reinterpreted word, but the Word of God itself. And then the heart closes around the Word in simple faith, and God by the Spirit quickens it and bives the increase. Paul said in I Corinthians 3:6: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the in crease.” And so it is the Word for the dying soul; the Word for the regeneration of the heart. There is such a great need for faith. Men talk about faith. They say, “Have faith.” Faith in what? We read in Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” We cannot produce faith
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