Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1607
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, July 3, 1881
“His Word runs very swiftly.” Psalms 147:15.
A WORD is the expression of the mind. What a man has thought may live and die within himself, but when he wishes his thought to live in the outer world, he embodies it in a word and thus his thought is made known. Thought without expression is as an arm uplifted, working nothing, though it is the mainspring of action. But according to the ability of the man, his thought is carried out into fact if he is able to speak a powerful word of command. Hence, as the garment of thought and the accomplishment of wish, a word is a very important thing. A word is the manifestation of a man. Dry-den says—
“Speech is the light, the morning of the mind. It spreads the beauteous images abroad, Which else lie furled and shrouded in the soul.”
“Speak,” said the old philosopher, “that I may see you.” More of a man is seen in his words than in anything else belonging to him. You may look into his face and be mistaken. You may visit his house and not discover him. You may scan his business and misunderstand him. But if you hear his daily conversation, you shall soon know him! The heart babbles out its secrets when the tongue is in motion. As the full bucket betrays the water of the well, so is a man discerned by his speech. Thus a word takes a most prominent place in reference to all intelligent beings and this is peculiarly the case with the Lord our God. God’s Word is the manifestation of His secret thought. By it He reveals His decrees. By it He manifests His Nature. By it He carries out His purpose.
“He spoke and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast.” If you wish to know God, you must know His Word. If you wish to perceive His power, you must see how He works by His Word. If you wish to know His purpose before it is actually brought to pass, you can only discover it by His Word. When you watch the events of Providence you are only observing what the Word of God is accomplishing as He sends it forth into the world. As He said to His servant, Ezekiel, so it is—“I am the Lord: I will speak and the Word that I shall speak shall come to pass.”
According to our text, “He sends forth His commandment upon earth: His Word runs very swiftly.” The Word, as it comes from God, takes several forms. At first it came forth as a fiat—“Let it be”—and it was. When there were no angels to hear Him. When matter did not exist to obey Him. When there was nothing but Himself, the Self-Existent One, Jehovah spoke and the things which are, began to be! Since then, He has spoken to His creatures by the word of command, which should always be obeyed even as David said, “I will delight myself in Your statutes: I will not forget Your Word.” The Word of the Lord comes forth in the form of a precept from His Temple or a statute from His Throne and we ought most reverently to treasure up every syllable that God speaks to us in that form, for we are His servants.
He also speaks by way of teaching. He instructs us by revealing Himself through His Word. All true doctrine is the Word of God and is to be devoutly believed. Our prayer should be, “Give me understanding according to Your Word.” His Word is also spoken in the form of promises rich and free and gracious, the Word on which His children live. In this form it is sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. It flashes forth, also, like lightning flames in threats, when God dooms the ungodly or warns them of what shall follow unless they repent.
Terrible, indeed, is the Word by which Justice takes vengeance upon the wicked! But chief of all and above all is THE WORD of whom John speaks—“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: the same was in the beginning with God.” This is He of whom we read in Revelation, “He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and His name is called the Word of God.” That Word is the Incarnation of God, wherein God has been pleased to manifest Himself more fully than by all other words or works, for in His Son we see the brightness of the Fa-
ther’s Glory more than in all else besides, according to His own testimony—“He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” The name of God is written in plain letters in the Person of Jesus, so that even ignorant men may spell it out when their eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit.
The Person, life, death, Resurrection and Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ are the Word which speaks out the heart of God and in His ministry, our Lord set forth the mind of God most fully, even as He said of His disciples, “I have given them Your Word.” To all these forms of God’s Word our text may be appropriately applied, for in each case, “His Word runs very swiftly.” I shall, first, ask you, by the help of God’s Holy Spirit, to learn the lesson of the text. Secondly, let us look to the particular instances which illustrate the truth of the text. And then, thirdly, as the Lord shall help us, let us see what teaching we may individually gather from it for our own cases.