CAN NEVER FAIL by Tyler E. Bowen

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 21, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 37.

CAN NEVER FAIL

By Tyler E. Bowen

Man's Word Uncertain — God's Word Sure — We Can Rest in Confidence on What Jehovah Says

By TYLER E. BOWEN

NOTHING appears more unreal or uncertain than the mere words of man. Promises are broken, deliberate falsehoods are told, so much so that men will not take verbal words for surety, but demand something more tangible as collateral. This being so, it is almost impossible to conceive that in all the realm of that which is, that which we count as the most sure, the most certain, the most steadfast, in earth or in heaven, can be the word of God.

God is the truth. What He says, is so. He speaks, and what is not, is. This is because He is God, the Creator, the Originator of all good that is. No man, no angel, can so speak. Hence the tendency of the natural heart is to judge God's words by our own; to fall short of believing, because of the infinity between what His word is and what ours is.

NOTHING ELSE SO SURE

Again we say, There is nothing so real, so certain, so sure, as the word of the living God. The apostle could state it in no other way. Listen to what he says: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Heb. 11: 1, 3.

How were the worlds, including our own, and the suns, those shining orbs on high, framed? — By the word of God. There was a time when they were not. Then God spoke, and they were. They were not millions of years in forming. God framed them out of nothing. Christ Jesus, the Son, by the command of the Father, spoke, and there upon their shining axes they appeared. And the power of that same mighty word holds them in their wonderful sweep through space, as they speed on their millions of miles of circuit, not a thousandth fraction of a second ahead nor behind time, as the numberless suns and systems of worlds complete their appointed circles.

THAT POWER DISPLAYS HIS WORD

We are lost in the contemplation of this infinitude of power. But faith believes that that which we see is God's word verified. This forms a sure basis for confidence that just as surely as the earth upon which we tread is the tangible result of God's word spoken in the beginning, so surely may we know that that which He has spoken regarding events not yet, will, at the proper time, be fulfilled, and become equally tangible and real. Faith sees it in the word of God which promises it. It takes faith to know how the worlds were framed. “Through faith we understand.” Then without faith, no one understands, neither can. That is why we see so much skepticism in the world to-day regarding the story of creation.

Thus if we can find a word of God for a certain thing, we may know that that thing is as sure as the very existence of ourselves, or the ground upon which we walk, or the air we breathe. In having the word of God, we have the substance. It may not yet appear, but it is; for it is in that word of God. When the time arrives that is fixed for it, there it stands in full view to all, framed into the purpose of God, just as the worlds were framed into being by that same wise purpose and sure word.

How Jesus sought to impress the supremacy of God's word upon us while He was

here with us! Let us review a few of His utterances:

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6: 63.

“For whether is easier [for God], to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith He to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house.” Matt. 9: 5-7.

“And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion, beseeching Him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” Matt. 8: 5-10.

“I have given them Thy word.” “And now I come to Thee: and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” John 17: 14, 13.

MAY STAND ON SUCH WORDS

What was that joy? — It was the joy of believing what God says, and seeing it out-worked in our lives—fulfilled. To the tempted, tempest-tossed soul, these scriptures come as precious assurances from God. We hunt out God's words from His great store-house, the Bible. They never deceive us. Every one is as a nail in a sure place. We may anchor to them. We may stand upon them. We may with full assurance of faith, like the centurion of old, know that if He but speaks, the thing spoken will be fulfilled. He speaks the forgiveness of our sins. He speaks healing to our bodies. Spirit and life His words contain for us all. Nothing else is so sure. Substance itself is there. Heaven and earth may pass away, but the word of our God abides ever. “I will worship toward Thy holy temple, and praise Thy name for Thy loving-kindness and for Thy truth: for Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name.” Ps. 138: 2.

GOD DESIRES FAITH

Where to-day shall we look for the centurion faith and confidence in the word of God? Is it now likewise scarce in Israel? God is looking, we believe, for this genuine faith to be manifested in the lives of His people. It was by faith in the power of His Father that Jesus spoke the words into being. It is our faith in His word that causes the light to spring up in the darkness of our hearts, that transforms them into the likeness of Christ. Surely faith is the substance; for faith sees the thing accomplished in the word of God that speaks it.

And it is the believing what God says, when there is nothing to see, that is accounted by the Lord to the believer for righteousness. It was Abraham's faith in what God had promised, when there appeared to be no possibility of his having a son, that was counted to him for righteousness. He saw a son in God's word to him that he should have a son. And in the long list of accomplishments by faith, men and women believed what God said, and through that word they triumphed. So may we, Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” Let us do it.