THUS SAITH THE LORD by Dwight Lyman Moody

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1880

"THUS SAITH THE LORD."

By Dwight Lyman Moody

WHAT we want is to follow in the footsteps of our Master; and when we are attacked by infidels and skeptics, we must meet them with "Thus saith the Lord." That will settle it. I tell you, this one sentence, "Thus saith the Lord," is worth more than all the traditions of the fathers. It is not what the church teaches to-day, nor what our forefathers taught, but what is the word of God. That is what we want.

Very often I have heard men say, "You don't believe in the flood, do you?" Yes, I believe in the flood. I was going to preach about Noah, one time, and a man came to me and said, "Why, you are not going to preach on the old story of the flood?" "Yes." "Why, you don't believe that, do you?" "Oh, yes." "Well," said he, "I thought we had got beyond that. That is a fable." "Well," said I, "you believe in the New Testament, don't you?" Said he, "Yes, I believe in the New Testament." "Well, in the New Testament the Lord says, 'As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.' The Son of God puts his seal to that very thing. If you throw out the flood, you throw out the whole book of Genesis."

Another man said, "You don't believe in the story of the destruction of Sodom, do you?" "Oh, yes. It says in the New Testament, 'As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the coming of the son of man.' And the Son of God has put his seal to that very narrative." Another man said, "You don't believe in the story of Lot's wife, do you?" "Oh, yes, I believe in that because the Master said, 'Remember Lot's wife.'"

Now there is a class of people who tell us that they believe everything that corresponds with reason, but they are going to throw out everything that is supernatural. If you are going to throw out everything that is supernatural you have got to throw out the whole word of God. There is not any portion of that word that is not supernatural. If you are going to throw out of the book everything that has something in it that is supernatural, you throw out the whole thing, because the man who wrote that book must have known that he wrote a lie, if it did not take place; and if he would tell a lie about one thing, why isn't everything written a lie? If I go into court and testify to a thing that isn't true, that would break down all my testimony, and they would strike out all of it. If I lie about one thing, I will testify falsely about another. If you throw out the story of the flood and everything else in that is supernatural, then you throw out the whole book of Genesis.—D. L. Moody.